https://news.yahoo.com/carbon-dioxide-reaches-record-high-183149500.html
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Carbon dioxide reaches record high in Earth's atmosphere
Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
,USA TODAY•November 25, 2019
Carbon dioxide – the greenhouse gas most responsible for global warming – reached an all-time high in Earth's atmosphere in 2018, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced Monday.
“There is no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline, in greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere despite all the commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement.
•••••
The burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas releases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane into Earth's atmosphere and oceans. The extra greenhouse gases have caused the planet's temperatures to rise to levels that cannot be explained by natural factors, scientists report.
In the past 20 years, the world's temperature has risen about two-thirds of a degree Fahrenheit, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
•••••
In a statement, the WMO said this continuing long-term trend of rising carbon dioxide means that future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, more extreme weather, water stress, sea level rise and disruption to marine and land ecosystems.
“It is worth recalling that the last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of carbon dioxide was 3-5 million years ago," Taalas said. Back then, he said the Earth's temperature was as much as 5 degrees warmer and sea levels were as much as 65 feet higher than they are now.
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Monday, November 25, 2019
Samoa measles epidemic worsens with 24 children now dead
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/samoa-measles-epidemic-worsens-24-children-now-dead-n1090551
Nov. 25, 2019, 11:48 AM EST
By Associated Press
Authorities said Monday that a measles epidemic sweeping through Samoa continues to worsen with the death toll rising to 25, all but one of them young children.
•••••
The median age of those who have died is 13 months, according to government figures. The deaths include 24 children under the age of 5, 11 of whom were infants under 12 months. The other person who died was in their 30s.
•••••
Nov. 25, 2019, 11:48 AM EST
By Associated Press
Authorities said Monday that a measles epidemic sweeping through Samoa continues to worsen with the death toll rising to 25, all but one of them young children.
•••••
The median age of those who have died is 13 months, according to government figures. The deaths include 24 children under the age of 5, 11 of whom were infants under 12 months. The other person who died was in their 30s.
•••••
Sunday, November 24, 2019
A Former Neo-Nazi Reveals How He Healed From Hate: ‘Nobody Is Irredeemable’
I encourage reading the whole article at the following link.
Tony McAleer
,The Daily Beast•November 24, 2019
As one of the voices featured in the documentary Healing From Hate: Battle for the Soul of a Nation, which premiered at the DOC NYC film festival, I have seen several cuts of the film in its development.
•••••
There is an old expression that “hurt people hurt people” and when we can engage people in the darkest expressions of their despair with curiosity and understanding, we set the foundation for change and healing. As a co-founder of Life After Hate, I can attest to the changes hundreds of people have made through similar efforts by our organization.
•••••
Everything is connected, and when we judge and dehumanize another person for their expressions of despair, when we refuse to acknowledge the humanity in those whose behavior or ideology is abominable, we deny a part of our humanity.
•••••
When we are compassionate with someone it is like we have a mirror that allows them to see their full humanity reflected at them when they are incapable of seeing it themselves. We help those people recognize their humanity, and in doing so help those people recognize the humanity in others. I truly believe that the level to which we dehumanize others is a mirror reflection of our dehumanization and disconnection, and we can’t recognize the humanity in others unless we can recognize our own humanity. Life After Hate’s philosophy is that nobody is irredeemable, and that message is also at the core of the film. It is hard to have compassion for someone who has no compassion themselves, but aren’t those the people who need it most? Everyone is capable of living and contributing to society as well as repairing and healing the very harms they created.
•••••
Australia probes 'deeply disturbing' allegations of Chinese political interference
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-australia-espionage-asio/australia-probes-deeply-disturbing-allegations-of-chinese-political-interference-idUSKBN1XY0P9
Sonali Paul
Nov. 24, 2019
Australia’s domestic spy agency is investigating whether China tried to install an agent in federal parliament in what Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday called “deeply disturbing” allegations.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) said it had launched an investigation before the alleged plot was reported by Australia’s “60 Minutes” program and affiliated newspapers on Sunday.
The reports said a suspected Chinese espionage ring had offered “a seven figure sum” to pay for a Melbourne luxury car dealer, Bo “Nick” Zhao, to run for a seat in Australia’s federal parliament.
•••••
Car dealer Zhao told ASIO about the alleged approach from another Melbourne businessman about a year ago, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper said in the joint report with “60 Minutes” and The Age newspaper, citing Zhao’s associates and Western security sources.
Zhao was found dead in March in a Melbourne motel room and police have been unable to conclude how he died, the newspaper said.
•••••
Sonali Paul
Nov. 24, 2019
Australia’s domestic spy agency is investigating whether China tried to install an agent in federal parliament in what Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday called “deeply disturbing” allegations.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) said it had launched an investigation before the alleged plot was reported by Australia’s “60 Minutes” program and affiliated newspapers on Sunday.
The reports said a suspected Chinese espionage ring had offered “a seven figure sum” to pay for a Melbourne luxury car dealer, Bo “Nick” Zhao, to run for a seat in Australia’s federal parliament.
•••••
Car dealer Zhao told ASIO about the alleged approach from another Melbourne businessman about a year ago, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper said in the joint report with “60 Minutes” and The Age newspaper, citing Zhao’s associates and Western security sources.
Zhao was found dead in March in a Melbourne motel room and police have been unable to conclude how he died, the newspaper said.
•••••
Stray Dog Found Curled Up In Snow Keeping Orphaned Kittens Warm
https://www.thedodo.com/close-to-home/stray-dog-found-curled-up-in-snow-keeping-orphaned-kittens-warm?fbclid=IwAR3cg_0fdkDEmQv0-3Cfh37rmChSiQeFbL7PTX56134xUr2lWYIrDaZqIR0
With all the stressful news, this is something to make us feel good.
By Stephen Messenger
Published On 11/20/2019
Over the weekend, while driving on a freezing cold night in Ontario, Canada, a Good Samaritan spotted something that made her stop.
There, curled up on a snowy roadside, was a shivering stray dog.
But she wasn't alone.
Though the dog could have found a safer place to pass the night, she wasn't just thinking of herself.
A closer look revealed the kind pup had wrapped herself around five orphaned kittens, whom she was cuddling to keep warm in the biting temperatures.
The Good Samaritan, in turn, saved them all from the freezing night by taking them to the Pet and Wildlife Rescue shelter. But by then, an incredible bond between the dog and kittens had already been formed.
•••••
"Our staff sees many difficult situations on a daily basis and stories like this one make every heartache worth it," the shelter said.
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Home-cooked meals linked to fewer harmful chemicals in the body, study says
https://www.ajc.com/news/world/home-cooked-meals-linked-fewer-harmful-chemicals-the-body-study-says/FrmUaWkWb6RQyQZWo8dHsM/
By Najja Parker, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Oct. 10, 2019
•••••
Researchers from the Silent Spring Institute recently conducted a study, published in the Environmental Health Perspectives, to explore the association between restaurant food and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS.
PFAS are a class of chemicals used in nonstick, stain-resistant and waterproof products, such as cookware and food packaging. The chemicals have been linked to an array of health issues like cancer, thyroid disease, low birth rate and decreased fertility.
•••••
After analyzing the results, the team found those who ate meals at home had significantly lower levels of PFAS in their bodies, while those who ate more fast food and at restaurants had higher levels of it.
•••••
By Najja Parker, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Oct. 10, 2019
•••••
Researchers from the Silent Spring Institute recently conducted a study, published in the Environmental Health Perspectives, to explore the association between restaurant food and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS.
PFAS are a class of chemicals used in nonstick, stain-resistant and waterproof products, such as cookware and food packaging. The chemicals have been linked to an array of health issues like cancer, thyroid disease, low birth rate and decreased fertility.
•••••
After analyzing the results, the team found those who ate meals at home had significantly lower levels of PFAS in their bodies, while those who ate more fast food and at restaurants had higher levels of it.
•••••
Washington Becomes First State to Allow ‘Human Composting’ as a Burial Method
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/washington-first-state-allow-burial-method-human-composting-180972020/
By Meilan Solly
smithsonian.com
April 23, 2019 | Updated: May 23, 2019
In 2015, cremations outpaced burials for the first time in United States history. And as the National Funeral Directors Association points out, this upward trend is set to continue over the coming decades, with the national cremation rate predicted to reach nearly 80 percent by 2035. Still, while cremation has obvious environmental advantages over burial—think of all the wood, reinforced concrete, steel, copper and carcinogenic formaldehyde needed to inter the deceased—the process isn’t as Earth-friendly as you might think. In fact, Laura Yan reported for Pacific Standard in 2016, cremation releases 600 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.
Human composting is the brainchild of Katrina Spade, CEO of alternative burial company Recompose. Speaking with local news station KIRO 7, Spade explains that recomposition involves moving the body to a specially designed facility—“part public park, part funeral home, part memorial to the people we love,” in the entrepreneur’s words—and placing it inside of a vessel filled with wood chips, alfalfa and straw. After several weeks of microbial activity, the body breaks down into soil that can then be given to family of the deceased or used by conservation groups to “nourish the [surrounding] land.” Overall, the process uses an eighth of the energy required for cremation and saves more than one metric ton of carbon dioxide for every individual who opts to use it.
•••••
By Meilan Solly
smithsonian.com
April 23, 2019 | Updated: May 23, 2019
In 2015, cremations outpaced burials for the first time in United States history. And as the National Funeral Directors Association points out, this upward trend is set to continue over the coming decades, with the national cremation rate predicted to reach nearly 80 percent by 2035. Still, while cremation has obvious environmental advantages over burial—think of all the wood, reinforced concrete, steel, copper and carcinogenic formaldehyde needed to inter the deceased—the process isn’t as Earth-friendly as you might think. In fact, Laura Yan reported for Pacific Standard in 2016, cremation releases 600 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.
Human composting is the brainchild of Katrina Spade, CEO of alternative burial company Recompose. Speaking with local news station KIRO 7, Spade explains that recomposition involves moving the body to a specially designed facility—“part public park, part funeral home, part memorial to the people we love,” in the entrepreneur’s words—and placing it inside of a vessel filled with wood chips, alfalfa and straw. After several weeks of microbial activity, the body breaks down into soil that can then be given to family of the deceased or used by conservation groups to “nourish the [surrounding] land.” Overall, the process uses an eighth of the energy required for cremation and saves more than one metric ton of carbon dioxide for every individual who opts to use it.
•••••
Syracuse University janitor battles racism with kindness
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/higher-education/white-supremacist-manifesto-reportedly-shared-at-syracuse-u/2019/11/19/1f0d0ec6-0b2b-11ea-8054-289aef6e38a3_story.html
By Associated Press
November 19, 2019 at 7:17 p.m. EST
A janitor who removed racist graffiti at Syracuse University has started a campaign of kindness.
Syracuse.com reports that Keri Courtwright has been taping inspirational notes on doors, mirrors and paper towel dispensers during her rounds.
Courtwright says she wants to spread “good energy.” One message says: “Kindness changes everything.”
The notes are an extension of the positive messages she’d been posting in the Facebook group Pay it Forward CNY.
Some co-workers have joined her effort. One quote urges onlookers: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
•••••
By Associated Press
November 19, 2019 at 7:17 p.m. EST
A janitor who removed racist graffiti at Syracuse University has started a campaign of kindness.
Syracuse.com reports that Keri Courtwright has been taping inspirational notes on doors, mirrors and paper towel dispensers during her rounds.
Courtwright says she wants to spread “good energy.” One message says: “Kindness changes everything.”
The notes are an extension of the positive messages she’d been posting in the Facebook group Pay it Forward CNY.
Some co-workers have joined her effort. One quote urges onlookers: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
•••••
Coast Guard Moves Alabama Training After Swimmers Fall Ill
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/11/20/coast-guard-moves-alabama-training-after-swimmers-fall-ill.html
20 Nov 2019
The Associated Press
The U.S. Coast Guard is no longer using an Alabama bay for certain types of exercises after rescue swimmers reported falling ill during training.
News outlets report training has been moved from Mobile Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Capt. William Sasser with the Mobile training station told news outlets that rescue swimmers noted symptoms of “illness and irritation” after working in the bay. He said weekly water testing showed levels of the Enterococci bacteria within acceptable ranges, but said the training was moved as a precautionary measure.
Sasser said the health of rescue swimmers has improved since the move
•••••
20 Nov 2019
The Associated Press
The U.S. Coast Guard is no longer using an Alabama bay for certain types of exercises after rescue swimmers reported falling ill during training.
News outlets report training has been moved from Mobile Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Capt. William Sasser with the Mobile training station told news outlets that rescue swimmers noted symptoms of “illness and irritation” after working in the bay. He said weekly water testing showed levels of the Enterococci bacteria within acceptable ranges, but said the training was moved as a precautionary measure.
Sasser said the health of rescue swimmers has improved since the move
•••••
President Obama Talks Sustainability, Affordability, and Air Force One at Greenbuild 2019
https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/14357-president-obama-talks-sustainability-affordability-and-air-force-one-at-greenbuild-2019
•••••
Obama ended with comments on how individuals, leaders, communities, and countries should strive to align their stated beliefs with the things they do. “If we say our children and the next generation are the most important thing, then we have to act in accordance with those values,” he explained. “Presumably, that should be reflected in your policies and the people that you support.”
•••••
•••••
Obama ended with comments on how individuals, leaders, communities, and countries should strive to align their stated beliefs with the things they do. “If we say our children and the next generation are the most important thing, then we have to act in accordance with those values,” he explained. “Presumably, that should be reflected in your policies and the people that you support.”
•••••
The Long Lines for Women’s Bathrooms Could Be Eliminated. Why Haven’t They Been?
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-long-lines-for-women-s-bathrooms-could-be-eliminated-why-haven-t-they-been?utm_source=pocket-newtab
The Atlantic
Joe Pinsker
•••••
In the three decades since, dozens of cities and states have joined the cause of “potty parity,” the somewhat trivializing nickname for the goal of giving men and women equal access to public toilets. These legislative efforts, along with changes to plumbing codes that altered the ratio of men’s to women’s toilets, have certainly helped imbalances in wait times, but they haven’t come close to resolving them.
“It still remains a huge problem today, overall,” says Kathryn Anthony, an architecture professor at the University of Illinois who has studied the issue for more than a decade. The issue persists for many reasons: the exigencies of real estate, the building codes that govern construction, and, of course, sexism.
•••••
Chwedyk told me about the variety of ways in which building design does account for occupants’ time. Most urgently, developers bring in experts who estimate how long it takes to exit a building, in case of an emergency. Less life-threatening considerations get attention, too. There are traffic consultants who model the building’s contributions to nearby congestion, and even estimators of elevator wait times. But it’s rare for developers to undertake any sort of timing study for bathrooms, even though it’s not clear that waiting for a toilet is any less important than waiting for an elevator.
•••••
The Atlantic
Joe Pinsker
•••••
In the three decades since, dozens of cities and states have joined the cause of “potty parity,” the somewhat trivializing nickname for the goal of giving men and women equal access to public toilets. These legislative efforts, along with changes to plumbing codes that altered the ratio of men’s to women’s toilets, have certainly helped imbalances in wait times, but they haven’t come close to resolving them.
“It still remains a huge problem today, overall,” says Kathryn Anthony, an architecture professor at the University of Illinois who has studied the issue for more than a decade. The issue persists for many reasons: the exigencies of real estate, the building codes that govern construction, and, of course, sexism.
•••••
Chwedyk told me about the variety of ways in which building design does account for occupants’ time. Most urgently, developers bring in experts who estimate how long it takes to exit a building, in case of an emergency. Less life-threatening considerations get attention, too. There are traffic consultants who model the building’s contributions to nearby congestion, and even estimators of elevator wait times. But it’s rare for developers to undertake any sort of timing study for bathrooms, even though it’s not clear that waiting for a toilet is any less important than waiting for an elevator.
•••••
Holding Your Crying Baby isn’t Spoiling Them, You’re Just Meeting the Child’s Needs
https://theheartysoul.com/holding-your-crying-baby-isnt-spoiling-them/?utm_source=JERF&fbclid=IwAR3Hw4-A1l1WzwxReCxjA88wj1Q8aa93fP4NvkQ38Ax56zXtOw1bPs_LGTs
Posted on: November 14, 2019 at 8:43 pm
Last updated: November 21, 2019 at 11:00 am
•••••
Parents struggle when it comes to comforting a crying baby. Their instinct is to rush over and hold their child, but with advice like, “don’t spoil him,” they might hesitate the next time they hear the cry.
The good news is there is no reason to hesitate when cuddling with your crying baby. Here’s the truth: it’s impossible to spoil them.
The Purpose of a Baby’s Cry
Notre Dame psychologist Darcia Narvaez led a research team that found children become healthier and happier adults when they have parents who treated them with affection, sensitivity, and playfulness since birth.
•••••
Professor Narvaez worked with two colleagues, Lijuan Wang and Ying Cheng, to conduct this research and their findings will be published in an upcoming article in the journal Applied Developmental Science.
The three professors surveyed over 600 adults about their childhoods. They examined things like how much affectionate touch was given in their household, how much free play they were allowed as a child, and how much positive family time they experienced. The researchers found that adults with less anxiety and overall better mental wellbeing had positive childhoods.
“These things independently, but also added up together, predicted the adults’ mental health, so they were less depressed, less anxious, and their social capacities — they were more able to take other people’s perspective,” said Professor Narvaez. “They were better at getting along with others and being open-hearted.”
J. Kevin Nugent, director of the Brazelton Institute at Children’s Hospital in Boston and a child psychologist, said that a newborn baby learns from his interactions with his parents that the world is reliable, and can trust that his needs will be met.
•••••
“What parents do in those early months and years are really affecting the way the brain is going to grow the rest of their lives,” explains Narvaez, “so lots of holding, touching and rocking, that is what babies expect. They grow better that way. And keep them calm, because all sorts of systems are establishing the way they are going to work.
“If you let them cry a lot, those systems are going to be easily triggered into stress. We can see that in adulthood — that people that are not cared for well, tend to be more stress reactive and they have a hard time self-calming.”
The researchers found that free play in and out of doors is vital for child development, as well as growing up in a positive, warm home environment.
•••••
“We need to, as a community support families so they can give children what they need,” Professor Narvaez says, who recommends involving grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends in the baby’s life.
“We really didn’t evolve to parent alone. Our history is to have a community of caregivers to help — the village, so that when mom or dad needs a break, there is someone there who is ready to step in.”
•••••
Posted on: November 14, 2019 at 8:43 pm
Last updated: November 21, 2019 at 11:00 am
•••••
Parents struggle when it comes to comforting a crying baby. Their instinct is to rush over and hold their child, but with advice like, “don’t spoil him,” they might hesitate the next time they hear the cry.
The good news is there is no reason to hesitate when cuddling with your crying baby. Here’s the truth: it’s impossible to spoil them.
The Purpose of a Baby’s Cry
Notre Dame psychologist Darcia Narvaez led a research team that found children become healthier and happier adults when they have parents who treated them with affection, sensitivity, and playfulness since birth.
•••••
Professor Narvaez worked with two colleagues, Lijuan Wang and Ying Cheng, to conduct this research and their findings will be published in an upcoming article in the journal Applied Developmental Science.
The three professors surveyed over 600 adults about their childhoods. They examined things like how much affectionate touch was given in their household, how much free play they were allowed as a child, and how much positive family time they experienced. The researchers found that adults with less anxiety and overall better mental wellbeing had positive childhoods.
“These things independently, but also added up together, predicted the adults’ mental health, so they were less depressed, less anxious, and their social capacities — they were more able to take other people’s perspective,” said Professor Narvaez. “They were better at getting along with others and being open-hearted.”
J. Kevin Nugent, director of the Brazelton Institute at Children’s Hospital in Boston and a child psychologist, said that a newborn baby learns from his interactions with his parents that the world is reliable, and can trust that his needs will be met.
•••••
“What parents do in those early months and years are really affecting the way the brain is going to grow the rest of their lives,” explains Narvaez, “so lots of holding, touching and rocking, that is what babies expect. They grow better that way. And keep them calm, because all sorts of systems are establishing the way they are going to work.
“If you let them cry a lot, those systems are going to be easily triggered into stress. We can see that in adulthood — that people that are not cared for well, tend to be more stress reactive and they have a hard time self-calming.”
The researchers found that free play in and out of doors is vital for child development, as well as growing up in a positive, warm home environment.
•••••
“We need to, as a community support families so they can give children what they need,” Professor Narvaez says, who recommends involving grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends in the baby’s life.
“We really didn’t evolve to parent alone. Our history is to have a community of caregivers to help — the village, so that when mom or dad needs a break, there is someone there who is ready to step in.”
•••••
Friday, November 22, 2019
Worker who raised alarm before deadly New Orleans hotel collapse to be deported
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/22/new-orleans-hotel-collapse-deported-honduras
Lauren Zanolli
Fri 22 Nov 2019 13.09 EST
Last modified on Fri 22 Nov 2019 13.25 EST
A construction worker who attempted to warn managers about building dangers and was seriously injured in last month’s deadly Hard Rock Hotel collapse in New Orleans, will be deported on Monday, his lawyers said this week.
Delmer Joel Ramírez Palma, a Honduran citizen, was working inside the 18-storey building when it dramatically crumbled on to a busy downtown intersection on 12 October, killing three and injuring dozens. He survived a fall from the ninth floor to the sixth by swinging from a rope.
Ramírez Palma was hospitalized with serious injuries, including head trauma and internal inflammation, and still requires surgery for an acute eye injury, according to his wife and two lawyers working on separate immigration and civil injury cases.
Immediately after the accident, he was interviewed by a Spanish-language media outlet. Two days later, he was arrested by immigration authorities while fishing with his family in a national wildlife refuge.
He has lived in New Orleans for 18 years.
According to his lawyers and his wife, Ramírez Palma had reported safety concerns – including asymmetrical building measurements and uncured concrete too weak to support weight – to his supervisors at King Company, a New Orleans construction firm, before the deadly collapse.
Construction managers allegedly told him to ignore the issues, according to Mary Yanik, senior staff attorney at the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, an advocacy group.
•••••
The Honduran man’s treatment has sent a further chill through the undocumented community, already on high alert under Donald Trump’s aggressive enforcement policies.
“There’s already extraordinary fear in this environment from any worker to report labor violations,” said Yanick.
Ramírez Palma’s lawyers say his case illustrates how a crackdown on undocumented workers could also hamper investigations into the cause of the accident.
“There’s really crucial information here that the public needs to get to the bottom of what happened at Hard Rock,” she said.
•••••
Daryl Gray, who is representing Ramírez Palma and four other Hard Rock workers in a civil suit against building developers, said he had spoken to “numerous” undocumented workers too afraid to talk about the accident.
•••••
Lauren Zanolli
Fri 22 Nov 2019 13.09 EST
Last modified on Fri 22 Nov 2019 13.25 EST
A construction worker who attempted to warn managers about building dangers and was seriously injured in last month’s deadly Hard Rock Hotel collapse in New Orleans, will be deported on Monday, his lawyers said this week.
Delmer Joel Ramírez Palma, a Honduran citizen, was working inside the 18-storey building when it dramatically crumbled on to a busy downtown intersection on 12 October, killing three and injuring dozens. He survived a fall from the ninth floor to the sixth by swinging from a rope.
Ramírez Palma was hospitalized with serious injuries, including head trauma and internal inflammation, and still requires surgery for an acute eye injury, according to his wife and two lawyers working on separate immigration and civil injury cases.
Immediately after the accident, he was interviewed by a Spanish-language media outlet. Two days later, he was arrested by immigration authorities while fishing with his family in a national wildlife refuge.
He has lived in New Orleans for 18 years.
According to his lawyers and his wife, Ramírez Palma had reported safety concerns – including asymmetrical building measurements and uncured concrete too weak to support weight – to his supervisors at King Company, a New Orleans construction firm, before the deadly collapse.
Construction managers allegedly told him to ignore the issues, according to Mary Yanik, senior staff attorney at the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, an advocacy group.
•••••
The Honduran man’s treatment has sent a further chill through the undocumented community, already on high alert under Donald Trump’s aggressive enforcement policies.
“There’s already extraordinary fear in this environment from any worker to report labor violations,” said Yanick.
Ramírez Palma’s lawyers say his case illustrates how a crackdown on undocumented workers could also hamper investigations into the cause of the accident.
“There’s really crucial information here that the public needs to get to the bottom of what happened at Hard Rock,” she said.
•••••
Daryl Gray, who is representing Ramírez Palma and four other Hard Rock workers in a civil suit against building developers, said he had spoken to “numerous” undocumented workers too afraid to talk about the accident.
•••••
Heat waves and floods shattered records. Fires ravaged the Arctic and the Amazon. This was the climate crisis in 2019.
Morgan McFall-Johnsen
,Business Insider•November 22, 2019
•••••
Scientists say climate change likely played a role in the severe polar vortex event that engulfed North America, the deadly summer heat waves in Europe, and the devastatingly slow movement of Hurricane Dorian.
Taken together, the record-shattering extreme weather we saw throughout 2019 paints a worrisome picture of what's to come.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide has reached its highest level in at least 800,000 years.
As of October, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide was at 412 parts per million.
•••••
Globe had its 2nd-hottest October and year to date on record
https://www.noaa.gov/news/globe-had-its-2nd-hottest-october-and-year-to-date-on-record
November 18, 2019
Planet Earth continued to sweat in unrelenting heat last month making October 2019 the second-hottest October recorded, just behind 2015.
It was also the second-hottest year to date (January through October) on record for the globe. Continuing its melting trend, Arctic sea ice coverage shrank to its smallest size yet for October.
•••••
The average global land and ocean surface temperature for October 2019 was 1.76 degrees F (0.98 of a degree C) above the 20th-century average and the second highest October temperature on record. This value was only 0.11 of a degree F (0.06 of a degree C) short of the record-warm October set in 2015.
The 10 warmest Octobers have occurred since 2003, with the five warmest Octobers occurring since 2015. October 2019 was also the 43rd consecutive October and the 418th consecutive month with temperatures — at least nominally — above the 20th-century average.
•••••
Arctic sea ice coverage was the smallest ever recorded for October at 32.2 percent below the 1981–2010 average. The 10 smallest Arctic sea ice extents for October have occurred since 2007.
Warmth around the world: Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Caribbean and the Hawaiian Islands region experienced temperatures that ranked among the three highest on record for October.
The world’s average sea surface temperature ranked second-warmest ever recorded for the year to date — less than a 10th of a degree cooler than the record-warm sea surface temperature observed in 2016.
•••••
November 18, 2019
Planet Earth continued to sweat in unrelenting heat last month making October 2019 the second-hottest October recorded, just behind 2015.
It was also the second-hottest year to date (January through October) on record for the globe. Continuing its melting trend, Arctic sea ice coverage shrank to its smallest size yet for October.
•••••
The average global land and ocean surface temperature for October 2019 was 1.76 degrees F (0.98 of a degree C) above the 20th-century average and the second highest October temperature on record. This value was only 0.11 of a degree F (0.06 of a degree C) short of the record-warm October set in 2015.
The 10 warmest Octobers have occurred since 2003, with the five warmest Octobers occurring since 2015. October 2019 was also the 43rd consecutive October and the 418th consecutive month with temperatures — at least nominally — above the 20th-century average.
•••••
Arctic sea ice coverage was the smallest ever recorded for October at 32.2 percent below the 1981–2010 average. The 10 smallest Arctic sea ice extents for October have occurred since 2007.
Warmth around the world: Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Caribbean and the Hawaiian Islands region experienced temperatures that ranked among the three highest on record for October.
The world’s average sea surface temperature ranked second-warmest ever recorded for the year to date — less than a 10th of a degree cooler than the record-warm sea surface temperature observed in 2016.
•••••
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Fossil fuel production on track for double the safe climate limit
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/20/fossil-fuel-production-on-track-for-double-the-safe-climate-limit
Please consider donating to The Guardian investigation news service.
Damian Carrington Environment editor
Wed 20 Nov 2019 00.01 EST
The world’s nations are on track to produce more than twice as much coal, oil and gas as can be burned in 2030 while restricting rise in the global temperature to 1.5C, analysis shows.
The report is the first to compare countries’ stated plans for fossil fuel extraction with the goals of the Paris climate agreement, which is to keep global heating well below 2C above pre-industrial levels, and to aim for 1.5C. It exposes a huge gap, with fossil fuel production in 2030 heading for 50% more than is consistent with 2C, and 120% more than that for 1.5C.
Scientists have warned that even the difference between 1.5C and 2C of heating will expose hundreds of millions of people to significantly higher risks of extreme heatwaves, drought, floods and poverty.
•••••
Impeachment hearings
Nov. 21, 2019
Disgusting the way some republicans, including Nunes, used the impeachment hearings to give speeches filled with lies, for the benefit of right-wing media to use as "coverage" of the hearings.
Nov. 20, 2019
Well, what do you know, testimony today came out that the Ukrainians knew about a holdup in U.S. aid earlier than has been told before.
Republicans keep saying Trump gave aid to Ukraine. It was actually Congress that authorized this aid, and Trump held it up until it public accusations that he was doing it so to get Ukraine to act against Biden's son. Also:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/15/trump-resisted-ukraine-sale-javelin-antitank-missile/
Trump Resisted Sale of Javelins to Ukraine
By Amy Mackinnon | November 15, 2019, 4:00 PM
As U.S. President Donald Trump’s congressional allies seek to defend him from a rapidly escalating impeachment inquiry, they have repeatedly pointed to the fact that it was Trump, not his predecessor President Barack Obama, who signed off on providing Ukraine with lethal weapons such as Javelin anti-tank missiles.
But current and former officials who were privy to the decision in December 2017 to provide the missiles to Ukraine told Foreign Policy that Trump had been reluctant to go ahead with the move and only did so when aides persuaded him that it could be good for U.S. business.
=========================
Dishonest republican questioner at it again claims Obama only authorized "MRE (meals ready to eat) and blankets" to Ukraine. This is a flat out lie, as several other repeated statements by the republican questioners. Obama didn't give as much aid as I would have liked, but he did give military & security aid.
https://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2019/oct/25/matt-gaetz/matt-gaetz-says-obama-permanently-stopped-military/
Matt Gaetz misleads about Obama's record on Ukraine military aid
By Amy Sherman on Friday, October 25th, 2019 at 11:47 a.m.
At the time, Obama officials were debating whether to send lethal military equipment amid the conflict with Russia, particularly Javelin anti-tank missiles. Obama rejected a request from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for lethal aid in 2014, though the White House approved a $53 million aid package that included vehicles, patrol boats, body armor and night-vision goggles, as well as humanitarian assistance.
U.S. officials were concerned that providing the Javelins to Ukraine would escalate their conflict with Russia. Key allies, including Germany, were not keen on sending weapons into the conflict zone, said Michael Kofman, an expert on Russia and senior research scientist at the CNA Corporation.
======================
Here the republicans go again, going on about the whistleblower, complaining in the same speech that he doesn't have firsthand knowledge of the Trump Ukraine phone call, and also complaining that the Democrats haven't called him to testify. Why do they want the whistleblower to testify when there are people with firsthand knowledge that can testify Of course, Trump is keeping some people with firsthand knowledge from testifying.
Nov. 19, 2019
At the end of the second day of the hearings, last week, a republican said that people were finding the hearings "boring" and that we should stop listening. So obvious that they are expecting damaging testimony in the future that they don't want people to hear.
Trump and his defenders keep harping on the whistleblower not having firsthand knowledge of Trump's communications with Ukraine's president, even though people with firsthand knowledge have come forward, or are being subpoenaed. And Trump is trying to keep those who do have firsthand knowledge from testifying. It is obvious they are trying to keep people from paying attention to those who do have firsthand knowledge and that they believe the firsthand knowledge is damaging to Trump.
Some republicans at the hearings claimed that Trump asked Ukraine's president to help him against a political rival of Trump before Ukraine knew that Congress had ordered military aid to their country. This would depend on the unlikely assumption that Ukraine does not keep an eye on what the U.S. government is doing in regards to their country, and that there was no one else friendly to Ukraine who would have been aware of this.
Brazil Admits It Has a Deforestation Problem and Vows to Fix It
https://news.yahoo.com/brazil-admits-deforestation-problem-vows-161510351.html
Samy Adghirni and Julia Leite
,Bloomberg•November 21, 2019
Brazil is drawing up plans to curtail a surge in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest that’s provoked an international outcry, the country’s top security official said.
“We are already preparing a stronger policy to contain fires,” General Augusto Heleno Pereira, the country’s Institutional Security Minister, said in an interview in Brasilia, in a rare acknowledgment of the problem. “Everybody is convinced we must tighten enforcement,” he added, referring to farmers who set fires on agricultural lands to improve productivity.
•••••
Samy Adghirni and Julia Leite
,Bloomberg•November 21, 2019
Brazil is drawing up plans to curtail a surge in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest that’s provoked an international outcry, the country’s top security official said.
“We are already preparing a stronger policy to contain fires,” General Augusto Heleno Pereira, the country’s Institutional Security Minister, said in an interview in Brasilia, in a rare acknowledgment of the problem. “Everybody is convinced we must tighten enforcement,” he added, referring to farmers who set fires on agricultural lands to improve productivity.
•••••
Australians shelter from bushfires as political heat climbs
https://news.yahoo.com/australians-shelter-bushfires-political-pressure-010416629.html
Australia, like the U.S., has chosen to elect a leader who denies climate disruption and blocks action against it.
Note it is in the southern hemisphere, so while it is late fall in the U.S., it is late spring in Australia.
By Colin Packham
,Reuters•November 20, 2019
Firefighters battled hundreds of bushfires across Australia on Thursday as scores of blazes sprang up in new locations, triggering warnings that it was too late for some residents to evacuate.
As Thick smoke blanketed the most populous city of Sydney for a third day, residents were urged to keep children indoors, stepping up pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to tackle climate change.
By early afternoon, dozens of fires were burning across the southeastern state of Victoria and temperatures of 40.9 Celsius (105.6 F) in Melbourne, its capital, matched the hottest day on record in 1894, Australia's weather bureau said.
•••••
Blazes across several states have endangered thousands of people, killing at least four people this month, burning about 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) of farmland and bush and destroying more than 400 homes.
The early arrival and severity of the fires in the southern hemisphere spring follows three years of drought that experts have linked to climate change and which have left bushland tinder-dry.
With 10 days remaining to the official start of summer, extreme temperatures and high winds have sparked wildfires in new areas, even as firefighters tracked the crisis across the mainland, the Northern Territory and the island of Tasmania.
•••••
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/21/victoria-issued-code-red-bushfire-warning-amid-thunderstorm-asthma-threat
Ben Doherty and agencies
Thu 21 Nov 2019 17.23 EST
Record-breaking spring temperatures helped spark and fan bushfires across the country on Thursday.
In Victoria, 100km/h winds fanned more than 60 fires as an unprecedented heatwave moved north to south, drawing comparisons with the “worst conditions you’d see in February or March” from the state’s emergency services minister, Lisa Neville.
•••••
Melbourne’s maximum temperature of 40.9C [105.6F] matched the 1894 record for the hottest November day. Laverton was the hottest place in Victoria at 44.3C [111.7F].
•••••
Centuries of Christian anti-Semitism led to Holocaust, landmark Church of England report concludes
https://news.yahoo.com/centuries-christian-anti-semitism-led-000100859.html
Well, duh.
Gabriella Swerling
,The Telegraph•November 20, 2019
Centuries of Christian anti-Semitism led to the Holocaust, a landmark Church of England report has concluded. In a foreword to the report, published today, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that Christians cannot challenge and reflect on the past honestly, “until we have felt the cruelty of our history”.
•••••
It urges Christians to not only be repentant for the “sins of the past” against Jews, but also to challenge active attitudes and stereotypes.
It also marks the first time that the Church of England has made an authoritative statement on the subject of anti-Semitism.
The new “tool for teaching” on Christian-Jewish relations acknowledges that Christian theology played a part in the “stereotyping and persecution fo Jewish people which ultimately led to the Holocaust”.
•••••
Six million Jews were systematically killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Throughout World War II, Nazi Germany killed around five million other ‘untermenschen’ - a the term for those the Nazis deemed as ‘undesireable’ or ‘sub-human’.
These included victims from Romani communities, disabled and homosexual people and those of other nationalities and religions. The number of Nazi victims is often disputed by Holocaust deniers.
•••••
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Exposure to PM 2.5 pollution linked to brain atrophy, memory decline
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/uosc-etp112019.php
News Release 20-Nov-2019
University of Southern California
Women in their 70s and 80s who were exposed to higher levels of air pollution experienced greater declines in memory and more Alzheimer's-like brain atrophy than their counterparts who breathed cleaner air, according to USC researchers.
•••••
News Release 20-Nov-2019
University of Southern California
Women in their 70s and 80s who were exposed to higher levels of air pollution experienced greater declines in memory and more Alzheimer's-like brain atrophy than their counterparts who breathed cleaner air, according to USC researchers.
•••••
College students may get health benefits from less than one extra hour of sleep
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/ps-csm112019.php
News Release 20-Nov-2019
Penn State
College life can be rigorous and exhausting, but new research suggests that just one extra hour of sleep a night is not only possible, but can also have significant health benefits for college students.
In a study led by Penn State, researchers found that when asked to extend their sleep, college students were able to get an additional 43 minutes of sleep per night on average. They also experienced less sleepiness during the day and had lower blood pressure.
•••••
News Release 20-Nov-2019
Penn State
College life can be rigorous and exhausting, but new research suggests that just one extra hour of sleep a night is not only possible, but can also have significant health benefits for college students.
In a study led by Penn State, researchers found that when asked to extend their sleep, college students were able to get an additional 43 minutes of sleep per night on average. They also experienced less sleepiness during the day and had lower blood pressure.
•••••
Researchers find long-term benefits of nurse home visits for new mothers and infants
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/uoca-rfl112019.php
News Release 20-Nov-2019
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Home visits by nurses to check on infants and first-time mothers offer learning benefits for the children and savings in the cost of public welfare programs, according to new research published in December 2019 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, University College London (UCL), and the University of Rochester evaluated the long-term effects of nurse home visiting programs. The initial visits were conducted in June 1990 and continued for over many years. The studies follow up on families 18 years after they participated in the nurse-visit program and they compare outcomes for those families with control groups.
•••••
"This early intervention, Nurse-Family Partnership, produced long-term improvements in the cognitive functioning of 18-year-old youth born to mothers who had limited personal resources to cope with the adversities of living in deep poverty," Olds said. "This new evidence shows promise that Nurse-Family Partnership's effects may carry over into adulthood."
•••••
News Release 20-Nov-2019
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Home visits by nurses to check on infants and first-time mothers offer learning benefits for the children and savings in the cost of public welfare programs, according to new research published in December 2019 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, University College London (UCL), and the University of Rochester evaluated the long-term effects of nurse home visiting programs. The initial visits were conducted in June 1990 and continued for over many years. The studies follow up on families 18 years after they participated in the nurse-visit program and they compare outcomes for those families with control groups.
•••••
"This early intervention, Nurse-Family Partnership, produced long-term improvements in the cognitive functioning of 18-year-old youth born to mothers who had limited personal resources to cope with the adversities of living in deep poverty," Olds said. "This new evidence shows promise that Nurse-Family Partnership's effects may carry over into adulthood."
•••••
Largest study ever finds that urban green space can prevent premature deaths
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/bifg-lse111919.php
News Release 20-Nov-2019
Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)
Residential greenness can protect against premature all-cause mortality, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis conducted by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by "la Caixa", in collaboration with Colorado State University and the World Health Organization (WHO), and published in The Lancet Planetary Health.
The analysis, which included nine longitudinal studies involving seven countries and a total of over eight million people, provides strong evidence on the impact of increasing green areas on mortality.
•••••
The meta-analysis of these studies found that an increment in greenness around homes is significantly associated with reduced premature mortality. More specifically, the study provides an estimate for the protective effect: a 4% reduction in premature mortality per each increment of 0.1 in vegetation score, within 500 meters of the residence.
•••••
News Release 20-Nov-2019
Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)
Residential greenness can protect against premature all-cause mortality, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis conducted by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by "la Caixa", in collaboration with Colorado State University and the World Health Organization (WHO), and published in The Lancet Planetary Health.
The analysis, which included nine longitudinal studies involving seven countries and a total of over eight million people, provides strong evidence on the impact of increasing green areas on mortality.
•••••
The meta-analysis of these studies found that an increment in greenness around homes is significantly associated with reduced premature mortality. More specifically, the study provides an estimate for the protective effect: a 4% reduction in premature mortality per each increment of 0.1 in vegetation score, within 500 meters of the residence.
•••••
Musicians at serious risk of tinnitus, researchers show
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/uom-mas111919.php
No surprise
News Release 20-Nov-2019
University of Manchester
The research team found that health and lifestyle factors had relatively little impact on Tinnitus and hearing difficulties. Noise exposure was by far the biggest risk.
The findings confirm what industry insiders have long been saying about the impact their workplace has on their hearing.
•••••
Skipping breakfast linked to lower GCSE grades
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/uol-sbl111819.php
News Release 20-Nov-2019
University of Leeds
Students who rarely ate breakfast on school days achieved lower GCSE grades than those who ate breakfast frequently, according to a new study in Yorkshire.
Researchers, from the University of Leeds, have for the first time demonstrated a link between eating breakfast and GCSE performance for secondary school students in the UK.
Adding together all of a student's exam results, they found that students who said they rarely ate breakfast achieved nearly two grades lower than those who rarely missed their morning meal.
•••••
News Release 20-Nov-2019
University of Leeds
Students who rarely ate breakfast on school days achieved lower GCSE grades than those who ate breakfast frequently, according to a new study in Yorkshire.
Researchers, from the University of Leeds, have for the first time demonstrated a link between eating breakfast and GCSE performance for secondary school students in the UK.
Adding together all of a student's exam results, they found that students who said they rarely ate breakfast achieved nearly two grades lower than those who rarely missed their morning meal.
•••••
DDT linked to higher risk of diabetes among Asian Indian immigrants to US
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/uoc--dlt111519.php
News Release 20-Nov-2019
University of California - Davis
revious exposure to the pollutant DDT may contribute to the risk of diabetes among Asian Indian immigrants to the United States, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.
The study, published today in the American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science & Technology, linked high levels of DDT, or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, in Indian immigrants with risk factors for metabolic disease.
•••••
News Release 20-Nov-2019
University of California - Davis
revious exposure to the pollutant DDT may contribute to the risk of diabetes among Asian Indian immigrants to the United States, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.
The study, published today in the American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science & Technology, linked high levels of DDT, or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, in Indian immigrants with risk factors for metabolic disease.
•••••
Cannabis found not to be a substitute for opioids
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/mu-cfn111519.php
Note difference from last post, which applied to using marijuana for pain, this study concerns people already addicted and are on methadone treatment.
News Release 19-Nov-2019
McMaster University
•••••
The research team looked at all research on the effects of cannabis use on illicit opioid use during methadone maintenance therapy, which is a common treatment for opioid use disorder, and found six studies involving more than 3,600 participants.
However, a meta-analysis of the studies found cannabis use didn't reduce illicit opioid use during treatment nor did it retain people in treatment.
•••••
tags: drug abuse, drug use
Daily cannabis use lowers odds of using illicit opioids among people who have chronic pain
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/uobc-dcu111519.php
News Release 19-Nov-2019
University of British Columbia
•••••
Researchers from the BCCSU and University of British Columbia (UBC) interviewed more than 1,100 people at highest risk of opioid overdose in Vancouver between 2014 and 2017 who reported substance use and major or chronic pain. They found that daily cannabis use was associated with significantly lower odds of daily illicit opioid use, suggesting people are replacing opioids with cannabis to manage their pain.
•••••
tags: drug use
News Release 19-Nov-2019
University of British Columbia
•••••
Researchers from the BCCSU and University of British Columbia (UBC) interviewed more than 1,100 people at highest risk of opioid overdose in Vancouver between 2014 and 2017 who reported substance use and major or chronic pain. They found that daily cannabis use was associated with significantly lower odds of daily illicit opioid use, suggesting people are replacing opioids with cannabis to manage their pain.
•••••
tags: drug use
Radiation from CT scans associated with increased risk for cancer
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/oupu-rfc111519.php
Not surprising.
News Release 19-Nov-2019
Oxford University Press USA
A new study in JNCI Cancer Spectrum finds that exposure to radiation from CT scans is associated with higher risks of developing thyroid cancer and leukemia.
•••••
Access to food and nutrition more limited in sub-Saharan Africa than previously estimated
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/f-atf111319.php
Sadly, climate disruption will make this even worse.
News Release 19-Nov-2019
Frontiers
A survey of over six thousand sub-Saharan households shows an estimated 39% experience severely unreliable access to food. In addition, 49% have inadequate diversity in their diet, putting them at risk for micronutrient deficiencies. The study, published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, is among the largest of its kind -- and also the first to correlate food access and nutrition to time of year, as well as demographic, agricultural, ecological and economic factors.
•••••
Tens of thousands of deaths linked to weak US air pollution rules
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/20/us-air-pollution-deaths-study-jama
Emily Holden in Washington
Wed 20 Nov 2019 11.00 EST
US air pollution rules could be hugely insufficient in preventing deaths, experts are concluding from a new study of the likely causes of death of 4.5 million veterans.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Jama, the research finds that 99% of deaths from illnesses linked to a certain type of air pollution occur in people who are exposed to lower levels than the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently deems acceptable.
But Donald Trump’s EPA could be set to maintain the current standard – thus leading to continued air pollution-associated deaths. The agency is also reconsidering the established science linking particle pollution from fossil fuels and other sources with a host of illnesses.
About 200,000 Americans are thought to die from air pollution each year, but scientists previously couldn’t pinpoint the specific causes of death for almost half of those people.
•••••
They linked nine causes of death with the pollution: cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, lung cancer and pneumonia.
•••••
Al-Aly explained that researchers examining only death records could only see “the tip of the iceberg”. His team reviewed the illnesses people struggled with before death to get a clearer picture of their overall health.
•••••
Another study published on Wednesday in Brain further confirmed the links between air pollution and cognitive problems. Women in their 70s and 80s who were exposed to higher levels of air pollution experienced greater declines in memory and more Alzheimer’s-like brain atrophy, according to researchers at the University of South Carolina.
•••••
Emily Holden in Washington
Wed 20 Nov 2019 11.00 EST
US air pollution rules could be hugely insufficient in preventing deaths, experts are concluding from a new study of the likely causes of death of 4.5 million veterans.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Jama, the research finds that 99% of deaths from illnesses linked to a certain type of air pollution occur in people who are exposed to lower levels than the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently deems acceptable.
But Donald Trump’s EPA could be set to maintain the current standard – thus leading to continued air pollution-associated deaths. The agency is also reconsidering the established science linking particle pollution from fossil fuels and other sources with a host of illnesses.
About 200,000 Americans are thought to die from air pollution each year, but scientists previously couldn’t pinpoint the specific causes of death for almost half of those people.
•••••
They linked nine causes of death with the pollution: cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, lung cancer and pneumonia.
•••••
Al-Aly explained that researchers examining only death records could only see “the tip of the iceberg”. His team reviewed the illnesses people struggled with before death to get a clearer picture of their overall health.
•••••
Another study published on Wednesday in Brain further confirmed the links between air pollution and cognitive problems. Women in their 70s and 80s who were exposed to higher levels of air pollution experienced greater declines in memory and more Alzheimer’s-like brain atrophy, according to researchers at the University of South Carolina.
•••••
Former British consulate employee says China tortured him for Hong Kong information
https://news.yahoo.com/1-former-uk-consulate-employee-082956424.html
By Guy Faulconbridge
,Reuters•November 20, 2019
A former employee of Britain's consulate in Hong Kong said Chinese secret police beat him, deprived him of sleep and shackled him in an attempt to force him to give information about activists leading pro-democracy protests.
•••••
Simon Cheng, a Hong Kong citizen who worked for the British government for almost two years, said he was tortured while detained for 15 days as he returned from a trip to mainland China in August.
"I was hung (handcuffed and shackled) on a steep X-Cross doing a spread-eagled pose for hours after hours," Cheng said in a post on Facebook.
"Sometimes, they ordered me to do the 'stress tests', which includes extreme strength exercise such as 'squat' and 'chair pose' for countless hours. They beat me every time I failed to do so using something like sharpened batons."
Britain said Cheng's treatment amounted to torture and summoned China's ambassador to express outrage. China did not immediately comment on Cheng. Reuters was unable to verify his account.
•••••
By Guy Faulconbridge
,Reuters•November 20, 2019
A former employee of Britain's consulate in Hong Kong said Chinese secret police beat him, deprived him of sleep and shackled him in an attempt to force him to give information about activists leading pro-democracy protests.
•••••
Simon Cheng, a Hong Kong citizen who worked for the British government for almost two years, said he was tortured while detained for 15 days as he returned from a trip to mainland China in August.
"I was hung (handcuffed and shackled) on a steep X-Cross doing a spread-eagled pose for hours after hours," Cheng said in a post on Facebook.
"Sometimes, they ordered me to do the 'stress tests', which includes extreme strength exercise such as 'squat' and 'chair pose' for countless hours. They beat me every time I failed to do so using something like sharpened batons."
Britain said Cheng's treatment amounted to torture and summoned China's ambassador to express outrage. China did not immediately comment on Cheng. Reuters was unable to verify his account.
•••••
Windows users, beware: This fake update could lock up your PC, or worse
https://www.cnet.com/news/windows-users-beware-this-fake-update-could-lock-up-your-pc-or-worse/
Alison DeNisco Rayome
November 19, 2019 8:00 AM PST
Updating to Windows 10? Don't fall victim to this spam email attack.
With the end of support for Windows 7 coming in January, many users are looking to update to Windows 10 to continue getting security updates and support from Microsoft. According to a Tuesday report from security firm Trustwave, attackers are well aware of this and are targeting Microsoft users with fake Windows update emails that will infect computers with ransomware -- an especially sinister type of malware that locks up valuable data on your computer, and demands that you pay a ransom to release it or your data will be destroyed.
•••••
Alison DeNisco Rayome
November 19, 2019 8:00 AM PST
Updating to Windows 10? Don't fall victim to this spam email attack.
With the end of support for Windows 7 coming in January, many users are looking to update to Windows 10 to continue getting security updates and support from Microsoft. According to a Tuesday report from security firm Trustwave, attackers are well aware of this and are targeting Microsoft users with fake Windows update emails that will infect computers with ransomware -- an especially sinister type of malware that locks up valuable data on your computer, and demands that you pay a ransom to release it or your data will be destroyed.
•••••
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Trump is systematically ending the viability of a future Palestinian state
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/19/trump-is-systematically-ending-the-viability-of-a-future-palestinian-state
This is not the first time I have wondered if Trump is deliberately encouraging a terrorist attack so he can have an excuse to seize more power.
Joshua Leifer
Tue 19 Nov 2019 10.34 EST
Last modified on Tue 19 Nov 2019 10.51 EST
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement on Monday – that the US will no longer consider Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories a violation of international law – is, in many ways, a near-perfect encapsulation of the Trump administration’s approach to Israel-Palestine.
Couched in grotesque doublespeak, it claims to advance “the cause of peace” while signaling US approval of Israel’s brutal, perpetual military rule over the roughly 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. It is part and parcel of the Trump administration’s ongoing, concerted efforts to undermine international legal frameworks for addressing human rights violations (and not just in Israel-Palestine). And it is yet more proof, not that more was needed, that the Trump administration is actively pursuing a post-two-state-solution agenda.
"post-two-state-solution" - how diplomatic. In other words, pursuing a one-state Israeli agenda.
•••••
It would, however, be a mistake to view Pompeo’s announcement as a complete break with US policy precedent. Again, as with so much of what the Trump administration has done over the past several years, this, too, marks less a rupture with the status quo than its unmasking. While the US government has long considered Israeli construction of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories a violation of international law on paper, it has done little to hold Israel’s government meaningfully accountable in practice.
•••••
Chinese bishop 'on the run' after refusing to join state-sanctioned church
Sophia Yan
,The Telegraph•November 19, 2019
A Catholic bishop in China is believed to be on the run from state security after refusing to bring his church under a government-sanctioned religious association.
•••••
Mr Guo is part of a group of bishops that many religious and human rights experts feared would be persecuted after the Vatican inked a deal with Beijing last year on the ordaining bishops.
China has long insisted that it approve appointments, clashing with absolute papal authority to pick bishops. The agreement broke that standoff, and could help pave the way for formal diplomatic ties, but also stoked worries that the Chinese state would have too much power to regulate religion.
•••••
China’s officially atheist Communist Party – has engaged in a widespread crackdown on religion in the last few years. Authorities have banned Arab-style onion domes on mosques and other buildings – even if merely decorative.
The UN estimates more than a million Muslims have been detained in chilling “re-education” camps, where former detainees have told The Telegraph they were subject to physical torture, psychological intimidation and political indoctrination.
The government has shut down churches not sanctioned by the Party, detaining priests and members of various congregations. And houses of worship, including Buddhist temples, are now mandated to have pictures of Xi Jinping, the leader of the Party.
•••••
Police: White teen girl aimed to attack black Georgia church
https://news.yahoo.com/police-white-teen-girl-aimed-185432649.html
Trump and his followers are encouraging this
JEFF MARTIN
,Associated Press•November 19, 2019
A white 16-year-old girl is accused of plotting to attack a mostly black church in a north Georgia city, where police say she planned to kill worshippers because of their race.
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the white son of a sheriff’s deputy was arrested in April and accused of a setting fires that destroyed three black churches in rural Louisiana. Holden Matthews is awaiting trial on arson and hate crimes charges in the Louisiana church burnings.
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Discussions vs arguments
Friday, November 15, 2019
She went to prison over her boyfriend’s child abuse. Thirteen years after he got out, she’s free.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11/08/she-went-prison-over-her-boyfriends-child-abuse-thirteen-years-after-he-got-out-shes-free/
By Reis Thebault
November 8, 2019
As a teenager, Tondalao Hall survived a violent relationship — one that ended only after she was arrested and imprisoned for not reporting her boyfriend’s abuse of their children. Now, after 15 years behind bars, she is free.
Hall’s sentence, issued under Oklahoma’s controversial “failure to protect” laws, was far harsher than the one given to her boyfriend, Robert Braxton Jr., who abused Hall and her children. He served two years in jail. The disparity has been seen as an example of the criminal justice system bungling cases of intimate-partner violence.
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Her release came a month after Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board voted unanimously to recommend her 30-year sentence for commutation. Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) granted the request Thursday, ending a decade and a half of incarceration.
The case stems from a 2004 hospital visit. Tondalao Hall was 20 years old at the time, and Braxton abused her regularly — choking her, punching her and berating her with verbal attacks, according to court testimony.
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In 2006, Hall was sentenced to 30 years after pleading guilty to failing to protect the two children from abuse. Braxton pleaded guilty to the abuse itself and was released on probation after spending two years in jail while the case was adjudicated.
Lambert said there are dozens of women locked up under the failure-to-protect law who have stories “frighteningly similar” to Hall’s — victims of abuse who are punished rather than helped. The charge is a felony that can result in the same sentence as child abuse: life in prison.
•••••
By Reis Thebault
November 8, 2019
As a teenager, Tondalao Hall survived a violent relationship — one that ended only after she was arrested and imprisoned for not reporting her boyfriend’s abuse of their children. Now, after 15 years behind bars, she is free.
Hall’s sentence, issued under Oklahoma’s controversial “failure to protect” laws, was far harsher than the one given to her boyfriend, Robert Braxton Jr., who abused Hall and her children. He served two years in jail. The disparity has been seen as an example of the criminal justice system bungling cases of intimate-partner violence.
•••••
Her release came a month after Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board voted unanimously to recommend her 30-year sentence for commutation. Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) granted the request Thursday, ending a decade and a half of incarceration.
The case stems from a 2004 hospital visit. Tondalao Hall was 20 years old at the time, and Braxton abused her regularly — choking her, punching her and berating her with verbal attacks, according to court testimony.
•••••
In 2006, Hall was sentenced to 30 years after pleading guilty to failing to protect the two children from abuse. Braxton pleaded guilty to the abuse itself and was released on probation after spending two years in jail while the case was adjudicated.
Lambert said there are dozens of women locked up under the failure-to-protect law who have stories “frighteningly similar” to Hall’s — victims of abuse who are punished rather than helped. The charge is a felony that can result in the same sentence as child abuse: life in prison.
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Microsoft four-day work week boosts productivity
By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News
4 November 2019
Microsoft Japan said sales had been boosted by nearly 40% during an experiment in which staff worked a four-day week on full pay.
Offices were closed on every Friday of August 2019 and full-time staff were given "special leave", which was paid.
Meetings were restricted to a maximum of 30 minutes and online discussions were encouraged as an alternative to face-to-face.
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Thursday, November 14, 2019
Yellow lens glasses worsen drivers' night vision
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-driving-night/yellow-lens-glasses-dont-improve-drivers-night-vision-idUSKCN1US2HP
Linda Carroll
August 2, 2019
Touted to improve nighttime eyesight, yellow lens glasses don’t help drivers see better and may, in fact, worsen vision, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that yellow-lens wearing volunteers operating a driving simulator were no better at spotting a pedestrian when confronting oncoming headlights than those who wore clear lenses, according to the study published in JAMA Ophthalmology. And there was a suggestion that the yellow tinted lenses might even be making the situation worse.
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“Wearing (tinted) glasses, whether they are yellow, red or blue, cuts out a chunk of light. Which means this is the same as wearing sunglasses while driving at night.”
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Linda Carroll
August 2, 2019
Touted to improve nighttime eyesight, yellow lens glasses don’t help drivers see better and may, in fact, worsen vision, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that yellow-lens wearing volunteers operating a driving simulator were no better at spotting a pedestrian when confronting oncoming headlights than those who wore clear lenses, according to the study published in JAMA Ophthalmology. And there was a suggestion that the yellow tinted lenses might even be making the situation worse.
•••••
“Wearing (tinted) glasses, whether they are yellow, red or blue, cuts out a chunk of light. Which means this is the same as wearing sunglasses while driving at night.”
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Most students who committed deadly school attacks over the past decade were badly bullied
https://apnews.com/a592850f54634daea31be69defec841e
By COLLEEN LONGNovember 7, 2019
Most students who committed deadly school attacks over the past decade were badly bullied, had a history of disciplinary trouble and their behavior concerned others but was never reported, according to a U.S. Secret Service study released Thursday.
•••••
Most attackers were male; seven were female. Researchers said 63% of the attackers were white, 15% were black, 5% Hispanic, 2% were American Indian or Alaska Native, 10% were of two or more races, and 5% were undetermined.
The weapons used were mostly guns, but knives were used, as well. One attacker used a World War II-era bayonet. Most of the weapons came from the attackers’ homes, the investigators reported.
•••••
There’s no clear profile of a school attacker, but some details stand out: Many were absent from school before the attack, often through a school suspension; they were treated poorly by their peers in person, not just online; they felt mistreated; some sought fame, while others were suicidal. They fixated on violence and watched it online, played games featuring it or read about it in books.
•••••
By COLLEEN LONGNovember 7, 2019
Most students who committed deadly school attacks over the past decade were badly bullied, had a history of disciplinary trouble and their behavior concerned others but was never reported, according to a U.S. Secret Service study released Thursday.
•••••
Most attackers were male; seven were female. Researchers said 63% of the attackers were white, 15% were black, 5% Hispanic, 2% were American Indian or Alaska Native, 10% were of two or more races, and 5% were undetermined.
The weapons used were mostly guns, but knives were used, as well. One attacker used a World War II-era bayonet. Most of the weapons came from the attackers’ homes, the investigators reported.
•••••
There’s no clear profile of a school attacker, but some details stand out: Many were absent from school before the attack, often through a school suspension; they were treated poorly by their peers in person, not just online; they felt mistreated; some sought fame, while others were suicidal. They fixated on violence and watched it online, played games featuring it or read about it in books.
•••••
A scathing new Pentagon report blames Trump for the return of ISIS in Syria and Iraq
https://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-blames-trump-for-return-of-isis-syria-and-iraq-2019-8?fbclid=IwAR2jqmOaePuHdgcmE8USlX0ONSjQRl0tRfQLF6ef8iCfqnrVXwtH3D7ND9s
Ellen Ioanes
Aug 8, 2019, 2:23 PM
A report from the Pentagon inspector general found that President Donald Trump's decision to rapidly pull troops out of Syria and divert attention from diplomacy in Iraq has inadvertently aided the Islamic State's regrouping in Syria and Iraq.
•••••
Ellen Ioanes
Aug 8, 2019, 2:23 PM
A report from the Pentagon inspector general found that President Donald Trump's decision to rapidly pull troops out of Syria and divert attention from diplomacy in Iraq has inadvertently aided the Islamic State's regrouping in Syria and Iraq.
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Who Pays - State and Local Taxation?
https://itep.org/whopays/#mostregressive
Easy to see why Trump is trying to move tax home from New York to Florida. Florida state and local taxes are extremely regressive, the richer you are the smaller percentage of income you pay in taxes.
The following link ranks the states from least equitable to more equitable, and provides details for each state.
Forty-five states have regressive tax systems that exacerbate income inequality. When tax systems rely on the lowest-income earners to pay the greatest proportion of their income in state and local taxes, gaps between the most affluent and the rest of us continue to grow.
The ITEP Tax Inequality Index measures the effects of each state’s tax system on income inequality by assessing the comparative impact a state’s tax system has on the post-tax incomes of taxpayers at different income levels.
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ITEP Tax Inequality Index
States in order of rank from least equitable to more equitable
1 Washington 14 Louisiana 27 Georgia 40 Utah
2 Texas 15 Hawaii 28 Missouri 41 Oregon
3 Florida 16 New Hampshire 29 Connecticut 42 Maryland
4 South Dakota 17 North Dakota 30 Massachusetts 43 Montana
5 Nevada 18 Alabama 31 North Carolina 44 New York
6 Tennessee 19 New Mexico 32 Rhode Island 45 Maine
7 Pennsylvania 20 Arkansas 33 Virginia 46 New Jersey
8 Illinois 21 Iowa 34 Wisconsin 47 Minnesota
9 Oklahoma 22 Michigan 35 Colorado 48 Delaware
10 Wyoming 23 Kansas 36 Nebraska 49 Vermont
11 Arizona 24 Mississippi 37 West Virginia 50 District of Columbia
12 Indiana 25 Kentucky 38 Idaho 51 California
13 Ohio 26 Alaska 39 South Carolina
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Link for New York state and local taxes per income group
https://itep.org/whopays/new-york/
•••••
Link for Florida state and local taxes per income group
https://itep.org/whopays/florida/
Eg., lowest 20% in income pay 12.7% of income in taxes
top 1% pay 2.3% in income
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Climate change will affect “every single stage” of a child’s life, health researchers warn
https://www.vox.com/2019/11/13/20963481/climate-change-kids-health-asthma-air-pollution
By Umair Irfan Nov 13, 2019, 6:30pm EST
Climate change is already impacting the health of millions around the world, from expanding the range of disease-carrying mosquitoes to worsening chronic kidney disease to increasing the frequency of deadly heat waves.
But the worst effects will fall to the youngest, and most dire for them lie ahead. That’s the conclusion of a major report published by the British medical journal The Lancet on Wednesday.
•••••
As children, this next generation faces growing risks from climate-related hazards like less nutritious crops and spreading diarrheal disease. As these children grow up, they will encounter air pollution exacerbated by burning fossil fuels. When they enter the workforce, they may struggle to earn money as rising average temperatures make it more difficult to work outdoors. And their lives and livelihoods could be disrupted by extreme weather becoming more severe.
•••••
At the moment, some of the most severe climate change health effects are on the elderly.
•••••
“The incidence of asthma for instance, we see it is directly related to the environment that the child is in among other variables as well,” said Richard Carmona, a report author who served as surgeon general in the George W. Bush administration.
•••••
However, the report also shows that there is still time to act to avert some of the most severe health consequences of climate change. Limiting warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius, the goal of the Paris climate agreement, would require coordinated global action that would have immense benefits for health, particularly for young people.
•••••
By Umair Irfan Nov 13, 2019, 6:30pm EST
Climate change is already impacting the health of millions around the world, from expanding the range of disease-carrying mosquitoes to worsening chronic kidney disease to increasing the frequency of deadly heat waves.
But the worst effects will fall to the youngest, and most dire for them lie ahead. That’s the conclusion of a major report published by the British medical journal The Lancet on Wednesday.
•••••
As children, this next generation faces growing risks from climate-related hazards like less nutritious crops and spreading diarrheal disease. As these children grow up, they will encounter air pollution exacerbated by burning fossil fuels. When they enter the workforce, they may struggle to earn money as rising average temperatures make it more difficult to work outdoors. And their lives and livelihoods could be disrupted by extreme weather becoming more severe.
•••••
At the moment, some of the most severe climate change health effects are on the elderly.
•••••
“The incidence of asthma for instance, we see it is directly related to the environment that the child is in among other variables as well,” said Richard Carmona, a report author who served as surgeon general in the George W. Bush administration.
•••••
However, the report also shows that there is still time to act to avert some of the most severe health consequences of climate change. Limiting warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius, the goal of the Paris climate agreement, would require coordinated global action that would have immense benefits for health, particularly for young people.
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Former Australian fire chiefs say Coalition ignored their advice because of climate change politics
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/14/former-australian-fire-chiefs-say-coalition-doesnt-like-talking-about-climate-change
Naaman Zhou
Thu 14 Nov 2019 04.11 GMT
First published on Thu 14 Nov 2019 03.21 GMT
A coalition of former fire chiefs have said the government “fundamentally doesn’t like talking about climate change” and that politics is the reason the government was ignoring their advice.
Former heads of the New South Wales, Queensland, Victorian and Tasmanian fire services met in Sydney on Thursday after fires that killed four people tore through the the Australian east coast this week.
They said the climate crisis was making bushfires deadlier and bushfire season longer, and the federal government needed to act immediately.
“Just a 1C temperature rise has meant the extremes are far more extreme, and it is placing lives at risk, including firefighters,” said Greg Mullins, the former chief of NSW Fire and Rescue. “Climate change has supercharged the bushfire problem.”
NSW and Qld fires: teenager accused of lighting destructive bushfire near Yeppoon
Read more
“Bushfires are a symptom of climate change,” said Neil Bibby, the former chief executive of Victoria’s Country Fire Authority.
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Mullins said he and 23 other fire and emergency chiefs had been trying to have a meeting with the prime minister, Scott Morrison, since April because they “knew that a bushfire crisis was coming”.
Instead, he said current fire chiefs had been locked out of discussions and were “not allowed” to mention climate change.
•••••
“None of us can understand why climate change in Australia is so political,” he said. “In the UK, the conservatives, Margaret Thatcher, said years ago this is a major problem.”
Naaman Zhou
Thu 14 Nov 2019 04.11 GMT
First published on Thu 14 Nov 2019 03.21 GMT
A coalition of former fire chiefs have said the government “fundamentally doesn’t like talking about climate change” and that politics is the reason the government was ignoring their advice.
Former heads of the New South Wales, Queensland, Victorian and Tasmanian fire services met in Sydney on Thursday after fires that killed four people tore through the the Australian east coast this week.
They said the climate crisis was making bushfires deadlier and bushfire season longer, and the federal government needed to act immediately.
“Just a 1C temperature rise has meant the extremes are far more extreme, and it is placing lives at risk, including firefighters,” said Greg Mullins, the former chief of NSW Fire and Rescue. “Climate change has supercharged the bushfire problem.”
NSW and Qld fires: teenager accused of lighting destructive bushfire near Yeppoon
Read more
“Bushfires are a symptom of climate change,” said Neil Bibby, the former chief executive of Victoria’s Country Fire Authority.
•••••
Mullins said he and 23 other fire and emergency chiefs had been trying to have a meeting with the prime minister, Scott Morrison, since April because they “knew that a bushfire crisis was coming”.
Instead, he said current fire chiefs had been locked out of discussions and were “not allowed” to mention climate change.
•••••
“None of us can understand why climate change in Australia is so political,” he said. “In the UK, the conservatives, Margaret Thatcher, said years ago this is a major problem.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/13/air-pollution-particles-linked-to-brain-cancer-in-new-research
It may be a small risk, but we are exposed to thousands of chemicals, and I expect the total effect is not small.
Damian Carrington Environment editor
Wed 13 Nov 2019 05.57 EST
New research has linked air pollution nanoparticles to brain cancer for the first time.
The ultra-fine particles (UFPs) are produced by fuel burning, particularly in diesel vehicles, and higher exposures significantly increase people’s chances of getting the deadly cancer. Previous work has shown that nanoparticles can get into the brain and that they can carry carcinogenic chemicals.
Brain cancers are rare, and the scientists have calculated that an increase in pollution exposure roughly equivalent to moving from a quiet city street to a busy one leads to one extra case of brain cancer for every 100,000 people exposed.
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“Environmental risks like air pollution are not large in magnitude – their importance comes because everyone in the population is exposed,” said Scott Weichenthal, at McGill University in Canada, who led the study. “So when you multiply these small risks by lots of people, all of sudden there can be lots of cases. In a large city, it could be a meaningful number, particularly given the fact that these tumours are often fatal.”
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Toxic air has been linked to other effects on the brain, including huge reductions in intelligence, dementia and mental health problems in both adults and children. The World Health Organization says air pollution is a “silent public health emergency”.
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A troubling new study shows that legalizing marijuana is linked with an increase in problematic pot use among teens
https://news.yahoo.com/troubling-study-shows-legalizing-marijuana-160000871.html
Jeremy Berke
,Business Insider•November 13, 2019
A new study found that problematic marijuana use increased by 25% among teens in states with legal pot shops.
Adults over the age of 26 also reported increased marijuana use. The study looked at survey data for about 500,000 people.
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The study shows that among teens aged 12 to 17, problematic marijuana use was 25% higher when states legalized marijuana. The researchers note that the increase was small, from 2.18% to 2.72%. Among adults 26 and older, cannabis use disorder increased from 0.9% to 1.23%.
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Problematic cannabis use is associated with negative health effects, including increased anxiety, lower educational attainment, unemployment, cognitive decline, and potentially a decline in socio-economic class, according to the study's authors.
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tags: drug use, drug abuse
Jeremy Berke
,Business Insider•November 13, 2019
A new study found that problematic marijuana use increased by 25% among teens in states with legal pot shops.
Adults over the age of 26 also reported increased marijuana use. The study looked at survey data for about 500,000 people.
•••••
The study shows that among teens aged 12 to 17, problematic marijuana use was 25% higher when states legalized marijuana. The researchers note that the increase was small, from 2.18% to 2.72%. Among adults 26 and older, cannabis use disorder increased from 0.9% to 1.23%.
•••••
Problematic cannabis use is associated with negative health effects, including increased anxiety, lower educational attainment, unemployment, cognitive decline, and potentially a decline in socio-economic class, according to the study's authors.
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tags: drug use, drug abuse
The US Navy canceled a routine Black Sea patrol after Trump complained that it was hostile to Russia
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-canceled-patrol-trump-said-it-was-hostile-russia-2019-11
Ellen Ioanes
Nov. 13, 2019
Christopher Anderson, an aide to former Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, testified that the White House canceled a Navy freedom-of-navigation operation in the Black Sea after President Donald Trump complained to then-national security adviser John Bolton about a CNN report that framed the operation as a counter to Russia, Politico reported.
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that operation, was canceled, but then we were able to get a second one for later in February.
•••••
Ellen Ioanes
Nov. 13, 2019
Christopher Anderson, an aide to former Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, testified that the White House canceled a Navy freedom-of-navigation operation in the Black Sea after President Donald Trump complained to then-national security adviser John Bolton about a CNN report that framed the operation as a counter to Russia, Politico reported.
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that operation, was canceled, but then we were able to get a second one for later in February.
•••••
Venice floods: Climate change behind highest tide in 50 years, says mayor
13 November 2019
Severe flooding in Venice that has left much of the Italian city under water is a direct result of climate change, the mayor says.
The highest water levels in the region in more than 50 years would leave "a permanent mark", Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted.
"Now the government must listen," he added. "These are the effects of climate change... the costs will be high."
•••••
St Mark's Basilica was flooded for the sixth time in 1,200 years, according to church records. Pierpaolo Campostrini, a member of St Mark's council, said four of those floods had now occurred within the past 20 years.
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Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Climate change: do more now or risk catastrophe, warns energy agency
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/13/climate-change-do-more-now-or-risk-catastrophe-warns-energy-agency
Jillian Ambrose
Tue 12 Nov 2019 19.01 EST
The world’s existing climate policies will not be enough to end the upward march of record energy emissions rising beyond 2040 without a “grand coalition” of governments and investors, according to the global energy watchdog.
The International Energy Agency said carbon emissions from the global energy industry reached a new record in 2018 despite progress in renewable energy in recent years.
The IEA expects the growth of renewables to accelerate over the coming decades, but warned it would not be enough to put a ceiling on the energy sector’s emissions before 2040.
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Energy efficiency is one of the most important levers for policymakers to help reduce carbon emissions across the economy, according to the IEA’s report, yet efforts to cut energy waste have fallen to record lows even as the climate crisis has climbed the political agenda.
•••••
Jillian Ambrose
Tue 12 Nov 2019 19.01 EST
The world’s existing climate policies will not be enough to end the upward march of record energy emissions rising beyond 2040 without a “grand coalition” of governments and investors, according to the global energy watchdog.
The International Energy Agency said carbon emissions from the global energy industry reached a new record in 2018 despite progress in renewable energy in recent years.
The IEA expects the growth of renewables to accelerate over the coming decades, but warned it would not be enough to put a ceiling on the energy sector’s emissions before 2040.
•••••
Energy efficiency is one of the most important levers for policymakers to help reduce carbon emissions across the economy, according to the IEA’s report, yet efforts to cut energy waste have fallen to record lows even as the climate crisis has climbed the political agenda.
•••••
Free speech rights a concern in Wisconsin water resolution
https://www.kansascity.com/news/business/national-international/article237285124.html
The Associated Press
November 12, 2019 01:10 PM,
A southwestern Wisconsin county council on Tuesday dropped a proposal to prosecute journalists over their reporting on a water quality study but could still decide to discipline any county officials who talk about the research without government approval.
The Lafayette County Land Conservation Committee drafted a resolution last week that warned journalists against reporting on the well contamination study without running an official news release verbatim. Media law experts warned that the proposal was unconstitutional.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the committee removed that from the resolution Tuesday.
Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/business/national-international/article237285124.html#storylink=cpy
•••••
The Associated Press
November 12, 2019 01:10 PM,
A southwestern Wisconsin county council on Tuesday dropped a proposal to prosecute journalists over their reporting on a water quality study but could still decide to discipline any county officials who talk about the research without government approval.
The Lafayette County Land Conservation Committee drafted a resolution last week that warned journalists against reporting on the well contamination study without running an official news release verbatim. Media law experts warned that the proposal was unconstitutional.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the committee removed that from the resolution Tuesday.
Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/business/national-international/article237285124.html#storylink=cpy
•••••
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
If the US military is facing up to the climate crisis, shouldn't we all?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/12/us-military-pentagon-climate-crisis-breakdown-
Michael Klare
Tue 12 Nov 2019 08.12 EST
Last modified on Tue 12 Nov 2019 10.17 EST
•••••
Military leaders have not said much in public about global warming, in part because they’re reluctant to become involved in partisan political issues (as climate has become) and partly because top government officials—in the United States, at least—have actively discouraged such involvement. Nevertheless, senior officers are fully aware of warming’s deleterious effects and have devised a thorough analysis of its strategic implications. As I demonstrate in my new book, All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change, senior American officers believe that global warming is already threatening the survival of many poor, resource-deprived countries and poses a significant risk to even the wealthiest of nations.
•••••
In this, and other Pentagon documents, senior officials have identified three main pathways by which climate change is likely to endanger American security: by increasing the level of conflict and chaos abroad; by exposing the homeland to ever more destructive climate effects; and by obstructing the military’s capacity to carry out its assigned missions.
•••••
Michael Klare
Tue 12 Nov 2019 08.12 EST
Last modified on Tue 12 Nov 2019 10.17 EST
•••••
Military leaders have not said much in public about global warming, in part because they’re reluctant to become involved in partisan political issues (as climate has become) and partly because top government officials—in the United States, at least—have actively discouraged such involvement. Nevertheless, senior officers are fully aware of warming’s deleterious effects and have devised a thorough analysis of its strategic implications. As I demonstrate in my new book, All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change, senior American officers believe that global warming is already threatening the survival of many poor, resource-deprived countries and poses a significant risk to even the wealthiest of nations.
•••••
In this, and other Pentagon documents, senior officials have identified three main pathways by which climate change is likely to endanger American security: by increasing the level of conflict and chaos abroad; by exposing the homeland to ever more destructive climate effects; and by obstructing the military’s capacity to carry out its assigned missions.
•••••
Thursday, November 07, 2019
Pronunciation counts
I love the song "Morning Has Broken", but it jars me when the linger pronounces the first syllable of "re-creation" with a short "e", like "recreation" as in playing a game of checkers, instead of a long "e", which jars me because it feels like it trivializes the wonder of life.
A minimum-wage worker needs 2.5 full-time jobs to afford a one-bedroom apartment in most of the US
https://www.businessinsider.com/minimum-wage-worker-cant-afford-one-bedroom-rent-us-2018-6?utm_content=buffer61d86&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer-bi&fbclid=IwAR0JpzUzWva5SBnwtZ8gOUgGhZvYB8V29nkrUbNMJ6yyDov10SvtXRLOiIc
Andy Kiersz and Hillary Hoffower
Jun 14, 2018, 1:46 PM
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Only five states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington — have one-bedrooms affordable for minimum-wage workers across 22 counties.
All of these states have minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage, but if you're looking for housing outside of the 22 counties, even these higher minimum wages aren't enough.
•••••
Andy Kiersz and Hillary Hoffower
Jun 14, 2018, 1:46 PM
- Many minimum-wage workers can't even afford a modest one-bedroom apartment, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's annual report.
- The national housing wage for a modest one-bedroom apartment is $17.90, while the federal minimum wage is $7.25.
- A low-income worker earning the federal minimum wage would need 2.5 jobs to afford a one-bedroom apartment.
•••••
Only five states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington — have one-bedrooms affordable for minimum-wage workers across 22 counties.
All of these states have minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage, but if you're looking for housing outside of the 22 counties, even these higher minimum wages aren't enough.
•••••
Medical costs in U.S. compared to Canada
https://qr.ae/TW4MZi
Question on Quora:
Why is universal healthcare praised for being cheap despite taxes for said countries being significantly higher and thus the true medical cost being either as expensive or more than the US?
Answer by Scott Young, Commissioning Specialist Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Answered Aug 28
OK, Daniel Micheals lets do a comparison. You studied in Florida but do not list your home state so we will calculate your taxes based on there. I am in Alberta. 100,000 income for both. we could complicate this, I am married, you probably are too. Maybe kids,etc. Lets keep is simple though. Straight taxes only, no deductions.
•••••
Your premise is inaccurate.
The total cost per person by country is everything that anyone spends on healthcare, government insurance, private insurance, personal outlay.
In the USA, you pay about 40% more than in Canada. Why?
1. None of the government insurance systems has to make a profit. Your health insurance premiums have about 15% pulled right off the top for profit before you see one penny’s worth of medical treatment.
2. Your health insurance company has a bunch of people to check to see if you are covered. a whole department’s worth. In Canada, they check at the doctor’s office to see if you have a health card. That means that anything except for vanity cosmetic surgery is covered, every time.
3. Your health insurance company has a bunch of lawyers to fight the lawsuits when they turn you down. If they never turn you down, there are no lawsuits so no lawyers needed.
4. In Canada, there are 13 health insurance systems (provincial or territorial). In California, about the same population, there are over 50. That means that there are 4 times as many Presidents, CEOs, boards, etc.
5. Your doctor works for several health insurance systems. He has a separate billing system for each. My doctor in Illinois had three full timers and a part time billing clerk. My doctor in Edmonton has one billing system and one billing clerk who is also the receptionist.
You [in the U.S.] pay more but you end up with more children dying (High childhood mortality), more women dying (high prenatal mortality) and people just dying earlier (lower expected lifespan) than any other first world country.
Question on Quora:
Why is universal healthcare praised for being cheap despite taxes for said countries being significantly higher and thus the true medical cost being either as expensive or more than the US?
Answer by Scott Young, Commissioning Specialist Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Answered Aug 28
OK, Daniel Micheals lets do a comparison. You studied in Florida but do not list your home state so we will calculate your taxes based on there. I am in Alberta. 100,000 income for both. we could complicate this, I am married, you probably are too. Maybe kids,etc. Lets keep is simple though. Straight taxes only, no deductions.
•••••
Your premise is inaccurate.
The total cost per person by country is everything that anyone spends on healthcare, government insurance, private insurance, personal outlay.
In the USA, you pay about 40% more than in Canada. Why?
1. None of the government insurance systems has to make a profit. Your health insurance premiums have about 15% pulled right off the top for profit before you see one penny’s worth of medical treatment.
2. Your health insurance company has a bunch of people to check to see if you are covered. a whole department’s worth. In Canada, they check at the doctor’s office to see if you have a health card. That means that anything except for vanity cosmetic surgery is covered, every time.
3. Your health insurance company has a bunch of lawyers to fight the lawsuits when they turn you down. If they never turn you down, there are no lawsuits so no lawyers needed.
4. In Canada, there are 13 health insurance systems (provincial or territorial). In California, about the same population, there are over 50. That means that there are 4 times as many Presidents, CEOs, boards, etc.
5. Your doctor works for several health insurance systems. He has a separate billing system for each. My doctor in Illinois had three full timers and a part time billing clerk. My doctor in Edmonton has one billing system and one billing clerk who is also the receptionist.
You [in the U.S.] pay more but you end up with more children dying (High childhood mortality), more women dying (high prenatal mortality) and people just dying earlier (lower expected lifespan) than any other first world country.
Wednesday, November 06, 2019
Income for poorest Americans fell faster than previously thought
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/469040-income-for-poorest-americans-fell-faster-than-previously-thought-study
By Niv Elis - 11/05/19 12:52 PM EST
The poorest Americans saw their income decline 7 percent over the past 15 years, while everyone else gained financially, according to a new study.
Real income for low-income Americans fell more than 7 percent between 2004 and 2018, in part because of rising costs for items and services purchased by those Americans, according to the report published by the Groundwork Collaborative and the Center on Poverty and Social Policy (CPSP) at Columbia University.
“Given strong evidence that low-income families in America are paying higher prices and living in poverty in higher numbers than official metrics account for, this is a major problem,” said co-authors Christopher Wimer, co-director of CPSP; Sophie Collyer, a policy analyst at the center; and Xavier Jaravel, an assistant professor at the London School of Economics.
•••••
By Niv Elis - 11/05/19 12:52 PM EST
The poorest Americans saw their income decline 7 percent over the past 15 years, while everyone else gained financially, according to a new study.
Real income for low-income Americans fell more than 7 percent between 2004 and 2018, in part because of rising costs for items and services purchased by those Americans, according to the report published by the Groundwork Collaborative and the Center on Poverty and Social Policy (CPSP) at Columbia University.
“Given strong evidence that low-income families in America are paying higher prices and living in poverty in higher numbers than official metrics account for, this is a major problem,” said co-authors Christopher Wimer, co-director of CPSP; Sophie Collyer, a policy analyst at the center; and Xavier Jaravel, an assistant professor at the London School of Economics.
•••••
What the dip in US life expectancy is really about: inequality
By Julia Belluz@juliaoftorontojulia.belluz@voxmedia.com Updated Nov 30, 2018, 9:13am EST
Living in the US increasingly looks like a health risk. Average life expectancy in the country dropped for the third year in a row, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s the longest downturn since the Spanish flu wiped out more than 50 million people a century ago.
The grim trend stems from a toxic mixture of more drug- and alcohol-related deaths and more suicide in many parts of the country. And it puts Americans at a higher risk of early death compared to their counterparts in other wealthy countries.
But what’s often lost in the conversation about the uptick in mortality in the US is that this trend isn’t affecting all Americans. In fact, there’s one group in the US that’s actually doing better than ever: the rich. While poor and middle-class Americans are dying earlier, the wealthiest among us are enjoying unprecedented longevity.
So when we talk about life expectancy slipping, what we should also talk about is the growing problem of health inequality in America. And it’s an increasingly urgent discussion, health researchers are warning, because of policy changes on the horizon that are poised to make the mortality gap even wider.
Some of these policies will hamper access to medical care (such as rescinding funding for CHIP, the health insurance program for low-income children) but others that aren’t even directly related to health care, like tax cuts, may have even more insidious effects on the American mortality gap.
•••••
They also found that men who were among the top 1 percent of income earners lived 15 years longer than men at the bottom 1 percent. For women at the extremes of the income distribution, life expectancy differed by 10 years.
•••••
Right now, there are several policies that are not only expected to hamper health care access but also exacerbate income inequality — and widen the life expectancy disparity, David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund, says. Blumenthal has written about the potential effects of the tax bill President Donald Trump signed into law last December, on low- and middle-income Americans in particular, and how it’ll disproportionately ding them while rich Americans and corporations will enjoy tax breaks:
Americans earning less than $75,000 would face higher taxes on average by 2027, according to the Joint Commission on Taxation’s estimates of the bill’s distributional effects. The bill has varying effects on different income groups in different years, but consistently cuts taxes for the richest Americans. For example, individuals earning less than $10,000 would see their federal taxes go up on average by $182 each year until 2027. People earning a million dollars or more would, on average, see their taxes fall by $6,800 annually over the next decade.
•••••
If Americans are better off than a decade ago, why doesn’t it feel that way?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/05/if-americans-are-better-off-than-a-decade-ago-why-doesnt-it-feel-that-way
Jessica Goodheart
Tue 5 Nov 2019 05.00 EST
Last modified on Tue 5 Nov 2019 15.48 EST
Economic mobility is on the decline, according to a Harvard team of researchers led by economist Raj Chetty.
More than 90% of children who were born in 1940 grew up to earn more than their parents. Only 50% of children born 40 years later will go on to earn more than their parents. But the top 1% is doing better than fine: the average CEO pulled in 312 times as much as the average worker in 2017, up from 20 times as much in 1965, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The rise in economic inequality is a global phenomenon. But it is more extreme in the US, where social mobility has been shown to be lower than in other industrialized nations, and where the safety net is weaker and poverty more severe. Even though the US spends more per capita on healthcare, the system covers fewer people and produces worse outcomes, including lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality rates.
If the United States had experienced the same decline in infant deaths as have other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member states since 1960, 300,000 fewer babies would have died over the course of 50 years, according to a recent report.
•••••
Jessica Goodheart
Tue 5 Nov 2019 05.00 EST
Last modified on Tue 5 Nov 2019 15.48 EST
Economic mobility is on the decline, according to a Harvard team of researchers led by economist Raj Chetty.
More than 90% of children who were born in 1940 grew up to earn more than their parents. Only 50% of children born 40 years later will go on to earn more than their parents. But the top 1% is doing better than fine: the average CEO pulled in 312 times as much as the average worker in 2017, up from 20 times as much in 1965, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The rise in economic inequality is a global phenomenon. But it is more extreme in the US, where social mobility has been shown to be lower than in other industrialized nations, and where the safety net is weaker and poverty more severe. Even though the US spends more per capita on healthcare, the system covers fewer people and produces worse outcomes, including lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality rates.
If the United States had experienced the same decline in infant deaths as have other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member states since 1960, 300,000 fewer babies would have died over the course of 50 years, according to a recent report.
•••••
Scientists foresee 'untold suffering', another climate record falls
https://news.yahoo.com/scientists-foresee-untold-suffering-another-climate-record-falls-192240500.html
Marlowe HOOD, Elizabeth DONOVAN
,AFP•November 6, 2019
More than 11,000 scientists warned Tuesday of "untold suffering" due to global warming, even as another team said Paris carbon-cutting pledges are "too little, too late".
The European Union, meanwhile, confirmed that last month was the warmest October ever registered, fast on heels of a record September and the hottest month ever in July.
Three-quarters of national commitments under the Paris climate accord to curb greenhouse gases will not even slow the accelerating pace of global warming, according to a report from five senior scientists.
The sobering assessment came a day after President Donald Trump formally notified the United Nations of the US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris climate pact, triggering concerns of how other nations might react.
"With few exceptions, the pledges of rich, middle-income and poor nations are insufficient to address climate change," said Robert Watson, who chaired both the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UN's science body for biodiversity.
•••••
Just over half of greenhouse gas emissions from power, industry, agriculture and deforestation -- the main drivers of global warming -- came from four nations last year: China, the United States, India and Russia.
Accounting for 13.1 percent of the total, the US has turned its back on the Paris deal. [The U.S. has less than 4% of the world population, so causes much more than its share of greenhouse gas emissions. And since so many of U.S. products come from China, we are actually even more disproportionately responsible.]
•••••
At 29 percent of the global total, China alone pumps out more CO2 than the next three nations combined, though about 13 percent of those emissions are generated by exports destined for rich nations, recent research has shown.
•••••
Among major economic blocs, only the European Union, with its 28 member states, got a passing mark.
"The EU is clearly in the lead in trying to address the climate crisis," Watson said.
The emissions of the world's poorest nations have been and continue to be negligible, but steps must be taken today to shape their energy futures.
"Sooner or later, they will start to grow, and we don't want them to become dependent on cheap fossil fuel energy," Watson noted.
"They need financial and technical assistance."
•••••
Marlowe HOOD, Elizabeth DONOVAN
,AFP•November 6, 2019
More than 11,000 scientists warned Tuesday of "untold suffering" due to global warming, even as another team said Paris carbon-cutting pledges are "too little, too late".
The European Union, meanwhile, confirmed that last month was the warmest October ever registered, fast on heels of a record September and the hottest month ever in July.
Three-quarters of national commitments under the Paris climate accord to curb greenhouse gases will not even slow the accelerating pace of global warming, according to a report from five senior scientists.
The sobering assessment came a day after President Donald Trump formally notified the United Nations of the US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris climate pact, triggering concerns of how other nations might react.
"With few exceptions, the pledges of rich, middle-income and poor nations are insufficient to address climate change," said Robert Watson, who chaired both the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UN's science body for biodiversity.
•••••
Just over half of greenhouse gas emissions from power, industry, agriculture and deforestation -- the main drivers of global warming -- came from four nations last year: China, the United States, India and Russia.
Accounting for 13.1 percent of the total, the US has turned its back on the Paris deal. [The U.S. has less than 4% of the world population, so causes much more than its share of greenhouse gas emissions. And since so many of U.S. products come from China, we are actually even more disproportionately responsible.]
•••••
At 29 percent of the global total, China alone pumps out more CO2 than the next three nations combined, though about 13 percent of those emissions are generated by exports destined for rich nations, recent research has shown.
•••••
Among major economic blocs, only the European Union, with its 28 member states, got a passing mark.
"The EU is clearly in the lead in trying to address the climate crisis," Watson said.
The emissions of the world's poorest nations have been and continue to be negligible, but steps must be taken today to shape their energy futures.
"Sooner or later, they will start to grow, and we don't want them to become dependent on cheap fossil fuel energy," Watson noted.
"They need financial and technical assistance."
•••••
Tuesday, November 05, 2019
Daylight Saving Time has long-term effects on health
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/vumc-dst110419.php
News Release 4-Nov-2019
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
The annual transition to and from daylight saving time (DST) has clinical implications that last longer than the days where clocks "fall back" or "spring forward."
Over time, DST eliminates bright morning light that critically synchronizes biologic clocks, which can be associated with increased risk of heart attack and ischemic stroke, as well as other negative effects of partial sleep deprivation.
Average sleep duration shrinks by 15 to 20 minutes for adults during DST transitions, which may also increase the risk of fatal accidents.
•••••
"It's not one hour twice a year. It's a misalignment of our biologic clocks for eight months of the year. When we talk about DST and the relationship to light, we are talking about profound impacts on the biological clock, which is a structure rooted in the brain. It impacts brain functions such as energy levels and alertness," she said.
•••••
While the sleep and circadian communities believe returning to standard time may be more biologically appropriate, gaining political buy-in for a nationwide change remains a challenge. State legislation is "all over the map," with some states considering a return to standard time and others in favor of permanent DST. Tennessee has passed legislation supporting permanent DST, although such a change would require action from the U.S. Congress.
News Release 4-Nov-2019
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
The annual transition to and from daylight saving time (DST) has clinical implications that last longer than the days where clocks "fall back" or "spring forward."
Over time, DST eliminates bright morning light that critically synchronizes biologic clocks, which can be associated with increased risk of heart attack and ischemic stroke, as well as other negative effects of partial sleep deprivation.
Average sleep duration shrinks by 15 to 20 minutes for adults during DST transitions, which may also increase the risk of fatal accidents.
•••••
"It's not one hour twice a year. It's a misalignment of our biologic clocks for eight months of the year. When we talk about DST and the relationship to light, we are talking about profound impacts on the biological clock, which is a structure rooted in the brain. It impacts brain functions such as energy levels and alertness," she said.
•••••
While the sleep and circadian communities believe returning to standard time may be more biologically appropriate, gaining political buy-in for a nationwide change remains a challenge. State legislation is "all over the map," with some states considering a return to standard time and others in favor of permanent DST. Tennessee has passed legislation supporting permanent DST, although such a change would require action from the U.S. Congress.
Seriously ill Medicare beneficiaries can face considerable financial hardship
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-11/htcs-ssi110119.php
News Release 4-Nov-2019
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Despite high beneficiary satisfaction with Medicare overall, a new national survey led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Business School, and colleagues finds that its coverage gaps may cause considerable financial distress for the most seriously ill patients. About half reported a significant problem paying medical bills, with prescription drugs posing the most hardship.
•••••
Among the respondents, 53% reported having a serious problem paying a medical bill of any kind, with 30% reporting difficulty paying for prescription drugs, followed by hospital bills (25%). Beneficiaries also reported experiencing financial hardships due to the costs of their illness, including using up all or most of their savings (36%) and being unable to pay for necessities such as food, heat, and housing (23%). Emotional or psychological distress was reported by 45% of respondents.
•••••
News Release 4-Nov-2019
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Despite high beneficiary satisfaction with Medicare overall, a new national survey led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Business School, and colleagues finds that its coverage gaps may cause considerable financial distress for the most seriously ill patients. About half reported a significant problem paying medical bills, with prescription drugs posing the most hardship.
•••••
Among the respondents, 53% reported having a serious problem paying a medical bill of any kind, with 30% reporting difficulty paying for prescription drugs, followed by hospital bills (25%). Beneficiaries also reported experiencing financial hardships due to the costs of their illness, including using up all or most of their savings (36%) and being unable to pay for necessities such as food, heat, and housing (23%). Emotional or psychological distress was reported by 45% of respondents.
•••••
Sunday, November 03, 2019
Want to Raise Successful Boys? Science Says Do This (but Their Schools Probably Won’t)
Inc. | Bill Murphy Jr.
•••••
Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland recently tried to document whether boys actually achieve less in school when they're restricted from running around and being physically active.
They studied 153 kids, aged 6 to 8, and tracked how much physical activity and sedentary time they had during the day. Sure enough, according to a report by Belinda Luscombe in Time, the less "moderate to vigorous physical activity" the boys had each day, the harder it was for them to develop good reading skills:
The more time kids ... spent sitting and the less time they spent being physically active, the fewer gains they made in reading in the two following years. [It] also had a negative impact on their ability to do math.
The results didn't apply to girls. I know that sounds sexist; the researchers offered a few possible explanations. Maybe there simply are physiological differences—or maybe the girls were just as eager to move around as the boys, but they were better able to set aside that disappointment and concentrate.
•••••
The IRS Tried to Hide Emails That Show Tax Industry Influence Over Free File Program
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-irs-tried-to-hide-emails-that-show-tax-industry-influence-over-free-file-program?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Please consider donating to ProPublica
Remember that most taxpayers can have their taxes prepared and filed for free by Tax-Aide
by Justin Elliott and Paul Kiel Oct. 29, 5 a.m. EDT
For a decade and a half, the IRS program to allow most Americans to file their taxes for free has been floundering.
Now, IRS emails obtained by ProPublica help show why: The agency has allowed the tax preparation industry to write the rules.
The IRS tried to hide the documents from public view, initially withholding more than 100 pages of emails between agency officials and industry representatives in response to ProPublica’s Freedom of Information Act request filed in April. The agency released the emails this month only after ProPublica sued.
•••••
Saturday, November 02, 2019
One in 5 children live below the poverty line
https://news.yahoo.com/1-5-children-live-below-184447258.html
Mack DeGeurin
,INSIDER•November 1, 2019
One in five American children live below the poverty line, and over 2.9 million students live in households where they are unsure when they might get their next meal.
Around 30 million students around the country qualify for free or reduced cost school lunches through a federal program called the National School Lunch Program.
A New York Times report released in July shows how a new rule being proposed by the Department of Agriculture to restrict access to food stamps (one qualifier for free school lunches) could kick more than 500,000 students off their lunch plan.
States with the most students eligible for federally subsidized free lunches also tend to have the most cases of child poverty, INSIDER found.
INSIDER reviewed federal data to find out how dependent on free lunches students were in every US state, and the top 10 most dependent were all based in the South.
•••••
Mack DeGeurin
,INSIDER•November 1, 2019
One in five American children live below the poverty line, and over 2.9 million students live in households where they are unsure when they might get their next meal.
Around 30 million students around the country qualify for free or reduced cost school lunches through a federal program called the National School Lunch Program.
A New York Times report released in July shows how a new rule being proposed by the Department of Agriculture to restrict access to food stamps (one qualifier for free school lunches) could kick more than 500,000 students off their lunch plan.
States with the most students eligible for federally subsidized free lunches also tend to have the most cases of child poverty, INSIDER found.
INSIDER reviewed federal data to find out how dependent on free lunches students were in every US state, and the top 10 most dependent were all based in the South.
•••••
Friday, November 01, 2019
Screaming Into The Void: How Outrage Is Hijacking Our Culture, And Our Minds
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/04/767186846/screaming-into-the-void-how-outrage-is-hijacking-our-culture-and-our-minds
October 7, 20194:58 PM ET
This week on Hidden Brain, we explore how the satisfactions of outrage affect our politics, our communities, and our minds.
Additional Resources:
"Moral outrage in the digital age," by Molly Crockett, 2017.
"The Value of Vengeance and the Demand for Deterrence," by Molly Crocket, Yagiz Özdemir, and Ernst Fehr, 2014.
"Attentional capture helps explain why moral and emotional content go viral," by William Brady, Ana Gantman & Jay Van Bavel, 2019.
•••••
[A soundbite of the show, with transcript is at the following link]
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/09/768489375/how-outrage-is-hijacking-our-culture-and-our-minds
October 9, 20195:03 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
SHANKAR VEDANTAM: There's a reason there is so much outrage out there. It's a very effective way to get your attention. At New York University, psychologist Jay Van Bavel and his team have analyzed more than half a million tweets, specifically those that used moral and emotional language.
•••••
VEDANTAM: Van Bavel found lots of words generate outrage. Profanities are on the list; so are hate, war and greed.
BAVEL: For every moral, emotional word that people use in a tweet, we found that it increased the rate of retweeting from other people who saw it by 15 to 20%.
•••••
VEDANTAM: That's because even as outrage is effective at capturing attention, its audience is mostly people who share the same beliefs. The people who disagree are listening to rants in their own echo chambers. Brady and Van Bavel find that messages presented with less outrage are more likely to spark conversations with opponents. Those are the people, after all, whose views we want to change.
•••••
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0213-3.epdf?referrer_access_token=1bZ8FDe83jvruB0KRg35UtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NeX9lcnqMb85KhxxCNXPvc3muBuVDrhXMSIybVagaOoafpPsDkIt-HwDq-vlKJO9XHhsYAleyMsSSJQI81mZ2K0bh2ueqUf7sBbg4H6i6ZjnbVqq8emQgO9yTAjncBDJby4ba4eLeNIgCHeJi110Cnj9VOMPESrOdHaRE60raVa6wkESzeD8JN_4nrteCMIaLznsZH4RiNW9RVdf3xQKDWwPjX5OZf2muE3yZIQ67Or0uBJjPZgsqHSkM_4rqMbpdPz_E9OKM8eyVJvA2tetTn3MmmdmehHsDFPAYQDHBQoA%3D%3D&tracking_referrer=seamus.npr.org
•••••
expressing outrage online may result in less meaningful involvement in social causes, for example through volunteering or donations. People are less likely to spend money on punishing unfairness when they are given the opportunity to express their outrage via written messages instead10.
•••••
there is a serious risk that moral outrage in the digital age will deepen social divides. A recent study suggests a desire to punish others makes them seem less human2. Thus, if digital media exacerbates moral outrage, in doing so it may increase social polarization by further dehumanizing the targets of outrage.
•••••
Fishery collapse ‘confirms Silent Spring pesticide prophecy'
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/31/fishery-collapse-confirms-silent-spring-pesticide-prophecy
Damian Carrington Environment editor
Thu 31 Oct 2019 14.00 EDT
The Silent Spring prophecy that pesticides could “still the leaping of fish” has been confirmed, according to scientists investigating the collapse of fisheries in Japan. They say similar impacts are likely to have occurred around the world.
The long-term study showed an immediate plunge in insect and plankton numbers in a large lake after the introduction of neonicotinoid pesticides to rice paddies. This was rapidly followed by the collapse of smelt and eel populations, which had been stable for decades but rely on the tiny creatures for food.
•••••
Damian Carrington Environment editor
Thu 31 Oct 2019 14.00 EDT
The Silent Spring prophecy that pesticides could “still the leaping of fish” has been confirmed, according to scientists investigating the collapse of fisheries in Japan. They say similar impacts are likely to have occurred around the world.
The long-term study showed an immediate plunge in insect and plankton numbers in a large lake after the introduction of neonicotinoid pesticides to rice paddies. This was rapidly followed by the collapse of smelt and eel populations, which had been stable for decades but rely on the tiny creatures for food.
•••••
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