Find out what's going on in our area and around the World from an
"energy" perspective!
Do give a charitable, tax deductible donation please
go to:
Donation Page
YOU CAN HAVE THE
ENERGY
NEWS DELIVERED TO
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!! EXPECT DELIVERY AT LEAST ONCE WEEKLY - MORE OFTEN
AS NEWS CONTENT DEMANDS.
If you'd like an email on your inbox every week on matters of ENERGY,
email us at:
subscribe@arizonaenergy.org making sure your email address is the
one you'd want your delivery to. Of course, there is NO CHARGE for
this service. AND WE NEVER USE PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR ANY THING OTHER
THAN TO DELIVER YOU YOUR NEWS!!
February
-
Please scroll to bottom for previous
months or years.
Footnote: We always attempt
to get the news to you AND obey copyright laws. We apologize
if, in our haste to get the news out, we miss a notice that it
was copyright protected. We are a non-profit foundation
therefore we do not reprint for profit. Our sole motivation is
to keep our public informed. If you have an article reprinted
here and desire us to eliminate it, just let us know and we will
immediately delete it, without question, with apologies.
arizonaenergy on copyright lawFAIR USE NOTICE
ALSO, SEE BELOW FOR SPECIFIC QUOTE FROM COPYRIGHT LAW.
This year, more so than
usual, hunger is stalking
Africa. The United Nations
has declared a famine in
parts of South Sudan and
food insecurity is affecting
tens of millions in nearly
every geographic region of
the continent.
The causes vary, as do
the proposed solutions. But,
experts say the worst crises
are being fueled by war.
The British Antarctic Survey
released a 70-second video
of the “fast-moving” crack
in the Larsen C ice shelf on
Tuesday and warned that an
iceberg larger than 5,000
square kilometers (1,930
square miles) — bigger than
Rhode Island and roughly the
size of Trinidad — is likely
to break off.
The court stated that 81
weapons, as well as
semi-automatics that use
detachable magazines, and
can sport two or more
features such as a flash
suppressor, or a folding
stock as “dangerous and
unusual” and being
“exceptionally lethal
weapons of war,” by majority
opinion writer Judge Robert
B. King.
Drawing on long-term data on
mortality and longevity,
researchers from the
Imperial College London and
the World Health
Organization (WHO) have
predicted the average life
expectancies for people in
35 countries born in 2030.
Residents of every country
in the study can expect to
live longer, with South
Korean women topping the
list at 90 years – but it's
not such great news for the
US.
The proposal, a border
adjustment tax, would remove
companies' ability to deduct
import costs, including on
raw materials, as regular
business expenses. In turn,
exports and other foreign
sales wouldn't count as
income, meaning the U.S.
would stop taxing companies'
foreign revenue and profits.
Such a system could benefit
companies that export fuel
products or sell domestic
crude, because it would make
imported crude more
expensive. It could hurt
those companies that must
import crude from other
countries.
Larger than London or Paris
in its time, what is now
America’s heartland had a
magnificent city between
1030 and 1200 CE. Now known
as Cahokia, the city
occupied the wide floodplain
where the Missouri and
Mississippi Rivers meet,
near present-day St. Louis.
The state of California has
submitted a bill that would
mandate the installation of
solar power on all new
buildings. Current law only
mandates new buildings to be
“solar ready” meaning, that
there has to be at least
15 % of the roof’s area free
of shades. However, at the
moment the bill is in the
early stage and a lot is
still to be figured out.
Crude futures were little
changed Monday with
front-month contracts unable
to hold onto intraday highs
that were near the top end
of recent ranges where
prices have been hovering.
NYMEX April crude
settled 6 cents higher at
$54.05/b, off an intraday
high of $54.61/b. ICE April
Brent settled 6 cents lower
at $55.93/b after having
traded as high as $56.77/b.
Society is at risk from
hackers attempting to
interfere in elections,
argues NATO's Jamie Shea.
The hacking campaign around
the US presidential
election, cyberattacks
against Ukrain's power grid,
and even the internet
crippling Mirai botnet DDoS
attack all demonstrate how
cyberattacks have grown to
threaten the very fabric of
society itself, NATO has
warned.
You already know that sugar
isn't the best thing for
your health, but new
research out of England
might just give you another
reason to avoid the white
stuff. Scientists there say
they've discovered a
molecular link between blood
sugar levels and an enzyme
that just might be the
tipping point in Alzheimer's
disease.
A document
distributed by the FBI to
help agents gauge the
likelihood that an
individual will carry out a
violent attack suggests that
a desire to avoid government
snooping, enjoying outdoor
activities and simply having
access to weapons are all
possible indicators of
extremism.
The secret document, a
48-item questionnaire called
“Indicators of Mobilization
to Violence,” was obtained
by reporters at The
Intercept. According to
reports, the agency has been
using it as part of its
terror investigations since
fall 2015.
An American-born citizen
was arrested Friday for
allegedly plotting an ISIS
style President’s Day attack
“ten times” worse than the
April 2013 Boston Marathon
bombing that killed three
people and injured more than
260 others.
The newly developed
fiber-reinforced hydrogel
consists of polyampholyte
gels and glass fiber
fabric...
Composite materials have
been around for millennia
and the principle is very
simple. A very soft
substance like mud can be
made strong enough to make
bricks by adding straw as a
tempering material. The same
applies to adding crushed
pottery to brick, seashells
fragments to ceramic, or
glass fiber to plastic.
The drone-defense strategy
actually follows the lead of
Dutch police, who have
taught bald eagles to
capture drones that pose a
threat to the public. That
the French have deployed the
same approach (albeit with
golden eagles) suggests that
it has some serious merit,
and the innovative way they
groomed the birds of prey is
fascinating.
It is the role of the
creative artist to reveal
what lies dormant in the
unconscious, as if conjuring
something to life out of the
void. Artists are the first
to divine the darkly moving
mysterious currents of the
collective unconscious. At
first there is only the
archetypal appearance of the
gem deep within the
collective unconscious; then
unconscious intuition...
Have you ever felt there is
a ball of words stuck in
your throat that you have to
swallow hard to keep it
down? What about those times
when you are dying to say
“no” but “yes” comes out,
and you beat yourself up
afterwards? Do you often
feel like a doormat, a
victim, or someone who has
been taken advantage of?
A Colorado judge has issued
an injunction against the
Fort Collins ordinance that
bans women from going
topless in public, saying
the rule is probably
unconstitutional.
A bystander was hailed as
hero for standing up to the
gunman...
The incident took
place at Austins Bar and
Grill in Olathe where Adam
Purinton, 51, who was said
to be drinking heavily,
allegedly began making the
comments to the two men, who
were of Indian origin.
Although important, neither
consumer electronics nor
electric vehicles are the
main forces behind the
growth in new battery
technologies—instead it’s
coming from “everything
else.”
Terrorists are "un-Islamic"
and the label "radical
Islamic terrorism" is not
helpful when describing
their activities, President
Donald Trump's new national
security adviser said this
week, showing a marked
difference from the language
the president and many of
his senior advisers often
use.
Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin said Thursday that
he wants to see "very
significant" tax reform
passed before Congress'
August recess, in what could
prove a tough task as
lawmakers work through a
complex agenda.
"We want to get this done
by the August recess. We've
been working closely with
the leadership in the House
and the Senate and we're
looking at a combined plan,"
he told CNBC in his first
television interview since
assuming office.
A thriller over current
sightings of Chinese army
automobiles patrolling
inside Afghanistan deepened
final week as Beijing denied
its troops have been in
Afghanistan however
confirmed it was endeavor
“joint counter-terrorism
operations” with Kabul.
Using just
light and tiny
nanoparticles of the
rare metal rhodium,
researchers at Duke
University have found a
way to help turn carbon
dioxide into one of the
building blocks of many
fuels. The newly
discovered chemical
reaction could use
natural sunlight to
reduce growing levels of
CO2 in the atmosphere
and lead to the
development of
alternative energies
without the creation of
unwanted byproducts like
toxic carbon monoxide.
Ultraviolet
light fuels the reaction
using the nanoparticles
of the silvery element
rhodium, which is
related to platinum.
Using light instead of
heat is not only more
efficient, but
critically it more
heavily favors the
formation of methane
over other undesirable
byproducts.
Wounded Knee is hailed as
one of AIM's greatest
successes.
This Date in Native History:
On February 27, 1973, about
250 Sioux Indians led by
members of the American
Indian Movement converged on
South Dakota’s Pine Ridge
Reservation, launching the
famous 71-day occupation of
Wounded Knee.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon
Husted (R) has announced
that his office has
conducted an exhaustive
review of the voting records
in Ohio and that 821
non-citizens were illegally
registered to vote in the
Buckeye State. However,
according to voting records,
only 126 of those
non-citizens have actually
cast a vote in the three
most recent elections,
including a total of 82 who
voted in 2016 elections in
Ohio.
For centuries, scientists
have wondered why Earth has
a magnetic field. It's still
a mystery, but by using
super-high pressures and
temperatures to duplicate
conditions at the Earth's
core, scientists at the
Earth-Life Science Institute
at the Tokyo Institute of
Technology have discovered
that there may be quartz
crystals there that help
explain how the Earth gets
the power to generate its
field.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a chance
for a C-class flares on days
one, two, and three (28 Feb,
01 Mar, 02 Mar). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (28
Feb), unsettled to minor
storm levels on day two (01
Mar) and quiet to minor
storm levels on day three
(02 Mar).
But the task ahead is a
daunting challenge, as
Republicans on Capitol Hill
are reportedly “grappling”
with what a new plan might
entail.
Michael Cannon, director
of health policy studies at
the Cato Institute, a
libertarian think tank in
Washington, D.C., told
TheBlaze during an exclusive
interview Thursday that
Republicans are not only
“grappling” with the issue,
but that they are also
“confused” about what Senate
rules will allow them to
repeal, having just a simple
majority.
Strong atmospheric
rivers can transport up to
20 times the amount of water
than flows through the
mighty Mississippi River,
writes Julia Rosen for
Science Magazine. When
the rivers make landfall,
the water vapor condenses
and unleashes a torrent of
precipitation. Rosen reports
that some places in
California have received
more than a three feet of
precipitation since the
start of the year.
Yep, that’s a can of
luncheon meat from 2001, at
5 km down on the slopes of
the Mariana Trench. A recent
submarine expedition to the
deepest reaches of the ocean
uncovered such sublime
traces of human influence as
flame retardant chemicals
and other persistent organic
pollutants (POPs), like
PCBs, Budweiser, and
low-sodium Spam. The team
published their results in
the most recent issue of
Nature Ecology and
Evolution.
In the wake of almost
monthly protests across the
nation, GOP lawmakers from
several states have passed
or drafted bills that would
criminalize or penalize what
one state is calling
“professional” agitating.
Lithium-ion batteries
like these may soon
incorporate recycled silicon
sawdust...
When individual silicon
wafers are cut from larger
sheets of silicon for use in
electronics, a lot of
sawdust is produced.
Ordinarily, that material is
simply discarded. Thanks to
research currently being
conducted by Japan's Tohoku
University and Osaka
University, however, it may
soon find its way into
high-performing lithium-ion
batteries.
In January of 2016, the
telescope set out on a
12-day mission that would
take it from McMurdo Station
to half way around the
frozen continent propelled
by the spiraling polar
vortex winds. Suspended by a
helium balloon the width of
a football field, the
telescope reached an
altitude of 126,000 ft
(38,000 m).
The gravest threat facing
us as a nation is not
extremism — delivered by way
of sovereign citizens or
radicalized Muslims — but
despotism, exercised by a
ruling class whose only
allegiance is to power and
money.
Understanding the origin,
purpose, and true nature of
the earthly reality that you
are experiencing can be
instrumental to transcending
your current level of
consciousness and moving up
to the next level of the
game. For some, especially
the unawakened, this
information might be a bit
overwhelming or hard to
believe, but it could prove
to be very important to the
future course of your life
both, during this one and
the next.
Deflation is bad for an
economy because it
undermines economic
growth...
Japan remains definitively
stuck, despite a long and
aggressive experiment with
ultralow rates. A
quarter-century after its
property bubble burst, a
penny-pinching generation
has come of age knowing only
economic malaise, stagnant
wages and deflation—a
condition where prices fall
instead of rise.
We’ve known for weeks that
Toshiba was in rough shape
and seeking to raise
additional revenue through a
potential partial sale to
Western Digital, but events
on Tuesday pushed the
company’s position from
“really bad” to “implosion
imminent.”
The White House says
President Donald Trump's
upcoming budget will propose
a whopping $54 billion
increase in defense spending
and impose corresponding
cuts to domestic programs
and foreign aid. The result
is that Trump's initial
budget wouldn't dent budget
deficits projected to run
about $500 billion.
The answer to this
question will be different
for everyone, but I think
the best way to come to your
own answer is by asking
yourself one other question:
“When I die, whenever
that may be, will I look
back in those last moments
and say to myself that I
made the most of this
experience called life?”
Hopefully the answer to
this question for you is
“yes!”
But if the answer is
“no,” I believe your
intuition (or possibly your
mom) will tell you what to
do about it.
The Air Force has
acknowledged plans for
addressing the
higher-than-normal
concentrations of
perfluorinated compounds, or
PFCs, that a base near
Colorado Springs sent into
the city’s sewer system as
frequently as three times a
year.
Meng focuses on a few issues
regarding feminine menstrual
products, and their
difficulty to access for
women such as those who are
homeless, and at least one
lawsuit in Michigan where
female prisoners in a county
jail were forced to split
five menstrual pads between
their cell mates.
The law officer
who replaced ousted Maricopa
Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio
said he will no longer hold
immigrants who have served
their time past their
release dates for
immigration officials.
Arpaio, who lost
re-election in November
while under federal
investigation has long been
a foe of undocumented
immigrants and held them
over for federal officials.
Renewable energy deployment
over the last decades has
posed unprecedented
challenges for the planning
and operation of power
systems. In the context of
increasingly decentralized
and intermittent generation,
power utilities and system
operators need to rethink
their portfolios, business
models and positions in the
market in order to be
resilient to these changes
and benefit from them.
Flight attendants say
there is a dirty secret
about the tap water on
airplanes: It’s potentially
contaminated.
“Flight attendants will
not drink hot water on the
plane. They will not drink
plain coffee, and they will
not drink plain tea," one
flight attendant told
Business Insider.
Under the Oceans Protection
Plan (OPP), the Government
of Canada is increasing the
Coast Guard's capacity to
prevent and respond to
marine emergencies and
pollution incidents by
providing new personnel,
equipment, and training.
This historic $1.5 billion
investment will make Canada
a world leader in marine
safety and helps ensure that
Canada's coasts remain
healthy, clean and safe for
generations to come.
There is a lot of
speculation surrounding the
Trump administration’s
intentions toward clean
energy and environment
policies and programs.
Rumors abound of slashing
budgets, firing personnel,
gagging anyone left standing
and ultimately dismantling
EPA and federal renewable
energy programs at the
Department of Energy and
elsewhere.
IMHO—the
fate of EPA and of various
federal climate-related
programs may well depend
upon the answer to a single
question:
The feds are definitely
aware of the problem, but
they aren’t doing a thing
about it...
Organic corn exports from
Turkey to the US
have exploded.
Compared to the same
six-month time period in
2015, the dollar value of
organic corn imports from
Turkey during the first six
months of 2016 increased by
500%. Organic soy imports
from Turkey in the same
period increased by an
astounding 3600%.
There actually is a crystal
ball that permits you to see
into the future. All you
have to do is follow the
patents. The latest patents
in any technology will show
you where that
technology—and the
businesses that use that
technology—are going. This
month, we take a look at the
future of solar panel
installation.
Forests around the world are
at risk of death due to
widespread drought,
University of Stirling
researchers have found. An
analysis, published in the
journal Ecology Letters,
suggests that forests are at
risk globally from the
increased frequency and
severity of droughts.
France’s far-right populist
presidential candidate was
seven points ahead of her
closest rivals in the first
round of the French
presidential election,
according to a new poll
released Monday. If elected,
Marine Le Pen could be a
potential ally to President
Donald Trump, British Prime
Minister Theresa May and
Russian President Vladimir
Putin.
Euro-area finance ministers
on Monday poured cold water
on a quick disbursal of new
aid payments, with Athens
and its creditors agreeing
to pick up discussions in
the coming days. Greek bonds
rallied.
A group of highly
sophisticated
state-sponsored hackers is
spying on the Israeli
military by hacking into the
personal Android phones of
individual soldiers to
monitor their activities and
steal data.
After former first lady
Michelle Obama’s “healthy”
school lunch program was
deployed several years ago,
a long list of fed-up
students posted photos of
their menu options,
declaring their meals
weren’t what you might
characterize as filling — or
appetizing:
The
Department of Homeland
Security issued a
sweeping set of orders
Tuesday that implement
President Trump's
plan to increase immigration
enforcement, placing the
vast majority of the
nation's 11 million
undocumented immigrants at
risk of deportation.
The memos instruct all
agents — including Customs
and Border Protection (CBP)
and
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) —
to identify, capture and
quickly deport
every undocumented
immigrant they encounter.
Nazi Paikidze is the
reigning U.S. chess
champion, but when the
Iranian government told her
she had to wear a hijab, the
Muslim head veil, and
restrict contact with men in
order to compete in the
world competition hosted by
Iran this year, she refused.
The “morality laws” were
supported by FIDE, the
international organization
that coordinates the world
chess championship event.
New Jersey is poised to
become the 19th state since
2013 to raised or reform its
gasoline tax if, as
expected, Republican
Governor Chris Christie
approves the just-approved
23-cent hike. More than a
dozen states have considered
similar moves over the past
few months as they scramble
to fix their crumbling
transportation
infrastructure.
More than 20 protesters
refusing to leave the Dakota
Access pipeline camp were
arrested Thursday after
defying Gov.
Doug Burgum's order
to leave.
Most of the protesters
left the encampment near
Cannon Ball, N.D., by
Wednesday’s deadline. Ten
were arrested later that day
and up to 50 remaining
demonstrators were given
until Thursday to leave.
...The point is, they never
cared about the ideas,
they cared about some of the
people who harbor
and promote those ideas. And
some of them have become so
dependent on the thinking of
others, their brains having
atrophied to such an extent,
that now they are unable or
unwilling to formulate their
own ideas on any subject
whatsoever, even if the
subject is child
molestation.
“Those are very strong
words, congresswoman,” Hayes
asked. “Who do you mean by
that when you call them
scumbags, who are you
talking about.”
All of these people
who are organized with
these oil and gas
interests that’s in the
administration and
friends of the president
of the United States,
this back-channelling
that you see. These are
all a bunch of scumbags,
that’s what they are.
“Discussions of climate
change usually are focused
on changes occurring in
polar and temperate zones,
but tropical regions also
are expected to experience
changes in regional
precipitation,” said Dr.
Kirk Winemiller, AgriLife
Research fisheries scientist
and Regents Professor in the
department of wildlife and
fisheries sciences at
College Station.
New Mexico
would join a movement to
elect U.S. presidents by
popular vote under a
bill approved by the
state Senate.
The Senate
voted Monday in favor
joining an inter-state
compact that requires
Electoral College voters
to cast ballots for the
national popular vote
winner. Democrats backed
the bill in a 26-16 vote
along party lines. The
bill now moves to the
House.
The study, published
recently in Science of the
Total Environment, showed
that wastewater releases,
including briny water that
contained petroleum and
other pollutants, altered
the diversity, numbers and
functions of microbes. The
shifts in the microbial
community indicated changes
in their respiration and
nutrient cycling, along with
signs of stress.
Oil prices ended about 1
percent higher after
touching three-week highs on
Tuesday on OPEC's optimism
for greater compliance with
its deal with other
producers including Russia
to curb output in an effort
to clear a glut that has
weighed on the market.
China’s central bank will
ease capital requirements
for qualifying financial
institutions in an effort to
direct more credit to rural
and small businesses,
according to a People’s Bank
of China (PBOC) document
dated Feb. 16.
While crews scramble to
perform emergency repairs to
California's Oroville Dam as
forecasts for more rain
looms, the crisis that
caused nearly 200,000
downstream residents to
evacuate has brought the
safety of many of the
state's other dams into
question.
The Trump administration
reportedly plans to scale
back on a controversial
administrative rule enacted
by the Obama administration
that permitted transgender
students to use restrooms
and locker rooms that align
with their gender identity,
rather than their
biological sex.
Globally, hydropower has the
theoretical potential to
provide nearly a third of
the annual global energy
requirement. This is one
finding of a research
project performed at Delft
University of Technology in
the Netherlands and
published in the journal
PLOS One.
As you scroll through these
words with a swipe of the
finger or click of the
mouse, you're likely doing
it with the same hand you
use to draw or swing a bat.
But why? Science has told us
that our favoring of our
right or left hands could be
traced back to our roots as
thumb-sucking fetuses, where
the brain directs such
movements, but new research
out of Germany is casting
doubt on this thinking,
suggesting that it all
begins in the spinal cord
instead.
Self-honesty is
the most important kind of
honesty because true change
and healing cannot happen
without it.
When we are emotionally
triggered or challenged by
something someone says,
logic and honest
self-reflection have a hard
time sinking in. When in a
dispute or disagreement with
someone who will not see the
facts, and who keeps
shooting down your logic, we
can feel helpless to get
them to reckon with reality.
For the first time a
“tipping point” molecular
link between the blood sugar
glucose and Alzheimer’s
disease has been established
by scientists, who have
shown that excess glucose
damages a vital enzyme
involved with inflammation
response to the early stages
of Alzheimer’s.
Abnormally high blood
sugar levels, or
hyperglycaemia, is
well-known as a
characteristic of diabetes
and obesity, but its link to
Alzheimer’s disease is less
familiar.
A physics teacher at a
Buenos Aires high school
said she received death
threats, including a letter
with a 9 mm bullet, warning
her to give the entire class
a passing grade.
Natural and organic
cosmetics and skin care
products are becoming more
and more popular, as more of
us are addressing our state
of wellbeing. Whilst I feel
this is a wonderful shift in
culture, it can also be
quite confronting, confusing
and deceiving. If you have
recently jumped on the
wellness train, and gone
through the process of
detoxing your bathroom
cabinet, then it’s highly
likely you’ve come across
words such as organic,
natural, biodynamic,
certified organic, vegan,
wild crafted and naturally
derived.
After their property was
vandalized with a racial
slur, an interracial couple
in Connecticut is paying
$100 a day in city
fines until police
investigate the crime.
Expedited removal allows
undocumented immigrants to
be deported immediately.
Under Obama, it was enforced
within 100 miles of the
border and only against
those in the U.S. for 14
days or less. Under Trump,
undocumented immigrants can
be deported from anywhere in
the U.S. after being in the
country for up to two years.
As renewable energy use has
expanded significantly over
the last decade, household
energy costs have
declined. That's the
conclusion of a new report
from the Business Council
for Sustainable Energy and
Bloomberg New Energy
Finance.
A U.S. judge in Austin
issued a preliminary
injunction on Tuesday
halting Texas' plan to cut
Medicaid funding for Planned
Parenthood, saying the state
did not present evidence of
a program violation that
would warrant termination.
U.S. District
Judge Sam Sparks said state
health officials "likely
acted to disenroll qualified
health care providers from
Medicaid without cause." He
said the preliminary
injunction will preserve the
court's ability to render a
meaningful decision on the
case's merits.
If the press corps is
trying to engender more
trust among the American
electorate, some reporters
aren’t doing a good job of
proving their objectivity.
On Tuesday, American
Urban Radio Networks White
House correspondent April
Ryan, a veteran reporter
with decades of experience,
erroneously accused
President Donald Trump of
claiming that “white
America” built the United
States.
School is supposed to help
children grow into mature,
conscious, responsible,
intelligent adults, who have
mastered the art of living,
and who can contribute their
gifts to the world. School
as we know it, however,
couldn’t be further from
that. In fact, school, as it
exists in most places
across the planet, helps
only to stunt children’s
intelligence and to fill
them with stress and
worries, which results in
the chaotic world that we
experience all around us.
Below are eight ways school
is making children stupid
and depressed.
Albert Edwards, global
strategist at Societe
Generale, says the Federal
Reserve has repeated the
mistakes of the past by
allowing the third major
asset bubble of the past 20
years to form.
The London-based analyst
scoffed at statements made
this week by Fed Chair Janet
Yellen in her legally
required testimony to both
houses of Congress.
The appearance of a large
and growing crack in the ice
shelf near the British
Antarctic Survey’s Halley VI
research station has
prompted officials to close
the base for the first time.
Operational since 2012,
Halley VI is made up of a
series of eight interlinked
pods built on skis that can
be towed across the ice by
specialist heavy vehicles.
The law officer
who replaced ousted Maricopa
Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio
said he will no longer hold
immigrants who have served
their time past their
release dates for
immigration officials.
Arpaio, who lost
re-election in November
while under federal
investigation has long been
a foe of undocumented
immigrants and held them
over for federal officials.
Reincarnation is frequently
rejected as impossible by
those who worship at the
altar of rational
materialism and mainstream
science. Yet, for those with
an open mind who realize
that logic and reason cannot
possibly grasp and account
for all the phenomena
existing in the Universe, it
is amusing to see how
perplexed those with
“scientific minds” become
when presented with
information that is beyond
rational explanation.
Keep your distance
– an American brown recluse
spider(Credit:
Oxford University)
The American
brown recluse spider is
already known for being
one of the most venomous
arachnids on the planet.
It turns out, however,
that the spider also has
unusually strong silk –
stronger even than
regular spider silk.
Scientists from Oxford
University and
Virginia's College of
William & Mary have
recently discovered the
secret of that strength,
and they believe that it
could have some
practical applications …
perhaps even in outer
space.
“The best way to read a
personal care product
ingredients list is to read
each ingredient as if it
were something that you
might put in your mouth… If
you wouldn’t eat it, don’t
put it on your skin!” ~
Marie Be
It’s no secret that Big
Pharma and cosmetic
companies generate billions
of dollars each year by
selling a huge array of
body-care, personal-care and
body-cleansing products. But
what you may not know is
that most of these
chemical-based products
include harmful ingredients
that are toxic when absorbed
into the skin.
Controversial as it is,
nuclear power remains a
viable source of energy
as we transition away
from fossil fuels toward
methods with far smaller
carbon footprints.
Underground uranium
reserves may be on the
decline, but the oceans
contain billions of tons
of the metal, just
waiting for us to find a
practical way to extract
it. To that end, a
Stanford team has
developed a technique
that improves the
capacity, rate and
reusability of materials
that harvest uranium
from seawater.
Despite the
ongoing issues of
radioactive waste
disposal and the
occasional
Fukushima-scale
disaster, nuclear energy
can be more efficient
and relatively cleaner
than fossil fuel
sources.
In Chile’s worst fire
disaster in 50 years, the
South American country has
lost over half a million
hectares to more than 100
wildfires that first flared
up in mid-January. The
blazes have frustrated
firefighters’ efforts to
control them, with new hot
spots emerging daily across
the central and southern
regions.
The emergency at
California’s Oroville Dam
appears to be over for the
moment, although during the
next few days severe weather
is expected to hit the area
at the western edge of the
Sierra Nevada mountains, as
hundreds of thousands of
residents return to their
homes.
For California, it has
been either too little water
or too much. After four
years of crippling drought,
storms and flooding are now
putting Californians at
risk.
Next time your smartphone
freezes, think twice before
cursing the shoddy
workmanship of the phone
manufacturer under your
breath. The culprit might
actually be the cosmic rays
that are constantly raining
down on us from outer space
and can mess with the
integrated circuits in
electronic devices. A new
study by Vanderbilt
University has examined how
modern consumer electronics
are becoming more vulnerable
to cosmic interference, and
suggested ways for
manufacturers to build
better chips.
A majority of Americans
say the economy is going
strong – and many believe
the trend will continue
under President Donald
Trump, according to a new
poll.
The Harvard-Harris survey
conducted for The
Hill, found that 61
percent view the economy as
strong, against 39 percent
who say it is weak, while 42
percent think it's on the
right track, compared with
39 percent who disagree.
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) took to
social media to quell what
it calls "dangerous and
irresponsible" stories that
allege the agency is
executing "roundups" of
illegal immigrants for
deportation.
Can we ever believe what our
government tells us about
airport security devices?
Apparently not. First they
told us those X-ray scanners
(that showed way too many
naked body parts) were
perfectly safe.
Even the manufacturer of the
device, Rapidscan, openly
admitted the scanners had
not been adequately tested.
The truth was later revealed
that the safety tests turned
out to be totally rigged, as
reported by Natural News.
By some stroke of
misfortune I happened across
this headline from People
Magazine: “Yoga Instructor
Practices in White Pants
While Free-Bleeding to Make
a Point About Period Shame.”
I only hope aliens from
an advanced civilization
aren’t able to access our
Internet. Surely, if they
saw this, or pretty much
anything else that gets
posted to the internet on a
daily basis, they’d
correctly surmise that we
are a race of dangerous
lunatics. Their only
recourse at that point would
be to incinerate us with
their alien Death Ray.
This
Date in Native History: On
February 20, 1725, a group
of 88 scalp hunters led by
John Lovewell attacked a
band of Abenaki Indians
living in a wigwam near
Wakefield, New Hampshire.
Motivated by
state-sponsored programs
that offered rangers
payments for Indian scalps,
the men tracked the Abenaki
for 11 days then opened fire
near midnight on February
20. Lovewell’s posse killed
and scalped 10 men and
received a bounty of 100
British pounds per scalp.
Unseasonably high
temperatures fuel increased
pressure on water protectors
to leave flood plain
At Standing Rock, the day
went from bad to worse. In a
single day, campers, who
call themselves water
protectors, were targeted
with eviction notices,
stricter laws proposed
against them, and a formal
reminder that the physical
fight against the Dakota
Access pipeline was coming
to an end.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a chance
for a C-class flares on days
one, two, and three (21 Feb,
22 Feb, 23 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(21 Feb), quiet to active
levels on day two (22 Feb)
and unsettled to minor storm
levels on day three (23
Feb).
Upon his confirmation,
Pruitt tweeted, “I will work
tirelessly to ensure that
the EPA acts lawfully,
sensibly, and with those
hardworking Americans ever
in mind.”
There is a definitive
science to preventing and
destroying whistleblowers,
which includes a continuum
of intimidation tactics that
are very effective at
keeping government employees
from going public with
information that, while
important to our society,
could be harmful to the
State.
Researchers at the Georgia
Institute of Technology
(GIT) have demonstrated the
capability of ransomware to
take down the critical
infrastructure our cities
need to operate, causing
havoc among people.
GIT researchers created a
proof-of-concept ransomware
that, in a simulated
environment, was able to
gain control of a water
treatment plant and threaten
to shut off the entire water
supply or poison the city's
water by increasing the
amount of chlorine in it.
The growth of student loans
drove or a substantial
increase in household debt
last year, say experts.
While the high balance of US
student debt is not news
anymore, the new record-high
$1.31 trillion balance,
up 2.4 percent in the fourth
quarter, is another reminder
of the severity of a problem
that has cast a shadow over
the nation in recent years.
The unnamed educator, who
taught at Keene-Riverview
Elementary School in
Prosser, Washington, shared
the information in a
Facebook post that could
be seen as “hostile” and
“offensive,” according to
The Yakima Herald-Repubic.
The post led to “angry and
concerning” phone calls and
visits from “concerned
citizens and parents,” the
school district said.
Because our national
media focuses so much on the
President we have a very
misleading sense of how
fundamental change occurs in
America.
Despite 84 years of
liberal efforts to dominate
America from Washington,
America remains remarkably
decentralized with an
enormous depth of local
leadership.
As if we didn't have enough
to worry about, one doomsday
scenario making the rounds
is that the Earth's magnetic
field will one day reverse
and cause mass extinctions
of the sort not seen since
the dinosaurs bit the dust.
But a team of researchers
from Tel Aviv University,
Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, and the
University of California San
Diego have reached a
different conclusion.
More than 200 people of
all ages attended a 154th
Anniversary Memorial
Ceremony to remember the
Bear River Massacre and the
450 Northwestern Shoshone
who were killed along the
Bear River, near what is now
Preston, Idaho, in perhaps
the largest massacre in
United States history.
Chief Bear Hunter’s band
of Northern Shoshone spent
the cold months in Utah
Territory where they and
other Shoshone bands
gathered for winter games
and the Warm Dance to urge
the return of spring. Food
was plentiful, the weather
was mild, and children
played along the river.
There was plenty of wood for
fire and natural hot
springs—the people were
content.
The levels
at which China appears to be
planning a missile attack on
US military bases in the
Pacific have been detailed
in a new report.
An investigation of
satellite imagery comparing
China’s missile testing
grounds and US military
bases shows a pattern – all
of the missile tests have
been aimed at destroying US
carriers, destroyers and
airfields in East Asia, the
report said.
The images show that the
test areas have been
designed to look like the
military bases, according to
the report by Thomas Shugart
on War on the Rocks.
Wind, nuclear and natural
gas-fired generators
increased their shares of
the Electric Reliability
Council of Texas generation
mix at the expense of coal
plants in January, a report
issued Thursday shows.
Relatively lighter loads
and lower natural gas prices
may account for the change
in fuel mix.
U.S. consumer prices
recorded their biggest
increase in nearly four
years in January as
households paid more for
gasoline and other goods,
suggesting inflation
pressures could be picking
up.
The Labor Department said
on Wednesday its Consumer
Price Index jumped 0.6
percent last month after
gaining 0.3 percent in
December. January's increase
in the CPI was the largest
since February 2013.
New research suggests that
cutting calories could do
more than just slim our
waistlines, it might also be
a newfound fountain of
youth. A study by a team at
Brigham Young University
finds that eating less can
actually slow down the
process of aging at a
cellular level.
Plunging more than 10 km (6
mi) down, you might think
the the oceans' deepest
trenches would be a
relatively safe haven from
human-made pollutants that
are causing problems closer
to the surface – but you'd
be wrong. UK researchers
have found extremely high
levels of chemical
pollutants in deep-sea
scavengers.
“The lawsuit, filed in U.S.
District Court in Michigan,
asserted that the U.S. EPA
failed to warn them of the
dangers of the toxic water
or take steps to ensure that
state and local authorities
were addressing the crisis.
The plaintiffs seek $722
million in damages,” Reuters
reported.
The Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) has set
a new record for the number
of satellites delivered into
orbit from a single rocket.
On Wednesday at 9.28 am
local time, the PSLV
C37/Cartosat-2 Series
Mission was launched from
the spaceport at
Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh
and delivered 104 satellites
into orbit, beating the
previous record for a single
mission of 37 satellites set
by Russia in 2014.
Being of service to others
and the world can bring
immense joy, inspiration and
fulfillment. But, when
offering service,
maintaining healthy
boundaries is essential if
we are to remain aligned and
in balance. It’s so easy to
become exhausted, depleted
or resentful through giving
too much of ourselves. In
this article we explore what
it means to have healthy
boundaries and how this
enhances our lives and that
of those around us.
he title of a
recent article in USA Today
says it all:
“Survey: Sleeping together
before a first date is a-OK,
but cracked phones are a put
off.” The story
focuses primarily on the
attitudes of my fellow
millennials towards dating
and relationships.
Read and behold the death
of western civilization:
While international efforts
are underway to protect
iconic monarch
butterflies from
disappearing, the latest
population count has found
their numbers have dropped
by nearly one-third since
last year.
Army Corps of Engineers
continues the American
empire way in Oceti Sakowin
Nation territory...
This is perfectly in keeping
with the American empire’s
dominating imperial
trajectory against our
original nations and
peoples. George Washington
called the United States “a
rising empire.” He and other
white power brokers of his
era had in mind the
development of a grand
system. Historian Richard
Van Alstyne termed it “an
imperium—a
dominion, state or
sovereignty that would
expand in population and
territory, and increase in
strength in power.”
President Donald Trump's
campaign team and other
associates had repeated
dealings with senior Russian
intelligence officials in
the year before the
election, according to
telephone records and
intercepted calls disclosed
by U.S. officials.
The data were intercepted
around when U.S.
intelligence officials were
investigating Russian hacks
into the Democratic National
Committee and other party
operatives last summer,..
At the beginning of
February, the IRS quietly
changed the way you can fill
out your 1040 tax form,
allowing you to submit one
without filling out line 61.
This line, for most tax
filers, is where you would
notify the IRS if you had
health coverage during the
previous year. As Obamacare
was mandatory, leaving that
line blank would have caused
your 1040 to be rejected.
But now filling out this
line is optional, allowing
your 1040 form to go through
without telling the
government anything about
your healthcare situation.
According to a notice by the
IRS, this rule took effect
February 3rd.
A top executive at the
company building the
controversial Dakota Access
pipeline on Wednesday
compared pipeline opponents
to terrorists.
Joey Mahmoud, executive vice
president of Texas-based
Energy Transfer Partners,
said protesters have
"assaulted numerous pipeline
personnel," destroyed
millions of dollars' worth
of construction equipment
and even fired a pistol at
law enforcement during
months of demonstrations
against the 1,200-mile
pipeline, which will carry
North Dakota oil to an
Illinois terminal.
A U of T Engineering
innovation could make
building printing cells as
easy and inexpensive as
printing a newspaper.
Dr. Hairen Tan and his team
have cleared a critical
manufacturing hurdle in the
development of a relatively
new class of solar devices
called perovskite solar
cells. This alternative
solar technology could lead
to low-cost, printable solar
panels capable of turning
nearly any surface into a
power generator.
“Economies of scale have
greatly reduced the cost of
silicon manufacturing,” says
University Professor Ted
Sargent (ECE), an expert in
emerging solar technologies
and the Canada Research
Chair in Nanotechnology and
senior author on the paper.
“Perovskite solar cells can
enable us to use techniques
already established in the
printing industry to produce
solar cells at very low
cost. Potentially,
perovskites and silicon
cells can be married to
improve efficiency further,
but only with advances in
low-temperature processes.”
In 2016, for the second year
in a row, the majority of
new generating capacity
installed in the United
States came from renewable
energy sources, according to
the latest issue of the
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission’s monthly “Energy
Infrastructure Update.”
The report shows that
combined newly installed
capacity from renewables –
biomass, geothermal,
hydropower, solar and wind –
totaled 16,124 megawatts
(MW), or 61.5 percent,
surpassing that from fossil
fuels and nuclear power
combined.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(17 Feb, 18 Feb, 19 Feb).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on day one (17
Feb) and quiet to unsettled
levels on days two and three
(18 Feb, 19 Feb).
As a United States Citizen
or a “person”, did you know
that you do not
legally own anything?
That is right! You do not
legally own your land, your
home, your car, your
clothes, your money, your
name, your body, or even
your children — by the law
of the State, they belong to
the State. This is why
government agents can
legally take your kids and
property, and throw you in
jail for violating the rules
they call “laws”. If you
were to truly own property,
you would have the exclusive
right to regulate it and,
therefore, no government
would be able to legally
confiscate it...
The Senate voted this
week to undo an Obama-era
rule that conservatives have
argued unduly limits theSecond Amendment
right to keep and bear arms.
In December 2016, former
President Barack Obama’s
White House issued a rule
requiring the Social
Security Administration to
report anyone needing
third-party assistance to
manage their Social Security
benefits to be placed
in the National Instant
Criminal Background Check
System, which would bar them
from purchasing a firearm.
Using fast-track
procedures, Congress killed
an Obama administration
regulation aimed at
protecting streams from
mining waste earlier this
month.
“Moving to dismantle
former President Barack
Obama's legacy on the
environment and other
issues, [Congress] approved
a measure that scuttles a
regulation aimed at
preventing coal mining
debris from being dumped
into nearby streams,”..
A crisis over the
relationship between
President Donald Trump's
aides and Russia deepened on
Wednesday as a growing
number of Trump's fellow
Republicans demanded
expanded congressional
inquiries into the matter.
Trump sought to focus
attention on what he called
criminal intelligence leaks
about his ousted national
security adviser, Michael
Flynn.
"I
worry that assisted suicide
will create a marketplace
for death," said Jason
Chaffetz, a Utah Republican
who heads the Oversight
Committee. "I think it's
fundamentally wrong."
You might be aware of
websites, banks, retailers,
and advertisers tracking
your online activities using
different Web
"fingerprinting" techniques
even in incognito/private
mode, but now sites can
track you anywhere online —
even if you switch browsers.
A team of researchers
has recently developed a
cross-browser fingerprinting
technique — the first
reliable technique to
accurately track users
across multiple browsers
based on information like
extensions, plugins, time
zone and whether or not an
ad blocker is installed.
When winter comes, most bugs
either migrate or time
travel. But some get far
more creative
You’ve likely heard of one
the most common ways insects
make it through this darkest
and coldest season: time
travel. "Either they escape
in space, which means they
migrate, or they escape in
time, which means they
become dormant," says Scott
Hayward, an invertebrate
biologist at the University
of Birmingham. "The vast
majority actually becomes
dormant."
In the age of Trump,
America’s biggest foreign
creditors are suddenly
having second thoughts about
financing the U.S.
government.
In Japan, the largest
holder of Treasuries,
investors culled their
stakes in December by the
most in almost four years,
the Ministry of Finance’s
most recent figures show.
What’s striking is the
selling has persisted at a
time when going abroad has
rarely been so attractive.
And it’s not just the
Japanese. Across the world,
foreigners are pulling back
from U.S. debt like never
before
Just a few
days before the historic
mass whale stranding in
New Zealand, NASA
heliophysicist Antti
Pulkkinen announced a
new study was being
launched to investigate
whether solar storms
could be a major factor
behind these baffling
natural tragedies.
Pulkkinen suspects that
magnetic anomalies
caused by coronal mass
ejections from the Sun
could have a
disorienting effect on
animals that rely on
magnetic-field sensing
for navigation.
The environmental impact of
tire production has prompted
a years-long search for a
more sustainable method.
These efforts have focused
on the main component of
rubber, a molecule called
isoprene. To make isoprene,
molecules in petroleum are
thermally broken apart and
the molecule is isolated
from hundreds of other
chemicals and purified, at
which point it organizes
itself into long polymer
chains.
"They've sabotaged our
borders, they supported 100
percent Obama's treason in
arming the Hitlerites in
Tehran. You can't give a
path to nuclear weapons, and
he gave about $150-200
billion to these terrorists
who are leading their
populations in chants of
'death to America.' How
nutty is that?"
Researchers at UCLA have
shown that the sugar
fructose is a leading cause
of metabolic syndrome, a
cluster of conditions that
increases the risk of heart
disease, stroke, and
diabetes.
Animals with this
syndrome demonstrate
impairment of brain
plasticity, which is one of
the mechanisms by which the
brain heals itself.
The bacteria
Shewanella oneidensis
is a heavy metal fan. Its
taste for iron, lead and
mercury make it useful for
cleaning water of these
contaminants, and even
better is the fact that it
generates electricity while
it chows down. Now,
researchers at the
University of California,
Santa Barbara (UCSB) have
chemically modified the
bacteria to increase its
energy production
capabilities, which could
lead to another way for
wastewater treatment plants
that generate some of their
own power.
The International Energy
Agency on Friday revised
upward its estimate of
global oil demand growth for
this year to 1.4 million
b/d, from 1.3 million b/d,
and said OPEC had made a
"solid start" to its
six-month production cut
pact, confirming signs of a
tightening market.
Iran's crude oil and
condensate exports rose 3%
month on month in January as
it continued to regain
market share, widening its
appeal among refiners around
the globe in the process.
Indigenous activists and
members of Congress alike
are outraged at lack of
Native consultation and
environmental oversight///
Archambault assailed what he
called the President’s
“distorted view of reality”
regarding Trump’s
declaration that he had
heard nothing about any
controversy surrounding the
pipeline.
What’s magnetic north would
become magnetic south. Is
Earth headed to a pole
reversal? A look at the
archaeological record in
southern Africa provides
clues...
What currently has
geophysicists like us abuzz
is the realization that the
strength of Earth’s magnetic
field has been decreasing
for the last 160 years at an
alarming rate. This collapse
is centered in a huge
expanse of the Southern
Hemisphere, extending from
Zimbabwe to Chile, known as
the South Atlantic Anomaly.
The magnetic field strength
is so weak there that it’s a
hazard for satellites that
orbit above the region – the
field no longer protects
them from radiation which
interferes with satellite
electronics.
Newly published report by
the Russian security firm
Kaspersky Lab indicates that
hackers are targeting banks,
telecommunication companies,
and government organizations
in 40 countries, including
the US, South America,
Europe and Africa, with
Fileless malware that
resides solely in the memory
of the compromised
computers.
The missile was launched
around 5:55 p.m. Eastern
from Banghyeon in North
Pyongan Province and landed
in the Sea of Japan. It flew
about 300 miles, the South's
Office of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff said in a
statement.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(14 Feb, 15 Feb, 16 Feb).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and three (14 Feb, 16 Feb)
and quiet to active levels
on day two (15 Feb).
As the 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals has just struck down
Trump’s executive order on
the travel ban, Republicans
are simultaneously moving to
pass a bill that will split
the court up.
Scientists in
Brisbane, Australia, have
discovered a non-invasive
ultrasound technology that
fully restores memory
function in 75 percent of
Alzheimer’s test animals.
Affecting close to 50
million people worldwide,
dementia — of which
Alzheimer’s disease is the
most common form — is
expected to impact 135
million people by 2050. In
the United States,
Alzheimer’s strikes one in
eight elderly Americans and
is the sixth-leading cause
of death. Over 15 million
Americans provide unpaid
care for a person with
Alzheimer’s and other
dementias and, in 2016
alone, an estimated $236
billion was spent in
supporting Alzheimer’s
patients, making it the most
expensive disease in America
Siemens announced it has
successfully tested power
generation gas turbine
blades produced entirely
through metal-based 3D
printing, also known as
Additive Manufacturing.
The blades, tested under
full-load engine conditions
at 13,000 revolutions per
minute and temperatures
above 1,250 degrees Celsius,
were produced by Siemens
subsidiary Materials
Solutions. Siemens purchased
Materials Solutions, which
specializes in
high-performance parts for
high temperature
applications in
turbomachinery, last year.
In the culture that we live,
we have learned that we are
not enough as we are. Since
we were little children, we
have been taught that we
need to be a certain way in
order to be accepted by the
society. Parents, teachers,
priests, and so on, wanted
us to conform to society’s
standards, or else we were
warned that we would be left
alone – abandoned. Out of
fear, most of us chose to
conform.
While there are hundreds of
student engineering teams
from around the world that
are crafting prototype
Hyperloop pods, there are
also startups working to
build fully fledged
businesses on the back of
the futuristic transport
system. This contingent has
just grown by one with the
emergence of Arrivo, a new
firm headed up by former
SpaceX engineers.
Thousands of dead and dying
bees are washing up on a
popular beach in Southern
Florida.
Naples beach goers had to
watch where they stepped
Tuesday after some people
say they have been stung
just along the shoreline,
according to NBC affiliate
WBBH-TV.
The top U.S. general
overseeing coalition
military operations in
Afghanistan said Thursday he
has a “shortfall of a few
thousand” coalition troops,
opening the door to more
U.S. military advisers
deploying to bolster
training and advise Afghan
security forces.
If you want to use multiple
methods to generate
electricity, such as waste
heat and movement, for
example, you normally have
to use independent
mechanisms and combine the
results. Now researchers
from the University of Oulu
in Finland have discovered a
crystal mineral material
that is able to
simultaneously generate
energy from light, heat, and
mechanical force, opening up
a whole new range of
possibilities for
multi-source
electricity-generating
devices.
In a clear shift away from
his predecessor, President
Donald Trump’s White House
has asked a judge to cancel
a crucial hearing in a legal
appeal over an Obama-era
rule regarding transgender
bathroom use.
Trump signed the
executive orders in the
Oval Office after
swearing in Attorney
General Jeff Sessions.
One of the orders, aimed
at "reduc(ing) crime and
restor(ing) public
safety," directs
Sessions to establish a
new Task Force on Crime
Reduction and Public
Safety.
Immigration conversation is
opportune time to reflect on
the First People of this
land...
As the multitude of protests
erupt across the country to
let people in, the
grievances of the Indigenous
People of America never seem
to get out. If only that
same vigor could be
harnessed to support the
First Peoples across the
USA/Canada the
disproportionate amount of
human suffering in those
communities could finally be
addressed.
The continent, dubbed
Mauritia, is likely as large
as Japan and dates back to
the time of the dinosaurs.
The world looked much
different then: The
continents were joined
together in a single
enormous landmass called
Pangea. Over time, the
dinosaurs went extinct and
that mighty supercontinent
fractured, causing Mauritia
to drown beneath the waves.
But the newly discovered
continent is more than just
collateral damage. It's a
reminder that Earth's
continents are always on the
move, continuously drifting
together before breaking
apart in a never-ending
cycle.
There are so many great
articles and literature
(based on good research)
available on the topic of
bilingualism and its
benefits, even for children
who may be experiencing
language delays, that it
seems redundant to write on
the issue, but I feel
compelled to do so because
the passing down of a
parent’s native language
appears to be diminishing
more and more.
A mix of artificial
intelligence and custom
silicon could help people
diagnose themselves with a
range of conditions before
they show symptoms.
A chip that can diagnose a
potentially fatal condition
faster than the best lab in
the country, a camera that
can see so deeply into a
pill it can tell if its
molecular structure has more
in common with a real or
counterfeit tablet, and a
system that can help
identify if a patient has a
mental illness just from the
words they use: IBM is
betting that a mix of AI and
new hardware can make all
three possible within the
coming years.
Aluminum is a known
neurotoxin, and according to
Professor Christopher Exley
of Keele University,
aluminum-containing products
are likely fueling the rise
in Alzheimer’s disease.[1]
In an article published in
the journal Frontiers in
Neurology,[2]
he writes: “We are all
accumulating a known
neurotoxin in our brain from
our conception to our death.
The presence of aluminium in
the human brain should be a
red flag alerting us all to
the potential dangers of the
aluminium age. How do we
know that Alzheimer’s
disease is not the
manifestation of chronic
aluminium toxicity in
humans?”
The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers has granted an
easement allowing the Dakota
Access Pipeline to cross
under the Missouri River
north of the Standing Rock
Sioux Reservation, paving
the way for construction of
the final 1.5 miles of the
more than 1,700-mile
pipeline.
In doing so, the Army cut
short its environmental
impact assessment and the
public comment period
associated with it.
More than 365 businesses and
investors from Fortune 500
firms to family-owned
businesses sent a message
today to President Barack
Obama and President-elect
Donald Trump reaffirming
their support for the
historic Paris Agreement on
Climate and the need to
accelerate the transition to
a low-carbon global economy.
The National Energy
Administration of China
announced the country more
than doubled its solar
capacity, making it the
globe’s biggest producer of
solar energy.
The country added 34.54
GW of solar power over the
last year and now operates
77.42 GW of solar
facilities, Reuters
reported.
...because of Obamacare,
health insurance companies
are pulling out of
exchanges, leaving Americans
with few choices. In fact,
70 percent of all U.S.
counties have only one or
two insurance options, Cruz
said. Holding up a map with
the counties shaded.
More than half of the Navy's
aircraft are grounded,
including nearly two-thirds
of F/A-18 Hornet and Super
Hornet strike fighters,
because there is not enough
money to perform maintenance
on them, Defense News has
reported.
This
represents about double the
historic norm for aircrafts
that are out of service for
regular maintenance at any
given time.
Deutsche Bank experts
warn savvy investors that
President Donald Trump most
likely will soon fulfill his
campaign vow to label China
a currency manipulator.
"Some time in the next
couple of weeks, we think it
is likely that President
Trump will declare China a
currency manipulator and
propose penalties if it does
not enter into negotiations
to lower its trade surplus
with the US," the team led
by Michael Spencer, chief
economist at Deutsche Bank,
wrote in a note to clients
last week, Business
Insider reported.
A former prime minister who
holds dual Somali-U.S.
citizenship was elected
Somalia's president on
Wednesday, declaring a new
"era of unity" as he took on
the daunting task of
bringing the long-chaotic
country its first fully
functioning central
government in a
quarter-century.
A petition presented to
the EPA has over 2,500 pages
of scientific documentation
that show the effects of
water fluoridation to human
health.
The petition states that
“the amount of fluoride now
regularly consumed by
millions of Americans in
fluoridated areas exceeds
the doses repeatedly linked
to IQ loss and other
neurotoxic effects; with
certain subpopulations
standing at elevated risk of
harm, including infants,
young children, elderly
populations and those with
dietary deficiencies, renal
impairment and/or genetic
predispositions.”
Turkish President Tayyip
Erdogan and U.S. President
Donald Trump agreed in an
overnight phone call on
joint action against Islamic
State in the Syrian towns of
Raqqa and al-Bab, both held
by the militants, Turkish
presidency sources said on
Wednesday.
U.S.-Turkish differences
during former President
Barack Obama's
administration impeded the
U.S.-led campaign against
Islamic State, and closer
coordination could mean
faster progress towards
freeing swathes of northern
Syria from IS.
On 9th February
WindEurope has released the
European annual wind
statistics for 2016. Also
Wind accounted for 51 % of
all new power installed,
there are still big
differences between the
Member States of the EU and
there is a lot left to do
for the Governments.
A Utah Congressman
has withdrawn a bill he
introduced that would
have allowed for the
disposal of 3.3 million
acres of federal lands
in 10 Western states,
including Arizona.
The bill’s
introduction was
preceded by a House
rules change that made
it easier for federal
land divestiture to take
place and came amid
strong opposition from
environmental groups, as
well as hunting and
angling organizations.
A new inspection at the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant found
previously-undetected deadly
radiation, and a leak of
melted fuel is the likely
cause.
Tokyo Electric Power Co.
inspected the inside of the
No. 2 reactor’s containment
vessel using a camera on a
pole, and discovered a hole
the size of a square meter
melted into a steel-grating
walkway directly underneath
the reactor pressure vessel,
the Nikkei Asian Review
reported.
New data compiled by the
National Energy Board in
Canada suggests that human
error is increasingly a
factor in pipeline leaks and
that pipeline operators are
not paying pipeline safety
the attention it deserves.
"It's both probably one
of the most difficult things
for an organization to deal
with, but also the most
important," said Mark
Fleming, a professor of
safety culture at Saint
Mary's University in
Halifax.
Fibromyalgia — a disorder
that causes pain and
tenderness throughout the
body — affects over 5
million adults in the United
States — mainly women, who
make up 75-90 percent of
those diagnosed with the
condition. Generally,
fibromyalgia strikes in
middle age, but children can
also be at risk. It occurs
around the world and is
found in all races and
ethnicities.
The list of the ten
biggest nuclear plants in
the world lost three plants
in Japan, each with a
generating capacity of more
than 4,000 MW, following the
tsunami-related breach at
Fukushima Daiichi.
The idling of the three
plants leaves room for the
Palo Verde plant near
Phoenix, Arizona, to enter
at number nine, and the
Quinshan and Ling Ao plants
in China to enter at numbers
eight and ten respectively
Indigenous activists and
members of Congress alike
are outraged at lack of
Native consultation and
environmental oversight...
“We have started the drill
to go beneath Lake Oahe and
expect to be completed in 60
days, with another 23 days
to fill the line to Patoka,”
said ETP spokesperson Vicki
Granado in an e-mail to
Indian Country Media
Network. “We look forward to
having the pipeline in
service in approximately 83
days.
On a day when America’s
attention was turned toward
the arguments on President
Donald Trump’s immigration
ban being presented at the
Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals, the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers (USACE) issued
a big decision. Acting
Secretary of the Army Robert
Speer announced on Wednesday
February 7 that the USACE
had approved the Lake Oahe
easement necessary to
complete the Dakota Access
Pipeline (DAPL). He also
stated that there would be
no further environmental
studies done, essentially
removing any barriers
keeping DAPL developer
Energy Transfer Partners
from expeditiously moving
ahead with pipeline
construction.
At Clean Edge, we have
emphasized for years that
the growth of clean energy
and energy efficiency should
not be a partisan issue.
Benefits like highly skilled
jobs, economic development,
American innovation and
entrepreneurship, global
competitiveness, and clean
air and water win support
across the political
spectrum in the United
States, as do direct
questions about whether the
nation should expand its
development of renewable
power.
Long before today’s anxiety
about terror attacks, Spain
and England feared that
enslaved Africans would be
more susceptible to revolt
if they were Muslim
The Dawes Act put individual
Indians at the mercy of the
federal government
This Date in Native History:
On February 8, 1887, U.S.
President Grover Cleveland
signed the Dawes Severalty
Act (commonly referred to as
the Dawes Act) into law,
introducing private land
ownership to American
Indians. Arguably one of the
most devastating pieces of
legislature for Natives, the
act slashed millions of
acres from the existing land
base, broke up tribes as
communal units and
threatened tribal
sovereignty. It applied to
all Indian nations, with
exceptions in the Cherokee,
Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw,
Seminole, Osage, Miami, Sac
and Fox, Peoria and Seneca
nations.
Early Monday morning,
thousands of people across
multiple northern U.S.
states watched a brilliant
meteor streak across the
sky. It then plunged into
Lake Michigan.
Right in time for
Valentine’s Day, the water
in a Louisiana city turned
pink, and residents weren’t
happy about it.
“On Monday, some Lake
Charles residents found pink
water coming out of their
faucets. It was found in
sinks and bathtubs from
multiple locations around
town,” KPLC reported.
Sharply increasing
polysilicon imports into
China foreshadow a new
installation rally in the
world’s largest
photovoltaics (PV) market
ahead of the feed-in tariff
cut on July 1, 2017. “The
upper part of the PV value
chain obviously anticipates
an installation rush that
could be even stronger than
what we saw in China in the
first half of 2016...
C1 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low on days one,
two, and three (10 Feb, 11
Feb, 12 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
levels on days one, two, and
three (10 Feb, 11 Feb, 12
Feb).
Astronomers have been
watching a black hole devour
a star for over 10 years,
making it the longest such
event ever observed
Almost 2 billion light-years
away, a supermassive black
hole has been slowly
swallowing a star. That's a
pretty spectacular thing to
witness, and astronomers
have had ample time to take
a peek – this interstellar
light show has been visible
for over 10 years, making it
the most drawn-out death of
a star ever observed.
Though coal-fired
electricity generation fell
32 percent from 2006 to
2015, a new report from the
U.S. Energy Information
Administration indicates
sulfur dioxide emissions
from all types of power
plants fell by 73 percent
during the same period.
The report indicated the
drop in coal use was a large
contributor to the fall in
sulfur dioxide, as natural
gas only has trace amounts
of sulfur.
The third book, which has
the same name as the series,
takes place when the Ingalls
family settled on the Osage
Diminished Reserve from 1869
to 1870. “The Ingalls family
arrived in Kansas with a
large tide of other
squatters in the summer and
fall of 1869,” writes
Penny T. Linsenmayer in
Kansas History. In the
end, they moved on after
federal troops threatened to
remove them and other
illegal settlers from Osage
land, she writes.
Its big. Its coal-fired.
And its about to go bye-bye.
The Wests largest coal-fired
power plant the
Navajo Generating Station
is facing closure because
its no longer a
cost-effective method of
generating energy.
Opponents of coal power
who are concerned about its
contributions to climate
change are thrilled, but
theres a catch: A changing
administration could mean
some shifts in energy policy
that alter the future for
this plant and other
coal-fired stations in
America.
Contradicting President
Donald Trump, his choices to
head the Department of the
Interior and the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency each told members of
Congress during their
confirmation hearings this
week that climate change is
not a hoax, as Trump has
alleged.
At the hearing before the
Senate Environment and
Public Works Committee,
Trump’s EPA nominee Oklahoma
Attorney General Scott
Pruitt said, “I do not
believe climate change is a
hoax.”
We each come into this life
with unique temperaments and
quirks, a self-symphony,
both breathtakingly
beautiful and awkwardly
arranged, and, as par for
the course agonizingly,
difficult to navigate at
times. We come in with a
vibration that is, above
all, inherently distinct and
unable to be replicated by
anyone else we encounter in
the world. We enter with
talents, gifts, inclinations
and passions, some of which
seem to be inextricably
woven into the fabric of our
being and others, more
clearly informed by the
environment and culture in
which we were raised.
With food demand and
water scarcity rising, it's
time to stop treating
wastewater like garbage
and instead manage it as a
resource that can be used to
grow crops, according to the
Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United
Nations (FAO).
Ahead of the World Water
Day in March, which this
year has a focus on water
reuse, FAO has said that if
properly managed, wastewater
can be used safely to
support crop production —
directly through irrigation
or indirectly by recharging
aquifers.
Already, agriculture
accounts for 70% of global
freshwater withdrawals —
with demand for food
estimated to grow by at
least 50% by 2050,
agriculture's water needs
are poised to expand.
As
Donald Trump's
presidency enters its second
week, his policies on
immigration and healthcare
are dominating headlines as
tens of thousands protest in
US cities. Trump's energy
plan is also controversial
with a rededication to coal
and the lifting of
environmental safeguards in
domestic oil and gas
exploration.
What is conspicuously
absent in Trump's "An
America First Energy Plan"
is his policy on renewable
energy.
From unglamorous origins,
the federal agency has risen
to ensure the safety of
everything from lasers to
condoms
Overall, the FDA estimates
that it regulates roughly $1
trillion worth of products
annually. These include
consumer products that emit
radiation, such as
microwaves and sunlamps, and
even tobacco products and
pet and livestock food and
medicines.
One might conclude that
given example after example
of radical Islam’s heinous
acts around the globe even
after 9/11, liberals would
cease giving them a pass or
the benefit of the doubt.
But even after Fort Hood,
Boston, Paris, Garland,
Chattanooga, San Bernardino
and Orlando — to name a few
attacks — some liberals
clearly don’t feel that way.
Indeed, a new CBS poll
indicates that 66 percent of
Democrats believe Islam is
no different from other
religions when it comes to
encouraging violence.
“We are a part of Creation;
thus, if we break the Laws
of Creation, we destroy
ourselves. We, the Original
Caretakers of Mother Earth,
have no choice but to follow
and uphold the Original
Instructions, which sustains
the continuity of Life. We
recognize our umbilical
connection to Mother Earth
and understand that she is
the source of life, not a
resource to be exploited. We
speak on behalf of all
Creation today, to
communicate an urgent
message that man has gone
too far, placing us in the
state of survival. We warned
that one day you would not
be able to control what you
have created. That day is
here.
Look around. The great shift
in the consciousness of
humanity has hit critical
mass and passed the point of
no return. It’s been
building slowly but surely,
and now it’s about to kick
into high gear. The next
decade or so will be a
period of enormous change
and perhaps more than a
little turbulence. Think of
this as the process of
humanity going into labor as
it begins to birth a new
earth reality.
Democrats didn't wait to
assemble the facts before
they accused President
Donald Trump of rewarding
"thugs" in the Russian
intelligence service by
lifting certain sanctions.
The facts don't support
them.
Republicans are dedicated to
solving the serious flaws
within our healthcare
system, many of which were
exacerbated by Obamacare.
During the last Congress,
the House passed a bill to
repeal various provisions in
Obamacare, but the Indian
Health Care Improvement Act
was not one of them. Rep.
Grijalva knows this, but
chose to build a straw man
instead to scare tribes for
political reasons.
... investors are salivating
over repatriation, which
could boost the earnings per
share of the S&P 500 stock
index by at least 3 percent,
according to estimates by
Bank of America Merrill
Lynch.
Electron microscope images
of the inside of the brains
of mice have given credence
to the hypothesis that sleep
plays an integral role in
our ability to learn new
things. The images show that
the junctions between
neurons, known as synapses,
strengthen and grow during
waking hours, then shrink by
almost 20 percent during
sleep, which opens up more
room for them to grow, and
learning to take place, when
waking the next day.
“Dramatic, widespread
shoreline loss” is what
government scientists call
the pattern revealed in new
NASA/U.S. Geological Survey
annual maps of the Louisiana
marshlands where the coast
was most heavily coated with
oil during the 2010 BP
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil is known to weaken or
kill vegetation, leading to
loss of the roots that help
hold soil together.
Demings tried to make the
point that the federal
government’s withholding of
funds for local governments
would only make things worse
for law enforcement in those
areas. Republicans, by and
large, have argued that
local law enforcement
officers should act as a
liaison to federal
immigration officials, while
most Democrats argue that
enforcing federal
immigration laws should only
be responsible for enforcing
local and state laws.
A preacher who said he was
“sharing the gospel” in
front of an Oregon Planned
Parenthood captured on video
the moment when he said a
woman walked up and “smeared
my face with a bloody maxi
pad.”
In Chile’s worst fire
disaster in 50 years, the
South American country has
lost over half a million
hectares to more than 100
wildfires that first flared
up in mid-January. The
blazes have frustrated
firefighters’ efforts to
control them, with new hot
spots emerging daily across
the central and southern
regions.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
(HBOT) is breathing 100%
oxygen while under increased
atmospheric pressure. HBOT
is a treatment that can be
traced back to the 1600s.
The first well-known chamber
was built and run by a
British clergyman named
Henshaw. He built a
structure called the
domicilium that was
used to treat a multitude of
diseases.
In 2016, Native nations, the
United States of America,
and the world has been
awakened to deeply held,
fundamental values and world
views that clash between
tribal nations and that of
mainstream America. The
NoDAPL stance of the
Standing Rock Tribe has
brought traditionally held
cultural beliefs that
articulate our
responsibilities, as human
beings, for our environment.
This responsibility
supersedes potential damage
to our environment for
profit and in the Dakota
Access Pipeline situation,
the enrichment of very few
who already have financial
resources to extract all the
resources that the earth has
within.
Poised to seriously disrupt
the world, will the impacts
of artificial intelligence
be for the good of humanity,
or destroy it? The question
sounds like the basis of a
sci-fi flick, but with the
speed that AI is advancing,
hundreds of AI and robotics
researchers have converged
to compile the Asilomar AI
Principles, a list of 23
principles, priorities and
precautions that should
guide the development of
artificial intelligence to
ensure it's safe, ethical
and beneficial.
NASA satellites provide
invaluable information on
climate change that can’t be
had from any other source.
The Earth Sciences program
by NASA gives us a
perspective that you can
only get from space, as seen
in their new Images of
Change collection featuring
images of different
locations on planet earth.
... "It's not a good look to
repeatedly and
self-righteously defend your
own self-interest. The media
should not be the story.
Every week in this religious
sense, you make it the
story. We are not the
story."
Considerable research into
perovskites at NREL and
elsewhere has proved the
material's effectiveness at
converting sunlight into
electricity, routinely
topping 20 percent
efficiency. The sunlight
creates mobile electrons
whose movement generates the
power but upon encountering
defects can slip into a
non-productive process.
Known as a recombination,
this process reduces the
efficiency of a solar cell.
For the cell to be the most
efficient, the recombination
must occur slowly.
In an article published in
the New York Times in
January 2016 entitled “At
C.D.C., a Debate Behind
Recommendations on Cellphone
Risk”, author Danny Hakim
discusses the controversy
surrounding the potential
health risks of using cell
phones.
Soaring radiation levels now
stand at over seven times
the previous high—enough to
fry a robot in two hours...
It’s been almost six
years since a tsunami
damaged the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant
on Japan’s northeast coast,
causing meltdowns of three
nuclear reactors. But time
hasn't made the site any
more easy to manage.
New readings taken inside
reactor No 2 show radiation
levels are still soaring—the
highest recorded since the
accident
Tree Canada, a national
tree planting charity, will
invest more than C$1 million
to restore forests destroyed
by the Fort McMurray
wildfires last year.
Fort McMurray is located
in northeast Alberta, in the
middle of the Athabasca oil
sands, surrounded by boreal
forest. It has played a big
role in the development of
the national petroleum
industry. Severe wildfires
in May 2016 led to the
evacuation of an estimated
75,000 residents and caused
widespread damage to the
forests surrounding the
small city.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low on days one,
two, and three (07 Feb, 08
Feb, 09 Feb). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on days one
and two (07 Feb, 08 Feb) and
quiet to unsettled levels on
day three (09 Feb).
The Senate voted Thursday
to send President Donald
Trump a measure to kill the
Interior Department’s Stream
Protection Rule, a coal
mining regulation finalized
in December, just weeks
before the end of the Obama
administration.
The resolution passed the
Senate by a vote of 54-45,
just one day after the House
approved it by a vote of 228
to 194...
“This Obama
administration rule is not
designed to protect streams.
Instead, it was an effort to
regulate the coal mining
industry right out of
business,” said Congressman
Bill Johnson, the Ohio
Republican who sponsored the
disapproval measure in the
House.
New research says you
can judge a burger by its
wrapper
It's no surprise that fast
food isn't the best thing to
eat for your health. Now,
researchers at the
University of Notre Dame
have found another reason to
try to keep your Mac attacks
at bay. Grease-resistant
wrappers treated with the
same chemicals used in
stain-resistant products
like carpets as well as
floor wax were found in
significant numbers at a
variety of fast-food
restaurants. And they can
leach into your food.
The group she was reporting
on was the latest batch of
Water Protectors at Standing
Rock to be arrested in this
lengthy struggle with Dakota
Access Pipeline companies
and investors (President
Trump having been one of the
investors). The arrestees
are considered to be a rogue
faction of the Oceti Sakowin
camp that is now in the
middle of dismantling as
negotiations and court
battles have become the new
front line.
New research has shown
that human skin cells can be
transformed into stem cells,
and used to hunt down brain
cancer
Glioblastoma is an
aggressive form of brain
cancer that kills most
patients within two years of
diagnosis. In tests on mice
last year, a team at the
University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill showed that
adult skin cells could be
transformed into stem cells
and used to hunt down the
tumors. Building on that,
they've now found that the
process works with human
cells, and can be
administered quickly enough
to beat the ticking
time-bombs.
Think "Milky Way" and "black
hole," and the supermassive
pit of gravity at the center
of our galaxy is bound to
come to mind. But there are
a collection of other rogue
black holes wandering
through our cosmic spiral
neighborhood, and
researchers from Japan
believe they've just spotted
one zipping through the
gaseous remnants of a
supernova explosion.
“The study is an attempt to
address three ‘bottlenecks’
in microalgae cultivation,”
says Sureshkumar. “When you
grow algae in suspension,
they tend to stick to the
walls of a container, making
the container opaque. This
makes it more difficult for
required light to get
through to the algae. The
second issue is that there
has to be consistent
stirring of the container to
ensure that light does reach
all layers of the algae. A
third issue is the
difficulty of separating
algae from the broth, which
requires time and energy,
and is therefore costly.”
For the last three and a
half years, Tata has been
working to take XPrize
global, working on projects
in Singapore, Argentina,
Brazil and Chile. By
launching the $1.75 million
Water Abundance Prize in
India, which asks teams to
develop a device that draws
2,000 liters (528 gal) of
water from the atmosphere
each day using only
renewable energy and costing
no more than two cents per
liter (0.26 gal), she hopes
to inspire a whole new breed
of innovators that can help
solve one of humanity's most
pressing problems.
The heart is an organ of
enormous electro-magnetic
intelligence. Sixty to 65
percent of the heart is
composed of neuron cells
(not muscle cells) and like
the brain generates a very
powerful electromagnetic
field that permeates every
cell in the body...
There are 1.7 billion
Muslims in the world. The
combined population of the
seven targeted nations is a
mere 222 million. How, by
banning entry from only 13%
of the Muslim world is Trump
blocking all Islamic
immigration?
resident Donald Trump
will order a sweeping review
of the Dodd-Frank Act rules
enacted in response to the
2008 financial crisis, a
White House official said,
signing an executive action
Friday designed to
significantly scale back the
regulatory system put in
place in 2010.
Trump also will halt
another of former President
Barack Obama’s regulations,
hated by the financial
industry, that requires
advisers on retirement
accounts to work in the best
interests of their clients.
Trump’s order will give the
new administration time to
review the change, known as
the fiduciary rule.
Chances are that you already
like the taste of grapes. If
you're looking for another
reason to eat them, though,
then how about this … a
recent study conducted by
the University of
California, Los Angeles
indicates that consuming
them helps protect against
Alzheimer's disease.
With tensions mounting
following U.S. President
Donald Trump’s executive
order to start building a
large border wall between
the U.S. and Mexico “in
months,” another president
has reached out to Mexico
with an alternative.
Bolivian President Evo
Morales (Aymara) used
Trump’s favorite form of
communication to urge Mexico
to “look to the south” for
other possibilities.
Visa holders from seven
majority-Muslim countries
who were turned away from
the United States due to
President Donald Trump's
travel ban are rushing to
try again, hoping to make it
through a narrow window
opened by legal challenges.
The nature of the bill,
known as “The School Safety
and Security Act,” is such
that it would allow school
districts decide whether or
not they would allow their
employees to carry on school
grounds, provided they have
a concealed carry permit.
Deutsche Bank AG was fined
$629 million by U.K. and
U.S. authorities for
compliance failures that saw
the bank help wealthy
Russians move about $10
billion out of the country
using transactions that were
likely thinly veiled
attempts to cover up
financial crime.
The Milky Way galaxy is
currently racing through
space at about 2 million
km/h (1.2 million mph), on a
journey towards a
gravitational anomaly known
as the Great Attractor,
which is in turn being
dragged towards an even
bigger structure, the
Shapley Supercluster. But
there's more to the story
than these mysterious
monsters: Astronomers have
now discovered a huge
extragalactic void, called
the Dipole Repeller, that's
pushing us away.
Researchers have now
developed a new type of
solar still using
carbon-coated paper that
they say is cheaper and more
than twice as efficient as
existing devices.
“This is not the first
time that an inexperienced
person has threatened Iran,”
Velayati said. “Iran is the
strongest power in the
region and has a lot of
political, economic and
military power. … America
should be careful about
making empty threats to
Iran.”
“Iran will continue to
test its capabilities in
ballistic missiles and Iran
will not ask any country for
permission in defending
itself,” he added.
Actress Sarah Silverman
told her 9.8 million
Twitters followers Wednesday
evening to “join the
resistance,” voicing her
support for a military
overthrow of President
Donald Trump.
Silverman, who is an
outspoken liberal and
supported Sen. Bernie
Sanders in the Democratic
presidential primary,
tweeted out a list made by
another Twitter user that
detailed steps taken by the
new Trump administration and
Republican-controlled
Congress on Wednesday.
Included on the list was the
confirmation of Rex
Tillerson as the new
secretary of state, and
Trump telling Senate
Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell to “go nuclear” if
Democrats fought against his
newly announced Supreme
Court nominee, Judge Neil
Gorsuch.
A new study released
Monday, Jan. 30, 2017
suggests that the universe
could be a hologram, and
reality could be an
illusion.
Wochit
Talk about a reality
check: The entire universe
could be a "vast and complex
hologram," scientists
reported Monday. Also, even
more unsettling, what we
think of as reality may be
just an illusion.
Law enforcement authorities
from Europe and Russia have
arrested five members of an
international cyber criminal
gang for stealing $3.2
million cash from ATMs using
malware.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(03 Feb, 04 Feb, 05 Feb).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at unsettled
to active levels on days one
and two (03 Feb, 04 Feb) and
unsettled levels on day
three (05 Feb).
Hundreds of thousands of
people hit the streets
across Romania to protest
against the government's
decriminalising of a string
of corruption offences, the
largest demonstrations since
the fall of communism in
1989.
Between 200,000 and 300,000
protesters, according to
media estimates, braved
sub-zero temperatures to
demonstrate, with some
shouting "Thieves!" and
"Resign!" a day after the
government passed an
emergency decree.
Concern in the science
community rose this week
about possible Trump
administration curbs on
researchers. Responses range
from defending facts to
actually entering the
political fray.
According to the latest
issue of the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission's
(FERC) monthly "Energy
Infrastructure Update"
(released today with data
through December 31, 2016),
renewable energy dominated
new U.S. electrical
generation put into service
during 2016. Combined, newly
installed capacity from
renewable sources (i.e.,
biomass, geothermal,
hydropower, solar, wind)
totaled 16,124-MW or 61.5%,
surpassing that from natural
gas (8,689-MW), nuclear
power (1,270-MW), oil
(58-MW), and coal (45-MW)
combined.
Democrats blocked planned
Senate committee votes on
President Donald Trump's
picks to be Health and
Treasury secretaries on
Tuesday, boycotting the
session and demanding more
information on the two
nominees' past financial
behavior.
The extraordinary and
abrupt postponement came as
congressional Democrats, in
a confrontational mood over
Trump administration
actions, also used lengthy
speeches at a Senate
Judiciary Committee meeting
considering Sen. Jeff
Sessions, R-Ala., to be
attorney general.
t looks like the Democrats’
decision to boycott the
Senate Finance Committee’s
confirmation hearings for
two of President Donald
Trump’s Cabinet appointees
has backfired.
Tesla Motors Inc. is
making a huge bet that
millions of small batteries
can be strung together to
help kick fossil fuels
off the grid. The idea is a
powerful one—one that’s been
used to help justify the
company’s $5 billion
factory near Reno, Nev.—but
batteries have so far only
appeared in a handful of
true, grid-scale pilot
projects.
This time of year, many
treatment operations have to
contend with a seasonal
menace that pollutes
waterways and threatens
quality. In cold-weather
regions, they grapple with
road salt.
The substance, applied to
roads to keep snow from
accumulating, gets washed
into water sources as the
snow melts, carrying
potentially harmful
contaminants along with it.
Competition for water will
intensify as humanity's
numbers exceed 9 billion
people around 2050 —
already, millions of family
farmers in developing
countries suffer from lack
of access to freshwater,
while conflicts over water
resources already surpass
those tied to land disputes
in some regions, he noted in
remarks made at the Global
Forum for Food and
Agriculture (19-21 January)
in Berlin.
The State Department and
Department of Homeland
Security have cleared the
way for 872 refugees to
enter the United States this
week, despite President
Donald Trump’s executive
order temporarily banning
refugees from any country
from coming to America,
internal DHS documents
obtained by Reuters reveal.
Speaking in the Oval Office,
he said he wanted to tell
small business owners that
the "American dream is
back'' and that he would
"create an environment for
small business,'' by ending
or limiting existing
regulations.
The White House issued a
cryptic warning Wednesday
that the U.S. will act
against Iran unless it stops
testing ballistic missiles
and supporting Houthi rebels
in Yemen, but declined to
say what retaliatory actions
the U.S. would pursue.
In what defense officials
say represents a dramatic
shift in Beijing's nuclear
strategy at a time of
growing tensions with the
United States, China tested
a new version of a
long-range missile with 10
warhead...
In the West, it’s easy to
take our access to clean
water for granted. With
modern plumbing, fresh water
is at our fingertips with
the turn of the tap. But in
many developing countries,
pollution and waterborne
diseases are an unfortunate
reality. Around the world,
1.1 billion people do not
have access to safe drinking
water, and 2.6 billion
suffer from inadequate
sewage. Women spend hours of
their day collecting water
from distant and oftentimes
polluted sources. Every
minute a child dies of a
water-related illness. More
than 840,000 people die each
year from diseases related
to tainted water.
And this problem is not only
a Third World issue. ..
This is why a low-cost,
wind-powered invention that
harvests up to 10 gallons of
clean water a day — from
thin air — is causing such a
stir.