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!!
January
-
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.
Around one million insects
have been discovered and
described by scientists,
with every last one slotting
into one of 31 categories,
known in entomology circles
as orders. But researchers
at Oregon State University
have been forced to revisit
the playbook, after the
discovery of an alien-like
insect preserved in amber
left them with no choice but
to take an incredibly rare
step and create order number
32, which it enjoys all to
itself.
It’s been interesting to see
the endless coverage and
attention that Joseph Boyden
has received concerning his
Native identity. ‘Outing’
someone’s identity is always
ugly business, and this
specific case has further
complicated First Nations
identity and authorship. So
many people are
unapologetically opinionated
on Boyden, but silent when
it comes to the closest
members in their
communities, who seem to
have loose connections, or
none at all, to the Native
identities they claim. Why
are we outing Boyden, but
not everyone else? Are we
cleaning house or what?
Researchers have
identified a brain hormone
that triggers the burning of
fat in the gut, without any
obvious side effects...
The Scripps Research
Institute (TSRI) conducted
experiments on
C. elegans roundworms
and identified a brain
hormone that selectively
triggers fat burning in the
gut, regardless of food
intake – and the findings
could have implications for
humans.
Brilliance may seem
like trait immune to bias:
When a person can prove
their intellectual talents,
they earn the label. But
like nearly every other
label in society, brilliance
is also subject to
stereotyping. Lin Bian, a
psychology PhD student at
the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, wanted
to see what factors
determine how likely a
person is to be viewed as a
"genius" or "brilliant"
instead of somebody who
simply works hard.
As a gun owner, I feel like
it’s never enough to have a
gun around to keep my family
safe. Sometimes, things just
happen that are beyond our
control. But carrying a gun
is never enough. Sometimes
carrying a gun can turn a
bad situation around, or it
can worsen things. This is
why concealed carry has
always been a hot topic for
debate.
Toward the back end of his
speech, Trump said: “We must
think big and dream even
bigger.” To understand Trump
and his message on
Inauguration Day is to
appreciate the importance of
that sentence.
Researchers at Harvard
University say they've
managed to create a
potentially revolutionary
material that has only been
imagined in theory for the
past several decades: solid
metallic hydrogen.
Aggressive talk from
politicians and military
leaders worldwide — amped up
by media and the "bellicose
chorus" of TV commentary —
has former Soviet Union
President Mikhail Gorbachev
saying: "It all looks as if
the world is preparing for
war."
When taxi cab drivers went
on strike and didn’t take
rides or fares around the
airport in protest, Uber
announced that they wouldn’t
implement “surge pricing,”
which means they wouldn’t
increase prices even though
there was a greater demand
for rides.
Two federal judges late
Saturday dealt blows to the
refugee executive order
President Donald Trump
signed the day before,
temporarily blocking
deportations of those
detained at U.S airports who
were traveling from the
seven majority-Muslim
countries covered by the
directive.
Just after President Donald
Trump signed sweeping
executive actions
greenlighting both the
Keystone XL and Dakota
Access Pipelines, a 12-inch
underground diesel pipeline
in Iowa spilled an estimated
138,600 gallons of fuel into
agricultural land.
The theory is that laughter
releases feel-good
neurotransmitters such as
endorphins, reduces stress,
benefits the cardiovascular
system (listen to your heart
beating just a touch faster)
and is a source of positive
energy.
Trump’s action here is
certainly more than Obama
ever did or ever would do,
but it’s not entirely
unprecedented even by
Obama’s standards. As has
been pointed out many times
since Friday, Obama put a
temporary hold on the Iraqi
refugee program for 6 months
back in 2011.
Neuromarketing is a
relatively new discipline
which makes use of
functional MRIs (fMRI) and
electroencephalography (EEG)
as well as physiological
markers, such as heart rate
and galvanic skin response
to determine what makes
consumers decide.
The federal government
failed to consult with
tribes before making a
decision that could have
devastating impact for
tribal citizens.
It’s a statement that
could have been made at any
point in U.S. history, even
during the
widely-seen-as-Native-friendly
Obama administration, on a
bevy of issues, ranging from
contract support cost
reimbursement to Indian
education to initial
development surrounding the
Dakota Access Pipeline.
On the New York Mercantile
Exchange, March West Texas
Intermediate crude
CLH7,
-0.39% fell by
47 cents, or 0.9%, to settle
at $52.75 a barrel. March
Brent crude
LCOH7,
-0.47% Â on
London’s ICE Futures
exchange lost 26 cents, or
0.5%, to $55.23 a barrel.
Perceptions Index that
scores the world's nations
out of 100 for their public
sector honesty and the
just-released 2016 report
paints the same bleak
picture we've been seeing
now for two decades ...
except it's getting worse.
It's more than two and half
years since the discovery of
the critical OpenSSL
Heartbleed vulnerability,
but the flaw is still alive
as it appears that many
organizations did not
remediate properly to the
serious security glitch.
It was one of the
biggest flaws in the
Internet's history that
affected the core security
of as many as two-thirds of
the world's servers i.e.
half a million servers at
the time of its discovery in
April 2014.
Recently, there has been
renewed interest in drumming
as a therapeutic
intervention in a wide range
of disease; a development,
no doubt, related to the
failure of conventional,
drug-based therapies to
decelerate in any meaningful
way chronic diseases. But
more specifically, drumming
may be an ideal therapeutic
modality for addressing
psychospiritual and
emotional issues that are
impossible to treat
chemically; and by “treat” I
mean heal, and not simply
suppress symptoms. Learn
more by reading our recent
report, “Group Drumming
Better Than Prozac, Study
Suggest.”
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(31 Jan, 01 Feb, 02 Feb).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at unsettled
to minor storm levels on
days one and two (31 Jan, 01
Feb) and unsettled to active
levels on day three (02
Feb).
As unconventional wind
turbines go, the flapping
machine introduced by
Tunisian company Tyer Wind
is on the far edge of
quirky. Employing dual
oscillating blades that
mimic the figure-8 motion of
the wings of a hovering
hummingbird, the turbine's
relatively compact design
make it a potential fit for
residential use.
A Russian computer hacker
wanted by the FBI on hacking
allegations was arrested and
jailed in Spain earlier this
week, while a decision on
his extradition to the
United States has yet to be
made.
Billionaire liberal activist
George Soros is helping fund
the airport protests against
President Donald
Trump's executive order to
ban refugees from
war-torn Syria indefinitely
and suspend visas from seven
countries for at least 30
days...
Intellectually, it is easy
to understand the many
reasons to change the way
that we live upon our earth.
Erratic and unpredictable
weather, depleted soils,
unsafe drinking water,
deforestation and vanishing
wildlife are all obvious
signs that the society we
have created is
unsustainable.
But even with this glaring
evidence in front of us,
many people are still
unwilling to change or even
feel that there is no
problem to fix. Or worst of
all, they feel that they are
unable to make a difference
in such a big, dysfunctional
society...
What we refer to as our
‘comfort zone’ is the space
in which we feel
comfortable, and in control.
You might also call it the
‘control zone’. When we move
outside of it, or push its
borders, we can feel
anxious, uneasy and unsafe,
without the familiarity of
knowing we have our
knowledge, skills and
experience to back us up.
Stepping outside can feel
like there is no safety net
anymore, and that anything
can happen.
A Canadian university
student has been charged
following an assault on a
Quebec City mosque that left
six people dead and
seriously injured five
others in one of the worst
terrorist attacks in the
country’s history.
The aspartame myth goes back
to a letter circulating on
the '90s internet...
While the myths about
aspartame are relatively
inconsequential in direct
terms (the FDA isn’t going
to withdraw aspartame’s
approval), academic Adam
Burgess writes that
the public uncertainty
created as a result of the
aspartame myths is still an
issue “in the context of the
importance of promoting
sugar-free alternatives, in
a world where challenging
obesity is a high priority.”
The White House now has no
intention of releasing
President Donald Trump’s tax
returns, said a top
presidential adviser,
stepping away from a
campaign promise he will do
so when an audit of them is
completed.
Buoyed by a boost of
shipments from the Powder
River Basin and
strengthening in Northern
Appalachia, US coal train
loadings climbed four the
fourth straight week to a
high not seen since
mid-November.
The new U.S. administration
of President Donald Trump
vowed on Monday that the
United States would prevent
China from taking over
territory in international
waters in the South China
Sea, something Chinese state
media has said would require
Washington to "wage war."
Ships loaded with about 1.4
million barrels of crude
oil, diesel, gasoline, fuel
oil and liquefied petroleum
gas are waiting for hull
cleaning,..
This is not the first time
that PDVSA’s lack of
financial liquidity
has stranded ships out of
port. In June 2016, British
Petroleum had more than two
million barrels of oil
stalled at a maritime
terminal in the Caribbean
because Venezuela had an
unpaid debt of one million
dollars.
That’s the lesson one
robber has recently learned
the hard way. Footage of an
attempted robbery has
surfaced at a store where a
man checking out groceries
at a store decided it would
be wise to pull a large
chef’s knife.
If you need to laugh
right now, then we’ve got
just the video for you.
The YouTube channel Bad
Lip Reading has gained
notoriety as on of YouTube’s
most popular places to watch
parodies of videos ranging
from the NFL to pop-culture.
BLR will have Yoda singing
about seagulls chasing him
one moment, and have the
Avengers take on redneck
personas the next. All of
this done through the use of
— as the channel suggests —
dubbing over scenes, and
badly interpreting what the
people are saying
Boeing CEO
Dennis Muilenburg
said Wednesday that he was
encouraged by
President Trump’s
personal engagement on
business issues, despite his
criticism that slammed the
manufacturer during the
campaign.
After winning
the election, Trump tweeted
criticism of the cost of
Boeing’s Air Force One and
Lockheed’s F-35 fighters.
But Muilenburg said he
appreciated Trump meeting
with business leaders and
pushing business interests.
2017 is the year of
Artificial Intelligence
(A.I.), Big Data, Virtual
Reality (VR) and Cyber
Security with major
companies like Google,
Facebook, Apple, IBM and
Salesforce and technology
pioneers like SpaceX founder
Elon Musk investing in these
hot technologies.
Since everyone seems to be
talking about the hottest
trend — artificial
intelligence and machine
learning — broadly, 62
percent of large enterprises
will be using AI
technologies by 2018, says a
report from Narrative
Science.
Sustainable Innovations,
Inc. (SI) is developing an
electrochemical system that
addresses multiple
challenges and opportunities
in the energy supply
marketplace. The CO2RENEW™
converts waste CO2 and H2O
to methane fuel, the primary
energy carrier in natural
gas. This fuel can then be
stored or transported in the
existing natural gas
pipeline to points of need.
Tsunamis are produced by
seismic events like
earthquakes or underwater
landslides; they are ocean
shock waves that are
thousands of miles long and
can span from one continent
to another. At sea, they are
barely perceptible as ships
rise and fall safely at
their passing, but when they
encounter the shallower
waters near land, they turn
into deadly aquatic
juggernauts that can destroy
whole cities and inundate
entire regions.
The bill, entitled "The
State Refugee Security Act,"
was initially introduced
last year, The Hill Reported
on Tuesday. It would require
federal authorities to
notify a state 21 days
before settling a refugee
there, during which the
governor can request
"adequate assurance" that
the refugee is not a
security threat. If the
federal authorities can not
provide this, the refugee
will not be able to settle
in the state.
Atrazine is an herbicide
commonly used to protect
crops like corn and
sugarcane from broadleaf
weeds. It is also an
endocrine disruptor, found
to cause a variety of health
problems if ingested,
including weight loss, heart
damage, and muscle spasms.
Despite these health
effects, the U.S. EPA has a
history of dismissing
atrazine as a cause for
concern in water. The
agency’s conclusions in
2006, 2007, and 2009 were
that either the pesticide
did not pose a legitimate
threat to human health...
The world is ticking
another 30 seconds closer to
the apocalypse — in part
because of Donald Trump.
At least that's the dire
warning from the group of
scientists who oversee the
metaphorical Doomsday Clock,
the hands of which were
moved Thursday to two
minutes and 30 seconds
before midnight — the time
that represents when a
catastrophic nuclear event
can annihilate the earth.
It's the closest the
clock has been to midnight
since the Cold War of the
1950s.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average on Wednesday both
crossed and closed above the
20,000 level for the first
time, while the S&P 500 and
Nasdaq Composite also
cruised to records after
upbeat earnings releases
from heavyweights such as
Boeing Co. and optimism over
the economy.
The Obama administration
pumped more than $7 billion
into an education program,
first authorized under
President George W. Bush,
that had no impact on
student achievement –
according to a report
released by the Department
of Education in the final
days of the 44th
president’s term.
The Department of
Education’s findings were
contained in its “School
Improvement Grants:
Implementation and
Effectiveness” report. The
study could energize the
debate over national
education policy just as the
Senate considers President
Trump’s controversial pick
to lead the department,
Betsy DeVos, an outspoken
school choice advocate who
has questioned the way
federal education dollars
are spent.
With a partial substitution
of fossil based energy
sources that are currently
used at Luverne with green
energy sources, such as
biogas, it should be
possible for Gevo to achieve
the 50% or greater
greenhouse gas emissions
(“GHG”) reduction needed to
claim the advanced D5
Renewable Identification
Number (“RIN”) according to
the pathway approval.
“The majority of primate
species are endangered now.
We are at a turning point
where we must take action or
lose many species during the
next 50 years.”
Residents of Flint, MI,
say they are being shut out
of official discussions of
the water crisis.
“Government agencies
holding sway over the next
steps in Flint’s nearly
three-year water crisis met
in Chicago on Tuesday in a
controversial closed-door
session,”...
Hundreds of people
gathered in Manhattan on a
cold, rainy Tuesday evening
to protest President Donald
Trump’s executive orders to
restart the Keystone and
Dakota Access oil pipelines.
Both pipelines were
stalled under the Obama
administration due to
concerns from environmental
groups that the projects
could contaminate lands and
contribute to climate
change.
Native American groups
have been at the center
of the longstanding protests
against the Dakota Access
pipeline as it would run
through their land and could
contaminate their drinking
water for the Standing Rock
Sioux tribe in North and
South Dakota.
The material -
atomic metallic hydrogen -
was created by Thomas D.
Cabot Professor of the
Natural Sciences Isaac
Silvera and post-doctoral
fellow Ranga Dias. In
addition to helping
scientists answer
fundamental questions about
the nature of matter, the
material is theorized to
have a wide range of
applications, including as
a room-temperature
superconductor. The creation
of the rare material is
described in a January 26
paper published in Science.
"This is the holy grail
of high-pressure
physics,"...
HummingBad – an
Android-based malware that
infected over 10 million
Android devices around the
world last year and made its
gang an estimated US$300,000
per month at its peak – has
made a comeback.
Security researchers have
discovered a new variant of
the HummingBad malware
hiding in more than 20
Android apps on Google Play
Store.
The satellite’s 1st images
since its launch a few
months ago. GOES-16 provides
4 times the image resolution
– 4 times more detail – than
earlier GOES satellites.
Weather forecasters are
excited!
The Obama administration
is being investigated for
cyber attacks on Georgia's
state government network and
election system, according
to an exclusive
investigative report
Thursday by The Daily
Caller.
The probe is being
conducted by Department of
Homeland Security Inspector
General John Roth, according
to a Jan. 17 letter from
Roth to Georgia Secretary of
State Brian Kemp
In 2017 there have been
additional 70 GW of PV
installed worldwide. This
means an increase of 30 %
compared to 2015. The
modules installed in 2016
alone are producing about
90 TWh of electricity every
year, according to the
German Solar Association.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a chance
for a C-class flares on days
one, two, and three (27 Jan,
28 Jan, 29 Jan). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on days one
and two (27 Jan, 28 Jan) and
quiet to unsettled levels on
day three (29 Jan).
From 2Q15 to 1Q16, U.S. wind
power jobs increased 32
percent and solar jobs
increased 25 percent, while
geothermal jobs decreased 25
percent, according to the
U.S. Department of Energy’s
2017 U.S. Energy and
Employment Report.
Congressional Republicans
are set to overturn a slew
of Obama-era regulations
next week, including a
controversial anti-bribery
rule aimed at U.S. resource
companies such as Exxon
Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp,
according to a top lawmaker.
Oregon State University has
cultivated a new strain of
red marine algae that has
researchers — and vegans —
excited. A nutritional
powerhouse, the aquatic
plant is packed with
protein, vitamins, minerals
and antioxidants — to the
point where it even
outshines kale.
Did I mention, it also
tastes just like bacon when
fried?
Officials in Corpus
Christi, TX, told residents
to completely stop using tap
water last month after a
dangerous chemical made its
way into the water system.
“Officials sent out an
alert [on December 14] night
telling the city’s 320,000
residents not to drink,
bathe or prepare food with
tap water after an accident
in Corpus Christi’s
industrial district caused
an asphalt emulsifier to
seep into water supplies
We know one lurks at the
center of the Milky Way, but
to these astronomers, seeing
will be believing.
The center of the
galaxy doesn’t look like
much, even if you’re lucky
enough to live in a place
where the night sky is
sufficiently dark to see the
bands of the Milky Way. In
visible light, the stars
between here and there blur
together into a single
brilliant source, like a
bright beam hiding the
lighthouse behind it.
As a species, we’re just
beginning to recognize that
the environment is vital to
our health.
Evidence is increasing from
multiple scientific fields
that exposure to the natural
environment can improve
human health, while the
state of the environment’s
health affects human health
in many different way
The State Department's
entire senior management
team has resigned — part of
a mass departure of senior
Foreign Service officers who
were asked to leave by
President Donald Trump's
administration, The
Wall Street Journal
reported
After the revelation on
Monday that Obama had
quietly and quickly approved
a $221 million payment to
the Palestinian Authority
just hours before Trump’s
inauguration ceremony, the
State Department says it
will investigate the matter
and stop the payment if it’s
inappropriate.
President Donald Trump
declared Wednesday he
believes torture works as
his administration readied a
sweeping review of how
America conducts the war on
terror. It includes possible
resumption of banned
interrogation methods and
reopening CIA-run "black
site" prisons outside the
United States.
President Donald Trump
signed executive actions on
Tuesday to advance the
Keystone XL and Dakota
Access oil pipelines,
reversing decisions made by
the Obama administration and
setting off a clash with
Democrats and environmental
activists who vehemently
oppose the projects.
The probability of another
event like the 1859
Carrington event is – at any
given time – low. But many
believe it’s “almost
inevitable” one will occur,
eventually. A new study
explores the risks...
Under the study’s most
extreme blackout scenario,
affecting 66 percent of the
U.S. population, the daily
domestic economic loss could
total $41.5 billion plus an
additional $7 billion loss
through the international
supply chain.
Typically we take for
granted the safety of cotton
products such as gauze,
bandages, swabs, pads, wipes
— and even feminine
products, like tampons and
sanitary pads. But a 2015
Argentinian study should
give us pause for thought.
As it turns out, researchers
from the University of La
Plata found that a vast
majority of these products
contain glyphosate, the main
ingredient in Monsanto’s
wildly popular Roundup
herbicide and the same
chemical that’s considered a
“probable carcinogen” by the
World Health Organization.
One of the most successful
cybercriminal gangs ever
that's known for the theft
of one billion dollars from
over 100 banks across 30
countries back in 2015 – is
back with a BANG!
The
Carbanak cyber gang has been
found abusing various Google
services to issue command
and control (C&C)
communications for
monitoring and controlling
the machines of unsuspecting
malware victims.
Federal support for
renewable energy could take
an abrupt U-turn should
Perry be confirmed as
Secretary of Energy...
On the issue of climate
change, Perry said he makes
decisions based on sound
science, especially when
people’s lives are at stake
but admitted to Senator
Bernie Sanders that he
doesn’t view climate change
as a crisis nor does he
believe that the U.S. should
take the lead in
transforming its energy
supply away from fossil
fuels.
Another study has proved
what we already knew but
didn’t want to admit —
Facebook ‘lurking’ is making
you miserable.
It’s becoming common
knowledge that scouring
social media for hours on
end isn’t doing us any
favours, but is that just a
recognizable feeling many of
us can relate to, or is
there some science behind
it? A new study puts power
behind the statement: Get
off Facebook!
The Wednesday, December
14th, 2016 edition of the
national newspaper USA Today
contained the shocking
headline, “4 Million
Americans Could Be Drinking
Toxic Water.” The
article highlighted water
contamination in the once
oil-booming town of Ranger,
Texas – which reminds us of
the similar tragedy in
Flint, Michigan.
For decades, there has been
serious concern about the
environmental implications
of hormone disrupting
chemicals called
“xeno-estrogens” or false
estrogens. Literally
translated, Xeno-estrogens
are “foreign estrogens” that
imitate estrogen and its
effect on the body. These
chemical estrogens are
potent and powerful and have
been found in extremely high
levels in Breast Cancer
tumors.
Wearing pink,
pointy-eared “pussyhats” to
mock the new president,
hundreds of thousands of
women took to the streets in
the nation’s capital and
cities around the world
Saturday to send Donald
Trump an emphatic message
that they won’t let his
agenda go unchallenged over
the next four years.
“We march today for the
moral core of this nation,
against which our new
president is waging a war,”
actress America Ferrera told
the Washington crowd. “Our
dignity, our character, our
rights have all been under
attack, and a platform of
hate and division assumed
power yesterday. But the
president is not America. …
We are America, and we are
here to stay.”
Political commentator
Charles Krauthammer spoke in
his normal no-holds-barred
manner on Thursday when
addressing controversial
actions taken by President
Barack Obama during his
final week in office,
including Obama’s
handling of Army Pvt.
Chelsea Manning’s prison
sentence.
It has been remarked upon
many times that the people
who most regularly preach
“tolerance” are often the
people who are least likely
to demonstrate it. I’ve
mentioned my own experiences
dealing with the Tolerance
Mob. I have found them to be
largely vicious, ruthless,
and as close-minded as any
group on Earth. Tolerant?
Not hardly.
But we all get it.
Liberals show absolutely no
tolerance while they shriek
about tolerance. That’s been
observed a million times
over because the dichotomy
is just so absurd and so
obvious that you can’t help
but observe it and comment
on it...
Finally, someone has stepped
forward to hold Monsanto –
the most hated corporation
in the world – legally
responsible for the crop
devastation caused by
drifting of its toxic
herbicide. A Missouri peach
grower has filed a
lawsuit against Monsanto,
claiming that illegal use of
the herbicide dicamba caused
extensive damage to
his peach trees – along with
millions of dollars in
losses.
One of the most
terrifyingly-plausible
doomsday scenarios is the
rise of superbugs, strains
of bacteria that are
evolving a resistance to our
most powerful antibiotics.
To try to prevent that
situation occurring,
scientists are building a
creative array of weapons by
developing new materials,
gels, lights and molecules
to fight
antibiotic-resistant bugs,
and even pitting bacteria
against each other. Now
researchers have created a
new molecule that can make
previously
antibiotic-resistant
bacteria vulnerable to
existing drugs again.
The National Highway Traffic
and Safety Administration
(NHTSA) concluded a
months-long investigation of
a fatal crash in Florida
last May, and reported
Thursday that the agency
found no defects in Tesla’s
Automatic Emergency Braking
(AEB) and Autopilot systems.
Definitely, Tesla is
exonerated.
Did NHTSA
let Tesla off the hook too
easily? Absolutely.
Lest anyone think that
President Trump (it feels so
good to write these words)
was making it up as he went
along the campaign trail,
his inaugural address should
set their hearts at rest.
The new president continued
his campaign themes into his
inaugural signaling that
they will dominate his
policy-making and thinking
for all of his presidency.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a chance
for a C-class flares and a
slight chance for an M-class
flare on days one, two, and
three (24 Jan, 25 Jan, 26
Jan). The geomagnetic
field is expected to be at
quiet levels on days one,
two, and three (24 Jan, 25
Jan, 26 Jan).
After the Fukushima nuclear
plant accident occurred,
hundreds of millions of
gallons of radioactive water
was left over. That water is
still being stored, as no
one knows quite what to do
with it. Scientists from
Texas' Rice University and
Russia's Kazan Federal
University, however, may
have an answer. They've
developed a type of carbon
that can reportedly filter
radionuclides from water.
Most of what you’ve been
told about fat has
nothing to do with
your well-being… and
everything to do with
one man’s ego. It’s time to
clear up the lies you’ve
been told and give you the
facts. Your health depends
on it.
Saudi Arabia’s first
round of renewable
energy tenders are expected
to deliver $50 billion by
2032 to bankroll 10 GW of
clean energy, the country’s
energy minister announced
this week.
However, Khaled Al-Falih
also used the stage at Abu
Dhabi Sustainability Week to
stress that oil and gas had
a role to play in the global
clean energy narrative.
Lavabit, the encrypted email
provider Edward Snowden
favored, has risen from the
ashes with more security
features than before. If
you'll recall, company chief
Ladar Levison shut it down
in 2013 instead of complying
with the government's demand
to hand over its SSL
encryption key
A self-described
Christian liberal from
Dover, Pa., she was
horrified by Donald Trump's
rhetoric toward women and
minorities during the
presidential campaign. This
was their chance, she
thought, to stand with other
women in support of a more
inclusive and equal world.
Then she read that the
organizers had refused to
partner with a group of
anti-abortion feminists.
Would she, Linebaugh
wondered, be welcome?
In a unanimous vote,
Standing Rock Sioux tribal
council members voted to
close the network of
encampments behind the
Dakota Access Pipeline
protests within 30 days,
including the main Oceti
Sakowin, Rosebud, and Sacred
Stone camps. Council members
also voted against providing
any temporary camps or
shelters to individuals who
should remain at the camps
after the February 19
deadline. The decision was
made in an emergency meeting
held on Friday, January 20
at the tribe’s headquarters
in Fort Yates, North Dakota.
Water suppliers that get
water from the state —
including ones in the Santa
Clara and Livermore valleys
— are getting larger
allocations this year after
recent big storms.
The grasslands of the Namib
Desert in Africa are
pock-marked with patches
where vegetation just won't
grow. Dubbed "fairy
circles," these strange
structures have sparked
debate for years about how
they form, with theories
ranging from plants
competing for limited water,
to termite colonies clearing
their territories. Now,
scientists at Princeton have
put forward a new
explanation: it's actually
both of those ideas, working
in unison.
If Bill and Hillary looked
dour at Donald Trump’s
inauguration, it may have
been more than just
frustration and sour grapes
at losing the election. As
Obama passed into history
and Trump took power as
president, what didn’t
happen may have had more
consequence for the former
first couple than what did
take place: Obama did not
pardon Hillary.
There are all kinds of
remedies to keep sliced
apples from browning: a
spritz of lemon, salt and
water, even honey and water.
But a new apple in town
could make that concern a
thing of the past. The
Arctic apple is genetically
modified to
resist discoloration for
weeks. Now, the first crop
has been approved for
commercial sale and are set
to hit supermarket shelves
next month.
Researchers at Rice
University and Kazan Federal
University in Russia have
found a way to extract
radioactivity from water and
said their discovery could
help purify the hundreds of
millions of gallons of
contaminated water stored
after the Fukushima nuclear
plant accident.
US President Donald Trump
pledged Sunday to begin
renegotiating the North
American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) in
upcoming talks with the
leaders of Mexico and
Canada.
Today we are not merely
transferring power from one
administration to another or
from one party to another,"
Trump said. "We are
transferring power from
Washington, D.C., and giving
it back to you, the people."
Turkey can no longer
insist on a resolution of
the conflict in Syria
without the involvement of
President Bashar al-Assad,
as the situation on the
ground has changed
dramatically, Turkish Deputy
Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek
said on Friday.
Turkey has long
insisted that Assad must go
for sustainable peace to be
achieved in Syria. But it
has become less insistent on
his immediate departure
since its recent
rapprochement with Russia,
which backs the Syrian
leader, and ahead of peace
talks planned in Kazakhstan
next week.
“As a species, we’re on a
fast track to extinction,”
says Ori Hofmekler, author
of The Anti-Estrogenic Diet.
“In the past few decades,
men have lost 50 percent of
their sperm count and within
only one generation, the
average man’s sperm count
and testosterone have
dropped by 20 percent. Women
are no better. Staggering
figures show that most women
today are suffering from
female disorders and three
out of ten women between the
ages of 35 to 60 will
develop breast cancer.”
Getting stranded in your car
during the winter can be a
terrifying situation. If
you’re not prepared, it can
even turn into a
life-threatening scenario.
Don’t let that happen to you
or your family. Learn how to
stay warm and survive when
you’re stranded in your car
on the road.
Shortly after denying
partnerships to several
pro-life groups, the Women’s
March on Washington angered
some liberal activists for
editing its position on sex
workers’ rights.
Yoga is an age-old
meditative practice that has
often been associated with
younger Americans. But it is
fast becoming a hot health
trend for people over 50 who
are looking to improve their
mental and physical
well-being, and stave off
the chronic ills of aging.
The learning capacity of
infants is a source of
constant amazement. We know
that babies are already
developing language
recognition abilities while
still in the womb but until
recently we never understood
just how significant, and
permanent, early language
learning actually was.
The discovery is surprising
because the upper atmosphere
of Venus is thick, with
fast-moving clouds of
sulfuric acid that speed by
at 100 meters per second
(328 feet per second) while
the surface below rotates at
a crawl – a day on Venus
actually takes longer than a
trip around the sun on the
planet.
China's holdings of U.S.
Treasuries declined for a
sixth straight month in
November, as the world's
second largest economy
continued to dip into its
reserves to prop up a
weakening yuan and stem
capital flows.
China's holdings declined
to $1.049 trillion, a drop
of about $66 billion, data
from the U.S. Treasury
Department showed on
Wednesday. November's drop
in China's holdings was the
largest since December
2011's record fall of $102.7
billion.
The new rules were released
amid continued public
discomfort over the
government's surveillance
powers, an issue that gained
prominence following
revelations in 2013 by
former government contractor
Edward Snowden that the
National Security Agency
(NSA) secretly collected the
communications data of
millions of ordinary
Americans.
NOAA and Princeton
University scientists have
produced the first global
analysis of how climate
change may affect the
frequency and location of
mild weather - days that are
perfect for an outdoor
wedding, baseball, fishing,
boating, hiking or a picnic.
Scientists defined "mild"
weather as temperatures
between 64 and 86 degrees F,
with less than a half inch
of rain and dew points below
68 degrees F, indicative of
low humidity.
While there’s no
scientific data to show
that living with less
stuff will increase your
happiness, a growing
number of people insist
that this is in fact
part of the equation
An estimated 70 percent
of American homeowners
cannot park their car in
the garage due to it
being filled with stuff
that doesn’t fit inside
the house
The average credit card
debt for Americans who
carry a balance is
$16,000. Meanwhile,
financial hardship and
work stress are two
significant contributors
to depression and
anxiety. The answer is
to buy less
Morton County Sheriff’s
Department officers together
with the National Guard
began firing
less-than-lethal
projectiles, pepper spray,
and, reportedly, mace on a
group of water protectors at
Standing Rock during what
was supposed to be a
prayerful, peaceful walk to
the drill pad where work is
rumored to continue on the
Dakota Access Pipeline.
And all of this, of course,
happens on the holiday
honoring Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. — who dedicated
his life to non-violence to
spark drastic change on the
issue of civil rights.
Despite farmers and food
producers pledging to
reduce or stop
antibiotics use, a new
report finds that sales
of antibiotics for use
on farms are going up
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA)
reported that 62 percent
of all the antibiotics
used in animals for food
production were
“medically important”
for human health
Scientists have warned
that using so many
antibiotics would result
in antibiotic-resistant
superbugs
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
(CDC) says at least 2
million people in the
U.S. contract a
bacterial infection that
antibiotics can’t fix
each year, and 23,000
die as a direct result
We absolutely should
not be investing in
companies that hurt Native
communities the way that
Wells Fargo, Bank of
America, TD Bank, Bank of
America, and Chase do.
You can pretty much assume
that any humongo national
bank has dirty hands and is
helping to fund the Dakota
Access Pipeline and a bunch
of other horrible things.
So don’t bank with them.
But where should
we bank? We have to put our
money someplace, right? We
can’t just stash our cash
under a pile of Pendleton
and Pendleton-ish blankets,
can we?
One family of superbugs,
known as
carbapenem-resistant
Enterobacteriaceae or CRE,
may be spreading more widely
than previously thought,
according to a study
published Monday (PDF) in
the journal Proceedings of
the National Academy of
Sciences.
The hard-fought victory in
Europe came after six
grueling years of reports,
hearings before the
Commission, meetings at the
Parliament, events in the
national capital cities and
in the E.U. capital city of
Brussels and submission of
testimony to a seemingly
unending number of players.
New study finds more
than half the loss occurs
outside the blackout zone.
The daily U.S. economic
cost from solar
storm-induced electricity
blackouts could be in the
tens of billions of dollars,
with more than half the loss
from indirect costs outside
the blackout zone, according
to a new study.
Previous studies have
focused on direct economic
costs within the blackout
zone, failing to take into
account indirect domestic
and international supply
chain loss from extreme
space weather.
NASA and NOAA announced
today that 2016 was the
hottest year on record
globally – and the 3rd year
in a row of record warming –
continuing a decades-long
warming trend.
For decades, scientists
have theorized that the
movement of Earth’s tectonic
plates is driven largely by
negative buoyancy created as
they cool. New research,
however, shows plate
dynamics are driven
significantly by the
additional force of heat
drawn from the Earth’s core.
The new findings also
challenge the theory that
underwater mountain ranges
known as mid-ocean ridges
are passive boundaries
between moving plates. The
findings show the East
Pacific Rise, the Earth’s
dominant mid-ocean ridge, is
dynamic as heat is
transferred.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. With
every shampoo or load of
laundry you may wonder, how
much water did I just use?
Now multiply that thought
across the nation and add
other types of ways to use
water, from irrigating crops
to sustaining thermoelectric
power generation.
...I said “this sort of
dude is why dads —
plural, universal
— need to raise their sons.”
Much like I might point to a
liquor store robbery in the
inner city and say “this is
why inner city kids need
dads at home.”
Pedro Figueroa Zarceno, a
32-year-old man from El
Salvador filed the suit in
U.S. District Court this
week, claiming that the city
violated his right to due
process along with breaking
their own sanctuary city
ordinance. The suit also
includes a demand that the
city files paperwork stating
that Figueroa was a victim
of false imprisonment.
“We are seeing more and more
countries hold auctions to
deploy renewables, and as
variable and distributed
sources of renewables take
on a greater role,
regulators have implemented
changes to enable grid
integration at scale,” he
said, adding that, “heating
and cooling, and the
potential of renewables for
transport, are areas where
future efforts are needed.”
The Democrats have, for
several months now, been in
a state of convulsive rage
over WikiLeaks. They tell us
that WikiLeaks is in league
with Putin. They tell us
that WikiLeaks subverted our
system and destabilized the
very foundations of our
democracy. WikiLeaks stole
the election. Sabotage! So
on and so forth.
With this in mind, it
seems a little odd that
right in the midst of this
apocalyptic hand wringing
over WikiLeaks, the
president would choose
to commute the sentence of a
guy who went into a war
zone, stole reams of
classified files, and gave
them to WikiLeaks. Bradley
Manning didn’t merely
release email
correspondences between DNC
officials where they
complain about Bernie
Sanders and talk about
spirit cooking.
OPEC expects demand for its
own crude to fall this year
but is mindful that the
return of US shale could
dent positive early signs on
non-OPEC compliance with the
landmark production
restraint deal to rebalance
the market, the exporters
group said in its monthly
oil market report Wednesday.
In a sign that OPEC is
serious about sticking to
its recently instated output
agreement, the producer
group said it produced
33.085 million b/d in
December, down 220,900 b/d
from November, with Saudi
Arabia leading the way by
posting a sizeable fall.
A San Francisco company has
posted ads in more than 20
cities nationwide seeking
protesters to demonstrate at
President-elect Donald
Trump's inauguration,
offering to pay up to
$2,500, The
Washington Times reported.
Edward Snowden's leave
to remain in Russia has
been extended until
2020, Russia's Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman
Maria Zakharova has
confirmed to CNN.
Snowden, a former US
National Security Agency
contractor, sought
asylum in Russia in June
2013 after leaking
volumes of information
on American intelligence
and surveillance
operations to the media.
The Secret Service, the
federal agency tasked with
protecting the President,
agreed on Tuesday to pay $24
million to more than 100 of
its black agents who claim
that their superiors
fostered racism, according
to court documents.
The settlement puts to
rest a contentious, nearly
two-decade-old case that was
brought by black agents who
deemed their work
environment blatantly
discriminatory, with white
agents getting routinely
promoted over more qualified
African-Americans.
Coal-tar-based pavement
sealants contain
polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs) that
are 1,000 times more
toxic than comparable
products, contaminating
waterways and
endangering both aquatic
life and humans
“Toxic sludge” from
stormwater runoff is so
poisonous in parts of
the Pacific Northwest it
can kill an adult coho
salmon in just 2.5
hours, before it has a
chance to spawn
Gas and wastewater used
to de-ice roads were
found to contain
radioactive radium and
barium, as well as
ammonium in
concentrations 50 times
greater than recommended
by the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)
Municipalities concerned
about road toxicities
got creative to
alleviate the problem
and came up with some
very innovative
solutions
“I see a likelihood for a
major clash developing in
the next year, year and
half, between the Trump
administration’s desire to
go for 3 to 4 percent growth
and the growing attention of
the Fed to emerging
inflation in their own 2
percent mandate,”
Northwestern University’s
Robert J. Gordon told a
conference in Paris on
Monday. Barry Eichengreen of
the University of California
Berkeley sees “double-digit”
dollar appreciation as a
possible consequence of
Trump’s fiscal stimulus, tax
reform and protectionist
trade policy.
Agriculture consumes about
40 percent of the freshwater
available in California with
a large amount being wasted
by leaky irrigation systems,
inefficient field
application methods, and the
planting of water-intensive
crops in the wrong growing
location. Agricultural usage
is not subject to the 25
percent water use reduction
order.
Obesity is just one side
effect of insufficient
movement. The scientific
literature has linked
inactivity to a whole
host of diseases and
ailments, raising your
risk of general ill
health by 114 percent
Which comes first —
obesity or sedentary
behavior? Recent
research suggests
obesity dampens dopamine
signaling in your brain,
which suppresses your
body’s natural impulse
to stay active
Researchers have found
there is also a genetic
component to your
dislike of exercise that
may be overcome through
a well-planned regimen
that accounts for your
aerobic capacity and
physical ability
General Motors will
reportedly invest at least
$1 billion in several of its
factories in the United
States, a move that will
create more than 1,000 jobs.
Recent research shows that
American doctors are still
over-prescribing many
different kinds of drugs,1 especially
antibiotics and opioid pain
killers, despite repeated
calls for prudence. U.S.
health care expenses have
also risen, hitting $3.2
trillion annually as of
2015, and rising
prescription prices combined
with over-prescribing are
significant drivers of these
rising costs, according to a
government report.2,3,4,5
While psychiatric drugs were
not included in that report,
statistics reveal a very
clear trend of
over-prescribing here as
well. According to recent
research, 1 in 6 Americans
are now on antidepressants
or some other type of
psychiatric drug, and most
appear to be taking them
long-term.6,7,8,9,10 That’s
quite an extraordinary
number, and a significant
increase, nearly doubled,
from 2011 when 1 in 10
American adults reported
using a psychiatric drug
A now-notorious list of
ostensibly “fake” news sites
— created by a liberal
professor, seemingly out of
thin air — spread like
wildfire online late last
year, and was eagerly
reprinted by corporate media
presstitutes hoping to
vindicate their own failed
reporting on the 2016
election. This was, in no
uncertain terms, a hit
list — or, at least, a
laughable attempt, branding
perfectly legitimate outlets
with the same scarlet letter
as those actually devoid of
integrity in a spurious
attempt to defame
alternative and independent
media as a whole. (i.e.
anyone dissenting from the
mainstream narrative.) It
also fit conveniently into
the establishment’s
burgeoning war on
independent media, disguised
as a battle against fake
news.
...But data can be dry, and
sometimes what resonates
most deeply within our souls
are stories. So sit back,
grab a cup of tea, and let’s
have story time. I’m going
to tell you a few true
stories that will
demonstrate to you how
powerfully the mind affects
your physiology.
In my experience, very few
if any of our negative
thoughts are actually
ours. The ones that are not
ours may seem like
ours because they are
playing in our heads. The
logic is that
we are thinking them so why
wouldn’t they be our
thoughts? But thoughts can
come that surely don’t
feel like ours! When
they do, we become
dumbfounded, shake our head
in disbelief, question our
sanity and think – surely that isn’t
me – I don’t feel
that way!
Broadway star Jennifer
Holliday has canceled an
upcoming performance at an
event for President-elect
Donald Trump’s inauguration
next week, saying in an open
letter that she didn’t know
her performance would be
perceived as a statement of
support for Trump and Vice
President-elect Mike Pence.
After word broke that
award-winning Broadway
performer Jennifer Holliday
had decided to back out of
performing at
President-elect Donald
Trump’s inauguration next
week, it was reported
Saturday that opera tenor
Andrea Bocelli also decided
against performing after
receiving death threats and
not because he feared
boycotts as was originally
reported.
Prospective US Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson better
watch his mouth, angry
Chinese media said Friday,
warning President-elect
Donald Trump's nominee that
his threats to block China
in the South China Sea were
fighting words.
More than a century of
non-Indian land-grabbing of
the territories of our
original nations
There are already proposals
being put forth for the
Trump administration to
supposedly “free the
Indians” from the yoke of
federal control by
“privatizing Indian lands,”
particularly what the
mainstream press has termed
“oil-rich lands.” We would
be wise to remember,
however, that such failed
proposals have been put
forward before, going back
to the Dawes Allotment Act
in the nineteenth century.
Here’s some food for
thought: private land or
property is taxable, and the
power to tax is the power to
destroy.
A draft report submitted to
the European Parliament's
legal affairs committee has
recommended that robots be
equipped with a "kill
switch" in order to manage
the potential dangers in the
evolving field of
self-learning autonomous
robotics.
When the Toxic Substances
Control Act (TSCA) was
enacted in 1976, it
grandfathered in thousands
of unevaluated chemicals
that were in commerce at the
time. The old law failed to
provide EPA with the tools
to evaluate chemicals and to
require companies to
generate and provide data on
chemicals they produced.
Billionaire hedge-fund
manager and Hillary Clinton
supporter George Soros bet
against the stock market’s
reaction to the election of
President-elect Donald Trump
and lost almost $1 billion
in the process, The Wall
Street Journal reported
Thursday.
As the world waits to see
whether US President-elect
Donald Trump will scrap the
Obama administration's
Climate Action Plan, a new
study suggests that like a
bad smell that continues to
linger in a room, even when
short-lived greenhouse gases
disappear from the
atmosphere, they'll continue
to have effects in the form
of rising sea levels for
centuries to come.
Researchers
from the Virginia
Institute of Marine
Science have deployed an
innovative,
sensor-studded mooring –
as tall as the Empire
State Building – beneath
waters in Antarctica
usually inaccessible
through the winter.
Oceans play
a major role in soaking
up the carbon dioxide
added to the atmosphere
by fossil fuels and
other human activities.
In fact, the oceans have
absorbed about a third
of this CO2, with the
Southern Ocean in
Antarctica taking a
starring role by soaking
up almost half the total
emissions taken in by
seawater.
Spent fuel must be kept
under water because each rod
is coated with zirconium
alloy, which will
spontaneously ignite if
exposed to air. Zirconium
has long been used in flash
bulbs for cameras, and burns
with an extremely bright hot
flame.
The top Catholic official in
Northern Ireland’s
power-sharing government
abruptly resigned on Monday,
plunging the territory into
political uncertainty and
adding to Britain’s
complications as it plans to
leave the European Union.
There's been no shortage of
studies conducted over the
years on the effects of
marijuana use. But the focus
of those studies can be as
varied as their conclusions,
making it a challenge to
wade through the reams of
information and get a full
read on the drug. A new and
lengthy report from the
National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering and
Medicine seeks to remedy
this by examining more than
10,000 scientific abstracts
of cannabis studies
published since 1999,
reaching nearly 100
conclusions.
Here is what any half way
decent parent knows: Boys
must be taught how to become
real men, just as girls must
be taught how to become real
women. Without any
distractions or nefarious
influences, perhaps boys
would turn into well
adjusted men and girls into
well adjusted women purely
by force of nature. But our
environment does not allow
for that anymore. We live in
a culture intent on
subverting and perverting
our nature. Yes, boys are
naturally inclined towards
the masculine and girls
towards the feminine, but
many powerful forces are
working to usurp the process
and sow confusion into the
minds of our children. These
make up marketing campaigns
and “transgender” magazine
covers are examples — and
results — of their efforts.
...When we have sex, whether
we are using contraception
or not, we are doing
something that by its very
nature may create human
life. Therefore, it stands
to reason, we should only
engage in it when we are
prepared to fully embrace
that nature. A person who
acts shocked and appalled by
the natural consequence of
sex is like a person with a
peanut allergy who acts
shocked and appalled when he
breaks into hives after
consuming a PB&J. What did
you think was going to
happen? If you can’t handle
peanut butter, don’t eat
peanut butter. If you can’t
handle a kid, don’t have
sex. This is rather simple,
I think. Not easy, no, but
simple.
The Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) is simply
incompatible with the Trump
era.
President-elect Trump won
as an entrepreneurial change
agent who would "drain the
swamp," get Washington under
control, take charge of the
bureaucracies, and get
things done in an
entrepreneurial, common
sense way.
The Congressional Budget
Office is the opposite of
these commitments.
Barack Obama’s
administration, with the
help of the rest of the P5+1
signatories of the Iran
deal, has gifted Iran with
enough uranium to make 10
simple nuclear bombs, a
nuclear arms expert said
Monday.
The transfer of 116
metric tons of uranium will
come from Russia as a “thank
you” in exchange for Iran’s
export of tons of reactor
coolant, the Associated
Press reported in an
exclusive.
President Barack Obama
told "60 Minutes"
that he made the call for
the U.S. to abstain from a
vote on a U.N. Security
councilresolution condemning
Israeli settlements,
allowing the resolution to
pass, and that doing so
didn't fray relations
between the two countries.
The move caused a major
fallout between the United
States and Israel, a notion
Obama demurred while
speaking to Steve Kroft in
an interview that aired
Sunday.
Unless you’ve been living
under a rock or hiding
beneath the covers in your
bed for the past couple of
months, you’ve undoubtedly
heard the war cries against
“fake news.” Facebook —
being the largest social
media site on which news is
shared among millions — has
vowed to take steps to limit
the amount of
“misinformation” that can be
spread on its site by
forwarding suspected fake
news stories to
fact-checkers like Snopes.1,2,3,4,5 So-called
disputed stories would then
be “buried” lower in
people’s news feeds.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on days one, two, and three
(17 Jan, 18 Jan, 19 Jan).
The geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on day one
(17 Jan) and unsettled to
minor storm levels on days
two and three (18 Jan, 19
Jan).
Acknowledging the “highly
contentious campaign,”
Sessions admitted that he
and others made comments
about Clinton, her emails
and the Clinton Foundation
that could place his
objectivity “in question”
— at least in the eyes of
some.
Sessions then promised to
separate himself from any
such cases, instead
deferring to either a deputy
attorney general or other
law enforcement.
Oil price volatility is here
to stay, notwithstanding
recent producer pledges of
output cuts aimed at calming
the international market,
the executive director of
the International Energy
Agency said Friday.
"We are entering an era of
more oil price volatility,"
Fatih Birol said in a
keynote address to delegates
at the Atlantic Council
Global Energy Forum Forum in
Abu Dhabi.
South Korea will seek more
oil and gas imports from the
US as part of its efforts to
cope with any possible trade
disputes after the new
administration takes over in
Washington, the vice
minister of trade, industry
and energy said Friday.
"We are looking for what
we can take to expand energy
cooperation with the US,
such as shale gas imports,
with the Trump
administration's looming
protectionist policies," Woo
Tae-hee, vice minister in
charge of energy, told S&P
Global Platts on the
sidelines of a trade forum
in Seoul.
The resurgence of the bald
eagle is one of America's
greatest conservation
success stories. They have
come back so strong that in
some areas, they are
interfering with efforts to
preserve more jeopardized
species, such as loons and
cormorants, wildlife
biologists say. And their
proliferation is leading to
encounters at livestock
farms that sometimes end
badly — and illegally — for
the eagles.
Chemicals that are commonly
used in the production of
vaccines, according to the
CDC, are done so to improve
the effectiveness of the
vaccine. Adjuvants like
aluminum (one of the most
common) are a component of
vaccines that potentates the
immune response to an
antigen. The adjuvant is
basically used to invoke the
desired immune response.
Aluminum has been added to
vaccines for approximately
90 years, and since then, a
lot of controversy,
especially in recent years,
has emerged regarding their
safety and effectiveness.
On December 4, opponents of
the Dakota Access Pipeline
(DAPL) won a major victory
when the Army Corps of
Engineers announced it would
not grant an easement for
the pipeline to be built
under Lake Oahe on the
Missouri River. The Water
Protectors, who have
heroically resisted the
pipeline for months,
celebrated this decision,
but they realized that the
Corps’ decision did not mean
the Black Snake was dead.
The Corps stated that it
would pursue further review
and analysis through an
Environmental Impact
Statement. But the Corps
could still grant an
easement at some future
date. Donald Trump’s
presidency has enhanced a
sense that the fight is not
over. Not only has Trump
held financial interest in
the pipeline (and likely
still does), he is a friend
of the fossil fuel industry
and has never shown respect
for the sovereignty of
American Indian nations.
The phrase ‘the way of
the warrior’ has its
origins in ancient history,
and even pre-history and
mythology. But what
relevance does this school
of thought have in modern
society?..
Warriors are like the white
blood cells in society’s
immune system. Whenever
foreign invaders or disease
enters the body, the white
blood cells attack to defend
the body. Without
warriors in a society, that
society becomes vulnerable
to foreign invaders or
disease from the inside.
As in every civilization in
the past, our current
regimes are doing everything
in their power to rid our
culture of the positive
masculine principles
embodied in the way of the
warrior.
Turkey's Parliament on
Monday kicked off debate on
proposed constitutional
amendments that would hand
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
largely ceremonial
presidency sweeping
executive powers and Erdogan
himself the possibility to
serve two more five-year
terms.
Erdogan, who has
dominated Turkish politics
for 14 years, has long
pushed imbuing the
presidency with greater
political powers, arguing
that strong leadership would
help Turkey grow.
A 73-year-old was accosted
in his own garage by two
armed robbers who were
trying to steal his truck,
but he made them instantly
regret it after they
discovered he was armed too.
The year 2016 will go down
in the record books as the
hottest year ever, with
average global temperatures
set to break the records of
2015, according to data from
the World Meteorological
Organization covering the
first 11 months of the year.
The upper-ocean heat content
anomaly was near zero when
averaged across the eastern
Pacific, though
near-to-below average
subsurface temperatures were
evident closer to the
surface. Atmospheric
convection remained
suppressed over the central
tropical Pacific and
enhanced over Indonesia
If water rates continue
rising at projected amounts,
the number of U.S.
households unable to afford
water could triple in five
years, to nearly 36 percent,
finds new research by a
Michigan State University
scholar.
The American Water Works
Association estimates the
needed repairs to our water
delivery infrastructure,
including pipes in many
cities that are more than
100 years old, to cost $1
trillion.
That’s a lot of
investment. It’s also a lot
of jobs.
The space rock passed by at
about half the distance
between our planet and the
moon
Monday at 7:47 A.M. EST,
an asteroid passed by Earth
at about half the distance
between our planet and the
Moon—roughly 119,500 miles,
reports Mike Wall at
Space.com. The space rock,
dubbed 2017 AG13 was on the
"smallish" size as far as
asteroids go, Wall
reports, thought to be
between 36 and 111 feet
wide.
But the most interesting
thing about this near miss
is that astronomers didn't
spot the space rock till
Saturday. It managed to fly
under the radar for so long
because the asteroid was
fairly dim and moving fast
Just like most of you, I too
really hate filling out web
forms, especially on mobile
devices. To help make this
whole process faster, Google
Chrome and other major
browsers offer "Autofill"
feature that automatically
fills out web form based on
data you have previously
entered in similar fields.
However, it turns out that
an attacker can use this
autofill feature against you
and trick you into spilling
your private information to
hackers or malicious third
parties.
When we hear
about carbon capture
technology, it typically
takes the form of
sponge-like materials
that are used to trap
excess carbon dioxide at
the places it is
released, such as
industrial smoke stacks.
Scientists from the US
Department of Energy's
Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, however,
have created a means of
drawing it right out of
the ambient air – and
the technology involves
using a liquid to turn
the CO2 gas into
crystals.
The
researchers started out
investigating methods of
removing environmental
contaminants such as
sulfate, chromate and
phosphate from water. In
order to so, they
synthesized a compound
known as guanidine. It
binds with such
pollutants, forming
insoluble crystals that
can subsequently be
removed from the water.
When Dartmouth decided to
clean the area, “it removed
40 tons of carcasses and
soil from scores of unlined
pits that were legal at the
time they were dug.” This
led to the discovery of
hazardous waste, radioactive
materials, and evidence that
led to a chemical that was
used in animal experiments.
The carcinogen 1,4-dioxane
had leaked into the
groundwater.
It may sound like a mnemonic
device, but it's really just
a very impressive step
forward in renewable energy
targets. As of January 1,
all trains in the
Netherlands now run entirely
on wind power (that is to
say electricity generated by
wind farms, not masts and
sails).
A former British
intelligence officer now
working for a private
investigative firm in London
prepared the unsubstantiated
allegations about
President-elect Donald
Trump's connections to
Russia, according to news
reports.
The risk of flooding in
the United States is
changing regionally, and the
reasons could be shifting
rainfall patterns and the
amount of water in the
ground.
In a new study,
University of Iowa engineers
determined that, in general,
the threat of flooding is
growing in the northern half
of the U.S. and declining in
the southern half. The
American Southwest and West,
meanwhile, are experiencing
decreasing flood risk.
Human consumption could
deplete groundwater in parts
of India, southern Europe
and the U.S. in the coming
decades, according to new
research presented here
today.
New modeling of the
world’s groundwater levels
finds aquifers — the soil or
porous rocks that hold
groundwater — in the Upper
Ganges Basin area of India,
southern Spain and Italy
could be depleted between
2040 and 2060.
In the waning days of 2016,
the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) ignored
the expressed will of
Congress. The agency
completed a “guidance”
document that prohibits
traditional compounding
pharmacies from stocking
doctors’ offices with custom
drugs.
Spiders may be scary for
some people, but the silk
that they produce to weave
their webs is very appealing
to many scientists.
Amazingly tough, yet
lightweight, spider silk has
been used in everything from
biodegradable sutures to
violin strings, and even has
possible applications in
electronics and gene
therapy. Unfortunately,
spiders individually produce
only small amounts of silk
and wrangling enough of them
into spooling out commercial
quantities is nigh on
impossible. Now a new
prototype process that
mimics the natural spinning
process has been created,
using bacteria and spider
silk proteins to create
large quantities of
artificial web threads on
demand.
If you followed the
mainstream press and a
number of opportunistic
politicians, the answer was
clear: unvaccinated kids
were the cause. Parents who
didn’t vaccinate their kids
according to the
government’s schedule were
vilified and derided
in the opinion columns of
newspapers and magazines,
and state politicians like
Sen. Richard Pan of
California used the hysteria
to enact legislation (SB
277) that eliminated
parents’ right to decide
whether and how to vaccinate
their children.
While I doubt we’ll be
seeing any of these
innovations any time soon —
the infrastructure would be
expensive to build and
unlikely to be made a
priority in our car-obsessed
culture — something that
could become a reality
in the not-so-distant future
is significant improvements
in aviation technology,
which dramatically lower
airplane fuel consumption
and pollution.
Making
the move away from
using fossil fuels
for heating is a
necessary part of
creating a
sustainable future,
but it's often a
difficult ask for
many people when
turning up a
thermostat on a gas
or electric heater
provides instant,
trouble-free warmth.
If people are to be
convinced to switch
to more renewable
sources, it makes
sense that there
need to be
easy-to-use systems
available to
encourage them to do
so. A group of Swiss
researchers claim to
have come up with a
process that stores
heat captured during
summer for easy,
flick-of-a-switch
use in winter, with
the added benefit
that the captured
energy can be
physically
transported anywhere
it may be needed.
Extreme droughts,
intensified by a warming
climate, are increasingly
causing ecosystem collapse
in many regions worldwide.
But models used by
scientists to predict the
tipping points at which
drought stress leads to
ecosystem collapse have
proven unreliable and too
optimistic.
A new study by scientists
at Duke University and
Beijing Normal University
may hold the answer why.
C3 event observed.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low with a chance
for a C-class flares on days
one, two, and three (13 Jan,
14 Jan, 15 Jan). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
unsettled levels on days one
and two (13 Jan, 14 Jan) and
quiet levels on day three
(15 Jan).
...because as the victim
gave the suspect his wallet,
he also pulled out a gun and
fired several shots at the
suspect and his vehicle,
police said. The suspect
then fled in a light-colored
pickup truck, police added.
Imposing martial law, which
means the military would
seize control of the
government, is necessary in
order to block
President-elect Donald
Trump’s inauguration,
according to TV personality
Rosie O’Donnell, a longtime
adversary of the billionaire
businessman.
There's not a
whole lot to like
about fillings, what
with the prodding,
scraping and jabbing
and all. And that's
before the drill
even comes out
(followed by the
bill at the end).
Tending to our
cavities might one
day be a much more
comfortable
experience, with
scientists
discovering that a
type of Alzheimer's
drug can actually
stimulate stem cells
within the tooth
pulp to promote
natural repair
instead.
Of the 60 scientific
studies conducted since 2001
to determine whether
drinking sugar-sweetened
beverages contributes to
obesity or diabetes, 26 of
them found no link. All 26
of those had something in
common: They were funded by
the sugar-sweetened-beverage
industry or conducted by
people who have financial
ties to the industry.
Of the 34 studies that
did find a link between
drinking sugary drinks and
developing diabetes or
becoming obese, just one was
funded by the beverage
industry. The rest were
conducted independently.
A year ago, the equatorial
Pacific was pulsing with
heat, due to one of the most
intense El Niños on record.
But the current La Niña has
been relatively quiet.
When is the last time you
took a moment to stop, and
smell your water? A
continuous supply of clean
and safe drinking water is
something that most people
take for granted. We rarely
go to the tap doubting that
the water will be clean and
safe. Recently, the general
population and water supply
professionals have become
concerned about the safety
and protection of our
drinking water supplies.
I believe that, at some
point in the near future,
Native nations are going to
publicly acknowledge that an
ethnically homogenous
populace is not
required to be a nation.
Instead, you need a certain
level of common values,
common language(s), and
common goals.
This is a virus that most
of us are exposed to—one
that is likely to shorten
your life, and that can
destroy it. But you may not
even have heard of it.
Between 20,000
and 40,000 infants
are born with
cytomegalovirus (CMV) each
year, and the virus kills
400 of those infants
annually. These numbers
compare with 1,600 babies
exposed to Zika in the
continental US in 2016.
Twenty percent of infants
born with CMV develop
permanent disabilities such
as hearing loss,
microcephaly (a condition
where the baby’s head is
significantly smaller than
expected), vision
abnormalities, and
intellectual deficits. It is
the most common congenital
viral infection and the
leading non-genetic cause of
deafness in children.
The
Earth is regularly peppered
with small, harmless
asteroid impacts, but
there's an estimated 13,000
giant asteroids, most of
which we can't find yet,
that could potentially
release cataclysmic
destruction on the planet.
Here's how the White House
plans to locate, track, and
deflect or destroy them.
Space is a
vast, mainly empty
expanse, but ours is
most certainly not the
only giant rock hurtling
through it. Earth's
orbit frequently crosses
paths with asteroids of
various sizes – NASA
tracked some 556
atmospheric fireballs
caused by meteorites
between 1 and 20 meters
in diameter over a
19-year period between
1994 and 2013.
A new study finds local
weather may play an
important role in Americans’
belief in climate change.
The study, published on
Monday, found that
Americans’ belief that the
earth is warming is related
to the frequency of
weather-related events they
experience, suggesting that
local changes in their
climate influence their
acceptance of this worldwide
phenomenon.
“One of the greatest
challenges to communicating
scientific findings about
climate change is the
cognitive disconnect between
local and global events,”
said Michael Mann, associate
professor of geography at
George Washington University
and co-author of the paper.
“It is easy to assume that
what you experience at home
must be happening
elsewhere.”
In simple terms, they’re
stocks that tend to move in
the opposite direction of
the U.S. dollar. Gold and
silver miners are a key
example. The yellow metal
often rises in value when
the dollar falls, and vice
versa – with mining stocks
following suit.
Jack Ma, the billionaire
founder of Chinese
e-commerce giant Alibaba
Group Holding Ltd., on
Monday met with
president-elect Donald Trump
to talk about a plan to
create 1 million U.S. jobs
in the next five years.
The Federal Bureau of
Investigations and the
Department of Justice would
rather let hardened
pedophiles go free than to
turn over information
related to their methods of
gathering evidence against
such suspects. In some
cases, the FBI has
reportedly run porn sites in
order to gather information
on child porn seekers. And
in other instances, the FBI
has infected suspects’
computers with malware, all
in an effort to gather the
evidence necessary for a
conviction.
All French citizens are
now automatic organ donors,
unless they officially opt
out of the program.
A new law that went into
effect on Jan. 1 makes
everyone an organ and tissue
donor. People can opt out of
the program, but they must
enroll in something called
the National Rejection
Register in order to do so.
The positive psychology
movement might not be your
cup of tea — especially if
you view it as some kind of
Pollyanna sugarcoating of
hardships, that’s
superficial at best,
downright denial at worst.
Looking on the bright side
all the time may simply ring
false. But there is one
positive feeling that we
would be wise to cultivate,
if nothing else than for our
personal well-being. That
feeling is gratitude.
...Lithuania confirmed the
presence of U.S. special
forces inside its territory,
stating the deployment’s
purpose is to train local
forces and act as a
deterrent against Russian
aggression. Supposedly, the
move is in response to a
"escalation" by Vladimir
Putin, who has been
deploying nuke-ready
missiles in the Russian
province of Kaliningrad
located in the heart of
central Europe. This move
has prompted the neighboring
Baltic states to become
“highly concerned” about
Russian military activity.
Forget the detox pills,
fasts and other painful
cleansing techniques –
instead, take a cue from the
yogis of India and look to
the breath. Using yogic
breathing techniques, we can
effortlessly detoxify, burn
fat and increase metabolism.
With the basic act of
bringing in more oxygen,
vitamins and minerals are
more easily absorbed, white
blood cells multiply and the
lymphatic system is
enhanced. Through the exhale
toxins are removed from the
bloodstream, which
revitalizes the organs and
clarifies the intellect.
Techniques range from a few
deep breaths before a meal
to more complex practices.
Either way, by using this
free detoxification method
daily, we can easily (and
economically) cleanse the
body and mind.
Conway told Bolling there
was no clear evidence in the
report that even one vote
was “moved” away from
Hillary Clinton to Trump as
a result of any hacking, and
agreed with Bolling that the
pressure from the left to
investigate the Russian
“hacking” was largely
political.
Surgical masks can do a good
job of catching viral
aerosols before they hit our
airways. But just because
they are stopped in their
tracks doesn't mean they
become any less infectious,
leaving open the possibility
of contracting things like
SARS or influenza so long as
the mask remains in close
contact. Scientists have
come up with a way to catch
and kill these harmful
pathogens in one fell swoop,
through a special salt
treatment that "deactivates"
the viruses once they are
trapped by the mask.
The
path of the Moon's shadow
moving across the United
States during the during
this year's total solar
eclipse, also known as the
path of totality, has been
visualized using data from
the Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter and Earth-based
topography information...
With President-elect Donald
Trump demanding more ships,
the Navy is proposing the
biggest shipbuilding boom
since the end of the Cold
War to meet threats from a
resurgent Russia and
saber-rattling China.
The Navy's 355-ship proposal
released last month is even
larger than what the
Republican Trump had
promoted on the campaign
trail, providing a potential
boost to shipyards that have
struggled because budget
caps that have limited money
funding for ships.
Snap a pic, and the (free)
Merlin Bird Photo ID app
will identify the bird. Once
downloaded, it can go
anywhere bird-watchers go,
even places without cell
service or Wi-Fi.
To some people, the fact
that radiation is an
odorless, tasteless,
intangible, and invisible
potential hazard is
alarming. To help reassure
this market, Dosime is being
released by the company of
the same name. This personal
radiation dosimeter aimed at
the consumer market works
with a digital app to
display "accurate, reliable
and easy-to-understand"
information about personal
radiation exposure because,
you know, worrying about our
step counts, resting heart
rates and blood pressure
thanks to wearables just
isn't enough.
A worrisome trend has
emerged in the last few
decades that many physicians
are choosing to ignore: As
the amount of psychiatric
drug prescriptions increase,
our mental health declines.
It’s time we swallow the
hard pill and ask ourselves,
are psychiatrists doing more
harm than good?
Solar activity is expected
to be very low on days one,
two, and three (10 Jan, 11
Jan, 12 Jan). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
active levels on days one
and three (10 Jan, 12 Jan)
and quiet to unsettled
levels on day two (11 Jan).
Marine Corps boot camp, with
its combination of strict
discipline and exhaustive
physical training, is
considered the most rigorous
of the armed forces recruit
training. Congress is
currently considering bills
that could increase the size
of the Marine Corps and the
Army to help meet US
military demands in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
MBS prices are inversely
related to today's mortgage
rates. When bond prices
rise, mortgage rates
sink. In general, a
twenty-five basis point
change in MBS pricing -- up
or down -- leads to a 0.125
percentage point change in
mortgage rates.
President-elect Donald Trump
lashed out on Twitter on
Sunday against NBC's
Meet the Press, saying
the show edited out nine
minutes of a 10-minute
interview that host Chuck
Todd did with Kellyanne
Conway, Trump's top
counselor.
The US Army Corps of
Engineers will not remove
oil pipelines from the next
five-year authorization of
its streamlined permitting
program, despite opponents
of the Dakota Access
Pipeline and historic
preservation groups calling
for more scrutiny in order
to prevent spills.
The agency released a final
rule Thursday authorizing
the program through March
2022.
The U.S. dropped 26,171
bombs in 2016, according to
new figures from the Council
on Foreign Relations. That
number marks a 13 percent
increase from the number of
bombs dropped in 2015. As
the Graphiq data
visualization shows, U.S.
airstrikes were conducted in
seven countries throughout
the year, although the
majority of these — nearly
93 percent — occurred in
Syria and Iraq.
The US government plans to
sell up to 8 million barrels
of light, sweet crude from
three of the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve's four
sites later in January, with
first deliveries planned for
as early as February, a
Department of Energy
official said Friday.
As many as nine cargoes of
US LNG are currently headed
for the world's key LNG
demand center in northeast
Asia, according to cFlow,
Platts trade flow software,
as higher spot LNG prices in
Asia incentivize the journey
for vessels carrying US LNG
through the Panama Canal.
Bob Marley couldn’t have
been more right when he sang
that there’s “so much
trouble in the world”. Our
planet is in chaos, and most
people are trying their best
to pretend that it’s all
normal, or that it will go
away on its own...
Nobody seems to see that we
can change the world by
coming together, by taking
action, finding common
ground with each other and
using our newfound unity to
take on the system.
“Happiness is not
something ready made. It
comes from your own
actions.” ~Dalai
Lama
Each and every person is in
one way or another seeking
to find happiness in life.
In their journey, however,
many people get side-tracked
and forget what truly
brings joy
and celebration into their
lives and what robs them of
happiness. They feel lost,
trying to quench their
psychological thirst for
happiness with substitutes
that do nothing but
leave them even more
thirsty.
The Year of Water”. January
started with the disclosure
and national outcry related
to lead exposure in Flint,
MI, and during the year, the
U.S. Congress introduced
almost 60 different bills
dealing with water. While
many of the bills focused on
lead, attention was also
paid to increasing funding
for the Drinking Water and
Clean Water State Revolving
Loan Fund (SRF) programs;..
Bracing for an
adversarial relationship
with President-elect Donald
Trump, the California
Legislature has
selected former U.S. Atty.
Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. to
serve as outside counsel to
advise on the state’s legal
strategy against the
incoming administration.
The unusual
arrangement was announced as
the Legislature returned to
session on Wednesday,
underscoring the extent to
which the action in
Sacramento in the coming
months will be shaped by
Trump’s presidency.
China has begun its
first freight train
service to London from
Yiwu, a famed wholesale
market town in the
eastern province of
Zhejiang, the Xinhua
news agency reported.
The train will
travel for 18 days
over more than 7,500
miles (12,000 km) to
reach Britain from
China, Xinhua said.
It will pass through
Kazakhstan, Russia,
Belarus, Poland,
Germany, Belgium and
France before
arriving in London.
The AP also reported that
the drills were the
Liaoning's first in the
South China Sea with a
formation of warships and
fighter jets. In 2013,
before the aircraft carrier
was declared combat-ready,
it engaged in sea trials
with other warships and
aircraft in the South China
Sea.
A dozen doctors, pharmacy
owners and marketing pros
have been accused of a
kickback scheme that
prosecutors allege involved
a sham medical study used
to bilk up to $102 million
from the publicly
funded federal health
program for military family
members.
An Ethiopian court has
sentenced 20 Muslims to
prison after they were found
guilty of trying to
establish a state ruled by
Sharia law and inciting
violence.
They were charged under
Ethiopia's controversial
anti-terrorism law and
convicted last month. All
but one received prison
terms of five and a half
years. Two were journalists
working for a Muslim radio
station.
On any given day, half a
million Americans lose power
for two or more hours. Those
blackouts cost our economy
billions of dollars. 70
percent of the U.S. grid
that delivers electricity to
our homes and businesses is
at least 25 years old, and
comparatively we endure more
outages than other developed
nations. We suffer some 360
minutes of outages each
year, compared with just 16
minutes for Korea, 15 for
Germany, and 11 for Japan.
The head of Gambia's
electoral commission has
fled to Senegal due to
threats to his safety after
declaring that President
Yahya Jammeh lost last
month's election, a defeat
the ruler has refused to
accept.
Signifying how enormous a
priority the issue is for
the incoming administration,
Vice President-elect Mike
Pence met privately to
discuss it with House and
Senate Republicans. He
offered no details afterward
about what a new health-care
law might look like but
vowed to unwind the existing
one through a mixture of
executive actions and
legislation.
Don't let the Republicans
sell the idea that a full
repeal has to wait for years
while a meaningless
resolution signaling an
intention to repeal takes
effect. This dodge and
evasion would leave millions
of people with plans they
can't afford or deductibles
that bar access to services.
By a combination of
executive orders and
legislation that would not
require 60 votes (because it
is passed under
reconciliation), get rid of
this law now!
An advocacy group
instrumental in legalizing
marijuana in Washington,
D.C. now plans to distribute
4,200 joints while parading
towards the inauguration on
Jan. 20, reports WTOP.com.
Two protesters dangling from
a ceiling support at
Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank
Stadium unfurled a banner
criticizing the Dakota
Access Pipeline during a
National Football League
game on Sunday between the
Minnesota Vikings and
Chicago Bears, police said.
Monitoring of U.S. drinking
water supplies for chemical
and microbial contaminants
should be increased,
especially for vulnerable
populations such as pregnant
women, infants and young
children, according to the
final report from a panel of
scientists and engineers
that advises President
Obama.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low on days one,
two, and three (06 Jan, 07
Jan, 08 Jan). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet to
minor storm levels on day
one (06 Jan), quiet to
active levels on day two (07
Jan) and quiet to unsettled
levels on day three (08
Jan).
SpaceX says it plans to
resume flights as early as
next week after finding the
cause of an explosion that
destroyed a rocket and
satellite on a Florida
launch pad in September
Tesla and Panasonic have
finalized an agreement to
begin the manufacturing of
photovoltaic cells and
modules at a factory in
Buffalo, NY. The
high-efficiency PV cells and
modules will be used for
solar panels in non-solar
roof products. Once Tesla
will start the production of
its solar roof, the cells
will also be used for the
many kinds of solar glass
tile roofs that Tesla will
be manufacturing. Production
of the first PV modules will
begin in summer 2017, and
will ramp to 1 GW of module
production by 2019.
You feel it don’t you? The
feeling is stronger in some
than it is in others, but
it’s always there in
everyone, in some form. The
feeling is a longing for
MORE… isn’t it? If you are
aware enough to see it, and
experience it, and see what
it makes you do… you will
realize this is true.
The expansion of Dubai’s
M-Station combined power and
thermal desalination plant
is now over 50% complete,
according to the Dubai
Electricity and Water
Authority (DEWA).
Mike Opelka, filling in for
Buck Sexton, discusses the
latest on North Korea with
author and Forbes
contributor Gordon G Chang.
North Korea has begun
working on a new missile
program working with
weapons, now capable of
reaching the United States
and other nations...
Gordon also shares with Mike
more about his predictions
that China is leading itself
to collapse. He mentions
how the Chinese state is
becoming unstable with it’s
economy that is presently
growing at maybe half the
reported six-point-seven
percent rate.
Turkey's parliament voted
overnight to extend
emergency rule by three
months in a move which the
government said was needed
to sustain a purge of
supporters of the U.S.-based
Muslim cleric accused of
orchestrating July's failed
coup, state media said
These perceptions are to
focus around how masculinity
can become – to use a
popular social justice term
– toxic, and encourage
violence and sexism...Many
would argue that masculinity
isn’t to blame for men
tending to seek less help
from universities. The truth
is, men have very little
reason to trust colleges to
have their best interests at
heart. Between programs like
the above that are highly
critical of their
masculinity,..
The body of David Scott, who
died last Thursday while
inspecting a municipal water
tank in Braintree, “was
recovered Friday, after
crews worked for hours
overnight to pump 1 million
gallons of water from the
tank,” The Boston Globe
reported.
Turkish
authorities have arrested
the cafeteria manager of the
opposition Cumhuriyet
newspaper for insulting the
president after he said he
would not serve tea to
Tayyip Erdogan, one of the
manager's lawyers told
Reuters on Monday.
Senol Buran, who
runs the cafeteria at the
Istanbul office of
Cumhuriyet, was taken into
custody after police raided
his home late on Saturday,
lawyer Ozgur Urfa said. The
newspaper is among the few
still critical of the
government.
Insulting the
president is a crime
punishable by up to four
years in prison in Turkey.
Former Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott entitled
his memoir of his service in
that august body “Herding
Cats.” Nothing could more
aptly describe the
centrifugal tendencies of US
Senators and their
resistance to leaders.
Now, with only a 52-48
majority in the Senate,
President-elect Donald Trump
must navigate these
dangerous waters with rocks
on either side. He can only
afford to lose three of this
fifty-two Republican
senators (assuming Vice
President-elect Pence votes
to break a tie his way).
Thae Young-ho, formerly the
No. 2 person at the North
Korean Embassy in London,
said political uncertainty
in the United States and
South Korea could give North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un
"an apt time" to develop the
weapons.
Like it or not, emotions
share some very real
biochemical links with your
nervous, endocrine, immune
and digestive systems. Isn’t
it time you learned
something about how your
body responds to what you
feel—and vice versa?
President-elect Donald
Trump's goal of overhauling
the U.S. tax code in 2017
will depend partly on the
work of an obscure
congressional committee
tasked with estimating how
much future economic growth
will result from tax cuts.
Known as the Joint
Committee on Taxation, or
JCT, the nonpartisan panel
assigns "dynamic scores" to
major tax bills in Congress,
based on economic models, to
forecast a bill's ultimate
impact on the federal
budget. The higher a tax
bill's dynamic score, the
more likely it is seen as
spurring growth, raising tax
revenues and keeping the
federal deficit in check.
...job creation is only half
the challenge. Americans
must have the skills
necessary to do the jobs
that are created under this
new, more dynamic economy.
Recent research has revealed
some of the changes that
take place in women's brains
during motherhood, and
experts say that
understanding how a mom’s
brain works could help them
figure out what motivates
moms to care for their
babies.
Mars and the far side of the
Moon are on the itinerary
for China's National Space
Administration (CNSA),
according to a new white
paper released this week.
The document, from the State
Council Information Office,
recaps the country's
space-faring achievements
over the past five years,
and outlines its goals for
the next five.
President Barack Obama
appeared to spend $360,236
of taxpayer money on a
campaign trip to North
Carolina on Air Force One
with Hillary Clinton, a
Freedom of Information Act
request by a watchdog group
found.
Just days before
Christmas, unprecedented
warmth was recorded at
the North Pole. A buoy
that sits nearly 90
miles to the south
registered a temperature
of 31 degrees. Although
still below freezing,
this is around 50
degrees above normal.
There were two major
players in this unusual
event. The first was a
large and very strong
low pressure system
north of Greenland. The
counterclockwise flow
around this system
pushed abnormally warm
and moist air toward the
pole. The second is the
lack of sea ice in the
Arctic, particularly in
the Barents Sea.
resident Barack Obama is
about to invoke a
seldom-used provision of a
1953 law that gives
presidents the power to
withdraw U.S. waters from
future oil and gas leasing,
said two people who spoke to
Bloomberg News anonymously
because the decision has not
yet been announced. It is
expected this week.
An unprecedented
presidential election, court
battles over hydraulic
fracturing and oil
pipelines, Arctic drilling
plans and additional
Renewable Fuel Standard
drama rounded out the top
five US oil policy stories
of 2016.
But rather
than just serving to fill
out a year-end list, the
biggest policy events of
this year are likely to
shape the policy path of the
next, perhaps more than ever
before.
Social media may have
contributed to a series of
possibly related incidents
in which groups of people,
many of them teens, fought
and created disturbances at
shopping malls in at least
nine states, according to
authorities.
The disturbances erupted in
malls from Arizona to North
Carolina and drew hundreds
of spectators in some cases,
causing several malls to be
closed.
Solar activity is expected
to be very low on day one
(30 Dec) and expected to be
very low with a slight
chance for a C-class flare
on days two and three (31
Dec, 01 Jan). The
geomagnetic field is
expected to be at quiet
to active levels on day one
(30 Dec), unsettled to minor
storm levels on day two (31
Dec) and unsettled to active
levels on day three (01
Jan).
Russian President Vladimir
Putin said on Thursday that
Syrian opposition groups and
the Syrian government had
signed a number of documents
including a ceasefire deal
that would take effect at
midnight on the night of
Dec. 29-30.
Parents hope their children
will get along, but probably
not like this. For years, a
retired couple—we'll call
them Bob and Sue—financially
supported two of their seven
adult children. The two
daughters were divorced and
helped care for their aging
parents, who lived in the
Washington, D.C., area. But
when the couple developed
dementia in their 80s, the
sisters didn't alert their
far-flung siblings about
their parents' deteriorating
condition. Instead, they
began to sell stock and
write themselves checks,
spending $700,000 over four
years on vacations, cars,
and down payments.
For half a century, many
experts have recognized a
link between Alzheimer's
disease and aluminum. Since
there was no definite proof,
there has been no agreement
in the scientific community.
Now, however, a new study
published in the Journal
of Trace Elements in
Medicine and Biology
may provide the proof needed
of aluminum's role in the
mind-robbing disease.
The ruling from Judge
Stephen Williams, of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia
Circuit, revives one of a
number of legal challenges
involving Clinton's handling
of government emails when
she was secretary of state
from 2009 to 2013.
Working together, the
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration,
NOAA, and the Mid-Atlantic
Fishery Management Council
have designated a large
offshore area in the
Mid-Atlantic Ocean for the
protection of deep-sea
corals.
The new coral-protection
zone encompasses more than
38,000 square miles of
federal waters off the
Mid-Atlantic coast, an area
roughly the size of the
state of Virginia.
President Barack Obama
expelled 35 Russian
diplomats Thursday and
closed two Russian compounds
in New York and Maryland in
executive orders to punish
Moscow for harassment
against American diplomats
and cyberattacks that
interfered in the
presidential election.
"These actions follow
repeated private and public
warnings that we have issued
to the Russian government,
and are a necessary and
appropriate response to
efforts to harm U.S.
interests in violation of
established international
norms of behavior,"
Obama said in a statement
announcing the actions
...while rates rose by .83
percent in less than two
months – a huge increase –
we don't quite know why.
How much of the spike
happened because we believed
the Federal Reserve would
hike bank rates in December?
Or was the sharp
uptick caused by the
surprise Trump electoral
victory? And what about
other factors like firming
oil prices?
Newsmax Finance Insider and
economist Edward Yardeni has
hiked his earnings forecast
for 2017 as he expects
Donald Trump to foster a
more business friendly
environment than Barack
Obama.