20 December - Netvibes 5 - 2

GreenMedInfo

EGCG may have benefit as a protective agent in settings of liver injury. - PMID:  PLoS One. 2016 ;11(12):e0167435. Epub 2016 Dec 9. PMID: 27935974 Abstract Title:  Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate Upregulates miR-221 to Inhibit Osteopontin-Dependent Hepatic Fibrosis. Abstract:  Osteopontin (OPN) promotes hepatic fibrosis, and developing therapies targeting OPN expression in settings of hepatic injury holds promise. The polyphenol epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), found in high concentrations in green tea, downregulates OPN expression through OPN mRNA degradation, but the mechanism is unknown. Previous work has shown that microRNAs can decrease OPN mRNA levels, and other studies have shown that EGCG modulates the expression of multiple microRNAs. In our study, we first demonstrated that OPN induces hepatic stellate cells to transform into an activated state. We then identified three microRNAs which target OPN mRNA: miR-181a, miR-10b, and miR-221. In vitro results show that EGCG upregulates all three microRNAs, and all three microRNAs are capable of down regulating OPN mRNA when administered alone. Interestingly, only miR-221 is necessary for EGCG-mediated OPN mRNA degradation and miR-221 inhibition reduces the effects of EGCG on cell function. In vivo experiments show that thioacetamide (TAA)-induced cell cytotoxicity upregulates OPN expression; treatment with EGCG blocks the effects of TAA. Furthermore, chronic treatment of EGCG in vivo upregulates all three microRNAs equally, suggesting that in more chronic treatment all three microRNAs are involved in modulating OPN expression. We conclude that in in vitro and in vivo models of TAA-induced hepatic fibrosis, EGCG inhibits OPN-dependent injury and fibrosis. EGCG works primarily by upregulating miR-221 to accelerate OPN degradation. EGCG may therefore have utility as a protective agent in settings of liver injury. read more19 Dec

EGCG inhibited adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes in a concentration-dependent manner. - PMID:  Eur J Pharmacol. 2016 Dec 7 ;795:134-142. Epub 2016 Dec 7. PMID: 27940057 Abstract Title:  Epigallocatechin-3-gallate inhibits adipogenesis through down-regulation of PPARγ and FAS expression mediated by PI3K-AKT signaling in 3T3-L1 cells. Abstract:  Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a major component in green tea, functions as extensive bioactivities including anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, and anti-cancer. However, little is known about its anti-adipogenesis and underlying mechanisms. The purport of this study sought to investigate effects of EGCG on 3T3-L1 preadipocyte differentiation and to explore its possible mechanisms. The 3T3-L1 cells were induced to differentiate under the condition of pro-adipogenic cocktail with or without indicated EGCG concentrations (10, 50, 100, 200µM) for 2, 4, 6 and 8 days, respectively. Also, another batch of 3T3-L1 cells was induced under the optimal EGCG concentration (100µM) with or without SC3036 (PI3K activator, 10µM) or SC79 (AKT activator, 0.5µM) for 8 days. Subsequently, the cell viability was examined by MTT assay and the cellmorphology was visualized by Oil red O staining. Finally, the mRNA levels including peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ (PPARγ) and fatty acid synthase (FAS) were detected by quantitative real time PCR, while the protein levels of PPARγ, FAS, phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K), insulinreceptor substrate1(IRS1), AKT, and p-AKT were measured by immunoblotting analysis. Our results showed that EGCG inhibited adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 preadipocyte in a concentration-dependent manner. Moreover, the inhibitory effects were reversed by SC3036 or SC79, suggesting that the inhibitory effects of EGCG are mediated by PI3K-AKT signaling to down-regulate PPARγ and FAS expression levels. The findings shed light on EGCG anti-adipogenic effects and its underlying mechanism and provide a novel preventive-therapeutic potential for obesity subjects as a compound from Chinese green tea. read more19 Dec

This article reviews the cancer preventive activities and mechanisms of action of tea catechins. - PMID:  Molecules. 2016 Dec 9 ;21(12). Epub 2016 Dec 9. PMID: 27941682 Abstract Title:  Cancer Preventive Activities of Tea Catechins. Abstract:  Catechins are widely occurring in our diet and beverages. The cancer-preventive activities of catechins have been extensively studied. Of these, (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the principal catechin in green tea, has received the most attention. The inhibitory activities of tea catechins against carcinogenesis and cancer cell growth have been demonstrated in a large number of laboratory studies. Many mechanisms for modulating cancer signaling and metabolic pathways have been proposed based on numerous studies in cell lines with EGCG, the most active tea catechin. Nevertheless, it is not known whether many of these mechanisms indeed contribute to the anti-cancer activities in animals and in humans. Human studies have provided some results for the cancer preventive activities of tea catechins; however, the activities are not strong. This article reviews the cancer preventive activities and mechanisms of action of tea catechins involving their redox activities, biochemical properties and binding to key enzymes or signal transduction proteins. These mechanisms lead to suppression of cell proliferation, increased apoptosis and inhibition of angiogenesis. The relevance of the proposed mechanisms for cancer prevention are assessed in the light of the situation in vivo. The potential and possible problems in the application of tea and tea-derived products for cancer prevention are discussed. read more19 Dec

Epigallocatechin gallate could potentially be used as a supplement of traditional rt-PA treatment among stroke patients. - PMID:  Clin Neuropharmacol. 2016 Dec 9. Epub 2016 Dec 9. PMID: 27941526 Abstract Title:  Epigallocatechin Gallate Extends Therapeutic Window of Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator Treatment for Brain Ischemic Stroke: A Randomized Double-Blind and Placebo-Controlled Trial. Abstract:  OBJECTIVES: Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) is a safe and effective treatment for acute brain ischemia stroke, albeit with a narrow therapeutic window. We aimed to assess the effect of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in extending the rt-PA treatment window in this clinical trial among stroke patients.METHODS: Patients were randomly assigned according to their onset-to-treatment time (OTT) and were then treated with rt-PA simultaneously with EGCG or placebo. Treatment outcome was assessed by the National Institutes of  Health stroke scale (NIHSS) and plasma levels of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP)-2 and 9.RESULTS: Administration of EGCG significantly improved treatment outcomes of patients in the delayed OTT strata, as evidenced by improved NIHSS scores. This improved treatment outcome was likely attributed to reduction in plasma levels of both MMP-2 and 9, as indicated by strong linear correlations between both MMPs and NIHSS scores in all patients.CONCLUSIONS: Epigallocatechin gallate could potentially be used as a supplement of traditional rt-PA treatment among stroke patients, particularly those with delayed OTT, to extend the otherwise narrow therapeutic window and improve the outcome in late stroke treatment. read more19 Dec

Co-administration of EGCG and doxorubicin has potential as a feasible strategy to mitigate the drugs cardiotoxicity. - PMID:  Life Sci. 2016 Dec 9. Epub 2016 Dec 9. PMID: 27956351 Abstract Title:  (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate alleviates doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in sarcoma 180 tumor-bearing mice. Abstract:  AIMS: (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a major green tea polyphenol compound, plays an important role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of EGCG on doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiotoxicity in Sarcoma 180 (S180) tumor-bearing mice.MAIN METHODS: S180 tumor-bearing mice were established by subcutaneous inoculation of S180 cells attached to the axillary region. The extent of myocardial injury was accessed by the amount of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) released in serum. Heart tissue was morphologically studied with transmission electron microscopy. Apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔѰm) as well as calcium concentration were measured by flow cytometric analysis. Expression levels of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) were analyzed by Western blot.KEY FINDINGS: Results showed that the combination with EGCG and DOX significantly inhibited tumor growth and enhanced induction of apoptosis compared with DOX alone. Moreover, administration of EGCG could suppress DOX-induced cardiotoxicity as evidenced by alleviating LDH release and apoptosis in cardiomyocyte. EGCG-evoked cardioprotection was in association with the increase ofΔѰm and MnSOD expression. EGCG was also found to attenuate ROS generation and myocardial calcium overload in Sarcoma 180 tumor-bearing mice subjected to DOX.SIGNIFICANCE: EGCG alleviated DOX-induced cardiotoxicity possibly in part mediated by increasing of MnSOD andѰm, reducing myocardial calcium overload and subsequently attenuating the apoptosis and LDH release. Our findings suggest that co-administration of EGCG and DOX have potential as a feasible strategy to mitigate cardiotoxicity of DOX without compromising its chemotherapeutic value. read more19 Dec

EGCG exerts significant anti-proliferative effects against renal cell cancer and malignant melanoma cells in vitro. - PMID:  J Clin Oncol. 2009 May 20 ;27(15_suppl):e22101. PMID: 27963498 Abstract Title:  Apoptotic and immunomodulatory effects of green tea extracts (GTE) on chemoresistant human tumor cells. Abstract:  : e22101 Background: GTE and Epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG), the most abundant polyphenol in GTE, have been shown to exert inhibitory effects on carcinogenesis; modulatory effects on tumor proliferation and differentiation; and immunomodulatory effects on tumor immunity in different pre-clinical models. These pluripotent effects suggest that GTE may have clinical activity that could be exploited for treatment of chemo-insensitive but immunologically responsive tumors. Thus, the present study investigated the effects of EGCG on the proliferation and immunologic sensitivity of human renal cell cancer (RCC) and malignant melanoma (MM) cell lines.METHODS: Human RCC (769-P) and MM (A375) cell lines were tested following incubation in media± 21.8μM EGCG, a pharmacologically-achievable concentration produced by 8, 200mg capsules GTE daily. Tumor proliferation was assessed by MTS assay; lytic sensitivity to IL2-activated human peripheral blood lymphocytes (IL2PBL) by (51)Chromium release assay; and gene expression by quantitative RT-PCR assay.RESULTS: EGCG produced significant inhibition of proliferation of both RCC and MM cells (61.5% and 67.3% of media control values respectively; pread more19 Dec

EGCG could significantly promote the osteogenesis of hPDLCs which might play a promising role in periodontal hard tissue regeneration. - PMID:  Zhonghua Kou Qiang Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2016 Dec 9 ;51(12):758-764. PMID: 27978918 Abstract Title:  [Effect of epigallocatechin-3-gallate on the proliferation and osteogenesis of human periodontal ligament cells]. Abstract:  Objective: To evaluate the effect of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) treatment on the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of human periodontal ligament cell (hPDLC) and to explore the potential role of EGCG in promoting periodontal hard tissue regeneration. Methods: The hPDLC was isolated from periodontal ligament tissue obtained from freshly extracted human teeth. The effect of treatments with various concentrations of EGCG (0μmol/L, 2 μmol/L, 4 μmol/L, 6 μmol/L, 8 μmol/L and 10 μmol/L) on cell proliferations were determined by cell counting kits (CCK) after 24-, 48- and 72-hour-incubations, respectively. Osteogenic differentiation abilities of hPDLCs were assessed by using alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity testsafter 7- and 14-day-incubations, respectively. The mineralized nodules were quantitatively examined and analyzed by using alizarin red staining after 21-day-incubation. The real-time PCR (RT-PCR) assays were conducted fordetecting the expressions of Runt related transcription factor-2 (Runx2), ALPand collagen type Ⅰ (COL Ⅰ) after 7-day-incubation. Results: Treatment with 4 μmol/L EGCG increased hDPLC proliferation at 24 h, while 8 μmol/L or 10 μmol/L EGCG treatment groups showed inhibiting effects at 24 h and 72 h, respectively. Findings of alizarin redstaining showed orange to red colored extracellular mineralized nodules in all groups. The the A values of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 μmol/L EGCG groups were 0.119±0.001, 0.167±0.003, 0.173±0.003, 0.110±0.001 and 0.083±0.003, respectively. A values of 2-8 μmol/L EGCG groups were significantly higher than that of the control group, however there was no significant difference of the A values between10 μmol/L EGCG group and the control group (0.077±0.001). Treatments with 2-10 μmol/L EGCG could significantly increase the mRNA expressions of COL Ⅰ and ALP with the highest values in 4-6 μmol/L EGCG treatment groups. Although treatments with 4 and 6 μmol/L EGCG both could increase the mRNA expressions of Runx2, the result in 4 μmol/L group was much better than that of 6 μmol/L group. Conclusions: Treatment of 4 μmol/L EGCG could promote hPDLC proliferation at early stageand treatments with 4-6 μmol/L EGCG could significantly promote the osteogenesis of hPDLCs which might play a promising role in periodontal hard tissue regeneration. read more19 Dec

Dietary polyphenolics such as resveratrol may exert anti-obesity effects. - PMID:  Expert Rev Endocrinol Metab. 2015 ;10(6):561-564. Epub 2015 Oct 10. PMID: 27980601 Abstract Title:  Prevention of obesity by dietary resveratrol: how strong is the evidence? Abstract:  Obesity is a pandemic problem worldwide. Dietary polyphenolic compounds show promise in preventing obesity. Resveratrol (RSV), one of the most extensively studied polyphenol compounds, has been shown to exert anti-obesity effects in various animal studies and also in several human studies. The fat-lowering effects of RSV may result from its ability to inhibit adipogenesis, suppress lipogenesis, stimulate lipolysis, promote apoptosis, and increase fatty acid oxidation and thermogenesis, as well as the recently demonstrated induction of the browning of white adipose tissue (WAT). These anti-obesity effects of RSV likely depend on its ability to activate AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a key enzyme regulating cellular energy metabolism. Consumption of fruits such as berries, grapes and nuts, which contain high levels of RSV and other polyphenols, might help to reduce obesity. read more19 Dec

Whole body vibration can be considered a novel and effective method for reducing body fat. - PMID:  J Exerc Nutrition Biochem. 2016 Jun ;20(2):19-27. Epub 2016 Jun 30. PMID: 27508150 Abstract Title:  The effects of long-term whole-body vibration and aerobic exercise on body composition and bone mineral density in obese middle-aged women. Abstract:  PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of whole-body passive vibration exercise and its differences from aerobic exercise on body composition, bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC).METHODS: Obese middle-aged women (n=33 out of 45) with 34±3% body fat completed the training protocol. They were randomly assigned into diet (n=9; control group), diet plus whole-body vibration exercise (n=13; vibration group), and diet plus aerobic exercise (n=11; aerobic group) groups and we compared their body composition, BMD, and BMC before and after 9 months of training. There were no significant differences in nutrient intake among groups during the training period.RESULTS: Relative body fat (%) decreased significantly (pread more19 Dec

The improvements in knee extension performance found in this study, was maintained for 12 weeks after cessation of WBV training. - PMID:  Geriatr Gerontol Int. 2016 Aug 31. Epub 2016 Aug 31. PMID: 27578535 Abstract Title:  Optimal frequency/time combination of whole-body vibration training for improving muscle size and strength of people with age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia): A randomized controlled trial. Abstract:  AIM: To determine the optimal combination of frequency and exposure time of a whole-body vibration (WBV) training program for improving muscle performance of older people with age-related muscle loss.METHODS: A total of 80 community-dwelling older adults with age-related muscle loss were randomly divided into four equal groups, namely, low-frequency long duration (20 Hz × 720 s), medium-frequency medium duration (40 Hz × 360 s), high-frequency short duration (60 Hz × 240 s) and control (no training) for 12-week WBV training and 12-week follow up. Assessments were carried out at baseline, mid-intervention, post-intervention, mid-followup, follow up for the cross-sectional area of the vastus medialis, isometric knee extension strength at 90°, and isokinetic knee extension at 60°/s and 180°/s.RESULTS: There was a significant time × group interaction effect in isokinetic knee extension at 180°/s. Significant time effects were found in all muscle strength outcome variables. Group differences in percentage change from baseline were significant between medium-frequency medium duration and control on isokinetic knee extension at 180°/s and 60°/s. No changes were found in the cross-sectional area of the vastus medialis.CONCLUSIONS: With the total number of vibrations controlled, the combination of 40 Hz and 360 s of WBV exercise had the best outcome among all other combinations tested. The improvements in knee extension performance can be maintained for 12 weeks after cessation of WBV training. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2016; ••: ••-••. read more19 Dec

NEWS JUNKIE POST

Where is the Digital Watergate Anti-Trump propaganda campaign going? - By Daniel Espinosa The Russians are coming! Once again, the structural bias of the American news media in favor of the ‘official version’ turns them into a propaganda tool. Intelligence sources point out Russian interference in recent elections. However, WikiLeaks-related sources say the Democratic Party’s mail leak was the working of a whistle-blower within that institution. “Experts point out…”, “Specialists agree…”, “There is a consensus among intelligence agencies …” While the plot’s been cooking for several months now, it was the DNC leaks and Hillary Clinton’s subsequent defeat against Donald Trump what finally put the ‘serious’ press, mainly the Washington Post and the New York Times, working in its propagandistic role: ‘the Russians are trying to destroy American democracy’, they say. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a key tool of the US executive, was created in 1947 and has since been involved in more than a dozen coups, attempted assassinations, and a long list of covert operations around the world. However, this record does not seem to matter to the American corporate press, which continues uncritically channeling its official statements. Mossadegh in Iran, Arbenz in Guatemala, Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Goulart in Brazil, Allende in Chile, are just some of the leaders in the long list of CIA successful hits. Where it did not operate directly, as in Iraq in 2003, the CIA fabricated intelligence information indispensable to justify military aggression, with the dire consequences already known to the world. Now they have brought it home: they don’t like Trump and little more than a month away from January the 20th, intelligence reports, full of circumstantial evidence and ‘official’ opinions, have already caused the New York Times to begin comparing the alleged incursion of Russian hackers into the Democratic mailing servers with Watergate, the incident that saw Richard Nixon’s departure from the White House in 1972. However, indications that this is all about the working of a whistleblower, probably within the Democratic Party, and not an army of Russian hackers, seems more convincing: “I’ve met the person who leaked them, and they’re certainly not Russians, he’s an insider. It’s a leak, not a hack; they are two different things. If what the CIA says is true, and their statements refer to people they know is related to the Russian state, they would arrest someone if he was inside the United States … (who) has not been shy about arresting whistleblowers or extraditing Hackers. They just do not have any knowledge”. (CIA Concludes Russia Interfered to Help Trump Win Election, the Guardian, 12/10/16) This insistence on involving the Russians was at first useful to divert attention from the contents of John Podesta’s and DNC’s mails, but now we see it mutate into something far more dangerous, with monolithic support from mass media, as every time their masters smell blood, the New York Times and the Washington Post are dedicating front pages to it and the world’s corporate media is going along. But where is this going? As Craig Murray points out, when the media speak of ‘credible’ sources, and all this Russian charade is based on this blind trust in American officials, what it is saying is that they are establishment sources, for whom presenting solid evidence has been always optional. In a statement to the Daily Mail, Murray, a former United Kingdom ambassador to Uzbekistan, said he was the one to receive the documents from a Democratic Party employee in Washington, after the boycott suffered by Bernie Sanders in the primaries, which ended in the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and caused the condemnation by many operatives and sympathizers of the Democratic Party. This kind of renewal of the 50’s McCarthyism was carried out on several fronts, one of vital importance being referred to the alarm regarding the proliferation of ‘false news’. The Washington Post published an article on November 24, citing the findings of an organization called Propornot, an anonymous group that drew up a list of 200 media devoted to ‘Russian propaganda’ and ‘false news’. Propornot’s analysis against these media was made using a methodology that would embarrass even the laziest of school boys, since no real association was necessary with the Russian State: they simply incorporated the vast majority of alternative journalism blogs that had something critical say about US foreign policy, which generated the univocal rejection of both mainstream and independent journalism and a later clarifying note by the WP. When the media that ‘set the agenda’, such as the Washington Post, The New York Times or CNN, publish an article, the world’s media follows obediently. What we observe, in short, is a transmission of information based on a questionable concept of authority, not facts. Let us remember Iraq. At the inaugural rally of President George W. Bush’s (January 30, 2001) the issue of removing Saddam Hussein was put at the top of the list, as recalled by former US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill: “It was about finding a way to do it. The president said, ‘Go find me a way to do this.” That’s where the CIA comes in. The American anthropologist David Price has studied the agency for two decades and agrees with former agent Philip Agee that the CIA is: “the secret police of American capitalism.” In addition, he believes that Trump is embracing political allies that would point to a strengthening of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to the detriment of the CIA. An interesting month awaits us and Trump would do well in avoid trips to Dallas. Editor’s Notes: Photograph one from the archive of James Vaughan; photograph three by Victor Vandijk; photograph four from the archive of Nexusnovum; photograph five by Mark Zwolanek; photograph seven by Gilbert Mercier; and photograph eight from the archive of Van Gaalen.   15 Dec

The Trumpist Junta: Zionist Banksters, Big Oil and the Military-Industrial Complex - In Orwellian times deception is loyalty On December 9th, 2016, the very faint remaining hopes that a Trump administration could be the beginning of a much needed reflection on decades-old failed US policies were scattered to the wind. It is turning out, that not only emperor-select Trump will not have a honey moon with the Land of the Brave, but his Deplorable faithful supporters found out that they were conned into a shot-gun wedding by yet, another snake oil sales man. The bait and switch operation had the hallmarks of maximum betrayal on zero notice. First and foremost, the puppet-emperor’s globalist masters obtained from him that he betrayed one of his only political friend: Rudy Giuliani. The former Mayor of New York stood firm at the lowest point of Trump campaign, when the aging playboy misogynist womanizer claimed that it was perfectly alright for him to grab women by their genitalia. It is likely that without Giuliani staunch support, Trump’s chances to win the election would have been flushed down the toilet like a noxious turd. It is turning out that the useful idiot who will be inaugurated on January 20th, 2017 to hold court in Washington DC’s main plantation , only has a reptilian brain without the cognitive abilities for empathy or to respect the critical social bond that is loyalty. Turning the swamp into a cesspool At some point, Trump’s former friend victim of the betrayal was on the short list to become Secretary of State. This key position would have been a logical reward for the man who stood by Trump “rain or shine”. On December 9th, the populace was told that Giuliani would not serve at all in Trump’s cabinet. Not only that, but the able if some time caustic Rudy Giuliani would be replace by a former CEO of Exxon-Mobil as the United States’ potential top diplomat. All of this would have some great comedic value, if the joke was not on all of us. It seems that to serve in Trump’s cabinet the first requirement is to be richer than Trump himself, and that the second one is to be utterly incompetent for the position you are consider for. Trumpism has been defined: gone are the vaguely able globalist technocrats, they are in the process of being replaced by moronic climate change deniers globalist plutocrats. Goldman Sachs’ foxes will watch the chicken coops In the realm of finances, Trump was told that the Clintons’ favorite banksters had so stay firmly in charge. They will see that the Wall Street wealth concentration system for the global elite’s benefit stay oiled and fit. They will also, unquestionably, make sure that Zionism, not US patriotism, remain the US foreign and economical policy guiding principal. One can expect the “Bomb, bomb Iran!” scenario to take center stage on this to cater to the whims of Tel Aviv. Naturally, the banksters of Goldman Sachs, and all of their colleague, will not be investigated in the biggest heist of history: the theft of 850 million dollars that was the bail-out in the aftermath of the engineered 2008 stock market crash. Under the direction of Goldman Sachs, wages will not rise, and one can except as well another betrayal from the clown newly crowned emperor: an abrupt 180 on his electoral promises to scrap the TPP and its trans-Atlantic counterpart. Generals in the wings Vietnam war dodger Donald J. Trump seems to be fascinated by tough military guys. Perhaps it is because of his small hands complex or the fact that despite his obnoxious bravado the made-in-America Caligula is by essence a coward. All that aging military testosterone around him is reassuring. But ultimately, rest assure, that the spoke-persons of the military-industrial complex will be a match in heaven with the Goldman Sachs branch of Trump’s government. Expect wars on the forecast, and perhaps even we will see another change of heart from Trump with Russia. After all, how can you trust someone with zero loyalty? However, the generals, the banksters and the Zionists populating the administration to be should trade carefully: an attack on Iran would take us back to the Soros via Clinton concocted scenario of World War III. The Saudis, Qataris and US sponsored Islamist mercenary army ISIS AKA Daesh or whatever new name it might be are defeated in Syria. Turkey might wise up and strike an alliance with Russia. What would happened then, if the banksters and old generals become even more delusional and think that they can challenge Iran openly via an Israeli nuke attack? One can easily project that within a day or two, the little magical kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf mini-states would be reduce to rubble from strike by the Iranian air force. Israel itself might face the might of not only Arab countries joining forces, but also perhaps from the former Ottoman empire. Therefore, all parties should recognize that any provocation on Iran would be a lose, lose proposition.  The Christians in America voted for Trump. Not because of him, but because of his running mate Mike Pence. The morality of the New York playboy buffoon was likely always questionable to them. He has not raised to the occasion and redeem himself. As matter of fact, one can easily see the writing on the wall already: Trump has no backbone, no integrity, no loyalty and has been confirmed to be an amoral individual. Trump, just like the Clintons and their sponsor Soros doesn’t believe in God or fear and trust him, he worship money, as a man of sin with no quality or virtue. I suspect that Mr. Trump is a fearful man, what does he fear most, the wrath of the people or the wrath of Gods? Editor’s Notes: Composite one by Oli Goldsmith; composites three, five and six by James Gill; and composite seven by Ian Levack.   10 Dec

Turkey: Land Without Free Speech or Basic Human Rights - A while ago, the president of Turkey claimed that there is freedom of speech in his country and he said, “In my country, there is no problem with freedom, everyone talks the way they like, everyone lives out their faith, everyone dresses the way they want, everyone eats and drinks whatever they desire. We haven’t brought any prohibitions. My country is no more a country with prohibitions. Let’s leave the last 14 years aside, this country has never been this free, peaceful and comfortable.” I read this statement of the president far away from his country, in Wales where I’ve been living since 2013. It was not enough for me to read it once; I couldn’t register what he was saying so I read it a couple of times. Was that country, which, according to his speech, was so peaceful, free and comfortable, the same country where people have been forced to wake up to an unknown dark future rather than the bright morning sun? It must be me who is wrong, because I and the creative team behind my play, “Mi Minor,” have been victimized with unfair accusations since 2013. We had to leave the country, and we are still not able to go back as those accusations are ongoing and lingering. There is no such thing as everyone in Turkey where “everyone talks the way they like.” That everyone, which the president mentions in his speech, is actually a singled-out group of people. In order to be a part of that everyone, you need to agree with the president on every issue. It is only when you obey him unquestioningly, that you may express yourself like that so-called everyone. There is one thing though, if you say anything that would make the president angry, you’re out. This means you might as well be a terrorist or a traitor; in that case, there is only one place where you can continue voicing whatever you want to say: behind bars! Being a part of that everyone is a privilege in itself in that country. In that country, according to the president, where “people live out their faith,” women could easily be beaten up for wearing shorts in public transport, and little girls could easily be forced to marry adult men. If you are as faithful as everyone else, you can live your faith, marry little girls, rape young boys, and beat up women as you wish. Say you have a different belief system, you would automatically be an infidel, thus you wouldn’t be able to live in that country. It’s not even a matter of discussion to be a non-believer, because in order to be like everyone else, you are obliged to be a believer. You wouldn’t be able to understand how the number of closed down organizations reached 1,125 on the website of the Turkish Ministry of Interior, because there are no prohibitions in that country. To understand why, you need to be a part of that everyone. You wouldn’t dare question why Van Women’s Association, Anka Women’s Research Organisation, Bursa Panayir Women’s Organisation and countless others fighting for diversity, equality and freedom are among those closed down organizations. In that country where prohibitions no longer exist, according to the President, it shouldn’t surprise you to know that Progressive Lawyers’ Association is also one of those closed down organizations. You should become like everyone else and think, “because there are no prohibitions it’s fine to close down organizations at any time.” Apparently in Turkey, which has never been freer, there are 9 MP’s, 149 journalists under arrest and 2346 academics who have been dismissed. On top of all these, there are academics and journalists who had to leave the country during these times and now cannot return. If you are not that everyone living in that country whom the President talks about, then the only place to be free is behind bars or in exile! That country is so comfortable you can set up a foundation, rape countless children and when this information becomes public, you can easily sue the journalists who exposed this. You would know that nothing would happen to you. You would know that the journalists would be accused. You would know that the rapists would be declared innocent. It is such a comfortable country, so comfortable that you wouldn’t be interested to know that the figures for child abuse and rape have increased by 700 percent over the last 10 years. According to the Freedom On the Net 2016 Report, that country got 61 points on internet freedom. It therefore, comfortably took its place in the list of “unfree countries,” yet carrying this information to the news cannot happen in that country. After all, in a country where everyone is free, who would need the internet? According to the Global Sociological Gender Gap Report of the WEF, that country is 130th among 145 countries. Yet, who would need statistics, research and data specifications if you are a part of that everyone? According to the Ministry of Family and Social Politics Research on Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, 4 out of 10 women are experiencing physical abuse from their husbands or partners. In that country where everyone lives in unity, you’d understand that women experiencing violence don’t really disturb the integrity. If you could only be like that everyone, this fact would mean nothing to you. Once upon a time there was a country where I used to live, we believed it could be diverse, secular and free, where love could exist and women and men could be happy and peaceful. Now there is a country far, far away from me, where thieves, rapists, extremists, ignorant and heartless people are tagged as that everyone. They live freely, comfortably and peacefully. This is now a country where women, children, men and young people who do not belong to that everyone suffer even to breathe without worrying for their future. Editor’s Notes: Photographs one and six from the archive of Stassenstriche.Net; cartoon three from the archive of Valeriy Osipov; photographs four and five by Tamara Craiu; and photograph seven by Sacha Kohlmann.   6 Dec

The Man Made Apocalypse of Weapon Systems and Climate Change - Our oceans are on the brink of collapse. Decades of pollution, micro-plastic “islands”, and over-fishing have reduced marine stocks and ecosystem to a fraction of pre-industrial levels. Pacific Salmon is undergoing a veritable genocide conducted by humans, Tuna is being fished at rates thousands of times higher than their natural rate of replenishment, and large marine mammals are at their lowest-ever recorded levels. If this weren’t bad enough, imagine a hidden arsenal of millions of tonnes of toxic chemical weapons laying at the bottom of our oceans, waiting to leech into the waters. A veritable cesspool of poisonous sludge made of Mustard and Chlorine gases, arsenic, and a cocktail of other weapon-grade chemicals. The only thing is: you don’t have to imagine it, it’s actually here! These are the shameful remnants of a dark period in history – an arsenal of biblical proportions, meant to achieve apocalyptic consequences. These weapons were meant to be used by our governments, against the citizens of other nations, to cause mass devastation and death. When they became inconvenient, they were disposed out of sight and, apparently, out of mind. Now the metal crates they are contained in are slowly being corroded, some already have. When the chemicals are released they have devastating consequences: coral reefs and bottom-dwellers/feeders die en-masse; small fish are contaminated first, and the poisons travel up the food chain (including to us humans), entire ecosystems and economic livelihoods collapse. After all, these weapons were devised to annihilate life. International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM) The truth about, and the appalling size of, this problem only came to light in 2008 following the declassification of a number of previously secret documents of the U.S. Department of Defense. The United States are, however, by far not the only culprits. A lot of the munitions were dumped by former colonial powers along the shores of their former colonies and other developing nations. The major culprits seem to have been France, the U.K and, of course, the United States. Some were also dumped by the USSR in the Baltic and North seas. By far the largest victim was Japan, currently sporting over one hundred disposal sites virtually within throwing distance of its coasts. It seems that humiliating and poisoning Japan’s citizens with two nuclear bombs, the repercussions of which are still felt today, was not enough. Given the seismically active nature of Japan’s location, it is likely that many of the weapons’ containers have already been damaged or ruptured. Now the victims are tasked with the clean-up job, but they argue that it is the perpetrators who should carry that burden as well as the bill. We don’t really know where many of these weapons actually are, or how many of them there really are. It was standard practice for governments engage in “inadequate documentation of operations at the time of dumping and the subsequent loss or destruction of records”. What we do know is mostly due to the tireless work of concerned activists that have gone over both the declassified documents and the sea floors inch by inch, attempting to identify the exact locations of the dump sites. Leading this effort is Terrance P. Long, a retired Canadian military engineer, who took it upon himself to make the disposal of these hidden weapons his life’s work. He was instrumental in the creation of the international treaty on the disposal of land mines, and has now focused his attention to their underwater counterparts. He has thus created International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM) with this goal in mind. The organization attempts to implement binding international regulation that would force the world’s military powers to cease this practice, and to responsibly clean up the damage they have already caused. One of the problems he has encountered, in his almost decade-long fight, has been the complete lack of public knowledge of the phenomenon – which is not surprising for a 50 year old secret. IDUM has recently launched an information and petition campaign to attempt to educate the general public, and to pressure international institutions to pass binding legislation  to mandate their clean-up. When asked why she thought that more attention is not being paid to such issues, Ms. Pyrikova largely held the occult nature of the problem responsible. “Perhaps”, she says, “it is because of the ‘out of mind, out of sight’ mentality” that is the standard in many political arenas. In addition, Ms. Pyrikova cited an additional political obstacle, which is that “before removing these weapons, governments must first admit that they are there, which could be politically costly”. But the problem is far from abstract. In June 2016 the waters around Cape Breton (Canada), near known weapon dump sites, showed high levels of toxic contamination. An explosion in a munition dump in Dover, Delaware (USA), caused bodily injuries to a local fisherman consistent with mustard gas, and destroyed most of the chowder. More recently, French officials from the Meuse region admitted to toxic levels of soil contamination due to old munition dump sites. All Humans are Victims This trend is worrying, and we have no idea if it was a past practice or an enduring one. An investigation by the United States’ DoD reveals that “munitions are present on thousands of current and former Department of Defense sites, encompassing millions of acres”. A 2008 report cites “millions of tonnes” of weapons on our sea-floors, and the IDUM itself has estimated the figure to reach at least one million. However, “every new site discovery is likely to bring that estimate up”, says Diana Pyrikova, the managing director of IDUM. However, it is not the sole danger posed to our oceans by the Military industry and war. What can be sure is that the militarization of the oceans is the next big frontier in warfare and armaments development – after all, oceans cover two-thirds of the planet’s surface and much more of its volume, and it is said we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of our oceans. The health of our oceanic waters is rapidly deteriorating, and the major military powers of the world are contributing greatly to it. Already, NORAD is developing underwater drones, Russia has developed fully-functional automatic weapons for underwater warfare, and China is considering the construction of an “Underwater Great Wall”. These are all examples of the expansion of the military industry in one of the last frontiers, but perhaps the most striking one is to be found in the U.S. Navy’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Starting from 2014 and planned to continue until 2019, experiments are being conducted with high-powered sonar and explosive detonations. According to their own impact assessment report, these could both seriously injure and kill marine life (especially large mammals), and be responsible for mass-stranding (they likely already have). A sonar uses sound for echo-location much as whales and dolphins do. Blasts at the levels the Navy is testing, if they don’t kill the whale on the spot, are very likely to render them temporarily or permanently deaf, which is no difference – a deaf whale is a dead whale. While a recent lawsuit has forced the U.S. Navy to reduce its operations in affected areas, the Department of Defense is expected to seek further legal appeals on that decision, and to continue its operations regardless. Historically as empires expanded, the peoples and territories at its periphery would be ravaged and pillaged. When an empire based on industrial civilization and modern warfare expands, the non-human life and the environment are often the first and most ignored victims. The expansion of militarism by the world’s superpower into our oceans, and the fight for supremacy in this last unexplored domain, are the very last factor that could tip the oceanic balance over the edge. In this context, the work of entities like the IDUM is essential. “The chemicals in these weapons will have almost completely leached into the ocean in 10-15 years”, said Ms. Pyrikova, “we have a very short window of time in which to act”. After that, it will be too late, and one more serious blow will have been dealt to our global oceanic ecosystems. In the absence of action by our own governments, it is up to regular citizens, activists, and concerned scientists to exert political pressure on their representatives and demand this issue to be resolved. Editor’s Notes: Photograph one from International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons archive; photograph two by Vadim; photographs three, six and eight by Joe Brusky; photographs four and seven from DVIDSHUB‘s archive; photograph five from the Wisconsin National Guard archive.     1 Dec

Trump Win: Paradigm Shift or Status Quo? - The accidental president Trump was not supposed to win, it is an anomaly which defied the concerted rigging of the political class at large, Wall Street and the mainstream media sycophants faux journalists of all stripes. As Dady Chery and I wrote back in March 2016 in our laconic essay “Imperial Elections,“ it was her turn. One was surely expecting sensational headlines such as: “First Woman Elected President of the United States!” One can imagine the fanfare, ticker tape parade and staged popular explosion of joy. “I Am With Her!” was supposed to do the political marketing trick. It failed. The popular enthusiasm was never there to start with, it was made up by a campaign and media apparatus that kept echoing and amplifying its own lies. On November 8, 2016, US political consumers spoke, and declared the Clinton brand compromised, tainted by too many recalls and initial manufacturing defects. Just like the Bush brand during the Republican primary, the Clinton brand had been recalled to possibly become the Yugo of the politician manufacturing  industry, a sour lemon with no more juice. As I rightly pointed out at a very early stage of the electoral charade, reality show and beauty pageant master of ceremony extraordinaire Donald Trump was cast, very likely with the input of our usual suspect, George Soros, for two reasons: firstly, to sell the American people on the notion that the TV reality show Election 2016 was real and not scripted, and secondly, in scripted scenario, that he would beat the Republican opposition and provide a perfect vote repellent designed to benefit the empress to be. George Soros was the executive producer of the TV reality show, Election 2016: first woman POTUS, and to prove it, only one piece of evidence is enough: the man hired to be Trump’s initial campaign manager was none other than Tony Podesta, partner in political intrigues of  his brother, John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign manager and her lead handler on behalf of George Soros. But then something happened, the scripted reality show became, against the will of all key players, a documentary. Fiction became reality as the circus act became wild. Trump became, against all odds, and perhaps initially not willingly, the catalyst of a historical paradigm shift, a quantum leap where fictional characters became real. The hypothesis of historical paradigm shifts While paradigm shifts are widely recognized in science, the prime example is of course Albert Einstein’s relativity assumption E=mc2, they are quite controversial in the field of sociology, and even more in history. When I brought up the hypothesis that paradigm shifts also applied to human sciences back in 2011, some thinkers were a bit puzzled and not convinced. However, the recent election of Donald Trump might illustrate the validity of my assumption. Paradigm shifts have to be understood as keys that can mysteriously unlock what is called paradigm paralysis. The notion of status quo is a more common way to define paradigm paralysis. In the case of US politics, it is unquestionable that since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the country entered a period of paradigm paralysis with two political clans locked in power. It is of course the Bush and Clinton dynasties with occasional figureheads such as Reagan and Obama. The election of Trump broke this 36-year status quo, and therefore constitutes a major historical paradigm shift. But paradigm shifts in history have proven to be sometimes positive, other times negative and often catastrophic. Major historical figures, the ones that have moved the dial of our history are not providential, they are instead always catalysts of  highly improbable chain reactions who became parameters in equations which they did not understand. Bonaparte, the sword of the French revolution was such a catalyst, and he was a positive one until megalomania made him want to rule the world as its emperor. On the other hand, paradigm shifts catalysts such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot in Cambodia brought their own country into their own psychosis which resulted in massive murderous mayhem. Historical catalysts such as Toussaint l’Ouverture, Charles de Gaulle, Fidel Castro and Ho Chi Minh stayed sane, fairly moral and had a critical impact on world history.  This is a very exclusive club, and like it or not President-elect Trump has the opportunity to seize the moment, rise to the occasion and metamorphose himself from a useful clown to a leader. This opportunity will have a very limited life span. Will he stay a pawn, like his predecessor, for the geriatric masters of the universe to play with or will he become a leader?  What he will do at this crossroad could influence positively the fate of billions or instead signify that Trump does not have the nerve to challenge the status quo he was elected to alter. The early signs are concerning, to say the least: actually they are pointing into the paradigm paralysis of the Orwellian construct where documented lies, crimes and deception will not be rightly challenged by truth and justice. The fact that dubious characters such as Bush neocon John Bolton, and a Morgan Stanley bankster are considered for the cabinet is an extremely bad sign. Perhaps the worst sign of all was the red carpet treatment given to consigliere extraordinaire Henry Kissinger. Was Kissinger advising Trump with his great wisdom on geopolitics, which has consistently being at best dead wrong and at worst murderous like his CIA coup in Chile to get rid of Allende and install dictator Pinochet; or some interesting tip on Syria duplicating Kissinger’s idea of the massive bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail in Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam war? But perhaps Kissinger was not chatting with Trump about his old domino effects theory in regard to the threat of communism, but instead acting as the messenger of his good friend, George Soros, to convey to President-Elect Trump certain threats if he would challenge the status quo and deliver on his promise to drain the swamp. But how can you drain the swamp unless you first get rid of the old crocodiles? Soros has stepped aside as executive producer of the show Election 2016, but it seems that he is still writing part of the script using street protests and the stock market as key storytelling device. We will know soon if Henry K. came to Trump on behalf of the syndicate to make him a mafia style offer he could not refuse. Trump’s dilemma: living in his towers or tearing down the global plantation? Trump is a wealthy man, and as such he fully belongs to the global financial elite. But at different times in history, vectors of changes or even revolution came from the privileged class. For instance, most leaders of the French revolution were as matter of fact aristocrats. Trump claimed that he started a movement, but it is hardly the type of movement challenging the current social order. How can you Make America Great Again if you don’t define firstly greatness and secondly a time frame. Was America great, pure and innocent shortly after European settlers came ashore? Hardly, if you keep in mind that Native Americans view Thanksgiving as a celebration of their genocide. The truth is: America was never great, at least not for its native population, former slave population, and its poor. It is currently not economically great either unless you are employed by the merchants of death. Trump could try to derail the military-industrial complex war machine, but this could be hazardous to his health as well as his family’s. Early indications show signs that Trump is likely to use his many towers as modern day temporary castles. But will he behave with the arrogance of a feudal master, or will he make an attempt to understand the struggles of us common men. And while at the White House, will he behave like a plantation owner of the old south or the top public servant gracious not to have to pay rent? So far there is no indication that Trump even wants to make an attempt at draining Washington DC swamps and even to tear down the global plantation that symbolizes the ultimate objective of  globalists such as Kissinger and Soros. If the swamp remains putrid, President-Elect Trump will pay the consequences in due time. It could turn out that old crocodile Mr. K still has some teeth, and perhaps he told President-Elect Trump quietly and with his habitual creepy little smile: “See Donald, we advise you to get Hillary off the hook. Don’t you think that it would be better than to have riots in our streets and perhaps a panicky financial market?” Let’s hope that it was not the case, otherwise the deplorables who put Donald Trump in office for the specific job of bringing some morality back into our society, and especially within the corrupt pay-to-play political class, will be outraged. President-elect Trump must understand the forces of this paradigm shift. They are bigger than him. For decades, too many lies were told, too many crimes were committed, therefore truth must shine its bright light, and justice must be served. Editor’s Notes: Gilbert Mercier is the author of “The Orwellian Empire.” Caricature one by Donkey Hotey; photograph three from the archive of Asia Society; photograph four from the archive of Marcelo Montecino; photograph six from the archive of Photolibrarian; photograph seven from the archive of Atlantic Council; and photograph ten from the archive of ILO in Asia and the Pacific. 22 Nov

George Soros: Dystopia’s Minister of Truth - “We live in interesting times when protesters act out the tantrum of a super-rich man who did not get his way despite all his money.” Dady Chery Eighty-six-year old Hungarian-American, George Soros is a very rich man. He currently ranks number 46 in the very exclusive club of richest persons in the world. In 1947, as Hungary tilted to the Soviet Union block, he went to the United Kingdom to study economics. This early life experience made him not only an anti-communist, but also a staunch anti-Russian who was always plotting his revenge against the Soviets. Soros knew that, to have any say in the capitalist order, one had to become filthy rich. At some point in his life, however, Mr. Soros decided that money only mattered if he could leverage it in influencing policies on a global scale. His role models for this aspect of his life were probably the two consigliere extraordinaire of the United States empire, slightly older than him, who are Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski. The three men shared common views on the threat of the so-called communist domino effect and later, once the Soviet Union had collapsed, became fervent champions of a global empire with its nervous system in Washington. In their sociopath vision of the world, a minute elite of wise men should have the planet as their oyster while, we, the worker bees slave away at their mercy. The Marxist ideology that inspired the Russian, Chinese and Cuban revolutions should be silenced forever, and even the dangerous successes of the French and Haitian revolutions, based on the philosophers of the Enlightenment, should never be considered by any national entity as an option. Mr. Soros was a prime financier of Hillary Clinton’s campaign thru one of his henchman John Podesta. Soros lost, and providing that the American people and the world citizenry learn a valuable lesson, his Messianic objective of world domination, after a successful goal of regime change in Russia, has failed with the mandate of President-Elect Donald Trump. As an example, in February 2016, this is what Soros published in the fake left media outlet that he sponsors: The Guardian. The essay had a quite provocative title, and it was mainly addressed to Europe’s leadership and the public opinion. In “Putin Is a Bigger Threat to Europe’s Existence than ISIS,” Soros wrote: “The Putin regime faces bankruptcy in 2017 when a large part of its foreign debt matures, and political turmoil may erupt sooner than that. The President’s popularity, which remains high, rests on a social contract requiring the government to deliver stability and a slowly, but steadily rising standard of living. Western sanctions coupled with the sharp decline in the price of oil will force the regime to fail on both counts.” All geopolitical analysts make projections, some turn out to be accurate, others not. But Soros is not a geopolitical analyst. This, in very few sentences, was his battle plan for regime change in Russia. In 1992 Soros crashed of the Bank of England Let’s look at the specifics of the timeline in the trajectory of the unquestionable puppet master of humanitarian imperialism. It was in 1979 that Soros decided to diversify his already giant financial portfolio to invest into media organizations and NGOs big or small. His opaque so-called Open Society Foundation now funnels money to more than 100 foundations and various think-tanks. But one must understand first what sorts of ruthless strategies Soros has used to, not only, acquire his fortune but also literally subdue a nation that used to be the most powerful empire in history. This takes us to the UK on Black Wednesday, September 16, 1992, when George Soros decided to show the world how powerful he was. That day, Soros did a short on the British Pound by dumping £10 billion worth of the currency on the UK stock market. Soros crashed the mighty Bank of England and showed everybody that he was more powerful than a major economy’s central bank. This action made Soros £1.8 billion. It was immoral to ruin the lives of countless hard working British citizens  but, however, perfectly legal. The hijack and killing of Occupy Occupy was a real movement, at its inception in the fall of 2011. Some of us had even hoped that it would be the dawn of a global revolution. This did not take into account George Soros, his minions of MoveOn, Change.org, Answer Coalition and pseudo intelligentia from the Amecican fake left. They infiltrated then hijacked the movement. The stakes were too high, especially with Wall-Street friendly Barack Obama due for reelection in 2012. The final battle of Occupy was fought and lost on December 4, 2011 in Washington DC. My colleague Liam Fox and I were there. We watched it go to waste. Until then, anarchist flags had flown above the tents. The Occupy movement included Anarchists, as well as Greens, neo-Marxists, and Libertarians, and it represented a real threat for the status quo. Soros and his surrogates of the so-called progressive alternative media made sure Occupy became neutered, toothless and finally dead. It would eventually become a convenient voting block to reelect Barack Obama. Soros, the purple revolution, and the caviar eating fake left Mr. Soros is quite fashion conscious for an older gentleman, even though this term doesn’t quite apply to the Ministry of Truth’s ultimate evil do-gooder. He seems to fancy secondary colors when it comes to symbolizing the fake revolutions with regime change goals that he indirectly orchestrates.  It is clear that he had his hands in Iran’s green revolution in 2009, as well as Ukraine’s  orange revolution. Now he wants to bring a purple revolution to the United States, to challenge the mandate of President-Elect Trump. This color revolution, like the others, will ultimately fail, providing that police in cities or Trump’s supporters do not fall for the provocation and either crack down or counter-protest. The mainstream media that Soros and his protege Hillary Clinton controlled has been exposed by Wikileaks as the diligent prestitutes of the Ministry of Truth. CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR News and many others, have been unmasked as biased propaganda outlets.  The same goes for the founder of the Huffington Post, Ariana Huffington. NPR News cannot be considered to be an impartial media organization while it receives massive funding from both George Soros and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Darling of the fake left Rachel Maddow, before getting her big-paycheck gig at MSNBC, started her career at the Soros-funded Air America radio. Among the pseudo-left alternative media, it is not much better. Noam Chomsky, who has been called “the Socrates of our times” by his colleague, Chris Hedges, might have drunk his hemlock by endorsing Hillary Clinton. The same Chris Hedges, along with Cornell West, Amy Goodman and Naomi Klein were shrewder when they endorsed Jill Stein. But they might want to step down from their ivory towers from time to time and ask themselves a simple question: if Stein was the candidate of the 99 percent, why did she only receive 1 percent of the vote? Another character and instigator of the Soros-financed purple revolution is Michael Moore. The documentary filmmaker has posed as a blue-collar ordinary working man for more than a decade, even though he is a millionaire. Moore is organizing a one-million women march in Washington DC on the day of President-Elect Trump’s inauguration, as an ultimate stand against his alleged sexism. Who will lead Soros’s mighty purple female army along Michael, will it be generals Lady Gaga and Madonna? On a more serious note, Mr. Soros and his Wall Street friends should reflect on what would happen to the US stock market in case of increased tension with Russia and China, which is what Soros has championed. Would China use what financier Warren Buffet called an economic weapon of mass destruction and dump its $3 trillion of Treasury-Bond holdings in one day? The net result for Wall Street would likely be as high as the return on the George Soros and the Saudi investments in Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House: a zero sum game. Editor’s Notes: This article is dedicated to my old friend Liam Fox. Gilbert Mercier is the author of “The Orwellian Empire.” Composite one by David Blackwell; composites two and three by Mark Rain; photographs four, five, six and eight by Gilbert Mercier; and composite seven by  Zr428.     15 Nov

Six Ways Trump Can Help Haiti Recover from Clinton Disaster - Donald Trump won the United States presidency against Hillary Clinton because he was the only candidate who seriously competed against her. One of President-Elect Trump’s major prizes in the election was the swing state of Florida, which flickered between red and blue throughout much of the night of November 8-9, 2016, eventually to remain a steady red after Trump won it by 120,000 votes. Many of South Florida’s 150,000 Haitian-American voters came out for Trump, though they had traditionally voted for Democrats, because they knew intimately about the wreck the Clintons had made of Haiti. Plenty of other Americans had also become disgusted by the Clintons’ treatment of Haiti. Many of them lived in Florida, and Wikileaks and other independent journalists had confirmed their worst suspicions. For Haitian-Americans, the US presidential race was a fight not only to wrest our native land from the Clintons, but also our adopted homeland. The US would have been Hillary Clinton’s next target after she and her cronies had refined in Haiti their methods to rig elections, co-opt journalists, and destroy economies. The evidence of wrongdoing was there for all to see, but throughout the yearlong campaign by the Greens, Libertarians, Republicans, and Democrats, Mr. Trump was the only candidate who singled out Clinton’s indefensible pay-to-play conduct in Haiti for attack. Thus he shot the fatal arrow through her Achilles’ heel and won the White House. Haiti will need the US’ assistance to recover from more than 20 years of disasters wrought by the Clintons. A new Trump administration may expect to get the return vote of Haitian-Americans and Haitianophiles in 2020 if it helps Haiti in the following six ways. 1. Bring former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton to justice. More than $9 billion of aid funds for Haiti from international donors, collected through the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) for reconstruction from the January 2010 earthquake, have gone missing. We hope that, as promised, a special prosecutor will be appointed to look into the allegations of financial improprieties by the Clinton family. We further hope that this special prosecutor’s office will investigate their alleged crimes in Haiti as well as the US, and charge them with conspiracy and racketeering, as appropriate. If they are found guilty, the funds should be recovered and their properties attached as a means to remunerate the Haitian government. 2. Assist Haiti diplomatically in its efforts to recover damages from the United Nations for the cholera epidemic. The UN has contaminated Haiti twice with cholera, the first time in 2010 with a cholera strain from Nepal, and the second time after 2012 with cholera from Bangladesh. Currently the UN is only pretending to fight the cholera epidemics that it introduced into Haiti. It is doing so by inoculating hundreds of thousands Haitians with an oral cholera vaccine that is completely ineffective and potentially harmful. Even with an efficacious vaccine, such a campaign would be morally vacuous because its purpose is to allow people to drink water that is contaminated with sewage. The UN must pay damages to individual Haitians for infecting about 700,000 people with cholera and killing about 10,000 others because of its negligence. Furthermore, as reparation, the UN must provide the means to rebuild the country’s waste-treatment and potable-water infrastructures. 3. End without delay the UN military occupation of Haiti. In February 2004, the US government deposed Haiti’s President. Three months later, Bill Clinton, together with Lula da Silva’s now-disgraced administration in Brazil, organized to install an illegal military occupation of Haiti by the so-called UN peacekeepers (MINUSTAH). These troops have been involved in rapes, murders, massacres, and the introduction of epidemics of disease. The great majority of Haitians object to their presence. 4. Fire and replace all State Department and USAID personnel for Haiti from the Clinton or Obama administrations. Such individuals have been part of a corruption machine. They have participated, not only in cases of financial fraud that caused more than $13 billion of international aid to disappear but also in the election fraud that allowed them to install a corrupt dictator, Michel Martelly, as president so they could pillage the country. 5. Adopt a policy of non-interference in Haitian elections. On November 20, 2016 Haiti will repeat its first-round presidential elections and some legislative elections. This follows the invalidation of elections in October 2015 after a discovery of massive fraud  that probably involved the election workers and international monitors. We ask that the US bring some pressure to bear on France, Canada, Brazil, Spain, and Chile to refrain from attempting to influence the new elections. 6. Stop US agricultural subsidies for rice farmers. As recently as in the 1980s, Haiti was a thriving agricultural country, but in 2014-15 alone, Haiti’s import of agricultural products increased by 30 percent, and its trade deficit for agricultural goods exceeded $900 million. This process began in 1994 with a systematic Clinton dumping of subsidized Arkansas rice in Haiti. The ever-creative US mainstream press, however, has blamed the end result, not on Bill and Hillary Clinton but on Hurricane Matthew. To rebuild its economy, Haiti will need to eliminate unfair competition from subsidized US agricultural goods. Haiti has endured, in addition to natural disasters, a vicious warfare by the Clintons for many years, even as they have claimed to be the country’s staunchest partners and greatest friends. More than charity, Haiti needs truth, fairness and justice. If the US will grant those things, Haitians and Haitian-Americans will do the rest. Editor’s Notes: Dady Chery is the author of We Have Dared to Be Free. Photograph one US Air Force archive; photograph five and seven by Zoriah; photographs eight and ten from the UN Photo archive; and photograph nine from USAID archive. 13 Nov

Trump Land Shock Wave: Empire Inc on Steroids or Drain the Swamp? - Donald Trump’s election is viewed by most on the United States’ left coast and worldwide as a regressive historical anomaly. It has left the political class in Washington, and the rest of the world, in a state of shock. The type of nightmarish hangover that a drunk time traveler would get if he was accidentally taken to let’s say the McCarthy era in the US or to Germany in 1933. Uncertainty usually provokes anxiety, and this is precisely what we are witnessing in this time of history. Trump is an accidental president as he was never supposed to be elected. Case in point: at the early stages of his campaign, the man running it was Tony Podesta, brother of Hillary Clinton’s main handler John Podesta. Trump’s initial function was to be a decoy, a scarecrow and  an ostentatious crude comic relief to ensure Clinton’s election. Almost nobody made the forecast of a Trump victory, but it was however highly predictable as Trump started to personify a populist anti-establishment protest movement: the raw expression of rage from the victims of disaster capitalism. The miscalculation was that Trump not only likes to compete, he also most of the time manages to win. The mainstream US media, more or less all paid for or in collusion with the Clintons, is flabbergasted by the result and has lost the little credibility it had left. Wikileaks’ Podesta emails disclosures exposed many of them as corrupt propagandists. The problem with propagandists is that they often end up believing their own lies. Of course Trump became their favorite punching bag, but it eventually backfired on them and finally, blew up in their faces. Trump claimed rightly that the US political system is rigged, but his mandate is far from a plebiscite, as Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. Therefore, before his inauguration in January President-Elect Trump must reach out and make peace with the left coast. During this election, the divide between the heartland Bible and rust belt and the rich urban east and west coasts has grown. Trump’s first task should be to rebuild bridges between two cultures hostile to each other. This is imperative, if he is to succeed, but it is, to say the least, an extremely challenging task. How will he reconcile the clash of values between a left coast socially liberal in terms of civil rights and climate change, and a poor heartland economic casualty of globalization living paycheck to paycheck but socially conservative and a proponent of  increased policing?  Some of the names of the political players actively jockeying to jump on Trump’s train for the key cabinet positions give an indication that an olive branch strategy might not be in the forecast to bridge the deep cultural divide of this land. Is the house of Trump built on quick sand? On November 8, 2016, Americans rolled the dices and opted for the candidate viewed, rightly or not, as the anti-establishment candidate. The premise is accurate: America is broken, but how to rebuild it is the issue. Trump did start a movement to get elected; it had its slogans “Make America Great Again” and “Drain the Swamp”, but how will they be applied exactly and will they end up in the dustbin of history like Obama’s unfulfilled promises of “Hope and Change”? Slogans are political marketing devices and get people elected by motivating voters, but they are rarely implemented and are certainly not policy indicators. If America dodged the bullet of a potential civil war if the Clintons had successfully rigged the elections and won, the country is divided and bruised. Does Trump have what it takes to be a healer-in-chief? Further, the key campaign slogan refers to an era when America was great, but it never refers to an exact time frame. Are we talking about Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Nixon, or Reagan? If we are talking about the latter, I am sure that the president-elect is fully aware that Reagan was merely a figurehead run Bush Sr. who endorsed Hillary Clinton. Perhaps Nixon could be an interesting model, as he managed to extract the US from the Vietnam quagmire as well as establish foreign relations with China, not to mention create the EPA. President-elect Trump must clarify, as a guideline, when he thinks America was great so we may study that time frame and its leadership. Draining the Washington swamp Trump was elected because he is an outsider, a savvy businessman who has promised to rebuild a land wrecked by globalization and poor management. But now, he has to deal with the traitorous waters of Washington’s insiders. There is a saying in DC: if you want a friend get a dog. This is why enduring politicians value loyalty above anything else. Cultivating loyalty has its shortfalls, and as it becomes inbred and corrupt it can become borderline criminal. In March 2015 I coined the notion that the two leading US political dynasties, Bush & Clinton, were largely operations like crime syndicates. This idea became very popular with Trump’s core base of the so-called deplorables. The Bushes betrayed Trump during the elections, therefore we’ll find none of their crew in Trump’s cabinet. This also goes for anyone connected with the Clinton crew and their Wall Street sponsors. President Barack Obama  was apparently given a list of Wall Street approved cabinet members before his election in November 2008. One hopes that Mr. Trump will stay away from this type of conflict of interest. It is clear, judging by the way he has run his campaign, that President-Elect Trump will be the boss in the White House. This seems to be exactly what the American people want at the moment, and as the CEO of America Inc. he will hire his own trusted people and won’t have any problem, if needed, with using his famous TV reality show line: “You are fired!” Trump’s cabinet It appears that former Speaker of The House Newt Gingrich will play a leading role in the Trump administration. Other names are being floated, some of them contradicting the notion of “draining the swamp”. Gingrich has been mentioned for Secretary of State, but this is not apparently what he wants. Another name is mentioned to head the key position of head of the State Department, and it is unfortunately the Bush crew man John Bolton. Bolton, besides being tainted for his role in the Bush administration, has a short fuse, which is not really the best quality for the top diplomat of a country. Robert Corker is also considered for Secretary of State. In my opinion, If Trump wants to depart from US aggressive hegemony foreign policy, and ease the tensions with Russia and China, he should seriously consider Ron Paul for the job. It is likely that former Mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani will become Attorney General, and he is certainly more than qualified for the job. Unfortunately, Trump is considering his friend Steven Mnuchin, formerly at Goldman Sachs, for Secretary of the Treasury. Jeff Sessions is the likely choice for Secretary of Defense. I think that Chuck Hagel should also be considered in some capacity, as well as Paul Craig Roberts who served in the Reagan administration. David Clarke is on top of the list to head the Department of Homeland Security. Perhaps the most disastrous name mentioned, at least for people concerned by climate change, are the names considered for Energy Secretary, Interior Secretary, and EPA: for Energy Harold Hamm, an Oklahoma billionaire who made his fortune in fracking is a shoe-in; Forrest Lucas from Lucas Oil, might become Interior Secretary; and perhaps the most controversial choice of all would be the one of on record climate change denier Myron Ebel to head the EPA. For the sake of bipartisanship and inclusiveness, it might be a good idea to consider someone like Bernie Sanders for either Secretary of Labor or Education. This type of idea would go a long way to unite a divided country. Last but not least, President-Elect Trump should consider putting pressure on Sweden’s government to drop the manufactured charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, considering that without the release of  Podesta’s emails, Hillary Clinton would have likely been elected. All Americans and the world citizenry should want the Trump administration to be successful. Our common future depends on it. Editor’s Notes: Gilbert Mercier is the author of The Orwellian Empire. All photographs by Gilbert Mercier.   10 Nov

Globalization Expressway to Universal Slavery - If humans were largely moral and ethical beings, then globalization could be a workable proposition. Unfortunately, the dark behavioral narcissism expressed by compulsive greed and an infinite appetite for power seems to have become the guiding precept of our collective nightmare. If only the desire to dominate others and have a lot more than them were not the prime motivations for the global elite on top of the human food chain, we could all have our respective modest slice of happiness on this planet. The Utopia of globalization through institutions such as the United Nations (UN), World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) was supposed to eradicate the universal pestilence of war, extreme poverty, hunger and slavery using the might of the above supranational institutions to prevent the rise of so-called rogue nations usually ruled by dictators. World order of chaos with misery for profit The opportunity of this push for a supranational form of government has to be understood in the psychological context of a world traumatized by World War II. Many public servants, who had fought against the Nazis and their Japanese and Italian allies, had genuinely the best intentions at heart when institutions like the UN were set up. If some of the original ideas were good and moral to some extend, a rot almost immediately contaminated and perverted most of the created institutions and quickly — using the pretext of the Cold War — allowed the birth of a monstrosity such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The globalists have controlled and ultimately Wall Street has financed, supranational government instances such as the UN, IMF, World Bank and a myriad of non-governmental organization (NGO) little helpers. Not only have these done nothing to curtail the man-made disasters of war, climate change, slavery and poverty, but they have exacerbated them, all for the sake of profit. In this Orwellian time of moral decay, human misery is good for business. In a globalization controlled by Wall Street’s puppeteer sociopaths, who believe they are the masters of the universe, ordinary people everywhere have become canon fodder and slave labor. They are not even collateral damage but human lubricant, as viewed by the elite. One can see that if they are not stopped immediately, trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and its Trans-Atlantic counterpart could seal the deal of the establishment of an atrocious world government, controlled by a few thousands, in complete disregard of not only national interest, but also cultural diversity. Look what happened to Detroit, Michigan, and countless other manufacturing towns in the United States that are all collateral damage of  Bill Clinton’s North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The massive trade agreements in the works, to be put in place by the globalists if they remain in power, are intended to annihilate any form of economic or political independence from the signatory countries and to scatter their populations to the wind, as in the case in the globalist-controlled demolition of the Middle East in Iraq, Libya and Syria. Displaced and disenfranchised populations are beaten into submission and used as docile worker bees. Drastic action or hell on earth If we let the globalists complete their worldwide coup already in progress, then all sovereignty would be lost, and most of the world’s population would become slave-wage laborers at the mercy of the global corporate empire. Countries with a diversified agriculture would be turned into one-crop wastelands to ensure that most of the food supply has to be imported. Pseudo local governments would merely officiate as the slave drivers for the global elite. This must be stopped at all cost and undone by all means necessary. If we allow this final coup by the geriatric psychopaths at the top of the current world order, thousands of years of our rich human experience would be wiped out. Like poorly made cheap electronic products, the cultural garbage of the lowest common denominator empire would flood the world. This  cultural homogenization would affect primarily the information available to people. Since dissent is impossible without correct information and critical thought, the globalists want their propaganda to become the only source of  information. With the UN, the World Bank and the IMF, the political and economic framework financed by a worldwide network of banksters is already in place. Influential nations, on paper, like France and the United Kingdom, which are still officially full fledged members of the UN Security Council, have de facto abdicated their sovereignty to become vassals and secondary enforcers of the globalist plan. We are at the edge of an existential threat of greater magnitude than ever before in human history. The semantics of deception Machiavelli is known for his cynical view of political power; however, the advice the author of The Prince gave to the powerful of his time seems innocent by comparison to the depravity of today’s puppet masters. Words and ideas are gutted of their meaning to signify, most of the time, the exact opposite. For example, globalist eminence grise George Soros’ Open Society Foundation is an opaque giant NGO, with more than 100 offshoots worldwide by its own admission, but its tentacles are in reality more far reaching. The recent publications of Wikileaks in the voluminous Podesta email files have been a revelation of the extent of deception victimizing United States citizens. John Podesta may be viewed as a Soros right-hand man in the US in charge of delivering the returns for the globalist’s investments in the US elections. The connection between the two men is not only obvious but also official considering that Soros financed Podesta’s so-called Center for American Progress, the fake left equivalent of the neocon think tanks. The term progress is a lure that signifies power, just like Soros’ open society is, in reality, an exclusive club as tight as oysters reserved only for Soros’ chosen associates to savor. What is apparent from the email treasure trove is that Podesta’s job is really to supervise Hillary Clinton on behalf of Soros. In this context, the expression, leader of the free world, to describe the US president becomes a lie. The current world order of the globalists is anything but free, and one applicant for the job, Hillary Clinton, is not a queen on the chessboard, but a pawn.  Axis of resistance: Russia, China and Iran and lessons from Haiti’s revolution One could ask: isn’t this psychopathic globalist coup of financiers well on its way? Isn’t it a done deal, and how can we resist and salvage anything? The examples of Russia, China and Iran prove that, as national entities, we still can. Germany, Japan and South Korea could reclaim their independence and kick out their US occupation. France and the UK could stop being submissive nations and get out of NATO. That would be a start. The path of war rhetoric expressed by the globalist mouthpieces of the West against Russia, Iran and, to a lesser extent, China has to do with the national resistance of these three countries. The citizenry of Europe and North America should understand, that if such unprecedented conflicts occur, all countries will be on the front line, and there is more than enough fire power on each side to ensure massive destruction and no winning side. Russia, China and Iran are the last national obstacles to the globalist coup, and perhaps we are heading back to a bipolar two-block world order similar to the Cold War era. Other options, including the dismantlement, or at least the curtailment, of supranational organizations such as the UN, World Bank and IMF would surely be the side effects of what appears to be in many countries a revival of nationalism. The final plan of the globalists would  be atrocious for all of us. Waving the white flag is not an option. At this critical time of our history, and before our collective enslavement, we should  all emulate the brave Haitian slaves who beat not one, but three empires 212 years ago. Haitians were only the last ones to prove that it can be done; it must be redone. Editor’s Notes: Gilbert Mercier is the author of The Orwellian Empire. Composites one, three and five by Mark Rain; photographs two from the archive of Byung Chul Kim; four by John Getchel; six from the IMF archive; seven by Luc Forsyth; and eight by Charles Hoffman. 30 Oct

Haiti’s Cholera Spreading, Money Grubbing, United Nations Plague - If the United Nations caused 10,000 deaths and 700,000 cholera infections after Haiti’s January 12, 2010 disastrous earthquake, then it stands to reason that a continued association with the UN after six years of inaction on the cholera, plus the ravages of Hurricane Matthew, could only lead to more Haitian deaths. Former UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, flew over the city of Aux Cayes, in southern Haiti on Saturday, October 16, 2016, and he visited a high school where some people are sheltered. The wet mattresses from Hurricane Matthew had hardly dried before Mr. Ki-moon and his associates began to plot for the UN to prolong its mandate in Haiti. The UN was due to leave in six months, now it will be a year. There should be no more need for a UN force, now that it has trained about 16,000 Haitian police as its replacement. There is, however, money in cholera and rigged elections. As journalist Kim Ives, predicted, the pretext put forward by the UN is that it will need to stay until Haiti elects its next government. The hurricane has caused the postponement of Haiti’s first-round presidential elections and some legislative elections to November 20, 2016. These will be a retake of the rigged elections of  2015 that were financed mostly by the United States through the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Only two months ago, Ban Ki-moon was beginning to act contrite for exacerbating the effects of the earthquake by plaguing the island nation with cholera. Together with his UN Special Envoy, Bill Clinton and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he had prevented a representative government from burgeoning and burdened Haiti’s fragile infrastructure with thousands of UN troops from Southeast Asia, where cholera is endemic. Mr. Ki-moon acknowledged in mid-August 2016 that Nepalese troops had infected Haiti and attributed this admission to a report on August 8 from UN advisor Philip Alston, a professor of law at New York University. This sudden reversal, after years of refusal to take responsibility for the cholera, was most likely occasioned, not by Alston’s report, but by my article on January 8, 2016. This article revealed to the general public that, even while the UN successfully fought two lawsuits by Haitians, it was infecting Haiti yet again, after 2012, with cholera  from Bangladesh. Having closely followed the scientific literature on cholera, I reported the news that Dr. Andrew Camilli’s team at Tufts University had discovered a cholera virus called ICP2 in Haitian patients that could only have accompanied cholera bacteria in the untreated wastes of Bangladeshi soldiers. The first group of soldiers from Bangladesh, an all-female unit, joined the UN police contingent in Haiti in 2012. Alston’s report also stated that conditions at the UN bases in Haiti had remained shoddy even after 2010. In my view, the AP story on this report in the New York Times, which pretended to be critical of the UN, was nothing but a cynical preparation of the public opinion for the news that additional cholera strains from Bangladesh currently exist in Haiti. As of this writing, UN missions have infected at least nine other countries with cholera. They are: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Darfur, South Sudan, Mali, Central African Republic (CAR), Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Abyei. In addition, the UN has always lied about the cholera in Haiti. In 2010, the UN was first to learn that it had infected Haiti with Vibrio cholerae from Nepal, but it kept quiet about it. The initial cholera infections in Haitians appeared five days after 1,280 Nepalese troops were returned to Haiti from training in Kathmandu plus a 10-day home leave throughout Nepal in the midst of a cholera epidemic. In Haiti, the soldiers were set up in two camps from which their untreated wastes were dumped in waterways that fed the Artibonite River. This contamination amounted to more than one bathtub of pure choleric waste with billions to trillions of cholera bacteria per liter being dumped into the river! Without this, the cholera bacteria in the Artibonite would never have reached the concentrations to kill residents downstream of these camps within hours. It is almost certain that several Nepalese troops became violently ill on base and that the UN plus the medical personnel who treated the troops, probably from the nearest hospital in the city Mirebalais, have covered up these events. Immediately after the onset of the epidemic, the UN began to clamor for money and for oral cholera vaccines via its Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). As part of a study to develop vaccines against the cholera, the UN demonstrated to itself conclusively, well before any other molecular genetics studies, that the cholera in Haiti was identical to cholera from Nepal. This work was done by UN researcher Dr. Dong Wook Kim at the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), in South Korea. The UN also kept this secret to itself. Incidentally, South Korea, which is also involved in Haiti’s sweatshop complex at Caracol, happens to be the country where Ban Ki-moon originates. The nightmare is upon us again. One week after Hurricane Matthew, the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) donated one million doses of oral cholera vaccines to Haiti, although the Haitian government had instead asked for help with infrastructure to provide clean drinking water to the population. The vaccines represent a gold rush for Deputy UN Special Envoy Paul Farmer’s NGO Partners in Health (PIH), which will get paid to administer the vaccines. As in 2010, the mainstream media, especially The Guardian and NPR, are vigorously promoting vaccines and functioning as the voice of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has financed, not only the development of the oral cholera vaccine at the IVI but also its manufacture under the name Shanchol by a subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical giant, Sanofi Pasteur. The current promotion of oral cholera vaccines is a deceitful campaign motivated by pure greed. Vaccination against cholera in Haiti right now is worse than useless. First, even inefficacious vaccines are risky, because the vaccines used on people in the Third World usually contain 6 to 30-fold higher concentrations than the WHO upper limit of thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative that might be linked to autism. Secondly, no one knows which cholera bacteria are in Haiti! The cholera strain identified six years ago has now changed to the point where vaccines manufactured against it will not work at all. These vaccines will certainly be absolutely useless against the strains of cholera from Bangladesh. Finally, even under the best circumstances, when Shanchol is designed and used against a cholera with recently sequenced DNA, protection is poor to nonexistent.  A field trial in Bangladesh in 2011 found that the vaccine conferred only 45 percent protection in all age groups after one year, including only about 17 percent protection in children under five, who are those most likely to die from cholera. The results published in 2015 for a field trial in Haiti, passing as a vaccination and poorly monitored, claimed 57 percent protection, but only people older than 12 were inoculated. Haitian authorities should be further advised that some of the supposed vaccinations might actually be drug trials for new vaccines. This would be nothing short of experimentation on Haitians as a large field laboratory. A number of microbiologists based in the Boston area, at Harvard and Tufts Universities, have developed and patented several vaccines against cholera. Most vaccines are meant ultimately for the US army, which is their biggest market, but they are usually tested on poor brown people in places like India, Bangladesh, Mexico, and Haiti. When they are, it is often without regard for the Declaration of Helsinki ethical guidelines, which should govern such field trials, and the vaccine formulations and methods of preparation for Third World people are always cheaper and more dangerous than those for US army personnel. After 12 years of rapes, murders, massacres, child trafficking, and epidemics, it is evident that the UN mission (MINUSTAH) in Haiti is an army of military occupation for the US, France, and Canada, with all the attendant implications. The UN has had six years to get rid of a cholera epidemic that could have been eradicated in months with proper epidemiological surveillance, care, and the provision of clean water. Instead, the UN-associated non-governmental organizations (NGO) like PIH and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have achieved a completely unacceptable 1.4 percent mortality rate from a non-lethal disease that can be treated with simple rehydration. By contrast, Cuban health workers in Haiti typically get mortality rates of 0.1 percent or less. At this point, the best thing the UN can do for Haiti is remove itself and pay for its crimes with the funds to repair the country’s wastewater-treatment and potable-water infrastructure. Much of this was destroyed, not by natural disasters but by sabotage since 2010. As Ban Ki-moon’s convoy traveled in Aux Cayes for his public relations tour on October 16, angry Haitians shouted at the UN trucks, “Get out of here! And take your food and water with you!” Things being as they are with the mainstream press, the AFP/France 24 translator reported instead that the irate Haitians, who were in return attacked with tear gas by UN troops, had demanded food. In a speech later that day, Ban Ki-moon said he was “disappointed by the response of the international community” that has donated only $15 million of the $120 million he had requested. I believe it is $15 million too many. Nevertheless, I salute the international community for becoming wiser to the UN. More than anything, I salute the ordinary, supposedly uneducated, Haitians who instinctively know that the name for those who would accept water and vaccines from an occupying army is: deceased. Editor’s Notes: Dady Chery is an associate professor in the biological sciences, a journalist, and the author of We Have Dared to Be Free: Haiti’s Struggle Against Occupation. Photographs one, seven, and eight from the archive of CDC Global; photographs five, six, eleven and twelve by Carsten ten Brink.   17 Oct

Environment | Mother Jones

How One Homeless Couple Finds and Prepares Their Meals - This article is part of the SF Homeless Project, a collaboration between nearly 70 media organizations to explore the state of homelessness in San Francisco. The sun reaches down between the steel slats of a park bridge, its light flickering as a bicyclist glides overhead. Donna Ewing, 54, and her boyfriend, Louie, 52, watch him pass from below. They spent nearly a month digging out a space under the bridge, before adding walls made of plywood and sheet metal. Their new space is an upgrade from the tent they were living in before: It has a sturdy roof and much more privacy. Donna and Louie have lived in Union Point, a small park near a boat marina in West Oakland, California, for about a year. They're two of the city's estimated 6,200 homeless residents, and part of the nearly 17 percent of Americans who don't have enough to eat on a regular basis. Because of their makeshift living quarters, finding food and preparing the next meal can take up a significant part of the day. On a Wednesday morning in early December, Louie pushes aside the pink tent he's hung up in lieu of a front door and hops on his bike for a morning ride. While he's gone, Donna eats a packaged donut and a few bites of cinnamon toast—the remnants of a bag of groceries Louie brought home from a food pantry a few days before. Donna turns on a hot plate to heat water for coffee, powered by a car battery, the couple's primary power source. Then she spends the morning cleaning up camp, even though she says she knows she should rest. Her blood pressure is high and she's in between chemo treatments. When Louie returns, he eats some oatmeal out of a paper cup, along with his favorite toppings—"lots of butter and lots of sugar." Some days, Louie rides his bike to a Presbyterian church nearby to collect bagged lunches that are handed out a few times a week. Other days he rides 25 minutes to the Alameda County Food Bank for some groceries. Finding healthy options nearby isn't easy. Donna and Louie's setup, like many homeless camps, is near an industrial park just off the freeway, an area seen as a food desert. There's a McDonald's and Domino's Pizza more than a few blocks away, and a FoodMax a bit farther, where Louie can find staples like chicken, coffee, oatmeal, and vegetables. Feeding America, a hunger relief organization, estimates that more than 232,000 people in Alameda County don't have access to enough nutritious and affordable food. The Alameda County Food Bank feeds about 116,000 people each month. The homeless are by no means the only population struggling to put dinner on the table: Last year, more than 42 million Americans reported living in households without adequate access to food. Recently, more organizations like Food Runners and Food Recovery Network have sprung up to try to divert cities' colossal food waste to those in need. A small bridge in a West Oakland provides shelter for Donna and Louie, a couple who have lived in the park for about a year. Photo by Jenny Luna Since it's the middle of the month, money isn't as tight for Donna and Louie as it will be in two weeks, when nearly all of Donna's Social Security check will be spent. So for lunch, they still have some bread and cold cuts for sandwiches. Donna keeps mayonnaise, celery, apples, and pork chops cold in a small blue ice chest. She sends Louie to a nearby Motel 6 every few days for more ice. All he has to do is ask, she says. People are usually very giving when you ask.   The couple met at the Walden House, a rehab facility in San Francisco, a little over a year ago. After treatment, they decided to head east to visit Donna's son in Utah. They'd barely made it out of town when their car broke down. They haven't been able to get on their feet since. Donna and Louie tell me this story from outside their encampment, Louie seated on a turned-over milk crate and Donna on a worn pink ottoman. "I don't know how we got here," Louie says, crying. "We're stuck and we're trying to stay positive," Donna says. Donna Ewing, 54, often cooks for everyone in the encampment. "We share what we have," she said. Photo by Jenny Luna   Toward the end of the month, Donna and Louie will eat less meat and more cereal. They'll mostly skip lunches, and when money thins even more, they'll both go without breakfast. On the first of the month, Donna heads to the Social Security office to pick up her check, an amount that comes out to an average of about $150 per week. Louie contributes to the larder by working under the table for an Italian restaurant in the nearby town of Alameda. He sweeps, mops, and washes dishes in exchange for a few meals at the end of the night. He'll get to bring home a to-go box of fries, spaghetti, or Donna's favorite: salad. At sunset, Union Point is quiet now that boat owners in the marina have gone for the day. Donna's two cats, Malachi and Cali, emerge from the bushes and chase each other around camp. A neighbor, Dawn, comes by with some food to share—a bag of nearly thawed chicken nuggets and a plastic container full of tomato sauce for dipping. Just before dark, Louie heads to the parking lot of an industrial complex across the railroad tracks. He comes back with a wooden pallet and a few moon pies and soda that the warehouse employees leave out from time to time. Since it's about to rain, Donna wishes she could make soup: celery and carrots and chicken, something they can live off of for a couple of days. But their big soup pot got crushed a few weeks ago when the city cleared out camp. "They're supposed to store them or something," Donna says. "But everything got crushed. That was devastating." Government agencies often do "sweeps" through homeless camps, sometimes destroying or confiscating any property. Since they have some meat from Louie's grocery vouchers, they'll barbecue tonight instead. They're out of fuel, so Louie stomps the palette into smaller pieces while Donna gathers a few branches from the bushes. She moves slowly in her sandals and black sweatpants, her fading blonde hair slicked back in a bun. On her wrist, she wears a rubber bracelet with the word "Love" on it. Louie takes all the wood over to the park's barbecue grills and puts a few pieces under the metal grate. Donna puts two pork chops on the grill. As the smell wafts off the meat, their neighbors Mike and Lucy, who live in tents in the marina parking lot, gather around with a bag of chips and some soda. The temperature drops as the sun sets further. Even though it's cold, they start up a game of dominoes. Donna boils water for hot cocoa. "It's a beautiful place," Donna says. "It's about the people being here; we're all the same people."17 Dec

Pig Farms Can Control When You Get the Flu - For a fascinating new study, Duke researchers looked at flu patterns over four years across North Carolina, a state with high concentrations of intensive hog farming in some regions, and very little on others. The idea was to determine whether living near bustling hog farms affects the timing of how communities experience flu—a key question, because many flu strains mutate quickly and jump easily between people and hogs. The answer, in short, is yes. To understand the findings, it's important to note that each flu season brings different dominant strains that infect people. Some years, pig-adapted strains proliferate among people; other years, strains that aren't adapted to those farm beasts do. Pig-adapted flu strains became more common after 2009, when H1N1 emerged and caused a global pandemic. It has been circulating ever since, and in some flu seasons (like 2015-'16) is the predominant strain affecting people. Over the study period, two of the flu seasons were dominated by pig strains—and in both, the flu season peaked earlier in hog-intensive counties, measured by the number of reported cases among people. In the other two non-pig flu years, flu seasons across North Carolina's counties showed no such pattern. Infectious-diseases writer Maryn McKenna has an excellent explainer on FERN's Ag Insider: What likely happened, they [the authors] say, is that the virus circulating in those flu seasons was carried onto farms by workers and spread to the pigs — and as it passed from pig to pig, the virus had a chance to reproduce in a manner that would not have happened in the absence of CAFOs. That much larger amount of virus spread back out into surrounding community, spiking the number of flu cases earlier in the flu season. The upshot, the researchers say, is that vaccine strategies should expand. Currently, public health authorities target kids, elderly people, and people with compromised immune systems for flu-shot campaigns. People who work on and live near hog farms should also be encouraged to achieve "universal influenza vaccination," they say. Fair enough. But it also seems worth asking whether it's a smart idea to concentrate hog farming so tightly. Every year, North Carolina's confinement facilities churning out 10 million pigs—14.5 percent of total US production—the vast majority of which is crammed into a few eastern counties. These hyper-concentration of hogs creates what the authors call a "crucible for human influenza epidemics."16 Dec

Trump Hates Renewable Energy—Unless It's Powering One of His Hot New Hotels - At a rally in Pennsylvania in August, Donald Trump had some complaints about wind power. "The wind kills all your birds," he told supporters. "All your birds: killed." It was typical Trump: The president-elect hates wind turbines. He derides them as colossal eyesores. "It looks like a junkyard," he said in October, referring to wind farms outside Palm Springs, California—"a poor man's version of Disneyland." And, he says, they're unreliable: "Half of them are broken. They're rusting and rotting." He spent years battling to prevent a wind farm from being built off Scotland's coast; his company called the project a "dangerous experiment with wind energy" that would spoil the view from his golf course. (Trump lost—though he's far from letting the issue go.) But in at least one major business venture, Trump's organization embraced wind power big league. In August 2010, one of the real estate mogul's most exclusive new hotels—the glassy Trump SoHo in downtown Manhattan—boasted that it would be investing in 100 percent clean power. Specifically, it would be purchasing electricity from wind. According to one of the deal's main architects, the move to purchase wind energy was spearheaded by Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka, and potentially saved the hotel hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy costs. "Ivanka was the one that wanted the 100 percent green requirement," said Bill Cannon, who helped broker the deal when he worked as a senior vice president for Choice Energy Services, a Houston-based energy advisory and brokerage firm. (Ivanka Trump and the Trump Organization did not respond to a request to be interviewed or to written questions.) Trump SoHo hotel condominium in New York City. Alec Perkins/Wikimedia Commons Purchasing green energy can actually be pretty complicated. Much of the electricity produced in New York State comes from fossil fuels, so unless a hotel straps turbines or solar panels to its roof, there's no way to pick and choose the "green" electrons that power a building. So the key to the Trump SoHo deal was the purchase of "renewable energy certificates"—RECs—a tradable financial instrument designed to represent the environmental benefit of energy produced by clean sources, such solar or wind. In other words, the hotel buys energy in one market, but the actual renewable energy is produced elsewhere. RECs can be controversial (more on this below). In theory, they allow consumers to support the production of renewables even when the actual power they use comes partly from fossil fuels. By purchasing the RECs, Trump could claim to offset the carbon pollution released by the plants powering his new hotel. Under the deal, the hotel agreed to purchase 5.5 million kilowatt hours of wind energy annually from Green Mountain Energy, a renewable energy retailer owned by the electricity giant NRG. A press release issued at the time by Green Mountain claimed that the arrangement would offset 4.6 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year. According to Green Mountain, this would be the equivalent of 1.3 million houses turning off all their lights for a day. Citing client confidentiality, Green Mountain declined to confirm any details regarding its relationship with the hotel beyond the publicly released information about the 2010 deal.  The deal apparently made financial sense, too, allowing the hotel to lock in low retail electricity rates and avoid market fluctuations. Cannon estimates the upscale building, managed by Trump's hotel chain, would have enjoyed annual savings in the ballpark of $120,000, compared to regular commercial usage via ConEd, the New York City utility. Cannon says the deal was renewed at least once before he left Choice Energy Services. (Choice did not respond to emails. Cannon now works for a boutique energy brokerage in New York City.) "Everybody won," Cannon said, adding that the top brass at the Trump Organization was involved in every step of the decision to invest in renewables. "I was constantly being told, 'This is a requirement, this is a requirement, this is a requirement,'" he said of Trump's business people. Trump SoHo spokeswoman Nicole Murano told Mother Jones that the hotel has since switched energy vendors. She said the hotel still uses renewable energy, but she didn't provide any further information. Donald J. Trump and Ivanka Trump at a 2007 news conference announcing the sale of condominium units in the Trump Soho tower Richard B. Levine/Levine Roberts/NC via ZUMA The effectiveness of RECs is often disputed by critics such as Daniel Press, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Press argues that RECs do little to reduce emissions in the real world because they have become too cheap to shift energy markets or incentivize businesses to build new turbines or solar panels. Often, RECs can be purchased for far less than what it actually cost to produce the renewable power that they supposedly represent. "You're still buying electrons that are generated from a coal plant or from a natural gas plant," Press told me. "So you didn't cause the wind turbines to be built, because no one can build a wind farm for 10 cents on the dollar." Even so, Auden Shendler, a sustainability expert and a vice president at Aspen Skiing Company, which prides itself on its climate activism, commends Trump SoHo's 2010 efforts. Shendler, who is generally not a fan of RECs, sees the deal as a step in the right direction. "While experts dispute the value of RECs, clearly the Trump Organization was trying to do the right thing given the knowledge they had at the time," said Shendler. "This was the right, well-intentioned thing to do, and you can't blame them for not being a weirdo expert on these things." While "it probably doesn't move the industry much, [RECs are] a piece of a movement towards more clean power," he added. "It does help a little bit. This is a kind of crack of light." No matter the environmental impact, top Trump executives were thrilled: "We regard this as a wise business decision on all levels," said the then-general manager of the hotel, David Chase, in the press release announcing the deal. He added that the move "respects the values of our guests who are as concerned as we are about protecting and caring for the environment." The 2010 deal stands in stark contrast to much of Trump's energy rhetoric. Anti-wind Twitter rants are one weapon in Trump's anti-climate arsenal. Wind turbines are not only killing millions of birds, they are killing the finances & environment of many countries & communities. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2012 Not only are wind farms disgusting looking, but even worse they are bad for people's health http://t.co/2G8YrOUZ (cont) http://t.co/NujHgnXU — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2012 His cabinet picks are another weapon. They are uniformly pro-fossil fuel and anti-regulation—and some are unabashed climate change deniers. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, picked by Trump to run the Energy Department, claims climate scientists have "manipulated data." Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has repeatedly sued the EPA—the agency he's been selected to lead—to block environmental regulations. And just days before signing on to lead Trump's Energy department transition, former Koch Industries lobbyist Tom Pyle penned a memo predicting that the new administration would take a "closer look at the environmental impacts" of the wind industry. "Trump has been concerned about the harms to wildlife from wind turbines such as bird and bat deaths," wrote Pyle. "Unlike before, wind energy will rightfully face increasing scrutiny from the federal government." But just six years ago, Trump was singing a very different tune, as his hotel executives touted his renewable energy purchase as a business coup. As Cannon puts it, the SoHo wind deal gave the company another commodity that is precious in the Trump universe: "bragging rights."16 Dec

The Polar Vortex Is Back: Is Global Warming Playing a Role? - The polar vortex is back and the bitterly cold temperatures and snow it’s bringing with it will affect large swaths of the United States. Temperatures dropped to well below zero with wind chill factors making it feel like minus 20 in parts of the Midwest. The cold air is now moving east, bringing subzero temperatures to New England, while the mid-Atlantic will struggle to climb into the double digits. Even the South won't be spared—parts of Florida will experience temperatures in the high 40s. Cold spells like this one tend to produce quite a bit of heat from climate change deniers, who are apparently convinced that the existence of a few cold winter days somehow disproves global warming. That includes Jim Inhofe, the outgoing chairman of the Senate's environmental committee, who infamously used a snowball as a prop during a floor speech attacking climate science. It also includes President-elect Donald Trump: This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2014   Unfortunately for Trump and other deniers, the science is settled: Global warming is very real, and humans are causing it. There is, however, a legitimate scientific debate over whether global warming is actually making extreme cold snaps more likely. According to some scientists, we can, in part, thank Arctic warming for frigid temperatures. As Chris Mooney reported for Mother Jones back in 2014, the theory—advanced by Rutgers professor Jennifer Francis and other scientists—is that the rapidly warming Arctic is affecting the jet stream in ways that can contribute to bone-chilling weather in other parts of the Northern Hemisphere: To understand how it works, it first helps to think of the jet stream as a river of air that flows from west to east in the Northern Hemisphere, bringing with it much of our weather. Its motion—sometimes in a relatively straight path, sometimes in a more loopy one—is driven by a difference in temperatures between the equator and the North Pole. Southern temperatures are of course warmer, and because warm air takes up more space than cold air, this leads to taller columns of air in the atmosphere. "If you were sitting on top of a layer of atmosphere and you were in DC, looking northward, it would be like looking down a hill, because it's warmer where you are," explains Francis. The jet stream then flows "downhill," so to speak, in a northward direction. But it's also bent by the rotation of the Earth, leading to its continual wavy, eastward motion. As the Arctic rapidly heats up, however, there's less of a temperature difference between the equator and the poles, and the downhill slope in the atmosphere is accordingly less steep. That shrinking temperature difference is what wreaks havoc on the jet stream."When the jet stream gets weaker, it meanders more," explained Francis in an interview this week. "It wanders north and south and when it gets into one of these wandering and wavy patterns, that's when we see these pools of cold air pulled southward." Those pools of cold air are what vast parts of the country are experiencing right now. Although a recent study backs up Francis' hypothesis, there are still some climate scientists who aren't ready to conclude that global warming is producing bitterly cold weather. "The problem with most if not all of the Arctic/jet stream studies has been the lack of a clear physical cause-and-effect relationship, with correlations found but mechanisms as yet uncovered," Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told the Washington Post in November. If you want to take a deeper dive into the science, check out this 2014 debate between Francis and Trenberth on our Inquiring Minds podcast: Francis understands why some scientists are skeptical about linking the warming Arctic to cold weather in the Midwest. "We're just now starting to unravel the way the Arctic contributes," she says of global warming. To be sure, the climate system is very complex, and very cold temperatures are common in winter. It's important to note, as Francis does, that Arctic warming isn't the sole cause of these cold spells. Climate science is constantly evolving as researchers learn more about global warming and how it affects weather patterns, so it could be a while before there is a scientific consensus on the link between global warming and the polar vortex. But there's one thing that even Donald Trump can agree on: It's really, really cold.15 Dec

Jerry Brown Vows to Fight Trump on Climate: "California Will Launch Its Own Damn Satellite" - Speaking to a room of scientists on Wednesday, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vowed to protect the state's progress in the fight against global warming and challenge any attempt by Donald Trump to interfere with climate science. "We've got the scientists, we've got the lawyers, and we're ready to fight," Brown said at the American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco. "We're ready to defend. California is no stranger to this fight." "Whatever Washington thinks they are doing, California is the future," said Brown. Pointing to California's record of leading the way on vehicle emissions restrictions and renewable energy, he suggested the state might even launch its own space program if Trump follows through with his advisers' efforts to end NASA's role in climate science. "If Trump turns off the satellites, California will launch its own damn satellite," Brown said to loud applause. "We're going to collect that data." The fiery remarks come amid growing concern over Trump's cabinet appointees, many of whom are prominent climate skeptics. Just hours before Brown's speech, a Trump spokesman disavowed an alarming survey that his transition team sent last week to the Department of Energy requesting the names of any scientists and federal employees who previously attended UN climate conferences and worked on other climate-related issues. The department refused, but the questionnaire sparked fear that the incoming administration might try to retaliate against civil servants who didn't agree with Trump's climate views. Brown has been fiercely critical of Trump's stance on the issue, calling the president-elect a "fraud" at the Democratic National Convention for his continued denial of global warming.15 Dec

Climate Change Is Shrinking Reindeer and Devastating Their Herders - Reindeer are getting smaller and lighter as a result of climate change's disruption to their food supply, researchers revealed during the British Ecological Society annual meeting in Liverpool this week. The findings come by way of ecologists from the James Hutton Institute, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences who have been measuring reindeer in the high Arctic every winter since 1994. According to their measurements, adult reindeer have shown a 12 percent decrease in overall body mass over the years—from 121 pounds in 1994 to 106 pounds in 2010. JellisV/iStock   Researchers believe the stunted growth of reindeer is directly tied to increasing temperatures in the Arctic—a region particularly vulnerable to warming—over the past two decades. Among several speculated reasons, all linked to climate change, warmer winter temperatures bring more rain, which freezes when it falls onto snow, making it more difficult for reindeer to access food below the ice. For pregnant females, the resultant starvation causes them to abort or give birth to malnourished calves. Over the long term, this could also lead to "extensive die-offs" in the reindeer population, according to lead researcher Steve Albon. Reindeer aren't the only victims of a rapidly shifting Arctic climate—those who herd them have also fallen prey. The Sami peoples of northern Scandinavia consider reindeer a linchpin of their cultural identity. Climate change—on top of the existing mental strains that indigenous herders face from social stigma—has contributed to a widespread mental health crisis and mounting suicide rate among the Sami in recent years. According to Sami psychologist and researcher Petter Stoor, half of Sami adults in Sweden suffer from anxiety and depression, and an astonishing one-third of young herders have contemplated or attempted suicide. Sami herder brings food to reindeer. Dmitry Chulov/iStock As climate change intensifies, the reindeer herders stand to lose not only their livelihood, but their culture. "We are the nature people,” Frøydis Nystad Nilsen, a Sami psychologist, told the health news site STAT. "When you lose your land, you lose your identity."15 Dec

Rick Perry's War on Science - Multiple news sources reported Tuesday that former Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be Donald Trump's nominee to head the Department of Energy. Many outlets have commented on the irony of picking as energy secretary a politician who had previously called for the department to be eliminated (and, for one infamous moment, forgot that it existed), as well as the wisdom of hiring someone whose most recent job experience was a brief stint on Dancing With the Stars. But it's Perry's record on climate change that most distinguishes him from the energy secretaries who came before him. Unlike every energy chief in both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, Perry disputes that climate change is both happening and is a consequence of  human action. In his 2010 book, Fed Up!, he wrote that "we have been experiencing a cooling trend" and railed against Democrats who have embraced "so-called science" on climate change. He complained the Department of Defense had devoted three whole pages to the subject in an official threat-assessment report. He kept up his climate change denial during his ill-fated 2012 presidential campaign. "There are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects," he alleged during one campaign appearance. As governor, Perry walked the walk. In 2011, my colleague Kate Sheppard (now with the Huffington Post) reported that Perry officials at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality had censored references to climate change in an official state report: Top environmental officials under Perry have gutted a recent report on sea level rise in Galveston Bay, removing all mentions of climate change. For the past decade, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which is run by Perry political appointees, including famed global warming denier Bryan Shaw, has contracted with the Houston Advanced Research Center to produce regular reports on the state of the Bay. But when HARC submitted its most recent State of the Bay publication to the commission earlier this year, officials decided they couldn't accept a report that said climate change is caused by human activity and is causing the sea level to rise. Top officials at the commission proceeded to edit the paper to censor its references to human-induced climate change or future projections on how much the bay will rise. The TCEQ is the state's version of the Environmental Protection Agency—which won't be under Perry's purview in Washington. But the Department of Energy has been at the forefront of President Barack Obama's climate policy and—often working with the EPA—has pumped billions of dollars into clean-energy research and development. The Trump administration has already signaled its willingness to strip the department of this climate focus. Last week, the president-elect's transition team asked the department to compile a list of every bureaucrat who had worked on climate policy at the agency; the plan was not, presumably, to give them raises. (The Energy Department rebuffed that request on Tuesday.)13 Dec

California Water Bill Rewards Farmers, Screws Environment - A controversial bill that would override environmental rules to supply farmers with more water from California's ecologically sensitive Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta sailed through the House of Representatives on Thursday. The bill may come up for a vote as soon as today in the Senate, where it is being championed by California senior Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat and powerful ally of agribusiness interests. California's other Democratic US senator, Barbara Boxer, staunchly opposes the bill and has threatened to filibuster it, potentially keeping her fellow senators from leaving for the year. It would be a dramatic last act for Boxer, an ally of environmental groups who is retiring this year after working closely with Feinstein in the Senate for 24 years. "I guess that's how it goes," Boxer said on the Senate floor this morning. "You come in fighting, you go out fighting." The contentious California provisions, which also include policies that would make it easier to build dams, were added on Monday by Bakersfield Republican Kevin McCarthy as a rider to the sprawling Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, a popular bipartisan bill that would also provide aid to Flint, Michigan. The provisions reflect negotiations between Feinstein, California's 14 Republican lawmakers, and a handful of Democrats. The bill represents the culmination of a fight that has been brewing over the course of California's six-year drought. It pits Central Valley farmers and Los Angeles-area homeowners against environmental interests, fisherman, and farmers in the Delta region east of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Los Angeles Times' Sarah D. Wire summarizes the conflict (today she is following the hearings live on Twitter): At issue is that the measure would allow officials at state and federal water management agencies to exceed the environmental pumping limits to capture more water during storms. Those limits have been a pet peeve of water contractors, including the Westlands Water District and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which complained of water supplies "lost to the sea" during last winter’s heavy rains. Federal biologists have said certain levels of water flowing through the delta are vital for native fish, which have suffered devastating losses during the state's prolonged drought, and help maintain the quality of the delta’s freshwater supplies. In short, if fish are determined to have enough water, or are not near the pumps, the excess water could be sent to the south. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) characterized it as placing political wants above science to go around federal law. "When an act of Congress specifically supersedes peer-reviewed biological opinions that are the very mechanism of how the Endangered Species Act gets implemented, that is a grave undermining of the act," Huffman said. Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee's powerful energy and water panel, typically serves as the key negotiator on California-related water bills. Progressives often accuse her of ignoring environmental interests in favor of agricultural ones, particularly the billionaire California farmers Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who use more water than all homes in Los Angeles combined. For more on Feinstein's ties with the Resnicks, read our profile of them here. 9 Dec

Google Says It Will Achieve 100 Percent Renewable Energy Next Year - This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Tech giants are jockeying to be the first to hit a 100 percent renewable energy goal. Google, which has invested in solar and wind energy for a decade, intends to get there by 2017. Google is the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy and plans to buy enough wind and solar energy to offset all the electricity used by its 13 data centers and offices in 150 cities worldwide, the company said Tuesday. Apple seems close to reaching its own 100 percent goal as well. The company said it achieved 93 percent in 2015. An Apple spokeswoman said the company has yet to set a year for when they would likely cross the finish line. For Google, hitting the 100 percent target means for every unit of electricity it consumes—typically from coal or natural gas power plants—it would buy a unit of wind or solar electricity. The company wouldn't say how much electricity it will need to have purchased by the end of next year to reach its 100 percent goal, but did say that the amount would exceed the 5.7 terawatt-hours solar and wind energy that it bought in 2015. "We want to run our business in an environmentally responsible way, and energy consumption is the largest portion," said Neha Palmer, head of energy strategy and development at Google's Global Infrastructure Group. Google is taking a big leap to that 100 percent goal, having achieved just 37 percent in 2014. The company has invested in renewable energy ever since it kicked off the construction of a 1.6-megawatt solar energy system in 2006. Since 2010, it's signed 2.6 gigawatts worth of solar and wind contracts. The tech giant isn't alone in setting the 100 percent target. A global campaign to promote 100 percent renewable energy use in the business world includes Ikea, Facebook, Starbucks and Johnson & Johnson. Businesses, like homeowners, have historically relied on their local utilities for power. In 2015, about 67 percent of the electricity generated in the United States came from fossil fuels. Businesses would have to build and run their own solar or wind farms if they want to hit their 100 percent more quickly, but that will require hefty investments and expertise they don't have. As a result, when companies set strong renewable energy goals, they often reach them by buying enough solar and wind electricity or renewable energy credits to offset their use of electricity from coal or natural gas power plants. Some companies, such as Google and Microsoft, have invested in solar and wind power plants to help increase the amount of renewable energy in the local electric grids. Or, using their clout as large energy customers, they work on convincing their local utilities to invest in renewable energy. Once extremely expensive, solar and wind have seen their prices falling significantly in the past 10 years. Government tax breaks have also helped to make solar and wind more affordable to both businesses and homeowners. The price for building large solar farms that have the scale to supply utilities dropped 12 percent in 2015, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, part of the US Department of Energy. Market analysts expect the prices to continue to fall even with the abundance of cheap coal and natural gas. The pressure on countries around the world to meet their targets from the Paris climate agreement, which went into effect last month, will make renewable energy attractive, said Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The research firm has projected that solar and wind will become the cheapest sources of electricity for "most of the world" after 2030. "Renewable energy has become incredibly cost effective," said Dan Kammen, a professor of energy at the University of California-Berkeley. "There is no company on the planet that can't make a 100 percent energy target a viable, cost-effective strategy." Yet most businesses have yet to set a renewable energy target. That's because cost isn't the only issue. Big companies tend to have an advantage over smaller firms because they have the resources to understand the energy markets and negotiate contracts to buy renewable energy, said Colin Smith, solar analyst for GTM Research. "You're talking about very complex deals and arrangements with unique risk profiles that most companies aren't fully well equipped to understand," he said. Google currently pays for wind and solar power from 20 renewable energy projects in the United States and abroad, in places such as Sweden and Chile. However, it doesn't limit itself to buying solar and wind only in regions where it operates and sees itself as a champion of reducing the emissions produced by the electric industry, which is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. "Wind and solar developers couldn't get financing without us guaranteeing to pay for the power in the long term," said Palmer. Setting the 100 percent renewable energy goal is not the only way to reduce a company's carbon footprint, said Dan Reicher, executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University. Businesses should first look at cutting down on their energy use and becoming more energy efficient, said Reicher. That will then reduce the amount of renewable energy they need to procure. "Energy efficiency tends not to sound as sexy, just as putting solar panels on your roof is more interesting than putting an efficient furnace in your basement," he said. "But from an economic and environmental perspective, you want to start with energy efficiency." Reicher also noted that electricity isn't always the biggest source of energy for a business. FedEx, for example, uses far more energy in transportation, he said. "Often a big chunk of a company's business goes beyond electricity," said Reicher. "What are they doing on the industrial side, on the transportation side, for heating and cooling?" The election of Donald Trump as president has worried renewable energy supporters about the progress made to make solar and wind competitive against coal and natural gas. With the new administration under Donald Trump, renewable energy supporters worry that the government will stop supporting renewable energy. Trump has vowed to revive the coal industry, which has seen half a dozen bankruptcies in recent years as it struggles to compete with the cheaper natural gas. But whether the new administration will create anti-renewable energy policies remains to be seen, Reicher said. Google doesn't anticipate changes to its renewable energy initiatives in the near future. "The results of any one election won't change our plans," said Palmer. 7 Dec

A Terrifying Superbug Just Showed Up on a US Farm for the First Time - More than 70 percent of the antibiotics consumed in the United States go to livestock farms, one of the main triggers driving a rising crisis of antibiotic resistance in human medicine. On Tuesday, researchers from Ohio State University published an alarming finding in a peer-reviewed journal: On a US hog farm, they found bacteria that can withstand a crucial family of antibiotics. Carbapenems, as they are known, are a "last line of defense" against bacterial pathogens that can resist other antibiotics, the paper notes. Worse still, the gene that allowed the bacteria to resist carbapenems turned up in a plasmid—small chunks of DNA found in bacterial cells. Plasmid-carried genes bounce easily from one bacterial strain to another, meaning that carbapenem resistance is highly mobile—making it more likely to find its way into bacterial pathogens that infect people. If this news sounds depressingly familiar, it's because something very similar happened with another last-ditch antibiotic, colostin. About a year ago, Chinese researchers alarmed global public health authorities when they found a "plasmid-mediated" strain of colistin-resistant E. coli on a Chinese hog farm. As predicted, it quickly went global, and it turned up in the United States in a patient in May, as well as in a pig intestine identified by US Department of Agriculture researchers. In September, Rutgers and Columbia University researchers found a strain of E. coli with plasmid-carried resistance to colostin and carbapenems. The new Ohio State study marks the first time plasmid-borne carbapenem resistance has been found on a US farm, though it has turned up in livestock operations in Asia and Europe, the researchers write. To see whether carbapenem resistance is taking hold on US hog farms, the researchers settled on a 1,500-sow confined operation that follows "typical US production practices," which include giving newborn pigs a dose of an antibiotic called ceftiofur at birth, with the males getting a second dose when they're castrated at six days. Interestingly, carbapenems are banned from use in US farms. But ceftiofur is a member of the cephalosporin family of antibiotics, which kills bacteria in a similar way to carbapenems, and the authors speculate that those ceftiofur doses "may provide significant selection pressure" for the emergence of carbapenem resistance. They found it in swabs taken from the the surfaces of the farrowing and nursery pens. Interestingly, the pigs don't get ceftiofur after those initial doses at birth, except to treat sickness. And at later stages of the pig-raising process, such as the finishing barns where pigs are fattened to slaughter weight, no carbapenem-resistant bacteria turned up. That's likely because the absence of ceftiofur "likely removed antimicrobial selection pressure" for the resistant gene, causing it to lose its niche. That absence of carbapenem-resistant bacteria in the late-stage pigs is good news—it means the superbug is "unlikely to have entered the food supply through contamination of fresh pork products." But given how quickly the gene can jump from one bacterial strain to another, the study identified a ticking time bomb. Cephalosporins, the class of antibiotics that may have triggered the carbapenem-resistant bacteria  on this particular farm, aren't administered nearly as much as other antibiotics on US farms, but alarmingly their use jumped 57 percent between 2009 and 2014, according to the latest Food and Drug Administration numbers. And the Ohio State study settled on one typical US hog operation. Who knows what's going on with the 21,000-plus others. Over on the Natural Resources Defense Council blog, antibiotic-resistance expert David Wallinga notes that the bacteria that turned up in the Ohio State study is carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, "one of the nastier superbugs." He continues: Infections with these germs are very difficult to treat, and can be deadly—the death rate from patients with CRE bloodstream infections is up to 50 percent. The CDC says these bacteria already cause 9,300 infections, and 600 deaths each year. To date, CRE infections occur mostly among patients in hospitals and nursing homes; people on breathing machines, or with tubing inserted into their veins or bladders are at higher risk, as are people taking long courses of certain antibiotics. But newer, more resistant kinds of CRE seem to be causing  more problems outside hospitals, in communities and among healthier people. Way back in 2012, the Obama administration introduced a new set of guidelines—that will finally go into full effect on January 1—designed to preserve antibiotics as a bulwark against dangerous infections by curbing their use on farms. As I show here, meat farms use about three times as much of these vital drugs as does human medicine. Yet the Obama guidelines are both voluntary and contain a huge loophole, which I tease out here. And now, even as terrifying superbugs continue appearing in the United States, we have a new president whose agriculture advisers have expressed nothing but hostility toward regulating food production. 7 Dec

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

Prof Claims He Was Charged With Sexual Misconduct for Singing Beach Boys Song - California Girls41 min

Increased Number of Over-tatted Millennials Seeking Tattoo Removal - Sometimes parents are right09:30

Cuba: American attorney jailed during press conference - Kimberley Motley was in Cuba to represent jailed Cuban dissident08:30

Watch Students at UVA Sign Petition to Ban Christmas - Bah humbug.08:00

College Panics Over Student Newspaper Headline Which ‘May Be Upsetting’ - “concerns about the newspaper’s coverage of the issue.”07:00

No, Joe, We Can’t Ban Trucks. But We Can Ban the People Who Drive Them - In Berlin, truck driver reportedly was Pakistani 'refugee.' In Nice, driver was a Tunisian living in France.06:30

Hillary humiliated again: Loses more “Faithless Electors” than Trump - Et tu, Electors?05:00

@MTVNews releases racist, sexist “White Guy Resolution 2017” video (@MTV) - Substitute any other group, and MTV would be the first to cry foul.19 Dec

Does Anyone Believe There’s Work Women Cannot Do? - Neo-feminism insists on picking arguments where none exist to "prove" things not in contest19 Dec

Breaking: Terror Attack in Berlin - Truck ploughs through Berlin Christmas market, killing at least 9 and injuring 5019 Dec

News From Underground

How blaming Trump’s “election” on the Russians could force Hillary on us after all—and end US democracy for good… - This Russia-did-it propaganda sets the stage for overturning Trump’s election (or “election”) WITHOUT any real investigation of the vote. Thus “Putin” will become the villain of the piece, taking all the blame for the bipartisan corruption of the US voting system—all the blame for any fraud committed in the general election (and, by implication, all the fraud committed in the Democratic primaries). So we may end up having civil war at home, and a very hot new Cold War  with Russia, AND get to keep “our” rotten voting system: a lose-lose if there ever was one…. Russian Interference Could Give Courts Legal Authority To Install Clinton By Alex Mohajer A 1995 federal court ruling out of Pennsylvania may offer some clues to Clinton supporters as to possible legal authority for removing an elected official from office and replacing them with their erstwhile opponent. In light of late-breaking reports Friday evening that Russians interfered with the 2016 presidential election to assist Donald Trump’s victory, Clinton supporters are furiously in pursuit of remedies. At 10:45 p.m. Friday evening, the Washington Post broke an explosive story alleging that Russians had interfered with the 2016 presidential election in order to assist Donald Trump in a victory over democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The story reveals that a CIA assessment detailing this conclusion had been presented to President Obama and top congressional leaders last week. The development has Clinton supporters and other concerned Americans confused and hot in pursuit of potential remedies. No clear constitutional remedy exists to halt the certification of the outcome. Article II of the U.S. Constitution vests Congress with the power to determine the date by which the Electoral College will cast their votes, presently set for December 19. In recent weeks, a massive online movement asking members of the Electoral College to become “faithless” or “conscientious” electors and to vote for Clinton instead of Trump has garnered national attention. The electors would be well within their constitutional authority to do so, say groups like Hamilton’s Electors, which claims that the purpose of the Electoral College is to prevent demagogues like Mr. Trump from assuming the nation’s highest office. A petition urging the Electoral College to make Hillary Clinton president has gained nearly 5 million signatures. Proponents of this strategy are concerned, with good reason, about the likelihood it will succeed. With Donald Trump having won 306 Electoral College votes, 37 Republican electors would need to switch their votes to Clinton, a tall order, and in the event that no one candidate has 270 electoral votes, the decision would go to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. READ MORE:   Related Posts:Clinton team exults as Trump provides a seeming reason to…“Mr. and Mrs. Unpopular”: NBC has Clinton…With our voting system run by rightist gremlins,…New ABC/WashPost poll has Trump (just) ahead of Clinton…Donald Trump is not the only bigot running for the White…Powered by Contextual Related Posts11 Dec

There’s something about Donald… - If I didn’t know any better, I might think that Trump’s crackpot performance since Nov. 8th is really meant to set the stage for Hillary to jump back in and “save us” from him. Related Posts:Trump says Cruz stole victory in Iowa (which doesn’t…Is Donald Trump for real? Or playing the long con?Clinton team exults as Trump provides a seeming reason to…Koch brothers want Hillary Clinton in the White HouseNew ABC/WashPost poll has Trump (just) ahead of Clinton…Powered by Contextual Related Posts11 Dec

Rally at Trump Tower tomorrow (Monday), 10:00 a.m.! (Jill Stein, MCM and others, urging Trump to let the recounts happen) - Rally at Trump Tower tomorrow, urging Donald Trump to let the recounts run their course—and calling for the radical reform of our disgraceful voting system! I’ll be one of several speakers there. Rally starts at 10:00 a.m. https://www.facebook.com/events/265327203870166   MCM Related Posts:Is Donald Trump for real? Or playing the long con?Still struggling to pooh-pooh “conspiracy…Trump says Cruz stole victory in Iowa (which doesn’t…Trump has Times reporter booted from campaign event for…Trump owns millions in the companies he rails against for…Powered by Contextual Related Posts 4 Dec

MCM on “fake news,” and those recounts (RT interview) - An interview I did last night on RT, about “fake news” and the recounts: Unfortunately, it’s near-unwatchable, since they largely drowned me out with noisy visuals; so maybe you should listen to it instead of viewing it… MCM Related Posts:Fake story of vote-flipping in NY recycles one used on the…“When Will They Ever Learn?” Pete Seeger…What about the “fake news” churned out by the…“Fingerprints of theft in the election”:…Watch out for “organic” food from China….Powered by Contextual Related Posts27 Nov

As Secretary of State, Rudy Giuliani could be even more corrupt than Hillary Clinton - A Closer Look at 9/11 Legend Rudy Giuliani By Kevin Ryan Rudy Giuliani is considered a leading candidate for Secretary of State in the Trump Administration. Giuliani is actively campaigning for the position and could be named National Director of Intelligence if his appointment at State falls through. As the public waits to hear the verdict on these matters, a review of Giuliani’s history and qualifications is in order. In particular, his actions on and before 9/11 should be carefully reviewed. As mayor of New York City on 9/11, Giuliani was in a unique position to benefit from the attacks. That’s because he gained national notoriety for his presumed valiant response that day, and he received the kind of publicity that every ambitious politician desires. Immediately after 9/11, Giuliani’s approval rating rocketed to 79% among New York City voters, a dramatic increase over the 36% rating he had received a year earlier. At a 9/11 memorial service, Oprah Winfrey called him “America’s Mayor.” And on December 24, 2001, TIME magazine named Giuliani its Person of the Year for 2001. In the years since, Giuliani’s public persona has unraveled as he has attempted to profit from 9/11. It has been revealed that he did more damage than good during his tenure as mayor and there are many reasons to suspect that he might have been involved in the 9/11 crimes. Some of the reasons include the following. He led enforcement actions against the terrorist financing network BCCI and then joined a law firm that represented that terrorist network. In the years between the first WTC bombing and 9/11, Giuliani’s administration ignored problems with the NYC fire department radios. Those faulty radios contributed to the deaths on 9/11.[1] He and his staff had foreknowledge that the WTC Towers would fall when no one could have predicted such a thing. He was responsible for the destruction of critical WTC evidence. He told people in the Ground Zero area that the air was safe to breathe, when it was not, in order to speed the removal of evidence at Ground Zero. Giuliani has a family history of organized crime, and he hired companies linked to organized crime to clean-up the WTC debris. Considering these things it is worthwhile to look at Giuliani’s past before looking at what kind of Secretary of State he would make.   Read More:  Related Posts:Rudy Giuliani uses Eric Garner’s death to bash the…Racist NY cops colluding with Republicans to undermine de…9/11 sparked the U.S. war on terror—and on scienceHaving trashed Paul Manafort for doing it, US press ignores…Meet the new boss…Powered by Contextual Related Posts27 Nov

US government blames Russia for suspicions that the Russians may have hacked the vote for Trump -  According to the US government, who hacked the DNC? Russia. Then, having made that charge, the US government went on to charge that WHO might hack the vote for Donald Trump? Russia. And now, according to the US government, who deserves the blame for people’s doubts about the outcome of this last election? Russia. Thus spake Barack Obama’s White House, according to the New York Times (whose editors implicitly support that statement, even though it’s patently insane): “The Kremlin probably expected that publicity surrounding the disclosures that followed the Russian government-directed compromises of emails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations, would raise questions about the integrity of the election process that could have undermined the legitimacy of the president-elect. “Nevertheless, we stand behind our election results, which accurately reflect the will of the American people.” That statement is delusional—and also vaguely menacing, since it implies that anyone who questions the “integrity of the election process” is a Kremlin dupe, if not a Kremlin stooge. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/us/politics/hacking-russia-election-fears-barack-obama-donald-trump.html?_r=0 MCM Related Posts:NYTimes weirdly silent on the ONLY real solution to the…After “one viewer” complains, RT faces UK…Still struggling to pooh-pooh “conspiracy…US press sets the stage for “proof” that rebels…Clinton team exults as Trump provides a seeming reason to…Powered by Contextual Related Posts27 Nov

“Fingerprints of theft in the election”: EXCELLENT interview w/ Jonathan Simon! - Interview Link: Guns and Butter – November 23, 2016 Related Posts:“That’s how you take over a country”:…“Our free press” is more dangerous than Putin:…FBI wants the face and fingerprints of everybody in the USAExit polls suggest that Trump’s big…Obama gushes over Jeb Bush run, calls Bush family…Powered by Contextual Related Posts27 Nov

Still struggling to pooh-pooh “conspiracy theory” of election theft, NYTimes blacks out Jill Stein’s amazing drive for funds - From today’s Pravda, a piece ostensibly about the “call” by “Hillary supporters,” urging her to challenge the results of the election—a piece that’s actually about the groundlessness of all and any claims that it was stolen. (Pravda-bros Trip Gabriel and David Sanger actually include a quote dismissing such suggestions as “conspiracy theory.”) While saying much about Team Hillary’s disinclination to involve itself in anything so loony as a post-election study of the vote in those three states, Sanger/Gabriel say NOTHING of Jill Stein’s amazingly successful fundraising effort yesterday.  Thus the Times keeps struggling to walk back its noisy prior claims that  Russia may have hacked the vote; and, in so doing, demonstrates its usual weird ignorance of how our voting system works, and just how easily it can be hacked (and clearly has been hacked, repeatedly, at least since 2000, albeit not by Russia). Compare that nugget of crapola from the NYTimes to Joe Lauria’s report, in Consortiumnews, and Jason Easley’s, on PoliticsUSA, on Jill Stein’s amazingly successful fundraising effort yesterday, to raise the money for those recounts. Here are the links to all three: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/us/politics/vote-count-hillary-clinton-trump.html?_r=0 https://consortiumnews.com/2016/11/24/greens-question-trumps-victory/ http://www.politicususa.com/2016/11/23/trump-hit-thanksgiving-surprise-green-party-files-recount-wi-mi-pa.html MCM Related Posts:US government blames Russia for suspicions that the RussiansClinton team exults as Trump provides a seeming reason to…Trump has Times reporter booted from campaign event for…NYTimes weirdly silent on the ONLY real solution to the…Be very careful, Bernie voters! Someone’s planting…Powered by Contextual Related Posts27 Nov

What about the “fake news” churned out by the corporate media? MCM talks to Del Bigtree, producer of VAXXED - Video Link: https://www.facebook.com/del.bigtree/videos/10153909459825964/ Related Posts:Andrew Wakefield’s statement on the suppression of hisMCM on “fake news,” and those recounts (RT…“Our free press” is more dangerous than Putin:…Hillary stole Iowa (3): Microsoft, which “only…Can US elections be stolen? Yes. And here’s what we…Powered by Contextual Related Posts27 Nov

Oil and Gas News latest RSS headlines - Big News Network.com

Black Diamond Group Limited Announces December Dividend and Introduces Dividend Reinvestment Plan - CALGARY, AB--(Marketwired - December 19, 2016) - Black Diamond Group Limited (Black Diamond or the Company) (TSX: BDI), a leading provider of workforc05:02

Four oil and gas companies spend $1.7M to lease Wayne National Forest land for drilling - Four oil and gas drillers paid more than $1.71 million to lease part of Ohios sole national forest. Three drillers active in Ohios Utica shale play spent the bulk of the money on the first auction05:02

Get rid of swollen fingers using simple kitchen ingredients - New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) During winters, health problems like swollen fingers can be taken care of by using lemon, onion and turnip, says an expert. Here are a few suggestions given by Megha Shah, Co03:43

Quake, 37 aftershocks cause three deaths, heavy damage in Ecuator - PanARMENIAN.Net - A 5.7-magnitude earthquake followed by 37 aftershocks rattled Ecuadors Pacific coast before dawn Monday, December 19, causing three deaths and heavy damage to hotels and homes in re00:33

China and oil market amongst market movers today – Danske Bank - Analysts at Danske Bank suggests that financial market will continue to keep a close watch on the development in the Chinese money market. Offshore interest rates have shut up in recent weeks, suggest00:10

Aramco moves ahead with wind and gas projects to cut domestic oil use - Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, Saudi Aramco, announced a major new gas plant contract and took delivery of the kingdom’s first wind turbine this week, as it moved ahead with plan to cut00:07

Koch blames Alberta’s climate policies for cancellation of oil sands project - Koch Industries Inc. has scrapped plans for an $800-million oil sands development, blaming economic uncertainty in Alberta and the province's climate policies.The Wichita, Kan.-based co00:04

ONGC selects 'Hughes JUPITERTM System' for major satellite network upgrade - New Delhi [India], Dec 20 (ANI): Hughes Communications India, Limited (Hughes India), a majority-owned subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite solu00:00

Leak Shows Trump’s Choice for Secretary of State Directs a Russian Oil Company - *The following is an opinion column by R Muse* There has been an appropriate amount of concern and criticism around depraved Donald Trump's predilection to corrupt business practices he19 Dec

ECB’s Weidmann: oil price could stabilize at elevated levels - Central Bank (Bundesbank) Chief Jens Weidmann attends a press conference after the Franco-German Financial Council meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 23, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt December 19, 20119 Dec

The Moderate Voice

Bill Clinton’s Bitter Blather - Ex-POTUS Bill Clinton is bitter about the fact that he won’t be moving back into the White House. From Politico: “The editor of the Bedford-Pound Ridge Record Review recently ran into Bill Clinton at a local bookstore in Katonah, a town in Westchester. Of course, Clinton held court.” From Fox News: “The Man from Hope apparently offered little optimism, telling the crowd they were living in a “post-truth era where facts don’t matter.”” Bill Clinton discussing “facts” and “truth”? Perhaps Clinton is waxing philosophically about such words, just as he did about the word “is”. In a September 13, 1998 Slate column, Timothy Noah observes the following: “The distinction between “is” and “was” was seized on by the commentariat when Clinton told Jim Lehrer of PBS right after the Lewinsky story broke, “There is no improper relationship.” Chatterbox confesses that at the time he thought all these beltway domes were hyperanalyzing, and in need of a little fresh air. But it turns out they were right: Bill Clinton really is a guy who’s willing to think carefully about “what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” This is way beyond slick. Perhaps we should start calling him, “Existential Willie.”” Perhaps Existential Willie can explain what facts presented by FBI director James Comey weren’t facts. Perhaps Existential Willie can explain why the American public shouldn’t have been told the truth about what Clinton-campaign operatives were saying and doing during the 2016 presidential race. After all, that is what Wikileaks told the American public, regardless of who gave that information to Wikileaks. Robert Chernin, vice-president of technology company REDtech, has this to say about the Clinton version of “truth”. “The Lewinsky Scandal, as it was called back in the day, is perhaps the quintessential example of how the Clintons’ treat the truth in general. Truth is not a code to be honored. It is not a bond with the American people to be nurtured and protected. To the Clintons, truth seems to be more of a tool to be used or at times a trap to avoid. Use it when necessary, but only with the precision of a scalpel. When it comes to the truth, the Clintons are experts at parsing the English language like a veteran contortionist.” As the above-quoted Politico story says, Bill Clinton held court. Apparently, he was impersonating Danny Kaye. Perhaps Existential Willie has a thing for old movies. After all, one headline says this: What Bill Clinton has against Henry Fonda is a mystery to this blogger. For his sake let’s hope that Bill Clinton never has to figure out the location of a pellet of poison. The post Bill Clinton’s Bitter Blather appeared first on The Moderate Voice. 09:00

Worried About Fake News Online? Here’s How to Tell If It’s Legit - Worried About Fake News Online? Here’s How to Tell If It’s Legit By Mark Grabowski Did you hear that President Obama signed an executive order banning fake news sites? Or that Donald Trump claims the Earth is flat? Or that Russians discovered a vaccine to cure homosexuality? All of the above were recent popular fake news stories — a growing epidemic online, which Facebook and Google are now vowing to help stymie. Fake news is not a new problem. In fact, historians believe it may have induced the Spanish-American War of 1898. But technology is making fake news common and tricky to decipher. Although such stories are entirely made up, they’re often related to topics trending in the real news. These lies, hoaxes and rumors are typically published on websites that look journalistic and professional. The notorious fake news site abcnews.com.co, for instance, utilizes a URL and logo nearly identical to the actual website for ABC News, a respected TV news outlet. Additionally, fake news often appears in online posts, videos, memes and discussion forums. Sometimes fake news outperforms real news in search engine results and social media shares. Even prominent journalists and government officials have been fooled. And fake news can have serious consequences, as impetuous consumers of news have engaged in illegal and violent behavior as a result of believing a canard. So, how can you tell if a story is legit? Here are some tips: Research who produced it. Most real news outlets have websites with an “About” section that provides a lot of information, such as the company that runs it, staff members, and its mission statement. If the language used seems odd, be skeptical. For example, abcnews.com.co’s about section mentions “Fappy The Anti-Masturbation Dolphin.” You should also be able to find out more information about the news outlet in places other than that site. Wikipedia, for example, has entries for most media outlets and explicitly states which are fake news sites. Examine the sources cited. Does the story cite and quote credible sources — a person with a name and a title, such as “Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager?” If not, or if they use anonymous or vague sources, such as “sources said,” “according to reports,” “friends say,”  be suspicious. Utilize fact-checking sites. Fake news stories that go viral are often exposed by such websites as Snopes.com, TruthOrFiction.com and FactCheck.org. Curated lists of fake news sites also exist, although they’re never comprehensive and are sometimes skewed by the creator’s preferences. In addition to fake news, there are other types of dubious news: Satire: Some fake news is created to entertain rather than mislead, but not all news consumers can tell the difference. TV shows, such as Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, comment on real-world news events using parody and exaggeration. Newspapers, such as The Onion, publish wholly fictionalized news stories. There are also dozens of satirical websites, such as The Daily Currant. Advertorials: Advertisements about products and services may be disguised to look and sound like a news story. They’re frequently placed on social media sites as “promoted” or “sponsored” content. They can also appear in newspapers, magazines and on TV. Government-controlled news: Media that’s government-owned or restricted from publishing what they want should be viewed skeptically. Few countries offer the same press freedoms as the United States. In China, for example, many popular media outlets are government-run and censorship is common. Biased news: While no media outlet is completely objective, some don’t even try to be. For example, Fox News and Breitbart tailor their news to right-leaning audiences while Huffington Post and MSNBC have a noticeable liberal bias. Irresponsible journalism: Trusted news outlets sometimes spread false information. Sources may lie to reporters. Journalists can fall victim to pranks or hackers. Laziness and deadline pressures can cause mistakes. Unethical scribes have exaggerated or concocted news on many occasions. The Washington Post once won a Pulitzer Prize for a story that was later exposed as fabricated. To be better informed, here’s some final advice: Stop getting news from social media. Most social media feeds are echo chambers, offering limited perspectives on a narrow range of information. Facebook is useful for many things, but it’s not a news outlet. Its goal is to keep you clicking, and it tweaks your newsfeed so you only see content you like. Similarly, Twitter’s feed only shows content posted by people you choose to follow. Don’t rely on one media outlet. Although commonly grouped together as “the media,” new sources are not monolithic. Each news outlet has its own approach to reporting on what’s happening in the world. So, diversify your news consumption by seeking out multiple news sources and reading a variety of perspectives on issues. Support good journalism. Ultimately consumers will be the gatekeepers by deciding which stories get clicks and shares and which stories don’t get attention. Be part of the solution, not the problem. Don’t spread false information. But do share this primer. Mark Grabowski is a lawyer and teaches communications law at National University in San Diego. This article is republished from The Times of San Diego which, along with The Moderate Voice, is a member of the San Diego Online News Associaton. The post Worried About Fake News Online? Here’s How to Tell If It’s Legit appeared first on The Moderate Voice. 00:00

Who in the Republican Party will stand up to Trump? - WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s victory tour was more than just an opportunity to strut and preen around the country like a peacock with a comb-over. It was a warning to Republican leaders in Congress that Trump intends to be in charge — and that there will be consequences if the party establishment does not fall in line. The post-election rallies also served as venues for Trump to make grandiose promises, including some that will stick in his party’s craw. Trump billed the series of campaign-style events as a way to thank the voters who elected him. It seems obvious that he is addicted to adulation, basks in the grandeur of his own celebrity and chafes at the prosaic labor of assembling an administration. This is a man who cannot be bothered to hear a daily intelligence briefing about threats to the nation, yet finds time to meet with Kanye West. At the victory rallies, Trump continued his withering onslaught against the truth; he claimed, for example, to have won in a historic landslide, though Hillary Clinton received 2.8 million more votes. He renewed his attack against the news media, pointing at reporters and calling them “very dishonest people.” He offered a “thank you to the African-American community” who “didn’t come out to vote” for Clinton. Amid all the bombast and nonsense, however, there was a clear message for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.: The next president expects them to follow, not lead. Trump held the rallies in two solidly Republican states (Louisiana and Alabama), four traditional swing states (Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa and Florida) and three states he unexpectedly took from the Democrats (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan). He reveled in illustrating the fact that his electoral coalition was unique — and that his supporters were more loyal to him personally than to the party he conquered in a hostile takeover. In Ryan’s home state, the crowd booed when Trump mentioned the House speaker’s name. Trump protested, saying he has come to “appreciate” Ryan and comparing him to “a fine wine” that improves with time. But then, with a smile, he added: “Now, if he ever goes against me, I’m not going to say that, OK?” During the campaign, Ryan was sharply critical of Trump before reluctantly falling in line. He attended the Dec. 8 rally — and got something of a dressing-down for having suggested, in a “60 Minutes” interview a few days earlier, that the border wall Trump promises to build might actually be a mere fence in some places. “We’re going to work on the wall, Paul,” Trump said, turning to Ryan. “We’re going to build the wall, OK? Believe me.” There are Republicans in Congress who believe Trump is so naive in the ways of Washington that he can be led around by the nose — that he will basically sign whatever the GOP majorities in the House and Senate choose to pass. Many of those who share this view also were confident that Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio would be the party’s nominee. Do they really expect Trump to suddenly be transformed into an orthodox Republican? I don’t. Trump promised the ridiculous border wall, and I believe he will expect Congress to let him build it. He also promised punishment, such as targeted tariffs, for companies that move jobs overseas. He promised a trillion-dollar program to improve the nation’s infrastructure. He promised massive, budget-busting tax cuts for corporations, the wealthy and the middle class. He promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act but also to simultaneously replace it, vowing that those with pre-existing conditions will still be able to get health insurance. In foreign policy, Trump pledges even more radical departures from the Republican establishment. He has been vocal in his desire for a closer, more cooperative relationship with Russia — one reason, perhaps, why Russian President Vladimir Putin had his intelligence agents work so hard to get Trump elected, according to the CIA and the FBI. For secretary of state, Trump has chosen Exxon Mobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, a man on whom Putin has bestowed the Russian Order of Friendship. Trump promised during his victory tour to establish safe zones for civilians in Syria, which presumably would require working with Putin, who supports the continued rule of barbarous dictator Bashar al-Assad. Are you ready for that, Republicans? Have you seen the pictures from Aleppo? The GOP establishment is soon going to have to choose between principle and political well-being. The latter almost always wins. Eugene Robinson’s email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.(c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group The post Who in the Republican Party will stand up to Trump? appeared first on The Moderate Voice. 19 Dec

Cartoon: Hacked Santa - See great cartoons by all the top political cartoonists at http://cagle.com. To license this cartoon for your own site, visit http://politicalcartoons.com The post Cartoon: Hacked Santa appeared first on The Moderate Voice. 19 Dec

Democrats – Not Russians – Sunk Clinton - Dear Democrats: If you want to find who is responsible for Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, then look inside your own political party. Democrats – not Russians – sank Clinton’s presidential campaign. Yes, the federal government says that it has evidence that Russians hacked into the DNC – just as Russians tried to hack into the RNC the same way. Yet, the federal government hasn’t demonstrated that the hackers gave anything that they obtained to either Wikileaks or the Trump campaign. The claim that Russian hackers gave stolen information to Wikileaks is an unproven claim. However, we now know that the Clinton-campaign information that Wikileaks revealed came from . . . (Drum roll please!) . . . disgruntled Democrats. From the Daily Mail: “A Wikileaks envoy today claims he personally received Clinton campaign emails in Washington D.C. after they were leaked by ‘disgusted’ whisteblowers – and not hacked by Russia. Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and a close associate of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, told Dailymail.com that he flew to Washington, D.C. for a clandestine hand-off with one of the email sources in September. . . He said the leakers were motivated by ‘disgust at the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and the tilting of the primary election playing field against Bernie Sanders.'” Now, who could have tilted the primary-election playing field against Bernie Sanders? From The Hill: “The Podesta leaks dominated the news cycle toward the end of the presidential campaign. The leaked material brought to light the fact that then-CNN contributor and now-interim Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Donna Brazile gave the Clinton camp advance warning of questions that would be asked during primary debates.” One disgruntled Democrat went public about why she is disgruntled. From Politico: “Three weeks before Election Day, as she sat at her kitchen table to fill out her ballot, Kim McKinney Cohen was angry and fed up. The Democratic Party, to which she had been unswervingly loyal for four decades, had sabotaged her chosen candidate, Bernie Sanders, and then lectured her about the need to vote for a woman whose hawkishness and arrogance rubbed her the wrong way. When Hillary Clinton said dismissively supporters of Donald Trump were “a basket of deplorables,” Cohen had heard enough. “Well, then,” she sighed, “I guess I’m a deplorable.” She took a black ink pen and carefully shaded in the rectangle next to the name Donald J. Trump.” Now, President Obama himself is admitting that Democrats are responsible for Clinton’s defeat. Then there is this: It is one thing to prove that Russians hacked into the DNC and tried to hack into the RNC. It is another thing to prove that such hacking had any influence on the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Again, nobody has proven that the factual data revealed by Wikileaks came from Russia. Besides, that factual data wouldn’t have been harmful to Hillary Clinton if Clinton or her aides hadn’t been doing or saying anything wrong. Boris Badenov might have pointed his periscope toward Clinton, but he isn’t responsible for what he saw. That responsibility lies totally within the Democratic Party. The post Democrats – Not Russians – Sunk Clinton appeared first on The Moderate Voice. 19 Dec

Cartoon: Carolina Crybabies - Carolina Crybabies by Clay Jones “Political opposition is a normal part of democracy. Stripping your opponent of power is a normal part of fascism.” -Jennifer Victor. Associate professor at George Mason University. Fascism seems to be all the rage with Republicans lately. While Donald Trump wants to limit press freedoms, defile the Constitution, and bully anyone who dares criticize him, the Grumpy McGrumpersons and sore losers who comprise the Republican party in North Carolina are literally stripping powers from their next governor. This isn’t just a state fight, this is national. The Resistance is especially important as the GOP is showing other states, and the future Trump administration, how to dismantle democracy and strip the rights away from any opposition. Why would the North Carolina legislature want to strip power from their next governor? Oh yeah. It’s because, Roy Cooper the incoming governor and Mr. Rogers lookalike, is a Democrat and the Republicans want to make every a bad day in the neighborhood. They’re upset he won and he’s not even a black guy. It’s kinda like when the U.S. Senate says they’re not going to hold hearings or vote on Obama’s Supreme Court nominee because it’s not fair he’s still president while that opening occurred, and dammit, they just don’t want to. It’s called being a sore loser. While the U.S. Senate ignores the law, the N.C. Legislature is rewriting them. They’re very upset that despite Trump winning their state, their Republican governor, Pat McCrory, lost his re-election bid to Mr. Rogers, er, Cooper. In fact, they didn’t even want to acknowledge they lost the governor’s mansion and spent weeks trying to fight the election results. The GOP is seriously bummed about losing their homophobic governor who was a champion of protecting bathrooms from nobody. Rewriting the laws of the executive branch after the election because you don’t like the winner is just one step short of a coup. The state legislature is really powerful in North Carolina. They have the numbers required to be veto-proof despite the state not being solid red. North Carolina might be the best example of a divided nation as her rural areas are in a tug of war with the cities (where the educated people live) over political influence. Obama won the state in 2008. Romney won in 2012 and Trump won in 2016. Each of those were squeakers. Did I mention the legislature is powerful? The Legislature called a special session, as if a Democrat being elected is an emergency. In most states the governor is the one who calls special sessions (they cost money). So what are they taking away from their next governor? They are limiting the number of employees the governor can hire (down from 1,500 to 425), how many people he can appoint to the State Board of Elections, and strips the governor of his ability to name members of the boards of state universities. They also changed the state court system, making it  more difficult for the losers of some superior court cases to appeal directly to the Democratic-controlled Supreme Court. Perhaps the biggest change is that the governor’s cabinet appointees now have to be approved by the State Senate. Being governor in North Carolina is like being married. You can do whatever you want, as long as your wife says it’s OK. The Republicans are stacking the decks with their troglodytes so they won’t lose influence as the state continues to turn blue. They’re taking gerrymandering to an all new level. They are true pioneers and innovators when it comes to partisanship, hate, and bigotry. It’s kinda like they’re legalizing corruption. Of course the out-going governor, McCrory, has signed most of the new laws (so far). That’s kinda like spray painting on all the walls and taking dumps in the closets before you move out of a rental property. Let the next tenant find those surprises. Mr. Cooper might wanna check those after he moves in. There have been protests at the state capitol and many people have been arrested despite there not being any violence. Most of them were arrested for knocking on the door of the viewing gallery in the Capitol building. North Carolina Republicans are shoving these changes down their constituents’ throats and they don’t even want them to have the right to complain about it. It’s the normal part of fascism.Via Claytoonz.com The post Cartoon: Carolina Crybabies appeared first on The Moderate Voice. 19 Dec

Russian Ambassador to Turkey Shot in Ankara - Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov has been shot at an art exhibition in the Turkish capital of Ankara, according to reports in several Turkish media outlets. Images showing Karlov on the ground have spread on social media after he was apparently shot, reported Turkish news site Hurriyet. The site quoted a statement from the Russian… The post Russian Ambassador to Turkey Shot in Ankara appeared first on The Moderate Voice. 19 Dec

What Faith Built in a Place Called Shell - Life is full of coincidences. Or perhaps it is all pre-ordained, destined to happen. Let the reader decide. As a young child in the late 1940s, I spent some of the most idyllic and memorable times of my life in a little town called Shell Mera — today called Shell — at the edge of the Amazon rain forest basin in Ecuador and on the banks of the Pastaza, part of the Amazon headwaters at the beginning of that river’s majestic four-thousand-mile journey to the Atlantic Ocean. Author’s parents by air strip in Shell Mera, circa 1948 (Author’s family photo) The town was established by and named after the Royal Dutch Shell company that was exploring for “black gold” in Ecuador’s El Oriente, a company for which our father worked. Not far away lived several indigenous tribes, some friendly, some not so. Some had only recently come into contact with the “civilized world.” Deeper still, hiding in the dense jungle, there were tribes so isolated, so “unreachable,” that they came to be known as“los no contactados”, “the uncontacted.” Our father would show us photographs of his and his colleagues’ encounters with members of one of the more friendly tribes (below), or tell us how one of the company’s planes had flown low over the huts of some less friendly indigenous tribe, visible through openings in the emerald canopy, and dropped beads and small mirrors trying to establish contact with the natives, only to see them raise their bows and arrows or point their spears and blowpipes at the aircraft. Photo by the author’s late Father, Leonardus Kortekaas, who wrote on the back of the photograph: “Chief Taisha, of the Jivaro tribe, and his son, Segundo, with their 16-foot blowpipes, September 1948.” Unknown to me at the time, but according to some reports, “On a few occasions the Indians attacked Shell, resulting in the deaths of several employees.” A few years later, in January 1956, after we — and Shell — had left Ecuador’s Oriente, five U.S. Evangelical Christian missionaries who had been trying to bring Christianity to one of these uncontacted tribes — the Huaorani, also known as “Aucas” — were killed by Huaorani warriors. Before the tragedy, the missionaries had been, taking off from the airstrip at Shell, flying periodically over the Huaorani settlement, dropping gifts. On what was to be their last flight, they landed near the Huaorani village and set up a temporary camp, named “Palm Beach,” on a sandbar along the Curaray River. “Palm Beach” was a mere 60 miles from Shell — as their piper cup flew. After some initial contacts, including gift exchanges with the Huaorani, tragedy struck five days later. Aerial view of Shell, Ecuador. The runway from which the missionaries took off in January 1956 is clearly visible. Casa de Fe is just off the right margin of the photo. Many articles and several books have since been written and screen depictions made about the tragedy that came to be known as “Operation Auca,” including the 2004 documentary “Beyond the Gates of Splendor” and the 2006 movie “End of the Spear.” As a native of Ecuador who lived so close to “Palm Beach,” I was affected by that horrific event. It became the subject of my very first and very nervous formal speech at the U.S. Air Force’s Officer Candidate School a few years later. But, except for some writings on the threats posed by re-emerging oil exploration and exploitation in and of Ecuador’s pristine and ecologically vulnerable rain forests (including the Yasuní National Park, a region so precious and so unique, that in 1989 it was designated a UNESCO “Man and the Biosphere Reserve” ), I had not given the events of 60 years ago at “Palm Beach” much additional thought. That is until about a month ago. At the funeral services for my good friend, World War II veteran John Tschirhart, I finally met face-to-face with Darla Rae, the Denver film producer who is working very hard to immortalize Tschirhart’s love-and-war story in a movie, “The French American.” When Rae learned that I was from Ecuador, she told me about a documentary she recently produced in, of all places, Shell, Ecuador. The main character in the documentary, “Casa de Fe” (House of Faith), is an amazing woman: Patti Sue Arnold, a retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer with three combat campaigns and mother of three sons. In 2003, Arnold came to do God’s work in a place called Shell — God’s work that has seen a resurgence in places such as Ecuador’s Oriente since the five missionaries lost their lives 60 years ago. Casa de Fe founder, Patti Sue Arnold, with adopted son John Paul After her arrival in Ecuador, Arnold first spent two years in the capital city, Quito, working for a ministry fixing and fitting wheelchairs and, in her spare time, taking in two foster children. Once in Shell, Arnold continued to take in abandoned and special needs children until one day she had 10 children and realized — just as Hope House founder Rose McGarrigle one day also did — that there just was no more room in her small house. After years of hard work by volunteers, of getting financial support and — as Arnold puts it — of lots of “prayerful manner,” Casa de Fe was born, ready to continue to take care of even more children, many with mental and physical disabilities or with special medical, emotional and spiritual needs. Many children come from distant Amazonian jungle villages with no other available medial or social support, often making Casa de Fe their only and last hope. Casa de Fe in Shell, Ecuador The “population” of Casa de Fe has fluctuated over the years with as many as 80 children being cared for at times and with more than 400 children having been taken care of since its founding. Presently, Casa de Fe has a population of 57 children, suffering from many different medical conditions, including Down Syndrome, malnutrition, even cancer and cerebral palsy and other congenital anomalies. A missionary with one of Casa de Fe’s “special children” Please watch Darla Rae’s Rae documentary below, an incredible testament to what one amazing woman, full of faith, goodwill and compassion has accomplished in a place called Shell. Casa de Fe Teaser (House of Faith) from Darla Rae on Vimeo. While the circumstances and events that led me to the story of Casa de Fe in the rainforest of Ecuador may be a coincidence, there are no coincidences when it comes to helping the most vulnerable among us — the children. That has become the life mission — the destiny — of one extraordinary American woman. However, Patti Sue Arnold, wondrous as she may be, cannot do it alone. To see how you can help Patti Sue with her commendable work for God’s children, please visit lacasedefe.org and open up your hearts this joyous season. Lead photo: Patti Sue Arnold with adopted son John Paul and daughter Rosa by a local waterfall in Shell, Ecuador Unless otherwise indicated, all photos and video are with permission of Casa de Fe. Cross-posted from The Huffington Post The post What Faith Built in a Place Called Shell appeared first on The Moderate Voice. 19 Dec

It’s a Wonderful Life, Unless You’re a Man (Guest Voice) - It’s A Wonderful Life Unless You’re a Man by David Sherman Real men and the women who knew their place are a dying species these days. Decades of a feminizing culture have led to American decline and decay. Or so a fair chunk of the aggrieved white male block on the right would have it. We’re not talking about troglodytes like Alex Jones and Steve Bannon. Nor the gullible and credulous, who bumbled into a Trump rally almost by accident because Joel Osteen is in town next week. Those people will write a check for anything. Let’s take a look at the hypertensive guys on the middle right. The straight white ones. The ones who believe that life was, and could become again fundamentally fair. It’s hard to imagine a member of a racial or sexual minority suffering the same delusion, so straight white conservative men is today’s topic. Their definition of masculinity is a key to where they think things went wrong and how they could be made right again. As we rappel into this dark cavern of male anger, we encounter all the usual fauna skittering across walls or hanging in the nooks: the ideas that strong men take what they want, they are anointed leaders and kings and if women gave them what they wanted instead of being so bitchy all the time even more would get done. Rappel further down and we stir up a colony of sophomoric words flitting about on the alt-right. “Cuck” or “cuckold,” a preferred term of derision for conservatives who are able to disguise their anger at women and minorities. It’s a dichromatic world in which men are “alphas” or “betas”. Women are either sexually attractive and compliant or histrionic lesbian harpies. We don’t need to go all the way to the fermented guano pile at the bottom where the Jones’s and Bannons live; in fact let’s hoist ourselves back to daylight, go home, take a long hot shower, and see what’s on the tube tonight. Ah yes, eggnog and rum in hand, here we are in the season of holiday classics. Now those were days of real men and real women, when America won wars every time, Detroit made cars with true steel, and the colored help was always smiling. That was the forging of the Original American Man, solver of problems and taker of no shit. If any movie can be said to wrap up the ideals and gender roles of the Americans who won World War II and built the world after, it has to be Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. The lead was Jimmy Stewart, that’s a classic American male if there ever was one. Yet the ideal of white, straight manhood presented by this Greatest Generation morality play is at the antipodes of what’s being touted as “manhood” today. First off, Stewart’s character George Bailey was a great dancer. I am not kidding. In his day, dancing well was not an option or a hobby, it was required woman-wooing activity. Foxtrot, waltz, jitterbug. Bailey rocks The Charleston right into the swimming pool. Why is this important? Because men back then didn’t take themselves too seriously. Today’s constipated grumps don’t dance because they don’t think they’ll be good at it, and they don’t want to be bothered to have to impress women. Yesterday’s guys weren’t so vain or preening, like it or not the inability to dance would have been seriously disqualifying. George Bailey wasn’t suave or a seducer, in fact he was a hapless goofball in the face of Mary Hatch’s advances (played by the wholesome Donna Reed). His hammy line about lassoing the moon for her was what men had to come up with to show sweetness. Contrast with “grab a woman by the…” Well, you get it. In 1946 small town America a comment like that about a local girl could have uncles and brothers showing up to straighten a feller out right quick. As Bailey spirals towards his moment on the bridge, a hot-headed conversation with his daughter’s school teacher leads to him getting punched right in the kisser by her husband. See, back then men defended their wives whether or not it was convenient. Sorry about that, Mrs. Cruz. Bailey wasn’t a hard-ass, but he sure wasn’t a complainer. Half-deaf, unfit for military service, ambitions thwarted by family demands, he did what he could and didn’t blame others. Compare to the jeremiads of a Trump rally, the endless lamentations and casting of blame. It takes an enormous chunk of daytime hours to attend a political rally, if we’re not talking about students or the retired, the people who are busy improving their lives and careers couldn’t carve out the hours and energy required. Idealized men were doting fathers in 1946. We don’t see Mr. Bailey changing diapers, but he’s warm and affectionate with his kids. When parenting stresses him out and he boils over, he’s quick to apologize and show remorse. Today’s right advocates the increased beating of children. Bailey’s stance on foreigners was clear, he goes out of his way to lend money to accented immigrants, even showing up on their doorstep to congratulate them on their new home. One can safely doubt he’d want to finance building a wall through the fictional town of New Bedford. Like many men today, life’s pressures drive Bailey to drink and contemplation of suicide. In the movie an angel intervenes, but it’s really a prop to stage the intervention of his friends. That’s what rescues his savings and loans and culminates in the central theme of the movie: “No man is a failure who has friends.” Do today’s disgruntled men have friends?  Not a drinking buddy or cohort at the office. I mean friends with jumper cables. Friends who, when you lose your job, write you a check. Friends who tell you when you’ve been a public jackass. And remind you of it for years. Sauced on drink and pills, troubled men today wind up on the same bridge Bailey did, but in our world neither angels nor friends appear. They jump or they don’t, but if life goes on it would be remarkable if it included a single best friend. Back in the real 40’s and 50’s friendship was integral to manhood. You joined the Rotary Club or the Lions, or got on the board of a charity, or fixed up hot-rods. And they had a blast, it was all ashtrays and drinks and hi-jinks. Crew-cut military officers in Southern California started swapping wives at key parties in the 50’s. That’s a group of buddies. If you didn’t belong to a group or have other men from whom you could seek advice and help from, your character was suspect already. What kind of man are you? The ideal of manhood being peddled by and to “conservative” men is in fact radical and unprecedented. The definition of manhood has never failed to include the vulnerability, failure, loss, and sacrifice that is required to transition from boy to man. Bailey’s succumbing to desperation and panic, and reliance on his friends to survive is not a regrettable detour but the very path to the halcyon ending: loving and loved father and husband, small business owner of no great fortune but sterling ethics. Trump’s voters have a basket of motives, but the untested boys who think we need more pure testosterone in the system have signed themselves up for an economic shtupping of legendary proportions. White conservative males are prostrate and weakening. The world will continue to change whether they like at or not, and their parochialism and regressive values will only hurt them. To put it in the sniggering adolescent terms they might prefer, the next four years are going to be less It’s a Wonderful Life and more like Deliverance for them. Daniel Sherman is an entrepreneur in the import/export business. He divides his time between Italy and Chicago. He is developing a book, Good Enough, for adolescence on the topic of ethics. The post It’s a Wonderful Life, Unless You’re a Man (Guest Voice) appeared first on The Moderate Voice. 19 Dec

Will the GOP be the pro-Putin party? - The new hero of the GOP? WASHINGTON — Beneath the surface of the controversy over Russia’s efforts to help Donald Trump become president is a dramatic  reconfiguration of opinion on foreign policy. Many Republicans who had long been critical of Vladimir Putin’s despotic rule are readjusting their positions to accord with Trump’s more sympathetic views. Others are hanging back, fearful of picking a fight with their party’s incoming president or undermining the legitimacy of his election. At the same time, Putin’s fiercest Republican critics, including leading neoconservatives, find themselves allied with Hillary Clinton’s supporters. They are calling out the Kremlin’s interference with the election and demanding a full accounting of what happened. Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have been among the most outspoken. While some on the left worry about starting a new Cold War, there has been a broad toughening of liberal and Democratic opinion toward Russia. This shift owes in part to outrage over Putin’s efforts to sabotage Clinton, but the roots of the mistrust of Putin can be traced back several years. Putin’s hostility toward Clinton is widely seen as a response to her criticism of the 2011 Russian elections, a point she underscored herself last week. Mass protests broke out against what the opposition saw as Putin’s vote rigging. At the time, he blamed Clinton and the American government for the uprising. Putin fumed that Clinton had said the elections “were dishonest and unfair” and that she had given “a signal” to demonstrators who, he claimed, enjoyed “the support of the U.S. State Department.” In words that now carry an ironic ring, Putin added: “We need to safeguard ourselves from this interference in our internal affairs.” According to the CIA, Russia struck back hard at Clinton through  the hacks and was determined to help elect Trump who, for his part, has issued one encomium after another to Putin. More embarrassing for Republicans, Russia also seemed determined to help GOP candidates for the House of Representatives and to defeat Democrats. According to The New York Times, Russian hacking sought to tilt House races in states that included Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, Illinois, New Mexico and North Carolina. Republicans will not be eager to explore why Putin might have wanted to help their party as a whole. This only deepens their problems in dealing with the hacking story. While McCain and Graham were vociferous in denouncing Russia, other Republicans are clearly frustrated that a story with great potential for blowback against the party is getting so much attention. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., charged that “certain elements of the media, certain elements of the intelligence community and certain politicians are really doing the work of the Russians” by creating uncertainty over the election. Republicans are also split over how to grapple with the issue going forward. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was slow to respond to The Washington Post’s report of CIA conclusions about Russian interference. He eventually endorsed a congressional investigation but said it should be conducted by the usually secretive Intelligence Committee. McCain, on the other hand, called for a select committee that would raise the investigation’s profile. McCain’s approach is endorsed by many Democrats. And Trump’s nomination of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state — the Exxon Mobil CEO received an award of friendship from Putin — is dividing Republicans along multiple lines. Trump’s supporters want to back his choice. Some in the party are fearful of Tillerson’s ties to Russia. And many Republican establishment figures not particularly close to Trump (including some with Exxon Mobil ties) are praising Tillerson as a moderate internationalist. One political leader who has noticed the GOP’s newfound camaraderie with Putin is President Obama. In a pointed comment during an NPR interview, Obama noted that “a big chunk of the Republican Party, which prided itself during the Reagan era and for decades that followed as being the bulwark against Russian influence, now suddenly is embracing him.” At a press conference on Friday, Obama said he found it “a little curious that everybody is suddenly acting surprised that this looked like it was disadvantaging Hillary Clinton. … This was an obsession that dominated the news.” During the Republican primaries, Jeb Bush referred to Trump as “the chaos candidate,” and Trump is already sowing chaos in his party over Russia. Many Republicans are horrified by the idea that the GOP will come to be seen as the pro-Putin party. Trump seems to have no such qualms, and he is forcing Republicans to take sides on a Russian autocrat who is no friend of the United States. E.J. Dionne’s email address is ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne. (c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group Caricature by DonkeyHotey/Flickr The post Will the GOP be the pro-Putin party? appeared first on The Moderate Voice. 18 Dec

Intercontinental Cry

The Suspended Battle at Standing Rock - Two Sundays ago, the Water Protectors celebrated a major victory when the U.S. government announced that it would not encroach on Sioux ancestral lands. The Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) was set to pass under Lake Oahe, the tribe’s only water source....19 Dec

My Word: End the Struggle, Take the Offensive: Coalitions Against Kleptocracies - Indigenous Nations can no longer continue asking officials of states’ governments to recognize their rights, to protect their lands, help their people. If evidence published in Intercontinental Cry, Al Jazeera, The Guardian and stories about the...17 Dec

#MaximumAlert: Communiqué to the national and international community in the face of imminent reprisal against the Shuar people with military weapons -  Este artículo está disponible en español aquí This morning it was learned that military tanks had moved to the side passage of Puyo, Ecuador, with the presumable destination of #moronasantiago. We alert the national and international community to...16 Dec

Black Eagles and Black Windows: Indigenous Peoples in Colombia face constant “paramilitary” aggression - At this time of year the weather changes quickly in the north of the Colombian province of Cauca. A sudden chill can arrive on any breeze, sending shivers through the streets and sugarcane fields alike. Intense but short-lived bursts of rain usually...15 Dec

Mexico Moves Ahead With Controversial Pipeline Through Indigenous Land, Despite Moratorium - A new pipeline under construction in northern Mexico has become a major controversy involving the local Yaqui indigenous community that is less than pleased about the pipeline's route. The Agua Prieta pipeline would go straight through Yaqui territory....14 Dec

Access to land for indigenous women: an essential condition for eradicating gender violence - I grew up near a mythical river: the Wanki, which runs along the border that today separates Honduras from Nicaragua. I hold on to fond childhood memories of swimming across that river with my sisters to water crops, learning to fish with the women and...12 Dec

Where activism, journalism and academia collide: Young scholars from Amherst College leave the classroom to tell stories for Intercontinental Cry - Amherst College is a top ranking liberal arts college in the United States. The college is located on Norwottuck land, in western Massachusets, but both the city and the college are named after the Jeff Amherst, a British lord (in)famous for using...12 Dec

Oklahoma Political Elite Fanning the Flames of Environmental Deregulation in Trump’s America: Countdown to the Next Wounded Knee? - The famous 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee – which triggered the infamous and violent standoff with the federal government – was the culmination of a growing dissatisfaction among members of The American Indian Movement (AIM) towards corrupt Oglala... 7 Dec

Thousands celebrate with Standing Rock Sioux: U.S. Army Corps denies DAPL easement through ancestral Sioux lands - OCETI SAKOWIN CAMP, Standing Rock, North Dakota – A thousand voices around the Sacred Fire went up in cheers and cries of “mni wiconi (water is life)” Sunday afternoon when Chief Arvol Looking Horse made the unexpected announcement: the U.S Army Corps of... 5 Dec

Massacre in Nicaragua: Miskito Family Slaughtered by Illegal Colonizers While Planting Food on Traditional Land - Warning: this article includes graphic images that some readers may find disturbing. In a shocking escalation of the ongoing violent conflict devastating the Indigenous binational autonomous nation of Moskitia, a Miskito family of three was killed in a... 5 Dec

Kevin Drum Feed | Mother Jones

Machine Learning Has Transformed Google Translate - Alex Tabarrok draws my attention to an article in the New York Times Magazine this weekend. It's about machine learning in general, but it starts out with this: Late one Friday night in early November, Jun Rekimoto, a distinguished professor of human-computer interaction at the University of Tokyo, was online preparing for a lecture when he began to notice some peculiar posts rolling in on social media. Apparently Google Translate, the company's popular machine-translation service, had suddenly and almost immeasurably improved. Rekimoto visited Translate himself and began to experiment with it. He was astonished. He had to go to sleep, but Translate refused to relax its grip on his imagination. That explains it! About a week ago I happened to be clicking some links from somewhere and ended up on a Chinese site. Just for laughs I ran it through Google Translate, and I was surprised at the quality of the text I got. It was much more readable than usual and seemed to be a pretty accurate translation. I chalked it up to either coincidence or the fact that I hadn't used Google Translate in a while, and went on my way. But no. Google Translate really has taken a quantum leap: The Google of the future, [CEO Sundar] Pichai had said on several occasions, was going to be "A.I. first." What that meant in theory was complicated and had welcomed much speculation. What it meant in practice, with any luck, was that soon the company's products would no longer represent the fruits of traditional computer programming, exactly, but "machine learning." A rarefied department within the company, Google Brain, was founded five years ago on this very principle: that artificial "neural networks" that acquaint themselves with the world via trial and error, as toddlers do, might in turn develop something like human flexibility…It was only with the refugee crisis, Pichai explained from the lectern, that the company came to reckon with Translate's geopolitical importance…The team had been steadily adding new languages and features, but gains in quality over the last four years had slowed considerably. Until today. As of the previous weekend, Translate had been converted to an A.I.-based system for much of its traffic, not just in the United States but in Europe and Asia as well: The rollout included translations between English and Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Turkish. The rest of Translate's hundred-odd languages were to come, with the aim of eight per month, by the end of next year. The new incarnation, to the pleasant surprise of Google's own engineers, had been completed in only nine months. The A.I. system had demonstrated overnight improvements roughly equal to the total gains the old one had accrued over its entire lifetime. The robots are coming. Go ahead and scoff at the fact that some Uber cars ran red lights last week, but that doesn't change anything. Every technology has hiccups at first, and AI is the biggest, toughest, and most important technology ever attempted. It will provide plenty of laughs over the next decade or two. Until suddenly it doesn't and the economy has permanently lost 20 million jobs—with many more to come. We're not ready for that day, not by a long way. We should get started.08:17

Reuters: 3,000 Neighborhoods Have Higher Lead Levels Than Flint - Reuters reports on lead poisoning: ST. JOSEPH, Missouri — On a sunny November afternoon in this historic city, birthplace of the Pony Express and death spot of Jesse James, Lauranda Mignery watched her son Kadin, 2, dig in their front yard. As he played, she scolded him for putting his fingers in his mouth. In explanation, she pointed to the peeling paint on her old house. Kadin, she said, has been diagnosed with lead poisoning. He has lots of company: Within 15 blocks of his house, at least 120 small children have been poisoned since 2010, making the neighborhood among the most toxic in Missouri. Of course, it's not just St. Joseph. Reuters got hold of neighborhood-level lead testing records and found thousands of high-lead communities across the country: Reuters found nearly 3,000 areas with recently recorded lead poisoning rates at least double those in Flint during the peak of that city’s contamination crisis. And more than 1,100 of these communities had a rate of elevated blood tests at least four times higher. The poisoned places on this map stretch from Warren, Pennsylvania, a town on the Allegheny River where 36 percent of children tested had high lead levels, to a zip code on Goat Island, Texas, where a quarter of tests showed poisoning. In some pockets of Baltimore, Cleveland and Philadelphia, where lead poisoning has spanned generations, the rate of elevated tests over the last decade was 40 to 50 percent. Here's a map of the worst hotspots in the country: The whole piece is worth reading. My only disappointment is that the authors spent most of the article talking about the dangers of lead paint. That's worth talking about, but lead-saturated soil is even more worth talking about. That's why Lauranda Mignery doesn't want her son digging in their front yard: there may not be any paint there, but there's probably lots of old lead that settled in the soil decades ago when we were all burning leaded gasoline. Sadly, there's barely any money in the federal budget these days for testing, let alone remediation. It would cost tens of billions of dollars to clean up all the old lead, which is mostly a problem in poor communities populated by people of color. And though it's not polite to say this, nobody cares enough about them to spend tens of billions of dollars.19 Dec

Donald Trump's Mafia Approach to Governing Has Officially Started - Judd Legum of ThinkProgress reports that "members of the Trump Organization" pressured the government of Kuwait to switch their annual National Day celebration from the Four Seasons to the Trump International: In the early fall, the Kuwaiti Embassy signed a contract with the Four Seasons. But after the election, members of the Trump Organization contacted the Ambassador of Kuwait, Salem Al-Sabah, and encouraged him to move his event to Trump’s D.C. hotel, the source said. Kuwait has now signed a contract with the Trump International Hotel, the source said, adding that a representative with the embassy described the decision as political. Invitations to the event are typically sent out in January. Abdulaziz Alqadfan, First Secretary of the Embassy of Kuwait, told ThinkProgress last week that he couldn’t “confirm or deny” that the National Day event would be held at the Trump Hotel. Reached again Monday afternoon, Alqadfan did not offer any comment. An email sent directly to Ambassador Al-Sabah was not immediately returned. Legum writes that his source is a person "who has direct knowledge of the arrangements between the hotels and the embassy," and that he was able to "review documentary evidence confirming the source’s account." I have a feeling that a lot of foreign governments are going to be getting phone calls from the Trump Organization over the next four years. Now, Trump's defense, if he bothers to offer one, will be that nothing happened. Someone in his company made a sales call to the Kuwaiti government, offered them a deal they couldn't refuse, and closed the business. What's wrong with that? But Newt Gingrich has a whole different idea about how Trump should deal with potential violations of the law: “We’ve never seen this kind of wealth in the White House, and so traditional rules don’t work,” Gingrich said Monday during an appearance on NPR’s "The Diane Rehm Show" about the president-elect’s business interests. “We’re going to have to think up a whole new approach.” And should someone in the Trump administration cross the line, Gingrich has a potential answer for that too. “In the case of the president, he has a broad ability to organize the White House the way he wants to. He also has, frankly, the power of the pardon,” Gingrich said. “It’s a totally open power. He could simply say, ‘Look, I want them to be my advisers. I pardon them if anyone finds them to have behaved against the rules. Period. Technically, under the Constitution, he has that level of authority.” Jeez, it's too bad we didn't have this Newt Gingrich around in the 90s. He and Bill Clinton would have gotten along a lot better if he'd had this kind of charitable attitude toward presidential ethics back then. On a more serious note: Are you fucking kidding me? The Trump Organization is going to poach business away by "encouraging" foreign governments to see the benefits of holding their events at a Trump property? And Newt Gingrich thinks we should just go ahead and change the law to allow this kind of thing? And if nobody salutes when that gets run up the old flagpole, then Trump should just go ahead and issue pardons to anyone who gets harassed by overzealous prosecutors. What country do I live in, anyway?19 Dec

The Right Time For Chocolate Is All the Time - From the Wall Street Journal today: Oh come on. They're just trolling us, right?19 Dec

Help Me Understand the Republican View on Russia's Election Hacking - Just for the record, I want to make sure I understand something: During the presidential campaign, Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans promised to raise hell if President Obama responded aggressively to Russia's interference in the election. Now that the election is over, Republicans are bashing Obama for not having a more aggressive response to a ruthless cyberattack by a hostile foreign power. It's yet another example of Obama's fecklessness on the foreign stage. Do I have this right? Just curious.19 Dec

Donald Trump Doesn't Trust the Secret Service, Will Keep His Own Security Force - Eric Levitz writes about the strange habits of president-elect Donald Trump: Donald Trump won’t content himself with the standard-issue presidency — he’s going to have his customized. Daily intelligence briefings are out, along with the norms that prohibit the appearance of corruption. “Victory rallies” are in — as is the private security force that policed dissent at Trump’s events throughout his campaign. Wait. What? I knew about this other stuff, but Trump is keeping his private security force? Isn't that what the Secret Service is for? Ken Vogel explains what's happening: The arrangement represents a major break from tradition....But Trump — who puts a premium on loyalty and has demonstrated great interest in having forceful security at his events — has opted to maintain an aggressive and unprecedented private security force, led by Keith Schiller, a retired New York City cop and Navy veteran. ....In interviews with about a dozen people who interact with Trump, they said even as the president-elect’s Secret Service detail has expanded significantly since the election, he remains most comfortable with Schiller and his team....The Trump associates say Schiller is expected to become a personal White House aide who would serve as the incoming president’s full-time physical gatekeeper. Every time we learn more about Trump, we learn what a total whack job he is. He's like a walking encyclopedia of neuroses. But maybe that's not so bad. Maybe this means he's perfect for America, since we seem to be a national encyclopedia of neuroses these days. I predict a land office business in Xanax over the next four years.19 Dec

The US Trade Deficit With Mexico Has Been Flat For 15 Years - In the LA Times today, Jim Puzzanghera writes that "a small U.S. trade surplus with Mexico of about $1.7 billion in 1993 has ballooned into a large deficit — $61 billion last year." Here's the accompanying chart: This does indeed give the impression of an ever-widening gap. But it's badly misleading because it doesn't take account of inflation and economic growth. Here's a better chart that shows the trade gap directly: The US trade deficit with Mexico did indeed rise in the first decade after NAFTA. But for the past 15 years it's been flat. In 2002 it was 0.338 percent of US GDP. In 2015 it was 0.336 percent of GDP. You can't look at stuff like this in nominal dollars. You have to account for economic growth (about 25 percent since 2002) and inflation (about 30 percent since 2002). Once you do that, you can see that, in fact, our trade deficit with Mexico hasn't changed at all for the past 15 years.19 Dec

Women Kill Fewer Medicare Patients Than Men - According to an article in JAMA Internal Medicine, Medicare patients who are hospitalized fare differently depending on whether their doctor is male or female: The biggest difference is in the two sickest groups of patients: there's a distinctly higher rate of death among male doctors. And while the difference may look small, it suggests that male doctors are responsible for 32,000 more deaths per year among Medicare patients. The Washington Post helpfully points out that this poses a rather stark contrast to the fact that male doctors are paid an average of $20,000 more than female doctors. The sample size of this study is very large—about 1.5 million patients—and the authors claim to have controlled for everything under  the sun. I'll let others judge that. In the meantime, remember to always ask for a female doctor and never start a hospital stay on a Friday. If you don't have a choice—and you probably won't—then all I can do is wish you well.19 Dec

Obama Fails to Start a War and Our Allies Are Worried - For some reason, I've been thinking lately about news memes that I'm tired of hearing about. For example, I'm tired of hearing about how containers revolutionized shipping. I'm tired of hearing about Van Halen's brown M&Ms. And I'm tired of hearing endlessly about how US allies are supposedly worried because we haven't started a war over something. According to the New York Times, the latest sign of America's worrisome restraint is President Obama's response to China's seizure of one of our research drones near the Philippines: Across Asia, diplomats and analysts said they were perplexed at the inability of the Obama administration to devise a strong response to China’s challenge. It did not even dispatch an American destroyer to the spot near Subic Bay, a former American Navy base that is still frequented by American ships, some noted. ....The end result, analysts said, is that China will be emboldened by having carried out an act that amounted to hybrid warfare, falling just short of provoking conflict, and suffering few noticeable consequences. “Allies and observers will find it hard not to conclude this represents another diminishment of American authority in the region,” said Douglas H. Paal, the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Who knows? Maybe this kind of thing really does worry our allies. But if that's the case, maybe our allies need to settle down. Not everything is worth a military response. Not everything is even worth a sternly-worded note. These kinds of penny-ante provocations are usually designed precisely to evoke a response, and it's usually best just to ride them out. That's especially true when there's nothing much we can do in the short term anyway, which means that any kind of aggressive response would almost inherently end up looking weak and incompetent. Anyway, I have a feeling that if Donald Trump starts responding more belligerently, we'll start getting stories about how our allies are worried that America is stirring up trouble and they're the ones who will have to pay the price. They should be careful about what they wish for.19 Dec

ERP Blogstorm Part 4: Miscellaneous - The fourth and final part of our series of charts from the Economic Report of the President has no theme. It's just three unrelated charts that I felt like posting. First up, here is the IMF's forecast of global growth over the six years since the end of the Great Recession: Every year they think the decline in growth is over and the global economy will pick up again. And every year they're wrong. Now they're forecasting the same thing in 2016. Next year we'll find out if they're finally right. Next up is a chart that shows how oil prices affect national economies in the Middle East: Kuwait can balance its budget with an oil price of $50 per barrel. Saudi Arabia needs about $70. Bahrain needs $90. And Libya needs to start spending less. Finally, here's a chart I've put up in various forms several times over the years: We've grown used to thinking of health care costs as spiraling out of control, but that wasn't a regular fact of life until the early 80s. Then, for the next 20 years, health care inflation ran way higher than overall inflation. However, the gap started narrowing as early as the mid-90s. Here's a chart of my own that shows the gap directly: Using a 10-year rolling average helps smooth out the spikes so we can focus on the trend instead. Medical inflation was fairly moderate in the late 50s and then declined fairly steadily to even lower levels until the early 80s. Then it skyrocketed, and this is the era we're most familiar with. But by the early aughts it had fallen back to its previous level in the 60s and 70s, and it's stayed there for the past 15 years. The authors of the report try to make a case that the subdued medical inflation of the past few years is due to Obamacare, but they try too hard. Obamacare has likely had some effect, but basically it just had the good luck to go into effect at a time when medical inflation was already pretty low. What this all shows is that we should change how we think of medical inflation. Most of us think of it as something that's out of control, and we hope that the recent slowdown isn't just a blip. Instead, we should think of the period from 1980-2000 as a blip. Except for those two decades, medical inflation has run steadily at about 1.5 percent above overall inflation, and there's no special reason to think this  will change. That's the normal rate for the postwar era.18 Dec

Mother Jones Blogs and Articles

What Does Donald Trump Know? Anything? - At about 3:30 am on Saturday, China agreed to return the Navy drone they had seized in the South China Sea. Four hours later, Donald Trump tweeted his thoughts about this: "China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters ― rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act." Then, a few hours later, he bizarrely changed tack: "We should tell China that we don't want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!" Did Trump know when he wrote those tweets that the Chinese had already agreed to return the drone? That information would have been known to Trump had he received the “Presidential Daily Brief” prior to posting his first tweet. Whether he did that Saturday, or whether he or his staff even bothered to check with the State Department or the Pentagon about the status of the matter before weighing in, is unknown. Officials in Trump’s transition office did not respond to queries from The Huffington Post. Trump has said that he finds the PDB repetitive and that he does not need a daily briefing because he is smart. His staff has said Trump is receiving the briefing about three times a week. That's from S.V. Date, and I love the second excerpted paragraph. It makes Trump look like the idiot he is, but there's nothing objectionable about it. That's exactly what he said. Trump can hardly cry foul at this characterization. He will, of course, because he and his team have made a whole new profession out of grievance mongering. You'd think that he expected to govern without criticism or something—and judging by the remarkable volume of whining out of Trump and his team, maybe he did. But since he refuses to speak with the press, and his staff does nothing but kvetch and tap dance, we may never know.45 min

Raw Data: The US Trade Deficit - I don't have any special reason to post this except for the fact that trade is very much in the news following Donald Trump's election victory. For the record, then, here's the US trade deficit since 1980: And just for extra fun, here's the same chart excluding trade with China and imports of crude oil: The main lesson here is that the US trade deficit hasn't been spiraling out of control for the past decade. It's been declining. And practically all of it for the past five years has been accounted for by oil and China.09:37

Machine Learning Has Transformed Google Translate - Alex Tabarrok draws my attention to an article in the New York Times magazine this weekend. It's about machine learning in general, but starts out with this: Late one Friday night in early November, Jun Rekimoto, a distinguished professor of human-computer interaction at the University of Tokyo, was online preparing for a lecture when he began to notice some peculiar posts rolling in on social media. Apparently Google Translate, the company’s popular machine-translation service, had suddenly and almost immeasurably improved. Rekimoto visited Translate himself and began to experiment with it. He was astonished. He had to go to sleep, but Translate refused to relax its grip on his imagination. That explains it! About a week ago I happened to be clicking some links from somewhere and ended up on a Chinese site. Just for laughs I ran it through Google Translate, and I was surprised at the quality of the text I got. It was much more readable than usual and seemed to be a pretty accurate translation. I chalked it up to either coincidence or the fact that I hadn't used Google Translate in a while, and went on my way. But no. Google Translate really has taken a quantum leap: The Google of the future, [CEO Sundar] Pichai had said on several occasions, was going to be “A.I. first.” What that meant in theory was complicated and had welcomed much speculation. What it meant in practice, with any luck, was that soon the company’s products would no longer represent the fruits of traditional computer programming, exactly, but “machine learning.” A rarefied department within the company, Google Brain, was founded five years ago on this very principle: that artificial “neural networks” that acquaint themselves with the world via trial and error, as toddlers do, might in turn develop something like human flexibility....It was only with the refugee crisis, Pichai explained from the lectern, that the company came to reckon with Translate’s geopolitical importance....The team had been steadily adding new languages and features, but gains in quality over the last four years had slowed considerably. Until today. As of the previous weekend, Translate had been converted to an A.I.-based system for much of its traffic, not just in the United States but in Europe and Asia as well: The rollout included translations between English and Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Turkish. The rest of Translate’s hundred-odd languages were to come, with the aim of eight per month, by the end of next year. The new incarnation, to the pleasant surprise of Google’s own engineers, had been completed in only nine months. The A.I. system had demonstrated overnight improvements roughly equal to the total gains the old one had accrued over its entire lifetime. The robots are coming. Go ahead and scoff at the fact that some Uber cars ran red lights last week, but that doesn't change anything. Every technology has hiccups at first, and AI is the biggest, toughest, and most important technology ever attempted. It will provide plenty of laughs over the next decade or two. Until suddenly it doesn't and the economy has permanently lost 20 million jobs—with many more to come. We're not ready for that day, not by a long way. We should get started.08:17

Watch This Guy Try to Flatter His Way to Becoming Trump's Ag Secretary - President-elect Donald Trump has made some mind-bending cabinet picks, tapping a Big Oil CEO to lead foreign policy, a former pro-wrestling magnate as head of the small business administration, and a raunchy burger tycoon from a company with a history of worker wage disputes as head of the labor department. But one and only cabinet slot remains open: secretary of the US Department of Agriculture, a sprawling agency with a $150+ billion budget that directs farm and hunger policy. Last last week, I posted an update about the chaos surrounding Trump's USDA transition. Since I filed that piece, some fascinating new information has emerged. Here's a rundown of why another wild-card pick might be on the way: • During his campaign, Trump assembled a 60-plus-person band of right-wing farm state pols, agribiz flacks, and donors to serve on what he called his Agricultural Advisory Committee. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is one its highest-profile members. On the national scene, he's most famous for 1) unapologetically sharing fake news stories on his office's Facebook page; 2) calling Hillary Clinton a "cunt" on on Twitter; and 3) trying to bill his state's taxpayers for a trip to take a medical procedure called a "Jesus shot." In what Politico described as a "Hail Mary attempt" to assert himself as candidate to take the USDA helm, Miller released a fulsome love letter to Trump Friday in the form of an op-ed piece. "The focus is now the golden lobby of Trump Tower, the new symbolic representation of power in America: an edifice built by sharp-edged business acumen and cold American cash rather than taxpayer dollars and political pork," Miller opines. At the start of the piece, Miller predicts that "not only will Donald Trump defy his critics, befuddle his opponents and become one of our greatest presidents, but he will fulfill his promise to Make America  Great Again." By the end, Miller is ready to go further: "in just over one month Donald Trump has already kept the pledge written on thousands of red caps across the America: He has already Made America Great Again." • Just a little over a week ago, Trump seemed close to choosing a centrist Democrat from a farm state as USDA chief—a surprisingly tame pick for this crew. It would also have been diabolically smart, because if Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota) could have been persuaded to take the post, it would quite likely have meant increasing the GOP majority in the Senate by one seat, since a Republican would likely have won s special election to replace her. But then Politico reported last Monday that "Trump’s closest rural advisers are trying to torpedo efforts" to appoint Heitkamp, and the post has been in limbo ever since. Since then, the San Antonio Express News' Lynn Brezoky has added some excellent perspective on what happened. She got hold of an email from one of Trump's ag advisers, high-powered DC attorney Gary Baise, to Trump's transition team. (Baise confirmed the authenticity of the email, Brezoky reports.) Baise is a significant figure in Trump World—he's  the man who takes credit for putting together the Agricultural Advisory Committee on which the above-mentioned Miller sits. Baise represents Big Ag interests for the law firm and lobbying house Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz, and serves as as policy expert for the Heartland Institute, an oil industry-funded think-tank that denies man-made climate change. In his email, which went out to the transition team as well as members of the ag-advisory group, Baise declares that: Politico just put this story out regarding the delay in selecting a USDA Secretary. All of you need to know that I have been advised that a person on the Trump transition team believes "I" have been causing problems regarding the USDA Secretary selection. I have been told indirectly to "back off"!!!! Rest assured I will not. I am speaking and reflecting you, Mr. Trump and agriculture's best interests not some politically correct solution. President–Elect Trump did not win by being politically correct! The "politically correct solution" he's referring to appears to be choosing Heitkamp. Baise goes on to call for a USDA chief who "supported Mr. Trump and did not oppose him or offer lukewarm support," and who is "not a Tom Vilsack type" (a reference to the current USDA secretary). • San Antonio Express News' Brezoky goes onto report that members of Trump's advisory committee "say they had been promised a seat at the table on agricultural policy," and Baise's email represents their effort to promote themselves. Meanwhile, Politico reports that Charles Herbster, co-chair of that committee, remains a contender to become Trump's USDA pick. Citing a a "source close to the transition," Politico reports that Herbster "managed to stay under the radar as he made his way to New York last week to meet with Trump transition officials," though "he doesn't appear to have spoken directly to the president-elect." The news site adds: Still, the fact Herbster was summoned to NYC suggests he remains very much in the mix. In many ways, Herbster would make sense: He's a businessman from one of the country's biggest farm states who was a key rural backer for the loyalty-loving Trump during the campaign. His dearth of government experience, which would likely be a detriment in any other administration, could fit into Trump’s swamp-draining pledge. Herbster would be a fascinating drain-the-swamp pick. As I reported in August, he is a major funder of a Super PAC called Ag America, and even sits on its steering committee. According to the money-in-politics tracker Open Secrets, he donated $60,000 to it in 2015. Other recent contributors include Monsanto, DuPont, Archer Daniels Midland, and several other agribusiness giants. He also runs a multilevel marketing operation—one of those companies, like Avon, Amway, or Herbalife, that sell their products to the public through a network of individual "distributors" who make money not just based on their own sales, but also from the sales of others they've managed to recruit. More here. Meanwhile, as Christmas approaches, we all anxiously await word of whom our Great Leader will choose to oversee ag and hunger policy.04:00

After Ghost Ship Fire, Tupac's Old Lawyer Is Helping Artists Fight Eviction - In the aftermath of the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland, which claimed 36 lives earlier this month, the inhabitants of live-work artist warehouses all over America have been receiving eviction threats and notices. In Oakland and San Francisco, residents of at least five such spaces are now facing eviction. Warehouses in Baltimore and Denver have been shuttered since the fire, and are facing increased scrutiny in Nashville, Philadelphia, and Dallas, as well as Indianapolis, Indiana, and New Haven, Connecticut. Many worry that most of this activity is related not to safety concerns, but rather to the desire of property owners to expel low-wage artists in favor of wealthier tenants. Bay Area artists, at least, have a high-profile defender—the civil rights lawyer John Burris, who has stepped up to act as a liaison between tenants and local government code-enforcers. Burris, whose name pops up in many a lawsuit regarding abusive practices by local police, is best known for representing Rodney King, Tupac Shakur, and the family of Oscar Grant—who was killed by a BART police officer, inspiring the movie Fruitvale Station. Standing up for low-rent artists seemed a little off the beaten track for Burris, so I reached out to him and his housing guru, James Cook, to see what was afoot. Mother Jones: What inspired you to help artists facing eviction after the fire? John Burris: My daughter lost two friends. I knew she has spent time in the Bay Area's artist warehouses, so I called her immediately when I heard the news. She had two friends who were missing, later confirmed dead. I feel her pain, but I'm pained just as a community person as well. The loss of 36 lives is just outrageous. So we thought, how can we help? MJ: How are you helping? Are you filing a lawsuit? JB: No. It's not clear that the city can be held liable for the fire. But the eviction issue came up very quickly. We invited people in the affected community to sit around our table and tell us their stories. That's what we do in civil rights law—we hear stories, and the stories move us to action. We said we don't think we can do what we would traditionally do, which is file a lawsuit, but maybe there's something else. Now we're facilitating communication between the city and the artistic community. Ultimately we'll have to bring in real estate people as well, because they hold the aces. Our goal is to make sure people know their rights, and make policy adjustments if needed to  protect people from eviction. MJ: Why is it important to you that these artists stay put? JB: We're concerned that this may turn into a boondoggle for landowners and real estate interests, who will use this tragedy to evict artists and members of alternative communities—including LGBT people. We fear they will legally be able to put people out by saying they need to get a building up to code for safety reasons, and then turn around and rent it for a lot of money to someone else. This practice is not uncommon. Take African American communities—often developers will come in and renovate a neighborhood, driving up rents, and the city fails to take action on behalf of the community, which eventually has to move out. The African American population is declining in Oakland, as it has already declined in San Francisco. So the question is, will this particular event cause that process to occur with respect to the artistic community, here and elsewhere? MJ: Doesn't the city have a responsibility to enforce housing codes? JB: The city has a responsibility to make sure a living space is not harmful. But that doesn't mean it has to be up to every code, in which case landlords would have reason to put people out left and right. Basic requirements of safety have to be maintained, but we have to preserve the affordable housing stock, too, and respect people's right to stay in their homes. MJ: Why would cities want to stop gentrification? James Cook: We use the term "legacy community" to talk about a community that's part of a city's cultural, historical and economic fabric. For good reason, we have housing laws in many cities designed to keep legacy communities in place, and to create some sort of economic structure to help those communities survive. If you can maintain legacy communities, the theory is that cities will thrive economically, thrive politically, thrive intellectually, thrive culturally. In the Bay Area, artists and LGBT people are legacy communities that we want to sustain. MJ: Does you think a city has a special responsibility to its current residents, as opposed to potential future ones? JB: Yes, a community is defined by those who are already here, not those whom you want to attract. JC: Housing is the next dimension of civil rights law. There's actually a constitutional case to be made for this. The Constitution says you have the right to a notice and a hearing before your property can be taken away. Some people may say that if you're a tenant and you don't own your house, this shouldn't necessarily apply to you. But housing-rights advocates argue that the law applies because you own a stake in the property as a leaseholder. Across the country, we increasingly have laws that mimic the 14th Amendment for tenants. MJ: Does protecting these artists have implications for other legacy communities? JB: Yes. Decreasing one type of diversity usually leads to decreasing other types. So if rents go up because the artistic community is expelled, African Americans will suffer too. Forward-thinking leaders of cities value diversity for many reasons, including economic ones. So if something comes along that threatens that diversity, the city has a responsibility to do what it can to make sure that doesn't happen. John Burris, right, stands with Tanti Martinez, whose asthmatic son died while incarcerated in California. 2015.  04:00

Reuters: 3,000 Neighborhoods Have Higher Lead Levels Than Flint - Reuters reports on lead poisoning: ST. JOSEPH, Missouri — On a sunny November afternoon in this historic city, birthplace of the Pony Express and death spot of Jesse James, Lauranda Mignery watched her son Kadin, 2, dig in their front yard. As he played, she scolded him for putting his fingers in his mouth. In explanation, she pointed to the peeling paint on her old house. Kadin, she said, has been diagnosed with lead poisoning. He has lots of company: Within 15 blocks of his house, at least 120 small children have been poisoned since 2010, making the neighborhood among the most toxic in Missouri. Of course, it's not just St. Joseph. Reuters got hold of neighborhood-level lead testing records and found thousands of high-lead communities across the country: Reuters found nearly 3,000 areas with recently recorded lead poisoning rates at least double those in Flint during the peak of that city’s contamination crisis. And more than 1,100 of these communities had a rate of elevated blood tests at least four times higher. The poisoned places on this map stretch from Warren, Pennsylvania, a town on the Allegheny River where 36 percent of children tested had high lead levels, to a zip code on Goat Island, Texas, where a quarter of tests showed poisoning. In some pockets of Baltimore, Cleveland and Philadelphia, where lead poisoning has spanned generations, the rate of elevated tests over the last decade was 40 to 50 percent. Here's a map of the worst hotspots in the country: The whole piece is worth reading. My only disappointment is that the authors spent most of the article talking about the dangers of lead paint. That's worth talking about, but lead-saturated soil is even more worth talking about. That's why Lauranda Mignery doesn't want her son digging in their front yard: there may not be any paint there, but there's probably lots of old lead that settled in the soil decades ago when we were all burning leaded gasoline. Sadly, there's barely any money in the federal budget these days for testing, let alone remediation. It would cost tens of billions of dollars to clean up all the old lead, which is mostly a problem in poor communities populated by people of color. And though it's not polite to say this, nobody cares enough about them to spend tens of billions of dollars.19 Dec

Donald Trump's Mafia Approach to Governing Has Officially Started - Judd Legum of ThinkProgress reports that "members of the Trump Organization" pressured the government of Kuwait to switch their annual National Day celebration from the Four Seasons to the Trump International: In the early fall, the Kuwaiti Embassy signed a contract with the Four Seasons. But after the election, members of the Trump Organization contacted the Ambassador of Kuwait, Salem Al-Sabah, and encouraged him to move his event to Trump’s D.C. hotel, the source said. Kuwait has now signed a contract with the Trump International Hotel, the source said, adding that a representative with the embassy described the decision as political. Invitations to the event are typically sent out in January. Abdulaziz Alqadfan, First Secretary of the Embassy of Kuwait, told ThinkProgress last week that he couldn’t “confirm or deny” that the National Day event would be held at the Trump Hotel. Reached again Monday afternoon, Alqadfan did not offer any comment. An email sent directly to Ambassador Al-Sabah was not immediately returned. Legum writes that his source is a person "who has direct knowledge of the arrangements between the hotels and the embassy," and that he was able to "review documentary evidence confirming the source’s account." I have a feeling that a lot of foreign governments are going to be getting phone calls from the Trump Organization over the next four years. Now, Trump's defense, if he bothers to offer one, will be that nothing happened. Someone in his company made a sales call to the Kuwaiti government, offered them a deal they couldn't refuse, and closed the business. What's wrong with that? But Newt Gingrich has a whole different idea about how Trump should deal with potential violations of the law: “We’ve never seen this kind of wealth in the White House, and so traditional rules don’t work,” Gingrich said Monday during an appearance on NPR’s "The Diane Rehm Show" about the president-elect’s business interests. “We’re going to have to think up a whole new approach.” And should someone in the Trump administration cross the line, Gingrich has a potential answer for that too. “In the case of the president, he has a broad ability to organize the White House the way he wants to. He also has, frankly, the power of the pardon,” Gingrich said. “It’s a totally open power. He could simply say, ‘Look, I want them to be my advisers. I pardon them if anyone finds them to have behaved against the rules. Period. Technically, under the Constitution, he has that level of authority.” Jeez, it's too bad we didn't have this Newt Gingrich around in the 90s. He and Bill Clinton would have gotten along a lot better if he'd had this kind of charitable attitude toward presidential ethics back then. On a more serious note: Are you fucking kidding me? The Trump Organization is going to poach business away by "encouraging" foreign governments to see the benefits of holding their events at a Trump property? And Newt Gingrich thinks we should just go ahead and change the law to allow this kind of thing? And if nobody salutes when that gets run up the old flagpole, then Trump should just go ahead and issue pardons to anyone who gets harassed by overzealous prosecutors. What country do I live in, anyway?19 Dec

Russian Official Blames "Western Media" for Turkish Ambassador's Assassination - On Monday, Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov was assassinated in an Ankara art gallery by gunman who shouted, "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!" Alexei Pushkov, a member of the Duma—the Russian legislature—and the former chairman of its foreign affairs committee was quick to blame the Western media for inciting the attack through its coverage of Syria.  "The hysteria around Aleppo raised by the Western media has consequences," he told LifeNews, a pro-Putin online news outlet and TV channel. "This murder is precisely a consequence of attempts to blame Russia for all the sins and crimes she did not commit. They are completely ignoring the crimes of fighters in Aleppo, and that forms a distorted and false picture of what is happening in this city, which contributed to this terrorist act…This is a result of anti-Russian hysteria, raised in the West and supported by a certain part of Turkish society." Pushkov made a similar point on his Twitter account, writing that "the death of the Russian ambassador in Turkey, a terrorist act, is the result of political and media hysteria around Aleppo from Russia's enemies." Гибель посла России в Турции в рез-те теракта - следствие политич. и медиатической истерии, развязанной вокруг Алеппо противниками России. — Алексей Пушков (@Alexey_Pushkov) December 19, 2016  19 Dec

Here's What's Going on With the Electoral College Today - As the Electoral College's 538 members gather across the country on Monday to formally cast their ballots for the next president and vice-president of the United States, protesters have flocked to state capitals to urge electors to deny Donald Trump the presidency. The normally staid process has drawn an unusual amount of attention this year, as activists have mounted various efforts to challenge the electoral college results amid alarm over Trump's cabinet picks and conflicts of interest, as well as revelations about Russia's alleged role in hacking US political targets to aid Trump. "Shame! You don't deserve to be an American!" one protester shouted in Wisconsin, as all ten of the state's electors voted to officially make Trump president. "You have sold us out!" Demonstrators erupt after Wisconsin's 10 presidential electors cast their #ElectoralCollege ballots for Republican Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/A0GrASaIbY — Bill Ruthhart (@BillRuthhart) December 19, 2016 -20 wind chills didn't stop about 50 demonstrators outside the Wisconsin capitol as the state's presidential electors were set to vote. pic.twitter.com/yjYnNKudyy — Bill Ruthhart (@BillRuthhart) December 19, 2016 Numerous arrests have been made, including in Pennsylvania where 12 immigration activists were cited for disorderly conduct for protesting Trump's victory in the state. A look at the #ElectoralCollege protesters who've converged on the Pennsylvania Capitol Rotunda pic.twitter.com/0iNNDjTtyi — Wallace McKelvey (@wjmckelvey) December 19, 2016 In Minnesota, a state Hillary Clinton won, one elector was replaced after refusing to vote for her. A Maine Democratic elector decided to cast his protest vote for Bernie Sanders, instead of Clinton. In Washington, three electors voted for Colin Powell instead of Clinton; a fourth elector wrote in "Faith Spotted Eagle." As of this time, these are the only four incidents of "faithless" electors bucking their state's choice for president. The unprecedented effort to upend the electoral college vote is unlikely to amount to much. As Mother Jones reported last week, it's highly unlikely that enough electors will change their votes and abandon the party's nominee. While President Barack Obama called the electoral college process a "vestige" on Friday, he said that voters searching for a "silver bullet" fix to American politics are probably in for a disappointment. The absence of "faithless" electors revolting against Trump further fuels this notion. On Sunday, Trump rebuked his opponents and the movement to reject his path to the White House. If my many supporters acted and threatened people like those who lost the election are doing, they would be scorned & called terrible names! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2016 19 Dec

The Right Time For Chocolate Is All the Time - From the Wall Street Journal today: Oh come on. They're just trolling us, right?19 Dec

RSS 2.0

Profile Of A Sociopath: Why It Would Be Foolhardy To Turn Over the Presidency To Donald Trump- In the early ’80s, I lived in the Fenway area of Boston. One day, I met one of the neighborhood kids. He was working on a car. Next to him was a gas can, and he was smoking a cigarette. I... An extraordinary new web magazine that offers a fascinating variety of media rich stories and articles for the entire family. 19 Dec

Rolling Up the Pain: 5 Therapeutic Health Effects Of Cannabidiol - Cannabidiol, or CBD, is generating a lot of buzz in the medical marijuana movement. The benefits of the non-psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, or the other half of THC, have been shown to treat... An extraordinary new web magazine that offers a fascinating variety of media rich stories and articles for the entire family.19 Dec

Loretta Lynch Finally Explains Why Her Tarmac Meeting With Bill Clinton Lasted So Long - If it’s controversy the Clintons tried to avoid during the presidential race, former President Bill Clinton’s private meeting with U.S. Attorney Gen. Loretta Lynch did not help, especially as it had... An extraordinary new web magazine that offers a fascinating variety of media rich stories and articles for the entire family. 19 Dec

Hamilton Electors Hoping To Stop Trump - Anti-Donald Trump forces held a slim hope Sunday 37 Republican members of the Electoral College would revolt and deny the president-elect the White House, but chances of that happening were slim. The... An extraordinary new web magazine that offers a fascinating variety of media rich stories and articles for the entire family. 19 Dec

Trump’s Generals: How Wartime Service Shaped Mattis, Kelly, & Flynn - Then-Lt. Gen. James Mattis talks to a wounded servicemember in Iraq. Among the many anxieties inspired by the rise of Trump, one of the most profound is his fondness for generals. Does naming so many... An extraordinary new web magazine that offers a fascinating variety of media rich stories and articles for the entire family. 19 Dec

America: Racism, Bigotry, and the Grotesquely Uniformed - Last night someone told me to suck it up, get used to it and go with Trump. I refrained from responding since I have some PC aversion to beating hell out of stupid old women, but I have to bite my... An extraordinary new web magazine that offers a fascinating variety of media rich stories and articles for the entire family. 19 Dec

The Annual Peasant Revolution Is Underway Again - The next idiot who tells me that freedom isn’t free and that we only have it because of the “warfighters” is going to get some warfighting from me (yes, apparently that’s a... An extraordinary new web magazine that offers a fascinating variety of media rich stories and articles for the entire family. 19 Dec

Trump: Heralding the Fourth Reich - Over 50% of Republicans now believe – wholeheartedly and self-righteously, of course – that Hillary Klin-Ton lost the popular vote. Over 70% believe that the UnPresident’s Electoral... An extraordinary new web magazine that offers a fascinating variety of media rich stories and articles for the entire family. 18 Dec

Bible Thumpers More Skeptical of Evolution Than Climate Change - STEAM Register Displayed with permission from STEAM Register New study examines the larger “anti-science” tendency that some see as related to membership in conservative religious groups... An extraordinary new web magazine that offers a fascinating variety of media rich stories and articles for the entire family. 18 Dec

Trump’s Nominees and the Coming Environmental Disaster - Leah McGrath Goodman Displayed with permission from Newsweek Donald Trump Mocks Climate Change And Global Warming: ‘It’s Called Weather’ The day before the presidential election, a... An extraordinary new web magazine that offers a fascinating variety of media rich stories and articles for the entire family. 18 Dec

Pergelator

Department Q: The Absent One - Rose (Johanne Louise Schmidt), Assad (Fares Fares) &  Carl Mørck (Nikolaj Lie Kaas)Thriller, on Netflix, in Norwegian with subtitles. Carl is your prototypical social misfit, Rose is the supercompetent administrative assistant and Assad is the voice of reason. These three comprise the entirety of Department Q, i.e. the cold case squad. They get drug into a case by the father of a murder victim. On the other side we have some very nasty people.19 Dec

Fruitcake - Kirkland Traditional FruitcakeI like fruitcake. I am the only one in my family who does. The girls think it is gross. The boys don't care because it isn't pizza or beer. But I like it, so when we were at Costco yesterday I picked one up. $16, which is kind of a chunk of money, but each fruitcake contains about a zillion calories, so each calorie costs 16,000 zillionths of a cent, which means it's like the cheapest food in the world. All you have to do is dole it out slowly. If you do it right, it could last a month.Jezebel has an entertaining story about fruitcake. So does Catholic Vote (wait, what? Catholics vote for fruitcake?)18 Dec

Lucky Iron Fish - Lucky Iron FishI just stumbled over this. Evidently many Cambodians has a problem with anemia due to a lack of iron in their diet. A Canadian research project found a way to help alleviate the problem, and now there's an organization devoted to distributing these iron fish.Now I'm wondering if Cambodia has always been short of iron, or whether this is a recent development. Or could it be that the problem was always there, it's just been aggravated by the enormous population growth. And if it's always been a problem, have the Cambodians developed an affinity for iron, much like the Irish?Now I'm going to walk out on a limb and wonder if this might have something to do with the Khmer Rouge coming to power back in the 1970's.18 Dec

Pic of the Day - Combination Typewriter / Adding MachineNo home should be without one. The machine age's last hurrah before the advent of digital electronics.18 Dec

North Portland Railroad Tunnel - North Portland Railroad MapDriving down North Lombard Street on my way to the airport yesterday afternoon, it occurred to me that I was missing a piece of the puzzle. North Portland is about a 150 feet higher in elevation than the river. This is especially noticeable in the bluffs between the University of Portland and Swan Island. Railroads don't like hills, so how does the railroad get from Swan Island up to the level of North Lombard Street?For one thing, the land slopes gently down toward the north and east, so by the time Lombard meets up with the railroad (a couple miles east of the above map), their elevation is about 50 feet, only about 25 feet higher than Swan Island. The railroad has about 5 miles to to make that climb, which is only about one foot of rise in a thousand feet of run, which should be easy enough for any train.So that part of the puzzle is filled in. But while I am looking into this I discover a train tunnel running under North Portland. I had no idea. The tunnel was built a hundred years ago and is still in daily use. It is the pale orange line running vertically in the map above, about a half an inch from the right hand border. The railroads first project to cut across North Portland involved making a cut (basically a big ditch). That's the thick orange line running diagonally across the map. People were so upset about their town being cut in half by this ditch that when the railroad proposed making another cut, they were forced to back off and dig a tunnel instead.Brief history of the tunnel here.Discussion on Reddit here.Railroad maps here.Topographic maps here.17 Dec

Four Seasons in Havana - 4 SEASONS IN HAVANA - Teaser Trailer We started watching this series this evening. It's pretty great, though part of that greatness might be because it was shot in Havana, and when's the last time we saw anything come out of Havana? It's not like your regular 45 minute cop show, each episode is like an hour and a half long, so each one is more like a movie.17 Dec

Pic of the Day #2 - AUSTRALIA - AIR FORCE - LOCKHEED C-130H HERCULES (L-382) - REG A97-007 (CN 382-4787) - EDINBURGH RAAF BASE ADELAIDE SA. AUSTRALIA - YPED (17/9/1979) 35M SLIDE SCANED WITH A EPSON V700 PERFECT FLATBED SCANER AT 6400 DPI. - DAN TANNERI've always wondered just what kind of resolution you can get with film, but I've never been able to get a straight answer. Everyone wants to get bogged down in the physiology of vision or the chemistry of film and they never get around to actually giving you a number. 6400 might not be the limit that can be reached with film, but it's certainly a heck of a lot better than the 100 dpi you get on your desktop display device, or the 1000 lines per inch you get in you glossy magazines. So thank you, Dan, for this.16 Dec

Pic of the Day - Dreamlifter in Anchorage AlaskaWhat is a Dreamlifter doing in Alaska? As far as I know Boeing doesn't have a factory there. Seems it is just make a pit stop on its way back from Japan.16 Dec

Passport Rules, Part 2 - Geese walk along the snow covered waterfront park through heavy snowfall as the first winter storm of the season hits the area in Portland, Ore., Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)Monday morning delinquent daughter packages up her paperwork and ships it via high speed express to the passport expediting company. They are promising one day turn around time, so with one day to get there, one day to process, and one day to return, she might have her new passport by Wednesday.Wednesday afternoon it starts snowing. In parts of the country where snow is a regular seasonal occurrence, that might not be such a big deal, but here in Portland it only snows when it will most inconvenience ME. Evening rush hour is a disaster. What would normally be a 30 minute commute turns into two hours.Thursday schools are closed. Roads are covered with ice and snow. If you are careful, you can go places. Traffic on the roads is light because most people have enough sense to stay home.We're expecting the new passport to arrive via FedEx, but it doesn't. Come dinner time dutiful daughter is in full panic mode. Tracking the package reveals that the delivery was aborted, no other explanation given. She finally resorts to pushing the zero button on the phone repeatedly until she gets connected to a real person, and after a few minutes of gentle persuasion they reveal that the package is at the Swan Island shipping center. It is 7:15 PM. They close at 8. Google Maps estimate travel time to be 25 minutes. (Really? With all the ice and snow?) We decide to go, maybe we'll be lucky.Once we have gotten to well traveled places, the roads are pretty well clear of ice and snow. We see a couple of cars in the ditch, one has turned turtle. Oddly, the section of Highway 26 near the intersection of 217 has the most snow and ice. That's weird because that is usually where the traffic is heaviest.It's a little nerve wracking driving at moderate freeway speeds on roads with dubious traction, but we don't have any trouble, not even going down Going Street towards Swan Island, or coming back up, even though it appears to be covered with ice. I suppose the  sand trucks have been there.Now all we have to do is get to the airport.Part 1 here.16 Dec

RF - High Res Wifi Signal Mapping RF is an often used abbreviation for Radio Frequency, that part of the electromagnetic spectrum where all kinds of radio signals are found.I've been having trouble with the WiFi reception on my Chromebook. It varies from one moment to the next. I was trying to watch a video about the upcoming solar eclipse a few minutes ago and my WiFi connection is so bad that the video is unwatchable, so I go looking for an explanation. tom's HARDWARE has one:While huge drops in wireless speed are not "normal" they are very common and can happen for a number of reasons, the most common being interference from other 2.4GHz sources, including other nearby networks, wireless phones, speakers, baby monitors, microwave ovens, etc.Then on reddit I find a link to above video. Now, of course, my wireless connection is perfect. I'm going back to wires, well, as soon as I get my Linux box working again. There is no Ethernet jack on my Chromebook.16 Dec

POGOBlog

Judge Sides with Marine in Information-Mishandling Case - A federal judge determined that a board of inquiry that had initially recommended Marine Corps Major Jason Brezler’s discharge for mishandling classified information in 2013 had unjustly withheld documents that would have been key to his defense.16 Dec

Federal Fraud Recoveries Bounce Back in FY 2016 - The Justice Department recovered more than $4.7 billion through False Claims Act cases in fiscal year 2016—a sizable increase over last year’s total, and the federal government’s third highest annual fraud recovery ever.16 Dec

NRC Fines Nuclear Power Plant for Fire Safety Violation - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission fined the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant $140,000 for safety violations involving fire watch and suppression procedures.16 Dec

NSA Watchdog Removed for Whistleblower Retailiation - Top NSA Watchdog Who Insisted Snowden Should Have Come to Him Receives Termination Notice for Retaliating Against a Whistleblower15 Dec

Watchdog Sheds New Light on Afghanistan Luxury Villas - Sadly, new information about the Pentagon’s $150 million luxury villas in Afghanistan recently disclosed by SIGAR in a letter to Congress may be the final word on this controversial project.14 Dec

Overhaul of Littoral Combat Ship Program Likely to Increase Risks and Costs - The Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program provides a step-by-step case study in acquisition failures and the costs and risks of unacceptable levels of concurrency. Moreover, it shows how Congress repeatedly failed to intervene despite warnings from independent analysists and watchdogs that this program was grossly off track.14 Dec

POGO Testifies about Costs of Overclassification and Government Secrecy - POGO’s Scott Amey testified this week before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at a hearing titled “Examining the Costs of Overclassification on Transparency and Security.” POGO’s testimony highlighted ways the executive branch conceals information from Congress and the public, including the use of overclassification, retroactive classification, controlled unclassified information markings, and secret laws. The testimony offered seven recommendations for resolving the tension between openness and secrecy in government. 9 Dec

POGO and Bipartisan Ethics Experts in New Letter to Trump: Divest Now to Prevent Ongoing Conflicts - A group of bipartisan experts urge President-elect Donald Trump to immediately divest his businesses and place the assets and investments into a genuine blind trust. 9 Dec

POTUS Can’t Overlook Pitfalls of 21st Century Cures Act - The 21st Century Cures Act just passed by Congress greatly deregulates the drug approval process, to the detriment of patients and anyone who will be paying for health care. 8 Dec

Washington Post’s $125 Billion Pentagon Waste Story is a Perfect Illustration of Longstanding Problems - "This story is a perfect illustration of the biggest problems affecting the Defense Department: a contractor workforce that costs too much and a fear that exposing waste will lead to cuts in defense spending," said Danielle Brian, POGO Executive Director. 6 Dec

Signs of the Times

Putin's ruling party United Russia signs cooperation agreement with Austria's right-wing Freedom Party - Russia's ruling United Russia Party has signed an agreement on cooperation with Austria's right-wing Freedom Party. According to the agreement, the two parties will consult each other and exchange views on key issues such as international relations and "regulatory affairs." "It seems to me extremely important for there to be inter-party and inter-parliamentary dialogue in connection with the fact that today there is a substantial lack of trust [between Russia and the EU]," said State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy. Tolstoy also said that "in today's politically correct world it is important to find points of agreement through frank dialog."12 min

Hell just froze over: The New York Times runs article saying Zionism is racist - Trump's election is having fascinating consequences. Today the New York Times ran a long piece titled, "Liberal Zionism in the Age of Trump," by Omri Boehm of the New School saying that liberal Zionism is a contradiction: liberal American Jews have "identified themselves with Zionism, a political agenda rooted in the denial of liberal politics." Boehm's most startling point is that Zionism has anti-Semitic strains, witness its collaboration with Nazis. Hannah Arendt is happy today. The piece will greatly increase the pressure on liberal Zionists to choose one idea or the other, and to stop denying the existence of apartheid.14 min

BEST OF THE WEB: Pepe Escobar: Turkey's 'Sarajevo Moment' - Who Profits From Russian Ambassador's Assassination? - Let's cut to the chase: Ankara 2016 is not Sarajevo 1914. This is not a prelude to WWIII. Whoever plotted the assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov - a cool, calm, collected old-school diplomat - risks a mighty blowback. The assassin, Mevlut Mert Altintas, was a 22-year-old police academy graduate. He was suspended from the Turkish National Police (TNP) over suspected links to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO) after the failed July 15 putsch against Erdogan but returned to duty in November. It's no secret Gulenists heavily infiltrate the TNP; so a particular outcome of the attack will be an, even more, relentless Erdogan/AKP crackdown on the Gulen network. The Turkish investigation will have to focus not only on the (major) security service fail at Ankara's modern art center - but way beyond. It's not very reassuring that Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu put out a terse statement a very long three hours after the facts. The killer in a black suit and tie shouted slogans about revenge "for Aleppo" - the requisite "Allahu Akbar" included - in both Turkish and broken Arabic, something that might establish a connection to an Islamist group's rhetoric, although that's not conclusive evidence.16 min

Ukraine neo-nazi thug lawmaker praises 'heroic' Turkish terrorist who killed Russian Ambassador - What else would one expect from a neo-nazi, Ukraine lawmaker? The failed state of Ukraine, run by a combination of CIA spooks, neo-liberal technocrats, and neo-nazi thugs appointed by US neocon (Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs) Victoria Nuland, has never exhibited one hint of proper diplomacy and statesmanship since the Maidan coup in 2014. Volodymyr Parasyuk, a Ukrainian nationalist lawmaker, who is suspected of committing war crimes against his own people in the Donbass, praised the murder of Russian Ambassador Karlov...calling the jihadists Turkish killer a 'hero'.38 min

Get over it: Clinton's snowflakes need to quite whining about the Electoral College - The Founding Fathers got it right, and California is proof. Shocked and appalled by the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency, some supporters of Hillary Clinton have turned to minimizing and even delegitimizing Trump's election. In an era of severe political polarization, in an election with two candidates seen from the outset in highly unfavorable terms, after the most brutal campaign in modern history, and with an outcome that astonished just about everyone, these reactions are understandable, but wrong. Many diehard Clinton supporters cannot bring themselves to believe their candidate could lose to Donald Trump. They think: How could such a crude and inept con man be elected president? Even after it has happened, it is unthinkable, a nightmare. So, the election must not have been fair. Those on the fringe raise the specter of diabolical Russians hacking away at our democracy. More grounded Clintonians have less malevolent bogeymen — our Founding Fathers. As they see it, the election's outcome should be blamed on a dysfunctional and archaic electoral-vote system. Hillary won the national popular vote. She should be president. It is as simple as that. The Electoral College should go the way of Trump University.39 min

Philippines to accept $14 million worth of arms from China along with $500 million long-term loan - As relations between China and the Philippines warm, Manila is poised to accept $14 million worth of arms from US rival and newfound partner Beijing. This is in addition to a $500 million long-term soft loan for other equipment the Chinese have provided. The free deal the Philippines could receive concerns small arms and fast boats, according to Manila's defense minister, Delfin Lorenzana, as cited by Reuters. The money is intended to help President Rodrigo Duterte fight crime and terrorism, Lorenzana said. "China has given us a list of military equipment and we will go through it to find out what we really need," said Lorenzana, following a meeting between the Philippines president and Chinese ambassador Zhao Jianhua, where the offer of the $500 million soft loan - made on favorable terms to the borrower - was also made. Lorenzana spoke at a Manila army hospital, where he was gave out gifts to wounded soldiers.42 min

PornScrub: South Carolina bill blocks obscene content on personal computers - Computers purchased in South Carolina in 2017 may only offer PG-13 rated internet. A bill pre-filed by Republican State Representative William Chumley would require that personal computers and other devices block internet access to pornography and obscene content. Pornography is believed to represent 4 percent of the internet, but computers in South Carolina would come with a blocker that only allows them to access the other 96 percent. Rep. Bill Chumley (R-Spartanburg) made sure to give himself the Christmas present of pre-filing a bill that would block cellphones, tablets and computers from accessing pornography unless consumers pay an extra $20. The bill, fecklessly titled the Human Trafficking Prevention Act, would fine manufacturers or sellers of electronic devices that do not install the blocks, whether they are created in factories or are at the point of sale. Even the kinds of filters that couldn't otherwise be easily uninstalled by a user remain unknown.45 min

Rusian elections chief Pamfilova asks Putin to reinstitute video monitoring for 2018 elections - The head of Russia's Central Elections Committee told Vladimir Putin that a review of the federal parliamentary elections in September had uncovered various violations in 23 of 85 Russian regions, and requested that video monitoring be reinstituted. "Our experts have determined that out of 85 federal regions, 62 had practically no violations, and the elections there were conducted on a very good level. Others did have violations, including some that can be blamed on regional leaders," Ella Pamfilova told Russian President Vladimir Putin at the meeting. She also said that her agency had decided to sack 32 heads of territorial elections commissions as punishment for the violations. The Russian elections chief also said that the national polling system needed some improvements, as the 2018 presidential election approaches. In particular, she requested that all polling stations have mandatory video monitoring, which was introduced in 2012 but cancelled in 2015 due to the high costs.58 min

British spies who busted 'world's most wanted people smuggler' may have gotten wrong man - An Eritrean man accused by British authorities of being one of the world's "most wanted people smugglers" may actually be a victim of mistaken identity, Italian prosecutors have admitted. In an embarrassing blow to a high-profile investigation led by Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) and GCHQ, it appears the real Medhanie Yehdego Mered remains at large and an innocent man was seized in June and extradited to Italy in his place. When doubts about the identity of the man in custody were raised in June, the NCA said it stood by its intelligence. However, papers lodged yesterday by prosecutors in Rome who have broken ranks with their Sicilian colleagues concede they may have the wrong man, according to the Times.09:36

Bad omen: Ancient 'blood miracle' failed to liquefy heralding disaster for the coming years - One of the most famous recurring miracles — even if one not quite sanctioned by the Catholic Church — is the liquefaction of the dried blood of San Gennaro, or St. Januarius, a bishop of Naples martyred around 305 A.D. and the city's patron saint. Starting in 1389, the vial of San Gennaro's blood typically turns liquid three times a year: on the Saturday before the first Sunday of May; on his saint's feast day, Sept. 19; and on Dec. 16, the day Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 1631. The blood liquefied on Sept. 19 this year, but not on Dec. 16. "In local lore, the failure of the blood to liquefy signals war, famine, disease, or other disaster," Catholic News Agency reports.09:33

Posts on 'Sic Semper Tyrannis ' (RSS 2.0)

An 'Alid Christmas in Amman - reposted 20 December 2016 - It was snowing heavily in Alexandria, Virginia when I first wrote. The moment reminded me of the time in the '80s when I was in Jerusalem  and Amman on government business at Christmas time. It had snowed heavily there as...00:00

Terrorist attacks in Ankara and Berlin - TTG - I recommend RT.com and RT America if you get MHz Networks digital broadcast for coverage of the attack in Ankara. The Berlin attack at the Christkindlmarkt in the glow of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche will be well covered in the Western press....19 Dec

Operation "Borders of Hatay" - an SST war game. - Overview for "hudud hatay," "Borders of Hatay" SST will now conduct another in the series of war games that have marked our progress toward enlightenment over the years. The goal in such games is to create conditions in which critical...18 Dec

A Tribute to Trump Supporters by Richard Sale - Whatever their class or station in life, everyday people have a right to live normal life that has its moments of satisfaction and pleasure and peace. So many people live lives of quiet desperation, and over time, if the conditions...17 Dec

Syria/Iraq Roundup - 17 December 2016 - Iraq The Golden Division of the ISF has reportedly lost 50% of its troops in the Mosul battle thus far. Field Marshal Ashton Carter was out there recently to buck up the "fellows." It must have been an interesting set...17 Dec

Update on Rojava - TTG - "Turkey’s policy aimed at preventing Syrian Kurds from gaining a swath of territory along the Turkish-Syrian border has totally trumped its desire to see the end of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Developments show that Turkey at this point is even...15 Dec

Hollande - "A Day Late and a Dollar Short," as usual. - "French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday joined calls for international observers to oversee the evacuation of civilians trapped under fire in the Syrian city of Aleppo. At a meeting with his defence cabinet, Hollande said those trapped by the fighting...15 Dec

" ... in response to a reproach." English Outsider - I lifted this from an EO comment. That is why it has no paragraph breaks. pl "Colonel – this is an email I sent in response to a reproach that in opposing Western policy in Syria I was supporting a...14 Dec

The friends of "the moderates" are not through yet - 1. Having lost the Battle for Aleppo, the Assad must Go crew have now moved on to projecting memes involving false analogies to The Shoah and NAZI Germany as the aftermath of Jihadi defeat in the city. Wild and unsubstantiated...13 Dec

The Russian Concept of Reflexive Control - TTG - In 1996 I heard the siren song of the developing field of Information Warfare (IW). The concept intrigued me, but I found it was little more than a conglomeration of well established aspects of warfare. IW was visualized as an...12 Dec

The Two-Way

LA Legal Defense Fund Created To Aid Immigrants Facing Deportation - Officials in Los Angeles on Monday unveiled a $10 million fund to provide legal services to immigrants facing deportation. They say they want the fund set up before Donald Trump becomes president.(Image credit: Nick Ut/AP)05:05

Suspect In Custody After Deadly Attack On Christmas Market In Berlin - A Pakistani asylum-seeker has been detained by authorities; the man denies any involvement in the attack, according to the German interior minister.(Image credit: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images)05:04

China Returns U.S. Navy Drone Seized In South China Sea - The U.S. said China's seizure of the drone last week was "inconsistent with international law and standards of professionalism for conduct between navies at sea."(Image credit: U.S. Navy)00:16

Board Decides To Keep Lagarde As IMF Chief After Conviction - The IMF's board expressed "full confidence" in Managing Director Christine Lagarde after she was convicted of negligence for improperly overseeing a 2008 case when she was France's finance minister.(Image credit: Zach Gibson/AFP/Getty Images)19 Dec

At Least 9 Dead After Truck Driven Into Berlin Christmas Market, Police Say - German police said at least nine people were dead and at least 50 people were injured. Police said a possible suspect was in custody.(Image credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)19 Dec

Calif. Judge Cleared Of Misconduct After Sentence In Stanford Sexual Assault Case - Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Stanford University student Brock Turner to six months in jail for sexually assaulting a woman. The state judicial discipline agency found no evidence of sentencing bias.(Image  credit: Eric Risberg/AP)19 Dec

North Carolina's Legislature Poised To Repeal 'Bathroom Bill' - The law called "HB2" was passed in response to an anti-discrimination measure in Charlotte. Now the city has voted to rescind the measure, and state legislators say there will be a vote to repeal HB2.(Image credit: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)19 Dec

This Christmas Song Brought To You By The World's Tiniest Radio Receiver - Engineers made a radio receiver with building blocks the size of two atoms. One benefit of a radio so small you can barely see it: The machine works at extremely high temperatures.(Image credit: Eliza Grinnell/Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences)19 Dec

Russia's Ambassador To Turkey Shot And Killed In Ankara, Russian Official Says - Andrei Karlov was shot "multiple times" Monday evening as he delivered a speech at an exhibition opening in Ankara, Turkish state media reported.(Image credit: Burhan Ozbilici/AP)19 Dec

Scientists Blast Antimatter Atoms With A Laser For The First Time - By comparing the light from anti-atoms with the light from regular atoms, they hope to answer one of the big mysteries of our universe: Why is there so much regular old matter and not much antimatter?(Image credit: CERN)19 Dec

Techdirt.

James Clapper's Office To Finally Reveal NSA's 'Incidental Collection' Numbers - Prior to the Snowden leaks making it unignorable, the NSA denied the incidental collection of Americans' communications was much of a problem. Ron Wyden and Mark Udall were two of the few members of the NSA's oversight willing to ask tough questions. One of the questions they asked -- all the way back in 2011 -- was how many Americans were spied on by the NSA's programs. The answer may shock you cause uncontrollable eyerolling. What's never made sense is why the feds simply refuse to admit how many Americans they've spied on under the law. In the past, the Director of National Intelligence has basically told Wyden and Udall that he wouldn't answer because he didn't want to. But the latest answer really takes the insanity to stunning new levels. As initially revealed at Wired, the NSA has refused to answer claiming that, not only would it be too much work to figure it out, but that figuring it out would violate the privacy of Americans. It's a terrible answer. But it's still better than the one the ODNI gave the senators earlier. Basically, James Clapper said it would be difficult to give the senators the information they sought because the NSA really didn't want to hand over that information. Not "difficult" in the technical sense, but "difficult" in the "no desire to" sense. A leaked document showed the NSA didn't think incidental collection was a big deal. Slides from an internal presentation told analysts such collections were inevitable and not to worry about the reporting collected US persons' communications to the Inspector General. Hence why the Inspector General felt it might take a bit of effort to collect this information: it never had collected or received this information previously. As the re-up for Section 702 approaches, legislators are taking a renewed interest in these still-unrevealed numbers. And Clapper's office has decided to comply: "The timely production of this information is incredibly important to informed debate on Section 702 in the next Congress— and, without it, even those of us inclined to support reauthorization would have reason for concern," said the letter signed by 11 lawmakers, all members of the House Judiciary Committee. The letter was sent on Friday to National Intelligence Director James Clapper. It said his office and National Security Agency (NSA) officials had already briefed congressional staff about how the intelligence community intends to comply with the disclosure request. There are more specifics to this, which make it more useful than the normal publicized internal memo swap. First, the legislators want this expressed in real numbers, not a meaningless percentage of the total Section 702 take. Second, the letter serves to "memorialize" Clapper's agreement to not only hand over these numbers to legislators, but to the public as well. This data should contain everyone swept up by PRISM or the NSA's upstream collection -- the latter of which pulls communications directly from domestic internet backbones. The upstream collection has no targets. Instead, it grabs everything it can (including audio communications) it can and sorts through it for targeted terms, as well as anything related to the targeted terms NSA analysts add to the filter. The potential for incidental collection in either program is huge. So it may actually involve a bit of effort to collect this data. Of course, the effort put into this may also involve making the final numbers a bit more palatable by applying internal rules as to what should or shouldn't be considered an incidental collection. Just as certainly as  NSA collections are laundered (via parallel construction) before being introduced in court, one should expect the final incidental collection numbers to be purged of anything that might make them larger than the IC would like to admit publicly. Permalink | Comments | Email This Story 9 min

DMCA Process Abused To Nuke Post About Researcher Who Faked Data On Federally-Funded Study - Wonderful. It's another one of those anomalies that happens all the time: copyright as censor. This time, the person abusing copyright protection tools to shut someone up is a disgraced researcher (Kaushik Deb) who received a three-year federal funding ban for "intentionally, knowingly, and recklessly" fabricating data in a research paper created with tax dollars. Retraction Watch was informed by its hosting service that it had received a DMCA notice targeting the post. The tactic used here is one we've seen before: copy-pasting and backdating of posts to make it appear as though the targeted site is the one engaging in copyright infringement. On Wednesday, our host, Bluehost, forwarded us another false copyright claim — aka a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice — by someone calling himself “Jiya Khan” and claiming to be based in Delhi, India. (Well, specifically, in “Rohini,sector-12,” which would mean that he or she is based at one of two petrol stations.) Khan insisted under penalty of perjury that a December 2014 post of ours — which we have now temporarily removed from public view (more on that in a moment) — violated his or her copyright. What actually happened, in an eerie echo of the 2013 case, is that Khan copied and pasted our December 9 post onto his or her site, then backdated it to December 5 to make it look older than ours, so that he or she could make a false copyright claim. (That, among other things, is a bit of a problem for Khan; the Federal Register notice that the post is about — and to which it manages not to link — wasn’t published until December 9.) The bogus backdated Blogspot blog contains several other copy-pasted posts, suggesting "Jiya Khan" is just a fake name fronting for a sketchy reputation management service. Presumably, bogus DMCA notices have been issued to target the mixture of critical articles and negative reviews splashed across the blog's pages. It's not exactly a surefire way to rid the net of criticism, but it's cheap and easy and works just often enough it's worth trying. We saw this with disgraced real estate lawyer Sean Gjerde, and gripe sites have seen it happen with just about everyone else. For the time being, the Retraction Watch post is down. The Federal Register's recounting of the incident and its sanctioning of Dr. Kaushik Deb is still live, and there are multiple snapshots of Retraction Watch's post on Kaushik Deb's data-faking hosted at the Internet Archive. Retraction Watch is challenging the DMCA takedown notice. Presumably, the post will be live again in the near future. Then again, "Jiya Khan" may continue to insist he created Retraction Watch's post, which means Bluehost won't be able to do much more than keep the post down until all permutations of the DMCA process have been played out. But that's how easy it is to make fully-factual criticism disappear, even if only temporarily. And whoever's mismanaging Kaushik Deb's questionable reputation knows this. Even if there's provable perjury in the takedown request, who's going to actually be able to track down the real person behind the "Jiya Khan" facade, much less manage to hold them accountable for their abuse of the system? Permalink | Comments | Email This Story 09:33

Why Does It Still Take Press Attention For Comcast To Fix Obvious Screw Ups? - Just about every year, like clockwork, Comcast will breathlessly insist that it has finally turned the corner when it comes to the company's historically abysmal customer service. In 2014, Comcast even went so far as to make a big deal about the fact it had hired a new "customer experience VP" who, the company promised, would finally get to the bottom of why Comcast has been ranked among the worst companies in any industry in America in terms of customer service and support. The end result: Comcast is still among the worst companies in America in terms of customer service and support. And, time and time again, Comcast will engage in some fairly obvious but incredible screw up that only gets fixed once the media gets involved. Case in point: Ars Technica tells the tale this week of a condo association in Sarasota, Florida that was just at the tail end of a 10 year bulk service contract with Comcast to provide cable service to the community. Once the contract ended, the association went ahead and cancelled service. But, Comcast being Comcast, the company kept billing the association $680 a month for several months, resulting in an "outstanding balance" of more than $2000. As always, actually getting a refund from Comcast wound up being a Sisyphean feat. When contacted, Comcast first claimed the association sent the cancellation center to the "wrong location." That's something the association denies, noting they sent the request to a Comcast office in Boca Raton that handles paperwork related to bulk contracts in the region (Comcast just mishandled the request). Subsequent efforts over the next few months included filing complaints with the FCC, filing  complaints with the Florida government, and writing to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. The association also tried to obtain mediation through the Citizen Dispute Settlement Program in Florida; a request Comcast never responded to. Ultimately, like we've seen countless times before, Comcast only jumped to action once the media got involved: Riggs Landing canceled the automatic bank payments, refused to pay for further months, and accused Comcast of illegally charging them twice for the same service, which Comcast denied. Riggs Landing and Comcast were at a stalemate for a few months, until Wiener contacted Ars in early September. “It just amazes me that for $2,000 plus, which has to be petty cash for them, that they would put up such resistance and alienate customers,” Wiener told Ars. Comcast is the United States' largest cable company and broadband provider. Finally, after Ars contacted Comcast, the company agreed in mid-September to honor the April 1 cancellation date and provide a refund. Riggs Landing received the refund check of $2,034.31 on October 21. It's just the same pattern over and over again. Comcast screws up, and instead of just admitting error and nipping the problem in the bud, the company doubles down -- putting the already incredibly annoyed customer through a gauntlet of dysfunction, compounding the public disdain for the company. Only once the threat of broad public exposure of its incompetence surfaces can Comcast be bothered to actually take a closer look at what happened. The problem is there's no end in sight for this kind of market idiocy. Cable giants are consolidating at an incredible rate. And the nation's DSL providers are effectively refusing to upgrade huge swaths of their DSL networks to instead focus on getting into the content and media business. Add in an incoming regulatory regime that doesn't think broadband monopolies are real, and you have a recipe for a stronger cable monopoly, less competition, and less incentive than ever to fix this ongoing parade of dysfunction.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story 07:33

Seeking Open Access Deal, 60 German Academic Institutions Ditch All Subscriptions With Elsevier- In the struggle to provide open access to academic research, one company name keeps cropping up as a problem: Elsevier. Techdirt has written numerous stories about efforts to rein in the considerable -- and vastly profitable -- power that Elsevier wields in the world of academic publishing. These include boycotts of various kinds, mass resignations of journal editors, as well as access to millions of publicly-funded papers in ways that bypass Elsevier altogether. Alongside these grassroots actions, some universities and research institutes have tried taking a different approach. They are making common cause by banding together in order to strengthen their negotiating hand with the global publishing giant. The aim is to get a better deal from Elsevier, particularly in terms of providing open access to papers. Last year, a group of universities in the Netherlands used this strategy with some success, as Science reports: A standoff between Dutch universities and publishing giant Elsevier is finally over. After more than a year of negotiations -- and a threat to boycott Elsevier's 2500 journals -- a deal has been struck: For no additional charge beyond subscription fees, 30% of research published by Dutch researchers in Elsevier journals will be open access by 2018. The Science article points out that this win had limited impact, because only about 2% of all academic papers are produced by Dutch authors. That makes the following move by the much larger German academic community of considerable importance: The DEAL project, headed by HRK (German Rectors' Conference) President Prof Hippler, is negotiating a nationwide license agreement for the entire electronic Elsevier journal portfolio with Elsevier. Its objective is to significantly improve the status quo regarding the provision of and access to content (Open Access) as well as pricing. It aims at relieving the institutions' acquisition budgets and at improving access to scientific literature in a broad and sustainable way. In order to improve their negotiating power, about 60 major German research institutions including Göttingen University cancelled their contracts with Elsevier as early as October 2016. Others have announced to follow this example. According to the post, Elsevier made its first offer to the group, but it was considered inadequate, and so the German institutions have ditched all their subscriptions with the publisher. As they say: All participants in this process are aware of the imminent effects this has on research and teaching. However, they share the firm conviction that, for the present, the pressure built up by the joint action of many research institutions is the only way to to reach an outcome advantageous for the German scientific community. Let's hope they are able to preserve their united front in order to win open access to the articles their researchers publish. After all, a win for the DEAL project is also a win for the rest of us. Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+ Permalink | Comments | Email This Story 04:35

Dunks And Drunks: Jagermeister Blocks Milwaukee Bucks Logo Trademark Application - Just when you think you've seen it all in silly trademark filings, along comes a liquor company to block the trademark application for the logo of an NBA basketball team. Jagermeister, a liquor I haven't thought about since my college days because I'm a grownup that drinks grownup drinks, has decided that the logo for the Milwaukee Bucks is too similar to its own logo and must be stopped. Germany-based Mast-Jägermeister SE has filed its opposition to the Milwaukee Bucks trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The notice, filed Thursday, argues that there is a likelihood of confusion between the two logos, a false suggestion of connection and a dilution of the Jägermeister logo’s “distinctive quality.” Jägermeister says the services provided by the two organizations “are so related” that it creates the potential for confusion. The potential for confusion “is enhanced by the extraordinary fame” of Jägermeister’s trademarks, the notice says. Here are the logos in question. Similar? Sure, I suppose, although there are fairly distinct differences between the two logos that would probably keep any customer confusion at bay. There are those lines within the circle on Jagermeister's logo, for instance. Also that big cross at the top, there, I suppose, because Jesus was a huge fan of Bavarian digestifs. Also, and this is a minor point only, the basketball franchise's name is right there on their logo. Regardless of all of that, whatever involvement Jagermeister has in markets other than beverages is minimal, it doesn't have anything to do with basketball, nor would it amount to creating any confusion within the public. All of which Jagermeister has essentially acknowledged in a statement saying that that it is really just wasting everyone's time with all of this while trotting out everyone's favorite excuse for paining someone else's ass with trademark law. On Monday, Jägermeister's trademark attorney, Katrin Lewertoff of Connecticut apologized for the delay and issued a statement suggesting there really is no trademark tiff. "Jägermeister and the Milwaukee Bucks have been cooperating on this issue for months," she said. "The filing was a formality to preserve our intellectual property rights. We expect to come to an agreement with the team soon and appreciate the climate of partnership and fair cooperation with the Milwaukee Bucks in the process." Soon after, the Bucks chimed in with, "“The Bucks have been working amicably with Jägermeister throughout this process and we are confident that we will come to a resolution very soon.” So everyone is going to end up playing nice over this, but Jagermeister had to block the application in order to preserve it's trademark rights. It's the same excuse we see time and time again and it's almost always false. In this case, for instance, the law only obligates Jagermeister to police it's trademarks in the face of true infringement or confusion. There is none in this case, so the blocking of the application was not necessary. Whatever the purpose of trademark has become in modern times, I doubt the framers had intended it to simply create busy work for lawyers and USPTO employees. Permalink | Comments | Email This Story 19 Dec

Bad Info In Law Enforcement Database Turned Former Cop Into A 'Suspected Gang Member' - Law enforcement databases, while useful in investigations, are also severely problematic. Not only does the desire to "collect it all" result in databases full of information about innocent people, but very few agencies are serious about deterring database misuse. In most cases -- despite the constant threat of criminal prosecution -- most abusers are hit with nothing more than short suspensions for improper access. Then there's the problem with the humans running the systems. When mistakes are made (or information is entered for more malicious reasons) by government agencies, the consequences for those mistakenly targeted can be severe. During a bitter, year-long legal battle that ended last month, Mr Hanson was shocked to discover his name was embedded in the police database as a "person of interest" involved in "suspected criminal activity" and "possibly associating" with Comanchero Outlaw Motorcycle Gang members. The intelligence entry carried the highest "A1" police reliability rating. But Fairfax Media can reveal the only basis for the report was that Mr Hanson's family car had been observed in the same street, at the same time, as "two motorcycle riders" wearing Comanchero shirts. The appearance of Mark Hanson (not his real name) in the police database occurred after a traffic stop in a casino parking lot. The officer performing the stop jumped to several conclusions, stating that Hanson's car was spotted "in the vicinity of several sports cars and motorbikes" on another street. In addition, the officer referred to the vehicle Hanson was driving his family in as "hotted up." These inferences -- all of which were based on coincidental observations not backed up by any info collected by the officer -- became the official police narrative, thanks to his report's entry into the law enforcement database. From that point on, former police officer Hanson was considered to be involved in gang-related activity. Because Hanson is a former police officer, he was able to get this corrected. Most citizens don't have the power to make that happen. He approached police supervisors about his database entry and was given some vague assurances that the bullshit he had been subjected to because of the officer's report might not happen again. When Mr Hanson canvassed senior police about the revelation, the force's Professional Standards chief inspector Gregory Jewiss confirmed that the constable had generated an "entity link" containing unconfirmed information but said there was no evidence to suggest "any malicious intent" had been involved in its creation. He added the officer would be spoken with to ensure his "knowledge" was "improved" and such linkages  were "not made again". But the assurance that his database record had been purged did nothing to mitigate the damage already done. Hanson's entirely fake criminal status had already made its way into the hands of other agencies with access to the database, like State Crime Command's gangs squad and the Australian Crime Commission. Hanson was forced to go to court to get this information excised. The removal the chief inspector assured him about wasn't performed proactively. Having both the money and knowledge to press his case effectively was key for Hanson's courtroom success. For most people, these two resources are beyond their reach, as was confirmed by a recent COPS (the criminal database in question) forum held by the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties. The forum found that while entries in the database can result in extra police attention, it is "highly unlikely" that people would ever obtain intelligence reports and there is no entitlement to amendment of the database. Citizens have no right to correct law enforcement's wrongs and no right to see what information has been gathered on them. They are almost completely at the mercy of the government. And the government is no less prone to errors or vindictiveness than those outside of it. The difference is that the government can do far more damage than any individual can, as it has the ability to mobilize entire agencies based on bad information. Permalink | Comments | Email This Story 19 Dec

Like Flies: Doom The Latest Game To Remove Denuvo Via Patch - One or two instances can be outliers, but any more than that and it's a trend. And there is now indeed a trend among video game companies for removing Denuvo, the DRM once thought to be the industry's final solution to piracy. As the DRM software has indeed been proven crackable, some game makers have begun releasing patches to remove it from their games entirely. Somewhat strangely, Denuvo's removal tends to be absent from the patch notes. Such is the case in the latest example, in which id Software has stripped AAA title Doom of Denuvo. Theories abound as to what is going on here. There are some who believe these game makers are finally coming around to understanding that DRM is annoying their legitimate customers and no longer stopping piracy. The problem with that theory is that you would think companies like id Software would include the removal of Denuvo in the patch notes if that were the case. It would be a PR boon to be seen as consumer friendly if there were no plans to keep up this annoying DRM arms race any longer. At the NeoGAF link above, some are suggesting that the new strategy for publishers will be to utilize DRM in the first few months of a game's release and then strip it out once it's been on the market for a while. That way, the companies can combat piracy as best as they can during the critical initial release window and then, I guess, choose to stop annoying their customers months down the road. If this is indeed the strategy, it's a dumb one, as quite a lot of ill will in the public can be generated if/when the DRM breaks the gaming experience for real customers, especially if that happens in that same critical release window. Not to mention that Denuvo in particular cripples the modding community, which often serves as a boon to interest in any particular game. Still others think that this all has something to do with a money-back guarantee offered by the makers of Denuvo. There are theories floating around, though. The biggest is a rumor that Denuvo offers developers a money back guarantee if a game is cracked within three months. The (alleged) main stipulation? Developers have to remove the anti-piracy tech first. Given that Inside and Doom have both been cracked, majorly blemishing Denuvo’s vaunted un-crackable reputation, that would certainly explain the removal. And, if true, it should hopefully dissuade that kind of hubris from developing with other DRM makers in the future. Which is ultimately the entire point: this is an awful lot of hand-wringing over a technology that has never been proven to work, has been shown time and time again to pain the backsides of legitimate customers, and acts purely as a cost to game developers with no real ROI. Maybe it's time the industry decides it's simply done wasting its own time and money on DRM? Permalink | Comments | Email This Story 19 Dec

Court Says Police Chief's Social Media Policy Violated The First Amendment - While holding a position as a government employee can somewhat narrow your protected speech options, it doesn't mean your Constitutional rights are far closer to null and void than the average citizen's. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, affirming a lower court's ruling, has found that a police department's social media policies have been treading too heavily on officers' First Amendment rights. In early 2013, Chief John Dixon of the City of Petersburg (VA) Police Department revised the department's social media policy, adding two provisions. The preamble to the new rules set the tone. From the decision [PDF]: The preface to the revised policy prohibits in sweeping terms the dissemination of any information “that would tend to discredit or reflect unfavorably upon the [Department] or any other City of Petersburg Department or its employees.” The first addition, supposedly supported by "established case law," notes that a very specific type of speech will not be tolerated. Negative comments on the internal operations of the Bureau, or specific conduct of supervisors or peers that impacts the public’s perception of the department is not protected by the First Amendment free speech clause… The second addition to the social media policy graciously "allows" officers to discuss general things about their job, so long as no one else in the force decides the comments are "disruptive." Officers may comment on issues of general or public concern (as opposed to personal grievances) so long as the comments do not disrupt the workforce, interfere with important working relationships or efficient work flow, or undermine public confidence in the officer. The instances must be judged on a case-by-case basis. These additions to the policy were applied to comments made by two officers, who made negative comments on their own Facebook pages about the PD's tendency to promote rookie cops to supervisory positions. Chief Dixon was notified of these comments and decided they violated the new policy. He placed both officers on probation for six months. Several weeks later, Chief Dixon made more alterations to personnel policies, changing the promotion procedures to immediately disqualify anyone currently on probation. The two officers informed the city they intended to challenge their punishment. Shortly thereafter, the two officers became the subject of several complaints and internal investigations. One was fired. The other resigned. The lawsuit followed, alleging retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights. The Appeals Court finds the policy not only infringes on the First Amendment rights of the officers, but discourages discussion of issues of public concern. Those two factors outweigh any perceived "disruption" that may have resulted from the officers' publicly-posted comments. While we are sensitive to the Department’s need for discipline throughout the chain of command, the policy here and the disciplinary actions taken pursuant to it would, if upheld, lead to an utter lack of transparency in law enforcement operations that the First Amendment cannot countenance. Further, the court finds that -- unlike the lower court -- that Chief Dixon can't avail himself of qualified immunity. Because the policy was facially unconstitutional, any disciplinary actions taken were similarly improper. We hold that the Department’s social networking policy was unconstitutional and that the disciplinary measures taken against plaintiffs pursuant to that policy were likewise impermissible. The patent overbreadth of the policy negates Chief Dixon’s qualified immunity defense. As the Appeals Court points out, to allow such a policy to remain intact would harm both the law enforcement agency and the public it serves. Running a police department is hard work. Its mission requires capable top-down leadership and a cohesion and esprit on the part of the officers under the chief’s command. And yet the difficulty of the task and the need for appropriate disciplinary measures to perform it still does not allow police departments to wall themselves off from public scrutiny and debate. That is what happened here. The sensitivity of all the well-known issues that surround every police department make such lack of transparency an unhealthy state of affairs. The advent of social media does not provide cover for the airing of purely personal grievances, but neither can it provide a pretext for shutting off meaningful discussion of larger public issues in this new public sphere. The court finds nothing to back up the officers' retaliation claims, but does send it back to the lower court to determine a remedy for the violation of the officers' First Amendment rights. Courts have long noted that public sector employees don't immediately give up their First Amendment rights just because they've opted to work for the government. Chief Dixon's "case law-supported" policies were put in place to discourage criticism of his department, which is never a good reason for instituting restrictive social media policies. And so much for the "support" of "established case law." Two courts in a row seem to have found plenty of case law to the contrary. Permalink | Comments | Email This Story 19 Dec

Ridiculous German Court Ruling Means Linking Online Is Now A Liability - Earlier this year, we wrote about a crazy decision in the EU Court of Justice, that determined mere links could be direct infringement on commercial websites (with "commercial" being not well defined). Now as various courts in the EU try to put this ruling into practice, they're already making a mess of it. In particular, a German case has set an impossible standard for a site, finding a site to have infringed on the copyrights of a photographer for merely linking to a photograph. And the backstory here is even crazier. The image in question was originally uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by the photographer and put under a Creative Commons license (unfortunately, no one seems to name which CC license). And then this happened: This picture was then modified by an unknown third person, who added UFOs to the picture that appear to be flying above the building. This new picture was uploaded by the third person on his website. The defendant operates a website where he publishes and sells educational material that he creates. In the imprint of this website, the defendant posted a sentence that included the word “UFO”, which linked to the modified “UFO-Version” of the claimant’s picture. Clicking on the word “UFO” a new browser window in which the “UFO-Version” of the picture was shown would be opened. The photographer deemed that this constituted an infringing use of his work and brought the defendant to court. Now, let's just review this because we're already stretching all sorts of concepts to the point of breaking. The photographer uploaded an image under a CC license to Wikimedia Commons. Someone else modified it. Someone else -- operating a site that sells educational materials -- merely linked to the modified image from the word "UFO" -- and that's who gets sued. This seems like a classic "Steve Dallas Lawsuit" in which the target is a corporate entity because "that's where the money is" even if it makes no sense at all for the liability to be applied there. And here's the really nutty part: the German court agreed because of that insane CJEU ruling that says a "commercial site" should be assumed to know the copyright status of everything they link to. So merely linking to this silly modified photograph, the site itself becomes liable for direct infringement. That's insane. Yes, (depending on the CC license in question), it's entirely possible that the modified version was infringing, but that's no reason to make a site that merely links to that image liable for direct infringement over it. At this point, if you run a "commercial" website in Europe that links off site to anything, you have a tremendous liability hanging over your head due to the insanities of copyright law.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story 19 Dec

Daily Deal: Complete IT Cloud Security And Hacking Training - Data security is a hot topic these days. You can learn how to secure your data on various cloud platforms with the Complete IT Cloud Security and Hacking Training course. Over 30 hours of training, you will learn about different types of cloud security threats and how to stop them. Through labs, lectures, games and other activities, you will Gain the technical skills & knowledge to engineer and design secure solutions for advanced enterprise environments, and you will learn essential skills required to pass the CompTIA Security+ and CEH version 9 certification exams. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story19 Dec

Trend.Az - All news

Oligarchies pose obstacles to Iran’s economic growth15 min

Iranian producers need Azerbaijan’s trade expertise17 min

Iranian holding looks forward to booming trade with Russia18 min

OSCE to monitor border of Azerbaijan, Armenia - The OSCE is expected to monitor the border of Azerbaijan and Armenia Dec. 21, said Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry Dec. 20.31 min

Turkey, Russia, Iran agree on joint Syria declaration - Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Russia, Turkey, and Iran agreed on a "joint declaration" to find a solution in Syria38 min

Azerbaijan intends to write off citizens’ tax debts - The Azerbaijani government intends to write off tax debts of citizens in the amount of 624 million manats from January 1, 2017, Natig Shirinov, head of the Main Department for Risk Analysis and Control of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Taxes, said.41 min

Trade settlement in national currencies to boost Azerbaijani, Turkish economies (exclusive)50 min

Turkmen refinery to buy chemicals51 min

Ilham Aliyev offers condolences to German chancellor - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev offered condolences to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on December 20 over heavy casualties after a lorry ploughed into a Christmas market in Berlin.52 min

Turkmenistan, Palestine mull co-op prospects - Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and Ambassador of Palestine Muhammad Abdullah Tarshahani discussed intensifying the bilateral cooperation between the two countries in political, trade-economic and cultural-humanitarian spheres, the Turkmen foreign ministry said in a message Dec. 20.52 min

Scientific American Blogs Posts

The Breakfast Economy - Whether or not breakfast actually is the most important meal of the day, the real emphasis seems to be on keeping weekday breakfast as low-key as possible. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com 01:48

One Skeptical Scientist's Mindfulness Journey - What this daydreaming researcher learned from 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com 19 Dec

Small is Beautiful - Huge medical trials are vital to testing novel drugs and other interventions—but smaller studies are also crucial -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com 19 Dec

Should We Let Doctors-in-Training Be More Sleep-Deprived? - A proposed new rule says yes, even though many new physicians already have depression and thoughts of suicide -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com 19 Dec

The Forgotten Life of Einstein's First Wife - She was a physicist, too—and nobody knows for sure how much she contributed to his groundbreaking science -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com19 Dec

Non-Standard Ideas in Amphibian Evolution, Part II: salamanders and caecilians evolved independently of all other tetrapods - Might it be that salamanders (and caecilians) are not close kin of frogs, that they evolved wholly independently of all other tetrapods? -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com 18 Dec

Seeing the Miracle of Existence in the Darkest of Times - A Winter Solstice ritual helps a faithless science writer appreciate life’s infinite improbability. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com 18 Dec

The Future of Symbiartic - After 5.5 years, Symbiartic on Scientific American is swappin’ shells like a hermit crab. Kalliopi Monoyios, Katie McKissick, and Glendon Mellow say good-bye, and share a bit of what the future... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com 16 Dec

What choice do we have? - Is there such a thing as free choice? -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com 16 Dec

The Nearly Magical Properties of Fig Trees - They can help us mitigate and adapt to climate change—and that's just the beginning -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com 16 Dec

TED Blog

Comment of the week, Dec. 14, 2016: Meet the Galloping Goose Trail - This week’s featured comment comes from Katie Pirquet, who comments on Ryan Gravel‘s TED Talk: How an old loop of railroads is changing the face of a city. Katie’s comment was the perfect follow-up to watching Ryan’s talk, and a great travel tip for anyone who was really interested in Ryan’s idea! It makes me long to visit Vancouver, picture how my current community would utilize something similar, and long for a loop of up-cycled railroads to call our own in every city. Wouldn’t it be great if other community members followed suit, and shared their stories of the urban parks in their cities?   Katie Pirquet’s comment: Victoria, BC in Canada has long enjoyed a resurrected rail bed known as the “Galloping Goose Trail”, named after a noisy, gasoline-fired locomotive that plied its routes long ago. The trail extends from an abandoned gold rush town (Leechtown), 10km from Sooke, BC, some 30km to downtown Victoria, with a branch that wanders about the same distance up the Saanich Peninsula to the town of Sidney. Check it out on Google Maps. It is heavily used by commuters on bikes, walkers, hikers, and joggers. The Trail is accessible to everyone, with safe crossings at many roadways and no big hills. Many sections are paved, others maintained with packed gravel and/or chips. It passes through a few parks on its way, giving access to them, too. The Galloping Goose Trail has become an important feature of the Vancouver Island outdoor-loving lifestyle, and will remain so even if the corridors one day become shared with some form of light transit. Vancouver Islanders love to get “out there”, rain or shine, and the GGT is one of our favourite amenities! 14 Dec

An exercise-powered boat on the Seine, a young eagle hunter, and a test of global education - As usual, the TED community has lots of news to share this week. Below, some highlights. Bike on the Seine … literally. Carlo Ratti Associati unveiled a concept for the Paris Navigating Gym, a boat that would use the energy from passengers’ stationary-bike workouts to propel itself through Paris along the Seine. Aboard the 20-meter-long vessel, 45 exercisers can enjoy sweeping views of the city as they work up a sweat, while enjoying the disconcerting experience of pedaling forward while moving sideways. Users can track their energy output and the environmental conditions of the river, captured in real time by sensors built into the vessel. Will it get built? Doesn’t matter — it’s fun to think about. (Watch Carlo’s TED Talk) VR hits Sundance 2017. Three TED speakers will be showcased as part of New Frontier at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival: virtual reality filmmakers Nonny de la Peña and Chris Milk. Out of Exile, the work of de la Peña and team, tells the story of Daniel Ashley Pierce, a teenager who was accosted by his family and kicked out of his house because they disapproved of his sexuality. The work uses audio footage that Pierce secretly recorded during the encounter. Meanwhile, Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin (and Pharrell!) have created the ambitious Life of Us, which captures the complete story of the evolution of life on Earth. (Watch Nonny’s TED Talk, Chris’ TED Talk, and Aaron’s TED Talk) A pioneering hunter. Morgan Spurlock is the executive producer of The Eagle Huntress, a documentary following 13-year-old Aisholpan, a young Kazakh girl living in Northwest Mongolia, who is training to become the first girl in twelve generations of her family to hunt eagles. While many Kazakh eagle hunters reject the notion that a female can take part in the tradition, Aisholpan — with the support of her father — is determined to prove otherwise. The documentary is one of 15 finalists for the best feature documentary Oscar; also on the list is TEDster Ava DuVernay’s powerful film 13th. (Watch Morgan’s TED Talk and read our interview with Ava DuVernay) Crowdsourced ways to tackle fake news. Eli Pariser is crowdsourcing the effort to tackle fake news. Inside a Google Doc, he’s leading a group of volunteers to brainstorm ideas and approaches to the problem as well as compile resources and background reading on the subject. The group is exploring a wide range of approaches, from domain checking to the blockchain, reports Wired, and work on the document is ongoing. (Watch Eli’s TED Talk) Singapore is tops in global education. On December 6, the results from PISA’s latest global education test were revealed, with Singapore, Japan, Finland and Estonia on top, the US in the middle, and overall a lack of proficiency in basic science (read the press release). Reviewing the results, The New York Times reports that countries that did best generally “acted to make teaching more prestigious and selective; directed more resources to their neediest children; enrolled most children in high-quality preschools; helped schools establish cultures of constant improvement; and applied rigorous, consistent standards across all classrooms.” The test, overseen by TED speaker Andreas Schleicher, is administered every 3 years to half a million 15-year-olds in 69 countries to evaluate not just what they’ve memorized, but their ability to think. (Watch Andreas’ TED Talk) New light on Alzheimer’s. Ed Boyden is part of a team of researchers that showed that they can reduce the beta amyloid plaque characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease –and believed to be harmful to brain cells — in the visual cortex of mice, using LED lights that flicker at a specific frequency. The researchers believe that the lights stimulate brain waves called gamma oscillations, which they discovered help suppress beta amyloid production and induce its destruction. Boyden, along with colleague Li-Huei Tsai, have started a company called Cognito Therapeutics to explore the possibility of using the technique to treat human patients. (Watch Ed’s TED Talk) How to navigate a world that moves 100mph. On December 6, Joi Ito released Whiplash, a guide to surviving our faster future that he co-wrote with Wired writer Jeff Howe. Drawing on case studies, research and philosophies from MIT’s Media Lab, which Ito directs, the book proposes 9 organizing principles to reframe your thinking to adapt to our rapidly changing, unpredictable world. (Watch Joi’s TED Talk) Have a news item to share? Write us at contact@ted.com and you may see it included in this weekly round-up. 9 Dec

Announcing our 2017 TED Prize winner: Healthcare warrior Raj Panjabi - Raj Panjabi was born in Liberia, but his family fled civil war when he was nine. He returned as a medical student — and went on to found Last Mile Health. Photo: Courtesy of Last Mile Health It sounds simple enough: If you’re sick, you make an appointment with a doctor, and if it’s an emergency, you head to the nearest hospital. But for more than a billion people around the world, it’s a real challenge — because they live too far from a medical facility. Where Raj Panjabi’s nonprofit, Last Mile Health, operates in Liberia, people in remote communities hike for hours or even days — sometimes canoeing through the jungle or motorbiking over rough terrain — to get medical care. Many will go their entire lives without visiting a doctor, which puts them at high risk of dying from diseases that are easily treated. Last Mile Health has created a model for expanding healthcare access to remote regions by training, employing and equipping community health workers. The organization’s work has shown impressive results in Liberia, and could be replicated elsewhere. That’s why TED is thrilled to announce Raj Panjabi as the winner of the 2017 TED Prize. On April 25, 2017, at the annual TED Conference, Panjabi will reveal a $1 million wish for the world, related to this work. “I’m shocked and humbled, because I feel in many ways our work is only just beginning,” he said. “But it feels very right to me that this cause is worthy of the TED community’s efforts. Illness has been universal for the entire length of human history — but universal access to care has not been. Now, because of the advances in modern medical science and technology over the past 50 to 100 years, we have the chance to end that  inequality.” Reaching remote communities in Grand Gedeh County, Liberia, often involves long hikes or traveling by motorbike. Last Mile Health trains community health workers to serve these remote areas. Photo: Courtesy of Last Mile Health Since 2007, Last Mile Health has partnered with the government of Liberia to train, equip, employ and support community health workers. These community health workers are nominated by local leaders, and trained, with support from nurses, to diagnose and treat a wide range of medical problems. In the past year, these health workers have conducted more than 42,000 patient visits in their regions, and treated nearly 22,000 cases of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea in children. They’ve also proven themselves to be a powerful line of defense against pandemics. During the Ebola outbreak, Last Mile Health assisted the government of Liberia in its response, helping to train 1,300 health workers and community members to prevent the spread of the disease in the southeastern region of the country. This year, Panjabi, who’s also a physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School, was named to TIME’s list of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” for Last Mile Health’s part in helping contain the Ebola epidemic. And it feels especially fitting to announce him as the next TED Prize winner on World AIDS Day, since Last Mile Health began as Liberia’s first rural public HIV program, helping patients in the war-torn area of Zwedru who could not make the trek to the capital, Monrovia, for care. “I want to see a health worker for everyone, everywhere, every day,” says Panjabi. “I’m honored and excited by the opportunity to amplify the work of these inspiring community health workers.” Sign up to receive updates as Panjabi readies to reveal his wish at TED2017. And learn more about the TED Prize, a $1 million grant given annually to a bold leader with a wish to solve a pressing global problem. Past winners include Sylvia Earle, Jamie Oliver, JR, Dave Isay and Sarah Parcak, whose citizen-science platform for archaeology will launch in the new year. 1 Dec

Have a TED Talk idea? Apply to our Idea Search events in Africa - Saki Mafundikwa prepares to speak at the TED@Nairobi auditions in 2013, aiming for a slot on the TED mainstage. (Spoiler: He made it.) Photo: whattookyousolong.org Do you have a TED Talk you’ve always wanted to try out in front of an audience? We’re thrilled to announce that applications are open for two new events in Africa: TEDLagos and TEDNairobi 2017 Idea Search! Anyone with an idea worth spreading is invited to apply to either of those two events; around 25 finalists at each event will share their risky, quirky, fascinating ideas in under 6 minutes, in early February, onstage at beautiful venues in Lagos, Nigeria, and Nairobi, Kenya. The TED Idea Search is a chance for us to find fresh voices to ring out on the TEDGlobal stage. Some of these talks will be posted on the online TED platform; other speakers will be invited to expand on their talks on the TEDGlobal 2017 main stage in Arusha, Tanzania, in the summer of 2017, themed Builders. Truth-tellers. Catalysts. We are looking for speakers whose talks fit well within that theme. Saki Mafundikwa, Richard Turere, Zak Ebrahim, Sally Kohn, Hyeonseo Lee — all these speakers are fantastic finds from previous TED talent searches. The deadline to apply is December 13, 2016, at 6pm Lagos time / 8pm Nairobi time. To apply, you’ll need to fill out a form and make a 1-minute video describing your talk idea. Quick notes: We can’t cover travel for finalists who live far from the cities where these events are taking place; we encourage local applicants to Lagos and Nairobi. Please choose only one event to apply to — applying to both events will not increase your chances of being selected to speak. Apply to speak at the TED Africa Idea Search 2017 29 Nov

8 insider tips: Make an audition video for TED’s Idea Search 2017 - Here are 8 insider tips to creating a great audition video for the TEDNYC Idea Search 2017. (Remember, the deadline to apply is Monday, Nov. 28, at 6pm Eastern.) 1. Distill your idea. In a 1-minute video, you have about 150 words to describe your proposed TED Talk. So you can’t — and you don’t have to — give every single detail of your idea. Instead, focus on the basics of what you will want to say. As a tip, try writing your script around a big question that your talk will answer, such as: “How can teachers learn to connect with Generation Z?” Think about what you’d want the audience to take away from your talk — the main insight — and be sure to communicate that in your video. 2. Watch our TED Talk about … well … giving a TED Talk. Our curator, Chris Anderson, distills 4 points you’ll want to think about as you write your script. 3. Think about how your idea will be relevant right now. Some of our finalists will win spots onstage at TED2017, our major conference of the year, happening in April 2017. So think on this question: why does your idea have special meaning right now, as 2017 kicks off? The theme of TED2017 is “The Future You,” and we’ll be thinking about the big picture of how our world is evolving, as well as how we humans are changing. 4. Use incisive, clear language — not jargon. Consider that the audience, for the most part, will not be as familiar with your idea, or your industry, as you are. So try to describe your concepts in a way that most people would understand, without compromising the quality of your thoughts and ideas. 5. When you practice your script, record your practice. And then watch your practice recordings — you’ll likely see some ways you can get to the point faster. Listen for places where you lose your own interest, and cut cut cut. 6. Consider asking someone else to film you. This way, you can focus on delivering your talk, not on your tech. If you’re filming yourself on your laptop or phone, remember to look directly at the camera, not at your own face on the screen. 7. Keep your video simple. You don’t need to edit or produce your video in any way — no need for onscreen graphics or fancy cuts. We’re looking for your raw talent here. 8. Be your own fabulous self. Don’t feel you need to play-act the “TED speaker” — here at TED HQ, we’re as sick of this stereotype as you are. We’re looking for people who are authentic, who have something to say and their own honest way to say it. Use your real accent, your real gestures, your everyday words — be you! Looking for a couple of examples of great audition videos? Watch Zak Ebrahim’s short audition video, which turned into a blockbuster TED Talk and a TED Book, and helped share his message of peace to millions of peopel. Watch Sally Kohn’s short audition video, which turned into a TED Talk … after which she was invited back to give another TED Talk. And finally, 2 pro tips: 1. Try to turn in your video and application a few hours before the deadline. Here at TED HQ, we’re going to be watching hundreds of videos the day after the deadline closes … but you can get our attention by submitting earlier in the day. 2. If the audition format just doesn’t work for you, but you still want to speak, use our form to apply to speak at a TED event, or look for a nearby TEDx event and apply to speak there! The TED Idea Search is only one of many, many ways we are looking for great ideas. Here’s how to enter the TEDNYC Idea Search: Complete the entry form and make a 1-minute video. Your 1-minute video can be very simple: Just explain your idea in a few sentences, and give us a flavor of how you’d present it. We’ll select a dozen finalists to present a short version of their talk in our New York City theater in late January. We can’t wait to hear your idea! 27 Nov

Wireless advances in treating spinal cord damage, morphing wings for aircraft, and the world’s tallest tropical trees - Just a few of the intriguing headlines involving members of the TED community this week: Advances in treating spinal cord damage. In Nature, Grégoire Courtine and a team of scientists announced that they had successfully used a wireless brain-spine interface to help monkeys with spinal cord damage paralyzing one leg regain the ability to walk. Compared to other similar systems, the wireless component is unique, allowing the monkeys to move around freely without being tethered to electronics. Speaking with The New York Times, Courtine emphasized that the goal of the system is not to fix paralysis, but rather to have better rehabilitation for patients. (Watch Grégoire’s TED Talk) A new instrument to shed light on distant planets. A team of scientists and engineers, including TEDster Jeremy Kasdin, have used a new instrument to isolate and analyze the light emitted by planets orbiting nearby stars. The instrument, CHARIS, was designed and built by Kasdin’s team. By analyzing the light emitted by the planets, researchers are able to determine more details about their age, size and atmospheric composition. This operation was a test run, and is part of a larger scientific effort to find and analyze exoplanets. (Watch Jeremy’s TED Talk) Bendable, morphing wings for aircraft. In Soft Robotics, Neil Gershenfeld and a team of researchers describe a new bendable, morphing wing that could create more agile, fuel-efficient aircraft — as well as simplify the manufacturing process. A long time goal of researchers, previous attempts used mechanical control structures within the wing to deform it, but these structures were heavy, canceling out any fuel-efficiency gains, and they added complexity. The new method makes the entire wing the mechanism and its shape can be changed along its entire length by activating two small motors that apply a twisting pressure to each wingtip. (Watch Neil’s TED Talk) A deadly Ebola mutation. New research suggests that a mutation in the Ebola virus may be responsible for the scale of the epidemic that began in 2013 in West Africa. The research, conducted by a team of researchers that included TEDster Pardis Sabeti, showed that roughly 3 months after the initial outbreak, and about the time the epidemic was detected, the virus had mutated. The mutation made the virus better suited for humans than its natural host, the fruit bat, which may have allowed the virus to spread more aggressively. Working independently, another team of researchers came to a similar conclusion, but the role of the mutation in Ebola’s virulence and transmissibility still needs to be clarified. (Watch Pardis’ TED Talk) The future of transportation. Bjarke Ingels’ firm (BIG) released its design plans for a hyperloop system that would connect Dubai and Abu Dhabi in just a 12 minutes, a journey that now takes more than two hours by car. With a system of autonomous pods, the group hopes to eliminate waiting time; their design reveal includes conceptual images and video showing from start to finish what the passenger experience would be like. BIG made the designs for Hyperloop  One, one of the companies  racing to make Elon Musk’s concept a reality. (Watch Bjarke’s TED Talk) The world’s tallest tropical trees. Greg Asner has identified the world’s tallest tropical tree using laser scanning, along with 50 other record-breakers. The tree, located in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, stands at 94.1 meters tall or, as Asner said for comparison, about the height of five sperm whales stacked snout-to-fluke. He measured the tree using a laser scanning technology called LIDAR (for Light Detection and Ranging), and since the measurement was taken remotely, they are unsure of the exact species of the tree, but think it is likely in the genus Shorea. Discoveries aside, Asner is still analyzing this new data about the forests, which he hopes to make publicly available so that policymakers can make more informed conservation plans. (Watch Greg’s TED Talk) Have a news item to share? Write us at contact@ted.com and you may see it included in this weekly round-up. 22 Nov

Ingenuity starts with a spark: The talks of TED@IBM - IBM’s editorial director, Michela Stribling, kicks off Session 1 at TED@IBM: Spark, November 16, 2016 in San Francisco. (Photo: Russell Edwards/TED) From artists to scientists, mothers, mathematicians and business visionaries, people in every corner of the world are dreaming up solutions to our most pressing problems. Whether tackling war and peace or the principles of machine learning, ingenuity starts with one thing: a spark. And regardless of where the spark takes hold, inspiration demands action to reach its greatest potential. At the third installment of TED@IBM — part of the TED Institute, held on November 15, 2016, at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco — a diverse and brilliant collection of speakers and performers dared to ask: What if we used our collective expertise and insights to provide a spark that could change the world for good? After opening remarks from Michela Stribling, IBM’s editorial director, the talks in Session 1 challenged us to think about how we can work together to solve problems and, maybe, leave the planet better than we found it. Where light meets sound. In a performance that blurs the boundaries of light and sound, Ryan and Hays Holladay create a visual experience of beats and tones shaped around reverberations of color. With multicolored projections and an assortment of carefully placed lamps, the brothers transcribe their music across the illuminated bursts of surfaces suddenly made visible. Here, music becomes the performer, rather than the performance, directing us not toward itself but toward the tempo and rhythm that orchestrates its narration. It’s a melody as much seen as it is heard: a series of intonations whose colorful pattern of sound eventually collapses into the nearly faded spotlight of a solitary lamp. The answer to fighting cybercrime. Cybercrime netted $450 billion in profits last year, with 2 billion records lost or stolen. As the vice president at IBM Security, Caleb Barlow recognizes the insufficiency of our current strategies to protect our data from the ultra-sophisticated criminal gangs that are responsible for 80 percent of all cyber attacks. His solution? When a cyber attack occurs, we should respond to it with the same collective effort and openness as a health care crisis — we need to know who is infected and how the disease is spreading. Last year, Barlow and his team started publishing all of IBM’s threat data in an effort to encourage the same sharing from other major corporations, governments and private security firms. If we’re not sharing, he says, then we’re part of the problem. According to Adam Grant, there are three basic kinds of employees: givers, takers, and matchers (who’ll match the prevailing behavior of the group). The key to a happy workplace is to balance that mix. Grant speaks at TED@IBM: Spark. (Photo: Russell Edwards/TED) One bad apple spoils the bunch. The success of any company is defined by the quality of people who work there. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant has spent a lot of time analyzing business structures, and he’s concluded that there are three different types of employees: givers, takers and matchers. To achieve a balanced workplace with equal opportunity for and distribution of work, power and play, companies must endeavor to hire givers and matchers, whose personalities allow employees to feel supported, heard and acknowledged. The challenge is to stop takers from getting a seat at the table, because they so often undercut the spirit of collaboration workplaces need to thrive. The business of rewriting stereotypes. After what felt like a lifetime spent simultaneously living out stereotypes and being imprisoned by them, Villy Wang wondered how she could break the cycle of racism and still make a living. She hit upon the idea of empowering young, diverse kids — those most misrepresented in the media — to become storytellers, training them in filmmaking so they can create new, authentic stories. After training, she helps place them into creative industries that influence media and entertainment, helping rewrite stereotypes at one of its sources. Wang has nested this entire program within a professional media production studio, a business that helps fund and ensure the future of the program. “Obviously, racism is deeply rooted in our history, politics, media and language,” she says, “but I believe if we can empower more diverse kids to take that narrative and change it, we will break hold of these ugly roots.” Performer Ise Lyfe, at right, breaks down the Bay Area’s gentrification battles in a spoken-word collaboration with cellist Michael Feckses, performed at TED@IBM: Spark. (Photo: Russell Edwards/TED) We are not mud, we are fertile ground. Spoken-word artist and activist Ise Lyfe sparks crucial dialogue on social justice through performance. With music accompaniment by master cellist Michael Feckses, Lyfe unravels the impact of the displacement of minority communities in American cities, threaded from his personal experience in East Oakland. By using the image of a flag in the mud to convey the claiming of a muddy territory, Lyfe creates a symbol for gentrification but urges: “I reject the notion of your flag in our mud. Let us be the spark to convey. We are not mud, we’re fertile ground waiting on the rain.” AI and justice for all. You need a good lawyer if you’re involved in a legal case. But a typical case can cost thousands of dollars in legal fees — and a lot of that money goes toward the time it takes to learn the case and study the law around it, sifting through hundreds of documents and databases to find a winning angle. Lawyer and entrepreneur Andrew Arruda set out to democratize this process by partnering with a computer scientist to create the world’s first artificially intelligent lawyer, ROSS. Using ROSS, a lawyer can search through millions of documents in a matter of minutes, saving hours of research time. ROSS is already being rolled out, for free, to pro-bono lawyers who are helping those most in need. “Justice should cost the same for everyone,” Arruda says. “More money should not buy better justice.” Intelligence, knowledge and wisdom … in the age of smart machines. Artificial intelligence is a next step in the evolution of our species; some say, in fact, we have come to the limits of our own intelligence. But intelligence is only part of the story — it’s what we do with that intelligence that matters. In a special video created for TED@IBM, Guruduth Banavar, chief science officer of cognitive computing at IBM, asks us to cultivate the wisdom necessary to improve our future. An organic approach to an organic problem. Beset by plunging biodiversity, pathogens and skyrocketing populations, our global food supply is at risk — but solutions that rely on chemicals and genetically modified organisms come with their own problems. Computational geneticist Laxmi Parida proposes instead that we use the genetic biodiversity that already exists within plants, wrought over millennia by evolution, in order to safeguard our food. To sort through and make sense of the vast amount of sequenced DNA, artificial intelligence and machine learning don’t quite make the cut. Parida has another technique in mind: discrete mathematics. Using math, Parida is cracking open our understanding of the links between DNA and external traits, like stress resistance, so we can breed more robust crops while reducing strain on the environment. Building with dust. The world-changing promise of nanotechnology remains just that — a promise. We don’t yet have the disease-fighting nanobots, elevators to space or quantum computers that nanotech could someday provide. Why? Because building things from nanomaterials is incredibly difficult, says George Tulevski, a nano architect and researcher at IBM. We don’t have tools small enough to manipulate nanomaterials into something useful. But Tulevski and his team think they’ve located the missing link: chemistry. They’re developing chemical processes to compel billions of nanoparticles to simultaneously assemble themselves into the patterns needed to build circuits, much the same way that natural organisms like Radiolaria build intricate, diverse and elegant structures. It’s like building a sculpture from dust, Tulevski says, and it may be the key to delivering on — or far exceeding — those original promises of nanotechnology. Behavior hacks for the well-intentioned. “Why is it that we have such a difficult time doing what’s right?” asks behavioral scientist Bob Nease. “It’s because intention and action don’t often go hand-in-hand.” That is, good intentions don’t always lead to good behavior, while bad behavior is not always the result of bad intentions. So how do we bridge the gap between good intention and positive action? Nease offers two simple mind-hack solutions: first, make the right thing so easy to do that it requires minimal mind power to arrive at a good decision. Then make the wrong thing so drawn out and convoluted that it’s nearly impossible to justify doing. Nease applies these principles to current issues surrounding health, business and even government reform. World music group Wobbly World led off Session 2 of TED@IBM: Spark with a musical celebration of collaboration that included singing, rapping, guitar, congas and much more. (Photo: Russell Edwards/TED) Session 2 kicked off with Wobbly World, a global collective of musicians whose dynamic blend of sounds from around the world reminds us of the incredible power of music at bridging the cultural divide. One of the most important tools in the fight against cancer? Time. An early cancer diagnosis can be the difference between a chance to fight for life, or death. But diagnostic tools tend to be costly, invasive and slow to reveal results, and they’re not always totally accurate. Cancer fighter Joshua Smith presents an affordable, formidable weapon in the fight against cancer that combats these statistics — a noninvasive early-warning system that works like a pregnancy test by intercepting and analyzing the biomarkers that may hint at the presence of cancer. With this streamlined process, says Smith, early-stage cancer detection can happen more frequently and start when a person is still healthy. It’s a strong beacon of hope in the fight against cancer. We can’t afford to give up on government, says Charity Wayua. She speaks at TED@IBM:Spark. (Photo: Russell Edwards/TED) How to cure ailing governments. In the current political climate, it’s easy to want to give up on transforming government, says public sector researcher Charity Wayua — but we can’t afford to be afraid to tackle challenges like government efficiency head-on. Starting in 2014, Wayua, a trained biochemist, and a team of scientists, engineers and technologists began to “treat” the government of Nairobi, Kenya, as an ailing patient in order to restore the health of the country and its economy. In keeping with a biomedical approach, the team examined the government, its divisions, its employees and every single one of its malfunctions before making a diagnosis and devising a strategic treatment plan. Within two years, the efforts of Wayua and her team paid off, and Kenya moved from 136 to 92 on the World Bank’s index ranking the ease of doing business there. As Wayua says, just because something is sick doesn’t mean it’s dying. The drumming habits of neurons. In March 1993, an article published in the journal Cell identified the single gene responsible for Huntingon’s disease. The product of a nearly ten-year effort by scientists from around the world, the article held great promise that a cure for the neurodegenerative disorder would soon follow; yet today, there is still not a single medicine able to slow, stop, or reverse this disease. James Kozloski has watched a generation of neuroscientists struggle with this, and his conclusion is that neuroscientists have focused far too long on just the neuron. He argues that the answer lies not only in showing how neurons suffer from genetic disorders but also in how genes suffer from nervous disorders. Comparing the communication of neurons to the beat of a drummer, Kozloski highlights that in brains, things like a bad gene, an injury or aging can lead to changes in circuits that first create and then reinforce subtle bad drumming habits, which are often difficult to detect until it’s too late. His team has been working to detect these habits early in order to break them, mapping the brain’s core components and connecting them together in what he calls the Grand Loop. “Before we can fully understand how genes cause imbalance in neurons leading to their death,” he says, “neuroscience must understand how the brain’s core circuitry balances itself, how genes change synapses, and how brain feedback onto neurons, synapses and genes can push imbalance to the tipping point.” How the internet of things is transforming the routine. How do we protect our aging population while letting them keep the comfort of their lives and their daily routine? Everyday objects with sensors and WiFi can track each step of that routine and form a picture of a life being lived, in real time, to the children and support systems caring for the safety and independence of their loved ones. Learn more about how the internet of things is changing the routine in another special video produced for TED@IBM. A library of human cognition. What if you could consult Winston Churchill on a looming international crisis? Or ask Einstein what he thinks about the latest scientific breakthrough? National security expert Juliane Gallina is working on a way to harness the best minds of all time to make the world safer. When Gallina was in the military, she learned a special concept: the OODA loop, a mental model (which stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) designed to help intelligence officers get into the minds of their adversaries. You’re in the OODA loop right now, Gallina says, and every person or team that makes decisions is constantly using it. Today, Gallina is a technologist, and she’s using the OODA loop in her work on cognitive computing. Her goal: to create a way to systematically record the way we think when solving problems so that future generations can better tap into the wisdom of the past. “Let’s find and record the exquisite thinking strategies of innovators and pioneers,” Gallina says, “and then let’s use it.” The untold story behind a landmark NASA mission. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson — you’ve probably never heard their names, but these three African-American women were instrumental in putting astronaut John Glenn into orbit around Earth. Their story has been largely untold until now with the upcoming release of biographical film Hidden Figures. Elizabeth Gabler, president of Fox 2000 Pictures, talks with TED@IBM curator Bryn Freedman about what drew her to make film and shares with the audience more about the women from the upcoming film and the barriers they overcame. No expertise required. The problem with music, says Tim Exile, is that it’s so perfect. For those of us who didn’t grow up playing an instrument, instruments can never be objects of play because we’re often too afraid to mess around and try things out due to a strict idea of what an instrument should sound like. In a talk-performance hybrid, Exile demos a software instrument that he designed to allow anyone, whether they have musical training or not, to record loops, mix sounds and make music. “Apart from anything else,” he says, “this is is a hell of a lot of fun, and we’re all missing out!” Grady Booch asks us to worry a bit less about artificial intelligence, while speaking at TED@IBM: Spark. (Photo: Russell Edwards/TED) The illusion of intelligence. When we think about artificial intelligence and its possibilities, it becomes difficult to disassociate the concept with the dangers outlined by films like The Terminator and 2001: A Space Odyssey. For supporters like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, such fears are far from misplaced; they and others argue that artificial intelligence represents an existential threat to humanity. But according to Grady Booch, super-knowing is not the same as super-doing. Cognitive systems, he argues, are far different from the software-intensive systems of earlier generations, in that, “by and large, we don’t program them: we teach them,” imparting onto those machines reflections of our already-present human values. Rather than worry about any existential threat of superintelligence, Booch cautions us to focus instead on the realities that we currently face, “for the rise of computing already brings to us a myriad of other human and societal issues to which we must attend.” Indeed, from raising the level of education around the world to helping humans eventually reach the surface of Mars, “the right question we should now be asking is how shall we best use this technology to augment our humanity, not diminish it.” 16 Nov

Have a TED Talk idea? Apply to the TEDNYC Idea Search 2017 - Do you have a TED Talk you’ve always wanted to try out in front of an audience? We’re thrilled to announce that applications are open for our TEDNYC Idea Search 2017 in New York City. Anyone with an idea worth spreading is invited to apply; 10 finalists will share their risky, quirky, fascinating ideas in under 6 minutes, in late January, onstage at the TED theater in Manhattan. The TEDNYC Idea Search is a chance for us to find fresh voices to ring out on the TED stage. Some of these talks will be posted on the online TED platform; other speakers will be invited to expand on their talks on the TED2017 main stage in Vancouver in the spring of 2017. Joshua Prager, Hannah Brencher, Richard Turere and Hyeonseo Lee — all these speakers are fantastic finds from previous TED talent searches. The deadline to apply is November 27 at noon Eastern time. To apply, you’ll need to fill out our form and make a 1-minute video describing your talk idea. One note: We can’t cover travel to New York City for finalists from out of town; we encourage applicants from the tri-state area surrounding New York. Apply to speak at the TEDNYC Idea Search 2017 >> 10 Nov

Meet our new Head of Media: Colin Helms - This fall, TED welcomes Colin Helms as its Head of Media. In this leadership team role, Colin will oversee strategy and operations of TED’s core media business, including video production, new format development, distribution, social media, mobile and design. Colin brings more than 20 years of experience in both digital and traditional media content strategy and platform development. Prior to joining TED’s New York office, he was the SVP of Connected Content at MTV, where he oversaw the brand’s digital evolution from broadband video and social media to its pioneering multi-screen programming and original digital content studio. Before that, he served as a founding editor of Complex magazine as well as the editor-in-chief of the music magazine and festival CMJ. “Millions—even billions—of people are coming online in the next few years, making it more important than ever for our team to give ‘ideas worth spreading’ their greatest potential audience,” said TED curator Chris Anderson. “Colin’s expertise navigating today’s digital media landscape—at once vast and unpredictable—will help us expand that mission into an exciting new future.” Credit: Dian Lofton / TED 9 Nov

How small lies turn into big lies, what everyday objects tell us about inequality, and robots that lend a helping hand during disasters - Just a few of the intriguing headlines involving members of the TED community this week: The cascading effect of small lies. Tali Sharot is the senior author on a paper published in Nature Neuroscience that sheds light on the possible slippery-slope effect of telling small, self-serving lies. Using an fMRI scanning device to monitor the amygdala, an area of the brain associated with emotional response, the researchers found that when participants believed lying was to their benefit, “they were more inclined to dishonesty and their lies escalated over time,” reports The New York Times.  What’s more, as their lying progressed, the response in their amygdalas decreased — and the bigger the decrease, the bigger their next lie would be. The findings suggest that the brain becomes desensitized over time to the negative emotional effects of lying, but Sharot cautions that, while we know the decreased activity is related to lying, whether or not it’s related to a negative emotional reaction is still speculation. Fellow TEDster Dan Ariely is a co-author on the paper. (Watch Tali’s TED Talk and Dan’s TED Talk, and stay tuned for Ariely’s upcoming TED Book.) What everyday objects tell us about inequality. An initiative of the nonprofit Gapminder, Dollar Street collects photographs of everyday objects from the richest to the poorest households around the world as a way to explore inequality. For the project, a team of photographers photographed up to 155 objects, everything from toothbrushes to toys, in 200 homes in nearly 50 countries, a list that continues to grow. The completely fascinating website, where you can  explore the collection of photographs, launched on October 18. The project is the brainchild of Anna Rosling Rönnlund, who co-founded Gapminder along with TEDsters Hans Rosling and Ola Rosling. (Watch Hans’ and Ola’s TED Talk or read the Ideas article about Dollar Street.) Robots to the rescue. A joint training exercise between members of the Italian Coast Guard and a team led by TEDster Robin Murphy from Texas A&M’s Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) tested a robot-assisted search and rescue to help safeguard migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Africa to Italy. Lasting 3 days, the exercise tested EMILY, an unmanned surface vehicle that can drive to a group of people in distress and position itself so that the greatest number of people can grab on. The EMILY system was tested in January 2016 to help migrants crossing from Turkey to Greece, and two EMILYs are currently in use by the Hellenic Coast Guard and Hellenic Red Cross; the Hellenic Coast Guard credited CRASAR with recently saving over two dozen refugees trapped in high seas. This new exercise pinpointed differences between migration routes, as well as new ways for robots and humans to interact in the water. (Watch Robin’s TED Talk) Better diagnostics for pathogens. Richard Baraniuk is the lead author on a study detailing a new diagnostic method that could help slow the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and mitigate infectious disease outbreaks by allowing faster detection of microbes. Typically, bacterial detection requires the use of DNA probes that are target-specific, which means detection can be costly and slow when dealing with new or mutating species. Instead, the new method uses a small number of DNA probes randomly generated that are not target-specific, greatly reducing the cost and time of detection. (Watch Richard’s TED Talk) Open-source, autonomous vehicles. Sebastian Thrun, the creator of Google’s self-driving car project, is taking the development of autonomous vehicles open-source through his online education startup Udacity. The project, began as an accompaniment to their new autonomous car-engineering course, will make the software driving the car and the data collected by the car available to anyone, for free. With the code needed to begin testing the car written by Udacity engineers, Udacity is now soliciting contributions by giving prizes for the best responses to specific projects, and students in the course are contributing to the project as well, reports the MIT Technology Review. (Watch Sebastian’s TED Talk) A perpetual spring for honey bees. Neri Oxman and her team have created a synthetic apiary that creates a constant spring-like environment for bees, allowing seasonal honey bees to remain active and producing honey year-round. The apiary regulates light, humidity and temperature to create the optimal environment for the bees’ survival and is set inside a building on the MIT campus, rather than outside. The research offers hope for bees, whose numbers have been steadily declining, by demonstrating their ability to survive in a completely synthetic environment. (Watch Neri’s TED Talk) New faces at the UN. On October 14, following his appointment as Secretary-General-designate of the UN, António Guterres announced the members of the transition team that will help prepare him to assume his duties on January 1, 2017. Fellow TED speaker Melissa Fleming, now the Head of Communications and spokesperson for the High Commissioner at UNHCR, will act as senior advisor and spokesperson for Guterres. (Watch António’s TED Talk and Melissa’s TED Talk. Plus, read Melissa’s article on 8 practical ways to help refugees.) Have a news item to share? Write us at contact@ted.com and you may see it included in this weekly round-up. 4 Nov

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

How complex cells originated - Mitochondria are the “power plants” of complex cells. In order to provide the cell with energy they need protein building blocks, which are imported from the outside. Over billions of years the “protein import machines” necessary for this process have developed differently than previously assumed, as biochemists have discovered. This also casts a new light on the evolution of complex cells. 51 min

Antibiotic gel prevents borreliosis resulting from tick bites - An antibiotic gel based on azithromycin, an antibiotic with antibacterial properties, helps to prevent the onset of Lyme borreliosis following a tick bite, finds new research. 51 min

Stabilizing evolutionary forces keep ants strong - A type of natural selection, called "stabilizing selection," is thought to maintain functional characteristics in species. But it is difficult to find evidence of this type of selection through research. Now researchers are finding evidence of natural selection that maintains the status quo among ant populations. 51 min

Gut bacteria may hold key to treating autoimmune disease - Defects in the body’s regulatory T cells cause inflammation and autoimmune disease by altering the type of bacteria living in the gut, researchers have discovered. The study suggests that replacing the missing gut bacteria, or restoring a key metabolite called inosine, could help treat children with a rare and often fatal autoimmune disease called IPEX syndrome. 51 min

China: Carbon dioxide footprint of wealthy households reaches European level - Between 2007 and 2012 the overall carbon dioxide footprint of Chinese households increased by 19 per cent. 75 per cent of this gain can be attributed to increased levels of consumption by the middle classes and the wealthy. The top income groups have now reached the level of the average European, while two thirds of the population remain on the very lowest level. As a result of the changing Chinese lifestyles, there is now a need for political interventions, in order to manage the impact on climate change, say experts. 51 min

Scientists bear witness to birth of an ice cloud - Scientists have witnessed the birth of atmospheric ice clouds, creating ice cloud crystals in the laboratory and then taking images of the process through a microscope, essentially documenting the very first steps of cloud formation. 51 min

Conservation science for US jaguar recovery plan - A recovery plan for the Western Hemisphere's largest cat species along the US-Mexico border has been released by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), informing the position of USFWS on jaguar conservation by providing the best available science and research to guide and support the plan. 51 min

Amazonia's best and worst areas for carbon recovery revealed - The first mapping of carbon recovery in Amazonian forests following emissions released by commercial logging activities has been published by researchers. 51 min

Male bumblebees leave home without looking back - Male bumblebees leave home and fly away without looking back, making no effort to remember the location of the nest, researchers have found.51 min

Hormone concentrations in young mammals predict trade-offs later in life - Early development after birth can have profound effects on survival and reproduction. Now, new research suggests that concentrations of a hormone associated with growth and aging in humans can be used to predict growth, reproduction, and lifespan in a population of wild animals. 07:55

Pesticide Action Network

A corporate fox in every henhouse - Almost every Trump cabinet nominee is on the record in direct opposition to the core purpose of the agency they've been tapped to lead. Learn more Slideshow Category: Flex Slider 19 Dec

A corporate fox in every henhouse - As questions about the legitimacy of the Trump presidency continue to emerge, the president-elect and his team are plowing forward with some astonishing choices to lead our federal agencies. From Departments of Energy and State to Housing, Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), almost every cabinet nominee is on the record in direct opposition to the core purpose of the agency they've been tapped to lead. These choices from Team Trump border on the absurd. They are also deeply irresponsible — and dangerous. Case in point: Scott Pruitt The nomination for EPA head is a clear example of this disturbing trend. As attorney general for Oklahoma, Scott Pruitt led several lawsuits against the agency's Clean Power Plan on behalf of the oil and gas industry, including submitting letters — on state letterhead — that had been penned by industry executives. He has also actively worked to roll back EPA rules protecting clean air and water, and to undercut legal efforts of public interest groups (including PAN) to press EPA to fully implement its mission to protect public health and the environment. Pruitt refers to climate change as a "tremendous dispute" among scientists, despite the clear consensus among the vast majority of climate researchers that our fossil fuel-based economy is driving us toward climate chaos. On his LinkedIn page, he calls himself "a leading advocate" against the agency he has now been called to serve. Former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman, who served under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003, said this about Trump's pick:   I don't recall ever having seen an appointment of someone that is so disdainful of the agency and the science behind what the agency does." Mr. Pruitt is clearly unfit to lead EPA, an agency which was established by President Nixon and has historically had strong bi-partisan support. The Senate must step up and block this wildly inappropriate nomination. Billionaires in charge A nominee for USDA has yet to be announced, and current Ag Secretary Vilsack is said to be wondering if Trump forgot that the agency exists. Given the track record of transition picks so far (Exxon's CEO to lead the State Dept? Really?), we might expect top brass from Monsanto or DuPont to be tapped to lead the agency charged with supporting farmers and rural communities. That would neatly fit the profile of the other cabinet picks from Team Trump so far: Vigorously oppose rules geared to protect the public good? Check. Benefit from continued investment in the fossil fuel industry (and thus, deny the reality of — or oppose action on — climate change)? Check. Firmly ensconced in the 1% billionaire class? Check. In fact, the proposed Trump cabinet boasts more billionaires than any in history — and this from a candidate who ran as an economic populist, promising to "drain the swamp" in Washington, DC. If these cabinet picks are confirmed, our government agencies — established to protect the public interest — will be firmly controlled by the corporate class, whose top interest is maximizing short term profits. The rest of us are barely even on the radar. No more pretense We know corporations already have more power in Washington, DC than they should; Monsanto's influence over EPA's review of their flagship herbicide glyphosate is just the latest example. But the emerging Trump cabinet is different. The incoming administration is looking to simply hand control of federal agencies to the corporations our government is supposed to rein in on behalf of the rest of us (and the planet). Here's 350.org leader Bill McKibben in a recent interview:  There's a certain clarity about this moment that we haven't had before . . . Now all pretense is gone. It's entirely clear what and who is in the driver's seat." Urge your Senators to block Pruitt's EPA nomination, and push back against the corporate takeover of our public agencies. For President Roosevelt, it was "a chicken in every pot." For Team Trump? Looks like it'll be a fox in every henhouse instead. Share this post:  16 Dec

Thank you, water protectors! - Water protectors at Standing Rock, representing more than 200 indigenous nations, won a major victory: the Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit to drill under the Missouri River.  Learn more Slideshow Category: Flex Slider 13 Dec

Imagine a world without pesticides - On December 3, the anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal disaster, people around the world commemorated "No Pesticide Use Day" with somber remembrances and grassroots campaigns. Thirty-two years ago, more than 2,000 people were killed by a deadly gas leak from a pesticide plant in India. From production accidents to pesticide drift near schools to contaminated water and soil, these agricultural chemicals continue to impact millions of lives around the world. And still, industry keeps the pesticide treadmill spinning faster. Can we imagine a day, a year or a world without using hazardous chemicals to grow our food? I can. And we must. Lessons in history It may be hard to picture how priorities like healthy rural communities, food safety and fair working conditions for farmworkers can possibly move forward in the U.S. under a new presidential administration that seems so hostile to our values. Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma Attorney General who has been tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has made a name for himself nationally by fighting the agency, and describes himself as "a leading advocate against the EPA's activist agenda." And given Pruitt's close ties to the agribusiness and fossil fuels industries, key federal posts may be occupied by men and women who will be guided by the corporate interests they are tasked with regulating — a classic scenario of the fox guarding the hen house. Still, we have seen dark days before. When Pesticide Action Network International was founded in the 1980s, we aimed to nurture and leverage people power — often on the community or state level — and build momentum for federal change. Despite flagrant imbalances of power, with many foxes guarding many hen houses, we kept our eyes on the prize, believing that another world is indeed possible. Today, people are continuing to stand up for the future of food and farming, speaking out against harmful pesticide use in Hawaii, Iowa, California and beyond even when it draws the ire of corporate bullies like Monsanto and Dow. And internationally, often under daunting, even dangerous circumstances, grassroots groups in our global network are creatively and courageously drawing attention to the harms of chemical-intensive industrial farming in their countries. “It has become clear that the problems we have today with children’s lives being continuously wrecked by pesticides are because of institutional failures to acknowledge that pesticides are not necessary,” charged our sister organization PAN Asia & the Pacific on No Pesticides Use Day. Amen. A better world Our vision of a better world for our children and for future generations is a powerfully motivating factor — and we've made important progress on many continents in recent years. But there is clearly more work to do. For our children, we need to push back against corporate control over scientific and agricultural policies at every level — including in our state legislatures and in academic research on college campuses. For our children, we need to advocate for buffer zones to protect them from pesticide drift in agricultural areas. For our children, we need to provide farmers the tools and support to step off the pesticide treadmill. If we can imagine a world for our children without hazardous pesticides, we must begin now to invest in non-chemical alternatives to provide more and more of the food we’ll need for coming generations. As the saying goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now.” Share this post:  8 Dec

Monsanto undermines EPA's scientific review - After halting the process in October, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently put its review of glyphosate back on the calendar for December 13-16. Scientists will gather on behalf of the agency to review the carcinogenic properties of the key ingredient in Monsanto’s flagship herbicide RoundUp. EPA originally postponed the meeting after Monsanto publicly attempted to discredit participating scientists chosen by the agency. While the Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) will convene next week, it’s notably missing Peter Infante — an expert epidemiologist Monsanto publicly accused of bias. Caving to industry pressure A few days before the SAP meeting was supposed to start in October, Monsanto sent a letter to EPA claiming that Infante was “biased” because he had historically defended plaintiffs in chemical exposure cases against Monsanto and affiliated agrichemical corporations — and challenged the legitimacy of industry-funded studies. Given that Infante is no longer participating in the review process, it seems Monsanto’s tactics to undercut independent, non-industry science were effective. Scientific integrity? Glyphosate is the most widely used chemical herbicide in the U.S and scientists around the world continue to raise red flags about its links to cancer. Just last year, the UN’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) determined glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans” — a conclusion they arrived at after reviewing independent, peer-reviewed studies.   Taking a stand against industry pressure in our environmental regulatory system is critical — and even more so with the incoming administration recently appointing Scott Pruitt, who has clear ties to corporate interests in the fossil fuel industry, to lead EPA. Join PAN and partners in sending a letter to EPA before the SAP meeting begins next week, demanding the agency keep its glyphosate review on track and take a close look at independent science — even if Monsanto doesn’t like it! Share this post:  8 Dec

Thank you, water protectors! - For months, all eyes have been on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s treaty lands, where the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was charted to go under the Missouri River — undermining the sovereignty of the tribe and threatening the drinking water of 18 million people. On Sunday, the water protectors at Standing Rock won a major victory: the Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit to drill under the Missouri River. The struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline is far from over. But this week, we at PAN send our gratitude to the water protectors at Standing Rock — the Lakota youth and elders who have led the struggle from the beginning, representatives from more than 200 indigenous nations who have come to Standing Rock in solidarity, and their allies for putting their bodies on the line to stop the pipeline. PAN stands with Standing Rock At PAN, we believe that every community has a right to clean water, clean air, and food that is healthy, culturally appropriate, produced sustainably and theirs. The root of our solidarity with Standing Rock is simple: when Native water protectors claim “a right to defend our water and our lives, simply because we have a natural right to defend ourselves and our communities,” we agree. Treaties between the United States and Native nations are the law of the land. While the proposed route of the Dakota Access Pipeline passes just outside the boundaries of the Standing Rock Reservation, it cuts across 1851 treaty lands of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. The Standing Rock Sioux and other tribal nations were never properly consulted in the DAPL approval process. Treaties are deeply relevant to our work on food, agriculture and pesticides. Although many treaties were written to protect the traditional food ways of Indigenous peoples, pesticides don’t respect reservation borders or treaty rights. Native communities are often on the frontlines of pesticide impacts — from rural reservation communities fighting pesticide drift, to Indigenous people in the Arctic who are working to protect their traditional foods from pesticide contamination. When U.S. policies undermine the sovereignty of Native nations by violating treaties, those of us who are not Native feel the reverberations, though we’re far from the first to be impacted. These violations are unacceptable in their own right, and this kind of disregard for treaty rights takes away a critical tool in our fight against hazardous pesticides in our food system. Finally, agriculture depends on clean water. Iowa farmers have leveled major concerns against DAPL for threatening the water supply to their fields and seizing their agricultural land for pipeline construction. As our work alongside Iowa farmers to stop pesticide drift continues, we stand with them now against this threat to their health and livelihoods. The DAPL fight continues It's great news that the Army Corps of Engineers denied the easement which would allow the DAPL corporation to drill under the Missouri River. The Corps also promised an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the project, making the right decision — under sustained pressure from Native people and allies. As Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network puts it: “Straight up: WE MADE THIS HAPPEN. Our power is what changed the administration's mind. Walking in prayer. Hitting up the banks. Shutting down streets. Locking down to machines. Calling and mailing politicians. Talking at the dinner table. Concerts. Marches. Livestreaming. Singing. Protesting. Protecting. Defending. And praying. It all combined got us here. We need to claim this momentary victory as our own. Long before I thank any administration official . . . I thank our pipeline fighters, our water protectors, our land defenders. We caused this to happen. This is our movement. A movement with Indigenous Rights at its core.” What happens now? A lot is uncertain. Some water protectors doubt that Energy Transfer Partners will actually stop construction; they suspect that DAPL might simply swallow the fines and keep building, since the corporation is in a race against time. As months pass and no oil flows through the pipeline, investors are more likely to pull their investments. And while the Obama Administration has taken a critical step to slow this project, it's likely that this will change come January 20. Given Trump's statements and his investments in the project, it's likely his administration will do whatever possible to undermine the environmental review and fast-track the pipeline.  This week’s victory gives us more time to increase the pressure on DAPL. Here are a few key things we can do: Move our money out of banks that are backing the pipeline. Keep pressure on the Corps and the Obama administration to conduct a rigorous Environmental Impact Statement. Stay tuned for the latest updates on this struggle from Native sources like Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oceti Sakowin Camp and Honor the Earth. Raise money to support the water protectors. Finally, wherever we are, there are Indigenous people fighting for sovereignty and survival. Those of us who aren't Native can learn whose lands we live on and offer our support to their struggles for self-determination.  Photo: Joey Podlubny | Flickr Share this post:  8 Dec

Moving forward - Given recent election results, one thing is crystal clear: our work for justice — in the food system and beyond — is more critical than ever before. We're ready. Slideshow Category: Flex Slider 28 Nov

Moving forward - Like other public interest and social justice groups across the country, we're wrestling with exactly what the recent election means for our work going forward. This will take some time to sort, but one thing is already crystal clear: our efforts will be more challenging — and more critical — than ever before. We're ready. There are already deeply disturbing signals from the incoming administration. For example, Mr. Trump's pick to lead the transition team for EPA — and presumably the top candidate for Administrator — is openly and avidly anti-science. As leader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Myron Ebell denies the reality of climate change and asserts that pesticides are nothing to worry about. We're sorry, Team Trump, but the science very clearly shows otherwise — as does the on-the-ground reality in rural communities. From cancers to learning disorders, pollinator declines to devastating crop loss, people's health, livelihoods and well-being are on the line in very real ways — with farmers, farmworkers, rural children and Indigenous communities continuing to bear the brunt of harmful pesticide exposure. Yet all indications are that Mr. Trump plans to put Dow, Monsanto and friends firmly in the driver's seat at key national agencies. We doubt they'll be putting rural families' health and well-being on the top of their agendas.  Not looking back In the face of these troubling developments, we'll be ramping up our efforts to "reclaim the future of food and farming." That's not just a spiffy tagline at PAN — it reflects our clear-eyed understanding that "Big Ag" and the "Big 6" pesticide/seed corporations have too much control of our food system, and they're steering it in entirely the wrong direction. The fact is, these corporations won't benefit much from thriving local food systems. Or diverse, resilient cropping systems that rely on ecological balance. Or reduced use of unnecessary, health-harming chemicals. But the rest of us will. So. Going forward, we'll continue to aggressively challenge industry's control of our food system — fighting further consolidation of the pesticide/seed corporations, and shining a spotlight on the most egregious corporate shenanigans in the years ahead (we expect there will be many). A bigger battle We know we won't be able to convince corporate lobbyists and science deniers to help us build the healthy, resilient and just system of food and farming we so urgently need. So we'll be moving on without them, building on our core strengths: coalition organizing, grassroots science and strategic communications. In addition to challenging corporate control, going forward we will: Double down on state-based policy work, rooted in priorities identified by those most directly harmed by pesticides. We've already made important progress here, and we can keep winning. Demand that policy decisions at all levels of government are based on independent science, and expose efforts to undermine scientific integrity. Stand with those most at risk from what appears to be a systematic effort to roll back civil and human rights across the country Yes, Team Trump, pesticides are bad for you. So is science denial, undue corporate influence and threats to basic civil rights. We demand — and deserve — better. Share this post:  23 Nov

EPA greenlights two controversial pesticides - Amidst the election turmoil of the last few weeks, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) quietly approved more harmful pesticide products for use with genetically engineered (GE) seeds. EPA put Dow's "Enlist Duo" cocktail of glyphosate and 2,4-D back on the market, after pulling it off just a year ago due to widespread concern. The agency also gave a green light to Monsanto's new formulation of dicamba, intended for use with the corporation's latest line of GE soy and cotton crops. Both approvals mean a dramatic increase in the use of health-harming herbicides on farmland across the country. Enlist Duo coming to a field near you Dow marketed the Enlist Duo formulation as a solution to tackle glyphosate-resistant “superweeds” that have emerged in the wake of widespread use of Monsanto's RoundUp. Both key ingredients in this herbicide concoction are known to drift from the fields where they're applied to neighboring homes and farms. 2,4-D has been linked to birth defects and cancer, and is particulalry damaging to non-target plants. And glyphosate is under increasing scrutiny since UN scientists determined it to be a "probable carcinogen" last year. In the face of huge public opposition, EPA originally approved Enlist Duo for use in a limited number of states in 2014. The agency withdrew its approval a year later, under pressure from a legal petition filed by PAN and our partners at Center for Food Safety that challenged the agency's oversight of synergistic effects between the glyphosate and 2,4-D. But on November 1, EPA re-approved and expanded the use of Enlist Duo. It is now authorized for use with Dow's GE corn, soy and cotton in 34 states — up from 15 states — where the product was previously approved only for corn and soy. In the words of Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, PAN senior scientist: Once again, EPA has failed to protect the health, well-being and livelihood of America’s farmers and rural communities. The agency’s decision dramatically increases the risk of pesticide drift causing severe crop losses and harms to human health." Monsanto's "new" dicamba Just a week after re-approving Enlist Duo, EPA pushed another new formulation of an old herbicide onto the market: dicamba. Dicamba is notorious for drifting onto neighboring fields and damaging crops, so Monsanto has been pushing for a "new formulation" that is theoretically less prone to drift. This past summer, some conventional farmers — desperate to fight superweeds — bought Monsanto’s new dicamba-resistant seeds (approved last year) and then illegally sprayed an old version of dicamba. The result? Neighboring farms that hadn’t planted dicamba-resistant seeds experienced extensive damage to soybeans, as well as other non-target crops like peaches, tomatoes, rice, cotton and alfalfa. Monsanto claims its new version of dicamba is less drift-prone, although farmers, scientists and environmentalists alike are deeply concerned about the lack of scientific testing surrounding this assertion. Aside from this, the older formulation will still be cheaper. To avoid potential crop damage, many farmers will be forced to buy dicamba-resistant seeds just to protect themselves from neighboring drift. For PAN, Marcia Ishii-Eiteman shares her thoughts, particularly her concern for farmers: The biotech industry’s herbicide-promoting GE crops have brought farmers higher input costs, greater exposure to hazardous pesticides, an epidemic of superweeds — and thousands of acres of drift-damaged crops. Yet once again, EPA appears more willing to shore up Monsanto’s profits than defend the public interest. President Obama and his EPA should leave a lasting legacy for America’s farmers and agricultural communities by taking these harmful products off the shelf and providing meaningful solutions in sustainable and ecological pest management, rather than yet another acceleration of the pesticide treadmill.” The incoming President is showing signs that he will put even more control of our public agencies in the hands of corporations. But we at Pesticide Action Network remain steadfast in our commitement to protect the health and well-being of farmers, workers and rural communities most directly impacted by harmful pesticides. Share this post:  23 Nov

Kid-friendly farming in California - In late September, California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) released a draft plan for protecting schoolchildren in agricultural communities from drift-prone, health-harming pesticides. The agency's proposed pesticide use rules don't do nearly enough — luckily, some farmers are already doing much more. In brief, these are the proposed new rules: Prohibit drift-prone pesticide applications within one-quarter mile of public K-12 schools and child daycare facilities Monday through Friday between 6am and 6pm. Require California growers and pest control contractors to notify schools, child daycare facilities and county agricultural commissioners when certain pesticide applications are made within a quarter mile of these schools and facilities. PAN and our coalition members have long been collecting evidence that pesticides drift — often much more than one-quarter mile. And many studies show this exposure can have harmful effects. For example, a UC Davis MIND Institute study documented significantly increased rates of autism in children of mothers who lived up to one mile from pesticide-treated fields. DPR's small, part-time buffers are not enough to protect vulnerable school children from both the immediate and long-term effects of exposure to highly hazardous pesticides. We expect better: let DPR know you’re with us. Farmers model kid-safe pest control Javier Zamora, of JSM Organic Farms, is a certified organic farmer growing a variety of cut flowers, vegetables, strawberries and other fruits on several farms totaling 55 acres in the Watsonville area. Javier started just five years ago with two acres and a $5,000 loan from FarmLink. He now employs 22 workers, some of them year-round. During our recent visit to Javier's farm, he reported very few pest problems. He attributes this to the excellent soil quality and the high level of on-farm plant diversity he achieves by using intercrops, crop rotations and cover crops. Javier's strawberry crop (he grows 6 different varieties) does, on occasion, suffer from Lygus bug and mite pests that he manages by vacuuming and releasing Phytoseiulus persimilis mites. Crop rotations for strawberries include leeks, broccoli, cabbages, and green beans. A growing number of California farmers make good money eschewing the use of hazardous pesticides. In fact, California is the state leading organic agricultural production with $2.2 billion in sales generated from over 2,805 certified farms. These farms account for over 687,000 acres and, according to USDA's organic survey, there's another 17,000 in transition to organic. While production costs may be greater for organic farmers (mostly due to higher labor costs), the market premiums they earn balance out these expenses and make operations economically viable. Other farmers choose not to certify their products but use similar production methods without highly hazardous pesticides. It is practices like these — already in place across the state — that can safely be used in fields surrounding rural schools. Protecting California's rural children In 2014, the California Department of Public Health authored an excellent report documenting use of highly hazardous pesticides near schools in 15 agricultural counties in the state. They found that more than 140 highly hazardous pesticides — those capable of causing cancer, reproductive and developmental harm and damage to the nervous system — were used within one-quarter mile of 226 schools. The report found that more than 18,000 students attend schools in close proximity to the heaviest use of pesticides — and Latino schoolchildren are 91 percent more likely than white students to be exposed to the highest levels of the most dangerous pesticides. The top five hazardous pesticides used near schools are drift-prone fumigants that have been linked to increased risk of cancer, reproductive and developmental harm as well as immediate poisoning. Sadly, DPR's proposed rules to address this problem fall far short of what California kids need and deserve. Here are the key improvements PAN and our partners at Californians for Pesticide Reform are calling for: One mile, no-spray buffer zones free of the most hazardous pesticides around schools, preschools and daycares. No-spray buffer zones in place 24/7 for the most hazardous pesticides. Full authority for counties to adopt stricter requirements based on local conditions. Please sign (and share!) our petition, and we’ll deliver your signature to DPR’s Director, Brian Leahy, before the comment period closes on December 9.   Photo: I look on as Javier shows PAN intern Faezeh Mokhtari one of his 6 strawberry varieties. Share this post:  23 Nov

Steve Munro

Mayor Tory Discovers We Don’t Have Enough Transit Service - Budget season brings some of the more extreme and ill-informed statements from the Poo-Bahs who govern our fair city. For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the Gilbert & Sullivan operatta “The Mikado”, the Oxford Dictionary defines the name/term thus: A person having much influence or holding many offices at the same time, especially one perceived as pompously self-important. Throughout the development of the TTC Operating Budget, a central question has been that of projected ridership and the service it will require. The accept wisdom goes roughly like this: We expected lots and lots of new riders in 2016, but we aimed rather high, a “stretch target” as CEO Andy Byford described it. They didn’t all show up. This led to a shortfall both in ridership and in revenue compared to the original 2016 budget. Service improvements were planned for fall 2016 based on the target numbers, but as there are fewer riders, the improvements were not required. Ridership for 2017 is projected to be only barely above 2016 levels, and the service operating in fall 2016 is adequate to handle the demand. There is no provision in the 2017 budget for service increases beyond the full-year effect of changes made partway through 2016. All of this is quite plausible, but it runs headlong into conflicts with other factors. The most recent of these is a letter from Mayor Tory and TTC Chair Josh Colle to Bombardier complaining about the late delivery of streetcars. Crowding, What Crowding? This letter informs us that the quality of TTC service is affected by the availability of the streetcar fleet, and in turn, of the bus fleet which has been partly diverted to serve streetcar routes. The letter is quite clear in saying that crowding results from diversion of buses to the streetcar routes, and from a lack of reliable streetcars. That is not the same thing as “we don’t need any more service because there isn’t enough demand”. Indeed, even if the TTC had a larger reliable fleet, it would have no money in the 2017 budget, nor available headcount (i.e. authority to hire more drivers) to bring these vehicles out onto the street. The vehicle shortage and Bombardier’s late deliveries are actually helping the TTC and Mayor Tory impose his limits on service expansion. Without them, he would have an embarrassment of idle vehicles. We have seen this problem at the TTC before where attempts to improve service (the Ridership Growth Strategy under Mayor Miller) were thwarted by a shortage of vehicles and operators. TTC management plans to bring an updated RGS to their Board in January 2017, but unless both the Board and City Council approve funding and staff, nothing can happen during 2017 except by shuffling service from one route or time period to another. This is “fine tuning”, an exercise in “efficiencies”, not a commitment to a broad-based improvement in service. If routes are overcrowded, the first thing the TTC owes everyone is a detailed list of when and where this is taking place. How many buses and streetcars are we really short of requirements, and if they were available, what would be the budgetary effect simply of getting up to the service standard set by the Board? If we are already at this standard, how can Tory and Colle claim that crowding is the result of a vehicle shortage? One big problem with crowding is that, beyond a certain point, it does not really measure demand. How many people could not get on because a bus was full? How many people gave up and walked or called a cab because their streetcar never showed up? Budget hawks whose attitude to transit roughly equates to “there’s always room for one more on the roof” ignore this problem of latent demand and abandoned attempts to ride the TTC. They would rather talk about how there must be even more money the TTC can wring from its operations to avoid higher subsidies. They don’t see the taxicabs trolling major routes for fares whenever there is a gap in service (they’re not hard to find) and picking off would-be TTC customers. How Is The Bus Fleet Used? An important starting point is an understanding of the way the bus fleet provides supplementary service for a variety of reasons. First and most obvious in this context is the use of buses to replace streetcars. In January 2017, the peak number of buses operating on streetcar routes will be: 501 Queen: 23 502 Downtowner: 9 503 Kingston Road Tripper: 7 504 King: 12 511 Bathurst: 17 Total: 68 In the case of 501 Queen, the number of buses is driven by the need to break the line at Roncesvalles for construction. If not for this project, it is unclear just how many streetcars would actually have to come off of the route to fit with maintenance needs of the old cars. By comparison, the number of extra buses required to deal with construction delays for the Eglinton-Crosstown project are: 34 Eglinton East & 100 Flemingdon Park: 4 (net due to route reconfiguration) 51 Leslie: 1 54 Lawrence East: 2 56 Leaside: 1 32 Eglinton West: 3 33 Forest Hill: 1 90 Vaughan: -1 Service Relief Buses: 3 Total: 14 Many other routes such as 7 Bathurst and 29 Dufferin are affected by Crosstown construction, but the schedule adjustments have simply stretched the existing service over longer trip times (and hence wider headways between buses). This increases crowding because the number of buses per hour past any point is reduced. Other projects such as the Spadina subway extension, the Renforth Gateway, the Six Points, not to mention the shortage of working trains for the SRT also contribute to the total of extra buses on various routes, but not at the scale caused by the streetcar shortage. Another way that the available bus fleet is reduced is a change in maintenance requirements. For the January 2017 schedules, 20 buses have been cut from peak service to increase the pool available for maintenance. Affected routes are: Bay – 2 Eglinton W – 2 Glencairn – 1 Highland Creek – 1 Leslie – 1 Markham Rd – 2 Martin Grove – 1 McCowan – 1 McCowan N – 1 Scarborough Rocket – 1 Service Relief – 1 Sheppard E – 3 Shorncliffe – 1 West Mall – 2 According to the TTC, all of these routes will remain within the official crowding standards even with fewer buses. I leave it to riders to comment on whether there actually is any room to spare on these routes today. Another matter is the question of service reliability which has been examined many times on this site. Vehicles commonly operate in pairs (or only a few minutes apart) with the result that the average condition seen by most riders is the crowded first vehicle, not its roomy follower. TTC stats might report that service meets standards on average, but most riders are not on an “average” bus or streetcar. This is a long-standing problem with Toronto’s transit service about which the TTC does next to nothing if actual conditions on major routes are any indication. Finally, it is worth looking at the scheduled service over recent years. The drop in scheduled buses between 2014 and 2015 results from the introduction of larger 18m vehicles which displaced the regular 12m buses on a 3:2 ratio on affected routes (roughly equivalent to a 60 bus reduction). The effect had largely worked its way into the schedules by fall 2014, and so the difference between 2014 and 2015 is not as marked later in the year. 2016 saw the introduction of vehicles from the order delivered in 2015, although the rise in scheduled vehicles is considerably lower than the size of the order. Based on a 105 bus order, one would expect about 88 more scheduled vehicles for 20% spares. This level of change is visible only in fall 2016, and service cuts plus redirection of buses to streetcar routes have undone much of the benefit. These are the new buses announced in the Tory/Colle press conference early in 2015. The peak scheduled bus count in January 2017 is the same as in November-December 2016. It is only 3.7% higher (56 buses) than the count in January 2015. As for the streetcar service, the number of peak vehicles stayed fairly constant until 2016 when it began to drop. A small part of this is due to the introduction of larger vehicles on 510 Spadina which now has fewer new Flexitys serving it than in its days with CLRVs. The main reason for the drop is withdrawal of streetcars from service for maintenance and reliability. In summary, yes, the TTC bought new buses early in the Tory administration, but the full increase in fleet was only briefly seen on the street, and this has now been reduced by a combination of service cutbacks and redeployment of buses to streetcar lines. John Tory Discovers Service Shortage During his election campaign, John Tory’s position was that everything was just fine with transit service, that more buses or streetcars were not a solution to anything, and that his SmartTrack plan would solve every problem. It was a very big chicken that would fill every available pot. Today, SmartTrack consists of six new GO Transit stations that will be built on the City’s dime, plus the western extension of the Eglinton-Crosstown LRT to Renforth Gateway and, maybe, to Pearson Airport if someone else will pay for that part of the route. Gone is the surface-subway frequency of trains from Markham to Mississauga and all that this would imply for a transformation of the rapid transit network. Gone is a service that might carry hundreds of thousands of riders daily. All that remains is election souvenirs and the signature SmartTrack colours. Shortly after taking office, Mayor Tory and Chair Josh Colle held a press conference to announce that, goodness gracious, the “previous administration” had made unconscionable cuts to the TTC and taken service away from people who really needed it. This about-face compared to his election stance was a pleasant surprise, but it brought nowhere near the resources one might expect to see on the transit system. A promised investment of $95 million turned out to be roughly half that amount once other cuts to the TTC’s budget were taken into account. The TTC is buying new buses ostensibly for more service, but does not have the budgeted resources to operate them. On the heaviest streetcar line, 504 King, the TTC talks about adding more capacity by running buses on the route, but in fact the buses only barely offset the capacity lost because streetcars have been removed. The capacity actually provided on King has not changed in years, and even this is subject to periodic disruption for events where transit takes a back seat to other civic priorities. Meanwhile in Thunder Bay Lest all of this appear to be an anti-Tory rant, Bombardier is no saint in this story either. They have been promising new cars but failing to deliver for a long time, and as TTC CEO Andy Byford says, “we have more schedules than streetcars”. The mess with fleet availability can be traced directly to the delays in manufacturing the new cars thanks to quality control problems that have been well documented elsewhere. The fact that the TTC is now seeing several new cars in a short period is good news (the planned 30th car is enroute to Toronto as I write this), and Bombardier will hit its oft-revised target for the end of 2016. We will, however, still be 70 cars short of where we expected to be by this time. Forty more cars are expected in 2017, but the system will still depend overwhelmingly on the remaining fleet of old cars. The CLRV fleet (the single section cars) dates from 1977-81 while the ALRV fleet (two-section cars) were delivered in 1987-89. The CLRVs are well beyond the normal 30-year retirement age for a rail vehicle, and the ALRVs would wave their farewells in the next few years. Instead, the TTC shops are working to rebuild enough cars to keep some of the fleet in reliable shape while awaiting the rest of the Bombardier Flexitys. According to CTV News: In 2018, Bombardier says it will provide 76 new streetcars to the TTC and 58 in 2019. TTC staff says that works out to a rate of approximately one car every 3.3 days in 2018 and one every 4.4 days in 2019. In his response, Bombardier Transportation Americas President Benoît Brossoit says the company has “doubled our production output over the last three months.” “Based on these results we are fully confident that we will meet our commitment to deliver an additional 40 new streetcars in 2017 and all 204 by the end of 2019.” He said that understand the company “may have failed to meet your expectations” but added that the slow delivery of streetcars “does not reflect the type of company Bombardier is around the world.” That is a stunning understatement. Bombardier Transportation is headquartered in Berlin, and grew by amassing various European carbuilders along with their designs and expertise. The new Toronto streetcars are an offshoot of a design first unveiled for Berlin’s system. (Yes, gentle reader, they do have streetcars in Europe despite the best efforts of trolls on this side of the pond to claim otherwise.) When Toronto first looked at replacement streetcars a decade ago, their first target was a vehicle with a low centre section (about 70% of the car) and two high-floor end sections. (A mockup based on Bombardier’s design for Minneapolis was displayed at Dundas Square in mid-2007.) This would have provided accessibility to a limited part of the car, but at the expense of internal circulation problems thanks to having two separate floor heights. When the Berlin 100% low floor design came along, the TTC switched direction. That change cost some time early in the project, and this was compounded by the failure to get an acceptable bid in the first round. By the time a second round was in, only two bidders remained (Bombardier and Siemens), and Bombardier’s price was much lower than Siemens’. The contract went to Bombardier in mid-2009, and at that point completion was scheduled for mid-2018. After three prototypes, the first production vehicle was to arrive in 2012. This would allow a comparatively relaxed production rate over six years, but production delays have compressed this to a much shorter period even with the end date now in 2019. Even the 40 cars for 2017 is a rate only one third above the originally planned 30/year and this will leave 134 to be delivered in 2018 and 2019, more than double the originally planned rate. Bombardier builds a range of vehicles over the entire rail spectrum, and wouldn’t have arrived at this position by failing to deliver on their contracts. Indeed, even in Toronto, Bombardier has churned out subway cars for years with some teething problems, but no reason to expect they were incapable of delivery. This history makes the streetcar problems even more troublesome because they were so unexpected, and they came at a time when the company was preoccupied with the survival of its aircraft business. Bombardier has reorganized its production capacity not just for the TTC order, but for cars destined to Metrolinx LRT lines as well as Kitchener-Waterloo’s ION LRT. Plants in both Kingston, Ontario and La Pocatière, Québec have become part of the LRV manufacturing process. The overall status of delivery schedules for orders beyond the TTC remains a mystery. Will Huffing and Puffing Get Toronto More Service? Mayor Tory’s letter to Bombardier is timed intriguingly to land just before the City’s Budget Committee will review TTC financial plans for 2017, and during a period when demands for better service are commonly heard. If anything, this is a diversionary tactic to say “we couldn’t run more service even if we wanted to” and thereby avoid any debate over funding transit improvements. This could well pre-empt even a discussion of what might be needed and what could be done, a typical Toronto transit situation where any real discussion of improvements is sandbagged. Meanwhile, fantasies of new subway lines dance in Councillors’ heads at a cost both directly in borrowing and debt service, and indirectly in the works that never get off of the drawing board for lack of funding. Holding down property taxes is a holy grail to the Mayor who insists on across the board cuts to spending even when the effect is to undo many of his own promises. All of Toronto’s (and Ontario’s) capital spending on transit puts the City and the TTC on the verge of substantial increases in operating costs for day-to-day service. Rapid transit is more expensive to operate than the bus routes it replaces, and higher frequency trunk lines attract more riding on feeder routes. Any fare consolidation with GO Transit under the rubric of “SmartTrack” or “Regional Integration” will almost certainly mean additional subsidies for Toronto’s riders. Will these costs be borne from City revenues, or will riders pay for them with higher fares and service cuts? This is vital financial planning, but the area has been utterly ignored by Toronto’s politicians for years. Recently, Mayor Tory has taken a new, combative position saying, in effect, that nobody before him on Council lifted a finger to improve transit. This is a remnant of “SmartTrack as cure-all” from his campaign days, and it does much disservice to those who fought through the Ford years to limit the damage to the transit system. Those who fight the good fight do not always win, but that failure is far different from inaction, and just keeping issues in the public eye has long-term benefits when political winds change. The real issue before Council with the 2017 budget is that transit needs better funding, and that there are serious questions about the adequacy of transit service. Trying to shift all of the blame to Bombardier denies the very real problem that service out there on the street is not meeting riders’ expectations and needs. A productive discussion would find out just how badly behind those needs the TTC really is and work out a way to solve this problem. That would make a great start for a re-election campaign in 2018. Making transit work better now, not in a decade’s time. But instead, we will hear all about saving precious taxpayers dollars, building new subway lines, and nothing about improving the transit service riders face every day.Filed under: Service Cost and Quality, Streetcars, Transit, Vehicles 17 Dec

The Evolution of the TTC 2017 Budget - Following numbers in the development of budgets can be like a game of Three Card Monte on a grand scale. Information is presented in various ways, at times in ways that obscure understanding, and at others where the path from “version a” to “b” is missing a crucial step. This article is an attempt to reconcile what has been presented to date. As and when further revisions occur, I will add updates here. The Process TTC management begin work on the following year’s operating budget midway through the calendar year. At that point, the actual results that will come out by year-end are unknown, and only some trends may be apparent. The starting point is the current budget which may or may not reflect the actuals by year end, but they have to start somewhere. Budgets in Toronto are typically presented in terms of year-over-year “pressures” so that, for example, if there is a known increase in costs such as fuel or electricity, this translates to an amount by which this budget line will increase. Basic cost changes can be compounded if there is a substantial change in TTC operations such as the expansion of bus service or the opening of a new subway line. This is a fundamental issue in transit budgets – they must absorb not only changes in costs related to inflation, market rates, and labour contracts, but also the change in scale of operations. Typically the gross cost of the system goes up greater than the rate of inflation, although this can be offset by cost reductions and that favourite target of budget hawks, “efficiencies”. The TTC’s Budget Committee was supposed to meet in June, but this was cancelled and a chance to get an early look at the 2017 situation was, therefore, lost by the Board (at least to the extent of any public discussion). In September, there were two separate meetings for the Capital and Operating budgets respectively. Finally in late November, the Board approved its Preliminary Budget for 2017. This went into the City’s budget process, and further refinements proposed by the City Manager await actions by the City Budget Committee on December 19, followed by Council in the new year. The TTC Board will then have to deal with the difference, if any, between the requested subsidy and what they actually will receive from Council. The 2.6% Solution At its July 12, 2016 meeting, City Council endorsed Mayor Tory’s request for an across-the-board 2.6% saving in spending by all departments and agencies. 3. City Council adopt an across the board budget reduction target of -2.6 percent net below the 2016 Approved Net Operating Budgets for all City Programs, Agencies, Toronto Community Housing Corporation, and Accountability Offices, and that strategies including but not limited to the following strategies be used to achieve the -2.6 percent target: a. fund any new or enhanced services from within existing budgets, and review for impact on staff time and planned service delivery any new or enhanced services with a “net zero” funding impact; b. continue to control expenditures through cost saving measures; c. explore all services for efficiency savings including opportunities from business process re-engineering, streamlining, transformation and innovation to service delivery including from: i. service delivery rationalization and restructuring; ii. opportunities for alternative service delivery, including contracting out; and iii. opportunities for public service delivery where alternative service delivery has not met stated savings objectives or met Council policy objectives; d. review service levels and outcomes for relevance, value and impact, focussing on non-public facing services first; e. maximize user fee revenue by reviewing full cost-recovery where applicable, review existing fines and permit fees and identify new fines and other user fees where appropriate; f. provide a thorough justification for any new Full-time Equivalents; and g. avoid “offloading” expenses to other City Programs and Agencies. Seven of the eleven TTC Board Members are also Councillors. Although there were some efforts to constrain the effect of this direction on the TTC, these did not pass, and in the end all of the Councillors who sit on the TTC Board endorsed the 2.6% target cut. For the TTC this applies only to the portion of revenue that comes from City subsidy (the “net” budget position), not the total TTC budget which is substantially funded by fare revenue. With the subsidy sitting at about 28.4% of total TTC revenue, a 2.6% cut translates to about 0.74% of the gross budget or roughly $12.8 million. The situation is complicated by the Wheel-Trans budget which is almost entirely paid for from City subsidy. The 2.6% cut would reduce the Wheel-Trans subsidy by $3 million. These two cuts were combined to produce a TTC target of $15.8 million, but the actual budget trimming fell almost entirely on the “conventional” system’s budget, not on Wheel-Trans. This situation would later be compounded by the strong growth in demand for Wheel-Trans service which is crowding out better funding for the main part of TTC operations. A First Look at the TTC Budget: September 2016 On September 21, 2016, the TTC Budget Committee was given a preliminary look at the situation for 2017. This was not a detailed budget, but rather a list of pressures on costs for 2017 together with a list of potential cuts to satisfy the 2.6% target. The budget presentation included summaries of the opening positions for 2017 for both the conventional services and for Wheel-Trans. At this point, the only adjustment in revenue was for reduced farebox income (the combined effect of lower riding than the 2016 budget, and absence of a fare increase at this stage of the budget). The subsidy shown here is at the 2016 level before the 2.6% cut is applied. Expenses rise by $151 million, the combined value of the expense pressures. The TTC approved a number of cost reductions totalling $15.4 million in the conventional system budget and $0.4 million in Wheel-Trans to “satisfy” the City’s target.  This exercise was a sham intended only to claim that the TTC was “doing something” about budget problems even though it still faced a shortfall over ten times the size of the cuts made at this point. Moreover, the lion’s share of the “cut” was a windfall improvement in benefit costs due to reduced claim levels thanks to the unveiling of fraudulent activities by some employees and service providers. Most of this saving actually occurred in 2016 and reduced budget pressures in that year. It is carried over into 2017 only because the new budget is stated relative to the old one, not relative to probable 2016 results. This is money the TTC has already “saved”, but such are the peculiarities of political optics that this can be claimed as aiding the 2.6% budgetary target for 2017. The combined shortfall remained at about $215m because the budgetary savings were offset by the 2.6% reduction in expected City subsidy. One saving budget-to-budget that was not listed in the September changes was a reduction in Depreciation charges between 2016 and 2017. In 2016, this represented an operating cost of $33.449 million, but by 2017 the value is down to $29.0m. This would be a saving of almost $4.5m but it was not shown as an offset to the 2017 budget pressure, although it could be lumped  in with the category of “other changes”. This line item will return as an issue in later versions of the budget. One decision had already been taken by management – the cancellation of service improvements planned for September 2016. This would lead to savings in 2016 as well as a budget-to-budget saving in 2017. In fact, the Service Budget (which expresses the planned service levels in hours) for 2017 had already been set in early August. The tables below show the 2016 budget and actuals, together with the planned 2017 budget. The months of October and November 2016 show a reduction relative to the planned amount of service. Going into 2017, the planned amount of service is slightly higher than in 2016 reflecting the carry-through of 2016 changes, but still lower than the originally planned fall 2016 levels. Note that although regular service has relatively little change, there is a large increase in projected hours due to construction. This is primarily caused by the Crosstown project, but the cost of this service is reimbursed to the TTC by Metrolinx. Another change for 2017 is that the City will pay the TTC for the cost of extra service triggered by construction projects such as the water main work on Queen Street that required extra service on 501 Queen for much of 2016. The additional service relative to budget in January 2017 is primarily due to the late delivery of new streetcars triggering bus operation with more vehicles (and hence operator hours) than planned. TTC Accounting Peculiarities A few aspects of the TTC’s method of reporting income and expenses make reconciliation difficult. These involve revenue or charges received and incurred on behalf of others. The TTC provides some transit service outside of the City of Toronto to York Region, and revenue from this is shown as a distinct line in the budget. This will be declining in 2017 because YRT is taking over responsibility for some services now provided by the TTC. The cost of operating this service is buried in the operating budget. Presto provides fare collection services for the TTC in return for a percentage fee of revenue handled through that system. Changes in the charges anticipated from Presto are shown as pressure/relief points in the budget, but there is no actual revenue/expense statement for the fare revenue and Presto service. On a related point, the TTC provides front line support for the Presto-owned fare machines. There is no revenue shown as income to offset the cost. The TTC will receive payments from both the City of Toronto and from Metrolinx for the cost of extra service triggered by delays and diversions from their construction projects. These are not shown as a distinct sources of income although their value is higher than payments received from YRT. They are estimated in the body of the November budget report at $6m from the City and $18.7m from Metrolinx. In summary, there are agreements with external agencies that entail provision of work or service, costs and revenues, but in most cases these are not booked explicitly and are assumed to simply come out in the wash over the course of the year. Only the YRT income appears in the financial statements as a line item, and it is not booked against specific operating costs, let alone the capital costs associated with vehicles required to provide the service. The Second Round: November 2016 At its November 21 meeting, the TTC Board was presented with an updated Preliminary Budget that included many other changes in an attempt to wrestle down the shortfall. In this report, the 2.6% cut is described as an additional pressure over and above the $215m even though back in September cuts had been approved to deal with that. A list of further budget changes brought the shortfall down to $99m including $41.4m in new revenue (fare increase, draw from reserves), and  $75m in expenditure cuts. This was described in detail in my previous article about the budget and proposed fare increase. The combined effect of these changes brought the shortfall down to $99m. The proposed fare increase was described as bringing in $27m in new revenue, which would be a $5m net reduction taking into account the original $32m budget pressure from lower ridership. On a budget-to-budget basis, the drop is slightly greater at $6.94m. The net decrease in revenue taking various factors, notably a big jump in commuter parking lot fees ($3m on a base of $9.3m), is $4.5m. Of the $75m in cuts, $71m was taken from the conventional system budget and $4m from Wheel-Trans. It is worth noting that between the two budgets there are $9m in unspecified reductions or refinements with $5m on the conventional service and $4m on Wheel-Trans. At this point, the TTC attempted some “sideloading” of costs by shifting both Depreciation expenses ($29m) and the cost of Hybrid Bus Batteries ($8.5m) onto the City’s capital account. This violates item 3.g in the Council directive above, and moreover the basic accounting principle that Depreciation is an operating expense, not a capital one. From the City’s point of view, this was simply an effort to make the TTC deficit fall on paper, while offering no relief to City costs. From the TTC’s point of view, this change would bring the deficit down to about $61m. This is the budget that was passed by the TTC and forwarded to the City for review with the following key numbers: Total Revenue: $1,237.6 million Total Expenses: $1,765.4 Subsidy Required: $ 527.8 Subsidy Available: $ 478.2 Draw from Reserve: $ 14.4 Deficit (Conventional): $ 35.1 Deficit (Wheel-Trans): $ 26.4 Total Deficit: $ 61.5 million The City’s Response to the TTC Budget As noted above, the City does not agree with the transfer of Depreciation Charges or the cost of Hybrid Bus Batteries to the Capital account. This does not reduce TTC spending, but merely shifts it elsewhere in the budget. Moreover, clause 3.a of the Council directive clearly states that any “New and Enhanced” functions must be funded from within existing budgets. The TTC has treated these as incremental costs placing $5.8 million in proposed spending in dispute between the TTC and City Manager as to whether the functions really should be classified this way. The line items in question are: Fitness for Duty program ($1.300m) Increased Powers for Transit Enforcement Officers ($.098m) Track Signal and Power Reliability ($1.228m) Station Transformation Training ($1.856m) Track Safety Plan ($1.330m) The deficit using the City’s numbers therefore rises by $37.5m (capital transfers) less $5.8m (disallowed costs) to $93.2m. If Council decides to approve the “new and enhanced” items, then the total rises to $99m. The TTC will likely advance a rationale for this spending at the City Budget Committee meeting. As often happens in budget debates, there will be a lot of talk about small amounts. Councillors tend to fixate on numbers that at best get into the tens of millions while ignoring much bigger issues elsewhere in the City’s financial problems. Depending on what stays in and what is removed, the TTC could face the need to find even more money by various schemes related either to service quality or fare levels. Mayor Tory has said both that service will not decline nor will fares rise, but if so, then he must find substantial new revenues to balance the TTC’s budget. That does not even address the many other calls for City resources beyond transit.Filed under: Finance, Transit 15 Dec

TTC Service Changes Effective Sunday, January 8, 2017 - The planned service changes for January 2017 bring major restructuring of two routes, and a troubling indicator about the general availability of vehicles for TTC service. Bus Availability Several routes will have AM peak service cuts because there are not enough buses to operate the service. None of these will push the service over the loading standards, and these could be thought of of “trimming” excessive service. However, the explicit reason given is the lack of buses. This is partly due to the slow delivery of new streetcars and to the operation of buses on many streetcar routes either to make up for missing fleet, or to cover for construction projects, but also because of additional demands for spare buses for maintenance. Streetcar Availability At the time of writing this article, car 4429 is about to leave Thunder Bay. This leaves Bombardier on track if they push out one more car to hit their much-revised delivery target for 2016. However, the rate of deliveries is not expected to speed up until the second quarter of 2017 and so it will be some time before we see streetcars return across the system.The shortage is partly due to late deliveries and partly to the increased need for cars in maintenance for rehabilitation pending receipt of more Flexitys. As of January, the following routes or portions of routes are operating with buses: 502 Downtowner and 503 Kingston Road 501 Queen (bus operation west of Sunnyside Loop to Long Branch) 504 King (bus trippers) 511 Bathurst Effective January 8, 2017, the 501 Queen service will operate with streetcars only between Sunnyside Loop and Neville Loop. A bus service will run from Long Branch Loop via Lake Shore, Windermere, The Queensway, Queen and Dufferin to Dufferin Loop. The same arrangement will be in place for night service, and so riders bound west of Roncesvalles will have to transfer to the night bus. Beginning in the spring, The Queensway right-of-way will be rebuilt over its entire length including the bridge at the Humber River, the “Long Branch” side of Humber Loop will be rebuilt, as will the track from Humber Loop west to Dwight and Lake Shore (just at the point where Lake Shore straightens out). Streetcar service is not expected to resume until late in 2017. A separate project to rebuild and reconfigure The Queensway east of Parkside to Roncesvalles, including replacement of the intersection and the junctions with the carhouse, is planned for 2019. Concurrent with this change, some of the bus trippers on 504 King will  revert to streetcar operation. Also, the 80A Queensway service to Keele Station will operate at all hours rather than cutting back to Humber Loop to preserve a connection with the 501 Queen bus service. Metrolinx Construction on the Eglinton LRT This project continues to affect more routes whose schedules have been adjusted mainly by giving more running time and stretching headways. The major change in this regard is that the 25 Don Mills route will be split on weekdays at Don Mills Station into two separate routes so that construction delays on the south end of the line do not affect service north of Sheppard. The service levels on the 25 Don Mills local buses and 185 Don Mills Rockets have been slightly adjusted to reflect greater demand on the locals. 2017.01.08_Service_ChangesFiled under: Queen Car, Service Cost and Quality, Transit 11 Dec

TTC 2017 Capital Budget Update - A few weeks ago, the big TTC story was the Operating Budget and fare increase approved on November 21. However, the same agenda included the $9 billion 2017-26 Capital Budget as well as an update on proposed spending from Ottawa’s new Public Transit Infrastructure Fund (PTIF). The major changes between the preliminary version discussed at TTC Budget Committee in September and the version presented to the Board for approval are: Incorporation of additional PTIF funded projects raising their total value from $506 million in the preliminary budget to $1,160 million in the approved version. Replacement of the “City debt target” values carried forward from the 2016 budget with a “funding request” including the City’s 50% PTIF share. Reduction of the savings attributed to “Capacity to Spend” limitations. Whether the TTC’s plans fit in with the City’s financing capability and debt target will be better known once the City Budget launches on December 6, and the question of new “revenue tools” is settled. Although there is some appetite, finally, to raise new revenues in support of capital projects, the amounts likely to flow remain well below the level needed to fund all of the City’s wish list. PTIF Projects Phase 1 of PTIF focuses on “state of good repair” projects that renew infrastructure and keep the system from falling apart. There are several reports including PTIF details, and the amounts vary between them: The PTIF report from September 2016 contains $720m of TTC projects (gross) with assumed PTIF funding of $360m (50%). The preliminary version of the 2017-2026 Capital Budget contains only $506m (gross) because some of the PTIF money will go toward the 2016 budget. The final version of the 2017-2026 Capital Budget contains $1.160b (gross) for funding in 2017-2019. The PTIF report from November 2016 includes $1.363b (gross) for the entire phase. The list of TTC PTIF projects is shown below. Details for each of these are in the PTIF report. Note that the table above is organized in groups based on current funding status: Unfunded projects have no prior Council approval, and so will require that Toronto fund 50% of their cost as “new money”. ($367m gross) New projects added in 2017 were not previously in the capital plans, and so have no approved funding. They too will require new money from Council. ($166m gross) Partly funded items in the 2016-2025 budget are ongoing maintenance projects such as the annual replacement of track on the streetcar and subway systems. These projects are not completely funded either because spending in the “out years” is not yet approved, or because there have been cuts to the “in years” to keep TTC spending within the City’s budget. PTIF money could top up budgets in the years 2016-19, or it could allow the city to repurpose some planned funding to other projects. ($237m gross) Fully funded projects have been approved by Council in the 2016 round including all of their planned spending through the coming decade. PTIF money for these projects allows the city to redirect part of the 100% funding it had planned to other unfunded projects. ($594m gross) Bus Fleet Plans A major change in the final version of the list is the scope of the planned order for diesel buses. The previous budget approval included two orders for 108 and 272 buses respectively, of which 173 vehicles would fall within the window of PTIF funding. If PTIF phase 1 is extended to allow projects running for three years, a further 85 buses would fall within its envelope. The “unfunded” list above includes part of a proposed order for 99 “service improvement” buses, as well as over half of a planned 805 bus order that would accelerate the retirement of existing vehicles. I have repeatedly asked the TTC for details of its bus fleet plans, and these requests are for some reason being ignored. How the TTC can have a proposal to buy over 1,000 vehicles without a detailed plan of how they would be used is quite a mystery. The last time a plan was published was in the 2016 budget. The service improvement buses show up as a line item here with a total of 141 vehicles, 99 of them in 2017-19. How exactly the TTC plans to operate these considering that there is no budget to speak of for more service is another mystery of TTC planning. Of course, these vehicles were ordered when Mayor Tory was still in an expansive mood about transit service. On November 30, the TTC Board approved the purchase of 285 buses to be delivered in 2017-18. This is the final exercise of an option on the Nova Bus contract under which new vehicles are now being delivered. In the plan above, the original level of procurement for 2017-18 was 221, and so this represents an increase in the 2017 plans. For PTIF eligibility, the TTC wants to bring forward bus purchases originally planned beyond the scope of PTIF phase 1 so that part of this order will receive federal funding. Originally, planned bus purchases would have been 115 in 2019 and 120 annually thereafter. To put the accelerated order for new buses in context, here is the TTC’s fleet list (taken from the current Scheduled Service Summary). The hybrid bus fleet has been no end of trouble for the TTC, and these vehicles date from 2006-2009. They were intended to last into the 2020s with some receiving overhauls in 2022-23 in the 2016 plan. However, their more likely fate is early retirement and an 805 bus order would more than replace the 691 hybrids. These bus purchases are described in the PTIF project list as: Buses to reduce passenger wait times and crowding and to provide more reliable and expanded services. This is something of an exaggeration if the vehicles are intended only as replacements, not as net additions to the fleet. Allowing for better reliability of new buses versus the existing hybrids, this will make more vehicles available and reduce the in service failure rate. However, reduced crowding and wait times, not to mention expanded services only come with better operating funding that puts more vehicles on the road. Among the new bus maintenance policies the TTC has considered would be the increase of the spare factor in the fleet to 18%. This means that for every 100 buses scheduled in peak service, there would be 18 buses in maintenance. That number does not include the “capital spares” required for warranty work and major overhauls. In the 2016 fleet plan, the scheduled requirement was for about 1,600 buses, but the total fleet was 27% higher. TTC management, in presenting their budget, stated that if the large bus order goes through, they will be able to defer a move to a higher spare ratio. In the short to medium term, a large order of new vehicles should increase overall reliability and availability, but there is a catch involved in this type of planning. All of the new vehicles will age at the same rate, and less than a decade out, the bus fleet will on average be “older” than is ideal driving up failure rates and lowering fleet reliability. Moreover, the fleet replacement will have a sharp peak much as TTC streetcar and subway orders now do, and this will be a strain on future budgets. Indeed, the City has repeatedly asked the TTC to flatten out its vehicle procurement cycle to reduce the effect on budget planning, but with the lure of a potload of PTIF money, the TTC and City appear to be headed in the opposite direction. Finally, the ten-year budget contains only design funding for a new bus garage to follow after McNicoll Garage, but no money for construction. If the TTC plans to increase its fleet, even allowing for offsets from the opening of new rapid transit lines (Spadina, Eglinton, Scarborough), they need somewhere to put the vehicles. PTIF Phase 2 Separately from the TTC’s “state of good repair” budget, there are many large infrastructure projects of which only some are for transit. These are in the City of Toronto’s list for the second phase of PTIF funding. The costs shown below are gross values, and the federal share of this would come to $12 billion on a 50% basis. In turn, that would require that Toronto commit an equal amount to most of these unless Queen’s Park feels the urge to contribute as well. A notable change here is that the Eglinton East LRT is included as a PTIF project, not as part of the “bundle” of Scarborough projects used to make the subway extension palatable to a majority of Council. The next cost estimate for the extension is likely to be even higher than the current one. Decisions to move forward with these projects are separate from the TTC budget, but influence it because there is only so much money to go around. The Scarborough Subway Extension Moreover, some of the new projects, notably the Scarborough Subway Extension (SSE) trigger the need to move projects on the TTC’s list from unfunded to funded status. There are several projects related to the Scarborough Subway, but not included (or at least not fully) in its budget. Replacement of the existing T1 subway car fleet with 372 new cars (62 new trainsets). The existing T1 fleet cannot be economically equipped for Automatic Train Control (ATC) which will be the signalling technology on the extension, and a new fleet must be in place before this opens. 62 trainsets will be sufficient to operate the BD + SSE line with every other train running beyond Kennedy to STC, but not with full peak service. Moreover, there would be no spare trains to increase service on BD beyond its current level. The original version of the SSE budget included money for additional trains to bring the line up to full service, but whether this has been traded away to pay for increasing costs on the construction project remains to be seen. A new fleet of subway cars in the style of the TRs now on Line 1 YUS will require a maintenance facility designed for this equipment, and the system will have to deal with an overlap when the new fleet is arriving before the old one is retired. Greenwood Shops was not designed for TR-style trains operated as a single unit. The TTC is contemplating a new subway yard near Kipling Station. Work is now underway to increase system storage capacity, but this will only allow for all of the existing T1 fleet to be stored along the Bloor-Danforth line, not for additional storage for co-existence with a new fleet. The 2017-26 budget contains money for design of a new facility (p 26), but not for its construction. Conversion of the existing Line 2 Bloor Danforth subway to ATC. This work is not specific to the SSE, and it does not have to complete before the SSE opens (just as the Line 1 YUS conversion will not finish before the Spadina extension opens). This project is included in the 2017-26 Capital Budget (p 21), but the timeframe has been pushed back to end beyond 2026 when the SSE opens. Commitment to the Scarborough extension with a 2026 opening date will require that the unfunded projects associated with a new BD fleet be brought forward. This has not been mentioned in financial plans for the SSE presented at the TTC or at Council. “Capacity to Spend” The preliminary version of the Capital Budget included a piece of creative accounting intended to make the TTC’s funding needs look a bit less severe than they might be. In the preliminary version, the TTC assumed that close to 10% ($858m out of $9.4b) of its planned spending would not actually occur. This was based on the premise that each year’s budget is underspent, and therefore they really didn’t need the entire $9.4b. That schemes falls apart because the overwhelming reason for underspending is not that the work is not done, merely that it occurs in a later year than originally planned. In the final version of the budget, this adjustment is still present, but it has been reduced to $482m over 10 years, notably by excluding it from all of the PTIF projects. It really would not do to ask Ottawa for billions, only to turn around and say “we’re not really going to spend it all”. Moreover, treating deferred spending as if it were a permanent cost reduction creates a situation where the city understates its future capital needs. This may look good in the short term, but it catches up with us in the long term. By such devices are “cost overruns” created. Comparing the Preliminary and Final Funding Plans With the arrival of PTIF and other adjustments, there is considerable difference between the budgets presented in September and in late November. These changes are summarized in the attached table. My apologies for its size, but the two originals on which this is based are themselves densely packed with numbers. 2017_funding_prelim_vs_proposed The chart is organized with three pages on which the years from 2017-26 run across the pages, and the sources of funding run down. The change for each item is shown to highlight what has shifted between the two budgets. Note that some rows and columns do not add up due to rounding in the source documents from the TTC. Also note that this chart is for the “base” capital budget and does not include special projects such as the TYSSE or SSE for which funding comes from other governments, nor does it include any of the Metrolinx projects. Items of interest include: There is no change in anticipated provincial funding and this remains at a fixed level from the gas tax over the decade. Queen’s Park gives more to Toronto than is shown here, but the remainder is used as an Operating subsidy. Similarly, the federal gas tax is assumed to remain unchanged over the decade. The PTIF funding extends only to 2019 because this is Phase 1 money. Phase 2 projects will show up separately as and when they proceed just as the TYSSE is split out now. CSIF (Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund) has now run dry and is replaced by PTIF. It had some funding in past years, but not for 2017 and beyond. The treatment of the City’s contribution has changed from the preliminary to the final version. In the preliminary version, the full headroom from the 2016 debt target was included even though the TTC did not actually require all of this funding. That treatment produced a “surplus” in years where TTC spending would have been lower than the City’s headroom. In the final version, only the actual requirement for City funding is included. In 2017-18, the amounts expected from the City’s “Asset Monetization” have been replaced by the more generic “Capital Financing Strategy”. With the decision not to sell Toronto Hydro or the Toronto Parking Authority, funds available from “monetization” are lower than before. They have been offset by PTIF. There remains a $275m shortfall in 2017 as I described early in this article. This is related to the proposed order for 60 more Flexitys whose future is uncertain. Whether this order will be placed, or placed in 2017 (and hence a matter for this year’s budget) remains to be seen. Over the ten year plan, there is little change in proposed total spending, and not much increase in funding (note that about 40% of PTIF Phase 1 money was already included in the preliminary budget). Most PTIF money will go to new projects, and after the burst of support for state of good repair over the next few years, the City will be back to wrestling with shortfalls in available capital funding. This buys time for a few budget cycles, but does not address the structural problem in funding for the base budget.Filed under: Transit 5 Dec

Who Deserves a Fare Subsidy? - Updated: Further information on the history of seniors’ fares has been added at the end of this article. With the never ending problems of balancing the TTC’s budget, the question of trimming or eliminating various forms of fare subsidy are back on the table. This shows up as a quick fix to revenue problems with the assumption that “if only riders paid more, there wouldn’t be a problem”. The target group varies from time to time, but the premise is the same – somebody is freeloading and “my tax dollars/fares” should not be paying their freight. A basic problem with this argument is that it will not fix the revenue shortfall permanently, only increase the cost of using transit by whichever group is targeted. If, for example, all discount fares were eliminated in 2017, we would be right back at the same position in 2018 wondering how to deal with increased costs, but without that convenient list of scapegoats. A quick review of the “concession fares” is in order to put the question in context. Adults who are willing to purchase tokens up front (or preload their Presto cards) get a discount relative to riders who pay cash. Adults who want to prepay even more can purchase daily, weekly or monthly passes which cap their costs within a time period. Special passes and validation stickers are available to extend the range of services covered by adult passes to premium fare routes and to other transit systems. Daily pass holders get a special “family” deal on weekends and holidays when up to six people, maximum two adults, can travel on the pass. Monthly pass holders can obtain various extra discounts based on a commitment to buying 12 months’ worth of transit (the Metropass Discount Plan or MDP), and bulk-buy discounts are available to organizations that resell passes (the Volume Incentive Program or VIP). A Convention Pass is available to allow for bulk purchase of transit service for large groups at a price considerably below the cost of a day pass. Students and seniors have passes priced at a 20% discount from adult passes, and MDP pricing provides for a further discount. Cash and ticket fares are discounted about 33% from adult rates. Children ride free. A limited number of designated groups (the blind and war amputees) travel free. WheelTrans users are entitled to be accompanied by a Support Person at no extra charge. Some of the concession fares have been around for a very long time: Children’s fares predate the TTC’s formation in 1921 and until recently floated between 1/3 and 1/2 of an adult fare. A “child” was defined by height with rings embossed on the stanchions at vehicle entrances to give operators an unambiguous measure. Older vehicles (PCCs and the Peter Witt) bear witness to how the standard was changed over years as the average height of children rose. Scholars’ fares date from the 1950s, and they lie partway between the fare for children and adults. Seniors’ fares came along by the 1970s in recognition of the then-new issue of a growing aged population and their relative poverty. The CPP was less than a decade old, and “house rich” oldsters benefiting from the real estate market were unknown. The Metropass dates from May 1980, and its cost has fluctuated between 52 and 47 “token” fares depending on the prevailing political and fiscal mood. Post-secondary student passes were added to the mix in 2010 after several years of lobbying by student groups. Free rides for children were granted in early 2015 as a political move by then-new Mayor Tory to “do something” quickly on the transit and poverty files. As part of their recent Operation Budget, TTC staff included a table showing the marginal revenue that they expected to gain if various discounts were dropped. Collectively the discounts against fully-priced passes represent $29.6 million of which 45% is due to the Post-Secondary discount. Concession fares for seniors, high school students and children have a total cost of $44.4 million. If all of these were eliminated, the $74 million in revenue would not offset the current shortfall, roughly $100 million, in the TTC’s operating budget let alone make any contribution to pending cost increases in 2018 and beyond. This table does not include any estimate for the complete elimination of passes or even “token” fares (in effect charging the same fare for all trips). Both of these would have a huge effect on TTC fares generally and would be a large de facto fare increase for the majority of TTC riders. Before any group of riders is treated as potential sources of added revenue, it is important to see the discounts in the wider context of a transit system’s purpose. Discounts for riders who make frequent use of the system, and especially those which cap their costs over a period of time, are important to building loyalty among riders and encouraging a view that transit is a “first choice” because it has no marginal cost. That outlook can be undone by unreliable service where the “cost” of taking transit includes substantial inconvenience and unpredictability. In effect, a trip may be “free” but convenience trumps cost. There is a social “good” in having more people take transit because this removes autos from roads, and allows the city to provide mobility on transit as an alternative to the need for car ownership. Getting more people on transit increases the political constituency for transit funding, and transit can grow based on delivering a good product at a cost riders perceive to be reasonable. Billions are invested in the infrastructure to move people around, and there is a broad agreement that this is good for the city’s economy and residents. All of them. A breakdown of TTC ridership is available on the City’s Open Data website, and the excerpt below shows recent years. This table does not break down fare media into their discount groups such as MDP and VIP, but gives a sense of the relative importance of each type of fare and rider in the overall mix. Travel by some form of pass is the overwhelming majority for all trips, and even the relatively expensive senior/student pass attracts one third of its market. However, it is important to distinguish between rides and riders. Those who use passes take more trips than those paying by cash, tokens and tickets, and so the larger discounts go to frequent riders. The chart below from the TTC’s most recent Customer Satisfaction Survey gives a very different picture of the mix in fare media used by riders. Only 38% of the survey respondents use the TTC once a day or more, and so it is no surprise that passes figure much lower among fare media than tokens, and that cash is relatively high. This reflects the profile of transit riders in the population overall, and begs the question of what would be needed to shift people into higher categories of transit use. Not Just Fares, But Service Too Although the level of fares is typically the major part of budget debates including arguments for and against various types of discount, a great deal of transit policy affects costs by way of decisions on service. Riders on subway routes enjoy very frequent service (every 5 minutes or better) independent of the level of ridership. Subways have a high fixed cost from infrastructure operation and maintenance, as well as for the staffing of stations, but they have proportionately lower cost increases to operate more frequent service. Service is provided every 10 minutes on a core network of routes during all service hours, and at least every 30 minutes on the entire network with buses and streetcars running from 6:00 am to 1:00 am. All night service is provided every 30 minutes on the “Blue Night Network”. Some busy routes run more often at least for the “baby night” service if not the entire overnight period. Loading standards during off-peak periods are based on an average of a seated load on surface vehicles, although this is not always achieved. Fares cover about 70% of the operating cost of transit service, but make no contribution to capital costs including those for vehicles and infrastructure. Possible rollbacks in the service policies include: Elimination of maximum headway constraints such as subway service frequency, the 10 minute network and the 30 minute maximum headway. Removal of service from routes, or sections of routes, during times when ridership does not exceed a target threshhold. Elimination of some or all of the Blue Night Network. Changes to crowding standards to serve existing demand with fewer vehicles. Most of these were costed as options in the operating budget report. The idea of shifting some capital costs to the operating budget has also come up on occasion, but the effect of even a modest change in this regard would have a large effect on fares because of the capital budget’s scale. All of the policies about planning and operating the transit network are just as much decisions about subsidies as are the questions of fare levels. Unlike fares, service and infrastructure decisions benefit or harm all riders. The only service that is specific to one rider group is WheelTrans, and it has legislated targets for service and eligibility. It is ironic that cutbacks to the “conventional” system could stymie efforts to shift WheelTrans users away from their dedicated services. The Fair Pass At its December 1, 2016 meeting, Toronto’s Executive Committee endorsed the beginning of work toward reduced fares for the less well-to-do. The scheme would not come into effect until 2018 as it depends on Presto for implementation. Then it still has to make its way through the budget process and Council, but with Mayor Tory’s endorsement, this is fairly certain. The other key factor is that at least in its initial stages, the new discount would target only a small group of riders and therefore come at a low cost. Whether Council will simply add this on to the mounting TTC operating deficit, or actually come up with “new money” remains to be seen. City staff intend that it be at no net cost to the TTC, but nothing prevents Council from juggling the books simply by giving the TTC less subsidy than it might otherwise have received. The hard decisions will not come until the next term of Council for 2019 and beyond. See: Fair Pass: Transit Fare Equity Program for Low-Income Torontonians The program is designed for implementation over three years with progressively greater eligibility. Phase 1 – staring in March 2018 – includes only Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Works clients not in receipt of transportation supports Phase 2 – starting in March 2019 – extends eligibility to residents receiving housing supports or child care fee subsidy whose household income fall under the Low-Income Measure +15% eligibility threshold Phase 3 – starting in March 2020 – extends eligibility to all other Toronto residents living with an income below the Low Income Measure +15% threshold The cost builds in over time with the full effect in 2021 (year 4). The “Low Income Measure” varies depending on the size of the household from $22,537 for an individual up to $45,075 for a two adults and two children. This cutoff embraces 706,730 people in Toronto including seniors and children who already receive a transit discount. The proposed new fare would be at the same level as the current senior/student rates, in other words a 20% discount on pass pricing and a 33% discount on cash fares. The estimated population falling within the income cutoff who do not already receive a subsidy but who would be transit users is about 193,000, the number shown for the third phase of the program above. A separate Community Engagement Report looked at the profile of  potential recipients of the new subsidy. Respondents were divided roughly equally between the city’s four quadrants, and over 80% of them used the TTC regularly with 43% using it daily. The source of the 193,000 figure is not immediately obvious, but the following table gives a good indication. Of the total target population of 482,550, a substantial number already receive a subsidy of some kind, either the free children’s fare, or the student fare which is equivalent to the proposed “fair pass”. The table above is dishonest in that achievement of the $100 cost per low-income resident occurs because everyone who is already getting a discount is included. The $48.2 million cost should be allocated against the 193,000 potential beneficiaries giving a cost of about $250 each. Similarly, the high cost/person for children, students and seniors is achieved by allocating the entire cost of each subsidy only against those in the target group. A “saving” would only occur if these subsidies were ended. This is the sort of analysis that suggests a different agenda was once on the table – eliminating discounts for all but the target low income-group – but that this was subsequently dropped. When a section is titled “Efficient Allocation of Funds” it is clear that reallocation of subsidies from some riders is the intent. The demographics of low-income Torontonians implied by the table above are quite interesting. Under 40,000 seniors would even qualify for the Fair Pass program, less than 2% of the city’s population. Children and students outnumber the seniors by over 4:1. The largest group contains roughly 280,000 who do not fall into an already-subsidized category. Advocates for low-income fare subsidies argue that even at a 20% discount, the Fair Pass will not be affordable to many in the target group, although the 33% single fare discount would be the more likely to be widely used. The report misses a few key implementation points that are snarled up in TTC policy decisions. First is the question of a timed transfer. If the TTC made one fare valid for two hours without its byzantine transfer rules, all riders including those on low income would save money by avoiding charges for “trip chaining”, grouping several short hops together in one outing. Second is the matter of fare capping. If the “fair pass” were implemented as a monthly cap equal to the cost of a pass ($112), then riders would not face the need to pay out in a lump sum at the start of the month. Both of these options are easily within Presto capabilities because they are provided to other GTA transit operators. Slicing Up the Pie The central problem of all fare debates is that none of the potential funding governments wants to shell out more money, but the politicians want the photo ops, the air time that bragging about some new benefit will bring. At Queen’s Park, we have Metrolinx conducting a “fare integration” study doomed to failure by treating the problem as a zero-sum game where any fare reduction and lost revenue in one part of the network must be balanced by gains elsewhere (with the added caveat that Metrolinx won’t give up a penny). In Toronto, the idea of looting the existing concession fares has surfaced regularly, and we hear constantly about how affluent seniors are unjustly receiving civic benefits, not to mention the subsidies given to children of the “middle class”. Ironically, at the same Executive Meeting, Deputy Mayor Minnan-Wong moved, and the committee endorsed, that any tolls implemented on Toronto’s expressways be capped so that seniors would not pay more than a fixed amount. I suspect that seniors who drive frequently on the expressways are unlikely to be among the target population for lower transit fares. In this debate, nobody appears to be taking the part of ordinary transit users who could face service cuts to pay for increased fare subsidies. There is an assumption about the affluence and ability to pay by those who do not fall under the low income threshold that would be laughed out of Council if the subject were property taxes. Collectively, Toronto is a rich city and more revenue must come from its residents and businesses to pay for everything we would like to have. Despite the prosperity, Toronto also has a growing poverty problem affecting many city services including transit and housing, and there is little money on the table to pay for a growing and expensive list of civic baubles. If Council simply shuffles responsibility for the Fair Pass subsidy onto the TTC and hence to the riders and the service plans, that is no leadership at all. If there is to be a debate about targeted subsidies, then Toronto should have that debate, and be prepared to face those who now have lower fares but would no longer qualify. Cutting existing discounts may be a quick fix for one year’s budget problems, but it will not address the full need for transit dollars. Such a policy, coupled with the inevitable service cuts, would signal a transit system in decline. Why have multi-billion dollar transit plans but drive away riders? Postscript: Seniors’ Fares Mike Filey passed along a cutting from The Star about the decision to implement Seniors’ fares effective January 1, 1971. When they came into effect, Metro Toronto paid the TTC a special subsidy of $1.363 million per year to cover the cost, and although there were still two fare zones within Metro, a senior could make a cross-border trip for one half-price senior’s ticket. Until 1971, a smaller group of 60,000 people were eligible for half fares because they were over 70 and receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), or between 65 and 70 and qualified for free hospital and medical premiums based on low income. Executive Committee had recommended that the lower cost fare be extended to all people without a means test who were 70 or older, but Council extended this to all over 65s. Thus were the current seniors’ fares born. Meanwhile, this gem: North York Controller Paul Godfrey said the moves are steps toward the day when no one will pay fares and public transit will be paid for by tax revenues.Filed under: Fares & Fare Collection, Finance, Transit2 Dec

TTC Board Meeting: November 30, 2016 - The TTC Board will meet on November 30, 2016 at 1 pm in the Council Chamber at City Hall. This is not a budget meeting, but the agenda contains a number of items of interest. CEO’s Report for November 2016 Purchase of Air Conditioning Parts for T1 Subway Cars Purchase of land to expand bus storage capacity Reports related to the Hillcrest Complex including a review of property usage, approval of new equipment for Duncan Shops, and approval of a new Streetcar Way Building. Expansion of Davisville Carhouse St. Patrick Station Easier Access Elevators CEO’s Report There is little particularly new in the November CEO’s report, but the overview scorecard on pp. 3-7 contains a distressing number of red “X” marks indicating targets not met. Some of these are collectively related to the shortfall in riding compared to budget (even though riding is up from 2015) and the various indices that this pulls down. However, many are related to service quality and vehicle reliability, and this is not the sort of thing one wants to see from a transit system that is in good shape. The TTC continues to suffer from aiming far too high for 2016 ridership with what was described at the time as a “stretch” target. That target allowed the TTC to show more revenue than it might otherwise have budgeted, but it also allowed service to be planned on the basis that it could grow into the budget headroom. This is a Catch-22 of TTC budgets because even a small miss triggers headaches at City Hall. A one per cent “miss” on the scale of any large corporation would be celebrated as good management, but for the TTC, that’s a shortfall worth more than 0.5% in property tax. Under normal circumstances “surpluses” from good years are banked in a reserve to fund the bad ones, but in 2017, the TTC plans to drain that reserve as one of many ways to limit its call for more revenue. Ridership numbers for August and September have been very close to 2015 values. For September, the count was 0.4% above 2015, and for the year to date, the total is up by 0.3%. The problem lies in the fact that the budgeted number is higher, and actual ridership is 2.6% below the budgeted value. PRESTO use continues to grow, but it accounted for only 3.26m out of 52.5m trips in September (6.2%). Customer Satisfaction fell from a score of 80% to 70% between the second and third quarter of 2016. The TTC attempts to paint this in a rosy light by noting that the overall average for 2016 is the same as for 2015, but last year includes a big drop in the fourth quarter. Whether the 2016 score recovers for the rest of 2016 remains to be seen. The report notes: This quarter’s high score is driven by a perceived decline in delivery of a reliable service, which was driven by lower customer perceptions of the following criteria: trip duration on the subway, wait times on the subway and buses, and level of crowding on the subway and buses. The significant decrease in Q3 can be linked predominantly to the ‘hot subway car’ issue that affected around 20% of subway cars this summer on Line 2. Customer satisfaction on Line 2 fell significantly (from 78% in Q2 to 59% in Q3). By comparison, Line 1 results did not fall significantly (from 78% in Q2 to 75% in Q3). Subway riders, overall, reported a significantly less comfortable ride (from 82% in Q2 to 69% in Q3), which affected overall perceptions of trip duration and wait time, the top two key drivers of satisfaction. [p. 21] The reference to “this quarter’s high score” is no doubt an editing error. On Line 1 YUS, the number of delays has been increasing since the beginning of 2016, although the total number of delay minutes is more stable. The charts showing this information suffer from having axes that do not begin at zero, and from data expressed as absolute values rather than percentage changes making direct comparisons difficult. The target is based on attempting a 10% improvement over previous year values, but there is no metric to compare values between lines, or relate the number and length of delays to the amount of service provided on each line. Moreover, the number of minutes of delay on lines 1 and 2 are both running above 2016, but the reasons are not broken down sufficiently to show whether “controllable” delays (those due to factors the TTC can influence such as vehicle and service reliability) are becoming less of a problem. There is reference in the text, but not a running history in the charts. Both lines are running below the scheduled peak level of service counted as trains/hour. This was particularly bad on Line 2 BD on August due to out of service trains with failed AC units. September brought better stats for both major subway lines, but they are still not meeting the target. This is an important consideration whenever the theoretical capacity of the subway network is discussed. When, eventually, automatic train control comes to the YUS, this will test the claims made for its ability to increase line capacity. Streetcar on time performance (measured at the terminals) continues to be very poor with only about 40% of trips leaving within the 6 minute window of “on time” (-1/+5 minutes) showing that even with that generous allowance, the TTC is unable to dispatch cars anywhere close to their scheduled times. This is compounded along routes because closely spaced cars quickly become pairs that travel across the city. There is no service metric to review this phenomenon, and the type of service riders see is much worse than that measured at terminals. Short turns have also stopped improving because we are now more than one year beyond the point where new schedules were in place on many routes. This is not a metric that can simply be improved year over year unless there is an aggressive attempt to change line management policies. Even then, short turns will never completely disappear, and the challenge is to use them only where warranted. Bus on time performance is better than on the streetcar routes, but this is partly the result of having many routes that do not operate in as challenging conditions. The TTC is not producing route-by-route stats for public consumption although this would give a better picture of what is happening. The aging streetcar fleet continues to be considerably less reliable than the bus and subway fleet. Mean distance before failure (MDBF) rates are worse this year for both CLRVs and ALRVs although they are at least stable. How these vehicles will hold up in the winter remains to be seen. The new Flexity streetcars continue to have a MDBF at only a fraction of their contracted target with no sign that this will rise. The TTC claims that this problem will be resolved saying: With only 20 new streetcars in service, even a low number of defects can have a significant impact on the mean distance between failures. The target of 35,000 mean kilometres between failures is expected to be attained on a regular basis as the sixtieth new streetcar is received. [p. 42] There is no question that if you flip a coin, there’s a better chance that you will get “heads” every time for five flips than for sixty, but the basic point is that a consistent run of values at similar levels (May to September 2016) is a trend. At some point, the numbers have to rise sharply to achieve the planned target. This is as troubling an issue for the new streetcar fleet as the delivery problems from Bombardier. The Capital Budget Variances detailed beginning on p. 57 list many projects where spending is above or below budgeted levels. Almost all of these are questions of timing whether they be project delays or deliberate choices to reschedule work. What is missing from this extensive list is any indication of whether the anticipated cost to completion remains on budget. This shows the folly of measuring burn rates against budge projections only for the current year and months rather than looking at the overall project status and flagging cases where a project is in trouble. The timing issue is important because the City and TTC have concocted a budget offset called “capacity to spend” that presumes that not all money budgeted in a year will actually be spent. However, they are booking this as a permanent reduction in project estimates, not as a deferral. As the list of variances shows, changes of timing are the primary culprit. The Critical Projects section of the report is updated quarterly, and the next revision will come with the December report. Air Conditioning on T1 Subway Cars The failure of air conditioning units on the T1 fleet (Line 2, Bloor-Danforth) in the summer of 2016 was a major embarrassment to the TTC which has prided itself on improved quality of service to its riders. The customer satisfaction ratings for 3Q16 took quite a hit primarily among riders of the BD, and the situation spoke to the dangers of leaving maintenance work too long. Replacement of the AC units was originally scheduled as part of the 20-year overhaul of the T1 cars, a process that is only just beginning given their age. The components of this program are shown in the project summary below (from the 2016 Capital Budget Blue Books). The AC overhaul will be accelerated as permitting continued failure of units in service is simply not an acceptable way to operate the subway. Due to the extensive increase in temperatures this past summer and TTC’s aging subway car fleet, TTC Customers felt the impact of increased HVAC failures on Line 2 – T1 fleet. Traditionally, overhaul of a vehicle system of this complexity would be scheduled to align with the truck overhaul over a 5 year period. However, due to the nature and increase in faults on the HVAC system we are looking to expedite and complete the program in its entirety within 2 years. [p. 1] The eventual replacement of the T1 fleet would normally occur when the vehicles reach 30 years’ age, but an earlier retirement may be in store thanks to the need for ATC (automatic train control) enabled trains to operate the Scarborough Subway Extension tentatively scheduled for opening in 2026. I will discuss this issue in a separate article on the Capital Budget. Land for Expanded Bus Storage Capacity In a confidential report, staff recommends the acquisition of a property to increase the TTC’s garage capacity. There are no details in the public report and no new garage beyond McNicoll (scheduled to open in 2020) is in the budget. However, the Capital Budget does include a reference to property at 1810 Markham Road adjacent to Malvern Garage. (See Capital Budget Report at pages 16 and 26.) There is no money allocated in the 10-year budget to build a ninth bus garage. I will discuss Bus Fleet Planning in a separate article on the Capital Budget. Hillcrest Complex Review of Property Usage Hillcrest is a large TTC property acquired when the public transportation system was founded almost a century ago. The lands were, at the time, on the northern edge of the city and home to Hillcrest Race Track from which the complex takes its name. Any large property is always subject to speculation (including by politicians looking to “monetize” public assets), especially one sitting in a very desirable area at Davenport and Bathurst. The south edge of the site is along a Hydro and rail corridor, not exactly prime territory for development. The Davenport frontage is occupied by an old garage that has not been used for bus operations for decades, and the Patten building originally constructed for the TTC’s Revenue Operations department. They decamped to a leased building in East York after the introduction of the new bimetal tokens added so much weight that the building could not sustain it. Relocation of the David Gunn Building is inconceivable as it is the main control centre for TTC operations. The Bathurst frontage includes the Inglis Building which once held much of the operational departments’ staff, although expansion through the years has spread them out elsewhere at Hillcrest and other buildings. (A separate study is underway of TTC office space needs with a view to consolidation, but it is unclear whether staff at Hillcrest would all be involved in such plans.) The Support Services Building (formerly the Personnel office) is a much smaller building just north of the main gate. Harvey and Duncan are the main shops for all surface vehicles in the fleet, although many Harvey Shops functions will shift to Leslie Barns as the TTC transitions to its Flexity fleet. Current usage is summarized below. The TTC along with a consultant will review all of the uses and functions for space within the complex with the intent of formulating long-term plans and identifying whether some of the property is suitable for redevelopment. New Equipment for Duncan Shops Duncan Shops hosts the central maintenance functions for the TTC’s bus fleet. It was opened in 1987 to replace the much smaller Parkdale Garage on Sorauren Avenue. The building requires an updated ventillation system to deal properly both with the nature of repair work done there as well as to improve on working conditions that suffer from uneven heating. A number of bus hoists will be replaced and an overhead monorail crane will be added to provide access to bus roofs. With this type of  investment, it is clear that the TTC does not plan to relocate this function, and indeed finding a suitable location would be difficult. New Streetcar Way Building Among the oldest of the TTC’s industrial facilities is the rail bending shed. The proposed new building will not only improve the process it houses (bending rails for curves on the streetcar system), but it will consolidate functions now housed on trailers at Russell and Roncesvalles Carhouses, and will shift the special work assembly area from open space on the Davenport frontage to the south side of the Hillcrest site. This will free up space at the carhouses that will be needed when the new fleet is fully in place, and will consolidate staff from several locations to one. On a temporary basis, the functions now performed at Hillcrest will be relocated to leased property near the Unilever site on the waterfront to allow demolition of the existing structures and reconfiguration of the space. As a concurrent piece of work, a new loading dock will be built on the south side of Harvey Shops that will simplify deliveries to that building directly into its General Stores area. For drawings of the proposed changes, see Appendices A and B in the report. Expansion of Davisville Carhouse Davisville Carhouse was built for the original Yonge Subway which opened in 1954, and it was designed for trains that could be broken into shorter units. The building’s easternmost two tracks are used for washing and interior cleaning, but a full six-car TR (Toronto Rocket) train will not fit inside. This requires doors at both ends to be left open when a TR is in the shop causing heating problems and the possibility of freezing equipment during the winter. The TTC will extend the building at both ends for these two tracks. This  may seem odd unless one refers to the building layout which is not the same length for each track (see drawing at Appendix A of the report). The Davisville site also includes a warren of overflow office and storage space in trailers along the southwest perimeter. It is unclear when these will be replaced with more suitable quarters. St. Patrick Station Elevators The TTC will provide accessibility to St. Patrick Station (Dundas & University) via two elevators. One will be located in a development on the northwest corner of the intersection linking from the street to the TTC mezzanine and to the building’s parking lot. There is already a similar configuration at Osgoode Station through the Opera House. The other elevator will run from the Mezzanine level down to the centre platform of the subway similar to the arrangement at Queen’s Park Station. The upper elevator and associated stair will replace the existing stairway to the northwest sidewalk, and that will become a ventillation shaft similar to those now at Queen (northeast corner) and Osgoode (southwest) where street stairways have been replaced with entrances through buildings. The lower elevator will be physically located under the south edge of the median on the north side of Dundas, an area that is currently open space with no fountain or statuary. Additional drawings are in the report.Filed under: Accessibility, Buses, Fares & Fare Collection, Finance, Service Cost and Quality, Streetcars, Subway Cars, Transit 26 Nov

TTC Approves 2017 Fare Increase, Punts Service Decision to Council - On November 21, the TTC Board approved the fare increase proposed by staff in their Operation Budget for 2017. Adult and Senior/Student token/ticket fares will rise by ten cents to $3.00 and $2.05 respectively. Metropasses for both fare classes will rise by $4.75 with the result that the “multiple” (the ratio between the pass price and the single token/ticket) for seniors/students drops slightly (by about 0.5) while for adults it is unchanged. Here is the full table of old and new fares. There was a long parade of deputants at the meeting who, despite a motion by Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong to limit presentations to three minutes, mostly managed to push the envelope out to the normal five minutes simply by taking a rather long time to “wrap up” when Chair Josh Colle gave the three minute warning. Their comments overwhelmingly spoke to the effect of a fare increase, but also to the question of service quality. Despite the TTC’s claims that they are not limiting service growth and causing crowding, actual experience does not match these claims, a point echoed by Councillors who sit on the TTC Board and  who receive many complaints about this from their constituents. To soften the blow, the TTC Board voted to direct staff to prepare the 2018 budget on the basis of no fare increase so that, in effect, over a two year period fares would only have gone up five cents per year. This is a Catch-22 decision going into an election year because somehow Council will have to find the money to pay for the idea just when tax increases are regarded as political suicide, but service cuts would be equally unpalatable. The most contentious part of the debate turned on Appendix C to the report which described various options for higher fares and lower service. Included on the list was the cost of free passes for the Blind and War Amps ($2.1 million), and even considering this shows a breathtaking insensitivity. This was described by CEO Andy Byford as the “Armageddon Appendix” in an interview with CBC’s Metro Morning, an presents a menu of extremely unpleasant options to close the remaining gap between TTC’s planned revenue, including the fare increase, and projected costs. This amount has three components totaling $99 million: A $35.1 million shortfall in the “conventional” system’s operating budget. A $26.4 million shortfall in the WheelTrans operating budget. A proposed transfer of $37.5 million from the TTC’s operating budget to the City’s capital budget. This scheme has not been endorsed by the City Manager, and is simply an accounting trick to bump the TTC subsidy without showing it as part of the annual increase. Either way, it would mean increased City spending whether as “operating expense” or “capital from current”. Byford was at pains to emphasize that he would not recommend any of the changes, but produced the list because he was asked for it. What is missing, of course, is a sense of the effect of any of the changes at the individual level: how many riders benefit from which discounts, which services would be affected by changes to standards? It is easy for the budget hawks on Council to talk about “efficiencies” when they are single-line descriptions, a dollar amount, but with no specifics about what would happen. For their part, members of the TTC Board seemed unable to grasp the difference between sending an unbalanced budget to Council without recommendations on how to fix it, as opposed to taking a strong stand saying “we oppose these cuts”. This evolved as the meeting wore on with some recognition of the need to take a stand, but this did not find its way into the final motions (see below). The Board may have punted the issue over to Council, but nothing prevents Council from saying “TTC, you are only getting this much subsidy, you figure out how to deal with it”. Even a desire to save service improvements implemented at Mayor Tory’s behest will require someone to decide either on new revenues to fund transit, or on which of these improvements will die on the altar of “efficiency” and “saving taxpayer dollars”. It is important to remember the U-turn candidate John Tory made when he discovered just how badly the Ford administration had gutted the TTC. From Tory’s speech of January 19, 2015: Building a great future starts with ensuring our ability to move around. We will be recommending that the TTC commission and ultimately city council approve significant new funding for transit. … Today, Chair Colle and I are announcing a $95 million investment in the TTC that is both long overdue and absolutely necessary for the social and economic well-being of our city. It will see: the restoration of many bus and streetcar routes that were cut in 2011 reintroducing all-day, every-day service on bus and streetcar routes, matching them with the hours enjoyed by our subway riders reduced waiting and crowding during off-peak times reduced waiting and crowding on 21 of the TTC’s key routes in peak times a series of new express bus routes adding two additional subway trains on lines 1 and 2 during the morning and afternoon rush expansion of the blue night network, so people coming home late or getting to work at 5 am have more options to get around, and proof-of-payment on all streetcar routes that will speed up service and travel times for the more than 65 million annual riders who use the TTC’s extensive streetcar network This investment also includes 50 new buses and a temporary storage facility that will allow us to deliver these extra services in rush hour in the coming months. … During the election campaign I committed, along with all of the other candidates, not to raise transit fares in 2015. It was not until the transition period after the election that I was fully able to comprehend the scope and extent of the transit cutbacks imposed by the previous administration. Deliberate decisions were made under my predecessor to reduce service and increase crowding. So when the people of Toronto sensed service was much worse, they were right. But not only was service impacted. These cutbacks disproportionally hit those who needed transit service the most, particularly those living the suburbs. Transit connects people to jobs. It provides a means of getting around for people who can’t afford a car. To put it bluntly, we have starved our transit system to the breaking point. Almost two years ago, Mayor Tory understood that transit needed substantially better funding, but by mid-2016, his outlook was that every city agency should find a 2.6% saving in their budget, not ask for an increase. (In the case of the TTC which raises most of its costs from the farebox, this saving only applies to the City’s operating subsidy.) If the TTC were forced to absorb the entire $99 million shortfall in its 2017 budget, this would completely undo the $95 million increase. In effect, Tory would pull out his “investment” in transit to limit the pressure on property taxes. (To put this in context, a 1% property tax hike brings in about $30m annually.) Despite the oft-repeated claim that $95 million has been added to the TTC’s budget, the actual increase over recent years is much lower (source: TTC 2017 Operating Budget report, p. 11) The effect of the Ford years (2011-2014) is clear in this table, but there has not been an annual increase of $95m during the Tory era. Although the number is commonly cited, the actual subsidies have gone up by only $55m over Mayor Tory’s two budget cycles. Meanwhile, in current dollar terms, the subsidy per rider is lower than it was at the end of David Miller’s administration. Notes: these figures refer to the “conventional” TTC system and do not include any of the costs associated with WheelTrans, and for historical accuracy, these numbers should be restated based on actual ridership and subsidy paid. For 2017 the overall budget shows where the cost increases and savings are expected. On the revenue side: Although the fares will go up, this is a budget-to-budget comparison, and 2016 included a ridership projection that the system did not achieve. Therefore, the budgeted fare revenue in 2017 actually is less than in 2016. This is partly offset by a big jump in commuter parking of $3.0m over the $9.3m received in 2016. A new tariff for parking charges is expected at a TTC Board meeting in the near future. Within the expenses: The CEO’s office includes functions beyond simply the senior administration of the TTC, and for 2017 will have a new group responsible for the “fitness for work” program that has already been approved by the Board. Big increases in the Operations and Service Delivery groups reflect higher base costs plus the full year effect of 2016 service improvements. Vehicle fuel costs will drop, but not as much as they might have if the TTC were not subject to the new carbon tax. Traction power costs go up because of rising Hydro rates. The depreciation item is dubious and will require a change in the City’s attitude to the funding of this item as discussed above. Buried in the Operations Group’s budget is an assumption that the cost of replacing hybrid bus batteries will be shifted to the capital budget. If the depreciation is added back in to make the figures comparable, the total expenses go from $1.737 billion in 2016 to $1.794b in 2017, an increase of 3.3%. That’s not a bad number considering the combined effect of inflation and net new costs (e.g. Presto, Spadina subway startup), but because revenues are down (relative to budget), the percentage increase in subsidy requirement is much higher at 13.4% if the depreciation figure is included. Budget-to-budget comparisons can be misleading because any erroneous assumptions of the previous year show up as a surplus or shortfall even though these may have been corrected on an actual results basis through the year. TTC management would do well to produce comparisons with “probable actual” 2016 results to show the efforts made through the year to work within changing circumstances. This problem will not go away in 2018, an election year. Among the budget pressures facing the TTC will be: Annual labour cost increases under the Collective Bargaining Agreement Inflation in the cost of utilities and material/supplies Full year operation of the Spadina subway extension ($23 million over the part year 2017 costs) Foregone revenue from any fare increase in 2018 (about $30 million) Full year cost of Presto fees that will only be partly offset by reduced costs from handling discontinued legacy fare media Operating costs for the service improvements implied by growth in the bus fleet (*) (*) In separate reports on the Capital Budget and the Federal Government’s Public Transit Infrastructure Fund (PTIF), the TTC proposes a very large purchase of buses, and trumpets this not simply as replacements for the existing fleet, but for the ability to provide more service to riders. More service means more operating dollars and, inevitably, more subsidy. There is a direct contradiction between the TTC’s capital plans and spending constraints from Mayor Tory and his Council allies for day-to-day operations. I will deal with the Capital Budget and PTIF in a separate article. The management recommendations were adopted with various amendments: No fare increase for 2018. Staff are to report on: clarification of the various loyalty programs such as VIP pass pricing and the Monthly Discount Plan, and how these might be “harmonized”, loading standards and their evolution since 1998 together with recommendations to ease crowding and build ridership in 1Q17, fare increases for the past 20 years by category with a comparison against the consumer price index (CPI) (briefing note by the end of 2016), and a breakdown of the hours of service per month by mode for the past two years (for the next Board meeting) to show how the actual amount of service provided on the street has changed. In the event the City does not accept the transfer of costs from the operating to the capital budget, TTC management would work with the City Manager on a five-year transition plan for these costs with a report to follow by mid 2017. A technical amendment directs and authorizes TTC staff to work with and provide information to City staff in their budget preparation. The TTC Budget Committee will begin meeting in June 2017 to review the 2018 budget in its preliminary stages. This is ironic considering that three committee meetings in 2016 were cancelled. More generally, the TTC Board seems unwilling to devote the time to policy discussions until a decision forces itself on them, but by then time for abstract consideration of options has passed. Although Board members/councillors Glenn De Baeremaeker and Shelley Carroll talked of amendments to explicitly reject the fare and service options in Appendix C, or to simply remove that Appendix from the report sent to Council, no motion to this effect was placed. Motions defeated included: John Campbell proposed that staff report on a long list of options for restructuring fares, but this was rejected as coming far too late in the process to permit a January 2017 implementation of the new tariff. Joe Mihevc sought to defer any fare increase until after the City has set its 2017 budget. Joe Mihevc sought to launch a publicity campaign to encourage Queen’s Park to  increase transit subsidies, while Vince Crisanti simply wanted to ask that they fund the $61m shortfall. Shelley Carroll noted that such a request would directly contradict Council’s recent agreement to fund all costs for the new LRT lines and SmartTrack stations. Vince Crisanti proposed that the VIP program be examined as a model for a low income fare program. VIP is a bulk purchase plan and not entirely appropriate for this function. Crisanti also proposed that seniors’ fares be frozen for 2017. The next step in this process will be the City’s Budget Launch on December 2 followed by detailed discussions leading eventually to a Council vote in mid-February. See also: TTC’s 2017 Operating Budget: More Creative Accounting TTC Crowding Standards and ServiceFiled under: Fares & Fare Collection, Finance, Service Cost and Quality, Transit 22 Nov

TTC Crowding Standards and Service - The Star’s Ben Spurr had an article today (November 18, 2016) about the degree to which the TTC fails to meet its own service standards for vehicle crowding. The many debates about budget and service routinely ignore the question of whether the TTC actually meets the Board-mandated standards, and instead we are treated to complaints from the budget hawks about poorly performing services. In my review of the proposed 2017 operating budget, I noted that the traditional targets of such complaints do not offer much latitude for savings, while much more money is on the table from potential reductions of service quality and reversal of the recent Tory service improvements such as the 10 minute network. For reference, here are the current standards taken from the TTC’s website: The TTC has provided the detailed list it sent to Ben Spurr, and here it is. The list comes with various caveats from the TTC, notably that many of the routes that are “over” the standard are only slightly past the line by say a few passengers over the target. In a nutshell, 43 of the TTC’s bus and streetcar routes exceed crowding standards at one or more periods during the week and on weekends. In most cases, though, the average number of passengers per vehicle is only slightly in excess of our crowding standards…one or two people in some cases. The standards, as the chart in the PDF illustrates, vary between periods and vehicle type. Also, in off-peak periods, the standard is the number of seats on a vehicle. So if just one or two people are left standing, that would exceed the standard but is not overcrowded, per se. [Email from Stuart Green in TTC Communications] As regular readers know, I have written extensively about service reliability on the TTC. This affects the actual quality and capacity of service in many ways: Vehicles that are bunched often have extra space on the second (third, etc) vehicle because everyone boards the “gap” vehicle. A strong inventive for this behaviour is that dropping back to a following, less crowded vehicle may leave the rider turfed off when it short turns. Despite TTC claims that total short turn counts are down, this remains a problem and rider behaviour reflects their experience. The number of vehicles per hour operated is not always the scheduled value. Therefore the actual capacity of the route could be less than advertised. On routes with articulated streetcars or buses, regular single-section vehicles can often be found in place of artics. The result is a loss of capacity and greater than scheduled crowding. Past observations by TTC planners have rather quaintly observed that the cheapest “new” capacity one can provide is to operate reliable service so that loads are evenly distributed. I leave it to readers to contemplate the degree to which the TTC achieves this, especially when it has a six-minute wide window within which vehicles are “on time”. For frequent routes, vehicles in pairs can be on time even though they provide gappy service. This is a very long-standing problem, compounded by the fact that the TTC does not even regularly meet its rather generous “targets” for headway reliability. I asked the TTC how the average loads are calculated as reported in their tables. Specifically, is the average calculated based on the observed number of vehicles, or on the scheduled service, and is the percentage of load based on the scheduled vehicle type rather than what actually operates. The TTC replied that the capacity used to calculated the percentages is based on scheduled values and vehicle types, not on the service available to riders on the street. This is an important distinction for routes with erratic service and frequent replacement of large vehicles by smaller ones, notably 501 Queen. It is quite possible that the actual average loads considerably exceed available capacity even though they may fall within theoretical values based on the schedules. What may look like a seated load on paper could well have a considerable number of standees because headways are wider and/or vehicles are smaller than planned. One might reasonably ask for additional information that must be available from the underlying TTC data: What is the actual capacity of the service operated against which the crowding values are calculated? How variable is the headway (maximum and minimum values, percentage of vehicles close together, etc.)? With respect to monitoring service for schedule changes, the TTC says: The specific decisions on when and where to adjust service to these standards are made by TTC staff. In a typical year we make more than a hundred service changes. We regularly conduct reviews of ridership to assess needs across all routes. If there is a route that needs some additional service, we will try to balance that against a route that may have capacity to spare. In a large, busy system such as the TTC’s there are always some routes at any point in time that have crowding that exceeds the crowding standards. And while we would obviously prefer our customers are not on crowded vehicles, we have to balance the availability of resources like vehicles and operators with delivering service to the entire city. Through regular service reviews and with arrival of the new vehicles, there is an opportunity to increase capacity on some of the busier routes like the 504. In particular the TTC’s new high capacity low-floor streetcars will assist in reducing overcrowding on our streetcar routes. There’s a bit more to things than this reply lets on. Every year there is a “Service Budget” (the one for 2017 was probably set a few months ago), and Service Planning works within this to allocate service to the available resources. However, a critical component is the number of available operators and this runs into the dreaded budgetary problem of “head count avoidance”. In off peak periods, routes may cry out for more service, but vehicles will sit in the yards if there is nobody to operate them. Yes, the TTC’s new cars will help to reduce crowding when and if they actually arrive, and when they start operating on really busy routes like King. On 510 Spadina, the introduction of low-floor cars was accompanied by a cut in the number of vehicles in service, although the net change remained an increase in capacity. This has long been an issue in plans for fleets of larger vehicles because in some cases, notably the conversion of bus routes from regular to articulated vehicles, the “new” service has roughly the same capacity as the old by the simple expedient of running two artics where there previously had been three regular sized buses. Years ago, the same fate hit the 501 Queen car, and service quality (not to mention ridership) has never recovered. The TTC’s first goal for many on Council is to reduce costs, not to increase service, and claims that there will be more capacity must be tempered with the observation that such an improvement may not be “affordable”. Just look at what happened with 514 Cherry which was supposed to be a net addition to service on King Street, but which the Commission refused to fund. The result was that service was reallocated between the 504 and 514 routes with only a modest improvement in the portion of the route where they overlap. (The question of how irregularly the 514s actually appear is another matter.) Going into a year where the Service Budget is planned to rise only by 0.4%, there is not much headroom for more capacity, and anything added on one route will inevitably be taken from another. This may be “efficient”, but it runs headlong into policy objectives such as the core network of 10 minute services, all-day service on all routes and the existing crowding standards. As the budget report showed, there is not much available to trim from the lightly loaded routes when resources are needed on busy routes elsewhere, and the more likely situation will be to pack in more riders. The problem is even worse if the TTC contemplates relaxing the standards so that average loads on vehicles will rise. We already know from experience that many routes are crowded, and the last thing they will need is less service and even worse travel conditions. I asked whether the cost estimates for savings on these proposals included detailed lists of possible service changes. The TTC replied: The table shows broad categories that generally would reflect the reversal of service initiatives implemented in 2015. The specific service changes within each category have not been identified. What a marvelous way to short-change debate – don’t tell people what the actual effects might be. This is precisely the sort of campaign one would expect from an anti-transit Council or Mayor who would say “this won’t hurt too much”, or so a Councillor could claim they never knew the details of what was planned before it happens. Will someone on the TTC Board please make an official request for the details before this goes to Council? On a more general note, the primary function of the TTC is to provide transit service. The Board sets policy and sits back expecting that service actually operates within those parameters. However, there is always a Catch-22, the caveat in any policy “subject to budget availability”. This allows the Board to pass a policy promising the sun, moon and stars to transit riders, but it’s ok if staff only delivers a few minor planets in a far-off galaxy because they couldn’t afford to deliver more. Meanwhile, Council blithely approve billions in spending on capital projects. This is not to say that those capital projects are unneeded (that pitched battle has been debated elsewhere), but it is a double standard to treat capital funding as something we must do as an integral part of city growth and prosperity while at the same time starving day-to-day service because keeping taxes down is the paramount goal. Every month, we see a CEO’s report from Andy Byford full of beautiful pictures and graphs, but with very little commentary on the basic question: are we providing the service that Toronto needs, and if not, what do we have to do to achieve this? It’s all very well to have customer surveys and indices of station cleanliness, but what about the actual service on the street? Is the plateau in ridership related to the system’s inability to carry more riders or to attract business? TTC staff are supposed to be producing a new Ridership Growth Strategy for the TTC Board in January. It’s a shame this wasn’t produced as an integral part of the budget. How bad is the service today? Where can it improve? How much more would be possible and at what cost? Those are questions no penny-pinching Mayor wants asked let alone answered. In a few days, the TTC Board will consider its 2017 budget, and we will see just how much appetite there is for forcing Council to cough up the money needed to run the transit system, to pay for all those photo ops a few years ago when John Tory claimed he would reduce the damage wrought by Rob Ford.    Filed under: Service Cost and Quality, Transit 18 Nov

TTC’s 2017 Operating Budget: More Creative Accounting (Updated) - The TTC’s 2017 Operating Budget will be discussed at a special Board meeting on Monday, November 21, 2016. When work began on this round, the TTC stared at a $231 million hole in its potential 2017 funding, and it was apparent that the Mayor’s request for a 2.6% cut in subsidy was small change beside the TTC’s much larger problems. Updated November 17, 2016 at 6:40 pm: Responses from the TTC clarifying the treatment of externally recovered costs have been added to this article. The Budget Report is now public, and initial media comment suggested that the TTC had wrestled that huge potential deficit to the ground. However, a lot of that is spin and accounting trickery, not a real reduction in the TTC’s needs. Still facing a gap of $61 million, TTC management list many unpalatable ways that operating costs could be trimmed. In effect, the message to Council, and especially to Mayor Tory is this: being a “transit mayor” costs money, and it’s time to pay up. This article looks at the Operating Budget, the one that provides service and handles day-to-day maintenance activities. In a separate article, I will review the Capital Budget. Understanding The Budget Mechanics The TTC (and all City agencies and departments) begin work on their next year budget midway through the year. The 2017 budget has been “in the works” for months and in many ways is based on 2015 rather than 2016 results because the year was barely half-over when the 2017 budget cycle started. This can lead to problems when the “current” year does not turn out as expected as happened in 2016. An important first step in looking at TTC budget numbers is to recognize that any year-to-year comparisons are relative to the 2016 budget, not to the probable actual results for the year. This has some important effects: The fare revenue projection for 2017 is based on a lower projected ridership than was used, but not actually achieved, in 2016. Therefore, revenues go “down” in this budget (without allowing for effects of a fare increase) simply to get the estimated ridership back to a reasonable level. 2016 was described as a “stretch target” for ridership, and the budget elastic didn’t stretch as far as hoped. Some 2016 costs are coming in under budget, notably for employee benefits but also for diesel fuel. These are savings in actual spending in 2016, but they also show up as “reductions” in 2017 when they are rolled into the budget. It is important to distinguish between reductions in costs that affect actual spending in 2017 as opposed to simply being a lower budget number. The 2015 budget included a “capital from current” item for the purchase of new buses. This is not an “operating cost” in the traditional sense, but it avoided putting the item on the City’s Capital Budget. For this reason, 2015 is an odd year in any stats unless the capital portion is factored out (notably from the claimed subsidy per rider). There is no such payment in 2016, and so a direct comparison with 2017 is possible without adjustments, at least until some of the TTC’s new budget tricks are factored in. For 2017, the TTC proposes to shift some operating costs onto the Capital budget and, as a result items that were billed to “operations” and counted as part of the rider subsidy in past years would disappear. The City Manager’s Office does not concur with this tactic. The point here is that year-to-year budget and subsidy comparisons cannot always be made without adjusting the figures to a common basis. Another important factor is that in the total numbers reported in the media, the “conventional” and Wheel-Trans (WT) budget numbers are often conflated. When demand for WT is growing quickly, as is now the case with improved eligibility criteria from Queen’s Park, costs for this service grow proportionately. This cannot be wished away by budget hawks who care only to limit tax increases, but worse it can create a situation where the conventional system is pillaged for dollars to handle the WT demand. That is not the sort of conflict we should be seeing in budget debates, but it is inevitable when the extra cost of WT for 2017 is almost equal to the revenue from a 1% property tax hike. Finally, there is a distinction between true savings that represent lasting reductions in expenses, and one-time benefits from procedural changes or special accounting provisions. The impression can be given that a budget is in much better shape than reality by giving the impression that a large initial deficit can be whittled down. Getting From $231 Million to $61 Million The budget gap was “closed” by a number of measures, some of which are simply savings against the 2016 budget that are carried forward into 2017. On an “actual spending” basis, the savings have already happened. They are not the result of new, recent actions by TTC management. As I reported previously when reviewing at the Budget Committee discussions, the reduced healthcare costs were actually achieved as a saving in 2016 against that year’s budget. They are a reduction in 2017 only on a budget-to-budget basis because the $10.3 million was part of the 2016 budget as a starting point. The recommended savings in the current report are: Reduced PRESTO fees due to the delay in rolling out Metropass support. With less of the TTC’s revenue flowing through PRESTO, the cost of serving this does not have to be included in the budget. Note that this treats PRESTO costs as a net addition and does not include an offsetting saving in handling costs for Metropasses likely because the two modes would co-exist during a transition period. As in past years, energy costs are expected to be lower than the previous year’s budget level. The saving shown here is $12 million, but $5 million of that is already projected to be saved in 2016 actual results as per the October 2016 CEO’s Report, p. 50. Capitalization of City construction impacts. When the city tears up a street (for example the Queen Street watermain project now underway), the TTC incurs extra cost to divert and supplement service. This has been borne out of the operating budget but without an explicit chargeback to the capital project for which this should rightly be a cost. This appears to be a new practice for 2017 and it is unclear whether the City and its agencies have agreed to pay these charges. (See update below) Elsewhere in the budget, there is a section on cost recoveries from Metrolinx for its construction project effects on service. This would be done on a cost recovery basis as with City construction, but it is unclear why one of these has been included as a “saving” but not the other. (See update below) Delays in Bus Reliability Centred Maintenance. TTC management had proposed a higher fleet spare ratio and maintenance practices to pro-actively get ahead of failures rather than doing predictable repair work after a vehicle had already passed the likely failure time and possibly actually broken down in service. In the Capital Budget, the TTC is proposing a very large order of buses to replace the Hybrid fleet before its due date, and this would reduce maintenance needs by substantially lowering the average age of the fleet. It would also place a large chunk of the fleet under warranty effectively transferring operating maintenance costs to the Capital budget. This tactic has a downside as the TTC has seen in the past when a homogeneous fleet reaches its non-warranty period, and later the higher cost of maintenance (and staffing requirement) of older vehicles. This is a time bomb built into the budget even though it could “solve” a short term problem. Reduced contracted services. It is unclear what this refers to, and I have sought details from the TTC. The largest “contract service” the TTC has is the provision of service in York Region, but this is done on a full cost recovery basis. If YRT takes over a service the net change to TTC’s budget should be zero. (See update below) Update: The TTC has clarified the handling of externally funded costs in an email from Vince Rodo via Brad Ross. With respect to City construction projects: It has been a long standing practice for the TTC to charge the incremental cost of service to TTC capital projects.  For example, when we tear up streetcar track, we run replacement bus service during the construction period.  We charge the difference between the regular streetcar service and the bus service to that project as part of the cost incurred because of the project.  In the past, we have not done that for City of Toronto construction projects.  The city has agreed that the practice for TTC projects can be used for city projects too.  So for example, if the city were closing an intersection for work and we had to re-route service round that, we will now be able to calculate that extra cost and bill it to the city, who will charge it to that project.  Since these costs had to be covered by the TTC operating budget in the past, they have been included in the TTC operating budget.  From now on, they will not show in our expenditures because there is no net cost to the TTC. With respect to Metrolinx cost recoveries: The Crosstown Master Agreement calls for Metrolinx to reimburse the TTC for incremental operating costs associated with the impact of Eglinton Crosstown construction on TTC service.  For 2015, we billed them and they reimbursed us for $5.2 million.  I don’t have a final figure for 2016, but I suspect it will be in that range.  That is not included in our budgets because there is no net cost to the TTC.  For 2017, it is similarly not included in our budgets because once again there will be no net cost to the TTC. So the treatment of this and the city construction above will be completely consistent on a go-forward basis: no net cost included in the TTC budget.  We flagged this in the 2017 budget report because: (i) the quantum is increasing substantially in concert with the ramping up of Crosstown construction, (ii) it stays high for at least the next 5 years and (iii) because we are hiring 169 TTC employees to provide this augmentation of our service.  If it were the same range as 2056 and 2016, we may not have highlighted it. With respect to York Region cost recoveries: The service the TTC operates in York Region under contract to YRT is included in the budget as both an expense and a revenue and that has been the case for decades.  It is the service they request us to operate on their behalf. With respect to contracted services: The “reduced contracted service” has nothing to do with any of the items mentioned above.  It has to do with reduced purchases of services such as IT, human resources, IT licenses, cell phones, etc.  No impact on service on the street.  It all about saving money everywhere we can. The different treatment appears to arise from whether there is a net delta in the budget (i.e. a new condition, and therefore reported as a budget-to-budget change) or a continuation of an existing practice where costs and expenses always balance out. [End of update] Four additional sources of revenue or savings are proposed: A draw of $14.4 million from the Transit Stabilization Reserve. This money comes from “surpluses” (planned subsidies that were not needed in good years) that have been banked against lean years of which 2017 is most definitely one. This is not a “saving”, but rather one time revenue that can offset the budgetary pressure for 2017 only. The underlying costs will not disappear, and they will show up as part of the 2018 pressure. A fare increase of 10 cents on the adult token rate, pro-rated through other types of fare (the details are discussed later in this article). The added revenue is net of the anticipated loss of riders. If pushback from the increase is less than expected, then the TTC could do better with new riders than planned, but many other factors will affect riders’ decisions about staying with transit. The TTC proposes that the cost of new batteries for Hybrid buses of $8.5 million be transferred to the Capital budget. This is an interesting accounting debate because parts replaced during a major bus overhaul (typically at mid-life) are paid for from capital, while parts replaced in normal day-t0-day maintenance count against operations. However, the lifespan of these batteries is short enough that capitalization is an odd treatment. Some TTC capital assets are not subsidized by the City in part because their lifespan is too short, and in some cases this is likely a holdover from the days of provincial subsidy when certain items were excluded from that funding. As an accounting mechanism, the TTC funds these purchases out of working capital, and recovers the money as a depreciation charge against the operating budget over their lifespan. The TTC proposes that this amount be treated by the City as a capital cost thereby shifting $29 million out of the operating budget. The City’s response to the final two items is not exactly welcoming: Both of these items were reviewed with City staff and not supported because they reflect a shift from the operating budget to capital, requiring City capital funding. Staff suggest these items be given further consideration by the City as they might help address the operating pressures while immunizing customers from service adjustments or further fare increases, to the extent possible. [pp. 5-6] Fare Increase Options TTC management recommend a ten cent increase in the adult token fare from $2.90 to $3.00 with proportional changes in all other fares except cash which would stay at $3.25. This is expected to bring in $27 million in new revenue, net of the loss of 1.2 million riders and the PRESTO  fees that are a percentage of the revenue stream. There is no discussion of the issue of special fares as a social benefit, and that issue will get tangled up in proposals to deal with the (at least) $61 million remaining gap between projected revenues and expenditures. One set of proposals involves larger fare increases. These would inevitably trigger higher ridership losses than the proposed ten cent level, but this is really uncharted territory for the TTC. Moreover, there is the question of perceived value, and whether riders feel they would actually be ripped off by a fare increase if service did not materially, and fairly quickly, change for the better. Paying more for what many perceive to be inferior and declining service is no recipe for retaining customers. In addition to fare increases, there is the question of the many forms of discount fare. The table below shows the estimated “cost” to the TTC of these fares. This is the sort of issue where fare:ridership elasticity can get very tricky depending on the nature of each market and the extent to which elimination or reduction of a discount is considered to be “unfair”. A related problem is the TTC’s perennial treatment of these concession fares as a cost, as if giving people cheaper rides drives up the cost of service, or represents revenue that might be available if only we could get everyone to pay a higher fare. This is directly contrary to many City objectives to reduce barriers to travel among many groups of citizens, and the recognition that mobility has a value. Note: The 8 million lost rides by children does not incur a cost because they are travelling free today. However, it is an indication of how much more riding is done today by children, and the degree to which this unexpected bump in one rider class is masking declines in others, notably adults. Service Cuts Another way to trim the TTC’s budget gap is to roll back service improvements, possibly even to levels below those imposed by the Ford/Stintz regime. This would be a bitter pill for the “Transit Mayor” to swallow, and in the midst of such grandiose spending plans as we see on major capital projects, the idea that these services would not be funded should be deeply embarrassing. This table shows quite clearly that the usual poster children for “waste” in the transit budget will not yield a great deal of savings, notably the “low ridership, high subsidy routes” and the night services. The big money is to be found is reducing Service Standards, and rolling back both the 10 minute network and the full service 19-hours-a-day policy. Here are the current loading standards for TTC vehicles. Note that these are based  on averages over a peak hour and some vehicles will have more passengers while others are half-empty either due to bunching, or because they are short-turned and are of little use to many riders. The TTC only reports averages, not max-min values nor standard deviations. As things stand, the service budget for 2017 includes: A 0.4% increase over the budget for 2016 for the target ridership level of 545 million, but no provision for ridership growth. Annualization of improvements made in 2016 including express buses and earlier Sunday service. Restoration of full streetcar operation on all routes including the conversion of 511 Bathurst and 514 Cherry to Flexity operation. Opening of the Spadina extension (TYSSE) in December 2017 and concurrent reductions in contracted service for York Region. Provision of new bus service to the Renforth Gateway. Major Changes in Expenses Several cost areas will contribute to the increase expense budget for 2017: Collective bargaining agreement increases: $24.3m PRESTO commissions and new faregate maintenance: $14.5m. This cost is almost entirely due to PRESTO fees because maintenance costs on the new faregates are largely offset by savings in maintenance on the old ones. At this point there is no offsetting saving shown for staff reductions due to PRESTO, but a discussion of this comes up later in the report. TYSSE opening: $6m for 2017, projected at $30m for years following. Note that the extra cost of operating the extension is equivalent to revenue from a 1% property tax increase. Cap & Trade: A $5.2m additional cost in fuel. According to the report “This is expected to increase the TTC’s diesel costs by 4.7 cents per litre and its natural gas costs by 3.3 cents per cubic meter.” The TTC has not produced consolidated figures showing the combined effect of price changes in fuel, the benefits of hedging, changes in consumption, and the new tax. Hybrid bus battery modules: $8.5m. This is an operating cost that the TTC seeks to transfer to the Capital Budget as described earlier. Accident claims: $6.2m. Actuarial evaluation of existing claims indicates a need to increase the provision for settlement. TTC self-insures except for disaster coverage. Traction power and utilities: $5.5m. Again, it is clear that “lower energy costs” of $12m cited as savings earlier in the report have offsets elsewhere in the budget. A full list with explanations is in Appendix D of the report. Workforce Effects A perennial issue at City budget time is the matter of “headcount”, to the point that some Councillors fetishize this to the exclusion of any other measure of a budget. Transit service, of course, requires people to operate and maintain it. If you buy a bus or a subway train, someone has to drive it, someone has to maintain it, and in the case of a subway, someone has to maintain the infrastructure the train runs on. The TTC projects changes in their workforce for 2017, but the big increases come in two areas: operators needed to provide service that will be paid for by others (Metrolinx) resulting from their construction projects, and additional staff needed to operate and maintain the subway extension net of savings on the surface network. Of the 210 staff covered by 3rd party payments, 169 are for service operation in the Eglinton corridor where the TTC expects to receive $72.5 million from Metrolinx from 2017 to 2021. 36 are to provide frontline PRESTO support for which Metrolinx is responsible, but the TTC is acting as their agent. The remaining 5 are for vehicle repairs that are charged to others. The staffing required to open a subway extension is considerable as shown in this breakdown for the TYSSE. Note that the saving in bus operators is considerably lower than the extra staff needed to operate and maintain the subway. As for the PRESTO rollout, the lion’s share of savings from elimination of Station Collectors will be offset by the new staffing model for subway stations. Something that the TTC has never made clear is the degree to which the value of the Collectors was included in the fare collection costs that PRESTO is supposed to offset. Whether the “evolution” of stations will “meet and exceed customer expectations” is difficult to say considering that we still do not know the actual function and service quality the new Customer Service Reps are expected to provide. A complete description of the purpose of all workforce changes is in Appendix G of the report. Wheel-Trans The Wheel-Trans budget is a major source of cost pressure for the City of Toronto. Demand is rising quickly due both to demographic changes and increased eligibility mandated by Queen’s Park. It should be noted that the TTC (and other municipalities) receive no provincial subsidy for their accessible services. Indeed, the cost of running WT in 2017 will be about 90% of the value of the operating and capital gas tax contribution Ontario makes to Toronto. This is not to suggest that increased WT service is bad, indeed it is long overdue, but to show the relative level of provincial support for transit generally against the cost of providing just this component. Wheel-Trans expects to carry 28% more trips in 2017 than in 2016 which itself is expected to be 14% over 2015. WT has almost no revenues (fares cover a trivial amount of the total cost), and this rate of increase means a big jump in subsidy requirements from the City. The extra demand is projected to add $24m to the WT budget offset by only $1.5m in fares. There is a very small increase in WT workforce because the additional trips will substantially be handled through contract services, not the TTC’s own fleet. Indeed, the TTC projects a reduction of trips carried on WT vehicles as trips shift to other modes and as the new “Family of Services” program diverts more trips to being partially served by the conventional system (i.e. WT handles the “last mile” portion of a trip between a subway station and the rider’s origin and/or destination). How successful the TTC will be in shifting its WT demand between various types of service remains to be seen. This will involve not just a more complex booking system, but also the ability to ensure that connections between legs of mixed-mode trips actually work as planned. Accessible transit is a fast-growing part of Toronto’s network, and City Council should ensure that it can be properly funded without endangering the base system used by all riders, including ambulatory WT passengers who can, in part, ride conventional transit if it is “there” and not crowded or erratic beyond their endurance. Ridership Growth Strategy At Budget Committee meetings, there has been talk of a new “Ridership Growth Strategy” to improve the TTC’s attractiveness and to return to an era of steady growth on the system. A report on this is supposed to be coming before the TTC Board early in 2017, although the rather grim situation painted by the budget report suggests this will be a wish list for the future. One might joke that it’s just the sort of thing someone might run on for re-election in 2018, if only there were a sense that there would be political support to pay for it. Just keeping the TTC at the level it is now at in service and fares will be a huge political struggle with a Mayor and his supporters on Council who cannot get past their promise to limit tax increases and fund any growth or improvement from those mythical “efficiencies” we have heard about for years. Anyone who looks through the list of “savings” in the TTC budget will realize that little of the reduction from that original $231 million gap for 2017 and the now-proposed $61m number is due to  management actually squeezing blood (or possibly gravy) out of a stone. Some is the luck of changing costs, some is a matter of accounting, and some is wishful thinking that the City will take on more costs without actually treating them as part of the “operating subsidy”. The shell game continues.Filed under: Fares & Fare Collection, 17 Nov

Travel Times on Route 504 King - With the launch of Toronto’s TOCore project, the city set in motion a complete rethink of what “Downtown” means and how it will evolve in coming decades. On some counts, one might argue that this work is long overdue as concentration of office and residential space in a very small area brings many problems for residents and businesses, not to mention a very competitive demand for a crucial resource – road space. I will leave the debate on many of these issues to other people and forums, but as this is a transit blog, my focus is on understanding how transit works (or doesn’t) and what effects might result from various proposals. In the Globe & Mail, Oliver Moore writes about “Complete Streets” and how this design philosophy could affect Toronto. Without question, better attention must be paid to improving the safety and usability of major streets by pedestrians (who are also transit riders) and cyclists who collectively outnumber the motor traffic. King Street has long been the busiest of the downtown streetcar routes carrying about 65,000 riders every weekday. But these riders do not all travel to and from the business district at King & Bay, nor do they all travel in conventional am and pm peak commuting times. New demands on the shoulders of downtown such as Liberty Village and the St. Lawrence district include not only residents bound for jobs at Bay Street, but workers and students headed to offices and schools on counter-peak trips. Indeed, the term “counter peak” can seem odd when one looks at some of the demand patterns. In 2014-15, I was retained by the City’s Transportation Department and the TTC to review the major streetcar routes with a view to identifying locations on the shoulders of peak periods where parking and turning restrictions should be extended beyond the traditional two hour window. As a result of this and other surveys conducted by the City, traffic regulations were changed in several areas. This brought some improvement, typically eliminating anomalies where the pm peak, for example, actually was worst for transit service in the hours just before and just after the “official” rush hour. However, that review was considerably smaller than the goals of TOCore. A redesign of a street like King is an all-day effort, and one that could, depending on its scope, affect a great deal of the streetcar route. This is not a case of tweaking a few hours a day, but of reinventing the street. Although studies for the City began with data from fall 2013 and early 2014, I have been tracking the operation of several routes from time to time using data provided by the TTC over many years, for which much thanks. The material presented here is a continuation of my earlier work, but expanded both in space and time. For a detailed description of the methodology used here, please refer to Methodology For Analysis of TTC’s Vehicle Tracking Data. 504 King is a special case being the subject of City and TTC studies, and my data archives are more substantial for this than for other routes. For 504 King this includes: December 2006 November 2011 March 2012 May and July-December 2013 All months for 2014 and 2015 January and March-October 2016 If there are improvements to be had on King, an obvious starting point is to ask whether, where and how travel times for transit vehicles have changed over the years. How does the route operate under “best case” situations when competing traffic is low and streetcars are not overcrowded causing loading delays? The King Route as a Whole Route 504 King operates between Dundas West and Broadview Stations via Dundas, Roncesvalles, King, Queen and Broadview, and has followed this route since July 1, 1923 when the termini were Vincent and Erindale Loops near the present-day subway stations. Demand on the route is broken into many overlapping sections including the north-south links on Broadview and Roncesvalles, as well as traffic to western Parkdale, Liberty Village, St. Lawrence and more recently the Distillery District. For the purpose of this article, I will look first at the section between Parliament and The Queensway/Roncesvalles, and then turn to the outer portions of the route separately. 504 King Parliament to Queensway WB 504 King Queensway to Parliament EB Each set of charts contains 12 pages with data subdivided as below: Two pages for each three-hour time period from 6:00 am to midnight. Data to the end of 2014 is shown on the first page of each pair, and from 2015 onward on the second. Within each page, average travel times are plotted in a different colour for each half hour. The time represents the point where a vehicle entered the section (e.g. Parliament westbound, or King east of Roncesvalles/Queensway eastbound). Therefore, data for “6:00” represent trips beginning within the period 6:00 to 6:29. The solid lines show the average values, and the dotted lines show the standard deviations (SD) of these values. The lower the SD value, the more consistent the individual values making up the averages are. Spikes can be caused by erratic traffic congestions brought on by construction, special events or accidents. Each of these charts shows the evolution of travel times with the data subdivided by half hour (different colours for each time, spread over six pages) and by week through the calendar (left to right across the page). Where there is a break in continuity of dates, there is also a break in the data lines. The solid lines show the averages, while the dotted lines show the standard deviation (SD) of these values. Spikes in the SD values indicate that for the half hour and week where this occurs, the average values were not clustered probably due to a delay, or because traffic conditions made travel times less consistent. Major events affecting the route included: August 2013: Reconstruction of King/Spadina intersection. All service diverted via Church, Queen and Shaw. The westbound diversion was changed to use York Street part way through this period. September 2013: Immediately following TIFF, construction began on Adelaide Street causing eastbound traffic to shift south to King. November-December 2013: Hydro work on King occupied the eastbound curb lane at various places near University Avenue. April 2014: Reconstruction of the Gardiner Expressway commenced in late April and continued through the year with spillover traffic effects on King. September 2014: Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) mall operated with streetcars running through via King in semi-protected lanes. September 2015: TIFF diversion via York (WB), Church (EB), Queen and Spadina. Late March to early April, 2016: Reconstruction of King/Charlotte intersection. Same diversions as were used for King/Spadina in 2013. May 8, 2016 onward: All 501 Queen service diverted via Spadina, King and Shaw adding delays to 504 service at turning locations. September 2016: Route split for opening days of TIFF. Service operated through TIFF district for Week 2. Travel times at the end of the year generally drop due to lighter traffic in Christmas Week. Note that when special days such as Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s fall on weekdays, these are not included in the averages. (Statutory holidays are similarly excluded during other parts of the year.) Averages for a long route segment can mask local effects along the way as operators will tend to make up for delays in one area with faster operation in others. However, a striking point about all of these charts is the degree to which travel times overall have not changed much in 2016 relative to recent years, although there has been some growth notably in the afternoons and early evenings. “Older” data must be viewed with care taking into account the period it covers. For example, the 2006 data are from December and include the usual year-end lull. Other periods include effects from long-running construction projects. Some portions of the route show little change in travel times over the years, while others show major upheavals. In areas where population and traffic are increasing, the question is “how much capacity remains”. Sorting all of this out in the context of a new street design can be challenging, but an important aspect is that the street will rarely be operating under “ideal” conditions. Route Segments In the following sections, data for each segment of the route are presented separately to show how changes in travel times are localized. A few notes: The vertical scale on these charts is not always the same in order to accommodate spikes in values while preserving the general “feel” of the data. Values by half hour are based on vehicles entering the segment, not the full route, during each period. The charts are consolidated onto a single page rather than over two as above, but the format is otherwise identical. Parliament to Jarvis Parliament to Jarvis WB Jarvis to Parliament EB Travel times between Parliament and Jarvis vary through the day as one would expect – higher during peak periods, lower otherwise – but in 2016 they are similar to values years ago. Jarvis to Yonge Jarvis to Yonge WB Yonge to Jarvis EB Travel times are unchanged over the years with the notable exception of a spike in August 2013 when the service diverted via Queen. The westbound diversion operated via Church, Richmond, Victoria and Queen initially, later via King to York and then north to Queen. The eastbound diversion operated via Queen and Church throughout the construction at King & Spadina. The travel times are measured from Queen & Yonge to King & Jarvis where cars were on diversion. Because the route reverted to King Street over this segment westbound before eastbound, the spike in travel times is not as wide for that direction. No change in average westbound travel times is evident from the removal of the stop at Victoria Street late in June 2016. Yonge to University The segment west from Yonge Street through the financial district shows more change between periods of the day, and greater effects when service is disrupted. The most severe problems arose in late 2013 eastbound due to curb lane work by Toronto Hydro. This tripled the travel times during the height of the pm peak. The diversion via Queen for Spadina/King construction affected travel times during August 2013, as did the diversion for Charlotte/King in March-April 2016. No change in average travel times is evident from the removal of stops bothways at York Street late in June 2016. (My own experience riding cars on this route is that they are often caught by red traffic signals and forced to stop even without this being a passenger stop any more. There does not appear to be any transit priority to extend green time on King at York. Yonge to University WB University to Yonge EB University to John This section of the route has been affected by diversions for track construction as well as general slowdowns caused by utility work, notably in 2013, but travel times in 2016 are, if anything, more reliable and slightly lower than in previous years as there have been relatively few disruptions. The Hydro work in late 2013 took place east of this section, but the traffic backed up west of University and delayed eastbound service from about 4:00 pm onward. For periods when the King car diverted via Queen for track construction, these times are measured on Queen Street. The effect of construction on the Gardiner Expressway in 2014 is evident from April onward. Removal of the stops bothways at Simcoe at the end of June 2016 appears to have slightly reduced travel times eastbound, but had little effect westbound. University to John WB John to University EB John to Spadina This is the heart of the Entertainment District, and it can become quite congested, although not at the “standard” hours. The effect also varies depending on the weather, the day of the week and whatever special events might be taking place. Travel times westbound can be higher late in the evening than earlier, particularly when the combined effect of theatres letting out and club traffic hit King. In 2013, this part of 504 King was hard hit by the King/Spadina reconstruction and associated diversion via Queen, and by utility construction that began just after TIFF and again later in the fall. There was some spillover effect from Gardiner Expressway construction in 2014, but the effect was greater westbound than eastbound. By 2015, travel times settled down again. John to Spadina WB Spadina to John EB Spadina to Bathurst Travel times westbound to Bathurst were affected in 2014 by the Gardiner Expressway work, but mainly during the PM peak and early evening when outbound traffic is at its peak. There is little effect eastbound. Most striking is the rise in travel times during 2016 concurrent with the 501 Queen diversion via Shaw, King and Spadina. This produced longer travel times during much of the day eastbound to Spadina where there is no transit priority signalling to move 501 cars quickly around the east-to-north turn. There is a smaller effect westbound. Some of this will be due to traffic diverted off of Queen where the westbound curb lane has been occupied for water main reconstruction. Spadina to Bathurst WB Bathurst to Spadina EB Bathurst to Strachan Congestion at King and Bathurst eastbound affects travel times during the latter parts of both peak periods, and there has been a small rise in values over this segment since the Queen diversion began in 2016. Westbound times were not as strongly affected. Bathurst to Strachan WB Strachan to Bathurst EB Strachan to Dufferin From Dufferin to Strachan eastbound, travel times are slightly higher in the peaks probably due to longer stop service times, not traffic congestion. There has been a small rise in average times since the Queen diversion began in 2016 although the effect is more pronounced westbound than eastbound. Strachan to Dufferin WB Dufferin to Strachan EB Dufferin to Jameson The segment westbound to Jameson is affected by the status of Gardiner Expressway construction, which accesses to it are open, and traffic signal timings. A particularly strong example of this is the early evening congestion producing much longer travel times after 6:00 pm than during the “peak” itself. This was due to traffic regulations (parking/stopping) and signal timings at Jameson where the road’s capacity was reduced before the demand actually returned to “evening” levels. There were also changes due to periods when the Jameson or Dufferin accesses to the Gardiner were closed and traffic volumes shifted between them. The greatest spikes in travel time coincide with the CNE (late August), and the effect is becoming more pronounced year over year. The problem grows through the afternoon and evening, and is worse eastbound than westbound. Dufferin to Jameson WB Jameson to Dufferin EB Jameson to The Queensway Eastbound travel times on this segment are affected by queues at Jameson for access to the Gardiner Expressway during the AM peak, and there are quite visible drops in times when that access is closed. Westbound times are affected primarily by queues to the Queensway/Roncesvalles intersection where peak period traffic can back up several blocks to the east. The effect varies depending on conditions on the Gardiner Expressway, and it has not been as bad in recent months than in past years. Although it is not visible in these data, day-by-day reviews show that there can be late evening congestion here associated with the outbound flow of traffic from major sporting events. Because they are one-day effects, they are submerged in average data for an entire week. Jameson to Queensway WB Queensway to Jameson EB Filed under: King Car, Service Cost and Quality 17 Nov

Natural Society

Genes for Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Are Found in Beijing Smog - Public health experts have warned that antibiotic resistance could claim 10 million people each year by 2050. In early December 2016, researchers said they had discovered that livestock had become resistant to a class of antibiotics used only in humans. Now scientists have found the genes that make bacteria resistant to antibiotics in polluted air in Beijing, China. [1] Source: The New York TimesRead: Superbug Resistant to ALL Antibiotics Found in China In the study, the team analyzed DNA sequencing from 864 different samples from humans, animals, and the environment. Some of those samples came from Beijing smog, and in those samples researchers identified a variety of genes that can make bacteria resistant to antibiotics. It’s a scary announcement, but the discovery of the gene in the crowded city’s smog doesn’t necessarily mean people can get superbugs from the air. At this point, researchers only know that the aerial spread of such genes should be researched further – at least according to a paper in the journal Microbiome by researchers at the University of Gothenburg . But if antibiotic resistance can be spread through the air, it means that the bacteria people pick up on surfaces around Beijing may become harder, if not impossible, to beat. In a city of 11.51 million people, there are plenty of bugs to go around. So even if drug-resistant bacteria can’t make someone sick through inhalation, that doesn’t mean they can’t sicken people in some other way. W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, isn’t convinced that smog-borne antibiotic-resistant resistant bacteria aren’t a threat. He explained: “It’s not clear that bacteria in smog are a health threat. What is clear is that the air isn’t clean. Pollution results in damage to airways that increases susceptibility to a wide range of viruses as well as bacteria. One question not addressed is whether smog stabilizes bacteria in a way that normal air does not. Bacteria probably don’t replicate in the air. More likely that they settle somewhere and do, exchanging genetic  material in liquid or on surfaces.” [2] Source: WHOJoakim Larsson, director of the Centre for Antibiotic Resistance Research at the University of Gothenburg, is the lead author of the study. He said: “We think this is really under-investigated and not taken seriously.” [1] Speaking of bacteria replicating in liquid… In addition to discovering the genes that cause antibiotic resistance in the air, Larsson and his colleagues also found a high amount of the genes in areas where there is a great deal of pollution from antibiotic manufacturing. Larsson’s past research shows that waste from manufacturing plants can end up in water sources. More regulation is needed to combat this problem, he said, adding: “We need to apply discharge limits and have some regulation enforced. I think there’s sufficient data there to really call for some action.” The most frightening part of the discovery was the fact that some of the genes can contribute to bacteria becoming resistant to carbapenems, a class of “last-resort” antibiotics. How concerned people in Beijing should be about drug-resistant genes in the air seems to depend on whom you ask. But state news outlets have been doling out advice to Beijing residents, either out of genuine concern, or merely to assuage the worries of locals: “To minimize illness during smog attacks, get enough sleep, eat foods that help you expectorate, flush out your nose with saltwater and wash your hands.” [2] Sources: [1] Time [2] The New York Times The New York Times WHO 17 Dec

EPA Recommends Deregulating Highly Invasive GE Grass - The EPA released a final environmental impact statement on December 7 giving the green light to creeping bentgrass, a highly invasive type of grass genetically engineered by Monsanto and Scotts Miracle Gro-Co. to withstand what would normally be a lethal dose of glyphosate. [1] Source: University of Massachusetts AmherstThe agency recommended the deregulation of the plant because it “is unlikely to pose a plant pest risk.” Nothing could be further from the truth, based on past experience. [2] Read: New GMO-Approved Grass May Infiltrate a Lawn Near You The grass was developed by the companies primarily for use on golf courses, but in the past, bentgrass has escaped from “controlled” plots and invaded irrigation ditches, river banks, and the Crooked River National Grassland in Oregon. It crowds out native plants and the wildlife which depends on them, according to the Center for Food Safety (CFS). [1] CFS said that Monsanto and Scotts have spent more than 10 years and millions of dollars trying to exterminate bentgrass escapes, but have been unsuccessful. Despite this, the USDA seems poised to grant the industry’s request that the department relinquish any authority over the genetically modified grass. So far, the GE bentgrass has illegally contaminated at least 3 counties, and its ultralight seeds and pollen have been impossible to eradicate, CFS said. In fact, GE creeping bentgrass was declared a noxious weed in Oregon’s Malheur County in 2016. George Kimbrell, a senior attorney for CFS, said in a press release: “USDA’s approval of this genetically engineered grass is as dangerous as it is unlawful. The agency is giving Monsanto and Scotts a free pass for the harm their product has already caused farmers and the environment, and is irresponsibly gambling future harm on nothing more than their empty promises.” Jerry Erstrom, farmer and chairman of the Malheur County weed board, said: “It just tears me up to think about the environmental and economic havoc this grass could wreak upon our community. The USDA has ignored the concerns of farmers in the areas affected by the existing contamination. I just can’t believe that they will turn this loose and let Scotts and Monsanto walk away from what they did here.” Even the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recognizes the hazards posed by the GE grass. It concluded that if it was approved, it would likely “jeopardize the continued existence of the endangered Willamette daisy and Bradshaw’s lomatuim and harm the critical habitat of the endangered Fender’s blue butterfly and Willamette daisy.” Sid Abel, assistant deputy director of USDA’s Biotechnology Regulatory Services, said that the EPA has only recommended deregulating GE creeping bentgrass – the USDA has not yet made a final decision, as Kimbrell and Erstrom implied in CFS’ press release. There will be a 30-day public viewing period, after which the secretary of agriculture will make a final determination. [2] But Kimbrell said the 30-day public viewing period is just a formality; the USDA will deregulate the bentgrass. He explained: “It’s called a final EIS [Environmental Impact Statement] because it’s final. For all intents and purposes, the decision was made yesterday. That’s not going to change.” Last October, Scotts reached a decade-long agreement with the USDA that critics say allows the company to essentially walk away from any responsibility for controlling the plant in a few years. As part of the agreement, Monsanto and Scotts agreed not to commercialize or further propagate the GMO in the future. Sources: [1] Center for Food Safety [2] Capital Press University of Massachusetts Amherst 14 Dec

Retailers Offer Quiet Shopping Hours for Families of People With Autism - Bright lights, loud noises, and crowds can be difficult for people with autism. At no time during the year are stores brighter, louder, and more crowded than during the holidays. To help autistic people and their families have a more peaceful, enjoyable shopping experience, some retailers (including Toys “R” Us and Target) are hosting special shopping days and events designed just for them. [1] The Toys “R” Us in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, hosted its first holiday season shopping event on December 10, thanks to Patti Erickson, president of the Greater Philadelphia Autism Society. She decided to get the store on board after hearing that the toy retailer had offered a “sensory-friendly shopping day” in the UK. In fact, Toys “R” Us has been hosting quiet shopping events in the UK for the last 3 years. This is the first year that it has tried rolling out a similar program in the US. [2] The store, in collaboration with Erickson’s Autism Society chapter, welcomed more than 30 families for a quiet, 2-hour shopping experience. Doors opened at 8 a.m., as usual, but there were no massive crowds, and the overhead music was turned off. [1] Erickson explained that music can be agitating to people with autism. She said: “They’re processing it differently, and it could maybe even sound like nails scratching on a chalkboard to them.” The store set up sensory stations with activities like kinetic sand and weighted blankets to help the kids comfortable in their surroundings, according to Erickson: “Different sensory things help them get acclimated to the store and grounds their body so they can really stay focused and can almost ignore anything else around them that would bother them.” Source: CNNDaniel Cadey, autism access manager for the National Autistic Society, said: “Simple changes like this can make a huge difference [for people with autism]. For many autistic people and their families a simple trip to the shops, which should be an enjoyable experience, can be fraught with  difficulty. Autistic children and adults can become overwhelmed with too much information inside a busy store.” [2] About 65 miles away, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Target held a similar event on the 10th. From 6-8 a.m., families with autistic children could do their holiday shopping with dimmed lights, no Christmas music, less crowds, and free Starbucks coffee. [3] The Lancaster Target partnered with Wellspan Philhaven, which provides behavioral healthcare for adults and children in Central Pennsylvania. Though it was not a company-wide event, a Target spokesperson said that “we empower our store leaders to make decisions that help meet the needs of the guests they serve.” In a statement, the spokesperson went on to say: “The store leader of our Lancaster East store worked with his team and local community partners to create a welcoming shopping event for his guests on the autism spectrum and we applaud his efforts. We don’t have plans to roll these events out company-wide, but are always looking for new ways to further enhance our guests’ shopping experience.” Sources: [1] CNN [2] Palm Beach Post [3] The Charlotte Observer 14 Dec

Orphaned Kittens Find Love in the Arms of Senior Citizens - Nursing homes and animal rescues have a lot in common, when you think about it. Both can be lonely, isolating places that lack the warmth and familiarity of loved ones and home. So it makes perfect sense that the Pima Animal Care Center (PACC) in Tucson, Arizona, decided to team up with Catalina Springs Memory Care to save homeless felines and enrich the lives of senior citizens. [1] Catalina Springs residents bottle-feed the tiny kittens, socialize with them, and otherwise get them used to people. They prove that getting old doesn’t mean you can’t make a huge contribution in the lives of others – including the lives of animals. Source: Mother Nature NetworkSharon Mercer, Catalina Springs’ Executive Director, said in a press release: “To some it may seem peculiar at first: Residents who are in need of around-the-clock care themselves, given the task to care for these young kittens. But there are skills, emotions and needs that do not just leave a person with dementia or Alzheimer’s. The desire to give love and receive love remains. The kittens have given us the opportunity to nurture this human condition that lies in each and every one of our residents.” The idea of pairing orphaned kittens with seniors came from Rebecca Hamilton, the health service director at Catalina Springs and a dedicated animal foster parent. She felt certain that residents at the facility would be more than happy to give the kittens the 24-hour care they desperately needed in order to survive, and the residents didn’t let her down. [2] PACC spokeswoman Karen Hollish said of the brilliant pairing of homeless kittens and seniors: “Without a foster, these kittens wouldn’t have made it. And not only are they surviving, they are thriving.” Source: One Green PlanetShe said of the residents: “These are people who are home. They are not working. And sometimes, they are lonely. They have love to give; they are very open to receiving love.” [3] In 2015, PACC took in more than 2,100 kittens. The rescue wouldn’t have been able to achieve its goals without the help of Catalina Springs Memory Care. [2] The first two kittens to experience the loving kindness of senior caregivers were litter mates Peaches and Turtle. When they first arrived, they were only two weeks old and had just recently opened their eyes. Peaches and Turtle will soon return to PACC to be spayed and adopted. In fact, one of the nurses at Catalina Springs fell so in love with the fuzzy duo, she is thinking of giving them a “forever home.” Source: The DodoMany more kittens will likely be brought to Catalina Springs for care, and several other retirement facilities are interested in the program, as well. Hamilton said: “We have gotten a lot of interest from this. So many people say, ‘Why didn’t we think of this? This is really a perfect match.’ That is clearly my hope. When kitten season starts up in full force, I hope rescue groups will reach out and form partnerships with memory care units and group homes and that a lot more lives can be saved. And a lot more joy can be brought to the lives of seniors.” [3] Sources: [1] Mother Nature Network [2] One Green Planet [3] The Dodo Mother Nature Network One Green Planet The Dodo 14 Dec

These Are the ’10 Most Dangerous Toys of 2016′ - It’s that time of year again. Your kids are (hopefully) on their best behavior in the hopes that Santa’s elves will report good things back to the North Pole. Parents, my wish for you this holiday season is that your little ones don’t request too many noisy presents, or gifts that require 15 batteries to operate. More importantly, I hope that your family has a safe and happy holiday – so let’s take a look at the 10 ‘most dangerous toys’ of 2016. 1. Peppa Pig’s Muddy Puddles Family. Source: Pulse HeadlinesThe packaging on this toy is confusing. Some of the labels say it’s for children age 3 and up, and others say for age 2 and up. The packaging also doesn’t warn about choking hazards for 2-year-olds. 2. Kids Time Baby Children’s Elephant Pillow The advertising for this cute “toy” (kind of hard to call a pillow a toy) depicts an infant snuggling with it. One little problem: pillows for children under age 1 are banned by a federal safety act. The package shows no age warnings. 3. Slimeball Slinger Source: Pulse HeadlinesThis sounds like a lot of fun – you can fire “slimeball” projectiles up to 30 feet. But that famous line in the movie “A Christmas Story” sums up the danger perfectly: “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.” 4. Banzai Bump N’ Bounce Body Bumpers Imagine miniature sumo wrestlers with no concept of their own strength and limited agility, and you’ll understand why this one is so dangerous. Designed for kids 4-12, these “body bumpers” consist of inflatable body suits that allow your youngsters to slam into each other, breaking every lamp in the house, and probably a few bones, too. 5. Nerf Rival Apollo Xv-700 Blaster Another great way to lose an eye. The ad shows kids wearing masks covering their face and eyes, but those items are sold separately. 6. The Good Dinosaur Galloping Butch The package warns about potentially dangerous small parts, but not about Butch’s stiff plastic tail that can cause puncture wounds. 7. Peppy Pups Source: Pulse HeadlinesPeppy Pups are leash-wearing plush dogs that kids can pull around with them. The 31-inch-long leashes pose a choking hazard to young children. 8. Flying Heroes Superman Launcher I know these! Again, it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye. 9. Baby Magic Feed and Play Baby Source: Pulse HeadlinesIntended for children 2+, the included spoon is small enough to block a child’s airway. 10. Warcraft Doomhammer Two words that don’t go together: “children” and “hammer,” …and “doom.” Kids who play with this run the risk of impact injuries. [1] ——– The list comes from the child safety group World Against Toys Causing Harm (WATCH), which noted that every three minutes, a child is treated in a U.S. emergency room for a toy-related injury. [2] Since January 2015, at least 19 toys have been recalled over safety defects. The group said of this year’s list: “Due to poor design, manufacturing and marketing practices, there are toys available for purchase today with the potential to lead to serious injury and even death.” Sources: [1] NBC News [2] Consumer Affairs Images Source: Pulse Headlines 14 Dec

Washington State Sues Monsanto over PCB Pollution - On December 8, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a lawsuit against Monsanto over toxic PCB chemicals polluting “every waterway in the state.” It marks the first time a state has ever sued the biotech giant. [1] The environmental lawsuit seeks damages and cleanup costs associated with the company’s production of the industrial chemicals. In a statement, Ferguson said that Monsanto produced the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) “for decades while hiding what they knew about the toxic chemicals’ harm to human health and the environment.” He went on to say: “It is time to hold the sole U.S. manufacturer of PCBs accountable for the significant harm they have caused to our state. Monsanto produced PCBs for decades while hiding what they knew about the toxic chemicals’ harm to human health and the environment.” [2] The Attorney General pointed to internal company documents which show Monsanto was aware of the dangers PCBs posed for decades. One internal memo dating back to 1937 said testing on animals showed “systemic toxic effects” from prolonged exposure by inhaling PCB fumes or ingestion. A company committee for Monsanto said in a 1969 internal memo: “There is too much customer/market need and selfishly too much Monsanto profit to go out.” Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, left, speaks as Gov. Jay Inslee looks on during a news conference where the lawsuit was announced. Source: Houston ChronicleAnother committee memo said: “There is little probability that any action that can be taken will prevent the growing incrimination of specific polychlorinated biphenyls … as nearly global environmental contaminants leading to contamination of human food (particularly fish), the killing of some marine species (shrimp), and the possible extinction of several species of fish eating birds.” By comparison, Monsanto told officials around the country that the chemicals were safe. In a letter to New Jersey’s Department of Conservation that year, Monsanto wrote: “Based on available data, manufacturing and use experience, we do not believe PCBs to be seriously toxic.” The lawsuit seeks damages on several grounds, including product liability for Monsanto’s alleged failure to warn about the health and environmental risks posed by PCBs; negligence; and trespass, for injuring the state’s natural resources. Monsanto spokesman Scott S. Partridge said in a statement that the: “…case is experimental because it seeks to target a product manufacturer for selling a lawful and useful chemical four to eight decades ago that was applied by the U.S. government, Washington State, local cities, and industries into many products to make them safer. PCBs have not been produced in the U.S. for four decades, and Washington is now pursuing a case on a contingency fee basis that departs from settled law both in Washington and across the country. Most of the prior cases filed by the same contingency fee lawyers have been dismissed, and Monsanto believes this case similarly lacks merit.” A Little Bit About PCBs The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) website states that PCBs “were banned in the U.S. in 1979 amid suggestions that the chemicals could have unintended impacts on human and environmental health.” Prior to the ban, PCBs were used for microscope oils, electrical insulators, capacitors, and appliances such as televisions, or refrigerators. These industrial products were also sprayed on dirt roads to prevent dust from spreading. NOAA goes on to say: “PCBs can degrade or breakdown in the environment, but the process greatly depends on the chemical makeup of the PCBs. The degrading process also depends on where the PCBs are in the environment. Typically, PCBs are either broken down in the environment by sunlight or by microorganisms. Sunlight plays an important role in the breakdown of PCBs when they are in the air, shallow water, or surface soils. Microorganisms, such as bacteria, algae, or fungi, biodegrade PCBs when found in soil or sediments.” According to the World Health Organization (WHO), PCBs have been shown to cause a variety of health problems, including: Cancer Altered liver function Impairment of the immune system, the developing nervous system, the endocrine system, and reproductive functions A History of Lawsuits Individual cities in Washington State have already filed lawsuits of their own against Monsanto. Spokane did so in August, 2015. The city vowed to spend $300 million to keep PCBs and other pollutants from entering the Spokane River in coming years, all of which were the direct result of Monsanto dumping them in paint, ink, hydraulic fluid, and industrial sealant form. The lawsuit accused Monsanto of selling chemicals for decades that it knew were harmful to human health and the environment. Spokane River. Source: FreeSpokaneIn January, 2016, Seattle became the 6th major U.S. city to sue Monsanto after untold amounts of PCBs contaminated the city’s waterways over the course of several decades. The situation became so dire that the Health Department warned locals that due to contamination of Lower Duwamish Waterway, there was no safe amount of local fish or shellfish to eat. Lower Duwamish Waterway. Source: Washington Department of EcologyCitizens have also sued Monsanto. In June, 3 people who alleged that PCBs made by Monsanto, Solutia, Pharmacia, and Pfizer caused their cancers were awarded $46.5 million by a St. Louis Circuit Court jury. All of the plaintiffs were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Some of them died and their claims were made by surviving relatives. Sources: [1] Reuters [2] San Francisco Chronicle Houston Chronicle FreeSpokane Washington Department of Ecology EcoWatch (main image source) 13 Dec

Stranger Pays Elementary School Kids’ Outstanding Meal Balances - Every year at Christmas, you read tales on social media about “Secret Santas” who pay off people’s layaway balances, or pay for the groceries of the person behind them in line at the grocery store. Earlier this month, a “Secret Santa” walked into H.W. Good Elementary School in western Pennsylvania and paid off the outstanding food bills of more than 40 students. [1] The principal at H.W Good Elementary, Amy Larcinese, said that nearly half the children at the school are from financially struggling families and qualify for free and reduced school meals. Students who don’t qualify have accounts where parents put in money every month. Every now and then, though, some of those accounts go into the red. For some students, the two meals they receive at school are the only ones they get every day. On December 7, a man walked into the school and wrote a check for $864 to pay off all the outstanding lunch balances. He also offered money to provide one child’s meals for the rest of the month. Larcinese said the man used to have a child in the school and “just wanted to give back to the district.” She went on: “We were stunned and so thankful. We have a lot of families in really hard times right now, and he is making such a difference in their lives. A few families contacted us, saying how they were so appreciative of the help especially given the holidays. Sometimes, all we see are the sad things going on in the world, so it’s really, really nice to know there are great people out there [who] would give up their things to help others.” [2] Janet Sardon, superintendent of the Yough School District, said: “This time of year can be a financial burden. His intent was to relieve that burden a little bit.” As for the identity of the man, Larcinese has been sworn to secrecy. [3] Sources: [1] CNN [2] ABC News [2] US News & World Report 13 Dec

Fla. Everglades Dolphins Have the World’s Highest Mercury Levels - The serene, majestic bottlenose dolphins that swim off the Florida Everglades are contaminated with mercury – the highest levels ever documented in the entire species – and it’s killing them. And because the dolphins are a sentinel species that provide a glimpse into the health of both ecosystems and humans, the discovery means it’s likely that people living in the area are also affected. [1] A study published in 2015, for example, found elevated mercury levels in dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon; it further discovered that these  levels of mercury “accurately reflected high amounts in the nearby human population.” [1] Tracking the Mercury Source: Florida Keys National Marine SanctuaryFlorida International University (FIU) marine ecologist and co-author Jeremy Kiszka believes the mangroves that line the coast and form countless islands are at least one source of the high levels of mercury. Mangroves are “trees and shrubs that have adapted to life in a saltwater environment,” according to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The sanctuary’s website notes that there are about 80 species of mangrove trees and that: “Mangrove forests stabilize the coastline, reducing erosion from storm surges, currents, waves, and tides. The intricate root system of mangroves also makes these forests attractive to fishes and other organisms seeking food and shelter from predators.” The blame for the mercury had always been placed on smoke stacks and fertilizers used in farming, which had led to declines in birds in the past, as well as to repeated health warnings about eating fish. However, aggressive cleanup efforts have helped reduce mercury levels. Kiszka said: “I would love to answer this absolutely critical question. I understand it’s frustrating. We don’t know where it’s coming from. OK, potentially the mangroves, but there could be other sources.” Mangroves are known to trap mercury and filter it into the water, but the researchers were shocked to find such high amounts in the bottlenose dolphins. [1] Kiszka said: “I couldn’t believe those levels because that’s the highest ever recorded. It raises a lot of other questions.” Another source could be the approximately 55,000 metric tons of agricultural waste that is illegally dumped into the Everglades every year. The waste contains sulfur that mixes with the mercury dumped into the area. Together, they create methylmercury, a substance that is neurotoxic to both fish and humans. It’s especially dangerous to pregnant women. [2] The research team studied dolphins in Florida Bay, Whitewater Bay, Joe River, and other areas in Everglades National Park. These dolphins have likely had high mercury levels for a long time, possibly with no ill effects on the population. Kiszka notes, however, that such a conclusion lacks supportive data and is speculative. The research on the Everglades dolphins was a baseline study. [1] The researchers write in the journal Environmental Pollution: “Additional organic pollutants were examined as part of the study, including pesticides and other compounds. Some were found in the various populations of bottlenose dolphins throughout the southern tip of Florida, but mercury was found in much more alarming concentrations in the waters of the Everglades.” [2] FIU researchers plan on expanding the study to include alligators and bull sharks, to give them insight into how mercury is potentially affecting the marine environment. Kiszka explained: “Expanding to other species in the Everglades will definitely help to understand the pathways. We’re trying to put together the many different pieces to understand what makes those animals or ecosystems more susceptible to high mercury. There’s a lot of work to be done.” Prolonged exposure or exposure to high levels of methylmercury can cause the following potentially fatal ailments in humans: Loss of peripheral vision A “pins and needles” sensation in the hands and feet, and around the mouth Lack of coordination of movements Impaired hearing, speech, and walking Muscle weakness [3] Methylmercury exposure in the womb can have a negative impact on children’s cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, fine motor skills, and visual spatial skills. Sources: [1] Miami Herald [2] Miami New Times [3] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary 13 Dec

Monsanto is Being Sued by Missouri’s Largest Peach Grower - The largest peach grower in Missouri has filed a lawsuit against Monsanto alleging that the biotech giant is responsible for illegal herbicide use that is believed to have caused widespread crop damage in southeast Missouri and neighboring states. [1] Source: St. Louis Post-DispatchThe lawsuit was filed November 23 on behalf of Bill Bader, operator of Bader Farms near the town of Campbell. The legal action seeks compensation for the extensive damage to the farm’s peach trees over the last 2 years. The timeline coincides with Monsanto’s release of crop varieties resistant to the dicamba herbicide. Read: Monsanto to Spend $1 Billion on New Herbicide Following Roundup-Cancer Link Monsanto rolled out its dicamba-resistant Xtend crops in 2015, but the corresponding herbicide was not approved for use until last month. In the interim, it is suspected that some farmers began using highly volatile, unauthorized forms of dicamba, which tend to vaporize and drift to surrounding areas where it can harm unresistant crops. In Dunklin County, where the lawsuit was filed, the alleged dicamba damage is particularly severe, and many soybean farmers have reported diminished yields caused by drift. Bader believes it was dicamba drift that also damaged his peach trees and other crops around his farm. Source: Ohio State UniversityRead: Study: Dicamba DOES Harm Non-Targeted Plants The lawsuit states that in 2015, about 7,000 trees in Bader’s orchards were damaged, resulting in a loss of $1.5 million. Bader estimates that about 30,000 of his trees are considered a permanent loss, and the severity of the financial loss has yet to be fully realized. The future looks dim for Bader Farms. Insurance companies won’t cover damage from illegal herbicide use. And since peach trees take 5 years to mature and become profitable, the financial impact to Bader “is more long-term and far-reaching,” according to one of Bader’s attorneys. For that reason, the lawsuit doesn’t seek a specified dollar amount. According to Monsanto, the company did its best: “…to remind growers, dealers, and applicators that dicamba was not approved for in-crop use at the time, and we do not condone the illegal use of any pesticide.” Monsanto also said that the lawsuit: “…attempts to shift responsibility away from individuals who knowingly and intentionally broke state and federal law and harmed their neighbors in the process. Responsibility for these actions belongs to those individuals alone.” Bader’s lawsuit alleges that Monsanto should have foreseen that farmers would start spraying illegal versions of dicamba when it released its Xtend seed without its intended complement of the low-volatility version of the herbicide. Bader’s attorney said: “Monsanto released their Xtend crops, their soybean and cotton seeds, and they did so though without a corresponding herbicide, which is just from everything that we understand is basically unheard of.” [2] Source: The Wall Street Journal – A soybean leaf damaged by illegal dicamba sprayingShe added: “What we’re looking for here is truth. These are people who are the lifeblood of Missouri’s economy, particularly the southeast Missouri economy, because agriculture is so important there.” Sources: [1] St. Louis Post-Dispatch [2] MissouriNet Ohio State University The Wall Street Journal 9 Dec

Fukushima Radiation Detected on U.S. West Coast - Seaborne radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster has been detected in seawater samples taken from Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach in Oregon, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have announced. [1] Source: International Business TimesThe institution’s chemical oceanographer, Ken Buesseler, has been tracking the radiation plume in a crowdfunded effort “to monitor the ongoing spread of radiation across the Pacific and its evolving impacts on the ocean,” the institution’s website states. Read: Japan to Release Radioactive Water from Fukushima into the Sea The researchers say they know the radiation, cesium-134, had to come from Fukushima because of its short half-life. [2] The isotope was also detected in November in a Canadian sockeye salmon sampled from Okanagan Lake in the summer of 2015, the Fukushima InFORM project said. The level detected was more than 1,000 times lower than the action level established by Health Canada. [2] InFORM assesses the radiological risks to Canada’s oceans posed by the Fukushima disaster. It is a partnership of 12 academic, government, and non-profit organizations, including Woods Hole. According to the researchers, in both cases, levels are so low that they don’t pose a danger to humans or the environment. But the discoveries show that nearly 6 years after the 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that ravaged Fukushima (even though the disaster might not be in the headlines every day), the ramifications haven’t disappeared. In fact, a full clean-up is expected to take 40 years. [1] [2] Read: Malaysian Man’s Photos Show Abandoned Fukushima “Exclusion Zone” And were it not for the institution, we might never have discovered the radiation at all. The Woods Hole website states: “Despite concerns, there is no US government agency monitoring the spread of low levels of radiation from Fukushima along the West Coast and around the Hawaiian Islands—even though levels are expected to rise over coming years.” The Oregon samples were taken in January and February of 2016 and later analyzed. Those results will grow in importance when it comes to tracking the radiation plume, because cesium-134’s short half-life will make it harder to detect as time progresses. [2] Buesseler’s data concluded that concentrations of cesium-137, another Fukushima isotope, have increased considerably in the central northeast Pacific, a recent InFORM analysis revealed. Fortunately, right now, they’re still at levels that pose no concern. The contamination is progressing towards the U.S. east coast at an extremely slow speed. It’s creeping across the Pacific, really. Cullen says that when radiation levels eventually peak, they still won’t be a health concern. But that could all change if, say, another major disaster or accident occurs at Fukushima, which houses more than 1,000 enormous steel tanks of contaminated water and hundreds of tons of molten fuel. The worst-case scenario? The molten fuel could melt through steel-reinforced concrete containment vessels into the ground, where radiation would spread uncontrollably in the surrounding soil and groundwater, and eventually into the sea. Says Buesseler: “That’s the type of thing where people are still concerned, as am I, about what could happen.” Sources: [1] Sputnik News [2] King5 NBC International Business Times 9 Dec

News24 Africa

News24.com | EXCLUSIVE: 'Pangas, pepper spray' at Congolese protest in Pretoria - Several Congolese nationals have been arrested after an anti-government protest in front of the Democratic Republic of the Congo embassy in Pretoria turned violent.09:23

News24.com | Egypt policeman, militant killed in Cairo raid - A suspected leader of a newly-emerged militant group, the Hassam Movement, and a policeman have been killed during a police raid in the Egyptian capital, the interior ministry says.09:00

News24.com | Is this video of Mugabe struggling to plant a tree the saddest clip of 2016? - If ever it was time to feel sorry for Zimbabwe's ageing president Robert Mugabe, now may be the day. A short video clip snapped of him planting - or trying to plant - a tree in Masvingo has plunged Mugabe watchers into a social media frenzy.09:00

News24.com | EXCLUSIVE: 'Pangas, pepper spray' at Congolese protest in Pretoria - Several Congolese nationals have been arrested after an anti-government protest in front of the Democratic Republic of the Congo embassy in Pretoria turned violent.06:30

News24.com | Tunisians protest killing of Hamas drone expert, 10 arrested - Protests are planned in Tunisia over the killing of the head of Palestinian militant group Hamas' drone program in a Tunisian beach resort, amid accusations that Israel assassinated him.06:02

News24.com | France calls on DRC govt to 'respect human rights' - France says it is "concerned" about the violence in DRC, calling on Kinshasa to "respect human rights" after clashes erupted as the president's mandate ended with no sign he was preparing to leave.06:02

News24.com | AS IT HAPPENED: Congolese protest in Pretoria - Get the latest details as Congolese living in South Africa protest against President Joseph Kabila, who looks set to stay on despite the expiry of his mandate.05:13

News24.com | Shots heard in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi as Kabila's mandate expires - With fears of fresh violence high in the vast and unstable Democratic Republic of Congo, shots have rung out in the capital Kinshasa and the country's second city of Lubumbashi.04:42

News24.com | LIVE: Congolese protesters snatch gun from SA police #DRCProtests - Get the latest details as Congolese living in South Africa protest against President Joseph Kabila, who looks set to stay on despite the expiry of his mandate.03:55

News24.com | #DRCprotest in Pretoria turns violent - Violence has broken out at the DRC embassy in Pretoria with protesters wanting Congolese President Joseph Kabila to step down clashing with police.03:37

Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write

Things to do in Turin - Thanks for following and reading Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write Choose Turin Not many travellers choose Turin over Florence, Rome, or even Siena and some say the tourism office doesn’t try hard enough to attract tourists to this great city. We figure they’re just trying to keep their awesome city under wraps for as long as possible. We had planned to be in Turin for four nights but a train strike had us there for a full week and we were very happy about it. Waiting for the train that never cameThings to do: Drink a bicerin Turin is the home of the bicerin, a drink that is composed of one shot of espresso, topped with drinking chocolate (without milk) and finished with cold whisked cream or milk. To enjoy it the way it is meant, do not mix it. Drink it so that the chocolate and coffee pass through the cream. Every cafe in Turin serves the bicerin but if you want to taste the original, head over to Piazza della Consolata, to a tiny cafe appropriately named, al Bicerin. Go early, the later you go the longer the line will be to get in. A bit steep at €6 but worth every euro. Decadent bicerin at al BicerinEat a gianduiotto You will notice this little chocolate resembling an overturned boat in many store windows. During the Napoleonic blockade, chocolate makers, not able to get raw materials, mixed a minimal quantity of chocolate with nearby Langhe hazelnuts to make a paste which became the centre of the bocconcino, the predecessor of the gianduiotto. The proper way to eat a gianduiotto is to let it melt in your mouth, never letting it touch your teeth, after a few minutes it will completely coat your mouth. At that point, take a large inhale and you will enjoy the aroma and taste of the chestnuts. Gianduiotto on the rightView the city Across the River Po you will see Monte dei Cappuccini, easily reachable by foot, follow via Po to Piazza Vittorio Veneto and across Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I. Once across you can visit Gran Madre de Dio and continue north on Corso Moncalieri and left on via Gioanetti. Try heading over for sunset for a great view of the city and mountains. The view of Turin from Monte dei CappucciniEnjoy aperitivo and a show If you want to enjoy a very special aperitivo make your way to Smile Tree in Piazza della Consolata. For around €10-15 you will be served a drink and around 5 or 6 different vegan snacks. The drinks here are pretty awesome, some come with dry ice so that your whole table gets fogged out with scented fog complementing the ingredients in the glass. Drinks also come with their own snacks, possibilities include, goji berries, rubber chocolate (made in house), popcorn, dried fruit, etc… Aperol spritz at Smile TreeHave you been to Turin? What were some of your favourites things to do? Save this is Things to do in Turin from Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write - overland travel, RTW travel, adventure travel 19 Dec

Planning Your Next Luxury Getaway In Osaka, Japan - Thanks for following and reading Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write Tokyo is the capital of Japan, but many consider Osaka to be the heart of the country. More than 17 million people live in metropolitan Osaka, making it the third largest city in Japan. It’s famous for its history, cuisine, and bustling commercial spirit. Discover Osaka’s luxurious facilities and indulgent treats so that you can pamper yourself during your visit. Top Things to Do in the City Image via Flickr by szekeThe city’s most popular attractions include several historic sights, such as the replica of Osaka Castle, which is a grand museum and one of the city’s most dramatic locations. The Sumiyoshi-taisha shrine is an important ancient Shinto site, and the Shitennoji Temple is a good replica of the one destroyed during World War II. The huge Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan is one of the most interesting attractions in the city. Spa World, a full-service spa and swimming theme park, offers an extensive menu of treatments and numerous spa facilities. Luxury Accommodations in Osaka There’s no shortage of great accommodations in Osaka, and the most luxurious are right in the heart of the city center, providing access to the best that the city has to offer. The InterContinental in Osaka’s city center is a top option, offering spacious and beautifully decorated rooms with amenities such as Bose Bluetooth speakers and high-definition televisions. Where to Eat and Drink in the City The food scene in Osaka is absolutely thriving, and the Umeda and Dotonbori districts boast a wealth of different restaurants. The area is known for dishes such as battered sushi and takoyaki (breaded octopus balls). In these districts, travelers will find several top-rated places to eat. Matsuzakagyu Yakiniku is famous for its superb steaks, and Kaiseki Tama is another stunning restaurant with wonderfully presented Japanese cuisine. Osaka is also known for its lively nightlife, especially in the Dotonbori district. Here travelers will find bars with international appeal along with quirky karaoke bars and plenty of nightclubs. Transport to and From Osaka Kansai International Airport is the main international gateway to Osaka, and the airport offers flights to the United States and Europe as well as plenty of routes around Asia. The deceptively named Osaka International Airport is actually the city’s domestic and regional airport. Kansai International Airport is about 40 miles outside the city center, but it has good train connections that transport visitors to the city center within 45 minutes. Like the rest of Japan, Osaka has great railway connections. Consider taking a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo or Hiroshima, and you’ll arrive much more quickly than you would by plane. Japan is a hotspot for travelers, having much to offer its visitors. If you’re planning a vacation in Japan, pack your bags for the heart of the country instead of heading straight for Tokyo. After all, Osaka is definitely the place to be. Check out some of the major tourist attractions, go sightseeing, stay in luxurious hotels, and indulge in this vibrant city’s thriving culinary scene.   this is Planning Your Next Luxury Getaway In Osaka, Japan from Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write - overland travel, RTW travel, adventure travel 17 Dec

Running Tips for Travelers - Thanks for following and reading Overland Travel Adventures from Go,  See, Write You know that feeling when you’re on a week-long vacation without a worry in the world? Your responsibilities dissolved the moment you stepped onto the plane, your work worries were left behind, and your running sneakers will still be there when you get back. Right? I’m a firm believer in vacations. Real vacations. The kind of vacation that is work-free, worry-free, and workout-free. There are times that I find myself on the road and away from home for weeks or months at a time and, if I stop running all together while I’m gone, oh boy! You bet that I can notice when I get home and lace up my sneakers. If you’re a runner and you are country hopping in eastern Europe, drinking tequila sunrises on 3, or eating your way through France (also wine), you can’t completely ignore your running while you’re busy having all of that fun. You just can’t. Don’t. I’ve come up with a few tips to help keep you on track with your running while traveling. Proper Packing Made it to the top!The main thing that’s going to screw up your running plan is if you get to your destination without your running shoes. You could buy new shoes but every runner knows it’s not that easy. You need to work those babies in! If you’re like me at all, you’ll also need a good set of headphones. Maybe seven good sets of headphones depending on how many you tend to lose or break (guilty!). Another thing to consider when packing is the climate and terrain at your destination. City running in the winter is much different than trail running in the summer. Indoor Tracks/Treadmills Chances are, if you’re traveling in or around a city or town, you’re going to be able to find a gym with a treadmill or an indoor track so check out the area online before you arrive. It wouldn’t hurt to reach out to a few gyms or recreation centers to find out how to get there, how to pay, or even just to know a name before showing up. If you’re staying in a hotel, it’s a win-win! There’s a good chance you’ll have access to a gym there. Research Running Areas Find a popular hiking spot and pick up the pace!If indoor tracks and treadmills don’t appeal to you, check out the outdoorsy section on the town website or simply Google for tracks in the area. There are a few websites, like Map My Run, that you can use to scope out some running trails that others have logged and saved. Websites like MeetUp could also come in handy for finding other runners in the area who keen on some group training. Download A Running App No one wants to look back on their log of runs and say, “Oh right. I didn’t run for two months because I was too busy eating pasta every day in Italy”. Okay, I kind of want to say the pasta bit… but with logged runs as well! Running apps are a great way to keep yourself motivated and dedicated to your running. I use Nike Run Club which is a free app that tracks how many kilometers I run, how long it takes, and keeps track of my average pace per kilometer. This is especially helpful when you’re working on your speed. Be Kind To Yourself Stop to smell the flowers. Or… watch the waterfall.Yes, I just gave four other ways to make sure you are prepared and motivated to run during travel and now I’m going to backtrack a little bit. I said at the beginning that I was a firm believer in work-free, worry-free, workout-free vacations and I mean it! Be nice to yourself! Are you only gone a week? Is this your only vacation all year? Have you been working your ass off for months and the idea of skipping that mid day margarita because you have to go running later kills you a little bit on the inside? Maybe, in situations like that, just… screw it. You know? this is Running Tips for Travelers from Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write - overland travel, RTW travel, adventure travel 12 Dec

Things to do in Orvieto Italy - Thanks for following and reading Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write Without a map Orvieto is small enough that you can maneuver without a map but it has enough to offer to keep you occupied for a 3 or 4 day visit or longer if you want to take it slow and relax. Visit the Duomo Orvieto’s Duomo is stunning. Built in the 14th century its facade is nothing short of breath taking. The best time to view it is in the late afternoon when the sun hits the facade making it is so bright you can see it from miles away. Once inside, make sure to visit the two small chapels on either side at the front. The chapel of the Corporal is not so flashy but has a great story. The blood soaked cloth is said to have been the result of the miracle of Saint Christina. On the opposite side is the Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio, so ornate and so much to look at, in the summer months, time in this chapel is limited to 15 minutes. Climb the tower Climbing city towers when traveling is a great way to enjoy some exercice. The Torre del Moro is a wonderful spot to get a bird’s eye view of the town and the Umbrian hills beyond. Take a tour of the underground Until the 3rd century BC, Etruscans lived in Orvieto. They made their homes underground in the tufa rock. You can book a tour through Orvieto Underground and a guide will explain how Etruscans lived. Why they built their homes in the tufa and a lot more interesting information about these ancient people. Like the reason why they dug small square holes in the rock, they raised pigeons for food. Walk the paths below If you get tired of walking on cobblestone and want to hit a bit of a stride try walking the paths below the town. Orvieto is built high up on tufa stone and it’s possible to walk around the town on, mostly paved paths. If you’re lucky, the church in the rock will be open, otherwise you can take a peek at the ancient alter through the window. Also down below is the Etruscan necropolis which is worth a walk through if only for the photo ops. Participate in passeggiata Around 6:30pm every night the town’s people get dressed up to leisurely stroll the main streets and piazzas showing off their new babies and new clothes while catching up on the daily news and gossip. A great tradition that enforces community values on a daily basis. Feel comfortable to walk amongst the locals or sit back and observe. Enjoy aperitivo Aperitivo is much more than before dinner drinks. For around 6€ you can get a drink and snacks. Depending on the bar you choose this can mean anything from chips and/or peanuts to a full buffet of snacks. We found that we got the best bang for our euro at Cafe il Sant’Andrea in Piazza della Repubblica where the Aperol spritzes are delicious and a buffet is laid out around 6:30pm for anyone who orders a drink. Another great place for aperitivo is Blue Bar, a bit off the main walking areas, the snacks are plenty and the owner is quite friendly and welcoming. Have you been to Orvieto? What were some of your favourite things to do? Save this is Things to do in Orvieto Italy from Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write - overland travel, RTW travel, adventure travel 30 Nov

Eurotrip Packing List: The Dumbest Things I Packed - Thanks for following and reading Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write I think most people can agree that unpacking is the worst. Unpacking sucks whether it’s after moving into a new house, coming home from a trip, or shoving your bagged groceries in the fridge so you can take a nap before putting them away properly (don’t judge me). Packing can be just as torturous. I’m the kind of person who packs an hour before leaving to go to the airport which is funny, because I’m also the kind of person who goes to the airport six hours before a domestic flight. I may be unprepared but I will always be on time. There’s a lot of packing lists out there to help you out before you take off on your next adventure. If you think you don’t need any suggestions on what to pack, you’re probably just as stubborn as me! Yay us! If, like me, you don’t seek out advice from travelers who have been there and done that and if, like me, you pack by yourself in 20 minutes for a month long trip, then you might, like me, end up packing like an idiot. Yay us! If you aren’t going to accept any help or listen to any advice on what to pack, at least take a look at the things I packed so you know what not to do. Here are the stupidest things I brought with me on my three month summer trip to Europe. A Broken Suitcase We’ll just start off with the most embarrassingly dumb thing I planned on lugging around to 9 different countries over 3 months. A broken suitcase. My suitcase made it to England and France. Once it was beyond the point of using, I got rid of half my stuff and carried everything around in a tiny little bag. That sounds very minimalist and cool of me but I had very little to wear. Priorities. If you don’t already have a good suitcase, I highly recommend buying one. Another idea is to get a backpack big enough to fit all of your things which is what I did for my trip to Australia. See? Sometimes I get it right! Where my suitcase is now: Since it was torn down the side and the zipper was detached, I threw it out while in France. I don’t miss it but, that being said, my parents might since it was theirs. Rubber Boots Rubber boots aren’t the worst thing you could pack if you are traveling to Europe during a different season. Turns out, they were pretty unnecessary. And warm. The only way to get them from one place to another was to wear them on my feet. In July. On a plane. Berlin in July. Cheap champagne is always the answer to sweaty travel.Where my boots are now: I left my boots at a friends’ place in Berlin. I’m guessing she didn’t take them back to Canada with her so I don’t really know where they are. I miss them. Only One Pair Of Contacts Don’t tell my optometrist. A Hair Straightener and Curling Wand Sometimes, in my head, I’m much more sleek and pretty and put together than I am in real life. Mostly, I just embraced my naturally frizzy, half curly, half straight, always tangley mop and pretended I left it that way on purpose. Where my hair stuff is now: In my apartment in Canada. I think I broke the curling wand by kicking it into my bag. I wouldn’t know because I still never use it. A Ridiculous Amount Of Jewellery (and nail polish?) I don’t even wear jewellery. Did I think I’d just show up in Paris and all of a sudden enjoy diamond rings and pearl necklaces? Actually… I’m way too poor to own diamond anything meaning I carted around cheap jewellery for three months. I won’t even attempt to explain the nail polish. A CD Photo submitted buy Corey Doucette. Album: Introducing Corey Doucette BandA friend of mine gave me his CD and I thought it was a fantastic idea to bring it with me as if I could just, you know, pop it into my disc-man on a long flight or bus ride. It’s 2016, Trish. When I flew home to Canada, my friends and I finally listened to it on the car ride home. Next time, I’ll get him to send it to me so I can listen and enjoy on my phone, like a true millennial. By the way… thanks, Corey!  I broke the case but the CD itself made it home in one piece! Priorities.   Too Many Books See this bag? That’s where aaallll my stuff was. For 3 months.I’m not an e-reader fan. I’m one of those book lovers who smells the pages of old books, refuses to bunny ear the page, and buys cute bookmarks and reading socks. Also, if I hate the book, I tend to throw it across the room and that doesn’t end well with electronics. If you are going to take books with you, make sure you don’t take books that you want to keep. Take books you can part with. I was able to leave behind or give away some of my books but I also had to carry five around with me. Are you realizing how full my backpack was? My next Eurotrip is in December/January and I’m really hoping I don’t show up with flip flops, 14 pairs of sunglasses, a beach towel, and… nail polish? this is Eurotrip Packing List: The Dumbest Things I Packed from Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write - overland travel, RTW travel, adventure travel 29 Nov

Enjoying Autumn in Prince Edward Island - Thanks for following and reading Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write In Prince Edward Island, we have a saying about our seasons. We get summer, almost winter, winter, and still winter. When kids are waddling door to door on Halloween with their costumes sausaged on over snowsuits or when I’m walking along the beach in April throwing snowballs for my dog to chase, this seems pretty real. I’ll always be an Island girl Photo credit: Emily McKennaAs much as we like to complain about the weather, in reality, we do get autumn and it’s actually one of the most beautiful times of the year to experience PEI. I was able to spend almost all of autumn on PEI this year which hasn’t happened since 2010. Being home during my favorite season has been so enjoyable and breathtakingly beautiful that I wanted to share some of the best things to do in PEI during the fall season. Trails and Trees Prince Edward Island isn’t exactly the destination you would think of when looking for challenging hikes or any outdoor activity that involves rough and rugged terrain… or any significant altitude. The island is made up and sandstone and shale and has a stunning natural beauty that is accented by long rolling hills. Mounting climbing may be out of the question but no matter what trail you explore in PEI there is one thing for certain; It’ll be damn pretty. Bonshaw trailsThe Confederation Trail was developed on the abandoned railway lines. These walking/biking trails take you through fields, wetlands, and woods, with lots to see and quaint little villages with drool worthy bakeries to stop in. I recently discovered the trails in Bonshaw where, not only was I able to explore and admire the beauty, but I also got a great workout in thanks to the maps pointing out the more difficult paths. Apple Picking There’s something about being in PEI in the fall that makes you want to go on a date. No, this isn’t where I spill about my fall dating experiences; mainly because those are limited to stealing my friend to go for a walk when her fiance is at the gym. Lack of dates aside… PEI in the fall is terribly romantic. Fall weddings are a thing here because, oh I don’t know, they’re gorgeous?!Photo credit: Fenton PhotographyWhether it be a date, a day with a friend, or a beautiful spot to take wedding pictures, apple orchards on PEI are a must. The best part is the array of baked goods that go on for days afterwards! Farm Day in the City Farm Day in the City is an event in Charlottetown that I have yet to attend. I never seem to be home when this is going on and every year I scroll through my Facebook feed thinking, “Next year, PEI. Next year”. If you’re lucky – I mean really lucky – you’ll get to hi5 a giant potato. Photo submitted by Connie McNeillDuring this event, the main streets of downtown Charlottetown are blocked off to traffic to make way for the artists, producers, and crafters of PEI. I shouldn’t say that all traffic is blocked off because a farm day in PEI wouldn’t be complete without an antique tractor display. Visit a Farm Are you getting the sense that there’s a bit of a theme here? Agriculture is a big part of PEI. I’m talking 1700+ farms kind of big. To help raise awareness of the PEI Agriculture Sector Council and the Agriculture Awareness Committee, PEI hosts an annual Open Farm Day to give locals and visitors an opportunity to visit the farms, talk to the farmers, and learn how the food here is produced. As you can see, I have a lot of attractive friends who got married in the fall. This photo was taken at The Chuckwagon Farm Market.Photo Credit: Fenton PhotographyIn case you aren’t here on open farm day, there’s other fun places like Kool Breeze Farms in Summerside and The Chuckwagon Farm Market in Belfast. Here, you’ll find huge corn mazes, impressive hay art, and delicious foods. Forget dates, this is fun for the whole family! Kool Breeze FarmsConfederation Center of the Arts Things certainly don’t slow down at the Confederation Center just because tourist season is over. Shop for unique island gifts, let the kids get in touch with their artistic side at one of the children’s programs, and check out one of the must see on stage productions. Maybe it’s just my personal preferences showing here but I went to see The Comic Strippers at the Confederation Center this fall and it was way more fun than seeing Thunder Down Under in Las Vegas. These guys can put on a show. They can’t dance… but they can put on a show. Find Hidden Gems One of the great things about the PEI countryside is that every road you go down is bound to have some hidden beauty. I love those red dirt roads! Photo credit: Emily McKenna  During one of my foliage hunting trips this season, a friend and I parked the car on the side of the road and found so many gorgeous spots just by walking down the side of a field. Okay, so maybe there was a sign that said no trespassing and maybe we went anyway. On our way out the farmer was driving towards us in his tractor and, as we frantically came up with excuses and apologies, he did what any other farmer in this beautiful province would do, he gave us a beaming smile and a wave.   Man, I love this place. Eat Your Heart Out Many crops in PEI are harvested between August and October so it’s a great time to get out the stretchy pants and indulge in some delicious Island food. The Fall Flavors Festival is a month long culinary celebration where you can choose anything from an intimate tasting of clams on the beach to a large kitchen party with some of PEI’s best brews. The International Shellfish Festival is another one you don’t want to miss. This festival is described as the biggest kitchen party in Atlantic Canada and if you’ve ever experienced a kitchen party on the East Coast before, then you’ll know that’s something to brag about!   Tourists flock to Prince Edward Island in the summer. They come for our golfing, our beaches, Anne of Green Gables, and our warm Island hospitality. Contrary to popular belief, PEI does not completely shut down when the summer is over and in fact, I would say that autumn is an even better time to visit. Save Save Save this is Enjoying Autumn in Prince Edward Island from Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write - overland travel, RTW travel, adventure travel 24 Nov

The best of Patagonia - Thanks for following and reading Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write I backpacked through South America for 5 months and unexpectedly one of my favorite parts was Patagonia. I knew it was going to be beautiful, but I’m not exactly a lover of the cold weather. Patagonia is a trip on its own. If you want it see the best that Patagonia has to offer, don’t miss out on these 5 extraordinary places. Bariloche, Argentina Bariloche is really just the tip of the iceberg. Some say it’s too touristy, but I loved this little holiday town. I’d love to return one day when I’m not on a backpacker budget to rent one of the gorgeous vacation homes I saw as I entered the town by bus. There’s so much to do in and around Bariloche. I opted to bicycle around the Circuito Chico loop that took me around the lakes and through some of the other small towns and hills. At the end of the bike ride, I hiked to the top of Cerro Campanario to see the stunning view of the mountains and lakes. It was my first glance at Patagonia. Even when I just stayed in town, the sunrises and sunsets on the lake took my breath away. El Chaltén, Argentina The coolest thing about El Chaltén is that the town is tiny. There are very few year-round residents and even during the peak season, El Chaltén is still probably one of the smallest villages I’ve ever been to. The WiFi barely works and honestly, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. On a clear day, you can see Mount Fitz Roy towering above the town like it’s watching over El Chaltén. After days of snowstorms and fog, I was legitimately surprised when I saw how massive Mount Fitz Roy looked even from far away. There are various hikes to go on in El Chaltén to see Cerro Torre, Fitz Roy, and other parts of the surrounding mountains and lagunas. I was lucky enough to see Cerro Torre on the day I arrived in El Chaltén, but unfortunately had to turn around after hiking over halfway to Fitz Roy because it was snowing too hard and we wouldn’t be able to see anything from the viewpoint. Still, seeing Fitz Roy from town when I left was worth the visit. El Calafate & Perito Moreno, Argentina I’d never seen a glacier before visiting Perito Moreno outside El Calafate. While El Calafate itself isn’t really anything to write home about, it is worth it to stay for a day or to see one of the few glaciers in the world that is actually growing in size. And because it is growing, it wasn’t irresponsible to do go ice trekking on it! I donned my crampons and trekked on parts of Perito Moreno while learning about this beautiful natural fixture. Looking at the stretch of ice that went on as far as the eye could see was really mind-blowing. Torres del Paine National Park, Chile As if Mount Fitz Roy and Perito Moreno weren’t enough, Torres del Paine was a dream come true. To be honest, I didn’t even know it was physically possible for me to carry a nearly 40lb backpack with all my camping and hiking gear and be able to rely on myself while trekking the mountains of Patagonia. I couldn’t believe I completed the W trek in 5 days on my own. I learned more about myself than I expected to in Torres del Paine while hiking to see some of the most breathtaking views in all of South America. There’s a lot to know before going on this trek, but it is a lifetime achievement, or was for me at least! Ushuaia & Tierra del Fuego, Argentina Some say that Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world (others say it’s a place in Chile), but Ushuaia is nicknamed “The End of the World”. Here is where you can take a boat ride through the Beagle Channel to see the sea lions and to the Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse, the “Lighthouse  at the End of the World”. Hiking in Tierra del Fuego is also beautiful and a good alternative if you’re unable to trek in Torres del Paine. It was deathly cold at the end of April (winter in Patagonia) when I was in Ushuaia and I opted for an easier hike in Tierra del Fuego instead of trekking up to some of the now muddier (but apparently sometimes more beautiful) parts of the park such as Laguna Esmeralda. Is Patagonia on your bucket list yet? Save this is The best of Patagonia from Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write - overland travel, RTW travel, adventure travel 23 Nov

My Favorite Colonias of Mexico City - Thanks for following and reading Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write When friends come to visit Mexico City, they often do so with just a few days to see the sights and of course, down more than a few tacos. And aside from asking what to do (or more specifically – what INEXPENSIVE or free things to do), I also often get asked which neighborhoods I’d recommend tourists visit in Mexico City. It’s a tough yet somehow easy answer. Mexico City is enormous, with almost 9 million residents, and over 350 colonias (neighborhoods). While I’ve spent the last year exploring Mexico’s capital city, I haven’t even come close to visiting all of its colonias. Amongst the ones I have experienced, however, four have stood out as major favorites. Santa Maria Ribera This colonia isn’t ever often on tourist (or expat) hit lists. It’s a frequently bypassed area that offers some beautiful (and interesting) views. One of the most famous icons of the neighborhood is the Morisco Kiosk, which was used for the Mexico Pavilion of the 1886 World Fair in New Orleans, and was shipped all the way back and installed (and later restored) in Santa Maria Ribera’s park. Now, it’s a popular place to hang out, or to get portraits done. The rest of the neighborhood is a strange mix of grand (and sometimes decaying) old mansions and houses, sprinkled next to tenement and abandoned buildings. Over 1000 of the grand homes have been listed as having important architectural or historic value, and the area was awarded the designation of Barrio Magico (magic neighborhood), yet the buildings aren’t usually in great shape. This strange mix makes for amazing photographs, and the lack of tourists visiting the area means that locals are pretty interested in outsiders, and on the most part extremely friendly.   Condesa Street art, tasty food, treelined streets, and more! For me, Condesa and Roma are practically twins, as the two neighborhoods seem very similar. If I’m not watching street signs (or my GPS) and simply admiring buildings and architecture, I can’t tell the difference from one to the other. I love Condesa (and Roma) both for their green leafy parks, numerous character-filled cafes, sweet little shops, and sidewalks just begging for strolls. If I’m meeting up with a friend for coffee, Condesa and Roma are my go-to colonias. This is also my favorite colonia to go for walks with my dogs, as most of the restaurants are extremely dog friendly (some even offer canine menus), and the parks are perfect for going off-leash in some areas. Most importantly for me as a veg, these are two of the best areas for vegans and vegetarians. You’ll find numerous vegetarian street food stalls, vegetarian restaurants (Forever is one of the most popular ones), vegan grocery stores (like Mr. Tofu), and restaurants that offer vast vegan and vegetarian options (like Volver). Bonus points on top of the great food is the upfront view that most restaurants offer as they are usually street level, cafe style, with an awesome perspective of the sidewalk and passing pedestrians. Centro Historico If you’re a tourist, this is the neighborhood you absolutely can’t pass up. All of the major icons of Mexico City are located in this neighborhood, in fact most are situated around the center square! Aside from major tourist and historical attractions (like the Zocalo, Cathedral, and National Palace), the Centro Historico is home to some amazing rooftop restaurants (all you need to do is walk around the Zocalo – hawkers will call your attention to their restaurant’s view while inviting you up), simply delicious street food, and beautiful hotels (the Gran Hotel with its Tiffany-style glass ceiling is particularly noteworthy). The neighborhood is full of history and character, and has been beautifully preserved. While a decade ago the neighborhood was a bit seedy (and pickpocketing occasionally happens even now), the police force patrolling and general revitalization has made it a very safe area for wandering and enjoying. Polanco I might be more than a bit biased, as this colonia is also my home. While a lot of people brush it off as snobby or overpriced, I entirely disagree. I love my neighborhood because I feel safe and at home (which for me justifies the additional expense), and the sidewalks are wide, clean, and dotted with trees – important for anyone like me who enjoys walking from place to place. If you’re looking for museums, the spectacular Soumaya, Museo Jumex, and Aquario Inburso (aquarium), are all located in the same square. As has been mentioned (and mentioned some more), this area also has lots of malls, and outstanding cuisine. Not Coyoacan.   If familiar with Mexico City, you may notice that Coyoacan isn’t on my list. While it is a darling of many expats and visitors, I’m not a big fan of Frida Kahlo’s old stomping grounds. It’s quite a ways out from the rest of the city, and aside from a few artist-related attractions (including Kahlo’s Blue House) and an overrated market – I can’t find much to do there, or much of a reason to like it enough to go back, even though I’ve tried three times. Unless you’re a major Frida fan, and especially if you’re on a time limit, I’d skip it. Save this is My Favorite Colonias of Mexico City from Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write - overland travel, RTW travel, adventure travel 22 Nov

What to Consider When Choosing a Hotel in Las Vegas - Thanks for following and reading Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write The flashy city of Las Vegas can be found in Nevada’s Mojave Desert. Thanks to its world-renowned nightlife, 24-hour everything, and endless options for activities, Las Vegas is lovingly known as the city that never sleeps. When planning your trip to Las Vegas, you don’t have to worry about a lack of entertainment, good food, or celebrities. You’ll find it all in Vegas. Before getting the party started, you’ll need to book a hotel. You won’t find a shortage of hotels and resorts by any means, but you’re likely to be overwhelmed with options, and figuring out which one to choose can be tricky. Luckily, some online tools can help you navigate through hotel deals and options and promo codes and coupons from sources such as Priceline to help ensure that you get the best deal possible. When deciding whether you would prefer the Strip or Fremont Street, you’ll want to consider a few factors. Image via Flickr by wuestenigel Location Regardless of where you stay, you’re going to want to pop back and forth from Fremont Street to the Strip to get a feel for each location during your stay. Depending on how you’d like to spend most days, you may prefer one area of Las Vegas over the other. Fremont Street is more of a hipster area in Las Vegas. You’ll find bars with backyard seesaws, live outdoor music shows, and a few museums including the Mob Museum and the Burlesque Hall of Fame. Get a little higher by taking a ride on the Fremont Street zip line. If you’re looking for the glitz and glam of Las Vegas, perhaps the better option for you would be picking a hotel on the Strip. The Strip is the 4-mile long main road, the flashy Vegas you would expect with lights, clubs, booze slushie stands, and hints of a different country everywhere you look. Dining Amazing dining opportunities abound in Las Vegas. Again, on Fremont Street, you’re going to find the options a little more relaxed than the luxurious Strip. Dining options on Fremont Street include the Heart Attack Grill, where you eat for free if you weigh more than 350 pounds, and Denny’s, where you can go for free pancakes if you decide to get hitched while you’re visiting. People say, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” but the calories and legal vows may follow you home. If you’d rather watch a water and light show with the Las Vegas Eiffel Tower in the background, perhaps Lago at the Bellagio is more your style. This Italian restaurant takes a modern style on dining by offering small plates that are perfect for sampling and sharing. Casinos When you’re thinking about card games, penny drinks (as long as you play), and bright machines, you won’t be disappointed. With slot machines in the airport, you’ll be all set if you can’t wait to get to your hotel or want one more go at the machines before saying farewell. Do some research to find out what you want to see and do, and plan your accommodations accordingly.   this is What to Consider When Choosing a Hotel in Las Vegas from Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write - overland travel, RTW travel, adventure travel 21 Nov

Cycling holidays: 5 Things to know before you go - Thanks for following and reading Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write Now let me get one thing straight: I’m not a cyclist.  But I do like cycling holidays. As well as keeping you fit along the way, cycling is an amazing way of exploring a new country.  You can cover a lot more ground compared to hiking alone, yet you still feel 100% connected to your surroundings. And you don’t have to be super fit. I’m certainly not and I’ve never felt challenged beyond my capabilities.  You do, however, have to be in reasonably good shape.  I go to the gym twice a week and walk to work and back five days a week. I’ve cycled from Venice to Porec, Croatia, and I’ve spent two weeks cycling around the central and western parts of Cuba.  From my experiences on these two trips, here are 5 things to know before you go. #1 The most important two items you will need on a cycling trip are a decent helmet and a comfortable, sufficiently padded pair of cycling shorts.   The first is self-explanatory: don’t compromise on your safety.  Having a helmet is also a legal requirement in many countries and something that most reputable tour companies will stipulate that you must wear.  Don’t order one online – unless you have actually tried on the exact same make and model in the shop; it needs to fit you well enough to be comfortable even after 7 or 8 hours in the saddle. Secondly, invest in several pairs (depending on how many days in a row you’re cycling for) of decently-padded cycling shorts.  I prefer those that have elastic around the legs too, as it stops them riding up while you’re cycling.  These are the ones I wear, but it’s all about which ones you find comfortable. #2 If you’re cycling in a hot climate, cycling gloves are a must! Ok, so they won’t do much for that nice even tan of yours but they will stop your hands slipping off the handlebars and will therefore help to prevent any potential accidents. #3 Rehydration tablets are your friend These are tablets that you dissolve into your bottle of water, and help to – as the name suggests – keep you hydrated.  I didn’t even know such a thing existed until my last cycling trip around Cuba, when one of my fellow cycling companions offered me one. They contain vitamin C and 5 electrolytes, including sodium, magnesium and potassium, and the difference between drinking plain water and drinking water with one of these in it is incredibly noticeable.  If you’ve been to South America, do you remember what it was like the first time you hiked at altitude with the aid of coca leaves?  Yeah, it’s like that. #4 As are energy bars Ok, so if you’re on an organised cycling tour you’ll probably find that your guides will provide all manner of snacks for you on a regular basis.  However it is possible to book self-guided cycling tours (as we did when we cycled through Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia), where there is no group to speak of (although there may well be others booked on to the same trip, cycling the same route) and no tour leader; just a series of maps and route notes to get you from A to B. If you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, or get horribly lost and lose invaluable time (time that may have otherwise been spent searching out somewhere to stop for lunch or an afternoon snack), having a few energy bars on hand will help to keep you going until a point that you are able to stop for food. #5 Always pack a mac; you never know when it might rain It’s all too easy, when you’re travelling to somewhere hot or to somewhere that rain is not ordinarily forecast at that time of year, to omit a waterproof jacket from your packing list.  Hey, it takes up space in your backpack and you probably won’t need to use it! Well, I’ll let you into a secret – I needed mine on both my recent cycling trips.  On my trip to Cuba during what is supposed to be the driest month of the year and when I cycled along the Adriatic coast at the end of May, when rain is rare and thunderstorms are unheard of.  We experienced both in the space of 7 days. You can buy pac-a-macs that roll up to the size of a small t-shirt, so you have absolutely no excuse not to pack one! Have you ever been on a cycling trip? What else would you add to my list of tips? Save this is Cycling holidays: 5 Things to know before you go from Overland Travel Adventures from Go, See, Write - overland travel, RTW travel, adventure travel 18 Nov

Payvand Iran News

Iranian Oil Minister optimistic about OPEC deal - Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Saturday that it is possible for OPEC members to reach an agreement to stabilize the oil market. ";If OPEC reaches an agreement I am quite optimistic that oil prices will rise and this is what global economy demands,"; Zanganeh was quoted by Shana as saying after meeting Algerian Energy Minister Noureddine Bouterfa in Tehran.27 Nov

Death toll in train collision in Semnan, Iran reaches 44 - At least 44 died and 100 got wounded after two passenger trains collided in Iran's north-central province of Semnan. So far, 80 of the injured have been transferred to nearby hospitals and 20 got outpatient care, IRNA quoted Mostafa Mortazavi, an official with Iran's Red Crescent Society as saying.27 Nov

Deputy NSC Advisor Pick McFarland: Treat Middle Easterners Like Kids - On Friday, Donald Trump's transition team announced that Fox News national security analyst Kathleen Troia McFarland will serve as his Deputy National Security Advisor, working under National Security Advisor-designate Michael Flynn. McFarland previously served on Gerald Ford's National Security Council and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs in the Reagan administration, from 1982 to 1985. -Derek Davison27 Nov

Missing Spiritual Leader's Supporters Beaten by Plainclothes Intelligence Agents at Iran's Parliament- Approximately 50 followers of imprisoned spiritual leader Mohammad Ali Taheri-who has been missing for more than a month-were beaten by plainclothes members of Iran's intelligence forces and then arrested by the police in front of Parliament on November 21, 2016, according to eyewitnesses.27 Nov

Germany OKs 1.2 Billion Euro Loan For Iran Rail Plan - Germany has reportedly agreed to provide Iran with a 1.2 billion Euro ($1.27 billion) credit line to help finance a key rail project in what is seen as the biggest foreign financing the country has been able to secure after the removal of sanctions.27 Nov

Iranian Oil Ministry Helicopter Crash In Caspian Sea Kills 5 - News reports say an Iranian helicopter based at a Caspian Sea oil platform crashed late on November 26, killing all five people onboard. The helicopter belonged to the Oil Ministry and was carrying an engineer with heart trouble to the hospital when it crashed, the German news agency dpa reported, citing Iranian media.27 Nov

Iran State Railway Chief Resigns, 3 Arrested After Train Crash Kills 44 - Three railway staff have been detained after a deadly train collision took place in Iran's north-central province of Semnan on Friday. The accident happened when a passenger train in motion crashed to another one that had stopped at the station. 45 died and over 100 got wounded.27 Nov

Iran non-oil exports to Iraq stand at $6.2B, including $2.2B of agricultural products - Ebrahim Rezazadeh on Sunday highlighted the importance of Iraq's market for exporting Iranian products, adding ";since 2005, our exports to Iraq has increased 17 times, which is three times more than the four continents of America, Africa, Europe and Oceania in total.";27 Nov

Russia May Use Iran's Hamadan Base if Admiral Kuznetsov Moves Away From Syria - Russia could use Iran's Hamadan airbase in case the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier used for anti-terror strikes in Syria moves away from the Syrian borders for a new mission, the Russian upper house of parliament's defense committee chair said Saturday.27 Nov

Iran awards key oil deal to Schlumberger - Iran says it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Schlumberger - the world's largest oil field services company - over the development of several southern oil fields. The MOU was signed between Schlumberger and the National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC)27 Nov

Plastics News latest RSS headlines - Big News Network.com

CCL Industries to Acquire Innovia for $1.13 Billion - TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - December 19, 2016) - CCL Industries Inc. (TSX: CCL.A) (TSX: CCL.B)Highly strategic opportunity Leading, specialty, global producer of co-extruded, Bi-axially Oriente07:07

See the new Memphis Grizzlies credit cards - Memphis Grizzlies fans can take their team loyalty one step further thanks to Pinnacle. In August, it was announced Nashville-based Pinnacle Financial Partners (Nasdaq: PNFP) would become the officia07:07

Simple steps to maintain you silver, jewellery - New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) Silver objects tarnish easily and develop stains and scratches. Avoid wrapping your silver in plastic bags and polish it with a toothpaste, says an expert. Preeti Sogani, Man04:41

India thrash England to clinch series 4-0 - Chennai, Dec 20 (IANS) India on Tuesday clinched the five-match cricket Test rubber 4-0 after thrashing England by an innings and 75 runs in the fifth and final match at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium h03:43

Electricity-from-water scientist seeks commercialisation of invention - New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) A top scientist at National Physics Laboratory (NPL) here has said that industry should come forward to  commercialise the concept of the hydroelectric cell as it has the poten03:01

32nd Annual World Petrochemical Conference - The World Petrochemical Conference by IHS Markit is the premier annual international gathering of chemical industry leaders, experts, government officials and policymakers, as well as leader19 Dec

Researchers estimate 10,000 metric tons of plastic enter Great Lakes every year - A new study by Rochester Institute of Technology that inventories and tracks high concentrations of plastic in the Great Lakes could help inform cleanup efforts and target pollution preventi19 Dec

Berry Plastics Appoints Jean-Marc Galvez as President - Consumer Packaging Division - EVANSVILLE, Ind., Dec 19, 2016 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Copyright Business Wire 2016 Today, Berry Plastics Group, Inc. (NYSE:BERY), announced that it has appointed Jean-Marc Ga19 Dec

Analyzing the Global Petrochemical Industry 2016 - LONDON, Dec. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Copyright (C) 2016 PR Newswire. All rights reserved The petrochemical industry of today is an indispensable part of the manufacturi19 Dec

New York City preschool teachers rake in expensive gifts from children's parents - Teachers at NYCs swankiest preschools are raking in the bucks and perks with year-end holiday swag like an Hermes scarf, a Rolex and plastic surgery, say annoyed parents.19 Dec

Political Mojo | Mother Jones

RFF Library Blog

Financing Low Carbon, Climate Resilient Infrastructure: The Role of Climate Finance and Green Financial Systems - Brookings Institution / by Joshua P. Meltzerhttp://brook.gs/2ei5Et3 Over the next 15 years (2015-2030) the world will need to build on the order of US $75-$86 trillion in infrastructure—approximately double the estimated $50 trillion stock of infrastructure. This increases to $116.55 trillion once investments in energy efficiency and primary energy are included. Around 70 percent of these infrastructure needs will be in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDCs)…Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Climate Change, inf 15 Oct

The Paris Agreement and Beyond: International Climate Change Policy Post-2020 - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Belfer Center, Kennedy School, Harvard Univ. / by Robert N. Stavins and Robert C. Stowehttp://bit.ly/2eb2KqG The Paris Agreement is a breakthrough in multilateral efforts to address the threat of global climate change. For the first time, an international agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions includes contributions from all of the major-emitting countries—and, indeed, a large majority of the countries of the world. In addition, the Agreement includes a dynamic feature through which mitigation commitments can be strengthened over time. While the Agreement sets forth an innovative and potentially effective policy architecture, a great deal remains to be done to elaborate the accord—to formulate the many rules and guidelines required and to specify more precise means of implementation. Governments, other stakeholders, and researchers also need to think about constraints on the effectiveness of the Paris Agreement—and identify organizations and processes that could complement the Agreement and the UNFCCC process more broadly. The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements hosted a research workshop at the Harvard Kennedy School on July 14–15, 2016, the purpose of which was to identify options for elaborating and implementing the Paris Agreement—and to identify policies and institutions that might complement or supplement the Paris-Agreement regime. Participants included twenty-three of the world’s leading researchers focusing on climate-change policy, representing the disciplines of economics, political science, international relations, and legal scholarship. They are based in Argentina, Belgium, China, Germany, India, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. (An agenda and list of participants is included near the end of this volume.) Participants subsequently prepared the briefs that are included in this volume, based largely on their presentations at the workshop, addressing opportunities for—and challenges to—elaborating, implementing, and complementing the Paris Agreement. These briefs are organized in five sections: enhancing mitigation ambition, elaborating the Agreement’s transparency mechanism, advancing market mechanisms (in and out of the Agreement), exploring complementary processes and institutions, and financing mitigation and adaptation. Each brief provides a summary in the form of several key points, and a compilation of the key points is provided after this preface. The briefs are designed to be readily accessible—and, it is hoped, useful—to negotiators and policy makers, as they consider how to elaborate the Paris Agreement in order to realize its potential to effectively address global climate change.Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Climate Change, International Agreements 15 Oct

An Investor Guide to Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Stress - Cereshttp://bit.ly/2dyoaPj Key Findings 57% of the 109,665 wells that were hydraulically fractured in the past five years were located in regions with high or extremely high water stress, including basins in Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma and California. A total of 358.4 billion gallons of water was used for hydraulic fracturing, equivalent to the annual water needs of 200 mid-sized cities. [1] While overall water use peaked in 2014, average water use per well doubled from 2.6 million gallons per well in 2011 to 5.3 million gallons per well in 2015, most likely due to longer laterals used to increase contact area with the shale formation. The Eagle Ford play is of particular concern. Annual water use rose from 5 billion gallons in 2011 to 26 billion in 2014, while average water use (per well) grew from 4 million gallons to over 7 million in 2014.  The region is also experiencing high water stress, drought and declining groundwater supplies, along with growing population pressures. Weld County, Colorado saw the highest number of wells drilled (almost 7000 wells) and the largest amount of water used for fracking (more than 16 billion gallons) of any county in the United States. Local communities are at the front lines of dealing with the impact from water demands for fracking activities. For example, annual water use for fracking in Weld County, Colorado represents 50 percent of all domestic water use, and in seven of the top 10 counties, annual water use for hydraulic fracturing reached more than 100% of each county’s domestic water use Nine of the top 10 companies analyzed operated 70 percent or more of their wells in regions with medium or higher water stress. The large volumes of wastewater produced by hydraulic fracturing that must be managed at the surface and ultimately disposed of in underground deep well injection sites are a significant and growing issue at the local level. This wastewater has been linked to surface and groundwater contamination events, as well as to earthquakes. Filed under: Energy and Climate Tagged: Unconventional Fossil Fuels, Water Resources  6 Oct

A Preliminary Environmental Equity Assessment Of California’s Cap-and-Trade Program - USC  Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) | UC Berkeley | San Francisco State Univ. | Occidental College / by By Lara J. Cushing, et al.http://dornsife.usc.edu/PERE/enviro-equity-CA-cap-trade …Key findings from our analysis indicate that: Regulated GHG-emitting facilities—including those that emit the highest levels of both GHGs and PM10—tend to be located in neighborhoods with higher proportions of residents of color and residents living in poverty. This suggests that further emissions reductions from GHG emitting facilities could enhance the public health and environmental equity co-benefits of cap-and-trade. In-state GHG emissions have increased, on average, among several industry sectors since the advent of cap-and-trade. One particular driver of the pattern is the electrical sector in which GHG reductions were largely due to reductions in imported electricity (and in the GHG-intensity of those imports) while in-state GHG emissions actually rose. Many high-emitting companies have used out-of-state “offset” projects to meet compliance obligations. California’s largest GHG emitters were more likely to use offset projects to meet their emissions obligations under cap-and-trade. Of the top-emitting facilities in terms of both PM10 and GHGs, 61 percent reported increases in localized GHG emissions in 2013-14 relative to 2011-12, versus 51 percent of facilities overall. The neighborhoods near the top-emitting facilities that increased emissions were poorer and had a higher share of people of color than neighborhoods near top-emitting facilities that decreased their emissions… Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Cap and Trade, Climate Change, States 22 Sep

Is Win-Win Possible? Can Canada’s Government Achieve Its Paris Commitment . . . and Get Re-elected? - Simon Fraser University, School of Resource and Environmental Management / By Marc Jaccard, et al.http://bit.ly/2cOqYv6 [The Canadian Press] …Jaccard concludes that to force Canada to meet the goals it agreed to at the Paris climate summit, that price would have to be $200 a tonne. No government in the world will set that, he said. B.C. has frozen its carbon tax at $30 a tonne. Alberta has no plans to go beyond that level. Governments in France and Australia have already cancelled carbon taxes in the face of public opposition. Jaccard points instead to a tool that is already reducing carbon in some of the world’s largest economies — regulation. “All climate policies that are actually effective are politically difficult,” he said. “The only issue is which ones are more politically difficult. “Taxes are more difficult than regulation.”… Economists often argue that pricing carbon is more efficient because it lets consumers make their own decisions about how much energy they want to use. But efficiency is not the same thing as effectiveness, said Jaccard. “Economists love to chant about that, but economists don’t have to get re-elected.” Jaccard acknowledges that carbon regulations don’t mean a price isn’t being paid. They simply hide it. Using regulations to de-carbonize Canada would increase the price of a litre of gas in Ontario to about $1.70 by 2030 from just under $1, he writes. Electricity in Alberta and Saskatchewan — the two most coal-dependent provinces — would rise up to 18 per cent. It would cost about $10 more to produce a barrel of oilsands oil. But they could just work, Jaccard said. And they would be a lot less likely to destroy the governments that introduced them….Filed under: Energy and Climate, Uncategorized Tagged: Carbon Pricing, Climate Change, International, Regulation 22 Sep

rabble.ca

Right-wing media takes an Islamophobic twist on the tragic deaths of two Ottawa sisters - A tragic story out of Ottawa -- and the carrion-eaters are already out in force. read more 21 min

The world has much to learn from Cuba's agroecological revolution - Tuesday, December 20, 2016 When Fidel Castro died on November 25, the amount of negative press in Canadian media about his contribution and the revolution he led was incredible. Perhaps because of Trump's election in the United States a few weeks before, the spillover of U.S. journalistic drivel regarding all things Cuba, and the herd mentality of Canadian reporters, it became de rigueur to make unsubstantiated statements, repeatedly. It was more than a little embarrassing and aggravating if you are a Cuba watcher, as I am. I had not quite anticipated such disrespect, at least not here in Canada. For more than 25 years, Cuba has been modelling its food production on agroecology and applying organic agriculture to a multitude of small-scale projects. It's time we took note. read more 07:44

As the majority of femicides are preventable, it's important to learn what you can do - The majority of femicides are preventable. It's a sad truth, but a truth none-the-less. So, my gift to you this holiday season is the ability to save a woman's life in 2017. My gift this holiday season? Advice on how to save a woman's life in 2017 07:06

Revolutionary program empowers girls with media literacy and activism skills - Tuesday, December 20, 2016 #HerDigitalVisions is an afterschool program that works with self-identified girls, building media literacy skills in order to better establish power in an online world. In this social media age where the youth demographic is expected to be proficient in all media platforms and propel this technological evolution at an unprecedented rate, it truly matters who continues to take up space and whose voices are at the table. If young people, particularly marginalized and underrepresented voices,  “don’t have the skills to use online, they don’t have a voice in society,” said Megan Ryland, program coordinator of #HerDigitalVisions, a project of BC-based organization Access to Media Education Society (AMES). read more 06:55

A Hard Rain: The CIA proxy war with Russia - Tuesday, December 20, 2016 Patti Smith rocked the Nobel Prize gala in Sweden singing "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," a Bob Dylan classic from the 1960s era of the civil rights struggle and protest against the Vietnam war. As noted by James Warren in Vanity Fair, Nobel Prize honouree Dylan revealed the meaning of that song 50 years ago in a recorded conversation with Studs Terkel, the oral historian of the American working class. "A Hard Rain" is about the poison coming from the establishment and carried by the media, explained Dylan: how do we protect our brains from it? The climate of Cold War fear-mongering now prevailing in the U.S. is reminiscent of the 1960s, a decade when big issues were made intelligible by songs composed by Bob Dylan. read more 06:41

Alberta Tory harassment investigation: Move along please, nothing to see here, folks - The "independent third-party investigator” engaged by Alberta's Progressive Conservative Party to look into complaints of harassment against certain candidates for its leadership has concluded there's no "direct evidence" anyone was responsible for anything. OK, something happened. But while there was some evidence of "ill-mannered" behaviour, the report by a Calgary-based security and investigation company, as written up by a former PC Party president, indicated it just couldn’t be linked to any particular candidate’s campaign. read more 00:30

Opposition Leader Brian Jean completes shadow shuffle, leaves Derek Fildebrandt in finance - Seemingly flying beneath the radar, Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean has completed a significant reshuffle of his shadow cabinet, the party’s MLA page shows. All 22 Wildrose MLAs in the Alberta legislature hold a major critic’s portfolio, and 14 of them were assigned new jobs in the shuffle. Click here to see the full assignment list. Among the most significant changes: read more 19 Dec

Our transport system is structured around the private car. That needs to change. - The first in a four-part series on the "great Toronto toll debate." What's left and what's right? Usually it is obvious, but sometimes you have to take a step back and consider the bigger picture. For example, the Toronto toll debate has exposed a lack of scrutiny of the leading source of corporate profit over the past century by many supposed leftists. Without a political economy of the auto industrial complex, many Marxists have objectively allied themselves with the private car's awesome political, cultural and ideological power. read more 19 Dec

A year-ender in which a humble pundit admits mistakes - Jeffrey Simpson, now retired as columnist for The Globe and Mail would write at year's end about what he got right -- and where he had been wrong. I intend to try something similar in this blog posting. Most of my 21 posts with rabble in 2016 attracted just a few comments, but one abut Justin Trudeau and another about climate change deniers attracted numerous replies. Often writing about the deniers is like kicking a hornet's nest -- they come after you in swarms. On rabble, however, it was not the deniers but rather their critics who were most prominent in reply and for that I am thankful.  read more 19 Dec

A holiday giving guide for activists - A Canadian activist guide to fight for food, shelter, the environment and peace this holiday. A fierce holiday giving guide to build a better future 19 Dec

RSS Feed for Author: Paul Craig Roberts

The Conspiracy to Shut Down Truth, Donald Trump, and The American People - As long as it pretends to be a newspaper, the Washington Post is subject to journalistic ethics. But the PropOrNot story by Craig Timberg violated journalistic ethics. Unsupported accusations were leveled against 200 websites, a McCarthyism record.13 Dec

Has Liberty Departed From America? - Is the CIA correct that the American people are forever brainwashed, subject only to the explanations given by their overlords? If so, all Americans are slated to be the most oppressed people in history.11 Dec

If You Are For Peace You Are A Russian Agent - If Putin and those of us on the 200 List are the ones who actually got Trump elected, shouldn't Putin or The List be Time magazine's person of the year and not Trump? After all, if Putin and I did the work, shouldn't we get the recognition? Why give the credit to the stooge we put in office? Why is Time magazine shoving those of us responsible off into the background?10 Dec

Big Money Intends To Shut Down Our Websites - Apparently, Trump wants peace with Russia but war with Iran, a contradiction as Russia will not permit the US to have war with Iran. So if Trump and his generals persist, there will be no lessening of tensions between the US and Russia, and by extension with China. If this is the outcome, Trump will blow up the planet as surely as Hillary would have done. 8 Dec

A Dismal Jobs Report - The unemployed are simply moved into the uncounted category of discouraged workers who are so discouraged about finding a job that they have ceased looking. If you are not looking for a job, you are not considered to be part of the labor force. Therefore, your unemployment is not counted. 7 Dec

The Tide Is Turning Against the Oligarchs - Clearly the ruling oligarchy is concerned that the websites on the 200 List now control the explanations although not the levers of power. Nevertheless, if the pen is more powerful than the sword, power will return to the people as we continue to deliver truth to them. 5 Dec

John Pilger Raises a Question: Has There Ever Been a Government More Evil Than Washington? - In The Coming War on China, John Pilger describes Washington's war plans against China. These plans are nonsensical, because China and Russia are now strategic allies, united by their opposition to Washington's hegemony. 4 Dec

McCarthyism Is Breaking Out All Over - By publicizing the fake list of 200 "Russian agents" in the Washington Post, the presstitute newspaper has brought buckets of shame and condemnation upon its head, destroying in the process the thin shred of credibility that the Main Stream media still possessed. 3 Dec

Trump's Appointments -- What do they mean? - Whereas Congress is in Republican hands, Congress remains in the hands of special interests who will protect their agendas from hostile potential appointees. Therefore, although Trump does not face partisan opposition from Congress, he faces the power of special interests that fund congressional political campaigns. 2 Dec

Dear President Putin - My criticism of Washington's policy of raising tensions between nuclear powers and support of your policy of reducing tensions is not spy cover. I really do prefer that the world not be blown up in thermo-nuclear war. This is a suspect view in the US, but I hope it is an acceptable one in Russia.28 Nov

Unexplained Mysteries

Evidence of prehistoric plant cooking found - Researchers at the University of Bristol have found cooking pot fragments dating back over 10,000 years. The discovery, which was made by a team at th...01:11

163 new species discovered in Mekong region - Researchers have identified a large number of new flora and fauna in the Mekong River basin. Despite being under threat from deforestation, mining and...19 Dec

Giant manned robot being built in South Korea - A giant bipedal robot that looks like something out of the movie 'Avatar' has been unveiled this month. The four-meter tall contraption, which feature...19 Dec

Thousands of fish wash up on Cornwall beach - Vast quantities of mackerel and pilchard have washed up along the shore for the second time this month. The distinctive shingle of one of England's mo...18 Dec

Ghost shark caught on film for the first time - An enigmatic species of shark found in the Pacific has been captured on film off the coast of California. Also known as chimaeras, these distinct dead...18 Dec

Mysterious pipe washes up in New Zealand - The discovery marks the second time a strange object has washed up on a beach in New Zealand this month. The 100-meter-long pipe was discovered on a b...18 Dec

Mystery sound heard near the Mariana Trench - A mysterious metallic sound recorded by researchers could actually be a never-before-heard whale call. Picked up by autonomous robots known as "passiv...17 Dec

Group sends meat and potato pie in to space - Space enthusiasts from the UK have succeeded in sending a shortcrust pie over 29 miles above the ground. The bizarre flight was carried out by SentInt...17 Dec

World's hottest borehole is almost complete - Geologists have been drilling a 5km borehole in to rocks measuring in excess of 500 degrees Celsius. The Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP), which i...17 Dec

Water ice found on the dwarf planet Ceres - Two new studies have revealed that the dwarf planet Ceres is home to significant quantities of water ice. The largest object in the asteroid belt betw...16 Dec

Upworthy

50 years ago, today's size 00 was an 8. This viral post shows why vanity sizing must end. - "Stop believing the social normatives about who and what you should be."
Deena Shoemaker was going through her closet when she realized something odd: She had several pairs of pants in drastically different sizes.It wasn't that she had gained or lost a lot of weight recently. Despite the varying sizes on the labels, each pair of pants fit her exactly the same. Shoemaker is simply a victim of something that plagues millions of people around the world: arbitrary clothing sizes. Some brands are "true to size" while others "run small" or "run large." Still others use "vanity sizing" like double- or triple-zero to make sizes seem smaller than they are. Finding six pairs of pants that fit her the same in a range of sizes from 5 to 12 opened her eyes to just how ridiculous our clothing size system truly is. And as a mentor coach at Youth Horizons, a nonprofit organization that supports at-risk kids, Shoemaker knew that teen and tween girls felt her frustration magnified tenfold. She decided to share photos of herself wearing the pants to show just how absurdly unstandardized clothing sizes are. No I'm not selling my pants; I've just got a bone to pick. I've worked with teen & pre-teen girls as a leader and...Posted by Deena Shoemaker on Saturday, December 10, 2016 She wrote the post as a letter of support to the girls she's worked with over the years, many of whom struggled with body image issues:"I've have girls sob in my arms and ask me, 'if I were skinnier, would he have stayed?' I've counseled girls who were skipping meals. I've caught some throwing up everything they've just eaten."She goes on to explain why she's not happy with the sizing discrepancy that exists across clothing brands: "When you resize a girl's pants from a 9 to a 16 and label it 'plus size', how am I supposed to fight that? ... How do you expect me to convince her that she doesn't need to skip dinner for the next month because her pant size didn't *actually* go up by seven digits?"Finally, she implored any girls reading the post to recognize that clothing size does not determine their worth as a person:"My dear beautiful girls, my size 2 girls or my size 18 girls, your size doesn't determine your beauty; your life does."There's truth to what Shoemaker found in her own closet: Clothing sizes have been jumping all over the place for the better part of a century. Photo via iStock. According to a report from Time, over 50 years ago, model Twiggy wore a size 8. Today, writer/comedian Mindy Kaling wears that same size. These two women have two very different body types. What used to be a size 8 is now considered a size 00. So where did these crazy size fluctuations originate? Simply put, clothing manufacturers thought women would find their actual measurements on clothing unnerving, so they began a practice known as "vanity sizing" to make women's sizes appear smaller. The horrible irony is the same system that was designed to make women feel better about their size is now making them feel frustrated and confused every time they go shopping.Thankfully, there are people in the fashion world fighting to make clothes shopping a more inclusive, less stressful experience for people with a range of body types. Melissa McCarthy promoting her brand Seven7. Photo by Paul Conrad/Getty Images. Companies like ModCloth are doing away with separate plus-size sections in favor of including extended sizes with their main clothing lines because separating larger sizes is a form of fat-shaming. Newer designers like Mallorie Dunn are featuring women of all sizes to model their clothes and show the world they're actually made for anyone to wear. More and more, we're seeing curvy and fat models, actresses, and designers featured in the fashion world.But we still have a long way to go. No one should feel they have to change their body to fit into clothes — clothes should be designed to fit the beautiful spectrum of body types that exist in the world. Not only that, but clothing should be marked appropriately and practically. Creating new sizes to make customers feel better only makes it seem as though some body types should be hidden or ashamed to be seen.As long as vanity sizing exists, young girls who are just growing into themselves and learning to be comfortable with their bodies will face frustration when they go shopping. That's why it's vital for them to have people like Shoemaker on their side telling them it's all just bullshit anyway.As Shoemaker wrote on Facebook: "Stop believing the social normatives about who and what you should be. You are lovely and you are loved. Just exactly the way you are."19 Dec

This church is practicing what they preach by bringing Christmas to people in prison. - Willow Creek's 'prison packs' are having a lasting effect.
Pastor Bill Hybels was reading from the Gospel of Matthew 25, when he came across a verse that he couldn't shake: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.""As Bill was reading this passage of scripture, that phrase, 'When you were in prison you came to visit me,' it kind of just hit him like, 'I don't know if we're doing this as a church,'" Willow Creek teaching pastor Steve Carter says.Out of Hybels' focus on that verse was born the idea for a program to bring Christmas presents to every inmate housed in an Illinois prison.In the program's first year, the church and its congregation helped pack and deliver 30,000 presents to Illinois inmates. Using the connections the church had already made with the Illinois Department of Corrections through their prison and jail ministry program, they tested their new plan out in 2013. The following year, they set out to provide a pack to every single person in an Illinois prison. A July 2015 report by the Illinois Department of Corrections lists the state's prison population at 47,483. Josie Guth, Willow Creek's director of local compassion and justice, announces plans to reach every prisoner in the state of Illinois this December. All GIFs from Willow Creek Community Church/Vimeo. Packing that many presents is an all-hands-on-deck experience, turning the church into its own version of Santa's workshop.Willow Creek, located in South Barrington, Illinois, is one of the country's largest churches, averaging more than 20,000 attendees per week. As the holiday season rolls around, parishioners line up to help pack presents — which include popcorn, honey buns, Christmas cards, puzzle books, calendars, journals, and Bible studies. Volunteers at Willow Creek pack presents. Behind bars, inmates often feel forgotten and isolated, cut off from the outside world. The gifts from Willow Creek make them feel seen again.On Willow Creek's Facebook page, they shared the story of Brandon, a former inmate and recipient of one of the church's prison packs. His story shows how something so small can do so much to bring hope to the hopeless. When he was 16, Brandon joined a gang and began selling drugs. After his third conviction on gun possession charges, he was sentenced to six years in prison; he would spend four behind bars."I joined a gang because I wanted some attention. I wanted some love," said Brandon in Willow Creek's video. "Like the guy who showed me how to sell crack. He checked up on me three times a day."Each box costs around just $5 to pack, but the inmates who receive them get something far more valuable: a reminder that there are people out there who care about them. Brandon discusses the effect Willow Creek's prison packs had on him. "I think deep in our core, everyone wants to feel seen and known," says Pastor Carter. "And so who are those people we can see or know?"This is a lesson that goes beyond inmates and beyond any one specific situation. It's a lesson in empathy and giving that's worth remembering year-round. Life is filled with small things that can have a big impact on the lives of others, and there's no better time than now to give back (if you're in the position to do so), to call a friend or relative you haven't spoken to in a while, or to just let someone know that you're there for them. It's a season of hope, and we can all be a part of it. Dino is an Illinois inmate and recipient of a Willow Creek pack. To learn more about Willow Creek's Prison Packs program, check out the video below.19 Dec

For months, this girl painted a frightening picture of Aleppo. Today, she's finally safe. - Bana al-Abed is safe, but there are still others who need our help.
There's some good news from Aleppo: 7-year-old Bana al-Abed and her family have been safely evacuated out of the Syrian city.Over the course of the past several months, Bana and her mother Fatemah have live-tweeted the reality of life in a war zone. With more than 340,000 followers, Bana's Twitter account has helped put a face to the horrors facing the city.Last week, Bana's followers watched as she and her mother tweeted final messages and waited for the end. Their fate uncertain, supporters braced for the worst.On Monday morning, it was reported that Bana and her family made it out of East Aleppo alive, something she frequently doubted would ever happen. Bana and Fatemah. Photo by Qasioun News Agency via AP While Bana's safety will bring comfort to her many fans and supporters, we can't forget those who remain trapped in the conflict.The Syrian civil war has killed an estimated 470,000 people and left 11 million Syrian citizens displaced. Nearly 500,000 children just like Bana live in portions of Syria under threat, with nearly 100,000 in East Aleppo. What was once their home has been reduced to rubble, a chewed-up battlefield.With millions of lives hanging in the balance, and the rest of the world so seemingly slow to help, it's easy to feel as though there's nothing you can do on an individual level for those who remain. Luckily, that's not quite the case. Bana and her brother near their home in October. Photo by Thaer Mohammed/AFP/Getty Images. There are a number of organizations working to help the people of Aleppo — and they could really use all of our support.If you're looking for a way to help, you might want to consider making a donation to groups like the White Helmets, Doctors Without Borders, the Syrian American Medical Society, International Rescue Committee, and Save the Children. There's also refugee support organizations like the UN Refugee Agency, Questscope, and the Migrant Offshore Aid Station. Upworthy recently put together an overview of what these organizations do and how you can support them that can be found here.Even if you're not in a position to financially back these organizations, there are other things you can do to show support for those affected by the crisis. Whether it's something as simple as sharing stories like Bana's and those about other refugees or by organizing or attending protests, these small acts are more than symbolic. Bana and her brother in October. Photo by Thaer Mohammed/AFP/Getty Images. Bana has made it out alive, but her struggle is far from over. With all  of our help, we can fight back against this atrocity.No 7-year-old should fear for her life. No 7-year-old should have to stand by while missiles and bombs destroy her home. No 7-year-old should ever be made to feel that the world has forgotten her. Let's not forget the others who still need our help. I just want to live without fear _ Bana #Aleppo— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) October 12, 2016 19 Dec

One couple's perfect response to people asking when they're going to have kids. - Choosing to have kids or not have kids is no one else's decision but yours.
"When are you guys going to start having kids?" Like many couples, Carrie Jansen and her husband Nic had heard this question a million different ways, a million different times. The pressure really started to mount when the pair, who've been together for eight years, got married three years ago. While Carrie loves kids (she's an elementary school teacher, after all), she and Nic simply aren’t interested in having kids of their own. Now or ever. Photo via Carrie Jansen, used with permission. "It's not what I was meant for," explains Carrie in a Facebook message. "It's like, I love flowers, and everyone loves flowers. But that doesn't mean I want to grow my own. I'm perfectly happy admiring other people's gardens.”Carrie wanted to tell her family that they don't plan on having kids but knew if she did, they'd say something like, "Oh you'll change your mind one day!" and that pesky question would keep rearing its ugly head. Rather than continue to deflect the question over and over, Carrie decided to do something a little bit different.Since the couple was adding another mouth to feed to the family, they decided to announce it with a series of maternity-style photos, revealing the twist: The new addition was a puppy named Leelu, not a baby. Photo via Carrie Jensen/Imgur, used with permission. "My husband and I have been married 3 years and everyone is bugging us about having a baby. Close enough right?" she captioned the photos.Her pictures went insanely viral, with many of the commenters giving her props for hilariously addressing the dreaded "kids " question."If you don't want kids, don't have kids. Seriously. Have fun with each other. I had three kids early and it's all about them now," wrote one user.  "I wish people would just mind their business raising a kid ain't easy and cheap," wrote another. "I got my husband a vasectomy for his birthday this year. Best gift ever," chimed in a third. Photo via Carrie Jansen, used with permission. Carrie was overwhelmed and inspired by the viral response. "Having children is definitely a hot topic, and one that is evolving in this generation like so many other social issues," she says. "It's exciting to find others that feel the same way I do."Carrie is hardly alone in not wanting to have kids — in fact, a record number of women are choosing not to have kids today.In 2014, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey found 47.6% of women between age 15 and 44 had never had children, which is the highest percentage on record. Despite the numbers, however, because we still live in a patriarchally-driven society, women regularly face the expectation that they should be mothers, and they often are judged if they decide not to be.Whether you want to have one kid, five kids, no kids, or a puppy, the choice should be yours and no one else’s. No one else has the right to put pressure on you to change your body and life in a drastic way. Thankfully, because of women like Carrie — and partners like Nic — who aren't afraid to bring the subject out in the open, the expectations are slowly but surely changing. Photo via Carrie Jansen, used with permission. 19 Dec

A grocery store intentionally overcharged customers to show what poverty is really like. -
When customers at one San Francisco grocery store went to the checkout one day, they were outraged. The cost of their groceries had increased astronomically.Look, we've all cringed once or twice while the cashier rings up the fancy yogurt we decided to get last minute because "screw it, I wanna eat fancy yogurt," but this wasn't a few pennies or dollars here and there. This was $25 for a box of spinach and  $40 for a loaf of bread and some cigarettes. GIF via Tipping Point Community/YouTube. The cost of their groceries had inflated. But why? It was all part of a social experiment meant to show people what buying groceries is like for people living in poverty.1 in 10 families in the Bay Area live on $24,300 or less per year, below the poverty line and well below the Bay Area average. The experiment was set up by Tipping Point Community, a poverty relief organization, which set up a register in a Nob Hill grocery store where customers checking out would be given "poverty line prices," or prices that were proportionally representative to living in poverty."If eggs cost $6 for someone living on the poverty line, or 1.4% of their weekly salary, the adjusted price would be $29.64 for someone living on the average San Francisco salary," TPC's website explains. Imagine if your groceries, rent and college supplies were five times as expensive. For the 1 in 10 families living below the poverty line in the Bay Area, this is how it feels. Visit tippingpoint.org to calculate how expensive your basic needs would be if adjusted for #povertylineprices A photo posted by Tipping Point Community (@tippingpoint) on Nov 17, 2016 at 1:26pm PST Tipping Point also set up a website where anyone can plug in their annual salary and see what grocery shopping would be like if they lived in poverty. While those skyrocketed prices were temporarily frustrating for the people trying to buy groceries, the sticker shock they experienced is one millions of Americans face every day.In 2015, over 43 million people in the United States were living in poverty. That's down 1.2% from 2014 but is still a massive number. Sticker shock doesn't just affect people below the poverty line either. According to the Corporation for Enterprise Development, nearly half of all Americans are one financial shock — a job loss, a medical emergency, etc. — away from poverty. Feeling financial discomfort while you shop for basic needs is something that could happen to any of us.The income gap between the rich and poor in the United States is ever-widening, and closing it would require landmark financial restructuring, or at least some out-of-the-box thinking.If you had to pay $30 for cold medicine or $15 for a gallon of milk, you might be outraged like the folks in the video. Most of all though, you'd want to do something about it. You'd want somebody to recognize that it's an unfair burden on you and your family. You'd want things to change.Watch people react to poverty line prices here: 19 Dec

The most popular science paper of 2016 is from ... Obama?! -
Can you guess which science story was the most talked about in 2016? As you can see, hot sauce is amazing and needs to go on everything. Image from iStock. It's a tough one — there were a lot of great science studies. We had the paper that linked Zika and birth defects, for instance. Plus there was the evidence of Einstein-affirming gravitational waves, the mysterious Planet Nine, and that time scientists tried to teach a computer Go. But there was one story that ruled them all, according to the U.K. firm Altmetric. They analyzed over 17 million mentions of nearly 3 million pieces of research, tracking not just how they were received in the scientific community, but how they were talked about by the news and social media.So who won? The freakin' president of the United States of America. President Obama at South by Southwest in 2016. Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for SXSW. That's right. It's Obama. Back in June, Obama published a real, scientific, peer-reviewed article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The paper, "United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps," was kind of a report card on Obamacare. It's free to read, but boiled down, it basically said that based on an analysis of public data, the Affordable Care Act had positive effects on insurance coverage, access to care, and overall health. Of course, there were still some significant gaps that future policymakers could fix. Basically, the paper gave Obamacare a B+.The paper dominated Altmetric's analysis, garnering their highest score ever, largely fueled by a gigantic public reaction.It's kind of cool to see this marriage of policy and science. It's also an awesome reminder that Obama is a giant, unabashed nerd.This paper made Obama the first president to ever write a proper scientific paper while in office. That said, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have published opinions in the past, and, weirdly, it turns out Thomas Jefferson was really into writing about giant sloths. No, seriously. There's a species of extinct giant sloth named after him. Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images. This end-of-the-year surprise feels especially apropos considering how much of a talking point Obamacare was during the election and the fact that its future seems uncertain at this point. But nevertheless, nerds unite. 'Cause science geeks: It turns out we've got friends in high places.19 Dec

What 8 successful ADHDers want you to know about how they get stuff done. -
Whenever I'm working with my family, friends, or colleagues, they always ask me how I'm able to get so much done. My answer: "I have ADHD."That might sound confusing, but realistically, people with ADHD don't always have problems with attention — at least, not when we're working on something that excites us. In fact, ADHD often means that we can hyperfocus on awesome things for hours on end, although sometimes that comes at the expense of all the less-thrilling things we’re supposed to be doing. (Why wash the dishes when you can build a rocket ship out of a cardboard box and a disassembled vacuum cleaner?)Most people with ADHD have to work 10 times harder to achieve seemingly basic organizational and time management skills — skills that other people develop naturally over time. As a result, we pay more conscious attention to life hacks, memory tricks, productivity shortcuts and other mental managerial systems ... because we have to. GIF via Checkoofilm/YouTube. Some say that people with ADHD are much more likely to start their own businesses, perhaps because we’re built to tackle creative and entrepreneurial challenges.While other people don’t need to learn the same tricks that we do, they can benefit from them. In fact, I’d argue that ADHDers have some of the best advice and practices for getting stuff done — even if we don’t always listen to that advice ourselves. GIF from "Bruce Almighty." Here are 21 productivity tips from people with ADHD that even non-ADHDers can learn from:1. Habits are things you get for free. So get into 'em. Even though I’m not a natural creature of habit, I always start my day with meds, then a shower, then pants, then breakfast — otherwise I know that I’m going to forget one of those steps. Habits are essentially self-automation, which means less brainpower spent on the little things. 2. Always have a backup (or two, or three) and know where to find it. I keep extra cables, chargers, adapters, medicine, and other things in my bag at all times. That way, whether I’m going to the grocery store or on vacation, I don’t have to worry about keeping my phone charged. 3. Reminders and alerts: love them and use them. I even have a recurring 2 p.m. notification on my phone that says “EAT SOME LUNCH, YOU IDIOT” because, erm, I need the reminder more than I’d like to admit. (Also: IFTTT triggers to automate actions and sync between apps and accounts make life way easier.) GIF from "Despicable Me 2." 4. Keep a calendar, and schedule in the time it takes for you to do things. If it takes you extra time to keep a calendar or get into the headspace for a meeting? Factor that in when you’re planning your day too.5. Pay attention to the your day's ups and downs, and use them to your advantage. Do you get sleepy right after lunch? Then maybe don’t dive into that intense project at 1 p.m. Are you better when you answer emails in the morning and get active tasks done later? Then do that. Figure out what works for you, and follow that schedule.6. Find your rhythm and stick with it. Even if you’re not the slow and steady type, a regular pattern of sprint and rest can still help you reach the finish line. "Sometimes I'll start counting beats in my head to create a rhythm," says TV writer/director Hadley Klein. "It sounds crazy but for whatever reason, it helps me think through things in a different way." GIF via HIKAKIN/YouTube. 7. Make a list. Check it twice. Then make another list. And another. Graphic novelist Tyler Page says, “I keep one main to-do list on my computer in a Sticky or TextEdit file. Bigger projects get their own lists where they get broken down into smaller and smaller components. The lists also help with prioritizing — something that needs to be done right away goes on the daily to-do list." GIF from "Monsters University." 8. “Prioritize action over accomplishment. Doing the thing.” This one comes from Patty Carnevale, director of integrated marketing at Man Repeller. Measuring your progress in a tangible way can help you feel even more successful, which will then give you the drive to keep going. 9. Reward yourself for your accomplishments — no matter how small. If you're someone who needs frequent feedback to get the necessary dopamine boost, then you can fake it by sticking a carrot in front of yourself to keep you going. Alysa Auriemma, an English instructor, gives an example: “I can read that awesome online fanfic IF I get three papers graded!” GIF from "Parks and Recreation." 10. Turn the boring parts into a game.“I use a fitness watch which monitors how many steps I take in a day and how many flights of stairs I climb. It’s fun to make the numbers go up,” says Nalo Hopkinson, an award-winning author. She also reports her daily word count on Twitter, so that people can cheerlead her along.11. Don't dread the boring stuff. Just get it done. It's faster that way. Focus on the satisfaction that you’re going to feel once you’ve finished the task, instead of on the time it’ll take to get it done — which, let’s be honest, is probably less time than you think. (Of course, even though I know this works for me, it's still easier said than done.)12. The more you let things pile up, the easier it gets to ignore them. dFind a way to keep it fresh. I’m a compulsive inbox zeroer because the longer that little red notification bubble sits there on my phone, the more inclined I am to ignore it. So I mark all my emails as "read," then use an IFTTT trigger to remind me later of things that actually require a follow-up or my attention. GIF from "Community." 13. If things slip your mind, visual cues can help. You know that mantra, "Out of sight, out of mind?" For people with ADHD, that's pretty literal — to a fault. So it helps to stick things right in our own faces so that we can't miss them. “When I was in college, I taped a postcard to my apartment door with the times I needed to leave by to make it to morning classes on time,” says Rebecca Eisenberg, Upworthy’s senior editor. 14. Work with your brain, not against it. Do you tend to lose your keys in the bathroom? Then make a new home for them in the bathroom, where you’re already inclined to leave them. That way, they’re always there. Don't fight your instincts. Use their momentum to your advantage. And on that note…15. Embrace your idiosyncrasies and find a way to make them work for you. Everyone’s brain is different. A lot of ADHDers need to figure out on our own what works for us, rather than having someone tell us what’s the “right” way to do things. For example: If someone else leaves me a list of instructions or things to do that's organized by their mind, it only makes me frustrated and confused. I have to create my own to-do lists in my own way — even if it does take more time. GIF from "Adventure Time." 16. Take a break. Move around. Do a little dance. Movement helps your brain work better. As tempting as it is to put the emphasis on measurable actions, it’s just as important to not do things and give yourself a chance to breathe. Sometimes a little distance can give you a lot of new perspective.I use a portable adjustable standing desk and a pair of bluetooth headphones so that I can basically dance in place and write at the same time. My wife thinks I'm weird, but it works.17. Know when to call it a day. It’s important to accept when you’ve reached the point of diminishing returns. Don't be afraid to give your brain a rest, and come back to it fresh the next day. This'll save you time in the long run too — because the more you power through your exhaustion, the longer it'll take to recover. GIF via ilvbunnies/YouTube. 18. Identity your flaws and strengths, and communicate them to others. "My colleagues know that in exchange for tolerating all the things I do that make me less reliable, they get a guy who can think outside the box, that can create on the fly, that can wear many hats at once," says  Upworthy's fearless editor-at-large, Adam Mordecai."They also know that if they want something from me, I'm far likelier to get it done if they ping me immediately on chat rather than on email. Let your peeps know how to get the most out of you."19. Keep your eye on the prize, but forgive yourself — and others. Everyone’s fighting their own uphill battles, and you're not going to get anything done if you're too busy beating yourself up. (You’re not going to help anyone else be more productive if you externalize it and pick on them either.) GIF from the SAG Awards. 20. Set your goals, but stay flexible.Maybe you didn’t get as much done today as you had hoped, but that’s OK. Regroup, come up with a new strategy, and try to figure out what went wrong so you can do it better next time. Which brings me to the last, and perhaps most important, lesson:21. “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”This is actually a quote from Samuel Beckett, but it also makes for an excellent productivity mantra. The bad parts and failures are inevitable, and you’ll never overcome them all. But that’s OK. Accept it, learn from it, and keep going anyway. But you do have a brain. So use it. GIF from "The Wizard of Oz." ADHDers understand one thing better than most people: Success is not a stationary target.There's no "one weird trick" that will actually bring you any closer to success. Instead, the best we can hope for is to embrace ourselves for all our strengths and weaknesses, and keep finding things to work toward. Perhaps that's a new business endeavor, 15 simultaneous hobbies, or simply remembering to put your underwear on before your pants.If that last part is a measurable indication, then for me, today was an extraordinary success.19 Dec

A generous photographer braved negative temperatures to take these free holiday portraits. -
A severe oil price crash in Alberta, Canada, has left much of the area devastated — and at the worst possible time too. The Calgary skyline. David Boily/AFP/Getty Images One of Canada's largest oil and gas hubs, Alberta, and specifically the city of Calgary, has been hit hard by major price drops this year. Tens of thousands of workers have been laid off as a result; upwards of 30,000 by some estimates.That's not the kind of news anyone wants to hear during the holiday season.Photographer Ben Logan, a longtime resident of the area, wanted to find a way to give back to the city he loves."I've always enjoyed doing what I can for others," he says. "But volunteering at certain places didn't seem like it was enough right now."So, with the help of his girlfriend, Logan had an idea: free holiday photos for families who might otherwise not be able to afford them."We thought we'd pick a spot somewhere, set up the camera, put up a sign," Logan says. "Just see who would come by and pick their day up a bit with a free photo."He says there's something lovably cheesy and timeless about holiday photos and that even a relatively simple shoot with a professional photographer is more than most people can afford these days. Initially, Logan prepared for only a handful of families to show. But news of the event quickly spread on social media and local news. Soon, he was prepping for over 1,000 people to show up.Logan set up shop at Olympic Plaza in downtown Calgary on an icy December Saturday, and he waited.The city was blasted with frigid temperatures that day, as low as -22 degrees Fahrenheit. The weather, needless to say, put a serious damper on attendance. But it wasn't long before the first families started showing up — below freezing temperates be damned.The first couple to arrive was bundled head to toe in winter gear. When they stripped down, they showed off sharp dress clothes for a (very) quick photo. All photos by Ben Logan, used with permission Others soon followed. Families with giggling kids. Couples in love. People from all walks of life.Logan says one man, in particular, stood out in his memory.The man didn't hear about the photo shoot in advance, he just happened to be passing through. He's currently homeless and had traveled nearly 1,000 miles from Vancouver to see his dying mother."While he was walking around, he saw us and was able to capture a Christmas photo for her before she left us," Logan says. "That was pretty touching."Though only a handful of families were able to brave the breathtakingly low temperatures, the event was a massive success. Logan says when news began to spread about the photo shoot, a handful of local businesses decided to chip in: They donated a significant sum of money specifically for Logan to give to the Calgary Food Bank in the name of his project.Logan will be out there at Olympic Plaza again, before Christmas, and he hopes for warmer weather this time. And either way, he plans to do the whole thing again next year. And every year after that."That was the dream behind it all," he says. "I would really, really love to do that."Hopefully, things will have turned around for the citizens of Calgary by this time next year. But if they don't, Logan says he's ready and eager to spread holiday cheer to people when they need it the most.
Check out Ben Logan's photography business and portfolio on his website.19 Dec

Going on a trip? Here's how to make sure you're not 'that' tourist. -
​There's nothing like the feeling of traveling to a new place for the first time.Whether it’s tasting some new exotic food, visiting a fairytale-like castle that's steeped in centuries of history, or taking in a breathtaking landscape for the first time, travel is a powerful way to experience different cultures and natural wonders firsthand. Image via iStock. But whether you plan to visit ancient ruins in Europe, wander the markets of Marrakesh, or see wildlife in Africa, it’s easy to find yourself in a situation that you’re not used to. When that happens, sometimes we get overwhelmed by all the differences and "newness" — and that makes the experience less enjoyable not only for you, but also for your hosts. Here are some easy and practical ways to make sure you're getting the most out of your trip while also honoring and respecting the places you visit (and the planet in general!).27 tips that can help us all be more conscious travelers.1. Try to learn at least a little of the local language, even if it’s just "hello," "thank you," or the customary greetings. A night street market in Marrakesh, Morocco. Image via iStock. 2. Shop and eat like the locals. Traveling can be a bit of a culture shock, so it might be tempting to stick with what you know, but not only will it be a more authentic travel experience for you, it will also support the local economy.3. Wear clothing that's acceptable in the local culture. Some countries are more conservative, so do your research and dress modestly — yes, even if it’s humid or hot — to show respect.4. Many places, such as those beautiful temples in Southeast Asia, also have rules about what you should wear and how you should act, so be sure to find out what they are and follow them, even if you don't love them. A view of Bagan, Myanmar. Image via iStock. 5. Study (and observe!) the local customs as much as you can, especially when it comes to personal space, manners, sense of time, and dining. For example, in the Middle East, you should only use your right hand for eating or accepting food, and in France or Japan, blowing your nose in public is considered rude and repulsive. 6. Strike up a conversation with someone you meet! It’s often by talking and listening that we can reach a deeper understanding and appreciation of the people and places we're visiting.7. Be ready to answer questions about yourself too. When you travel, the people you meet will be interested in you and where you are from, so be gracious in answering their questions.8. Remember that you're the visitor, so it should be you who adapts to the local way of life — not the other way around. The view from Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park, California. Image by Allie_Caulfield/Flickr. 9. Whether you are visiting an ancient ruin, an art gallery, or even a national park, respect the rules on where you can go and what you can do — don't be that person touching something you shouldn’t, disturbing nature, or taking things you shouldn’t.10. Don't take selfies in places where it would be rude, offensive, or inappropriate — such as at memorials or holy sites. It can also be dangerous — even deadly — to take selfies from the edge of cliffs or while you are on the move. 11. Be careful what hand gestures you use because they can mean different things in different places. (Case in point: In many countries, a thumbs up means something quite different from "way to go.")12. Avoid souvenirs that support harmful practices, such as ivory trinkets, which contribute to harmful practices like illegal wildlife poaching. An elephant in front of Kilimanjaro. Image via iStock. 13. Be conscious about what you choose to eat as well. Some local delicacies — such as shark fin soup — are driving certain species to the brink of extinction. 14. If you haggle, do it with care. In places like Latin America or Southeast Asia, bargaining is a part of the culture, and it can be a fun way to interact with people — and even make a friend — but there are limits. Remember that it's their livelihood, consider the fair market value, and don’t be a bully. Image via iStock. 15. If you're visiting a landmark that isn't too far away, walk or take local transportation (instead of a cab). It will give you the chance to see more along the way, and it will reduce your carbon footprint.16. If you do walk, try asking for directions from a local. It will give you the opportunity to break free from tourist routes, find little hidden gems along the way, and keep you from getting lost. 17. Be conscious of your electricity and water use. In some parts of the world, electricity isn’t as basic as it is back home and clean water is a luxury. 18. Be mindful of your garbage. Waste management can be a major issue in some countries, and travelers can unknowingly contribute to the problem. 19. If possible, recycle or reuse what you can and carry a reusable water bottle. Pro tip: If you fill up your water bottle at a water station once you're through security at the airport, you can skip using a plastic beverage cup during the flight, too. Image via iStock. 20. Leave a place better than you find it. If you come across a little litter while you’re hiking or walking down the street, why not pick it up and throw it away in the proper place? It's a small gesture, but every little bit helps. 21. Choose sustainable accommodations or tour operators. Find businesses that actively work with the local communities (e.g. ones that employ local guides from the area) and that use practices that help protect the environment.22. Avoid activities that exploit wild animals, like elephant rides or taking photos with tigers.23. If you do want to see animals on your trip, do it in a positive way, such as a visit to an ethical wildlife sanctuary. Opt for sanctuaries that are registered NGOs and are transparent about their business dealings, such as the Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand.24. Or plan a trip where you can observe animals in the wild from a safe, respectful distance. For example, Katmai National Park in Alaska offers outdoorsy people the opportunity to safely watch brown bears catch salmon from three viewing platforms. Brown bears at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska. Image by Christoph Strässler/Flickr. 25. Don’t compare everything to "home." You left home to see the world and experience something new, so don't forget that while you're away. 26. Embrace the differences you encounter — those differences just might change how you see the world and your home. 27. Be an example. We've all met that tourist who makes us cringe. Be kind, polite, courteous, and respectful, and maybe all that goodwill will spread. Image via iStock. Of course, no list could contain everything you should or shouldn’t do while you are traveling. Nor should we feel like we have to rely too closely on a set of rules. But if we all try to treat others with respect, keep an open mind, and learn about each other, traveling is bound to be an enriching experience for everyone.19 Dec

Chicago's 'hero movers' are a reminder of how hard leaving abusive relationships can be. -
When a three-man moving crew saw a woman frantically running out of a dental office in Chicago, they knew she was in trouble. And they knew they could help.Josh Lara, Cody Grant, and Mike Zaininger were unloading a truck in Chicago's West Loop back in October when a woman ran up to them, asking to use their phone, telling them that someone was shooting. That someone was the woman's abusive ex-boyfriend. He was carrying a gun, and he was looking for her. "She knew she was being looked for, the way she was hiding," Zaininger told DNA Info Chicago at the time. "It was just our instinct to try and protect and help her," Lara said.The three movers acted quickly to hide the woman in their truck, likely saving her life. Her ex, unable to find her, fatally shot himself outside the dental office where she worked.On Dec. 14, 2016, the three "hero movers" — as they've been called — were honored by their local city council. Lara, Grant, and Zaininger being honored by their city council. Photo via 25th Ward. An official city proclamation thanked the men for their "selfless display of bravery" and "remarkable display of courage and quick-thinking." The three heroes were surrounded by their loved ones and family, with Cody Grant's youngest son wearing a shirt reading "My Dad Is My Hero." Escaping an abusive relationship is not usually as simple as running outside and asking for help. Abusers purposely make their victims feel small and helpless to convince them the abuse is their own fault. They cut their victims off from support networks and often use financial control and manipulation and emotional abuse to ensure their victims stay quiet and have no means of escape. A woman walks through the streets of Paris with fake blood for International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Photo by Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty Images. "Women are 70 times more likely to be killed in the two weeks after leaving than at any other time during the relationship," reads the Domestic Violence Intervention Program website. The woman who the hero movers hid was lucky to find them — and even luckier that they acted quickly to help her and didn't stop to ask questions or turn the other way.There are things you can do if you suspect that someone is being emotionally or physically abused or if someone comes to you asking for help.A good first step is to familiarize yourself with the warning signs of abuse, which can help you identify an abusive relationship that might not seem like one at first.If you want to help a friend or family member, you should also try to understand why that person might not want to leave the relationship or why they might not even think they're being abused. Shaming them for that or pressuring them to escape can actually be counterproductive. Instead, make yourself someone they can trust and talk to no matter what. A photo exhibition of murdered women in Ankara, Turkey, as a protest against violence toward women. Photo by Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images. Because leaving abusive relationships puts women at such high risk of retaliation from their partners, it's important to develop a safety plan that also accounts for the safety of kids, pets, and family members.We won't all find ourselves in situations where we can be like the hero movers, but stopping domestic violence is up to all of us.The woman in  Chicago was in direct and immediate danger. She was being hunted by an angry abuser who had a gun on him. But instances of domestic abuse won't always be that extreme. There isn't any one type of person who can find themselves stuck in an abusive relationship. It happens to women, it happens to men, and it happens in LGBTQ relationships as well. If abuse is happening to someone you know, don't assume that someone else will step in, and don't assume that that person will eventually help themselves. You can, and should, be the person that speaks up in a productive way when you see it. In Chicago, when the movers stepped in, they saved a woman's life. They also demonstrated the simple power of being there. They did the right thing, and it should inspire all of us to do the same whenever we can.If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, call or visit the National Domestic Abuse Hotline, 800-799-723316 Dec

Veterans Today

Syrian War Report – December 20, 2016: What Is Syrian Army Going To Do Now? - …from SouthFront Now, when the city of Aleppo is under the control of the Syrian army, various media outlets and analysts are discussing where pro-government forces is going to deliver their next attack against militant groups. Some claim that the Syrian army and its allies will rapidly and effectively deliver a series of wide-scale military […]08:22

Berlin Terror Attack: The Only Option for Israel? - By Sajjad Shaukat for Veterans Today   At least 12 people were killed and about 50 injured when a truck ploughed into a Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz in the German city of Berlin on December 19, this year (Monday evening). Berlin police said on the next day, that investigators assume the driver of the truck […]08:15

Saudi Arabia Admits to Using Illegal UK Cluster Bombs in Yemen - The uncomfortable truth about British arms sales to nations like Saudi Arabia is that the British government cannot stop this deadly trade because the British economy would collapse.05:17

Syrian Activist Says Aleppo Girl ‘Bana Alabed’ Twitter Account ‘Propaganda Stunt’ - Is anyone really surprised that the 'Aleppo Girl' turns out to be nothing more than a cynical hoax? Just more fakery in a world now saturated with fake news where propaganda lies have taken the place of reportage. One cannot help but recall the words of Former CIA Director, William Casey: “We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”05:08

Egyptian Police Bust Staged Photo Shoot of ‘Wounded Aleppo Children’ - This is why you should double-check any media reports involving images of "wounded children" in Syria. The Egyptian police have prevented another fake story from appearing on your screens. Watch how those fakes are crafted.04:56

Journalists Square off over Credibility of Syrian Coverage - Canadian freelance journalist Eva Bartlett recently made headlines after blasting mainstream news agencies for relying on questionable and unnamed sources.04:51

Washington Post: Inequality is a central factor of Middle East terrorism! - Sometimes you just have to shake your head in disbelief when you read what is passing for scholarship and genuine reporting today.04:28

CNN sympathizes with Ankara assassin - By Kevin Barrett, Veterans Today Editor Mainstream media tell part of the truth and hide the rest. But the hidden part sometimes slips out between the lines. Such is the case with CNN’s initial report on the murder of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov in Ankara, Turkey. Let’s break down the first three paragraphs: A police officer […]19 Dec

Mad Dog on the Prowl: the Blood-soaked Career of General James Mattis -   By Gary G. Kohls, MD “It is clear that Trump’s secretary of defense selection of Mattis, an unprosecuted war criminal, is yet another egregious act against justice and the rule of international law. Mattis was a high-level marine commander overseeing both sieges of Fallujah who then played an active role in making sure eight […]19 Dec

The Broader Story Behind the UN Peacekeeper Agreement for Aleppo, Duff and Press TV19 Dec

The Watchers

At least 3 dead, 47 injured after strong earthquake hits Ecuador - At least 3 people have been killed and more than 47 injured after a strong and shallow earthquake registered by Ecuador's Geophysical Institute (IGEPN) as M5.7 hit Ecuador on December 19, 2016. The quake occurred at 07:11 UTC at a shallow depth of 5.2 km (3.2...... Read more » 06:36

Little Rock breaks daily record low, Arkansas - Yet another daily record low temperature was set in the United States as deadly winter storm continues across much of the country. After record daily low temperatures in Boston on December 16, Denver on December 17, and on two locations in Southern California on...... Read more » 05:42

Exotic particles as the Sun aligns with the center of the Milky Way - As the Sun made an annual alignment with the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy on December 18, 2016, the scientists at CERN carried out the first of a kind experiment to measure hypothetical exotic particles possibly emitted by the black hole. The...... Read more » 03:57

Severe rainstorms inundate central Vietnam, killing at least 24 - Heavy rainfalls that have been affecting central Vietnam since December 12, 2016, have now killed at least 24 people and left numerous others missing. The highest number of fatal incidents was reported in the Binh Dinh province, where 16 people have been reported...... Read more » 19 Dec

Unseasonal cold wraps Tasmania, summer snow reported - An outbreak of unseasonably cold weather gripped Tasmania on December 17, 2016. Higher regions even reported summer snowfall while meteorologists predict the colder than usual weather in the state is set to continue. The snow blanketed tops of the Cradle Mountain...... Read more » 19 Dec

Intense winter storm hitting US, dramatic traffic accidents reported - An intense winter storm is currently affecting the east and southeast US with snow and ice. The system already caused widespread traffic disruptions and deadly crashes in the country throughout the weekend of December 17, 2016. According to latest reports, at least...... Read more » 19 Dec

Denver records coldest December 17 since 1909 - Record-breaking temperatures invaded Colorado on Saturday, December 17, 2016, as deadly winter storm engulfed much of the country. A cold front, fresh snow and clearing afternoon skies allowed for record low temperatures for December 17 to 18 across Northern...... Read more » 19 Dec

Boston wakes up to coldest December 16 since 1883 - A blast of frigid Arctic air hit the United States late last week, causing sharp temperature drops across the country and serious traffic chaos. Between December 16 and 17, at least three low-temperature records were broken from California to Colorado and...... Read more » 19 Dec

Massive landslide hits Fiji, sweeps homes to sea - A massive landslide hit Fiji's Qamea island on December 18, 2016, sweeping homes into the sea. The slide happened after the first tropical depression of the 2016/17 South Pacific cyclone season dumped heavy rain and caused severe flooding throughout the country....... Read more » 19 Dec

At least 5 dead in floods, landslides in North Sulawesi, Indonesia - At least five people were killed in North Sulawesi, Indonesia after floods and landslides caused by three days of intense rainfall hit the city of Manado. The Head of National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said Sunday, December 18, that a joint...... Read more » 19 Dec

Water Online News

06.12.12 -- Keys To Financing The Next Generation Of Water Systems - 06/12/12 Water Online Newsletter05:43

05.31.12 -- A Primer On Energy Efficiency For Water Utilities - 05/31/12 Water Online Newsletter19 Dec

05.01.12 -- Wastewater That Cleans Itself -- And Turns A Profit - 05/01/12 Water Online Newsletter19 Dec

06.07.12 -- 'Safe' Levels Of Arsenic Not So Safe - 06/07/12 Water Online Newsletter19 Dec

06.04.12 -- Spiral-Welded Steel Pipe; Industrial Aerators; Electric Pumps; MBR Treatment System - 06/04/12 Water Online Newsletter19 Dec

5.29.12 -- The ACE12 Agenda: 10 Suggestions For The Show - 5/29/12 Water Online Newsletter19 Dec

04.26.12 -- Private Water Companies Lobby For More Fracking - 04/26/12 Water Online Newsletter19 Dec

05.24.12 -- Desalination: Solving Water Problems Or Creating A New One? - 05/24/12 Water Online Newsletter19 Dec

WebMD Health

Do Sleep Problems, Obesity Share Genetic Link? - Restless legs syndrome, schizophrenia also have biological ties to sleep disorders, research suggests09:08

Some Kids' Genes Might Make Food Ads More Tempting - Brain scans showed they had more reaction in 'reward center' when viewing fast-food commercials09:08

Prostate Cancer Treatment Called ‘Transformative’ - Prostate Cancer Treatment Called ‘Transformative’08:31

Baby Crib Ads Show Unsafe Practices, Study Says - Fluffy toys, tummy-sleeping and bumper pads are linked to sudden infant death syndrome19 Dec

Pregnancy May Spur Changes in a Woman's Brain - Imaging shows adaptations in gray matter, but no sign that memory is affected19 Dec

Did El Nino Weather Give Zika a Boost? - Climate phenomenon could have helped infection-transmitting mosquitoes reproduce, study says19 Dec

Pain Relievers May Be Tied to Hearing Loss in Some - But degree of impairment tied to acetaminophen and ibuprofen was modest, researchers say19 Dec

Female Doctors May Have an Edge - Older hospital patients treated by a woman were slightly less likely to be readmitted or die within 30 days19 Dec

Pot Use in Pregnancy on the Upswing, Study Finds - Researchers concerned about possible harm to fetus19 Dec

Chemo More Damaging to Hearts of Diabetics - Those with blood sugar disease showed more early warning signs of heart failure19 Dec

WhoWhatWhy

World Opinion on Electoral College/Guantanamo Transfers/More - PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.Credible Scientists’ Effort on Aging Pill (Russ) They are preparing supplements that may actually work — and do not require FDA approval — that potentially slow down or reverse the effects of aging.When North Korea and the West Were Forced to Cooperate (Dan) A rumbling volcano, a group of scientists and a country plagued by sanctions and international isolation.Obama Intends to Transfer 17 or 18 Guantánamo Detainees (Trevin) If all goes as planned, the detainees will go to Italy, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Finland Attempts ‘Basic Income’ (Dan) Instead of the typical forms of bureaucratic-run programs like food stamps and unemployment payments, Finland is attempting a new trend: a simple check of “basic income”. This is money without any provisions. The question is: How will it be spent?Goldman Sachs Undeterred by the Obama Administration (Jimmy) The Dept of Justice took on 0 out of 25 potential cases of financial crime presented by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Committee (FCIC). No wonder Goldman Sachs is stronger than ever.The post World Opinion on Electoral College/Guantanamo Transfers/More appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.07:45

How the World Press Saw Trump Electoral College Confirmation - Yesterday, the 538 members of the electoral college met in state capitals across the nation to formally choose Donald Trump to be the  45th president of the United States. Even in the US, the event did not merit major news coverage on a day when the Russian ambassador to Turkey was assassinated and a truck barreled into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12.Still, the world’s press paid some attention to the formal process. For example, The Guardian interviewed all six of the “faithless electors”, who had come forward to declare they would not vote for Trump. The Guardian also ran a separate story citing the Trump protests in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where 200 demonstrators chanted “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!” and the efforts of a few dozen activists in Columbia, South Carolina.Another liberal UK-based paper, The Independent, reported that Hillary Clinton actually lost more electors than Trump, with three of her electors in Washington State opting for Colin Powell and one Washington elector choosing native American activist Faith Spotted Eagle.The paper went on to debunk the president-elect’s claim of a landslide victory. “Mr Trump falsely touted the elector win as a ‘historic electoral landslide’ in his statement on Monday….Mr. Trump’s electoral college win is ranked 46th of the 58 elections in American history,” the editors sniffed.Although the presidential campaign in the US and Trump’s victory had been a major subject in Germany’s media, the Electoral College decision was relegated to the back pages as the country’s media focused on the apparent terror attack in Berlin.The daily Die Welt also noted that Trump’s boisterous claim of a landslide victory was not supported by the facts. The paper pointed out that the president-elect’s views on the Electoral College  had flip-flopped.Citing an NBC poll, the Austrian paper Der Standard noted that Americans are much more concerned about a Trump presidency than they had been when Barack Obama and George W. Bush first took office.Not surprisingly, RT, the Russian news outlet, focused on the electors who refused to vote for Clinton. RT pointed out that Clinton’s “faithless electors” wanted to make a statement of support for her opponent in the Democratic primary, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT).In Australia, columnist Joel Meares predicted that a Trump-Putin “bromance” could only mean bad news for the LGBTQ community. “Under the Obama administration, the US has been a moral leader on LGBTQ rights,” Meares wrote. Noting that Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson’s company, ExxonMobil, had only recently adopted a nondiscrimination policy that included gay workers, Meares asked, “Will such a role continue to exist in a Rex Tillerson State Department? Maybe. Will it carry the same moral authority under a Trump House — with Putin on speed-dial and Bannon down the hall?”Amid all the serious news, there was some lighter news commentary.One Swedish daily paid a lot of attention not to the vote itself, but to a website developed by two advertising designers in  Stockholm, who created www.trumpdonald.org.  Click, move your cursor around, and you can make his eyes roll insanely and his hair fly in any direction. It’s gone viral.While this Kenyan news story ran close to the November 9 election as a humor piece, it is worth reading, if only for the writer’s heroic attempt to explain the electoral college to his readers. Not so funny was an editorial from the Israeli paper, Haaretz. The headline read, “What if a Trump Presidency Is an Extinction-level Event?” And in the story the author writes, “So the question that 538 Electoral College delegates have to ask themselves as they gather on Monday to cast their votes for president is: Can Donald Trump control America’s 1,930 deployed nuclear bombs and the additional 4,500 that are in stockpile? Do you trust him to prevent a nuclear war with China? Does Trump have the temperament and the wherewithal to defuse any potential nuclear confrontation, anywhere on earth?” Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from electors (State Dept./Doug Thompson)The post How the World Press Saw Trump Electoral College Confirmation appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.06:49

Is This How It Begins? - The brazen murder of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey on Monday night in Ankara, Turkey, quickly brought all the expected condemnations from world leaders and, in particular — a vow of revenge from Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a statement translated on RT.com, Putin said the response will be “stepping up the fight against terrorism. The killers will feel it.” Within an hour, reports filtered in of another apparent Nice-like truck attack, this time in Berlin, killing at least nine people at a Christmas market. The rampage is being investigated as a deliberate attack, and an arrest has been made. Suddenly, one can almost hear a pin drop within a global diplomatic community holding its breath in the face of the unpredictable fallout. Details continue to emerge, but the Ankara killer has already been identified as a 22-year-old Turkish national named Mevlut Mert Altintas. As his victim lay dying, Altintas is said to have referenced the Syrian city of Aleppo, currently under siege by Russian-backed Syrian military forces bent on wiping out rebels dug in there. Ambassador Andrei Karlov had just finished his opening remarks at the Ankara Center for Contemporary Art when Altintas, an apparent off-duty security officer, opened fire from behind the podium.I Shouting “God is great” and “Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria” as Karlov fell, the assailant soon fled to a higher floor where he reportedly was killed in a lengthy gun battle with Turkish special forces. With geopolitical tensions high, and new international alliances being formed, echoes of the 1914 assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand spring to mind for some. That event provided the spark which ignited the horrendously destructive World War I. Regardless of whether this is the act of a lone radical or whether something more intricate is at play here, the repercussions of the assassinations are likely to reverberate throughout the region and the world. It will be crucial to monitor these developments closely in the coming days and weeks. The question of “who benefits?” is ever present. The post Is This How It Begins? appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.19 Dec

Speaking Truth to Trump/US Failed Energy Revolution/More - PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org. . US Shale and Gas Industry in the Red Since ’09 (Jeff C.) Americans are brainwashed into thinking we’re on the road to energy independence. The reality is that the “shale revolution” isn’t making money, and that’s a ticking time bomb for the US economy.Jeff Sessions, Civil Rights Ally? (Dan) The Alabama Senator, who soon is to be Attorney General, once said he was “OK with the Ku Klux Klan” until he discovered they used marijuana. Now Sessions is undergoing a PR revamp.Racial Quotas at Play in Choosing Singapore’s President? (Trevin) An amendment to the constitution will mandate elections to be reserved for members of a particular ethnic group if that group hasn’t been represented by a candidate for the past five terms.Mussolini and Hitler and Trump: Scared Yet? (Gerry) When Mussolini and Hitler rose to power in the 1920s and 30s, how did the US media of the day cover the seizure of Italy and Germany by authoritarian demagogues? Not unlike the way the US media in 2016 covered the rise of Donald Trump.A Blueprint for Environmental Destruction Under Trump (Jeff C.) Just a few months ago, this radical plan to dismantle environmental safeguards would have been dismissed as the wacky wish list of a conservative fringe group. But with Donald Trump headed to the White House, the report is a chilling preview of the attacks on environmental and health regulations that are likely to come. Chris Hedges on ‘Fake News’ in America (Jimmy) The journalist, activist and author writes: “Elites of the Republican and Democratic parties are using fake news in an attempt to paint Trump as a stooge of the Kremlin and invalidate the election. No persuasive evidence for such accusations has been made public. But fake news has become the battering ram in the latest round of Red baiting.”The post Speaking Truth to Trump/US Failed Energy Revolution/More appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.19 Dec

Who Will Speak Truth to Donald Trump - Mitt Romney said in a letter to the editor published in the Salt Lake Tribune that he was “more than a little surprised” that President-elect Donald Trump reached out to him to discuss the possibility of the 2012 GOP nominee becoming Secretary of State. Romney believed this to be “a welcome sign that he will be open to alternative views and even to critics.” If only there were any indication of that being the case. Instead, all signs point to Trump surrounding himself with people who agree with him or whose opinions he can easily disregard if they conflict with his own. While we could make a lot of quips about Trump being a mere puppet of Vladimir Putin, the fact is that he will be the world’s most powerful person on January 20th — even though Forbes magazine recently bestowed that honor on the Russian leader. The question now is how Trump, who will be the least experienced White House occupant in generations, will wield that immense power. There are plenty of reasons to be concerned. Of Trump’s top six appointments, only one, prospective Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has more civilian government experience than Trump, who has none. Chief of Staff Reince Priebus lost the only race for state office he ever ran, Rex Tillerson (State) is an oil executive, James Mattis (Defense) and Michael Flynn (National Security Adviser) are retired generals and Steven Mnuchin (Treasury) is an investment banker and executive. Other appointments have gone to big donors and early supporters, such as wrestling executive Linda McMahon (Small Business Administration), restaurant chain executive Andrew Puzder (Labor), Amway billionaire Betsy DeVos (Education), and investor Wilbur Ross (Commerce). Of course, Trump’s real inner circle seems to consist mainly of his children and son-in-law Jared Kushner. In other words, Trump has largely surrounded himself with loyalists with no government experience. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with either. Trump has to rely on his cabinet and advisers to help him run the country, so he needs to trust them. And government outsiders, such as executives, generals, scientists, doctors, etc., can play a valuable role in providing new perspectives. But it is entirely unclear whether anybody will dare to speak truth to power in the new administration. And even if somebody did, there is no indication that Trump will listen. Last week, he dismissed the findings of the entire intelligence community that Russia had influenced the US elections and said because he is “smart” he will not need daily intelligence briefings. On the campaign trail, Trump announced that he knows more than the generals about ISIS. Famously thin-skinned, Trump also has a long history of going after critics and dissenters as well as real and perceived adversaries — either by threatening to take them to court or, most recently, by tweeting about them and unleashing a horde of alt-right trolls to go after such enemies. There is lots of evidence that Trump will only listen to Trump. And “truth” is not his strong suit. There has never been a candidate who has said as many demonstrably false things as he has. Appallingly, this barrage of untruths helped get him elected. World affairs, however, is not an election or a reality TV show. Facts matter when dealing with  international partners, adversaries and crises. Somebody needs to tell Trump that he won’t be able to bullshit his way through the situation in Syria, an economic crisis or a trade war with China. But who would risk that? Instead, it seems as though his advisers, such as Steve Bannon or Kellyanne Conway, are simply trying to steer and manipulate Trump to do their bidding. As to what Romney called a “welcome sign,” sometime Trump adviser Roger Stone has a different take on what transpired: “Donald Trump was interviewing Mitt Romney for Secretary of State in order to torture him.” The cartoon above was created by DonkeyHotey for WhoWhatWhy from these images: Donald Trump caricature (DonkeyHotey / Flickr – CC BY-SA 2.0),  Melania Trump caricature (DonkeyHotey / Flickr – CC BY 2.0), oval office (National Archives), Emperor Napoleon (Wikipedia) and gilt (pussbigeyes / Flickr – CC BY 2.0). The post Who Will Speak Truth to Donald Trump appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.19 Dec

Open Letter to John Podesta: This Is Your FBI Wakeup Call - Dear John Podesta: I get that you’re upset about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) role in the outcome of the recent presidential election. I read your op-ed. You noted that the FBI had its agents crawling all over every aspect of Hillary Clinton’s email server, and that the director, James Comey, re-fanned that scandal’s flames in late October in a way that may have swung the election. Yet as you pointed out, Comey couldn’t be bothered to send a single agent to the Democratic National Committee to share the Bureau’s conclusion that the Dems were being hacked by Russians. And you said: Congress should more vigorously exercise its oversight to determine why the FBI responded overzealously in the Clinton case and insufficiently in the Russian case. The FBI should also clarify whether there is an ongoing investigation into Trump, his associates and their ties to Russia. If ever there were a case of ‘intense public interest,’ this is it. What’s broken in the FBI must be fixed and quickly. But, as you are experienced in the ways of Washington, it is hard to believe that you are just discovering something “broken” in this enormously powerful institution. Or just learning that it marches to the beat of some other drummer — never truly conforming to the dictates of the president, or the public. Since you blew it with Hillary Clinton’s campaign, it seems self-serving to announce only now that there’s something troubling at the J. Edgar Hoover Building — and to confine your comments to the narrowest possible issue, the one that deals only with your candidate. If you really want to do something for the country, you should take a good look at the broader and deeper — much deeper — range of problems related to an agency that is, in some respects —America’s secret police. WhoWhatWhy has been almost alone among news organizations in asking questions about the FBI — about the frequent “mistakes” it makes, about its imperviousness to outside investigation or legitimate criticism. These “mistakes” are inextricably linked to basic threats to democracy in America  —  and even to the physical safety of its citizens. And we can prove it. Here are a few stories that are well-documented — and that is why they are so hair-raising: The FBI had advance knowledge of a contingency plot to assassinate Occupy leaders in Houston and issued no warning to those in danger. The FBI targeted friends of the Boston bombers to silence them — to keep them from revealing, among other matters, some curious Russian aspects to the story. The FBI was warned about the future NY/NJ bomber but did nothing. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred after the bureau pulled a key informant out of the ring behind the attack. That same year, the FBI had a human source in direct contact with Osama bin Laden and discovered that he was eager to finance terror attacks on the United States. The FBI ignored and then covered up warnings, from one of its own agents, about a 9/11 conspirator, the so-called “20th pilot”. The FBI discovered direct ties between 9/11 hijackers and a Florida family wired into the Saudi royal family — and has covered that up ever since. The FBI warned the former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee to stop looking into aspects of the 9/11 attacks. The FBI had a snitch in the middle of the Oklahoma City bombing conspiracy — before the bombing. Reports of interviews filed by FBI agents are known to be so unreliable and dishonest that in one case, a federal judge refused to be interviewed by agents unless he was allowed to review their report and make corrections. The FBI went viciously after selected individuals whose public-spirited acts threatened corporate interests.  The FBI sat back while its snitch directed cyber-attacks and tried to entrap others. The Department of Justice admitted that the FBI “microscopic hair comparison unit”regularly overstated forensic matches when testifying against criminal defendants  — which may have led to wrongful convictions in hundreds of cases. Instead of correcting the problems they exposed, the FBI punished agents who quietly brought those problems to their attention, and who became whistleblowers only as a last resort. Half a century ago, the FBI hyped false claims about Lee Harvey Oswald in order to connect Fidel Castro to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  The FBI continues to withhold evidence related to Pearl Harbor 75 years later. At the time, Hoover had been informed of a “general investigative delinquency in the field during the period immediately prior to and subsequent to Pearl Harbor.” But Hoover pointed the finger at others. And that’s just a sampling. *** Curious why the FBI still holds its vaunted and enormously powerful position atop the American establishment after so many egregious “missteps”? Why J. Edgar Hoover’s ghost has never been exorcised from the place? In part, the blame rests with the media, which has been complicit with the FBI by continuously presenting the FBI in a falsely flattering light from its inception until now. And in part, it rests with Democrats who wear the mantle of reformers, but perpetually play it safe, and avoid asking tough questions or demanding change. As for Republicans, they — with the exception of Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley — have never shown the slightest interest. Indeed, the GOP has long viewed the FBI as a reliable ally with shared values. With Trump’s election, we may have a better sense why. Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from John Podesta (Center for American Progress / Flickr – CC BY-ND 2.0). The post Open Letter to John Podesta: This Is Your FBI Wakeup Call appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.18 Dec

WhoWhatWhy Is Not Just Ahead of the Curve on Domestic Issues - It hasn’t just been WhoWhatWhy‘s domestic coverage that has been far ahead of the curve: with our limited resources we got many of the international stories right too. For example, according to mainstream media reports, it now seems increasingly likely that Donald Trump might try to play Russia and China off of each other, by cozying up to Russia and turning up the heat on China. Avid WhoWhatWhy readers heard about this possibility here a month ago. We have also been ahead of the curve when it comes to Syria. With Russia and Turkey now seeking to negotiate the fate of that country by going around the US or the UN, Trump just endorsed the idea of creating “safe zones” there, something that Turkey has been working toward for months. We reported these developments-in-progress before others did. There is no doubt that the developments in Syria will become increasingly important with the Trump administration in place. And there is no doubt that we will be there to cover them. The post WhoWhatWhy Is Not Just Ahead of the Curve on Domestic Issues appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.17 Dec

Did the FBI Drop the Ball on Pearl Harbor? - Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests show that, even today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is withholding thousands of pages of documents relevant to intelligence obtained before Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The files involved were not supplied to the nine subsequent official enquires into the disaster. As a consequence, even now, there has been no adequate investigation of how the Bureau and other agencies handled the pre-attack intelligence. Instead, the commanders in chief in Hawaii at the time, the Navy’s Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and the Army’s Lieutenant General Walter Short, bore the brunt of the blame. Enough is known about two of the withheld files to establish that they relate to Japanese espionage in Hawaii. One, the FBI has told us, contains more than 2,500 pages relating to 1941 alone. A copy of a document from the file, which we discovered among released State Department files, may explain the withholding. It shows that an FBI source identified Japan’s most important spy in Hawaii, a consular official using the name Tadashi Morimura, nearly five months before the attack. This crucial bit of intelligence, however, led to no breakthrough in divining the intentions of the Japanese military. Instead, Hoover’s agents squandered this and other opportunities to find out what Japan was planning: More than a year before the attack, the FBI had identified a German resident in Hawaii, Otto Kühn, as a possible spy for Germany’s ally, Japan. It noted that Kühn was living beyond his means and often entertained US military personnel. Surveillance of Kühn, however, was only intermittent. He met unobserved, at his home, with Morimura, only weeks before the attack. An FBI report would erroneously conclude that he was not involved in espionage after all. In March 1941, in the course of penetrating a German spy ring in New York, the FBI seized German spy reports on US fleet strength and on Army defenses at Pearl Harbor that were deemed “of interest to our yellow allies.” The spy report was not shared with the Bureau’s Navy and Army counterparts in Hawaii. In August 1941, British intelligence provided the FBI with a very detailed German military questionnaire about the defense capabilities of the base at Pearl Harbor — one that was rated urgent. The FBI did share that with Navy and Army intelligence, but nobody treated the questionnaire as significant. Just five days before the attack, a turf squabble between the Bureau and Navy intelligence in Hawaii — it was characterized as “childish” by a later investigator for the Secretary of War — resulted in all phone taps on the Japanese consulate being removed. At a crucial moment, the opportunity to gain potentially vital intelligence was lost. FBI mistakes were acknowledged in some of the bureau’s internal investigations. Assistant Director Milton Ladd would later report to J. Edgar Hoover that there had been “general investigative delinquency in the field during the period immediately prior to and subsequent to Pearl Harbor.”  The Director, however, ever adept at deflecting criticism, pointed the finger at others. Documents show that Hoover wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and to Supreme CourtJustice Owen J. Roberts, who was leading the initial Pearl Harbor inquiry, stating that military intelligence had intercepted the “complete plans” for Japan’s attack 10 days before the raid. The inference was that the military had done nothing. The FBI focused attention on a supposedly sinister phone conversation it had intercepted, 36 hours before the raid, between an ethnically Japanese couple and a caller from Tokyo. The Bureau had shared a transcript of the call with Navy and Army intelligence, who had not thought it significant. Congress’s later Joint Inquiry would heavily criticize the military on that count. When briefing congressional leaders, however, Hoover failed to say that the FBI also now thought the call had likely been innocent. So deeply ingrained was the infamous mantra “Don’t Embarrass the Bureau” that Robert Shivers, the agent-in-charge in Hawaii, rushed to write Hoover after the attack: “I want you to know that I have upheld the Bureau in all its interests since the beginning of the attack on December 7…My first loyalty, thought and obligation is to you and for you — next comes the Bureau and after that the general welfare.” In a March 1941 report, Shivers had written, “It is not conceivable that there could be a hostile attack on the Hawaiian Islands so long as the Pacific Fleet is present…” In a review of a report on the Bureau’s work before the Pearl Harbor attack, Assistant Director Ladd was to recommend that — should the report be supplied to Congress — this line and several others would need to be “eliminated”. It was decided not to provide Congress with any part of the 501-page report. Unlike other intelligence chiefs, Hoover himself never testified before  any of the official inquiries into Pearl Harbor. Today, there can be no excuse for continued retention of the thousands of pages of FBI documents on the catastrophe that are still withheld. Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan are the authors of A MATTER OF HONOR, Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame and a Family’s Quest for Justice, just published by Harper. Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from Pearl Harbor (Airman Magazine / FLickr – CC BY-NC 2.0), Robert Shivers (Federal Bureau of Investigation), FBI seal (Federal Bureau of Investigation / Wikimedia). The post Did the FBI Drop the Ball on Pearl Harbor? appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.17 Dec

2016’s Identity Politics/Silicon Valley’s Dark Side/More - PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org. Sovereign Funds Pulling Cash from World Markets … Again (Jeff C.) Sovereign investors are set to pull their petrodollars from global stock and bond markets for the third year running in 2016. Low oil prices are forcing countries reliant on oil exports, such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and Norway, to raid their savings. SC’s GOP Legislature Limits New Governor’s Power (Russ) South Carolina’s governor race was so close it ended long after Election day. Though Democrat Roy Cooper ultimately won the race, Republicans in the state’s congress found a way to limit his power. Inhale Knowledge Through Your Nose! (Milicent) Northwestern University has discovered that when you inhale through your nose, you stimulate electrical activity in your brain — and that enhances memory, as well as emotional judgment. Memory, emotion and smell are all related. Perhaps Marcel Proust was right! Assange: Leaked Docs Not From Russia (Jimmy) In contradiction to the CIA, the White House, and most of the news media, Julian Assange claims the DNC and Podesta leaks did not originate from Russia. Who’s telling the truth? Silicon Valley’s Robber Baron Mentality (Russ) They’re hip, designing groundbreaking technology and supposedly just like you. This article tells us not admire those running Silicon Valley too much.The post 2016’s Identity Politics/Silicon Valley’s Dark Side/More appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.16 Dec

Religion, Sin, Identity Politics and the 2016 Election - The word “election,” has its latin roots in religion. The solemn experience of voting conjures up a kind of national revival. Clearly, the language of Hope and Change and Renewal, all come out of America’s religious experience. Georgetown Professor Joshua Mitchell mixes all of these ideas into the simmering stew of identity politics, gender roles and the Democrats’ view of Trump as a kind of satanic figure, to provide a unique analysis of election 2016. In his conversation with WhoWhatWhy’s Jeff Schechtman, Mitchell explains why identity politics may doom the Democrats, why Hillary Clinton lost, and why women may very well be the future of the republic. Click HERE to Download Mp3 Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from Hillary Clinton with women(hillaryclinton.com) The post Religion, Sin, Identity Politics and the 2016 Election appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.16 Dec