The maximum extent of glacial ice in the north polar area during Pleistocene time. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: "The great ice barrier - looking east from Cape Crozier." Watercolor by Edward A. Wilson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Edward O. Wilson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
KILLING MOTHER
Suffer the Children
In his epic new work Half-Earth, renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson opens with the most poignant description of humanity I have ever seen:Storyteller, mythmaker and destroyer of the living world. Thinking with a gabble of reason, emotion and religion. Lucky accident of primate evolution during the late Pleistocene. Mind of the biosphere. Magnificent in imaginative power and exploratory drive, yet
A CLOSER LOOK: JODY PATERSON1 unread article // actions
Taking it to the max: The life of a serial obsessionist
I’ve always been mad for the rush of falling head-first into new things. It’s a habit that made my love life a bit challenging for many years, but I’m much better at channeling that intensity into more constructive pursuits now that I’m older. Whatever it is that I’m falling into, it’s got all my attention. If it's romance, you're going to feel profoundly treasured, at least for a
WWF - LATEST NEWS10 unread articles // actions
Elephants could disappear from Tanzania World Heritage site within six years
One of Africa's oldest reserves could see its elephant population decimated by 2022 if urgent measures are not taken to stem industrial-scale poaching, according to a new analysis by WWF. Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania's largest protected area, was home to one of the greatest concentrations of African elephants on the continent, but rampant ivory poaching has seen the population reduced by 90 per c
WWF Soy Scorecard shows that too many European companies are hiding their soy use
Gland, Switzerland: European companies that buy and use soy as animal feed in meat and dairy production are doing the least to address adverse impacts of soy production on the forests and savannahs of South America.The 2016 edition of WWF's Soy Scorecard, released in advance of the 11th annual conference of the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) taking place in Brazil this week, identified 16 c
Malaysia's largest marine park comes to life
PETALING JAYA, Malaysia – The establishment of the Tun Mustapha Park in Malaysia, formally gazetted last week, marks a milestone in global marine conservation. Following more than a decade of dedicated efforts by government authorities and civil society, the creation of Malaysia's largest marine park is an important step forward in protecting valuable coastal marine resources and promoting sustain
Lack of support endangers rangers and global wildlife
Battling a global poaching crisis, wildlife rangers believe they lack the necessary equipment, training and support from their governments to protect themselves and the world's threatened wildlife from poachers, according to a new WWF study released today at the World Ranger Congress in Colorado, USA. Ranger Perceptions: Africa surveyed 570 rangers across 12 African countries and found that 82 per
LAND DESTROYER14 unread articles // actions
Syrian Border Chaos as NATO Aims to Win Proxy War
May 31, 2016 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - An engineered drama unfolds along the Turkish-Syrian border as terrorists armed and backed by a US-led coalition including NATO-member Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar allegedly battle both the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" (ISIS) and Syrian-backed "Syrian Democratic Forces" (SDF) near and around the Syrian city of Azaz. Reuters in a rece
Information Warfare is not "Optional"
Nations without information warfare capabilities in the 21st century are like nations without armies and navies in the 20th century. They are defenseless. May 29, 2016 (Ulson Gunnar - NEO) - Imagine a nation without an army, a navy or an air force. What would its prospects be of defending itself against even moderate aggression? What if it had an army, even a formidable one, but was missing an air
The Feigned and Future Demise of Big-Oil
May 17, 2016 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - Four of the top five Global Fortune 500 corporations are involved in petroleum refining. Together with big-finance and industrial giants like big-auto and utility monopolies, big-oil dominates the global economy.The monopoly it enjoys grants it the unwarranted power and influence it has wielded throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. And because big-oil is in
Who is Israel's Biggest Enemy?
Its government and their foreign sponsors.May 10, 2016 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - The ongoing conflict consuming the Middle East is the result of Western hegemonic designs aimed at reordering the region and beyond, into a geopolitical structure more suitable for its own interests. In accomplishing this, the centers of power across the West - Washington, Wall Street, London, and Brussels - have elec
14 thoughts on watching how i met your mother (first time through so no spoilers please!)
I was watching MASH when Netflix pulled the plug on our VPN. I found a new VPN... but now MASH is gone. One day I hope to finish the end-to-end rewatch. But right then, my comedy-before-bed slot was left hanging. I tried "How I Met Your Mother," and I was very happily surprised.I have not watched or read ahead, so please do not even allude to the ending. I understand many fans hated it,
things i heard at the library: an occasional series: #21
Visibly anxious and upset customer: Can you please help me? Something is wrong with this computer!I go over to take a look. The public computer is still starting up, and Internet Explorer (sadly, the default browser) is slowly opening.Me (pointing to the Chrome icon on the taskbar): Let's try this browser instead. You'll find it's better than Internet Explorer.Visibly anxious customer: No! I can't
rest in power, daniel berrigan and michael ratner
The world lost two great fighters for peace and justice this past week.Daniel Berrigan was a lifelong peace activist, a man who was ready and willing to put his body and soul on the line. He was a writer, a thinker, a pacifist, an idealist, a pragmatist, and a priest.Berrigan was also a leader, someone who, early on, helped make visible the connections between racism, poverty, war, and capitalism.
hooray for tala
Tala is doing great! Of course she was exhausted and a bit wobbly when she came home, but now she's well rested and back to herself. And she looks a whole lot better without a disgusting, oozing tumour sticking out of her side! More importantly, there's a 75% chance the cancer won't come back.Look how thick her fur is! The doc said this will take a long time to grow back.She doesn't need the Cone
CENTAURI DREAMS20 unread articles // actions
Rosetta’s Comet: Ingredients for Life
The thought that water and organic molecules might have arrived on the early Earth from the impacts of comets and asteroids has long been provocative, and our missions to nearby comets are now paying off with insights into the possibility. It was back in 2004 that the Stardust mission flew past Comet Wild 2, collecting dust samples that showed traces of the amino acid glycine. Possible contaminati
Kepler-62f: Models for Habitability
So often planets described as ‘potentially habitable’ turn out to be over-rated — we look deeper into their composition and characteristics only to find that the likelihood of liquid water on the surface is slim. How to make more accurate calls on the matter of habitability? One way may be to combine orbital and atmospheric models, adjusting each with the known parameters of the planet in question
Interstellar Flight in Congressional Report
I hadn’t planned the conjunction of the Breakthrough Starshot forum’s opening here on Centauri Dreams and the interesting news out of the NASA budget for 2017, but some things just fall into your lap. In any case, what happened in Washington makes a nice follow-up to yesterday’s post, considering that it calls up visions of fast probes to Alpha Centauri, and in a document coming out of the U.S. Ho
Breakthrough Starshot: ‘Challenges’ Forum Opens
Ever since coming back from the Breakthrough Discuss meeting in Palo Alto, I have been pondering the enormous issues the Breakthrough Starshot project will encounter. Getting a tiny spacecraft up to twenty percent of lightspeed is only the beginning of an effort that has to deal with power generation, a phased laser array of enormous strength and complexity, the miniaturization of critical compone
MAJIA'S BLOG34 unread articles // actions
Link on Atomic Vets
Clyde Haberman. Veterans of Atomic Test Blasts: No Warning, and Late Amends. The New York Times, May 29, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/us/veterans-of-atomic-test-blasts-no-warning-and-late-amends.html?emc=edit_th_20160530&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=32962000&_r=0Required to sign a secrecy oath, atomic veterans were experimental subjects for studying the effects of atomic fallout.
Entrenched Class Hierarchies
It turns out that today's wealthy individuals in Florence share the same surname as the richest families their 600 years ago:Josh Zumbrun. May 19, 2016. The Wealthy in Florence Today Are the Same Families as 600 Years Ago.The Wall Street Journal, http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/05/19/the-wealthy-in-florence-today-are-the-same-families-as-600-years-ago/Researchers compared data on Florentine ta
Was TEPCO Injecting Nitrogen into Unit 1 Yesterday?
I presume that this contraption, which I've seen before, is used to inject nitrogen into unit 1. In the past, emissions have been reduced after this treatment, but today's emissions don't seem to have been impacted much by yesterday's infusion:
ADRIENNE'S CORNER36 unread articles // actions
Ronald Reagan Memeorial Day Speech...
“We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free. We must realize that no arsenal or on weapon in the arsenal of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.
Gingrich predicts Trump will transform the electoral map...
a great way to start the Memorial Day weekend.Newt's predicting no more red and blue, but green for Trump and orange for Hillary. "Green for the economy and orange because it seems to fit all the news stories."
Does studying history put things into perspective?...
yes it does.I've been reading a delightful biography on Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, who was the sixth president of the U.S. His father, John Adams, was the second president of the U.S. and served only one term when he was defeated by Thomas Jefferson.It would be impossible to write about John Quincy Adams' wife without delving into the politics of the day, which in many way
Is Facebook helping to kill free speech?...
of course it is.Why would anyone even ask such a question?Last week, a bunch of conservatives, who live large in their own minds, met with Mark Zuckerberg to discuss the possibility that Facebook censors conservative postings on their website.Zuckerberg invited the group after the tech blog Gizmodo claimed that Facebook downplays conservative news subjects on its trending feature. Facebook denied
CRAIG MURRAY24 unread articles // actions
The Conservatives Will Be Protected From Their Election Fraud
It is hard to think of bigger news than that the Electoral Commission is taking the governing party to court over alleged fraud in its election accounts, with possible disqualifications that could cost the government its majority. Yet the issue has received remarkably little coverage apart from the very dogged work of Channel 4 News. Why is that? There are a number of reasons. The first is that th
Proof Positive that David Cameron, the BBC, Guardian, New Statesman and Entire Establishment are Peddling Blatant Untruths in the Kuenssberg Affair
Here are all the comments on the scrapped Kuenssberg petition. You know, the petition David Cameron condemned in the House of Commons today because it was accompanied by a storm of sexist abuse? Well, here are the comments in their entirety and out of 35,000 people who signed, there is virtually nobody whose comment can be seen as remotely sexist. See for yourselves. Can you spot the one sexist co
The Establishment Rallies Around Kuenssberg
The petition to sack Tory propagandist Laura Kuenssberg from her role as BBC Political Editor has been scrapped by 38 Degrees after it gained over 35,000 signatures. The reason given is sexist comments and tweets. Having both signed and endorsed the petition myself, I was taken aback by this. I had personally read through every single one of the comments on the 38 Degrees site, when 26,000 people
Ian Warren, the Nuneaton Charlatan, or How to Fabricate Front Page News
This is the story of some squalid little men (and women), but it is a vital insight into the nexus of the political and corporate media elite. The Guardian, New Statesman and Huffington Post today all run major stories around a “focus group” study in Nuneaton which revealed that voters think Corbyn is “scruffy” and “old-fashioned”. This is deemed front page news. The publicity was obviously suppos
MORTON'S MUSINGS15 unread articles // actions
Stay pending leave to appeal to SCC in a civil matter
Livent Inc. v. Deloitte & Touche, 2016 ONCA 395:[4] This court discussed considerations on this kind of motion in Yaiguaje v. Chevron Corporation, 2014 ONCA 40. They are those set out in RJR-MacDonald Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General), [1994] 1 S.C.R. 311 at 334: (1) whether there is a serious question to be determined on the proposed appeal; (2) whether the moving party will suffer
Charter breach following discovery of evidence can lead to exclusion of evidence
In a remarkable decision - one some might question - the Court of Appeal for Ontario holds Charter breaches occurring AFTER the discovery of evidence can be such as to lead to that evidence being excluded. R. v. Pino, 2016 ONCA 389:[77] So, should it make a difference whether the s. 10(b) breaches occurred before or after the discovery of the evidence? I do not think so. In either case, the
Sufficiency of reasons in a civil case
Dovbush v. Mouzitchka, 2016 ONCA 381:[20] Trial judges are called upon to make difficult decisions, often in difficult circumstances. They preside as the particular dynamics of the trial unfold. Inadequate reasons therefore pose a particular challenge for appellate review.[21] On the one hand, as Rothstein J. noted in F.H. v. McDougall, 2008 SCC 53, [2008] 3 S.C.R. 41, at para. 99, &q
Failure to consider Aboriginal heritage an error regardless of distance from heritage
R. v. Kreko, 2016 ONCA 367:[18] Section 718.2 of the Criminal Code requires consideration of the principles of sentencing, including the following principle:(e) all available sanctions, other than imprisonment, that are reasonable in the circumstances and consistent with the harm done to victims or to the community should be considered for all offenders, with particular attention to the cir
A VERY PUBLIC SOCIOLOGIST21 unread articles // actions
Five Most Popular Posts in May
Here are the hottest five posts from last month:1. Why is the BBC Silent about Tory Electoral Fraud?2. Dear Tony3. What is Leanne Wood Playing At?4. Political Realities and the Election Results5. For AccelerationismI don't know whether my hand claps should be furious or slow and sarcastic. I break out the foot rest and spend more time doing other things than blogging, and yet the audience figures
Altered Beast for the MegaDrive/Genesis
"Wise from your gwave!" An entire generation of gamers were introduced to Sega's 16-bit wonder machine with those very words. Grab your pack-in copy of Altered Beast, slam it in the slot, hit start and straight away your spanking new console was making like Jonathan Ross. Bwilliant. For folks of a certain age, no introduction is necessary for this game. It's fondly remembered and hated i
Debunking the Yeti
When I was much younger my mind was so open you could have driven a bus through it. Not that I was gullible (I always knew that was a word in the dictionary), but when it came to strange phenomena you could sign me up for every cranky belief going. UFO's and the conspiracies surrounding them were a favourite, but everything else - Loch Ness Monster, ghoulies and ghosties, supernaturally things, I
Dear Tony
Tony, Tony, Tony, Tony. When I was a Trot I had it drilled into me that you don't necessarily speak for yourself. You always have to think about how your conduct and the positions you're arguing might reflect on your comrades. This sense of political self-responsibility, I think, is something of a virtue and my many, many blogs (I hope) abide by this rule. When finger tips touch the keyboard, ther
NEW ORLEANS LADDER10 unread articles // actions
After flood officials ransomed their data, colleagues say protection is in place ~Bob Marshall, The Lens
After flood officials ransomed their data, colleagues say protection is in place ~Bob Marshall, The Lens
Can FEMA’s Flood Insurance Program Afford Another Disaster? ~Frontline
Can FEMA’s Flood Insurance Program Afford Another Disaster? ~Frontline
Local Artists to Play Benefit for Leigh “Little Queenie” Harris ~Sam D'arcangelo, offBeat
Local Artists to Play Benefit for Leigh “Little Queenie” Harris ~Sam D'arcangelo, offBeat
New Orleans area sinking assisted by industry groundwater use ~Mark Schleifstein
New Orleans area sinking assisted by industry groundwater use ~Mark Schleifstein
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