Friday, November 30, 2018

It's come to Argentina

It's not a mammal but gives milk to its children.

The Toxeus magnus is a jumping spider, a group generally known for being loners. But they apparently live in family groups, where the mothers care for their young — another rarity among spiders. The spiderlings stay in their home nests for at least three weeks after hatching. Here, they get well fed, i.e. milked.

Their mother secretes a liquid very much like milk from her epigastric furrow, a fold on her underside that she also uses to lay eggs. For the first week, she dabs the droplets onto the walls of her nest, and the youngsters scurry over to suck these up. After that, they drink from the furrow directly. During their crucial early period, the spiderlings rely on the milk as their only source of sustenance. It doesn’t have a lot of fat or sugar, but it’s loaded with proteins—four times as much as the equivalent amount of cow milk.

Meet Knickers

A very strange - and inhuman - prison system

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Trying to save her country

Dirty air, shorter life

The World Health Organization recently reported that nine out of 10 people breathe polluted air, and that 7 million people die each year due to these hazards. At the country level, India has some of the worst air anywhere — when you look at ranking of particulate pollution in cities, 11 of the 12 cities with the highest levels are in India.

A 2015 study found that India’s air pollution trimmed 3.2 years from the life expectancy of 660 million people living in the country.

Life is getting shorter in the U.S.

Or, at least, life expectancy is! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention measures this every year and publishes a report. Their latest report said that Americans could expect to live 78.6 years at birth in 2017, down a tenth of a year from the 2016 estimate. Men could anticipate a life span of 76.1 years, down a tenth of a year from 2016. Life expectancy for women in 2017 was 81.1 years, unchanged from the previous year.

The data continued the longest sustained decline in expected life span at birth in a century, an appalling performance not seen in the United States since 1915 through 1918. That four-year period included World War I and a flu pandemic that killed 675,000 people in the United States and perhaps 50 million worldwide.

A good part of the problem is death from drug overdoses. They set another annual record in 2017, cresting at 70,237 — up from 63,632 the year before. The opioid epidemic continued to take a relentless toll, with 47,600 deaths in 2017 from drugs sold on the street such as fentanyl and heroin, as well as prescription narcotics. That was also a record number, driven largely by an increase in fentanyl deaths. Since 1999, the number of drug overdose deaths has more than quadrupled. Deaths attributed to opioids were nearly six times greater in 2017 than they were in 1999.

Farms having problems

Over the last 12 months ending in June, 84 farms have declared bankruptcy in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana, more than doubling the number of bankruptcies over the same stretch in 2013/2014, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Does the trade war help or hurt the situation?

Some interesting charts






Converting hog manure to energy

That's what the world’s largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods, and utility company Dominion Energy will try to do. Pigs use a poop pond to defecate. These ponds produce tons of methane. Dominion thinks that it can convert this methane to biodiesel and increase its renewable gas to 4% of its total.



Courtesy of our Florida correspondent

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Enjoying the air

Sinatra returns home

Words vs. Actions

The Commerce Department has a process whereby companies whose products are subject to tariffs can file for an exclusion on these products. That is, they don't pay the tariff. Guess what? Since March, when the tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum went into effect, the Commerce Department has approved a higher share of exclusion requests that include imports from China than it has from American allies like Japan and Canada.
Thus far, the administration has granted nearly 3,000 requests that could exempt Chinese-made metal products from the tariffs, according to a congressional analysis.

We need a day off from Trump

He's been THE NEWS for a couple of years now. And that news has been primarily about his personality, not about what he has done or hopes to do. I can recall only one period in my life where a subject dominated the news for years. That period was World War II and it news dominance was essential to our lives. Why doesn't the media give us all a Christmas present and make December 25 NO TRUMP DAY?

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Another UN report on Climate Change

It's the Emissions Gap Report, which is issued every year. It highlights the difference between the level of greenhouse gas emissions that the world can sustain to keep temperatures within safe limits, with the levels that are likely based on the promises and actions taken by countries. This latest report records the largest gap yet between where we are and where we need to be. In 2017 emissions went up by 1.2% pushed along by higher GDP.

The countries that are falling short of their goals include Argentina, Australia, Canada, the EU (including the UK), South Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the US. We're just not doing enough. Carbon taxes or carbon trading systems cover only 15% of the global carbon output, which could rise to 20% if China implements its planned market. half of the emissions from fossil fuels are not taxed at all and only 10% are priced at a level consistent with keeping warming to 2C.


Saturday, November 24, 2018

Surprisingly, Washington agrees with the UN

I'm talking about thirteen federal agencies, not the politicians. The agencies predict that if significant steps are not taken to rein in global warming, the damage will knock as much as 10 percent off the size of the American economy by century’s end. The UN produced a very similar report recently.

The US report lays out the devastating effects of a changing climate on the economy, health and environment, including record wildfires in California, crop failures in the Midwest and crumbling infrastructure in the South. It's possible that our exports and supply chains - especially trade and agriculture - could be disrupted, agricultural yields could fall to 1980s levels by mid-century and fire season could spread to the Southeast.

Climate change could slash up to a tenth of gross domestic product by 2100, more than double the losses of the Great Recession a decade ago. The report projects costs of $141 billion from heat-related deaths, $118 billion from sea level rise and $32 billion from infrastructure damage by the end of the century.

The change will affect every part of the country. More people will die as heat waves become more common, the scientists say, and a hotter climate will also lead to more outbreaks of disease.

What can be done? The report offers three main solutions: putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions, which usually means imposing taxes or fees on companies that release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; establishing government regulations on how much greenhouse pollution can be emitted; and spending public money on clean-energy research.

Monday, November 19, 2018

He doesn't like computers

Will the problems at the VA ever stop?

The Boston Globe and USA Today recently released a report of the VA's performance at a hospital in Brockton, MA. The report concluded that the hospital showed a “blatant disregard for veteran safety”. Some of the findings:
investigators found two nurses fast asleep during their shifts, even though the facility knew it was under scrutiny and inspectors were coming to visit.nurses and aides did not empty the bedside urinals of frail veterans, failed to provide clean water at night and didn’t check on the veterans regularly.care at many VA nursing facilities, according to the agency’s own secret internal ratings, was worse than at private nursing homes.
The VA has 133 nursing homes across the country that serve 46,000 veterans annually. Newly released VA data show that 95 of them — about 71 percent — scored worse than private nursing homes on a majority of quality indicators, such as rates of infection, serious pain and bed sores. Roughly the same number, 93, received one or two stars out of five for quality in the agency’s own ratings.

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Midterms - Massive number of false claims



From The Star

"WE ARE THE FUTURE GIVE US A CHANCE"

That was the message of one poster placed next to Sweden's Aletsch Glacier. This was only one of 125,000 drawings and messages about climate change, which were created by children from all over the world. The mosaic is the largest in the world; it measures 2,500 sq m (26,910 sq ft). Seen from above, the whole picture reads: "STOP GLOBAL WARMING #1.5 DEGREES C".

Saturday, November 17, 2018

He's not a relative of mine

I'd never heard of Purchase College, a part of New York's university system. It made Fox News a few days ago when some students revealed that the college has a shrine featuring Danny DeVito, who is not a relative of mine. 

The shrine is hidden behind the paper towel dispenser in one of the bathrooms. A photo shows an image of DeVito’s face hanging on the wall and a cutout of DeVito standing in the corner. A note is placed in front of the cutout, which reads “Leave An Offering For Our Lord and Savior Danny DeVito, Patron Saint of Trashmen” — a nod to DeVito's role on the hit FX series. Other items include a commuter card, a package of Pop Rocks, a whoopee cushion and an Apple iTunes gift card, all sprawled across the floor at the cutout of DeVito’s feet.

DeVito has been made aware of it and has written, "Your shrine honors me. My heart is filled with love and garbage. Tomorrow, as you may know, is my name day. Do something that makes you feel good. Above all be kind to each other. Pick up trash, recycle, and be aware of plastics in the ocean." 

This little-known school has invited DeVito to visit it.

Friday, November 16, 2018

A Police Department with a Record

And it's not a record to be proud of. Of the 34 supervisors in the Elkhart, Indiana, Police Department, 28 have been disciplined; the reasons range from carelessness to incompetence to serious, even criminal, misconduct.. Fifteen, including the chief, have been suspended. Seven have been involved in fatal shootings. Three have been convicted of criminal charges.

Elkhart is not New York City. From 2013 to 2017, Elkhart police shot and killed six people while New York City police killed 43. However, Elkhart’s population is 53,000 — New York City’s, 8.6 million. The NYPD had about seven times more police shootings — in a city with more than 160 times the people.

History of Chocolate

Is this something to be proud of?



I don't think so. Plus, the presidential elections draw only 60%.

Another hell on earth

South Sudan, a country of 12.5 million people, has been engaged in a civil war since 2013. Just about everyone has been dramatically affected. Nearly 400,000 people have died in the war. 2 million people have been internally displaced and more than 2.5 million have fled the country. About 6 million people, or about 60% of the population, are severely food insecure, and another 1.7 million people are facing a looming famine.

Under Obama, we got involved by supporting one side of the civil war, that of the president. Trump has largely ignored it until recently when  the United Nations Security Council voted to finally impose an arms embargo on the country.

Thursday, November 15, 2018

More problems at the VA

We've read about the VA's problems handling medical claims. Now, we learn it has problems paying college tuitions. Earlier this year the VA changed the way education claims are processed. Payments were tied to campus Zip codes to eliminate many overpayments. It also changed some calculations to offset costs of additional education programs. 

These changes sound pretty straightforward, but they are extraordinarily difficult for the VA. They are either underpaying, not paying or late paying the veterans' educational claims. About 450,000 veterans are affected.

The VA had the time (almost a year) and the money ($30,000,000) to update their system, but failed to do so. Will heads roll?

Gas-powered leaf blowers make us deaf

A Scary Document

Last year Congress created the Commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States. Its goal was to provide an independent, nonpartisan review of the 2018 National Defense Strategy and issues of U.S. defense strategy and policy more broadly. The commission, made up of Republicans, Democrats and Independents did tons of research. Its conclusions are not encouraging. Here are a few of them. There are many more.
The security and wellbeing of the United States are at greater risk than at any time in decades. America’s military superiority—the hard-power backbone of its global influence and national security—has eroded to a dangerous degree. Rivals and adversaries are challenging the United States on many fronts and in many domains. America’s ability to defend its allies, its partners, and its own vital interests is increasingly in doubt. If the nation does not act promptly to remedy these circumstances, the consequences will be grave and lasting.
The United States has lost its military edge to a dangerous degree and could potentially lose a war against China or Russia, according to a report released Wednesday by a bipartisan commission that Congress created to evaluate the Trump administration’s defense strategy.
Today, however, our margin of superiority is profoundly diminished in key areas.
There are urgent challenges that must be addressed if the United States is to avoid lasting damage to its national security.

Monday, November 12, 2018

Is he afraid of the rain?

On Saturday Trump would not visit military graves in France because of the rain. Today it's Arlington National Cemetery that is too rainy for him. The Saturday excuse was "the president’s Marine One helicopter cannot fly in rain or fog." But the cemetery is only 55 miles from Paris. How long would it take to drive there?

A lovers quarrel?

At one of Trump's recent campaign rallies he said that he and Kim Jong-un “fell in love.” Well, maybe Kim doesn't feel the same way, as it appears as though North Korea has not stopped its ballistic missile program. Recently new commercial satellite images identified sixteen hidden missile bases.



The base above is a little more than 50 miles north of the Demilitarized Zone. It is one of the closest to South Korea. Seoul, the capital, is about 80 miles away, as are American troops. 

Furthermore, the North has yet to take the first step toward denuclearization: providing us with a list of its nuclear sites, weapons, production facilities and missile bases. It is estimated that the North has about 40 to 60 nuclear warheads. And we can't do a good surveillance job as our missiles are effective only 30% of the time.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Thoughts on Veterans Day

This is a reprint of a post of mine from November 2015.

When I was a kid in the 1940s, it was pretty obvious that this nation was at war.  Everyone was involved in some activity to help the war effort. I and my friends collected aluminum foil.  My sisters knitted.  We went to the market with ration book in hand.  Every so often we prepared for an air raid.  My brothers served in the Battle of the Bulge and other combat.  All of my male cousins and most of the men I knew were drafted.  I learned to read via the headlines and the lead stories of the war that the newspapers carried every day.  I practiced my writing by writing letters to my brothers.  All of the men in East Cambridge were drafted.  It was pretty obvious why we should celebrate their efforts.  Hardly anyone was against the GI Bill.  I can fully understand why in the '50s and '60s Armistice Day was a big deal.  And, I can readily understand why Eisenhower renamed Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954.


However, I find it very hard to understand the brouhaha that is now made of Veterans Day.  When Nixon abolished the draft in 1973, people now had a choice as to whether they wanted to join the military or not, as they always had a choice whether they should join the police, become a teacher, practice medicine, fight fires, etc.  There are many professions where the goal is not making a dollar.  Soldiers are not the only ones risking their lives.  Police and firefighters also risk their lives.  The military is not the only important profession that keeps this country whole.  Where would we be without teachers or policemen?  Why don't we have a teacher's day or a policemen's day?

The fact of a volunteer army makes us more susceptible to go to war, especially because we know so few of the volunteers. As I said above, many of the people I knew in the '40s were drafted and risked their lives defending this country.  Some of my relatives served in Korea.  Friends served in Vietnam or moved to Canada.  Coffins landed in the military base in Bedford, MA almost every night.  We were all involved in these wars and realized their cost.  The President didn't tell us to avoid the fact that we were at war, we were all helping the war effort.  That was our duty as citizens, no matter our age or circumstances.

It is interesting that most of the politicians that will be speaking on Veterans Day have not served in any capacity in the military.  I'll end with a comment from Aaron O'Connell, a professor at Annapolis, "Uncritical support of all things martial is quickly becoming the new normal for our youth. Hardly any of my students at the Naval Academy remember a time when their nation wasn’t at war."

Friday, November 09, 2018

Getting to the bottom of BREXIT

Judging from the news, the British Parliament is spending all of its time discussing separating from the European Union. Right now the British economy is almost totally integrated with Europe in terms of supply and transport. There are no more checks and controls on goods, people, toilet rolls, or components going between the continent and Britain than there are on goods or people moving from California to Oregon. For example, supply trucks from Europe do not need to use custom forms to travel the Eurotunnel. However, if the 4,500 trucks that use it every day need to fill out forms, traffic will slow to a snail's pace.

One area severely impacted will be toilet paper, which is heavily used. The average Englishman consumes 110 toilet rolls a year—two and half time the European average. England is Europe’s biggest importer of toilet paper; it is said that only one day’s supply of toilet paper exists in stock. What will happen if trucks are stalled at the border? British bottoms will have to be wiped with torn-up newspapers as in bygone days. 

Thursday, November 08, 2018

You can't conceive the result


You can easily calculate 200% of a number. But, what about 833997%? That's the annual inflation rate in Venezuela as of October. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) thinks it will reach 1,000,000 percent by the end of the year. 

Is this now a monthly news story?

I'm referring to the mass murders taking place in our country, the latest being the San Francisco killing of thirteen people, most of whom were young adults. Last month, 11 older people were slain in Pittsburgh. In June 5 newspaper staff were killed in Maryland. May saw 10 killings at a high school in Texas. In April 4 were killed in Nashville. In February 17 were killed at Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. That's a total of 56 in the past nine months, more than six per month, one per week and almost half in a high school.

What are we becoming?

Wednesday, November 07, 2018

Here's where you should spend your next vacation

The Muraka Hotel at Rangali Island in the Maldives. Here are a couple of photos.





You're right. It is in the ocean, more than 16 feet below the Indian Ocean. The hotel also provides a private gym, a bar, an infinity pool, butler's quarters, an ocean-facing bathtub and most importantly an underwater bedroom with unparalleled views of the ocean. On the top floor, which is above the water, you can sun yourself on the "relaxation deck". There is also an underwater five-star restaurant.

And it's quite reasonably priced. Only $50,000 per night, although you can't actually book the Muraka for single night stays -- it's only accessible via a four-night, $200,000 package that includes a personal chef for all meals and the use of a private boat.

Tuesday, November 06, 2018

Donkey Auditions for Madame Butterfly

How's the Post Office doing financially?

Terribly. For the past 11 years it has incurred large operating losses that it expects will continue. Furthermore, it claims that its opportunities for revenue generation and cost-cutting are limited. 

I learned this by looking at the GAO report on the status of the Postal Retiree Health Benefits. The report shows that at the end of fiscal year 2017, the fund’s assets declined to $49.8 billion and unfunded liabilities rose to $62.2 billion. It is estimated that the fund will reach $0 by fiscal year 2030 if the Postal Service continues to make no payments into the fund.

The trade war with China and soybeans

North Dakota farmers have become rich selling soybeans to China over the past twenty years. But, now they are hurting as China imposed a tariff on American soybeans in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods. The result - a decline of 94% in sales from last year.

China is by far the world’s largest importer of soybeans. The country consumed 110 million tons of soybeans in 2017, and 87 percent of those beans were imported — the vast majority from either Brazil or the United States.

Monday, November 05, 2018

Yosemite

Let's stop thinking about politics for a minute

Where are our ambassadors?

We have yet to name ambassadors in almost half of the countries whee we had one. This includes important countries such as Australia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Mexico, Pakistan, Egypt, South Africa, Singapore, Jordan. Some of these countries, such as Australia, are wondering they should establish relationships with China. For example, this quote from James Curran, a foreign-policy scholar at the University of Sydney: “It’s starting to really grate, particularly for true believers in the alliance. They fear it is a signal from Washington that Australia might not be so valued a partner after all.”

Analyzing Congress in 2018

Clearly, our Congress isn't what it once was - a group where all members had their say, a group which compromised for the good of our country. ProPublica and the Washington Post have analyzed the situation and come up with the following conclusions:

Junior senators have fewer opportunities to wade into the issues of the day, largely because Senate leaders limit the number of votes on amendments to proposed legislation. The number of such votes has shrunk to an all-time low under McConnell, less than 20 percent of all roll calls, down from 67 percent 12 years ago.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has logged an all-time high in his two years of leadership for the number of “closed rules,” when leaders eliminate any chance for rank-and-file amendments. Ryan closes off discussion four times as often as former speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., did 20 years ago.

Committees meet to consider legislation less than ever. As recently as 2005 and 2006, House committees met 449 times to consider actual legislation, and Senate committees met 252 times; by 2015 and 2016, those numbers plummeted to 254 and 69 times, respectively, according to data compiled by the Policy Agendas Project at the University of Texas.

Today, party leaders run the show. More time is spent on a reelection campaign than on congressional work; they only work two full days a week. The leaders have limited the number of votes on amendments to proposed legislation. 

They meet less often. As recently as 2005 and 2006, House committees met 449 times to consider actual legislation, and Senate committees met 252 times; by 2015 and 2016, those numbers plummeted to 254 and 69 times.

Friday, November 02, 2018

Thursday, November 01, 2018

We're generating more heat

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released a new study that shows that we have seriously underestimated the amount of heat soaked up by our oceans over the past 25 years. They think that the seas have absorbed 60% more than previously thought, which means the Earth is more sensitive to fossil fuel emissions than estimated.