Aside from a cameo appearance in the project emerald rumors, the Samsung Galaxy S has not seen much action in the US. We recently found out that our British friends might be getting the 4-inch bad boy in early June. What’s more, if the rumor is right it will also be unlocked on all UK networks. But so far, Vodafone UK has been the only company to verify that it’s “coming soon.”
Here in the US we’ve heard some conjecture from analysts that the Galaxy S will be hitting all four major carriers, along with talk about different variants for each company – some of which will include a flash (for the camera, that is). And right around the time the project emerald rumors started to surface, video of the device sporting a few T-Mobile specific apps turned up thanks to Howard Chui of howardchui.com.
OK, so maybe it’s seen some action, but nothing in the way of major leaks, pictures of it running around in the wild, or anything exciting of that nature. What we do have for you, however, is a really cool little promotional video that found its way to YouTube and was uncovered by the folks over at AndroidGuys. The video shows many of the features that the device is capable of to get you through the various different aspects of your day. It’s an interesting watch, though unfortunately there’s no sound. Happy viewing, and be sure to leave your thoughts below in the comments!
Catherine Weibel meets a Palestinian woman fighting to save her family home from demolition with the help of an Israeli organisation.
Umm Juma talks to a staff member of Oxfam’s partner Bimkom/Planners for Planning Rights, who has come to help her protect her home from being destroyed. Photo: Catherine Weibel/Oxfam
On a calm morning in the south of the West Bank, Palestinian villagers in At-Tuwani are experiencing two very different types of encounters with Israelis.
From the roof of her house, 58-year old Umm Juma’ keeps a wary eye on a group of Israeli settlers who have erected tents not far from the village. The settlers are creating what is known as an “outpost” – an unauthorised, makeshift settlement often inhabited by only a few people. Under international law all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal, but Israel itself also deems these outposts to be illegal.
“The settlers block the path we use to access grazing land,” says Umm Juma’. “They have already attacked my sons as they were herding our sheep. Now I worry about their safety each time they leave the house”.
At the same time, Umm Juma’ serves tea to a different group of Israelis that she has invited onto her roof terrace. They work for Oxfam’s partner Bimkom/Planners for Planning Rights, and have come to help her protect her home from being destroyed.
Authorities “strangling development”
Bimkom’s architects and planners help Palestinians fight house demolition orders and restrictive building policies that are pervasive in Area C. Home to 150,000 Palestinians and twice as many Israeli settlers, Area C is under full Israeli civil and military control, including deciding on planning schemes and issuing building permits. Bimkom has accused Israeli authorities of strangling development for Palestinian communities in Area C, with building restrictions that prevent Palestinian communities from expanding and building new homes and schools.
According to Bimkom, the ICA approved only 5.6% of all Palestinian applications for building permits between 2000 and 2007. Palestinians are often left with no option but to build without a permit, despite the risk of their houses being demolished, leaving thousands of families homeless. These building restrictions stifle Palestinian economic development, and violate basic human rights.
Umm Juma’s house was built 30 years ago, but she still has to obtain a building permit for the house to be legal in the eyes ofthe Israeli Civil Administration (ICA), the Israeli military agency that decides whether building are legal in Area C. Umm Juma’shouse faces possible demolition, as it lies 100 metres outside of the planning boundaries defined by the ICA.Even if the six room house is not demolished it will still be located outside the boundaries of the plan for the village, which means that Umm Juma’s family of 30 won’t be able to legally expand or renovate the already overcrowded house.
2,450 buildings destroyed
Bimkom’s architects and planners help Palestinians fight house demolition orders and restrictive building policies that are pervasive in Area C of the occupied West Bank. Photo: Catherine Weibel/Oxfam
The villagers of At-Tuwani complain that the ICA serves demolition orders – approximately 2,450 for Palestinian-owned structures without a permit in the last 12 years, according to OCHA – but offers no services. They’ve been asking for their village to be connected to the electrical network for years, but the electrical network serving the neighbouring Israeli settlements still bypasses At-Tuwani.
According to Bimkom, the outline plans drawn by the ICA for Palestinian villages throughout the West Bank are rudimentary at best. Bimkom architect Alon Cohen-Lipshitz explains how two houses were not included in the plan for At-Tuwani, even though they’re located just a stone’s throw away from other houses that were included. “When asked why he decided to leave these two houses outside the plan for At-Tuwani, the ICA planner told us he had mistaken these houses for big rocks. He had never set foot in the village – he drew his plan entirely from an aerial picture.”
Bimkom has filed an official objection to the plan for At-Tuwani, demanding significant revisions. If the objection is rejected and Umm Juma’s house is still outside the plan, the villagers and Bimkom might appeal the decision in front of the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem.
For the time being, Umm Juma’ simply hopes that the house she’s been living in for 30 years won’t be destroyed.
My post last week about Creationism by region set off a fair number of follow up questions. I’ve actually probed the GSS evolution related variables a lot in the past, but I thought I would put it together in one post in a simple fashion for new readers. I used the SCITEST4 variable since its sample size is the largest. The question asked was: ” Human beings developed from earlier species of animals.” It was asked between 1993 and 2000.
There are four answers, definitely true, probably true, probably not true, definitely not true. I put the frequencies in a table below, but I thought it would be useful to have one number to summarize the propensity toward creationism in a demographic. Therefore, I created a simple “index of creationism.” The formula to create it is pretty obvious:
Index of Creationism = (% “definitely not true”) X 3 + (% “probably not true”) X 2 + (% “probably true”) X 1
If the Index of Creationism for a demographic was zero, that means that everyone in the demographic accepted that evolution was definitely true. In contrast, if it was three, that means that everyone in the demographic believed that evolution was definitely not true. The bar chart below has the Indices of Creationism sorted. Below it is a table with the frequencies as well (unsorted, clustered by demographic kind).
HUMANS DEVELOPED FROM ANIMALS….
Demographic
Definitely True
Probably True
Probably Not True
Definitely Not True
Creationism Index
Male
19.3
33.4
15.8
31.5
1.6
Female
12.1
32
17.7
38.2
1.82
White
16.4
33.2
16.2
34.3
1.69
Black
9.8
29.2
19.8
41.3
1.93
Non-College
10.7
31.5
19
38.8
1.86
College
30.2
36.3
10.3
23.1
1.26
Stupid
9.6
31.9
22.6
35.8
1.85
Average
10.7
32.4
18
38.9
1.85
Smart
29.2
34.2
11.9
24.9
1.33
Low SEI (17-37)
11.9
32.5
19
36.6
1.8
Middle SEI (38-67)
15.2
32.1
16.7
36
1.74
High SEI (68-97)
26.1
33.2
12
28.7
1.43
Atheist & Agnostic
41.6
39.2
12.4
6.7
0.84
Higher Power
33
48.7
10.8
7.6
0.93
Believe in God (Doubts)
20.7
46.6
21.3
11.4
1.23
Know God Exists
9.7
25.2
16.8
48.9
2.06
Protestant
10.2
27.5
16.5
45.8
1.98
Catholic
18
41.3
18.9
21.8
1.45
Jewish
39.5
41.5
8.6
10.5
0.9
No Religion
31.7
40.3
13.5
14.5
1.11
Southern Baptist
6.5
23.9
11.7
57.9
2.21
United Methodist
14.2
39.8
18.6
27.4
1.59
Bible Word of God
6.1
20.8
16.9
56.2
2.23
Bible Inspired Word of God
13.3
36.9
19.5
30.4
1.67
Bible Book of Fables
35.7
44.4
13.4
6.5
0.91
German American
14.1
31.9
18.9
35.1
1.75
Irish American
20.1
33.1
14.4
32.4
1.59
Italian American
23.5
37
15.5
23.9
1.4
English American
17.5
31
10.4
41
1.75
Scandinavian American
15.4
31.5
18.6
34.5
1.72
“American”
5.8
27.9
31.6
34.5
1.95
18 to 40
17
34.7
17.8
30.5
1.62
Over 40
14.1
30.9
16
39.1
1.8
Liberal
26.8
36.2
15
21.9
1.32
Moderate
11.4
35.8
19.5
33.2
1.74
Conservative
11.5
27.1
15.3
46
1.96
Update: I forgot to add the variables for the GSS query:
Row: sex race degree(r:0-2″Non-College”;3-4″College”) wordsum(r:0-4″stupid”;5-7″average”;8-10″smart”) sei(r:17-37″low”;38-67″middle”;68-97″high”) god(r:1-2″atheist & agnostic”;3″higher power”;4-5″Believe in god with doubts”;6″Know god exists”) relig bible age(r:18-40″18-40″;40-*”40+”) polviews(r:1-3″Liberal”;4″Moderate”;5-7″Conservative”)
WASHINGTON–Top strategists for Alexi Giannoulias Illinois Senate campaign will be on a conference call today to discuss the state of the race.
On the call, from the Giannoulias team: Pete Giangreco, The Strategy Group; Eric Adelstein, Adelstein Liston; Michael Bocian, Greenburg Quinlan Rosner and Michael Rendina, Campaign Manager.
[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday granted certiorari [order list, PDF] in one case. In Wall v. Kholi [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the court will decide whether a state court sentence-reduction motion consisting of a plea for leniency constitutes an “application for State post-conviction or other collateral review” under 28 USC s. 2244(d)(2) [text], resulting in an extension of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act’s (AEDPA) [text, PDF] one-year limitations period for a state prisoner to file a federal habeas corpus petition. The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit [official website] reversed the district court’s judgment that a petition for leniency is different from an appeal to correct legal errors and therefore does not result in a tolling of the statute of limitations under AEDPA. The First Circuit’s decision was in line with a Tenth Circuit ruling on the same issue, but the Third, Fourth and Eleventh Circuits had previously ruled that a petition for leniency does not toll the statute of limitations under AEDPA.
Kholi was initially convicted in 1993 and sentenced to 10 life sentences, six running concurrently to four consecutive. He appealed his conviction to the Rhode Island Supreme Court, which affirmed the convictions in 1996, but he did not file a federal writ of habeas corpus at that time. He then filed a motion seeking sentence reduction as a form of post-conviction relief, which was denied. Kholi exhausted his procedural options regarding sentence reduction in 2007, at which time he began his appeal for federal writ of habeas corpus, well beyond AEDPA’s standard one-year limitation on filing.
In the current Alabama gubernatorial primary race, there’s some serious mudslinging and general ugliness going on. True Republican PAC recently produced this campaign ad attacking conservative candidate Bradley Byrne for not being conservative enough. His crime? Bradley Byrne might believe in evolution!
Technorati reports the story and posts the “True Republican” TV ad:
Not to fear. GOP gubernatorial candidate Byrne quickly defended his beliefs:
As a Christian and as a public servant, I have never wavered in my belief that this world and everything in it is a masterpiece created by the hands of God. As a member of the Alabama Board of Education, the record clearly shows that I fought to ensure the teaching of creationism in our school text books.
I’m so glad he had the courage of his convictions to set the record straight here.
For nearly four weeks BP’s well has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, but now the company says one of its schemes to capture that oil is actually working:
In a 7-2 ruling penned by Justice Stephen Breyer, the Supreme Court says a federal law passed by Congress to keep convicted sex offenders confined beyond the term of their prison sentences is Constitutional. The decision, however, does not foreclose the opportunity for the offenders from continuing to challenge their detention under other legal grounds.
Justice Breyer says there are sound reasons for the law adding that “The Federal Government, as custodian of its prisoners, has the constitutional power to act in order to protect nearby (and other) communities from the danger such prisoners may pose.”
Monday’s ruling falls under the Constitution’s “Necessary and Proper” Clause which Breyer offers five points of justification for upholding the law. “Taken together, these considerations lead us to conclude that the statute is a ‘necessary and proper’ means of exercising the federal authority that permits Congress to create federal criminal laws, to punish their violation, to imprison violators, to provide appropriately for those imprisoned, and to maintain the security of those who are not imprisoned but who may be affected by the federal imprisonment of others.”
The ruling does not address claims that the law violates the offenders’ rights under other Constitutional protections including the 14th Amendment’s guarantee to equal protection and due process.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissent. They contend the law goes beyond the powers given the federal government by the Constitution. “To be sure, protecting society from violent sexual offenders is certainly an important end,” Thomas writes but continues by saying “the Constitution does not vest in Congress the authority to protect society from every bad act that might befall it.”
BACKGROUNDER
Supreme Court to Review Law Targeting Sex Predators Monday, June 22, 2009 By Lee Ross
The Supreme Court announced Monday it will review a lower court’s order that struck down part of a federal law designed to keep sexual deviants locked up beyond their criminal sentences.
The Court’s decision will be welcome news to victim’s rights advocates and others who supported the 2006 law known as the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. A provision of that law allowed federal prosecutors to seek court-ordered “civil commitment” of sex offenders whose criminal sentences were about to end.
Earlier this year, a three judge appeals court panel in Richmond, Va. unanimously ruled that part of the law unconstitutional. They concluded the Constitution doesn’t allow the government to confine someone simply because it believes the person is sexually dangerous.
They said the government “has no unexhausted power to prosecute a former federal prisoner simply because he could violate [a law]; any person could violate federal law.”
In asking the Supreme Court to take the case, Solicitor General Elena Kagan defended the “important act of Congress” designed to protect Americans from people who are “sexually dangerous to others.” She argues the law is necessary and appropriate.
The primary purpose of the legislation was to create a national database of sex offenders.
“The goal of the act was to track these guys going across state lines,” says Ernie Allen President and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
That part of the law is not under scrutiny nor are the civil commitment laws of at least 20 states.
The lawyers for five men each convicted of sexually-based crimes who remain imprisoned after their sentences expired asked the Court to deny further review. They argued there are other cases that would have provided the Court a better vehicle for examining the issue.
They also contend Congress does not have the authority to “institute new proceedings that extend federal power over an individual beyond that authorized by” the original conviction.
The Court will not hear the case until after its next term starts in October. However in April, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order that keeps the men behind bars until the case is finally resolved.
They call it their “gold in the gutter” — the pennies, dollars and millions the City Council is using to paper over the massive budget deficits they created without actually reducing spending.
As the Council gets closure on its latest edition of phony budget-writing today, or perhaps Tuesday, the biggest nugget they are counting on is the $53 million in a lump sum payment from leasing 10 city-owned parking structures to a private company for 50 years.
That’s a lot less than the upwards of $150 million the mayor was looking for a year ago but you can be sure that the mayor’s and council’s vast army of P.R. spinners will put a smiley face on this back room deal that will make someone very rich even richer.
To maximize revenue, the 10 parking lots are being put up for lease as a package with the revenue earmarked for the general fund to avoid layoffs — and there in lies the problem.
The Department of Recreation and Parks like libraries and other services provided to the general public is under assault from city officials whose only goal is to protect city jobs, not public services. They already have eliminated 4,000 jobs that provide basic services through early retirement, vacant job eliminations and transfers to special funds and they want to avoid actual layoffs anyway they can.
But that isn’t proving so easy to do.
Under the City Charter, the Pershing Square lot is owned by Rec and Parks which gets all the profits from it — roughly $2 million a year now despite the city’s utterly poor management of parking facilities and its high costs for salaries and benefits which are estimated at 50 percent higher than a private operator’s, according to a consultant’s report.
RAP states that Pershing Square generates approximately $2 million annually that is used to support RAP programs, including $500,000 transferred annually to the General Fund in support of various Citywide programs. The City Attorney has concluded that RAP is entitled to the “net proceeds” ascribed to this asset through a concession, where “net proceeds” are gross revenues less expenditures for operation and maintenance. To determine RAP’s proper share of the rent derived from a lease for all 10 of the parking structures, RAP and the City must estimate and agree upon the amount of the rent attributable to Pershing Square. The City Attorney has advised that various factors are relevant to this rent allocation, including, but not limited to, the historical revenue and expense numbers for all of the structures. In general, the working group believes that a private operator will generate more value from the Pershing Square garage, and this additional value should be available to support RAP operations within the funding requirements of the City Charter.
I added the emphasis because the problem lies in the determination of revenue to the parks if it’s included in the package, an issue the mayor who had demonstrated so little respect for the rule of law would like to ignore.
According to an email from the City Attorney’s Office, the mayor wants to know “why the (Rec and Parks) Board of Commissioners could not agree to receive payment from
the General Fund during the 50 year term of the lease (e.g., $2 million
per year for 50 years).”
“It was explained that monies received from revenues earned by the
department are required by Charter Section 593 (c) to be placed in the
RAP fund, and that more specifically pursuant to Charter Section 596 (a)
(5), proceeds from leasing the subsurface space for operation of a
public parking structure ‘shall be paid into the Recreation and Parks
Fund.’ The Charter is clear and does not provide a basis for the Board
or anyone else to waive its requirements. The Charter can only be
changed by an amendment approved by the voters.”
Under the Charter, Pershing Square gets specific protections because it was deeded to Rec and Parks specifically to provide funding to it. Rec and Parks also gets a piece of the city’s property tax revenue which provides most of its funding.
In theory, those funds are safe even as Rec and Parks is getting hit with a $25 million bill for water and power and reduced general fund support. But theories are cheap and city officials are looking for even more, thus the attempt to raid the Pershing Square revenue.
The City Attorney’s Office advised the mayor and others that raiding that money likely would lead to a taxpayer lawsuit.
“We also advised that the potential consequences of violating the Charter
are that an action for declaratory relief and injunction could be
brought by any taxpayer. The likely result of such a lawsuit would be
that payment to the RAP Fund would be compelled, with interest, and
attorney’s fees and costs would have to be paid by the City’s General
Fund,” the email said.
“If an arrangement that would violate the Charter is included in
the lease, the City Attorney would not be able to approve the lease. If
an arrangement that would violate the Charter is included in a public
report to the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners or any other
City body, the City Attorney would be compelled to comment on the
Charter requirements.”
So that leaves the parking deal up in the air — something City Council members are set to ignore by including the $53 million in next year’s budget.
They will undoubtedly try to get around the City Charter by allocating a portion of the $53 million to Rec and Parks but will it be a fair allocation?
Pershing Square is the most profitable city parking structure with the two that are larger — Cinerama Dome and Hollywood & Highland — both losing money hard as that might be to believe.
It is the plum in the deal. Private operators would almost certainly raise the daily rate of $15.40, even double it, and sharply cut operational costs, much as they will do to all the other lots.
City Hall has the option of continuing to operate Pershing Square and the other parking lots but that would take investment and skilled management and lower cost structures. But it wouldn’t provide all that upfront cash now in exchange for future revenue.
The city could lease Pershing Square separately, leaving the revenue stream with Rec & Parks but that wouldn’t avoid having to lay off city workers since the leasing of the nine other structures wouldn’t generate nearly as much to the general fund.
Call it the Pershing Square Dilemma, just one example of the many problems city officials are facing because they are incapable of facing the budget crisis head-on.
You’re an animal. You’re a living creature not too dissimilar from a chimpanzee—well, I guess chimps don’t wear sneakers—, and yet you constantly fight your natural instincts. Like, you’re meant to be awake, alert and on the ready, during the daytime. The moment the sun begins to set you should be winding down your day. If the sun is down, you should be down, sleeping a deep sleep and giving your body’s chemistry a chance to gear up for a new day of hunting and gathering. But no! You lie in bed late at night, staring into your brand new iPad, destroying your circadian rhythm in the process. Look out, there’s a lion behind you!
It’s not a new story, but there’s a very real danger of today’s technology destroying your ability to sleep. While it’s probably unrealistic to expect people these days to wake up at sunrise and go to bed at sunset, your reading www.somewebsite.com on your iPhone or iPad or laptop while in bed really isn’t a good idea. The deal is that your brain reacts to the amount of light that enters your eyes. When there’s low light, or no light, your brain goes, “Oh, it must be nighttime, time to shut down.” So if it’s midnight and your body is physically tired, holding an iPad (or whatever) six inches from your face will totally screw everything up. Your brain sorta freaks out: “Well, it’s late, I’ve been conscious for 15 hours, and yet there’s still an incredible amount of light coming through the eyes. Guess I need to stay awake.”
That’s not healthy.
You have alternatives! If you find yourself having difficulty falling asleep at night, try the following:
• Leave your gadgets on your dresser. You don’t need to be on Twitter while in bed (no one reads your tweets anyway).
• If you need to be “doing something” in bed, break out a book—they still make regular books, you know!—and read a few pages. The less light your lamp outputs, the better. (Electronic readers like the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble nook are fine, too, since they emit zero light.)
• Count sheep!
I don’t know if that last suggestion is legitimate or not. But really, when it’s time to go to sleep, just go to sleep already. You’re only hurting yourself when you do otherwise, bub.
Thus far the
majority of analysis of the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill has focused on the energy components of the bill,
including an extension of nuclear power, “clean coal” from carbon storage and
sequestration, and offshore drilling expansion. The bill also provides
unprecedented programs for agriculture and food systems in the U.S. and
internationally. Unfortunately, while the bill contains strong language
promoting sustainable agriculture, it also offers support for troubling agricultural
practices that have yet to significantly prove their capacity to reduce
emissions.
I was at a meeting recently where someone said, “Agriculture
is a culprit, a victim, and a solution,” which poignantly encapsulated the
challenges and promise of agriculture in the future. Agriculture is responsible for problematic
emissions—particularly methane and nitrous oxide, which
are generated by manures, livestock, and soil management, including nitrogen
additions, and are considerably more potent than carbon dioxide. Agriculture stands to
be greatly affected by climate change, from crop ranges to yields and water
allocation. Yet farmers can do more than minimize their impact.
So, what does this climate bill ultimately mean for farmers, for the role of agriculture in the climate debate, and ultimately for
reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions?
First and foremost, the K-L bill follows in the footsteps of
the Waxman-Markey legislation, passed last summer, by establishing an
agricultural and forestry offsets program. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency predicted
that such a program could provide annual net benefits to farmers as high as $18
billion—an amount that could fundamentally change the way America
farms. Yet, while these benefits
are attractive, achieving true GHG reductions must mean that legislation is
incentivizing effective and real practices.
Under the K-L bill, the offsets program is run under the
USDA with significant input from an advisory committee that could be made up of
academics, business representatives, NGOs, and government officials. Though the projects that will be
eligible for the offsets program are not officially set in stone, the bill does
outline a “minimum number of practices” which must be considered for inclusion
by the advisory committee. The list of practices is largely similar to the one revealed
in the Waxman-Markey bill last year after House Agriculture Committee Chairman Colin
Peterson added a 50-plus page markup to the bill. The full list of “potential practices” is a diverse array,
including altered tillage, cover cropping,
nitrogen fertilization efficiency, farming methods used on certified organic
farms, pasture-based livestock systems, reductions in animal management
emissions, rotational grazing,
crop rotations, and methods for increasing carbon sequestration in soils.
One notable difference, absent from the Waxman-Markey bill
and other earlier versions of the Senate bill, is the inclusion of certified
organic agriculture practices. A variety of research has found organic
agricultural practices can increase carbon storage and decrease fossil fuel energy
requirements and GHG emissions.
The K-L bill also goes one step further than just a carbon
offset program. It establishes a “Carbon Conservation Program” designed to
encourage GHG reductions and sequestration activities for landowners and others
with grazing contracts not eligible for the offset program. The CCP does what a lot of farmers wanted:
it provides a way to reward the early adopters of beneficial practices. It will provide incentives for farmers
already practicing organic practices—or cover cropping or reduced tillage—to continue to do so. This is
vital, but also has the potential to backfire if the practices being rewarded are
not actually providing climate change benefits.
The bill’s list includes several practices that have questionable
benefits to the climate and that could create additional environmental problems.
Featured prominently is no-till agriculture, which is widely associated with
Roundup-Ready genetically modified crops and often accompanied by increased herbicide use to control weeds in lieu of tilling. Biofuels are also weighted heavily in the
bill, even though certain kinds have been
shown not to reduce greenhouse gases. The inclusion of composting in the
bill ought to be positive, but “compost” can sometimes be a cover word for
chemical-laden sewage sludge.
Close board oversight and quality methodologies will be
crucial to verifying that any practices promoted by an offset program actually
have the science to back up their measurable net reductions in GHG
emissions. If a practice such as no-till
agriculture reduces carbon dioxide emissions by limiting the number of tractor
passes on a field, but simultaneously increases emissions of nitrous oxide—a
greenhouse gas 300 times as strong as carbon dioxide—and use of herbicides, the
overall benefit to the climate could be nil or worse. Technical assistance and outreach for farmers and landowners
will also be incredibly important, but thus far, little research exists to
understand the types of farms and farmers willing and able to participate in offset
initiatives.
A climate bill that establishes a carbon offset program in
agriculture and forestry is only going to be effective if those offsets are
legitimate and if they are accompanied by strong efforts in other sectors. Unfortunately,
the offshore drilling, expansion of carbon sequestration and storage practices,
and nuclear power touted in the K-L bill not only have questionable benefits
for reducing GHG emissions, but carry serious environmental risks such as has
been clearly demonstrated by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Agriculture can and
should be part of the solution by reducing its own emissions and sequestering
carbon with proven techniques, but it’s not the only solution, and it cannot
stand alone in a climate bill that falls so short of true environmental
progress.
I thought I’d better get a note on the blog about why you haven’t heard from me the last week. So here goes…
Just over 10 years ago, I had a sheet of concrete land on me, breaking two vertebrae in the lumbar region of my back. To this day, and only now and then, a wild nerve in the area will get itself pinched somehow, and I’ll go into agony. It doesn’t happen often, so I don’t much think about it. However, as some of you folks have noticed I’m sure, I’ve gotten back into the retail genealogy guidebook business in a rather big way. In the process, I’ve been carrying too many large and heavy boxes full of books – and about a week ago, that little nerve in my back seems to have had enough. So whenever I move – but just when I move, mind you, my back hurts…
So I haven’t gotten a lot done the last week…
Today we finish setting up in the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel and will sell books for the next two days. Dale and Patty will be doing most of the work. I’ll supervise. We will be open there today from about noon until 9:30 pm and tomorrow with the same hours.
The Australian founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks had his passport confiscated by police when he arrived in Melbourne last week.
Julian Assange, who does not have an official home base and travels every six weeks, told the Australian current affairs program Dateline that immigration officials had said his passport was going to be cancelled because it was looking worn.
However he then received a letter from the Australian Communication Minister Steven Conroy’s office stating that the recent disclosure on Wikileaks of a blacklist of websites the Australian government is preparing to ban had been referred to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
Last year Wikileaks published a confidential list of websites that the Australian government is preparing to ban under a proposed internet filter – which in turn caused the whistleblower site to be placed on that list.
With the Tea Parties on Main Street and pitchforks on Wall Street, it seems to be a populist moment. But if you look at US policy, Washington appears to be moving toward more consolidation and centralization.
That’s Ross Douthat’s argument in this elegant and thought-provoking op-ed for the New York Times. The broader theory is right on: governments often respond to crises by giving themselves more power. For example, the Great Depression was a bank run epidemic followed by economic collapse and widespread poverty. Respectively, those emergencies gave FDR grounds to create the FDIC, the alphabet soup agencies, and Social Security.
It’s the same in 2010. The Great Recession nearly brought down the financial sector and hurt home sales, and those emergencies gave Bush/Obama grounds to create TARP, pursue financial regulation and provide significant support for housing through credits and Federal Reserve relief efforts.
But Douthat also claims that these fixes make us more vulnerable to future crises:
The C.I.A. and F.B.I. didn’t stop 9/11, so now we have the Department
of Homeland Security. Decades of government subsidies for homebuyers
helped create the housing crash, so now the government is subsidizing
the auto industry, the green-energy industry, the health care sector
…
Maybe the problem with the bold sentence is merely parallelism, but is Douthat really suggesting that cap-and-trade, green energy subsidies and health care reform are responses to the housing crash the same way DHS was a response to 9/11? That can’t be right. Elected Democrats would probably pursued those policies with 5% unemployment. What’s more, our energy industry and health care sector are already heavily subsidized for reasons that have less to do with the crisis-consolidation cycle, and more to do with people liking cheap gas and affordable health care. He goes on:
But their fixes tend to make the system even more complex and
centralized, and more vulnerable to the next national-security
surprise, the next natural disaster, the next economic crisis.
This sentence is where the trouble creeps in. Are we more vulnerable to national-security attacks in May, 2010, than in August, 2001, because of the Department of Homeland Security? That’s a pretty controversial claim, if he’s making it. Is the next natural disaster more likely with greater government control over energy policy and regulations? The BP oil spill was partially permitted by lax regulation under the Bush administration rather than centralized government.
In the last economic crisis, I won’t pretend that the government’s role in federal housing policy didn’t implicitly permit the housing bubble, encourage massive leverage at Fannie/Freddie and foster an era of too-cheap credit. But how is the growing centralization of government making the economic system more vulnerable to economic crises over time? The boom-bust cycle of the more decentralized 1800s and early 1900s was significantly more volatile than the relative moderation of the last 30 years. In fact the shadow banking industry, ground-zero of the financial crisis, enjoyed a heyday of de-regulation in the decade before its catastrophe.
To sum up, Douthat is right about noting the crisis-consolidation cycle. But I’m interested in reading more about why he thinks consolidation inherently makes us more vulnerable to the crises it’s designed to mitigate.
NEW ORLEANS, La. – The tube inserted by BP into a ruptured oil pipe is sucking up about one-fifth of the crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, a top company official said Monday.
BP’s Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told CNN that about 1,000 barrels of oil per day are being suctioned up by the tube, out of about 5,000 barrels that the company believes is gushing out daily.
“I’m really pleased we’ve had success now. We’ve actually had what we call this rise insertion tube working more than 24 hours now,” he told CNN. “This morning we were producing over 1,000 barrels of oil into the drill ship. So it’s good progress.”
Suttles acknowledged that most of the oil continues to spill into the open Gulf waters, but said he hoped to be able over time to increase the ratio of captured oil.
“This doesn’t capture all of it. There’s still oil coming out. But what we hope to do over the next 24 hours is continue to raise the rate, increase the rate coming out of that insertion tube and capture more and more of the flow,” Suttles said.
The tube insertion was the first tangible sign of success in more than three weeks of efforts to prevent at least 210,000 gallons of oil from spewing unabated into the sea each day and feeding a massive slick off the coast of Louisiana.
The four-inch-diameter tube was inserted into the 21-inch leaking pipe using undersea robots over the weekend and finally managed to begin siphoning oil after some early glitches.
The bigger estimate, if accurate, would mean that the tube has only managed to corral a small fraction of the oil flowing into the Gulf, rather than the 20 percent that BP officials suggest is being siphoned off.
Company officials also are weighing the possibility of drilling a relief well that would divert the flow and allow the well to be permanently sealed, but it was not expected to be ready until August.
[JURIST] A Chinese appeals court on Monday upheld the convictions of three Chinese citizens convicted in March [JURIST report] of receiving bribes and stealing commercial secrets while employed by Australian mining company Rio Tinto [corporate website]. The men, Wang Yong, Ge Minqiang, and Liu Caikui, were sentenced to between seven and 14 years in prison for accepting around USD $13.5 million in bribes and using “improper means” to gain secret commercial information that gave the company an advantage when bargaining with China over the importation of steel. The Shanghai Higher People’s Court affirmed [Xinhua report] the lower court’s findings, holding that the procedures followed were proper and the convictions and sentences appropriate. A fourth man, Australian national Stern Hu, was also convicted of the same charges as his Chinese colleagues, but he chose not to appeal. In addition to serving prison time, the court indicated the men will be expected to turn over any money that was received illegally.
The men were initially accused last July [JURIST report] of stealing state secrets [JURIST news archive] during stalled iron ore price negotiations. China’s state secrets law has frequently been criticized for the breadth of action which falls under the doctrine. Last month, the Chinese government revised [JURIST report] its sweeping state secrets law to require Internet and telecommunications companies to inform on customers who share state secrets. In November 2009, rights activist Huang Qi was sentenced to three years in prison [JURIST report] for violating the state secrets law when he discussed how some schools collapsed after the Sichuan province earthquake [BBC backgrounder] in 2008 because of shoddy construction. In June 2007, Human Rights in China [advocacy website] said that the state secrets system in China gives the government virtually complete power to halt the free flow of information [JURIST report], “undermining healthy governance and rule of law.”
Fuel Cells 2000 has put out an 89-page PDF report called “2010 State of the States: Fuel Cells in America” that is worth reading if you’re a hydrogen supporter. The report talks about how each of the 50 U. S. states plus Washington DC are advancing hydrogen and fuel cell development in their individual states.
The Fuel Cells 2000 report gives credit to the top 5 states in 2009 that are advancing hydrogen and fuel cells being California, Connecticut, New York, Ohio and South Carolina.
According to the state-by-state analysis the most development is being conducted on the West Coast and East Coast with the Midwest lagging somewhat. In fact, the only state that has made and is making a zero effort in regard zero emissions hydrogen technology is Kansas. I suppose they plan on using prairie dogs on treadmills at their future clean energy policy?
Anyway, in the recent past I’ve talked about the building of an East Coast Hydrogen Highway and this vision is supported by the states on the east that are currently using hydrogen fuel cell technology and have state incentives to continue to do so. Even small population states such as Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maryland and Delaware are doing their part.
Continuing down the coast, New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina (a hotbed of hydrogen development) and Florida are also all doing their part. This means that an East Coast Hydrogen Highway is less of a possibility and more of a probability.
But, besides the East and West Coasts (and shunning Kansas for a second) there are a few other Midwestern states that must be given their due including Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota. Ohio is a hotbed of hydrogen development right now. So far Ohio has created 295 fuel cell jobs with an average pay scale of $61,651.
Now, this many not sound like many jobs, but the U. S. Department of Energy estimates by the year 2035, more than 361,000 to 675,000 U. S. jobs will be created by the hydrogen fuel cell industry.
The perception has been that in the U. S., hydrogen and fuel cells are mainly a West Coast thing with a few states on the East coast thrown into the mix. The reality, however (outside of the tag-a-long Kansas) is that all U. S. states are growing their hydrogen economies. The naysayers say that hydrogen and fuel cells are just a pipe dream and I say hydrogen and fuel cells are a pipeline to a clean energy future that is just around the corner.
En las últimas horas, Volkswagen ha decidido entregar un informe un poco más amplio de cómo funciona y cómo será el próximo Golf Blue-e-Motion que será lanzado más o menos al mismo tiempo que versiones eléctricas de los Touareg, Passat y Jetta, junto con el Lavida en China y tres versiones más de los Golf, Jetta y Passat híbridos. La idea es tener cubiertos todos los frentes posibles para el año 2018 y aprovechar varios incentivos de los gobiernos europeos en la compra de coches alternativos.
Ya sabíamos que estará impulsado por motores eléctricos de unos 115 caballos, alimentados por baterías de litio que almacenan 26,5 Kwh. Según Volkswagen, el Golf eléctrico dará un rango de unos 150 kilómetros, suficiente para la mayoría de los conductores alemanes, que no recorren diariamente más de 20 klómetros de media, según estadísticas.
La velocidad máxima está fijada en 140 km/h, pero el consumo se verá penalizado cuanto más pesado sea nuestro pie derecho. En los instantes en que soltemos el acelerador, el coche tendrá la capacidad de desconectar el tren motriz para reducir la resistencia mecánica y así ahorrar mucha energía de las baterías. Durante esos momentos, las baterías se podrán ir recargando kinéticamente.
El sistema eléctrico, que agrupa a lo que sería motor y transmisión está agrupado de una manera muy compacta y estará ubicado al frente, es decir donde iría un motor convencional de gasolina. El grupo motor eléctrico funciona en conjunción con un convertidor de voltaje de 12 voltios y el módulo de carga, que le agrega al coche un peso suplementario de 205 kilos, junto con el paquete de baterías. El peso del coche sería de unos 1.545 kilos en total, más pesado que un Golf diesel.
Los planes a gran escala de este Golf comenzarán el año que viene, con unas 500 unidades que comenzarán a ser probadas en calles y caminos de Europa. De la experiencia del uso en condiciones reales y en todo tipo de clima, seguramente Volkswagen tomará mejoras, propuestas y soluciones para ir ampliando la eficiencia del funcionamiento de estos motores eléctricos que serán las estrellas de la marca en los próximos seis años.
All that hand-wringing over California being the next Greece might not be for nothing. States are starting to report their April tax collections, and several have announced numbers far lower than expected even a few weeks ago, auguring bigger deficits and budget shortfalls for next year. The Wall Street Journal reports that collections are down 26 percent in California, 12 percent in Pennsylvania and 10 percent in Kansas. States are starting to look to the federal government — itself under pressure to reduce deficit spending — to make up the shortfall:
Kansas lawmakers are hoping the federal government will help. After the state’s April revenue missed estimates set just two weeks earlier, the legislature responded by changing the state budget to assume Congress will extend more federal support for Medicaid through the end of the year.
Increased federal spending on Medicaid…was a major component of last year’s stimulus package, and it has helped many states prop up their budgets. But it is uncertain that Congress will approve more such funding.
In some states, governors are responding to the April shortfalls on their own. Missouri’s April tax revenue decreased $13.2 million, or 3.6 percent, from the same month a year ago. State budget director Linda Luebbering ordered agencies to hold back $45 million in appropriated spending because tax collections were so far below projections.
Other states have already taken drastic measures to close budget shortfalls. For instance, in March, Arizona decided to end its state health insurance program for children, eliminating free coverage for 47,000 kids. California might end its welfare-to-work program as well as a number of child-care initiatives. And South Carolina has closed group homes for children and a program to help youths emerging from prison sentences to get jobs.
We will be open there today from about noon until 9:30 pm and tomorrow with the same hours.
La velocidad máxima está fijada en 140 km/h, pero el consumo se verá penalizado cuanto más pesado sea nuestro pie derecho. En los instantes en que soltemos el acelerador, el coche tendrá la capacidad de desconectar el tren motriz para reducir la resistencia mecánica y así ahorrar mucha energía de las baterías. Durante esos momentos, las baterías se podrán ir recargando kinéticamente.