DES MOINES, Iowa — An unprecedented swell of money is flooding into Iowa for tomorrow’s caucuses, with campaigns on track to spend roughly $50 million – a record-setting figure that doubles the staggering per-vote amount billionaire Mayor Bloomberg shelled out in 2005. The shocking expenditures: about $200 per vote for each of the roughly 250,000 caucus-goers expected to turn out. When all is said and done, the per-vote cost for caucus-goers of all stripes will easily double the $103 apiece that Bloomberg – who’s mulling a presidential race of his own – spent from his own fortune for every vote he got in 2005. The mayor’s $78 million campaign was considered the best that money could buy. The spending numbers are significant given the outsized importance Iowa plays in the nomination process – especially in a year where both parties are considered a toss-up, and in which there’s a truncated primary calendar. The $50 million figure includes more than $30 million for TV ads, more than $1 million for radio ads, and more than $10 million for direct mail. Then there are ‘robocalls,’ automated calls directly into people’s homes, which can cost between 8 cents […]
WASHINGTON — The world’s sea levels could rise twice as high this century as U.N. climate scientists have predicted, according to researchers who looked at what happened more than 100,000 years ago, the last time Earth got this hot. Experts working on the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have suggested a maximum 21st century sea level rise — a key effect of global climate change — of about 32 inches. But researchers said in a study appearing on Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience that the maximum could be twice that, or 64 inches. They made the estimate by looking at the so-called interglacial period, some 124,000 to 119,000 years ago, when Earth’s climate was warmer than it is now due to a different configuration of the planet’s orbit around the sun. That was the last time sea levels reached up to 20 feet (6 meters) above where they are now, fueled by the melting of the ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica. The researchers say their study is the first robust documentation of how quickly sea levels rose to that level. ‘Until now, there have been no data that sufficiently constrain […]
QUEBEC — The Arctic Ocean could be free of ice in the summer as soon as 2010 or 2015 – something that hasn’t happened for more than a million years, according to a leading polar researcher. Louis Fortier, scientific director of ArcticNet, a Canadian research network, said the sea ice is melting faster than predicted by models created by international teams of scientists, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They had forecast the Arctic Ocean could be free of summer ice as early as 2050. But Fortier told an international conference on defence and security in Quebec City Thursday that the worst-case scenarios are becoming reality. ‘The frightening models we didn’t even dare to talk about before are now proving to be true,’ Fortier told CanWest News Service, referring to computer models that take into account the thinning of the sea ice and the warming from the albedo effect – the Earth is absorbing more energy as the sea ice melts. According to these models, there will be no sea ice left in the summer in the Arctic Ocean somewhere between 2010 and 2015. ‘And it’s probably going to happen even faster […]
When Russian explorers planted a flag on the Arctic seabed earlier this year, they set off a chorus of howls from Canada, Denmark, the United States and Norway — all making claims of ownership. But if Canada really wants the maple leaf taken seriously in the Great White North, we must drop our ‘baby steps’ strategy and do somethingÂ… sensibly Canadian. Coincidentally, one such sensible strategy to build our presence in the Arctic would do more than open the door to untold billions in trade between Canada and the rapidly emerging economies of Eurasia. It would also provide a clear route — through Churchill, Man. — for the integration of Afghanistan and the rest of Central Asia into the global economy. That economic integration would do more to stabilize the region than Canadian forces ever can. The Churchill-to-Kandahar route is not an easy one to see at first glance, but each leg of the journey makes sense locally and fits into a global context that can result in the greatest geopolitical and economic advance of the 21st century. Churchill is Canada’s only Arctic deep-water seaport; a crucial shipping point for goods between North America, Europe and Asia. […]
WASHINGTON — The military’s reliance on unmanned aircraft that can watch, hunt and sometimes kill insurgents has soared to more than 500,000 hours in the air, largely in Iraq. New Defense Department figures obtained by The Associated Press also show that the Air Force more than doubled its monthly use of drones between January and October, and that it took pilots out of the air and shifted them to remote-flying duty to help meet the demand. The dramatic increase in the development and use of drones across the armed services reflects what will be an even more intense effort over the next 25 years, according to the new report. The rise in Iraq coincided with the buildup of U.S. forces this summer as the military increased its numbers to quell the violence in Baghdad. But Pentagon officials said that even as military personnel begin to come home this year, the use of Predators, Global Hawks, Shadows and Ravens is not likely to slow. ‘I think right now the demand for the capability that the unmanned system provides is only increasing,’ said Army Col. Bob Quackenbush, the deputy director for Army Aviation. For some Air Force pilots, […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
