Monday, December 26th, 2011
Stephan: A lot of people think there should be one unalterable truth, and there may be. But we are not anywhere near discovering it yet. Even things we think are settled are only partly known, as this report demonstrates.
A remarkable new fossil discovery of amoeba-like micro-organisms that lived 570 million years ago could make scientists rethink some widely-accepted theories about how complex life on Earth first evolved from a single-celled universal common ancestor.
An international team of researchers analyzed the rock-encased fossils in precise computer models created from high high-energy X-rays generated using a particle accelerator.
The scientists say they were surprised when the results indicated the fossilized cell clusters were not animals or embryos. That is because it had long been thought that fossils showing this apparent pattern cell division represented the embryos of the earliest animals.
Instead, they say the finely detailed X-ray images exposed features pattern that led them to conclude the organisms were, ‘the reproductive spore bodies of single-celled ancestors of animals.
No Comments
Monday, December 26th, 2011
AMANDA PETERSON BEADLE, - Think Progress
Stephan: The nativist anti-immigration movement in this country doesn't seem to realize that we are all immigrants, and that a large number of immigrants are entrepreneurial and innovative. It is a big deal to leave one's country and always has been. People who do so are survivors willing to risk what they know for the potential of something better in a place they do not know. Even more importantly these people are real job creators, not the pseudo-job creators the Right favors.
Studies continue to show the important economic impact immigrants have on the national economy as well as states, be it the millions in losses Alabama faces after passing a draconian immigration law to the number of jobs immigrants help create.
Now venture capitalists are arguing for immigration reform for the sake of the economy after a study showed that immigrants founded almost half of the U.S.’s top 50 start-up companies and are vital management or development employees at roughly 75 percent of the nation’s leading cutting-edge companies.
Companies with immigrant founders include the textbook rental company Chegg and the online craft site Etsy. The most common countries of origin for these entrepreneurs were India, Israel, Canada, Iran, and New Zealand, and for many, their experiences creating a start-up were ‘uniquely American,
No Comments
Monday, December 26th, 2011
Stephan: We are just beginning to get a sense of what is coming and the impact it will have on cites on the coasts of seas, bays, and rivers. It is not pretty. And it will be complicated by the fact that an increasing number of people are migrating to these cities from the countryside.
When Tropical Storm Washi ripped through the southern Philippine city of Cagayan de Oro last weekend, it dumped in one day more than the city’s entire average rainfall for the month of December.
According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, a total of 181 millimeters of rainfall was recorded in the area last Friday, compared to the expected 99.9 millimeters for the whole month.
The devastating flash floods, which have so far claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, arrived just weeks after a report from the UK’s Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Change indicated that climate change has significantly increased the number of people at risk from flooding globally.
The report, ‘Climate: Observations, projections and impacts,’ examined how climate change will modify the weather in 24 countries around the world.
While findings vary from region to region, it forecasts an overall increase in this century of coastal and river floods, extreme weather events and a global temperature rise of between 3-5C, if emissions are left unchecked.
According to climate change experts, cities from New York in the U.S. to Dhaka in Bangladesh are likely to be heavily affected.
Simon Reddy, executive director of the C40 Cities network, which promotes sustainable […]
No Comments
Monday, December 26th, 2011
PAUL JOSEPH WATSON, - InfoWars.com
Stephan: TSA is inherently fascist, authoritarian, and militaristic. It represents a vision of America quite foreign to anything that has gone before. And we all docilely have permitted it, so we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Congress is set to give the green light on funding for a massive expansion of TSA checkpoints, with the federal agency already responsible for over 9,000 such checkpoints in the last year amidst increased fears America is turning into a police state following the passage of the ‘indefinite detention’ bill.
The increase in funding has nothing to do with the TSA’s role in airports – this is about creating 12 more VIPR teams to add the federal agency’s 25 units that are already scattered across the country and responsible for manning checkpoints on highways, in bus and train terminals, at sports events and even high school prom nights.
‘The TSA’s 25 ‘viper
No Comments
Monday, December 26th, 2011
MURIEL KANE, - The Raw Story
Stephan: Finally the Obama Administration has decided to move to block at least this outrageous attempt by the Right to effectively disenfranchise large blocs of the population -- the elderly, students, the poor, minorities. It is so flagrant you would think the people of the states where this is going on would rise up. But in these Red states they either don't understand what is happening, don't care, or support these moves.
In a move with significant implications for the 2012 elections, the Obama administration on Friday blocked a South Carolina voter ID law from taking effect because of concerns that it would have a disproportionate effect on minority voters.
The law, which was passed last spring by the South Carolina state legislature and signed by Governor Nikki Haley, requires voters to present some form of photo ID, such as a driver’s license, passport, or military identification, along with their voter’s registration.
According to Reuters, ‘The Justice Department said the requirement could harm the right to vote of tens of thousands of people, noting that just over a third of the state’s minorities who are registered voters did not have a driver’s license needed to cast a ballot.
No Comments
