MARISA LAGOS, Staff Writer - San Francisco Chronicle
Stephan: I consider this to be the best news in some time. It is going to change for the better -- in many ways -- the future of California. It is the sort of big picture infrastructure project we should be carrying out all over the country. It is the kind of stimulus we have needed these past four years. It will create thousands of jobs that will, with the railroad's completion, create yet tens of thousands more long lasting good middle class enabling jobs. It will reduce California's carbon footprint, improve its economics, and change the face of the state. Governor Jerry Brown, the best governor California has had in a generation, should be applauded for getting this through the legislature.
SACRAMENTO — A divided state Senate approved billions of dollars in funding to start construction on California’s ambitious high-speed rail line Friday, handing the controversial project $7.9 billion in state and federal money for the first 130 miles of track and a series of local transit upgrades.
The funding measure, which was easily approved in the Assembly Thursday, will now head to Gov. Jerry Brown, who pushed lawmakers to approve it. In all, the Legislature this week authorized the issuance of $4.6 billion in state bond funds – about half of the $9.9 billion approved by voters in 2008 – and opened the door for California to obtain $3.3 billion in federal grants, for a total of $7.9 billion.
It was a key vote: Federal transportation officials had warned that if the money were not made available this summer, they would yank the $3.3 billion in stimulus funds and give it to other states.
And it was a tough win for Democratic leaders, who weren’t sure by midday if they had the votes to pass the measure, which got the bare minimum of 21 votes, all of them Democrats. But some in the party refused to support the plan.
One of those lawmakers, Sen. […]
No Comments
VIVIAN GOLDSCHMIDT, MA and KATIE THOMAS, - Save Our Bones
Stephan: Here we see, in their own words, the criminality of Big Pharma, and its complete disdain for national wellness.
It could be the plot of a best-selling medical thriller. A web of deception and lies tied to a new blockbuster drug is uncovered during a financial fraud investigation of a major pharmaceutical company. Unfortunately, this plot is not imaginary.
Back in the year 2000, Pfizer and its partner Pharmacia, makers of the pain drug Celebrex, purposely released partial information on a study to (erroneously) show that the drug was safer on the stomach than common over the counter pain killers such as ibuprofen.
‘They swallowed our story, hook, line and sinker,
No Comments
Stephan: I am not quite sure how important this is to my readers, but I checked my own computer, it is simple to do, and you should probably check.
Click through to get to the test links.
If you want to make sure you’ll still be able to use the Internet when you wake up Monday morning, go to this website right now, click ‘Detect,
No Comments
TOM PHILPOTT, - Mother Jones
Stephan: The whole charade of engineered crops and their putative benefit in the face of climate change is beginning to unravel under the stress of that change, and the truth of the impact of climate change on our food supply is also becoming evident.
For years now, people have wondered how climate change will affect farming. How will humanity feed itself during a time of rising temperatures and recurring drought?
Here in the US, we’re starting to get a taste of things to come-and it’s bitter. Brutal heat is now roiling the main growing regions for corn, soy, and wheat, the biggest US crops. According to Bloomberg News, 71 percent of the Midwest is experiencing ‘drier-than-normal conditions,’ and temperatures are projected to be above 90 degrees in large swaths of key corn/soy-growing states Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana through July 7 if not longer.
As a result, Goldman Sachs projects that this year’s corn yields will come in 7.5 percent below the USDA’s projection of 166 bushels an acre. (Why is a Wall Street behemoth like Goldman Sachs fussing over corn yields? That’s another story, altogether, and an interesting one). Accordingly, crop prices are rising steeply, Bloomberg reports.
Of course, we can’t tie any individual heat wave to long-term climate trends-there’s plenty of random weather variation even in times of climate stability. But we do know that hot, dry weather can stunt plant growth and reduce yields-and we also know that we can expect more hot, dry weather […]
No Comments
Stephan: This extraordinary discovery -- which actually has nothing to do with Atlantis, which is a precognitive myth, we are Atlantis -- opens yet another new chapter of our past.
Click through to see the pictures and maps.
For further information on the exhibit, visit: http://sse.royalsociety.org/2012/exhibits/drowned-landscapes/
Drowned Landscapes is on display at The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2012 from July 3-8 at the Royal Society in London.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2167731/Britains-Atlantis-North-sea--huge-undersea-kingdom-swamped-tsunami-5-500-years-ago.html#ixzz1zoRwot3D
Britain’s Atlantis’ – a hidden underwater world swallowed by the North Sea – has been discovered by divers working with science teams from the University of St Andrews.
Doggerland, a huge area of dry land that stretched from Scotland to Denmark was slowly submerged by water between 18,000 BC and 5,500 BC.
Divers from oil companies have found remains of a ‘drowned world’ with a population of tens of thousands – which might once have been the ‘real heartland’ of Europe.
A team of climatologists, archaeologists and geophysicists has now mapped the area using new data from oil companies – and revealed the full extent of a ‘lost land’ once roamed by mammoths.
Divers from St Andrews University, find remains of Doggerland, the underwater country dubbed ‘Britain’s Atlantis’
Divers from St Andrews University, find remains of Doggerland, the underwater country dubbed ‘Britain’s Atlantis’
Dr Richard Bates of the earth sciences department at St Andrews University, searching for Doggerland, the underwater country dubbed ‘Britain’s Atlantis’
Dr Richard Bates of the earth sciences department at St Andrews University, searching for Doggerland, the underwater country dubbed ‘Britain’s Atlantis’
A Greater Britain: How the North Sea grew and the land-mass shrunk
Scans show a mound discovered under the water near Orkney, […]
No Comments
