TERRELL JOHNSON, - Wunderground.com
Stephan: More confirmation of what I have been saying for years now about climate change. Of particular note, climate change is going to especially impact Red value states, the very states that refuse to even acknowledge that climate change is real, and also the states whose populace is becoming more ignorant, and whose economies are most a risk. I have not done enough research to understand what the implications of this will be, but one thing is sure, they will not be good.
Click through to see the chart that accompanies this report, as well as to download the full report.
The world has warmed faster in the last decade than any other, as the 2001-2010 period brought ‘unprecedented’ climate extremes and high-impact weather events around the world, according to a new report by the World Meteorological Organization released July 3.
The report, titled ‘The Global Climate 2001-2010, A Decade of Climate Extremes,’ found that every year of the past decade except 2008 was among the 10 warmest years on record, a period when deaths from heat jumped by more than 2,000 percent over the previous decade.
More than 90 percent of the countries in the WMO survey reported their warmest decade in 2001-2010, while sea level rise accelerated to a worldwide average of about 3 millimeters per year, roughly double the average annual rise of 1.6 millimeters in the 20th century.
Both hemispheres saw their warmest land and ocean temperatures, a period that also saw the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice and the accelerating retreat of mountain glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
Noting that a decade is the ‘minimum possible timeframe for meaningful assessments of climate change,’ WMO Secretary General Michel Jarraud said the report shows that global warming was ‘unprecedented’ in the periods between 1991-2000 and 2001-2010.
‘Rising concentrations of […]
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Stephan: Here is some excellent advice, which I urge you to follow.
It’s never too early to start protecting your brain power, a new study suggests.
Reading, writing and participating in other brain-stimulating activities at any age may protect your memory later in life, according to the research. The study, which tracked 294 individuals, is published online in the July 3 issue of Neurology.
‘Our study suggests that exercising your brain by taking part in activities such as these across a person’s lifetime, from childhood through old age, is important for brain health in old age,’ said the study’s lead author, Robert Wilson.
After adjusting for signs of brain disease, higher levels of cognitive activity across the life span were associated with slower cognitive decline, the study found. Mental activity explained about 14% of the differences between people in how much their memory and thinking skills declined.
The finding supports the hypothesis of cognitive reserve, which describes the brain’s ability to cope with disease or damage. According to the hypothesis, mental activity helps delay the cognitive consequences of disease.
Neuroimaging research suggests that cognitive activity can lead to changes in brain structure and function that may enhance cognitive reserve.
‘An intellectually stimulating lifestyle helps to contribute to cognitive reserve and allows you to tolerate these age-related brain pathologies […]
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KAY STEIGER, - The Raw Story
Stephan: This is very good news for students in Oregon making it clear that, in Oregon at least, the government recognizes that it is in the interests of state social wellness to have an educated populace. It isn't a perfect solution because it still involves students assuming debt, and does not address the cost increases, but it is a far more equitable system than the current one.
I also see it as yet another example of the growing Blue value Red value schism that is occurring in the U.S. While Oregon is encouraging students Red value states are making it ever more difficult for children to get a decent education. The result is going to be an increasing disparity in the social wellness of these two blocs of states.
This week the Oregon Senate passed a bill that would create a fund allowing it to bypass traditional student lenders by giving free tuition to students who then pay it back with a deduction from their paychecks after they graduate, according to the Associated Press.
H.B. 3472, which has already passed Oregon’s House, creates a pilot program called ‘Pay It Forward, Pay It Back,
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Stephan: Most of what passes for American history in popular literature is just myth polishing. I have been researching and writing about the Founders for many years, and long ago recognized neither editors nor readers seemed to want to know the truth. Maybe we don't understand ourselves because we are constantly lying to ourselves. Anyway here is a little truth and clarity for the Fourth.
Every Independence Day the book industry offers new titles about the American Revolution, promising original thoughts and fresh relevance. This year is no different, with some of the nation’s most lauded historians releasing major new titles making bold claims of insight. Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Ellis just came out with Revolutionary Summer, which focuses on the few months in 1776 when the 13 colonies declared independence. It comes on the heels of Penn professor Richard Beeman’s Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor, which also follows the road to 1776. And the National Book Award winner Nathaniel Philbrick’s Bunker Hill, already a best-seller, zooms in on the 1775 battle that transformed the conflict from a series of skirmishes into a full-blown war.
These are carefully written books that are sensitive to contemporary attitudes. (Perhaps occasionally too sensitive.) But you’d be mistaken in thinking that they provide a new perspective on the Revolution, because none of them seriously consider much of the latest research being done by historians across the country-which has a lot of new and relevant things to say. If you bought a popular book on science, one that came with a similar sheen of intellectual prestige, and learned that […]
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Stephan: Here is an excellent account of an almost unknown aspect of the growing police state apparat. This story reveals how skewed this entire Orwellian system has become.
By the end of this month, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is expected to issue what could be the most important order in its 35-year hidden history, ruling on a motion filed by the ACLU that asks the court to publish all of its prior opinions evaluating the meaning, scope and constitutionality of Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
Codified as part of the omnibus Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, this is the law that empowers the FBI and the National Security Agency to obtain secret orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court compelling third parties such as phone companies to produce ‘tangible things
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