Saturday, February 22nd, 2014
TANA GANEVA, - Salon/AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: Here is more data on the effects of growing up and living in a Red value state. The recent vote at the VW plant against joining the union is an example of the responsibility the citizens of these states bear for their own life quality. Although it would be passionately denied, Southern state citizens by their voting seem to place other priorities above their own wellbeing and that of their families.
Last year, America placed next to last in a ranking of child well-being in 35 developed countries, barely beating out Romania. A recent report by the Children’s Defense Fund helps explain how the US earned that distinction. According to the report, 1-in-5 American children live in relative poverty. Close to half of poverty-stricken kids live in extreme poverty, which means their families earn less than half the poverty level of $11, 746 per year for a family of four.
Since the Great Recession began in 2009, there’s been a 73 percent jump in student homelessness and a 23 percent increase in child hunger. The so-called ‘jobless recovery” has not helped.
‘Our key finding is that four years after the end of the recession, children have not seen any relief,” says Caroline Fichtenberg, Director of Research at the Fund. ‘The recession has not ended for them.”
It’s even worse in Southern states, where 1-in-4 kids is poor. ‘We call it the geographic lottery,” Fichtenberg says. ‘Depending on where the child is born, there’s a much higher or lower chance they’ll be poor.”
Their findings square with recent research that shows your chances of doing better than your parents depend on where you grow up. When […]
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Saturday, February 22nd, 2014
Stephan: Speaking of environmental catastrophes, here is the latest on Duke Energy and North Carolina. Several SR readers who live along the Dan River, and who have been directly affected are enraged by what has happened, and the lackadaisical response from the state government, and have been sending me emails with stories. It is not at all clear how this mess is going to be cleaned up.
A broken pipe funneled 30,000 tons of toxic coal ash into the Dan River in North Carolina earlier this month, turning it gray. The pipe has been plugged, but has reignited a fight over storage of coal ash, and scrutiny of the state regulators responsible for monitoring it.
The U.S. Justice Department began a criminal investigation into North Carolina’s coal ash ponds and the state’s environmental officials last week. The inquiry , The Associated Press reports, as federal prosecutors called for 20 state employees to testify before a grand jury.
A Statewide Concern
One-hundred-thirty miles south of the Dan River spill, Mark Levi walks to a dock at the back of his house in Charlotte, on the bank of a different river, the Catawba. About a mile away is the Allen steam plant. Its coal ash ponds are six times the size of the ones that leaked at the Dan River plant.
“To us, the worst-case scenario is the dams on those ash ponds break, and it all dumps in the river right here. And, our backyards – what we chose to live on the lake for – is dead,” he says.
Jonathan Steele, owner of Bluegrass Kitchen, fills a jug with bottled water […]
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Saturday, February 22nd, 2014
Stephan: This Fukushima crisis just never ends. Here is the latest. You guessed it, another leak. Note the final sentence in the story. CNN didn't learn about this new leak from an announcement from either the government or TEPCO. They picked it up based on a tweet.
Click through to see the video.
Tokyo — A large amount of radioactive water has leaked from a holding tank at Japan’s troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, its operator said Thursday.
The leak of an estimated 100 metric tons of highly contaminated water was discovered late Wednesday, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said in a statement.
The tainted water flowed over a barrier around the tank and is being absorbed into the ground, TEPCO said. The plant has shut off the inflow of water into the tank and the leaking has stopped, it added.
The company doesn’t believe that there was any leakage of the radioactive water into the nearby Pacific Ocean.
See inside Japan’s damaged nuclear plant
Since the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan in March 2011 set off meltdowns at three of the reactors at the nuclear plant, TEPCO has been storing the enormous volumes of water contaminated at the site in a steadily growing collection of containers.
The company has struggled to manage the vast amounts of radioactive water, with a number of leaks reported last year.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government vowed to step in to deal with the toxic water crisis at the plant that caused concern in Japan and abroad about the […]
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Saturday, February 22nd, 2014
ALASTAIR LEITHEAD, - BBC News (U.K.)
Stephan: Water is destiny. Here is a view of water you may not have considered. It gets virtually no coverage in the U.S.
LOS ANGELES — While historic winter storms have battered much of the US, California is suffering its worst drought on record. So why is America’s most valuable farming state using billions of gallons of water to grow hay – specifically alfalfa – which is then shipped to China?
The reservoirs of California are just a fraction of capacity amid the worst drought in the state’s history.
“This should be like Eden right now,” farmer John Dofflemyer says, looking out over a brutally dry, brown valley as his remaining cows feed on the hay he’s had to buy in to keep them healthy.
In the dried-up fields of California’s Central Valley, farmers like Dofflemyer are selling their cattle. Others have to choose which crops get the scarce irrigation water and which will wither.
“These dry times, this drought, has a far-reaching impact well beyond California,” he said as the cattle fell in line behind his small tractor following the single hay bale on the back.
“We have never seen anything like this before – it’s new ground for everybody.”
Landscapes of dry Tulare County in Central California (left) and lush Imperial Valley in Southern California (right) The drought-stricken Central Valley (left) contrasts with the lush Imperial Valley, […]
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Saturday, February 22nd, 2014
ALEX BROWN, - National Journal
Stephan: Here is a major game changer. There will be enormous resistance by American internet providers to this technology, but if it works as claimed the advanced version of this plus the glasses I featured the other day would completely change how we interact with data.
Outernet wants to use tiny satellites to take the whole world online-even in countries where dictators wish they wouldn’t.
If all goes according to plan, North Koreans will soon have free, uncensored Internet provided by satellites the size of toaster ovens.
That’s part of a project called Outernet, which hopes to launch hundreds of tiny satellites-known as CubeSats-to provide Internet to every person on Earth. Forty percent of the world’s people currently don’t have access to the Web. In a little more than a year, Outernet plans to have a fleet of 24 satellites operational and testing to pave the way for a globe-spanning network.
The satellites won’t be providing conventional Internet right away. They’ll initially be used for one-way communication to provide services like emergency updates, news, crop prices, and educational programs. Users will help determine what content is offered.
The project’s backers say knowledge is a human right-one they intend to provide even in countries where dictators have thus far limited access. “We exist to support the flow of independent news, information, and debate that people need to build free, thriving societies,” said Peter Whitehead, president of the Media Development Investment Fund, Outernet’s backer. “It enables fuller participation in public life, […]
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