ARI PHILLIPS, - Think Progress
Stephan: Here is more on the pro-climate change insurance trend that I have long predicted (see Migration. http://www.explorejournal.com/article/S1550-8307%2808%2900398-4/fulltext) and see as gathering momentum. Within a decade in spite of the vast sums of money they are pouring into Theocratic Right politics I think carbon energy interests like the Koch brothers will be marginalized. People are not going to react well to being told they cannot insure their property because it is an area severely impacted by climate change.
Last month, Farmers Insurance Co. filed nine class-action lawsuits arguing that local governments in the Chicago area are aware that climate change is leading to heavier rainfall but are failing to prepare accordingly. The suits allege that the localities did not do enough to prepare sewers and stormwater drains in the area during a two-day downpour last April. In what could foreshadow a legal reckoning of who is liable for the costs of climate change, the class actions against nearly 200 Chicago-area communities look to place responsibility on municipalities, perhaps spurring them to take a more forward-looking approach in designing and engineering for a future made different by climate change.
‘Farmers is asking to be reimbursed for the claims it paid to homeowners who sometimes saw geysers of sewage ruin basement walls, floors and furniture,” reported E&E News. ‘The company says it also paid policyholders for lost income, the cost of evacuations and other damages related to declining property values.”
Andrew Logan, an insurance expert with Ceres, told E&E News that there is likely a longer-term agenda in mind with this latest effort, and that the company ‘could be positioning itself to avoid future losses nationwide from claims linked to floods, sea-level […]
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Stephan: This is a wonderful story. What it does not mention is that the idea of getting potable water out of atmospheric vapor is ancient dating back at least to the Hittites. Somewhere along the line it got lost. This modern variant is an excellent example of sustainable and culturally correct technology solving a serious problem. Twenty five gallons a day would transform the life of a family, particularly the women and girls who are the ones who get the water.
Click through to see the pictures which are very helpful.
Around the world, 768 million people don’t have access to safe water, and every day 1,400 children under the age of five die from water-based diseases. Designer Arturo Vittori believes the solution to this catastrophe lies not in high technology, but in sculptures that look like giant-sized objects from the pages of a Pier 1 catalog.
His stunning water towers stand nearly 30 feet tall and can collect over 25 gallons of potable water per day by harvesting atmospheric water vapor. Called WarkaWater towers, each pillar is comprised of two sections: a semi-rigid exoskeleton built by tying stalks of juncus or bamboo together and an internal plastic mesh, reminiscent of the bags oranges come in. The nylon and polypropylene fibers act as a scaffold for condensation, and as the droplets of dew form, they follow the mesh into a basin at the base of the structure.
warka-08
‘WarkaWater is designed to provide clean water as well as ensure long-term environmental, financial and social sustainability,” says designer Arturo Vittori. Photo: Gabriele Rigon
Vittori decided to devote his attention to this problem after visiting northeastern Ethiopia and seeing the plight of remote villagers first hand. ‘There, people live in a beautiful natural environment but often […]
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MICHELLE ROBERTS, Health Editor - BBC News (U.K.)
Stephan: I think this an important report and I urge you to consider adopting this diet. I have been on it since 1965. It is the Edgar Cayce diet as well, which isn't mentioned, but true, and the door through which I first came to know holistic medicine and a healthy lifestyle.
Note the response suggesting that what would be best would be to develop a pill that mimicked what good diet naturally provides, rather than educating to change lifestyle and regulating the food industry better.
A combination of olive oil and leafy salad or vegetables is what gives the Mediterranean diet its healthy edge, say scientists.
When these two food groups come together they form nitro fatty acids which lower blood pressure, they told PNAS journal.
The unsaturated fat in olive oil joins forces with the nitrite in the vegetables, the study of mice suggests.
Nuts and avocados along with vegetables should work too, they say.
Inspired by traditional cuisine of countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy, the Mediterranean diet has long been associated with good health and fit hearts.
Typically, it consists of an abundance of vegetables, fresh fruit, wholegrain cereals, olive oil and nuts, as well as poultry and fish, rather than lots of red meat and butter or animal fats.
While each component of the Mediterranean diet has obvious nutritional benefits, researchers have been puzzled about what precisely makes the diet as a whole so healthy.
Chemical reaction
Prof Philip Eaton, from King’s College London, and colleagues from the University of California in the US believe it is the fusion of the diet’s ingredients that make nitro fatty acids.
In their study, part-funded by the British Heart Foundation, the researchers used genetically engineered mice to see what impact nitro […]
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JOSEPHINE SIMMONS, - Truthout
Stephan: Corruption dancing in a mist of legal ambiguity is a blatant reality. its ubiquity, and its scale is just stunning. These stories are outrageous for their flagrance. Here is an example of what I mean.
“Money can’t buy happiness” goes the saying. While this can be true to one extent or another, money can certainly buy protection from your enemies, as Ecuadorian billionaire brothers, Robert and William Isaias, have conveniently discovered. The Ecuadorian billionaire brothers were sentenced in 2003 in absentia to 8 years in prison on charges of embezzlement. They have since avoided punishment by lining the pockets of high-level American politicians to ensure their “safety” from Ecuadorian law.
But what is the deal with the Isaias duo? After a decade-long trial, an Ecuadorian court found the brothers guilty of defrauding Filanbanco, a bank they owned, after it collapsed in the 1990s. As a result, the state and its taxpayers incurred losses of over $400 million, with Ecuadorian citizens taking to the streets to protest the injustice. Fortunately for them, the Isaias fled long before the final judgment to enjoy a life of luxury in Florida – the famous hub of anti-Castro activists and billionaires living lavish lifestyles.
Repeated calls by President Correa to extradite the two fraudulent bankers back to Ecuador to serve their sentence fell on deaf ears, and, as it turns out, campaign donations played a large part in these developments. Senator Robert […]
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ELIAS ISQUITH, Assistant Editor - Salon
Stephan: This is a very good interview with Matt Taibbi discussing what has happened to the American justice system. One of our myths is that we have the fairest justice system in the world but, like our fantasy that we have the world's freest press, it is a delusion. As with the press we aren't even in the top 25.
It is very hard to maintain a healthy democracy if both the government and the people insist upon lying to themselves.
His relentless coverage of Wall Street malfeasance turned him into one of the most influential journalists of his generation, but in his new book, ‘The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap,” Matt Taibbi takes a close and dispiriting look at how inequality and government dysfunction have created a two-tiered justice system in which most Americans are guilty until proven innocent, while a select few operate with no accountability whatsoever.
Salon sat down last week with Taibbi for a wide-ranging chat that touched on his new book, the lingering effects of the financial crisis, how American elites operate with impunity and why, contrary to what many may think, he’s actually making a conservative argument for reform. The interview can be found below, and has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
So, what is ‘The Divide”?
The book is really just about why some people go to jail and why some people don’t go to jail, and ‘the divide” is the term I came up with to describe this phenomenon we have where there are essentially two different criminal justice systems, one that works one way for people who are either very rich or working within the confines of a […]
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