Three Stories

When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint. When I ask why the people are hungry, they call me a communist--Helder camera, archbishop (1909-1999)

Good game last night, but I faded
Mom was at Ruth Chris and Ditka's yesterday.
Snow this a.m..

There were wild predictions well before the first Earth Day. In 1939, the U.S. Department of the Interior predicted that American oil supplies would last for only another 13 years. In 1949, the secretary of the interior said the end of U.S. oil supplies was in sight. Having learned nothing from its earlier erroneous energy claims, in 1974, the U.S. Geological Survey said that the U.S. had only a 10-year supply of natural gas. However, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated that as of Jan. 1, 2017, there were about 2,459 trillion cubic feet of dry natural gas in the United States. That's enough to last us for nearly a century. The United States is the largest producer of natural gas worldwide.
Models.

“UMBRELLAS,” now reads paragraph 3035 of the uniform regulations. “Marines may carry an all-black, plain, standard or collapsible umbrella at their option during inclement weather with the service and dress uniforms.”

Google is engaged in a secret project with one of the country’s largest health-care systems to collect and crunch the detailed personal health information of millions of Americans across 21 states, according to people familiar with the matter and internal documents. The initiative, code-named “Project Nightingale,” appears to be the largest in a series of efforts by Silicon Valley giants to gain access to personal health data and establish a toehold in the massive health-care industry.  The data involved in Project Nightingale encompasses lab results, doctor diagnoses and hospitalization records, among other categories, and amounts to a complete health history, including patient names and dates of birth. Neither patients nor doctors have been notified. At least 150 Google employees already have access to much of the data on tens of millions of patients, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents

Don Cherry, Canada’s most polarizing, flamboyant and opinionated hockey commentator, was fired Monday for calling immigrants “you people” in a television rant in which he said new immigrants are not honoring the country’s fallen soldiers. Cherry derided immigrants by saying Saturday night, “You people ... you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that. These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada, these guys paid the biggest price.”
He's only allowed to criticize Crosby.

Venezuela dictator Nicolas Maduro banned private gun ownership in 2012. The result is that Venezuelans had no way to protect themselves from criminals and government troops who preyed upon them later. After Fidel Castro's demand for gun confiscation, he said, "Armas para que?" ("Guns, for what?") 

A Ms. Dubois would seem like an ideal immigrant for Quebec, a French-speaking province determined to preserve its French language and identity. She completed a biology doctorate at Laval University in Quebec City, a French-language university. She also started a scientific graphic design company.

But despite being a Francophone from Burgundy in eastern France, she said the immigration minister had written to her that she had not demonstrated sufficient proficiency in French to receive a certificate that is a prerequisite to gaining permanent residency.

As Ömer Özkizilcik writes alongside this somewhat iconic photo, "Russian and American troops crossing each other's route in northeast Syria."

Upon hearing of England’s rejection of the so-called Olive Branch Petition on November 12, 1775, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, “Let us separate, they are unworthy to be our Brethren. Let us renounce them and instead of supplications as formerly for their prosperity and happiness, Let us beseech the almighty to blast their councils and bring to Nought all their devices.”

Abigail Adams was a pistol. Her response was a particularly articulate expression of many colonists’ thoughts: Patriots had hoped that Parliament had curtailed colonial rights without the king’s full knowledge, and that the petition would cause him to come to his subjects’ defense. When George III refused to read the petition, Patriots like Adams realized that Parliament was acting with royal knowledge and support. 

                        Three Stories

Story #1:

The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists.

“We declare clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency,” it states. “To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live. [This] entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems.”

There is no time to lose, the scientists say: “The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity.”

The statement is published in the journal BioScience on the 40th anniversary of the first world climate conference, which was held in Geneva in 1979. The statement was a collaboration of dozens of scientists and endorsed by further 11,000 from 153 nations. The scientists say the urgent changes needed include ending population growth, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, halting forest destruction and slashing meat eating.

Story #2:

On the same day that 11,258 scientists in 153 countries published a report warning that the planet “clearly and unequivocally faces a climate emergency,” the Trump administration made it official: The United States is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord that is, so far, humanity’s best collective response to that same emergency.

Jesse Bellemare, an associate professor of biology at Smith College, told the Washington Post that this newest study “establishes a clear record of the broad consensus among most scientists active at this point in history that the climate crisis is real, and is a major, even existential, threat to human societies, human well-being, and biodiversity.”

Unfortunately, President Donald Trump and his advisers are choosing not to believe this report or any other scientific findings that undercut the administration’s full throttle drive to allow unfettered exploitation of fossil fuels. Rather than transition to a futuristic economy based on renewable energy, Trump and friends are sticking with oil, gas and coal, no matter how dire the consequences for future generations.

This willfully ignorant policy may prove to be the most unforgivable legacy of this destructive president. (Seattle Times)

Story #3

Dozens of signatories including Mickey Mouse and Harry Potter headmaster Albus Dumbledore from Hogwarts have been ­removed from an Alliance of World Scientists declaration of a “climate emergency”.

Access to the 11,000 name-petition that accompanied a statement of concern published in BioScience on Tuesday was blocked on Thursday.

A statement issued by ­Oregon State University said “an administrative error unfortunately saw the inclusion of a small number of invalid names”.