MindMover
MindMover's JournalFresh From Syria, Rebel Commanders Unite in Frustration
ANTAKYA, Turkey — Abu Moayed, a commander in an armed Syrian opposition brigade, stood and waved his arms emphatically at the fellow rebel commanders who filled the sweltering room.
His fighters, he said, needed money and weapons. But they were not getting the support promised from the donors and opposition leaders outside Syria.
“We are borrowing money to feed our wounded!” Mr. Moayed shouted. “There is no distribution of the weapons,” he added. “All of our weapons, we are paying for them ourselves.”
The meeting of the rebel commanders, held after Friday Prayer in this Turkish city near Syria’s northern border, said much about the priorities of the Syrian opposition fighting groups at this stage of the conflict, now 17 months old. There was limited discussion of the mass killings in the village of Tremseh the day before — even though the commanders had heard about it and at least one had lost relatives. There was no talk about United Nations cease-fire monitors, the peace envoy Kofi Annan, or endless Security Council debates to halt the conflict. These commanders were focused on the basics of waging war against President Bashar al-Assad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/world/middleeast/commanders-of-syrian-rebels-unite-in-frustration.html?smid=tw-nytimesglobal&seid=auto
U.S. Ranks Ninth Out of 12 Countries in Energy Efficiency
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's first-ever global survey showed the United States fared poorly, ranking ninth among 12 of the world's largest economies.
The council's International Energy Efficiency Scorecard, released Thursday, showed the United Kingdom in first place with a score of 67 out of 100, thanks to efficient industrial and transportation sectors. Germany came in second at 66 points for strong national leadership across its entire economy.
The next three spots were held by Japan, Italy and France. The European Union, Australia and China had a three-way tie for sixth place at 56 points, and then came a drop to the United States with 47. Brazil took tenth place with a score of 41. Canada (37) and Russia (36) rounded out the rankings.
The scores were based on countries' performance and policies in four sectors: buildings, industry, transportation and energy use at the national level. The council divided those categories into 27 metrics and awarded the highest score available for each metric to at least one country. The study's most up-to-date data comes from 2010 and doesn't reflect advances made in the past two years.
http://insideclimatenews.org/breaking-news/20120713/us-ranks-ninth-out-12-countries-energy-efficiency?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+solveclimate%2Fblog+%28InsideClimate+News%29
The Huge Shift in Our Energy System That's Happening Right Now in 1 Chart
The power coming through your electrical socket is undergoing the fastest, largest change in American history.
You may not have noticed, but there is something happening to the American electricity supply that we've never seen before. Not in 1973 or 1950 or even in 1900. As long as Americans have made electricity, they've gotten more of it from coal than from any fuel. While petroleum and natural gas have played huge roles in our energy system, coal's been responsible for more than 65 percent of the fossil-fuel electricity we've generated for most of the last 50 years. (And for big chunks of the 20th century, we made half of all the electricity in this country by burning coal.)
But natural gas is in the process of overtaking coal as the top fuel in America -- and fast. The energy system, as you can see in the chart, tends to change slowly. But just look at the last three years in the chart below. That's the kind of growth that you tend to see in the high tech industry, not energy. That's an honest-to-goodness hockey stick.
It's worth noting that the raw numbers that underlie the percentages below are enormous, too. Each percentage point of share is roughly 40 million megawatt hours a year. By comparison, all solar projects in 2010 (the last year stats were available) produced 1.3 million megawatt hours.
The only comparable change in the electricity system occurred when nuclear power plants came online in the 1970s, but even that doesn't match the speed that natural gas has gained generation share (I checked!). What we're seeing in natural gas is truly a novel thing.
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http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/the-huge-shift-in-our-energy-system-thats-happening-right-now-in-1-chart/259823/
A Bison So Rare It’s Sacred
GOSHEN, Conn. — If one were asked to pick a typical home where the buffalo roam, the answer probably would not be Litchfield County amid the rolling hills and understated rural chic of Northwest Connecticut.
But when Bison No. 7 on Peter Fay’s farm gave birth to a white, 30-pound bull calf a month ago, it made the Fay farm below Mohawk Mountain, for the moment at least, the unlikely epicenter of the bison universe.
For Mr. Fay, what happened was an astoundingly unexpected oddity — white bison are so rare that each birth is viewed as akin to a historic event.
For Marian White Mouse of Wanblee, S.D., and other American Indians, it is a supremely auspicious message from the spirits. She will fly with her family to Connecticut for naming ceremonies at the end of the month that are expected to draw large crowds.
And for those to whom the bison is an iconic part of the American experience, the birth is, at the least, a remarkable coincidence, coming at a time that wildlife, tribal and producer groups are lobbying Congress to have the bison officially designated as the national mammal and a national symbol alongside the bald eagle. (The words buffalo and bison are often used interchangeably, but the North American version is properly called bison and its distant cousins in Asia and Africa are buffaloes).
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/nyregion/sacred-white-bison-is-born-in-rural-connecticut.html?_r=1&smid=tw-share
‘Who The Hell Is Grover Norquist, Anyway?’ ... HW asks
Grover Norquist, the anti-tax activist who authored a no-new-taxes pledge popular among GOP politicians, has called Republicans who raised taxes “rat heads in a Coke bottle.” A former Republican president who raised taxes during his administration, however, is now challenging Republicans to set aside the Norquist pledge.
In an interview with Parade Magazine, George H. W. Bush, who broke his “no new taxes” election pledge, said he didn’t like the “rigidity” of pledges like Norquist’s. “Who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?” Bush added:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/13/516248/george-bush-grover-norquist/
Amazing Northern Lights Pictures: July 2012
Aurora over Lake Minnewanka, Banff National Park, CanadaCredit: Paul Zizka Photography/www.zizka.caNight sky watcher Paul Zizka caught the aurora on July 9, 2012, at Lake Minnewanka, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. He writes: "Yet another sleepless night spent at Lake Minnewanka last night. And it was worth it. Immediately after returning to Banff from an evening ascent of Narao Peaks, I noticed the data looked good for a light show so I hastily made my way to my favorite aurora watching spot, Lake Minnewanka. The aurora danced on and off for hours. Most of the time it was barely visible to the naked eye, but now and then Mother Nature would put on a show that was hard to miss. The displays ranged from a very interesting, long-lasting pink streak directly overhead to wild green curls and purple pillars to the north and east."
http://www.space.com/16545-northern-lights-pictures-aurora-july-2012.html
Sylvester Stallone's son found dead
Source: NYP
THE son of Sylvester Stallone has been found dead in his Hollywood home.
Sage Moonblood Stallone, 36, was found dead this afternoon at an apartment, his attorney confirmed to The New York Post
Sage’s attorney George Braunstein said Sage was found a couple hours ago in his home. He told The Post: “I have just gotten a report that he was found dead at his home.”
“He was in good spirits, and working on all kinds of projects,” said Braunstein. “He was planning on getting married. I am just devastated. He was an extremely wonderful, loving guy. This is a tragedy.”
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/sylvester_stallone_son_found_dead_cVP2gGx7BBzgeNax2Dm3JL?utm_source=SFnewyorkpost&utm_medium=SFnewyorkpost
World outrage at Syria "massacre", but no action
(Reuters) - The United States has branded Syria's leaders murderers after an attack on a village by President Bashar al-Assad's troops left dozens dead, but there was no break in the deadlock among world powers over how to bring about an end to the bloodshed.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned what his monitors on the ground had seen as an "indiscriminate" bombardment that included rocket-firing helicopters of the town of Tremseh in rebellious Hama province, and he questioned Assad's commitment to a U.N.-sponsored peace plan for Syria.
But at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S. diplomats and their Western allies continued to run up against a refusal on the part of Russia to lift its veto on harsher sanctions or any steps Moscow views as imposing "regime change" in Damascus.
There was "indisputable evidence that the regime deliberately murdered innocent civilians", said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, demanding access for U.N. observers who on Thursday were spectators to hours of bombing and gunfire, but were kept out of the village by Syrian troops.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/13/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8610SH20120713
Romney owes America an apology ....
for sending hundreds of thousands of American jobs overseas .... and putting scores of businesses out of business .... so that he could build his personal multimillion dollar portfolio ....
Marijuana Reveals Memory Mechanism
Until recently, most scientists believed that neurons were the all-important brain cells controlling mental functions and that the surrounding glial cells were little more than neuron supporters and “glue.” Now research published in March in Cell reveals that astrocytes, a type of glia, have a principal role in working memory. And the scientists made the discovery by getting mice stoned.
Marijuana impairs working memory—the short-term memory we use to hold on to and process thoughts. Think of the classic stoner who, midsentence, forgets the point he was making. Although such stupor might give recreational users the giggles, people using the drug for medical reasons might prefer to maintain their cognitive capacity.
To study how marijuana impairs working memory, Giovanni Marsicano of the University of Bordeaux in France and his colleagues removed cannabinoid receptors—proteins that respond to marijuana's psychoactive ingredient THC—from neurons in mice. These mice, it turned out, were just as forgetful as regular mice when given THC: they were equally poor at memorizing the position of a hidden platform in a water pool. When the receptors were removed from astrocytes, however, the mice could find the platform just fine while on THC.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=marijuana-reveals-memory-mechanism&WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20120713
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