January 27, 2015

Lawsuit says bankers knew loans to Detroiters were risky

freep.com - Recently disclosed e-mails and documents give the clearest evidence yet that high-level banking officials pushed subprime mortgage loans knowing some Detroiters couldn't pay them — ...

http://tinyurl.com/n5pnl5w

January 27, 2015

Scene report: Coding for women's health - Codeathon

rookiemag.com - A few months ago, I stepped into a strange and wonderful parallel universe in which young women dominate computer programming. It was Codeathon: Coding for Women’s Health, a weekend-long computer c...

Read Public Health & Community Medicine

http://ppr.li/r?trail=contributor%3Dtwitter%3A561105640&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rookiemag.com%2F2015%2F01%2Fscene-report-coding%2F&urlhash=5057b32f&src=paperli.share

January 27, 2015

Frackers need to pay for WV roads they damage

To: WV Legislature; From: Steve Conlon (Wetzel County, WV)

Subject: Rebuilding gas industry impacted roads

...
"It has now been 8 years since gas industry activity started here. Certainly we’ve “seen it all here”. Roads have been destroyed, widened, rebuilt. Sharp curves have been removed. Some homes have been removed."

...

"Obviously, the State is not charging the gas companies the correct amount for using our roads. HB2080 gets us the money, but it takes it out of our own pocket. ..."

...

"We need to very calmly have the nerve to charge the gas industry companies for their road impacts. And, I am willing to pay more for my vehicular impact. Now is the time. Bury HB 2080. Let’s try a different angle."

More of the letter here:

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/frackcheckwv/~3/c1uZjboYjBM/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email

January 27, 2015

Renee Ellmers Feels the Blowback from Killing 20 Week Ban

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post declared Ellmers to have had “the worst week in Washington” last week because of the vote, despite acknowledging that in the long run, killing the bill was probably in the best interest of her own party. “While dumping the bill might have been the right thing for Republicans heading into the 2016 election — I argued that point here — it’s going to make Ellmers’s life a lot more complicated between now and then,” writes Cillizza, adding, “Timing is everything in politics. And being the public face of an effort to sack pro-life legislation as half a million pro-life activists descend on Washington is the epitome of bad timing. Renee Ellmers, for standing up only to be asked to sit back down, you had the worst week in Washington. Congrats, or something.”

Perhaps it was bad timing, but it was the only timing she was offered. Had the GOP not been insistent on scheduling the vote to coincide with the March for Life and the 42nd anniversary of Roe in order to give a gift to the anti-abortion activists that once more helped sweep them through another successful midterm election, the betrayal wouldn’t have been so great.

In fact, Ellmers had been trying for days to pull the bill, only to have the rest of the party stoically ignore her until she was finally able to grab enough supporters to truly offer a threat. “All systems were go until North Carolina Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers went to the press just about a week ago to announce she was reaching for the chicken switch and pulling hard,” writes U.S. News’ Peter Roff.

More here:

http://www.care2.com/causes/republican-rep-renee-ellmers-feels-the-blowback-from-killing-20-week-ban.html

January 27, 2015

Confusion about 'The Shining' (book)

I was sequestered in boyfriend's house because Erie, PA was suffering from a 'winter hurricane' - blizzard w/ gale-force winds. (City had such a storm on 2 successive years.) It was OK. We had plenty of food & beer and I'd just gotten a new book from a relatively new author (his 3rd) - 'The Shining.'*

With latest storm, I was recalling those Erie storms but couldn't remember the years. So I googled the book. Both Wikipedia & Barnes&Noble said it came out in 1977. That's wrong. I read The Shining either the January, 76 before the July Bicentennial, or Jan, 1975.

I know I'm gettin old and my memory may be not what it was (what 60s?) but there's no doubt I read the book before July 76.

Anyone help me out? My 1st edition is in storage.


*1st of 2 Stephen King coincidences I've had. 2nd was reading 'Misery' that cousin sent while I was recovering frim motorcycle accident that crushed my foot.

January 26, 2015

"Held in Public Trust" Is a Future Tense Phrase

Email I got from Sierra Club is just as relevant today as it was 2 years ago, especially with the KXL and Utah wanting to reclaim lands so tgey xan turn them over to destructive extraction industries...
____

Surrounded by the oil and gas boom in North Dakota's Bakkan shale, Theodore Roosevelt National Park is plagued by drilling just beyond the park's borders. As you approach, it is impossible to escape the signs of fracking -- roads destroyed by truck traffic to fracking wells, retention ponds filled with mystery fluids, and flares from drilling rigs lighting the once dark night sky.


In 1883, Theodore Roosevelt traveled to North Dakota, hoping to hunt buffalo. But instead of wild plains and herds of bison, he encountered overgrazed lands and a nearly extinct bison population. These ravaged lands inspired President Roosevelt to establish the national parks system.


When President Roosevelt encountered destruction like this, he was moved to protect these special places, and now the torch is passed to us. Will you help protect our national parks from the dangers of fracking?


The fracking industry has its eye on our national forests and monuments, too. From George Washington National Forest in Virginia to Desolation Canyon in Utah, the natural gas industry wants a free pass to drill as much as they want without taking responsibility for the consequences. Fortunately, we have a chance to stop this. The Bureau of Land Management is accepting comments about their proposed rules, and it is up to us send a strong message that our wild places must be protected.


The magnificent views from our national parks, forests or, monuments should not be marred by drilling rigs and air pollution. The streams, rivers, and aquifers that feed these areas should not poisoned by toxic chemicals. And our special places should not be threatened by climate pollution from the fossil fuel industry.

____

What would Repub idol Teddy R think of KXL and North Dakota's devastation from tar sands exteaction?

January 26, 2015

My rant against TeaParty bigotry & sedition

John Adams and his Federalist Party was hailed as an idol by Republicans during George W Bush's reign and during 2008 campaign. His elitist attitudes that deemed ordinary folk too ignorant and unimportant to be involved in government, especially in electing senators, fit right in with GOP ideology.

It would only be fitting, then, to use one of Adam's most imperial laws to punish the GOP and its Tea Party puppet masters: The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.

The Sedition Act was devised to silence Republican criticism of the Federalists with broad proscription of spoken or written criticism of the government, the Congress, or the President. According to an Encarta item, the act made it a "criminal offense to print or publish fake, malicious, or scandalous statements against the US government, president, or Congress; to foster opposition to the lawful acts of Congress." I can't think of a better description of the Republicans' actions over the past few weeks. Hell, the last sentence covers the last 5 years and doesn't appear to be waning.

Self-promoting Sen. Ted Cruz and failed governor Sarah Palin exhibited these criminal acts in Washington DC while ursurping a veterans protest (and hypocritically condemning such co-option). An even more serious infraction was committed by the mis-named Freedom Watch's Larry Klayman who demanded President Obama " put down the Koran and come out with his hands up." Instead of condemning Klayman's seditious tirade, Cruz's statement answering pleas he denounce such dribble essentially supported it.

Birthers, racists, bigots, fundamentalist religious extremists, and economically ignorant ideologues have used seditious rhetoric throughout President Obama's term. Supposedly mainstream Republicans have been cowed by self-interest and a fetish for power into enabling and supporting the disgusting actions and verbiage (see: Rep. Joe Wilson and "you lie.&quot

Hatemongers love the First Amendment. It allows them to spread their abhorrent message freely as they simultaneously rant and rail against the US government, the Constitution, the overwhelming-majority-elected president, and civil rights for everyone else but themselves.

Even during his Senate statement announcing a deal to end the latest GOP-created crisis over the debt ceiling, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell couldn't help but repeat blatant falsehoods and disparaging remarks about "Obamacare," one of the "lawful acts of Congress."

Having an ideological agenda is natural, but when a rabidly radical project is pushed by a non-representative and bigoted minority who gets funding and support from powerful forces that ebables the minority to take control of our once Democratic Republic, reasonable people need to regain control. Republican voter suppression hasn't completely destroyed majority voting everywhere. Until the demented Tea Party loses its death grip on the GOP, sensible voters need to stymie their power grab by voting the Republican puppets out of office.

BTW...
The Alien and SeditiActs of 1798 were allowed to expire or were repealed by 1801. While I agree with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison that the Sedition Act essentially nullified constitutional free speech, it's proscriptions still certainly apply to the Republicans' malicious condemnation, racist slurs, and bigoted misinformation aimed at President Obama and the Affordable Care Act.

January 26, 2015

It's BubbleWrap Appreciation Day!

Bubble Wrap isn't just a necessity when shipping fragile items, it's also fun, and today is National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.

Bubble Wrap was invented in 1957 by two men who were attempting to create a three-dimensional plastic wallpaper. Their idea didn't quite work, but the inventors found that what they had created could be used as packing material and founded the Sealed Air Corporation instead.

Because Bubble Wrap makes a satisfying sound when popped, it has become a source of amusement and a stress reliever for many. And if there isn't any actual Bubble Wrap around, there are smartphone apps and websites that offer simulations of the popping nirvana. Two of those websites include www.puffgames.com/bubblewrap and www.snapbubbles.com.

More story & video:

http://www.jrn.com/kivitv/now-trending/Today-is-National-Bubble-Wrap-Appreciation-Day-289788481.html

January 26, 2015

Molly Ivins explains late-term abortion

... indisputably-in 121 seconds:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/23/1342876/-Molly-Ivans-Explains-Late-Term-Abortion-Perfectly?detail=email #choice #wow #womenshealth #ImissMolly

January 26, 2015

Glacial melt could change chemistry, food web in world's oceans

Along with increasing sea levels, melting glaciers are putting something else into the world’s oceans -- a huge load of organic carbon that could change marine ecosystems, says a newly published study by a team of mostly Alaska scientists.

http://www.adn.com/article/20150124/glacial-melt-could-change-chemistry-and-food-web-worlds-oceans