April 12, 2015

Demand the truth about fracking and earthquakes

Thirty years ago, an earthquake in Oklahoma was a pretty rare thing. Last year, the Sooner State had 585.

The increase coincides with expanded hydraulic
fracturing (fracking) to extract natural gas and the
deep earth disposal of wastewater used in those
operations -- not that you'd know that from
listening to Big Oil's lobbyists at the American
Petroleum Institute.

Communities like yours deserve the truth. Urge the American Petroleum Institute to acknowledge the link between fracking and increased seismic activity.

According to the nation's foremost experts on
earthquakes -- scientists at the US Geological Survey -- the number of magnitude 3 or greater
earthquakes in the eastern and central United
States has increased exponentially since 2009. That increase coincides with expanded wastewater injection activities that are a key part of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations to extract natural gas.

Places like Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Ohio, and
Colorado have never been known for their seismic
activity. Now these states experience regular
earthquakes. Most quakes are small, but scientists say that larger quakes in Raton Basin, Colorado, and Prague, Oklahoma were likely induced by fracking-related activities.

It's a connection that Big Oil flatly denies. In fact,
the oil and gas industry's main lobbying group, the American Petroleum Institute, says point blank on its website that "hydraulic fracturing does not cause earthquakes."

That's bad enough, but on at least one occasion Big Oil used its political connections in Oklahoma to put pressure on a scientist who had linked fracking to increased seismic activity. A seismologist whose office is attached to the University of Oklahoma was summoned by the school's president to meet with the head of one of Oklahoma's largest oil and gas companies not longbafter issuing a statement linking fracking to increased seismic activity in the state.

When science is denied and researchers are
intimidated, the American public is left in the dark about possible risks. And that threatens the safety of the communities where we live.

Please take a moment right now to sign this urgent petition to the head of the American Petroleum institute and let Big Oil's lobbyists know that America demands safety and transparency from our energy companies.


With Gratitude,

Chris B.
The Care2 Petitions Team

Take Action:
http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/ALghU/zqcp/cgXN8

April 7, 2015

NC legislators think back-alley abortions are just fine

Rachel Maddow just covered NC's new bill to ban UNC's world-class ob-gyn program from teaching doctors-in-training on how to perform abortions.

McElreft, a proponent, said it doesn't need taught -- doctors can 'pick it up on their own.'

The unmitigated ignorance in such a statement is obvious. That is, obvious to all who are fully aware of the link between abortion, reproductive choice and women's health.

The theocratic misogynists who push such unenlightened legislation do so at the expense of the safety of women and girls. They are putting their self-righteous moralizing ahead of lives.

Yet they have the gall to call themselves 'pro-life.'

April 6, 2015

Daily Cute: Playful Bear Juggles Bail of Hay

There is nothing more uplifting than a huge 200-pound grizzly bear playing with a bale of hay like a cat plays with a ball of yarn. If this grizzly bear is happy, we can all be a little happier today.

April 6, 2015

Solar eclipse pix from space

TODAY'S IMAGE
EarthSky
Solar eclipses caused by Earth

Don't miss these images of eclipses of the sun caused by Earth, taken by various spacecraft on the moon, orbiting the moon, or returning from the moon.

http://earthsky.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e56e7a92b1c5790f7343ef95a&id=471e3e3301&e=dc13e7b006

April 6, 2015

Venus and the zodiacal light in April 2015

EarthSky
Venus and the zodiacal light in April 2015

We all can see the dazzling planet Venus after sunset. After it gets really dark - if you're in the Northern Hemisphere - watch for the zodiacal light.  

http://earthsky.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e56e7a92b1c5790f7343ef95a&id=6466364e5e&e=dc13e7b006

April 6, 2015

5 Things 'Pro-Lifers' Should Support If They Are Actually 'Pro-Family' - The National Memo

Those who offer no solutions to poor families while America has one of the highest poverty rates in the free world have no right to call themselves "pro-family."

Read More
http://link.nationalmemo.com/5390d3d3dd52b8141a0aafe52gowk.5gq8/VSJus0mOsoktL86JA91b0

April 5, 2015

The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens - Scientific American

This morning on Up With Steve Kornacki they had a brief discussion on whether cursive should be part of Common Core. The general opinion was 'no.' I was disappointed in their short-sightedness and educational ignorance. One even said that letter writing is a "lost art," implying it's pointless to teach kids to put pen to paper.

It's a shame that because something is a "lost art," some think it is not worth saving. But while there is still scientific uncertainty, studies indicate we're still a tactile species, meaning touch enhances learning -- the printed word neans more to our brains than mere images.

•••

The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens - Scientific American

Since at least the 1980s researchers in many different fields—including psychology, computer engineering, and library and information science—have investigated such questions in more than one hundred published studies. The matter is by no means settled. Before 1992 most studies concluded that people read slower, less accurately and less comprehensively on screens than on paper. Studies published since the early 1990s, however, have produced more inconsistent results: a slight majority has confirmed earlier conclusions, but almost as many have found few significant differences in reading speed or comprehension between paper and screens. And recent surveys suggest that although most people still prefer paper—especially when reading intensively—attitudes are changing as tablets and e-reading technology improve and reading digital books for facts and fun becomes more common. In the U.S., e-books currently make up between 15 and 20 percent of all trade book sales.

Even so, evidence from laboratory experiments, polls and consumer reports indicates that modern screens and e-readers fail to adequately recreate certain tactile experiences of reading on paper that many people miss and, more importantly, prevent people from navigating long texts in an intuitive and satisfying way. In turn, such navigational difficulties may subtly inhibit reading comprehension. Compared with paper, screens may also drain more of our mental resources while we are reading and make it a little harder to remember what we read when we are done. A parallel line of research focuses on people's attitudes toward different kinds of media. Whether they realize it or not, many people approach computers and tablets with a state of mind less conducive to learning than the one they bring to paper.

More
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/

March 23, 2015

Oldie but goodie. Guaranteed chuckle: frog plays video game

&sns=tw

March 23, 2015

Ted Cruz is the Dominionists' "Anointed One"

Alternet:
http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/brucewilson/ted-cruzs-father-suggested-his-son-anointed-bring-about-end-time-transfer

CrooksandLiars:
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/rafael-cruz-declares-son-ted-cruz-anointed-

March 22, 2015

Coal State of WV in Transition to Solar Energy

A group devoted to creating alternative energy jobs in Central Appalachia is building a first for West Virginia’s southern coalfields region this week: a rooftop solar array, assembled by unemployed and underemployed coal miners and contractors.

From an Article by Mikala Reasbeck, Mint Press News, February 19, 2015

West Virginia may be best known as the source of the coal that built America and keeps its lights on, yet communities throughout the state are taking back their energy independence and going solar.

At just 9.70 cents per kilowatt hour, West Virginians pay the third-lowest electricity rates in the nation.* Yet they don’t enjoy the nation’s lowest electricity bills, and they’re not likely to in the future, either.

Indeed, from 2007 to 2011, electricity rates jumped an average of 50 percent across the state. And on Feb. 3, the state’s Public Service Commission approved another rate increase for Mon Power and Potomac Edison, subsidiaries operating under the Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. Together, these subsidiaries serve over 520,500 customers in 34 counties and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

This latest hike is “just 7.4 percent more reason to go solar,” according to Joey James’ reading of the document from the commission.

James is a staff scientist with the Energy Program of Downstream Strategies, a Morgantown, West Virginia-based environmental consulting firm. ...

“There’s a community of young West Virginians who all have the same vision: What’s happened historically isn’t working. And we’re all looking ahead to something new,” James told MintPress News.

That “something new” is slowly, but surely, coming in the form of solar power. Over the past couple of years, community solar co-ops have been popping up on the hills and in the hollers of West Virginia, and more are in the works.

-snip-

“West Virginia’s coal built America”

West Virginia’s identity and economy has long been tied to the coal-based energy it produces not just for itself — the state generated at least 96 percent of its own electricity from coal last year — but also the nation.

“West Virginia’s coal built America. It fired its steel mills, lit its homes, and provided the cheap energy to create the wealthiest nation in the world,” Patrick Reis wrote for the National Journal in 2013.

Yet, as that article goes on to note, this hasn’t improved the lives of West Virginians. The state consistently ranks among the nation’s poorest, its residents scoring the lowest in well-being indices and with nearly the lowest life expectancy.

...

Read more from FrackCheckWV
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/frackcheckwv/~3/FHq9QVKKMjQ/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email


••
*Can't prove that by my HREA bills. One would think the New Deal-era program would offer inexpensive electricity, but I pay more per month just to run a fridge and night-only flood light at my WV cabin than I do for whole house full of electronics in SW PA. How can that be?

It also distresses me that REA buts into, and strongly sells, coal-fired elec production.