Putting his money where his mouth is... retired hedge fund executive willing to spend up to $100 million this year to challenge climate deniers running for office, according to this article from the New York Times.
βA billionaire retired investor is forging plans to spend as much as $100 million during the 2014 election, seeking to pressure federal and state officials to enact climate change measures through a hard-edge campaign of attack ads against governors and lawmakers.β
West Virginia take me home… but don’t drink the water. Another coal slurry spill. As much as people hate fracking and oil drilling, coal is the most environmentally disastrous energy source in the world. There isn’t even a close second. John Denver, are you sure you want to go there?
Biosolids contain more harm? Duke University researchers are looking in the the effects of anti-microbial chemicals are having on soil decomposition. Biosolids are what your sewage treatment plant spreads on parks, farm land fields or bag as fertilizers for sale. They are supposed to be tested by federal regulation for pathogens and heavy metals but chemicals are a different story. It is expensive and complicated to test the right now, but some may contain chemicals harmful to he environment. Read on.
First Clinton and now Al Gore... going vegan. May be old news to some of you but I just uncovered it. Al Gore likes lentils and carrots. Fiftysomething Diet: Is It Time to Go Vegan? Here is the science behind it.
TheZoo 
Nice round-up, nonewhere!
I had no idea Clinton and Gore had gone all vegany on us. π
Cows are vegan.
Tasty, tasty vegans.
Yum!
I’m very glad I read a report twentysome years ago (from the American Farmland Trust) detailing the dangers of biosolid application. Never did it, never will, too much cost to my soil for that “free” fertilizer.
I’ve got nothing to say, but I’m going to say it anyway!
I’ve been lost, I intellectually lost my mojo and began feeling hostile toward my sister. I caused the problem when I rearranged my computer/office area to accommodate her guests, which increased frequency after her vehicle died and was sold for junk!
I have violated feng shui principles in my arrangement and it has drained my chi. I informed my sister I would be rearranging again for health reasons.
Last year when I made a mouse delivery for Peckerhead Pete I had another old man from the neighborhood ride along, I think I said something back then. A month or so ago that old man had a heart attack while on a delivery with Pete, he lasted about three weeks after that.
Pete got sick and was on medication that kept him from driving last week and he paid me to chauffeur him to make a delivery to Trenton, FL. Whatever it is the doctors at the hospital told him caused Pete to stop drinking (12-pack a day) and invest in a juicer.
The first time Pete used the new juicer he broke it and took it back to get another one. I suggested he read the directions first with his new one. Pete called me to look at his new machine. He said It made too much pulp, much more than the one he had returned, a different machine. When I looked at the new machine on Pete’s counter I had to laugh. He had returned with a food processor, not a juicer!
Smokey was sick for a week or so with some sort of eye problem. I nursed him back to health and his normal perkiness. He has taken to sleeping with me at night more and more, insisting sometimes to being under the covers. If he’s on top the covers and I turn, he will jump over me to be in back of me, his preferred location. When he’s under the covers and I turn he puts his front paws over my body and pushes off with his back legs and slides over me!! π
Pete: I’m happy for you and your new family.
Zooey: watching those pig videos reminded me….
Pachy, when are you going to pack up and move West?
Does it snow where you are?
We had about 8 inches soon after I moved here — I’m back in Oregon — but I’ve been told that was unusual. π
Does snow follow you?
It makes snow matter wherever Zooey is…. π
It always melts!!
I was hoping that the warmth of Zooey’s personality would melt the snow as it has melted my heart!
It think it’s my angry glare that makes it melt. π
I’d tell you that you look beautiful when you’re angry, but that didn’t work with my ex back when…. π
From the Files of We’re so Fooked (h/t C&L)
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/02/us-natural-gas-system-leaks-far-more
The last line: “the analysis mentions a study where the EPA asked 30 gas companies to cooperate and allow site access to researchers β only six of the 30 companies that were asked ended up allowing the EPA on site.” – really? The corporations have the right to deny the government agency charged with regulating them access to their site to collect data? What… is… the … point… of…. having… regulations….
Fracking – taking half the water supply and poisoning the rest, and leaking so much methane that this powerful greenhouse gas is adding to the climate change – and there’s no regulation on the leaks!
Good catch on the new coal slurry spill, none…. is it going to take the Cuyahoga to catch fire again before this country says “No more!” Or as long as we can take a trip around the freeway for a reasonably priced burger and shake, we don’t give a fook?
A sample of posts from my Kiev friend :(. Russian and Ukrainian translations by Bing with a bit of interpretation from me:
– accompanied by a picture of a young man in a coat
– two bodies lying in a building covered in sheets.
A third post is of people pushing what the picture says is Ukranian plain clothes police over a barricade from about 4 hours ago.
I don’t know how close she lives to Maidan Square but in November she would put her son to bed and walk to some of the demonstrations to talk with people there for a while.
Latest from the Beeb – the police are going in to clear the square: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26249330
Live feed from channel 5 in Kiev
Journalist being water cannoned
http://expert.ru/2014/02/14/kak-smyivayut-zhurnalistov/
People posting to Youtube in the square. Half the square is in flames – a tire and wood barrier has been set alight to keep the police out of that part of the square.
The police have roadblocks slowing people down from coming into Kiev from the west of Ukraine:
Yanukovych knew that throwing PM Azarov under the bus wasn’t going to satisfy the citizens – Viktor needs to resign before ANY semblance of order is/or can be restored.
Several cities in the west are now reporting protests and attacks on government and Yanukovych party buildings
OK, its really going down now. There were at least 150 people in hospital and 13 people dead several hours ago – she just sent me this link – the former PM is predicting “hundreds by morning”
I hope your friend will be ok. Shit, I hope everybody will be ok. π¦
She’s at home (it is after 1am now) and has been since about 10 or 11pm. This last link above she sent was the police going in with APCs into the square. The police have stormed the trade union building and it is on fire, there are roadblocks set up all across the outskirts to Kiev to stop more people coming in to join the protest.
Wow! Why isn’t this headline news?
Devo guitarist, Bob Casale, dies at 61
Didn’t their drummer die recently too?
That sucks.
They were great.
Last year, age 58. Alan Myers
They’re truly unique.
Never be anything quite like them again.
(I know it’s not Friday – this tune is catchy)
pretty cool Ebb
I just got one of those push poll type surveys from The Energy Alliance. One of the questions asked whether I believed that Iranian warships threatening our supply lines meant that we should hurry and build the Keystone XL. I guess the MIC and the polluters are sharing the same survey company.
(the scary, scary Iranians)
Newt described Kerry as “delusional” after the secretary of state’s remarks about climate change being “the greatest challenge of our generation.”
Gingrich noted in a following tweet that he misspelled Kerry’s last name. Twitdouchenozzle.
And a delusional washed up old lecherous pol is just a minor annoyance.
Ya but Newt’s a really fine Christian, only been married three times and never to a man, plus he’s a Republican, so that means . . . something. I forget what it is.
I loathe that man
PLEASE take the 535 who sitting in congress…….
The U.S.βs Clown Shortage Is No Laughing Matter
The United States is running out of clowns, and according to industry insiders, itβs no laughing matter.
The Daily News reports that membership in the countryβs largest clown trade organization has plummeted over the last decade amid higher standards for clowning, decreasing popularity amongst the younger generation, and an aging population of current clowns. The World Clown Association, the nationβs largest clown trade group, says membership has declined from roughly 3,500 to 2,500 since 2004 β a loss of over 28%. Glen Kohlberger, President of Clowns of America International, another large trade organization, also complained of shrinking membership, but declined to give specific figures due to privacy concerns.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/02/18/nation-facing-dangerous-clown-shortage-trade-groups-warns/#ixzz2tiHlhZKa
‘Decreasing popularity’ is a lack of demand. That’s not a shortage of clowns.
It was 49 degrees warmer today than it was last Tuesday. Using right-wing “logic” would suggest that the earth will be 1,000 degrees before long.
what do you do after blowing people up??……if you’re Chevron, you have a PIZZA PARTY!
A Chevron well in the preparation stages for hydraulic fracturing exploded last Tuesday 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, Penn., causing a fire that lasted for four days and left one Chevron contractor unaccounted for and another one injured.
The fire is now out, but Chevronβs damage control efforts may be far from over.
A Chevron well in the preparation stages for hydraulic fracturing exploded last Tuesday 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, Penn., causing a fire that lasted for four days and left one Chevron contractor unaccounted for and another one injured.
The fire is now out, but Chevronβs damage control efforts may be far from over.
An image of a coupon from Chevron offering free pizza to residents near last weekβs disaster was posted online Monday, prompting outrage, mockery and disbelief among activists and the Internet commentariat. They say the offer shows Chevron lacks awareness of the seriousness of its actions and indicates a larger problem of oil and gas companies buying support in communities where hydraulic fracturing β the practice in which thousands of gallons of water mixed with chemicals are pumped into deeply drilled wells to break up naturally occurring oil and gas formations β is on the rise.
βThe Chevron Guarantee: Our well wonβt explode…or your pizza is free,β read one of many sarcastic tweets directed at Chevron on Tuesday.
The coupon was handed out along with a letter apologizing for the blowout to about 100 residents near the gas well, local media reported.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/2/18/after-fracking-blastchevronofferspizza.html
The Red Cross is offering a free earthquake app to Oklahomans after 150 small earthquakes hit the state in just the past week, according to the stateβs geological observatory.
The app gives users earthquake notifications and allows them to monitor activity where friends and family reside, Ken Garcia, a Red Cross spokesman for Central and Western Oklahoma, told Al Jazeera.
“The way it works is you can set it to your current location β on mine I have it set for Oklahoma City and it has a 250-mile radius,” Garcia said.
Included in the app are simple checklists to create a family emergency plan, locations of Red Cross shelters, information on what could happen after earthquakes β such as fire and tsunamis, and a toolkit with flashlight, strobe light and audible alarm.
The app was released nationwide in September 2012, but since it can be personalized to any location, it was recommended to Oklahomans after a significant increase in the frequency and intensity of earthquakes was reported in the state.
Some geologists believe activities related to hydraulic fracturing, or βfrackingβ β injecting water, sand, and a cocktail of toxic chemicals under high pressure into bedrock to increase the flow of oil or gas β could be to blame for the unusual seismic activity.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/2/18/over-150-frackinglinkedearthquakeshitoklahomain7days.html
In the late sixties, back when I was a young feller, I spent about two years in Denver CO, employed by Martin Aerospace outside of Littleton. During those couple of years, Metro-Denver experienced a series of very rare, but still very noticeable, earthquakes. Some obvious Commie news dude(s) had the BRASS to suggest the earthquakes were a RESULT of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal’s attempt to dispose of really bad chem-bio shit by pumping it under high pressure deep into the ground, WAY down there, hundreds of feet into the bedrock on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountain Front Range.
Oddly enough, after they quit doing that, the (very RARE) earthquakes sorta stopped. Puzzling, no? I mean, really, man can’t do bad shit like that, right? God wouldn’t like/allow it. Right?
Right.
Meanwhile, a year or so ago, there was a ‘tee-tiny’ quake here, along the Front Range, in SE Colorado, not all that far from where the frackers are fracking.
Nah. It’s probably Obamacare.
QOTD:
βThere have been seven disasters since humans came on the earth, very similar to the one thatβs just about to happen. I think these events keep separating the wheat from the chaff. And eventually weβll have a human on the planet that really does understand it and can live with it properly. Thatβs the source of my optimism,β β maverick British scientist (with a great track record), James Lovelock, on what he considers the pending catastrophe of climate change. Bonus money quote:
“Enjoy life while you can. Because if youβre lucky itβs going to be 20 years before it hits the fan.”
http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2008/mar/01/scienceofclimatechange.climatechange
“Could we, by some act of common will, change our natures and become proper stewards, gentle gardeners taking care of all of the natural life of our planet? I would sooner expect a goat to succeed as a gardener than expect humans to become responsible stewards of the Earth.” ~Dr. James Lovelock, author, βThe Gaia Hypothesisβ
Goats are too busy playing…
Yep. And, along with Dr. James Lovelock, “I would sooner expect a goat to succeed as a gardener than expect humans to become responsible stewards of the Earth.β
And then there’s these bunnies π
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/17/rabbits-on-okunoshima_n_4804907.html
Time for hasenpfeffer!
Sorry, I’m off again, my friend is awake again in Kiev and is scared. The police are assaulting the square again and some of the camp is now ablaze.
How terrifying. I hope she’s okay.
TtT – I saw the inferno on the news — horrific.
May your friend remain safe.
C&L had a very depressing series of charts on this today…..
NPR reporting a study today about Missouri repealing their hand gun background check law – gun homicides up 25% for next three years and more guns verified getting in crooks hands – who’d have thought?
Very clever and true!