The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
10 Hopeful Things That Happened in 2013 to Get You Inspired for What’s to Come
Beyond the headlines of conflict and catastrophe, this year’s top stories offered us some powerful proof that the world can still change—for the better
Common Dreams, 4 January 2014
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Here is some more good solar news.
Massive Solar Plan for Minnesota Wins Bid Over Gas
DAVID SHAFFER – Star Tribune
This would be an important well-researched essay no matter who wrote it. But it is doubly so because the author is a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. The point it makes challenges the integrity of Obama Administration Justice Department in a very fundamental way. The last five year's performa! nce under Attorney General Holder have, in my view, put the American judicial system in crisis. In case after case it is clear that there are two kinds of justice: justice for the rich and lack of justice for everyone else.
The Financial Crisis: Why Have No High-Level Executives Been Prosecuted?
JUDGE JED RAKOFF, United States District Judge – The New York Review of Books
Yesterday it was laptop searches, today it is the destruction of the instruments of an internationally renowned musician. This is all part of the rise of the American police state. And please note my comment of yesterday that this is problem that particularly afflicts darker complected individuals, particularly with Muslim sounding names.
Boujemaa Razgui, Musician, Says JFK Customs Officials Destroyed 13 Instruments
ZACHARY STIEBER – Epoch Times
The TED talks which at first I thought a wonderful idea have over time become, well, something considerably less. This report tells part of the story. But there is another issue which is not mentioned here: TED will not permit any presentations that deal with a non-reductionist materiali! st view of consciousness. It is straight-out prejudice and censorship.
It's a Recipe for Civilizational Disaster — TED Has Turned into an ‘American Idol' for Science, Philosophy
BENJAMIN H BRATTON – AlterNet (U.S.)/The Guardian (U.K.)
Yet another example of the Schism Trend that is separating us into two countries. (See my essay: At the Cost of Your Life: Social Value, Social Wellness. http://www.explorejournal.com/article/S1550-8307%2813%2900249-8/fulltext) One aspect of this is that as time goes on the Red value states are literally becoming unhealthy compared to the Blue value states.
Doctors Are Now Referring to the Southeast As the ‘Stroke Belt'
AMANDA STEWART – The Atlanta Blackstar
America After 9/11 – Systemic Abuse
Army Laser Could Change Future of War
Blame Everything on the Muslim Brotherhood
Border Rights: None – USG Can Take Phone and Laptop
Drone Future According to US DoD
Ex-Rwandan Intelligence Chief Found Murdered
Fukushima 2 Explosions & New Plume
Israel Goes for Military Grade Secure Smartphones
Pentagon Budget Mismanagement – 7 Ways
China has been rejecting American GMO corn, and more rejections are anticipated. I basically take this as good news.
China Rejects GMO Corn In Distillers Grains From U.S.; More Rejections Expected
The Huffington Post/Reuters
This is a popular recap taken from a paper in Nature, the source citation can be found below. I have been publishing these reports in SR since 1991 — that's 23 years. None of this research every contradicts the original findings that climate change is occurring in large measure because of human activity. The papers just refine the understanding of the impact, and report a collapse of the timeline. That said, I doubt anything will be done in time to offset what is coming. Greed is simply too powerful.
Climate Change Vastly Worse Than Previously Thought
MARK JOSEPH STERN – SlateSOURCE: Steven C. Sherwood,
Sandrine Bony & Jean-Louis Dufresne. Spread in model climate sensitivity traced to atmospheric convective mixing. Nature. Nature 505, 37–42 (02 January 2014) doi:10.1038/nature12829.
Here is some good news about the madness of drug testing the poor essentially because they are poor and have no political power. As you read this think of the piece in yesterday's SR about Minnesota. Maybe we are finally going to see the end of these malicious policies created by the Theocratic Right.
Florida Law on Drug Tests for Welfare Is Struck Down
FRANCES ROBLES – The New York Times
I consider David Cay Johnston one of the few economists sophisticated in banking who actually tells the truth. It is rarely a happy truth, and this story is no exception. History is going to judge the Obama Administration very harshly concerning its protection of the Wall Street crooks.
JPMorgan Doesn’t Want to Talk About Bernie Madoff
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON – Newsweek
If you cross the borders in or out of the American national security state you should know that your electronic devices from phones, to tablets, to laptops are subject to searches and seizure. As with most things involving government security agencies it is largely a matter of racial or religious profiling done by low level agents.
Lawsuit Challenging Laptop Searches at US Border Is Dismissed by Federal Judge
KEVIN GOSZTOLA – Firedoglake
These books will be reviewed:
Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Vintage, 1992)
Katz, Bruce and Jennifer Bradley. The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities and Metros Are Fixing Our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy (Brookings, 2013)
McGahey, Richard and Jennifer Vey (eds). Retooling for Growth: Building a 21st Century Economy in America's Older Industrial Areas (Brookings, 2008)
Townsend, Anthony. Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia (W. W. Norton, 2013)
These books were noted with interest.
Barber, Benjanmin. If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities (Yale, 2013)
Campbell, Tim, Beyond Smart Cities: How Cities Network, Learn, and Innovate (Routledge, 2012)
Ehrenhalt, Alan, The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City (Vintage, 2013)
Goldstein, Brett. Beyond Transparency: Open Data and the Future of Civic Innovation (Code for America Press, 2013)
Jacobs, Jane. The Economy of Cities (Vintage, 1970)
Americans are 14th in Internet access
Consumer Electronics Trends for 2014
1. Connected Cars
2. Cheaper 4K Monitors and TVs
3. Digital Health
4. Laptop/Tablet 2 in 1 Combos
5. Curved TVs
6. 3D Printers
7. The Smart Home
8. Wearables
The Future Can't Wait: Over-the-Horizon Views on Development
This text provides the findings of a 2011 “Symposium on the Future of Development Challenges,” which was hosted by USAID. The basic goal of the symposium was to identify better ways of planning for future global development, particularly in four different contexts. (Note: In addition to an introduction and conclusion, the text summarizes the conclusions of four context-specific panels, which were all subdivided into four additional categories of interest — populations, science and technology, politics and economies, and the environment.)
FYI … This seems to be a big deal, but given rising demand, I have no idea of the long term implications of shale boom or if we are witnessing some kind of a bubble? see also this link. CS.
2013 oil boom is biggest ever, data show
Posted on December 26, 2013 at 10:00 pm by Simone Sebastian in Crude oil, featured
HOUSTON — The United States’ average daily oil production is on track to surge by 1 million barrels per day this year, the biggest one-year jump in the nation’s history, according to federal data.
Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Hugh Increase in US Oil Production – At What True Cost?”
