Monday, April 23, 2018

Review of the troops. Great pageantry..

This is the front yard, so to speak, of New York Military Academy.

This happened at the school fairly frequently. Like on Alumni Weekend and Mother's Day. 

It was part of the US Army's assessment of the JROTC program. It was nice. Everyone got to wear their uniforms and show off their practicing paid off. They even had a color guard. 

Yep.

I knew it, but, wished it he would be okay.

April 23, 2018
By Jamie Gangel

Former President George H.W. Bush, (click here) who just buried his wife first lady Barbara Bush on Saturday, is in intensive care, CNN has learned.

"President Bush was admitted to the Houston Methodist Hospital yesterday morning after contracting an infection that spread to his blood. He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering. We will issue additional updates as events warrant," spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement....

It has happened in my own family, where an elderly couple died within days of each other when there was no other reason except a broken heart. We saw it with Carrie Fischer and Debbie Reynolds.

When people are that close and suffer the loss of 'the other' it takes a toll. I sincerely hope the Former President Bush will be okay. It is too hard on him. Her loss to him carries far deeper meaning than most can understand. I wish the family peace and hope.

Relationships are complicated and can't be solved as easily as signing a non-disclosure agreement. Relationships don't work that way, contracts do.

Michael Cohen needs to tell the truth.

In addition to contributing money, (click here) a nonconnected committee may donate goods or services to candidates and their committees. Gifts of goods or services are called in-kind contributions. For example, a committee makes an in-kind contribution when it:


- Pays for consulting, polling or printing services provided to a candidate committee


- Donates office supplies or mailing lists to a campaign 


- Sponsors a fundraising event benefiting a candidate; or


- Pays for a campaign advertisement on behalf of a candidate (if the                  advertisement does not qualify as an independent expenditure)


Hm.


See, I don't think it was an in-kind donation. Hush money is a form of intimidation. That is a very different animal than the 'normal' in-kind donation.


If it was an in-kind donation, all Mr. Cohen would have to do to clear this up, is report it and pay fines for not reporting it on a timely basis. I believe this is different and is criminal. The fact Ms. Stephanie A. Gregory Clifford was provided a non-disclosure agreement to protect Donald Trump's reputation before an election makes the entire scenario a really odd thing.


To begin, why didn't Mr. Cohen expect Ms. Clifford to be represented in the agreement? There is no doubt Michael Cohen was acting in the interest of candidate Trump. Why didn't Ms. Clifford have her own lawyer to speak to her about the non-disclosure agreement, whether or not she was an employee of Trump and to what capacity.


See, this was about a personal relationship and I think legally that gets very murky when linked to non-disclosure agreements. This was not at all the same as a prenuptial agreement. This is a document that negates an entire segment of her life with Donald Trump.


This is different than the issue with the non-disclosure agreement 
Ms. McDougal had with American Media. Ms. McDougal was sort of an employee of the company. She was under contract with the company. Ms. Daniels and Mr. Trump had no contract prior to their affair.

Additionally, Ms. Clifford was threatened with her life by someone who knew the details of the relationship with Donald Trump.

The issues surrounding Ms. Clifford is very different than Ms. McDougal. There is an element of danger and fear both in signing the non-disclosure agreement AFTER THE FACT and the threat. No one is saying Mr. Cohen knew about the threat either, but, it is plain there was a lot going on with Ms. Daniels she never counted on when first having a relationship with Trump.

In signing a nondisclosure agreement for money without the benefit of counsel presents the FACT that while Ms. Clifford was an adult and can decide to sign or not to sign she was still in the dark about her own rights and what exactly all the legal implications mean. It has the appearance of intimidation rather than trust.

So, Mr. Cohen needs to be honest. He needs to tell the truth.

Ms. Daniels needs to be safe in her person and with her family. That element of danger that exists with Ms. Daniels is very dark. It is highly problematic and carries no guarantees. I believe she has a civil suit beyond the issues with Michael Cohen so she can have enough of a financial cushion to protect her and her family (daughter) the rest of their lives. She never bargained for any of this and now her life is imposed on in a way she cannot handle.

I think this case is important and needs the truth, fact finding and the entire weight the law can bring to insure her safety and that of her family.
"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

See the really interesting thing about the Banteng is that it is really, really smart. The heat from the climate crisis began to cause distress among the remaining Bantengs.

Ever hear the expression, "He doesn't know enough to get in out of the rain?" Well that can never be said about the banteng. They understand heat. They are sort of a canary in the coal mine. Literally, I suppose.

These wild cows, rather than dying in the heat, will seek out areas of forest that provide a cool enough temperature to protect their lives. Imagine that. Knowing when the air is too hot.

But, these cows go beyond knowing when the temperature is too hot, they know how to survive in a rainforest without insects effecting their skin opening them to infection and ultimate death.

Kota Kinabalu: (click here) A study has found that the endangered Bornean banteng (wild cattle) is highly threatened by habitat loss, fragmentation and heavy poaching.

Dr Penny Gardner, lead author and programme manager of banteng research at Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), said logging and high temperatures affect the banteng by limiting their activity and influencing how they use the habitat.

“We monitored locations created by timber harvesting, such as abandoned roads and dense forest in reserves that were logged six, 17 and 23 years ago,” she explained.

Dr Gardner said the study showed that recently-logged forests were hotter for longer than forests that had regenerated for more years.

“High temperatures can suppress plant growth, slow forest regeneration, and increase the risk of forest fires.

Banteng reduce activity and avoid degraded areas during hot hours in recently-logged forest, possibly to avoid thermal stress, which can be fatal,” she added.

Dr Gardner concluded by saying that banteng continue to be active in the forest throughout the day with more regrowth because it offered more shade and refuge....

The cow allows birds to feed off insects, such as ticks, off it's skin preventing a break down of the skin and potential infection and death.

One thing I find really disturbing about people who disregard the words of scientists is that they really don't respect life at all. 

The endangered wild cattle (click here) of Malaysian Borneo have eased back on their daytime activities because of higher temperatures brought on by loss of forest cover — a finding that has important implications for the species’ well-being.

The findings, in a report published April 12 in the open-access journal PLOS One, showed that recently logged forests in Sabah state were hotter, reaching temperatures of up to 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit), for longer periods of time in the day than forests that had experienced regrowth for longer. This temperature differential, it turns out, affects the activity of the Bornean banteng (Bos javanicus lowi).

The researchers, from the Sabah Wildlife Department and the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) in Malaysia, Cardiff University in the U.K., and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany, carried out the study from 2011 to 2013 in three secondary protected forests in Sabah: the Malua Forest Reserve, Maliau Basin Conservation Area Buffer Zones, and Tabin Wildlife Reserve....

Destroying habitat is insane. The bantengs know enough to move into cooler forests during exceptionally high temperatures. They know enough to allow birds to MUTUALLY feed insects off their bodies to prevent skin infections and potential death. But, the most beautiful part of the bantengs is that they have a mutualism they can't convey. It is the mutualism of their habitat.

The mutualism of their habitat is Earth and the people that live on it, especially those people nearest the forests where the bantengs take shelter.

What people in Germany, France, Austria, Belgium and Canada to mention a few have learned about forests is THE SERVICE they provide to human beings WITH NO COST AT ALL.

Forests around the world provide service to human beings. In the film loop about a German forest, there was noted a mist rising off them in the early morning hours. That mist is water. It is not from the ground, it is from THE CANOPY of the forest.

The service of the forest is evapotransporation. It allows the tree to reach deep into the soil where it is anchored to bring water to the tree and the very tiniest of leaves to allow the tree to breath. The trees' respiration produced oxygen while using carbon dioxide in that respiration process to allow the tree to EXIST and GROW.

There are places in this world, and I haven't been to the Smokey Mountains lately, where there are cloud forests. Those clouds are always there. Why? Why aren't those clouds moving on or up to bring rain? Because those clouds belong to the forest. The forest produced them and they remain where they were produced. Now the reality is the clouds do move on air, but, the density of the canopy of the trees is so great the water vapor is constantly producing the clouds.

So, what the banteng would say to the people destroying it's habitat if it could, is that destroying the trees is more than destroying the place we find shelter from the heat, it is destroying the very air you breath and the cooler Earth everyone hungers for now.

There is reason for habitat and there are reasons for wise animals such as the Banteng. The problem is people don't see the forest for the WEALTH of the trees. The real wealth from trees is the forest and not the wood.

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah...

...Mike Pompeo doesn't even come close to the qualifications of John Kerry or Hillary Clinton.

To begin they know carbon dioxide is not completely spelled CO2. They also recognize there are people that identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender and they have done so since birth.

The previous Secretaries of State also believe in hope. But, they recognize the loss of it when it is evident.

Evidently, the Trump administration doesn't see anything wrong with Russia annexing and invading a disarmed country. Where has that happened before?

Here is something the Trump White House Press Secretary might want to explore to address as she come to the microphone. A worthy bull.

Unlike attempts by the USA with the Russians to revitalize friendly relations and trade, the Banteng doesn't get a reset button.


Despite its endangered status, (click here) Banteng, or wild cattle of Borneo, have received little attention from researchers and their plight rarely receives publicity. A research project in the area known as the Malua Bio-bank, in the rainforests of Sabah, in the Heart of Borneo, is hoping to shed a little more light on this much neglected species.

The Bornean Banteng Programme is a new research initiative and the first of its kind for this species. Its primary aim is to collect baseline ecological data, construct the first status report and to make recommendations on the future management of banteng and their habitat. Led by Penny Gardner, Dr. Laurentius Ambu, Dr. Benoit Goossens and Prof. Michael Bruford, it stems from collaboration between Danau Girang Field Centre (Cardiff University) and the Sabah Wildlife Department, in alliance with the Sabah Forestry Department, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, New Forests Pty Ltd and HUTAN. 

Banteng are classified by the IUCN Redlist of threatened species as ‘Endangered’. They were once widespread in Borneo but now they are confined to isolated forest reserves in Sabah and (unconfirmed) on the Sabah/Kalimantan border....

"Good Night, Moon"

The first quarter

7.6 day old moon

52 percent lit

April 20, 2018
By Daniel Patrick Sheehan

No telling (click here) how “Blue Moon” would have fared on the charts if it had been titled “Green Moon.”

A blue Moon is a real thing, after all. A green Moon is not.

Or is it? Word on the internet, which is always reliable, says the Moon will glow green in the sky tonight, thanks to the reflected light of Uranus.

Well, no, of course it won’t. Uranus is nearly two billion miles from the Moon, more or less, and couldn't reflect off it even if it wanted too.

No, the green Moon story is a hoax, apparently perpetuated in connection to today’s non-federal, non-state holiday, National Weed Day.

According to Snopes, the myth-debunking web site, the green Moon hoax dates back at least to 2016. The story claims, variously, that the green Moon was last seen 420 years ago, or maybe in 1847.

An old Facebook post explained the “phenomenon”:

“All night long...the seventh planet from the Sun, Uranus, will park itself near the moon. The green giant is only 4 degrees away from the moon. The cosmic odd-couple will appear about four degrees apart in the sky—equal to 8 full moons side-by-side.”

Various incarnations of the hoax have surfaced since, all of them replete with sly-to-obvious pot jokes....