The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution and protection.

1. SL Pimm , 
2. C. N. Jenkins, 
3. R. Abell, 
4. T. M. Brooks, 
5. J. L. Gittleman, 
6. L. N. Joppa,
7. 1. P. H. Raven, 
   2. C. M. Roberts, 
   3. J. O. Sexton

Science  30 May 2014:
Vol. 344, Issue 6187

DOI: 10.1126/science.1246752 

Structured Abstract (click here)

Background

A principal function of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is to “perform regular and timely assessments of knowledge on biodiversity.” In December 2013, its second plenary session approved a program to begin a global assessment in 2015. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and five other biodiversity-related conventions have adopted IPBES as their science-policy interface, so these assessments will be important in evaluating progress toward the CBD’s Aichi Targets of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020. As a contribution toward such assessment, we review the biodiversity of eukaryote species and their extinction rates, distributions, and protection. We document what we know, how it likely differs from what we do not, and how these differences affect biodiversity statistics. Interestingly, several targets explicitly mention “known species”—a strong, if implicit, statement of incomplete knowledge. We start by asking how many species are known and how many remain undescribed. We then consider by how much human actions inflate extinction rates. Much depends on where species are, because different biomes contain different numbers of species of different susceptibilities. Biomes also suffer different levels of damage and have unequal levels of protection. How extinction rates will change depends on how and where threats expand and whether greater protection counters them....

...(f) Make recommendations on any matters necessary for the implementation of this Protocol; 

(g) Seek to mobilize additional financial resources in accordance with Article 11, paragraph 2; 

(h) Establish such subsidiary bodies as are deemed necessary for the implementation of this Protocol;

Subsidiary bodies can be comprised of any kind of facilitator such as scientists and those they work with such as contractors to make it all happen. Sometimes the scientists due the work that is necessary and sometimes they simply design the final outcomes and it is turned over to the country and/or their contractors.

(i) Seek and utilize, where appropriate, the services and cooperation of, and information provided by, competent international organizations and intergovernmental and non-governmental bodies; and 

Exactly. Communication. Knowledge. Working to a common end that is a sustainable Earth returning biotic content and function wherever possible.

 (j) Exercise such other functions as may be required for the implementation of this Protocol, and consider any assignment resulting from a decision by the Conference of the Parties. 

This is corruption.

February 21, 2016

By Aliki Moncrief

Recently I watched Florida Senate leaders crush (click here) an amendment to the budget bill that would have allowed the state to buy critical conservation lands.

The amendment would have increased money for Florida Forever, allowing greater protection for rivers, lakes, forests and beaches before they are destroyed to make way for more strip malls and sprawling subdivisions.

Florida voters want conservation, as most recently evidenced by the Water and Land Conservation Amendment which passed by 75 percent in 2014. If the entire state budget were a dollar, voters directed lawmakers to spend one penny to buy conservation lands for the benefit of future generations....

If I have to say it over and over, then I'll say it over and over. Corruption is nothing the people of the state expect or should reward by re-electing those that carry it out. Those dismissing the will of those that elected them should not return to their assemblies again.

Make is an election issue and educate the public about the actions against their will. Tell the public they are important when they cast votes and when those votes are not honored it is corruption. Use the words "...votes are made by people that expect to have their will honored..."

Article 13 of Kyoto Protocol

Article 13

1. The Conference of the Parties, the supreme body of the Convention, shall serve as the meeting of the Parties to this Protocol. 

It seems like words that are nonsense, but, the purpose of the Conference is exactly the same as the protocol itself. A statement like this is housekeeping to clear up confusion when parties meet. The members are important people, like President Obama and his appointed staff, that have more than one function in their lives. So, for the sake of simplicity, these type of statements are common and intended to provide a contracted nomenclature.

2. Parties to the Convention that are not Parties to this Protocol may participate as observers (without a vote or authority) in the proceedings of any session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to this Protocol. When the Conference of the Parties serves as the meeting of the Parties to this Protocol, decisions under this Protocol shall be taken only by those that are Parties to this Protocol. 

3. When the Conference of the Parties serves as the meeting of the Parties to this Protocol, any member of the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties (COP) representing a Party to the Convention but, at that time, not a Party to this Protocol, shall be replaced by an additional member to be elected by and from amongst the Parties to this Protocol.

What is the Bureau of the COP? (click here)

4. The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to this Protocol shall keep under regular review the implementation of this Protocol and shall make, within its mandate, the decisions necessary to promote its effective implementation. It shall perform the functions assigned to it by this Protocol and shall:

The new agreement is about pledges countries have made around the globe to bring about a sustainable Earth. That is a very big difference between the Kyoto Protocol and the new agreement in December 2015. There is only progression to success. There is no missing the mark or failing to achieve the goals of the Protocol. It is a positive step that has no limits to success.

(a) Assess, on the basis of all information made available to it in accordance with the provisions of this Protocol, the implementation of this Protocol by the Parties, the overall effects of the measures taken pursuant to this Protocol, in particular environmental, economic and social effects as well as their cumulative impacts and the extent to which progress towards the objective of the Convention is being achieved;

We have witnessed significant changes in energy sources in the USA with President Obama. That is a specific example of the sustainable economy that exists under the new values of sustainable both economic and environmental.  

 (b) Periodically examine the obligations of the Parties under this Protocol, giving due consideration to any reviews required by Article 4, paragraph 2 (d), and Article 7, paragraph 2, of the Convention, in the light of the objective of the Convention, the experience gained in its implementation and the evolution of scientific and technological knowledge, and in this respect consider and adopt regular reports on the implementation of this Protocol; 

Obligations were too restrictive in Kyoto. Countries know how and why they can carry out successful pledges to a sustainable environment.

 (c) Promote and facilitate the exchange of information on measures adopted by the Parties to address climate change and its effects, taking into account the differing circumstances, responsibilities and capabilities of the Parties and their respective commitments under this Protocol;

(d) Facilitate, at the request of two or more Parties, the coordination of measures adopted by them to address climate change and its effects, taking into account the differing circumstances, responsibilities and capabilities of the Parties and their respective commitments under this Protocol; 

Negotiations between countries can provide continuity in their outcomes. Air is fluid. Water is fluid. We know in the USA though The Clean Air Act recognizes 'sources' of pollution. It is the sources that have to be the focus. Conferencing between countries is allowed, if not expected.

 (e) Promote and guide, in accordance with the objective of the Convention and the provisions of this Protocol, and taking fully into account the relevant decisions by the Conference of the Parties, the development and periodic refinement of comparable methodologies for the effective implementation of this Protocol, to be agreed on by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to this Protocol;...

It's Sunday Night and peace in the street would be nice.


February 21, 2016
By Ian Simpson

...Authorities (click here) could not confirm that the 45-year-old suspect was working for Uber during the nearly five-hour shooting spree on Saturday evening. He was arrested early on Sunday.

An Uber representative confirmed that Dalton was a company driver and that he had passed background checks. The representative referred questions about whether Dalton was working at the time of the shootings to police.

The victims "appear to be chosen at random, because they were available," Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Getting said at a news conference. "They were shot multiple times, multiple - nine, 10, 11 shell casings at each of these scenes."

The carnage in Kalamazoo, a city of about 75,000 people, was the latest in a series of mass shootings that have elevated gun control as a campaign issue in the November U.S. presidential election.

WOOD-TV, a Grand Rapids station, quoted police as saying that they were investigating reports that Dalton dropped off Uber fares at a Fairfield Inn hotel and then killed four women and wounded a 14-year-old girl at the nearby Cracker Barrel. The teenager was in critical condition, Michigan State Police said.

In an emailed statement, Uber's chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, said the company was in contact with police to help with the investigation....

"Wave of Sorrow" by U2 (click here for official website) 

Heat haze rising on Hell's own hill
To wake up this morning was an act of will
You walked through the night to get to today
To bring your children to give them away

Oh, oh this cruel sun
Its daylight never done
Cruelty just begun
To make a shadow of everyone

And if the rain came
And if the rain came now

Souls bent over without a breeze
Blankets on burning trees
I'm sick without disease
Nobility on its knees

And if the rain came
And if the rain came now

Would it wash us all away
On a wave of sorrow
A wave of sorrow

Where now the holy cities
Where all the ancient holy scrolls
Where now the Emperor Menelik
And the Queen of Sheba's gold
You, my bride, wear her crown
On your finger a precious stone
Has every good thing now been sold

Oh son of the shepherd boy now king
What wisdom can you bring
What lyric could you sing
Where is the music of the seraphim

And if the rain came
And if the rain came now
Would it wash us all away
On a wave of sorrow
A wave, a wave of sorrow

Blessed are the meek who scratch in the dirt
For they shall inherit what's left of the earth
Blessed are the kings who have left their thrones
They are blessed in this valley of dry bones
Blessed are you with an empty heart
For you have nothing from which you cannot part
Blessed is the ego if it's all we've got this hour
Blessed is the voice that speaks truth to power
Blessed is the sex worker's body sold tonight
She works with what she's got to save her children's life
Blessed are the deaf who cannot hear her scream
Blessed are the stupid who can dream
Blessed are the tin can cardboard slums
And blessed is the spirit that overcomes

The Iraq War was a lie. No one validated "Curveball" statements.

15 February 2011

The defector (click here) who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his story, then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war.

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials who dealt with his claims, has told the Guardian that he fabricated tales of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995....

Everything Powell took to the United Nations was based in lies by a defector worried about his own life. Basically, he took the most powerful military in the world and set it on killing Saddam so he had no more problems with anyone hunting for him.

31 March 2012
By Jonathan Owen

...US officials "sexed up" Mr Janabi's drawings (click here) of mobile biological weapons labs to make them more presentable, admits Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, General Powell's former chief of staff. "I brought the White House team in to do the graphics," he says, adding how "intelligence was being worked to fit around the policy"...

The "W" Administration altered evidence to sell it to Congress and the UN. There is no doubt Bush lied. He absolutely did lie. There is no doubt about it.

The reason the war in Iraq lasted for so long was because the Republican Party was dependent on the Presidency in order to MAINTAIN PLAUSIBLE DENIAL. The Iraq War was a propagandist war. The USA was caught up in nationalism. While the country was blinded from the truth through fear based nationalism, there was all kinds of stupid stuff going on, including the stenography of Judith Miller.

I was on the New York Times message boards posting an article from a American Chemical Society environmental journal PROVING VX liquid dissolved into inert elements on concrete within a short period of time. It was work being conducted to find out how long VX would last on city infrastructure in the USA. The VX liquid dissolved far more quickly than anticipated because it was on a concrete slab exposed to the sun. Concrete is sand mixed with water and other stone to create a stable rock substance.

However, sand is Silica and Oxygen. Silicone dioxide. The WMD in Iraq was stored in Quonset huts exposed to wind and drifting sand. Sand would have entered the environment of the WMD that was documented by the UN. Saddam Hussein was stating there were no more stores of WMD and the UN inspectors were saying the same thing. Bush was demanding paperwork or invasion. There was no paperwork, because, the biological and chemical weapons were degraded by Iraq's environment.

No one, including David Kay, found any WMD or paperwork because the biological and chemical agents were gone through natural processes with the environment. There was no release of the chemicals and there was no release of the VX liquid on concrete exposed to sunlight either.

The article was published in a ACS environmental journal in March of 2002. It appeared in "Nature" journal in September 2002 and that is where I read it. The campaign to lie Bush's way into Iraq began in October 2002. (click here)

The truth will live on. It isn't going anywhere. There are too many people and I am just one. I posted the article because I knew people checked the message boards for information they might be able to use elsewhere. I posted multiple times. I know people saw it because there was conversation engaged when I posted it. I thought it would shake loose the idea of war if people realized they were being deceived. I was nobody and Bush was determined to invade Iraq.

WMD works because of biological processes. Silica and Oxygen are biological chemicals. The WMD would have reacted to the presence of them.

Silica in Plants: Biological, Biochemical and Chemical Studies (click here)

Texas Absentee Ballot

Important Deadlines (click here)

• Voter Registration Form: Postmarked 30 days before the election
• Absentee Ballot Application: Received by the close of business on the 9th day before the election (however, it must be a weekday, so it will actually be the 2nd Friday before an election for most elections)
• Voted Absentee Ballot: Received by 7:00 pm on Election Day...

...Make sure you're eligible to vote by absentee ballot

You may vote absentee in Texas if you are:

• going to be away from your county on election day and during early voting;
• sick or disabled;
• 65 years of age or older on election day; or
• confined in jail, but eligible to vote.... Oh?

Do I need to provide ID when I vote by absentee ballot in Texas?

You do not need to provide ID if you have already voted at least once in Texas.  If you are a first time voter and you did not put your drivers license number or Social Security number on your voter registration form then you must include a copy of one of the following forms of Photo ID with your absentee ballot application:

• Texas Driver License issued by Texas DPS
• Texas Election Identification Certificate (EIC) issued by DPS
• Texas Personal Identification Card issued by DPS
• Texas Concealed Handgun License issued by DPS
• U.S. Military ID card containing your photograph
• U.S. Citizenship Certificate containing your photograph
• U.S. Passport

(All documents except the U.S. citizenship certificate must be current or no more than 60 days expired.)

NOTE: If you are disabled, in the military, or living overseas, you are NOT required to include a copy of your identification. However, you must complete and return a special form to that effect, which your Texas County Elections Office should mail to you.

Excuse me, but, if absentee ballots don't need a Voter ID after voting one time, what is this all about? The voter ID is unconstitutional because it is not enforced in all cases.

No one class of people can have more rights than another. Voter IDs are a burden to most people. But, the person filing an absentee ballot doesn't have that burden. That cannot be. If the State of Texas demanded a photocopy of a SELECTIVE ID with every absentee ballot, the ID becomes more of a burden because it takes money to purchase a photocopy of a photo ID and/or money uncured when making a photo ID at work to avoid personal cost. If an employer has 'no personal use' of photo copy machine a voter is placing their employment in peril to comply with state law for an absentee ballot. The demands are unequal. That is unconstitutional. 

AND, if sending in an photo copy of an ID on an absentee ballot for the first time, how do they know it is you? Most of the IDs above have a copy within DPS. But, IDs can be tampered with. 

It is time to order your absentee ballot and forget about the lines!

VOTE ABSENTEE, start now! No ID required!

Let's do this thing!

20 February 2016
By Oliver Melman

For just a few days each year, (click here) the water of Horsetail fall in Yosemite national park appears like lava, drawing crowds of onlookers and photographers...

When comparing the Wall Street Journal poll this past week to the actual results; WSJ measures Evangelical Christians. The small number of respondents are to be expected.

Real Clear Politics Average came fairly close to winner in the outcome in South Carolina for the Republicans.

Trump - 31.8 and SC 32.5
Rubio - 18.8 and SC 22.48
Cruz - 18.5 and SC 22.33

It is still a somewhat rough poll for second and below.

There are significant trade deficits for the USA due to NAFTA.

...The $2.5 billion (click here) U.S. goods trade surplus with Mexico and $29.6 billion deficit with Canada in 1993 turned into a combined NAFTA goods trade deficit of $177.2 billion by 2013. That’s a 556 percent, or $150.2 billion increase in the combined NAFTA deficit. Not only did goods imports soar under NAFTA, but annual growth in U.S. manufacturing exports to NAFTA partners fell 62 percent below the pre-NAFTA rate....

Re-export (click here)

Re-export controls (click here)

United States Census Bureau - Foreign Trade (click here) - the monies in the chart is not in dollars, it is in millions of dollars. So take the numbers and multiple by $1 million.

Example:

2015 Total

$58,363.70 X $1,000,000 = $58,363,700,000

Over $58 billion dollar deficit with Mexico. I guess there are a couple of ways of looking at it. Either way, however, has been bad news for the USA. These are Wall Street goods. I wonder if the US Census tracks any cottage industries trading across borders, too.

Michael Moore's work tends to breed rebels out of the most unexpected Americans.

February 19, 2016

By Dan Macrae 

Michael Moore‘s upcoming documentary Where to Invade Next (click here) has been branded an R-rated offering by the MPAA. The filmmaker’s offered up his own guide for teens to sneak into the movie (which probably got an unlikely workout from Deadpool‘s debut), but one theater chain is cutting out the middleman in getting teens past the ominious Restricted rating.

The theaters in the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain will be adopting a modified policy for would-be viewers aged 17 or younger that won’t be attending with a parent, guardian or drifter they paid to pose as their uncle. The company says the film is too “important” to adhere by the MPAA’s ruling and will relax their policies to allow teens aged 15 and up to see the movie without supervision. Drafthouse founder/CEO Tim League announced this plan in an open letter addressed to “The Parents of America.”...  

Where to Invade Next is a very important film. It ranks Americans among the most neglected people by their government in the First World today. Americans are going through upheavals of their social and cultural contract. The film finally calls an end to the rhetorical political America and asks; what are we thinking, what are we doing and where are we going? But, most importantly is there actually a destination at the end of our political and social priorities?

The film places Americans in esteem and breaks the taboo of what most Americans believe, "America is the greatest country on Earth." Not. But, it does say, "We can be the greatest country on Earth, again."

Congratulations Donald Trump.

This is a decisive victory for Donald Trump. He has been spending a great deal of time with the voters in these states. For a self-funded candidate he has quite a dynamic ground game. He worked for this.

I think the rest of the Republican field have problems the cannot overcome.

Congratulations to Hillary Clinton.

Bernie Sanders had a very decent showing. There is a difference of 4 percentage points. Everyone said Bernie's campaign would end in New Hampshire. Really?

The Speeches

Hillary Clinton is absolutely correct in stating she will release her speeches when everyone else does. I also believe she runs a chance of liability to her clients if she released them rather than as a political ad attack against a misstatement.

I don't believe the speeches were requested to trip up her presidential run, but, they are serving to be yet another MYSTERY attack. I only hope when the speeches finally make their way to the internet they aren't written on napkins or toilet paper.

Oh dear, oh dear, when will Hillary Clinton stop wearing armor because there are many in the world that at the very least dislike her. She has been a force for good. The fact she relies on big money donors to run her campaign and her personal funds raised because of her talent and long lived dedication; is not a fault, it is a necessity. 

Bernie Sanders is a phenomena no one thought was possible. He has the right to demand exposure of controversial elements of Hillary Clinton's candidacy. In a way it is an expression of being loyal to the Democratic Party which is a new standing for him.

Loyalty, did I say loyalty, but, he's attacking Hillary!

Indeed he is attacking Hillary and the final product is an exposed candidate that can no longer be attacked in the general election should she be the nomination.

I look forward to the remaining primaries to choose a candidate that can bring about justice in the USA. Whether it is Bernie or Hillary, I sincerely believe the problems of the Dreamers and Undocumented, younger Americans and the worry over the national debt will find a strong platform beginning on January 20, 2017.

I think there is a lot for Hillary Clinton to weigh when exposing her speeches and most of that is not politics. The rights of those receiving the speeches  can use them for fundraising or reassurances to investors. I do not believe she alone can decide to release transcripts or otherwise.

No one is sayin George W. Bush is a co-conspirator with al Qaeda. What people are saying with a great deal of validity is that George W. Bush DID NOTHING with the intelligence the country had to avoid attacks on the USA and it's citizens.

That is not co-conspiracy, it is incompetence and/or a willingness to allow a reason to war. Iraq was simply a blatant lie. "W" was corrupt and probably still is. He stated many things during his campaign in 1999-2000, but, most of what he stated were lies, except, those he carried out for his base.

Even today Bush has issues. He only talks in a variety of vernacular about war and killing an enemy yet to be identified as a direct threat to the USA.

I wish the media would stop the propaganda, I think the country knows the facts.

The CIA warning stated there would be attacks by al Qaeda within six months of it's presentation to the President. Five months later it happened. The FBI already had Moussaoui in it's sights and long before September 11, 2001. There were FACTS about the emerging attacks and Bush did nothing.

The FACT is he did nothing and the CIA PDB existed and the FBI Moussaoui was already known; states all that is obvious. He did nothing for his own reasons.

All the money spent on supposedly needed intelligence infrastructure was a way of hiding the truth. The new infrastructure has not picked up very dangerous scenarios carried out in places such as Paris, San Bernardino and New York City with a van bomb that never had a chance of explosion. It completely missed the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber and we are suppose to believe those monies were not a ruse to draw attention away from the truth.

I wasn't born yesterday and am not willing to believe the USA is safer on September 12, 2001. The intelligence agencies did their job and did it well and it worked better before the attacks of September 11, 2001 than it does today.

Who ever thought Parmesan cheese would ever be an enemy?

I hadn't seen the television segment that pointed to the fact parmesan cheese on our dinner table is not really parmesan cheese. I heard it while waiting for my tires to be changed at a local garage. People were talking about it and were concerned there was not a strategy to avoid the plague.  

I looked around a bit and it is sincere is a problem. Consumers have no LABEL stating exactly what was in their cheese. I also found a producer of powdered cellulose 

"Ridgeland" powdered cellulose (click here) carries a few mixes of such cellulose.

Powdered Cellulose (click here)

If one examines closely the ingredients in the powdered cellulose there is a variety that actually uses potato starch. Potato starch is the same type of product as ordinary starch that are used in gravies as a thickening agent. Potato starch is sold in health food coops. I have a bag in my kitchen.

But, in reading the information about powdered cellulose, which comes from trees, I was very surprised to realize there is an antibiotic incorporated in the mix. Antibiotics, the type doctors administer by prescription, are not available in organic food stores. At least not the markets I have shopped in.

Natamycin (click here) is the culprit. It is a mold inhibitor. I never bargained for that as a consumer.

I am looking long and hard now at what type of product I purchase because my understanding is the parmesan cheese mixed with powdered cellulose also comes in solid pieces found at the cheese counter.

I am anticipating the purchase of a more expensive product that is 100% parmesan I grate myself. If the grated cheese is to clumpy then I'll add small amounts of potato starch powder to achieve the same result as the store bought laced with anti-mold antibiotic.

Custom Formulations (click here)

• Anti-Mycotic Blends
• Natamycin, Potassium Sorbate, & Oxygen Scavenger
• Low Dust
• Put your anti-caking agent in the cheese & not in the air
• Starch Blends
• Potato, Corn, Tapioca & Rice
• Mineral Blends
• Calcium Sulfate & Calcium Carbonate

The Confederate Flag is a social disease.

February 18, 2016

For months, eight-year-old Chrissy Turner (click here) went to bed each night hoping the strange lump in her chest would just go away.

The little girl was terrified to tell her parents, but finally, white-faced with fear, she managed to gather enough courage to confide in her mother....