The Humane Society of Genesee County to the rescue.

May 11, 2016
By Tribune News Services

A dog is held by a volunteer after having its blood drawn during a lead screening event held at the Humane Society of Genesee County in Burton, Mich on April 16, 2016.

Humans aren't the only victims of the water crisis in Flint, (click here) as pets also may have been exposed to the toxic lead. An effort coordinated by Michigan State University is now helping dogs get tested.

The school's College of Veterinary Medicine has hosted screening events with professors, students and technicians volunteering to draw blood from dogs. State veterinarian James Averill said 266 dogs have been tested so far, with seven documented cases of lead toxicity.

"I thought the water was OK, and I was giving it to my dogs," said Katie Jobe, a Flint resident who brought Missy and Molly in for testing after discovering spots on Missy's hindquarters.

Flint is under a state of emergency after the city, under state management, switched to using the Flint River but failed to add the proper chemical treatment. Lead from old pipes leached into the water, and people — and pets — were exposed for months before the emergency declaration was made in October.

It is about the emissions. No one hates industry, we do however have valid concerns about emissions.

"Regulation for Reducing Sulfur Hexafluoride Emissions from Gas Insulated Switchgear" (click here)

US EPA SF6 Partnership
Workshop 
May 7, 2014

Insulating is also known as a dielectric gas.

Dielectric gas (click here) is a form of gas used in industrial applications as an electrical insulator. Common types of gasses used include air, nitrogen, and sulfur hexafluoride. Various types of electrical components such as transformers and circuit breakers require the presence of a dielectric gas to prevent damage to a circuit in the case of an electrical discharge. In routine applications, air is often the dielectric gas of choice because it doesn't require a pressurized, sealed system, and is ubiquitous....

...Sulfur hexafluoride is used as a dielectric gas in high-voltage switchgear such as industrial circuit breakers that connect generators to step-up voltage transformers. It is also used in areas of high voltage electric power systems that require gas insulators, such as transmission lines, transformers and substations. Around 80% of all the sulfur hexafluoride manufactured is commonly used in electrical power plants and substations throughout the world due to its superior insulating qualities and ability to suppress radio wave and sound wave transmission from electrical equipment. It also has the highest level of breakdown voltage for any insulating gas, which is the level of voltage necessary for a dielectric gas to begin conducting current and fail to act as an insulator.

Disadvantages to using sulfur hexafluoride as a dielectric gas are significant, however, and, for this reason, attempts are being made to combine it with safer gasses, such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or perfluorocarbon compounds....

Of the three gases sulfur hexafluoride can be mixed with nitrogen is the only one that isn't a greenhouse gas.

Raising awareness and money for solutions.

May 15, 2016
By CBC News

Esterhazy High School students took time out of their weekend and walked 17 kilometres, raising $6,800 towards digging a new well in an African country. 

In March, a group of students(click here) from the high school in Esterhazy, Sask., had the chance to be a part of We Day, and they're doing the best they can to return in 2017.

This weekend, students at the Esterhazy High School, about 230 kilometres east of Regina, held a Walk for Water fundraiser promoting the international organization Water Aid, a group focused on providing fresh, clean water for communities in Africa.

Grade 11 student Jordan Junek is part of school's activist group and was one of thousands of students who attended We Day this year.

"Part of getting invited is, the group you're going with has to make a plan for some sort of global action," Junek said, adding they wanted to focus on global water poverty. Their goal was to raise money for a well in Africa.

After learning at a Regina seminar how many people don't have access to clean, fresh water, the group decided global water poverty was the issue they would focus on....

Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

Chemists or those who have studied chemistry will recognize hybrid ORBITALS. Orbitals is where bonding electrons live. The yellow atom in the center of this molecule is sulfur. The other six atoms are fluorine. 

Sulphur can also be spelled sulfur.

It is another extremely stable molecule. It is an inert noncombustable gas. If heated in any cylinder it will explode under simple expansion. If coming in contact with the liquid in cylinders it can cause frostbite. It has no odor.

It is used for medical application in respiratory physiology, eye surgery and ultrasound imaging. 

It is not a natural occurring gas. It is used in industry as well in electrical insulator, in the production of magnesium and the manufacture of semiconductors. It is also used as a filler for cushioning such as tennis balls or the soles of trainers.

Sulphur hexafluoride has a global warming equivalent of 23,000 times that of carbon dioxide.

It is Sunday Night.

The comma in the title is sometimes stated as racist. It was the sixties. The first edition is the only one with a comma. Bad grammar.

The Rolling Stones (click here) have probably released more iconic tracks than any other band in history. Hardly surprising when you learn they’ve been together for over half a century and hold the record for the most recorded songs of all time. One of the most iconic of their incredible 439 tracks is “Paint It, Black”. Released in 1966, it was the first single from the fourth album, Aftemath, and became an anthem for the Sixties counter culture.

What’s more, it’s one of our favourite tunes ever. Two very good reasons to dig deeper and discover more about a song, music critic Richie Unterberger said, “qualifies as perhaps the most effective use of a sitar in a rock song.”

1. The original version was entitled “Paint It Black” without a comma. Keith Richards later said that the comma was added by the record label, Decca...

"Paint It, Black" Songwriters: Keith Richards, Mick Jaggers and performed by The Rolling Stones  (click here for official website)

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by, dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

I see a line of cars and they're all painted black
With flowers and my love both never to come back
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
Like a new born baby it just happens every day

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then I?ll fade away and not have to face the facts
It?s not easy facin? up when your whole world is black

No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you
If I look hard enough into the settin? sun
My love will laugh with me before the mornin? comes

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal
I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black, yeah

Water Stress needs to be a topic at any meeting regarding Syria.

15 May 2016

Custodians of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman receives US Secretary of State John Kerry in Jeddah.

Jeddah: US Secretary of State John Kerry (click here) met Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in Jeddah on Sunday to discuss the truce in Syria, before broader talks with Russia, Iran and other countries in Vienna on Tuesday.
According to Reuters, Kerry has said he hopes to strengthen a “cessation of hostilities” agreement between Syrian government forces and rebels, which has been undermined by fighting in some areas, and to increase humanitarian aid deliveries to besieged areas.
On Tuesday, Reuters said the US and Russia will co-chair a meeting of the International Syria Support Group, which includes Arab League and European Union countries as well as Turkey, Iran and China....

"Saudi Vision 2030" (click here) is a vision of growth in Saudi Arabia. Part of the excitement is regarding travel by car. The electric car with very available solar energy should be available.

In regard to "Water Stress," I would expect the US State Department to have intelligence provided either by the military and/or the United States Geological Survey for any country where it has a mission and/or diplomatic ties.

Water stress. Syria should have been a learning experience and not simply a subject of war.

27 August 2015
By John Vidal

Water supplies (click here) across the Middle East will deteriorate over 25 years, threatening economic growth and national security and forcing more people to move to already overcrowded cities, a new analysis suggests.

As the region, which is home to over 350 million people, begins to recover from a series of deadly heatwaves which have seen temperatures rise to record levels for weeks at a time, the World Resources Institute (WRI) claims water shortages were a key factor in the 2011 Syria civil war.

“Drought and water shortages in Syria likely contributed to the unrest that stoked the country’s 2011 civil war. Dwindling water resources and chronic mismanagement forced 1.5 million people, primarily farmers and herders, to lose their livelihoods and leave their land, move to urban areas, and magnify Syria’s general destabilisation,” says the report. 

New WRI rankings place 14 of the world’s 33 most water-stressed countries in the Middle East and north Africa region (Mena), including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Palestine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran and Lebanon. Companies, farms and residents in these countries are all highly vulnerable to the slightest change in supplies, says the WRI....

May 12, 2016

Flint (WJRT) - Update: (05/12/16) - An autopsy (click here) shows Flint city water plant supervisor Matthew McFarland died from drug intoxication with high levels of controlled substances.

Foul play isn't suspected at this point, but the case is not closed.

Because McFarland worked at the Flint water plant, the FBI and investigators with the Attorney General's office are working the case.

(04/21/16) - Thursday, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver announced the death of a forman at the Flint Water Plant.

A friend discovered 43-year-old Matthew McFarland's body when he went to visit him at his Otter Lake home last Saturday.

The Lapeer County Sheriff tells ABC12 there was no apparent signs of foul play.

Investigators are still waiting for toxicology reports before releasing a cause of death.

Lapeer County deputies also contacted state and federal officials because McFarland had been questioned by investigators looking into Flint's Water Emergency.

How much water supply is this region experiencing?

May 14, 2016
By Hana Namrouqa

Amman — Temperatures this week (click here) will rise 11°C above their annual average for this time of the year, as the season's first heatwave takes hold of the country, a meteorologist said on Saturday.

The heatwave, which started affecting the country on Saturday, is caused by multiple factors, including a hot air mass affecting northern Saudi Arabia, in addition to cold weather in Europe and northern Africa that has pushed hot air in the Sahara towards the country.

"The heatwave will push temperatures to their upper thirties in Amman and will bring very hot and dry weather. It will peak on Monday and start to gradually subside on Tuesday evening," Amer Armoush, a forecaster at the Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD), told The Jordan Times over the phone.

Sunday's weather will be hot across the Kingdom and very hot in Aqaba, the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley, according to the JMD....

2 September 2010
By Martin Asser

The Arab-Israeli (click here) dispute is a conflict about land - and maybe just as crucially the water which flows through that land.
The so-called Six-Day War in 1967 arguably had its origins in a water dispute - moves to divert the River Jordan, Israel's main source of drinking water.
Years of skirmishes and sabre rattling culminated in all-out war, with Israel quadrupling the territory it controlled and gaining complete control of double the resources of fresh water.
Any country needs water to survive and develop. In Israel's history, it has needed water to make feasible the influx of huge numbers of Jewish immigrants.
Therefore, on the margins of one of the most arid environments on earth, the available water system had to support not just the indigenous population, mainly Palestinian peasant farmers, but also hundreds of thousands of immigrants.
In addition to their sheer numbers, citizens of the new state were intent on conducting water-intensive commercial agricultural such as growing bananas and citrus fruits....

This is from "The Jordan Times"

May 14, 2016

By AFP

Occupied Jerusalem — Twenty-five Palestinian children (click here) were killed in the last three months of 2015 during a wave of violence and the number detained was the highest in seven years, the UN children's agency said.

"Serious concerns arose regarding excessive use of force, particularly in relation to incidents where Palestinian children were shot dead by Israeli security forces after carrying out or being suspected of carrying out stabbing attacks," UNICEF said in a report.

It said more than 1,300 Palestinian children were injured during the spike in attacks, almost all in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while three Israeli children were hurt in the West Bank and West Jerusalem.

UNICEF cited the example on October 25 in Hebron in the West Bank of a 17-year-old girl who was taken by Israeli soldiers for a search, shot with at least five bullets and killed.

"Israeli authorities said that she had attempted to stab a policeman, however an eyewitness stated that she was not presenting any threat at the time she was shot, and was shouting that she did not have a knife," it said.

Compared with the high toll for the October-December period, UNICEF recorded four Palestinian children killed and 165 injured between July and September....

I don't recall the Jordanian Parliament ever taking a position different than the King. King Abdullah II of Jordan has been instrumental in the past in securing peace agreements and treaties with Israel. Now there is descent while extremism is manifesting in Israel which requires the IDF to openly dialogue about their concerns. 

May 15, 2016

By Maayan Groisman

Atef Tarawneh

"The Jordanian parliament (click here) is an independent authority and its opinion toward the peace treaty with Israel is different in essence from the government's position," the Jordanian House Speaker said.

Jordanian House Speaker Atef Tarawneh, has stated that the Jordanian parliament, which represents the Jordanian people, adamantly disagrees with the government over the peace treaty with Israel.

In an interview with the London-based TV channel Al-Ghad, on Friday, Tarawneh commented about his decision to ban the participation of an Israeli delegation in the 2016 Women in Parliaments Global Forum, which took place in Amman last week....

What is going on in Israel? It must be resistance against the extremists. The IDF would know it first.

May 15, 2016
By Yaakov Lappin

Moshe Yaalon

"Speak out even (click here) if your comments are not part of the mainstream, and even if they stand in contrast with the ideas adopted by the senior command, or the government."
IDF Commanders (click here) should continue to speak their minds on issues of morality and ethics, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said Sunday in Tel Aviv, in an apparent reference to the controversy that followed the Holocaust Memorial Day speech made by Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan.
"This evening, I call on you and your subordinates, once again, to keep speaking your minds. Do so even if your comments are not part of the mainstream, and even if they stand in contrast with the ideas adopted by the senior command, or the government," Ya'alon said at an event attended by foreign military attaches at the Defense Ministry.
Earlier this month, Golan provoked controversy after saying that he was concerned by some the extremist voices within Israeli society. The IDF later issued a clarification saying that Golan did not mean to compare extremism in society in Israel to 1930s Germany.
"Do not fear, do not hesitate. Continue to be brave, not only on the battlefield, but also at the conference table," Ya'alon said on Sunday.
"A good military is one in which commanders, junior and senior, feel secure in their ability to speak their mind any time, knowing they will not be harmed," he added....

NYMA was coed. Boys and Girls from the age of 9 or 10 years old lived in separate dorms. Enough.

It started at the New York Military Academy, a small, severe boarding school 90 minutes’ drive north of New York City. Strictly enforced rules prohibited girls from setting foot on the all-boys campus unless it was a special occasion. And on those special occasions, young Donald Trump paid careful mind to the kind of girls he brought to school. They had to be gorgeous — 10s, in his future parlance....

The boarding school had children from nearly every state in the country and at least 24 different countries. It was an incredible experience for every young person that attended it. It was a train ride away from New York City and all it's museums and theaters. The extracurricular activities included athletics and other chosen activities such as learning to fly small private aircraft or riding at their school's horse stable.

...Donald was having a pool party at Mar-a-Lago. There were about 50 models and 30 men. There were girls in the pools, splashing around. For some reason Donald seemed a little smitten with me. He just started talking to me and nobody else.
He suddenly took me by the hand, and he started to show me around the mansion. He asked me if I had a swimsuit with me. I said no. I hadn’t intended to swim. He took me into a room and opened drawers and asked me to put on a swimsuit.
Ms. Brewer Lane, at the time a 26-year-old model, did as Mr. Trump asked. “I went into the bathroom and tried one on,” she recalled. It was a bikini. “I came out, and he said, ‘Wow.’ ”
Mr. Trump, then 44 and in the midst of his first divorce, decided to show her off to the crowd at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Palm Beach, Fla....

Every woman was treated as a beauty queen. He had his own Playboy Mansion. Ms. Lane arrived at his mansion of her own volition. He held her hand to reassure her and lead her to a room where she could change into a swimsuit and join the other women. Very thoughtful. Evidently, he likes his eye candy. Women improved their careers under this tutelage.  IT WAS ALL CONSENSUAL.

Evidently, Donald Trump enjoyed the reputation of being a chick magnet. He seemed to divide women into voluptuous and saintly. He never balanced his pool parties with an invitation to Mother Teresa. But, then neither did Hugh Hefner. 

It sounds fairly normal to me. He liked to wear his lifestyle on his sleeve. It was a choice he made and it was all legal.

No snow accumulation. Ground dry.

35 degrees F
Cloudy
Wind WNW 7 mph
Humidity 78 percent
Precipitation 3 percent 

There is a snow accumulation on the grass, evergreens and shrubbery. 

9:44
Snow no longer on grass, evergreens and shrubbery. It still exists on car windshields and on roof.

38 degrees Fahrenheit
Partly Cloudy, dark clouds over bay

Precipitation 10%

Wind WNW 5 MPH

Humidity 73%

The ground has been clear and dry for the entire time. The ground is obviously warmer than the air.

10:55 AM

Snow absent from roof.
37 degrees Fahrenheit
Wind N 4 mph
100 percent cloudy 
Humidity 67 %
Precipitation 15 %

Snow is still on windshields only about 25% from previous.

12:52

Snow gone from all surfaces.

42 degrees Fahrenheit
Humidity 44 %
Precipitation' zero percent
Partly sunny with clouds.
Wind: WNW 13 mph
 

Snowfall started.

Latitude - 44.7631° N
Longitude - 85.6206° W
Something tells me it is colder than 39 Fahrenheit. I need to take a thermometer outside.

Still daylight.

I'll go back for the thermometer in a few minutes. I actually expected this. I also expect snow this summer at this latitude and longitude. This location has a really interesting location on Earth. It is near Lake Michigan and there is an Arctic flow that come directly over this area.

May 14, 2016
2215.19z
UNISYS Water Vapor Hemisphere Satellite of north and west hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)

There is a slow rotating vortex brings the Arctic air south. The water vapor is primarily accumulated at the ITCZ with some migration north to the western USA, east of the Rocky Mountains.

The folks in the area have been stating this is the second snowless Christmas. The area in the last three years has been slow to warm and then slow to return to cold. The snow started the first week of January. This winter and the one before have been mild compared to three years ago. 

It has never been this sustainably cool to cold in May. 

37 Fahrenheit. The weather station is correct. The snow is melting quickly. The morning doves are out of their nest. I think they are upset by the snow and very cold air. 

Wind out of the northwest at 10 mph
Humidity 53 percent
Precipitation 52 percent

It was a pleasant day today with the sun out and the temperatures in the low to mid forties. People were out enjoying the sunshine. 

Thank you, Pfizer. A stock price of $33.19 is within the reach of most people.

May 14, 2016

Washington  – Pharmaceutical company Pfizer (click here) has announced it is blocking use of its drugs in lethal injections, which means all federally-approved drugmakers whose medications could be used for executions have now put them off limits.
“Pfizer makes its products to enhance and save the lives of the patients we serve. Consistent with these values, Pfizer strongly objects to the use of its products as lethal injections for capital punishment,” the company said in the statement made public on its website Friday.
The company’s announcement has limited immediate impact. Its action is an enhancement of a previous policy that follows Pfizer’s $15.23 billion purchase of Lake Forest, Illinois-based Hospira Inc. last year. Hospira had previously prohibited the use of its drugs in capital punishment, as have several other drugmakers.
Pfizer shares closed even Friday at $33.19....

Literacy Changes Lives (click here)
November 2008 

Don't blame Facebook for those that have captured the affections of its customers.

May 13, 2016

By Ed Finn

The recent scandal (click here) with Facebook's Trending Topics news module goes deeper than the revelation that it was humans all along hiding behind the algorithm. It should come as no surprise that Facebook has bias -- every organization does. It's what you do about the bias, how you attempt to disclose it and manage it, that makes a difference. News organizations have been grappling with that question for a long time, creating formal and informal codes of conduct, oversight systems and transparency rules.

But of course, Facebook doesn't want to be a news organization (or be seen as taking a political stance). As Will Oremus pointed out in Slate, that would be bad for business: people think much more favorably of technology companies than they do of the Fourth Estate. So it should come as no surprise that in reacting to the scandal Facebook seems desperate to avoid looking like a news agency. It stands, according to VP Justin Osofsky, for "a free flow of ideas and culture across nations."...

It is a Wall Street Journal report, so it deserves some scrutiny.

Private Lenders are changing mortgages (click here)

May 13, 2016
As federal red tape has forced traditional lenders to recoil from the mortgage market, private lenders are filling the gap for lower-risk borrowers, reports The Wall Street Journal's Kirsten Grind. But there are repercussions.
That means a small but growing slice of the mortgage market has shifted from mainstream banks to an informal, loosely regulated corner of property finance. These lenders can earn 8% and more on their money—the catch is they must stomach the risk of lending their savings to borrowers rejected by banks.

Red Tape, no difference than Regulation, is a misnomer for the right wing. Here it is again. That entire mess is what caused the mortgage implosion in the first place.

January 1, 2007
No Red Tape Mortgage, (click here) a Sherman Oaks, CA based wholesale Alt-A mortgage lender closed down today after months of struggling in the now defunct mortgage industry.
After the subprime blowout months ago, Alt-A lenders fell under higher scrutiny, and companies like No Red Tape, a small lender compared to national lenders such as Countrywide and IndyMac, simply couldn’t compete, and subsequently got squeezed out of the market.
Recently, Sterling Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm bought out and took control of the ailing company, along with parent company Metrocities to keep things afloat.
As a result, No Red Tape responded to market conditions by laying off half of their staff, leaving about 50 employees with jobs....

Every political season the moaning and groaning regarding opportunity for wealth comes front and center. The Republican Party always provides simple wars for their electorate, so screaming about regulation and No Red Tape becomes their mark in history. It pays off for the financial sector, Citigroup Amendment is proof.

Will the corruption ever end? That is up to the voters and their determination to fully understand the dynamics involved rather than simple election slogans. Candidates should be prepared to address the slogans with informed dialogue to end this practice. Whether Republican voters are willing to admit it or not, they really don't want 2008 back again. There were Republicans effected, too. They can be reasoned with when the dialogue addresses the facts and emotional attachment to slogans in a country based in 30 second product commercials in their media.

No American wants to be a puppet. Respectful dialogue can be effective.

This is from 2015.

March 16, 2015
By Thomas Warren and Ryan Hadley

While community banks (click here) are eager to provide more loans to drive economic growth in their Main Street communities, and have the ready capital to do so, excessive government regulations, particularly new federal mortgage lending rules, are holding them back. That’s a consistent refrain heard from community bankers, and one that ICBA (Independent Community Bankers of America - click here) has continually communicated to Washington’s policymakers—first after the Wall Street financial crisis, and then since the complex federal ability-to-repay mortgage regulations were initially released more than two years ago....

... In fact, 9 percent of the 519 community banks that participated in the ICBA survey say the mortgage rules—spawned nearly five years ago by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act and put in force in January 2014—have caused them to stop mortgage lending altogether....

Community bankers might be looking for growth opportunity. They have become a good partner to local economies. Their growth demands should be honored, but, there has been exploitation of these banks resulting in their implosion twice in their history; once under H.W. Bush and then again under "W." The regulation of these vital local partners should be heard, but, they need to understand they are the first to implode when a financial disaster hits the USA.

Candidates should have all these financial entities on their radar and not just the egregious "Big Banks." These banks toppled like dominoes in 2008, that is no joke to many of the local economies that also served the greatest stability to that same episode of free and unfettered (otherwise known as financial anarchy) capitalism.

These ambitious community banks could seek review by the Consumer Protection Bureau to provide a case by case decision. It is up to Congress to empower the agency to conduct such reviews.