"Patriarchy maybe the pinnacle of society. I don't think we know yet."

I think Pandora's Box is finally opened in the USA. I was wondering how long it would take. To understand the depth of the moarning for women to sincerely be women whlle leading is to understand the first mortal woman in Greek mythology, Pandora.

PANDORA (click here) was the first mortal woman who was formed out of clay by the gods.

The Titan Prometheus was once assigned the task of creating the race of man. He afterwards grew displeased with the mean lot imposed on them by the gods and so stole fire from heaven. Zeus was angered and commanded Hephaistos (Hephaestus) and the other gods create the first woman Pandora, endowing her with beauty and cunning. He then had her delivered to Prometheus' foolish younger brother Epimetheus as a bride. Zeus gave Pandora a storage jar (pithos) as a wedding gift which she opened, releasing the swarm of evil spirits trapped within. These would forever after plague mankind. Only Elpis (Hope) remained behind, a single blessing to ease mankind's suffering....

"Patriarchy maybe the pinnacle of society. I don't think we know yet." That was a real statement by a PhD. professor in a "Women's Studies" program. I found it an astounding statement considering the life I had lived upto that day. I have suffered greatly for my feminism and it was absolutely astounding that a woman so esteemed would reflect that reality. This was a professor that lead "The Vagina Monologues" every year, even in the days of oppression under "W." 

Today, I can say honestly and well witnessed, patriarchy is dead.

You see, the idea that feminism was never willing to admit as true, is that patriarchy was wrong. I always believed it was wrong and now it is confirmed; when men are given control of a society they only regard women as sex objects REGARDLESS of the woman's accomplishments. Or worse yet, women don't aspire to accomplishments unless they are a sex object.

The silence was deafening, wasn't it? Astounding to realize such ingrained values permeated the American society. It was ALMOST mutated into the American DNA.

See, Dr. Simon was the so-called pinnacle of success and the best a woman can hope for; a highly regarded academic that was appreciably rewarded. I don't hate her, I will leave that up to others that knew her better than I, but, iconically she was "IT."

No, she never made that statement to me. But, that was the resolve for women with ambition and aspirations to break "The Last Glass Ceiling" as well. Fit in. Fit into a man's world and win the highest titles with the greatest monetary rewards and feminism will have achieved it's greatest accomplishments.

NOT.

"The Silence Breakers" (click here) could not know they were actually launching a new nation. A nation of values feminism has longed to be a part of, but, had tucked into their velvet boxes of wishes.

The USA has a new horizon. A horizon where women are part of it's success in a way that brings wholesomeness to women in a way that will shift the paradigm of values in the USA. A new morality whereby women contribute and bring their sincere selves to the forefront of a society lost to a plutocracy that no longer values the human spirit, but, only seeks to harness it for wealth and power. Those days are dying a slow death, but, they are dying.

I find it most interesting the new horizon for the USA takes place with a patriarchal plutocrat in the Oval Office unable to lead. Women have to be full partners in all achievements, education, values and worth. Women leaders aren't sincerely known to the USA in a way that changes it's path to bring about a better country with complete descriptions of gender mix. It will happen and it has to happen. Women no longer have to be consultants and entrepreneurs to engage success on their own terms. The workplace is becoming safe enough to be themselves without stiletto heels and sexualized environments.

Don't stop now, it is only beginning. To those coming forward to claim their innocence among the wolves, thank you. 

December 12, 2014By Kyle Feldshar

...Simon will complete her 10th year (click here) as Michigan State’s president at the end of December. She’s the second-longest serving university leader among the 14 Big Ten schools.

Simon previously made $520,000 per year, amounting to a 44 percent increase.

The announcement of Simon’s salary seemed to upset one student in the gallery.

The student stood up before trustees were to vote and said the university uses adjunct professors to save costs and should use an adjunct president. When the student was asked to sit down and allow the meeting to proceed, he refused and a Michigan State Police Department officer escorted him out of the meeting.

Outside the meeting, the student could be heard yelling “Get your hands off me” repeatedly as the sounds of a struggle made their way into the mostly quiet meeting room. Emily Kollaritsch, a senior at Michigan State who attended the meeting, said the student was taken to the Michigan State police department and released Friday afternoon.

After the student was led away, Simon emphasized she didn’t want the raise.

“This is not what I requested,” Simon said. “Trustee (Joel) Ferguson and other members of the board were very clear that they were my bosses in this regard and this is something that would be done at their request.”

Ferguson called raising Simon’s salary “an on-going battle” but believed it was the right thing to do.

Lyons mentioned Simon and her husband often give money back to the university through donations and have given more than $1 million back to the university.

“President Simon’s salary has historically been tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of dollars lower than those of the president of many other Big Ten institutions, despite her tenure in office and national leadership roles,” Lyons said.

Other trustees greeted the decision to raise Simon’s salary with praise for the president. Trustee Faylene Owen, who was also honored by trustees during her last meeting on the board, recalled an instance when a room of people meeting with Simon were blown away by her presence.

“This woman could not only talk the talk and walk the walk, she was amazing with how she understood everything,” Owen said.

             

This is the level of fear the right wing media likes to enjoy. As if people can do anything about a nuclear detonation.

January 24, 2018
By Martin Walsh

While North Korea (click here) has frequently threatened to launch nuclear missiles at the United States, the U.S. has vowed to defend itself at all costs.

As such, many may not be aware of how powerful and deadly a nuclear attack would be if it ever occurred, especially on our own shores.

The website NuclearSecrecy.com features an interactive nuclear map that allows viewers to visually see the effects certain nuclear attacks would have on an area....

This is some of the most irresponsible journalism that exists. It propagates fear, even onto Twitter and Facebook without empowering people. To understand such a map is one thing, but, to allow the fear to exist it propagates without providing insight to how the USA addresses such threats, INCLUDING THE PURSUIT OF PEACE, is appalling to realize it is a political paradigm being staged.

There is no real answer to a nuclear detonation. Even Preppers, no matter how much they like to think they can overcome such a heinous weapon, can't provide a world worth living in after such a detonation. This is not simply a tornado that people can emerge from a storm cellar after the minutes of terror passes over. A nuclear detonation is a devastation for a very long time. There are people in Japan that still suffer from effects 

September 2, 2018
By Matt Schudel

On Aug. 9, 1945, (click here) Sumiteru Taniguchi was delivering mail on his bicycle in Nagasaki, Japan. At 11:02 a.m., he noticed a rainbow-like flash and was thrown to the ground.

"When I looked up," he said in a 1994 interview later broadcast on PBS, "the house I had just passed had been destroyed. The last house to which I distributed mail was still there. I also saw a child blown away. Big stones were flying in the air and one came down and hit me, then flew up again into the sky."...

Take a good look. A USA nuclear weapon did that. Why? Yes, Pearl Harbor, but, also because the USA could not fight a war on two fronts. The idea the USA can fight a war on two fronts is a myth. The second war front is destroyed by unthinkable weapons that will now in the year 2018 be met with a similar weapon to our country.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation is the only answer to this heinous weapon.

The excitement in the Pacific after the announcement by the Olympic Committee that North Korea and South Korea would be entering together is growing. 

Yesterday, China stated it would entertain the idea of a "One Korea" pursuit if it were based in peace. Today, the Japanese Prime Minister announced he would be attending the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. 

If this simple act by a Communist leader could create this degree of hope, it is more than exciting, it is inspiring. I look forward to more hope among the people that can't be destroyed.

Why worry about getting the 4 page memo from the Republicans, just ask Putin for it, her probably wrote it.

January 24, 2018
By Anthony Zurcher

...Mr Nunes made headlines (click here) last March when he visited the White House and then publicly announced that some members of Donald Trump's post-election team had been the subject of "incidental surveillance" by US intelligence agencies. He later had to step down from overseeing the Russian hearings because he was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for possibly sharing classified intelligence with the White House. He has since been cleared in the matter by the ethics panel, but he has not returned to his previous position.

The four-page memo is said to draw on highly classified information about FBI surveillance practices that, according to many of the Republicans who have read it, were abused by the intelligence community in order to undermine Mr Trump's campaign and, subsequently, his presidency.

The memo reportedly asserts that the decision to begin surveillance of Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page was based on the so-called Steele dossier - the collection of largely unsubstantiated raw intelligence gathered by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. That set the ball rolling for broader investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, an inquiry that continues, under the direction of special counsel Robert Mueller, to this day.
Members of the intelligence community dispute this claim and insist that Page was on the counter-intelligence radar long before the dossier research, which was funded by anti-Trump conservatives and later Democrats, was ever circulated....

If President Trump was worried about incidental surveillance that early on in his administration, there is seriously something wrong. A person caught in incidental surveillance collection other than a spouse or casual friend seriously may have something to worry about.

There is a lot of backroom meetings in the Congress these days. The Democratic Senators are stating they don't even know where the meetings are being held as they are never included. I am sure Minority Speaker Pelosi is seeing the same thing. It only reflects the demand by Trump for complete loyalty to his agenda. That is my opinion.

Donny, Jr. is involved and he has been involved directly with the Russians. I am curious as to any contact Nunes has had with the Russians. Someone provided intelligence to Congress in this report. If it wasn't USA intelligence than who?

Trump is paranoid and insecure enough to believe the intelligence wasn't incidental, but, only looks that way and was conducted to ensnare Trump.

...Incidental collection (click here) happens when an individual is in contact with the target of surveillance. So if Bob were being targeted for surveillance and Alice called or emailed Bob, Alice’s communications with him would be collected incidentally. Incidental collection happens over the course of most surveillance, whether it is targeted surveillance under traditional FISA authorities, or it is large scale surveillance pursuant to Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act where vast amounts of Americans’ communications are swept up by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Under traditional FISA authorities, surveillance is targeted at a single person, and the NSA conducts it pursuant to a warrant based on probable cause that the target is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. Here, if Bob is targeted for surveillance and Alice contacts him during that surveillance, resulting in the incidental collection of her communications with him, her name should be redacted or “masked” unless leaving it un-redacted provides foreign intelligence value....       

Sam Brownback can't seem to find a job he is good at. Evidently, Pence understands.

June 8, 2017

By David Mark

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (click here) has been among the nation’s least popular governors for much of 2017, Morning Consult polling shows. A recent legislative reversal of his signature tax-cut program in his state — by fellow Republicans no less — isn’t likely to help his standing.

Kansas lawmakers this week voted to raise taxes by more than $1 billion, rolling back much of Brownback’s five-year-old tax cut package that critics say dropped the Sunflower State into a deep fiscal hole. The GOP-controlled legislature overrode Brownback’s veto and enacted a hike on every Kansas family that pays income taxes. Businesses will also face higher taxes, among other belt-tightening provisions.

Before this week’s action, Brownback was deeply unpopular among his constituents, according to Morning Consult Governor Approval Rankings from April that found Brownback second-to-last behind New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R)....

You would think at some point in his presidency Trump would get tired of having an administration of inept people. I expected some kind of learning curve. It ain't happening as far as I can see.

January 24, 2018
By Sean Sullivan and Julie Zauzmer

The Senate narrowly confirmed (click here) Kansas Republican Gov. Sam Brownback to a diplomatic post to promote religious freedom Wednesday, with GOP leaders needing the help of Vice President Pence to break a deadlock over his controversial nomination.

Brownback was confirmed to be ambassador at large for international religious freedom on a 50-49 margin, with all Democrats united against him and two Republicans absent. Pence cast the tiebreaking vote for Brownback in his role as president of the Senate.

The vote highlighted how polarizing a figure Brownback has become during what has been a divisive tenure as governor of Kansas. It also underscored how narrow the Senate Republican majority is, and illustrated the implications of that razor-thin margin for the GOP agenda....

A little advice for good 'ole Sam. Look, get a really good secretary and have him or her write all the reports. In his tour of the world at the country's expense, Sam may want to consider Russia his first stop.

Sam may want to meet with Mrs. Gingrich to get an inside track on how this religious stuff works internationally.

The Office of International Religious Freedom (click here) has the mission of promoting religious freedom as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy. The office is headed by the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. We monitor religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, recommend and implement policies in respective regions or countries, and develop programs to promote religious freedom.

Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

• Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries;
• Assist emerging democracies in implementing freedom of religion and conscience;
• Assist religious and human rights NGOs in promoting religious freedom;
• Identify and denounce regimes that are severe persecutors on the basis of religious belief....

I find no coincidence in Trump stating he is looking forward to speaking to Former Director Mueller when Steve Bannon is set to be interviewed next. It is a threat to Bannon by Trump.

The threat alone is obstuction of justice. Trump is a very insecure man and it shows. He should be so concerned with the dead children in the USA due to gun violence. Trump will never allow an interview with Mueller. Trump knows he and Mueller will never meet.

January 24, 2018
By Sara Murray, Kara Scannell and Marshall Cohen

Washington - Special counsel Robert Mueller's team (click here) wants to question former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon about the firings of national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

Bannon is set to interview with Mueller by the end of the month, these people say, as the special counsel's investigation moves closer to President Donald Trump's inner circle. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was a witness to the firing of Comey, was interviewed last week, the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday.

In addition to the Comey and Flynn firings, key issues from Bannon's time in the White House are likely to include Trump's decision to fire then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates and any pressure the President may have exerted on Sessions about the FBI investigation into Russia's interference with the election....

How long with the USA allow guns to kill their kids?

There have been eleven school shootings in the USA in the first month of 2018.

16. Kentucky  (click here)

Kentucky comes in at number 16, with 13.5 guns for every 1,000 residents. That's 59,240 registered firearms among 4,395,295 people.

In this picture, a man and woman hold hands as they walk, both carrying several guns, at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot in West Point, Kentucky.

Every legislator in the country should be concerned at the NEW epidemic of school shootings resulting in the deaths of innocent American children. it is becoming a daily event.

Wikipedia lists a total of seven school shootings in the USA in 2017. Not that it is acceptable, but, there is a marked change in the occurrence of these shootings and it is extremely alarming.

There are too many guns on the street and I don't care if conservative jerks believing in revolution because they are basically criminals run out to buy more guns and ammunition. THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE THE ENTIRE COUNTRY HAS TO DEAL WITH AND NOW!

Every elected official from city commissioners to mayors to governors to every federal Senate and House member need to address this increase in violence in our schools. This is happening across the country, including the much coveted charter schools.

There is only one way to control this and it is to control the number of guns on the street. Nothing else works. NOTHING ELSE WORKS.

I do not want to hear how the US Senate is joining arms to create a law for background checks that are politically neutral. Our children don't need pablum, they need laws that work.

Kentucky is Mitch McConnell's state. What is he doing about this new reality! Child shooters don't need background checks, they don't come across the southern border by motorized hand gliders or tunnels, they find their guns and they shoot them at classmates, teachers and administrators. Some even kill the parent that purchased the gun in the first place!

The women marching for equal rights and to end female oppression now need to march for their children as well. It would be helpful if Dad was among the marchers, too.

Background checks are simply not working for adults. We have witnessed wealthy gun owners killing innocent people at a concert with an enormous number of fire arms all legally purchased. Background checks aren't working. The young people of the USA are too vulnerable and for 11 shootings to occur in one month in the USA is more than alarming, it is a national emergency.

Law officers have surrendered their outrage and pain for these children and schools by say in Kentucky yesterday, "It will take a long time to heal from this and for some there will be no healing." That is not a law officer, that is a the processor to the undertaker. The law has resigned to the NRA and allow far too much violence in their communities. There is no reason to try to stop the pillage anymore, because, the shooters are better armed then them.

January 24, 2018

On Tuesday, (click here) it was a high school in small-town Kentucky. On Monday, a school cafeteria outside Dallas and a charter-school parking lot in New Orleans. And before that, a school bus in Iowa, a college campus in Southern California, a high school in Pierce County, near Seattle....

The "Conservative Tribune" wants to boycott a company that sells expensive men's pockets.

...“Invariably people say FOXNews (sic, again)” (click here)

“I laugh to myself, and tell them that we primarily advertise on Fox because we find their viewership to be extremely gullible and much easier to sell than (sic, yet again) other networks.”

I find the honesty of the CEO refreshing. Rupert Murdoch has spanned continents using fear and commonality as the basis of media that has caused chaos because there are so many lies laced in with the information content.

Murdoch has scandalized the UK, with exploits that were too personal and about a handicapped child of Former Prime Minister Brown. Murdoch has practically ended healthy competition in Australia's news media market. Local news outside of Murdoch's empire does succeed in some Aussie cities with some degree of success, but, the Murdoch dynasty has harnessed politics in his favor for decades now.

If one analyzes the effect of Rupert Murdoch across the free world it is one of scandal and assault on sound government values. Murdoch never cared about good government, he cared about personal power.

All of Murdoch's political successes are laced with the ability to scandalize any subject in a second of time. Yes, even Donny Trump.

There are statistics grossly ignored by research journalism. "How many officials in the free world are elected due to the Murdoch media dynasty?" How can a single media mogul render such power in countries around the world? 

Murdoch has a monoploy on power. That is as much an anti-trust issue as any other.

Unilateral policy is meaningless.

Building a consensus among countries globally is needed to end the tensions between Palestine and Israel when it comes to Jerusalem. Quite frankly, Jerusalem has enormous significance to many religions. This is not a simple point on a map called "the capital of." It is a highly valued city by a large number of people and the issue is not easily solved. The only claim Israel makes is that Jerusalem is best left in their hands for safe keeping. 

Hm?

If safekeeping is the issue and Jerusalem is an international city, the United Nations has a greater stake in the matter than either countries.

The EU is exactly correct, in stating if the USA is going it alone on behalf of an ally, they are morally correct in representing the Palestinian issue. Israel forgets it is well outside its borders from the UN resolution creating Israel. What makes Israel so sure the world community considers it trustworthy?

This is a foolish effort by Trump. If there was a vote today in the UN General Assembly to make Jerusalem capital of either country it would most likely fail.

January 22, 2018

Occupied Jerusalem/Brussels  — In a fresh display of Western discord (click here) over Middle East peace efforts, the United States said on Monday its Israel embassy would move to Jerusalem by the end of 2019, while its European Union allies voiced support for East Jerusalem as capital of a Palestinian state.

Vice-President Mike Pence, visiting Jerusalem, announced the timing of the move in a speech to Israel's parliament, earning applause from Israeli legislators but also stirring a brief protest by Israeli Arab lawmakers, who held signs reading "Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine".

In Brussels, the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini assured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a meeting that the EU supported his ambition to have East Jerusalem as capital of a Palestinian state.

US President Donald Trump suddenly reversed decades of US policy in December when he recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital, generating fury from Palestinians and the Arab world and concern among Washington's western allies.

Trump's move delighted Israel, Washington's closest Middle East ally, but stirred disquiet from world powers including Russia and China who worry it would stoke regional tensions and further drive a wedge between Israel and the Palestinians....     

There is suffering under Trump's administration and it is not just paychecks.

While Senator McCain is quite used to being a hero by any measure and takes blame where it belongs, I can understand Senator Shumer's view point as well.

To begin, the Republicans like to pull this stunt whenever the opportunity presents itself to measure the degree NO GOVERNMENT effects the operations of the USA. 

But, Senator Schumer, is correct. The Republicans have all the power they need to reopen the government and the attack on immigrants has to stop. It simply has to stop.

The USA has never been a country full of hate for other ethnicities than Caucasian. It has welcomed peoples from countries suffering under dictatorships, poverty and illness. We started to turn our backs on immigrants under "W" because of the politics of the Republicans, namely White Supremacists.

The hate exuded by right-wing extremists of the Republican Party is changing the reputation of the USA. This country is being led by the bottom of the barrel Republicans and it's extremist media and it shows.

Under President Obama there was nothing heard from the Republicans, but, the national deficit and cutting care to the poor and working poor to bring down the cost of government. Now, under Trump, there is a new kind of welfare causing increases in the national debt, Wall Street Welfare.

Wall Street has become completely "Too Big Too Fail" according to Republican standards, that it needs the USA Treasury in order to continue to operate from day to day. The huge tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations create a cushion to fall back on for at least the next year or so. Poor Wall Street "The Fed" is raising rates to target inflation and there is no sympathy anywhere for them. Mnuchin should lose his citizenship because he has turned against the people and harnessed the USA tax system for the wealth of a few.

US Senator Shumer is valued for his long lived presence in the US Senate, his knowledge, expertise and morality to hold the country in high esteem. Senator Schumer looks at the entire picture of the USA and sees a great deal of suffering. The USA has never before been harnessed to feed the wealthy, it has always been harnessed to feed the people and have an agenda of peace through USAID and trade. Schumer is correct. The Republicans are harming the USA and it has to stop. So, when Trump and his crony Congress wants to attempt to play politics they would turn to Democratic hardliners that are profoundly worried about the country, namely the US Senate and US House leadership.

Currently, the suffering continuing to be the responsiblity of the Trump White House is the mudslide in California, the suffering of the people in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Texas and the peninsula of Florida. All that is going to be effected by contiued government closing. 

No one in the Trump White House is balancing their lust for politics and money with the needs of the people of the USA. Senator Schumer and Minority Leader Pelosi have a heavy burden on their shoulders and evidently, they are feeling every bit of it.

January 22, 2018

With Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve.

THE BIG IDEA: (click here) The failed efforts this weekend by moderates to end the government shutdown underscored how poisoned the well has become.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell postponed a largely symbolic vote that was scheduled for 1 a.m. so that his members wouldn’t need to sit around all night. The roll call vote will now take place around noon.

There is some optimism about a deal that could reopen the government until Feb. 8, but it’s also possible that this three-day-old shutdown could drag on for a while.

Either way, the impasse foreshadows how little will get done legislatively in the 10 months before the midterm elections.

“Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters on Friday night.

Republican leaders have already punted many items on their wish list,...                

That is more than a dusting. This is a growing trend in his region of the world. Snow is becoming a regular visitor to Saudi Arabia as well.

For the second time (click here) in three years, snow has accumulated in the desert near the northern Algerian town of Aïn Séfra. Sometimes called the “gateway to the desert,” the town of 35,000 people sits between the Sahara and the Atlas Mountains.

According to news and social media accounts, anywhere from 10 to 30 centimeters (4 to 12 inches) of snow accumulated on January 8, 2018, on some higher desert elevations (1000 meters or more above sea level). Social media photos showed citizens sliding down snow-covered sand dunes. Warming temperatures melted much of it within a day.

On January 8, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured the data for these natural-color images of the snow in the Sahara Desert. At the top of the page, the Landsat 8 image was draped over a global digital elevation model, built from data acquired by NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. The second and third images provide nadir (straight-down) closeups of the region, where snow covered dry mountaintops and the crests of tall sand dunes.

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke, no one ever listens"

Am J Epidemiol. 1979 Jan;109(1):71-80. (click here)

Vibrio parahaemolyticus gastroenteritis outbreaks aboard two cruise ships.
Lawrence DN, Blake PA, Yashuk JC, Wells JG, Creech WB, Hughes JH.

Abstract
Outbreaks of Vibrio parahaemolyticus gastrointestinal illness occurred on two Caribbean cruise ships in late 1974 and early 1975. In all, 697 passengers and 27 crew were affected. Epidemiologic evidence incriminated seafoods served on the ships as the vehicles of transmission. The seafoods were probably contaminated by V. parahaemolyticus after cooking in seawater from the ships' internal seawater distribution systems. Use of seawater in foodhandling areas was discontinued, and no further outbreaks occurred.

This particular study has found an increase in Vibrio bacteria. That is a huge problem, not just for cruise ships, but, fisheries, too.

...Species of Vibrio bacteria (click here) are ubiquitous throughout the oceans. They thrive everywhere from surface waters to the deep sea, and from the coast to the open ocean. You may have heard about the bacteria from cases where it has sickened people with vibrosis, the effects of which can range from cramps and nausea to death in the most severe cases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most of the 80,000 Americans who contract the illness each year fall ill after eating contaminated seafood, particularly raw oysters. It’s also possible to contract the illness through exposure of an open wound to seawater.

Although Vibrio are widespread, found mainly in association with marine plankton organisms, they tend to flourish in higher concentrations when water is warm. That’s why most infections occur between May and October. And on the longer term, research led by Luigi Vezzulli of the University of Genoa in Italy, shows that warming sea surface temperatures are also playing a role in the spread of this bacteria and their associated diseases....

...During which months are people more likely to get vibriosis? (click here)
About 80% of infections occur between May and October when water temperatures are warmer.

How common is vibriosis?
CDC estimates that vibriosis causes 80,000 illnesses each year in the United States. About 52,000 of these illnesses are estimated to be the result of eating contaminated food.
The most commonly reported species, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, is estimated to cause 45,000 illnesses each year in the United States.

Is vibriosis a serious disease?
Most people with a mild case of vibriosis recover after about 3 days with no lasting effects. However, people with a Vibrio vulnificus infection can get seriously ill and need intensive care or limb amputation. About 1 in 4 people with this type of infection die, sometimes within a day or two of becoming ill....

The trend is better addressed by Europe. There needs to be a cross-ocean strategy to control the growth in a warm and warming Atlantic Ocean.

"Good Night, Moon"

Waxing crescent 

4.7 days old

22.6 percent lit

First blue moon total eclipse in 150 years coming on January 31

January 21, 2018

The world (click here) was treated to a stellar show to start 2018 as the year’s first supermoon appeared on New Year’s Day. Now sky watchers are preparing for an even more rare event this month: a blue moon total lunar eclipse.

The month’s second full moon on Jan. 31 is known as a blue moon. The event will coincide with a total lunar eclipse, which is called a “blood moon” because of the reddish color people see during the eclipse. The rare combo of lunar events hasn’t been seen in over 150 years. Astronomers have to go all the way back to March 31, 1866 to find the last “Blue Blood Moon.”

To make the event even more spectacular, the full moon will also be a supermoon like the one on Jan. 1. Shortly before the blue moon starts, Earth’s lone natural satellite will reach a point known as perigee, where it is at its closest point to the planet and appears much larger to the naked eye.

So when and where can the “Super Blue Blood Moon” be seen?

The event will start in the early hours on Jan. 31 and last into the morning of Feb. 1. On America’s East Coast the eclipse will start coming into view at 5:51 a.m. and will give viewers in cities like New York only a small window to see the reddish moon. America’s West Coast will get the best look at the blood moon as the eclipse begins at 2:51 a.m. and will last through 6 a.m.

For people who miss the early morning moon show they can catch the blue moon portion of the event at night on Jan. 31, which will start at around 9:30 p.m. on the East Coast. Blue moons come around every 2.7 years, but this year’s may be a once in a lifetime sight.

Australia's GHG Inventory over decades (click here)

1990 Gigagrams - 582,753.55

2000 Gigagrams - 554,406.65

2010 Gigrgrams - 563,792.35

2006 Gigagrams - 611,503.67 - highest year

1995 Gigagrams - 499,038.23 - lowest year

Australia, where rivers are drying up, reefs are dying, and fires and floods are ravaging the continent

October 3, 2011
By Jeff Goodell

It's near midnight, and I'm holed up in a rickety hotel in Proserpine, a whistle-stop town on the northeast coast of Australia. Yasi, a Category 5 hurricane with 200-mile-per-hour winds that's already been dubbed "The Mother of All Catastrophes" by excitable Aussie tabloids, is just a few hundred miles offshore. When the eye of the storm hits, forecasters predict, it will be the worst ever to batter the east coast of Australia.

I have come to Australia to see what a global-warming future holds for this most vulnerable of nations, and Mother Nature has been happy to oblige: Over the course of just a few weeks, the continent has been hit by a record heat wave, a crippling drought, bush fires, floods that swamped an area the size of France and Germany combined, even a plague of locusts. "In many ways, it is a disaster of biblical proportions," Andrew Fraser, the Queensland state treasurer, told reporters. He was talking about the floods in his region, but the sense that Australia – which maintains one of the highest per-capita carbon footprints on the planet – has summoned up the wrath of the climate gods is everywhere. "Australia is the canary in the coal mine," says David Karoly, a top climate researcher at the University of Melbourne. "What is happening in Australia now is similar to what we can expect to see in other places in the future."...

Premier Anna Bligh issued a stark warning to Queenslanders as Yasi approached the coast, saying it had the potential to be the biggest cyclone the state had ever seen.
"This storm is huge and it is life-threatening," Ms Bligh warned. "Being well prepared is our best defence."
People in all low-lying and waterfront areas between Cairns and Mackay were told to relocate, with large storm surges expected to accompany the cyclone.
Flights out of north Queensland filled up quickly as thousands of people evacuated; businesses closed down and many patients in local hospitals and nursing homes were relocated. Other residents simply battened down the hatches to ride out the storm.

Atmospheric Oxygen Levels are Decreasing (click here)

Oxygen levels are decreasing globally due to fossil-fuel burning. The changes are too small to have an impact on human health, but are of interest to the study of climate change and carbon dioxide. These plots show the atmospheric O₂ concentration relative to the level around 1985. The observed downward trend amounts to 19 'per meg' per year. This corresponds to losing 19 O₂ molecules out of every 1 million O₂ molecules in the atmosphere each year.

The Great Barrier Reef has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

April 10, 2017
By Richard Shiffman

Scientists are reporting the second mass bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef in the last year. In a Yale Environment 360 interview, researcher Terry Hughes says these events have damaged two-thirds of the world’s largest coral reef and are directly caused by global warming.

The Great Barrier Reef, (click here) which stretches for more than 1,400 miles off Australia’s northeastern coast, has been called the largest living structure on earth. But the journal Nature reported last month that the reef is rapidly becoming the world’s largest dying structure. This assessment was based on a survey led by biologist Terry Hughes, the director of the Arc Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Queensland Australia. Hughes and his colleagues found that two-thirds of the northern sector of the reef has been badly damaged by a massive bleaching event that occurred over a period of several months last year....

...In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Hughes lays the blame for the recent destruction in the Great Barrier Reef squarely on warming waters caused by climate change. The catastrophic damage to Australia’s reefs is part of a global phenomenon that is threatening the survival of coral worldwide, Hughes says, and is a clear warning that we need to rein in greenhouse gas emissions: “We simply cannot afford to continue with business as usual. We are very concerned that these events are getting more frequent. The reef simply won’t come back if we have a bleaching event every other year.”...