March 13, 2017

By Steve LaBlanc

Boston (AP) — Gov. Charlie Baker (click here) says he wants to make sure Massachusetts continues to maintain a health care system that has delivered insurance to about 97 percent of its residents.

The Republican governor made his comments Monday after the release of a Congressional Budget Office report that found 14 million Americans would lose coverage next year under legislation proposed by House Republicans. The number could jump to 24 million by 2026.

The GOP proposal relies in part on cuts to the federal-state Medicaid program, forcing states to pick up the tab.

Baker, a former health care executive, says federal Medicaid dollars are critical to helping insure Massachusetts residents. He says the state receives about $10.5 billion in federal Medicaid reimbursement each year, a little more than half of the state’s total $19 billion in Medicaid spending....       

Bermuda is caught in a whirlwind. Literally.

Satellite Imaging (Visible and Infrared), Lightning and Radar (click here)

There is small craft warnings through Wednesday. I have a feeling it might develop into more than that.

If the winds sustain the surface ocean in the middle of the Atlantic will not behave. The energy in the wind will be transmitted to the ocean surface.

March 20, 2017
1530.18z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)

There is no sense in reading a bill that changes by the second.

Tax credits. Really? Senior citizens are going to be able to pay for their expenses long enough for tax credits to kick in? Republicans are idiots. We will be seeing Senior Citizens escorted to prison for not filing their taxes, bankruptcy for not paying medical bills and loss of their homes. Republicans are stupid people.

March 20, 2017
By Susan Cornwell and Valerie Volcovici

U.S. House Republicans (click here) are working on changes to their healthcare overhaul bill to provide more generous tax credits for older Americans and add a work requirement for the Medicaid program for the poor, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday.

Ryan said Republican leaders still planned to bring the healthcare bill to a vote on the House of Representatives floor on Thursday. Speaking on the "Fox News Sunday" television program, he said leaders were working to address concerns that had been raised by rank-and-file Republicans to the legislation.

Republicans remain deeply divided over the healthcare overhaul, which is President Donald Trump's first major legislative initiative. It aims to fulfill his campaign pledge to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, the signature healthcare program of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.

Democrats say the Republican plan could throw millions off health insurance and hurt the elderly, poor and working families while giving tax cuts to the rich.

"We think we should be offering even more assistance than the bill currently does" for lower-income people age 50 to 64, Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, said of the tax credits for health insurance that are proposed in the legislation....

Prime Minister Theresa May will introduce Brexit next week.

March 20, 2017

By Jon Clifton

...From a data perspective, (click here) things seemed OK.

Another metric, however, showed something different happening in the U.K. ― “happiness.” In the two years leading up to Brexit, Gallup found that the percentage of people who were “happy” (or “thriving”) was in dramatic decline. In fact, the 15-percentage-point decline in the percentage of people rating their lives positively enough to be considered thriving was so dramatic that it remains among the largest two-year drops in Gallup’s history of global tracking....

The reality on the street has been very different for those in the UK than the propaganda of the government. In 2013 the reality of 'the street' became more and more apparent. While the GDP was suppose to indicate the country was doing well enough, the reality was "the money was flowing in one direction, to the top 10 percent.

17 March 2016

By Graham Vanbergen

Forty years after Margaret Thatcher came to power the true extent of neoliberal market reforms are still unravelling and inequality, as we are now hearing almost daily, has inexhorably taken a grip and harming society much more widely as a direct result with evidence of rising poverty its consequence.

The Equality Trust and High Pay Centre has average pay for UK workers calculated as £26,500. However, average pay conceals the reality for millions.

For instance, the top 0.1% are earning a few pounds over £1 million a year and the top 1% are earning an average £271,888. What this figure hides is the fact that the top FTSE chief executives are earning an average of £4.3 million and it takes them just 2.5 days to earn the average annual workers pay. These statistics do not include other successful groups such as self employed entrepreneurs.

The top 10% of UK workers earn £79,196. But the truth here is that this also includes the earnings of the top 1%, meaning the next 9% don’t really earn that figure.

What is grotesque is the next number that should shock everyone. The average pay of the next 90%, (by stripping out all earnings of the top 10%, including the 1% and 0.1% groups) leaves an annual income of just £12,969. Yes, you read that right. Stripping out the top 10% of average pay, leaves just £12,969 average pay for the remaining 90% of the population.

What is interesting about the figures collated by the Inequality Trust is that the data is about two years old (not their fault – it’s what is available), so things will actually be slightly worse as all analysts agree that inequality is getting worse, not better.

That statistic itself is shocking enough on its own but many people in that 90% category earn considerably more than £12,969, leaving the bottom 20% earning around £5,500 per annum....

The idea the British 'finally got it' is not a new phenomena. People are people and their physiology hasn't changed from the beginnings of existence. People of any nationality, any country understand oppression of their well being and have within them the need for hope. Hope is an important thing, HOWEVER, when hope turns to despair because the anticipation becomes a different reality there is a change in their survival and unrest sets in.

It has been the case through the beginning of time, the people, the masses if you will begin to look through the same lens and see their foolishness and the threat to their children's well being and all hell breaks loose. It is fact, it will never change. Get used to that idea. The lowest income individual has a friend and they another friend and they others and the masses begin to care about each other because "There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford," witnessing so called criminals being lead to the scaffolding for hanging.

As Bradford, an evangelical preacher realized in 1555, witnessed men and women being put to death by rules of law; the law can serve a master of ill intent upon their subjects. Bradford eventually was burned at the stake without a change in his demeanor. Poor fool.

The modern day 'stake' is homelessness, impoverishment and now in the USA obstruction to a quality education resulting in impoverishment, homelessness, etc. In the USA it is disguised through racism and the stereotype of laziness. The reality is setting in and the American people are finally seeing their foolishness in allowing anger rule their decisions. But, there is the popular vote and the Russians, too.

This is paranoia and oppression.

March 19, 2017
By Lisa Rein and Juliet Eilperin

The political appointee (click here) charged with keeping watch over Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and his aides has offered unsolicited advice so often that after just four weeks on the job, Pruitt has shut him out of many staff meetings, according to two senior administration officials.

At the Pentagon, they’re privately calling the former Marine officer and fighter pilot who’s supposed to keep his eye on Defense Secretary Jim Mattis “the commissar,” according to a high-ranking defense official with knowledge of the situation. It’s a reference to Soviet-era Communist Party officials who were assigned to military units to ensure their commanders remained loyal.

Most members of President Trump’s Cabinet do not yet have leadership teams in place or even nominees for top deputies. But they do have an influential coterie of senior aides installed by the White House who are charged — above all — with monitoring the secretaries’ loyalty, according to eight officials in and outside the administration....

This level of paranoia is definitely something that should not be tolerated. It will interfere with smooth running of the government. It will slow things down and cause second guessing by decision makers.

Donald Trump needs to be impeached. This is ILLNESS and not function. It is deploying the SS into the government structure.

I fully expect the "LOYALIST MONITORS" to patrol the agencies seeking federal employees to fire. When that occurs it will most likely be racism.

Each result is based on a three-day rolling average. (click here)

Spring Equinox 2017 in Northern Hemisphere was at 6:28 AM

March 19, 2017

By Steve Raleigh

Spring -- also known as the vernal equinox -- is here! (click here)

Spring officially arrived at 6:28 Monday morning. Of course, that's when the sun (direct solar rays) was directly over the equator and the vernal equinox arrived.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the word equinox is derived from two Latin words: aequus (equal) and nox (night)....

Just to add some perspective to Earth's rotation around Sol, our sun's name, the orbit is not always equal distance.

Below the folks in New Jersey have brought more facts to the surface of those interested.

Timing is everything (click here)

Spring will officially arrive on Monday March 20 at 10:29 a.m. UTC. That’s Coordinated Universal Time, the clock that labs around the world like the U.S. Naval  Observatory use. It replaced Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT), which is no longer used by scientists.

Translated into eastern time, that means we’ll welcome spring in New Jersey at 6:29 a.m. that day....

Interesting.

It’s a compound word whose origins go all the way back to 1350 the medieval Latin term aequinoctium meaning the time of equal (aequi or equi) days and nights (noct or nox).

The Cherry Blossoms in DC had to have their peak season revised to later because of the harsh cold.

UPDATE: (click here) The National Park Service posted on March 17 that about half of the cherry blossoms survived the cold and that they expect those to bloom late next week....

...In the meantime, we’re seeing a stretch of very cold weather with temperatures that are damaging the blossoms that are in the later stages of their development. It is not yet clear how much damage they will have sustained when all is said and done.

On March 15, the NPS put out a press release that said, in part: “With temperatures moderating after the current cold snap, peak bloom of the Yoshino variety of cherry trees is still expected to occur within the projected March 19-22 window. However, the number of cherry trees that reach the blossom stage may be reduced as a result of the recent cold temperatures.”

2017 Cherry Blossom Watch (click here)

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

The rooster asked what happens when a basketball is given 'spin' when thrown from the top of a dam?

"Of course, The Magnus Effect."

"Good Night, Moon"

The waning gibbous

21.7 days old

55.3 percent lit

March 19, 2017
By Joe Rao

If you have a telescope, (click here) you might want to consider setting your alarm on Monday (March 20) for around 5 a.m. local daylight time (4 a.m. standard time if you live in Hawaii, Arizona or Puerto Rico, which do not observe daylight time). If you step outside at that hour and look southeast, you'll see what are probably the two most popular celestial objects to look at through a telescope: Earth's moon and the planet Saturn.

On Monday, which is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the moon will be just hours away from officially arriving at its last quarter (or half-moon) phase. And hovering about 2 and a half degrees below the moon will be Saturn, the "Lord of the Rings."...

The word out of Alaska, is man-up and stop passing the climate buck to the kids!

News-Miner Community Perspective:

March 18, 2017
By Phillip Martin

Photo Plate. (click here) Series of photographs of the terminus of Portage Glacier. 1914 and 1939 taken from Turnagain Shoulder NW to SE view; 1972 and 1984 oblique aerial view NW to SE; 1999 and 2006 oblique aerial view NE to SW toward Portage Glacier. Photo credits: 1914, Strough 1939, Barnes 1943, Plate 17B; 1972, USGS photograph; 1984, Aeromap U.S.; 1999 and 2006, USGS photographs.

When I began gardening in Fairbanks in the 1980s, (click here) killing frosts commonly occurred in August. But in recent years, I have been able to harvest well into mid-September. Climatologists tell us that Alaska is warming at twice the global average rate, and gardeners are not the only ones who have noticed. Native elders observe that natural seasonal patterns that have guided subsistence practices for centuries are no longer reliable. Glaciers popular with sightseers (Columbia, Mendenhall and Portage, for example) have receded far from their former scenic viewpoints. Seeing is believing, and perhaps that is why most Alaska residents accept climate warming as fact....

...What is perfectly clear, however, is a history of congressional inaction on the issue of climate change, and our delegation has been complicit. With so much at stake for Alaska, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young should instead be outspoken leaders in a political alliance for sensible climate policies. These include:

• a robust multi-agency climate science program to better define risks and probable trajectories of environmental change, including a focus on arctic systems;

• vigorous support for adherence to the 2016 Paris Climate Treaty, our best opportunity to influence actions by other nations which affect us significantly; and

• strong incentives for development and adoption of energy conservation and renewable energy technologies that will reduce global carbon emissions, create new jobs and lower the staggering energy costs that currently afflict our communities and families.

We are at a critical political juncture, with Washington. D.C., politicians charting a course that threatens our economy and natural resources. Doing nothing is not without cost. It is time for Alaska’s political leaders to stop passing the buck to our children and grandchildren.

Future changes of the terminus of Portage Glacier will depend on a variety of factors. However, present scientific theory (Meier and Post, 1987, Trabant and others, 2003) suggests that calving glaciers cycle between advance and retreat patterns; with rapid retreats, followed by stable retracted positions, slow advances, and then stable extended positions that are not directly related to climate change. Thus, based on its history to date, and if such a pattern holds for Portage Glacier, the glacier may now be in its stable retracted position and could eventually begin a slow advance. However, for a glacier to advance, annual net balance—the amount of new snow and ice added to the glacier minus the amount of glacier melt—must be positive. As a rule of thumb for valley glaciers, net balance is positive when annual snow and ice accumulation occurs over more than 60–70 percent of the entire glacier area. Such accumulation occurs on the glacier above the end-of-summer snow-line altitude, recently measured by USGS at 1,000 meters in altitude. Only 50 percent (not the rule-of-thumb 60–70 percent) of Portage Glacier is more than 1,000 meters in altitude, thus, Portage Glacier may slowly thin and recede rather than experience a slow advance.

It is called the climate crisis. It is real and it is happening. Earth needs it's ice to mitigate climate and keep Earth cool. 

In industry and government President Obama saw the final stage take place of Green Chemistry.

November 29, 2016
By Sam Lemonick

In May Congress (click here) amended the Toxic Substances Control Act, a 40-year old law intended to ensure the safety of the growing array of new chemicals being created, like dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). The original law was written with an eye toward balancing the EPA’s regulatory responsibilities against the financial interests of the chemical industry.

Over time it became clear that the law didn’t give the EPA sufficient power to protect Americans. The amended law, which had broad support, directs the EPA to be more proactive, judging chemicals’ potential for harm before they reach the market. It also requires the EPA to start reviewing substances already out in the world, asking for a list of 10 chemicals thought to be most harmful by mid-December.

The agency turned its work in early, releasing that list today. It now has three years to evaluate their risks. If the EPA decides any pose an unreasonable threat to human health or the environment, it has two years to do something about it, like banning the chemical....

The EPA is doing vital work and must complete their findings to submit to Congress.

...How People Are Exposed to DDT (click here)

C14 H9 Cl5

It isn't so much the carbons and the carbon rings that are the problem, it is the single Hydrogen and the chlorine that interact with the body. You know choline. NACL. NaCl. Sodium Chloride. Chlorine is highly reactive. Chlorine gas killed many in Syria. (click here) It is highly reactive.

People are most likely to be exposed to DDT from foods, including meat, fish, and dairy products. DDT can be absorbed by eating, breathing, or touching products contaminated with DDT. In the body, DDT is converted into several breakdown products called metabolites, including the metabolite dichlorodiphenyldichloroethene (DDE). DDT and DDE are stored in the body’s fatty tissues. In pregnant women, DDT and DDE can be passed to the fetus. Both chemicals are found in breast milk, resulting in exposure to nursing infants....

This shows the growth of the understanding of halocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride .

It is rather incredible to think about. The entire world came together in peace to protect their common home. We all came to conclusions based in scientific principles that have been developed over decades, centuries and millennia of time.

It was one of the greatest times in modern history. Earth's ozone holes brought all of us together in one effort and it works. It has to continue to work and the gases that place all of us in danger, even if it is only skin cancer that is the result. The Ozone Layer is very important and crops need it for protection as well as people. All living things, including animals and wildlife, need the protection of O3. Three atoms of oxygen. Amazing. 

This cartoon was in a Chinese publication. The Chinese people do hold their government responsible for pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

USA's major pollutants

These are the gases the USA is polluting to this day. President Obama did a heck of a job clamping down on CO2. That is impressive. He definitely is the environmental President. This graph only goes to 2012.

Don't think the USA can let up, as Trump "believes," on reducing and eliminating gas pollution. It cannot. Let's just say it is important CONTAINMENT is in place. The country is doing well and it should continue to do so.

Just because the gases at the bottom of the graph seem insignificant, they are very significant. They have high CO2 equivalents. So, if the graph reflected the CO2 equivalent of those gases it would be far more revealing danger the USA introduces to Earth everyday. This graph simply reflects the amounts of the gases and not the danger of them.

Slowing the growth of Greenhouse Gases is no longer a viable solution. At this point, the emissions have to reverse any upward trend.

Global net GHG emissions show an increasing trend. This trend is statistically significant. (click here)

• In 2011, estimated global net GHG emissions were 33 percent higher than 1990 levels (an annual average increase of 1.4 percent or 591,240 Gg CO₂-e units (gigagrams of equivalent carbon dioxide).
• Brazil, China, the 28 European Union member countries, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, and the United States of America produce 66 percent of the world’s net emissions.
• Between 1990 and 2011, New Zealand emitted an average of 0.1 percent of global net GHG emissions.

The 66 percent is significant, but, clearly there has been efforts to slow the growth, reverse the growth or eliminate the growth of greenhouse gases that still exist. However, it is not possible to ignore China's burgeoning quality of life for it's people which is accompanied by increased greenhouse gas production. China has to and is making efforts to combat it's levels of GHG. 

What about the "Rest of the World." These are countries without the brain trust or fiscal resources to change their emissions alone. These countries have people that want to change their future and that of their children. These are the countries at the world summits that look to wealthier countries to help. The global community cannot continue to ignore the problems in these countries and offer assistance in eliminating these emissions.

Every country has a stake in this outcome. We all need to pull together to get it done.

The USA is going to require more entries on the blog because it pollutes every possible gas averse to Earth's spheres.

Industrial Processes Emissions of HFC, PFC and SF6 by Place (click here)

The link above takes the viewer to a list of states in the USA that pollute these chemicals. It has not improved since the 1990s. Now, the question is has the growth of these pollutants slowed. But, no state in the USA has eliminated these harmful gases and there is every indication there isn't enough of an effort to bring them under control.

The Democrats need to hold hearings regarding their states and what has been done and what still has to be done to eliminate the danger to the ozone layer.

Below is the symbol Gg CO2e. That symbol means Greenhouse gas carbon dioxide equivalent. Converting them to carbon dioxide (or CO2) equivalents (click here) makes it possible to compare them and to determine their individual and total contributions to global warming.

Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator (click here)

Don't forget SARS and the return of the Avian Flu.

March 17, 2017

By Ada Carr

Climate change (click here) is making Americans sicker, according to a study released this week by 400,000 doctors representing the 11 top U.S. medical  societies.

The study by the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, a new group representing half of all U.S. physicians, says impacts from global warming include cardio-respiratory diseases associated with wildfires and air pollution, injuries from extreme heat events, the spread of infectious diseases such as West Nile virus and Lyme disease, and health and mental health problems caused by floods and extreme weather.

“Doctors in every part of our country see that climate change is making Americans sicker," Dr. Mona Sarfaty, director of the consortium, said in a release on the study. "Physicians are on the frontlines and see the impacts in exam rooms. What's worse is that the harms are felt most by children, the elderly, Americans with low-income or chronic illnesses, and people in communities of color."

The map accompanying the study shows that the Southeast and the West see a majority of the impacts. Both experience poor outdoor air quality, extreme events such as flooding, storms and droughts, threats to mental health and well-being and extreme temperatures. The Southeast also experiences mosquito-borne illnesses and water-related infections, while the West sees food-related infections and wildfires.

The scientists used research on health impacts of climate change, physician stories and evidence showing that reducing greenhouse gasses improves health and save lives to draw their conclusions, according to the release....            

These are the emissions of Greenhouse gases from Mexico. Halocarbons are not emitted by every country on Earth.

The primary source of Mexico's pollutants is from it's energy sector. Mexico is trying to move into a better energy mix to bring down it's CO2 emissions. Mexico's primary pollutant is CO2 and not other halocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. Oil is still the primary fuel with natural gas on it's heels and both emit CO2.

This is the 2016 report regarding Mexico's greenhouse gas pollution (click here).

This inventory uses source categories (click here) defined by two guidance documents: the Common Reporting Format (CRF) source categories defined by the Updated UNFCCC reporting guidelines on annual inventories following incorporation of the provisions of decision 14/CP.11 memorandum, and, for Waste, source categories defined by the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.

Totals reflect net emissions (the sum of all sources minus the sum of all sinks).

The picture to the left is the Fukushima Daiichi plant with it's employees conducting work.

The USA is fully aware of how working conditions can make employees ill. The most obvious example of that were the 911 workers.

It would be reassuring to know how the employees of TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) are today. The company will have to be responsible for any radiation exposure.

March 17, 2017

By Motoko Rich

Tokyo — The Japanese government and the electric utility (click here) that operated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were negligent in not preventing the meltdowns in 2011 that forced thousands of people to flee the area, a district court in eastern Japan ruled on Friday.

It was the first time that a court determined that both the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, and the government bore responsibility for the nuclear disaster that followed a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. The decision could influence dozens of similar lawsuits filed by close to 12,000 evacuated residents living across the country....      

The next on the list for Kyoto Protocol is the consumption of halocarbons and sulphur hexafloride

North American Portal on Climate Pollutants

Welcome (click here) to the North American Portal on Climate Pollutants. This web platform is designed to make the data from air pollutant emissions inventories for Canada, Mexico and the United States comparable and easy for researchers and policy experts to use.

No, Donald Trump does not have any pets. He doesn’t have any dogs or cats or furry.

This is a picture with a champion beagle, but, he does not have pets. Not even a goldfish.

November 10, 2016
By Steve Dale

I believe (click here) I write about making our world a better place as dogs and cats give us a daily dose of unadulterated goodness. Pets also teach us empathy daily. Studies confirm that children growing up with pets are more empathetic adults.

I agree with President Elect Trump on many issues, from keeping our military strong to maintaining as many jobs as possible within our borders.

To be an effective President also requires empathy, a quality I have not previously noted in Trump but hope to see moving forward.

Empathy is the ability to truly feel what it may be like to walk in someone else’s shoes… to be caring and loving – to want to help others because you want to – because it is the right thing to do, and for no other reason....