mediaite | Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings is in Baltimore
tonight, and he started using a bullhorn at around 10 pm to tell people
to clear out after the police-imposed curfew for protesters. Fox News
reporter Leland Vittert was on the scene and asked some questions of Cummings about the protests and the new report tonight claiming Freddie Graymay have been trying to injure himself.
Sean Hannity,
back in his studio, had some questions for Cummings too, but the second
Cummings was informed Hannity wished to speak with him, he made his way
off-camera.
Vittert kept following him, though, and Hannity used him to ask Cummings if President Obama
jumped to conclusions too soon in Baltimore. And as Cummings spoke,
Hannity chimed in with counter-commentary that he couldn’t hear, like
claiming that Obama “lashed out against the police.”
Cummings kept shouting through his bullhorn for people to go home
instead of answering more questions. Vittert kept following and at one
point Cummings shouted at him through the bullhorn.
And towards the end of this segment, you can hear Cummings shouting
to another Fox News personality: “Excuse me, Geraldo! Excuse me! We’re
trying to make sure people go home!”
Washington Post | It’s not surprising that a black mother in Baltimore who chased down, cursed and beat her 16-year-old son in the middle of a riot has been called a hero. In this country, when black mothers fulfill stereotypes of mammies, angry and thwarting resistance to a system designed to kill their children, they get praised.
“He gave me eye contact,” Toya Graham told CBS News. “And at that point, you know, not even thinking about cameras or anything like that — that’s my only son and at the end of the day, I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray. Is he the perfect boy? No he’s not, but he’s mine.”
In other words, Graham’s message to America is: I will teach my black son not to resist white supremacy so he can live.
The kind of violent discipline Graham unleashed on her son did not originate with her, or with my adoptive mother who publicly beat me when I was a child, or with the legions of black parents who equate pain with protection and love. The beatings originated with white supremacy, a history of cultural and physical violence that devalues black life at every turn. From slavery through Jim Crow, from the school-to-prison pipeline, the innocence and protection of black children has always been a dream deferred.
The problem is that Graham’s actions do not assure that her son, and legions like him, will survive childhood. Recall the uncle who in 2011 posted a video recording of himself beating his teenage nephew for posting gang messages on Facebook. Acting out of love and fear for his life, he whipped the teen, but months later he was found dead anyway.
Praising Graham distracts from a hard truth: It doesn’t matter how black children behave – whether they throw rocks at the police, burn a CVS, join gangs, walk home from the store with candy in their pocket, listen to rap music in a car with friends, play with a toy gun in a park, or simply make eye contact with a police officer – they risk beingkilled and blamed for their own deaths because black youths are rarely viewed as innocent or worthy of protection.
HuffPo | Hillary Clinton will deliver a major speech on criminal justice
reform Wednesday, calling for fundamental changes to how the United
States punishes its citizens and an end to a system that
disproportionately targets black men.
Clinton is scheduled to keynote
the 18th Annual David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum at
Columbia University Wednesday morning. It will be her most significant
policy address since she launched her 2016 presidential bid this month.
Clinton
will lay out her vision for criminal justice reform, centering around
an "end to the era of mass incarceration," according to an aide who
provided a preview of her remarks. Those changes include addressing
probation and drug diversion programs, increasing support for mental
health and drug treatment and pursuing alternative punishments for
low-level offenders.
She also will call for body cameras for every police department in
order to increase transparency and accountability in a way that benefits
both officers and members of the public.
In a December speech to the Massachusetts Conference for Women, Clinton said the country needed to look at "hard truths" about racial injustice in the current system.
During a fundraising event in New York City Tuesday, Clinton addressed the tensions in Baltimore, which is still reeling from the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died after sustaining injuries while in police custody.
“It
is heartbreaking,” Clinton said. “The tragic death of another young
African-American man. The injuries to police officers. The burning of
peoples’ homes and small businesses. We have to restore order and
security. But then we have to take a hard look as to what we need to do
to reform our system.”
Clinton will also make additional comments about Baltimore on Wednesday.
Clinton's
rhetoric on criminal justice has changed significantly since the 1990s,
when she was first lady and when President Bill Clinton signed a
massive 1994 crime bill into law. At the time, many politicians in both
parties -- including Clinton herself -- were pushing for more prisons and stricter sentencing laws.
A video posted by BE-Z Clothing Comp (@mrbez4ever) on
motherjones | Meg Gibson, another Baltimore teacher, described a similar scene to Gawker:
"The riot police were already at the bus stop on the other side of the
mall, turning buses that transport the students away, not allowing
students to board. They were waiting for the kids.…Those kids were set
up, they were treated like criminals before the first brick was thrown."
With police unloading busses, and with the nearby metro station shut
down, there were few ways for students to clear out.
Several eyewitnesses in the area that afternoon say that police
seemed to arrive at Mondawmin anticipating mobs and violence—prior to
any looting. At 3:01 p.m., the Baltimore Police Department posted on its
Facebook page: "There is a group of juveniles in the area of Mondawmin
Mall. Expect traffic delays in the area." But many of the kids,
according to eyewitnesses, were stuck there because of police actions.
The Baltimore Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Around 3:30, the police reported that juveniles had begun to throw
bottles and bricks. Fifteen minutes later, the police department noted
that one of its officers had been injured. After that the violence
escalated, and rioters started looting the Mondawmin Mall, and Baltimore
was in for a long night of trouble and violence. But as the event is
reviewed and investigated, an important question warrants attention:
What might have happened had the police not prevented students from
leaving the area?
Did the department's own actions increase the chances
of conflict?
As Meghann Harris put it, "if I were a Douglas student that just got
trapped in the middle of a minefield BY cops without any way to get home
and completely in harm's way, I'd be ready to pop off, too."
On social media, eyewitnesses chronicled the dramatic police presence before the rioting began:
On Twitter, Baltimore residents vented their frustration with the situation.
TPM | Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes let loose on CNN's Erin Burnett
on Tuesday night after the news anchor argued that "thugs" was "the
right word" to describe protestors on the streets.
Burnett, who is white, began by noting that both Baltimore Mayor
Stephanie Rawlins-Blake and President Obama had referred to the "bad
actors" as "thugs."
Stokes, who is black, rejected the word and told Burnett she was
referring to teenagers and young people — "our children" — who clashed
with police on Monday night.
"But how does that justify what they did?" Burnett said. "I mean,
that’s a sense of right and wrong. They know it’s wrong to steal and
burn down a CVS and an old person’s home. I mean, come on."
"Come on?" Stokes said. "So calling them thugs — just call them niggers. Just call them niggers."
"When you say 'come on,' come on what?" he added. "You wouldn't call
your a child a thug if they did something which was not what you'd
expect them to do."
"I would hope I would call my son a thug if he ever did such a thing," Burnett shot back.
dailymail | Donning a smart black jacket, she shared an emotional hug with a protester wielding a bottle. Shortly after, she angrily told a Fox News host that demonstrators were not looking for trouble.
Now,
Maryland State Senator Catherine E. Pugh is under fire for
'empathizing' with the hundreds of people who were taking to the streets
of Baltimore armed with rocks and bottles on Tuesday night.
The
65-year-old was accused of being 'foolish' and 'an embarrassment' by
social media users for defending protesters in the city, which has been
the scene of riots following Freddie Gray's death.
According
to WJZ, she added: 'That is the only way the public gets to see that we
care about our city, that we care about violence against our people and
we can do better than what’s being done today.'
Ms
Pugh's pleas on Tuesday were of a similar nature. Shortly after her hug
with the demonstrator, she joined Fox News's Geraldo Rivera for an
interview - but the reporter quickly ran afoul of protesters.
As
a male demonstrator deliberately cut in front of the camera, Mr Rivera
shouted: 'You're making a fool of yourself.' Referring to Ms Pugh, he
added: 'If we can get her away from these vandals here.
In response,
Ms Pugh appeared to say: 'They're not vandals.' As protesters shouted
things like 'stop making money off black pain' at Rivera, Ms Pugh added:
'We want the media to move back.'
'It seems like they want trouble,' Mr Rivera replied, according to Raw Story. However, Ms Pugh insisted: 'They don't want trouble', before claiming that the media presence was 'inciting' people.
'They’ve
been demonstrating very peacefully. And you know, I think that what
people say there are camera lights, and when you see that, it incites
people,' Ms Pugh told Mr Rivera in remarks aired live on Fox.
'But
these people have been out here all day long just demonstrating very
peacefully. And they’re demonstrating because they care about their
neighborhoods, and they care about their communities.
During
the interview, Ms Pugh led Mr Rivera and his cameraman away from the
demonstrators. Also on Tuesday night, she asked the media via
loudspeaker to move back and 'respect our communities'.
investors | However angry people might be, we're still a nation of laws. The
legal system has to function for justice to be done. Rioting is a
breakdown of public order that can ruin neighborhoods, communities and
entire cities.
That's why Baltimore Mayor Stephanie
Rawlings-Blake's comments are truly astounding. Not only did she not
tell those who were demonstrating to wait until all the facts were in,
she seemed to encourage the worst elements among them to do violence.
In
a press conference Sunday, Rawlings-Blake said, "I ... instructed (the
police) to do everything that they could to make sure that the
protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech. ... We also
gave those who wished to destroy space to do that."
"Space" to
rob, loot and commit arson? Even after 35 people were arrested and six
police officers injured during the protests? It was an extraordinarily
inflammatory comment.
Meanwhile, Baltimore police report "credible
information" that an alliance of gangs has formed to "take out" cops —
possible fallout from the mayor's remarks.
It has been claimed
that this violence was all the handiwork of "outsiders." "The Baltimore
Police Department believes that outside agitators continue to be the
instigators behind acts of violence and destruction," Police
Commissioner Anthony W. Batts told the media.
It wasn't clearly worded on her part. She should have said "However by giving those peaceful protesters the space and protection to protest, we also gave those who wished to destroy the space to do so." She learned the unfortunate lesson that right-wing whackjobs will selectively cut a soundbite out of context, and use it to promote the angle they desire.
theatlantic | The people now calling for nonviolence are not prepared to answer
these questions. Many of them are charged with enforcing the very
policies that led to Gray's death, and yet they can offer no rational
justification for Gray's death and so they appeal for calm. But there
was no official appeal for calm when Gray was being arrested. There was
no appeal for calm when Jerriel Lyles
was assaulted. (“The blow was so heavy. My eyes swelled up. Blood was
dripping down my nose and out my eye.”) There was no claim for
nonviolence on behalf of Venus Green.
(“Bitch, you ain’t no better than any of the other old black bitches I
have locked up.”) There was no plea for peace on behalf of Starr Brown. (“They slammed me down on my face,” Brown added, her voice cracking. “The skin was gone on my face.")
When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions
of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins
halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes
itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of
the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens,
it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting
or violence is "correct" or "wise," any more than a forest fire can be
"correct" or "wise." Wisdom isn't the point tonight. Disrespect is. In
this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so
regularly disrespects the rioters themselves.
theatlantic | Take a walk along West
Florissant Avenue, in Ferguson, Missouri. Head south of the burned-out
Quik Trip and the famous McDonalds, south of the intersection with
Chambers, south almost to the city limit, to the corner of Ferguson
Avenue and West Florissant. There, last August, Emerson Electric
announced third-quarter sales of $6.3 billion. Just over half a mile to
the northeast, four days later, Officer Darren Wilson killed Michael
Brown. The 12 shots fired by Officer Wilson were probably audible in the
company lunchroom.
Outwardly, at least, the City of Ferguson would appear to occupy an
enviable position. It is home to a Fortune 500 firm. It has successfully
revitalized a commercial corridor through its downtown. It hosts an
office park filled with corporate tenants. Its coffers should be
overflowing with tax dollars.
Instead, the cash-starved municipality relies on its cops and
its courts to extract millions in fines and fees from its poorest
residents, issuing thousands of citations each year. Those tickets plug a
financial hole created by the ways in which the city, the county, and
the state have chosen to apportion the costs of public services. A
century or more of public-policy choices protect the wallets of largely
white business and property owners and pass the bills along to
disproportionately black renters and local residents. It's easy to see
the drama of a fatal police shooting, but harder to understand the
complexities of municipal finances that created many thousands of
hostile encounters, one of which turned fatal.
The
familiar convention of the true-crime story turns out to be utterly
inadequate for describing the social, economic, and legal subjection of
black people in Ferguson, or anywhere in America. Understanding this
requires looking beyond the 90-second drama to the 90 years of
entrenched white supremacy and black disadvantage that preceded it.
NYTimes | Alysia Thomas, a stay-at-home mother in this working-class city, tells
her children to skip a bath on days when they do not play outside; that
holds down the water bill. Lillian Barrera, a housekeeper who travels 25
miles to clean homes in Beverly Hills, serves dinner to her family on
paper plates for much the same reason. In the fourth year of a severe
drought, conservation is a fine thing, but in this Southern California
community, saving water means saving money.
The challenge of California’s drought is starkly different in Cowan
Heights, a lush oasis of wealth and comfort 30 miles east of here. That
is where Peter L. Himber, a pediatric neurologist, has decided to stop
watering the gently sloping hillside that he spent $100,000 to turn into
a green California paradise, seeding it with a carpet of rich native
grass and installing a sprinkler system fit for a golf course. But that
is also where homeowners like John Sears, a retired food-company
executive, bristle with defiance at the prospect of mandatory cuts in
water use.
“This is a high fire-risk area,” Mr. Sears said. “If we cut back 35
percent and all these homes just let everything go, what’s green will
turn brown. Tell me how the fire risk will increase.”
The
fierce drought that is gripping the West — and the imminent prospect of
rationing and steep water price increases in California — is sharpening
the deep economic divide in this state, illustrating parallel worlds in
which wealthy communities guzzle water as poorer neighbors conserve by
necessity. The daily water consumption rate was 572.4 gallons per person
in Cowan Heights from July through September 2014, the hot and dry
summer months California used to calculate community-by-community water rationing orders; it was 63.6 gallons per person in Compton during that same period.
Now,
California is trying to turn that dynamic on its head, forcing the
state’s biggest water users, which include some of the wealthiest
communities, to bear the brunt of the statewide 25 percent cut in urban
water consumption ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown. Cowan Heights is facing a
36 percent cut in its water use, compared with 8 percent for Compton.
desdimonadespair |The Wall Street Journal continues its long tradition of
printing editorials that reject the findings of climate science. On
Earth Day 2015, we were treated to Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of
the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, rolling out some
old denialist chestnuts, to criticize proposed U.S. policy changes for
reducing carbon emissions and adapting to global warming (“The Climate-Change Religion”).
It’s a rote exercise that lists the usual talking points. Normally, Des
wouldn’t bother to rebut a boilerplate antiscience editorial in The Wall Street Journal, but because this is coming from the chairman of the House Committee on Science, something must be said.
Canard 1: Climate science is a religion
Rep. Smith writes:
At
least the United Nations’ then-top climate scientist, Rajendra
Pachauri, acknowledged—however inadvertently—the faith-based nature of
climate-change rhetoric when he resigned amid scandal in February. In a
farewell letter, he said that “the protection of Planet Earth, the
survival of all species and sustainability of our ecosystems is more
than a mission. It is my religion and my dharma.”
When
antiscience forces go after a scientific discipline, they frequently
accuse it of being a “religion”, meaning that its adherents cling
irrationally to facts that aren’t in evidence. These same critics often
argue from a religious viewpoint themselves, and people who live in
glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks, but they persist.
Rep.
Smith’s swipe at former IPCC chair, Rajendra Pachauri, is meant to sew
suspicion about the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC). He fails to mention that Pachauri resigned after an accusation
of sexual harassment, not because of any institutional corruption.
Canard 2: Climate science is bad science
Rep.
Smith concludes: “Instead of letting political ideology or climate
“religion” guide government policy, we should focus on good science.”
On
this, we’re in complete agreement. But the chairman of the science
committee expectorates the same zombie arguments that shamble about in
the blogosphere year after year, for example:
Canard 3: No warming in the last N years
“Climate alarmists have failed to explain the lack of global warming over the past 15 years.”
This
claim is wrong in a couple of ways, and even though it’s repeatedly
pointed out to denialists why it’s wrong, they keep trotting it out.
This simple graph by Tamino puts the claim to rest.
Canard 4: The U.N. is cooking the data
Next, Rep. Smith goes after a favorite Republican target: the United Nations.
The
U.N. process is designed to generate alarmist results. Many people
don’t realize that the most-publicized documents of the U.N. reports are
not written by scientists. In fact, the scientists who work on the
underlying science are forced to step aside to allow partisan political
representatives to develop the “Summary for Policy Makers.” It is
scrubbed to minimize any suggestion of scientific uncertainty and is
publicized before the actual science is released. The Summary for Policy
Makers is designed to give newspapers and headline writers around the
world only one side of the debate.
Meanwhile, Rep. Smith is busy deploying his committee to gather testimony from contrarians like Judith Curry,
while excluding mainstream scientists. Essentially, he commits the same
crimes against science that he accuses IPCC of committing.
Canard 5: Even the U.N. says it can’t prove global warming
Rep. Smith goes on to quote an IPCC report:
In its 2012 Special Report on
Extreme Events, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
says there is “high agreement” among leading experts that long-term
trends in weather disasters are not attributable to human-caused climate
change.
Setting aside the question of why he would
appeal to a document from the very organization he’s trying to convince
us is corrupt, it’s hard to know which part of the report he’s
referring to.
evolution-institute | One of the most mind-expanding books that you’ll ever read is Evolution in Four Dimensions by Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb. They remind us that evolution is about variation, selection, and heredity,
not genes. Genes provide one mechanism of heredity but there are
others, including epigenetic mechanisms, forms of social learning found
in many species, and forms of symbolic thought that are distinctively
human. They provide a concise history of why evolutionary theory became
so gene-centric during the 20th Century and how it needs to be expanded to include the other three dimensions.
Eva Jablonka is a Professor at the Cohn Institute for the History of
Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University in Israel. I
talked with her by Skype on November 6 2014. Our conversation provides a
panoramic tour of evolutionary theory based on heredity, not just
genes.
DSW: Welcome, Eva. I’m so pleased to be talking with you.
EJ: Hello, David.
DSW: I want to talk to you about the definition of
evolution and the need for it to go beyond genetic evolution. This is
the topic of your great book, Evolution in Four Dimensions, which I have
adopted as the first text for almost all of my courses. That’s how much
I think of it. Let’s begin by discussing your background. What is your
training that enables you to write such a book?
EJ: I am a geneticist. I did a PhD in genetics and
molecular biology; in fact, on DNA methylation and chromatin structure.
Before that, I did a Masters thesis in microbiology. At the same time, I
was deeply interested in philosophy of biology. While I was doing a PhD
in genetics, I was also writing papers for philosophy of biology
journals. I thought that I should combine the two because theoretical
biology and evolutionary biology need a very strong conceptual basis. I
ended up being in some kind of twilight zone between the two things. For
me it was a productive combination.
DSW: Great! Everyone knows that Darwin knew nothing
about genes. For him, evolution was about variation, selection and
heredity, a resemblance between parents and offspring. Nevertheless,
nowadays, whenever you say the word “evolution,” most people hear
“genes.” That’s true for a professional evolutionist, as much as for the
lay public. How is it that the study of evolution became gene-centric?
EJ: It is related to the strong focus on heredity
that is apparent already in the second 19th century, when many theories
of heredity were developed. Once evolution became an accepted theory it
was clear that one has to think very seriously about heredity. In order
to have cumulative evolution, heredity is necessary. Darwin himself
had a theory of heredity, which was, in fact, one of the most Lamarckian
theories of heredity around at the time! The point is, however, that
he needed a theory of heredity to consolidate his theory of evolution,
and he did develop one.
The other reason heredity became focal was because of the Industrial
Revolution. The population was growing and there was an urgent need to
feed people so improvements in agriculture became pertinent. It was
clear that breeding and selection were of great importance, and
selection must be based on heritable variation. The study of heritable
variation was therefore important from a practical point of view.
whyevolutionistrue | Here’s Discovery Institute Fellow Paul Nelson—who lives in Chicago
and sometimes creeps me out by depositing Intelligent Design propaganda
in my departmental mailbox—using a novel (but stupid) argument for
Intelligent Design, aka God’s Handiwork. It’s based on embryology and
teleology. Have a look at this 9.5-minute video on nematode development,
which distorts the cool developmental biology of the worm (work that
garnered a Nobel Prize) to make it seem like evidence for Design.
All the biology is accurate up to 4:58, although a bit repetitive,
but that’s where Nelson begins to slip off the rails and argue that
development can’t be explained by evolution because embryology looks
like it has foresight—ergo Jebus. As he says, “The case for
design could not be made more explicit.” But the argument for “design”
isn’t even very sophisticated, and can be refuted with only an
elementary knowledge of evolution.
I’ll leave it to the readers to educate each other on this one—it’s
an exercise in using what you’ve learned about how evolution works to
address creationist distortions . Do post below the reason why Nelson’s
argument is fatally flawed. And watch the movie first. It’s a slick
production, full of sophistry.
atrazinelovers | Atrazine is an herbicide (weed-killer) primarily used on corn. Atrazine
is the most common chemical contaminant of ground and surface water in
the United States. It is a potent endocrine disruptor with ill effects
in wildlife, laboratory animals and humans. Atrazine chemically
castrates and feminizes wildlife and reduces immune function in both
wildlife and laboratory rodents. Atrazine induces breast and prostate
cancer, retards mammary development, and induces abortion in laboratory
rodents. Studies in human populations and cell and tissue studies
suggest that atrazine poses similar threats to humans. The
peer-reviewed scientific studies to support these statements are
summarized and can be viewed as you navigate this website.
Atrazine has been denied regulatory approval by the European Union and
is, thus, banned, in Europe, even in Switzerland, the home of the
manufacturer. Despite the environmental and public health risks,
atrazine continues to be used in the US, for economic reasons. Atrazine
may only increase corn yield by as little as 1.2 % (and not at all
according to some studies. The agri-giant Syngenta, however, has a very
powerful lobby and spent $250,000 lobbying in Minnesota alone in 2005
to keep atrazine on the market there.
With as little as 1.2 % increase in corn, a crop that we consume less
than 2% of, in a world where 20% of the population will die of
starvation, it is incumbent upon us to become involved in the
regulatory process regarding atrazine. We (the public) must play an
active role in this regulatory decision.
NewYorker | In 2010, Hayes told the EcoRisk panel in an e-mail, “I have just
initiated what will be the most extraordinary academic event in this
battle!” He had another paper coming out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
which described how male tadpoles exposed to atrazine grew up to be
functional females with impaired fertility. He advised the company that
it would want to get its P.R. campaign up to speed. “It’s nice to know
that in this economy I can keep so many people employed,” he wrote. He
quoted both Tupac Shakur and the South African king Shaka Zulu: “Never
leave an enemy behind or it will rise again to fly at your throat.”
Syngenta’s head of global product safety wrote a letter to the editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
and to the president of the National Academy of Sciences, expressing
concern that a “publication with so many obvious weaknesses could
achieve publication in such a reputable scientific journal.” A month
later, Syngenta filed an ethics complaint with the chancellor of
Berkeley, claiming that Hayes’s e-mails violated the university’s
Standards of Ethical Conduct, particularly Respect for Others. Syngenta
posted more than eighty of Hayes’s e-mails on its Web site and enclosed a
few in its letter to the chancellor. In one, with the subject line “Are
y’all ready for it,” Hayes wrote, “Ya fulla my j*z right now!” In
another, he told the Syngenta scientists that he’d had a drink after a
conference with their “republican buddies,” who wanted to know about a
figure he had used in his paper. “As long as you followin me around, I
know I’m da sh*t,” he wrote. “By the way, yo boy left his pre-written
questions at the table!”
Berkeley declined to
take disciplinary action against Hayes. The university’s lawyer reminded
Syngenta in a letter that “all parties have an equal responsibility to
act professionally.” David Wake said that he read many of the e-mails
and found them “quite hilarious.” “He’s treating them like street punks,
and they view themselves as captains of industry,” he said. “When he
gets tapped, he goes right back at them.”
Michelle
Boone, a professor of aquatic ecology at Miami University, who served
on the E.P.A.’s scientific advisory panel, said, “We all follow the
Tyrone Hayes drama, and some people will say, ‘He should just do the
science.’ But the science doesn’t speak for itself. Industry has
unlimited resources and bully power. Tyrone is the only one calling them
out on what they’re doing.” However, she added, “I do think some people
feel he has lost his objectivity.”
Keith
Solomon, a professor emeritus at the University of Guelph, Ontario, who
has received funding from Syngenta and served on the EcoRisk panel,
noted that academics who refuse industry money are not immune from
biases; they’re under pressure to produce papers, in order to get tenure
and promotions. “If I do an experiment, look at the data every which
way, and find nothing, it will not be easy to publish,” he said.
“Journals want excitement. They want bad things to happen.”
Hayes,
who had gained more than fifty pounds since becoming tenured, wore
bright scarves draped over his suit and silver earrings from Tibet. At
the end of his lectures, he broke into rhyme: “I see a
ruse / intentionally constructed to confuse the news / well, I’ve taken
it upon myself to defuse the clues / so that you can choose / and to
demonstrate the objectivity of the methods I use.” At some of his
lectures, Hayes warned that the consequences of atrazine use were
disproportionately felt by people of color. “If you’re black or
Hispanic, you’re more likely to live or work in areas where you’re
exposed to crap,” he said. He explained that “on the one side I’m trying
to play by the ivory-tower rules, and on the other side people are
playing by a different set of rules.” Syngenta was speaking directly to
the public, whereas scientists were publishing their research in
“magazines that you can’t buy in Barnes and Noble.” Fist tap Rohan.
BusinessInsider | A group of Chinese scientists just reported that they modified the
genome of human embryos, something that has never been done in the
history of the world, according to a report in Nature News.
A recent biotech discovery — one that has been called the
biggest biotech discovery of the century — showed how scientists might
be able to modify a human genome when that genome was still just in an
embryo.
This could change not only the genetic material of a person, but
could also change the DNA they pass on, removing "bad" genetic codes
(and potentially adding "good" ones) and taking an active hand in
evolution.
Concerned scientists published an argument that no one should edit the human genome in this way until we better understood the consequences after a report uncovered rumors that Chinese scientists were already working on using this technology.
But this new paper, published April 18 in the journal Protein and Cell by a Chinese group led by gene-function researcher Junjiu Huang of Sun Yat-sen University, shows
that work has already been done, and Nature News spoke to a Chinese
source that said at least four different groups are "pursuing gene editing in human embryos."
telegraph | A protein which ‘turbo-charges’ the immune
system so that it can fight off any cancer or virus has been discovered
by scientists.
In a breakthrough
described as a ‘game-changer’ for cancer treatment, researchers at
Imperial College found a previously unknown molecule which boosts the
body’s ability to fight off chronic illnesses.
Scientists at Imperial College London, who led the study, are now
developing a gene therapy based on the protein and hope to begin human
trials in three years.
“This is
exciting because we have found a completely different way to use the
immune system to fight cancer,” said Professor Philip Ashton-Rickardt,
from the Section of Immunobiology in the Department of Medicine at
Imperial, who led the study.
“It could be a game-changer for treating a number of different cancers and viruses.
“This is a completely unknown protein. Nobody had ever seen it before
or was even aware that it existed. It looks and acts like no other
protein.”
The protein – named lymphocyte expansion molecule, or
LEM, promotes the spread of cancer killing ‘T cells’ by generating large
amounts of energy.
Normally when the immune system detects
cancer it goes into overdrive trying to fight the disease, flooding the
body with T cells. But it quickly runs out of steam.
bmj.com |Objectives
Dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota is associated with Crohn's
disease (CD). Functional evidence for a causal role of
bacteria in the development of
chronic small intestinal inflammation is lacking. Similar to human
pathology, TNFdeltaARE mice develop a tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-driven CD-like transmural inflammation with predominant ileal involvement.
Design Heterozygous TNFdeltaARE
mice and wildtype (WT) littermates were housed under conventional
(CONV), specific pathogen-free (SPF) and germ-free (GF)
conditions. Microbial communities
were analysed by high-throughput 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing.
Metaproteomes were measured
using LC-MS. Temporal and spatial
resolution of disease development was followed after antibiotic
treatment and transfer of
microbial communities into GF mice.
Granulocyte infiltration and Paneth cell function was assessed by
immunofluorescence and
gene expression analysis.
Results GF-TNFdeltaARE mice were free of inflammation in the gut and antibiotic treatment of CONV-TNFdeltaARE mice attenuated ileitis but not colitis, demonstrating that disease severity and location are microbiota-dependent. SPF-TNFdeltaARE
mice developed distinct ileitis-phenotypes associated with gradual loss
of antimicrobial defence. 16S analysis and metaproteomics
revealed specific compositional and
functional alterations of bacterial communities in inflamed mice.
Transplantation of disease-associated
but not healthy microbiota
transmitted CD-like ileitis to GF-TNFdeltaARE recipients and triggered loss of lysozyme and cryptdin-2 expression. Monoassociation of GF-TNFdeltaARE mice with the human CD-related Escherichia coli LF82 did not induce ileitis.
Conclusions We provide clear experimental evidence for the causal role of gut bacterial dysbiosis in the development of chronic ileal
inflammation with subsequent failure of Paneth cell function.
phys.org |A fertilized human egg may seem like the ultimate blank
slate. But within days of fertilization, the growing mass of cells
activates not only human genes but also viral DNA lingering in the human
genome from ancient infections.
Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that the early human cells produce viral proteins,
and even become crowded with what appear to be assembled viral
particles. These viral proteins could manipulate some of the earliest
steps in human development, affecting gene expression and even possibly protecting the cells from further viral infection.
The finding raises questions as to who, or what, is really pulling the strings during human embryogenesis.
"It's both fascinating and a little creepy," said Joanna Wysocka,
PhD, associate professor of developmental biology and of chemical and
systems biology. "We've discovered that a specific class of viruses that
invaded the human genome during recent evolution becomes reactivated in
the early development of the human embryo, leading to the presence of
viral-like particles and proteins in the human cells."
A paper describing the findings was published online April 20 in Nature. Wysocka is the senior author, and graduate student Edward Grow is the lead author.
Viral particles in the embryo
Retroviruses are a class of virus that insert their DNA into the
genome of the host cell for later reactivation. In this stealth mode,
the virus bides its time, taking advantage of cellular DNA replication
to spread to each of an infected cell's progeny every time the cell
divides. HIV is one well-known example of a retrovirus that infects
humans.
When a retrovirus infects a germ cell, which makes sperm and eggs, or
infects a very early-stage embryo before the germ cells have arisen,
the viral DNA is passed along to future generations. Over evolutionary
time, however, these viral genomes often become mutated and inactivated.
About 8 percent of the human genome is made up of viral sequences
left behind during past infections. One retrovirus, HERVK, however,
infected humans repeatedly until relatively recently—within about
200,000 years. Much of HERVK's genome is still snuggled, intact, in each
of our cells.
Most of these sequences are inactive in mature cells, but recent
research has shown that they can spring to life in tumor cells or in
human embryonic stem cells. A study published in February in Cell Stem Cell
by researchers from Singapore's Genome Institute showed that sequences
from a primate virus called HERVH are also activated in early human
development.
Now the Stanford researchers have shown for the first time that viral
proteins are abundantly present in the developing human embryo and
assemble into what appear to be viral particles in electron microscopy
images. By following up with additional studies in human embryonic cells
grown in vitro, scientists showed that these viral proteins affect gene
expression in the developing embryo and may protect the cells from
infection by other viruses.
lrc | For sixty years I have been captivated by the heroic stories of Robin Hood. The Adventures of Robin Hood was my favorite movie as a kid, Errol Flynn my favorite actor. Adventures of Robin Hood, by Eleanor Graham Vance, was my favorite book as a kindergartener. I still have it in my library.
Over the past several days I have once again been reliving my corrupted youth by watching on DVD the 143 episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene. Above is Outlaw Money, one of my favorites with many themes LRC enthusiasts will relish.
The television series was produced in England by Sapphire Films. Sapphire Films was founded by producer Hannah Weinstein allegedly with funds provided by the Hollywood branch of the Communist Party USA. The ingenious Weinstein hired many blacklisted Hollywood writers
to write scripts for The Adventures of Robin Hood. She and her
conspiratorial cohorts devised a sophisticated covert procedure to keep
their identities secret and protected. All this elaborate ruse would
seem to vindicate Ayn Rand’s crusading war against these Hollywood Reds
and the destructive Robin Hood myth fostered in the series they created.
The novelist/philosopher was perhaps the fiercest enemy of these
Hollywood Communists and of Robin Hood. She famously testified as a “friendly witness”
before the House Committee on Un-American Activities concerning
Communist infiltration and propaganda in Hollywood. In one of the most
memorable passages of her novel Atlas Shruggedshe has one of her major characters, Ragnar Danneskjold, condemn Robin Hood in the harshest and most vindictive manner.
But Rand got it wrong. In the TV series which aired contemporaneously
to the publication of her novel, Robin and his band are not the
proto-Marxist proletarian plunderers of the productive rich and
despoilers of private property but are actually defenders of justice in
property titles, the rule of law, and the non-aggression principle.
Virtually every episode is replete with imaginative tales of rebellious
Saxon peasants battling against Norman tyranny and taxation by the
Sheriff of Nottingham and his minions acting as the corrupt arms of the
State.
I recommend all Randroids not paralyzed from the neck up “objectively” read Robin Hood: People’s Outlaw and Forest Hero: A Graphic Guide,
by the scholar and masterful left-wing propagandist Paul Buhle. It is a
delightful, unrepentant, and informative exploration of the Robin Hood
legend and why the tales of his exploits have remained popular for
centuries.
(speaking of: red shirt commodores → The Commodores → Lionel Richie → Hello → Facebook)
betanews | It's easily forgotten with the number of apps available, but mobile phones are primarily designed for making calls on the move -- whodda thunk it? When you receive a call you'll usually see the number of the caller, but this may not be helpful in identifying them before you decide whether to pick up. Facebook's answer to this problem is Hello.
This new app comes from the Facebook Messenger team and aims to tell you more about the person getting in touch with you even if you don’t have their number saved in your address book. Currently available for Android, the dialer app also allows for the blocking of calls from individuals.
The app integrates with Facebook, so you can use it to search for people and businesses. To allay privacy fears, Facebookpoints outthat Hello only has access to information which has been made publicly available on the social network -- perhaps serving as a timely reminder to check yourprivacy settings(...)
DoDlive.mil | DARPA released its Breakthrough Technologies for National Security,
a biennial report summarizing the Agency’s historical mission, current
and evolving focus areas and recent transitions of DARPA-developed
technologies to the military Services and other sectors, last month. The
report’s release coincided with testimony by DARPA Director Arati
Prabhakar before the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee of
the House Armed Services Committee, at a hearing entitled “Department of
Defense Fiscal Year 2016 Science and Technology Programs: Laying the
Groundwork to Maintain Technological Superiority.” The full report is
available for download online.
Breakthrough Technologies for National Security affirms that America is in a strong strategic position today, in large
part because of its longstanding technological dominance. But it also
notes that a number of challenges threaten that status, including the
global spread of ever more powerful and less expensive technologies and
the emergence of disruptive non-nation-state actors in addition to
ongoing threats from peer adversaries.
“DARPA’s mission and philosophy have held steady for
decades, but the world around DARPA has changed dramatically,” the
report says. “Those changes include some remarkable and even astonishing
scientific and technological advances that, if wisely and purposefully
harnessed, have the potential not only to ensure ongoing U.S. military
superiority and security but also to catalyze societal and economic
advances. At the same time, the world is experiencing some deeply
disturbing technical, economic and geopolitical shifts that pose
potential threats to U.S. preeminence and stability.”
Those dueling trends of simmering menace and unprecedented
opportunity deeply inform DARPA’s most recent determination of its
strategic priorities for the next several years, the report says.
The report identifies the phenomenon of increasing pace as a central
challenge and opportunity—from the need for ever-faster radio-frequency
and information-processing systems that work on the scale of
nanoseconds, to the need to speed up the development time of major
military systems, whose timescales today extend to decades.
“In these areas and others,” the report says, “DARPA will pursue the
strategic imperative of pace in part by continuing to be a bold,
risk-tolerant investor in high-impact technologies, so the Nation can be
the first to develop and adopt the novel capabilities made possible by
such work.”
DARPA is focusing its strategic investments in four main areas:
Rethink Complex Military Systems:
To help enable faster development and integration of breakthrough
military capabilities in today’s rapidly shifting landscape, DARPA is
working to make weapons systems more modular and easily upgraded and
improved; assure superiority in the air, maritime, ground, space and
cyber domains; improve position, navigation and timing (PNT) without
depending on the satellite-based Global Positioning System; and augment
defenses against terrorism.
Master the Information Explosion:
DARPA is developing novel approaches to deriving insights from massive
datasets, with powerful big-data tools. The Agency is also developing
technologies to ensure that the data and systems with which critical
decisions are made are trustworthy, such as automated cyber defense
capabilities and methods to create fundamentally more secure systems.
And DARPA is addressing the growing need to ensure privacy at various
levels of need without losing the national security value that comes
from appropriate access to networked data.
Harness Biology as Technology:
To leverage recent breakthroughs in neuroscience, immunology, genetics
and related fields, DARPA in 2014 created its Biological Technologies
Office, which has enabled a new level of momentum for the Agency’s
portfolio of innovative, bio-based programs. DARPA’s work in this area
includes programs to accelerate progress in synthetic biology, outpace
the spread of infectious diseases and master new neurotechnologies.
Expand the Technological Frontier:
DARPA’s core work has always involved overcoming seemingly
insurmountable physics and engineering barriers and, once showing those
daunting problems to be tractable after all, applying new capabilities
made possible by these breakthroughs directly to national security
needs. Maintaining momentum in this essential specialty, DARPA is
working to achieve new capabilities by applying deep mathematics;
inventing new chemistries, processes and materials; and harnessing
quantum physics.
Breakthrough Technologies for National Security
includes two sections highlighting examples of DARPA technologies that
have transitioned to the military or other organizations in support of
national interests. One section focuses on technology transitions from
recent programs to the Services. A second section, entitled “Success
Stories,” looks at the long-term impacts of certain DARPA programs over a
period of decades—a reminder that the benefits of DARPA research often
extend for many years after initial applications get operationalized,
sometimes in unexpected ways.
A theme common to all these examples is that many individuals and
organizations—public and private—have been involved in each success.
That reflects the importance not only of DARPA’s seminal investments but
also of the Nation’s vibrant technology ecosystem, which builds on the
Agency’s work and applies DARPA’s advances to the task of ensuring
national security.
“DARPA focuses heavily on building collaborative communities of
expertise in institutions across the country,” the report notes. “This
approach helps the Nation by encouraging work at the boundaries and
intersections of disciplines, while making the Agency itself an
enormously supportive, interactive and satisfying place to work.”
thinkprogress | The House will vote Tuesday to repeal consumer protections for
low-income borrowers in rural America who have seen the promise of
affordable housing turned into a financial sinkhole by a mobile home
industry that makes pre-manufactured houses far more expensive to buy
than they need to be.
The bill is part of the GOP majority’s campaign to chisel away at
specific pieces of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul that
became law in 2010 but which left many details to be filled in later by
regulators. In this case, it was the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau (CFPB) that did that filling. After long study
of both publicly-available data and proprietary information from the
industry itself, the CFPB began enforcing new consumer protections for
people who borrow money for a manufactured home.
When Rep. Stephen Fincher’s bill to roll back those regulations
passes on Tuesday, the rules will have been in force for barely 15
months.
The mobile home financing market is an esoteric landscape for a
battle between consumer advocates, regulators, and politicians. Compared
to the American Dream trappings that come with traditional
homeownership, families in mobile homes don’t have much cultural cache.
“Lots of people deride these homes for their quality, which is unfair
these days, or deride the people who live in them as white trash, which
is horrifying,” said Doug Ryan, director of the Corporation for
Enterprise Development’s Affordable Homeownership Initiatives. That
stigma makes it easy to sell Fincher’s deregulatory package for mobile
home financing, Ryan said. The public and many lawmakers “say, ‘Who
cares how they get financed? They’re bad stuff anyway, and if that’s all
you can afford you probably deserve this.’”
Just 6 percent of Americans who live in a house live in one of these
pre-fab ones, but they are a vital low-cost housing option in rural
communities, where they make up 14 percent of occupied housing. The
all-in cost of living for the average manufactured home dweller is a
full third below the average for traditional “site-built” homes. There
are twelve states where the units make up over a tenth of the market,
mostly in the South and West. In South Carolina, 17 percent of all
occupied housing is manufactured.
The manufactured home population is whiter, poorer, less educated,
and older than the traditional homeowner. The median income of a pre-fab
household is just half that of the median family in a site-built house.
Many mobile home families are still paying a larger share of their
income for housing despite the significant savings in raw dollar terms.
That’s a perverse outcome for what should, on paper, be one of the most
affordable ways to put a dignified roof overhead. And it’s being driven
by the extremely high price that the industry charges for credit.
Fincher’s bill will strip important borrower protections
for thousands of families living in pre-fab homes, including
prohibitions on predatory loan features and legal recourse for borrowers
who get behind on very expensive loans.
Guardian | There are many things about Palestine that are not easily seen from a
distance. The beauty of the land, for instance, is not at all obvious.
Scripture and travellers’ reports describe a harsh terrain of stone and
rocks, a place in which it is difficult to find water or to shelter from
the sun. Why would anyone want this land? But then you visit and you
understand the attenuated intensity of what you see. You get the sense
that there are no wasted gestures, that this is an economical landscape,
and that there is great beauty in this economy. The sky is full of
clouds that are like flecks of white paint. The olive trees, the leaves
of which have silvered undersides, are like an apparition. And even the
stones and rocks speak of history, of deep time, and of the consolation
that comes with all old places. This is a land of tombs, mountains and
mysterious valleys. All this one can only really see at close range.
Another thing one sees, obscured by distance but vivid up close, is
that the Israeli oppression of Palestinian people is not necessarily –
or at least not always – as crude as western media can make it seem. It
is in fact extremely refined, and involves a dizzying assemblage of laws
and bylaws, contracts, ancient documents, force, amendments, customs,
religion, conventions and sudden irrational moves, all mixed together
and imposed with the greatest care.
The impression this insistence on legality confers, from the Israeli
side, is of an infinitely patient due process that will eventually
pacify the enemy and guarantee security. The reality, from the
Palestinian side, is of a suffocating viciousness. The fate of
Palestinian Arabs since the nakba has been to be scattered and
oppressed by different means: in the West Bank, in Gaza, inside the 1948
borders, in Jerusalem, in refugee camps abroad, in Jordan, in the
distant diaspora. In all these places, Palestinians experience
restrictions on their freedom and on their movement. To be Palestinian
is to be hemmed in. Much of this is done by brute military force from
the Israeli Defence Forces – killing for which no later accounting is
possible – or on an individual basis in the secret chambers of the Shin
Bet. But a lot of it is done according to Israeli law, argued in and
approved by Israeli courts, and technically legal, even when the laws in
question are bad laws and in clear contravention of international
standards and conventions.
The reality is that, as a Palestinian Arab, in order to defend yourself
against the persecution you face, not only do you have to be an expert
in Israeli law, you also have to be a Jewish Israeli and have the force
of the Israeli state as your guarantor. You have to be what you are not,
what it is not possible for you to be, in order not to be slowly
strangled by the laws arrayed against you. In Israel,
there is no pretence that the opposing parties in these cases are equal
before the law; or, rather, such a pretence exists, but no one on
either side takes it seriously. This has certainly been the reality for
the Palestinian families living in Sheikh Jarrah whose homes, built
mostly in 1956, inhabited by three or four generations of people, are
being taken from them by legal means.
NYTimes | In New York, almost 120,000 black men
between the ages of 25 and 54 are missing from everyday life. In
Chicago, 45,000 are, and more than 30,000 are missing in Philadelphia.
Across the South — from North Charleston, S.C., through Georgia, Alabama
and Mississippi and up into Ferguson, Mo. — hundreds of thousands more
are missing.
They are missing, largely because of
early deaths or because they are behind bars. Remarkably, black women
who are 25 to 54 and not in jail outnumber black men in that category by
1.5 million, according to an Upshot analysis.
For every 100 black women in this age group living outside of jail,
there are only 83 black men. Among whites, the equivalent number is 99,
nearly parity.
African-American men have long been
more likely to be locked up and more likely to die young, but the scale
of the combined toll is nonetheless jarring. It is a measure of the deep
disparities that continue to afflict black men — disparities being
debated after a recent spate of killings by the police — and the gender
gap is itself a further cause of social ills, leaving many communities
without enough men to be fathers and husbands.
Perhaps the starkest description of the
situation is this: More than one out of every six black men who today
should be between 25 and 54 years old have disappeared from daily life.
“The numbers are staggering,” said Becky Pettit, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas.
And what is the city with at least
10,000 black residents that has the single largest proportion of missing
black men? Ferguson, Mo., where a fatal police shooting
last year led to nationwide protests and a Justice Department
investigation that found widespread discrimination against black
residents. Ferguson has 60 men for every 100 black women in the age
group, Stephen Bronars, an economist, has noted.
inkstain | There is a clear possibility of a shortage declaration on Lake Mead
in August, which would force a reduction in Lower Colorado River water
deliveries, primarily to Arizona, in 2016. Nevada and Mexico would also
see small shortages. Neither California, nor the states of the Upper
Basin (New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming) will see any
curtailments.
This is a big deal, but it is almost entirely an Arizona big deal.
Arizona currently has the slack in its system to absorb the reductions,
including possibly deeper cuts if Mead continues to drop, without major
disruptions. The Phoenix and Tucson metro areas are not going to dry up
and blow away.
Longer details below:
Built in the 1930s in a canyon on the Arizona-Nevada border, Hoover
Dam impounds Colorado River water in Lake Mead. It protects valleys
along the lower river from flooding, and stores water during wet years
for use during dry years in Nevada, Arizona, California, in the United
States, and Baja and Sonora in Mexico. From the beginning, California
has taken its share of water through an aqueduct that carries water to
Los Angeles, and a second that carries farm water to the Imperial
Valley. A significant share of the river’s water also supplies farms and
communities in Arizona along the river itself, from Parker south to
Yuma. But for the first three-plus decades of the dam’s existence,
Arizona had no way to get the river’s water to its major population
centers in the state’s central desert valleys.
In 1968, in return for political support from California to win
federal funding for the Central Arizona Project, Arizona cut a deal:
California would not block the project, which would use federal money to
build a canal to carry 1.6 million acre feet of water per year up from
the Colorado River and into Phoenix and Tucson. In return, Arizona would
agree to subordinate its priority for the 1.6 maf water to
California’s. (This Reg Manning Arizona Republic cartoon suggests some
hard feelings about all this.)
That means that if the river is short, essentially all the cuts come to Arizona’s share of the Colorado River’s water. This is important point number one:
It takes many more years of shortage before California loses a drop.
Southern California – mostly farmers in the Imperial Valley but also
urban/suburban LA and San Diego, won’t lose any water. They’ve got
enough to worry about right now with their own drought. Drought in the
Colorado River Basin won’t add to their problems.
Important point number two:
Arizona’s major on-river agricultural water users, primarily
the Colorado River Indian Tribes and the farmers of the Yuma area, also
would not lose a drop under a shortage. Their rights are older, and not crimped by the 1968 California bargain.
But what does “shortage” actually mean, and who gets to decide when the river has a shortage and deliveries are to be curtailed?
The legal authority rests with U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell,
but back in 2005-07 the federal government and states decided the rules
for making the decision were too squishy, so they came up with a really
crisp definition: when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s August version
of its monthly planning document known as the “24-month study” shows
that Lake Mead is expected to drop below a surface elevation of 1,075
feet above sea level, a shortage shall be declared.
Rejuvenation Pills
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No one likes getting old. Everyone would like to be immorbid. Let's be
careful here. Immortal doesnt include youth or return to youth. Immorbid
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sciencemag | This spring, after days of flulike symptoms and fever, a man
arrived at the emergency room at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
He ...
