It's not just the South: Water wars throughout the US

It's not just the South: Water wars throughout the US
Oct 17, 2013 | RT America

A judicial war over water has broken out between Georgia, Alabama and Florida over a shared waterway. Florida has brought the case to the Supreme Court, saying that the Atlanta metropolitan region is devastating Florida's oyster industry. RT's Ameera David talks to Upmanu Lall, the director of the Columbia Water Center, about this and other so-called water wars throughout the US.

Voyager at the edge of the Heliosphere

Voyager at the edge of the Heliosphere
Feb 22, 2013 | TeachingU

Voyager is set to exit the heliosphere. That is the place where the Sun's magnetic field ends, and enter interstellar space. Still boldly going where no one has gone before! Thanks NASA!

For more information about Voyager, visit http://nasa.gov
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voy...

What is an Aquifer?

What is an Aquifer?
Sept 13, 2013 | Live Science | Marc Lallanilla

Aquifers are underground layers of rock that are saturated with water that can be brought to the surface through natural springs or by pumping.

The groundwater contained in aquifers is one of the most important sources of water on Earth: About 96 percent of our liquid freshwater is groundwater, according to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. The rest is found at the surface in streams, lakes, rivers and wetlands.

Groundwater can be found in a range of different types of bedrock, but the most productive aquifers are found in porous, permeable rock such as sandstone or limestone. Groundwater moves more readily through these materials, which allows for faster pumping and other methods of extracting the water.

Aquifers can also be found in regions where the bedrock is made of denser material — such as granite or basalt — if that bedrock has been cracked or shattered. Dense, impermeable material like clay or shale can act as an "aquitard," i.e., a layer of rock or other material that is almost impenetrable to water. Through groundwater might move through such material, it will do so very slowly (if at all).

An aquitard can put pressure on the groundwater in an aquifer: When an aquifer is confined between two aquitard layers, the pressure on the groundwater can be enough to force the water out of any well that's drilled into that aquifer. Such wells are known as artesian wells, and the aquifers they tap into are called artesian aquifers or confined aquifers.

How groundwater moves

When groundwater moves through an aquifer, it usually flows downward by the force of gravity. Depending on the density of the rock and soil through which groundwater moves, it can creep along as slowly as a few centimeters in a century, according to Environment Canada. In other areas, where the rock and soil are looser and more permeable, groundwater can move several feet in a day.

The water in an aquifer can be held beneath the Earth's surface for many centuries: Hydrologists estimate that the water in some aquifers is more than 10,000 years old (meaning that it fell to the Earth's surface as rain or snow roughly 6,000 years before Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza was built).

Much of the drinking water on which society depends is contained in aquifers. For example, the Ogallala Aquifer — a vast, 174,000 square-mile (450,000 sq. kilometer) groundwater reservoir —supplies almost one-third of America's agricultural groundwater, and more than 1.8 million people rely on the Ogallala Aquifer for their drinking water.

Similarly, Texas gets almost 60 percent of its water from groundwater; in Florida, groundwater supplies more than 90 percent of the state's freshwater. But these important sources of freshwater are increasingly endangered.

Threats to aquifers

By 2010, about 30 percent of the Ogallala Aquifer's groundwater had been tapped. Some parts of the Ogallala Aquifer are now dry, and the water table has declined more than 300 feet in other areas, according to the Texas Water Development Board.

The same problem is increasingly found throughout the world, especially in areas where a rapidly growing population is placing greater demand on limited aquifer resources — pumping can, in these places, exceed the aquifer's ability to recharge its groundwater supplies.

When pumping of groundwater results in a lowering of the water table, then the water table can drop so low that it's below the depth of a well. In those cases, the well "runs dry" and no water can be removed until the groundwater is recharged — which, in some cases, can take hundreds or thousands of years.

In addition to groundwater levels, the quality of water in an aquifer can be threatened by saltwater intrusion (a particular problem in coastal areas), biological contaminants such as manure or septic tank discharge, and industrial chemicals such as pesticides or petroleum products. And once an aquifer is contaminated, it's notoriously difficult to remediate.

The Health Ranger, Mike Adams shares his McNugget discovery on the Robert Scott Bell Show

The Health Ranger, Mike Adams shares his McNugget discovery on the Robert Scott Bell Show
Aug 19, 2013 | TheHealthRanger

Would you like a hair-covered nugget with that chicken? Or maybe you don't care if the chicken nugget has little chicken in it at all? Are we screaming Chicken Little? Or is this just the first revelation from the Natural News Forensic Food Laboratory, the new science-based research branch of Natural News where we put foods under the microscope and find out what's really there. Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, joins RSB to discuss this funky chicken story.

'Angry' Idaho fire spreads to 126,000 acres, threatens luxury resort homes

'Angry' Idaho fire spreads to 126,000 acres, threatens luxury resort homes
Aug 19, 2013 | Extinction Protocol

More than 10,000 homes are threatened by a furious Idaho wildfire, including getaways owned by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis, after an all-out "ground and air attack" failed to stop the blaze spreading to more than 126,000 acres, according to latest reports from the U.S. Forest Service. "Take your essentials, belongs and pets and GO NOW," a news release on inciweb warned those in the path of the lightning-sparked Beaver Creek fire. Despite an army of more than 1,200 firefighters, the blaze continues to spread across parched sagebrush, grasslands and pine forests in the Sun Valley area. "Every fire has a personality, and this fire has an angry personality," Beth Lund, and incident commander with the U.S. Forest Service team managing the blaze in central Idaho told Reuters.

More than 10,000 homes near the towns of Hailey and Ketchum remain threatened by the blaze, including luxury getaways owned by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis. The fire that has been burning for more than 12 days, scorching an area larger than the city of Denver, has already forced 2,250 homes into a mandatory evacuation order. Another 7,700 homes are under what is known as pre-evacuation, giving them time to pack up essential belongings and get ready to go at a moment's notice if the fire grows closer.

At the Sun Valley Resort, an all-season vacation getaway famed for its world-class skiing, workers turned on water cannons usually used to make snow to wet down a mountain whose southeastern face was the scene of a concentrated assault by firefighters. "We've fired up the snow-making guns," resort spokesman Jack Sibbach, told The Associated Press. Red-flag conditions, including higher temperatures and wind gusts up to 38 miles per hour did not help firefighters tackling the blaze. And Kevin Noth, lead meteorologist at Weather.com, said that conditions Monday and Tuesday - including temperatures pushing into the 90s - would continue to "hinder" firefighters. "There will be more hot and dry weather for the region," he said. "So highs will be well into the 80s and a few into the lower 90s.

Humidity will also be down, so it will be dry, so that will allow the fire to grow more quickly and it won't be harder for them to contain. There's better news coming," he added. "It looks like more clouds and higher humidity for midweek. There might also be some thunderstorms, which could bring some rain - but the possibility of lightning too." Retardant was dropped Sunday on the flank of Bald Mountain - the Sun Valley Resort's primary ski hill - to reinforce a fire line, fire spokeswoman Shawna Hartman told KTVB. That meant the famed ski mountain known as "Baldy" and often used in publicity photos would have a red line of retardant visible from Ketchum. Hartman expressed cautious optimism about their prospects for curtailing the blaze in the next week. "Today they're very optimistic that we will reinforce those lines in case the fire does flare up as we saw on Thursday and Friday," Hartman told the KTVB. -NBC

Why Are Industrial Chemicals in Food Not Safety Tested? (Op-Ed)

© Live Science

Why Are Industrial Chemicals in Food Not Safety Tested? (Op-Ed)
Aug 16, 2013 | Jennifer Sass, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

Jennifer Sass is a senior scientist with the NRDC. This article is adapted from her post to the NRDC blog Switchboard. Sass contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
 
Processed foods, which so many Americans eat every day, typically contains industrial chemical additives to preserve, flavor, thicken or otherwise alter what people consume. Some of the chemicals are very familiar to me, because they are also industrial chemicals or pesticides that I review every day in my oversight of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory programs here at NRDC.

If you are shocked to learn that industrial chemicals are routinely in the food you are feeding to your family, you will be even more shocked to read about a study published this week in the professional journal Reproductive Toxicology by researchers from the Pew Charitable Trusts — which funded the work — and the Environmental Management Institute. Problems in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food programs look even worse than the problems I know so well from EPA!

After extensive research into what manufacturers add to our food, the researchers report that about 1,000 additives are in the food supply without the FDA's knowledge.

And, for those additives the FDA does actually know about, fewer than 38 percent of more than 8,000 FDA-regulated additives — including those manufacturers intentionally add directly to food and materials that may come into contact with and contaminate foods — have a published feeding study. (Feeding studies comprise the basic toxicology test — the first test a scientist would do to evaluate the safety of a chemical additive.) For direct additives, added intentionally to food, only 21.6 percent of the almost 4,000 additives have undergone the feeding studies necessary for scientists to estimate a safe level of exposure, and the FDA databases contain reproductive or developmental toxicity data for only 6.7 percent.

It appears the FDA and the food industry were often making safety decisions by comparing one chemical to another rather than doing an actual toxicology study. In making such decisions, they were building a house of cards based on assumptions and unsupported extrapolations instead of direct scientific evidence.

How has the oversight of our food regulations gone so terribly wrong? The researchers have a few insights. First, many chemicals were grandfathered into the system in the 1950's, and so they are in our food supply without information on their safety. Once a chemical is cleared for use in foods, the clearance is forever, so there are no requirements or incentives for a manufacturer to support additional testing. And, under the outdated U.S. Food Additives Amendment of 1958, the FDA doesn't even have the authority to require testing if it has questions about a chemical.

Also, industry can self-determine if its chemical food-additives are Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS), and therefore free from the usual regulatory requirements for food additives. If the industry makes a GRAS determination, it is not even required to notify FDA that it has put the new GRAS additive on the market. Allowing industry to determine the safety of the chemicals it creates is a textbook example of the fox guarding the chicken coop.

Last week, many of the same Pew researchers published a report in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine showing that "financial conflicts of interest are ubiquitous" in the industry-driven process leading to determining that a chemical is GRAS. In that article, Pew reports that all — that's 100 percent — of the members of expert panels that review food additives to make GRAS determinations have financial relationships with companies that manufacture the food additives being reviewed.

Follow the money! A commentary by Marion Nestle that accompanied the JAMA article highlights the presence of obvious conflicts of interest as one of the biggest problems with chemical food-additive regulations (or lack thereof). A recent editorial in the journal Nature discusses the Pew study and highlights the problems of financial conflicts, as well.

I've spent much of my career extensively reviewing EPA determinations of safety for hazardous chemicals. It is an outrage that FDA is not even looking at many of the chemicals added to food, and that the agency doesn't even have mandatory notification when industrial chemicals come into our food supply.

I've also spent much of my career documenting the problem of chemical manufacturers testing the safety of their own products. It isn't rocket science to think that a bias and a financial conflict may lead to a misrepresentation of the potential toxicity of a chemical.

In an article in Science this past June, the authors reported similar problems in the pharmaceutical industry where financially conflicted experts were able to sway FDA drug approvals. For industrial chemicals, numerous examples of industry misrepresentation of the harm from their products have been documented in the 2008 book by David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, titled "Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health."
But, when chemicals are intentionally added to the food supply, well, things just got a lot more serious.

NRDC's health program has recently turned more attention to the FDA's food safety programs. This past spring, NRDC officially requested a copy of the FDA database of food additives that includes both the names of the chemicals and the basis for the FDA's approving them for use in food. The FDA failed to respond, so we actually had to file a lawsuit against the FDA for this public information. What is FDA hiding from the public? I can only wonder. But thanks to the Pew researchers and their collaborators, the public is starting to learn about failures in the food additives regulatory process.

This article is adapted from the post USFDA Allows Chemicals in Food Despite Lack of Toxicity Testing on the NRDC blog Switchboard. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on LiveScience.com.

Japan’s Sakurajima volcano shaken by large explosive eruption

Japan’s Sakurajima volcano shaken by large explosive eruption
July 22, 2013 | Extinction Protocol 


JAPAN – A strong vulcanian explosion occurred last night at 11:02 GMT (20:02 local time), following several hours of near complete calm at the volcano. A loud cannon-shot bang accompanied the explosion, which generated a large mushroom cloud that reached 12,000 ft (3.7 km) altitude and engulfed the NE half of the Sakurajima peninsula and was followed by several smaller ones within about half an hour. The volcano and much of the surrounding areas remained under the ash plume for several hours until it started to clear up again. In the hours after the explosion, the Showa crater continued to emit ash plumes in often near-continuous pulses, sometimes reaching several 100 m height, but with no visible incandescence or audible sounds. –Volcano Discovery  

Large explosions at Ecuador volcano: An increase of activity occurred yesterday. IGPEN recorded 3 strong pulses of volcanic tremor since midnight 20-21 July (local time), which were accompanied by strombolian activity and strong explosions that produced loud roars, heavy gunfire sounds, and vibrations that rattled floors, windows and doors of houses in areas nearby. Some were heard even in the Tungurahua Volcano Observatory (OVT), located 14 km north of the volcano. The largest explosion yesterday at 14h18 (local time) generated an eruption column of 5 km height moving east. Although so far there have been no new pyroclastic flows, this could likely happen in the near future. Ash fall occurred in the area of ​​Manzano, Choglontus, Tisaleo, Cevallos and Mapayacu. In between the explosions, constant strombolian activity with the ejection of incandescent bombs, some of which rolled down the slopes could be seen at night. The explosions caused considerable damage to some of the monitoring instruments (solar panels, cameras etc.). –Volcano Discovery

RELATED:

Colorado town considers hunting licenses, bounties for drones

AFP Photo / John Moore

Colorado town considers hunting licenses, bounties for drones
July 17, 2013 | RT

A small town in the state of Colorado is currently weighing a new ordinance that would allow the issuance of hunting licenses for unmanned aerial vehicles, and even offer bounties for their successful takedown.

Deer Trail, a town of some 540 residents that lies 55 miles east of Denver, has drafted what might be described as hostile regulation aimed at drones, outlining the weapons, ammunition, rules of engagement and bounties involved with drone hunting, reports Denver broadcaster ABC 7News.

"The Town of Deer Trail shall issue a reward of $100 to any shooter who presents a valid hunting license and the following identifiable parts of an unmanned aerial vehicle whose markings and configuration are consistent with those used on any similar craft known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government,” reads the ordinance draft.

Read more..
 

Comment: All militant aircraft are being converted to UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, as one crashed in Florida today, in a state they are supposedly outlawed. Looks like there will be plenty of targets.

Victims of Empire: China landslide buries dozens

Victims of Empire: China landslide buries dozens
July 10, 2013 | AlJazeeraEnglish

A landslide in southwest China has buried up to 40 people. Rainstorms this week have triggered widespread flooding across the Sichuan province. In one town, fast moving rivers have washed away many houses. Al Jazeera's  Gerald Tan reports.

Plasma Storms

600 kilometer per hour winds on Jupiter.
Credit: NASA/Cassini Mission.

Plasma Storms
July 8, 2013 | Thunderbolts.info | Stephen Smith

Why do planets farthest from the Sun have the fastest winds?

Earth’s average wind speed is approximately 56 kilometers per hour, with a maximum of 372 kilometer per hour gust recorded on Mount Washington, New Hampshire in 1934. Some isolated wind phenomena, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, can sustain average velocities of 480 and 320 kilometers per hour for short periods. The maximum 24 hour speed record of 205 kilometers per hour from 1934 still remains, however.

Tornadoes continue to be a mystery to consensus science, as well as Electric Universe advocates, although it seems that they are more like rotating electric discharges than anything else. The electric charges in a tornado are whirling at many meters per second, so they probably form an electromagnetic field called a “charge sheath vortex.”

It is commonly believed that weather is driven on Earth primarily by the Sun’s thermal influence on the atmosphere. As we rotate beneath our primary, gases and dust absorb solar radiation at varying rates and in varying degrees. When any particular region heats up, the air expands and loses density, creating a relative low pressure area. Cooler air, being denser, will naturally flow into the bottom of the warm, low pressure region, causing an upwardly rotating convection cell to form.

Most weather systems on Earth are thought to be based on that simple kinetic explanation: winds blow when the cooler, denser air flows into the warmer, buoyant air.

The kinetic model of weather does not take into account the fact that planets much farther out in the Solar System have sustained winds that make those on our planet seem like gentle breezes. The average wind speeds on the gas giant planets are fantastic.

Jupiter’s winds clock at 635 kilometers per hour around the Great Red Spot; Saturn’s average wind speed is up to 1800 kilometers per hour; Uranus 900 kilometers per hour; and Neptune comes in at 1138 kilometers per hour. On Neptune the winds are blowing through an atmosphere that measures minus 220 degrees Celsius. Why is it that the most remote planets, receiving small fractions of the solar energy bathing Earth, are able to convert that small fraction into much larger effects?

As mentioned in previous Pictures of the Day, Earth is a small charged body moving in a large cell of plasma, so physical phenomena on or near the planet must take the electrical nature of plasma into account. Contemplating the larger picture will help to add new details to the study of everyday phenomena, such as the weather.

Lightning could be the force that powers the wind. Neptune has some of the strongest winds of any planet in the Solar System, yet it is farthest from the Sun. Perhaps hurricanes, tornadoes, and even prevailing winds are due to the electric currents endemic to planetary atmospheres?

The Electric Universe hypothesis agrees with conventional theory that wind is movement of air molecules, but that there are other explanations. What are those other agents of movement?

If conventional theory explains wind solely as the result of convection and gas kinetics, Electric Universe proponents insist that electric discharges must also be considered. Electromagnetic forces in plasma move and accelerate charged particles, so collisions between charged and neutral particles drag the neutral air molecules along with them. Close observation of laboratory arc discharges reveals that an electric “wind” surrounds and often precedes an electric arc.

The plasma discharge sweeps up the surrounding air along with the charge carriers, or ions. The wind appears as inflows and updrafts as well as outflows and downdrafts. It can lift dust particles and erode surfaces. By analogy, we must then question the accepted explanation of thunderstorms as being caused solely by convection of hot air and the climatological movement of winds by the Sun’s heat alone.

Stephen Smith

Sun Unleashes Solar Fireworks Preview for July Fourth

The sun unleashed an M1.5-class solar flare (lower left)
on July 3, 2013, a solar fireworks to the traditional
Fourth of July holiday in the United States.
CREDIT: NASA/SDO

Sun Unleashes Solar Fireworks Preview for July Fourth
July 3, 2013 | Space.com | Tariq Malik

The sun fired off an intense solar flare Wednesday (July 3), giving NASA scientists a solar preview to the Fourth of July holiday in the United States.

The solar flare erupted at about 3 a.m. EDT (0700 GMT) and was spotted by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which snapped a photo of the July solar storm.

"Just a few minutes after 7:00 UT, the sun produced an M1.5-class solar flare. Perhaps an early Fourth of July fireworks?" SDO mission officials wrote in a Facebook post announcing the flare.

M-class solar flares are medium-strength solar storms that can supercharge Earth's northern lights displays when they are aimed at Earth. NASA officials reported that the July 3 solar flare erupted from a point just over the eastern side, or limb, of the sun, so it was not directed at our planet.

The most powerful type of solar flares are X-class sun storms. When aimed directly at Earth, X-class flares can pose a threat to astronauts in space, interfere with satellite signals and potentially affect electrical power grids on Earth.




Wednesday's flare followed close on the heels of a dazzling sun eruption on Monday (July 1), which sent a tendril of super-hot solar plasma dancing over the surface of the star. The SDO spacecraft captured a video of that solar prominence, as scientists call the events, in spectacular detail.

The sun is currently in the middle of an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle. The current weather cycle, known as Solar Cycle 24, is expected to reach its peak this year.

NASA's SDO spacecraft is one of several spacecraft monitoring the sun to track solar flares, plasma eruptions and other space weather phenomena. The $850 million observatory stares at the sun continuously to create spectacular high-definition videos of solar weather in different wavelengths of light.

 Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

ALBERTA FLOODING - Canmore Bragg Creek High River Floods Calgary 2013 Flood News BY THE PUBLIC Video

ALBERTA FLOODING - Canmore Bragg Creek High River Floods Calgary 2013 Flood News BY THE PUBLIC Video
June 20, 2013 | BizBOXTV

Editor's note: Cities have nothing to do with nature, they were not built with nature in mind, they have long been built with something else in mind, that being capitalism which nature has no use for. This may be why cities and cemeteries are bound together in concept to hide the kinetics solicited which soon resides.

BILL NICHOLS: Electric Earth, Electric Weather | EU 2013 (Youtube)

BILL NICHOLS: Electric Earth, Electric Weather | EU 2013 (Youtube)
Mar 21, 2013 | Laura-Knight-Jadczyk.com

Interesting.

Atmospheric scientist Bill Nichols offers a refreshing reconsideration of climate issues, with emphasis on the electrodynamic environment of the Earth, largely overlooked in the polarized debates on climate change.

'Pushed to the Edge,' Seattle's Low Wage Workers Join Sweeping Movement

Workers outside Arby's on S Michigan
chanting Fired Up! (Photo: @Molly_O/ Twitter)

'Pushed to the Edge,' Seattle's Low Wage Workers Join Sweeping Movement
May 31, 2013 | Common Dreams | Lauren McCauley

Striking worker: "We have been pushed to the edge, and now we are taking a stand, and I could not be more excited, or more hopeful."

In the seventh action in just eight weeks across the United States, fast food workers in Seattle are walking off the job Thursday joining a sweeping movement of low-wage workers who have been "pushed to the edge and are now taking a stand."

Repeating the calls made by striking workers in other cities, the Seattle workers are demanding a living wage of $15 per hour and the right to form a union without intimidation.

"The fast food strike wave represents organized labor’s most dramatic challenge to the massive, fast-growing and virtually union-free industry," writes the Nation's Josh Eidelson, adding that the fast food industry's notoriously low-wages and tenuous employment are "increasingly representative of the larger economy."
According to the Good Jobs Seattle campaign, the strike began at 10:30 PM PST Wednesday and by midday Thursday workers from dozens of fast food chains had joined the protest, with forced shutdowns at three stores: a Taco Bell and a Burger King on 15th Avenue, and a Subway on Broadway.

Following a series of morning rallies, strikers plan to converge at 4:30 PM local time for a march from Seattle's Denny Park to a number of fast food locations.

"My employer has pushed and pushed my coworkers and me and gotten everything they can out of us. This week, we joined together and pushed back," writes Caroline Durocher, one of the first to walk off her job at a local Taco Bell on Wednesday night, in an op-ed about why she was joining the action.
She continues:

We work in one of the fastest growing industries in the nation, and our companies are making huge – even record – profits, but we don't see enough of that money. We barely earn enough to pay for basics like rent, food and transportation to and from work.

[...]

That's not the life I envisioned for myself three years ago, when I was working full time, while studying for an associate of arts degree. I was planning to continue my education and become a psychologist. That was the plan, and that's still the plan. But my school costs became too much of a burden, and I had to leave, just a few credits shy of my degree.

And now I feel stuck in this trap – the trap of low-wage work. I work the night shift at Taco Bell in Ballard – running the register for the drive-through, ringing up one customer while taking the order of another. It's fast-paced, hard work, but at the minimum wage of $9.19 per hour and only 27 hours per week, I don't earn enough to make ends meet.

When I ask for more hours, my boss always says the same thing: hours are competitive – the harder you work, the more hours you'll get. But I work hard, and I haven't gotten any more hours.

I am stuck in a tough spot. I can't get enough hours to get health insurance, but I only qualify for $16 a month in food stamps, which I finally decided wasn't even worth the transportation costs to continue to get them. I can't get a better-paying job, especially without a degree, but I can't afford to go back to school.

[...]

So what do I have to lose? For me and my colleagues working fast –food jobs across Seattle, the answer is, 'Nothing.' Our backs are firmly against the wall. By joining with my coworkers, I can envision a future in which I earn enough to live, eat and go back to school.

We have been pushed to the edge, and now we are taking a stand, and I could not be more excited, or more hopeful.

The strike follows similar actions in New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Detroit. 

Employees from restaurant chains including McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, Arby’s, Chipotle and more are expected to participate in the demonstration.

Ice plows into Northern Minnesota lake homes

Ice plows into Northern Minnesota lake homes
May 12, 2013 | Cassie Hart | KSTP.com


Ice outs are still happening on lakes in northern Minnesota because of our cold and snowy spring.

Now, homes along the shore of Mille Lacs Lake are getting damaged because the ice is moving like a glacier, and pushing up against the homes.

In a video sent to us by KSTP viewer, Darla Johnson, you can see the ice making its charge onto shore. Then in a matter of minutes the wind pushes the ice about 15 feet from the shore to the doors of a home.

Johnson even tried saving patio furniture but she couldn't stop the ice before it pushed in doors and windows, causing damage.

The ice is piled up about three feet high.

Johnson says some crews were working to get the ice away from the homes, but "it's a battle they're not winning right now."

Some access roads near Izatys Resort were closed Friday, according to Johnson. Only local residents were being let through, she said.

Watch Free: A Silent Forest: The Growing Threat of Genetically Engineered Trees

Watch Free: A Silent Forest: The Growing Threat of Genetically Engineered Trees
Apr 28, 2013 | Food Freedom News | Rady Ananda

Produced by Global Justice Ecology Project

  
2010 review by Rady Ananda Excerpt:

Imagine our declining pollinators – bees, moths, butterflies and bats – coming upon thousands of acres of toxic trees, genetically engineered so that every cell in the tree exudes pesticide, from crown to root. Imagine a world without pollinators. Without seed dispersers. Without soil microbes.

It would be a silent forest, a killing forest, an alien forest. No wonder Vandana Shiva scoffs at the moniker, biotechnology. “This is not a life technology. It’s a death science.”

Genetically engineered forests are a holocaust on nature. An award-winning documentary, “A Silent Forest: The Growing Threat, Genetically Engineered Trees” (2005, 46 mins) details the appalling effects. (You can buy the full length film at Amazon.)

(You can read my full review here.)

What Is the World's Largest Tree?

The General Sherman tree is found in
Sequoia National Park and is believed
to be the world's largest tree by volume.
CREDIT: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher

What Is the World's Largest Tree?
Apr 29, 2013 | Elizabeth Howell | LiveScience

The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in California's Sequoia National Park. Called General Sherman, the tree is about 52,500 cubic feet (1,487 cubic meters) in volume.

That's the equivalent of more than half the volume of an Olympic-size swimming pool, commonly considered to be 88,500 cubic feet (2,506 cubic meters).

General Sherman is estimated to be about 2,000 years old. That makes it only a middle-age giant sequoia, as other trees are believed to be more than 3,220 years old, based on tree ring counts.

The tree lost a huge branch in 2006, which shattered a new walkway and fence below. It didn't affect General Sherman's ranking as the largest tree, however, as that was calculated using trunk volume and not branches.

General Sherman is also tall, standing 274.9 feet (83.8 meters) high, but that doesn't put it anywhere close to the record of tallest tree. The honor of tallest tree in the world is bestowed upon Hyperion, a 379.7-foot-tall (115.7 m) redwood also located in California.

Terrorists R Us: The Boston Mass Casualty Attack, Lockdown and High Profile Manhunt

Terrorists R Us: The Boston Mass Casualty Attack, Lockdown and High Profile Manhunt
Apr 28, 2013 | Global Research | Michael Welch and Stephen Lendman

Global Research News Hour Episode 24

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  – Benjamin Franklin, 1759

The mass casualty causing attack during the Boston Marathon, together with the high profile arrest of two men in Canada charged with plotting a terrorist attack on a commuter train have captivated the attention of regular citizens.

Fears have been ramped up to the point where Americans are tolerating if not welcoming martial law and erosions of civil liberties in the name of protection from the terrorist hordes.

Witness the high-profile man-hunt for bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev.

On April 19, the entire city of Boston was on lockdown. Residents told to lock themselves indoors while schools and businesses were closed while the entire transit system was shut down and SWAT teams took control of the streets.

The home of one of the most famous and iconic popular resistance actions in history, the Boston Tea Party, unquestioningly complied with authorities this time around – all in the name of capturing one wounded man.
Speaking of authorities, rigorous scrutiny of the authorities themselves may be in order.

Speaking to the Global Research News Hour in December, Andy Lee Roth, the Associate Director of Project Censored spoke of the fourth story in PC’s list of most censored stories of 2011-2012….

“…The FBI has a network of nearly 15,000 spies, moles and informants …whose job it is to infiltrate various communities within the United States, ostensibly to uncover terrorist plots …in many cases, those 15,000 spies, moles and informants are actually encouraging and then assisting the people in those communities in committing the very crimes that people are then busted for. So It’s a kind of set-up operation and it appears to be motivated by a desire on the FBI’s part to show that they are playing an effective role in the battle against terrorism on the home front.”

He further pointed out…

“This only works as a kind of PR strategy if the corporate media cooperate and basically take the government officials who speak on behalf of the program as the sole sources on the program’s efficacy.

What’s not covered in the corporate media but what can be documented in independent media coverage is that most of these cases when they go to court the judge throws them out for lack of merit.”

Without this context, the citizenry’s grasp of reality is imperiled. The common man and woman is left ripe for manipulation by powerful interests with another agenda entirely.

This, the twenty-fourth installment of the Global Research News Hour, sees independent broadcaster Stephen Lendman try to provide some of this context as the War On Terrorism gets its biggest PR boost in years and as tensions with Syria, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela are on the rise.

Stephen Lendman is the host of the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network, author of BANKER OCCUPATION: Waging Financial War on Humanity and a frequent contributor to globalresearch.ca.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

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Length (59:06)

Click to download the audio (MP3 format)

The Global Research News Hour, hosted by Michael Welch, airs on CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg Thursdays at 10am CDT. The programme is now broadcast weekly by the Progressive Radio Network in the US, and is available for download on the Global Research website.

Reference

1) Global Research News Hour Episode 9;  http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-in-the-congo-project-censored-and-doomsday-2012/5315792

Why Do Cicadas Sing?

Periodical cicadas, like these, remain underground
for years before emerging into the sunlight,
where they spend weeks calling for mates,
mating and laying eggs for the next generation.
CREDIT: National Pest
Management Association/Tom Myers

Why Do Cicadas Sing?
Apr 22, 2013 | Live Science | Elizabeth Palermo

What's black and red and heard all over? A cicada, of course.

The periodically appearing Magicicada, or 17-year locust, is due to rise up and break its silence along the East Coast of the United States this spring.

And as one of the world's loudest insects, cicadas are likely to make an entrance that will leave local ears ringing.

But why all the ruckus? After nearly two decades stuck underground, are these bugs making all that noise just for sheer joy? No: Cicadas, while mysterious, have clear-cut reasons for their unusual habits.

The chirping and clicking noises of the male cicada are actually a species-specific mating call that can be heard by females up to a mile (1.6 kilometers) away.

But with one estimate putting the number of cicadas at 1 billion per square mile, it's easy to understand why East Coasters might find this cicada serenade anything but romantic.

Male cicadas produce their calls by rapidly vibrating a white, drumlike plate, or tymbal, located on either side of their abdomens. A chorus of lovesick cicadas can reach volumes greater than 100 decibels, which is louder than a lawnmower at full bore.

Luckily for anyone needing a good night's sleep, these bugs usually cease their racket by sundown. The cicada's group chorus also repels birds that hunt by day, so when these insects stop singing, there's a good chance the birds have gone to bed.

And if you're on the East Coast, then you should get some rest as well, because this bug symphony is sure to last for several ear-splitting weeks.

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A Noble Lie: The Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995

A Noble Lie: The Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995
Apr 19, 2013 | SOTT | neo istheone

This is the first feature length documentary to examine the Oklahoma City bombing in the light of new and suppressed evidence that proves the official story to be false and that Timothy McVeigh was not the sole perpetrator on that terrible April 19th, 1995.

Documentary available for purchase here.