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King Tides and Exodus in the Marshall Islands
With a global mean temperature rise of 1.5℃ (video, direct .mp4 link) the Marshall Islands, site of the US's Bikini Atoll nuclear weapons tests, may disappear completely. With most islands just six feet above sea level and less than a mile wide the ring of atolls is already severely affected by climate change. ⅓ of all Marshall Islanders are believed to live in the US, although they may face deportation. In recent months the residents of the Pacific island nation have been advised to cease eating fish after elevated levels of PCBs were found in the waters around the US missile base on Kwajalein Atoll. Recently, very previously, previously, previously, personal anecdotes.
Let's Go Shopping!
The Intercept have just published an expose on the 2014 catalog of British spy tech maker Cobham, who sell their gear to “clients and partners in over 100 countries” including US police forces. Among the equipment is an array of cellphone-intercepting IMSI catchers, better known as Stingrays (previously); handheld or car-mounted direction finding devices to pinpoint a cellphone's location; and surveillance cameras hidden inside everything from street lights to bug zappers and trashcans along with receivers, recorders and viewing devices. A full copy of the 120 page catalog itself is available as well.
The Gradual Atlantis
When Will New York Sink? Even locals who believe climate change is real have a hard time grasping that their city will almost certainly be flooded beyond recognition: The deluge will begin slowly, and irregularly, and so it will confound human perceptions of change. Areas that never had flash floods will start to experience them, in part because global warming will also increase precipitation. High tides will spill over old bulkheads when there is a full moon. People will start carrying galoshes to work. All the commercial skyscrapers, housing, cultural institutions that currently sit near the waterline will be forced to contend with routine inundation. And cataclysmic floods will become more common, because, to put it simply, if the baseline water level is higher, every storm surge will be that much stronger. {...} Like a stumbling boxer, the city will try to keep its guard up, but the sea will only gain strength.
"I believe it because we’re living it."
New York Times: Flooding of Coast, Caused by Global Warming, Has Already Begun — Scientists’ warnings that the rise of the sea would eventually imperil the United States’ coastline are no longer theoretical.
Who Works for the Workers?
Who Works for the Workers? — Gabriel Winant on the future of the American labor movement
Citizen Journalists start your engines.
The Intercept is broadening access to the Snowden documents. Here´s why.
We encourage other journalists, researchers, and interested parties to comb through these documents, along with future published batches, to find additional material of interest. Others may well find stories, or clues that lead to stories, that we did not. A primary objective of these batch releases is to make that kind of exploration possible.
The Intercept’s first SIDtoday release.
We encourage other journalists, researchers, and interested parties to comb through these documents, along with future published batches, to find additional material of interest. Others may well find stories, or clues that lead to stories, that we did not. A primary objective of these batch releases is to make that kind of exploration possible.
The Intercept’s first SIDtoday release.
When you've got to mail a letter from Leningrad to Stalingrad
Want to send a letter, but also want to express your admiration for the glorious heroes of the revolution? Stamp Russia has got you covered.
Radiohead's new album hits the web
Five years after Radiohead's last album, myriad hints from the band marked May 1st -- Dawn Chorus Day -- as the date something big was gonna happen. The band ateased the web with rumours_of songs new and old, cryptic artwork, ominous mailers. But after years of waiting, nothing came... literally. Optimistic fans trying to pick up every last crumb_were left climbing up the walls_as they were shown how to disappear completely, with the band's official site and social media fading out again, slowly dissolving little by little, one by one, before their very eyes.
It all came back Tuesday, as mysterious chirps and inkblots ushered in the sinister claymation music video for long-awaited track "Burn the Witch" [prev.], followed days later by an arresting P.T. Anderson-directed film for the somber elegy "Daydreaming."
While Radiohead's ninth album is not here now physically till June, it's available for download come 8th May_(today!) at 2 PM EDT on Radiohead.com.
It's gonna be a glorious day.
RIP Bookslut
After 14 years, Bookslut has published its final issue. Vulture has an interview with Jessa Crispin, the site's founder and editor.
Build lots and lots (and lots) of new power plants
Here's what it would take for the US to run on 100% renewable energy.
It is technically and economically feasible to run the US economy entirely on renewable energy, and to do so by 2050.
The Secret Scent-based Language of Plants
If you saw the Atlas Obscura "Invisible Worlds" video illustrating The unflinching warfare of the Lima Bean (warning: simplistic animation of wasp larvae infesting caterpillars), you might think that Phaseolus lunatus is unique in its scent-based communication in the plant world. In fact, most if not all plants can communicate with each-other, with insects and other animals through scent. Plants can also time the release of different signals to have different effects.
#keepmefiweird
Inspired by Greg Nog's comment in an earlier MeTa, I want to suggest Keep MeFi Weird May.
Tweeteorology
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology BirdCast: Bird Migration Forecasts in Real-Time. When, where, and how far will birds migrate? Our migration forecasts will answer these questions for the first time.
Ancient Engineering Science So Advanced It Is Like Magic
Scientists have solved an ancient Peruvian mystery from space
By using corkscrewing funnels, the Nazca were able to use wind to move underground water supplies without benefit of electricity, thus allowing for “an inexhaustible water supply throughout the year" and "an intensive agriculture of the valleys in one of the most arid places in the world.”
There are no things, there are only truths.
Something terrible happened to you in outer space. All you can remember are the last few moments, the sun fading to a speck as you and your crew broke free from the solar system, the ship’s systems suddenly shutting down, the panic and blackness inside, shouting and sobbing, outside the phosphorescent fringes of the wormhole as it opened up in front of you—and then you woke up, sweat-slick in your own bed at sunrise, with the birds singing outside, in another universe. You are trapped in the world of the popular TV astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and you know this, because here the sunrise isn’t a sunrise at all.
Living is complicated
Last Men Standing.
The stories of eight men who aren't supposed to be here. Diagnosed with HIV in the 1980's, when that was a death sentence, they are now living lives they never expected to have.
The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans
Nearly half of Americans would have trouble finding $400 to pay for an emergency. I’m one of them. An essay on "Financial impotence" from Neal Gabler in The Atlantic, part of a longer project on "Financial shame": True Money Stories
Destined to make a difference
Maryland has the highest rate of deaths attributable to emissions--113 per 100,000 annually--of any area in the United States. The Curtis Bay area of Baltimore is the epicenter for this pollution, ranking "first in the entire country for quantity of toxic air pollutants." In 2012, when high school student Destiny Watford read online about a plan to build a so-called "clean energy" trash-burning incinerator power plant less than a mile from her neighborhood, Destiny organized students and residents to fight back. Her efforts yielded two unlikely results: successfully blocking construction on the plant, and being honored with a 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize, an international prize awarded annually to 6 grassroots activists each year from each of the world's 6 geographic regions.
It's not secular stagnation; it's financialization.
Elizabeth Warren has a great idea for making Tax Day less painful
- "She's taking on TurboTax and other predatory companies."
The New Astrology
Surveys indicate that economists see their discipline as ‘the most scientific of the social sciences’. What is the basis of this collective faith, shared by universities, presidents and billionaires? Shouldn’t successful and powerful people be the first to spot the exaggerated worth of a discipline, and the least likely to pay for it? In the hypothetical worlds of rational markets, where much of economic theory is set, perhaps. But real-world history tells a different story, of mathematical models masquerading as science and a public eager to buy them, mistaking elegant equations for empirical accuracy.
Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?
Hundreds of documents uncovered by the Center for International Environmental Law have push back the record of oil industry knowledge on climate change by decades, and have now been published on the Internet: Smoke and Fumes.
How can I make money from home this summer?
I am a PhD student in the social sciences. I want to make money from home this summer, ideally doing freelance data analysis work.
No One Man Should Have All That Power
Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze is brilliant, political, and human
Ultimately, Stelfreeze and Coates have woven a story that Black Panther deserves, and one that pushes his and Wakanda's preestablished narrative into brave new territory. This is a story about a man of his people, and unlike many Black Panther stories of the past, it does justice to and makes us care about those he's pledged to serve and protect. It's a brilliant start to one of Marvel's most promising new series, and like the hero whose story it tells, it's poised to defy its already grand expectations.
Ultimately, Stelfreeze and Coates have woven a story that Black Panther deserves, and one that pushes his and Wakanda's preestablished narrative into brave new territory. This is a story about a man of his people, and unlike many Black Panther stories of the past, it does justice to and makes us care about those he's pledged to serve and protect. It's a brilliant start to one of Marvel's most promising new series, and like the hero whose story it tells, it's poised to defy its already grand expectations.
Cameron, Corbyn, The City and Steampunk
Despair Fatigue - How hopelessness grew boring. The big lie of austerity, how the crushing of the working classes was commodified, the rise of Corbofuturism and how it might shape a radical 21st century.
“When a rich man steals, he becomes a minister.”
Brazil in Crisis
Brazil is suffering its worst economic crisis in decades. An enormous graft scheme has hobbled the national oil company. The Zika epidemic is causing despair across the northeast. And just before the world heads to Brazil for the Summer Olympics, the government is fighting for survival, with almost every corner of the political system under the cloud of scandal. (SLIntercept)
“What’s your son going to think?”
“What will your kid think?” and “Are you worried your son is going to hate you when he grows up?” and “Are you going to let him read it?” and “What’re you going to do when your kid Googles you?” are all questions that, even when offered lightheartedly and in a spirit of ostensible support, feel less like genuine questions and more like a chastening. “Remember, you’re a MOM” and “Remember, you have a mother” both mean “Remember, you’re a woman, and there are consequences.” The Patronizing Questions We Ask Women Who Write by Meaghan O'Connell
How 'Dark Money' Shapes US Politics
Jane Mayer takes on the Koch Brothers
[1,2,3] - "For decades, billionaire libertarians Charles and David Koch have spent millions trying to reduce the size of government and slash regulations, making the brothers a target of the political Left and campaign finance reformers. But few people have dug deeper into the Koch empire and family history than New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer, author of the new book 'Dark Money'. Among other revelations, she alleges that the brothers hired private detectives to investigate her after she published articles critical of them. We talk to Mayer about the book and about what the rise of Donald Trump means for the Kochs and their allies." (previously)
Should Debates (and other unique events) be diverted to Fanfare?
Currently things like political debates (and similar unique events, such as Apple announcements) tend to play out in related threads on the Blue. Since that just adds to (usually) already-long threads, wouldn't it make sense to require that dedicated posts be made on the Purple? (I'm not alone in thinking so.)
The Southern Strategy and the devil down south.
"Goldwater discovered it; Nixon refined it; and Reagan perfected it into the darkest of the modern political dark arts."
An excellent piece on the history of the Republican party’s racial politics since the Civil Rights Movement era, and how the 'Southern Strategy' and its dog-whistle appeal to racism paved the way for the current unpleasantness within the Grand Old Party.
Al Gore and Bill Gates on Investing in Clean-Energy 'Moon Shots'
The case for optimism on climate change
- "I'll finish with this story. When I was 13 years old, I heard that proposal by President Kennedy to land a person on the Moon and bring him back safely in 10 years. And I heard adults of that day and time say, 'That's reckless, expensive, may well fail.' But eight years and two months later, in the moment that Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, there was great cheer that went up in NASA's mission control in Houston. Here's a little-known fact about that: the average age of the systems engineers, the controllers in the room that day, was 26, which means, among other things, their age, when they heard that challenge, was 18." (via; previously)
Six candidates, eight days, eleven states: Election 2016 continues
It's another day of multi-state voting in the live version of House of Cards otherwise known as Election 2016. On the Republican side, four candidates remain: Rafael Edward Cruz, John Richard Kasich, Marco Antonio Rubio, and Donald John Trump. On the Democrat side, Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton and Bernard Sanders continue their fight. As the math becomes clearer, and with several months still to go before potentially feisty party conventions, the odds [Oddschecker] [PredictWise] remain on both Clinton and Trump as the favorites to win their respective nominations. More on today's voting from ABC, Fortune and USA Today, while on the horizon, in-person voting begins in Florida...
What's changed and changing about (American) politics?
The three party system
- "There are three major political forces in contemporary politics in developed countries: tribalism, neoliberalism and leftism (defined in more detail below). Until recently, the party system involved competition between different versions of neoliberalism. Since the Global Financial Crisis, neoliberals have remained in power almost everywhere, but can no longer command the electoral support needed to marginalise both tribalists and leftists at the same time. So, we are seeing the emergence of a three-party system, which is inherently unstable because of the Condorcet problem and for other reasons."
fabrication is the ultimate sin of journalism
The bombshell accusations left anyone who'd ever worked with Thompson wondering if he'd scammed them too. It's a tricky question to untangle, noted Josh Marshall, the editor and publisher of the liberal online publication Talking Points Memo, which had published one of his essays. "One of the dirty little secrets of fact-checking," Marshall wrote in an editor's note, "is that it is quite difficult to uncover a determined effort to deceive." Juan Thompson Wrote About St. Louis for the National Media. But Were Any of His Stories True?
This thread is the worst
Can we have a bit more empathy for people who are screwed over by low wages, high rent, and bait and switch employment tactics? I'm referring to this thread.
Should 'adjustment' be the goal?
In a 'sick' society, sanity is relative
- "Is it good to be 'well-adjusted' to rapacious capitalism and consumerism? What defines 'mental health' (or illness) in such a culture?" Is Humanity Getting Better?[1,2] (via)
How many trees are on our planet?
The total number of trees is close to about 3.04 trillion
- "Crowther's group looked back in time and calculated that the Earth has actually lost nearly half its trees since the start of human civilization. 'We're losing 10 billion trees every year and that's a net number'. So how did the group with the lofty goal of planting a billion trees react to these numbers? Their new goal is to plant a trillion trees." (oh and be sure to Meet Hyperion, the World's Tallest Tree! ;)
Pagination and Alerts
The recent Malheur threads were huge, and my browser struggled to cope with them. I would like to propose pagination. And alerts to notify people of active threads.
Twenty years of Democracy Now! in review
Twenty years of Democracy Now! (alt link, transcript) Currently an hour-long television and web broadcast, the award-winning news program began on the radio on February 19th, 1996 on the eve of the New Hampshire presidential primary. Previously.
The Patronage and Cronyism of the "Hillary Clinton Victory Fund"
Blogger suggests that a win For Hillary Clinton's methods on the way to the White House is a loss for participatory democracy.
Alongside the quiet rollback of Obama's ban on contributions from federal lobbyists within the DNC comes what appears to be a novel tactic to maintain control of the nomination process by the Democratic establishment or HRC: the formation of fundraising agreements between HRC and state Democratic parties. The implications for participatory democracy do not seem good given that state parties with their success financially tied to HRC's success must oversee very narrow caucuses and primaries.
boreal mysteries
In the boreal forests of northern Ontario, aerial photography revealed groups of 'rings' of stunted tree growth. The Ontario Geological Society[PDF] conducted research and found the rings are from 'reduced chimneys' forming enormous electrochemical cells.
Remembering and having the confidence to reach out to people
It is a longstanding habit of mine to assume I am "bothering" people if I reach out to them by, say, wanting to spend time with them or talk to them (how terrible!) unless we are already interacting for a reason that was not my doing (an activity, work, them coming to me). I am also in the habit of just not reaching out even with the few people I am confident I am not bothering.
Adults just know these things, I guess
What kinds of not-regular-but-important things for lifestyle maintenance should I, as a theoretically-responsible adult, be tracking? I'm talking about things like changing filters on air conditioners, getting dental checkups, cleaning gutters, and so forth. In theory I am an actual grown-up, but I keep getting blindsided by things I should have known about doing but utterly failed to do.