The country that brought a sea back to life, and its neighbor who chose to let the sea disappear

On By peanutgallerynhIn Central Northern Asia and The Caucasus,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

At more than 67,000 sq km (26,000 sq miles), the Aral Sea was once the fourth-largest freshwater lake in the world. But the Soviet Union’s uncompromising agricultural policies in the 1950s led to water from two rivers – the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya – being diverted away from the sea to irrigate Central Asia’s desert steppes to boost cotton production. Water levels dropped and the once abundant populations of bream, carp and other freshwater fish dwindled with them.

Today, the sea is a 10th of its original size and has almost split in two. Mimicking the shape of a splintered number eight, the North Aral Sea – the top half of the body of water – lies in Kazakhstan. The South Aral Sea, which consist of a strip of water in the west and a dried-out basin in the east, sits in Uzbekistan.

In the 1990s, both bodies of water seemed headed for similar outcomes. But that changed when the World Bank stepped in with an $87m (£66m) rescue project in Kazakhstan.

This included constructing a 12km-long (7.5 mile) dyke across the narrow channel that connects the North Aral Sea to its neighbour to the south, with the aim of reducing the amount of water spilling out into the South Aral Sea. Improvements to existing channels of the Syr Darya river, which snakes northwards from Kazakhstan’s Tian Shan Mountains, also helped to boost the flow of water into the North Aral Sea.

…Raising the dyke walls by another four metres would help to keep an additional 15 billion cubic metres of water in the North Aral Sea, he adds. This would extend the area covered by the sea from 800sq km (300 sq miles) to 400sq km (150 sq miles).

….Plans to do this were put forward as part of a second phase of the World Bank project, but it has recently stalled. According to the World Bank the project is currently awaiting approval from the Kazakh government to move forward.

…Across the border in Uzbekistan, the story is very different. While the World Bank has worked on some projects to restore the existing lakes around the South Aral Sea, such as Lake Sudoche, it has had less success. The main obstacle appears to be the demand that Uzbeks have for it, as the Amu Darya river flows are used upstream for agricultural purposes and does not have enough water flow to fill up the South Aral Sea.

Greater reliance on cotton production for income has also hindered attempts to restore the South Aral Sea to its former glory. From 1930 to 1990, Uzbekistan provided more than two-thirds of the cotton produced in the Soviet Union. It ranked fifth out of 90 cotton-producing countries, and it was the second-largest exporter of cotton fibre to the US. Today, Uzbekistan is still the fifth-biggest cotton exporter in the world after the US, India, Brazil, and Australia.

…In 2015, the eastern basin of the South Aral Sea completely dried up and the water never returned.

BBC – Future – The country that brought a sea back to life

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What You Need To Know About The Much-Discussed Carter Page FISA Document

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

The FBI’s Russia investigation began in the summer of 2016 when investigators learned that a Trump campaign foreign policy aide, George Papadopoulos, had been importuned by Russian intelligence operatives in London. They offered him “dirt” on Hillary Clinton and “off-the-record” meetings with Russian officials.

Counterintelligence officers began to look into what was going on. By October, they were focusing on Page, who had left the Trump campaign earlier in the year after he, too, had served as a foreign policy aide.

In the new document from that month, the FBI not only argues that Page might have been conspiring with the Russians, it wrote that it believed he was a full-blown Russian agent.

…In the filing, investigators cited a number of reasons they believed it, including the FBI’s past experience in dealing with Page — who had been targeted for recruitment by Russia’s foreign intelligence service — and then-new reports the FBI was getting from a former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele.

…Now that portions are public, it is clear that the FISA application does not name Trump or Clinton or Fusion GPS or Simpson or Steele nor detail the political background.

Nunes argued in February that law enforcement officials should have included these details many times but didn’t:

“In the case of Carter Page, the government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts,” Nunes wrote. “However, our findings indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was omitted.”

The Justice Department and FBI responded before the release of Nunes’ memo that, in fact, he was the one who had omitted important information about the way FISA process works — which the agencies said gave them “grave concerns.”

…Entire sections of the file, including one under the heading “Clandestine intelligence activities of the Russian Federation,” are blacked out.

What You Need To Know About The Much-Discussed Carter Page FISA Document : NPR

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Waitress Emelia Holden Has A Message For All Women After Taking Down A Customer Who Groped Her

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

“You have every right to stand up for yourself no matter who it is,” Holden said in an interview with local CBS affiliate WTOC. “No one has the right to put their hands on you. No, means no. You have to have consent.”

…Overall, Holden said she’s received mostly positive responses and comments since the video of her takedown went viral. A few people, however, have attempted to victim blame her by arguing that she somehow brought the groping on herself by wearing shorts. “That shouldn’t matter,” Holden said in regards to her clothing. “It’s hot out. I can wear whatever I want. Don’t touch me.”

Waitress Emelia Holden Has A Message For All Women After Taking Down A Customer Who Groped Her

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Dennis Quaid: What cocaine does to your body

On By peanutgallerynhIn Drugs & Drink,Leave a comment

“Normally, dopamine recycles back into the cell that released it, shutting off the signal between nerve cells. However, cocaine prevents dopamine from being recycled, causing large amounts to build up. This flood of dopamine in the brain’s reward circuit strongly reinforces drug-taking behaviors, because the reward circuit eventually adapts to the excess of dopamine caused by cocaine, and becomes less sensitive to it. As a result, people take stronger and more frequent doses in an attempt to feel the same high.”

…While scientists are still researching exactly why cocaine and other stimulants cause sleep loss, recent studies have shown that the surge in dopamine affects the body’s circadian rhythms. Since circadian rhythms regulate sleep patterns, this leads to difficulty both staying and falling asleep.

Dennis Quaid: What cocaine does to your body

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Fox and Friends Book the Wrong Guest

On By peanutgallerynhIn Boston,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

“Fox and Friends First” hosts …thought they were talking to Ann Kirkpatrick — a Democratic congressional candidate from Arizona they believed would speak in favor of the policies of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

…Schmitt and Mele kicked off the conversation on live television by asking L’Italien — believing she was Kirkpatrick — “why you do support ICE?”

…“Good morning, I’m actually here to speak directly to Donald Trump. I feel that what’s happening at the border is wrong,” said L’Italien, who is running for the Third Congressional District seat in the US House of Representatives. “I believe that separating kids from their parents is illegal and inhumane.”
L’Italien went on to identify herself, making it clear that the hosts weren’t speaking to Kirkpatrick, before continuing her message.

In response to questions about whether he had deceived the Fox show, [L’Italien’s campaign] told the Globe: “We showed the exact same commitment to truth, fairness, and accuracy that Fox News always has.”

…Meanwhile, Kirkpatrick, the guest Fox had hoped to have on air, distanced herself from the station’s narrative, and said in a tweet that she is opposed to Trump’s immigration policies.

“This morning, Fox News and other outlets put out false reports on my position on ICE, without a single word from me,” she said.

Error or deception? Mass. congressional candidate hoodwinks Fox News show – The Boston Globe

Pregnant women don’t learn about profound brain changes

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Modern Parenting,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

I was in the midst of the most rapid and dramatic neurobiological change of my adult life. The unmooring I felt, and that so many new mothers feel, likely was at least in part a manifestation of structural and functional brain changes, handed down through the millennia by mothers past and intended to mold me into a fiercely protective, motivated caregiver, focused on my baby’s survival and long-term well-being.

…Women experience a flood of hormones during pregnancy, childbirth, and breast-feeding that primes the brain for dramatic change in regions thought to make up the maternal circuit. Affected brain regions include those that enable a mother to multitask to meet baby’s needs, help her to empathize with her infant’s pain and emotions, and regulate how she responds to positive stimuli (such as baby’s coo) or to perceived threats. In the newborn months, a mother’s interaction with her infant serves as further stimulus to link her brain quite tangibly to her baby’s.

…After childbirth, the volume of gray matter in the mothers’ brains changed dramatically, particularly in regions involved in social processes and “theory of mind,” or the ability to attribute emotions and mental states to other people — key in raising a human. The degree of change, enough that researchers could easily sort the women who had had a pregnancy from those who hadn’t, surprised Elseline Hoekzema, a lead author on the 2016 paper who studies pregnancy and the brain at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

…Studies have found that fathers, including gay fathers raising children without maternal involvement, experience significant changes in brain activity, but those changes depend on exposure to the child. The more time a man spends as primary caregiver, the more activated the parental network in his brain becomes, and researchers suspect a similar effect may be present for others in a parental role.

…A surge of oxytocin at childbirth triggers changes that allow a woman quite literally to sync to her baby through a coordination of biology (synchronized brain responses and heart rates) and behavior (matching responses in gaze, touch, and vocalizations). That intense connection teaches a baby from the very first day how to relate to another person, says Ruth Feldman, Simms-Mann Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. When we connect with friends, romantic partners, and colleagues and even as we view ourselves as a member of a sports team or as part of a nation, we “repurpose the basic machinery” established in the connection between mother and baby, she explained in a 2017 paper on the neurobiology of human attachment.

The parental brain incorporates human-specific functions such as empathy with ancient ones aimed at protecting the young for the survival of the species. That complexity makes it “a peak expression of human evolution,” she says. In fact, she speculates that the parental bonding phenomenon came first. Before there were humans.

Pregnant women don’t learn about profound brain changes – The Boston Globe

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Australian governments concede Great Barrier Reef headed for ‘collapse’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Pacific Basin,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The world’s climate change path means the Great Barrier Reef is headed for “collapse” according to a plan endorsed by state and federal governments that critics say turns a blind eye to Australia’s inadequate effort to cut carbon emissions.

…The comments depart starkly from previous official efforts to downplay damage wrought on the reef for fear of denting the tourism industry.

…It concedes that consecutive coral bleaching events and other stressors “have fundamentally changed the character of the reef”, which is one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet.

“Coral bleaching is projected to increase in frequency … those coral reefs that survive are expected to be less biodiverse than in the past,” the plan says.

Australian governments concede Great Barrier Reef headed for ‘collapse’

aggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Facebook Puts Holocaust Denial Groups in Top Search Results

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook is burying Holocaust denial at the bottom of search results, but search results say otherwise.

…Business Insider reported Friday that Facebook still puts groups devoted to denying the idea that six million died in the Holocaust among the top search results for searches on the site, as well as in searches through the groups section of the site.

Facebook Puts Holocaust Denial Groups in Top Search Results

What a schmuck.

Endangered Species Act: Trump administration seeks to limit protections

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The short of it is this: There’s greater leniency in setting rules for threatened species on a case-by-case basis, there’s greater permission to include economic impacts in conservation decisions, and the services that enforce the ESA can use discretion in deciding what’s meant by the term “foreseeable future.”

These changes are part of a broad suite of policies advanced by the Trump administration to favor industries like mining and fossil fuels by eliminating or limiting the environmental protection rules they have to follow.

Endangered Species Act: Trump administration seeks to limit protections – Vox

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Remains found of African-Americans forced into labor

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The remains are likely those of people who worked at a plantation through a “convict leasing program” in the late 1800s and early 20th century. Archaeologists estimated the cemetery was used from 1878 to 1910. (To give that some context: The emancipation proclamation was issued in 1863, while the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865).

…The leasing program was a “system in which Southern states leased prisoners to private railways, mines and large plantations,” according to the Equal Justice Initiative. Though states profited from this arrangement, “prisoners earned no pay and faced inhumane, dangerous and often deadly work conditions. Thousands of black people were forced into what authors have termed ‘slavery by another name’ until the 1930s,” the school district continued.

…Between 1885 and 1887, many prisoners worked to build the Capitol building in Austin, while others worked to construct the Texas State Railroad between 1893 and 1909, according to the Texas State Historical Association.

…Out of the 95 burial sites identified thus far, 48 have been exhumed, according to a statement from the school district. All were male but one, archaeologists said. Their ages ranged from 14 to 70 years old.

In addition to finding the remains, archaeologists also uncovered rusted tools and chains laborers likely wore. 

Remains found of African-Americans forced into labor

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Facebook’s rhetoric on misinformation doesn’t match its actions

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Facebook has said it finds claims that survivors of a violent tragedy are actually actors duping the public to be “abhorrent.” The company has said that content with such claims violates its community standards, and has pledged to remove such posts.

But when contacted by CNN over the last week about two InfoWars videos on Facebook which strongly suggest survivors of the Parkland shooting were acting, the company chose to leave the videos online.

…The company has pledged to tackle the issue of false news and misinformation, but it has allowed pages like InfoWars that produce such content to remain on the platform and to escape punitive measures it says are in place to stop bad behavior.

…Facebook has failed to affix much of InfoWars’ conspiratorial and false content with fact checks. A Facebook spokesperson said when a piece of content is fact-checked, it is demoted and its audience is reduced by about 80% on average.

…In a video it created in May promoting its efforts to combat misinformation, Facebook specifically pointed to PizzaGate, a fringe right-wing conspiracy theory that falsely linked top members of the Hillary Clinton team to an underground child sex ring, calling it “dangerous.” But multiple posts on InfoWars’ Facebook page share the theory — and do not appear to be affixed with a Facebook fact check. Nor was one added after CNN brought the posts to Facebook’s attention.

…On Wednesday, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg attempted to explain Facebook’s position on the matter, he gave new fuel to the controversy by saying he did not know if Holocaust deniers intended to deceive others when sharing Holocaust-denying material. Zuckerberg later walked back his comments.

Facebook’s rhetoric on misinformation doesn’t match its actions

sigh…

Mueller team wants to talk to ‘Manhattan Madam’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Davis, who went to jail as a part of the scandal surrounding former Democratic New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, has worked for Roger Stone, an outside political adviser President Donald Trump. They are close — Stone is the godfather to Davis’ son.

The same source said Davis did clerical and website work for Stone.

Mueller team wants to talk to ‘Manhattan Madam’ – CNNPolitics

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My Great-Grandfather, the Nigerian Slave-Trader

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

“Are you not ashamed of what he did?” I asked.

“I can never be ashamed of him,” he said, irritated. “Why should I be? His business was legitimate at the time. He was respected by everyone around.” My father is a lawyer and a human-rights activist who has spent much of his life challenging government abuses in southeast Nigeria. He sometimes had to flee our home to avoid being arrested. But his pride in his family was unwavering. “Not everyone could summon the courage to be a slave trader,” he said. “You had to have some boldness in you.”

…During the ceremony, I was overwhelmed with relief. My family was finally taking a step beyond whispering and worrying. Of course, nothing can undo the harm that Nwaubani Ogogo caused. And the ohu, who are not his direct descendants, were not invited to the ceremony; their mistreatment in the region continues. Still, it felt important for my family to publicly denounce its role in the slave trade. “Our family is taking responsibility,” my cousin Chidi, who joined from London, told me. Chioma, who took part in Atlanta, said, “We were trying to make peace and atone for what our ancestors did.”

My Great-Grandfather, the Nigerian Slave-Trader | The New Yorker

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Michael Cohen recorded Trump discussing payment to ex-Playboy model

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

The FBI is in possession of a recording between President Donald Trump and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen in which the two men prior to the election discuss a payment to a former Playboy model who has alleged an affair with Trump.

…Part of the criminal investigation of Cohen by the US attorney’s office has examined possible election law violations related to payments made to women who alleged sexual encounters with Trump. One focus of the searches in April, CNN has reported, was to seek records on Cohen’s payments to Daniels, who has alleged such an encounter, and on an agreement set up between McDougal and American Media Inc., the company that owns the National Enquirer tabloid and whose chairman and CEO is a close friend of Trump.

Michael Cohen recorded Trump discussing payment to ex-Playboy model – CNNPolitics

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Woman harassed over Puerto Rican flag shirt says officer “blatantly ignored” her pleas for help

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Race,Leave a comment

Irizarry, a veterinary technician, said Friday Trybus and two other people were sitting in a picnic shelter for which she had purchased a permit, so she approached them and asked them to leave. Trybus asked her twice if the flag on her T-shirt was a Texas flag, she said, and she replied both times that it was a Puerto Rican flag.

That’s when she said Trybus moved closer to her and stepped on a table.

…In the video, Trybus is seen telling Irizarry not to wear a T-shirt celebrating Puerto Rico if she’s an American citizen — despite the fact that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.

…Officer Connor then arrived, but the video shows he didn’t intervene even as the Trybus invaded Irizarry’s personal space and continued to harangue her as she asked for assistance.

…Her cousin, who had stepped away before the encounter, returned from the car and intervened. At that point the officer told the cousin to step back. 

…Cook County Commissioner Luis Arroyo called the video of “appalling, gut-wrenching, and a real wake-up call to everyone.” 

…The officer “embarrassed many of our law enforcement officers and tarnished the whole department with his failure to act,” Arroyo said.

….Irizarry said she finds the actions of Trybus and the officer “equally offensive.” She said she was “severely disappointed” that the officer stepped down from the force before he explained his motivations.

“I will never get to hear from this man, this protector, the reason for why my safety — no, my life — had such little value to him,” Irizarry said. “Why an American citizen would not reap the benefits of the police force when it was most needed.”

…Irizarry called the officer a “coward” for resigning.

“I just want justice for the whole thing, and I want the ex-officer to really be held accountable, whatever that looks like,” Irizarry said. “Of all the people who have apologized to me, the one person that hasn’t is him.”

Woman harassed over Puerto Rican flag shirt says officer “blatantly ignored” her pleas for help – CBS News

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Summer solstice 2018: Pythagoras’s theorem used to build Stonehenge

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Greek philosopher Pythagoras discovered that the sum areas of two squares on two sides of a triangle will always add up to the area of a square on the hypotenuse – the longest side of a right angle triangle.

However, Pythagoras was not born until the 5th century BC – some 2,000 years after Stonehenge was erected.

…Contributor and editor of Megalith, John Matineau, told the Telegraph: “People think of our ancestors as rough cavemen but they were applying Pythagorean geometry over 2,000 years before Pythagoras was born.

…They were astronomers and cosmologists. …“They were studying long and difficult to understand cycles and they knew about these when they started planning sites like Stonehenge.

Summer solstice 2018: Pythagoras’s theorem used to build Stonehenge | Science | News | Express.co.uk

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State Dept trafficking report includes ill effects of family separation

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Modern Parenting,, Race,Leave a comment

The State Department trafficking report, in addition to drawing attention this year to “modern day slave markets” in Libya, the dislocation of thousands of Rohingya in Burma, “untold numbers” of North Koreans subject to forced labor and the punishment of trafficking victims in Iran, also includes a section on the negative effects of family separation.

…”Studies have found that both private and government-run residential institutions for children, or places such as orphanages and psychiatric wards that do not offer a family-based setting, cannot replicate the emotional companionship and attention found in family environments that are prerequisites to healthy cognitive development,” the report reads. “The physical and psychological effects of staying in residential institutions, combined with societal isolation and often subpar regulatory oversight by governments, place these children in situations of heightened vulnerability to human trafficking.”

The report made reference to “ill-managed facilities” as a prime target for traffickers.

State Dept trafficking report includes ill effects of family separation – CBS News

Sigh….