Global
According to a leaked draft of the upcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), the world as we know it is over. The report presents substantial and well documented predictions of global suffering and massive social disruption resulting from the impact climate change on the water supply, food, and natural resources, and successively mounting human loss.
Oddly enough, the recipient of the leak, the New York Times, acted like it was a story about the “food supply.” In fact, the totality of the draft makes it clear that we’ve gone too far for too long to avoid the dire consequences of man made climate change.
The documented risks presented include (Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptations, Vulnerability, IPCC, here or here, pp. 6 & 7):
✓ Food insecurity linked to warming, drought, and precipitation variability;
✓ Death injury and disrupted livelihoods in low-lying coastal zones … due to sea level rise, coastal flooding and storm surges;
✓ Severe harm for large urban populations due to inland flooding;
Oddly enough, the recipient of the leak, the New York Times, acted like it was a story about the “food supply.” In fact, the totality of the draft makes it clear that we’ve gone too far for too long to avoid the dire consequences of man made climate change.
The documented risks presented include (Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptations, Vulnerability, IPCC, here or here, pp. 6 & 7):
✓ Food insecurity linked to warming, drought, and precipitation variability;
✓ Death injury and disrupted livelihoods in low-lying coastal zones … due to sea level rise, coastal flooding and storm surges;
✓ Severe harm for large urban populations due to inland flooding;
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Police in Saudi Arabia stopped and fined at least
16 women who intentionally drove cars on Saturday (Oct. 26) after the
monarchy and Islamist clerics refused to support demands to give
drivers' licenses to females.
Police had received an advisory describing how to deal with female drivers, including a suggestion that they should be taken into a side street, issued a warning, made to promise not to drive again, and their car keys should be given to a male guardian, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"Police stopped six women driving in Riyadh, and fined them 300 riyals (about 80 US dollars) each," said the capital's police deputy spokesman, Colonel Fawaz al-Miman, according to Agence France-Presse.
Police stopped six other women in Eastern Province, plus two in Jeddah and two more elsewhere in the kingdom, local media reported.
More than 60 women claimed to have driven on Saturday, activists said.
Aziza Youssef, a Saudi university professor and activist, said 13 videos plus 50 phone messages from women showed or claimed females drove cars that day, Associated Press reported.
Police had received an advisory describing how to deal with female drivers, including a suggestion that they should be taken into a side street, issued a warning, made to promise not to drive again, and their car keys should be given to a male guardian, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"Police stopped six women driving in Riyadh, and fined them 300 riyals (about 80 US dollars) each," said the capital's police deputy spokesman, Colonel Fawaz al-Miman, according to Agence France-Presse.
Police stopped six other women in Eastern Province, plus two in Jeddah and two more elsewhere in the kingdom, local media reported.
More than 60 women claimed to have driven on Saturday, activists said.
Aziza Youssef, a Saudi university professor and activist, said 13 videos plus 50 phone messages from women showed or claimed females drove cars that day, Associated Press reported.
As the Syrian crisis continues to play out according to the brackets of a chemical weapons agreement, one thing is certain. Politicians inside the beltway persist in contributing to the discussion. From the Left, the situation in Syria is a tragedy but falls short of a warrant for American intervention. From the Right, the crisis has cried out for U.S. action since protests began two years ago. Amidst this political back-and-forth, however, one salient group remains in the background, if not ignored altogether. This group is defined by academics who have actually studied the matter at hand.
Whereas politicians used to be consulted through the mainstream media in order to gain valuable information, they have now become ends in themselves. A congressman or congresswoman who appears on any news program is now merely offering his or her opinion regarding Syria. Should the United States intervene in Syria? Politicians spent a great deal of time appearing in several venues to offer their perspective on this question.
Whereas politicians used to be consulted through the mainstream media in order to gain valuable information, they have now become ends in themselves. A congressman or congresswoman who appears on any news program is now merely offering his or her opinion regarding Syria. Should the United States intervene in Syria? Politicians spent a great deal of time appearing in several venues to offer their perspective on this question.
A common angle from the mainstream U.S. media is that NSA leaker Edward Snowden will regret his asylum in Russia (rather than life in prison in the U.S.). A quote from ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern was used in support of that theme, but he has asked the New York Times to clarify it.
I was quoted in Steven Lee Myers's "In Shadows, Hints of a Life and Even a Job for Snowden," published by the New York Times on Oct. 31, as saying (about former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden), "He's free, but not completely free" in asylum in Russia.
An unfortunate juxtaposition in the text of Mr. Myers's piece has led several acquaintances to misinterpret my words. I trust you will agree that the issue is of some importance; thus, my request that you publish this clarification.
I was quoted in Steven Lee Myers's "In Shadows, Hints of a Life and Even a Job for Snowden," published by the New York Times on Oct. 31, as saying (about former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden), "He's free, but not completely free" in asylum in Russia.
An unfortunate juxtaposition in the text of Mr. Myers's piece has led several acquaintances to misinterpret my words. I trust you will agree that the issue is of some importance; thus, my request that you publish this clarification.
The Guardian is about to face investigation by the British Government. The London-based newspaper has been at the forefront of the global surveillance controversy since their journalist Glenn Greenwald published in its pages Edward Snowden's revelations last June. Supported by Prime Minister David Cameron, a parliamentary committee is due to launch an inquiry to determine whether the Guardian's publication of Snowden's leaked documents was a threat to national security.
In a functioning democracy it is expected that a free press would come to the defence of a fellow news outlet facing governmental interference for publishing information about a matter of public interest. Britain has prided itself on having some of the oldest and strongest press freedoms in the world. Yet for all that, the powerful media barons in the UK have all fallen in step with the government's line on security: that the Guardian has helped terrorists.
In a functioning democracy it is expected that a free press would come to the defence of a fellow news outlet facing governmental interference for publishing information about a matter of public interest. Britain has prided itself on having some of the oldest and strongest press freedoms in the world. Yet for all that, the powerful media barons in the UK have all fallen in step with the government's line on security: that the Guardian has helped terrorists.
A bunch of crazy-looking bearded freaks have just won the World Series. YEAH!!!!
They’re our beloved 2013 Boston Red Sox, led by the massively good-humored Dominican slugger David “Big Papi” Ortiz and a Japanese relief pitcher half his size.
All season they’ve played like a cross between Biblical zealots on fire for their craft and crazed hippies out dancing around the campfire---just like it should be when grown men devote themselves to a kid's game.
They pull each others’ beards, laugh, high five, yell and hit. And they have just now blown organized baseball, with all its slick hype and moneyball millions, back to where it belongs.
So too the Hub, city of my birth.
This spring it was shattered by a senseless bombing at our gorgeous Marathon. For more than a century the town faithful have packed streets once run by the Sons of Liberty, now by Marathon runners from everywhere, conquering Heartbreak Hill to bask in the glories of a hard-win finish and a tank of Sam Adams.
It was hellish to have all that so insanely assaulted. It’s a hurt that will never entirely go away.
Most Americans probably take the right to travel for granted until this right is lost or curtailed. Passports are, of course, required for most international travel. When our group (Jesselyn Radack, Thomas Drake, Ray McGovern and Coleen Rowley) recently traveled to Moscow to meet with Edward Snowden and present him with the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence, we depended upon our fundamental right to travel.
The intelligence whistleblower whose integrity we honored, however, has been deprived of that right. Vindictive U.S. officials revoked the passport of Snowden, whose disclosures have informed and educated the people of the United States and the world about secret surveillance and massive data-gathering that the NSA and other government agencies are engaged in within the U.S. and around the world.
If you’ve already signed the RootsAction petition urging that Snowden’s passport be restored, please forward this email to people you know and urge them to do the same. If you haven’t yet signed the petition, you can add your name by clicking here.
The intelligence whistleblower whose integrity we honored, however, has been deprived of that right. Vindictive U.S. officials revoked the passport of Snowden, whose disclosures have informed and educated the people of the United States and the world about secret surveillance and massive data-gathering that the NSA and other government agencies are engaged in within the U.S. and around the world.
If you’ve already signed the RootsAction petition urging that Snowden’s passport be restored, please forward this email to people you know and urge them to do the same. If you haven’t yet signed the petition, you can add your name by clicking here.
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As the leaves change color and the temperature drops (and, here in Columbus, goes back up and drops again), as Pumpkin Spice Everything starts appearing on the menu at every coffee shop in town, writers throughout the world and right here in our hometown start planning. They check out every book on characterization and plotting in the entire region's library system, and then they descend on the book shops to clear out the story crafting shelves there as well. They buy up notebooks and fancy pens. And then, on November 1st, when everyone else is out buying discount Halloween candy, they write the first words of their new novels. That's right, National Novel Writing Month is upon us again!
This year the event, abbreviated as NaNoWriMo, expects to draw in about 500,000 participants from all over the world, with over 4,000 registered in the Central Ohio region on nanowrimo.org. The goal for each participant is to write a 50,000 word novel by 11:59PM on November 30th. The novel can be anything: The Sailor Moon fanfiction you've had on your mental back burner since the 90s is every bit as welcome as an attempt at the next Great American Novel.
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Olentangy Orange High School’s Anna Sanford knew she and her sister Alle only had one shot at making their dream of winning the Division I girls tennis state doubles title a reality. With that shot, the Pioneers doubles team left very little to chance.
The Olentangy Orange High School doubles team defeated Rocky River’s Alex Riegelsberger and Lucy Grierson, Canfield’s Hannah Cianciola and Ashley Kaleel and Toledo Notre Dame Academy’s Alicia Nahhas and Teagan McNamara by identical 6-0, 6-0 scores in the first three rounds of the state tournament, held Oct. 18 at Ohio State’s Outdoor Varsity Tennis Facility and Oct. 19 at the Elysium Tennis Center. The Sanfords then closed out their run with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Cincinnati Sycamore’s Alexa Abele and Maggie Skwara in the title match. The sisters’ run to the title marked the lowest number of games a champion has given up in the Division I state doubles tournament in the 2000s.
“We’ve watched (DeSales’) Kim My Li and My Linh Li (the 2009 Division II state champions) and (New Albany’s) Cristina and Francesca Di Lorenzo (the 2012 Division I state champions) go through this as sisters,” Alle says.
Diebold: the controversial manufacturer of voting and ATM machines, whose name conjures up the demons of Ohio’s 2004 presidential election irregularities, is now finally under indictment for a “worldwide pattern of criminal conduct.” Federal prosecutors filed charges against Diebold, Inc. on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 alleging that the North Canton, Ohio-based security and manufacturing company bribed government officials and falsified documents to obtain business in China, Indonesia and Russia.
Diebold has agreed to pay $50 million to settle the two criminal counts against it.
Diebold has agreed to pay $50 million to settle the two criminal counts against it.