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Friday, October 20, 2017
Is there anybody out there?
Astrobiologist Paul Davies to speak Oct. 24 at URI
Olivia Ross
The next speaker in the University of Rhode Island Honors
Colloquium will deliver a lecture that prompts a thought-provoking question: “Are We Alone in the Universe?” Paul
Davies will explore this daunting question in depth during his lecture Oct. 24
at 7 p.m. in Edwards Auditorium, 64 Upper College Road.
Davies is Regents’
professor and director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science
and co-director of the Cosmology Initiative at Arizona State University, where
he also runs a cancer research program.
Astrobiology is a
relatively new field of study established by NASA. Its focus is to determine
where and when life on Earth began, and whether there is life beyond Earth.
Davies, who helped create the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, said that
prior to 3.8 billion years ago, the record of life on Earth was obliterated due
to our planet being bombarded by comets and asteroids.
Four young seals released from Charlestown’s Blue Shutters Beach
Mystic Aquarium does it again!
This
morning, Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown, RI was greeted by the warm sun,
calm surf and encouraging crowd as Mystic Aquarium’s Animal Rescue Program
released four harbor seals.
The four pups - Flax, Larkspur, Sunflower and
Buttercup - were rescued by Marine Mammals of Maine before being transferred to
Mystic Aquarium’s Animal Rescue Clinic.
Larkspur
was rescued in Harpswell, ME, and Sunflower was rescued from Isle of
Springs, ME. Both pups were also considered to be abandoned shortly after birth
and arrived at Mystic Aquarium on June 1.
Buttercup was rescued in Little
Diamond Island, Portland, ME, and was found malnourished and suffering from
pneumonia, arriving at Mystic Aquarium on July 15.
Following
months of rehabilitation, the four pups, now approximately 4 – 5 months old,
were deemed healthy and prepared for life at sea.
Mystic
Aquarium’s animal care specialists have also been making waves in Alaska and
North Carolina as well.
Want some pesticide with your Wheaties?
Weed
killer for breakfast.
Editor's note: The
below piece is excerpted from Carey Gillam’s new book Whitewash: The Story of a Weed
Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science, published by Island
Press.
For many people, a
toasted bagel topped with honey might sound like a healthy breakfast choice.
Others might prefer a bowl of oatmeal or cornflakes or a hot plate of scrambled eggs.
Few would likely welcome a dose of weed killer that has been linked to cancer in their morning meal.
Others might prefer a bowl of oatmeal or cornflakes or a hot plate of scrambled eggs.
Few would likely welcome a dose of weed killer that has been linked to cancer in their morning meal.
Yet that is exactly
what private laboratory tests in the United States started showing with
alarming frequency in 2014: residues of the world’s most widely used herbicide
were making their way into American meals.
Testing since then, by
both private and public researchers, has shown glyphosate residues not only in
bagels, honey, and oatmeal but also in a wide array of products that commonly
line grocery store shelves, including flour, eggs, cookies, cereal and cereal
bars, soy sauce, beer, and infant formula.
Indeed, glyphosate
residues are so pervasive that they’ve been found in human urine. Livestock are
also consuming these residues in grains used to make their feed, including
corn, soy, alfalfa and wheat.
Glyphosate residues
have been detected in bread samples in the United Kingdom for years, as well as
in shipments of wheat leaving the United States for overseas markets.
“Americans are consuming glyphosate in common foods on a daily basis,” the Alliance for Natural Health said in its April 2016 report, which revealed glyphosate residues detected in eggs and coffee creamer, bagels and oatmeal.
“Americans are consuming glyphosate in common foods on a daily basis,” the Alliance for Natural Health said in its April 2016 report, which revealed glyphosate residues detected in eggs and coffee creamer, bagels and oatmeal.
VIDEO: We do not need to further pad corporate profits
Six Reasons Why American Corporations Shouldn’t Get a Tax Cut
By Robert
Reich
To watch
this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyCjx2yCgi8
Trump and
Republicans are trying to sell you the idea that American corporations need a
tax cut in order to be competitive. That’s rubbish.
Here are 6 reasons why:
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Is there anyone left who doesn’t think Trump is racist?
Trump’s naked bigotry
toward Puerto Rico laid bare
By Ann Werner
In a series of tweets on October 12, Donald Trump displayed his unabashed disdain for the American citizens of Puerto Rico.
No matter that the number of
people on that beleaguered island without electricity is still
rising.
No matter that people without access to clean drinking water are breaking into government toxic waste sites so their families won’t die of thirst.
No matter that all those supplies and personnel are languishing on the docks and in offices without the benefit of a leader to organize a response.
No matter that people without access to clean drinking water are breaking into government toxic waste sites so their families won’t die of thirst.
No matter that all those supplies and personnel are languishing on the docks and in offices without the benefit of a leader to organize a response.
According
to Donald Trump, the people of Puerto Rico have no one but themselves to blame,
and we can’t be there FOREVER – even though the hurricane that leveled the
island that is part of this country, whose citizens are American citizens, was
only three weeks ago.
Donald Trump is sick and tired of their whining. After all, he managed to distribute supplies. Remember when he threw all those paper towels at the crowd? I mean, really, what more do those people want?
Donald Trump is sick and tired of their whining. After all, he managed to distribute supplies. Remember when he threw all those paper towels at the crowd? I mean, really, what more do those people want?
From the Worm Ladies of Charlestown
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It’s not just Trump or Harvey Weinstein or Roger Ailes
Employers and Sexual
Harassment
The Harvey Weinstein scandal is
bringing necessary attention to the problem of sexual harassment. But that
problem is not limited to abusive behavior on the part of big-time movie
producers and a few other powerful men. Women are confronted with sexual
predators in a wide variety of workplaces.
Evidence of this can be found in the
cases resolved by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In addition to
enforcing anti-discrimination rules regarding hiring, pay levels, etc., the
EEOC brings lawsuits (or joins existing ones) dealing with harassment.
In Violation
Tracker I have collected data on a total of 1,393 resolved EEOC cases since the
beginning of 2000 that together have resulted in about $1 billion in penalty
payments by employers. Of these, about 300 involved sexual harassment (often in
conjunction with other allegations). They have resulted in about $135 million
in employer penalties.
Here are some of the more significant cases:
Here are some of the more significant cases:
Our Health Care System Is a Corporate Care System
Why
is health system flailing? Because its guiding ethic is profit, not care.
By
Rather
than a health care system, our country’s leaders have kept us shackled to a
“corporate care” system.
This
allows insurance giants, drug company gougers, hospital chains, and other
profiteers to ration our care based on whether a family can pay whatever
outrageous price the corporations demand to maintain their exorbitant profits.
The
guiding ethic of physicians, nurses, and other caregivers is “First, do no
harm.” The corporate owners of the system impose a contrary ethic: “First,
maximize our profits.”
Dan Rather on Trump’s lies about calls to war widows
Trump
does not understand basic human empathy
All wars are bloody and full of pain, but some of the conflicts
were mismanaged, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths.
Despite all of this, I do not know of any president who did not
at his core feel the solemn burden of young Americans dying in service to
country.
But now we have a Commander in Chief who many feel does not
understand this most basic human empathy.
President Donald Trump's assertions
- more accurately his lies - about whether or not his predecessors,
particularly President Obama, called or wrote to the families of the fallen has rightly been
broadly condemned for its mendacity and insincerity.
It should not be
surprising coming from a man who mocked a war hero, John McCain, and attacked a
gold star family, the parents of slain United States Army Captain Humayun Khan.
I cannot see into President Trump's heart. Nor can I measure his
motives.
But we can see that one of the most solemn roles of the office
of the presidency has once again been subjected to his instinct for bombast,
obfuscation, and self-congratulatory denialism.
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Win for Charlestown in water/power plant fight
Coverage
of Charlestown’s success at winning a place at the table documented by several
sources
By
Will Collette
My
thanks to Tim Faulkner at ecoRI and Steve Ahlquist of Rhode Island’s Future for the great coverage of last night’s
hearing.
Last
night, the Energy Facilities Siting Board ruled on a number of motions,
including Charlestown’s motion for formal intervenor status in the case
involving the proposed Invenergy fossil fuel power plant in Burrillville.
Charlestown
has a direct stake in the power plant at the far end of the state because a
single official of the Narragansett Tribe apparently signed a contract with
Invenergy to provide cooling water pumped from the aquifer that serves all of
us.
The
water would then be trucked from Charlestown by Ashaway’s Benn & Son Water
to the Invenergy plant in Burrillville, presuming that plant gets built.
The
Narragansett contract has been vigorously protested by many Narragansetts who
say the deal is illegitimate because it was never presented for tribal approval.
They vow to prevent any such water removal. Read more here
and here.
There’s
a lot of detail to the story of last night’s hearing. If you only have a
Twitter-sized memory, you probably won’t read in all (in fact, you’ve probably
moved on already).
But
for those who still read things, I present two firsthand reports from our
friends at ecoRI and RI Future where you can get the full story about what
happened and what it means.
You
should also read Catherine Hewitt’s report in the
Westerly Sun or the ProJo’s
coverage.
At the Mystic Aquarium
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