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This evening's music features Chicago blues drummer and singer Willie Nix. Enjoy!

“Because today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups... So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.”

-- Philip K. Dick

News and Opinion

Some news from the Department of Creepy Innovations:

The new way police are surveilling you: Calculating your threat ‘score’

While officers raced to a recent 911 call about a man threatening his ex-girlfriend, a police operator in headquarters consulted software that scored the suspect’s potential for violence the way a bank might run a credit report.

The program scoured billions of data points, including arrest reports, property records, commercial databases, deep Web searches and the man’s social- media postings. It calculated his threat level as the highest of three color-coded scores: a bright red warning.

The man had a firearm conviction and gang associations, so out of caution police called a negotiator. The suspect surrendered, and police said the intelligence helped them make the right call — it turned out he had a gun.

As a national debate has played out over mass surveillance by the National Security Agency, a new generation of technology such as the Beware software being used in Fresno has given local law enforcement officers unprecedented power to peer into the lives of citizens.

"The National Shame Continues": On Its 14th Anniversary, Will Guantánamo Ever Be Closed?

Inbuilt delays in case reviews make prospect of Guantánamo closure recede

It was supposed to be a crucial part of Barack Obama’s plan to close Guantánamo Bay. But frustrated officials say the special review board designed to speed up the closure of the detention camp in Cuba contains a major flaw which allows the process to grind almost to a halt.

Known as the Periodic Review Board (PRB), a multi-agency panel has convened since 2013 to determine whether the hardest cases at Guantánamo – the so-called “forever prisoners” officials have deemed too dangerous to release but for whom they possess insufficient evidence to charge – still pose a threat to the US or its allies. ...

Even after the agency representatives on the panel decide a detainee’s fate, a month-long review process begins, which allows the agency chiefs an opportunity to overrule their subordinates and prevent a detainee from going free. ...

The delay period allows bureaucrats to slow-walk providing their superiors with the results, effectively placing the process in a holding pattern where a decision on a detainee’s fate is hostage to a “non-objection”, waiting until the agencies simply indicate that they will not object to a decision. Officials said that process, in practice, often stretches beyond the month-long wait period, helping explain why PRB decisions drag out for months. ...

Several advocates for closing Guantánamo Bay, including former administration officials, have urged Obama to convene PRBs faster. ... More than two years after the first PRB was convened, only 24 forever prisoners have gone through the process. ... Only five of the PRB-cleared prisoners have actually left Guantánamo Bay.

Gitmo at 14: Obama's Last Chance to Fulfill Promise and Close 'Moral Disaster Zone'

"It's not enough for President Obama to say he tried," says Center for Constitutional Rights. "He is the Commander in Chief."

Fourteen years ago on Monday, the first wave of detainees arrived at the notorious U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.

Seven years ago, President-elect Barack Obama promised that he would close the detention center within one year. ...

"Every year, for the last seven years, concerned activists and citizens have called on President Obama to fulfill his promise during his first year in office and demanded that Guantánamo be closed once and for all; every year, these calls have remained unheeded," said Dr. Zainab Chaudry of Interfaith Action for Human Rights. "This is President Obama's final year in office. That means this is also his final opportunity to follow through on his promise, shut down Guantanamo, and restore some semblance of dignity to our justice system. This opportunity must not be left ignored."

Describing the prison as "a moral disaster zone," Rev. Ron Stief, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, added: "It would be a grave sin and a national disgrace for President Obama to leave office without closing Guantánamo." ...

"Don't let President Obama blame others," added Michael Ratner, an attorney who has represented Guantánamo detainees before the U.S. Supreme Court, in an email alert circulated Monday by CodePink. "A reluctant Pentagon is no excuse. Obama is Commander in Chief. The fault is not in the stars, but with him. One day of unlawful detention is an outrage, 14 years is an abomination. If Obama is to close the prison before he leaves office, he must move to do so now."

Shaker Aamer: Gitmo shrouded in lies, even ‘belongings’ are fake

This article contains a very nice timeline of events from the beginning of the Arab Spring to current. The author seems to be far more generous in his estimation of US and European intentions than is warranted.

The Arab Spring, five years on: A season that began in hope, but ended in desolation

Arab Spring was always a misleading phrase, suggesting that what we were seeing was a peaceful transition from authoritarianism to democracy similar to that from communism in Eastern Europe. The misnomer implied an over-simplified view of the political ingredients that produced the protests and uprisings of 2011 and over-optimistic expectations about their outcome.

Five years later it is clear that the result of the uprisings has been calamitous, leading to wars or increased repression in all but one of the six countries where the Arab Spring principally took place. Syria, Libya and Yemen are being torn apart by civil wars that show no sign of ending. In Egypt and Bahrain autocracy is far greater and civil liberties far less than they were prior to 2011. Only in Tunisia, which started off the surge towards radical change, do people have greater rights than they did before. ...

The West played a role in supporting uprisings against leaders they wanted to see displaced such as Muammar Gaddafi and Assad. But they gave extraordinarily little thought to what would replace these regimes. They did not see that the civil war in Syria was bound to destabilise Iraq and lead to a resumption of the Sunni-Shia war there.

[This assumes that what "the West" intended to do was to liberate the people of these arab states and bestow upon them the blessings of democracy. I think that the tacit assumption of the author couldn't be further from the truth. - js]

An even grosser miscalculation was not to see that the armed opposition in Syria and Iraq was becoming dominated by extreme jihadis. Washington and its allies long claimed that there was a moderate non-sectarian armed opposition in Syria though this was largely mythical. In areas where Isis and non-Isis rebels ruled they were as brutal as the government in Damascus. The non-sectarian opposition fled abroad, fell silent or was killed and it was the most militarised and fanatical Islamic movements that flourished in conditions of permanent violence.

I wonder when International Law will catch up and censure the Obama administration for enabling Saudi Arabia's war crimes. Hell, I wonder when domestic law, like the Arms Export Control Act will catch up with the Obama war criminal administration. Pffffttt, well, forget the latter - there's no chance of actual justice coming from a branch of the US government.

Saudi arms sales are in breach of international law, Britain is told

The government has been put on notice that it is in breach of international law for allowing the export of British-made missiles and military equipment to Saudi Arabia that might have been used to kill civilians.

The hugely embarrassing accusation comes after human rights groups, the European parliament and the UN all expressed concerns about Saudi-led coalition attacks in Yemen. Lawyers acting for the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) have stepped up legal proceedings against the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which approves export licences, accusing it of failing in its legal duty to take steps to prevent and suppress violations of international humanitarian law.

In a 19-page legal letter seen by the Observer, CAAT warns that the government’s refusal to suspend current licences to Saudi Arabia, and its decision “to continue the granting of new licences” for military equipment that may be destined for use in Yemen, is unlawful. The letter cites article two of the EU Council Common Position on arms sales, which would compel the UK to deny an export licence if there was “a clear risk” that equipment might be used in a violation of international humanitarian law. ...

“UK weapons have been central to a bombing campaign that has killed thousands of people, destroyed vital infrastructure and inflamed tensions in the region,” said Andrew Smith of CAAT. “The UK has been complicit in the destruction by continuing to support airstrikes and provide arms, despite strong and increasing evidence that war crimes are being committed.”

At Least Four Dead After Another Attack on a Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Yemen

For the third time in as many months, a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Yemen has been bombed, and this time at least four people are dead and 10 injured.

The international medical humanitarian organization, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said in a statement that three staff members were injured — two critically — when a clinic in the Razeh district of northern Yemen was "hit by a projectile" on Sunday morning. MSF said the number of casualties "could rise, as there could still be people trapped in the rubble." ...

MSF could not confirm who was behind the attack on Sunday, but said planes were seen flying over the facility at the time. MSF's hospital in the city of Hayden was destroyed by Saudi airstrikes on October 27, and nine people were wounded when coalition bombs hit a health center in the city of Taiz on December 3. The Saudis initially admitted carrying out the October airstrikes, calling the attack a "mistake" and promising to investigate, then reversed course and denied responsibility.

Obama continues to violate the War Powers Resolution of 1973, now having conducted an illegal war for a year and a half. Congress couldn't care less.

McConnell Shuts Down Notion That Obama Will Get War Authorization Against ISIS

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to dash any hope that Congress would formally authorize President Obama to wage war against ISIS.

His remarks came as McConnell’s House counterpart, Speaker Paul Ryan, is examining the feasibility of passing such an authorization this year. During an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” McConnell said he couldn’t imagine voting for any authorization to use military force that the president would actually sign because he believes the war authorization President Obama wants would, in McConnell’s words, “tie the hands of the next president.”

Afghan military's fight against Taliban hampered by no-show soldiers

Afghan forces are struggling to man the front lines against a resurgent Taliban, in part because of untold numbers of "ghost" troops who are paid salaries but only exist on paper.

The nationwide problem has been particularly severe in the southern Helmand province, where the Taliban have seized vast tracts of territory in the 12 months since the U.S. and NATO formally ended their combat mission and switched to training and support.

"At checkpoints where 20 soldiers should be present, there are only eight or 10," said Karim Atal, head of Helmand's provincial council. "It's because some people are getting paid a salary but not doing the job because they are related to someone important, like a local warlord."

In some cases, the "ghost" designation is more literal — dead soldiers and police remain on the books, with senior police or army officials pocketing their salaries without replacing them, Atal said.

He estimates that some 40 percent of registered forces don't exist, and says the lack of manpower has helped the Taliban seize 65 percent of the province — Afghanistan's largest — and threaten the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Those men who do serve face even greater danger because of the no-shows. In the last three months alone, some 700 police officers have been killed and 500 wounded, he said.

Turkish Officials Cheer as 32 Kurds Killed in Weekend Crackdown

Turkish officials are cheering another round of violent military crackdowns against the country’s Kurdish southeast, reporting that they killed at least 32 Kurds, all dubbed “militants,” over the weekend. ...

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu touted the new offensive and the death toll as proof that the government will not relent until the entire nation is “cleansed of these killers.”

Fake Images of Crisis in Syria’s Madaya Making the Rounds

Al-Jazeera’s top image of a starving child [...] is the same child from a YouTube video in Derna, Syria, way back in May, months before the Madaya siege even began.

His isn’t the only image falsely attributed to the current crisis, with el-Akhbar identifying many of the other most high-profile pictures as having previous origins, one as far back as a 2009 picture of a refugee arriving in Europe, and a photo of a starving infant “in Madaya” dating from early 2014, and the infant shown is trapped in the ISIS-occupied Palestinian refugee camp or Yarmouk.

The shocking nature of the images makes for great press, and many are trying to parlay that into a chance to condemn the Syrian government, their Russian allies, and Hezbollah. While there are crises all over Syria and well-documented suffering that has produced millions of refugees, one would think there would not be a need to manufacture phony stories surrounding recycled pictures. For those looking to hype the crisis-du-jour, however, it seems that asking for real photos of the real situation is just too inconvenient, and it’s easier to just re-brand the first starving child you see.

The US Is Thinking About Sending More Weapons to the Korean Peninsula

The United States and its ally South Korea were discussing on Monday sending more strategic US weapons to the Korean peninsula, a day after a US B-52 bomber flew over South Korea in response to North Korea's nuclear test last week.

North Korea said it set off a hydrogen bomb last Wednesday, its fourth nuclear test since 2006, angering China, the North's main ally, and the US, which said it doubted the device was a hydrogen bomb.

In a show of force and support for allies in the region, the US on Sunday sent a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber based in Guam on a flight over South Korea, accompanied by South Korean fighter jets.

North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' Party, said the US was bringing the situation to the brink of war.

South Korean media said the US may send B-2 bombers, nuclear-powered submarines, and F-22 stealth fighter jets to South Korea. A South Korean defense ministry spokesman declined to give details. 

This is a really excellent article worth reading in full.

Ted Cruz’s Stone-Age Brain and Yours
Why “Collateral Damage” Elicits So Little Empathy Among Americans

After Senator Ted Cruz suggested that the United States begin carpet bombing Islamic State (IS) forces in Syria, the reaction was swift. ... By almost any standard Cruz’s proposal was laughable and his rivals and the media called him on it. What happened next? By all rights after such a mixture of inanity and ruthlessness, not to say bloody-mindedness against civilian populations, his poll numbers should have begun to sag. After all, he’d just flunked the commander-in-chief test and what might have seemed like a test of his humanity as well. In fact, his poll numbers actually crept up. The week before the imbroglio, an ABC opinion poll had registered him at 15% nationally. By the following week, he was up to 18% and one poll even had him at a resounding 24%.

How to explain this? While many factors can affect a candidate’s polling numbers, one uncomfortable conclusion can’t be overlooked when it comes to reactions to Cruz’s comments: by and large, Americans don’t think or care much about the real-world consequences of the unleashing of American air power or that of our allies. ...

In March 1951, nine months into the Korean War, Freda Kirchwey, a crusading liberal journalist at the Nation, expressed bewilderment at American indifference to the fate of Korean civilians killed by our bombs. ... Because she was an optimist Kirchwey expressed the hope that Americans would eventually come to share her own moral anguish at what was being done in their name. They never did. If anything, the longer the war ground on, the less Americans seemed interested in the fate of the victims of our bombing.

Why did they show so little empathy? Science helps provide us with an answer and it’s a disturbing one: empathy grows harder as distances – whether of status, geography, or both – increase. Think of it as a matter of our Stone Age brains. It’s hard because in many circumstances an empathic response is, in fact, an unnatural act. It is not natural, it turns out, for us to feel empathy for those who look different and speak a different language. It is not natural for us to empathize with those who are invisible to us, as most bombing victims were and are. Nor is it natural for us to feel empathy for people who have what social scientists call “low status” in our eyes, as did the Korean peasants we were killing. ...

Another social science finding helps us understand why empathy is often in short supply and why Ted Cruz is capable of cavalierly recommending we carpet bomb Syrians living under the control of the Islamic State. Once we have convinced ourselves of the necessity and correctness of bombing the hell out of a country – as Americans did during the Korean War and as we are now doing in our war against IS – the wiring in our Stone Age brain helps us overcome any hint of guilt we might be inclined to feel over the ensuing loss of life. It quite naturally acts to dehumanize the distant victims of our air strikes.

This may sound cruel and uncaring, but as far as biology is concerned it makes sense. Our genes, as the biologist Richard Dawkins has taught us, are “selfish”; they are, that is, built to enhance their own replication, which is, in effect, their biological imperative. Caring for people who are low in status, particularly those who belong to another tribe, doesn’t serve this imperative. Indeed, it may interfere with it by diverting the attention of the host – that’s you and me – from activities that will enhance our survival.

Historic Settlement over NYPD's Anti-Muslim Spying Imposes Oversight & Bars Ethnic-Based Targeting

Homeland Security Targets Families Seeking Asylum

Why is DHS targeting families fleeing horrific violence in Central America, people who had no choice but to run? According to a Jan. 4 statement by DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, the crackdown is a response to a spike in the number of asylum-seekers presenting themselves at the border. “Our borders are not open to illegal migration,” he wrote. “If you come here illegally, we will send you back consistent with our laws and values.” He said the current raids target those with “final orders of removal.” But his statement is profoundly misleading.

First of all, presenting oneself at the border to claim asylum is not “illegal immigration.” A person fleeing persecution is supposed to present herself to an immigration officer to claim asylum. Following the law is not illegal.

Secondly, it has been a matter of longstanding policy and practice to treat recent entrants with no criminal record as a low priority for removal. But the 2016 raids are focusing on recent entrants, wrongly treating them as if they were a national security threat or people with extensive and felonious criminal records.

... And even more troubling is that these orders of deportation—supposedly final—are being issued with levels of due process one might expect to see in a country like Saudi Arabia. Common features include mislabeled notices, improper service, coercion, and woefully inadequate legal representation. Many of the recipients may well qualify for asylum or other protection—but are not given a chance to fairly make their case.

The Empire Files: The Most Dangerous Year for Muslims in America

Oregon standoff tension mounts as so-called '3%' groups refuse to leave

The heavily armed rightwing groups who descended on rural Harney County in eastern Oregon on Saturday – to protect the peace, they said – made clear they had no intention of leaving, as the occupation of the Malheur national wildlife refuge entered its second week.

Observers, meanwhile, noted that many such groups were extremist entities with histories of promoting bigotry, racism and violence.

On Saturday, leaders of the [Bundy] militia group, which began its occupation a week previously, said the outside groups were unwelcome and unnecessary.

A day later, the new militias in town said they would stay until the occupation ended, raising further concerns about the potential for violence.

The leaders of the outside groups insist that they aim to act as mediators between the occupiers of the federal buildings, law enforcement and local residents – and say they will provide protection and security for all. They say they do not endorse the armed takeover of the refuge, by occupation leader Ammon Bundy, and want to ensure it does not end with a deadly shootout.

“We are hopeful for a resolution quickly – one that is mutually beneficial for all parties involved,” Brandon Curtiss, president of a group called 3% of Idaho, told the Guardian on Sunday morning. “We are trying to carry a role as a neutral party and a buffer zone.”

The devaluation of the Chinese yuan marks a crisis in capitalism

World markets were stunned yesterday after the Chinese central bank moved to weaken the country’s currency, the Yuan, for the eighth-day running - a six year low against the dollar. ... While Chinese officials have remained silent, analysts believe the move is designed to encourage exports of Chinese-made goods following a nine-month decline in manufacturing indices. China’s recent actions, however, are indicative of a deeper crisis.

One important barometer relates to Chinese labour strike data. Newly released figure from the China Labour Bulletin (CLB) reveals that the number of strikes and workers’ protest dramatically increased at the end of 2015 particularly in manufacturing, construction and mining. As a result the labor costs for big firms have tripled - encroaching upon and often flattening profit margins.

In 2012 almost half of manufacturers and importers said they would consider moving out of the country altogether - of which 26 per cent did. In the beginning of 2016, manufacturing continues at a nine month low and China’s trade share of GDP is a third less than a decade ago. ...

In the final phase: capital innovates by automating and/or leaving for a more profitable terrain – however in this case there are few if any options as an alternative to China. Thus, the transition may deepen the crisis of accumulation in the “real economy” for transnational capital.

Australia bet the house on never-ending Chinese growth. It might not end well

Over the last couple of decades, China has undergone profound change and is often cited as an economic growth miracle. Day by day, however, the evidence becomes increasingly clear the probability of a severe economic and financial downturn in China is on the cards. This is not good news at all for Australia. The country is heavily exposed, as China comprises Australia’s top export market, at 33%, more than double the second (Japan at 15%).

A considerable proportion of Australia’s current and future economic prospects depend heavily on China’s current strategy of building its way out of poverty while sustaining strong real GDP growth. To date, China has successfully pulled hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty and into the middle class through mass provision of infrastructure and expansion of housing markets, alongside a powerful export operation which the global economy has relied upon since the 1990s for cheap imports. ...

Australia, though it frequently features high on lists of the world’s most desirable locations, currently has the world’s second most indebted household sector, at 122% of GDP, soon to overtake Denmark in first place. Combined with private non-financial business sector debt, Australia has a staggering total of 203%, vastly larger than public debts at all levels of government.

Australia’s long-term bet on China was and still is conceptually simple – an incredibly flawed assumption that the country would never cease to consume increasingly more iron ore. ...

With the Chinese economy beginning to falter, the fear is Australians must now figure out where their economic future lies for the next generation who have been brainwashed into believing that digging up rocks and flipping houses by accumulating a gargantuan mountain of private debt is how a modern western country builds its future. The results will not be pretty.

Detroit braces for 'sickout' by teachers frustrated by class sizes and conditions

A “substantial” number of teachers from at least 40 schools in Detroit’s public school district will participate in a “sickout” on Monday, the Guardian has learned. The move for teachers to simultaneously call in sick, fueled by frustration over large class sizes and “abominable” working conditions, could close nearly half the district.

Detroit teachers have recently staged numerous such organized mass absences from work, prompting closures at some of the largest schools in the city of 680,000. ...

Detroit’s public schools have been a problem for Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder, a Republican who ushered the city into the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history. Most observers agree the success of Detroit is contingent upon whether its schools can be fixed.

Hillary Clinton Made More in 12 Speeches to Big Banks Than Most of Us Earn in a Lifetime

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders this week assailed rival Hillary Clinton for taking large speaking fees from the financial industry since leaving the State Department.

According to public disclosures, by giving just 12 speeches to Wall Street banks, private equity firms, and other financial corporations, Clinton made $2,935,000 from 2013 to 2015. ...

To put these numbers into perspective, compare them to lifetime earnings of the median American worker. In 2011, the Census Bureau estimated that, across all majors, a “bachelor’s degree holder can expect to earn about $2.4 million over his or her work life.” A Pew Research analysis published the same year estimated that a “typical high school graduate” can expect to make just $770,000 over the course of his or her lifetime.

Bernie Sanders: Donald Trump Is A ‘Pathological Liar’

Harvard scholar: Ted Cruz's citizenship, eligibility for president ‘unsettled’

Donald Trump has sought to cast doubt on whether [Ted Cruz.], who was born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father, is a “natural-born US citizen”. In doing so he has referred to the work and words of Laurence Tribe, perhaps the most respected liberal law professor in the country. ...

Article II, section I, clause V of the US constitution states: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

In his emails to the Guardian, Tribe discussed Cruz’s own approach to constitutional issues, noting that under “the kind of judge Cruz says he admires and would appoint to the supreme court – an ‘originalist’ who claims to be bound by the historical meaning of the constitution’s terms at the time of their adoption – Cruz wouldn’t be eligible because the legal principles that prevailed in the 1780s and 90s required that someone be born on US soil to be a ‘natural born’ citizen.”

He added: “Even having two US parents wouldn’t suffice for a genuine originalist. And having just an American mother, as Cruz did, would clearly have been insufficient at a time that made patrilineal descent decisive.

“On the other hand, to the kind of judge that I admire and Cruz abhors – a ‘living constitutionalist’ who believes that the constitution’s meaning evolves with the needs of the time – Cruz would ironically be eligible because it no longer makes sense to be bound by so narrow and strict a definition.”

Tribe said: “There is no single, settled answer. And our supreme court has never addressed the issue.”

Sanders and Clinton Neck-and-Neck in Iowa and New Hampshire

Just weeks ahead of the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are neck-and-neck, polls released Sunday reveal.

In New Hampshire, Sanders is backed by 50 percent—a four point lead over Clinton, who has 46 percent, according to surveys from NBC/The Wall Street Journal/Marist.

In Iowa, Clinton has 48 percent, compared to 45 percent for Sanders.

In both states, the gap between Sanders and Clinton fell within the poll's margin of error. Conducted between January 2 and 7 among 422 likely Democratic caucus-goers, the Iowa survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percent. The New Hampshire survey of 425 probable Democratic primary voters had the same margin of error.

"Turning to the general election," the poll summary notes, "when Clinton and Sanders are each matched against, Trump, Cruz, or Rubio, Sanders does better than Clinton among registered voters in both Iowa and New Hampshire."

Sanders leads in electability by a wide margin: an average of 6 points in Iowa and 21 in New Hampshire.

The Future of Wind Turbines? No Blades

It’s no longer surprising to encounter 100-foot pinwheels spinning in the breeze as you drive down the highway. But don’t get too comfortable with that view. A Spanish company called Vortex Bladeless is proposing a radical new way to generate wind energy that will once again upend what you see outside your car window. ...

The Vortex has the same goals as conventional wind turbines: To turn breezes into kinetic energy that can be used as electricity. But it goes about it in an entirely different way.

Instead of capturing energy via the circular motion of a propeller, the Vortex takes advantage of what’s known as vorticity, an aerodynamic effect that produces a pattern of spinning vortices. ...

In its current prototype, the elongated cone is made from a composite of fiberglass and carbon fiber, which allows the mast to vibrate as much as possible (an increase in mass reduces natural frequency). At the base of the cone are two rings of repelling magnets, which act as a sort of nonelectrical motor. When the cone oscillates one way, the repelling magnets pull it in the other direction, like a slight nudge to boost the mast’s movement regardless of wind speed. This kinetic energy is then converted into electricity via an alternator that multiplies the frequency of the mast’s oscillation to improve the energy-gathering efficiency.

Its makers boast the fact that there are no gears, bolts, or mechanically moving parts, which they say makes the Vortex cheaper to manufacture and maintain. The founders claim their Vortex Mini, which stands at around 41 feet tall, can capture up to 40 percent of the wind’s power during ideal conditions (this is when the wind is blowing at around 26 miles per hour). Based on field testing, the Mini ultimately captures 30 percent less than conventional wind turbines, but that shortcoming is compensated by the fact that you can put double the Vortex turbines into the same space as a propeller turbine.

The solution for the melting polar ice caps may be hiding in the rainforest

Tropical forest conservation and restoration could constitute half of the global warming solution, according to a recent peer reviewed commentary in Nature Climate Change.

Reducing carbon emissions, as the nations of the world promised to do in Paris last month, is essential, but simultaneously pulling carbon out of the atmosphere (which is what rainforests do) would immediately and significantly reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) at a surprisingly low cost, providing a crucial bridge to a post-fossil fuel era.

The potential of rainforest conservation to address global warming should be enough to galvanize massive worldwide rainforest conservation efforts. The natural regrowth and subsequent protection of hundreds of millions of acres of degraded rainforest would result in massive absorption of carbon as the trees grow. While it is crucial that we transition away from the use of fossil fuels, the reality is that rainforest protection can happen much more quickly. ...

Although wholesale clear-cutting and selective logging have destroyed massive areas of rainforest, vast areas remain intact. And degraded rainforest, if allowed to regenerate, is amazingly resilient. In 10 years, seedlings can grow into 50-foot [15-meter] trees. Diverse wildlife can return and rebound within two to three years. ...

Deforestation in the name of economic development has occurred routinely over many decades without regard to its devastating consequences. It is completely unsustainable for governments to continue to provide concessions, subsidies and tax breaks to business when logging, oil extraction, mining for minerals, fires, palm oil plantations, large scale commercial agriculture, cattle ranching and road construction continue to diminish the earth’s finite, invaluable rainforests.

Fracking shakes the American west: ‘a millennium’s worth of earthquakes’

Increasingly tied to tremors shaking the west, fracking for natural gas is creating alarm and division around western states that until recently enjoyed a boom in jobs and revenue.

In Oklahoma, seismologists have warned that significant temblors last week could signal a larger, more dangerous earthquake to come in a state where drilling is destabilizing the bedrock.

Last Wednesday night two earthquakes, measuring 4.7 and 4.8 on the Richter scale, struck rural northern Oklahoma, beneath a major oil and gas producing area. The state historically experiences two shakes a year registering above level three.

According to the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), which is based in Colorado, in 2014 Oklahoma experienced 585 such quakes. In 2015 there were 842.

“That’s almost a millennium’s worth of earthquakes in two years,” George Choy, a seismologist at the center, told the Guardian on Friday. “When you see that you suspect something is going on.” ...

Oil and gas drilling has risen to 7% of the Oklahoma state economy since 2009, part of a wider fracking revolution that has boosted American energy production and created more than a million US jobs. ... “Absent a catastrophic loss of life or property, there will be zero reaction from the Oklahoma House or Senate. They don’t want to touch it,” Democratic state representative Cory Williams told the New York Times.

Important Reminder in the Flint Crisis: People Still Have No Safe Water

Emergency declared by governor, but there is no city- or state-run distribution of water.

The lead contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan is receiving increased national attention—yet what the people of the Rust Belt city urgently need to receive is clean drinking water.

Republican Governor Rick Snyder on Thursday offered a second apology for the crisis, saying it's an "unfortunate situation." That problem, which began as the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, has left 200 children below the age of six with confirmed elevated blood lead levels, spurred calls for Snyder's ouster, and prompted filmmaker Michael Moore to say the governor has to go to jail, as he "effectively poisoned, not just some, but apparently ALL of the children in my hometown of Flint, Michigan." 

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said Thursday that it would cost as much as $1.5 billion to fix the city's drinking water infrastructure. ...

While the water was switched back to Detroit 's system in the fall, "the water is not safe in Flint," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow pointed out Thursday.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Liberal Democrats and the Depersonalization of Evil

Where Were the Post-Hebdo Free Speech Crusaders as France Spent the Last Year Crushing Free Speech?

Nobody’s Child: The Palestinian Uprising No One Wants to Adopt

One by One, South Sudan Tries to Name Its War Victims

Defense Industry Revenue Forecast Gushes Over Global Turmoil

Poland’s Plans to Stick Washington With a Bigger NATO Bill

A Little Night Music

Willie Nix - Try Me One More Time

Willie Nix - Nervous Wreck

Willie Nix - Riding In The Moonlight

Willie Nix - Baker Shop Boogie

Willie Nix - Midnight Showers Of Rain

Willie Nix - Just Can't Stay

Willie Nix - Let's Take A Little Walk