Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Pope Francis, in Ecuador, Calls for More Protection of Rain Forest and Its People
(nytimes.com) QUITO, Ecuador — Pope Francis on Tuesday called for increased protection of the Amazon rain forest and the indigenous people who live there, declaring that Ecuador must resist exploiting natural riches for “short-term benefits,” an implicit rebuke of the policies of President Rafael Correa.
In his final stops of a busy day, Francis made environmental protection a central theme, invoking the biblical tenet for humans to be guardians of creation, while praising the way of life of indigenous peoples living in the rain forests. Several indigenous leaders attending Francis’ final event of the day have been fighting the policies of Mr. Correa to expand oil exploration in the Ecuadorean Amazon.
“The tapping of natural resources, which are so abundant in Ecuador, must not be concerned with short-term benefits,” Francis told a group of civil society leaders at his final stop of the day. “As stewards of these riches which we have received, we have an obligation toward society as a whole, and toward future generations.”
Francis had been expected to address the exploitation of the Amazon, after specifically including the issue in “Laudato Si’,” the environmental encyclical he released to worldwide attention last month. In the document, Francis warned against the perils of climate change but also highlighted the link between environmental destruction and the plight of the poor, including indigenous groups in South America. Full Story
Monday, July 6, 2015
Federal judge sentences two men to prison for selling meth in Wyoming
(trib.com) )7/06/15 - A federal judge sentenced two men to prison last week for selling methamphetamine in Wyoming, according to court documents.
U.S. District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl on June 30 sentenced Steven Henry Kichelmann to 10 years in prison. Skavdahl also sentenced Casey Piburn to six years in prison.
According to an indictment filed Jan. 14 in the U.S. District Court of Wyoming, Kichelmann and Piburn conspired with other people to sell meth in Wyoming and elsewhere.
A judge sentenced a Lyman man in May to 10 years in prison in connection with the case. DCI agents orchestrated drug deals with Larry Shane Searle after a confidential informant told DCI she knew Searle was planning to pick up a large quantity of meth from Utah.
The confidential informant also told authorities she witnessed Piburn buying an ounce of meth from Searle for $1,800, according to court documents. The documents didn’t specify how Kichelmann was involved in the drug activity.
Kichelmann, 41, of Salt Lake City, Utah, was court ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term and pay a $100 fine.
Piburn, 29, of Rock Springs, must serve five years of supervised release and pay a $300 fine.
The case was investigated by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as part of a national effort to reduce the flow of illicit drugs and drug proceeds.
A nationwide network, the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force was created to dismantle drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations. Its members also strive to find the people responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.
U.S. District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl on June 30 sentenced Steven Henry Kichelmann to 10 years in prison. Skavdahl also sentenced Casey Piburn to six years in prison.
According to an indictment filed Jan. 14 in the U.S. District Court of Wyoming, Kichelmann and Piburn conspired with other people to sell meth in Wyoming and elsewhere.
A judge sentenced a Lyman man in May to 10 years in prison in connection with the case. DCI agents orchestrated drug deals with Larry Shane Searle after a confidential informant told DCI she knew Searle was planning to pick up a large quantity of meth from Utah.
The confidential informant also told authorities she witnessed Piburn buying an ounce of meth from Searle for $1,800, according to court documents. The documents didn’t specify how Kichelmann was involved in the drug activity.
Kichelmann, 41, of Salt Lake City, Utah, was court ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term and pay a $100 fine.
Piburn, 29, of Rock Springs, must serve five years of supervised release and pay a $300 fine.
The case was investigated by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as part of a national effort to reduce the flow of illicit drugs and drug proceeds.
A nationwide network, the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force was created to dismantle drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations. Its members also strive to find the people responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Does too much testosterone make men behave irresponsibly?
(Telegraph.co.uk) 07/03/2015- Research published yesterday by Imperial College London suggests that hormones testosterone and cortisol may be having a negative and potentially dangerous influence on the decision-making processes of City workers.
According to the study, the naturally-occurring steroids have been found to markedly increase the chances of risk-taking and audacious behaviour in men whose responsibilities include commercial and economic transactions.
Whilst testosterone is also present in the female body, the concentration at which it can be found in men numbers almost 20 times that of the fairer sex. The study cites this concentration, along with the dominance of male traders in the financial industry, as a possible explanation for some of the less successful and more impulsive moves made by bankers and financiers in recent years.
There is even a suggestion that some of the miscalculated trades that have damaged our economy coud have been due to hormonal interference.
According to the study, the naturally-occurring steroids have been found to markedly increase the chances of risk-taking and audacious behaviour in men whose responsibilities include commercial and economic transactions.
Whilst testosterone is also present in the female body, the concentration at which it can be found in men numbers almost 20 times that of the fairer sex. The study cites this concentration, along with the dominance of male traders in the financial industry, as a possible explanation for some of the less successful and more impulsive moves made by bankers and financiers in recent years.
There is even a suggestion that some of the miscalculated trades that have damaged our economy coud have been due to hormonal interference.
* * * *
Saturday, July 4, 2015
US History: The Story of the Fourth of July
The Declaration of Independence
We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.
But July 4, 1776 wasn't the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776).
It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775).
And it wasn't the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn't happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776).
So what did happen on July 4, 1776?
The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They'd been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes.
July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.
In contrast, we celebrate Constitution Day on September 17th of each year, the anniversary of the date the Constitution was signed, not the anniversary of the date it was approved. If we’d followed this same approach for the Declaration of Independence we’d being celebrating Independence Day on August 2nd of each year, the day the Declaration of Independence was signed!
How did the Fourth of July become a national holiday?
For the first 15 or 20 years after the Declaration was written, people didn’t celebrate it much on any date. It was too new and too much else was happening in the young nation. By the 1790s, a time of bitter partisan conflicts, the Declaration had become controversial. One party, the Democratic-Republicans, admired Jefferson and the Declaration. But the other party, the Federalists, thought the Declaration was too French and too anti-British, which went against their current policies.
By 1817, John Adams complained in a letter that America seemed uninterested in its past. But that would soon change.
After the War of 1812, the Federalist party began to come apart and the new parties of the 1820s and 1830s all considered themselves inheritors of Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. Printed copies of the Declaration began to circulate again, all with the date July 4, 1776, listed at the top. The deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on July 4, 1826, may even have helped to promote the idea of July 4 as an important date to be celebrated.
Celebrations of the Fourth of July became more common as the years went on and in 1870, almost a hundred years after the Declaration was written, Congress first declared July 4 to be a national holiday as part of a bill to officially recognize several holidays, including Christmas. Further legislation about national holidays, including July 4, was passed in 1939 and 1941.
We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.
But July 4, 1776 wasn't the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776).
It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775).
And it wasn't the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn't happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776).
So what did happen on July 4, 1776?
The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They'd been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes.
July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.
In contrast, we celebrate Constitution Day on September 17th of each year, the anniversary of the date the Constitution was signed, not the anniversary of the date it was approved. If we’d followed this same approach for the Declaration of Independence we’d being celebrating Independence Day on August 2nd of each year, the day the Declaration of Independence was signed!
How did the Fourth of July become a national holiday?
For the first 15 or 20 years after the Declaration was written, people didn’t celebrate it much on any date. It was too new and too much else was happening in the young nation. By the 1790s, a time of bitter partisan conflicts, the Declaration had become controversial. One party, the Democratic-Republicans, admired Jefferson and the Declaration. But the other party, the Federalists, thought the Declaration was too French and too anti-British, which went against their current policies.
By 1817, John Adams complained in a letter that America seemed uninterested in its past. But that would soon change.
After the War of 1812, the Federalist party began to come apart and the new parties of the 1820s and 1830s all considered themselves inheritors of Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. Printed copies of the Declaration began to circulate again, all with the date July 4, 1776, listed at the top. The deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on July 4, 1826, may even have helped to promote the idea of July 4 as an important date to be celebrated.
Celebrations of the Fourth of July became more common as the years went on and in 1870, almost a hundred years after the Declaration was written, Congress first declared July 4 to be a national holiday as part of a bill to officially recognize several holidays, including Christmas. Further legislation about national holidays, including July 4, was passed in 1939 and 1941.
Friday, July 3, 2015
Wild horses can’t be an endangered species, says the US Fish and Wildlife Service
(qz.com)
Maybe they’re just not Rolling Stones fans.
On July 1, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service posted its decision online not to grant endangered species status to wild horses.
A petition for the status had been filed by Friends of Animals and The Cloud Foundation in June 2014, which argued that 40% of American wild horses’ habitat had been lost since President Nixon passed the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act in 1971.
The groups requested that the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) recognize North American wild horses as a distinct population segment (DPS) of the species Equus caballus and protect them on all US federal lands. To qualify as a DPS, a petition must show that the population is both a discrete and significant part of the larger species’ population. If those criteria are met, the petition must then make the case for classifying it as endangered.
FWS found that the wild horses were not behaviorally or physiologically different enough from other horses to be considered “discrete” and therefore said it did not need to consider the other factors.
“These horses are different, they are treated different under the law, they behave differently and there’s some evidence they are genetically different,” Jennifer Barnes, a lawyer for Friends of Animals based in suburban Denver, told the Associated Press.
Passed in 1971, the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act states that “wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; (and) that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people.”
Maybe they’re just not Rolling Stones fans.
On July 1, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service posted its decision online not to grant endangered species status to wild horses.
A petition for the status had been filed by Friends of Animals and The Cloud Foundation in June 2014, which argued that 40% of American wild horses’ habitat had been lost since President Nixon passed the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act in 1971.
The groups requested that the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) recognize North American wild horses as a distinct population segment (DPS) of the species Equus caballus and protect them on all US federal lands. To qualify as a DPS, a petition must show that the population is both a discrete and significant part of the larger species’ population. If those criteria are met, the petition must then make the case for classifying it as endangered.
FWS found that the wild horses were not behaviorally or physiologically different enough from other horses to be considered “discrete” and therefore said it did not need to consider the other factors.
“These horses are different, they are treated different under the law, they behave differently and there’s some evidence they are genetically different,” Jennifer Barnes, a lawyer for Friends of Animals based in suburban Denver, told the Associated Press.
Passed in 1971, the Free Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act states that “wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; (and) that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people.”
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Possible Link Between Eye Color and Alcoholism Risk Revealed in New Study
abcnews.com) 07/02/15 - There's a new potential clue in the ongoing effort to understand the genetic links to alcoholism: eye colour.
People with lighter eye colors appear to be more likely to develop alcoholism, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.
The study, published this week, examined genetic samples from 1,263 people with alcohol dependency and found that those with lighter eyes, especially blue eyes, appeared to develop alcoholism at a higher rate.
“This suggests an intriguing possibility -- that eye color can be useful in the clinic for alcohol dependence diagnosis,” Arvis Sulovari, study author and a doctoral student in cellular, molecular and biomedical sciences at the University of Vermont, said in a statement.
Neither Sulovari or lead author Dawei Li, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Vermont, said they think there will be one genetic silver bullet to stop alcoholism. But knowing more about the genetics involved could mean that someday doctors might be able to identify from specific genes which people are most at risk for certain disorders, including alcoholism, by looking at their eye colour or hair colour.
“That would be the our long-term [goal], that it could be applied to the clinic,” Li told ABC News today. “For me as a scientist, there is still a long way to go.”
* * * *
Seems like profiling & racism to me.
People with lighter eye colors appear to be more likely to develop alcoholism, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.
The study, published this week, examined genetic samples from 1,263 people with alcohol dependency and found that those with lighter eyes, especially blue eyes, appeared to develop alcoholism at a higher rate.
“This suggests an intriguing possibility -- that eye color can be useful in the clinic for alcohol dependence diagnosis,” Arvis Sulovari, study author and a doctoral student in cellular, molecular and biomedical sciences at the University of Vermont, said in a statement.
Neither Sulovari or lead author Dawei Li, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Vermont, said they think there will be one genetic silver bullet to stop alcoholism. But knowing more about the genetics involved could mean that someday doctors might be able to identify from specific genes which people are most at risk for certain disorders, including alcoholism, by looking at their eye colour or hair colour.
“That would be the our long-term [goal], that it could be applied to the clinic,” Li told ABC News today. “For me as a scientist, there is still a long way to go.”
* * * *
Seems like profiling & racism to me.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
U.S., Cuba restoring diplomatic ties after 54 years
(Reuters) 07/10/15- The United States and Cuba on Wednesday formally agreed to restore diplomatic ties that had been severed for 54 years, fulfilling a pledge made six months ago by the former Cold War enemies.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro exchanged letters agreeing to reopen embassies in each other's capitals, with the Cubans saying that could happen as soon as July 20.
"This is a historic step forward in our efforts to normalize relations with the Cuban government and people and begin a new chapter with our neighbors in the Americas," Obama said from the White House Rose Garden.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking from Vienna, said he would visit Havana later this summer to raise the U.S. flag outside the U.S. embassy, currently labeled the U.S. interests section under the protection of the Swiss government.
Obama and Castro seek to relegate to history 56 years of recriminations that have predominated ever since Fidel Castro's rebels overthrew the U.S.-backed government of Fulgencio Batista on Jan. 1, 1959.
"Cuba is encouraged by the reciprocal intention to develop respectful and cooperative relations between our two peoples and governments," Raul Castro, 84, Fidel's younger brother and Cuban president since 2008, wrote in his letter to Obama. Full Story
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