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bananas's Journal

January 24, 2014

NASA Requires You To Pay To See Mars Curiosity Results

http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/01/nasa-requires-y.html

NASA Requires You To Pay To See Mars Curiosity Results
By Keith Cowing on January 23, 2014 4:08 PM. 9 Comments

Habitability, Taphonomy, and the Search for Organic Carbon on Mars, Science

"Five articles presented in full in the online edition of Science (www.sciencemag.org/extra/curiosity), with abstracts in print, describe the detection at Gale crater of a system of ancient environments (including streams, lakes, and groundwater networks) that would have been habitable by chemoautotrophic microorganisms."

Keith's note: NASA has spent $2 billion on Curiosity. But NASA allows researchers to post the research results - results paid for by taxpayers - behind a paywall at Science. You have to pay twice if you want to see what has been discovered. Too bad NASA is not interested in following OSTP guidelines on Open Data, Transparency, etc.

- A Habitable Fluvio-Lacustrine Environment at Yellowknife Bay, Gale Crater, Mars, Science
- Ancient Aqueous Environments at Endeavour Crater, Mars, Science

Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research, OSTP

"The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) hereby directs each Federal agency with over $100 million in annual conduct of research and development expenditures to develop a plan to support increased public access to the results of research funded by the Federal Government. This includes any results published in peer-reviewed scholarly publications that are based on research that directly arises from Federal funds, as defined in relevant OMB circulars (e.g., A-21 and A-11)."

- NASA Hides Science Behind Paywalls, earlier post
- NASA paywalls first papers arising from Curiosity rover, I am setting them free, Michael Eisen, earlier post

January 23, 2014

Roubini doom scenario: It looks like 1914 again

Source: CNBC

With many parts of the world gearing up to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War, Nouriel Roubini has solidified his hold on the title "Dr. Doom" by suggesting parallels between 2014 and 1914.

There may be no Austro-Hungarian empire or Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but Roubini tweeted this from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos today:

many speakers compare 2014 to 1914 when WWI broke out & no one expected it. A black swan in the form of a war between China & Japan?

He then tweeted some of the reasoning behind this train of thought.

Echoes of 1914: backlash against globalization, gilded age of inequality, rising geopolitical tensions, ignoring tail risks

While Roubini is renowned for his bubble warnings and doom scenarios, his concerns weren't drawn out of thin air, but rather taken mainly from the lips of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

According to reports from both The Financial Times and BBC, Abe said on Wednesday that China and Japan were in a "similar situation" to that of Britain and Germany ahead of World War One.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101357494

January 23, 2014

Japanese premier compares tension between Tokyo and Beijing to that in Europe before First World War

Source: Independent

Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe sent a shiver through the global diplomatic community today, by explicitly comparing tensions between Tokyo and Beijing to animosity between European powers in the run-up to the First World War.

Speaking on a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Abe said it was a “similar situation”, highlighting that China and Japan today, like Britain and Germany in 1914, have extensive trading links. He noted that in the case of Europe these trade links did not prevent an outbreak of hostilities.

<snip>

However, Mr Abe also yesterday re-iterated Tokyo’s long-standing pledge “never again to fight a war” and said that an inadvertent conflict between the two countries – which have no high level diplomatic hotline – would be disastrous. “Japan has sworn an oath, never again to wage a war” he told delegates. “We continue to wish the world will remain in peace.”

<snip>

Mr Abe was also in the Swiss mountain resort, where top business leaders and politicians are gathered for five days, in order to emphasise that the Japanese economy is finally turning a corner. In a rousing speech, delivered in English, Mr Abe pledged to boost Japan’s productivity growth by increasing the number of women in “leadership positions” to 30 per cent by 2020 and also by increasing immigration.

“It is not twilight but a new dawn that is breaking over Japan,” he said. Mr Abe also promised that he would personally drive structural reform. “I am willing to act like a drill bit to pierce through the solid rock of vested interests” he said.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japanese-premier-shinzo-abe-compares-tension-between-tokyo-and-beijing-to-that-in-europe-before-first-world-war-9078333.html

If anyone doesn't understand where this is going - wake up!

Abe is a neocon, and he's just told us what they are going to do.

Just like Reagan, they're going to make Japan strong again - militarily and economically.

Making the military strong means testing it in combat.

They won't "fight a war", they'll just engage in escalating "defense" and "police actions",
similar to how the US overcame "Vietnam Syndrome" by invading Grenada, Panama, and Iraq.

Japan already participated in the illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jul/26/iraq.japan

End of an era as Japan enters Iraq

Tokyo approves biggest deployment of troops since 1945 as anxious Washington casts around for help shouldering post-Saddam burden

Jonathan Watts in Tokyo
The Guardian, Friday 25 July 2003 20.23 EDT

Japan took its biggest stride yet from half a century of pacifism yesterday when parliament approved the dispatch of troops to support the US in Iraq.

The prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, overrode opposition, a no-confidence motion and a late-night filibuster to ensure the passage of the legislation, which paves the way for the country's biggest military deployment since the second world war.

Never before has Japan sent forces overseas without a UN mandate. In the past 10 years, small numbers have joined the UN's peacekeeping operations in Mozambique, Cambodia, Zaire, the Golan Heights and East Timor.

<snip>

January 23, 2014

US military relaxes uniform rules for religious items

Source: BBC

The US military is easing its uniform rules to allow religious wear including turbans, skullcaps, beards and tattoos, officials have said.

Muslim, Sikh, Jewish and Wiccan soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen can now request exemptions to strict military uniform and grooming policies.

Requests will be evaluated individually and can be denied if they hinder military readiness.

Previously, at least three Sikhs had won specific accommodation.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25853546

This is great news!

A great step forward for religious freedom!

January 21, 2014

Winter storm set to 'go bananas' across Northeast

Source: NBC News

A wintry double whammy is descending on the Northeast on Tuesday, bringing as much as a foot of snow and another blast of arctic air.

The latest blow to a weather-beaten region promises to snarl airports and interstates, has closed schools and shuttered much of the nation's capital. Initially forecast to be a modest blurt of cold weather, the system is now packing a real punch.

“Every once in while these little winter storms go bananas, and we think this might be the one,” said Kevin Roth, a lead meteorologist with the Weather Channel.

<snip>

Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/21/22381468-winter-storm-set-to-go-bananas-across-northeast?lite

Live stream from ABC-TV http://abcnews.go.com/live?stream=1

January 21, 2014

Japan adds nearly 4 GW of PV capacity

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/japan-adds-nearly-4-gw-of-pv-capacity-_100013954/

Japan adds nearly 4 GW of PV capacity
16. January 2014 | By: Edgar Meza

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has reported the installation of 3,993 MW of PV capacity in the country between April 1 and October 31, 2013.

<snip>

As of Oct. 31, 2013, Japan's cumulative installed PV capacity had reached 11.226 GW.

<snip>

Japan became the first country in the world to surpass the 1 GW of cumulative PV capacity back in 2004.

METI launched a subsidy program for residential PV systems in 1994, according to data from NPD Solarbuzz. Initially, the subsidy covered 50% of the cost of PV systems. As a result, until 2005, Japan had the largest installed PV capacity of any country in the world.

Solar PV deployment in Japan slowed in the mid-2000s, due in part to the country’s ten-year energy plan that was approved in March 2002 and called for an expansion of nuclear generation by approximately 30% by 2011. The plan included the construction of between nine and 12 new nuclear power plants, equivalent to 17.5 GW of new nuclear generating capacity.

Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, however, Japan began to shut down its nuclear reactors and promote the wider use of solar power.

January 21, 2014

Remembering a great protest at the space center

http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2014/01/remembering-great-protest-at-space.html

REMEMBERING A GREAT PROTEST AT THE SPACE CENTER
by Bruce K. Gagnon
Saturday, January 18, 2014

<snip>

Dr. Benjamin Spock spoke at the January 17 protest at Cape Canaveral. In his book "Spock on Spock" he ended the autobiography with a photo of him climbing over the base gates. He wrote, "Every effort made in this direction, every letter and every demonstration, has done some positive good. Without these protests, things would be much worse."

January 17, 1987 was a special day. It was the date of the largest peace protest in Florida history when well over 5,000 people marched onto the front gates of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in protest of the planned test launch of the first Trident II nuclear missile. I was then coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice where I worked for 15 years. We initiated the call for the protest and asked for help from groups around the country. Our march to the gates that day was led by famous baby doctor Benjamin Spock and he was the first person to climb a ladder to get over the barbed wire fence. We called the protest "Cancel the Countdown".

In all 186 were arrested for symbolically trying to enter the base to sit on the launch pad where Trident II nuclear missiles would be test fired. About 50 were arrested in the days preceding the January 17 event when they tried sneaking onto the launch center that is located inside the national seashore and surrounded by ocean and swamps. Some hiked up the beach toward the launch towers along the shore and others trudged through the alligator infested swamp marshes. Some were arrested at night with military helicopters searching for them. For a solid week the media around Florida was intensely covering the arrests prior to the January 17 rally. Peter Lumsdaine from California came to help and was a key organizer of these back country actions at the Cape.

<snip>

January 21, 2014

Eighteen leading environmental groups demand an end to Obama's "all of the above" energy strategy

http://grist.org/news/big-green-groups-demand-an-end-to-obamas-all-of-the-above-energy-strategy/

Big green groups demand an end to Obama’s “all of the above” energy strategy
By John Upton
17 Jan 2014

Leading environmental groups are telling President Barack Obama that it’s time to drop his climate-screwing “all of the above” energy strategy, which promotes rampant drilling and mining of fossil fuels as well as green alternatives.

Eighteen groups sent a letter to Obama on Thursday, pointing out that his strategy “fails to prioritize clean energy and solutions that have already begun to replace fossil fuels,” and arguing that it’s “a compromise that future generations can’t afford.” The signers include the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation, Oceana, Environmental Defense Fund, and Natural Resources Defense Council. Here’s more from the letter:

We believe that continued reliance on an “all of the above” energy strategy would be fundamentally at odds with your goal of cutting carbon pollution and would undermine our nation’s capacity to respond to the threat of climate disruption. With record-high atmospheric carbon concentrations and the rising threat of extreme heat, drought, wildfires and super storms, America’s energy policies must reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, not simply reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

We understand that the U.S. cannot immediately end its use of fossil fuels and we also appreciate the advantages of being more energy independent. But an “all of the above” approach that places virtually no limits on whether, when, where or how fossil fuels are extracted ignores the impacts of carbon-intense fuels and is wrong for America’s future. America requires an ambitious energy vision that reduces consumption of these fuels in order to meet the scale of the climate crisis.

And here’s more commentary from Trip Van Noppen, president of Earthjustice, another group that signed the letter:

In addition, “all of the above” leaves the American people holding the bag of drinking water contamination in our communities, crude oil pipeline bursts in our neighborhoods, toxic chemicals in our air, fracking groundwater accidents across the nation, oil spills in our precious Arctic waters and in our seafood-rich Gulf, carcinogenic dumping in our community waters, mountaintop removal across the Appalachians, historic coal ash spills, and more.

<snip>

January 21, 2014

How Climate Change is Impacting Thoreau’s Walden Pond

http://ecowatch.com/2014/01/18/climate-change-impact-thoreaus-walden-pond/

How Climate Change is Impacting Thoreau’s Walden Pond
Climate News Network | January 18, 2014 | By Tim Radford

Walden, where Henry David Thoreau planted beans on land that had yielded only cinquefoil, blackberries, johnswort and sweet wild fruits, is changing. The trees and shrubs around Walden Pond are now out on average 18 days earlier than 150 years ago, when Thoreau made his observations. And, according to U.S. scientists in the journal New Phytologist, native species could lose out to invasive shrubs such as the Japanese barberry.

Concord, MA, occupies a special place in America’s history: it was the site of the first battle of the War of Independence in the eighteenth century, and later it was immortalized by the writings of Thoreau. But the nineteenth century author did more than publish elegant observations of the natural economy. He also recorded the first moment when leaves emerged on the trees around Walden Pond, near Concord, and did so for five years between 1852 and 1860.

Caroline Polgar, a student at Boston University, decided to repeat his observations. What she found was surprising: “all species—no exceptions—are leafing out earlier now than they did in Thoreau’s time. On average, woody plants in Concord leaf out 18 days earlier now.”

<snip>

“The experiments show that as spring weather continues to warm, it will be the invasive shrubs that will be best able to take advantage of the changing conditions,” Gallinat concluded.

<snip>

January 20, 2014

The case for Sister Megan Rice; recommended sentence is 5 yrs, 10 mos to 7 years, 3 mos

http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2014/01/19/case-sister-megan-rice/

The case for Sister Megan Rice; recommended sentence is 5 yrs, 10 mos to 7 years, 3 mos

The recommended sentence against Sister Megan Rice, the Catholic nun who at age 82 traversed a ridge in the middle of the night and, along with two co-activists, broke into the inner-most sanctum of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and vandalized federal property, is 70 to 87 months. Her sentencing is set for the morning of Jan. 28.

As have the other defendants in the internationally followed case, Rice — who turns 84 years old this month – is seeking a lighter-than-recommended sentence for her conviction on felony charges of sabotage and depredation of government property related to the July 28, 2012 break-in at Y-12.

<snip>

The motion said the seriousness of the act does not match up with the seriousness of the charge in which the three were charged and convicted. According to the defendant’s filing, the federal charges do not recognize the difference between spray-painted biblical references that nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks” and tossing a Molotov cocktail.

“The conduct that led to the convictions in this case was, of course, mostly trespass and graffiti, and nothing to do with explosives,” the motion states.

<snip>

This entry was posted in History, NNSA, security, Y-12 on January 19, 2014 by Frank Munger.

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