We Speak For Earth
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mohandasgandhi Mohandas Gandhi -
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realcleverscience Real Clever Science -
socialuprooting Social Uprooting
Scientists Flood NASA With 400 Ideas to Explore Red Planet
Scientists have responded in a big way to NASA’s call to help reformulate its Mars robotic exploration strategy, submitting about 400 ideas and Red Planet mission concepts to the space agency.
NASA’s Mars program suffered deep cuts in President Barack Obama’s proposed 2013 budget, which was released in February. In response, NASA pulled out of the European-led ExoMars mission, which aims to launch an orbiter and a rover to the Red Planet in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
The agency also undertook a broad rethink of its Mars strategy, to figure out how best to explore the Red Planet with reduced funding. NASA asked the scientific community for ideas and was expecting to get about 200 proposals at its recent Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration Workshop in Houston, officials said.
Instead, twice that many submissions poured in from individuals and teams that included professional researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, NASA centers, federal laboratories, industry and international partner organizations.
Science Query for the Presidential Candidates
I wonder when will the public start demanding scientific literacy among their governing officials, including presidential candidates. We were not a country founded on religious beliefs yet it floods our country’s interest for some odd reason. Would it be too much to ask these people have at least a basic, well-rounded sense of the scientific method, much like we require the same level of expertise from our doctors, scientists, teachers, etc.?.
Here’s a nice article via SciAm that reiterates a similar concern:
3 Science Questions to Ask U.S. Presidential Candidates
“As you may already be aware from my previous posts, The Guardian U.S. and NYU’s Studio 20 journalism lab have teamed up to push a project called The Citizens’ Agenda into the media discourse surrounding the U.S. presidential 2012 election. The idea: find out what you–the citizens–want the candidates to be discussing over the next four months – usually meaning questions of substance about policy rather than horserace and gotcha questions so pervasive in mainstream media.”
— Legalize Weed.
U.S. war veterans flash the peace sign before throwing their medals towards the site of the NATO Summit in Chicago May 20, 2012. Nearly 50 veterans threw service medals into the street near the summit site in protest. Baton-swinging police clashed with anti-war protesters marching on the NATO summit in Chicago on Sunday and a lawyers’ group
This tool tells you how many dollars went to each part of the federal budget.
WTFrack?!
Honestly, what on earth is the argument for giving subsidies to companies netting millions and billions in profits? (Let alone oil companies?!)
Seriously, could someone explain this to me?!
(via thegreenurbanist)
Senator Rand Paul defending oil companies on the Senate floor yesterday. The Senate is debating ending billions of dollars in tax subsidies to oil companies. Paul claims that oil companies deserve tax breaks because love money/hate Obama let’s have a tea partayyy.
Paul’s top campaign contributors? Oil, coal, and hedge funds.
(via climateadaptation)
A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was “a bomb” certain to have serious repercussions.
Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad’s strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government’s violent crackdown on the country’s uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council’s attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war.
Now the Russian Black Sea fleet’s Iman tanker has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-terror squad from the Russian Marines aboard according to the Interfax news agency. The Assad government has insisted it is fighting a terrorist insurgency.
The Iman replaced another Russian ship “which had been sent to Syria for demonstrating (sic) the Russian presence in the turbulent region and possible evaluation of Russian citizens,” the Black Sea Fleet told Interfax.
RIA Novosti, a news outlet with strong ties to the Kremlin, trumpeted the news in a banner headline that appeared only on its Arabic language website. The Russian embassy to the US and to the UN had no comment, saying they have “no particular information on” the arrival of a Russian anti-terrorism squad to Syria.
Moscow has long enjoyed a cozy relationship with the Assad regime, to which it sells billions of dollars of weapons. In return Russia has maintained a Navy base at Tartus, which gives it access to the Mediterranean.
Last week Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had no plans to send troops to Syria.
“As for the question whether I consider it necessary to confront the United States in Syria and ensure our military presence there… in order to take part in military actions — no. I believe this would be against Russia’s national interests,” Lavrov told lawmakers, according to RIA Novosti.
Russia’s Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov denied reports that Russian special forces were operating inside Syria. He did say, however, that there are Russian military and technical advisors in the country.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the U.S. government had not heard of the reports of Russian troops in Syria and declined to comment.
Rocky Anderson’s Political Views
Abortion
Abortion is a woman’s right. (Feb 2012)
Leave abortion decision to those most intimately involved. (May 1996)
Budget & Economy
More spending cuts than tax increases. (Feb 2012)
Persistent fiscal responsibility to balance budget. (Jan 2007)
Civil Rights
Same-sex couples should be allowed to marry legally. (Feb 2012)
Require companies to hire more women & minorities. (Feb 2012)
Same-sex domestic partnership benefits. (Feb 2012)
Extend city health benefits to unmarried same-sex partners. (Nov 2005)
Equal rights for gays and lesbians. (Dec 1997)
Corporations
End the legal concept of corporate “personhood”. (Feb 2012)
Crime
Strongly opposes the death penalty. (Feb 2012)
Strongly opposes mandatory sentencing laws. (Feb 2012)
Drugs
Opposes considering drug use immoral. (Feb 2012)
Treat drug abuse as a health matter, not a criminal matter. (Dec 2011)
Education
Curriculums by national standards; with local flexibility. (Feb 2012)
Opposes teacher-led prayer in public schools. (Feb 2012)
Opposes parents choosing schools via vouchers. (Feb 2012)
Re-prioritize on education to keep up with rest of world. (Dec 2011)
Energy And Oil
Strong investment in renewable energy like wind and solar. (Feb 2012)
Replace coal & oil with alternatives. (Feb 2012)
Those who push coal are the enemy. (Dec 2009)
Goal of 21% GHG reduction by 2012; accomplished 31% in 2006. (Feb 2007)
All buildings using city funds must be LEED-certified. (Feb 2007)
$9,000 solar array for Salt Palace Expansion. (Sep 2006)
Environment
Natural resources should be mostly protected. (Feb 2012)
Polluting industries’ campaign donations weaken the EPA. (Dec 2011)
As mayor, national model in reducing resource use. (Apr 2007)
Foreign Policy
The US should always listen to other countries. (Feb 2012)
Free Trade
Opposes expanding free trade. (Feb 2012)
More disincentives & safeguards in trade agreements. (Dec 2011)
Government Reform
Stricter limits on political campaign funds. (Feb 2012)
Limit individual donations to $100 a person. (Dec 2011)
Gun Control
Opposes absolute right to gun ownership. (Feb 2012)
Six-point plan to help curb gun violence. (Sep 2004)
Health Care
Government should be sole payer, but not sole provider. (Feb 2012)
More federal funding for health coverage. (Feb 2012)
Need universal healthcare like every industrialized nation. (Dec 2011)
Lack of affordable healthcare has decimated the middle class. (Nov 2011)
Homeland Security
The Patriot Act harms civil liberties. (Feb 2012)
Opposes expanding the armed forces. (Feb 2012)
Repeal the PATRIOT Act. (Dec 2011)
No “disappearances”; accountability for war criminals. (Nov 2011)
Fundamental patriotism to impeach Bush and Cheney. (Apr 2007)
Immigration
Most illegal immigrants should be able to stay in the US. (Feb 2012)
Supports illegal immigrants earning citizenship. (Feb 2012)
We need major overhaul of our immigration laws. (Jul 2006)
Vibrant workers are welcome; roundups are hypocrisy. (Dec 2001)
Social Security
Opposes privatizing Social Security. (Feb 2012)
Tax Reform
Strongly supports progressive taxation. (Feb 2012)
Massive tax favors to the very wealthiest is an obscenity. (Dec 2011)
War & Peace
US out of Iraq & Afghanistan. (Feb 2012)
Invasion and occupation of Iraq is unjustified. (Jan 2007)
Iraq is a tragic unnecessary war. (Sep 2006)
Congress should have stopped Bush’s pre-emptive war. (Sep 2006)
Like Rocky’s policies and want to help him gain access to the ballot in all 50 states?
Support him on American’s Elect!
![mohandasgandhi:
The Pacific nation of Kiribati is negotiating to buy land in Fiji so it can move islanders under threat from rising sea levels, in what could be the first climate-induced relocation of a country.
Anote Tong, the Kiribati President, said he was in talks with Fiji’s military government to buy up to 2000 hectares of freehold land on which his 113,000 countrymen could resettle.
[…]
”This is the last resort, there’s no way out of this one,” Mr Tong said. ”Our people will have to move as the tides have reached our homes and villages.”
(Continue reading…)
[Image via]
It’s time to start seriously talking about climate change. It should have never gotten to this point.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0qf1bzveW1qzhl7go1_1280.gif)
Anote Tong, the Kiribati President, said he was in talks with Fiji’s military government to buy up to 2000 hectares of freehold land on which his 113,000 countrymen could resettle.
[…]
”This is the last resort, there’s no way out of this one,” Mr Tong said. ”Our people will have to move as the tides have reached our homes and villages.”
[Image via]
It’s time to start seriously talking about climate change. It should have never gotten to this point.
