[SpaceDaily] Scientists drilling deep into ancient rocks in the Arizona desert say they have documented a gradual shift in Earth's orbit that repeats regularly every 405,000 years, playing a role in natural climate swings. Astrophysicists have long hypothesized that the cycle exists based on calculations of celestial mechanics, but the authors of the new research have found the first verifiable physical evidence.
They showed that the cycle has been stable for hundreds of millions of years, from before the rise of dinosaurs, and is still active today. The research may have implications not only for climate studies, but our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth, and the evolution of the Solar System. It appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists have for decades posited that Earth's orbit around the sun goes from nearly circular to about 5 percent elliptical, and back again every 405,000 years. The shift is believed to result from a complex interplay with the gravitational influences of Venus and Jupiter, along with other bodies in the Solar System as they all whirl around the Sun like a set of gyrating hula-hoops, sometimes closer to one another, sometimes further.
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#1
every 405,000 years, when orbital eccentricity is at its peak, seasonal differences caused by shorter cycles will become more intense; summers are hotter and winters colder; dry times drier, wet times wetter.
How will this affect Keith Richards?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2018 7:24 Comments ||
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#8
CO2 lags, doesn’t matter. But, he had to make obiesance.
“Kent points out that according to the Milankovitch theory, we should be at the peak of a 20,000-some year warming trend that ended the last glacial period; the Earth may eventually start cooling again over thousands of years, and possibly head for another glaciation.”
That’s the money quote. But, it’s not “may”, but “will”. And departures from the interglacial tend to be abrupt.
[RussianSpaceWeb] On May 7, 2018, the official Russian media announced a reshuffle of the Russian government, coinciding with the beginning of another presidential term. The new members of Putin's cabinet included former Deputy Minister of Defense Yuri Borisov, who would now be responsible for overseeing the nation's military industrial complex encompassing the rocket and space industry. In the chair of Vice Prime Minister, Borisov replaced Dmitry Rogozin.
Posted by: 3dc ||
05/09/2018 00:00 ||
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[Reuters] BEIJING ‐ Ford Motor Co's imported vehicles are being held up at Chinese ports, three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, underscoring how U.S. goods are facing increased customs scrutiny in China amid a tense trade standoff.
The three people said Ford and Lincoln vehicles were facing unusual delays at customs, with officials asking for extra technical checks. Two of the people said U.S.-made models of some German carmakers, mainly SUVs, being brought into China, were also affected.
Ford was being asked to do extra checks on emission components, said a China-based Ford executive familiar with the matter, asking not be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
China's customs agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The holdups add to a growing list of American products facing issues at China's borders, as officials try to avert a full-blown trade war. Some trade experts said they believe Beijing is sending a defiant warning to Washington in response to sweeping U.S. trade demands made on China last week.
Reuters reported Tuesday that China had ramped up inspections of pork shipped from the United States, after the country's customs agency said it would step up quarantine checks on American apples and logs.
#1
Fine! No problem. Load'em up, bring'em home. Let the bastids plod along with their leather Cadillacs and homemade Michelin sandals. Good exercise, builds character.
[South China Morning Post] Moon Jae-in handed his North Korean counterpart a blueprint for economic integration at last month’s historic Panmunjom summit.
President Moon Jae-in gave the North’s leader Kim Jong-un a USB drive containing a "New Economic Map of the Korean Peninsula" at the fortified border village of Panmunjom on April 27.
The initiative included three economic belts ‐ one connecting the west coast of the peninsula to China, making the region a centre of logistics; one connecting the east coast to Russia for energy cooperation and one on the current border to promote tourism.
#3
South Korea has an empty train station on the border with a map showing it connected all the way to Europe. All that it needs is to run across North Korea. Exciting times ahead.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
05/09/2018 11:34 Comments ||
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#4
Which perhaps plays into China's push to dominate Eurasian trade with their One Belt initiative. Hmmmm .....
#7
The One Belt thing is a canard. Transport by sea (which America dominates) is 14 times cheaper than transport by land. China isn't doing OBOR because they're going to DOM-UH-NATE, they're doing it because they have no damn choice.
And if they get a better position, who cares? What, is America's job to put its armies in every territory on the map? This isn't a game of Risk by Parker Brothers. Is it our job to be the “exceptional nation,” unlike all others, with a supreme duty to go round the world and impose those ideas and that vision on other, unenlightened or recalcitrant nations? Even when they don't want it? WTF people.
Korea has a right to decide its own destiny. With the Nork threat gone, US troops can finally be withdrawn. It's about time we started withdrawing instead of setting up new bases. You know we just opened a new one in Niger? Fucking Niger? What sort of fucking business do we have there? None!
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
05/09/2018 15:56 Comments ||
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#8
You know we just opened a new one in Niger? Fucking Niger? What sort of fucking business do we have there?
Both Boko Haram and the greater Sahara branch of ISIS play in Niger nowadays, Herb, which positions them nicely to send trained people north into Europe.
[South China Morning Post] Kim Jong-un has made a second surprise visit to China, in another sign of warming ties between the two communist states just weeks ahead of Kim’s planned meeting with the US President Donald Trump.
The visit, the first time he is known to have travelled by plane as leader, was his second visit to China in the space of just over a month.
On Tuesday China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that Kim had met President Xi Jinping in the northeastern city of Dalian during his two-day visit.
[Daily Caller] President Donald Trump announced that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo secured the release of three previously held hostages by the North Korean regime.
“I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health,”.... Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.
#2
Some things take time. See - Confederate battle flags in Northern historical museums. [Given statue removals, it might be better to stay where they are. It at least shows value. Sort of like the Elgin marbles sitting in Britain, not being eroded by Athens air pollution.]
True. But Rome wasn't burnt in a day. I would be un-surprised if at some point in the future Pudge returns it to the American people as a favor to his buddy The Donald.
Yeah, I'm getting ahead of the game, but remember last month the usual suspects were going on about WWIII starting on the peninsula.
[DAWN] Swedish police on Tuesday granted a mosque permission to hold a weekly Azan (call for prayer), triggering divisions among politicians and the public five months ahead of elections in a country which has taken in waves of asylum seekers in recent years.
The police permit, which is valid for a year, has caused concern among some politicians that it will exacerbate cultural tensions, while others maintained a neutral stance of the September 9 general election.
"Call to prayer will not strengthen integration in (the southern city of Vaxjo), but it will rather risk pulling the city further apart," city council Anna Tenje of the conservative Moderates told TT news agency.
But Sweden's Social Democrats Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said that ending segregation goes hand in hand with tackling unemployment and making sure schools and neighbourhoods have high standards.
"The entire society in Sweden is built on having different religions," he told TT.
According to a poll conducted by the social research company SIFO and published by the private broadcaster TV4 in March, 60 percent of respondents said they wanted to ban Azan from mosques in Sweden.
'Differences make us stronger' The police said in their statement that the mosque in Vaxjo will be allowed to hold Azan every Friday for three minutes and 45 seconds.
Leader of the Christian Democrats Ebba Busch Thor, who contested the decision, said "people shouldn't have to hear it in their homes."
The police said the volume of the mosque's speakers was not allowed to exceed a certain level so as not to risk disturbing households nearby.
They added the decision was based on the nation's public order laws and not on religion.
Vaxjo's mosque is the country's third to be allowed to hold a call to prayer, following one in a Stockholm suburb and another in the nation's southeast.
Avdi Islami, a front man for the Moslem community in Vaxjo, said thousands of Moslems visit the mosque every year and likened the prayer calls to ringing church bells.
"We have a society in which we are different...it's therefore better to think of the differences as making us stronger," he told TT.
It's difficult to know exactly how many Moslems there are in Sweden, but the Swedish Agency For Support To Faith Communities estimate the number to be at 400,000.
As the far-right Sweden Democrats are on the rise, with around 20 percent in support according to the latest polls, the main issues during the election campaign are expected to be health care, education and immigration.
Sweden has registered around 400,000 asylum requests since 2012, or one for every 25 inhabitants, a record in Europe.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
So then it's gonna be OK to ring church bells on Sunday morning where the muslims can hear it?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/09/2018 11:54 Comments ||
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[Al Jazeera] Thousands of protesters have demonstrated outside Hungary's parliament to express their frustration over Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz Party's resounding victory in last month's national elections.
Parliament returned on Tuesday amid demonstrations from across ideological backgrounds, from the left to right-wing nationalists. Protesters chanted "dirty Fidesz" while holding up signs accusing Orban of corruption, stealing European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... (EU) funds, and creating an unfair election system.
Orban's Fidesz party won national elections in April with 49 percent of the vote, maintaining its 133-seat absolute majority in parliament.
"The main call to action today is for the opposition to unite. Everyone is fed up of the corruption that's everywhere in Hungarian society. But we cannot fight this while the opposition is weak and fragmented," Samuel Korandi, a 26-year-old civil engineer at the protest, told Al Jazeera.
Symbolising this message, protesters held up flags amalgamating the different symbols of the opposition.
Orban secured a third-straight term as prime minister with a two-thirds majority in parliament, through a virulently nationalistic campaign that presented him as the defender of "Christian values", which he claims are threatened by globalisation and mass immigration.
It was a message that resonated with millions of voters, mostly from rural areas.
Tuesday's protests, the third demonstration to sweep through central Budapest in the past month, reveal the highly polarised views towards the Fidesz Party.
Since Orban regained power eight years ago, critics have complained about corruption and cronyism, the dismantling of the rule of law, restrictions on media freedom and his anti-immigration policies.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... (OSCE) observed the "constricted space for genuine political debate" and the use of "intimidating and xenophobic rhetoric, media bias and opaque campaign financing" in the recent elections.
"Hungary is now a one-party state, totally controlled by Fidesz. There is no opportunity for genuine competition in elections," Peter Sarosi, director at Hungarian NGO Rights Reporter Foundation, told Al Jazeera.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Soros Rent-A-Mob? You can smell the Astroturf™ from here.
[The Hill] Dozens of former U.S. national security officials and lawmakers have signed on to a letter endorsing President Trump's controversial pick to lead the CIA, a show of support that comes on the eve of Deputy Director Gina Haspel's confirmation hearing.
Thirty-six former CIA chiefs, intelligence community leaders and lawmakers signed on to the letter that is addressed to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.), according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Hill.
The top signatories include former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander and former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Michael Rogers (R-Mich.), former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell.
In the letter, the intelligence officials emphasize Haspel's skills and expertise and say she knows how to combat threats from all corners of the globe.
[DAWN] India’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered the trial of eight men accused of the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl to be moved to another state after her family and lawyer said they faced death threats.
The girl, from a nomadic Moslem community that roams the forests of India-held Kashmire, was drugged, held captive in a Hindu temple and sexually assaulted for a week before being strangled and battered to death with a stone in January.
The victim’s relatives said they feared retribution if they pursued her case in the small town of Kathua, near where the girl was killed.
A bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the trial would be held in Pathankot in the neighbouring state of Punjab, and in camera, so that witnesses could be assured of protection.
"We are transferring the case to Pathankot from Kathua for a fair trial," the court said in its order.
The case will be heard daily so that an early verdict can be reached, in a country where such cases can run for years, or even decades.
"The basic concern is fair trial, basic concern is speedy trial. That is the reason the court said there will be day-to-day hearing," said Deepika Singh Rajawat, lawyer for the girl’s family, who cannot be identified under Indian law.
Rajawat had said she herself faced the risk of personal attack for taking up the case of the girl.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2018 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Ninety-three refugees from Myanmar who have been living in camps in Thailand have gone home, the second such return since 2016, the UN refugee agency on Tuesday, raising hopes for the eventual closure of some of Asia’s oldest refugee camps.
About 100,000 refugees from Myanmar, most of them ethnic minority Karen people, have been living in nine camps in Thailand along the Myanmar border, many since the Myanmar army began sustained offensives against Karen guerillas in the early 1980s.
The Myanmar government and the autonomy-seeking guerrillas have agreed to peace, raising hopes that the refugees will go home, although occasional skirmishes in eastern Myanmar have been reported in recent months.
The refugees left on Monday from five camps then split into two groups and crossed into Myanmar’s Karen and Kayah states, the UN refugee agency said in a statement.
"They were received by Myanmar authorities and assisted at two reception centres," the UNHCR said.
"Refugees in Thailand have been expressing interest in returning home and have begun making plans for their future beyond the camps in Thailand in the hope that peace and stability will prevail in their places of origin in south-eastern Myanmar."
The first voluntary repatriation, of 68 Myanmar refugees from the camps took place began in 2016. At the time, the UNHCR called it a "milestone."
Myanmar’s new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi has made ending long-running insurgencies by various ethnic minority guerrilla groups a priority, though its efforts have been mixed.
Attacks last year on the security forces by a new guerrilla faction drawn from the Rohingya Moslem minority in western Myanmar triggered a sweeping Myanmar government offensive and the exodus to Bangladesh of some 700,000 Rohingya civilians, according to UN estimates.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/09/2018 00:00 ||
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[Townhall] CNN's Christiane Amanpour, who was just announced as Charlie Rose's replacement on PBS after he was fired over sexual assault allegations, was quick to denounce the Trump administration for its decision to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal Tuesday.
"This is the regime change crew," she said on CNN. "They're back in town. They're ascendant."
Some of the newest members of Trump's national security team include National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has often been criticized as too hawkish, and new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Speaking from the White House, Trump announced the U.S. would be leaving the "horrible, one-sided deal."
"It didn't bring calm," he said. "It didn't bring peace, and it never will."
The "decaying" agreement leaves no path for preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb. It is, he said, "defective at its core."
#2
I remember Amanpour reporting from Kosovo: something about Serbs exterminating a Kosovar village. She reports while a few hundred villagers standing in the background nodding their heads "Yes, yes, Serbs killed everyone in our village!". To be fair, they probably didn't understand what she was saying in English.
#3
Amanpour was born in London, England.[2] She was raised in Tehran. Her father, Mahmoud Amanpour, is a Muslim from Iran; her mother, Patricia Hill, is a Christian from England.[3][4] She is natively fluent in English and Persian.
Whore for Islam
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2018 7:21 Comments ||
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#4
"Deal" not "Treaty". Something about 2/3rds vote.
And I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to see you...
[Deadline Hollywood] - NBC says it found no evidence indicating "that any NBC News or Today Show leadership, News HR or others in positions of authority in the News Division received any complaints about [Matt] Lauer’s workplace behavior prior to November 27, 2017."
If you guessed the internal probe would say "it does not believe that there is a current widespread or systemic pattern of behavior that violates Company policy or a current culture of harassment in the News Division," you are correct. (You can read the complete report here).
Investigators did at least find credible the four allegations already much-written about in the press: that Lauer engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace. But investigators also found credible NBC News and Today show leadership that they did not know about his behavior. They had heard rumors, but thought Lauer was confining his extra-marital activity to outside the workplace, the study said.
Lauer frequently engaged in "sexual banter or joking" with other employees "but it did not rise to the level of creating a hostile work environment," the probe results said. A number of people interviewed said Lauer "could be flirtatious, would frequently make jokes, some with sexual overtones," and would "openly engage in sexually-oriented banter" in the workplace.
[NAVY Times] The Navy on Monday released the first details regarding three junior officers charged for their alleged roles in the destroyer Fitzgerald’s collision with a merchant vessel last summer, an incident that killed seven sailors.
Two of the officers remain unidentified, and Navy officials said their names will be made public at their hearing this week.
Lt. j.g. Sarah Coppock was the officer of the deck, or OOD, early on June 17, when the Fitz was steaming off Japan, according to a charge sheet released by the service.
She will face a special court-martial Tuesday in Washington and is charged with dereliction in the performance of duties through neglect resulting in death, according to the charge sheet.
As OOD, Coppock oversaw ship navigation when the commanding officer was not present.
#3
The senior officers (if I remember correctly) CO, XO and NAV, have all been disciplined. The OOD can be held more accountable because it was his/her direct actions (or lack of) that led to the tragedy.
#6
Re: #4 - Yes, she definitely screwed up. She should have been aware of the the other ship. The Fitzgerald was hit on the starboard side, meaning she should have maneuvered to avoid. Why the Fitzgerald didn't is on the OOD's shoulders. The OOD should have notified the CO of the imminent collision.
My bet is that one of the other two officers to be courtmartialed is the CIC watch officer, who should have notified the OOD that the merchant ship was on a collision course.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/09/2018 7:47 Comments ||
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#7
I don't know squat about maritime matters, but don't these people hang out in what is referred to as 'the bridge.' Way up high somewheres, lots of windows, instruments, communications, plenty of coffee, etc ?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[RussianSpaceWeb] On May 7, 2018, the official Russian media announced a reshuffle of the Russian government, coinciding with the beginning of another presidential term. The new members of Putin's cabinet included former Deputy Minister of Defense Yuri Borisov, who would now be responsible for overseeing the nation's military industrial complex encompassing the rocket and space industry. In the chair of Vice Prime Minister, Borisov replaced Dmitry Rogozin.
[Al Jazeera] Thousands of protesters have demonstrated outside Hungary's parliament to express their frustration over Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz Party's resounding victory in last month's national elections. 
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
