text:
Updated recommendations on first-line and second-line antiretroviral regimens and post-exposure prophylaxis and recommendations on early infant diagnosis of HIV: Interim guidance
Update on recommendations on antiretroviral regimens for treating and preventing HIV infection: In 2016, WHO published the consolidated guidelines on the use of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for treating and preventing HIV infection and recommended tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) + lamivudine (3TC) (or emtricitabine, FTC) + efavirenz (EFV) 600 mg as the preferred first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen for adults and adolescents. Since that time, scientific evidence and programmatic experience have accumulated on the use of dolutegravir (DTG) in both first- and second-line ART, including during pregnancy and tuberculosis co-treatment, and for children. In 2018, these guidelines were reviewed to provide updated guidance on preferred option for these populations which now include DTG and RAL, and updated recommendations on using ARV drugs for HIV post-exposure prophylaxis. Annex 3 links to the ARV dosing guidance for children, adolescents and adults.
Update on early infant diagnosis of HIV: Since 2010, WHO has been recommending that HIV virological testing be used to diagnose HIV infection among infants and children younger than 18 months and that ART be started without delay while a second specimen is collected to confirm the initial positive virological test result. Since that time, evidence has been reviewed and in light of reducing mother-to-child transmission rates and thus decreasing positive predictive values, an indeterminate range to support more accurate early infant diagnosis is recommended.
Adherence, Regimen changes, Basic and Clinical Science, Co-infection, Treatment, Care and treatment, Adherence/retention in care/attrition, ARV/ART, Governance, Policy, HIV programming and implementation science, Prevention, Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)
antiretroviral therapy (ART), ART regimens, first-line antiretroviral therapy, second-line ART, early infant diagnosis (EID), virological testing, treatment guidelines, PEP, post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)
The 90-90-90 Compendium Volume 2: Clinicians' Guide
The purpose of this guide is to provide a resource for clinicians on the ground who manage HIV and TB clients on a daily basis.
Get on the Fast-Track: the life-cycle approach to HIV
In this report, UNAIDS is announcing that 18.2 million people now have access to HIV treatment. The Fast-Track response is working. Increasing treatment coverage is reducing AIDS-related deaths among adults and children. But the life-cycle approach has to include more than just treatment.
Good Practice Guide: Adolescent HIV Programming
This guide is one of a series of good practice guides, and contains information, strategies and resources to help HIV programmers implement HIV programming for adolescents.
Extending beyond Policy: Reaching UNAIDS' Three "90"s in Malawi
Malawi, like other countries with a generalized HIV epidemic, is striving to reach the ambitious targets set by UNAIDS known as the three 90's for testing, provision of antiretroviral therapy and viral suppression.
HIV Nursing Matters, Issue 2
This issue of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society's "HIV Nursing Matters" online magazine focuses on vulnerable populations, including TB in prisons and intimate partner violence in the context of HIV.
This issue of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society's "HIV Nursing Matters" online magazine focuses on key populations.


The Boston Institute for Nonprojfit Journalism aggregates and promotes journalism and media from independent and local publications in the Boston area. It is an active source of news for people who want to focus on stories that affect them and their neighbors.
In order to enhance BINJ's focus on local news, we built a story map extension to their website. This allows users to visually see stories that take place in their area and to quickly and easily filter stories based on their location or a given topic.


British security services have foiled around seven terror attacks since June with fighters returning from Syria posing a growing threat, Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday.
"We have been aware of these cells operating in Syria that are radicalising people in our own countries, potentially sending people back to carry out attacks," he added.
Security services have spent a "long time" working out how to deal with multiple coordinated attacks on the street, but will have to go "right back to the drawing board" after the Paris attacks, which killed at least 129 people.
"It was the sort of thing we were warned about," said the prime minister.
Cameron added there were "hopeful signs" from Saturday's talks in Vienna on Syria that progress was being made on how to deal with the Islamic State (IS), and that he was to speak with Russian Vladimir Putin later Monday.
However, he repeated that any settlement must include the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a sticking point between the West and Russia.
– 'Generational struggle' -Britain is to recruit an extra 1,900 security and intelligence staff to counter the threat of terrorist violence following the Paris attacks, British media reported on Monday.
It would be "the biggest increase in British security spending since the 7/7 bombings in London" that killed dozens in 2005. The measures will be announced by Cameron later on Monday, according to the Guardian.
"I am determined to prioritise the resources we need to combat the terrorist threat because protecting the British people is my number one duty as prime minister," Cameron will say, according to the newspaper.
The recruitment would increase the staff of intelligence agencies MI5, MI6 and GCHQ by some 15 percent, according to the Guardian and the Financial Times.
Britain is engaged in air strikes against IS in Iraq, but has not joined in the operation over Syria after parliament voted against it.


Here's a great idea and a great website to help! Are you a do-it yourselfer? Do you already have the perfect invite picked out and it just needs some more punch? Well, once you have your portrait drawn, Oliner Graphics also offers a "Custom Invite Cover". Custom Covers allow you to get another fabulous use out of your portrait. Tie that theme together!! We take your graphic, and along with your text, provide you with a offset-printed, high-gloss UV finished print, pre-cut to your personal invitation insert size.For pricing check out our "order here" page.


text:
Rivers: Wike withdraws approval for Atiku campaign to use venue in Rivers
Home»Food & Agriculture»Biotech agencies and NIREC report: Unpatriotic activism, whose interest?
Biotech agencies and NIREC report: Unpatriotic activism, whose interest?
By Abdallah el-Kurebe March 15, 2017 No Comments3 Mins Read
By Dr. Hannah Nnadi
I'm writing the article below as a concerned Nigerian, who has watched how some activists have taken it upon themselves to smear the integrity of government agencies and individuals working for the good of the country.
Nigerians should be aware and be on the alert for these activists in order not to be misled.
The attitude of these so called activists to
frustrate government
agencies must be resisted as their actions are very unpatriotic and misleading.
In light of ongoing discussions and debates on the issues raised, I would be grateful if you can help publish this article.
Recently, a group representing NIREC issued a press release with the intention of misleading the public and pursuing an alien agenda. In the said release, the group led by anti GMO activists listed the names of the Director General/CEO of the National Biosafety Management Agency, Dr. Rufus Ebegba, and Prof. Lucy Ogbadu, the Director General, National Biotechnology Development Agency as members of NIREC.
Both agencies reacted to the release and issued statements distancing themselves and their DGs from the purported report. Nnimmo Bassey, one of the architects of the report, in an article published by Environews acknowledged that both agencies and their directors general were not part of the report.
In that publication, Bassey, after shamefully acknowledging that those personalities were not members of NIREC, went further to cast aspersions on the integrity of the agencies with the intention of discrediting them before the public. Bassey has become desperate and personal in his pursed agenda. His actions show a vendetta against these personalities and dragging the public along.
It is therefore important to state the following:
1. The NBMA and NABDA are both agencies of government created by law.
2. Both agencies were established and given specific mandates by the federal government.
3. Nnimmo Bassey was an active player in the processes that cumulated in the
establishment of the NBMA, so to turn around and say that the Agency is a brain child of NABDA questions his credibility and integrity. Moreover, the national biosafety bill passed through two legislative houses from 2009 to 2015. He cannot be more knowledgeable on matters of biological sciences as an architect than the experts on the subject matter.
4. There is a difference between activism for personal aggrandisement and activism for national development, Nnimmo of the former.
5. Government will not be drawn into the mud by self seeking and see-nothing-good-in-Nigeria activists.
6. Paid activists have infiltrated and cornered the objective for setting up NIREC to their own selfish interests. NIREC should be on the watch out so that it will not be dragged to the mud.
7. It is a shame that Bassey cannot, till now, differentiate between the National Biosafety Management Agency abbreviated as NBMA and the National Biotechnology Development Agency abbreviated as NABDA.
8. NBMA is a government agency that strictly regulates the use of modern biotechnology inNigeria. NABDA is another government agency charged with the responsibility of promoting the use of modern biotechnology. Because one regulates and the other promotes does not mean, they cannot collaborate or work together.
9. There is a limit to which individuals seeking their daily bread should go. Running down a government agency that you contributed actively to establish questions your rationale
and unnecessary and destructive criticisms.
Dr. Hannah Nnadi is a Research Scientist based in Lagos
Prof. Sharubutu appointed to join AATF Board of Trustees
Buhari attends International Conference on Agriculture in Dakar
Abu Dhabi fertiliser producer, Fertiglobe refinances $900m loan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Booker T makes a big announcement regarding political plans in 2020
WWE Hall of Famer Booker T recently announced that he plans to run for Mayor of Houston, Texas in 2020. He made the announcement during his "Heated Conversations" radio show on Saturday that airs on Sports Radio 610.
"You heard it, 2020 I'm preparing," Booker said. "I'm preparing myself to run for mayor of the city."
Booker T had Rhyno on his show when he made the announcement. Rhyno, who recently ran for a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives, stated that he believes Booker T would make a great mayor. Rhyno said that Booker T is overqualified for the job and that being in pro wrestling not only prepared him for life but for positions in politics as it makes you feel the emotion from the people regarding what they want.
Booker TRhyno


The Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment has just released a new paper that describes how California law may limit the ability of California's legislature to allocate revenue from the upcoming cap-and-trade auctions. Written by fellow bloggers Cara Horowitz, Sean Hecht, Ann Carlson and myself, the paper is titled Spending California's Cap-and-Trade Auction Revenue: Understanding the Sinclair Paint Risk Spectrum.
This paper assesses legal constraints on AB 32 auction revenue allocation that derive from the statute itself or from California's constitutional restrictions on the use of regulatory fees (embodied in Proposition 13). Based on our findings, we make recommendations about the relative risks of approaches to allocating AB 32 state auction proceeds. The aim of our paper is to inform decisionmaking on revenue allocation; as such, we do not address broader questions about the legality of the cap-and-trade program as a whole, but focus on questions that are affected by allocation decisions.
You can download a copy of the paper here. Below, I describe the basic legal question surrounding cap-and-trade auction revenue in California.
California's first public auction under its landmark cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases is scheduled for November 2012. Depending on the total number of allowances offered at auction (after taking into account allowances given away to industry) and the clearing price of the auction, the revenue from the auction could be significant. Projections suggest something on the order of $1 billion in the first year. When more allowances are offered at auction with the program expansion in 2015, that number could increase dramatically.
California's cap-and-trade program draws its regulatory authority from AB 32, a bill passed by a simple majority in 2008. According to Proposition 13 and its subsequent interpretation by the California Supreme Court in the Sinclair Paint line of cases, imposing "taxes" requires a 2/3 supermajority while imposing "regulatory fees" requires a simple majority. If the cap-and-trade auction revenue is considered within this paradigm, then CARB and the Legislature may only impose regulatory fees, not taxes, through the cap-and-trade program because AB 32 lacked a supermajority approval.
One of the tests to distinguish taxes from fees, used in Sinclair Paint, is to consider how the revenue will be used. Simply, the closer the use of revenue is to the goal of the regulatory program, the more likely it is that a court would find the revenue to be a constitutional regulatory fee. In the past, California courts have often found that shifting revenue from a specific regulatory program to the General Fund to be, in effect, an unconstitutional tax.
The California Legislature faces many options in choosing how to spend the cap-and-trade auction revenue. Our paper places these options on a risk scale, from likely to fail to low risk based on the possibility that a court would consider the option an unconstitutional tax. Options that support the regulatory goals of AB 32, such as funding energy efficiency projects, are less legally risky than options that go beyond the scope of AB 32.
And the argument is that because AB 32 pre-dates Proposition 26, Proposition 26 is irrelevant for considering CARB's limitations?


No shipping of large items. Buyers are responsible for all shipping costs. We will provide a shipping label if requested and return shipping fee will simply be deducted from your merchandise credit. Please note we do not accept C.O.D. deliveries and we are not responsible for items lost in the mail.


Bahama House, Daytona Beach Shores. Rates from USD83.
Within a mere 4 miles from Daytona Beach, Florida airport, the ocean-front Bahama House proffers excellent accommodation, top-notch amenities, and easy access to numerous attractions in and around Daytona such as Daytona International Speedway and Waterpark, Ocean Walk Village, Boardwalk Amusement Area and Pier, and Riviera Country Club - as well as multiple shops, fantastic eateries, and vibrant bars.
Along with breathtaking ocean/beach views, Bahama House sports an impressive array of modern features like free Wi-Fi, premium cable TV channels (ESPN and HBO, to name a few), in-room safe, and clock radio while a refrigerator, air conditioning with climate control, and microwave evoke an at-home atmosphere. In addition, a comfortably furnished balcony affords sightseers optimal exposure to magnificent sights and perfect weather. What's more, business travelers enjoy bonuses including voice mail, wake-up calls, and a multi-lined phone; select rooms contain full or partial kitchens.
Created with guests' satisfaction at the forefront, Bahama House presents a delicious daily continental breakfast, cocktail reception, complimentary newspaper, and freshly baked cookies in the welcoming lobby. Outdoor enthusiasts appreciate the state-of-the-art swimming pool, sun loungers, beach umbrellas and towels while the efficient dry cleaning/laundry service, air conditioned public areas, and ample luggage storage appeal to everyone. Furthermore, the use of a nearby fitness club can easily be arranged while boating, tennis, golf, and beach yoga are some of the exciting recreational activities located within walking distance.
Free on-site parking, vicinity to the airport, and exceptional walkability are some of the ultimate attributes Bahama House offers. Especially pleasing for families, several theme parks, Ocean Walk Shoppes, verdant outdoor parks, and a lively Marina are positioned close-by, and provide endless hours of adventure and fun.
This is the second year in a row we have stayed at the BH for 4 days each time at Thanksgiving, and this trip was just as pleasant as last year. I honestly can't find anything about this hotel that I would change to make it better. The staff treat you well and will do whatever it takes to make you happy......all in a friendly manner. Even the maintenance people great you with a smile and say hello. The hotel is very clean and attractive, and the rooms are way beyond what you would normally find at this rate. The free continental breakfast is basic, but fine, and the free happy hour at the end of the day is really a nice touch. We will be going back to Daytona again next Thanksgiving, and there is no question about where we will stay during that trip.
Nothing to dislike as far as we are concerned.
Making your reservation in Bahama House is easy and secure. Simply select your dates of stay and click on the "Check Rates" button to submit the form.


Many more Norte Vista alumni from all graduation years have posted their profiles on Classmates.com®. Click here to view Classmates.com® NVHS alumni.
Check for Norte Vista alumni that graduated the same year as you below. The links for each class show only students that went to Norte Vista High in Riverside and graduated that year.
For former Norte Vista HS students from CA, you can view the class reunion information that has been posted by other site visitors. In addition, we encourage you to post your profile in the alumni directory, share information about the school activities you were involved with and reconnect with Norte Vista High School alumni.


text:
from typing import Tuple

import pytest

import xarray as xr
from xarray.testing import assert_equal

np = pytest.importorskip("numpy", minversion="1.22")

import numpy.array_api as xp  # isort:skip
from numpy.array_api._array_object import Array  # isort:skip

@pytest.fixture
def arrays() -> Tuple[xr.DataArray, xr.DataArray]:
    np_arr = xr.DataArray(np.ones((2, 3)), dims=("x", "y"), coords={"x": [10, 20]})
    xp_arr = xr.DataArray(xp.ones((2, 3)), dims=("x", "y"), coords={"x": [10, 20]})
    assert isinstance(xp_arr.data, Array)
    return np_arr, xp_arr

def test_arithmetic(arrays) -> None:
    np_arr, xp_arr = arrays
    expected = np_arr + 7
    actual = xp_arr + 7
    assert isinstance(actual.data, Array)
    assert_equal(actual, expected)

def test_aggregation(arrays) -> None:
    np_arr, xp_arr = arrays
    expected = np_arr.sum(skipna=False)
    actual = xp_arr.sum(skipna=False)
    assert isinstance(actual.data, Array)
    assert_equal(actual, expected)

def test_indexing(arrays) -> None:
    np_arr, xp_arr = arrays
    expected = np_arr[:, 0]
    actual = xp_arr[:, 0]
    assert isinstance(actual.data, Array)
    assert_equal(actual, expected)

def test_properties(arrays) -> None:
    np_arr, xp_arr = arrays
    assert np_arr.nbytes == np_arr.data.nbytes
    assert xp_arr.nbytes == np_arr.data.nbytes

def test_reorganizing_operation(arrays) -> None:
    np_arr, xp_arr = arrays
    expected = np_arr.transpose()
    actual = xp_arr.transpose()
    assert isinstance(actual.data, Array)
    assert_equal(actual, expected)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
General News of Friday, 16 August 2019
BECE not scrapped – GES boss
The Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, has denied rumours that the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) has been scrapped.
He said the Junior High School curriculum is yet to be reviewed.
He made this known on Thursday, August 15 when he addressed journalists on some developments in the education sector.
There were reports that the review of the educational curriculum will lead to the scrapping of the BECE.
The Executive Secretary of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Dr Prince Hamid Armah, is quoted as saying the BECE has outlived its relevance.
A national assessment test will rather be conducted in Primary 2, 4, 6 and JHS 2, he is said to have stated.
The reports say basic education will include senior high school (SHS), therefore, there will no need for an external examination after JHS.
But Prof Opoku Amankwa says the rumours are false.
He, however, confirmed that there has been a review of the primary curriculum and a review of the JHS curriculum will be done soon.


text:
require 'spec_helper'

describe KnifeCookbookDoc::AttributesModel do
  describe '#load_descriptions' do
    before do
      allow(IO).to receive(:read).with('attributes/default.rb').and_return(attributes)
    end
    let(:attributes) {
<<EOS
#<> Single line comment
default['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr1'] = 'attr1_value'

# <> Another single line comment
default['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr1x'] = 'attr1x_value'

#<
# Multiline comment with single line of text
#>
default['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr2'] = 'attr2_value'

# <
# Another multiline comment with single line of text
# >
default['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr2x'] = 'attr2x_value'

=begin
#<
Multiline begin/end with single line of text
#>
=end
default['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr3'] = 'attr3_value'

=begin
# <
Another multiline begin/end with single line of text
# >
=end
default['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr3x'] = 'attr3x_value'

#<
# Multiline comment with
# multiple lines of text
#>
default['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr4'] = 'attr4_value'

# <
# Another multiline comment with
# multiple lines of text
# >
default['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr4x'] = 'attr4x_value'

=begin
#<
Multiline begin/end with
multiple lines of text
#>
=end
default['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr5'] = 'attr5_value'

=begin
# <
Another multiline begin/end with
multiple lines of text
# >
=end
default['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr5x'] = 'attr5x_value'
EOS
    }
    subject do
      KnifeCookbookDoc::AttributesModel.new('attributes/default.rb').attributes
    end

    it do
      is_expected.to include(
        [
          "node['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr1']",
          'Single line comment',
          'attr1_value',
          []
        ]
      )
    end

    it do
      is_expected.to include(
        [
          "node['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr1x']",
          'Another single line comment',
          'attr1x_value',
          []
        ]
      )
    end

    it do
      is_expected.to include(
        [
          "node['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr2']",
          'Multiline comment with single line of text',
          'attr2_value',
          []
        ]
      )
    end

    it do
      is_expected.to include(
        [
          "node['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr2x']",
          'Another multiline comment with single line of text',
          'attr2x_value',
          []
        ]
      )
    end

    it do
      is_expected.to include(
        [
          "node['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr3']",
          'Multiline begin/end with single line of text',
          'attr3_value',
          []
        ]
      )
    end

    it do
      is_expected.to include(
        [
          "node['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr3x']",
          'Another multiline begin/end with single line of text',
          'attr3x_value',
          []
        ]
      )
    end

    it do
      is_expected.to include(
        [
          "node['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr4']",
          "Multiline comment with\nmultiple lines of text",
          'attr4_value',
          []
        ]
      )
    end

    it do
      is_expected.to include(
        [
          "node['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr4x']",
          "Another multiline comment with\nmultiple lines of text",
          'attr4x_value',
          []
        ]
      )
    end

    it do
      is_expected.to include(
        [
          "node['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr5']",
          "Multiline begin/end with\nmultiple lines of text",
          'attr5_value',
          []
        ]
      )
    end

    it do
      is_expected.to include(
        [
          "node['knife_cookbook_doc']['attr5x']",
          "Another multiline begin/end with\nmultiple lines of text",
          'attr5x_value',
          []
        ]
      )
    end
  end
end


text:
Home » Articles » Life » The District Derp Story
Anaïs Hayes. Photo courtesy of District Derp.
April 9, 2021 @ 10:00am | Trent Johnson
If you had a time machine and traveled back to when Chris Licata made a harmless bet with a friend, he wouldn't believe you if you explained how his life was about to change. In fact, it's kind of hard to believe knowing it's already happened. The innocuous wager was if he could successfully get his Alaskan Klee Kai, Sudo, to paint. The answer was a resounding "Yes."
"The bet came first," Licata says. "The bet was over a bottle of bourbon [laughs]. We got her to paint, brush to hit the canvas. It took about a month of everyday practice."
Not only did Licata and his partner, Anaïs Hayes, train Sudo to paint abstract works on canvas, but the concept eventually morphed into a fully fledged cannabis business in the form of their District Derp art gallery.
"[Derp] is a very silly word, but cannabis makes you feel kind of silly," Hayes says.
"Sudo has a way of staring at you," Licata continues. "It's this blank face that happens where she's just staring at you, and we'd call her a little derp. The more we started saying it, the more disarming we found the word. It's not necessarily an insult; it's just poking fun."
"It's a whimsy, and you don't have any reservations," Hayes finishes.
The company started in 2018, and has a variety of custom Sudo pieces available for purchase with included gifts of cannabis flowers, THC cartridges and edibles.
"We were frustrated one night [and] we wanted better service," Hayes says after a bad experience with a dispensary. "We looked [into it], and you needed a gimmick — something to get people in. We were like, 'We have a dog that paints. Is that anything?'"
To paint, Sudo wields a brush in her mouth, and upon making contact with the canvas, Licata uses a clicker to indicate progress. After every click, Sudo gets a treat. When there are lots of clicks, you get a happy pup.
"She needs to hear she's accomplished what we intended for her to accomplish," Licata says. "So that's getting the brush to the canvas and swiping across, and then I click. The more clicks she hears, the more excited she gets."
On the cannabis side, the couple says they're gifting about 500 edibles per week, along with additional cartridges, flowers and pre-rolls. Beyond the meticulous amount of detail and thought put into the paintings by Sudo, both Hayes and Licata are heavily focused on transparency in their THC products, from quality control to customer service.
"We try to have a personal relationship or know something personal about all of our clients," Licata says. "We want them to have trust that we're going to put their needs first. Their health is our priority and we're going to continue that. [It's] the small, intimate business relationship we have."
District Derp runs their cannabis through tests for potency, pesticides and heavy metal. Hayes says the reason is simple: You don't want to be associated with something that can make people sick. So far, edible potency ranges from 10-15 milligrams in their cookie options to 80 milligrams in the Big Bitchin' Brownie.
"I thought about my personal experience with edibles," Hayes says. "I wanted an edible to [be enough to] last two to three [uses], and tried to figure out what a high dosage is for a casual user. People have different needs. Some people are taking it to help them sleep and some people want something that will last eight hours for an adventure around the National Mall."
Like every other business in D.C., District Derp experienced change over the course of the pandemic, including how they interacted with the attached stigma of owning a business associated with cannabis. In early 2020, both Hayes and Licata opted against sharing their full names, but as the business advanced over the course of the past year, so did their approach.
"There's absolutely still that stigma," Hayes says. "You still hear the 'It's still a bad substance' stuff, especially in people who don't interact with marijuana, but it's decreasing. Also, we decided to put our names on it to counteract the stigma. We realized by not putting our names on it, we were going along with it. We had the realization that this is something we're proud of. This is something we want to bring to people. It's something I'm excited to put my name on now."
With a social media surge and a successful return to business last summer, Hayes became the first of the two to go full-time. A typical District Derp weekday starts with production kicking off at 8 a.m. and wrapping up at about 3-4 p.m., with emails and orders taking place in-between. From 6-10 p.m., more orders come in and deliveries go out. Once a month, Sudo dusts off the paintbrushes and gives her fans another work of art.
While a painting dog seems gimmicky on its face, and even is to an extent, Hayes and Licata are genuine in their attempt to connect with the D.C. arts community. District Derp sponsored local artist and curator Kelly Towles' POW! WOW! DC festival in 2019 and 2020, and Licata says there are several collaborations on the horizon between local artists and Sudo.
"We really love working with the creative community in D.C.," Hayes says. "There are so many great minds here, and what we're trying to do this year is more collaborative works. We feel very firm with where we are in the cannabis scene, but what we are first is an art gallery. That's how we started."
This month, District Derp is participating in two 4/20 giveaways with vintage shops Underground Goods and Zhuzh. Short-term goals for District Derp include incorporating accessory sales, branded items and a fuller "smoke shop experience." As for Sudo's art, the couple plans to roll out the red carpet for their furry artist in the form of a comprehensive gallery opening.
"That is a goal," Hayes says excitedly. "We were planning to do that before the pandemic hit. That was the plan for 2020, and then [mimics explosion]."
In the meantime, you can check out Sudo's catalog in full on the website. Licata promises you'll be surprised.
"I don't know if you've actually stared at 'Jovial Nature,'" Licata says with a sincerity mirroring that of a person who'd just left their favorite artist's exhibition. "It's our first painting with Sudo, and I think it's incredible. It's incredible that a dog painted it. We've got it up on our wall."
For more information about District Derp, Sudo's paintings and their gifts, visit www.districtderp.com and follow them on Instagram @districtderp.
Author's note: District Derp operates under D.C.'s Initiative 71, which means it does not assign a monetary value to anything with marijuana or THC in the ingredients. Instead, the items noted in the story are gifted along with the purchase of a work of art courtesy of Sudo. For more information about I-71, visit www.mayor.dc.gov.
Don't miss our virtual Cannabis City panel presented by District Fray and BĀkT DC on Thursday, April 29 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Register here.
Enjoy this piece? Consider becoming a member for access to our premium digital content. Support local journalism and start your membership today.


16 Year Ellen Terry has been elected as Young Police, Crime and Victims' Commissioner for County Durham and Darlington for 2018-19.
Ellen Terry, of Belmont Durham who is studying at Durham Sixth Form Centre, was elected by Police Cadets to be the third Young Police, Crime and Victims' Commissioner (YPCVC) representing young people in County Durham and Darlington.
Increasing the perceptions of the police.


text:
Q: ng-change not working on text box backspace button press ng-change even not firing on text box backspace button press.
ng-change works fine on  changing  the value example pressing numbers or any character from keyboard but not on backspace button press

A: try like this.

var app = angular.module("app",[])
app.controller('ctrl',['$scope', function($scope){

  $scope.test = function(model){
    console.log(model);

    }
}]);

   <input type="text" ng-model="model" ng-change="test(model)">
   {{model}}

A: The ngChange expression is only evaluated when a change in the input value causes a new value to be committed to the model.
It will not be evaluated:

*

*if the value returned from the $parsers transformation pipeline has
not changed

*if the input has continued to be invalid since the model will stay
null

*if the model is changed programmatically and not by a change to the
input
ngChange will nor get fired when you press spacebar, if you enter character or number followed by space then it will get fired.

Please send code or example so that I can help you more....
Refer: https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/directive/ngChange

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Fall in love with your favourite sports once more by wearing 'Hypervenom Phatal II Fg' white football shoes from Nike. These shoes have a synthetic upper and a rubber sole that keeps your feet relaxed and ensures natural flexibility. You can team these shoes with sportswear for an action packed game.


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St. Agnes of Montepulciano—St. Catherine of Siena called her, "Our Mother, the Glorious Agnes
Leave a comment May 10, 2019 Larry Peterson
St. Agnes of Montepulciano aleteia.org
By Larry Peterson
The Dominican Order has five women who are canonized saints. The two best known are St. Catherine of Siena, the stigmatist and a Doctor of the Church, and St. Rose of Lima, the first woman canonized a saint from the Americas. The other three are St. Margaret of Hungary who became Empress of the Byzantine Empire, St. Catherine de Ricci, the stigmatist, and lastly, St. Agnes of Montepulciano.
St. Agnes, who may be the least known of the five, could be the most important among them. What tells us that is, it was St. Catherine of Siena, who knelt by Agnes' incorrupt body and said, "Our Mother, the Glorious Agnes." As Catherine bent forward to kiss the foot of Agnes, it raised up so Catherine could easily reach it. St. Agnes had died almost 300 years before that moment.
On January 28, 1268, a baby girl was born into the wealthy De Segni family, in Montepulciano, located in the Papal States (central Italy). The child was named Agnes, and from an early age, she displayed an outward and obvious devotion to God.
By the time Agnes was six years old she was asking her parents to please allow her to enter the convent. When they told her she was much too young, she pleaded with them to move closer to the convent so she could be near to it. On one occasion Agnes was traveling to Montepulciano with her mom and some of the household. The group passed by a house that was up on a hill and was known as a place of ill repute. Suddenly, a flock of screaming crows soared down from above and attacked little Agnes.
With claws outstretched and beaks flailing away they scratched and clawed at the seven-year-old, causing her to bleed from her head and arms which she was using to cover herself. The women in the group had to fight the shrieking birds off by waving their shawls and yelling at them. The ladies knew that the evil in the nearby house did not want Agnes anywhere near it. It had been a demonic attack. Years later, Agnes would build a convent on that very site.
By the time this child was nine years old she had convinced her parents to allow her to enter the convent. She was so young this was against church law but, Pope John XXI gave Agnes permission to enter the Franciscan monastery. The nuns who lived there were known as the "Sisters of the Sack" because the garments they wore were so coarse. Nine-year-old Agnes happily wore it every day.
When Agnes was fifteen, she found herself in need of another special dispensation. This time it was so she could become the abbess of a new convent in Proceno. She desired to be in a contemplative state where she could simply pray and commune with those above. But she did not complain and humbly followed the path that always seemed to appear before her. On her day of consecration as abbess, showers of tiny white crosses floated down inside the chapel on the people below. Being a fifteen-year-old abbess was unheard of, and everyone took this as a sign of heaven's pleasure with Agnes.
Agnes was graced with many visions. Probably the most legendary and the one for which she is best known is was when Our Lady appeared to her holding the Baby Jesus in her arms. Our Lady allowed Agnes to hold Him and caress Him. Another time the Blessed Mother gave Agnes three stones and told her to keep them in honor of the Blessed Trinity. She told Agnes that one day she would need them.
Agnes had another vision which told her that she was to leave the Franciscans and join the Dominicans. In 1306 she was asked to return to Montepulciano to build a new convent. She had no money, but she did have the three stones the Blessed Virgin had given to her. Using the three stones as a "cornerstone," she raised money and built the convent. The sisters embraced the Rule of St. Augustine and joined the Dominican Order.
Sister Agnes died on April 20, 1317. It is said that the children of the city woke up the next morning and sadly cried out, "Holy Sister Agnes is dead."
Agnes was canonized a saint by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726. The Dominicans celebrate her feast day on April 20.
St. Agnes of Montepulciano, please pray for us.
copyright©Larry Peterson 2019
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Agnes of Montepulciano, Blessed Virgin Mary, catholic, Dominicans, Franciscans, history, Pope John XXI, St. Catherine of Siena. Bookmark the permalink.


Among the magic emotions that can give during the trip, the Mini Cooper ensures perfect grip in every occasion.
Not afraid of challenging roads, switchbacks and hairpin turns. Attached to the road, the Mini Countryman is a true concentrated of security.
The seats are enveloping, with intuitive controls and a look totally sportives.
The elegant tunnel separates the two front seats with easy and precious controls.
On the center console, the screen is clearly visible both for the navigation and for the entertainment.
As with any Mini, the Paceman also has a tachometer in the center and the particular ignition to the left.
Mini Minor demonstrates his incredible character after touching the accelerator, with a great progression of power.
A focus even with regard to consumption and a good boot, perfect to carry travel bags.


I've been really enjoying a pescetarian diet and I'm finding myself leaning more away from chicken, beef and pork. This week I am planning more pescetarian friendly meals and another reason is that I've been successful losing weight while on this diet. Perhaps its the focus of more color in my meals brought on by the various combinations of fruits and vegetables that's been working really well for me. Whatever it is, I'm going to stick with it!
The weather has gotten a little cooler here in Chicago so it was a good time to make some soup. In doing a search on my Google Reader, I looked through some recipes for butternut squash. I came across Kim's blog where she used the following recipe. It looked simple enough and turned out wonderfully! I made a few adaptations to the original recipe by adding a bit more flavor through the addition of thyme, garlic salt and onion powder. This paired perfectly with baguette slices with goat cheese & pesto and the roasted vegetable panini I made!
Mix the carrots and squash into the pot. Pour in vegetable stock, and season with all the seasonings/spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until vegetables are tender.
I'm also submitting this recipe to Neha's SWC: Soups blogging event! Be sure to check out her blog for the delicious soup round up at the end of the month!
This looks so delicious! I'll definitely be giving it a shot soon.
Yummy! I better try this soon before spring hits us!
yum! I love butternut squash! This looks heavenly!
One of my favorite soups. I like a little apple juice in mine but yours looks mighty tasty.
This is my hands-down-favorite soup - so creamy, sweet yet savory!
This really looks creamy and healthy, thanx for sending..


RICK ALBERT WERNER is registered attorney admitted in New York State in 2001. The registration number is 3943560. The company name is HAYNES AND BOONE, LLP. The office address is 30 Rockefeller Plz Fl 26, New York, NY 10112-0086. The county is New York. The phone number is (212) 659-4974. The law school is UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.


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Schools in Marion
schoolinaustralia.com
#Marion
Westminster School is a school in Australia that is located in a place called Marion, which is found in the region of SA, Australia.
Westminster School Review
Westminster School gets a score of 62 out of a possible 100.
Westminster School is a good Australian school that many see as a sound option in the region of SA.
Score ratings (100):
Current Demand
The official name of this school is Westminster School.
It is a Co-Educational School.
Entrance to the school is via Alison Avenue.
Fees and Costs
This is a Co-Educational School which mixes both boys and girls in the same classes. Fees are typically moderate and in some cases free.
Admissions to Westminster School
Westminster School accepts students that are eligible to be enrolled in an Australian Educational institution. International students are welcome to apply, however there is no guarantee of a placement at Westminster School.
Acceptance at Westminster School is based on several factors, some including home address zoning, past academic performance and grades, financial situation, current enrolment waitlists and sometimes where compassionate grounds can be established.
Studying at Westminster School
Westminster School is a registered education institution and is currently accepting new student enrolments for 2023/2024.
For more information about applying to Westminster School, please visit their website by clicking the apply button at the top of their page (if eligible).
Scholarships at Westminster School
Westminster School potentially has scholarships available for 2023 / 2024. You will need to get in touch with the school directly for details.
Teachers from Westminster School are fully qualified and are experts in teaching students in at the Australian level. Teaching is of the highest standard, and is certified by the local council in Marion and state government in SA.
Loved this school!
Westminster School is classed as specialising in Education.
A primary school is an institution that typically caters towards students of the ages between 5 and 12. Traditional Primary schools run levels between Prep and Grade 6.
A secondary school institution is classed as a High School, meaning it generally takes in students aged between 12 and 18, and only offers Grades from 6 to 12.
Please enquire directly with Westminster School to obtain the rules around age groups and grade levels for Education.
See also: Keith Area School
See also: Lutheran Schools
See also: Marree Aboriginal School
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Q: Service in front of Hadoop I would like to expose a web service in front of Hadoop, that is used to forward data to Hadoop ecosystem. I have two branches in Hadoop, slower, that works on whole data periodically, and fast, that does some computation on every input, and stores the data for periodical job. But the user does not see the slower branch, and has a feeling that only the fast job is done, not knowing for the slower job that runs on data aggregated during time.
How to organize my architecture best? I am new to Hadoop architecture, I read about Oozie, and have a feeling that it can help me to some point. But I don't know how to connect the service with Hadoop, how to pass the data through service, since Hadoop works primarily on files, and is distributed system.
Data should get into system in a streaming fashion. There should be "real time" branch, that works with individual values that get into system, and they would also be accumulated for periodic batch processing.
Any help would be great, thanks.

A: You might want to look into hue . This provides a set of web front-ends: there's one for HDFS (the filesystem) where you can upload files; there are means to track jobs too.
If you aim more regular and automated putting of files into HDFS, please elaborate your question further: where and what is the data initially (logs? db? bunch of gzipped csv-s?), what should trigger retrieval/
One can as well use API-s to deal with the filesystem and to track jobs.
As for what oozie concerns, this is more of an orchestrating tool, use it to organize related jobs into workflows.


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Home Florida Miami Florida: 5 Things To Know For September 16
Florida: 5 Things To Know For September 16
Your daily look at news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today.
FLORIDA'S 'GRAY BELT' A GLIMPSE AT NATION'S FUTURE
Anyone looking for a glimpse of what an aging United States will look like can take a peek at Citrus County, Florida, where one in three residents is a senior citizen. That number will be one in four statewide and one in five nationally by the year 2030. Having such a concentration of elderly citizens has its trade-offs. You get an engaged citizenry with high voter turnout and volunteerism. But you also likely will have an economy based on low-skill jobs such as health care aides, retail clerks and food service workers.
JUDGE: LAWSUIT IN PETRAEUS SCANDAL CAN PROCEED
A federal judge says a Tampa, Florida, woman can pursue her lawsuit alleging that the government invaded her privacy in the scandal over former CIA director David Petraeus. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson says Jill Kelley can press her claim that the FBI and Defense Department violated her privacy when officials allegedly leaked information about her to the news media. Berman also tossed out more than a dozen other claims of government wrongdoing.
SMALL PLANE CARSH LANDS IN ST. PETE PARK
Police say a small plane carrying three men and a 17-year-old from Ireland crashed in a park in St. Petersburg. Police say two people were taken to the hospital following the Monday morning crash. The pilot, 58-year-old Grant Jordon, is in serious but stable condition at an area hospital. A 52-year-old passenger, Aloysius Ryan, is also recovering in serious condition.
MIAMI BACKUP QB FACES DUI, LICENSE CHARGES
University of Miami backup quarterback Kevin Olsen has been arrested on charges of driving under the influence and possession of a fake or stolen driver's license. Miami-Dade County jail records show Olsen was booked at 4:11 a.m. Monday and was being held on $6,000 bail. Further details on Olsen's arrest in South Miami were not immediately available. It wasn't clear if he had an attorney.
CENTRAL FLORIDA WOMAN CONTRACTS WEST NILE VIRUS
Health officials are urging people in Volusia County to take extra precautions after a 34-year-old woman contracted the mosquito-borne West Nile virus. The Florida Department of Health announced Monday that the virus has been confirmed by the state laboratory. The disease is most commonly transmitted to humans by mosquitoes and officials say there are no medications to treat West Nile.


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The JW Treatment
What goes into making the face of JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar
A well-groomed team delivering par-excellence
Published: Dec 15, 2016 | 17:23:18 IST
A day in the life of a hotel associate is full of adventure, but it's equally demanding, too. Every move is careful, every step is calculated, and why not when every interaction with a guest, after all, no less than a performance. They're the face of the hotel, and a lot goes into making that the best in the hotel industry.
The face that empowers
A leading hospitality brand, JW Marriott invests in this venture through their JW Treatment philosophy, "treating guests exceptionally starts with the way we take care of our associates". At the forefront of this initiative is their stunning Mumbai property, JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar, that has been curating a series of styling and grooming workshops ever since it opened. And yes, this has not just helped in creating lasting first impressions for guests, but empowered them into professionals who act as proud ambassadors of the brand, wherever they go.
The face that helps you grow
Partnering with Enrich Salons and Academy, JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar offers a two-day workshop on grooming standards for all associates in the hotel. The best part, it's not just limited to the guest-interacting associates from F&B and Housekeeping, but also extends to associates from domains such as Kitchen, Marketing and Engineering. The property also joins hands with cosmetic brand Colorbrand India to educate women associates about skin and health care, helping them understand the formal grooming practices employed in the global hospitality industry. Earlier this year, Richfeel Beauty Private Limited, too, came on board to provide insights into hair care and styling.
All this is made possible through the Training & Development team that ensures that every associate is well-groomed, and delivers par-excellence service. So, the next time you check into JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar and the pleasing hospitality makes your head turn, you know the effort that goes into making what it is.


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"An Indian is an Indian regardless of the degree of Indian blood or which little government card they do or do not possess."
—Wilma Pearl Mankiller, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief (1985 to 1995)
Race and ancestry in biomedical research: exploring the challenges
Posted in Articles, Health/Medicine/Genetics, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy on 2013-10-13 18:43Z by Steven
Genome Medicine 2009
Volume 1, Number 8 (2009-01-21)
DOI: 10.1186/gm8
Timothy Caulfield
Faculty of Law and School of Public Health Research, Health Law Institute
Stephanie M Fullerton
Department of Medical History and Ethics and Department of Genome Sciences
University of Washington School of Medicine
Sarah E Ali-Khan
Program on Life Sciences Ethics and Policy, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University Health Network
Laura Arbour
Faculty of Medicine, Island Medical Program
Esteban G. Burchard
Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Medicine, Divisions of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenetics, Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, and Clinical Pharmacology
Richard S. Cooper
Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, Stritch School of Medicine
Loyola University
Billie-Jo Hardy
Simrat Harry
Robyn Hyde-Lay
Genome Alberta, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Jonathan Kahn
Hamline University School of Law
Rick Kittles
Department of Medicine, Section of Genetic Medicine, Department of Human Genetics
Barbara A. Koenig
Program in Professionalism & Bioethics
Mayo College of Medicine
Sandra S. J. Lee
Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics
Stanford University Medical School
Michael Malinowski
Paul M Hebert Law Center
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
Vardit Ravitsky
Department of Medical Ethics and Center for Bioethics
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Pamela Sankar
Stephen W. Scherer
for Applied Genomics, The Hospital for Sick Children, and Department of Molecular Genetics
Béatrice Séguin
Leslie Dan School of Pharmacy; Program on Life Sciences Ethics and Policy, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University Health Network
Darren Shickle
Leeds Institute of Health Sciences,
University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Guilherme Suarez-Kurtz
Pharmacology Division
Instituto Nacional de Câncer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Abdallah S. Daar
Program on Life Sciences Ethics and Policy, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University Health Network; Department of Public Health Sciences and of Surgery; McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine; Department of Medicine
The use of race in biomedical research has, for decades, been a source of social controversy. However, recent events, such as the adoption of racially targeted pharmaceuticals, have raised the profile of the race issue. In addition, we are entering an era in which genomic research is increasingly focused on the nature and extent of human genetic variation, often examined by population, which leads to heightened potential for misunderstandings or misuse of terms concerning genetic variation and race. Here, we draw together the perspectives of participants in a recent interdisciplinary workshop on ancestry and health in medicine in order to explore the use of race in research issue from the vantage point of a variety of disciplines. We review the nature of the race controversy in the context of biomedical research and highlight several challenges to policy action, including restrictions resulting from commercial or regulatory considerations, the difficulty in presenting precise terminology in the media, and drifting or ambiguous definitions of key terms.
Recent advances in biomedical research promise increasing insights into complex contributions to traits and diseases, and there is hope that these will lead to global health benefits [1,2] . Analytical and social-justice considerations both recommend thoughtful assessment of the role of social identity, particularly racial or ethnic identity, in the design, conduct and dissemination of clinical and basic science research. Controversies ranging from James Watson's comments on racial differences in intelligence [3] to the adoption of racially targeted pharmaceuticals, such as the African-American heart-failure drug BiDil [4-7] , remind us that use of the concept of race in biomedical research can have far-reaching, often unanticipated social consequences.
The problem of race in scientific research is not a new one, and the issue seems to perpetually reappear and remain fundamentally unresolved [8] . We are, however, entering a new era in which the fruits of initiatives, such as the Human Genome Project [9,10] , the International Haplotype Map Project [11] , and the recently proposed 1000 Genomes Project [12] , promise to elaborate more fully than ever before the nature and extent of human genetic variation and its relation to social identity. A recent interdisciplinary workshop, 'Ancestry in health and medicine; expanding the debate', hosted by the Alberta Health Law Institute and the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, in Toronto, Canada, sought to debate the current status and concerns surrounding these new scientific data, how we relate genetic variation to individual and population-level differences in observable traits, and what this might mean for the effective addressing of significant disparities in health status and disease. A central motivating consideration was how best to secure the anticipated benefits of genetic and related forms of biomedical research in the face of inevitable misunderstandings or misuse concerning genetic variation and race.
Here, we draw together the perspectives of the scholars who participated in the workshop, who have considered the race issue from the vantage point of a variety of disciplines: anthropology, bioethics, clinical medicine, ethical, social, cultural studies, genetic epidemiology, genome sciences, global heath research, law and the social sciences. We review the nature of the race controversy in the context of biomedical research and highlight several challenges to policy action…
Read the entire correspondence here.
Tags: Abdallah S. Daar, Barbara A. Koenig, Béatrice Séguin, Billie-Jo Hardy, Darren Shickle, Esteban Burchard, Esteban G. Burchard, Genome Medicine, Guilherme Suarez-Kurtz, Jonathan Kahn, Laura Arbour, Michael Malinowski, Pamela Sankar, Richard S. Cooper, Rick Kittles, Robyn Hyde-Lay, Sandra S-J Lee, Sarah Ali-Khan, Sarah E. Ali-Khan, Simrat Harry, Stephanie Fullerton, Stephanie M. Fullerton, Stephen Scherer, Stephen W. Scherer, Timothy Caulfield, Vardit Ravitsky
Comments Off on Race and ancestry in biomedical research: exploring the challenges


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Why Global Environmentalists Are Silent on Venezuela's Mining Crisis
Fossil Fuel Industry Continues to Squash Renewable Energy Age
Humanity Imperiled: The Path to Disaster
Aerial view of the Auyán Tepuy and the Caroni River in Venezuela. Luis Ovalles / Wikimedia / CC BY-SA
By Isaac Nahon-Serfaty
Venezuela is on a path towards environmental devastation.
mining venezuela the conversation indigenous amazon deforestation
Nicole D'Alessandro
By Michael T. Klare
When it comes to energy and economics in the climate-change era, nothing is what it seems. Most of us believe (or want to believe) that the second carbon era, the Age of Oil, will soon be superseded by the Age of Renewables, just as oil had long since superseded the Age of Coal. President Obama offered exactly this vision in a much-praised June address on climate change. True, fossil fuels will be needed a little bit longer, he indicated, but soon enough they will be overtaken by renewable forms of energy.
Many other experts share this view, assuring us that increased reliance on "clean" natural gas combined with expanded investments in wind and solar power will permit a smooth transition to a green energy future in which humanity will no longer be pouring carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. All this sounds promising indeed. There is only one fly in the ointment: it is not, in fact, the path we are presently headed down. The energy industry is not investing in any significant way in renewables. Instead, it is pouring its historic profits into new fossil-fuel projects, mainly involving the exploitation of what are called "unconventional" oil and gas reserves.
The result is indisputable: humanity is not entering a period that will be dominated by renewables. Instead, it is pioneering the third great carbon era, the Age of Unconventional Oil and Gas.
That we are embarking on a new carbon era is increasingly evident and should unnerve us all. Hydro-fracking—the use of high-pressure water columns to shatter underground shale formations and liberate the oil and natural gas supplies trapped within them—is being undertaken in ever more regions of the U.S. and in a growing number of foreign countries. In the meantime, the exploitation of carbon-dirty heavy oil and tar sands formations is accelerating in Canada, Venezuela and elsewhere.
It's true that ever more wind farms and solar arrays are being built, but here's the kicker: investment in unconventional fossil-fuel extraction and distribution is now expected to outpace spending on renewables by a ratio of at least three-to-one in the decades ahead.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an inter-governmental research organization based in Paris, cumulative worldwide investment in new fossil-fuel extraction and processing will total an estimated $22.87 trillion between 2012 and 2035, while investment in renewables, hydropower and nuclear energy will amount to only $7.32 trillion. In these years, investment in oil alone, at an estimated $10.32 trillion, is expected to exceed spending on wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels, hydro, nuclear and every other form of renewable energy combined.
In addition, as the IEA explains, an ever-increasing share of that staggering investment in fossil fuels will be devoted to unconventional forms of oil and gas: Canadian tar sands, Venezuelan extra-heavy crude, shale oil and gas, Arctic and deep-offshore energy deposits, and other hydrocarbons derived from previously inaccessible reserves of energy. The explanation for this is simple enough. The world's supply of conventional oil and gas—fuels derived from easily accessible reservoirs and requiring a minimum of processing—is rapidly disappearing. With global demand for fossil fuels expected to rise by 26 percent between now and 2035, more and more of the world's energy supply will have to be provided by unconventional fuels.
In such a world, one thing is guaranteed: global carbon emissions will soar far beyond our current worst-case assumptions, meaning intense heat waves will become commonplace and our few remaining wilderness areas will be eviscerated. Planet Earth will be a far—possibly unimaginably—harsher and more blistering place. In that light, it's worth exploring in greater depth just how we ended up in such a predicament, one carbon age at a time.
The First Carbon Era
The first carbon era began in the late 1800s, with the introduction of coal-powered steam engines and their widespread application to all manner of industrial enterprises. Initially used to power textile mills and industrial plants, coal was also employed in transportation (steam-powered ships and railroads), mining and the large-scale production of iron. Indeed, what we now call the Industrial Revolution was largely comprised of the widening application of coal and steam power to productive activities. Eventually, coal would also be used to generate electricity, a field in which it remains dominant today.
This was the era in which vast armies of hard-pressed workers built continent-spanning railroads and mammoth textile mills as factory towns proliferated and cities grew. It was the era, above all, of the expansion of the British Empire. For a time, Great Britain was the biggest producer and consumer of coal, the world's leading manufacturer, its top industrial innovator and its dominant power—and all of these attributes were inextricably connected. By mastering the technology of coal, a small island off the coast of Europe was able to accumulate vast wealth, develop the world's most advanced weaponry and control the global sea-lanes.
The same coal technology that gave Britain such global advantages also brought great misery in its wake. As noted by energy analyst Paul Roberts in The End of Oil, the coal then being consumed in England was of the brown lignite variety, "chock full of sulfur and other impurities." When burned, "it produced an acrid, choking smoke that stung the eyes and lungs and blackened walls and clothes." By the end of the nineteenth century, the air in London and other coal-powered cities was so polluted that "trees died, marble facades dissolved, and respiratory ailments became epidemic."
For Great Britain and other early industrial powers, the substitution of oil and gas for coal was a godsend, allowing improved air quality, the restoration of cities and a reduction in respiratory ailments. In many parts of the world, of course, the Age of Coal is not over. In China and India, among other places, coal remains the principal source of energy, condemning their cities and populations to a twenty-first-century version of nineteenth-century London and Manchester.
The Second Carbon Era
The Age of Oil got its start in 1859 when commercial production began in western Pennsylvania, but only truly took off after World War II, with the explosive growth of automobile ownership. Before 1940, oil played an important role in illumination and lubrication, among other applications, but remained subordinate to coal; after the war, oil became the world's principal source of energy. From 10 million barrels per day in 1950, global consumption soared to 77 million in 2000, a half-century bacchanalia of fossil fuel burning.
Driving the global ascendancy of petroleum was its close association with the internal combustion engine (ICE). Due to oil's superior portability and energy intensity (that is, the amount of energy it releases per unit of volume), it makes the ideal fuel for mobile, versatile ICEs. Just as coal rose to prominence by fueling steam engines, so oil came to prominence by fueling the world's growing fleets of cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships. Today, petroleum supplies about 97 percent of all energy used in transportation worldwide.
Oil's prominence was also assured by its growing utilization in agriculture and warfare. In a relatively short period of time, oil-powered tractors and other agricultural machines replaced animals as the primary source of power on farms around the world. A similar transition occurred on the modern battlefield, with oil-powered tanks and planes replacing the cavalry as the main source of offensive power.
These were the years of mass automobile ownership, continent-spanning highways, endless suburbs, giant malls, cheap flights, mechanized agriculture, artificial fibers and—above all else—the global expansion of American power. Because the U.S. possessed mammoth reserves of oil, was the first to master the technology of oil extraction and refining, and the most successful at utilizing petroleum in transportation, manufacturing, agriculture and war, it emerged as the richest and most powerful country of the twenty-first century, a saga told with great relish by energy historian Daniel Yergin in The Prize. Thanks to the technology of oil, the U.S. was able to accumulate staggering levels of wealth, deploy armies and military bases to every continent and control the global air and sea-lanes—extending its power to every corner of the planet.
However, just as Britain experienced negative consequences from its excessive reliance on coal, so the U.S.—and the rest of the world—has suffered in various ways from its reliance on oil. To ensure the safety of its overseas sources of supply, Washington has established tortuous relationships with foreign oil suppliers and has fought several costly, debilitating wars in the Persian Gulf region, a sordid history I recount in Blood and Oil. Over-reliance on motor vehicles for personal and commercial transportation has left the country ill-equipped to deal with periodic supply disruptions and price spikes. Most of all, the vast increase in oil consumption—here and elsewhere—has produced a corresponding increase in carbon dioxide emissions, accelerating planetary warming (a process begun during the first carbon era) and exposing the country to the ever more devastating effects of climate change.
The Age of Unconventional Oil and Gas
The explosive growth of automotive and aviation travel, the suburbanization of significant parts of the planet, the mechanization of agriculture and warfare, the global supremacy of the U.S. and the onset of climate change: these were the hallmarks of the exploitation of conventional petroleum. At present, most of the world's oil is still obtained from a few hundred giant onshore fields in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. and Venezuela, among other countries; some additional oil is acquired from offshore fields in the North Sea, the Gulf of Guinea and the Gulf of Mexico. This oil comes out of the ground in liquid form and requires relatively little processing before being refined into commercial fuels.
But such conventional oil is disappearing. According to the IEA, the major fields that currently provide the lion's share of global petroleum will lose two-thirds of their production over the next 25 years, with their net output plunging from 68 million barrels per day in 2009 to a mere 26 million barrels in 2035. The IEA assures us that new oil will be found to replace those lost supplies, but most of this will be of an unconventional nature. In the coming decades, unconventional oils will account for a growing share of the global petroleum inventory, eventually becoming our main source of supply.
The same is true for natural gas, the second most important source of world energy. The global supply of conventional gas, like conventional oil, is shrinking, and we are becoming increasingly dependent on unconventional sources of supply—especially from the Arctic, the deep oceans and shale rock via fracking.
In certain ways, unconventional hydrocarbons are akin to conventional fuels. Both are largely composed of hydrogen and carbon, and can be burned to produce heat and energy. But in time the differences between them will make an ever-greater difference to us. Unconventional fuels—especially heavy oils and tar sands—tend to possess a higher proportion of carbon to hydrogen than conventional oil, and so release more CO2 when burned. Arctic and deep-offshore oil require more energy to extract, and so produce higher carbon emissions in their very production.
"Many new breeds of petroleum fuels are nothing like conventional oil," Deborah Gordon, a specialist on the topic at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in 2012. "Unconventional oils tend to be heavy, complex, carbon laden, and locked up deep in the earth, tightly trapped between or bound to sand, tar, and rock."
By far the most worrisome consequence of the distinctive nature of unconventional fuels is their extreme impact on the environment. Because they are often characterized by higher ratios of carbon to hydrogen, and generally require more energy to extract and be converted into usable materials, they produce more CO2 emissions per unit of energy released. In addition, the process that produces shale gas, hailed as a "clean" fossil fuel, is believed by many scientists to cause widespread releases of methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas.
All of this means that, as the consumption of fossil fuels grows, increasing, not decreasing, amounts of CO2 and methane will be released into the atmosphere and, instead of slowing, global warming will speed up.
And here's another problem associated with the third carbon age: the production of unconventional oil and gas turns out to require vast amounts of water—for fracking operations, to extract tar sands and extra-heavy oil, and to facilitate the transport and refining of such fuels. This is producing a growing threat of water contamination, especially in areas of intense fracking and tar sands production, along with competition over access to water supplies among drillers, farmers, municipal water authorities and others. As climate change intensifies, drought will become the norm in many areas and so this competition will only grow fiercer.
Along with these and other environmental impacts, the transition from conventional to unconventional fuels will have economic and geopolitical consequences hard to fully assess at this moment. As a start, the exploitation of unconventional oil and gas reserves from previously inaccessible regions involves the introduction of novel production technologies, including deep-sea and Arctic drilling, hydro-fracking and tar-sands upgrading. One result has been a shakeup in the global energy industry, with the emergence of innovative companies possessing the skills and determination to exploit the new unconventional resources—much as occurred during the early years of the petroleum era when new firms arose to exploit the world's oil reserves.
This has been especially evident in the development of shale oil and gas. In many cases, the breakthrough technologies in this field were devised and deployed by smaller, risk-taking firms like Cabot Oil and Gas, Devon Energy Corporation, Mitchell Energy and Development Corporation and XTO Energy. These and similar companies pioneered the use of hydro-fracking to extract oil and gas from shale formations in Arkansas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Texas, and later sparked a stampede by larger energy firms to obtain stakes of their own in these areas. To augment those stakes, the giant firms are gobbling up many of the smaller and mid-sized ones. Among the most conspicuous takeovers was ExxonMobil's 2009 purchase of XTO for $41 billion.
That deal highlights an especially worrisome feature of this new era: the deployment of massive funds by giant energy firms and their financial backers to acquire stakes in the production of unconventional forms of oil and gas—in amounts far exceeding comparable investments in either conventional hydrocarbons or renewable energy. It's clear that, for these companies, unconventional energy is the next big thing and, as among the most profitable firms in history, they are prepared to spend astronomical sums to ensure that they continue to be so. If this means investment in renewable energy is shortchanged, so be it. "Without a concerted policymaking effort" to favor the development of renewables, Carnegie's Gordon warns, future investments in the energy field "will likely continue to flow disproportionately toward unconventional oil."
In other words, there will be an increasingly entrenched institutional bias among energy firms, banks, lending agencies and governments toward next-generation fossil-fuel production, only increasing the difficulty of establishing national and international curbs on carbon emissions. This is evident, for example, in the Obama administration's undiminished support for deep-offshore drilling and shale gas development, despite its purported commitment to reduce carbon emissions. It is likewise evident in the growing international interest in the development of shale and heavy-oil reserves, even as fresh investment in green energy is being cut back.
As in the environmental and economic fields, the transition from conventional to unconventional oil and gas will have a substantial, if still largely undefined, impact on political and military affairs.
U.S. and Canadian companies are playing a decisive role in the development of many of the vital new unconventional fossil-fuel technologies; in addition, some of the world's largest unconventional oil and gas reserves are located in North America. The effect of this is to bolster U.S. global power at the expense of rival energy producers like Russia and Venezuela, which face rising competition from North American companies, and energy-importing states like China and India, which lack the resources and technology to produce unconventional fuels.
At the same time, Washington appears more inclined to counter the rise of China by seeking to dominate the global sea lanes and bolster its military ties with regional allies like Australia, India, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea. Many factors are contributing to this strategic shift, but from their statements it is clear enough that top American officials see it as stemming in significant part from America's growing self-sufficiency in energy production and its early mastery of the latest production technologies.
"America's new energy posture allows us to engage [the world] from a position of greater strength," National Security Advisor Tom Donilon asserted in an April speech at Columbia University. "Increasing U.S. energy supplies act as a cushion that helps reduce our vulnerability to global supply disruptions [and] affords us a stronger hand in pursuing and implementing our international security goals."
For the time being, the U.S. leaders can afford to boast of their "stronger hand" in world affairs, as no other country possesses the capabilities to exploit unconventional resources on such a large scale. By seeking to extract geopolitical benefits from a growing world reliance on such fuels, however, Washington inevitably invites countermoves of various sorts. Rival powers, fearful and resentful of its geopolitical assertiveness, will bolster their capacity to resist American power—a trend already evident in China's accelerating naval and missile buildup.
At the same time, other states will seek to develop their own capacity to exploit unconventional resources in what might be considered a fossil-fuels version of an arms race. This will require considerable effort, but such resources are widely distributed across the planet and in time other major producers of unconventional fuels are bound to emerge, challenging America's advantage in this realm (even as they increase the staying power and global destructiveness of the third age of carbon). Sooner or later, much of international relations will revolve around these issues.
Surviving the Third Carbon Era
Barring unforeseen shifts in global policies and behavior, the world will become increasingly dependent on the exploitation of unconventional energy. This, in turn, means an increase in the buildup of greenhouse gases with little possibility of averting the onset of catastrophic climate effects. Yes, we will also witness progress in the development and installation of renewable forms of energy, but these will play a subordinate role to the development of unconventional oil and gas.
Life in the third carbon era will not be without its benefits. Those who rely on fossil fuels for transportation, heating and the like can perhaps take comfort from the fact that oil and natural gas will not run out soon, as was predicted by many energy analysts in the early years of this century. Banks, the energy corporations and other economic interests will undoubtedly amass staggering profits from the explosive expansion of the unconventional oil business and global increases in the consumption of these fuels. But most of us won't be rewarded. Quite the opposite. Instead, we'll experience the discomfort and suffering accompanying the heating of the planet, the scarcity of contested water supplies in many regions and the evisceration of the natural landscape.
What can be done to cut short the third carbon era and avert the worst of these outcomes? Calling for greater investment in green energy is essential but insufficient at a moment when the powers that be are emphasizing the development of unconventional fuels. Campaigning for curbs on carbon emissions is necessary, but will undoubtedly prove problematic, given an increasingly deeply embedded institutional bias toward unconventional energy.
Needed, in addition to such efforts, is a drive to expose the distinctiveness and the dangers of unconventional energy and to demonize those who choose to invest in these fuels rather than their green alternatives. Some efforts of this sort are already underway, including student-initiated campaigns to persuade or compel college and university trustees to divest from any investments in fossil-fuel companies. These, however, still fall short of a systemic drive to identify and resist those responsible for our growing reliance on unconventional fuels.
For all President Obama's talk of a green technology revolution, we remain deeply entrenched in a world dominated by fossil fuels, with the only true revolution now underway involving the shift from one class of such fuels to another. Without a doubt, this is a formula for global catastrophe. To survive this era, humanity must become much smarter about this new kind of energy and then take the steps necessary to compress the third carbon era and hasten in the Age of Renewables before we burn ourselves off this planet.
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Lauren Berlekamp
By Noam Chomsky
What is the future likely to bring? A reasonable stance might be to try to look at the human species from the outside. So, imagine that you're an extraterrestrial observer who is trying to figure out what's happening here or, for that matter, imagine you're an historian 100 years from now—assuming there are any historians 100 years from now, which is not obvious—and you're looking back at what's happening today. You'd see something quite remarkable.
For the first time in the history of the human species, we have clearly developed the capacity to destroy ourselves. That's been true since 1945. It's now being finally recognized that there are more long-term processes like environmental destruction leading in the same direction, maybe not to total destruction, but at least to the destruction of the capacity for a decent existence.
And there are other dangers like pandemics, which have to do with globalization and interaction. So there are processes underway and institutions right in place, like nuclear weapons systems, which could lead to a serious blow to, or maybe the termination of, an organized existence.
How to Destroy a Planet Without Really Trying
The question is: What are people doing about it? None of this is a secret. It's all perfectly open. In fact, you have to make an effort not to see it.
There have been a range of reactions. There are those who are trying hard to do something about these threats, and others who are acting to escalate them. If you look at who they are, this future historian or extraterrestrial observer would see something strange indeed. Trying to mitigate or overcome these threats are the least developed societies, the indigenous populations, or the remnants of them, tribal societies and first nations in Canada. They're not talking about nuclear war but environmental disaster, and they're really trying to do something about it.
In fact, all over the world—Australia, India, South America—there are battles going on, sometimes wars. In India, it's a major war over direct environmental destruction, with tribal societies trying to resist resource extraction operations that are extremely harmful locally, but also in their general consequences. In societies where indigenous populations have an influence, many are taking a strong stand. The strongest of any country with regard to global warming is in Bolivia, which has an indigenous majority and constitutional requirements that protect the "rights of nature."
Ecuador, which also has a large indigenous population, is the only oil exporter I know of where the government is seeking aid to help keep that oil in the ground, instead of producing and exporting it—and the ground is where it ought to be.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who died recently and was the object of mockery, insult and hatred throughout the Western world, attended a session of the United Nations General Assembly a few years ago where he elicited all sorts of ridicule for calling President George W. Bush a devil. He also gave a speech there that was quite interesting. Of course, Venezuela is a major oil producer. Oil is practically their whole gross domestic product. In that speech, he warned of the dangers of the overuse of fossil fuels and urged producer and consumer countries to get together and try to work out ways to reduce fossil fuel use. That was pretty amazing on the part of an oil producer. You know, he was part Indian, of indigenous background. Unlike the funny things he did, this aspect of his actions at the UN was never even reported.
So, at one extreme you have indigenous, tribal societies trying to stem the race to disaster. At the other extreme, the richest, most powerful societies in world history, like the U.S. and Canada, are racing full-speed ahead to destroy the environment as quickly as possible. Unlike Ecuador, and indigenous societies throughout the world, they want to extract every drop of hydrocarbons from the ground with all possible speed.
Both political parties, President Obama, the media and the international press seem to be looking forward with great enthusiasm to what they call "a century of energy independence" for the U.S. Energy independence is an almost meaningless concept, but put that aside. What they mean is: We'll have a century in which to maximize the use of fossil fuels and contribute to destroying the world.
And that's pretty much the case everywhere. Admittedly, when it comes to alternative energy development, Europe is doing something. Meanwhile, the U.S., the richest and most powerful country in world history, is the only nation among perhaps 100 relevant ones that doesn't have a national policy for restricting the use of fossil fuels, that doesn't even have renewable energy targets. It's not because the population doesn't want it. Americans are pretty close to the international norm in their concern about global warming. It's institutional structures that block change. Business interests don't want it and they're overwhelmingly powerful in determining policy, so you get a big gap between opinion and policy on lots of issues, including this one.
So that's what the future historian—if there is one—would see. He might also read today's scientific journals. Just about every one you open has a more dire prediction than the last.
"The Most Dangerous Moment in History"
The other issue is nuclear war. It's been known for a long time that if there were to be a first strike by a major power, even with no retaliation, it would probably destroy civilization just because of the nuclear-winter consequences that would follow. You can read about it in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. It's well understood. So the danger has always been a lot worse than we thought it was.
We've just passed the 50 year anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was called "the most dangerous moment in history" by historian Arthur Schlesinger, President John F. Kennedy's advisor. Which it was. It was a very close call, and not the only time either. In some ways, however, the worst aspect of these grim events is that the lessons haven't been learned.
What happened in the missile crisis in October 1962 has been prettified to make it look as if acts of courage and thoughtfulness abounded. The truth is that the whole episode was almost insane. There was a point, as the missile crisis was reaching its peak, when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev wrote to Kennedy offering to settle it by a public announcement of a withdrawal of Russian missiles from Cuba and U.S. missiles from Turkey. Actually, Kennedy hadn't even known that the U.S. had missiles in Turkey at the time. They were being withdrawn anyway, because they were being replaced by more lethal Polaris nuclear submarines, which were invulnerable.
So that was the offer. Kennedy and his advisors considered it—and rejected it. At the time, Kennedy himself was estimating the likelihood of nuclear war at a third to a half. So Kennedy was willing to accept a very high risk of massive destruction in order to establish the principle that we—and only we—have the right to offensive missiles beyond our borders, in fact anywhere we like, no matter what the risk to others—and to ourselves, if matters fall out of control. We have that right, but no one else does.
Kennedy did, however, accept a secret agreement to withdraw the missiles the U.S. was already withdrawing, as long as it was never made public. Khrushchev, in other words, had to openly withdraw the Russian missiles while the U.S. secretly withdrew its obsolete ones; that is, Khrushchev had to be humiliated and Kennedy had to maintain his macho image. He's greatly praised for this: Courage and coolness under threat, and so on. The horror of his decisions is not even mentioned—try to find it on the record.
And to add a little more, a couple of months before the crisis blew up, the U.S. had sent missiles with nuclear warheads to Okinawa, Japan. These were aimed at China during a period of great regional tension.
Well, who cares? We have the right to do anything we want anywhere in the world. That was one grim lesson from that era, but there were others to come.
Ten years after that, in 1973, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called a high-level nuclear alert. It was his way of warning the Russians not to interfere in the ongoing Israel-Arab war and, in particular, not to interfere after he had informed the Israelis that they could violate a ceasefire the U.S. and Russia had just agreed upon. Fortunately, nothing happened.
Ten years later, President Ronald Reagan was in office. Soon after he entered the White House, he and his advisors had the Air Force start penetrating Russian air space to try to elicit information about Russian warning systems, Operation Able Archer. Essentially, these were mock attacks. The Russians were uncertain, some high-level officials fearing that this was a step towards a real first strike. Fortunately, they didn't react, though it was a close call. And it goes on like that.
What to Make of the Iranian and North Korean Nuclear Crises
At the moment, the nuclear issue is regularly on front pages in the cases of North Korea and Iran. There are ways to deal with these ongoing crises. Maybe they wouldn't work, but at least you could try. They are, however, not even being considered, not even reported.
Take the case of Iran, which is considered in the West—not in the Arab world, not in Asia—the gravest threat to world peace. It's a Western obsession, and it's interesting to look into the reasons for it, but I'll put that aside here. Is there a way to deal with the supposed gravest threat to world peace? Actually, there are quite a few. One way, a pretty sensible one, was proposed a couple of months ago at a meeting of the non-aligned countries in Tehran. In fact, they were just reiterating a proposal that's been around for decades, pressed particularly by Egypt, and has been approved by the UN General Assembly.
The proposal is to move toward establishing a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the region. That wouldn't be the answer to everything, but it would be a pretty significant step forward. And there were ways to proceed. Under UN auspices, there was to be an international conference in Finland last December to try to implement plans to move toward this. What happened?
You won't read about it in the newspapers because it wasn't reported—only in specialist journals. In early November, Iran agreed to attend the meeting. A couple of days later President Obama cancelled the meeting, saying the time wasn't right. The European Parliament issued a statement calling for it to continue, as did the Arab states. Nothing resulted. So we'll move toward ever-harsher sanctions against the Iranian population—it doesn't hurt the regime—and maybe war. Who knows what will happen?
In Northeast Asia, it's the same sort of thing. North Korea may be the craziest country in the world. It's certainly a good competitor for that title. But it does make sense to try to figure out what's in the minds of people when they're acting in crazy ways. Why would they behave the way they do? Just imagine ourselves in their situation. Imagine what it meant in the Korean War years of the early 1950s for your country to be totally leveled, everything destroyed by a huge superpower, which furthermore was gloating about what it was doing. Imagine the imprint that would leave behind.
Bear in mind that the North Korean leadership is likely to have read the public military journals of this superpower at that time explaining that, since everything else in North Korea had been destroyed, the Air Force was sent to destroy North Korea's dams, huge dams that controlled the water supply—a war crime, by the way, for which people were hanged in Nuremberg. And these official journals were talking excitedly about how wonderful it was to see the water pouring down, digging out the valleys, and the Asians scurrying around trying to survive. The journals were exulting in what this meant to those "Asians," horrors beyond our imagination. It meant the destruction of their rice crop, which in turn meant starvation and death. How magnificent! It's not in our memory, but it's in their memory.
Let's turn to the present. There's an interesting recent history. In 1993, Israel and North Korea were moving towards an agreement in which North Korea would stop sending any missiles or military technology to the Middle East and Israel would recognize that country. President Clinton intervened and blocked it. Shortly after that, in retaliation, North Korea carried out a minor missile test. The U.S. and North Korea did then reach a framework agreement in 1994 that halted its nuclear work and was more or less honored by both sides. When George W. Bush came into office, North Korea had maybe one nuclear weapon and verifiably wasn't producing any more.
Bush immediately launched his aggressive militarism, threatening North Korea—"axis of evil" and all that—so North Korea got back to work on its nuclear program. By the time Bush left office, they had eight to 10 nuclear weapons and a missile system, another great neocon achievement. In between, other things happened. In 2005, the U.S. and North Korea actually reached an agreement in which North Korea was to end all nuclear weapons and missile development. In return, the West, but mainly the U.S., was to provide a light-water reactor for its medical needs and end aggressive statements. They would then form a nonaggression pact and move toward accommodation.
It was pretty promising, but almost immediately Bush undermined it. He withdrew the offer of the light-water reactor and initiated programs to compel banks to stop handling any North Korean transactions, even perfectly legal ones. The North Koreans reacted by reviving their nuclear weapons program. And that's the way it's been going.
It's well known. You can read it in straight, mainstream American scholarship. What they say is: It's a pretty crazy regime, but it's also following a kind of tit-for-tat policy. You make a hostile gesture and we'll respond with some crazy gesture of our own. You make an accommodating gesture and we'll reciprocate in some way.
Lately, for instance, there have been South Korean-U.S. military exercises on the Korean peninsula which, from the North's point of view, have got to look threatening. We'd think they were threatening if they were going on in Canada and aimed at us. In the course of these, the most advanced bombers in history, Stealth B-2s and B-52s, are carrying out simulated nuclear bombing attacks right on North Korea's borders.
This surely sets off alarm bells from the past. They remember that past, so they're reacting in a very aggressive, extreme way. Well, what comes to the West from all this is how crazy and how awful the North Korean leaders are. Yes, they are. But that's hardly the whole story, and this is the way the world is going.
It's not that there are no alternatives. The alternatives just aren't being taken. That's dangerous. So if you ask what the world is going to look like, it's not a pretty picture. Unless people do something about it. We always can.
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Crude Behavior: The Tarnished Legacy of the Tar Sands Industry
By Peter LaFontaine
If the American dream can be reduced to a single image, it is of the homestead—a place earned through long days and late nights, hard work, planning and saving. It represents not only a dream realized, but an investment in your family and future, and a place that is rightfully all your own.
Now imagine that home, that achievement, taken away with a knock at your door, seized in the blink of an eye by a company you've never heard of, stolen away in distant boardrooms without your knowledge or consent, all of it enabled by the government you pay your taxes to. As Americans this seems unimaginable, and yet, for those whose homes lie in the cross-hairs of the tar sands oil industry, it's a bleak reality.
Crude Behavior: TransCanada, Enbridge, and the Tar Sands Industry's Tarnished Legacy, a new report from NWF, details the recent history of those companies, including underhanded legal campaigns against landowners, a systematic disregard for the rights of Native American tribes and negligent behavior that has led to significant tar sands spills in the U.S. and Canada.
As the industry plans to build thousands of miles of new or re-purposed tar sands pipelines across the country, the public and government officials need to learn what it actually means to invite in these neighbors. As the report makes clear, you shouldn't unroll the welcome mat.
In the Great Plains, TransCanada (of Keystone XL infamy) has mounted a widespread misinformation assault, threatening lawsuits when farmers refuse to sign over their land to the company. In Texas, landowners and journalists have been threatened with arrest for "trespassing" as TransCanada bulldozes its way to the Gulf coast.
In New England, tar sands companies continue to insist, against all the evidence, that they have no plans to bring their dirty fuel through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine—while simultaneously sponsoring tar sands spill cleanup workshops. And in the Midwest, Enbridge Inc. is plowing ahead with a massive expansion plan despite the lingering effects of the biggest inland oil spill in U.S. history, the 2010 Kalamazoo River disaster.
I've spent over a year following the ups and downs of this roller coaster ride, and it's hammered home the fact that the tar sands industry (and oil companies in general) have an incredibly twisted understanding of what it means to be a good neighbor. In conversations with dozens of landowners and Tribal members, I have heard a constant message: "We feel powerless and betrayed by a system that is supposed to protect us."
The Obama Administration has a crucial upcoming decision on Keystone XL, and we're holding our collective breath, aware that the wrong choice would lead not just to climate catastrophe but also a dismantling of our basic rights to clean water, a meaningful voice in the process and safeguards for our private property.
As Jeff Insko—a Michigander who has been fighting back against these companies—puts it: "We've experienced first-hand the enormous gulf between Enbridge's 'good neighbor' rhetoric and their callous treatment of landowners."
Whether by looking for back-room deals in Washington, DC or taking ranchers to court, TransCanada, Enbridge and the other players have rewritten the book on how to do bad business in pursuit of profits. National Wildlife Federation has already detailed how tar sands is a terrible bet for wildlife, our climate, the American economy and public health, and Crude Behavior is another chapter in the sordid story of this industry.
Visit EcoWatch's ENERGY, TAR SANDS and PIPELINES pages for more related news on this topic.
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