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Opinion/Analysis: Biden's radical climate plan would destroy US economy
Less than two months into the primaries, only two viable candidates remain for Democratic voters: Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist and admirer of Fidel Castro, and former Vice President Joe Biden, an entrenched Washington gaffe-machine whose biggest selling point is that he's not quite as far left as most of his extremely far-left competitors. From the get-go, Biden has built his campaign on the idea that although he agrees with many of his radical friends about the problems facing America, he doesn't believe that we should completely abandon the free market for a socialist hellscape like Cuba or Venezuela. Biden's campaign slogan might as well be changed to: "Hey, at least I'm not a socialist!" While it's true he isn't the Castro-loving Marxist that Comrade Bernie is, the media's portrayal of Biden as the quintessential "moderate" Democrat couldn't be further from the truth. Biden's policies are unquestionably progressive, and far from anything resembling a moderate approach to governance. Perhaps one of the best examples of Biden's extremely liberal agenda is his climate plan. It isn't on the same scale as the Green New Deal offered by Bernie Sanders and fellow socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., but it, too, would wreak economic destruction. Although Biden has been vague about the details, he wants the United States to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050, at the latest, by dramatically increasing regulations and taxpayer-funded renewable energy subsidies and by forcing people to buy "greener," more expensive cars and homes. One of the most destructive ways Biden plans to reduce CO2 emissions is by forcing "polluters" to "bear the full cost of the carbon pollution they are emitting." This is political-speak for creating huge new taxes on energy-intensive businesses like manufacturers, who often can't afford to spend significantly more to power their operations and don't want to depend on less-reliable "green" energies like wind and solar. According to Biden's own estimates, his plan would cost a whopping $1.7 trillion in new federal spending over 10 years. But that's only scratching the surface of the true costs of his radical proposal. Biden says he will pay for his costly plan by increasing tax rates on corporations — some of the nation's largest employers — from 21 percent to 35 percent, a move that could on its own reverse the tremendous economic growth that has occurred since Republicans and President Trump passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. Additionally, because Biden's plan — like all climate change proposals — would impose more expensive energy costs, economists have consistently found that productivity and total economic growth would be substantially reduced by even the most modest parts of his policy. For example, part of Biden's strategy for reducing CO2 emissions is to force the United States to re-enter the Obama-era Paris Climate Agreement, which would have required America to reduce its emissions by 28 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030. (President Trump announced the removal of the U.S. from the Paris deal in June 2017.) The Heritage Foundation estimates that by 2035 the Paris Agreement would create a loss of nearly 400,000 jobs, an average income loss of $20,000 for a family of four, and a $2.5 trillion reduction in U.S. GDP. And what would Americans get in return for all of this economic chaos? Absolutely nothing. Even if you believe that human-caused global warming is an existential threat to the world — a delusional belief that simply isn't supported by the available data — there's nothing the United States can do to meaningfully affect global climate over the next century, a fact Biden's own campaign admits. On Biden's campaign website, he acknowledges, "The United States accounts for only 15 percent of global emissions, so we know we cannot solve this emergency on our own. Climate change is a global challenge that requires decisive action from every country around the world." This presents a massive problem for Biden and Democrats, because many of the world's largest economies are significantly increasing their CO2 emissions every year, and there's no reason to believe that trend is going to stop. For example, since 1992, CO2 emissions in China have increased by 270 percent, and the country is increasing its reliance on coal by remarkable levels. The Guardian (U.K.) reported in November 2019 that China has a pipeline of "coal plants that are either under construction or suspension but are likely to be revived … This is more than all existing coal plants in the EU combined and almost 50 percent higher than the … capacity planned in the rest of the world." Biden's plan to deal with the rest of the world's unwillingness to jump off the economic cliff by embracing expensive forms of energy is to spark a trade war with any nation that refuses to adopt his proposal. According to Biden's website, "As the U.S. takes steps to make domestic polluters bear the full cost of their carbon pollution, the Biden administration will impose carbon adjustment fees or quotas on carbon-intensive goods from countries that are failing to meet their climate and environmental obligations." These "fees" and "quotas" would raise the price of goods and services around the world, but especially here in the United States, crushing the economy and driving businesses overseas. Biden might sell himself as a "moderate" to win back disaffected Midwestern voters, but nothing could be further from the truth, as his climate policies clearly illustrate.
Indeed.. Thanks to Justin Haskins for that eye-opening, and sobering assessment of the Biden agenda. Justin is the executive editor and a research fellow at The Heartland Institute and the editor-in-chief of StoppingSocialism.com. He's the author of "Socialism Is Evil: The Moral Case Against Marx's Radical Dream." Follow him on Twitter @JustinTHaskins.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Big government, climate change, environmentalism, Global Warming, Joe Biden, Politics, Socialism on March 9, 2020 by majbuzzcut. Leave a comment
Record Farm Yields Contradict Climate Doomsayers' Claims
U.S. and global crop production continue to set new records, even as climate activists ramp up a campaign to convince people that climate change is decimating crop production and forcing farmers out of business. The latest misinformation was spread by Politico. Politico in October published an article titled, "'I'm standing right here in the middle of climate change': How USDA is failing farmers." On December 9, Politico followed up with an article titled, "How a closed-door meeting shows farmers are waking up on climate change." The October article claimed "American farmers are reeling" from extreme weather caused by climate change. The article also complained that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is not devoting more money toward climate change programs. The December article asserted horrible "destruction wrought by catastrophic weather this year." The article placed the blame on climate change and then trumpeted efforts to change government agriculture policy to focus on climate change. The Politico articles generated substantial attention from the media echo chamber, including Google News searches for "climate change" placing the Politico articles at the top of search results. Unfortunately for climate activists – but fortunately for farmers and the rest of us – the climate change crop scare is pure fiction. Presenting crop data collected by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Global Economy website documents that U.S. crop yields are enjoying excellent short-term, mid-term, and long-term growth, with new records being set almost every year. According to the USDA publication, "Crop Production Historical Track Records," the past three years produced the three highest U.S. wheat yields per acre in history. The past five years produced the five highest U.S. corn yields and the five highest soybean yields per acre in history. U.S. and global crop production are a story of steady growth and almost yearly new records as the Earth modestly warms. Even with the "catastrophic weather this year," the USDA projects this year's corn, soybean, and wheat yields to each be among the top six years all-time. Also, much of the problematic "catastrophic weather" occurred as part of early-spring snowstorms and late-fall snowstorms, which will continue to become less frequent and severe with ongoing modest warming. At the global level, the UN Food and Agriculture's "World Food Situation" website documents the same strong, consistent crop growth globally, with new records being set virtually every year. The UN global crop production data is particularly helpful getting to the bottom of claims that climate change is a major factor in people attempting to enter the United States from Central America. NBC News, for example, published a July 2019 article titled, "Central America's choice: Pray for rain or migrate." The subtitle read, "Ravaged by drought, farmers in rural Honduras and Guatemala live on the edge of hunger." The article placed the blame for drought, crop failures, and resultant migration on global warming. UN Food and Agriculture data, however, show Honduras and Guatemala are enjoying long-term growth in crop yields per acre, with record crop yields being set throughout the past decade. The same holds true for Mexico and nearly every other country in Central America. Ultimately, more atmospheric carbon dioxide has the same beneficial impact on farm production as it does in greenhouse growing facilities. Also, warmer temperatures bring longer growing seasons and fewer devastating frost events. U.S., Honduran, Guatemalan, and global crop data show that climate activists are telling tall tales when they assert that climate change is causing global or regional crop devastation. The proof is in the objective crop production data.
John Adams once said that "facts are stubborn things." Indeed.. Thanks to James Taylor (no, not the singer) for that enlightening op/ed. James is director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute. He can be reached at: JTaylor@heartland.org Excellent!! 🙂
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Agriculture, climate change, Farming, Global Warming, political correctness on January 13, 2020 by majbuzzcut. Leave a comment
Farmers to feed cows seaweed to cut down on gas emissions
Coastal Maine has a lot of seaweed, and a fair number of cows. A group of scientists and farmers think that pairing the two could help unlock a way to cope with a warming world. The researchers — from a marine science lab, an agriculture center and universities in northern New England — are working on a plan to feed seaweed to cows to gauge whether that can help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. About a quarter of the methane in the country comes from cattle, which produce the gas when they belch or flatulate. The concept of feeding seaweed to cows has gained traction in recent years because of some studies that have shown its potential to cut back on methane. The reduction might be because the seaweed interrupts the process of production of the gas in the animals' guts. One of the big questions is which kinds of seaweed offer the highest benefit to farmers looking to cut methane, and the researchers hope to find out, said Nichole Price, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, and the project's leader. "What on that list has the ability to do two things — not just reduce methane emissions, but have some health benefits for the cow that have a cost savings or cost efficiency for the farmer?" Price said. The researchers plan to conduct feeding trials with cows in Maine and New Hampshire in 2020 and 2021 to see whether seaweeds that can be used as cattle feed can cut the methane. They also intend to screen seaweeds for compounds that make them useful as cattle feed additives. The lab work to determine whether the seaweeds succeed in reducing methane will take place at University of Vermont.
Ok.. Let's get this straight… Some eco-nerd scientists from the northeast are feeding cows SEAWEED (something that is NOT part of their normal diet) in an attempt to cut back on their farting. Even IF their weird science experience bears some fruit in terms of reduced cow farting, it opens up all sorts of questions like.. What effects will it have on the cows? Will the taste of the cow's milk or steak be altered? And, will some federal or state governmental agency (or Dem-controlled legislature) seize on this and force farmers in the Midwest to feed their cows SEAWEED?…like that'll ever happen, lol. For more of this crazy AP story, click on the text above.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Agriculture, climate change, cows, Farm, Global Warming, political correctness, Science on December 30, 2019 by majbuzzcut. Leave a comment
Doomsdays that didn't happen: Think tank compiles decades' worth of dire climate predictions
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently suggested Miami would disappear in "a few years" due to climate change. The United Nations is convening a "Climate Action Summit" next week. And climate activist Greta Thunberg is on Capitol Hill this week telling lawmakers they must act soon. But while data from NASA and other top research agencies confirms global temperatures are indeed rising, a newly compiled retrospective indicates the doomsday rhetoric is perhaps more overheated. The conservative-leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute has put together a lengthy compilation of apocalyptic predictions dating back decades that did not come to pass, timed as Democratic presidential candidates and climate activists refocus attention on the issue. The dire predictions, often repeated in the media, warned of a variety of impending disasters – famine, drought, an ice age, and even disappearing nations – if the world failed to act on climate change. An Associated Press headline from 1989 read "Rising seas could obliterate nations: U.N. officials." The article detailed a U.N. environmental official warning that entire nations would be eliminated if the world failed to reverse warming by 2000. Then there were the fears that the world would experience a never-ending "cooling trend in the Northern Hemisphere." That claim came from an "international team of specialists" cited by The New York Times in 1978. Just years prior, Time magazine echoed other media outlets in suggesting that "another ice age" was imminent. "Telltale signs are everywhere — from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest," the magazine warned in 1974. The Guardian similarly warned in 1974 that "Space satellites show new Ice Age coming fast." In 1970, The Boston Globe ran the headline, "Scientist predicts a new ice age by 21st century." The Washington Post, for its part, published a Columbia University scientist's claim that the world could be "as little as 50 or 60 years away from a disastrous new ice age." Some of the more dire predictions came from Paul Ehrlich, a biologist who famously urged population control to mitigate the impacts of humans on the environment. Ehrlich, in 1969, warned that "everybody" would "disappear in a cloud of blue steam in 20 years," The New York Times reported. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Ehrlich, warning of a "disastrous" famine," urged placing "sterilizing agents into staple foods and drinking water." Those predictions were made around the time former President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency. Since then, the U.S. has adopted a series of environmental reforms aimed at limiting emissions. Years after those initial predictions, media outlets and politicians continue to teem with claims of apocalyptic scenarios resulting from climate change. Earlier this month, leading Democratic presidential candidates held a town hall on the issue and warned about the "existential" threat posed by a changing climate. Before the end of the month, 2020 candidates are expected to have another climate forum at Georgetown University. CEI's report came just before the U.N. Climate Action Summit on Sept. 23, an event that promises to "spark the transformation that is urgently needed and propel action that will benefit everyone." It also came a week after Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., warned that Miami would be gone in a "few years" because of climate change. She was responding to critics of her ambitious "Green New Deal," which seeks to reach net-zero emissions within just decades. Ocasio-Cortez, whose plan has been endorsed by leading presidential candidates, previously joked that the world would end in 12 years if it didn't address climate change. But short-term predictions weren't a laughing matter in the years following "An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary produced by former Vice President Al Gore. In 2008, ABC released an ominous video about what the world would look like in 2015. As the video warned about rising sea levels, a graphic showed significant portions of New York City engulfed by water. Gore himself famously predicted in the early 2000s that Arctic ice could be gone within seven years. At the end of seven years, Arctic ice had undergone a period of expansion…
It's interesting that in Great Britain, the courts there ruled that Al Gore's book "Earth in the Balance" is not allowed to be used in any of the schools as a textbook or resource because an analysis of that book revealed more than 13 major factual errors; assertions he either made that were factually inaccurate, OR predictions he made that never came to pass. And yet, the enviro-wackos continue to turn to him as some authority on so-called "global warming" (or it's latest term, "climate change"). If only we had such common sense quality control here in America.. Kudos to CEI for putting out this report exposing the extreme liberal enviro movement, and their debunked chicken little nonsense. We hope other credible organizations, institutions, and scientists follow CEI's lead.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged AOC, climate change, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Environmental Extremism, environmentalism, fake news, Global Warming, liberal media, political correctness, Politics on September 24, 2019 by majbuzzcut. Leave a comment
Editorial: Trump Is Right to Ditch the California Auto Waiver
The Trump administration is pushing ahead with a plan we endorsed previously. It will revoke California's ability to set separate greenhouse-gas standards for cars — so that a single policy will apply to the entire country, and so that California can't use the threat of a bifurcated regulatory regime to influence that policy in a way other states cannot. We are fans of federalism. But Congress, understandably not wanting automakers to have to comply with 50 different sets of regulations, has generally preempted state regulation in this area — with the exception that California, and California alone, may apply for a waiver to create its own emission rules to address "compelling and extraordinary conditions." Other states may then adopt these rules if they choose. "Compelling and extraordinary conditions" was intended as a reference to smog. And in contrast to Californian smog, there is nothing compelling and extraordinary about Californian climate change. Climate change is happening to the rest of the country (and indeed the world) too, and climate change is what the state's greenhouse-gas rules — as opposed to policies regulating other emissions — address. Thus the legal basis for the waiver does not apply here. Further, under the Obama administration, California leveraged the car industry's desire for a single regulatory regime into an agreement with the federal government, under which the nationwide regulations would reflect California's priorities. As a result, car buyers nationwide had to pay extra for vehicles meeting the state's preferences. No single state should have such power. The waiver needs to go. And the Trump administration should continue with the other element of its plan too: nixing Obama-era rules that required fuel economy to hit nearly 55 miles per gallon on average by 2025, a far-fetched goal that could force car companies to sell electric vehicles at a loss to bring down the average fuel economy of their overall fleets. Freezing the standards after next year, as the administration plans to do, could reduce the future price of a car by thousands of dollars — and also reduce motor-vehicle fatalities, because one way carmakers increase fuel efficiency is to make cars lighter and more dangerous. It's important to note that nothing in either policy change stops companies from making more fuel-efficient cars if Americans want to buy them. In fact, several carmakers have already struck a deal with California to follow the state's higher standards whether or not the waiver continues. The Trump administration questions the legality of the pact, but the agreement will help these companies appeal to customers who are willing to pay for fuel economy, and also reduce the stakes of any future court battle over the waiver. It's fine for car companies to go above and beyond what's legally required of them. But the government should not force the industry to meet unreasonable standards, force customers to pay for it, or allow California to set national policy.
Agreed 100%!! Thanks to the editors at National Review for that spot-on editorial. Excellent!! 🙂
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Big government, climate change, Global Warming, Opinion, political correctness, Politics on September 24, 2019 by majbuzzcut. Leave a comment
NBC Prompts Americans to Confess Their Climate Change Offenses
NBC News is prompting Americans to confess their climate change transgressions as part of a project titled "Climate Confessions." As Democrat presidential candidates – as well as prominent members of Congress, such as members of the far-left "Squad" – continue to push aggressive forms of the Green New Deal, NBC is paralleling their concerns by encouraging Americans to anonymously admit their climate change faux pas. "Even those who care deeply about the planet's future can slip up now and then," NBC's "Climate Confessions" reads. "Tell us: Where do you fall short in preventing climate change? Do you blast the A/C? Throw out half your lunch? Grill a steak every week? Share your anonymous confession with NBC News," it adds. Willing confessants can express their remorse in one of six categories– plastics, meat, transportation, energy, paper, and food waste. Some of the confessions appear to be genuine in nature, with many anonymous individuals expressing guilt for air travel and excessive Q-tip usage. "My sister had a lot of metal straws but I thought they were annoying so I threw them out," one user wrote under "plastics." "I travel often to conferences (flying). I think about the emissions + try to justify it with, 'the plane is going there anyway,'" another user admitted. Someone else confessed that they fly on private jets and "often burn an extra 500 gallons of fuel to save 10 minutes." "I use enough Q-tips for a family of 8. I have an addiction to them in hygiene purposes, makeup application, even cleaning," another individual confessed. "I LOVE meat. But I love the earth more. Vegan for over 4 years now," another bragged. However, the confessions did not just come from genuinely guilty parties. Many of the "confessions" came from individuals who openly oppose the left's climate change agenda, and they used the platform to mocked NBC's effort. "I would rather the whole planet burn than give up steak," one user wrote. "Kick rocks hippies." "'Confessions'" implies I have something to feel guilty about. I don't. I only conserve electricity to lower my power bill," a user explained, with another adding, "I run my AC 24/7. I'm not going to sweat to appease this climate religion." Some users decried the left's virtue-signaling on meat consumption, writing, "I think the climate has always been changing, and I'm not going to stop eating meat because of cult-like manipulation by the left." "I require at least half a roll of TP when wiping," another confessed. NBC's project follows the left's recent push to aggressively push a climate change agenda. On Wednesday, teen climate change activists – including Greta Thunberg and Jamie Margolin – appeared before a joint hearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Select Committee on the Climate Crisis and decried the U.S. for not doing enough to combat what they say is the looming threat of a climate catastrophe. "Solving the climate crisis goes against everything that our country was unfortunately built on — colonialism, slavery, and natural resource extraction. This is why the youth are calling for a new era altogether," Margolin, a Seattle native, told lawmakers. She also declared that her generation should no longer be known as "Generation Z," replacing it with "Generation GND." "It is right here, testifying before you, that I am proud to announce the history is being made," she declared. "You've heard of the Reagan era, the New Deal era. Well, youth are bringing about the era of the Green New Deal." MSNBC is expected to host a two-day climate change forum at Georgetown University with Democrat presidential candidates, although Joe Biden (D), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Beto O'Rourke (D) are expected to skip the event.
If that about made you vomit, you're not alone. You really can't make this stuff up, folks. And, NBC and MSNBC still don't get why Trump and others refer to them as "fake news." This is beyond crazy.. Think I'll grill a steak tonight, and use a Q-tip or two for something… Unreal..
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged climate change, Global Warming, liberal media, NBC, political correctness, Technology on September 19, 2019 by majbuzzcut. Leave a comment
Joe Bastardi: Climate change agenda is being driven by hysteria, not facts
Throughout my 40 year career as a meteorologist, I have tried to live up to the responsibility I inherited from my predecessors. I was taught to strive for objective truth, irrespective of where the data would lead. Science is not a belief system based on feelings or subjective motives. It is about facts, evidence, theories and experimentation in search of a conclusion. The impassioned speech by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to Congress last week revealed volumes about the intent and commitment of those pushing the Green New Deal. I can't help but question if their positions are based on facts. Ocasio-Cortez's statements about adverse climate effects and policy proposals reflect a lack of knowledge about energy policy and the geopolitical and financial impacts of abandoning fossil fuels in a quick and reckless manner. "The world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change," she said earlier this year – a statement clearly designed to elicit panic but hardly based on fact. In this age of political hysteria, we must all educate ourselves on the facts – the actual science. Unfortunately, there seems to be a total lack of awareness about important issues that scientists like myself – who aren't paid by research grants – are concerned about. Instead, climate science is being used as a political weapon, and the voices of scientists like me are being ignored or even vilified. I was under the impression that in the United States, all voices and arguments should be heard. Climate science is not settled science. If it was, why would there be a continuous flow of money to research it? For example, is AOC aware that in the fossil fuel era, in spite of a four-fold increase in population, deaths have plummeted? Or that personal GDP and life expectancy – true measurements of progress – have dramatically increased? Or that world prosperity is rising while poverty is falling? And does AOC know that in the geological history of the Earth, there is no apparent direct link between carbon dioxide and temperature? AOC is trying to capture the imagination of young people to exact a specific result – the adoption of policies that cripple our way of life and push us towards socialism. But the charts above are only a few examples of data that should cause us to pause and ask questions about the direction that the Green New Deal wants America to go in. We should also ask why there is such a hurry to get there. For every current event that is used to whip up hysteria, there has been a past event that was even worse, but that people either ignore or are ignorant about in the first place. Extreme weather has always occurred and will inevitably continue. If climate alarmists do not know about the many arguments that question the credibility of their ideas, how is it even possible for their ideas to be seriously considered? Much of what is being proposed in the Green New Deal should not only cause skepticism, but should be considered draconian and even geopolitically dangerous. The migration towards cleaner, alternative energy needs to be done in a methodical, sustainable and intelligent way, otherwise, the consequences could be far worse than anyone can imagine. Perhaps we should pause and consider why none of the global warming models from two decades ago have come to fruition. Perhaps we should slow down and think about the consequences of allowing our adversaries to supply the world with cheap energy, because one thing is for sure – wind farms and solar panels won't get the job done. The objective reader should examine all sides of the climate debate and should ask himself: Are the consequences of acting hastily worse than not acting at all? I think many are skeptical of rushing forward. We must rein in the political hysteria and fear-mongering that is driving the climate change agenda.
Agreed!! And well said, Joe. Joe Bastardi is a pioneer in extreme weather and long-range forecasting and the chief meteorologist at weatherbell.com. He is the author of "The Climate Chronicles: Inconvenient Revelations You Won't Hear From Al Gore — and Others." 🙂
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged climate change, Environment, Environmental Extremism, environmentalism, fake news, Global Warming, liberal media, political correctness, Science on April 3, 2019 by majbuzzcut. Leave a comment
Early snowfall stokes Colorado skiers, clouds climate debate
A heavy autumn snowfall has ski resorts across Colorado holding some of their earliest opening days in a decade or more, stoking skiers and fueling another snowball fight over climate change. Vail Mountain and Beaver Creek plan to open this week, shaving several days off their anticipated starts to the ski season and marking the first time that both resorts have launched ahead of time in 10 years, said Vail chief operating officer Doug Lovell. The resorts credited a "combination of some of the best early-November snowmaking conditions and more than four feet of natural snowfall last week." Ski Cooper plans to open Nov. 23, 10 days earlier than scheduled, while Monarch Mountain in Salida announced Monday that it would invite skiers and snowboarders Friday, its earliest first-day-of-the-ski-season since 1996, after receiving a hefty 34 inches of powder. "We couldn't be more thrilled for an early opening this year," said Randy Stroud, general manager of Monarch Mountain, in a Monday press release. "We did our snow dances and Mother Nature delivered." The state's snowpack sat Thursday at 124 percent of average, according to the Colorado Snow Survey, after a Veteran's Day weekend storm that dropped more than a foot of snow on areas of the Front Range. Some resorts have already opened after receiving double-digit snowfall. Eldora Mountain began operating a week ago, nine days earlier than scheduled, while Arapahoe Basin, Wolf Creek and Loveland celebrated their first days of the season last month. "The early season snowfall has created momentum and excitement for the opening of the ski season here in Colorado," said Melanie Mills, president and CEO of Colorado Ski Country USA, in an Oct. 18 statement. "Winter has arrived in the Colorado mountains and it's great to see winter sports enthusiasts out in force!" Klaus Wolter, climate scientist with the NOAA-ESRL Physical Science Division and University of Colorado Boulder, attributed the early snow to several factors, including the weak El Nino, which "tends to make it wetter in the fall over Colorado." "Below-normal temperatures mean that (a) most of the precipitation fell as snow, even at lower elevations, and (b) snow-making conditions were in place for the last four weeks or so," Mr. Wolter said in an email. The rush to the slopes comes as a welcome change from last year's disappointing Colorado ski season. Last year, environmentalists cited the drier-than-average 2017 winter, the state's 14th driest on record, as evidence of global warming's threat to snow. "The whole state is having its worst opening in 20 years," Auden Schendler, vice president of sustainability for Aspen Snowmass, told the Coloradoan in December. "This is the weather and climate we fear. It's already here." Mr. Schendler serves on the board of Protect Our Winters, a Boulder-based climate advocacy group that has pushed to recruit skiers and snowboards by warning that "climate change is threatening winter as we know it." "In the last decade, we have begun to see and feel climate change's devastating impacts," said Protect Our Winters. "Ski seasons are becoming shorter, more extreme, and less reliable." Climate Depot's Marc Morano compared such warnings to the infamous pronouncement of former University of East Anglia climate scientist David Viner, who warned that winter snowfall would soon become "a very rare and exciting event." "Children just aren't going to know what snow is," Mr. Viner said in an article for the [U.K.] Independent headlined, "Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past." That was in 2000. "Climate activists and scientists claimed for years that snow was 'a thing of the past' due to 'global warming,' but snow has not cooperated," said Mr. Morano, author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change." "How do the activists explain away the record snows of recent years?" he asked. "Easy, by ignoring the current reality and predicting less snow in the future due to 'climate change.' Rest assured, snow is a thing of the present—just ask the autumn skiers enjoying the slopes." Then again, climate change may actually be causing more snow. The EPA's snowfall map showed that the white stuff decreased at 57 percent of its stations from 1930-2007, but not everywhere. Total snow increased during that period in some regions, including the Great Lakes and parts of Colorado. Snowfall in south-central Alaska has doubled in the last two years, while the East Coast has been socked with a series of snowstorms. Why? "Global warming means hotter air, and hotter air can hold more moisture," said the Union of Concerned Scientists in a post. "This translates into heavier precipitation in the form of more intense rain or snow, simply because more moisture is available to storms." Not surprisingly, Mr. Morano was skeptical. "So no matter what happens, the activists can claim with confidence the event was a predicted consequence of global warming," he said. "There is now no way to ever falsify global warming claims." For those trying to decide whether to buy a season ski pass, the best advice may be that there's no predicting weather. "Just because it started snowing in November is no guarantee that it's going to keep snowing," said Jeffrey Deems, National Snow and Ice Data Center research scientist. "So get out there, get your days in, and take advantage of when the skiing's good."
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged climate change, Colorado, Global Warming, Lifestyle, political correctness, Snow Skiing in Colorado, Travel on November 15, 2018 by majbuzzcut. Leave a comment
Analysis: Will California's new water rules push people out of the Golden State?
"Please sir, I want some more," is no longer a sentiment just for Oliver Twist in the orphanage. A new law in California limits how much water can be used by each household. Now their showers, how many flushes, and how often they can do their laundry will be under the watchful eye of the state government. This from politicians who have pushed policies creating homeless and drug abuse crises throughout the state. They have now decided to clamp down on the use of the most basic needs of civilized living. As the blog Zero Hedge put it, "it's now against the law to do laundry and shower on the same day in the Sunshine State," and they're not exaggerating. Under the guise of addressing "climate change," the new bill rations water to a degree that makes it impossible to maintain a healthy home environment. Perhaps the state wants everyone to feel like the drug addicts living in California's ever-expanding homeless tent cities? Zero Hedge reported, "Assembly Bill 1668 is where it gets personal. This establishes limits on indoor water usage for every person in California and the amount allowed will decrease even further over the next 12 years. 'The bill, until January 1, 2025, would establish 55 gallons per capita daily as the standard for indoor residential water use, beginning January 1, 2025, would establish the greater of 52.5 gallons per capita daily or a standard recommended by the department and the board as the standard for indoor residential water use, and beginning January 1, 2030, would establish the greater of 50 gallons per capita daily or a standard recommended by the department and the board as the standard for indoor residential water use …'" How do families feel about the rationing of water? CBS-13 in Sacramento asked a few: "'With a child and every day having to wash clothes, that's, just my opinion, not feasible. But I get it and I understand that we're trying to preserve … but 55 gallons a day?" said Tanya Allen, who has a 4-year-old daughter." To give you perspective on how much water basic chores require, the station noted an eight-minute shower uses about 17 gallons of water, a load of laundry up to 40, and a bathtub can hold 80 to 100 gallons of water. Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, explained this is happening, "So that everyone in California is at least integrating efficiency into our preparations for climate change." That's nice. This same bureaucrat then noted to CBS-13, "Right now we lose up to 30 percent of urban water just to leaks in the system." As the state rations the water of the average of family, making it impossible for everyone to shower and wash clothes, let alone use water to wash the dishes, and perform any myriad of other efforts to keep a home clean and a family healthy, it's the state itself and its crumbling infrastructure that is the biggest waster of water. In 2014, during the drought, Californians found out what happens when policy focuses on controlling people, which is much easier than actually governing and maintaining infrastructure. The Pasadena Star-News reported, "As 20 million gallons of drinking water rushed down Sunset Boulevard and flooded the UCLA campus this summer, drought-conscious residents threw up their hands. How are three-minute showers going to make a difference, they asked, when the city's pipes are bursting? Turns out the UCLA flood was just a drop in the sea of potable water that leaks or blows out of underground pipes. California's water distribution systems lose up to 228 billion gallons a year, the state Department of Water Resources estimates — more than enough to supply the entire city of Los Angeles for a year." The wasted water isn't relegated to local areas in Southern California. The San Jose Mercury News reported about the Bay Area at the time, "Aging and broken pipes, usually underground and out of sight, have leaked enough water annually to submerge the whole of Manhattan by 5 feet — enough to meet the needs of 71,000 families for an entire year." No wonder people are fleeing the state. This week Fox News reported, "A whopping 46 percent of California Bay Area residents fed up with the region's high cost of living and soaring home prices are planning to pack their bags and move out in the next few years, a poll has found." The report indicated homelessness and traffic were key reasons why residents wanted to flee. And this is while they can still shower, bathe their child and do laundry on the same day without being fined. "Ron and Elizabeth Haines, who have lived in the city of Pleasanton, say they are moving to Idaho this summer and are among the residents who believe living in the Bay Area is getting too expensive," Fox News said. "We are excited," Elizabeth Haines told the station. "I have tons of friends and family here. It's going to be hard, but I have a feeling we're going to have lots of visitors." They sure will, but forget about that BBQ and table-tennis. Little do they know their friends will be bringing their laundry and want to soak in their bathtub. And then they'll ask about the neighborhood and school system.
No kidding… Thanks to radio talk show host, and New York Times best-selling author Tammy Bruce for bringing us that depressing report out of California. Yeah.. No wonder a "whopping 46 percent" of Californians are planning on leaving the state in the next few years according to that recent poll. .. And the two states highest on the list of where that 46 percent said they wanted to move to are Texas and Arizona; red/conservative/Republican states that have low taxes, and far less fascist regulations. Gee.. Imagine that! California is the state poster child of what happens when you have out-of-control, liberal, fascist, Democrats in power at every level of state government. A state whose taxes and regulations are through the roof, and their infrastructure is broken…oh, and lets not forget that the state is on the verge of financial bankruptcy. It is the ultimate example of the failure of liberal Democrat policy failures. And, God-forbid you want to own a firearm for sport or personal defense…. Now you have to register…to purchase ammunition. Unreal..
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Big government, California, climate change, Global Warming, political correctness, Tammy Bruce on June 8, 2018 by majbuzzcut. Leave a comment
New York City is latest to consider banning plastic straws altogether
This could be the last straw for New Yorkers. A bill to be introduced on Wednesday would ban plastic disposable straws in restaurants, bars and coffee shops across the Big Apple, and force businesses to adopt recyclable or reusable alternatives, The New York Times reported. If passed, New York City would become one of only a few major cities across the United States to ban plastic drinking straws, along with Miami Beach, Seattle and Malibu, the latter two of which will enact their new regulations come July. The bill would also reportedly ban coffee stirrers. "It's important for New Yorkers to understand that the plastic straw is not a necessity; it's more of a luxury, and our luxury is causing great harm to other environments," said Councilman Rafael L. Espinal Jr., the bill's main sponsor, the Times reported. Espinal also claimed Americans throw away an estimated 500 million straws per day, although that statistic was already called into question last month, after NBC News cited the same dubioius finding based on research from a 9-year-old boy's phone survey. Espinal added that customers and business owners in New York City should learn to embrace "paper straws, aluminum straws and bamboo straws that are much safer for our environment." Councilwoman and bill supporter Helen Rosenthal added that after plastic bags and bottles, straws "are the next thing that's just taking up space in our oceans," per the New York Daily News. The proposed bill would reportedly affect vendors who currently use plastic straws, across all businesses. Violators would be subjected to a $100 fine. A representative for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio could not confirm whether the politician supported the bill, but indicated that de Blasio is currently focused on legislation introduced by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that would ban single-use plastic bags in the state, amNewYork reported.
The nanny-state is alive and well in NYC. Don't ya love these self-righteous, arrogant, extreme liberal Democrat politicians telling people that they can do without…straws? Seriously?!? Glad I don't live there! Typical liberals…Telling you that you're too stupid, and that they know what's best for you. What a bunch of fascist Nazis.. Unreal..
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Big government, climate change, Global Warming, New York, political correctness on June 2, 2018 by majbuzzcut. Leave a comment


There is growing evidence that your early years can have a bearing on your chances of developing cardiovascular disease later on in life.
Lack of physical activity and eating a diet rich in fat (bad fats) and sugar based foods are the main reasons for an alarming rise in childhood obesity in the UK. If current rates continue 9 out of 10 children could grow up with dangerous amounts of fat in their bodies, placing them at risk of developing life-threatening diseases later in life, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, or stroke.
Healthy habits start in childhood!
All of our workshop activities are curriculum-based and explore aspects of healthy living from the science, PSHE and PE schemes of work for KS1 and KS2.
Our workshops last approximately 60 minutes with the option to combine topics together in the form of bolt-ons.
Children will learn about their body — the heart, blood, circulation, the lungs, brain and how to make informed choices about health and wellbeing.
Schools contribute towards the cost of the sessions.
"Year 5 enjoyed a visit from Heartbeat, we learnt about the heart and how to keep it healthy. We looked at the model of a heart, what fat looks like inside our bodies, what blocked arteries might look like if we chose to have an unhealthy diet and we also weighed out portions of cereals and worked out the sugar content in our bowls. All this is helping in our science topic; Keeping Healthy".
Our PSHE health week events can be a great way to celebrate, have fun, fundraise, and bring your school and a local charity together.
We aim to teach as many children as possible about making the right lifestyle choices and help them to make small changes now that will develop into habits that improve their future. We do this by giving children the facts and information they need in a fun, memorable way that allows them to make informed decisions.
Heartbeat's PSHE workshops can be as big or as small as you like, from a single class/assembly to an event for the whole school.
Teacher lead class activities e.g. make a healthy drink, food, exercise activities, make a heart, design health posters etc. or a sponsored event.


text:
\section{Introduction}
Quantum entanglement\cite{horo, amico,indrani,kitaev} is a fundamental
feature of quantum mechanics, which says that performing a local
measurement may instantaneously affect the outcome of local
measurements far away.  There is another feature of quantum mechanics
where the zero-point fluctuations in the ground state may coherently
add up to produce long-range correlations of local observables.  This
happens at quantum critical points (QCP), a point where the spectrum
becomes gapless, obtained by tuning the parameters of the Hamiltonian.
In both cases, a pure state cannot be written as the product of the
wave-functions of the two distant parts, though states may be
entangled without being critical.  The ground-state energy may be
non-analytic through a quantum phase transition (QPT) or through a
quantum critical point.  The wave function encodes not only this
non-analyticity but also the special quantum correlations or quantum
entanglement intrinsic to the state.

At or near a QCP, the signatures of its universality can therefore be
found in the entanglement, a common measure of which is the von
Neumann entropy ($S$)\cite{indrani,kitaev,osterloh,jphysa,kopp,igloi}.  The exact
results of this paper show that for a class of critical points, viz.,
the dissociation of a pair of particles in the unitarity limit of
infinite scattering length, there is the possibility of a negatively
diverging $S$.  Although counter-intuitive, this is not an artifact.
Analogous situation occurs in statistical mechanics for Gibbs entropy
in canonical ensemble for a gapless spectrum. As discussed below, the
problem in hand involves a gapless entanglement spectrum. The usual
proof of the positivity of entanglement entropy is not applicable in
case of continuous eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix. The
negative entropy is essential for the criticality itself. Its
importance is brought out via the mapping of the quantum problem to
the equivalent classical statistical mechanical problem, the melting
of a double-stranded DNA\cite{fish, smb,fisher,smlong}.

\section{Entanglement entropy}
Recall the problem of a quantum particle of mass $m$ in a three
dimensional spherical potential well,
\begin{eqnarray}
  \label{eq:1}
  V({\bf r}) &=& -V_0 \qquad {\rm for}\ r<a,\nonumber\\
                 &=& \ \ 0 \qquad\ \ {\rm for} \ r>a,
\end{eqnarray}
where $r$ is the radial coordinate, $a$ and $V_0$ are the width and
the depth of the potential well.  What is special is that $V_0>0$ does
not guarantee the existence of a bound state, unlike in one or two
dimensions, or in classical mechanics.  No bound state exists for
$u<u_c$ where $u=2 m V_0 a^2/\hbar^2$ is the dimensionless parameter
for the potential and $u_c$ corresponds to a critical value of $u$.
For simplicity, we take $u\approx u_c$ so that there is only one bound
state. In this situation energy $\mid\!\! E\!\!\mid$ itself is the gap
in the spectrum.  If we tune $u$ to get a state with zero energy
($E=0$), then at that energy in $d=3$ the wave function $\varphi(r) \sim
1/r$ which is like a non-normalizable critical state.  Like a bound
state the probability density does decay to zero but like an unbound
state it is not normalizable.  In higher dimensions, the condition for
a minimal strength of the potential for a bound state remains true,
but the state corresponding to $E=0$ becomes normalizable as it should
be for a bound state.  So we see that this bound to unbound transition
for a potential well has different nature in different dimensions.  In
general, {\it(i)} for $d\leq 2$ there is no such transition as $E=0$
requires $V_0=0$, though there are remnants of the transition as
$V_0\to 0$, {\it (ii)} for $2<d<4$, the transition is continuous
(critical) --- the bound state becomes unbound through a
non-normalizable critical state as we change $u$, and, {\it (iii)} for
$d>4$, the bound state remains normalizable up to and including $E=0$,
and becomes unbound as $u$ is decreased further, thus making the
transition first-order. This depicts a QPT
and the case of a potential well gives a simple example of a quantum
critical point for $2\!<\!d\!<\!4$ with diverging length scales.

\gap

The ground state energy, for $u$ close to $u_c$, is the gap
  $\Delta$ in the spectrum. A quantum phase transition is
  characterized by a vanishing gap.  A  discontinuity of the
  first derivative $d\Delta/du$ signals  a first order transition,
  otherwise it is critical or continuous, as
  shown in Fig.  \ref{fig:gap}.  One may define characteristic  time
  and length  scales
  \begin{equation}
    \label{eq:14}
    \xi_{\parallel} = {\hbar}{\Delta}^{-1}, \ {\rm and} \ \xi_{\perp}={\hbar}/{\sqrt{2m\Delta}},
  \end{equation}
both of which  diverge as $\Delta\to 0$, with
  $\xi_{\parallel}\sim \xi_{\perp}^z$, $z$ ($=2$ in this case) being
  the dynamic exponent.  One may compare with the classical ground state to see the
  importance of quantum (zero-point) fluctuations and the importance
  of  time or dynamics in quantum phase transitions.  A path-integral
  interpretation of these scales, useful for the DNA mapping, is given
  below.

Let us now consider the ground state of two dissimilar particles
interacting via a central potential $V\!(\mid\!\! {\bf r}_1\!-\!{\bf
  r}_2\!\!\mid)$ of the type of Eq. \ref{eq:1}, with ${\bf r}_i$
denoting the co-ordinate of the $i$-th particle. The existence of
diverging length scales and scaling behavior around $u=u_c$ justifies
the dissociation of
the bound pair to be a QCP or a QPT depending on the dimensions
they are in.
The criticality is described by the exponents for the diverging length
scales and the energy, as
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:expo}
|E| \sim \xi_{\parallel}^{-1}\sim \mid\! u-u_c\!\mid
^{\nu_{\parallel}},\ {\rm and}\  \xi_{\perp} \sim
\mid u-u_c\mid^{-\nu_{\perp}},
\end{equation}
with
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{eq:eng}
   \nu_{\parallel}=z\nu_{\perp}&=&{1}/{(\Psi -1)}, \ {\rm for}\
   1<\Psi \leq 2,\\
    &=&1 , \quad\quad\quad\quad {\rm for}\
   \Psi \geq 2,
\end{eqnarray}
which involve {\it (i)}  $z$ the dynamic exponent, and {\it (ii)} a universal
exponent $\Psi$, known  as the  reunion exponent for  polymers \cite{fish,smb,fisher}.
For the short range interaction problem, $\Psi=d/2$, as for random
walkers,  from which the
specialty of $d=4$ is apparent.

 \bubble

In a quantum bound state a particle can tunnel through the potential.
In a path integral approach the particle does a sizable excursion in
the classically forbidden region outside the interaction well, sooner
or later returning to the well (see Fig. \ref{fig:bubb}).  That the
two particles will eventually be close-by to form a bound state is the
source of entanglement while the excursions produce spreads of the
trajectories in space and time.  These spreads give the two relevant
length scales $\xi_{\parallel},\xi_{\perp}$.  The large width of the
bound state wave function near the QCP ensures the mutual influence of
the particles even if far away from each other ($r\gg a$) so that the
reduced density matrix for one particle still carries the signature of
the entanglement and the criticality.  For this bipartite system, we
are interested in the ``particle-partitioning
entanglement''\cite{haq}. This makes the von Neumann entropy a
valuable quantity for the transition which reads,
{
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:2}
  S=- {\rm Tr}\  \rho\  \ln \rho,
\end{equation}
 where $\rho$ is
the reduced density matrix for the ground
state $|\psi\rangle$,
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:3}
  \rho(\textbf{r}_1,\textbf{r}_1')= {\rm Tr}_2\ \varrho(1,2)=\int d^d
  \textbf{r}_2\ \langle\!\textbf{r}_1,\textbf{r}_2\!|\psi\rangle\langle\! \psi\!|\textbf{r}_1',\textbf{r}_2\rangle,
\end{equation}
obtained from the two particle density matrix
\hbox{$\varrho(1,2)=\mid\!\psi\rangle\langle\!\psi\!\mid$} by
integrating out (or tracing out) particle 2.  In Eq. \ref{eq:2}, we
shall introduce some pre-chosen length scale to make the argument of
log dimensionless.  If, with $m_i,\textbf{r}_i$ denoting the mass and
the position of the $i$th particle, the full ground state
wave-function (including the center of mass (CM)) is
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:entdef}
\psi(\textbf{r}_1,\textbf{r}_2)=
\Phi\left(\frac{m_1\textbf{r}_1+m_2\textbf{r}_2}{m_1+m_2}\right)\,\varphi(\textbf{r}_1-\textbf{r}_2),
\end{equation}
where $\Phi$ is CM wave function {(plane waves)} and
$\varphi$ is the wave function in relative coordinate (the relative
wave-function), then
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:15}
  \rho(\textbf{r}_1,\textbf{r}_1')=\int d^d \textbf{r}_2\
\psi(\textbf{r}_1,\textbf{r}_2)\psi^*(\textbf{r}_1',\textbf{r}_2).
\end{equation}
Although the center of mass and the relative parts are not entangled,
the two particles are entangled.  The lack of knowledge of the state
of one particle is the source of a nonzero entropy associated with the
reduced density matrix\cite{horo,amico,kitaev}.
}

The translational invariance of the interaction guarantees that the
reduced density matrix $\rho({\bf r},{\bf r}^{\prime})\equiv \rho({\bf
  r - r^{\prime}})$ has $\exp(- i {\bf q}\cdot {\bf r})$ as the
eigenvector,
{
\begin{eqnarray}
  \int\!\! d^d\textbf{r}^{\prime} {\rho}(\textbf{r}-\textbf{r}^{\prime})
  e^{-i\textbf{q}\cdot\textbf{r}^{\prime}}\!\!\!\!  &=&
  \hat{\rho}(\textbf{q})\, e^{-i\textbf{q}\cdot\textbf{r}},
\end{eqnarray}
}
{ with the eigenvalue
  \begin{equation}
    \label{eq:17}
\hat{\rho}({\bf q})=\left|\phi\left({\bf  q}+\frac{{\textbf
        K}\mu}{m_2}\right)\right|^2,
  \end{equation}
  $\textbf{K}$ being CM wave vector and ${\phi}({\bf q})$ the
  normalized momentum space wave function, the Fourier transform of
  the relative wave-function $\varphi({\textbf r})$ in Eq.
  \ref{eq:entdef}.}  Since the entropy involves an integral over the
whole range of ${\bf q}$, it is independent of the CM wave-vector, an
expected consequence of Galilean invariance.  Therefore, without any
loss of generality, we choose $\mid \textbf{K}\mid=0$.  The
eigenvalues constituting the ``entanglement spectrum'' can be written
in a scaling form
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:4}
  \mid\! \phi({\bf q})\!\mid^2= \kappa^{-d} \ F({\bf q}/\kappa, a\kappa),
\end{equation}
where $\kappa^2= 2 \mu\! \mid\!\!
E\!\!\mid\!\!/\hbar^2=\xi_{\perp}^{-2}$, $\mu$ being the reduced mass.
Eq. \ref{eq:4} satisfies ${\rm Tr}\ {\hat{\rho}} =1$.  In the critical
regime (also called the ``unitarity limit''), $a\kappa \to 0$, if the
scaling function behaves smoothly, then
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:16}
  F({\bf \tilde{q}},a\kappa)\to  F({\bf \tilde{q}},0)\equiv f({\bf \tilde{q}}),
\quad (\tilde{q}\equiv q/\kappa)
\end{equation}
which we find to be true for $d<4$.  For $d\geq 4$,  we find
that $F({\bf \tilde{q}},a\kappa)$ for $a\kappa \to 0$ behaves in a singular fashion as
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:18}
  F({\bf x},y)\sim y^{d-4} f({\bf x}),
\end{equation}
so that the prefactor in Eq.  \ref{eq:4} becomes $\kappa^{-4}
a^{d-4}$.  Here $f$ represents a generic function.
By using these limiting forms, we find the entanglement entropy \ to be
\begin{subequations}
\begin{eqnarray}
  \label{eq:5}
S= P \, \ln a\kappa + c_0,&\\
 P=\min(d,4),\ {\rm and} &
 c_0= - \int d^d x \ f(x) \ln f(x).
\end{eqnarray}
\end{subequations}
{The last statement can be verified by direct computation of
  the momentum distribution function of the relative motion in
  $d$-dimensions.  There are further log-corrections at $d=2$ and
  $d=4$ which we do not discuss here.

To motivate Eq. \ref{eq:5} let us consider a few examples.  Consider
the quantum problem of two particles interacting via a delta-function
potential in one dimension: $ V({\bf x}) = -v_0\delta(x)$.  By using
the center of mass and the relative coordinate wave-function, we write
the wave function as
\begin{eqnarray}
\psi(x_1,x_2)&=&C\
e^{iK\mu\left(\frac{x_1}{m_2}+\frac{x_2}{m_1}\right) }\ e^{-\kappa\mid
  x_1-x_2\mid}
\end{eqnarray}
which is translationally invariant.  Here $K$ is
the CM wave vector, $\kappa=\xi_{\perp}^{-1}$, and $C$ is the
normalization constant.  The reduced density matrix for particle 1 is
then
\begin{equation}
\rho(x,x^{\prime})= \frac{C^2}{\kappa}\
e^{-(iK\mu/m_2+\kappa)|x^{\prime}-x|}\left[1+\kappa|x-x^{\prime}|
\right]
\end{equation}
having eigenvalues (Eq. \ref{eq:17})
\begin{eqnarray}
\hat{\rho}({\bf q})
\frac{2}{\pi}\frac{1}{\kappa}\frac{1}{(1+\tilde{q}^2)^2},\
(K=0),
\end{eqnarray}
which is of the form
Eq. \ref{eq:16} with $f({\bf \tilde{q}})\sim (1+\tilde{q}^2)^{-2}$.  By introducing
an arbitrarily chosen well strength $\bar{v}$ or a scale
$a=\hbar^2/2\mu \bar{v}$ in Eq. \ref{eq:2}, the entanglement entropy \ is found to be
of the form of Eq. \ref{eq:5} with \begin{equation}
  \label{eq:oned}
P=1,\ {\rm and}\  c_0=\ln 8\pi -2.
   \end{equation}
For  $\kappa\to 0$, $\hat{\rho}({\bf q})\to \delta(q)$ with $S=0$.  There is a
difference between $\kappa\to 0$ and $\kappa=0$.

For a one-dimensional problem with the potential of Eq. \ref{eq:1},
one can go over to the delta function potential problem by taking
$a\rightarrow 0$ keeping $V_0a=v_0$ constant to get the same
$\ln\,\kappa$ behaviour as in Eq. \ref{eq:oned}.

We then check for a
$3$-dimensional potential well, Eq. \ref{eq:1}.
The relative wave-function ($l=0$) for this potential is
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:3d}
\varphi ({\bf r}) =
\begin{cases}
  A\ \frac{\sin kr}{r}\quad\quad r<a \\
 B\ \frac{e^{-\kappa r}}{r} \quad\quad r>a,
\end{cases}
\end{equation}
with $k$ and $\kappa$
as defined earlier and constants $A, B$ determined in the usual way of
continuity of the wave function and its derivative.  A direct Fourier
transformation of $\varphi({\bf r})$ has been used to numerically compute
the entanglement entropy.  To derive an analytical formula, we note that the dominant
contribution in $\hat{\rho}({\textbf q})$ in the limit
$a\kappa\rightarrow 0$ comes from the outer part. In this approximation
we get
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:dens}
\hat{\rho}({\textbf q}) = \frac{1}{\kappa^3}\frac{1}{\pi^2}
\left(\frac{1}{1 + \tilde{q}^2}\right)^2 = \kappa^{-3} f({\bf \tilde{q}}).
\end{equation}
This $\hat{\rho}({\textbf q})$ satisfies the normalization
condition $\int d^3 q \ \hat{\rho}({\textbf q})=1$.  Thus for the $3$D
potential well interaction, the entanglement entropy \ is of the form of Eq. \ref{eq:5}
with \begin{equation}
\label{eq:threed}
P = 3, \ {\rm and}\   c_0=2 (1+\log (4 \pi ))\approx 7.06205.
\end{equation}

Exact numerical computations of von Neumann entropy for $d=3$ are done
by using \small{MATHEMATICA}.  For a given $\kappa$ with $a=1$, we
determine $V_0$, the depth of the well and then the matching conditions
and the Fourier transform were used to obtain the entanglement spectra.
The entanglement entropy \ is then obtained by a numerical integration.  The results
are shown in a log-linear $S$ vs. $\kappa$ plot in Fig
\ref{fig:1} which also shows the line obtained from Eq. \ref{eq:5} and
Eq.\ref{eq:threed}.  It shows that $S$ is negative for small $\kappa$ and
that it has linear $\ln\, \kappa$ dependence.  The approximations show
that the entropy is determined mainly by the outer part of the
wave-function.

\sfit

To generalize the result for any dimension we carried out the
calculation for general $d$.  The density matrix, solely from the
outer part, is expected to be of the form $f({\bf \tilde{q}})\sim
(1+\tilde{q}^2)^{-2}$ as in previous cases but then there is a
divergence problem for normalization for $d\geq 4$.  Since we want ${\rm Tr}\,
\hat{\rho} =1$, an ultraviolet cutoff is required.  This makes $a\kappa$ an
important variable even in the limit $a\kappa\to 0$.  The specialty of
$d=4$ is now evident.  }

The radial wave function $R(r)$ ($l=0$ state as the ground state) is,
\begin{eqnarray}
  \label{eq:6}
  R(r) =
\begin{cases}
  A\ r^{\epsilon/2} J_{\mid \epsilon/2\mid} (k r)\quad {\rm for}\quad r<a\\
B \ r^{\epsilon/2} H_{\mid \epsilon/2\mid}^{(1)} (i \kappa r)\quad {\rm for}\quad r>a,
\end{cases}
\end{eqnarray}
where $\epsilon=2-d$, $A,B$ determine the normalization and matching
of the inner and the outer solutions.  Here $J$ and $H^{(1)}$ are the
Bessel and the Hankel function of the first kind.
{ The
  continuity of the wave function at $r=a$ gives
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{eq:cont}
A\, J_{\left|\frac{2-d}{2}\right|}(k_c)&=& B\,(\kappa
a)^{-\left|\frac{2-d}{2}\right|},
\end{eqnarray}
under  the condition $\kappa\rightarrow 0$ and $ka\rightarrow k_c =\pi/2$.
Eq.\ref{eq:expo} follows from Eq.\ref{eq:cont}, the matching of log
derivative and the Bessel function identities.
By using the normalization condition and Eq. \ref{eq:cont}, we
get
\begin{eqnarray}
 B &=& \begin{cases}
                                   \frac{\bar{\kappa}}{a}\hskip 1.2cm{\rm for}\ \ \
d<4\nonumber\\
				    \frac{\bar{\kappa}^{\left|2-d\right|/2}}{a}\ \ \
{\rm for}\ \ \ d>4.
                                 \end{cases}
\end{eqnarray}
In the same $\kappa\rightarrow 0$ limit, with outer part dominance,
\begin{equation}
\phi(q=0)
\approx B\kappa^{-\frac{2+d}{2}},
\end{equation}
which gives
\begin{eqnarray}
\hat{\rho}({\bf q}) = |\phi({\bf q})|^2 &=& B^2\kappa^{-(2+d)}\,f({\bf \tilde{q}})\nonumber\\
&\approx& \begin{cases}
  \kappa^{-d}\ \ \   {\rm for}\ \ d<4 \\
\kappa^{-4} a^{d-4}\ \ \ \ {\rm for}\ \ d>4.
    \end{cases}
\end{eqnarray}
So the  von Neumann entropy is of the form Eq. \eqref{eq:5} with $P=4$ for
$d>4$.
}

In terms of the deviation from the critical point, the entropy is
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:8}
  S=  \frac{d}{z(\Psi-1)} \ln\! \mid\! \!u-u_c\!\!\mid,\quad  {\rm for}\ \Psi<2.
\end{equation}
For the case in hand, $\Psi=d/2$.  The form of Eq.  \ref{eq:8} brings
out the universal behavior of the entropy and has validity for
potentials different from Eq. \ref{eq:1}, like e.g.  scale-free
$1/r^2$ potential\cite{smlong}.  All the details of the interaction
go in the universal exponents $z$ and $\Psi$.  The entropy diverges
at the critical point and, {\it is negative}.

\section{DNA connection}
We show the connection of the quantum entanglement entropy to the
entropy of bubbles in DNA melting.  Under an imaginary time
transformation, the path integral formulation of the quantum problem
is analogous to a classical statistical mechanical system of polymers
used in the context of melting of DNA\cite{fish,smb,fisher,doi}.

 Let us consider a DNA whose two strands are two Gaussian
  polymers in $d$-dimensions and index the points (monomers) by the
  contour length $z$ measured from one end.  The native base pairing
  of a DNA requires that a monomer at index $z$ on one strand
  interacts with a point on the other strand with the same index $z$.
  This is the Poland-Scheraga type model\cite{fisher} for DNA melting.
  By using one extra coordinate for the sequence or the length of the
  polymers, we get directed polymers in $d+1$ dimensions like paths in
  path integrals, as shown in Fig \ref{fig:bubb}.  In this
  representation the base pairing interaction maps onto the same time
  interaction of the quantum system, time playing the role of the base
  pair index.  The DNA partition function as a sum over all polymer
  configurations is equivalent to the sum over all paths in quantum
  mechanics.  The DNA Boltzmann factor $\exp(-\beta H)$ with $\beta$ as the
  inverse temperature and $H$ the Hamiltonian for two chains of
  elastic constants $K_j$ as
\begin{equation}
{\beta H}\!\!=\!\!\!\!
  \int_0^N\!\! \left[\sum_{j=1,2}\!\!\frac{K_j}{2}\! \left(\frac{\partial
      \textbf{r}_j(z)}{\partial z}\right)^2\!\! +\!
  V(\textbf{r}_1(z)-\textbf{r}_2(z))\right]\!\! dz,
\end{equation}
corresponds to the factor $\exp(i{\cal S}/\hbar)$ for path integrals
with ${\cal S}$ the classical action of two interacting particles
under $z\to it $.  This makes the Green function or the propagator
${\cal G}(x_1,x_2,\tau|x_1^{\prime},x_2^{\prime},0)$ equivalent to the
partition function $Z(x_1,x_2,N|x_1^{\prime},x_2^{\prime},0),\ (N\to i
\tau)$.  Here $x_j, x_j^{\prime}$ are the coordinates of the $j$-th
strand end-points at $0$ and at length $N$.  The free energy per unit
length of DNA for $N\to\infty$ is the ground state energy of the
quantum problem.

  The short range base-pairing potential can be taken to be
  a contact potential or a well of Eq. \eqref{eq:1}.  Then the picture
  of return of the quantum particles within the range of interaction
  after excursions outside the well gives the equivalent picture of
  polymers with broken base pairs having excursion away from binding
  and eventually coming back to the well to form pairs.  This
  excursion swells the polymer and creates bubbles along the length of
  the DNA.  Thermal energy opens up bubbles in the bound state of DNA.
  The entropy of a bubble of length $N$ is determined by the reunion
  partition function of two polymers starting together and reuniting
  again at $N$, which for large $N$, has the form $\Omega(N)\!\!=\!\!
  N^{-\Psi}e^{N \sigma_0}$, or the entropy
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:13}
S\equiv \ln \Omega(N) = N \sigma_0 - \Psi \ln N,
\end{equation}
in units of the
Boltzmann constant $k_B=1$.  Eq.  \ref{eq:13} shows that $\sigma_0$ is
the bubble entropy per unit length that survives in the thermodynamic
limit.  However, the power law $N$-dependence which gives the negative
sub-extensive part of the entropy is essential for the transition and
also for the bound state.  The reunion exponent $\Psi$ determines the
universality class of the binding-unbinding transition and there is a
melting transition if and only if $\Psi>1$.  See Ref. \cite{fish} for
details.

The one-dimensionality of the chains requires an alternating
arrangement of bound regions and bubbles as in Fig. \ref{fig:bubb}.
The arrangement allows one to write the partition function, after
Laplace transform with respect to the length (i.e. in the grand
canonical ensemble)\cite{fish}, as
\begin{eqnarray}
  \label{eq:10}
G(x,y;s) &=& G_{{\rm o}}(x;s)G(0,s)G_{{\rm o}}(y;s)\nonumber\\
           &=&  \frac{G_{{\rm o}}(x;s)G_{{\rm o}}(y;s) G^{\rm B}(s,u)}{1- G^{\rm U}(s,\sigma_0)G^{\rm B}(s,u)}.
\end{eqnarray}
Here $x\equiv \{x_1,x_2\}, y=\{x_1^{\prime},x_2^{\prime}\}$, $G_{{\rm o}}$ is
the Laplace transformed partition function of two polymers tied at one
end and open at the other, called the survival partition function, and
$G(0,s)$ is the total partition function with two ends bound.  In $G_{{\rm o}}$,
the tied point is to be integrated over keeping the set
$x$ or $y$ fixed.  $G(0,s)$ can be written as a sum of a geometrical
series (see Fig. \ref{fig:bubb}) involving the partition functions of
the bound parts and the bubbles, $G^{\rm B}(s,u)$ and $G^{\rm U}(s,\sigma_0)$.
The free energy comes from the singularity of $G(x,y,s)$ which is
either $s=\sigma_0\equiv 0$ or at $s=s_0$ for which
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:12}
 G^{\rm U}(s,\sigma_0)G^{\rm B}(s,u) = 1,
\end{equation}
with $\sigma_0=0$, $s_0$ satisfies Eq. \eqref{eq:expo}.

Near the nontrivial singularity, a pole at $s=s_0$, the form of
$G(x,y,s)$ resembles the Green function in the energy eigenfunction
expansion as
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:11}
\frac{\langle y|\psi\rangle\langle \psi|x \rangle}{E-E_0} ,
\end{equation}
with ground state dominance.  From the equivalence between DNA model
and the quantum problem, we identify the density matrix as
$$\rho(x,y)\sim G_{{\rm o}}(x;s_0)G_{{\rm o}}(y;s_0)/ G^{\rm U}(s_0),$$
so that the entanglement entropy would behave like \hbox{
$S\sim \ln G^{\rm U}(s_0,\sigma_0)$}.  By
using Gaussian distributions for Gaussian polymers (i.e. random
walkers), one recovers Eq. \ref{eq:dens}.

To get the behaviour of $\ln G^{\rm U}$, we employ a finite-size
scaling analysis.  The phase transition in the polymeric system occurs
in the $N\to\infty$ limit so that a finite $N$ acts as a finite size
scale both for DNA and in the quantum problem.  The finite size
scaling variable is $N /\xi_{\perp}^z$ so that the entanglement
entropy is proportional to $ -z \ln \xi_{\perp} \sim
\frac{1}{\Psi-1}\; \ln \mid u - u_c\mid$ (see Eq. \ref{eq:8}).  The
difference in the amplitude occurs because of the different
normalization used for polymers and quantum problems.  The point to
note is that the entanglement entropy in the quantum problem comes from
the universal non-extensive part of the entropy of the bubbles.  Since
the full entanglement spectrum is known, it is also possible to
compute the Renyi entropy\cite{jphysa}.  We recover in the appropriate limit the
result quoted in Eq.  \ref{eq:5}.  In the DNA interpretation, the
Renyi entropy would come from many circular single strands (replicas)
pairing with a large single strand, resembling the rolling circle
replication of viruses.  Details will be discussed elsewhere.

\section{Discussion}
A negative entropy is counter-intuitive when one has the third law of
thermodynamics in the back of one's mind, though exceptions are known; e.g.
negative entropy is found for perfect gases at low temperatures or as
a corollary of the classical equipartition theorem.  One can see the
same feature by writing the reduced density matrix in terms of an
entanglement Hamiltonian, $\rho \propto \exp(-\beta H_{{\rm ent}})$, in a
form reminiscent of a Boltzmann factor.
{The diagonal form in Eq.
\ref{eq:dens} shows
\begin{equation}
  \label{eq:21}
  \beta H_{{\rm ent}}= 2 \ln (1+q^2/\kappa^2)\approx 2 q^2/\kappa^2, \ ({\rm for\
    small} \ q),
\end{equation}
which is like a classical $d$-dimensional oscillator in $q$-space,
with $\kappa^2$ as the effective temperature.  A direct calculation or
use of the classical equipartition theorem now tells us that the
entropy has $d\ \ln\kappa$ behaviour as in Eq. \ref{eq:5}.}  We believe
this to be a generic feature whenever the entanglement Hamiltonian is
gapless.  Another way to see this emergence of $\ln \kappa$ in entropy
is to compare with the DNA problem.  The equivalent classical DNA
model also has a negative diverging part of entropy but that
sub-extensive part vanishes in the thermodynamic limit of the entropy
per unit length. In the quantum case, the equivalent limit has no such
advantage in finding the entropy because demanding extensivity in time
direction is meaningless. Hence the negatively diverging term is
inevitable near criticality.

In this paper we show that the quantum entanglement entropy near the
bound-unbound transition of two interacting particles comes out to be
negative, and it diverges at the QCP. Using the equivalent classical
statistical mechanical system of DNA near the melting transition we show
that the negativity of the entanglement entropy is a necessity and is
essential for the phase transition. The coefficient of the logarithmic
term contains the information of the interaction and the
universal behaviour of the phase transition.  The coefficient is
shown to be related to the reunion exponent of vicious walkers.  This
is the first time in the context of quantum entanglement that the
negative entropy is found by explicit calculation. We argue that this
log divergence in the quantum case and the sub-extensive part in the
DNA problem are linked by finite size scaling near the critical point.
From the renormalization group (RG) approach for the DNA melting
problem\cite{smb,smlong}, one may infer that the entanglement entropy increases along the RG flow, since the critical point corresponds to
the unstable fixed point.  It has been argued recently that
entanglement can be used to produce negative entropy\cite{rio}.  The
information theoretical meaning of the negative entropy in our case is
not very clear.  Our speculation is that the negative entropy is the
norm, not an exception near a quantum binding-unbinding transition. We
feel signatures of negative entropy might be detectable in cold atoms
where interactions can be tuned to the unitarity limit.  If one can
harness the negative entropy, one may cool a system or a computer and
possibly may overcome the obstacle to circuit miniaturization.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Date of Birth 25-October-1955
Place of Birth Los Angeles
(Southern California, Los Angeles County, United States of America, California)
Also know as Gale Hurd, Gale Hurd
Profession Film Producer, Screenwriter, Television Producer
Gale Anne Hurd is an American film producer and screenwriter. She is currently the recording secretary for the Producers Guild of America.
Awards by Gale Anne Hurd
Check all the awards nominated and won by Gale Anne Hurd.
Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
Honored for : The Waterdance
Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature The Waterdance

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


CITY is now on release. The work it features is Black & BLUE's best collection to date. The range, variety and formal experimentation of the work is marked by a raw, emotional and honest quality, with a lot of its contributors coming from outside the established literary scene.
The format of the publication, unlike previously, is more like a book than a magazine. It is smaller in size, with more pages, & it feels like a lovely object to hold, read & carry around a city.


Conservative Christians are the hope of America, says Salem host Frank Pastore.
Like any good major-league pitcher, Frank Pastore knows how to bring the heat. He played eight years in the bigs, recording his best season in 1980 (13-9, 3.57 ERA) with the Cincinnati Reds. Today, he's the face of Salem's Los Angeles station KKLA and host of the number-one local Christian talk show in the country.
• "I'm sorry, but abortion is murder, and murder on a moral plane is more severe than dealing with the poor."
are pawns being played by the political Left."
• "I'm not a compassionate conservative. Compassionate conservatism is a euphemism for, 'We are never going to cut spending, but we will continue to hold taxes flat.'"
Listeners to Pastore's show, tagged "the intersection of faith and reason," are as likely to hear a discussion of Snoop Dogg's latest arrest as a spirited debate between Pastore and National Council of Churches president the Rev. Michael Livingston.
But Pastore is clearly most energized by politics. After injuries derailed his big-league career, Pastore earned degrees in philosophy of religion from Talbot Theological Seminary and political philosophy and government from Claremont Graduate School. He isn't shy about his opinions, and he expects the same forthrightness from his guests.
"They should be out front," Pastore says of his left-leaning interview subjects. "[They should say], 'We are socialists. We want taxes to be higher. We believe the United States should not use military force.'"


Humans 'manage'. Nature 'functions'. These are crucial distinctions, because it means that as a land manager you must make management decisions. Management means: making deliberate decisions to use a tool or tools. It is our ability to use these tools that distinguishes humans from almost all other organisms. So what are the tools?
When boiled down to the bare minimum there are just three primary and six secondary tools we can access, although between them there are perhaps billions of possible permutations. The primary tools are human creativity, human labour, and money. The six secondary tools are technology, fire, rest, grazing, animal impact, and living organisms.
Wherever you are on the planet, every management action you make will involve at least one (and perhaps more) of the three primary tools, and one or more of the secondary tools.
For convenience the technology tool is considered to include all items that were envisaged first within a human mind, and then later physically created. Using this definition, technology includes everything from a primitive flint axe to the most complex devices ever invented by mankind.
'No fire lit by man is natural' is an important principle to take on board. Be aware that this statement does not condemn fire but merely positions its use. Unquestionably, deliberately using fire as a manipulative tool is a legitimate management action. Whether a fire is natural or deliberately used, almost always it will need to be followed by one or more of the other five secondary tools.
AN IMPORTANT CONCEPT: When managing holistically no tool is regarded as 'good' or 'bad', or 'right' or 'wrong'. What might be good or bad, or right or wrong though is the timing and method of their use, and these both are the direct outcomes of a decision. That's why managing holistically is a decision-making process.


7-night stay and 5-day ski pass at an extra low price!
• For every additional person we charge a extra charge.
• The prices include: Bed linen, hand and bath towels, fully equipped kitchen, TV and radio, electricity and heating, final cleaning.
• Plus tourist tax to pay from January, 2016 ( 1,40 Euro for day and Person) Please pay your bill in cash.
• We don't accept credit cards or checks.
• In case of a early departure we will charge the hole booked days.
• Well behaved pets are welcome by arrangement. For your dog we charge 5 Euro/day, without food.
• The appartments will ready for you at 2 pm (by arrangement may be also earlier). On departure day, please leave your holiday apartment not later than 10.
• In case of no show or in case of anticipated departure, the total price for the complete stay is charged.
We recommend that you take out Red Rooster holiday cancellation insurance after booking your stay. This will cover cancellation charges, meaning that you can look forward to your holiday in a more carefree manner. Further information regarding costs and how to take out the insurance can be found here!


> Resource > How to recover contacts from iTunes backup file free?
iTunes will make a backup file for your iOS device when synced with it while it doesn't allow users to preview files and selectively get data from it. You just can restore the whole backup. But sometimes we only need to recover part of iTunes backup files like contacts. How can I restore contacts only from iTunes backup? Is there any way or any software to extract contacts from iTunes backup files? Of course, the answer is YES! Third-party programs like Free Any iPhone Data Recovery are able to recover files exactly what you really want. It is the best iTunes backup file extractor allowing you to copy and move single or whole file from iTunes to your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
Tips: Don't sync your iOS device with iTunes after losing iPhone contacts.
Follow detail steps as below to extract contacts from iTunes with the help of Free Any iPhone Data Recovery software.
Step 1. Run it on your computer.
Step 2. Scan data from iTunes.
Click on "Recover from iTunes Backup File" and hit "start" button to scan deleted or lost data like contacts, call history, text messages, notes and more from iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
After the file scanning, all data will be found and displayed in categories. Preview and ticket items from contact category you'd like to restore, and then click "Recover" button to save contacts as CSV, VCF and HTML format files on your computer from loss.


text:
OHACC NEWS
New President
I would like to take a moment to thank Frank Hupp for his tireless leadership over the past years, and I would also like to take a moment to introduce myself as the new president of the Columbia County Chapter of the OHA.
From an early age, I have embraced both the love of the outdoors as well as the need to protect its use and availability to everyone, both present and future. I'm looking forward to reaching out and listening to the needs of our community and how we, as an organization, can best support it. I want to find new ways that we can help preserve our rights and traditions, as well as acting as a voice for thousands of hunters throughout the County. I am looking forward to hosting more events that will improve both access and habitat for our community, as well as focus on bringing in the younger generation into the sport and lifestyle. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions for how we can better help our community, I would love to hear from you. Please come to one of our meetings, or feel free to write me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Jordan T. Hicks
Columbia County OHA President
December 2021 Newsletter – Deer Season!
November 2021 Newsletter – Deer Season!
October 2021 Newsletter – Hunting seasons are in full swing
Elk Archery season has officially begun….
March 2018 Newsletter – Great Banquet!
April 2017 OHA Columbia Chapter Update
March 2017 Welcome from Frank Hupp
Febuary 2017 Welcome to OHA Columbia Chapter


Roberto Merino Martinez (born in Burgos, Spain, 11 May 1991) studied Aerospace Engineering in Madrid Polytechnic University (UPM) and performed his MSc thesis at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
He is now working as a PhD researcher at the Aircraft Noise and Climate Effects (ANCE) section at the Aerospace Engineering faculty at Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands. His research deals mostly with the noise emissions from commercial aircraft. His work mostly consists of developing microphone arrays for localizing the main noise sources on flying aircraft under operational conditions and applying noise reduction measures to reduce the annoyance experienced by the population living close to airports. His results also showed a remarkable variability for aircraft noise emissions within the same aircraft type, which led to some recommendations, such as lowering the aircraft velocity and the fan rotational speed to achieve important noise reductions, while still fulfilling operational and safety requirements.


text:
Q: How to force reload vimrc file It seems that the only thing I can do to (consistently) reload the vimrc file is to exit out of it and then re-open it. I have tried doing:

*

*:w! (write)

*:so $MYVIMRC
And it doesn't actually update the file. Here is an example video showing how the changes don't apply after updating the vimrc: https://gyazo.com/1a0670c433b6980b5217e15293690845. Is there a better way to force-reload this file?

A: .vimrc is not some sort of a "magical" file. If you source it... well, it's just sourced one more time. All previously defined variables, mappings, commands, etc. will be still here, unless they are overridden inside .vimrc itself. You must take this into account.
To unmap an existing mapping you must execute :unmap explicitly.

A: The problem is vnoremap.
The second time around it won't get mapped because you asked vim to disallow it.
Change for vmap for the time you are playing around and fine tuning (reloading your vimrc). Once you are happy with it change it back to vnoremap
The reason you use vnoremap is to avoid having some (rude?) plugin overriding your mappings. Personally I find it (normally) unnecessary. If I ever get to a situation that some plugin overrides my mapping I prefer to figure out who's guilty and get rid of the plugin.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


REITs provide an easy way to get real estate exposure in your portfolio but it is crucial that you avoid asset class overlap.  Since many stock and index funds include REIT companies, having a separate allocation to REITs in a portfolio may create double counting.  Certain fund managers strip out REIT companies from their equity investments to avoid this issue.  One example is Dimensional Fund Advisors.  For those who want real estate exposure without the hassle of being a landlord, purchasing REITs may be the way to go.


A month doesn't go by on the mushroom trail without some variety of fungi getting picked, packed, and sent to market. Between Alaska and California, you can harvest wild mushrooms virtually any day of the year. Itinerant circuit pickers, though a far cry from snowbird retirees in white shoes, operate on a similar premise: they move south in the coldest months, calling Northern California's mild climate home for a spell. Their work is known as the winter pick.
The trifecta of winter pick includes yellowfoot (Craterellus tubaeformis, pictured at right; like steelhead, the word is singular even when it's plural), hedgehogs (Hydnum repandum and H. umbilicatum), and black trumpets (Craterellus cornucopioides). The latter are simply called blacks by the pickers and they're the backbone of the winter harvest. Blacks are members of the chanterelle family and they have that same beguiling mix of fruit and earthiness that make their relative the golden chanterelle so popular in the kitchen. But the blacks, for my money, are even more flavorful.
Unfortunately, my home state of Washington is not a hot spot for black trumpets. In the western U.S. these mushrooms thrive in coastal hills with a tree composition of mixed hardwoods (especially tanoak and madrone) and a smattering of conifers. Northern California is the bulls-eye. Though not mycorrhizal with redwoods, blacks seem to prefer having a few of them around.
Looking for this cryptically colored mushroom in dense tanoak leaf-litter is a challenge. Much of its long, fluted stem grows beneath the duff, making it look like nothing so much as a little hole in the ground. Occasionally, toward the end of the season, large clumps will form, some of them seven or more inches tall and easier to spot. A friend of mine calls these California clusters.
This year my timing was off. The season started with promise—and then in January Norcal was hit with a month-long drought, high temperatures, and warm winds that exasperated the situation. The blacks fried where they stood. Gakked was how my picker friends described it, as in "Winter pick is over. The blacks are gakked." You get the picture.
Yellowfoot and hedgehogs took a beating as well, though not as thoroughly. But I was headed to the Bay Area anyway, so I investigated a few patches along the way to pick dryers. Doug, the circuit picker of past posts, was with me. He knew he couldn't sell any fresh mushrooms of this quality, so he focused on stinging nettles and watercress instead, with detours to mushroom patches for my dehydrator.
After leaving Doug off at a nettle patch where he planned to pick and camp, I continued on to Santa Cruz. The mushrooms down there fruit later than their brethren to the north, so they had largely escaped the killing heat of January. A sharp-eyed member of the Fungus Federation named Nate showed me a few of his patches near town and I was able to load up on fresh blacks to take home. Nate also introduced me to my first mudpuppy—the newly named Cantharellus californicus, the largest chanterelle in the world (see below right).
I could get used to an annual pilgrimage south for winter pick. The scenery along the California coast is as spectacular as advertised, and the redwood and hardwood forests are enticingly different from my own stomping grounds. Best of all, a trip to California in winter means a chance to hunt mushrooms while my own patches lay dormant.
Cooking black trumpets is as easy as throwing a handful in the saute pan with a pat of butter. They go great over a steak, or you can infuse a sauce with their intense flavor. All three of the main winter mushrooms are often used together. One of the best mushroom dishes I ever had was a single spoonful intermezzo of hedgehog and yellowfoot with mascarpone and a single small black trumpet on top.
Black trumpets are the perfect garnish for this hearty yet slightly sweet winter risotto, along with fresh cold-weather ingredients such as butternut squash, arugula, and sage. The peppery arugula tempers the sweetness of the squash and the black trumpets add an extra dimension of earthy flavor that you won't find in your typical recipe for Butternut Squash Risotto.
1. To peel and cut squash without losing a finger, see Simply Recipes.
2. Warm stock in a pot.
3. Saute squash in 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, covered, for 5 minutes over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally. Remove lid and cook a few more minutes to lightly brown squash.
4. Add shallot and garlic. Cook together with squash for a few minutes before deglazing pan with wine. Immediately add rice and stir thoroughly to coat. Reduce heat to medium.
5. Stir in a ladle or two of stock, repeating as the liquid is absorbed until rice is al dente.
6. While risotto is cooking, saute mushrooms in a tablespoon of butter. Set aside.
7. Finish risotto off-heat by stirring in sage, arugula, cheese, and last tablespoon of butter. Season with salt to taste. Garnish with sauteed mushrooms.
Dear Bay Area Readers: Next week I'll be visiting your neck of the woods to give a couple talks on wild mushroom cookery. I'll be speaking (and showing slides) at the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz on Wednesday, February 16, and again the following night, Thursday, February 17, at the Bay Area Mycological Society in Berkeley. Come on by and say hello.