With the lights on, John V. Muntean’s Lego creations look like something a five-year-old would build. “Look, mommy, it’s a horse!” But turn the lights off, shine a spotlight on these creations, and suddenly their real raison d’être is revealed; intricate shadow designs that change as each mass of Lego bricks is turned.
MOM! DAD! Why don’t you understand me? Why don’t you get my internet tendencies? Why don’t you instinctively know that all I want to do with my time is snap flower-crown selfies and stan Zayn on Tumblr? Why can’t you just let me be me?
So far, the realm of additive manufacturing, which is the industrial side of 3D printing, has been limited to what is essentially a problem with scale. While 3D printing can be an appropriate solution for some problems, it isn’t for all of them, since manufacturers who need large parts can’t always make them with current 3D printing methods. Stratasys is … Continue reading
Amazon is going to make an original episodic series based on the 2006 movie “The Departed,” doing so with its own Amazon Studios in conjunction with Vertigo Entertainment, Plan B Entertainment, and Initial Entertainment Group. This new series, according to a recent report, has been written by Jason Richman and will fall within the ‘crime drama’ genre. This in the … Continue reading
When you’re sitting at a desk all day with constant stress on you, it’s hard to want to do any physical activity when you get home. Waking up earlier in the day is your best chance of getting in a workout, but if you falter in the slightest with your morning routine, you’re not going to make it to the gym. That isn’t your only hope though, as you can find some options that will keep you active without requiring a chunk of time out of your day.
While the Cubii isn’t going to give you a six pack, it will at least keep your body in motion. This is an elliptical that will sit under your desk so you can pedal your way to some quality cardio, or put you on a pleasant stroll to nowhere. It was made to be as ergonomic as possible so that you are at the best angle and won’t be smacking your knees with every rotation. Just to make sure everyone can use it, this comes with 2 wheel stoppers so rolling chair users don’t feel left out.
You won’t just be peddling along without any challenge as there are 8 levels of adjustable resistance, and best of all is that it is completely silent. Coworkers around you won’t even know you’re burning mad calories on your FitBit. This is equipped with Bluetooth and works with an app so yes, you can track your strides, time, distance, and set goals. This is going to cost you around $347, and comes in black and red or various shades of grey.
Available for purchase on Amazon
[ The Cubii Mini Elliptical helps your mind and body keep active while you’re at work copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
It was a beautiful, Wednesday morning when I hobbled my way onto the campus bus and entered the Health Center. I was in a state of utter confusion and shock. Something that was just a mild discomfort the night before had turned into an unbearable pain which wouldn’t allow me to put any pressure on my left foot. I knew I had to get it checked.
As I tried urgently to get a last minute doctor’s appointment, I was forced to explain my situation again and again – to the front desk, the nurse, the other nurse, the doctor – and each time, it was the same flow, the same look of disbelief:
What’s the problem?
Well, I can’t put any weight on my left foot. (*as I’m leaning my whole body on my right side)
Might be a sprain, let’s get it looked at. What’d you do?
Umm, I landed it on it poorly while skipping.
(Look of disbelief) …did you say skipping?
Yes… skipping. I was joyfully skipping down the sidewalk.
*Chuckle* (probably laughing hysterically on the inside)
Once we got over the initial disbelief, they got me into an x-ray. An hour later, I was informed that it was just a minor ankle sprain (no broken bones), prescribed to give it some rest, and then handed a pair of crutches – for the first time in my life.
After a quick “how-to” from the nurse, I quickly crutched my way out the front doors ready to start the day. Little did I know that I was about to embark on one of the toughest, most insightful, most gratitude-inducing, perspective-changing moments of my life.
Five minutes after I left the Health Center, I was struggling to step onto the high stairs of the campus trolley. An hour later, I was trying to wrestle open the doors to my apartment building, which were too heavy and didn’t have handicap access. It felt as though I had just entered into an entirely different reality. I went from able-bodied to physically challenged (albeit temporarily) and suddenly the world became so much harder to deal with.
For the first time in my life, I noticed and was heavily influenced by every single building that had no elevator, all the ramps that would abruptly end and lead to stairs, doors that would have poorly placed handicap buttons where you’d have to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit. I realized just how poorly designed our world is, made entirely for people who can perfectly walk, see, hear, and smell.
What’s worse is that by having infrastructure designed only to serve those who are able-bodied, there becomes an implicit marginalization of those who are not. In order to keep up with a crowd, I would have to find elevators and ramps that were often created haphazardly or took an extra five minutes to even find. On a day-to-day basis, I found even my own friends overlooking me as I crutched along slowly from class-to-class; in many ways, the crutches became an invisibility cloak, as most people chose to ignore and walk past that which seemed abnormal.
It was only when I could no longer walk easily that I had to learn how to optimize every aspect of my life that required movement.
Need to find a place to sit? Let me make sure that’s within a few steps of a bathroom and water fountain.
Want to hang out with a friend? Let me combine it with lunch, so they can help me carry my food.
So much attention had to be diverted on just surviving and accomplishing basic tasks like eating, going to the bathroom, and getting to class, that I realized how much energy I used to waste in making ten trips to the same place for different errands. With the luxury of being able to walk, we tend to be much less concerned with the amount of time and energy we’re wasting on a daily basis.
While the crutches were certainly tough and came with their frustrations, they also opened me up to special moments of human generosity and kindness. For the first time since I was in diapers, I found myself in situations in which I physically could not do basic tasks without someone’s assistance. As a result, every bit of support that I received mattered.
No matter where I was, I would almost inevitably encounter two or three friends, acquaintances, or even strangers who would ask “Can I help?”. But the ones that really touched my heart were the people who didn’t just inquire if I needed assistance but went a step further and helped before I could even ask.
It was the classmate who would see me enter the lecture hall and immediately set up my chair and carefully place a seat in front of me so that I could elevate my ankle.
The stranger who helped to carry my backpack saying “I’ve been on crutches before, I know how much it can slow you down”.
The person who went and brought my car to me when I was struggling to get to the nearest trolley stop.
The numerous friends who would check in with me every few hours to make sure I had enough to eat, that I had a ride to get to the bathroom, and that I had enough people to keep me company.
With every door that someone opened, food that someone brought to me, and assistance that someone gave for nothing in return, I felt so moved and filled with gratitude and hope.
As wonderful as it was to have so much help from people, I quickly realized that no one could ever be there for me all the time. Inevitably, I’d be faced with a situation in which people just weren’t available or able to help out.
Just because I was in need of more physical assistance than those around me didn’t mean that the world would spin around me, always attending to my needs. Naturally, people would have other meetings to go to, errands to attend, things to do, and who was I to insist that they stop living their lives?
Above all, one of hardest challenges that I faced was mental. No matter how many were physically there for me, very few could help in the battle to stay positive. It was one of the most lonely things to experience when I realized that no one could always be there for me.
However, those moments, no matter how many times they kicked me down, they also pushed me to develop an inner strength and stronger connection with myself that I would not have had to build otherwise. They tested my character, my values, my worldview, and forced me to remain humble but become mentally strong.
From the moment I was given my crutches, it felt as though life was giving me a lesson in patience in as many ways as it possibly could, just hoping that I might finally get the message.
There were just so many ways in which I was forced to slow down or personally suffered because I was being too impatient.
A week after the incident, I was starting to feel better so, without knowing any better, I stopped wearing crutches. Within just two days, my ankle began to hurt again and I found out that I had slowed my recovery. Better yet, a few days later, I had a flight to India that I had to go on alone.
The day of the flight, I went back to the Health Center begging them to figure out a way that I could travel without crutches – there was just no way that I could bring all my luggage while also limping on two sticks. Unfortunately, they refused to budge – no matter how minimal the sprain, rest was the only option – I had to go with my silver sticks. Once again, I was forced to slow down and avoid over-exerting.
While I was in India, I insisted that I could cover large distances on my own and without fully realizing it, I was moving faster on my crutches than people with average walking speeds. Within the second day of being there, my right foot began to give way and was struggling to hold my weight. Suddenly, neither of my feet were able to carry me, even with the help of the crutches. And once again, life had found its way of teaching me patience, in this case, by literally forcing me to stop and temporarily preventing me from being able to move.
Ultimately, it was only when I slowed down, took rest, and became more deliberate in making decisions that I was able to properly recover.
As a relatively healthy looking male whose injury wasn’t always obvious or apparent (especially if I was sitting down), I was frequently subject to misjudgments from people who wouldn’t realize that I had a physical injury.
People would accidently insist that I come help them with carrying things, usually until they saw my crutches.
People would ask why I wasn’t walking over with them, not realizing that I was usually waiting for a car or some form of transportation.
Even once the doctor had given me the go-ahead to stop using crutches, I had to undergo another two months of slow recovery and physical therapy in order to bring my ankle back to (almost) full strength and motion. Without the crutches, my injury and recovering ankle were even more inconspicuous, meaning I was also subject to more misunderstanding.
People would get annoyed at me for walking too slowly, not realizing that I hadn’t walked properly in almost a month.
People would give me strange looks for taking the elevator to the second floor, not realizing that it was still painful for me to walk up stairs.
At the end of the day, I was undergoing a struggle that was essentially hidden from the public eye, making me a perfect target for judgment from people who didn’t take the time to look underneath the surface and realize what was going on.
And the truth is that whether it’s a subtle physical problem, depression and anxiety, or some trouble in our personal lives, we are all undergoing a constant struggle. Having had to experience the burden of living with physical crutches has ultimately helped me better appreciate the burden of those of us living with crutches of our own.
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Suraj Sehgal is a motivational speaker, writer, and creator of the Perpetual Change blog. To get updates on his latest posts, subscribe to his blog here.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
It used to be the goal for working Americans. Work hard at your job, do your best and then enjoy the pleasures of retirement. This might not be the case anymore based on the reaction I got from coworkers, friends and family when I recently announced I was planning to retire after almost 40 years in the workplace.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
In time, every guy gets gray hair. It’s a non-negotiable aspect of getting older, really, like wrinkles and a tendency towards dad jokes. (Unless, of course, you’re one of those genetically gifted guys, blessed with heads of hair that seem to retain color well into the twilight years of their lives. But, if you’re reading this, we’re going to venture to guess and say that’s not the case.) Now, when that happens, you’re going to feel inclined to dye that gray hair back to its original hue—or, at least as close to it as you can get with a box of Just For Men.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, like this Jeweled Flower Mantis found in Asian forests, is another reason to save these important ecosystems. Source Pinterest
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
OO Malaysia: Sarawak Establishes 2+ Million Acres Of Protected Areas and may add 1.1 million more… now will these truly be protected from illegal deforestation? Stay tuned, folks.
Credit Dan at freedigitalphotos.net
OO Rising Temperatures Stunt Tree Growth new research finds iconic Douglas firs across the West are water- and heat-stressed.
Rising Temperatures Fuel Fires – the Sobranes, CA wildfire has destroyed nearly 70,000 acres of forest and destroyed over 40 homes. Source www.wcvb.com
OO 43 Large US West Wildfires as of August 24, 2016 shows the US Forest Service wildfire map.
OO New England Is Being Deforested since the 1980s due to expansion of affluent suburbs, says a new study; since then 5% of its forests has been lost.
Sounds small? “Even a small-scale rate of deforestation will have a large impact over time,” says study co-author Pontus Olofsson of Boston University.
When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.
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HOT NEWS
OO Extraordinary Heat Wave In Eastern U.S.,
With Extreme Humidity – recently, for the second long stretch this summer, with heat indices approaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
Camelot It Isn’t as Africa and the Mideast heats up, literally and socially.
OO Epic Middle East Heat Wave Could Be
Global Warming’s Hellish Curtain-Raiser – with record-shattering temperatures this summer scorching countries from Morocco to Saudi Arabia and beyond, climate experts warn that this could be a harbinger of worse to come.
OO It’s Hotter Nights – More Than Hotter Days –
That Make Heat Waves Dangerous thanks to climate change. Hot nights deprive the body of a needed cool break from daytime heat, but under climate change, nights are heating up faster than days.
OO Heat Waves Bring Warnings About Synthetic Turf Risk – synthetic turf is much hotter to run on than natural grass: when air temperature reaches 90 F, turf temperatures have been measured at 165 F!
YEOW!! Time to hot foot it out of there – and returning the space to grass…
2015 Was Not Cool – practically anywhere on the planet; most areas were hotter than average. Source www.theguardian.com
OO Environmental Records Shattered
As Climate Change ‘Plays Out Before Us – with the temperature of the air and oceans breaking records, sea levels reaching historic highs and carbon dioxide surpassing a key milestone, a major international report has found.
Related Headlines:
OO 2015 Set Frenzy Of Climate Records – and 2016 has broken or is poised to break several of 2015’s records: check out their interactive.
OO Latest Climate Report:
Heat, More Heat And Signs Of Worse To Come – with 2015 record warm temperatures on every inhabited continent as ice melted and the seas rose at alarming rates. It hasn’t stopped.
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FIXING CLIMATE CHANGE
@@ A Simple And Smart Way To Fix Climate Change given by Dan Miller in 2014 at a Ted talk suggests a way to profit as we tackle climate change, by finally charging those who sell and use fossil fuels – and distributing the revenues back to all of us.
The strategy is sure to speed transition to clean renewable energy. What’s not to like? Check it out!
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MELTDOWN
Credit NSIDC; Holly Tichney at UK Met Office
OO A Pieced History of The Arctic’s Sea Ice Back To 1850 shows that Arctic sea ice cover has declined over recent decades, with the greatest decrease in the summer, with sea ice extent reducing roughly 12% per decade since the satellite record began in 1979.
OO The Alaskan Highway Is Literally Melting – with bumps and sometimes wide deep cracks scarring huge swathes of the road.
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SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS
Source Wikipedia
@@ How Climate Change Fuels Conflict – as temperatures soar and drought increases, many in Africa are losing their livelihoods. Looking for other ways to survive, some are turning to groups like Boko Haram.
OO Africa: Fleeing Disasters, Escaping Drought, Migrating – most agree that Africa is the most impacted region by widespread violence and climate catastrophes.
OO Britain Protests Immigration But Ignores A Root Cause: Climate Change with its politicians skeptical of action on global warming.
OO US: Thirsty Westlands Faces Escalating Woes – think drought, and water wars.
OO So California: Stagnant Heat Brings Worst Smog In Years
And Surge In Hospital Visits
OO Climate Change Threatens Japan’s Agriculture
TheWannabe Atlantis: Louisiana Floods Bigtime with thousands of homes destroyed, and several killed. Credit Isaac Landov at www.wunderground.com
OO 3 Killed In ‘Historic’ Louisiana Floods; Thousands Rescued
OO Philippines: Five Dead, Tens Of Thousands Flee Floods caused by days of unrelenting rain.
OO India Climate: Extreme Heat, Drought – And Now, Rain – this year’s strong monsoon has created floods:
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A SWEET SPOT IN CREATING SUSTAINABLE POPULATIONS
Triple Win: Using Profits to Provide Needed US Family Planning – Medicines360.org is key to creating a sustainable US population and bright futures for women – AND saving taxpayers many billions yearly in community costs by preventing unintended pregnancies. Source medicines360.org
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GOOD IDEAS
Source www.computerworld.com
OO In Corporate March To Clean Energy, Utilities Not Required – companies like google are buying renewable energy directly from the producers.
OO The New Green Grid: Utilities Deploy ‘Virtual Power Plants’ by linking together networks of energy-efficient buildings, solar installations, and batteries, US and Europe companies are increasingly helping utilities reduce energy demand at peak hours and supply targeted areas with renewably generated electricity.
OO An Expanded Power Grid Could Help California Fight Climate Change – by 2019, CA’s largest utilities could be slashing their use of fossil fuels by swapping CA solar energy for Rocky Mountain wind power in a sprawling Western electricity grid.
Source www.gogreensolar.com
OO California, New York Are Going Clean Energy –
But CA Is Ditching Nuclear
OO California: Tiny Town To Cut Emissions Via A Utility Collective to buy power on behalf of residents and businesses, acquiring more clean power as part of a potential climate plan committing to climate changing gas reductions.
OO Creative Incentives To Boost Groundwater Recharge In California – an innovative program offers landowners incentives to collect stormwater run-off to recharge groundwater.
A Future Block Island View? Source www.siemens.com
OO Rhode Island To Have First Us Offshore Wind Farm
OO US Tribes Work With Scientists Against Climate Change
OO China To Use Tougher Environmental Standards
To Tackle Capacity Glut – including those of safety and energy efficiency, to rein in overproduction in key industrial sectors, such as steel, cement, coal, aluminum and glassmaking.
OO Australia: A Mining Shows How To Turn To Clean Renewables – as in wind and solar power.
OO Europe Aims To Close Loophole On Wood Energy that promotes burning wood for electricity by an industry that’s felling American trees, a reform that is urgently needed, says a new report.
Soil Once Covered That Green Pole – back in 1852; farming has since eroded much of the rich soil. Credit Megan Darby
OO No-Dig For Victory:
Saving Britain’s Soils From Climate Stress Takeaways:
OO Seoul To Limit Old Diesel Vehicles To Fight Air Pollution
OO Wisconsin Taxes Wind Farms – too bad they didn’t think of this in coal’s heyday… those old mines will continue to cause environmental headaches, both in local pollution and climate change generated.
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NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS
A Knotty Future awaits this Red Knot (hey, I don’t make up these names) and many other Arctic birds, as climate change drives a wedge between their breeding seasons and the emergence of their food sources.
OO Warming Climate Expected To Squeeze Out Arctic Bird Habitat – birds are hardwired to migrate according to daylight patterns; their food sources, insects, are hardwired to emerge based on temperature. This sets up a lethal mismatch in a warming future for breeding shorebirds, shows a new study.
About two-thirds of the studied species will lose most of their important breeding habitat by 2070.
OO Climate Change Could Make Beaches Saltier indicates a new study. Takeaways:
Marine Heatwave Caused Massive Bleaching on the beautiful giant Great Barrier Reef, turning undersea rainbows into ghostly white coral graveyards.
OO ‘The Blob’:
How Marine Heatwaves Are Causing Unprecedented Climate Chaos – a giant mass of hot seawater off California caused massive die-offs of sea birds, marine mammals, fish and more during 2014-2015.
Such marine heatwaves are increasing worldwide, especially in Australia, where in 2015 they permanently destroyed 60+ miles of kelp forests. These forests sustained about $10 billion worth of fish and tourism industries.
Gone Forever are many miles of kelp forests off Australia, along with all the fascinating creatures that lived among them, doomed by marine heatwaves. Source www.toptenplus.com
In 2016, marine heatwaves caused disastrous coral die-offs on the Great Barrier Reef there, and massive die-offs of mangroves, important natural coastal storm barriers.
OO Arctic Fish Populations Changing As Ice Dwindles, report says, with twenty species, including sleeper sharks, as newly documented denizens of the Arctic Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
Did This Just Start A Bog Fire? Lightning can if the bogs are hot and dry. Source www.tehwethernetwork.com
OO A New Climate Danger: Carbon Released By Burning Bogs – rising temperatures can dry out northern peatlands, increasing the risk of fires that release thousands of years of stored carbon into the atmosphere.
Bog fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish, and can burn for decades.
OO Mountain Biodiversity More Vulnerable To Climate Change
than previously reported, a new study shows.
Untouchable? As waters warm and enable toxic algal blooms, oysters and other shellfish concentrate the toxins in their flesh, making them poisonous. Source www.tabasco.com
OO Study Links Global Warming To Rise In Waterborne Illnesses – such as food poisoning from oysters, along with other nasty infections, a new study shows.
A Cornucopia of Cichlid Fish evolved in Lake Tanganyika, such as this Blue Neon, and are being lost as the lake slowly warms over the centuries – an outdoor laboratory that previews what will happen to fish in a global warming world. Source aquarium-pictures.blogspot.com
OO World’s Longest Lake Is Being Depleted Of Life As Waters Warm – loss of biodiversity in Lake Tanganyika, Africa’s oldest and deepest lake, has been driven by 500 years of sustained climate warming, a study of core sediments has found.
OO Sea Lions Decline Tied To Declining Food Sources In Warming Waters in the Falkland Islands.
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CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE FUNNIES
@@ The Madhouse Effect – Enjoy the cartoons as you learn about the science, policy and solutions of climate change – and the strange pathology of climate denial.
Probably too many and big words for Donald Trump, but fine for ages 12 and up. You can get it here – a great gift for friends and family who need it.
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GOOD CLEAN NEWS
New York Goes Green – well, at least with its energy… but a farmer can dream of more…Source wwwurbanplantscapes.com
OO New York Approves Plan For 50 % Renewable Energy By 2030 The ambitious plan will rely on big subsidies to nuclear power plants to help reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels.
OO Apple Can Sell Power As Tech Giants Boost Energy Investments – It spent $850 million last year on a 130-megawatt solar farm near San Francisco, and can now begin selling power into wholesale markets.
Born in 2015, Walking in 2016? The global climate agreement created in Paris, December 2015, may start going into effect soon.
OO Global Climate Deal Likely To Enter Into Force In 2006 a new study shows.
OO Massachusetts’ Ambitious Clean Energy Bill
Jolts Offshore Wind Prospects – making offshore wind a big part of its renewable energy requirements.
OO Toyota, Tesla And Vestas Ranked Among World’s Top Green Companies and are outperforming most polluting counterparts by three to one.
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CLIMATE LEADERSHIP
Pushing Clean Energy And A Safe Future by creating new ways for the US government to address climate change. Credit AP photo, Julie Jacobson
OO Every US Govt Agency Will Have To Consider Climate Change in their decisions from now on, as the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality has finalized a process of shaping how the agencies will do so.
Related Headline:
OO Obama Broadens Use Of ‘Climate Tests’ In Federal Project Reviews to account for the carbon emissions and other climate impacts of their major decisions, new guidelines say.
OO Obama To Roll Out New Climate Change Measures for combating climate change before he leaves office.
OO Clinton Makes Pitch For ‘Modern Grid’ essential for transitioning to clean renewable power; she called for billions of dollars in added infrastructure investments recently.
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CLUELESS LEADERSHIP
Credit Nate Beeler at the Columbus Dispatch
OO Trump: Climate Change Won’t Be ‘Devastating – yeah, right – tell that to the flood victims in Louisiana, and the people who lost their homes to wildfires in the west, or to tornadoes in the Midwest…
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ELECTION YEAR:
If You Don’t Vote For Climate Action, You Can Forget The Rest – in a climate-changing world of famine, drought, rising seas, giant storms and heat waves, there will be no security in jobs, health, wealth, or national safety. There will be chaos ensuing from increasing crises and disasters. Vote.
OO Global Warming Policies We Set Today Will Determine The Next 10,000 Years – of global warming, a new study shows — and whether our civilization survives or not: history shows that harmful climate change has destroyed civilizations before.
This time, it could be worldwide. Let’s keep “The Hunger Games” in the realm of fiction.
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CORAL CATASTROPHE CONTINUES
Another Beautiful Undersea Kingdom Destroyed – a Guam coral reef in a cooler, healthier past, above, and in the wake of a warming present, devastated by bleaching, below.
OO ‘I Cried…Right Into My Mask’ – Guam’s reefs have bleached four years straight, but have received little notice. Takeaways:
@@ A Coral Convulses: this heated coral expands then expels its symbiotic algae under time lapse photography.
Warming waters can up the photosynthesis of resident algae, leading to toxic levels of oxygen inside coral tissues. Thus, expelling the algae is a short term defense. But continued warm waters can deter algae from re-colonizing the coral, leading to its death.
El Nino worsened conditions on Guam reefs, causing extremely low tides which left parts of the reef exposed to air, and other parts shallow, thus prone to more heating.
“Today, for the first time in the 50 years I’ve been in the water, I cried for an hour, right into my mask, as I witnessed the extent to which our lovely Tumon Bay corals were…dying,” coral biologist Laurie Raymundo wrote.
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SPEAKING OUT
Source cetology.org
OO When Protest Becomes Sacrament – these Catholic social justice advocates are exemplars of the force behind We Are Seneca Lake, one of the nation’s longest-running campaigns of civil disobedience, blockading a facility that enables fracking.
OO Clean Power Plan Offers Chance To Right Past Injustices, advocates say, in a little known provision.
OO Climate Change May Be Doubted By Some,
But Now It’s The Law says a federal appeals court in Chicago giving a thumbs-up this week to an obscure regulatory practice that helps the U.S. government account for projected costs of climate change.
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FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES
OO US Must Bury Coal To Save Miner Jobs said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, using ex-miners to clean up the messes left behind by closed coal mines, and having ex-miners help shape a post coal economy.
OO US Coal Regulator To Crack Down On Cleanup Coverage – states should force coal companies to set aside collateral to pay for future mine cleanups and protect taxpayers as the industry braces for further declines, a leading federal regulator said recently.
OO Colorado: Fighting Fracking at the Ballot Box – as the energy industry ramped up publicity for unregulated fracking, activists gathered signatures across the state to put 2 proposed fracking regulations on the November ballot.
They’re Baaaaaack… To Drill for more oil, this time off Australia. As if the country hasn’t got enough climate change disasters with marine heatwaves destroying its coral reefs, kelp forests and mangroves. Wikipedia
OO BP Reveals Plans To Drill For Oil In Great Australian Bight Marine Reserve a commonwealth marine reserve.
OO Undermining China: Towns Sink After Mines Close – and houses sink into the collapsing network of mine tunnels.
OO India’s Coal Ministry Said To Seek Environment Tax On Petcoke an oil-refining byproduct and a coal substitute, is more polluting than coal and should be subject to the same federal taxes, the coal ministry said. Imagine anything like that ever happening in the US…
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If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.
@@ How Parents Can Help Prevent Teen Pregnancy
Teen childbearing cost US taxpayers $9+ Billion in 2010
And the costs of raising a child usually ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother.
– US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community:
publicize where women can access affordable contraception.
They can go here to find locations:
And there are many more actions you can do, right here.
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SOLAR KEEPS RISING
OO Solar Manufacturers Pivoting Away From Big US Utility Projects because utilities aren’t signing as many deals to buy electricity from their giant power plants.
Check it out here, right now!
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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Aug 23, 2016
How unusual has the weather been? No one event is “caused” by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.
Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, some of the US and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot continues and so does the drought in California. Down south, a stagnating storm front, expected under climate change, brought historic flooding to much of Louisiana.
Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures – not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.
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There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I’ve compiled, “Climate Change News Resources,” at WordPress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.
To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!
Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by these wild flowers I photographed one summer. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you’d like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It’s our way of letting Congress know there’s a strong clean energy voting bloc out there. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
This piece was originally published on Mindthis
I’m running late. Maybe five or ten minutes late but it’s late enough to make a photographer chew nails. In this case the person chewing nails is Shanaye Smith an up and coming photographer and videographer based out of the Exuma Islands. She also happens to be one of Chivvaun’s best friends.
Shanaye is setting out to create an image and her vision for this takes place on a canvas created by a mystical time of day.
The Golden Hour, I didn’t even know it was an actual thing but it’s the reason I find myself trekking down a path in a pine forest that leads to a secluded beach near the southern side of the island.
Chivvaun’s limp is rather obvious to Shanaye’s team and more than once they’ve asked her if she needs to take a break. Last week around this time she was pierced through the foot by a jagged rock. She’s also just been diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection, which leads me to believe that this shoot may or may not be a disaster.
Chivvaun however soldiers on, leading us to her favorite spot on the island. One more time she is asked if a break is needed to which we hear “No thank you, I can do it”. It’s not said in a rude or malicious way. She is not attempting to be obnoxious and her tone of voice is far from annoyed. Her meaning however, cannot be mistaken. As a dancer she’s seen much more and possibly endured much worse.
The ability to defy gravity by cutting through the air, using the strength of her core and calf muscles whilst balancing the full weight of her body on the last point of her feet makes way for the athleticism of it all. The ability to do all of that while reminding yourself and an audience that you’re nothing less than a swan makes way for the art.
With this in mind filming begins and I start my questions. I’ve been doing a bit of social media archeology (I refuse to call it stalking) and I discovered our very own Chivvaun, danced alongside the first African American Prima Ballerina at ABT, Misty Copeland for an afternoon.
“We all saw a bit of ourselves in her.” Chivvaun is making reference to the class that Misty taught at the Dance Theatre of Harlem Summer Intensive. ” She was so patient with us it was one of the first times I felt really free as a dancer” ironically enough as she’s saying this she does a bit of a twirl, allowing the fabric of her dress to do some sort of wind tunnel movement I’ll never be able to achieve.
“When those kids come to the dance clinic I want them to feel as free as I did on that afternoon with Misty. I can’t wait for all of it to come together” Chivvaun is talking about the fact that she will soon be hosting a free dance clinic for 20 lucky students on the island of Grand Bahama. “I hope this is the first of many free clinics that I can host. I want to be able to build on this and possibly make it an annual event”.
It is a completely normal thing for pageant contestants to disingenuously show up at an orphanage or animal shelter in full pageant regalia ready for a photo op. amongst such insincerity this makes sense.
Chivvaun’s sincerity must shine through to the corporate community because, in a country that has always been a bit Nassau-centric, Chivvaun has been able to get three companies with branches spanning across the country Dairy Queen, Sky Bahamas and the Seventeen Shop as sponsors. In a statement released by Dairy Queen they say,
“Dairy Queen Bahamas is proud to sponsor one of the nation’s finest, Chivvaun Abigail, as a participant in this year’s Miss Bahamas Universe Pageant. As a brand whose mission it is to create smiles and stories, we feel privileged to help bring Chivvaun to the national stage and possibly to the universe as a Bahamian ambassador. She is beautiful inside and out and a tremendous talent who passionately embodies true Bahamian culture.”
Through out the competition Chivvaun has had to travel with her sponsor, Sky Bahamas, back and forth every week from Grand Bahama to Nassau and has always been sporting clothing from one of the country’s number one boutiques ‘The Seventeen Shop’
“I couldn’t believe they actually sponsored me. I went into this whole process not necessarily naive but definitely a bit idealistic. After I submitted my application I hoped I would get sponsors I just didn’t know who would be willing to back me.”
One of the things I’ve noticed is that Chivvaun keeps an arsenal of talented women at her side that seek to elevate and encourage one another. One of these women has been Beth Sherman also known as the ‘Beauty Bee’ on Grand Bahama. She’s a makeup artist that has been teaching Chivvaun the ins and outs of face contouring and other such make up terms I’ve only ever heard on Youtube. The knowledge Beth has been able to pass on to Chivvaun has allowed her to do her makeup for the shoot today.
The Golden Hour is almost up and Shanaye is about to call the shoot a wrap, so with that I end my questions for the day. I’m really excited but also nervous. I’ve also bought into the process of this pageant and I cant wait to see how Chivvaun does next week in her practice for what many call the dreaded interview session.
To keep up with Chivvaun Abigail’s journey to the crown continue to read Mindthis Magazine and follow her official Facebook page here. Also don’t forget to check out the first installment.
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