I can hear you…. Samsung warns customers to not discuss private matters near ‘ smart’ TV sets

RT America

Published on Feb 10, 2015

Samsung is warning owners of its SmartTVs to not discuss personal matters when within range of the device’s microphone, as the TV is constantly recording audio and sending it to a third-party for analysis. Though part of a seemingly benign process meant to allow customers to command their TV with voice recognition software, the explicit warning from the company has many consumer advocates up in arms. RT’s Manuel Rapalo reports.

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Rising seas threaten South Florida’s drinking water

Geologist Harold Wanless stands in front of a salinity-control barrier near the Miami airport. Many such structures, which release floodwater without letting in saltwater, will cease to function in a few decades.

by Dan Weissmann Tuesday, February 10, 2015 – 15:22

• Story

Greater Miami is a place where the idea of not having enough water seems completely bananas. South Florida receives about 60 inches of rainfall a year, and groundwater is more than plentiful. Keeping streets and homes from getting flooded with freshwater is still a huge job here.

But rising sea levels change things in unexpected ways, and seawater threatens to turn the drinking water salty. In some places, the ocean has already made good on that threat. And the problem is going to get worse.

To illustrate, Harold Wanless takes me out behind a car-rental place by the Miami airport. He’s a University of Miami geology professor who has spent decades studying how sea levels change, from the ice ages to today.

There’s a lot to see and hear in this little spot: two highways converging, planes flying overhead, Miami Jai-Alai, the Pink Pussycat Strip Club. (“Everything you want near an airport,” says Wanless. “I guess.”)

He’s chosen this location for two reasons. First, this entire area used to be part of the Everglades. “When they drained the Everglades here, water levels dropped about 7 feet,” he says. “And voila! You have an airport.”

Second, in this particular spot, a canal comes under those highways and hits a little barrier. This structure, several miles inland, is the boundary between the salty ocean water, and South Florida’s freshwater supply.

That water supply isn’t contained underground. “It goes right up to the surface,” says Wanless. “So, yeah – this is our aquifer. This is our water.”

And this is where the goal of managing freshwater flooding meets the threat of rising seas.

One of this little barrier’s main jobs is actually to get rid of freshwater after heavy rains, to prevent flooding. The gate opens and rainwater building up behind the dam spills out to sea.

There are dams like this all over the region. But for them to work – for the freshwater to spill – the seawater has to be lower than the gate.

…(read more).

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Bob Inglis: We Are All on the Record, on Climate Change

greenman3610

Published on Feb 10, 2015

Bob Inglis’ final statement to congress after he lost his re-election bid in 2010. He was turned out largely because he defended the scientific understanding of global climate change.

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Chris Hedges on “Corporatism, Politics and Culture

Chris Hedges

Published on Feb 10, 2015

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Universities and the Climate Crisis: Financial Implications of Fossil Fuel Divestment

UNIVERSITIES AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS: FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT
February 12 (Thursday), 7:00PM
Life Science and Engineering Building
Main Lecture Hall (Room B01)
24 Cummington St, Boston, MA

SPEAKERS:

Ben Downing
Senator Downing is a senator from Western Massachusetts and is Chair of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy. In the 188th Legislative Session (2013-2014), Senator Downing proposed a bill (S1225) to divest fossil fuels from the Massachusetts Pension Reserve Investment Trust. He

will discuss this effort, and why he thought it was reasonable for Massachusetts.

Lisa Goldberg
Dr. Goldberg is Director of Research at Aperio Group and an Adjunct Professor of Statistics at the University of California Berkeley. She is an expert on the mathematical/statistical modeling of investment finance. She will speak about her studies on the analysis of the financial implications of divestment from fossil fuels, drawing on her work at Aperio (e.g., “Do the Investment Math: Building a Carbon-Free Equity Portfolio”).

Leslie Samuelrich
Ms. Samuelrich is President of Green Century Capital Management. Ms. Samuelrich will speak on her years of experience with managing funds that exclude fossil fuel interests.

Bob Massie
Dr. Massie is a co-founder of the Global Reporting Initiative. Dr. Massie will speak on financial risks associated with stranded assets; i.e., the loss of net worth that fossil fuel companies will experience if the climate crisis is addressed, such that they are prevented from extracting all of their proven reserves of coal, oil and natural gas. He

will also address why divestment is a viable strategy for inducing social change, drawing on the analysis in his book “Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa in the Apartheid Years”.

Universities and the Climate Crisis: Financial Implications of Fossil Fuel Divestment
Many university leaders believe that climate change is real and steps must be taken to combat it. However, they have a serious fiduciary responsibility to manage the endowment responsibly and have legitimate, serious concerns about whether university divestment from fossil fuel interests will result in lower returns on investments. Some have also expressed concerns that divestment may not be an effective strategy to bring pressure on anyone to take more effective steps to combat the climate crisis.

Contact: Edward Loechler <loechler@bu.edu>

http://www.divestbu.org

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Justice, Race And Municipal Courts

February 10, 2015 at 10:00 AM
American justice when municipal courts become gateways to modern day debtors’ prison. Six months after the death of Michael Brown, we investigate.

Guardsmen stand in front the Ferguson Police Department Municipal Court bulding, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. (AP)

Six months ago this week, Michael Brown was shot dead in Ferguson, Missouri. Around the world, people wondered at the depth of anger and frustration that poured into Ferguson’s streets. There are many strands to follow. One goes to the municipal courts around St. Louis. They are major money-makers for little cities like Ferguson. Traffic fees and fines on many who are black and poor. Jail time. Lost jobs. A sense of systematic oppression. Debtors’ prison. Now there’s reform talk. It’s a national issue. This hour On Point: American justice and the rage in Ferguson.

…(read more).

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It’s Not Just Brian Williams… Inside the Media’s Lies that Led to Iraq War

As NBC host Brian Williams faces calls to resign over lying about being in a U.S. military helicopter coming under fire in Iraq in 2003, we look back at our coverage dissecting the media’s lies and distortions in the lead up to the U.S.-led Iraq invasion.

…(read more).

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A Historic Drought Grips Brazil’s Economic Capital

February 10, 2015 4:40 PM ET

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

All Things Considered, 4 min 17 sec

Brazil’s Atibainha river dam is shown here in December 2014. It is part of Sao Paulo’s system of dams, which supplies about half the water to the metropolitan region of 20 million people and is now at historic lows.

Miguel Schincariol/AFP/Getty Images

Last Sunday, hundreds of Paulistanos, as the residents of Sao Paulo are known, dressed up and danced on the streets at one of the dozens of block parties that happen in advance of the annual celebration known as Carnival.

Except this year – among the pirates and Viking bumblebees — some costumes had a more serious, if still not entirely sober, theme.

Antonio Passareli was dressed as a water fountain — with the spigot placed strategically on his waist. But it’s no laughing matter, he said.

“We have to make some noise about water,” Passareli said, adding he was desperately worried about the city’s current water shortage.

And he’s not alone.

Southern coastal Brazil is suffering its worst drought in 80 years. South America’s biggest city – home to more than 20 million people – may soon be under severe rationing.

…(read more).

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In China, Capitalism has it’s Limits…

thomhartmann

Published on Feb 10, 2015

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Scientific Pros Weigh The Cons Of Messing With Earth’s Thermostat

February 10, 201511:03 AM ET
Nell Greenfieldboyce

 

The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 spewed almost 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, causing worldwide temperatures to drop half a degree on average.

Arlan Naeg/AFP/Getty Images

Before anyone tries to cool the Earth with technologies that could counteract global warming, there needs to be a lot more research into the benefits and risks. That’s the conclusion announced Tuesday by a scientific panel convened by the prestigious National Research Council to assess “climate geoengineering” — deliberate attempts to alter the global climate.

Geoengineering has been seen as the potential last-ditch option to stave off the worst effects of climate change, given that agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have been slow in coming.

“The central, biggest fear is the fear that just even talking about this, or researching it and popularizing it, will lessen the strength of our commitment to cut emissions. That is the underlying fear.”

– David Keith, climate scientist, Harvard University

The basic idea is simple: Either suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or reflect incoming sunlight away from Earth.

But the prospect of intentionally mucking with the world’s climate is hugely controversial. Until recently, even discussing it has been somewhat taboo among scientists. One fear is that nations might fight to control the global thermostat — unilaterally taking action to try to adjust temperatures to their liking.

Another is that the promise of a quick geoengineering fix would discourage the world from doing the hard work needed to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

…(read more & listen).

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