A Black Site in Chicago? Police Accused of Running Secret Compound for Detentions & Interrogations

democracynow

Published on Feb 26, 2015

http://democracynow.org – An explosive new report in The Guardian claims the Chicago police are operating a secret compound for detentions and interrogations, often with abusive methods. According to The Guardian, detainees as young as 15 years old have been taken to a nondescript warehouse known as Homan Square. Some are calling it the domestic equivalent of a CIA “black site” overseas. Prisoners were denied access to their attorneys, beaten and held for up to 24 hours without any official record of their detention. Two former senior officials in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice are calling on their colleagues to launch a probe into allegations of excessive use of force, denial of right to counsel and coercive interrogations. We speak to Spencer Ackerman, national security editor at The Guardian. We are also joined by Victoria Suter, who was held at Homan Square after being arrested at the NATO protests in Chicago in 2012.

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The IPCC at a Crossroads | An Economic View of the Environment

http://www.robertstavinsblog.org/2015/02/26/the-ipcc-at-a-crossroads/

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Robert Stavins

Love it or hate it, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) plays a very important role in global climate change policy around the world. This is because its reports enjoy a degree of credibility that renders them influential for public opinion, and – more important – it is because the reports are accepted as the definitive source on all matters climate change by international negotiators working under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In previous essays at this blog, I have written both about problems with the IPCC process (Is the IPCC Government Approval Process Broken?, April 25, 2014) and about its significant merits (Understanding the IPCC: An Important Follow-Up, May 3, 2014; The Final Stage of IPCC AR5 – Last Week’s Outcome in Copenhagen, November 4, 2014).

The IPCC is now at a crossroads. Its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) is now complete and largely successful (see my previous essays cited above). But, like many large institutions, the IPCC has experienced severe growing pains. Its size has increased to the point that it has become cumbersome, it sometimes fails to address the most important issues, and – most striking of all – it is now at risk of losing the participation of the world’s best scientists, due to the massive burdens that participation entails.

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Identity and Cosmopolitanism with Kwame Anthony Appiah – Conversations with History

University of California Television (UCTV)

Published on Feb 26, 2015

(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv/) Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and Law, New York University, for a discussion of his intellectual journey. Appiah reminisces about his early years in Ghana and Great Britain focusing on the influence of his parents. After outlining his formal education, he discusses the philosophical problems that have interested him. The discussion then turns to his analysis of identity and cosmopolitanism and the interface between them and concludes with a discussion of the importance of conversation in building a cooperative world. Recorded on 02/06/2015. Series: “Conversations with History” [Humanities] [Show ID:
29334]

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Edge of Extinction: How Long Do WE Have?

Nature Bats Last

Published on Jan 3, 2015

The second episode of Edge of Extinction further clarifies the range of time during which habitat for humans likely will persist on Earth. It’s a sequel to the premiere episode of Edge of Extinction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EqaC….

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Edge of Extinction: Sucking on the Straw

Nature Bats Last

Published on Feb 26, 2015

Guy speaks to the fact that two million year old water is not coming back anytime soon.

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Deep Under Antarctic Ice Sheet, Life!

VOAvideo

Published on Feb 26, 2015

With the end of summer in the Southern hemisphere, the Antarctic research season is over. Scientists from Northern Illinois University are back in their laboratory after a 3-month expedition on the Ross Ice Shelf, the world’s largest floating ice sheet. As VOA’s Rosanne Skirble reports, they hope to find clues to explain the dynamics of the rapidly melting ice and its impact on sea level rise.

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Markey Declares Today Internet Freedom Day #NetNeutrality Feb. 26. 2015

Senator Markey

Published on Feb 26, 2015

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NASA | First Global Rainfall and Snowfall Map from New Mission

NASA Goddard

Published on Feb 26, 2015

NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement mission has produced its first global map of rainfall and snowfall. The GPM Core Observatory launched one year ago on Feb. 27, 2014 as a collaboration between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and acts as the standard to unify precipitation measurements from a network of 12 satellites. The result is NASA’s Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM data product, called IMERG, which combines all of these data from 12 satellites into a single, seamless map.

The map covers more of the globe than any previous precipitation data set and is updated every half hour, allowing scientists to see how rain and snow storms move around nearly the entire planet. As scientists work to understand all the elements of Earth’s climate and weather systems, and how they could change in the future, GPM provides a major step forward in providing the scientific community comprehensive and consistent measurements of precipitation.

This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?11784

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How Reaganomics Changed Corporations

thomhartmann

Published on Feb 26, 2015

Thom Hartmann comments on a Roosevelt Institute report that corporations today don’t stimulate investment, growth, and wages because, additional funds are funneled to shareholders through buybacks and dividends.

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FCC OKs ‘Net Neutrality’ Rules

Associated Press

Published on Feb 26, 2015

Internet service providers like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile now must act in the “public interest” when providing a mobile connection to your home or phone, under rules approved by a divided Federal Communications Commission. (Feb. 26)

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