December 2015

There were 29 posts published in December 2015 (this is page 2 of 3).

How one ancestor helped turn our brown eyes blue

Everyone with blue eyes alive today – from Angelina Jolie to Wayne Rooney – can trace their ancestry back to one person who probably lived about 10,000 years ago in the Black Sea region, a study has found.

Scientists studying the genetics of eye colour have discovered that more than 99.5 per cent of blue-eyed people who volunteered to have their DNA analysed have the same tiny mutation in the gene that determines the colour of the iris.

This indicates that the mutation originated in just one person who became the ancestor of all subsequent people in the world with blue eyes, according to a study by Professor Hans Eiberg and colleagues at the University of Copenhagen.

Source: How one ancestor helped turn our brown eyes blue | Science | News | The Independent

Shaming Sanders supporters

Some of the reasons I support Bernie Sanders

Some of the reasons I support Bernie Sanders


Some supporters of Hillary Clinton for President are getting annoyed by supporters of Bernie Sanders, accusing Sanders supporters of “splitting the party” and trying to shame them into supporting Clinton. As a Sanders supporter, I’m tiring of this approach and tired of the insinuation that I’m not a true liberal if I don’t support a female candidate for President.

As a liberal who supports gender equality (though I maintain equal pay is fiction), I would be thrilled to vote for a female Presidential candidate but unfortunately Senator Elizabeth Warren opted not to run this year. Instead, I’m going with a candidate who had the courage and foresight to vote against the disasterous Iraq War, voted against the privacy-gutting PATRIOT Act, wants to decriminalize marijuana use, supports reinstanting the Glass-Steagall Act to rein in Wall Street abuses, opposed the Keystone XL pipeline, and opposed the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade treaty, among other differences.

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Woodland gets hammered over public solar opposition

A story that ran last week in the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald reported that the town of Woodland, NC voted against a rezoning request for a solar farm after citizens opposed to the farm were concerned the solar farm would suck all the energy from the sun. Wrote News-Herald reporter Keith Hoggard:

Bobby Mann said he watched communities dry up when I-95 came along and warned that would happen to Woodland because of the solar farms.

“You’re killing your town,” he said. “All the young people are going to move out.”

He said the solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not come to Woodland.

Jane Mann (Bobby Mann’s wife), also weighed in:

Jane Mann said she is a local native and is concerned about the natural vegetation that makes the community beautiful.

She is a retired Northampton science teacher and is concerned that photosynthesis, which depends upon sunlight, would not happen and would keep the vegetation from growing. She said she has observed areas near solar panels where vegetation is brown and dead because it did not receive enough sunlight.

She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn’t cause cancer.

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Brewery shutdown runs head-on into bad policy – The Fayetteville Observer

Wonderful takedown of Sen. Phil Berger by the Fayetteville Observer’s Tim Miller. Now that Berger’s district faces massive layoffs, will the good Senator find any value in those unemployment benefits he so cheerfully gutted?

But where did this new Berger come from? Where was his deep concern when he was chasing the film industry out of Wilmington and the rest of the state? Where was his concern when we exported thousands of television and motion picture jobs to surrounding states, most notably Georgia, which boosted its film tax incentives just as Berger was killing ours? Just two years ago, North Carolina was Hollywood East. Now, Atlanta owns that title.

And do you suppose Berger might be a little worried about what his constituents will face when they’re laid off? He should be. All those families whose votes he counts on will bedumped into the unemployment system that he also gutted. They’ll be getting some of the smallest, shortest-duration unemployment checks in the country and won’t be eligible for long-term benefits. Berger and his colleagues slashed all of those benefits, suggesting they only inspired laziness. Sorry, folks, but it was the right thing to do for the state. So get out there and hustle for those jobs — which, unfortunately, may not even exist.

Source: Brewery shutdown runs head-on into bad policy – The Fayetteville Observer

Energy law change sours Facebook on NC

The market is speaking. Are our Republican state legislators listening?

Changing attitudes toward renewable energy in state government are apparently prompting Facebook to unfriend North Carolina.

An official with the California-based social media company told a reporter at the COP21 climate summit in a Paris suburb recently that Facebook would probably not expand further in the state because of ebbing support in state government for clean energy.

“We are only considering states with strong policies and a determination to produce renewable energy,” said Bill Weihl, head of sustainability at the company. He was quoted by Justin Catanoso in a story that appeared in slightly different forms in Triad Business Journal and The News and Observer of Raleigh.

Source: Energy law change sours Facebook on NC

Smog So Thick, Beijing Comes to a Standstill

Beijing calls a code red Tuesday for the very first time, finally admitting for once that its smog has gotten too dangerous to breathe.

BEIJING — Residents across this city awoke to an environmental state of emergency on Tuesday as poisonous air quality prompted the government to close schools, force motorists off the road and shut down factories.

The government, which for the first time declared a “red alert” over air pollution late Monday, even broadcast what sounded like bombing raid alerts in the subways — warnings telling people to take precautions with their health. Yet even with those extraordinary measures, the toxic air grew worse, shrouding this capital city of more than 20 million in a soupy, metallic haze.

Source: Smog So Thick, Beijing Comes to a Standstill

Democrats Could Pick Off Some Trump Supporters on Creators.com

Columnist Froma Harrop seems to be farther into the Clinton camp than my liking but she does have a point here about a blind spot among Democratic candidates when it comes to respect for ordinary folks. Dems can win back the disgruntled rural voters if they would only follow this advice.

Bill Clinton has that magic, no doubt. Hillary? I’m not convinced, whether or not Harrop says she should have excellent coaching.

Democrats routinely hold up polls showing that the American public favors their agenda. Yet time and again, politicians opposed to what the voters want win the elections. Here’s Trump appropriating some of their agenda while tacking on populist lunacy — and look how well he’s doing.

Here’s an explanation: People badly want respect, and liberal “leaders” tend not to be good at making ordinary folks feel respected — or even noticed. They come to the debate armed with logic, facts and historical analogies. But Republicans go for the gut. To do that, one has to understand what’s in the gut. Trump the salesman has an excellent endoscope.

Source: Democrats Could Pick Off Some Trump Supporters on Creators.com

Watch what happens when regular people try to use handguns in self-defense – The Washington Post

As I was saying.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting, the National Rifle Association proposed putting more guns in schools. After a racist shot up a Charleston prayer group, an NRA board member argued for more guns in church. And now predictably, politicians and gun rights advocates are calling for guns in movie theaters after a loner killed two people at a theater in Louisiana.

The notion that more guns are always the solution to gun crime is taken seriously in this country. But the research shows that more guns lead to more gun homicides — not less. And that guns are rarely used in self-defense.

Now a new study from researchers at Mount St. Mary’s University sheds some light on why people don’t use guns in self-defense very often. As it turns out, knowing when and how to apply lethal force in a potentially life-or-death situation is really difficult.

Source: Watch what happens when regular people try to use handguns in self-defense – The Washington Post

Meeting the Google Fiber team

This afternoon I got a sneak peek at the new Google Fiber building in downtown Durham, thanks to a friend who works there. I got to meet the Google Fiber team as well and they’re good people.

They’re still putting the finishing touches on their Fiber Space on the first floor so I wasn’t able to see that but news reports say Google expects it to open sometime this month. Indeed, when I visited there were two construction workers outside, busily working over a noisy table saw.

The word is their new Fiber Space in Raleigh will be amazing. Google loves the building! Large skylights have been added. Also, contrary to what you may have heard, Google did not kick out 518 West from the space. The building was put up for sale and Google bought it.

Beyond that, I know little more than you do about when fiber’s going where. I do know that whatever time it arrives on my doorstep it won’t be soon enough. I can’t wait to get my Google Fiber!

Combat veterans shoot down NRA ‘fantasy world’ of ‘good guys with guns’

The NRA loves to parrot the thinking that it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun. They say this because they want to encourage gun ownership and, sadly, many conservatives think that they can be the savior in the case of a mass shooting.

A journalist asked combat veterans how this would work out and predictably they were not impressed (see story below).

It reminded me of something that was emphasized time and again in my CERT training:

In a crisis, you will always fall back to your training.

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