STOCKHOLM — A new assessment of climate change in the Arctic shows the region’s ice and snow are melting faster than previously thought and sharply raises projections of global sea level rise this century. The report by the international Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, or AMAP, is one of the most comprehensive updates on climate change in the Arctic, and builds on a similar assessment in 2005. The full report will be delivered to foreign ministers of the eight Arctic nations next week, but an executive summary including the key findings was obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday. It says that Arctic temperatures in the past six years were the highest since measurements began in 1880, and that feedback mechanisms believed to accelerate warming in the climate system have now started kicking in. It also shatters some of the forecasts made in 2007 by the U.N.’s expert panel on climate change. The cover of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, for example, is shrinking faster than projected by the U.N. panel. The level of summer ice coverage has been at or near record lows every year since 2001, AMAP said, predicting that the Arctic Ocean will be nearly ice free in summer within 30-40 years. AMAP also said the U.N. panel was too conservative in estimating how much sea levels will rise – one of the most closely watched aspects of global warming because of the potentially catastrophic impact on coastal cities and island nations. The melting of Arctic glaciers and ice caps, including Greenland’s massive ice sheet, are projected to help raise global sea levels by 35 to 63 inches (90-160 centimeters) by 2100, AMAP said, though it noted that the estimate was highly uncertain. That’s up from a 2007 projection of 7 to 23 inches (19-59 centimeters) by the U.N. panel, which didn’t consider the dynamics of ice caps in the Arctic and Antarctica. “The observed changes in sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, in the mass of the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic ice caps and glaciers over the past 10 years are dramatic and represent an obvious departure from the long-term patterns,” AMAP said in the executive summary. The organization’s main function is to advise the nations surrounding the Arctic – the U.S., Canada, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland – on threats to the Arctic environment. The findings of its report – Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic – will be discussed by some of the scientists who helped compile it at a conference starting Wednesday in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
Continue reading …Adult Baby: National Geographic’s ‘Taboo’ Highlights Man With Infantalism (VIDEO)
May 4, 2011 No Comment
It’s no odd thing to pine for a simpler time, to wish you could go back to childhood. It’s a common, impossible fantasy, it seems, one that is more exaggerated gasp and wistful dream in difficult times. For some, though, the desire for a past life is so insatiable, they do everything they can to make it happen. Unfortunately, given that time travel isn’t yet possible, they often seem a bit unusual in their quest. National Geographic’s “Taboo” highlights the life of one such dreamer: Stanley, the adult baby. He sleeps in a giant crib, plays Legos in a baby play area, gets fed with a bottle and is even creating his own gigantic highchair. It’s not sexual, just the recapturing of a simpler time, no matter how psychologically complicated it may appear. An infantalist, Stanley dresses normally for the real world, but in his apartment, it’s all child’s play. Though most babies don’t build their own cribs. To learn more about the show, which airs Wednesday night, click over to National Geographic. WATCH:
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Those Sandy Bridge refreshes just keep on coming . Today, it’s HP’s turn, whose 14-inch Pavilion dm4 (which we reviewed last year) now comes standard with a 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M CPU. Curiously, it’s now the dm4 x — a suffix you don’t usually see on HP notebooks. For that $730 starting price, you’ll also get Radeon HD 6470M graphics with 1GB of memory, 6GB of RAM, a 640GB 5,400RPM hard drive, and a six-cell battery. If money’s no object, you can trick yours out with a 2.7GHz Core i7-2620M processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 750GB 7,200RPM HDD. Oh, and for $25 you can opt for a “dark umber” color instead of “steel grey” (pictured). Not too shabby, but we just hope HP also fixed that wonky touchpad. [Thanks, Sourabh] HP Pavilion dm4x with Sandy Bridge goes on sale, starts at $730 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 14:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Computers! They can now make terrible jokes just like us. If Michael Scott’s departure from The Office has left you broken, then you’re likely the sort of person who will be cheered up by this news: computer scientists have actually developed software that recognizes double entendres, à la “that’s what she said” jokes. (More on TIME.com: See our
Continue reading …When President Obama visits Ground Zero tomorrow to mark the death of Osama bin Laden, George W. Bush won’t be with him. Obama invited the former president to join him on his visit to the World Trade Center site, but a spokesperson tells Politico that Bush turned him down. “President…
Continue reading …VIDEO: Who is Sarah Palin’s favorite journalist? Ask Todd. Calling Katie Couric!
May 4, 2011 No Comment
At the MSNBC after party, NBC’s blog NBCU Direct asked several party attendees the following question: Who do you think is the most influential journalist today? Oh my goodness! Wow! Great question! Hmmm. Um. Er. Derrr. Todd? Who can you … Continue reading → Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Political Carnival Discovery Date : 03/05/2011 21:26 Number of articles : 5
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We tug at some of those annoyingly slack plot lines that have left moviegoers tied up in knots and lost down plot holes Nothing nags like a film that leaves its plot or characters dangling. Some unanswered questions (did Cobb’s spinning top fall after Inception finished?) seem placed to give the audience something to mull over or argue about after the film has finished. Others (Beauty and the Beast’s Chip is clearly under 10, and the curse has been on the castle for 10 years, so did Mrs Potts give birth to him whilst she was a teapot? And who is his father?) look more like goofs than deliberate head scratchers. Yet they raise interesting, and sometimes disturbing, questions. Some loose threads are so neglectful they leave a lingering sense of injustice. Such is the case with Source Code, whose treatment of one of its central characters was so heinous it demanded this plot-hole-peppered Clip joint of protest. Schoolteacher Sean (we find out little else about him) is replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal’s Colter Stevens at the start of the film, and is never heard from again. Even the object of Sean’s affections, Christina, does not seem too bothered that the personality of the man she’s spent the last few years falling for has inexplicably changed before her very eyes. Who will weep for Sean? Poor old Sean, this one’s for you. 1) Colter’s fine: he’s got the girl, he’s saved the world. But what happened to Sean? Won’t his family and friends miss him? 2) In Chinatown, what happens to the fake Mrs Mulwray? 3) Who killed The Big Sleep’s Owen Taylor? Allegedly not even the film-makers know. (At least it’s fairly obvious who killed Canino .) 4) Back to the Future sees Marty return to a much happier, albeit alternate 1985 at the end of the film, having helped his parents fall in love with each other. But what happened to the Marty that lived in that alternate reality up until “other” Marty arrived? Was he replaced Sean-style? (“Where we’re going we don’t need roads … or to tie up any loose ends.”) 5) And one instructive clip : the end of Burn After Reading; numerous loose ends all tied up in a mere two-and-a-half minutes. Last week Oliver Pfeiffer waved his codpiece at the best of 80s cult fantasy. Here he sorts the Gelflings from the Skeksis in the clips that you suggested: 1) BrigadierBarking reminded us why Tim Curry is such a horny devil in Legend. 2) Neglected gem The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was an ingenious suggestion by steenbeck . 3) rowingrob made us realise why the original, bleak ending does true justice to Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece Brazil. 4) goonergeof suggested Watson having his cake and eating it in Young Sherlock Holmes. 5) And greatpoochini went all dizzy on us with the reverse carousel clip in Something Wicked This Way Comes. guardian.co.uk
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Switch of WikiLeaks whistleblower suspect from maximum security jail means more rights and liberties in runup to trial The conditions under which the WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning is being detained in military prison have vastly improved in the wake of a sustained campaign against his earlier treatment, which some said amounted to torture. Since Manning was transferred from the Quantico marine base in Virginia to Fort Leavenworth on 20 April his detention regime has changed dramatically. He has been switched from maximum security to medium custody, which affords him many more rights and liberties, and he is no longer being held under a prevention of injury watch that imposed harsh conditions. The new regime has been revealed in a blog post from Manning’s lawyer, David Coombs, who is handling the US soldier’s forthcoming court martial. The prisoner, who worked as an army intelligence specialist in Iraq, has been charged with multiple counts relating to the leaking of a huge trove of state secrets to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. Under the old prevention order, Manning was forced to strip naked and wear just a smock at night, he had no bedding and was not permitted any personal items in his cell. He was kept locked up in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in a windowless cell, and allowed only to walk in a yard on his own for that final hour. In Fort Leavenworth, by contrast, he has a large window that lets in natural light. He has a normal mattress and bedding and his clothes are not removed at night. Manning can have personal objects in his cell, including books and letters from family and friends, as well as legal documents relating to his case. He can write whenever he wants. His new life of detention is also considerably less lonely. There are five other pretrial prisoners and Manning spends much of the day in their company. His cell is connected to a common area used by four of the detainees with a television and exercise machine, table and shower area. The improvement in Manning’s prison life is testament to the power of a sustained campaign by his supporters and politicians to end what was deemed virtual torture against him. The Pentagon had been flooded with emails and lobbied by representatives such as Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic congressman from Ohio who took up Manning’s cause. The UK embassy in Washington has also been involved after the Guardian revealed that Manning is a British citizen by dint of his mother being Welsh. Kucinich said the lawyer’s account of Manning’s new conditions revealed a dramatic change “that can only be attributed to the public campaign that brought great pressure on the department of defence”. But Manning’s more relaxed treatment also raises serious questions about why he was treated so brutally for the nine months in which he was held at Quantico. When Barack Obama was asked about the case in March, he said he had been assured by the Pentagon that Manning’s treatment was appropriate. Kucinich said he would continue to press through Congress for answers to a number of questions: “Why was Manning treated the way he was in Quantico that was similar to torture? Who was responsible for that treatment, and what’s going to be done to ensure those individuals are held to account?” Bradley Manning WikiLeaks Human rights United States US national security Protest US military Torture Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
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The newly launched Unstaged concert series has been somewhat of a gem for music and film lovers. Kicking off with iconic concert documentarian D.A. Pennebaker Continue Reading » Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Film Stage Discovery Date : 03/05/2011 17:29 Number of articles : 5
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Tory town hall in U-turn over radical scheme to outsource all services as staff morale sinks and public fight cuts A flagship Tory local authority has halted controversial “virtual council” plans to outsource all its services, after public opposition to spending cuts and a collapse in staff morale triggered a political revolt by backbenchers. Suffolk county council’s radical proposals, revealed by the Guardian last autumn , aimed to float off such services as waste disposal and child protection to private firms, social enterprises and charities. Potentially this move would have brought about hundreds of millions of pounds in savings but put thousands of jobs at risk. The council’s Tory leadership has now arranged a “period of reflection” to assess the plans, which are regarded by the government as a role model for municipal reform. The council has also promised to assess again the unpopular proposals to cut school crossing patrols, close libraries , and raise student travel-pass charges . The newly elected Conservative group leader, Mark Bee, said the pause gave “an opportunity to review everything”. He said that though the council could not avoid the tens of millions of pounds of imposed spending cuts, it would adopt a pragmatic, measured, approach to town hall reform and listen more closely to staff and local people. “We are not going to change things by revolution [but] by taking communities with us.” Bee added: “It’s not going to be about ‘no more cuts’ and keeping things as they are; things have got to change, but it is finding the right kind of change rather than just steaming into it.” Suffolk’s U-turn over its “virtual council” is the first big Tory rank-and-file mutiny over unpopular spending cuts in local government, and emerges as, nationally, the party braces itself for a disappointing performance in Thursday’s local elections. It comes amid signs that ministers are increasingly nervous about the potential unpopularity of outsourcing public services to the private sector . Events in Suffolk will be watched closely by Tory-led councils considering similar reform plans, including Bury in Greater Manchester. Labour’s shadow communities and local government secretary, Caroline Flint, said: “I’m all in favour of innovation and efficiency in local government, but the Conservatives running Suffolk county council have decided to put party political ideology ahead of running effective local services – and it’s backfired. “There is also a lesson for David Cameron and [the communities secretary] Eric Pickles here. Pushing through half-baked Tory experiments and ignoring the wishes of local people is more likely to put frontline services at risk than improve them.” Kathy Pollard, leader of Suffolk’s Liberal Democrat opposition, welcomed the “slowing down” of the council’s plans for cuts, but said it was important to read the small print of the proposed U-turn. The previous council leader, Jeremy Pembroke, who helped oversee the plans, known officially as the new strategic direction, stepped down in April amid concern about the deeply unpopular changes . An inquiry was begun into morale at the council’s legal department after an anonymous whistleblowing letter, sent to councillors, and believed to be from an employee, alleged staff there had been put under “unbearable pressure”. The letter refers to “the poisonous atmosphere that exists at present” in the council. Two council executives have resigned suddenly in recent weeks. Bee, who formally becomes leader of Suffolk council on 26 May, said that addressing staff morale would be a priority for the new administration. He paid tribute to council employees but added: “We need to spend more time listening to practitioners.” The changes have raised questions over the future of the council’s high-profile chief executive, Andrea Hill, who has been pilloried by media over her £218,000-a-year salary and dogged by concerns over her management style. Hill, , who said the new strategic direction was regarded by some ministers as a role model for local government, vociferously defended the “leading edge” proposals in an article for the council’s magazine. “It’s not an easy or comfortable place to be because we are challenging the old ways of doing things. We are developing a new model that will unsettle the status quo and, as we all know, any change makes ordinary people uncertain. Changing the system challenges vested interests and will therefore be attacked,” she wrote. Local government Privatisation Conservative and Liberal Democrat cabinet Local politics Economic policy Elections 2011 Patrick Butler guardian.co.uk
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