Ladywriter

its rare I buy cigs by the pk in this fuckin state. I go to the Onondaga Reservation and buy by the carton, no tax.

this has turned into a 900 billion dollar joke... or nightmare depending on yer perspective UI0cRcwkk7I

Scientists say finding suggests human activity played a role in the disaster BEIJING - Pressure from a dam, its reservoir's heavy waters weighing on geologic fault lines, may have helped trigger China's devastating earthquake last May, some scientists say, in a finding that suggests human activity played a role in the disaster.The magnitude-7.9 quake in Sichuan province was China's worst in a generation, causing 70,000 deaths and leaving 5 million homeless. Just 550 yards (meters) from the fault line and 3.5 miles (5.5 kilometers) from the epicenter stands the 511-foot-high (156-meter-high) Zipingpu dam, the area's largest. The quake cracked Zipingpu, forcing the reservoir to be drained. Fan Xiao, a chief engineer at the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, said Wednesday that the immense weight of Zipingpu's waters — 315 million tons — likely affected the timing and magnitude of the quake. Though earthquakes are not rare in the area, one of such magnitude had not occurred for thousands of years, Fan said. "I'm not saying the earthquake would not have happened without the dam, but the presence of the massive Zipingpu dam may have changed the size or time of the quake, thus creating a more violent quake," Fan said in a telephone interview.Seismologists recognize that large bodies of water may exert pressure on fault lines deep in the earth, leading to earthquakes. The pressure can push the sides of fault lines harder together, increasing friction, or cause the fault lines to slip apart. Scientists have recorded smaller earthquakes possibly caused by reservoirs. A magnitude-6.4 quake near India's Koyna dam killed at least 180 people in 1967 and is thought to have been induced by the reservoir. Fan is among a number of experts who have voiced concerns in recent months about the likelihood that Zipingpu may have contributed to last year's quake. Their concerns were reported last month in Science magazine. The Chinese government has portrayed the Sichuan quake as an unavoidable natural disaster, and it has promoted the building of large dams to meet the country's energy needs and reduce flooding. The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, was built to end flooding in the Yangtze River and provide a clean energy alternative to coal, but has instead been plagued with problems, from resettlement to landslides. Many scientists are not convinced that the Zipingpu dam caused the Sichuan quake, even if it may have been a factor. Lei Xinglin, a geophysicist at the government's China Earthquake Administration, said reservoirs increase seismic activity but will not cause an earthquake. He called for further investigation. "A reservoir in the region will have positive and negative effects on a potential earthquake, but it is ridiculous to say an earthquake was caused by the dam," Lei said. "In order to gain more knowledge, we still need to carefully research this topic rather than jumping to conclusions." Lei said a fall in the Zipingpu reservoir's waters between December 2007 and the time of the earthquake and the penetration of water into the fault line were "major factors" in the quake. Roger Musson, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said at best Zipingpu may have accelerated the timing of the quake. "But the scale of the Wenchuan earthquake (185 miles, or 300 kilometers, of rupture) indicates that it was a true tectonic event which would have occurred with or without the Zipingpu dam," Musson said in an e-mail. "It is thus only a question as to whether stresses from the reservoir advanced the timing of the earthquake." Also calling for further investigation is Christian Klose, a geophysical hazards research scientist from Columbia University in New York. An abstract of a paper he presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco in December said the added weight weakened the fault below Zipingpu. Fan, the Chinese engineer, said he was so convinced of Zipingpu's potential dangers that he strongly opposed its construction in 2003, worried that a disaster would devastate the Min River valley below. He said he began pointing to the dam as a possible cause just a month after the quake. Still, many large dams continue to be built. Fan said he has continued to write letters to government officials voicing concerns about dams being built on the Dadu and Jinsha rivers to the west and northwest of the quake zone.

Deployment could be first of many to monitor changes like acidification ABOARD RESEARCH VESSEL POINT LOBOS, Off the California Coast - A crane on a ship deck hoisted a 502-pound video camera and plopped it into the ocean for a 3,000-foot descent to the world of neon-glowing jellyfish, bug-eyed red rock cod and other still unknown slithery critters.The so-called Eye-in-the-Sea camera would be added to the first observatory operating in deep sea water and become part of a new kind of scientific exploration to assess the impacts of climate change on marine life. "Bye bye," said marine scientist Edith Widder, who supervised the deployment last month as the bulking Web camera splashed into the water and disappeared into blackness. "Hope it works." The camera is one of many instruments powered by the Monterey Accelerated Research Station or MARS, an underwater observatory that began operating in November off the California coast.The observatory, which looks like a giant metal pyramid at the bottom of the ocean, is connected to shore by 32 miles of cable and serves as a gigantic electrical outlet for equipment such as the camera. Other instruments measure currents and seismic activity, while another part studies how higher acidity would affect marine life. Scientists say the observatory's success will spawn others around the world, at a time when scientists warn that coral reefs and other sea life are being harmed by rising ocean acidity from absorption of greenhouse gas pollution. Real-time data Previous deep sea exploration relied on battery-powered instruments that had to be fished from the water. But the observatory permits real time information to stream to shore, giving researchers a faster, better understanding of how greenhouse gas pollution is changing the ocean. The $600,000 Web camera offers scientists, students and others the opportunity to watch life at 500 fathoms. The camera captures images illuminated with "far-red" lights, a spectrum of luminescence invisible to undersea animals. "The revolution in oceanography is to replace expeditionary science with a permanent presence in the ocean in the deep sea," said Widder, a senior scientist at the Ocean Research and Conservation Association, a nonprofit that develops high-tech equipment for ocean study.Back on the research vessel 22-miles from shore, scientists in a control room used joysticks and high-definition video relayed from cameras on a submersible robot to grab the camera's bright-orange power cord. After about four painstaking hours of maneuvering the submersible, the researches used its robotic arm to plug the camera into the observatory. Within minutes, a phone in the control room rang — the blurred, black and white video was streaming from the camera to researchers onshore. Also, researchers were able to twist and turn the camera remotely, and turn on the camera's electronic bait: a circular pattern of blue, neon-like lights that mimic a luminescent jellyfish that lives at these depths. Researchers were able to immediately make out a few lazy fish lying in the sand. Their expectation are high for the 24-hour camera: A previous, battery-powered version recorded images of a large, white squid that could be new to science, as well as a deep sea shark. It took six years of planning to make the observatory a reality. It was scheduled to go live in February 2008, but after crews sunk it into its new deep water home, a leak was discovered in its main power supply, forcing it to be shut off and hauled back ashore. $400 million network could follow The $13.5 million station is being watched closely by scientists all over the world, and is a test for the National Science Foundation's proposed $400 million rollout of a network of similar observatories off the U.S. coast."With rising sea levels as a result of ocean warming and ice caps melting, we need better observations recorded regularly and openly to better quantify what's happening to the oceans and the planet," said John Orcutt, a professor of geophysics at University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The ocean is absorbing most of the carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, which has resulting in increased acidity, according to published studies. Greenhouse gas pollution is also blamed for warming the ocean, a trend that, if allowed to continue, could kill a wide array of marine life, according to climate change studies. In Canada, scientists plan to launch five similar observatories this summer, some even deeper, said Mairi Best, associate director of science for the Northeast Pacific Time-Series Undersea Networked Experiments. Eye-in-the-Sea video clips are online at www.mbari.org/mars/general/eits/videosamples.html.

link California is in danger of losing the farms and vineyards that make it such a lush state, according to the Secretary of Energy. Steven Chu, the Nobel-prize winning scientist named to the cabinet post by President Barack Obama, said in his first interview since taking office that the Golden State faces such a dire threat from climate change that its cities could become unlivable, the Los Angeles Times reported. He said the greenery could all be gone by the end of this century. “I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” Chu said in the paper. “We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California.” He added, "I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going" either. Chu told the Times that a worst case scenario could involve up to 90% of the Sierra snowpack could disappearing, which would devastate a natural storage system for water needed by agriculture. California, Chu’s home state, is the nation’s leading producer of agriculture has 88,000 farms and ranches contributing to a $36.6 billion dollar industry that generates $100 billion in related economic activity, according to the state’s Department of Food and Aggriculture. Chu said he sees public education as a key part of the administration's strategy to fight global warming -- along with billions of dollars for alternative energy research and infrastructure, a national standard for electricity from renewable sources and cap-and-trade legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the LA Times reported. Comparing the situation to a family living in an old house which needs expensive electrical work before it burns down, Chu said, "I'm hoping that the American people will wake up [and pay the cost of rewiring.]”

Interior Department to review whether to open those federal lands In its first action to overturn Bush administration policies on energy, the Obama administration on Wednesday said it will cancel oil drilling leases on more than 130,000 acres near two national parks and other protected areas in Utah."In the last weeks in office, the Bush administration rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases near some of our nation's most precious landscapes in Utah," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters. "“We need to responsibly develop our oil and gas supplies to help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but we must do so in a thoughtful and balanced way that allows us to protect our signature landscapes and cultural resources." "We will take time and a fresh look at these 77 parcels to see if they are appropriate for oil and gas development," he said, adding that the Bureau of Land Management will return the $6 million in bids from an auction last December. The 77 leases were for areas near Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and Nine Mile Canyon, which is sometimes called the world's longest art gallery for its collection of ancient rock-art panels. ... "At best these lands will produce only 1.5 hours of the oil we use in a whole year," Robin Cooley, an Earthjustice attorney who represented the conservation groups in court, said in Wednesday's statement. "The oil industry will profit, not America." wtf oil what retards are still on that bandwagon?

Government declares emergency as millions of acres of crops wither BEIJING - China declared an emergency Thursday in eight provinces suffering a serious drought that has left nearly 4 million people without proper drinking water and is threatening millions of acres of crops.The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief posted a notice on its Web site declaring the situation a level-two emergency on the country's four-level scale. It called it a drought "rarely seen in history." The official Xinhua News Agency reported that President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao had ordered all-out efforts to fight the drought at a Cabinet meeting Thursday. It said the government had allocated $58.5 million for relief work. Uneven distribution of water China suffers from an uneven distribution of its water resources. Weather patterns in the arid north and flood-prone south cost the government tens of millions of dollars in lost productivity each year. The latest drought began in November and has affected 24 million acres of crops, one-third of them seriously, Xinhua said. Most of the hardest-hit provinces were in northern China, with several in the east. In recent days, news broadcasts have shown dry, cracked farm fields and crops withering in the ground. Wheat-growing areas threatened Almost half of the wheat-growing areas in the eight provinces — Hebei, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi and Gansu — were threatened, Xinhua said, while nearly 4 million people lacked proper drinking water. The official China Daily newspaper, citing meteorological authorities in Henan, said it was the worst drought in Henan since 1951 and that the province, a major supplier of winter wheat, had gone 105 consecutive days without rain. But some relief may be in sight. Weather forecasts call for rain and snow in some of the stricken areas beginning Saturday. gee after diverting all that water for the summer Olympic games who woulda guessed

Why Is the Government Hell-Bent on Rewarding Greed, Incompetence and Narcissism? By Jim Hightower, Creators Syndicate. Posted February 5, 2009. Bankers have never been much loved, but gollies, this Wall Street bunch seems hell-bent on being loathed. As a consequence of their avaricious grab for outrageous personal enrichment during the past decade, these arrogant titans of financial gimmickry have caused a vast economic collapse that is presently costing million of Americans their homes, jobs, pensions and dreams -- while also bringing down the banks themselves. As you would expect, the Wall Streeters who did this to us are now humbled and filled with deep remorse. HA! Just kidding. Instead, the perpetrators keep grasping for all they can get, taking no responsibility for the damage they've done. Obtuse? Self-indulgent? Narcissistic? What's with these people? A few examples of their bloated sense of entitlement: • While Merrill Lynch was imploding last year, requiring a $25 billion salvage job from us taxpayers, CEO John Thain was merrily spending $1.2 million to redecorate his office, including buying a $13,000 "custom" coffee table, a $1,400 wastebasket and a $35,000 antique commode (add your own toilet joke here). In such tough times, why didn't he just make do with the perfectly luxurious office of his predecessor? "Well ... his office was very different than the ... the general decor of Merrill's offices," Thain told a CNBC interviewer. "It really would have been ... very difficult ... for ... me to use it in the form it was in." • Citigroup, which lost $28 billion in the past 15 months, has now received a $345 billion bailout from Washington. Time to cut nonessential spending, right? Yes -- as long as "essential" includes a new $50 million Dassault Falcon 7X jet for top executives. Never mind that the bank already has five executive jets in its fleet. It took a public expression of outrage from President Barack Obama to get Citigroup's honchos to back off this extravagance, and it's said that they're still sulking about it. • Despite their historically disastrous year in 2008, Wall Street investment bankers awarded themselves a total of $18.4 billion in bonuses -- the sixth-largest payout on record! Shouldn't they be embarrassed, you ask? Of course, but a January poll of the bankers found that 46 percent of them felt they deserved a bigger bonus. By the way, the Street's rationalization for such giveaways is that top bankers must be showered with treasure in order to keep them hitched to the corporate plow. "Retention bonuses," they're called. Merrill Lynch's Thain, for example, doled out $4 billion in bonuses last fall while the firm was awaiting its bailout check, explaining that it's essential to "pay your best people," or they'll leave. Shouldn't he have to wear a clown costume when saying silly stuff like that? Leave to where? The whole Street is on fire. Besides, these are the geniuses who lit the match -- who would want them? Which brings us to the "Obama stage" of the banker bailout. At its core, his plan looks like more of the same. The government (you and I) will buy the bad loans now held by the banks, paying an inflated value for them. This gift will make us by far the biggest investor in Wall Street -- yet, even though we're putting up the capital, Obama's team does not require a commensurate decision-making role for the public. One decision in particular needs our say-so: Who's going to manage the money? Under Obama's plan, the same old obtuse, self-indulgent, narcissistic -- and failed -- bankers would keep their jobs and control the bailout. It seems the president's top economic advisors, Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, don't have the stomach for the real housecleaning needed to set Wall Street right. Instead, they cower behind knee-jerk ideological platitudes, scoffing that "governments make poor bank managers." Hello? It's hard to be a poorer manager of America's financial system than the current group of greed-headed "free marketers." They lost hundreds of billions of dollars in bank assets during the past year or so, wrecking our economy in the process, and now they want to be rescued. Rescue the system, yes. But not those who wrecked it. Wall Street's culture of excess should not be rewarded, and any bailout should begin by insisting that all of those who did this to America be fired.

A joint study by researchers in China and the UK found that rising temperatures will cause extinction for some types of bamboo. This could doom populations of Giant Pandas that rely on these plants for food. Examples like this bring global warming into a whole new light. Please act now >> http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AfGs2/YXFZ/ANR12 Pandas spend 14 hours a day eating, with bamboo making up 99 percent of their diet. Of the more than 100 varieties of bamboo, pandas only eat about 20 of them. Pandas are just one of the many species that are being severely threatened by global warming. We need a worldwide effort to reduce emissions. Tell President-Elect Obama about the plight of pandas and let him know your thoughts on global warming. http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AfGs2/YXFZ/ANR12 Thank you for being part of the solution. Sincerely, Emily Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team

A coal ash waste dumping pond in Tennessee ruptured this past December, unleashing toxic substances known to cause cancer, birth defects and other health problems in animals and humans. Despite this horrendous accident and the ecological threat posed by coal ash waste, the EPA is not doing anything to regulate it! Take action >> http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/Afejn/YwsC/ANR12 As a result of the spill, 1 billion gallons of sludge containing the heavy metals arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium were leaked into the Emory River. What's more, there are more than 1,300 dump sites similar to the one that failed in Tennessee, putting innumerable areas in danger! It is the EPA's job to regulate chemicals and protect human health by safeguarding the natural environment. Urge the EPA to regulate coal ash waste that threatens water supplies and human health >> http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/Afejn/YwsC/ANR12 Coal ash waste isn't just detrimental to people. It is also responsible for diminishing populations of birds and frogs near dumping areas. The remaining animals are at risk of developmental problems, like tadpoles without teeth and fish with deformed spines. Thank you for speaking up on behalf of ecosystems that lay in the shadow of unregulated coal plants! Truly, Robyn E. Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team

Sharks are important to the health of the oceans, yet humans kill more than 100 million sharks each year. And it's already having dire impacts on the rest of the ocean. The removal of sharks from the ecosystem affects the species below them on the food chain in unpredictable ways, even altering coral reefs and sea grass beds. Take action >> http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AfGvx/YXhL/ANR12 That's why it's so important for Congress to pass the Shark Conservation Act, which would protect these important creatures and the entire ocean ecosystem. Congresswoman Bordallo introduced the Shark Conservation Act (H.R. 81) to help preserve the world's sharks. This bill would require that sharks be landed whole with the fins still attached to the bodies. Urge your representative to help ensure fast passage of this important piece of legislation for the health of our world's oceans >> http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AfGvx/YXhL/ANR12 If enacted, this bill will make it easier to enforce the shark finning ban and allow for better data collection for use in stock assessments and quota monitoring, since it will be easier to identify species. Thank you for taking action on behalf of sharks today! For the oceans, Robyn E. Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team

I've sen those myth buster episodes

$500,000 cap would apply to those getting ‘exceptional’ bailout assistance WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Wednesday imposed a $500,000 cap on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving taxpayer bailout money and promised new steps to end a system of “executives being rewarded for failure.” fuck it yo its a start

godamnit haven't I waited long enough for my gundam!? Quatre: there's no need for weapons in outer space everyone else: stfu!

ask her a random homework question to start a conversation it should be obvious pretty quick if shes interested you sly dog

tax on a pk of butts in ny state is already over 2$, a name brand will cost ya 6-8$ a pack How self defeating is it that you need ppl to continue to smoke (unhealthy) to pay for health care.... what???

this Friday?? yohohohohohohohoho!

we don't buy into Hanna or Disney hype too much in this house Glad to see a kid do something that looks responsible

Rules would include restrictions on severance payments, bonuses WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is tackling the bailout of the battered financial sector on two tracks: overhauling how the government spends the money while devising new executive compensation restrictions for banks that get it.Administration officials said the pay limits could be announced this week, but said the more complicated task of setting up a new framework for rescuing the nation's ailing banks would have to wait until early next week. President Barack Obama, in a grim assessment of the financial industry, said Monday he would probably need more money to bail out troubled institutions to ease a suffocating credit crunch. Still, he added, "some banks won't make it." The Treasury Department is expected to announce new rules that limit executive pay for companies that receive "exceptional assistance" under the bailout program. Obama reacted angrily last week to reports that banks gave more than $18 billion of bonuses at a time when they were relying on taxpayer money for their survival. Administration officials say rules under consideration would prohibit institutions receiving "exceptional assistance" from giving severance payments to their top 55 executives. Their bonus pools would be reduced by about 40 percent from the 2007 level. Such companies would include Citigroup Inc., insurance giant American International Group Inc. and automakers General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, all of whom received bailouts under the Bush administration. fuck "exceptional assistance" any assistance is more like it sorry I'm just really not pro money hole

Ohio community drains entire system after workers' toxic mistake BELLAIRE, Ohio - Thousands of residents of a western Ohio community were told to stop drinking tap water after workers at a chemical treatment plant accidentally added toxic hydrochloric acid to the water supply.No serious injuries were reported. Forty pounds of the acid were added to Bellaire's water Sunday. The mistake was discovered Monday morning when workers noticed fluoride levels were lower than normal. .... .. ..

Octuplets mom gets TV, book offers to tell story and who didn't see this bullshit coming

Picked for chief performance officer, she faced allegation over nanny tax WASHINGTON - Nancy Killefer has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday. "She has withdrawn and we accepted her withdrawal," a White House spokesman told reporters. The spokesman declined to comment on the reasons and said more information would come later. Killefer was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after President Barack Obama announced their selection. man wtf s crew up here or there may be acceptable but 3 different picks with tax evasion problems... wtf is going on? All these scandals seem to be sending a message that the wealthy and elite don't follow the same rules as the rest of us anymore then Bush toadies do. Mistakes I can understand but 3 nominees picked to run crucial govt agiencies can't even pay their taxes properly? Somethings bent around here, looks damn crooked to me.

THIS IS BAD: WE'RE HEADING FOR 'WATER BANKRUPTCY' By Tara Lohan, AlterNet From California to the Himalayas, things are looking bad. http://www.alternet.org/blogs/water/124800/ In case you haven't been following recent headlines around water, they go something like this: "Argentine farmers face ruin as drought kills cattle, crops" (CNN) "Nevada a natural disaster area due to drought" (AP) "Kingdom braces for drought-like conditions" (Jordan Times) "Calif. facing worst drought in modern history" (USA Today) "Kenya to declare national emergency over drought" (Reuters) And to sum that all up, a new report recently released said that: "The world is heading toward 'water bankruptcy' as demand for the precious commodity outstrips even high population growth," AFP reported. In less than 20 years water scarcity could lose the equivalent of the entire grain crops of India and the United States, said the World Economic Forum report, which added that food demand is expected to sky-rocket in coming decades. "The world simply cannot manage water in the future in the same way as in the past or the economic web will collapse," said the report. Across the world, water resources are strapped and climate change is sure to make things worse in many areas. One of the hardest hit will be Asia where melting glaciers in the Himalayas could be gone by 2100, leaving 2 billion people without drinking water. As if that weren't enough, "about 70 major rivers around the world are close to being totally drained in order to supply water for irrigation and reservoirs," according to the report. Closer to home, California has made recent news with dire water predictions for the coming months, as the state seems to be hitting year three of drought. "We may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history," said California Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow. So what do we do? First, we need to combat climate change and we need to begin thinking of our water and energy problems in tandem. We can no longer find fixes for one that make the other one worse. It takes lots energy to move, use and treat water. And it takes lots of water to cool power plants. With that thinking, things like desalination and ethanol make less and less sense (if they ever did at all, anyway). Desal uses too much energy and biofuels, too much water. If you want to save water, you can definitely turn off your tap while you brush your teeth, but better yet, start saving electricity and driving your car less and eating lower on the food chain and more locally. Of course, this isn't just an issue that will be solved by individuals. We need better policy for water use in agriculture and industry and we need to move away from energy sources that are extremely water intensive -- like coal and nuclear plants, toward sources like wind and solar. It makes sense from both a water and climate change perspective. And what we need right now is some big picture thinking.