Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, May 05, 2015.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
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This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Miami 2017 by Billy Joel
News below Aunt Flossie's hairdo . . .
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
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Top News |
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What farm cooperatives can do for the food system — and farmers
By Darby Minow Smith
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Cooperatives are owned and operated by members who share in any profits or benefits. Farm cooperatives run the gamut from huge organizations with regional offices, farmer-elected representatives, and national brands to small collectives of 15 farmers who meet in a church basement when it’s time to talk about their locally marketed pork. They face unique challenges at the extremes: As they get larger, cooperatives struggle with bureaucracy and uninvolved or dissatisfied members; as they get smaller, they might just have to fight to stay afloat at all.
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The cooperative’s successes were hard-won, but it would be even more time-consuming for one mid-size farmer to build up a local brand on her own. Grocery stores might resist working with her, since it’s cheaper and easier to buy from big distributors. She might not even be able to process her goods: Independent mills, slaughterhouses, dairy plants, and the like all vanished in the consolidation of the food system. Through a cooperative, our farmer could join like-minded neighbors to come up with a marketing plan, favorable contracts, and even build up the necessary processing facilities — all at a lower cost and effort to herself.
But banding together to build a better market gets less appealing to farmers when prices are high on their own. With regional droughts pushing national beef prices up to record levels, Adirondack Grazers doesn’t have quite the same draw for farmers as it once did. They still offer better prices, but the difference is much smaller. What the co-op can promise, during both good times and bad, is a steady price so that farmers can plan ahead.
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House Republicans holds hearing on politics in science, don't invite any scientists
By Cory Doctorow
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The sole witness called by the committee's Democrats was a science historian who studies the way that corporate lobbyists distort science policy. The GOP called no scientists.
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Oreskes went on to describe how work like the Manhattan Project, which built the first atom bomb, the Apollo space missions, and plate tectonics research had all been done by federal scientists driven by inherently political goals. And she portrayed the government peer-review process as, in some ways, more stringent and open to different voices than academic science.
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Democrats at the hearing, for their part, were having a hard time stomaching what they saw as an irony. “This hearing purports to be about insuring scientific accountability and accuracy,” said Representative Jared Huffman (D–CA). “And, I have to say, that is a tough sell, given the majority party’s consistent record of attacking government science and underfunding science and research and frankly of flouting science especially when it comes to our climate and our environment.”
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Greenpeace says India office may shut down in a month
By (BBC)
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The environmental group Greenpeace has said it may be forced to shut down in India in a month because the government has frozen its bank accounts.
The pressure group said it had only about 30 days' worth of funds with which to pay office costs and salaries.
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Since coming to power in May last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has pushed through a series of long-awaited reforms and new policies making it easier for companies to win approval for new projects.
Greenpeace activists have accused him of watering down environmental rules after the government allowed industries to operate closer to protected green zones.
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US approves ferry service between Cuba and Florida
By (BBC)
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Ferries could be set to run between Florida and Cuba for the first time in more than 50 years after the US government approved new services.
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The US government has now lifted the ban and a number of ferry companies say they have been given licences.
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BBC Cuba correspondent Will Grant says the latest announcement does not necessarily mean that boats will start launching for Cuban shores straight away, as there are bureaucratic hurdles to overcome in both countries.
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A new charter flight service from New York City, operated by JetBlue, had already been announced.
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International |
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Syrians 'forced underground by barrel bombs'
By (Al Jazeera)
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Syrian government forces are targeting civilians in barrel bomb attacks in Aleppo that have forced hospitals and schools to move underground, rights group Amnesty International says in a new report that describes the bombings as "crimes against humanity".
Tuesday's report, "Death everywhere: War crimes and human rights abuses in Aleppo" details war crimes and other abuses being committed in the city by government forces and armed opposition groups on a daily basis, and concludes that some of the government’s actions in Aleppo amount to crimes against humanity.
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Yarmouk was already a civil war battleground before the ISIL attack, having been reduced to rubble from street fighting, air attacks and shelling.
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Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told a news conference in Geneva that the talks were not a new round of negotiations but a series of individual meetings with "as many actors involved in the Syrian conflict as possible" to get a sense of whether another round of negotiations was feasible.
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John Kerry visits Somali capital Mogadishu
By (BBC)
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The US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on an unannounced visit.
He is the first American Secretary of State to visit the city.
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The more recent changes he pointed out were Somali forces pushing al-Shabab out of big towns and a "determined international effort" to put virtually all of Somalia's pirates out of business.
BBC Somalia analyst Mary Harper says the US plays a crucial if controversial role in Somalia, supporting the weak central government in its fight against al-Shabab.
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Our correspondent points out that America is careful to take a less visible role than it did in the 1990s, when the bodies of US servicemen were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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Higher Ed Lobby Quietly Joins For-Profit Schools to Roll Back Tighter Rules
By Alec MacGillis
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For years, the higher education establishment has viewed the for-profit education business as both a rival and an unsavory relation — the cousin with the rap sheet who seeks a cut of the family inheritance. Yet in a striking but little-noticed shift, nearly all of the college establishment’s representatives in Washington are siding with for-profit colleges in opposing the government’s crackdown.
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The emerging alliance points to a new calculation by the higher education lobby. By throwing in with the for-profits, traditional schools might be able to capitalize on Republican control of Congress to limit the government’s reach into their own campuses. Among other things, colleges and universities would like to block the proposed new federal ratings system designed to help families choose institutions based on how of their many students graduate and where they get jobs.
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In February, all major higher education lobbying groups but one—the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities—sent a letter backing the “Supporting Academic Freedom Through Regulatory Relief Act,” authored by Rep. John Kline of Minnesota and Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the Republicans who chair, respectively, the education committee and the higher education subcommittee. The bill, which has a counterpart in the Senate, would bar the regulations on for-profits, among other regulatory rollbacks.
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The shift cheers the for-profits, which have seen enrollment fall amid all the bad publicity for the industry and threat of tougher oversight (one major chain, Corinthian Colleges, has been shut down entirely).
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
Billy Joel grew up near New York City and always had an affinity for the city. After he moved to Los Angeles in 1972 to establish his solo career, New York fell on hard times with rampant crime, a huge drug problem, and financial problems that put the city in danger of default.
On October 29, 1975, President Gerald Ford gave a speech where he made it clear that the US government would not bail out New York City to keep it from bankruptcy. The next day, the headline in the Daily News read: "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD" (Ford never said these words, and the sensationalist headline hurt him in the next election, which he lost to Jimmy Carter).
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Billy did return to New York in 1975, where he wrote this song thinking of the worst-case scenario: financial collapse, murders, looting - an apocalyptic vision that would look like something out of the Mad Max movies. The story Joel came up with was science fiction, but it was based on very real concerns.
This song took on new meaning when New York was attacked by terrorists in 2001, 25 years after Joel wrote this . . .
Back to what's happening:
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Environment and Greening |
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Madagascar's fishing villagers learn to survive by managing their stocks
By Kit Buchan
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The Vezo people of south-west Madagascar have been living off the Mozambique channel for more than 1,000 years; their population is both defined and sustained entirely by fishing. But when biologist Alasdair Harris visited the region more than 10 years ago with his fledgling organisation, Blue Ventures, he found the vulnerable coastal villages were struggling to sustain themselves. The Vezo’s booming population had diminished local fish stocks.
Unsurprisingly, the villagers of Andavadoaka had mixed feelings when Blue Ventures suggested closing one of their fishing grounds. Nevertheless, they agreed to a trial closure for a few months in 2004. “When we opened it they caught 1,200kg of octopus in one day,” recalls Gildas Andriamalala, who joined the project as a student researcher. “We invited people from 20 villages just to see it … to show the community that if they look after their resources they will benefit.”
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The need for such protection is increasingly acute. The Vezo represent a fraction of the millions struggling to survive in coastal regions that are further threatened by the burgeoning effects of climate change. Harris believes that marine conservation can only be sustainably enacted by working closely with those who depend on the sea, helping them to recognise the importance of conservation at a human level. “Our sector really does not get it right,” he says. “Most people are entirely marginalised by conservation.” Ecologists have called for 30% of the Earth’s oceans to be fully protected, but according to Harris that figure currently stands at less than 1%. “We need a radically new approach,” he says, “and that’s why we do this work.”
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Birdfeeding favours non-native bird species
By GrrlScientist
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Feeding wild birds is a hugely popular pastime worldwide. But this is essentially a massive global supplementary feeding experiment with ecological effects that are poorly understood. A newly-published study of bird feeding in New Zealand reports that the common practice of feeding bread and seed alters the species composition observed in urban bird communities such that introduced bird species were the big winners at the expense of native birds. The study suggests that supplementary feeding of bread and seed encourages higher densities of introduced bird species, which may in turn, decrease local populations of native bird species.
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Considering its tremendous popularity with the public, it might surprise you to learn that feeding wild birds is controversial, particularly amongst ecologists and birders. Much of this controversy is based on assumptions and handwaving since very few scientific investigations into this practice have been published. Basically, the only thing that most scientists can be sure of is that the global scale of bird feeding probably does affect wild bird populations, but no one knows precisely what those effects might be.
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“We aren’t suggesting people stop feeding birds”, wrote Ms Galbraith in email. “But we do need to consider how we might feed in such a way that encourages a diversity of birds, minimises the risks to other natives that don’t visit feeders, and certainly avoid practices that benefit non-native, invasive or pest species.”
Matching the types of seed and other foods that you provide so you specifically attract local native species is important. For example, many insectivorous bird species respond well when live insects or insect larvae are provided. Other bird species will be attracted by fresh cut fruits, berries or nectars, and a variety of native seed-eating birds will show up to dine on their “special seeds”.
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Like a crowded watering hole in an arid region of Africa, a bird feeder attracts many birds that would not ordinarily be found feeding in such close proximity. For this reason, another “birdfeeding controversy” is the very real possibility of increased disease transmission, which is exacerbated when the person supplying food does not practice good “birdfeeder hygiene”. Basically, this amounts to washing the bird feeder and all feeding tools with soap or bleach and allowing everything to dry thoroughly before putting them back into service.
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Science and Health |
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How to Extract a Confession…Ethically
By Roni Jacobson
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Last December a Senate Intelligence Committee report revealed how two psychologists were involved in shaping the CIA's “enhanced interrogation” methods, using psychologist Martin Seligman's theory of learned helplessness to justify controversial practices such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation—something Seligman himself has repudiated.* The problem is that in addition to being morally reprehensible, interrogation methods based on force and intimidation don't work.
“Coercive, confrontational methods actually lead to the detainee shutting down,” says psychologist Christian Meissner of Iowa State University, who studies interrogation techniques. “More effective tactics rely on cooperation, which can be facilitated using principles of social influence that we know work very well.”
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To find out, in 2009 President Barack Obama convened the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG), made up of cognitive and social psychologists and other experts. This winter the HIG, led by Meissner, released its findings in a special issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology. Ethical interrogations are not only possible; their effectiveness is also robustly supported by research.
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An Obscure African Plant Tells Miners Where to Look for Diamonds
By Sarah Zhang
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Diamonds you’re familiar with. Pandanus candelabrum, not so much. And until recently, botanists didn’t pay much attention to this rare, palm-like plant from West Africa either. But the discovery that P. candelabrum grows only over rock that may harbor diamonds has vaulted the plant out of obscurity.
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This is the first known plant to indicate kimberlite, but miners have long used plants to hunt for clues into what lies beneath. This best known example may be copper, which can be found by looking for the California poppy in the U.S. or the flowering shrub Haumaniastrum katangense in central Africa. There’s also prince’s plume for selenium, juniper for uranium, horsetail for gold, and so on. In some cases, the plants have adapted to metal-rich soil, and in others, they’re especially good at concentrating a certain metal in their tissues.
In the case of P. candelabrum, it may have adapted to the magnesium, potassium and phosphorus-rich kimberlite soils. It just so happens that areas tend to be diamond rich, too.
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Technology |
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The bittersweet world of mental health online
By Charlotte Walker
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Until a few years ago I never dreamed that a supportive community existed on the net. I used social media in a light-hearted way, keeping in touch with friends on Facebook and I chatted about books and TV on Twitter. But in 2011 after having a devastating bipolar episode, I began blogging as a way to process my feelings. I created a new Twitter account to promote the blog but over time it became an important connection to the mental health community for me.
Social media is a good place for me to talk openly about my mental health
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The online community offers me much needed contact with people who "get it", who know what it's like to use mental health services or take heavy-duty medication. Despite having different and varied diagnoses, we have enough common ground to understand one another. Even with a supportive partner I sometimes need Twitter as a place to say the unsayable and bring the very dark side of bipolar into the light. I couldn't count the times someone has generously held my virtual hand through suicidal feelings or debilitating anxiety.
The community is also a place where people work together towards common goals. Sometimes it can act as a pressure group to tackle issues like how media uses the term "psycho" or the sale of "mental patient" Halloween costumes we saw last year. Most recently there has been success in challenging the over-use of stock photos accompanying mental health stories which showed peple holding their heads in their hands, or #headclutchers as they are known on Twitter.
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The most difficult situation is when an online friend says they want to take their own life. Many people use Twitter to vent suicidal feelings, and in most cases people are just trying to work through their thoughts. Occasionally, however, someone mentions a suicide plan and then goes offline, which sets off alarm bells. Many people use pseudonyms online so I often don't have enough real information to contact emergency services, but when I do know who they are, it's a huge dilemma. If I don't call 999 something very terrible could happen - but if someone's just decided to take a Twitter break, they probably won't welcome the police knocking on their door. It's something I agonise over.
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Kitchen microwaves baffle Australian space scientists
By (BBC)
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After 17 years of fruitlessly searching the galaxy, Australian scientists have discovered the source of mysterious radio signals hitting a telescope.
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She concluded that "tests revealed that peryton events can be generated under the right set of circumstances with on-site microwave ovens....and can account for bimodal DM distribution of the known perytons."
Or in layman's terms, as Ms Petroff told ABC News: "It turns out that you can generate these particular local signals by opening the door of the microwave to stop the microwave, and that produces these weird bursts that we're seeing at Parkes."
"It was kind of a surprise to all of us," she added.
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Cultural |
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Gay couple win High Court battle over baby girl
By (BBC)
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A baby girl should be removed from her mother and live with her father and his boyfriend instead, a judge has ruled.
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The woman said they had agreed for her to be the main parent, but the father, who donated sperm, said she had agreed to be the gay couple's surrogate.
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"[The woman] has consistently done all she can to minimise the role that [the father] had in the child's life and to control and curtail his contact with his daughter," said the judge.
"Far from being a child that she conceived with her good friend, as she describes it, her actions have always been of a woman determined to treat the child as solely her own."
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |