- Ready for a nice, big dose of enviro-positivity? With the
negative news of melting polar ice caps, disappearing glaciers and giant holes
in the ozone layer, some happy environmental news is always welcome and
researcher Randall
Donohue of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
(CSIRO) in Canberra, Australia has just such news for the people. According to
Donohue and his team, increasing carbon dioxide
levels may be amping up temperatures around the world, but they are also
responsible for green-ing up some of Earth’s most arid regions. Their findings
suggest that carbon dioxide has been having a "fertilization
effect," increasing foliage around the globe. Although scientists have
known about the greening since the 1980s, no one had definitively proven the
link to carbon dioxide until now. "Lots of papers have shown an
average increase in vegetation across the globe, and there is a lot of
speculation about what's causing that," Donohue said. "Up until this
point, they've linked the greening to fairly obvious climatic variables, such
as a rise in temperature where it is normally cold or a rise in rainfall where
it is normally dry. Lots of those papers speculated about the CO2 effect, but
it has been very difficult to prove." He and his team poured over data
from 1982 to 2010 and predicted a 5- to 10-percent increase in foliage
correlating with the 14-percent increase in carbon dioxide for the time period
in question. When they actually examined the data, they found an 11-percent increase
in greenery during that time period, providing "strong support for our
hypothesis.” Their efforts focused on the southwestern corner of North America,
Australia's outback, the Middle East, and parts of Africa and also accounted
for precipitation factors and other outside variables that could have led to
the increased vegetation………
- Los Angeles
Clippers management could not fall on this grenade fast enough. After a
firestorm of drama centered around the firing of former coach Vinny Del Negro
and the role of franchise point guard Chris Paul in the decision, the front
office clearly knew it needed to absorb all of the blame for owner and noted
racist Donald Sterling implying that players have deciding influence on
personnel decisions and because of that, who coaches the team falls on the
players with the most clout. Because Paul is the team’s marquee player and a free
agent, the implication is that his unhappiness with Del Negro’s coaching style
led to the firing. Paul is reportedly extremely angry about being linked to the
firing and knowing anything could propel the player who elevated them from
league-wide joke to fringe title contender to sign elsewhere, the front office
leapt into action on Friday, claiming responsibility for the decision. “The
decision not to extend a contract to Vinny Del Negro was an organizational
decision from the top down,” Clippers vice president of basketball operations
Gary Sacks said. “Our front office evaluated the season and Vinny's three years
here before making this move, and our conclusion and feeling was that we needed
a change.” When Paul finally becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, the
Clippers can offer the All-Star point guard a five-year, $108 million contract.
That’s a longer and more lucrative deal than any other potential suitor, but a
miffed Paul could eschew that extra cash and the chance to continue playing in sunny
southern California to sign with Dallas, Houston, Atlanta or another young team
hoping to make a leap with a top free-agent signing. The Clippers advanced to
the Western Conference semifinals in 2012, but were bounced in the first round
after winning their first two games against Memphis. Candidates to succeed Del
Negro reportedly include former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Byron Scott,
Indiana Pacers assistant coach Brian Shaw, former Phoenix Suns head coach Alvin
Gentry and ESPN broadcast analyst Jeff Van Gundy……
- Even in a profession where two-plus months off every
summer are a guarantee, there are bound to be a few slackers and lowlifes who
want to take advantage of the system and work even less than they’re supposed
to. Yes, teachers are like any other profession in that there are good ones and
bad ones, and Laurel
Elementary School teacher Ashley Barker seems to fall into the “bad” category.
Barker is technically still employed by the Polk County school district, but
only because she’s fighting the district’s efforts to fire her after she admitted
to fabricating a story that she and her father were dying so she could skip
class. She is under contract to teach first grade, but policing crying,
lunch-money-losing, paste-eating munchkins seems to have taken its toll on her
because one years ago, she began crafting a heartbreaking tale in which her
father was sick and dying and so was she. The father-is-dying angle might have
worked because who hasn’t spun a dying relative yarn to get out of an undesirable
obligation from time to time, but claiming she was at death’s door as well was
a bit excessive. After all, when one decides to turn the tide and pretend that
they are no longer about to shuffle off this mortal coil, explaining that
miraculous recovery can be difficult. For nearly a year, district officials
bought Barker’s tale and allowed her to leave early, take days off and make
other special accommodations so she could care for her (not) dying father and
fight her own battle with a terminal illness. The district hasn’t disclosed how
many days she actually skipped class, but according to her termination letter,
she sent the school principal 120 letters over the course of a year. Because
she a) is not that bright and b) vastly overshot with her tall tale,
allegations eventually surfaced about the veracity of her story. Once the
district hired investigators, it didn’t take long to learn that Barker was
lying. Officials confronted her and being the hardened criminal she is, she
caved and admitted she was sitting at home the entire time. Parents of Laurel
Elementary School students have wondered how she was able to get away with such
a massive lie for so long and other than typical bureaucratic negligence and
simple naïveté, there may not be a wonderful explanation. The best part of the
story just might be that Barker has the gall to fight her termination and her
case will now go to a formal hearing before a judge. Wonder what her story will
be this time……
- Florence And The Machine's Florence Welch isn't just a pretty face
with distinct voice who fronts a reasonably successful band. She has also
dabbled in acting and may be poised to take her thespian talent to a grander
stage. Welch is reportedly under consideration for a role in the new Star Wars trilogy. Studio executives
appear to be leaning more toward unproven talents than established A-list
actresses and that means Welch is being considered for a "major part"
in the sci-fi franchise under the direction of J.J. Abrams. Sources claim Welch
is just the sort of unexpected casting choice producers are seeking and it is
for a role that “would turn her into an A-list actress overnight” and that it
was actually her musical career that caught Abrams’ attention. The trilogy is
under the umbrella of Lucasfilm - which is now owned by Disney – and the studio
has scheduled “Star Wars: Episode VII”
for release in 2015 and hired Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt to pen the
script. Welch may or may not be on board with the film, but original cast
members Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill have all dropped more than
a few hints that they would be interested in making another attempt to revive
their flagging careers, er, return to reprise their roles. Welch has been
linked to the cinematic world recently, as Florence And The Machine recorded a
new track titled “Over the Love” for the soundtrack to “The Great Gatsby.” While Welch is waiting to find out whether
she will get her big acting break, she can always end that 12-month hiatus from
music she’s been on since her band’s second album was released in 2011 and get
to putting the new album she claimed last year to have written in her mind down
on paper or a computer screen. Maybe if she’s really fortunate, Disney will ask
her to pen a space-tastic track for the “Star Wars VII” sountrack……..
- No one does murder like the criminals of San Pedro Sula. The
Honduran city holds the unlikely (and typically unwanted) designation of having
the highest murder rate in the world and it’s the chief contributor in Honduras
having the world's highest murder rate. That could change if ongoing talks
between its two most violent gangs finally achieve the truce they are seeking.
The Honduran government is backing the talks between the Mara Salvatrucha and
Calle 18 gangs, both of which gave statements (appropriately enough) from a
prison in on Tuesday, asking forgiveness from the public for the violence and
declaring a cease-fire. In a heartwarming scene, gang members appeared on
camera and spoke with their faces covered with bandanas to disguise their
identities as they pushed for peace. "We are going to start now. ... We
have now spent more than a decade being always involved in crime and
mistreatment, which has also affected us, and what we want is peace," a
representative of the Calle 18 gang told assembled media members. “We are going
to respect their territory, but let them also respect our territory, so that
the violence decreases.” From the other side came a warning that absolute peace
between the two long-warring gangs is no sure thing. "We cannot have a
truce with other people who do not think like we do," a representative of
the Mara Salvatrucha proclaimed from the prison inside a city that has managed
to keep its death grip (pun intended) on its title as the world's murder capital.
If there is actual peace in Honduras, it could follow the same path as neighboring
El Salvador, where the same two gangs have already reached a truce and the
murder rate has dropped dramatically, according to the government. San Pedro
Sula Bishop Romulo Emiliani is involved in the talks and claims the two gangs
truly do want to make amends with the society they have been offing one by one.
"They want to reconcile with Honduran society and ask for forgiveness from
the Honduran people, and I think it is a step forward," Emiliani said. "What
is coming is difficult. It is not easy. It is complicated." Honduran
President Porfirio Lobo blessed the talks as well and said he called Emiliani
to "express my congratulations and my appreciation in name of the people
of Honduras." The Organization of American States is also involved in the
process and everyone is hoping to change the fact that Honduras had the highest
murder rate in the world, at 91.6 killings per 100,000 people, according to
United Nations data released in 2011…….
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