Monday, December 31, 2012
Tom Tomorrow's year-end review, Part II
None of this was made up
By Tom Tomorrow
To see Part 1, click here.
To see Part 2, the grand finale, click here.
For another treat, click here to read Dave Barry's year in review.
To see Part 1, click here.
To see Part 2, the grand finale, click here.
For another treat, click here to read Dave Barry's year in review.
Eating Asparagus May Prevent a Hangover, Study Suggests
From ScienceDaily.com
Researchers at the
Institute of Medical Science and Jeju National University in Korea analyzed the
components of young asparagus shoots and leaves to compare their biochemical
effects on human and rat liver cells. "The amino acid and mineral contents
were found to be much higher in the leaves than the shoots," says lead
researcher B.Y. Kim.
Past recipes from Progressive Charlestown...click here...and click here.
Past recipes from Progressive Charlestown...click here...and click here.
Senator-elect Cathie Cool Rumsey among 24 new legislators to be sworn in
2013-2014
General Assembly session opens January 1
 |
| Cathie Rumsey will be sworn in as a new Senator and will represent the northern half of Charlestown |
Editor's note: in addition to Cathie Rumsey, one of Charlestown's Town Solicitor's, Bob Craven, will be sworn in as the new State Representative for House District 32 (North Kingstown)
STATE HOUSE – The 2013-2014 session of the Rhode Island
General Assembly is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, January 1, when the 75
members of the House of Representatives and the 38 members of the Senate are
sworn into office. The membership includes 16 new Representatives and eight new
Senators.
The opening-day session of both the Senate and the House of
Representatives will begin at 2 p.m. Rhode Island Secretary of State A. Ralph
Mollis will deliver the oath of office in separate ceremonies in the two
legislative chambers.
Tonight, a bon fire to remember
Take that, Gävle Goat!
By Will Collette
Don't miss tonight's bonfire at Ninigret Park (4:30 - 7 PM). The annual Charlestown New Year's Eve bonfire is not to be missed, especially tonight.
Under pressure to match or surpass the Gävle Christmas Goat, bonfire organizer Frank "Frankie Pallets" Glista came up with the perfect solution with the help of my Progressive Charlestown colleague Tom Ferrio.
 |
| Click to enlarge - Tom Ferrio prepares for his blaze of glory |
Don't miss tonight's bonfire at Ninigret Park (4:30 - 7 PM). The annual Charlestown New Year's Eve bonfire is not to be missed, especially tonight.
Under pressure to match or surpass the Gävle Christmas Goat, bonfire organizer Frank "Frankie Pallets" Glista came up with the perfect solution with the help of my Progressive Charlestown colleague Tom Ferrio.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Michigan Bucks Democracy
With no warning, no hearings, no public input, no floor
debate, and no time for citizens to even know what was happening, Michigan's
Republicans rammed a union-busting bill into law.
 |
| Once about a time.... |
Michigan is no longer
a state. It is now “Michiganistan,” an autocratic czardom in the hands of
Emperor Rick Snyder.
Formerly the
Republican governor, Snyder has been enthroned by the GOP’s lame-duck,
legislative supermajority to rule with an iron fist — democracy, rule-of-law,
fairness, and the people be damned.
Ironically, voters had
given Snyder and his cohort of right-wing corporate ideologues a spanking for
this kind of nastiness in a November referendum. The GOP cabal in Lansing had
conspired last year to usurp the local authority of city governments and allow
Snyder to send in unelected, unaccountable autocrats to fire elected officials
and seize control, but last month, Michigan voters overthrew this absurdity.
The Emperor of Avarice
Gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson more than held his own
against the stiff competition to be crowned the greediest American of 2012.
The essence of greed?
Simple. Greed amounts to taking more than you need when you already have enough
— and others don’t.
Who among us, by this
yardstick, rate as our greediest? Those who have the wherewithal to take
whatever they want — and deny others the basics they need.
A Grim New Year for Women
Many of the choices that appear likely in the pending budget
deal would throw women under the bus.
While some prominent
Republicans appear to be more open to raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans
as part of a budget deal that would keep us from tumbling off the so-called
“fiscal cliff,” others are digging their heels in deeper.
Re-elected House
members in gerrymandered districts are behaving as though the national interest
has nothing to do with the priority of their constituents, which is to preserve
the Bush tax cuts for the rich.
And whether or not
they’re willing to fairly tax the rich, most of the Republicans who are wailing
and gnashing their teeth over the imminent and automatic spending cuts are
shouting about the fate of military spending.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Half empty, half full
By Russ Conway in
RIFuture.org
For a site with such an optimistic name, it’s funny how you can
always count on Anchor Rising to pounce on anything that can be spun to reflect
poorly on the state of Rhode Island. No, the glass is not half full according
to that other blog; it’s defective, leaking, and surely the fault of a public
employee somewhere.
The latest example of this comes from Justin, Rhody’s
littlest think tanker and a guy who truly puts the “dismal” in the dismal
science. What’s got Justin so concerned this time is Rhode Island’s
ranking in the “Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity”:
Marshes critical to ecosystem
Marshes on U.S. Coast Need More
Protection NOW
From: Roger Greenway, ENN.com
A hundred years ago we
thought that we had to fill in the marshes near populated areas along the
eastern US coastline since they represented prime locations for commercial and
residential development.
Even after some protections were put in place to
reduce the impacts of runaway development, marshes continued to serve are the places
we dumped our garbage, and sent the effluents from our wastewater treatment
plants.
They also receive the nutrient-rich run off from agricultural land use
and urban street runoff to our rivers.
Substitute "Charlestown" for "Newport"
 |
| This pretty much started the flap in Newport (click here) |
Aquidneck
Island has plenty of wind to make renewable energy, but, unfortunately, it also
produces a lot of hot air.
Newport
officials recently became the latest wind bags to add to the island’s growing
cover of hot air. City Council and Planning Board members didn’t want the Bruce
Long-led Middletown Town Council to be the only ones sounding the alarm about
the dangers of wind turbines. These three-armed beasts, they fear, will put the
health of neighbors at risk, deafen the island’s inhabitants, and ruin the
fossil fuel-inspired views of telephone poles, power lines, blinking neon signs
and traffic congestion.
And
don’t mention gearboxes. They’re scared to death all wind turbines come with
one of these faulty contraptions that will throw them all off a fiscal cliff.
How the National Rifle Association gets its power
Money
By Will Collette
To restore some sanity to America’s gun policy will require dealing,
somehow, with the political power amassed by the National Rifle Association.
Now that the NRA has declared itself squarely against any new gun laws, in
spite of public reaction to the Newtown slaughter, we must deal with the amount
of allegiance and obedience the NRA has bought from elected officials at almost
every level of government.
The NRA has amassed this political power even though it is
registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization which
is technically supposed to be non-political. In its last reporting year, the
NRA reported income (almost all of it not only tax-exempt but tax deductible to
the donors) of over a quarter of a billion
dollars.
But that’s not all. The NRA controls at least three other
national non-profits that each had its own revenue stream[1].
Together, they raised $18 million in the most recent tax year.
Friday, December 28, 2012
DEM makes new open space purchase in Westerly
Four-Acre Parcel will Enable Creation of Fishing, Boating Access
Site on River
PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management has
acquired four acres of land in Westerly that will enable the creation of an
excellent fishing and boating access site on the Pawcatuck River.
"The Pawcatuck is very popular for fishing, canoeing,
kayaking, and other forms of outdoor recreation. But currently, no safe public
access exists between Bradford and Westerly on the Pawcatuck – a beautiful
stretch of river that supports Rhode Island-raised stocked trout and warm water
fish species," said DEM Director Janet Coit. "Thanks to this
acquisition, DEM will be able to make this spectacular site and several miles
of the river readily accessible to the public."
New Year's Resolution
By Tim Faulkner, ecoRI.org
News executive editor
2013 is shaping up to
be a year of activism. Planning is underway for a massive Presidents Day rally
in Washington, D.C. Union supporters are striking and taking to capitals.
College students are calling for divestment. Even those happy with the outcome
of the presidential election aren’t taking the year off.
Perhaps a new
consumerism will also be part of this burgeoning activist movement.
Environmental degradation aside, the economy is improving; shoppers are
spending; new stores are opening.
This wave of growth
presents an opportunity to transform the physical look of retailing, the
livability of our communities and the health of local economies.
Low-wage RI workers will get a raise on January 1
State minimum wage will go up by
4.7%
By Will Collette
Starting January 1st, Rhode Island’s minimum wage will
climb to $7.75 from its current $7.40. Rhode Island is one of 18 states,
including every New England state except New Hampshire, that sets the minimum
wage higher than the federal rate.
Around 11,000 RI workers are
currently paid minimum wage and will directly benefit from the raise. Another 18,000
RI workers will have their wages adjusted upward.
After January 1, year-round
full-time work at minimum wage will give a worker an income of $16,120 a year.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wrong and not constructive
Gary Sasse is generally an honest actor and sometimes a smart
economist, but his piece in today’s Providence
Journal displays neither of these attributes.
Sasse argues that because the governor did not follow the bad
advice of right-wing think tank he used to lead that, “Rhode Island leaders are
denying economic reality.”
Not only is this not true, it’s also a deconstructive way to
conduct public discourse.
What will happen to taxes when we fall off the cliff
Many of these effects will apply to your 2012 tax bill
World supposedly reaches maximum farmland use
Study Proclaims the Arrival of Peak
Farmland
From: David A Gabel, ENN.com Peak Farmland is a term used to indicate that the amount of land needed to grow crops worldwide is at a peak, meaning, no new farmland will have to be created. A group of experts has even said that an existing area of farmland more than twice the size of France will be able to return to its natural state by the year 2060.
The New Agenda on Guns We Need after Newtown
This time, the debate has to be
about more than not offending the NRA's sensibilities.
By Donald Kaul
I’m
glad I retired five months ago.
Think
of it: I was spared writing about the presidential election, an event so
vacuous it made reality TV seem interesting. If there was any serious
discussion of an important national issue — global warming, our obesity
epidemic, transportation policy, the morality of drone attacks on civilian
populations, the environmental consequences of fracking, existential
implications of the designated hitter — I missed it.
Top Ten stories of 2012
Fear,
lies, bugs and class war topped the bill in 2012
Of
course, 2012’s big stories covered in Progressive Charlestown are the 2012
election, the scandal over the attempted YMCA Camp caper, the “Kill Bill” Campaign
mounted by the CCA against former Town Administrator Bill DiLibero, Hurricane
Sandy and the battle over who controls Ninigret Park.
While
these are certainly stand-outs among the 1900 articles we ran in Progressive
Charlestown during 2012, many of these top stories were actually composites of
many distinct topics. Plus, there are other stories as well that make the
Progressive Charlestown editors’ Top Ten Picks for 2012[1].
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Astronomy Picture of the Day
M33: Triangulum Galaxy
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the
Day
The small, northern
constellation Triangulum harbors
this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the
Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy.
M33 is over 50,000
light-years in diameter, third largest in the Local Group of
galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and our own Milky Way.
About 3 million
light-years from the Milky Way, M33 is itself thought to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy and astronomers in
these two galaxies would likely have spectacular views of each other's grand
spiral star systems.
As for the view from
planet Earth, this sharp
composite image, a 25 panel mosaic, nicely shows off M33's blue star
clusters and pinkish star
forming regions that trace the galaxy's loosely wound spiral arms.
In fact, the cavernous NGC 604 is
the brightest star forming region, seen here at about the 1 o'clock position
from the galaxy center. Like M31, M33's population of well-measured variable
stars have helped make this nearby spiral a cosmic yardstick for establishing the
distance scale of
the Universe.
Jobs or the Environment?
Soon it will be too late and we'll have
neither.
I
know what it's like to depend upon coal to feed a family.
Many
years ago, I worked at an Ohio steel mill. My job was at the coke plant where
West Virginia coal was turned into coking coal for the blast furnace. The top
of the coke ovens was an area the size of a football field where monstrous
machines funneled coal into the ovens.
If you're gong to do it, do it right
University of Hawaii Comes to Aid of
Hurricane Sandy Victims
From: Roger Greenway, ENN.com
Hurricane Sandy caused
more damage than many people who are not living in the Staten Island and Jersey
Shore areas are aware of. It will take a long time to recover and help is still
needed. The University of Hawaii may take the title of the helpers who traveled
the greatest distance to help. Their mission was two-fold, to help recovery
efforts, and to learn what more might be done to reduce damages from future hurricanes
and superstorms like Sandy.Holiday eating
How Excess Holiday
Eating Disturbs Your 'Food Clock'
If
the sinful excess of holiday eating sends your system into butter-slathered,
brandy-soaked overload, you are not alone: People who are jet-lagged, people
who work graveyard shifts and plain-old late-night snackers know just how you
feel.
All
these activities upset the body's "food clock," a collection of
interacting genes and molecules known technically as the food-entrainable
oscillator, which keeps the human body on a metabolic even keel. A new study by
researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is helping to
reveal how this clock works on a molecular level.
Rhode Island's green energy politics
By
TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org News staff
Renewable
energy isn’t just wind turbines and solar panels. There also is loads of
politics, planning, economics and science involved with any green power
project. The state Office of Energy Resources (OER), under the guidance of
director Marion Gold and Office of Administration director Richard Licht,
intends to harmonize these sometime discordant forces.
The
Renewable Energy Coordinating Board (RECB) recently addressed several of these
issues:
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
MUSIC VIDEOS: Christmas interlude
Instead of our usual insightful (or snarky) political commentary, here are some off-the-beaten path Christmas music videos that you may enjoy.
Or not. The first is a favorites of my old friend Langdon....
Or not. The first is a favorites of my old friend Langdon....
And for our many Progressive Charlestown readers who are fluent in Tagalog...
Christmas gift drive exceeds goal
Fifty area children will have a better Christmas than they expected
Charlestown Democrats report the effort to fulfill the Christmas wish lists of South County
children under the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) far
exceeded its goal.
The
Charlestown Democratic Town Committee teamed up with Operating Engineers Local
57 to give 30 children in shelters or foster homes in South County a nicer
holiday by providing gifts the kids would otherwise go without.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Astronomy Picture of the Day
NGC 5189: An Unusually
Complex Planetary Nebula
from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
Why is this nebula so
complex?
When a star like our Sun
is dying, it will cast off its outer layers, usually into a simple overall
shape. Sometimes this shape is a sphere, sometimes a double
lobe, and sometimes a ring or a helix.
In the case of planetary
nebula NGC 5189,
however, no such simple structure has emerged.
To help find out why,
the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope recently observed NGC
5189 in great
detail.
Previous findings indicated the existence of multiple epochs of material
outflow, including a recent one that created a bright but distorted torus running horizontally across image center.
Results appear
consistent with a hypothesis that the dying star is part of a binary
star system with
a precessing symmetry
axis.
Given this new
data, though, research is
sure to continue. NGC 5189 spans
about three light years and lies about 3,000 light years away toward the
southern constellation of the Fly (Musca).
Biggest wind farm completed
Last Turbine Installed at World's
Largest Offshore Wind Farm
Construction of the
125th and last turbine at the London Array Offshore Wind Farm has been
completed, marking the end of major construction activities at the massive
630MW renewable energy site.
Turbine installation
began in January 2012 and has been completed by MPI Discovery, A2SEA's Sea
Worker and Sea Jack.
The Airline Industry's Fee-for-All
Nearly every airline these days is addicted to
fees.
Those
who say we should run government like a business must not be frequent flyers.
Flying,
which was once a fairly good experience, now amounts to being herded, harassed,
barked at, and squeezed — while being dunned every step of the way for onerous
fees. Make a reservation? Do it yourself, or pay extra. Check a bag? The fee
for that is so pricey that most passengers have had to turn themselves into
mules, toting their full load on board — which the airlines view as a new fee
opportunity, planning to charge us for storing the stuff we schlep onto the
plane.
Here’s some candy for Christmas
US-made,
union-made sweets
 |
| This is the current leader in the Holiday Peeps contest |
By
Will Collette
If
you’re out shopping for last minute gifts or stocking stuffers, you might be
thinking about candy as the quick and easy solution, which of course it is.
As
an added bonus, you can feel good about making that purchase if you check the
following list that shows you the many great choices that are still made in the
U.S. of A. and, even better, made by the members of the Bakery and
Confectionery Workers union.
Imagine
my joy to see “Just Born” products on the list. Yep, that’s none other than
marshmallow Peeps®. And don’t forget to enter their second annual Holiday Peeps® diorama contest.
Other
great old favorites are also on the list, including all the Massachusetts-made
products from NECCO, led of course by NECCO wafers and including Clark bars,
Skybars, chocolate nonpareils, etc. Hershey and Nestle are union-made in the
USA. So are Jelly Belly jellybeans. So are candy Boston Baked Beans and Tootsie
Rolls.
So
are Mallo Cups and Jujubes. And Mrs. See’s chocolates from San Francisco.
Here’s
the list from the candy-workers union: