Saturday, February 28, 2015
AIDS Project still looking for local restaurant participants in “Dining Out for Life” promotion
No Charlestown,
Westerly or SK restaurants on the list yet
By Stephen Hug
For the first
time in memory, AIDS Project Rhode Island’s “Dining Out for Life” event will
feature three co-chairs.
The 11th
annual Dining Out for Life takes place this year on Thursday, April 30 at
participating restaurants across the Rhode Island area. Funds raised
benefit AIDS Project Rhode Island.
“Once again, we
are honored to have NBC 10’s Mario Hilario join us,” said AIDS Project Rhode
Island’s development director Julie Casimiro. “His involvement has been
critical to helping us raise awareness of the event and HIV/AIDS,” she said.
Mr. Hilario has been anchoring NBC 10 Weekend Sunrise since 1997, is an
Associated Press award winner, and is a five-time Emmy award nominee.
“The snow and
ice should be but a memory on April 30th, as AIDS Project Rhode
Island holds the 11th annual Dining Out for Life,” said Mr.
Hilario. “It has become a celebration of spring, as people across the
state support the fight against HIV and AIDS by visiting a participating
restaurant and enjoying a meal. Let’s hope we won’t be still
shoveling snow!”
Unique volunteer opportunities to help the local environment
|
Wild weather delays WPWA nature programs
delayed to March and April
Get into fly fishing by learning to tie flies or build your own rod.
Learn tree identification.
And experience the adventure of geocaching.
Get the details below the break.
How climate change affects military preparedness
Climate deniers may be jeopardizing
national security. By refusing to do anything about climate change, they’re
contributing to the rising temperatures that are causing our sea levels to
rise.
Why is that such a threat to our national security? Because the rising
sea levels put 30 of our military bases in danger.
Jeff Goodell describes his visit to
Naval Station Norfolk in an in-depth
article in Rolling Stone. His
visit came just after a nor’easter had gone through, and he saw military
vehicles up to their axles in water, and pooled water all along a flat, grassy
area near Admiral’s Row.
When a storm blows through, or when the tide is
unusually high, Naval Station Norfolk is half-submerged in the ocean.
Sea levels there are actually rising
twice as fast as the global average, according to Goodell’s article, and Naval
Station Norfolk is not the only base at risk.
At Langley, base commanders have
30,000 sand bags ready to fight the inevitable flooding when a storm comes in.
Old Christmas trees get piled along
the beach to keep it from eroding at Dam Neck, another naval base. And, says
Goodell, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine says that the rising sea levels impact our
military readiness.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Next, maybe we’ll become DINO-free
By
Rhode Island is now an ALEC-free zone.
When the year 2014 expired on December
31, so did Warwick Senator William Walaska’s membership in the American
Legislative Exchange Council, a once-controversial right-wing bill mill that
partnered corporate interests with state lawmakers to draft conservative model
legislation to be shopped to Statehouses across the country.
Walaska, a Democrat, was the last
local legislator who was an ALEC member – and the only one to renew membership
since 2012. His lapsed membership means that the Rhode Island State House will
not receive any copies of ALEC’s monthly magazine.
Trout fishing season ENDS on Sunday
2015
Freshwater Fishing Licenses Are Required Beginning March 1 and are Available
for Purchase Online and at Numerous Locations Throughout Rhode Island
PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management's
Division of Fish & Wildlife is reminding anglers that Saturday is the last
day of the 2014-2015 freshwater fishing season, and that fishing in
trout-stocked waters is prohibited from March 1 until Opening Day on Saturday,
April 11.Anglers may fish from March 1 through April 10 in waters that are not stocked with trout. However, a 2015 fishing license is required for anglers 15 years of age and older wishing to catch fish. All 2014 freshwater fishing licenses will expire on February 28.
Ice fishing is a popular winter activity in Rhode Island, and there are many ponds and lakes throughout the state where anglers can fish in waters that are not stocked with trout. Among the popular locations for winter fishing are Worden Pond in South Kingstown; Chapman Pond in Westerly; Johnson's Pond in Coventry; Stump Pond in Smithfield; Waterman's Reservoir in Glocester; Wilson Reservoir in Burrillville; Echo Lake in Pascoag; and Simmons Mill in Little Compton.
Farewell, Spock
Leonard Nimoy, March 26, 1931 – February 27, 2015
 |
| My folks came to U.S. as immigrants, aliens, and became citizens. I was born in Boston, a citizen, went to Hollywood and became an alien. |
Science & Technology Advisory Council awards $814,000 in grants for coastal research
URI scientists are partners on five of six grants awarded for marine-based
research in Rhode Island
Todd McLeish,
URIKINGSTON, R.I. – February 20, 2015 – The Rhode Island Science & Technology Advisory Council (STAC) today announced the recipients of its 2015 Collaborative Research Grants, and University of Rhode Island researchers are partners on five of the six funded projects.
The grants, totaling more than $814,000, aim to make Rhode Island an international leader in understanding and predicting the response of marine organisms and marine ecosystems to climate variability. They will fund multi-disciplinary research teams with expertise in oceanography, supercomputing, environmental conservation, genetics, toxicology, and aquatic pathology to examine how marine life in Narragansett Bay is responding to climate change.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
“We were only ‘mostly’ dead”
Unions Back from the Dead
By Phil Mattera, Dirt Diggers DigestRight-wing governors in states such as Illinois and Wisconsin, corporate front men such as Rick Berman, and an unholy alliance of the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Heritage Foundation are among those seeking to nail shut the coffin of what they see as a dying labor movement.
Yet recent events allow unions to channel Mark Twain and declare that the reports of their death have been greatly exaggerated.
As the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that
strikes last year sank to their second lowest level since 1947, workers at oil
refineries around the country have been walking picket lines. A simmering labor
dispute between shippers and members of the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union may result in a work stoppage at West Coast ports.
Discussions of wage stagnation, which all too often are devoid
of references to declining union membership rates, are starting to acknowledge
the importance of collective bargaining.
How much sleep do you really need?
Probably more than you’re getting
From: LOYOLA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM via EurekAlert.
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine researcher Lydia DonCarlos, PhD, is a member of an expert panel that's making new recommendations on how much sleep people need.
The panel, convened by the National Sleep Foundation, is making
its recommendations based on age, ranging from newborns (who need 14 to 17
hours of sleep per day) to adults aged 65 and up (7 to 8 hours per day).
In the new guidelines, there's a wider range of what constitutes a
good night's sleep. For example, the expert panel recommends that teens (ages
14 to 17) get 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night. The previous guideline had a
narrower recommended range of 8.5 to 9.5 hours per night.
Goosey as Ever
The
GOP's presidential field features some weary right-wing retreads.
 |
| DonkeyHotey/Flickr |
Ready or not, the race is on — for president, I mean.
Yes, Election Day is still nearly two years away, but the
candidates are already on the loose. And they’re as goosey as ever.
So far, the goosiest has been Mitt Romney.
The GOP’s 2012 loser was asked last year if he would try again,
and he said — in these exact
words — “Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.”
That’s 11 not-uhs, which would seem pretty final.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Here’s school choice I support
The
resolution read, in part,
“There
is an over-abundance of these tests in Rhode Island public schools. The Rhode
Island Department of Education, through individual school districts, must
provide all parents with yearly, written information fully explaining their
right to opt out of these assessments.
“Students
who opt out of high-stakes assessments, such as PARCC, will not be included in
data used by state or federal entities in grading or ranking schools or
districts, or for any other punitive measures. No parent or student should be
penalized based on a parental decision to remove a student from standardized
assessments.”
The
resolution also said:
Home Sweet Home!
"If we treated our homes the way we treat the Earth...."
By Jen Sorenson
Click here to see what would happen.
Click here to see what would happen.
March 1, World-famous painter to join URI ensemble in commemorating Armenian genocide
Kevork
Mourad paints to music
Elizabeth
Rau, URI
Mourad will bring his unique style to the University of Rhode Island March 1 during a concert to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
The Syrian-raised artist will paint to music performed by URI’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Armenian Folk Chamber Ensemble. The concert, conducted by Gene Pollart, will start at 3 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center.
“Kevork is a world-class artist and the opportunity to see him perform at URI is unprecedented,’’ says Theodore Mook, publicity coordinator and a cello teacher in the music department. “Also, we're honoring a terrible historical event that gets overlooked.’’
New Commercial Fishing License Opportunities
Limited
Number of New Commercial Fishing License Opportunities Available for 2015
A limited number of new commercial fishing licenses will be made available this year. A total of 21 new quahog and 12 new soft-shell clam endorsements will be issued on the CFL license to residents, and three new restricted finfish endorsements will be issued on the PEL license for the 2015 fishing season.
The new quahog endorsements are for residents only
and will allow for the commercial harvest of quahogs, and the new soft-shell
clam endorsements are for residents only and will allow for the commercial
harvest of soft-shell clams.
Cancer-fighting compound found in common kitchen ingredient
Component
in olive oil kills cancer cells
From: Rutgers University
A Rutgers nutritional scientist and two cancer biologists
at New York City’s Hunter
College have found that an ingredient in extra-virgin olive oil kills a
variety of human cancer cells without harming healthy cells.
The ingredient is oleocanthal, a compound that ruptures a
part of the cancerous cell, releasing enzymes that cause cell death.
Paul Breslin, professor of nutritional sciences in
the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and David Foster and
Onica LeGendre of Hunter College, report that oleocanthal kills cancerous cells
in the laboratory by rupturing vesicles that store the cell’s waste.
The fight for is free and open internet is YOUR fight
A Free and Open Internet for an Innovative and
Competitive Economy
By Mac Clemmens
By Mac Clemmens
If
you're reading this online, thank net neutrality.
Net
neutrality is the principle that all Internet content must be delivered
equally. This article shouldnt be transmitted more slowly than another one.
Your cat video shouldn't be given priority over a TED Talk. More importantly,
your small business' website shouldn't be loaded slower than Amazons. Put it
this way: Net neutrality prevents preferential treatment; it is freedom from
interference.
That
freedom is crucial to businesses large and small. According to Fast Company,
Amazon calculated that just one more second of page loading time could cost
$1.6 billion in sales each year. Amazon could probably handle that loss, but
most small businesses probably couldnt, and some might not get off the ground.
Imagine if Hulu or Netflix had, in their infancy, been forced to pay high fees
or face tortoise-like loading speeds.
So
when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a proposal that would
have allowed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to slow down traffic and charge
a fee for higher speeds, small businesses took notice.
My
company serves nonprofits -- churches, domestic violence groups, educational
institutions -- groups that cannot afford to pay for faster speeds. Yet without
Net Neutrality, commercially-sponsored content would be streamed in no time,
while groups like these which are dedicated to helping people could see their
speeds slow to a crawl.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
PawSox’s decision is a Hobson’s Choice
They
really need to stay in Pawtucket
By
Will Collette
 |
| Photo by Will Collette. I took this shot from a seat that cost me less than $10! You can't beat minor league baseball. |
Lots
of cities across America have found themselves in situations where they are
being held hostage by sports franchises angling for a one-sided deal that
screws taxpayers in return for being graced with their presence.
The
surprise announcement by the new owners of the Pawtucket Red Sox puts the state
in a bind.
It’s a Rhode Island-scale bind, not anywhere near the billion-dollar
stadium rip-offs that Dallas faced to keep the Cowboys or New York faced to
keep the Yankees. But big enough to hurt at Rhode Island if we decide to pay
off the blackmailers to keep a great team here in the state.
While
I was born in Central Falls, I grew up in Pawtucket and vividly remember the
old, pre-PawSox McCoy Stadium which was through most of my childhood, a
moldering shamble, not to mention a pretty dangerous place. It was a blight on
the whole surrounding neighborhood until it was saved by the PawSox.
It
turned into a great place to watch baseball. Minor league stadiums, in general,
are a lot of fun – smaller, friendlier, cheaper and every seat in the house is
a good seat. But the revived McCoy Stadium was especially nice for a summer
evening out.
Astronomy Picture of the Day
NGC 4676: When Mice Collide
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as the "Mice" because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other.
The long tails are created by the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy.
Because the distances are so large, the cosmic interaction takes place in slow motion -- over hundreds of millions of years.
NGC 4676 lies about 300 million light-years away toward the constellation of Bernice's Hair (Coma Berenices) and are likely members of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies.
The picture below was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2002.
These galactic mice will probably collide again and again over the next billion years until they coalesce to form a single galaxy.
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as the "Mice" because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other.
The long tails are created by the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy.
Because the distances are so large, the cosmic interaction takes place in slow motion -- over hundreds of millions of years.
NGC 4676 lies about 300 million light-years away toward the constellation of Bernice's Hair (Coma Berenices) and are likely members of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies.
The picture below was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2002.
These galactic mice will probably collide again and again over the next billion years until they coalesce to form a single galaxy.
Another technological revolution?
An
Internet of Things reality check
Inderscience, Science Daily
Connecting different kinds of devices, not
just computers and communications devices, to the Internet could lead to new
ways of working with a wide range of machinery, sensors, domestic and other
appliances. Writing in the International Journal of Innovation and Learning, suggest that we are on the verge of a another technological revolution but practicalities and legal obstacles may stymie the development of the so-called Internet of Things if they are not addressed quickly.
Aelita Skaržauskiene and Marius Kalinauskas of the
Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) in Lithuania explain that, "Applying
things, which are connected in networks, could revolutionise many industry and
service sectors thus creating new service provisions and administration methods
based on information technology."
They point out that The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) predicts that by the end of 2015 there will be more than 6.5 billion devices connected to the internet, including many smart devices that have not previously been considered as network-connected.
They point out that The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) predicts that by the end of 2015 there will be more than 6.5 billion devices connected to the internet, including many smart devices that have not previously been considered as network-connected.
Marijuana may have even more medical uses
Cannabis:
A new frontier in therapeutics
McGill University Health Centre, Science Daily
While debate about recreational marijuana use continues, researchers are investigating the effectiveness of cannabis for treating pain, spasticity, and a host of other medical problems.
In a symposium organized by the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) as part of the 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting held this week in San Jose, California, experts from North America and the U.K. share their perspectives on the therapeutic potential of medical cannabis and explore the emerging science behind it.
"We need to advance our understanding of the role of
cannabinoids in health and disease through research and education for patients,
physicians and policy-makers," says Dr. Mark Ware, director of clinical
research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit at the MUHC, in Canada.
A Corporate Apostate
Aetna's
choosing to pay some employees more than the going rate.
Business schools preach a strict, anti-social doctrine of
corporate management that comes down to this: CEOs must be idiots.
By that I mean the original Greek word idiotes, which applied
to people who care only about themselves and the prosperity of their immediate
family. They’re the ones who reject any responsibility to the larger society,
civic affairs, and the common good.
That selfish ethos is what prevails in today’s corporate suites,
where it’s claimed that the only responsibility of executives is to maximize
profits for the “family” — that is, for themselves and their major
shareholders.
If they have to stiff workers, sidestep environmental rules, and
shaft consumers to do it, well, that’s the lot of idiotes.
But now comes an apostate to this doctrinal idiocy.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Spring really is coming; tax myths, energy ennui and Charlestown invasion
Charlestown
Tapas: tasteful bites of news for the discerning Progressive Charlestown reader
One of spring’s
most wonderful signs
One
sure way to know that this dreary winter with its succession of snow and ice
storms is almost over is when you start to see announcements for the annual
Easter Peeps® diorama contests. I just spotted the New London Day’s
notice of their contest. They run a pretty decent one, although my own
personal favorite is the Washington Post’s. There are dozens of imitators.
The
general idea is to use marshmallow Peeps®, one of American industry’s perfect
foods, in little tableaus that will catch the judge’s eye and make people
laugh. The themes can be political, historical, literary or theatrical, pop
culture, etc. Whatever works.
Talkin’ taxes
Just
as Peeps® are a harbinger of spring, so too are the W-2 and 1099 forms we get
so we can prepare and pay our state and local income taxes on or before April
15.
During
2014’s campaign, there was a lot of talk from Republican challengers such as
new Rep. Blake “Flip” Filippi who now represents Charlestown and the rest of
District 36 (which he would need a map to find, since he actually lives in
Lincoln, not in the District).
Flip promised that he would introduce a state
law to exempt Social Security from state income tax. When the time came, the
lead bill to exempt Social Security and other retirement income was actually introduced by
Rep. Bob Craven
(D-No. Kingstown) who is also an assistant Charlestown town solicitor.
Flip
ended up signing on to two bills introduced by Republican colleagues that have
no hope of passage.
Driving
the issue is the myth that state taxes are causing Rhode Islanders to move to
other states, especially Florida, when they retire. In fact, the two leading
reasons for Rhode Island’s rather modest out-migration are the lack of
affordable housing (which is something we can address) and sunnier, warmer
weather (which we have no power to change).
The
tax argument took another hit in a recent survey that showed
Rhode Island is only ranked #38 out of 50 states and the District of Columbia
for tax burden. Repeating,
#38!
URI Landscape Architecture Lecture Series continues Feb. 26
Balancing sustainability and budget
Todd McLeish, URI
“Landscape architects are truly interested in making the world a better place,” said speaker Robert J. Golde, partner in Towers/Golde. “However, these altruistic tendencies are often tempered against more pragmatic needs of our clients whose attitudes toward ‘green’ initiatives, and the means to pay for them, can vary considerably.”
Golde will present case studies of green solutions developed in collaboration with clients, and explore how a new “language of sustainability” is allowing all stakeholders to reach solutions. He will also present methods for balancing the two seemingly competing notions of long-term sustainability and short-term cost-effectiveness.
Marshaling Marooned Tax Dollars
Congress
needs to shut down offshore tax shelters without rewarding the corporations
that built them.
By Josh HoxieRepublican lawmakers have largely greeted President Barack Obama’s new spending plan as dead on arrival.
But at least one provision has a chance of becoming law: a plan
to tax the profits that large U.S. corporations have parked in offshore tax
shelters and use that money to rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
A series of heavy snowstorms in my hometown of Boston made the
need for that kind of spending boost eminently clear. The record snowfall
brought the city’s aging and underfunded transit system to a complete halt. The
hundreds of thousands of residents who depend on it have been repeatedly
stranded.
So one thing is clear: We desperately need to invest in our
infrastructure. But funding it through a corporate tax holiday on offshore
profits is a shortsighted mistake.
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