It’s right-wingnuts you should fear, not immigrants

Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2018

Anti-Defamation League

From the ADL’s H.E.A.T. Map

Each year, ADL’s Center on Extremism (COE) tracks murders perpetrated by all types of extremists. 

The 2018 Murder & Extremism report provides key insights into the crimes, including motivations behind these violent attacks.

2018 was a particularly active year for right-wing extremist murders: Every single extremist killing — from Pittsburgh to Parkland — had a link to right-wing extremism.

Among this report’s key findings:

Every year adherents of a variety of extreme causes kill people in the United States; ADL’s COE tracks these murders.

In 2018, domestic extremists killed at least 50 people in the U.S., a sharp increase from the 37 extremist-related murders documented in 2017, though still lower than the totals for 2015 (70) and 2016 (72).  The 50 deaths make 2018 the fourth-deadliest year on record for domestic extremist-related killings since 1970.

The extremist-related murders in 2018 were overwhelmingly linked to right-wing extremists.  

Proof positive

How Americans feel about immigration

Hopkinton votes on Hobson's Choice

Hopkinton Rejects Massive Open Space Solar Project

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

By a 3-2 vote Monday night, the Hopkinton Town Council voted down what would have been Rhode Island’s largest solar facility. The outcome was uncertain up until council member Sylvia Thompson outlined her pros and cons of the 58-megawatt project.

At first, Thompson sounded like she would approve the project, when she said at the Jan. 28 meeting, “The bottom line is we can’t say no to everything.”

But she stressed the enormity of the development and the negative impacts of clearing 175 acres of open space and the added stormwater runoff it would create.

One tool in dealing with the Fentanyl crisis

Firsthand accounts indicate fentanyl test strips are effective in reducing overdose risk

Mollie Rappe  

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid so potent that a miniscule amount equivalent to several grains of salt can cause a fatal overdose. 

Yet it’s difficult for people who use drugs to detect, which presents a major public health hazard given how commonly fentanyl is used to lace heroin or cocaine.

In 2017, a team of researchers led by Brandon Marshall, an associate professor of epidemiology at Brown University’s School of Public Health, provided rapid-acting fentanyl test strips to young adults in Rhode Island at risk of overdosing. 

In October 2018, the researchers reported that most of the young adults not only used the strips, but also reported changing their behavior to reduce overdose risk if they detected fentanyl.

RI will take the lead in case against Google

Rhode Island Named Lead Plaintiff in Investor Class Action Suit Against Google

The U.S. District Court, Northern District of California has approved Rhode Island Treasurer Seth Magaziner's motion that Employees' Retirement System of Rhode Island be named lead plaintiff in a shareholder class action lawsuit against Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google.

 

"Investors in Alphabet, including the members of Employees' Retirement System of Rhode Island, are seeking to recover for harm they suffered when Alphabet misled regulators, users and the public regarding its failure to secure users' information," said Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner.

On January 25, 2019, Judge Jeffrey White approved a motion to name Rhode Island as lead plaintiff, and to consolidate all similar class actions suits against Alphabet into a single class action. 

Coverage qualms

Pre-Medicare years bring health insurance worries for many

Forty-five percent of those age 50 to 64 concerned they won't be able to afford insurance in retirement

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

With the dawn of a new year, most Americans have just started a new health insurance coverage period -- whether they receive their coverage through a job, buy it themselves or have a government plan.

But a new national poll suggests that many people in their 50s and early 60s harbor serious worries about their health insurance status, now and in the future.

Forty-five percent say they have little or no confidence that they'll be able to afford the cost of health coverage once they retire. 

And 27 percent said they're not sure they'd be able to afford their coverage over the next year. One in ten said they'd thought about going without health insurance for 2019, though only five percent actually had decided to do so at the time of the poll.

Another 19 percent of adults age 50 to 64 decided to stay in their current job rather than changing jobs or retiring, just to keep their job-related coverage.

For those who changed coverage for 2019, 15 percent said they were postponing medical procedures until their new coverage kicked in. And 8 percent of those in their early 60s are putting off medical procedures until they're Medicare age.

The new findings from the National Poll on Healthy Aging also indicate that half of adults age 50-64 closely follow the news about possible changes to Affordable Care Act, Medicare or Medicaid. 

Time for a Green New Deal in Rhode Island

It's do-or-die time

By Aaron Regunberg in UpriseRI

More and more often, faith and community and political leaders have begun referring to climate change as “the existential threat of our time” – language the scientific community has used for decades. 

What does being “the existential threat” mean?

It means that if we don’t take immediate, bold action to address the climate crisis, we stand to lose everything we care about. 

It means vast swathes of South County and the East Bay wiped away, our economy in shambles, and countless lives lost – maybe yours, maybe mine – from drought, famine, and natural disasters.

There is no “maybe” about these consequences, or hyperbole in describing them. Report after report from NASA, the United Nations, and leading scientific institutions have made clear that, without sweeping action, human civilization as we know it is at risk. 

Yet politicians in both parties continue to use talking points supplied by the oil and gas industry to insist we respond in moderation.

The reach of Russiagate

Brrrrrrr!

Worried about robots?

Then become one

By Jim Hightower

We humans have got to get a whole lot smarter, says Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla automobiles and CEO of SpaceX rockets.

Musk isn’t merely reacting to humanity’s recent tendency to elect lunatics to lead our countries. Rather, he’s trying to warn us about the rapid rise of a radical new technology: artificial intelligence.

In common parlance, he’s referring to robots, but these aren’t the clunky, somewhat cute machines performing rote tasks. 

AI essentially has evolved to become an electronic brain — a web of evermore-complex super-computers interacting as one cognitive unit that can program itself, make decisions, and act independently of humans.

These thinking machines are rapidly increasing in number and geometrically advancing their IQ, prompting Musk and others to view AI technologies in apocalyptic terms. 

Fried food linked to heightened risk of early death among older US women

Fried chicken and fried fish in particular seem to be associated with higher risk of death

BMJ

Regularly eating fried food is linked with a heightened risk of death from any cause and heart-related death, among postmenopausal women, finds a US study in The BMJ today.

Foods such as fried chicken and fried fish/shellfish were associated with a higher risk of heart-related death, particularly among younger women in the study (aged 50-65 years old).

The researchers suggest that reducing consumption of fried foods, especially fried chicken and fried fish/shellfish, could have a positive public health impact.

Up to a third of North American adults have fast-food every day, and previous studies have suggested that a greater intake of fried food is associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Only 16% of teens are protected against cancer-causing virus

HPV vaccination rates remain critically low among younger adolescents in the U.S.

Infectious Diseases Society of America

Only about 16 percent of U.S. adolescents have been fully vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) by the time they turn 13, despite national recommendations that call for vaccination at 11 to 12 years of age. 

Published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, the new findings highlight the need for stronger efforts to encourage HPV vaccination and to improve immunization rates in this key age group.

"Providers need to be aware that, while we have seen gains in HPV vaccination coverage, we are still falling behind at the younger ages," says Robert A. Bednarczyk, PhD, of Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and lead author of the study. 

"In general, we need to do a better job of recommending the HPV vaccine at the routine, adolescent, and well-child visits, with a particular focus on 11 to 12 years of age."

Nearly 80 million people in the U.S. are currently infected with some type of HPV, a common virus transmitted through sexual contact. 

Every year, HPV causes approximately 34,000 cancers, including cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancer in women; penile cancer in men; and mouth, throat, and anal cancer in women and men. 


EDITOR'S NOTE: Meanwhile, three local Republican state legislators - Rep. Blake Filippi (R-Charlestown), Rep. Justin Price (R-Richmond) and Senator Elaine Morgan (R-Hopkinton) have fought tooth and nail against efforts by the state Education and Health Departments to require school children to be vaccinated against this contagious and highly preventable cancer-causing virus. CLICK HERE for details. - Will Collette

Property values in Charlestown take a $1.6 million hit from climate change

Rising Seas Swallow $403 Million in New England Home Values

First Street Foundation

Data scientists from First Street Foundation and Columbia University have expanded their peer-reviewed housing market research to include 2.5 million coastal properties in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island and found that increased tidal flooding caused by sea level rise has eroded $403.1 million in relative home values between 2005 and 2017.

Coastal homes in Massachusetts were hit hardest, losing $273.4 million in relative appreciation.

Homes in Maine saw $69.9 million in unrealized value, followed by Rhode Island at $44.7 million, and New Hampshire at $15.2 million.

One of the region’s hardest hit homes, a triplex located on Marginal Street in Boston, currently valued at $373,725, would be worth more than double at $799,054 if not for increased tidal flooding due to sea level rise.

Homeowners can learn how much relative value their personal property missed out on over the 12 year study period and how much value it is projected to lose over the next 15 years at FloodiQ.com.

Can't make this stuff up

For more cartoons by Tom Tomorrow, CLICK HERE.

VIDEO: Unravel the mystery

To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7i9uXWrgq4

Climate blues

It’s Time to Talk About Ecological Grief
By Michaela Cavanagh

When I called Courtney Howard, one of the authors of the recent Lancet Countdown 2018 Report on health and climate change, she was Christmas shopping during a pit stop in London on her way to the 24th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland.

As she picked out ballet shoes for one of her young daughters, we discussed her work on the mental health impacts of climate change. She recounted to me the moment in her own life when climate change’s bottom line really sunk in.

She was at home with her daughter doing some mental math: Yellowknife, the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories, where she lives, was already 2.5 degrees Celsius warmer than it was in the 1940s, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had recently reported that average global temperatures were on pace to warm another half degree or more by 2052.

The warming would be irreversible in little more than a decade — well within the lifetime of her children. She wound up on the floor, wrapped around her daughter in the fetal position.

The impact of climate change on our physical world has by now been made clear and manifest to anyone paying attention: Rising sea levels and increasing temperatures have begotten wildfires, drought, tsunamis and heat waves, which have wrought unprecedented devastation. The impact of climate change on our internal worlds, though, has gone relatively unstudied.

But a growing body of evidence demonstrates that climate change and its effects are linked to elevated rates of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, post-traumatic stress, and a host of negative emotions including anger, hopelessness, despair, and a feeling of loss. Researchers have dubbed these feelings “ecological grief.”

Dog of the week

Meet Jack

Animal Rescue RI

Jack is a ridiculously handsome boy who likes to cuddle and give kisses.

He is smart and eager to learn.

Not to mention he likes other dogs and belly rubs, lots of them!

Prices, Plutocrats, and Corporate Concentration

Corporate power intensifies inequality

Sam Pizzigati

Andrew Leigh, a member of the Australian parliament, has a side gig. He just happens to be a working economist. 

Other lawmakers may spend their spare hours making cold calls for campaign cash. Leigh spends his doing research — on why our modern economies are leaving their populations ever more unequal.

Leigh’s latest research is making some global waves. Working with a team of Australian, Canadian, and American analysts, he’s been studying how much the prices corporate monopolies charge impact inequality.

The conventional wisdom has a simple answer: not much. Yes, the reasoning goes, prices do go up when a few large corporations start to dominate an economic sector. But those same higher prices translate into higher returns for corporate shareholders.

Thanks to 401(k)s and the like, the argument continues, the ranks of these corporate shareholders include millions of average families. So we end up with a wash. As consumers, families pay more in prices. As shareholders, they pocket higher dividends.

But this nonchalance about the impact of monopolies, Andrew Leigh and his colleagues counter, obscures “the relative distribution of consumption and corporate equity ownership.” Average families do hold some shares of stock, but not many. In the United States, for instance, the most affluent 20 percent of households own 13 times more stock than the bottom 60 percent.

Tanzi turned off

Caught misrepresenting the truth, Speaker Mattiello turns off Representative Tanzi’s microphone

By Steve Ahlquist UpriseRI

On January 22, Representative Teresa Tanzi (Democrat, District 34, Narragansett, South Kingstown) rose on the House floor to make a simple request of Speaker Nicholas Mattiello (Democrat, District 15, Cranston). Could her communications about her absences from the House the week before be read into the record, as is traditionally done for other legislators?

Mattiello denied Tanzi’s request.

Tanzi missed the two days of House sessions because she was traveling for her in-laws 50th wedding anniversary. She noted that Representative Marvin Abney (Democrat, District 73, Newport) had his excuse read into the record, when he missed a session while attending the National Conference of State Legislatures.

As reported by The Public’s Radio‘s Ian Donnis in his never miss weekly column, “House Majority Leader Joseph Shekarchi then moved to approve the journal as printed, House Minority Leader Blake Filippi (R-Charlestown) seconded, and the House voted in favor, 48 to 19, with the Reform Democrats lined up in opposition.”

Why is this idiot grinning?

"A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian."   - Pope Francis 

Warning Signs

Building Larger, Lighter Wind Turbine Blades

Power moves

Jan McHarg, Texas A&M University College of Engineering

Access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy across the globe is one of the 2030 targets of the United Nations.

Wind plays a prominent role in the solution of increasing renewable energy, in part through the use of wind turbines.

Drs. Raktim Bhattacharya and Robert Skelton in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University are contributing to a solution by providing the means to build larger, lighter blades for the turbines using tensegrity principles with a $375,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

The goal of their research is to develop a suite of theoretical and computational tools for the design of high strength-to-weight wind turbine blades with custom aeroelastic properties that are critical for deploying large wind turbine blades.

February 10th: Hungry for Some Excitement in the Kitchen?

DEM Invites Beginning and Seasoned Chefs Alike to Prepare and Sample Wild Game Recipes at  Cooking Class

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) will offer a wild game cooking class with Chef Andy Lussier of Culinary Connections and Addieville East Farm on Feb. 10.

Wild game dishes featured at a recent class include Addieville Fields pheasant and venison medallions.

WHEN: Sunday, February 10, 12 p.m.

WHERE: DEM Division of Fish & Wildlife Education Center, 1-B Camp E-Hun-Tee Place, Exeter (Directions here)

What were they up to during the shut-down?

Democrats want answers about the Interior Department’s decisions during the shutdown

E.A. CRUNDEN

Controversial decisions made by the Interior Department and other agencies during the ongoing partial government shutdown are emerging as an immediate test of power for Democrats looking to hold the Trump administration accountable after re-taking the House of Representatives.

The use of entrance fees to keep national parks open, along with a sudden decision to bring back department employees to work on offshore drilling and related tasks, have come under fire from House Democrats and environmental groups — they argue Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and other officials may be breaking the law. And lawmakers are looking to flex their new power once the government reopens.

On January 23, Rep. Betty McCollum (DFW-MN), chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee for agencies including the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), announced that she intends to probe the Trump administration’s decisions during the shutdown.

Where's the money?

Elizabeth Warren demands answers from Trump officials about funds for Puerto Rico

Kelly Macias  Daily Kos Staff

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is demanding answers from the Trump administration about Puerto Rico. In a letter dated Jan. 21, Warren wrote a series of critically important questions directed at Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson, and director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. 

Warren’s inquiry stems from recent news reports that Donald Trump has been trying his best to cut off emergency funds to the island since September, and has also been using the federal government shutdown as an excuse to deny the allocation of billions of dollars in housing fund money to Puerto Rico from HUD.

According to Warren’s letter, Trump’s war on Puerto Rico began after he heard that Puerto Rico was using emergency funds post-Hurricane Maria to pay off its debt. This, of course, turned out to be fake news. 

Trump tries poetry. Really.

Holocaust Remembrance Day

Bring me a shrubbery!

Plant hedges to combat near-road pollution exposure

By Robert Blevin

Urban planners should plant hedges, or a combination of trees with hedges – rather than just relying on roadside trees – if they are to most effectively reduce pollution exposure from cars in near-road environments, finds a new study from the University of Surrey.

In a paper published in Atmospheric Environment, researchers from the Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) looked at how three types of road-side green infrastructure – trees, hedges, and a combination of trees with hedges and shrubs – affected the concentration levels of air pollution. 

The study used six roadside locations in Guildford, UK, as test sites where the green infrastructure was between one to two metres away from the road.

The researchers found that roadsides that only had hedges were the most effective at reducing pollution exposure, cutting black carbon by up to 63 percent. 

Ultrafine and sub-micron particles followed this reduction trend, with fine particles (less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter) showing the least reduction among all the measured pollutants. 

The maximum reduction in concentrations was observed when the winds were parallel to the road due to a sweeping effect, followed by winds across the road. The elemental composition of particles indicated an appreciable reduction in harmful heavy metals originating from traffic behind the vegetation.

The hedges only - and a combination of hedges and trees - emerged as the most effective green infrastructure in improving air quality behind them under different wind directions.

Roadsides with only trees showed no positive influence on pollution reduction at breathing height (usually between 1.5 and 1.7m), as the tree canopy was too high to provide a barrier/filtering effect for road-level tailpipe emissions.

According to the United Nations, more than half of the global population live in urban areas – this number increases to almost two thirds in the European Union where, according to the European Environmental Agency, air pollution levels in many cities are above permissible levels, making air pollution a primary environmental health risk.  

Professor Prashant Kumar, the senior author of the study and the founding Director of the GCARE at the University of Surrey, said: “Many millions of people across the world live in urban areas where the pollution levels are also the highest. The best way to tackle pollution is to control it at the source. 

"However, reducing exposure to traffic emissions in near-road environments has a big part to play in improving health and well-being for city-dwellers. The iSCAPE project provided us with an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of passive control measures such as green infrastructure that is placed between the source and receptors.”

“This study, which extends our previous work, provides new evidence to show the important role strategically placed roadside hedges can play in reducing pollution exposure for pedestrians, cyclists and people who live close to roads. 

"Urban planners should consider planting denser hedges, and a combination of trees with hedges, in open-road environments. Many local authorities have, with the best of intentions, put a great emphasis on urban greening in recent years. 

"However, the dominant focus has been on roadside trees, while there are many miles of fences in urban areas that could be readily complemented with hedges, with appreciable air pollution exposure dividend. Urban vegetation is important given the broad role it can play in urban ecosystems – and this could be about much more than just trees on wide urban roads”, adds Professor Kumar. 

More to it than healing

Quality of life in adolescents recovering from sports-related concussion or fracture

Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group

When we think of the recovery period in adolescents with a sports injury, we tend to focus on milestones marking relief from symptoms, restoration of strength, and perhaps return to play. 

But what about the effects of sports injury on other aspects of the young athlete's life? How is the young athlete's quality of life (QOL) affected following injury and throughout the recovery process?

In a new article in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics  by Kelly Russell, PhD, Erin Selci, BSc, Brian Black, MD, FRCSC, and Michael J. Ellis, MD, FRCSC, the authors define health-related QOL as "the 'hidden morbidity' or more subtle consequences of medical conditions or injuries on patient functioning that may not be captured by more traditional clinical outcome measures." 

These researchers from Winnipeg conducted a prospective study of health-related QOL in young athletes who experienced a sports-related concussion or sports-related extremity fracture. 

The aim was twofold: 1) compare the effects of these sports-related concussions and extremity fractures on health-related QOL in adolescents during the recovery period and 2) identify what clinical variables are associated with worse QOL in adolescent patients with sports-related concussion.

The Shutdown Didn’t Stop Trump From Secretly Dismantling Our Government

White House Finalizes OSHA Recordkeeping Rollback: But It’s a Mystery

By Jordan Barab, Confined Space

While much of the federal government was shut down, some government services are excepted because they are “performing emergency work involving the safety of human life or the protection of property or performing certain other types of excepted work.” Those who do the excepted work in a shutdown agency are what is known as “essential” workers.

The Trump administration has expanded the definition of “essential” to just about any government service that would cause the public great discomfort (and therefore affect Trump’s poll numbers)—like tax refunds or air passenger transport.  

Exceptions are also made when the administration’s favorite industries face hardship as a result of the shutdown. 

For example, federal employees who work to support the onshore and offshore oil and gas drilling industry, forest management (timber sales) and the mortgage industry have also been deemed “essential” after their lobbyists complained about how the shutdown was harming their business.

Now, the White House has apparently decided that pretty much anything the Chamber of Commerce wants is also “essential.” 

Our counterfeit Social Security crisis

Social Security is healthy and there are smart ways to make it even healthier

By Gerald Scorse, Progressive Charlestown guest columnist

The humorist Mark Twain once called reports of his death “an exaggeration.” The same goes for the endless fearmongering and scare stories about America’s most popular government program, Social Security.    

On the contrary, the nation’s safety net for seniors is in remarkably good shape. The trust fund holds government securities worth nearly $2.9 trillion, just under its all-time high. 

In 2092, at the end of the latest 75-year projection, the inflow from payroll taxes would still be covering roughly three-quarters of scheduled worker benefits—without increasing the tax rate or raising the retirement age or making any other change. 

That’s the truth and nothing but the truth, according to the 2018 annual report of the Social Security board of trustees.

Never let the facts get in the way of false alarms. As recently as mid-October, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed that cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid were the only way to lower the federal deficit. He urged legislators to “address the real drivers of the debt” and “adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future.”

Winning!

Go Fish!

Winter Chills? Daydream with a Recreation Survey or even join a Fly Fishing Class! Recreation Survey Have a say in the game! What outdoor activities are you interested in? Perhaps learning the stars in this dark sky region or even paddle board work outs. Please help us bring you the programs you want this season by taking this five minute survey. Click Here for the Survey Fly Rod Building Take your fly fishing skills up a notch by custom building your own fly rod. Everything you'll need will be provided, along with expert instruction and a few good laughs! Register by January 29th, cost is $150, three day class, four participants max.  For details and to register, visit www.wpwa.org/events Learn to Fly Fish Increase your comfort and knowledge enough to catch fish! A life-long fly fisher will explain and have hands on practice for topics such as casting, equipment/gear/tackle, knots, reading water, flies/hatches and stream etiquette. Six classes at two-hours each, cost is $135, ten participants max. For details and to register, visit www.wpwa.org/events

Our Contact Information Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association 203 Arcadia Road Hope Valley, RI 02832 401-539-9017 www.wpwa.org

New Hampshire survey on wind power shows results similar to RI

UNH Research Finds Recreationists Support Offshore Wind Energy Development

EDITOR'S NOTE: We ran a report on a Rhode Island based survey that produced similar results.

From boat enthusiasts to anglers, researchers at the University of New Hampshire have found surprisingly widespread support for offshore wind energy development (OWD) among outdoor recreationists. 

Also unanticipated was the strong support across the entire political spectrum, from liberals to moderates and conservatives, with respondents seeing OWD as a positive impact upon their recreation experience.

“These findings are unique because most previous studies show that recreationists tend to oppose energy development on or near public lands and protected areas,” said Michael Ferguson, assistant professor of recreation management and policy. 

“But most of the respondents in our research embraced the idea of offshore wind development. Besides the benefits of renewable energy, they saw it as a benefit to the entire community and region, creating tourism opportunities, and enhancing their own recreation experiences.”

In the study, recently published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research, the researchers from UNH and Pennsylvania State University examined more closely factors influencing water-based recreationists' perceptions towards OWD in general on Lake Erie. 

As part of the study, respondents were asked questions about recreation frequency, OWD support and opposition, political orientation, and perceptions towards climate change. 

Of the 242 respondents, nearly one-half identified as boaters, with the remaining evenly split between beach users and anglers and all were largely repeat day trip visitors. 

The results of this study suggested significantly high levels of support for OWD among the water-based outdoor recreationists at Lake Erie across the political spectrum.

Introducing the Smell-A-Weiner

Fighting the crave for fattening food? Just surround yourself in its scent

University of South Florida (USF Innovation)

Just a whiff of fried food may entice you to order a high-calorie meal. But breathe it in for longer than two minutes, and you're more likely to be content with fruit.

A new study published in the Journal of Marketing Research finds ambient food scent can directly satisfy the belly. That's because the brain doesn't necessarily differentiate the source of sensory pleasure.

"Ambient scent can be a powerful tool to resist cravings for indulgent foods," said lead author Dipayan Biswas, PhD, marketing professor at the University of South Florida College of Business. 

"In fact, subtle sensory stimuli like scents can be more effective in influencing children's and adults' food choices than restrictive policies."

Langevin wins key security gig

Langevin to Chair Armed Services Subcommittee that Oversees Cybersecurity

Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI), co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, will chair the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities (IETC). 

Langevin has served as the ranking minority member of the subcommittee for the past eight years.

The IETC subcommittee is responsible for overseeing Department of Defense policy and programs related to cybersecurity; cyber forces and operations; intelligence; science and technology; Special Operations Forces; irregular warfare and other sensitive military operations; countering weapons of mass destruction; and counter-terrorism. 

In addition to serving as IETC Chair, Congressman Langevin will continue serving as a senior member on the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces and the Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces.

Scientists Call for Drastic Drop in Emissions.

U.S. Appears to Have Gone the Other Way.
By Abrahm Lustgarten for ProPublica

The signals are blaring: Dramatic changes to our climate are well upon us. 

These changes — we know thanks to a steady drumbeat of alarming official reports over the past 12 months — could cripple the U.S. economy, threaten to make vast stretches of our coastlines uninhabitable, make basic food supplies scarce and push millions of the planet’s poorest people into cities and across borders as they flee environmental perils.

All is not yet lost, we are told, but the demands of the moment are great. The resounding consensus of scientists, economists and analysts tells us that the solution lies in an unprecedented global effort to immediately and drastically drop carbon emissions levels. 

That drop is possible, but it will need to happen so fast that it will demand extraordinary commitment, resolve, innovation and, yes, sacrifice. The time we’ve got to work with, according to the United Nations, is a tad more than 10 years.

And so it stings particularly badly to learn from a new report released this week by the Rhodium Group, a private research company, that U.S. emissions — which amount to one-sixth of the planet’s — didn’t drop in 2018 but instead skyrocketed. 

We are all Mexicans

For more cartoons by Ruben Bolling, CLICK HERE.

Safety first

URI will conduct important clinical trial on Alzheimer’s disease

Search for answers for heart-breaking illness 

Tristan Davies

In a pioneering clinical trial that will attack Alzheimer’s disease by targeting inflammation in the brain’s blood vessels, researchers at the George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience have received regulatory approval to initiate the BEACON Study.

This URI-sponsored study is the first-ever clinical trial led and conducted entirely within the state designed to treat individuals with mild cognitive impairment probably due to Alzheimer’s disease and those diagnosed with mild Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s research clinics at Rhode Island Hospital, Rhode Island Mood and Memory Research Institute, and Butler Hospital will be enrolling participants later this year for this uniquely Rhode Island study.

Pass the tofu

Lower-carbon diets aren’t just good for the planet, they’re also healthier

Jim Erickson

A new study examining the carbon footprint of what more than 16,000 Americans eat in a day has good news for environmentally conscious consumers: diets that are more climate-friendly are also healthier.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and Tulane University, is the first to compare the climate impact and nutritional value of U.S. diets using real-world data about what Americans say they are eating.

The paper is an online publication in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on Jan. 24.

‘Space Station, this is your President’

The bizarre tale of Trump’s childlike obsession with getting to Mars

By Matthew Chapman 

If there is one thing that evidently transports President Donald Trump to a state of wide-eyed, childlike wonderment, it is space travel. 

But Trump doesn’t have any apparent understanding of NASA’s goals or technological challenges — he just wants them to be the biggest and best at everything during his presidency, with no clear idea of what that means.

Nothing better demonstrates this than a conversation Trump had with former acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot, Jr. in April 2017, as detailed by former White House communications official Cliff Sims in his new book, Team of Vipers, and reported by the Daily Intelligencer.

During a congratulatory videoconference with astronaut Peggy Whitson, who had just broken the record for the longest continual spaceflight by an American, Trump asked, “Tell me, Mars — what do you see a timing for actually sending humans?” Whitson said that, “Well, I think as your bill directed, it would be in the 2030s.