Month: January 2019

• 

By JIM STANLEY

Harvard scientists intend to block out the sun’s rays from earth as a way to defeat climate change. The geoengineering project is an attempt to cool the earth’s overall temperature.

I’m not kidding, this is real.

The name of the project is SCoPEx, or, Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment, and it will cost roughly $3 million for initial testing. By “testing,” that’s to say that this is no longer a concept, it’s a real thing.

If you are wondering where all the money for this project is deriving from, look no further than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

And yes, we reported on Harvard’s ambition to throw shade at our sun months ago, but we hoped that somehow rational minds would prevail.

They aren’t prevailing, so all aboard.

Harvard Blocking Sun Concept Uses Balloon

The Harvard scientists will launch a maneuverable balloon into the stratosphere above the United States southwest region. The balloon will then programmatically release calcium carbonate into the stratosphere. The initial test is slated for the spring of 2019 (so yes, within a year).

Scientists are basing the working concept on past volcanic eruptions, namely, the massive eruption of Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. Pinatubo’s eruption blew 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. As you likely guessed, that sulfur dioxide formed a coating around the earth and caused a universal lowering of the earth’s core temperature (specifically, the earth cooled 0.5 °C as a result of the sulfur dioxide coating).

Climate Change Hysteria Is Propelling Geoengineering

Let’s be honest, evolution based on science isn’t always bad. Pharmaceutical drugs save lives. Doctors inappropriately prescribing and over-prescribing pharmaceutical drugs damage our society (see the antibiotic collapse, the opioid addiction issue, and SSRI medications and Ritalin being linked to mass shootings).

Geoengineering probably has good features, like helping to produce rain for drought-stricken farmers.

But blocking the sun based on a controversial climate change ideology? And yes, see the Paris riots if you don’t think climate change policies are controversial.

As it stands, blocking the sun is now an acceptable concept by world leaders. And for that, we should all be fearful.

Today’s media have given the sun a bad name. It kills us with skin cancer. It warms the earth…too much. But the sun’s the only reason we are here, so maybe “science” should slow its roll a bit before we decide to manipulate the sun’s rays.

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Most world governments are zoned in on reducing greenhouse gas emissions or extracting CO2 from the atmosphere. These two concepts are commonly pitched in unison with higher taxation (again, Paris, Paris…). That’s what the entire the Paris Agreement debacle involved. The concept of blocking out the sun is newer to the spectrum of acceptable absurdity to stop “climate change.” The concept has been around for decades, but its largely been dismissed even by the most climate change oriented of government officials and scientists.

Pictured below is one of Harvard’s illustrations of our evil sun being blocked.

Computer Models Have No Idea The Consequences Of Blocking The Sun

Worse more, computer models have no idea what will happen once they start testing the theory. Hence, the “controlled experiment” using calcium carbonate particles.

Will this result in more rain? Less rain? Dearth farmlands? More fires? A zombie apocalypse? Who knows? They don’t.

If you watch the news, you probably think the sun just serves to burn humans alive. But the sun actually does some pretty important stuff, like fuel all life on earth.

A recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report estimates for the reduced price of $10 billion per year, we can reduce the global temperature by 1.5 degrees Celcius.

Zimbabwean villages may dry up into famine and drought or flood away in biblical rains, but at least the evil sun will be tamed by scientists who “are pretty sure” they know what’s up.

Bill Nye The Science Guy pitched that he wanted to load up our oceans with ping pong balls as a way to reflect the sun back to..the sun? I’m not sure, maybe Nye is talking about bubbles, or ping pong balls, I can’t keep up with such absurdity.

But for these Harvard scientists, the concept of reflecting the sun back to the sun is just not efficient enough. So now we are at the point of just blocking it all together.

Maybe once the sun is blocked and nuclear winter sets in, we can all breath a course sigh of relief. The sun’s been attempting to kill us now for 40 years. Finally, we will be in the safety and comfort of complete darkness and famine. At least you’ll not need anymore sunscreen.

• 

By IME EKPO

After spending over twenty something years making top-notch hits and ultimately paving his own lane, it appears that Will.i.am owns a very unsteady theory about the future of the Hip-Hop genre. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the Black Eyed Peas rapper expressed his thoughts about the livelihood of Hip-Hop’s global dominance and anticipated the coming and takeover of artificial intelligence rappers.

“What’s the number-one sport on the planet? Soccer, because anyone can play it. The problem with hip-hop is everybody could do it,” he said. “It doesn’t take much fucking skill right now to make hip-hop. It’s become the lowest-hanging fruit. It’s no longer about Rakim-level, Nas-level, not the deep, metaphorical simile shit. Out of respect for the Nases of the world, let’s not call it hip-hop. Let’s say that’s rap. But instrumental music is going to be the next biggest shit.”

If there is one thing out of Hip-Hop’s history that is telling of its universal appeal, which leads to its unlimited creativity, it is its barefaced journey to global recognition from being heavily discredited to a lasting folkway. Hip-Hop’s mesmerizing entrance was a green light to those who were linear to the culture and blatant migrants and eventually gave birth to the myriad of carbon rappers and unrestricted sectors of sub-genres. It was the showcased lifestyle of the prime catchy-rhymer that most aspiring rappers have spent the past 30 years crafting non-traditional tunes about, an often misleading and misunderstood expression.

With the help of name-dropping distinguished music acts, Will.i.am went on to elaborate on the contents of true Hip-Hop music, by highlighting the importance of a Hip-Hop musician being able to embrace their artistry.

“The John Coltranes, the Stan Getzes, the Jimi Hendrixes, the musicianship. That’s the only way to prove intelligence or taste: demonstrating your artistry. Right now we’re competing human on human, and eventually we’ll be competing human on machine – the moment there’s a fucking AI mumble rapper [laughs] . . . it’s inevitable, bro! Like, the reason why Star Wars is Star Wars is because the Jedis kept the machines in check.”

Will’s confidence in artificial intelligence is certainly not artificial, there is a sound reason behind his confidence. He is currently one of the most sought-after tech innovators of the 21st century and one of the lead advocates of artificial intelligence. According to Rolling Stone, since his 2015 Puls smartwatch exertion, Will.i.am has received over $100 million in funding for his company I.am, a personal artificial intelligence device.

The Grammy-award winning producer isn’t keeping his tech knowledge to himself, he instinctively mingled Hip-Hop into the game. The Black Eyed Peas teamed up with Marvel for the curation of their graphic comic Masters of the Sun: The Zombie Chronicles. The virtual reality version was released earlier this year and offers a full-fledged honorable Hip-Hop voice-over cast including Redman, Queen Latifah, and Snoop Dogg. There is a great deal of actuality in Will.i.am’s stance and that is mostly because of his luxurious experience as a modern day musician with a Hip-Hop foundation—which is just enough to justify the worth of his expression.

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By REUTERS NEWS AGENCY

An American historian says that more than a million Europeans were enslaved by North African slave traders between 1530 and 1780, a time of vigorous Mediterranean and Atlantic coastal piracy.

The number of white European slaves is only a fraction of the trade that brought 10 million to 12 million black African slaves to the Americas over a 400-year period, historian Robert Davis says, but his research shows the slave trade was more widespread than commonly assumed. The impact on Europe’s white population was significant.

“One of the things that both the public and many scholars have tended to take as given is that slavery was always racial in nature — that only blacks have been slaves. But that is not true,” said Mr. Davis, an Ohio State University professor.

“Enslavement was a very real possibility for anyone who traveled in the Mediterranean, or who lived along the shores in places like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and even as far north as England and Iceland.”

In a new book, “Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800,” Mr. Davis calculates that between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by pirates called “corsairs” and forced to work in North Africa during that period.

The raids were so aggressive that entire Mediterranean seaside towns were abandoned by frightened residents. “Much of what has been written gives the impression that there were not many slaves and minimizes the impact that slavery had on Europe.

“Most accounts only look at slavery in one place, or only for a short period of time. But when you take a broader, longer view, the massive scope of this slavery and its powerful impact become clear.”

The pirates, sailing from such cities as Tunis and Algiers, raided ships in the Mediterranean and Atlantic as well as seaside villages to capture men, women and children, he says. They were put to work in quarries, in heavy construction and as oarsmen in the pirates’ galleys.

Mr. Davis calculated his estimates using records that indicate how many slaves were at a particular location at a single time. He then estimated how many new slaves it would take to replace slaves as they died, escaped or were ransomed.

“It is not the best way to make population estimates, but it is the only way with the limited records available.”

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By BRENDA EDWARDS

Black women in Alabama die at nearly double the rate of white women, at 5.2 out of every 100,000 versus 2.7 out of every 100,000

It is a well known fact that disparities affect Black people in the medical field. And in Alabama, Black women are dying of cervical cancer at more than twice the national average, despite the fact that the disease is preventable and even curable if detected early.

In fact, a report by Human Rights Watch, boldly declares that “cervical cancer deaths should not happen.”

But in Alabama’s Black Belt, known for its  rich soil and its predominantly African American population, it does happen, and even across the nation, Black women are more likely to die from cervical cancer than their counterparts of other races and ethnicities.

Black women die at nearly double the rate of white women, at 5.2 out of every 100,000 versus 2.7 out of every 100,000.

Human Rights Watch notes that a lot of the issue is related to poverty and a lack of aid to these women.

“State policies and law, together with recent federal changes, limit the effectiveness of the few state and federal resources that exist to help make reproductive health care services and information accessible to low-income Alabamian women,” the report notes.

Alongside the state’s restrictive health insurance policies, there is also the “serious shortage” of physicians, particularly in rural areas, as well as structural racism to contend with.

And the racial inequality runs deep. Even if a Black woman earns as much as her white counterpart, she is still at higher risk of dying from the disease.

According to the report, some 235 Alabamian woman are diagnosed with the disease each year. Every year over 100 die from what is, ultimately, a largely preventable disease. And the situation is not getting better as the years past. The study notes that  the rate of cervical cancer cases and deaths increased 18.2 percent and 34.5 percent respectively between 2010 and 2014.

The study points to four points of intervention that can either prevent, treat or cure the disease so women don’t die. There is of course the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine that prevents women and girls from contracting HPV which leads do most cervical cancer cases. Screenings for cervical cancer that can detect early changes. Follow-ups after any abnormal screenings can prompt the removal of precancerous lesions before they develop into the cancer.  And then of course, when treated in its early stages, the cancer can be treated and boasts a high survival rate.

However, for women in the Black Belt, getting proper reproductive health care can be complicated, especially since, as mentioned before, many of the counties in Black Belt have no physicians, so the women have to travel long distances in order to even get to a follow-up.

Human Rights Watch cites one 57-year-old, Darcy C., who pays up to $150 just to make the two-and-a-half hour trip to her gynecological oncologist for screenings and other tests.

“It’s really hard. And I have to go without a lot to make sure that I have the money…. I get barely $700 per month, so with the bills I have to pay, it doesn’t leave anything for a trip.”

This puts women in difficult decisions, with some choosing between health care, and other needs such as electricity and medication. Some women revealed to Human Rights Watch that they avoided non-emergency health care while uninsured. All of this means that often they are not treated until the cancer is in its more advanced stages, when it is less likely to be cured.

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By The Associated Press

In 46 B.C.E. the Roman emperor Julius Caesar first established January 1 as New Year’s day. Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates, and had two faces, one looking forward and one back.  Caesar felt that the month named after this god (“January”) would be the appropriate “door” to the year.  Caesar celebrated the first January 1 New Year by ordering the violent routing of revolutionary Jewish forces in the Galilee.  Eyewitnesses say blood flowed in the streets.  In later years, Roman pagans observed the New Year by engaging in drunken orgies—a ritual they believed constituted a personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was ordered by the gods.

As Christianity spread, pagan holidays were either incorporated into the Christian calendar or abandoned altogether.  By the early medieval period most of Christian Europe regarded Annunciation Day (March 25) as the beginning of the year.  (According to Catholic tradition, Annunciation Day commemorates the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would be impregnated by G-d and conceive a son to be called Jesus.)

After William the Conqueror (AKA “William the Bastard” and “William of Normandy”) became King of England on December 25, 1066, he decreed that the English return to the date established by the Roman pagans, January 1.  This move ensured that the commemoration of Jesus’ birthday (December 25) would align with William’s coronation, and the commemoration of Jesus’ circumcision (January 1) would start the new year – thus rooting the English and Christian calendars and his own Coronation).  William’s innovation was eventually rejected, and England rejoined the rest of the Christian world and returned to celebrating New Years Day on March 25.

About five hundred years later, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII (AKA “Ugo Boncompagni”, 1502-1585) abandoned the traditional Julian calendar.  By the Julian reckoning, the solar year comprised 365.25 days, and the intercalation of a “leap day” every four years was intended to maintain correspondence between the calendar and the seasons.  Really, however there was a slight inaccuracy in the Julian measurement (the solar year is actually 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds = 365.2422 days).  This slight inaccuracy caused the Julian calendar to slip behind the seasons about one day per century.  Although this regression had amounted to 14 days by Pope Gregory’s time, he based his reform on restoration of the vernal equinox, then falling on March 11, to the date had 1,257 years earlier when Council of Nicaea was convened (March 21, 325 C.E.).  Pope Gregory made the correction by advancing the calendar 10 days.  The change was made the day after October 4, 1582, and that following day was established as October 15, 1582.  The Gregorian calendar differs from the Julian in three ways:  (1) No century year is a leap year unless it is exactly divisible by 400 (e.g., 1600, 2000, etc.); (2) Years divisible by 4000 are common (not leap) years; and (3) once again the New Year would begin with the date set by the early pagans, the first day of the month of Janus – January 1.

On New Years Day 1577 Pope Gregory XIII decreed that all Roman Jews, under pain of death, must listen attentively to the compulsory Catholic conversion sermon given in Roman synagogues after Friday night services.  On New Years Day 1578 Gregory signed into law a tax forcing Jews to pay for the support of a “House of Conversion” to convert Jews to Christianity.  On New Years 1581 Gregory ordered his troops to confiscate all sacred literature from the Roman Jewish community.  Thousands of Jews were murdered in the campaign.

Throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods, January 1 – supposedly the day on which Jesus’ circumcision initiated the reign of Christianity and the death of Judaism – was reserved for anti-Jewish activities: synagogue and book burnings, public tortures, and simple murder.

The Israeli term for New Year’s night celebrations, “Sylvester,” was the name of the “Saint” and Roman Pope who reigned during the Council of Nicaea (325 C.E.).  The year before the Council of Nicaea convened, Sylvester convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem.  At the Council of Nicaea, Sylvester arranged for the passage of a host of viciously anti-Semitic legislation.  All Catholic “Saints” are awarded a day on which Christians celebrate and pay tribute to that Saint’s memory.  December 31 is Saint Sylvester Day – hence celebrations on the night of December 31 are dedicated to Sylvester’s memory.