FTA: “Politicians willing to hold oil companies accountable are few and far between. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a Republican, spoke to TC Energy officials on Thursday night, reportedly asking them to review their line inspection and monitoring practices. It’s a nice gesture, to be sure—but one that needs to be seen in light of Burgum’s other actions. In 2017, Burgum signed a bill into law that allowed companies to skip out on self-reporting spills less than 420 gallons. The same day, he signed a bill establishing a Department of Environmental Quality, officially severing the overseeing process from the state Department of Health.
In the wake of the latest spill, Dave Glatt, appointed head of the new department and a member of Burgum’s cabinet, has similarly asked TC Energy to review their processes. Glatt has even admitted multiple times, most recently in light of a blanketed 2015 gas plant spill, that the public deserves more transparency when it comes to spills. (Glatt, presumably as part of his job, has also spoken at a number of oil-and-gas conferences in the past year.)
What all these seemingly good-faith attempts at preventing future spills ignore is that these same actors have been overseeing the same industry and system since the last major disaster, and the last one, and the one before that. When it comes to pipelines, the simple fact is that it is a matter of when, not if, a series micro-fractures or a loose bolt or a lightning strike will send the pipe’s contents into the ground and potentially into the drinking water or farmland of dozens, hundreds, or thousands of citizens and wildlife. The maps and the data are all widely available to peruse for one’s own horror: As of 2016, the United States was averaging one crude oil spill every other day, or 200 barrels every 24 hours.
This is the shell game as the oil industry intends it to work—keep prying eyes distracted from the truth, minimize the initial bad press, and make verbal gesticulations indicating you are sorry for any harm done.
By the time the true scope of the issue emerges, you’re already securing your next multi-million dollar, government-backed deal. There is nothing passive or accidental about it.
At the site of the latest spill in North Dakota, TC Energy security guards, not just the state-funded police, were present as soon as the company realized it had a catastrophe on its hands. As reported by the Grand Forks Herald, company security was there to stop and fine anyone who “ignored the closed road signs.” Safety measures, these days, could also be read as a warning to any who dare take a closer look.
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elloratic asked: Hi! I’m sorry to bother you but I remember you being good with computers I think? I just wanted to ask your opinion on something - I got some threatening messages on an unsecured site claiming they’d found my up address and real address, and we’re going to pretend I’d done something illegal to send the police to my home. I’m like 80% sure they were full of shit since I wasn’t even at home at the time but I can’t stop worrying - could they actually do this? Location services and all that were off
There’s like a 99% chance that they’re just blowing smoke (espesh since you weren’t even home at the time), but that is theoretically possible depending on your browsing habits and security hygiene. Keeping location services etc. turned off is a very good idea; here’s some more for-your-peace-of-mind pro jamer tips:
* Make sure all your passwords are random alphanumeric strings or (wherever possible) multi-word pass phrases, never ever re-use passwords, change them regularly
* Use an adblocker, flash blocker, script blocker, and VPN whenever you can (Opera, the best browser ever, does all that stuff: https://www.opera.com/ )
“The Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative (IFAI) is working with Echo Hawk Consulting to develop an equitable online platform for funders that showcases innovative health, nutrition, and food systems work happening in Indian Country. As part of that work, we have created a survey and nomination form where interested individuals can submit the names of tribes, Native-led innovative organizations, projects, and programs that are working to improve the health of their people and communities. We are also interested in learning more about outstanding Native researchers, evaluators, content experts, and/or consultants who are partnering with organizations and helping to advance work in the fields of food systems, nutrition and health equity in Indian Country. The goal of the project is to make the ecosystem of important work and opportunities for impact in Indian Country visible to philanthropy in order to help increase funder education and investment in Native-led work. The online tool will be published at the end of 2019 and will be housed with IFAI.
We would like your input to ensure that we are able to showcase the greatest diversity of innovative and important work across Indian Country in the fields of food, nutrition and health. You may nominate as many organizations and entities, as you desire, and if you want to recommend your own program, please do!
We promote Tribal sovereignty through food and agriculture.
The Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative enhances health and wellness in Tribal communities by advancing healthy food systems, diversified economic development, and cultural food traditions in Indian Country. We empower Tribal governments, farmers, ranchers and food businesses by providing strategic planning and technical assistance; by creating new academic and professional executive education programs in food systems and agriculture; and by increasing student enrollment in land grant universities in food and agricultural related disciplines.”
Uber is testing a new feature in California that allows some drivers to set their own rates.
The move comes in response to a new state law that requires more companies to convert their contract workers to employees, which means offering them benefits and added protections. Companies including Uber, Lyft and delivery app Postmates argue that doing so would upend their business model and eliminate the flexibility inherent to the gig economy.
The adventures awaiting astronauts on future long-duration missions have technologists researching sustainable ways to live away from Earth. We’re using what we know from almost 20 years of a continuous human presence on the International Space Station and looking at new technologies to prepare for missions to the Moon and Mars.
Biotechnology – technology that uses living organisms to make products that provide a new use – is key to this research.
With biotechnology, we’re developing new ways to manufacture medicines, build habitats and more in space. Here are some ways biotechnology is advancing spaceflight and how the same research is reaping benefits on Earth.
Healthy astronauts
Planning ways to supply food for a multi-year mission on the Moon or Mars may require making food and nutrients in space. Our scientists are testing an early version of a potential solution: get microorganisms to produce vital nutrients like those usually found in vegetables. Then, whenever they’re needed, astronauts can drink them down.
The microorganisms are genetically engineered to rapidly produce controlled quantities of essential nutrients. Because the microorganisms and their food source both have a long shelf-life at room temperature and only need water to be activated, the system provides a simple, practical way to produce essential nutrients on-demand. The same kind of system designed for space could also help provide nutrition for people in remote areas of our planet.
Our researchers are evaluating the first batches of BioNutrient samples that came back to Earth after an experimental run on the International Space Station.
Because space travel takes a toll on the human body, we’re also researching how biotechnology can be used to advance the field of regenerative medicine.
Related cells that are joined together are collectively referred to as tissue, and these cells work together as organs to accomplish specific functions in the human body. Blood vessels around the cells vascularize, providing nutrients to the tissue to keep it healthy.
Our Vascular Tissue Challenge offers a $500,000 prize to be divided among the first three teams that successfully create thick, metabolically-functional human vascularized organ tissue in a controlled laboratory environment. The vascularized, thick-tissue models resulting from this challenge will function as organ analogs, or models, that can be used to study deep space environmental effects, such as radiation, and to develop strategies to minimize the damage to healthy cells.
Plant factories
Humans have relied on plants’ medicinal qualities for thousands of years for everything from alleviating minor ailments to curing serious diseases. Now, researchers are trying to simplify the process of turning plants into medicine (i.e. how to make it compact and portable). If successful, the cost of biomanufacturing pharmaceuticals on Earth could go down, and plants could produce medicines in space.
Creating medicine on demand isn’t something we typically do, so we’re turning to experts in the field for help. Researchers at the University of California, Davis are transforming plants into mini-medicine factories for future Mars missions. They’re genetically altering an ordinary type of lettuce so that it produces a protein called parathyroid hormone. This hormone is an approved drug for treating osteoporosis, a common condition where bones become weak and brittle.
This type of research is important to long duration spaceflight. When astronauts land on Mars, they will have spend more than half a year in zero gravity on the flight there, and they’ll need to be strong and ready to explore. Having the technologies needed to treat that possibility, and other unanticipated health effects of long duration spaceflight, is crucial.
Growing habitats
Vitamins aren’t the only thing astronauts could be growing on Mars; we’re exploring technologies that could grow structures out of fungi.
An early-stage research project underway at our Ames Research Center is prototyping technologies that could “grow” habitats on the Moon, Mars and beyond out of life – specifically, fungi and the unseen underground threads that make up the main part of the fungus. These tiny threads build complex structures with extreme precision, networking out into larger structures like mushrooms. With the right conditions, they can be coaxed into making new structures – ranging from a material similar to leather to the building blocks for a planetary home.
The myco-architecture project envisions a future where astronauts can construct a habitat out of the lightweight fungi material. Upon arrival, by unfolding a basic structure made up of dormant fungi and simply adding water, the fungi would grow around that framework into a fully functional human habitat – all while being safely contained to avoid contaminating the external environment.
Recycling waste
Once astronauts arrive on the surface of the Moon or a more distant planet, they’ll have to carefully manage garbage. This waste includes some stuff that gets flushed on Earth.
Today, we’re already using a recycling system on the space station to turn urine into drinking water. Poop on the other hand is contained then disposed of on spacecraft returning to Earth. That won’t be possible on more distant journeys, so, we’re turning to biomanufacturing for a practical solution.
Biology can serve as an effective recycling factory. Microorganisms such as yeast and algae feed on all kinds of things classified as “mission waste.” Processing their preferred form of nourishment generates products that can serve as raw materials used to make essential supplies like nutrients, medicines, plastic and fuel.
By taking a careful look at biological processes, we hope to develop new, lightweight systems to leverage that biology to do some helpful in-space manufacturing.
From Space to Earth
Biotechnology is preparing us for longer space missions to the Moon and then Mars – farther from Earth than humans have ever traveled before. As we prepare for those exciting missions, we’re also conducting research on the space station for the primary benefit of everyone on Earth.
As Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro seeks to authorise mining in indigenous reserves, a conflict with 12,000 members of the Mura indigenous group over a big potash mine in a remote area of the Amazon rainforest may forewarn troubles that lie ahead, report Sue Branford and Thaïs Borges from Autazes.
The company wanting to open the mine is Potássio do Brasil, a subsidiary of the Canadian conglomerate Forbes & Manhattan. Potash is an important fertiliser used heavily by agribusiness.
Potássio do Brasil quickly obtained authorisation from Brazil’s mining agency to drill exploratory wells and began prospecting in 2013.
But then the indigenous communities woke up to what was happening. Speaking beside one of the exploratory wells, located on what the Mura claim is ancestral land, Aldinélson Pavão, the leader of the village of Urucurituba, could not hide his indignation.
“I am 47 years old,” Mr Pavão said. “I was born here and brought up here. My parents and grandparents too. So I won’t be told by Potássio, that comes from outside, that this land isn’t ours. It is our land and they are the invaders.”
One of the by-products of potash mining is vast amounts of salt.
The company insists it will prevent this salt leaching into aquifers and rivers. But the Mura remain concerned, given the region’s high rainfall, extreme heat and its location on a flood plain.
The world is being flooded with perhaps unfamiliar words and phrases in coverage of the newly discovered coronavirus — starting with the very word “coronavirus.” (see below for definition).
It’s useful to understand relevant medical terms during a time of health crisis, says Melissa Nolan, a medical doctor and a professor of epidemiology at Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. “When you educate people, they’re not as afraid. And they can understand what their personal risk is.”
