Tillerson gets earful on climate change from Arctic governments
By Rachel Waldholz, Alaska's Energy Desk - AnchorageTillerson was in Fairbanks to chair a meeting of the Arctic Council, which brings together nations and indigenous groups from around the region. The U.S. was formally handing over the rotating chairmanship to Finland.
The Arctic Council takes a keen interest in climate change, and it’s waiting to see how the Trump administration will handle the issue – and whether the U.S. will withdraw from the international Paris climate accord.
Tillerson tackled the issue head-on during his opening statement.
“We are appreciative that each of you has an important point of view,” Tillerson said. “And you should know that we are taking the time to understand your concerns. We’re not going to rush to make a decision, we’re going to work to make the right decision for the United States.”
Many of Tillerson’s counterparts took the opportunity to press for action, including Swedish foreign minister Margot Elisabeth Wallström, who asked what the planet say if it had a seat at the table.
[As if anyone needs to listen to Sweden, they are self-destructing their country as I write.]
Each Arctic nation and indigenous group had three minutes to speak and hardly any let the chance pass without mentioning climate change.
The Gwich’in Council International declared, without coordinated action, “our culture cannot survive.” Finland, the incoming chair, called global warming “the main engine of change” in the region. [Source]
NPR Our Land series focuses on Southeast Alaska
Posted by Leila KheiryIf you’re a public radio listener, you know Melissa Block. Among her many jobs with National Public Radio over three decades, she was host of All Things Considered for about 12 years. Now, Block is traveling the country for a series called Our Land.
Block and her producer, Elissa Nadworny, were in Southeast Alaska for a couple weeks for a special series about this region of the state. They spent a few days in Ketchikan, and stopped in at KRBD.
Block says she’s visited Alaska before, but never Southeast, and it is different. I asked for her impressions as her trip comes to a close.
“I think that we’re both struck with the notion that Alaskans are made of tough stuff,” she said. “Two and a half hours standing up in a skiff over pounding waves to get to Meyers Chuck? No big deal. For us? Kind of a big deal. It’s a level of involvement with nature and the elements that I think we’re – we’re city people – we’re not as exposed to.”
Block and Nadworny are planning eight stories about Southeast, covering everything from healthcare in rural Alaska to Native culture and traditions, to the state ferry system and, of course, fishing.
“For no great reason other than I had been looking at maps – I’m a total map geek – I had been looking at maps and I’m always fascinated by place names and somehow the name Meyers Chuck jumped out at me,” she said. “I never really got a great explanation for why it’s called Meyers Chuck, but it doesn’t matter because it’s just a super cool place.”
They flew out to Meyers Chuck on the mail plane, and then got a ride back to town in a skiff with local resident Shawn McAllister. That was the two-hours-standing-up skiff ride that Block mentioned earlier. [Read the rest]
Tanner crab fishery could reopen at Prince William Sound
by Laine WelchUp to 14 million pounds of Tanners came out of Prince William Sound in the early 1970s then, as with other parts of the Central Gulf, steadily dwindled. The fishery was closed after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 and showed little sign of recovery. No fishery has occurred since 1995.
In recent years, a pulse of crab recruits has appeared in surveys and subsistence pots. That prompted a push three years ago to work towards setting a new harvest strategy and thresholds. Another change will reduce the legal size limit of male crab shells from 5.3 inches to 5 inches.
Crabbers who want to drop pots in two areas outside of the Sound that were not surveyed last winter also may get a commissioner’s permit to do so.
“So if people are interested in going out there we would send an observer aboard and they could go out there and see if they could catch any Tanner crab with pots.”
Test fishery and historical survey comparisons show that crab populations continue to be below harvest thresholds. More will be known about the stock status this summer.
“It will be based on our survey we’re doing in June. And we have all of the structure ready to do our analysis as soon as we’re done with the fishey and be able to respond to the harvest strategy to see where the population is at. So it’s not going to take a long period of time to figure this out.” [Read the full story]
[That awkward Moment When WW2 History is Better Than "the Current Year"]
Students left a pineapple in the middle of an exhibition and people mistook it for art
Students claim they managed to pass off a pineapple they bought for £1 at a supermarket as a work of art, after leaving it in the middle of an exhibition at their university,
Ruairi Gray, a business information technology student at Robert Gordon University in Scotland, and his friend Lloyd Jack, reportedly left the fruit at the Look Again exhibition at RGU's Sir Ian Wood building, hoping that it might be mistaken for art.
When they returned four days later he found that the pineapple had been put inside its own glass display case at the event.
Gray, 22, told the MailOnline: "I saw an empty art display stand and decided to see how long it would stay there for or if people would believe it was art. [Story]
This is such a great story because it shows just how much of a joke "Art" is these days. Despite popular opinion of 'modern art', beauty is an objective fact....this is not "Art."
This is Art:
 |
| True Art is just a "scientific" fact. It can't be mistaken because of...."science". |
Aetna Is Latest Health Insurer to Quit Obamacare Markets
by Zachary TracerAetna Inc. will leave the few remaining states where it had been selling Obamacare plans next year, making it the latest health insurer to pull out of the health law as Republicans attack the program as failing and work to dismantle it.
While the move is likely to attract outsize political attention, the decision affects just Delaware and Nebraska. The Hartford, Connecticut-based insurer already said last year it would pull out of 11 states, and in the last month announced plans to exit Iowa and Virginia.
[This would include Alaska. At this point, I believe Aetna is the last health insurer left in the state. If i'm wrong, please correct me.]
Some of the instability has been going on for years, as fewer people than expected have signed up for plans and many have been sicker than insurers accounted for. Those problems have been further pushed by Republicans, who are considering legislation in Congress to repeal and replace large portions of the health law, and by President Donald Trump, who has threatened to withhold support from key portions of the law that keep the markets functioning. [Source]
[Audio Drama Directory]
[News of the Week]
Video of the Week:
Warner Bros. Facing An Early Summer Box Office Disaster with “King Arthur” Misfire
Sad I really wanted to watch this...
This week we don’t have Friday the 13th, but Friday the 12th will suffice. “King Arthur” is looming as a huge box office disaster for Warner Bros. The $150 million Guy Ritchie-directed adventure is getting scathing reviews. It’s only registering a 21/100 on Rotten Tomatoes.
“King Arthur” stars Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law, good actors caught in Ritchie’s net. Ritchie, despite his “Sherlock Holmes” movies, has some of the most spectacular failures ever on his resume including ex wife Madonna in a remake of “Swept Away.”
It doesn’t help that “King Arthur” apparently offers a celebrity cameo by former soccer star David Beckham. Screening audiences have been vocal about Beckham’s lack of acting talent.
“King Arthur” has been a problem for Warner’s for a long time. Shot in 2015, it was supposed to be released in Summer 2016. Then it started moving on the schedule like a chess piece that wanted to be removed from the board. It was finally set for this past March, but then moved again so as not to interfere with Warner’s “CHiPS” movie. “CHiPS” was a big flop. [source]
It's bad because they probably added way too many fake cultural elements into it. Perhaps I should write a movie review once it comes out? Maybe I will like it? To be honest the movie reviews are usually wrong these days anyway. You be the judge. Let us know in the comments.
Incredible 40,000-year-old bracelet believed to be the oldest ever found suggests ancient human race used drills which were just like modern tools
A unique green stone bracelet discovered beside ancient human remains in a Siberian cave is 'the oldest ever found' dating back around 40,000 years, say Russian experts.
The intricate modern-looking piece of polished jewellery - perhaps belonging to a prehistoric princess - was made of chlorite by the Denisovans, a long extinct early human grouping, it is believed.
The remarkable bracelet was found in the Altai Mountain range in 2008, but it is only now that pictures have emerged showing it in all its glory, including a reconstruction of how it would have looked at the time.
It was also carefully polished, with a heavy pendant added in the centre, probably hanging from a short leather strap.
Yet the archaeologists have ruled out that the bracelet was made in a later era and buried with the earlier, Denisovan remains.
Scientists also noted it was made of chlorite, a stone found more than 150 miles away, suggesting the bracelet was of significance at the time.
This unique jewellery is currently held at the Museum of History and Culture of the Peoples' of Siberia and the Far East in the city of Novosibirsk.
Located about 100 miles south of the city of Barnaul, it is popular with tourists because of the vast number of unusual animal remains that have been found there.
The bracelet was found in 2008 during an expedition into the cave, which has a year-round temperature of 0 degrees Celsius, helping to preserve remains.
Nearby was the finger bone of a seven- or eight-year-old Denisovan girl who lived about 40,000 years ago, a find which changed scientific understanding of early man.
Two fragments of the bracelet were found, about three-centimetres wide and one-centimetre thick, and it was established that it had been worn on the right hand, probably by a woman or child. [Read the rest of the story]
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