{"id":19893,"date":"2016-02-13T16:08:55","date_gmt":"2016-02-14T00:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=19893"},"modified":"2016-02-13T16:08:55","modified_gmt":"2016-02-14T00:08:55","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-13022016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/13\/squatchs-open-thread-13022016\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 13\/02\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, after returning from physio and then teaching, I decided that I had had enough for the day . . . so no Open Thread.  But I am back today and rested.  I'm doing laundry today but otherwise relaxing a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

CBC<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — More than 50 million years ago, Canada's Arctic was a warm, wet place, home to alligators, giant tortoises and — as it now turns out — giant, flightless birds.<\/p>\n

\"Meet<\/p>\n

A new study<\/a> by scientists  from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and the University of Colorado Boulder has confirmed that a single fossilized toe bone discovered in the early 1970s on Ellesmere Island in what is now Nunavut belonged to a species called Gastornis.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Ellesmere_Island,_Canada.svg\"<\/a>The map shows how far north Ellesmere Island is to the rest of Canada.  That is Greenland to the right.<\/span><\/p>\n

These discoveries help shed light on what the Arctic was like during the Eocene epoch, when Ellesmere Island was most likely a hot, swampy environment, home to giant turtles, alligators, primates and hippo-like beasts. <\/p>\n

That, in turn, gives us some idea of what to expect as climate change dramatically alters the northern landscape, Eberle said. In order to develop accurate climate models to predict the future, scientists need solid, measurable data from the past — especially from previous periods of warmth in the Arctic.<\/p>\n

That is one big "chicken"!  <\/span>Wikipedia<\/strong><\/span><\/a> had this to say about the area<\/span>:<\/p>\n

\n

Schei and later Nathorst<\/a> described the Paleocene<\/a>–Eocene<\/a> (ca. 55 Ma) fossil<\/a> forest in the Stenkul Fiord sediments. The Stenkul Fiord site represents a series of deltaic swamp<\/a> and floodplain<\/a> forests. The trees stood for at least 400 years. Individual stumps and stems of >1 m (>3 ft) diameter were abundant, and are identified as Metasequoia<\/a><\/i> and possibly Glyptostrobus<\/a><\/i>. Well preserved Pliocene<\/a> peats<\/a> containing abundant vertebrate and plant macrofossils characteristic of a boreal forest<\/a> have been reported from Strathcona Fiord<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2006, University of Chicago<\/a> paleontologist<\/a> Neil Shubin<\/a> and Academy of Natural Sciences<\/a> paleontologist Ted Daeschler<\/a> reported the discovery of the fossil of aPaleozoic<\/a> (ca. 375 Ma) fish, named Tiktaalik roseae<\/a><\/i>, in the former stream beds<\/a> of Ellesmere Island. The fossil exhibits many characteristics of fish, but also indicates a transitional<\/a> creature that may be a predecessor of amphibians<\/a>, reptiles<\/a>, birds, and mammals<\/a>, including humans.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is not to say that climate change is not anthropogenic.  It is!  But by looking at the past, we might be able to learn what happened millions of years ago and prevent a catastrophic change in our time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Foreign Policy<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — <\/span>When the refugee crisis began last summer, about 1,500 people were coming to Sweden every week seeking asylum. By August, the number had doubled. In September, it doubled again. In October, it hit 10,000 a week, and stayed there even as the weather grew colder. A nation of 9.5 million, Sweden expected to take as many as 190,000 refugees, or 2 percent of the population — double the per capita figure projected by Germany, which has taken the lead in absorbing the vast tide of people fleeing the wars in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere.  …<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The vast migration of desperate souls from Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere has posed a moral test the likes of which Europe has not faced since the Nazis forced millions from their homes in search of refuge. Europe has failed that test. Germany, acutely aware that it was the author of that last great refugee crisis, has taken in the overwhelming fraction of the 1 million asylum-seekers who have reached Europe over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n

This a long but interesting article that challenges our moral compass. Sweden is caught between its moral code and the realities of the magnitude of the refugee issue.  Certainly, one wonders why countries like Saudi Arabia have not welcomed refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.  I suspect that the Saudis do not want the instability that can come from a large refugee influx, especially in a tightly controlled society.  That more has to be done is unquestionable . . . but what?<\/span><\/p>\n

CBC<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — Air balls, comedic bits and the odd quality play — the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game had a little bit of everything Friday night at the Ricoh Coliseum.<\/p>\n

Serving as the on-court kickoff to a weekend of festivities building up to Sunday's all-star game, fans were treated to an entertaining mix of characters who delivered a brand of basketball that was high on energy and short on flow.<\/p>\n

Congrats to the Canadian NBA All Star Celebrity team for dunking the US team 74 – 64!<\/span><\/p>\n

Alternet<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — …<\/span><\/strong> Dr. King was also a tough-minded critic of our capitalist economic structure<\/a>, much like Bernie Sanders is today.<\/p>\n

The reality is that King himself supported democratic socialism<\/a> – and that civil rights activists and socialists have walked arm-in-arm for more than a century. …<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1966:  In remarks to staffers<\/a> at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King said:<\/p>\n

“You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry. . . . It really means that we are saying something is wrong with capitalism. There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.”<\/p>\n

Would Martin Luther King Jr be supporting Bernie?  I believe he would.<\/span><\/p>\n

My Universe<\/strong> — <\/span><\/p>\n

\"litter<\/a><\/p>\n

\"freekibble_20\"<\/a>Come here idiot!  I want to tell you something!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, after returning from physio and then teaching, I decided that I had had enough for the day . . . so no Open Thread.  But I am back today and rested.  I'm doing laundry today but otherwise relaxing a bit. Short Takes CBC — More than 50 million years ago, Canada's Arctic was a warm, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-politics","category-35-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}