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Nice Chunk of Carbon
The second-largest gem quality diamond ever discovered has been unveiled by a Canadian diamond mining company this week.
Announced by the Lucara Corporation, the 1,111-carat diamond was unearthed in the company's Karowe Mine in southern African nation of Botswana.
William Lamb, the CEO of the mining company wrote in a press release, ""The significance of the recovery of a gem quality stone larger than 1,000 carats, the largest for more than a century and the continued recovery of high quality stones from the south lobe, cannot be overstated."
The only diamond larger than this example was the Cullinan Diamond, which when uncut weighed in at over 3,000 carats, was eventually cut into pieces and placed in England's Crown Jewels.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/This-is-what-a-1-100-carat-diamond-looks-like-6644052.php#photo-8985011
Calling Himself a Socialist Was One of Bernie Sanders’ Smartest Moves
By Jordan Weissmann
Bernie Sanders famously likes to refer to himself a “democratic socialist.” Not content to label his views as merely liberal or progressive, the presidential candidate reaches all the way for the s-word, which has been basically verboten in post-World War II American national politics. This has led to some debate over what, exactly, a "democratic socialist" actually is, and whether one can accurately or usefully call the man any kind of socialist at all, given that his views actually line up quite well with those of many fairly mainstream members of the American left. The discussion has even sucked in the prime minister of Denmark, which Sanders has held up as a possible model for the United States. (Denmark, the prime minister would like us to know, is “far from a socialist planned economy.”)
So today, during at speech at Georgetown University, Sanders defined his terms. His talk didn't contain any huge surprises. "I don’t believe government should take over the grocery store down the street or own the means of production,” he said, thus disavowing the strict Marxist definition of socialism with a dose of grandfatherly humor. “But I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a decent standard of living and that their incomes should go up, not down. I do believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America, companies that create jobs here, rather than companies that are shutting down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting low-wage labor abroad.”
In short, Sanders believes in a basic market economy with a large welfare state and a healthy amount of regulation. He would like a $15 minimum wage. He would like free tuition at public colleges. He would like the wealthy and corporations to pay more taxes. He would like single-payer health care.
Whether you think it makes strict sense to call all of this “democratic socialism” is obviously going to depend on your view of the term “socialism.” As I've written before, it's certainly not what revolutionaries in 19th century Europe had in mind, given that they very much wanted to seize the means of production. Bhaskar Sunkara, founder of the socialist magazine Jacobin, is upset that Sanders doesn't emphasize “power” more in his formulation. But as Dylan Matthews has argued, it's also fair to think of modern socialism as a reform movement that evolved from the hardcore Marxist parties of old, and decided to accept capitalism while sanding off its rough edges with a larger welfare state. In that view, the European social democracies that Sanders so admires are just socialism's more mellow grandkids.
In the end, it's not really useful to get bogged down in arcane arguments about terminology. Sanders uses socialist because it signifies that he wants to see fundamental changes in politics. He talks sincerely about a “political revolution” that will bring more Americans out to vote for their interests, and in that sense, take power. “When I use the word socialist, and I know some people are uncomfortable with it, I say it is imperative that we create a political revolution, that we get millions of people involved in the political process, and we create a government that works for the many, not the few,” he said during a question-and-answer session. It's a lot easier to talk about "revolution" and distinguish yourself in the eyes of voters when you're willing to rhetorically signify a hard break with the rules and mores of mainstream American politicking. And, given the way so many Democrats have responded, it's turned out to be surprisingly good branding. Strictly apt or not, calling himself a socialist might have been one of Sanders's smartest moves.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/11/19/bernie_sanders_defines_democratic_socialism_it_s_not_all_that_socialist.html
U.S. government proposes 17-year delay in start of Hanford nuclear tank cleanup -- until 2039
The Energy Department has proposed a 17-year delay in building a complex waste treatment plant at its radioactively contaminated Hanford site in Washington state, pushing back the full start-up for processing nuclear bomb waste to 2039.
The department submitted the 29-page plan in federal court as part of a suit to amend an agreement with the state that requires the plant to start operating in 2022.
A series of serious technical questions about the plant’s design have caused one delay after another. Two of the major facilities at the cleanup site, which resembles a small industrial city, are under a construction halt ordered in 2013 by then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
The plant, located on a desert plateau above the Columbia River, is designed to transform 56 million gallons of radioactive sludge, currently stored in underground tanks, into solid glass that could theoretically be stored for thousands of years.
The waste was a byproduct of plutonium production, which started with the Manhattan Project during World War II.
more
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-na-hanford-delay-20151118-story.html
Maybe if they wait long enough it will all decay away 
Two Clintons. 41 Years. $3 Billion. Inside the Clinton donor network.
A Washington Post investigation reveals how Bill and Hillary Clinton have methodically cultivated donors over 40 years, from Little Rock to Washington and then across the globe. Their fundraising methods have created a new blueprint for politicians and their donors.
By Matea Gold, Tom Hamburger and Anu Narayanswamy
Published on Nov. 19, 2015
LITTLE ROCK — Over four decades of public life, Bill and Hillary Clinton have built an unrivaled global network of donors while pioneering fundraising techniques that have transformed modern politics and paved the way for them to potentially become the first husband and wife to win the White House.
The grand total raised for all of their political campaigns and their family’s charitable foundation reaches at least $3 billion, according to a Washington Post investigation.
Their fundraising haul, which began with $178,000 that Bill Clinton raised for his long-shot 1974 congressional bid, is on track to expand substantially with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 White House run, which has already drawn $110 million in support.
The Post identified donations from roughly 336,000 individuals, corporations, unions and foreign governments in support of their political or philanthropic endeavors — a list that includes top patrons such as Steven Spielberg and George Soros, as well as lesser-known backers who have given smaller amounts dozens of times. Not included in the count are an untold number of small donors whose names are not identified in campaign finance reports but together have given millions to the Clintons over the years.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/clinton-money/
Fleets of incredibly large wind turbines could produce a third of all UK power by 2030
The UK has the biggest offshore wind industry in the world, by far.
But if predictions from some wind farm builders come true, it will become even more enormous—both in its capacity to produce power and by sheer size of the machines involved—over the next 15 years. The country has built 3.7 gigawatts of offshore wind power generating capacity in the last five years alone: enough to power three million homes, according to Benj Sykes, who leads asset management at Dong Energy’s wind business for the UK, Germany, and Denmark.
He told Quartz that there were enough projects in the pipeline to more than double that amount to between 10 and 11 gigawatts by 2020. Ten years after that, the company envisages wind turbines will have a capacity of 30 gigawatts, generating 35% of the UK’s electricity.
That’s an “aspirational number” Sykes said, but it’s achievable, so long as costs continue to fall, he said.
The scale of some of these projects is hard to conceive. Take, for example, a construction project in Liverpool Bay scheduled to begin next year. It will use 8-megawatt turbines that are so massive they cannot be transported over land, only by ship.
more
http://qz.com/553674/fleets-of-incredibly-large-wind-turbines-could-produce-a-third-of-all-uk-power-by-2030/
The antibiotic apocalypse is nigh: Scientists found bacteria resistant to a drug of last resort
Scientists say we may be on the verge of a “post-antibiotic” world, with the discovery of bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotics. In a new, ominous study, researchers describe a new gene mutation that prevents a drug called colistin from killing off a variety of common bacteria including E. Coli.
The gene, dubbed mcr-1, has been identified in patients and livestock in China; researchers say the resistance likely developed from overusing colistin on farm animals, the BBC reports. A fifth of the animals tested by the scientists, as well as 16 human patients and 15% of raw meat showed resistance. China is the world’s largest user of the drug for veterinary and agriculture purposes, and its government is already looking into assessing risks of using colistin.
The “antibiotic apocalypse” described in the report published online Nov. 18 in Lancet Infectious Diseases, means that in the foreseeable future, doctors will face “increasing numbers of patients for whom we will need to say, ‘Sorry, there is nothing I can do to cure your infection,'” according to commentary included in the study.
What makes the mcr-1 gene highly dangerous is its ability to copy itself and transfer onto other bacteria, spreading easily.
more
http://qz.com/554533/the-antibiotic-apocalypse-is-nigh-scientists-found-bacteria-resistant-to-a-drug-of-last-resort/
The US government is retiring all its research chimpanzees
The last 50 chimpanzees held for medical testing by the US government will soon be allowed to retire in sanctuaries, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Wednesday (Nov. 18).
“It is clear that we’ve reached a tipping point,” said Francis Collins, director of the NIH, in the statement. That marks the end of the government’s use of the primates for medical research, and completes a multi-year process that earlier retired around 300 chimpanzees in 2013.
“It seems inescapable that after two-and-a-half years when there has not been a single request for access to these 50 chimpanzees […] we have moved on from the time when research on chimpanzees was considered essential,” Collins told Nature. The primates will now be relocated to Louisiana’s Chimp Haven, joining other retirees.
The NIH kicked off the process of phasing out chimpanzees from medical research in 2010, and the US Institute of Medicine agreed a year later that their use was was not necessary. This year, the animals were marked as endangered, which forced researchers to apply for an extra license to obtain permission to perform tests on the animals; no such permission has been sought for testing.
more
http://qz.com/554272/the-us-government-is-retiring-all-its-research-chimpanzees/
What a difference a new PM makes: Obama and Trudeau discuss clean energy proposals
In their first formal meeting, U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to disagree over Islamic State air strikes while presenting a united front to boost clean-energy production after the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Obama and the recently elected Trudeau met Thursday in Manila in talks that focused on how the U.S. and Canada were cooperating on trade, energy and climate change. Recent points of tension -- including Canada’s decision to pull out of a U.S.-led bombing campaign against Islamic State, Obama’s rejection of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone oil pipeline and brewing trade disputes over lumber and labeling rules -- received little emphasis.
“There are no closer friends we have than the Canadians,” Obama said on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which wraps up Thursday. He said he planned on hosting Trudeau at the White House in early 2016. "We are confident he’s going to provide a great boost of energy," he said of his Canadian counterpart.
Trudeau, on his first international trip as prime minister, has said a foreign policy priority is to repair ties with the U.S., which have frayed in recent years over Keystone, country-of-origin labeling rules and other issues. Obama has repeatedly reached out to the young politician whose surprise victory and message of change have given him the kind of celebrity status the U.S. president enjoyed at the start of his term.
more
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-19/obama-makes-nice-with-canada-s-trudeau-as-keystone-in-rearview
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