September 13, 2014

Listen up Dems....

http://theobamadiary.com/2014/09/13/a-tweet-or-two-118/

September 13, 2014

Marco Rubio attacks Obama's ISIS strategy

http://theobamadiary.com/2014/09/13/a-tweet-or-two-118/

September 13, 2014

What people don’t know can hurt them

For those who remain engaged in public affairs, the basics on contemporary politics are usually too obvious to even mention. We know who President Obama is and what party he belongs to; we know who Speaker of the House John Boehner is and his party affiliation; etc.

But like it or not, we’re in the minority. Most Americans don’t keep up with current events enough to know which party, for example, is in the majority in the House and the Senate.

It’s easy to lament the scope of our uninformed electorate, but in the short term, it’s also worth appreciating the practical consequence. As Greg Sargent noted yesterday, there’s new focus-group research that shows many Democratic voters are likely to skip the 2014 midterms in large part because they have no idea what’s at risk.

What if a key part of the problem is that many of these voters simply don’t know that Democratic control of the Senate is at stake in this fall’s elections?

That’s one of the conclusions veteran Dem pollster Celinda Lake reached after conducting new focus groups and polling for the liberal group MoveOn. Lake conducted two focus groups of people from Detroit and its suburbs. One was made up of single white women under 55 and married white women under 35 (millenials). The second was all African American women. These are the same voters who are expected to drop off in many red state Senate contests, too.

Lake added that the drop-off voters “had no idea that control of the Senate was even up for grabs and were even very confused about who controlled it. These voters are very representative of drop-off voters in a lot of states.”

Told that their state’s election may very well dictate control of the Senate in 2015 and 2016, these voters’ motivation went up. Reminded of specific issues at stake in the event of a Republican takeover, and their interest, not surprisingly, grew further.

More here: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/what-people-dont-know-can-hurt-them

September 13, 2014

Couldn't have said it better than FLOTUS

http://theobamadiary.com/

September 10, 2014

Watch A Man Climb Into An Active Volcano

Kourounis is an adventurer and storm chaser who specializes in documenting extreme weather conditions. With fellow explorer and filmmaker Sam Cossman, the pair climbed deep into the Marum crater, located in an active volcano on the South Pacific's Vanuatu archipelago.

George Kourounis stood so close to the fiery pit of churning lava that at one point a splash of it melted a hole in his protective suit.




When you see that shot of me [in the video] looking like a little silver dot, next to what appears to be a waterfall of lava, that was an extremely dangerous spot to be standing," Kourounis told the Huffington Post. "It was a bit scary. If something were to have gone wrong. It would’ve happened quickly, and catastrophically.”

Kourounis, Cossman, and two guides—Geoff Mackley and Brad Ambrose—spent four days at the crater's edge, descending twice into the Marum Crater with rock climbing gear, heat resistant equipment, face masks and three cameras. The footage was filmed with a GoPro, a Canon 5D Mark III camera and a Sony NX Cam.

As Cossman wrote in a summary for the Youtube video, "More people have visited the moon than the fiery bottom of this spectacular and deadly place."

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/video-man-climbs-active-volcano

September 10, 2014

California Blue Whales Bounce Back From Whaling

Measuring some 30 meters (100 feet) in length and weighing in at a whopping 200 tons (181 metric), blue whales are the largest animals on Earth. In fact, they’re the heaviest animals to have ever lived on our planet, weighing more than the largest known dinosaur. Unfortunately, these iconic whales are an endangered species. They were aggressively hunted to the brink of extinction in the 1900s by whalers seeking their meat and oil. Between 1900 and the 1960s, it is estimated that around 360,000 blue whales were poached, mostly by Russian fleets.

Blue whales became protected in 1966, but since then their populations have only slightly recovered. Now, however, new research by scientists at the University of Washington suggests that California blue whales have bounced back. Remarkably, their population has now virtually returned to historical levels, making them the only population known to have rebounded from whaling.

“The recovery of California blue whales from whaling demonstrates the ability of blue whale populations to rebuild under careful management and conservation measures,” said Cole Monnahan, lead author of the Marine Mammal Science study, in a news release.

California blue whales, or eastern North Pacific (ENP) whales, range from the equator to the Gulf of Alaska. Previous work estimated that there are currently around 2,200 of these whales, which is 97% of the historical level, according to the new study. While that may seem unimpressive, considering 3,400 were caught from 1905-1971 compared to the 346,000 caught near Antarctica, it’s likely that their population was significantly smaller.

More here: http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/california-blue-whales-bounce-back-whaling

September 10, 2014

Amazon Warriors Fight for Their Trees

Reuters photographer Lunae Parracho recently went on a search and destroy mission in the Amazon with Brazil's Ka'apor Indians. Frustrated by the government's lack of action to keep illegal loggers out of the Alto Turiacu Indian territory, local warriors from several tribes have taken it upon themselves to find logging camps, destroy equipment, and drive out the unwelcome intruders. Parracho documented the scene as Ka'apor warriors captured a number of men in the forest, burned their trucks, destroyed their logs, then sent their captives down the road—freed, but without shoes or pants, their hands still bound. The Ka'apor Indians and four other tribes—the legal inhabitants and caretakers of the territory—have also set up monitoring camps in areas that are being illegally exploited. [20 photos]


A Ka'apor Indian warrior chases a logger who tried to escape after he was captured during a jungle expedition to find and expel loggers from the Alto Turiacu Indian territory, near the Centro do Guilherme municipality in the northeast of Brazil's Maranhao state in the Amazon basin, on August 7, 2014. Tired of what they say is a lack of sufficient government assistance in keeping loggers off their land, the Ka'apor Indians, who along with four other tribes are the legal inhabitants and caretakers of the territory, have sent their warriors out to expel all loggers they find and set up monitoring camps in the areas that are being illegally exploited. (Reuters/Lunae Parracho)


Warriors tie up loggers they discovered in the northeast of Maranhao state on August 7, 2014. (Reuters/Lunae Parracho)

More photos here: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/09/amazon-warriors-fight-for-their-trees/100805/

September 10, 2014

Can you belive this? Beatlemania: it was 50 years ago

1964: Beatlemania

At the start of 1964, the Beatles were at the top of the charts in the UK, but had just started to attract audiences overseas with songs from their first two albums Please Please Me and With the Beatles. Radio airplay and a broad marketing campaign in the U.S. quickly drove huge record sales and enormous enthusiasm among new fans -- the band and their sound were something new and exciting, and they were coming to America. John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison set off on a series of tours in 1964, starting in Europe, later visiting the United States, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. Beatles fans were so excited and determined to see the band that police sometimes resorted to using fire hoses to hold them back. Their first televised concert in the U.S. was on the Ed Sullivan Show, on February 9, 1964. 73 million viewers watched that performance -- 34 percent of the American population. Below are images of the Beatles' big year, in roughly chronological order, as the world discovered Beatlemania. This is the third of five entries focusing on events of the year 1964 this week (and next Monday). Later entries will feature images from Alaska's Good Friday earthquake and the New York World's Fair. [42 photos]


The Beatles leave London airport in 1964. From left: John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Enthusiastic fans welcomed the Beatles in airports and concert halls around the world in 1964, as Beatlemania swept the globe.


The Beatles take a fake blow from Cassius Clay, who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali, while visiting the heavyweight contender at his training camp in Miami Beach, Florida, on February 18, 1964.


Paul McCartney, 21 years old, on the set of the Ed Sullivan Show with the Beatles, on February 9, 1964

More here:http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/05/1964-beatlemania/100745/

September 10, 2014

Luckovich toon: Mea culpa

September 10, 2014

Did you really need this video Commissioner Goodell,