The Daily Blog Open Mic – Monday 13th February 2017

1. ‘US military can no longer plead ‘collateral damage’ when it’s been happening for 17 years’

   https://www.rt.com/op-edge/377109-us-afghanistan-drones-casualties/

   and…is he an insane clown?…

   ‘Insane Clown President’ with Matt Taibbi

   https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/377097-presidential-election-trump-us/

   “On this week’s episode of On Contact, Chris Hedges examines the spectacle of the 2016 presidential election and the system that created President Donald Trump with Matt Taibbi, author of Insane Clown President. RT Correspondent Anya Parampil highlights some of the more absurd moments of the election season.”

   ….and

   ‘People are not willing to lose identity in exchange for globalisation – Nassim Taleb’

   https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/376154-violence-middle-east-refugees/

   “The world is fragile. A wave of violence has engulfed the Middle East, with the aftershocks threatening the entire globe. Millions of people are fleeing bloodshed, with a wave of refugees now risking their lives to shake the foundations of Europe. And economic instability is only spurring this volatility. As conflicts grow more complex and the world becomes more interconnected, is there a way to keep the global order intact or are we all heading into another large-scale collapse? We ask the bestselling author of ‘Antifragile’ and ‘The Black Swan’ – risk analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb.”

   • 100% Chooky.

     Trump is a product result of the mindless games of past Governments that now have us all involved in 11 mini wars all around the globe and people know this cant go on draining us all and our money for what???

2. NEW GLOBAL ANTARTIC SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION TO WATCH HERE. WE SHOULD FINALLY LEARN THE TRUTH THEN.

   https://phys.org/news/2016-12-months-antarctic-secrets-climate.html

   Earth Sciences

   December 21, 2016

   Three months in the Antarctic to unlock the secrets of our climate

   December 21, 2016

   Three months in the Antarctic to unlock the secrets of our climate

   The Russian scientific vessel Akademik Treshnikov. Credit: AARI

   The Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE), the first project run by the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI), will set sail this evening from South Africa. The Akademik Treshnikov is a Russian research vessel that has been chartered for this expedition. It will carry nearly 60 researchers around the southernmost continent on a data-gathering voyage in a bold initiative to improve our understanding of the impact of climate change in the Southern Ocean. A new chair – the Ingvar Kamprad Chair of Extreme Environments – will also be made official today.

   The time has come. The Akademik Treshnikov will leave the port of Cape Town, South Africa today on the three-month Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE). The imposing Russian research ship will carry over 120 people: some 60 researchers from 30 different countries and about the same number of crew members. In addition to circumnavigating Antarctica, they will visit around twelve subantarctic islands.

   This is the first project put together by the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI). It was Frederik Paulsen, a businessman and major philanthropist, who came up with the idea. He is also providing the ACE expedition with logistical backing, drawing on his extensive experience in Arctic exploration. Additional support is being provided by Presence Switzerland, a unit of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

   The idea behind the ACE expedition is to measure and quantify the impact of environmental changes and pollution in the Southern Ocean. This region plays a key role in climate regulation: currents of icy water deep in the ocean travel from the poles toward the equator, while warm water and air move across the ocean’s surface towards the cold regions. The earth’s climate can thus be compared to a huge heat engine. This process of heat transfer between polar and tropical regions is also an important component of the carbon cycle and a key factor in the oceans’ ability to store CO2.

   “The poles are essential for climate balance, but they are also the regions where changes are most apparent: that’s where the largest temperature differences have been recorded,” said Philippe Gillet, vice president of EPFL, director ad interim of the SPI and a specialist in Earth and planetary science.

   From plankton to microplastics

   Twenty-two research projects will be run during this trip by teams from Switzerland, the UK, France and Australia, to name a few. The projects were selected by a panel of international experts following a call for proposals organized jointly by the polar institutes of eight countries: South Africa, France, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Norway, Russia and Switzerland.

   The projects cover a wide range of fields, including glaciology, climatology, biology and oceanography. The topics of study include wave formation, geographical variations in plankton populations, chemical exchanges between air and water, biodiversity on the islands, the ocean’s CO2 storage capacity, microplastic pollution and its impact on fauna, and an acoustic analysis of whale populations. This expedition will also build bridges between the various scientific fields. Not only will the researchers collaborate in their on-ship research, but they will build relationships that will set the stage for future collaborations at the international level.

   The first Maritime University successfully completed

   The ACE expedition was preceded by the ACE Maritime University. Fifty students studying marine and earth sciences at universities around the world took part. They boarded the Akademik Treshnikov on 19 November in Bremerhaven, in northern Germany, and reached Cape Town on 15 December. The young researchers took intensive theory-oriented classes and then engaged in hands-on practicals that taught them different sampling and analytical techniques and how to handle basic instruments. The students also used this opportunity to learn about their peers’ work in other fields.

   A chair for the study of extreme environments

   The SPI also has a new chair, which will be formalized today in Cape Town. The Ingvar Kamprad Chair of Extreme Environments will be supported by Ferring Pharmaceuticals and based at EPFL’s Valais-Wallis outpost in Sion. The new team will work in EPFL’s alpine and extreme environment research center. It will apply cutting-edge scientific and technological solutions to environmental challenges like climate change and global resource management. This approach will enhance Switzerland’s existing scientific, economic and diplomatic contribution to this effort.

   Explore further: Scientists launch unprecedented Antarctic research mission

   More information: Regular updates on the ACE expedition will be available here: spi-ace-expedition.ch/

   Provided by: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne search and more infowebsite

   https://phys.org/news/2016-12-months-antarctic-secrets-climate.html

   • +100…thanx…interesting information…this is the issue of our times

3. Good read.

   Pivotal information far better than the idiots dribbling on about the economy. as if fit matters.

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