Truth and Hammer

Author: Truth & Hammer

Nissan to post 90% profit drop and cut thousands more jobs –

TOKYO — Nissan Motor is expected to report a more than 90% plunge in first-quarter operating profit on Thursday, Nikkei has learned, and will cut up to 7% of its global workforce as it braces for one of the worst years in a decade.

Operating profit in the April to June period will come in at less than 10 billion yen, down from 109.1 billion yen ($1 billion) for the same period a year earlier.

The Japanese automaker issued a statement saying that it expects the result “to be close to the figure reported” in the Nikkei article, which it described as “speculative.”

Sales in the U.S., one of Nissan’s biggest markets, continue to fall, while the costs of developing electric vehicles and autonomous driving technologies are weighing heavily on profits.

The company is now scrambling to reduce production capacity and intends to increase the planned 4,800 job cuts announced in May to more than 10,000 out of a 139,000-strong workforce.

Data from QUICK FactSet shows the automaker’s operating profit also fell below 10 billion yen for January to March. The last time Nissan’s operating performance dropped so sharply was in January-March 2009, when the company recorded a loss of 200 billion yen.

Nissan is scheduled formally to announce the first-quarter results on Thursday afternoon.

The carmaker is expected to show a significant decrease in overall sales from the same quarter of 2018, when it recorded turnover of 2.7 trillion yen. Autodata, a market research firm, estimates the company sold around 350,000 units in the U.S., down 4% on the year and greater than the 2% average decline across the American market.

Nissan is trying to wean itself off discounting as a means to boost sales in the U.S., and in April-June it decreased dealership incentives — in effect, raising prices. Yet the automaker is pushing a number of ageing models that have not had major revamps in years, making it harder to persuade drivers to swallow price hikes.

The company also suffered sales declines in Europe, where it was hit by tighter environmental regulations. In Japan, the Nissan brand has taken a major hit from the arrest of former chairman Carlos Ghosn for alleged financial misconduct. The executive denies any wrongdoing.

But in China, Nissan sales turned upward in June after year-on-year declines in the previous two months. Japanese brands have fared relatively well as the world’s biggest auto market has slowed. Chinese operations had no net impact on Nissan’s quarterly profit.

While sales are under pressure, Nissan is also being forced to invest more to meet new regulations and to develop next generation technology — connected, autonomous, shared and electric cars. The costs are eating into profit.

Higher costs of rare metals and other raw materials, as a result of the U.S.-China conflict, have also hurt the company, along with the impact of a stronger yen against the dollar.

Nissan in May had forecast a 230 billion yen operating profit for the fiscal year through March 2020, down 28% from a year earlier. Net profit was expected to come in at 170 billion yen, down 47%.

Along with the plunge in earnings, Nissan is expected tomorrow to announce a restructuring plan centered on job cuts and output capacity reductions. Management aims to free up resources — rendered scarce by Ghosn’s expansion drive — to concentrate on next-generation technology.

In May, Nissan announced 19 reform steps designed to reduce annual costs by 30 billion yen, including 4,800 job cuts in North America and other regions. The plan is to accelerate the layoffs by promoting early retirement and other measures. Capacity, mainly in emerging countries, is to be slashed by around 10%.

Nissan had a workforce of 139,000 as of March 2018, with 33 plants around the world. Annual production capacity stood at about 6 million vehicles, but its sales of 5.5 million vehicles in 2018 came in well below that.

The new restructuring plan is expected to include capacity cuts at around 10 plants worldwide.

This content was originally published here.

July 25, 2019
Designed protein switch allows unprecedented control over living cells

LOCKR is a molecular switch made of multiple interacting parts: a ‘key’ (black) unlocks a ‘cage’ (grey), revealing a bioactive peptide (yellow) which can interact with other molecules in the cell. LOCKR, a synthetic protein complex, was computationally designed from scratch, then tested in living cells. Credit: Ian Haydon, UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design

Scientists have created the first completely artificial protein switch that can work inside living cells to modify—or even commandeer—the cell’s complex internal circuitry.

The switch is dubbed LOCKR, short for Latching, Orthogonal Cage/Key pRotein.

Companion papers published July 24 in the journal Nature describe LOCKR’s design and demonstrate several practical applications of the technology. The work was conducted by bioengineering teams led by David Baker at the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design and Hana El-Samad at UC San Francisco.

The scientists show that LOCKR can be “programmed” to modify gene expression, redirect cellular traffic, degrade specific proteins, and control protein binding interactions. The researchers also use LOCKR to build new biological circuits that behave like autonomous sensors. These circuits detect cues from the cell’s internal or external environment and respond by making changes to the cell. This is akin to the way a thermostat senses ambient temperature and directs a heating or cooling system to shut itself off as soon as a desired temperature is reached.

Once assembled by a cell, these new switches measure just eight nanometers on their longest side. More than a hundred million would be needed to cover the period at the end of this sentence.

“The ability to control cells with designer proteins ushers in a new era of biology,” said El-Samad, the Kuo Family Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF and co-senior author of the reports. “In the same way that integrated circuits enabled the explosion of the computer chip industry, these versatile and dynamic biological switches could soon unlock precise control over the behavior of living cells and, ultimately, our health.”

Having no counterpart in the natural world, LOCKR stands apart from every tool of the biotech trade, including recent technologies like optogenetics and CRISPR. While its predecessors were discovered in nature and then retooled for use in labs, industry, or medicine, LOCKR is among the first biotechnology tools entirely conceived of and built by humans.

The lead authors of the reports are Bobby Langan and Scott Boyken of the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design, and Andrew Ng of the UC Berkeley-UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering.

“Right now, every cell is responding to its environment,” said Langan. “Cells receive stimuli, then have to figure out what to do about it. They use natural systems to tune gene expression or degrade proteins, for example.”

Langan and his colleagues set out to create a new way to interface with these cellular systems. They used computational protein design to create self-assembling proteins that present bioactive peptides only upon addition of specific molecular “keys.”

With a version of LOCKR installed in yeast, the team was able to show that the genetically engineered fungus could be made to degrade a specific cellular protein at a time of the researchers’ choosing. By redesigning the switch, they also demonstrated the same effect in lab-grown human cells.

To stay healthy, cells must tightly control their biochemical processes. Abnormal activity in just one gene, or buildup of the wrong protein, can upset a cell’s equilibrium. This could lead to cell death or even cancer. LOCKR gives scientists a new way to interact with living cells. It could thereby enable a new wave of therapies for diseases as diverse as cancer, autoimmune disorders and more.

“LOCKR opens a whole new realm of possibility for programming cells,” said Ng. “We are now limited more by our imagination and creativity rather than the proteins that nature has evolved.”

This content was originally published here.

July 25, 2019
Understanding the psychology of corruption in South Afr…

Beating corruption requires taking seriously the psychological legacies of apartheid and dismantling the socio-economic ones, says the writer.

The idea that corrupt public servants are morally deficient obscures the fact that morality is frequently invoked to legitimise corruption itself. South African public servants usually accept that their corrupt acts are illegal, but stress that they are also moral; performed in the name of some social good.

Our leaders are corrupt. They have looted the state with remarkable determination, and we talk about it all the time. We can’t get enough of the “who”, the “how” and the “what” of corruption, but what we tend to avoid is the “why”.

Perhaps we are afraid of what we might find: is understanding corruption the same as excusing it? Could we, as a society or subgroup, be implicated in its foundations? But asking why is in our collective interest because until we learn where corruption comes from, we will struggle to stem it.

Before you continue, abandon any preconceptions such as “what do you mean why? Jacob Zuma is simply a bad, corrupt person”, and embrace the daunting reality that life is far greyer than that. This article explores the psychological conditions that have enabled corruption, with such systemic form and shameless character, in South Africa and the post-colonial world.

1. Morality is subjective and subjective morality can enable corruption

The idea that corrupt public servants are morally deficient obscures the fact that morality is frequently invoked to legitimise corruption itself. Research conducted by the Public Affairs Research Institute has found that South African public servants usually accept that their corrupt acts are illegal, but stress that they are also moral; performed in the name of some social good.

Radical economic transformation is a social good, necessary to overcome legacies of apartheid and the injustices of South African society. It is a social good that the ANC government displays proudly in its mandate cabinet.

Insofar as corrupt dealings (patronage networks, embezzlement, cadre deployment) redistribute resources to the previously disadvantaged, they can be justified, to a certain extent, in transformative terms. And insofar as they are carried out by members of the ANC – South Africa’s liberation party – they gain a further layer of subjective moral legitimacy.

Culture is not a reasonable explanation for corruption, except perhaps in the discrepancy between individualism and collectivism.

In collective cultures, obligation and loyalty to in-group members can become a more important moral standard to observe than social justice. Chinua Achebe makes this argument in narrative form in No Longer at Ease, that public servants are drawn into corrupt practices from their “unenviable position on the interface of two contradictory worlds”: a governmental system that calls on individuals to pursue their wealth according to anonymous rules and regulations and a system of patronage that binds its members to obligations and duties on the basis of family, kin or friendship.

Of course, the stakes are higher when a person’s family are impoverished, and one cannot help but wonder whether individualist cultures are only that way because there is enough to go around.

2. The fear of imminent dispossession can enable corruption

With the dawn of democracy, Nelson Mandela cautioned against the abuse of public office in “a desperate desire to accumulate wealth in the shortest time possible” (Report by Nelson Mandela to the 50th National Conference of the African National Congress, 16 December 1997.)

In navigation of the harsh realities of poverty and unemployment, low-level officials attach themselves to patronage networks to access resources and opportunities. While high-level officials navigate “status strain”: an unstable politico-economic environment makes property rights vulnerable and public tenure transient (see Jacob Zuma’s 2017 Cabinet reshuffle). Resulting insecurity lures officials into illicit rent-seeking behaviours that could help them to preserve their social status even after losing their jobs (Lipset and Raab, 1970; Shleifer and Vishny, 1993; Hoon 2009.)

This is exacerbated if a person is insecure in their skills or deservingness, or is aware that their position is dependent on the fleeting favour of higher-ranked officials.

The “status strain” dynamic is difficult to escape in a profoundly unequal context, where the dichotomy between prosperity and poverty is so stark.

3. Inflated fantasies and narcissistic defences can enable corruption

Frantz Fanon observed the legitimate aspiration of the formerly colonised class to artificially high standards of living because it “identifies itself with the Western bourgeoisie from whom it has learnt its lessons”. Such standards are unrealistic without the historical assets of their coloniser counterparts and with the large extended families that they must often support. Thus, the new elite comes to rely on corruption and patronage.

Sigmund Freud’s concept of wish fulfilment explains that during their formative years, particularly from a place of neglect or deprivation, infants create fantasies to maintain their psychological survival. In South Africa, these fantasies (aspirations of wealth and its apparent association with freedom and prosperity) formed in the context of settler colonialism. Corruption can then be understood as the result of attempts to fulfil an inflated “wish”, developed from a place of profound inequality, experienced through the lens of a child.

The seeds of corruption can be sown during childhood, also through the development of narcissistic defences: when a baby’s physical or emotional needs are repeatedly neglected, it can learn to suppress its innate need to connect with the outside world. In adulthood, this expresses as a person viewing themselves as the primary being of importance and the world as existing to service their needs. Narcissism is often coupled with the development of “charm”, ensuring that the world orbits the narcissist in the way he/she wants to be orbited, without the need to make an emotional connection.

In a context of poverty, there may be a higher possibility that a baby will suffer deprivation and develop narcissistic tendencies. Bolstered by legitimate grievances, this can enable corruption.

4. The fact that everyone else is doing it can enable corruption

Corruption becomes systemic through group mentality, first theorised by 19th-century French social psychologists Tarde and Le Bon, and extended by Sigmund Freud. Group mentality describes people’s tendency to conform to group norms against their better judgment. The mindset that informs the “tragedy of the commons” applies — “everyone is doing it anyway, so if I don’t I’ll only be missing out”. People are also their worst and most risk-taking selves in groups because of groups’ capacity to diffuse responsibility. (Tragedy of the commons: A situation in a shared-resource system where individual users acting independently according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling that resource through their collective action.)

Ultimately, in South Africa’s context of rampant corruption and impunity, public officials are more likely to join in the great procession of corruption.

These explanations are by no means exhaustive, but they do contain a common thread: the psychology of corruption can often be boiled down to historical oppression, poverty and inequality — in which case corruption requires solutions beyond top-down punishment and structural safeguards. It requires taking seriously the psychological legacies of apartheid and dismantling the socio-economic ones, in which we all have a stake and responsibility. DM

This content was originally published here.

July 25, 2019
Colorado School Forces Students To Wear Hijabs, Parents Fight Back

When a Colorado school district forced schoolgirls to wear religious head coverings, angry parents unleashed their rage.

With the growth of Islam in the West, many are wondering how the public education system should approach the subject of religion. Some argue that religion must be taught in schools in order for students to understand the cultural and ideological differences in our melting-pot society while others insist that such a delicate social subject should be left up to the parents.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue, many American schools are implementing curricula that touch on the subject of religious theology, including Islam and its tenets. Just how certain schools are teaching this controversial topic has some parents passionately voicing their concerns.

Parents were outraged after a Colorado school district forced female students to wear hijabs for a trip to a local Islamic center. (Photo credit: YouTube)

In an effort to educate students on major religions, the Douglas County School District of Colorado informed parents that students would be attending a field trip to the Colorado Muslim Society’s Majid Abu Bakar as well as a synagogue and Greek Orthodox cathedral.

What sparked the parents’ outrage was the dress code outlined in a letter sent home students, which required that while every student was expected to wear “appropriate long pants,” the female students “must bring scarves or hooded sweatshirts for the mosque,” according to The Daily Caller.

While many were upset that students were expected to dress in accordance with Islam’s religious customs, others felt that forcing the girls to cover their hair with hijabs was sexist. Voicing this concern was KNUS 710 radio host Peter Boyles, who stated that the school district is “holding these girls to a different standard.”

Hoping to get some answers, Boyles reached out to Rocky Heights Middle School principal Mike Loitz, who confirmed that the school did ask its students to comply with the religion-inspired dress code. It was because of this, and not the fact that students were learning about Islam, that Boyles believes that parents were concerned.

“Islam dictates many, I believe – personal belief – repressive practices against women and Islamophobia will trump women’s rights,” Boyles said. “Animal rights every time, and the environment. That’s their belief – that’s wonderful. But don’t apply it to public school kids.”

Row after row of schoolgirls and female teachers in hijabs line the auditorium. (Photo credit: YouTube)

Some maintain that students should be taught to respect every religion and its customs. However, others believe that the district has gone too far and actually forced students to obey certain religious tenets.

In response to the backlash, the school district released a statement defending its decision and clarifying the requirements. Officials explained that although the dress code was mandatory, participating in the field trip was optional, according to WND.

“If the decision is made to not participate in a field trip, alternative educational opportunities are provided,” the district said. “This is true for any DCSD field trip, including the RHMS world religion field trip.”

Some argued that requiring female students to wear hijabs is sexist. (Photo credit: YouTube)

The district concluded that they are merely trying to educate students on the basic tenets of major world religions and will leave the formation of their personal beliefs up to them and their parents. Still, many feel skeptical about what their children would be learning.

However you feel about religion, it’s undeniable that parents will be protective over what their children are taught on the subject. Faith is a powerful aspect of humanity, and most just aren’t convinced that our government is the best teacher for future generations on this deeply complicated issue. Religion is a course that’s better taught at home.

This content was originally published here.

July 25, 2019
Nicole Murphy issues apology for kiss with Lela Rochon’s husband

Eddie Murphy‘s ex wife Nicole Murphy has been the talk of the town this past week after jaw dropping photos surfaced of her lip-locking with Training Day director Antoine Fuqua, who is reportedly still married to Waiting to Exhale actress Lela Rochon. But now, it seems Murphy wants to make amends and has issued an apology.

Initially, the stunning 51 year old issued a statement claming, ““Antoine and I are just family friends. I ran into him in Italy and we exchanged a friendly hello and that was it.”

When that explanation went out the public not only didn’t buy it, but also slammed her for insulting their intelligence given how blatant the photos were. Now it appears Murphy is singing a different tune, revealing to TMZ on Wednesday, “Without going into the entire situation, I want to apologize to my family, and to Lela and the Fuqua family for what transpired.”

The mother of 5 goes on to explain, “It was not my intention to be in this situation. I do not condone women kissing or interacting in anyway inappropriately with a married man. I too was once married and I would never intentionally undermine another woman, despite what has been written.”

Sources have also reportedly told TMZ that Murphy feels blindsided by the backlash because she only kissed Fuqua – who’s been married to actress Lela Rochon since 1999 – because she was informed that the couple had divorced and he was free to see other people.

Sources also say that Murphy is devastated about being painted as the other woman, feels terrible about hurting anyone, and hopes people can forgive her for her mistake.

The “Training Day” director and his wife have two children and were last photographed in a public together in February of 2019. Despite the mounting speculations, they have yet to make any formal announcements or clarifications about the current status of their marriage.

This content was originally published here.

July 25, 2019
Is Your Air Conditioner Freezing? Does It Need Repaired?

Cooling problems can affect your comfort and your utility bills. If you are experiencing ice formation on your air conditioning unit and suspect it may be due to the outdoor temperature, try turning off the AC at night to see if this solves the problem—if so, good news, you don’t need to call for an AC repair.

Does your home have poor airflow?

One of the most common causes of air conditioner freeze-ups is poor airflow over the evaporator coils. Insufficient airflow reduces your air conditioner’s effectiveness, so you may also notice a drop in cooling efficiency and a corresponding rise in temperature inside your home. Restricted airflow over the coils may be caused by many things, including dirt accumulation inside the air conditioner, dirty HVAC ducts, or issues with the HVAC blower fan. Such problems are more likely to occur if it’s been over a year since your air conditioner last received professional maintenance. If you think your air conditioner is forming ice because of a problem with airflow over the coils, it’s best to call in an HVAC professional to assess the condition of your AC unit and perform any cleaning or repairs that may be needed.

Does the A/C have a refrigerant leak?

Air conditioners use a liquid refrigerant to transfer heat from inside your home to outside. This refrigerant is recirculated through your system, which is closed—this means that any loss of refrigerant is due to a leak in your system. Refrigerant leaks can cause a drop in refrigerant volume large enough to affect your air conditioner’s function, causing it to form ice on the coils. Such leaks are AC repairs that should always be handled by a professional, as most air conditioners today still use a refrigerant called R-22 (Freon) that can harm the environment if released. As soon as you suspect you may have a refrigerant leak, call in a professional to check your system and repair the leak, as well as replace any refrigerant that may have been lost to restore your AC’s cooling efficiency and prevent further ice formation.

Air conditioners are designed to provide cool air for your home on hot summer days. Keeping your air conditioner in good repair means enjoying more than a decade of efficient, effective cooling and low energy bills. By contrast, poor air conditioner function will consume more energy without cooling your home properly, leading to discomfort, higher bills, and more frequent breakdowns that require professional AC repair. If you notice frost or ice on your air conditioner, it’s important to take steps to correct the situation. Ice that is allowed to persist can cause damage to your air conditioner and the surrounding area.

This content was originally published here.

July 25, 2019
Emotional support dog bites flight attendant

A union that represents flight attendants is calling an incident where an emotional support dog bit a flight attendant as “unacceptable and inexcusable.” It happened Monday on an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Greensboro, North Carolina that was being operated by Envoy Air, a wholly-owned regional airline subsidiary of American Airlines. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) say an Envoy Air flight attendant was bitten on the flight but it was unclear the extent of their injuries. The union says it supports the role trained animals can provide to passengers in the cabin, but it has called for standards for emotional support animals.

“We need the Department of Transportation to take action now, so events like the one that happened yesterday do not continue to occur on our planes. This is fundamentally about maintaining safety, health and security for passengers and crew, while ensuring accessibility for those who need it,” the AFA said. No information about the breed of the dog or what happened before the attack was immediately available. In March, American Airlines made changes to its service and emotional support animal policy that limited emotional support animals to dogs and cats.

Last year, Delta Airlines announced a ban on emotional support animals on longer flights.

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July 25, 2019
Volcanic Events and Volcano Preparedness 2019

Editors Note: There has been an increase in seismic and volcanic activity in many regions. Today we are going to revisit this interesting post by Tagir Kabirov at the University of Ufa. I grew up in the North Cascades of Washington state so volcanoes were something I could see from my bedroom window. Mount St. Helens continues to be the most active volcano in the Cascade range. It exploded before I was born but my parents remember it waking them up hundreds of miles away. Mount Rainier that overlooks Seattle, is a volcano over 14,000 feet tall!

When I was a kid, I always wondered what it would be like if Mount Baker exploded. We used to go to Baker Lake and swim and fish when I was a kid and sometimes when I was in that water I thought about how the lake water near Mount St. Helens boiled when it erupted and a once gorgeous ecological area looked like a nuclear blast had hit.

Before we get into Tagir’s article, I wanted to list a few of the concerning volcano related stories that have made their way into the news here lately so you can get an idea what I mean about the increase of activity being concerning. Remember that volcanic eruptions and seismic activity can lead to devastating events such as massive tsunamis that can affect a lot of people. A tsunami that originates in Hawaii and that is of sufficient scale only allows 3 or 4 hours for the populations on the West coast to get to higher ground with whatever they can grab. For more info on tsunami prep and survival check out this post.

Mauna Loa, Hawaii

There has been an increase in seismic activity at the Mauna Loa volcano. At the time experts do not think there is an immediate cause for concern but it does show that an eruption may happen sooner than anyone would like. Last year the Kilauea eruption caused fissures to open up at the base of the volcano and led to many people’s homes being abandoned or destroyed. The Kilauea volcano is particularly concerning because of the risk of part of the island breaking off and falling into the sea and thus creating a massive tsunami that would affect the entire Western seaboard of the United States.

Raikoke, Northeast Of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk

This tiny 2 square mile island has been under Russian control since World War II. For 100 years it sat dormant and docile in the Sea of Okhotsk before violently erupting on June 22, 2019. The plume seen from the International Space Station would leave anyone awestruck. There were 9 individual explosions on the luckily uninhabited island.

Mount Manam and Mount Ulawun Papua New Guinea

On June 26, 2019 both Mount Manam and Mount Ulawun awoke and forced 15,000 villagers to flee. While no deaths were reported, a lot of homes and wells were destroyed. Villagers stayed at rescue centers but food and water supplies were severely disrupted. Since the eruption coated everything in thin slivers of volcanic material, residents are going to have to be very careful in the aftermath to avoid lung conditions.

Stromboli, Italy

The volcano at Stromboli has been actively erupting on some level since the 30s but on July 3, 2019, it had a more severe eruption that caused fires and also killed one person that was walking with a friend. The volcano is a tourist attraction with many people hiking to the top to look into the crater in hopes of seeing small bursts of magma.

Popocatépetl Volcano, Central Mexico

On June 29 and 30, 2019 the highly active Popocatépetl experienced 5 explosions and an additional 169 exhalations of steam and ash. The volcano has been very active since 1994 when it woke up after 50 years of dormancy. The volcano is just over 43 miles from Mexico City, a population center of 21.6 million people.

Here is Tagir’s advice on volcanoes and preparedness in 2019.

-Samantha

Volcanoes and Preparedness

I always knew that volcanoes could bring our civilization to its knees, if not destroy it completely. There are a few global challenges for humanity, and the ancient Roman god of fire is undoubtedly one of them. I said volcano, and you have probably imagined a cone-shaped mountain, erupting fire and ash, right? And most of them obey that description – old, solid, grumpy and, on occasion, making some trouble for local settlements. You might even witness one during your travels across seas and continents. Of course, a selfie with an erupting volcano is something special! You can’t hold it. As well as those overheated gases, that were relieved from inside pressure to spread at a near-sonic speed cremating every living creature on their way. Hope you’ve been streaming to your cloud!

But let’s take a minute for a serious discussion. Is it something worth worrying about? Frankly, most of us have only seen a live volcano on a screen. And look, the majority of them are located on the edges of tectonic plates and will only be a problem for island and coastal people, right?

Well, no. Even if you’re living thousands of miles away from the shore, you will still be affected. All that chunk of GDP being raised on the coastal shelf will shrink dramatically, and people will need places to go. For our awareness, United States Geological Service has just listed these 18 North American volcanoes as “very high” risk.

Credit to USGS, once again

That’s quite a lot of red. But all of those have been behaving considerably quiet lately, so why should anything change? Fortunately, global natural disasters did not occur long enough and memories of their terrors faded. Unfortunately, natural processes are cyclic, and new massive cataclysms are inevitable. Remember the funnily named volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, shaking Iceland in 2010? Back then it could even have a positive effect on the environment, considering it only produced about 40% of CO2, compared to the part of European air traffic that had to be halted. It was a big deal for the affected countries, not used to much transport delays. These local troubles were just a TV report for the rest of the world.

The game changes radically if an eruption is big and long enough to cause global effects. A persistent dust cloud over a continent or two will create a massive climate change, followed by acid rains and unprecedented refugee waves. Food shortages will become an immediate threat as well as diseases spreading throughout the affected population of humans and animals alike. If we consider the worst case scenario, we might look back to the great Permian Extinction, which was caused by massive eruptions in Siberia about 250 million years ago and led to unparalleled extinction. Few animals bigger than cats survived it. Many millions of years later some other civilization may rise on our bones if we can’t find a way to prevent the great dying of our own. To do so, let’s take a closer look at the tectonic dragon and its heads.

Danger factors of volcanic activity:

Lava. Maybe the most feared and recognized, but quite easily avoidable factor. I mean, you can see it coming, bursting from the top and some side channels, usually predicted by the upcoming smoke. Though a liquid enough lava stream on a steep enough hill can become a racing challenge. Especially with a bonus of melting icecap rushing down. If you see those molten springs, you have probably come too close. Back up a little.

From a definition of lava, being a magmatic substance, which has lost most of the dissolved gases to a much thinner atmospheric pressure, we get our second and much more insidious danger factor – pyroclastic waves, – extremely heated gases, which can boil running water on contact. Spoiler: you mostly consist of water and will boil too. Respect the fire god. Keep your distance.

Ash, ash, ash, IT’S EVERYWHERE!

Well, it’s not ash at all, in spite of being called that way. Forget the soft, dissolving fire or cigarette ash. This one mainly consists of tiny pieces of molten rock, solidified in the atmosphere. Small and light particles, but solid and very abrasive. Cover your breathing hole, take your belongings and leave.

Dust and ash, nasty enough on their own, with a prolonged eruption, become the ultimate villain, stealing our most precious resource – sunlight. Exhausting darkness killing off plants, ocean plankton, food, and eventually oxygen is not a glorious end for humanity. We’re all feeding on the sun. Indoor farms with lights and air filters may go a long way, considering you’ve got enough fuel. Enough canned sunlight. Most persistent might survive.

Tephra. Sometimes the cork is just too tight, and it’s easier to break the bottle. Incoming pressure may not find a quick enough way through the main entrance and burst a mountain open. During the process, rock sizes from shrapnel to twice as big as your car get enough kinetic energy to shame any modern weapon launchers. Again, the best protection is distance. Also, thankfully light is way faster than sound when you see something explode you usually have a second to fall to the ground and open your mouth as wide as you can. Meeting a shockwave while laying down is incommensurably better than otherwise. Also, those jaw bones covering your ear channels might save your hearing for the future evacuation routine.

Earth rumble. Infrasound is low-frequency sonic waves, indistinguishable by the human ear. Some animals seem to be more aware, becoming uneasy and trying to escape the place shortly before an eruption or an earthquake. Subjective reactions include stress, panic, and psychosis, all of which are debatably helpful in case of an emergency.

A discerning reader will notice, that most of the evading danger advice sums up to running away.

Well, these are basic rules that work for many hazards – minimize your exposure, maximize your distance (if possible evacuating perpendicular to the vector of danger factor), and use any screening (filters, walls, landscape) available. Most of your pets will instinctively try to do the same (maybe not the filter part), because evolution gave them legs and limbs, unlike those doomed plants. Retreat or adaptation, fight or flee – those were always the ultimate choices. But adapting to extreme heat and toxic gases might be a little hard if you’re not a bacterium. Thus, fleeing is usually the best option. And if it is not a civilization-ending event, your id, a smartphone and a toughly packed backpack for immediate needs are all you need. But what if it is? What if we run out of places to run to?

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The post Volcanic Events and Volcano Preparedness 2019 appeared first on LewRockwell.

This content was originally published here.

July 23, 2019
Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts | Psychology Today

Source: ADAA website, with permission

Everyone has passing intrusive thoughts that seem to come from outside their control: the content may feel alien, absurd, or threatening, and they pass after a few weird moments. Intrusive thoughts can be frightening thoughts about what might happen to you or someone you care about, or what mistake you might make or what terrible impulsive act you might possibly commit.

For some people, intrusive thoughts are part and parcel of panic or intense anxiety. In this type of intrusive thoughts, it feels like they are a result of or about the anxiety itself, and they function to add more fear to the anxiety you are already experiencing. The intrusive thoughts keep the anxiety going, and maintain the fear-producing spiral. So, for example, you might think, “what if I have a heart attack?” in the midst of an anxiety attack. Or you might envision yourself knocking people over as you rush to exit the room.

However, there is another class of intrusive thoughts that we call unwanted intrusive thoughts. These are stuck thoughts that cause great distress. They seem to come from out of nowhere, arrive with a distressing whoosh, and trigger anxiety, guilt, disgust, panic or misery. The content of unwanted intrusive thoughts often focuses on sexual or violent or socially unacceptable images. Here are typical examples of intrusive obsessive thoughts: Killing someone. Torturing a pet. Stabbing or molesting a child. Throwing someone (or yourself) out of a window or in front of a train. Raping someone. Taking off your clothes in public. Grabbing a stranger’s hand. Some refer to sudden doubts like “ Did I hurt someone or make a bad mistake and not realize it? What if I am not who I seem?” This is not a complete list, but it gives you a good feeling of the content of these thoughts.

People who experience unwanted intrusive thoughts become afraid that they might commit the acts they picture in their mind. They also fear that the thoughts mean something terrible about them. Many are ashamed and worried about them, and therefore keep them secret.

Many unwanted intrusive thoughts have a much more benign content, consisting of repetitive doubts about relationships, decisions small and large, sexual orientation or identity, intrusions of thoughts about safety, religion, death or worries about questions that cannot be answered with certainty.

There are many myths about unwanted intrusive thoughts. One of the most distressing is that having such thoughts mean that you unconsciously want to do the things that come into your mind. This is simply not true, and, in fact, the opposite is true. It is the effort people use to fight the thought that makes it stick and fuels its return. People fight these particular thoughts because the content seems alien, unacceptable, and at odds with who they are. So, people with violent unwanted intrusive thoughts are gentle people. People who have unwanted intrusive thoughts about suicide love life. And those who have thoughts of yelling blasphemies in church value their religious life.

A second myth is that every thought we have is worth examining. In truth, these thoughts are not messages, red flags, signals or warnings–despite how they feel.

The problem for people who have these thoughts–and one estimate is that more than 6 million people in the United States are troubled by them–is that unwanted intrusive thoughts feel so threatening. That is because anxious thinking takes over, and the thought—as abhorrent as it might be—seems to have power it does not. People tend to try desperately and urgently to get rid of the thoughts, which, paradoxically, fuels their intensity. The harder they try to suppress or distract or substitute thoughts, the stickier the thought becomes.

People who are bothered by intrusive thoughts need to learn a new relationship to these sticky thoughts–that their content is irrelevant and unimportant. Virtually everyone has occasional weird, bizarre, socially improper, annoying and violent thoughts. Our brains sometimes create junk thoughts, and these thoughts are just part of the flotsam and jetsam of our stream of consciousness. Junk thoughts are meaningless. If you don’t take them seriously or get involved with them, they dissipate and get washed away in the flow of consciousness.

In reality, a thought—even a very scary thought—is not an impulse. People with unwanted intrusive thoughts don’t have a problem with impulse control: on the contrary, their problem is one of over control! They are trying to control their thoughts! And we all know what happens when you try not to think of pink elephants…. However, sufferers get bluffed by their anxiety, and become desperate for reassurance which only works temporarily: people can become reassurance junkies. The only way to effectively deal with unwanted intrusive thoughts is by reducing one’s sensitivity to them. Not by being reassured that it won’t happen or is not true, but by rising above them.

Unwanted intrusive thoughts are reinforced by getting entangled with them, worrying about them, struggling against them, trying to reason them away. They are also made stronger by trying to avoid them. Leave the thoughts alone, treat them as if they are not even interesting, and they will eventually fade into the background.

Here are the steps for changing your attitude and overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts

Try Not To:

This approach can be difficult to apply. But for anyone who keeps applying it for just a few weeks, there is an excellent chance that they will see a decrease in the frequency and intensity of their unwanted intrusive thoughts.

This content was originally published here.

July 23, 2019
How to create a moonlight garden

Do you know how to make your garden light up at night? The answer is to create a moonlight garden.

But what is a moonlight garden, and what type of plants shine at night?

“Moonlight gardening relates to plants that show off their textures, colors and sometimes their silhouettes from dusk into the moonlight hours,” said Irene Barber, who coordinates the Adult Horticulture Education Program for the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine.

Flowers in a moonlight garden can also be open during the day, she notes. It’s a common myth that flowers that bloom at night never bloom during the day.

Another myth is that the flowers in a moonlight garden are only white. “The colors that show off well at night are the cool colors,” Barber said. “In addition to white, those include light blues, lavenders, chartreuse and even buttery yellow.”

Cool colors are often seen best at dusk and at night because in the soft evening light and under the light of the moon, they don’t have to compete with flowers that sport warm colors. Vibrant tropical colors such as reds, purples, pinks, oranges, and bright yellows stand out so strongly in the brilliant light of the summer sun that they overpower cooler colors, and we can actually overlook cool colors during the day, Barber said.

Choosing the plants

Japanese painted ferns (Athyrium niponicum pictum) come to life in the evening, making them a good choice for your moonlight garden. (Photo: Ryan Somma/Flickr)

Moonlight gardens begin at dusk because that’s the time of day when the texture and form of foliage with white and silver tones will contrast with and show up well against companion plants, Barber said. Dusk is also when these types of plants begin casting subtle shadows that add interest to the garden, Barber said. Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ is example of a plant that does that, she said. To highlight its broad, heart-shaped leaves with their white and silver patterns, she suggested planting it with Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost,’ a spreading and mounding plant with lacy white flowers, or any of the toad lilies, which have an added attraction of being fragrant in the evening.

Other plants with variegated foliage that Barber said would start to shine beginning at dusk include Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum pictum – ‘Ghost’ has the most amount of white on its foliage), variegated Jacob’s ladder, deadnettle (Lamium maculatum), grasses and sedges such as Carex ‘silver’ and Carex morrowii ‘Ice Dance,’ variegated Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum variegata) and groundcovers such as Dichondra argentea ‘Silver Falls’ and Stachys byzantinia ‘Silver Carpet.’

As the moon rises and dusk fades into night, the larger and more prominent plants in the garden begin putting on a show. Lobelia siphilitica, the blue form of lobelia, is one of those plants. In late summer, it produces an upright three-foot stem encircled with light blue flowers with a white throat that twinkle in the moonlight because of both their color and texture, Barber said. The hard-to-find alba, or white form of Lobelia siphilitica also works well in a moonlight garden

Planning the garden

The Nymphaea ‘Red Flare’ water lily gives a burst of color to your moonlight garden. (Photo: pzAxe/Shutterstock)

When people think about plants for a moonlight garden, they should think more than just the low-growing foliage plants and flowers, Barber emphasized. They should also think about adding trees with white or light-colored bark. River birch (Betula nigra) is an example of a tree with light bark that will show up well at night. Its exfoliating bark would add an extra element of interest.

If you want to add moonlight interest to your garden, don’t attempt to establish one part of the garden as the “moonlit” section. Instead, spread your “moonlight” plants throughout the planted area, advised Barber. This is not only necessary because plants for moonlight gardens have widely differing daytime light requirements, but this planting method increases the effectiveness of your nighttime display by spreading moonlight interest throughout the garden.

Besides the aesthetic interest, there’s also a functional reason to create a moonlight garden. Some of these flowers — such as those of Campions, flowers in the Datura genus, four o’clocks and morning glories — attract night pollinators.

And, if you’re lucky enough to have a pond, you can even add water lilies to the nighttime display, said Amanda Bennett, manager of Display Gardens at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. ‘Red Flare’ and ‘Charles Tricker’ are two examples of excellent night-blooming water lilies, especially for people who work during the day and would miss seeing their day-blooming water lilies.

The flowers on ‘Red Flare’ begin opening in the early evening and remain open until as late as 11 a.m. the next day. The plants are extremely prolific and can produce up to seven blooms at a time. The lily pads are large, so you will need a medium or large pond to accommodate the plants.

‘Charles Tricker’ is an old-time favorite among water lily enthusiasts. Developed in 1893, it also produces large magenta red flowers in great profusion. The red pads also help to add beauty to this lily.

5 annuals for a moonlight garden anywhere

The moonflower grows as a vine with an eye-catching white blossom. (Photo: Jebulon/Wikimedia Commons)

1. Moonflower (Ipomoea alba) – Moon flower is of tropical original and in most places is grown as an annual vine (note that it’s listed as a perennial in the Southwestern United States).

White summer snapdragons, as its name suggests, stays in bloom all summer. (Photo: Skyprayer2005/Shutterstock)

2. White summer snapdragons such as Angelonia ‘Serena White’ – This variety of Angelonia forms a mounding plant that grows to about a foot tall, is covered in white flowers and stays in bloom all summer.

White New Guinea impatiens produce large switches of white flowers during the summer. (Photo: Zed66/Flickr)

3. New Guinea impatiens such as Infinity White – This variety of impatiens can be easily grown in garden beds or containers and produces large, brilliant white flowers throughout the summer.

Dichondra argentea, or Silver falls, offer a potted but flowing opportunity for your moonlight garden. (Photo: Derek Ramsey/Wikimedia Commons)

4. Dichondra argentea ‘Silver Falls’ – As its name implies, has silver foliage and can be grown as a ground cover or in a pot or hanging baskets from which its quarter-inch silver leaves will spill over the sides.

The lacy look of the Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’ will add an elegant touch to your garden. (Photo: Serres Fortier/Flickr)

5. Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’ – This spreading and mounding plant has lace-like white flowers and blooms continuously all summer.

This content was originally published here.

July 23, 2019