New Delhi Choking on Smog

In a city of 30 million regularly ranked as the most polluted urban area on Earth, residents are choking to death on toxic smog filling the air as smog season begins.  Particulates of PM2.5, the smallest and most dangerous, reached 278 micrograms. That is 18 times the daily maximum advised by the World Health Organization. On the worst days the level can shoot up to 30 times. The city’s toxic air also contains high quantities of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and carbon monoxide. A study by the respected Lancet medical journal attributed 1.67 million premature deaths to air pollution in the world's most populous country in 2019. New Dehli is projected to become the world's most populous by 2030.

Piecemeal government efforts to control air pollution have failed. The firecracker frenzy that accompanied a religious holiday, Diwali, turned Delhi's sky dull gray. Hospital visits increased 20-25 percent with patients complaining of respiratory problems such as dry cough, irritated eyes, and throat irritation. Some exhibit skin rashes. India's Supreme Court recently ruled that clean air is a human right, but political rivalries and bureaucracy bar meaningful pollution reduction.

According to the New York Times, the Trump regime rolled back 30 air pollution regulations during his tenure in office. The New York University School of Law had this to say about his record on environmental protection in a 2019 report:

The Trump Administration has taken historically unprecedented actions to roll back years of environmental progress. From reversing clean car standards... to refusing to regulate methane emissions from landfills and oil and gas operations, the cumulative impacts of the administration's environmental attacks pose grave harm to our environment and people living in every state across America.

VOTE, because your health depends on it! 

Cloned Ferret Gives Birth

Two healthy kits are doing well at the Smithsonian Institution's Conservation Biology facility in Port Royal, Virginia.  They were born three weeks ago, This is a world first for a cloned animal, and a major step forward for conservation of species in general. Black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes). Antonia was cloned from frozen tissue samples of Willa, another endangered ferret at San Diego's Frozen Zoo. She was born last May with her sister, Noreen [photo] at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in Colorado. Blackfooted ferrets were thought to be extinct by 1981, but later rediscovery started an intensive conservation efforts leading to reintroduction in the wild. For now, mom and the kits will remain in the Conservation Biology Institute for further study. 

Overseas Ballots Challenged in Pennsylvania

Over 4,000 ballots from 14 counties in Pennsylvania have been challenged apprently by Trump supporters using a mass mail-merge program. Under Pennsylvania law only residents of Pennsylvania are allowed to vote in the state's elections. Federal law allows citizens living overseas to vote in federal elections in the last place they lived in the US if they are unsure about returning. In 2020 Pennsylvania counted 26,952 ballots returned from overseas. The ACLU said counties receiving such challenges should quickly reject them as "as both procedurally and substantively deficient.” So far officials in Bucks, Lancaster, Lehigh, York, Cumberland, Dauphin, Beaver, Centre, and Lycoming county have all received challenges. 

An organization named "Election Research Institute" appears to be behind the campaign to disqualify overseas voters. This group is led by a Heather Honey, an activist that lost a federal lawsuit challenging eligibility, which the judge said was based on "phantom fears of foreign malfeasance". The election in Pennsylvania is closely fought with both side challenging ballots technicalities.  For example courts have recently ruled that voters forgetting to write the date on the ballots will not have their votes counted. Voters who do not use the security sleeve to protect their mailed ballots, may provisional ballots on Election Day at the polls.

ODWF Goes Dark on Wolves

Oregon's Department of Fish & Wildlife has announced that it will no longer publish weekly information in emails about lethal wolf removals based on "on feedback from interested partners". Translation from bureaucratise: livestock owners. The information is still accessible if an interested party goes to the website labeled "Livestock Depredation Investigations". Since 2009 the agency has killed 52 wolves   The Lookout Mountain and Black Pines packs suffered the most with six kills each.

According to the agency the minimum number of wolves living in Oregon is 178 in 2023 the latest year for which statistics are available.   Ten wolves from the eastern zone were translocated to Colorado to help re-establish a population in that state.  The management zone west of Hwys 395, 20 and 97 is where the majority of wolves live. [red line]  The eastern zone still enjoys federal protection [blue dotted line on map].  In 2023 the agency authorized the lethal removal of 27 wolves. Seven were poisoned illegally. For updates on the wolf management program in Oregon go https://dfw.state.or.us/wolves/updates.html#

SMRs? Think Again

Small modular reactors (SMRs) were supposed to be the answer to increased demand for electrical generation driven largely by AI.  The idea was to make small reactors on a production line, which allows savings of scale, shorter build times, and reduced regulatory burden.  They could be transported to the site and hooked up in parallel to achieve the desired power output.  NOT!  This chart shows why:

NuScale's SMR is the poster boy, but the same price explosion has occurred in units overseas: China Russia and Argentina. Domestically, NuScale's cost doubled, X-Energy cost estimates have tripled and Hitachi's have at least doubled and possibly tripled. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says SMRs are "still too risky, too slow, and too expensive".  The study goes on to recommend that utilities, investors, and regulators should not look to SMRs, but to other alternative powers sources as the near term solution to energy transition to a more sustainable mode.  This is because the development pattern emerging is depressingly similar to that of previous designs. The United State's only new, large scale plant, Vogel 3 and 4 in Georgia, began with a per kW cost estimate in the $9,000-10,000 range. Actual cost is $20,027,  and the project took six years longer than estimated to build! Its construction led to the bankruptcy of Westinghouse. China's operating Shinzo Bay 1 experienced a cost increase of 300%. Russia's operating SMRs experienced a 400% increase in cost.  Argentina's CAREM 5 under construction experienced 700% increase as of 2021.  That plant will not begin operation until 2027 according to current plans.  

Question: Why bother with fission if the sun's energy is free? The money would be better spent optimizing the national grid for interruptible power. If private industry will not do this, then the federal government should and take ownership if only for national security reasons.  Interstate power transmission is already regulated by the federal government (FERC).

TWIT: "Spam Risk--Egypt"

credit P. Guerra
BC Idonwanna sez: That's his buddy, Reichminster Joe next to him 

That is what Don Olde's 'burner' phone registered on Michigan Majority Leader's cell phone when he called to influence the counting of Electoral College votes in that state.  For those readers not familiar with organized criminal behavior, 'burner' phones are cheap, disposable cell phones favored by drug dealers and mobsters to thwart tracing by law enforcement.  What we have here is not a "fayure to comuncate", but a call routed through servers located in Egypt.  Ask yourself this question: why would a President of the United States be using a burner phone to conduct official business?  NOT.  The communication was not recorded in the daily presidential call log.  

According to a deposition in the evidence appendix submitted by Jack Smith, All-American Prosecutor, the Repugnant House Speaker was informed that a call from Don Olde would be forthcoming identified as "Spam Risk--Egypt" on his phone.  They discussed counting votes on the surreptitious call, and candidate Trump expressed concern that fraud may be affecting the vote count in Michigan.  The Electoral College system makes such illegal interference possible.  It should be abolished in favor of a popular vote.  If the Democrats control Congress after this election, they are in a position to approve the Popular Vote Compact when it reaches 270 electoral votes, thus avoiding the necessity of the supermajorities required to pass a constitutional amendment*. 

The Orange Menace and his fascist stooges are preparing the same "Big Lie" this time around.  They plan to declare victory early in the tally when they might hold a temporary lead. The only way to counter this type of seditious agitprop is to vote in such numbers against the dictator-in-waiting that his repeated claims of fraud are not plausible in any way.  America's democracy depends on putting this outrageous, criminal con-man in our rearview mirror.  PLEASE VOTE for democracy by November 5th.

credit: Tom Tomorrow

*Apologists point to the Electoral College Reform Act of 2022 as the solution to the problem of gaming presidential elections.  It does not solve the problem of giving undue voting weight to a few swing states that results in skewing campaigning to those states.  The fact is that the scheme was born of a compromise with slavery in the southern states.  'Reforming' such an obsolete, morally suspect system is not a solution, but another patch on an already feeble scheme that is anti-democratic in nature since it operates agains the one person, one vote principle enshrined in constitutional law.  Besides, another clever conservatie lawyer like John Eastman may come along and manipulate the reform to partisan advantage.  The Electoral College has outlived its raison d'être and should be abolished, period.

On another issue, Trump's radical tariff proposal, besides being considered ruinous by many economists, has its roots deep in US history.  Robert Morris, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant--an Elon Musk of the 18th century--became superintendent of finance during the Revolutionary War.   He was the money man responsible for funding the conflict.  He insisted that the Confederation pass an impost (tariff) on foreign imports as a means of funding bonds issued to pay for the war.  Morris and his friends owned the top tier of these bonds. Naturally, they wanted to be paid.  His proposal met with stiff resistance from the states as an infringement of their sovereign right to tax residents.  Morris saw the impost as the beginning of a strong central government.   An impost was not passed until the Confederation became a nation-state in 1789.  A high tariff now would be inflationary by increasing the cost of living, and would lead to retaliation against U.S, exports that could set off a recession. Hardly a liberal periodical, The Economist has endorsed Kamala Harris. His claim that foreign nations would pay for the tariff is equivalent to his claim that Mexico would pay for his wall folly. Tarriff costs would be passed on to consumers. Elon Musk owns millions in federal government contracts. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Tarantulas Have Got It

Charisma that is. iders in general have a lot of attention from humans.  That is a good thing and a bad thing.   Humans often think twice before killing one, but they are captured for exploitation. Tarantulas because of their large size and colorful, furry shape especially have this problem i. Collection of tarantulas as a hobby is reaching dangerous proportions, together with climate change and habitat loss, theatening to endanger the species. They have become part of the multi-billion dollar illegal wildlife trade. Because of their long life, 30 years or more, they are particularly vulnerable. Females breed infrequently and later in their lifespans.

Some endemic species like Poeciltheria from Sri Lanka and India are already threatened by extinction. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing them as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.  Not all are collected as pets.  43% are collected as souvenirs post mortem.  The Internet makes illegal trade easier by connecting potential buyers with traders.  Shipping is less of a problem since babies can be shipped internationally with ease.  A German man in 2010 packaged hundreds of baby tarantulas in multi-colored straws and sent them by USPS.  In 2021 a couple in Columbia was detained at the airport when 230 tarantulas were found in their suitcase. [photo credit: Getty Images]

There are at least 1000 known species of tarantula.  Lack of data on the arachnids hampers assessing the impact of illegal trade.  Only species listed under CITIES are tracked, which represents only a small fraction #%) of the species in trade.  Negative stereotypes and arachnophobia leading to a lack of research funding also make conservation difficult.

Some tarantula hot spots like India, Central and South America are attempting to control the illegal trade.  Given the ease of international shipment and the proliferation of trade in the insects, worldwide regulation is unlikely. Captive breeding may be an answer to saving the spiders from extinction and meeting the demand for specimens provided a legitimate monitoring and tracking system is in place. Mexico has successfully created a legal captive tarantula breeding program.  Breeders are worried that captive breeding cannot keep pace with demand. The genus Brachypelma contains several colorful Mexican tarantulas popular in the commercial trade.  Spiders may creep you out at first, but given a dose of education on how valuable they are to an ecosystem by providing insect control, and as food for larger animals,  you quickly get over your aversion...or compulsion as the case may be.