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Great Barrier Reef Has Worst Coral Die-Off Ever, Report Finds (usatoday.com)
Australia's Great Barrier Reef has suffered from its worst coral die-off ever recorded, according to a new study from the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies based at James Cook University. "Stress from the unusually warm ocean water heated by man-made climate change and the natural El Nino climate pattern caused the die-off," reports USA Today. At more than 1,400 miles long, Australia's Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef and the planet's biggest structure made by living organisms. In the northernmost section of the reef, which had been considered the most "pristine," some 67% of the coral died. The good news, scientists said, was that central and southern sections of the reef fared far better, with "only" 6% and 1% of the coral dead, respectively. Coral reefs result from the work of little polyps, creatures only a few millimeters long, budded on top of one another. Over centuries, the shells of these creatures combine to form the exotic shapes of coral reefs. Tiny differences in the anatomy of each polyp species affect the shape of their shells and produce the exotic shapes of each reef. The vibrant colors that draw thousands of tourists to the Great Barrier Reef each year come from algae that live in the corals tissue. When water temperatures become too high, coral becomes stressed and expels the algae, which leave the coral a bleached white color. Mass coral bleaching is a new phenomenon and was never observed before the 1980s as global warming ramped up. Besides their beauty, reefs shelter land from storms, and are also a habitat for myriads of species.
Recount!
Table-ized A.I.
Art Sisneros' the Texas Elector (for the Electoral College) has withdrawn from the job because he cannot in good conscious vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming Electoral College.
What he should have done is vote against Trump or abstain. You cannot have a President that the people voted AGAINST put in power by the Electoral College while he's in breach of the Constitution Article 1, Section 9. If Trump's claim to power is 'the rules say he wins despite getting far fewer votes', then he has to obey the rules. He has to divest the businesses with foreign income, and put his US income business into blind trusts.
He hasn't met world leaders yet, and he's meeting with his real estate business partners instead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/us/politics/donald-trump-international-business.html?_r=0
He cannot take office while he's getting streams of income (and yes it includes Russian income, and not just from his crappy little Trump branded vodka), and the Electoral College should head the voters and not elect this man against the wishes of the voters.
GOP, WTF were you thinking? He doesn't keep promises, did you really think he would divest his foreign income? That he would keep that promise? That you, uniquely were the people he wouldn't lie to? He'd sell out his mother for wealth and power, do you think he wouldn't sell out his country?
Americans. Fucking up the world for the rest of us and then arguing about it
Thanks guys.
Good thing I'm not American then. I just happen to realize that if you want to have an actual "change on policy" with something like this, you need two things: People need to have secure jobs with disposable incomes that they don't mind pissing a bit away on. You also need cheap energy, to help offset the overall costs on society. The current environmentalist belief is "green energy is good" but that's far too expensive. When your electricity rate goes from 0.07 to 0.18kWh in less then 10 years, and people have problems keeping the lights on? They're going to say fuck you and your environmental ideas--my family comes first. That's followed by not having a stable job, or the possibility of losing said job not to someone in the country. But someone from outside the country because crony capitalists are dollar chasing. Now you know why Trump was elected, because that "rust belt" and "fly over country" or as people in the Greater Toronto Area would call everyone else outside of that big city "rednecks" are putting their families and themselves first because it's reached a breaking point for them.
Om, nomnomnom...