How ‘Warmest Ever’ Headlines and Debates Can Obscure What Matters About Climate Change →

Both NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration firmly concluded that last year beat out 2010 and 2005, the previous years that had held the title of warmest since methodical record-keeping began in 1880.
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Ever since, there’ve been salvos from critics decrying the definitiveness with which both agencies summarized the 2014 findings (each agency had a distinct methodology and slightly different conclusions).
I talked about this yesterday on Brian Lehrer’s radio show, making the point that it’s a distraction to focus on records — as the media and elected officials tend to do — given how year-to-year differences in global temperature are measured in a few hundredths of a degree Fahrenheit, and given the implicit uncertainty in such measurements. You can listen here.
Such fights divert attention from long-term trends...

There’s gold in them thar sewers—tons and tons of it! →

Researchers from Arizona State University analyzed sewage sludge—the stuff left behind after treating raw sewage—with a mass spectrometer, and found that a city of a million people gives out $13 million worth of metal annually—and $2.6 million of it is silver and gold.
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Where does all this gold come from? Speculation is that it finds its way into our sewage through the processes of manufacturing, such as mining, electroplating, and the manufacture of jewelry. It should be no surprise that there are items of value in the sewers—workers in Modesto, California, were once investigated for selling wedding rings and other items of jewelry that had been flushed down the toilet.

What does Cambridge sewage say about residents? MIT plans to find out →

These researchers—who include architects, computational biologists, designers, electrical and mechanical engineers, geneticists, and microbiologists—will be testing an idea that’s attracting interest around the world: namely, that sewage can tell us important things about the people who excrete it. Already, research has shown that sewage can reveal illicit drug usage, the presence of influenza, the poliovirus and other pathogens, and the state of community health. So far, however, none of this has been tested in our local waste systems, other than some proof-of-concept sampling done in Boston. That has led to this first formal effort by scientists and public health officials to get a sewage snapshot of the people of Cambridge.

Distortions, lies and omissions: The New York Times won’t tell you the real story behind Ukraine, Russian economic collapse →

This is an intriguing point of view, and one I'm seeing more of (especially couched in "Cold War" terms). I don't yet have an opinion, but it seems like a theme worth following. Is U.S. policy destabilizing Russia, and in a way that could cascade across Europe?

"...this will spiral first into a financial collapse, which will slam into all of Europe, and then who knows where it goes after that? Everywhere, far-right nationalist forces are building..."

Messenger of the Gods →

When someone says they have no politics, it means that their politics align with the status quo. None of us are unbiased, none removed from the question of power. We are social creatures, who absorb the outlook and opinions of those with whom we associate, and unconciously echo them. Objectivity is impossible.

The illusion of neutrality is one of the reasons for the rotten state of journalism, as those who might have been expected to hold power to account drift thoughtlessly into its arms. But until I came across the scandal now erupting in Canada, I hadn’t understood just how quickly standards are falling...

The Liberated Liberal →

Interesting take on President Obama's State of the Union Address yesterday:

The best way to understand the State of the Union, in other words, is as a statement in the constant conversation between the president and his party. In his sixth such address—as it’s been since the beginning of his presidency—his message was as mediated by party debates as it was bounded by party limits.

And if you want to see how the political and ideological limits of the Democratic Party have expanded since the 2012 election, just look at the scope of Obama’s rhetoric. Following the path paved by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren—who has captured the energy of the Democratic grass roots—Obama has offered a muscular defense of the party’s liberalism and the programs it has produced.
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It’s worth noting that none of this is out of sync with the Democratic Party’s agenda through the 20th century. In his own sixth-year State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton touted Social Security and proposed a tax credit for long-term care of the disabled. The difference is that Obama has almost abandoned the "Third Way" approach of his Democratic predecessor. Where Clinton proposed private accounts for Social Security, touted deficit reduction, and called for Congress to toughen its drug laws, Obama has pushed for infrastructure spending, ignored presidential ledger counting, and asked Congress to "reform America’s criminal justice system so that it protects and serves us all."

If anything, Obama’s confident, assertive liberalism is a return to the immediate postwar era, when Democratic governance was broadly popular and ascendant. "I think everybody knows that social insurance and better schools and health services are not frills, but necessities in helping all Americans to be useful and productive citizens, who can contribute their full share in the national effort to protect and advance our way of life," said President Truman in his 1952 address, the sixth and final one of his presidency. The rhythm is different but the rhyme is the same: Government has a place in securing prosperity and protecting ordinary people.

With that said, there are still limits to the scope of this new Democratic liberalism. Obama’s speech was strong, but his agenda was relatively modest. Even if Congress adopted all of Obama’s economic proposals, it would put just a small dent in the towering inequality that defines modern American life. Core problems of wage stagnation, social mobility, and retirement security remain unaddressed by most Democrats...

Rebel coup ousts Yemen's leader, minister says; U.S. vehicle fired on →

Shiite Houthi rebels have taken over Yemen's presidential palace, Yemeni Minister of Information Nadia Sakkaf told CNN on Tuesday amid reports of renewed clashes.
Sakkaf said the Prime Minister's residence was also under attack from the street.
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The developments in the capital, Sanaa, came a day after heavy fighting between government forces and Houthis -- Shiite Muslims who have long felt marginalized in the majority Sunni Muslim country.
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Gunfire could be heard sporadically across the city Tuesday, whereas a day earlier it was constant.

Unknown assailants fired shots Monday night at a U.S. Embassy vehicle in Sanaa, the U.S. Embassy said Tuesday.