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n2doc's JournalKerry poker-faced as press takes Johnson to task for 'outright lies'
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry kept his composure -- just -- as he endured an awkward joint press conference with his new British counterpart, Boris Johnson.
The pair faced journalists at the Foreign Office in London Tuesday in Johnson's first news conference since his controversial appointment by the UK's new Prime Minister, Theresa May.
The two met to discuss the world's most pressing issues and to reaffirm the two country's oft-vaunted "special relationship" in the face of the UK's decision to leave the EU, but the tone from the assembled reporters was combative.
Johnson was taken to task by the AP's Brad Klapper for what he cast as insulting references to world leaders and other notable figures, including accusing U.S. President Barack Obama of having a "ancestral dislike for the British Empire" and describing presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as a "sadistic nurse in a mental hospital."
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http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/20/politics/boris-johnson-john-kerry-presser/index.html
Richard James
John Kerry's face when a US journalist accuses Boris of making "outright lies" is quite something.
There's Something Big Going Down in the Arctic and the Whales Can't Get Any Sleep
By Samantha Cole •
Before shipping freighters, seismic surveys in search of oil and active sonar started crashing through the Arctic waters, there was a greater symphony of chirps, hums and clicks being played out by whales and other mammals communicating beneath the frigid waves.
Today, parts of the Arctic sound more like a war zone. Melting ice caps opened the Arctic via the Northern Passage to marine shipping for the first time in 2007 and since then, the level of human activity has skyrocketed. New ports are popping up. Governments and corporations are seeking to establish monopolies in an area where 13% of the world’s unexplored oil reserves sit and naval ships are following to protect national interests. The level of noise this activity is creating, especially underwater, is having a major impact on wildlife.
“This is an issue we’ve been playing catchup on,” says Michael Jasny, Director of Marine Mammal Protection at the National Resources Defense Council. “The problem is getting worse.”
more
http://vanwinkles.com/how-drilling-in-the-arctic-affects-animals-sleep
70 Years Ago, the U.S. Military Set Off a Nuke Underwater, And It Went Very Badly
Then they tried it four more times.
By Sarah Laskow JULY 19, 2016
Seventy years ago, on July 26, 1946, the U.S. military tried a new type of nuclear test.
A joint Army/Navy task force had suspended a nuclear device, oddly named Helen of Bikini, 90 feet below the surface of the water, in the middle of Bikini Atoll, one of the isolated rings of coral and land that make up the Marshall Islands. Arrayed around the 21-kiloton bomb were dozens of target ships.
The Navy had a point to prove. In this new era of nuclear warfare, in which the Air Force could rain down explosives on entire cities, what use was a naval force? The military leaders who proposed the test wanted to show that their ships could ride out a nuclear attack and that the fleet was not obsolete.
But the underwater test was controversial, perhaps even more so than land-based test blasts. Even nuclear scientists questioned its point—would it offer useful, scientific information or was this all just for show?
When Helen of Bikini exploded, it created a giant, underwater bubble of hot gas. In seconds, the bubble hit the seafloor, where it blasted a crater 30 feet deep and at least 1,800 feet wide. At the same time, the surface of lagoon erupted into a giant column of water, 2 million tons of it, which shot more than 5,000 feet into the air, over an area a half-mile wide. In the seconds after the blast hit the surface, a cloud of radioactive condensation unfurled across the lagoon, hiding the column of water shooting upwards; at the top, a mushroom cloud of gas bloomed against the sky.
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http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/70-years-ago-the-us-military-set-off-a-nuke-underwater-and-it-went-very-badly
Trump and the cult of stupid
By Rick Wilson, contributor
“Donald Trump isn’t a traditional politician and we don’t need to run a traditional campaign.”
“TV ads don’t work.”
“He won the primary without spending any real money.”
“We don’t need you fancy consultants and your decades of experience, losers.”
Sound familiar? It should. You hear it every day from new Trump Establishment Republicans trying to defend themselves against the overwhelming evidence that Donald Trump’s “campaign” is off the rails. It’s an article of faith among Trump fans that he can ignore all the rules of political physics forever and will simply rise and rise no matter how many unforced errors he makes.
They take pride in his rejection of the tools and techniques of campaigning, ignoring the hard lessons that Barack Obama’s two election victories taught us as a party. They view the tools of politics as anathema in their cult of stupid, where anger and revenge against the hated establishment was enough to get him the nomination and swear it’s enough to win against Hillary. “Who needs expertise? We’ve got rage.”
Yesterday, they collided with the realities of a general election, as first day of the RNC convention in Cleveland demonstrated how unready they are for the fight ahead. The day went off the rails with the clumsy, criminally stupid catfight with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, followed by suppression of the legitimate concerns of hundreds of Trump-skeptical conservative delegates who wanted a bare-bones opportunity to have their voices heard.
more
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/288298-trump-and-the-cult-of-stupid
'Earthquake' off Florida's coast was Navy testing
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —What was previously recorded as a 3.7-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Florida was triggered by a man-made explosion to test the seaworthiness of a new U.S. Navy vessel.
Seismographs detected the "earthquake" Saturday afternoon about 168 nautical miles northeast of Daytona Beach Shores.
The U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors earthquake activity worldwide, now lists the event as an experimental explosion. It had previously been listed on the USGS website as an earthquake.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports a similar 3.7-magnitude "earthquake" on June 10 off of Ormond-by-the-Sea happened about the same time the Navy reported conducting a shock trial on the USS Jackson for testing. The Navy notified the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service that another shock trial would be conducted between July 16 and July 20.
http://www.wesh.com/news/earthquake-off-floridas-coast-was-likely-navy-testing/40777432
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