Paul offers Iowans a conservative-libertarian mix

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DES MOINES | Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul laid the groundwork for a possible 2016 Republican presidential bid Friday by offering a message he believes will appeal to the party's conservative base while attracting young and independent-minded Iowans fed up with a federal government over-reaching into their lives.

"I would be someone who is conservative with a little bit of libertarian-ish flavor," said Paul, 52, a member of the U.S. Senate since 2011 and son of former GOP presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

He said he would decide his own presidential intentions sometime in March or April.

Paul held an "audit the fed" rally at a local winery that drew more than 200 supporters. They cheered his call for bringing more transparency to the Federal Reserve Bank and its lending practices, easing harsh drug penalties, defeating Loretta Lynch as President Obama's U.S. attorney general nominee and taking a go-slow approach to international military intervention.

The Kentucky senator said he has not been afraid to challenge the current administration by suing the president over NSA spying and he plans to lead the charge in building public pressure to allow the General Accounting Agency to do an independent audit of federal banking and lending practices that put trillions of taxpayer dollars at risk.

"I think we need some sunshine," he declared.

Paul expressed concern that Obama has tilted the separation of governmental power by using executive orders to write law. He pledged to restore balance among the competing branches and not overstep foreign policy boundaries by making U.S. military commitments without congressional approval.

"You're going to get a choice on who the nominee is for the Republican Party. You're going to have nine, 10, 15, 20 who are eager to go and want troops on the ground. They want 100,000 troops on the ground right now," Paul told the Iowa crowd. "If there's one true thing I can tell you that I think they cannot object to that the facts clearly demonstrate every time we have toppled a secular dictator, we've gotten chaos and we've gotten a rise in radical Islam and we've been less safe.

"I can tell you if things move forward, whether I'm in the Senate or I do run for the nomination, I can tell there will be one loud voice in our party saying think of the unintended consequences," he said.

Paul said Iowans appear to be evenly split on the deployment of U.S. troops in international conflicts and he sees his position as an asset among the developing 2016 GOP presidential field because he believes in a strong national defense but is not eager to be involved in foreign wars unless there is an American interest at stake.

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Paul offers Iowans a conservative-libertarian mix

Birth Of Dinosaur at Jurassic Park Islands Of Adventure universal Orlando 2015 – Video

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Birth Of Dinosaur at Jurassic Park Islands Of Adventure universal Orlando 2015
Birth Of Dinosaur at Jurassic Park Islands Of Adventure universal Studio Orlando 2015 naissance d #39;un dinosaure jurassic par Islands Of Adventure universal Studios Orlando 2015.

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Birth Of Dinosaur at Jurassic Park Islands Of Adventure universal Orlando 2015 - Video

US judge dismisses Marshall Islands' nuclear suit

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WASHINGTON: A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Marshall Islands against the United States that accused Washington of failing in its obligation to negotiate nuclear disarmament, campaigners said on Friday (Feb 6).

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation said U.S. Federal Court Judge Jeffrey White dismissed the suit on Tuesday on the grounds that the harm caused by the US breach of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was "speculative." Compelling it to negotiate disarmament would not redress any harm to the Marshall Islands, it added.

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation said it would appeal the ruling. It says the United States conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958 and islanders are still plagued by the health and environmental effects as a result.

Lawsuits the Marshall Islands brought last year in the United States and The Hague against the United States and the eight other nuclear powers did not seek compensation, but rather, court orders requiring them enter to negotiations for nuclear disarmament.

The suits argued that all nine nuclear states - the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea - were in "flagrant violation of international law" for failing to pursue the negotiations required by the 1968 NPT.

Russia said last year that the lawsuits were "baseless" and would not help rid the world of atomic weapons.

The Marshall Islands, a group of 31 atolls, was occupied by Allied forces in 1944 and put under US administration in 1947. The tiny Pacific Ocean territory, which has a population of about 68,000, became an independent republic in 1986.

Tests conducted there included the "Castle Bravo" detonation of a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll in 1954, the largest the United States has ever conducted.

The detonation was estimated to be 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, producing an intense fireball followed by a 20-mile-high (32 km) mushroom cloud and widespread radioactive fallout.

Under bilateral agreements between the United States and the Marshall Islands, a Nuclear Claims Tribunal was established to assess and award damages to victims of the nuclear tests. But it has never had the cash to compensate fully for the damage done.

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US judge dismisses Marshall Islands' nuclear suit

Sailing the Ionian Islands in Greece

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LAWRENCE SCHFFLER/BOATING NEW ZEALAND

Lawrence Schaffler Lawrence Schaffler Lawrence Schaffler Lawrence Schaffler Lawrence Schaffler Lawrence Schaffler

SAILING AWAY: The catamaran we chartered, a 42ft Lagoon, at Emerald Bay, Antipaxos Island, Greece.

PERFECT SECLUSION: Kioni, Ithaca island, Greece.

LOCAL SPECIALTIES: Seafood delights in Greece.

ISLAND BLISS: Spartahori village one of our favourite stops in the Ionian islands, Greece.

FREE-STYLE: Charter catamaran, anchored Mediterranean-style.

MYTHICAL MAGIC: Our private beach at Ithaca, the fabled home of Homer.

Any tourists may have a preconceived idea of traditional Greek islands but it's probably quite different from the reality of the seven main islands of the Ionians. Unlike the harsh, arid landscapes and white-washed houses that mark the islands on the eastern side of Greece, on the western side of mainland Greece, the Ionians are lush, green and soft. Even the architecture is different houses in the villages feature red-tiled roofs and walls daubed in brilliant pastels, hinting at their Roman-influenced heritage.

It's a heady mix warm, vibrant colours contrasting with the verdant green landscape and clear waters and larger-than-life, friendly Greek hosts. Thanks to our rampant Kiwi dollar, the islands are relatively inexpensive. In short the islands were a wonderfully dry, sunny escape from a New Zealand winter when we took a 14-day yacht charter there in September.

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Sailing the Ionian Islands in Greece

River Islands irrigating with recycled water

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Water that River Islands at Lathrop residents send down the drain wont got to waste.

The Central Valley Regional Water Control Board this week approved River Islands using treated wastewater to irrigate parks and other common areas.

They (the water quality board) sped up approval because of the drought, noted River Islands project manager Susan DellOsso.

The 11,000-home planned community had already installed purple pipe so treated water could be applied to common landscaping and parks. The development currently uses non-potable water to irrigate common landscaping and parks.

DellOsso noted the boards staff when River Islands first filed an application last year had concerns that the recycled water would seep eventually into the high quality, shallow aquifer fed by the San Joaquin River.

DellOsso said those qualms were addressed when Cambray Group engineers noted that the water is being applied directly to the plant roots and not via flood irrigation. That means the chances are nil that any water will ever seep down far enough to raise water quality concerns with the aquifer.

River Islands was designed from the beginning to make minimum use of water and to consume less than a half an acre foot of water per household. There are already 41 families living in the community

River Islands at Lathrop is arguably the most water miserly community in South San Joaquin County.

All common area landscaping such as medians employ drought resistant landscaping. All front yards have minimal lawns with water sipping accent vegetation with irrigation systems controlled by moisture sensors.

That means if there is rain or moisture in the air such as a foggy mist, the irrigation systems will not come on. That is an going problem in many cities where residents have lawns and the yard irrigation on automated timers. It isnt unusual to see sprinklers come on in the middle of a rain storm or on a foggy day throughout Manteca, Lathrop, Ripon, Tracy and other valley cities.

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River Islands irrigating with recycled water

Human – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Human[1] Temporal range: 0.1950Ma Middle Pleistocene Recent Adult human male (left) and female (right) from Southeast Asia Conservation status Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Hominidae Tribe: Hominini Genus: Homo Species: H. sapiens Binomial name Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Subspecies

Homo sapiens idaltu White et al., 2003 Homo sapiens sapiens

Modern humans (Homo sapiens or Homo sapiens sapiens) are the only extant members of the hominin clade, a branch of great apes characterized by erect posture and bipedal locomotion; manual dexterity and increased tool use; and a general trend toward larger, more complex brains and societies.[3][4] Early hominids, such as the australopithecines whose brains and anatomy are in many ways more similar to non-human apes, are less often thought of or referred to as "human" than hominids of the genus Homo,[5] some of whom used fire, occupied much of Eurasia, and gave rise to [6][7]anatomically modern Homo sapiens in Africa about 200,000 years ago where they began to exhibit evidence of behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago and migrated out in successive waves to occupy[8] all but the smallest, driest, and coldest lands. In the last 100 years, this has extended to permanently manned bases in Antarctica, on offshore platforms, and orbiting the Earth. The spread of humans and their large and increasing population has had a destructive impact on large areas of the environment and millions of native species worldwide. Advantages that explain this evolutionary success include a relatively larger brain with a particularly well-developed neocortex, prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes, which enable high levels of abstract reasoning, language, problem solving, sociality, and culture through social learning. Humans use tools to a much higher degree than any other animal, are the only extant species known to build fires and cook their food, as well as the only extant species to clothe themselves and create and use numerous other technologies and arts.

Humans are uniquely adept at utilizing systems of symbolic communication such as language and art for self-expression, the exchange of ideas, and organization. Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families and kinship networks to states. Social interactions between humans have established an extremely wide variety of values,[9]social norms, and rituals, which together form the basis of human society. The human desire to understand and influence their environment, and explain and manipulate phenomena, has been the foundation for the development of science, philosophy, mythology, and religion. The scientific study of humans is the discipline of anthropology.

Humans began to practice sedentary agriculture about 12,000 years ago, domesticating plants and animals, thus allowing for the growth of civilization. Humans subsequently established various forms of government, religion, and culture around the world, unifying people within a region and leading to the development of states and empires. The rapid advancement of scientific and medical understanding in the 19th and 20th centuries led to the development of fuel-driven technologies and improved health, causing the human population to rise exponentially. By 2014 the global human population was estimated to be around 7.2 billion.[10][11]

In common usage, the word "human" generally refers to the only extant species of the genus Homo anatomically and behaviorally modern Homo sapiens. Its usage often designates differences between the species as a whole and any other nature or entity.

In scientific terms, the definition of "human" has changed with the discovery and study of the fossil ancestors of modern humans. The previously clear boundary between human and ape blurred, resulting in "Homo" referring to "human" now encompassing multiple species. There is also a distinction between anatomically modern humans and Archaic Homo sapiens, the earliest fossil members of the species, which are classified as a subspecies of Homo sapiens, e.g. Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.

The English adjective human is a Middle English loanword from Old French humain, ultimately from Latin hmnus, the adjective form of hom "man". The word's use as a noun (with a plural: humans) dates to the 16th century.[12] The native English term man can refer to the species generally (a synonym for humanity), and could formerly refer to specific individuals of either sex, though this latter use is now obsolete.[13] Generic uses of the term "man" are declining, in favor of reserving it for referring specifically to adult males. The word is from Proto-Germanic mannaz, from a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root man-.

The species binomial Homo sapiens was coined by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th century work Systema Naturae, and he himself is the lectotype specimen.[14] The generic name Homo is a learned 18th century derivation from Latin hom "man", ultimately "earthly being" (Old Latin hem, a cognate to Old English guma "man", from PIE demon-, meaning "earth" or "ground").[15] The species-name sapiens means "wise" or "sapient". Note that the Latin word homo refers to humans of either gender, and that sapiens is the singular form (while there is no word sapien).

The genus Homo diverged from other hominins in Africa, after the human clade split from the chimpanzee lineage of the hominids (great ape) branch of the primates. Modern humans, defined as the species Homo sapiens or specifically to the single extant subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, proceeded to colonize all the continents and larger islands, arriving in Eurasia 125,00060,000 years ago,[16][17]Australia around 40,000 years ago, the Americas around 15,000 years ago, and remote islands such as Hawaii, Easter Island, Madagascar, and New Zealand between the years 300 and 1280.[18][19]

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Lawmakers approve technique to allow three people make babies

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Despite warnings that a new ethical threshold was being crossed, British lawmakers on Tuesday voted to allow the in vitro creation of babies using the DNA of three people, a procedure that could prevent the inheritance of genetic diseases.

According to nytimes.com, the move would make Britain the first country to authorize an in vitro fertilization technique that involves altering a human egg or embryo before transferring it to the womb.

The issue provoked fierce debate, with some opponents likening the procedure to genetic modification and arguing that it would open the way to the creation of so-called designer babies.

Lawmakers in the House of Commons voted 382 to 128 in favor of the move, which still requires final approval from the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of Parliament. The House of Lords rarely rejects the decisions of its elected colleagues.

The vote came after a number of objections were raised, including the fact that other nations, including the United States, have not taken such a step.

Describing the move as bold but considered and informed, the health minister, Jane Ellison, argued in favor of legalizing the procedure, which is designed to help women with mitochondrial diseases. Defects in the mitochondria energy-producing structures outside a cells nucleus can result in a range of complications, including muscular dystrophy and heart, kidney and liver failure. An opponent of the change, Edward Leigh, a Conservative lawmaker and former minister, said before the vote that it was a monumental decision.

If we believe that, sadly, given the nature of the human condition, there are these appalling diseases, where do we stop? he asked, calling for full clinical trials to determine the procedures safety and effectiveness.

We will be the first state to authorize this in the world, Mr. Leigh added. We will be in a unique position, and we should ask ourselves why no other state not the European Union, not the U.S., yet thinks this process is absolutely safe.

If it wins final approval, as seems likely, the technique is expected to be used only sparingly, and in the cases of women who have faulty mitochondria. The resulting embryo would have nucleus DNA from the childs parents but mitochondrial DNA from a donor.

Scientists say that the child would inherit the characteristics of the parent, other than the mitochondrial defect, rather than those of the donor.

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Lawmakers approve technique to allow three people make babies

Connected care: When and where you need it | Kristi Henderson | TEDxJackson – Video

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Connected care: When and where you need it | Kristi Henderson | TEDxJackson
Telehealth has the power to solve some of the most difficult problems in health care. Mississippi #39;s limited resources and rural population created an opportunity for leadership in telehealth...

By: TEDx Talks

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Connected care: When and where you need it | Kristi Henderson | TEDxJackson - Video