Mars-Sunset.jpg (JPEG Image, 1600x1200 pixels)

Mars-Sunset.jpg (JPEG Image, 1600x1200 pixels)

TREE RINGS DON'T LIE!

clipped from wattsupwiththat.com Medieval Warm Period seen in western USA tree ring fire scars Here is just one more indication that despite what some would like you to believe, the MWP was not a regional “non event”. From a University of Arizona press release, Giant Sequoias Yield Longest Fire History from Tree Rings California’s western Sierra Nevada had more frequent fires between 800 and 1300 than at any time in the past 3,000 years, according to a new study led by Thomas W. Swetnam, director of UA’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. A 3,000-year record from 52 of the world’s oldest trees shows that California’s western Sierra Nevada was droughty and often fiery from 800 to 1300, according to a new study led by University of Arizona researchers. Scientists reconstructed the 3,000-year history of fire by dating fire scars on ancient giant sequoia trees, Sequoiadendron giganteum, in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park. Individual giant sequoias can live more than 3,000 years.

another example of "denier" conspiracy? oh yah sure!

going green = going mean

clipped from wattsupwiththat.com Ethical consumers less likely to be kind and more likely to steal, study finds When Al Gore was caught running up huge energy bills at home at the same time as lecturing on the need to save electricity, it turns out that he was only reverting to “green” type. According to a study, when people feel they have been morally virtuous by saving the planet through their purchases of organic baby food, for example, it leads to the “licensing [of] selfish and morally questionable behaviour”, otherwise known as “moral balancing” or “compensatory ethics”. Do Green Products Make Us Better People is published in the latest edition of the journal Psychological Science. Its authors, Canadian psychologists Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong, argue that people who wear what they call the “halo of green consumerism” are less likely to be kind to others, and more likely to cheat and steal. “Virtuous acts can license subsequent asocial and unethical behaviours,” they write.

i love the phrase "halo of green consumerism". yep, i am greener than thou! so doing a good deed allows you to cancel out an evil deed, keeps the karmic balance, eh?

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Chicken Egg Family

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Chicken Egg Family

medicare/congress screws old folks

clipped from seattletimes.nwsource.com Walgreens: no new Medicaid patients as of April 16 Effective April 16, Walgreens drugstores across the state won't take any new Medicaid patients, saying that filling their prescriptions is a money-losing proposition — the latest development in an ongoing dispute over Medicaid reimbursement. In a news release, Walgreens said its decision to not take new Medicaid patients stemmed from a "continued reduction in reimbursement" under the state's Medicaid program, which reimburses it at less than the break-even point for 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents. The amount private insurers and Medicaid pay pharmacies for prescriptions isn't the actual cost of those drugs but rather is based on what's called the drug's estimated average wholesale price. But that figure is more like the sticker price on a car than its actual wholesale cost. "Washington state Medicaid is now reimbursing pharmacies less than their cost of participation,"

i don't blame walgreens, congress was well aware what would happen years ago. the corporate whores and jellyfish (congress) stands tall on the bodies of the weakest among us. 'course if they die sooner it will save lots of money!