Category: Climate / Environment
I Mentioned the Weather Here,
earlier today. Because it’s been particularly wild, especially just now at 10:35 PM CDT Sunday, I thought I’d write in. So far, so good where I live, we got winds, but no rain (it did rain before I mentioned the weather could impact my time online and posting,) and certainly no tornadoes. Temps stayed below 75 all day, with lower 60 degree dewpoints. Something could have twisted up, but not a huge something. So, that is good, with the exception that now the atmosphere here will lend itself to the same watching and hoping about the weather tomorrow (Monday.) But it is and has been safe here today and tonight. That’s the primary post.
The reason I thought I’d better write in is because, to the West of us, there is an ongoing tornado emergency. There have been tornadoes, a couple with extensive damages, in the late afternoon and evening, but this tornado now is one of what the weather people have been worrying about all the past week. It even was headed toward Greensburg, but did travel between Greensburg and another small town, so those cities are relatively safe. But the storm has been intensifying, and the tornado has been, also. I figure it’s going to make the AM news, and I didn’t want anyone to worry that we got hit; the area is somewhat North, and pretty far West of where I live, a few jogs South of Wichita. So that’s my weather check-in.
I don’t know what the news will tell about it, but the meteorologist I watch was visibly and audibly saddened by watching the reflexivity radar on the tornado, saying it is very bad. So it must be very bad, because he’s not an alarmist meteorologist. I’m yet again humbly thankful to have such weather avoid my area, and I hope there is not much population on the tornado’s path. We travelled by Greensburg for a karate tournament a couple of years after the Big One there, and I don’t recall a lot of homes on the road between towns, but there were houses around and about. We’ll see tomorrow, of course.
So, there’s that.
Republicans caused or did this. We should ban them.
Photo: Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro, who also serves as Kennedy Space Center director, a post she assumed in 2021. Trump elevated Petro to lead NASA after he ousted former Sen. Bill Nelson for believing in climate change.
As previously reported here, European governments have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to lure US scientists.
Newly-released data shows that Oklahoma ranks 46th in per-pupil spending, but Walters, who is eyeing a run for governor, has called for cuts to his state’s “wasteful” education spending, including $250,000 to provide school districts with emergency inhalers.
In his KFOR interview, Walters did boast about getting new teachers a signing bonus, but as was widely reported the time, $290,000 of that money had to be clawed back because it had gone to teachers who did not qualify. Some of those teachers had already spent the money.
The SPLC’s report is here. The February 2024 report linked below shows that the same thing is happening in the UK.
Guess who donated to the Texas Republicans behind the new law?
Something something free speech.
Rep. Beth Lear first appeared here in January 2024 when she defended her anti-trans bathroom bill by citing the “millstones” bible verse which calls for drowning anyone who hurts children.
She later blamed “depraved monster” Alfred Kinsey, liberals, and the ACLU for transgender people even existing.
Rep. Josh Williams first appeared here in July 2024 for his bill that would criminalize drag shows in the presence of children. Williams reintroduced his bill last week.
Happy Birthday Sir Bertrand Russell, and more in Peace & Justice History for 5/18
May 18, 1872 Bertrand Russell Birthday of Sir Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, logician, essayist, and social critic, a leading figure in his country’s anti-nuclear movement. In 1954 he delivered his “Man’s Peril [from the Hydrogen Bomb]” broadcast on the BBC, condemning the Bikini H-bomb tests, and warning of the threat to humanity from the development of nuclear weapons: “. . . as a human being to other human beings: remember your humanity, and forget the rest.” A year later, together with Albert Einstein nine other scientists, he released the Russell-Einstein Manifesto calling for the curtailment of nuclear weapons. Text of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto He became the founding president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958. He resigned in 1960, however, and formed the more militant Committee of 100 with the overt aim of inciting mass civil disobedience, and he himself with Lady Russell led mass sit-ins in 1961 that brought them a two-month prison sentence, at the age of 89.  Bertrand Russell in front of the British Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, London |
| May 18, 1896 Supreme Court endorsed “separate but equal” facilities for those of different races with its Plessy v. Ferguson decision, a ruling that was overturned 58 years later. |
| May 18, 1972 Margaret (Maggie) Kuhn founded the Gray Panthers (originally called the Consultation of Older and Younger Adults for Social Change) to consider the common problems faced by retirees — loss of income, loss of contact with associates, and loss of one of society’s most distinguishing social roles, one’s job. The members discovered a new kind of freedom in their retirement — the freedom to speak personally and passionately about what they believed in, such as their collective opposition to the Vietnam War.  Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers  Gray Panther history |
| May 18, 1974 In the Rajasthan Desert in the state of Pokhran, India successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon, a fission bomb similar in explosive power to the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The test fell on the traditional anniversary of the Buddha’s enlightenment, and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi received the message “Buddha has smiled” from the exuberant test-site scientists after the detonation. The test, which made India the world’s sixth nuclear power, broke the nuclear monopoly of the five members of the U.N. Security Council—the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, China, and France. Detailed background on India’s nuclear weapons program and its first test |
| May 18, 1979 A jury in a federal court in Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee established a company’s responsibility for damage to the health of a worker in the nuclear industry. Karen Silkwood worked for the Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation at their Cimmaron, Texas, plant where plutonium was manufactured. Silkwood had become the first female member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers bargaining committee, focusing on worker safety issues, but had suffered radiation exposure in a series of unexplained incidents. The jury in Judge Frank G. Theis’s court awarded her estate $505,000 in actual damages, and $10 million punitive damages.  Karen Silkwood’s sisters and parents She had died in a car accident on her way to a meeting with a The New York Times reporter five years earlier. Karen Silkwood remembered The Supreme Court upheld the decision and the award |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymay.htm#may18
“Little Yellow Chest”
Busy Day in Peace & Justice History on 5/17, Including Outrage & Rebellion in Seattle, a Wedding in MA, & a SCOTUS Decision Desegregating Public Schools; So Much More-
| May 17, 1919 The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was formally established in Zurich, Switzerland. |
| May 17, 1954 In a major civil rights victory, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, ruling “separate but equal” public education to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal treatment under the law. The historic decision, bringing an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation, specifically dealt with Linda Brown, a young African American girl denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because of the color of her skin. Read more and more  Above: Nettie Hunt and her daughter Nickie on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1954.  George E. C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall and James M. Nabrit (left to right), the successful legal team, celebrate the Brown decision. . . three years later . . . |
| May 17, 1957 Martin Luther King, Jr. led 30,00 on a Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. to mark the third anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education decision in which the Supreme Court declared racial segregation in education unconstitutional. |
| May 17, 1968 A group of anti-war activists who came to be known as the “Catonsville Nine,” including Philip and Daniel Berrigan, broke into the Catonsville, Maryland, draft board center and burned over 600 draft files.  The Catonsville Nine in a picture taken in the police station minutes after the action. From left to right (standing) George Mische, Philip Berrigan, Daniel Berrigan, Tom Lewis. From left to right (seated) David Darst, Mary Moylan, John Hogan, Marjorie Melville, Tom Melville. photo Jean Walsh Read more about the Catonsville Nine |
May 17, 1970 100 protesters staged a silent “die-in” at Fifth Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Seattle to protest shipment through their city of Army nerve gas being transported from Okinawa, Japan, to the Umatilla Army Depot in eastern Oregon. Outrage and Rebellion |
| May 17, 1973 In Washington, D.C., the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, headed by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina, began televised hearings on the escalating Watergate affair. One week later, Harvard Law Professor Archibald Cox was sworn in as Watergate special prosecutor. Flashback: On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. with the intent to set up wiretaps. One of the suspects, James W. McCord, Jr., was revealed to be the salaried security coordinator for President Richard Nixon’s reelection committee. |
May 17, 2004 Marcia Kadish, 56, and Tanya McCloskey, 52, of Malden, Massachusetts, were married at Cambridge City Hall in Massachusetts, becoming the first legally married same-sex partners in the United States. Over the course of the day, 77 other such couples tied the knot across the state, and hundreds more applied for marriage licenses. The day was characterized by much celebration and only a few of the expected protests materialized. Read more |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymay.htm#may17
Flamingos!
Watch flamingos create water tornadoes to trap their prey
May 14, 2025 Imma Perfetto
Flamingos are known for posing serenely on one leg in extreme wetlands, placidly bobbing their heads into the shallow water to feed. But a new study has revealed there’s more going on beneath the surface than meets the eye.
It seems flamingos create controlled underwater chaos to actively trap their prey, according to the research in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
They use a repertoire of behaviours, including stomping feet, jerking heads, and chattering beaks, to create swirling “underwater tornadoes” that concentrate and funnel prey into their mouths.
“Flamingos are actually predators, they are actively looking for animals that are moving in the water,” says lead author of the paper Victor Ortega Jiménez, an assistant professor of integrative biology at the University of California Berkeley in the US.
“The problem they face is how to concentrate these animals, to pull them together and feed. Flamingos are using vortices to trap animals, like brine shrimp.
“It’s not just the head, but the neck, their legs, their feet and all the behaviours they use to effectively capture these tiny and agile organisms.”
https://players.brightcove.net/5483960636001/HJH3i8Guf_default/index.html?videoId=6372736054112
Credit: Victor Ortega Jiménez, UC Berkeley
Ortega Jiménez and his collaborators trained Chilean flamingos at the Nashville Zoo to feed from a shallow aquarium.
They used high speed cameras and laser light to view the gas bubbles created in the water to visualise the animals’ feeding behaviour. They then confirmed their observations using fluid dynamics computer simulations and experiments using 3D printed models of flamingo beaks and feet.
They found that flamingos stomp their floppy webbed feet to churn up the sediment beneath them, propelling it forward in whorls.
The birds then draw these vortexes towards the water’s surface by jerking their heads upward at speeds of about 40cm/s, creating mini tornadoes that concentrate particles of food.
https://players.brightcove.net/5483960636001/HJH3i8Guf_default/index.html?videoId=6372734765112
Credit: Victor Ortega Jiménez, UC Berkeley
These small vortices are strong enough to trap even agile invertebrates, such as brine shrimp and microscopic crustaceans called copepods.
The flamingos’ heads remain upside down within this watery vortex, with their unique beaks angled so that the flat front end stays parallel to the bottom. They then “chatter”, clapping the lower beak open and shut about 12 times every second, to create smaller vortices that direct sediment and food into their mouths.
Experiments with 3D replicas of flamingo beaks revealed that chattering increases the number of brine shrimp captured by the beak seven-fold.
They found that flamingos also use a technique called “skimming”, which involves pushing the head forward while chattering to create sheet-like vortices – called von Kármán vortices.
https://players.brightcove.net/5483960636001/HJH3i8Guf_default/index.html?videoId=6372736433112
Credit: Victor Ortega Jiménez, UC Berkeley
“We observed when we put a 3D printed model in a flume to mimic what we call skimming, [it produces] symmetrical vortices on the sides of the beak that recirculate the particles in the water, so they actually get into the beak,” Ortega Jiménez says.
“It’s this trick of fluid dynamics.”
The team believes that their findings could be used to design better systems for concentrating and sucking up particles, such as microplastics, from water.
Next, Ortega Jiménez aims to determine the role of the flamingo’s piston-like tongue and how the comb-like edges of the beak filter prey out of the water.
They’re doing it again, they are so messed up and hurtful. They are destroying everything they touch Part 2
“A Preference for Pines”
I share that!
The American Peace Society, Nguyen Thi Co, and More, in Peace & Justice History for 5/8
| May 8, 1882 The American Peace Society was established when the peace societies of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania merged to become a national organization. Currently based in Boston, the merged organization was a result of the leadership of William Ladd, an advocate of a “Congress and High Court of Nations” for solving international disputes.  William Ladd, one of the founders of the American Peace Society American Peace Society |
| May 8, 1933 Mohandas Gandhi began a 21-day fast to support political rights for the Dalit (or untouchables) whom he called Harijans, the children of God. He had been jailed by the British to interfere with his movement to end colonial control of India. He was released the day after he began his personal purification because the colonial authorities were afraid he might die in prison. Gandhi And His Fasts |
| May 8, 1962 An estimated 9,000,000 people in Belgium participated in a ten-minute work stoppage to protest nuclear weapons. |
| May 8, 1971 Nguyen Thi Co immolated herself in protest of the Vietnam War, as did Thich Nu Tinh Nhuan later that month. |
| May 8, 1984 Presbyterian minister Reverend Benjamin Weir was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon, while out walking with his wife, Carol. Members of Islamic Jihad (later known as Hezbollah), a terrorist group in Lebanon, held Weir for sixteen months—twelve of them in solitary confinement—along with six other Americans who were released later, including journalist Terry Anderson. Before the kidnapping, Weir had spent nearly three decades in Lebanon as a Christian missionary and teacher at the Near East School of Theology. In his various positions in the Presbyterian church since his release, Weir was a voice for reconciliation and tolerance.  Reverend Benjamin Weir |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymay.htm#may8
Scottie's Playtime 