DN Speak

Friday, January 3, 2014

China’s second-largest maker of solar photovoltaic panels will develop a huge 1,000 megawatt (MW) ground-mounted solar power plant complex in a remote Chinese desert, which the company announced Monday — a move that some say is a sign of big things to come for the global solar industry in 2014.

China's second-largest maker of solar PV panels announced its plans to build a massive 1,000 MW ground-mounted solar power ... Read more

How A Private Company Stacked The Deck Against Student Loan Debtors

"...One elegant approach to the problem would be to roll back some of ECMC’s successes at making bankruptcy court inhospitable for struggling student debtors. By making student debt dischargable in bankruptcy and tying student loan access to school performance metrics, Center for American Progress experts Joe Valenti and David Bergeron argue, Congress could both reduce the harmful effects of the current debt overhang and improve the future outlook of the student loan system..."

Bankruptcy judges used to have leeway when dealing with student loan borrowers. Then a company spent two decades changing ... Read more

Climate Change Will Starve The Deep Sea, Study Finds

"...“I know a five percent loss doesn’t sound like a lot,” said lead author Daniel Jones of the National Oceanography Centre in England, in an interview with Climate Progress. “But when you understand the amount of life that represents, its huge. We are talking about losses of marine life weighing more than every person on the planet put together. That gives you a sense of just how much is down there.”..."

Climate change will starve the deep oceans, leading to a staggering loss of marine life. The post Climate Change Will Starve ... Read more

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Airship of Dreams: Lighter-Than-Air Travel Is Back - Popular Mechanics

With technology borrowed from submarines, a scrappy California company is attempting to resurrect a century-long dream of building huge airships to carry freight—and people—across the skies.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/airships/airship-of-dreams-lighter-than-air-travel-is-back-16292687

Should Sugar Be Considered Addictive?

Now that the holidays have come and gone, it's time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, "Did I really need to eat the whole box ... Read more

Finally, Some Conservative Ideas!

In the four years since the official end of the Great Recession, we've seen segments of the economy recover: Wall Street has never been more profitabl... Read more

Yup, Voter ID Targets Blacks

"New research confirms what was obvious: Republican voter identification laws are purely partisan power plays, targeted at groups that vote for Democrats...

One of the most shocking political developments of last year was the speed with which Southern, Republican-controlled states embraced voter identifica... " Read more

Krugman Nails WSJ Pulitzer Winner For Misleading Inequality Claim

Breaking news: The Wall Street Journal editorial page is full of it. OK, that's not really news. But an unusually flagrant example of the WSJ editoria... Read more

Thickening Pill Plot: Non-Profit Challenges To Birth Control Mandate See Mixed Results In Courts

At the end of the day, this isn't about religious freedom. It's really about the Catholic ... Read more

Senate Democrats Slam 'Grossly Misleading' Koch-Backed Ads

The Democrats targeted by the conservative Americans for Prosperity with a new major ad buy are slamming the new ads as "grossly misleading" and "lies... Read more

Movies Coming To Netflix In The New Year - Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/movies-coming-to-netflix-in-the-new-year-2013-12

Obamacare Brings Medicaid To Skid Row's 'Ugly Reality'

Obamacare Brings Medicaid To Skid Row's 'Ugly Reality' by Sarah Varney January 02, 2014 4:16 PM Partner content from: Audio for this story from Al... Read more

This Chart Will Piss You Off

"This chart, drawn from a report by the Sentier Research Group, shows that for a large number of American households, there has been no economic recovery. Caught in a vice of chronic unemployment and falling wages, real median household income (excluding capital gains and losses but including cash government benefits) has declined 4.4% since the "recovery" began in 2009. For many households, the drop has been more severe. For African-American households, it is 10.9%. For those under 25 years old, it is 9.6%. For single females with children, it is 7.5%. Indeed, the only households to experience an increase in real income are those 65 to 74 years old...".* The Young Turks host Cenk Uyugr breaks it down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcH6kGd3XQs

Shocking Percentage Of Americans Don't Trust Scientists

"In a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, only 36 percent of Americans reported having "a lot" of trust that information they get from scientists is accurate and reliable. Fifty-one percent said they trust that information only a little, and another 6 percent said they don't trust it at all."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT7I6gJQbuA

Belief In Evolution - Republicans vs Democrats

"according to a new Pew poll, it seems like political partisanship may be starting to take its toll on evolution. While a comfortable majority of Republicans accepted human evolution as fact in 2009, Pew finds a plurality now reject it — an astonishing 19 point reversal in four years."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PjFWEPEVZA

Billionaire Warns Pope Francis

"Langone told CNBC that one potential seven-figure donor is concerned about statements from the pope criticizing market economies as "exclusionary," urging the rich to give more to the poor and criticizing a "culture of prosperity" that leads some to become "incapable of feeling compassion for the poor."*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJpopKXJa0w

U.S. judge asks: Why haven't the financial executives been prosecuted?

"...He dismisses the Department of Justice rationale that proving "intent" to defraud in the financial crisis cases is difficult: There's plenty of evidence in the public record that banking executives knew the mortgage securities they were hawking as AAA were junk.
He doesn't buy the excuse that criminal prosecutions involving major financial firms might have damaged the economy -- no one has ever contended that a big firm would collapse just because its high-level executives were prosecuted. And he notes that the government doesn't dispute that some of these executives may be guilty -- it just comes up with excuses for not prosecuting...

Why? Rakoff posits that there are several reasons for the lack of prosecutions. One is that the FBI and SEC are both understaffed because of budget cuts, and in the FBI's case with the diversion of much of its workforce to anti-terrorism efforts after 9/11. And he speculates that the government may feel abashed at its own complicity in the crisis, arising from the easing of financial and mortgage regulations over the years... "
Read more

The US has been voted as the most significant threat to world peace in a survey across 68 different countries

"The US has been voted as the most significant threat to world peace in a survey across 68 different countries. Anti-American sentiment was not only recorded in antagonistic countries, but also in many allied NATO partners like Turkey and Greece.

A global survey conducted by the Worldwide Independent Network and Gallup at the end of 2013 revealed strong animosity towards the US’s role as the world’s policeman. Citizens across over 60 nations were asked: “Which country do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the world today?” ..."

Read more

As Abortion Providers Are Under Attack, Fake Anti-Choice Clinics Are Gaining Ground

Abortion clinics are being forced to close their doors at a record rate. Anti-choice "crisis pregnancy centers," often propped ... Read more