Martin World News

A little bit different this week- some serious, some fun, some just to make you wonder how man has lived this long.

ITEM:  A Dr. Susan Crockford came out a couple weeks back (so sue me!) with an article called 20 good reasons not to worry about Polar Bears, in which the global warming pseudoscientific "fact" that polar bears are being destroyed by global warming is shot to smithereens.  Among the twenty reasons:

 With a global population estimate almost certainly greater than 25,000, we can say for sure that there are more polar bears now than there were 40 years ago.


The most recent status assessment for polar bears, published by Environment Canada in May 2014, shows only two subpopulations are ‘likely in decline’, down from four listed by the PBSG as declining in 2013 and seven in 2010.  Baffin Bay earns its ‘likely decline’ status due to suspicions of overharvesting (so far not confirmed), not sea ice decline. The assessment of the Southern Beaufort bear population is also highly questionable.



The reason Chukchi Sea polar bears did so well with an extended open-water season was because ringed seals, their primary prey, do most of their feeding in ice-free summer waters. More fat seals mean more fat seal pups the following spring for polar bears. A recent study found that in recent years, with extensive September sea-ice minimums, the summer feeding period for seals was extended and they became extra fat.25 This meant that some seals provided a more energy-rich food source for polar bears over the following fall and winter, an immediate benefit to the bears..


(IOW global warming can be GOOD for polar bears...)

Polar bears have been shown to move from areas with unsuitable ice to areas with better ice conditions, even over the short term. This is strong evidence of their ability to adapt to changing sea ice.

(IOW so much for all that "poor stranded polar bears" stuff.)

The dramatically low September sea ice of 2012 apparently had no effect on Southern Beaufort Sea polar bears, or at least we have heard nothing to indicate any adverse effects.


One of the most recent genetic studies published emphasized that polar bears, as a species, survived more than one previous warm period when there was virtually no summer sea ice.

So, in her conclusion, Crocker finds the evidence indicating that polar bears are showing all the signs of a thriving, healthy species.  And in my conclusion, the liberal scientific community are in need of  another poster child population to "prove" their agenda driven science.



ITEM:  You may have already heard this one, but still so very worth it:

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man in Lincoln, Nebraska, has been cited for possessing pot inside a container that had been slapped with a label reading: “Not Weed.”

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Lancaster County deputies stopped the man’s vehicle around 9 p.m. Saturday.

Officers found the plastic sour cream container during a search of his car, and the driver acknowledged that the pot belonged to him.

He was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and cited for having less than an ounce of marijuana.

"I don't know...I thought I was being funny." Jason Meier told the Smoking Gun. "Never thinking it would be confiscated."


 Do we really want to re-visit those claims about MJ not causing short-term brain damage, Colorado and Washington?


ITEM:  This one made me sick.  BBC has done a documentary on a news-making gang rape in India a couple years back, in which the victim was beaten so badly she died.   They had an interview with one of the sub-humans involved, who had this to say:

"When being raped, she shouldn't fight back," Singh said. "Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her.'"

Singh said his death conviction would only spur more rapes and put more women at risk.

"Now when they rape, they won't leave the girl like we did," Singh said. "They will kill her. Before, they would rape and say, 'Leave her, she won't tell anyone.' Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl."


Singh defended his actions and those of the other men who gang raped Jyoti, saying the men "had a right" to teach women "a lesson."

"A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night," Singh reportedly told the BBC. "A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. … Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes."

While some on the defense team found fault with Singh's comments, his lawyer told BBC he agreed with his client's statements.


"If my daughter or sister engaged in pre-marital activities and disgraced herself… I would most certainly take this sort of sister or daughter to my farmhouse, and in front of my entire family, I would put petrol on her and set her alight," Singh's lawyer told the BBC crew.


The Indian government has banned the docu in their country, and BBC has a few choice comments on why:

"Does rape happen only in India? It's an attempt to malign India on a global platform. We must stop it," said a tweet which was shared almost 200 times. "The BBC is doing what western media does best - glorifying and making a celebrity out of a psycho rapist," remarked another user, while another tweet said, "Britishers have left India six decades ago, but their political legacy still rule this country?"


So, you see, it's really not a matter of making India face up to the nation of mongrels they have become, or shame their culture into looking at how even a lawyer can promote the immolation of women, it's about shame and politics and imperialism, and "we're no worse than anyone else."  Well, let me explain something to you, India- if the only ones you compare yourselves to is IS, then you are dead right.  If your comparison field is "human beings", well...

UPDATE:  India's NDTV shut down programming for the hour slot the BBC show would have appeared in protest of the government's decision, running a still of the show's logo instead.  Seems there ARE some in India with both humanity and courage.


ITEM:  This one, from Xinhua, I just found amusing.  See if you can see why...

BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A Beijing court on Saturday sentenced popular singer Yin Xiangjie to a 7-month jail term with a fine of 2,000 yuan (about 333 U.S. dollars) for holding drugs.

The 45-year-old male singer, once an anti-drug ambassador, was the latest celebrity involved in a drug offense in China since a nationwide crackdown started last year.

According to court proceedings, police seized drugs including 13.93 grams of crystal meth and 1.02 grams of marijuana at Yin's home in Beijing's Chaoyang District in late December.

Yin admitted to the charges at the open trial held at the Chaoyang District People's Court on Saturday, saying he felt "deep remorse."

He said he obtained the drugs because he felt distressed and had trouble sleeping.



Far be it from me to criticize what others use to fall asleep, buuuuut...


ITEM:  As you have no doubt heard, Russian investigators have already arrested two suspects and have at least partial names for three more in the Boris Nemtsov assassination.  I found an interesting chunk in the RTV article (Russian TV news) about the motives:

Investigators are looking into five possible motives behind Nemtsov’s assassination. According to Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the Investigative Committee, the murder may have been a provocation to destabilize the political situation in Russia.

It could also be linked to threats Nemtsov received over his stance on the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, or the current war in Ukraine. The politician’s business activities and a possible assault related to his personal life are also being looked into.


I reported earlier that the "business dealings" thing revolved around an attempt to paint Nemtsov as an arms dealer.  I suspect, though, as they have apprehended individuals from the Northern Caucasus region, you'll find that the 10,000 person rally last Sunday scared them off the tar-and-feather-Nemtsov angle and they will push the de-stabilization/Charlie Hedbo line, as they can conveniently combine the two and garner good will from everybody.


ITEM:  Found a neat article today about something called the Habitable Exoplanets Catalogue, a project of the observatory at the U of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.  They are basically studying the exoplanets (IOW, not of our solar system) who fall in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold "Goldilocks zone" around their star.

One of the things I thought was neat was that they put up a map of where to "find them in the night sky.  To make it simple, grab your star chart:

In the summer night sky, 13 of the 29 sit just north of a line between the summer triangle stars of Deneb and Vega;

2 sit right near the tail of Scorpio;

One for you southern hemisphereites sits roughly between the Southern Cross and Canopus;

Another down there sits somewhere in the dim field between the constellations Pavo, Indus, and Grus (AKA BFE Starlanes...);


A widespread group of five trail off to the south of Orion, all but two of them out of our "viewing area" up here;

And the last one circles Tau Ceti, a somewhat famous variable star that you can actually see on a clear, dark night, approximately dead south of the peak of the "V" in Pisces.


They also grade the planets' earth-likeness, on a scale of zero to one, with the closest being the .88 of little Kepler 438B.  They range anywhere from 11.9 light years away  for Tau Ceti (which means if I was a beam of light, I would get there just before retirement), to the 1740.8 ly away for Kepler 283C (Last on the top row, which would take somewhere in my great X 42 grandkid's lifetime).



ITEM:  Finally, the prototypical MWN story:

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey appellate court says a man cannot seek damages for burns he suffered while bowing his head in prayer over a sizzling steak fajita skillet at a restaurant.

The ruling made public Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed his lawsuit. The man claimed a waitress didn't warn him the dish was hot, but the lower court found the food posed an "open and obvious" danger.


It happened in 2010 at an Applebee's in Burlington County.

The man said he bowed his head, then heard a loud sizzle followed by a grease pop. He then felt a burning sensation in his left eye and on his face.

The man said he panicked and knocked the food on his lap, causing more burns. The burns didn't cause scarring.

In their decision, the appellate judges said Hiram Jimenez described the skillet as "real hot" and smoking and therefore the potential danger was self-evident.


I call BS anyway.  They ALWAYS warn you the dish is hot.  Next time, pray before the food arrives.