Whales might poop more than scientists previously thought. That’s one conclusion of a paper published Wednesday in Nature, in which researchers spied on baleen whales with suction-cup sensors and drones to discover how much they eat. Previous estimates of how much whales poop were based on stomach contents, and captive animals, like orca. But the new paper suggests that baleen whales (who count the blue whale in their number) eat about three times more krill than the scientists thought they did. And given that what goes in must come out, that means they poop more too.
While Matthew Savoca, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University and an author on the study stresses that his findings are not the final answer on how much whales poop, one thing is certain: more whale poop is excellent news. For all of us.
[. . .]
Scientists put up with dealing with this smelly-jello because it offers important data on somewhat mysterious creatures–it’s not easy to study a huge animal that travels thousands of miles through often-treacherous waters, mostly hidden. Poop collection has many things to recommend it as a research technique: its non-invasive to the whales, there’s plenty poo to sample, and the poo often floats. (Fecal plumes can be difficult to spot, so some researchers employ poop detecting dogs to point the way.) Once whale poop is captured with a net or jar on a stick, it opens a window into the creature’s lives. Fecal analysis can identify individual whales and can tell researchers about their stress state, if they are sexually mature or pregnant, what they are eating and how much, the amount of pollution in their environment, if they have any parasites or diseases, and even things about their genetic makeup. Whale poop has made possible studies such as a December 2020 report in Conservation Physiology, in which researchers detected elevated stress in a male injured by a propeller or vessel strike, and a 2012 study in which researchers found a drop in stress related hormones with the period immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, likely due to decreased shipping noise.
Now for Diana Ross.
That's "I Still Believe." It's from her new album THANK YOU which comes out tomorrow. It's her first studio album in fifteen years. It's her 25th studio album as a solo artist. The album has 13 tracks: "If The World Just Danced," "All Is Well," "In Your Heart," "Just In Case," "The Answer's Always Love," "Let's Do It," "I Still Believe," "Count On me," Tomorrow," "Beautiful Love,' "Time to Call" and "Come Together." Diana co-wrote at least seven of those songs. Her oldest daughter, Rhonda Ross (Berry Gordy is Rhonda's biological father) co-wrote "All Is Well" and solo wrote "Count On Me." Siedah Garrett who wrote Michael Jackson's "Man In The Mirror" co-wrote "The Answer's Always Love." The album is being issued on streaming, on vinyl and on CD. Fun's Jack Antonoff is producing the album.
I'm really excited to hear it. I love Diana, she's my all time favorite recording artist. C.I. made sure I got to see her at the AMA's when she got the award a few years back and performed and it's still one of my best moments not involving my kids. That doesn't sound right. I'm trying to say that the bulk of my best moments are moments with my kids. But seeing her perform is a best moment.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Thursday, November 4, 2021. The vote is still not official in Iraq and Jackson Hinkle asks who someone is so we provide the answer (and there's no reason for him to have known who she is, she's a disgraced whore).
First up, Diana Ross' "I Still Believe."
This song is from her new album THANK YOU which is released tomorrow:
In 2021, Diana Ross sings `Thank You' to the world. Her new album is a gift of songs about the love she wants to share. Recorded in her home studio, `Thank You' offers a powerful, inclusive message of love and togetherness. It wholeheartedly acknowledges that we are in this all together; family, friends and her loyal and loving fans all around the globe. With its songs of happiness, appreciation and joy, `Thank You' asks our world family to `let love lead the way'.
Diana Tweets:
out now
Diana Ross' first new studio album in fifteen years will likely come out before Iraq gets the final, official vote for their October 10th elections.
Kamaran Palani Tweets:
I believe that's 10:00 am EST. It's too early for me to do math but I believe that.
ARAB WEEKLY notes this AP article:
More than three weeks after Iraqis voted in parliament elections, pro-Iran Shia militias that emerged as the biggest losers are still rejecting the outcome of the vote, thrusting the country into uncertainty and political crisis.
Militia supporters have pitched tents near the entrance to Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone in an ongoing sit-in, threatening violence unless their grievances are addressed.
With tensions running high, Iraqi President Barham Saleh abruptly cancelled his planned attendance at the UN climate summit in Glasgow Tuesday citing the security situation at home.
Saleh decided to cancel “at the last minute in light of security developments in Diyala and Kirkuk and the political crisis linked to the recent parliamentary election,” a close aide of the president said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Unsubstantiated?
The charges are being investigated. In fact, the commission called for more charges to be made this week. As to the lack of substance? No.
They do have a complaint. I loathe the militias. I've loathed them and been quite clear on that. But under the system created, they have a right to vote and they have a right to vote with the other security forces. The Iraqi government folded the militias into the country's official security forces. It was a stupid move and we called it out for years, starting with the first time it was proposed. But it did come to be -- and we still called it out and still do -- so it is the system.
The militias had to provide security on October 10th to protect the voters. They were deployed around the country. For this reason, the Friday before the elections, the security forces were allowed to vote early. Except some of the militias. The electoral commission decreed that some of their paperwork was not in order. The Iraqi army didn't have to file paperwork to be eligible to vote. And yet the Iraqi government made the militias part of the military.
So they were denied the right to vote. They could not be sent to a polling station miles away to provide protection for the voters from the start of voting to the end of voting and also vote at their own neighborhood polling station.
That's not a claim. That's reality. It's what happened. I don't like the militia. I have no reason to lie for them. But fair is fair and reality is realtiy.
So it looks we'll have Diana Ross' new album before we have a final vote in Iraq.
Staying on videos, let's note this Jackson Hinkle video.
If you're going to whore, who better to do it with than Laura Whora Flanders.
Jackson Hinkle: I know her name but some of you are saying she went down hill. Was she good at some point? Who the f**k is she?
She was a voice for change -- or at least posed as one. In the Bay Area, we knew her from YOUR CALL -- a radio program. She had worked for FAIR and others. Her relatives include the late Alexander Cockburn, the living and useless Paddy Cockburn, failed actress Olivia Wilde who is attempting to reinvent herself as a director and Andrew Cockburn. Except for Alex, the whole lot is worth forgetting.
Laura went to AIR AMERICA RADIO and delivered a strong program called THE LAURA FLANDERS SHOW. It aired Saturday and Sunday nights for three hours each night. She was also a part of their political coverage -- such as the night of the 2004 election when she was on that night well into the morning. She was forced into RADIO NATION WITH LAURA FLANDERS where her show was reduced to once a week, and only one hour in length, and she was merged with THE NATION magazine. Her fault or not, the show then became nothing but a weekly promoting for the latest content in THE NATION magazine (they were building up their website but still didn't have enough content their to rate a weekly promotion). It's then that the downtrend really starts.
She became a charter member of The Cult of St. Barack. She loathes Hillary (Laura's sister worked for Hillary when Hillary was First Lady). And that's when people started noticing that Laura from FAIR wasn't fair. She lied for Barack, she whored for him. At the same time, in San Francisco, various graffiti started popping up about how Laura had gone back into the closet. And that's true. As a host of YOUR CALL, she was out. Over to AAR and you never heard about her personal life again, even when she was filling six live hours a weekend, you didn't hear about it and in profiles at the time, there was no mention of the woman she shared her life with (her wife Elizabeth Streb -- they've been together for decades). She was a liar and she was a whore at that point.
In February 2008, Ava and I covered her 'coverage' 'of' a debate between Hillary and Barack in "Radio: Panhandle Media."
Twenty-five minutes in, Barack supporters Laura Flanders and
Clarence Lusane will join the broadcast and comment throughout the first
hour and the second hour. Larry Bensky will never note that they are
Barack Obama supporters despite the fact that both have published
repeated columns on just that fact. KPFA will, however, do everything
possible to create an echo chamber that spins everything in Bambi's
favor. Not surprising when you only invite Obama supporters, is it?
While not surprising, that action is the sort of thing that can get KPFA
in trouble when it attempts to renew its FCC charter -- can get and, in
fact, should get KPFA in trouble.
Though they presented
nothing of value, we should note Clarence Lusane offered up one of the
most girlish and feminine voices a grown man may ever posses. Laura
Flanders may have been handicapped by the fact that she was on radio and
not TV so not able to resort to her usual "tight t-shirt, no bra, make
my aggressive points with my thrusting nipples" approach. Lusane
tittered and Flanders just came off smug.
Did Hillary get
done what she needed to get done tonight, Larry Benksy pretended he
wanted to know. But if he, or KPFA, really wanted to know that, they
wouldn't have invited on only Barack supporters, would they? For any
who've forgotten or don't know, KPFA is a California radio station and
Hillary Clinton won the California primary. So it was twice as troubling
that Bensky's tired act (which always includes sexism) was hauled out
of mothballs. Along with being amused with himself on air, at this
point, sexism is all he has to offer. He pimped a single poll, one poll,
a Washington Post-ABC poll, found Clinton and Obama
"essentially tied in Texas". One poll. Laura Flanders -- who was Whoring
big time and that's the only word for it -- would inflate it to "those
latest polls" because she never knows what she's talking about. It's how
she also got it wrong on when early voting in Texas would start (it had
already started on Tuesday). How a poll is news, a single poll, goes to
the problems with media -- the problems FAIR regularly criticizes MSM
for.
You can be sure that if the poll had found Hillary
in the lead, KPFA wouldn't have pimped it Thursday night. Just as they
ignored all the polls with Hillary in the lead on Thursday night.
Clarence
Lusane, a reported academic (and don't most academics pursue the
intersection of jazz music and international relations?) immediately
replied to Bensky's query of whether or not Hillary achieved in the
debate, "No, she didn't." Lusane would go on to declare "she lost" and
when it was Flanders' turn she would begin with, "Well, you're
absolutely right." Of course, two Little Media Whores agreed, they are
both supporting Barack. This wasn't a discussion -- informed or
otherwise -- it was a fan club meeting for Obama groupies aired on free
speech radio under the guise of being fair and free wheeling.
The news at the start of last week, even making it onto ET,
was that Barack Obama was passing off the words of Patrick Devlin (aka
Governor Who -- another pretty talker who can't deliver) as his own.
That's plagiarism. Laura Flanders -- the lesbian who couldn't call out
Barack's use of homophobia as a campaign strategy -- disgraced herself
further (there's funny graffitti throughout the Bay Area on Laura
Flanders these days, by the way, and our favorite is "Gay when she wants
to be"). She shamed herself by dismissing ethics with her silly excuse
(it's the Obama's campaign's excuse too but that's where the Uncle Tom
of the LGBT set gets all her talking points) that it's okay for him to
use other people's words without crediting them because Barack's friends
with ("his very good friend") the man he stole from. It should probably
be noted that KPFA broadcasts from California -- which went to Hillary
-- and neither Lusane or Flanders is in California. It should probably
be further noted that when Lusane's name-checking American Idol, he never needs to be invited back on as an expert for anything.
And
Larry Bensky never needs to be invited back as a host. He loves his
voice, true. But he's out of date, he's hopelessly sexist and he is
KPFA's past. (Bensky retired last spring.) Though a pro-Hillary voice
wasn't allowed on the two hour special, we could hear Benksy yet again
whine about changes in Pacifica as he does every time he's given the
mike. On this special he got in his dig about the 'decay' of Pacifica by
lamenting how they used to report -- "when we did such things" -- and
he always gets those digs in. Everyone's tired of it. Everyone's tired
of his self-glory and his self-love and his pretending that he did
something groundshaking in the last decade at Pacifica when all he
proved is he knows how to read The New York Times and The Washington Post and accept both as gospel while wanting to be considered "independent" media.
Back
to the 'experts.' Maybe Laura Flanders' f**ked up sense of right and
wrong allows this as a 'disclosure': "I've not been a Hilliary
supporter"? No, it wasn't 'disclosure.' Self-disclosure is disclosing on
air that you endorsed Barack Obama on Super Duper Tuesday. Flanders
didn't offer that up and many listeners may have assumed she's the
typical a pox-on-both-their-houses KPFA guest. That is not truth. And
truth is not what Laura Flanders (or KPFA) offered up Thursday night.
Whora Flanders wanted to offer that even though she's not a Hillary
support (she outrights hates Hillary Clinton) "I felt sad." Whora
Flanders has engaged in non-stop trashing of Hillary.
She
wasn't "sad." A sad person doesn't cackle gleefully (as she did) when
she twice mentioned -- in one response -- that Hillary was "booed."
That's one of the reasons that the Whores are out in full force, by the
way.
See, if you actually saw the debate, you saw that
when Hillary pointed out the shallowness of Bambi, she was booed, yes,
and she was also applauded. (Both for the line that Bambi offered
"change you can Xerox.") You probably didn't hear about the applause
after, did you?
Because for those who've Whored Out for a
candidate, it's not about what actually happened, it's about what they
can push, what they can spin. After a debate ends, that's where the
battle lies and that's where the LIARS peddle it. Which is how applause
and boos is reduced -- twice -- by Flanders to "boos." She pushes that
lie and tries to dab a concealer around it by claiming to be "sad." It
was evident when Larry Bensky asked her specifically what grand design
was missing from the Barack Obama campaign and Flanders immediately went
to, "I'll tell you what grand design is missing on the Hillary Clinton
side . . ." Later on Flanders would cackle again to mock Hillary as she
tossed out, "Can you tell the difference?" Yet we're supposed to believe
she felt "sad"? (We gladly agree she is sad. And embarrassing.)
Three
minutes into the second hour, Tom Hayden joins the proceedings for a
bit. That would be the same Tom Hayden who endorsed Barack Obama in the
leadup to Super Duper Tuesday -- as did his 'organization' Pathetic
Democrats of America (despite the fact that the actual members of
Progressive Democrats of America weren't supporting Bambi -- but
'leadership' makes the call 'for them' when they want to). Hayden
blathered on non-stop and none of the allegedly Iraq remarks were worth
hearing. The 'anti-war' Hayden has blown his credibility repeatedly on
the issue of the Iraq War.
For those late to the party, KFPA was supposed to air the debate with commentary -- which is what they promised they would do. But then they couldn't. So you didn't hear the debate, you just heard hours of commentary. And, again, there were two candidates on stage and KFPA brought on multiple guests but all were Barack supporters who had endorsed him. That's not how you do commentary. And failing to disclose on air that they have endorsed Barack is unethical.
They were supposed to get the opinions of the listeners as well via call ins. But they also had a live blog. And the listeners weren't putting up with the crap that 'free speech radio' was airing. Which led to admonishments from Larry Piss Priss Bensky. He then concluded, when he finally took a call, hours into the program, that callers could only ask a question, not share their opinion. Yes, this was done on PACIFICA aka free speech RADIO.
It was a huge embarrassment to the radio station and to the network (all PACIFICA outlets carried the live nonsense). And they took down the blog within 24 hours so that there wasn't evidence of how their own listeners were calling them out.
They took down the blog to hide reality.
That might have worked. But I know too many people at KPFA. And as soon as the decision was made to take it down, a friend copied and we reposted it at THIRD where it remains today, see "KPFA Blog from their debate coverage."
Jackson Hinkle has no idea who Laura Flanders is.
There's no reason he should. She doesn't speak to him or for him. He's going to tell the truth. If he's supporting candidate A and candidate B wins a debate, Jackson's not going to lie on air.
But that's what Laura did. She did much more.
In 2008, she cajoled, shamed and lectured the left. Do you remember? At first it was the primaries. Barack was putting homophobes on stage at rallies, he was standing with psycho paths who promoted 'conversion' 'therapy' that would turn you straight. Kevin Alexander Gray could, and did, call that out. He was the only nationally known leftist who did. Laura didn't. Laura told everyone it was the primary and we couldn't criticize Barack, we had to be silent so he could get the nomination. After he had the nomination, she said over and over, then we could hold him accountable. Then Barack got the nomination. Guess what? It was now too important for him to get the presidency (Democrat in a coma would have won the race in 2008) so we couldn't criticize him. We couldn't hold his feet to the fire the way Laura said we would when he got the nomination. But, she insisted, when he was president, he would have his feet held to the fire.
Now Laura's tired act had cost her audience. So she ended up doing a video podcast that she called GRIT TV -- does she still call it that? Some of her die hard fans gave her a year after the election to hold Barack's feet to the fire before bailing. She never did. She whored for him the whole time. She disappeared the Iraq War -- remember when she'd grandstand and pretend to care about the Iraqi people? Apparently, they all left the planet in January 2009 when Barack was sworn in as president.
Who is Laura Flanders?
There's a reason Jackson doesn't know. She was a well known name years ago (with some problematic coverage for FAIR) but she destroyed her reputation and she ran off her fan base.
Jackson doesn't know who she is because few remember aging whores.
And she continues her whoring so she has on AOC and Noam Chomsky. What a sad little life Laura's lived -- or pretended to.
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