OCT. 21, 202001:04Oct. 23, 2020, 8:49 AM PDTByMinyvonne Burke
Colorado has seen three of its largest wildfires in state history occur this year, two of which are still growing.
The largest wildfire currently burning in the state is theCameron Peak Fire, which has scorched more than 206,000 acres, according to the fire-reporting siteInciWeb. As of Friday morning, it was 57 percent contained.
The blaze erupted on Aug. 13 and flared up recently due to warm and dry weather, prompting evacuation warnings for several areas. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
Firefighters in the state have also been responding to the East Troublesome Fire, which has grown to more than…
President Trump is seen on screen through a window at a watch party for the final presidential debate with former Vice President Joe Biden on October 22, 2020, in San Antonio, Texas.
All hail the goddamn “mute” button — although, as far as I could tell, it wasn’t actually used last night.NBC Newsdebate moderator Kristen Welker, who stepped firmly to the plate last night and parked it deep over the center field fence, may not have needed it. According to the debate rules, the button was only there so the candidates (Donald Trump) wouldn’t run roughshod over each other during their allotted two-minute answer segments.
Sure, Trump repeatedly stampeded the conversation during the crosstalk with…
The province hoped to have a limited hunting season for moose this year, in the Duck and Porcupine Mountain regions, but the moose population hasn’t recovered sufficiently to withstand it. | File photo
Province stopped the moose hunt in 2011 and says species’ population has not yet recovered enough for it to continue
Moose hunting is again banned in Manitoba.
The province hoped to have a limited hunting season for moose this year in the Duck and Porcupine Mountain regions, but the moose population hasn’t recovered sufficiently to withstand it.
The government is also banning night hunting on private land, beginning Oct. 10, as part of the Wildlife Amendment Act called Safe Hunting and Shared Management.
In 2011, Manitoba banned moose hunting in the Duck and Porcupine Mountains and some surrounding regions, along with bans in the north Interlake, Nopiming and Turtle…
(CNN)”We’re running out of time so we gotta get on to climate change,” moderator Kristen Welker said as the final presidential debate of 2020 came to a close.Unintentionally, it was the truest and most tragic statement of the night.And it brought plans from two different planets.”We have the Trillion Trees program,” President Donald Trump began when they were finally asked how they’d save a livable planet. “We have so many different programs.”Content by Trend MicroThis service keeps your computer running smoothlyThe internet really has opened up a whole new world. Literally. Anytime you open up your laptop, you have an entire globe’s worth of information at your fingertips.Content by Charles SchwabBreakaway: Changing Conventions and the Lives of Families through Adaptive SportsWhen Bill Greenberg’s son was born with a rare medical condition, he turned to values of taking action, asking questions and creating the changes needed for himself and others.There were no other programs. Instead, the President hit a gusher of lies, confusion and insistence that the US remain reliant on fossil fuels, despite the overwhelming evidence that the hell and high water of 2020 is just the beginning.
Let’s talk about the climate apocalypse“Global warming is an existential threat to humanity,” former Vice President Joe Biden began, back on Earth. “We have a moral obligation to deal with it.”Biden ran through parts of his plan, from charging stations on highways to retrofitting buildings to save energy use, and focusing on harnessing renewable resources like wind and solar energy.Twelve feet away on Planet Trump, such predictions brought a smile. “I know more about wind than you do and it’s extremely expensive,” the President claimed. “Kills all the birds.”In reality, the US is late to a global boom in offshore wind farms, and turbines kill a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions of birds taken each year by windows and cats.On Planet Trump last night, “solar doesn’t quite have it yet.” But on Planet Earth earlier this month, a renewable energy company called NextEra was more valuable than ExxonMobil and the International Energy Agency declared that “solar projects now offer some of the lowest cost electricity ever seen.”Running against such arrogant science denial, Biden could probably shoot a spotted owl on Fifth Avenue and not lose support of the Sierra Club. But rather than follow his primary instincts and play it safe and squishy, Biden has absorbed the urgent ideas of Jay Inslee, Bernie Sanders and the Sunrise Movement, rolling out a climate plan bigger than Barack Obama’s by a factor of 20.The Bobcat Fire burned through the Angeles National Forest north of Azusa, California, last month.Uncontrollable gigafires and a conga line of hurricanes make this an easier political lift, but Biden is quick to temper the nightmare of unpredictable weather with the dream of 50,000 electric car charging stations, millions of energy-efficient remodels and lots of green $50-an-hour, union jobs. “It will cost $100 trillion!” Trump said of the plan, inflating Biden’s stated cost by fifty times.
Hurricanes, fires, floods and locusts: Science says climate change is here but the RNC refuses to believeWith an obvious fear of losing Pennsylvania frackers the way Hillary Clinton lost West Virginia miners, Biden’s been careful not to declare the end of fossil fuel.But he also outlined the damage.The question was about environmental justice, a platform plank elevated by the summer of Black anger after the killing of George Floyd. What would each candidate say to the families of color more likely to live next to toxic industry?”The families that we’re talking about are employed heavily and they are making a lot of money,” Trump replied. “More money than they’ve ever made.”Then came the most personal story of the night.
How climate change impacts people of color 03:21″When my Mom would get in the car, when there was the first frost, to drive me to school, turn on the windshield wipers, there would be an oil slick on the window,” Biden said, describing the health costs of living near the Marcus Hook complex of refineries on the Delaware River as a boy. “That’s why so many people in my state were dying and getting cancer.”Biden shot back at Trump: “It doesn’t matter what you’re paying them. It matters how you keep them safe.”Trump watched Biden intently during this windshield wiper story, and as the moderator tried to segue into the next question, he took the tender moment to attack.”Would you close down the oil industry?” Trump asked.”I would transition from the oil industry, yes.””Oh, that’s a big statement,” the President replied.(Fact check: True. And certain to be repeated in an attack ad near you).”(Oil) has to be replaced by renewable energy over time,” Biden said, repeating the last words for emphasis. “Over time.”But as the moderator said, we’re running out of time. The United Nations climate panel suggests that the planet must cut emissions in half in just 10 years and hitting Biden’s net zero goals by 2035 will require seismic, head-spinning changes in every sector of the world’s largest economy as fossil fuel giants strand trillions in known reserves.”Our health and our jobs are at stake,” says Biden.”They want to knock down buildings and build new buildings with little, tiny small windows,” says Trump.And two planets collide.
Wind turbines near Dwight, Ill. and a pump jack in Cotulla, Texas. The presidential candidates have opposing views on the future of U.S. energy.Scott Olson and Loren Elliott/AFP/Getty Images
Despite the cascade of other crises this year, climate change has emerged as a key election issue.
Two-thirds of Americans want the government to domoreabout it, and the same share of Biden supporters say it’s veryimportantto their vote. While not many Trump supporters overall agree, there’s more concern amongyoungerRepublicans.
The stakes are high as more Americans experiencerecordheat, wildfires, hurricanes and flooding, and the two candidates could not be further apart. Joe Biden calls climate change an existential threat to our health, economy and national security. President Trump continues to question climate science.
Wales launched a ‘firebreak’ lockdown. Here’s what it means04:16
London (CNN)Tens of millions more people acrossEuropeface toughercoronavirus restrictionsgoing into the weekend as countries across the region battle to bring downrising infection rates.A two-week “firebreak” lockdown comes into force at 6 p.m. local time Friday in Wales, under which everyone except critical workers is expected to stay at home.The restrictions are the toughest seen in Wales since the spring, when the United Kingdom was badly hit in the first wave of infections to sweep Europe.New restrictions also came into force Friday morning in northern England’s Greater Manchester region, following aprotracted tussle between national and local leadersover financial support.Content by Keeper SecurityKeep your data secure with this password managerThough the benefits of working from home are myriad —…
VALLEY VILLAGE (CBSLA)— A man has been charged with a felony count of animal cruelty for allegedly setting a trap in Valley Village that caught the foot of a coyote pup who eventually had to be euthanized.
Richard David Wallem was also charged with a misdemeanor count of using a trap with saw-toothed or spiked jaws to take fur-bearing mammals, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The coyote pup reportedly had its foot stuck in the trap for more than 24 hours over the Fourth of July weekend before a local teenager heard its cries and alerted authorities, according to PETA.
Authorities then had to euthanize the pup because of the severity of its injuries, PETA…
After leaving Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park, Lisa Stewart stopped when she saw a bunch of people by the river, thinking it might be a wolf sighting.
Instead, it was several tourists acting recklessly as they approached a herd of bison and caused a stampede.
Stewart told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors that for up to 10 minutes she witnessed bison grunting and stomping the ground and slowly moving down the hill.
“The people saw them and started walking closer and closer toward the bison,” Stewart explained. “They [the bison] kept getting more agitated by the minute. They walked farther down. Out of my sight, but I could still hear them grunting and blowing.
“You only see about four-to-six people on the video, but there were more in the same spot the bison come running from,” Stewart said. “The fishermen grabbed their stuff and ran, and then you see the bison running, and I felt relief the people didn’t get trampled.
“Then all the sudden you see the bison appear between the fishermen and tourists, then they turn and run toward the tourists. I was scared for a second, but the second wave of stampeding bison turned again and ran across the river to join the herd on the other side.”
Bystanders yelled at the tourists to get away from the bison and made it known how stupid they were for even being down there, much less walking toward them, Stewart told For The Win Outdoors.
Yellowstone warns visitors that animals in the park are wild and unpredictable, no matter how calm they appear to be. The park says the safest view of wildlife is from the inside of a car. It recommends remaining 100 yards away from bears and wolves, and at least 25 yards away from all other animals, such as bison and elk. Clearly that wasn’t the case here.
“It was amazing that they didn’t heed the warning of grunting, snorting and stomping feet!” Stewart said. “I stopped filming cause I really thought that someone out of view had to have been hurt and was going to help if needed.
“I was actually shaking a tad, for I really thought the bison were going to run through those people.”
Afterward, the tourists made their way back to their vehicles, but they heard an earful from bystanders.
“I could feel the earth rumbling under my feet when it was happening,” Stewart told For The Win Outdoors. “It was one of those moments your stomach turns over at the split moment you think disaster is about to happen.
“Thank goodness nobody was hurt, and I hope they all learned a lesson. It reaffirmed the awesome power of such beautiful creatures in my eyes.”
Chimpanzees Tina and Martin, who were studied at the National Center for Chimpanzee Care in Texas. Credit: University of Warwick
The capacity for language is built upon our ability to understand combinations of words and the relationships between them, but the evolutionary history of this ability is little understood. Now, researchers from the University of Warwick have managed to date this capacity to at least 30-40 million years ago, the last common ancestor of monkeys, apes and humans.
Across the globe, humanity flourishes by sharing thoughts, culture, information and technology through language—an incredibly complex method of communication used by no other species. Determining why and when it evolved is, therefore, crucial to understanding what it means to be human.
In the paper, ‘Non adjacent dependency processing in monkeys, apes and humans’, published today in the journal Science Advances, an international consortium of researchers, led by Professor Simon Townsend at the University of Warwick, made a crucial advance in our understanding of when a key cognitive building block of language may have evolved.
Being able to process relationships between words in a sentence is one of the key cognitive abilities underpinning language, whether those words are next to one another, known as an ‘adjacent dependency’, or distant to one another, known as a ‘non-adjacent dependency’. For example, in the sentence “the dog who bit the cat ran away” we understand that is it the dog who ran away rather than the cat, thanks to being able to process the relationship between the first and last phrases.
Dr. Stuart Watson, who carried out this work at the University of Zürich, explains: “Most animals do not produce non-adjacent dependencies in their own natural communication systems, but we wanted to know whether they might nevertheless be able to understand them.”
Chimpanzees Jane Tash and Nina, who were studied at the National Center for Chimpanzee Care in Texas. Credit: University of Warwick
The research team used a novel experimental approach for their experiments: They created “artificial grammars” in which sequences made up of meaningless tones instead of words were used to examine the abilities of subjects to process the relationships between sounds. This made it possible to compare the ability to recognize non-contiguous dependencies between three different primate species, even though they do not share a common language. The experiments were carried out with common marmosets (a Brazilian monkey), chimpanzees and humans.
Chimpanzee Judumi, who was studied at the National Center for Chimpanzee Care in Texas. Credit: University of Warwick
The researchers found that all three species were readily able to process the relationships between both adjacent and non-adjacent sound elements. Non-adjacent dependency processing is, therefore, widespread in the primate family.
The implications of this finding are significant, says Professor Townsend, “This indicates that this critical feature of language already existed in our ancient primate ancestors, predating the evolution of language itself by at least 30—40 million years.”
Thu 22 Oct 202004.58EDTLast modified on Thu 22 Oct 202004.59EDT
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Joe Bidenis leading Donald Trump in the national polls for the presidential election.
But that doesn’t guarantee the Democratic candidate victory. Hillary Clinton also had aclear lead over Trumpin the polls for almost the entire 2016 campaign. She ended up losing in theelectoral college.
The Bobcat Fire burned through the Angeles National Forest north of Azusa, California, last month.
