Another scary thing about the Greenland ice shelf:

When the remnants of Europe’s second summertime heat wave migrated over Greenland in late July, more than half of the ice sheet’s surface started melting for the first time since 2012. A study published Wednesday in Nature shows that mega-melts like that one, which are being amplified by climate change, aren’t just causing Greenland to shed billions of tons of ice. They’re causing the remaining ice to become denser.

“Ice slabs”—solid planks of ice that can span hundreds of square miles and grow to be 50 feet thick—are spreading across the porous, air pocket-filled surface of the Greenland ice sheet as it melts and refreezes more often. From 2001 to 2014, the slabs expanded in area by about 25,000 square miles, forming an impermeable barrier the size of West Virginia that prevents meltwater from trickling down through the ice. Instead, the meltwater becomes runoff that flows overland, eventually making its way out to sea.

Say goodbye to the birds.

Over the past half-century, North America has lost more than a quarter of its entire bird population, or around 3 billion birds.

That’s according to a new estimate published in the journal Science by researchers who brought together a variety of information that has been collected on 529 bird species since 1970.

“We saw this tremendous net loss across the entire bird community,” says Ken Rosenberg, an applied conservation scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y. “By our estimates, it’s a 30% loss in the total number of breeding birds.”

Rosenberg and his colleagues already knew that a number of bird populations had been decreasing.

“But we also knew that other bird populations were increasing,” he says. “And what we didn’t know is whether there was a net change.” Scientists thought there might simply be a shift in the total bird population toward more generalist birds adapted to living around humans.

But no; overall loss as well as shift.

Common birds with decreasing populations include meadowlarks, dark-eyed juncos, horned larks and red-winged blackbirds, says Rosenberg. Grassland birds have suffered a 53% decrease in their numbers, and more than a third of the shorebird population has been lost.

I think swallows must be another; they used to be abundant here in Seattle and now they’re not.

Oh well. There are lots of chickens now.

In the annals of “stupidest thing I’ve read today” we get Pink News

ah well enough said, isn’t it. We get Pink News.

Prepare to be stunned and amazed and admiring all at once:

In news nobody saw coming today, Mark Ronson has come out as sapiosexual, which describes being attracted to intelligence in a person above all else.

The chart-topping record producer behind hits such as ‘Uptown Funk’ revealed his sexual identity on today’s Good Morning Britain.

Hosts Ben Shepherd and Kate Garraway congratulated the disc jockey for being “out and proud”.

I’d say this has got to be parody, but it’s Pink News – I don’t think they know what parody is.

Why would anybody see it coming? Why bother to say nobody saw it coming about some random claim about a random person?

And “has come out as”? Isn’t “coming out” meant to refer to something that is the object of unjustified stigma? To wit, being attracted to people of the same sex as opposed to the other one? Surely it’s not supposed to refer to attraction in general, is it? People don’t “come out as” being attracted to, say, people with short hair.

The UK morning talkshow held a debate on sapiosexuality after French equality minister Marlene Schiappa was mocked for coming out as a sapiosexual last month.

The 44-year-old, freshly single Ronson was, according to Garraway, “very involved in our debate backstage”.

Ronson said: “Yeah I didn’t know that there was a word for it.

“We were all arguing backstage in the dressing room with a couple of your producers. And yes, I feel like I am identifying as sapiosexual.

Shepard replied: “So, you are coming out as sapiosexual.

Ronson recently split from his wife Joséphine de La Baume in 2018.

Not sapio enough? Bit dim? Thick as a plank?

Mind you, Ronson doesn’t sound all that sapio himself.

What is sapiosexuality?

It’s not about what’s in their pants, it’s about what’s going on in their brain.

The term ‘sapiosexual‘ is relatively new. A LiveJournal user named Wolfieboy claims to have invented the word in 1998.

And 21 years later Pink News has decided we have to take it seriously?

I’m attracted to people who don’t talk this kind of unmitigated shite.

The Department of Justice, which is supposed to work for the country not for Trump, is helping Trump keep the whistleblower report secret, according to Adam Schiff.

The U.S. Department of Justice played a key role in a Trump administration decision to withhold a whistleblower complaint from Congress, U.S. House Intelligence panel chairman Adam Schiff said on Thursday, adding that lawmakers did not know yet if the White House was involved.

Do we trust William Barr to be doing anything other than protecting Trump? No we do not. Whose fault is that? William Barr’s. He might be doing something disinterested and reasonable right now, but he’s given us way too many reasons to think he’s not. By placing himself so firmly up Trump’s backside he gave away his credibility. That’s not our fault, it’s his.

Schiff, speaking to reporters after a closed-door meeting with the intelligence community’s inspector general, said that the Justice Department had misinterpreted the law in blocking the complaint.

An honest mistake?

Cue hollow laughter

Oh, I see, it’s yet another heads we win tails you lose situation. The Intel IG is saying he can’t share the whistleblower’s report with Congress because he’s not authorized to…by the Trump-appointed DNI. On Sunday Adam Schiff was saying there is no one above the Intel IG, but apparently they’ve found a way around that.

The inspector general for the intelligence community, who is currently meeting with the House Intelligence Committee, has so far been unwilling to share details of the controversial whistleblower complaint, according to multiple sources.

Michael Atkinson has been telling the committee that he is not allowed to provide details of the substance of the complaint because he was not authorized to do so, the sources said. He is discussing the process for his handling whistleblower concerns.

…

Some context: The inspector general does not have the authority to discuss the details of the complaint with Congress because the director of National Intelligence has not shared the actual report with the committee and has apparently not otherwise authorized Atkinson to share those details.

The intelligence whistleblower act does not allow for details to be provided until the actual complaint has been given to Congress, CNN legal contributor Steve Vladeck explained.

But the director of National Intelligence is refusing to share the actual report with the committee, in defiance of a subpoena, which according to Schiff he has no authority to do.

All these rules work only if the people subject to them are not crooked as the Lombard Street stairs. The DNI is not a normal DNI, he’s a creature of Trump, and he’s stonewalling Congress because he’s a creature of Trump.

It’s like this.

The rules are:

1. People are whatever gender they say they are

2. Cis people are comfortable with their assigned gender

3. Cis people may not reject the word “cis” as describing them

4. Only genuine trans people can be trans, and only genuine non-binary people can be non-binary

5. Cis people who say they are non-binary are wrong

The question is how it’s possible to reconcile 1 with 5, or 5 with 1.

Aaron Rupar on Corey Lewandowski’s in-your-face confirmation that he lied to the news media:

Lewandowski, dripping with disdain, all but admits he lied during media interviews, prompting the audience to gasp at his brazenness. Hard to believe this guy is considering a run for US Senate.

Russell Berman at the Atlantic tells the story:

If anyone really got to Lewandowski, it was Barry Berke, the attorney Democrats hired to consult on their investigation and the staff member they designated to question the witness after all the lawmakers were done. Republicans had objected to staff members having the opportunity to question Lewandowski, and judging by Berke’s effectiveness, it was clear why they would be concerned. Berke caught Lewandowski in a lie when he played a clip of the former campaign manager saying on MSNBC that he did not recall the president asking him to get involved with Sessions or the Department of Justice. “I have no obligation to be honest with the media, because they are just as dishonest as anybody else,” Lewandowski replied, drawing gasps in the hearing room.

Trump tells Lewandowski to tell Sessions to obstruct justice, and Lewandowski tells MSNBC host Ari Melber that he has no memory of doing that, and then tells a Congressional hearing that he “no obligation to be honest with the media.”

The shamelessness is record-breaking.

House Judiciary Dems tweets:

Lewandowski admitted that he lied to the media and the American people. Here it is in his own words.

There’s an interesting bit where he says he tells the truth when he’s under oath, with a “come at me bro” air, as if that answer obviously met all requirements.

The job of the Environmental Protection Agency is, oddly enough, to protect the environment, but its next move is going to be telling California it can’t have stricter admission standards than the rest of the country. Must be dirtier! Is the law!

The Trump administration will announce as early as Wednesday it is revoking California’s authority to set its own greenhouse gas and vehicle fuel efficiency standards and barring all states from setting such rules, two auto industry officials said on Tuesday.

The move is sure to spark legal challenges over issues including states’ rights and climate change that administration officials say could ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump met with senior officials last Thursday and agreed to greenlight the plan to bar California from setting tailpipe emission standards or requiring zero emission vehicles, Reuters reported last week.

No cleaner air for you! Join the rest of us in the muck, it’s only fair!

The administration plans to issue separate rules rolling back Obama-era fuel economy requirements in the coming weeks. A formal announcement is tentatively set for Wednesday at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) headquarters and automakers and dealers have been invited to attend, industry officials said.

Must use more fuel instead of less! Must hasten climate change instead of trying to slow it.

California has vowed to challenge the Trump administration effort, arguing that the United States has an obligation to protect the environment for future generations. “We’ll see you in court if you stand in our way,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said.

Some senior administration officials believe provoking a court battle with California gives them a historic chance to displace the state from vehicle emissions oversight and could give the Supreme Court the chance to revisit a landmark 5-4 2007 decision that found the EPA has the legal authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles.

Always do the wrong thing. It’s what made America great.

Montreal gets a new city pool. And guess what!

New Montreal City Pool Will Have Just One Changing Room & It Will Be Gender Neutral

There will only be one changeroom, and it will be for everyone.

Well, no it won’t be for everyone, because of the people who don’t want to change in front of people of the opposite sex.

• The City of Montreal has announced new plans for the forthcoming Rosemont Aquatic Complex.
• Most notabl[e] is the decision to opt for one, universal change room instead of two, gendered change rooms.
• The hope is that the decision will increase accessibility and optimize space.

Why would the decision increase accessibility? What are they thinking? What people are kept out of municipal swimming pools by “gendered” change rooms?

Most notable, perhaps, is the city’s decision to opt for only one, universal change room, instead of the traditional dual changerooms that serve males and females, respectively.

According to TVA Nouvelles, this decision was, in part, championed by Nathalie Goulet, head of social inclusion for the executive committee of the City of Montreal.

Ahhh, social inclusion – social inclusion via forcing people to take their clothes off in the presence of people of the opposite sex. People who don’t want to do that are excluded, but I guess they don’t matter?

For Goulet, this decision is a mark of social innovation and a move toward social gains that she feels significantly outweigh the financial investments required.

Yes, it’s innovation, but how does that make it a good thing? What social gains is she expecting? What about the people who won’t want to use that pool, or won’t want to let their children use that pool, especially if their children are girls?

Apparently, the president of The Association of Aquatic Managers of Quebec, Lucie Roy, is also on board. Roy feels the decision promotes accessibility, optimizes space and still manages to preserve privacy.

I’m still not getting the “promotes accessibility” part (because they’re still not explaining it, just saying it). Female and male changing rooms are accessible – there’s nothing about being for one sex or the other that makes a changing room inaccessible. Or are they thinking this meets a need of “non-binary” people? But even if you think “non-binary” people have a real need for all-genders changing rooms, which I don’t, it’s still bizarre to put their needs ahead of the surely far more people who don’t want to take their pants off in public.

The universal change rooms will consist of:

• 18 closed stalls that include a shower and a changing section
• 6 closed stalls without a shower
• 12 washroom stalls, which can serve as changerooms
• 3 open showers with soap
• 2 showers on the pool deck
• several lockers, both full and half size
• a storage room for school and other groups

The problem jumps out, doesn’t it – those three open showers. No thank you! Also how closed are the closed stalls? All the way closed? Or open enough so that those fun guys who like to sneak their phones under or over the partition can get their dirty movies? It makes a difference.

Patrons will be required to remain clothed unless in a closed change room, shower or bathroom stall. The open showers with soap are noted as “no nudity,” on the city’s website.

How lovely, and who’s going to monitor and enforce the rule in the three open showers?

Trump is in California to seek $$$ from rich people.

 Many details of his brief visit, accompanied by housing and urban development secretary Ben Carson have remained mysterious prior to his arrival, though Trump did make clear that he’d focus on the problem of homelessness in California.

By “focus on the problem of homelessness” of course he doesn’t mean provide public housing along with support for people with mental health problems or addictions or both, he means scraping up all the homeless people and driving them away, presumably to starve in a ditch somewhere cold and wet and miles from any millionaires.

Advocates across the Golden State, which has a growing homeless population and severe affordable housing shortage, have urged the US government not to further criminalize people living in poverty and instead increase funding for housing and other services, some of which Trump has cut in his budgets.

Naaaaaaaah we can’t do that, that would be Soshulizm, we have to punish them, drive them out, lock them up, maybe eat them – anything to make sure they don’t make a mess in front of one of Trump’s hotels.

At least the important stuff is being attended to.

My father just sent me this horrific article which mis-genders Sam Smith SEVEN times in the opening paragraph. Douglas Murray, please fuck off.

Ermergerd! Seven whole times!

But what is “misgendering”?

It’s not anything. It’s a made-up crime. It’s an invented solecism that isn’t a solecism at all unless you believe that “gender” is a real and sacred thing that can be the very opposite of a person’s literal sex. If you decline to believe that, then there’s just calling people she when they’re he or vice versa, by mistake or to be camp or jokey or mean. It’s not in any of those circumstances “horrific” or worth making a fuss about on Twitter.

If only we would educate ourselves.

WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN THAT GENDER IS A SOCIAL CONTRUCT READ SOME JUDITH BUTLER AND EDUCATE YOURSELVES BEFORE ACTING LIKE PRICKS

I have read some Judith Butler and I consider her a pretentious opportunist. I do not think she has the power to declare that men are women if they “identify as” such, not even if a Twitzealot tells me to in all-caps.

Via

The Guardian is live-reporting the Corey Lewandowski hearing.

“Anyone illegally attempting to impact the outcome of an election should spend the rest of their life in jail.” – Corey Lewandowski

He’s not talking about Trump’s repeated fake claims of voter fraud or Republican voter suppression efforts or even about Russian tampering in 2016, he’s talking about the right-wing conspiracy theory of alleged malfeasance inside the FBI as they investigated the Trump campaign.

Trump tweeted his gratitude from AirForceOne.

Nadler:

Nadler says Lewandowski is the subject of a “bogus claim of executive privilege” made by the White House.

Then he asks whether Lewandowski met alone with the president in the Oval Office in June 2016 as stated in the Mueller report.

Lewandowski says he doesn’t have the report with him and what follows is a ridiculous omnishambles of parliamentary procedure arguments and a fight between Republicans and the Democrats on the committee about stopping and starting the clock tracking how much time Nadler has to ask questions as Lewandowski stalls.

Lewandowski basically pretends not to be able to read, to not know what Nadler is talking about, to not be able to find the pertinent Mueller report passages. It’s somewhere between “the dog ate my homework” and “I lost my glasses” … and flipping the committee the bird.

All to protect Donald Trump.

What a shitshow.

Lewandowski, who never worked for Donald Trump while Trump was president, is invoking blanket executive privilege purportedly protecting conversations with the president.

Oversight! Republicans say Nadler’s time is up. They demand a roll call vote to declare time up, which as the minority they will lose but why not. Nadler calls on the clerk to call the vote. They can’t find the clerk.

…

Lewandowski again declines to answer a question from Rep Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, then Lewandowski kind of yells at her. Then they fight about whether he can see lines she’s referring to on a screen. This is getting kind of personal?

“You are obviously here to block any kind of inquiry into the truth,” Jackson Lee says.

…

Democratic Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia tells Lewandowski:

“You are like a fish being cleaned with a spoon. It’s very hard to get an answer out of you.”

I wish we could clean Trump with a spoon.

It turns out people are not shocked and horrified to learn that The Royal National Lifeboat Institution uses a small fraction of its funding to rescue people outside the UK, instead they are impressed and grateful and eager to send money to help.

Rather than being defensive about negative articles in the Times and Mail Online, the RNLI said it was glad of the publicity about its overseas work and hoped the coverage could help it secure a UN resolution on drowning prevention.

The charity’s website has had a month’s worth of traffic in a few days, with many people giving money for the first time.

Kate Eardley, the RNLI’s head of international advocacy, said: “We have been overwhelmed. For us any coverage is a chance to talk about the issue.”

So there.

Since the articles appeared, celebrities including Stephen Fry and Gary Lineker have shown their support for the charity. Eardley told how one of its workers was questioned by locals in a pub in the Lake District. At first they seemed against the overseas work, but the employee won them round and the bar ended up having a whip-round, which raised £79.

Take a look at yourselves, Times and Daily Mail.