Category Archives: Viva!

TIME’s person of the year: @GretaThunberg “We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow,” she says. #TIMEPOY http://bit.ly/2YActyq pic.twitter.com/0fMGDwqOmQ

TIME’s person of the year: @GretaThunberg

“We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow,” she says.

#TIMEPOY http://bit.ly/2YActyq  pic.twitter.com/0fMGDwqOmQ

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Endless Fields of Unharvested Corn, As Seen From Space

Recently, a heavy snow carpeted the fields that stipple eastern North Dakota. Afterwards, satellite images captured wispy clouds and shadows above swaths of white. Images of agricultural communities near the squiggly Goose River, such as Hillsboro and Mayville, also revealed something else: a slew of little brown squares among the white ones, which made the landscape look like a patchwork of pixels. The flecks of brown turn out to be vast expanses of corn that never made it out of the field, and that will now spend the winter under a blanket of snow.

Despite the tidy beauty of the image, which was taken on the Landsat 7 satellite and published by the NASA Earth Observatory, this was a frustrating year for North Dakota’s corn farmers. Over the past five years, the state’s farmers have harvested an average of 85 percent of their corn by the middle of November, says Chris Hawthorn, a statistician in the crops branch of the National Agricultural Statistics Service. But this year, 57 percent of North Dakota’s corn was still in the fields in early-December, according to a Department of Agriculture report. That’s 1.88 million acres of corn lingering in limbo, according to the agriculture news site AgWeb.

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Generally, by this time of year, satellite images of the open prairie would reveal either bare soil or “a sea of white,” says Daryl Ritchison, director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network, a project run out of the School of Natural Resource Sciences at North Dakota State University. Now, because the corn is still standing in rows, stalk to stalk, the plants squeeze out the view of the snow from the air, writes Kathryn Hansen, a science communicator at the Earth Observatory. NASA’s photographs were taken from roughly 438 miles above the Earth’s surface.

Local farmers faced a double whammy of misfortune in 2019. “Corn was planted late due to a cold spring, so the crop started off behind,” says Joel Ransom, an extension agronomist at North Dakota State University. Then, a cold October and wet November slowed the drying process. Farmers usually harvest field corn when it has lost roughly half its moisture, and it’s typically turned into animal feed, ethanol, or corn syrup. “To do anything with the corn, it has to be dry,” says Ritchison—otherwise, “it’s just a bunch of mush,” and may get moldy. Farmers can nudge the drying process along themselves, with propane and other tools, but it’s costly. Ideally, Ransom says, “we depend on nature.”

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Still, corn generally fares pretty well under its chilly comforter. The crop soars several feet above the surface of the soil, so it can hold up okay if heavy snow and biting winds don’t splinter the stalks. Then again, roaming animals might chow down. Some kernels will split, Hawthorn says, and others might mildew.

Assuming that the winter doesn’t loosen its grip, farmers will simply have to wait. “There’s nothing farmers can do except leave the corn in the field,” Hawthorn adds. In the meantime, we can enjoy this high-tech view from high above.

Israel prevents Jerusalem governor from holding activities in the city

PNN/ Jerusalem/

The Israeli occupation intelligence, on Monday evening, delivered the Jerusalem governor, Adnan Ghaith, a decision issued by the so-called Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan, to prevent him from holding meetings, seminars and activities inside the occupied city of Jerusalem for a period of six months.

The decision included preventing Governor Ghaith from collecting and providing financial aid to individuals and affected people, not holding organizational meetings, and not conducting meetings and seminars inside Jerusalem.

The occupation intelligence stormed the house of Governor Ghaith in the town of Silwan, south of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and handed him the decision and a summons to investigate the “Al-Maskoubiya” detention center.

Ohio legislator linked to rightwing bill mill despite denying knowledge of it

liar and hater

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Timothy Ginter, who said he had ‘no knowledge’ of Project Blitz, was listed as co-chair of state branch of group behind the campaign

An Ohio legislator who said he had “no knowledge” of a rightwing Christian bill mill called Project Blitz is, in fact, the co-chair of the state branch of an organization behind the campaign.

The Ohio state representative Timothy Ginter sponsored a bill called the Student Religious Liberties Act. Opponents argued the bill would provide students with a religious exemption to facts, and would frighten teachers and school administrators into including religion in school functions.

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North Korea insults Trump as ‘heedless and erratic old man’ as tension rises

North Korea insulted Donald Trump again on Monday, calling him a “heedless and erratic old man” after he tweeted that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would not want to abandon a special relationship between the two leaders and affect the US presidential election by resuming hostile acts.

Related: North Korea claims test success at rocket launch site

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Cory Booker: failure to engage black vote could hand White House to Trump

He’s not the answer, Harris was but he is right.

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Cory Booker, the New Jersey senator struggling to be the only black candidate on the Democratic debate stage this month, has warned that the party could hand re-election to Donald Trump unless it sends a more positive message to African American voters.

Booker has just four days left to meet stringent criteria set by the party for the next televised primary debate, in Los Angeles on 19 December. Should he fail to make the cut, the participants will be exclusively white, with more billionaires on stage than black people.

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China tells government offices to remove all foreign computer equipment

silly tariff games hurt workers in US and World

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Directive is likely to be a blow to US multinational companies like HP, Dell and Microsoft

China has ordered that all foreign computer equipment and software be removed from government offices and public institutions within three years, the Financial Times reports.

The government directive is likely to be a blow to US multinational companies like HP, Dell and Microsoft and mirrors attempts by Washington to limit the use of Chinese technology, as the trade war between the countries turns into a tech cold war.

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