The Executive Director Of The American Meteorological Society Educates President Trump On Climate Change

Source: Physics.Org

Regardless of your view on climate change, the idea that change is not occurring around us as a result of actions over time is a far reaching concept.  Government officials (elected officials) -- senate and congressional leaders are in agreement.  Although, constituents may influence their ability to relay their position in a public forum.  Why?  Furthermore, why does our President of the United States feel such a compelling force to step in front of a camera and take a stance counter to what scientific evidence points to as being true?  To counter the misinformation spread by the President on an interview, the Executive Director of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) stepped up and wrote a letter in opposition to his actions.  Lets take a small step back before showing the letter written in opposition to the President.  What is the AMS?



The American Meteorological Society consists of more than 13,000 scientists with the following mission:

The American Meteorological Society advances the atmospheric and related sciences, technologies, applications, and services for the benefit of society.

With a historical context as follows:

 Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the nation’s premier scientific and professional organization promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Our more than 13,000 members include researchers, educators, students, enthusiasts, broadcasters and other professionals in weather, water, and climate.

With this introduction to the Meteorological Society in mind, here is the letter from the Executive Director of the American Meteorological Society below:

16 October 2018

President Donald J. Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Trump:

The interview with Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, 14 October, included several questions related to climate change, reflecting the fact that this is an issue of vital importance to the nation. You raised several points in your replies that provide an opportunity for input from the scientific and science policy communities.

There is an overwhelming body of scientific evidence that shows that the warming global climate we have been experiencing in recent decades is primarily caused by human activity and that current long-term warming trends cannot be expected to reverse if no action is taken. These conclusions come from multiple independent lines of evidence. As is standard for the scientific process, each of these lines of evidence has undergone rigorous testing and has overcome all credible challenges. They reinforce one another and there are no contradictory lines of evidence that withstand scientific scrutiny. As a result, the basic scientific conclusions about climate change are extremely robust.

There are highly promising risk management options — ones that can reduce the risks of climate change, strengthen the U.S. economy, and promote job creation. Nevertheless, choices about whether and how to respond are complex, as you noted in your interview. People can welcome and accept the basic scientific assessments and still reach different conclusions about what to do. Many options would be consistent with your policy priorities.

You also said that scientists are making this political, which is misleading and very damaging. The scientific community welcomes all who commit to the pursuit of understanding through science irrespective of their political views, religious beliefs, and ethical values. As an institution, the American Meteorological Society takes no political positions and we proudly count among our members both individuals who strongly support you and those who routinely disagree. We are stronger for the breadth of our membership.

The American Meteorological Society would welcome the opportunity to work with your staff to ensure that they have full access to credible and scientifically validated information as you navigate the many difficult policy areas impacted by the Earth’s changing climate. We are confident that viable solutions exist and that they can be fruitfully developed if the best available knowledge and understanding is applied to the issues at hand.

Sincerely,

Keith L. Seitter 

As stated so clearly by Director Keith Seitter in the letter above, the evidence for climate change and the human component is overwhelming and robust.   The letter above is provided to the reader (you) to observe the evidence (support) that is sent to the President of the United States -- which he is obviously ignoring.  Scientific evidence is ignored?  Amazing.



The science is clear along with the growing support for the reality of change - which is greatly needed.  How to get that change implemented is unknown at the moment.  I will suggest though that part of the solution lies within each of us -- which is to say -- each of us should educate ourselves on the issue at hand and the scientific evidence which is being presented.  That education does not necessarily rely upon a college education,  just looking at the world around us.  As an example of this point, an article from 'The Scientist' titled "Sports Videos Give Clues to Climate Change" reports a new method used by scientists to observe the effects of climate change:

Over the course of five weeks, Van Langenhove identified 46 individual trees and shrubs that had been caught on film from multiple angles, giving the team 523 images to use to track when the plants leafed and flowered each year, and to measure the size of the leaves. When analyzing the data, the team found that during races that took place in the 1980s, almost no trees or shrubs on the course had begun to flower, and only 26 percent showed any leaves. But from 2006 onward, 45 percent of the same woody plants had started to leaf and 67 percent had started flowering by the time the cyclists hit the road in early April. And when the team correlated the plant data with local climate data—which have logged a temperature increase of 1.5 °C since 1980—the researchers found a solid link between warmer winter temperatures and earlier leafing and flowering (MEE, 9:1874–82, 2018).

The realization that video taken by an international sports organization could serve as a 'standard' for qualitatively observing the ecological changes associated with differing climates over time was ingenious.  This work shows that a person does not have to be educated (a formal education) to contribute to the evidence associated with climate research.  Each of us are scientists at heart as I have stated before.



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What is going on in the FDA for Fall 2018 - message from Director Scott Gottlieb

Source: South Dakota Association of Heathcare Organizations

The Federal Agencies which are designed to protect the people of the United States through implementing regulations are often questioned in the eyes of its citizens.  Do these organizations really have our best interest in mind?  How are these organizations influenced by big corporations, congressional leaders, not to mention local politicians.  In order to understand the intentions of the leaders of these organizations, each of us must be willing to read "Statements" or an "Agenda" released by organizations.  One such "Agenda" is shown below.   The Agenda is written by the Director of the Food and Drug Administration for "Fall 2018."



Without further ado, here is the most recent statement by the FDA Director Scott Gottlieb on the Fall 2018 agenda shown below:

Today, the federal government published the Fall 2018 Unified Agenda, which provides federal agencies the opportunity to share the government’s top regulatory priorities with the American public. For the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Agenda reflects our ongoing commitment to protecting and promoting the public health through science-based decision-making that informs new regulations that advance the public health and promote innovative, efficient oversight of our key areas of influence.

At the beginning of the year, we unveiled FDA’s 2018 Strategic Policy Roadmap. This plan was the product of a close collaboration among the Agency’s centers. Our Strategic Roadmap encompasses four key priorities the Agency is pursuing to advance our public health mission:

1) Reducing the burden of addiction crises that are threatening American families;

2) Leveraging innovation and competition to improve health care, broaden access, and advance public health goals;

3) Empowering consumers to make better and more informed decisions about their diets and health and expand the opportunities to use nutrition to reduce morbidity and mortality from disease; and,

4) Strengthening FDA’s scientific workforce and its tools for efficient risk management.

The Fall 2018 Unified Agenda reflects our continued commitment to these priorities as well as other new steps to enable us to advance these and some additional goals.

Combatting Nicotine Addiction and Preventing Use among Youth

FDA’s comprehensive plan for tobacco and nicotine regulation places nicotine addiction at the center of the agency’s tobacco regulation efforts. This plan reflects a multi-year approach to better protect youth and help addicted adult smokers quit, significantly reducing tobacco-related disease and death in the U.S. We’ll continue to consider a product standard to lower nicotine in combustible cigarettes to minimally or non-addictive levels, and we’re proposing additional meaningful actions to advance our comprehensive approach to nicotine, combustible cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery systems.

This Unified Agenda includes our efforts related to establishing standards for characterizing flavors in tobacco products; requirements for tobacco product manufacturing practices; implementing product standards for testing battery safety and battery management systems of e-cigarettes; creating registration and product listings for tobacco products; and, administrative detention of tobacco products. We’re also continuing to press forward with aggressive steps to address the epidemic of e-cigarette use among youth, through our Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan. This comprehensive plan aims to stop youth use of, and access to, tobacco products—especially e-cigarettes. Significant regulatory and research efforts related to access, marketing are already underway and new steps are forthcoming.

Modernizing Nutrition Claims, Labels and Standards of Identity

Today, chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer are the leading cause of death and disability in the United States. Nearly 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure, a leading cause of heart disease and strokes. Almost 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese, and if you add overweight adults, the percentage goes up to a staggering 70 percent. Among children and adolescents, almost one in five are obese.

Poor nutrition plays a role in these patterns of chronic and preventable disease. The FDA is committed to finding new ways to reduce the burden of chronic disease through improved nutrition.

On March 29, 2018, we announced the FDA Nutrition Innovation Strategy, which takes a fresh look at approaches to reduce preventable disease and death related to poor nutrition.

Our Fall 2018 Unified Agenda includes key actions that will improve labeling and nutrition. We believe it’s important to maintain the basic nature and nutritional integrity of products while allowing industry flexibility for innovation to produce more healthful foods.

Specifically, we’re following up our earlier actions on partially hydrogenated oils in foods with a rulemaking that proposes to remove the remaining uses to further reduce deaths from coronary heart disease. We’re also working on updating the definition of the claim “healthy” on food labels so it reflects current nutrition guidelines and to encourage its use.

In addition, we’re also advancing rulemaking to revoke outdated standards of identity, including standards of identity in French salad dressing and frozen cherry pie. This is a down payment on a comprehensive effort to modernize food standards to reduce regulatory burden and remove old-fashioned barriers to innovation. To support this effort, we’ll also reopen the comment period on a proposed rule seeking to establish general principles to update the framework for standards of identity. In addition to standards of identity, there are statutory and regulatory provisions that relate to the naming of food products.

Prioritizing Medical Device Innovation and Safety

Timely patient access to high quality, safe and effective medical devices requires that FDA reduce or reform outdated, unnecessary burdens in our regulatory approaches. We’re focused on outdated provisions that can add to development costs or forestall beneficial innovation without also enhancing device safety and effectiveness. The Unified Agenda includes new efforts that encourage innovation through more efficient regulation, and keep doctors and patients better informed.

One rulemaking will improve the delivery of mammography services and allow for more informed decision-making by strengthening the communication of breast density information. We also have rulemakings underway to ensure the medical device premarket review programs are risk-based and recognize the least burdensome pathway to market. The aim here is to more efficiently and effectively bring innovative products to market that may save lives or reduce health risks.

Digital health devices have the potential to improve our ability to accurately diagnose and treat disease, and to enhance the delivery of health care. These opportunities require us to explore ways to modernize our regulatory approach to better advance safe and effective innovation in this rapidly evolving area. This includes exploring the amending and/or repealing of existing medical device software regulations to create brighter lines between products we actively regulate, and those that don’t fall under our purview.

We’re also taking steps to remove outdated regulations or advance new rules to promote efficient patient access to innovative products. These steps include efforts to establish implementing regulations for a new category of over-the-counter hearing aids and the requirements that apply to them; harmonizing and modernizing the regulation of medical device quality systems; and, amendments to reduce records and reports for radiation emitting electronic products. Our commitment to safety is also reflected in rulemakings on the classification of wound dressings including antimicrobials or other drugs or chemicals.

We’re also planning to issue a final ban on electrical stimulation devices used for self-injurious and aggressive behaviors. We believe these products present an unreasonable and substantial risk to public health that cannot be corrected or eliminated through changes to the labeling. The FDA takes the act of banning a device only on rare occasions when it is necessary to protect public health.

Advancing Drug Safety, Accessibility and Affordability

We’ve included several drug-related regulations on the Fall Unified Agenda in support of our continued effort to advance new policies that promote beneficial innovation, modernize our programs, and advance opportunities for developing more effective, targeted therapies aimed at unmet medical needs.&

Among these new steps are a rulemaking to broaden the kinds of drugs that can be made available without a prescription and three rules on biological products. We’ll also continue our efforts to ensure the safety and effectiveness of sunscreen drug products for over-the-counter use.

Thus far this year, the FDA has approved 45 novel drugs and biologics, close to our total of 46 in 2017, which was the most approved in more than 20 years. We have record-setting numbers for the total amount of generic approvals in a fiscal year, with 971 total approval actions, including 781 final approvals, and 190 tentative approvals. These totals include 95-first time generic approvals.

This year we believe we’re on pace to have another very strong year.

Newly approved products treat a wide range of patients suffering from many different medical conditions—from rare disorders to common diseases. These new treatments are offering new hope for improved quality of life, and in some cases, improved chances of surviving life-threatening illnesses.

There’s More Work to be Done

The more than 70 actions we’ve identified in the Fall 2018 Unified Agenda represent the FDA’s significant and continued commitment to delivering on our mission of protecting and promoting the public health. But they’re only a portion of the work we do.

Over the next year, we’ll continue our efforts to combat the opioid addiction crisis, modernize product development through novel clinical trials, use of real world evidence, advancing antimicrobial development, and increasing our work with patients. It’s important to note that just because a previously identified regulation doesn’t appear on the Fall 2018 Unified Agenda submission doesn’t mean that work doesn’t continue on these other priorities. Or that the Agency doesn’t consider them a key area of focus.

The Fall 2018 Unified Agenda represents just some of the many efforts we have underway, as we continue to advance policies that promote the health of patients and animals and help protect consumers.

Scott Gottlieb, M.D., is Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

All of the issues stated above are relevant to the society each of us face today.  One example is the epidemic with electronic cigarettes use among teens which eventually translates to the use of combustion based cigarettes.  The FDA is currently promoting a campaign/investigative effort to taper off the use and advertisement of electronic cigarettes to teens.  Read more about the effort being implemented by the FDA here.



Since each of us are aware that these are issues which need to be addressed by Federal Agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration, the responsibility is upon each of us to follow the progress made by Agencies.  Each agency administrator testifies in front of congress each year on the progress which is being made on a given issue.   Therefore, our role is to hold our elected officials accountable to appropriately enforce and solve society's issues.  If you are not satisfied with the progress being made on a given issue, feel free to write your elected congressional leader to inquire on your behalf.



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How many Soy Latte coffee drinks can be made with 135,000 tons of Soybeans?

Source: AMNY

What is your favorite coffee drink to order from Starbucks?  If the answer is a 'Soy Latte,' then you are in luck as the price of Soy milk might drop dramatically.  Why?  According to an article in Bloomberg News titled "Two Ships With U.S. Soybeans Head to China With Trade War Lingering" two ships are headed to China filled with just under 135,000 tons of Soybeans:

Two more vessels loaded with U.S. soybeans have departed for China, signaling that buyers may be getting more desperate for supplies amid the prolonged trade war between the nations.

Star Laura and Golden Empress were loaded during the week ended Oct. 11. Star, which left the Gulf of Mexico, is destined to arrive at China’s Qingdao port at the end of the month, and Golden Empress, which left from the Pacific Northwest, is expected to arrive in December, according to vessel data compiled by Bloomberg. Government data shows 65,431 metric tons of U.S. soybeans were inspected or weighed for export through the Gulf of Mexico that week, and 69,298 tons through Puget Sound.

This reporting comes amidst a growing trade war emerging between China and the United States.  As I wrote in a previous blog post, China has essentially closed doors on Soybean demand, which has driven up the storage of soybeans in the United States.  Which ultimately means that Soybean farmers are going to unload a large amount of Soybeans onto the market.  Products like Soymilk will come down in price?  Possibly.



With that being said, after reading the article above, I could not help but thinking the following question:



How many gallons of Soy milk could be made with 135,000 tons of Soybeans?


How many Soy Lattes could be made with 135,000 tons of Soybeans?



In the paragraphs below, the analysis of determining the total amount of Soy milk and Soy Lattes which could be made with 135,000 tons of Soybean will be carried out using dimensional analysis.

How many Soybeans are in a gallon of Soy Milk?

The first question which needs to be answered is the total amount of Soy milk which can be made with a 135,000 tons of Soybean.  Following the standard methodology employed by myself in previous blog posts, the following question is inserted into the Google search engine:  How much soybean is required to make a gallon of soy milk?   The answer to which is shown below:

If the first choice is selected from 'instructables.com' with the following recipe (with great pictures) which makes a total of 2 quarts + 2 pints of Soy milk shown below:

Source: Instructables.com

The above recipe is great for making Soy milk for the simple instructions which are accompanied by good pictures.  Although, for the purpose of this blog post, the measurements of 2 quarts + 2 pints of Soy milk made with each batch calls for two separate unit conversions: 1) first, converting quarts to gallons and 2) converting pints to gallons.



For the sake of finding a conversion factor from weight of Soybeans to gallons produced, lets return to the Google search page shown above.  The second hit on the Google page is shown below:

The second choice is titled "Blog: Laura Soybeans" which is from the Chambers Family Farms.  The blog post titled "How much milk can I make?" give the following conversion factor shown below:

Source: Laura Soybeans

The conversion factor for which the search was for indicates that to make 1.8 gallons of Soy milk, a pound of Soybeans will be needed.  With the conversion in hand, the next step is to convert 135,000 tons to pounds.  Again, typing into Google the following question: How many pounds are in a ton?  Yields the following answer shown below:

According to Google, there are 2000 pounds in a ton.  Now, with the two vital pieces of information in hand, the calculation to determine the number of gallons of Soy milk possible with 135,000 tons is achievable as shown below:

Wow.  Converting 135,000 tons of Soybean to gallons of Soy milk would yield a total of 486,000,000 gallons -- 486 million gallons.  That is no small amount to be sending over to China in hopes of unloading the load at Port.  What kind of monetary loss is associated with the rejection on China's part?  How much money do the U.S. farmers lose if China rejects the equivalent of 486 million gallons of Soy milk?  Only time will tell.



The second question which was asked at the beginning was considering taking the total load of Soybeans (135,000 tons) and converting them to Soy Lattes coffee drinks at Starbuck's.  How many could be made with 135,000 tons of Soybeans?  The answer is in the analysis below.

How many Soy Latte's can be made?

In order to start the analysis of determining the number of Soy Latte's with 486,000,000 gallons of Soy milk, the amount of Soy milk needed for each drink needs to be known.  Following the method of searching for a conversion factor above, type into Google the following question: How many ounces in a gallon of milk?  The answer is shown below:

Why are we searching for 'ounces' when we have gallons?  A drink commonly requires only small amounts (ounces) of milk not gallons.  Therefore, to determine a conversion factor for the amount of Soy milk required in each drink type into Google: how much soy milk is required to make a soy latte at starbucks?  The answer is shown below:

Click on the first link shown gives the following recipe shown below:

Source: WikiHow

Which calls for 6 ounces of Soy milk for a Soy Latte.  That is the conversion factor which was needed to determine the number of Latte's in a given amount of milk.  The total number of Soy Lattes which can be made with 486,000,000 gallons is shown below:

Oh my goodness.  The calculation indicates that with 135,000 tons of Soybeans, a coffee maker could make a total of 10 billion Soy Lattes.

Conclusion...

As you may expect from the analysis above, the process of using dimensional analysis to shed light on enormous numbers (values) reported in the news is exciting and illuminating.  Reading over statistics (numbers and values) is easily accomplished without thinking into the true dimension or magnitude of the statistic.  Although, when the statistic is sent through and analysis such as that above, the statistic can take on a new meaning to the reader.



Imagine two large ships transporting that enormous amount of Soybeans across the seas in hope of selling them to China.  To me, that is a giant bet.  Especially, since in my previous blog post, I indicated that essentially China has shut their doors to the possibility of purchasing or accepting any Soybean shipments from the United States.  I guess that the alternative is to lose the product altogether by storing enormous amounts in storage space meant for other crops throughout the season.  Which would throw off the balance of agriculture.  Regardless, the amount of Soybean impacted by the trade dispute has been shown (in the present analysis) to be no small amount.  Hopefully a resolution is found soon for the agricultural sector's sake.




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White Blood Cells in action destroying Cancer Cells!

Source: Medical Express

Cancer is a nasty disease.  Cells which have been hijacked are out of control of the human system and are under the control of the cancer.  If a single cell were out of control, then the body's natural immune system would kill the cancerous cell.  The cells in the body responsible for doing so are the white blood cells.  Specifically, the cytotoxic T cells as introduced by Wikipedia page as follows:

A cytotoxic T cell (also known as TC, cytotoxic T lymphocyte, CTL, T-killer cell, cytolytic T cell, CD8+ T-cell or killer T cell) is a T lymphocyte (a type of white blood cell) that kills cancer cells, cells that are infected (particularly with viruses), or cells that are damaged in other ways.

Most cytotoxic T cells express T-cell receptors (TCRs) that can recognize a specific antigen. An antigen is a molecule capable of stimulating an immune response, and is often produced by cancer cells or viruses. Antigens inside a cell are bound to class I MHC molecules, and brought to the surface of the cell by the class I MHC molecule, where they can be recognized by the T cell. If the TCR is specific for that antigen, it binds to the complex of the class I MHC molecule and the antigen, and the T cell destroys the cell.

In order for the TCR to bind to the class I MHC molecule, the former must be accompanied by a glycoprotein called CD8, which binds to the constant portion of the class I MHC molecule. Therefore, these T cells are called CD8+ T cells.

What does this recognition and destroying process look like in real time?  Here is a short video (less than a minute in length) outlining the process with animation:

Nice - right?  With the progress that has been made, one would naturally wonder why cancer has not been eradicated all together.  The short answer is that there are many different forms of cancer.  Cancer is dynamic and constantly changing up to overcome destruction and prevention.  Although, some cancers have been successfully eliminated.



This is a short stop (brief post) in a complicated disease and topic to cover.  In future posts, more will be said of research being conducted to eliminate cancers and successful efforts along with failures.  Failures are really not failures, but learning steps in the path of understanding how different cancers arise, take over cells, and successfully evolve to avoid destruction.  That is a broad overview of the problem.  Of course, when we consider that each person is unique in their genetic make up, then the consideration of cancer (as a disease) becomes even more exponentially more complicated.  With that being said, the work toward understanding and overcoming the disease is worth every step taken in science -- research and discovery.  More to come on this fascinating and terrible disease.




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Soybean Farmers Are Storing Too Much Soybean, Although Chemical Industry Is Greenlighting Trade Deals?

Source: Post Bulletin

Depending on your exporting destination or importing origin along with the industry type, the response to the Trump Administration's tariffs program and emerging trade war is different.  For the chemical industry which heavily relies on good relations with local (North and South) neighboring countries, life is acceptable - as reported recently in the chemical news.  At the same time, if you are a soybean farmer or a farmer who relies on storing product in elevators for an extended period of time, trouble is approaching quickly due to trade coming to a 'stand still'.   The two different scenarios are listed below - briefly.

Soybean Storage?

Early on after trade tariffs were set to take effect, I wrote a blog post discussing (briefly) the benefits of global free trade.  In which, I highlighted the obvious fact that all commodities are connected to each other in some manner. Recently, the news site 'Politico Agriculture' has shed light on the connectivity which the trade industry relies on:

HIDDEN TRADE WAR IMPACT: CROP STORAGE SHORTAGE: Retaliatory tariffs have weighed down commodity prices for months. With the harvest well underway, the trade dispute with China is dealing another blow to U.S. soybean producers: a shortage of space in grain elevators that's causing major backups in states like North Dakota, Minnesota and Louisiana — and driving down prices even more.

China, the biggest market for U.S. soybeans, slapped 25 percent duties on the crop in retaliation for President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese high-tech products. Now it's effectively closed for business to American soy growers. Some farmers are gathering more soybeans than they can sell or store, jam-packed silos are running out of room, and the trains that usually carry soybeans to the Pacific Northwest for shipping to China aren't moving.

"In Southwest Minnesota and the Dakotas, you now have elevators that are storing all their beans because there's no market to the West. There is absolutely no bid," said Bill Gordon, a farmer in Worthington, Minn., and member of the American Soybean Association board of directors.

Gordon said some storage sites are piling corn outside to make room for soybeans, and that his local grain elevator is expected to be full after just one week of the month-long harvest.

Cash prices falling: The demand for storage space is also widening the gap between the market commodity price for soybeans and the cash price farmers receive for their crops at the elevator. Grant Kimberley, director of market development for the Iowa Soybean Association, said the drop-off — or "basis" — is normally 30 to 50 cents per bushel in central Iowa. Now it's about $1 per bushel.

Downstream problems: There's also a surge of Midwestern crops being shipped down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, where they're sold to Europe, South America and elsewhere. That's putting extra strain on growers and exporters in Louisiana.

"Everything is choking up right here on the Mississippi River on the barges and the elevators," Abraham said. "Every elevator that we have is full of soybeans right now and can literally take no more on."

Soybeans are taking up space which might be used for other crops which need to be stored too.  The states being affected - North Dakota, Minnesota, and Louisiana - have around 130,000 farms (combined in 3 states).  Not all of those farms serve the soybean industry.  Although, that enormous number of farms could be impacted by the connectivity to other crops which need to use the same storage space used temporarily for soybean crops held up by trade tariffs.



On top of the elevators being filled up are the barges (storage boats) which are filled up with soybeans being transported to other states to be stored.  Shown below is an example of a barge filled with soybean being filled.  Just think of all the transportation, space, and time -- which equates to money burned -- waiting to be moved, stored, or shipped.  All of the jobs which are on hold due to trade tariffs.  Not cool.

Source: Feed Stuffs

Additionally, the mere fact that China can just shut down and refuse any crops from the United States shows how reliant the United States is on other countries.  Which is dangerous to say the least.  Our reliance to other countries for crop sales or technology processing is becoming a major issue which going forward into the future will have be heavily weighed by those in elected office who make the large decisions in Washington D.C.



Although, they are elected positions therefore, your input is imperative in driving their respective vote.  With that being said, keeping up with the status of trade talks and disenfranchised farmers is important in moving forward participating in democracy.  Below, the conversation shifts from grave concern now to the chemical industry.  The chemical industry is quite pleased with the changes - which is strange.

Chemical Industry Is Good!

As I mentioned in the introductory paragraph, the chemical industry is one which has flourished since a deal has been arrived at between Canada, Mexico and the United States.  According to the Chemistry trade journal 'C&E News' titled "U.S. chemical industry reacts positively to revised trade pact with Canada, Mexico" the deal is being cast in a positive light:

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is an overhaul of the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which underpins $1.2 trillion in total trade between the three countries.

The trilateral accord is critically important to U.S. chemical manufacturers because Canada and Mexico are the industry’s two largest export markets. Approximately 46,000 chemical industry jobs in the U.S. now depend on trade between the North American neighbors.

Although ACC and its member companies are still reviewing the provisions of the updated trade pact, the industry group says the agreement “appears to include several enhancements long sought-after by the U.S. chemical sector,” including greater regulatory cooperation.

That is not to say that other industries reliant on chemicals and pharmaceuticals are not hurting with the trade war emerging with other international countries.  Noted in the article above that 46,000 jobs depend on trade.  That is just one single industry - chemical industry.  Imagine all other industries across the board which contribute to global trade which are being negatively impacted.  The total amount of jobs which are tied to the trade of those industries.  When all is considered, the numbers are enormous and difficult to comprehend.

Conclusion...

Just today in 'Politico Agriculture' was the following news:

TRADE DISPUTES LOOM OVER GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY: Trade protectionism and climate change are among the factors weighing on international food security, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Food Security Index, a benchmark used to measure individual countries' level of food security.

The report, released Tuesday by EIU and DowDuPont's Corteva Agriscience, cited China's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. soybeans as an example of trade turmoil that can raise prices for consumers and hit low-income families the hardest.

"Protectionist trade policies can contribute to world food price increases and limit agricultural competitiveness," EIU wrote.

The benchmark has the U.S. tied for third place with the United Kingdom — and down in the rankings for the second year in a row. The result doesn't indicate a worsening situation in the U.S. but, rather, slower progress on food issues than other nations. Singapore ranks No. 1, followed by Ireland in second. The Netherlands rounds out the top five.

In light of the news above, get ready for prices to change due to changing demand both internationally and within our nation.  As highlighted, each of these avenues of export are tied to one another in some manner.   Typically, the thought of total impact never crosses each of our minds.  That needs to change with the changing times.



Instead of thinking in terms of an 'isolationist' country, the United States needs to again open up trade avenues to disseminate the crops which are stored and hindering profit margins of families (farm families) along with all of the other players in the trade game: tractor drivers, truckers, dock workers, mariners - captains of ships, ship manufacturers, shipping companies, traders, diplomats, local store owners, foreign store owners, Chinese supply chain.  All of these players have families to support.   Not to mention the amount of energy needed to move goods across supply routes nationally and internationally. 



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Predatory Lending/For Profit Colleges Need To Be Stopped

Source: Financial Solutions

Over the past few years, stories have been emerging which portray 'for profit' colleges who encourage students to sign up for student loans and then provide a substandard education.  Which results in fraudulent use of student loans.  The Obama Administration tried to combat these colleges from scamming students out of financial aid in light of providing a fraudulent education.  This week reporting from Politico Education unveiled a deadline for the Trump Administration to either uphold or change the Obama Administration's regulation as shown below:

KEY DEADLINE TODAY FOR 'BORROWER DEFENSE' RULES: A federal judge's ruling that struck down the Trump administration's delay of Obama-era student loan regulations known as "borrower defense to repayment" is set to take effect at 5 p.m. today. But the Trump administration hasn't yet said how it plans to respond to that deadline — or whether it plans to move ahead with implementing the 2016 regulations.

— The rules govern loan forgiveness for defrauded students and prohibit colleges from requiring students to resolve disputes through arbitration rather than in court.

— Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has criticized the rules as unfair to colleges and too expensive for taxpayers and has moved to rewrite them. But it's now possible that her agency could be forced to carry out the Obama-era policies in the meantime.

— All eyes are on a potential decision from U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, who set today's deadline and is also overseeing a bid by for-profit colleges to stop the Obama-era rules from taking effect. Moss expressed skepticism about whether the for-profit colleges had met the standard needed for him to issue a preliminary injunction against the rules, but it's possible he could block some provisions while allowing others to take effect.

— The Education Department has not announced plans to seek a further postponement of the Obama-era regulations. The department did not respond to requests for comment on whether it planned to implement the rules or otherwise provide guidance to colleges.

Why isn't the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigating and taking action against such fraudulent institutions?  One has to wonder why these institutions are supported or allowed to continuously defraud students out of loan money.  According to ABC7 News, the problem is widespread here in California:

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra had strong words for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in his fight for student debt relief.

"We have seen her turn back the clock and we have seen her turn her back on our students," said Becerra.

Becerra announced California and seven other states will support a lawsuit against DeVos, alleging students are being denied debt relief after being defrauded by Corinthian Colleges.

"Companies loaded up these students with debts they knew never could be repaid with the ultimate goal of driving large bonuses to executives and profits to shareholders," said Seth Fotman, from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The now-defunct, for-profit Corinthian Colleges and its subsidiaries left thousands of students with major debt.

The Obama administration reached a deal to provide full relief, but under the new administration, only partial refunds are being granted.

"You borrow $40,000, which isn't uncommon, they're telling you maybe you'll get $4,000 of that $40,000 relieved," said Becerra.

Becerra said more than 50,000 students are still waiting on their claims. He said more than 8,000 claims were denied between December and May.

Remember that a portion of these unfortunate students are veterans who are returning to school and using their 'G.I. bill' to pay for these fraudulent loans.  This in of itself should be a crime which is prosecuted in a court of law.  Defrauding veterans is a federal crime.   Additionally, 50K (50,000) students is no small amount.  Again, why did the government or local officials allow these institutions to continuously engage in fraudulent behavior.



The Department of Education owes the students who have been defrauded the courtesy of dealing with this unethical behavior.  Hopefully, the Trump Administration stands up to these fraudulent institutions and deals with the negative outcomes which have been produced as a result of their actions.  Keep an eye out on the emerging story in the months to come.

How many cows are needed to generate 50,000 tons of beef exports?

Source: EcoWarriorPrincess

Recently, I wrote a post on the import of butter into the United States in a given month.  According to the excerpt that I cited, the amount in a single month was significant (as an import).  Continuing along this path, the media/news outlet 'Politico' recently reported about the negotiations surrounding the export of beef to Europe.  As indicated in the excerpt below, European nations want to cap the amount of 'hormone-free' beef arriving from outside nations:

How the quota works: The policy stems from a long-running World Trade Organization dispute over the EU's refusal to import U.S. beef treated with hormones. In 2009, the U.S. and EU agreed to set an annual quota of 45,000 metric tonnes (nearly 50,000 in U.S. tons) for hormone-free-beef imports to Europe, which was open to the U.S. and other nations.

After reading the ceiling of 50,000 tons for the import limit from outside nations, I wondered how many cows are needed to generate that amount of beef.  Below is the analysis with the answer.

How much beef for a single cow?

To  begin the analysis, the first question is searchable by using a search engine such as Google with the following question: How much usable meat from a cow?  The answer is shown below:

Source: Google

Note: At first sight, the way that the question is stated might seem strange.  Although, as a user enters words, the Google algorithm starts to guess what the final question is.  Which I use to assemble the question.  That statement was put into the blog post to cover the readers who will read the question and wonder if I know how to ask questions.  Yes, the answer is in short.  I am not beyond the use of assembled questions though too.



The answer indicates that from a 750 pound carcass (remains of a single cow), there will be roughly 490 pounds of 'steak'.  This answer is the conversion factor which we will use to convert the total amount of meat (hormone-free beef) into cows.  The conversion factor is shown below:

The total amount of usage (edible) amount of beef from a single cow is shown above to be 490 pounds of meat.  Before that conversion factor can be useful in our analysis, another unit conversion must take place.  The statistic cited in the introduction of 50,000 tons is expressed in units of 'ton'.  In order to divide by the number above, a unit conversion needs to be accomplished from units of 'ton' to units of 'pound' as shown below:

Our unit conversion revealed that 50,000 tons of beef corresponds to 100 million pounds of beef.  How many cattle does that represent?  The question of interest can be answered by dividing the answer above by 490 pounds/cow as shown below:

100 million pounds of beef -- the total amount of 'hormone-free' beef allowed to be imported into Europe from outside nations requires 204,082 cows to be processed for beef!



How do 204,082 cattle as exports compare to the total amount of cattle processed for beef annually in the United States?



A quick search using Google will reveal a few answers.  One of which is from a website called "Beef2Live" with the following annual world beef production statistics shown below:

Source: Beef2Live.com

I restricted the image size only to include the top 5 beef producers in the world.  As you can see, the United States is the largest.  The annual production of beef in the United States is around 12 million tons of beef.  In comparison, 50,000 tons represents around 0.41% of Annual Beef production in the United States.

Conclusion

Wow!  That really shows the restriction of imported beef into nations under the European Union from outside nations.  At first sight the number might seem significant.  Although, after performing an analysis and casting the statistic into perspective of annual beef production in the United States, the statistic is rather small.  Further, the United States is the world's largest beef producer on an annual basis.  Analyses like the one above really help a reader understand the news in relation to other reported values.  The cited statistic is not really that significant as reported in the excerpt above.  Although, with the status of today's global trade negotiations, every cow counts.



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NIAID Director Anthony Fauci: How Should We Communicate About Crises?

Source: Armstrong Economics

The news capitalizes off of spreading fear -- which gathers 'eyeballs' and clicks.  A few years ago, Author David Altheide wrote a book titled "Creating Fear" - about the news and the control which is created by the atmosphere of fear surrounding society.  With that being known, how does the public receive a 'fear' or 'crisis'?  What is the correct course of action (for the public) given that the media (news) organizations are living off of perpetuating the notion of 'fear' or 'crisis'?  These are all credible questions.


There are more than a single side to each issue.  In the current issue of perpetuating "fear" or "crisis," those in positions (government, state, and local officials) can actually make a large difference by being more open and transparent into the state of a situation.  An 'disease' or 'outbreak' is a perfect example to use as shown below.  A few years ago, Director Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) wrote a short piece 'Op-Ed' titled : Zika and Beyond: Communicating about Crises  for the NIH website.  The piece is shown below in full:

During the Ebola outbreak, we admitted two patients infected with the virus to the NIH Clinical Center. People would ask me, “My goodness, are you putting us at great risk?” So I would ask them, “How did you get to work this morning?” They would answer by saying something to the effect of, “Well, I got on the Beltway and drove to the NIH.” This is a high-speed road that encircles Washington, DC, and carries more than 200,000 vehicles per day. I would point out, “Well, your commute posed a greater risk to you than an Ebola patient at the Clinical Center.”

We live in a world where we take risks every day. When you have been taking a risk every day, for the last 20 or 30 years, you may be fully aware of the risk, but you have learned to live with it and it does not bother you.

However, it is very interesting to me how people react when they are confronted with a new risk. When a new risk emerges, especially if it is highly publicized, people often start to consider the new risk to be more significant than others that, in reality, pose a greater threat. This is human nature. We saw it with Ebola, we saw it here in Washington, D.C., with the anthrax attacks, and we are starting to see it now with Zika.

Zika virus is not actually new. It was first recognized in 1947 in a monkey in the Zika forest of Uganda. It was not known to infect humans until 1952, and it stayed under the radar screen for a long time. That was understandable. The virus circulated relatively unnoticed in areas of Africa and Southeast Asia until 2007, when it caused an outbreak on the Yap Islands in Micronesia. In 2013, the virus caused a much larger outbreak in French Polynesia. Despite this spread, few people paid much attention to the virus because the disease it caused was thought to be mild.

Now, of course, the situation has changed. The current outbreak that started in Brazil last year has provided new evidence that Zika virus can also cause a serious birth defect called microcephaly in babies born to infected mothers. Zika virus also has now been associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome. Now, Zika has our attention.

Many people are now hearing or reading that Zika is in their state. By the end of April, the CDC had identified Zika cases in 43 states. Some people are starting to ask whether they should travel to certain states that have reported cases of Zika. In that regard, it is important to note that none of these infections was acquired locally through infected mosquitoes.* So far, all of these cases have been acquired through travel (or sexual contact with someone who has traveled) to countries or territories where Zika is circulating locally.

While we have not yet seen locally acquired cases of Zika in the continental United States, this almost certainly will occur. It is unlikely that these locally acquired cases will become sustained and widespread. However, we must be prepared to deal with them. Certainly, there is no reason to panic. We are going to have to do a lot to educate the public about what the risk is and what the risk is not, and to help people keep the risk in perspective. We should all recall what happened in the United States not so long ago, when an individual came from Liberia and was hospitalized with Ebola in Texas, and then two nurses became infected when caring for him. This sad situation sparked a panic that there was going to be a major outbreak of Ebola in the United States. In reality, there was virtually no chance that would happen.

As concerning as the Zika virus is, we must remember and remind people that it is just the latest disease in a perpetual series of emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats. The timeless threat of new diseases—or old diseases that start to appear in new places or new ways—is now amplified by factors such as urban crowding, international travel, and other human behaviors.

An evolving situation such as the current Zika outbreak, in which there are still unknowns, will create a lot of concern and even panic on the part of some people. We in the public health sector must be crystal clear in articulating exactly what we know and what we still need to know about the threat, and in helping people understand how this new risk compares to risks they willingly assume every day. With that perspective, people will be better able to understand what rational steps they can take to protect themselves.

For more information about Zika Virus, please visit: http://syndication.nih.gov/zika.htm


As I mentioned above, there are more than a single side to every story.  Further, in the introductory paragraph, I asked the question regarding what the public could do to receive a 'fear' or 'crisis' story.  Yes, I am asking what the responsibility is of the public.  That might seem counter intuitive to the normal flow of information.  Although, to a sizable percentage of the U.S. citizens, the question is not out of the ordinary.



We, as Americans need to to change -- when reading or hearing news from either media organizations or government (including state, regional, and local) -- the way that the news permeates our minds and further travels into our lives.  Fact checking on all of our parts could clarify a large amount of controversy and lead to less emotion and more logical conclusions.  Last but not least, reading can serve as a wonderful conduit through which to educate ourselves about issues.  Too few of us read.  Which is concerning.  I understand that not all of American citizens' are 'readers', but reading different forms of news could help clarify misunderstandings.  Additionally, coherent discussions can go a long way to resolve differences.  Mediation is an important field which is fueled by our inability to sit or stand in each others' presence and have coherent discussions.



Regardless of where any one of us stand on an issue, each of us could be served well to put 'crisis' or 'fear' in society into perspective.  In the future, watch to see how these organizations create 'fear' or 'crisis' and come up with your own solutions.  Feel free to share those solutions below.  Have a great day!





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