Jaff's stupid shit

[JAFF]

Africa’s white rhino population rebounds for 1st time in a decade, new figures show

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...88991051&ei=50

African rhino populations are increasing despite poaching and habitat loss, new figures from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) show.

The new figures, released Thursday, highlight that protection and biological management initiatives across the continent have resulted in black rhino populations rising by 4.2% to a population of 6,487, and white rhino populations rising by 5.6% to a population of 16,803.

It is the first time since 2012 that there has been an increase in the white rhino population, the species classified as 'near threatened' on the IUCN's Red List of threatened species.

A wild white rhino is seen at an undisclosed location in the North-West Province of South Africa, on April 2, 2023.
A wild white rhino is seen at an undisclosed location in the North-West Province of South Africa, on April 2, 2023.
© Luca Sola/AFP via Getty Images
"With this good news, we can take a sigh of relief for the first time in a decade," said Dr. Michael Knight, chair of the IUCN's Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG). "However, it is imperative to further consolidate and build upon this positive development and not drop our guard."

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According to the World Wildlife Fund, there were 500,000 rhinos in Africa and Asia at the start of the 20th century. By the end of 2022, the African rhino population stood at just 23,290 according to latest figures by the IUCN.

However, thanks to "intense" and heightened protection and management efforts over the years, rhino populations on the continent are beginning to rebound.

"The rebounding rhino populations aren't just a win for rhinos, but for the many wildlife species that share their ecosystems and the people who steward these lands," Nina Fascione, Executive Director at the International Rhino Foundation, told ABC News.

"The growing rhino populations are a testament to the effectiveness of collaborative conservation efforts throughout Africa and the resilience of these species."

Poaching, however, remains the biggest threat to all rhino species, as highlighted in the 2023 State of the Rhino report; poachers changing their tactics, focusing attention from the largest rhino population to more susceptible ones.

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South Africa -- home to the continent's largest rhino population -- has suffered "devastating poaching losses" as poachers target its reserves.

"Large, protected areas like Kruger National Park in South Africa have also greatly increased security measures to reduce the number of poaching incursions on their land," says the International Rhino Foundation. "Poachers have reacted by targeting other, smaller areas, like province-run Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Reserve, which has borne the brunt of South Africa's rhino poaching deaths in the past year."

Namibia -- home to the world's largest black rhino population -- saw a devastating 93% increase in rhino poaching from 2021 to 2022.

In January, the U.S. treasury secretary announced the launch of a joint U.S.-South Africa anti-poaching taskforce to combat poaching, and increase sharing of financial intelligence units to support law enforcement agencies and disrupt illicit trade.

"We must follow the money in the same way we do with other serious crimes," Yellen announced whilst touring South Africa's Dinokeng Game Reserve.

Climate change also poses a growing risk to Africa's rhino population as it's devastating impacts on human communities has a ripple effect on wildlife and increases the risk of human-wildlife conflict.

"Competition over water resources may also cause increasing strife and disruption between communities and between humans and wildlife, bringing people in ever closer contact with rhinos," says the IRF. "Poverty resulting from loss of crops and livestock may lead to increased poaching as a way to earn income."

A rhino wakes up after being darted to fit new anti poaching measures at Buffalo Kloof game reserve outside Gqeberha on April 5, 2023.
A rhino wakes up after being darted to fit new anti poaching measures at Buffalo Kloof game reserve outside Gqeberha on April 5, 2023.
© Michele Spatari/AFP via Getty Images
In early September, conservation group African Parks Foundation announced they are set to release 2,000 rhinos into the wild following the purchase of one of the world's largest private captive rhino farms, Platinum Rhino.

It is set to be Africa's largest rewilding programs of any species, set to take place over the next 10 years.

Only two surviving members of the critically endangered northern white rhino subspecies remain in the world -- Najin and Fatu -- both living under 24-hour protection in Kenya's Ol-Pejeta Conservancy.

"Continuing a positive population trend for both black and white rhinos will require enormous efforts by governments, land managers, community members and others to ensure conservation actions surpass poaching," says Fascione. "Rhinos have been around for millions of years -- we cannot let them go extinct on our watch."

Amazing what people can do if they choose it

[JAFF]

Second year of a midwestern droght

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/23/us/fr...ver/index.html

The US Army Corps of Engineers is planning to barge 36 million gallons of freshwater daily into the lower Mississippi River near New Orleans as saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico continues to threaten drinking water supply, officials said Friday.

The move comes as water levels are plummeting for the second consecutive year after this summer’s blistering heat and low rainfall triggered extreme drought over parts of the central US.

As water levels drop, the threat of saltwater intrusion grows in Louisiana as ocean water pushes north into drinking water systems, unimpeded by the Mississippi’s normally mighty flow rate.

The Mississippi River is forecast to reach “historic lows over the next several weeks,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said during a Friday news conference.

A tugboat pushing barges navigates between and around sandbars amid low water levels on the Mississippi River in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, on September 14.
Water levels on the Mississippi River are plummeting for the second year in a row
To help mitigate intrusion, the state and the Army Corps of Engineers are working to add 25 feet of height to a 1,500-foot-wide underwater levee in the Mississippi River, which was constructed in July to slow the saltwater’s progression, Army Col. Cullen Jones said.

The corps also plans to barge millions of gallons of water daily to local water treatment facilities, Jones said during the news conference.

The corps announced the plan to build the levee last year. It involved dredging sediment from the bottom of the river and pile it up to create what’s known as a sill, which acts as a dam for the denser saltwater in the lower levels of the river.

Phillip Young, a local resident from Jackson, Mississippi, takes a break while helping local volunteers distribute bottles of water as the city and areas around it go without reliable drinking water indefinitely after pumps at the water treatment plant failed on August 31, 2022.
These five cities could be one natural disaster away from a catastrophic water crisis
Typically, enough rainfall upstream helps ease drought conditions and keeps the saltwater at bay. However, during the news conference Friday, the governor said officials “don’t believe that there is sufficient precipitation in the near term anywhere along the Mississippi River to materially change the conditions for the better.”

“Unfortunately, we just haven’t had the relief from the dry conditions that we need and so that inclusion is worsening,” Edwards said.

State to deliver bottled water in bulk to New Orleans
Jones said it will take approximately 24 days to add to the sill. Once augmented, it will delay saltwater intrusion by 10 to 15 days, he said.

Fifteen million gallons of freshwater is expected to be brought in as soon as next week, Jones said, adding the area will need 36 million gallons per day to help mitigate the problem.

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows destroyed homes and buildings on the waterfront burned to the ground in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii. At least 36 people have died after a fast-moving wildfire turned Lahaina to ashes, officials said August 9, 2023 as visitors asked to leave the island of Maui found themselves stranded at the airport. The fires began burning early August 8, scorching thousands of acres and putting homes, businesses and 35,000 lives at risk on Maui, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said in a statement. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Number of billion-dollar weather disasters in US blows through annual record with four months left in the year
The water will be added to water at treatment centers and create a mixture that is safe for treatment, Jones added.

The governor also announced plans to deliver bottled water in bulk to the New Orleans area. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell signed an emergency declaration for the city on Friday due to saltwater intrusion.

The declaration allows city agencies to prepare and respond to any impacts and allows state and federal agencies to deploy resources as needed for a more streamlined process, the city said.



Last week, Plaquemines Parish President W. Keith Hinkley said at a news conference that clean water was being distributed to around 2,000 residents who were impacted by the saltwater intrusion.

It was not necessary to buy large amounts of bottled water, Edwards said Friday.

“There is not a shortage of bottled water around the state or around the country and our businesses are going to be able to bring in water as it’s needed,” he said.

[JAFF]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/24/us/mi...ods/index.html

[omahacolt]

thats not fake news

[JAFF]

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...test-on-record

[JAFF]

Meadows burned papers after meeting with Scott Perry, Jan. 6 panel told

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...perry-00035411

Meadows burned papers after meeting with Scott Perry, Jan. 6 panel told
The unusual move came after a meeting between then-President Donald Trump’s then-chief of staff and the Pennsylvania Republican, according to recent testimony.
Then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows talks to reporters at the White House.
Then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows talks to reporters at the White House on October 21, 2020. | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

By BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN and KYLE CHENEY
05/26/2022 02:08 PM EDT
Updated: 05/26/2022 09:02 PM EDT
Then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows burned papers in his office after meeting with a House Republican who was working to challenge the 2020 election, according to testimony the Jan. 6 select committee has heard from one of his former aides.

Cassidy Hutchinson, who worked under Meadows when he was former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, told the panel investigating the Capitol attack that she saw Meadows incinerate documents after a meeting in his office with Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.). A person familiar with the testimony described it on condition of anonymity.


The Meadows-Perry meeting came in the weeks after Election Day 2020, as Trump and his allies searched for ways to reverse the election results.

It’s unclear whether Hutchinson told the committee which specific papers were burnt, and if federal records laws required the materials’ preservation. Meadows’ destruction of papers is a key focus for the select committee, and the person familiar with the testimony said investigators pressed Hutchinson for details about the issue for more than 90 minutes during a recent deposition.

POLITICO could not independently confirm that Meadows burned papers after a meeting with Perry.

A lawyer for Meadows declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for the Jan. 6 committee. A lawyer for Hutchinson did not respond to requests for comment, and neither did a spokesperson for Perry.

Before the 2020 election, Perry — who represents the Harrisburg, Pa. region — had a relatively low national profile. But testimony and documents obtained by congressional investigators show he was the first person to connect Trump with Jeffrey Clark, a top Justice Department official who sympathized with the then-president’s efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.

Senior Trump DOJ officials have testified that the former president came close to appointing Clark as acting attorney general in order to use the department’s extraordinary powers to sow doubt about the election results and urge state legislatures to consider overriding Biden’s victory.

Perry, now chair of the pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus, spent weeks pressing Meadows to implement the plan.



“Mark, just checking in as time continues to count down,” Perry texted Meadows on Dec. 26, 2020, according to messages released by the select panel. “11 days to 1/6 and 25 days to inauguration. We gotta get going!”

But the effort didn’t come to fruition. Instead, in an Oval Office meeting, the rest of DOJ leadership threatened to quit if Trump made Clark attorney general.

The select committee has also revealed that Meadows and Perry took steps to conceal some of their communications after the election. For example, in a Dec. 2020 text message exchange the committee included in an April court filing, Perry told Meadows he had “just sent you something on Signal,” referring to the encrypted messaging app popular with journalists and government officials.

An investigation by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee last year delved further into Perry’s involvement in the attempt to overturn the election and urged the Jan. 6 select panel to look into the Pennsylvanian further.

Earlier this month, the select panel also subpoenaed Perry and four other Republican lawmakers. Perry’s compliance deadline is today, and he hasn’t signaled whether or not he will cooperate. The select committee also subpoenaed Clark and later voted in favor of holding him in contempt of Congress, although the full House has not taken any such vote.

Since his involvement with the former president’s efforts, Perry has gained political clout. In November, he was elected head of the Freedom Caucus, which wields significant influence in the House Republican conference.

The New York Times first reported that the committee heard testimony indicating Meadows burned White House papers. The Trump White House’s unorthodox approach to document management has drawn significant media scrutiny in recent weeks — and has also caught the attention of DOJ.

During his presidency, Trump was known to tear up papers and throw them in the trash. Aides would scurry to reassemble those papers for archiving, as federal record-keeping laws require.

After leaving the White House, Trump had 15 boxes of documents shipped to Mar-a-Lago. Some of those boxes were marked as classified, according to The Washington Post, and the Justice Department is now investigating the matter. Mishandling classified material is illegal.

[JAFF]

https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...lection-2023-9

Did we quit when the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor?

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by JAFF

https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...lection-2023-9


Did we quit when the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor ???

o


Dan Quayle helps a kid spell "potato" ....... or is it "potatoe" ???


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYNGCNtDb-w

o

[JAFF]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


Dan Quayle helps a kid spell "potato" ....... or is it "potatoe" ???


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYNGCNtDb-w

o

Quayle knew enough about the Constitution, telling Pence he couldnt accept fake documents from fake electors

[Lov2fish]

Originally Posted by JAFF

Quayle knew enough about the Constitution, telling Pence he couldnt accept fake documents from fake electors

To many in DC swear an oath to a document they know nothing about. People can like, or dislike Pence Certifying the election results. Pence did what the constitution requires of him. He did not cheat anyone, he done his job as prescribed by law.