Free Press

Free Press Summer Fest - there are a few bands I'd like to see, but it's going to be raining, and high humidity....perhaps they should call it the Free Press Sweat Fest!

Weekend events closing roads west of downtown

Events on the west side of downtown will force traffic detours starting Friday.

In preparation for the Free Press Summer Fest at Eleanor Tinsley Park, eastbound Allen Parkway closed at 10 a.m. Friday, festival organizers said. Westbound Allen Parkway will close at 7 p.m. Friday after the peak workday commuting period. Access to and from Interstate 45 to Allen Parkway also closes at 7 p.m. Friday.

All of the lanes will reopen at 3 a.m. Monday.

Sunday, the city's third Sunday Streets event will close Washington and Franklin between Studemont and Milam. The event is intended to allow people to roam the streets free of vehicle traffic.

Good fortune, however, isn't shining on either event, with heavy rainfall expected Saturday and scattered storms Sunday.

Festival goers stand a good chance of getting rained on this weekend.

Friday evening’s weather forecast calls for a 30-percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, with a 20-percent chance after midnight, according to the National Weather Service.

On Saturday, the likelihood of showers and thunderstorms in the morning is 50 percent, increasing to 60 percent in the afternoon, the weather service said. Things look up a bit for Saturday night, when the weather service predicts just a 30-percent chance of rain, with overnight lows around 70 degrees.

Original.

gone to pot

The possibilities are endless.  When are some other states going to follow suit?  Surely they can't let Colorado have all the fun.  

We are planning a visit to CO this coming August.  Any requests?

mosquito tornado

Uh, what?

If you were merrily strolling down the road one day and looked up from your daydream to notice something that looked scarily like a funnel cloud edging towards you, what would be your immediate reaction? Stop and stare to find out what it is or just leg it in the opposite direction? This is something that photographer Ana Scarpa was faced with recently as she visited Leziria Grande at Vila Franca de Xira in Portugal. 

It turns out that the cloud photographed above and below was not a tornado, but it was almost equally as horrifying. It was a huge, vertical swarm of insects. The photograph was taken at a distance of around a quarter of a mile, and Scarpa approximates that the swarm extended around 300 meters (1,000 foot) into the air.

“Earlier this year, I was finishing-up my photo shoot for the day, and I began to pack my things- when suddenly I saw in the sky [something] that I thought was a wind twister,” Scarpa told io9. “It was a very high funnel swinging to the left and to the right. I pointed my camera and began shooting before it hit me. But the funnel did not move toward me- and I thought it was so strange- so I got into my car and started to drive towards it, and that’s when I realized it was a mosquito twister.” According to Scarpa, the area is a breeding ground for mosquitoes because of numerous water branches that provide water for animals and harvests.

Original.

solar freakin' roadways

It is true that we have the technology to clean up this planet.  What is still missing is the foresight and the political will to upset an apple cart or two.

VA uproar

Here's another case of the GOP fabricating a scandal and then blaming it on Obama.

First, Bush and the GOP invade Afghanistan and Iraq, creating millions of new veterans, many of them serving multiple tours and coming home with PTSD.

Then, in Congress, with Obama in office, the GOP filibusters and denies any additional monies for the VA.  After all, it's illegal for a Republican to cooperate with Obama and the Democrats in any fashion whatsoever, right? The country can just go to hell while the GOP throws their tantrums.

So now we have a VA in crisis.  Most of it can be laid right at the doorstep of the GOP.  Yet, all the outrage gets directed at Obama and the VA. We have seen this script before.  The GOP is getting pretty good at deflecting any and all blame.  And with a stilted, entertainment-driven media (and FOX News), the American people rarely learn the truth.

and here's a note from Thom Hartmann:

Back in 2012, for example, GOP senators blocked a $1 billion jobs bill would have helped millions of unemployed veterans find work. And in that same year, Republican opposition also blocked a bill - the so-called Veterans’ Compensation Cost of Living Adjustment Act - that would have kept veterans’ benefits on par with rising expenses. 

The list goes on. Before that, GOP lawmakers killed the Wounded Veteran Job Security Act, the Veterans Retraining Act of 2009, the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, the Disabled Veterans Home Improvement and Structural Alteration Grant Increase Act of 2009, the Veterans Business Center Act of 2009, and the Job Creation Through Entrepreneurship Act of 2009. 

Every single one of these these bills would have helped veterans and every single one was killed exclusively by Republican opposition. So don't be surprised if I take the GOP’s newfound obsession with veterans’ issues with a big grain of salt. But Republican hypocrisy when it comes to the VA is only part of the story. What we’re really seeing here with the calls for Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki to resign and the bashing of the VA as a whole is one of the best recent examples of what I call the “Republican Chaos Strategy.” 

Republicans know that the while most people know that Barack Obama is president and that he is a Democrat - the vast majority of Americans - 60 to 75 percent by some estimates - don’t know which party is in charge of the House of Representatives or who controls the Senate, or either. 

And, so, when something like the Phoenix VA hospital controversy comes along, Republicans know that they both can use it to trash the administration and, at the same time, confuse the American people about who’s really responsible for the problems plaguing the VA and our country. 

Original.

vertical forests

America used to be the leader in big ideas until the nay-saying anti-science nuts came on the scene.

Bosco Verticale Vertical Forest Nearing Completion in Milan, Italy

At first glance it looked too fantastical to be real, but now the completion date for the world’s first vertical forest is drawing near. Located in Milan, Bosco Verticale is Boeri Studio’s answer to the question of how to make cities greener while supporting an ever denser urban population. Since Inhabitat first reported on the project in 2011, it has captured the imagination of many across the globe, all eager to see how the benefits of downtown city living can be enhanced within a vertical forest environment. Inhabitat spoke to Boeri Studio this January for an update and some photos of the building’s progress. Keep reading to get the latest.

New photographs start to show the appearance of the finished residential tower blocks now that most of the scaffolding has been dismantled. Most of the 100 different species of trees and shrubs are in place, surrounding the external cladding. You can begin to imagine relaxing high up above the city amongst the dappled sunlight breaking through the leaves, breathing the fresh air, filtered by the forest microclimate, deep into your lungs. Completion is expected by late spring/early summer 2014 and an application for LEED Gold certification has been submitted.

On flat land, each building has the capacity to hold, in amount of trees, shrubs and ground cover plants, an area equal to 10.000 sqm of forest. This includes 480 large and medium size trees, 250 small size trees, 11,000 groundcover plants and 5,000 shrubs.  Greywater recycling will water the vegetation and integrated photovoltaic panels will provide power.

In terms of population, each tower supports the equivalent population of an area of single family dwellings of nearly 50,000 sqm. The smallest apartment is 65 sqm and includes a small woodland terrace. The largest apartment is around 450 sqm with a terrace of around 80 sqm.

The architects are looking forward to the next phase when the engineers, builders, masons, lawyers and electricians finish their work and residents begin new lives within the project. Every plant has been chosen by botanists to thrive in it’s particular orientation and microclimate within the structure. Moreover, a specialized maintenance company will keep the vertical forest in good health in the years to come. Dolce Vita Homes have worked in collaboration with Coima Image to design the interior specifications of the apartments. Residenze Porta Nuova have begun marketing the apartments and you can have a peek at the brochures already.

Metropolitan reforestation could become a buzz word as future developments utilize this innovative concept to simultaneously increase biodiversity and provide inspirational city dwellings.

Original.

Gosh, what would it be like to live in a country that actually took climate change seriously? America is infected and infested with anti-science, fanatically religious nutcases otherwise known as the GOP.  Sorry about that world!  We are having yet another resurgence of religion in this country.