Ask Maxy

Dear Maxy,
For the past several years, I've resigned  myself  to the fact  that my wife  and I aren't  going to have sex , so pornography  and  self-gratification  are the alternative .
I understand she  can be tired, ill or  angry  or  just not  feel like it . But that's all the time . She  says I take it too personally  when she turns  me down . Yet, when she insists  she  likes sex  and wants me to initiate it, I get slapped  and  turned away  as soon as I approach  her . How  can I not  take that  personally ? I finally realized I am better off accepting  that we  aren't  going to have sex  and I no longer get frustrated .
I send  flowers, take  her out to dinner, make  her coffee in the morning, make  her  lunch  for work, clean up after dinner  and make  breakfast  on weekends . Her interest declined  when our  children were  young  . She  told me if I didn't  like it  I could leave, but  we both know that will be bad  for the children . We talked about  counseling, but she  wouldn't  go, so I went by myself . The counselor wasn't too  helpful , saying suck it up or  leave .
I guess I'm angry . So it's no use talking to her about it  anymore . So why  am I writing ? I want someone to change  my wife . But I know she's the only  one that  can do  that  and she doesn't  have much interest  . Men like me  lead lives  of  quiet desperation .
In Pain 
Dear In Pain,
Please  understand  that your  counselor  was right .  In situations  where the other person  is unwilling to make changes, your  choice is to  go or stay . But although  you decided  to stay ( for all the right reasons ), you didn't truly deal with  the emotional fallout  and became increasingly resentful, lonely and  bitter .  I understand how empty and isolated you must feel and it appears that your wife no longer wants an intimate relationship with you.
Additional  counseling may  help you let  go  of that  and be more at peace . You have put your children's well being before your own and that is admirable. When they are older and more independent, you should consider your own happiness first and perhaps reconsider ending the relationship.
Maxy

Dear Maxy,
Recently I was sub-tweeted  ... someone tweeted  something  negative  about me on Twitter, but  did not  tweet me  directly  ... by several of my  acquaintances . I took the time to call them  out  on it  and respond to the rude things they were saying, for example, calling  me a disgrace to my race  . Should I have pretended  I didn't  see what  they were saying  or was I right  to defend  myself .
Tweet Snubbed 
Dear  Tweet Snubbed ,
In the  world of social media, so much information is  swirling  about  that it  can  be hard  to keep  track of it . If someone  badmouths  you, you absolutely  have the right to speak up  for  yourself, whether  the insult  came directly  or  via-sub-tweet . 
That said, you have to weigh  when it's  best  to stand  up for  yourself  and when it  might  be better  to say  nothing  or, at least,  say it in person .  Make  your  decision  on a case-by-case  basis . If something  is  flagrantly out of line, you can also contact  the provider  to ask  for  the  comment to be removed . 
Maxy

Dear  Maxy,
I  am a 68-year-old  woman who  has been  divorced  for more  than 30 years . I haven't been in an intimate  relationship for the past 10 years .
Last year I  discovered  that I have  genital herpes . The  doctor  said  that  may have had it  for years  before  experiencing  symptoms . I was  devastated, When I have an outbreak, I take  medication  that shortens  the  discomfort and I decided not to have intimate  contact  anymore . I'm  quite  busy  with my retirement lifestyle  and very content .
Here's the problem ; I recently  met a  man my age. I don't want to tell him  about my personal medical history, but I also don't want him to think I'm a prude . We went  out  casually  once  and  he  has called since, but I have put him off . I can't  decide if I should see him again and say nothing, or whether I should  tell him  I have an STD and let him decide  whether  he wants a 'friend  without  benefits.' What do  you suggest ?
 K ---
Dear K ,
It seems a shame to end  your sex  life  because  you fear  transmitting an STD . There  are ways  to advoid  that . And  your  future partner  may be  more  understanding  than  you realize . Please  contact  the American Sexual Health Association (ashasexualhealth.org ) for  information on all STDs , including  herpes,  and for  support in communicating  with potential partners . Remember, It is always better to be up front and honest with someone you wish to have any kind of relationship with.
Maxy

300 year old Spanish gold artifact found on sunken wreck

A high karat gold Pyx which was believed to have been hand crafted in the late 1600's - early 1700's for transporting a Eucharist (communion wafer) is seen in an undated photo.  A Florida family of treasure hunters, Tuesday, displayed their latest finding from a 300-year-old shipwreck: the missing piece of an ornate gold holder used by clergy to hold the Eucharist for visits to the sick or infirm.

A high karat gold Pyx which was believed to have been hand crafted in the late 1600's … A Florida family scavenging for sunken treasure on a shipwreck has found the missing piece of a 300-year-old gold filigree necklace sacred to Spanish priests, officials said on Tuesday.

Eric Schmitt, a professional salvager, was scavenging with his parents when he found the crumpled, square-shaped ornament on a leisure trip to hunt for artifacts in the wreckage of a convoy of 11 ships that sank in 1715 during a hurricane off central Florida's east coast.

After the discovery last month, a team of Spanish historians realized the piece fit together with another artifact recovered 25 years ago. It formed an accessory called a pyx, worn on a chain around a high priest’s neck to carry the communion host. The dollar value is uncertain.
"It's priceless, unique, one of a kind," said Brent Brisben, operations manager for Queens Jewels, which owns rights to the wreckage, located in 15-foot (4.5-meter) deep Atlantic Ocean waters.
Schmitt, who lives near Orlando, last year discovered about $300,000 worth of gold coins and chains from the same wreckage, Brisben said. Schmitt's parents have hunted for sunken treasure as a hobby for a decade.
By law, the treasure will be placed into the custody of the U.S. District Court in South Florida, Brisben said. The state of Florida may take possession of up to 20 percent of the find. The rest will be split evenly between Brisben's company and the Schmitt family.

House Republicans vote to sue President Obama

Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas sponsored the resolution

The US House of Representatives has passed a resolution to sue President Barack Obama for allegedly exceeding his constitutional powers. The 225-201 vote along party lines means House lawyers will now draft legal documents to launch a lawsuit. Its supporters say Mr Obama exceeded his powers when he delayed an insurance deadline in his healthcare law.
The president himself has dismissed it as a waste of time. "Everyone sees this as a political stunt," he said.
"If they're not going to do anything, we'll do what we can on our own," the president added.
"And we've taken more than 40 actions aimed at helping hardworking families like yours. That's when we act - when your Congress won't."

The action is reportedly the first time either the House or Senate has brought legal action against a president over the legality of his powers. Republicans in Congress have complained that Mr Obama has exceeded his constitutional authority on numerous occasions, in order to bypass Congress by issuing executive orders.
They object, for instance, to his order unilaterally easing deportations of some young illegal immigrants, and the prison exchange that won the release of a US soldier held captive for five years by the Taliban.

 

Bowe Bergdahl's parents met the president when the US soldier was controversially released

Specifically at issue in the resolution, which was sponsored by Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas with the full backing of House Speaker John Boehner, was Mr Obama's decision to twice delay requirements in his 2010 healthcare overhaul that businesses over a certain size provide their workers with health insurance.

Mr Obama has been forthright about his intentions to circumvent the gridlocked Congress when possible, noting frequently that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has declined even to hold votes on Senate-passed bills on topics from immigration reform to gay rights.

What Are Executive Orders?

The president regularly issues orders to manage the executive branch of the federal government, weighing in on everything from White House office decorations to foreign policy. Sometimes "the president decides to put those directions on paper, and that becomes an official document," explains Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow at the libertarian think-tank Cato Institute.
As far back as January, White House aides began referring to the president's "pen and phone" strategy - using his telephone to convene meetings at the White House and his pen to sign executive orders and changes to federal regulations.

Every US president since George Washington has issued executive orders, and Mr Obama has not stood out in the modern era for the number he has signed. In his six years in office Mr Obama has issued 183 executive orders, compared to 291 across George W Bush's eight years and 381 for Ronald Reagan, according to a study by the American Presidency Project at the University of California-Santa Barbara.
But Republicans insist Mr Obama has selectively enforced laws duly passed by Congress, upsetting the balance of powers written into the constitution.

"Such a shift in power should alarm members of both political parties because it threatens the very institution of the Congress," the Republicans wrote in report accompanying the House legislation.


It sounds like they are trying to blacken Mr Obama's image for the history books (no pun intended).
But sitting up here in Canada, seeing the situation as an uninvolved observer, this lawsuit seems to have definite racial overtones.

Russia faces more sanctions...Warning from G7

         Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a cabinet meeting at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, on July 30

G7 leaders say Russia will face further economic sanctions if it continues to support rebels in Ukraine. The group of leading industrialized nations said Russia had undermined "Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence." The warning came after the EU added eight more Russians to its sanctions.  Russia described new US and EU sanctions as "destructive and short-sighted", and said they would lead to higher energy prices in Europe.

The G7 group of economic powers includes the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada. Its leaders said Russia could still "choose the path of de-escalation", but warned President Vladimir Putin that he would face greater economic costs if he continued to back Ukrainian separatists.
The leaders also called on all sides to establish a ceasefire at the crash site of the Malaysian Airlines jet that was shot down on 17 July in eastern Ukraine. Heavy fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia rebels around Donetsk has prevented international experts from reaching the plane crash site. Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko accused the rebels of planting landmines near the crash site. The claim could not be independently verified. Russia has come under increased pressure to end its support for the rebels, who Western governments believe were behind the downing of MH17, killing all 298 people on board.


President Putin must change his policy in Ukraine or face the economic consequences, the G7 has warned.   Mr Putin has also been accused by the US and EU of supplying heavy weapons to the rebels - a charge his government has denied.
On Tuesday, the US announced new economic sanctions against Russia, widening their scope to include three key sectors of the economy - energy, arms and finance. The EU is also expanding its sanctions, targeting the oil sector, defence equipment and sensitive technologies. Several members of Mr Putin's inner circle are among the eight people the EU announced it was adding to sanctions on Wednesday. They include Arkady Rotenberg, Mr Putin's former judo sparring partner and a major shareholder in the civil engineering company Giprotransmost. The company has received a public contract to conduct a study on building a bridge from Russia to Crimea, the EU said. Another added to the EU's list is Yuri Kovalchuk, chairman of the Rossiya bank and a long-standing friend of the president. A total of 95 people and 23 entities have now been hit with EU-wide asset freezes and travel bans. Further details of the new EU sanctions are due to be published on Thursday.

Russia's foreign ministry called the EU's move "thoughtless and irresponsible" and said it would "inevitably" lead to higher energy prices in Europe.
"By going on a sanctions spree, Brussels, by its own will, is creating barriers for further cooperation with Russia in such a key sphere as energy," the statement said. It also labelled new US sanctions as "destructive and short-sighted" and warned that they would aggravate relations between the two countries.

In other developments in Ukraine on Wednesday:

• The Ukrainian army said it seized the key town of Avdiivka near the rebel stronghold of Donetsk
• Regional officials in Donetsk said that 19 people had been killed in fighting in the past 24 hours

It is possible that the Russian authorities mistakenly believed that European countries would not risk introducing sectoral sanctions for fear that they might backfire on their own economies...with rising prices on oil and gas from Russia ( Europe relies on Russia for most of their fuel ).
Russia is a little different from most countries, not only because its economy is much more integrated into the world economy, but also Russia is a nuclear power and a member of the World Trade Organization, which limits the amount of pressure that can be applied.  It is also an enormous country and a major world power. The situation is escalating and Russia ( or Mr Putin ) continues to spit in the eye of the world and maintain that no one tells him or his people what they may or may not do.

 

Mysterious Woman in Black

Is she on a crusdade of some kind ??



US and EU widen sanctions on Russia



Speaking At the White House, President Obama said: "If Russia continues on its current path, the cost to Russia will continue to grow"

President Obama has announced new economic sanctions against Russia, saying they will make Russia's "weak economy even weaker". He said the co-ordinated actions of the US and European Union would "have an even bigger bite" on Russia's economy. The new restrictions include banning Americans or people in the US from banking with three Russian banks. The aim is to increase the cost to Russia of its continued support for pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies charges by the EU and US that it is supplying heavy weapons to the rebels.

President Putin has urged the Russian defence sector to rely less on foreign components

Speaking at the White House, Mr Obama said the US was widening its sanctions to target the key sectors of the Russian economy - energy, arms and finance.

"If Russia continues on this current path, the costs on Russia will continue to grow," Mr Obama said. The US Treasury said the banks being targeting in this round of sanctions were VTB, the Bank of Moscow, and the Russian Agriculture Bank (Rosselkhozbank). Earlier, the EU also adopted new economic sanctions against Russia, targeting the oil sector, defence equipment and sensitive technologies.

This latest wave of US sanctions comes as no great surprise. For the past few weeks, the US been threatening further action against Russia. It's also been calling for the EU to impose stiffer penalties.

The administration said the tragic events surrounding MH17 should serve as a "wake-up call" to reticent EU countries that something had to be done to curb the actions of Russian-controlled separatists.
President Obama hopes these new measures will apply pressure on President Putin to change his course, something previous sanctions have failed to do so far. When asked by a reporter if this was the start of a new cold war, Mr Obama said it wasn't. The US-Russia relationship is, in the words of one US official, "complicated".
As well as disagreements, there is co-operation - the two nations are working together on Iran nuclear disarmament, and reducing Syria's chemical weapon stockpile. Full details of the new EU sanctions are expected on Wednesday, when the EU is also set to name more Russian officials facing asset freezes and travel bans in Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had been reluctant to step up sanctions because of Germany's trade links with Russia, said the latest measures were "unavoidable". Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, said: "I am disappointed because the EU is slipping along the tracks that lead nowhere.
"I can understand that they are concerned with the situation; so are we, but it's not a prerequisite to impose sanctions.
He added that he believed Ukraine should be subject to sanctions for its role in the conflict in the country's east.
Jonathan Beale on the outskirts of Donetsk says there is sustained artillery fire towards one of the last strongholds of pro-Russian separatists. Calls for the EU to act have been fuelled by the downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on the Malaysia Airlines jet were killed, many of them Dutch citizens.
An international team has again failed to access the crash site, amid heavy fighting between government forces and rebels there. Western governments believe the pro-Russian separatists shot the plane down on 17 July with a Russian missile, believing it to be a Ukrainian military flight. The rebels and Moscow deny that, instead blaming the Ukrainian military.

Speaking in Washington, US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Russia and the rebels to give Western investigators full access to the crash site.  John Kerry: "President Putin can make a huge difference, if he chooses to"
"They still can't even ensure that all of the victims' remains have been removed, and that is an unsupportable burden for any family to have to bear, and it is an unacceptable standard for behaviour, period," he said.
"The site has to be cordoned off, the evidence has to be preserved, and Russia needs to use its considerable influence among the separatists in order to be able to help ensure this basic approach of common decency."

Ukrainian troops are continuing an offensive aimed at encircling the rebels in Donetsk region.
In the latest developments:

• Several shells are said to have struck buildings in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk city
• Ukraine says its troops have entered the towns of Shakhtarsk and Torez in Donetsk region, and Lutuhyne in Luhansk region
• Ten Ukrainian soldiers and at least 22 civilians have reportedly been killed in the last 24 hours
• The dead civilians are said to include three children and five people at a home for the elderly
• A group of hackers sympathetic to the rebels says it has disabled the website of the Ukrainian president.

Gaza conflict: Hamas vows no ceasefire

Israel's bombardment of Gaza has seen entire areas of Gaza destroyed

Israeli strikes killed more than 100 Palestinians, raising the total killed to more than 1,200, Gaza officials say. Most of those deaths have been civilians, and 6,700 Palestinians have been injured, according to the Gaza health ministry. Israel has seen 53 of its soldiers die since conflict with Hamas began on 8 July. Two civilians and a Thai worker have also died.

As international pressure for a ceasefire grows, Israel and Hamas have each reiterated their positions and aims. Israel has mourned the deaths of five soldiers killed by Hamas militants that emerged from an underground tunnel.
"We don't accept any condition of ceasefire," the Associated Press quoted Hamas commander Mohammad Deif as saying. "There is no ceasefire until the end of the aggression and the end of the siege."

Israel and Egypt have imposed a blockade on Gaza restricted the entry of goods since 2007. The recording of Mohammad Deif's statement emerged at the same time as a Hamas video of militants using a tunnel to attack an Israeli soldier. Israel insists the existence of such tunnels - which it says are designed to be used to attack Israelis inside Israel - are the key reason for pressing ahead with Operation Protective Edge.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) want to continue operations to destroy the tunnels once any ceasefire is agreed. Earlier in the day a senior figure in the West Bank, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said a ceasefire was imminent and claimed to speak for Hamas. But a spokesman for the group quickly denied that.


Infrastructure hit

There were reports of ongoing shelling in Gaza after dark, hours after a series of targets linked to Hamas were hit by presumed Israeli bombardments. Earlier, a huge plume of smoke rose over the Strip's only power plant after one of its fuel tanks was reportedly set alight by Israeli tank shells, and the facility was forced to shut down.The main power station could be out of action for up to a year, the facility's manager said, after it burst into flames
Hamas-run TV and radio stations, three mosques, four factories and government buildings were also hit, according to reports. Palestinian security sources said that Gaza's port had been destroyed, with two schools and a kindergarten also hit. Some 110 targets were hit on Tuesday, Israel said. Palestinians said seven families were among the more than 100 killed.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said it was now caring for more than 200,000 people in shelters, and revealed that a number of its staff had been reported killed. Fifty-five houses were destroyed in bombing on Monday night, leaving people buried under rubble .

 

Rockets have continued to target Israeli towns and cities from within Gaza

Rockets fired from Gaza continued to hit Israel on Tuesday. The Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted four over the southern city of Beersheva, Israeli media reported. Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and several other towns.

 

An Israeli soldier prays on top of a tank near the Gaza border

Israel's Operation Protective Edge began on 8 July after a surge in militant rocket attacks.

The Rope



Maxy's Gone....And his Family is Broken Hearted

 Our precious Maxy passed away on Friday. He died while my daughter and I held him at the animal hospital. He was a victim of someone's carelessness. They left out some poisoned bait meant for rodents , we assume, and Maxy ingested some. He had an agonizing death that has traumatized us all. And all we could do was stand helplessly by and watch him suffer.

 

Please, Please don't use poisons on or around your property for any reason at any time. It is a risk to so many innocent little lives and the dying process is horrible. Maxy bled internally  and then his eyes and ears hemorrhaged and he vomited blood. We could not bear to watch him suffer any longer and asked the vet to euthanize him. She thinks it was Warfarin (rat poison) or possibly strychnine.

He was a wonderful little guy with lots of personality and a member of our family. He was beloved in our neighborhood and our friends and neighbors are upset and angry and have sworn to find the culprit. He will be so missed by so many, but he will always be in our hearts and will always be the 'Dog on the Blog'.

Very sad Genie

The Ever Pesent...and Growing Dangers of Electromagnetic Fields



 A renowned and brilliant neuroscientist who works with the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm ( they award the Nobel Prize for medicine ), has gone on record to caution against the increasing dangers of Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) on human beings and other living organisms, as you will see in the presentation below.

Our modern world is creating an electromagnetic soup filled with electrical pulses, radio frequencies, computer screens, wireless signals, as well as personal devices such as cell phones and gadgets that are emitting damaging radiation. There are many peer-reviewed scientific studies which are drawing conclusions that should concern us all, but particularly young children and pregnant women. In fact, the debate is heating up to such a level that government agencies are even infighting over the matter, as evidenced when the Department of the Interior recently sent a letter with their own scientific papers chastising the FCC for using standards that are 30 years out of date. As the DOI stated, the concern is not only in the negative health effects upon people, but upon wildlife as well.
Please listen to Professor Olle Johansson, PhD as he offers a comprehensive view of the many issues surrounding EMFs, including an industry-wide attempt by telecom to cover up the negative consequences. His information is echoed by the recent reversal of a ruling in Maine which had everything to do with industry pressure and influence. Professor Johansson also addresses what we can do to protect ourselves and our environment from the impact of EMFs

Dr. Johansson is Associate Professor in the Neuroscience department of the world-renowned Karolinska Institute in Sweden. This presentation was filmed at a technical seminar on the Environment and Health in Barcelona, Spain. It is a key presentation, as he is speaking to medical practitioners, not only to a lay audience. Nevertheless, it’s a very straightforward and easily understood lecture.
Particularly troubling is his opening sequence which recounts the long history of known negative health effects.
He also asserts that all people are hypersensitive to EMFs and are being radiated in the classical way that we would think of as related to major events such as Fukushima. The health effects are long term – including DNA fragmentation – and also must be addressed as a cumulative threat.
At the very least, Professor Johansson asserts, EMFs very easily can be linked to a growing number of allergies, and he urges us to re-evaluate the rise in allergic conditions in tandem with the rise in the use of electronic devices.
Please share this information and help your friends and family make better informed decisions in a world of increased connectivity. Professor Johansson is no Luddite, but a concerned scientist who would like to see a full open debate based on the very troubling scientific health studies he cites.
This video could help to start a debate in your local community and government, before the lowest standards possible continue to be applied to human health and the environment. If you find yourself grappling with the apathy of others, I’d like to leave you with a quote:

“When I die, I want the last thought to be I did my best; not I could have done better.” - Professor Olle Johansson 

 

Flaming Tap Water....Compliments of Your Local Fracking Operation

Public awareness of the risks and dangers of hydraulic gas-fracturing, or Fracking, is growing daily, but not nearly as fast as the practice itself is. Across the world, fracking is creating a massive new energy boom and investors are pouring money into energy companies who are setting up frack wells faster than the public can even figure out what’s happening.
Fracking causes significant environmental damage, yet the industry, of course, touts it as safe, saying that the stated risks are either unproven or circumstantial. In some cases industry is even suing detractors and people directly impacted by fracking for slander. Because of the denial and obfuscation of truth surrounding the impacts of fracking, a sort of cognitive dissonance has emerged, with many people willing to dismiss all of the noted side effects as unrelated, on the grounds that no singular authoritative scientific body has publicly declared fracking to be dangerous, and that the oil and gas industry has not yet admitted fault.

The impacts of fracking, from earthquakes to environmental pollution to increases in cancer, are well documented on many websites and in many publications, by scholarly researchers, scientists and government agencies, by anecdotal stories, documentary films, and home videos. If you want to believe that fracking is a safe and smart way of managing the earth and our resources then you really have to suspend disbelief in the face of an ever-growing body of evidence and complaints.
One of the most outrageous and unbelievable effects of fracking in some areas is the phenomenon of  water becoming flammable, straight from the tap, due to methane and other gasses leaching into ground wells and water supplies. Watching a faucet set on fire and hearing the stories of the people involved is not something that can be too readily dismissed, and here are a few examples of this:
1. Steve Lipsky of Weatherford, Texas, is facing a defamation lawsuit from the oil and gas industry after he has publicly decried fracking as the source of the contamination of his water, which is now flammable. The city has told him this water is safe to drink. From RT.com:

2.Shelly Perdue lives less then a half a mile from Steven Lipsky in Weatherford Texas. The water from her well, like his, is also flammable, and her home has methane gas in the air when she runs her water.

 3. In Granville Township, Pennsylvania, home of Chesapeake Energy’s massive fracking operations, homeowners are able to light their tap water on fire and their homes routinely smell like methane

There are several more amateur videos of people setting their water sources on fire. If it is not due to fracking, no one is coming forward with another explanation. This will be hard for gas and oil companies to continue sweeping under the rug. People just have to get angry enough to do something.... unfortunately, that threshold has not been reached yet.

4.In Parker County, Texas, residents are seen setting aflame a vent hose set up by the water well company to vent the methane gas coming from a contaminated water well. This is a demonstration of just how much methane is now combined with water resources in this area.

Conclusion
All of these cases share the common thread of nearby fracking operations. If the water is flammable, one has to wonder how this affects human, animal and plant life in the area, as cancer and other chronic illnesses continue to rise in the US. For homeowners and residents suffering from the negative impacts of fracking, the Environmental Protection Agency has been of little help.
The agency that derives its income and survival from oil and gas production is usually put in charge of also regulating the protection of ground water from oil and gas wells. And there’s an inherent conflict of interest in that. Does anyone get it yet??

Milwaukee is Sinking

The sinking city: Dozens of buildings in Milwaukee…sinking! There's a problem and it's deep underground

Downtown Milwaukee is sinking. The signs are everywhere. Sidewalks settle unevenly, forcing city crews to “shave” the protruding edges of the slabs.

BUILT IN THE 1890'S...CITY HALL IS ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC BUILDINGS IN MILWAUKEE ... BUT A NEW REPORT SHOWS IT'S SINKING. AS WISN 12 NEWS BEN HUTCHISON FOUND OUT--- ITS GOING TO COST MILLIONS TO FIX. AFTER 76 MILLION DOLLARS IN REPAIRS TO THE OUTSIDE TERRA COTTA...2 YEARS AGO... IT STARTED CRACKING. ALDERMAN ROBERT BAUMAN SAYS THEY'RE MOVING FORWARD WITH FIXING THAT PROBLEM. ALL THE LITIGATION HAS BEEN SETTLED, THE CONTRACTOR IS ON SIGHT. AS WE SPEAK LIFTS ARE BEING BROUGHT IN TO BETTER REACH THE DAMAGED AREAS. SCAFFOLDING STILL SURROUNDS CITY HALL TO CATCH ANY FALLING TERRA COTTA FROM ABOVE, BUT ITS WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH THE FOUNDATION THAT HAS CITY OFFICIALS CONCERNED. 8 YEARS AGO ALDERMAN MICHAEL MURPHY NOTICED A PROBLEM IN HIS OFFICE. THERE WAS A SUBSTANTIAL CRACK THAT RAN FROM THE BASE OF THE FLOOR TO THE CEILING AND IN SOME POINTS, THREE INCHES WIDE. STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS DETERMINED THE BUILDING WAS SINKING . THE MAYOR SAYS THEY'LL CONTINUE TO RESEARCH THE PROBLEM.

A LOT OF PEOPLE DON'T REALIZE THIS WAS ONCE A SWAMP AND LITERALLY, THERE ARE LOGS HOLDING UP CITY HALL; UP TO 22,000 PILINGS, WITH SOME OF THEM FAILING.  THE ESTIMATED COST TO FIX THE SINKING IS 15 MILLION DOLLARS, THAT CAN BE PAID OVER TIME . SO IT WON'T HAVE A NOTICEABLE IMPACT, IF ANY ON TAXPAYERS. THIS IS A BUILDING THAT MILWAUKEANS LOVE. IT OBVIOUSLY HAS HAD SOME DIFFICULTIES OVER THE YEARS BUT THIS IS A LANDMARK THAT IS TRUE MILWAUKEE AND SHOULD BE SAVED.

The old Milwaukee Repertory Theater building was built in the late 1890s. The wooden pilings beneath the Milwaukee Rep, site of a former Wisconsin Electric Power House, are sinking and so is the building.

The basement of the Rep shows the crumbling foundations.

Downtown Milwaukee is sinking. The signs are everywhere. Sidewalks settle unevenly, forcing city crews to “shave” the protruding edges of the slabs. Lateral cracks run for blocks along city streets. Manholes stick up like iron thumbs where streets and alleys have sunk around them. Curbs protrude above receding sidewalks.
Just below the surface, the foundations of scores of old buildings are rotting and shifting as groundwater levels drop, exposing tens of thousands of wooden pilings to decay. Many, such as the Mitchell Building on East Michigan Street, have required extensive repairs. Others, such as the Milwaukee Repertory Theater complex, likely will need future repairs.
“We are in real danger of losing many wonderful historic buildings,” says contractor Dennis Barthenheier, who, for more than 30 years, has made foundation rescue his specialty.
Much of Milwaukee, you see, was built on marshland that bordered its three rivers. The entire Third Ward and nearly three-fourths of Downtown stands on a swamp. Although it was filled in with dirt and garbage and the like, underneath it, water still flowed.
Most of the substantial buildings in old Milwaukee (some erected as late as the 1940s) were constructed on foundations of wooden pilings pounded into the earth, often by Edward E. Gillen Co. The pilings would extend through the filled-in dirt into the ample water table about 10 feet beneath grade and then into the swampy soil found beneath that. The pilings were expected to remain submerged and be sound for centuries. Some buildings – such as City Hall, Northwestern Mutual Life and Boston Store – have underground irrigation systems to ensure that the pilings never dry.
But in recent years, the water table has drained away, exposing the pilings of many buildings to the air. Thus, they decay – the technical term is “pile rot.” As their structural foundation degrades, the buildings could meet with catastrophic failure. That includes the 1895 City Hall, where it will cost $13 million to repair piles that had been sound for at least a century.
And as the water table is depleted, the ground above it starts to sink, causing problems for the Milwaukee Department of Public Works, which spent $40,000 this past summer “scarifying,” or shaving down, protruding sidewalk slabs in the Third Ward.
Where did the groundwater go? Barthenheier and other experts blame the Deep Tunnel: the 28.5-mile sewage and stormwater tunnel that runs 135-300 feet below the city, beneath the marshland that Milwaukee was built upon. The Deep Tunnel is divided into three sections that extend from Downtown, giving this part of the city great exposure to its effect on the groundwater. The tunnel is so porous that huge amounts of water from the old marsh are seeping into it each day, lowering the water table and exposing the old buildings’ supportive timbers to pile rot.


The tunnel originally was to have been lined with concrete, but MMSD officials decided to line only 45 percent of the structure, says Bill Graffin, the district’s public information manager. The tunnel’s later extensions were lined, but that still leaves 10.7 miles, or nearly 38 percent, of the tunnel unlined. This was a cost-saving decision made during construction as the project went over budget, Barthenheier says. He worked on the tunnel as a laborer during its creation and says the engineers decided to not line the portion of the tunnel that was dug through dolomitic limestone on the theory these stone walls wouldn’t leak. Instead, he says, “We were sealing joints with oakum and lead.” Silty water poured in everywhere, he says.


In essence, the MMSD decided it was cheaper to not line the entire tunnel and simply pump out the millions of gallons of water leaking into it on a daily basis.  The situation is now undermining the structure of the whole downtown and many areas have already had to be torn down.

734 N. 4th St. being demolished.

2014 Toronto International Film Festival....Looks Like an Exciting Year

Reese Witherspoon will come to TIFF 2014 for her films Wild and The Good Lie.

The 2014 Toronto International Film Festival announced its first slate of movies on Tuesday morning, and based on the line-up so far, this year’s fest looks like it’s going to be great year for Canadian filmmakers working abroad -- and for actress Reese Witherspoon.

Toronto’s own David Cronenberg will bring his star-studded new movie “Maps to the Stars” to TIFF 2014 for its North American Premiere. The film, which offers up a scathing take on the U.S. entertainment industry, stars Julianne Moore, Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, and Sarah Gadon.
Montreal-native Jason Reitman’s dramedy "Men, Women & Children,” starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Garner, will also debut during TIFF 2014.
Quebecois directors Jean-Marc Vallée (“Dallas Buyers Club”) and Philippe Falardeau (“Monsieur Lazhar”) return to TIFF in September, bringing “Wild” and “The Good Lie” (Falardeau’s English-language debut), respectively.



Both films star Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon, whose performance in “Wild” is already generating a lot of awards season buzz. No word yet on whether the actress will attend TIFF this year, but given that she’s in two very high-profile films directed by Canadian directors. The chances are very high she’ll be in town to walk the red carpets. Could Toronto be the beginning of Witherspoon's big comeback?
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Toronto Film Fest without last year's “Man of the Festival” Benedict Cumberbatch. The English actor had three films at last year’s festival and will return to Toronto in September with “The Imitation Game,” based on the real-life story of Second World War codebreaker Alan Turing. This might finally be Cumberbatch’s year at the Oscars.



Other potential awards season contenders set to make appearances at TIFF 2014 include Bennett Miller’s disturbing sports drama “Foxcatcher” (starring Channing Tatum and a nearly-unrecognizable Steve Carell), Dan Gilroy’s crime thriller “Nightcrawler” (starring a gaunt Jake Gyllenhaal), and David Dobkin’s family drama “The Judge” (starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall).

TIFF 2014 has plenty for the indie and art house crowd, too. Sundance hit “Whiplash” (starring Miles Teller) is set for its Canadian premiere, David Gordon Green’s “Manglehorn" (starring Al Pacino) will have its North American Premiere, and Noah Baumbach’s latest “While We’re Young” (starring Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver) will have its world premiere.

This year’s fest also has a lot to offer on the international front, with films from France, Germany, Denmark, China, South Korea, and India being announced. A few of the global highlights include French director François Ozon’s “The New Girlfriend” (“Une nouvelle amie”), and Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s political drama “Coming Home.”
In a break from tradition, no opening night film was announced on T uesday. This may have something to do with Toronto’s new policy of only allowing exclusive premieres to screen during the first four days of the festival, a clause that may prevent them from making any announcements currently. Festival organizers Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey reported that the opening film,would be announced soon.
The 2014 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 4 to 14. The Festival is always a lot of fun for Torontonians, tourists and gawkers. We have made many good friends among actors and others in the entertainment field, from all over the globe, who enjoy the city and the friendly Canucks.

Russia is Firing Artillery Across Ukraine Border

 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday that Russia was firing artillery across its border with Ukraine to target Ukrainian military positions in the conflict with pro-Russian separatists.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf also said there was evidence that the Russians intended to deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers to the separatist forces.
Harf, speaking at a regular media briefing, cited intelligence reports but said she could give no more information of what the reports were based on.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the artillery fire began on or after this Tuesday. The official declined to say what targets had been hit but said the United States had no evidence of civilian casualties.
The United States learned about the artillery fire through "technical and overhead" intelligence systems, the official said, an apparent reference to spy satellites and signals-intelligence collection.
Russia has in the past denied it is directly involved with the rebellion in its western neighbor, but the United States and its European allies accuse Moscow of arming and encouraging the uprising and have imposed sanctions on Moscow in response.
A senior U.S. official said during the last week, the United States had become aware of activity involving multiple rocket launch systems at a military base near the town of Rostov, in southwest Russia. U.S. officials say they believe Ukrainian separatists had gone there to train on the weapons.
The U.S. officials said such rocket systems have continued to "depart and return to Rostov at irregular intervals."
Ukraine's Security Council said on Wednesday preliminary information indicated that missiles that brought down two government fighter jets over eastern Ukraine were fired from Russia.
Russia's Defense Ministry on Thursday dismissed this, saying it was "an attempt to mislead the public," Interfax news agency reported, citing a defense ministry official.
The United States has said it believes a Russian-made SA-11 ground-to-air missile fired from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine brought down a Malaysian Airlines jetliner last Thursday, killing the nearly 300 people on board.
One U.S. official said that American agencies knew Ukrainian separatists were in possession of SA-11 missiles before the crash but that their understanding was that they were "defunct" and inoperable.
Earlier this week, U.S. intelligence officials said that the United States only realized that the separatists had operational SA-11s after the Malaysian airliner was shot down.
Mr Putin says he does not wish to re-establish a cold war situation but every action he takes makes a liar out of him.

Crash Scene Still Unsecured

A week after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 came down in Ukraine, the crash site has yet to be secured raising concerns that vital evidence will be lost.
A BBC team visiting the site on Thursday morning found the scene deserted with no sign of any investigators.
The rebels have promised secure access to the site, but fighting is getting worse and on Wednesday Ukraine said two of its military jets were shot down.

Biggest Ever Fish Caught off British Shores

 



Daniel Bennett, 26, recently reeled in what is considered to be the largest fish ever caught from British shores.

The Yorkshire, England, fisherman caught a massive common skate, weighing an estimated 208 pounds, while he was sifting with members of The Whitby Bass Club off the northern tip of the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
See the impressive fish below. (Warning: Some NSFW language.)


It was the first common skate caught off the Isle of Skye in "at least 30 or 40 years," Bennett said.
The common skate, which looks similar to a stingray, ate Bennett's mackerel fillet bait, then "took off at a thousand miles an hour."
"The key to catching the fish was having a lot of patience," Bennett told the Daily Express. "My back is absolutely killing me now though."
It took two hours for Bennett and his fellow fisherman to land the fish on the rocks and take its measurements: 88.25 inches long by 66.75 inches wide. According to The Shark Trust, which keeps charts of estimated weights based on measurements, the fish likely weighed about 208 pounds.
(To put its size into perspective, a female Eastern Lowland gorilla typically weighs about 200 pounds. A Vespa moped weighs 197 pounds.)

Because the common skate is a critically endangered species, the men released the fish, still alive, back into the water.

"There is not a larger fish recorded as being caught on our current record list," Nick Simmonds, the secretary of the British Record Fish Committee, told the Daily Express.

"Once we receive pictures from Dan we will pass them on to our scientist who will check the images and hopefully confirm the unofficial record. It can't be confirmed as a record as it was not weighed at the scene. [But] it will be seriously considered for the Notable Fish List, which was created for situations like this where the fish cannot be weighed."

"This list is historically important, at least in the angling world," Simmonds added.

Before Bennett's catch, the largest fish caught from British shores was a 159-pound skate caught off the Isle of Lewis in 1994.

Earlier this month, a California man on a fishing trip in Alaska reeled in "the catch of a lifetime": a 482-pound halibut.

Ask Maxy

Dear Maxy ,
I am  37  and divorced . I identify myself  as  bisexual  and try to live my dating  life very privately .
The problem is, my parents are quite  judgmental  and racist . I dare not  say anything  about  my dating partners, who are either gender  and any color . But I am tired of living  my life for others . If I choose to go my own way, however,  my two children would lose their grandparents . Any suggestions ?
Frustrated
Dear Frustrated,
You aren't  giving  your parents any credit  for being  for being able  to accept  you as you are  for the sake of their grandchildren . You don't need to give them details  of your  dating  life  and  parade  various  partners  in front  of them . No one does and parents do not really want to hear about it.  Your sexual orientation is your own intimate and personal business.
But you should not be afraid  to introduce  them to someone who becomes  a meaningful  part of  your life, with whom you wish a serious relationship. Give them the  time to work through  their feelings and you will probably find they still love you and very much want to see you and their grandchildren. You  can find  support  through PFLAG  (pflag.org )
Maxy

Dear  Maxy ,
I have to travel  45 minutes  by bus  to get to work  and the bus  comes only once an hour, something that my boss knows . I came into work  and discovered  that the doors were locked .  A custodian let me in, but my department was  still locked . I checked my email  and saw that  my boss  had sent  me an email, prior to when I have  to be in the office, to tell me that I didn't need to come in  today . I found this  rude, since she  knows  my situation  and I had to use my own money  to pay for the bus  to and from  work that day, which was a waste of  my wages, as the bus  fare is not  cheap . Do I have  a right to ask  for  compensation ?
Snubbed at Work
Dear Snubbed at Work ,
Chances are  your  boss  did not intentionally  make the decision  not to open  the office that day too late  for you to know it . It's most likely  that she did not realize  that she  didn't take  her  staff  travel time into account . Often, important  decisions  get  made in a vacuum  and some things  that should be obvious  are overlooked . This  does  not make  your boss's actions  right, however, it can explain  how such a thing  could happen .
I think it is fair  for you  to mention  to your  boss  that you did  not get the message  in time  and  you came to work  unnecessarily .
You can  say how  much  your commute  costs  and ask  if you could  possibly be reimbursed  . By asking  in a polite, respectful way , you create space  for your  boss  to apologize  and give  you the money  that  you spent . Chances are good she will see it your way.
Maxy

Dear Maxy ,
I am writing for a critique  group  that meets once  a week . It is a small group; therefore, we depend  on the  attendance  of the members, which we make  very clear  in the beginning . Of  course, there are  times  when people  are unable  to make it  and we ask  that they let us  know  ahead of  time . However, there have  been  a  couple of  people  who just won't  show up one week, or  for  a few weeks  at a time with no explanation . Is it  wrong  to expect members  of a group  let us  know  if they can't  make a meeting , even if we  did not explicitly  state  that they  should  tell us  when we started  the  group ?
Team Work
Dear Team Work ,
It is perfectly  within  your  rights  to follow  up  with members of  your writing  critique  group  to ask them  to honor  their obligation  to  attend  and participate  in  your  group sessions . Contact  each of the no-shows  to  find out  if  they are all right  and if  they  intend to come back . Explain  how difficult  it can  be when  members  do not show up . Ask  them to commit  more fully to the group  if they want  to  continue  to be a part of it . It may encourage them to commit but be prepared if someone withdraws from your group because they prefer a more casual involvement. 
Maxy

Netherlands holds solemn ceremony for victims of MH17 plane crash

The Netherlands has received the first victims' bodies from crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in a solemn ceremony at Eindhoven air base. Forty hearses left for the town of Hilversum where the formal identification process will begin.The Netherlands is observing a national day of mourning for the 298 victims, most of whom were Dutch.

Ukrainian pro-Russian rebels have been widely accused of shooting down the plane on 17 July.

UK government sources say intelligence shows rebels deliberately tampered with evidence, moving bodies and placing parts from other planes in the debris.
Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatseniuk claims one of its jets may have been downed by an air-to-air missile. As fighting continued in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, officials in Kiev said that two aircraft, thought to be military jets, had been downed just 35km (20 miles) from the crash site.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk later reported that one of the fighters could have been hit by an air-to-air missile. He did not directly accuse Russia but said it was not brought down by a Ukrainian jet.

 

The hearses left Eindhoven air base in a cortege, passed flags at half mast

Members of the Dutch royal family and Prime Minister Mark Rutte watched the coffins leave the planes

Earlier, honour guards had carried the coffins on to two planes at Kharkiv airport

Many observing the day of mourning went to Schiphol Airport, where flight MH17 took off from, to lay flowers
 

Teams of investigators from several countries are still at the crash site

Two military planes - one Dutch and the other Australian - carrying the first 40 coffins landed at Eindhoven air base on Wednesday afternoon. They were met by members of the Dutch royal family,

Prime Minister Mark Rutte and hundreds of victims' relatives. Churches around the Netherlands rang their bells for five minutes before the planes landed, and flags of all the nations affected by the disaster have been flying at half mast. There was also a minute's silence. The coffins were slowly loaded into a fleet of waiting hearses which then moved off in motorcades.

A day of mourning is being held in the Netherlands. All the bodies are being taken to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks south of the city of Hilversum for identification, a process that could take months. Two more planes carrying victims are due to arrive in Eindhoven on Thursday. Earlier, the coffins had been loaded on to the planes by a military guard of honour at Kharkiv airport in eastern Ukraine.

There has been mounting international anger at the delays in recovering the bodies. Pro-Russian rebel leader Alexander Borodai denied neglecting bodies at the scene.  Borodai claimed that international observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) told them to leave the bodies to be collected by experts.
"So we wait a day. We wait a second day. A third day. Come on! Not a single expert. Well, to leave the bodies there any longer, in 30 degree heat, it's absurd. It's simply inhuman. It's a scene from a horror movie," he said.
OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw denied they told rebels not to move the bodies. He told journalists, "It is not consistent with our mandate to tell people what to do. We're here to monitor, observe and report."



Arizona execution takes two hours

The execution was carried out in Florence

US death row inmate Joseph Wood has died after an execution in Arizona took nearly two hours to kill him. Wood, a double murderer, was executed by lethal injection.

His lawyers filed an appeal for an emergency stay of execution, after he had been "gasping and snorting for more than an hour" in the death chamber. They argued the extended execution process violated Wood's right to be executed in the absence of cruel and unusual punishment.

Wood was convicted of the 1989 murders of his girlfriend and her father

 

The execution should have taken 10 minutes, his lawyers said, but Wood, 55, gasped more than 600 times before he died.  It began at 13:52, and Wood was pronounced dead at 15:49, one hour and 57 minutes later, according to the Arizona attorney-general's office.  He was convicted of the 1989 murders of his estranged girlfriend Debra Dietz and her father Eugene Dietz.
Family members of the vicims were unconcerned by the way the execution was carried out.
"This man conducted a horrific murder and you guys are going, let's worry about the drugs,'' said Richard Brown.
"Why didn't they give him a bullet?"
Wood's lawyers had sought to force Arizona to name the manufacturers of the drugs used in the execution, but a last-ditch ruling by the US Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution to go ahead. In communications with Wood's lawyers this year, Arizona officials said they would use a two-drug combination of midazolam and hydromorphone to put him to death. But they declined to provide further identifying information, including the name of the drug's manufacturer, citing a state confidentiality law aimed at protecting the drug makers from reprisal.


 It is incredibly inhumane to torture people to death in this manner.  Especially, in view of the fact that Charlie Manson and prolific serial killers are living  pretty comfortably, serving out life sentences.

Kepler Sees World with Distant Orbit

 The new world completes one orbit of its star every 704 days

NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has spotted a distant world with the longest year of any planet in the mission's inventory. The exoplanet completes one circuit of its parent star every 704 days. Most of the 1,800 or so confirmed worlds beyond our Solar System orbit much closer to their stars than this one. Close-orbiting, large planets are easier to detect.

The study is to be published in the Astrophysical Journal. The planet, named Kepler-421-b orbits an orange star that is cooler and dimmer than our own Sun. It orbits this host star at a distance of 177 million km (110 million miles).

That's further out than the Earth orbits from the Sun (our planet's average distance is 150 million km) but less than Mars' distance of 228 million km. By comparison, the Red Planet takes some 780 days to complete one orbit of our host star.

With the information from Kepler, the scientists were able to calculate that the average temperature of the Uranus-sized exoplanet is around -93C (-135F). It orbits a star around 1,040 light-years away,
"Finding Kepler-421b was a stroke of luck," said the study's lead author David Kipping, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, US.
"The farther a planet is from its star, the less likely it is to transit the star from Earth's point of view. It has to line up just right."

The Kepler telescope was uniquely suited to make this discovery: The spacecraft stared at the same patch of sky for four years, watching for stars that dim as planets cross in front of them. This technique for discovering exoplanets is known as the transit method. Despite this, the space observatory only detected two transits of Kepler-421b due to the planet's long orbital period. The distant world's orbit places it outside the "snow line" - the line in space that divides rocky planets like Earth from the gas giants like Jupiter. Beyond this line, water condenses into ice grains that stick together to build gas planets.
"The snow line is a crucial distance in planet formation theory. We think all gas giants must have formed beyond this distance," Dr Kipping said.
Since gas giants can be found extremely close to their stars, in orbits lasting days or even hours, theorists believe that many exoplanets migrate inward early in their history. Kepler-421b demonstrates that this planetary migration isn't necessary; the planet could have formed exactly where it currently is.

The ability to discover planets this distance from their host stars is crucial for understanding the diversity of planetary systems beyond our own.

Kepler space telescope mission

• Launched in 2009, the Kepler space telescope set out to find Earth-like worlds orbiting distant stars in the Constellation Lyra
• It used the so-called transit technique - looking for the periodic dips in light as exoplanets pass in front of their host stars
• Last year, astronomers used Kepler's data to estimate that one in five stars like the Sun hosts an Earth-sized world
• 
  

How Rare is Our Blue Planet?
In astronomy and astrobiology, the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), or simply the habitable zone, also known as the Goldilocks zone, is the region around a star within which planetary-mass objects with sufficient atmospheric pressure can support liquid water at their surfaces. The bounds of the CHZ are calculated using the known requirements of Earth's biosphere, its position in the Solar System and the amount of radiant energy it receives from the Sun. Due to the importance of liquid water to life as it exists on Earth, the nature of the CHZ and the objects within is believed to be instrumental in determining the scope and distribution of earth-like extraterrestrial life and intelligence.


Since the concept of the CHZ was first presented in 1953, numerous planets have now been discovered in the CHZ. Most such planets, being super-Earths or gas giants, are more massive than Earth, because such planets are easier to detect. On November 4, 2013, astronomers reported, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of sun-like stars and red dwarf stars within the Milky Way Galaxy. 11 billion of these estimated planets may be orbiting sun-like stars. The nearest such planet may be 12 light-years away, according to the scientists. The CHZ is also of particular interest to the emerging field of natural satellite habitability, because planetary-mass moons in the CHZ might outnumber planets.


In subsequent decades, the CHZ concept began to be challenged as a primary criterion for life. Since the discovery of evidence for extraterrestrial liquid water, substantial quantities of it are now believed to occur outside the circumstellar habitable zone. Sustained by other energy sources, such as tidal heating or radioactive decay or pressurized by other non-atmospheric means, the basic conditions for water-dependent life may be found even in interstellar space, on rogue planets or their moons. In addition, other circumstellar zones, where non-water solvents favorable to hypothetical life based on alternative biochemistries could exist in liquid form at the surface, have been proposed.


Dedicated to my NASA Junior Scientists...Jonny and Chris