Sunday, July 31, 2016

thestellathelight: Repeat this to yourself over and over. Then...



thestellathelight:

Repeat this to yourself over and over. Then take action, do what it takes - cus it is so f*cking worth it. #BeTheLight #GoPlantBased
____

If you aren’t happy, make the change. 🌱 STELLATHELIGHT.COM ✨ contact me today, tell me your story & give me 30 days to transform your life into pure bliss. (at Plant-Based Nutrition and Lifestyle)


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Photo




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mimiu: 🌾 🍈 🍚



mimiu:

🌾 🍈 🍚


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intertwining: Easy lunch to bring to the beach: @hilaryseatwell...



intertwining:

Easy lunch to bring to the beach: @hilaryseatwell black rice veggie burger on a whole wheat pita with spinach and @traderjoeslist balsamic dressing πŸ˜‹✨ #happyweekend

IG: @thelittleflowerpetal


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idonotmissbacon: :) @eat-well-and-go-to-the-gym



idonotmissbacon:

:)

@eat-well-and-go-to-the-gym


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Fighting Arthritis with Food

panatmansam: It’s amazing how easy it is to lose weight if you lose the attachment to food. Then...

panatmansam:

It’s amazing how easy it is to lose weight if you lose the attachment to food. Then you no longer eat out of boredom and can stop before you reach satiation. 

When my suit trousers began to get a little snug I was able to lose two inches from my midsection in just a few weeks. My wife was frustrated because I was eating only peanut butter, saltine crackers, greens and fruit with a handful of rice. She said “how can you eat like that?. I replied, “like what?”.  When I ate I only gave thought to the nutritional content of the food.


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RP Recipe- Winterveil Apple Cupcakes

in-pursuit-of-fitness: Fitness motivation, workouts, healthy...



in-pursuit-of-fitness:

Fitness motivation, workouts, healthy recipes, and more! on We Heart It - http://ift.tt/2ahccqs


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kaylaitsines: You asked for it, so HERE IT IS πŸ™ŒπŸ˜☺️ I HAVE...



kaylaitsines:

You asked for it, so HERE IT IS πŸ™ŒπŸ˜☺️ I HAVE WRITTEN MY VERY FIRST HARDCOPY BOOK!! - The 28-DAY Healthy Eating & Lifestyle Guide.
My book includes;
✅Weekly Meal Plans (4 weeks)
✅200 of my FAVOURITE recipes to fit the plans! Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and treats
✅PLUS 4-weeks of beginner workouts (which are removable pages so you can take them to the gym with you!) πŸ’ͺπŸ’ͺ
Will be available in;
AUS - 1 DEC
USA - 27 DEC
UK - 29 DEC 😍☺️ SO EXCITED !!! More amazing news about this coming soon πŸ˜πŸ’œπŸ‘Œ http://ift.tt/1P2iTOl @macmillanaus @stmartinspress @panmacmillan


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The perfect weight range for women varies depending on who you...



The perfect weight range for women varies depending on who you ask and which chart you consult. At least 2 out of 3 women in the United States have problems with hot flashes at some time during menopause, and research have displayed that heavier women get more serious and more frequent hot flashes, Huang and colleagues note in the Archives of Internal Remedies. There are many diet programs out there, all offering different techniques and methods to help people lose weight. Women aged 50 and above should at least do weight training exercises two times each full week.\n\nMost of the participants in the classes are over 50 (as I am) and many have been attending regularly for years. The key to shedding pounds and keeping your weight in balance is a mixture of hard work and consistency. I want to begin off by saying that your internet site has been a godsend for me. I am a mother who has already established to work off the weight I’ve gained over the years, and your products and website keep me motivated. Random business outings might disrupt the regularity had a need to follow a strict fat loss system.\n\nout what is at the core of weight loss issues, and that is what we do in functional medicine - we get to the bottom of it so that it can be corrected. Weight loss resistance occurs whenever a woman includes a physiologic/metabolic imbalance that makes shedding pounds and keeping it off extremely challenging, even when she puts forth her best efforts. Moreover, the mania for Mom-shells” - women who look like dynamite swiftly after pregnancy and delivery - obscures real concerns. You realize that eating trans fat can enhance your risk of heart disease, weight stroke and gain, so you’re smart to avoid.\n\nCalorie quota: There are three different calorie levels to begin out with: 1,200, 1,400, and 1,600 calories, predicated on the amount of weight you need to lose and how fast you need to lose it. Calorie counting is incorporated into the diet program - assuming you stick with the menus. If you don’t already, plan to forgo fast foods and other nutrient-poor choices and incorporate more whole foods into your daily regimen for weight loss.\n\nI know, I joined Weight Watchers when I was 19. I followed this program to the letter, measuring and weighing every single bite of food I consumed. The CDC notes that exercising 60 to 90 minutes most days of the week also helps you to keep lost weight off. Dieters who were underweight before pregnancy, however, were much more likely not to gain enough weight compared to underweight women who weren’t habitually dieters. HCG diet program comes out to become the best weightloss program for women over 40. Although it preserves the lean muscle mass, it is stimulating for fat loss specifically extremely. First, exercise alone yields all types of amazing results, but weight loss isn’t one of them.\n\nWeight loss was connected with higher death rates, but weight loss with lower death rates. Weight loss has been connected with beneficial effects on cardiovascular risk factors exactly like diabetes. Researchers at Brigham Young University tracked the eating habits of 252 middle-aged women for practically two years and discovered that those who increased their fiber intake lost weight and those who decreased their fiber intake gained weight! Bauer promises a weight loss of up to ten pounds through the first two weeks, depending on how much you need to lose and how low you continue calories.\n\nDifferences in the amount of muscle fibers forbid women to develop significant muscle mass - something that many women fear at nearly every age. Amount three; your weight loss program shouldn’t be among the commercialized crash diets that promise quick weight loss. The reality is, our bodies are collapsing as we grow older slowly, and weight training is what keeps us upright, aligned and strong. Slots are being filled for another round of the Healthful Loser weight loss obstacle.

diet plans for women to lose weight


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superfoodsfan: (Via: americastestkitchen.tumblr.com) Making...



superfoodsfan:

(Via: americastestkitchen.tumblr.com) Making Meringues, Excepting Eggs http://ift.tt/2a5HRA1


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healthyliveshealthyvibes: Vegan Quinoa Zucchini Pancakes/...



healthyliveshealthyvibes:

Vegan Quinoa Zucchini Pancakes/ Recipes


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veganfoodporncentral: Tex-Mex Three Bean Potato Salad



veganfoodporncentral:

Tex-Mex Three Bean Potato Salad


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ultrafoodie: (Via: http://ift.tt/17UQ9T8) Chipotle Shrimp...



ultrafoodie:

(Via: http://ift.tt/17UQ9T8) Chipotle Shrimp Sandwiches with Jalapeno Peach Salsa Get the recipe http://bit.ly/HQ8AMv


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intensefoodcravings: Matcha Eggs Benedict | A Couple Cooks



intensefoodcravings:

Matcha Eggs Benedict | A Couple Cooks


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Recipe of the Day - The Super Salad

hgbcgfxdfzsfvd: Get Chicken karahi Recipe...



hgbcgfxdfzsfvd:

Get Chicken karahi Recipe – Best Easy Healthy And Yummy Recipe http://ift.tt/2a5k9mc

I’m embarrassed to admit my bloke’s actually the cook of your home and taken out his role dutifully on Valentine Day. He even took the day off so he could wait cooking up a three-course food which - I can’t refuse - was fairly top-notch.   


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hgbcgfxdfzsfvd: Get lamb Rezala Recipe – Best...



hgbcgfxdfzsfvd:

Get lamb Rezala Recipe – Best Easy Healthy And Yummy Recipe http://ift.tt/2aoJcNu

We did not actually buy each other Valentine presents, just a card. Well officially, the food he developed was the Valentine gift. So I suppose this season, it’s my convert. As the saying goes, “the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” But there are two slight problems. A.) I’m no Jamie Oliver and B.) I’m a bit secured for money.


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6 Ways The GOP Fails To Be Pro-Life

For my entire adult life, the standard line from Christian conservatives has been for people to vote their conscience. Groups like the American Family Association, Family Research Council, and Focus on the Family have put out voter guides each year for as long as I can remember, encouraging people to vote for the candidate who best reflected where the morals of a Christian politician should be. They have always decried the accusations of partisanship, but rather strictly about voting for the candidate who lined up with what they believed were Christian values about abortion, marriage equality, and inexplicably to me at least, gun rights and tax breaks. Vote your conscience has been in every election I’ve seen since I was old enough to vote in 1992, always amped up every four years when it’s time to elect a president. The subtext has always been that Christians should vote Republican, but it has been a standard line.

+++++

I watched last week’s Republican National Convention through the lens of late night talk show hosts and my Twitter and Facebook feeds. I did the same this week for much of the Democratic National Convention. I did watch Michelle Obama’s powerful speech, as well as the uplifting words from Senator Cory Booker, but for the most part political rah-rah'ing isn’t my idea of a good time. Catching up with America Ninja Warrior on Hulu after an evening hunting for PokΓ©mon is far more my speed. Anger and dissension just wear me out.

There was a lot to take in at the RNC, but the one that rattled around in my mind the most was when Senator Ted Cruz was booed off of the stage as it became apparent he would not endorse Donald Trump, but rather said to the crowd, “Stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.” This was met with roars of disapproval from the crowd in attendance.

I do understand that part of the job of the convention is to rally around the party’s nominee. To come together and present a united front, and the lack of an official, strong endorsement from a prime time speaker is surprising (though the speech was available to the RNC ahead of time). So I can see that some at the convention would be upset that a speaker would neglect that aspect. But barring the lack of an endorsement, the content of Cruz’s speech was lifted straight from the Republican platform. Close the borders. Beware of ISIS. States’ rights. Gun rights. Small government.

I may disagree with most of the policies presented in Cruz’s speech, but there is nothing in them that should cause a group of Republicans to boo. Only the mention that they should vote their conscience incited that reaction. Only the idea that voting your conscience might not lead you to vote in the way that stays within party lines.

The truth is, I’m a single issue voter. When I vote my conscience, it looks like one thing.

Voting for a candidate with a strong pro-life ethic. Which has, for most of my adult life, looked like voting for a Democrat rather than a Republican.

Yes, in the area of abortion, the Democrats often fail. In order to prove the value of the woman who is pregnant, the value of the life inside of her is devalued. Too often we see life only if it is desired - if not, it becomes an embryo, fetal tissue, a parasite. Abortion is a complex issue, but when we speak of a potential human without respect, we cheapen the cry of equality, especially in the eyes of those who call themselves pro-life.

But a pro-life ethic has to mean more than just where a candidate stands on abortion (though Donald Trump’s stand on abortion is fairly unclear).

A pro-life ethic must respect women. Donald Trump’s views of women are abhorrent. If you’re unable to see women as people deserving even a modicum of respect, you can’t be pro-life.

A pro-life ethic must listen to the voices of black men and women. The chants of All Lives Matter when confronted with the assertion that Black Lives Matter must end. Of course all lives matter. But black men and women matter as well, and much of our country’s history has belied that. Even Michelle Obama’s statement that she lives in a home built by slaves was met with a statement from conservative Bill O'Reilly saying, Sure, they were slaves, but it wasn’t that bad. A pro-life ethic can affirm that all lives matter while also saying that yes, black lives matter. Not with comments about “black on black crime” or “more white people are in jail” or “just listen to the police.” Instead, those of use who are not black need to shut up and listen. And then see how we can begin to change the system to make things more equal for our black brothers and sisters.

A pro-life ethic must respect those with disabilities. Donald Trump has openly mocked a journalist with disabilities. I mother several children on the autism spectrum. My heart would be broken if a public leader were to deride them publicly. We cannot offer lip service to a pro-life ethic and sit by while the Republican nominee has shown contempt in his actions for those with disabilities.

A pro-life ethic must encourage adoption. One of the ways that we encourage a pro-life ethic is to encourage people to adopt. The GOP platform reaffirms opposition to gay and lesbian couples adopting. My friend Sean and his husband have adopted two gorgeous boys (Sean has written about it in his best-selling book, Which One of You is the Mother?). They adopted children who were older. Children from difficult birth families. They adopted them, they love them, they parent them. Children who, if left in foster care, would have had a 45% chance of ending up homeless. Children who, if left in foster care, would have had a 75% chance of ending up in prison. Children who, because of their adoption by a gay couple, now have the chance to experience family.

A pro-life ethic must look at the ways life is cut short beyond abortion. Yes, I’m talking about guns. I am not a gun owner and I didn’t grow up in a house with guns, so I tend to speak very little on this issue, because I don’t know much about gun laws or the way that guns even work. But when Republicans block even research about gun violence, it is difficult for me to see that as caring about life. When a group covers their ears, refusing to even have a conversation about ways we can make life safer in a world with guns, I cannot call that group pro-life.

A pro-life ethic must see people, even our enemies, as people first. During his campaign, Donald Trump advocated war crimes when he suggested that the United States not only hunt down terrorists, but also “take out their families.” He has lumped all Muslims into the category of radical, calling for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States. He has painted with the broad brush that Mexican immigrants are rapists and murderers. Donald Trump has called vast swaths of non-white ethnicities our enemies, and then challenged their humanity. If an unborn child is a person, surely even those who seek to do us harm is are people as well.

In November, I will be voting my conscience, and it will be based on a pro-life ethic.

I hope you will do the same.

– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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In Florida Zika Probe, Federal Scientists Kept At Arm's Length




CHICAGO, July 29 (Reuters) - The state of Florida, the first to report the arrival of Zika in the continental United States, has yet to invite a dedicated team of the federal government’s disease hunters to assist with the investigation on the ground, health officials told Reuters.


Coordination with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since the state reported possible local Zika transmission on July 19 has been conducted largely at a distance, they said. That is surprising to some infectious disease experts, who say a less robust response could lead to a higher number of infections.


While Florida has a strong record of battling limited outbreaks of similar mosquito-borne viruses, including dengue and chikungunya, the risk of birth defects caused by Zika adds greater urgency to containing its spread with every available means, they say. Other states have quickly called in CDC teams to help track high-profile diseases.


“You only have a small window. This is the window” to prevent a small-scale outbreak from spreading, said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who expressed impatience with the pace of the Florida investigation.


Florida on Friday said that four cases of Zika in the state were likely caused by mosquito, the first sign that the virus is circulating locally, though it has yet to identify mosquitoes carrying the disease.



The current Zika outbreak was first detected last year in Brazil, where it has been linked to more than 1,700 cases of the birth defect microcephaly, and has since spread rapidly through the Americas.


Florida Governor Rick Scott said the state health department was working with the CDC as it continues its Zika investigation. CDC said it is closely coordinating with Florida officials who are leading the effort. Dr Marc Fischer, a CDC epidemiologist, has gone to Florida at the state’s request.


But the state has not invited in the CDC’s wider emergency response team of experts in epidemiology, risk communication, vector control and logistics, according to Florida health department spokeswoman Mara Gambineri.


In its plans to fight Zika nationwide, CDC stressed that such teams would help local officials track and contain the virus. Similar teams were sent to Utah earlier this month to solve how a person may have become infected while caring for a Zika-infected patient, before local officials went public with the case, and quickly joined an effort to contain an Ebola case in Dallas in 2014.


“Should we need additional assistance, we will reach out,” Gambineri said in an email. She did not reply to questions about why the state decided not to bring in a CDC team.


CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said the agency has several teams ready for when states request help with Zika, including Florida.


“If invited, we’ve got a team ready to go,” he said. 



FUNDING BLAME GAME


Florida health officials publicly disclosed the first case of suspected local transmission on July 19.


They have since been testing hundreds of area residents to identify other possible infections, in some cases knocking on doors asking people to provide urine samples, and studying local mosquito populations to see if they are carrying the virus.


The state has warned residents to protect themselves against mosquito bites, and distributed Zika prevention kits for pregnant women at local doctors’ offices.


Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert from the University of Minnesota, said the two counties involved in the Florida probe - Miami-Dade County and Broward County - have extensive mosquito control experience. But he was surprised that the state had not yet sought CDC’s help in quickly gathering information about where people were when they were bitten.


“When cases like this occur, it’s critical that there be rapid epidemiological investigations to determine the likely location where the mosquito exposure occurred,” Osterholm said. “Only with that can you identify the breeding sites and eliminate them.”


As Zika’s arrival in the United States loomed in recent months, Republican and Democratic leaders have blamed each other for holding up funding to fight it. President Barack Obama’s administration asked Congress for $1.9 billion to fund a Zika response. Republican lawmakers proposed much smaller sums, and talks with their Democratic counterparts stalled before Congress adjourned for the summer.


Scott, a Republican, said on Friday he had asked top officials in the Obama administration, including CDC Director Tom Frieden, for more resources to fight Zika. He has allocated$26 million from the state’s budget.


On July 20, the White House said that Obama had called the Florida governor to discuss the possibility that Zika was circulating in the state, and promised an extra $5.6 million in federal funding in addition to about $2 million provided by CDC.


The statement praised Florida’s record of responding to mosquito-borne outbreaks and its close coordination with federal partners, including the CDC.


“Florida does what Florida does,” said one public health expert familiar with the investigation. “If I were health commissioner, I would have asked for their (CDC’s) help immediately.”


(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Bernard Orr)

– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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David Bowie's Son Welcomes Baby Boy Exactly Six Months After Singer's Death

Ch-ch-ch-changes are afoot! Six months after rock legend David Bowie died of cancer, his son, director Duncan Jones, has welcomed a baby boy with wife, Rodene Ronquillo. 


“Stenton David Jones. Born July 10th, exactly six months after his granddad made room for him. Love you both so,” he tweeted with a light-hearted cartoon sketch featuring generations of Jones men. 



Stenton David Jones. Born July 10th, exactly six months after his grandad made room for him.
Love you both so. ❤️❤️ http://pic.twitter.com/Axdee1iRhE

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) July 29, 2016



The “Warcraft” director also expressed his love and gratitude to his “warrior woman” wife on social media after their son’s birth. 



All my love and awe to the incredible @rodeneronquillo who made a human being in her belly. Warrior woman & every day, my hero.

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) July 29, 2016



The couple announced the pregnancy in February with a drawing of a cartoon fetus and the words “I’m waiting” in the speech balloon. The tweet also revealed that the late rocker knew he was going to be a grandfather before his death in January. 


“1 month since dad died today. Made this card for him at Christmas. Due in June. Circle of life. Love you, granddad,” he captioned the photo. 



1 month since dad died today. Made this card for him at Christmas. Due in June. Circle of life. Love you, granddad. http://pic.twitter.com/sf7SEUtm64

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) February 10, 2016



After news of Bowie’s death broke, Jones shared a heartbreaking tribute to his father, posting an old photo of himself as a toddler on his dad’s shoulders. 


“Very sorry and sad to say it’s true. I’ll be offline for a while. Love to all,” he wrote on Twitter.



Very sorry and sad to say it’s true. I’ll be offline for a while. Love to all. http://pic.twitter.com/Kh2fq3tf9m

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) January 11, 2016



Bowie would have been proud.


Congrats to the new parents!

– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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You Have To Close Your Eyes To See The Military's Powerful New Weapon

On a March evening in 2002, the USS Oscar Austin began a nighttime transit through the Skagerrak, a busy shipping lane connecting Norway, Denmark and Sweden, when disaster nearly struck. 


Retired U.S. Navy Capt. John Cordle was on the bridge navigating the ship. “It was a very narrow, confusing transit at night,” Cordle told The Huffington Post. Three Navy ships were following. 


It had been a long day. Cordle had pulled an all-nighter, working various shifts. That’s when he nearly caused a drowsy driving catastrophe that could have caused several naval vessels to collide. 


“I just sort of fell asleep standing up,” he admitted. 


Retired Adm. James G. Stavridis says these situations are unacceptable ― and all too common. 


“Sleep is a key part of the requirements for resilience and good decision-making,” Stavridis said in an interview.


“As people become more and more exhausted from a lack of sleep, they are prone to making the most costly mistakes imaginable,” he wrote in a Huffington Post blog post. “When a military officer makes a bad decision in combat, terrible consequences often unfold. People die, and they are often innocent civilians who die as a result of collateral damage from an attack of some kind, or they are the men and women working for the exhausted military officer whose judgment is impaired.”


Stavridis served four years as a NATO commander and was a top adviser to the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of Defense. He led Deep Blue, the strategic and tactical think tank the Navy created after Sept. 11. He has won dozens of military medals and awards, and even had one named after him.  


His reputation extends far beyond the military. He’s been cited as an innovator in evolving the military and an advocate for “soft power” approaches to foreign policy. Hillary Clinton even vetted the admiral as a possible running mate, The New York Times reported. 


In a 2012 TED Talk on global security, Stavridis called for “open-source security” and said it was more important to build bridges than walls. He even once advocated for creating a new branch of the military, the U.S. Cyber Force.


Suffice it to say, Stavridis is not afraid of questioning military status quo ― especially when it’s not working. And when it comes to sleep, he fears the worst.



Sleep As A ‘Weapon’


Cordle’s brush with disaster was a wake-up call. He opened his eyes as the panicked crew scrambled to figure out what was going on. 


“For a moment there everybody lost track of where we were,” Cordle said.


One of your natural reactions is to take charge when things aren’t going so well, he explained. He gave the order to stop the ship. 


“And then I realized that I had no idea what was going on. I was so tired that I didn’t think it through,” he said. 


“I could have driven us into shallow water,” he explained. “I forgot there were ships following me that could have run into me.”


Everything turned out OK. “But in retrospect,” he said, “I let myself get so tired that I basically had a near miss.”


Waking up to the dangers of sleep deprivation for the military is a big part of the reason Stavridis said he’s been speaking up about the issue.


“For young officers facing the challenges of watchstanding or flying or combat maneuvers, it is imperative that their superiors ensure real balance in the sleep-waking cycle,” he said.


The conclusion he’s come to about sleep: “Military commanders must think of sleep as a weapon that they can deploy.”


Hitting Rock Bottom


Sleep played a role in the USS Port Royal becoming grounded in 14-to-22 feet of water off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, in February 2009. The Navy estimated damage to the 567-foot cruiser cost around $25 million to $40 million.


Capt. John Carroll, who was in charge of the ship at the time of the grounding, was relieved of his command and reassigned after the incident. The Navy gave him nonjudicial punishment for dereliction of duty and improper hazarding of a vessel, The Honolulu Advertiser reported.



A report from the Navy Safety Investigation Board cited the misinterpretation of a navigation system, faulty equipment, an inexperienced crew and a sleep-deprived Carroll as causes that contributed to the incident.


Carroll had had just four and a half hours of sleep in the 24 hours before the ship grounded ― and just 15 hours of sleep in the three days leading up to the incident. Carroll admitted he was tired and fatigued at the time, according to the Navy report. 


A Navy officer’s schedule is inherently high-tempo and always-changing, making good, consistent sleep difficult. “By nature we have to be able to do everything 24/7,” Cordle said. “When a ship is at sea, somebody has to be up running the engines and driving the ship around the clock.”


Everyone on board a Navy vessel works on rotational shift and rest patterns ― but it’s up to the ship’s officers to figure out that schedule. It’s typical for those shifts to rotate every day.


“You never worked at the same time and you never slept at the same time,” Cordle said.


There’s a culture of toughness on a ship and not admitting when you’re tired, according to Cordle.


Staying awake for a long time is “almost a badge of honor sometimes,” Cordle added. “There’s the expectation to get the job done.”



A Cultural Problem With Sleep


Each branch of the military has its own policies around rest, but the “sleep comes later” attitude is evident on land, air and sea.


Jordan Thornburg, a physician’s assistant at Fort Riley, told HuffPost in April that 27-hour shifts were the norm when he served as an engineer officer in both Iraq and Kuwait. Lt. Col. Ingrid Lim, the lead sleep expert at the office of the Army Surgeon General said in the same article that sleep can be problematic for soldiers. “Whenever fighting happens, sleep is the first thing to go,” he said.


A 2015 Army report found that 10 percent of active duty Army soldiers have a diagnosed sleep disorder ― and almost half have a “clinically significant sleep problem.” Fatigue contributed to 628 Army accidents and 32 soldier deaths between 2011 and 2014, according to the study.


A 2006 report cited “acute and cumulative fatigue, circadian disruptions and sleep inertia” all as factors that contributed to the near crash of a 247-foot U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy cargo aircraft as it attempted a remote island landing. 


“Analysis of the crew work/rest cycles and transmeridian travel confirmed that fatigue was one of the more significant human performance factors in this mishap,” according to the Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine journal article.


General guidelines in Air Force medical policies suggest air personnel get seven to eight hours of sleep every 24 hours. The Air Force also requires a 12-hour off-duty shift before an airman goes on duty. 


But Stavridis said there is still a culture that allows these standards to be pushed aside when needed and overridden in combat operations, and they’re not always as rigorously enforced as they should be.


“Too often, commanders want to show their subordinates that they are somehow super-human,” he wrote. “The leaders feel that saying they will lay down for an hour nap, or need six hours of sleep will undermine the confidence of their subordinates.”



We would never allow an intoxicated soldier in our formations. … Why would we let a soldier in our formations with sleep deprivation?



For Cordle, his own near miss drove him to find ways to avoid putting himself and his crews in those situations again.


“When you’re the guy in charge, if you’re tired, a lot of times there’s nobody else to tell you what to do,” he said. “You have to have your wits about you.”


He’s worked with a team of sleep researchers and naval operations experts to help create navy watch schedules that align sailors’ natural circadian rhythms ― rather than schedules than those that go against our natural sleep-wake schedules. The team is working with the Naval Postgraduate School to help distribute more information about the sleep-optimized schedules for other Navy officers to use. 


“Everything takes time, but I see the conversations happening,” he said. “And having folks like Adm. Stavridis talk about it is very encouraging. I think a lot of the senior leaders are talking about it.”


The Army began rolling out a new force-wide wellness campaign in 2013 called the Performance Triad. The science-based program provides soldiers and their families resources to optimize three pillars of good health: nutrition, exercise and sleep.


Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, the Army’s surgeon general, said sleep patterns may be the most challenging behavior to change, but she’s committed to it.


“This is a culture change that we need to make,” she told Federal News Radio. “It’s going to take a while to get away from the idea that sleep is something we can give up, and start critically asking ourselves whether it’s worth the health consequences.”


“We would never allow an intoxicated soldier in our formations,” she added. “Why would we let a soldier in our formations with sleep deprivation?”


Sarah DiGiulio is The Huffington Post’s sleep reporter. You can contact her at sarah.digiulio@huffingtonpost.com.  

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This Lawsuit Has Put Big Ag On The Defensive In A Major Way

Earlier this month, the Iowa Soybean Association had a big announcement to make.


The group, which represents some 11,000 growers of the state’s second-most-lucrative crop, pledged $150,000 in support for three highly agricultural counties — Buena Vista, Calhoun and Sac — named in a controversial lawsuit brought by the Des Moines Water Works.  


The lawsuit, which was filed in 2015, claims that nitrogen-rich water flowing off the area’s farms pollutes the Raccoon River, which, along with the Des Moines River, provides drinking water for half a million people. The water authority wants the counties to pick up the dramatically higher treatment costs for the water. The counties, who want the case dismissed, counter that there’s no proof that agriculture is directly responsible for the nitrates.


The case has thus far been upheld, though it won’t be brought to trial until next June. Meanwhile, both sides are digging in for a pivotal Iowa Supreme Court hearing on the matter set for September. 


If the water utility wins the suit, it would mark the first time in the U.S. that agribusiness is forced to pay for water pollution, potentially setting a precedent with nationwide ramifications.


The ISA, which previously contributed $65,000 for the counties’ legal expenses, considers the case a “must win.” Meanwhile, it says, the lawsuit is an “unfortunate distraction” from the voluntary approaches to solving the state’s nutrient runoff issues that it has been touting. 


ISA CEO Kirk Leeds said the suit is affecting the progress the state has made over the past 15 years in encouraging farmers to implement practices to mitigate runoff, like putting cover crops and conservation tillage in their fields.


“The lawsuit does not identify one tangible tactic or strategy that would actually improve water quality,” Leeds told The Huffington Post in a statement. “Without the lawsuit, labor and financial resources could be focused on deploying more practices across the state to improve soil and water resources.”


The ISA pointed to the over 970,000 acres Iowa farmers have enrolled in the federal conservation reserve program — more than any other state — as further signs the state’s industry is on the right track toward addressing the problem. (The program removes environmentally sensitive lands from agricultural production, which helps improve water quality and wildlife habitat.)



But the ISA’s efforts are “nothing more than greenwash” to Des Moines Water Works CEO Bill Stowe. 


“They’re sprinkling money and acting like they have some kind of environmental awareness when, in fact, they’re undermining public health and environmental protections,” Stowe told HuffPost. 


The ISA isn’t the only group supporting the defending counties in the lawsuit, but it’s hard to know who’s been paying the rest of the bill. As the Des Moines Register has reported, the donors picking up 90 percent of the counties’ $1.1 million legal tab are anonymous and likely to remain that way, thanks to a state law regulating private foundation contributions to government groups.


Stowe’s utility has been spending a lot of money, too — seven figures’ worth of extra treatment costs to ensure the drinking water he delivers to their customers is safe, he said.


The DMWW is home to what he calls the “world’s largest” nitrate removal facility. The plant is in need of repairs and expansion, he said, thanks to the historically high amount of nitrates they’ve had to remove from the drinking water they provide to their customers.


Excessive nitrate exposure is most dangerous for infants and pregnant women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infants who are exposed can develop what’s called blue baby syndrome, which can be fatal if left untreated. For these reasons, the EPA sets a maximum contaminant level for nitrates of 10 milligrams per liter. Anything higher needs to be removed by water providers. 


In 2013, when nitrate levels in the source water reached a record high, the utility’s tab for additional treatment costs and lost revenue totaled $900,000, DMWW said. Last year, it spent $1.5 million on denitrification efforts.



Stowe argues that tile drainage systems used by the upstream farms to reduce crop flooding should be identified as “point sources” of pollution under the federal Clean Water Act, from which they traditionally have been exempt.


The Iowa lawsuit could drastically change how the Clean Water Act can be used to remedy nutrient pollution, which is having a severe impact on communities throughout the U.S. 


For this reason, the suit carries national significance. John Rumpler, senior attorney at Environment America, a Boston-based nonprofit, called it a “huge, precedent-setting” matter.


Rumpler authored a report last month linking nutrient runoff from agribusiness to the growth of algal blooms and dead zones that have devastated ecosystems and damaged local economies in places like Lake Erie, the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The EPA has also linked nutrient runoff to acid rain and air pollution.


He sees what is happening in Iowa as one example of runoff issues bubbling up nationwide, like South Florida’s “guacamole-thick” algal blooms that prompted Gov. Rick Scott ® to declare a state of emergency earlier this summer. Environmentalists have largely blamed agriculture, and particularly the powerful sugar industry, for the pollution.


“The overriding story here is that the corporations that are producing our food in an industrializing fashion are now threatening our water,” Rumpler said. “America should not have to choose between healthy food and safe water.”





Some Iowa farmers have already changed their ways ― before the lawsuit was even filed.


One of them is 62-year-old Tim Smith. Smith has been farming his whole life and currently grows 800 acres of corn and soybeans in Eagle Grove, Iowa, not far from the three counties named in the suit. 


Five years ago, Smith signed up through a USDA program to start planting cover crops on some of his fields, as well as installing a woodchip bioreactor with the aim of reducing the nitrogen runoff from his farm.


It wasn’t long before he observed, through sampling, that the amount of nitrates flowing off his farm had been cut in half. Seeing the results made him acknowledge he’d had a runoff problem we wasn’t aware of.


I thought I was doing everything right on my farm prior to this,” Smith told HuffPost.


Still, Iowa’s estimated 470,000 acres of cover crops planted as of 2015 pale in comparison to the 26 million acres of statewide cropland. Though the Iowa Farm Bureau notes, accurately, that this is a 35 percent increase over the previous year, that number still represents less than 2 percent of the state’s overall cropland. 


This is evidence, Smith believes, that many farmers in the state don’t realize they are contributing to the problem. He anticipates that, with time, more of his colleagues will come around to the idea of conservation and see that the practices accomplish what they are designed to do.


But the lawsuit, he says, could hinder that progress.


“It’s kind of a slap in the face to agriculture. It does throw a little insult,” Smith said. “If they lose or the case is thrown out, farmers are going to say, well, you’ve already sued me, so what’s the big deal? I’m going to keep doing things the way I used to do them. There’s a danger in that.”


For his part, Stowe is confident the utility will win, but he’s not limiting that to mean a win in the courtroom. He believes the suit, regardless of its outcome, challenges the state’s political status quo, which he says has favored agricultural interests for too long.


“If we were to lose and continue to pass on this cost to our consumers, there will be a political impact,” Stowe said. “Our customer base will more clearly understand why they are paying more, so we think we win anyway. We will be the long-term winners no matter what happens in our legal case.”

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6 Ways The GOP Fails To Be Pro-Life

For my entire adult life, the standard line from Christian conservatives has been for people to vote their conscience. Groups like the American Family Association, Family Research Council, and Focus on the Family have put out voter guides each year for as long as I can remember, encouraging people to vote for the candidate who best reflected where the morals of a Christian politician should be. They have always decried the accusations of partisanship, but rather strictly about voting for the candidate who lined up with what they believed were Christian values about abortion, marriage equality, and inexplicably to me at least, gun rights and tax breaks. Vote your conscience has been in every election I’ve seen since I was old enough to vote in 1992, always amped up every four years when it’s time to elect a president. The subtext has always been that Christians should vote Republican, but it has been a standard line.

+++++

I watched last week’s Republican National Convention through the lens of late night talk show hosts and my Twitter and Facebook feeds. I did the same this week for much of the Democratic National Convention. I did watch Michelle Obama’s powerful speech, as well as the uplifting words from Senator Cory Booker, but for the most part political rah-rah'ing isn’t my idea of a good time. Catching up with America Ninja Warrior on Hulu after an evening hunting for PokΓ©mon is far more my speed. Anger and dissension just wear me out.

There was a lot to take in at the RNC, but the one that rattled around in my mind the most was when Senator Ted Cruz was booed off of the stage as it became apparent he would not endorse Donald Trump, but rather said to the crowd, “Stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.” This was met with roars of disapproval from the crowd in attendance.

I do understand that part of the job of the convention is to rally around the party’s nominee. To come together and present a united front, and the lack of an official, strong endorsement from a prime time speaker is surprising (though the speech was available to the RNC ahead of time). So I can see that some at the convention would be upset that a speaker would neglect that aspect. But barring the lack of an endorsement, the content of Cruz’s speech was lifted straight from the Republican platform. Close the borders. Beware of ISIS. States’ rights. Gun rights. Small government.

I may disagree with most of the policies presented in Cruz’s speech, but there is nothing in them that should cause a group of Republicans to boo. Only the mention that they should vote their conscience incited that reaction. Only the idea that voting your conscience might not lead you to vote in the way that stays within party lines.

The truth is, I’m a single issue voter. When I vote my conscience, it looks like one thing.

Voting for a candidate with a strong pro-life ethic. Which has, for most of my adult life, looked like voting for a Democrat rather than a Republican.

Yes, in the area of abortion, the Democrats often fail. In order to prove the value of the woman who is pregnant, the value of the life inside of her is devalued. Too often we see life only if it is desired - if not, it becomes an embryo, fetal tissue, a parasite. Abortion is a complex issue, but when we speak of a potential human without respect, we cheapen the cry of equality, especially in the eyes of those who call themselves pro-life.

But a pro-life ethic has to mean more than just where a candidate stands on abortion (though Donald Trump’s stand on abortion is fairly unclear).

A pro-life ethic must respect women. Donald Trump’s views of women are abhorrent. If you’re unable to see women as people deserving even a modicum of respect, you can’t be pro-life.

A pro-life ethic must listen to the voices of black men and women. The chants of All Lives Matter when confronted with the assertion that Black Lives Matter must end. Of course all lives matter. But black men and women matter as well, and much of our country’s history has belied that. Even Michelle Obama’s statement that she lives in a home built by slaves was met with a statement from conservative Bill O'Reilly saying, Sure, they were slaves, but it wasn’t that bad. A pro-life ethic can affirm that all lives matter while also saying that yes, black lives matter. Not with comments about “black on black crime” or “more white people are in jail” or “just listen to the police.” Instead, those of use who are not black need to shut up and listen. And then see how we can begin to change the system to make things more equal for our black brothers and sisters.

A pro-life ethic must respect those with disabilities. Donald Trump has openly mocked a journalist with disabilities. I mother several children on the autism spectrum. My heart would be broken if a public leader were to deride them publicly. We cannot offer lip service to a pro-life ethic and sit by while the Republican nominee has shown contempt in his actions for those with disabilities.

A pro-life ethic must encourage adoption. One of the ways that we encourage a pro-life ethic is to encourage people to adopt. The GOP platform reaffirms opposition to gay and lesbian couples adopting. My friend Sean and his husband have adopted two gorgeous boys (Sean has written about it in his best-selling book, Which One of You is the Mother?). They adopted children who were older. Children from difficult birth families. They adopted them, they love them, they parent them. Children who, if left in foster care, would have had a 45% chance of ending up homeless. Children who, if left in foster care, would have had a 75% chance of ending up in prison. Children who, because of their adoption by a gay couple, now have the chance to experience family.

A pro-life ethic must look at the ways life is cut short beyond abortion. Yes, I’m talking about guns. I am not a gun owner and I didn’t grow up in a house with guns, so I tend to speak very little on this issue, because I don’t know much about gun laws or the way that guns even work. But when Republicans block even research about gun violence, it is difficult for me to see that as caring about life. When a group covers their ears, refusing to even have a conversation about ways we can make life safer in a world with guns, I cannot call that group pro-life.

A pro-life ethic must see people, even our enemies, as people first. During his campaign, Donald Trump advocated war crimes when he suggested that the United States not only hunt down terrorists, but also “take out their families.” He has lumped all Muslims into the category of radical, calling for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States. He has painted with the broad brush that Mexican immigrants are rapists and murderers. Donald Trump has called vast swaths of non-white ethnicities our enemies, and then challenged their humanity. If an unborn child is a person, surely even those who seek to do us harm is are people as well.

In November, I will be voting my conscience, and it will be based on a pro-life ethic.

I hope you will do the same.

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David Bowie's Son Welcomes Baby Boy Exactly Six Months After Singer's Death

Ch-ch-ch-changes are afoot! Six months after rock legend David Bowie died of cancer, his son, director Duncan Jones, has welcomed a baby boy with wife, Rodene Ronquillo. 


“Stenton David Jones. Born July 10th, exactly six months after his granddad made room for him. Love you both so,” he tweeted with a light-hearted cartoon sketch featuring generations of Jones men. 



Stenton David Jones. Born July 10th, exactly six months after his grandad made room for him.
Love you both so. ❤️❤️ http://pic.twitter.com/Axdee1iRhE

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) July 29, 2016



The “Warcraft” director also expressed his love and gratitude to his “warrior woman” wife on social media after their son’s birth. 



All my love and awe to the incredible @rodeneronquillo who made a human being in her belly. Warrior woman & every day, my hero.

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) July 29, 2016



The couple announced the pregnancy in February with a drawing of a cartoon fetus and the words “I’m waiting” in the speech balloon. The tweet also revealed that the late rocker knew he was going to be a grandfather before his death in January. 


“1 month since dad died today. Made this card for him at Christmas. Due in June. Circle of life. Love you, granddad,” he captioned the photo. 



1 month since dad died today. Made this card for him at Christmas. Due in June. Circle of life. Love you, granddad. http://pic.twitter.com/sf7SEUtm64

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) February 10, 2016



After news of Bowie’s death broke, Jones shared a heartbreaking tribute to his father, posting an old photo of himself as a toddler on his dad’s shoulders. 


“Very sorry and sad to say it’s true. I’ll be offline for a while. Love to all,” he wrote on Twitter.



Very sorry and sad to say it’s true. I’ll be offline for a while. Love to all. http://pic.twitter.com/Kh2fq3tf9m

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) January 11, 2016



Bowie would have been proud.


Congrats to the new parents!

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In Florida Zika Probe, Federal Scientists Kept At Arm's Length




CHICAGO, July 29 (Reuters) - The state of Florida, the first to report the arrival of Zika in the continental United States, has yet to invite a dedicated team of the federal government’s disease hunters to assist with the investigation on the ground, health officials told Reuters.


Coordination with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since the state reported possible local Zika transmission on July 19 has been conducted largely at a distance, they said. That is surprising to some infectious disease experts, who say a less robust response could lead to a higher number of infections.


While Florida has a strong record of battling limited outbreaks of similar mosquito-borne viruses, including dengue and chikungunya, the risk of birth defects caused by Zika adds greater urgency to containing its spread with every available means, they say. Other states have quickly called in CDC teams to help track high-profile diseases.


“You only have a small window. This is the window” to prevent a small-scale outbreak from spreading, said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who expressed impatience with the pace of the Florida investigation.


Florida on Friday said that four cases of Zika in the state were likely caused by mosquito, the first sign that the virus is circulating locally, though it has yet to identify mosquitoes carrying the disease.



The current Zika outbreak was first detected last year in Brazil, where it has been linked to more than 1,700 cases of the birth defect microcephaly, and has since spread rapidly through the Americas.


Florida Governor Rick Scott said the state health department was working with the CDC as it continues its Zika investigation. CDC said it is closely coordinating with Florida officials who are leading the effort. Dr Marc Fischer, a CDC epidemiologist, has gone to Florida at the state’s request.


But the state has not invited in the CDC’s wider emergency response team of experts in epidemiology, risk communication, vector control and logistics, according to Florida health department spokeswoman Mara Gambineri.


In its plans to fight Zika nationwide, CDC stressed that such teams would help local officials track and contain the virus. Similar teams were sent to Utah earlier this month to solve how a person may have become infected while caring for a Zika-infected patient, before local officials went public with the case, and quickly joined an effort to contain an Ebola case in Dallas in 2014.


“Should we need additional assistance, we will reach out,” Gambineri said in an email. She did not reply to questions about why the state decided not to bring in a CDC team.


CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said the agency has several teams ready for when states request help with Zika, including Florida.


“If invited, we’ve got a team ready to go,” he said. 



FUNDING BLAME GAME


Florida health officials publicly disclosed the first case of suspected local transmission on July 19.


They have since been testing hundreds of area residents to identify other possible infections, in some cases knocking on doors asking people to provide urine samples, and studying local mosquito populations to see if they are carrying the virus.


The state has warned residents to protect themselves against mosquito bites, and distributed Zika prevention kits for pregnant women at local doctors’ offices.


Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert from the University of Minnesota, said the two counties involved in the Florida probe - Miami-Dade County and Broward County - have extensive mosquito control experience. But he was surprised that the state had not yet sought CDC’s help in quickly gathering information about where people were when they were bitten.


“When cases like this occur, it’s critical that there be rapid epidemiological investigations to determine the likely location where the mosquito exposure occurred,” Osterholm said. “Only with that can you identify the breeding sites and eliminate them.”


As Zika’s arrival in the United States loomed in recent months, Republican and Democratic leaders have blamed each other for holding up funding to fight it. President Barack Obama’s administration asked Congress for $1.9 billion to fund a Zika response. Republican lawmakers proposed much smaller sums, and talks with their Democratic counterparts stalled before Congress adjourned for the summer.


Scott, a Republican, said on Friday he had asked top officials in the Obama administration, including CDC Director Tom Frieden, for more resources to fight Zika. He has allocated$26 million from the state’s budget.


On July 20, the White House said that Obama had called the Florida governor to discuss the possibility that Zika was circulating in the state, and promised an extra $5.6 million in federal funding in addition to about $2 million provided by CDC.


The statement praised Florida’s record of responding to mosquito-borne outbreaks and its close coordination with federal partners, including the CDC.


“Florida does what Florida does,” said one public health expert familiar with the investigation. “If I were health commissioner, I would have asked for their (CDC’s) help immediately.”


(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Bernard Orr)

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This Lawsuit Has Put Big Ag On The Defensive In A Major Way

Earlier this month, the Iowa Soybean Association had a big announcement to make.


The group, which represents some 11,000 growers of the state’s second-most-lucrative crop, pledged $150,000 in support for three highly agricultural counties — Buena Vista, Calhoun and Sac — named in a controversial lawsuit brought by the Des Moines Water Works.  


The lawsuit, which was filed in 2015, claims that nitrogen-rich water flowing off the area’s farms pollutes the Raccoon River, which, along with the Des Moines River, provides drinking water for half a million people. The water authority wants the counties to pick up the dramatically higher treatment costs for the water. The counties, who want the case dismissed, counter that there’s no proof that agriculture is directly responsible for the nitrates.


The case has thus far been upheld, though it won’t be brought to trial until next June. Meanwhile, both sides are digging in for a pivotal Iowa Supreme Court hearing on the matter set for September. 


If the water utility wins the suit, it would mark the first time in the U.S. that agribusiness is forced to pay for water pollution, potentially setting a precedent with nationwide ramifications.


The ISA, which previously contributed $65,000 for the counties’ legal expenses, considers the case a “must win.” Meanwhile, it says, the lawsuit is an “unfortunate distraction” from the voluntary approaches to solving the state’s nutrient runoff issues that it has been touting. 


ISA CEO Kirk Leeds said the suit is affecting the progress the state has made over the past 15 years in encouraging farmers to implement practices to mitigate runoff, like putting cover crops and conservation tillage in their fields.


“The lawsuit does not identify one tangible tactic or strategy that would actually improve water quality,” Leeds told The Huffington Post in a statement. “Without the lawsuit, labor and financial resources could be focused on deploying more practices across the state to improve soil and water resources.”


The ISA pointed to the over 970,000 acres Iowa farmers have enrolled in the federal conservation reserve program — more than any other state — as further signs the state’s industry is on the right track toward addressing the problem. (The program removes environmentally sensitive lands from agricultural production, which helps improve water quality and wildlife habitat.)



But the ISA’s efforts are “nothing more than greenwash” to Des Moines Water Works CEO Bill Stowe. 


“They’re sprinkling money and acting like they have some kind of environmental awareness when, in fact, they’re undermining public health and environmental protections,” Stowe told HuffPost. 


The ISA isn’t the only group supporting the defending counties in the lawsuit, but it’s hard to know who’s been paying the rest of the bill. As the Des Moines Register has reported, the donors picking up 90 percent of the counties’ $1.1 million legal tab are anonymous and likely to remain that way, thanks to a state law regulating private foundation contributions to government groups.


Stowe’s utility has been spending a lot of money, too — seven figures’ worth of extra treatment costs to ensure the drinking water he delivers to their customers is safe, he said.


The DMWW is home to what he calls the “world’s largest” nitrate removal facility. The plant is in need of repairs and expansion, he said, thanks to the historically high amount of nitrates they’ve had to remove from the drinking water they provide to their customers.


Excessive nitrate exposure is most dangerous for infants and pregnant women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infants who are exposed can develop what’s called blue baby syndrome, which can be fatal if left untreated. For these reasons, the EPA sets a maximum contaminant level for nitrates of 10 milligrams per liter. Anything higher needs to be removed by water providers. 


In 2013, when nitrate levels in the source water reached a record high, the utility’s tab for additional treatment costs and lost revenue totaled $900,000, DMWW said. Last year, it spent $1.5 million on denitrification efforts.



Stowe argues that tile drainage systems used by the upstream farms to reduce crop flooding should be identified as “point sources” of pollution under the federal Clean Water Act, from which they traditionally have been exempt.


The Iowa lawsuit could drastically change how the Clean Water Act can be used to remedy nutrient pollution, which is having a severe impact on communities throughout the U.S. 


For this reason, the suit carries national significance. John Rumpler, senior attorney at Environment America, a Boston-based nonprofit, called it a “huge, precedent-setting” matter.


Rumpler authored a report last month linking nutrient runoff from agribusiness to the growth of algal blooms and dead zones that have devastated ecosystems and damaged local economies in places like Lake Erie, the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The EPA has also linked nutrient runoff to acid rain and air pollution.


He sees what is happening in Iowa as one example of runoff issues bubbling up nationwide, like South Florida’s “guacamole-thick” algal blooms that prompted Gov. Rick Scott ® to declare a state of emergency earlier this summer. Environmentalists have largely blamed agriculture, and particularly the powerful sugar industry, for the pollution.


“The overriding story here is that the corporations that are producing our food in an industrializing fashion are now threatening our water,” Rumpler said. “America should not have to choose between healthy food and safe water.”





Some Iowa farmers have already changed their ways ― before the lawsuit was even filed.


One of them is 62-year-old Tim Smith. Smith has been farming his whole life and currently grows 800 acres of corn and soybeans in Eagle Grove, Iowa, not far from the three counties named in the suit. 


Five years ago, Smith signed up through a USDA program to start planting cover crops on some of his fields, as well as installing a woodchip bioreactor with the aim of reducing the nitrogen runoff from his farm.


It wasn’t long before he observed, through sampling, that the amount of nitrates flowing off his farm had been cut in half. Seeing the results made him acknowledge he’d had a runoff problem we wasn’t aware of.


I thought I was doing everything right on my farm prior to this,” Smith told HuffPost.


Still, Iowa’s estimated 470,000 acres of cover crops planted as of 2015 pale in comparison to the 26 million acres of statewide cropland. Though the Iowa Farm Bureau notes, accurately, that this is a 35 percent increase over the previous year, that number still represents less than 2 percent of the state’s overall cropland. 


This is evidence, Smith believes, that many farmers in the state don’t realize they are contributing to the problem. He anticipates that, with time, more of his colleagues will come around to the idea of conservation and see that the practices accomplish what they are designed to do.


But the lawsuit, he says, could hinder that progress.


“It’s kind of a slap in the face to agriculture. It does throw a little insult,” Smith said. “If they lose or the case is thrown out, farmers are going to say, well, you’ve already sued me, so what’s the big deal? I’m going to keep doing things the way I used to do them. There’s a danger in that.”


For his part, Stowe is confident the utility will win, but he’s not limiting that to mean a win in the courtroom. He believes the suit, regardless of its outcome, challenges the state’s political status quo, which he says has favored agricultural interests for too long.


“If we were to lose and continue to pass on this cost to our consumers, there will be a political impact,” Stowe said. “Our customer base will more clearly understand why they are paying more, so we think we win anyway. We will be the long-term winners no matter what happens in our legal case.”

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You Have To Close Your Eyes To See The Military's Powerful New Weapon

On a March evening in 2002, the USS Oscar Austin began a nighttime transit through the Skagerrak, a busy shipping lane connecting Norway, Denmark and Sweden, when disaster nearly struck. 


Retired U.S. Navy Capt. John Cordle was on the bridge navigating the ship. “It was a very narrow, confusing transit at night,” Cordle told The Huffington Post. Three Navy ships were following. 


It had been a long day. Cordle had pulled an all-nighter, working various shifts. That’s when he nearly caused a drowsy driving catastrophe that could have caused several naval vessels to collide. 


“I just sort of fell asleep standing up,” he admitted. 


Retired Adm. James G. Stavridis says these situations are unacceptable ― and all too common. 


“Sleep is a key part of the requirements for resilience and good decision-making,” Stavridis said in an interview.


“As people become more and more exhausted from a lack of sleep, they are prone to making the most costly mistakes imaginable,” he wrote in a Huffington Post blog post. “When a military officer makes a bad decision in combat, terrible consequences often unfold. People die, and they are often innocent civilians who die as a result of collateral damage from an attack of some kind, or they are the men and women working for the exhausted military officer whose judgment is impaired.”


Stavridis served four years as a NATO commander and was a top adviser to the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of Defense. He led Deep Blue, the strategic and tactical think tank the Navy created after Sept. 11. He has won dozens of military medals and awards, and even had one named after him.  


His reputation extends far beyond the military. He’s been cited as an innovator in evolving the military and an advocate for “soft power” approaches to foreign policy. Hillary Clinton even vetted the admiral as a possible running mate, The New York Times reported. 


In a 2012 TED Talk on global security, Stavridis called for “open-source security” and said it was more important to build bridges than walls. He even once advocated for creating a new branch of the military, the U.S. Cyber Force.


Suffice it to say, Stavridis is not afraid of questioning military status quo ― especially when it’s not working. And when it comes to sleep, he fears the worst.



Sleep As A ‘Weapon’


Cordle’s brush with disaster was a wake-up call. He opened his eyes as the panicked crew scrambled to figure out what was going on. 


“For a moment there everybody lost track of where we were,” Cordle said.


One of your natural reactions is to take charge when things aren’t going so well, he explained. He gave the order to stop the ship. 


“And then I realized that I had no idea what was going on. I was so tired that I didn’t think it through,” he said. 


“I could have driven us into shallow water,” he explained. “I forgot there were ships following me that could have run into me.”


Everything turned out OK. “But in retrospect,” he said, “I let myself get so tired that I basically had a near miss.”


Waking up to the dangers of sleep deprivation for the military is a big part of the reason Stavridis said he’s been speaking up about the issue.


“For young officers facing the challenges of watchstanding or flying or combat maneuvers, it is imperative that their superiors ensure real balance in the sleep-waking cycle,” he said.


The conclusion he’s come to about sleep: “Military commanders must think of sleep as a weapon that they can deploy.”


Hitting Rock Bottom


Sleep played a role in the USS Port Royal becoming grounded in 14-to-22 feet of water off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, in February 2009. The Navy estimated damage to the 567-foot cruiser cost around $25 million to $40 million.


Capt. John Carroll, who was in charge of the ship at the time of the grounding, was relieved of his command and reassigned after the incident. The Navy gave him nonjudicial punishment for dereliction of duty and improper hazarding of a vessel, The Honolulu Advertiser reported.



A report from the Navy Safety Investigation Board cited the misinterpretation of a navigation system, faulty equipment, an inexperienced crew and a sleep-deprived Carroll as causes that contributed to the incident.


Carroll had had just four and a half hours of sleep in the 24 hours before the ship grounded ― and just 15 hours of sleep in the three days leading up to the incident. Carroll admitted he was tired and fatigued at the time, according to the Navy report. 


A Navy officer’s schedule is inherently high-tempo and always-changing, making good, consistent sleep difficult. “By nature we have to be able to do everything 24/7,” Cordle said. “When a ship is at sea, somebody has to be up running the engines and driving the ship around the clock.”


Everyone on board a Navy vessel works on rotational shift and rest patterns ― but it’s up to the ship’s officers to figure out that schedule. It’s typical for those shifts to rotate every day.


“You never worked at the same time and you never slept at the same time,” Cordle said.


There’s a culture of toughness on a ship and not admitting when you’re tired, according to Cordle.


Staying awake for a long time is “almost a badge of honor sometimes,” Cordle added. “There’s the expectation to get the job done.”



A Cultural Problem With Sleep


Each branch of the military has its own policies around rest, but the “sleep comes later” attitude is evident on land, air and sea.


Jordan Thornburg, a physician’s assistant at Fort Riley, told HuffPost in April that 27-hour shifts were the norm when he served as an engineer officer in both Iraq and Kuwait. Lt. Col. Ingrid Lim, the lead sleep expert at the office of the Army Surgeon General said in the same article that sleep can be problematic for soldiers. “Whenever fighting happens, sleep is the first thing to go,” he said.


A 2015 Army report found that 10 percent of active duty Army soldiers have a diagnosed sleep disorder ― and almost half have a “clinically significant sleep problem.” Fatigue contributed to 628 Army accidents and 32 soldier deaths between 2011 and 2014, according to the study.


A 2006 report cited “acute and cumulative fatigue, circadian disruptions and sleep inertia” all as factors that contributed to the near crash of a 247-foot U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy cargo aircraft as it attempted a remote island landing. 


“Analysis of the crew work/rest cycles and transmeridian travel confirmed that fatigue was one of the more significant human performance factors in this mishap,” according to the Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine journal article.


General guidelines in Air Force medical policies suggest air personnel get seven to eight hours of sleep every 24 hours. The Air Force also requires a 12-hour off-duty shift before an airman goes on duty. 


But Stavridis said there is still a culture that allows these standards to be pushed aside when needed and overridden in combat operations, and they’re not always as rigorously enforced as they should be.


“Too often, commanders want to show their subordinates that they are somehow super-human,” he wrote. “The leaders feel that saying they will lay down for an hour nap, or need six hours of sleep will undermine the confidence of their subordinates.”



We would never allow an intoxicated soldier in our formations. … Why would we let a soldier in our formations with sleep deprivation?



For Cordle, his own near miss drove him to find ways to avoid putting himself and his crews in those situations again.


“When you’re the guy in charge, if you’re tired, a lot of times there’s nobody else to tell you what to do,” he said. “You have to have your wits about you.”


He’s worked with a team of sleep researchers and naval operations experts to help create navy watch schedules that align sailors’ natural circadian rhythms ― rather than schedules than those that go against our natural sleep-wake schedules. The team is working with the Naval Postgraduate School to help distribute more information about the sleep-optimized schedules for other Navy officers to use. 


“Everything takes time, but I see the conversations happening,” he said. “And having folks like Adm. Stavridis talk about it is very encouraging. I think a lot of the senior leaders are talking about it.”


The Army began rolling out a new force-wide wellness campaign in 2013 called the Performance Triad. The science-based program provides soldiers and their families resources to optimize three pillars of good health: nutrition, exercise and sleep.


Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, the Army’s surgeon general, said sleep patterns may be the most challenging behavior to change, but she’s committed to it.


“This is a culture change that we need to make,” she told Federal News Radio. “It’s going to take a while to get away from the idea that sleep is something we can give up, and start critically asking ourselves whether it’s worth the health consequences.”


“We would never allow an intoxicated soldier in our formations,” she added. “Why would we let a soldier in our formations with sleep deprivation?”


Sarah DiGiulio is The Huffington Post’s sleep reporter. You can contact her at sarah.digiulio@huffingtonpost.com.  

– This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Saturday, July 30, 2016

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