April 11, 2019, T+99, Part 1 -- Global Warming Wallops Minnesota; The Sixth Extinction

Minnesota, global warming, 476 closings -- link here:

Saudi bonds: maybe not all that great after all. For some inexplicable reason, $100 billion in orders, but only $12 billion "sold." Link here.

Tesla: biggest business story today -- Panasonic and Tesla parting ways? That gigafactory in China -- a joint venture between Panasonic and Tesla -- was announced with great fanfare. Now, apparently, a change in plans. Links everywhere.

Wealth tax: what a bunch of crap. There is no law against billionaires paying as much as they want above and beyond what is required by the IRS. If Elizabeth Warren, Warren Buffett, et al, say there should be a wealth tax, let's see them go first with contributing 25% of their wealth to Uncle Sam this year. What a bunch of hypocrites. As for me, I contributed 33% of my military pension to Uncle Sam this year -- above and beyond my tax liability. I paid my required taxes in full -- about 20% tax rate and then on top of that, I made a significantly larger voluntary contribution to Uncle Sam The contribution was a little more than 33% of my military pension. I got no tax deduction for doing that. I gained absolutely nothing from that financially.  I've been doing that for about the last five years. [Correction: I did gain from that financially in this sense. Had I not voluntarily sent that to Uncle Sam, I would have invested it and would have owed more in taxes. But any tax on that lost investment would have paled in comparison to what I voluntarily sent Uncle Sam over and above my required taxes.]

The Sixth Extinction? Link here. I've never read the book by that same title, but I've skimmed through it -- a bunch of nonsense. Net change in species going forward is positive, and by a large margin. Most of the species being "being lost today" due to human activity comes from deforestation in Brazil; urbanization across China, Africa, and South America; illegal poaching in Africa; excessive ocean fishing by the Japanese; under-regulated hunting in the Arctic by indigenous peoples; solar farms in California. No species are being lost due to global warming. None. Period. Dot. Nada. Zilch.

Most interesting: the "real sixth extinction" is the one no has talked about yet. The "Homo" extinction. See below.

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Global Warming: The Science Is Settled

But ... Human Evolution ... The Answer Is Still Out There

From The WSJ:

• a new species 
• "a good case that this is something new that we have not seen before"
• for the first time, the Philippines is part of the evolutionary debate
• new species: Homo luzonensis

I count no less than eleven species of Homo that have gone extinct, and all during the "cold Ice Age," not during any global warming Hot Age.

Homo rudolfensis, Home naledi, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis, and Denisovan are mere blips on the evolutionary stage.

So far, "we" have identified 12 species of "homos." Eleven have gone extinct. 11/12 = 92% homo species have gone extinct. I don't think any of the previous five global mass extinctions were worse. Just saying. 

If I had to name one species that has done exceedingly well it would be the frogs.

Frogs.

• About 88% of amphibian species are classified in the order Anura (from the Greek, "without a tail" -- probably noted by Aristotle)
• These include over 7,000 species in 56 families, of which the Craugastoridae (831 species), Hylidae (720 species), Microhylidae (670 species), and Bufonidae (610 species) are the richest in species.

Reminder:

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Amphibia
• Order: only three orders in the "class of amphibians":
• Anura (frogs and toads) – about 6,500 species
• Caudata or Urodela (newts and salamanders) – about 680 species
• Gymnophiona or Apoda (caecilians [limbless, serpentine]) – about 205 species

Yup, frogs have bragging rights. And more species of frogs are being found every year.

Frogs and toads of North Dakota at this link. The one we caught while exploring the Little Muddy: the northern leopard. LOL.