texas – Page 5 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Growing U.S. Violent Extremism – Facts on the Ground: UMD Database

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2011General, Politicsal qaida, anti abortion extremists, aqap, arabian peninsula, attacks, blueprint, community resilience, earth liberation front, elf, environmental extremists, financial schemes, foiled terrorist plots, ft hood, gary lafree, global war on terrorism, homegrown terrorists, islamist extremists, janet napolitano, lone wolf, North America, plots, political spectrum, radicalization, start, statistics, tehrik i taliban pakistan, terrorism database, terrorist attacks, texas, ttp, united states, university of maryland, violent extremism, White House, white supremacists, work of extremists

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Over the past decade, attacks and plots by homegrown terrorists in the United States have increased, the work of extremists from across the political spectrum – roughly 40 percent of it by so-called ‘lone wolf,’ non-aligned actors – says an analysis by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) based at the University of Maryland.

The statistics underscore the threat addressed in a White House plan released Thursday: Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States – a blueprint for “building community resilience against violent extremism.” (more…)

UCLA Study Finds U.S. Has More Elected, Appointed Asian American Officials Than Ever

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2011Politicsasian american, asian american politics, asian pacific americans, california, david k yoo, don nakanishi, hawaii, irvine, james lai, new york, oakland, pacific islander, political almanac, political process, political trends, politicians, public office, san francisco, state governors, texas, united states, us history, voters

More Asian Pacific Americans hold public office in the United States than at any other time in U.S. history, a sign of the community’s growing engagement with the political process, according to a newly released political almanac published by UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center.

The 14th edition of the National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac, first published in 1976, contains information on all 3,000 current elected and appointed officials. It also analyzes political trends and makes electoral projections of the nation’s 17 million Asian Pacific Americans. (more…)

Today’s Severe Drought, Tomorrow’s Normal

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2011Environmentatmospheric greenhouse gases, balance, benjamin santer, berkeley lab, canada, century, climate models, david easterling, drought, dust bowl, evapotranspiration, global climate, jay lawrimore, Mexico, michael wehner, noaa, normal occurrence, North America, oklahoma, precipitation, richard heim, russell vose, severe drought conditions, simulations, state-of-the-art, texas, united states, warming planet

*Berkeley Lab scientists part of team that analyzed 19 state-of-the-art climate models.*

While the worst drought since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s grips Oklahoma and Texas, scientists are warning that what we consider severe drought conditions in North America today may be normal for the continent by the mid-21^st century, due to a warming planet.

A team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came to this conclusion after analyzing 19 different state-of-the-art climate models. Looking at the balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration—the movement of water from soil to air—they found that no matter how rainfall patterns change over the next 100 years, a warming planet leads to drought. Their results were published in the December 2011 issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Hydrometerology. (more…)

Chagas Disease May Be A Threat in South Texas, Says Researcher

By Guest PostOctober 10, 2011Health, Sciencebugs, chagas disease, chagas disease in texas, chagas infections, disease, heart and digestive disorders, insects, kissing bugs, latin america, Mexico, multi layered attack, philip williamson, protozoa, sahotra sarkar, south america, south texas, texas, triatomine bugs, tropical parasitic disease, trypanosoma cruzi, university of texas at austin

AUSTIN, Texas — Chagas disease, a tropical parasitic disease that can lead to life-threatening heart and digestive disorders, may be more widespread in Texas than previously thought, according to research from The University of Texas at Austin.

“We’ve been studying this for four years now, and this year the number of disease-causing insects is quite amazing,” says Sahotra Sarkar, professor of integrative biology and philosophy at The University of Texas at Austin and lead author of a paper on the disease published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. (more…)

Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Minimum 2011 Extent, the Second Lowest in the Satellite Record

By Guest PostSeptember 19, 2011EnvironmentArctic, arctic ocean, Arctic sea ice, arctic sea ice extent, atmosphere, california, floating ice chunks, goddard space flight center, greenbelt, greenhouse gases, mark serreze, NASA, national snow and ice data center, sea ice, texas, university of colorado boulder, walt meier, warming temperatures

The blanket of sea ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean appears to have reached its lowest extent for 2011, the second lowest recorded since satellites began measuring it in 1979, according to the University of Colorado Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The Arctic sea ice extent fell to 1.67 million square miles, or 4.33 million square kilometers on Sept. 9, 2011. This year’s minimum of 1.67 million square miles is more than 1 million square miles below the 1979-2000 monthly average extent for September — an area larger than Texas and California combined. (more…)

“The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” Collection Donated to Ransom Center

By Guest PostAugust 3, 2011Culturebest choreography, broadway production, carlin glynn, carol hall, gilbert, harry ransom center at the university of texas at austin, helen adair, husband wife duo actress, jessie mae, larry l king, mona stangley, owner of a brothel, peter masterson, publicity photographs, pulitzer prize winning play, texas, the best little whorehouse in texas, the convict, the harry ransom center, the trip to bountiful, the university of texas at austin, the young man from atlanta, tony award

AUSTIN, Texas — The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, has acquired a collection of materials from husband-wife duo actress Carlin Glynn and writer and director Peter Masterson relating to their careers and their work on the original Broadway production and film of “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”

The collection consists of eight document boxes of materials, half of which relate to the 1978 musical. The musical was directed by Masterson, who also co-authored the book with Larry L. King. Carol Hall wrote the lyrics for the musical. The stage musical starred Glynn as Mona Stangley, the owner of a brothel in the fictional town of Gilbert, Texas. The show ran for more than 1,500 performances on Broadway, toured extensively and was adapted to film in 1982. (more…)

New Map Reveals Giant Fjords Beneath East Antarctic Ice Sheet

By Guest PostJune 4, 2011Environmentairborne geophysical instruments, antarctic ice sheet, Antarctica, aurora subglacial basin, australia, computer modelers, dc 3 aircraft, donald blankenship, duncan young, earth, east antarctic ice sheet, east antarctica, fjords, global sea level, high resolution topographic map, ice cut channels, ice penetrating radar, icecap, icecap project, investigating the cryospheric evolution of the central antarctic plate, sea level, sea level fluctuations, texas, university of texas at austin, world war

AUSTIN, Texas — Scientists from the U.S., U.K. and Australia have used ice-penetrating radar to create the first high-resolution topographic map of one of the last uncharted regions of Earth, the Aurora Subglacial Basin, an immense ice-buried lowland in East Antarctica larger than Texas.

The map reveals some of the largest fjords or ice cut channels on Earth, providing important insights into the history of ice in Antarctica. The data will also help computer modelers improve their simulations of the past and future Antarctic ice sheet and its potential impact on global sea level. (more…)

IBM Helps City of Fort Worth and Tarrant County Create a Smarter Public Safety System

By Guest PostJune 2, 2011Technologycowboys stadium in arlington, fort worth, ibm, jeff schick, jeoc, joint emergency operations center, juan ortiz, melissa patterson, public safety agencies, radioconnect, social software, steve white, super bowl xlv, tarrant county, texas, unifiededge

*New emergency response system helps improve efficiency and deliver better services to citizens*

ARMONK, N.Y., – 02 Jun 2011: IBM today announced it is helping Texas emergency responders in Fort Worth and Tarrant County’s joint emergency operations center (JEOC) better respond to calls for help and communicate instantaneously with dozens of agencies and departments across that state.

Fort Worth and Tarrant County are two of the fastest growing jurisdictions in Texas with about 1.8 million residents. Using social software from IBM and its business partner, UnifiedEdge, the region is rapidly creating a “smarter” and modern public safety system to serve its growing population. (more…)

Tag Archives: texas