Here’s What The Golden State Warriors Did Instead Of Visiting The White House

In lieu of a visit to the White House, the Golden State Warriors spent a chunk of Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, touring the National Museum of African-American History and Culture with a throng of local kids.

The outing was made possible because the Warriors had a hole in their schedule, partly by their own choosing. The odds are that they wouldn’t have participated in the traditional White House photo op anyway, but Golden State Warriors star point guard Stephen Curry made it perfectly clear months earlier why he didn’t want to shlep to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

“We don’t stand for basically what our president has — the things that he’s said and the things that he hasn’t said in the right times, that we won’t stand for it,” Curry told USA Today in September 2017. “And by acting and not going, hopefully that will inspire some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country and what is accepted and what we turn a blind eye to.”

During some “executive time,” an early morning period of the workday in which the president is allowed to watch and live-tweet his favorite television shows, Trump had caught a segment on “Fox and Friends” — long a preferred viewing choice — devoted to Curry and had unleashed his anger online. At that point, the Warriors had not yet received a formal invitation from either Trump or the White House, but Trump rescinded the nonexistent offer to hang out via his preferred mode of id-unpacking, Twitter:

Before a game against the New York Knicks on Feb. 26, Klay Thompson, unlike many of his teammates and head coach Steve Kerr, kept his criticism muted, calling a visit to the White House a “great honor.” Unfortunately, “other circumstances” made the team “uncomfortable,” according to Thompson, who declined to specify exactly what those circumstances might be.

“We’re not going to politicize anything,” Thompson said — which wasn’t really possible at that point, even if the Warriors did decide to skip a proposed grip-and-grin offered by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats. Instead, the team settled on a more productive use of their afternoon in the nation’s capital. “We’re going to hang out with some kids and take them to the African-American Museum and hopefully teach them some things we learned along the way,” Thompson explained.

The kids were students from the Seat Pleasant Activity Center, a recreation and educational facility in Maryland that counts Kevin Durant as a former attendee, and College Track, a nonprofit organization that helps kids prepare for and get into colleges and universities. (Durant also recently donated $10 million to College Track.)

“Getting to hang around with the best team in the NBA, the world champions, we never got that opportunity at that age,” Durant told the Washington Post. “To be able to provide them that type of experience, it’s going to do a lot for those kids. They’re going to remember this for the rest of their lives.”

Durant previously visited the museum and was struck by exhibits devoted to slavery, Emmitt Till, and the death and starvation incurred by slaves during the Middle Passage.

“There was so much that you hear and I learned in elementary school and through school, but just some of the photos … my mom, my parents, they wouldn’t let me see as a kid,” Durant said. “Some of the stuff you probably had to wait until you were older to see. It was good to get that history.”

Per ESPN, the players collectively decided how to spend their Trump-free afternoon:

“It's their championship. They got disinvited to the White House, so it's up to them what they wanted to do. So they made their plans," Kerr told ESPN. "I want the players to have a good day and to do something positive and to enjoy what they're doing.”

Though the press was barred from tagging along, Curry kept his phone rolling. Here’s a short bit of video from him detailing what looks like a pretty fun afternoon and probably one a lot more enjoyable than serving as a bit of propaganda for a president almost no one on the roster seems to like very much.

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A Business Was So Impressed With The Thieves That Robbed Them That They Offered Them Jobs

You can’t accuse Smith Crane & Construction of failing to find a silver lining in even the most objectively bad situation. Earlier this week, the New Zealand-based contractor learned that it had been targeted by thieves who made off with the company’s tools and other property, so they started a hunt for the thieves — but not in the way you’d think. 

The company, apparently impressed by the criminals’ willingness to work early hours in conducting their low-grade heist, put up a Facebook post to offer the industrious gang an “honest living” with the firm. In a very “glass half-full” characterization of the thieves, the company publicly dissected the desirable traits the perpetrators exhibited. 

If the outcome seems too good to be true for the thieves, well, maybe it is. The criminals caught on camera may want to seek gainful employment elsewhere, as the company commented on its own post that it’s offering a reward for information leading to the capture of these two people — presumably not so they can schedule a meeting with human resources.

Speaking to Newshub, the company’s owner, Tim Smith, came clean saying the post was made more in jest than in earnest, but that he’s open-minded. “We can give them some work if they want … we have ex-prisoners working for us,” he said.

Judging by their current career path and the fact that they’d be facing jail time for their crime, he shouldn’t expect them to be turning up any time soon, but stranger things have happened, and we’d all like an update to give us some closure here. This has all the hallmarks of a feel-good story, save an actual ending.

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Is diesel done?

With bans coming in Rome, Milan and a few German cities, people are voting with their wallets.

In Italy last year, 2/3 of the cars sold were diesels. But now the City of Rome plans to ban diesels by 2024. According to the Guardian,

Pollution from combustion engines causes severe damage to Rome’s many ancient outdoor monuments. According to a study last year by a branch of the culture ministry, 3,600 stone monuments and 60 bronze sculptures risk serious deterioration because of air pollution.

Milan has announced plans to make the city diesel-free by 2030.

But perhaps the biggest news is from Germany, where diesel bans in Dusseldorf and Stuttgart were challenged in court. Now a higher court has ruled that cities have the legal right to ban diesels.

The court said it would be up to city and municipal authorities to apply the bans, but advised them to “exercise proportionality” in enforcing them, and to impose them gradually, granting exemptions for certain vehicles, such as ambulances, rubbish collection lorries and police cars.

According to Leonid Bershidsky in Bloomberg, "from now on, buying a diesel car is an act of unnecessary courage." The federal government is against these bans, and insists that no federal bans are coming.

The coalition agreement on the formation of the next German government specifically says -- twice -- that diesel bans are to be avoided and that cleaner air can be achieved by other means, such as increasing the share of electric cars and using them for government service.

But in fact the German car buyers are voting with their wallets; used diesels are sitting on the lots and their residual values are dropping fast. Fewer people are going to buy diesels if they worry that they won't be able to sell it.

That's a major headache, not just for car owners but also for the German car industry. Diesel cars made up 45.8 percent of new registrations in Germany in 2016, the latest year for which data are available from the European Automobile Manufacturing Association. That's not as high as Ireland's 70 percent, yet high enough to make quick retooling expensive -- not to mention the potential for angry car owners' demands that manufacturers retrofit their cars to comply with pollution regulations. There's already political pressure on them to bear any potential costs of such retrofits.

According to Kate Connolly in the Guardian,

..excessive amounts of nitrogen oxides or NOx in the air kill between 6,000 and 13,000 people in Germany every year, causing a range of health conditions, from strokes to asthma. Most NOx comes from transport, especially diesel motors. The EU threshold of 40 micrograms of NOx per cubic metre is frequently exceeded in many German cities, with 70 on the list, most notably Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Munich.

Diesels also pump out PM2.5 particulates, which can be reduced by up to 90 percent by filters, but which need regular maintenance; according to one source, they clog up when used mainly for urban driving.

How they park in Rome: everywhere. /Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

Unfortunately, when you go to cities like Rome or Milan, it's clear that they are just completely overwhelmed with cars, they are everywhere. At some point they are going to have to do a lot more than just ban diesels.

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Norfolk Requires Developers To Do More Against Flooding

This video of a bunny harvestman might change you forever

Our photo of the day comes with moving images of a daddy longlegs that you will likely never forget.

Behold the bunny harvestman! This fabulous shot of Metagryne bicolumnata comes from regular TreeHugger photo contributor Andreas Kay, who is busy documenting the biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador.

Kay explains that despite this fanciful creature's spider-bunny appearance, it is not actually a spider (or a bunny, for that matter), but rather a daddy longlegs. Coming from the family of Cosmetidae in the order of Opiliones (colloquially known as harvestmen or daddy longlegs), they may superficially seem similar to spiders, however they are not closely related to spiders' order Araneae.

He adds, "Contrary to a common belief Harvestman do not have venom glands and are absolutely harmless. Harvestmen have been around for at least 400 million years and lived even before the dinosaurs."

Photos of this critter are wonderful enough, but wait until you see it in action in the short video below that Kay filmed as well. It is extraordinary. It looks like some kind of cute bat-meets-bunny being carted around on a surreal leggy machine. Seeing wonders of nature as remarkable as this little daddy longlegs can have a profound effect – and if nothing else, instill an appreciation of the incredible diversity of flora and fauna quietly doing their fabulous things deep in the rainforest of Ecuador.

Would you like to see your nature photo featured as the TreeHugger photo of the day? Join TreeHugger’s Reader Photo Pool on flickr and add your pictures to the group.

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Watch: James Watt, the farmer who challenged a palm oil fiefdom

We met James Watt in his home village of Bangkal during the reporting of “The palm oil fiefdom,” in early 2017. Bangkal lies on the banks of Sembuluh, a sprawling lake in the heart of Seruyan district, in Indonesian Borneo. A few decades ago, Seruyan was a sea of rainforest. During the dictatorship of Suharto, like many areas in Borneo, it was heavily impacted by logging that thinned out the forest and made the soil prone to burning. From the early 2000s, it was afflicted by a new and different problem: oil palm plantations. In the early years of Indonesia’s transition to democracy, during which district chiefs, known as bupatis, assumed new and wide-ranging powers, farmers like James hoped the investors who flooded into Seruyan would be made to work in partnership with them. In fact, they were explicitly told this would be the case. But in Seruyan, under the control of bupati Darwan Ali, the farmers were cut out of the deal. James Watt at Lake Sembuluh. Photo by Leo Plunkett for The Gecko Project. As James told us, “All we got was oppression. Clearing our land, dumping waste in our rivers. We never imagined it would be like this.” As the companies pushed into the villagers’ land, Darwan didn’t lift a finger. “It was always empty promises with him. I think he saw being bupati as his chance to make as much money as possible.” As shown by our investigation, produced in collaboration with The Gecko Project, Darwan…

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We’ve lived through one wild year of Ryan Zinke.

It’s been 365 moons since the secretary of the Interior rode a horse (Tonto, thank you) to his first day at the office and promised to make American energy dominance a centerpiece of his agenda.

In that period of time, Zinke dismantled protections on some of America’s most treasured national monuments, opened up acres of public land to oil and gas interests, and exposed miles of coastline to offshore drilling.

Here’s a quick recap of his recent crowning accomplishments:

• On Zinke’s recommendation, the GOP December tax bill opened up 2,000 acres for development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area that’s home to many endangered species.
• That same month, Trump downsized two national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. A week later, Zinke recommended that the president shrink two more monuments and reorganize six marine monuments.
• This January, Zinke unveiled plans to open up a whole slew of new areas for offshore drilling, including the Arctic, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and possibly parts of the Pacific.

To honor his efficiency, Zinke received the 2017 Rubber Dodo Award from the Center for Biological Diversity. It’s bestowed upon the “person or group who has most aggressively sought to destroy America’s natural heritage or drive endangered species extinct.” High praise for a guy who’s actually supposed to protect those things.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline We’ve lived through one wild year of Ryan Zinke. on Mar 1, 2018.

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Decisions today will decide Antarctic ice sheet loss and sea level rise | Dana Nuccitelli

Spring Break Goes Wild(life)

Looking for some nature on your spring break? Go where the wild things are.

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Our aloes are finally flowering—and how!

All things come to those who wait, they say. It certainly took a while this year for the flowers on our aloes to open. I'm convinced the inconsistent weather—cool, unseaonably warm, cool, rainy, cold—got the plants all confused. But finally, after almost two months of impatient waiting on my part, the aloes planted in the strip along the street are at their peak.

Aloe excelsa (first two photos) is flowering for the first time, and our three Aloe 'Moonlight' (orange-yellow flowers) have never had so many inflorescences. Exciting times indeed!

Let's take a look!

Aloe excelsa blooming for the first time

Aloe excelsa

Aloe excelsa (left), Aloe 'Moonshine' (right)

This is the first of three clumps of Aloe 'Moonshine' we have now. They all came from the same mother—one of two plants in a #5 can (a friend of mine got the second plant in the pot). What a deal, considering all our 'Moonglow' cost us less than $10 in total.

Aloe ferox, bigger than ever

Aloe ferox wasn't satisfied with the large flower stalk on the left so it pushed a second one from the center

Aloe ferox; the tree behind the fence is Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea'

Aloe 'Moonglow', clump #2. The tall aloe is Aloidendron 'Hercules'; it's still much too small to flower.

Aloe 'Moonglow', clump #2

Aloe hereroensis

Aloe hereroensis flowers are truly spectacular

Aloe hereroensis flower up close

Aloe capitata var. quartziticola

Aloe capitata var. quartziticola. What can I say? It's still my favorite aloe.

Aloe capitata var. quartziticola

From left to right: Aloe ferox, Aloe 'Moonglow', Aloe capitata var. quartziticola, Aloe glauca

On the right: Aloe 'Erik the Red'

Aloe 'Erik the Red'. It has the reddest flowers of any aloe I've ever seen. And they haven't even opened up yet!

I take back what I said about Aloe capitata var. quartziticola being my favorite aloe. That honor goes to Aloe 'Erik the Red'. At least at the moment.

Aloe 'Erik the Red' and Aloe 'Moonglow', clump #3

Aloe 'Moonglow', clump #3

Aloe 'Moonglow', clump #3. The yellow-flowering shrublet in front of it is the dwarf bush marigold I brought back from Southern California (a hybrid between Tagetes lemmonii and Tagetes lucida called 'Gold Medal').

Aloe 'Moonglow', clump #3

Since the weather continues to be on the cool side (the highest daytime high I see in the 7-day forecast is 61°F), I expect these aloe flowers to last another few weeks. I'll be sad to see them go. Although by then spring might be here for real.

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Teams At The NFL Combine Are Asking Prospects Some Very Strange Questions

As long as there’s been an NFL draft, teams have adopted tactics to ensure their selections are prepared for success — both physically and mentally. While players’ physical pedigrees are proven during their college careers, the psychological aspects have proven far more elusive, turning the league’s pre-draft player evaluations into surreal interviews, and featuring questions that would never fly at a cocktail party … or anywhere else for that matter. 

Execs and scouts use seemingly random questions to get inside the heads of the players they’re sizing up, doing their best to ensure they’re drafting a player who displays as much mental fitness as they do physical prowess. 

The strange questions asked of players have turned into something of a trope over the years, and the collection of previously asked questions will cause you to wonder what’s going on in the interviewers’ minds, more so than those of the subjects. 

The questions below have all been asked of players in the previous NFL Combines, and while very little context is provided for the queries, it’s hard to imagine any circumstances that would make these questions appropriate, never mind useful, in the evaluation process. 

For instance, where on a player’s draft sheet do you mark down their response to this question? 

It would be fun to see a player’s response to this question pop up on a draft day graphic, too. 

The player tasked with answering this question no doubt sweated while trying to figure out which was the “right” answer. 

Most of us no better to pull at this thread, but all is (apparently) fair game in sizing up a draft pick. 

Unless this was posed by the equipment manager, it seems like a very inappropriate question as well. 

Again, I don’t understand the purpose here, but I feel like for a football player, “shark” is a safe answer. 

Given the questions asked, and the fact that NFL teams don’t appear to be any more or less successful with their draft picks following these nosy interviews, it’s little surprise that the whole psychological testing process is debunked and retooled on an almost annual basis. But that doesn’t keep teams from trying their best to get inside the heads of their prospective players. 

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