Day: January 25, 2016

Melanism is the opposite of albinism. Instead of lacking in dark pigment, animals with melanism have an over abundance of dark-colored pigment. When that happens in large cats like leopards and jaguars you end up with a panther. So Panthers aren't a species of large cat, but leopards and jaguars super adapted to jumping on your head and tearing your neck out as you try to colonize the jungle parts of what was once called Burma. How does this factor into the Mascots Matchups theory of picking the Super Bowl Champion? It might not be an straightforward as you think. Sit tight and I'll let you know this Wednesday.

Jacob Lederman at In These Times writes—Flint’s Water Crisis Is No Accident. It’s the Result of Years of Devastating Free-Market Reforms:

By most accounts, cities like Flint are victims of structural forces. The common-sense canard that globalization and technological change have made rust-belt cities unviable has been a convenient narrative for restructuring industrial cities through fiscal austerity programs. But while deindustrialization is an important part of Flint’s story, it obscures broader political forces that have decimated budgets and battered working class populations across the Midwest. According to the Michigan Municipal League, between 2003-2013, Flint lost close to 60 million dollars in revenue sharing from the state, tied to the sales tax, which increased over the same decade. During this period, the city cut its police force in half while violent crime doubled, from 12.2 per 1000 people in 2003, to 23.4 in 2011. Such a loss of revenue is larger than the entire 2015 Flint general fund budget. In fact, cuts to Michigan cities like Flint and Detroit have occurred as state authorities raided so-called statutory revenue sharing funds to balance their own budgets and pay for cuts in business taxes. Unlike “constitutional” revenue sharing in Michigan, state authorities could divert these resources at their discretion. It is estimated that between 2003-2013 the state withheld over $6 billion dollars from Michigan cities.