Growing more food, generating more electricity, expanding cities and industry are all taking a toll on Canada's rivers, according to the World Wildlife Fund Canada.
The report released Thursday, Canada's Rivers at Risk: Environmental Flows and Canada's Freshwater Future, examines the health of 10 major rivers from the perspective of water flow.
"As temperatures rise, and industrial water withdrawals and interest in hydropower increase, we must start planning now to protect river flows to ensure water security for the communities and economies that depend on them," said Tony Maas, director of fresh water with WWF-Canada.According to the report, the biggest threats to the flow of Canada's rivers are climate change, growing water demands and the pursuit of low-carbon energy, which is driving the construction of new hydropower projects.
The three factors are causing changes in water patterns, affecting water levels and altering the flow of rivers, the report says.
Flow regimes in some of Canada's most important rivers, such as the South Saskatchewan and the St. Lawrence, have been modified to the extent that ecosystems are in serious trouble, according to the report.
South Saskatchewan River most threatened
The report says the South Saskatchewan River is Canada's most threatened river. Hundreds of dams exist throughout its watershed and about 70 per cent of its flow is being redirected for use by cities and agriculture.
The document warns that other rivers, including some of the planet's increasingly scarce large free-flowing rivers like the Skeena, the Athabasca, and the Mackenzie, could soon be in trouble.
Other rivers in the report include:
- Fraser River
- Nipigon River
- Grand River
- St. Lawrence River
- St. John River
- Ottawa River
The federal government needs to play a much stronger role in Canadian water stewardship, the report says.
WWF-Canada president Gerald Butts said water is Canada's most important national resource and national leadership is required "to steward it wisely to ensure that future Canadians can benefit from it."
Federal and provincial governments must collaborate with a broad range of stakeholders for the conservation, management and development of Canada's water flow, the report says.
The WWF-Canada also recommends that Canada develop a long-term plan regarding river water flow that includes an examination of the effects of climate change.
"Demand for water is expected to increase as temperatures rise, making protection of environmental flows even more challenging," the report says.
Canadians must also be responsible and make efforts to ensure they draw water within sustainable limits, the report says.
With files from The Canadian PressThe sale of raw milk is legal, with varying restrictions, in 28 states, with five additional states allowing it to be sold as pet food, according to the Weston A. Price Foundation, a Washington-based non-proft that advocates raw milk.
LACTOSE INTOLERANCE: Sixty percent of adults can't digest milk
Efforts to tighten or loosen raw milk sales restrictions are underway in several states, including:
• Maryland: A bill to legalize raw milk sales has been under consideration since February.
• Texas: The state health department recently lost a bid to tighten raw milk sales regulations.
•Connecticut: After the state health department traced an E. coli outbreak to raw milk in 2008, a bill was introduced to rescind farmer's rights to sell raw milk in stores. The bill died in committee after a February hearing.
•Wisconsin: Raw milk supporters recently hired a lobbyist to try to amend state law to allow raw milk sales, according to a state report.
Proposals to allow raw milk only as pet food and to dye the milk an unappetizing color were defeated in Georgia and North Carolina last year.
While no official industry statistics are kept on raw milk sales, raw milk advocates, such as the Weston A. Price Foundation, say more consumers want the choice. "Raw milk (demand) is rapidly growing," says Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Foundation.
Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures raw milk dairy in Fresno, Calif., calls the raw milk campaign an "out-of-control grass-roots movement." In the less than 10 years since he began offering raw milk, he says he has expanded to serve 50,000 to 60,000 people a week.
The FDA has not seen appreciable growth in raw milk production, Herndon says. He warns consumers, "Do not compromise your health by subscribing to the raw milk fad."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says raw milk can host germs such as E. coli and salmonella. A joint CDC and FDA statement implicated raw milk in 45 outbreaks from 1998 to2005 in which people became sick from various bacteria.
McAfee says government tests are misleading because they test milk produced for pasteurization. Raw milk produced for immediate use is processed under more hygienic conditions, he says.
According to the FDA's website, raw milk itself is not routinely tested for pathogens, but "opportunities for the introduction and persistence of salmonella on dairy premises are numerous and varied" and raw milk may include germs passed from human workers to the cow's udder.
Raw milk drinkers pay many times the cost of pasteurized milk, said McAfee, who charges $10 per gallon — compared with a national average of $3.23 for pasteurized milk, according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
"We have been drinking our milk for close to 10 years, and my children are some of the healthiest around," said Pam Lunn, owner of a raw dairy in Tampa
Contributing: Ben Jones, The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wis.
Japan takes hand washing to new level
There was a special dance created by a well-known choreographer, as well as DVDs, special posters and pamphlets. Masks and a " cough etiquette" campaign are already ubiquitous. As is lots and lots of soap.
Thursday was proclaimed the second annual Global Hand Washing Day, and the U.N. agency that promotes child welfare sought to deliver the message that what is a simple measure is the most effective way to prevent many deadly diseases, including H1N1 influenza, commonly known as swine flu. Every year, 8.8 million children under age 5 die of preventable illnesses worldwide.
Making that point in Japan, in the words of one expert, is like shipping coal to Newcastle.
The United Nations says more than 80 countries held events to promote the importance of hand washing. None probably needed the reminder less than Japan, where every day is hand-scrubbing, mask-wearing day. But many Japanese got into the spirit anyway.
Well-known choreographer Kaiji Moriyama composed a hand-washing dance especially for the day and performed it in an oversized sky-blue shirt adorned with white droplets, presumably of soapy water. Hiro Masa of Japan's U.N. Children's Fund committee said Moriyama went to a kindergarten and performed the dance with children.
"We posted the hand-washing dance movie on our Web, YouTube, handed out DVDs, posters and pamphlets to schools, kindergartens and people across the country," Masa said.
"Many children in the world do not have access to safe water or the habit or means to wash their hands properly," he said. "We want to tell the Japanese public, and in particular children, about the situation."
With the recent flu scare, cleanliness has become an even more serious issue here than usual.
The H1N1 flu is spreading in Japan, and many schools have closed. There were at least 240,000 cases across the country from Sept. 22 to Sept. 27, according to the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center.
Hiroshi Shoji, an English-language instructor in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo, said children usually wash their hands and gargle in the winter, but now it is many times a day -- and after every activity.
"Students in this area must wash their hands, gargle and spray hands with alcohol upon entering school," he said. "Any time of the day, students are free to gargle, wash their hands and spray their hands with alcohol. They are allowed to wear masks if they want to."
Yushi Yamada, a Tokyo fourth-grader, is learning the Japanese way early in life. He said he washes his hands four times a day, excluding the times after using the toilet.
"I know it's very important," he said.
But one mother at an elementary school said the school had alcohol hand gel. Some children licked it off their hands and became drunk.
Shoji's wife, Sandra, an instructor at Tokyo International University, complained that restrooms at many universities have only cold water because of a lack of money, and students don't seem particularly focused on washing.
"But teachers have become cautious and are like 'Monk,' " she said, referring to the TV show about an obsessive-compulsive investigator. "We use handkerchiefs to open doors. We use wipes after touching computers or students' papers. More teachers are having students send homework by e-mail or a university e-group. That way, teachers don't have to touch lots of germy papers."
That's true recently for Japanese workers as well. Notices about H1N1 prevention -- washing your hands and wearing a mask if you are sick -- are displayed in many office buildings.
The government even launched a "cough etiquette" campaign telling people to cover their mouths with a tissue and turn away from people. Used tissues must be thrown away as soon as possible.
The problem is, Japan is so tidy that public trash cans can be hard to find.
Thursday was proclaimed the second annual Global Hand Washing Day, and the U.N. agency that promotes child welfare sought to deliver the message that what is a simple measure is the most effective way to prevent many deadly diseases, including H1N1 influenza, commonly known as swine flu. Every year, 8.8 million children under age 5 die of preventable illnesses worldwide.
Making that point in Japan, in the words of one expert, is like shipping coal to Newcastle.
The United Nations says more than 80 countries held events to promote the importance of hand washing. None probably needed the reminder less than Japan, where every day is hand-scrubbing, mask-wearing day. But many Japanese got into the spirit anyway.
Well-known choreographer Kaiji Moriyama composed a hand-washing dance especially for the day and performed it in an oversized sky-blue shirt adorned with white droplets, presumably of soapy water. Hiro Masa of Japan's U.N. Children's Fund committee said Moriyama went to a kindergarten and performed the dance with children.
"We posted the hand-washing dance movie on our Web, YouTube, handed out DVDs, posters and pamphlets to schools, kindergartens and people across the country," Masa said.
"Many children in the world do not have access to safe water or the habit or means to wash their hands properly," he said. "We want to tell the Japanese public, and in particular children, about the situation."
With the recent flu scare, cleanliness has become an even more serious issue here than usual.
The H1N1 flu is spreading in Japan, and many schools have closed. There were at least 240,000 cases across the country from Sept. 22 to Sept. 27, according to the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center.
Hiroshi Shoji, an English-language instructor in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo, said children usually wash their hands and gargle in the winter, but now it is many times a day -- and after every activity.
"Students in this area must wash their hands, gargle and spray hands with alcohol upon entering school," he said. "Any time of the day, students are free to gargle, wash their hands and spray their hands with alcohol. They are allowed to wear masks if they want to."
Yushi Yamada, a Tokyo fourth-grader, is learning the Japanese way early in life. He said he washes his hands four times a day, excluding the times after using the toilet.
"I know it's very important," he said.
But one mother at an elementary school said the school had alcohol hand gel. Some children licked it off their hands and became drunk.
Shoji's wife, Sandra, an instructor at Tokyo International University, complained that restrooms at many universities have only cold water because of a lack of money, and students don't seem particularly focused on washing.
"But teachers have become cautious and are like 'Monk,' " she said, referring to the TV show about an obsessive-compulsive investigator. "We use handkerchiefs to open doors. We use wipes after touching computers or students' papers. More teachers are having students send homework by e-mail or a university e-group. That way, teachers don't have to touch lots of germy papers."
That's true recently for Japanese workers as well. Notices about H1N1 prevention -- washing your hands and wearing a mask if you are sick -- are displayed in many office buildings.
The government even launched a "cough etiquette" campaign telling people to cover their mouths with a tissue and turn away from people. Used tissues must be thrown away as soon as possible.
The problem is, Japan is so tidy that public trash cans can be hard to find.
Cheerleaders take high-flying risks under untrained eyes
"Right now, cheerleading is out of control," said Dr. Frederick Mueller, director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina. "Kids are practicing all over the place without mats. They practice when they want to, do what they want to, and some coaches aren't certified and don't know what they're doing."
Statistics confirm the danger. Cheerleading injuries resulting in emergency room visits have increased almost sixfold since 1980, to nearly 30,000 in 2008, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported.
Statistics confirm the danger. Cheerleading injuries resulting in emergency room visits have increased almost sixfold since 1980, to nearly 30,000 in 2008, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported.
Experts attribute cheerleading's danger to three things: inadequate safety measures, improper training and the competitiveness of the activity. One television experiment showed that the sideline action might be more perilous than a powerful football tackle.
Consortium News
It is an important principle of journalism that when someone makes a statement, especially a controversial one with grave implications, the comment should be put in the fullest possible context so the reader can make an informed judgment. But that rule doesn’t seem to apply when the New York Times writes about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In a front-page story on Saturday, the Times three times (once in a sub-head and twice in the article) reported that Ahmadinejad called the World War II Holocaust of European Jews a “lie” during an annual “Quds Day” speech showing solidarity with the Palestinian people. But the Times offered no fuller context for the quote. The White House and other U.S. officials reacted to the “lie” remark, which also was featured in other Western news accounts, with understandable outrage. However, Iran’s Press TV reported that “Ahmadinejad did not deny the Holocaust, but raised some questions about the matter, asking Western powers for a logical answer.” Press TV quoted Ahmadinejad as saying: "If the Holocaust, as you claim, is true, why don't you allow a probe into the issue?" Press TV added that Ahmadinejad was “calling the Zionist regime a symbol of lies and deception founded on ‘colonialist’ attitudes. The Iranian president also asked why Palestinians had to pay for the genocide of Jews at the hands of Europeans.” So what did Ahmadinejad really say? In the English-language account of the speech published on the official Web site of the Iranian president, Ahmadinejad calls the “pretext” for founding the state of Israel “a lie,” but he doesn’t spell out precisely what he means by “pretext.” In the context, the word seems to refer to the Holocaust, but arguably his reference to "a lie which relies on ... a mythical claim" could be about Biblical claims to the land of Palestine that Zionist organizations cite. As Press TV says, Ahmadinejad frames his skeptical comments about the Holocaust within Western hostility toward the scholarship of some European and American Holocaust skeptics (often called "deniers") who dispute details such as the estimated number of six million Jews killed by the Nazis. But some of that supposed scholarship has been widely viewed as an excuse by neo-fascists and anti-Semites to diminish the horror of the Nazi extermination campaign against Jews and other groups considered undesirable by Adolf Hitler and his German Third Reich. If you wish to make up your own mind about Ahmadinejad’s “lie” comment, here is his office’s English-language summary of the speech, which was delivered in Farsi, the Persian language. MacKay denies seeing Afghan torture warnings A public hearing by the Military Police Complaints Commission into the torture allegations was shut down Wednesday for at least six months to let lawyers argue appeals over the scope of the agency's power and what it can investigate. At least two Commons committees are poised to begin their own investigations of how Canada has handled Afghan prisoners and whether they were knowingly handed over to torture, in apparent violation of international law. Federal lawyers accused of trying to bully witnesses in Afghan torture probe The lawyer representing a former Canadian diplomat, who's signalled he's willing to speak before a Military Police Complaints Commission inquiry, blasted the Justice Department in a letter Tuesday, one day before the resumption of often side-tracked public hearings. Lori Bokenfohr also accused the federal government's lead attorney on the file of "misleading" the watchdog agency last week when Alain Prefontaine told the commission that witnesses who refused to be interviewed were "simply exercising individual human rights in declining." |
He told the public hearing that federal lawyers approached all of the
subpoenaed witnesses they represent and "none have seen fit to accept
the commission's offer" to be interviewed ahead of time and that they
have not
seen that it was "in their best interest to participate."
subpoenaed witnesses they represent and "none have seen fit to accept
the commission's offer" to be interviewed ahead of time and that they
have not
seen that it was "in their best interest to participate."
Bokenfohr referenced a separate letter sent by Prefontaine on July 28,
2009 to all witnesses subpoenaed to appear before the commission,
including her client Richard Colvin.
2009 to all witnesses subpoenaed to appear before the commission,
including her client Richard Colvin.
The witnesses, including senior military commanders, military police
officers, correctional officials and foreign affairs staff, were told that
reputations were at stake and then proceeded to outline "what is at stake
for you."
officers, correctional officials and foreign affairs staff, were told that
reputations were at stake and then proceeded to outline "what is at stake
for you."
Startling video of Ont. university student beaten by
police draws condemnation online
Tylenol May Weaken Infant Vaccines
Acetaminophen Linked to Poorer Immune Response to Infant Vaccines
( Interesting timing on this )
Windows 7, wallpapers de Arquitectura
As Foreclosures Hit All-Time High, Wall Street on Pace to Hand Out Record $140B
in Employee Bonuses
he Dow Jones Industrial Average has topped 10,000 for the first time in a
year, as JPMorgan Chase reported massive profits in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that major US banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $140 billion this year—a record high. But on Main Street, foreclosures are also at record
levels, and the official unemployment rate is expected to top ten percent.
We speak to former bank regulator William Black, author of The Best Way
to Rob a Bank Is to Own One
year, as JPMorgan Chase reported massive profits in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that major US banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $140 billion this year—a record high. But on Main Street, foreclosures are also at record
levels, and the official unemployment rate is expected to top ten percent.
We speak to former bank regulator William Black, author of The Best Way
to Rob a Bank Is to Own One
Nomi Prins on "It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses, and Backroom Deals From Washington
to Wall Street"
Slovenian Philosopher Slavoj Zizek on Capitalism, Healthcare, Latin American
“Populism” and the “Farcical” Financial Crisis
Dubbed by the National Review as “the most dangerous political philosopher
in the West” and the New York Times as “the Elvis of cultural theory,”
Slovenian philosopher and public intellectual Slavoj Žižek has written over
fifty books on philosophy, psychoanalysis, theology, history and political
theory. In his latest book, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, Žižek analyzes
how the United States has moved from the tragedy of 9/11 to what he calls
the farce of the financial meltdown.
in the West” and the New York Times as “the Elvis of cultural theory,”
Slovenian philosopher and public intellectual Slavoj Žižek has written over
fifty books on philosophy, psychoanalysis, theology, history and political
theory. In his latest book, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, Žižek analyzes
how the United States has moved from the tragedy of 9/11 to what he calls
the farce of the financial meltdown.
..
We don’t believe in democracy—nobody. You make fun of it and so on, but somehow we act as if it works. It’s a very strange situation, because there are—some of us old enough still remember them, old days when the public
face of power was dignity, belief. And privately you mocked it, you made
fun, and so on, no? Now we are, I think, approaching a very strange state,
where the public face of power is becoming more and more openly indecent, obscene.
face of power was dignity, belief. And privately you mocked it, you made
fun, and so on, no? Now we are, I think, approaching a very strange state,
where the public face of power is becoming more and more openly indecent, obscene.
A soldier from Somerset who lost both legs and his right arm while serving in
Afghanistan has been subjected to cruel taunts over his injuries.
Afghanistan has been subjected to cruel taunts over his injuries.
Afghan War Debate Endangers U.S. Troops -
Veterans
( There are days you have to wonder how some people cope with being
civilians : responsible for questioning/restraining authority instead of frogmarching in line abreast. )
civilians : responsible for questioning/restraining authority instead of frogmarching in line abreast. )
PayChoice Suffers Another Data Breach
This week's attack appears to be the second stage of a sophisticated cyber assault launched
last month against PayChoice customers. In that attack, hackers broke into the company's
servers and stole customer user names and passwords. The attackers then included that
information in e-mails to PayChoice's customers warning them that they needed to download
a Web browser plug-in in order to maintain uninterrupted access to onlineemployer.com. The
supposed plug-in offered in that e-mail was instead malicious software designed to steal the
victim's user names and passwords.
last month against PayChoice customers. In that attack, hackers broke into the company's
servers and stole customer user names and passwords. The attackers then included that
information in e-mails to PayChoice's customers warning them that they needed to download
a Web browser plug-in in order to maintain uninterrupted access to onlineemployer.com. The
supposed plug-in offered in that e-mail was instead malicious software designed to steal the
victim's user names and passwords.
Laser creates false memories in fly brains
Group of U.S. conservatives rewrite the Bible
( The supposed custodians of public morality can't even agree on 'acceptable verbage' ! To 'P.C.'
or not to 'P.C.' : that is the question ! )
or not to 'P.C.' : that is the question ! )
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