http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/12/water-supply-contaminants.html
Environmental Working Group public interest organization has created an online database of water quality test results from 45 states.The group's analysis of utility information found that water agencies across the country have detected a total of more than 300 pollutants in supplies, more than half of which are not regulated by the government.
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set enforceable drinking water safety standards for only 114 of the 316 substances detected."
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Murray Darling-Basin: blocking water reform
http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2009/12/murray-darlingb.php
http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2009/12/murray-darlingb.php
Sooner, rather than latter, the flows in the chopped up River Murray will become less and less. The river, in its climate-change-driven decline, will strangle many of the irrigation projects in the arid landscape around it, as there is not enough water to support the heavily subsidised agribusinesses.
Why Britain faces a bleak future of food shortages
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/13/britain-faces-food-shortage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/13/britain-faces-food-shortage
Britain faces a 'perfect storm' of water shortage and lack of food, says the government's chief scientist, and climate change and crop and animal diseases will add to future woes.
Katine residents take lessons from 'model farmer'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2009/dec/07/model-farmer-gweri-visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2009/dec/07/model-farmer-gweri-visit
Work being undertaken by the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) and Farm-Africa will have limited impact on the Katine community unless residents take the lead and help themselves, a farmer from a neighbouring sub-county has warned.
Ezekiel Eituno, a "model" farmer from Gweri sub-county, north-east Uganda, said solutions to the poverty in Katine do not need to come from the donor community but can come from within. He said donor support should enhance the efforts already being made by residents. Model farmers are those who are deemed successful in their enterprises. They promote good practices to their communities and use their farms for demonstrations.
"Amref will not put money in your pockets. If you are not careful you might remain poorer than before the coming of Amref,"
Ezekiel Eituno, a "model" farmer from Gweri sub-county, north-east Uganda, said solutions to the poverty in Katine do not need to come from the donor community but can come from within. He said donor support should enhance the efforts already being made by residents. Model farmers are those who are deemed successful in their enterprises. They promote good practices to their communities and use their farms for demonstrations.
"Amref will not put money in your pockets. If you are not careful you might remain poorer than before the coming of Amref,"
Catholic church should be a proscribed organization
http://balneus.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/catholic-church-should-be-a-proscribed-organization
http://balneus.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/catholic-church-should-be-a-proscribed-organization
If an organization repeatedly breaks the law relating to serious crime, then it should be considered a gang, and, like terrorist groups or some bikie gangs, be proscribed.
But the Roman Catholic church, a serial offender on child sexual abuse, at the very least an accessory after the fact, gets away with it, despite the public being more than aware (indeed "ho-hum") about each new revelation of such crimes, which are incorporated into many "comedic" routines.
If a cabal of child-molesters or child-pornographers had as many members as the Roman Catholic church in Australia has guilty priests and after-the-fact accessories, it would be proscribed, and every member put under surveillance at the very least.
Most Australian jurisdictions have mandatory reporting for child sexual abuse, with failure to report such a serious matter to police considered a crime. Most Australian jurisdictions have the hindering of a police investigation a crime, and telling suspects they are under covert investigation by the police would normally fall foul of such regulations.
Yet the Roman Catholic church continues to be an accessory-after-the-fact, and although everyone in the community knows such criminal actions are deeply embedded in the culture of the church hierarchy, there is no widespread public pressure for a serious inquiry, and nothing like the public approval for the inquiry launched because of the revelations about Scientology by Senator Nick Xenophon.
Who is complicit in greater harm to Australian society, flouts greater taboos: the Roman Catholic church hierarchy who seem to do their best to cover up child sexual abuse, or the leadership of proscribed bikie gangs, with criminal activity involving illicit substances, robberies, and violence mostly directed towards each other’s members?
If treated equally, the bikie gangs would get tax breaks as charitable organizations, and politicians would proudly extol their adherence to the moral code of those gangs.
But the Roman Catholic church, a serial offender on child sexual abuse, at the very least an accessory after the fact, gets away with it, despite the public being more than aware (indeed "ho-hum") about each new revelation of such crimes, which are incorporated into many "comedic" routines.
If a cabal of child-molesters or child-pornographers had as many members as the Roman Catholic church in Australia has guilty priests and after-the-fact accessories, it would be proscribed, and every member put under surveillance at the very least.
Most Australian jurisdictions have mandatory reporting for child sexual abuse, with failure to report such a serious matter to police considered a crime. Most Australian jurisdictions have the hindering of a police investigation a crime, and telling suspects they are under covert investigation by the police would normally fall foul of such regulations.
Yet the Roman Catholic church continues to be an accessory-after-the-fact, and although everyone in the community knows such criminal actions are deeply embedded in the culture of the church hierarchy, there is no widespread public pressure for a serious inquiry, and nothing like the public approval for the inquiry launched because of the revelations about Scientology by Senator Nick Xenophon.
Who is complicit in greater harm to Australian society, flouts greater taboos: the Roman Catholic church hierarchy who seem to do their best to cover up child sexual abuse, or the leadership of proscribed bikie gangs, with criminal activity involving illicit substances, robberies, and violence mostly directed towards each other’s members?
If treated equally, the bikie gangs would get tax breaks as charitable organizations, and politicians would proudly extol their adherence to the moral code of those gangs.
Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor
A Game That’s Not So Great
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/opinion/13dowd.html?_r=1&igoogle=1
At a joint press conference Tuesday at the presidential palace in Kabul, Hamid Karzai surprised the usually unflappable Gates when he knocked down President Obama’s attempt to get out of Dodge.
Needling his American sugar daddy, the Afghan peacock observed: “For another 15 to 20 years, Afghanistan will not be able to sustain a force of that nature and capability with its own resources.”
Gates and Obama may have wanted to “light a fire,” as Gates put it, under the corrupt Afghan president and warn that the A.T.M. is closing, but Karzai called their bluff. He knows, as do the leaders in Iraq and Pakistan, that America is stuck bailing them out with billions every year, even when they dawdle, disappoint and deceive.
Gates and his generals in Afghanistan talked a lot last week about “partnering” with and “mentoring” the Afghan Army and police. But given the Flintstones nature of the country, it’s more basic. Americans have to teach the vast majority of Afghan recruits to read and write before they can get to security training. It’s hard to arrest people if you can’t read them their rights and take names.
It seems late to realize this, but Gates told reporters he had only recently learned the “eye-opener” that the Taliban were able to attract so many fighters because they paid more. Generals in Afghanistan said the Taliban dole out $250 to $300 a month, while the Afghan Army paid about $120. So Gates has made sure that recruits get a raise to $240.
The American solution is always to throw more money at a problem; now we’re in a bidding war with the Taliban, which doesn’t bode well for the democracy manqué.
If Rummy had been dissed by our inglorious glove puppets, he would have blown his top.
Animal shelter welcomes kids
Children played with dogs and cats as part of the Humane Society's program to allow their parents a `Date Night.'
http://www.miamiherald.com/cooper-city/story/1376533.htmlState funds to curb teen smoking cut 28% - Indiana
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091212/NEWS07/312129979
Thriving small businesses still struggling to get loans
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/12/obama.bank.lenders/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn/1006/NEWS
United Nations Climate Change Conference Dec 7 - Dec 18 2009
http://en.cop15.dk/frontpage
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