31 May - newstream

Iran And The Rogue Nuclear States' Proliferation Network

( How times change...or not  )

This Memorial Day, honoring a military that's in isolation

Our major wars -- particularly the Civil War, which gave rise to Memorial Day, and World War II -- were in some sense mass democratic experiences. They touched the entire country. The same cannot be said of our more recent conflicts.

O Canada

Looking north for economic inspiration.

Acupuncture May Trigger Natural Painkiller

Hat Tip Pursuitist

Robert Linde, AP, RH, Acuherbals

Hundreds die in Indian heatwave

Coast Pipelines Face Damage as Gulf Oil Eats Marshes?

If oil kills off marsh plants, wetlands will turn to open water, putting the shallowly buried coastal pipelines at risk of ships strikes, storms, and corrosive salt water. Each rip means more leaking oil, costly repairs and replacements, and in some cases, new wetland-restoration projects.Even without the added threat of the Gulf of Mexico spill, Louisianahas the highest rate of human-induced coastal erosion in the country, according to the Texas-based Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies.

Wetland erosion is also making coastal highways more vulnerable.

Congress approves new weapon in the war to save marshes, a price on a rodent's head - June 2,2002

As recently as the 1980s, the middle class in Russia and Argentina considered nutria coats popular.The nutria fur market died internationally in the late 1980s with the breakup of the old Soviet Union, in part due to a period of mild winters in Europe, anti-fur campaigns by animal rights activists, and the devaluation of the currency in Russia, Argentina and other countries, which made the nutria coats too expensive for the middle class. 

(  Much as I think protecting animals worthwhile, any tradeoff to artificial materials appeals to me less. You don't get much more intimate with a toxin or pollutant than skin contact from wearing it, except inhalation or ingestion. )