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How the rich starved the world

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:45:58 GMT

clipped by: swampfoxz
clipper's remarks: The threat posed by biofuels affects all of us. Global grain stockpiles - on which all of humanity depends - are now perilously depleted. Cereal stocks are at their

Clip Source: newstatesman.com

How the rich starved the world

World cereal stocks are at an all-time low, food-aid programmes have run out of money and millions face starvation. Yet wealthy countries persist with plans to use grain for petrol. Plus Iain Macwhirter on how food prices are rocketing

The irony is extraordinary. At a time when world leaders are expressing grave concern about diminishing food stocks and a coming global food crisis, our government brings into force measures to increase the use of biofuels - a policy that will further increase food prices, and further worsen the plight of the world's poor.

What biofuels do is undeniable: they take food out of the mouths of starving people and divert them to be burned as fuel in the car engines of the world's rich consumers. This is, in the words of the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, nothing less than a "crime against humanity". It is a

Tags: exploited poor

Young Me + Now Me

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:09:48 GMT

clipped by: coconutshell
clipper's remarks: I think this is a great idea. I wonder if my mum has any blackmailable photos of me. Hmm.

I think the blankie in the last one is the same blankie. Lucky.

Clip Source: colorwar2008.com

Tags: photos, people, now, children, young

Line your walls with books to save heat

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:43:26 GMT

clipped by: ericskiff
clipper's remarks: Kill trees to make books to line your walls to save the planet

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

The editorial staff of the UK's Bookseller magazine want you to know that lining your exterior walls with books is practically a moral imperative, since it reduces your energy costs and saves the world. You don't have to tell me -- I've been lining my walls with books for decades.

"Books are the original insulator. A shelf of books along an outside wall works well to prevent heat escaping,"

Link (Thanks, wiseGEEK!)

The 7 habits of highly effective propagandists

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:17:03 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: citing a qualified source is a good way to emphasize a legitimate idea. But you should consider whether or not the source being cited is really qualified to make judgments about a particular issue.

5. PLAIN FOLKS

The “Plain Folks” technique is at work whenever a speaker promotes the idea that he or she is “of the people,” just an Average Joe despite the fact that he or she may go home to a mansion at the end of the day.

6. CARD STACKING

“Stacking the deck” is a gimmick used by magicians where a deck of cards appears to be randomly shuffled but is in fact arranged in a specific way. The IPA borrowed the term to describe a technique where only one side of a topic is favored, or another side is ignored or played down.

7. BANDWAGON

The idea behind the Bandwagon technique is that, since everyone else is doing it, so too should you.

Clip Source: www.ironicsans.com

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Propagandists

1. GLITTERING GENERALITIES

The IPA used this term to describe virtuous words that mean different things to different people, but are used in such a general way that you can project your own meaning into the speaker’s words. So when people talk about freedom, strength, Democracy, or patriotism, you are likely to assume they think of those words the same way you do.

2. NAME CALLING

“Name calling” is a technique where someone uses words to link a person or proposal to a negative or emotionally charged symbol. The idea is to get you to reject the person due to the association with the symbol rather than actual evidence, which may or may not be there.

3. TRANSFER

There are institutions and objects that you have positive associations with, so politicians try to appear with symbols of those institutions in the hopes that you will transfer your positive associations onto them.

flags

cross

4. TESTIMONIAL

The IPA pointed out that sometimes

Tags: propaganda, politics, critical thinking

The More We Know About Genes, the Less We Understand

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:00:23 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: About 95 percent of the rewired bacteria did just fine with their new networks. They went on with their lives, feeding, growing and dividing. Some even performed better than microbes with the original wiring, under some conditions.

The tolerance these bacteria showed reveals something important about how evolution works. Humans can randomly rewire cells, and so can mutations. There's something about gene networks that allow them to thrive despite these mutations, and, in some cases, to even gain an edge in the evolutionary race.

Clip Source: www.wired.com

In life, one mystery gives way, revealing a new one underneath, waiting to be solved.

An early mystery was genes. Scientists did not know what hidden factor lurked inside living things, giving rise to their traits and traveling from parent to child to recreate those traits anew.

In the latest issue of Nature, scientists reported an experiment in which they wreaked havoc with E. coli's network. They randomly added new links between the transcription factors at the top of the microbe's hierarchy. Now a transcription factor could turn on another one that it never had before. The scientists randomly rewired the network in 598 different ways and then stepped back to see what happened to the bacteria.

You might expect that they all died. After all, if you were to pop open the back of an iPod and start linking its components together in random ways, you'd expect it to crash. But that's not what happened.

Tags: genetics, molecular biology, evolution

Zen123: Pics He Likes

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:26:07 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes

Clip Source: zen123.stumbleupon.com

Picturesque Tuscany in summer. A bit of change from the winter scene.

Kylemore Abbey, Republic of Ireland.

If you ever thought car security wasn't dramatic enough, this Tesla-coil automobile protector should satisfy your desire for spectacle. Attaching a 4-inch coil to a boom on the roof of his car, Australian Peter Terren created what is no doubt the coolest-looking theft deterrent to ever be built into a motor vehice. Terren captured the photo above, showing the coil's ring of electricity (which he calls the Eye of Sauron, after the character in The Lord of the Rings), with time-lapse photography

Huvafen Fushi - Maldives

W chain of boutique Hotel, Maldives.

Clip Source: zen123.stumbleupon.com

Innovative use of a pier

Petersham Nurseries Cafe - London.

Strange architecture
Disney Tokyo, The Tower of Terror

Hyatt Hotel walkway Osaka

Waiter! There’s a solar system in my cup!

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:55:51 GMT

clipped by: karokan

Clip Source: sciencejunkies.com

Waiter! There’s a solar system in my cup!

If you are ever in Vancouver, B.C. you might want to drop in at one of the 5 Caffe Artigiano locations around the city. Their champion baristas can turn your cup of hot chocolate or latte into a work of art. I particularly liked this cosmic design!

Tags: optional. separate by commas., art, photos