Defusing the world population bomb

… It’s getting crowded out there. According to an updated report from the United Nations, the planet’s population is not following the expected curve: topping out at about 9 billion mid-century and then leveling off. Instead, the demographic trends point to continued growth, bringing the worldwide population to 10.1 billion by the end of the century — nearly a 50% increase for a planet now inhabited by just under 7 billion.

The highest rates of growth will be concentrated in poverty-stricken countries with low education levels, especially those in Africa, where the population is expected to more than triple to 3.5 billion. Nigeria’s population, for instance, would more than quadruple, to 730 million. In the Middle East, the population of Yemen is projected to more than quadruple by the end of the century; this in a country that has a limited water supply and already must import much of its food.The news led some population experts to call for improvements in agriculture to feed a world with so many hungry mouths. But that is, at best, a temporary patch. No matter how efficient we become at growing food, the Earth cannot provide for an infinitely increasing population.

If the U.N.’s numbers hold true, the increased number of poor people will strain the world’s environment and natural resources. It will also create far more demand for foreign aid from the developed world.

When the figures are adjusted for inflation, worldwide family-planning aid to poor countries dropped by more than half from 1995 to 2007. The United States has long been the world’s leader in this kind of assistance, but gave it shorter shrift during the George W. Bush administration, which launched a multibillion-dollar initiative on AIDS in Africa but flat-lined spending on birth control aid. …

via Global population: Defusing the population bomb – latimes.com.

People like me who choose to not have children for the reason that the earth is over populated should be richly rewarded. I wonder if  there is some profitable way to pay people not to have children.

There is “no conspiracy” around high gas prices.

Todd Hirsch – …conspiracy theorists are quick to accuse big oil companies, claiming they’re in collusion and setting prices. However, the federal Competition Bureau has looked into this claimsix times in the past, and has never found a shred of evidence of collusion. To buy into this conspiracy, you’d also have to believe that the federal government’s independent Competition Bureau is in on the scheme to gouge consumers. If you’re prepared to go down that conspiracy road, you’re also likely to believe that man landing on the moon was a big hoax, too. …

via There is no conspiracy around high gas prices | Troy Media Corporation.

Forget about Enron, Todd? Down below you in the USA , there was a proven oil company conspiracy in our remembered past.

Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, the chief executives whoguided Enron through its spectacular rise and even more stunning fall, were found guilty today of fraud and conspiracy. They are among the most prominent corporate leaders to emerge from a wave of scandals that marked the get-rich-quick excesses and management failures of the 1990′s.

via New York Times

Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy in late 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion in 2000.^[1] Fortune named Enron “America’s Most Innovative Company” for six consecutive years.   – wiki

How independent is the Canadian Competition Bureau?

In 2005, Canada’s Competition Bureau conducted an empirical study to test whether the large gasoline price increases observed in the spring and summer of 2004 were the results of anti-competitive acts.

“…there is no unusual pricing behaviour in the Canadian gasoline industry that would support a claim of anti-competitive behaviour,” the bureau concluded.

Here’s how they came to that conclusion:

In case you are wondering, “D” stands for dummy. I joke not.

Shell Canada Limited explains the appearance of collusion as merely a well-functioning free market on their website.

“We take this matter very seriously and Shell complies with all federal competition laws. The explanation is simple. At Shell, we are competitive on price at the local level, so what may look like unlawful collusion from a consumer perspective is really a highly competitive market working well,” explains Shell.  – jjlocke

The FTC is being asked to look at gas price conspiracy here in the US. One conspiracy claim is that they create artificial shortages by purposely producing less than they are able to produce.

Several U.S. senators will ask the Federal Trade Commission Tuesday to investigate oil refiners for failing to produce gasoline at their full potential, consequently keeping gas prices high.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is among the senators who plan to send a letter to the FTC Chair Jon Leibowitz seeking the investigation. The group of senators, however, are not targeting specific oil refining companies, but instead have focused on the entire refining industry, a congressional aide said according to Reuters.

Energy Department data show that American refiners are only operating at 82 percent of their full capacity, but Valero Energy Corp. spokesman Bill Day said this is normal for this time of year. According to Day, oil refining plants are functioning at a lower capacity because of scheduled annual maintenance to refiners in preparation for the high-demand summer driving season.

Day also argued that purposefully producing less gasoline is ill advised considering the status of current profit margins.

-trad

Don’t forget “Get Shorty”, “Death Star” and “Fat Boy”…

The Bush administration and the rightwing GOP leadership on Capitol Hill have quietly shelved any tough legislation to curb Enron-style corporate abuses, yet new disclosures keep popping up. The latest was a 44-page document, a step-by-step guide to “gaming” the California electricity market, prepared by Perot Systems, a software firm owned by Dallas millionaire Ross Perot. The document was found in a box of materials turned over to a California Senate Committee by Reliant Energy.

Perot Systems, Inc., was in a unique position to instruct energy traders on how to swindle California ratepayers because it designed the computer software for the California Independent Systems Operator as well as the now defunct Power Exchange, both of which controlled the flow of electricity through California’s enormous power grid. Perot Systems had an intimate knowledge of the flaws in California’s deregulated electricity market and could instruct Reliant, Enron, Dynegy, Duke Power and other energy traders on how to create “phantom” shortages that would drive up electricity prices, how to divert electricity across state borders and then reimport it at prices four or five times higher than California’s capped prices. – peoplesworld

With gas at over $4 per gallon right now in California, I’d like some proof that we are not being ripped off.

The disgraceful interrogation of L.A. school librarians

In a basement downtown, the librarians are being interrogated.

On most days, they work in middle schools and high schools operated by the Los Angeles Unified School District, fielding student queries about American history and Greek mythology, and retrieving copies of vampire novels.

But this week, you’ll find them in a makeshift LAUSD courtroom set up on the bare concrete floor of a building on East 9th Street. Several sit in plastic chairs, watching from an improvised gallery as their fellow librarians are questioned.

A court reporter takes down testimony. A judge grants or denies objections from attorneys. Armed police officers hover nearby. On the witness stand, one librarian at a time is summoned to explain why she — the vast majority are women — should be allowed to keep her job.

The librarians are guilty of nothing except earning salaries the district feels the need to cut. But as they’re cross-examined by determined LAUSD attorneys, they’re continually put on the defensive.

“When was the last time you taught a course for which your librarian credential was not required?” an LAUSD attorney asked Laura Graff, the librarian at Sun Valley High School, at a court session on Monday.

“I’m not sure what you’re asking,” Graff said. “I teach all subjects, all day. In the library.”

“Do you take attendance?” the attorney insisted. “Do you issue grades?”

I’ve seen a lot of strange things in two decades as a reporter, but nothing quite as disgraceful and weird as this inquisition the LAUSD is inflicting upon more than 80 school librarians.

“With my experience, it makes me angry to be interrogated,” Graff told me after the 40 minutes she spent on the witness stand, describing the work she’s done at libraries and schools going back to the 1970s. “I don’t think any teacher-librarian needs to sit here and explain how they help teach students.”

Sitting in during two court sessions this week, I felt bad for everyone present, including the LAUSD attorneys. After all, in the presence of a school librarian, you feel the need to whisper and be respectful. It must be very difficult, I thought, to grill a librarian.

For LAUSD officials, it’s a means to an end: balancing the budget.

Some 85 credentialed teacher-librarians got layoff notices in March. If state education cuts end up being as bad as most think likely, their only chance to keep a paycheck is to prove that they’re qualified to be transferred into classroom teaching jobs. …

via LAUSD librarians: The disgraceful interrogation of L.A. school librarians – Los Angeles Times.

Is It Time to Shut Down Your Website?

Shutting down your website to communicate solely through social media channels might seem like a crazy idea for any large organization. But then again, there is some logic to it. The Wall Street Journal reported that Starbucks receives over ten times as much traffic to its Facebook page (19.4 million unique visitors each month) as to its corporate website (1.8 million). For Coca-Cola, the divergence is even starker: 22.5 million visitors on Facebook vs. just 270,000 to its website—over 80 times as much traffic.

A decade ago, the corporate website had become the new “must-have” communication tool. But now, as web users spend increasing amounts of time on social media, traffic to static corporate websites appears to be on the decline.

via Is It Time to Shut Down Your Website? | BNET.

Malaria blocks ‘super-infection’

The malaria parasite can ensure it keeps a host body all to itself by preventing further malarial infections, according to international researchers.

The parasite initially reproduces in the liver and moves into the blood.

A study on mice, published in Nature Medicine, showed the parasite can trigger iron deficiency in the liver and therefore prevent more infections.

An expert said the research was “very cool and very interesting”, and improved understanding of infection.

The researchers were looking at super-infections, when a patient already infected with malaria is infected with another batch of malaria parasites.

People in high-risk areas can be bitten by up to 700 different malaria-infected mosquitoes each year.

Protecting turf

In experiments on mice, researchers showed that parasites in the blood were able to stimulate the production of the hormone hepcidin, which regulates iron levels.

This reduced the level of iron in the liver, preventing other malaria parasites from reproducing in the organ.

Dr Hal Drakesmith, from the Weatherall Institute at Oxford University, who was part of the research team, said: “Now that we understand how malaria parasites protect their territory in the body from competitor parasites, we may be able to enhance this natural defence mechanism to combat the risk of malaria infections.”

Malaria is often accompanied by anaemia, which is treated with iron supplements.

In this study, mice given iron supplements were more susceptible to additional infections. …

via BBC News – Malaria blocks ‘super-infection’.

Blackwater Founder Forms Secret Army for Arab State

Late one night last November, a plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touched down in this glittering seaside capital. Whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boarded an unmarked bus and drove roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand.

The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom.

Mr. Prince, who resettled here last year after his security business faced mounting legal problems in the United States, was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E., according to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times.

The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show. Such troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest in their crowded labor camps or were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year.

The U.A.E.’s rulers, viewing their own military as inadequate, also hope that the troops could blunt the regional aggression of Iran, the country’s biggest foe, the former employees said. The training camp, located on a sprawling Emirati base called Zayed Military City, is hidden behind concrete walls laced with barbed wire. Photographs show rows of identical yellow temporary buildings, used for barracks and mess halls, and a motor pool, which houses Humvees and fuel trucks. The Colombians, along with South African and other foreign troops, are trained by retired American soldiers and veterans of the German and British special operations units and the French Foreign Legion, according to the former employees and American officials.

In outsourcing critical parts of their defense to mercenaries — the soldiers of choice for medieval kings, Italian Renaissance dukes and African dictators — the Emiratis have begun a new era in the boom in wartime contracting that began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. And by relying on a force largely created by Americans, they have introduced a volatile element in an already combustible region where the United States is widely viewed with suspicion. …

via Blackwater Founder Forms Secret Army for Arab State – NYTimes.com.

Mississippi floods threaten New Orleans

Residents in swampy areas of Louisiana’s Cajun country are waiting for the rising waters of the Mississippi to engulf their homes, after army engineers opened a key floodgate in an attempt to save New Orleans from the river’s worst flooding since 1927.

Units of the US Army Corps of Engineers opened up the first gate on a structure known as the Morganza spillway, sending about 10,000 cubic feet of water per second into the Atchafalaya river basin.

Water shot through the gates like a waterfall, hurling fish through the froth, witnesses said. The Associated Press reported that 100 acres were under a foot of water in the space of 30 minutes.

It was the first time the corps, which is in charge of managing the Mississippi flood controls, had to resort to the spillway since 1973.

Engineers were expected to open up at least two more gates on Sunday.

The operation was designed to divert water from the Mississippi, and reduce pressure on the levees protecting the cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

The planned diversion will send the water into the Atchafalaya Basin, and then onwards to the oil service town of Morgan City.

But it will drown about 3,000 square miles of low-lying, swampy land beneath up to 25 feet of water.

A number of small towns in what is known as Louisiana’s Cajun country will be destroyed, driving 25,000 people out of homes they have occupied for generations.

In towns such as Krotz Springs, one of the first areas on the flood path, authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders. “Everyone in the affected areas MUST BE OUT!” Don Menard, the president of St Landry parish said in his directive.

Residents of one small town, Butte La Rose, told reporters they had been advised to pack for the long haul.

“They told us to move as though we were moving – period – not coming back, not to so much as leave a toothpick behind,” said one woman.

via Mississippi floods threaten New Orleans | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

Giant Andy Scott statue felled in roundabout crash

A giant sculpture of a striding man by public artist Andy Scott has been knocked over in a car accident.

The 4m (13ft) structure, installed at Muirside roundabout, Tullibody, in Clackmannanshire, is one of five pieces in the county by the artist.

It is understood a car crashed into the statue, which sits outside the village police station, at about 2110 GMT on Saturday.

Central Scotland Police said they were investigating the incident.

The sculpture – also known as the Man in Motion – is made of welded steel mosaic and has the Wallace Monument and Stirling Castle as a backdrop.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

I have heard from a few people that they never liked it, although I doubt they would prefer it looking like this”

Brian Smith Tullibody resident

Brian Smith, a college lecturer who lives near the sculpture, said the impact of the crash must have been considerable.

He said: “Whoever crashed into it has made a fair mess.

“It looks like they’ve driven into one of the statue’s legs and brought down abut five or six tonnes of metal.

“I don’t know if it quite stopped them but it certainly slowed them down.”

Mr Smith said the erection of the piece in 2008 split the local community.

He added: “It’s quite an arresting sight when you see it lying there. I have heard from a few people that they never liked it, although I doubt they would prefer it looking like this.”

Glasgow artist Andy Scott is a sculptor, whose best-known works are in galvanised steel.

via BBC News – Giant Andy Scott statue felled in roundabout crash.

Help Xeno finish a song

I need your help. I started writing a song called “Mysterious Boom“, but got stuck.

Please listen  (click Mysterious Boom in the Box.net widget on the left), download if you like, and leave a comment. What do you like? What would you change?

Every view about a piece of art is interesting and equally valid to me.

No new posts here until I get 20 different people’s comments (emailed comments count too).

Leave your comment (click “Comments” below) or email me: xeno735@yahoo.com

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GIVE AWAY: One person commenting will receive a free travel sized tube of fluoride-free Oravive Toothpaste with Novamin, the stuff that was so good at healing teeth that they pulled it from the shelves.

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Weird. A few minutes updating this blog entry I experienced the Mysterious Boom (10:20 AM, Sunday May 15, 2011). What are the odds?  Okay, it was just a MASSIVE thunder clap, but I never hear thunder in my house. Not in years. And a few minutes later, the sun is coming out. What do you think of the theory that we create our worlds? Perhaps I am really living in a computer simulation. … Or the secret weather modification guys did a little demo for me. Impressive!

Update Thursday:  Almost there!  I need 4 more people’s honest comments on the song, then I’ll release the blog hostages ( a bunch of new strange and interesting news items from around the world. )