What happens with a new president?
by Eric de Place
This is the eigth in a short series of posts that explain some important but often overlooked policy issues in the Western Climate Initiative -- the West's regional cap-and-trade system. (Much to readers' delight, this is the last installment I'm planning to write.)
You can't talk about regional cap and trade very long before someone brings up the subject of pre-emption. What happens if the federal government creates a national cap and trade program? Would the regional programs disappear? And if so, why bother working on them?
First, let's get one thing straight: no one knows what will happen.
Seriously. No one has any idea -- and that includes me.
No matter how confidently anybody expresses an opinion on pre-emption, you...
If betting on stocks is looking too risky to you these days, perhaps it's time to look for other ways to gamble your money. The Wall Street Journal reports that casino operators in Macau have taken a hit after stories circulated that mainlaind Chinese may face new restrictions on visiting. On the other side of the world, Las Vegas has also been suffering, according to the Economist. I'm guessing that now is a good time to look for deals on hotels. With the precariousness of the markets around the world, it may be a good bet right about now....
One family's successful struggle from financial ruin to a better...
A shipment of forest timber traveled around the southern tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean before it arrived at the Hong Kong dockyards two years ago. During a routine X-ray examination, customs officials discovered an even more lucrative cargo hidden behind a false wall: 605 elephant tusks.
The $8 million seizure was the largest ivory catch in Hong Kong since a 1989 agreement banned the international ivory trade. Ivory seizures are on the rise, particularly in Southeast Asia; the Hong Kong catch was only about half the size of the largest in recent years. At least 68 tons of ivory have been confiscated over the past decade. The cause: illegal ivory has quadrupled in value since 2004, and anti-poaching resources are typically stretched thin.
Law enforcement officials...
Our right to know about fuel-efficient tires.
by Eric de Place
I'm always fascinated by the "1 percent solutions" to energy. It seems to me that in order to address both climate change and fossil fuel dependence, we'll need a few big structural changes, but we'll also need a lot of 1 percent solutions -- and maybe a bunch of quarter-percent solutions too. And the advantage of the 1 percent solutions is that they're often exceedingly easy; and so cheap that they actually put money in your pocket.
So I enjoyed Cindy Skrzycki's column this morning on low rolling resistance tires:
A study by the National Academies of Science in 2006 concluded it was feasible to reduce rolling resistance by 10 percent. This would increase the fuel economy of vehicles by 1 percent to 2...
Ethiopia: Cappuccino with condom
UN Integrated Regional Information Network - August 20, 2008
http://www.aegis.org/news/irin/2008/IR080833.html
ADDIS ABABA, 20 August 2008 (PlusNews) - Bellissima, on bustling [A href='http://www.aegis.or...
Homi Kharas, a Senior Fellow at Brookings, has produced an interesting analysis on Measuring the Cost of Aid Volatility. He takes a page from finance theory to try to put an estimate on the cost associated with the capriciousness of official development assistance. This is no small matter - as Kharas puts it:[T]he aid system has generated the same negative shocks to per capita income...in developing countries, and with more frequency, as the two World Wars and the Great Depression generated in developed countries.Kharas estimates a deadweight loss of about $16 billion, or 15 to 20 percent of the total value of aid. And this chart lists the aid donors in order of the dead weight loss associated with their respective official development assistance (the three columns represent different...
from Leadership Nigeria This article profiles a town in nigeria that many poor workers settle in. - Kaleby Christiana EsebonuThe excruciating and disgusting whiff from compounds and streets that hit you as you walk through Suleja town, the sight of table water sachets, orange and sugar cane peels among other wastes, which litter the streets and gutters, the picture of pretty school-age girls sitting in line beckoning at any passer-by to buy nunu, roasted yams and oranges and young boys between the ages nineten and following people about with plates to beg for money and reciting a slogan, which is very common among beggars "sada-ka-sobo-da-Allah", meaning "Give because of God," is heartbreaking. All these paint a picture of a forgotten and sinking community.To be sure, Suleja, a...
from the Courier Post This story profiles a mission called the Rabuor Village Project, that has targeted a specific community in Kenya that has gone without international aid for years. - KaleBy BARBARA BORSTLoyce Mbewa-Ong'udi was late. Family and friends milled around her parents' house in the green hills overlooking Lake Victoria, waiting for the daughter from America to return home.At last the taxi bounced over the ruts and made a sharp turn into the compound of small brick and stucco houses. Loyce sprang out to a shower of greetings in the Luo language, hugs, helping hands for 12 enormous suitcases crammed with anti-AIDS medicines, asthma inhalers, storybooks, pencils and sharpeners, recycled eyeglasses.The supplies were for the Rabuor Village Project, which Loyce runs. In the...
Burrying a “take action” link at the very bottom of a blog post is a horrible way to generate Internet activism. So instead of having you read this whole post before you finally find out how to email the Oregon DEQ and tell them to shut down the Boardman coal plant, I’ll give you the email address now: bartcomments@deq.state.or.us Details on the issue are, of course, below.
I’m sitting in a non-air conditioned building in a Portland suburb, on the third day of the Portland area’s worst heat wave since 1994; in other words, global warming is sounding even less attractive than usual. More importantly, though, on the desk beside me is an Oregonian editorial about the Boardman Coal Plant - the only major coal plant in Oregon, and our state’s...
SEATTLE, Washington, Aug 20 (IPS) - At the end of last month, U.S. President George W.
Bush signed a global health package that effectively tripled U.S.
spending over the next five years to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis in poor countries, to 48 billion...
Process of HIV-related dementia is found
United Press International - August 20, 2008http://www.aegis.org/news/upi/2008/UP080819.html
NEW YORK, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have found evidence that a component of the cell walls of intestinal bac...
OPINION: An end to AIDS?
San Francisco Chronicle - August 20, 2008 http://www.aegis.org/news/SC/2008/SC080805.html
First it was a mystery, then a peril and a political football, and now it's a research marathon. Nearly three decades on, AIDS has collec...
from The Australian A new AusAID report tracks neighboring countries to Australia, on their progress in meeting Millennium Development Goalsby Siobhain RyanA new AusAID report measuring the Pacific's social and economic progress was released in Niue yesterday, where Kevin Rudd signed deals with Samoa and Papua New Guinea during the Pacific Islands Forum.The Prime Minister's promise of fresh support came as AusAID revealed international aid had barely risen per capita in the past decade."The impact of aid on poverty reduction and sustainable development in the region is unclear, as is the impact on individual country capacity," the report stated. "What is clear is that the increased number of donors and activities over the last decade is making co-ordination more difficult."Australia...
How do we raise public awareness of the digital divide problem?
The broadband dilemma? It is a real problem
The global situation?
There are have and have-nots in global, national and local situations.
What solutions are there? What are the problems?
Dr. Paul Resta and others eloquently expressed these ideas in our Digital Equity Symposium in San Antonio at the NECC Conference. Dr. Resta spoke of the knowledge divide, the digital divide, the language divide and the technical divide. But our concerns are not being addressed by the candidates for President. Dr Resta also spoke at our SITE Conference on these divides.
Most of us are still waiting to hear from the candidates about technology use in the United States in homes, schools and communities.
When will they address the broadband...
from the London News A new study warns that the gap between the rich and poor in the UK has doubled in the past 30 years. The report called the "Poverty and Inequality and Children" says that the gap is now the largest in Europe.The TUC union study found that while disposable income for the wealthiest in society has risen to more than 700 pounds a week, that of the poorest has only gone up marginally - and is still less than 200 pounds.It claims more Britons are living below the breadline than 20 years ago, and that no other European country has such a gulf between rich and poor.According to The Telegraph, the report also claims inequality dramatically affects children's chances in life, with babies born to poor mothers more likely to develop health problems in later life, and...
MBABANE, 20 August 2008 (IRIN) - Erratic weather and a prolonged dry spell caused Swaziland to record its lowest ever maize harvest in April 2007; although the 2008 harvest was double the size, it is still not enough, and a lack of funds to meet the zooming price of inputs means people might have to go hungry again next...
Recent rulings on open government information have been received enthusiastically by Chinese environmentalists and concerned citizens, writes Tang Hao. But weaknesses in the judicial process are still holding back progress.China's measures on open government information, which came into effect on May 1, 2008, have created a legislative framework for the disclosure of environmental data held by the government. Since then, the issue has become how to implement these rules in a way that benefits Chinese politics and the green movement.
In the three months since the regulations became effective, the government has been more forthcoming in its release of environmental information. Prominent Chinese environmentalist Ma Jun said that from June 9 to June 26,...
STOCKHOLM, Aug 20 (IPS) - South Africa and Madagascar, two African nations
participating in the Stockholm International Water Conference
currently underway in the Swedish capital, provide a contrasting
picture of where they stand -- or fall -- in achieving the
U.N.'s heavily-trumpeted Millennium Development Goals......
NAIROBI, 20 August 2008 (IRIN) - In Restarting Political Dialogue, the International Crisis Group's latest briefing on Burundi, the think-thank reports that despite progress in implementing a peace agreement
Burundi is going through a dangerous political...
KOKKO, 20 August 2008 (IRIN) - Soe Naing was in the town of Labutta at the far end of Myanmar's Ayeyarwaddy Delta when the cyclone obliterated his village, sweeping away his wife and three...
HARGEISA, 20 August 2008 (IRIN) - A ministerial committee in Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Somaliland has started discussions on ways of resolving a food crisis worsened by runaway inflation in the...
BRAZZAVILLE, 20 August 2008 (IRIN) - The Republic of Congo's government has launched a nationwide weeklong campaign of action aimed at tackling the country's high rates of infant, juvenile and maternal...
Upon his return from a visit to Georgia and the Russian Federation, the ICRC's president, Jakob Kellenberger, expressed relief that the organization had finally gained access to South Ossetia. He also announced that a new base of operations had been set up in Gori to provide urgent help to the most vulnerable, and to prepare to meet the needs of affected civilians in South Ossetia....
Georgia / Russian Federation – ICRC president announces access to South Ossetia for humanitarian team...
Issue 3 of the Ephemeral River Basins Project Newsletter has arrived in HOORC's Library. This issue's lead story describes the February 2008 visit by Boteti River community representatives to the Okavango Delta Panhandle to learn about factors affecting downsteam water flow. The project is working on shared management of natural resources in three SADC ephemeral basins: the Boteti River Basin in...
91 atomsNature and the nanotechnologist have 91 different atoms to play with—each is roughly spherical but different in its size and its ability to interact with and bind to other atoms. Many, many different molecules exist—millions are known and hundreds of new ones are made or discovered each year.Polymerlnsulators do not have moving electrons to conduct charge. They are also generally not shiny because there are no free electrons to reflect the light that shines upon them. Even though we won't worry much about shininess, how free the flow of electrons in a material is matters quite a bit for nanotechnology. Most polymers are based on carbon because carbon has an almost unique ability to bond to itself. Polymers are single molecules formed of repeating patterns of atoms (called...
ElectronsThe chemist's notion of physical reality is based on the existence of two particles that are smaller than atoms. These particles are the proton and the electron (a neutron is just a combination of the two). While there are sub-subatomic particles (quarks, hadrons, and the like), protons and electrons in some sense represent the simplest particles necessary to describe matter. The electron was discovered early in the 20th Century. Electrons are very light (2,000 times lighter than the smallest atom, hydrogen) and have a negative charge. Protons, which make up the rest of the mass of hydrogen, have a positive charge. When two electrons come near one another, they interact by the fundamental electrical force law. This force can be expressed by a simple equation that is sometimes...
nematic phase - One of the most common LC phases is the nematic, where the molecules have no positional order, but they have long-range orientational order. Thus, the molecules flow and their center of mass positions are randomly distributed as in a liquid, but they all point in the same direction (within each domain). Most nematics are uniaxial: they have one axis that is longer and preferred, with the other two being equivalent (can be approximated as cylinders). Some liquid crystals are biaxial nematics, meaning that in addition to orienting their long axis, they also orient along a secondary axis.The word nematic comes from the Greek νημα, which means 'thread.' This term originates from the thread-like topological defects observed in nematics, which are formally called...