Career Management
by Toni Bowers, Head Blogs Editor
Employers who check out job candidates on MySpace could be legally liable
If a potential employer uses a social networking site to check out a job candidate and then rejects that person based on what they see, he or she could be charged with discrimination.
——————————————————————————————————————-
According to Workforce.com, a site that helps HR reps stay current with all matters HR, employers who use the data available on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to make hiring decisions could be subject to charges of employment discrimination and litigation.
Employers could be accused of using the data on such sites to cull minorities, homosexuals, and other applicants who are members of protected class. It is even illegal in some states to make a job decision based on applicants’ political activities, a factor that would be easy to find out on a social networking site.
From the site:
A survey of about 350 employers in October 2007 by New York-based Vault.com, a media company focused on careers, found that 44% of employers use social networking sites to examine the profiles of job candidates, and 39% have looked up the profile of a current employee.
Although “failure to hire” lawsuits are rarer than other kinds of employment litigation, their numbers are expected to increase due to the growing use of social networking sites. There’s always a time lapse between problems that arise because of technology and legal precedents that address them.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/career/?p=338
Friday, June 20, 2008
Monday, June 09, 2008
First Lady Travels to Afghanistan
First Lady Travels to Afghanistan
By DEB RIECHMANN,AP
Posted: 2008-06-08 18:04:39
Filed Under: World News
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan (June 8) - First lady Laura Bush, on a mission to highlight signs of progress in war-weary Afghanistan, ventured outside the capital Sunday to an area that symbolizes both the destruction and attempt at rebirth.
Laura Bush Visits Afghanistan
Fresh attacks swept across the country and the BBC reported that one of its Afghan journalists was kidnapped and killed.
On her third visit to the country, the first lady flew into Kabul before boarding a helicopter for a 50-minute flight to Bamiyan province, the farthest she has traveled from Afghanistan's largest city.
The helicopter landed in a dusty field at a provincial reconstruction team compound operated by New Zealand. From there she could see the empty niches in a cliffside where two giant Buddha statues once stood.
They were carved into the sandstone cliffs more than 2,000 years ago. The Taliban, which considered the statues idolatrous and anti-Muslim, demolished the treasures in March 2001, causing an international outcry. The repressive Taliban ruled Afghanistan until the U.S. invaded after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Bush's visit came ahead of a conference Thursday in Paris where the U.S. hopes other countries will pledge billions of dollars to help Afghanistan. She intends to address the conference.
"The people of Afghanistan don't want to go back and live like that," Bush told reporters during the nearly 14-hour flight to Kabul. "They know what it was like. The international community can't drop Afghanistan now, at this very crucial time."
President Bush, in an interview in Washington on Friday with RAI TV of Italy, said bluntly, "Afghanistan is broke."
Afghanistan is seeing a resurgence of violence, even as the U.S. and NATO have poured more thousands of new troops into the country, and a spiraling heroin trade. Last year, more than 8,000 people were killed in insurgency-related attacks — the most since the 2001 invasion — and violence has claimed more than 1,500 lives this year.
On Sunday, insurgents attacked a police convoy in central Afghanistan, killing 11 police and wounding one, an official said. Militants in the east attacked and killed four men including a local government official. The BBC said the body of one its Afghan journalists was found after he had gone missing in Helmand province.
During her daylong visit, the first lady met with President Hamid Karzai, saw a police academy where female recruits are trained and visited U.S. troops. The U.S. now has some 33,000 troops in Afghanistan, the most ever.
President Bush has defended Karzai against critics who say his government is weak and not doing enough to battle corruption and drug trafficking.
Karzai said at a news conference with the first lady on the grounds of the presidential palace that his government will go to the Paris conference with a "very realistic evaluation" of the past six years, including a look at problems such as corruption.
"We'll come back with some significant assistance from the international community to the Afghan people," Karzai said.
Laura Bush said the U.S. and other nations should not blame Karzai unless they are going to give him credit for all the progress being made.
"It's really not that fair," she told reporters before meeting the Afghan leader. "I think it's undermining, frankly, to blame him for a lot of the things that may or may not be his fault. He inherited — just by becoming president — a country that's been totally devastated. It is very, very difficult when you have al-Qaida and Taliban all over the borders and making incursions into Afghanistan, and it's intimidating for everyone."
At Bagram Air Field north of Kabul, she told about 600 U.S. soldiers gathering in a hangar of the "huge step forward to defend freedom from the forces of oppression." She thanked them for their service and acknowledged "your work isn't easy," noting multiple deployments and time away from families.
Her trip sought to focus on signs of progress. While standing beside Karzai, she said, "We've been discussing a lot of other issues that have to do both with our partnership between the United States government and Afghanistan, as far as education is concerned, and all the other great projects I visited today, a lot of agriculture, a lot of other things."
Earlier, she met with women training at the National Police Bamiyan Regional Training Center. She celebrated the construction of a paved road linking the Bamiyan airport with its bazaar and town center and toured a learning center under construction that will double as an orphanage.
Several dozen future students, all school-age children in traditional white scarfs, sang to her at the center, a project of the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council. The council was set up to help women gain the skills and education deprived them under the Taliban.
"Of course we want more girls in school and I think that's really key to the success of Afghanistan," Bush said.
For the Paris conference, France has set a goal of raising $12 billion to $15 billion for Afghan reconstruction projects through 2014. The United States is looking to contribute about one-quarter.
International donors have pledged about $32.7 billion in reconstruction money for Afghanistan since 2001, including $21 billion from the U.S.
"It's more important than ever for the international community to continue to support Afghanistan — certainly for the U.S. to continue to support Afghanistan — because we don't want it to be the way it was when the Buddhas were destroyed," she said.
From Afghanistan, she planned to fly to Slovenia, joining her husband on Monday for his final U.S.-European Union summit.
Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez and Amir Shah contributed to this report from Kabul.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-06-08 17:06:14
By DEB RIECHMANN,AP
Posted: 2008-06-08 18:04:39
Filed Under: World News
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan (June 8) - First lady Laura Bush, on a mission to highlight signs of progress in war-weary Afghanistan, ventured outside the capital Sunday to an area that symbolizes both the destruction and attempt at rebirth.
Laura Bush Visits Afghanistan
Fresh attacks swept across the country and the BBC reported that one of its Afghan journalists was kidnapped and killed.
On her third visit to the country, the first lady flew into Kabul before boarding a helicopter for a 50-minute flight to Bamiyan province, the farthest she has traveled from Afghanistan's largest city.
The helicopter landed in a dusty field at a provincial reconstruction team compound operated by New Zealand. From there she could see the empty niches in a cliffside where two giant Buddha statues once stood.
They were carved into the sandstone cliffs more than 2,000 years ago. The Taliban, which considered the statues idolatrous and anti-Muslim, demolished the treasures in March 2001, causing an international outcry. The repressive Taliban ruled Afghanistan until the U.S. invaded after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Bush's visit came ahead of a conference Thursday in Paris where the U.S. hopes other countries will pledge billions of dollars to help Afghanistan. She intends to address the conference.
"The people of Afghanistan don't want to go back and live like that," Bush told reporters during the nearly 14-hour flight to Kabul. "They know what it was like. The international community can't drop Afghanistan now, at this very crucial time."
President Bush, in an interview in Washington on Friday with RAI TV of Italy, said bluntly, "Afghanistan is broke."
Afghanistan is seeing a resurgence of violence, even as the U.S. and NATO have poured more thousands of new troops into the country, and a spiraling heroin trade. Last year, more than 8,000 people were killed in insurgency-related attacks — the most since the 2001 invasion — and violence has claimed more than 1,500 lives this year.
On Sunday, insurgents attacked a police convoy in central Afghanistan, killing 11 police and wounding one, an official said. Militants in the east attacked and killed four men including a local government official. The BBC said the body of one its Afghan journalists was found after he had gone missing in Helmand province.
During her daylong visit, the first lady met with President Hamid Karzai, saw a police academy where female recruits are trained and visited U.S. troops. The U.S. now has some 33,000 troops in Afghanistan, the most ever.
President Bush has defended Karzai against critics who say his government is weak and not doing enough to battle corruption and drug trafficking.
Karzai said at a news conference with the first lady on the grounds of the presidential palace that his government will go to the Paris conference with a "very realistic evaluation" of the past six years, including a look at problems such as corruption.
"We'll come back with some significant assistance from the international community to the Afghan people," Karzai said.
Laura Bush said the U.S. and other nations should not blame Karzai unless they are going to give him credit for all the progress being made.
"It's really not that fair," she told reporters before meeting the Afghan leader. "I think it's undermining, frankly, to blame him for a lot of the things that may or may not be his fault. He inherited — just by becoming president — a country that's been totally devastated. It is very, very difficult when you have al-Qaida and Taliban all over the borders and making incursions into Afghanistan, and it's intimidating for everyone."
At Bagram Air Field north of Kabul, she told about 600 U.S. soldiers gathering in a hangar of the "huge step forward to defend freedom from the forces of oppression." She thanked them for their service and acknowledged "your work isn't easy," noting multiple deployments and time away from families.
Her trip sought to focus on signs of progress. While standing beside Karzai, she said, "We've been discussing a lot of other issues that have to do both with our partnership between the United States government and Afghanistan, as far as education is concerned, and all the other great projects I visited today, a lot of agriculture, a lot of other things."
Earlier, she met with women training at the National Police Bamiyan Regional Training Center. She celebrated the construction of a paved road linking the Bamiyan airport with its bazaar and town center and toured a learning center under construction that will double as an orphanage.
Several dozen future students, all school-age children in traditional white scarfs, sang to her at the center, a project of the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council. The council was set up to help women gain the skills and education deprived them under the Taliban.
"Of course we want more girls in school and I think that's really key to the success of Afghanistan," Bush said.
For the Paris conference, France has set a goal of raising $12 billion to $15 billion for Afghan reconstruction projects through 2014. The United States is looking to contribute about one-quarter.
International donors have pledged about $32.7 billion in reconstruction money for Afghanistan since 2001, including $21 billion from the U.S.
"It's more important than ever for the international community to continue to support Afghanistan — certainly for the U.S. to continue to support Afghanistan — because we don't want it to be the way it was when the Buddhas were destroyed," she said.
From Afghanistan, she planned to fly to Slovenia, joining her husband on Monday for his final U.S.-European Union summit.
Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez and Amir Shah contributed to this report from Kabul.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-06-08 17:06:14
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Turmoil In Asia.
Meanwhile Myanmar is still reeling and in need of HELPS!
UN chief condemns Burma response
United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has criticised Burma's military junta for its "unacceptably slow response" to helping cyclone victims.
Nearly 32,000 people were killed by the cyclone on May 3 and almost 30,000 others are still missing, according to Burma state television.
"We believe that it's going to be very difficult to reach everybody and to tackle the crisis as we would like without some outside military and civilian assets," John Holmes, the UN's top humanitarian official, told reporters.
Almost all foreign relief workers have been barred entry into the isolated nation. The junta says it wants to hand out all donated supplies on its own.
"I want to register my deep concern - and immense frustration - at the unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis," Ban said.
"Unless more aid gets into the country - very quickly - we face an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today's crisis. I therefore call, in the most strenuous terms, on the government of Burma to put its people's lives first. It must do all that it can to prevent this disaster from becoming even more serious."
Ban said Burma's leaders had not returned his repeated calls and letters to them, including a second letter sent on Monday, seeking greater co-operation with the UN and other international relief efforts.
Burma braced for more rain
Survivors of the Burma cyclone are bracing themselves for further torrential rain.
Storm warnings have been issued for the region despite large swathes of the country still lying submerged under putrid floodwater from the initial cyclone.
The Burma government has come under sustained international pressure as aid agencies warn the death toll following the cyclone could reach 1.5 million.
Further heavy deluges will hamper the progression of embryonic aid efforts which are only now starting to reach the more remote areas.
Oxfam said the stricken country faces a public health catastrophe unless clean water and sanitation are quickly provided.
Save the Children spokeswoman Kathryn Rawe said huge storms were expected to strike Burma.
http://news.uk.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8281832
7.9 Earthquake In China
Nearly 19,000 Buried Alive in Town Near China Quake's Epicenter
May 13: Local residents work to clear away debris from a collapsed building in Mianzhu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province.
May 13: Local residents work to clear away debris from a collapsed building in Mianzhu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Rescue workers sifted through tangled debris of toppled schools and homes Tuesday for nearly 19,000 victims buried or missing after China's worst earthquake in three decades, where the death toll soared to more than 12,000 people in the hardest-hit province alone, state media reported.
Hope that many survivors would be found was fleeting. Only 58 people were extricated from demolished buildings across the quake area so far, China Seismological Bureau spokesman Zhang Hongwei told the official Xinhua News Agency. In one county, 80 percent of the buildings had been destroyed.
Myanmar: Senior Red Cross Red Crescent aid worker returns from devastated delta
13 May 2008
The situation in Myanmar’s cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta is “overwhelming” according to Bridget Gardner, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ head of delegation who returned to Yangon today following a two day assessment visit. Ms Gardner was the first international aid official to visit the disaster zone with official permission.
Please donate to INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS and other organizations!!!
International Red Cross Red Crescent
http://www.ifrc.org/
Catholic Relief Services (CRS - USCC)
http://www.crs.org/
Catholic Relief Services was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and disadvantaged outside the country. Working through local offices and an extensive network of partners, CRS operates on 5 continents and in over 90 countries.
Doctors Without Borders
http://www.dwb.org/
Doctors Without Borders delivers medical help to populations endangered by war, civil strife, epidemics or natural disasters. Each year over 2,000 volunteer doctors representing 45 nationalities work worldwide in front-line hospitals, refugee camps, disaster sites, towns and villages providing primary health care, performing surgery, vaccinating children, operating emergency nutrition and sanitation programs and training local medical staff.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
http://www.icrc.org/
The ICRC, independent of all governments and international organisations, endeavours to promote international humanitarian law and the fundamental human values underlying that law. The ICRC was founded by Geneva citizens in 1863 and has its headquarters in Geneva.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
The UNHCR provides protection and assistance to the world's refugees. Today, the UNHCR is one of the world's principal humanitarian agencies, with headquarters in Geneva, and offices in some 115 countries. More than 80 percent of UNHCR's 5,000-member staff work in the field, often in isolated, dangerous and difficult conditions. The UNHCR has twice been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
http://www.unhcr.ch/
The focal point for the activities of the United Nations in the field of human rights is located in Geneva at the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/WelcomePage.aspx
The IFRC is one part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which comprises National Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (the Federation), and the ICRC.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Myanma Update
Almost a week after a devastating cyclone hit low-lying areas of southern Burma, hundreds of thousands of people are still in urgent
Burma warned over cyclone delays
The US has ships with aid standing by in the Gulf of Thailand
The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has warned of dire consequences if foreign aid workers continue to be denied access to Burma.
Speaking before the UN launched its $187m (£96m) appeal to help those hit by the cyclone, he said early action was needed to prevent catastrophe.
Burma, where the UN fears the death toll could reach 100,000, says it will accept aid from any quarter.
No contact
Aid agencies already in Burma say they have been doing what they can, but are frustrated by the government's reluctance to allow international aid teams into the country and its insistence on distributing aid itself.
EXTENT OF THE DEVASTATION
The UN believes as many as 1.5 million people could have been affected by Cyclone Nargis, which struck on 3 May, and many say Burma does not have the capacity to respond adequately on its own.
Two BBC correspondents who have travelled to the Irrawaddy delta say tens of thousands of bodies are strewn across the landscape, with houses toppled and trees uprooted.
They say diseases like dysentery are already starting to take hold, and although some aid has arrived there is still no relief effort to match the size of the catastrophe.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Tens of thousands killed in Myanmar cyclone
A map showing areas worst-hit by Tropical Cyclone Nargis. Aid workers battled Wednesday to get food and water to desperate cyclone survivors in Myanmar, whose government is under fire after more than 22,000 people died in one of Asia's worst natural disasters.
(AFP/Graphic)
Reuters
Wed May 7, 12:52 AM ET
A Thai air force personnel waits for load food and disaster supplies for shipment to Myanmar at the military airport in Bangkok May 7, 2008. Disease, hunger and thirst pose a major threat to hundreds of thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis, aid agencies said on Wednesday, urging Myanmar's military rulers to open the doors to international humanitarian relief. With 22,500 dead and 41,000 missing, most of them from a massive storm surge that washed over the Irrawaddy delta, it is the most devastating cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in neighbouring Bangladesh. .
REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang (THAILAND)
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Tens-thousands-killed-Myanmar-cyclone-Yangon/ss/events/wl/050408myanmarcylcone/s:/ap/20080507/ap_on_re_as/myanmar_cyclone#photoViewer=/080507/ids_photos_wl/r4260609060.jpg
Monday, March 24, 2008
Net Users - The Next Billion
Intel Classmate low-cost laptops landing in stores in the Philippines, Intel (INTC) is saying that it will sell the $300 machines in the U.S. and Canada.
Mar 19 2008 11:03AM EDT
The Next Billion Net Users, Coming Fast
Technology companies are in a hurry to get the next billion people online, adding to the approximately 1.2 billion people already on the Net in some way. Two reports today show how that's coming along. In India, cell operators are adding 8 million subscribers a month -- in other words, adding the population of New York each month. Total Indian cell users is up to 246 million, nearing the entire population of the U.S. Of course, not all those cell customers are on phones that can tap the Internet, but surely a lot are.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Tibet Riots
Cultural Genocide Is Taking Place
The Dalai Lama called Sunday for an international probe into China's crackdown on protesters in Tibet. "Whether the (Chinese) government there admits or not, there is a problem. There is an ancient cultural heritage that is facing serious danger," he said. "Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place."
China's communist government is hoping Beijing's hosting of the Aug. 8-24 Olympics will boost its popularity at home as well as its image abroad. But the event has already attracted international scrutiny of China's human rights record and its pollution problems.
International criticism of the crackdown in Tibet so far has been mild, with no threats of an Olympic boycott or other sanctions. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Sunday on China "to exercise restraint in dealing with the protests."
Rice said she was "concerned by reports of a sharply increased police and military presence in and around Lhasa." Her statement urged China to release those jailed for protesting.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said Saturday he opposed an Olympic boycott over Tibet.
On the Net:
International Campaign for Tibet: http://www.savetibet.org
Chinese official news agency: http://www.xinhuanet.com
Tibet Daily: http://www.tibetdaily.co
Sunday, March 09, 2008
REAL ESTATE THAT IS GREEN~
REAL ESTATE
Earth movers
Pitching boomers housing that is green as their hair goes gray
By Stephanie I. Cohen
Last update: 3:33 p.m. EST Feb. 24, 2008
PRINCETON, N.J. (MarketWatch) -- Shea Homes, one of the nation's largest home builders, believes baby boomers are looking for communities that make an environmental difference.
This month, Shea announced the opening of Victoria Gardens, an "active lifestyle," or retirement, development in Florida sandwiched between Orlando and Daytona Beach. The homes were advertised as having a carbon footprint that is 20% to 30% less than that of a "typical household."
Billed as eco-friendly and energy-wise, the homes feature solar attic fans, green-fiber recycled insulation, motion-sensor triggered lighting, energy-efficient windows and appliances, and garages outfitted with electric-vehicle charging stations. Shea says it has focused on small, incremental green features that will collective add up to energy savings.
Housing developments that target baby boomers may be the next big push for the green housing market and statistics indicate this could be a good marriage. "There is no doubt that the green trend is going to accelerate more and more," said Rick Andreen, president of Shea Homes Active Lifestyle Communities division, in a recent interview.
Victoria Gardens marks Shea's debut in the Florida retirement market though the company is building similar homes in northern and southern California, Arizona, and Washington. The energy-efficient features are considered standard in these homes.
Other retirement communities from Texas to Maine are taking similar steps and adding green features to existing homes. An Army retirement community in San Antonio recently announced plans to install solar hot water systems in the community's 180 homes. Sea Coast Management Company, which manages retirement communities in Maine, is offering existing residents incentives to install solar hot water heaters and offering a Toyota Prius and/or a free solar hot water system to new customers purchasing a home.
Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, grew up alongside the environmental movement of the 1960s and '70s. "These guys were at Woodstock," said Matthew Kahn, a professor at UCLA's Institute of the Environment. "This is the birth cohort that was at the environmental movement's summer of love."
In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated there were approximately 78.2 million baby boomers in America. A December 2007 survey by AARP found that roughly half of all boomers see themselves as environmental stewards, or "green boomers."
Besides being a large swath of the population, boomers are overwhelmingly homeowners. Boomers are also far more affluent than earlier generations of retirees, making it more likely that they will consider paying a premium for environmentally friendly housing features.
Read the whole article:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/pitching-boomers-homes-green-their/story.aspx?guid=%7B9DEC1029%2D8E09%2D4160%2DABDB%2D639EC0EFA55C%7D&dist=morenews
Earth movers
Pitching boomers housing that is green as their hair goes gray
By Stephanie I. Cohen
Last update: 3:33 p.m. EST Feb. 24, 2008
PRINCETON, N.J. (MarketWatch) -- Shea Homes, one of the nation's largest home builders, believes baby boomers are looking for communities that make an environmental difference.
This month, Shea announced the opening of Victoria Gardens, an "active lifestyle," or retirement, development in Florida sandwiched between Orlando and Daytona Beach. The homes were advertised as having a carbon footprint that is 20% to 30% less than that of a "typical household."
Billed as eco-friendly and energy-wise, the homes feature solar attic fans, green-fiber recycled insulation, motion-sensor triggered lighting, energy-efficient windows and appliances, and garages outfitted with electric-vehicle charging stations. Shea says it has focused on small, incremental green features that will collective add up to energy savings.
Housing developments that target baby boomers may be the next big push for the green housing market and statistics indicate this could be a good marriage. "There is no doubt that the green trend is going to accelerate more and more," said Rick Andreen, president of Shea Homes Active Lifestyle Communities division, in a recent interview.
Victoria Gardens marks Shea's debut in the Florida retirement market though the company is building similar homes in northern and southern California, Arizona, and Washington. The energy-efficient features are considered standard in these homes.
Other retirement communities from Texas to Maine are taking similar steps and adding green features to existing homes. An Army retirement community in San Antonio recently announced plans to install solar hot water systems in the community's 180 homes. Sea Coast Management Company, which manages retirement communities in Maine, is offering existing residents incentives to install solar hot water heaters and offering a Toyota Prius and/or a free solar hot water system to new customers purchasing a home.
Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, grew up alongside the environmental movement of the 1960s and '70s. "These guys were at Woodstock," said Matthew Kahn, a professor at UCLA's Institute of the Environment. "This is the birth cohort that was at the environmental movement's summer of love."
In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated there were approximately 78.2 million baby boomers in America. A December 2007 survey by AARP found that roughly half of all boomers see themselves as environmental stewards, or "green boomers."
Besides being a large swath of the population, boomers are overwhelmingly homeowners. Boomers are also far more affluent than earlier generations of retirees, making it more likely that they will consider paying a premium for environmentally friendly housing features.
Read the whole article:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/pitching-boomers-homes-green-their/story.aspx?guid=%7B9DEC1029%2D8E09%2D4160%2DABDB%2D639EC0EFA55C%7D&dist=morenews
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Citadel rescue plan offers hope in Iraq
Today's article on USATODAY offers some hope for Iraq and the world for obtaining peace & prosperity.
Citadel rescue plan offers hope in Iraq
By Elena Becatoros, Associated Press
IRBIL, Iraq — Towering above the modern streets and buildings of Irbil, the citadel's narrow alleyways and dusty courtyards stand almost deserted. Its mud-brick houses, built atop layers of ancient civilizations stretching back through millennia, are crumbling.
Irbil's citadel, claimed to be one of the longest continuously inhabited urban areas on Earth with a history of more than 8,000 years, is in danger. Its slopes are eroding and its buildings are collapsing.
But authorities in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region have a plan to rescue it. They hope to turn the citadel, and the vast archaeological wealth buried within the mound on which it stands, into a world-renowned tourist site complete with hotels, coffee houses, art galleries — and a vibrant, permanent living community.
The planned reconstruction is a beacon of hope for Iraq's rich cultural heritage, and highlights the vast differences between the relatively tranquil Kurdish region in the north, and the violence in other parts of the country.
In Irbil, the Kurdish region's capital 215 miles north of Baghdad, the only indication that this is still a country at war is the tall concrete blast walls, featuring bucolic murals, that protect government buildings and major hotels from bombs.
Read The Complete Article.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-01-26-irbil_N.htm?csp=34
Citadel rescue plan offers hope in Iraq
By Elena Becatoros, Associated Press
IRBIL, Iraq — Towering above the modern streets and buildings of Irbil, the citadel's narrow alleyways and dusty courtyards stand almost deserted. Its mud-brick houses, built atop layers of ancient civilizations stretching back through millennia, are crumbling.
Irbil's citadel, claimed to be one of the longest continuously inhabited urban areas on Earth with a history of more than 8,000 years, is in danger. Its slopes are eroding and its buildings are collapsing.
But authorities in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region have a plan to rescue it. They hope to turn the citadel, and the vast archaeological wealth buried within the mound on which it stands, into a world-renowned tourist site complete with hotels, coffee houses, art galleries — and a vibrant, permanent living community.
The planned reconstruction is a beacon of hope for Iraq's rich cultural heritage, and highlights the vast differences between the relatively tranquil Kurdish region in the north, and the violence in other parts of the country.
In Irbil, the Kurdish region's capital 215 miles north of Baghdad, the only indication that this is still a country at war is the tall concrete blast walls, featuring bucolic murals, that protect government buildings and major hotels from bombs.
Read The Complete Article.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-01-26-irbil_N.htm?csp=34
Friday, December 14, 2007
Toyota, Mitsubishi to make eco-cars in Thailand
Bangkok Post Latest news stated that Toyota & Mitsubishi to make environmentally conscious eco-cars in Thailand.
Tokyo (dpa) - Japanese automakers have applied to produce environmentally conscious eco-cars in Thailand, The Nikkei reported Friday.
Toyota Motor Corp and Mitsubishi Motors Corp plan to expand production capacity in Thailand and to begin manufacturing about 100,000 units of environmentally-friendly cars every year from 2010.
Toyota intends to invest about 17 billion yen (151.83 million dollars) and make the total of investment about 20 billion yen, Japan's business daily said.
The Thai government has decided to give tax breaks to automakers that produce eco-cars with 1.3-litre or smaller gasoline engines and fuel efficiency of 20 kilometres per litre.
Honda Motor Co, Suzuki Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co have already received permission for their production plans. They plan to begin manufacturing eco-cars as early as 2010 in Thailand.
Tokyo (dpa) - Japanese automakers have applied to produce environmentally conscious eco-cars in Thailand, The Nikkei reported Friday.
Toyota Motor Corp and Mitsubishi Motors Corp plan to expand production capacity in Thailand and to begin manufacturing about 100,000 units of environmentally-friendly cars every year from 2010.
Toyota intends to invest about 17 billion yen (151.83 million dollars) and make the total of investment about 20 billion yen, Japan's business daily said.
The Thai government has decided to give tax breaks to automakers that produce eco-cars with 1.3-litre or smaller gasoline engines and fuel efficiency of 20 kilometres per litre.
Honda Motor Co, Suzuki Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co have already received permission for their production plans. They plan to begin manufacturing eco-cars as early as 2010 in Thailand.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
America ships electronic waste overseas
America ships electronic waste overseas
By TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press Writer
Sun Nov 18, 1:53 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - Most Americans think they're helping the earth when they recycle their old computers, televisions and cell phones. But chances are they're contributing to a global trade in electronic trash that endangers workers and pollutes the environment overseas.
While there are no precise figures, activists estimate that 50 to 80 percent of the 300,000 to 400,000 tons of electronics collected for recycling in the U.S. each year ends up overseas. Workers in countries such as China, India and Nigeria then use hammers, gas burners and their bare hands to extract metals, glass and other recyclables, exposing themselves and the environment to a cocktail of toxic chemicals.
"It is being recycled, but it's being recycled in the most horrific way you can imagine," said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, the Seattle-based environmental group that tipped off Hong Kong authorities. "We're preserving our own environment, but contaminating the rest of the world."
The gear most likely to be shipped abroad is collected at free recycling drives, often held each April around Earth Day, recycling industry officials say. The sponsors — chiefly companies, schools, cities and counties — often hire the cheapest firms and do not ask enough questions about what becomes of the discarded equipment, the officials say.
Many so-called recyclers simply sell the working units and components, then give or sell the remaining scrap to export brokers.
"There are a lot of people getting away with exporting e-waste," said John Bekiaris, chief executive of San Francisco-based HMR USA Inc., which collects and disposes of unwanted IT equipment from Bay Area businesses. "Anyone who's disposing of their computer equipment really needs to do a thorough inspection of the vendors they use."
The problem could get worse. Most of the 2 million tons of old electronics discarded annually by Americans goes to U.S. landfills, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. But a growing number of states are banning such waste from landfills, which could drive more waste into the recycling stream and fuel exports, activists say.
Many brokers claim they are simply exporting used equipment for reuse in poor countries. That's what happened in September, when customs officials in Hong Kong were tipped off by environmentalists and intercepted two freight containers. They cracked the containers open and found hundreds of old computer monitors and televisions discarded by Americans thousands of miles away.
China bans the import of electronic waste, so the containers were sent back to the U.S.
The company that shipped out the containers was Fortune Sky USA, a Cordova, Tenn.-based subsidiary of a Chinese company. General manager Vincent Yu said his company thought it was buying and shipping used computers, not old monitors and televisions, and is trying to get its money back.
Fortune Sky exports used computers and components to China, Malaysia, Vietnam and other Asian countries.
"There's a huge market over there for secondhand computers that we don't use anymore," Yu said. "I don't think it's going to cause any pollution. If the equipment can still be used, then that's good for everybody."
Yu refused to say where he bought the material, but Basel Action Network tracked it to a San Antonio, Texas, company that collects computers, printers and other electronics from schools and businesses.
Activists complain that most exporters don't test units to make sure they work before sending them overseas.
"Reuse is the new excuse. It's the new passport to export," said Puckett of Basel Action Network. "Other countries are facing this glut of exported used equipment under the pretext that it's all going to be reused."
At the other end at customs, the goods don't always get checked either.
"It is impossible to stop and check every single container imported into Hong Kong," said Kenneth Chan of Hong Kong's Environmental Protection Department. "Smugglers may also deliberately declare their ... waste as goods."
In the first nine months of this year, Hong Kong authorities returned 85 containers of electronic junk, including 20 from the U.S.
Exporting most electronic waste isn't illegal in the United States. The U.S. does bar the export of monitors and televisions with cathode-ray tubes without permission from the importing country, but federal authorities don't have the resources to check most containers.
The EPA recognizes the problem but doesn't believe that stopping exports is the solution, said Matt Hale, who heads the agency's office of solid waste. Since most electronics are manufactured abroad, it makes sense to recycle them abroad, Hale said.
"What we need to do is work internationally to upgrade the standards (for recycling) wherever it takes place," he said.
The EPA is working with environmental groups, recyclers and electronics manufacturers to develop a system to certify companies that recycle electronics responsibly. But so far the various players have not agreed on standards and enforcement.
Many activists believe the answer lies in requiring electronics makers to take back and recycle their own products. Such laws would encourage manufacturers to make products that are easier to recycle and contain fewer dangerous chemicals, they say.
Eight states, including five this year, have passed such laws, and companies such as Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Sony now take back their products at no charge. Some require consumers to mail in their old gear, while others have drop-off centers. HP says it also now designs its equipment with fewer toxic materials and has made it easier to recycle.
__
On the Net:
Basel Action Network: http://www.ban.org/
Computer Take Back Campaign: http://www.computertakeback.com/
International Association of Electronics Recyclers: http://www.iaer.org/
By TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press Writer
Sun Nov 18, 1:53 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - Most Americans think they're helping the earth when they recycle their old computers, televisions and cell phones. But chances are they're contributing to a global trade in electronic trash that endangers workers and pollutes the environment overseas.
While there are no precise figures, activists estimate that 50 to 80 percent of the 300,000 to 400,000 tons of electronics collected for recycling in the U.S. each year ends up overseas. Workers in countries such as China, India and Nigeria then use hammers, gas burners and their bare hands to extract metals, glass and other recyclables, exposing themselves and the environment to a cocktail of toxic chemicals.
"It is being recycled, but it's being recycled in the most horrific way you can imagine," said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, the Seattle-based environmental group that tipped off Hong Kong authorities. "We're preserving our own environment, but contaminating the rest of the world."
The gear most likely to be shipped abroad is collected at free recycling drives, often held each April around Earth Day, recycling industry officials say. The sponsors — chiefly companies, schools, cities and counties — often hire the cheapest firms and do not ask enough questions about what becomes of the discarded equipment, the officials say.
Many so-called recyclers simply sell the working units and components, then give or sell the remaining scrap to export brokers.
"There are a lot of people getting away with exporting e-waste," said John Bekiaris, chief executive of San Francisco-based HMR USA Inc., which collects and disposes of unwanted IT equipment from Bay Area businesses. "Anyone who's disposing of their computer equipment really needs to do a thorough inspection of the vendors they use."
The problem could get worse. Most of the 2 million tons of old electronics discarded annually by Americans goes to U.S. landfills, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. But a growing number of states are banning such waste from landfills, which could drive more waste into the recycling stream and fuel exports, activists say.
Many brokers claim they are simply exporting used equipment for reuse in poor countries. That's what happened in September, when customs officials in Hong Kong were tipped off by environmentalists and intercepted two freight containers. They cracked the containers open and found hundreds of old computer monitors and televisions discarded by Americans thousands of miles away.
China bans the import of electronic waste, so the containers were sent back to the U.S.
The company that shipped out the containers was Fortune Sky USA, a Cordova, Tenn.-based subsidiary of a Chinese company. General manager Vincent Yu said his company thought it was buying and shipping used computers, not old monitors and televisions, and is trying to get its money back.
Fortune Sky exports used computers and components to China, Malaysia, Vietnam and other Asian countries.
"There's a huge market over there for secondhand computers that we don't use anymore," Yu said. "I don't think it's going to cause any pollution. If the equipment can still be used, then that's good for everybody."
Yu refused to say where he bought the material, but Basel Action Network tracked it to a San Antonio, Texas, company that collects computers, printers and other electronics from schools and businesses.
Activists complain that most exporters don't test units to make sure they work before sending them overseas.
"Reuse is the new excuse. It's the new passport to export," said Puckett of Basel Action Network. "Other countries are facing this glut of exported used equipment under the pretext that it's all going to be reused."
At the other end at customs, the goods don't always get checked either.
"It is impossible to stop and check every single container imported into Hong Kong," said Kenneth Chan of Hong Kong's Environmental Protection Department. "Smugglers may also deliberately declare their ... waste as goods."
In the first nine months of this year, Hong Kong authorities returned 85 containers of electronic junk, including 20 from the U.S.
Exporting most electronic waste isn't illegal in the United States. The U.S. does bar the export of monitors and televisions with cathode-ray tubes without permission from the importing country, but federal authorities don't have the resources to check most containers.
The EPA recognizes the problem but doesn't believe that stopping exports is the solution, said Matt Hale, who heads the agency's office of solid waste. Since most electronics are manufactured abroad, it makes sense to recycle them abroad, Hale said.
"What we need to do is work internationally to upgrade the standards (for recycling) wherever it takes place," he said.
The EPA is working with environmental groups, recyclers and electronics manufacturers to develop a system to certify companies that recycle electronics responsibly. But so far the various players have not agreed on standards and enforcement.
Many activists believe the answer lies in requiring electronics makers to take back and recycle their own products. Such laws would encourage manufacturers to make products that are easier to recycle and contain fewer dangerous chemicals, they say.
Eight states, including five this year, have passed such laws, and companies such as Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Sony now take back their products at no charge. Some require consumers to mail in their old gear, while others have drop-off centers. HP says it also now designs its equipment with fewer toxic materials and has made it easier to recycle.
__
On the Net:
Basel Action Network: http://www.ban.org/
Computer Take Back Campaign: http://www.computertakeback.com/
International Association of Electronics Recyclers: http://www.iaer.org/
e-Waste nightmare
This is an eye opening article. We marveled at all the high tech products and equipments that we take for granted since they are enabling us and improving our productivity. Many of these products such as computers, printers, Fax machine, CD & DVD players, HD TVs, Ipod, IPhone; they are tools to keep us working smarter and and also toys to keep us entertained. Some high tech products are used in health care to enhance our life and in the medical field to improve our way of living so that we can be healthier. The end of life of these products that we discarded are either sitting around collecting dust or being carted off to a recycle center.
This is not a pretty story but it needed to be told.
In the end no one wins, we complained about China sending dangerous toys to our country - we are not all that pure and regal either.
(To be continued..)
China not fighting off e-waste nightmare
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
26 minutes ago
GUIYU, China - The air smells acrid from the squat gas burners that sit outside homes, melting wires to recover copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. Migrant workers in filthy clothes smash picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing as much as 6.5 pounds of lead dust.
For five years, environmentalists and the media have highlighted the danger to Chinese workers who dismantle much of the world's junked electronics. Yet a visit to this southeastern Chinese town regarded as the heartland of "e-waste" disposal shows little has improved. In fact, the problem is growing worse because of China's own contribution.
China now produces more than 1 million tons of e-waste each year, said Jamie Choi, a toxics campaigner with Greenpeace China in Beijing. That adds up to roughly 5 million television sets, 4 million fridges, 5 million washing machines, 10 million mobile phones and 5 million personal computers, according to Choi.
"Most e-waste in China comes from overseas, but the amount of domestic e-waste is on the rise," he said.
This ugly business is driven by pure economics. For the West, where safety rules drive up the cost of disposal, it's as much as 10 times cheaper to export the waste to developing countries. In China, poor migrants from the countryside willingly endure the health risks to earn a few yuan, exploited by profit-hungry entrepreneurs.
International agreements and European regulations have made a dent in the export of old electronics to China, but loopholes — and sometimes bribes — allow many to skirt the requirements. And only a sliver of the electronics sold get returned to manufacturers such as Dell and Hewlett Packard for safe recycling.
Upwards of 90 percent ends up in dumps that observe no environmental standards, where shredders, open fires, acid baths and broilers are used to recover gold, silver, copper and other valuable metals while spewing toxic fumes and runoff into the nation's skies and rivers.
Accurate figures about the shady and unregulated trade are hard to come by. However, experts agree that it is overwhelmingly a problem of the developing world. They estimate about 70 percent of the 20-50 million tons of electronic waste produced globally each year is dumped in China, with most of the rest going to India and poor African nations.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it is ten times cheaper to export e-waste than to dispose of it at home.
Imports slip into China despite a Chinese ban and Beijing's ratification of the Basel Convention, an international agreement that outlaws the trade. Industry monitor Ted Smith said one U.S. exporter told him all that was needed to get shipments past Chinese customs officials was a crisp $100 bill taped to the inside of each container.
"The central government is well aware of the problems but has been unable or unwilling to really address it," said Smith, senior strategist with the California-based Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, which focuses on the electronics industry.
The European Union bans such exports, but Smith and others say smuggling is rife, largely due to the lack of measures to punish rule breakers. China, meanwhile, allows the import of plastic waste and scrap metal, which many recyclers use as an excuse to send old electronics there.
And though U.S. states increasingly require that electronics be sent to collection and recycling centers, even from those centers, American firms can send the e-waste abroad legally because Congress hasn't ratified the Basel Convention.
The results are visible on the streets of Guiyu, where the e-waste industry employs an estimated 150,000 people. Shipping containers of computer parts, old video games, computer screens, cell phones and electronics of all kinds, from ancient to nearly new, are dumped onto the streets and sorted for dismantling and melting.
Valuable metals such as copper, gold, and silver are removed through melting and acid baths, while steel is torn out for scrap and plastic is ground into pellets for other use.
This is big business for those who control the trade. Luxury sedans are parked in front of elaborate mansions in downtown Guiyu, adorned with fancy names such as "Hall of Southernly Peace."
Many of those who do the dirty work are migrants from poorer parts of China, too desperate or uninformed to care about the health risks.
In the town of Nanyang, a few minutes drive from Guiyu, a middle-aged couple from the inland province of Hunan sorts wiring in a mud-floored shack. Such work, including melting down motherboards, earns them about $100 per month, said the husband, who answered reluctantly and wouldn't give his name.
Many houses double as smelter and home. Gas burners shaped like blacksmith's forges squat beside the front doors, their flues rising several stories to try to dissipate the toxic smoke.
Nonetheless, a visitor soon develops a throbbing headache and metallic taste in the mouth. The groundwater has long been too polluted for human consumption. The amount of lead in the river sediment is double European safety levels, according to the Basel Action Network, an environmental group.
Yet, aside from trucking in drinking water, the health risks seem largely ignored. Fish are still raised in local ponds, and piles of ash and plastic waste sit beside rice paddies and dikes holding in the area's main Lianjiang river.
Chemicals, including mercury, fluorine, barium, chromium, and cobalt, that either leach from the waste or are used in processing, are blamed for skin rashes and respiratory problems. Contamination can take decades to dissipate, experts say, and long-term health effects can include kidney and nervous system damage, weakening of the immune system and cancer.
"Of course, recycling is more environmentally sound," said Wu Song, a former local university student who has studied the area. "But I wouldn't really call what's happening here recycling."
Those who control the business in Guiyu are hostile to outside scrutiny. Reporters visiting the area with a Greenpeace volunteer were trailed by tough-looking youths who notified local police, leading to a six-hour detention for questioning.
Government departments from the provincial to township levels refused to answer questions. The central government's Environmental Protection Agency did not reply to faxed questions.
Guiyu faces growing competition from other cities, notably Taizhou, about 450 miles up the coast in Zhejiang province. Meanwhile, collection yards have sprung up on the fringes of most major cities. The owners sell what they can to recyclers — most of them unregulated — and simply dump the rest.
Efforts to recycle e-waste safely in China have struggled. Few people bring in waste, because the illegal operators pay more.
"We're not even breaking even," said Gao Jian, marketing director of New World Solid Waste in the northeastern city of Qingdao. "These guys pay more because they don't need expensive equipment, but their methods are really dangerous."
The city of Shanghai opened a dedicated e-waste handling center last year, but most residents and companies prefer the "guerrilla" junkers who ride through neighborhoods on flatbed tricycles ringing bells to attract customers, said Yu Jinbiao of the Shanghai Electronic Products Repair Service Association, a government-backed industry federation.
"Those guerrillas are convenient and offer a good price," Yu said, "so there is a big market for them."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071119/ap_on_re_as/china_toxic_electronics
This is not a pretty story but it needed to be told.
In the end no one wins, we complained about China sending dangerous toys to our country - we are not all that pure and regal either.
(To be continued..)
China not fighting off e-waste nightmare
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
26 minutes ago
GUIYU, China - The air smells acrid from the squat gas burners that sit outside homes, melting wires to recover copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. Migrant workers in filthy clothes smash picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing as much as 6.5 pounds of lead dust.
For five years, environmentalists and the media have highlighted the danger to Chinese workers who dismantle much of the world's junked electronics. Yet a visit to this southeastern Chinese town regarded as the heartland of "e-waste" disposal shows little has improved. In fact, the problem is growing worse because of China's own contribution.
China now produces more than 1 million tons of e-waste each year, said Jamie Choi, a toxics campaigner with Greenpeace China in Beijing. That adds up to roughly 5 million television sets, 4 million fridges, 5 million washing machines, 10 million mobile phones and 5 million personal computers, according to Choi.
"Most e-waste in China comes from overseas, but the amount of domestic e-waste is on the rise," he said.
This ugly business is driven by pure economics. For the West, where safety rules drive up the cost of disposal, it's as much as 10 times cheaper to export the waste to developing countries. In China, poor migrants from the countryside willingly endure the health risks to earn a few yuan, exploited by profit-hungry entrepreneurs.
International agreements and European regulations have made a dent in the export of old electronics to China, but loopholes — and sometimes bribes — allow many to skirt the requirements. And only a sliver of the electronics sold get returned to manufacturers such as Dell and Hewlett Packard for safe recycling.
Upwards of 90 percent ends up in dumps that observe no environmental standards, where shredders, open fires, acid baths and broilers are used to recover gold, silver, copper and other valuable metals while spewing toxic fumes and runoff into the nation's skies and rivers.
Accurate figures about the shady and unregulated trade are hard to come by. However, experts agree that it is overwhelmingly a problem of the developing world. They estimate about 70 percent of the 20-50 million tons of electronic waste produced globally each year is dumped in China, with most of the rest going to India and poor African nations.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it is ten times cheaper to export e-waste than to dispose of it at home.
Imports slip into China despite a Chinese ban and Beijing's ratification of the Basel Convention, an international agreement that outlaws the trade. Industry monitor Ted Smith said one U.S. exporter told him all that was needed to get shipments past Chinese customs officials was a crisp $100 bill taped to the inside of each container.
"The central government is well aware of the problems but has been unable or unwilling to really address it," said Smith, senior strategist with the California-based Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, which focuses on the electronics industry.
The European Union bans such exports, but Smith and others say smuggling is rife, largely due to the lack of measures to punish rule breakers. China, meanwhile, allows the import of plastic waste and scrap metal, which many recyclers use as an excuse to send old electronics there.
And though U.S. states increasingly require that electronics be sent to collection and recycling centers, even from those centers, American firms can send the e-waste abroad legally because Congress hasn't ratified the Basel Convention.
The results are visible on the streets of Guiyu, where the e-waste industry employs an estimated 150,000 people. Shipping containers of computer parts, old video games, computer screens, cell phones and electronics of all kinds, from ancient to nearly new, are dumped onto the streets and sorted for dismantling and melting.
Valuable metals such as copper, gold, and silver are removed through melting and acid baths, while steel is torn out for scrap and plastic is ground into pellets for other use.
This is big business for those who control the trade. Luxury sedans are parked in front of elaborate mansions in downtown Guiyu, adorned with fancy names such as "Hall of Southernly Peace."
Many of those who do the dirty work are migrants from poorer parts of China, too desperate or uninformed to care about the health risks.
In the town of Nanyang, a few minutes drive from Guiyu, a middle-aged couple from the inland province of Hunan sorts wiring in a mud-floored shack. Such work, including melting down motherboards, earns them about $100 per month, said the husband, who answered reluctantly and wouldn't give his name.
Many houses double as smelter and home. Gas burners shaped like blacksmith's forges squat beside the front doors, their flues rising several stories to try to dissipate the toxic smoke.
Nonetheless, a visitor soon develops a throbbing headache and metallic taste in the mouth. The groundwater has long been too polluted for human consumption. The amount of lead in the river sediment is double European safety levels, according to the Basel Action Network, an environmental group.
Yet, aside from trucking in drinking water, the health risks seem largely ignored. Fish are still raised in local ponds, and piles of ash and plastic waste sit beside rice paddies and dikes holding in the area's main Lianjiang river.
Chemicals, including mercury, fluorine, barium, chromium, and cobalt, that either leach from the waste or are used in processing, are blamed for skin rashes and respiratory problems. Contamination can take decades to dissipate, experts say, and long-term health effects can include kidney and nervous system damage, weakening of the immune system and cancer.
"Of course, recycling is more environmentally sound," said Wu Song, a former local university student who has studied the area. "But I wouldn't really call what's happening here recycling."
Those who control the business in Guiyu are hostile to outside scrutiny. Reporters visiting the area with a Greenpeace volunteer were trailed by tough-looking youths who notified local police, leading to a six-hour detention for questioning.
Government departments from the provincial to township levels refused to answer questions. The central government's Environmental Protection Agency did not reply to faxed questions.
Guiyu faces growing competition from other cities, notably Taizhou, about 450 miles up the coast in Zhejiang province. Meanwhile, collection yards have sprung up on the fringes of most major cities. The owners sell what they can to recyclers — most of them unregulated — and simply dump the rest.
Efforts to recycle e-waste safely in China have struggled. Few people bring in waste, because the illegal operators pay more.
"We're not even breaking even," said Gao Jian, marketing director of New World Solid Waste in the northeastern city of Qingdao. "These guys pay more because they don't need expensive equipment, but their methods are really dangerous."
The city of Shanghai opened a dedicated e-waste handling center last year, but most residents and companies prefer the "guerrilla" junkers who ride through neighborhoods on flatbed tricycles ringing bells to attract customers, said Yu Jinbiao of the Shanghai Electronic Products Repair Service Association, a government-backed industry federation.
"Those guerrillas are convenient and offer a good price," Yu said, "so there is a big market for them."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071119/ap_on_re_as/china_toxic_electronics
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Transform Your Life
Transform your Life - by Pastor Will Bowen
Your thoughts create your world and your words indicate your thoughts. When you eliminate complaining from your life will you enjoy happier relationships, better health and greater prosperity. This simple program helps you set a trap for your own negativity and redirect your mind towards a more positive and rewarding life.
http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/
How it Works?
Scientists believe it takes 21 days to form a new habit and complaining is habitual for most of us.
Read More:
http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/howitworks.html
The Emergence of Positive Psychology: The Building of a Field of Dreams
Shane J. Lopez, PhD
University of Kansas
"Build it and they will come. Build it and they will come."
A similar eerie directive echoed in Ray Consella's mind in the popular movie,
"Field of Dreams." An epiphany occurred when Consella realized that the building of a baseball field in rural Iowa would open a metaphysical door to his past and his future.
Dr. Martin Seligman experienced a similar epiphany that occurred in his garden and was brought about by the profound words of a child, his daughter Nikki. In a 1999 speech, Dr. Seligman recounted the experience that changed his view of parenting and psychology and he concluded the following:
Raising Nikki would be about taking the strength that she had just shown--I call it seeing into the soul--naming it, nurturing it, reinforcing it, helping her to lead her life around it and let it buffer against the weaknesses and the vicissitudes. The most important thing, the most general thing I learned, was that psychology was half-baked, literally half-baked. We had baked the part about mental illness; we had baked the part about repair of damage...The other side's unbaked, the side of strength, the side of what we're good at.
Positive psychology is the other side. It is the scientific pursuit of optimal human functioning and the building of a field focusing on human strength and virtue. It builds on the bench science and research methods that shed light on the "dark side" of human functioning, and it opens the door to understanding prevention and health promotion. Dr. Seligman (1998) noted:
http://www.apa.org/apags/profdev/pospsyc.html
Your thoughts create your world and your words indicate your thoughts. When you eliminate complaining from your life will you enjoy happier relationships, better health and greater prosperity. This simple program helps you set a trap for your own negativity and redirect your mind towards a more positive and rewarding life.
http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/
How it Works?
Scientists believe it takes 21 days to form a new habit and complaining is habitual for most of us.
Read More:
http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/howitworks.html
The Emergence of Positive Psychology: The Building of a Field of Dreams
Shane J. Lopez, PhD
University of Kansas
"Build it and they will come. Build it and they will come."
A similar eerie directive echoed in Ray Consella's mind in the popular movie,
"Field of Dreams." An epiphany occurred when Consella realized that the building of a baseball field in rural Iowa would open a metaphysical door to his past and his future.
Dr. Martin Seligman experienced a similar epiphany that occurred in his garden and was brought about by the profound words of a child, his daughter Nikki. In a 1999 speech, Dr. Seligman recounted the experience that changed his view of parenting and psychology and he concluded the following:
Raising Nikki would be about taking the strength that she had just shown--I call it seeing into the soul--naming it, nurturing it, reinforcing it, helping her to lead her life around it and let it buffer against the weaknesses and the vicissitudes. The most important thing, the most general thing I learned, was that psychology was half-baked, literally half-baked. We had baked the part about mental illness; we had baked the part about repair of damage...The other side's unbaked, the side of strength, the side of what we're good at.
Positive psychology is the other side. It is the scientific pursuit of optimal human functioning and the building of a field focusing on human strength and virtue. It builds on the bench science and research methods that shed light on the "dark side" of human functioning, and it opens the door to understanding prevention and health promotion. Dr. Seligman (1998) noted:
http://www.apa.org/apags/profdev/pospsyc.html
Problmes In Life.
Problmes In Life.
The serious problems in life, however, are never fully solved....
The meaning and purpose of a problem seem to lie not
in its solution, but in our working at it incessantly.
(C.G. Jung, Stages of Life, CW 8, § 771
The serious problems in life, however, are never fully solved....
The meaning and purpose of a problem seem to lie not
in its solution, but in our working at it incessantly.
(C.G. Jung, Stages of Life, CW 8, § 771
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Malaysia to Get High Speed Broadband
Technology October 4, 2007, 9:46AM EST
Malaysia to Get High Speed Broadband
According to Business Week, The Malaysia government will fund 30% of the proposed multibillion project, which will be built by Telekom Malaysia
by Lee Min Keong
Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak last week unveiled plans to embark on an ambitious initiative to roll out high-speed broadband services across the country. The government official also revealed that incumbent fixed-line carrier Telekom Malaysia (TM) has been awarded the mega broadband project.
Targeted to cover 2.2 million premises, the project is estimated to cost 15.2 billion ringgit (US$4.46 billion) over 10 years, Najib was quoted to say in local news reports.
"We have asked the Finance Ministry to verify the figure, which includes the cost of 'last-mile' fiber, core network and [improvements to] international connectivity," Najib told local reporters.
State-owned TM has been directed to start initial work on the project, though deployment of the physical infrastructure is likely to come only six months after the partnership agreement has been signed. The government is targeting to ink the agreement as soon as possible, Najib said.
The country's deputy premier explained that the Cabinet Committee on Broadband, which he heads, chose to partner TM because the telco already owns an existing infrastructure. This, he said, would allow additional investment to be done on a lower cost basis and at a faster speed.
"We want the [new high-speed broadband] service to be rolled out quickly and in a cost-efficient manner, so that Malaysia would not be left behind in terms of competitive edge," he added.
Najib left open the possibility for other telcos to get a dip in the project, though he noted that the role of these industry players would only be determined later.
STUDYING THE COSTAccording to local reports, the government had commissioned consultant firm McKinsey & Co. to conduct a feasibility study, which estimated that an investment of 15 billion ringgit (US$4.4 billion) would be required to lay fiber-optic lines to every home in Malaysia's major urban areas. To reach every home in the country, this investment will need to increase to 53 billion ringgit (US$15.55 billion).
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2007/gb2007104_831833.htm
Malaysia to Get High Speed Broadband
According to Business Week, The Malaysia government will fund 30% of the proposed multibillion project, which will be built by Telekom Malaysia
by Lee Min Keong
Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak last week unveiled plans to embark on an ambitious initiative to roll out high-speed broadband services across the country. The government official also revealed that incumbent fixed-line carrier Telekom Malaysia (TM) has been awarded the mega broadband project.
Targeted to cover 2.2 million premises, the project is estimated to cost 15.2 billion ringgit (US$4.46 billion) over 10 years, Najib was quoted to say in local news reports.
"We have asked the Finance Ministry to verify the figure, which includes the cost of 'last-mile' fiber, core network and [improvements to] international connectivity," Najib told local reporters.
State-owned TM has been directed to start initial work on the project, though deployment of the physical infrastructure is likely to come only six months after the partnership agreement has been signed. The government is targeting to ink the agreement as soon as possible, Najib said.
The country's deputy premier explained that the Cabinet Committee on Broadband, which he heads, chose to partner TM because the telco already owns an existing infrastructure. This, he said, would allow additional investment to be done on a lower cost basis and at a faster speed.
"We want the [new high-speed broadband] service to be rolled out quickly and in a cost-efficient manner, so that Malaysia would not be left behind in terms of competitive edge," he added.
Najib left open the possibility for other telcos to get a dip in the project, though he noted that the role of these industry players would only be determined later.
STUDYING THE COSTAccording to local reports, the government had commissioned consultant firm McKinsey & Co. to conduct a feasibility study, which estimated that an investment of 15 billion ringgit (US$4.4 billion) would be required to lay fiber-optic lines to every home in Malaysia's major urban areas. To reach every home in the country, this investment will need to increase to 53 billion ringgit (US$15.55 billion).
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2007/gb2007104_831833.htm
Saturday, October 06, 2007
British adventurer ends 13-year human-powered world trip
Sat Oct 6, 1:40 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - British adventurer Jason Lewis on Saturday arrived in Greenwich, south-east London, ending a 13-year round-the-world trip using only the power of the human body.
The 40-year-old completed the final leg of his 46,000-mile (74,000-kilometre) odyssey by pedalling his 26-foot (7.9-metre) boat Moksha up the River Thames.
The last effort into London followed a 3,000-kilometre bike ride from Turkey through Bulgaria, Romania, Austria and Germany to Oostend in Belgium, where the boat was waiting for him.
During his circumnavigation, he capsized in the North Atlantic Ocean, broke both legs, was chased by a crocodile in Australia and arrested on suspicion of spying in Egypt and threatened with a 40-year prison sentence.
Bearded and looking tired, a clearly emotional Lewis crossed the Greenwich Meridian line at the Royal Observatory by carrying his boat with the help of supporters and cheering well-wishers.
Lewis set off from the same spot -- zero degrees longitude -- bound for Portugal in July 1994. The 16-leg journey also included hiking, kayaking and hiking.
"It feels fantastic. I came over the line and I was choked. I blubbed (cried) like a baby," he told reporters.
"Everything I've been doing for the last 13 years has been in some way connected to this trip and tomorrow that will be no more."
Among the welcoming party was Queen Elizabeth II's cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, who is patron to the Expedition 360 adventure and who named Moksha in 1993. The name means "liberation" in Sanskrit.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071006/lf_afp/lifestylebritaintraveladventurepeople_071006174058
LONDON (AFP) - British adventurer Jason Lewis on Saturday arrived in Greenwich, south-east London, ending a 13-year round-the-world trip using only the power of the human body.
The 40-year-old completed the final leg of his 46,000-mile (74,000-kilometre) odyssey by pedalling his 26-foot (7.9-metre) boat Moksha up the River Thames.
The last effort into London followed a 3,000-kilometre bike ride from Turkey through Bulgaria, Romania, Austria and Germany to Oostend in Belgium, where the boat was waiting for him.
During his circumnavigation, he capsized in the North Atlantic Ocean, broke both legs, was chased by a crocodile in Australia and arrested on suspicion of spying in Egypt and threatened with a 40-year prison sentence.
Bearded and looking tired, a clearly emotional Lewis crossed the Greenwich Meridian line at the Royal Observatory by carrying his boat with the help of supporters and cheering well-wishers.
Lewis set off from the same spot -- zero degrees longitude -- bound for Portugal in July 1994. The 16-leg journey also included hiking, kayaking and hiking.
"It feels fantastic. I came over the line and I was choked. I blubbed (cried) like a baby," he told reporters.
"Everything I've been doing for the last 13 years has been in some way connected to this trip and tomorrow that will be no more."
Among the welcoming party was Queen Elizabeth II's cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, who is patron to the Expedition 360 adventure and who named Moksha in 1993. The name means "liberation" in Sanskrit.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071006/lf_afp/lifestylebritaintraveladventurepeople_071006174058
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Myamar Protest.
The United States said Wednesday it was "very troubled" by Myanmar's deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters and urged "a peaceful transition" in Yangon from military rule to democracy.(AFP)
"The United States is very troubled that the regime would treat the Burmese people this way. We call on the junta to proceed in a peaceful transition to democracy," said White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Asked whether Washington considered earlier reports of violence in Myanmar to have been confirmed, Johndroe replied: "Yes."
Myanmar security forces used batons, tear gas and live rounds Wednesday in a violent crackdown on mass protests against the military junta, killing at least four people including three Buddhist monks.
Up to 100,000 people defied heavy security to take to the streets of the main city Yangon, marching and shouting abuse at police despite blunt warnings from the ruling generals who are facing the most serious challenge to their rule in nearly two decades.
Two of the monks were beaten to death while another was shot when he tried to wrestle a gun away from a soldier and the weapon discharged, two senior Myanmar officials told AFP.
They said the monks were killed near Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's holiest site and a key rallying point for the clergy leading the nine days of protests which have spread across the Southeast Asian nation.
A fourth man, who was not a monk, was shot dead, a hospital source said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070926/pl_afp/myanmarprotestuswhouse_070926173920;_ylt=ArYiXwd5DStNkuSFr0QbSvQKO7gF
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Flooding In Africa.
Aerial view of the floods effecting the Katawki district of eastern Uganda, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2007. Across Africa, torrential downpours and flash floods have submerged whole towns and washed away bridges, farms and schools. More than a million people across at least 17 countries have been affected by the rains since the summer, according to the United Nations. At least 200 people have been killed, and hundreds of thousands are displaced. (AP Photo/Katy Pownall)
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070919/481/5d1a4ab735034b34973835b8357d1599
Severe floods hit 17 countries in Africa
By KATY POWNALL, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 19, 3:26 PM ET
SOROTI, Uganda - Fish swam alongside the dugout canoes residents were using to flee their flooded homes, riding the water gushing through the streets of this town in eastern Uganda.
Interior Minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled said this week that southern Somalia faced a "humanitarian catastrophe," because rivers had burst their banks, flooding farms and destroying crops. The rivers began flooding in late August following heavy rains in neighboring Ethiopia, he said.
On the other side of the continent, Ghana has also been heavily hit. Three regions in the north, the country's traditional breadbasket, have been declared an official disaster zone after whole towns and villages were submerged. Torrential rains between July and August killed at least 32 people and displaced a quarter of a million, the U.N. said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070919/ap_on_re_af/africa_floods_1;_ylt=AmuxAUGlCUIb9ihSRhXchFTlWMcFSaturday, September 15, 2007
Stunning Solar-Powered Homes
This is a story about living well and living smart. It is about having a beautiful home which is also good for the environment and the owner's pocket book. I love beautiful homes and when the home is good for the environment, I even love it plenty more.
Jeri
Real Estate
Stunning Solar-Powered Homes
Matt Woolsey 08.16.07, 6:00 PM ET
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| In Pictures: Stunning Solar-Powered Homes |
Read the whole article on Forbes web site:
http://www.forbes.com/2007/08/16/solar-energy-homes-forbeslife-cx_mw_0816solarrealestate.html?partner=playlist&thisSpeed=15000Owners of solar-powered homes sleep easy all summer. And it's only in part because they can keep their houses cool without paying obscenely large electricity bills.
Rather, by opting for a photovoltaic (PV) solar-power system, which relies on roof-top solar panels to convert sunlight directly into electricity, a homeowner can, depending on the time of year and the climate in which he lives, cover his monthly energy bill and in some cases, even sell surplus energy back to the grid.
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