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barnaby

The Highwaymen - 0 views

  • 1956, President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which called for the federal and state governments to build 41,000 miles of high-quality roads
  • June 29, 2006, Mitch Daniels, the former Bush administration official turned governor of Indiana
  • Indiana had received $3.8 billion from a foreign consortium
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Cintra and the Macquarie Infrastructure Group (mig) of Australia
  • state would hand over operation of the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road for the next 75 years
  • tax breaks
  • immunity from most local and state taxes
  • generate more than $11 billion over the 75-year
  • prelude to a host of such efforts to come.
  • privatizing everything from the New York Thruway to the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey turnpikes,
  • $25 billion in public-private highway deals are in the works
  • Transurban, paid more than half a billion dollars for a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway
  • $1.3 billion bid by Cintra and construction behemoth Zachry Construction to build and operate a 40-mile toll road out of Austin.
sirgabrial

Advertising: Study Shows Fast Food Zombies Are Made At An Early Age - Consumerist - 0 views

  • Study Shows Fast Food Zombies Are Made At An Early Age
  • A new study is reporting that very young children are highly susceptible to the daily onslaught of branded fast food advertising: "most 3- and 5-year-olds who taste-tested a variety of foods said they preferred the ones in the McDonald's wrapper -- even though the foods were exactly the same."
  • It didn't matter whether the food was a chicken nugget from Mickey D's or carrots and milk from the supermarket--when they were presented in branded McDonald's packaging, the kids thought they tasted better.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The study also mentions that more than half the children in the study have TVs in their bedrooms, more than three-quarters have McDonald's toys at home, and one-third ate at McDonald's more than once a week. >
barnaby

Bush says others delay Guantanamo prison closure - washingtonpost.com - 0 views

  • part of the delay was the reluctance of some nations to take back some of the people being held there."
  • detention without charge
  • base in Cuba.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • needed in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism.
  • 355 detainees
  • 80 are eligible for release or transfer
  • another 75 to 80 detainees on track for transfer
  • down to about 200
  • 25 of the 80 detainees currently eligible for transfer cannot be returned to their home nations because of human rights concerns
  • U.S. officials did not specify which countries were reluctant
  • Britain asked the United States on Tuesday to release five detainees from Guantanamo
  • still reviewing the request
  • 14 al Qaeda suspects
  • a label that allows the U.S. government to keep holding them
  • from secret CIA prisons
  • not meant to determine guilt
  • Charges have not been filed
barnaby

TheStar.com - News - U.S., India in nuclear deal - 0 views

shared by barnaby on 18 Oct 07 - Cached
  • worked out differences blocking the sharing of civilian nuclear fuel and technology
  • could spur the spread of nuclear weapons.
barnaby

Kerry Trueman: Faux Holy Roller Gets Arrested for Preaching The First Amendment at Crit... - 0 views

  • mock missionary
  • "Reverend Billy has a First Amendment right to recite the First Amendment," Norman Siegel
  • second-degree harassment
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  • because he wouldn't stop reciting the First Amendment to a bunch of stone-faced cops.
  • routinely rub the NYPD the wrong way
  • City Hall claims the cyclists don't have the right to assemble and pedal
  • Transportation Alternatives advocate a "green hierarchy" which gives priority to pedestrians, cyclists, mass transit, and commercial vehicles over the single occupancy cars
  • the NYPD hauled the Reverend Billy off to jail for reciting the First Amendment at the monthly bicycle rally known as Critical Mass
barnaby

TheStar.com - Business - Taming tornadoes to power cities - 0 views

shared by barnaby on 07 Sep 07 - Cached
  • is convinced it's possible to engineer and control powerful, full-scale whirlwinds and harness their energy to produce emission-free electricity.
  • vortex engine
  • attracted some research funding from the Ontario Centres of Excellence.
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  • next step is to build and study the performance of a four-metre model,
  • Waste heat, a byproduct of any fossil fuel or nuclear plant operation that is typically vented into the air through cooling towers, is carried by water pipe to a vortex engine facility nearby. The hot water enters a number of cooling cells stationed around the facility where fans push dry air across hot pipes.
  • air picks up the heat and enters the vortex through 10 or more angled ducts, causing the air to swirl inside. The heated air begins to rise in a spinning motion, gathering energy the higher it gets and creating a vortex. As the vortex gathers momentum it begins to suck air through the cooling cells, at which point the fans that initially pushed in the air now function as turbines that generate electricity.
  • $60 million
  • o longer need a separate cooling tower.
  • cost less than one quarter the cost of a coal plant,
  • excluding the cooling tower benefits and the fact that no ongoing fuel expenses
  • Once it gets going, it may be too hard to stop
  • could be turned down, or shut off completely, by limiting the amount of air flow into the base of the funnel
  • as the vortex grows it would likely be able to pull in warm ambient air from many kilometres away, creating the possibility for debris accumulation and making it more difficult to manage.
  • series of controlled tornados along the equator would carry that heat to the outer edges of the atmosphere, where it could more easily escape.
sirgabrial

PETA Kills Animals | PetaKillsAnimals.com - 0 views

  • Exclusive: PETA Killed More than 90% of the Animals in its Care in 2007
  • killed more than 90 percent of the adoptable animals in its care during 2007. 
  • Last year, PETA wrangled with the Virginia government for nine months before its 2006 records were finally made public.
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  • Virginia's public records law,
  • In comparison, the Virginia Beach SPCA, right down the road from PETA’s Norfolk headquarters, managed to adopt out almost 70% of the animals in its care last year. And it did it on a relative shoestring budget.
  • the group has put down over 19,200 dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens. While it's possible that some of these animals were too broken or sick to be rehabilitated, humane societies in Virginia managed to save an average of nearly 65 percent of their animals in 2007. PETA found adoptive homes for less than 1 percent.
sirgabrial

Top 10 Useless Limbs (and Other Vestigial Organs) | LiveScience - 0 views

  • Erector Pili and Body Hair
  • Wisdom Teeth in Humans
  • Hind Leg Bones in Whales
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  • The Sexual Organs of Dandelions
  • Fake Sex in Virgin Whiptail Lizards (Vestigial Behavior)
  • Male Breast Tissue and Nipples
  • The Blind Fish Astyanax Mexicanus
  • The Wings on Flightless Birds
  • The Human Appendix
  • The Human Tailbone (Coccyx)
  • 100 million years the only vertebrates on Earth were water-dwelling creatures, with no arms or legs
  • its main function is to help digest a largely herbivorous diet.
  • left of the tail
  • The pale fish has eyes, but as it is developing in the egg, the eyes begin to degenerate, and the fish is born with a collapsed remnant of an eye covered by flap of skin
  • give an animal a larger appearance that might scare off potential enemies and a coat that is thicker and warmer.
  • reproduce without fertilization
  • As our ancestors were learning to walk upright, their tail became useless, and it slowly disappeared.
  • kiwi, and the kakapo
  • dental hygiene.
  • used for balance during running
  • courtship displays
barnaby

Massive US Government Subsidies for GE Soybeans - 0 views

  • US soy crop GM varieties are the principal beneficiary of huge subsidies
  • 70% of US soy bean value now comes from the US government
  • collapse in world oilseed prices
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  • US farm subsidy policy is artificially promoting GM production at the expense of other non-gm oilseeds
  • US's commitment to free world trade in the agricultural sector is something of a fraud
  • The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians
  • orcing consumers to buy things they don't want providing large taxpayer revenues to produce those things in the first place
barnaby

Report says Wal-Mart received $1B in government subsidies. - May. 24, 2004 - 0 views

  • 91 Wal-Mart stores have received individual subsidies ranging from $1 million to about $12 million
  • $245 million
  • 84 of Wal-Mart's distribution centers received an average of $7.4 million
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  • $624 million
  • 69 Wal-Mart stores received other low-cost financing of about $138 million
  • uses taxpayer dollars to create jobs that tend to be poverty-wage, part-time and lacking in adequate healthcare benefits
  • $9 billion in profits can wrest job subsidies from state and local governments
  • 75 percent of our jobs are fulltime and we offer solid healthcare benefits starting at less than $35 a month for individuals
barnaby

When New Building Dries Up Resources - New York Times - 0 views

  • long-term integrity of the vast underground water supply that serves it as well
  • The prevalent mentality that natural resources have no end has come to an abrupt halt here,” said John A. Henry
  • overuse of its wells could draw in saltwater
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  • buying water from Savannah for the last five years.
  • decade ago
  • became widely known about a decade ago >,
  • straining the key underground water source past its limits
  • continued high use there of underground water could intensify saltwater intrusion in wells
  • already caused some saltwater to be suctioned
  • 5, 10 or 15 years
barnaby

When New Building Dries Up Resources - New York Times - 0 views

  • local public schools and the “family-type, small-town feeling”
  • offset other negatives
barnaby

People's Weekly World - Iraq Inc.: Corporate hogs feed at war trough - 0 views

shared by barnaby on 07 Sep 07 - Cached
  • privatization has become the preferred method
  • U.S.-paid private contractors now far exceeds the number of American combat troops in Iraq
  • occupy whole countries
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  • 180,000 U.S. civilians working in Iraq under U.S. contracts
  • does not include tens of thousands who have been hired by many of these as “sub-contractors” or tens of thousands who have been hired as “private security.”
  • exceeds by at least 20,000 the number of combat troops,
  • union-busting activities and mercenary operations to control whole towns
  • 43,000 “foreign” (non-American, non-Iraqi) contractors on the U.S. payroll
  • President Bush earns the distinction of being the first president in U.S. history to rely on private corporations to carry out the occupation of a country.
  • coalition is billing the American taxpayer.”
  • our young men and women dying to support corporate contractors
  • Interviews granted to the People’s Weekly World by Iraqi trade unionists
  • laying the groundwork for a permanent economic occupation of that country
  • We never had problems providing electricity to the people until they started this privatization with U.S.-paid operators
barnaby

Drug czar gives warning : Local : Redding Record Searchlight - 0 views

  • illicit marijuana gardens are a terrorist threat to the public's health and safety
  • who plant and tend the gardens are terrorists who wouldn't hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties
  • using Black Hawk and other helicopters
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  • led by the sheriff's office and has involved 17 agencies
  • destroying our lands and wildlife
  • $300 million to revive
  • $11,000 per acre to pull the plants, clear irrigation systems, reshape any terracing and replant native vegetation
  • Walters didn't give specific goals for Operation Alesia
  • put its leaders into jail
  • at least two straight weeks of daily raids
  • at least two straight weeks of daily raids
  • Bosenko has promised will be at least two straight weeks of daily raids.
  • straight weeks of daily raids.
  • two straight weeks of daily raids
  • two straight weeks of daily raids.
  • two straight weeks of daily raids.
barnaby

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Nerve gas antidote made by goats - 0 views

  • cientists have genetically modified goats to make a drug in their milk that protects against deadly nerve agents such as sarin and VX.
barnaby

Upside Down World - Anti-Terrorism Law Criminalizes Protest in Paraguay - 0 views

shared by barnaby on 18 Oct 07 - Cached
  • Government of Paraguay has introduced proposals
  • criminalisation of social protest and the paralysis of civil society organizations
  • thousands and thousands of rural poor are being forced from their land
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • organizing to fight for their right to land, health care and education.
  • lack of government support.
  • land occupation, and the intention of occupying land, will become a crime punishable in some cases by five years in prison
  • straight to prison.
  • anti-terrorist law
  • arbitrary decision by a judge
  • dangerous interventions or obstacles on public roadways,” “noise pollution”
  • financing terrorist activities is also a crime punishable by 5-15 years in prison, as is any kind of association with terrorist organizations.
  • anyone could be considered a terrorist
  • A lawyer giving a workshop, a journalist doing an investigation, or an international NGO providing financial support could all be accused of promoting terrorism.”
barnaby

Latin American Banana Farmers Sue U.S. Companies Over Pesticides - 0 views

  • at least 5,000 agricultural workers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama
  • left sterile after being exposed in the 1970s to the pesticide known as DBCP
  • issue of whether multinational companies should be held accountable in the country where they are based or the countries where they employ workers
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • negligence and fraudulent concealment while using the pesticide.
  • generally accepted studies in the scientific community of which we are aware which establishes an effect on sterility in banana farm workers
  • placed under the jurisdiction of Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney.
barnaby

Gulf Daily News - 0 views

  • United States has agreed to a 25 per cent increase in its military and defence aid to Israel, to $30 billion
  • important element for the security of Israel.
  • "to keep the qualitative edge between Israel and the other states in the region,"
sirgabrial

$7.6 billion expected for New Orleans levees - USATODAY.com - 0 views

  • State officials project Louisiana's portion would be about $2.6 billion, though, based on a historic 65-35% cost-share.
  • Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Louisiana Congress members said the president is expected to submit the request to Congress in February to upgrade the levees to protect against a 100-year flood.
  • State officials say the Bush administration will propose $7.6 billion for improving New Orleans levees next year, but Louisiana might not be able to afford its share.
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  • $7.6 billion expected for New Orleans levees
  • The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has sufficient funding to make repairs and improvements until fiscal year 2009
    • sirgabrial
       
      *do you think that we should be repairing these even though they are living in an area that is WAY below sea level? *it raises insurance rates *the state of Louisiana should pay for all of it
sirgabrial

YouTube videos to carry 'overlay' ads - CNN.com - 0 views

  • YouTube videos to carry 'overlay' ads
  • Starting Wednesday, the popular video-sharing site plans to feature semitransparent "overlay" ads at the bottom of selected video clips.
  • The ad disappears after about 10 seconds if the viewer does nothing; the featured clip automatically pauses if the viewer clicks on the overlay to launch the full pitch.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • YouTube said it was trying to avoid pre-rolls that precede the main feature at sites like Microsoft Corp.'s MSN
  • internal tests show more than 70 percent of people give up when they see a pre-roll. By contrast, less than 10 percent decide to close an overlay, which they can exit by clicking on an "X" in a corner.
  • The overlay format also gives advertisers more flexibility, he said, because they aren't constrained to keeping a video ad at 15 or 30 seconds to avoid defection.
  • YouTube, which Google Inc. bought last year for $1.76 billion
    • sirgabrial
       
      *I don't see this as a big deal *it's their company and if they want to put ads on the videos let em *if ppl don't like this then people aren't going to go to the site
  • YouTube generated about $15 million in revenue last year
  • $20 per thousand viewers
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