Archive for May, 2009
Posted by smeddum on May 15, 2009
Surfbirds News
May 14 2009
Another causal explanation other than rain(butterflies tend to avoid
the rain) is electropollution https://inthesenewtimes.com/2009/04/29/the-birds-the-bees-and-mankind/
See also:
Have two wet summers rendered the butterfly extinct?
British butterflies have been declining steadily for years. The new statistics show that recent wet summers have accelerated these declines. Heavy rain makes it hard for butterflies to survive – they can’t fly in the rain and that means they can’t reach the nectar they feed on. Rain also reduces breeding success.
The relative absence of breeding during the dire summer of 2007, the wettest on record, impacted seriously on butterfly numbers last year.
Orange Tip © Damian Money, from the surfbirds galleries
The statistics confirm conservationists’ fears that 2008 was the poorest summer for butterfly numbers for more than 25 years.
For 12 species 2008 was their worst year since records began in the mid 1970s. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: diappearing butterflies, polination crisis | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on May 15, 2009
Dissident voice
by Sheila Samples / May 13th, 2009
While ITNT has shown that bees are affected by electropollution , the case for pesticides has been hurled across the Mainstream media in recent documentaries and articles. Much of the Alternative media too seem to have concluded that the problem has been solved. Yet when we first investigated CCD we were struck by how beekeepers reported that pesticides caused piles of dead bodies outside the hive. This is not the case with CCD. This Spanish study raises strong doubts as well.
I have learned over the past decade if I want to know what’s really going on in the United States, I have to cruise through the foreign media to see what’s creating a furor or causing a stink. So, while searching for the status of Spain’s on-again, off-again criminal proceedings against six Bush Administration war criminals, this headline in Der Spiegel caught my eye — “Frankenfood Ban is Neither Populism nor Panic-Mongering.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Colony Collapse Disorder, Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: Agriculture, Boycotts, capitalism, Consumer Advocacy, democracy, Food/Nutrition, Health/Medical, Science/Tech. | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on May 15, 2009
Time the Gulf looks east
The future for Arab Gulf states lies in strengthening ties with China, writes Mohammed Herzallah*
May 14-20 edition Al Ahram
The widely anticipated decline of the United States as a global hegemonic power over the next few decades is likely to precipitate a considerable measure of instability in many parts of the world including the Middle East. However, this transition also offers tremendous opportunities for a few Arab states. Being rich in natural energy reserves and unique in their immediate access to vital trade routes, Arab Gulf states are well positioned to take advantage of ongoing corrections and realignments in international power relations. A major question for policy strategists in these countries is how they can carve out a greater role for their states in the new international order. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: arab chinese coopration | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on May 15, 2009
Ambassador Serge Abou, head of the Delegation of European Commission to China
Peoples Daily
In winter last year we felt the chill in the relations between China and the European Union. In spring this year we are glad to see the relations blossom again. In a single month in May, China and the EU hold the highest level dialogue on their economic and trade relations and will have the summit on their comprehensive strategic partnership.
What will those mean for peoples of the both sides and the world as a whole?
The video should appear underneath this text HERE
Posted in Financial crisis, Multipolar world | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on May 15, 2009
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
The Almighty Renminbi?
NewYorkTimes
By NOURIEL ROUBINI
Published: May 13, 2009
THE 19th century was dominated by the British Empire, the 20th century by the United States. We may now be entering the Asian century, dominated by a rising China and its currency. While the dollar’s status as the major reserve currency will not vanish overnight, we can no longer take it for granted. Sooner than we think, the dollar may be challenged by other currencies, most likely the Chinese renminbi. This would have serious costs for America, as our ability to finance our budget and trade deficits cheaply would disappear. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis, Multipolar world | Tagged: China, Roubini | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on May 15, 2009
Distant Voices, Desperate Lives in Sri Lanka
by John Pilger, May 14, 2009
antiwar.com
In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the catastrophe facing the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, whose distant voices have appealed to the world for almost as long as the Palestinians. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Drive to Global War, Rights of indigenous peoples | Tagged: Rights of indigenous peoples, Sri Lanka | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 14, 2009
“There is a big difference in practice between the levels of capital banks need to be stabilised… and those required to persuade banks to exhibit normal levels of risk-aversion. How big that gap is is impossible to say… but it looks as if it will be quite big.”
We have lost everything, unless we’re a bank, except that peculiarly Brit gift for understatement. Roughly speaking the above translates as: how much do we have to give banks in order that they lend something back to us? Quite a lot I’d say, old chap.
Mervyn King said although banks’ survival had been assured by recent bail-outs, they would not start lending freely unless more capital was pumped into their balance sheets.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: Financial crisis, stop the bailout | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on May 14, 2009
U.S. Soldier in Iraq Kills 5 Comrades at Stress Clinic
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
BAGHDAD, May 11 — An American soldier opened fire on comrades Monday afternoon inside a combat stress clinic at a large U.S. military base in Baghdad, killing five and wounding three in an attack that prompted officials to promise to try to ease the strain on troops deployed to war zones. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Afghanistan, Drive to Global War, Iraq | 2 Comments »
Posted by smeddum on May 13, 2009
‘BRIC countries’ role in global economy can only increase’
14 May 2009, Timesofindia
NEW DELHI: As India prepares for the BRIC summit in Russia next month, foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon said on Wednesday that the four countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — together are a factor of stability and growth as the global economy discerns its way through the complexities of the international financial crisis and as the world moves towards flatter distribution of power. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: Brazil, BRIC, China, India, russia | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 