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Islamic Art Revival Series presents Whirling Dervish Sama in the Tradition of Rumi, featuring Sheikh Kabir Helminski at 8 p.m. at AT&T Performing Art Center's Hamon Hall, 2403 Flora St in Dallas. Tickets are $25. Order at ticketdfw.com or call 214-871-5000.
BAPS Mandir, 4601 N. State Highway 161 in Irving, pesents a Shri Swaminarayan Jayanti and Shri Ram Navmi celebration at 3:30 p.m. The event is organized by women for women. Visit baps.org/dallas.
Faith Neighbors, a joint project of Trinity Presbyterian Church and the McKinney Islamic Association, will host a picnic from 4 to 6 p.m., rain or shine, at the church's south lawn, 5871 Virginia Parkway in McKinney. Free.
The 2017 Immigrant Journey Awards are open for nominations until April 28. The program honors contributions to the civic and economic vitality of North Texas. The awards dinner will be June 16. Find more at immigrantjourney.org.
The Islamic Art Revival Series presents the Women's Invitational Exhibition at the Eisemann Center, 2341 Performance Drive in Richardson, through April 28. Guided tours are at 2 p.m. Saturdays. Visit islamicartrevival.com.
There's no 'garbage patch' in the Southern Indian Ocean, so where does all the rubbish go?
(MENAFN - The Conversation) Great areas of our rubbish are known to form in parts of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. But no such 'garbage patch' has been found in the Southern Indian Ocean.
Our research – published recently in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans – looked at why that's the case, and what happens to the rubbish that gets dumped in this particular area.
Every year, up to 15 million tonnes of plastic waste is estimated to make its way into the ocean through coastlines ( about 12.5 million tonnes ) and rivers ( about 2.5 million tonnes ). This amount is expected to double by 2025 .
Some of this waste sinks in the ocean, some is washed up on beaches, and some floats on the ocean surface, transported by currents.
As plastic materials are extremely durable, floating plastic waste can travel great distances in the ocean. Some floating plastics collect in the centre of subtropical circulating currents known as gyres , between 20 to 40 degrees north and south, to create these garbage patches.
Here, the ocean currents converge at the centre of the gyre and sink. But the floating plastic material remains at the surface, allowing it to concentrate in these regions.
The best known of these garbage patches is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which contains about 80,000 tonnes of plastic waste . As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration points out , the 'patches' are not actually clumped collections of easy-to-see debris, but concentrations of litter (mostly small piece...
Similar, but smaller, patches exist in the North and South Atlantic Oceans and the South Pacific Ocean. In total, it is estimated that only 1% of all plastic waste that enters the ocean is trapped in the garbage patches . It is still a mystery what happens to the remaining 99% of plastic waste that has entered the ocea...
Even less is known about what happens to plastic in the Indian Ocean, although it receives the largest input of plastic material globally.
For example, it has been estimated that up to 90% of the global riverine input of plastic waste originates from Asia. The input of plastics to the Southern Indian Ocean is mainly through Indonesia. The Australian contribution is small.
The Indian Ocean has many unique characteristics compared with the other ocean basins. The most striking factor is the presence of the Asian continental landmass, which results in the absence of a northern ocean basin and generates monsoon winds.
As a result of the former, there is no gyre in the Northern Indian Ocean, and so there is no garbage patch. The latter results in reversing ocean surface currents.
The Indian and Pacific Oceans are connected through the Indonesian Archipelago, which allows for warmer, less salty water to be transported from the Pacific to the Indian via a phenomenon called the Indonesian Throughflow (see graphic, below).
This connection also results in the formation of the Leeuwin Current, a poleward (towards the South Pole) current that flows alongside Australia's west coast.
As a result, the Southern Indian Ocean has poleward currents on both eastern and western margins of the ocean basin.
Also, the South Indian Counter Current flows eastwards across the entire width of the Southern Indian Ocean, through the centre of the subtropical gyre, from the southern tip of Madagascar to Australia.
The African continent ends at around 35 degrees south, which provides a connection between the southern Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
In contrast to other ocean basins, the Indian Ocean is under-sampled, with only a few measurements of plastic material available. As technology to remotely track plastics does not yet exist, we need to use indirect ways to determine the fate of plastic in the Indian Ocean.
We used information from more than 22,000 satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys that have been released all over the world's oceans since 1979. This allowed us to simulate pathways of plastic waste globally, with an emphasis on the Indian Ocean.
We found that unique characteristics of the Southern Indian Ocean transport floating plastics towards the ocean's western side, where it leaks past South Africa into the South Atlantic Ocean.
Because of the Asian monsoon system, the southeast trade winds in the Southern Indian Ocean are stronger than the trade winds in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. These strong winds push floating plastic material further to the west in the Southern Indian Ocean than they do in the other oceans.
So the rubbish goes where?
This allows the floating plastic to leak more readily from the Southern Indian Ocean into the South Atlantic Ocean. All these factors contribute to an ill-defined garbage patch in the Southern Indian Ocean.
Simulated concentration of floating waste over 50 years in the Indian Ocean.
In the Northern Indian Ocean our simulations showed there may be an accumulation of waste in the Bay of Bengal.
It is also likely that floating plastics will ultimately end up on beaches all around the Indian Ocean, transported by the reversing monsoon winds and currents. Which beaches will be most heavily affected is still unclear, and will probably depend on the monsoon season.
Our study shows that the atmospheric and oceanic attributes of the Indian Ocean are different to other ocean basins and that there may not be a concentrated garbage patch. Therefore the mystery of all the missing plastic is even greater in the Indian Ocean.
Britvic has confirmed it will leave its Norwich site, with the loss of hundreds of jobs in the city, in 2019.
The Unite union said the announcement just before Christmas was a bid to "bury bad news".
Britvic said it currently employed 249 people at the site, which it shares with Colman's Mustard.
Manufacturing will instead take place at Rugby, east London and Leeds.
"Transferring production will improve efficiency and productivity and reduce our environmental impact," the company said.
The decision follows a consultation with employee representatives, including the GMB and Unite unions.
Chief executive Simon Litherland said: "This was not a proposal that we made lightly and we understand that the outcome of the collective consultation process will be upsetting for our colleagues in Norwich.
"It is a sad and difficult time.
"I want to thank everyone at Norwich, past and present, for their dedication, hard work and commitment, and I would like to say again that this decision is in no way a reflection of their performance."
The Unite union criticised the timing of the announcement and described the closure as "a hammer blow for the workers and the economy of Norwich in the run up Christmas".
Its national officer for the food and drink sector, Julia Long, branded the announcement as "a classic case of trying to bury bad news".
The move by Britvic has been mooted for several months, with fears expressed for the future of Colman's Mustard, which has been manufactured at the site since 1860.
Unilever, which owns Colman's, has previously said it could shut the site if Britvic closed operations.
It is conducting its own review and is looking at three sites in the city, including staying at Carrow Works.
Unilever has been approached for comment.
In Pennsylvania, it was the first time voters cast ballots under the new congressional map, which is much more favorable to Democrats. Women won in a handful of districts where they are likely to win in November, all but guaranteeing the state's congressional delegation will no longer be all men.
Voters in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Oregon and Idaho held primaries Tuesday night, deciding which candidates will represent each party in the general elections in the fall.
In Pennsylvania, it was the first time voters cast ballots under a new congressional map, which is much more favorable to Democrats. In January, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the state had unconstitutional boundaries and redrew the maps, making seven districts more friendly to Democrats and putting multiple othe...
Pennsylvania has an all-male congressional delegation, but after Tuesday’s primaries, that is likely to change. A slew of Democratic women won their primaries, some of them in districts that are likely to vote for Democrats in November under the state’s new map. Madeleine Dean and Mary Scanlon both won contested primar...
There were other wins for women Tuesday night across the country. In Nebraska, Kara Eastman beat former representative Brad Ashford for the Democratic nomination for a House seat. Democrats are trying to take the seat from Republican hands. It is considered a “tossup” by the non-partisan Cook Political Report. Voters c...
Oregon Democratic Gov. Kate Brown squashed her closest primary opponent, Ed Jones, by more than 230,000 votes.
The division between the liberal and moderate wings of the party was on display Tuesday. In Nebraska, Republicans celebrated Eastman’s victory because they said her left-wing views would make it easier for them to hold the seat in a district that went for President Trump in 2016, though narrowly. The Democratic Congres...
Wild won Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, beating out both the liberal pick, Greg Edwards, and John Morganelli, an immigration hard-liner and anti-abortion Democrat who offered to work for Trump after he won the 2016 election.
Another House Republican lost a bid for higher office Tuesday. Rep. Raúl Labrador, a conservative member of the House Freedom Caucus, lost the GOP primary for Idaho governor to the state's lieutenant governor. Labrador’s loss follows other House colleagues who fell short last week. In North Carolina’s 9th Congressional...
In Pennsylvania, there was a bright spot for GOP Rep. Lou Barletta, a Trump ally, who secured his party’s nomination to take on sitting Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in November.
Rep. Greg Walden, Oregon’s lone House Republican, trounced his opponents, he came out ahead of his nearest competitor by 61 percentage points. But his Democratic colleagues had even larger margins of victory. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, Peter DeFazio and Earl Blumenauer won by more than 80 percentage points. And Rep. Kurt S...
Where one Canadian mining company goes in the Congo violence seems to follow.
Last week a police officer and soldier were killed at a Banro Corporation run mine in the east of the country. One “assailant” was also killed at the Toronto-based company’s Namoya mine.
In February three police were killed at another Banro mine about 200 km to the southwest. An “assailant” was also killed at Twangiza in what the gold mining firm labeled an attempted robbery.
In March five Banro employees from Tanzania, France and the Congo were kidnapped at Namoya. Four of them were released over the weekend by a militia that had apparently been threatening the company for months. Claiming Banro expropriated their lands, the population near its Namoya mine want restitution so they can cont...
At a time when rebel forces are threatening to topple dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, Zaire’s vast mineral resources are beckoning foreign companies, prompting a scramble that recalls the grab for wealth 120 years ago in this vast land, once known as the Congo. American, Canadian and South African mining companies are negot...
Canadian Banro Corporation is one of the most secretive corporations operating in Congo, and they have established and maintained their control through very tight relations with the Kagame regime. Banro has taken over thousands of hectares of South Kivu province by manipulating the local mwamis (chiefs), by bribing off...
On 29 July 1998, just before war again started in Congo, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila annulled the Banro deal and gave ex-Sominki to a newly created Congolese state company called Somico (Société Minière du Congo) led by a Kivu traditional leader. Much of the subsequent fighting around Eastern Congo’s mining pitted ...
Alongside the regional peace accord that officially ended the eight-country war in the Congo, Joseph Kabila (who took over after his father was assassinated) returned the concession to Banro in 2003.
Canadians have heard almost nothing from the dominant media about Banro’s violent quest for billions of dollars in minerals. The little that has been reported is mostly the company justifying its operations. But where are the voices of ordinary Congolese? Don’t they deserve to be heard?
Canadians need to know what this country’s mining companies are doing around the world.
This article was posted on Monday, June 5th, 2017 at 9:52am and is filed under Africa, Canada, Democratic Rep. Congo, Mining, Rwanda.
Candidates running for the Democratic nomination in the 6th Congressional District primary are, clockwise from upper left, Sean Casten, Carole Cheney, Amanda Howland, Ryan Huffman, Kelly Mazeski, Becky Anderson Wilkins and Jennifer Zordani.
To run for Congress requires all kinds of education -- some of it formal, much of it political.
Seven Democrats from across the suburbs are getting an on-the-fly education in running a major race as they seek their party's nomination to square off against 6th District U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam.
The 6th Congressional District takes the shape of a "C" and stretches from Naperville to Tower Lakes in parts of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties.
Republican Peter Roskam of Wheaton has held the seat since 2007. The district includes all or parts of the following communities: Algonquin, Barrington, Barrington Hills, Bartlett, Burr Ridge, Carol Stream, Cary, Clarendon Hills, Crystal Lake, Darien, Deer Park, Downers Grove, East Dundee, Elgin, Forest Lake, Fox River...
During a forum in front of 800 potential voters in Carol Stream, the seven candidates all expressed their hopes and goals for the nation's education system -- be it offering free in-state or two-year tuition, creating programs to pay off an education by working in public service or ensuring public schools have a high e...
Roskam, a Wheaton Republican who has held the seat since 2007, said he has explored policy changes that could help ease the cost of higher education while serving as chairman of the House committee on Oversight & Government Reform.
As a parent and a former teacher, Roskam said he'd like to see tax policy changes that aim to incentivize donors to support student scholarships -- instead of naming rights for buildings or arenas.
"When institutions prioritize helping their students and creating efficiencies on campus, they can find creative ways to make that happen," Roskam said.
Huffman's experience illustrates why he says the student loan system needs to change.
Huffman said he pays $800 a month toward $100,000 of student loan debt from an undergraduate education at Northwestern University and a graduate education at the University of Chicago. He expects he'll be paying that much each month until 2045.
Huffman, a 31-year-old data analyst from Palatine, said students may continue to need graduate degrees, especially if their major proves not to offer a viable career as the economy shifts.
"We don't know what the technology of the future is going to be yet," Huffman said.
"This is going to continue to be a problem."
Huffman said he wants the government to require income-based payment programs, offer tax deductions for student loans and provide free community college to lower the demand -- and the cost -- of a four-year education.
"My entire generation is in danger of not being able to contribute to the economy," Huffman said. "We can't get married or raise a family or buy a house, and that's hurting the entire economy."
As a former teacher and a trustee for the College of Lake County, Howland said she's heavily involved in education.
One priority she'd like to see expanded is creation of "college promise" programs that provide a free two-year education at community colleges to students who maintain a certain grade-point average and meet standards.
"We can help students with educational costs," said Howland, 65, of Lake Zurich, "by continuing to partner with businesses to say, 'What do you need? We can provide the programs if you help us pay the cost so the students don't come out with debt.'"
Education can be an equalizer, but only if it's equally available to everyone, which Cheney says it's not.
"It gets down to the income inequality issue yet again," said Cheney, 56, of Naperville, and a former district chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Bill Foster of the 11th District.
"The wealthy are able to get an education and others are not."
Cheney said she hesitates to support free college, but she thinks fully paid tuition should be available through a program that would require students who receive aid to work in public service for a number of years to pay it back.
"It should not be in this country that your economics determine your education," she said.
Anderson Wilkins wants to work on funding issues that she said made it cheaper for her daughter to attend college in Scotland than in Illinois.
"Students wonder, 'Should I go to college? Because I will be saddled with debt,'" said Anderson Wilkins, a 59-year-old bookseller and Naperville City Council member.
She would like to address the issue by creating free in-state tuition for residents.
"We need taxes that support our education system," she said.
"We need to figure out different ways to fund higher education."
Access to higher education is a crucial piece of building self sufficiency and economic success, said Zordani, a 53-year-old regulatory and financial services attorney of Clarendon Hills.

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