$11 Billion Can End Homelessness In Canada

04/18/2017 04:28 EDT | Updated 04/18/2017 04:28 EDT

In North American cities like New York, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto and countless others, we have grown accustomed to seeing people who are homeless walk among us, often in the shadows, often with visible signs of duress from addiction, mental illness or basic hopelessness. Simply put, we've become desensitized to the everyday experiences of persons visibly homeless in our cities and communities.

homeless toronto

(Photo: Andy Clark/Reuters)

There is also little difference in cities in Europe or Australia that share North America's inability to address chronic homelessness through policy, programs or funding that offer long-term solutions to improve well-being and improve housing stability.

But change is possible.

Budget 2017 earmarked a whopping $11 billion for housing and homelessness across the country. There's no doubt this will have a big impact. However, these funds must not only build affordable housing, they must align with poverty reduction strategies and mental health and recovery initiatives currently underway if we are to truly reduce long-term homelessness.

A meaningful impact requires funding a broad range of supports to ensure fewer Canadians are among the estimated 35,000 who have no place to call home on any given night. Perhaps this historic funding and the pending release of the National Housing Strategy (NHS) give reason for hope.

It's important to consider where we have come from.

This vision is a good start, but it needs to ensure that no Canadian is left behind.

There is little doubt this federal investment will change lives simply by reinvesting in a depleted affordable housing stock that, from a national standpoint, has had little attention since the 1990s. This is the same period when Canada's homeless population increased rapidly in cities that failed to address the root causes of poverty and homelessness.

Why did earlier programs fail?

By not considering the root causes, we too often took a narrow approach to homelessness such as building shelters but not investing in ancillary services. The preliminary vision of the NHS is that all Canadians have access to housing that "meets their needs and they can afford" with housing described as "the cornerstone" of inclusive and economically prosperous communities. This vision is a good start, but it needs to ensure that no Canadian is left behind -- especially those struggling with chronic homelessness.

There is a successful model for tackling homelessness.

In the At Home/Chez Soi (AHCS) project that examined mental health and homelessness in Canada, we followed 2150 people over a period of six years (2008-2014). By working to bring together a range of supports and housing, we ended homelessness for a significant number of persons previously struggling with health and shelter needs. This landmark study pioneered the AHCS Housing First model in Canada which expanded from the original five cities to more than 60.

This proven intervention has also become the global standard for supporting persons struggling with mental illness and homelessness as hundreds of cities in multiple countries have now followed the evidence.

Why are we slow to end homelessness?

We have done a good job with new policies and organizations tasked with "ending homelessness" in Canada -- but strongly worded plans have often been weakly supported with money and resources.

Let's not forget that the erosion of the welfare state, austerity measures, deinstitutionalization, increased globalization and the growing wage gap that so profoundly raised the level of income inequality in Canada have all increased homelessness and poverty in our country.

Let's use this investment not only for housing, but also to improve health, end poverty and put us on the path to reconciliation.

Indigenous Canadians also remain disproportionately represented among the homeless population. We know that the impacts of colonization, residential schools and interactions with child and family services have greatly influenced the present circumstances of indigenous communities. These are deep wounds we bear as Canadians. Let us acknowledge that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission provided "the calls to action to advance reconciliation in Canada."

Where do we go from here?

$11 billion dollars can go a long way toward healing the lives of those most in need in Canada. With these funds and a strong National Housing Strategy we can make change happen.

Let's not allow shifting political winds globally toward austerity to derail our efforts to be forward thinking and caring. We have evidence and no lack of effort. So let's use this investment not only for housing, but also to improve health, end poverty and put us on the path to reconciliation. Let's end homelessness, one Canadian at a time.

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Canada Budget 2017 Highlights


- Multinationals -

Human testing IS done everyday - by law!!!!

Posted by: j.citizen ( EYE, Oz ) on November 03, 1998 at 12:10:04:

In Reply to: Think about it in real terms posted by Jeff on November 02, 1998 at 14:14:47:

Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research CAFMR - po box 234 Lawson ACT 2783 australia.

In refutation to the person who thinks that if we didn't do animal tests then we'd have to test on humans (implying that he thinks this doesn't already happen!), a quote from Dr. Christopher Anderegg, a former animal researcher (his credentials appear below):

"The fact is, that 95% of all drugs that make it through the pre-clinical trials on animals, 95%, that's 19 out of 20, FAIL in the clinical trials on humans.

And those few 5% of drugs and vaccines that make it through the clinical trials on humans, their effectiveness is NOT based on the previous pre-clinical trials on animals, but on those clinical trials which are prescribed by law....

....The question which you in the background asked before, 'Are we advocating the use of humans as guinea-pigs'? That is a standard question, which is used to put doctors like myself in a bad light re.'here we are, against animals experiments and we're promoting human experiments'. BUT, what is fully concealed from the public is that human experimentation is done everyday and it is *prescribed by law*.

And that is a very subtle acknowledgement by the legislators, who are advised by the animal experimenters, that animal experimentation is FULLY unreliable and that we have to rely on clinical trials on humans, to determine the efficiency and the side-effects of any given drug or vaccine...

...I'd just like to make one point...let's look at veterinary medicine. Veterinary medicine is based on treating animals, observing animals, working with animals. Veterinary medicine is in no way based on human beings. That, for me, is very sound. That's sound medicine. Why is human medicine based so much on animals? That, for me, is a contradiction which I can't fully explain."

The above excerpts are from a speech by Dr. Christopher Anderegg at the Second International Scientific Congress of the Doctors in Britain Against Animal Experiments (D.B.A.E.), in London, 24 Sept. 1992. Dr. Anderegg is a medical doctor, biologist & former animal experimenter at Yale University, at Hoffman-La Roche (Basle) & the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich). He is the founder & director of the Swiss anti-vivisection organisation "Zurich Campaign for Humans & Animals." ( D.B.A.E. address below)

The above quote was used in a piece of music recorded by industrial band EYE in 1994 web: www.teknet.net.au./~eye/

: Imagine yourself sitting at home on a quiet evening. You hear a knock on the door. Several men in white lab coats come in and grab half of your family. They take them away and you can 't do a thing!! The reason behind all of this. They have to have humans to test cures for diseases. Instead of finding a little mouse or rat they have decided to infect your mother, brother, and sister with a deadly disease and test them for a cure. Doesn't sound so good when it hits home does it!

This above statement is emotive and ridiculous. I will post more soon about why vivisection experiments on people is unscientific and does NOT produce useful results. Testing products designed for sick people on healthy people is BAD science, just as testing products designed for sick people or sick animals on animals that don't naturally have that condition is BAD science.

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Saturday, March 29, 2008

Energy is Magnetic - Believe it and do Creative Visualization regularly

“Energy is Magnetic” at first sounds to be some physics topic dealing with electromagnetic waves or something else, right! But there is also another way of understanding it. Creative Visualization makes you to concentrate on those latent energy levels within you with which, when put in proper use, you can attract the things of similar energies from the physical plane (physical world) to achieve your goals; let them be materialistic or physical or spiritual. But there is a little longer way to go, to understand this “Energy is Magnetic” principle.

Belief is the prerequisite for achieving anything in this world. So no technique works if we don’t believe in the things we are doing or following. This fact is almost universally acceptable as some medical research has also shown that without belief even the correct medicine will not cure the illness. And the vice versa is also true to some extent that with belief, even some normal medicine would do wonders in curing the illness. It all depends on the mindset of the person.

When it comes to ‘Belief’, a man or woman has to believe in his/her self first. If you don’t believe in yourself, why and how shall anyone else in this world believe in you? Remember the good caption from the Spiderman-3 movie, “The Great Battle lies within”. This means that we must start winning with our own self first, and then we can compare us with others. In other words, ‘fight your own war’ is more appropriate.

Having said all the above, let us know focus on how can we understand that Energy is magnetic. First of all let us now have a little bit of physics in our consideration. In this universe, there are a lot of energetic cosmic waves flowing around – in and out of our solar system. We do have theories on the propagation of these waves and we all accept that all these waves have some amount of energy associated with them, and they do cause the electro magnetic effects in the medium they pass through.

Now let us see this world. What is it composed of? We all know that it is composed of matter. And any primary school kid can further explain that matter exists in three forms or phases – solids, liquids and gases, and other than these three, a vacuum can only exist.
We know that all the living creatures in this world, natural resources, rocks, mountains, biosphere, troposphere, ecological systems fall under any of these three categories of matter, or, are the combinations of these three forms of matter.

Remembering the famous equation of the great scientist Einstein, E = m.c^2, there is a correlation between the mass and velocity in terms of Energy. Let us neither discuss about the applications of this equation nor the assumptions and any background science necessary to understand it, but let us just understand that the ‘Energy’ change will occur more if there is an increment in Velocity (c – here) rather than the increment in Mass (m – here).

Now let us understand this world and the things exist and move around this world.
We have huge mountains, rivers, trees, various animals including humans, birds, fish, bacteria, viruses with hugely diverse shapes and sizes, with or without different speeds of movement and metabolism.

Mountain has a large mass associated with it, but its speed or movement is negligible unless some tectonic plates move deep inside the earth. From on the top of mountains, we have water falls and thereafter flowing rivers. Water of one liter weighs simply a kilogram and nothing more. But the same water due to its movement can cut the mountains over a course of time. This happens due to the velocity the water possesses or acquires during its flow in the water falls or in the rivers.

We have the various animals, birds, other living organisms which are swifter than mountains and water. So they have higher energy levels with respect to their speed compared to these bulky mountains or water. Again, in this case the mass is irrelevant.

The man is mightier of all these and today he controls everything in this world. Man invented machines that can crush the mountains, constructed dams that can hold the flowing water, and has also invented atom bomb and hydrogen bomb, that can destroy the world in no time. How were all these possible?

This is all possible not by the mass of the human body, but by something else. What is that ‘Something’? That something is ‘Thinking’. Applying thoughts by proper thinking. Doing things by constant thinking, and learning from doing the things. And the first thing associated with all this is simply a Thought.

What is a thought? Perhaps we may not make an equation to explain it or to understand it in terms of Physics and Chemistry. But we all experience it and know it since we are born in this world, since the day we became conscious of this world. It is also said that the human being is the only animal who is capable of advanced thinking compared to all the other animals which only think to find their food or do other natural bodily activities and have a temporary memory.

Where does this Thought arise from? It comes from the human brain, of course. And again the human brain is an organ with some matter. Then like milk, eggs and meat which come from an animal, can the thought be associated with some mass that is coming out of a human brain which is undoubtedly a mass?

Probably, the answer is ‘YES’. Because if we assume as far as today’s human knowledge is concerned, we can argue that if there is no mass existing, there must be some vacuum – which means nothing. We all know that Thought can’t be ‘nothing’. It is ‘something’ which we probably can’t exactly define today.

And we know the speed of the same ‘Thought’. If you think, you are on the Moon, you are there instantly! So is there anything faster than a thought? “NO”. So the thought is the fastest thing in this world. Even faster than the light in that way because, if we think we are reaching a particular star, we are already reaching it and probably light may need some years to reach there, otherwise why we use the term ‘Light year’. It is the distance, as we know, the light needs to travel to reach some astronomical body.

If we substitute some ‘infinity’ as the speed of thought in our equation seen above, then what is the Energy associated with it. Amazing, the Energy is also Infinite. So if we want to have energy to do something, then what is it we require the most. It is the thought. So we have found the solution for all our problems.

And so far we have gained the knowledge about the thought. but we need ‘Wisdom’ and this is needed not to make bad thoughts which result in bad actions and which finally does bad to this world.

Even without our knowledge we are always doing some thoughts and we are doing some actions following it. We are getting results – good or bad – depending on our thoughts. So our thoughts are influencing us. This is agreed.

Then how ‘Energy is magnetic’ and why we discussed now about the ‘Thoughts’. It is because we want some energy to do some actions to reach our goals, and to get this ‘motivational energy’ we need some thoughts.

Creative visualization is this thinking process, for making ‘good thoughts’ to improve ourselves and also to some extent to improve this world. What do we do in Creative visualization?
Creative visualization is a fine process of visualizing good things what you want in your life, and to keep thinking about these clearly defined things, which influences our subconscious mind to such a considerable level that we knowingly or unknowingly start doing things to reach our objective.

For example, let us consider an example. You want to go for a picnic. This is the first thought in your mind. If it is only for a millisecond, it may end up without an action. But you are repeatedly thinking due to some reason about going to a picnic. Then you start thinking to plan in your mind, as what is to be done to go for a picnic. Then you also start thinking about the place where you want to go. Then you will also think about the way to go there. You take your car, or you take a bike or you take a bus or you take a train. Then you decide on something, let us assume, that you want to use your car. Then you plan to take some food with you or you may also think to buy whenever you want in the picnic spot itself. Then you do as you have planned and you come back in the evening after enjoying your picnic, probably if you had your friends with you.
All the above actions don’t need your creative visualization. But unknowingly you have done some visualization in the conscious state itself, as this is an activity that doesn’t need lot of thinking.

But your personal life goals, your career growth, certainly need higher level of thinking. You need motivation at times to achieve your goals or dreams. So you need to think not normally but deeply.

When can you do this? You can do this when you are relaxed. When your eyes are closed, and when you are deeply concentrating on your goals and your mind is in a meditative state, i.e., in the ‘Sub-conscious’ state. This is this state of our mind, which is more important for our goals. In this state you are not simply dreaming but you are controlling what you are dreaming of.

At this stage, whatever you think about yourself for the Good, will prompt you to take such an action and this will make you successful, as the things of similar energy will attract towards you in the physical plane, as your energy level is shifted to some frequency by some constant thinking.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

You get complete software by using the following link.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Monitor is also called as ‘VDU’ Visual Display Unit. Monitors & TV set’s use ‘CRT’ Cathode Ray Tube technology initially. In the present environment a newly developed technology has changed the entire VDU’s drastically referred as ‘TFT’ Thin-Film Transistor known as LCD. In today’s world the monitor is not “Just a Display”, by HD (High Definition) a high quality video content is available today. With the High quality rendering Video and High end Graphics and Games there is an improvisation in display.

Older: In previous technology CRT is used in display stands for picture tube. In CRT there is a glass envelop consists an electron gun and a phosphor-coated screen. When a computer sends display signals to a monitor these (signals) are converted in to electrons, beamed on to the phosphor-coated screen by electron gun creating an image on the screen.

Newer: In present technology TFT technology is used in LCD displays. The main advantage of TFT is the presence of the tiny transistors that make each pixel on the screen. The power consumption is low due to the transistors being diminutive in nature. LCD is also referred as Flat screen or TFT which consists of a liquid-crystal material which is sandwiched between two sheets of glass. When the current passes the molecules inside change their alignment causes light emission on some portions and blocked on some other finally creates an image.

HD (High Definition): HD refers to a video system or stream of higher definition than the standard (SD).The resolution of a HD TV or Monitor is 1080 or 720 horizontal lines, whereas the resolution a digital television (DTV) is 486 lines.

Advantage of TFT (LCD) over CRT: TFT’s are light weight, occupies less space, radiation emission and so on. Native Resolution is present in LCD and it is absent in CRT.

Disadvantage: Response time taken is large which causes blurriness while watching action packed scenes. Viewing angle shows the difference in watching CRT & LCD.

Different aspects between CRT & LCD

Screen Size: The screen size of CRT monitor is measured diagonally across opposite corners of the screen in inches. In CRT monitor the display area is smaller because it includes screen frame where as in LCD it is measured excluding the borders.

Aspect ratio: The Aspect ratio is nothing but the ratio of width to height. In CRT & in normal TV sets it is 4:3 , where as in LCD and present technology used in TV’s there are two types of display namely Conventional & Wide screen. The present aspect ratios are 4:3 & 16:10 (used in HDTV).

Due to this Aspect ratio we may sometimes see the Black Bands at the top and Bottom.

Resolution: Resolution is the number of pixels gets active during display in the monitor. The higher the resolution gets better picture clarity. It is measured as Width * Height.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

First job versus Higher Studies - Things to know before decision making

Things to Know before this Decision making:

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Introduction: We all know RAM places a major role in increasing the speed of processing.

RAM is referred as Random Access Memory. It stores data temporarily; it is a volatile memory that erases all the data contained when the computer is switched off. When system is on the major files i.e system files are stored in the ram for quick processing when needed. The background programs like antivirus and many other are stored in RAM for quick processing. This makes the processing slower for other applications as huge amount of memory is allocated for such programs. So by inserting the RAM in DIMM modules we can extend our primary memory. It depend upon number of DIMM modules.

In Ram the data is randomly stored that why it is called RAM, as the data is accessed by the processor randomly.

Ram is different from ROM as ROM is read only Memory. There are mainly two types of RAM

· Static RAM (SRAM)

· Dynamic RAM (DRAM)

Static RAM is used mainly where high speed memory is needed as they are faster.

Ex:- L2 cache memory of CPU.

The cost of SRAM is more when compared to DRAM.

Dynamic RAM is most commonly used memory in the computer as it is slower than SRAM and less in cost.

RAM stores data for shorter period of time and discards it once it is not required by the processor or when the computer is switched off. It cannot store permanently so we require hard drives to store our data permanently.

Among the static and Dynamic RAM DRAM is the most commonly used. Its sub types are as follows…..

SDRAM- Synchronized Dynamic RAM, here the speed of RAM is synchronized with the CPU clock pulse. This helps in pipelining the read and write requests which enables SDRAM to accept certain commands when processing other.

DDR- DDR stands for Double Data Rate RAM which is an enhanced version of SDRAM, as the name suggests this memory doubles the bandwidth of the SDRAM.

DDR2- It is the second generation of DDR which uses low voltages and have prominent performance. It works on the principle of Differential Signaling.

DDR3- DDR3 is the third generation and improvised version of DDR2, due to the factors like Increased clock speed and higher bandwidth, low voltages and power consumption.

DDR2 are most popularly used in these days due to speeds from 533 – 800 MHZ.

IEEE – 1394 : This port is called Fire Wire first developed by APPLE, it is a high speed bus system and is used to connect multimedia and storage peripherals .

USB: Universal Serial Bus is the interface and standard for the present devices like Digital cameras, Flash Drives and many other.

COM(serial): The COM or communication port is used mainly connecting mice & external Modems, Presently USB has taken as standard.

COM( parallel): These ports are mainly used for printers and scanners.

PS2: There are two ports which are used by mouse and keyboard.

VGA: This port is mainly used for CRT and TFT monitors.

DVI: This port is used for connecting LCD/TFT monitors for receiving pure and lossless signals.

Ethernet: This port is used for connecting the PC to a network (Internet, wan, Lan).

DIMM slots: These slots are used to install memory modules .The number of DIMM slots increase the amount of RAM.

SATA: This is the newer generation cable consisting of 4 wires creates a point to point connection between devices. The transfer rate of about 150 Mbps to 300 Mbps and extend up to 1 meter. This replaces the IDE cables which are 40 cm long with 40 or 80 thin wires together with less band width.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

· Processor socket
· Heat pipes (or) Fans
· Power connector
· IDE ports for Hard drives & optical drives
· SATA port hard drives (new Motherboards)
· USB headers & Optional additional USB ports
· PCI Expansion slots
· USB, Ethernet, Sound ports.
· PCIe slot for Graphical cards (New Motherboards)

Motherboard consists of some essential components as follows….
The chipset mainly comprises of Northbridge and Southbridge.

Hello friends,
The major component of the computer which computes all the functions in the computer is the PROCESSOR.

Introduction:- All of us know what the processor is? How it functions, but we have to know the types and functionality of the processors. The processor acts as a brain to the computer. The processor is one of most important core component in a computer which is mounted on the mother board. It performs complex mathematical calculations with the data we input. INTEL as well as AMD family processors become a generic term for computers.

Types:- Today a single core is nearly to dissolve, as the fastest computing places a prominent role more than one processor is needed for the home as well as business environments. The server systems need more than …
After single core processors, Dual core processors become a minimal standard for the present hardware
environment. Today the major companies like INTEL & AMD has provided Dual Core processors.
Now these companies are looking for the Quad Core processors. We couldn’t imagine how much fast the computing takes place. There is a new trend OCTA-Core consisting of 8 processors may takes place after Quad core.
For more information about the processors go to for pentium processor family & for AMD Processors.

WORKING:- CPU – Registers + L1 cache.

Cache:- Cache is the temporary storage on the CPU die where frequently accessed data is stored for a quick reference. This makes the process of computing faster and more efficient.

L1 Cache:- L1 cache is a tiny memory cache which is built on the cpu and is faster than the L2 cache. It helps in speedy access to frequently accessed data required for processing.

L2 cache:- L2 or level two cache is used for faster data access but it does not share the same characteristics of L1. L2 is external to the CPU but is slower than L1.

BUS:- Bus stands for Bidirectional Universal Switch, It changes the course of incoming and outgoing data. Buses are controlled by device drivers in a PC.

FSB:- Front Side Bus is referred as system bus carries all the electronic information between the processor and the mother board chipset. The faster the FSB, the faster the processor can communicate with the memory and the chipset.

Clock Speed:- The clock speed is the speed at which the processor can complete processing cycles which basically includes number crunching. The speed is measured in MHZ & GHZ.

These are the basic components in the processor, but there are other features integrated in the newly developed processors.

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pyramid house

pyramid home close ups

Mexican architect and conceptual designer Juan Carlos Ramos decided to try and see, entering this piece into an architectural competition after a good deal of trial, error and experimentation.

pyramid home balcony

In the simplest terms, he started with shared common spaces like a living room and kitchen on the main floor and worked up toward more private areas, reserving the peak for a nice secluded library space. A spiral staircase wraps up to connect the various levels.

pyramid home sections

Even a garage and balcony managed to make it into the master plan, accessed via a system of slot-like windows and sliding openings that maintain the continuous pyramid shape along the exterior of the structure.

pyramid house renderings

While the functionality of the form is somewhat debatable overall (the steep angles creating somewhat awkward interior spaces, not to mention construction costs), it would at least do a great job shedding dead loads during the winter and reducing wind loads in storms, being comprised entirely of angled surfaces.


Increased focus on research and innovation in the food industry – but what about the rights?

Header image:

The focus on research and innovation in the food sector in Denmark will increase over the next few years. Therefore, the Danish Agriculture & Food Council and The Danish Food and Drink Federation, together with some of the research institutes in Denmark and Danish producers of food, ingredients and foodstuff, have formed a food cluster and designed a new strategy for food research which is valid until 2030.

The formation of the food cluster is based on figures from the UN, which predict that the world population will rise by one billion by 2030, and the demand for food will increase by 50%. This new strategy for food research is described in the report ”World-class Food Innovation towards 2030”, and the new food cluster includes prominent companies like Chr. Hansen, Arla Foods, Dupont, Carlsberg, Danish Crown, KMC, Marel and Foss.

Danish food products already enjoy a high reputation around the world, and with the new strategy in place, it is ensured that Denmark by 2030 is still one of the leading producers of food, ingredients, process equipment and services.

With a budget of more than 403 million euros (of which 268 mio. euros comes from the industry), Danish companies are already investing heavily in research and innovation compared to other major food nations. However, the food industry is already well aware of the need to continue investing in research and innovation in order to maintain competitiveness. This applies to all participants in the food cluster, both private and public.

The report “World-class Food Innovation towards 2030” also describes the importance of converting investments in innovation into growth and development. However, the report fails to mention how Danish companies and research institutes can actually protect their research and innovation, which is a prerequisite for maintaining their competitiveness in relation to foreign competitors.

As pointed out previously in the article “Can Danish food companies use the patent system more optimal?” published in Danish Chemistry No. 11, 2015, the food industry is, generally speaking, characterized by a lack of focus on securing the rights to the research and innovation through patenting. In the article, Plougmann Vingtoft describes that the number of European patent applications from the Danish food sector only account for 4.1% of the total amount of patent applications within the food sector. This is a relatively low percentage compared with other food and agricultural producing countries. For example, Switzerland, which has just about the same population as Denmark, has more than three times as many European patent applications as Denmark within the food sector.

When implementing the new food research strategy, Danish companies and research institutes should keep in mind that their investments create value and increases competitiveness. Whenever possible, new and further developments should therefore by protected by patents, trademarks and designs (IPR = Intellectual Property Rights). At a time where the boundaries for both digital and physical freedom of movement of products and ideas, are expanding every day, IPR will become increasingly important.

READ ALSO: When yogurt became wine

READ ALSO: Plougmann Vingtoft helps patent Denmark’s best idea


Rugby Union vs Rugby League

Although the two seem very similar, there are several differences between the two types of rugby.

Rugby is a contact game that was first played in England inside the Rugby school. The sport is played in three styles whereby the opposing teams can take the ball forward by either running with it, kicking, or through set piece. The ball can be thrown from player A to player B side by side or through a back pass. Initially, there was only one form of rugby. However, in 1895, rugby was split with the initial difference being the administration. However, with time, each of the sports has developed its own rules and regulations to make the game more competitive.

The two types of rugby use an ovoid ball with both games scheduled to take 80 minutes. The winner shall be the team with the highest numbers of tries, conversions, drop goals, and goals as a result of a penalty kick. For a goal to be scored, a player should kick the ball over the two goal posts. For the player to win a try, he must have crossed the opponent’s goal line and placed the ball on the ground. The team that has scored is given an extra opportunity to score two more points by kicking the ball. When the game is in session, only the player with the ball can be tackled or stopped from progressing while all the other players are free to run in any direction. The game begins when the ball is passed from one player to another. In both, a referee can use video technology.

In the Rugby Union, each side consists of 15 players and 7 substitutes, while in the Rugby League each side has 13 players and 10 substitutes. This means that League is more physically involving since more players are to cover the whole field. The League has amended some of the rules on ball possession. This means that when the ball is being held, the Union rules allow for the contest through lineout while in the League the play is commenced again. In the League, therefore, the game is seldom stopped making the ball game be in action for over 50 minutes out of the 80 minutes.

A player in possession of the ball with both hands can be tripped to ground using the leg only in League Rugby. A tackle is judged as complete when the elbow of the player with the ball reaches the floor of the field or the player is in an upright position.

In Rugby Union, a tackle is counted only when the player with the ball is pinned to the ground. Such a player must pass on the ball, bringing the game to a temporary halt. In League, the game is not affected even after a player is pinned to the ground in a tackle. The tackled player has an option of instantly surrendering the ball, making the tackler roll away.

In Rugby Union, a score is worth 5 points and a drop goal is 3 points, whereas the League will award 4 points for a score but one point for a drop goal. In the Union, a penalty goal is 3 points whereas in the League it is 2 points.

The Playing Field

The pitch of the Rugby League measures between 112 and 122 meters long by 68 meters wide. In Rugby Union, the pitch measures 144 by 70 meters long and wide respectively.

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The Largest Object in the Solar System

By Anupum Pant

On November 6th 1892, after being spotted by a British astronomer Edwin Holmes, comet Holmes was not seen again for several decades. Thus it came to be known as the lost comet. Out of the blue, more than 70 years later, the comet was again seen in the year 1964.

Now it is known that comet Holmes was captured by Jupiter several thousand years ago, and it never went back to the Kuiper belt. It is a Jupiter family comet. Every 6.88 years, the comet orbits the sun.

Even this year, on 27th of March, it was one of the most bright comets of the year. But it was something that happened back in the year 2007 which made it one of the most popular comets in the sky.

For a brief period, comet Holmes, which is also a part of our solar system, became the largest object in the solar system. Yes, even larger than the sun!

On November 9th 2007, the diameter of comet’s coma – a cloudy region surrounding the comet made up of very tiny shiny ice and dust particles – measured about 1.4 million km. The sun’s diameter rounded to the nearest hundred is estimated to be 1.392 million km. Agreed the coma wasn’t as massive as the sun, but the size of it did measure slightly more than the sun at that time.

It indeed is a great achievement to become the largest object in the solar system (for some time) for an object that is just a tiny mass of ice and dust that is only about 3.6 km wide.

That day, the cloud around it erupted due to a mysterious outburst which still puzzles scientists. Such outbursts have been seen in the past too and are thought to have been originated as a result of its collision with a meteor (or probably due to an internal steam eruption).

via [space]

A Piece of Paper as Thick as the Universe

By Anupum Pant

Linear growth is only what we can visualize well. Estimating things that grow exponentially, is something not many of us can do properly.

Here’s what happens when you fold a piece of paper. A paper of thickness 1/10 of a millimetre doubles its thickness. On the second fold it is 4 times the initial thickness and so on. It doesn’t really seem like it would grow a lot after, say, 10 folds, right?

After 10 folds, the paper which was about the thickness of your hair, turns into something that is as thick as your hand.

Without any calculation, how thick do you think would it become if you could fold it 103 times?  (I know, no one has ever folded a paper more than 12 times)

Think about this for a second: How many times do you think would you have to fold a paper to make it 1 kilometre thick? The answer is 23. Yes, it takes just 13 more folds to go from the thickness of a hand to a whole kilometre.

Turns out, if you manage to somehow fold a paper 30 times, it would become 100 km tall. The paper would now reach the space.

For the sake of imagining how exponential growth works, a paper folded 103 times would be about 93 Billion light years thick – which is also the estimated size of the observable universe.

Watch the video below to see one other great example of how exponential growth can mess with you.

Seeing Sound

You can skip everything under this subheading

Watching sound

Here is how it works


A landfill is a large area of land or an excavated site that is designed and built to receive wastes. There were 3,536 active municipal landfills in the United States in 1995 according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Today, about 55 percent of America’s trash (more than 220 million tons annually) is disposed of in landﬁlls.

Municipal solid-waste landfills (MSWLFs) accept only household, commercial, and nonhazardous industrial waste. Hazardous waste generated by industrial sources must be disposed of in special landfills that have even stricter controls than MSWLFs.

In the past, garbage was collected in open dumps. Most of these small and unsanitary dumps have been replaced by large, modern facilities that are designed, operated, and monitored according to strict federal and state regulations. These facilities may be distant from urban centers, requiring the large-scale transport of waste. About 2,300 municipal solid waste landfills were operating in the United States in 2000.

A typical modern landfill is lined with a layer of clay and protective plastic to prevent the waste and leachate (liquid from the wastes) from leaking to the ground or groundwater. The lined landfill is then divided into disposal cells. Only one cell is open at a time to receive waste. After a day’s activity, the waste is compacted and covered with a layer of soil to minimize odor, pests, and wind disturbances.

A network of drains at the bottom of the landfill collects the leachate that ﬂows from the decomposing waste. The leachate is usually sent to a recovery facility to be treated. Methane gas, carbon dioxide, and other gases produced by the decomposing waste are monitored and collected to reduce their effect on air quality. EPA regulations require many larger landﬁlls to collect and burn landfill gas.

EPA’s Landﬁll Methane Outreach Program was created in 1994 to educate communities and local government about the benefits of recovering and burning methane as an energy source. By 2002 the program had helped develop 220 projects that convert landﬁll gas to energy. Such projects, when analyzed in 2001, offset the release of carbon dioxide from conventional energy sources by an amount equivalent to removing 11.7 million cars from the road for one year.

Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island, the largest landfill in the United States, accepting approximately 27,000 tons of garbage a day in the late 1980s, closed in March 2001. Although landfills occupy only a small percentage of the total land in the United States, public concern over possible ground water contamination as well as odor from landfills makes finding new sites difficult.

Medical Waste

Medical waste
Medical waste

Risk and Health Care Waste

Proper Management, Treatment, and Disposal

Mercury is a metal with chemical similarities to zinc and cadmium. The metal is liquid at room temperature, with a freezing point at –31°C, and it is one of the most volatile metals. It occurs as the element Hg0 and as the mercuric ion Hg++, which has a great afﬁnity for reduced sulfur (sulﬁde, S=).

Most mercury ore deposits consist of the very insoluble mineral cinnabar (HgS), with little droplets of elemental Hg. Mercury also occurs as impurities in many other ore minerals, creating mercury contamination when these minerals are mined or processed. Most common rocks have very low Hg contents, about ten to one hundred parts per billion (ppb) Hg .

Elemental mercury is barely soluble in pure water, with only twenty-ﬁve ppb Hg dissolving at room temperature, but it is more soluble at higher temperatures. The mercuric ion is very soluble in most ambient waters, but very insoluble in the presence of sulfide. Natural enrichments of mercury occur in and around ore deposits and in geothermal hot spring areas and volcanoes.

Bacteria in coastal waters convert inorganic Hg ions back into the elemental state, which then evaporate from the water back into the atmosphere. The physical transport of mercury from ore regions and the vapor transport from geothermal areas and the oceans provide the natural background contamination of mercury.

Mercury is a toxic element that damages the human nervous system and brain. Elemental mercury is less dangerous when it is ingested than when it is inhaled. The use of mercury in felt-making led to widespread elemental mercury poisoning of hatmakers (“mad as a hatter”), which was expressed by tremor, loss of hair and teeth, depression, and occasional death. The organic forms of mercury—methylmercury compounds, CH3Hg+ and (CH3)2Hg— are very bioavailable or are easily taken up by living organisms and rapidly enter cells, and are therefore the most hazardous.

Minamata disease was an episode of mercury poisoning of a small coastal community in Japan (1954) through the direct industrial release of methylmercury in the bay. Another infamous episode of mercury contamination occurred in Iraq, where people ate wheat that was treated with a mercury-containing fungicide.

The continuous ﬂux of mercury from the atmosphere results in the low level of mercury pollution nationwide. A small fraction of the Hg++ from atmospheric deposition is converted by bacteria into the very dangerous methylmercury form. The methylmercury is then taken up by the lowest life forms and makes its way up the food chain and bioaccumulates in the larger ﬁsh.

As a result, large predator ﬁsh such as bass, tuna, shark, and swordﬁsh have the highest levels of Hg in the methylmercury form. Most states in the United States have advisories for eating only limited amounts of freshwater ﬁsh. Limiting intake of mercury-contaminated ﬁsh is especially important for pregnant women and young children. The current U.S. legal limit for Hg in ﬁsh for consumption is 1 ppm.

Limits for Hg in soils vary from state to state but generally range from 10 to 20 ppm, whereas the Environmental Protection Agency’s limit for drinking water is 2 ppb Hg. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration limits for Hg in the air in the workplace (for an eight hour average) are 0.01 mg organic Hg/m3 air.

Modern sources of mercury contamination from human activities are subdivided into the following groups:
  1. High-temperature combustion processes such as coal-ﬁred power plants, incineration of solid household waste, medical waste, sewage sludge, and ore smelting.
  2. Industrial waste efﬂuents, such as from chlor-alkali plants that use liquid mercury as electrodes.
  3. Efﬂuents of wastewater treatment plants.
  4. Point sources of speciﬁc industries, many of them no longer active today (such as hat making, explosives, mercury lights, herbicides, and plastics).

An overview of modern anthropogenic Hg ﬂuxes into the environment shows that more than 80 percent of mercury is injected into the atmosphere through such combustion processes as coal-ﬁred power plants.

The combustion releases mercury as elemental vapor into the atmosphere, where it has an average residence time of about one year before it is oxidized to the mercuric form. The oxidized mercury attaches itself to small dust particles and is removed by wet and dry atmospheric deposition.

As a result of this massive injection of Hg into the atmosphere—more than 100 tons of Hg per year in the United States in the late 1990s—the contaminant is distributed all over the globe. Even the polar ice caps show evidence of mercury contamination over the last 150 years, from atmospheric dispersal and deposition from anthropogenic sources. There are almost no places on earth that are not contaminated by anthropogenic mercury.

Mercury contamination is a matter of ongoing concern, and an extensive study was done for the U.S. Congress to summarize the sources, pathways, and sinks of mercury in the outdoor environment. There are several initiatives to limit the anthropogenic ﬂux of Hg from coal-ﬁred power plants, such as switching to mercury-poor coals and scrubbing the stack gases.

Limiting or banning the production of mercury-containing materials, including switches, thermometers, thermostats, and manometers, both in the household as well as in the medical profession, would also reduce the mercury recycled back into the atmosphere from garbage incineration.

Mining is necessary for nations to have adequate and dependable supplies of minerals and materials to meet their economic and defense needs at acceptable environmental, energy, and economic costs. Some of the nonfuel minerals mined, such as stone, which is a nonmetallic or industrial mineral, can be used directly from the earth. Metallic minerals, which are also nonfuel minerals, conversely, are usually combined in nature with other materials as ores.

These ores must be treated, generally with chemicals or heat to produce the metal of interest. Most bauxite ore, for example, is converted to aluminum oxide, which is used to make aluminum metal via heat and additives. Fuel minerals, such as coal and uranium, must also be processed using chemicals and other treatments to produce the quality of fuel desired.

There are signiﬁcant differences in the mining techniques and environmental effects of mining metallic, industrial, and fuel minerals. The discussion here will mostly concentrate on metallic minerals. Mining is a global industry, and not every country has high-grade, large, exceptionally proﬁtable mineral deposits, and the transportation infrastructure to get the mined products to market economically.

Some of the factors affecting global mining are environmental regulations, fuel costs, labor costs, access to land believed to contain valuable ore, diminishing ore grades requiring the mining of more raw materials to obtain the target mineral, technology, the length of time to obtain a permit to mine, and proximity to markets, among others. The U.S. mining industry is facing increasing challenges to compete with nations that have lower labor costs—for example, less stringent environmental regulations and lower fuel costs.

Mining Life Cycle

Minerals are a nonrenewable resource, and because of this, the life of mines is ﬁnite, and mining represents a temporary use of the land. The mining life cycle during this temporary use of the land can be divided into the following stages: exploration, development, extraction and processing, and mine closure.

Mining Life Cycle
Mining Life Cycle

Exploration is the work involved in determining the location, size, shape, position, and value of an ore body using prospecting methods, geologic mapping and ﬁeld investigations, remote sensing (aerial and satellite-borne sensor systems that detect ore-bearing rocks), drilling, and other methods. Building access roads to a drilling site is one example of an exploration activity that can cause environmental damage.

The development of a mine consists of several principal activities: conducting a feasibility study, including a ﬁnancial analysis to decide whether to abandon or develop the property; designing the mine; acquiring mining rights; ﬁling an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS); and preparing the site for production. Preparation could cause environmental damage by excavation of the deposit to remove overburden (surface material above the ore deposit that is devoid of ore minerals) prior to mining.

Extraction is the removal of ore from the ground on a large scale by one or more of three principal methods: surface mining, underground mining, and in situ mining (extraction of ore from a deposit using chemical solutions). After the ore is removed from the ground, it is crushed so that the valuable mineral in the ore can be separated from the waste material and concentrated by ﬂotation (a process that separates ﬁnely ground minerals from one another by causing some to ﬂoat in a froth and others to sink), gravity, magnetism, or other methods, usually at the mine site, to prepare it for further stages of processing.

Mining extraction

The production of large amounts of waste material (often very acidic) and particulate emission have led to major environmental and health concerns with ore extraction and concentration. Additional processing separates the desired metal from the mineral concentrate.

The closure of a mine refers to cessation of mining at that site. It involves completing a reclamation plan and ensures the safety of areas affected by the operation, for instance, by sealing the entrance to an abandoned mine.

Planning for closure is often required to be ongoing throughout the life cycle of the mine and not left to be addressed at the end of operations. The Surface Mining and Control Act of 1977 states that reclamation must “restore the land affected to a condition capable of supporting the uses which it was capable of supporting prior to any mining, or higher or better uses.”

Abandoned mines can cause a variety of health-related hazards and threats to the environment, such as the accumulation of hazardous and explosive gases when air no longer circulates in deserted mines and the use of these mines for residential or industrial dumping, posing a danger from unsanitary conditions. Many closed or abandoned mines have been identiﬁed by federal and state governments and are being reclaimed by both industry and government.

Environmental Impacts

The environmental responsibility of mining operations is protection of the air, land, and water. Mineral resources were developed in the United States for nearly two centuries with few environmental controls. This is largely attributed to the fact that environmental impact was not understood or appreciated as it is today. In addition, the technology available during this period was not always able to prevent or control environmental damage.

All methods of mining affect air quality. Particulate matter is released in surface mining when overburden is stripped from the site and stored or returned to the pit. When the soil is removed, vegetation is also removed, exposing the soil to the weather, causing particulates to become airborne through wind erosion and road trafﬁc. Particulate matter can be composed of such noxious materials as arsenic, cadmium, and lead. In general, particulates affect human health adversely by contributing to illnesses relating to the respiratory tract, such as emphysema, but they also can be ingested or absorbed into the skin.

Mining can cause physical disturbances to the landscape, creating eyesores such as waste-rock piles and open pits. Such disturbances may contribute to the decline of wildlife and plant species in an area.

Open pit
Open pit

In addition, it is possible that many of the premining surface features cannot be replaced after mining ceases. Mine subsidence (ground movements of the earth’s surface due to the collapse of overlying strata into voids created by underground mining) can cause damage to buildings and roads.

Between 1980 and 1985, nearly ﬁve hundred subsidence collapse features attributed to abandoned underground metal mines were identiﬁed in the vicinity of Galena, Kansas, where the mining of lead ores took place from 1850 to 1970. The entire area was reclaimed in 1994 and 1995.

Water-pollution problems caused by mining include acid mine drainage, metal contamination, and increased sediment levels in streams. Sources can include active or abandoned surface and underground mines, processing plants, waste-disposal areas, haulage roads, or tailings ponds. Sediments, typically from increased soil erosion, cause siltation or the smothering of streambeds. This siltation affects ﬁsheries, swimming, domestic water supply, irrigation, and other uses of streams.

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a potentially severe pollution hazard that can contaminate surrounding soil, groundwater, and surface water. The formation of acid mine drainage is a function of the geology, hydrology, and mining technology employed at a mine site. The primary sources for acid generation are sulﬁde minerals, such as pyrite (iron sulﬁde), which decompose in air and water. Many of these sulﬁde minerals originate from waste rock removed from the mine or from tailings.

Acid Mine Drainage
Acid Mine Drainage

If water inﬁltrates pyrite-laden rock in the presence of air, it can become acidiﬁed, often at a pH level of two or three. This increased acidity in the water can destroy living organisms, and corrode culverts, piers, boat hulls, pumps, and other metal equipment in contact with the acid waters and render the water unacceptable for drinking or recreational use. A summary chemical reaction that represents the chemistry of pyrite weathering to form AMD is as follows:
Pyrite + Oxygen + Water → “Yellowboy” + Sulfuric Acid

“Yellowboy” is the name for iron and aluminum compounds that stain streambeds. AMD can enter the environment in a number of ways, such as free-draining piles of waste rock that are exposed to intense rainstorms, transporting large amounts of acid into nearby rivers; groundwaters that enter underground workings which become acidic and exit via surface openings or are pumped to the surface; and acidic tailings containment ponds that may leach into surrounding land.

Mold Pollution

Mold Pollution
Mold Pollution

Mold pollution is the growth of molds in a building resulting in damage to or the destruction of the structure itself (or its contents) and adverse health effects on the building’s occupants. It is estimated that about 10 percent of U.S. buildings may suffer from mold pollution.

Molds, also known as fungi, are microorganisms that generally have threadlike bodies called mycelium and reproduce by producing spores. Spores are generally round or ovoid single cells (but in some cases are multicellular). Spores can be colorless or pigmented and vary in size. While a human hair is approximately one hundred microns in diameter, spore size ranges from one to ﬁve microns.

There are about ﬁfty to one hundred different molds typically found growing indoors in water-damaged buildings. Water problems in buildings are generally the result of leaks from roofs or plumbing, condensation, and ﬂooding. When building materials or furnishings such as wood, drywall, ceiling tiles, or carpets become wet, causing molds to grow on them.

The types of substrates and the amount of moisture will often determine the kinds of molds that grow. For example, some molds like Stachybotrys require a highly water-saturated substrate. For other molds such as Aspergillus, only small amounts of excess moisture are necessary for growth. Thus, moisture control is key to controlling mold growth and eliminating their effects on the building or its occupants.

Mold growth can cause structural integrity problems in buildings constructed of wood. This generally goes under the misnomer of dry rot. The dry rot molds, like Merulis lacrymans, are the natural decomposers of leaves, stems, and trees in nature. If structural wood in buildings becomes wet, these molds may grow. The name dry rot comes from the powdery residue that is left after the wood is destroyed. Wood can be protected by the use of chemicals like creosote or by the use of sealants.

Mold pollution in buildings may result in adverse health effects including infections, allergies, and asthma. Bleeding, memory loss, and a condition known as sick building syndrome may also result from mold pollution, but such health effects remain controversial. Epidemiological studies have linked molds to these conditions; however, a direct causal relationship has not been established.

Green mold
Green mold

When health effects from molds occur, it is generally as a result of inhaling mold spores. For example, aspergillosis is an infection of the lungs caused by some species of Aspergillus, which can result in difﬁculty breathing. If left untreated, it can spread through the bloodstream to other organs, resulting in death. It is probably the most common type of building-acquired infection.

Individuals with impaired immune systems are most susceptible to this infection. Mold infections can be acquired in health care facilities (nosocomial infections). Careful attention to removing spores from the air and water may be the best method to protect the public from these kinds of infections.

Occasionally, mold infections result from animals and birds inhabiting buildings. For example, bats or pigeons may deposit guano containing such molds as Histoplasma capsulatum and Cryptococcus neoformans. Disturbing this guano without respiratory protection can result in infection. The best defense against this kind of mold pollution is to keep these creatures out of the building.

In addition to infections, allergic diseases are associated with mold pollution. Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood and is the leading causes of school absenteeism, accounting for over ten million missed school days per year.

For most elementary school children with asthma, allergens are the primary trigger for asthma, and their disease is thought to result from early exposure and sensitization to common allergens in their environment (e.g., dust mites, cockroaches, and molds). To prevent allergic disease, excessive mold growth must be controlled or eliminated.

The elimination of molds from structures requires ﬁrst that water problems be corrected. Then, the mold-infested material must be removed using proper protection. In some cases, heavily mold-infested structures have had to be demolished or burned. In order to make the best decision on how to treat a mold-polluted structure, it is important to understand what molds are present and in what amount.

A mycologist (scientist who studies molds) can often identify and count mold spores collected from indoor air, dust, or surfaces either by culturing them or by observing them under a microscope. However, these are slow and difﬁcult processes.

In order for mycologists to improve their knowledge about molds in the indoor environment, mold DNA (i.e., moldgenomes) are being sequenced. Sequencing of DNA is the process of deciphering the spelling of the DNA alphabet that makes each organism unique.

Like the sequencing of the human genome, this knowledge of mold genomes allows molecular biologists to develop easier and faster methods for the detection and quantiﬁcation of molds. This is important because all molds in the indoor environment cannot be eliminated. If molds can be monitored, experts can ﬁnd out when mold concentrations are at dangerous levels. Measures can then be taken to reduce the mold pollution in the environment.

Noise Pollution

Noise pollution
Noise pollution

Noise pollution is the intrusion of unwanted, uncontrollable, and unpredictable sounds, not necessarily loud, into the lives of individuals of reasonable sensitivities. Using the “reasonable person” standard removes the notion that the judgment of sounds as unwanted is subjective.

Unwanted sounds or noises can be traced back to Old Testament stories of very loud music and barking dogs as well as to ancient Rome where city residents complained about noisy delivery wagons on their cobblestone streets. The Industrial Revolution, the growth of cities, and the demand for transportation made the world even noisier.

With the modern world so dependent on and enchanted with noise-producing and noise-related technology—automobiles, aircraft, helicopters, motorcycles, snowmobiles, jet skis, leaf blowers, ampliﬁed music, bass-driven car stereo systems—the ambient noise level is rapidly accelerating. This growth in noise has led to research examining the impact of noise on the lives and activities of reasonable people. The result has been a body of evidence that strongly suggests noise is hazardous to good mental and physical health.

To understand noise, one must know something about sound and how loudness is measured. Sound that travels through the air in waves has two major properties: the frequency or speed at which the waves vibrate and the intensity of each vibration. It is the intensity, or how many molecules are packed together with each vibration, that for the most part produces the sense of loudness, although frequency also contributes to the determination of loudness, with higher-pitched sounds sounding louder.

Loudness is measured by a decibel scale (expressed as dB), but to reﬂect human hearing more accurately a modiﬁed version of this scale, known as the A scale, has been developed. On the A scale, loudness is measured in dBAs.

The scale increases logarithmically so that an increase of 10 dB indicates a doubling of loudness, and an increase of 20 dB represents a sound that is four times louder. Whispers measure 20 dBA, normal conversation 50 to 60 dBA, shouting 85 dBA, and loud music over 120 dBA. Continuous exposure to sounds over 85 dBA may cause permanent hearing loss.

Exposure to very loud sounds that are enjoyable, and not technically noise to the listener, can lead to hearing impairment. Because many people, especially young children and teenagers, are not aware of the dangers of very loud sounds to their hearing, they should be warned that playing computer games with loud audio attachments, setting headsets at consistently high volume, or regularly playing ball in a loud gymnasium may affect their hearing over time. A survey of hearing threshold shifts among youngsters between the ages of six and nineteen found that one out of eight of them suffered a noise-related hearing problem.

Children attending loud movies and sporting events, or visiting video arcades may be unwittingly exposing themselves to dangerously loud sounds. Teenagers are especially vulnerable as they are more likely to equip their cars with high-powered “boom boxes,” attend loud dance clubs, and work in noisy fast-food restaurants.

Sounds need not be very loud to be deemed intrusive—for example, the drip of a faucet, an overhead jet, or a neighbor’s stereo late at night. Noises are especially bothersome at night when one is trying to sleep, and a good night’s sleep is vital to good health. Exposure to bothersome noises over time can be stressful, resulting in adverse health effects, such as hypertension. Although more research is needed to solidify a noise and health link, there is agreement that noise lessens the quality of life.

Noises can be especially harmful to children. Scientiﬁc research indicates that noisy homes slow down cognitive and language development in young children. In addition, children living and attending schools near noisy highways, railroads, and airports have lower reading scores, and some children living or attending a school near a major airport have experienced elevated blood pressure.

In 1972 the U.S. government passed legislation recognizing the growing danger of noise pollution. It empowered the Ofﬁce of Noise Abatement and Control (ONAC) within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to curtail noise levels, but by 1982, during the Reagan administration, the ofﬁce lost most of its funding.

aircraft noise
aircraft noise

States and cities were no longer supported in their efforts to abate noise, and ONAC no longer published materials educating people on the dangers of noise. Recently, the federal government has passed legislation to lessen noise in national parks, for example, banning snowmobiles, but states and cities are on their own in controlling noise, with some cities more successful than others.

Trafﬁc noise, especially aircraft noise, is the major source of annoyance calling for better federal regulation within the United States. In contrast, the European Union is ﬁnalizing a noise directive that will require member states to produce noise maps and develop action plans to reduce noise levels.

Noise from snowmobiles, jet skis, and supersonic jets has also intruded on the environment, affecting animals’ abilities to communicate, protect their young, and mate. Worldwide, antinoise groups believe their governments are doing too little to lessen the surrounding din, and groups from the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, Africa, and Asia have joined together to educate both the public and governments about the long-term dangers of noise pollution, urging them to lower the decibel level. A quieter, healthier environment is within our grasp.

Nonpoint Source Pollution

Nonpoint Source Pollution
Nonpoint Source Pollution

Nonpoint source pollution occurs when rainfall or snowmelt runs over land or through the ground, picks up pollutants, and deposits them into rivers, lakes, wetlands, and coastal waters or introduces them into groundwater. Some of the primary activities that generate nonpoint source pollution include farming and grazing activities, timber harvesting, new development, construction, and recreational boating.

Manure, pesticides, fertilizers, dirt, oil, and gas produced by these activities are examples of nonpoint source pollutants. Even individual households contribute to nonpoint source pollution through improper chemical and pesticide use, landscaping, and other house-hold practices.

After Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, the water-quality community within the United States placed a primary emphasis on addressing and controlling point source pollution (pollution coming from discrete conveyances or locations, such as industrial and municipal waste discharge pipes). Not only were these sources the primary contributors to the degradation of U.S. waters at the time, but the extent and signficance of nonpoint source pollution were also poorly understood and overshadowed by efforts to control pollution from point sources.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, nonpoint source pollution stands as the primary cause of water-quality problems within the United States. According to the National Water Quality Inventory (published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), it is the main reason that approximately 40 percent of surveyed rivers, lakes, and estuaries are not clean enough to meet basic uses such as fishing or swimming.

Leading Contributors to Nonpoint Source Pollution

States and other jurisdictions reported in the National Water Quality Inventory that agriculture and urban runoff are among the leading contributors to deteriorating water quality nationwide. The most common nonpoint source pollutants causing water-quality problems include nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), siltation (soil particles), metals, and pathogens (bacteria and viruses).

Agriculture is identified as the leading source of degradation of polluted rivers, streams, and lakes surveyed by states, territories, and tribes in the National Water Quality Inventory. Agricultural activities that result in nonpoint source pollution include concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), grazing, plowing, pesticide spraying, irrigation, fertilizing, planting, and harvesting.

A major nonpoint source pollutant from these activities is an excess of nutrients, which can occur through applications of crop fertilizers and manure from animal production facilities. Excessive nutrients may overstimulate the growth of aquatic weeds and algae, depleting the oxygen available for a healthy aquatic community.

Hydromodification that alters the ﬂow of water is the second leading source of damage to U.S. rivers, streams, and lakes, according to the same National Water Quality Inventory report. Examples of hydromodification projects include channelization, dredging, and construction of dams.

Excess sediment due to erosion caused by projects such as building dams can severely alter aquatic communities by clogging fish gills or suffocating eggs. Sediment may also carry other pollutants into water bodies (e.g., PCBs or mercury) which can accumulate in aquatic species, leading to fish consumption advisories.

Habitat modification is identified as the third-largest source of water pollution in surveyed rivers and streams in the National Water Quality Inventory. Habitat modification occurs when the vegetation along stream banks is removed, diminishing buffers that help filter runoff and provide shade for the adjacent water body. These modifications can result in an increase in the water temperature (because of less shade) and an increase in quantity and velocity of runoff, making the river or stream less suitable for the organisms inhabiting it.

Urban runoff
Urban runoff

Runoff from urban areas is the fourth-largest source of water pollution in rivers and streams and the third-largest source of water pollution in lakes, according to the National Water Quality Inventory. Increased urban development brings additional roads, bridges, buildings, and parking lots, which can result in large amounts of runoff that quickly and easily drain into rivers and lakes. In contrast, the porous and varied terrain of natural landscapes like forests, wetlands, and grasslands traps rainwater and snowmelt and allows it to filter slowly into the ground.

Urban runoff transports a variety of pollutants, including sediment from new development; oil, grease, and toxic chemicals from vehicles; and nutrients and pesticides from turf management and gardening. It can also carry pathogenic bacteria and viruses released from failing septic systems and inadequately treated sewage, which can result in closed beaches and shellfish beds, contaminated drinking water sources, and even severe human illness.

Programs for Nonpoint Source Control

The United States has made significant progress in addressing nonpoint source pollution since Congress amended the Clean Water Act in 1987 to establish a national program for controlling nonpoint source pollution. Under section 319 of the Clean Water Act, states adopted management programs to control nonpoint source pollution, and since 1990 the EPA has awarded grants to states to assist them in implementing those management programs.

Other federal agencies also provide technical and financial support through grants and loans to states, local communities, and farmers and other landowners, to implement nonpoint source pollution controls. In addition, many state and local entities are dedicating increasing amounts of funding to control nonpoint source pollution.

State nonpoint source programs provide for the control of nonpoint source pollution primarily through best management practices (BMPs), which are on-the-ground technical controls used to prevent or reduce nonpoint source pollution.

Common practices used to control nutrients from agriculture include altering fertilizer and pesticide application methods and storing and properly managing manure from confined animal facilities. Developing a buffer of vegetation between the land and the stream bank can help filter all types of nonpoint source pollutants from entering a receiving water body, including sediment transported by overland ﬂow.

Stream-bank protection and channel stabilization practices are also very effective in preventing sediment deposition in the water by limiting the bank erosion processes and streambed degradation. Urban runoff can be controlled by establishing trenches, basins, and detention ponds at construction sites to hold, settle, and retain suspended solids and associated pollutants.

Basic pollution-prevention measures introduced around the home can also prevent nonpoint source pollutants from entering storm water. Practices include the proper storage, use, and disposal of household hazardous chemicals; proper operation and maintenance of onsite disposal systems; and even proper disposal of pet waste so that it does not wash into storm drains.

Watershed Approach to Managing Nonpoint Source Pollution

Nonpoint source pollution derives from many different sources over large geographic areas so regulating and controlling it are challenging. The watershed approach to managing nonpoint source pollution, however, is proving to be an effective technique. Everyone lives in a watershed, or an area of land in which all water drains.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the nation can be divided into approximately 2,149 medium-sized watersheds, averaging about 1,700 square miles in each area. The watershed approach relies on coordinating all relevant federal, state, and local government agencies, and the stakeholders who live in a particular watershed, to help solve priority problems in that watershed.

Historically, many water-quality problems were addressed piecemeal in individual water bodies by individual entities, usually limited by political, social, and economic boundaries. The watershed approach, however, relies on the coordination of all entities and stakeholders to help solve the watershed’s most serious environmental problems, which in many instances are caused by nonpoint source pollution.

International Implications

Managing nonpoint source pollution is an international challenge. Like the United States, many developed countries initially directed resources toward controlling point source pollution. However, significant nonpoint source problems remain, especially resulting from an excess of nutrients and sediment in water bodies. The United Nations Environment Programme has identified increased nitrogen loadings, resulting mainly from agricultural runoff and wastewater, as one of the most serious water-quality issues affecting all countries.

Sedimentation is a significant concern for other countries, frequently resulting from deforestation or clear cutting for fuelwood, or agricultural practices. One of the largest threats in developing countries relates to problems with sewage control, either through poor maintenance of sewage collection systems or a lack of it, leading to severe waterborne diseases.

The increasing world population promises even more challenges for managing nonpoint source pollution. Some international communities are embracing integrated solutions (like the watershed approach) to reduce it. Agenda 21 adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 is but one example.

Ocean Dumping

Ocean dumping
Ocean dumping

Towed, then dumped to the oceans floor
Towed, then dumped to the oceans floor

Alert on ozone layer
Alert on ozone layer

Ozone is a gas found in the atmosphere in very trace amounts. Depending on where it is located, ozone can be beneﬁcial (“good ozone”) or detrimental (“bad ozone”). On average, every ten million air molecules contains only about three molecules of ozone.

Indeed, if all the ozone in the atmosphere were collected in a layer at Earth’s surface, that layer would only have the thickness of three dimes. But despite its scarcity, ozone plays very signiﬁcant roles in the atmosphere. In fact, ozone frequently “makes headlines” in the newspapers because its roles are of importance to humans and other life on Earth.

What Is Ozone?

Chemically, the ozone molecule consists of three atoms of oxygen arranged in the shape of a wide V. Its formula is O3 (the more familiar form of oxygen that one breathes has only two atoms of oxygen and a chemical formula of O2). Gaseous ozone is bluish in color and has a pungent, distinctive smell. In fact, the name ozone is derived from the Greek word ozein, meaning “to smell or reek.”

The smell of ozone can often be noticed near electrical transformers or nearby lightning strikes. It is formed in these instances when an electrical discharge breaks an oxygen molecule (O2) into free oxygen atoms (O), which then combine with O2 in the air to make O3. In addition to its roles in the atmosphere, ozone is a chemically reactive oxidizing agent that is used as an air purifier, a water sterilizer, and a bleaching agent.

Where Is Ozone Found in the Atmosphere?

Ozone is mainly found in the two regions of the atmosphere that are closest to the earth’s surface. About 10 percent of the atmosphere’s ozone is in the lowest-lying atmospheric region, the troposphere. This ozone is formed in a series of chemical reactions that involve the interaction of nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and sunlight.

Most ozone (about 90%) resides in the next atmospheric layer, the stratosphere. The stratosphere begins between 8 and 18 kilometers (5 and 11 miles) above the earth’s surface and extends up to about 50 kilometers (30 miles).

The ozone in this region is commonly known as the ozone layer. Stratospheric ozone is formed when the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation breaks apart molecular oxygen (O2) to form O atoms, which then combine with O2 to make ozone. Note that this formation mechanism differs from the one mentioned above for ozone in the lower atmosphere.

What Roles Does Ozone Play in the Atmosphere and How Are Humans Affected?

The ozone molecules in the stratosphere and the troposphere are chemically identical. However, they have very different roles in the atmosphere and very different effects on humans and other living beings, depending on their location.

A useful statement summarizing ozone’s different effects is that it is “good up high, bad nearby.” In the upper atmosphere, stratospheric ozone plays a beneﬁcial role by absorbing most of the sun’s biologically damaging ultraviolet sunlight (called UV-B), allowing only a small amount to reach the earth’s surface.

The absorption of ultraviolet radiation by ozone creates a source of heat, which actually deﬁnes the stratosphere (a region in which the temperature rises as one goes to higher altitudes). Ozone thus plays a key role in the temperature structure of the earth’s atmosphere. Without the ﬁltering action of the ozone layer, more of the sun’s UV-B radiation would penetrate the atmosphere and reach the earth’s surface.

UV-A and UV-B radiation
UV-A and UV-B radiation

Many experimental studies of plants and animals and clinical studies of humans have shown that excessive exposure to UV-B radiation has harmful effects. Serious long-term effects can include skin cancers and eye damage. The UV-absorbing role of stratospheric ozone is what lies behind the expression that ozone is “good up high.”

In the troposphere, ozone comes into direct contact with life-forms. Although some amount of ozone is naturally present in the lower atmosphere, excessive amounts of this lower-atmospheric ozone are undesirable (or bad ozone).

This is because ozone reacts strongly with other molecules, including molecules that make up the tissues of plants and animals. Several studies have documented the harmful effects of excessive ozone on crop production, forest growth, and human health. For example, people with asthma are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of ozone. Thus, ozone is “bad nearby.”

What Are the Environmental Issues Associated with Ozone?

The dual role of ozone links it to two separate environmental issues often seen in the newspaper headlines. One issue relates to increases in ozone in the troposphere (the bad ozone mentioned above). Human activities that add nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds to that atmosphere, such as the fossil fuel burning associated with power-generating plants and vehicular exhaust, are contributing to the formation of larger amounts of ozone near the earth’s surface.

This ozone is a key component of photochemical smog, a familiar problem in the atmosphere of many cities around the world. Higher amounts of surface-level ozone are increasingly being observed in rural areas as well. Thus, the environmental issue is that human activities can lead to more of the bad ozone.

The second environmental issue relates to the loss of ozone in the stratosphere. Ground-based and satellite instruments have measured decreases in the amount of stratospheric ozone in our atmosphere, which is called ozone-layer depletion. The most extreme case occurs over some parts of Antarctica, where up to 60 percent of the total overhead amount of ozone (known as the column ozone) disappears during some periods of the Antarctic spring (September through November). This phenomenon, which has been occurring only since the early 1980s, is known as the Antarctic ozone hole.

In the arctic polar regions, similar processes occur that have also led to signiﬁcant chemical depletion of the column ozone during late winter and spring in many recent years. Arctic ozone loss from January through late March has been typically 20 to 25 percent, and shorter-period losses have been higher, depending on the meteorological conditions encountered in the Arctic stratosphere.

Smaller, but nevertheless signiﬁcant, stratospheric ozone decreases have been seen at other, more populated latitudes of the earth, away from the polar regions. Instruments on satellites and on the ground have detected higher amounts of UV-B radiation at the earth’s surface below areas of depleted ozone.

What Human Activities Affect the Stratospheric Ozone Layer?

Initially, theories about the cause of ozone-layer depletion abounded. Many factors were suggested, from the sun to air motions to human activity. In the 1970s and 1980s, the scientiﬁc evidence showed conclusively that human-produced chemicals are responsible for the observed depletions of the ozone layer.

The ozone-depleting compounds contain various combinations of carbon with the chemical elements chlorine, ﬂuorine, bromine, and hydrogen (the halogen family in the periodic table of the elements). These are often described by the general term halocarbons. The compounds include chloroﬂuorocarbons (CFCs which are used as refrigerants, foam-blowing agents, electronics cleaners, and industrial solvents) as well as halons (which are used in ﬁre extinguishers).

The compounds are useful and benign in the troposphere, but when they eventually reach the stratosphere, they are broken apart by the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. The chlorine and bromine atoms released from these compounds are responsible for the breakdown of stratospheric ozone.

The ozone destruction cycles are catalytic, meaning that the chlorine or bromine atom enters the cycle, destroys ozone, and exits the cycle unscathed and therefore able to destroy another ozone molecule. In fact, an individual chlorine atom can destroy as many as 10,000 different ozone molecules before the chlorine atom is removed from the stratosphere by other reactions.

What Actions Have Been Taken to Protect the Ozone Layer?

Research on ozone depletion advanced very rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, leading to the identiﬁcation of CFCs and other halocarbons as the cause. Governments and industry acted quickly on the scientiﬁc information.

Through a 1987 international agreement known as the Montréal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, governments decided to eventually discontinue production of CFCs (known in the United States by the industry trade name “Freons”), halons, and other halocarbons (except for a few special uses). Concurrently, industry developed more ozone-friendly substitutes for the CFCs and other ozone-depleting halocarbons.

If nations adhere to international agreements, the ozone layer is expected to recover by the year 2050. The interaction of science in identifying the problem, technology in developing alternatives, and governments in devising new policies is thus an environmental “success story in the making.” Indeed, the Montréal Protocol serves as a model for other environmental issues now facing the global community.

What Actions Have Been Taken to Reduce the Amount of Ozone at Ground Level?

Ozone pollution at the earth’s surface is formed within the atmosphere by the interaction of sunlight with chemical precursor compounds (or starting ingredients): the nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In the United States, the efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce ozone pollution are therefore focused on reducing the emissions of the precursor compounds.

VOCs, a primary focus of many regulations, arise from the combustion of fossil fuel and from natural sources (emissions from forests). Increasingly, attention is turning to reducing the emissions of NOx compounds, which also arise from the combustion of fossil fuels.

The use of cleaner fuels and more efficient vehicles has caused a reduction in the emission of ozone precursors in urban areas. This has led to a steady decline in the number and severity of episodes and violations of the one-hour ozone standard established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (which is 120 parts per billion or ppb, meaning that out of a billion air molecules, 120 are ozone).

In 1999 there were thirty-two areas of the country that were in violation of the ozone standard, down from 101 just nine years earlier. Despite these improvements, ground-level ozone continues to be one of the most difﬁcult pollutants to manage.

An additional, more stringent ozone standard proposed by the EPA to protect public health Agency (EPA) to reduce ozone pollution are therefore focused on reducing the emissions of the precursor compounds. VOCs, a primary focus of many regulations, arise from the combustion of fossil fuel and from natural sources (emissions from forests). Increasingly, attention is turning to reducing the emissions of NOx compounds, which also arise from the combustion of fossil fuels.

An additional, more stringent ozone standard proposed by the EPA to protect public health, eighty ppb averaged over eight hours, was cleared in early 2001 for implementation in the United States. For comparison, Canada’s standard is sixty-ﬁve ppb averaged over eight hours. SEE ALSO Air Pollution; Asthma;eighty ppb averaged over eight hours, was cleared in early 2001 for implementation in the United States. For comparison, Canada’s standard is sixty-ﬁve ppb averaged over eight hours.


The Art of Surrender

The Art of Surrender

Surrender is not defeat. Surrender is not giving up.
Surrender is ‘allowing’ in the moment.

Each day, and more specifically each moment, we have an opportunity to practice
the art of surrendering. Whether we are late for an appointment, waiting for a
train, or feeling overwhelmed by life, we have a choice. We hit a fork in the

We can either choose to follow that impulse of frustration, aggravation, or
pushing back, or we could let go, take a conscious deep breath, and surrender.
The purpose is not to fully eliminate the aggravating or frustrating feeling,
but to slow things down and allow ourselves to feel more centered and
calm. Even if the feelings don’t go away, we have a choice in the moment to
breathe and notice or not. We don’t have to get it right or perfect. We just have to notice and practice acceptance.

In my private practice, I help my clients experience that their emotional
terrain is not bad or wrong. It just is. We work together to see if we can find
a way to slow things down in the moment, so that they aren’t dragged along by
their emotional world. So many people experiencing hard feelings such as anxiety or depression, tell me that they are afraid to feel the feelings. They are afraid to feel it because if they do, it will overwhelm and consume them. What I have witnessed and experienced time and time again, is that if we allow ourselves to feel what we are experiencing, no matter how difficult, the feelings pass or shift more quickly. In our culture, we are often taught to ‘get over it’. I invite a new attitude of surrendering to what is.

When you hit your fork in the road, which path will you choose?

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g08  .  part wild horses' mane on both sides
and shiggajon  .  lainfaida della indabishto
cd-r  .  1st press available November 19th 2011
free download

Golem: "Releasing a split with pwhmobs and shiggajon was an obvious thing to do, the bands having recorded together and played together (some times as one unit) on several occasions. Besides that, the bands seem to share an approach to modern improvised ”folk”music, trying to shape a kind of authentic contemporary form of expression without falling into the traps of psych-folk or free jazz. Shiggajon has, this being (probably?) their 16th release, been through a lot of phases. Having gone from being a two-man collage-project to being a 14-man orchestral live-unit, their material here comes from the latest more workshop-like studio-based way of working with music, which enables a more complex and dynamic structure. The pwhmobs-track, one of their more percussive and ambient, less jazzy ones, being recorded live, is a good example of the dynamics and intuitive flow of the band, seamlessly weaving together a very diverse but consistent piece of music, combining acoustics and electronics as the most natural thing in the world. "
Volcanic tongue: "Dream team split release that pairs two of the best free/folk jam bands on the goddamn planet, England’s Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides and Denmark’s Shiggajon. Shiggajon contribute two tracks, a slow-burning vertical ascension of reeds over slow bowing strings and a final epic traverse of organ drone and triumphal brass that takes off on John Coltrane’s Cosmic Music. Part Wild Horses are on equally epic form, with the sound of slow feedback tones and prayer bowls sparkling in deep silence before Pascal starts batting around time signatures and Kelly summons the ghost of Takehisa Kosugi. Still no one like them. Highly recommended."


Obama secretly signing away U.S. sovereignty

Klein Online

Shock plan regulates food, medicine, financial markers, Internet freedom.

Despite the government shutdown, the Obama administration has continued secret negotiations to complete what is known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. The expansive plan is a proposed free-trade agreement between the U.S., Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The agreement would create new guidelines for everything from food safety to fracking, financial markets, medical prices, copyright rules and Internet freedom. The TPP negotiations have been criticized by politicians and advocacy groups alike for their secrecy. The few aspects of the partnership leaked to the public indicate an expansive agenda with highly limited congressional oversight.

A New York Times opinion piece previously called the deal the “most significant international commercial agreement since the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995.” Last week, the White House website released a joint statement with the other proposed TPP signatories affirming “our countries are on track to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.” “Ministers and negotiators have made significant progress in recent months on all the legal texts and annexes on access to our respective goods, services, investment, financial services, government procurement, and temporary entry markets,” the White House said.

The statement did not divulge details of the partnership other than to suggest a final TPP agreement “must reflect our common vision to establish a comprehensive, next-generation model for addressing both new and traditional trade and investment issues, supporting the creation and retention of jobs and promoting economic development in our countries.” Secrecy In February, the Open the Government organization sent a letter to Obama blasting the lack of transparency surrounding the TPP talks, stating the negotiations have been “conducted in unprecedented secrecy.” “Despite the fact the deal may significantly affect the way we live our lives by limiting our public protections, there has been no public access to even the most fundamental draft agreement texts and other documents,” read the letter. The missive was signed by advocacy groups such as OpenTheGovernment.org, Project On Government Oversight, ARTICLE 19 and the Global Campaign for Freedom of Expression and Information.

The groups warned issues being secretly negotiated include “patent and copyright, land use, food and product standards, natural resources, professional licensing, government procurement, financial practices, healthcare, energy, telecommunications, and other service sector regulations.” Lack of oversight Normally free -trade agreements must be authorized by a majority of the House and Senate, usually in lengthy proceedings. However, the White House is seeking what is known as “trade promotion authority” which would fast track approval of the TPP by requiring Congress to vote on the likely lengthy trade agreement within 90 days and without any amendments. The authority also allows Obama to sign the agreement before Congress even has a chance to vote on it, with lawmakers getting only a quick post-facto vote. A number of lawmakers have been speaking out about the secret TPP talks. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., recently proposed legislation requiring the White House to disclose all TPP documents to members of Congress. “The majority of Congress is being kept in the dark as to the substance of the TPP negotiations, while representatives of U.S. corporations – like Halliburton, Chevron, PHRMA, Comcast, and the Motion Picture Association of America – are being consulted and made privy to details of the agreement,” said Wyden.

However, Obama has so far refused to give Congress a copy of the draft agreement. Regulates food, Internet, medicine, commerce The TPP is “more than just a trade deal,” wrote Lori Wallach and Ben Beachy of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch in a New York Times op-ed last June. “Only 5 of its 29 chapters cover traditional trade matters, like tariffs or quotas. The others impose parameters on nontrade policies. Existing and future American laws must be altered to conform with these terms, or trade sanctions can be imposed against American exports.” Wallach and Beachy spotlighted several leaks in the proposed TPP text, including one that would regulate the price of medicine. “Pharmaceutical companies, which are among those enjoying access to negotiators as ‘advisers,’ have long lobbied against government efforts to keep the cost of medicines down. Under the agreement, these companies could challenge such measures by claiming that they undermined their new rights granted by the deal.” Amnesty International USA warned draft TPP provisions related to patents for pharmaceuticals “risk stifling the development and production of generic medicines, by strengthening and deepening monopoly protections.”

Another leak revealed the TPP would grant more incentives to relocate domestic manufacturing offshore, Wallach and Beachy related. Jim Hightower, a progressive activist, wrote the TPP incorporates elements similar to the Stop Online Piracy Act. Hightower wrote the deal would “transform Internet service providers into a private, Big Brother police force, empowered to monitor our ‘user activity,’ arbitrarily take down our content and cut off our access to the Internet.” Indeed, Internet freedom advocacy groups have been protesting the TPP, taking specific issue with leaked proposals that would enact strict intellectual property restraints that would effectively change U.S. copyright law. The Electronic Frontier Foundation argued the TPP would “restrict the ability of Congress to engage in domestic law reform to meet the evolving IP needs of American citizens and the innovative technology sector.” In a petition signed by over 30 Internet freedom organizations, the group warned the TPP would “rewrite global rules on intellectual property enforcement.”

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  • RatedBestComment

    Barry is a communist, plain and simple. They wish to see the last bastion of capitalism destroyed so they can ENSLAVE the entire world.

    Sick, sick, sick….. People must overcome this sickness of being addicted to sickness. But they must first recognize they are sick. Something Barry Saetoro must get use to.

  • usmcmailman

    SO WHAT ???????

  • rafaelohaeim

  • Judy

    You people are full of it. Why don’t you move to Syria or N. Korea and take the tea bag losers with you.