Study: Los Angeles Most Polluted
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1616256,00.html
Los Angeles has once again topped the American Lung Association's bad air list of most polluted cities in America. The association found that the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside metropolitan area had the worst air based on 2003 through 2005 figures. The Pittsburgh, Pa. area was ranked as the nation's second most polluted metropolitan area followed by Bakersfield, Calif., Birmingham, Ala., Detroit and Cleveland. Visalia, Calif., Cincinnati, Indianapolis and St. Louis rounded out the top 10. The news wasn't all bad for Los Angeles. Despite the dubious distinction, the number of days residents breathed the nation's worst ozone levels was fewer than in previous years. The organization based the rankings on ozone pollution levels produced when heat and sunlight come into contact with pollutants from power plants, cars, refineries and other sources. The group also studied particle pollution levels emitted from these sources, which are made up of a mix of tiny solid and liquid particles in the air. Nearly half of the U.S. population lives in counties that still have unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, even though there appeared to be less ozone in many counties than previous years, the study found.
US must cut agriculture subsidies to below 19 billion dollars: WTO
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_must_cut_agriculture_subsidies_t_04302007.html
The World Trade Organisation on Monday sought to revitalise moribund agriculture talks by calling on the United States to cut trade distorting domestic support to below 19 billion dollars (14 billion euros) per year. Crawford Falconer, the chairman of the WTO's special committee on agriculture, told the 150 member states it was "inconceivable" that Washington should be able to spend more on domestic support than the 19 billion dollars it is allowed now. The current US proposal tabled in deadlocked global trade talks would allow Washington domestic support worth 22 billion dollars, Falconer said in a discussion paper released to try to spark the negotiations. The European Union, meanwhile, could cut its own overall trade distorting domestic support by a minimum of 70 percent, and possibly up to 75-80 percent, said Falconer, who is also New Zealand's ambassador to the WTO.
Wal-Mart's union-busting tactics
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2069358,00.html
The world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, will today stand accused of routinely flouting its workers' human rights through a sophisticated strategy of harassing union organisers, discriminating against long-term staff and indoctrinating employees with misleading propaganda. In a forensic indictment based on two years' research, the Washington-based pressure group Human Rights Watch will lift the lid on Wal-Mart's aggressive tactic of stamping on the slightest sign that workers are organising representation. Evidence in Discounting Rights, a report to be published this morning, includes examples of workers forced into unpaid overtime and an alleged strategy of squeezing out long-serving staff who are more costly than low-wage, temporary, younger workers. The company is accused of focusing security cameras on areas where staff congregate and shifting around loyal workers in "unit packing" tactics to ensure votes for union recognition are defeated. American store bosses get a "manager's toolbox" - a manual which openly describes itself as a guide on "how to remain free in the event union organisers choose your facility as their next target". They are told to phone a special "union hotline" if they suspect staff. Teams of union busters are then sent from Wal-Mart's Arkansas headquarters who regale workers with vitriolic presentations on the perils of unionisation.
For Sale: 29 U.S. Embassies http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/4/30/153426.shtml?s=ic
From Kinshasa to Katmandu, Bangkok to Bogota, U.S. embassies, ambassadorial residences and other diplomatic digs are up for sale as the State Department moves its employees to more secure locations, upgrades facilities and combines operations in multipurpose compounds. Some 29 properties worth more than $205 million are now on the market in 21 countries, including a huge and historic embassy annex in the heart of London, large chancery buildings in Panama , Nicaragua and Nepal and homes fit for envoys extraordinary in Belize and Venezuela.
Viewers get sick watching 'Babel'
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070501a6.html
Seven people have complained of nausea and other symptoms while watching the Oscar-nominated U.S. movie "Babel" in Aichi and Mie prefectures, theater officials said Monday. The maladies are believed to be linked to a scene about 80 minutes into the movie, when the high school student played by actress Rinko Kikuchi dances in a club that has strobe lights. The blinking lasts about a minute. None of the seven who complained exhibited serious symptoms, and all left the theaters after resting for a while, the officials said.
News Corp. Makes Bid for Dow Jones
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8ORMVPG0&show_article=1
Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Tuesday it has received an unsolicited bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to buy the company for $60 per share, or $5 billion. Shares of the financial news publishing company soared after the cable news channel CNBC reported news of the offer earlier Tuesday. After opening at $37.12, the shares jumped $20.95, or 58 percent, to $57.28 before being halted on the New York Stock Exchange for news pending. They had traded in a 52-week range of $32.16 to $40.08 before Tuesday's news. Dow Jones said in a brief statement that its board had received the proposal from News Corp. to buy the company with either cash or a combination of cash and News Corp. stock. Dow Jones is controlled by the Bancroft family through a special class of shares and cannot be taken over without their consent. The company said in its statement that its board and members of the Bancroft family were evaluating the proposal, and that there was no assurance it would lead to a transaction. Spokesmen for Dow Jones, News Corp. and the Bancroft family did not immediately return calls seeking additional comment. Like other newspaper publishers, Dow Jones' shares have been beaten down over the past few years amid sluggish advertising and as more readers and advertising dollars move to the Internet.
Russia sees moon plot in Nasa plans
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/01/wmoon01.xml
Mankind's second race for the moon took on a distinctly Cold War feel yesterday when the Russian space agency accused its old rival NASA of rejecting a proposal for joint lunar exploration. The claim comes amid suspicion in Moscow that the United States is seeking to deny Russia access to an isotope in abundance under the moon's surface that many believe could replace fossil fuels and even end the threat of global warming. Nasa announced in December that it was planning to build an international base camp on one of the Moon's poles, permanently staffing it by 2024. Russia's space rocket manufacturer Energia revealed an even more ambitious programme last August, saying it would build a permanent Moon base by 2015. While the Americans have either been coy or dismissive on the subject, Russia openly says the main purpose of its lunar programme is the industrial extraction of helium-3. Dismissed by critics as a 21st-century equivalent of the medieval alchemist's fruitless quest to turn lead into gold, some scientists say helium-3 could be the answer to the world's energy woes. A non-radioactive isotope of helium, helium-3 is a proven and potent fuel for nuclear fusion - so potent that just six metric tons would supply Britain with enough energy for a year. As helium-3 is non-polluting and is so effective in such tiny quantities, many countries are taking it very seriously. Germany, India and China, which will launch a lunar probe to research extraction techniques in September, are all studying ways to mine the isotope. The United States has appeared much more cautious, not least because scientists are yet to discover the secrets of large scale nuclear fusion. Commercial fusion reactors look unlikely to come on line before the second half of this century.
Earth's Climate Is Seesawing, According To Climate Researchers
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070428170229.htm
During the last 10,000 years climate has been seesawing between the North and South Atlantic Oceans. As revealed by findings presented by Quaternary scientists at Lund University, Sweden, cold periods in the north have corresponded to warmth in the south and vice verse. These results imply that Europe may face a slightly cooler future than predicted by IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The research group retrieved cores of lake sediments and peat along a north-south transect of Atlantic islands and adjacent land areas: Greenland, Iceland, Faroes, Azores, Tristan da Cunha, Isla de los Estados, and the Antarctic Peninsula. Based on detailed analyses of geochemistry, mineral magnetism and pollen content, hitherto unknown details of Atlantic climate dynamics have been resolved. Extensive radiocarbon dating and rapid sedimentation rates in the terrestrial deposits allow a much higher temporal resolution of the data than provided by marine sediment cores. The records reflect details of the climatic evolution in the Atlantic region since the end of the last Ice Age to the present day. The group was unable to compare its results to similar data sets from other parts of the South Atlantic, as no other records provide the same degree of resolution. After the end of the last Glacial both Hemispheres became warmer as a result of melting ice sheets, but during the last 9000 years we can identify a persistent "seesaw" pattern. When the South Atlantic was warm it was cold in the North Atlantic and vice versa. The researchers believe this phenomenon “most certainly” relates to large-scale ocean circulation in the Atlantic Ocean. The main current system - "the Great Ocean Conveyor" - is driven by sinking of dense, relatively cold and salty water in the northern North Atlantic. This results in southward-flowing deep-water that is replaced by warm surface water brought to high northern latitudes from the tropics and ultimately from the South Atlantic. The deep-water formation in the north is dependent on cooling of surface water with a high salt content. If sufficiently large amounts of fresh water are supplied to the North Atlantic, such as from melting ice-sheets or major increases in precipitation, the deep-water formation, and hence the transport of warm surface water from the south, may cease or at least decrease substantially. This is known to have happened repeatedly during the present Interglacial (the warm period since the last Ice Age). Minor disturbances have taken place in recent time, such as the Great Salt Anomaly in the 1970s, which seriously affected the cod population around the Faroe Islands. Results from Nightingale Island in the Tristan da Cunha island group, between South Africa and Argentina, for the first time give evidence of warming of the South Atlantic associated with cooling in the north. In agreement with most other climate researchers, the Lund group is not concerned about a complete shut-down of the Gulf Stream as envisioned in the apocalyptic film "The day after tomorrow".
'Epidemic' of sleep deprivation
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=451760&in_page_id=1770
Only 3 per cent of British professionals get their eight hours every night of the working week, according to a survey conducted by budget hotel chain Travelodge. Company directors are the most sleep-deprived of all, with 8 per cent getting under four hours of rest per night. Surveying more than 5,200 individuals from 30 different careers to discover more about how work affects rest, the majority of those questioned were getting fewer than the recommended eight hours every night. Those in the travel industry, such as cabin crew and pilots, found it hardest to get to sleep - 86 per cent struggled with sleepless nights. Teachers were the most likely to stay awake because they were worrying about their work (39 per cent). Some 86 per cent of those employed in public relations or marketing said they got enough sleep - but that might be because 95 per cent of them said they fell asleep on the sofa once they get in from work. The report said the top 10 most sleep-deprived professions are:
Company directors (averaging 5.9 hours of sleep a night)
Ambulance crew/paramedics (6 hours)
Tradesmen (6 hours) Leisure and hospitality workers (6 hours)
Police officers (6.1 hours)
Factory workers (6.2 hours)
Nurses (6.3 hours)
Engineers (6.3 hours)
Doctors (6.4 hours)
Civil servants (6.4 hours).
Doctors: Pot Triggers Psychotic Symptoms http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8ORAMNO0&show_article=1
British doctors took brain scans of 15 healthy volunteers given small doses of two of the active ingredients of cannabis, as well as a placebo. One compound, cannabidiol, or CBD, made people more relaxed. But even small doses of another component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, produced temporary psychotic symptoms in people, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, doctors said. The results, to be presented at an international mental health conference in London on Tuesday and Wednesday, provides physical evidence of the drug's damaging influence on the human brain.
Knut Steadily Getting Less Cute
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,480321,00.html
Knut's days of extreme cuteness are numbered now that he has acquired a markedly longer snout and weighs a chubby 17 kilograms (37 pounds), twice as much as when he first appeared before an adoring public five weeks ago. Knut's faithful handler Thomas Dörflein has taken to wearing long-sleeved shirts or pullovers and gloves to protect himself when he handles Knut. But the polar bear cub immediately obeys when Dörflein has had enough and tells him to stop biting him with the stern command "Aus!" Klös said it's impossible to predict when Knut will be able to sleep on his own without a keeper by his side, or when he will be too dangerous to handle closely. "At the moment handling him is no problem and we don't have a timetable in that regard."
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