A six hundred mile (100km) high speed railway threatens airlines, cuts airline pollution, with trains zooming at 200mph (350kph). China shows how it’s done.
“The link, on which trains will reach a top speed of 350 km/h, is expected to pose a real threat to airlines running flights linking the cities.”
“China plans to have high-speed rail services running between 70 percent of key cities by 2020″
This world is not painted in black and white. Are imperfect elections better than no elections ? Either is better than bombing villagers.
“There is nobody, I mean nobody, stepping up to the plate to fund elections without root and branch reform of the electoral system. Our public back home simply won’t accept it,”
People like these two women reinforce my hopes for society.
“The Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) was founded 30 years ago by Valerie Taylor, a physiotherapist.
Sreepur Village, a shelter for abandoned women and children, established by a former British Airways stewardess Pat Kerr, has just celebrated its 20th birthday. ”
Of Valerie Taylor:
“After discovering that nowhere in the entire country was able to provide proper care to people with spinal injuries, and that many died in bed from their sores, she moved to the capital and set up her centre.”
And Pat Kerr:
“What began life as a traditional orphanage, soon morphed into a much more ambitious endeavour, helping not just children, but their mothers as well, who were living on the streets of Dhaka, abandoned by the husbands.”
These women light up the world. Help them if you can, for they help the helpless.
Monsanto strikes again. And again. And again.
From the article:
“the corn flakes you had for breakfast, soda you drank at lunch and beef stew you ate for dinner likely were produced from crops grown with Monsanto’s patented genes.”
But that’s not all. The piece continues:
“one contract provision bans independent companies from breeding plants that contain both Monsanto’s genes and the genes of any of its competitors”
…
“We now believe that Monsanto has control over as much as 90 percent of (seed genetics). This level of control is almost unbelievable,”
So now they got hold of the farmer’s testicles, they squeeze harder.
“Monsanto increased some corn seed prices last year by 25 percent, with an additional 7 percent hike planned for corn seeds in 2010. Monsanto brand soybean seeds climbed 28 percent last year and will be flat or up 6 percent in 2010,”
And they seem to have borrowed a technique from Microsoft:
“One contract gave an independent seed company deep discounts if the company ensured that Monsanto’s products would make up 70 percent of its total corn seed inventory.”
Using Monsanto seeds is doing a deal with the devil. How long before open pollinated non GMO comes back ? Too long, we fear. The monocultures of Monsanto raise the risk that a single blight could wipe out a huge fraction of crops. Betcha they won’t accept the blame for that bit when it happens.
Great. Encourage kids to eat junk food, make ‘em obese as early as possible, predisposed to heard disease and adult onset diabetes and …
Agribusiness don’t care. What have kids done for them lately ?
Dear God, have they no shame ? (Never mind, that was a rhetorical question)
“advertising of low-nutrient high-density foods continues to be a significant preventable variable in the childhood obesity epidemic,”
“nearly three out of four, 72.5 percent, of the foods advertised on television to children are for products in the poorest nutritional category”
“it would require watching 10 hours of children’s programs to find one healthy food ad. ”
“49 percent, of all food ads with licensed characters, such as Spongebob Squarepants, promote foods in the poorest nutritional category.”
In a new book due out Friday, “The Death of American Virtue,” author Ken Gormley reveals insights into the Clinton presidency. He writes Clinton had another extramarital affair, with Susan McDougal of Whitewater fame. Also, Monica Lewinsky believes the president lied under oath when describing their encounters.
Will China decouple their currency peg? And stop buying Treasuries? Just as soon as they see that the US consumer is completely tapped out. For now, they use their dollars to acquire natural resources. to fill their own malls for their own people.
“inevitable that the dollar would continue to fall in value because Washington continued to issue more Treasuries to finance its deficit spending.”
“The United States cannot force foreign governments to increase their holdings of Treasuries,”
“trade turnover is falling, which means the U.S. is supplying fewer dollars to the rest of the world,” he added.
“The world does not have so much money to buy more U.S. Treasuries.”
Wonder why there’s no public option anymore ? Wonder why everybody is going to rake it in, except patients ? Actually, we ought to expect this because the politicians are in bed with the care providers. More, in too many cases, they are one and the same.
Spend a few million to make a few trillion. Hell with the patients.
“At least 166 former aides from the nine congressional leadership offices and five committees involved in shaping health overhaul legislation — along with at least 13 former lawmakers — registered to represent at least 338 health care clients since the beginning of last year, according to the analysis.
Their health care clients spent $635 million on lobbying over the past two years, the study shows.”
“The largest insider lobbying cadre belongs to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, which employs at least 26 former congressional members and staffers, according to Medill/CRP research.
Two other drug interests, biotech firm Amgen Inc. and the Biotechnology Industry Organization trade group, with at least 24 and 16 insiders respectively”
“Health industry contributions to congressional candidates have more than doubled so far this decade, rising to $127 million in the 2008 election cycle from $56 million in the 2000 election, with disproportionate sums going to the party in power and to members of committees that oversee health care”
They must think there is money here. They are actually fighting over it.
But farmers still on the hook. Still need to use poison on their fields. Incidentally, Roundup is out of patent too.
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