Since WWII, what would you guess was the bloodiest war on this planet? Darfur? Korea? Nope, it’s in the Congo. The toll is an estimated 5 million lives, and a lot of folks are reminded of the similar crimes comited for blood diamonds. The next logical thought should be, can we curb this violence as we have by tracking the source of this valuable commodity?
Click here to watch a preview from 60 minutes as it takes a look at one of modern histories most horrific war.
Jonathan Weisman writes for the Wall Street Journal -
The White House is considering a bipartisan commission to tackle the nation’s swelling deficit, as it seeks to show resolve on a problem that threatens its broader agenda.
Top White House officials, including budget director Peter Orszag, met Tuesday with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Kent Conrad to discuss establishing such a commission, which has been pushed by Mr. Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, and his Republican counterpart on the committee, Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.
Senior congressional officials said the idea was gaining traction. Two officials said the White House was likely to make its own proposal for a panel, which could have less power than the proposed Conrad-Gregg commission. White House aides said no final decision had been made.
Renee Schoof writes for McClatchy -
“The Environmental Protection Agency is continuing its crackdown on coal pollution with a new plan to cut sulfur dioxide — a move that would clean up the air for millions of Americans and bring some relief to people who suffer from asthma and other respiratory diseases.
The new rule, which was proposed earlier this month, would be the first time since 1971 that the EPA has tightened controls on sulfur dioxide to protect the public health.
“This would be an important step to ensure the health of the American public,” said Dr. Alan H. Lockwood, a professor of neurology and nuclear medicine at the University of Buffalo. “Tens of thousands of Americans die each year from inhaling pollutants from coal burning.”
Tony Pugh writes for McClatchy -
“For the first time in 10 years, the national credit card delinquency rate fell from the second to the third quarter, more evidence that Americans are trying to pay down their debt as the recession continues to claim jobs.
The share of U.S. credit card holders who are 90 or more days delinquent fell to 1.1 percent in the third quarter, down nearly 6 percent from the second quarter, according to a new report by TransUnion, one of the leading credit-reporting agencies.
Mississippi topped all states with a 13.4 percent quarterly drop in its delinquency rate.”
Lisa Lerer writes for Politico -
President Barack Obama’s decision to drop in on the international climate conference in Copenhagen next month lends some star power to an event that’s lost much of its luster — but at considerable risk for Obama himself.
“This could be one hell of a global game changer with big reverberations here at home,” said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the lead sponsor of climate change legislation in the Senate. “The fact that the president will attend the Copenhagen talks underscores that the administration is putting its money where its mouth is, putting the president’s prestige on the line.”
And therein lies the problem for Obama. The upside potential for his visited is limited; expectations for the conference have dropped dramatically over the past few weeks, with nearly universal acknowledgment that the talks are very likely to result in a only limited political agreement, rather than in a legally binding treaty on global warming.
Twenty billion barrels of oil sit beneath Los Angeles. Hidden in plain sight, thousands of wells pump day and night all over the city covered by hollow office buildings, camouflaged next to high schools, and concealed behind shopping malls. We put on our boots and went exploring.
Watch the film:
BBC reports,
“Ford has announced profits of almost $1bn (£611m) between July and September thanks to increased market share and a successful cost-cutting programme.
Pre-tax profit for the quarter came in at $997m, compared with a loss of $161m a year earlier. Revenue was $30.9bn, down $800m on a year ago.
The US carmaker said it was making “tremendous progress despite the slump in the global economy”.
Ford’s shares closed up 8.3% following the announcement.
The firm also said it expected to be “solidly profitable” during 2011.”
by Andrew Lachance
Mark Whitehouse writes for the Wall Street Journal,
“The pain of the financial crisis has economists striving to understand precisely why it happened and how to prevent a repeat. For that task, John Geanakoplos of Yale University takes inspiration from Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice.”
The play’s focus is collateral, with the money lender Shylock demanding a particularly onerous form of recompense if his loan wasn’t repaid: a pound of flesh. Mr. Geanakoplos, too, finds danger lurking in the assets that back loans. For him, the risk is that investors who can borrow too freely against those assets drive their prices far too high, setting up a bust that reverberates through the economy.”
Bob Ivry writes for Bloomberg,
Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) — John S. Reed, who helped engineer the merger that created Citigroup Inc., apologized for his role in building a company that has taken $45 billion in direct U.S. aid and said banks that big should be divided into separate parts.
“I’m sorry,” Reed, 70, said in an interview yesterday. “These are people I love and care about. You could imagine emotionally it’s not easy to see what’s happened.”
LINDSEY HOSHAW writes for the New York TImes,
“ABOARD THE ALGUITA, 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii — In this remote patch of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from any national boundary, the detritus of human life is collecting in a swirling current so large that it defies precise measurement.
Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area of widely dispersed trash that doubles in size every decade and is now believed to be roughly twice the size of Texas. But one research organization estimates that the garbage now actually pervades the Pacific, though most of it is caught in what oceanographers call a gyre like this one — an area of heavy currents and slack winds that keep the trash swirling in a giant whirlpool.”
John Gerzema says there’s an upside to the recent financial crisis — the opportunity for positive change. Speaking at TED, he identifies four major cultural shifts driving new consumer behavior and shows how businesses are evolving to connect with thoughtful spending.
Nobel laureate and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu proposes an aggressive research program to transform the existing and future energy systems of the world away from technologies that emit greenhouse gases. Berkeley Lab’s Helios Project concentrates on renewable fuels, such as bio fuels, and solar technologies, including a new generation of solar photovoltaic cells and the conversion of electricity into chemical storage to meet future demand. His talk was presented April 23, 2007.
Nazca monkaay
Between 1,500 BC and around AD 500, the Nasca civilization prospered in Peru. Their famous remnants are the Nazca Lines – vast line drawings of animals (right photo) and abstract figures that can be seen from Space. But these Nascans, they disappeared suddenly. And no one knows why. Today, a couple of researchers have an idea.
Looks like they fell into the same pickle the Easter Islanders did, at least according to that analysis by Jared Diamond. Deforestation, yo. They cleared out the huarango forests to make way for agricultural clearances of cotton and maize. Trouble was, the huarango tree underpinned the entire ecosystem – which, in due time, collapsed, destroying the natural irrigation ecosystem that provided the water to grow the crops in the first place. Resource war! Resource war! Goodbye good, big-thinking Nasca folks. Here’s the full story if you wan’ it.
If you thought there were water wars brewing before, just wait. The sun is often touted as a fantastic source of energy, which it is, but there’s a hitch: Many solar projects consume enormous amounts of water. How much water are we talking? According to a recent New York Times, proposed plans for two solar farms in Nevada would gulp up 1.3 billion gallons of water annually–or 20 percent of the area’s available water. And the worst thing is this heavy water use in renewable energy projects is all about the bottom line. -read more at treehugger.com article
