Water Scarcity May Force World to Go Vegetarian by 2050

By the year 2050, the world’s population maybe be consuming a plant-based diet — and not necessarily out of concerns of animal welfare. If current trends continue, scientists at the Stockholm International Water Institute warn, switching the world to a mostly vegetarian diet may be the best option for feeding a growing population.

By 2050, the world’s population is expected to hit 9 billion people. That number currently hovers around 7 billion, and, with concerns that another global food crisis may be just around the corner, scientists are worried about how the planet will possibly be able to feed another 2 billion people.

One of the biggest concerns is water. Currently, about 70% of the world’s water goes into agriculture; animal products use between 5 and 10 times more water than plant-based products, and 1/3 of arable land is used to grow feed for animals. That is, of course, a lot of resources going towards a food that makes up such a small percentage of our diets.

On average, humans get 20% of their protein intake from these resource-sucking products. Simply put, in a world of 9 billion people, there will not be enough water to feed everyone. That is, unless people reduce their intake of animal protein. If, by 2050, the world’s population decreases their intake of animal products to just 5%, there just might be enough water to go around.

If these findings aren’t enough of a reason to go vegetarian, I don’t know what is.

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AJE - Voice of US State Dept?

For Americans(?) it's Safer in Afghanistan than America?

Mortality

All homicides

• Number of deaths: 16,799
• Deaths per 100,000 population: 5.5
• Cause of death rank: 15

Firearm homicides

• Number of deaths: 11,493
• Deaths per 100,000 population: 3.7

Causes of coalition deaths in Afghanistan 

Published on Aug 30, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish : So far in 2012, 317 members of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan have been killed in the Central Asian nation. The majority of those, 246, were from roadside bombs.

The so-called "green-on-blue" insider attacks accounted for 39 deaths over 34 incidents so far in 2012.

Of those 34 incidents of insider attacks by "friendly" Afghan forces, 12 have occurred in the month of August.

Australia troop deaths : green on blue killings.

Implications for development: Leading up to World Water Week

Published on Aug 23, 2012 by ThinkBeyondTheTap : Simon Cook, Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems, talks about the recent report released by the AgWater Solutions project and its implications for development.

Young Americans Turn to Old-Fashioned Domestic Lifestyle.

Published on Aug 24, 2012 by VOAvideo : An increasing number of Americans are growing their own food, making their own clothes and generally embracing the domestic lifestyle of their grandparents' generation. VOA's Julie Taboh reports that although there are no statistics yet, some experts say this do-it-yourself movement has been gaining momentum among the under-40 population.

120 NAM Countries Head to Iran Despite Western Pressure.

Published on Aug 26, 2012 by TheRealNews : Vijay Prashad: Syria will be the big issue in the Non Aligned Summit in Iran, with many heads of state visiting Tehran in spite of US/Israeli campaign to isolate Iran.

Judge: No Improper Use of Drone

Court Upholds Arrest of First US Citizen Based on Drone Surveillance

by Jason Ditz, August 03, 2012

A judge at a district court in North Dakota has issued the first ruling on domestic drone use, saying that the arrest of a man during which surveillance drones were usedwas not “improper” and that it has “no bearing” on charges brought against the man.

The arrest was the result of a dispute over laws in North Dakota surrounding wandering livestock, and police attacked the man, Rodney Brossart, on his property after he refused to return six cows which had wandered onto his property.

Brossart’s lawyer sought the charges of “criminal mischief” thrown out because of the warrantless use of drones, as well as a number of other “constitutional violations” including tasering him.

The relatively minor charges against Brossart may well serve as the first legal precedent for police use of surveillance drones against civilians on American soil. The prosecution had argued that the “mischief” was committed before the drones were deployed, and that therefore they weren’t relevant to the charges.

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the Bundle story : Journey of secondhand clothes & shoes.

Published on Aug 23, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish : Al Jazeera series "Rags to Riches" explores how one person's rubbish can be another person's treasure.Every year, more than half a billion dollars' worth of second hand clothes are sent out of the US, and many of those items end up in developing countries.

Yet few people know how their old clothes get to the needy.

Nepal ban working in the Middle East

Published on Aug 22, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish : Rights groups have criticised Nepal's decision to ban women under the age of 30 from working in the Middle East. They say the government should bring in measures to ensure their safety. Nepal's leaders took the decision earlier this month following reports of violence, sexual abuse and exploitation.

George Galloway sacked as political columnist for rape remarks

Holyrood paper editor Mandy Rhodes ends contract after Respect MP fails to apologise for rape definition

 guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 22 August 2012

George Galloway: editor said it was impossible for Respect MP to continue as columnist following his 'alarming' comments about rape. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

George Galloway has been sacked as a columnist on the Scottish political magazine Holyrood after he refused to retract his widely condemned remarks about the rape charges facing Julian Assange.

Mandy Rhodes, the editor of Holyrood, said the Respect party MP's remarks that Assange was guilty of just "bad manners" by failing to ask permission to have sex with a sleeping woman, had left her "frankly gobsmacked".

Rhodes said she had not always agreed with Galloway's views in the past but had respected his integrity, his role as an "effective thorn in the side of the establishment", and his stance on Iraq.

However, she said it was impossible for him to continue his column following his remark that having sex with a sleeping woman was "not rapeas anyone with any sense can possibly recognise it" if she had already had sex with that man.

"There is no excuse, ever, for sex without consent, and regardless of the details of the Assange case, Galloway's comments and inappropriate language about rape per se are alarming," Rhodes said in a statement on the magazine's website.

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Illuminating Donald Trump - Trump vs. the 99%

Published on Aug 9, 2012 by OccupyWallStNYC : The Illuminator - Occupy's Bat Signal - comes to Trump Tower to project the truth about Donald Trump's efforts to bulldoze the 99% and a Scottish environmental legacy to build a golf course for elite jet-setters.

Management of Radioactive Waste in Finland

by IAEA   |  Tero Varjoranta, Director General of Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), describes challenges, milestones and future plans for the safe management and disposal of radioactive waste and spent fuel in Finland.

  Management of Radioactive Waste in Finland from IAEA on Vimeo.

For first time, U.S. State Department defines settler violence as terrorism

Mon Aug 20, 2012 | In annual report on terrorism in foreign countries, U.S. government report defines so-called 'price-tag' attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank as acts of terror.

By Barak Ravid

A report by the U.S. State Department defines, for the first time, violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers in the West Bank as acts of terrorism.

The Country Reports on Terrorism, which under U.S. law is produced annually by the State Department and presented to the U.S. Congress, was published two weeks ago. It contained a chapter on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. 

A section of the report entitled "Countering Radicalization and Violent Extremism" addressed so-called "price-tag" attacks, which are committed primarily against Palestinians and their property by West Bank settlers.

The report mentions an attack carried out by a group of Israeli settlers against the IDF's Efraim Regional Brigade headquarters in the West Bank.

That attack "sparked a public debate in Israel on the phenomenon of settler violence; political and security officials pledged to implement several steps to curb and punish these violent attacks," according to the report.

The report also notes that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak labeled such attacks as having the characteristics of terrorist acts. Former IDF Head of Central Command Avi Mizrahi is also mentioned describing attacks against Palestinians and against their property as "terror."

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Insight: Ideas for Change - Karen Armstrong - Charter for Compassion.

Published on Aug 16, 2012 by WorldEconomicForum : "Never treat others as you would not like to be treated yourself."

ASEAN in crisis : Divided we stagger

Can Indonesia heal the deepening rifts in South-East Asia?
Aug 18th 2012 | JAKARTA, PHNOM PENH AND SINGAPORE

 

FOR decades the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has led a largely blameless existence, untroubled by the glare of publicity as it gently sought to bring coherence to a region of enormous political and economic differences. Not for ASEAN the highs and calamitous lows of, for example, the European Union. All that has now suddenly changed. On its 45th birthday newspapers and blogs are at last paying ASEAN plenty of attention, though marked more by despair than praise. Some even question its very survival.

The cause of the furore is the widening division in the ten-member grouping over China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea. The division was laid bare publicly at a meeting last month of ASEAN foreign ministers in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. For the first time in its history ASEAN failed to issue a joint communiqué. Its members could not agree on what to say about China. Broadly, those members with claims in the South China Sea themselves—Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, supported by Singapore and Thailand—want ASEAN to register serious concerns over what they see as China’s belligerent actions to enforce its claims in the waters of the South China Sea and over the Spratly, Paracel and other islands and atolls. However, non-claimants, mainly Cambodia supported by Laos and perhaps Myanmar, are loth to alienate China. They go along with China’s insistence on dealing with the issue with each country in turn. This year Cambodia holds the rotating chair of ASEAN.

Right after the Phnom Penh fiasco, Indonesia’s foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, in a vigorous exercise in diplomacy, tried hard to paper over the cracks. Since then, however, there has been no let-up in the unASEAN-like public rowing. Last week the Philippine government sent the Cambodian ambassador packing. He had accused the Philippines and Vietnam of playing “dirty politics” in their push to put the South China Sea on ASEAN’s agenda. The regional press is full of articles and letters lambasting Cambodia’s stance.

ASEAN members had hoped to get through this crisis by establishing a “code of conduct” for the South China Sea, yet China refuses to discuss this idea until, it says, “conditions are ripe”. Meanwhile, a mood of gloom pervades preparations for the next full ASEAN summit, due in November. This time round, the countries should be able to agree on a common position for public consumption, avoiding another unseemly row. But that still leaves plenty of scope for private grief.

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US cities going bust!

AJE 17 Aug 2012.

The First 2 Females U.S. Four-Star Generals Talk to TIME

Published on Aug 15, 2012 by TimeMagazine : Four star-generals Janet Wolfenbarger and Ann Dunwoody reflect back on their pioneering careers.

Scotland vs. Ireland's Independence Movement

Published on Aug 13, 2012 by ForaTv : First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond discusses the differences in Ireland's and Scotland's strategies for attaining independence from the United Kingdom. Salmond asserts that Scotland has never shed a drop of blood in their bid for freedom, and he believes the nation is poised for independence.

Britain’s unhappy political marriage grows bitter

Frustration mounts as squabbling threatens to tear the UK government apart. 

LONDON, UK — Danny Smith’s long list of grievances starts with the two years since he’s been paid to pick up his drumsticks.

Cameron, Clegg and spouses: Not all marriages are made in heaven. 

(Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images)

So it’s no surprise the unemployed musician is unimpressed by the government’s decision to abandon what promised to be one of its signature achievements: reforming the House of Lords, the unelected, somewhat anachronistic upper chamber of parliament that has long been a target for democracy campaigners.

“I couldn’t care two hoots, to be honest,” said Smith, 58, after another fruitless visit to a state-run job center in northwest London. “Those bastards are just looking after themselves.”

He is right to an extent. Last week’s announcement by Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, that his Liberal Democrats are shelving their campaign to overhaul the House of Lords revealed a government hobbled by competing self-interests.

It also spoke volumes about the fragility of the alliance between Clegg’s centrist LibDems, as they’re known, and their senior coalition partners, the right-wing Conservatives of Prime Minister David Cameron. Some now question whether their unlikely marriage, made in 2010, will last until elections in 2015.

Lords are currently appointed after being nominated by the prime minister or other political leaders. Their main role is to examine and revise legislation approved by the Commons.

The LibDems have long harbored ambitions to overhaul the chamber by introducing elected seats and making it easier to kick out idle members — chiefly hereditary peers who lean politically toward the right — who have helped keep Liberal ideology on the fringes of British politics for nearly a century.

The Conservatives pledged to support the House of Lords reform under the coalition deal they struck with the LibDems to wrest power from the center-left Labour Party in 2010. All three main parties included the issue in their election manifestos.

But the plan fell apart under pressure from Conservative lawmakers — and many from Labour — who opposed the overhaul, saying they feared a mostly elected upper chamber would challenge the dominance of the lower House of Commons.

Resigned to inevitable defeat, a frustrated Clegg issued a counter-strike: The LibDems would withdraw their endorsement of Conservative plans to redraw election-district boundaries, which promised to deliver them at least 20 safe seats.

That will have major ramifications for the next election, raising the likelihood of a Labour government or a Labour-LibDem coalition.

“Lords reform and boundaries are two, separate parliamentary bills,” Clegg said. “But they are both.

Read full article :

US first direct involvement in cleaning up dioxin left from Agent Orange.

Landmark U.S. clean up of Vietnam Agent Orange announced: Chemical linked to cancer and birth defects

• First official clean up step comes four decades after end of conflict 
• Millions of gallons of chemical dumped over course of decade to destroy enemy cover 
• Comes as Vietnam and the U.S. forge closer ties to boost trade and counter China's rising influence

By Daily Mail Reporter | 9 August 2012

The United States has begun a landmark project to clean up a dangerous chemical left from the defoliant Agent Orange - 50 years after it was first sprayed by American planes on Vietnam's jungles to destroy enemy cover.

Work will now begin to remove Dioxin, which has been linked to cancer, birth defects and other disabilities, from the site of a former U.S. air base in Danang in central Vietnam.

The US sprayed millions of gallons of Agent Orange over the course of a decade.




Read more: >>

A Good read...History Is A Weapon.

A People's History Of The United States : by Howard Zinn

Presented by History Is A Weapon.

1. Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress

2. Drawing the Color Line

3. Persons of Mean and Vile Condition

4. Tyranny is Tyranny

5. A Kind of Revolution

6. The Intimately Oppressed

7. As Long As Grass Grows Or Water Runs

8. We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God

9. Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom

10. The Other Civil War

11. Robber Barons And Rebels

12. The Empire and the People

13. The Socialist Challenge

14. War Is the Health of the State

15. Self-help in Hard Times

16. A People's War?

17. "Or Does It Explode?"

18. The Impossible Victory: Vietnam

19. Surprises

20. The Seventies: Under Control?

21. Carter-Reagan-Bush: The Bipartisan Consensus

22. The Unreported Resistance

23. The Clinton Presidency and the Crisis of Democracy

24. The Coming Revolt of the Guards

25. The 2000 Election and the "War on Terrorism"

 A Note and Disclaimer are below.

Return to History Is A Weapon

France's New Passion: All Things Chinese

Published on Aug 6, 2012 by VOAvideo : Not so long ago, Americans and Japanese tourists were the big spenders in France. No longer. During these summer months, France's tourism industry is courting new clients with major purchasing power: Chinese.

The Jewish Hoax - Michael Hoffman

Published on Aug 2, 2012 by 108morris108 : Michael Hoffman questions the legitimacy of anyone's claim of being a Jew.

Michael's web site is: http://www.revisionisthistory.org