Eeyores news and view

Sign of the times, in which we are living in

Government Land-Grab Moves Forward
The nation took a step closer to the largest federal land grab in the nation’s history last week, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).
That’s thanks to passage of the Clean Water Restoration Act (CWRA) by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
In basic terms the CRWA (S. 787) would grant the federal government authority of all water – both navigable, which it now presides over, as well as non-navigable.
Without defining and confining federal authority to navigable waters, an NCBA spokesman said, “…the CWRA would expand federal regulatory control to unprecedented levels – essentially putting stock tanks, drainage ditches, any puddle or water feature found on family farms and ranches – potentially even ground water – under the regulatory strong-arm of the federal government.”
Though the bill was amended last week, NCBA officials explain, “The amendment is a smoke screen that allegedly takes care of agricultural concerns by exempting prior-converted croplands from federal jurisdiction. Cattle are generally not grazed on prior-converted croplands, so this amendment does nothing to mitigate the potential damage to livestock production from this legislation. The amendment is a diversion from the real issue, which is the removal of the word ‘navigable’ from the definition of waters.”
NCBA and Public Lands Council oppose the legislation because it obviously infringes on private property rights, but also because it limits the state partnerships and flexibility that have made the current Clean Water Act successful.
http://beefmagazine.com/beefstockertrends/0623-government-land-grab-moves-forward/

On Nixon Tapes, Ambivalence Over Abortion, Not Watergate
WASHINGTON — On Jan. 23, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But privately, newly released tapes reveal, he expressed ambivalence.
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Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster “permissiveness,” and said that “it breaks the family.” But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases — like interracial pregnancies, he said.
“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding, “Or a rape.”
Nine months later, Nixon forced the firing of the special prosecutor looking into the Watergate affair, Archibald Cox, and prompted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus. The next day, Ronald Reagan, who was then governor of California and would later be president, told the White House that he approved. Reagan said the action, which would become known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” was “probably the best thing that ever happened — none of them belong where they were,” according to a Nixon aide’s notes of the private conversation.
Those disclosures were among the revelations in more than 150 hours of tape and 30,000 pages of documents made public on Tuesday by the Nixon Presidential Library, a part of the National Archives. The audio files were posted online, as were a sampling of the documents.
The tapes were recorded by the secret microphones in the Oval Office from January and February 1973. They shed new light on an intense moment in American history, including Nixon’s second inauguration, the Vietnam War cease-fire, and the trial of seven men over the break-in at the Democrats’ headquarters at the Watergate complex amid mounting revelations about their ties to the White House.
The tapes also capture more mundane details of life in the White House — conversations about what to pack for a trip, when to schedule a trip to the barber, whether the president’s wife would enjoy going to Trader Vic’s for dinner.
Most segments of the tapes relating to the Watergate scandal, which would lead to Nixon’s resignation 20 months later, have already been released. But there are some new materials that were previously held back because the audio quality was so poor that archives officials could not be certain whether they contained discussion of any classified topics. Improvements in audio technology have allowed archives staff to clear additional ones.
They include a Jan. 5, 1973, conversation between Nixon and his aide Charles W. Colson in which they discussed the possibility of granting clemency to E. Howard Hunt Jr., one of the Watergate conspirators, according to a log compiled by archives staff. Scholars say the same topic was addressed in several other tapes that were previously made public.
The documents also include nine pages of handwritten notes by a domestic policy aide about plans for what the White House would say about the dismissal of the Watergate special prosecutor, Mr. Cox.
The tapes also provide new material about the circumstances surrounding the Paris treaty to end the United States’ military involvement in Vietnam.
A call between Nixon and Mr. Colson just after midnight on Jan. 20 showed that Nixon anticipated, when the treaty was announced, that he would be vindicated for continuing to bomb North Vietnam. He especially relished the hit that he believed members of Congress who opposed the war — whose public statements he pronounced “treasonable” — would suffer.
Several conversations center on the pressure Nixon placed on South Vietnam’s president, Nguyen Van Thieu, to accept the cease-fire agreement. Ken Hughes, a Nixon scholar and research fellow at the Presidential Recordings Project at the University of Virginia, said he was struck by listening on one of the new tapes to Nixon’s telling his national security adviser, Henry A. Kissinger, that to get Thieu to sign the treaty, he would “cut off his head if necessary.”
Mr. Hughes said the conversation bolstered his view that Nixon, Thieu and Mr. Kissinger knew at the time that the cease-fire could not endure, and that it was not “peace with honor,” as Nixon described it, so much as a face-saving way for the United States to get out of the war. In 1975, North Vietnam would violate the cease-fire and conquer South Vietnam.
The tapes also include a phone call from February 1973 between Nixon and the evangelist Billy Graham, during which Mr. Graham complained that Jewish-American leaders were opposing efforts to promote evangelical Christianity, like Campus Crusade. The two men agreed that the Jewish leaders risked setting off anti-Semitic sentiment.
“What I really think is deep down in this country, there is a lot of anti-Semitism, and all this is going to do is stir it up,” Nixon said.
At another point he said: “It may be they have a death wish. You know that’s been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries.”
The documents also include three newly declassified pages from a National Security Council brief discussing secret Israeli efforts to build a nuclear weapon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/us/politics/24nixon.html?_r=1

Md. officials announce swine flu-related death
June 23, 2009 - 2:30pm
BALTIMORE - Maryland health officials are announcing the state's first confirmed swine-flu related death.
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Tuesday that an elderly Baltimore-area resident with a swine flu infection and serious underlying medical conditions has died.
Health officials say that swine flu was a contributing factor in the death, but they will not release personal details about the case, including specific underlying health conditions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 87 people who contracted swine flu have died.
Maryland officials have confirmed 370 swine flu cases, but say it is likely a fraction of the total cases statewide as many people are not tested and recover within a week.
http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1702853

NKorea threatens US; world anticipates missile
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.
Off China's coast, a U.S. destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons to Myanmar in what could be the first test of U.N. sanctions passed to punish the nation for an underground nuclear test last month.
The Kang Nam left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago with the USS John S. McCain close behind. The ship, accused of transporting banned goods in the past, is believed bound for Myanmar, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.
The new U.N. Security Council resolution requires member states to seek permission to inspect suspicious cargo. North Korea has said it would consider interception a declaration of war and on Wednesday accused the U.S. of seeking to provoke another Korean War.
"If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all," the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The warning came on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the start of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in state of war.
The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect against an outbreak of hostilities.
Tensions have been high since North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and then conducted its second underground atomic test on May 25.
Reacting to U.N. condemnation of that test, North Korea walked away from nuclear disarmament talks and warned it would fire a long-range missile.
North Korea has banned ships from the waters off its east coast starting Thursday through July 10 for military exercises, Japan's Coast Guard said.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday that the North may fire a Scud missile with a range of up to 310 miles (500 kilometers) or a short-range ground-to-ship missile with a range of 100 miles (160 kilometers) during the no-sail period.
A senior South Korean government official said the no-sail ban is believed connected to North Korean plans to fire short- or mid-range missiles. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
U.S. defense and counterproliferation officials in Washington said they also expected the North to launch short- to medium-range missiles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
South Korea will expedite the introduction of high-tech unmanned aerial surveillance systems and "bunker-buster" bombs in response to North Korea's provocations, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing unidentified ruling party members.
Meanwhile, a flurry of diplomatic efforts were under way to try getting North Korea to return to disarmament talks.
Russia's top nuclear envoy, Alexei Borodavkin, said after meeting with his South Korean counterpart that Moscow is open to other formats for discussion since Pyongyang has pulled out of formal six-nation negotiations.
In Beijing, top U.S. and Chinese defense officials also discussed North Korea. U.S. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy was heading next to Tokyo and Seoul for talks.
South Korea has proposed high-level "consultations" to discuss North Korea with the U.S., Russia, China and Japan.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090624/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_nuclear_91

Eeyores News and view

It is about time,
Navy Frees Captive U.S. Cargo Ship Captain Phillips
pril 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Navy forces freed Richard Phillips, the American cargo-ship captain held by pirates off the coast of Somalia, killing three of his captors and taking one into custody, the Navy said.
The Navy acted today because Phillips’s life appeared to be threatened by pirates who were pointing weapons at him, Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said during a teleconference with reporters from Bahrain.
“His life was in danger because the pirates were armed with AK-47s and had smaller-caliber pistols, and they were pointing the AK-47s at the captain,” Gortney said.
The pirates were shot by snipers aboard the destroyer USS Bainbridge, which was 25 to 30 meters away from the lifeboat where Phillips was being held, Gortney said. Phillips was tied up in the lifeboat, he said.
“We pay a lot for their training,” Gortney said of the snipers. “We got a good return on their investment tonight.”
President Barack Obama had given standing orders for a rescue effort if Phillips’s life was in danger, Gortney said.
Obama said in a statement that “I share the country’s admiration for the bravery of Captain Phillips and his selfless concern for his crew. His courage is a model for all Americans.”
After being rescued unharmed, Phillips was first taken to the Bainbridge, then flown to the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, where the Navy said he contacted his family and was resting.
Protecting His Crew
Phillips was taken hostage on April 8 after brigands attempted to seize his ship, the Maersk Alabama, and its American crew.
While the crew managed to retake the ship, the pirates spirited the captain away onto the lifeboat. Phillips jumped overboard yesterday in an effort to escape, only to be recaptured after being shot at, Gortney said.
The Maersk Alabama is operated by the Maersk Line, a Norfolk, Virginia-based U.S. unit of A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, which is based in Copenhagen.
The Maersk Alabama docked in Mombasa, Kenya, yesterday, and the crew is safe.
After hearing of their captain’s release, some of the Maersk Alabama’s crew came out on the ship’s deck in Mombasa cheering, pumping fists into the air and waving American flags.
‘A Big Relief’
“It’s a big relief,” William Rios, a crew member from New York City, said as he spoke with his wife by cell phone.
Maersk Chief Executive Officer John Reinhart called the rescue a “good moment.” He said he’s spoken with Phillips, who told him to say that “John, I’m just a byline. The real heroes are the Navy, the SEALs who have brought me home.” SEALs are the Navy’s special warfare commandos.
Reinhart also spoke earlier with the captain’s wife, Andrea, and he said she was relieved and thankful for her husband’s safe return. Reinhart made the comments in a televised press conference from Norfolk, Virginia.
Phillips, 53, lives with his family in Underhill, Vermont. He graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 1979.
In a separate incident yesterday, an Italian tugboat was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The Buccaneer, a tugboat with a crew of 16, was seized as it was towing two barges, said Shona Lowe, a spokeswoman for NATO’s Northwood Maritime Command Center near London. Ten of the crew are Italian nationals, she said.
First Incident
The Alabama is the first U.S.-flagged vessel hijacked since a maritime protection corridor was set up in the region in August, according to the U.S. Navy.
Pirates have taken more ships this past week than in the first three months of the year, according to U.S. and French navy data. They’re operating outside their usual hunting grounds in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s most-traveled trade routes, to avoid naval patrols.
“We remain resolved to halt the rise of piracy in this region,” Obama said in today’s statement. “To achieve that goal, we must continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks, be prepared to interdict acts of piracy and ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aj.7xFLvuiA0&refer=worldwide


Social Security Bomb About To Explode
Remember how we didn't have to worry about Social Security now because payments from the program wouldn't exceed revenue for another decade or more? Well, the CBO has revised its estimates. It's still projecting a tiny surplus for next year--tiny--but Chris Martenson thinks those estimates will quickly be revised down:
socialsecurityforecasts.jpg[I]t was only last year that I was writing about the impeding fiscal calamity that was awaiting us all in 2017 when the outlays for Social Security were slated to exactly match receipts. Now that date could be as early as 2010, apparently.
In the chart above (source), I want you to note the extreme deterioration in surplus funds between the 2008 and 2009 forecasts. Can you spot the trend?
Here’s a prediction – these too will be revised to the worse in about 6 months. I base this prediction on my belief that more people will opt for retirement than are currently projected and that entitlement program tax receipts will be below current projections. Also, nearly every prediction by the CBO has been revised to the worse over the past year so I am “riding the trend” with this prediction.
In the projections for the table above, the CBO has assumed no cost of living adjustments (COLAs) in 2010, 2011, or 2012 and a return to economic growth next year. If either of those assumptions proves wrong, the table above gets smoked to the downside. I give that a better than 90% chance of happening.
This, of course, will have implications far beyond the Social Security system.
The Social Security "trust fund," you'll recall, isn't a trust fund at all. It's just another source of annual government financing and a future liability. Today's receipts are used to pay current payments to retirees and, in the case of a surplus, whatever else the government is spending money on. As the Social Security surplus shrinks, therefore, the government loses a source of funding. If it wants to keep spending at its planned rate, it therefore has to borrow the difference.
When Social Security goes into deficit, meanwhile, the government will have to borrow even more money to pay current SS recipients. Chris Martenson:
From a budget-busting perspective, last year where the US government had a $73 billion Social Security surplus to spend, this year it will be a paltry $16 billion and next year it will be a number indistinguishable from zero. It is hard to overstate the importance of this shift.
This means several things. Instead of $703 billion coming in over the next 10 years, the current (overly optimistic) projection calls for only $83 billion. This means at least another $620 billion in fresh borrowing will have to occur.
More importantly, this means that the United States eventual date with bankruptcy has been moved forward by about 8 years or so. It also means that instead of being some future problem, a few administrations down the road, it is a near certainty that the current administration will have to confront some very difficult funding decisions that will be forced by the inability to borrow enough to pay for everything.
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-the-social-security-bomb-2009-4

Grog at FRC posted this today
Dry Taps in Mexico City: A Water Crisis Gets Worse Saturday, Apr. 11, 2009
By Ioan Grillo / Mexico City
The reek of unwashed toilets spilled into the street in the neighborhood of unpainted cinder block houses. Out on the main road, hundreds of residents banged plastic buckets and blocked the path of irate drivers while children scoured the surrounding area for government trucks. Finally, the impatient crowd launched into a high-pitched chant, repeating one word at fever pitch: "Water, Water, Water!"
About five million people, or a quarter of the population of Mexico City's urban sprawl, woke up Thursday with dry taps. The drought was caused by the biggest stoppage in the city's main reservoir system in recent years to ration its depleting supplies. Government officials hope this and four other stoppages will keep water flowing until the summer rainy season fills the basins back up. But they warn that the Mexican capital needs to seriously overhaul its water system to stop an unfathomable disaster in the future. (See pictures of the world water crisis.)
It is perhaps unsurprising that the biggest metropolis in the Western hemisphere is confronting problems with its water supply — and becoming an alarming cautionary tale for other megacities. Scientists have been talking for years about how humans are pumping up too much water while ripping apart too many forests, and warning that the vital liquid could become the next commodity nations are fighting over with tanks and bombers. But it is hard for most people to appreciate quite how valuable a simple thing like water is — until the taps turn off. (See pictures of the contentious politics of water in Central Asia.)
Housewife Graciela Martinez, 44, complains that the smell of her bathroom — used by her family of eight — had forced them all outside. "We have got no toilets, I can't wash my children, I can't cook, I can't clean the mess off the floor," Martinez says, trying to find shade from the sweltering sun. "And the worst thing is, we have got almost nothing to drink."
Paradoxically, the thirsty city was once a great lake, where the Aztecs founded their island citadel Tenochtitlan in 1325. When the Spanish conquerors took control they drained much of the water, laying the basis for the vast expansion of the metropolis across the entire Valley of Mexico. However, as the growing population continues to suck water out in wells, Mexico City is sinking down into the old lake bed at a rate of about three inches a year. This downward plunge puts extra pressure on water distribution pipes, which are now so leaky they lose about 40% of liquid before it even reaches homes.
With its own supplies evaporating, Mexico City relies on the Cutzamala system, a network of reservoirs and treatment plants that pump in water from hundreds of miles around. However, this year Cutzamala itself is running dry amid low levels of rainfall in the area. Its main basin is only 47% full, compared to an annual average of 70% for early April. "This could be caused by climate change and deforestation. These are difficult factors to understand and predict," says Felipe Arreguin, under director of the National Water Commission. "We had to have the stoppages now to make sure that some supply can continue until the rain in June." The first two partial stoppages in February and March cut off water to hundreds of thousands. In the April action, the entire Cutzamala system will be shut down for 36 hours, before gradually resuming water pumping over several days.
Martinez is particularly anxious because this means there will be no water in her taps this entire weekend. She is also enraged that the blight is mostly hitting poor neighborhoods like hers. "The rich are still swimming in their pools while we are dying of thirst," she says. Playing up to the class war theme, Mexican newspaper Reforma showed a photo of a woman using a public tap in a poor area next to another woman hosing down her lawn in a rich suburb. (See pictures of crime fighting in Mexico City.)
Ramon Aguirre, director of Mexico City's water department, says the government has tried to distribute supplies as fairly as possible but the Cutzamala system is hooked up to many of the unplanned communities on the city outskirts. The city has, however, sent out of fleets of water trucks, and Mayor Marcelo Ebrard — who built urban beaches and a winter ice rink for the poor — is personally handing out free bottled water. Aguirre says the long-term solution involves teaching people to ration their water much better. "We need to educate people from when they are children that water is valuable and needs to be used wisely," he says.
Few Mexico City residents currently heed such advice. Keen on long showers and washing their cars, homes and clothes well, the average Mexico City resident uses 300 liters of waters per day compared to 180 per day in some European cities, says Arreguin. Furthermore, on Easter Saturdays, residents traditionally have huge water fights, in which everyone from grandparents to young children join in hurling bucket loads over each other. Piet Klop, an investigator at the Washington-based environmental think tank World Resources Institute, says that people will not learn to ration water unless it hits their pockets. "We need to understand that it is a more valuable commodity than oil and prices must reflect that better," Klop says. "Cheap subsidized water is not helping people. It is giving them a bad service." However, radically hiking the prices of any basic commodity would be a tough sell for any politician, especially in a turbulent democracy such as Mexico.
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=867.0;topicseen

Walker's World: New food crisis looms
WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- We tend to forget that the worldwide plunge into recession last year was the result of three separate phenomena that combined to breed disaster. The financial crisis was joined by a food crisis and a fuel crisis as the prices of food and energy soared, triggering food riots across the world.
And now there are ominous signs of another food crisis in the making this year, spurred in part by the ongoing credit crunch that has made it difficult for farmers to get loans.
"I think the world would like to focus on one crisis at a time, but we really can't afford to," warned Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program. Food supplies are tight and prices still high, she said, and more people in poor countries are unable to afford what they need because of the recession.
"These are not separate crises. The food crisis and the financial one are linking and compounding," she noted, adding that food shortages often trigger political instability. "I'm really putting out the warning that we're in an era now where supplies are still very tight, very low and very expensive."
Alarm bells are starting to ring about another food crisis this summer. Last week's acreage report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 7 million fewer acres were being planted for all crops. This came after the USDA's January report that noted that winter wheat acreage was down 7 percent.
This means lower output from the United States, the world's top food producer, at a time when world stocks are already low, and farmers are blaming the difficulty in getting credit and the high costs of key inputs like fertilizer.
Mother Nature is making things worse, with the worst drought in almost 70 years hitting northern China and devastating the winter wheat crop. More than 200 million acres in China's top six grain-producing provinces have been hit, and yields are down by as much as 40 percent.
The problem is not just hitting grains. With world soybean stocks 9 percent lower than they were this time last year, a further drought in Latin America is a new concern. Yields in southern Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina are also running at 40 percent of last year's levels. All this is triggering concern in the markets, where analysts are warning that price hikes are looming, and the speculators coming into the market could drive prices even higher.
"It's my opinion that producers feeding livestock need to protect against a possible sharp rise in corn prices," said Dennis Smith, a food-price specialist at Archer Financial Services. "This trade idea would also apply to a speculator looking to profit from a sharp move upward in the corn prices as well."
Smith also factors in the prospect of biofuels distorting the markets again, as they did last year when high oil prices triggered a demand for biofuels like ethanol, which sent crop prices higher. "What happens if crude oil prices continue to move higher and ethanol margins expand?" Smith asked.
Sheeran, whose World Food Program stands between the world's poor and starvation, said she will need about $6 billion this year for food aid, which feeds about 100 million of the world's poorest people in 77 countries. That is slightly more than she raised last year, when food riots erupted across Asia and the Middle East. As of March, donor countries had pledged less than 10 percent of the sums required, or $453 million, mostly thanks to $172 million from the United States and $129 million from Japan.
The one relatively bright spot is in rice, where stocks are relatively high. But concern is rising across Asia. Arthur Yap, agriculture secretary for the Philippines, has warned the United Nations that he fears his country will not be able to secure enough food this year. And Ralph Hautman, the Asia Pacific marketing and global finance officer for the Food and Agriculture Organization, warned last week that the credit crunch is pressuring farmers to reduce the amount of land they cultivate.
"If farmers or agriculture producers have less access to credit, they are less likely to buy a lot of new seeds and fertilizers, and they're also less likely to expand their production areas," Hautman said. "Then there would be less agriculture production. This is the concern. The lower production of food crops caused by the lower availability of credit may lead to lower food stocks and shortages."
This is precisely what has happened in Brazil, where farmers encouraged by last year's high food prices borrowed money to put more acreage under cultivation and buy new farming equipment, only to face bankruptcy when the squeezed banks called in the loans and foreclosed on their farms and tractors.
Part of the problem is underproduction in some parts of the world, where for various reasons of national planning and priorities, farmers are not free to respond to market signals. This is particularly acute in Russia; analysts at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development noted that 16 percent of the world's arable land is in Russia, but it produces only 6 percent of the world's food because of a shortage of both public and private investment.
http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/04/06/Walkers-World-New-food-crisis-looms/UPI-79101239032507/

Microchip that tells the GP if you’ve taken your pills
Microchips in pills could soon allow doctors to find out whether a patient has taken their medication.
The digestible sensors, just 1mm wide, would mean GPs and surgeons could monitor patients outside the hospital or surgery.
Developers say the technology could be particularly useful for psychiatric or elderly patients who rely on a complicated regime of drugs – and are at risk if they miss a dose or take it at the wrong time.
It could also be used for the chronically ill, such as people with heart disease, to establish whether costly drugs are working or whether they are causing potentially dangerous side effects.
The sensors could even remind women to take the Pill if they forget.
The ‘intelligent’ medicine works by activating a harmless electric charge when drugs are digested by the stomach.
This charge is picked up by a sensing patch on the patients’ stomach or back, which records the time and date that the pill is digested. It also measures heart rate, motion and breathing patterns.
The information is transmitted to a patient’s mobile phone and then to the internet using wireless technology, to give a complete picture of their health and the impact of their drugs.
Doctors and carers can view this information on secure web pages or have the information sent to their mobile phones.
The silicon microchips are invisible to patients and can be added to any standard drug during the manufacturing process.
Two major drugs companies are investigating the technology, developed by US-based Proteus Biomedical. Trials are to begin in the UK within 12 months.
Professor Nick Peters, a cardiologist at Imperial College London, who is co-ordinating
trials, said the technology was ‘transformative’.
‘This is all about empowering patients and their families because it measures wellness, and people can actually be tracked getting better,’ he said.
‘Psychologically speaking, that’s hugely helpful for patients and enormously reassuring for carers.
‘Normally patients would have to be in hospital to get this level of feedback, so the hope is that it frees up beds and saves the NHS money.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1169305/Microchip-tells-GP-8217-ve-taken-pills.html

Eeyore's News and View

Ultra-light – A Vignette – Prolog

Miles underground, beneath the mighty Mississippi the earth was undergoing changes. For millions of years, the North American tectonic plate had been under tremendous stress as the west edge went one direction, and the east edge went another. Like stretch marks in the belly of the earth, the surface of the ground spread slightly every day, and the opening filled over the same millions of years with the silt from surface between the Appalachians and the Rockies.

But as the surface was filled with good old dirt, and the Mississippi River kept the filling going on, the underside, also being thinned, had magma filling the gap. It was only a matter of time when this weak spot in the center of America failed. Each terrible earthquake over the eons in the area had simply brought the event closer to being. Then one day the mantle was breached, the magma meeting the dirt fill, almost right under the Mississippi River.



Ultra-light – A Vignette

Jennie Foster loved to fly. Especially her Quicksilver MX Sport single seat ultra-light. The open cockpit, tricycle gear, fixed wing plane couldn’t go as fast as many of the other planes she’d flown and flown in, but none of them could go where she could go with the MX Sport. She could take off and land in any large open grassy area.

She flew whenever she could, usually with friends in their own ultra-lights. But Jennie had a secret life that none of her flying friends knew about. She was a closet prepper. Living in the New Madrid Seismic Zone in the Bootheel of Missouri was the reason she started.

But as she learned more and more, she realized that anywhere in the US, and literally the world, there were natural hazards. And human caused disaster could certainly affect any place one might choose to live. A person that wanted to get through a disaster as easily as possible needed preps, no matter where they lived.

She loved the open spaces of SEMO, the beautiful fields of various crops grown in the bountiful ex-swamp ground. Flying in the area could be a bit tricky, as storms could develop quickly, but with her preparedness mentality, Jennie always had a NOAA Weather Radio with her. She never tried to fly when there were watches out, much less warnings.

Unlike all of her friends that flew, Jennie kept a backpack strapped in the MX Sport that was her aircraft BOB. If, heaven forbid, she went down anywhere when she was flying, she had the means to take care of herself for three days easily, while getting back home, with or without help.

Being a slim, trim, 5’2” and 102 pounds gave her plenty of weight allowance for the BOB in the MX Sport, while still being able to carry a maximum fuel load, and still have the weight well below the maximum rating for the ultra-light.

Today, she was headed to Kennett from her home outside of Senath, to take a flight on her friend’s newly acquired Sky Yacht personal hot air blimp. Dr. Helen Druthers shared the same love of flight as Jennie and the two had taken flight training together, when Jennie was just old enough to, and Helen, several years older, was looking for some adventure after a bad divorce.

While Jennie made a decent living, Dr. Druthers came from a wealthy family, and did very well on her own as one of the preeminent doctors in the area. She had two ultra-lights, a conventional four-seat single engine plane, and now the Sky Yacht.

Jennie made it to the far corner of the airport where Helen had been given permission to unfold, inflate and launch the air ship. Helen was waiting for her, a big grin on her face. “You’re going to love this, Jennie!”

The two women hadn’t seen one another for a few weeks and shared a quick hug. Both were excited and looking forward to the flight. Getting the framework unfolded and the fabric adjusted took a little while, but soon enough the propane burners were filling the envelope with hot air.

The air ship looked fairly conventional, as air ships go, except for being slightly stubby and fat looking. Helen did a thorough walk around, checking everything carefully, just as she’d been taught at the Sky Yacht headquarters when she bought the Sally Sue.

When things were ready, the two women, helmets in place, strapped themselves into/onto the platform suspended from the air ship framework at the front of the craft. The engine, mounted on the very tail end of the ship, fired right up and after clearing for takeoff by radio, they were off the ground.

Helen headed away from the airport flight path so she could begin showing off the capabilities of the air ship for Jennie. Flying well above the tree tops, but slowly, Helen cut back the throttle and maneuvered downward.

Jennie sucked in her breath slightly when Helen brought the Sally Sue to a hover. “Grab a leaf,” Helen said with a laugh. Jennie grinned and reached out. She carefully pulled loose the very top leave of the fifty foot high tree as Helen slowly brought the rear end of the air ship around, keeping the front almost stationary.

“Wow!” Jennie shouted and laughed. Helen joined in the laughter and then put the Sally Sue on a climbing course toward Senath. When they reached Jennie’s modest property a couple miles out of town, Helen landed in her front yard, and they began to deflate the envelope.

When it was safe to leave the craft, Jennie took Helen inside and fixed lunch for the pair of them, talking animatedly about the Sky Yacht. Naturally, on the way back to the airport in Kennett an hour later, Jennie got her chance to handle the air ship. She put it through its paces under Helen’s strict tutelage.

When they landed and had the Sally Sue deflated, folded up, and stored on the trailer, Jennie thanked Helen and headed home, wondering how she could ever afford one of the air ships herself. “Sure is nice to know friendly people with money,” she said into the wind whipping her hair as she drove the New Bug convertible home.

Jennie thought about the flight a few times over the next few months, but things never seemed to work out to get another chance to fly with Helen. Jennie managed to fly her MX Sport several times during that time and decided as much as she liked the Sally Sue, fixed wing was her game.

But with the bad economic situation that seemed to just keep getting worse, Jennie was putting in more and more hours at the shiny new motel that Senath boasted. Finished a year previously, just as Jennie came home with a year’s experience in a Mexican resort, after her schooling for hotel management concluded, Jennie snagged the assistant manager’s position for the new motel.

Rather doubtful of the success of such a large operation in Senath, Jennie had fought for and received a pretty much ironclad no-lay-off, guaranteed-for-five-years contract. The place could go belly up the day after it opened and she’d still get paid for five years. Either quarterly payments or a lump sum, at the company’s choice.

While the suggestion was that she might sabotage the operation so she could collect her pay without working, there was a bonus clause in the contract. If the motel did a certain amount of business during the five-year period and lasted the full five years, Jennie would get a huge bonus and the managerial position, with a similar type of contract.

Jennie was amazed that she got almost all the elements in the contract she wanted, but the area was depressed and good help, always hard to find, was even more difficult to find in the area, especially with someone with Jennie’s education and already fairly extensive experience in handling a motel environment.

But things were difficult, and she had to lay off three of the twelve person staff. She picked up the slack, working ten to twelve hours a day, often at night, for ten to fourteen days straight.

But the salary she’d negotiated was huge for the area, and she felt an obligation to make the operation a success, only in part because of the bonus clause. So she took on the extra duties of the laid off employees.

She finally had a three day weekend, in part because the motel had absolutely no reservations for the time frame. And the regular business they did get, mostly from truckers and other regular travelers on US 412, could be handled by the rest of the staff for three days.

Jennie, after a day of catching up on housework in her neat little two bedroom bungalow, reassembled the MX Sport from its storage mode, packed a lunch, and took off from her open back yard.

It was a glorious day and Jennie let out a whoop of joy as a flock of birds juked in unison to get out of her way. To get as far away as possible from the daily grind, she put the ultra-light in an economical climb rate. She wanted maximum time at maximum height.

It was August, and the fields were in all their productive glory. Having done the same thing many times before, Jennie still felt the draw to document the area for advertising for the motel. So she had her little video camera with her. At maximum altitude, she held the cameral steady and turned the craft in a wide circle, taking in the entire horizon.

Something caught her eye just as she let the camera hang back down on her chest. “Oh, no!” she thought, “a fire!”

She brought the walky-talky up to her lips, but hesitated before she reported the smoke to the authorities.

Instead, she changed course slightly and headed for the column of smoke. It didn’t look quite right to be smoke from a wheat field fire. There was just something about it. That was when she noticed a car on US 412 run off the road. Then another and another. “What in the world?” Jennie asked herself.

Then when the ground ahead of her erupted and a column of wet sand shot into the air three hundred feet high she realized what was happening. The New Madrid Seismic Zone was acting up. An earthquake. Perhaps the long dreaded “Big One”.

There was nothing she could do at the moment, so she lifted the camera again and began to document the event from the air. It was only when she got close to that one particular column of smoke that she suddenly dropped the camera on its leash and turned the MX Sport around and headed for home at the highest speed she could achieve. Her face was deathly white. This wasn’t just a simple earthquake, “The Big One” or not.

No. This was Parícutin, Mexico all over again. A volcano was forming right beside US 412 half-way between Senath and Kennett. Only instead of the middle of a corn field, it was in the middle of a soybean field. And instead of a small hole initially, there was already lava flowing from the small mound already in evidence.

Her hand was shaking when she lifted the walky-talky to her lips again. She keyed the mike, finally got someone to answer her, and explained what was happening. They simply didn’t believe her. Earthquake, yes. Volcano no. They were dealing with the earthquake and had no use for someone pulling a prank at the time.

Frowning, Jennie landed the MX Sport and idled it up near the house. She ran a ragged course that short distance. The ground was moving erratically. She saw the large crack at one corner of the house and hesitated before she went inside.

Things settled for a moment and Jennie decided to risk it. A glance to the north just before she went inside had her hurrying even more. Always a neat person, Jennie’s preps were neatly stored. She couldn’t take everything, she knew. She was prepared for any number of different disasters. A volcano was way down on the list, but it was on the list.

Repacking the large Kifaru EMR back pack with the things she wanted to take, and carefully reclosing and stashing the totes in the small storm cellar at the edge of her yard, Jennie took a good twenty minutes to get ready. The house had been groaning eerily with each new ground shake and Jennie finally stopped moving things to the shelter, realizing they weren’t important things. Everything truly important was already in the storm cellar.

She couldn’t help it. Jennie screamed when a sand spout shot up across the road to the north. She felt the moisture from the wet sand as the wind swirled around. Struggling under the weight of the pack, Jennie took it to the MX Sport and strapped it into place just as she’d practiced before. She topped off the craft’s fuel tank, and then, hesitating because it was strictly against the rules, strapped that partial can of fuel, plus the other full one she had, to the framework of the ultra-light.

“Good thing you lost that five pounds,” she whispered as she put on her helmet again, pulled on the leather jacket she’d brought from the house, and then strapped herself into the ultra-light again.

Her shoulders hunched when a loud cracking sound behind her, audible even over the sound of the ultra-light’s engine, brought her attention to her house. But just for a moment. The house was now a mound of rubble, and the sand from the sand blow was already across the road and would soon engulf it, if the sand blow continued.

Putting the thoughts of the house behind her, Jennie started her takeoff run. She thought she’d made a serious mistake, adding as much weight to the craft as she had. The MX sport felt sluggish and didn’t seem to want to lift off the ground.

Jennie screamed again when she saw the ground lifting ahead of her in a rolling motion. But as it passed under her, the lifting motion of the land wave launching the MX Sport into the air. Throttle at maximum, Jennie climbed as fast as she could, while turning to the east.

She had to juke once, barely avoiding going into a nose dive, when she quickly changed course as yet another sand spout erupted right in front of her. Particles of wet sand peppered her leather jacket and helmet as she flew past the column, which was at least fifty feet higher than the altitude she was flying.

Continuing to climb, and headed northeast toward Kennett, Jennie watched the horror unfold below her. She could see wave after wave of the land below traveling across the landscape all the way to the horizon. It had been going on, off and on, for twenty minutes and showed no signs of stopping. The motel, like her house, was rubble. She could only hope everyone got out.

Glancing to her left, the northwest, Jennie saw the smoke from the fires the lava was starting in the fields. There was a distinct mound now, even as far away as she was. Jennie had the presence of mind to use the video camera and take some more footage of the volcano in its birthing phase.

She didn’t think she’d make it through when she hit what felt like a wall in the air. The winds were from the west, and she was passing due east of the emerging volcano. Fortunately there wasn’t much ash, though there was some, but there were hot gasses.

Jennie held her breath until she thought she would pass out, the MS Sport at full throttle, in a shallow dive to get more speed, to get out of the stream of death coming from the volcano. She finally had to take a breath. It was cold, clear air. She opened her eyes, saw the ground approaching and pulled the craft out of the shallow dive.

Climbing back to cruising height, Jennie set a bee-line course to Dr. Druthers’ home on the northern edge of Kennett, circling around the city proper when she got there. Flying over habitation was also against the rules.

Jennie landed the craft expertly, despite the high weight. The machine took it and was ready for more when Jennie turned off the motor. Jennie staggered slightly on her way to the house, terrified at what she might find. The constant earthquakes were just as bad here as at Senath. Helen’s house was in the process of crumbling, just as Jennie’s had. Jennie wondered just how wide spread the destruction would be.

Helen met her at the back door. “I heard you coming in. Can you believe this? I think this qualifies as “The Big One”.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Jennie said. She opened up the screen on the video camera and played back the footage of the volcano.

“What do we do?” Helen asked. “We have to help. I have to get to the hospital!”

“Yes. I agree. But there is a limited amount we can do. There isn’t a bridge standing that I could see. The only transport going more than a mile or two is going to involve a boat or a helicopter. Or an ultra-light or blimp. We have to maintain the ability to move. I can’t carry passengers, but the Sally Sue can.”

“What are you saying?” Helen asked, disbelief on her face.

“We get the supplies we can, get somewhere safe, and set up an aid station. I’ll use the Sally Sue to ferry whoever needs it the worst to you to work on.”

“But the hospital… The equipment there…”

“Won’t be working. If the generator even runs, they don’t have that much fuel. And it is doubtful the building will survive. It was built before enough people understood the dangers and insisted on earthquake resistant building codes in this area. I’m not sure that would have helped, anyway. Houses and barns and other structures are tumbling down everywhere you look.”

Another huge shock rocked them and Helen’s house sank some more. The ground was liquefying with all the shaking motion. “Let’s grab what we can and figure how to get you to the airport to get the Sally Sue.”

“It’s here,” Helen said. “I’m going… was going to sell it and brought it home.”

“That’s even better. Let’s get the things out of the house and get the air ship ready to fly.”

They were only able to get inside twice each before the house became too dangerous to enter. They spent precious minutes getting the airship ready. Fortunately the house had not tumbled onto it when it began to fail.

The houses on either side of Helen’s, and those across the street, all were suffering the same fate.

“You ready?” Jennie asked Helen when the envelope of the airship was full of hot air and they were ready to fly.

Helen bit her lower lip. “I guess. Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?”

“I can only speak for myself, Helen. I think so.”

Helen nodded then and Jennie added, “Just like we discussed as we got her ready.”

Helen nodded again and strapped herself on the airship control platform.

A few minutes later and they were landing in the parking lot of what was left of the hospital. Jennie had to really lay on the brakes to stop the ultra-light when it landed. There was just enough room.

“Do what you need,” Jennie called over to Helen.

“Aren’t you coming?” Helen yelled back as the ground shook again.

Jennie looked around her at the desperate people. “No.” She lifted the edge of her leather jacket and showed Helen the handgun holstered there. “There could be problems.”

Helen blanched, but a surviving doctor grabbed her and began pulling her toward the remains of the hospital. “We have injured and the sick… What do we do?”

Helen came into her own then. The doubt was gone. Though they were already fairly organized and trying to recover the living, the dying, and the dead from the hospital as it continued to fail, Helen put a fine point on a few things.

She saw one of the surgical nurses and barked a command. “Get all the supplies you can get to out here.”

“But the patients…”

“Aren’t going to survive without supplies and equipment. Get going.”

The woman nodded and hurried into the hospital building again as an orderly helped an elderly man out of the building.

The orderly looked at Helen. She gritted her teeth. “Everyone goes through triage.”

The orderly nodded and helped the man over to the triage area. Knowing the color code, she saw the doctor doing the triage decisions have the orderly placed in the “Those Likely To Die, Even With Treatment” section. The man was one of those that Helen had treated and brought back from the edge of death a month before.

When the nurse came back with her arms full of the supplies, Helen directed her to put half with the supplies they were already using at the hospital aid station set up outside, and the rest on the Sally Sue platform.

Though she hesitated, the nurse finally did as asked. And went back for more. She made three more trips before the hospital completely collapsed, sinking halfway out of sight in the liquefied soil. Most simply closed their ears to the screams from those inside. At least they didn’t last long.

When Helen headed for the Sally Sue shortly after that, the senior doctor at the hospital stopped her and asked, “Where do you think you’re going? We need you here!”

“You need someone where it is safe to take those that can be helped. Jennie here will be transporting people to wherever we can find a safer place.”

The doctor thought about it and finally nodded. “How many can you take?”

“Just one at a time, plus a few pounds of supplies. If you can get someone to make the rounds at the Wal-Mart and all the pharmacies, have them take everything we might use here.”

“What if they refuse to give up the supplies?” the doctor asked.

“Use some persuasion, if you must. If you can’t convince them, go elsewhere. I’m not going to start a war over supplies.”

When Helen turned around she saw Jennie facing a group of about a dozen people. She had the pistol out, in her hand, and looked ready to use it. “Get someone loaded and let’s get out of here. We need to find a spot before dark.”

Helen nodded, grabbed the same nurse that had been getting supplies and between them carried a patient over to the Sally Sue and got him buckled in. Two minutes later the two craft were airborne, headed west.

The devastation was awful, everywhere they looked. People that saw them waved and shouted, but Helen and Jennie held their course. They were headed for Dyersburg, Tennessee. It was close to the Mississippi, but hopefully far enough away to be immune from the problems the river would cause, and on solid enough ground that the earthquakes wouldn’t liquefy it. They might be in poor shape there, but it would be better than anywhere in the Bootheel. It was rapidly becoming a swamp again, Helen and Jennie saw as they traveled east.

They landed amidst a stunned group of survivors at the hospital. It looked like it had suffered some damage, and there were groups all around it, but it was still standing and people were going in and out.

Jennie stayed with the two aircraft as Helen went to meet the authorities in charge. A few minutes later she came back with five people and they unloaded the patient and the supplies. “You can’t fly at night,” Helen told Jennie firmly, having seen the look in her eyes. Jennie had not liked leaving people behind, even though it was her idea.

Jennie’s shoulders fell. “No. I know. I just... I just feel like I should be doing more.”

“You were right in your plan, Jennie. We’re both going to be able to do more, help more people, doing it the way we are than if we stayed there. Now, there is a place set up for people helping to get some rest and food. So…”

“I’m self-sufficient there,” Jennie said firmly. She was not about to use scarce resources when she had her own. “And I want to stay close to my ultra-light and the Sally Sue. We barely got away from that mob that was forming, intending to take them for their own use.”

“Yeah. I saw the gun. You do know how to use, it, don’t you?”

Jennie’s grin was a bit predatory. “Oh, yeah. I know how to use it. And when.”

Helen nodded. “I have patients that need me. Get what rest you can. I know you’ll be up early.”

Jennie nodded. But instead of eating and going straight to bed, she began to dismantle the MX Sport enough to make it impossible to fly, and unlikely to be damaged in trying. Then she took the EMR pack off, as well as the BOB, and the fuel cans, and transferred them to the Sally Sue, which was now looking rather limp, as the hot air inside cooled to ambient temperature.

Jennie set up a tight camp, ate a freeze-dried meal and drank a liter of water. She took enough time to go to the latrine that had been prepared, but hurried back to the Sally Sue. With her self-inflating mattress on the deck of the airship, Jennie laid out her sleeping bag and slipped inside, still wearing her clothes.

Twice she woke up as people moved around the airship. But they were only curious and moved on when Jennie warned them away. Early the next morning she was in and out of the latrine, breakfasted, and had the burners going on the Sally Sue when Helen walked up.

“You know I trust you, Jennie. But be careful. Even though I was going to sell her, I kind of have a soft spot in my heart for this young bird.”

“I know, Helen. How should I select who comes with me?”

“You don’t. That’ll be up to the medical personnel, or maybe other authorities.”

“Other authorities?”

“President has declared martial law in the area.”

“Oh. Okay. I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll see you later.” Jennie strapped on her helmet and strapped into the pilot’s seat of the Sally Sue. A few minutes later she was airborne, thankful for the leather jacket she wore, headed west, the sun beginning to shine down on a ravaged landscape.

Tempted as she was to try to help those stranded on the tops of their houses as the river flooded out over the flat terrain, Jennie saw boats out doing the same thing. She held her course despite the shouts and shaking fists as she passed person after person.

She couldn’t see it, but the entire area had lifted, even as much of it liquefied, due to the earthquakes and the volcano. The Mississippi on the east side, and the St. Francis on the west side, were quickly filling what was becoming a new swampy lake that made Reelfoot Lake, produced in the 1811-1812 earthquakes, look like a little puddle.

The flooding gave Jennie a new sense of urgency. So did the brief whiff of volcanic gasses as she crossed through a hot wind that was coming from the volcano. It was erupting even more violently, though there wasn’t much ash. Just the gasses and huge amounts of lava. When she approached Kennett she could see the new volcanic mountain five miles south of her.

The people in the hospital didn’t waste any time. They had a patient and four boxes of supplies loaded on the Sally Sue only minutes after Jennie set her down. A group quickly formed, but Jennie lifted off before they could make a move on the airship.

Jennie got on the radio and warned those in charge on the ground she wouldn’t land again unless the mob was under control. She was assured they would be her next trip. Jennie made several trips. As some useful supplies were gathered in and around Dyersburg, Jennie took back as much as she brought from Kennett. They managed to keep Jennie supplied with gasoline and propane.

True to their word, there was no mob on any of the other trips. What there were, were some helicopters. Civilian, TV news, and military. Jennie had to keep a sharp eye out, despite the bright colors of the Sally Sue, for none of the other pilots were expecting to see anything like the small airship in the air.

Jennie spent the next three days ferrying those that could be saved with medical help from the Kennett and Senath areas, staying well away from the volcano, until the lava began to fight with the rising water for control of the two towns.

Her final four days in the air were rescuing people stranded in the flood water. Most of SEMO was once again swamp or lake, with the volcano now the dominate feature of the flat terrain.

Jennie’s last trip to the area was to go back to her former home. The property was on one of the highest spots in the area, by Jennie’s choice. Flooding had been high on the list of disasters she prepared for. It took a while to dig down to the storm shelter through the sand that now covered it. She took her time moving the totes from the storm shelter. She could see the water rising even as she worked.

Once everything was loaded, Jennie watched the water come up to the wheels of the Sally Sue. Only then did Jennie throttle up and turn on the burners to lift the airship into the air.



Ultra-light – A Vignette - Epilog

And so, as Jennie tearfully said good-bye to Helen, and shed a tear or two over the Sally Sue, another volcano sprung up along the New Madrid Seismic Zone fault lines. Then another and another as the area up lifted and became the New Madrid Mountain Range, with the Mississippi River flowing just to the west of the range.

One had to admit that it was an amazing sight, seeing mountains form before one’s very eyes. And large numbers of people that had not experienced the process close up, first hand, flocked to the many new resorts that went up near each of the new volcanoes, for the sightseers to stay in at night after a day of watching the volcano grow another foot, or two, or twenty.

The Senath Volcano… Senath, since it was about three hundred feet closer to Senath than it was to Kennett… being the first, had the biggest and finest motel resort complex built on the western edge of SEMO Lake. The volcano was easily visible, and the quarter-a-look binoculars were occupied constantly from daylight till dark, and sometimes long into the night when a particularly brilliant display of magma shot into the sky to become lava on the volcano’s sides.

And Jennie put the terror of those few days out of her head, negotiated another no-lay-off, five-year-guaranteed, exceeding lucrative salary contract, as a bona fide survivor slash heroine tour-guide. But she still got the occasional three-day week end off and continued to fly the MX Sport, though almost always away from the volcano.

End ********

Copyright 2009
Jerry D Young

Got this one article from Survival Blog one of the readers submitted it. Water rights is a very big deal and it will be come a bigger one one the people around the world start to complete for it. In the past wars have been fought over it and people have died. With out a person becomes a servant to the one that has it.
Who owns Colorado's rainwater?
Environmentalists and others like to gather it in containers for use in drier times. But state law says it belongs to those who bought the rights to waterways.
By Nicholas Riccardi
March 18, 2009
Reporting from Denver -- Every time it rains here, Kris Holstrom knowingly breaks the law.
Holstrom's violation is the fancifully painted 55-gallon buckets underneath the gutters of her farmhouse on a mesa 15 miles from the resort town of Telluride. The barrels catch rain and snowmelt, which Holstrom uses to irrigate the small vegetable garden she and her husband maintain.
But according to the state of Colorado, the rain that falls on Holstrom's property is not hers to keep. It should be allowed to fall to the ground and flow unimpeded into surrounding creeks and streams, the law states, to become the property of farmers, ranchers, developers and water agencies that have bought the rights to those waterways.
What Holstrom does is called rainwater harvesting. It's a practice that dates back to the dawn of civilization, and is increasingly in vogue among environmentalists and others who pursue sustainable lifestyles. They collect varying amounts of water, depending on the rainfall and the vessels they collect it in. The only risk involved is losing it to evaporation. Or running afoul of Western states' water laws.
Those laws, some of them more than a century old, have governed the development of the region since pioneer days.
"If you try to collect rainwater, well, that water really belongs to someone else," said Doug Kemper, executive director of the Colorado Water Congress. "We get into a very detailed accounting on every little drop."
Frank Jaeger of the Parker Water and Sanitation District, on the arid foothills south of Denver, sees water harvesting as an insidious attempt to take water from entities that have paid dearly for the resource.
"Every drop of water that comes down keeps the ground wet and helps the flow of the river," Jaeger said. He scoffs at arguments that harvesters like Holstrom only take a few drops from rivers. "Everything always starts with one little bite at a time."
Increasingly, however, states are trying to make the practice more welcome. Bills in Colorado and Utah, two states that have limited harvesting over the years, would adjust their laws to allow it in certain scenarios, over the protest of people like Jaeger.
Organic farmers and urban dreamers aren't the only people pushing to legalize water harvesting. Developer Harold Smethills wants to build more than 10,000 homes southwest of Denver that would be supplied by giant cisterns that capture the rain that falls on the 3,200-acre subdivision. He supports the change in Colorado law.
"We believe there is something to rainwater harvesting," Smethills said. "We believe it makes economic sense."
Collected rainwater is generally considered "gray water," or water that is not reliably pure enough to drink but can be used to water yards, flush toilets and power heaters. In some states, developers try to include a network of cisterns and catchment pools in every subdivision, but in others, those who catch the rain tend to do so covertly.
In Colorado, rights to bodies of water are held by entities who get preference based on the dates of their claims. Like many other Western states, Colorado has more claims than available water, and even those who hold rights dating back to the late 19th century sometimes find they do not get all of the water they should.
"If I decide to [take rainwater] in 2009, somewhere, maybe 100 miles downstream, there's a water right that outdates me by 100 years" that's losing water, said Kevin Rein, assistant state engineer.
State Sen. Chris Romer found out about this facet of state water policy when he built his ecological dream house in Denver, entirely powered by solar energy. He wanted to install a system to catch rainwater, but the state said it couldn't be permitted.
"It was stunning to me that this common-sense thing couldn't be done," said Romer, a Democrat. He sponsored a bill last year to allow water harvesting, but it did not pass.
"Welcome to water politics in Colorado," Romer said. "You don't touch my gun, you don't touch my whiskey, and you don't touch my water."
Romer and Republican state Rep. Marsha Looper introduced bills this year to allow harvesting in certain circumstances. Armed with a study that shows that 97% of rainwater that falls on the soil never makes it to streams, they propose to allow harvesting in 11 pilot projects in urban areas, and for rural users like Kris Holstrom whose wells are depleted by drought.
In contrast to the high-stakes maneuvering in the capital, Holstrom looks upon the state's regulation of rainwater with exasperated amusement.
Holstrom, director of sustainability for Telluride, and her husband, John, have lived on their farm since 1988. During the severe drought at the start of this decade, their well began drying up. Placing rain barrels under the gutters was the natural thing to do, said Holstrom, 51.
"Rain out here comes occasionally, and can come really hard," she said. "To be able to store it for when you need it is really great."
Holstrom had a vague awareness of state regulations. She decided to test it last summer when she was teaching a class on water harvesting. She called the state water department, which told her it was technically illegal, though it was unlikely that she would be cited.
Holstrom is known in southwestern Colorado for a lifestyle and causes that many deem quixotic. The land she and her husband own holds a yurt and tepees to house "interns" who help on their organic farm in the summers. It boasts a greenhouse, which even on a recent snowy day held an oasis of rosemary, artichokes, salad greens and a fig tree.
She plucked a bit of greens from one plant and munched on it as goldfish swam in a small, algae-filled pond that helps heat the enclosure. "This has been my passion for a long time -- trying to live the best way I know how," she said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-contested-rainwater18-2009mar18,0,5585599.story?track=rss

Fast-growing Western U.S. cities face water crisis
By Tim Gaynor and Steve Gorman Tim Gaynor And Steve Gorman – Wed Mar 11, 4:54 am
LAS VEGAS/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Desert golf course superintendent Bill Rohret is doing something that 20 years ago would have seemed unthinkable -- ripping up bright, green turf by the acre and replacing it with rocks.
Back then "they came in with bulldozers and dynamite, and they took the desert and turned it into a green oasis," Rohret said, surveying a rock-lined fairway within sight of the Las Vegas strip. "Now ... it's just the reverse."
The Angel Park Golf Club has torn out 65 acres of off-course grass in the last five years, and 15 more will be removed by 2011, to help conserve local supplies of one of the most precious commodities in the parched American West -- fresh water.
But Rohret's efforts have their limits. His and many other golf courses still pride themselves on their pristine greens and fairways and sparkling fountains, requiring huge daily expenditures of water.
Aiming to cut per capita use by about a third in the face of withering drought expected to worsen with global warming, water authorities in the United States' driest major city are paying customers $1.50 per square foot to replace grass lawns with desert landscaping.
Built in the Mojave Desert, Las Vegas leads Western U.S. cities scrambling to slash water consumption, increase recycling and squeeze more from underground aquifers as long-reliable surface water sources dry up.
From handing out fines for leaky sprinklers to charging homeowners high rates for high use, water officials in the U.S. West are chasing down squandered water one gallon at a time.
Nowhere is the sense of crisis more visible than on the outskirts of Las Vegas at Lake Mead, the nation's largest manmade reservoir, fed by the once-mighty Colorado River. A principal source of water for Nevada and Southern California, the lake has dipped to below half its capacity, leaving an ominous, white "bathtub ring" that grows thicker each year.
"We are in the eye of the storm," said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. "As the realities of climate change began to manifest themselves at the beginning of this century, we had to get serious about it."
For now, policymakers have emphasized the need to curb water use rather than urban growth, though the U.S. recession has put the brakes on commercial and housing development that otherwise would be at odds with the West's water scarcity.
GETTING TOUGH
Warm, dry weather has long made the American West attractive to visitors, but piped-in water has created artificial oases, luring millions to settle in the region. Las Vegas has ranked as one of the fastest-growing major cities.
But scientists say climate change is shriveling the snow pack in California's Sierra Nevada, the state's main source of fresh surface water, and in the Rocky Mountains that feed the Colorado River, whose waters sustain seven states.
Further pressure from farming and urban sprawl is straining underground aquifers, placing a question mark over the future growth of cities from Los Angeles to Tucson, Arizona.
"There is going to have to be a big adjustment in the American Southwest and in California as we come to grips with limits in this century -- not just limited water, but also limited water supply," said James Powell, author of the book "Dead Pool," exploring challenges facing planners in the West.
Reactions among local water authorities differ.
In Phoenix, the United States' fifth-largest city, authorities say sustainable groundwater and ample surface water allocations from the Colorado and Salt rivers meet the city's needs, even factoring in growth through a moderate drought. The city is also recycling waste water and plans to pump some back into the aquifer as a cushion.
Tucson will require new businesses to start collecting rainwater for irrigation in 2010.
California requires developers of large housing projects to prove they have sufficient water.
In Las Vegas, where rain is so infrequent that some residents can remember the days it fell in a given year, front-yard turf has been banned for new homes.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority also has hired "water cops" to fan out into the suburbs to identify violations of mandatory lawn irrigation schedules and wasteful run-off. Repeat offenders get $80 fines.
Major hotel-casinos such as the MGM Mirage and Harrah's Entertainment have adopted "green" building codes, including modifications designed to slash water use by 40 percent.
Those measures are starting to pay off, with daily water use down 15 percent per person in the greater Las Vegas area.
BUYING TIME
In a wake-up call to California, water officials there recently announced that prolonged drought was forcing them to cut Sierra-fed supplies pumped to cities and irrigation districts by 85 percent.
That has led many California cities, topped by Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest, to plan for rationing, including price-enforced household conservation and tough new lawn watering restrictions.
"The level of severity of this drought is something we haven't seen since the early 1970s," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in unveiling his city's drought plan, which also would put more water cops on the beat.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last month called on the state's urban users to cut water consumption 20 percent or face mandatory conservation measures.
The California drought, now in its third year, is the state's costliest ever. Complicating matters are sharp restrictions on how much water can be pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in northern California, which furnishes much of the state's irrigation and drinking supplies, to protect endangered fish species.
Moreover, the severe dry spell is leaving the state more vulnerable to wildfires, which last year consumed some several Los Angeles suburbs. The previous year, fires forced a record 500,000 Southern Californians to flee their homes.
PLANNING FOR THE WORST
Conservation will buy time, experts say. But bolder steps are needed in anticipation of longer droughts and renewed urban expansion once the recession ends.
Cities like Los Angeles and San Diego are revisiting an idea once abandoned in the face of staunch political opposition -- recycling purified sewer water for drinking supplies.
Disparaged by critics as "toilet-to-tap," such recycling plans have gained new currency from the success of the year-old Groundwater Replenishing System in Orange County near Los Angeles.
That system distills wastewater through advanced treatment and pumps it into the ground to recharge the area's aquifer, providing drinking supplies for 500,000 people, including residents of Anaheim, home of Disneyland.
Water specialists also see a need to capture more rainfall runoff that otherwise flows out to sea and to change the operation of dams originally built for flood control to maximize their storage capacity.
The situation in Las Vegas has grown so dire that water authorities plan to build a $3 billion pipeline to tap aquifers lying beneath a remote part of Nevada, a project critics call the greatest urban water grab in decades.
Southern Nevada water czar Mulroy says a broader national conversation about water is needed -- but not happening.
"We are talking about investing in public infrastructure, we are looking at building projects, but I get frustrated because we are doing it in complete denial of the climate change conditions that we are facing," she said.
"We are not looking at where the oceans are rising, where the floods are going to occur, where things are going to go from that normal state to something extraordinary."
(Additional reporting by Deena Beasley in Los Angeles, editing by Alan Elsner)
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=479.0

A year ago is what the UN thinks of Human Rights in reguards to water
UN rejects water as basic human right
The Harper government can declare victory after a United Nations meeting rejected calls for water to be recognized as a basic human right.
March 25, 2008
OTTAWA — The Harper government can declare victory after a United Nations meeting rejected calls for water to be recognized as a basic human right.
Instead, a special resolution proposed by Germany and Spain at the UN human rights council was stripped of references that recognized access to water as a human right. The countries also chose to scrap the idea of creating an international watchdog to investigate the issue, choosing instead to appoint a new consultant that would make recommendations over the next three years.
Federal officials in Canada said last week that the government wanted to ensure the meeting’s outcome reflected the fact that access to water is not formally recognized as a human right in international law. But a social advocacy group said that the position was designed to protect the right to sell water under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Clearly (the Harper government is) happy with the status quo: They’re not going to be an agent for change, and they’re not going to support the right to water,” said Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians. “About every eight seconds, a child somewhere in the world is dying from dirty water, and it’s just shocking that our government has taken this position.”
The opposition Liberals supported the government’s position last week, arguing that the original UN resolution could open the door to bulk water exports to the U.S. because of NAFTA. Liberal water critic Francis Scarpaleggia said he planned to introduce a private member’s bill to restrict large transfers of water within Canada to ensure that bulk exports abroad would also be forbidden.
The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, said last week that the position doesn’t reflect Canada’s traditional role on the international stage.
“Canada is taking a position that is not the more classic perceived, Canada as the kind of the bridge builder, peacemaker, consensus maker,” Arbour told the CBC.
Meantime, Barlow denied that the resolution would require Canada to make bulk water exports to the U.S.
“The requirement in the United States would be for them to conserve first,” said Barlow. “There’s no requirement as a human right for us to provide water for swimming pools and golf courses and fountains in Las Vegas.”
A spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Department said in an e-mail that there was "no consensus among states regarding the existence, scope or content of such a right."
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=b65b35fd-477f-4956-98f4-c17a46fe3e26

Eeyores News and View

Prepping 101Posted by: Kurt
I’m talking to the intelligent ones amongst you: you know who you are. You’
re the ones who, when you do your weekly shopping, you pick up a few extra
cans (or cases) of stuff that you and your family regularly eat. Chili,
beans, tuna, Mac & Cheese, Cheese Whiz, etc.
Then there are those of you who have the famous “but Safeway is only down
the street so I can rush down there before there’s a disaster” mentality.
Good luck and God help you, ‘cause no one else will.
There are four levels of “survival food” preparation and use:

Level 1: Shop using your local food ads for the food you normally eat.
It’s simply a point of logic (and economics) to “stock up” on foodstuffs
that you eat anyway. Here in North Idaho, every Wednesday and Sunday the
food ads come out. Just by watching these ads, I buy bread at $ .10 to $ .25
a loaf, milk at $1.65 a gallon, beef from $ .99 per pound, canned chili
around $ .15 a can, various canned fruit from $ .25 to $ .50 a can, and on
and on. Being the cheap guy I am, I simply buy a case of whatever’s on sale
when ever I see a good deal.
My wife has this weird idea that 100 jars of peanut butter is “too much”. Go
figure.
So that’s the easy part of “survival food”. Just follow your local food ads
and do a bit of stocking up. You can easily allocate 5% of your income to
these “extra” purchases. Use common sense when stocking up and don’t waste
your money on things like soft drinks and potato ships. Canned and solidly
packaged items that can be shelf-stable for at least a few years should be
your target.

WARNING! NEVER BUY DENTED CANS!
The interior of cans is coated with a food-grade shellac, which prevents
biological activity and growth. If that coating is damaged (as in a dented
can) the food in the can will immediately start to react with the tin and
start the formation of bacteria. Depending on the type of canned food, this
could lead to YOUR DEATH!
Example: as we all know, the staple diet of a teenaged boy is Mac & Cheese.
Super One Food has them on sale (periodically) at 5 for a dollar. Where else
can you feed someone for under a quarter? We bought two cases (48 boxes) and
to protect them from nibbly critters, we took each box and put it into a
zip-lock baggie, then put all the baggied-boxes into large plastic storage
tubs with lids.
Tuna? Three cans for $1.00 here on sale. Perfect source of protein so get at
least 24 cans per person in your household, and use that as a “rule of
thumb” for your survival storage purchases.

Level 2: Buy food stuffs that can be used to “stretch” you normal stored
foods.
Ok. So now you’ve got hundreds of cans of chili, beans, rice, Mac & Cheese,
tuna, etc, and you figure that you might have a one year supply of food for
the family (if all you eat is this canned and packaged stock). So now we
plan on how to stretch this supply.
Dehydrated foods are those foods that have had about 99% of moisture removed
from them. Standard packing procedure is to then place an amount of food
(green beans, peas, corn, soup mix, etc) in a #10 can (about a 1 gallon
size), add an oxygen absorber pack, flush with nitrogen (to remove any last
traces of oxygen) then vacuum seal in the can. Now you have a can of
something-or-other that will have a shelf life (depending on your storage
temperature) of up to 20 years. Dehydrated food generally weigh 50% to 75%
less then the original version of that food.
An example would be dehydrated BEEF TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein -
another name for tasteless soy bean meal. Various flavorings are added to
make it more palatable like beef, chicken, ham, taco and bacon flavor). You
would rehydrate 1 cup of beef tvp and fry that up like normal hamburger.
Cook up 1 cup of rice (which makes 2 cups of cooked rice.) Toss together
with any of the seasonings you’ve stocked up on (which is as important as
food - seasonings can make the most vile food taste like sirloin steak!),
and you have enough for 4 to 5 meals. By adding dehydrated food to your
stocked “normal” food stuff, you now have two to four times the amount of
food available.

The pros about using and storing dehydrated foods are:
1) Longer storage capability than “normal” canned food stuffs (10 to 20
years as opposed to 1 or 2 years).
2) Dehydrated foods weigh 50% to 75% less then their original weight.
3) As dehydrated foods are used as “ingredients” (not complete meals) you
can be more creative in preparation. Example: (and obviously after it’s been
properly rehydrated) Beef TVP can be made into a paddy like regular
hamburger, fried with seasonings and used in a burrito, cooked in spaghetti
sauce - use it anywhere you’d normally use hamburger. The same with the
other flavor TVP’s. In fact, we use the Bacon TVP on salads, potatoes and
eggs. You probably do to, except you might know it as “Bacon Bits”!

The cons about using dehydrated foods:

1) You must have a source of clean water to rehydrate the food.
2) All you’re gaining is longer term storage capability - it still takes
time to cook.
3) Depending on where you buy, they could be more expensive then their fresh
counterparts.
4) As the concept here is “storage”, you’ll need lots of space to stack
these cans

Canned dehydrated food is in use daily by most restaurants for soups, sauces
and seasoning. Dehydrated foods are hundreds of times more “shelf stable”
then their fresh counterparts, and still have up to 95% of the same
nutrition still intact.
NOTE: Though dehydrated food will last years in it’s original, sealed can,
once it’s opened, you’ll need to use it up within a few months (if it’s left
in it’s covered can on a shelf) or you could refrigerate the can and it’ll
be safe for many months.

Level 3: Buy long term storage, easily prepared, food stocks (complete meal
style)
For long term storage (I mean 20 to 50 years), the only company to use will
be Mountain House. The company is owned and operated by the original
creators of the long term, freeze dried food concept. Other companies (such
as AlpineAire) offer fine tasting, light weight freeze dried meals, but only
Mountain House products have any long term storage capability (depending on
your storage temprature, up to 50 years).
Freeze dried foods have 100% of their moisture removed. Then they’re packed
either in a can (usually the standard #10 size) or in light weight, easily
carried foil pack (after having the oxygen flushed out with nitrogen and
adding an oxygen absorber).
Mountain House #10 canned foods have a 30 to 50 year shelf life. Their foil
packs have about a 10 year shelf life. All other freeze dried companies have
around 1 to 2 year shelf life on their foil packs and cans.
Most freeze dried foods are what’s called “complete entree” style. Examples
are Chicken & Rice, Beef Stew, Mexican Style Chicken, etc. All you do is put
your desired helping in a pot, add the appropriate amount of hot water (that
’s how, stir and cover for about 15 minutes, then eat. Everything is
included in these products: meat, sauce, rice, seasonings, etc. These style
of meals are quick and simple to make.

The pros about using and storing freeze dried foods:
1) Extremely light in weight.
2) Extraordinary long term shelf life (depending on storage temperature)
3) Less than ½ hour to finished meal.

he cons about using freeze dried foods:

1) Cost. They are very expensive, but you have to consider that you’re not
buying a “meal” - you’re buying food security that can last you and your
family for up to 50 years.
2) You must have a source of clean water to rehydrate the food.
4) As the concept here is “storage”, you’ll need lots of space to stack
these cans

Level 4: Grab and run
So now, the “wolf’s at the door” and danger is eminent. You want to grab
something and just get outta Dodge. For quick and easy, you can always rely
on MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat). You can find either the original, higher
calorie content, USGI versions around or the waaay overpriced civilian
versions (check Ebay). MRE’s are compact, quick and tasty. Unfortunately,
they have a storage life of around 5 years (less if stored above 65
degrees), are very expensive ($5.00 to $7.00 per meal pack) and are hard to
find in bulk.

The optimum source of emergency food are what’s called “Survival Food
Tablets”. Back in the 1960's the Federal Government was searching for a food
source that could be used in emergency and/or survival situations. The
objective was to find a product that would provide the best possible
nutrition in the smallest possible volume. Rescue vehicles, survival pods,
downed planes, etc.
The resulting research was extremely involved and intense, and the product
that evolved was used in the Early Space Program. Eventually, a tablet was
perfected and used widely as an emergency food. It came to be known as the
Survival Tab. These tabs are about the size of a marble, are chewable and
taste like malt or chocolate.
The Survival Tabs will keep you alive and moving for months at a time, on
the amount you can carry in your backpack.
Survival Food Tabs come in a plastic, food grade bottle that holds 180
chewable tabs. The bottle will fit perfectly into a GI canteen holder and
can double as a canteen. This is enough food to keep me (6'2", 250 lbs)
alive for over a week.
So now you get a general idea of the where’s and whyfores of food storage.
Just remember to "cycle" any food stores you have. Use the oldest stuff
first and replace with fresh, newer stuff. In an emergency, life-or-death
situation, you don't want to open a can of anything that's gone long past
it's experiation date.
KW
http://www.survivalenterprises.com/news.php


Solvatten Solar Jerrycan Purifies Water Using Nothing But Sunshine
By Elaine Chow, 12:30 AM on Tue Jan 13 2009, 10,322 views
Providing clean water is an integral part to any effort to raise third-world living standards. Solvatten, a Swedish-designed water purifier, does its job using nothing but a couple of hours in the sun.
The Solvatten looks like a standard jerrycan sliced in half and divided into two 5 liter compartments, each of which has a clear face. The two chambers are exposed to sunlight, which naturally heats the water to a pathogen-killing temperature of roughly 130° F. An indicator changes from red to green when the water is safe to drink.
The whole process takes about 3 to 4 hours when its sunny, and 5 to 6 when it's cloudy. While that's not perhaps the fastest way to cure water, the amount of resources it saves compared to boiling over gas stoves makes it ideal for making sure some clean H2O will be on hand later.
http://i.gizmodo.com/5129971/solvatten-solar-jerrycan-purifies-water-using-nothing-but-sunshine

UK jobless rise of 40,000 in a week just 'tip of the iceberg'
The unemployment total has risen by more than 40,000 in little over a week, with experts warning that this is only the "tip of the iceberg".
The unemployment total has risen by more than 40,000 in little over a week, with experts warning that this is only the "tip of the iceberg".
In one of the darkest days for UK employment in recent memory, companies said they planned to cut over 3,400 jobs, including Barclays and Jaguar Land Rover.
A further 6,300 jobs are also under threat with companies struggling to stay afloat in the face of an almost unprecedented slump in business activity over Christmas.
Households were warned to brace themselves for repeated waves of redundancies lasting all the way until 2011 as the UK sinks into the deepest recession since the Second World War.
The number of confirmed job losses in the past 10 days alone has mounted to over 40,000, with a swathe of businesses joining Woolworths in either closing down or slashing back their workforces.
News of the latest cuts came as shares in London fell sharply despite the Government's announcement of a £21.3bn package of guarantees for lending to small and mid-tier companies.
Barclays announced it is to cut a further 2,100 jobs – on top of the 2,130 it announced on Tuesday – with the latest round of redundanciess coming from its retail and commercial banking branch.
The bank is one of the few UK institutions to have avoided so far having to call on the Government for emergency cash injections but has acknowledged that its balance sheet has been compromised by the financial crisis.
Elsewhere, Jaguar Land Rover, the troubled car maker, is cutting 450 jobs as it and other manufacturers see their sales slide.
The company, which has been appealing for government support following steep falls in new car sales, said it had axed staff to "help address the immediate challenges posed by the credit crunch". Chief executive David Smith said it was "critical" that the company "becomes a more efficient and dynamic organisation".
Administrators for music, DVD and games retailer Zavvi closed 18 of its branches, resulting in 353 job losses, while pharmaceuticals group Pfizer said it will cut up to 240 UK jobs and manufacturing group Fenner cut 290 positions.
Freemans Grattan, the home shopping company, owned by the German mail order company Otto Group said it would undertake a restructuring that would lead to significant job losses among its 3,800 staff. A spokesman said the job losses will run into "four figures".
Denby Pottery said its 700-strong workforce could be at risk, while telecoms equipment group Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection, which could affect 2,000 UK staff.
A number of economists now expect unemployment to mount tolevels seen in the early 1990s. Capital Economics predicts that the number of people out of work will rise to 3.5m – some 11pc of the workforce.
John Philpott, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development chief economist, said: "You can't necessarily judge the full picture from the redundancies that we're seeing.
"A lot of jobs will also be lost by simply not re-hiring staff when they leave. The redundancies are just the tip of the iceberg."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/4244581/UK-jobless-rise-of-40000-in-a-week-just-tip-of-the-iceberg.html

PowerBeam’s patented wireless electricity system uses Powmitters™ and Powceivers™ to deliver power without wires. The optical technology turns electricity into optical power. That power is then beamed across open space into a receiver. Similar to a solar cell, the receiver turns the optical power back into electricity. Whatever device is attached to the receiver is powered without any wires.
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Control: is the essence of power. We control where, when and how much power is transmitted and to what it is transmitted too.
Adaptability: one Powceiver™ can be powered from multiple Powmitters™ or one Powmitter™ can power many Powceivers™. Powceivers™ can be integrated into just about any device.
Range: our technology provides the ability to power devices at any distance required. Distance is our biggest advantage.
Power: we can provide anywhere from one watt to hundreds of watts depending on the product requirement. The physics of our technology does not limit us on the amount of power we can transfer.
Security: the theft-protection mechanism ensures that only authenticated Powceivers can access power from a Powmitter™.
http://www.powerbeaminc.com/

Feds confirm salmonella contamination at Ga. plant
January 16, 2009 - 9:36pm
By KATE BRUMBACK and RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) - The latest national food safety investigation took on new urgency Friday as federal officials confirmed salmonella contamination at a Georgia facility that ships peanut products to 85 food companies. On Capitol Hill, the House Energy and Commerce Committee requested records as it opened its own inquiry.
The outbreak has sickened hundreds of people in 43 states and killed at least six. Earlier this week, it prompted Kellogg to pull some of its venerable Keebler crackers from store shelves, as a precaution.
Although the investigation has gone into high gear, Food and Drug Administration officials say much of their information remains sketchy. And new cases are still being reported.
"This is a very active investigation, but we don't yet have the data to provide consumers with specifics about what brands or products they should avoid," said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's food safety center. Although salmonella bacteria has been found at the Georgia plant, for example, more tests are needed to see if it matches the strain that has gotten people sick.
But clearly, what began as an investigation of bulk peanut butter shipped to nursing homes and institutional cafeterias is now much broader.
It includes not just peanut butter, but baked goods and other products that contain peanuts and are sold directly to consumers. Health officials say as many as one-third of the people who got sick did not recall eating peanut butter.
"The focus is on peanut butter and a wide array of products that might have peanut butter in them," said Dr. Robert Tauxe, director of the foodborne illness division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Officials said they are focusing on peanut paste _ which is essentially ground up peanuts _ as well as peanut butter, produced at a Blakely, Ga., facility owned by Peanut Corp. of America. The concern about peanut paste is significant because it can be used in dozens of products, from baked goods to cooking sauces.
"It could be a very broad range of peanut-based products here," said Donna Rosenbaum, head of STOP, Safe Tables Our Priority, a consumer group. "We don't know exactly what comes out of this plant. They really don't have their arms around all that."
Federal officials said they are focusing on 32 of the 85 companies that Peanut Corp. supplies, because of the time period in which they received shipments of peanut butter or paste. The companies are being urged to test their products, or pull them from the shelves as Kellogg did.
The government is also scrutinizing a grower, raising the possibility that contamination could have occurred before peanuts reached the processing plant, which passed its last inspection by the Georgia agriculture department this summer.
Peanut Corp. initially recalled 21 lots of peanut butter made at the plant since July 1 because of possible salmonella contamination. But late Friday the company expanded its voluntary recall to include all peanut butter produced at the Georgia plant since Aug. 8 and all peanut paste produced since Sept. 26. The company, which suspended peanut butter processing at the facility, said none of its peanut butter is sold directly to consumers, but is distributed to institutions, food service industries and private label food companies.
"We deeply regret that this product recall is expanding and our first priority is to protect the health of our customers," Peanut Corp. CEO Stewart Parnell said in a statement. "Based upon today's news, we will not wait for confirmation of the DNA strains and plan to recall all of the affected products produced during the time period."
Parnell added that the plant would be closed immediately for the investigation.
But Kellogg Co., which gets some peanut paste from the Blakely facility, asked stores late Wednesday to stop selling some of its Keebler and Austin peanut butter sandwich crackers. The company said it hasn't received any reports of illnesses.
Peanut Corp. said it is cooperating with federal and state authorities. On Friday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote the company requesting inspection and internal records dating back four years.
"Peanut butter is not supposed to be a risky food," said Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food & Water Watch. "What went wrong? And what does this mean about foods that are considered high-risk, such as raw vegetables?"
Sundlof said salmonella does not thrive in peanut butter, but can remain dormant. Then, when somebody eats the contaminated peanut butter, the bacteria begin to multiply. "That is apparently what happened in this case," he said.
Meanwhile, state health officials on Friday announced that a sixth death has been linked to the outbreak which has sickened more than 450 people in 43 states.
An elderly North Carolina man died in November from the same strain of salmonella that's causing the outbreak, North Carolina health officials said Friday. Tests taken the day before he died indicated the infection had overrun his digestive system and spread to his bloodstream, said Dr. Zack Moore, an epidemiologist with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
Health officials in Minnesota and Virginia have linked two deaths each to the outbreak and Idaho has reported one. Four of those five were elderly people, and all had salmonella when they died, though their exact causes of death haven't been determined. But the CDC said the salmonella may have contributed.
The CDC said the bacteria behind the outbreak _ typhimurium _ is common and not an unusually dangerous strain but that the elderly or those with weakened immune systems are more at risk. The salmonella outbreak is the second in two years involving peanut butter. Salmonella is the nation's leading cause of food poisoning; common symptoms include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps.

On the Net:
FDA: http://tinyurl.com/8srctw
http://wtop.com/?nid=106&sid=1572219