Category: Uncategorized

Written by Mark S. Langevin Friday, 31 July 2009 05:23

In a recent letter to President Obama, the Republican Senator from Iowa, Charles Grassley, threatened to hold U.S.-Brazil relations hostage to his insatiable thirst for corn fed ethanol. Senator Grassley’s Iowa is the largest producer of ethanol in the U.S. For years Senator Grassley has played a key role in protecting U.S. ethanol producers from Brazilian ethanol imports, as both Chair and now as the minority’s ranking member of the Senate Finance committee that oversees all U.S. international trade policy.

Under the long standing policy of protecting the Senator’s family of corn fed ethanol producers, Brazilian ethanol imported into the United States is subject to two customs duties: an ad valorem tariff rate of 2.5 percent and a secondary tariff of 54 cents per gallon.
These illiberal tariffs punish consumers, investors, and efficient producers while rewarding foreign producers of oil who indirectly benefit from the inefficiencies of corn-fed ethanol. The tariffs act as an indirect subsidy to such transnational enterprises as the Archer Daniels Midland Corporation (ADM), the largest U.S. producer of ethanol.

Brazzil for more

What is our body telling us when we have an eating disorder?

By Aimee Liu

Let’s say you cannot speak. You don’t dare ask for help, but you can’t resolve your problems alone. What do you do?

One strategy might be to act out your distress. You might go hungry, shaping your figure like an empty spoon, as hollow and lifeless as you feel. You might secretly stuff your body with food the way you’ve stuffed down fear and shame, and then violently purge, as if to get rid of those unspeakable emotions. Or you might just keep on eating more and more until the outside world seems to shrink by comparison, each new binge mimicking the onslaught of feelings too huge to contain within the mold of acceptable expectations.

When viewed as wordless cries for relief, the psychological pantomimes of anorexia, bulimia and binge eating make perfect sense. The mystery is why the afflicted so often misread the messages their ailments embody—as do the people around them. Eating disorders are often unrecognized or belittled by parents, teachers and doctors, misunderstood as choices made by girls and women obsessed with their weight. But they are mental illnesses, and they can be as lethal as guns—shaped by genes, loaded by culture and triggered by emotional pain and existential dread. Recovery must be measured not only in pounds, but also, crucially, in the discovery of a sense of self.

Ms. Magazine for more

The news of peace activists in Olympia, Washington exposing Army spying, infiltration and intelligence gathering on their groups may strengthen congressional demands for a full-scale investigation of US intelligence activities like those of the 1970s. We speak with law professor and former Army whistleblower Christopher Pyle, whose 1970 disclosure of the military’s widespread surveillance of civilian groups triggered scores of congressional probes, including the Church Committee hearings, where he served as an investigator. [includes rush transcript]

Democracy Now for more

Navigation gadget from Tokyo’s University of Electro-Communications a big hit at tech show

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) If you pull on my ear, will I follow you anywhere?

Attention-grabber: A man tries out the Pull-Navi, a helmet-mounted guidance system developed by the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo that works by tugging on the user’s ears, at a technology show in New Orleans. AP PHOTO

Yes, say researchers at University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo. And along complex paths. Even when the pulls are directed from a distance.

Their ear-tugging navigator looks like a bug-shaped hat and may be the oddest gizmo among nearly three dozen in the “Emerging Technologies” area of SIGGRAPH ’09, the 36th international conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques.

The conference this Monday through Friday includes an animation festival, game design and animation workshops and contests, a studio, an art show, and other showcases and exhibits.

The 33 Emerging Technologies exhibits include a click-and-drag graphical editor to tell robots how to perform complex tasks such as folding clothes; an umbrella that moves as if you were fending off a downpour of rain, spaghetti or toy snakes; and a virtual reality floor that designers say can feel like walking on snow.

Japan Times for more

By AJOY ASHIRWAD MAHAPRASHASTA

Interview with Jean Dreze, development economist.

JEAN DREZE is an Indian development economist and a former member of the National Developmental Council. He is a member of the support group of the Right to Food campaign, an informal network of organisations and individuals committed to the realisation of the right to food in India.

Dreze, also an Honorary Professor at the Delhi School of Economics, has been deeply involved in monitoring the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) across India. In an interview to Frontline, he talked about some aspects of the implementation of the Act and its social relevance.

The government has increased the allocation for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Budget 2009-10 to Rs.39,100 crore. Obviously, it has identified the NREGS as one which would fetch electoral benefits for the Congress. What are your comments?

The increase is not as large as it has been made out to be (144 per cent, according to the Finance Minister) considering that actual expenditure on the NREGS in 2008-09 was around Rs.27,000 crore. Still, this increase is a positive step, not only as an opportunity to expand the scale of NREGS works but also as an acknowledgement of the achievements of the scheme. If anything, the tribute went a little overboard, with the Finance Minister describing the NREGS as a “magnificent success”. This is bound to sound a trifle heroic to anyone who is familiar with the ground realities. I see the current revival of interest in the NREGA as an opportunity to set a lot of things straight.

A few economists complain about the improper implementation of NREGA. What, in your opinion, is the way to go about it? What are the real problems of implementation?

Our main concern should not be with the complaints of “a few economists”, but with those of millions of workers. Their entitlements under the NREGA are routinely violated, whether it is the entitlement to work on demand or to minimum wages or to payment within 15 days, or to basic worksite facilities.

For instance, in recent months there have been massive delays in wage payments around the country, causing immense hardship to NREGS workers, but this is barely noticed in the corridors of power. Underlying this state of affairs is the breakdown of grievance redress systems. All the grievance redress provisions of the NREGA have been sidelined, including, for instance, the provisions for unemployment allowance, for penalties on errant officials, for compensation in the event of delayed wage payments or for framing of Grievance Redress Rules.

The Central and State governments don’t seem to be interested in making themselves accountable to the people.

Frontline for more

London, August 3 (ANI): Meteorologists have warned that a new El Nino has begun, which may lead to increased drought in Africa, India and Australia, and may make 2010 one of the hottest years on record.

El Nino is a periodic warming of the normally cold waters of the eastern tropical Pacific, the ocean region westwards out from South America along the line of the equator.

The 1997-98 El Nino combined with global warming to push 1998 into being the world”s hottest year, and caused major droughts and catastrophic forest fires in South-east Asia which sent a pall of smoke right across the region.

Now, according to a report in The Independent, a new El Nino has begun, which may cause increased drought in Africa, India and Australia, heavier rainfall in South America and increased extremes in Britain, of warm and cold.

At present, forecasters do not expect this El Nino to equal that of 1998, but it may be the second-strongest, and concerned groups, from international insurance companies to commodity traders, to aid agencies such as Oxfam, have begun to follow its progress anxiously.
Its potential for economic and social impact is considerable.

According to Professor Chris Folland, of the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, “We are likely to see more global warming than we have seen in the past few years, which have been rather cool. In fact, we are already seeing it.”

Since the Pacific is a heat reservoir that drives wind patterns around the world, the change in its temperature alters global weather.
An El Nino is defined by ocean surface temperatures rising by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius above the average.

This El Nino is well beyond that, according to the Climate Prediction Center of the US National Weather Service.

ANI for more

By Kent Ewing

HONG KONG – The official script has played out countless times like a poorly written, predictable television drama: spurred by malicious rumor and gossip, a gullible Chinese populace rises up against their well-meaning local leaders. The besieged leaders are the victims of outside agitators – “schemers” is the preferred word – who have manipulated ignorant villagers into believing that their land has been stolen or their water poisoned and the municipal or provincial authorities are to blame.

Pity the honorable victims; smash the pernicious schemers.

Just about everyone has grown tired of this hackneyed, unconvincing plot, and last week even the state-run Xinhua news agency called for a rewrite.

“In recent years, when large-scale [protests] happen, more often than not local governments have not done their job properly and have dealt inappropriately with problems,” Xinhua stated in an unusually frank commentary. “Blaming people for not having all the facts is no different from saying they are unable to distinguish right from wrong, and that is simply untrue,” it added.

Later in the week, the Southern Metropolitan News reported that Beijing plans to launch a training course to “help grassroots cadre better handle emergencies and avoid lax and worsening management”. Zhu Lijia, a professor from the party’s administrative school, will host the one-week course.

The professor has left “schemers” and “foreign instigators” off the syllabus. The central government’ efforts are an attempt to encourage a more humane, people-oriented management style in the provinces during challenging economic times and two months ahead of the 60th birthday of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

China’s top leaders do not want this milestone event – to be marked with fanfare on October 1 – undermined by further reports of mass protests and brutal crackdowns.

In China, protests are officially referred to as “incidents.” If more than 100 people are involved, a “mass incident” is declared. There were 80,000 such demonstrations in 2007, the last time state media published a figure for a national affliction the central government would like to see reined in.

It’s safe to say that every day, somewhere in China, an aggrieved crowd gathers in anger over a land seizure or industrial accident. It is only the most sensational of these protests that become “news” – and then often only if the country’s growing army of netizens spreads the word, forcing the hand of state media.

Asia Times for more

The ruling class creates beliefs
Through absolute lies
Even though it may later accept
That it manufactured the beliefs

Or the fact may present itself
through investigative reports
Nevertheless, the hard core devotees
hold on to their beliefs:

Saddam was linked to al qaeda

and:

The government health care plan offers NO CHOICE,
that is, only the merchants of death
(the private health insurance companies),
offer choice and can take care of your health …

Capitalism is the only solution
(despite the trillions of dollar bailout)

All Muslims are terrorists

…

A recent poll shows the majority believes
that the dropping of atomic bombs in 1945
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
was the right thing to do.

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com