Month: July 2006

Contrary to public perception, fresh water supply is scarce and finite.

According to UNESCO, only 3% of the world’s water is made up of fresh water and most of this is located in polar ice caps. Experts put the amount of available drinkable water at 1%, of which, some two-thirds of this amount is already polluted.

The only renewable source of freshwater is continental rainfall which generates a constant global supply of 40,000 to 50,000 cubic km per year. With the world population increasing by an estimated 85 million per year, the availability of freshwater per capita is decreasing rapidly.

Water as an Investment Theme
The 4th World Water Summit highlighted two important trends in the water industry.

The first is the increasing role of corporate involvement across the entire water supply chain which encompasses water collection and processing, supply and wastewater management, the laying of pipelines and the building of water treatment plants.

The second is the huge demographic pressures that are being felt as a result of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation of highly populated countries like China and India. The World Health Organisation estimates that 35% of the world’s population will live in areas with water problems by the year 2025.

ABN AMRO Private Banking Asia thinks water is a great investment.

via snipURL

37,000 peasants enlisted by the Chinese govt to help produce rain. Together, they will hunt “pregnant” rain clouds and pound them with rockets containing silver iodide.
[ http://snipurl.com/sqq1 ]

I found this while browsing for laptop wireless antenna at dslreports:

“You make me smile and frustrate me at the same time.

“I could be wrong, but I have you pegged as a young man who knows what he wants and isn’t about to let anyone get in his way. When I was your age, I was much the same.

“If you have a problem (and we all do) it is that you are so confident in your abilities that you fail to realize that every person’s efforts are built largely upon the efforts of people who came before them.

“Your problem, if you have one (and we all do), is that you think you can deviate from the learning process and jump straight into genius. You can’t do that. You have to have mentors, tutors, and teachers.

And a bit more:

“Well, while I have you, let me tell you about eavesdropping because that is what a keylogger is…

“I spent a good part of my life evesdropping, it was my job you see.

“It feels really powerful to know things about people that they don’t know you know, but in the end it can make you very sad.

“There are things which you REALLY don’t want to know. A President once said, “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.” In the context in which he said it, he was being naive. Gentlemen don’t, but nations do.

“Here is the best piece of advice I can give you, something that will help you the rest of your life, but you are going to think it is stupid. So just mark it down and think of it from time to time. My father used to say it to me after he got back from Viet-Nam (the second time).

“While the apple is on the tree it grows and becomes sweeter, when it decides it is ripe, it falls from the tree and begins to rot.” It took me a long time to figure that one out.

\ stumblink \ noun; pronounced: stum-bull-link

A link discovered drunk on the Internet without alcohol.

More Japanese access the internet from their cellphone than from a computer.

emergic

The people formerly known as the audience wish to inform media people of our existence, and of a shift in power that goes with the platform shift you’ve all heard about.

Think of passengers on your ship who got a boat of their own.

pressTHINK

The incredible saga of the FBI’s overbudget $500 million computer system that needed to be scrapped after it turned out it was useless in fighting terrorism.

But wait. There’s more.

In 1958, Joseph-Armand Bombardier designed the modern snowmobile. Bombardier is considered the father of snowmobiling who began commercial production and marketing of the Ski-Doo snowmobile in 1959.

The Ski-Doo Olympique line was launched in 1964. The stylized design took advantage of the increased speed and performance offered by the Austrian made Rotax engine. When the line was discontinued in 1979, over 265,000 units had been sold.

I drove one of these day in and day out across beautiful snowfall in fantasy forests of northern Canada. I often towed a small trailer on skis carrying my chainsaw and survival gear.

The Newfoundland was developed in the province of Newfoundland around 1000AD. They are used to draft heavy fishing nets and possess natural water rescue tendencies (including webbed feet and thick coat for icy water).

It may have been Lord Byron who described them best:

“Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity and all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.”

These gentle giants were almost extinct in the 1920’s but fortunately the breed has bounced back.

Dog Developing; a concept, a business, a pursuit that may be in its infancy in spite of more than 1200 years of tweaking.

But Cat Developing? All our efforts will likely fail!

Juice an orange from the inside.

Vital nutrients and fibers survive.

The cup is the orange’s natural sphere.

The Graeme Davies juicer takes only 20 seconds to blend the inside of an orange and makes about 160 ml / 6oz of the freshest juice.

Simply stick a straw in the top and go.

Goodness stays within a biodegradable [ And Free] package.

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Plus, a new essential item for the first-aid box.

The Tongue Sucker literally sucks the tongue away from the windpipe to prevent suffocation when a patient is struggling or unconscious.

Current designs on the market can only be used by a trained professional, but the Tongue Sucker can be used by anyone.

Sponsored by U.S. border security, this new sensor can SMELL the ink used on paper money.

via the RawFeed

The older we get, the more we regret not having more fun, says new study in the September issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. Researchers from Columbia University show that choosing work over play leads to regrets about having missed out on the pleasures of life. Over time, these regrets intensify, while guilt about indulging tends to fade.

more at Science Blog

Plenty of people would gamble with their debts if they could. 45% said they’d try to go double-or-nothing on their credit card bills, while 18% of people said they’d do the same on their mortgage.

via TechDirt

We’ll need a ‘casino tax’ to build poverty housing!

The man who built the first online interactive pollution map in the U.S., the Santa Cruz Toxic Release Inventory, has sharpened his skills in environmental law, environmental justice and civil rights, building informative sites to explore GIS (Geographical Information Systems).

Create Maps of Your Community

Visit Learn2Map
Free.

If I see another Video Professor ad I’ll burst.

When I had a shareware business in the 1980s, I had several of the Professor’s titles for sale. Vinyl boxes of VHS tapes — before CDs and DVDs. I had over 3,000 titles of freeware and shareware. PC/Computing was charging $11,000 for a page of advertising.

I’m pleased about the Professor’s success. Pure & simple salesmanship.

But he (and CNN’s loud carnival hustlers) are driving me nuts.

Everyone should read this. Yes, Microsoft is naughty.

Brian Livingston makes a very clear case.

Dump Windows Update, use alternatives
Only a few weeks after Microsoft started quietly auto-installing Windows Genuine Advantage to Windows machines, the software giant has back-pedaled.

We explain how you can skip Redmond
and use more reliable patch-management products.

For those in a hurry, here’s his 4-point elevator summary:

1. Turn off Automatic Updates in the Control Panel. Set it to merely notify you of new patches, not auto-install them.

2. WindizUpdate.com, an independent patch-download system, which I’ve been asked about by many readers, is a flawed alternative to Windows Update that I can’t recommend.

3. By contrast, patch-management software that’s well-supported, such as Shavlik’s NetChkPro ($25), provides an inexpensive and reliable solution that far exceeds Windows Update’s capabilities.

4. Once your alternative update mechanism is in place, follow the routine I describe to uninstall WGA and get it out of your system for good.

link Hypercognition

canary
pulmonary
toke
smoke
mortuary

can you finish it?

A new survey suggests that Britons take a dim view of the U.S.

The results are in the Daily Telegraph. The poll indicates that “there has probably never been a time when America was held in such low esteem on this side of the Atlantic”.

Those polled had more favorable attitudes toward Americans as individuals, with 70 percent of respondents saying they liked Americans “a lot” or “a little.” But more than two-thirds said their overall opinion of the United States had worsened in recent years.

Among the responses in the new poll, 77 percent did not see America as a “beacon of hope for the world” and, compared with similar categories in a 1975 Gallup survey, had markedly less confidence in “America’s ability to deal wisely with present world problems.”

“From this side of the Atlantic, America appears to be a class divided and racially divided society and one that fails to offer its citizens anything approaching equality of opportunity…”

“Nearly three-quarters of Britons believe American society is essentially ‘unequal.'”

Among other findings of the survey:

83 percent of respondents said the United States
“doesn’t care what the rest of the world think,”

65 percent thought America “vulgar,”

84 percent said Americans are “preoccupied with money” and

90 percent said the United States was “dominated by big business.”

Chile’s first woman president is breaking many political traditions.

Excellent Wikipedia here plus this quick BBC article to introduce you to Michelle Bachelet, President, Chile

“These make liberty the cause of each”

10 Things Martin Luther King Would have Done about Iraq

“It’s simple. Admire the leaders you like in large enough numbers.”
from The New Philosophy Picnics & Pennies Party