Environmental
Green clouds over Moscow pollen, not aliens
by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP)
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Russia’s weather and emergency officials soothed fears of Moscow residents Thursday with statements that green-tinged clouds over the capital were not an alien invasion, but tree pollen.
“Today Muscovites felt like characters in a disaster film about an alien invasion: people living in the southwest of the city saw that the sky had been coloured green,” said Russia’s weather service on its website.
The clouds crept up on the Russian capital from the south in the morning, and reached the centre by the afternoon, causing office workers to gawk at the suspiciously colored sky.
“Green clouds are coming toward Moscow,” Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid headlined its story. “Could it be that the apocalypse is upon us?”
Green dust also covered streets and cars. Some people in Moscow and the region apparently called emergency numbers in a panic, leading officials to say the air was thick with tree pollen, not disaster fallout.
“Many residents forgot all about natural phenomena and decided that it’s the result of an accident at an industrial facility,” said the city administration of Moscow region town of Podolsk, an industrial town south of Moscow.
“But this dust is pollen from alder and birch trees, which began flowering recently after a slow spring,” it said on its website.
The emergency situation ministry said the sudden onset of spring and rapidly rising temperatures “caused blooming of several species of trees, and resulted in a yellow-green pollen coating over pavement, windows, and cars.”
“The pollen poses danger to people suffering from allergies and asthma, for others it’s only seasonal discomfort,” the ministry said.
Related Links
The Air We Breathe at TerraDaily.com
India monsoon seen normal in boost to farmers
by Staff Writers
New Delhi (AFP) April 27, 2012
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India’s monsoon rains, crucial to the country’s farmers and growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, will be normal for a third straight year, the weather office has forecast.
The annual rains, which sweep across the subcontinent from June to September, are key to prosperity in rural areas where two-thirds of India’s 1.2 billion population live.
“It will be a normal monsoon this year,” Earth Sciences Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told a televised news conference late Thursday in New Delhi, adding rainfall was expected to be 99 percent of the long-term average.
India gets 60 percent of its precipitation from the rains and a bad monsoon can spell financial disaster for its 235 million farmers, many of them smallholders eking out a living.
The country suffered a devastating drought in 2009.
The eagerly awaited forecast marked a rare piece of good news for the Congress-led government, reeling from a spate of corruption scandals, a stumbling economy and stubborn inflation.
The government is hoping that a good monsoon will help keep a lid on food prices, whose surge has hit hardest India’s hundreds of millions of poor, the Congress party’s biggest supporters, and also help economic growth pick up.
While agriculture’s share of India’s nearly $2-trillion economy has shrunk to around 14 percent from 30 percent in the early 1990s, the rains are still vital to its fortunes.
Rural spending accounts for over 50 percent of domestic consumption and a failed monsoon hits demand for everything from fridges to cars.
Related Links
Farming Today – Suppliers and Technology
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Cyber Space
Anonymous vs CISPA: ‘Bill fights imaginary threat’
Published on Apr 28, 2012 by RussiaToday
Outcry from Internet users, over the controversial cyber security act ‘CISPA’, is set to spill onto the streets. The hacker group Anonymous is hitting back in response to the bill by launching what it calls ‘Operation Defense Phase two’. CISPA, having passed the US House of Representatives on Friday, is now a step closer to becoming law. It’s now heading to the Senate, as the White House continues to threaten a veto of the bill. The act could allow Internet companies to legally share sensitive user information with the American government – a move critics say infringes on privacy and civil liberties. Journalist David Seaman explains how this bill puts everyone at risk. Luke Samuel, from Online Magazine “Spiked” thinks the CISPA bill is one of the latest attempts by the US government to limit the first amendment rights of its citizens.
Proposed Bill Would Protect Employees’ Facebook Passwords
A bill that would stop employers from requesting future hires’ social networking passwords has been filed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The bill, called the Social Networking Online Protection Act, or SNOPA, was filed Friday by Rep. Eliot Engel (D – New York) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D – Illinois). The proposed law would not only prohibit employers from asking current and potential employees for the usernames and passwords to their social networking accounts, it would also prohibit colleges, universities, and K-12 schools from asking the same of their students. The bill would also bar employers and schools from demanding access to such accounts or online content, and from punishing employees and students who refuse to volunteer the information.
“Several states, including New York, have begun addressing this issue,” Rep. Engel said in a statement. “But we need a federal statute to protect all Americans across the country.”
A bill to protect employees’ passwords from snooping bosses is currently on the governor’s desk in Maryland, waiting to be signed into law. Nine similar measures have been introduced around the country, but they have yet to clear the committees they were referred to.
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Survival / Sustainability
Full proof method for canning pork, chicken, beef
by M.D. Creekmore
This is a guest post and entry in our non-fiction writing contest by Central Florida Denise
I’ve not met many canners who have canned pork, chicken and beef, however, this is the food I enjoy most to can. Having fresh canned meat to add to numerous dinner choices such as soup, stews, chicken salad, rice dishes, potato dishes, pasta etc. will make it much easier to please your family if you can add some protein to the mix.
The reason I’m writing is because some of what I’ve read on canning sites tend to make the meat sound quite unappealing in it’s texture and appearance and I can say from experience that couldn’t be further from the truth if you follow my method for canning meat. Lets start with the cut of meat. For the pork I use center cut boneless, thick cut approximately 1″ to 1 1/4″ thick. For chicken I buy skinless, boneless white meat breasts at the big warehouse stores buying the “store brand”. For the beef, which is a bit expensive right now, I buy Delmonico, New York strip or Rib-eye. It may be best to buy the beef when it is on sale. I buy all my pork when it is “buy one get one free” packages. The chicken has been a good deal at $1.97 per pound for at least the last 6 to 9 months.
The length of time I cook my meat is quite different from the canning books, but the end result is meat that will be fork tender and have an appealing appearance. First is the pork, trim all excess fat from around the edges and sprinkle liberally with Montreal Steak Seasoning on the front and back and place in large aluminum rectangular cake pan with lid. This should hold approximately 8 to 9 pieces of boneless pork loin, (they will look like small filets). You can cook them very close together. Add chicken broth or chicken stock to pan and cover loins at least 3/4 of the way, add lid.
Food Storage Wheat Recipe: Blender Wheat Pancakes
Uploaded by everydayfoodstorage
Make these delicious whole wheat pancakes in just minutes! For more tip, tricks, and recipes for using food storage everyday in your own recipes, visit http://everydayfoodstorage.net
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Activism
Anonymous: Operation Defense Phase II [CISPA]
CISPA…
Your creators, supporters, and counterparts have become sworn enemies of Anonymous. Expect us.
Emergency Action Authorized.
Follow @TheAnonMessage for the latest updates.
#OpDefense #CISPAction
Hundreds of Bolivians march to stop construction project
Published on Apr 28, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
Hundreds of indigenous people in Bolivia have kicked off a 580km march from the Amazon region to the seat of government in La Paz.
The protest adds to a string of others confronting the president.
Al Jazeera’s Roger Wilkison reports.
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Psy – Ops
Trance-Formation (Full Film)
Published on Apr 14, 2012 by aodscarecrow
Trance-Formation
Full film available for download at
http://thecrowhouse.com
IP: http://67.20.81.143
from May 15th 2012
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves and the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem. – Howard Zinn
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Articles of Interest
WHEN WE GROW, This is what we can do (Full Documentary about Cannabis and it’s many uses)
Uploaded by Finegold2 on Feb 21, 2011
“When We Grow…This Is What We Can Do” is an educational documentary concerning the facts about cannabis. In this feature length documentary we explore everything there is, from industrial hemp to medicinal cannabis use, from the origins of cannabis prohibition to the legality of growing equipment.
A film by Seth Finegold and presented by Luke Bailey.
Featuring Interviews with:
Professor David Nutt (Head of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs)
Mr Peter Reynolds (Head of CLEAR UK, formerly the Legalize Cannabis Alliance)
Ms Sarah Martin (Medicinal cannabis patient)
Find out more at:
http://www.blogtopus.tv
For more information contact:
Finegold2 (via YouTube messages)
If you have any issues with copyright protection please contact blogtopuscontent@gmail.com
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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
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