The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Here is the latest on plastics, and the potential for harmful substances leeching foods packaged in plastics. This is not a happy story. My counsel is to choose foods, particularly liquid foods, that are not in plastic containers.
The Scary New Evidence on BPA-Free Plastics
MARIAH BLAKE – Mother Jones
America's $1 Trillion National Security Budget
by Winslow T. Wheeler
March 13, 2014
The Pentagon's current leadership and most on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees in Congress describe President Obama's 2015 defense budget request as painfully austere, if not dangerously inadequate. The defense trade press is full of statements from generals, admirals and the other politicians from both political parties that there is not nearly enough money available to buy adequate amounts of new hardware, maintain current pay and benefits or provide even low amounts of training and equipment maintenance. As a result, they are looking for ways to relieve the Pentagon from its penury.
Scarcity of money is not their problem. Pentagon costs, taken together with other known national security expenses for 2015, will exceed $1 Trillion. How can that be? The trade press is full of statements about the Pentagon's $495.6 billion budget and how low that is.
There is much more than $495.6 billion in the budget for the Pentagon, and there are piles of national security spending outside the Pentagon-all of it as elemental for national security as any new aircraft and ships and the morale and well-being of our troops.
The table below details what a careful observer will find in President Obama's 2015 budget presentation materials. The amounts for the Pentagon are well above the advertised $495.6 billion, and there are several non-Pentagon accounts that are clearly relevant.
Water is destiny. Here is a view of water you may not have considered. It gets virtually no coverage in the U.S.
California Drought: Why Farmers Are ‘Exporting Water' to China
ALASTAIR LEITHEAD – BBC News (U.K.)
Phi Beta Iota: “Virtual water” is a vital aspect of true cost economics as pioneered by Herman Daly. Governments that do not do true cost economics are in constant betrayal of the public trust.
Growing number of chemicals linked with brain disorders in children
Toxic chemicals may be triggering the recent increases in neurodevelopmental disabilities among children — such as autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and dyslexia — according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The researchers say a new global prevention strategy to control the use of these substances is urgently needed.
The report was published online February 15, 2014 in Lancet Neurology.
“The greatest concern is the large numbers of children who are affected by toxic damage to brain development in the absence of a formal diagnosis. They suffer reduced attention span, delayed development, and poor school performance. Industrial chemicals are now emerging as likely causes,” said Philippe Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health at HSPH.
The report follows up on a similar review conducted by the authors in 2006 that identified five industrial chemicals as “developmental neurotoxicants,” or chemicals that can cause brain deficits.
P2P Foundation / Demonetization
Book: Life without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies
Mark Boyle, founder of The Freeconomy Community. Mark is currently living without money for almost three years.
Book: The Moneyless Manifesto: Live Well, Live Rich, Live Free
Below: Mark Boyle at TED
Google will explore bringing Fiber to 34 new cities including Portland and Atlanta
Google just announced that it's invited cities in nine metro areas across the US to explore “what it would take” to bring its Google Fiber gigabit internet service to more locations. “People are hungrier than ever for faster Internet, and as a result, cities across America are making speed a priority,” Google says. “We've long believed that the Internet’s next chapter will be built on gigabit speeds, so it’s fantastic to see this momentum.” Google says up to 34 cities in all could potentially receive Fiber service. The nine metro areas where those cities are located include:
Continue reading “Danielle Villegas: Google Seeks to Fiber 34 US Cities”
Secrecy = culture of waste.
Balancing Transparency and National Security
Is keeping military funding secret truly necessary for national security? Not according to Pieter and Siemon Wezeman. Greater transparency not only makes governments more accountable, it also helps reduce the causes of insecurity and conflict.
By Pieter Wezeman and Siemon Wezeman for SIPRI
EXTRACT
The secrecy of military matters is an illusion
Many governments justify secrecy in military budgets on the basis that such information should not be allowed to fall into the hands of potentially hostile forces. However, maintaining secrecy about military spending and key military procurement projects is practically impossible. For example, SIPRI has had 45 years of experience in collecting information about military budgets and international arms transfers. Open sources, official or non-official, provide SIPRI with a wealth of information about the procurement of major arms. If organizations like SIPRI, with minimal resources and working only with open sources, can calculate military spending and map global arms transfers with a high degree of comprehensiveness and accuracy, then national intelligence agencies in potentially hostile countries are obviously able to achieve a lot more.
Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Secrecy As Culture of Waste”
