Policies – Page 703 – Public Intelligence Blog

A two-part exhibition of water technologies and artwork from developing countries where Denver-based IDE works to cultivate prosperity.

Part I (August 6 – 31) of the exhibition features photographs of the people IDE works with every day, along with displays of the innovative water technologies IDE has developed as part of its Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded “Rural Prosperity Initiative” – extremely affordable water pumps, drip irrigation and water storage systems. Special events scheduled throughout the run of the exhibition offer opportunities to meet IDE staff from around the world and learn about their work.

Part II (September 1 – 25) features the addition to the exhibition of paintings from local artists in IDE countries, brought to Denver especially for this show. The artwork will be offered for sale through a silent auction with proceeds benefiting IDE.
Low-cost water technologies, access to better seeds and growing techniques, and better connections to markets are the foundation of the IDE approach to cultivating prosperity in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Continue reading “Event: 6 Aug – 25 Sept 2010, Denver CO, Art of Dirt: Exhibit on Water Tech & Art fr Dev Countries”

2010/08/032010/12/25

Video: “Twinkie Deconstructed” Author Shows Strange Origins & Nexus of Ingredients

07 Health, Advanced Cyber/IO, Commerce, Graphics, True Cost, True Cost, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

: From TwinkieDeconstructed.com

In this fascinating exploration into the curious world of packaged foods, Twinkie, Deconstructed takes us from phosphate mines in Idaho to corn fields in Iowa, from gypsum mines in Oklahoma to oil fields in China, to demystify some of America’s most common processed food ingredients—where they come from, how they are made, how they are used—and why. Beginning at the source (hint: they’re often more closely linked to rocks and petroleum than any of the four food groups), Steve Ettlinger reveals how each Twinkie ingredient goes through the process of being crushed, baked, fermented, refined, and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder with a strange name—all for the sake of creating a simple snack cake.

Continue reading “Video: “Twinkie Deconstructed” Author Shows Strange Origins & Nexus of Ingredients”

2010/08/032011/01/03

Who is Aware, Talking, & Testing Receipts for Bisphenol-A, not just Food & Beverages?

07 Health, Civil Society, Commerce, Government, True Cost

Paper receipts also seen as source of BPA exposure
July 27, 2010 By LYNDSEY LAYTON. The Washington Post
WASHINGTON – As lawmakers and health experts wrestle over whether a controversial chemical, bisphenol-A, should be banned from food and beverage containers, a new analysis by an environmental group suggests Americans are being exposed to BPA through another, surprising route: paper receipts. The Environmental Working Group found BPA on 40 percent of the receipts it collected from supermarkets, automated teller machines, gas stations and chain stores. In some cases, the total amount of BPA on the receipt was 1,000 times the amount found in the epoxy lining of a can of food, another controversial use of the chemical. Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst with the environmental group, says BPA's prevalence on receipts could help explain why the chemical can be detected in the urine of an estimated 93 percent of Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Full article here

Concerned about BPA: Check your receipts
By Janet Raloff, Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Some — but not all — cash-register and credit-card receipts can be rich sources of exposure to BPA, a hormone-mimicking pollutant.

While working at Polaroid Corp. for more than a decade, John C. Warner learned about the chemistry behind some carbonless copy papers (now used for most credit card receipts) and the thermal imaging papers that are spit out by most modern cash registers. Both relied on bisphenol-A.

Continue reading “Who is Aware, Talking, & Testing Receipts for Bisphenol-A, not just Food & Beverages?”

2010/08/032010/08/03

Secrecy News: Afghanistan Deaths, CRS Reports, Weaknesses in Industrial Cyber Sec, Too Many Secrets, Math Discovery

04 Inter-State Conflict, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Computer/online security

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2010, Issue No. 62
August 2, 2010

Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

**      AFGHANISTAN CASUALTIES, AND MORE FROM CRS
**      WEAKNESSES IN INDUSTRIAL CYBER SECURITY DESCRIBED
**      TOO MANY SECRETS, THE GREATEST MATH DISCOVERY, AND MORE

AFGHANISTAN CASUALTIES, AND MORE FROM CRS

Sixty-six American troops died in Afghanistan in July, making it the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the Afghanistan War thus far, the Washington Post and others reported.

Casualties of the Afghanistan War have recently been tabulated by the Congressional Research Service, including statistics on American forces, of whom around 1100 have been killed, as well as allied forces, and Afghan civilians. Although the three week old CRS report does not include the very latest figures, it provides links to official and unofficial sources of casualty information that are regularly updated. See “Afghanistan Casualties: Military Forces and Civilians,” July 12, 2010.

A number of other noteworthy new CRS reports that have not been made readily available to the public were obtained by Secrecy News, including these (all pdf):

Continue reading “Secrecy News: Afghanistan Deaths, CRS Reports, Weaknesses in Industrial Cyber Sec, Too Many Secrets, Math Discovery”

2010/08/012010/08/01

CrisisGroup’s CrisisWatch Monthly Report N°84, 1 Aug 2010

04 Inter-State Conflict, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, CrisisWatch reports

CrisisWatch N°84

Two actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and one improved in July 2010, according to the new issue of the International Crisis Group’s monthly bulletin CrisisWatch released today.

July 2010 TRENDS

Deteriorated Situations
Rwanda, Somalia

Improved Situations
Somaliland

Continue reading “CrisisGroup’s CrisisWatch Monthly Report N°84, 1 Aug 2010”

2010/08/01

Journal: Just How Important is the WikiLeaks AF Dump?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Reform, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Recommends

OP-ED COLUMNIST

Kiss This War Goodbye

By FRANK RICH, New York Times, July 31, 2010

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on August 1, 2010, on page WK8 of the New York edition.

IT was on a Sunday morning, June 13, 1971, that The Times published its first installment of the Pentagon Papers. Few readers may have been more excited than a circle of aspiring undergraduate journalists who’d worked at The Harvard Crimson. Though the identity of The Times’s source wouldn’t eke out for several days, we knew the whistle-blower had to be Daniel Ellsberg, an intense research fellow at M.I.T. and former Robert McNamara acolyte who’d become an antiwar activist around Boston. We recognized the papers’ contents, as reported in The Times, because we’d heard the war stories from the loquacious Ellsberg himself.

. . . . . . .

What was often forgotten last week is that the Pentagon Papers had no game-changing news about that war either and also described events predating the then-current president.

. . . . . . .

The papers’ punch was in the many inside details they added to the war’s chronicle over four previous administrations and, especially, in their shocking and irrefutable evidence that Nixon’s immediate predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, had systematically lied to the country about his intentions and the war’s progress.

FULL ANALYSIS ONLINE

2010/07/302010/07/30

Journal: Zionists & Neocons Ramp for War on Iran

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society

Neocon Nutballs Ramp Up Campaign

Bomb Iran?

By GARETH PORTER

Reuel Marc Gerecht’s screed in the Weekly Standard seeking to justify an Israeli bombing attack on Iran coincides with the opening of the new Israel lobby campaign marked by the introduction of House Resolution 1553 expressing full support for such an Israeli attack.

What is important to understand about this campaign is that the aim of Gerecht and of the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu is to support an attack by Israel so that the United States can be drawn into direct, full-scale war with Iran.

FULL STORY AT COUNTERPUNCH

Phi Beta Iota: Daniel Elsberg had it right lecturing to Henry Kissinger, our second most important war criminal after Dick Cheney: these people have become like morons, totally disconnected from reality or the public interest. For their total game plan, in which they thought they could “roll up” the Middle East, see Review: Endgame–The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror. Gerecht used to be a fairly sensible accomplished Case Officer (C/O). We speculate they've given him dual citizenship as part of an offer he just could not refuse. His piece is world-class idiocy.