North Korean authorities are punishing mourners who failed to exhibit sincere sadness and despair after the death of Kim Jong Il on Dec. 17, the Daily NK reported Wednesday.
via abcnews.go.com
Eclectic Perambulations in the Noosphere
On January 11, 2012, EPA released greenhouse gas (GHG) data reported from large facilities and suppliers across the U.S. economy for the year 2010. The 2010 GHG data includes public information from facilities in 9 industry groups, including 29 source categories, which directly emit large quantities of GHGs, as well as suppliers of certain fossil fuels and industrial gases. This information can be used to help businesses track emissions and identify cost– and fuel–saving efficiencies, identify industry leaders, inform policy at the state and local levels, and provide important information to the finance and investment communities.
The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.
As a priority Open Government Initiative for President Obama's administration, Data.gov increases the ability of the public to easily find, download, and use datasets that are generated and held by the Federal Government. Data.gov provides descriptions of the Federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets. The data catalogs will continue to grow as datasets are added. Federal, Executive Branch data are included.
"Why are Americans averse to tax hikes? Besides the obvious reluctance to pay more, there's Senator Tom Coburn's "Waste Book," a compendium of 100 idiotic ways the federal government frittered away our tax dollars in 2011.
Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, says the unnecessary, duplicative and low-priority projects in the book, released today, add up to an astounding $6.5 billion. To be sure, getting rid of these projects would barely put a dent in the $1 trillion-plus budget deficit. But it might give taxpayers a bit more faith that our money wasn't being thrown away."
The full listing of 100 outrageous ways the federal government wasted your tax dollars in 2011 can be found here.
PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
All About SOPA, the Bill That Wants to Cripple Your Internet
SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is another one of those bills that sounds like it's going to do something mildly positive but, in reality, has serious potential to negatively change the internet as we know it. It puts power in the hands of the entertainment industry to censor sites that allegedly "engage in, enable or facilitate" copyright infringement. This language vague enough to encompass sites you use every day, like Twitter and Facebook, making SOPA a serious problem. Here's how it works and what you can do about it.
Call your congressperson
Visit the American Censorship Day web site
Get to know the bill
via lifehacker.com
"One year at Princeton University: $37,000. One year at a New Jersey state prison: $44,000.
Prison and college "are the two most divergent paths one can take in life," Joseph Staten, an info-graphic researcher with Public Administration, says. Whereas one is a positive experience that increases lifetime earning potential, the other is a near dead end, which is why Staten found it striking that the lion's share of government funding goes toward incarceration."
"The Southern Nevada Health District has raided an organic farm picnic destroying the organic produce, which was classified by them as bio-hazard material.
The raid at the highly regarded and reputable Quail Hollow Farm, which sits in the picturesque Moapa Valley of Southern Nevada took place place after a tip off of the event because some of the food was not ‘certified’ in the correct state." via The Economic Voice
"Apparently all the natural food served from farm must be certified by the United States Department of Agriculture so the owners had to dispose of all food including vegetables because of their ‘bio-hazard potential‘.
This meant the owners of the farm had to pour bleach on the produce in order to safely render the dangerous organic healthy potatoes safe and prevent them from being eaten by the farm owners as private citizens or by livestock such as the pigs on the farm. via The Daily Kos
"As hard and demanding as this work is, I KNOW that this is what we are meant to do.
I KNOW that it is imperative that we stand up for our food choices.
I KNOW that local, organic, sustainable food produced by ourselves or by small family, local farms is indispensible to the health and well-being of our families and our communities now and in the future! If this work were not so vitally important, the “evil forces” would not be working so hard to pull it down.
I am reminded of the passage written so forcefully by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence:
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”
The same battle continues. I pray the result of the battle will be the same, that we have been “endowed by our Creator with … life and liberty”.
We love you all, and thank you with all our souls for your continued love and support! We will stay in touch.
With warmest wishes for you and your families,
Monte and Laura Bledsoe
Written from Quail Hollow Farm
October 24, 2011
quailhollowfarmcsa.com
Email Laura at quailhollowfarm@mvdsl.com"
From an email sent by Sharon ...Thanks !
