New Baltic bacteria linked to ocean warming | Sci-Tech | DW.DE | 25.07.2012

New Baltic bacteria linked to ocean warming | Sci-Tech | DW.DE | 25.07.2012

Vibrio bacteria are usually found in warm waters, but new research has found them in the cold Baltic Sea as a result of rising temperatures. Controlling the spread will be hard.

A team of scientists from Britain, Finland, Spain and the United States says it has the first hard evidence to link rising ocean temperatures in Northern Europe with the emergence of various strains of Vibrio bacteria.

Vibrio bacteria is normally found in warm, tropical marine environments but has been detected in the usually cold Baltic Sea.

It belongs to a group of bacteria which - depending on the strain - can cause gastroenteritis or cholera in humans if raw or undercooked shellfish are consumed, or through exposure to contaminated seawater.

Give a Garden | kidsgardening.org

Give a Garden | kidsgardening.org
Welcome to Give a Garden Initiative brought to you by the National Gardening Association. Together we can change the world, one garden at a time. This is your opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young people as well as in communities everywhere.

Hoop House Training Garden

Hoop House Training Garden

OVERVIEW OF OUTDOOR IDEA

We want to build a hoop house (green house) to support community gardening for children and adults in Hamilton, Ohio. Neighborhood people will help build and learn how to build their own and how to garden for good health, nutrition, and bringing the community together.

THE SPECIFICS: WHAT WILL THE $5,000 FUND?

The $5,000 will pay for materials to build a 40×80 foot hoop house, provide materials to build raised garden boxes inside it, organic planting materials, seeds, a water system, and will pay for water for at least first planting season. Reasonable ($20.00) season fees for using garden boxes and sales of surplus crops will pay for ongoing up keep.

Hoop House Training Garden

Hoop House Training Garden

We want to build a hoop house (green house) to support community gardening for children and adults in Hamilton, Ohio. Neighborhood people will help build and learn how to build their own and how to garden for good health, nutrition, and bringing the community together.

THE SPECIFICS: WHAT WILL THE $5,000 FUND?

The $5,000 will pay for materials to build a 40×80 foot hoop house, provide materials to build raised garden boxes inside it, organic planting materials, seeds, a water system, and will pay for water for at least first planting season. Reasonable ($20.00) season fees for using garden boxes and sales of surplus crops will pay for ongoing up keep.

Visit my project page at http://outdoors.maker.good.is/projects/HUGS and click “Vote for this Idea” to vote for me! Please use either Firefox or Chrome browsers.

If you need to register, please remember to validate your email address (you’ll receive instructions after you vote) so your vote gets counted. You’ll see a notification at the top of the screen once your vote has been successfully counted.

Remember, everyone can only vote once, so be sure to also let your friends know and spread the word!

Voter Protection Unit (VPU) - American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Voter Protection Unit (VPU) - American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

 ADC Voter Protection Unit (ADC-VPU)

The ADC-VPU was established in October 2008. This special unit is dedicated to protect the Arab and Muslim American communities from attempts at chilling the communitiess‘ right to vote and responding to fear tactics designed to promote hate, division, and hostility against the Arab and Muslim American communities.

How can you volunteer?

ADC-VPU calls for volunteers to make a difference and help protect the rights of all voters. The ADC-VPU needs the assistance of those willing and available to become Election Monitors. Please email your information; including your name, email address, phone number, and voting district to vpu@adc.org. Upon receiving your information a member of the VPU will be in touch with you to explain the process.

Election Monitor District Representative:

• Will serve as the go-to person to election monitors across a voting district.
• Responsible for contacting the City or County Clerk should an issue arise.
• Set schedules across a district and be responsible for strategically placing monitors.
• Responsible for reporting to the ADC-VPU on the day‘s activities.
• Someone familiar with election monitoring, organized, familiar with the voting district.

Election Monitor:

• Primary responsibility will be to ensure the fairness of the election process.
• Will be placed at a polling station by the District Representative.
• Will be given specific instructions on what to look for on Election Day.
• Will be provided instructions on how to report any acts of voter intimidation
• Willing to commit to a 3-4 hour block and have be able to carry out the duties.

IPS – Impure Flows the Ganga | Inter Press Service

IPS – Impure Flows the Ganga | Inter Press Service

“The dams cause an excess of silt deposits upstream, leading to algal growth that changes the character of the water,” he says.

People who live around the confluence of the river with the sea, at Ganga Sagar in West Bengal where the holy river empties into the Bay of Bengal, are extremely concerned about the situation.

“The Ganga Sagar islands, which are already threatened by climate change, are now more vulnerable than ever because there is no longer enough silt in the waters to buttress the landmass,” Singh tells IPS.

He says construction of the Tehri Dam for a hydel project in the Bhagirathi river, one of the Ganga’s two headstreams, has almost killed the river.

“Even the river Alaknanda (the Ganga’s source stream) could (suffer) as a result,” says Singh.

Hoop House Training Garden

Hoop House Training Garden Vote with us to make this happen

Overview of Outdoor Idea

We want to build a hoop house (green house) to support community gardening for children and adults in Hamilton, Ohio. Neighborhood people will help build and learn how to build their own and how to garden for good health, nutrition, and bringing the community together.

The Specifics: What will the $5,000 fund?

The $5,000 will pay for materials to build a 40×80 foot hoop house, provide materials to build raised garden boxes inside it, organic planting materials, seeds, a water system, and will pay for water for at least first planting season. Reasonable ($20.00) season fees for using garden boxes and sales of surplus crops will pay for ongoing up keep.

Eat Drink Better | Humane Egg Production Ruffles Feathers in the House of Representatives | Page: 1 | Eat Drink Better

Eat Drink Better | Humane Egg Production Ruffles Feathers in the House of Representatives | Page: 1 | Eat Drink Better States rights only on stuff that I like - Rep. King?

Representative Steve King of Iowa introduced an amendment to the House version of the Farm Bill which would nullify California’s humane egg production law and the more recent foie gras bill.

Amendment 45 uses the Commerce Clause to deny states the right to regulate agriculture production and sales within their own borders.

The Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution) reserves the power “to regulate Commerce … among the several States …” to Congress. Rep. King argues that this means any agricultural product produced in any state can be sold in any state, even if it does not meet minimum standards set by the citizens of a state.

When California enacted a humane egg production law a few years ago, egg producers in the state argued that it would put them at a disadvantage to egg producers who did not have to meet minimum standards in the care of their hens. The California legislature included in the law a stipulation that eggs produced in other states must also meet minimum standards for the care of the hens before they could be sold in California.  The standards had been pushed forward by the United Egg Producers, an industry group which supplies about 95% of the eggs in the United States, and the Humane Society of the United States.

Rep. King’s press release about the amendment says the amendment “…prohibits states from enacting laws that place onerous conditions on the means of production for agricultural goods that are sold within its own borders but are produced in other states.” Allowing hens the room to stretch their wings is considered “onerous” in some circles, but thankfully not all.

Rep. King’s district is in Iowa. The egg farm that had to recall a half billion eggs in 2010 after several hundred Americans fell ill from salmonella is also in Iowa. The humane egg production standards are intended to reduce the likelihood that overcrowded conditions in henhouses will result in another disease outbreak.