BANGALORE — Is water the next oil? Motives behind the question vary, depending on who asks the question. Those who see water as a future core commodity – therefore as profitable a prospect as oil – pose the question to create the right market conditions for water trade. Those who see the potential for conflict arising from scarcity compare diminishing freshwater to oil’s depleting reserves. Those who see an environmental threat from mismanagement of water see parallels with the abuse and waste of oil. So there are lessons to be learned from how we have managed oil on this planet over the past century and more. The oil crisis confronting the world today is much like the looming crisis in water, with depleting supplies, unequal distribution and access, and the inevitable specter of rising costs and increasing conflict around the sharing of this vital natural resource. As with oil, water exploitation raises an inter-generational debt that will be hard to repay. The uncontrolled and rapacious exploitation of oil has led to unintended consequences, and if we continue on a similar trajectory with water, the oil crisis will seem like the trailer of some horrible disaster movie. […]
SEATTLE — Charges against a man accused of being one of the Internet’s most notorious spammers could spell relief from millions of unwanted message clogging e-mail in-boxes, computer security officials said on Thursday. ‘This is a great day for the Internet,’ said Patrick Peterson, vice president of technology for IronPort Systems, which provides e-mail and Web security products. ‘Everyone involved in clapping those handcuffs on (him) are heroes.’ Robert Alan Soloway, 27, is currently being held without bail after his initial appearance in U.S. District Court here on Wednesday. Soloway was indicted by a federal grand jury on 35 counts that include mail fraud, wire fraud, fraud in connection with electronic mail, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. Consumers may not immediately notice much change in the amount of e-mail-borne spam, because there are other, even bigger spammers out there, Peterson said. But the long-term effect from Soloway’s arrest could be great, he said. ‘The message it sends is going to have a much bigger impact than what we see in our in-boxes, which is undetectable,’ Peterson said, adding that he have recently seen more aggressive efforts by federal authorities to combat the scourge. […]
WASHINGTON and LONDON — George W. Bush on Thursday unveiled a striking about-face on global warming, calling on the world’s leading economies to join the US in agreeing a global target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions before the end of his term in office. The US president was speaking just ahead of a G8 summit at which climate change was expected to be high on the agenda of European governments. He explained that his apparent conversion – which follows almost seven years of having rejected precisely the road he outlined – was prompted by new scientific findings. But Mr Bush made no pledge on the size of emissions cuts that the US would be prepared to sign up to and gave no indication of a timeframe. The White House also ruled out carbon trading as the way to cutting emissions. Environmental campaigners accused the president of cynically seeking to circumvent the Kyoto process, which the United Nations is seeking to renew at talks in December. Others accused him of a ploy to derail tougher European proposals. Mr Bush said: ‘Science has deepened our understanding of climate change and opened new possibilities for confronting it. ‘By […]
SHIJIAZHUANG, China — If you pop a vitamin C tablet in your mouth, it’s a good bet it came from China. Indeed, many of the world’s vitamins are now made in China. In less than a decade, China has captured 90 percent of the U.S. market for vitamin C, driving almost everyone else out of business. Chinese pharmaceutical companies also have taken over much of the world market in the production of antibiotics, analgesics, enzymes and primary amino acids. According to an industry group, China makes 70 percent of the world’s penicillin, 50 percent of its aspirin and 35 percent of its acetaminophen (often sold under the brand name Tylenol), as well as the bulk of vitamins A, B12, C and E. In the wake of a pet food scandal, in which adulterated wheat gluten from China led to the deaths of thousands of pets in North America, and other instances of food and toothpaste tampering, China’s vitamin producers are reaching out to reassure U.S. consumers that their vitamins are safe. Whether that’s true isn’t clear, however. Foreign food-safety experts say China’s larger companies have reputations to protect. The question is how they maintain quality control. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
