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The Corn (Ethanol) Conundrum

The Corn (Ethanol) Conundrum

While corn-based biofuel, particularly corn-based ethanol, has been touted to be the most viable alternative to petroleum and other fossil fuels, the production of such grain-based alternative has sparked many a debate as to its supposed environmental sustainability. Food crop displacement is just one of the trade-offs in the burgeoning ethanol industry. Nowhere [...]
Man can learn from the chimp on how to become a better human

Man can learn from the chimp on how to become a better human

Frans de Waal’s The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society is a lesson for humans, culled from studies on primate behavior. The fascinating lessons push the boundaries between man and animal. The book is also a plea for the use in human society of the concept of ‘living together.’ Frans de Waal, a multi-awarded primatologist and [...]
Facebook patents ‘feed’

Facebook patents ‘feed’

Facebook, the world leader in social networking sites, won a major patent for the news distribution services in social networks known as ‘feed.’ The award is described as “Dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network.” With this new patent that was first requested in 2006, Facebook can now run after other social networks [...]
Global Ministerial Environment Forum: alleviating the frustrations in Copenhagen

Global Ministerial Environment Forum: alleviating the frustrations in Copenhagen

Over 130 countries have agreed to the Nusa Dua Declaration on the environment, a proclamation that covers the major issues of green economies, biodiversity, and international environmental management. The monumental mandate of the declaration is to underscore the importance of preserving biodiversity and the need to adopt a low-carbon green economy [...]
Dubai assassination of Hamas co-founder: a field day for media commentators

Dubai assassination of Hamas co-founder: a field day for media commentators

Much mystery remains to shroud the assassination of Hamas man Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. al-Mabhouh was a senior Hamas military commander and one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian socio-political organization Hamas. Much controversy surrounds the death. After all, here is an Arab fundamentalist [...]
Developing Countries: ‘New Frontier’ for Tobacco Marketing

Developing Countries: ‘New Frontier’ for Tobacco Marketing

According to data, only 5% of the world’s population or some 154 million people benefit from anti-smoking laws. Additionally, statistics show that passive smoking is responsible for about 600,000 deaths a year. The anti-tobacco lobby is a lost battle especially in developing countries and emerging economies where smoke-free laws are not strictly implemented, [...]
Japan to build Iran’s five nuclear plants

Japan to build Iran’s five nuclear plants

Iran is willing to grant Japan the contract for the construction of five new nuclear plants, according to Iranian Parliamentary Foreign Policy and National Security Committee Chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi. He adds that ‘Japan’s participation would be in the interest of both the Government of Japan and private companies.’ Japan is being allowed [...]
Developing countries: drowning in hazardous e-waste

Developing countries: drowning in hazardous e-waste

A report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), entitled Recycling – From E-waste to Resources, discloses the amount of e-waste being generated in 11 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The data on current estimates are also used to project future e-waste e-waste is just a euphemism for waste materials coming from products of [...]
Coordination of aid to Haiti: deficient or disastrous?

Coordination of aid to Haiti: deficient or disastrous?

On February 18, the United Nations had the largest fund-raising in its history, garnering $1.44 billion for emergency aid to Haiti in 2010. However, there has been a lot of criticism regarding the failure of coordination of such a humanitarian aid among the UN agencies and NGO recipients of these funds. Huge humanitarian needs remain unmet in spite [...]
Global warming alarm (amid snow and more snow): to see it is to (not) believe it?

Global warming alarm (amid snow and more snow): to see it is to (not) believe it?

Stacy Webber in David Horowitz’s NEWSREAL sums up the sentiments of climate change skeptics, and calls Global Warming aka Climate Change a junk science and that ‘if it were a monster, it would be Dracula.’ The victim, of course, is western society that is ready and primed to gobble up the alarmist propaganda. Thanks to the power of nightmares [...]