The global fate of fisheries, their decline and overexploitation, may yet show a more promising environmental future. Where trade agreements failed to halt the overfishing of oceans, the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place next month in Copenhagen may yet be the solution.

The trick lies in the pledge by the leaders of the G20 group of countries to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies in the “medium term.” Fuel subsidies are undeniably part of the Copenhagen political agenda. The environmental problems resulting from the subsidizing of overfishing will most likely be solved with the climate deal stipulation that the world’s fishing fleets convert to biofuels.

It is a well-documented fact that ‘fisheries account for 1.2% of global oil consumption and emit more than 130m tons of carbon dioxide a year. That makes the industry similar in scale to the Netherlands, the 18th-most prolific oil-consuming country.’ Many critics have noted that ‘in subsidising unsustainable practices, governments are promoting a licensed form of theft by one generation from the next.’ In the last ten years, ‘fishing subsidies have cost $250 billion.’

According to Victor do Prado, deputy chief of staff at the WTO, “Fisheries is part of the overall Doha mandate. As long as this issue is treated within the WTO it is difficult to decouple it from the rest of the round dossiers. What would countries like Japan and Korea be gaining by decoupling? In other words, a global deal on fisheries subsidies is unlikely because countries such as China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Spain—all of which have large fishing fleets—do not want to cut subsidies.”

Fact is overfishing is subsidized by billions of taxpayer dollars, euros and yen. If the WTO cannot solve the conundrum, climate-change negotiations might just be able to.

Via The Economist

With the growth of modern technology, a lot of things have changed over the years. Life has become faster by the minute and there is hardly any time for anything. Internet is one of the best products of modern technology. With the advent of internet, life in the modern world has changed drastically in general. Many internet users prefer e-mails to hand written letters as the former is better and faster to communicate.

With the proliferation of umpteen social networking sites, which further ameliorate the links for communications amongst friends and family, there is hardly any need for one to actually depend on hand written letters to communicate. Of late, books have been slowly replaced by eBook readers as today’s folks have become super techno savvy. To help the folks who depend on eBook readers, iRiver has recently announced its latest eBook reader called “Story” in Korea at the price of 349,000 KRW ($302).

The device differs from the rest of the eBooks in terms of features. It comes with an 8 inch 600 X 800 E-ink display. Besides, it also has 2GB storage, a microSD/SDHC card slot, a USB 2.0 port, a comic book viewer and supports for PDF, EPUB, TXT, DOC, PPT, XLS and HWP eBook formats. All these are available without requiring their conversion. What a cool and convenient eBook reader!

Via: TechFresh

Since the day the world first lay its eyes on the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube in Beijing, people have been obsessed with creating the perfect stadium, to hold international sporting events. The trend is understandable though with television making these grand engineering and designing marvels appear as symbols of national pride, creativity and capability. The main stadium for the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon is a multi-purpose delight that promises to provide us with some spectacular aerial shots as the opening and closing ceremony take place inside its expansive interior. Designed to ensure that 70,000 are comfortably seated and an additional 30,000 can easily take a stroll around it to enjoy the view, the flowing form of the stadium is in tandem with traditional Korean culture.

The design of the stadium is based on an uneven configuration with corporate and management facilities on its permanent western side, while the Eastern side sports a temporary seating arrangement that will give way to beautiful landscape once the games come to an end. The dynamic design, the integrated green parks around the main stadium, ample space that does away with congestion and the linking system to surrounding parks makes this design both practical and attractive. Of course, there still some time, lots of time, for the games to begin…

Populous

The floating space schematic design is done to be anchored to the coastline, almost like a living organism would do, rising and falling with the tides.

That oceans and humans are interdependent is the core theme of this, while the architectural form draws on the curves and fluidity of living beings in the ocean. So much a far cry from the angled rigidity we see in architecture around us!
Once the pavilion is done with the expo, it could be continued to host a range of events, in other coastal cities too. The design has been conceived by Antoine Damery.

Via: Inhabitat, PTA, Adesigner

The next chapter in ebook devices is iriver’s Story. To be launched on 16 September in Korea, iriver’s Story is made to take the market leading Amazon’s Kindle head on. The Story borrows aesthetics from Apple’s minimalistic looks giving the buyers stylish and slick design.

It features a 6-inch display screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, a memory card slot for SDHC cards up to 32GB, and it is PDF, E-Pub, txt, and Microsoft-Office file compatible without requiring a file-conversion system. The battery lasts 9,000 page-flips and it can read e-comic formats. However, there is no word on an eventual WIFI/3G connection which probably leaves the Story a step behind.

iriver has a collaboration with Korea’s biggest book retailer, Kyobo, and there are ongoing negotiations with content providers in the US, Europe, Russia and Australia for when the product goes overseas. Story is priced at $300.

It is a debate as to whether ebook readers will ever reach the same level as users of mp3 players and smartphones, given the dying habit of reading and studies showing that the thrill of reading also lies in turning pages physically, touching the book and smelling the paper. However, the idea cannot be dismissed given the penetrative nature of new technology with the new age.

Via FastCompany / MobileRead

The Second World War made Americans tired of war, hardship of poverty, and politics. Eisenhower overturned that. He opposed the US military involvement in Korea. He also attacked the Truman administration for its careless handling of the problems of communism and corruption. K1C2 was the title of Eisenhower’s formula. In this plan of action, he vowed to care of Korea first, communism and corruption second. The American public liked the plan. Many of them truly believed that the Korean War would soon be over.

Eisenhower’s ‘Dynamic Conservatism,’ also known as ‘Modern Republicanism,’ was translated into these three concrete steps: budget cuts, big business’ government support, and state and local governments regaining federal functions.

During Eisenhower’s time as president of the US, Americans experienced wider Social Security coverage. He introduced a higher minimum wage. He also expanded unemployment insurance coverage.

On the other hand, he encountered three obstacles in reducing federal spending. There was a rising demand for military and foreign aid. The reduced spending actually incurred negative effects on the economy. Thirdly, political costs were becoming more demanding. By the end of the Eisenhower administration, the US had incurred the highest peacetime deficit up to his time. It rose from $266 billion in 1953 to $286 billion in 1959.

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Via American History 102

The condition of facial flushing caused by alcohol is more common in the Asian population. The redness in ‘blushing’ after drinking alcohol is due to an inherited enzyme deficiency. 540 million people have this condition, and it is linked to the risk of esophageal cancer. It is estimated that one third of East Asians, especially in Japan, China, and Korea, reacts to alcohol with the reddening of the face, nausea, and increased heart rate. The so-called ‘Asian flush’ is a response of the body because it lacks an enzyme needed in the metabolism of alcohol, as well as the destruction of toxic ingredients.

This enzyme is one of those involved in the conversion of acetaldehyde, a by-product of ethanol that can damage the DNA, into another substance that is less harmful to cells. Vasodilatation which reddens the face and other symptoms are but a reflection of the action that acetaldehyde is having on different parts of the body.

There are approximately 540 million individuals around the world who lack this enzyme, a deficit that has also been observed in some South American tribes.

Cancer of the esophagus is one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide. And while much of the Asian community knows the relationship between the flushing caused by alcohol and a deficiency of ALDH2 (aldehyde dehydrogenase 2), there has not been much effort to explore the risk of esophageal cancer in connection to this form of alcohol intolerance.

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Via Science Daily