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France is bracing for Eric Cantona’s bank-run revolution Tuesday, with the government criticising his call for the public to stage a mass cash-withdrawal and the left questioning whether it would have much effect.
When the former Manchester United footballer gave a video interview in October calling on citizens to stage a cash-point revolution, protest groups against the financial system decided to coordinate a world-wide withdrawal on December 7, the number of Cantona’s lucky shirt.
Food giant Monsanto is so large that it can disrupt an entire food supply chain–the sweetest one there is. A court battle over genetically modified Monsanto sugar beets may lead to a drop in U.S. sugar production over the next two years, driving up prices for shoppers and food processors alike.
How can a single company shake up sugar production like that? In a nutshell: a judge recently ordered 256 acres of seed-producing Monsanto baby beet plants pulled out of the ground because the company didn’t go through the proper USDA approval process when the beets were approved for use in 2005. And now the sugar industry is in trouble–50 percent of the U.S. sugar supply comes from sugar beets, and more than 90 percent of sugar beets are genetically engineered.
Several environmental groups are cheering today over paper giant Georgia-Pacific’s commitment not to purchase timber from environmentally sensitive areas and to discourage landowners from clearing hardwood forests to plant pine plantations. The commitment comes after a multi-year campaign by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Dogwood Alliance, and Rainforest Action Network.
Georgia-Pacific “worked with the environmental groups and scientists to identify 11 Endangered Forests and Special Areas totaling 600,000 acres in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Eco-Region, as well as 90 million acres of natural hardwood forests in the Southern region. Endangered Forests and Special Areas in other regions will be mapped in a similar process, over the coming years,” explained the Natural Resources Defense Council and Dogwood Alliance in a press release.
With a 3-1 vote in favor of the measure, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a sweeping ban on plastic grocery bags in unincorporated areas of the county.
The ban will affect nearly 1.1 million residents countywide and has been called one of the nation’s most aggressive environmental measures to date.
The official measure reads: “No store shall provide to any customer a plastic carryout bag.” Plastic bags that are used to hold fruit, vegetables or raw meat in order to prevent contamination with other grocery items will be exempt from the ban.
Grocers that continue to offer plastic bags will be required to charge customers 10 cents per bag, according to the ordinance. The revenue will be retained by the stores to purchase the paper bags and educate customers about the law.
In late August, heavy and costly lobbying by plastic bag manufacturers prevented the California state Senate from passing a state-wide plastic bag ban, despite the support of the state Assembly and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Jane Burgermeister is sharing her thoughts from her visit to Seville, Spain: Back to the the grey, cold mists of Austria after an all too short a visit to a place of so much brilliance, warmth and stunning beauty that Dante surely was thinking of it too when he wrote the lines:
„O lucky me that had the opportunity/ To fix my eyes on the eternal light/Until my vision was consumed in it!“
The vibrancy and intensity of the sunlight, the atmosphere of peace and friendliness, the good humour and relaxed attitude of the people – all this was an especially amazing in contrast to Austria where I live.
The palm trees, the azure river Guadalquivir, colourful flowers, the parks, squares, cafes, the grace and magnificence of buildings like the Tower of Gold, the Cathedral, the Tobacco factory, the beauty of stars at night time, the tables covered with bottles of red wine and water all served as a reminder that heaven and earth are much closer to each other than we think, and that the beauty of the earth is just a reflection of the eternal beauty of heaven.
Deer lovers on the Devon and Somerset borders were enraged after finding out the well-known stag had been killed.
The giant stag of Southern Exmoor, which weighed more than 300lb and stood nearly 9ft was killed close to a busy main road in the middle of the annual rut.
Red deer stags are the biggest indigenous land animal left in Britain and Emperor was the largest living example.
It is not thought the deer was killed by poachers but by a licensed deer hunter.
But it has angered deer experts and wildlife enthusiasts who believe that wild red stags should be protected during the mating season.
What if one day Facebook, Twitter and Instant Messenger just weren’t there?
Provost Eric Darr of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania tells NPR’s Guy Raz that he wanted his students to not only think about this question, but live it.
“Often there are behaviors, habits, ways we use technology that we may ourselves not even be able to articulate because we’re not aware of them,” Darr says.
So this week, Darr will enforce a campus-wide social media blackout — no Facebook, no Twitter, no instant messaging — nothing.
Thanks to the tremendous support of so many people from all over the world as well as all the publicty my case received, I am a free person once more – and, boy, does that feel wonderful!
Today I collected a letter from Judge Hannes Winge of Vienna’s Döbling Court informing me that he has stopped the court guardianship procedure initiated by Judge Michaela Lauer of Hietzing court on June 29th, 2010.
Judge Winge examined the reasons given to justify a court guardianship and found they were not at all credible although he appeared to be under great external pressure to impose a guardianship on me.
In one week, the International Whaling Commission will hold its final vote on a proposal to legalize commercial whale hunting for the first time in a generation.
The outcome rests on whose voices are heard most clearly in the final hours: the pro-whaling lobby — or the world’s people?
More than 650,000 of us have signed the petition to protect whales — it’s time to reach 1 million! At the whale summit in Morocco, an Avaaz team is setting up billboards, front-page newspaper ads, and a giant, constantly-updating petition counter — all to ensure that delegates, from the moment they step off the plane until they cast their votes, will see from our explosive numbers that the world will not accept legal whale slaughter.
Staff and volunteers from the American animal rights organisation FARM held a protest outside the Austrian Embassy in Washington DC this week. For an hour activists gathered and marched in front of the Austrian Embassy chanting messages and carrying large signs reading “Stop Austrian Repression”, “Activism is NOT a crime”, “Protect Free Speech” and “Drop all Charges – Shame on Austria!”. During the demonstration activists approached the embassy to deliver a letter to the embassy’s public information officer, Wolfgang Renezeder. Friendly and understanding, Mr Renezeder was aware of the worldwide protests and agreed to make sure that the letter was delivered to the Ministry of Justice in Vienna.
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Counting since July 1st 2011.
