KC GlobeNews MAY 2002 Spring Special Vol.3, No.3-5 Current events, trends, travel, politics, eco and tech topics. Not your nine o'clock news. Add global citizens to our mailing list - send email to: globenews-@-kahl.net CONTENTS INVESTMENT TIP: ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITIES DECLARATION OF ENERGY INDEPENDENCE BEST DEAL MAGAZINES ORGANIC WINE APPEAL LONELY PLANET COMET FINLAND #1 IN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ENRON'S SMOKING GUN POWER IN A BOX ENERGY DEREGULATION WILL NOT DIE COLUMBIA NEWSBLASTER THAI ORDER: TAKE A LEAK KIDS ============ !!GLOBALERT!! ============ INVESTMENT TIP: ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITIES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) requires companies on the New York Stock Exchange and other U.S. stock exchanges to report their environmental liabilities to potential investors. A US EPA study found 74 percent of publicly traded companies were a bit shy. They failed to adequately disclose the existence of environmental legal proceedings in their 10-K registration requirements. In 2001 the EPA launched a campaign for corporate environmental accounting. Senator Jeffords has also proposed a bill to have corporations file the financial impact of their greenhouse gas emission performance on their quarterly and annual SEC 10-Q & 10-K filings. For more information: EPA issues new SEC disclosure guidance: http://www.pollutiononline.com/read/nl20010515/427844 Public Company Requirements to Disclose Environmental Legal Proceedings: http://es.epa.gov/oeca/main/strategy/oppac_notice.html US EPA alert on SEC disclosures: http://es.epa.gov/oeca/ore/sec.pdf KC TECHSHOP ----------------- Shop naked! Online at the NEW KC TechShop! * MONEY-SAVING RANKINGS Best sites for comparison shopping and reviews. * "SWEET SPOT" SHOPPING LISTS DESKTOPs and LAPTOPs. Best price-to-quality! * GREEN PC Section Helps you save energy. Hardware or software, deals on technology: http://www.kahl.net/shopping DECLARATION OF ENERGY INDEPENDENCE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. To: YOU Subject: Join me in signing the Declaration of Energy Independence Dear Friend, There is nothing patriotic about handing over our natural heritage to the oil industry. But that's exactly what the White House wants to do in the name of national security. I'm asking you to join me in opposing the senseless destruction of our environment by going to http://www.savebiogems.org/declaration.asp and signing the Declaration of Energy Independence. The declaration calls on our government to pursue a sustainable energy future that will preserve -- not destroy -- our last, unspoiled wildlands. We have little time to lose. With the nation's attention focused almost exclusively on the war against terrorism, the Bush administration has moved quietly but aggressively in recent months to open up fragile wildlands to giant energy corporations. In Utah, they were in such a hurry to lease millions of acres of our red rock canyon lands for oil and gas development that they skipped the environmental review that is required by law. My colleagues here at NRDC have already gone to federal court to block this illegal giveaway of red rock country. But that's only the beginning. The Bush-Cheney energy plan -- hatched in closed-door meetings last year with Enron and other energy giants -- would pave the way for oil and gas companies to despoil an alarming number of our last wild places: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, Wyoming's Red Desert, and many, many more. President Bush says we need the oil to become more energy independent. Don't buy it! Using the tragic events of September 11th as an opportunity to advance the special interests of the oil industry will not enhance America's energy security. Our nation simply doesn't have enough oil to drill our way to self-sufficiency. If we really want to declare energy independence, then the only answer is to dramatically reduce our appetite for oil. For starters, we could increase the fuel efficiency of our cars and light trucks to 40 miles per gallon. That would save nearly two million barrels of oil a day by the year 2012 -- more than all the oil we imported last year from Saudi Arabia. The Declaration of Energy Independence sets forth plenty of other ways to slash our dependence on oil. It proves that fighting terrorism does NOT require the destruction of our own natural heritage. Please do your part by visiting http://www.savebiogems.org/declaration.asp Sign the Declaration of Energy Independence. It will take you less than a minute. If millions of us sign the declaration, then the White House and Congress will be unable to ignore its message. And thank you for helping to save America's last wild places. Sincerely yours, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Senior Attorney Natural Resources Defense Council ===== BioGems: Saving Endangered Wild Places A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council http://www.savebiogems.org ============== THE GOOD NEWS ============== BEST DEAL MAGAZINES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is by far one of the BEST DEALS on the web. Period. 135 popular consumer magazines available for $3.95 a year. Another 500 magazines for 50% of the publisher's price. You can purchase new subscriptions or send subscriptions as gifts. Last year I ordered 5 and was very happy with the service. Give it a shot! The list of magazines includes everything from AMERICAN HERITAGE to YOUNG & MODERN. OK, what's the catch? I only know one. If you don't specifically ask the magazines to keep your address private they will sell it. And you'll get more junk mail. Best Deal Magazines http://www.bestdealmagazines.com/ ORGANIC WINE APPEAL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Californians have been regarded as health fanatics by our European counterparts. When it comes organically grown grapes and wines we are the leaders in the field. The French are obsessed with "terroirs" (soil) and pursue a course to outlaw the synthetic chemical products in farming. These are being analyzed to discover their full extent of degradation and contamination to soil. Soil quality has a direct impact on the quality of the grapes. Many of the subtle characters in a wine such as berries, spice, vegetative or earthy characters are extracted from the earth in which the vine is planted. Herbicides and pesticides are at the root of the harm for organic farmers who ban their use in organic farming. The department of food and agriculture identifies what may and may not be used for the production of organic crops (not just grapes) in California. There are many natural applications available to today's farmer. In order to be a certified organic, compliance to standards must be upheld. The most difficult of which is to provide documentation that chemical pesticides and herbicides were not used in the vineyards for three years. Natural fertilizers and a natural ecosystem for pest control are also part of the process. California's certified Organic Farmers have seen a steady increase in their membership in the last ten years. Organic grapes and the process of not adding any extra chemicals has been around for a long time and has recently become more and more a sought after commodity by the new breed of wine connoisseurs. There are a limited number of vintners - here are a few in California: - Chance Creek Vineyard - Vigil Vineyard < http://www.vigilwine.com/ > - Fetzer Bonterra Wines , http://www.bonterra.com/ > - Frey Vineyard < http://www.freywine.com/ > - Frogs Leap < http://www.frogsleap.com/ > - Hidden Cellars - Hallcrest < http://www.hallcrestvineyards.com/ > A misconception many people have about organic wines is that they are free of sulfites. Sulfites occur naturally in wine and therefore are present in organic wine to some extent. It is the addition of sulfites to wine for the purpose of stability and shelf life that many organic enophiles question the need for. Sulfites are a problem in wine for people who are allergic to them. If organic farming and organic winemaking are so much better for our environment and our health, why is it not more widely practiced? Is it that the organic process requires more time and effort for the grower? One consideration is the length of time it takes to convert to be certified as organic. Additionally, the wines tend to be short-lived. Prices are usually higher for organic wines. Each consumer must decide how much tolerance he or she has for the use of chemicals. We suggest a taste test using one of the organically produced wines against wines of similar varietal, vintage and appellation. [Source: Wine Tributaries by Tim Hayes & John Koetzner from wines.com] See also: "Organic Wine Industry" from wineupdate.com: http://www.wineupdate.com/Archive/2000/June/06_30_00.html A sampling of North Bay organic wines http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/09.06.01/dining-wine2-0136.html ========== GLOBESITES ========== LONELY PLANET COMET ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Lonely Planet is a great travel company, and their monthly COMET travel news e-zine is a great read for globetrotters. For example, each issue comes with a TOP FIVE list. Here's an example... TOP FIVE SCAMS 1. Shit on the shoe. This one's popular in the streets of New Delhi: shoe-shine boys surreptitiously fling a piece of animal pooh onto a passerby's foot then offer to clean it off at a hugely inflated price. 2. Do you come here often? Istanbul's likely lads are known to pick up men on the street and invite them to come to a nightclub for a drink. Sitting the unwitting fellow down next to a group of girls, they tell him the girls' drinks are on his bill. If he won't pay he's taken out the back and the money is forcibly removed from his wallet. 3. A gem of an idea. Bangkok's con men prey on the gullible and the greedy - after a friendly chat in the street you'll be asked if you'd like to drop by a gem shop. The owner, who has friends in your country, offers you gems at a huge discount. He'll mail them to your home address and you can sell them at a profit when you get back. Of course, the gems turn out to be worth a fraction of what you paid, (if they turn up at all). 4. The inadvertent tip. Many restaurants in Central and Eastern Europe are notorious for overcharging. Common ploys in Prague, for example, include one menu for Czechs, one (more expensive) menu for everyone else; menus without prices; little extras you never asked for that you might have thought were included in the meal, such as salads, potato dishes, pickles, even mustard and ketchup; 'secret' cover charges (often hidden away on the menu as a 'couvert'); and bad adding up. Prices for fish will be per 100g, so if you order a fish that weighs 400g you'll pay more. Budapest is also becoming notorious for restaurant rip-offs. Check the price of everything before you eat it. 5. 'That hotel has been bombed, sir'. India's favorite is the taxi driver's 'they just got off the plane and they're bound to be confused' scam. No matter what hotel you ask for, it will be full, closed or a terrorist target. Instead you will be taken to an expensive, nasty place a long way from anywhere, but where the driver gets paid a commission. Don't believe a word of it - demand to be taken to the hotel of your choice. Comet by Lonely Planet http://www.lonelyplanet.com/comet ========= GlobeNews ========= FINLAND #1 IN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH A study of 142 countries found Finland first in the world for ITS environmental health and the United Arab Emirates ranks last. The United States is 51st. The top five were Finland, Norway, Sweden, Canada and Switzerland. The five worst were Haiti, Iraq, North Korea, Kuwait and the Emirates. The United States ranked behind Botswana (15) and Cuba (47), but ahead of Germany (54), Japan (62) and Britain (98). The study found that although economic wealth does not necessarily correlate with a healthy environment, the level of corruption within a government does. That is, the more corrupt the government, the less likely it is to pay attention to the environment. The study also found considerable variation among countries that were at the same level of industrialization and economic development. And it found that no country got good grades in every category. It was conducted by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University for the World Economic Forum, being held in New York this week. Much of the commentary in the report focuses on the lack of reliable data in most countries, a challenge to experts in their efforts to set a baseline of information for future evaluations, to be conducted annually. The study took into account 68 variables - including how a country responds to water and air pollution, how it protects land, whether its government is corrupt and how seriously it takes global climate change - to measure environmental "sustainability," or likely environmental quality of life over the next generation. "No country is on a truly sustainable path," the study concluded. "Every country has some issues on which its performance is below average." Daniel Esty, director of the Yale Center, attributed the United States' midlevel ranking to inadequacies in controlling greenhouse gases and reducing waste, offset by great success in controlling water pollution. "It's an interesting question for a country that is so good in some respects, why that global-scale issue has not been given more focus and produced better results," Mr. Esty said. He said the study was intended to help countries become more rigorous in making environmental decisions. "Some in the business community take climate change seriously," he said, "but others fear it's an issue created by a set of extreme environmental groups. If they saw the data and the picture of reality that the data presents, they might be willing to take the problem seriously." He said that Cuba and Botswana ranked higher than the United States because they did not have as much industry and therefore as much stress on their environments. "It's not necessarily better to be in Botswana than it is to be in the United States," he said. "But there are some issues that are more serious in the United States and we can ask if we're taking those as seriously as we need to." [Source: The New York Times] http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/02/science/02ENVI.html EARTHLINGS! Interested in space, astronomy and extraterrestrial news? GET ASTRONEWS! Another free informative KC E-zine. http://www.kahl.net/astro ENRON'S SMOKING GUN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Feds got hold of a smoking gun: an internal memo illustrating Enron's techniques for gouging Californians. Yes there really was NO energy shortage in California in 2001, NO supply crisis. It was a crisis of greed. Enron lawyer memos mentioned schemes in which Enron traders would "artificially increase the load on the schedule submitted to the ISO [the state's grid manager]." Enron also had a policy of moving power out of California only to SELL IT BACK at higher prices. May we quote: "This strategy appears not to present problems…[except] such exports may have contributed to California's Stage 2 Emergency yesterday." Oh yeah, that problem. 8 pages of outrageous strategies for market manipulation. Here's the kicker: "Enron gets paid for moving energy to relieve congestion without actually moving any energy or relieving congestion." Enron is not the only criminal. Enron acknowledges that market manipulation is standard practice. Industry Power traders colluded in order to game the system using secret code words like "Death Star" and "Fat Boy," to describe different schemes. The Wall Street Journal reported that Dynegy --another big Texas power company -- set up sham trades to make themselves look more of a market player than the company really was. These power companies used deregulation to create false information for consumers as well as investors. So what do the recent disclosures (and the entire energy crisis) indicate? If these companies are given a market, they will abuse it. But in April California Governor Davis signed "re-negotiated" contracts with some power companies and released the firms from liability for market abuse. ============= FUTURE IS NOW ============= POWER IN A BOX ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You've probably heard that fuel cells are going to be the power source of the future. Some larger units are already in use in transportation and as backup systems. Well any day now Coleman Powermate is going to offer the very first small scale application that you can actually purchase (you do have to be slightly rich). Powermate's new AirGen will be the world's first portable fuel cell generator for indoor use. No diesel fumes. In fact no pollution at all during it's operation. Off grid or plugged into a wall, there's plenty of clean backup power here. Coleman AirGen http://www.colemanairgen.com/ Fuel Cells http://www.fuelcells.org/ HOW TO MAKE CHEAP CALLS ------------------------------------- You can get great LONG DISTANCE RATES with GLOBALCOM. SAMPLE RATES from ANY phone in the USA: * 5.5˘ per minute USA, Canada, UK * 6˘ per minute Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong * 15˘ per minute Philippines * Works worldwide (via web enabled CALLBACK)! * No Monthly Fees! No Hidden Fees! We know you'll love Click4Prepaid from GLOBALCOM: http://www.kahl.net/global/ ENERGY DEREGULATION WILL NOT DIE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Remember the game in which you whack a mole on the head with a mallet only to have another little beast pop up next to it? So it is with the energy deregulation fanatics. They were beaten down by the California deregulation debacle, but they would pop back up. Then Enron, the market maker itself, was exposed as a fraud. And again, pop goes the weasel. Here's what one such ideologue wrote in an LA Times op-ed: "Even if the top leaders of Enron all go to jail…the electro-deregulatory trend will quietly continue, because nothing can stop an idea whose time has come." So last year's excuse --The problem is not deregulation, it's California -- has been amended to It's not deregulation, it's California… and Enron. Despite all of the whacking, the energy industry will not let the deregulation beast die. Source: http://www.ratepayerrevolt.org/ ====== NetTips ====== COLUMBIA NEWSBLASTER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Thanks RC!] Columbia Newsblaster is a project at Columbia University's Department of Computer Science. Newsblaster currently looks at news reports from: Yahoo, ABCNews, CNN, Reuters, LA Times, CBS News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Virtual New York, Washington Post, Wired, FOX News, NY Post, USA Today, Science Magazine, BBC News, Nature Magazine and Lycos. . The product uses A.I. techniques to cull through news reports. It sorts and summarizes them in five news categories: - US - World - Finance - Entertainment - Sports These summaries are based on reflecting factors (where a fact is mentioned and how often it is repeated) and the news value of individual facts. In an age of information overload, this newly developed tool may provide assistance to journalists, executives, and average news consumers. COLUMBIA NEWSBLASTER http://www.cs.columbia.edu/nlp/newsblaster/ Thanks to all who wrote in their comments. Send us your questions for the next edition of GlobeNews. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GlobeNews by Kahl Consultants Visit us: http://www.kahl.net Email GlobeNews: globenews-@-kahl.net SUBSCRIBE: subglobenews-@-kahl.net Unsubscribe: unsubglobenews-@-kahl.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE PLUG ======== How has your small business or organization been performing lately? Are you happy with your work? Let Kahl Consultants help you. Technology. Use it appropriately. Put it in our hands. If you got this far you obviously enjoyed GlobeNews. Pass it on! Please forward it to a handful of your friends. Remember, the best things in life are free. THE PUNCH LINE ============== THAI ORDER: TAKE A LEAK KIDS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Urine tests will be made mandatory for students in all Thai schools and universities. The decision is the latest policy in the government's controversial "social order campaign". The Thai Law Society Chairman has warned that such tests would be unreliable, and without just cause would violate the rights of young people. [Source: Bangkok Post]