GlobeNews May 2001 | Baloney Special Vol. 2, No. 5 Global citizen! Keep on top of events around the world: trends, politics, travel, society, environment, technology. Not your nine o'clock news. GlobeNews by Kahl Consultants. Please add a friend to the mailing list - email: globenews-@-kahl.net CONTENTS BALONEY DETECTION KIT - PART ONE ORGANIC CUBA HAWAII VOLCANO NATIONAL PARK COMPUTER RECYCLING ANYONE? GRAFT AND CORRUPTION COMPUTER JUICE CRAIG'S LIST ============ !!GLOBALERT!! ============ BALONEY DETECTION KIT - PART ONE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ways for testing arguments and detecting false or fraudulent arguments. First in a series. * Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts. * Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view. * Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities"). * Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy. * Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours. * Quantify, wherever possible. * If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work. * Occam's razor - if there are two hypothesis that explain the data equally well choose the simpler. * Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result? To be continued next month! Stay tuned for additional issues and common fallacies of logic and rhetoric. [Source: http://www.carlsagan.com] KC TECHSHOP ----------------- DON'T GO SHOPPING BLIND! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Go shopping at the NEW KC TechShop! * MONEY-SAVING RANKINGS - Best sites for comparison shopping, reviews and infos. * "SWEET SPOT" SHOPPING LISTS - for PC DESKTOPs and LAPTOPs. Best price-to-quality ratio! * GREEN PC Section - helps you save energy. MAY DEAL$: ACER CD Burner 1208A Internal CD-RW 12X Write, 8X Rewrite ONLY: $129.99 Grab it at the TechShop under "Cables & Storage"! Hardware or software, deals on technology: http://www.kahl.net/shopping ============== THE GOOD NEWS ============== ORGANIC CUBA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cuba may be producing the most chemical free, organic, clean produce in the world. Is Fidel really that farsighted? No, what happened what that when Russia collapsed, its support for Cuba evaporated. So Cuba couldn't afford enough pesticides, chemical fertilizers and other products for its agricultural industry. Now that's "involuntary simplicity' at work. It was forced to grow food WITHOUT pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Over half of its non sugarcane fields are now farmed using organic methods. Hey, sounds like the kind of ORGANIC food that is in demand in North America and Europe, right? Yup, we're paying premium prices for organic food in our health food stores and supermarkets. INISAV developed organic herbicides and pesticides sold in Cuba and to other countries. It's 222 local Centers for the Reproduction of Entomophages and Entomopathogens (CREES) are devoted to producing natural agricultural weapons such as insects and larvae that eat other pests, and viruses that attack crop damaging strains. These are inexpensive biological agents made up of bugs who eat pesky bugs, virus that combat bad viruses, larvae that kill other pests, and all manner of natural weapons to combat what campesinos universally call "the plague," be it animal, virus or fungus. Cuba's Plant Health Research Institute INISAV has agronomists from coming to learn about growing food organically. The IV International Scientific Seminar on Plant Protection will be held in Cuba in June, 2001. INISAV: http://www3.cuba.cu/ciencia/inisav/ Cuba Goes Organic: http://csf.colorado.edu/ecol-econ/2000/msg01084.html [Source Environmental Health Perspectives, December 2000] ========== GLOBESITES ========== HAWAII VOLCANO NATIONAL PARK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stuart Satterfield of EastWestMassage.com writes this "LAVALOGUE" from Hawaii: While on the Big Island of Hawaii I was inspired to chronicle my "wonder filled" travel experiences! I made it into Volcanoes National Park which I can HIGHLY RECOMMEND to anyone. As you travel the "Chain of Craters" road down to the Pacific Ocean it's like "NEW EARTH" time travel, with recent lava flows marked as "1974 flow" and "1985 flow" etc. At the end of the road park your car and hike 8 miles [round trip] to actual real-time flow [Lava Flow 2001]. A wonderful (yet a little arduous) hiking trip. I was by myself walking on relatively new flow - it is like walking on glass [crunch, crunch, crunch]. Some of the new flow looked like twisted and tangled telephone wires. Other parts were raised like a monument to the Hawaiian Fire Goddess "Pele". Other parts came out as smooth plates of... hmm... can't think of a word for this one, because I am not a Geologist! Smooth plates of something! The color of new flow, when it solidifies, is a metallic silver. Often I thought I was in a "Lost In Space" episode... crunch, crunch, crunch... smoke in the distance... "Which way do I go"? It is hard to see the lava [the new orange stuff] in the sunlight, so at one point I actually did end up on top of a metallic flow which was a little too newly solidified for my comfort level. I retreated and found a new approach. My running shoes have souvenir marks from this trip. You have to be aware of your senses when hiking near the vent - obviously. And so I was. I also said a prayer to the Goddess Pele before I got real close to the vent. In Hawaii it's not a bad idea to pray to Neptune as well - before you enter the Ocean. You know - it's the "when in Rome" concept. So I was respectful to the Gods and Goddesses who rule the Hawaiian Islands according to legend. At DUSK, when I was about to give up finding the actual LAVA source I turned 'round and lo and BEHOLD - there was a very bright orange OOZE happening some 30 yards away on the metallic hillside. "WOW!" I made my way over to within feet of the orange, real-time, slow moving stream of HOT ooze. I deemed that the area I was in was SAFE because I was not downhill of the stuff, but rather to the side of it. I took close up pictures. LAVA did not spray out in eruptions like you see on TV, but rather came out steadily in continuous, predictable "globs". I can't wait to see my photos. After awhile I headed back and I eventually found two Canadians to hike back to the parking lot with. Two words to describe the experience: WAY COOL! That was the approach from the Chain of Craters Road to the WEST of the Vent. Now from the EAST: on another day I got a tip from the locals and drove around the barricade in my compact Pick-Up and made my way over a difficult road. Most of the road was not paved. Sometimes you would make your way to a stretch of paved road which had not been ruined by LAVA flow. Then it was smooth riding until you had to connect up again with bumpy, rocky, non paved road. This alternating paved/non paved sequence kept happening until the road abruptly ended. And there you are at the other side of the flow... the PUNA side. And from this side there was ZERO hiking time. I checked it all out [this time during the day] and watched the slow flow ooze and then solidify right before my very eyes. I found some long sticks so I could do an exploration of the Lava by poking around. Yeah... the sticks caught on fire - but they burned slowly. Helicopters with tourists would occasionally buzz overhead. I could see a couple of people wave to me while I was having a solo experience on the ground. After awhile, when I was completely satiated by my experience I drove carefully back down that challenging "road" while the sun began to set over the ocean. It was a full day and there was something very spiritual and cleansing about communing with this new earth. I am grateful. Mahalo. LAVA SITES: ~~~~~~~~~~ Official NPS Site: http://www.nps.gov/havo/ GORP: http://www.gorp.com/gorp/resource/US_National_Park/hi_hawai.HTM National Parks Info http://www.hawaii.volcanoes.national-park.com/ BARGAIN HUNTING IN THE AMAZON --------------------------------------------- The biggest bargains throughout the Amazon.com universe are at the Amazon Outlet. - Up to 50% off toys and electronics and up to 60% off kitchen essentials - books under $5, CDs under $7, videos under $10 Use this link and choose OUTLET from the Store Directory: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/kahlconsultants ========= GlobeNews ========= COMPUTER RECYCLING ANYONE? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What to do with so-called "end-of-life" electronics? With an average life span of just a few years, PCs are going out of service faster than they are being produced. Computers and other electronics devices are a growing waste stream. Computer makers need an industry wide recycling scheme for obsolete PCs. Industry reps and state officials want to find common ground. State governments and environmental groups hope manufacturers will take responsibility for computers past the point of sale. Computer makers are looking for regulatory and cost concessions from the states. The National Safety Council's ELECTRONIC PRODUCT RECOVERY AND RECYCLING (EPR2) Conference in Washington, DC is the stage for getting everybody together. In 1998 more than 20 million PCs became obsolete in the USA alone. Only 11 percent were recycled according to the NSC. Computers, monitors, and other high-tech gadgets are loaded with heavy metals -- such as lead, mercury and cadmium -- and plastics that could pose a threat to environmental and human health. European Parliament is set to pass legislation to require electronics manufacturers to TAKE BACK used products and phase potential hazardous wastes out of their wares. Top PC and consumer electronics companies have recently launched recycling and reuse programs: ~ Sony Electronics and Minnesota began a program to take back all Sony electronics and personal computing products, from Walkmen to Vaios ~ For a fee of $29.99 including shipping, IBM will recycle any manufacturer's PC, including system units, monitors, printers and peripherals ~ Dell set up its DellExchange program with three options--trade-in, sale or donation--for disposing of older PCs and related products, regardless of the brand In the USA, 45 mercury related and 21 electronics bills have been introduced at the state level, with bills in Oregon and Arkansas proposing fees on the purchase of PCs to pay for recycling. Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to outlaw dumping old monitors in landfills and several states are planning similar recycling laws [Source: CNET] LOFTY ADVERTISEMENT Interested in space, astronomy and extraterrestrial news? GET ASTRONEWS FOR FREE! Another informative Kahl Consultants e-zine. Beam your request to: astronews-@-kahl.net GRAFT AND CORRUPTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You've heard about corruption in countries like Russia and Indonesia. What about graft and corruption in OECD-based multi-national corporations? Take for example Swiss based Asia Brown Boveri (ABB), one of the world's largest engineering and environmental companies. ABB was convicted and fined $63 million for corruption. ABB and other major engineering companies in Germany and the USA defrauded the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) of hundreds of millions of dollars in a series of environmental contracts worth more than US $1 billion. The projects were primarily sewage treatment, water treatment and waste water plants that US AID had promised Egypt in the 1980's following the Middle East Peace Accord. The aid was being provided to clean up Egypt's sewage waste disposal and to improve drinking water supplies. ABB and other engineering companies subverted the competitive bidding process - with bribes and kickbacks to other possible bidders, fraudulent billings to the government and laundering of cash through Swiss bank accounts. The conspirators included at least six international construction companies known as the Frankfurt Group. The companies went to great lengths to hide profits, charging fictitious expenses from related companies to decrease the returns shown on their books. [Source: New York Times] ============= FUTURE IS NOW ============= COMPUTER JUICE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Computers and telecommuting were supposed to clear the air by keeping cars off the road. Unfortunately, computers have been proliferating faster than people. The electronic revolution now consumes 290 billion kWh of electricity in the USA alone - 8 percent of US power. US electric demand is growing 3 percent a year. More than half the new demand is the result of computer use. Forbes Magazine estimates that within 10 years, the "digital-internet economy" will eat up 50 percent of the nation's power. Forbes also states that 1 percent of current US electric demand goes just to BUILD computers. Manufacturing, packaging, storing and moving each megabyte of data eats up about a half pound of coal. (Fifty-six percent of US electricity comes from coal. Nuclear accounts for another 20 percent.) There are 300 US computer manufacturing plants and each consumes 10-15 MW, about as much as a small steel mill. Today 200 billion electrically powered microprocessors regulate everything from laptops to car engines and phones. A typical PC consumes 1,000 watts. In early 1999, the US boasted 50 million household computers and 150 million workstations - with 36 million more computers and 20 million Internet users expected to be added before year's end. 17,000 existing US Internet companies each use "the electric load of a small village." Powering the Internet drains another 8 percent of the country's electric power. The power demands of the Internet's predicted global community of one billion users would be equal to the current total energy needs of the US. In addition to computers, the burgeoning wireless Web network will require installing and powering 140,000 transmitter stations around the US. [Source: Earth Island Journal, Forbes] ====== NetTips ====== CRAIG'S LIST ~~~~~~~~~~ The undisputed online community champ is CRAIG'S LIST. Craig Newmark started the site as a San Francisco community bulletin board in 1995. It is now a veritable treasure trove of resources with millions of page hits per month and has expanded to major cities across North America and Australia. Get all kinds of help, or help others! Need a job, a home, a lover, a ticket to that hot, sold out concert, or a new couch? It's all available on craigslist.org! No fancy splash page. No pop-ups or banner ads. The sheer simplicity allows a personal yet communal and inclusive experience. As the site is continually updated with more than 3,000 new postings each day, every visit is different. CRAIG'S LIST http://www.craigslist.org/ 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's it going? Happy with work? Let Kahl Consultants help. Technology. Use it appropriately. Put it in our hands. 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 ============== IN THE BEGINNING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the Beginning God created heaven and the earth. Quickly he was faced with a class action suit for failure to file an environmental impact statement. He was granted a temporary permit for the project, but was stymied with the cease and desist order for the earthly part. Appearing at the hearing, God was asked why he began his earthly project in the first place. He replied that he just liked to be creative. Then God said, "Let there be light," and immediately the officials demanded to know how the light would be made. Would there be strip mining? What about thermal pollution? God explained that the light would come from a huge ball of fire. God was granted provisional permission to make light, assuming that no smoke would result from the ball of fire; that he would obtain a building permit; and to conserve energy, would have the light out half the time. God agreed and said he would call the light "Day" and the darkness "Night." Officials replied that they were not interested in semantics. God said, "Let the earth bring forth green herb and such as many seed." The EPA agreed so long as native seed was used. Then God said, "Let waters bring forth creeping creatures having life; and the fowl that may fly over the earth." Officials pointed out this would require approval from the Department of Game coordinated with the Heavenly Wildlife Federation and the Audubongelic Society. Everything was fine until God said he wanted to complete the project in Six days. Officials said it would take at least 200 days to review the application and impact statement. After that there would be a public hearing. Then there would be 10-12 months before... At this point God created Hell.