GlobeNews 8/99 Water Special Vol.1, No.2 Global citizen! Keep abreast of events around the globe: trends, politics, travel, society, technology, environment. GlobeNews is for you. NOT your nine o'clock news. It's a hot summer here in California. A lot of activities center around water this time of year. A day at the beach. Fresh lemonade. Sprinklers dancing in every garden. Swimming, sailing, skinny dipping in your favorite watering hole. We are reminded how central water really is in our lives. As you settle in your chair and read these words remember to use technology appropriately. KC News is a free service of Kahl Consultants. Technology. Use it appropriately. Put it in our hands. Visit us at http://www.kahl.net To continue receiving; do nothing, you are on our list. To add someone or to stop receiving; send email. ================ THE GOOD NEWS IS ================ Let's Talk about S***, Baby ------------------------------- Let's talk about water and how we use it. Quick question: do you recycle? Probably yes. Paper, metal, glass, anything else? Composting? What is one of the most irrational and damaging practice adopted by humans? Defecating and urinating into water! Biological toilets are simple, appropriate systems to transform feces and urine into fertilizer. To be recycled directly into soil. Reality check: high tech wastewater treatment plants still discharge excreta pollutants. The most common wastewater disinfectant is chlorine, and this results in toxic chemicals called organochlorides. Is that something we really want to be doing to our water? Definitely not. So why do we do it without giving it a second thought? Is is the fact that we feel uneasy even thinking about such things, let along talking? Pee-yew, right? The NGO Women for Water talks about such issues. The 3rd International Women & Water Conference in Bangladesh next year will talk about such issues. And so can we. Need a refresher of water terminology? To shy to ask a human? Look here: Encyclopedia of Water Terms http://www.tec.org/tec/terms2.html GRAND PLANS ------------------- Construction begins this summer on a grand plan to cut traffic into Grand Canyon National Park by 80%. A first for any US national park, the crux of the plan is a 17 mile light rail train that would carry up to 4,000 visitors into the park from a transportation hub. The hub will include a parking lot for 3,500 cars outside the South Rim entrance. On a "typical summer day," that area currently gets more than 6,000 cars vying for 2,400 parking spots Nine environmental groups have also endorsed the project after initially hesitating to support it, fearing damage to the region's water table. But water for the hotels will be imported by train and via a pipeline from the Colorado River. Other national parks are combating similar traffic woes. Maine's Acadia National Park begins free shuttle service this summer, and Zion National Park in Utah will use the same means to ban cars from popular Zion Canyon. Superintendent of the Grand Canyon Robert Arnberger said visitors should "have a park experience, not a parking experience". ========== GLOBESITES ========== GET YOUR DAILY IHT ---------------------------- Read all about it! Ever read the International Herald Tribune? The IHT is a daily newspaper edited in Paris and printed around the world. It's published with The New York Times & The Washington Post. Beats USA Today, that's for sure! Bookmark their site for news: http://www.iht.com/ READ ALL ABOUT IPS ---------------------------- More news!! Real news, no bubble headed fluff here! IPS is the world´s leading provider of information on global issues, backed by a network of journalists in more than 100 countries. Find your favorite newsbrief here: http://www.ips.org DIVE IN --------- Diving is wonderful, refreshing, mindblowing. And one of the best scuba diving locations on this blue planet are the Philippine Islands. Put on your wet suit and jump in: http://www.kahl.net/diving AMAZON.COM ------------------ In association with Amazon.com we offer you dirt cheap books and music. Grab some Travel Guides for 20% off or more! But please use this link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/kahlconsultants === Y2K === Only a few more months to go until Y2K. Ho hum? A State Department survey of 161 nations has found that about half of the countries face a medium to high risk of Year 2000 computer breakdowns in their telecommunications, energy and transportation sectors, which may have an impact on international trade. ''It would be prudent to recognize that Y2K related failures are inevitable, both here and abroad,'' Jacquelyn Williams-Bridgers, the State Department's inspector general, told a Senate committee. The State Department found that highly industrialized countries are at a low risk of Y2K related infrastructure failures, particularly in the finance sector. But the survey suggested that Russia and the other former Eastern bloc nations ''are a concern because of the relatively high probability of Y2K related failures,'' the inspector general said. South Korea got off to a late start and may not complete corrective work in time, India's electric power systems could prove vulnerable and Poland could face power blackouts. ========= GlobeNews ========= AIR IN CARS DIRTIER THAN OUTSIDE ------------------------------------------------- The air people breathe inside their cars can be significantly more polluted than the air outside, according to a study released yesterday by two California air agencies. The two-year study found that several pollutant levels were at least twice as bad inside cars and levels of others were 10 times worse. The California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District conducted the study in the Los Angeles and Sacramento areas. More than half the pollutants inside the car came from vehicles in front of the test cars. Pollution levels during rush hours were nearly twice as great as those during less congested times. Cars in carpool lanes had cleaner air, probably because they are less congested and are farther from trucks. THE EMPIRE STRIKES ---------------------------- Filmmaker George Lucas "won the Bay Area real estate contest of the decade" in June when the Presidio Trust awarded him development rights to the former Letterman Army Hospital site in the Presidio, now a San Francisco national park right by the Golden Gate bridge. Lucas's plan to build a $250 million "movie making and technology office campus" conformed better with neighborhood desires than competing proposals, said James Meadows, the trust's executive director. Lucas and other bidders "had to contend with hundreds of neighbors, environmentalists and anti-growth advocates." Some environmentalists "said they would adopt a wait-and-see attitude". Others are calling it "The Presidio Menace". The Lucas selection is a "major milestone in the Presidio's unique quest to become a self-supporting national park by 2013. A lease could be signed by October, with groundbreaking in the fall of 2000. But criticism to this large scale development in a national park is growing. ============= FUTURE IS NOW ============= BODY BAR CODES ------------------------ Jordan stood before the ATM, stared at a blinking light for 3 secs, waiting while a hidden camera scanned his eyeball. The machine's TV screen spasmed once and opened for business. Jordan then pocketed $40, just like the millions of us who stop at ATMS for cash. But Jordan needed neither ATM card nor PIN. He allowed a camera to examine his iris - the colored part of the eye - and check its characteristics against an earlier scan stored in a database. Such cash machines at Bank United, Texas's largest financial institution, are pushing biometrics - identifying people by their unique physical characteristics - to a new frontier, transforming what began as a James Bond fantasy into everyday commerce. This represents the first time a large private company in the USA has tried to use biometrics as a consumer tool. Iris scanning, fingerprints, voice prints, hand geometry, face geometry, signature authentication... biometrics are rapidly becoming cheaper, easier and more secure. IriScan, the company that patented Bank United's iris technology, uses 266 measurable characteristics of a person's iris, a membrane that has muscles with distinctive ridges, freckles and stretch marks that are formed in childhood and never change. Color has nothing to do with it, and glasses and contact lenses present no obstacle. You'll see biometrics in everything from home alarms to safes, automobiles, gun cabinets and cable TV channels. And think about parental control! John Woodward, an attorney for the Biometric Industry Association, even acknowledged that the use of biometrics contributes ''to the feeling we have no privacy.'' There need to be safeguards, he said, including laws restricting the movement of biometric databases. ''You don't want them to be sold to other companies.'' Mr. Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said, ''we enter the brave new world without any rules. 'There are no legal controls over how biometrics can be used - whether the information can be sold, whether it can be turned over to law enforcement without a warrant.'' BLATANT ADVERTISEMENT ------------------------------------ If you are also interested in space, astronomy and extraterrestrial news, subscribe to ASTRONEWS, another free newsletter from Kahl Consultants. Just beam your request with the words "SUBSCRIBE ASTRONEWS" to: kahl-@-kahl.net ============ !!GLOBALERT!! ============ I'M MELTING! ----------------- Researchers at Nehru U. in New Delhi "warned that glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at an alarming rate and could cause a catastrophe if meltwater lakes overflow into surrounding valleys." New Scientist magazine reported that all the glaciers in the central and eastern Himalayas could disappear by 2035 if present trends continue. The Indian study is consistent with others that have shown glaciers are retreating worldwide. US EPA IN DEEP DOO DOO ---------------------------------- STATEMENT BY CAROL M. BROWNER (ADMINISTRATOR, U.S. EPA) I am deeply concerned about EPA's ability in the future to protect our nation's public health and environment as the result of the mark-up of the 2001 budget plan by the House Appropriations Subcommittee. The bill robs environmental cops of any basic authority by cutting more than half of the funds for hiring the experts who are critical to investigating and prosecuting enforcement cases. The President's Clean Air Partnership Fund - which would make funds available to cities and states nationwide to solve their air pollution problems locally - has been cut by almost 80 percent, which could affect more than 240 communities nationwide. Funds were cut in half for addressing the challenge of global warming with programs like voluntarily promoting new energy efficient products that save consumers and businesses money while lowering greenhouse emissions. Some $50 million was cut from the Superfund program, which under this Administration has operated at a record pace to clean up toxic waste dumps. In addition, we are concerned about anti environmental riders, including one on climate change which could prevent voluntary activities by businesses to reduce energy costs, and another that may delay EPA's implementation of the Civil Rights Act. Finally, a staggering $345 million was taken from EPA's overall budget and "earmarked" by individual members of Congress for some 230 special projects in their districts. These projects funnel huge amounts of money away from more critical programs designed to provide health and environmental protections for all Americans. I hope that we can work with Congress in a bipartisan fashion to correct these and other concerns as the budget process moves forward. Americans, write your Congressman!!!! SAVE ON CALLS --------------------- Do you travel much? Then get the VoiceNet calling card! For example, any domestic call from any phone in the USA for only 17.5 cents/min! No more expensive calls! We've chosen to market these calling cards because It's the best deal we could find! Check out this offer AND MANY MORE! Visit your agent Alex Kahl at GlobalCom: http://www.kahl.net/global ====== NetTips ====== Surf Your Watershed ------------------------ Our home is right at the edge of our watershed, the San Pablo Bay. Right next to a levy which ensures that we don't actually live IN the watershed. If you live in the USA there is an great way to learn about YOUR own watershed. Tax dollars were put to good use by the EPA when they created the "Surf Your Watershed" web site. Enter your Zip Code and presto - you have a flood of vital information about your watershed at your fingertips: Surf Your Watershed http://www.epa.gov/surf You can find out about local actions in your watershed. Heck, you can even "Adopt Your Watershed"! There were 60 organizations that had "adopted" some of the San Pablo Bay, one of them being the Berkeley based IRN, the International Rivers Network. One click brings us to their web site where we read about low impact hydropower and other campaigns of theirs: IRN http://www.irn.org Thanks to all who wrote in their comments. Send us your questions for the 9/99 edition of GlobeNews. Email: kahl-@-kahl.net Cheers, Alex Kahl Consultants http://www.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 ============== Nuclear Incubated Crayfish ... It's What's For Dinner ----------------------------------------------------------- A Finnish nuclear power plant has "tripled the growth of crayfish ... a seasonal delicacy typically eaten in late summer in Finland" by incubating them in waters warmed by heat absorbed by the plant cooling system. Reijo Sundell, environmental protection manager at the Teollisuuden Voima power group: "They don't taste like a nuclear power plant, which after all has no taste or smell to it" (Reuters/PlanetArk, July 21).