Monthly Archives: January 2006

Easier Whistleblowing in China

The Chinese government has launched a website that allows the public to report corrupt officials online:

The new site (www.jubao.gov.cn) is run by the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry of Supervision.

The Web site offers Chinese villagers and others a way to lodge complaints directly, bypassing local authorities who are sometimes criticized for retaliating against petitioners or refusing to take action on complaints.

China has the world’s second-largest population of Internet users after the United States, with more than 100 million people online.

China also has a huge problem with peasants getting screwed over by middle management while higher levels of government turn a blind eye. This certainly won’t solve the problem, but it could be a good start.

Chile, Liberia Elect First Female Leaders

ChileFormer political prisoner, Michelle Bachelet, ran for president of Chile and has won with 53% majority with almost 98% of the vote counted. The left-leaning politician has now become the first female president in the country, the female vote is argued to have made the majority happen.

Bachelet’s family has a legacy of challenging bad politicians, with her father protesting Pinochet.
Liberia
In related news, Africa has its first ever elected female leader in the state of Liberia. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is inaugurated today as Liberia’s 23rd president. She aims to fight corruption within government and to rebuild the country after a massive civil war.

Thanks, Justin!

Training Small Miners

The Suriname branch of the World Wildlife Fund is working thanks to a $150,000 grant awarded by the Inter American Development Bank to train small scale miners in environmentally friendly mining techniques. Miners currently seperate gold using chemicals such as mercuary, that are dumped into rivers once used. WWF is teaching miners about environmentally friendly techniques to seperate gold such as mechanical means. The program was designed to educate the affects of the miner’s behavior on the local ecosystem while providing alternative means in a hope to change social norms.

Algae Isn’t All Smoke and Mirrors

I’m sure everyone is aware of the amazing properties of algae. Prepare to gain newfound respect for our small flora, they could be the next biodiesel crops. Fed a generous helping of CO2-laden emissions, lets say ……. courtesy of a power plant’s exhaust stack, the algae cleans the exhaust and grows at phenominal rates. After the CO2 is soaked up like a sponge, the algae is harvested daily. From that harvest, a combustible vegetable oil is squeezed out i.e. biodiesel for automobiles. Additionally the exhaust contains 40 percent less CO2 (a larger cut than the Kyoto treaty mandates) and another bonus, 86 percent less nitrous oxides. What a little workhorse.

Creater, Berzin of MIT calculates the biodiesel crop potential at 15,000 gallons per acre. To put that in perspective soybeans (currently the major source of biodiesel fuels) produce just 60 gallons per acre. Berzin isnt alone in the algae-to-oil race. Competiator (yes people compete over this stuff) Greenshift Corporation, a Mount Arlington, N.J., technology incubator company, licensed CO2-gobbling algae technology that uses a screen-like algal filter. It was developed by David Bayless, a researcher at Ohio University. One can only hope more competing algae will result in good things.

Ontario Government to Patch up Smokers

Smoking is the number one cause of preventable deaths in Canada, and the Ontario government wants that to change. The province, along with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health to give 14, 000 smokers nicotine patches or gum to help them quit.

If you are a smoker in Ontario you can call 1 800-350-5305 for an interview to see if you can qualify. Those that get chosen for the study will get the gum or patches sent to them for five weeks, and will have to complete some follow up studies a few months after that.