Report: California drought could worsen air pollution

Report: California drought could worsen air pollution: "Drought conditions may be exacerbating air pollution throughout California, according to a report released by the American Lung Association on Wednesday.

ALA experts said many Western cities, as well as Riverside County as a whole, have been recording record numbers of days with high levels of short-term particle pollution. Low levels of precipitation can trap fine particles of pollution close to the ground, contributing to asthma attacks and hospitalizations for respiratory disease.

Drought conditions can also cause hotter weather, which increases levels of ozone or smog in the air.

"The drought is having a very real impact," said Alexander Sheriffs, a member of the California Air Resources Board and a family physician based in Fresno. "With the increasing frequency of heat events, we can expect more stagnant air days, which will increase ozone days (...) Agricultural burning and wildfires, which are going to become much more common, will contribute to poor air quality.""



'via Blog this'

Burn waste, pay Rs 5,000 fine: NGT | The Indian Express

Burn waste, pay Rs 5,000 fine: NGT | The Indian Express: "The National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed authorities in Delhi and NCR to impose a fine of Rs 5,000 on anyone caught burning waste — garbage, leaves, plastic, rubber or other items — in open areas.
The bench noted that “it is on record” that while burning of garbage and other waste was not the only source of pollution, it accounted for “29.4% of air pollution, with regard to PM 10”. It also noted that burning of waste emitted pollutants, some of which were even carcinogenic."



'via Blog this'

Study blames global warming for 75 percent of very hot days - San Jose Mercury News

Study blames global warming for 75 percent of very hot days - San Jose Mercury News: "WASHINGTON -- If you find yourself sweating out a day that is monstrously hot, chances are you can blame humanity. A new report links 3 out of 4 such days to man's effects on climate.

And as climate change worsens around midcentury, that percentage of extremely hot days being caused by man-made greenhouse gases will push past 95 percent, according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Humans have not had as great an effect on heavy downpours, though. The Swiss scientists who did the study calculated that 18 percent of extreme rain events are caused by global warming. But if the world warms an additional 2 degrees Fahrenheit -- expected to happen around midcentury -- about 39 percent of the downpours would be attributed to humanity's influence, according to the study. That influence comes from greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas."



'via Blog this'

Warming climate may release vast amounts of carbon from long-frozen Arctic soils -- ScienceDaily

Warming climate may release vast amounts of carbon from long-frozen Arctic soils -- ScienceDaily: "While climatologists are carefully watching carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, another group of scientists is exploring a massive storehouse of carbon that has the potential to significantly affect the climate change picture.

University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography researcher Aron Stubbins is part of a team investigating how ancient carbon, locked away in Arctic permafrost for thousands of years, is now being transformed into carbon dioxide and released into the atmosphere. The results of the study were published in Geophysical Research Letters.

The Arctic contains a massive amount of carbon in the form of frozen soil -- the remnants of plants and animals that died more than 20,000 years ago. Because this organic material was permanently frozen year-round, it did not undergo decomposition by bacteria the way organic material does in a warmer climate. Just like food in a home freezer, it has been locked away from the bacteria that would otherwise cause it to decay and be converted to carbon dioxide."



'via Blog this'

Jennifer O’Connell: Men, our Lycra leggings are none of your damn business

Jennifer O’Connell: Men, our Lycra leggings are none of your damn business: "It’s no wonder the Lycra march seems to be unstoppable: in the US, sales of yoga leggings, vests and sports bras totalled $15.1 billion (€14.07 billion) in the 12 months to August 2011, according to the research group NPD. That’s 10 per cent up on the previous year. Last October, Nike revealed that sales of female sportswear are outpacing those of male gear.
But the brand really spearheading this spandex creep across society is Lululemon, the Canadian manufacturer of, according to its website, “technical athletic” clothing, which has become – in certain circles – more sought-after than Chanel. Lululemon opened its first European shop in London in 2014 and is currently only available through online outlets in Ireland. The website Racked.com recently reported that canny individuals have built a career buying and reselling popular items on eBay and Facebook, some with a mark-up of more than 1,000 per cent. Lululemon recently launched a shop especially for children, which sells Lycra leggings at €63 a pop, leading the Washington Post to declare that we have reached “peak yoga pants”."



'via Blog this'

Inside Frito-Lay growth engine | Baking Business | Baking Industry News and Opinions

Inside Frito-Lay growth engine | Baking Business | Baking Industry News and Opinions: "AUSTIN, TEXAS — Tom Greco, chief executive officer of PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay North America business unit, has three pieces of advice for anyone wanting to succeed in consumer packaged goods:

• Think bold, push boundaries, take risks and learn;

• Collaborate with partners. “You will not be able to do it yourself,” he said; and

• Move fast. Done is better than perfect. Speed is a weapon.

Mr. Greco spoke April 21 at the IRI Summit taking place this week in Austin, and the backdrop for his advice is what he called the “consumer revolution” that is taking place. He described sweeping societal changes, most notably the growth of smaller, more diverse households.

“If you look back to the ‘70s, 40% of the population was married with children,” Mr. Greco said. “Now it is less than half that. We are seeing much more diversity. There are more single moms, and immigration is changing the ethnicity landscape in the country.”"



'via Blog this'

JImmy Carter: Gives meaning to the word Human.

Losing my religion for equality: "Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.

I HAVE been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service."



'via Blog this'

Europeans finally found out what Americans have now for years that Pesticides are Hurting and Killing the Bees - Dispatch Times

Europeans finally found out what Americans have now for years that Pesticides are Hurting and Killing the Bees - Dispatch Times: "In the last report from Lund University showed that the pesticide, neonicotinoids negatively affects the wild and honey bees. This is the preferred pesticide for the prevention of infestation of the flea beetles on new rapeseed pants.

In the study is evidence that the honey bees that visited the rapeseed fields had a reduction in their reproduction capabilities and ability to mature to full size. What is unclear from the results being reported is that the honeybee colonies were reported as unaffected, but the number of bees visiting the treated fields was significantly reduced.

It is the wild bees that visit the flower petals of plants that pollinate other plants they visit. This is a natural process that must occur for the plants to reproduce. In American pesticides have been shown to devastate the wild bee population in the past decades to near collapse. This has many farmers being forced to use honeybee services to pollinate their fields."



'via Blog this'

Coke bottles with first names return

Coke bottles with first names return: "Despite the steep price-tag, Coca-Cola's goal is less about profiting from the venture and more about coaxing younger consumers to snap photos of themselves with their personalized bottles — then passing the images along via social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

"Teens love to be famous," says Jennifer Healan, group director of integrated marketing content at Coca-Cola. "To teens, it's all about me, me, me. Think of all the selfies. Now, you can take a selfie with your name on a Coke bottle."

Last year's best-selling Coca-Cola bottle name: Chris.

The names that — based on third-party research — Coca-Cola expects to be 2015's best-sellers: Michael and Jessica."



'via Blog this'

California drought spurs protest over 'unconscionable' bottled water business | US news | The Guardian

California drought spurs protest over 'unconscionable' bottled water business | US news | The Guardian: "But water-bottling also carries symbolic weight because it takes a natural resource that theoretically belongs to all and turns it into a product retailing for many thousands – some studies suggest hundreds of thousands – of times what it costs at source.

Studies over the past decade and a half have challenged the claims of an industry that barely existed 25 years ago that bottled water is healthier than tap – in fact somewhere between one quarter and one half of bottled water comes from the tap – and decried the environmental impact of the plastic bottles it usually comes in.

“Pure drink or pure hype?” the National Resources Defense Council asked in 1999, and the question has never gone away. Until now, however, such objections have had little impact on the growth of the industry, whose sales topped 10bn gallons in the US for the first time in 2013 – 32 gallons per person – and are projected to be as high as 13bn gallons in 2014.

The US is now the world’s second-biggest consumer of bottled water, behind China. Nestlé and the other water giants, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, have often cut deals with relatively isolated, impoverished rural communities whereby they take a percentage of the local water supply, paying enough to keep municipal rates low for local residents. Government oversight often falls between the cracks of state agencies, the US Forest Service and autonomous Indian tribes, giving the companies greater leeway."



'via Blog this'

Women can be each other’s worst detractors, conference hears

Women can be each other’s worst detractors, conference hears: "Some of the “snidest comments” levelled at high profile women usually come from other women, former Tánaiste Mary Harney has told a conference in Kerry.
Speaking at the third annual ‘Women in Media’ conference in Ballybunion on Saturday, Ms Harney said far too often women are commented on for “style over subtance”.
Highlighting the importance of “women power” Ms Harney said, we have never needed more women in power, but warned how women are often the biggest detractors to other women.
“Women are criticised because of their appearance, their dress, their weight. In my own experience the snidest comments usually came from other women in the media and that has been my experience.”
During her contribution to the discussion ‘Working in the media and politics. Are men and women treated differently?’ Ms Harney said often women in the media love to pit women against other women.
“You remember Orla Guerin and Bernie Malone? We now have what’s called the ‘Battle of Blackrock’ – Mary Hannifin and Kate Feeney. Mary Lou and Joan Burton are being pitted in articles I keep reading and I think some women journalists like to pit the woman against the other woman, or the story about Liz O’Donnell wears the same dress on the same day as Luicinda Creighton....
“I wonder would anybody ever have noticed if Dick Spring wore the same suit as Garett Fitzgerald?”
Ms Harney said in order to address gender imbalance we need to change attitudes but she insisted it’s also about “women power”.
“Very often women won’t vote for another woman, some of the bitchiest comments made about a woman are often made by another woman.
“Your rival is very often not the other man in the constituency it’s the other woman,” Ms Harney revealed.
Speaking about gender quotas in politics Ms Harney said she has also believed that candidates should be selected on merit.
“However, I have come to the conclusion that the government’s recent initiative is an honest attempt to climb up that big hill. But what I am observing is that there are a lot of women being added to tickets because you have to have a 30 per cent or else your funding will be halved.
“But are they [female candidates] being put in places where they can win? And will we have more after the next election? I certainly hope so.”"



'via Blog this'

Global Temperature Records Just Got Crushed Again - Bloomberg Business

Global Temperature Records Just Got Crushed Again - Bloomberg Business: "It just keeps getting hotter. 

March was the hottest month on record, and the past three months were the warmest start to a year on record, according to new data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It's a continuation of trends that made 2014 the most blistering year for the surface of the planet, in to records going back to 1880. 

The animation below shows the Earth’s warming climate, recorded in monthly measurements from land and sea over more than 135 years. Temperatures are displayed in degrees above or below the 20th-century average. Thirteen of the 14 hottest years are in the 21st century, and 2015 is on track to break the heat record again. "



'via Blog this'

What Women Need to Know About Heart Disease - KUSI News - San Diego, CA

What Women Need to Know About Heart Disease - KUSI News - San Diego, CA: "Many women underestimate their risk for heart problems because of the misconception that cardiovascular disease primarily affects men. The truth is that nearly twice as many women die from heart disease than from all forms of cancer combined. Heart disease claims the life of one in four women in the United States, while breast cancer claims one in 30.

And women age 45 and older are more likely than men to die within a year of their first heart attack, according to the American Heart Association.

So why are the risks different for women? A number of factors are believed to be at play, including hormones (especially estrogen), which drop off after menopause when heart risks increase, and a smaller heart size, which could increase vulnerability to cardiovascular problems as key parts of the muscle become weaker over time.

Differences between the sexes also appear in the symptoms related to heart disease.

While both men and women can feel chest pain and break out in a cold sweat during a heart attack, earlier symptoms in women can be more subtle and appear months before a cardiac event. They include:

• Fatigue or weakness
• Pain, pressure or tightness in the center of the chest
• Pain between the shoulder blades
• Pain that spreads to the upper body, neck or jaw
• Unusual sweating, nausea or vomiting
• Sudden dizziness
• Shortness of breath
• Problems sleeping

Fortunately, there are number of things women can do to lower their risk of heart disease, said Christina Adams, M.D., a cardiologist with Scripps Clinic in La Jolla.

“Women can start by building their diet around foods that keep ‘good’ HDL cholesterol high and ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol low, and by checking cholesterol levels as recommended by your doctor,” Dr. Adams said. “Regular exercise also helps to lower LDL cholesterol and strengthen your heart.”

Many people also are able to reduce stress in their lives by practicing yoga, meditation and mindful based stress reduction."



'via Blog this'

Eating out 'raises risk for high blood pressure' Medical News Today

Eating out 'raises risk for high blood pressure' Medical News Today: "Also known as hypertension, high blood pressure is the main risk factor for cardiovascular disease-associated death.

In hypertension, the greater the force of blood pushing up against the walls of the blood vessels, the harder the heart has to pump, which can lead to heart failure and heart attack. People with hypertension are also at increased risk for kidney failure, aneurysm and stroke.

About 70 million adults and 2 million children in the US are affected by hypertension.

Previous studies have found that eating meals away from home is associated with a higher intake of calories, saturated fat and salt - eating behaviors believed to be linked with high blood pressure.

To investigate whether eating out could therefore be associated with hypertension, the researchers behind the new study surveyed 501 young adults aged 18-40 who attended university in Singapore. The surveys collected information on the students' blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), lifestyle, physical activity levels and how often they eat out.

Statistical analysis of the data showed that:

27.4% of the students had pre-hypertension
49% of the male participants and 9% of the female participants had pre-hypertension
38% of the students ate more than 12 meals away from home per week.
The researchers found that students with hypertension or pre-hypertension were more likely than participants without hypertension or pre-hypertension to eat out more often, have a higher BMI, have lower levels of physical activity and be current smokers."



'via Blog this'

The $74 Million Stock Award That Jarden’s Board Values at Zero - Bloomberg Business

The $74 Million Stock Award That Jarden’s Board Values at Zero - Bloomberg Business: "Jarden Corp.’s Executive Chairman Martin Franklin is poised to become one of the highest-paid U.S. executives for 2014 thanks to a $74 million performance award that the consumer-brands company granted him last year and recorded as having no value.
The grant includes 1.8 million restricted shares that are deemed “improbable” to vest in full because the underlying performance criteria -- annual net sales of $10.5 billion and adjusted earnings-per-share of $4 by Dec. 31, 2018 -- are unlikely to be achieved, the board’s compensation committee wrote in a March 30 preliminary proxy filing.
The shares, worth $73.9 million on the day they were granted, are listed with Franklin’s other equity awards in the summary compensation table with no value. In a footnote, Jarden cites a Financial Accounting Standards Board rule that advises companies to value performance-based equity grants based on the probability that the targets will be met.
“This grant-approach appears to allow a company to skirt the summary compensation table disclosure,” Ron Bottano, a vice president at compensation consultant Farient Advisors LLC, said in an e-mail. “It does not strike me as best practice.”
Jarden, based in Boca Raton, Florida, declined to comment on specific questions about its treatment of the grant.
The company, which owns a collection of brands including Yankee Candle, Rawlings baseball gear and Bicycle playing cards, granted Franklin a similar award in 2010 that it also deemed improbable to vest due to its performance criteria, according to filings. It vested in full when the target was met in 2013.
‘Aspirational Targets’
The award was paid out last year and allowed Franklin to take home 2.25 million shares valued at $120 million as of Monday’s close in New York."



'via Blog this'

Ten Percent of S&P 500 Companies Avoid Paying U.S. Taxes - Bloomberg Business

Ten Percent of S&P 500 Companies Avoid Paying U.S. Taxes - Bloomberg Business: "When it comes to taxes, corporate America is getting a bit less corporate. And a bit less American.
Fueled by a wave of inversions, a record 54 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of leading U.S. firms are now at least partially exempt from the corporate income tax. That’s more than twice the number four years ago.
The biggest factor is the recent wave of companies, such as Medtronic Plc and Mylan NV, that have completed what’s known as an inversion, in which they move their tax address overseas. Other companies have declared themselves to be real estate investment trusts, or REITs, which the Internal Revenue Service doesn’t treat as corporations. Just this year, Equinix Inc., a California company that operates data centers, became a REIT to lower its effective tax rate to as little as 10 percent. At 35 percent, the U.S. corporate rate is the highest in the developed world."



'via Blog this'

Algae-detection buoys on the look out for toxic blooms - UPI.com

Algae-detection buoys on the look out for toxic blooms - UPI.com: "TOLEDO, Ohio, April 13 (UPI) -- While NASA satellites monitor algae blooms from above, scientists in Ohio will keep an eye on the toxic blooms from ground level -- or more accurately, from water level.
Last summer, the people of Toledo and northwest Ohio went without tap water and showers for two days. Health officials were forced to shut off the water supply from Lake Erie after an algae bloom threatened to leak a liver toxin into the system. Residents had to rely on bottled water. Restaurants were shut down during the height of tourist season.

This year, researchers and health officials are on the lookout for the makings of another episode. As spring rains continue to wash fertilizers off farmlands and into the streams and rivers that funnel into Lake Erie, mats of algae are likely to grow in size.

While environmental groups, scientists and policy makers fight to curb agricultural runoff, researchers on the water will be monitoring what seems like the inevitable. Using a series of algae-sensing buoys, researchers will keep an eye on chemical changes in the water. The floating sensors will feed water quality information to local water treatment plants and area science labs."



'via Blog this'

The stuff that courage is made of

Green party would consider banning Grand National, suggests Natalie Bennett | Politics | The Guardian: "The Green party would consider banning the Grand National and other horse and greyhound races as part of an animal protection drive should it form the next government, its leader Natalie Bennett has suggested.

A promise to review such events will appear in the party’s manifesto, which is due to be released on Tuesday, she said.

“What we want to do is a whole range of issues dealing with animal protection. I can give you an exclusive preview of our manifesto which says we want a complete review of all horse and greyhound racing,” Bennett told the Andrew Marr show on BBC television.

She added: “There’s a whole range of broader issues around animal protection here that we really need to talk about, which is things like the badger cull, [and] we want to ban driven grouse shooting.”

0:00
/
0:00
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Green party membership surging, says leader – video
She added that “banning snares of animals and also tackling factory farming” were at the forefront of her thinking."



'via Blog this'

Return of the lost crops of the Incas

Return of the lost crops of the Incas: "In the same way that I have a soft spot for eccentrics and oddballs of the human kind, so I’ve always been intrigued by the horticulturally strange and the botanically forgotten. Take, for example, the lost crops of the Incas, the South American people whose civilisation was famed for its sophisticated agriculture and the diversity of food crops that it cultivated, including many different grains, tubers, legumes, nuts, fruit and vegetables. At its peak, this vast, climatically diverse empire measured more than 4,000km, stretching from southern Colombia to central Chile before it finally fell to the Spanish conquistadors in the mid-16th century. Yet, despite its size, it was also highly organised and capable of producing food for more than 15 million people.
I say “lost crops”, but not any more. Many of these plants – including mashua, oca, maca, yacon, Inca berry, pepino, quinoa, achocha, amaranth and kaniwa (Chenopodium) – are being cultivated both outdoors and under cover by a new generation of Irish gardeners who prize them for being nutritious, tasty and versatile, as well as productive and easy to grow. In doing so, they’re continuing a tradition of growing Inca food crops that began with the introduction of now commonplace kitchen garden plants such as potatoes, tomatoes and peppers."



'via Blog this'

Health IT vendors slammed for hampering the exchange of patient data - Reseller News

Health IT vendors slammed for hampering the exchange of patient data - Reseller News: "Electronic health records vendors make the process of sharing patient information too expensive and complicated for hospitals and doctors, a problem that affects the quality and cost of care.

That's the conclusion reached by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), the U.S. government agency that oversees the country's health IT efforts.

In a report released Friday, the ONC outlined challenges that health care providers face as they attempt to exchange patient data.

Among the issues identified: Health IT vendors charge high fees to set up interfaces for hospitals and labs to share patient data. They also force customers to use proprietary technology and refuse to publish APIs (application programming interfaces).

Sharing health data electronically is essential if technology is going to be used to deliver better and more affordable care, the ONC said in a blog post. "Information blocking" by IT vendors hinders this process, the ONC said. The agency didn't call out specific companies."



'via Blog this'

Student comments Spring 2015

I'd like to thank all of you on the Elmhurst College film fest "team" for your partnership with the Elmhurst Cool Cities Coalition on the One Earth Film Fest. I believe the event was a success overall, and the post-film discussion was great...Elmhurst Cool Cities Coalition

It has been awhile since I have talked to you and been able to catch up.  I don't think I have seen you since graduation! I know I am no longer your advisee, however I was hoping you could help me...I was wondering if perhaps I could come to visit you on campus sometime this week to pick your brain? AG

Just as you feel fortunate to have had us as advisees, we feel even more fortunate to have had you as an advisor! I thank you so much for all of your help -- from the questions you've answered regarding my class schedule and career path to the informative and entertaining lectures you've led in class. Thank you so much for shaping my college journey these past four years! I will be sure to mark my calendar when a date is set for a dinner in May. Have a wonderful week,...NR

Thanks for including me! You have been my favorite advisor and I still consider you one even though I couldn't change it on paper. :)  MH

I meant to talk to you about this after class, but it completely slipped my mind -  I know you are not my advisor, but I feel more comfortable coming to you for help vs my advisor. I wouldn't mind sitting down to chat or if you could direct me to someone that could help me even further that would be great...Thanks! You're the best!  LA

California streaming: an inside look at the Netflix 'war room' | Media | The Guardian

California streaming: an inside look at the Netflix 'war room' | Media | The Guardian: "A dozen product engineers, computer scientists, and localization specialists hover over their MacBook Pros in the King Kong conference room at Netflix headquarters in Los Gatos, California. There are two replicas of the Empire State building in the middle of the table (in keeping with the theme) and a large screen at the end of the table featuring several different charts, a TweetDeck tracking the mentions of #Netflix on Twitter, and a clock that is counting down toward midnight. It seems like the command center at MI6: when the clock strikes zero, the world will explode if James Bond and these nimble people at their screens don’t stop it.

This is a “war room” that has been set up for the night, and the zero for the countdown clock is when the streaming service will launch their latest original program, Marvel’s Daredevil. While Netflix is getting closer to its goal of having an original show premiere every other week, Daredevil was the first of its properties to be released simultaneously to all of its 57 million members, at 12.01am PST on 10 April. That includes all 50 countries that offer the service, including newer markets such as France, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Chile.


Meet Daredevil, TV’s emo superhero
Read more
There is a ring of television monitors circling the giant conference table, each hooked up to a different device that can deliver Netflix and each tuned to a different market. At the stroke of 12, a ceremonial switch is flipped and quality assurance is checked in each market and on each device. It is official: Daredevil is live. The mentions of Daredevil and Netflix start humming by on TweetDeck, coming so furiously it is impossible to read them. Many of them are from rabid fans of the comic book just typing, “Daredevil!!!!!” It’s the social media equivalent of the screech that greets One Direction whenever they step out of a hotel lobby."



'via Blog this'

California Drought-Fighters Turn to Australians for Help - Bloomberg Business

California Drought-Fighters Turn to Australians for Help - Bloomberg Business: "Australian farms and cities manage almost every drop of available water to make the most of supplies on the driest inhabited continent. No wonder California is looking Down Under for help with its record drought.
Four years of historic water loss have left the most-populous U.S. state with depleted reservoirs, fallow farmland and billions of dollars in emergency spending to keep faucets open. Unlike Australia, where water is tightly regulated and tracked by meters, usage in parts of California is unmonitored, urban supply remains cheap, and aquifers can be tapped by almost any landowner with a permit to drill a well.
“We are very, very inefficient as a society on how we use water,” said Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, which regulates supplies for 39 million residents in California, the nation’s biggest water user and top agricultural producer.
While the state is a long way from copying a foreign system with different property-rights laws and the world’s only large-scale market for trading water, Marcus and about a dozen other state officials met in Sacramento with an Australian delegation in December to cherry-pick ideas. Some, like mandated monitoring and conservation, were among the emergency measures imposed by Governor Jerry Brown this month that included an order for cities and towns to reduce consumption by 25 percent."



'via Blog this'

Marketing manager tops list of desirable jobs | Money | The Guardian

Marketing manager tops list of desirable jobs | Money | The Guardian: "Forget caretaker on a tropical island, chocolate taster or even water slide tester. The often maligned marketing industry today gets a gold star for doing what it is paid to do. Apparently what most Britons yearn to be is a marketing manager.

A report lists the roles of marketing manager, finance manager and mechanical engineer at the very top of its list of what working people deem the 25 best occupations in the UK.

The 25 plum UK jobs listed by global recruitment consultants Glassdoor are ranked according to a score determined by three factors in a series of employee surveys: earning potential, career opportunity rating and number of job openings. The results represent jobs that stand out across all three categories.

Marketing manager, with an average starting salary of £46,660, was in pole position with a score of 4.5, finance manager came second with 4.4, and mechanical engineer also scored 4.4.

In IT-related positions, the job of solutions architect (14th, score of 4.1) enjoys the highest average annual starting salary of £66,349, software engineer (10th, score of 4.2) currently has the most job openings – 14,846 – while professional services (8th) and technology (7th) were seen as the top two industries with the most jobs represented in a broad spread of roles. Accountant, traditionally a well-paid and secure springboard into various sectors, limped in at 23, with an overall score of 3.6 and an average starting salary of £29,488.

The final list of 25 predominantly office-based and IT-related jobs was whittled down from a list of 100 occupations – including retail store manager, lecturer, social worker, chef, flight attendant and bar tender."



'via Blog this'

The world's happiest jobs | Money | The Guardian

The world's happiest jobs | Money | The Guardian: "Engineers have the happiest job in the world, closely followed by teachers and nurses, according to analysis carried out by the Guardian.

We looked at nine different surveys conducted to find the occupations that make us happiest, and then did our own survey of these surveys, looking for the professions that appeared most often in the top 10 of each study.

Farm workers, hairdressers and beauticians narrowly missed out being included, as did members of the clergy.

Interestingly, we didn’t discover a link between a high salary and happiness, with occupations such as gardeners, personal assistants and construction workers also making it on to our list.

So what, in fact, does make a job a happy one? We spoke to workers doing the happiest jobs in the world to find out."



'via Blog this'

Bengaluru, not the country’s worst, but bad nevertheless - The Hindu

Bengaluru, not the country’s worst, but bad nevertheless - The Hindu: "Though the city may not be as bad as the glitch-laden figures of the National Air Quality Index (NAQI) claims, any resident can testify to the plumes of smoke and dust that make commuting a nightmare.

Just three out of 15 monitoring stations run by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) in the city show air quality levels within permissible standards. Not surprisingly, these three are in residential zones. The air quality is worst at the busy Central Silk Board junction and Victoria Hospital (K.R. Market) where the pollution levels are 2.5 times above ‘normal’ limits.

Pollution levels at the Peenya Industrial Estate, Victoria Road and Mysuru Road are a matter of concern.

These figures, however, are not reflected in the NAQI.

The Central Pollution Control Board operates just three stations – all close to the Outer Ring Road. Even their measurements at Peenya, admit CPCB officials, are understated, as the monitoring station is in an elevated area, which inhibits its ability to capture PM2.5 (that has a tendency to settle in lower reaches)."



'via Blog this'

Starbucks to Expand Online College Tuition Program - ABC News

Starbucks to Expand Online College Tuition Program - ABC News: "Starbucks says its workers can now have four years of tuition covered for an online college degree from Arizona State University instead of just two, marking the latest sign that companies are rethinking their treatment of low-wage workers.

The Seattle-based coffee chain says the decision is part of its commitment to "redefine the role and responsibility of a public company."

The expansion of the program comes as employers increasingly seek to win favor with customers by cultivating their images for being socially responsible. Last week, McDonald's also announced it was expanding a college tuition assistance program to workers at its more than 14,300 U.S. stores. At its company-owned stores, McDonald's said workers would get a pay bump and be able to earn paid time off as well.

Among the other major employers that have announced wage hikes recently are Wal-Mart Stores and Gap Inc.

The public declarations of improved pay and benefits come as the growing income disparities between the richest Americans and everyone else have become a major political issue. Last year, more than a dozen states and multiple cities raised their local minimum wages, according to the National Employment Law Project. And since late 2012, ongoing protests by labor organizers have highlighted the financial hardships of fast-food and retail workers, and generated negative publicity for McDonald's and Wal-Mart in particular."



'via Blog this'

Reilly may introduce one year’s paid leave for new parents

Reilly may introduce one year’s paid leave for new parents: "The introduction of a full year’s paid parental leave, split between both parents, is under consideration as part of a new childcare package from Minister for Children Dr James Reilly.
Choosing to split the year – which could be divided however the parents wish – may also entitle parents to bonus weeks of leave to encourage each parent to spend as much time with their child during its first year.
The European Union has consistently highlighted childcare as a problem in Ireland and has described poor access to childcare, as well as its high cost, as “a significant barrier to parents finding employment and avoiding the risk of poverty”."



'via Blog this'

Tobacco tax could lead to ‘a cigarette-free world by 2040’ | Society | The Guardian

Tobacco tax could lead to ‘a cigarette-free world by 2040’ | Society | The Guardian: "Pressure is growing for the introduction of an additional levy on cigarette sales in the UK, a move that campaigners say could help eradicate tobacco consumption within decades.

All three main political parties have signalled that they are open to the idea, which has been discussed by senior civil servants in the Treasury and the Department of Health and would be the latest salvo to be fired across the bows of big tobacco. From tomorrow, newsagents will no longer be able to display tobacco products behind their counters and from next year cigarettes will have to be sold in unbranded packs.

The small print of last month’s budget confirmed that the coalition remains open to the idea of a levy, first floated in a consultation exercise unveiled in last year’s autumn statement. Tobacco companies had hoped the idea would be scrapped, but instead the coalition confirmed that it “will continue the consultation on whether to introduce a tobacco levy through informal consultation with stakeholders”."



'via Blog this'

Sturgeon’s message to Miliband: will you help us remove the Tories from power? | Comment is free | The Guardian

Sturgeon’s message to Miliband: will you help us remove the Tories from power? | Comment is free | The Guardian: "There was a moment in last Wednesday’s televised leaders’ debate from Salford when I realised just how powerful a message the SNP’s anti-austerity alternative to the Westminster establishment is – not just to voters in Scotland, but to people from all across the UK.

It was at the half-time interval, when the other protagonists and I were given the chance to step away from our podiums and gather our thoughts during the three-minute advertisement slot.


Ed Miliband narrowly beats David Cameron in snap poll after leaders' debate
Read more
It was at this point I took the opportunity to come forward and chat with some of the members of the public in the front rows of the studio audience.

And the conversations I had brought it home to me just how persuasive and compelling that anti-austerity message is, as some of the people I spoke to told me that they wished they had the opportunity to vote for SNP candidates in England. It was validation of the approach we have adopted to this election campaign, and personally it buoyed me hugely going into the second half of the debate."



'via Blog this'

Air pollution may cause more UK deaths than previously thought, say scientists | Environment | The Guardian

Air pollution may cause more UK deaths than previously thought, say scientists | Environment | The Guardian: "The death toll from air pollution, usually put at around 29,000 a year in the UK, could be substantially higher because the lethal effect of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), emitted during fossil fuel burning, has not been taken into account, experts believe.

Until now, only deaths linked to fine particles, less than 2.5mm in diameter (PM2.5) have been estimated. In cities, these come primarily from cars, lorries and buses but they are also produced by the burning of wood, heating oil or coal for domestic or industrial purposes, or in forest fires.

Deaths from air pollution globally are rising. The Global Burden of Disease study from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle found that there were 3.4 million deaths from outdoor pollution in 2010, which was an increase from three million in 1990. Adding in the effects of indoor pollution, mostly from cooking fires in the developing world, brings the global death toll to seven million a year according to the World Health Organisation (WHO)."



'via Blog this'

‘Operation Olivia’ to save turtles - The Hindu

‘Operation Olivia’ to save turtles - The Hindu: "With a view to preventing further mortalities of Olive Ridley turtles, the Coast Guard has launched ‘Operation Olivia’ to enforce the provisions of the Marine Fishing Regulatory Act.

The operation area covers the coastal area from Porto Novo (Parangipettai) in Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu to Nizampatnam in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The Assistant Solicitor-General placed the comments and recommendatory note of the Coast Guard when a suo motu PIL plea for protection of sea turtles came up before the Madras High Court First Bench comprising Chief Justice S.K.Kaul and Justice M.M.Sundresh on Wednesday.

In February 2014, according to the note, a rare phenomenon of exceptionally high migration of Olive Ridley turtles was observed off Tamil Nadu/Andhra Pradesh coast, including sighting of a large number of turtle eggs off Nellore and Cuddalore coasts, in addition to the Marina beach.

There was a high casualty of approximately 800 turtles and washing ashore of carcasses. The steps to be undertaken under the operation included issuing a notification banning fishing by mechanised vessels and trawlers till 12 km from the coast in areas of turtle congregation; amendments to the Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh Marine Fisheries Regulatory Act and directing fishermen to install turtle excluder device in their nets."



'via Blog this'

Science is in crisis and scientists have lost confidence in Government policy

Science is in crisis and scientists have lost confidence in Government policy: "What has happened to cause many scientists to lose confidence in Government policy? There are two main problems: (i) government funding for universities has fallen by about 30 per cent in the past six years in spite of a significant increase in student numbers; and (ii) the rules by which SFI Ireland funds individual research scientists have been drastically altered. The balance has shifted from excellence to application, from breadth to narrowness and from applications by individuals to applications by applied research “centres”.
The overall result is that it is more and more difficult for universities to support and promote deserving staff who are therefore inclined to leave; and others, of course, retire. Universities simply do not have the funds to fill many vacant posts."



'via Blog this'