Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm
New research has shown that it is possible and affordable for the world to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, if there is the political will to strive for this goal.
Time Running Out For Many Bird Species in Turkey
The White-Headed Duck is among many threatened fowl.
Dozens of starlings in the Karacabey district of Turkey’s Bursa province were among the victims of a recent spate of mass animal deaths around the world that initially provoked much international alarm. But though scientists have emphasized such incidents are not a sign of broader dangers, plenty of real threats face many of the hundreds of bird species in Turkey…
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The Plight of Female Drug Addicts in Afghanistan
Addiction strikes many women in Afghanistan.
Photographer Rafaela Persson has lived in Afghanistan since 2008, and spends time getting to know her subjects.
I had an idea to photograph female drug addicts. Afghanistan is the world’s biggest producer of opium, from which heroin is derived. According to a study made by U.N. Drugs and Crimes Office in 2010, the rate of drug addiction in Afghanistan is twice the global average; Afghans have become the leading consumers of their own opium. Approximately one million Afghans, or eight percent of the war-shattered country’s total population is suffering from drug addiction, a 75 percent increase since 2005. What is even more alarming is that studies show that 50 percent of Afghanistan’s opium-using parents give the drug to their own children…
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Iceland Wants To Be Your Friend
Iceland Wants to Be Your Friend is an initiative of the Icelandic Tourist Board.
Halló, my name is Iceland. I am an island, full of mountains and glaciers and hot water and sheep and other things. And also many nice Icelandic people, who like to make music, and who are sometimes cold.
(Maybe you have seen me on your tele-vision, or your Inter-nets.) I have heard that many people use the Inter-nets to make friends, and to talk about themselves. So that is what I want to do, too.
Street Artist Wins $100,000 TED Prize
27-year-old Parisian street artist JR just won the $100,000 TED prize for 2011
TED, the progressive California nonprofit that brings luminaries of technology, entertainment, and design together for the sake of world betterment, has made an unexpected choice for its seventh annual $100,000 TED Prize: JR, a 27-year-old street artist who, under a mysterious cloak of semi-anonymity, has been pasting monumental black-and-white photographs across the urban infrastructure of the world’s poorest slums…
(more award winning art after jump…)
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Meet The World’s Rarest Fungi – The Devil’s Cigar (Chorioactis)
The Worlds’ Rarest Mushroom
A star-shaped mushroom, called the Devil’s Cigar (Chorioactis geaster) is one of the world’s rarest fungi. It’s also known as the Texas star. These fungi had been detected only in central Texas, two remote locations in Japan, and most recently in the mountains of Nara. The Devil’s Cigar is a dark brown cigar-shaped capsule that transforms into a tan-coloured star when it splits open to release its spores.
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Western Nations Matching China’s Financial Strategy to Win Contracts
Western nations matching China’s low-cost financing – below-market interest rates.
When General Electric approached the U.S. Export-Import Bank in 2009 wanting to sell 150 locomotives for $477 million to Pakistan, there was a sense of futility. GE had already lost an earlier bid to a Chinese firm. Why would Pakistan buy American-made locomotives this time?
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Is Eating Insects the Answer to Reducing our Food Footprint?
Flickr user avlxyz tries an insect at Chiang Mai bazaar
Hungry for a grasshopper taco? Well, probably not. But the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) thinks it is time for an end to the “Eewww!” response to the thought of eating insects. The FAO reports that there are more than1000 edible insect species. Insects can provide protein in the diet at a much lower environmental cost than traditional livestock, such as cows, pigs, or sheep.
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Become a Collector of Sand
A Sample of Star Sand from Japan
Mouser Williams collects sand from different parts of the world. He photographs his samples using a macro lens to get up close and personal, labeling their composition. This lovely sample is called Star Sand…
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Earliest Winery Yet Found in Armenia
Winemaking from way back!
Archaeologists have announced the discovery of the world’s oldest winemaking facility. The winery was found in an Armenian cave near the village of Areni -the same cave where the oldest shoe ever was found last year. Carbon dating shows that the winery dates back 6,100 years!
In September 2010 archaeologists completed excavations of a large, 2-foot-deep (60-centimeter-deep) vat buried next to a shallow, 3.5-foot-long (1-meter-long) basin made of hard-packed clay with elevated edges…
Mobile Broadband Users Will Surpass 1 Billion by the End of 2011
Number of mobile broandband subrscriptions to surpass 1 billion in 2011.
Mobile broadband subscriptions are on track to surpass 1 billion in 2011 only months after reaching half a billion, Ericsson said on Tuesday, highlighting a key growth driver for the telecom sector.
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Citigroup Estimates in 50 Years Smoking Will Die Out Around the World
In approximately 50 years there will be no smokers in the developed nations according to Citigroup.
Citigroup estimates that within approximately 50 years there will be no smokers left in developed nations. We list the date smoking will die in 18 different countries from the UK to New Zealand.
