Monday 17 October 2011

Australian Company Will Kill Camels for Cash, Carbon Credits

Australian Company Will Kill Camels for Cash, Carbon Credits: australia-wild-camel-carbon-climate.jpg
Photo credit: Harclade via Flickr/CC BY

As you've likely heard, Australia is en route to pass legislation ensuring that its largest polluters pay for their carbon emissions. The new law will allow companies to reduce at least part of their emissions by buying carbon credits that sponsor projects proven to reduce greenhouse gase generation. And enterprising companies are already stepping up to the plate with ideas on how to turn a profit reducing emissions -- like, for instance, Northwest Carbon. The company has alre...Read the full story on TreeHugger




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Tribute – Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs Passes Away

Tribute – Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs Passes Away:

“No one wants to die, ”And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.” These are the words of Steve Jobs at 2005 commencement address at Stanford as he felt closer to death after being diagnosed with a rare type of Pancreatic Cancer, now on the day of his death, “Pancreatic Cancer” is the most Googled term according to CNN.





I am not a big fan of Apple, but I am writing this tribute as I have a great respect for the former Apple leader as Steve Jobs was the man who made my wildest of dreams come true. Ever since I bought an i-mate Jam (aka HTC Magician) I wondered why do I need a stylus to use the phone & wanted a device which could be operated with touch of a thumb and had an intuitive interface instead of a primitive UI which was the hallmark of Windows Mobile 2003. And the man who beat all the others and produced such device in 2007 around 3-4 years ahead of competition’s plans was Steve Jobs.


Jobs announces that he’ll be introducing three “revolutionary products of this class.”


“The first one: a widescreen iPod with touch controls.”


“Second, a revolutionary mobile phone.”


“The third, a breakthrough Internet communications device.”


Then, he grins as the icons for the three devices beginning spinning on the giant screen behind him until they nearly blur into one.


“Are you getting it?” Jobs said. “These are not three separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it iPhone.”



This is how Jobs introduced Apple iPhone to the awe-struck crowd in 2007, he was considered a showman of the business due to his presentation skills & motivational abilities. The legendary Apple leader had successes in his life from Apple II to iPad and made Apple the most most valuable publicly-traded company in the world, surpassing ExxonMobil’s market capitalization in August.



Steve Job’s leadership and his knack of producing the devices which really addressed user needs will be missed for a long time. Tributes from some prominent people are as follows:


President Obama said that “the world has lost a visionary,” noting that “there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”


Microsoft’s Bill Gates – a fierce rival – hailed the “profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.”


IEEE President Moshe Kam issued the following statement; “Steve Jobs was an inspiring inventor and entrepreneur, toward whom technical professionals worldwide, as well as consumers and the general public, felt unusual admiration and affinity. He was as exceptional, original and influential as the most revered figures in the history of innovation, including legendary individuals like Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, David Sarnoff, Hewlett and Packard, Walt Disney and Henry Ford. He will be sorely missed.”


Google co-founder Sergey Brin: From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration or vision and leadership, we need to look no farther than Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in Preston the few times we have met. On behalf of all of us at Google and more broadly in technology, you will be missed very much.


Jobs’ Apple announcement quotation taken from Steve Jobs’ top 5 showman moments


Other quotations courtesy: Yahoo


Photo courtesy: Apple & Andrew Burton, Getty Images



The positions and jobs offered on this blog are provided by us obtaining details from other news sources and we always suggest you check out all posts and companies for further details. We will of course advise when a position is available within our organisation with our associates. Need to email me leave a comment and use our new Disqus box and share. Thank you, Ian Draper [Editor]

Saturday 3 September 2011

Big Society Overview & Opinions

Big Society, Anarchist Style:
Anna is the model citizen. The 31-year-old self-described professional volunteer spends Mondays running a free bike workshop, Wednesdays counselling others in the community, and in her spare time is helping to build a community garden in Camberwell, South London.
For her it's about taking responsibility for where she lives. "If I didn't believe that what I spent most of my time doing made people's lives more pleasant, I'd be pretty lost. I'm hoping that I make life easier for others."
Among her projects: Free computing workshops, a shop set up to help young mothers who cannot afford their kids' back-to-school clothes, free skill-share workshops.
People like Anna are helping to make David Cameron's Big Society "vision" a reality. From free judo lessons to building adventure playgrounds or residents uniting to protect their libraries from the threat of closure, across London communities are uniting to help one another.
Just one thing… all these programmes are run by anarchist groups.

In a speech in February 2011 about the Big Society, David Cameron described the Big Society in a nutshell: "What this is all about is giving people more power and control to improve their lives and their communities."

But when he set out his vision he probably didn't have anarchists in mind. Dr Jo Haynes, a sociologist from Bristol University says the comparison is telling. "It's interesting that theoretically, a smaller state - or no state - chimes with anarchist principles as well, but the power taken by the people through anarchist community activity and political mobilisation would be at odds with the kind of 'soft power' envisaged within David Cameron's Big Society idea".

Jesse Norman disagrees. The Conservative MP, who has written a book on the Big Society, says while anarchists would be "absolutely appalled" to be considered at the vanguard of an idea which originated from the Conservative party, the two are are not so dissimilar.

"If you reach past the labels, it may be that as a matter of labels, anarchists are deeply uncomfortable with being concerned with any government programme... if you get away from the labels, an awful lot of what the Big Society is about is about restoring meaning and energy to people's lives. I think this is built into the idea that David Cameron’s talking about."

Dr David Chapman, a research analyst at the consultancy Monitor Group currently researching social entrepreneurs, believes Conservative advocates of the Big Society should look to anarchist groups.
"They have a pretty essential role to play within the Big Society agenda. Certainly within the middle-class Tory consciousness the word anarchist conjures up people in masks rioting. But that’s not what these people are doing, they are building communities. The point of social entrepreneurs, they are innovators, they don't do things in a normal way."
"To my mind an anarchist group in Dalston creating a community garden is exactly the same as some middle class parents in Oxfordshire trying to provide a free school. It's the community coming together.
"The only thing that differentiates an anarchist group from the kind of traditional Big Society perspective is the cultural perspective of who is an acceptable person."
But Dr Chapman says for the Big Society to work, everyone has to feel empowered.
"The Big Society is a very, very powerful idea but it does raise lots of questions about who, in a broad cultural sense, society deems as a valid individual."
And what do the anarchists think? Andy Meinke, Secretary of London-wide anarchist collective ALARM is scathing about the Big Society but recognises the comparison: "Obviously we regard Cameron's Big Society as an attempt to do social services on the cheap.
The reality of the big society is creating a society that's not run for profit but for human need.
"That’s what we do in a very small way, we help people self-organise to help themselves in a way that the state won't do."
The prime minister has recognised the idea of the Big Society is not new. Many of these groups have been running for years. And they don’t want to talk to journalists. Volunteer-run anarchist bookshop 56a, who also help organise workshops and support fellow "community collectives” write: "we don't care about exposure, publicity or putting our side of the story etc… not interested",
Some are slightly more forthcoming: A community scheme for the unemployed in deal with the government all the time: "We are looking at people being moved from DSA [Disability Support Allowance] to JSA [Job Seekers' Allowance]", says trade union activist Marie "we want to help people".
As for Anna, she runs most of the skills workshops from the communal squat she lives in - an activity the government is currently consulting on making illegal.
"We're organising over 30 workshops and it's all free skill share. Welding, plumbing, electricity.
"The reason I came to London was to volunteer. There’s a severe lack of support for a lot of different people here –London has a really apparent rich-poor gap, and the people who are living below the poverty line are suffering. The Free Shop meant we could give kids' clothes to people who did not have enough."
So, what's the Big Society to her? "It sounds like a really right-wing concept."
Some names and places have been changed to protect identities
#ad144000hoe

Ministers To Open Talks With Opponents Of Planning Reforms

My Overview -

So is this the future that when we are in a position of a global downturn then we start to look evermore towards taking green belt land and allowing developers to build more homes, on the basis that we have to keep up the numbers to be in line with government guidelines and utilizing the fact that they have to keep the electorate happy.

Ministers To Open Talks With Opponents Of Planning Reforms:

PRESS ASSOCIATION -- Ministers are ready to hold talks with opponents of their planning reforms, it emerged today.

Planning minister Greg Clark told The Times that he was prepared to sit down and discuss the demands of the National Trust and other groups.

The draft National Planning Policy Framework was published in July, with a presumption in favour of sustainable growth, but critics have raised concerns that it will lead to a return to damaging development.

Mr Clark told the newspaper that he was ready to discuss opponents' views with them but warned there would be no backing down on the overall thrust of the proposals to simplify English planning laws in an attempt to trigger growth.

Any change would be to the "wording" of the document to express more clearly protections for the countryside.


Mr Clark said that opponents had got the "wrong end of the stick".

He said sustainability of developments meant that the impact on the community and the environment would be taken into account.


If anything in the consultation paper had failed to stress the importance of protecting the environment, he would think again.


However failure to see the reforms through would be devastating for future generations.

"The consequences would be to continue the position we are in where we are not building enough homes for the people needing them for the first time. We are contributing to homelessness, to overcrowding, to poverty."

The National Trust welcomed the move, the newspaper said.

Peter Nixon, its director of conservation, told it that the National Trust was not anti-development but had "acute concerns" about the plans, which they believe prevent a balanced approach to planning.


#AceNewsServices

Century of strong faith

Century of strong faith:

The Huat Tian Keong temple in Bercham is a unique place of worship with 88 types of Taoist, Buddhist and Hindu deities in its cave.

Among them are statues of the ‘Laughing Buddha’, Lord Ganesha, Thailand’s monk Lombok Khoon, a Siamese God ‘Lusi’ (King of Bomoh) and the temple’s main deity Huat Tian Keong (Datuk Hitam).

Bercham

The Huat Tian Keong cave temple in Bercham is 100-years old.

There are also the figurines of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Temple treasurer Sunny Mangal Singh said the temple had been in existence for over 100 years.

He said he had sourced the statues from all over the world to be placed at the temple located on a 3.2ha site.

A 60-feet tall dragon statue is neatly placed on the outside of the cave making it look like it is descending from the top of the cave.

cave temple

Sunny posing with the statue of the Siamese God 'Lusi' at the temple grounds.

To fulfill a vow for his business to flourish, Mangal Singh also constructed a feng shui mountain in 2004.

He added that in 2008, the state government had declared the area as a temple reserve land.

“People of all races from all over the country and even tourists have been visiting this cave temple. The temple committee had also set up a restaurant for the devotees to get refreshments. We rely on donations and the profits from the restaurant is used to pay for utility bills,” he said. – By MANJIT KAUR, Photos by LEW YONG KAN

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Monday 29 August 2011

How Global Warming Will Make Hurricanes Like Irene Worse

Does global warming cause an impact on the worlds weather, this is the crux of the stories on the web following yesterday`s Hurricane Irene the answer is no body really knows or do we?

We can cite examples over history of massive earthquakes of x and y on the richer scale and also hurricanes like the ones seen over many years gone by, but one thing is certain each time we have another one we say that was different it never did what we thought it would do, or it was not like that before.

So my question is simple are we seeing changes that are so different that we cannot believe it is possible or are we so brain washed with knowledge provided by the so-called scientists that we continue to believe what they tell us, this story from my news stories is just one take on global warming and hurricanes like Irene.

Maybe it is about time to just say alright l will not disbelieve what l am told until it is proved in my heart that l am wrong.

How Global Warming Will Make Hurricanes Like Irene Worse:

Climate science suggests that global warming may lead to more and more extreme weather events like Hurricane Irene.


Tuesday 23 August 2011