All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Ohio jobs and opportunities for social good

In 2013, Idealist is reaching out state-by-state to nonprofit communities around the country. This month is Ohio Month! So what does that mean for you?

FOR ORGANIZATIONS NEW TO IDEALIST

A free job posting for Ohio organizations that join this month!

Idealist is the web’s largest nonprofit job board—and we list government and social enterprise jobs, too. Over 100,000 people visit the site every day, and new jobs are emailed nightly to hundreds of thousands of people.

Posting jobs with us is always a great value, at $70 per listing. But this month, new organizations in Ohio will be given a free job posting credit just for joining. Job credits are good for six months.

You can post volunteer opportunities, internships, events, and programs, too. These are always free, so join today!

via Ohio jobs and opportunities for social good.

The Gun Report: September 11, 2013 – NYTimes.com

A man attempting to show his wife that a 9-millimeter gun in their Windsor, Vt., home was not loaded accidentally shot her early Saturday. Matthew Coleman pulled the trigger and a single bullet passed through both of Dorthea Coleman’s legs before lodging itself in their bed frame. Coleman pleaded innocent to a misdemeanor count of simple assault with a deadly weapon.

via The Gun Report: September 11, 2013 – NYTimes.com.

Monsanto akin to Assad – Denver Holistic Health | Examiner.com

Glyphosate commonly marketed as Roundup and manufactured by Monsanto is the most frequently used herbicide on both cropland and common-use areas of the world since its introduction in the 1970s. For years the chemical industry claimed there were no adverse side effects to the widespread use of glyphosate but more recent studies have found, “[Glyphosate] residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics. Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.” Is the slow, gradual poisoning of a people worse than immediate death?

Perhaps the United States needs reminded of the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam and the horrible effects still being felt by generations of Americans and their offspring.

via Monsanto akin to Assad – Denver Holistic Health | Examiner.com.

The Gun Report: September 10, 2013 – NYTimes.com

An 11-year-old boy shot himself in the foot at his home north of North Platte, Neb., Saturday afternoon. The boy took a .22 caliber single-shot rifle from the top shelf of a closet so he and his friends could shoot birds in their homemade fort. The boy’s mother drove him to the hospital. Officials say no charges will be filed.

via The Gun Report: September 10, 2013 – NYTimes.com.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan: Wind down Fannie and Freddie, confirm Mel Watt – Charlotte Business Journal

Trust commercial banks to care about home ownership? I trust them to take us back to a time when few could afford homes!

wind down enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ask private dollars to support more of the mortgage market and launch a new federal entity to replace Fannie and Freddie.

via HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan: Wind down Fannie and Freddie, confirm Mel Watt – Charlotte Business Journal.

Photo of the Day: Eco-Friendly Dairies

Scientists are looking at whether changing the surface of a barnyard from soil to sand or wood chips can help reduce the amount of gases that vaporize after cattle urinate. The information will be used to help farmers make their dairies more environmentally friendly.

via Photo of the Day: Eco-Friendly Dairies.

 

Makes little sense when you are milking and housing 1,000 or more head but looks good for press.

China’s Food Supply Dilemma – Not!

According to Deere & Company CEO, Sam Allen, China’s population is outpacing its food supply. Allen suggests that a strategic combination of increased food imports and increased food production in the country is needed to feed 1.35 billion mouths.

via China’s Food Supply Dilemma.

(People, it seems, will say nearly anything to get in print. If China needs food for its people, all it need do is export less of it outside of the country – or do what we will all be doing in the future – grow more of everything in green houses, organically – using less water and polluting less and using less space. Field farming will give way to replanting forests and letting natural ecology recover where it can to better support itself and us!)

6 tons of seized ivory to be crushed in US in crackdown on illegal trafficking

(“Too bad wrong-headed gun rights advocates want to prevent this solution to confiscated guns from illegal trading and crimes”)

Wildlife officials are planning to crush more than 6 tons of ivory as part of a push by the United States to combat illegal trafficking worldwide.

The ivory was seized around the country in an effort to block imports of tusks from elephants that have been slaughtered for their tusks.

The seized items include whole tusks that have been carved into scenes from daily life.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the illegal industry has become a $10 billion one.

via 6 tons of seized ivory to be crushed in US in crackdown on illegal trafficking.

Eat Drink Better | Cooking, healthy food, and sustainable eating!

Even so, U.S. shrimpers look like Boy Scouts compared to Asian and South American “shrimp barons,” who are clearing huge swaths of ecologically sensitive mangrove habitat to create shrimp factory farms. It’s estimated that one-fifth of mangroves worldwide have been lost since 1980, mostly because they have been razed to make way for shrimp farms. Shrimp that comes from cleared mangroves is estimated to have a carbon footprint 10 times higher than beef from cows raised on cleared Amazon rain forest.

What about farmed shrimp?

Overseas shrimp farms are commonly cesspools of antibiotics, fertilizers, banned pesticides, contaminated water, and other waste. According to Canadian journalist Taras Grescoe, “The simple fact is, if you’re eating cheap shrimp today, it almost certainly comes from a turbid, pesticide- and antibiotic-filled, virus-laden pond in the tropical climes of one of the world’s poorest nations.”

If local villagers object to the farms, which have been blamed for polluting or siphoning the water supply and contaminating agricultural land with salt water and waste, their concerns are often ruthlessly quashed—sometimes with violence, including beatings, rapes, arson, shootings, and even murder. In Thailand, Burmese migrants are press-ganged into working on fishing boats that supply feed to shrimp farms, and workers report appalling conditions—and even executions at sea.

Considering the devastating ecological impact of cheap shrimp—in addition to the accompanying human rights abuses—isn’t it time to put an end to “endless shrimp”?

via Eat Drink Better | Cooking, healthy food, and sustainable eating!.