Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

In Peru, a corrupt land-titling scheme sees forests sold off as farms (Me: theft is theft and destroying forests at this point is a crime against us all on earth)

  • An irregular land titling system is behind the deforestation of a swath of Amazon rainforest now occupied by a Mennonite colony in Masisea municipality, in Peru’s Ucayali department.
  • In 2015, more than 40 land registry files were filled out with false information to give forests titles that made them appear to be farmland.
  • This system, used in several places in Ucayali department, allowed for the deforestation of more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of forests in Masisea and within Indigenous communities.

In September 2015, officials from the agriculture agency of Peru’s Ucayali department arrived in the district of Masisea with one goal: to create a rural land registry in a forested area along the edge of the Masisea-Imiría Highway, a road that runs through a section of the Peruvian Amazon.

That was the beginning of an intricate system of irregularly ceding public and Indigenous lands that later ended up in the hands of a Mennonite colony in Ucayali department.

Some authorities from the departmental government participated in this process by using their positions to grant titles to forested land illegally. Some of them are now under investigation and under house arrest. This story is an example of how, in Peru, some forests are deforested first on paper, and then in real life.

Source: In Peru, a corrupt land-titling scheme sees forests sold off as farms

Os pulmões doentes da Amazônia — Mágica Mistura✨

Barbara Crane Navarro

Meados de julho de 2021. Durante o segundo ano da pandemia de COVID-19, o calor catastrófico e o inferno de fogo no oeste dos Estados Unidos e Canadá, bem como as inundações do século na Alemanha e na Bélgica, competem pela maior manchete com o voo espacial do o multibilionário Jeffrey Bezos na florestade…

Os pulmões doentes da Amazônia — Mágica Mistura✨

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Official data confirms #Amazon deforestation still soaring and new footage captures the horror — Western Globe News

Barbara Crane Navarro

Official data published today by the Brazilian Space Research Institute (INPE), detected deforestation alerts across an area of the Amazon rainforest over five and a half times the size of London in the last 12 months. 8,712km2 (871,200 hectares) of the Amazon saw deforestation alerts between August 1, 2020 and July 30, 2021 according to[…]

Official data confirms #Amazon deforestation still soaring and new footage captures the horror — Western Globe News

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Oh Da Snark … Try Watching Grass Grow!

Filosofa's Word

It seems I keep finding things to snark about.  I have tried to clear my mind of the detritus, tried lying in the yard watching the grass grow to find some peace of mind, but some of the blades of grass began looking like politicians after a while.  I threw myself into housework … for all of ten minutes … and then I was tired, so I went back to reading the news.  So, letting loose the snark here on ye olde blog seems to be the only way to evict it from my head!


Punished for doing the right thing

Okay, my friends … I’m going there again … ‘there’ being the place I try very hard to stay away from:  religion.  Well, not religion per se, but rather certain religious ‘leaders’ who have flown repeatedly onto my radar, almost as if they are begging me to swat them…

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Bicycle Hand Signals For Safety

Almost same for cars and motorcycles before turn signals –

Frugal Average Bicyclist

Hand signals are a very important part of bicycle safety. Signals help drivers predict where you are going to go. When riding on the road you should always use hand signals, they can even be helpful on the trail to let other riders know where you are going. These are the most important signals that you should know. Try to signal about 100 feet before you intend to turn or stop, and make sure to hold the signal for at least 3 seconds. This gives drivers time to see the signal so they can be ready for your turn.

Left Turn

Left Hand Signal Bicycle

Right Turn

Right Hand Signal Bicycle

Alternate Right Turn

I have found that people often don’t recognize the standard right turn signal. Usually, I find people are waving back at me. So, I like to use the alternate right turn signal, and just point to…

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Two Monsters In Governor’s Clothing

Filosofa's Word

The state of Florida currently has more hospitalizations due to COVID than any other state in the nation.  Cases in Texas are also surging, sending hospitals scrambling to find ICU beds for all the patients.  Both of these states have Republican governors who are doing everything in their power to reduce the population in their states.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (left) and Texas Governor Greg Abbott

Both Governor DeSantis of Florida and Governor Abbott of Texas have banned mask mandates in their state, meaning that localities cannot legally put a mask mandate into effect in order to protect the people.  Bad enough under any circumstances, but now, with parents preparing to send their children back to school in a week or two, it is critical.

Columnist Greg Sargent has the latest on the battle between the governors, localities, and school boards …


The rebellion against pro-Trump, anti-mask GOP governors is…

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Mississippi’s Hospital System Could ‘Fail’ In Days As Feds Rush In

“Since the pandemic began, I think the thing that hospitals have feared the most is total failure of the hospital system. And if we track back a week or so when we look at the case positivity rate, the rate of new cases, the rate of hospitalizations—If we continue that trajectory within the next five to seven to 10 days, I think we’re going to see failure of the hospital system in Mississippi,” UMMC Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs Dr. Alan Jones said during an afternoon press conference.

“Hospitals are full from Memphis to Natchez to Gulfport. Hospitals are full.”

The dire pronouncement came as representatives from the federal government arrived in Jackson to assist with a field hospital in the medical center’s parking garage, news that Mississippi Free Press reporter broke early today. With UMMC short on staff and lacking in ICU care capacity, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is sending physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and pharmacists to help. Mississippi has about 2,000 fewer nurses working than eight months ago, and UMMC officials said their teams that remain “are stretched very thin.”

Source: Mississippi’s Hospital System Could ‘Fail’ In Days As Feds Rush In