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POPSTwilight Saga New Moon: We've Seen It Before If anything, the title itself adds an ironic twist to a tale that spirals into a stereotypical narrative to which we are all well-conditioned by now, both in films and other more readily-available media in our every day lives
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POPSDevelopment: Hunger Summit's Failure to Expose Grim Reality Diouf was not suggesting rich countries shell out 44 billion in fresh cash - much of the money could simply come by diverting already-assigned resources to increase agriculture’s share of ODA from the current level of around five percent to about 18-19 percent. But the FAO does not have any battleships or financial sanctions to use to coerce nations into taking action. Before the summit Diouf said that the FAO budget does not permit it to do much alone about such a huge problem, pointing out that individual states, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the regional development banks are the ones with the serious money. Furthermore, a large portion of the hunger problem is related to unfair international trade conditions - caused in part by First World support of domestic agriculture - where the FAO has no role. It is up to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to engineer a deal to iron out these distortions.
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POPSChina: Postscript to Obama Visit: When Bejing Blinked Advocating the G2 is in fact an American strategy, not China’s" said Shi Yinhong, an expert on international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. "The U.S. wants us in a tandem because that way it will be easier to work on all financial and security issues the way they want us to."
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POPSClimate Change: Small islands Fear Going the Way of Atlantis Drought, rising sea levels, flooding, and increased food insecurity are predicted to negatively affect hundreds of millions of people across the globe ... Indigenous peoples, intimately inter-connected with their environment, are already sensing environmental changes. "Even if indigenous peoples don't completely understand the science, they understand perfectly that modern civilisation is living out of balance with nature, the consequences of which we are now reaping, The precarious situation of the Amazon rainforest can be viewed as a bell-weather for the survival of Earth's ecosystem as a whole. Industrial-scale human activities, leading to deforestation, are conspiring with climate change symptoms like drought to point the Amazon toward the nightmare "die-back" scenario.
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POPSDictionopolis I grew up with Webster's Dictionary, but have since graduated to Oxfords. (sniff) I can't clip images (always blocked when I'm in Egypt), so go to clip source to figure out the difference between college and high school dictionaries. There's also a link to a youtube video on how the American Heritage Dictionary avoids problematic guide words
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POPS31 December 2009: Gaza Freedom March Several civil society organizations are supporting the Gaza Freedom March, including the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), the International Campaign for Breaking the Israeli Siege, the Palestinian Workers Syndicate, the Sharek Youth Forum and the Palestinian Network of Nongovernmental Organizations (PNGO) - more @ clip source
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POPSHarlem Gospel Choir Will Not Be Exploited On Beck's Xmas Show The Harlem Boys Choir maintains that they canceled for financial reasons. James Rucker, of Colorofchange.org said that he sent information on Beck that influenced HBC's decision and that the Choir had no idea that Beck is considered racist. No matter the reason, Beck's attempt to exploit a distinguished African-American group to shield his racism has been thwarted. What an Xmas scam. :LOL: Perhaps the Mormon Choir will fill-in? They're much more appropriate for his scene. No mater, Leni Riefenstahl would still be proud of the effort.
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POPSNY Post Sued AGAIN, Racism Charges " hey refused a request by Governor David Paterson, the first Black Governor of the State of New York, to be interviewed about the cartoon," Fenner's complaint alleges. "Specifically, after Governor Paterson made it know that he wanted to be interviewed about the nature of that cartoon and had also agreed to be interviewed about any other subject, the White editors at the Post summarily refused to interview him....Such a rejection of a sitting Governor is unprecedented and practically unheard of in journalism." more @ clip source
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POPSWhy the Comcast-NBC Merger Must Be Stopped Perhaps the most dangerous risk of this deal -- and one we have seen many times in years -past - is that it will trigger a "merger wave" throughout the industry as distribution companies and content companies seek to "muscle up" to match the new threat that the vertically integrated Comcast poses. Consumer choice will be restricted and prices will rise. With diminishing competition, the likelihood of similar behavior by other companies grows stronger, as does the threat of collusion among competitors. - more @ clip source
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POPSReading List: Slave Hunter 'Can you recruit musicians for this Drop the Debt campaign?' And I was Perry's executive director, so the request came through me, and I just thought: 'Wow, this is a divine miracle!' So we pulled out Perry's Rolodex and contacted David Bowie and Bono and all these people, and they all came on board." It was one of the most successful campaigns in history: 27m signatures were obtained, and $300bn of debt was wiped out in a single stroke. For Cohen, though, it didn't stop there. The concept of "jubilee", the forgiving of debt and the freeing of slaves, has gone on to inform all aspects of his life ever since then.
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POPSFood Stamp Use on the Rise in the US as Poverty Increases and Stigma Fades
With most of his co-workers laid off, Greg Dawson, a third-generation electrician in rural Martinsville, considers himself lucky to still have a job. He works the night shift for a contracting firm, installing freezer lights in a chain of grocery stores. But when his overtime income vanished and his expenses went up, Mr. Dawson started skimping on meals to feed his wife and five children. He tried to fill up on cereal and eggs. He ate a lot of Spam. Then he went to work with a grumbling stomach to shine lights on food he could not afford. When an outreach worker appeared at his son’s Head Start program, Mr. Dawson gave in. “It’s embarrassing,” said Mr. Dawson, 29, a taciturn man with a wispy goatee who is so uneasy about the monthly benefit of $300 that he has not told his parents. “I always thought it was people trying to milk the system. But we just felt like we really needed the help right now.” - more @ clip source
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POPSObama Pushes Lobbyists Off Federal Advisory Boards The reaction from the lobbying community has been swift and overwhelmingly negative. Some of the loudest criticism has come from the Industry Trade Advisory Committees (ITACs), a collection of more than a dozen panels that provide policy advice and technical assistance to the Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative. The ITACs, whose roughly 400 members include at least 130 lobbyists, officials say, have taken the lead in attacking the White House policy as misguided and harmful to U.S. business interests; a letter to Obama from committee chairs last month included executives from Boeing, IBM, Harley-Davidson and International Paper. "This action will severely undermine the utility of the advisory committee process," the letter read. ". . . The characteristics that make many Advisors valuable to the Administration the same characteristics that are being used to artificially disqualify them from participation in the Committee system."
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POPSBest Buy Says "Happy Eid" - Christian Conservatives Miffed 'Tis the season for bitching about nothing ... In another publication, Hawks said that, in addition to Eid wishes, “you will see greetings of Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa and Feliz Navidad in various Best Buy communications during the holiday season.” That might rile conservatives, too. Already, the American Family Association has lashed out at the Gap for giving equal billing to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Solstice in a new TV commercial — although that group’s main concern is the inclusion of Solstice. Imad Hamad, the regional Midwest director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, sees the greeting as a “welcome gesture from Best Buy,” adding that many of the complaints against it illustrate the kind of “anti-Islamic virus we’ve been hearing and dealing with.”
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POPSThai Airways Charges $2000 excess baggage I doubt that he will ever see that money again. If you go to Thailand don't have anything valuable sent through the post office, not even a nice backpack 'cause you'll never receive it and bribes bring no guarantee. If there's a lesson here, it's this: If an airline is going to hit you with an overweight-bag fee, ask to see its policy in writing and make sure airline representatives measure and weigh your bags in front of you. Oh, and if you're traveling to Thailand, pack light.
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