Some Good News...

[mikaztro]

GOOD NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

Simple Solutions Feed Hungry People

Farmers in eastern Africa gave up pulling weeds. Now they plant weeds along with their crops and, as a result, harvest 60 to 70 percent more food than before. The idea was developed at the Mbita Point research station in Kenya. The logic of this technique is simple: give the insects something to eat so they don't need to graze on valuable maize.

Mexican farms raise their yield by planting squash and beans in with the maize. When crops are combined there is less damage from insects and more efficient use of water.

In Bangladesh rice paddies double as fisheries, with results so successful they are being implemented in other countries.

British researcher Jules Pretty of the University of Es*** studied the use of sustainable agricultural solutions in 52 countries where the cost of high tech solutions is too expensive for most farmers. His analysis of more than 200 projects has shown that innovations like the above have increased average crop yields by 73 percent, with no peripheral damage to people or the environment. He notes that such projects are “cheap, use locally available technology and often improve the environment. The solutions most help the people who need help the most -- poor farmers and their families, who make up the majority of the world's hungry people.” - Jane Hersey, Pure Facts newsletter, The Feingold Association.
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U.S. to Help Russia Dismantle Last Three Nuclear Reactors



VIENNA, AUSTRIA -- The United States signed agreements with Russia March 12 that will help shut down Russia’s last three nuclear reactors, which are capable of producing tons of plutonium for nuclear bombs.

These nuclear reactors also produce electricity for remote cities. Therefore, the United States will provide assistance in constructing replacement fossil energy plants. The Russian Federation will be responsible for the shutdown and decommissioning of the three reactors.

“Replacing these reactors with fossil fuel energy is critical in eliminating the production of weapons-grade plutonium in Russia and closing these facilities,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said during a signing ceremony with Russian Minister of Atomic Energy, Aleksandr Rumyantsev.

The three reactors have 15 years of remaining life and, as a group, could generate the equivalent of one nuclear weapon per day. They will continue to operate until the fossil-replacement plants are completed and begin operations.

Bush Administration programs to advance nonproliferation have been earmarked to receive $1.3 billion in its fiscal 2004 budget, a 30 percent increase over its 2003 request.

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New Technology Turns Garbage Into Gold

IMAGINE... Imagine a machine that can turn almost anything into oil. Imagine that it uses natural processes like heat and pressure, and produces no pollution. Imagine that waste from landfills, refuse from poultry factories, sludge from city sewage, or even infectious medical waste, are used to make the oil. Everybody says it sounds too good to be true. But now we have the science -- and two factories -- to prove it.

"This is a solution to three of the biggest problems facing mankind," Brian Appel, CEO of Changing World Technologies, Inc., told Discover magazine in a May 2003 feature article. "This process can deal with the world's waste. It can supplement our dwindling supplies of oil. And it can slow down global warming."

The process is called thermal depolymerization. Waste goes in one end and comes out the other as three products, all valuable and environmentally benign: High-quality oil, clean-burning gas, and purified minerals that can be used as fuels, fertilizers, or specialty chemicals for manufacturing. CWT established a Research & Development plant in Philadelphia in 1999 to test and refine the technology. It successfully processed about seven tons per day of different types of waste, like animal waste, tires, plastics and paper.

ConAgra Foods proposed a joint venture for the first commercial application of the technology. As a result, a $20 million plant is poised to begin operating in September on the grounds of a massive Butterball Turkey plant in Carthage, Missouri. Funded in part by a $5 million grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency, the plant will process 200 tons per day of fats, bones, feathers, and grease, turning it into oil, with the only by-product being water.

"This is tremendous!" said Paul Baskis, the inventor of the process, to the Kansas City Star. "From the tests we've run in our pilot, we know that if we took all the agricultural wastes (in America) and converted them into oil we could make billions of barrels per year." (One billion barrels could effectively eliminate the need for Persian Gulf imports.)

The conversion process emulates the earth's natural geothermal activity, whereby organic material is converted into fossil fuel under conditions of extreme heat and pressure over millions of years. By using pipes, pressure vessels, valves, and heat exchange storage tanks to control temperature and pressure, thermal depolymerization shortens the process from millions of years to mere hours. And, the process is simple enough to be completed "on the back of a flatbed truck," says Appel.

The technology is 85% energy efficient because it has very low Btu requirements. It generates its own energy, utilizes recycled water throughout, produces no uncontrollable emissions and no secondary hazardous waste streams. In addition, the process can make both the coal and petroleum industries themselves more clean and profitable by turning their waste and chemical by-products into salable resources.

Imagine that.

[Mushi Mushi]

Good News:

Nanaginip ako kanina, nagda-drive daw ako ng Fortuner. Ang sarap at ang gaan ng manibela! Tapos nakita ko yung dealer ko na tumaga sakin ng in-house financing at Kelseat, bigla kong kinabig at sinagasaan siya... kinaladkad ko hanggang binangga ko yung Fortuner dun sa Toyota Otis... sumabog siya at tinupok ng apoy yung showroom kasama ng mga Hilux at Innova.... Haaay... ang saya, saya! :praning:

[1D4LV]

let me just share this to you guys...

• How often that we complain that we don't have this and how long have you wanted this thing, but we seem to forget that there are other people who have less.
  
  How often that we say that I want to work abroad and have a better life, but we seem to forget that there are thousands of people who would almost give everything to have your work here.
  
  How often that we complain that we have so many things to pay, but we seem to forget that at least we have means to pay them - thing for those who have bills to pay and are jobless.
  
  How often do we say that other people's lifestyle is so flashy, but given the same things that they have, you would do the same..
  
  How often do we complain that you get so frustrated with your wife/partner that you forget that at least, you have the capability to forgive and you are still together - think of the thousand families that are separated.
  
  How often do we say stories that are half-truths to stay abreast with others, but seem to forget the true meaning of friendshp - that is unconditional acceptance of an individual.
  
  How often do we say that I deserve this and forget to ask who am i to deserve this?
  
  How often do we pretend to know everything and give advise - and yet fail to apply them to yourself...
  
  How often do we parade ourselves in front of others and forget that in the end, you are only fooling yourself..
  
  How often do we say that - he has a better job and i like to be like him - but seem to forget that by doing this, YOU WILL NEVER BE CONTENTED. There will always be someone who is higher than you.
  
  

[ravelcop]

Heto good news!

Flight ko tonight at 7:30 pauwi ng Cebu. My family and girlfriend are waiting for me there. Haaaayyyy... miss ko na talaga silang lahat.

Good bye Manila... Hello Cebu!

[pajerokid]

pre... may dagdag pa aside from the AMI?

Hehe. Yup. Alam mo na yun Check mo yung sig ko sa email hehehe.

Pero NDA ha. hehehehe.

[caloyski5]

eto good news...for me lang though...better ang sales ko than last week :D

[stinkaboy]

nice thread!

[ts1n1ta]

Good News: Buhay pa ako.

[oldblue]

> The Philippines' dependence on imported oil is continually decreasing. Only Ramos & Arroyo (in their respective terms) were able to do that. Of our total energy consumption, 62% comes from indigienous resources & 38% from imported oil.

).

so what does this mean ba sir mazdamazda yun 38% comprises yun lahat ng vehicles sa P'nas and of course yun other industries that needs oil?

I'm quite surprised but relieved too. Eto yun pino-portray ng media na we're all doomed kapag tumataas ng tumaas ang presyo ng langis, pero 38% lang pala yun. And we, Filipinos, now feel betrayed & neglected by the govt bec. of those inaccurate news reporting.

[oldblue]

Good news to me this year is in the form of phrases that I accidentally stumbled upon while reading some book/article in random:

1st: "When a door closes, another one opens"

2nd: "Desperation is the Father of Creativity".