Thursday, June 23, 2011

Headlines below the fold

Global rice prices have been stable but now are predicted to go up.

This is good news for those of us who sell rice (the family business is selling organic brown rice). but bad news for the poor.

but the really bad part of the report is this part:

global rice prices which have remained relatively stable, rising only 17 % since June last year against a 50-150 % hike seen in the prices of other crops are likely to increase in the coming months as rising production could force Asian countries to expand their reserves or impose bans on rice exports.
This news is so important that the G20 is discussing it: background HERE.

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June 21 started Salmon gil net season in Alaska, so anyone who viewed Sarah's Alaska series knows they have a limited time to work the nets....

But the press is interpreting this as "giving up"...guess they can't google (or don't watch TV).

her show is now here in Asia, and like the other "blue collar" shows (dirty jobs, the fishing shows), it helps to counteract the "Americans as rich lazy promiscuous drug taking society" messages that fill MTV and other TV shows from the US...

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Indonesia is now banning maids going to Saudi after a maid there was executed for killing someone who was abusing her.
The Philippine gov't report says that the only "safe" place to work in the Middle East is Israel and Omar, and even they have problems...and they note that suicides are so common (in response to abuse) that the deaths don't even get reported in the press...

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George Clooney has a new movie about "a young, idealistic press secretary (Gosling) who works for presidential candidate Governor Mike Morris (Clooney), and despite himself becomes dangerously involved in a web of deceit and corruption."

yawn....
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Austin Bay reports Ghadaffy is losing on four fronts, but Obama's lack of leadership and showing weakness in pulling out of Afghanistan is giving Ghadaffy hope...

yes, and I suspect his weakness is why China is planning to reclaim the Spratlys now...

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some good news: AiWeiWei has been released from a Chinese prison

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Medicaid glitch...heh. I am spending a fortune keeping up my US medical insurance, but now it turns out I am eligible for Medicaid.

Maybe they should have "outsourced" the health care bill to the public (as they did with Palin's emails) so someone could read it before passing it.

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hmm...my itunes isn't updating some of my podcast feeds...anyone else have the problem?
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some varieties of the Strep germ are getting nasty...scarlet fever causing deaths in HongKong...

these diseases come and go...rheumatic fever was common up to the 1960's and then disappeared...but then in the 1980's we saw some viralent strep sepsis (that's what killed Jim Henson) and then some strep got partial resistance to Penicillin, especially in Europe.

Scarlet fever used to be a killer, but more recently we didn't see it as much of a problem...sounds like it's reverting back to killer status.

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Behold: The SpongeBob mushroom:


The fungus, named Spongiforma squarepantsii by the researchers at San Francisco State University (SFSU), was found during an expedition to the forests of Borneo.

it was given the name because it resemble a seasponge rather than a mushroom...

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