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The earth is running out of natural resources like land, water and minerals so quickly that if nothing is done, some predictions say that by 2030 humankind will need the equivalent of two planets to sustain our current lifestyle. Those chilling figures come from a famous World Wildlife Fund ‘Living Planet’ report in 2008, but what exactly can we do to reduce our environmental impact—which has got worse since then—and how should we go about doing it? People “desperately” need a means of putting the environmental impact of their products into context, according to Martin Barrow, a senior consultant at...

Fears about climate change are overblown and shifting weather patterns and rising sea levels should be considered an engineering problem, said the head of the world's largest oil refiner, ExxonMobil. "The fear factor that people want to throw out there to say 'we just have to stop this,' I do not accept," Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil's chief executive, said in a speech on Wednesday (June 27). Tackling global poverty should have a higher international priority than reducing carbon emissions, because it would give billions of the world’s energy poor access to oil and gas supplies, in his view. "They'd love to...

<p>It isn’t only that the immediate outlook looks grim but also that they can apparently see no way out. Yet throughout the post-war period, economists have tended to think that there is always a way out – and they have been trained to try to find it. Is the current abject pessimism justified?</p>

When rifle-toting members of Syria's shabbiha pro-government paramilitary gangs strut into a shop, cowed residents of Homs know to clear out of their way. Accused of atrocities that include the massacre last month of scores of women and children - many of whose throats were slit and heads bashed in - the militiamen cut to the front of the queue as shoppers shrink back and staff rush to serve them. In their informal uniform of camouflage trousers and white sneakers, the young recruits swan down the streets of the Alawite neighborhoods, set up checkpoints at a whim and stop traffic...

Russia shows off new missile for Club-K containerised launcher By Gareth Jennings 7/2/2012 Russia's Morinformsistema-Agat has showcased its Club-K containerised launcher for anti-ship and land-attack missiles with the Kh-35UE (SS-N-25 Switchblade) cruise missile for the first time, Russian state media reported on 27 June. First revealed in 2010, the Club-K launcher comprises four missile tubes concealed inside a standard ISO commercial shipping container. The system was shown at the 2011 MAKS Airshow in Zhukovsky with four 3M54TE (SS-N-27B Sizzler) missiles in the container, Russian International News Agency RIA Novosti said. Although both the 3M54TE and Kh-35UE are high-speed anti-ship missiles,...

<p>China is inviting tens of thousands of North Korean guest workers into the country in a deal that will provide a cash infusion to help prop up a teetering regime with little more to export than the drudgery of a desperately poor population.</p>

Two Schools of Thought* By: Larry Walker, Jr. *“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off,...

I graphed the EIA data, shown below. What is most interesting is that this is market driven, not mandate driven.Amazing Shale: US CO2 Emissions Plummet Towards 1990 Levelsby John Hanger (via The GWPF)America’s carbon emissions may drop back close to 1990 levels this year. That result would have been thought impossible, even at the end of 2011. But the shale gas revolution makes a reality of many things recently thought impossible. Shale gas production has slashed carbon emissions and saved consumers more than $100 billion per year. Truly astonishing!For US energy-related carbon emissions, fuel switching to gas is back to...

A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center has found that Pakistani perception of the United States seems to have struck a nadir, with ever fewer Pakistanis approving of America’s leaders, policies and overall relations with Pakistan. The report found that three fourths of Pakistanis considered the U.S. an enemy, a figure that has increased from 69% last year and 64% in 2009. Pakistan was the only country out of the 15 surveyed where President Obama’s favorable ratings are no better than those of President Bush during his final year in office. Only 13% of Pakistanis believe the U.S.-Pakistan...

Please feel free to pass this on...I sent it to SCOTUS lackeys as there is no direct email address::

Swedish Navy's HMS Visby test fires first guided missile The Swedish Navy's first Visby-class corvette HMS Visby has successfully test fired a RBS15 anti-ship missile, marking a major milestone in the development of the ship, off dry-dock at Karlskrona, Sweden. Swedish Defence Procurement Agency (FMV) Visby corvettes project manager Anders Nilsson said: "This was perhaps the most important last milestone before the first Visby-class corvette enters full operational service." Third Naval Warfare Flotilla Visby's trials crew head Frank Johnson added: "Both the crew of the HMS Visby and staff have worked extremely hard in recent times to get everything to...

MOSCOW -- Mitt Romney’s comment that Russia is America’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe,” a red-meat line for Republicans, is also attracting some attention in Moscow. Alexey Pushkov, chairman of the international affairs committee of the State Duma, said in a recent interview that Russian leaders have noted Romney’s comments with concern, and are watching with interest as neoconservative and “realist” advisers maneuver for influence within the campaign. “We don’t think that for us Romney will be an easy partner,” said Pushkov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin. “We think that Romney will be, on the rhetorical side, a replay of...

After being on FR for more than ten years I've finally had enough of the brown shirted fascism censoring valid conservative viewpoints. Enjoy your echo chamber of whining syncophants. I'm off to go help Mitt get elected while you bitch and moan about who is or isn't conservative enough.

Cherokee genealogist Twila Barnes has caught Elizabeth Warren in yet another lie about her false claims of Native American heritage. When Elizabeth Warren's "Aunt Bea," Bess A. Reed Veneck, died in 1999 at the age of 98, Ms. Warren was listed as the "informant" on the death certificate that identified Aunt Bea as White. Line 14 of the death certificate allowed the informant to specificy the race of the deceased. Presented with the option of selecting "American Indian," "Black," or "White," Ms. Warren chose to identify Aunt Bea's race as White. Thirteen years later, Ms. Warren was telling a different...

AFTER weeks of squabbling, California’s politicians managed to get a budget approved this week. Their dispute had followed a familiar pattern. One side, spooked by yawning budget deficits, wanted to make deeper cuts to welfare payments. The other, fearful of the effects on California’s army of unemployed, sought to find savings elsewhere. It sounds like a classic Republican-Democrat ding-dong. In fact, the row pitted one Democratic force (the governor, Jerry Brown) against another (the state legislature). Shut out of the talks, the state’s opposition Republican legislators were reduced to boycotting budget hearings and issuing sulky statements. ..California gave America two...

PICTURE: TAI rolls out Turkey's first Hurkus trainer Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has rolled out its first manned aircraft design in Ankara, with the Hurkus trainer expected to make its flight debut in April 2013. Tolga Ozbek Launched in 2006 and supported by 27 Turkish companies, the $150 million Hurkus programme covers the manufacture of four prototypes - two flight-test examples and two aircraft for static testing. TAI has worked on the design of three variants so far, including a civilian-targeted Hurkus A, a B-model military trainer and a C-variant close air support design. Powered by a 1,600hp (1,180kW) Pratt...

On Prayer in St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians "To learn the mind of Christ is the way of Christian life" VATICAN CITY, JUNE 27, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the Italian-language catechesis Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience held in the Paul VI Audience Hall. Pope Benedict today continued his catecheses on prayer by reflecting on the Christological hymn contained in St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. * * * Dear brothers and sisters, Our prayer is made up, as we have seen over the past Wednesdays, of silences and words, of song and gesture...

He does not want you to have the self-esteem of getting up and earning, and having that title of American. He'd rather you be his slave," Rep. Allen West

Syrian pilot's defection in MiG-21 stirs Cold War memories Did you hear about the Syrian air force pilot who defected last week to Jordan in his MiG-21 fighter jet? Probably not. The defection was but a dim and fleeting blip on the international news radar. The world does not much care about an obscure Syrian pilot or a Russian-made jet designed more than 50 years ago. There was a time, however, when pilot defections were a big, hairy deal. Among the biggest and hairiest was in 1966, at the height of the Cold War, when the MiG-21 was the Soviet...

Canada has had universal health care for a long time. When Robert Bourassa, the premier of Quebec, Canada, needed cancer treatment, he came to the United States.