Canoeing Grand Tetons wallpaper. I prefer a nice sea worthy kayak myself, a little less stress on the back, but canoes are great for leisurely lake tours.
Gigantic fossil rodent discovered
The fossilised skull of the largest rodent ever recorded has been described by scientists for the first time.
The remains of the one-tonne beast, found in Uruguay, indicate that it would have been as big as a bull.
It is thought that the three-metre-long herbivore would have roamed estuaries and forests 2-4 million years ago.
They compare it to a beaver. My first thought was a hippopotamus with a furry face.
From National Geographic, How Green Are Bamboo Clothes?
According to Morris Saintsing, sales development and operations partner at clothing retailer Bamboosa, all bamboo stalk intended for clothing in the United States is converted into fiber at one factory in China. The harsh, chemical process involves sodium hydroxide and carbon disulphide, both of which are extremely corrosive and can be toxic to humans, and sodium hydroxide is known to threaten aquatic wildlife when released into groundwater and streams. Not much else about the production process is known, including what the factory does with waste runoff, as the laws in China don’t require full disclosure of the production facility’s methods.
Bamboo has a lot of potential as a clothing and building material, but obviously we have some problems to overcome in the processing. It was a surprise to find that most of the world’s bamboo clothing material is processed at one plant in China. A country that is noted for its lax environmental laws.
* Ex-Officials Benefit From Corporate Cleanup
Federal prosecutors are steering no-bid contracts to former government officials who earn millions of dollars by monitoring companies accused of cheating investors and other schemes.
A consulting firm led by former U.S. attorney general John D. Ashcroft(R) recently won an assignment, valued at more than $25 million, to ensure that a medical equipment maker stops paying kickbacks to doctors who use its products. Other former government officials with ties to the Bush administration have secured similar deals, which are paid using corporate funds and entail few, if any, checks on spending.
The lucrative arrangements are known as “monitorships,” unusual contracts in which an outsider comes into a troubled company with vast power to expose corruption and change business practices. The deals allow scandal-plagued companies to avoid criminal charges — and they give prosecutors a way to ensure businesses keep their promises and clean up abuses. But legal experts and lawmakers are expressing growing concern about inconsistency and secrecy surrounding the appointments.
The chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees last week demanded that Justice Department leaders provide a list of all such deals and the fees they have generated. The Project on Government Oversight watchdog group has questioned whether the agreements reward “cronies” who share political affiliations or backgrounds with the U.S. attorneys handing out the deals.
Certain folks and their leader have declared for years that they’re against big government. So their answer to that is apparently to outsource government over site to cronies that charge more to do the same work as government agencies. Taxpayers, consumers, and investors will be picking up the higher costs for all this, but it at least gives the appearance of making gov’mint smaller, and one guesses that’s what counts, appearances.
