[From The American Prospect]
Travel is so broadening. It shows you other nations’ narrow-mindedness, so that when you get home you can see your own more clearly.
GERSHOM GORENBERG
All year long I write about tribal conflicts. In August, when Israeli tribal customs dictate vacation, I want to get away not just from e-mail but also from news, [...]

WASHINGTON – The Census Bureau reports that the number of people lacking health insurance dropped by more than 1 million in 2007, the first annual decline since the Bush administration took office.
The nation’s poverty rate held steady at 12.5 percent, not statistically different from the 12.3 percent in 2006. That meant there were 37.3 million [...]

By Dr Vandana Shiva
We are grateful to Prince Charles for cautioning the world on the blind and head long rush worldwide to spread GM seeds and crops especially the Third World.

Prince Charles warns GM crops risk causing the biggest environment disaster
Prince Charles accused by scientists of abusing position over GM comments
Why we need GM trees

His [...]

Beijing update: Boing Boing
A quick update on previous BB posts (one, two, three) about American tech-artists and activists detained for pro-Tibet protests in Beijing. A Students for a Free Tibet spokesperson tells Boing Boing:
Everyone listed here is still missing.
- James Powderly
– Brian Conley
– Jeffrey Rae
– Jeff Goldin
[...]

Russia has warned that a US-Polish missile defence deal creates a new arms race in Europe and beyond.
A foreign ministry statement said that Moscow “will be forced to react, and not only through diplomatic demarches”. It did not elaborate.
The comments came just hours after the US and Poland signed the deal to locate 10 US [...]

[I used to print for Students for a Free Tibet. Good, hardworking folks. -RS]
[From boingboing]

An update on the pro-Tibet tech-art protests happening in Beijing: Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) tells Boing Boing that a group of five pro-Tibet activists displayed an LED Throwie Banner near the Olympics site in Beijing. The protesters, all of [...]

[From Op-Ed - NYTimes.com]
Wine in a Box Protects the Environment and Saves You Money
By TYLER COLMAN
Published: August 17, 2008
Waccabuc, N.Y.
ITALY’S Agriculture Ministry announced this month that some wines that receive the government’s quality assurance label may now be sold in boxes. That’s right, Italian wine is going green, and for some connoisseurs, the sky might [...]

By Martin Hutchinson
The often repeated refrain “we don’t want to be in another cold war” is nonsense – we are in one. And Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is a much more dangerous opponent than dozy old former head of state Leonid Brezhnev. However, the latest demonstration of this truth in Georgia is only a [...]

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