A thread for random crap on the internet

[GAM]

More leather!

Sandy

[mr x]

Dust to Dust: a man-made Malthusian crisis
We must wake up to the global land crisis or face a very real threat of famine

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... risis.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

American scientists have made an unsettling discovery. Crop farming across the Prairies since the late 19th Century has caused a collapse of the soil microbia that holds the ecosystem together.

They do not know exactly what role is played by the bacteria. It is a new research field. Nor do they know where the tipping point lies, or how easily this can be reversed. Nobody yet knows whether this is happening in other parts of the world.

A team at the University of Colorado under Noah Fierer used DNA gene technology to test the 'verrucomicrobia' in Prairie soil, contrasting tilled land with the rare pockets of ancient tallgrass found in cemeteries and reservations. The paper published in the US journal Science found that crop agriculture has "drastically altered" the biology of the land. "The soils currently found throughout the region bear little resemblance to their pre-agricultural state," it concluded.

You might say we already knew this. In fact we did not. There has never before been a metagenomic analysis of this kind and on this scale. Professor Fierer said mankind needs to watch its step. "We really know very little about one of the most productive soils on the planet, but we do know that soil microbes play a key role and we can't just keep adding fertilizers," he said.

The Colorado study has caused a stir in the soil world. It was accompanied by a sobering analysis in Science by academics from South Africa's Witwatersrand University. They fear that we are repeating the mistakes of past civilisations, over-exploiting the land until it goes beyond the point of no return, and leads to a vicious circle of famine, and then social disintegration.

Entitled "Dust to Dust", the paper argues that the erosion of soil fertility has been masked by a "soup of nutrients" poured over crop lands, giving us a false sense of security. It said 1pc of global land is being degraded each year, defined as a 70pc loss of the top soil.

Once the top soil crosses a crucial threshold, the recovery rate plunges. Chemicals can keep crop yields high for a while but the complex ecology beneath is being abused further. Yields have already fallen 8pc across Africa as a whole. The paper calls for a complete change of course as the "only viable route to feeding the world and keeping it habitable."

This degradation is courting fate given that the world's population will grow by over a quarter to nine billion before peaking in the middle of the century. It comes as China and emerging Asia switch to an animal protein diet, replicating the pattern seen in Japan and Korea as they became rich. As a rule of thumb it takes 4kg-8kg of grains in animal feed to produce 1kg of meat.

Professor Robert Scholes, one of the authors, said there comes a point when terrified governments make a Faustian pact, sacrificing their future to stop their people starving today. "We're seeing a massive arc of deforestation in Africa," he said.

Cautionary stories abound. The East side of Magdascar has been destroyed by slash and burn deforestation, perhaps irreversbily in any human time horizon. Iceland's Norse settlers turned their green and partly forested island into a Nordic desert in the 10th Century. They have yet to restore the fragile soil a thousand years later, despite careful husbandry.

"We're running out of new agricultural frontiers and we don't have the freedom to make errors any more. We are using up our nutrient capital and face a looming food crisis over the next 30 to 40 years. There is a risk that we are going to paint ourselves into a corner. Famine is a very real possiblity," he said.

The Sumerian civilisation that first pioneered cereal farming in the Tigris and Euphrates was almost certainly destroyed by soil erosion and over-cultivation. The Gilgamesh epic describes tracts of cedar forest in Iraq before it was cut down for the timber trade around 2,600 BC.

The story is usually the same, whether for the lowland Maya central America, or the Khmer Empire of Angkor, or Easter Island, recounted by Jared Diamond in "Collapse". Once the hillside trees are cut down, water flows are disturbed. It then becomes harder to feed saturated settlements. Societies take short-cuts to survive, leaving less land fallow . The spiral accelerates. It seems that a climate shock is the often the coup de grace, pushing them over the edge.

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) says the world food demand will 50pc by 2030, requiring up to 170m- 220m hectares of fresh land. Yet it also expects land degradation to cut output by 12pc over the next 25 years.

The UNCCD is aiming for a global deal to achieve "zero net land degradation" from 2015, mostly by replanting forests. The body's environment chief Veerle Vanderweerde says it is not going well. "We know what to do to restore degraded land. It's not impossible but it takes time, money, dedication, and political will, and there is not a lot political will."

There have been heart-warming episodes. Yacouba Sawadogo, "the man who stopped the desert", began to revive the ancient zai technique thirty years to stop soil erosion on his little farm in Burkina Faso. It involved digging smal holes and filling them with compost and tree seeds to catch the seasonal rains, recreating a woodland of 20 hectares in the arid Sahel. Sadly, local officials then expropriated the land.

Mrs Vanderveerde said global agro-industrial companies are moving into new frontiers, stripping and degrading land for quick profit, more akin to mining than farm stewardship. "They can't just come in, take the resources, and then walk away. The big companies need to change their behaviour and they won't do it unless they are made to," she said.

A new Land Matrix Global Obervatory put together by five research centres says the world land rush by investors is not quite as bad as feared. An Agri-SA investment in the Congo proved to be just 80,000 hectares, not 10m as alleged.

The observatory has tracked deals equal to 48m hectares -- completed or in the pipeline -- an area the size of Spain. This may understate the figure since foreign firms have learned to tread carefully after a populist backlash in Africa and Latin America. They work through local ventures.

The registry found that the top investors came from the US, followed by Malaysia, the Arab Emirates, and the UK (mostly global funds in London). China was lower, though this may change after it struck a deal in September to lease 5pc of Ukraine's land surface for fifty years, on paper a 3m hectare prize as large as Belgium.

The top target is Papua New Guinea, home to one of the last great rain forests, now a third owned by foreign firms. It is followed closely by Indonesia, Sudan, the Congo, and Mozambique. Nobody is really policing this.

Famine worries have abated since the Malthusian scare of 2008 when corn and wheat prices tripled in three years and then stayed high, triggering the food riots that led to the Arab Spring. The UN says bumper crops in the US, Canada, and Ukraine have boosted world cereal output by 8pc this year: consumption has risen 3.5pc.

Global grain stocks have jumped 13pc to a slightly safer level, yet still cover just 69 days of global comsumption. Stocks averaged 107 days in the 1980s and 1990s. We are operating on a very thin margin. Nor have food prices returned to earlier levels. The UN's food price index is up by 105pc over the last decade.

We are becoming complacent again. The blunt truth is that the world cannot afford to lose one hectare of land a year, let alone 12m hectares. The added discovery that we doing even more damage than feared to the soil microbia should bring us to our senses. We argue too much about global warming, which may or may not be caused by man's actions, and may or may catch us this century.

The global land crisis is almost entirely our own doing. It is closing in on us right now. It can be reversed if world leaders choose to reverse it.

[bluenose]

I'm starting to get really worried about the environment
clean air and water should be unequivocal universal human rights

[canuck]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -shop.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dean2k]

Bill Jessome has passed away at 88. Too young (or oblivious) to remember him for journalism, but I do remember those ATV Maritime Mysteries.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot ... -1.2457889

[LeafMan66_67]

Bill Jessome has passed away at 88. Too young (or oblivious) to remember him for journalism, but I do remember those ATV Maritime Mysteries.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot ... -1.2457889

I remember him from TV in Cape Breton ...

[canuck]

Kind of a neat website.

http://www.worldometers.info/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Araxi]

That is cool Shane.

[canuck]

Sucks for the ants, but this is pretty cool!



http://digg.com/video/what-you-get-when ... n-ant-hill" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jeffsmith]

Sucks for the ants, but this is pretty cool!



http://digg.com/video/what-you-get-when ... n-ant-hill" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's pretty fuckin cool!

[Keith]

I'd like to see them do similar to Sackville, damn place was built on a ant hill.

[mr x]

Prison wine causes botulism from old potato.

http://barfblog.com/2013/12/pruno-or-pr ... ah-prison/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pruno, or “prison wine” is an alcoholic liquid made from apples, oranges, fruit cocktail, ketchup, sugar, milk, and possibly other ingredients, including crumbled bread to ferment the beverage.

According to a study about the botulism outbreak published this week in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, the inmate’s experimentation in putting an old potato among other ingredients in the plastic bag hidden in his cell led to the sickening of 12 inmates at the prison. The potato allowed botulism to develop, according to the article.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

[GAM]

http://halifax.kijiji.ca/c-services-ski ... Z552991233" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sandy

[jeffsmith]

http://halifax.kijiji.ca/c-services-ski ... Z552991233

Sandy

[mr x]

Influential California wine seller convicted of counterfeiting vintages, defrauding collectors

NEW YORK — A California wine collector and influential peddler of rare vintages was convicted Wednesday of fraud for manufacturing fake old wine in his kitchen.

Rudy Kurniawan, whose family gained wealth operating a beer distributorship in Indonesia, was expressionless after being convicted of mail and wire fraud for selling more than US$1.3-million worth of counterfeit bottles to other wealthy collectors.

The verdict was rendered by a Manhattan jury that deliberated less than two hours. U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman set sentencing for April 24.

U.S. prosecutors said Kurniawan put on a ‘magic show’ to fool aficionados into thinking he had access to the rarest wines

After Kurniawan, 37, was led out of the courtroom by U.S. marshals, attorney Jerome Mooney said his client was disappointed.

Mooney said the trial had revealed the “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture in the high-end vintage wine business over what was being sold.

In closing arguments a day earlier, prosecutors said Kurniawan put on a “magic show” to fool aficionados into thinking he had access to the world’s rarest wines. They said he made millions of dollars from 2004 to 2012 by manufacturing fake vintage wine in his Arcadia, Calif., kitchen.

But Mooney said the government had discovered the suburban Los Angeles home of a hoarder when they arrested the Indonesian-born defendant last year, mistaking the hundreds of corks and other wine-making paraphernalia stuffed in drawers and closets as evidence that the home had been converted into a fake wine factory.

The fraud funded a lavish lifestyle in suburban Los Angeles that included luxury cars, designer clothing and fine food and drinks

Prosecutors said money from the fraud funded a lavish lifestyle in suburban Los Angeles that included luxury cars, designer clothing and fine food and drinks. Mooney said all of Kurniawan’s assets have been seized or have had liens placed against them, including the Arcadia home where his 67-year-old mother resides after she obtained asylum.

http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/12/18 ... ollectors/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hilarious.

[mr x]

Detroit's abandoned buildings draw tourists instead of developers

Detroit has seen an uptick in history buffs and photographers visiting its ruins since its bankruptcy filing.

DETROIT — He'd heard stories of ruin and blight, but that didn't prepare Oliver Kearney for what he saw:

Prostitutes roaming the streets at 8 a.m., rubble-strewn parking lots overrun with weeds, buildings taken over by bright pink graffiti, the message scrawled on blackboards in deserted schools: "I will not write in vacant buildings."

He took 2,000 photographs his first day.

"No other American city has seen decline on this scale," Kearney said. "It's really a once-in-a-lifetime thing you're going to see."

And he saw it all on a tour.

Kearney, an 18-year-old aspiring architect, persuaded his father to travel with him from Britain to Detroit to participate in one of the city's few burgeoning industries: tours of abandoned factories, churches and schools.

Led by tour guide Jesse Welter, they crawled on their hands and knees to peek inside a train station closed long ago; they squeezed through a gap in a fence to climb the stairs of what was once a luxury high-rise; they ducked under crumbling doorways to see a forgotten ballroom where the Who held its first U.S. concert.

"In Detroit, you can relate, you can see traces of what's happened, you can really feel the history of a city," Kearney said. "In Europe, when things become derelict, they'll demolish them."

That's not possible here. The city estimates it has 78,000 vacant structures, and demolishing each derelict residential building costs $8,000 — money the bankrupt city can't afford.

The city says that 85% of its 142.9 square miles had "experienced population decline" over the last decade, and efforts to persuade investors to buy commercial buildings and rehabilitate them have been mixed, at best. For example, plans to turn the Michigan Central Depot, a once-grand train station, into a casino and then into police headquarters have gone nowhere, and it's stood empty since 1988.

Photographers have flocked to the city to capture the decline; two French photographers even produced a book, "The Ruins of Detroit." But since the city declared bankruptcy in July, hotels say they've seen an uptick in visitors inquiring about the ruins. So have restaurants in the up-and-coming district of Corktown, near the abandoned train station.

Welter says he had to buy a 12-seat van to accommodate the growing interest.

Welter once worked as an aircraft mechanic and then an ATM repairman. He dabbled in photography and began venturing into the city from his home in the suburb of Royal Oak, taking pictures of derelict buildings and selling the shots at an artists market.

The photos, though grim, brought back sweet memories: Viewers would remember passing through the train station in its glory, or recall photographs of their grandparents honeymooning at a posh hotel, depicted in Welter's photos as a decaying tower.

Welter, 42, figured that if other people were interested in seeing the buildings, he could guide them around and, perhaps more important, keep them safe. In October, two tourists were carjacked while visiting an abandoned factory; others have been assaulted there.

Welter guided his first tour in late 2011, but the business has really picked up this year. His clients pay $45 for a three-hour tour and explore some of Detroit's most famously blighted structures: the Packard Automotive Plant, the train station and the East Grand Boulevard Methodist Church, which features peeling paint and vast balconies.

Welter, who is bearded and slim, knows how to sneak into buildings closed to the public. He knows which neighborhoods are plagued by packs of feral dogs, and which ramshackle building contains a recording studio with equipment still set up as if its occupants just left for lunch. He knows the churches so well that he helped a young couple find an abandoned one in which to conduct their wedding.

It's not legal, per se, to enter these buildings. Police will give $225 tickets for trespassing if people enter schools, Welter says, but have otherwise told him they don't mind him going into other buildings.

On a recent weekday morning, he brought a visitor to one of his favorite spots, St. Agnes Catholic Church, a rotting structure where graffiti vandals have made their mark. A beam of sunlight shone through the windows, falling on the one remaining pew in the church, a haunting image that illuminated the church's destruction. Then Welter heard a motor idling outside and quickly ushered his guest toward the exit.

"Someone's pulling up out there; let's start walking this way," he said, moving toward the crumbling staircase that leads to the church's courtyard, which was littered with soda cans and food wrappers.

He's not afraid of the authorities — they're in short supply in this cash-strapped city — but of scavengers, vagrants and others who might take advantage of someone with an expensive camera. That's why he usually begins his tours at 7 a.m., the best time to avoid other humans, he says.

Next, he headed into a girls' school attached to the church, climbing the stairs to a hall of classrooms where rubble was everywhere, as if a bomb had gone off. Some books and magazines dated to 1962 and told outdated stories of boys living on the prairie. A bird's nest sat in one of the large windows where a pane used to be.

Locals use a derogatory term, "ruin porn," to describe the phenomenon of people gawking at the decay. They want visitors to see the positive parts of Detroit, such as the vacant fields that enterprising farmers have turned into urban gardens. If tourists are going to look at the ruins, they should then volunteer in the community, many Detroiters say.

"The decay is not cool, not arty-farty," Jean Vortkamp, a community activist and onetime mayoral candidate, said in an email. "I see the lady with bags and three layers of clothes on, and then I see a group of white young people climb out of their dad's cars with cameras that are worth so much."

Some Detroiters, including a group of urban explorers, have a beef with Welter in particular. They scrawled a message on the walls of the St. Agnes Church, "Go Home Jesse … We HATE you and your tour bus."

Welter says he's opening visitors' eyes to the problems of Detroit, which could potentially drum up political will to help the city.

"People are going to do this anyway. Why not do it in a way that's going to be safer, easier for everyone?" he said.

Jason Schlosberg went on a tour with Welter when he was visiting Detroit on a business trip. Schlosberg, a lawyer and photographer from Washington, D.C., said he had long looked forward to exploring the "mecca" of run-down buildings that is Detroit.

But his experience touring crumbling ballrooms and onetime high-end residences caused him to think long and hard about what lessons Detroit can teach the rest of the country.

"It makes you question your mortality as a species. We try to make our mark on the planet by building these concrete and brick structures, but Rome obviously fell," he said. "What is Manhattan going to look like in 300 years? Is it still going to be a bustling metropolis?"

Whether Detroit will seek to capitalize on the tourists, or stop them, is unclear. The office of Kevyn Orr, the state-appointed emergency manager of the city, declined to comment for this story. Another city full of ruins, Gary, Ind., has taken advantage of the photographers flocking to its abandoned buildings. It charges $50 for a photography permit.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-det ... z2ocvKtgGx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I really should have started my own Detroit trashing thread long ago.

[HappyHopper]

So I went on kijiji typed beer in the search field and among the toasters and cars was this sketchy
Little gem...

[Tony L]

A guy walks into a bar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1MWocHI3QM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mr x]

Novelist's Ex In Bizarre Handgun Threat Arrest
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/ ... ter-675432" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A domestic dispute over space aliens escalated Saturday morning when a lingerie-clad New Mexico woman allegedly pointed a silver handgun at her boyfriend, a weapon she retrieved from her vagina, where it had been placed while the accused was performing a sex act, police allege.

You can't make this stuff up....

This and the atomic wedgie homicide.

[LeafMan66_67]

Beat to death over poor BBQ Techniques

http://firstwefeast.com/drink/man-beats ... echniques/

[mr x]

Gun crazies eat their own.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... tV_3rSFdx8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I started shooting at age five. By the time I turned 12, my parents gave me an NRA Life Membership. I’ve studied, written and taught about firearms law and the Bill of Rights since the 1960s, helping to enact concealed-carry laws in states across the country and authoring numerous other pieces of pro-firearms legislation. I’m a competitive shooter who’s hunted on five continents, and I founded a 150-acre shooting park in my home state of Illinois. All told, I’ve written more than 1,700 articles for firearms publications over the last four decades, as well as hosting and producing several firearms television programs.

Yet today I am labeled a “gun control collaborator,” a “Bloomberg supporter” and a “modern-day Benedict Arnold”—not to mention a “decrepit, mentally defunct self-important old fart.” And on Nov. 6, 2013, my 37-year career as a firearms journalist came to an abrupt end.

Why? Because I wrote an 800-word column for Guns & Ammo magazine exploring the distinction between regulation and infringement as it applies to constitutional rights...

[TimG]

Great article, thanks for sharing Rob. I'm not really crazy on either side of this fence, but I think this guy has shit completely together! Too bad the same can't be said for the general public (or for that matter, the general social media and the downfalls of anonymous internet').

[mr x]

Chart: What Americans drink and how they vote

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/foo ... e16323504/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mr x]

RM and K-J are interesting in placement.

[canuck]

Holy fawk, this guy is insane!