May 21, 2012 • 120 notes • doctorswithoutborders
doctorswithoutborders: Lead Poisoning Crisis in Zamfara State, Northern Nigeria In March 2010, MSF was alerted to a high number of child fatalities in Zamfara state, northern Nigeria—an estimated 400 children died. Laboratory testing later confirmed high levels of lead in the blood of the surviving children. MSF is a central player in treating lead poisoning in Zamfara state, and is responding to the acute phase of this emergency. MSF has for the moment controlled mortality, but patients with lead poisoning will require significant long-term treatment and follow-up.The root cause of the lead poisoning crisis is unsafe mining and ore processing. People who engage in mining and ore processing must be given access to facilities and programs to allow them to safely mine and process ore without exposing themselves or others to toxic lead. There are three pillars that must be implemented for an effective response to the crisis: ▲ Medical care including chelation therapy and health education ▲ Environmental remediation ▲ Safer mining practicesPhoto: A worker holds up a piece of mercury-gold amalgam at the Bagega processing site. The gold extraction process produces dangerous lead as a byproduct. Nigeria 2012 © Olga Overbeek/MSF

doctorswithoutborders:

Lead Poisoning Crisis in Zamfara State, Northern Nigeria

In March 2010, MSF was alerted to a high number of child fatalities in Zamfara state, northern Nigeria—an estimated 400 children died. Laboratory testing later confirmed high levels of lead in the blood of the surviving children.

MSF is a central player in treating lead poisoning in Zamfara state, and is responding to the acute phase of this emergency. MSF has for the moment controlled mortality, but patients with lead poisoning will require significant long-term treatment and follow-up.

The root cause of the lead poisoning crisis is unsafe mining and ore processing. People who engage in mining and ore processing must be given access to facilities and programs to allow them to safely mine and process ore without exposing themselves or others to toxic lead.

There are three pillars that must be implemented for an effective response to the crisis:

▲ Medical care including chelation therapy and health education
▲ Environmental remediation
▲ Safer mining practices

Photo: A worker holds up a piece of mercury-gold amalgam at the Bagega processing site. The gold extraction process produces dangerous lead as a byproduct.
Nigeria 2012 © Olga Overbeek/MSF

(via randomactsofchaos)

May 20, 2012 • 6,961 notes • slingshot.tao.ca
[I]t is illegal for women to go topless in most cities, yet you can buy a magazine of a woman without her top on at any 7-11 store. So, you can sell breasts, but you cannot wear breasts, in America.
Violet Rose, in Three Steps to Better Sex  (via housewifeswag)

(via epilogueofacarcrash)

May 20, 2012 • 93 notes • phroyd

(via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)

May 20, 2012 • 696 notes • jtotheizzoe
jtotheizzoe: Apparently this is how xkcd creator Randall Munroe pays his Verizon bill.  That’s one way to stick it to the man. It’s also awesome. (Yes, there’s a typo in the caption. It’s iπ, not 2π. Carry on. Original here.)

jtotheizzoe:

Apparently this is how xkcd creator Randall Munroe pays his Verizon bill. 

That’s one way to stick it to the man. It’s also awesome.

(Yes, there’s a typo in the caption. It’s iπ, not 2π. Carry on. Original here.)

May 20, 2012 • 39 notes • dailykos.com

Billionaire Scott Walker donor's business paid no state income taxes

cartonplanet:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011 statement that going after collective bargaining for public workers was the first step in his plan to divide and conquer was made to billionaire roofing and siding wholesaler Diane Hendricks, who had asked him, “Any chance we’ll ever get to be a completely red state and work on these unions and become a right-to-work? What can we do to help you?” While the things Hendricks has done to help Scott Walker personally include more than $500,000 in campaign contributions, she’s apparently much less interested in helping Wisconsin by paying corporate taxes.

Despite annual sales of around $5 billion, Hendricks’ company, ABC Supply, paid nothing in state corporate income tax between 2005 and 2008, the most recent years for which the information was available.

Given that a company as large as ABC Supply was paying nothing in state corporate income tax well before Walker took office, it’s hard to imagine what corporate taxes were left to be cut or what loopholes businesses didn’t already have access to, but Walker has passed $1.6 billion in corporate tax breaks over the next 10 years.

(Via Laura Clawson at Daily Kos)

(via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)

May 19, 2012 • 537 notes • anukkinearthwalker

(via thealternativetorealworld)

May 19, 2012 • 136 notes • springwise.com
prostheticknowledge: Shadow QR Code  Promotional physical installation casts QR Code at specific time of day to encourage business during downtime. From Springwise: Periodic lulls in business are a fact of life for most retailers, and we’ve already seen solutions including daily deals that are valid only during those quiet times. Recently, however, we came across a concept that takes such efforts even further. Specifically, Korean Emart recently placed 3D QR code sculptures throughout the city of Seoul that could only be scanned between noon and 1 pm each day — consumers who succeeded were rewarded with discounts at the store during those quiet shopping hours. Dubbed “Sunny Sale,” Emart’s effort involved setting up a series of what it calls “shadow” QR codes that depend on peak sunlight for proper viewing and were scannable only between 12 and 1 pm each day. Successfully scanning a code took consumers to a dedicated home page with special offers including a coupon worth USD 12. Purchases could then be made via smartphone for delivery direct to the consumer’s door. More info (and cheesy video) can be found at Springwise here

prostheticknowledge:

Shadow QR Code 

Promotional physical installation casts QR Code at specific time of day to encourage business during downtime. From Springwise:

Periodic lulls in business are a fact of life for most retailers, and we’ve already seen solutions including daily deals that are valid only during those quiet times. Recently, however, we came across a concept that takes such efforts even further. Specifically, Korean Emart recently placed 3D QR code sculptures throughout the city of Seoul that could only be scanned between noon and 1 pm each day — consumers who succeeded were rewarded with discounts at the store during those quiet shopping hours.

Dubbed “Sunny Sale,” Emart’s effort involved setting up a series of what it calls “shadow” QR codes that depend on peak sunlight for proper viewing and were scannable only between 12 and 1 pm each day. Successfully scanning a code took consumers to a dedicated home page with special offers including a coupon worth USD 12. Purchases could then be made via smartphone for delivery direct to the consumer’s door.

More info (and cheesy video) can be found at Springwise here

May 16, 2012 • 21 notes • amaranthineflux
Either greed belongs in a war zone, or it doesn’t. You can’t unleash it in the name of sparking an economic boom and then be shocked when Halliburton overcharges for everything from towels to gas, when Parsons’ sub, sub, sub-contractor builds a police academy where the pipes drip raw sewage on the heads of army cadets and where Blackwater investigates itself and finds it acted honorably. That’s just corporations doing what they do and Iraq is a privatized war zone so that’s what you get. Build a frontier, you get cowboys and robber barons.
Naomi Klein (via amaranthineflux)

(via randomactsofchaos)

May 16, 2012 • 15 notes • americawakiewakie
underthemountainbunker: Defense spending and our economy  americawakiewakie: How our economy works. 

underthemountainbunker:

Defense spending and our economy 

americawakiewakie:

How our economy works. 

(via randomactsofchaos)

May 15, 2012

Soap maker David Bronner: Hemp ban highlights absurdity of drug war