The Argentine officials announced that they have plenty of wheat. As a result of predicted high crop yields from upcoming harvests, the government decided to issue 450,000 tons of surplus wheat.
The surplus wheat will be split up among three provences of Argentina. Those provences can then sell the wheat on the export market. The action was encouraged by the Argentine Interior Commerce Secretary, Guillermo Moreno.
Argentina has a policy of maintaining large wheat surpluses, for food security.
“The involvement is significant, because they are threatening more than 7 million hectares of crops planted in the spring-summer 2011, which are at risk for losing a harvest of 20 million tons of basic grains as well as lost income and liquidity of more 3.5 million basic grain producers.”-Salazar Arriaga, National Confederation of Corn Producers
To be sure Mexico’s agriculture industry is dealing with severe drought, but also flooding and…frost.
23 of Mexico’s 32 states are dealing with drought, but, now that the rainy season is about to start it looks like they’ll get hit with severe flooding, neither of which are conducive to growing crops.
In northern Mexico, winter is predicted to come on colder than normal, resulting in frost damage to many struggling crops.
Some of the worst hit states in Mexico are Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Durango, Sonora, Chihuahua, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Colima, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatán and Zacatecas. Farmers in those states have lost too much of the growing year, which means it’s too late to plant anything.
In a hastily arranged press conference, on 04 August 2011, it was announced that the top three officials, in charge of nuclear power operations were fired.
More than four months after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, and with no end in sight, the Japanese government decided it was time for new blood.
Who’s being fired? Vice Minister of the Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry, Matsunaga Kazuo. Director General of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Terasaka Nobuaki. Director General of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency, Hosono Tetsuhiro.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, and the Natural Resources and Energy Agency are controlled by the Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry.
The announcement was made by the Minister of the Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry, Kaieda Banri. Along with the dismissals, there will be a major reshuffling of all personnel within the Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry.
Japan’s biggest paper maker, Nippon Paper Group, will lay off at least 1,300 workers and close at least five factories.
Part of the blame is on the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which damaged three factories. Company officials say it’s not worth it to rebuild the damaged factories.
In fact business is so bad that Nippon Paper says it will close down factories, and lay off employees, as part of plans to cut production by 800,000 tons of paper.
And two industrial giants in Japan are merging in an attempt to save themselves. Hitachi and Mitsubishi will merge some of their businesses that are involved with energy and environment, to create a new company.
This continues a trend between the two companies. They’ve already created a joint rail transportation company. Analysts say eventually the two companies will fully merge.
In May the number of people getting help buying food hit record levels, again. This time more than 45 million individuals are on Food Stamps.
49 out of the 50 U.S. states recorded increases in Food Stamp recipients. Alabama leads the country with 36% of the people in that state needing help getting food.
Chemical weapons have been in use ever since recorded history. The substances used in chemical warfare are known as agents. Agents used for concealment or signaling, such as smoke, or for causing fires, called incendiaries, or those producing odors, have been used for ages prior to the 20th Century. No thanks to the industrial revolution of the 19th Century, much more lethal chemical agents have been created.
The first use of modern chemical weapons took place during World War 1. Two types of agents were used; chlorine, a choking agent, and mustard, a blister agent. Mustard gas is what Iraq used during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, and it’s what is currently leaking out of a storage site in Colorado.
Prior to World War 2, the Germans developed an even more potent gas while searching for a better way to kill insects. Most people know it as bug spray, or Raid. For military purposes it is known as nerve agent.
After WW2, advanced chemical agents were developed, produced, and stockpiled by various countries, with the United States and the Soviet Union leading the way. The irony is that many of those countries, including the U.S.A., and the USSR, signed agreements not to develop chemical weapons.
There is plenty of evidence that the U.S. used chemical weapons in Vietnam, and the Soviets used chemicals in Afghanistan.
Choking agents work by inflaming the bronchial tubes and lungs. In severe cases the lungs fill with fluid and you drown. Chlorine and phosgene are types of chocking agents. Many people have accidentally made a chocking agent by mixing bleach and other cleaning chemicals together. Many people actually die from this mistake. If exposure is not severe some allergy medications can help counter the effects.
Blister agents have no immediate effect, but produce inflammation (blisters), burns and destroy mucus membranes. The most famous type is Mustard. If you look at the video of the victims of Iraq’s Mustard gas attacks you’ll notice a grey white substance around their mouth and nose. It is their destroyed mucus membranes. You must wear a gas mask with a proper filter, and a protective suit. The most serious effect of Blister on your skin is incredibly large blisters. You can not wear a wet cloth for protection, because moisture actually attracts the chemical. There is little that can be done for a victim of blister agent. If it is not severe the victim will have permanent injuries.
Riot control agent, aka tear gas, irritates the mucus membranes causing watery eyes, runny nose and difficulty breathing. My experience with it only caused pain in my eyes, while others around me suffered from the most extreme case of runny nose I’ve ever seen. People who have respiratory problems can die, as well as anyone who inhales huge amounts of the agent. Unlike Blister agents, a wet cloth is your best defense with Riot agents. Fresh air is the best treatment.
Blood agents are inhaled, and kill or injure by preventing your red blood cells from carrying oxygen. The most common type is carbon monoxide. Many people who kill themselves use this method by breathing in the exhaust of gas powered cars (it’s actually difficult to kill yourself with the exhaust of diesel powered cars). Fresh air is the best treatment, but if not soon enough permanent brain damage occurs.
Nerve agent, aka bug spray, destroys your ability to control your muscles by blocking the enzyme cholinsterase. A small amount can blur your vision, cause headaches and chest tightening. A moderate amount causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and muscular convulsions. Heavy exposure causes severe convulsions, coma and death. Next time you spray a bug with insecticide pay attention to how it dies, because it’s basically how you’ll die when hit with nerve agent. The only protection is a gas mask with proper filter, and a full protective suit (nerve agent can be absorbed by your skin). The only treatment for nerve agent is also deadly. Atropine can be taken no more than three times after heavy exposure to nerve agent, more than three times and you could die from the atropine. Atropine taken at any other time can kill you. Atropine is also used in medicine, mainly to treat certain poisonings, but, atropine is also a poison derived from the Deadly Nightshade plant.
Chemical weapons have proven to be inefficient weapons. That’s why they’re not really used that much. The main reason is that wind and rain can totally cancel out their affects on the battlefield. Chemical weapons work well only in confined areas, like valleys protected from high winds, or city streets surrounded by tall buildings, or gas chambers.
Also, studies show that well trained troops have a 98% survival rate when hit with chemical weapons. There are studies that suggest that governments might be keeping chemical weapons because they work well on civilians. One study says that a civilian population hit with chemical weapons, and with the right atmospheric conditions, would suffer 80% fatalities.
Other studies show that the most likely cause of civilian deaths would be from an accident involving the transport, or storage, of chemical weapons.
On Tuesday, August 2, the U.S. Army reported a mustard gas leak at their chemical storage site in Pueblo, Colorado. They also claim no one has been affected.
Today, August 3, personnel at the site are trying to find out where the leak is coming from. One official thinks it’s one or two old artillery shells that are leaking.
The Pueblo site is one of five U.S. Army chemical stockpile sites in the United States. Those sites are in the states of Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Kentucky and Alabama. A factory designed to destroy the chemical weapons is scheduled for construction in 2013, and it’s hoped it will be ready by 2017.
Some government loans for college graduate students covered, or forgave, the interest payments while the student was still in school. Not anymore: “They will be responsible for the interest while they’re going to school, beginning in the 2012/2013 academic year.”- James Martin, Idaho State University Associate Director of Financial Aid
You can thank the Debt Limit deal just signed into law by President Obama.
For some students who have to take the maximum loans, it could mean paying $207.00 per month in interest, while they’re in school. That would mean they would have much less of their loans to live on.
Many graduate students at Idaho State said they might not be able to continue their higher education: “So I think taking away the subsidized, which most of my loans are, I don’t think I would have attended this program if they had done that.”-Chris Thurston
“You know, I know they have to make cuts somewhere, but unfortunately it’s the one that will affect me. But you just gotta do what you gotta do.”-Zach Migel
“If we don’t have the ability to pay for it, we’ll go for not the top notch schools, we’ll go for cheaper schools, cheaper programs.”-Sheila Mitchell
On top of the ending of the interest subsidies, the Debt Limit deal also ends a credit for students who make 12 on time loan payments.
After decades spending millions of dollars to get Idahoan’s connected to the World Wide Web, Idaho has the slowest connection speed in the U.S.
Pando Networks surveyed 4 million internet customers across the country, and found Idaho’s average connection speed to be 318 kilobytes per second, with 83% completion rate.
Idaho’s northern neighbor, Montana, and eastern neighbor Wyoming, also made the slow connection list. Wyoming actually has a slightly faster connection rate, than Idaho.
Two of Idaho’s other neighbors, Washington and Oregon, made the top 15 fastest rates.
So who’s number one in the United States for internet connection speed? Tiny old Rhode Island: 894 KPbs!
In a move that’s officially meant to tighten money supply, to counter rising inflation, China has banned all domestic businesses from taking loans from foreign banks.
The specific type of loan is called RMB (RenMinBi, a type of international currency). The People’s Bank of China, told all other banks that it would stop accepting applications for direct offshore borrowing.
An unnamed source said one of the reasons China is banning RMB loans, is because they have no control over the interest rates of those loans.
China has already tightened lending by Chinese banks, again, to try and control inflation by restricting the amount of money in the consumer market. The RMB loans are controlled by foreign banks, and have increased their lending in China since the beginning of the year.
An official with the People’s Bank of China said they are going to come up with a system in which they can influence the lending of foreign money in China.