Alabama Tries To Make Bad Immigration Law Worse

thivest.com:

• by Jessica Pieklo

Under national scrutiny and with a pending Supreme Court review of similar legislation in Arizona, an Alabama House committee voted to revise and strengthen the state’s controversial immigration law.

The House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee approved changes to the “papers please” bill on a party line vote with the bill going to a full floor vote in the House of Representatives as soon as Thursday.
Among the changes that passed is a provision that specifies that an officer can quiz and possibly detain vehicle passengers about their citizenship. Another proposed change allows officers to question and possibly detain a suspected undocumented immigrant when issuing a traffic citation or making an arrest. The current law allows the questioning to commence only during traffic “stops.”........  more

Alberta’s Danielle Smith Claims Climate Science Is Not Settled

thivest.com:

• by Cathryn Wellner

A strong contender to become Alberta’s next Premier, Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith, has been in the hot seat lately over her statement that “the science [of climate change] isn’t settled, and we need to continue to monitor the debate.” She made the comment in an online leadership debate that two Alberta newspapers had organized.Despite repeated questions from media and other candidates for Alberta’s upcoming election, Smith has so far avoided clarifying her stand on man-made climate change. Instead, she focuses on her support for extracting oil from the province’s tar sands.
Her stand has not wavered from her 2010 speech to the Wildrose annual general meeting, when she insisted critics of the oil sands were distorting the truth. Reacting to charges that “oil sands oil produces three times the greenhouse gases of conventional oil,” she said:......  more

Will Technology Feed a Warming World?

thivest.com:

• by Aid for Africa

A recent blog noted that climate change will negatively affect African agriculture, particularly production of the most important staple crops– millet, cassava, rice (West Africa), maize, bananas and plantains. More than 70 percent of the world’s cocoa is also threatened. As the earth warms, weather patterns shift, causing droughts and floods that threaten agriculture. Scientists and farmers alike are looking for ways to ensure that food production keeps pace with need under these circumstances.

While many pin their hopes on technology, others suggest there are limits to how much agricultural technology — drought-tolerant seeds, for instance — will help. Mark Hertsgaard of Slate.com examined this question and found that “better seeds alone” are not the answer. Instead, feeding the world under climate change will require a broader strategy........  more

Museum Director Sets Fire to Art Collection

thivest.com:

• by Kristina Chew

To protest cuts in funding, Antonio Manfredi, the director of the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) in Naples, set fire to a painting on Tuesday and announced that it will be only the first to go up in flames. “Our 1,000 artworks are headed for destruction anyway because of the government’s indifference,” he says in the BBC.

The painting was by French artist Severine Bourguignon and she watched her work, Promenade, go up in flames via a Skype link. “I feel as if I am in mourning… And now I have to fix in my mind that I will never see that work again. But I hope it’ll be worthwhile,” she said to the Guardian via Raw Story.
Manfredi said Promenade was worth about 10,000 euros (about $13,120). Without sufficient funding, he described recent flooding and garbage piling up. CAM is privately sponsored and will have to shut its doors unless regional, national or European funding is provided; for this reason, Manfredi he started what he calls an “an art war to prevent the destruction of culture.” He said he plans to burn one artwork from CAM’s permanent collection per day to highlight how the economic crisis and the numerous austerity measures the Italian government has imposed are leading to the demise of the country’s cultural institutions and heritage, both major sources of tourism revenue.........  more

Toronto First North American City to Require Green Roofs

thivest.com:

• by Cathryn Wellner

Toronto is making history. The first city in North American to require green roofs on new developments moves into the third phase of its Green Roof Bylaw on April 30, 2012.

Adopted in 2009, the bylaw required the environmentally friendly roofs on residential, commercial and institutional buildings starting in 2010. Now, with the addition of industrial developments, all new buildings with a minimum Gross Floor Area of 2,000 square meters will be required to devote 20-60 percent of Available Roof Space to vegetation.
Aside from the pollution-scrubbing gift of rooftop parks, the greenery pays off in lower utility bills. Two American green roofs give an idea of potential savings. The Chicago City Hall installed a green roof in 2000 and now saves $5,000 a year. New York’s Con Edison Green Roof absorbs 30 percent of the rainwater that falls on it. It also reduces heat loss by 34 percent in winter and heat gain by 84 percent in summer......  more

Are Fast Food Companies Deliberately Making North Americans Sick?

• by Cathryn Wellner

Beauty Scanner é un nuovo servizio che con semplici e pochi passi si puó conoscere la reale situazione della propria bellezza.
Utilizzare Beauty Scanner é davvero semplice, si deve solo caricare una propria foto e seguendo dei semplici passi si potrá ricevere il risultato e sapere qual’é il proprio livello di bellezza.
Un nuovo inserzionista dedicato a tutti i vanitosi che non potranno resistere a questa tentazione.

Too much salt is bad for our health, but fast food and processed meals are loaded with it. Turns out North Americans are getting more than their share. A study published in the April 16th issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows sodium levels and portion sizes vary among companies and countries.
Correcting for portion size variations among companies and countries, the results show that fries sold in Canada have twice as much salt as those in New Zealand and nearly three times as much as the ones in France.