• The deadline for submission is Aug. 26.


• We'd need to raise either $500 or get 1000 signatures. Here's the form. Instructions are at the end.


• There are some seriously satire-worthy measures that will be on the ballot in November.

A research team led by Professor Junichi Takahashi at Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine has discovered that cattle developing nitrite poisoning do not release methane by belching. They also found that feed containing nitrate and cysteine is effective in both reducing methane production in cattle and preventing them from developing nitrite poisoning. [*]

conform

• Sit/Lie
• Anti-Camping
• Enforcement of Illegal Camping

There's little crowd of birds pecking around in the side yard and i really wish i knew what they were!
They're mid-sized, black to brown, speckled with white on top and with a touch of iridescence. Their beaks are long and bright yellow, and their legs also seem relatively long and bright pink. Any ideas? There were 25 or so, pecking through the grass.

Oooh! And now there's a little brown one with a dandelion-yellow cap and chin! The similar-sized but yellow-less one must be the female.
Two pairs! and...there they go! My but this is distracting!

Good grief! Now there's a little troop of salmon-bodied ones with brown wings. They're not sticking around, though.

• They're considering an environmental justice law in Cincinnati - it would be the first in the nation.
  "Already supported by five council members, a majority, the ordinance would require some proposed projects in Cincinnati's poorest neighborhoods to undergo an extra review - in addition to the usual zoning, building and health approvals - to determine whether they would have an adverse impact on the neighborhood or on residents' health. It lists many health issues as being made worse by pollution. Among them: asthma, heart disease and cancer."


• A major study by, among others, the Pew Charitable Trust, says factory farming is a bad idea. and the extragood news is that Congress plans to act on it.
  "In the end, however, even industry representatives on the panel agreed to such controversial recommendations as a ban on the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animals -- a huge hit against veterinary pharmaceutical companies -- a phaseout of all intensive confinement systems that prevent the free movement of farm animals, and more vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws in the increasingly consolidated agricultural arena."


• And farther away - it's not a new development, but i hadn't heard of it before:
  "With a trend of decentralizing reforms underway, municipalities are expected to function more based on resident self-governance, in which citizens voluntarily participate in settling local issues, in order to realize a unique, autonomous community. Deciding on how to protect the local environment and pass it on to the next generation is an issue that requires democratic consensus building and decision-making through proper information disclosure and the participation of citizens -- not something that local governments can unilaterally decide on their own.
  
  Since the Devolution of Power Law came into force in Japan in 2000, an increasing number of local governments have adopted innovative sets of ordinances on environmental conservation and community development, and citizens have been participating in their formulation."
  that's from the current Japan for Sustainability newsletter, which isn't yet on the web.

      /\
 /\  /  \  /\
/  \/    \/  \
   /      \
   \      /
    \    /
     \  /
      \/

conform

"Twyman says that if God brought down the walls of Jericho when the ancient Hebrews prayed, then divine intervention can bring down gas prices too."

jes5199 & other Christianity-literate friends, do you have any good bible examples of people asking for the wrong thing? i kinda wish i spoke that language.

"When questioned whether the health and environmental costs [of legalizing leaded gasoline] could be justified economically, Bachmann [R-MN] responded, 'I think the American people understand freedom is more important than brain damage.'"

conform

• Description: Bike network 2.0
• From the user end: New Boston Bike Mapping Project
• And the result: Google maps

I can not understand why the feul prices are steadly rising. I beleive that the patrolium companies are making money off of the american people.... Also is this a sign that the country is going into a resetion and we are to proud and stubrin to fase the fact.

This is Madam ANNA CAMARA,
I am suffering from thurberclosises,
I am writing from the hospital in Cote D'Ivoire,
therefore this mail is very urgent please.