New World follows Countdown's lead to phase out plastic bags | Newshub New World has decided to phase out plastic bags completely after the conclusion of its "bag vote" poll. The Foodstuffs-owned company was planning on implementing a charge on plastic bags based on responses to the online poll. Customers were asked to vote on whether they would support a charge, and how much they would pay. The poll did not allow customers to say whether they would support the removal of plastic bags from stores. Foodstuffs Managing Director Steve Anderson said in a media release "we missed an important question - no bag at all". "Many of our customers told us via email, Facebook, phone and in-store that they wanted this option." Plastic bags will be phased out of all New World supermarkets by the end of 2018. The change comes following Countdown's announcement during the "bag vote" polling that plastic bags will be removed from its supermarkets by the end of 2018. Newshub
SSSCat Cat Training Aid This terrific product is perfect for dealing with minor stubborn behavior in your cat. I didn’t like our cat going up on the counter behind our kitchen sink to look out the window, but every time I went outside, there she was laughing at me. I tried many different deterrents, but she was like the Borg from Star Trek. She would just adapt. SSSCat solved the problem. SSSCat is a can of compressed air (like for cleaning the dust out of your keyboard), but with a motion sensor that sprays when the cat gets near. We’ve also used it outside of our bedroom door to prevent the cat from persistently meowing and jumping up at the door in the wee hours of the morning. The can of compressed air the unit comes with is about half the capacity of the cans you get for dusting keyboards. Jean Luc Picard could have used this against the Borg. [Make sure you pick up four AAA batteries as they are sold separately. -- OH]
Sustainable fishing | WWF New Zealand It is estimated that three-quarters of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited or overfished. Each year inefficient, destructive and/or illegal fishing practices kill millions of fish and marine animals as unwanted bycatch. Poor fisheries management, exacerbated by climate change, is the largest threat to ocean life and habitats ... and to the livelihoods and diets of more than a billion people. WWF internationally WWF has long campaigned for the sustainable management of the world's fisheries. Working with fishers to develop practical solutions to reduce bycatch.
UK Politics <div id="blq-no-js-banner"><p>For a better experience on your device, try our <a href=" site</a>.</p></div> Accessibility links BBC navigation UK Politics In association with RSS feed Advertisement 8 April 2014Last updated at 17:28 ET Miller 'devastated' by expenses row Culture Secretary Maria Miller says she is "devastated" that she has let her constituents down, amid growing pressure on her to resign. UK-Ireland future 'built on trust' Irish President Michael D Higgins hails the "warm and enduring" links with Britain in a special address to Parliament. IMF: UK to lead G7 growth in 2014 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the UK economy will grow by 2.9% in 2014, while global growth will be 3.6%. 716 Our Experts Article written by Nick Robinson Nick Robinson Political editor More from Nick Where Miller story is heading 5 hours ago Maria Miller has made the apology she failed to make in her thirty two second appearance in the Commons. Read full article Read full article
Environment for Kids: Water Pollution Science >> Earth Science >> Environment What is water pollution? Water pollution is when waste, chemicals, or other particles cause a body of water (i.e. rivers, oceans, lakes) to become harmful to the fish and animals that need the water to survive. Water pollution can disrupt and negatively impact nature's water cycle as well. Natural Causes of Water Pollution Sometimes water pollution can occur through natural causes like volcanoes, algae blooms, animal waste, and silt from storms and floods. Human Causes of Water Pollution A lot of water pollution comes from human activity. Oil Spills Some of the most famous incidents of water pollution have been oil spills. Acid Rain Air pollution can also have a direct effect on water pollution. Effects on the Environment Water pollution can have disastrous effects on the environment. Pollution in the water can reach a point where there isn't enough oxygen in the water for the fish to breathe. Water pollution warning sign Effects on Health
White Wash | Bors Blog Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them. ~Mark Twain I’ve never met a racist who cited Huckleberry Finn as her inspiration. Sanitizing the text by replacing “nigger” with “slave” won’t do much other than satisfy the skittish schools and parents who have made it one of the most controversial books in America. The thinking of the censorious publisher is curious. We’re having a talk about how language effects our society this week, after the mass shooting in Arizona. Tuesday: What Targets?” EcoStock turning food waste into millions - NZ Herald Food waste recycler EcoStock is turning other people's rubbish into millions of dollars. The Auckland business deals with eight double-decker buses of food waste every day - seven days a week. The company buys vegetable scraps, bread and packaged food from manufacturers, distributors and retailers, and reprocesses it before passing on the byproduct ingredients for stock feed and bio-energy. EcoStock managing director Andrew Fisher said it was important that companies were aware of solutions to sustainably deal with the waste they produced. "We all think about reporting profits as being the biggest thing, but in Europe it's not about reporting profits, it's about telling your customers what you're doing to reduce your environmental footprint and accelerate greenhouse gas reductions," Fisher said. The responsibility lay with business leaders. "It's about directors and CEOs actually drilling down and asking what resources can be given to get this done." "The technology is there.
Freshwater 101: Pollution As technology improves, scientists are able to detect more pollutants, and at smaller concentrations, in Earth’s freshwater bodies. Containing traces of contaminants ranging from birth control pills and sunscreen to pesticides and petroleum, our planet's lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater are often a chemical cocktail. Beyond synthetic pollution, freshwater is also the end point for biological waste, in the form of human sewage, animal excrement, and rainwater runoff flavored by nutrient-rich fertilizers from yards and farms. These nutrients find their way through river systems into seas, sometimes creating coastal ocean zones void of oxygen—and therefore aquatic life—and making the connection between land and sea painfully obvious. When you dump paint down the drain, it often ends up in the ocean, via freshwater systems. In the developed world, regulation has restricted industry and agricultural operations from pouring pollutants into lakes, streams, and rivers.
Is the BBC in thrall to Islam because of a Saudi landlord? We all knew that Auntie swung to the Left. But with a Roman Catholic director general and a Methodist head of religious broadcasting, you might have thought there would have been a little reverence for the majority religion and respect for the Established Church. Even at the cost of allegations of Islamophobia. And then came a Muslim head of religion and ethics, and one might have hoped for a little reverence for the majority religion and respect for the Established Church. If only to belie allegations of Islamophilia. But the spiritual rot continues. Peter Sissons was at the heart of news and current affairs programmes at the BBC for 20 years. And he further observed: ‘…the one thing guaranteed to damage your career prospects at the BBC is letting it be known that you are at odds with the prevailing and deep-rooted BBC attitude towards Life, the Universe, and Everything’. The logical corollary of this? He warns: And, inside the organisation, you challenge that collective view at your peril.
Plane Search Shows World's Oceans Are Full of Trash Before Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, sea trash was not a global headliner. But as hundreds of objects sighted off the Australian coast as possible aircraft debris turn out to be discarded fishing equipment, cargo container parts, or plastic shopping bags, a new narrative is emerging in the hunt for the missing plane: There's more garbage out there than you think. Most of it is plastic. "This is the first time the whole world is watching, and so it's a good time for people to understand that our oceans are garbage dumps," says Kathleen Dohan, a scientist at Earth and Space Research in Seattle, Washington, who maps ocean surface currents. Dohan plotted the movement of debris in a time-lapse video that shows where objects dropped into the ocean will end up in ten years. The term "patch" suggests this floating detritus is packed together in an oceanic version of a landfill. Great Pacific Garbage Patch the Largest Plastics Ingested by Birds, Turtles, Whales
Offside rule incredibly straightforward Eight-year old Maisie spots an offside and a pussycat As Sky Sports launched some dreary investigation into the brains of Andy Gray and Richard Keys, experts said it would be impossible for a woman to not understand the offside rule because it is one of the rules of football. Professor Henry Brubaker, of the Institute for Studies, said: “Of all the non-American sports, football is easily the most childishly simple. “This is not Fermat’s Last Theorem. It is a game designed specifically for low-grade morons who have to be told when to go to the toilet. “Claiming you don’t understand the offside rule is just one of those things people say at parties, because if they really didn’t understand it they would be either a potato or a bar of soap.” Helen Archer, a woman from Stevenage, said: “Yes, that all seems perfectly straightforward. “Now, what really concerns me about this whole offside thing is what happens to the player who has been caught offside.
Animals Eat Ocean Plastic Because it Smells Like Food, Thanks to DMS-Producing Algae As the oceans fill with plastic debris, hundreds of marine species eat astonishing amounts of it. Yet the question of why so many species, from the tiniest zooplankton to whales, mistake so much of it for food has never been fully explored. Now a new study explains why: It smells like food. Algae are consumed by krill, a small crustacean that is the primary food source for many sea birds. It turns out that floating plastic debris provides the perfect platform on which algae thrives. “DMS is the dinner bell,” says Matthew Savoca, a doctoral student at the University of California, Davis, and lead author of the study. Plastic debris has been accumulating rapidly in the world’s ocean, roughly doubling every decade. Scientists have long known that ocean plastic is consumed because it looks like food. But the study of how odors might play a role in marine animals’ consumption of plastic is the first of its kind. “This does not disprove that plastic might look enticing,” he says.
Labour Fighting to Keep Elections Biassed in Their Favour « Adam Collyer Image via Wikipedia Charlie Falconer (Right) – Unelected and Trying to Keep Our Elections Biassed Their Lordships have been enduring all night sittings as the government attempts to get its Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill through in time for the referendum on AV to be held on the same day as the local elections in May. The Bill includes two measures – as well as the referendum, it includes a measure to mandate that constituencies should all be the same size within 5 percent. Labour agrees with the idea of the referendum on AV, and has argued that the government should separate the two measures, so that the AV referendum can be passed quickly, and the correction of the electoral system can be debated at leisure. Labour’s position on this is completely outrageous. You can argue for ever the merits or otherwise of Proportional Representation versus First Past the Post, or any other electoral system like AV. What a shabby party Labour have become.