tagged w/ Amazon
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Tons of great video game deals this weekend, and thanks to the dry July gaming month we’ve saved up enough cash to start our binges.
Up first, Amazon has a great portable/handheld gaming sale going with several top-notch games and new releases for 3DS, DS, and PSP. Save from 25% – 50% off.Tons of great video game deals this weekend, and thanks to the dry July gaming month... more
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Tons of great video game deals this weekend, and thanks to the dry July gaming month we’ve saved up enough cash to start our binges.
Up first, Amazon has a great Buy One Get One half off deal on several top-notch games, including Shadows of the Damned, an already-discounted Portal 2, and Catherine.Tons of great video game deals this weekend, and thanks to the dry July gaming month... more
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Digital distribution of television shows, movies and music has become quite trendy in Hollywood. Not a week goes by that companies such as Netflix, Spotify, Hulu and others aren’t in the news cutting some sort of deal with a big studio, television network or record label. This podcast provides a rundown of all the recent announcements and what they might mean for you, the consumer.Digital distribution of television shows, movies and music has become quite trendy in... more
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I’ve been reading a lot about Amazon’s outrage on having to pay sales tax in California and I’ve been doing a little bit of thinking about it. I honestly think that they should collect sales tax in California, but the idea that they’re not having to collect it is hurting local businesses is incorrect. Even if they do collect sales tax, it is in my opinion that they will still hurt local businesses and here is why.I’ve been reading a lot about Amazon’s outrage on having to pay sales tax... more
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It seems that Amazon Kindle is not anymore the #1 e-reader. Will Amazon be able to get back the first place?It seems that Amazon Kindle is not anymore the #1 e-reader. Will Amazon be able to get... more
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Less than a year after ceasing publication of their print edition Paste Magazine has revived itself in a new digital format. Editor Josh Jackson reveals how the new Paste mPlayer was designed from the ground up as a next-generation publication chock full of long-form features, downloadable music and multi-media content. Is Paste giving us a glimpse into the future of magazines?Less than a year after ceasing publication of their print edition Paste Magazine has... more
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Fans of the “Transformers" franchise were relieved to discover the latest installment isn't nearly as bad ad the second film. That seems to be a fairly common response to Michael Bay’s critic-proof popcorn blockbuster. After earning $400 million worldwide in its first weekend it's easy to see why studios love such formulaic dreck.Fans of the “Transformers" franchise were relieved to discover the latest... more
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Deep in the Amazon forest thousands of people still live in relative isolation from the rest of the world.
In a recent press release, the Brazilian government confirmed the existence of another uncontacted tribe of about 200 people living in the Vale do Javari reservation. The reservation, located near the Peruvian border, is roughly the size of Portugal. At least another 14 uncontacted tribes, with a total population of about 2000 individuals, call the area home.
The newly observed group lives in four large thatch-roofed buildings and grows corn, bananas, peanuts and other crops.
Brazil's National Indian Foundation, known by its Portuguese acronym FUNAI, first noticed clearings in the forest using satellite maps. But it wasn't until April that an airplane expedition was able to confirm the tribe's existence
"The work of identifying and protecting isolated groups is part of Brazilian public policy," said the FUNAI coordinator for Vale do Javari, Fabricio Amorim, in a statement to the Associated Press. "To confirm something like this takes years of methodical work."
FUNAI estimates there are 68 uncontacted tribes living in the Amazon. The organization uses airplanes to avoid disturbing the tribes through personal contact (I wonder what they thought of the airplane), but that doesn't mean others are so respectful of the tribe's right to privacy.
Illegal fishing, logging, and poaching brings people into the protected area. Oil exploration on the Peruvian side of the border is another threat. Missionaries and drug traffickers also invade the lands of the indigenous groups, said Amorim.
Ever seen Medicine Man starring Sean Connery? The movie is a fictionalized account of what can happen when native peoples and colonists collide. The outsiders can damage the land and influence the culture of indigenous peoples. They can also bring diseases which can wipe out whole populations.
Brazil's indigenous peoples won the legal right to their traditional lands in Brazil's 1988 constitution. The document mandated that all indigenous ancestral lands be demarcated and turned over to tribes within five years.
Indigenous groups now control 11 percent of Brazil's territory, including 22 percent of the Amazon.
Allowing indigenous groups the right to their homelands is not just a matter of human rights. The rest of the world can benefit from their knowledge. I recently attended a lecture by Mark Plotkin, author of Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest, at the University of Missouri in Columbia. He has spent years living with the people of the Amazon and learning from their traditional healers.
In his lecture, he pointed out the numerous medicines and other useful materials and knowledge that can be gained from listening to the indigenous groups of the Amazon. They are also more effective at protecting the land and less expensive than hired park rangers.
http://news.discovery.com/human/newly-identified-tribe-in-the-amazon.html#mkcpgn=emnws1Deep in the Amazon forest thousands of people still live in relative isolation from... more
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According to preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the growth rate of population of the Northern Region of Brazil contradicts the downward trend of the remaining regions of the country. Between the twenty year period analyzed by the census of 2000 (1991 - 2000) and the census of 2010, the growth rate in the region jumped from 1.63 to 2.09. Probably due to internal migration, but also because fertility rates of four of the seven states of the region also increased (Rondonia, Amazonas, Amapa and Tocantins). Which means that in these states the number of children each woman has during her lifetime also increased.According to preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the growth rate of population of... more
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A gold rush that accelerated with the onset of the 2008 global recession is compounding the woes of the Amazon basin, laying waste to Peruvian rain forest and spilling tons of toxic mercury into the air and water.
With gold's price soaring globally as the metal became a hedge against financial uncertainty, the army of small-scale miners in the state of Madre de Dios has swelled to some 40,000. The result: Diesel exhaust sullies the air, trees are toppled to get at the sandy, gold-flecked earth and the scars inflicted on the land are visible on satellite photos.
The work is dangerous and produces a fifth of Peru's overall annual yield of roughly 175 metric tons of gold that make this country the world's No. 5 producer. The mining also is almost entirely illegal.
"Extracting an ounce of gold costs from $400 to $500 and the profit is $1,000 per ounce," notes Peru's environment minister, Antonio Brack. In just a decade, gold has more than tripled in value.
The situation in the southeastern state of Madre de Dios, which borders Brazil and Bolivia, is mirrored in dozens of the countries where gold is similarly mined, and where the desperately poor often end up working for the most unsavory of opportunists.
Government controls are mostly futile.
Neighboring Colombia and Ecuador have mounted crackdowns in the past year — Ecuador's military last month dynamited 67 pieces of heavy equipment — but when authorities depart, the diggers troop back and work resumes. In Madre de Dios, the informal production is unrecorded, untaxed and carried out on public lands where claims are awarded by regional officials, many of them grown rich in the process.
As the industry has grown, heavy machinery has moved in bearing Caterpillar, Volvo and other international trademarks into a state the size of Maine or Portugal, whose remotest reaches are believed inhabited by uncontacted Indian tribes.
In February the Peruvian navy dynamited 13 dredges which, working in violation of a government ban, were choking the Madre de Dios river with silt, killing plants and destroying habitats. Protesting laborers blockaded Madre de Dios' only highway, and at least three people were shot and killed by police sent from Lima.
"One of the big hydraulic dredges we destroyed could easily harvest a kilogram (worth about $45,000) of gold a day," said Brack.
Rather than try to evict the thousands of protesting informal miners, the government decided to work to "formalize" their operations, which have denuded well over 180 square kilometers (70 square miles ) of jungle in Madre de Dios.
"In practice, nothing happened. They moved against a small percentage of dredges that are not necessarily what hurts the environment most," said Pavel Cartagena, an environmental activist who recently returned to Puerto Maldonado, the state capital, after death threats drove him away for a year.
Brack said the crackdown served notice to local politicians profiting from the industry.
"We found that nearly all the public officials in Puerto Maldonado were involved," the minister said. "In 2010, the regional mining director had a mining company. His No. 2 had one. His wife had one. His sister had one (as did) the sister of the No. 2. They were all in it. And you think anyone is going to regulate anything?"
The state prides itself on its biodiversity and attracts eco-tourists for its monkeys, macaws and anacondas. Yet its forest is pocked with craters gouged by grime-coated men who tear the earth away with high-pressure water hoses.
And that is only the beginning. To capture the gold flecks, mostly the size of a grain of sand, mercury is used because it is the cheapest, easiest method. It then seeps into the air and rivers, an estimated 35 tons (32 metric tons) a year in Madre de Dios alone, slowly poisoning people, plants, animals and fish, scientific studies show.
cont.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUFg4AwUZZwA gold rush that accelerated with the onset of the 2008 global recession is... more
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I'm heartbroken. How much more devastation will be wrecked in pristine places for corporate greed? And because it is a land where indigenous people make their home, they mean nothing? Brazil just passed the bill to expand deforestation in the Amazon after activists had been murdered, and they now approve this mega dam which will be the third largest (Not learning from the Three Gorges Dam) against the voices and wishes of the indigenous people who live there who will now see their forests flooded and their way of life ended.This is also in the same area where we see increasing deforestation due to GM soy cultivation. The effects of destroying the lungs of our planet should be obvious to anyone with common sense. The people have vowed to fight on. So please if you would, sign the petition included here. Any project that will cause the devastation this will simply cannot be called sustainable.
http://amazonwatch.org/take-action/stop-the-belo-monte-monster-dam
You can sign the petition here.I'm heartbroken. How much more devastation will be wrecked in pristine places for... more
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Welcome to the GMO Report (formerly known as the Monsanto Roundup.) With these videos I hope to bring you information about GMO seeds and agriculture that you need to know to take action to protect your food, environment and health.
In this video I talk about Amazon deforestation for GM soy, activism against GM potatoes, global resistance, Glyphosate effects in the US, Monsanto's appeal gets dismissed, and their market decline.
Thanks for the support here, and always treasure the seed, the root of all life.Welcome to the GMO Report (formerly known as the Monsanto Roundup.) With these videos... more
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A prominent anti-logging activist was murdered along with his wife in Brazil on Tuesday, just hours before the country's Chamber of Deputies overwhelmingly voted to let farmers destroy more of the Amazon.
The 410-63 vote defangs the 75-year-old Código Florestal (Forest Code), which has long required that farmers who own a piece of the Amazon preserve 80% of the land they own and farm only on the remainder. The new bill exempts small-scale farmers from the Forest Code and opens environmentally sensitive patches of land – such as hilltops, slopes, and watersides – to cultivation. It also grants amnesty to small-scale farmers who violated the law before July, 2008.
The bill has not yet passed to the Senate, and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has vowed to veto it if the amnesty provision remains, but that hasn’t stopped farmers from preemptively chopping and burning forested portions of their property, leading to a sixfold surge in deforestation, with the greatest increase coming in Mato Grosso.
Death of an Activist
Also on Tuesday, anti-logging activist José Claudio Ribeiro "Ze Claudio" da Silva was gunned down along with his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva, in rural Para inside the Praialta-Piranheira, a nature reserve where they had spent the last two decades as rubber-tappers.
Environmental Fallout
First passed in 1934 and strengthened intermittently thereafter, the Forest Code is considered one of the world’s most progressive forest policies. Supporters of the Forest Code say it has played a major role in the rapid deceleration of deforestation rates in the Amazon over the last decade.
Before surging this past year, deforestation rates had fallen dramatically in Brazil. From a ten-year high of 2.7 million hectares in 2004, the rate dropped to 0.70 million hectares by 2009.
In a letter in the July 16, 2010, issue of Science, six Brazilian scientists wrote that the new rules “will benefit sectors that depend on expanding frontiers by clear-cutting forests and savannas and will reduce mandatory restoration of native vegetation illegally cleared since 1965.”
The scientists warn that CO2 emissions “may increase substantially”, and as many as 100,000 species might be put at risk of extinction if the proposal becomes law. “Under the new Forest Act,” the scientists said, “Brazil risks suffering its worst environmental setback in half a century, with critical and irreversible consequences beyond its borders.”
cont.A prominent anti-logging activist was murdered along with his wife in Brazil on... more
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Earlier this week Amazon offered Lady Gaga’s new album, ‘Born This Way‘, for only $0.99 for 2 days. So how much did the promotion cost Amazon?Earlier this week Amazon offered Lady Gaga’s new album, ‘Born This... more
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Amazon is once again offering customers Lady Gaga's new album 'Born This Way' for a mere $0.99. This time, however, they promise their servers can handle the load.Amazon is once again offering customers Lady Gaga's new album 'Born This... more
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A proposal to reform Brazil's forestry law, which could change how Brazil's wilderness areas are managed, is currently before Brazil's Congress.
Environmentalists claim that the reform to the 1965 law, which would decrease the amount of forested area that land owners must have, would have catastrophic consequences for the Amazon rainforest.
On the ground in the town of Boca do Acre, Amazonas state, where most, if not all, of the wood is considered illegal by Brazilian authorities, Woodworker Audalio de Noronha sees things differently.A proposal to reform Brazil's forestry law, which could change how Brazil's... more
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Last week, Amazon joined the array of companies that offer an electronic trade-in program. To trade in an electronic device, a customer can click a “trade-in” button on Amazon.com, then print out a pre-paid shipping label in order to ship the device to Amazon for free. After Amazon receives the device, the customer receives credit for future Amazon purchases. Trade-ins are currently offered for 2,550 electronic devices, including cell phones, tablet computers, MP3 players, and cameras.
“Technology is constantly evolving and newer, better versions of consumer electronics are introduced all the time,” said Paul Ryder, vice president of Electronics for Amazon.com. “We want to give customers the opportunity to get great value from their used electronics. Hundreds of thousands of customers have already received millions of dollars in gift cards from the other products in our program. The Electronics category is a natural extension and we are delighted to offer our customers more trade-in options.”
T-mobile also announced a trade-in program last week. T-Mobile’s trade-In program allows its customers to trade in old cell phones for money which they can use to buy new cell phones, including smartphones. The program allows customers to “offset the cost of a new phone purchase by up to $300,” according to a press release. T-mobile will even accept cell phones from other cell phone carriers.
E-waste is a growing problem
Electronic trade-in programs are important because electronic devices contain hazardous chemicals. When electronic waste (e-waste) is dumped into a landfill the hazardous chemicals can leach into the soil, and be released into the air. If e-waste is incinerated heavy metals like lead and mercury are released into the air.
Trade-ins also represent a huge opportunity. It’s a lot easier to mine old cell phones for raw materials than it is to dig for them.
The Electronics Take Back Coalition calls e-waste the “fastest growing waste stream in the U.S.” In 1998 only 2.3 million of the 20 million computers no longer functioning were recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and most computers recycled were from large businesses and institutions. A 2006 report by the International Association of Electronics Recyclers states that there are 400 million units of e-waste a year. Over three billion tons of e-waste was disposed in 2008 in the U.S. and only 430,000 tons or 13.6 percent recycled, according to the Electronics Take Back Coalition.
Post Continues: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/amazon-ewaste-trade-in/Last week, Amazon joined the array of companies that offer an electronic trade-in... more
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If 2010 seemed like a year of great change in the online video sector, 2011 is shaping up to make it look sleepy. To help analyze this complex and evolving landscape, Baseline Intelligence, a part of Baseline and the New York Times Company, is proud to announce the 2nd edition of its flagship digital media research report: Spring 2011 Online Video Now.If 2010 seemed like a year of great change in the online video sector, 2011 is shaping... more
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