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Study: Humans Must Preserve Plant Life Or Prepare For Extinction

<p>A new study predicts a dismal future for Earth if immediate action is not taken to curb carbon emissions and employ sustainable alternatives.</p>
<div><a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/study-humans-must-preserve-plant-life-or-prepare-for-extinction/deforestation1/" rel="attachment wp-att-36333"><img alt="Credit: Science Daily" class="wp-image-36333" height="487" src="http://cdn9.trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Deforestation1.jpg" width="730" /></a>
<p>Credit: Science Daily</p>
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<p>The benefits of being near and living around nature have <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=benefits+of+nature&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ved=0CBwQgQMwAGoVChMIjq3n46HvxgIVio0NCh32yQoO">been extolled for many years</a>. No doubt this is because being in nature helps calm the nervous system, alkalizes the body (if one is barefoot), decreases stress, and inspires the mind to form more objective perceptions on the universe.</p>
<p>But if more care is not taken by humans to preserve the precious flora of Earth, what will be the fate of the precious planet many species call home? Researchers at the University of Georgia have an answer, but it’s  not one you’re likely to appreciate…</p>
<p>The findings, published in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em> journal, outline how humans have been destroying the Earth’s precious plants and as a result, depleting the planet’s energy, both of which are essential for survival.</p>
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<p><em>“The Sun’s energy is stored in plants and fossil fuels but humans are draining energy much faster than it can be replenished,”</em> said the study’s lead author and associate professor John Schramski.</p>
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<p><a href="http://zeenews.india.com/news/eco-news/humans-will-go-extinct-if-plant-life-not-secured-study_1630385.html">The study shares</a> that 2,000 years ago, the Earth had just over 1,000 billion tons of carbon in living biomass. Since that time, however, the number has dropped by <strong>half</strong>, with <strong>10 percent of it being consumed in the <em>last century</em>. </strong></p>
<p>The main culprits to blame for the diminishing resources are deforestation and highly mechanized agriculture. Both have been growing at a rapid pace to feed the increasing global population.</p>
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<p><em>“If we do not reverse this trend, we will eventually reach a point where the biomass battery discharges to a level at which Earth can no longer sustain us,”</em> explained Schramski.</p>
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<p>If humans do not take action to preserve the Earth’s resources and all the sacred life on it, severe depletion of biomass will result, and in effect the planet’s climate will become too severe for humans to endure. Either the human race will become extinct, or our race will suffer a severe decline in numbers, the survivors having to return to being hunter-gatherers or simple horticulturalists.</p>
<p>A short-film that projects this reality (which we recommend you watch and refer to others) is called <em><a href="http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/the_age_of_stupid_2009/">Age of Stupid</a>. T</em>he burdensome future conveyed could be your grandchildren’s’ if action is not taken.</p>
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<p><em>“As the planet becomes less hospitable and more people depend on fewer available energy options, their standard of living and very survival will become increasingly vulnerable to fluctuations, such as droughts, disease epidemics and social unrest,”</em> added Schramski.</p>
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<p>These projections are nothing new: The last United Nations <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/going-vegan-could-save-the-world-reports-un-study/">report on climate change</a> <em>also</em> urged nations to improve their approach to how the planet is treated, and lessen their carbon footprint by opting for a more plant-based, vegan-oriented diet.</p>
<p>The study concludes that the only action that can be taken to save humans from impending doom is to raise awareness of how biomass is being depleted, and increase reliance on renewable sources of energy.</p>
<p>Do your part for the planet by <strong>sharing</strong> this article and <strong>commenting</strong> your thoughts below.</p>
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<p>This article (<a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/study-humans-must-preserve-plant-life-or-prepare-for-extinction/">Study: Humans Must Preserve Plant Life Or Prepare For Extinction</a> ) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><em>Creative Commons</em></a> <em>license with attribution to the author and</em> <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/"><em>TrueActivist.com</em></a></p>
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activism knowledge news Study: Humans Must Preserve Plant Life Or Prepare For Extinction

A new study predicts a dismal future for Earth if immediate action is not taken to curb carbon emissions and employ sustainable alternatives...

Aliens ahoy! Massive mothership ‘the size of Idaho’ caught in NASA images, say ufologists

<div class="article__summary summary"><img alt="© NASA" class="" height="257" src="http://cdn.rt.com/files/2015.07/original/55af79dac36188f0118b45e8.jpg" width="463" /></div>
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<div class="article__summary summary">A massive alien spacecraft, around the size of the US state of Idaho, has been spotted near the sun by ufologists in recent NASA pictures. They say the object definitely has a structure.</div>
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<p>The video released by Youtube user Streetcap1 shows the original NASA image of the sun captured by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on July 15, 2015.</p>
<p><em>“This UFO is awesome! Every time I try to ask NASA about these UFOs on Twitter, they ignore me. They have never answered me and refuse to talk about these giant UFOs near our sun,”</em> said a statement from the UFO Sightings Daily, a website devoted to possible UFO detections on or above our planet.</p>
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<p>According to the website, whose slogan is “the truth is within our grasp” (echoing the X-Files’ “The Truth is Out There”), the alleged alien craft is about the size of Idaho (216,000 square kilometers).</p>
<p>UFO Sightings Daily cited an eyewitness who said the object, which is definitely not a space rock or a piece of space junk, <em>“has structure and for NASA to dismiss it as nothing is an insult to people’s intelligence.”</em></p>
<p><em>“If they post data then they must expect UFO hunters to find anomalies and share them.”</em></p>
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anon anonymous news Aliens ahoy! Massive mothership ‘the size of Idaho’ caught in NASA images, say ufologists

A massive alien spacecraft, around the size of the US state of Idaho, has been spotted near the sun by ufologists in recent NASA pictures....

"Here We Breathe Freedom": Belarus Activists (and Musicians) Go to Poland to Be Political

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<h2>"Here We Breathe Freedom": Belarus Activists (and Musicians) Go to Poland to Be Political</h2>
<span>"Here We Breathe Freedom": Belarus Activists (and Musicians) Go to Poland to Be Political</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span>Agence France Presse</span></div>
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<p>Strumming his guitar in a forest clearing in Poland, Belarusian rocker Lavon Volski sings into the microphone: “Break everything, break the system.”</p>
<p>As he criticizes the authoritarian regime of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, the crowd chants “Long live Belarus,” waving the white and red flag of the opposition.</p>
<p>Banned from giving concerts in his homeland, Volski and fellow musicians crossed over into neighboring Poland last weekend to play at the annual Basowiszcza festival, held in the border town of Gródek.</p>
<p>“I can’t sing in Belarus because my lyrics are too strong. The regime doesn’t like these kinds of songs,” said the 49-year-old Volski.</p>
<p>Thousands of young Belarusians have descended upon the festival for years, to see their favorite underground bands play free from the fear of arrest.</p>
<p><strong>"A Window onto a Free Belarus"</strong></p>
<p>Since Lukashenko came to power in 1994, his government has routinely faced international criticism over its human rights record.</p>
<p>In 2010, tens of thousands of people protested against what they said were unfair presidential elections that gave Lukashenko another landslide victory. Following the protests, the strongman unleashed a crackdown on the opposition, imprisoning some of his most prominent critics and muzzling independent media.</p>
<p>Lukashenko is running for re-election in October, but festival goers voiced widespread pessimism regarding the possibility of a regime change.</p>
<p>“There’s no way you could hold this kind of festival in Belarus. Here the rock bands say what they can’t over there,” said Ruslan, a 24-year-old Belarusian living in Poland who declined to provide a second name for fear of compromising the safety of his family back home.</p>
<p>Dressed in a black t-shirt, he came out to hear punk-rocker Brutto frontman Siarhei Mikhalok, whose song Don’t Be Cattle has become something of an anthem for the opposition movement.</p>
<p>“If I wore this shirt out on the streets of Belarus, I’d have a 95% chance of getting arrested,” Ruslan said.</p>
<p>The festival dates back to 1990, just after the fall of communism in Poland, when students from the Belarusian minority in the eastern town of Podlasie racked their brains for a way to attract young people to a place where politics could be openly discussed.</p>
<p>Poland had not yet then joined Europe’s visa-free Schengen zone, so Belarusians were free to come and go. Now, visitors need to obtain a visa for £40.</p>
<p>Most of the performers are from Belarus – including many who steer clear of politics and are allowed to perform at home – but there were also two from Poland’s Belarusian minority, and two other Polish bands.</p>
<p>Whereas in the early days the crowd numbered no more than 100, this year the audience was 4,000 strong.</p>
<p>“Here we breathe the air of freedom for three days,” said Nikolai Lemianouski, a 49-year-old Belarusian and festival regular from the western city of Grodno.</p>
<p>“This festival is like a window onto a free Belarus.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/20/belarus-opposition-music-festival-poland-basowiszcza" rel="nofollow">Originally published by Agence France Presse</a></p>
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<p>From Madrid and Barcelona to Zaragoza, A Coruña, Cádiz and other major Spanish cities, government is now in the hands of independent citizen fronts called “confluences” – revealing a seismic shakeup in European politics.</p>
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<p>A series of tax breaks enacted in Congress shielded the profits of U.S. corporations operating on the island – and when a crucial tax credit ended 10 years ago, it plunged Puerto Rico into a recession that led to today's crisis.</p>
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<p>Email content is easily accessible to many civil and law enforcement agencies as soon as it is at least 180 days old.</p>
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<p>A series of tax breaks enacted in Congress shielded the profits of U.S. corporations operating on the island – and when a crucial tax credit ended 10 years ago, it plunged Puerto Rico into a recession that led to today's crisis.</p>
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<p>Since Occupy Wall Street, populist politicians and liberal intellectuals have been inveighing against income inequality – but more recently, the topic has been taken up by a different and unlikely group of advocates: billionaires.</p>
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<p>The deepening gap between rich and poor is both a sociological fact and a state of mind – as the cost of housing is up dramatically, and so is homelessness.</p>
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<p>Banned from giving concerts in his native Belarus, rocker Lavon Volski crossed over into neighboring Poland last weekend to play at the annual Basowiszcza festival, where underground bands play free from fear of arrest.</p>
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<p>Congress, on July 21, 2010, gave the Securities and Exchange Commission 270 days to issue a rule on how exactly to implement Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank act – and today, 1,821 days later, there still is no rule.</p>
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armageddon news revolution "Here We Breathe Freedom": Belarus Activists (and Musicians) Go to Poland to Be Political

"Here We Breathe Freedom": Belarus Activists (and Musicians) Go to Poland to Be Political "Here We Breathe Freedom&quo...

Cuban Flag Raised In Washington, D.C., Marking Historic Restoration of Ties

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<h2>Cuban Flag Raised In Washington, D.C., Marking Historic Restoration of Ties</h2>
<span>Cuban Flag Raised In Washington, D.C., Marking Historic Restoration of Ties</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span>Al Jazeera</span></div>
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<p>The Cuban flag was raised in front of the newly designated Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C., on Monday, a symbolic gesture that ushers in a new era between the United States and Cuba and formally re-establishes diplomatic ties ruptured more than 54 years ago.</p>
<p>Just past the stroke of midnight, the two countries reached a milestone in the historic thaw that began with a breakthrough announcement by U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro on Dec. 17.</p>
<p>Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on Monday morning presided over the raising of the Cuban flag over the colonial revival mansion that will again serve as Havana’s embassy in Washington. He was greeted by cheers and protests, including one man who appeared covered in red paint, symbolizing blood, The Hill reported. He was arrested.</p>
<p>Later in the day, Rodriguez and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held a joint press conference and hailed the reopening of the embassy, but they cautioned that there are still impediments to full normalization of relations.</p>
<p>"This milestone does not signify an end to differences that still separate our governments, but it does reflect the reality that the Cold War ended long ago and that the interests of both countries are better served by engagement rather than estrangement," Kerry said.</p>
<p>Rodriguez reiterated Cuban calls for the closure of Guantanamo Bay and the end of the trade embargo. He also raised the issue of U.S. criticism of Havana's human rights record, saying his government will not allow Washington to meddle. "We Cubans feel very happy with the way we Cubans manage our internal affairs," Rodriguez said.</p>
<p>Neither Kerry nor his Cuban counterpart went into specifics on human rights reforms.</p>
<p>While the Cubans hold their ceremony, the U.S. Embassy in Havana will also reopen. But no American flag will fly there until a visit by Kerry, which is expected next month. “We wanted the secretary to be there to oversee these important events,” a State Department official said.</p>
<p>Kerry and Rodríguez last met in April at the Summit of the Americas in Panama, where Obama and Castro also held talks. Aides see the outreach to Cuba as a boost to Obama’s legacy.</p>
<p>The re-establishment of embassies, agreed to on July 1, opens a new chapter of engagement by easing government contacts heavily constrained since President Dwight Eisenhower pulled the U.S. ambassador from Havana on Jan. 3, 1961. It was the culmination of diplomatic reprisals that began in the summer of 1960, when Fidel Castro began nationalizing U.S. property in the island.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/media_crop/12646/public/medialibrary/157920-cuba-ike-breaks-with-cuba.png" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/media_crop/12646/public/medialibrary/157920-cuba-ike-breaks-with-cuba.png" /></a></p>
<p>“If we only had embassies in countries whose governments we agree with, we would have to close half of our current embassies,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a longtime proponent of normalization, said Monday. “That is not why you have embassies. It is to protect the interests of the United States and of American citizens and to defend our ideals around the world.”</p>
<p>A full-service U.S. mission in Havana could offer some reassurance to companies interested in investing in Cuba after the Obama administration <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/topics/topic/international-location/americas/cuba.html" rel="nofollow">loosened a series</a> of restrictions on U.S. business in January in an attempt to encourage the growth of the island’s small private sector.</p>
<p>It could also seed the way for more — although still heavily restricted — travel to the island by American citizens, who have been able to book rooms <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/2/airbnb-rentals-for-us-travellers-to-cuba.html" rel="nofollow">via Airbnb since April</a>.</p>
<p>Talks to reopen the embassies dragged for months, with U.S. officials wrangling over a range of issues, including the size of diplomatic staffs in each country and the extent of freedom to travel they are granted.</p>
<p>While the opening of embassies marks a major milestone in the thaw between the U.S. and Cuba, significant issues remain. The two nations are also discussing possible cooperation on law enforcement, including the touchy topic of U.S. fugitives sheltering in Havana and restoration claims by Americans who lost at total of $1.9 billion in property in Cuba.</p>
<p>Reopening embassies is just the first step in what the Cuban government has called “a long and complex process toward normalization of bilateral ties.” Island leaders want an end to the 55-year-old U.S. embargo, the return of the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay and a halt to U.S. radio and TV broadcasts aimed at the island.</p>
<p>Obama also wants Congress to repeal the economic embargo of Cuba, though he faces resistance from Republicans and some Democrats. Those opposed to normalizing relations with Cuba say he is prematurely rewarding a regime that engages in serious human rights abuses.</p>
<p>Since Jimmy Carter’s administration in the late 1970s, the United States and Cuba have operated diplomatic missions called interests sections in each other’s capitals. The missions were technically under the protection of Switzerland and did not enjoy the same status as embassies.</p>
<p>The Obama administration did not require congressional approval to reopen the U.S. embassy in Havana because it did not request money for an upgrade. However, any improvement to the embassy that requires funding would need the green light from Congress. The Republican-controlled Senate and House will also need to approve an ambassador to Cuba. That, like the lifting of the U.S. embargo, is unlikely to occur during Obama’s tenure.</p>
<p><a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/20/us-cuba-restore-full-diplomatic-relations-after-five-decades.html" rel="nofollow">Originally published by Al Jazeera</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/Cuba.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="cuba, cuban flag" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/Cuba.jpg" title="cuba, cuban flag" /></a><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/cuba2-2.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="cuba, cuban flag" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/cuba2-2.jpg" title="cuba, cuban flag" /></a></p>
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<p>From Madrid and Barcelona to Zaragoza, A Coruña, Cádiz and other major Spanish cities, government is now in the hands of independent citizen fronts called “confluences” – revealing a seismic shakeup in European politics.</p>
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<p>A series of tax breaks enacted in Congress shielded the profits of U.S. corporations operating on the island – and when a crucial tax credit ended 10 years ago, it plunged Puerto Rico into a recession that led to today's crisis.</p>
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<p>Email content is easily accessible to many civil and law enforcement agencies as soon as it is at least 180 days old.</p>
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<p>The two presidential candidates are amassing fortunes through fundraising bundlers that will leave them politically indebted to the most influential lobbyists in Washington.</p>
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<p>No longer just targeting animal rights activists, the Property Protection Act outlaws exposing abuse at elder care facilities, day cares and charter schools – revealing the power of ALEC-backed legislation at the state level.</p>
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<p>A series of tax breaks enacted in Congress shielded the profits of U.S. corporations operating on the island – and when a crucial tax credit ended 10 years ago, it plunged Puerto Rico into a recession that led to today's crisis.</p>
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<p>If the M15-Indignados movement inaugurated a new social grammar in Spain, last month's municipal election victories created a new political ecosystem – signaling transformational shifts that have upended the old order.</p>
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<p>Email content is easily accessible to many civil and law enforcement agencies as soon as it is at least 180 days old.</p>
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armageddon news revolution Cuban Flag Raised In Washington, D.C., Marking Historic Restoration of Ties

Cuban Flag Raised In Washington, D.C., Marking Historic Restoration of Ties Cuban Flag Raised In Washington, D.C., Marking Historic R...

Why Inequality Is Making Los Angeles a Third World City

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<h2>Why Inequality Is Making Los Angeles a Third World City</h2>
<span>Why Inequality Is Making Los Angeles a Third World City</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/" rel="nofollow">The New York Times</a></span></div>
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<p>A generation ago, this West Coast metropolis became a “third world city.” At least in the rhetoric of certain East Coast thinkers.</p>
<p>A 1991 book by David Rieff cited visitors who were stunned by “seeing nothing but brown faces, hearing nothing but Spanish on the streets.” The arrival of coffee-colored Latino masses (like me and my Guatemalan-American family), together with the spread of Mandarin and Korean logograms on street signs, led Mr. Rieff to call this the “capital of the third world.”</p>
<p>As a native of the city, I was offended to hear it tagged with such a denigrating label. But in recent years, and for different reasons, I’ve come to believe that a metropolis of the “developing world,” to use a more polite expression, is being born here.</p>
<p>Its center is not in East Los Angeles, or any other Latino neighborhood; nor in our recently christened “Little Bangladesh.” The third world exists everywhere here — in the spread of inequality.</p>
<p>The deepening gap between rich and poor is both a sociological fact and a state of mind. The cost of housing is up dramatically, and so is homelessness.</p>
<p>“If it feels like there are people living on the streets and under bridges everywhere you look, it’s because there are,” Bianca Barragan wrote for the website L.A. Curbed last month, after a survey by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found an 85 percent increase in the number of people living in tents and cars over the past two years. In all, the census counted more than 25,000 homeless people in the city, up 12 percent over the same period.</p>
<p>In my hillside neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles, the value of a two-bedroom home has climbed to $750,000 or more. Buy in, and you could get a nice view of a valley with sycamore trees and a homeless camp. On social media, I hear my neighbors demanding that city officials intensify indigent-removal efforts.</p>
<p>“The problem is not gone,” wrote a resident on a neighborhood website in May, after city officials cleared out scores of homeless people. “Saw 6 people or more on the hillside. Tents and cooking! Looks like more work needs to be done.”</p>
<p>California has both the most “ultrarich” (people worth more than $30 million) and the worst poverty rate in America. Even though San Francisco recently overtook Los Angeles in ultrarich residents, ostentatious affluence and permanent poverty live side by side here.</p>
<p>“Look, Papá,” my 10-year-old daughter said as our old Subaru puttered past a local intersection that’s been occupied for ages by homeless veterans. “A Maserati!”</p>
<p>Silver, sleek, an apparition from the French Riviera, it glided past a lumbering city bus. A few days later, we saw a Tesla — the new status symbol of our eco-glitterati — driving along the Arroyo Seco Parkway, past the huts of wood, wire and blue tarpaulin that lined the roadway.</p>
<p>The paradox of increasing homelessness and rising prosperity has finally got Los Angeles talking about inequality. But the gap between rich and poor has been building here for 40 years. Every boom and bust simply accentuates the trend.</p>
<p>Bill Boyarsky, a retired city editor at The Los Angeles Times, dates the beginning to the decline of industrial Los Angeles in the 1970s: “We lost a huge number of middle-class jobs.” At the same time, the tax revolt led by the businessman and politician Howard Jarvis cut funding for public education. “We ended up limiting the ability of kids to move ahead of their parents,” said Mr. Boyarsky.</p>
<p>Los Angeles still has a much larger middle class than your average developing-world city. But privilege and inequality are spreading in all sorts of public places.</p>
<p>Rich and poor have long suffered on the freeway together: Porsches and pickups alike, gridlocked. Now we have new toll roads; on some freeways, you can literally buy your way into the fast lane.</p>
<p>Dodger Stadium used to be one of the city’s most democratic entertainment venues. In 1962, the most expensive seat was $5.50, about four times the price of a bleacher (or pavilion) seat. These days, field-level seats can cost up to $1,000, more than 30 times the price of a bleacher seat.</p>
<p>Thirty years ago, a family of four at poverty level lived on about $10,650 — about double the annual tuition at the city’s top prep schools. The equivalent federal poverty line today, $24,250, would barely cover two-thirds of this year’s tuition at schools like Harvard-Westlake or Polytechnic in Pasadena.</p>
<p>In the cities of the developing world, class differences this wide are fixed. Homelessness is a kind of caste, and the poorest city dwellers live in permanent squatter communities. In Buenos Aires, where I once lived, their homes are often built with discarded bricks and tiles.</p>
<p>Los Angeles doesn’t have neighborhoods like that yet, but homelessness has become semi-permanent in many places.</p>
<p>A decade ago, a man created a shelter under a bridge across the street from my in-laws in South Pasadena; a series of homeless people has occupied it ever since — most recently, a white man of about 65 nicknamed the Cowboy. He told me he worked in aerospace until an accident left him with a brain injury.</p>
<p>The Cowboy (he declined to tell his real name) is proud of his home improvements: a modest retaining wall, a wood-chip floor. He’s earned the trust of his property-owning neighbors. Once, he said, they passed around a petition to keep the police from kicking him out. As long as Los Angeles holds on to such compassion, it won’t be a true “third world city.”</p>
<p>The Cowboy asked me to visit again soon. “Like a bad habit,” he said, “I’ll keep coming back into your world.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/opinion/welcome-to-hooverville-california.html" rel="nofollow">Originally published by The New York Times</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/la-174082-me-0905-homeless-1-lkh-jpg-20140407.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="wealth inequality, rising inequality, income inequality, rising homelessness, rising rents" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/la-174082-me-0905-homeless-1-lkh-jpg-20140407.jpg" title="wealth inequality, rising inequality, income inequality, rising homelessness, rising rents" /></a></p>
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<p>From Madrid and Barcelona to Zaragoza, A Coruña, Cádiz and other major Spanish cities, government is now in the hands of independent citizen fronts called “confluences” – revealing a seismic shakeup in European politics.</p>
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<p>A series of tax breaks enacted in Congress shielded the profits of U.S. corporations operating on the island – and when a crucial tax credit ended 10 years ago, it plunged Puerto Rico into a recession that led to today's crisis.</p>
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<p>Email content is easily accessible to many civil and law enforcement agencies as soon as it is at least 180 days old.</p>
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<p>If the U.K. government continues to maintain its grip on North Sea oil, it will continue to prop up an industry that is in decay – with large profits for fossil fuel companies coming at a steep price to people and the climate.</p>
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<p>The leak, which was discovered Wednesday afternoon, is the largest pipeline spill in Alberta in 35 years.</p>
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<p>If the M15-Indignados movement inaugurated a new social grammar in Spain, last month's municipal election victories created a new political ecosystem – signaling transformational shifts that have upended the old order.</p>
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<p>Congress, on July 21, 2010, gave the Securities and Exchange Commission 270 days to issue a rule on how exactly to implement Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank act – and today, 1,821 days later, there still is no rule.</p>
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<p>The two countries have reached a milestone in the historic thaw.</p>
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armageddon news revolution Why Inequality Is Making Los Angeles a Third World City

Why Inequality Is Making Los Angeles a Third World City Why Inequality Is Making Los Angeles a Third World City This article origin...

This Amazing Tree Can Grow 40 Different Kinds Of Fruit!

<p>This professor harnessed the ancient technique of “chip grafting" and produced a tree capable of bearing 40 different kinds of fruit!</p>
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<em><br />
Technology is only as limited as the human mind, and when one can conceive a grand vision, it will no doubt be made manifest at some point or another.</em>
<p>Such statement applies to the enchanting-looking tree (pictured below) which is capable of bearing  <strong>40 different types</strong> of stone fruit, including peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds. Artist and Syracuse University professor Sam Van Aken is responsible for this magnificent wonder and achieved it by harnessing an ancient technique called “chip grafting.”</p>
<p>As <a href="http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/150720-40-fruit-tree-vin?source=relatedvideo">NationalGeographic shares</a>, the process is one of patience. Over a period of several years, Van Aken tediously spliced branches with buds of various varieties into a base branch called the “working tree.”</p>
<div readability="32"><a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/this-amazing-tree-can-grow-40-different-kinds-of-fruit/tree40fruit/" rel="attachment wp-att-36345"><img alt="Credit: NationalGeographic" class="wp-image-36345" height="485" src="http://cdn10.trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Tree40Fruit.jpg" width="730" /></a>
<p>Credit: NationalGeographic</p>
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<p>But his work is worth it, as once springtime comes, the <em>“Tree of 40 Fruit”</em> beautifully bears pink and purple blossoms. By summer, the tree begins to bear all kinds of fruit for harvest.</p>
<blockquote readability="9.4571428571429">
<p><em>“Part of the idea behind the Tree of 40 Fruit was to plant them in locations that people would stumble upon them,”</em> said Van Aken speaking to <a href="http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/150720-40-fruit-tree-vin?source=relatedvideo">National Geographic</a> in the video above. <em>“And once they happened upon one of these trees, they would start to question ‘Why are the leaves shaped differently?’ ‘Why are they different colors?’”</em></p>
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<p>Dozens of these trees have been planted around the U.S. You can find out <a href="http://www.treeof40fruit.com/">here</a> if a Tree of 40 Fruit is near you.</p>
<p><strong>Share this article</strong>, and <em>comment your thoughts</em> below!</p>
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<p>This article (<a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/this-amazing-tree-can-grow-40-different-kinds-of-fruit/">This Amazing Tree Can Grow 40 Different Kinds Of Fruit!</a>) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><em>Creative Commons</em></a> <em>license with attribution to the author and</em> <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/"><em>TrueActivist.com</em></a></p>
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activism knowledge news This Amazing Tree Can Grow 40 Different Kinds Of Fruit!

This professor harnessed the ancient technique of “chip grafting" and produced a tree capable of bearing 40 different kinds of fruit! ...