MANGO WORLD MAGAZINE (Est. 2000)

FAILED PROMISES : Pakistan to import VHT plant from Japan shortly

2013-06-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

Published By: agrinfobank.com Team

on 22 Dec 2012 | 23:06

Aiming to tap the very lucrative international markets for fruits, Pakistan, for the first time, is going to import Vapour Heat Treatment (VHT) plant from Japan.

With the investment of at least Rs 236 million, the country has almost finalised the procurement process of the plant, which was needed to process fruit especially mango for entering Japanese and other international markets, Business Recorder learnt.

According to sources, all parts and other allied machines for the establishment of VHT facility was expected to reach the country within next 120 days will be installed at proposed Agri Processing Zone land, situated near Karachi city along Super High Way.

The new plant will process at least 15,000 kilogram or 15 tones mango daily.

Vapour Heat Treatment System uses hot saturated water vapour to heat the fruit slowly, treating possible fruit flies.

The plant, according to sources, was being procured through Trade Development Authority (TDAP) of Pakistan and a representative of the private firm, which has won the bid issued by TDAP was currently in Japan. The same VHT plant, with latest technology, was being used in other countries like Thailand, Philippine and others to process fresh fruits. Though the plant can be used for multipurpose, but it was presently being imported for processing the highly valued mango. The plant, which will facilitate export of fruits and vegetables, especially Mangoes, to Japan and other foreign markets was intended to meet the phyto-sanitary requirements of the importing countries.

According to TDAP’s issued bid in February 2012, the successful bidder would be responsible for commissioning of complete plant; responsible for operation and maintenance for six months; training of local staff; supply of spare parts and ensure the warranty/guarantee for the plant.

The bidders were asked to provide lowest quote for operation and maintenance using the period of 15 years, as the running cost for daily processing of 15 tones of mangoes for a period of 4 months season (120 days), having the net present value using discount rate of 12 percent. The total estimated cost of the plant was Rs 236,170,230.46.

It is worth mentioning here that in the absence of required VHT plant, Pakistani mango was not being exported to Japan despite lifting a 16-year-old ban on the import of fruit from Pakistan.

Last year, the government had introduced Mango in Japanese market on experimental basis and limited quantity of mangoes had sent to Japan for promotional purposes as test shipment soon after the foreign government allowed it after processing through a smaller VHT plant provided by Tokyo in 1999.

Japanese ministry of Food and Agriculture had given the permission of mango imports from Pakistan with an attached condition -Vapour Heat Treatment of mangoes. Islamabad had made the older plant operational last year in order to introduce the fruit in foreign markets. However, the bigger and latest one was needed to start the trade on commercial basis.

Though the exports of mango, which is called here the king of fruit was expected to be started during ongoing season but the delayed procurement process of the plant kept the foreign market away for another one year/season.

However, after the fresh development, the country is expected to be able to export mango to Tokyo a lucrative and potential market.

http://www.agrinfobank.com/2012/12/pakistan-to-import-vht-plant-from-japan.html#.UcJr2vmUTKl

DEFORESTATION : More people are now displaced by environmental disasters than by war.

2013-06-19T19:26:00.001-07:00

Erosion in Madagascar. Click image for more information. (Photo by R. Butler)

SOIL EROSION AND ITS EFFECTS

By Rhett Butler | Last updated July 22, 2012

The loss of trees, which anchor the soil with their roots, causes widespread erosion throughout the tropics.

Only a minority of areas have good soils, which after clearing are quickly washed away by the heavy rains. Thus crop yields decline and the people must spend income to import foreign fertilizers or clear additional forest.

Costa Rica loses about 860 million tons of valuable topsoil every year, while the Great Red Island, Madagascar, loses so much soil to erosion (400 tons/ha) that its rivers run blood-red, staining the surrounding Indian Ocean.

Astronauts have remarked that it looks like Madagascar is bleeding to death, an apt description of a country with grave environmental degradation and an agriculture-reliant economy that depends on its soils.

The rate of increase for soil loss after forest clearing is astonishing; a study in Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) found that forested slope areas lost 0.03 tons of soil per year per hectare; cultivated slopes annually lost 90 tons per hectare, while bare slopes lost 138 tons per hectare.

Plane view of deforestation-induced erosion in Madagascar

After heavy tropical rains fall on cleared forest lands, the run-off carries soil into local creeks and rivers.

The rivers carry the eroded soils downstream, causing significant problems.

Hydroelectric projects and irrigation infrastructure lose productivity from siltation, while industrial installations suspend operations due to lack of water. Siltation also raises river beds, increasing the severity of floods, and creates shoals and sandbars that make river navigation far more troublesome.

The increased sediment load of rivers smothers fish eggs, causing lower hatch rates.

As the suspended particles reach the ocean, the water becomes cloudy, causing regional declines in coral reefs, and affecting coastal fisheries.

The loss of coral reefs worldwide, often labeled the rainforests of the sea, is especially distressing to scientists because of their tremendous diversity and the important services they provide.

Coastal fisheries are affected not just by the loss of coral reefs and their communities, but by the damage inflicted on mangrove forests by heavy siltation.

Besides damaging the fisheries industry, deforestation-induced erosion can undermine roads and highways that cross through the forest.

Erosion is extremely costly for developing countries. Besides the damage to infrastructure, fisheries, and property, erosion of precious topsoils costs tens of billions of dollars worldwide each year. For example, in the late 1980s the Indonesian island of Java was losing 770 million metric tons of topsoil every year at an estimated cost of 1.5 million tons of rice, enough to fulfill the needs of 11.5-15 million people.

ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES

Environmental deterioration can leave people as "environmental refugees"—people who are displaced due to environmental degradation, including deforestation, sea-level rise, expanding deserts, and catastrophic weather events.

Red Cross research shows more people are now displaced by environmental disasters than by war.

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0903.htm

Japan Inc. Holds Italy-Sized Cash Pile as Abe Urges Spending ...

2013-06-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

By Toru Fujioka & Mio Coxon - Jun 19, 2013 9:02 PM ET

Japan’s companies stockpile of cash reached a record in the first quarter as they poured investment abroad, underscoring Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s challenge to boost the nation’s investment and wages.

Private companies’ cash and deposits rose 5.8 percent from a year before, to 225 trillion yen ($2.4 trillion) -- an amount in excess of the size of Italy’s economy or the liquid assets held by American firms, Bank of Japan data showed in Tokyo. Businesses held 55 trillion yen in direct investment abroad.

Promoters for the store "Sly" carry branded shopping bags in the area of Shibuya in Tokyo, Japan. Photographer: Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg

A government report yesterday showed Japan’s exports rose more than forecast in May as a weaker yen boosted the value of overseas sales, even as the volume of goods shipped abroad declined. Photographer: Yuriko Nakao/Bloomberg

The report underscores the appetite for manufacturers to ramp up operations in faster-growing economies as they await evidence for Abe’s growth agenda opening new opportunities at home. Without a revamp of corporate governance practices that forces Japan Inc. to deploy its cash pile, it will be tough for Abe to transform the economy, economist Masaaki Kanno said.

“This is a very big problem in Japan’s economic system,” said Kanno, chief Japan economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo and a former BOJ official. “The problem is lack of corporate governance -- the role of shareholders should be to urge managers to use cash more profitably.”

Abe, 58, plans to roll out legislation to reduce corporate regulation later this year, after next month’s election for the upper house of parliament. Meantime, he and his Cabinet have set targets for increased investment at home and urged businesses to boost wages as they enjoy a bump in profits from a falling yen.

No Guarantee

The prime minister’s growth plan offers no guarantee of revitalizing Japan, Moody’s Investors Service said in a credit outlook report today. “The outline lacks steps to significantly increase corporate investment in the domestic economy,” analysts David Erickson and Tom Byrne wrote.

A government report yesterday showed Japan’s exports rose more than forecast in May as a weaker yen boosted the value of overseas sales, even as the volume of goods shipped abroad declined. The BOJ’s release, known as the flow of funds report, added to evidence of increase in profits.

The cash and deposit holdings of Japan’s non-financial companies reached a record in the January-to-March period, according to BOJ figures dating back to 1979.

The $2.4 trillion equivalent compares with the $1.8 trillion in liquid assets -- such as cash, deposits and money-market fund shares -- held by non financial U.S. firms, according to Federal Reserve data.

“Excess net private savings to a large extent reflect the malaise that Japan has been in -- of deflation and low growth,” said Paul Sheard, chief global economist at ratings company Standard & Poor’s. “The corporate sector is not going to take that money and suddenly start investing, start increasing wages or hiring more workers if it doesn’t see a more optimistic future.”

Low Debt

Among the 198 non-financial companies on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average (NKY), 42 have more cash than debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The BOJ’s efforts to end 15 years of sustained deflation will help encourage companies to deploy their cash, according to Finance Minister Taro Aso.

“They are hoarding cash because of deflation,” Aso said in parliament in Tokyo yesterday. “Deflation makes the value of money higher if you just keep it. But inflation won’t allow that to happen and it will be an impetus” to spend, he said.

Growing Economy

Japan’s gross domestic product jumped at an annualized 4.1 percent pace last quarter, propelled by consumer spending and exports while business investment declined. GDP will rise 2.85 percent this quarter, then sustain 3.25 percent gains in the following two periods, according to the median estimates in Bloomberg News surveys of economists. Next year, growth is forecast to slow when the government boosts the sales tax.

The flow of funds report showed households had a financial deficit of 12.1 trillion yen in the period, the biggest since January-to-March 2009, reflecting that shoppers opened their wallets wider. Japanese typically see a net outflow of funds in the first and third quarters of the calendar year, with inflows in the second and fourth periods, when bonuses are paid.

“In that sense maybe Abenomics worked -- it encouraged the household sector,” said Kanno at JPMorgan.

Abe’s 10.3 trillion yen fiscal package enacted earlier this year, and BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s April commitment to double the monetary base, helped strengthen consumer confidence to its highest level since 2007 in May. Anticipation of BOJ stimulus helped send the yen down 7.9 percent in the first quarter against the dollar, after a 10 percent tumble in the previous three months.

Cautious Households

Households remained cautious with their investments, keeping 54 percent of their holdings in cash and deposits in the first quarter, compared with 55.2 percent the previous three months. Net assets rose 4.7 percent to 1,207 trillion yen, the highest level since the second quarter of 2007 -- before global money markets began to seize up with the collapse of the American subprime mortgage market.

“The big question for Abenomics is are the Japanese consumers and investors going to switch out of cash -- that’s going to underpin a long-term change,” said Barend Janssens, the head of RBC Wealth Management’s emerging markets division in Singapore.

Japanese bank lending overseas in the fiscal year which ended in March rose 26 percent from a year earlier to 52 trillion yen, the most since fiscal 1998, when the Asian financial crisis struck Japan’s trading partners in southeast Asia. The nation’s lenders have been expanding in the region, following manufacturers including Nissan Motor (7201) Co. that have boosted their operations there.

Looking Abroad

The total stock of Japan’s foreign direct investment rose 22 percent to 55 trillion yen at the end of March.

Last month, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. agreed to buy 40 percent of Indonesia’s PT Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional for about $1.5 billion, its biggest purchase of a foreign financial firm. In 2007, it bought 15 percent of Vietnam Export-Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank. Mizuho Financial Group Inc. followed its rival into Vietnam last year.

“With Japan’s local market shrinking due to adverse demographics and long-term prospects still cloudy, Japanese companies are looking abroad,” said Izumi Devalier, a Japan economist at HSBC Holdings Plc in Hong Kong. “This trend is not going to change overnight. I think the FDI surge is a long-term trend.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Toru Fujioka in Tokyo at tfujioka1@bloomberg.net; Mio Coxon in Tokyo at mcoxon1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst at ppanckhurst@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-19/japan-inc-sits-on-italy-sized-cash-pile-as-abe-urges-investment.html

Nitu Pérez Osuna: Maduro en el Vaticano

2013-06-19T05:39:00.000-07:00

Publicado en junio 19th, 2013

Una reunión de 20 minutos entre Su Santidad Francisco y quien ocupa Miraflores, Nicolás Maduro.

Algo debe haber pasado antes del encuentro… y es que, según reseñaban algunos medios de comunicación el sábado 15 de Junio, en Venezuela, el señor Maduro llevaría cuatro presentes a su reunión con el Papa: una serigrafía del Libertador Simón Bolívar, una imagen del Siervo de Dios José Gregorio Hernández y otra de nuestra Patrona, la Virgen de Coromoto… sin duda alguna, tres representaciones muy profundas del sentir venezolano, pero agregaba entonces un regalo más: un cuadro de Hugo Chávez.

Este último no fue “obsequiado”

¿por qué?

En entrevista realizada tiempo atrás al entonces cardenal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, (hoy Papa Francisco) en Argentina por el periodista de tendencia socialista Chris Mathews, Bergoglio le tiró esta perla: “La gente dominada por socialistas necesita saber que NO tenemos que ser pobres. El imperio de la dependencia creado por Hugo Chávez, con falsas promesas, mintiendo para que lleguen a arrodillarse ante el gobierno y ante él. Dándoles peces pero sin permitirles pescar. Si en América Latina alguien aprende a pescar, es castigado y sus peces confiscados por los socialistas. La libertad es castigada. Tú hablas de progreso y yo de pobreza. Temo por América Latina. Toda la región está controlada por un bloque de regímenes socialistas como Cuba, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua. ¿Quién los salvará de esa tiranía?”.

El video, nunca salió al aire, fue archivado pero un estudiante que hacia pasantías en el canal lo copio y entregó a su profesor en la universidad luego de haber sido elegido Papa, el Cardenal, Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

Continuando con el encuentro en el Estado del Vaticano, que estremeció a Maduro por la “impresionante humildad del Papa Francisco de quien admira sus discursos y la ética del poder que transmite”, la nota oficial de la Santa Sede reseña que a Nicolás le fue obsequiada una pluma estilográfica junto a las conclusiones de la V Conferencia Episcopal Latinoamericana y del Caribe, realizada en Aparecida- Brasil, en el año 2007.

Releyendo dichas conclusiones, entendemos claramente el objetivo del regalo. En las mismas, encontramos lo siguiente: “En América Latina y El Caribe, igual que en otras regiones, se ha evolucionado hacia la democracia, aunque haya motivos de preocupación ante formas de gobierno autoritarias o sujetas a ciertas ideologías que se creían superadas, y que no corresponden con la visión cristiana del hombre y de la sociedad, como nos enseña la doctrina social de la Iglesia. Por otra parte, la economía liberal de algunos países latinoamericanos ha de tener presente la equidad, pues siguen aumentando los sectores sociales que se ven probados cada vez más por una enorme pobreza o incluso expoliados de los propios bienes naturales… Los pueblos latinoamericanos y caribeños tienen derecho a una vida plena, propia de los hijos de Dios, con unas condiciones más humanas: libres de las amenazas del hambre y de toda forma de violencia. Para estos pueblos, sus pastores han de fomentar una cultura de la vida que permita, como decía mi predecesor Pablo VI, pasar de la miseria a la posesión de lo necesario, a la adquisición de la cultura… a la cooperación en el bien común… hasta el reconocimiento, por parte del hombre, de los valores supremos y de Dios, que de ellos es la fuente y el fin” (Populorum progressio, 21).

¿Entenderá esto Maduro?… no se.

Posteriormente, en reunión sostenida con movimientos sociales en Roma, Nicolás, intentó aclarar su procedencia natalicia, detallando urbanización, parroquia y hasta el nombre del párroco que le bautizó ante un público que desconocemos, si ha visitado alguna vez a Caracas y en particular la urbanización Los Chaguaramos, donde dice, nació.

La detallada explicación concluyó arremetiendo contra unas monjas, que supuestamente lo castigaron, por hablar de Cuba y Fidel cuando contaba con la tierna edad de 9 años y estudiaba en la escuela cristiana del lugar caraqueño donde afirma creció.

Salió del Vaticano y embistió a las monjas…Así fueron las cosas.

pereznitu@gmail.com

pereznitu@gmail.com

http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2013/06/19/nitu-perez-osuna-maduro-en-el-vaticano/

AMAZING : MOL Comfort Breaks In Two Off Yemen, Still Afloat [UPDATE]

2013-06-19T05:10:00.004-07:00

BY GCAPTAIN STAFF ON JUNE 18, 2013

UPDATE: The MRCC in Mumbai has tweeted saying that the sections are still afloat and are being monitored by the MV Sanderling Ace, another MOL managed vessel.

Photo MRCC Mumbai

Image credit: MRCC Mumbai

In an update Tuesday, MOL said that there are no indications of a major spill at this point and tugs are enroute.

At about noon JST on Tuesday, June 18 (07:00 local time), the fore part of the hull is drifting around 13’00″N 60’40″E, and the aft part is about 19 miles southwest from that point. At present, both parts of the ship are laden with containers and drifting in an east-northeast direction. We are also arranging tugboats to tow both parts.

There are no indications as yet of a major oil leak near the site.

Details of onboard containers of the MOL Comfort that might be lost overboard or damaged during the incident are being confirmed.

gCaptain’s unofficial weather routing expert, Fred Pickhardt, has informed us that on Tuesday near the vessel, winds remained from the SW at about force 7 with waves of 5-6 meters.

MOL COMFORT AIS TRACK

Red circle indicates MOL Comfort’s position reported on 18 JUN 2013 at 20:18:12 GMT, as well as its track since approximately Saturday. At the time of this update, the ship was drifting at .9 knots, down from 2.5 knots earlier Tuesday.

Full vessel position report HERE.

Satellite AIS data courtesy PortVision. Click image for larger.

FROM EARLIER (17 JUN):

This photo of the MOL Comfort shows considerable hogging. Image credit: IANS

MOL Comfort Suffers Broken Back, (Sinks Off Yemen) Remains Adrift Off Yemen

26 crewmembers of an MOL containership were forced to abandon ship Monday off Yemen after the ship suffered from catastrophic hull failure and reportedly sank broke in two.

The MV MOL Comfort, an 8,000 TEU-type containership cracked in half about 200 miles from the Yemeni coast at about 12’30″N 60′E while enroute from Singapore to Jeddah with a load of 7,041 TEUs.

All 26 crew – made up 11 Russians, 1 Ukrainian and 14 Filipinos - escaped the sinking ship on two life rafts and a lifeboat.

According to a report by IANS News, the Indian Coast Guard in Mumbai diverted three vessels in the area to assist. The MV Yantian Express was first to arrive on scene and rescued the survivors. The 2008-built MOL Comfort sank a short time later, the report said.

Weather at the time was strong winds and seas up to six meters.

The ship’s operator, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, says that an Emergency Control Headquarters has been established for the incident and MOL is taking company-wide measures to settle the matter.

The MOL statement said that damage was “extensive” and that details of the incident were still being confirmed.

Image courtesy Twitter user @nalam65

A Catastrophic Structural Failure

In the photo above, a perfect example of hogging is shown, where the bow and the stern are both lying in the troughs of two waves.

It should not have happened however. Ships are built to handle this situation and engineering rules are followed to ensure the transverse “section modulus” of the vessel is sufficient to handle these extreme stresses imposed by nature.

There are other possibilities however…

The loading of the containers on board may have exacerbated the situation.

Although the loading of the containers appears even in the photo, the weight distribution of the containers may not have been even.

Had heavier containers been loaded on the bow and stern and lighter ones in the center of the ship, the vessel may have been placed in a hogging situation before she even set sail.

It’s speculation of course to say one way or another, but assuming that she met class requirements, it’s one possible explanation for what happened.

-Mike Schuler and Rob Almeida

http://gcaptain.com/mol-box-ship-suffers-broken-back-sinks-off-yeme/

SPLIT IN TWO & STILL AFLOAT : Parts of MOL Comfort Adrift in Indian Ocean

2013-06-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

JOC Staff |

Jun 18, 2013 11:17AM EDT

The two parts of the container ship MOL Comfort, which broke apart during heavy weather while en route from Singapore to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, remain afloat, according to the carrier and the Indian Coast Guard.

At about 7:00 a.m. local time on June 18, the fore part of the hull was drifting around 13'00" N 60'40" E, and the aft part was about 19 miles southwest from that point, MOL said.

Both parts of the ship are laden with containers and drifting in an east-northeast direction. The carrier said it is arranging tugboats to tow both parts.

The 7,041-TEU container ship, operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, split in two about 200 nautical miles from Yemen.

http://www.joc.com/maritime-news/container-lines/mitsui-osk-lines/parts-mol-comfort-adrift-indian-ocean_20130618.html

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA : Despite lost crops, Mango Mania will go on ...

2013-06-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Posted: Jun 18, 2013 6:44 PM EDT

Updated: Jun 18, 2013 7:20 PM EDT

By Lauren DiSpirito, Reporter - bio | email

PINE ISLAND, FL -

Even with hundreds of pounds of mangos on the ground at his 40-acre Pine Island grove, farmer Chris Sapp takes "the long view."

"Under no circumstance do we think of it as lost," Sapp said of the dropped mangoes. "It's still here and if it's not on somebody's dinner table this year, it will be next year."

Sapp chooses not to sell fruit that hits the ground before it can be picked. He's in charge of picking all of the fruit by hand at the Promised Land Mango Grove on Pine Island. Earlier this month, winds during Tropical Storm Andrea knocked a lot of Sapp's crop off the branches of nearly 1000 mango trees. What's on the ground, he says, can fertilize next year's crop.

In addition to storms, weather is also making this a more unusual season than most. Sapp says a warm winter, interrupted by late cold snaps, prompted some early blooms. In some cases, trees did not bloom.

"Confused is probably about as good an adjective as you can apply to the situation," Sapp said.

Planners of the 17th annual Mango Mania event, celebrating the fruit, remain optimistic about the harvest. Some people expect different varieties of the fruit to be ripe earlier than usual.

"You put so much faith and money into a crop that you hope is going to come through," said Scarlett Player, the recently crowned festival queen.

Player said the event showcases the mango crop, but also gives people who live in Florida the chance to enjoy the coast without typical tourist-season crowds.

The Pine Island Chamber of Commerce sponsors the festival. It's scheduled for July 13 and 14 at the German-American Social Club on Pine Island Road in Cape Coral.

Tickets are $5.00 for adults in advance, and $6.00 at the door. Kids under age 10 get in free.

View video here:

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/22626303/despite-lost-crops-mango-mania-will-go-on#.UcEzkPmUTKk

U.S. Bioterror Detection Program Comes Under Scrutiny

2013-06-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

A national air sampling system tasked with picking up terrorist biological attacks faces scrutiny

By Dina Fine Maron

Francisella tularensis.

Image: Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services

A cutting-edge biological terror alert system detected a potential threat in the air one morning back in 2008, threatening to derail then-Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech in Denver for his party’s presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

Initial results from a pricey national air sampling system suggested that bacteria that could cause tularemia had been detected. The microbe, Francisella tularensis, might have been weaponized to cause the infectious disease.

Public health officials sprang into action and tested further samples from the area that triggered the system, but turned up negative results. The alert, like others issued by the system in the past decade, was ruled to be a false alarm. Obama still made his acceptance speech that night, of course, in an open-air stadium as planned. But the system’s critics say BioWatch has repeatedly triggered an alarm when no threat has existed. Now the program faces the scrutiny of Congress.

BioWatch, an alert system designed to be an early detection system for airborne threats such as anthrax and smallpox, was unveiled in 2003 by Pres. George W. Bush. In his State of the Union address, he talked about the system, saying he was, “deploying the nation's first early warning network of sensors to detect biological attack.” Since then the system has cost $1 billion and been met with mixed reviews. A committee convened by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the National Research Council (NRC) said in a 2011 report no expansion of the program should be made without better collaboration with the existing public health system. The panel also called for further analysis of the program and how it could be used to reduce mortality and morbidity.

The network of outdoor and select indoor air samplers was installed, under the aegis of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in more than 30 U.S. metropolitan areas to sniff the air for potential threats. The filters from those aerosol collectors are retrieved for analysis in state or county public health laboratories.

Whereas technically the potential threats detected by the system in the past were not false positives—they did accurately pick up tiny, background amounts of DNA from organisms naturally present in the environment— in effect, they were false alarms because they signaled the potential occurrence of a terrorist attack when none had occurred. Some public health officials have said they are hesitant to rely on the program. Others say it is an important piece of the bioterror response puzzle.

“The way I look at BioWatch is that it is a tool,” says Umair A. Shah, executive director of the Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services Department in Texas. “It is one of many tools that are available to public health decision—makers and needs to be kept in the context of that paradigm. The sum of all those tools is really how we go about making sound public health decisions.” Sensors in area around Houston and Harris County had the first-ever positive result through BioWatch in 2003. Like the later DNC incident, BioWatch picked up indications of F. tularensis. Those readings also turned out to be a false alarm; BioWatch again had detected organisms naturally present in the environment.

The value of the system, even with its false alarms, is that it could give public health officials the first clues of a bioterror attack. “You don’t necessarily want to make [BioWatch] less sensitive to avoid false positives,” says Seth Foldy, a physician who works on public health informatics and served on the NRC–IOM panel looking at the program. The tricky part, he says, is finding a way to make the system sensitive enough so that it would pick up actual disease-causing agents in the event of a bioterror threat, but specific enough to be able to distinguish them from very closely related bacteria that may exist in the environment but do not lead to human disease.

A House subcommittee is set to examine the program Tuesday, with representatives from the DHS and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control set to discuss the system's future. “The BioWatch Program is the only federally—managed, locally—operated nationwide bio—surveillance system designed to detect select aerosolized biological agents,” says DHS spokesman SY Lee. “BioWatch provides public health officials with a warning of a biological agent release, before potentially exposed individuals develop symptoms of illness.”

Against the backdrop of lukewarm reviews, however, a planned expansion of BioWatch, Generation 2.5, was canceled in fall 2008.

The next proposed stage of the system, Generation 3, will be under discussion at the hearing.

The system as it stands now is designed so that the time between sample collection and laboratory results indicating potential biological aerosol release is between 10 to 36 hours. With future iterations of the program the hope is to get initial analysis of the samples wrapped up within six hours.

For Generation 3, DHS is looking into including autonomous biodetection technology to help eliminate the need for manual filter retrieval and analysis. Still, confirmatory tests would still be required raising questions about how much time would be saved and if it would result in faster response times and disbursement of emergency drugs that could help avoid human sickness or death.

At the very least it may help preliminary results get out faster. “The difference it would make,” says Bob England, director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, which covers the Phoenix metropolitan area, “is you would get your first inkling that something might be going on hours earlier. That would give you that much more time to get people together and ready to evaluate the confirmatory results when they do come back so it does make the response earlier.”

In the current fiscal environment there is also concern from some public health offices that dollars allocated to detecting biological threats through BioWatch may be competing with the ones needed to provide complementary information to help detect threats—such as picking up any uptick in certain symptoms at hospitals through robust health surveillance.

According to National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), 59 percent of local health departments rely exclusively on federal funding to support their emergency preparedness programs.

As cuts have been made to public health emergency response in recent years, says Jack Herrmann, senior advisor and chief of public health preparedness at NACCHO, that makes it more difficult to conduct consistent public health monitoring and create optimal response plans.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=us-bioterror-detection

ANDES MANGOES STILL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO ...

2013-06-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

In Peru ....

Poor practice of exposing mangoes to the soil ...

Meanwhile in Santander de Quilichao, Colombia ....

While very romantic, this journey is rough on fruit ....

Photos courtesy Noris Ledesma (Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens) FTBG Facebook page ...

PAKISTAN : Two containers of Sindhri mangoes dispatched to Netherlands

2013-06-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

June 19, 2013

RECORDER REPORT

Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Company (PHDEC) in collaboration with Agricultural Services Linkages Programme (ASLP) dispatched two containers of Sindhri mangoes from Sindh Mango Growers (SMG) to the Netherlands.

The containers which left Karachi recently will reach the Netherlands in two weeks, said a spokesperson of the PHDEC here on Tuesday.

The consignments were prepared under the supervision of Peter Johnson, Department of Agriculture and Food Australia, Dr A.U. Malik and Dr M. Amin from University of Agriculture Faisalabad. Sohail Ayyaz assisted the professionals as Project Development Officer.

Sindh Mango Growers (SMG) have expressed their delight on the preparation of two consignments as sea freighted mangoes will play their vital role in increasing the export volume of mangoes for different destinations. They said that such exercises would generate employment opportunities for the masses in the area as several labourers are required to complete the preparation process of mangoes export through sea.

Meanwhile ASLP also conducted a Train the Trainers (ToT) programme on Mango Quality & Value Chain Improvement with Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam. The training workshop was inaugurated by Hassan Ali Chaniho, Chairman Pakistan Horticulture Development & Export Company (PHDEC), while the Vice Chancellor of Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, Abdul Qadeer Mughal was the guest of honour.

Professionals from Sindh Agriculture Extension, Sindh Agriculture Research Department, SAU, and Karachi University participated in the two-day workshop where Razaq Ahmed Malkana (GM Supply Chain PHDEC) and Sohail Ayyaz, Project Development Officer, ASLP were among the trainers.

The newly trained professionals said that this training workshop will encourage them to work more for the betterment of Pakistan's horticulture sector by educating more people on mango quality and value chain.

http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1200915/

CAUSE FOR HOPE ??? : The Foreign Policy Impact of Iran's Presidential Election ...

2013-06-18T19:03:00.000-07:00

Geopolitical Weekly

TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 2013 - 04:02

Stratfor

By Michael Nayebi-Oskoui and Kamran Bokhari

Iranians went to the polls Friday to elect outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's successor. Candidates reported few serious problems with the process, and the losers sent congratulations to the eventual winner, Hassan Rouhani.

Compared to the political instability that followed Ahmadinejad's 2009 re-election, this process was relatively boring. But however the news media felt about the election, Iran needs domestic stability if it is going to change its foreign policy in a very challenging geopolitical environment.

Domestic Stability

Domestic stability has been the first goal for any regime that would project power from Iran's central highlands. The Persian Empire first emerged only after a central power subjugated the various groups of Indo-Iranian, Turkic and Semitic peoples within its borders. The suppression of 2009's Green Movement is only a recent example of a strong state apparatus quelling internal dissent. For millennia, various Persian regimes have sought to keep such domestic pressures at bay while foreign powers have sought to exacerbate these tensions to distract Iran or make it vulnerable to invasion.

In today's Iran, structural economic stresses that have persisted under decades of sanctions are coming to a head while sectarian competition in the region has halted the expansion of Tehran's regional influence. The clerical regime that currently rules the Iranian mountain fortress understands the threats from beyond its borders, but like its predecessors, it must make peace at home before it can address external challenges.

Much of the Western, and especially U.S., coverage of the Iranian elections centered on Rouhani, a figure known to many in the West. He took part in the Islamic Revolution and had ties to Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic. He also has ties to Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran's second clerical president, and is a representative of the current supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, on the Supreme National Security Council. Rouhani served as secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council for 16 years. As an extension of this position, he was Iran's chief nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005. It was during this period when Rouhani's foreign policy credentials became best known in the United States and Europe. It was also during this period when Western and Iranian nuclear negotiators came closest to reaching a deal.

Paradoxically, Rouhani combines conservative and reformist tendencies. As a cleric, he does not seek fundamental changes in Iran's power structure of the sort Ahmadinejad sought, but he also advocates cooperation with, and outreach to, other branches of Iran's power structure such as the military and civilian politicians. While defending Iran's nuclear program and regional agenda, he understands that simply issuing ultimatums to the West and escalating tensions rather than striking compromises will not win relief from sanctions. In this regard, he resembles the reformist former President Mohammed Khatami, under whom Rouhani served as chief nuclear negotiator.

Rouhani can be expected to adopt a less incendiary tone in foreign policy than Ahmadinejad and to cooperate with other domestic power centers, like those of the supreme leader and the military and security forces.

Iran's domestic woes give it an incentive to pursue the kind of pragmatic engagement and dialogue with the West Rouhani was known for, especially on issues such as Iran's nuclear program and Tehran's interests in the Levant, Iraq and Afghanistan. This means Friday's election represents a relative success for the Islamic republic, though it denied the West's desire for a disruptive election that would see Iran's clerical regime fall.

Ahead of any meaningful traction on its foreign policy agenda, the Iranian government had to re-engage its electorate, something it has accomplished with this election. Tellingly, aside from current nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, seven of the eight candidates approved to run in this election campaigned on moderate or even reformist platforms, in stark contrast to the nationalist rhetoric of the firebrand Ahmadinejad.

Although largely unaffected by the regional unrest in 2011, the clerical regime needed to demonstrate both to its citizens and foreign capitals that the Iranian people could still bring about change at the ballot box, not just through the streets. Given the choice, the Iranian people chose pragmatism in relatively free and fair elections.

Though the Islamic republic cannot be changed overnight -- long-term structural changes are needed to revive the Iranian economy -- Rouhani's campaign and election have provided a relatively immediate, low-cost way to lessen some of the domestic pressures on the regime.

Large-scale demonstrations in support of the president-elect following the announcement of his victory took place in Tehran and throughout many of Iran's urban centers, without the involvement of state security forces.

For now at least, this suggests Iran's large and increasingly frustrated electorate seems to have been appeased.

While it is, of course, too early to know how his presidency will play out, the Rouhani administration at the very least will not begin its tenure plagued with doubts regarding its legitimacy of the sort that greeted Ahmadinejad's second term. Also unlike Ahmadinejad, the president-elect has the opportunity to bridge deep divisions within the clerical elite. With clerical authority and the supreme leader no longer under attack from the presidency, and with convincing electoral support behind him, Rouhani has already overcome the largest hurdles to amending Iranian policy at home and abroad.

Foreign Policy Shifts

It is in this framework that the West hopes to eventually re-engage Rouhani and Iran. Fiery rhetoric aside, Ahmadinejad also sought a strategic dialogue with the West, especially as his competition with the supreme leader prompted him to seek foreign policy wins. But the infighting that resulted from Ahmadinejad's attempts to undermine the pro-clerical structure of the republic impeded any progress in this arena.

If Rouhani can get the clerics behind him and accommodate the interests of Iran's military and security forces and the broader electorate, his chances of reaching a dialogue or negotiated settlement with the West will be much improved.

Guiding much of this will not be just the change in personalities but Iran's shifting geopolitical environment.

Since it is no longer on the regional offensive, Tehran's previous defiant rejection of American interests is now incompatible with long-term Iranian goals in the region.

There is still much work to be done at home before Iran can switch gears, and Iran's president-elect still faces considerable challenges to enacting any major shifts in policy. Rouhani must still convince many of the stakeholders within the regime that he can be trusted. He must protect the economic interests of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps while building a relationship with Iran's larger and often overlooked regular army. He must also manage his relationships with Rafsanjani, his most influential political backer, and with the supreme leader. Rafsanjani and Khamenei are competitors, and although the approval and eventual success of Rouhani's candidacy may hint at a broader clerical rapprochement, the supreme leader will not take kindly to attempts by Rafsanjani to rule through Rouhani. Rafsanjani, however, is unlikely to stop trying to capitalize on the successes of his protege.

Against a backdrop of domestic political reconfiguration, gradual diplomatic outreach to and from Iran can be expected.

Parliamentary elections in 2015 will provide greater insight into how much change Rouhani can attempt, and it is along this timeline we should expect to see Iran seriously re-engage in negotiations with the West.

In the meantime, little substantive change will occur beyond more careful rhetoric regarding both Iran's nuclear program and Tehran's support for the embattled Syrian regime. While challenges to both Iran's domestic policy realignment and outreach to the United States thus remain, Western and regional hopes for such change endure.

Read more: The Foreign Policy Impact of Iran's Presidential Election | Stratfor

Europe gets a taste of Ramgarh mangoes from Pakistan ...

2013-06-18T14:52:00.001-07:00

N K Agarwal, TNN |

Jun 19, 2013, 12.40 AM IST

RAMGARH: Ramgarh, hitherto known for its coal mines, is now producing mangoes that are being exported to Europe and the Middle East. Some farmers from the district, with help from Uttar Pradesh-based cultivators, have proved that the soil of the coal belt is ideal for growing several varieties of mangoes.

The UP farmers convinced those from Ukrid village in Dulmi block to plant mango sapling on the semi-fertile vacant land. These saplings have now grown into trees laden with mangoes.Mahavir Sonkar Khatik, a UP farmer, said as many as 600 mango trees are now producing several varieties that are being exported and also catering to the domestic market. Dhaneshwar Kumar a farmer said that Ukrid village is now producing Langda, Malda, Gulab khas among other variety of mangoes which were being loved by people of across the country and even by foreigners.

Earlier, the farmers only cultivated seasonal crops and vegetables on these lands and a large part of non and semi fertile plots were lying vacant. "Mango trees require a lot of moisture to grow and the soil also needs to be well drained," Sonkar said, adding that fresh mangoes and pulp are important agricultural products of the country. "India exports mangoes and mango pulp to the UAE, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern countries with a limited quantity being sent to the European market," Sonkar said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/Europe-gets-a-taste-of-Ramgarh-mangoes/articleshow/20655275.cms

Is China Engineering Smarter Babies?

2013-06-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

INBREEDING : A VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM FOR THE MUSLIM WORLD ...

2013-06-18T11:28:00.001-07:00

Nicolai Sennels is a Danish psychologist who has done extensive research into a little-known problem in the Muslim world: the disastrous results of Muslim inbreeding brought about by the marriage of first-cousins.

This practice, which has been prohibited in the Judeo-Christian tradition since the days of Moses, was sanctioned by Muhammad and has been going on now for 50 generations (1,400 years) in the Muslim world.

This practice of inbreeding will never go away in the Muslim world, since Muhammad is the ultimate example and authority on all matters, including marriage.

The massive inbreeding in Muslim culture may well have done virtually irreversible damage to the Muslim gene pool, including extensive damage to its intelligence, sanity, and health.

According to Sennels, close to half of all Muslims in the world are inbred. In Pakistan , the numbers approach 70%. Even in England , more than half of Pakistani immigrants are married to their first cousins, and in Denmark the number of inbred Pakistani immigrants is around 40%.

The numbers are equally devastating in other important Muslim countries: 67% in Saudi Arabia , 64% in Jordan , and Kuwait , 63% in Sudan , 60% in Iraq , and 54% in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar .

According to the BBC, this Pakistani, Muslim-inspired inbreeding is thought to explain the probability that a British Pakistani family is more than 13 times as likely to have children with recessive genetic disorders. While Pakistanis are responsible for 3% of the births in the UK , they account for 33% of children with genetic birth defects.

The risk of what are called autosomal recessive disorders such as cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy is 18 times higher and the risk of death due to malformations is 10 times higher. Other negative consequences of inbreeding include a 100% increase in the risk of stillbirths and a 50% increase in the possibility that a child will die during labor.

Lowered intellectual capacity is another devastating consequence of Muslim marriage patterns. According to Sennels, research shows that children of consanguineous marriages lose 10-16 points off their IQ and that social abilities develop much slower in inbred babies.
The risk of having an IQ lower than 70, the official demarcation for being classified as "retarded," increases by an astonishing 400% among children of cousin marriages.
(Similar effects were seen in the Pharaonic dynasties in ancient Egypt and in the British royal family, where inbreeding was the norm for a significant period of time.)

In Denmark , non-Western immigrants are more than 300% more likely to fail the intelligence test required for entrance into the Danish army.

Sennels says that "the ability to enjoy and produce knowledge and abstract thinking is simply lower in the Islamic world." He points out that the Arab world translates just 330 books every year, about 20% of what Greece alone does.

In the last 1,200 years of Islam, just 100,000 books have been translated into Arabic, about what Spain does in a single year. Seven out of 10 Turks have never even read a book.

Sennels points out the difficulties this creates for Muslims seeking to succeed in the West. "A lower IQ, together with a religion that denounces critical thinking, surely makes it harder for many Muslims to have success in our high-tech knowledge societies."

Only nine Muslims have every won the Nobel Prize, and five of those were for the "Peace Prize." According to Nature magazine, Muslim countries produce just 10% of the world average when it comes to scientific research (measured by articles per million inhabitants).

In Denmark , Sennels' native country, Muslim children are grossly over-represented among children with special needs. One-third of the budget for Danish schools is consumed by special education, and anywhere from 51% to 70% of retarded children with physical
handicaps in Copenhagen have an immigrant background.
Learning ability is severely affected as well. Studies indicated that 64% of school children with Arabic parents are still illiterate after 10 years in the Danish school system. The immigrant drop-out rate in Danish high schools is twice that of the native-born.

Mental illness is also a product. The closer the blood relative, the higher the risk of schizophrenic illness. The increased risk of insanity may explain why more than 40% of the patients in Denmark 's biggest ward for clinically insane criminals have an immigrant background.

The U.S. is not immune. According to Sennels, "One study based on 300,000 Americans shows that the majority of Muslims in the USA have a lower income, are less educated, and have worse jobs than the population as a whole."

Sennels concludes:

There is no doubt that the wide spread tradition of first cousin marriages among Muslims has harmed the gene pool among Muslims.
Because Muslims' religious beliefs prohibit marrying non-Muslims and thus prevents them from adding fresh genetic material to their population, the genetic damage done to their gene pool since their prophet allowed first cousin marriages 1,400 years ago are most likely massive. (This has produced) overwhelming direct and indirect human and societal consequences.

Bottom line: Islam is not simply a benign and morally equivalent alternative to the Judeo-Christian tradition. As Sennels points out, the first and biggest victims of Islam are Muslims. Simple Christian compassion for Muslims and a common-sense desire to protect Western civilization from the ravages of Islam dictate a vigorous opposition to the spread of this dark and dangerous religion. These stark realities must be taken into account when we establish public polices dealing with immigration from Muslim countries and the building of mosques in the U.S.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/2175926-psychologist-critical-of-muslim-inbreeding-informed-expert-s-opinion/

MOL COMFORT SINKS OFF MUMBAI COAST ....

2013-06-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

Merchant vessel 'Mol Comfort' splits into two off Mumbai coast, crew rescued

Press Trust of India : Mumbai, Mon Jun 17 2013, 22:37 hrs

A massive container vessel which snapped into two and sank off Yemen on Monday. Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Mumbai, coordinated operations to help rescue 26 sailors from the vessel. The tragedy occurred around 200 nautical miles from Yemen, and around 840 nautical miles west of Mumbai. PTI Photo

A Singapore-bound merchant vessel from Jeddah split into two around 840 nautical miles off the coast here today causing oil spill even as all the crew members were rescued, Coast Guard officials said.

'Mol Comfort', the 316-m-long vessel was carrying 4,500 containers from Saudi Arabia, they said.

"The vessel hull broke into two off the Mumbai coast and the crew members were rescued from the ship in two life rafts and a life boat," a Coast Guard official said.

The cause behind the incident was yet to be ascertained. It was also not known what the ship was transporting.

The Coast Guard coordinated the rescue operation and all the 26 members of the crew--- 12 Russians and 14 Filipinos-- were rescued.

The officials said that the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Mumbai diverted three ships - MV Hanjin Bejing, MV Zim India and MV Yantian Express, which were travelling nearby, for the rescue operation.

The rescued crew members are being sent to Colombo, they said.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/merchant-vessel-mol-comfort-splits-into-two-off-mumbai-coast-crew-rescued/1130174/

Can the shipping industry take blimps seriously?

2013-06-18T08:40:00.001-07:00

By Janet Fang | June 17, 2013, 8:38 PM PDT

Igor Pasternak of World Aeros wants to be the first to harness helium for multi-ton deliveries, proving to the world that airships (the preferred term) have a bright future in commercial cargo.Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

They’re light and take off and land vertically, making airships an energy-efficient way to carry big loads to out-of-the-way places — without having to build runways or roads first — at a quarter the cost of regular cargo planes.

Their Aeroscraft has a cargo capacity of up to 250 tons (three times that of the C-17), and its design solves a century-old problem:

Traditional blimps, like birthday balloons, are great at rising but not so good at returning to earth.

Lacking buoyancy control, they have to be tethered by a crew after landing.

The drawback makes large cargo deliveries virtually impossible: Any weight that’s offloaded has to be replaced with an equally heavy load — say, of sand or lead — for the craft to keep its equilibrium.

To tackle that problem, Aeros engineers created a “variable buoyancy” system that pumps helium out of the main chamber and into lightweight compression tanks in the hull. The compressed gas makes room for the ship to take on more air, allowing for a slow descent.

This concept isn’t new but was considered impractical because of weight. But now there are lightweight materials like the carbon-fiber tubes that make up Aeroscraft’s skeleton and the aluminum honeycomb panels in its frame. Also, laminated fabric pouches, instead of titanium tanks, are used for pressurized helium.

A test flight is planned for this year. Pasternak estimates $3 billion will be needed to build a fleet of 24 ships, which he wants to lease to companies or governments. The U.S. Department of Defense has committed $60 million, and private investment is being sought.

If Aeroscraft really does fly, cargo operators, along with oil and wind power companies, could become airship customers.

But “people just don’t take them seriously,” says Paul Adams of Airship Journal. To secure investors and establish a new market, Pasternak must overcome the “giggle factor.”

[Via Businessweek]

Image: Aeroscraft

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/can-the-shipping-industry-take-blimps-seriously/22031?tag=nl.e660&s_cid=e660&ttag=e660&ftag=

CHESTNUT HILL FARMS EXECUTIVE JOINS IPO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

2013-06-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

Winter Park, Florida

June 18, 2013

The International Pineapple Organization (IPO) is pleased to announce that Raul Romero of Chestnut Hill Farms of Miami, Florida has joined the Executive Committee.

Mr Romero and Chestnut Hill Farms bring extensive knowledge of Production and Marketing of Pineapples to the IPO Board.

Will Cavan, Executive Director and Temporary Administrator of the IPO noted that "Mr. Romero will add valuable insight and guidence to the IPO as we chart our working plan".

Raul Romero – President & COO – Chestnut Hill Farms

Raul Romero is a graduate of Cornell University (BS & MS) with over 30 years of experience in the perishables industry.

He has held senior managerial positions with two major companies - Chiquita Brands and Chestnut Hill Farms.

Raul has developed an impressive knowledge of the fresh produce industry and he has gained credibility with growers as well as wholesalers and retailers in both the North American and European markets.

Raul came to Bounty Fresh as a result of Bounty’s acquisition of the fresh fruit division of Chestnut Hill Farms in the fall of 2000.

In his capacity as President & COO, Raul has secured a stable sourcing platform as well as has been the architect of the company’s market position in fresh produce.

The IPO Executive Committee:

Max Komjathy

Co-Founder

International Pineapple Organization

Co-Founder

Southern Pack-n-Go

Baxley, Georgia

Will Cavan

Co-Founder

Executive Director

Temporary Administrator

International Pineapple Organization (IPO)

Winter Park, Florida

Patricia Compres CHB,CCS
Managing Member

Advance Customs Brokers & Consulting LLC
Miami, Florida

Sonia Alvarado

Commercial Director

Hispacori

Costa Rica

Allan Acosta

Global Sourcing

Ready Pac Foods, Inc.

Irwindale, California

Louis Curiel III

Vice President

Latin American Sales

Biofeed Solutions, Inc.

Goodyear, Arizona

Raul Romero

President & COO

Chestnut Hill Farms

Miami, Florida

Source:

www.i-pineapple-a.blogspot.com

Denmark’s Maersk group: World’s 3 biggest shipping operators form an alliance

2013-06-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, June 18, 5:22 AM

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk says the world’s three biggest shipping container operators have entered an alliance to reduce fuel consumption and improve service and operations.

Vincent Clerc of the Copenhagen-based company’s shipping unit says MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. and CMA CGM of France will form the P3 alliance with Maersk Line.

Clerc said Tuesday that it will mean “even more efficient and competitive” operations.

The alliance will be an independently operated network with 255 vessels and is to start operations next year, depending on regulatory approvals. Maersk stressed the companies will continue to have fully independent sales, marketing and customer service functions.

The P3 alliance will operate a capacity of 2.6 million containers between Asia and Europe, across the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/denmarks-maersk-group-worlds-3-biggest-shipping-operators-form-an-alliance/2013/06/18/8bf01384-d7f8-11e2-b418-9dfa095e125d_story.html

US expects active hurricane season, Gulf region vulnerable

2013-06-17T19:16:00.002-07:00

by Xinhua writers Wang Hongbin, Zhang Yongxing and Zhao Xiaoqing

Houston TX (XNA) Jun 18, 2013

File image.

With this year's first named tropical storm Andrea sweeping across its east coast, the United States is likely to see a score more ahead, a few of which might make landfall along the hurricane-prone Mexico Gulf, an expert here has told Xinhua in a recent interview.

According to projections made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Hurricane Center, the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is an "active" one, noted Philip B. Bedient, a professor of environmental engineering at the Houston-based Rice University.

The expected number of storms ranges from a dozen to a score, NOAA predicted in late May, adding that the likelihood is 70 percent. Of all the storms, 7 to 11 could strengthen into hurricanes, including 3 to 6 major ones.

Bedient explained: "The number is only a rough indication and is far from accurate due to the complexity and difficulty of forecasting. Remember, the storms formed over the ocean do not necessarily hit the U.S.. Most of them simply spin off into the Atlantic and only the ones which come into the Gulf could hit something."

If a major hurricane does hit the Gulf, the U.S. states of Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana tend to get mostly hit, while Texas may get fewer. However, Bedient warned that it has been five years since Texas was hit by a major hurricane in 2008, when Ike slammed the southern port of Galveston and claimed 96 lives, and that Texas cannot afford to slack its preparedness for a possible hurricane.

Bedient's concerns were shared by the Weather Channel, which ranked Houston as the fifth most vulnerable city to the "major impact" from a hurricane. The weather-devoted cable TV pointed out that Hurricane Ike narrowly missed the city area of Houston and only hit its suburbs. The last major Houston hurricane was Alicia in 1983, making it 29 years overdue for a big one, noted the Channel.

Asked about hurricane prevention and relief, Bedient, who also heads a research center on severe storm prediction, education and evacuation from disasters, said that the most difficult part is forecasting.

Though equipped with a combination of satellites, seven or eight latest computer models and other predictive systems, U.S. scientists still find it a "mission impossible" to pin down the exact location prior to hurricanes' landfalls.

"They are only able to do it 24 hours before hurricanes land," Bedient noted. "Even within 24 hours, the hurricane can change its course as Ike did in 2008, when it shifted its landfall 50 miles away from the predicted location."

The not-timely-enough forecasting causes a problem to evacuation, especially in metropolises as there is not enough time to evacuate a huge population within a span of just 24 hours. The evacuation efforts "usually should take 72 hours," he explained.

"But when told to evacuate, residents should heed the notice and evacuate immediately," the professor suggested, pointing out that a great many victims of hurricanes Katrina and Ike waited till the very last minute at the dear cost of their own lives.

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and other coastal areas along the Gulf in 2005 and killed more than 1,800 people, marking it one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

Bedient believed that New Orleans, "the most prone to hurricane attacks," now has a much better chance of weathering a major hurricane should it happen, because in the wake of the Katrina tragedy as much as 14 billion dollars was spent in upgrading and rebuilding levees, flood gates and other protection systems.

"The lessons we could draw from Katrina and other big storms are that these problems are complex. They are technical, social and economical. You cannot just address the technical, you must get the populace and the government actively involved and actively paying attention," Bedient told Xinhua.

"And in city planning you must try not to let the vulnerable population build and expand in zones that are in high risks. With wind, high flood water and storm surge, hurricanes can kill many many people whose houses are not at an appropriate elevation," he added.

International cooperation in storm relief is also important. Bedient said that his center is now in close contact with Europe and China in monitoring and studying storms.

"We believe through education, proper information about evacuation and sheltering, you can manage the problem. You can learn to live with the hurricane. After all, we will never be without hurricanes," he concluded.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/US_expects_active_hurricane_season_Gulf_region_vulnerable_999.html

AUSTRALIA : Cooler nights kick Top End mangoes into flowering

2013-06-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

ABC Rural

By Matt Brann

Posted 19 minutes ago

PHOTO: Cooler nights in the Top End have sparked mango trees into action. (Matt Brann)

AUDIO: Cool weather arrives in time for mango growers(ABC Rural)

MAP: Darwin 0800

Cooler nights over the last week have been good for the Northern Territory's mango industry, with temperatures around 16 degrees kicking a lot of trees into the flowering process.

Greg Meyer grows mangoes at Noonamah and says the cooler temperatures are welcome, but overall the dry season has been unpredictable, which could affect this year's harvest.

"My trees are just starting to push some flowers, so I'm about a month behind on last year," he said.

"It's been a very odd season with the weather pattern, and there's not too many plantations where you can see a tree covered in flowers.

"I think what will happen now is, with this cold snap, all of the trees will flower virtually at the same time, so you'll have a very compressed season and a small window (to pick)."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-18/low-mango-temps/4761708

CONTAINERS OVER BOARD AS MOL COMFORT BREAKS UP ....

2013-06-17T13:12:00.001-07:00

MOL Comfort Suffers Broken Back, Sinks Off Yemen

BY GCAPTAIN STAFF ON JUNE 17, 2013

This photo of the MOL Comfort shows considerable hogging. Image credit: IANS

26 crewmembers of an MOL containership were forced to abandon ship Monday off Yemen after the ship suffered from catastrophic hull failure and sank.

India’s IANS News reports that the MV Mol Comfort cracked in half about 200 miles from the Yemeni coast while enroute from Singapore to Jeddah with about 4,500 containers. All 26 crew – made up 11 Russians, 1 Ukrainian and 14 Filipinos - escaped the sinking ship on two life rafts and a lifeboat, the report says.

The Indian Coast Guard in Mumbai diverted three vessels in the area to assist. The MV Yantian Express was first to arrive on scene and rescued the survivors, IANS reports. The 2008-built MOL Comfort sank a short time later.

The incident was confirmed by the ships operator, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. MOL says that an Emergency Control Headquarters has been established for the incident and MOL is taking company-wide measures to settle the matter.

Weather at the time was strong winds and seas up to six meters.

A castastrophic structural failure

From a naval architecture standpoint, this is a puzzling situation. Ships are designed to handle long period and large waves that crest on the bow and stern and have a trough amidships. This creates a sagging situation that puts extreme tension on the keel and compression at deck level. The opposite, “hogging” situation occurs when the crest of the wave moves to the center of the ship and the trough of the waves are at bow and stern.

The repeat flexing of the ship in these perfectly timed waves is likely what caused the loss of this vessel. In the photo above, a perfect example of hogging is shown, where the bow and the stern are both lying in the troughs of two waves.

It should not have happened however. Ships are built to handle this situation and engineering rules are followed to ensure the transverse “section modulus” of the vessel is sufficient to handle these extreme stresses imposed by nature. There are other possibilities however…

The loading of the containers on board may have exasperated the situation. Although the loading of the containers appears even in the photo, the weight distribution of the containers may not have been even.

Had heavier containers been loaded on the bow and stern and lighter ones in the center of the ship, the vessel may have been placed in a hogging situation before she even set sail.

It’s speculation of course to say one way or another, but assuming that she met class requirements, it’s one possible explanation for what happened.

- Mike Schuler and Rob Almeida

http://gcaptain.com/mol-box-ship-suffers-broken-back-sinks-off-yeme/

USA MARKETPLACE : HIGHEST PAID PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ON A STAT BY STATE BASIS ...

2013-06-17T09:58:00.001-07:00

College coaches make most of their money from capitalism.

This map is very misleading and may make people think that taxpayers are paying Nick Saban $4,000,000, but that is not the case.

He has a base salary by the school, but the rest of his money is from the athletic department, which earns that money with sneaker deals, ticket sales, TV deals, etc. Isn't that what capitalism is all about. It is supply and demand.

You may debate the "priorities" of higher education, but the salary of the football coach does not take away from the educational funding.

JUST FOODS INTERVIEW : To succeed in emerging markets, you have to think - and act - locally.....

2013-06-17T06:58:00.003-07:00

Issue 676

June 17, 2013

Editorial

That was the central message from just-food's interview with the boss of Nestle's business in Greater China, Roland Decorvet.

"If you come as a western company with a western approach and selling your western products you are in for a short run," Decorvet told us in our latest two-part just-food interview, published last week.

The world's largest food manufacturer has, Decorvet claimed, put the importance of catering to local consumers at the centre of its operations in China, from investment in the country's agricultural sector to NPD. Nestle's last two acquisitions in China have also been majority stakes in significant local businesses - Yinlu and Hsu Fu Chi - working with them, Decorvet says, as partners, rather than buying the operations outright.

One notable area in China where Nestle still relies on its international network is in importing milk for its infant formula sold in the country but, that, as is well known, is down to tapping into the demand from local Chinese consumers for foreign formula.

You can read more of our two-part interview with Decorvet here.

PepsiCo and Mondelez International were among the major food multinationals in the emerging markets spotlight last week. PepsiCo told us it could start distributing snacks in Myanmar by the end of the year. The Lay's maker already sells drinks in the developing economy, which some FMCG companies are looking at closely after recent political reform.

Mondelez, meanwhile, announced changes to its manufacturing base in some emerging markets will involve closing some sites. Confectionery plants in Lebanon and Morocco will shut as Mondelez looks to increase efficiency with larger sites. In China, the Oreo owner also said last week it is doubling capacity at a biscuit plant in the east of the country, a tangible sign of recent comments from CEO Irene Rosenfeld on the importance the company is placing on that market.

Our emerging markets coverage last week also featured an analysis of Carrefour's recent move to set up a venture to open stores in eight markets in central and west Africa.

The French retail giant has been scaling back its international business in recent months but appears to want to tap into the growth seen in parts of Africa, with markets like Nigeria seeing a middle class - and a modern retail sector - develop.

Outside South Africa, it is very early days on the continent but Carrefour, with its partnership with local distributor CFAO, is hoping to tap into growing demand for western goods and western stores. By teaming up with CFAO, which has a presence in distribution across Africa, Carrefour is looking to benefit from its partner's local knowledge - something Decorvet at Nestle would no doubt applaud.

Until next time...

Dean Best
Managing Editor
Web: http://www.just-food.com
Email: editor@just-food.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/just_food

PRISM update: Recent reports you definitely shouldn’t miss

2013-06-17T04:37:00.001-07:00

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Martin Bryant
Contact Author

23 hours ago
Updated at 13:54 CEST

More than a week after the PRISM story first broke, you might have reached saturation point when it comes to news and discussion about it.

That’s understandable, and it seems like some members of the US Senate feel the same way.

Still there have been some important developments this weekend, so we thought it was worth highlighting them.

A must-read piece by the Associated Press yesterday took a deep-dive into how PRISM fits into the wider context of US online espionage programs. The AP reports that PRISM acts as a kind of refining tool for data that the National Security Agency (NSA) pulls data from the undersea cables that pipe Internet data in and out of the USA:

“Prism appears to do what its name suggests. Like a triangular piece of glass, Prism takes large beams of data and helps the government find discrete, manageable strands of information.

“The fact that it is productive is not surprising; documents show it is one of the major sources for what ends up in the president’s daily briefing. Prism makes sense of the cacophony of the Internet’s raw feed. It provides the government with names, addresses, conversation histories and entire archives of email inboxes.”

The report, considers whether data gleaned from technology companies via PRISM allows the NSA to navigate through the enormous bulk dump of Internet data it collects from the undersea cables.

“For example, not every company archives instant message conversations, chat room exchanges or videoconferences. But if Prism provided general details, known as metadata, about when a user began chatting, could the government “rewind” its copy of the global Internet stream, find the conversation and replay it in full?”

In other words, technology companies may be telling the truth when they say that they only hand over specific user information in response to specific requests, but the NSA doesn’t really need anything more from them anyway, because they already have a ‘raw feed’ of Internet traffic to pull from.

Read the AP’s article in full for a fascinating, and perhaps troubling, look at what it seems the NSA is up to.

Elsewhere, the Washington Post reports that PRISM works with three other programs run by the NSA; MAINWAY, MARINA and NUCLEON. Together, the programs collect vast swathes of metadata about telephone and Internet communications passing through USA.

“When the NSA aims for foreign targets whose communications cross U.S. infrastructure, it expects to sweep in some American content “incidentally” or “inadvertently,” which are terms of art in regulations governing the NSA. Contact chaining, because it extends to the contacts of contacts of targets, inevitably collects even more American data.”

Keep up with all our PRISM coverage here. We’re sure there’s still more to come.

Image credit: Getty Images

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/16/prism-update-recent-reports-you-shouldnt-miss/

Slideshow: The Top 10 U.S. Importers of 2012

2013-06-16T20:04:00.001-07:00

JOC Staff | Jun 10, 2013 9:34AM EDT

U.S. containerized imports registered their lowest growth rate since the 2008-09 recession ended, increasing just 1.5 percent to 17.1 million 20-foot-equivalent units in 2012, according to the JOC’s quarterly Container Shipping Outlook.

Battered by a stubbornly slow economic recovery and stubbornly high jobless rate, consumers largely weren’t in the mood to spend in 2012. By the time much-hyped issues related to federal cuts mandated by sequestration in Washington, D.C., calmed, pent-up consumers were ready to open their wallets and purses, splurging for big-ticket cars, appliances and, yes, new homes that have helped to boost containerized imports this year.

So 2013’s growth levels will appear much more in line with mid-single-digit rates we’ve grown accustomed to over the past several years.

But in 2012, those retailers who performed best were of the discount variety, selling consumer merchandise of all kinds. Indeed, if economics history tells us anything, it’s that when the economy sours, consumers rein in their spending. So, the top-ranked company on The Journal of Commerce’s list of Top 100 Importers for 2012 will come as no surprise. It has, after all, been No. 1 for the last decade — and longer.

A second lesson is that food is largely resistant to economic swings. We all have to eat, after all, and you’ll see evidence of that in this, the Top 10 containerized importers for 2012.

#1. - WALMART

#2. - TARGET

#3. - HOME DEPOT

#4. - DOLE

#5. - LOWES

#6. - SEARS

#7. - CHIQUITA

#8. - L.G.

#9. - HEINEKEN

#10. - PHILIPS

http://www.joc.com/international-trade-news/trade-data/united-states-trade-data/slideshow-top-10-us-importers-2012_20130610.html