This week I have decided to clip just one link from each of a handful of my favorite blogs only (last week's blogosphere searching didn't quite do it for me). But first a selection of this week in MDGs at YouTube.
#5 From YouTube
"The number of female blue helmets is climbing, and the world body is aiming to more than double the proportion of women comprising UN Police (UNPOL) to 20 per cent by 2014."
Before advocating industrialized farming as we know it from the West for feeding the 3rd world you need to answer the questions posed in this video. It's a new trailer for the movie Dirt.
Child soldier talking about child soldiers.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassadors, Didier Drogba and Zinedine Zidane, in anti-poverty TV spot.
Also, one of the most popular YouTube-videos of this week was BP Spills Coffee. But it was already posted at TH!NK3 by Edgars Skvariks on June 15th - I, of course, put it on my Twitter on June 11th 
Actually, it was on three or four of the blogs I subscribe to within hours of its release.
Now for the blogosphere...
#4 Hunter-Gatherer.com / Spencer Wells on the Daily Show
Another video, actually. Directly from the main stream media self mockery department.
I haven't been following Hunter-Gatherer.com for very long but it looks pretty cool to me. Of course, I'm into human evolution, Jared Diamond books and stuff like that.
#3 Extinction Countdown / South African gamblers smoke endangered vulture brains for luck
If you thought you already heard every possible World Cup spin-off think again. This is the one “beautiful game” news you may not have needed.
“The vulture brains are dried, ground up and then smoked in cigarettes which supposedly give the users visions of the future. [...] A tiny vial of vulture brains sells for around $6.50 [...] Seven of the nine vulture species found in South Africa are endangered in that country”
Despite the morbid title this is a Scientific American column. So, perhaps not really a blog but certainly worth reading.
#2 Inhabitat.com / Peruvian Team Paints Mountain White to Rehab a Melted Glacier
If it looks like the glaciers are back from a global warming break it's just because the Peruvians are painting the mountains white. The rationale is cold keeps cold while heat generate more heat. And white reflects the energetic rays of the sun. Or perhaps they really just fix it up for the tourists?
Inhabitat.com is the place to read about the prototypes of our bright green future everyday gadgets. Inspiring and soothing.
#1 Cryptogon.com / Japan Bribed Small Nations with Cash, Prostitutes to Gain Support for Whaling
Original article at The Sunday Times. Yes, you got the headline right.
“Japan denies buying the votes of IWC members. However, The Sunday Times filmed officials from pro-whaling governments admitting [...] They receive cash payments in envelopes at IWC meetings from Japanese officials who pay their travel and hotel bills. [...] One disclosed that call girls were offered when fisheries ministers and civil servants visited Japan for meetings. The governments of St Kitts and Nevis, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Grenada, Republic of Guinea and Ivory Coast all entered negotiations to sell their votes in return for aid.”
I find the craziest stories at Cryptogon.com which is the blog of one Kevin with “a useless degree in International Relations” so if you are not paranoid go ahead and subscribe today. But do it now because the black helicopters are coming to take away Kevin pretty soon I'm sure! From his about-section:
“The Cryptogon refers to the hidden structure underlying and interconnecting the political, economic and perception management systems currently in operation on this planet. […] Most of what I consider to be useful knowledge was gleaned from reading little known, out of print and hard to find books, listening to freaks and lunatics on the radio in the dead of night and interviewing people who were directly involved with events. I view the output of established media as a slurry of manure and toxic waste; a propaganda product that requires heavy analysis and context fitting in order to recover the 5%-10% of useful information contained within an obfuscated mess.”
Love it. Thank you for blogging, Kevin. Highly recommended!
Which blogger is your favourite? Tell me!
Hi Benno,
Obviously I have to react to #3.
It is indeed a sad situation that we ‘homo-non-sapiens’ are still eating things that supposedly give us fortune.
It is not only the vultures in (mainly South-) Africa that are at danger, but also the lions. More and more African lions are killed for their bones since the purchase of tiger bones has become to complicated.
http://planyoursafari.com/blog/bones-of-content/
It is a sad, sad world.
I agree with you Johan. It is indeed a sad, sad world.
I’d like to react to the Peruvian mountain painters. At first I thought they were painting the mountains white to send a political message about climate change. But this is more than that! So those guys expect that “the whitewashed mountains will create a cold micro-climate which will entice snow to fall, causing glaciers to form”. I’m no geologist, but this doesn’t look possible, Benno, does it? Anyways, a great story. I’ll check out the World Bank’s contest to save the world. It’s funny that it is the WB which wants (?) to save it.
They are painting the melted-off mountaintops white to reflect more light thereby having the mountains store less energy. The glacier used to reflect the light and kept the mountain core cool. But now the stone is heating up speeding up the rest of the glacier melting.
Similar issue when the poles melt: Less reflection => more heat stored in the ocean.
Put the 3rd video on my regular blog, Ecowar, too because of the speaker’s comment on natural resources. Before posting I did a quick search to check on child soldier news. And indeed, this week a report debated the civil war in Somalia where Islamic rebels use 80% child solders vs the US supported government using 20% child soldiers. Crazy.
I see. Do you think it’d really work?
Giedre, regarding #2: Cool roofs save money, save energy, cut pollution and directly reduce warming!. If roofs, why not mountains?