Where business is booming

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By Jon Birger, senior writer

(Fortune Magazine) — Cold, landlocked, and boasting as its largest metropolis the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan may not be top of mind for most Americans. But the Canadian province is one of the richest spots in the world when it comes to natural resources. It’s the world’s largest producer of uranium. It’s the biggest producer of the fertilizer potash (current price: $1,000 a ton, up from $300 this time last year). It is the world’s largest exporter of green lentils and chickpeas. And it’s home to enormous supplies of oil and gas: The U.S. buys more oil from Saskatchewan than it does from Kuwait. No wonder the CEO of one Fortune 500 company – Jim Prokopanko of Mosaic, which has a potash mine near the town of Esterhazy – describes the prairie province as “the next sovereign wealth fund.”

Indeed, Saskatchewan – for the geography challenged, it shares its southern border with Montana and North Dakota – today enjoys Canada’s fastest-growing economy; its GDP is expected to rise 3.9% this year, compared with 0.9% for the country as a whole, and it has a $3 billion budget surplus. Entrusted with “not screwing it up” (his words) is Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, the pro-business conservative elected in 2007. Wall’s goal is actually much more than not screwing it up. He’s on a mission to tell Saskatchewan’s growth story at home and abroad.

I first met Wall – a glib and personable 42-year-old who’s as comfortable talking NFL football as he is quoting Thomas Friedman – when he was in New York City last spring to speak at an energy conference. He promised not to raise oil royalties, which won him a standing ovation from the bankers in the crowd.

But Wall’s top priority is at home: He needs to fix Saskatchewan’s labor shortage. An area the size of Texas, Saskatchewan has only one million residents. “For any business thinking about building a new mine or expanding an existing one, the top-of-the-list question [in Saskatchewan] is always going to be ‘Can we get the tradesmen?’” he says. Because of the shortage, Wall is reluctant to spend much money on new infrastructure projects, despite having the cash to do it. (The province doesn’t yet have a sovereign wealth fund, but Wall says it’s on his radar.)

Wall wants to grow the population 10% in ten years. So far, his government has launched splashy recruiting campaigns in Alberta, Ontario, and Manitoba, and has sent missions as far as the Philippines to recruit medical personnel.

In September Wall traveled to Toronto along with 50 Saskatchewan employers to sell the province at Canada’s national job fair. During breaks he delivered his sales pitch to reporters. “Saskatchewan is not just a great place to live, it is a great place to make a life,” Wall would say over and over to anyone with a notepad or a microphone, each time referring the listener to the 10,000 job openings listed at saskjobs.ca. (Diamond driller, salary $56,000, for example.)

Of course, life in Saskatchewan isn’t for everyone. The average high temperature in Saskatoon in November is 29 degrees Fahrenheit. The average low in January is 9 below. “We need to focus on finding people who are looking for an economic opportunity,” Wall says. But like any savvy marketer, he knows his limitations. “We have to be realistic,” he says. “We’d better not be going to anywhere with a warm climate saying, ‘Yes, but it’s a dry cold.’”

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Reference:http://money.cnn.com/

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Shuttle Is Carrying Destiny’s New Toilet

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By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer

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The grand drama of humankind’s conquest of space has featured as a recurring subplot the mystery of how people in zero gravity can possibly go to the bathroom. The latest twist in that narrative is about to take place high above Earth, where astronauts will deliver to the international space station a new toilet, officially known as the waste and hygiene compartment, plus a contraption that can recycle urine into drinkable water.

These and other upgrades were carried into orbit last night by the space shuttle Endeavour, carrying a crew of seven.

The new toilet will go into the American laboratory known as Destiny. The only toilet currently on the station is in the Russian lab. The second toilet, the wastewater recycling system, new sleeping quarters and a refrigerator are all part of what NASA is billing as “extreme home improvements” on the space station. The goal is to make the station habitable by as many as six astronauts at a time, double the current crew limit.

Human sweat, excess water from tooth brushing, and water extracted from the humid spaceship interior have long been reprocessed into something astronauts can consume. But urine has gone to waste, tossed overboard (or vented, as NASA puts it), an egregious inefficiency in the great desert of space.

The new water recovery system, housed in two racks the size of refrigerators, will save 743 gallons of water a year that would otherwise have to be launched into orbit at great expense. This will also help NASA plan for future missions to the moon, where astronauts might operate for prolonged periods with little chance of seeing a water delivery truck anytime soon.

Standing between the urine and the consumable end product are muscular apparatus that distill, filter, heat and chemically transmogrify the liquid. The instruments include a catalytic reactor, a gas separator, multi-filtration beds, a particulate filter, a reactor health sensor, a microbial check valve, a fluids control and pump assembly, and a pressure control and purge assembly. This removes almost all the organic molecules from the liquid.

“It’s safer than what you normally drink out of the tap,” said David Hand, an engineering professor at Michigan Technological University who helped develop the water recovery system.

“I’ve sipped the water. It tastes like water,” said Jennifer Morcone, a NASA spokesman. Still, she said, NASA understands that, even with the strong assurances of purity from engineers, astronauts might recoil from the urine-to-water alchemy. But in taste tests, the recycled urine passed muster.

“The one thing people note is a hint of iodine, a medicinal taste,” Morcone said. The iodine is used for microbial control. “As soon as the cap comes off and it breathes for a minute, it doesn’t smell like much at all,” she said.

The water created from the new recycling process will be brought back to Earth for testing before any astronauts get to drink it.

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Reference:http://www.washingtonpost.com/

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How to major in employability

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By Jennifer Barrett, Money Magazine contributing writer

(Money Magazine) — When Ed Koc’s daughter announced that she was thinking of majoring in music, he gulped.

As head of research for the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), Koc knew her salary prospects weren’t good. Performing arts majors earn $35,000 a year, on average, right out of school – if they’re lucky enough to find work.

Koc didn’t want to discourage the talented oboe and flute player, but he urged her to consider other options. When she expressed an interest in medicine, they arrived at a compromise: major in music but take premed classes too.

In these tough economic times, you, like Koc, might be worried about investing $30,000 a year in a child’s college career only to have to support a highly educated waitress or busboy later on.

Certainly there’s no value in pushing a kid into a course of study just because it’s rife with job openings or offers higher salaries. “Students perform much better when they’re in a major of their choosing,” says Cal Newport, author of “How to Become a Straight-A Student.”

The trick is to assist your child in finding a middle ground between passion and practicality.

Help with the major decision

The jobs that are most in demand tend to be in technical fields requiring a specific degree, such as health care, engineering or computer science. (Chemical-engineering grads are almost guaranteed a job, and a lucrative one at that. Oil companies offered an average starting salary of $75,000 this year, reports NACE – nearly double what liberal arts students could expect.)

But a study published in Economics of Education Review in 2007 found that across all fields, new grads who were in jobs matching their majors earned more than those who weren’t.

Lesson: Pick the job path, then the course of study. Have your kid visit the campus career center, which likely offers resources to aid students in identifying work interests.

Talk prospects and pay

Once Junior narrows his options, make sure he has a realistic view of his future. Print out a hiring forecast for his desired field or fields at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ site and go over it with him.

Also, take him to payscale.com and salary.com to research pay. Talk with your child about what the various numbers mean: If an apartment costs x and a car y, would the salary support the lifestyle he’d like? If not, is he willing to scale back his expectations a bit?

Suggest a backup

If your child’s top choice is in an area with fewer jobs or low pay, you may want to encourage her to pursue a dual degree or to add a concentration in a more promising field. That way she – like Koc’s daughter – will have a fallback option.

Put him to work

Give kids an advantage by having them work in the field before graduation. In a recent Monster.com survey of employers, relevant work experience was the most-often- cited top criterion for hiring.

For internship info, send your kid to the career office or internjobs.com. Your child will have more luck getting the first gig if she starts small – the local TV station vs. MTV.

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Reference:http://money.cnn.com/

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Underwater Museum Planned for Egypt’s Alexandria

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Andrew Bossone in Cairo

Cleopatra’s palace sank long ago into the Mediterranean, but visitors to Alexandria, Egypt, may eventually view the complex’s remnants via the world’s first underwater museum.  A site for the museum has been proposed near the New Library of Alexandria, where the famed queen of Egypt is believed to have sheltered herself with her lover Marc Antony before taking her own life.

In early September the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, announced it is funding a team to determine if such a museum would damage the submerged artifacts.

If built, the museum could display treasures and monuments of her palace, which once stood on an island in one of the largest human-made bays in the world but were submerged by earthquakes from the fourth century A.D. onward.

(Read related story: “Ancient Mediterranean Tsunami May Strike Again” [March 10, 2008].)

The bay is filled archaeological sunken treasures. In the 1990s archaeologist-divers found thousands of objects: 26 sphinxes, statues bearing gifts to the gods, blocks weighing up to 56 tons, and even Roman and Greek shipwrecks.

Sunken Treasure

The proposed museum could include pieces believed to be from the Pharos of Alexandria lighthouse, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.

Archaeologists have mapped more than 2,000 submerged objects in the area of the bay where they believe the lighthouse once stood.

“The wealth of this area is quite impressive,” said Naguib Amin, the site-management expert from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.

“Sort of the whole ancient city of Alexandria is lying under the water, just meters away from the shore.”

Better Than a Movie

The proposed museum would be both inland and underwater. The dual nature is intended to create an experience like that of a traditional museum while also allowing visitors to witness artifacts in their submerged states.

“When you go to an archaeological site, you have an irreplaceable emotion. It’s not like going to see a movie,” said Paris-based Jacques Rougerie, the leader of the feasibility study.

“It’s like the astronaut who cannot share with other people what it is like to be in space.”

Rougerie has designed a building with four tall structures shaped like the sails of fellucas, the sailboats that have journeyed the Nile since ancient times. These glass sails represent the four points of a compass and are illuminated with blue light in Rougerie’s illustrations.

“Those four points will be like the lighthouse of Alexandria that illuminated the library and the world,” Rougerie said. “I want to do the same thing with this museum.”

The larger, inland museum will have underwater fiberglass tunnels to structures where visitors can view antiquities still lying on the seabed.

But the bay’s murky waters could obscure the views of submerged monuments. The builders of the museum will either have to clean the water or replace it entirely with an artificial lagoon.

“As it stands, we have an ingenious idea,” said Amin, the Supreme Council expert.

“Try to picture a glass tube. And you simply put it over the main monuments that we need to highlight. It’s almost like putting each of these monuments in this tube.”

Logistical Concerns

The proposed museum is planned to be underwater not only for aesthetic value but also because it follows the 2001 UNESCO convention for the preservation of underwater heritage.

The convention decided that submerged artifacts should ideally remain on the seabed out of respect for their historical context and, in some cases, because water actually preserves artifacts.

But building directly over submerged artifacts could damage them—just one of a number of logistical issues that a feasibility team of archaeologists, architects, engineers, economists, and bureaucrats will examine in the next two years.

If the feasibility study concludes that the museum can be built safely, planners are optimistic it could be constructed in three years. The cost of the museum, however, has not been determined, and funding has not yet been secured.

“Underwater construction costs much, much more and has many more technical problems, so the idea was to divide the museum in two so it could host the maximum amount of people,” Rougerie said.

In addition to cost concerns, the logistics of visitor safety are under investigation.

The structural integrity of the building, however, is considered only a minor problem because the Alexandria bay is only about 16 to 20 feet (5 to 6 meters) deep, architects will not face strong water pressure on the walls of the museum.

Once complete, Egyptian authorities hope, the museum will transform both Alexandria’s tourism industry and the city’s current landscape.

“It will not simply be a museum as such. It is part of a whole vision to revitalize the whole city and its heritage,” Amin said.

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Reference:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/

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North Korea to close land border

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North Korea has announced that it will close the land border with South Korea from 1 December.

The official Korean Central News Agency made the announcement on Wednesday.

North Korea’s army has told the South “to strictly restrict and cut off all the overland passages” across the heavily fortified border, it said.

If implemented, the move will be a blow to inter-Korean relations which have deteriorated since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak came to office.

And it comes despite some progress in international negotiations over dismantling North Korea’s nuclear programme.

‘Crucial crossroads’

The decision had been taken because “reckless confrontation” from South Korea was “beyond the danger level”, according to the agency.

The KCNA report added: “The South Korean puppet authorities should never forget that the present inter-Korean relations are at the crucial crossroads of existence and total severance.”

South Korean officials said they were checking Wednesday’s announcement, which follows months of frosty relations.

South Korea has funded the Kaesong industrial complex just over the border in the North, and a ban on border crossings would make it very difficult for the plant to continue operating.

Some 30,000 North Koreans workers are employed by South Korean companies at the complex, and jobs there are highly prized.

Relations between the Koreas have become increasingly strained since February when conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul, pledging to get tough with Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons programme.

Last month North Korea threatened to reduce the South to rubble unless it stopped activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets attached to balloons into the communist state.

Speculation

Despite the hostile turn in inter-Korean relations, North Korea has continued to make progress in six-nation talks over its nuclear programme despite frequent setbacks.

It says it is disabling its main nuclear plant at Yongbyon after the US removed the North from a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.

The latest escalation in tension comes amid speculation that North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il may have suffered from a serious stroke, though the North has insisted he is in good health and still firmly in charge.

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Reference:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7723729.stm

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Iranian papers praise president’s letter to Obama

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TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s president is attracting some support at home for his message of congratulations to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, which several newspaper commentaries said Tuesday presented an important opportunity.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s message, sent last Thursday, was the first time an Iranian leader has offered such wishes to the winner of a U.S. presidential election since the two countries broke off relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy.

Most recently, the two nations have been deeply at odds over Iran’s nuclear program and what Washington says is Iran’s support for Shiite militias in Iraq — a charge that Iran denies.

The state-owned Khorshid newspaper said Ahmadinejad’s message “shattered America’s incorrect view” that the Iranian president is not open the world.

The independent Etemaad newspaper said, “The message could create an important opportunity for both sides.”

Another independent newspaper, Etemad-e Melli, reported that Ahmadinejad’s press adviser, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, expected Obama to give “a deserving answer to the message as soon as possible.”

The American president-elect on Friday confirmed having received Ahmadinejad’s letter and said he would review it and “respond appropriately.”

In his first news conference since last week’s election, Obama declined to say Friday what proposals he might pursue in connection with Iran, but called the country’s alleged efforts to develop nuclear weapons unacceptable.

“We have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening,” Obama said.

Iran says its nuclear program is intended only for peaceful purposes such as energy production.

Ahmadinejad’s outreach to the United States’ next president did have some critics at home among hard-line newspapers and lawmakers who said it made Iran appear weak.

The Iranian president has been under fire recently over the country’s weakening economy.

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Reference:http://news.yahoo.com/

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The healing power of water

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‘Drink at least two litres a day and you will soon see the difference – glowing skin, weight loss, less cellulite, better immunity and a huge boost to your energy levels’

Water is one of the most basic things on Earth and essential to good health, yet we thoughtlessly throw away gallons every day. Used properly, water can revolutionise our lives.

We need the liquid for day-to-day survival, yet we often ignore our body’s cries for more water, at a grave cost to health and well-being.

It is estimated that 90 per cent of us are chronically dehydrated. Drink just five glasses of water per day and you will cut your risk of developing breast cancer by 79 per cent. The same amount of water will make you 45 per cent less likely to develop cancer of the colon.

Many of the common complaints which plague most people’s lives, such as tiredness, headaches, dry skin, low immunity, cellulite, indigestion and weight gain, are caused by day-to-day dehydration.

If you suffer from one or more of these conditions, you may change the quality of your life immeasurably simply by ensuring you drink two litres of water a day.

Being properly hydrated will help to keep you in peak health. Our bodies are 75 per cent water, but if this level drops by just 2 per cent then we become dehydrated. As soon as this happens, our bodies slow down and begin to operate less efficiently.

A detox give the body a chance to rest so it can cleanse itself. In just 18 days on the Water Detox programme, your body can effectively start again with a clean slate, feeling fabulous.

The Water Detox will help you to tackle health problems – from niggling persistent tiredness or wrinkled skin to more long-term concerns such as weight gain and high blood pressure.

The secret of the detox is simply in the quantity of water you consume. As well as drinking two litres a day, you get an additional litre from food on a nutritional plan which contains at least 50 per cent water.

Once you begin to drink the correct amount of water, you will soon notice improved levels of energy, glowing skin, weight loss, reduction in cellulite and an improved immune system.

It does not matter whether you drink bottle or tap water, but bottle flavoured waters are not permitted on the Water Detox because they almost certainly will be full of sugar and artificial flavours.

It should take you only two or three days to get used to drinking the correct amount of water. To get the best results, you will need to follow a few simple rules:

· Drink at least two litres of water a day.
· On a hot day, increase the daily amount by at least half a litre. Make sure at least one-and-a-half litres of the water is still (not sparkling) water.
· The water should be fresh and, ideally at room temperature.
· Spread your water intake over a day, ideally drinking a glass an hour.
· When you exercise, drink throughout the workout and afterwards. This extra water is in addition to your two daily litres.
· Coffee, tea, alcohol and fruit cordials do not count as water.
· As soon as you get up, drink a glass of water to rehydrate you from the night before.
· Drink a glass of water before lunch and supper to dampen your appetite and to stop you from drinking water with your food, which decreases the absorption of nutrients.
· Make sure you have had at least 1½ litres of water before 6pm.

The 18-day Water Detox Programme

It is vital to drink enough water and to eat the right foods to get the most benefit from the detox.

Certain food types contain up to 50 per cent water, and in some cases up to 95 per cent. Concentrating on these foods will lead to the best nutrition and hydration, though you still need to drink at least two litres of water a day.

You should not eat anything that is not on the programme because this may slow the process or even reverse it. You should particularly avoid diuretics, as they could cause you to lose the same volume of water and more. These include alcohol and drinks containing caffeine, such as colas, coffee and tea.

Exercise is important because it speeds up the cleansing process – but drink throughout your workout and consume at least an extra litre of water per hour of exercise.

When we sleep, we lose water through sweating and the normal metabolic processes. So start the day with a large glass of water, followed by a breakfast which is high in water content. Yoghurt and fruit are excellent. Make the first meal of the day ‘high hydration’.

It is also advisable to exclude certain herbs, such as juniper, dandelions and nettle teas, which encourage the body to expel fluids.

Also avoid foods such as curries and spices which increase body heat and use more fluids than normal.

During the 18-day water detox, you can eat oily fish, oils, yoghurts, potatoes, beans and pulses, vegetables, fruits, rice and salads.

For each of the 18 days, you should drink at least two litres of plain water and eat at least three full meals or five small meals a day. You must eat at least five portions of fruit, five portions of fish, beans or pulses, one portion of rice, and one portion of oil or cheese per day.

You can eat as much as you like of any food which is permitted, but this is the minimum that you should consume.

The cheeses and oils do not always have a 50 per cent water content, but I have included them to ensure that you get a balanced diet. I recommend sheep’s and goat’s products rather than those made from cow’s milk because they are much more easily digested by the human body and much easier to tolerate.

Eating raw foods will maintain fluid levels and help to preserve the nutrients. Aim to eat half of your foods each day raw.

To keep food succulent and with the right level of water, you must use the right cooking methods. Always try to use any of the juices, essences or fluids that come out of the foods for dressings, sauces or gravy to pour back over them. Steaming will also leave your food moist and juicy.

The best way to ensure you don’t lose fluids during cooking is to add them. Choose stews, soups, smoothes and long drinks. Select the foods which you like best and find easier to prepare.

Eat your main meal during the day and not late in the evening. It is better to have four or five light meals a day than to have a huge plate of food three times a day, which can cause big surges and drops in energy and blood sugar.

If you are tempted to snack, remember that 75 per cent of hunger pangs are requests from our bodies for water. Each time you feel hungry, have a glass of water. If, after 20 minutes, you are still peckish, then eat something, as long as your snack is one of the food allowed. Yoghurt, hummus and crudités are a good idea.
The Water Detox diet is not a diet, but a healthy way to cleanse your body. It will also help you to lose any excess weight.
Extracted from Water Detox: Total Health and Beauty in 8 Easy Steps by Jane Scrivener

THE FACTS ABOUT H20

· 75 per cent of our hunger pangs are signals of thirst
· Our brain is 75 per cent water
· Blood is 92 per cent water
· Bones are 22 per cent water
· Muscles are 75 per cent water
· Brain cells are 82 per cent water
· Moderate dehydration can cause headaches and even dizziness
· On hot days, sweating can cause you to lose up to 16 glasses of water a day
· The body loses as much water when asleep as when awake
· Mild dehydration slows the metabolism by as much as 3 per cent
· A 2 per cent drop in hydration can slow mental recall

HOW IT CAN EFFECT YOUR BODY

Drinking water improves the efficiency of all major body organs. The liver, lungs, skin, kidneys and intestines all use water as a vehicle for cleansing. Inadequate quantities of water slow the system down and can causes you to suffer from constipation, grey skin, infections and swollen glands.

Dehydration
Simple day-to-day dehydration can cause tiredness, bad circulation, high blood pressure, headaches, dizziness, aching joints, dry skin, urinary infections, slow metabolism, low immunity, stress, cellulite, weight gain and indigestion.

The Liver
The largest internal organ, the liver works to detoxify the body by taking in ‘poisons’ such as additives and alcohol. A severely overtaxed liver can lead to lethargy and, in extreme cases, jaundice.

The Kidneys
The kidneys cleanse the blood and regulate potassium and sodium levels. Overworked kidneys can cause tiredness, or, more seriously, kidney infections and kidney stones.

The Intestines
Food passes through the stomach into the intestines. The goodness is absorbed and waste eliminated. Digestion takes about eight hours from consumption to elimination in a healthy body, but more than 24 in a dehydrated one.

The Lymph System
Lymph, absorbs dead cells, excess fluids and other waste products and takes them to the lymph nodes, which are under your armpits and in the areas of your groin and knees. Here, the waste is filtered and eventually fed to the eliminatory organs – skin, liver or kidneys – to be passed out.

The Lungs
The lungs filter pollution and toxins, including cigarette fumes and chemicals from the air we breathe. The lungs are full of little air sacs which fill with inhaled air. The lungs then expel carbon dioxide and waste water.

The Skin
The skin sweats out waste products such as salt, uric acid, ammonia and urea. Its condition is an excellent indicator of the condition of internal organs. Spots and a pale skin can be one of the first signs that we have not been taking care of ourselves.

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Reference:http://campaignfortruth.com/Eclub/170402/healingpowerofwater.htm

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