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In Flames

BIOGRAPHY

biography updated March 30, 2004

It was the year 1990, Jesper decided to take leave of the band Ceremonial Oath, that he was currently in, together with Anders Fridén and Anders Iwers (Tiamat)

He wanted to make music in a different direction, and he teamed up with Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström to form IN FLAMES. The gang made a demo and shipped it off to Wrong Again records in order to get a record-deal, which they did. The owner of the company enjoyed the music so much that he immediately gave them a deal over the phone, as they rang him up one night. The next day, they sat down and wrote the album Lunar Strain, which was released some time later, and became a big underground success. They had some "in and out members" , and borrowed some from different bands. People that have been a part of IN FLAMES since the beginning, are Mikael Stanne and Anders Jivarp (Dark Tranquillity), Anders Iwers (Tiamat), Henke Forss (Dawn), Daniel Erlandsson (Eucharist, Arch Enemy), and a few more. The band then released a mini-CD called Subterranean, that became the "breaker" for IN FLAMES, in terms of getting out off the underground scene, that is, and led them to get a license deal with German company Nuclear Blast for the next record, and they have been there since then. After some time, the boys were getting tired of constantly borrowing people in order to make a record, or do a decent live show, and they asked Anders Fridén and Björn Gelotte to join the band, on vocals and drums, and they accepted. IN FLAMES were for the first time a band with a real line up.

Best life quality cities

Cities in Europe, New Zealand, and Australia continue to rank highly. Munich and Düsseldorf both move up the rankings, from 10th and 12th place respectively, to share joint 5th place with Frankfurt. Munich’s rise is due to more efficient waste removal systems and better housing for expatriates, while Düsseldorf’s transport and standards of international schooling have improved. Bern, Copenhagen, and Sydney are pushed down slightly to rank 8 with scores of 105. In the US, Honolulu and San Francisco rank highest in joint 25th position (score 102), mainly because they have lower crime levels than other US cities. Boston, New York, Portland, and Washington follow in positions 36, 39, 42, and 42 respectively (score 100.5, 100, 99, 99), while Houston ranks lowest at position 68 (score 94). The analysis was based on an evaluation of 39 quality of life criteria for each city, including political, social, economic, and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport, and other public services. Baghdad remains the world’s least attractive city for expatriates. Its low score (14.5) is due to the recurrent threat of attacks against people, multinational organisations, and government institutions in the area. Other poor-scoring cities for overall quality of life include Bangui in the Central African Republic (score 29), Brazzaville in Congo, and Khartoum in Sudan (29.5 and 31 respectively).

The coldest place antarctica

It's not just the boat ride across one of the most treacherous seas in the world that keep people from moving to Antarctica. It's hard to get to, there's little food and nothing to build shelter from. People haven't lived in Antarctica for thousands of years. However, today's technology has made it possible for people to explore and study the huge walk-in freezer. The coldest temperature ever recorded was -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius). Antarctica has little moisture so it's also known as one of the driest places in the world.

The wettest place on the earth

It's ironic that the wettest place in the world manages to thirst for water each winter when no rain falls at all for months at a time. The type of weather phenomenon that brings so much rain to this part of the world is called the monsoons. Monsoons are seasonal winds that blow from one direction for approximately six months, bringing torrential rains, and then blow from the opposite direction for the remaining six months, during which little rain falls. During the wet season moist air is cooled as it blows over rising land, letting abundant rain fall on the windward side of mountain ranges. But because of widespread destruction of conifer forests that protected the soil, the ground does not absorb the rain that falls so heavily during the monsoon season. The city of Cherrapunji is 1290 meters above sea level and much of the torrential rains run off the mountains into the valley below. The irrigation system for the town of Cherrapunji is insufficient to provide adequate amounts of clean, potable water from below during the dry season. People who live there frequently have to travel on foot for several kilometers to bathe and get drinking water.

World's forests may have less than 100 years to live

MORE than half the world's biggest forests will be lost if global temperatures rise by an average of 3 degrees or more, by the end of the century.

The prediction comes from the most comprehensive analysis yet of the potential effects of human-made global warming.

Extreme floods, forest fires and droughts will also become more common over the next 200 years as global temperatures rise owing to climate change, says Marko Scholze, of the University of Bristol in the west of England.

Dr Scholze took 52 simulations of the world's climate over the next century, grouping the results according to varying amounts of global warming they predicted by 2100: less than 2 degrees, 2-3 degrees, and more than 3 degrees. He then used the simulations to work out how the world's plants would be affected over the next few hundred years. The results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr Scholze said the effects of a 2 degree rise were inevitable, and in this scenario Europe, Asia, Canada, Central America and Amazonia could lose up to 30 per cent of their forests.

A rise of 2-3 degrees will mean less fresh water available in parts of west Africa, Central America, southern Europe and the eastern US, raising the probability of drought in these areas. In contrast, the tropical parts of Africa and South America will be at greater risk of flooding as trees are lost.

A global temperature rise of more than 3 degrees will mean even less fresh water, he said. Loss of forest in Amazonia and Europe, Asia, Canada and Central America could reach 60 per cent. It could also present a yet more dangerous scenario where the temperatures induce plants to become net producers of carbon dioxide. His work shows that that the so-called "tipping point"could arrive by the middle of this century.

In May, David King, the British Government's chief scientific adviser, also warned that the world's temperature would rise by 3 degrees, causing catastrophic damage around the world, unless governments took urgent action to reduce carbon emissions.

an article of Alok Jha in London; The guardian
August 16, 2006

How to atract a woman

Wat makes a man attractive to a woman? Follow these tips to make yourself more appealing.

Steps:

Take pride in your appearance. Realize you only have one chance to make a good first impression.

Appeal to all her senses through your sensuous voice, fragrance, clothing and appearance.

Give her a reason to think about you. Wear a masculine fragrance that haunts her memory, tasteful clothes that she yearns to touch, a smile that she can't get out of her mind.

Flirt with her by sending silent signals of your interest through subtle body language.

Treat her like she's the center of your world. Focus your full attention on her and block out distractions.

Listen intently to what she has to say, and respond with respect for her opinions.

Ask about her interests, her work and her hobbies. Pay attention to the details.

Be honest and sincere. Keep your promises. Call if you say you're going to call. Show up at the time you say you're going to arrive. Don't make idle promises that you have no intention of keeping.

Let her know you're different from other men. Emphasize your originality through your personality, intelligence and behavior. Don't pretend you're anyone other than yourself.

10.

Refrain from boasting, particularly about your past triumphs with other women.

11.

Leave a little something to the imagination. Don't bare all or tell all immediately. An air of mystery can be provocative and appealing to a woman.

Tips:

Your appearance and body language may catch her attention, but it takes personality and charm to sustain a woman's interest.

Tips from eHow Users:

Flirt
Flirt with her, make her feel special. Be funny, show her your true self, make good eye contact, and smile at her. If she has a problem, go beside her and help her. Never leave her alone in moments of trouble.

Tip for attracting a woman
Be yourself and don't worry if you fail. Women can pick up bad signals, like wanting to get in their pants. Branch out and meet as many people as possible and you'll be surprised who you might fall in love with. Every woman you meet will always have friends, and they in turn have friends. Make a good impression on that first woman and she will praise you to her friends. ;)

Tips to control high blood pressure

Co Q10- Coenzyme Q10, also called Co Q10, is another supplement that is commonly recommended for high blood pressure. One double blind, placebo-controlled study of 59 men already taking blood pressure medication found that 120 mg of Co Q10 daily for eight weeks could reduce blood pressure by about 9% compared to placebo. A typical dose of Co Q10 is 30 to 100 mg three times a day. Co Q10 appears to be safe, however, there are some concerns about whether Co Q10 interacts with the blood-thinning drug Coumadin (warfarin).

Hawthorn (Crataegus oxycantha) – Hawthorn is a very well known heart herbal tonic in traditional herbal medicine. It has been used in Europe and China for centuries as a folk remedy. It is believed to decrease blood pressure, increase heart muscle contraction, increase blood flow to the heart muscle, and decrease heart rate. There is more evidence supporting the use of hawthorn for congestive heart failure. For blood pressure, hawthorn is believed to seldom be enough to make a significant difference. A typical dose of hawthorn is 100 to 300 mg three times a day of a dose standardized to contain about 2 to 3% flavonoids or 18 to 20% procyanidins. The full effect takes several weeks to months to develop.

Ayurvedic Medicine

In ayurveda, high blood pressure is treated according to each person’s dosha, or constitutional type. High blood pressure is most often found in pitta and kapha types. Ayurvedic approaches often include a diet low in salt and fat, yoga breathing exercises, and herbs such as sankhapuspi (Convolvulus pluricaulis) and ashwagandha (Withania somnifera).

Traditional Chinese Medicine

In traditional Chinese medicine, high blood pressure is often a problem of circulation of energy (qi) in the body. Poor diet and emotional imbalance are just some of the factors that can lead to this condition. A combination of acupuncture and herbs is often recommended to balance energy flow. Secondary high blood pressure is often due to exhaustion of energy reserves. This is called kidney yin deficiency. The treatment goal is to build up and restore energy.

Lifestyle Changes

Exercise - Regular exercise can help to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and decrease resting heart rate, which is a sign of heart health. Before beginning a new exercise program, a person with high blood pressure should consult a qualified health professional.

Stress Management – Mind/body techniques to help manage stress include yoga, meditation, biofeedback, qigong, relaxation exercises, breathing exercises, and hypnotherapy. There have been numerous studies that suggest these techniques can effective in managing high blood pressure, in combination with other approaches.

Most doctors recommend that patients try to restore a healthy blood pressure level by first making lifestyle changes. Here are some natural ways to prevent or reduce high blood pressure:

Stop smoking. Not only will this help keep your blood pressure in line, you'll also diminish your risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
Shed excess pounds. There's a direct link between being overweight and having high blood pressure. The more overweight you are, the greater the risk. Start by making small changes. Cut 200 to 300 calories from your diet each day — about the equivalent of saying "no" to two chocolate chip cookies.
Decrease salt intake. High salt intake is linked to high blood pressure. You should consume no more than 2,000 milligrams of sodium per day (about one teaspoon of salt). The average American consumes twice that, often through canned soups, frozen dinners, soy sauce, pickles, olives and processed cheeses, which are loaded with sodium. Read food labels and select reduced-sodium products.
Add more fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products to your plate. Eat one additional fruit or vegetable with every meal. Shrink the size of your daily meat intake to six ounces, and designate at least two dinners a week as meat-free.
Limit alcohol consumption. Drink no more than one 12-ounce beer, one 5-ounce glass of wine or one swallow (1.5 ounces) of 80-proof whiskey if you’re a woman. Men can double these amounts. Anything more elevates blood pressure.
Exercise. First, get the green light from your physician. Then, slowly introduce aerobic exercise into your life, increasing the time and intensity at a pace that feels right, aiming for at least a 30-minute workout most days of the week.

Benefits of Regular Activity

Regular activity has a number of proven, positive health effects, especially on heart health. Vigorous exercise strengthens the heart as a pump, making it a larger, more efficient muscle. Even moderate activity can boost HDL ("good") cholesterol, aid the circulatory system, and lower blood pressure and blood fats. All these effects translate into reduced risk for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.

Exercise can also offer other benefits, including strengthened muscles, increased flexibility, and stronger bones, which can help ward off the bone-thinning condition called osteoporosis.

Regular activity also promises mental-health benefits, like relieving stress and anxiety. It can help you sleep better and renew your energy. If exercise could be bottled, it would be a best-selling potion at the local pharmacy.

Can exercise lower blood pressure?

Epidemiological studies show a direct correlation between hypertension and a lack of physical activity. The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Leuven in Belgium conducted a study on the value of exercise in preventing and treating hypertension. Special emphasis was placed on the possible effect of relative weight, or body size, on the results of exercise. They found that physical activity does contribute to the control of blood pressure in the obese as well as normal patients. Reduction in blood pressure after physical training appears to be independent of initial body size. Exercise was less effective in lowering blood pressure than diet, and adding diet to exercise did not further reduce blood pressure.

Source: Fagard RH. Physical activity in the prevention and treatment of hypertension in the obese. Med Sci Sports Exer. 1999(Nov);31:624-630. (Abs)

Doden door overstromingen Turkije

Gepubliceerd op woensdag 01 november 2006

DIYARBAKIR (ANP) - Minstens twintig mensen onder wie vier kinderen hebben in het zuidoosten van Turkije de dood gevonden door overstromingen als gevolg van hevige regenval. Meer dan tien anderen worden vermist. Dat maakten de autoriteiten woensdag bekend.

e meeste doden vielen toen het water een minibusje meesleurde dat op weg was van Mardin naar Diyarbakir. Veertien inzittenden kwamen om het leven, zei gouverneur Efkan Ala tegen de televisiezender NTV.

Vooral de dorpen Bismil en Cinar in de overwegend Koerdische provincie Diyarbakir zijn zwaar getroffen. Het water in de straten staat er 2 meter hoog. Honderden mensen moesten met boten en helikopters in veiligheid worden gebracht. Verscheidene huizen zijn ingestort. Afgelopen weekeinde kwamen al vijf mensen om.

Ook andere delen van Turkije kampen al dagen met hevig noodweer. In de westelijke steden Istanbul en Izmir stonden woensdag de straten blank. Langs de Middellandse Zeekust woedde een zware storm.

101 ways to improve your news site

Here are 101 ways to improve your news site. How many does your site do?

Post a form at the end of a breaking news story asking witnesses to send in details of what they saw – and then add the information you can verify to the story.
Invite anyone in your community to write Weblogs for your news site
Take the best content from Weblogs on your news site (now that you’ve got so many) and publish them in your newspaper.
Integrate headlines from your competition into your Web site
Create deals with other newspapers in your state to share content at no cost. Then stop paying for The Associated Press and hire new newsroom staffers with the savings.
Create games around the news for wireless devices
Get the people behind the glass doors to require that at least 10% of all deals print/TV-side ad sales folks make include online components – or else they don’t get their bonuses.
Give everyone in your company one day off a month to work on whatever project they want or simply just brainstorm new ideas
Build a real estate database and section so detailed and useful it becomes the MLS for your community. (realestate.nytimes.com)
Create a staff development plan so that everyone in your company gets pertinent online news training within the next 12 months.
Design your registration system so that you have an easy way to get updated information when people move, so your data stays more valuable to advertisers
Give people who register for your site incentive to keep giving you updated information.
Ask readers their interests when they register and only serve them ads related to them when they visit your site.
Offer a subscription where people can view the entire site ad-free for an extra charge.
Double the size of all photos on your site for a week. See how readers react. Wanna bet you decide to keep at least some of them larger permanently?
Don’t just add "Discuss story" links to stories – include the comments at the bottom or on the right rail of the page and make them part of the visible story
Create two different home pages – one with dayparting and one without – and deliver each to half your users randomly, and compare
Put only local news and content on your home page
Let every reader create their own "reader home pages" where they can pick what stories to lead with – and let them be public and make it easy for other reader to bookmark them.
Promote something online that will be in the next day’s paper or on the next newscast – and then don’t post that story online
Set up a service so that readers can get alerts any time a story they’ve already read gets updated – or corrected
Create RSS feeds focused on niche topics your site covers.
Design an algorithm to automatically hotlink the names of any major newsmakers in your community to bio pages and recent stories about them
Build dedicated pages for every neighborhood in your circulation area with useful local information, links and related headlines from your site automatically pulled in
Create online memorial pages for every obituary – not just those of celebrities -- so friends and relatives can post their memories.
Create an army of citizen reporters to help cover hyper-local news your organization has abandoned, like community meetings or Little League games.
Have every reporter on staff spend a day only writing and producing for the Web.
Offer readers inning-by-inning or quarter-by-quarter SMS game updates for major local teams.
Create a local crime database searchable by zip code and street address – and integrate it into your online real estate section.
Create a local school quality database searchable by zip code and street address – and integrate it into your online real estate section.
Put your city or state’s restaurant inspection database online -- and integrate it into your restaurant review section.
Ban all forms of intrusive advertising from your site for good
Let your readers post certain classifieds for free.
Critique your Web site – along with your newspaper or newscast – at the beginning of every budget meeting
Use your Web site to avoid censoring content – i.e. put any gruesome war photos online behind a disclaimer, rather than not publishing at all
Package all your best travel material into a special site aimed just at tourists for your community
Spend an entire week only getting news from your web site (no newspaper, no TV, no other sites). Write a list of things you felt you missed out on, and then figure out a way to get that on your site.
Buy a TiVo for your newsroom so reporters can pause and rewind anytime there’s breaking news on TV – or a live press briefing – and get exact quotes.
Create a daily morning e-mail aimed at teens and 20-year-olds that summarizes the news in a hip and lively way
Build a feature into your site enabling readers to add notes to any stories on your site, like Amazon’s new A9.com site does.
Offer free access to all your archives to newspaper subscribers – but only to subscribers.
Offer readers access to real estate ads a day or two earlier online (or send via e-mail) and charge extra for this access or limit to print subscribers
Develop a database of e-mail addresses and phone numbers of readers who you can tap for quotes when writing stories on deadline
Offer an online coupon section
Click-and-buy prints option on all online photos
Have readers send in photos and make slide shows from them
Pick the best posts on your message boards and highlight them in separate features – or on your home page -- so readers don’t have to dig through
Create timely special packages from archived content and sell them to sponsors
Set up online town hall meetings (i.e. chats) with local political candidates
Create Web-based publishing tool so classified advertisers can enter their information themselves, saving you work (should still be proof-read)
Find another media company in town to partner with... Find a media company from out of town to partner with
Create a downloadable MP3 section and let local bands upload their tunes for readers to download
Create multimedia obituaries online and charge extra for them. Then
Create multimedia wedding announcements online and charge extra for them
Use the Weblog format to cover a breaking news event
Figure out which writers or TV reporters always write too long for air or the paper and offer them an online column
Have popular columnists supplement their regular column with an e-mail extra... Only let newspaper subscribers get it
Let readers vote on their favorite local school sports player and give winners a symbolic award
Have newspaper or station top editor send e-mails to all e-mail subscribers occasionally to let them know how the newspaper or TV station is improving
Hold short story contests and print winners online
Tell stories through online games created in Flash or other tools (i.e. let readers try balancing the budget)
Tell an entire story that would normally be written in plain text entirely through a slide show
Instead of linking bylines to e-mail addresses, link them to staff bios with photos and e-mail info so readers get to know you
Sell prints of your front pages online, plus current and back issues
Make online display ads interactive – games, quizzes, etc – to grab readers attention (and of course charge extra for these!)
Offer special fan e-mail newsletters for local sports teams
Give all reporters digital audio recorders and digital cameras to take out on stories to get material for posting on Web
Wire all newsroom telephones to a recording system so reporters can easily record phone interviews (after asking sources’ permission) and put online
Send readers news alerts through instant messenger tools
Allow advertisers to put photos online with classified ads and signal to newspaper readers to go online to see them
Create special news alerts for whatever topics are hot among local readers
Create topic-specific photo galleries on random, fun topics (dog slide show; smiling people slide show; etc…)
Use the Web to ask readers for fresh ideas. Actually read them. Choose at least one and actually do it.
Rotate content on your home page based on dayparting usage.
Get someone to audiotape big local high school sports games and post the sound online
Have sports writers blog live from local school sports games they’re covering
Have everyone in your organization trade jobs with someone else in a different department at some point
If you’re the boss, work the worst shift/job on your team for a whole week. Watch your employees respect leap, and your knowledge of your newsroom grow.
Develop an online corrections policy (or reassess and improve one if you actually have one).
Add online elements to your company-wide ethics policy (or create a company-wide ethics policy that covers the web if no policy exists)
Make sure all ads are clearly labeled. For real.
Create a reader-appreciation week and have no pop-ups or animated ads all week.
Offer readers an ad-free version of your site for an extra cost
Give local politicians or newsmakers or experts Weblogs on your site.
Link datelines on all stories to pages with maps and information about the location (perhaps on a partner encyclopedia site)
Create a whole special section online for younger readers. Find local student journalists to help write for it
Create a special section on your Web site for readers who speak a different language (that has a large population in your area); translate some stories and write special features for them
Create a site-wide disaster coverage plan
Make training a priority and figure out a way to give everyone on the staff some sort of training within the next year
When local big shots die, set up online memorials on your site or via legacy.com
When print or TV journalists contribute something impressive to the Web site, applaud them in front of the whole company – maybe post their work for all to see – to encourage others to do so
Create internal companywide awards for good online work
Launch a public service project online, tied to some ongoing issue or project in the community; invite readers to submit their ideas online and pass them on to the local government
Create a template in Flash or another tool for a breaking news multimedia package so that when big news happens, you can slap it in and publish before the traffic spike has passed
Cut the number of links on your home page in half. See if your traffic and page views change at all.
Offer readers a way to save articles they like on your site for later reading and create a personal page for them with all of those stories
Interview your reporters on major stories and post the audio or video online
Have reporters answer reader questions online (live or not) about a big story and then post the answers
Let readers vote on their favorite stories and photos and post those lists online
Each afternoon post something on your home page telling readers something special that will be in the next day’s newspaper or on that evening’s newscast. Don’t post that online.
Do at least one thing on this list.

101 ways to improve your new site

Here are 101 ways to improve your news site. How many does your site do?

Take a look and then add your own great ideas to the list...

Post a form at the end of a breaking news story asking witnesses to send in details of what they saw – and then add the information you can verify to the story.

Invite anyone in your community to write Weblogs for your news site

Take the best content from Weblogs on your news site (now that you’ve got so many) and publish them in your newspaper.

Integrate headlines from your competition into your Web site

Create deals with other newspapers in your state to share content at no cost. Then stop paying for The Associated Press and hire new newsroom staffers with the savings.

Create games around the news for wireless devices

Get the people behind the glass doors to require that at least 10% of all deals print/TV-side ad sales folks make include online components – or else they don’t get their bonuses.

Give everyone in your company one day off a month to work on whatever project they want or simply just brainstorm new ideas

Build a real estate database and section so detailed and useful it becomes the MLS for your community. (realestate.nytimes.com)

Create a staff development plan so that everyone in your company gets pertinent online news training within the next 12 months.

Design your registration system so that you have an easy way to get updated information when people move, so your data stays more valuable to advertisers

Give people who register for your site incentive to keep giving you updated information.

Ask readers their interests when they register and only serve them ads related to them when they visit your site.

Offer a subscription where people can view the entire site ad-free for an extra charge.

Double the size of all photos on your site for a week. See how readers react. Wanna bet you decide to keep at least some of them larger permanently?

Don’t just add "Discuss story" links to stories – include the comments at the bottom or on the right rail of the page and make them part of the visible story

Create two different home pages – one with dayparting and one without – and deliver each to half your users randomly, and compare

Put only local news and content on your home page

Let every reader create their own "reader home pages" where they can pick what stories to lead with – and let them be public and make it easy for other reader to bookmark them.

Promote something online that will be in the next day’s paper or on the next newscast – and then don’t post that story online

Set up a service so that readers can get alerts any time a story they’ve already read gets updated – or corrected

Create RSS feeds focused on niche topics your site covers.

Design an algorithm to automatically hotlink the names of any major newsmakers in your community to bio pages and recent stories about them

Build dedicated pages for every neighborhood in your circulation area with useful local information, links and related headlines from your site automatically pulled in

Create online memorial pages for every obituary – not just those of celebrities -- so friends and relatives can post their memories.

Create an army of citizen reporters to help cover hyper-local news your organization has abandoned, like community meetings or Little League games.

Have every reporter on staff spend a day only writing and producing for the Web.

Offer readers inning-by-inning or quarter-by-quarter SMS game updates for major local teams.

Create a local crime database searchable by zip code and street address – and integrate it into your online real estate section.

Create a local school quality database searchable by zip code and street address – and integrate it into your online real estate section.

Put your city or state’s restaurant inspection database online -- and integrate it into your restaurant review section.

Ban all forms of intrusive advertising from your site for good

Let your readers post certain classifieds for free.

Critique your Web site – along with your newspaper or newscast – at the beginning of every budget meeting

Use your Web site to avoid censoring content – i.e. put any gruesome war photos online behind a disclaimer, rather than not publishing at all

Package all your best travel material into a special site aimed just at tourists for your community

Spend an entire week only getting news from your web site (no newspaper, no TV, no other sites). Write a list of things you felt you missed out on, and then figure out a way to get that on your site.

Buy a TiVo for your newsroom so reporters can pause and rewind anytime there’s breaking news on TV – or a live press briefing – and get exact quotes.

Create a daily morning e-mail aimed at teens and 20-year-olds that summarizes the news in a hip and lively way

Build a feature into your site enabling readers to add notes to any stories on your site, like Amazon’s new A9.com site does.

Offer free access to all your archives to newspaper subscribers – but only to subscribers.

Offer readers access to real estate ads a day or two earlier online (or send via e-mail) and charge extra for this access or limit to print subscribers

Develop a database of e-mail addresses and phone numbers of readers who you can tap for quotes when writing stories on deadline

Offer an online coupon section

Click-and-buy prints option on all online photos

Have readers send in photos and make slide shows from them

Pick the best posts on your message boards and highlight them in separate features – or on your home page -- so readers don’t have to dig through

Create timely special packages from archived content and sell them to sponsors

Set up online town hall meetings (i.e. chats) with local political candidates

Create Web-based publishing tool so classified advertisers can enter their information themselves, saving you work (should still be proof-read)

Find another media company in town to partner with... Find a media company from out of town to partner with

Create a downloadable MP3 section and let local bands upload their tunes for readers to download

Create multimedia obituaries online and charge extra for them. Then

Create multimedia wedding announcements online and charge extra for them

Use the Weblog format to cover a breaking news event

Figure out which writers or TV reporters always write too long for air or the paper and offer them an online column

Have popular columnists supplement their regular column with an e-mail extra... Only let newspaper subscribers get it

Let readers vote on their favorite local school sports player and give winners a symbolic award

Have newspaper or station top editor send e-mails to all e-mail subscribers occasionally to let them know how the newspaper or TV station is improving

Hold short story contests and print winners online

Tell stories through online games created in Flash or other tools (i.e. let readers try balancing the budget)

Tell an entire story that would normally be written in plain text entirely through a slide show

Instead of linking bylines to e-mail addresses, link them to staff bios with photos and e-mail info so readers get to know you

Sell prints of your front pages online, plus current and back issues

Make online display ads interactive – games, quizzes, etc – to grab readers attention (and of course charge extra for these!)

Offer special fan e-mail newsletters for local sports teams

Give all reporters digital audio recorders and digital cameras to take out on stories to get material for posting on Web

Wire all newsroom telephones to a recording system so reporters can easily record phone interviews (after asking sources’ permission) and put online

Send readers news alerts through instant messenger tools

Allow advertisers to put photos online with classified ads and signal to newspaper readers to go online to see them

Create special news alerts for whatever topics are hot among local readers

Create topic-specific photo galleries on random, fun topics (dog slide show; smiling people slide show; etc…)

Use the Web to ask readers for fresh ideas. Actually read them. Choose at least one and actually do it.

Rotate content on your home page based on dayparting usage.

Get someone to audiotape big local high school sports games and post the sound online

Have sports writers blog live from local school sports games they’re covering

Have everyone in your organization trade jobs with someone else in a different department at some point

If you’re the boss, work the worst shift/job on your team for a whole week. Watch your employees respect leap, and your knowledge of your newsroom grow.

Develop an online corrections policy (or reassess and improve one if you actually have one).

Add online elements to your company-wide ethics policy (or create a company-wide ethics policy that covers the web if no policy exists)

Make sure all ads are clearly labeled. For real.

Create a reader-appreciation week and have no pop-ups or animated ads all week.

Offer readers an ad-free version of your site for an extra cost

Give local politicians or newsmakers or experts Weblogs on your site.

Link datelines on all stories to pages with maps and information about the location (perhaps on a partner encyclopedia site)

Create a whole special section online for younger readers. Find local student journalists to help write for it

Create a special section on your Web site for readers who speak a different language (that has a large population in your area); translate some stories and write special features for them

Create a site-wide disaster coverage plan

Make training a priority and figure out a way to give everyone on the staff some sort of training within the next year

When local big shots die, set up online memorials on your site or via legacy.com

When print or TV journalists contribute something impressive to the Web site, applaud them in front of the whole company – maybe post their work for all to see – to encourage others to do so

Create internal companywide awards for good online work

Launch a public service project online, tied to some ongoing issue or project in the community; invite readers to submit their ideas online and pass them on to the local government

Create a template in Flash or another tool for a breaking news multimedia package so that when big news happens, you can slap it in and publish before the traffic spike has passed

Cut the number of links on your home page in half. See if your traffic and page views change at all.

Offer readers a way to save articles they like on your site for later reading and create a personal page for them with all of those stories

Interview your reporters on major stories and post the audio or video online

Have reporters answer reader questions online (live or not) about a big story and then post the answers

Let readers vote on their favorite stories and photos and post those lists online

Each afternoon post something on your home page telling readers something special that will be in the next day’s newspaper or on that evening’s newscast. Don’t post that online.

Do at least one thing on this list.

Both Turkey and Serbia

Both Turkey and Serbia have much more to do if their ambitions of joining the EU are to succeed, officials have said at top level meetings in Luxembourg.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn urged Turkey to open transport links with Cyprus, as promised, and to speed up political reforms.

Festival of song 2006 Thessaloniki...a disaster

Well is a shame that one of the most nice activity in Greece as the Festival of song at Thessaloniki became of such a low level regarding the songs which are selected to participate at the semi-final. Wonderful presentation, well organised, but.... This year was really a total disaster. From point of view songs, nearly all were or boring, or not commercial, or of low quality of musical /textual content. I am wondering with which criteria this selection committee selects the songs! Apparently there is no criteria seen the songs which came out this year. I can believe that actually works only the "fakelaki"!!. Who pays better, behind the podium, will have the chance to appear at the semi-final. Who knows!!

I have participated this year myself with two songs "Adeia kardia" and "Sun of my life". They are both excluded. They are both very melodical, rythnical of high quality content (musical and textual) but nevertheless the committee found that they do not worth to appear. What about then then number 15 (if I remember well) at the semi-final? This number was absolutely the clown of the evening. At least one of my songs could replace that one. But nothing.

You know what? It is better so. If the festival brings us such shows disasters that make shaming the whole Greek Song, is better who has quality songs not to place them together with those. We lose in prestige. I rather prefer my compositions be in competition with other quality songs rather with rabish.

One thing is sure! the song who came 1st at the final competition was the very good one and I am glad that public was more intelligent to select the good one.

I hope the Festival Committee will change attitude and will save the face of the Greek festival of songs otherwise we will ridiculise our selfs and lose our prestige when we hav' got the reputation of nation from where the good music is born.

You can hear here my song (which has copyright) clicking on the link
Sun of my life

Akis

The Inca civilisation

The Inca Civilization 1. Territory The period around 1200 AD saw the rise of the Aztec culture in Mexico. This is also the period when the Inca civilization in Latin America began to expand its territory. The Incas were originally a warlike tribe from the Andes mountains above Cuzco. Around 1000 AD this tribe successfully conquered neighboring tribes and began moving down into the valley of Cuzco. From this convenient location, they eventually began their conquests of the surrounding area. By 1500 the Incas were the largest and richest of the ancient empires of the Americas. By the time of the Spanish conquest, the Inca empire extended some 2500 miles from their capital city of Cuzco along the western coast of Latin America - roughly the area of modern-day Peru. Their territory was very diverse both in climate and in terrain, for it included the high peaks and fertile valleys of the Andes mountains, the tropical forests on the eastern edges of the mountains and a long strip of drought-stricken desert along the western coast. 2. History Not much is known about the early history of the Incas. Sometime around 1100 AD they founded a city called Cuzco in the fertile lowland valley and began to dominate other kingdoms nearby. Several centuries later the Incas began to expand their empire on a large scale. This occurred during the reign of Pachacuti in the mid-1400's. During this period Pachacuti's army invaded neighboring areas and ruthlessly crushed tribes that resisted. Many other tribes and kingdoms then entered into an alliance with the Inca conquerors out of fear. Soon the Incas became the dominant power along the western coast. After Pachacuti's death, his sons continued to expand the empire both northwards as far as modern-day Ecuador, southward along the coast to northern Chile, and eastward into portions of modern-day Argentina and Bolivia. By the early 1500's the Inca empire was already beginning to weaken, however. One reason for their weakness is that the territory had become too large to manage. This also made it difficult to distribute food and other goods efficiently. It became more and more difficult to put down the rebellious tribes, especially those in the remote jungle areas in the east. Furthermore, the Inca control over so many diverse and far-flung peoples had depended on a series of strong rulers. Their stable government ended in 1525 when their king, Huayna Capac, died without having named a successor. Two of his sons, Atahualpa and his brother, Hus-car, began a bitter fight over the right to succeed him as king. The fight plunged the country into a civil war that seriously weakened the empire politically and militarily. The mighty empire of the Incas collapsed abruptly in 1532 with the arrival of a small band of Spanish conquerors led by Pizarro. The Inca king, Atahualpa, had believed the light-skinned Spaniards were demigods and trusted them. This made it easy for Pizarro to capture and later execute Atahaulpa. Although the Incas greatly outnumbered Pizarro's band of 180 soldiers, the Incas' primitive weapons were no match against the Spaniards' guns and canons. The Incas' resistance did not last long. When the last Inca ruler was killed the long period of Spanish domination began. During the Spanish domination huge numbers of Incas died from the diseases brought by the Spanish colonists, as happened also with the native people in Central America and Mexico. Those natives who did survive had to work more or less as slaves on the plantations and in the silver and gold mines run by the Spaniards. 3. Inca Society Unlike the Mayans and Aztecs, the Incas had not developed a written language. Nor did they develop a transportation system based on wheeled vehicles. Therefore, it is remarkable that they were able to control and administer such a large area. The Incas ruled over people from hundreds of different tribes who spoke many different languages. They maintained control by developing sophisticated ways of organizing their society, by maintaining a large army, and by inventing very advanced agricultural, building and engineering methods. One of the most important inventions of the Incas was the elaborate system of stone roads and bridges they built to connect all the parts of the country. They had no horses, but trained runners running in relays could cover as much as 250 miles per day so that messages and reports could be quickly delivered to distant areas. And since the Incas forced all the conquered people to learn their language, having a common language also helped people communicate throughout the empire. Although they had no written language, the Incas had developed a number system using knotted strings, called a quipu, that they used to keep accurate records of troops, supplies, population data, and agricultural inventories. Thus, they could plan which crops to plant to meet future needs, and they could assign people with particular skills to work on specific tasks, such as road building, hauling materials, tending crops, serving as soldiers, making pottery, or constructing houses and temples. Government experts taught the farmers new techniques for irrigating their crops, for draining marshlands, and for terracing the land to plant on steep hillsides. The government also took a portion of each harvest. Some of the harvest went to support the ruler, the noblemen and government officials. But much of the harvest was kept in a central storage place and then given out to the people as needed. This way a stable supply of food was available even when crops failed. The Inca society was rigidly structured under a god-like, all powerful ruler, called the Inca. Beneath the Inca were the royal family, several levels of nobility, priests, the administrators and government experts, and the large mass of common people - craftsmen, farmers and soldiers. People's lives were strictly controlled, but the government protected them and made sure that they were well fed and had what they needed to live and work. The Inca society was supported by their good agricultural methods. Potatoes and maize (corn) were their most important corps. The Incas had a variety of domesticated animals: llamas to transport goods, alpacas for wool, and dogs, guinea pigs and poultry. They manufactured ceramic pottery, clothing and blankets, metal ornaments, tools, and weapons. 4. Art, Architecture and Religion Although the Incas produced many ornaments and figurines of gold and silver, very few of these have remained. This is because the Spaniards, in their greed for precious metals, melted down the jewelry and statues to ship to Spain. The outstanding art of the Incas that remains are the ruins of magnificent temples and large cities they constructed, such as the city of Machu Picchu. The ruins of this large city are located on a high ridge in the Andes northwest of Cuzco. The buildings are constructed of massive blocks of white granite, carefully shaped and fitted together without mortar. Archaeologists are still trying to figure out how the Incas were able to transport stone blocks weighing 10-15 tons to the building site without using wheeled vehicles. Likewise, they do not know what kinds of tools and techniques they used to make the blocks fit together into perfect joints. Like Roman cities, Inca cities had elaborate aqueducts, or canals that carried water to the houses. The Inca religion centered on the worship of the sun. The ruler, or Inca, was worshipped as a god who was a descendent of the sun god. The capital city of Cuzco was considered to be the center of the universe, and one can still see the ruins there of a large temple dedicated to the sun. Like other cultures of Central America, the Incas developed a remarkably accurate calendar, based on the movement of the stars and planets. They planned religious festivals and the planting and harvesting of crops according to this calendar. In addition to the sun god-creator of the universe the Incas worshipped a large number of gods representing the weather, the earth, the sea and the moon. Ancestors were also worshipped as protective spirits who acted as links between the living Incas and the gods. The bodies of dead rulers were preserved as mummies and sealed in stone tombs, and people came there to pray. They brought sacrifices usually in the form of cloth, plants, and animals. Only in times of great disaster were humans sacrificed. The Incas believed in an afterlife with a heaven for the souls of virtuous people where they lived with the sun god himself; evil people went to a cold underworld with only stones for food. After the Spanish conquered the Inca empire, many of the people were converted to Catholicism. However, the Incas continued many of their original traditions and beliefs, such as the worship of ancestors. Today their religion is a mixture of Catholicism and traditional elements.

Crystal skulls

One of the most mysterious artifacts that has been discovered upon our planet are known as the Crystal Skulls. A Crystal Skull is simply defined as an ancient artifact discovered made from various type of quartz crystals that has the appearance of a human size (or larger) and shaped skull. Most of these ancient Crystal Skulls have been uncovered near or within ancient ruins located in Mexico or Central America, possibly linked to the Mesoamerican cultures of this region. However within recent years, crystal skulls are now surfacing or being reported in other parts of the world such as in South America, Europe and Asia.

The Crystal Skulls are considered to be one of the world greatest mysteries. Some of these artifacts have been researched by Hewlett Packard ( reported in Richard Garvin's book, "The Crystal Skull", 1973) and continue to baffle the modern scientific community. There have been a number of phenomena associated with the crystal skulls including:

Individuals receiving a healing in the presence

Psychics and sensitives channeling or receiving impressions

Holographic Images forming inside of the crystal skulls

A Powerful energy measured within or around the skulls when activated

Many believe that crystal is an inherently powerful substance, capable of transmitting and absorbing "vibrations" and acting as conduits of psychic energy. Such enthusiasts avoid the question of scientific explanation for this phenomenon by asserting that crystal vibrations cannot be detected or recorded.

These vibrations and psychic emanations are said to be particularly pronounced in crystal skulls. People who claim to be sensitive report powerful visions and sensations of well-being in the presence of the artifacts. At exhibitions and in owner's homes, the public is often permitted to have private meditations sessions with the skulls. Some are even able to commune with only a photograph or a plastic mold cast from a crystal skull.

The healing properties often associated with crystals have also been made in conjunction with crystal skulls. Visitors of the Mitchell-Hedges skull have reported subsequent healing experiences, and Joke Van Dietan credits a skull in her collection, the one called ET, with helping her fully recover from a brain tumor.

Another recurring claim about the crystal skulls is that they are repositories of hidden information of some kind. The idea is that the advanced race that created the skulls encoded them with vast quantities of data, whether a record of their lost people, prophecies of future events, or a complete history of Earth. The problem is figuring out how to unlock these secrets.

Some claim to "read" the skulls' information through simple meditation. Psychic visions come to them, or they even see images flickering inside the skull. A process called "activation" involves a group gathering around a skull and conducting a seance-style exploration. Using their collective energies to journey within the skull's spiritual dimensions, the activation team sometimes speak in tongues and share common visions.

There are other methods of decoding the skulls by physical manipulation. One recurring notion is that they were designed to reveal their secrets when light is shined on them in a particular way. While studying the Mitchell-Hedges skull at Hewlett-Packard, Frank Dorland discovered that its interior contained a well-formed prism and tunnels for the passage of light, and the eye sockets were perfectly placed concave lenses. When Dorland shone a beam of light up from beneath the skull, he observed that it lit up "like it was on fire." Dorland also reported that the skull sometimes spontaneously changed color, and that hallucinatory images and sounds emanated from inside it.

J.W. Voakes of Seattle claims to decipher meaning from crystal skulls by means of a process he terms "4th Dimensional Mirror Imaging." Using a graphics program on his personal computer, Voakes selects a small area of surface detail from a skull or other artifact, copies it, and pastes a reverse of the selection alongside the original, creating a new, symmetrical image. Voakes discerns forms such as faces and alien-type bodies amid the patterns he creates, and is convinced that they were placed there by whatever intelligence created the crystals.

It should be noted, though, that the human mind tends to impose order on any pattern that is random but symmetrical. Any two blobs and a line can become a face. Voakes could conceivably be onto something, but his findings are likely little more than a self-administered Rorschach test.

Researchers found that the skull had been carved against the natural axis of the crystal. Modern crystal sculptors always take into account the axis, or orientation of the crystal's molecular symmetry, because if they carve "against the grain," the piece is bound to shatter - even with the use of lasers and other high-tech cutting methods.
To compound the strangeness, HP could find no microscopic scratches on the crystal which would indicate it had been carved with metal instruments. Dorland's best hypothesis for the skull's construction is that it was roughly hewn out with diamonds, and then the detail work was meticulously done with a gentle solution of silicon sand and water. The exhausting job - assuming it could possibly be done in this way -- would have required man-hours adding up to 300 years to complete.
Under these circumstances, experts believe that successfully crafting a shape as complex as the Mitchell-Hedges skull is impossible; as one HP researcher is said to have remarked, "The damned thing simply shouldn't be."

The driest place on the earth

The Atacama desert is nestled along the coast of Chile, South America - right next to the Pacific Ocean - about the biggest body of water in the world. The Atacama Desert runs from the Pacific Ocean to the Andes mountains�about 160 kilometres�and extends 965 kilometres south from the border with Peru. Hardly anyone lives in this often chilly place; Much of the desert extends up into the Andes mountains and is very high in elevation. Unlike more familiar deserts, like the Sahara desert in Africa and the Mojave in California, the Atacama is actually a pretty cold place, with average daily temperatures ranging between 0�C and 25�C. The annual rainfall (or lack of it) defines a desert, but that doesn't mean that it never rains in Atacama. Every so often a warming effect over the Pacific Ocean around the equator changes the weather the world over and even places like the driest desert in the world can become doused with drenching storms.

The coldest place on the earth; Yakutia

What does the place with such a cosmic temperature look like? How do people and animals survive? What happens with equipment and machinery? Why does the river still run if it is -54�C and some times 65�C. It is worth seeing the place and being there to get all the answers.

Ocean planet in decline

Posted: 12 Nov. 2006

by Don Hinrichsen

Burgeoning human numbers and growing consumption per capita are putting intense pressure on ocean coastal areas, over-consuming ocean resources, and undermining the health of the oceans themselves.

Healthy oceans are essential to a healthy terrestrial environment. The earth's great sea is the heart of the hydrological cycle - nature's solar-driven water pump. About 430,000 cubic kilometres of water evaporate from the oceans every year. Of this amount, around 110,000 cubic kilometres fall as freshwater precipitation over land, replenishing surface and ground waters and eventually completing the cycle by returning to the sea.

� J.P. Nacivet/Planet Earth Pictures
The ocean is also the engine that drives the world's climate, storing huge quantities of solar energy in the process. The ocean absorbs and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Since this invisible gas is one of the main agents of climate change, the ocean is an important sink that helps to modify human impacts on global climate. Ocean currents, the blue planet's super highways, transfer enormous quantities of water and nutrients from one place to another. The Gulf Stream, for instance, pushes more water from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean across the Atlantic into northern Europe, than is carried by all the rivers on earth.

Population distribution

Human populations have a tremendous impact on the quality of coastal and oceanic environments. A full two-thirds of the world's population - 4 billion people - live within 400 kilometres of a seacoast. Just over half the world's population - around 3.2 billion people - occupy a coastal strip 200 kilometres wide (120 miles), representing only 10 per cent of the earth's land surface. With this population distribution, increasing human numbers and mounting development pressures are taking a grim toll on coastal and near-shore resources.

Of Asia�s total population of 3.8 billion, 60 per cent live within 400 kms of a coast. Roughly 1.5 billion live within 100 kms of the sea. The exceptions are India, Pakistan, and, of course, the land-locked countries of Central Asia. The population of Latin America and the Caribbean is even more clustered on the coasts. The region's coastal states have a total population of around 510 million (in 2001); a full three-quarters of them live within 200 kilometres of a coast.

Among continents, only in Africa do more people live in the interior than along or near ocean coasts. But even in Africa demographic patterns are shifting. Over the past two decades, for example, Africa's coastal cities, as centres of trade and commerce, have been growing in population by 4 per cent or more a year, as they attract people from the countryside. Cities such as Lagos, Mombassa, Dar es Salaam, Accra, Abidjan, and Dakar have seen their populations expand greatly from in-migration and local population growth.

Threatened resources

Over half of the world's coastlines have suffered from severe development pressures, according to a study by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in the mid-1990s. The WRI study used four key indicators to assess risk to coastal areas: cities and population density, major ports, road density, and pipeline density. According to these indicators, the coastlines of most developed countries - particularly Japan, Australia, the United States, Europe and the European part of Russia, were suffering from development pressures and loss of coastal resources. But developing countries fared little better - around virtually all urban areas, coasts were beset by a pattern of pollution and over-development.

Coastal wetlands. The world has lost half its coastal wetlands, including mangrove swamps and salt marshes. Over the past century mangrove forests have been decimated - 25 million hectares are estimated to have been destroyed or grossly degraded. In the Philippines, for instance, the mangrove area has been annihilated by development, dropping by 90 per cent - from one million hectares in 1960 to around 100,000 in 1998.

Mangrove wetlands provide a rich habitat for over 2,000 species of fish, shellfish, invertebrates and plants. Some 80 species of salt tolerant trees currently occupy about 182,000 square kilometres of intertidal, lagoonal and riverine flatlands throughout the world.

Seagrass beds, the underwater meadows of the ocean, have fared little better. Though no overall quantitative estimates of damage are available, these diverse ecosystems appear in retreat near virtually all inhabited coastal areas.

Coral reefs. Coral reefs, the rainforests of the sea, are also being destroyed in the name of development. Of the world's 600,000 square kilometres of reefs found in tropical and semi-tropical seas, scientists estimate that 70 per cent of them - some 400,000 square kilometres - could be lost within 40 years.

Soldier fish in coral reef, French Polynesia
� WWF/Y.Lefevre/Bios

Coral reefs are wonders of biological diversity, supporting upwards of one million species and providing humankind with many benefits. They buffer waves and protect shorelines from erosion; they help transfer nutrients from the land to the open ocean; they provide feeding, breeding and nursery areas for many commercially important species of fish and shellfish; and they offer scientists a pharmacopoeia of potential medicines. Yet, they are fast disappearing.

In 1997, a global effort to assess the status of coral resources was carried out by Reef Check, organized by Hong Kong University. The study used professional and recreational divers to chart the health of 300 reefs in 30 countries. According to the survey, less than one-third of all reefs had healthy, living coral cover, while two-thirds were seriously degraded. The Caribbean had the lowest rate of living coral, an average of just 22 per cent. Southeast Asia was second, with only 30 per cent of its coral reefs in good to excellent condition; coral reefs in good to excellent condition must have 50 per cent or more of their area in living coral.

Another study by WRI confirmed these findings, observing that the world's most degraded reefs are in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. In Southeast Asia, for example, one of the epicenters of coral biodiversity, more than 80 per cent of all reefs are at risk. In 2001 the Worldwatch Institute reported that over the decade of the 1990s, the percentage of the world's coral reefs suffering from severe damage increased from 10 per cent of the total to nearly 30 per cent.

The sea worst hit is the Caribbean. According to a team of British researchers from the University of East Anglia four-fifths of the coral on Caribbean reefs has disappeared in the past 25 years, a phenomenal rate of destruction. Their report, published in Science Magazine in 2003, cites over-fishing, rampant coastal development and pollution as the main reasons for the wholesale annihilation of reef ecosystems.

Coastal erosion. Human activities are eroding close to 70 per cent of the world's beaches at greater than natural rates. Coastlines in developing countries are suffering from serious erosion problems due to unplanned coastal construction, dredging, mining for sand, harvesting of coral reefs for building material and other activities. Erosion is particularly severe along the coasts of Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Gambia, Benin and Togo in West Africa. Hundreds of coastal villages have been moved inland as the sea advances. In the Niger River Delta, for instance, erosion claims 400 hectares of land a year and 40 per cent of the inhabited delta could be lost in three decades.

Collapsing fisheries

Coastal and ocean fisheries - the largest harvest of a wild food source on the planet - are in serious trouble. Commercial fishing fleets landed around 84 million metric tons of seafood in 1999, according to FAO. However, this is 9 per cent drop over the banner years of 1996 and 1997 when fleets landed over 86 million metric tons. Commercial fleets landed 92 million tons of fish, shellfish and marine plants in 2001, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This is an increase over 1999, when the world�s fleets hauled in 84 million tons. Most stocks remain fully exploited or over-exploited. FAO reports that 47 per cent of the world�s commercial fish stocks are fully exploited, 18 per cent are over-exploited, 9 per cent are depleted and 1 per cent are slowly recovering. Only one-quarter of stocks are considered under-exploited or moderately exploited.

Of the world's 15 major fishing regions, productivity has fallen over the past few years in all but four. Landings of the most valuable species of fish, including cod, tuna, and haddock, have dropped by one-quarter since 1970. In the four hardest hit regions - the northwest, the west-central and the southeast Atlantic, and the east-central Pacific - catches have plummeted by more than 30 per cent since 1989.

In the Black Sea over the 30-year period 1960-1990 the number of commercially valuable fish species plunged from 26 to 5. Catches of commercial fish fell from 1 million metric tons in 1982 to around 100,000 metric tons in 1992. In many areas the sea no longer has any exploitable marine life. The Black Sea is well on its way to becoming a "dead" sea in terms of biological diversity due to pollution spilled over the past four decades (see "Ocean Pollution," below). All waters below 150-200 meters are without oxygen, and only 10 per cent of the total volume of near-surface water has enough oxygen to sustain life higher than micro-organisms.

In Southeast Asia nearly all waters within 15 kilometres of land are considered over-fished, according to Ed Gomez, Director of the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines in Metro Manila. Trawlers, the strip miners of the sea, often precipitate the collapse of fish stocks from years of over-harvesting. But it is small-scale fishers and their families who often pay the price and are forced to use illegal and destructive fishing gear, such as poisons, dynamite and fine mesh nets to put food on the table.

Disappearance of the world's marine catch of fish and shellfish has ominous implications for the food supply of the nearly 1 billion people who depend largely on the sea for sustenance. Seafood provides close to 20 per cent of the world's total food supply. In Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, the sea provides up to 100 per cent of all animal protein in daily diets.

The world's fishing fleets discard at least 20 million metric tons of fish and shellfish every year as by-catch from their operations. Most of the waste is due to trawlers which harvest enormous quantities of marine life in their relentless search for squid, shrimp or bottom dwelling fish (such as halibut, sole or flounder). This loss of potential protein (and income) amounts to one-quarter of the world's annual take from the seas. Losses from discards in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska alone have been estimated at around $250 million a year.

Can aquaculture substitute for the declining ocean fish catch? The answer is uncertain. In 2001, FAO reported that 46 million tons of fish, shellfish and seaweeds were farmed (both marine and freshwater), representing a steady increase since 1994 when 21 million tons were farmed. China accounts for the largest share of farmed marine and freshwater species, with 71 per cent of the total volume and close to 50 per cent of the total value. Aquaculture and mariculture are now worth about $61 billion a year, compared to the value of capture fisheries, which in 2001 was estimated at $81 billion.

Experts worry that aquaculture production, if left to develop unregulated, will end up destroying coastal wetlands and mangrove swamps necessary as breeding and nursery areas for wild stocks and also the source of fry for aquaculture operations. Furthermore, since much of the production from aquaculture and mariculture is exported, this source of food does not contribute to the diets of local people and is viewed by some as a �protein drain from South to North�.

Ocean pollution

Rapidly expanding populations and the growth of cities along coastlines has contributed to a rising tide of pollution in nearly all of the world's seas. Between 80 per cent and 90 per cent of all commercial fish are caught within 320 kilometres of land, and many within 50 kilometres. Thus pollution, mostly from land-based sources, is a contributing factor in falling catches.

Litter on beach, Venezuela
� WWF/Y.Lefevre/Bios

Coastal urban areas dump increasing loads of toxic wastes into the sea. In fact, waters around many coastal cities have turned into virtual cesspools, so thick with pollution that virtually no marine life can survive. Consider the following:

Despite over two decades of cleanup efforts, the Mediterranean Sea is on the receiving end of between 30 and 50 million metric tons of untreated or partially treated sewage every year;
The Lagoon of Iddo in Lagos, Nigeria, gets 60 million litres of raw sewage a year, along with vast quantities of industrial waste;
Calcutta and Bombay, India, respectively, dump 400 million metric tons and 365 million metric tons of raw sewage and other municipal wastes into coastal waters every year;
Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, empties 175 million metric tons of untreated sewage and industrial filth into the Arabian Sea every year;
Chinese cities and towns along the Yellow Sea discharge 50-60 million metric tons of untreated or partially treated municipal wastes every day into coastal waters;
The Bays of Valparaiso and Concepcion, Chile receive a combined total of 244 million metric tons of untreated effluents a year, mostly from copper mines, pulp and paper mills, fish processing plants and oil refineries;
In 2004, researchers identified 146 �dead zones� around the world�s coastlines, areas where the dissolved oxygen levels are so low that no marine life can be sustained. Moreover, these biologically dead areas are expanding due mainly to high nutrient pollution levels brought in by rivers and streams and washed off coastal land. Since the 1960s, the number of dead zones has doubled every decade. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, now the world�s second largest, covers 21,000 square kilometers, an area the size of New Jersey. The world�s largest dead zone is in the Baltic Sea, covering some 70,000 square kilometers of seabed.

Ocean currents transport pollutants into the remotest corners of the world's seas. No place in the world ocean is immune from the depredations of humanity. Toxic chemicals, such as PCBs and DDT, for instance, have turned up in the fatty tissues and blubber of seals in the Arctic and penguins in the Antarctic, thousands of kilometres from population centres (see: Poisoning the purity of the Arctic). Endangered beluga whales found in the mouth of Canada's St. Lawrence River have such high levels of PCBs in their blubber that under Canadian law they qualify as "toxic waste dumps".

Sustainable use

Coastal and ocean areas can be managed sustainably for the benefit of current and future generations, but only if concerted efforts can be made by national governments and the international community, acting together and working toward a common set of objectives.

Offshore oil platform, Texas
� Denis-Huot/WWF/BIOS
At present government inaction toward ocean management and inability to enforce existing coastal regulations make problems of overuse, pollution, and resource degradation worse. Around the world, 177 nations have coastlines but only about 92 have developed coastal and near-shore management plans. While this number is nearly twice that in 1992, most countries have yet to move from planning to implementation.

Why is management of coastal and ocean resources so difficult? Coastal areas contain many different jurisdictions - local, regional and national - and involve different interests. In Brazil, for instance, coastal zone planners have to consult 20 levels of government. In the United Kingdom, 48 sub-national units of government, from Parliament to town councils, have authority to create an autonomous or semi-autonomous coastal management strategy. Such fragmentation of responsibility makes effective planning and programme coordination an enormous challenge.

Nevertheless, there are compelling economic reasons to manage coastal and ocean waters better. Ocean ecosystems provide goods and services worth at least $21 trillion a year, over half of this from coastal ecosystems. The haul of seafood alone is valued at over $80 billion a year (as of 2001) and provides direct employment to some 200 million small-scale and commercial fishers. In addition, as many as half a billion people draw their livelihoods indirectly from the sea: processors, packers, shippers, and distributors of seafood; shipbuilders and outfitters; and those working in marine-based tourism and the recreational fishing industry, among others.

There are also vital reasons relating to the ecological value of oceans. For example, coral reefs have been valued at $47,000 per square foot just for their shore protection functions alone. In Puget Sound, Washington, just one-third of a hectare of eelgrass is valued at over $400,000 annually in energy derived and nutrition generated for oyster culture, fisheries, and waterfowl.

A blueprint. How can we manage coastal and ocean resources better? The blueprint for a sustainable management system has been outlined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in 1998. The WWF/IUCN approach calls for a six-part strategy, as follows:

All measures and practices to conserve marine biodiversity and ecological processes must take human needs into account;
The concept of stewardship must be fostered through education and awareness creation;
Communities must be empowered to protect and manage their marine and coastal resources;
Social and economic incentives for conservation and sustainable use must be created;
The inter-connectedness of the world ocean must be recognised through appropriate transboundary and international mechanisms;
The precautionary principle must be applied to an ecosystem-based approach to management.

The foundation for sustainable management has already been put in place with the coming into force of the Law of the Sea Convention in 1994. It affords all states the right to manage marine resources within their 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). The problem is most developing countries do not have the money or the manpower to enforce regulations over such a vast expanse of sea. Small islands in the South Pacific, for example, are dwarfed by their EEZs, which are often 1,000 times larger than the islands which have to manage them.

A number of encouraging initiatives have been launched, but most are difficult to enforce. Two stand out: The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the UN Agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, both launched in 1995. The Code of Conduct was adopted by 170 nations, but did not come into force until April 2002. As of January 2004, 30 nations had ratified it, including the US and the EU. The UN Agreement on Fish Stocks entered into force in December 2001, when Malta ratified it, bringing the total number of ratifications to 30.

In the final analysis, governments must take the lead in managing their own waters, cooperating as much as possible with neighbouring states through UN programmes such as the Regional Seas initiatives of UNEP and other international bodies. It is not too late to start preserving the ultimate source of all life on the "blue planet".

This overview is written by Don Hinrichsen, a Contributing Editor to peopleandplanet.net and author of Coastal Waters of the World, Island Press, Washington DC, $60 hb. �

Boreal Forests, Canada

In the far-north latitudes, just below the treeless tundra of the polar region, a forest of evergreen trees encircles the earth. This is the boreal forest, and it is the biggest terrestrial ecosystem in the world. It is also largely intact, free of roads and industrial development -- especially in Canada, where more than 1.3 billion pristine acres are found. The global boreal forests are larger than even the Amazon rainforest and temperature reaches -40 F . Like the Amazon, the boreal forest is of critical importance to all living things. Its trees and peatlands comprise one of the world's largest "carbon reservoirs"; carbon stored in this way is carbon not released into the atmosphere, where it would trap heat and accelerate global warming. Its wetlands filter millions of gallons of water each day. And as a vast and intact forest ecosystem, it still supports a natural food web, complete with large carnivores like bears, wolves and lynx along with thousands of other species of plants, mammals, birds and insects. The boreal forest is also home to hundreds of First Nations communities, many of which rely on fishing, hunting and trapping for their livelihoods. Despite its global significance, Canada's boreal forest is in great danger today. Large industries -- timber, mining, oil, gas, and hydropower companies -- are eyeing it for development, and less than 8 percent of the boreal forest is protected from large-scale industrial development. NRDC is partnering with many other environmental groups and with First Nations to forge lasting agreements that will ensure the survival of Canada's boreal forest -- to stay abreast of our work in the boreal, bookmark this page and check back. And to learn when you can take online action to help protect the boreal, subscribe to Earth Action,