12/31/10
BITTER TEA
Growers in tropical Assam state, India's main tea growing region, say rising temperatures have led not only to a drop in production but to subtle, unwelcome changes in the flavor of their brews.
The area in northeastern India is the source of some of the finest black and British-style teas. Assam teas are notable for their heartiness, strength and body, and are often sold as "breakfast" teas.
Tea growers want the Indian government to fund studies to examine the flavor fallout from climate change.
Assam produces nearly 55 percent of the tea crop in India, a nation that accounts for 31 percent of global tea production. But the region's tea production has dipped significantly, and plantation owners fear it will drop further as temperatures rise and rainfall patterns change.
Assam produced 564,000 tons of tea in 2007, but slipped to 487,000 tons in 2009. The 2010 crop is estimated to be about 460,000 tons, said Dhiraj Kakaty, who heads the Assam Branch Indian Tea Association, an umbrella group of some 400 tea plantations.
The drop in production has squeezed consumers. Prices have gone up about 10 percent over the past year.
Mridul Hazarika, director of the Tea Research Association, one of the world's largest tea research centers, blames climate change for Assam's shortfall. He said the region's temperatures have risen 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last eight decades.
Scientists at the Tea Research Association are analyzing temperature statistics to determine links between temperature rise, consequent fluctuations in rainfall and their effect on tea yields.
"Days with sunshine were far fewer during the (monsoon) rains this year," Kakaty said, "leading to a shortfall in production and damp weather unfavorable for tea."
Dampness also aggravates bug attacks on the tea crop. Kakaty said a pest called the tea mosquito bug thrives in such weather and attacks fresh shoots of the tea bush. Restrictions on pesticide use because of environmental concerns have added to planters' woes.
The tea industry employs about 3 million people across India. Most live just a few steps above the poverty line.
They are not the only farmers in India suffering because of the weather. Warmer temperatures have cut sharply into wheat farmers' yield in northern India – their crops are maturing too quickly.
Nor are tea growers alone in their concern about how the climate is changing the taste of their product. French vintners, for instance, have seen the taste and alcohol content change for some wines, and are worried they could see more competition as climate change makes areas of northern Europe friendlier to wine-growing.
The U.N. science network foresees temperatures rising up to 6.4 degrees Celsius (11.5 degrees F) by 2100. NASA reported earlier this month that the January-November 2010 period was the warmest globally in the 131-year record. U.N. experts say countries' current voluntary pledges on emissions cuts will not suffice to keep the temperature rise in check.
The United States has long refused to join the rest of the industrialized world in the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 adjunct to the climate treaty that mandated modest emissions reductions by richer nations. The U.S. has said it would hurt their economy and exempt emerging economies such as China and India.
READ MORE-
12/30/10
THE NEOGAY
my biggest fears come true- the face of the NEOGAY
" i fear i will become a libertine living in a calvinistic society" - armisted maupin- tales of the city
" i fear i will become a libertine living in a calvinistic society" - armisted maupin- tales of the city
MONSTER
KANYE WEST-JAY-Z- NICKI MINAJ- RICK ROSS- BON IVER
this is the general version.. i'm sure the director's cut, uncensored versions will follow soon...
HANDBOOK
handbook is an original zine created by photographer-
Darren Ankenbauer- from san francisco.
Handbook is a 44 page black & white alternative quarterly featuring three or so sexy nude guys per issue, for your enjoyment. Handbook is artistically raw, editorially informal and historically black & white
available in los angeles exclusively @ ANTEBELLUM
for more info- antebellum@earthlink.net
here's a sneak preview of the april 2011 issue of handbook~
GAS MASK FETISH
this fetish became popular in WW1, there is a scene from gods & monsters that addresses this.
this fetish became popular in WW1, there is a scene from gods & monsters that addresses this.
this fetish became popular in WW1, there is a scene from gods & monsters that addresses this.
12/28/10
SUMMER/WINTER ROMANCE
do they work? check it out-
BAPTISE GIABICONI, (born November 9, 1989) is a French male model from Marseilles, France. He is currently the male face of Chanel, Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld.
In 2008, Giabiconi signed with DNA Model Management New York.
In the same year Karl Lagerfeld took Giabiconi as his lover, replacing Brad Kroenig. He has since become the male face of Chanel.
He has also appeared in editorials for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Numero Homme, V Man, Marie Claire, Purple, Giorgio Armani and L'Officiel Hommes.
In spring 2010, he was photographed for the Roberto Cavalli campaign, alongside Kate Moss and became the face of Coca Cola Light.
He is currently the most successful male model in the world on models.com list of the Top 50 international male models.
In 2009, supermodel Naomi Campbell met Giabiconi in Moscow and told him, “It’s not right: We all have defects. You have none.”
In an interview with Karl Lagerfeld described Giabiconi as “a boy version of Gisele Bundchen: skinny, skinny but with an athletic body — good for clothes and great with no clothes.”
BAPTISE GIABICONI, (born November 9, 1989) is a French male model from Marseilles, France. He is currently the male face of Chanel, Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld.
In 2008, Giabiconi signed with DNA Model Management New York.
In the same year Karl Lagerfeld took Giabiconi as his lover, replacing Brad Kroenig. He has since become the male face of Chanel.
He has also appeared in editorials for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Numero Homme, V Man, Marie Claire, Purple, Giorgio Armani and L'Officiel Hommes.
In spring 2010, he was photographed for the Roberto Cavalli campaign, alongside Kate Moss and became the face of Coca Cola Light.
He is currently the most successful male model in the world on models.com list of the Top 50 international male models.
In 2009, supermodel Naomi Campbell met Giabiconi in Moscow and told him, “It’s not right: We all have defects. You have none.”
In an interview with Karl Lagerfeld described Giabiconi as “a boy version of Gisele Bundchen: skinny, skinny but with an athletic body — good for clothes and great with no clothes.”
12/27/10
MEMORIES OF AN AMERICAN RACIST
GEORGE WALLACE, (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987.
On 13 January 1972, GEORGE WALLACE declared himself a candidate, entering the field with George McGovern, Hubert Humphrey, and nine other Democratic opponents. In Florida's primary, Wallace carried every county to win 42 percent of the vote. When running, Wallace claimed he was no longer for segregation, and had always been a moderate. Though no longer in favor of segregation, Wallace was opposed to desegregation busing during his campaign, a position Nixon would adopt early on as President.
Wallace was shot five times by Arthur Bremer while campaigning in Laurel, Maryland, on May 15, 1972, at a time when he was receiving high ratings in the opinion polls. Bremer was seen at a Wallace rally in Wheaton, Maryland, earlier that day and two days earlier at a rally in Dearborn, Michigan. As one of the bullets lodged in Wallace's spinal column, Wallace was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Bremer's diary, An Assassin's Diary, published after his arrest shows the assassination attempt was motivated by a desire for fame, not by politics, and that President Nixon had been an earlier target.
Bremer was sentenced to sixty-three years in prison on August 4, 1972, later reduced to fifty-three years two months later. Bremer served thirty-five years and was released on parole on November 9, 2007. Wallace forgave Bremer 23 years later.
Bremer's actions inspired the screenplay (1972) for the 1976 movie Taxi Driver which in turn inspired the assassination attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. in 1981.
Following the assassination attempt, Wallace was visited at the hospital by Democratic Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, a representative from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn who at the time was the nation's only African American female member of Congress. Despite their ideological differences and the opposition of Chisholm's constituents, Chisholm visited Wallace as she felt it was the humane thing to do.
Wallace announced that he was a born-again Christian in the late 1970s, and apologized to black civil rights leaders for his earlier segregationist views. He said that while he had once sought power and glory, he realized he needed to seek love and forgiveness.
In 1979, as blacks began voting in large numbers in Alabama, Wallace said of his stand in the schoolhouse door: "I was wrong. Those days are over and they ought to be over."
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