For an art exhibit at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, Oxfam, an international relief and development organization that fights poverty, hunger, and injustice, asked young people from developing countries to draw pictures showing the effect of climate change on their communities. This drawing by Rokaiya Sultans of Bangladesh looks at the effects of flooding.

Check out the slide show of the drawings. And by visiting OxFam’s Act Now page

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Mehedi Hasan, a field investigator for the Washington D.C.-based Worker Rights Consortium, went to Bangladesh to investigate some of the country’s 3,000 garment factories and to advocate for the rights of its more than 2 million workers, mostly women, who make the clothing we wear. Today, we must investigate the conditions under which Hasan is held, and we must protect his rights. Hasan, was arrested on Thursday 24th January by the Bangladesh security forces accused of instigating garment workers. He has not been allowed to see his family since. The military-backed interim government has been harassing and cracking down on workers and organizers. Unions are illegal, the security forces operate under emergency rules and most civil rights remain suspended. Less than 5% of the Bangladesh garment industry complies with international labour standards. If you see an “I love my Wal-Mart” shirt, it may have been made by children aged 10 to 13 making less than 10¢ an hour. Hasan is only the latest victim. So and demand the immediate release of Mehedi Hasan.

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Extreme rain, snow and storms are hitting hard around the world including Golan Heights, Indianapolis, China, Turkey, Lebanon, and Indiana. Someone must have left the weather machine unattended for an extended potty break OR could it be the effects of global warming on erratic weather patterns? The BBC has posted briefings and accompanying images on the effects of these weather patterns in various countries, which can be viewed here. You can also by urging your senators to strengthen this landmark global warming bill.

I just wrote on Burma but wanted to post this video from Michael Stipe about Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently imprisoned.

and watch more @ Witness

A blogger and member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy who wrote about the lack of free expression in Burma (Myanmar technically) has been arrested. Nay Myo Latt owns three Internet Cafes and recently commented on the suppression of freedom following the demonstrations this fall according to a release from Reporters Without Borders:

Myanmar authorities have stepped up their surveillance of the Internet since the beginning of the month, pressuring Internet cafe owners to register personal details of all users and to program screen captures every five minutes on each computer, the release said.

This data apparently is sent to the Ministry of Communications, it said.

The only blog platform that had been accessible within Myanmar, the Google-owned Blogger, has been blocked by the regime since Jan. 23, preventing bloggers from posting entries unless they use proxies or other ways to get around censorship, the group said.

”This blockage is one of the ways used by the government to reduce Burmese citizens to silence.

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The Egyptian government has banned several Western secular books from the 40th Cairo International Book Fair, which is the largest in the Arab world and will attract over two million people. Banned authors include Milan Kundera and Mohamed Choukri. Egyptian authorities haven’t explained why the books were confiscated, nor were the publishers informed or the books returned, said Rana Idriss, director of Dar al-Adab, a Lebanese publishing house. Many of the banned works discuss controversial topics such as gender roles, homosexuality, and drug use.

Sadly, book banning happens in the good ol’ US of A too. Stop this assault on intellectual freedom and by learning about the American Library Association Book Banning Week, and also about what you can do to further library advocacy.

Fulton Hanson of Minnesota is making it his life’s work to get Americans to reduce their driving speed. As the Duluth News Tribune reports:

Hanson has devoted much of his life, and $7,000 of his own money, to promote a novel concept that he says could cut energy use, help curb global warming, make the U.S. safer and less reliant on foreign oil and cut pollution. All while saving drivers hundreds of dollars per year.

The concept? Slow down.

According to Hanson–and U.S. Department of Energy mileage experts–drivers could save 10 percent or more in fuel use and costs simply by driving at the speed limit or a bit below, along with a corresponding cut in greenhouse gasses.

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There are two big problems with plastic; it wastes a lot of non-renewable resources to make it, and then, when we throw it “away”, it doesn’t really go anywhere, because it takes, like, 10,000 years to degrade.

But a “green” chemist at the University of Prince Edward Island and his research team are working on a new kind of plastic, one that’s made from biodegradable, renewable agricutural by-products, as the Guardian reports. Looks like the land of Anne of Green Gables is getting even greener.

Learn more about how scientists are making plastic out of plants at smithsonianmag.com.

The Washington Post’s 2005 Neologism contest results are old news, 3 years old, to be precise. But since I just had them forwarded to me by a friend, they are news to me. And thanks to the neologists, I have been able to diagnose a timeless problem I have confronted as a satirical comic and blogger. (I know, get over myself, it’s you, Katie, not your audience, or a “problem,” who needs a diagnosis etc., but whatever. And NO I’m not comparing myself to Steven Colbert or Lenny Bruce, they’re just amazing satirists. So shut up!) The word is

Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

I feel so validated, knowing there is a name to describe the sarcasm I have experienced. This neologism is so dead-on, I’ve invented my own: neologosis: a (n) diagnosis made by a neologism. Below are instances of sarcasm, when my satire was misunderstood. Here’s what the sarcastic critics are saying:

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The Fed announced that it would be cutting interest rates again, to which I thought…err….good? I think? I took macroeconomics in college a loooong time ago, and although I maintain a loose grasp of the general concept, I’m still a little fuzzy on the practical, every day individual effects of the rate cuts - and I know I’m not alone. Let’s face it, economics is confusing. Hopefully this brief breakdown of the interest rate cuts, provided by CNN, will help us all to understand a little better how the rate break will affect the average consumer:

Why did they do it?

People will be able to conduct business easier, and the economy will “theoretically” expand. Lower rates = cheaper loans and more people will be able to borrow money.

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