XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Sunday 27 March 2011

British Columbia bottled water company received a massive order from Japan after Tokyo’s water supply was contaminated -

British Columbia bottled water company received a massive order from Japan after Tokyo’s water supply was contaminated - 




A British Columbia bottled water company has received a massive order from Japan after a government warning that Tokyo’s water supply was contaminated with radioactive materials.
As of Friday, Polaris Water, based in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, B.C., had been contracted by a Japanese distributor to ship two million 1.5-litre bottles of water by the end of April, spokesman Chris Dagenais said.
He said that’s 10 times more than what the company usually ships in April. The extra workload has meant employees are putting in overtime to meet the demand.
Tokyo’s local government issued a warning Wednesday after officials discovered slightly elevated levels of radioactive iodine in the city’s water. The iodine leaked into the water after Japan’s nuclear reactors were damaged following the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami March 11.
Parents were advised not to give tap water to babies, who are the most vulnerable to iodine. But by Friday, Japanese officials had said the radioactive levels in the water had dropped off and it was safe to drink.
Ordinarily at this time, Polaris Water would send about 15 shipping containers of water to Japan. Now they are trying to fill 150 containers with bottles of their Whistler Water Co. brand, Mr. Dagenais said.
“There’s no end in sight. It looks like our entire April schedule is dedicated to producing product for Japan,” he said.
“It’s meant multiple shifts, longer days and a good deal of overtime. But what’s really heartening is that some of the staff have volunteered their time — that was really inspiring.”
He said the company will donate two container loads out of 100 to the region.
The first shipment is due to arrive in Japan by freighter on April 4, followed by one shipment per week for the month.
“We’ll be shipping as much water as we possibly can out of that facility.”
Mr. Dagenais said that despite Japanese authorities’ attempt to ease fears, there has still been a run a water.
“Our distributor in Tokyo has been leveraged by various (non-government organizations)and government groups in Japan to supply water to the people, so as their supplier, we’re now at a bit of a manic pace to do what we can.”
Meanwhile, a Richmond, B.C., freight company is calling on more beverage companies to send water to help Japan. Canaan Transport Co. has already shipped seven containers of bottled water to the earthquake and tsunami ravaged country.
Tiffany Vandenberghe, a spokeswoman for Canaan, said they have a few containers left to donate.
Vandenberghe said the company has several bottled water suppliers volunteering to donate their water.
Canada has joined several other countries in imposing new restrictions on foods from Japan. Milk, fruit and vegetables from the area will require documents verifying their safety before they can be allowed into Canada, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Microsoft switches off privacy for Hotmail users in war-torn and repressive states -

Microsoft switches off privacy for Hotmail users in war-torn and repressive states -


For reasons unknown, Microsoft has changed the settings on Hotmail to disable HTTPS for users in several countries including Bahrain, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Hotmail users in those countries can now be readily spied upon by ISPs and their governments. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has some good perspective:
Microsoft debuted the always-use-HTTPS feature for Hotmail in December of 2010, in order to give users the option of always encrypting their webmail traffic and protecting their sensitive communications from malicious hackers using tools such as Firesheep, and hostile governments eavesdropping on journalists and activists. For Microsoft to take such an enormous step backwards-- undermining the security of Hotmail users in countries where freedom of expression is under attack and secure communication is especially important--is deeply disturbing. We hope that this counterproductive and potentially dangerous move is merely an error that Microsoft will swiftly correct.The good news is that the fix is very easy. Hotmail users in the affected countries can turn the always-use-HTTPS feature back on by changing the country in their profile to any of the countries in which this feature has not been disabled, such as the United States, Germany, France, Israel, or Turkey. Hotmail users who browse the web with Firefox may force the use of HTTPS by default--while using any Hotmail location setting--by installing the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox plug-in.

Runaway Poisonous Snake at New York's Bronx Zoo - 20-inch-long poisonous Egyptian cobra -

Runaway Poisonous Snake at New York's Bronx Zoo - 20-inch-long poisonous Egyptian cobra -


Officials have closed the Reptile House at New York's Bronx Zoo after a poisonous Egyptian cobra disappeared from an enclosure that's separate from the animal exhibits.
Zoo officials say the building was immediately closed and secured after staff learned that the adolescent snake was missing Friday afternoon.
The zoo released a statement Saturday saying it's confident the 20-inch-long snake is in an area of the building that's not accessible to the public. Snakes usually seek closed-in spaces and aren't comfortable in open areas.
Officials say they are informing the public out of an "abundance of caution and will continue to take whatever steps necessary to ensure public safety."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/27/runaway-poisonous-snake-forces-zoo-shut-reptile-house/#ixzz1HoxPLf7R