Planet could be 'unrecognizable' by 2050, experts say

A growing, more affluent population competing for ever scarcer resources could make for an "unrecognizable" world by 2050, researchers warned at a major US science conference Sunday. The United Nations has predicted the global population will reach seven billion this year, and climb to nine billion by 2050, "with almost all of the growth occurring in poor countries, particularly Africa and South Asia," said John Bongaarts of the non-profit Population Council. To feed all those mouths, "we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000," said Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). "By 2050...

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Posted in: Science

Đề nghị dừng siêu dự án 250 tỷ USD

Lãnh đạo tỉnh Phú Yên vừa gửi văn bản đến Chính phủ, đề nghị cho phép dừng dự án đặc khu kinh tế có tổng vốn đầu tư 250 tỷ USD của tập đoàn Sama Dubai (Các tiểu vương quốc Ả Rập thống nhất) vì chậm triển khai. Phó Bí thư Tỉnh ủy, Chủ tịch UBND tỉnh Phú Yên Phạm Đình Cự cho biết thông tin này vào hôm 24/2. Theo ông Cự, cơ sở để tỉnh đề nghị Chính phủ cho dừng dự án là vì tập đoàn Sama Dubai chịu thiệt hại do suy thoái kinh tế nên nhiều năm qua không triển khai dự án. Đây được xem là siêu dự án, còn gọi là đặc khu kinh tế với tổng vốn đầu tư ban đầu là 250 tỷ USD (gấp 13 lần so với thu hút FDI của cả nước năm 2010) và khả năng được nâng lên gấp đôi. Quy mô lên đến 300.000 ha (3.000 km2), tương đương 60% diện tích toàn tỉnh Phú...

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Posted in: Business

Central bank denies rumors about VND1 mln note

The State Bank of Vietnam Monday denied a rumor that a new VND1 million banknote would soon be released. The rumor of the new bank note, spurred by fears of further inflation, appeared on a number of online forums, the bank said on its website. Bank officials added that it had not developed a formal policy on the new bill and dismissed the rumors as groundless. Currently, the largest denomination of Vietnam’s monetary system is the VND500,000 note, issued in 2003. This is not the first time Vietnam has had such a rumor. In December 2009, the country’s financial market was roiled by rumors that the central bank planned to issue VND1 million note. The bank promptly denied the rumors. Inflation quickened...

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Posted in: Business

Vietnam PM approves plan for tighter policy to fight prices

Vietnam will restrain lending growth and narrow the budget deficit as Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung seeks to curb inflation and revive investor confidence in an economy that has devalued its currency four times in 15 months. Dung cut the credit-growth target to below 20 percent from 23 percent for 2011, according to a resolution approved by the prime minister, which was presented by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung to government and central bank officials at a meeting in Hanoi on Thursday. He told ministries to narrow the budget deficit to less than 5 percent of gross domestic product this year and ordered a “cautious and tight” monetary policy. The country’s benchmark stock index has slid...

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Posted in: Society

Word of the Day for Friday, February 25, 2011

lexicography \lek-suh-KAH-gruh-fee\, noun: 1. The writing or compiling of dictionaries; the editing or making of dictionaries.2. The principles and practices applied to writing dictionaries. Dictionary of American Regional English, Volume I heroically preserves our rapidly disappearing folk expressions, and many of the rich, salty words and phrases found in its 904 pages could encourage a taste for lexicography.-- Shirley Horner, review of "Dictionary of American Regional English", New York Times, December 8, 1985 Jim is a dictionary writer by trade, one of those sedentary wordsmiths who spend their lives in the library and retire with watery eyes and schoolteacher salaries--except he found a way to abandon lexicography and make a windfall fortune in the Internet economy.-- Christopher...

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Posted in: Learning English

Moammar Gadhafi: The Making of a Libyan Strongman

Link for listening"download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link)This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.Moammar Gadhafi came to power in Libya on September first, nineteen sixty-nine. He led a military overthrow while King Idris was away. Early relations with the United States were generally good, says Bruce St John, the author of seven books on Libya.BRUCE ST JOHN: “In the early years, he was very much focused on Arab nationalism, Arab unity, Arab socialism. And in fact, the United States government in the first two or three years -- maybe even until nineteen seventy-four -- there were people in the United States government who thought we could work with the man and work with his regime. It was only later that he began to employ...

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Posted in: Learning English

This Year's Oscar Choices: From 'True Grit' to True Stories

download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link)STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. Each year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California. The awards are called Oscars. They are the American film industry’s top honors. This year’s awards ceremony will be held next Sunday. Today we tell about the movies nominated for best picture. We also hear what some local moviegoers have to say about them. (MUSIC) STEVE EMBER: This year marks the eighty-third Academy Awards. Nominees and other members of the film industry will gather for the awards ceremony at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood on February twenty-seventh. About six thousand members...

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Posted in: Learning English

Old Folk Remedy Revived: How Tansy May Be a Treatment for Herpes

ScienceDaily (Feb. 23, 2011) — For centuries, tansy has been used as a folk remedy, but now scientists from Britain and Spain believe the plant may have medical benefits after all, as a treatment for herpes. The team's findings, published in Phytotherapy Research, are the result of joint work between two teams to established scientific evidence for traditional medicines. Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare, is a flowering plant found across mainland Europe and Asia. From the Middle Ages onwards the plant, whose folk names include Golden Buttons and Mugwort, has been used as a remedy for various conditions, from fevers to rheumatism. However, it's supposed medical benefits have always been questioned. "Our research focused on the anti-viral properties of tansy, especially...

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Posted in: Science

Gucci and Richmond: modern dandy meets party girl

©AFP / Christophe Simon Models display creations as part of Gucci Fall-Winter 2011-2012 ready-to-wear collection during the Women's fashion week in Milan. Models for Gucci MILAN (AFP) - Gucci's brightly-coloured birds of prey stalked down the catwalk Wednesday as Milan's Fashion Week got into full swing. Emerald green and teal feathers adorned violet hats worn rakishly over 1970s-style fur stoles in Gucci designer Frida Giannini's autumn-winter creations. The look was accompanied by full-sleeved dresses pulled in with a sliver of a belt at the waist or flared trousers. "The collection captures a contemporary female dandy who fuses glamour and seduction," Giannini told buyurs and guests. "She is a polished woman with a...

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Posted in: Experimental Society

Bruce Lee - Be Like Water

Notes:Bruce Lee (Lý Tiểu Long) is explaining an important concept of Taoism: If you resist life, life will crash you because life is always bigger than you. But if you flow with life you will always find a way through it. You will always go over the obstacles, like a river going through hills and mountains. Below is the beginning of this conversation:"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves."This is what it is, ok? I said: Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. Now, you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes...

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Posted in: Learning English

Obama sends U.S. disaster response team to New Zealand

By the CNN Wire Staff New Zealand has the "enduring friendship and support of many partners around the world," President Obama says.Washington (CNN) -- The United States is sending a disaster assistance group that includes an urban search-and-rescue team to New Zealand to help recovery efforts after the Christchurch earthquake, President Barack Obama announced Tuesday. In a White House statement, Obama offered "our deepest condolences" to the people of New Zealand and the families and friends of earthquake victims. "To assist in the rescue and recovery efforts, we have agreed to deploy a U.S. Agency for International Development Disaster Assistance Response Team, including an Urban Search and Rescue Team,...

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Posted in: Learning English