Tag Archives: world

Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Severely Impairs Reproduction in Atlantic Croaker, Researchers Find

AUSTIN, Texas — Atlantic croaker living in the large Gulf of Mexico “Dead Zone” exhibit severe reproductive impairment with potential long-term impacts on the fish’s population abundance, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin’s Marine Science Institute have found.

Males and females were found to produce dramatically fewer sperm and eggs. In addition, females in the hypoxic Dead Zone waters were masculinized — some 20 percent actually produced sperm in their ovaries. The sex ratio was also heavily skewed toward males in the hypoxic area. (more…)

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Asia Arms Itself to the Teeth

India became the world’s largest importer of arms during 2006-2010, a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said. The share of India’s world arms shipments made up nine percent. China’s share was evaluated at six percent. The list of other active arms importers includes South Korea (6%) and Pakistan (5%). The largest exporters of arms in the world are the USA, Russia and Germany.

According to SIPRI experts, Russia remains the primary supplier of arms and military hardware to India. Russia’s share in arms transfers to India during the recent five years was evaluated at 82 percent. (more…)

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WaterWheel Will Bring Clean Water to a Thirsty World

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Cynthia Koenig knows that by reinventing the wheel she could change the world. In a few months, she hopes to make a difference in India.

Koenig, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, created the WaterWheel, a 20-gallon rolling water barrel and Wello, the business that distributes it in developing countries, where clean water is scarce. (more…)

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China Becomes World’s Largest Producer of Gold

In 2010, China mined the record amount of gold in the world. The production volume of nonferrous metals in China amounted to 340.88 tons, which is 8.57% higher than a year earlier, and continues to grow. In recent years, China has consistently increased the amount of its gold reserves. Nevertheless, experts believe that China has a long way to go to reach the level of the world leading economies.

According to the China Gold Association, in 2007 China ranked first in terms of gold mining. It outran South Africa and is holding this position to this day. Starting 2004, the volume of production of the precious metal in China has been steadily growing. In 2009 it amounted to 313.98 tons. The volume of the gold imported by China within ten months of 2010 amounted to 209.72 tons, which is six times more than the year before, Rosbalt reported. (more…)

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Orkut Continues to Lead Brazil’s Social Networking Market, Facebook Audience Grows Fivefold

*Twitter.com Reaches 23 Percent of Brazilians Online, Highest Reach in the World

comScore Releases Study on Social Media Usage in Brazil Finding Traffic to Social Networking and Blog Sites Increased 50 Percent in Past Year*

São Paulo, Brazil, October 7, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study on social media usage in Brazil during the month of August 2010. The study found that Orkut continued to lead Brazil’s social networking market, reaching more than 36 million unique visitors (15+ years of age, home and work environments only), while Facebook grew to nearly 9 million visitors, up from just 1.5 million visitors a year ago. Twitter.com also witnessed strong growth, nearly doubling its audience to 8.6 million visitors, with Brazil leading the world in terms of Twitter’s Internet user penetration at 23 percent. (more…)

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Researchers Find Widespread Floating Plastic Debris in the Western North Atlantic Ocean

Despite growing awareness of the problem of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, little solid scientific information existed to illustrate the nature and scope of the issue.   

This week, a team of researchers from Sea Education Association (SEA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the University of Hawaii (UH) published a study of plastic marine debris based on data collected over 22 years by undergraduate students in the latest issue of the journal Science

(more…)

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