London underground will be open during 12:0 am during the weekend

Like feet as New York or Barcelona, also the London underground, the oldest in the world, will be open 12:0 am a day on weekends.

The measure, which will take effect from 2015, it will affect the top five rows, concentrating 60% of the traffic of the London underground Jubilee line, Victoria, Central, Northern and Piccadilly. The night service will not be as frequent as the daytime but will ensure a minimum of four trains per hour.

In addition to increasing rivalry between London and New York, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, believes that the expansion of the hours of operation will be able to boost the economy of the English capital and boost job creation. "It will be highly valuable to the economy of London, which is becoming an economy of 12:0 am, seven days a week, interacting with the various time zones around the world," said Boris Johnson, quoted by the Financial Times (FT). If this big global financial centre that is the City never turn out the lights, the subway will not also underlined Johnson.

However, this new planning will result in a renewal of the seasons, which carries the closure of ticket offices of 240 stations. The closure of ticket offices will in turn lead to a reduction of 950 workers. However, the opening of the stations on weekends provides for the creation of 200 new jobs, employment in total balance translates into extinction of 750 jobs.

Currently, most of the tickets and passes are purchased through the internet or the vending machines placed in stations, so the metro Administration sees no need to keep the box office assisted selling open. To occupy the Administration ticket office is in talks with Amazon to make the spaces in points of collection of items that are purchased online.

With the passage of time, will be added to most metro lines service, as they remodeled. The ultimate goal is that the London underground is open 12:0 am a day, seven days a week, reports the FT.

Foto:  Jim Bahn / Creative Commons

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Imitations of well-known Australian boots use skin raccoon dog skinned alive

Surely you've heard the well-known Australian brand UGG boots, as well as must have noticed the amount of impressions that exist of these same boots.

Recently, the Swiss Animal Protection discovered that these imitations of the brand UGG are made with fur from raccoon dog, also known as dog-mapache, who are skinned alive.

The original UGG can cost more than € 200 (over $ 600). Imitations are cheaper, since in lieu of the sheep's wool for raccoon dog fur. This Association of animal protection in Switzerland discovered a video where you can see the creators of this species of raccoon in live animals, which are then thrown into a pile of carcasses where are still some live animals.

The raccoon dog, which is actually a species of raccoon, is so named for being more like foxes and domestic dogs than with the raccoons.

"Raccoon dogs are often by an unspeakable suffering," says Mark Jones, director of Humane Society International of the United Kingdom, referred to in Eccouture. "Die a slow and agonizing death, with the bodies in raw and bloody," he adds.

Most of these counterfeit boots come from Asian countries, including China. Several European countries have banned in 2008 the import of furs, namely dog and cat, China. However, this prohibition does not apply to raccoon dogs because they don't treat dogs, despite the name.

Faced with the controversy, the UGG came already deny the use of the raccoon dogs in their products, blaming counterfeit tarnishing the reputation of the industry in this sector. According to the Director of UGG, the brand has knowledge that several companies that produce imitations of UGG are the labels that indicate that the boots were produced in China and replace them by tags that indicate that were produced in Australia.

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Japan: Anonymous attack government websites in protest against Dolphin hunting

Several Japanese Government sites were targeted by a cyber-attack on the part of the Anonymous activist group. Between the pages are of Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, the Ministry of agriculture, fisheries and forests, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, as well as the town of Taiji, where dolphins are hunted.

"End this slaughter IMMEDIATELY, or prepare to face our Wrath", was the message that the Anonymous Japanese Government sites left, which however have been erased, referring to the Tokyo Times.

Last week the Anonymous put out a bulletin to the Abe Government, where referred to 22 websites targeting of possible attacks. The attack was now accomplished.

Every year, the Japanese whaling ships fishing for up to 17 thousand small whales, dolphins and porpoises. The town of Taiji, Japan on the East Coast is the location where the fishing of cetaceans is more intense. It is estimated that over the last 70 years more than a million were caught in Japanese waters cetaceans.

Despite international criticism, Japan argues that this type of fishing is a Japanese tradition and the Japanese are known for giving great importance to tradition.

Foto:  zigazou76 / Creative Commons

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Floating aquatic laboratory will study ocean 12:0 am a day

The French architect Jacques Rougerie has designed a floating aquatic laboratory with a capacity to help marine biologists to discover some of the secrets of the ocean. The boat is called SeaOrbiter and its construction begins May 31, 2014, according to the website of the project.

Two-thirds of the 51 meter infrastructure will be under water, giving it a privileged view of the ocean. Inside, between 18 and 22 marine biologists may study ecosystems and fish at any time of the day or night.

The lab weighs tons and will work solely with solar energy, wave and wind power. With so many possibilities and functionalities, the price triggers: €39,2 million ($ 120 million), a value funded by NASA and the European Space Agency.

According to Rougerie, Sea Orbiter will have a system for collecting fish for pelagic ecosystem studies, biodiversity of plankton and fishing quotas. Despite only next year see the light of day, the project was conceived and designed for 12 years. Rougerie, however, built his first House in underwater 1977, before moving on to the concept of L'hippocampe, a scientific base suspended in water, in 1981.

"The Sea Orbiter will be the only boat in the world that allows an exploration 12:0 am a day in long-term missions," said Rougerie. "You can also become an essential tool in the global oceans exploration and an useful study to understand the link between global warming and the oceans, which absorb a quarter of all carbon emissions," concluded the French.

See some of the photos of the project.

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Amb3E collaborates with Interpol in combating illegal trade in e-waste

The Amb3E (Portuguese Association for waste management) is collaborating in an international project to combat illegal trade in electronic trash coordinated by Interpol-WEEE Countering Illegal Trade (CWIT). This collaboration is being done through the WEEE Forum, a European platform for cooperation and debate consists of 39 waste management systems of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

Released by an international consortium of seven organizations, the project will provide a series of recommendations to the European Commission and legal authorities, which should assist in combating illegal trade of WEEE. Founded by the 7th framework programme of the European Union, this research project safe lasts for two years and brings together experts from the fields of management of WEEE, criminal investigation, supply chain security and database management.

Within this project, the Amb3E will be responsible for providing essential information about the Portuguese reality, as quantitative data on collections of WEEE; as well as identify the stakeholders involved in the industry of WEEE, in Portugal, and the mechanisms that reinforce the correct forwarding of these residues to the formal channels.

Only about three million tons, out of a total estimated at 8 million WEEE, were officially collected, treated and reported to the European authorities in 2010. This e-waste contains materials such as gold, copper and Palladium, which makes him very valuable on the black market, attracting organized crime groups, as well as illegal operators.

However, these residues also contain harmful substances like mercury and cadmium. Therefore, the dismantling of illegal WEEE, often conducted in the poorest countries, leads to enormous problems in terms of public health and environmental pollution. On the other hand, the European Union is losing a vast amount of rare earths (17 fundamental ores for the production of next-generation technology products) and other important minerals because of these illegal activities in low compliance rates, growth and limited surveillance activities.

"The CWIT project was launched to identify the gaps in terms of policies, regulations, and procedures and suggest improvements to property, plant and equipment these are issues of vital importance and require greater attention and supervision in the international context," he said in a statement the director-general of Amb3E, Jorge Vicente.

The CWIT Consortium consists of partners who have extensive experience in the area of WEEE in criminal investigation and management of databases: Interpol, the WEEE Forum, the United Nations University (UNU), Zanasi & Partners (Z&P), Compliance and Risks (C2P), a Cross-Border Research Association (CBRA) and the Inter-regional Research Institute of the United Nations Crime and justice (UNICRI).

Foto:  Inf-Lite Teacher / Creative Commons

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Vegetarian Menus improve academic performance in school of New York

In may, we told you that Active Learning Elementary School Elementary School, the New York neighborhood of Queens, had adopted a 100% vegetarian menu, serving children dishes that included tofu and vegetarian chili, among others.

Now, the first results of this pioneering experience of vegetarianism in a New York public school: after one semester with new food, the number of obese or overweight student reduced by 2%. On the other hand, the school recorded a reduction in attention deficit and fouling and an improvement in behavior and grades.

Who says so is Bo Groff, director and co-founder of the school, which still failed to prove the relationship between the events but are you sure that the time and persistence will confirm his thesis.

The school is attended by 400 children and became the first in the country to offer a 100% vegetarian menu at every meal. At first, the decision of the school caused some discomfort among youth, but most families accepted the measure. Children continued to be able to take meat snacks to school, but 90% did not.

To help children decide what is best for their food, school nutrition classes to weekly dedicated theme. Family members are also welcome to workshops, which teach how to prepare healthier food at home.

The aim is that children take in these teachings and oblige parents to fulfill them. Just so the project can already be deemed the winner.

Foto: SweetOnVeg / Creative Commons

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COP 19: 133 developing countries abandon negotiations due to bureaucracy of the developed countries

About 133 representatives of developing countries have abandoned the negotiations on climate change COP 19, held in Warsaw. On the basis of the withdrawal is the fact that the developed countries refuse to discuss the compensation to be granted to developing nations, by climate change caused by industrialized nations.

Most of the European Union (EU) countries and Nations like the United States, Canada, Australia just want to discuss the compensation at the next Summit, scheduled for 2015 in Paris. In response the G77 and China Group withdrew from the negotiations.

Seleemul Huq, the scientist whose work on losses and damages developing countries helped put the question of compensation in the COP agenda 19, said that "negotiations were proceeding well, in a spirit of cooperation, but at the end of the session on losses and damage to Australia put everything that was agreed in brackets, so that the whole debate was wasted"quotes The Guardian.

Developing countries demanded the creation of a new United Nations institution to oversee the allocation of compensation, but the developed countries do not have considered the request, ignoring the requests for a serious debate on the issue.

"The EU believes that the issue is incredibly important for developing countries. But they must be taken care of when it comes to creating a new institution. That's not what this process needs, "said the European Commissioner for climate Connie Hedegaard. "We can't have an automatic compensation system for when serious events occur in the world. This is not feasible, "the Commissioner stressed.

In this way, the debate on compensation was refused by the developed countries, who fear that such a system would lead to unacceptable costs.

Photo: Gili Islands, Indonesia.   RaihanMazumder/Creative Commons

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