Spanish farmers modernize water control

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070802/ap_on_hi_te/techbit_spain_digital_irrigation



VALENCIA, Spain - The Moorish invaders who once ruled Spain brought with them a clever irrigation system that helped turn arid land into verdant fields. A millennium later it is still largely in use, and Spain remains one of Europe's breadbaskets.
ADVERTISEMENT But after years of chronic drought coupled with vastly increased water use, not to mention worrying climatic change, farm groups have realized it's high time for change.
Spain's federation of irrigators, known as Fenacore, is promoting an initiative to computerize Spain's irrigation system by 2010, connecting some 500,000 farmers to an irrigation network headquartered outside Madrid.
The scheme should allow valuable water to be monitored and controlled by computer, drop by precious drop.
"We're jumping from the 13th century to the 21st century," said Juan Valero, Fenacore's secretary general.
While computer-assisted irrigation is not new, Fenacore believes no other country is organizing it at a national level. So far 200,000 farmers have signed up for the project, Valero said.
"The only way to manage water is to measure how much enters each channel, and computer technology is the best way to do this," he said.
Farmers are being encouraged to move away from outdated, wasteful Moorish-style flood irrigation systems toward drip and dispersion irrigation. They are also asked to lay highly efficient telecommunications cables alongside main water conduits so that the irrigation grid can be monitored from a national computer center.
"In almost half of Spain, the irrigation technique used is flooding, which uses up to three or four times more than the water that is necessary," Environment Minister Cristina Narbona said recently.
Fenacore estimates computerized irrigation will mean up to 20 percent water savings.

The Copperbeech trees- some photographs

How Change Is Wrought:

First Through Education
By John Chuckman
A number of thoughtful American readers have asked what might be done about the problems I've described as disturbing the planet. This is a daunting request, because the problems are part of the warp and woof of a gigantic, complex society.

http://www.counterpunch.org/chuckmanchange.html

Is Protest Music Dead?

Music used to be the dominant voice against war. Now it's easier to shut up and get paid. What's really going on?

Opposing war hasn't always been a popular position, but it has created some great music. During the Vietnam era, songs like Edwin Starr's "War," Jimi Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower," Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain" and "Wars of Armageddon," Jimmy Cliff's "Vietnam," Country Joe and the Fish's "Fixing to Die Rag," Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" and "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" turned defiance into a raging, soaring, brave and melancholic gestures of community.

Read on http://www.counterpunch.org/changprotestmusic.html

A language of life

Medicine rarely looks at what really contributes to depression and the kinds of violence we have on the planet. My understanding is that people get depressed on account of how they are trained or educated to think. I try to show people how to transform that thinking into a language of life. — Marshall Rosenberg

(click the link to find out more about non-violent communication)

A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat

Oscar the Cat awakens from his nap, opening a single eye to survey his kingdom. From atop the desk in the doctor's charting area, the cat peers down the two wings of the nursing home's advanced dementia unit. All quiet on the western and eastern fronts. Slowly, he rises and extravagantly stretches his 2-year-old frame, first backward and then forward. He sits up and considers his next move.
In the distance, a resident approaches. It is Mrs. P., who has been living on the dementia unit's third floor for 3 years now. She has long forgotten her family, even though they visit her almost daily. Moderately disheveled after eating her lunch, half of which she now wears on her shirt, Mrs. P. is taking one of her many aimless strolls to nowhere. She glides toward Oscar, pushing her walker and muttering to herself with complete disregard for her surroundings. Perturbed, Oscar watches her carefully and, as she walks by, lets out a gentle hiss, a rattlesnake-like warning that says "leave me alone." She passes him without a glance and continues down the hallway. Oscar is relieved. It is not yet Mrs. P.'s time, and he wants nothing to do with her.
Oscar jumps down off the desk, relieved to be once more alone and in control of his domain. He takes a few moments to drink from his water bowl and grab a quick bite. Satisfied, he enjoys another stretch and sets out on his rounds. Oscar decides to head down the west wing first, along the way sidestepping Mr. S., who is slumped over on a couch in the hallway. With lips slightly pursed, he snores peacefully — perhaps blissfully unaware of where he is now living. Oscar continues down the hallway until he reaches its end and Room 310. The door is closed, so Oscar sits and waits. He has important business here.

Read the entire article http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/4/328

Note: Since he was adopted by staff members as a kitten, Oscar the Cat has had an uncanny ability to predict when residents are about to die. Thus far, he has presided over the deaths of more than 25 residents on the third floor of Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. His mere presence at the bedside is viewed by physicians and nursing home staff as an almost absolute indicator of impending death, allowing staff members to adequately notify families. Oscar has also provided companionship to those who would otherwise have died alone. For his work, he is highly regarded by the physicians and staff at Steere House and by the families of the residents whom he serves.
Source Information
Dr. Dosa is a geriatrician at Rhode Island Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University — both in Providence.

Why New Age Medicine Is Catching On

Critics, and that includes most conventional doctors, say the chief danger of alternative medicine -- aside from wasting money -- is that the patients get so carried away with unconventional cures that they dismiss regular medicine entirely. "The nightmare," says University of Chicago neurologist Clifford Saper, "is seeing someone who has a spinal-cord tumor who's been going to a chiropractor for years instead of to a doctor. You want to throw your hands up and say, 'If only I'd seen him earlier I could have helped him that much more.' " Doctors also warn about the risks of unregulated medicine, which is subject to both quackery and fads. A poorly trained massage therapist can do a good deal of damage. And some of the food supplements purveyed by health-food stores in recent years proved so harmful that they had to be pulled off the market.

Featured in the time magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,974180-7,00.html