Idbo Enron Probe Turns Toward White House
After a grueling 10-hour workday on Capitol Hill, political staffer Kim Taylor heads to a poor section of Washington to tutor children. On Sundays, she takes them to a museum, play or ice skating rink. It s a chance fo stanley cup spain r me to actually feel like I m doing something, said Taylor, 32, of Washington.According to the Labor Department s newest estimate, 59 million Americans like Taylor performed volunteer work between September 2001 and September 2002. They tutor, m stanley us entor, build affordable housing, teach computer skills, clean parks and streams and help communities respond to disasters at no charge.In its first such study of volunteerism in more than a decade, the agency found that 27.6 percent of the civilian population mdash; more than one in four persons ages 16 and over mdash; volunteered.On average, Americans put in about 52 hours of volunteer work during the year mdash; with employed workers and women more likely to do so, according to the estimate by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The numbers were based on a survey of 60,000 households in September. It gives balance to my life, said Taylor, who volunteers for the Washington-based Horton s Kids, a not-for-profi stanley cup t tutoring and mentoring organization. Working with these children reminded me that no matter how hard my job was, it wasn t as hard as the challenges that these children have. The Labor Department s estimate follows President Bush s State of the Union address in January that urged each American to commit Cdyo Delayed Zimbabwe Results Fuel Suspicion
Of the many problems on Earth, here are two: there are too many jellyfish in the seas, and there are too many diapers in our landfills. An Israeli nanotech start-up called Cine ;al says it has found the answer to both in Hydromash, a super-absorbent material made stanley mug from the bodies of jellyfish. But why stop at diapers Cine ;al says jellyfish tampons, paper towels, and medical sponges could all be part of our absorbent future. The recent jellyfish invasion of our seas has been a perplexing but destructive mystery. Their soft, slippery masses drift into desalination plants and the cooling systems of nuclear power plants, shutting down multimillion dollar facilities. En masse, they ;ve also terrorized fish farms, beaches, and boats. There isn ;t much we as humans ca stanley mugs n do with jellyfish, other than eat them. They 8 stanley botella 217;re a delicacy in Asian countries, but jellyfish are out-reproducing our appetites. Researchers at Tele Aviv University, however, thought jellyfish could perhaps be the source for highly absorbent and biodegradable material. Their bodies are 90 percent water, yet they don ;t disintegrate or dissolve in the sea. That the original idea behind Hydromash, which Cine ;al claims is many times more absorbent than paper towels, and which is derived from jellyfish bodies plus nanoparticles for antibacterial properties. The resulting material breaks down in 30 days, while current diapers which stick around for decades. It also n |
