Woven beneath the waters of the Straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan are two oil and natural gas pipelines—and experts are concerned they are about to break. The pipelines, owned by Enbridge Inc., carry these natural resources beneath the Great Lakes from Wisconsin all the way to Ontario. Yet due to age and lack of maintenance, the pipes, pumping 20 million gallons of oil and natural gas daily, are at risk of bursting—and therefore polluting the drinking water of the neighboring 30 million Americans and Canadians.
As the global demand for corn continues to rise, analysts are waiting to see the effect the U.S. drought will have on the international grain industry. Corn is increasingly being used to convert into ethanol in the U.S. and in high demand in China where it it used to feed into the meat industry, and it has yet to be seen how this year’s significant loss in harvest will impact grain use across the globe.
In a historic turn of events, a federal appeals panel in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that California’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the constitutional right to equal protection. The panel overturned Proposition 8, which was approved by 52 percent of the state’s voters in 2008 and amended the state’s constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman. Today’s ruling paves the way for supporters of the ban to take the amendment straight to the California Supreme Court…
Just days after the U.K. joined other Western nations in intensifying sanctions against Iran, Iranian protesters stormed the British embassy this morning, ransacking offices and tearing down a flag. Initial reports suggested the protesters had also taken some embassy workers hostage, but those reports are unconfirmed …
14-year-old Jessica Rogers was born with a rare condition that left her with no lower spine and meant her legs had to be amputated when she was three, leaving her standing only 18 inches tall. Along with running a not-for-profit organization for others afflicted by the same disease, Jessica is rising at 3:30 a.m. every morning to train for the 2012 London Paralympics before she heads to school. Don’t feel intimidated, though…
What you may not know (or may not want to know) about the turkey that will grace your table this Thanksgiving is that it could be a mutated product of commercial turkey farms. About 244 million turkeys are raised each year, many of which are genetically modified. This disturbing infograph is basically an argument for organic turkey—or tofurky …
A constitutional amendment that would have defined a fertilized egg as a person failed on the ballot in Mississippi on Tuesday. Mississippi would have become the first state to define a fertilized egg as a person, a measure which was aimed at outlawing abortion in the state but, opponents contended, would have led to all kinds of unintended consequences…
The death toll in Syria has risen sharply after government forces tried to recapture Homs, Syria’s third-largest city and home to armed resistance fighters. Meanwhile, even before the new attacks, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva said the death toll in Syria is at least 3,500 since March …
An Australian student, Edward Linnacre, has won this year’s James Dyson Award, which is given to the person or group who comes up with the most innovative and simple way to help a great number of people. Linnacre came up with the Airdrop, which isolates water molecules from the air and pools them to help plants grow in extremely arid conditions …