A new voting system uses the Internet, cryptography, and "magic" ink to ensure that everyone's vote is counted.

Voting machines are one of the few areas where technology has decidedly taken us a step backward. The electronic voting ma­chines that one-third of American voters will be using in November are no more reliable than your home computer.

Direct-recording electronic voting machines are incredibly easy to hack; Princeton University security expert Ed Felten proved it by accessing a Diebold machine’s memory card with a hotel minibar key he bought online. In less than one minute, Felten was able to install undetectable vote-stealing software. Then there is the garden-variety computer error. Touch-screen machines in Sarasota, Florida, recorded an 18,000-vote undercount in a congressional race decided by fewer than 400 votes. Paper itself was never foolproof (remember those chads?), but a stolen, lost, or stuffed ballot box risks mere hundreds of votes while a hidden computer glitch risks millions. And since viruses can spread, one machine’s infection can quickly cross county lines. 

Unfortunately, our current digital democracy leaves massive fraud and massive error imperceptible and untrackable. And transparency—not just of the software code, but of the whole voting system—has never been more important. Each voter should be able to verify that his or her own vote has been counted correctly from the booth all the way to the final tally. But how can you lay bare the secret ballot without sacrificing the privacy that makes democracy work?

(Read more...)
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/oct/04-protecting-your-vote-with-invisible-ink

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Before casting your ballot, do you think you know the issues?  Regardless of your political preferences, it is increasingly important for us to understand what it means by environmental sustainability and how it could affect our economies and social well-beings in our societies.  If everyone of us would take the time to digest the information listed below, it could really serve our societies well...

The Business Case for Sustainability (55 mins)
http://www.sustainabilityadvantage.com/

The End of Suburbia (78 mins)
http://www.endofsuburbia.com/

A Green History of the World: The Environment & the Collapse of Great Civiliations - By Clive Ponting (Book) 
http://www.amazon.com/New-Green-History-World-Civilizations/dp/0143038982 (2007 Edition)
http://ecobooks.com/books/history.htm (1993 Edition)

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Mixed Green Screening: The World According to Monsanto
Date: September 26, 2008 & October 24, 2008
Time: 6:45pm
Location: Gardiner Museum, 111 Queen’s Park, Toronto, ON
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Monsanto is the world leader in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as
well as one of the most controversial corporations in industrial history.
This century-old empire has created some of the most toxic products ever
sold, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the herbicide Agent
Orange. Based on a painstaking investigation, The World According to
Monsanto puts together the pieces of the company's history, calling on
hitherto unpublished documents and numerous first-hand accounts.

Today, Monsanto likes to style itself as a "life sciences" company. The
leader in genetically modified seeds, engineered to resist its herbicide
Roundup, claims it wants to solve world hunger while protecting the
environment.

In the light of its troubling past, can we really believe these noble
intentions? Misleading reports, collusion, pressure tactics and attempts at
corruption: the history of Monsanto is filled with disturbing episodes.
Behind its clean, green image, Monsanto is tightening its grasp on the world
seed market, striving for market supremacy to the detriment of food security
and the global environment.

http://www.planetinfocus.org/mixedgreens

Our 9th Annual Planet in Focus Festival takes place in Toronto between October 22-26, 2008.  Join us as we showcase over 100 films on environmental themes by remarkable artists from Canada and around the world. In addition to screening documentaries, the festival also features animated, experimental. and dramatic works of all lengths. Our spotlight, Food: The Big Picture, will provide you with plenty of food for thought in addition to our panels, workshops, youth and children's programs. Filmmakers will also experience an abundance of film industry networking opportunities.

http://planetinfocus.bside.com/2008/films

Now imagine the outcome if these trees and the ones before them had not been planted!  Kudos to the farmers of western Canada and their ancestors for having the foresight and commitment to protect our environment and keep our family farms sustainable!
Note:  The 600 millionth tree was planted during Environment Week, June 6, 2008, at Indian Head Saskatchewan, Canada.

For more information on the AAFC-PFRA Prairie Shelterbelt Program, please visit www.agr.gc.ca/shelterbelt.
 

How do you prefer your beef? Certified Angus, grass fed, or culled from a petri dish? That last option may be coming your way soon, courtesy of Jason Methany, a biologist at Johns Hopkins University. He is the founder of New Harvest, a loosely knit consortium of international scientists who are investigating an innovative new way of satisfying the world’s craving for meat. They plan to grow it in a lab—no animals required.

Lab-grown meat won’t make many top-10 lists as a natural food, but the New Harvest Web site calls it “less unnatural than raising farm animals in intensive confinement systems, injecting them with synthetic hormones, and feeding them artificial diets made up of anti­biotics and animal wastes.” Known as in vitro or cultured meat, the end product, grown from stem cells, could alleviate environmental and health concerns associated with most animal protein (not to mention moral qualms about eating animals), making it the cut of choice.

To a certain extent, in vitro meat has already been produced hundreds of times in labs around the world, as stem cell researchers crank out bits of artificial muscle and connective tissue, hoping to mend weak hearts or reverse muscular dvstrophy. But only a brave few have engineered tissues expressly for the purpose of making hamburger. In 2000 NASA engineered a bit of goldfish meat as a possible food for astronauts on marathon journeys, and in 2003 a group of Australian artists with a background in tissue engineering served tiny portions of petri-dish muscle (drowning in sauce to avoid the flavor question) to an invitation-only dinner party.

http://discovermagazine.com/2008/oct/22-i.ll-have-my-burger-petri-dish-bred/?searchterm=beefvitro