A global comparison of garbageNOTHING evokes environmental degradation and poverty quite so vividly as pictures of slum-dwelling children scavenging through mounds of steaming waste for items to sell.
This provided a livelihood for thousands of local dalits, for whom "ragpicking"—scavenging on society's leftovers for anything of salvageable value is a traditional employment.
In spring last year a 77-year-old retired pharmacist shot himself in the head in the central square of Athens, leaving a note saying that he could not bear the idea of "scavenging in dustbins for food and becoming a burden to my child..."....
But the North Korean guards have also doubled the bribe they demand from those they let pass.Some people return home after scavenging for food, but many remain, hoping to better their lives or to escape persecution.
And even though Spain is timidly emerging from double-dip recession, scavenging and begging are on the rise.Madrid's attraction as a tourist destination, drawing visitors to its famous museums and nightlife, is fading.
Winston Churchill's government wavered between a conviction that President Franklin Roosevelt did not want Hitler to control the whole of Europe and so would send help, and a suspicion that many in his government dreamed of scavenging the assets of a doomed British empire.
Koreans were seen scavenging in parks for grass or edible leaves.
Japan's past hardly seems relevant any more, except for the memory that it is the only nation to have suffered nuclear attack.Beyond pity at seeing residents of a rich, proud country scavenging for food, hoarding bottled water and huddling for shelter on schoolroom floors, it was hard not to feel admiration as well.
Its army, too, is pushing a no-go buffer zone deeper into Gaza, shooting farmers and Palestinian youths scavenging for rubble from the latest war to substitute for the building material Israel still bans.Accidents can happen when you play with fire.
But as power requirements drop and energy-scavenging technology improves, it will become increasingly practical to power these and other devices using just "ambient" energy the sea of existing radio waves produced by television, radio and mobile-phone transmitters.It sounds too good to be true.
Drugs that block the action of glycine (e.g., dextromethorphan), a low-protein diet, and glycine-scavenging medications (e.g., sodium benzoate) may ease symptoms, but there is no cure for this severe condition.
