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Fort Hood Shooter was Mistreated

"Everyone else just sat down there and drunk their beer and looked at him and giggled at him," the woman said, starting... more

JonRaymond
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More Killer Arctic Monkeys TV Action!

http://zoinks.tv/2009/11/more-killer-arctic-monkeys-tv-action/

patochan
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The Reactable - I Want One!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQV077OeHRA&feature=fvw

adammahmud
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Lucie Jones voted out of X Factor as Jedward survive another week

John and Edward Grimes, the twins known as Jedward, have avoided the axe from X Factor again with Welsh teenager Lucie Jones... more

pcs007
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Military Sexual Assualt Rate Higher than in the Population

Pascale Bourgaux talks about her film, Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within, recently screened in New York, as we see clips form... more

JonRaymond
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Do you think you are to old to begin training for an ultra marathon running event? Think again!

Some athletes stories transcend their sports and inspire nations. Cliff Young’s story did just that when in 1983 he, an... more

Luke_Bream
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Genetically modified organisms: Where is the science?

http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/11655-where-is-the-science
What has been of particular interest in this and past debates on the subject is the way in which those who oppose GM crops are painted as being against science (see for instance, the editorial in The Hindu on 21 October, 2009 or Starved for Science by R Paarlberg). There is a blatant attempt by GM promoters to polarise the discussion and manufacture a science-vs.-antiscience debate. All those who oppose GM crops are neither anti-science nor luddites. Indeed, many scientists have been, and still are, critical of GM for a number of good reasons. Scientists and scientific academies, including the National Research Council of the US National Academy of Sciences, have expressed serious concerns regarding the scientific rigour of experiments and the impacts of GM crops, especially on biodiversity.

Those who support GM crops generally believe that science and technology can solve most problems, and see crops as requiring tinkering to improve agriculture. It is such short-term and piecemeal thinking that led to the excesses of the Green Revolution causing damage to soils, depletion of ground water and other harms to ecosystems. There are other supporters of GM who continue to believe that private production of goods and services is inherently superior to public ones, even as governments have been bailing out the private sector in the last year! And then there are those who have financial gains to make if the GM industry prospers.

Let me compare the GM debate with the other major scientific debate - global warming. While scientists who work on climate change and global warming rightly embrace the precautionary principle, many who work in the area of GM plant technologies abandon it altogether. A charitable explanation is that this may have to do with differing perceptions of risk in each case. Perhaps global warming is seen as a serious threat to the entire world, and GM crops may not be understood in the same way. Moreover, some benefits have been attributed to these crops by promoters, making it harder for people to reject them.

But while the naysayers of climate change have now been marginalised through more research and data, those who are concerned about GM crops have been silenced through smear campaigns launched against them. Some of the scientists, like Arpad Pusztai, who raised questions regarding the health effects of GM crops, have had their careers turned upside down. In order to learn about the tentacles and might of agribusiness, one must ask Ignacio Chapela from UC Berkeley about his gut-wrenching tenure battle, which followed his publication in Nature on the contamination of wild strains of Mexican maize by GM maize

The mere use of technology does not make an approach scientific, but this is a common fallacy even among scientists. Good science is characterised by transparency and falsifiability. These do not figure in GM. Instead, faith, the antithesis of science, features in a big way. There are few peer-reviewed journal articles on GM crops. When companies make claims about various positive contributions from their engineered crops, their statements cannot be verified or tested independently. Policymakers and even other scientists who work in the same area have to accept the results on faith.

Earlier this year, an anonymous public statement was signed and submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by 26 leading scientists, entomologists who work with insects that infect corn. It stated that scientists are unable to conduct independent research on GM crops as patents prevent full access to research materials and the ability to grow and study these plants. As a consequence, the scientists state, the data that the Scientific Advisory Panel of the EPA has available to it is unduly limited. This means the claims of GM proponents cannot be verified independently or indeed be falsified.

There is general agreement among scientists and academics on the adverse effects on biodiversity as a result of cross-pollination from engineered to non-engineered crops. Still, field trials for GM crops in unmarked areas blow caution and engineered pollen to the winds in closely cultivated fields in India.

The potential damage to human health from GM crops has been shown quite clearly in a few animal systems, but perhaps needs further study. There is good peer-reviewed published evidence to show that Bt toxins are both immunogens (a substance that provokes an immune response) and immunoadjuvants (a substance that enhances immune response) for mammals. Moreover, studies have shown that Bt toxins bind to the mammalian small intestine and have effects on its proper functioning. The concerns raised by the use of viral promoters, which are hotspots for genetic recombination, the use of antibiotic resistance genes, and strong gene promoters (sequences that facilitate the transcription of a gene) to ensure that the foreign genes are expressed, have already been highlighted by many scientists.

end of excerpt.http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/11655-where-is-the-science What has been of particular interest in this and... more

JanforGore
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29 minutes ago

Malware Can Download Child Porn To Your Computer

The Associated Press tells the story of Michael Fiola, a former Massachusetts government employee who was arrested in 2007 after... more

Tyrannous
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31 minutes ago

Pro-Life Amendment Seen as Historic Victory Overshadowed by Dangers of Health Bill Passage

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/nov/09110801.html

jlaws
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32 minutes ago

Army Chief of Staff Concerned for Muslim Troops

General George Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, said on Sunday that he was concerned that speculation about the religious... more

current89
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40 minutes ago

List of entheogens - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entheogens

quanta
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41 minutes ago

JESSE BOYKINS III

Jesse Boykins stops by the Loft to chop up how it started and where it's going.

_TONE_
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41 minutes ago

Bankrupt Batman

Gotham needs a bailout too..... http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/517289

happy3kmed
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43 minutes ago

New Isis Video: “20 Minutes/40 Years”

http://zoinks.tv/2009/11/new-isis-video-posted/

patochan
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45 minutes ago

Veterinarians fit calf with two prosthetic legs

Meadow, a Black Angus calf, is living a better life now due to her new prosthetic legs, designed by the veterinarians and students... more

animaladvocate
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49 minutes ago

Democratic consultant got a warning from White House after appearing on Fox News

'We better not see you on again,' the strategist says he was told by a White House official. The White House... more

ibrake4rappers13
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50 minutes ago

Carrie Prejean's mother saw infamous sex tape

Former Miss California Carrie Prejean was hoping to get a substantial amount of money in a lawsuit against pageant company... more

unimatrix0
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57 minutes ago

New Red Friday Video: "This Town"

http://zoinks.tv/2009/11/new-red-friday-video/

patochan
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57 minutes ago

The universality of extremists

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2009/11/08/extremists

Iranian "hard-liners" sound just like America's neocons when opposing negotiations.
By Glenn Greenwald

The Washington Post's David Ignatius today notes the irony that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is being criticized by his country's "hard-liners" for supporting a deal with the U.S. over nuclear issues:

The prospect of a deal with the Great Satan produced a political frisson in Tehran. . . . Critics chided Ahmadinejad for giving away the nuclear store. . . . Khamenei joined in the attacks last week, warning that negotiating with America would be "naive and perverted." The leader was implicitly criticizing Ahmadinejad, who had characterized the Geneva deal as an Iranian victory. . . .

But reading the Iranian press, you get the sense that for Iran's ruling elite, engagement with America remains a bridge too far. "America is still the Great Satan. Negotiations are meaningless," thundered the hard-line weekly Ya-Lesarat.

That, of course, is exactly what American neocons have long been screaming about negotiations with Iran -- that they're crazed, untrustworthy Persian Hitlers who shouldn't be negotiated with and that Obama is being "naive" or worse by trying. It's so striking how identical is the mentality of America's "hard-line" right-wing extremists and those in Iran.

Ignatius also claims, correctly, that the Iranian regime relies on anti-Americanism to sustain its legitimacy because the constant demonization of a foreign enemy unites the population behind the government. Of course, the continuous demonization of foreign enemies has also long been the favorite tool of America's political leaders for the same reasons. That's because exploiting foreign threats for domestic political gain is a virtually universal tool of governments. That, of course, is exactly why the belligerence and threats towards Iran long advocated by America's Right has as its prime beneficiary the very Iranian mullahs they claim to oppose.http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2009/11/08/extremists Iranian... more