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*Traces of genetically engineered maize and soy in goats, fish and pigs
Munich - A recent Testbiotech survey shows that DNA fragments from transgenic plants are increasingly found in animal tissue such as milk, inner organs and muscles. Most recently, in April 2010, scientists from Italy reported DNA sequences stemming from genetically engineered soy in milk from goats. These DNA fragments are presumably, entering the blood stream from the gut and then from there reaching the udder and the milk. Traces of specific DNA were also identified in kids fed with the goat's milk. These findings are not the first to be reported after DNA fragments have been found in the tissue of animals fed with transgenic plants. A few years ago, DNA from genetically engineered maize was found in samples from pigs. More recently, research found traces from transgenic plants in the organs of fish, namely rainbow trout and tilapia. In fish, the gene sequences were found in nearly all inner organs.
"Recent publications could lend support to those stakeholders in favour of labelling products such as meat, milk and eggs derived from animals fed with genetically engineered plants. If the methods for sampling DNA get even better, those traces will be found more often in future," says Christoph Then from Testbiotech. "So far detection is not possible in each and every case. Most frequently these traces seem to occur in fish."
In the past, several experts and also the European Food Safety Authority EFSA were of the opinion that specific DNA fragments related to transgenic material, could not be detected in animals. For years now it has been known that in general, DNA from plants is not completely degraded in the gut, and can be found in inner organs, the blood stream and even in the offspring of mice.
In Testbiotech's opinion, mandatory labelling of those products is important for consumers interested in more transparency about how genetically engineered plants are used. Millions of tons of genetically engineered soy are fed to animals such as pigs, poultry and cattle in Europe. Most experts think that products derived from those animals are not likely to pose a health risk. There is however, a need for further research since for unknown reasons some enzyme activity in kids fed with goat's milk containing specific DNA was found to be enhanced.
Some recent literature:
Goats
Tudisco R., Mastellone V., Cutrignelli M.I, Lombardi P, Bovera F., Mirabella N., Piccolo G., Calabro, S., Avallone L., Infascelli F. (2010) Fate of transgenic DNA and evaluation of metabolic effects in goats fed genetically modified soybean and in their offsprings.
Fish
Chainark, P. (2008) Availability of genetically modified feed ingredient II: investigations of ingested foreign DNA in rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. Fisheries Science, 74(2): 380390(11)
Ran,T, Mei, L., Lei, W., Aihua, L., Ru, H., Jie, S (2009) Detection of transgenic DNA in tilapias (Oreochromis niloticus, GIFT strain) fed genetically modified soybeans (Roundup Ready). Aquaculture Research, Volume 40 (12): 13501357
Pigs
Mazza, R., Soave1,M., Morlacchini M., Piva, G., Marocco, A. (2005) Assessing the transfer of genetically modified DNA from feed to animal tissues, Transgenic Res. 14: 775784
Sharma R., Damgaard D., Alexander T.W., Dugan M.E.R., Aalhus J.L., Stanford K., McAllister T.A. (2006) Detection of transgenic and endogenous plant DNA in tissues of sheep and pigs fed Roundup Ready canola meal. Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry 54: 1699–1709.
Former research in mice (tracing plant DNA in mice and their offspring):
Schubbert R., Hohlweg U., Renz D., Doerfler W. (1998) On the fate of orally ingested foreign DNA in mice: chromosomal association and placental transmission to the fetus, Molecular Genetics and Genomics 259: 569576.
EFSA's opinion:
EFSA (2007) Statement on the fate of recombinant DNA or proteins in the meat, milk or eggs of animals fed with GM
feed, http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/scdocs/scdoc/744.htm
Sender:
Institute for Independent Impact Assessment in Biotechnology*Traces of genetically engineered maize and soy in goats, fish and pigs
Munich - A... more
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After 20 years of prudent silence, Georges Widmack, a specialist of archaeology and a scientific journalist, agreed to speak for the first time about his research and tell us how an apparently routine documentary became an obscure issue of state.After 20 years of prudent silence, Georges Widmack, a specialist of archaeology and a... more
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Building on a tool that they developed in yeast four years ago, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine scanned the human genome and discovered what they believe is the reason people have such a variety of physical traits and disease risks.
LINK : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100811085416.htmBuilding on a tool that they developed in yeast four years ago, researchers at the... more
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Boston : Preliminary New DNA results from the 900 year old Starchild Skull, providing information that a percentage of the DNA in the bone is Extraterrestrial.Boston : Preliminary New DNA results from the 900 year old Starchild Skull, providing... more
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YOU are the juror: would you trust DNA evidence? Most people regard it as near infallible- it produces the right result or no result, exonerating the innocent and securing convictions where other evidence fails.
But DNA is not as objective as you might think. In the first of a two-part investigation, New Scientist reveals that much of the DNA analysis now conducted in crime labs can suffer from worrying subjectivity and bias.
We asked forensic analysts to interpret a sample of real DNA evidence and found that they reached opposing conclusions about whether the suspect matched it or not. Our subsequent survey of labs around the world also shows that there are significant inconsistencies in the guidelines on how to interpret a sample.
The findings suggest that the difference between prison and freedom could often rest on the opinions of a single individual.YOU are the juror: would you trust DNA evidence? Most people regard it as near... more
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A network of faces from different places leaving fragmented traces
Andy Warhol is well-known for many things, but many know him solely as the peculiar white-haired man who once said that "everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." Prior to the social networking phenomenon whenever I heard that quote my mind would instantly conjure up an image of something akin to a Soviet-era bread line with all of us patiently awaiting our fifteen minutes in front of a video camera. Basically American Idol for everyone.
"Quick. Do something special. You got fifteen minutes."
But now we have Facebook and well, that changes everything. No need for a claustrophobic fifteen-minute time frame to figure out just what's special about you. With Facebook as long as you're alive you can post and boy do we love to post. With literally little hesitation we willingly put it all out there. Having issues in your relationship? We know. We've watched it play out through a series of status updates, an abrupt relationship status change and assorted other methods of broadcasting once personal tribulations. Life is good? We know. Look at all those pictures of you dancing in the club or look how happy you look with her. Look at the car you drive. Look at the shape you're in. But these all are aggressively temporal states of being. Perhaps Facebook is our way of documenting all of those tiny fleeting moments of our days. We don't want to lose a thing.
Even more peculiar is the paparazzi-like infrastructure that keeps it afloat. We’re all out there snapping pictures of ourselves, friends, family, random strangers and then we post them, tag them and essentially create society pages which end up reading just like these. This is paparazzi cannibalization! We on this thing scandalizing ourselves and others. That’s kind of like Will Smith hiding out in Brad and Angelina’s bushes trying to snap a couple pics of the family. And then we’re all chimin’ in. Saying things like "Wow, you look gorgeous!" or "Seriously, he wore that out!? OMG!!!" And odds are the he who wore that out is totally unaware he’s being commented about.
READ THE REST HERE: http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/the-facebook-universe/#more-4571.A network of faces from different places leaving fragmented traces
Andy Warhol is... more
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Forcing people to provide a DNA sample without any judicial oversight, just because a single police officer has arrested them, violates the Constitution. That’s why California’s law mandating that DNA samples be taken from all felony arrestees is facing a legal challenge from the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC).
At issue is Proposition 69, a voter-enacted law which mandates that anyone arrested on suspicion of a felony in California has to hand over a DNA sample, regardless of whether or not they are ever charged or convicted. As a result, tens of thousands of innocent Californians will be subject to a lifetime of genetic surveillance because a single police officer suspected them of a crime.
ACLU-NC filed suit in federal court last year seeking to stop this invasive law that violates the Fourth Amendment. Last week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the ACLU’s appeal of a lower court’s denial of a request for a preliminary injunction to halt the law while the suit continues. The appeals court hearing on July 13 showed that the court takes the privacy concerns and other constitutional issues in this case very seriously. The court clearly recognized the importance of the case, questioning both sides closely and extending the time allotted for oral argument.
Instead of being limited to serious, violent offenses, this law even applies to someone who has written a bad check, shoplifters, and people arrested during political demonstrations. And because collection occurs before any review by a prosecutor or a court, even people who are wrongfully arrested — either because of police misconduct or because the police simply had been provided with incorrect information — will be ordered to provide a sample. For example, a domestic violence victim who injured her partner in self defense might well be arrested while the police investigated her story and then released when they confirmed it, but would still have had to provide a sample.
The practice of automatically collecting DNA from people who are merely arrested ignores the presumption of innocence and blurs the line between being suspected of a crime and being convicted.
(more @ link)Forcing people to provide a DNA sample without any judicial oversight, just because a... more
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Our galaxy is rich in Earth-sized planets
July 27, 2010 8:24 a.m. EDT
Planets may answer age-old questions
Editor's note: TED, a nonprofit organization devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading," hosts talks on many subjects and makes them available through its website.
(CNN) -- Since the time of Nicolaus Copernicus five centuries ago, people have wondered whether there are other planets like Earth in the universe. Today scientists are closer than ever to an answer -- and it appears to be that the Milky Way galaxy is rich in Earth-sized planets, according to astronomer Dimitar Sasselov.
Drawing on new findings from a NASA telescope, he told the TED Global conference in Oxford, England earlier this month that nearly 150 Earth-sized planets have been detected so far. He estimated that the overall number of planets in the galaxy with "similar conditions to the conditions that we experience here on Earth is pretty staggering. It's about 100 million such planets."
A Bulgarian-born scientist with Ph.D.s in astronomy and physics, Sasselov is a professor of astronomy and director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative, which brings together scientists from many disciplines to explore how life began. He titled his talk at the Oxford conference: "On Completing the Copernican Revolution."
Until technology was developed to detect planets outside the solar system 15 years ago, scientists were only able to speculate about the existence of Earth-like planets. The new technology paid off in the discovery of some 500 planets.
The disappointing fact though was that very few of the newly identified planets were the size of Earth.
"There was of course an explanation for it. We only see the big planets. So that's why most of those planets are really in the category of 'like Jupiter,' " he said.
There was no indication that these large planets were suitable for life to begin.
"We were still back where Copernicus was. We didn't have any evidence whether planets like the Earth are out there," Sasselov said. "And we do care about planets like the Earth because by now we understood that life as a chemical system really needs a smaller planet with water and with rocks and with a lot of complex chemistry to originate, to emerge, to survive. And we didn't have the evidence for that."
In March 2009, NASA launched Kepler, a telescope-carrying satellite that can detect the dimming of light caused by a planet orbiting around a star.
"All the stars for Kepler are just points of light," Sasselov said. "But we learn a lot from that, not only that there is a planet there, but we also learn its size. How much of the light is being dimmed depends on how big the planet is. We learn about its orbit, the period of its orbit and so on."
The discovery of many potential planets means "we can go and study them -- remotely, of course -- with all the techniques that we already have tested in the past five years. We can find what they're made of, would their atmospheres have water, carbon dioxide, methane."
At the same time, Sasselov believes, scientists can make progress in the laboratory on better understanding how chemicals can produce life.
"And in one of our labs, Jack Szostak's labs, it was a series of experiments in the last four years that showed that the environments -- which are very common on planets, on certain types of planets like the Earth -- where you have some liquid water and some clays, you actually end up with naturally available molecules which spontaneously form bubbles. But those bubbles have membranes very similar to the membrane of every cell of every living thing on Earth. .... And they really help molecules, like nucleic acids, like RNA and DNA, stay inside, develop, change, divide and do some of the processes that we call life."
Copernicus is famous for the then-revolutionary idea that the Earth orbits the sun rather than that the universe is centered around Earth. But Sasselov pointed out that with the Copernican revolution came a humbling sense of mankind's insignificance in the universe.
"You've all learned that in school -- how small the Earth is compared to the immense universe. And the bigger the telescope, the bigger that universe becomes. ... So in space, the Earth is very small.
To demonstrate the minuteness of life on Earth, Sasselov took off his tie.
"Can you imagine how small it is? Let me try it. OK, let's say this is the size of the observable universe, with all the galaxies, with all the stars. Do you know what the size of life in this necktie will be?
"It will be the size of a single, small atom. It is unimaginably small. ... But that's not the whole story, you see."
The other dimension of life on Earth is time -- and life has existed for a good portion, nearly a third, of the time the universe is believed to have existed, Sasselov said.
"This is not insignificant. This is very significant. So life might be insignificant in size, but it is not insignificant in time. Life and the universe compare to each other like a child and a parent, parent and offspring.
"So what does this tell us? This tells us that that insignificance paradigm that we somehow got to learn from the Copernican principle, it's all wrong. There is immense, powerful, potential in life in this universe -- especially now that we know that places like the Earth are common. And that potential, that powerful potential, is also our potential, of you and me.
"And if we are to be stewards of our planet Earth and its biosphere, we better understand the cosmic significance and do something about it. And the good news is we can actually indeed do it. "Our galaxy is rich in Earth-sized planets
July 27, 2010 8:24 a.m. EDT
Planets may... more
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Choir to sing the 'code of life'
By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News
Scientists and composers have produced a new choral work in which performers sing parts of their own genetic code.
Human DNA is made up of just four different chemical compounds, which gave musician Andrew Morley the idea of assigning a note to each of them.
The new piece, Allele, will be performed by the New London Chamber Choir at the Royal Society of Medicine on 13 July.
Each of the 40-strong choir has also had his or her own DNA decoded.
"I'd sung quite a lot with choirs in my youth and I've written stuff myself, and so I was aware that note sequences look a little bit like genetic sequences," explained Dr Morley.
"It took a consultation with a proper composer to find out that was indeed the case, and that it would be possible to create something from genetic sequences."
The "proper composer" approached by Dr Morley was Michael Zev Gordon, who was inspired by the idea.
"From the beginning I've seen the genetic code in two ways: as raw material that could be translated into notes, and also as a thing of wonder and a thing of extraordinary beauty; and it was from both points of view that the piece arose," he told BBC News.
Members of the 40-strong choir are all participants in a scientific study.
Each of them has had his or her DNA decoded in order to see what it is genetically that distinguishes great singers from the rest of us.
That science is yet to be published; but in the meantime, almost as a spin off, Michael Zev Gordon has turned a simple idea into a beautiful work of art through his imaginative arrangement and use of rhythm.
To begin with, there is a single voice singing a simple rhythmic phrase; but as the piece develops, more voices join in - conveying the biological idea of replication and reproduction.
At its climax, each member of the choir is singing their own unique genetic code - resulting in everyone singing a subtly different song.
The conductor of the piece, James Weeks, says: "For me, it's an evocation of the extraordinary wonder that is the genome."Choir to sing the 'code of life'
By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC... more
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;_ylt=Al35yj.7kWbfUq21RFX_Wdus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTRqbGpuNmo5BGFzc2V0A2xpdmVzY2llbmNlLzIwMTAwNzE1L3VnbHliZWFzdGZvdW5kaW50ZXhhc2Fub3RoZXJjaHVwYWNhYnJhBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDOARwb3MDNQRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA3VnbHliZWFzdGZvdQ--
A rancher in Fort Hood, Texas, southwest of Fort Worth, found a strange-looking animal in his barn. The hairless (or nearly hairless) beast was shot by an animal control officer who described it as "ugly, real ugly." From there, things just get stranger.
Samples of the body were taken for DNA analysis, though many people believe it is the blood-sucking beast "el chupacabra," the world's best known monster after Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster.
The chupacabra first appeared in Puerto Rico in 1995 and sightings soon spread to other Spanish-speaking countries and areas. No hard evidence of its existence has been found - though about a half-dozen alleged chupacabra carcasses have been found in Texas.
Tales of the Texas Chupacabra
In May 2004, a rancher near the Texas town of Elmendorf noticed a strange animal eating mulberries under a tree on his property. The thin creature had large ears and a bluish cast, and was nearly hairless. The rancher shot the beast, which because of its odd look was thought by many to be the chupacabra. Genetic testing later revealed it to be a domestic dog.
The most famous Texas chupacabra was found in 2007 when a strange, nearly hairless creature was discovered near a ranch outside the town of Cuero. News spread worldwide, though DNA sequencing revealed it was a Texas coyote that may have been part wolf.
In July 2009 a man living near Blanco, Texas, found a strange dead animal. It weighed about 80 pounds, had four legs and a tail, and resembled a coyote except for its dark chocolate color and the fact that it was mostly hairless. It, too, was thought to be a chupacabra, and even exhibited as one in a creationist museum.
In January of this year, also not far from Fort Worth, golf course workers found what they thought might be the carcass of the chupacabra. The strange four-legged animal was ugly and mostly hairless, and didn't look like anything the men had ever seen before. Rumors and news spread that another Texas chupacabra had been found, though soon a biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department examined the carcass and concluded that the animal was in fact a dead, hairless raccoon.
What's going on?
In most cases the animals are hairless as the result of a disease called sarcoptic mange; other times the creatures have been identified as a rare hairless dog breed called the Xolo.
So what will DNA tests of the latest chupacabra, making news this week in Texas, reveal?
If history is any guide, the Fort Hood monster will most likely be revealed to belong to the Canidae family, which includes dogs, coyotes, foxes, and wolves. Or, if the animal is smaller than an ordinary dog, it might be a raccoon.
Even if the genetic testing came back "unknown" or "inconclusive," such a result would not necessarily indicate that the mystery creature is a chupacabra - simply that the sample did not match other, known index samples, or that the sample was too degraded to derive enough quality DNA for testing.
The word "chupacabra" originally described a bipedal, spiky-spined vampiric monster said to drain blood from goats and other livestock ("chupacabra" means goat-sucker in Spanish). However in recent years the chupacabra label has simply become a catch-all name for just about any strange, hairless creature that can't be immediately identified by whoever first sees or finds it.;_ylt=Al35yj.7kWbfUq21RFX_Wdus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTRqbGpuNmo5BGFzc2V0A2xpdmVzY2llbmNlLzIwMTA... more
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‘Grim Sleeper’ serial killer suspect worked for LAPD and as city trash collector
Joel Rubin and Andrew Blankstein
LA Times
July 7, 2010
The man police allege is the “Grim Sleeper” serial killer worked as a city sanitation worker, a law enforcement source told The Times.
[Updated at 1:16 p.m.: He also worked in the early 1980s as a mechanic at an LAPD station, another source said.]
The suspect was identified as 51-year-old Lonnie David Franklin Jr. Franklin lived in a tidy neighborhood on 81st Street in South Los Angeles.
“Grim Sleeper” Serial Killer Lonnie David Franklin Jr. Arrested…Done In By Pizza DNA…(VIDEOS),,,http://ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/grim-sleeper-serial-killer-lonnie-david-franklin-jr-arrested-done-in-by-pizza-dna-videos/‘Grim Sleeper’ serial killer suspect worked for LAPD and as city trash... more
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This stunning European documentary available for the first time in the US reveals the consequences of GMOs worldwide from BT cotton, BT canola, GM pigs, to GM salmon, which threatens natural species in the wild. It shows how unnecessary and profit driven this technology is, and how it is interfering in the natural processes of this planet.
When you play master of the universe without respect for the nature you are interfering in, the end result cannot be good.This stunning European documentary available for the first time in the US reveals the... more
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http://www.physorg.com/news197211098.html
"This is the first we know in the history of medicine that clinicians are actively trying to prevent homosexuality," says Alice Dreger, professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.http://www.physorg.com/news197211098.html
"This is the first we know in the... more
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The remains of Bobby Fischer, the former world chess champion, are to be exhumed to settle a bitter dispute over his £1million estate, Iceland's Supreme Court ruled, amid claims he fathered a love child.
The American-born chess grandmaster’s $2million (£1.3 million) estate is at the center of an extraordinary legal dispute amid claims he fathered a secret love child in the Philippines. The Iceland Supreme Court this week ruled that his body could be exhumed to prove whether he was the paternal father of Jinky Young, 9.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/chess/7835243/Bobby-Fischer-chess-legends-body-to-be-exhumed-after-bitter-love-child-legal-row.htmlThe remains of Bobby Fischer, the former world chess champion, are to be exhumed to... more
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by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Rand Paul, the Republican senate candidate in Kentucky, is a freewheeling libertarian. Instead of getting some fancy board-certification as an ophthalmologist, Paul decided to “go Galt” and make up his own credentials. Paul founded the National Board of Ophthalmology, ostensibly to certify doctors as qualified eye specialists.
The NBO is run out of Paul’s home in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Paul is the president, is wife is the vice president, and her father Hilton Ashby is the organization’s secretary. Normally medical boards sponsor rigorous exams to ensure the highest professional standards in their respective specialties. “I can’t tell you what the organization does,” Ashby told TPM.
It takes a rugged individualist eye doctor to found an entire medical board just for himself and a few friends. When you think about it, it’s kind of hypocritical of Paul to hold a state-approved medical license. If he were a true libertarian he’d found his own medical board and let the free market decide who’s a “real doctor.”
FDA cracks down on DNA tests
The mean old FDA has ordered that companies offering so-called over-the-counter DNA testing prove that their products actually work. Libertarian Alex Tabarok is outraged. He argues that if the tests don’t actually harm anyone, the government shouldn’t restrict them.
At the American Prospect, Tim Fernholtz replies that the FDA’s decision is just common sense. If a company is claiming to provide medical information, the onus is on them to prove that they are informing the public accurately. Besides, even if the test itself is harmless the results of the test could have life-altering consequences.
Michael Mechanic reports in Mother Jones that one woman became convinced that she’d been the victim of a hospital baby mixup when a over-the-counter DNA test showed that her son wasn’t hers. Kevin Drum of Mother Jones applauds the FDA for getting involved but wonders aloud whether over the counter DNA testing is really that much different from astrology or other dubious prediction methods that are perfectly legal and protected by the First Amendment. Should Magic 8-Balls be allowed to market themselves as pregnancy tests? Signs point to no.
HIV in the Motor City
Former White House staffer Van Jones is raising the alarm about HIV in Detroit, as Todd Heywood reports in the Michigan Messenger. HIV rates in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C. have garnered national headlines, but the crisis in Detroit has gone largely unnoticed. Over half of the zip codes in Detroit report HIV prevalence rates of at least 3%. In the most severely affected zip codes, 6% of the population is HIV positive, an infection level on par with Uganda.
Modeling Christian behavior
A self-proclaimed Christian school in Florida fired a pregnant teacher because she admitted to conceiving her child three weeks before her wedding. Jaretta Hamilton was fired from Southland Christian School for telling the truth about premarital sex, Joseph DiNorcia reports in RH Reality Check. By all accounts Mrs. Hamilton’s job performance was fine. Instead of bearing false witness, she answered an intrusive question truthfully. Apparently the school felt it was more “Christian” for Hamilton’s baby to be born to an unemployed mother. Hamilton is suing for discrimination.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Rand Paul, the Republican senate... more
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Buzz Log: 'Splice' Girl: Meet Delphine Chaneac
We have seen the future. And wow is she weird looking.
The sci-fi movie "Splice" is getting plenty of attention for the topic -- genetic cloning -- and its two main stars, Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. But it's a supporting actor who is generating the most buzz: Otherworldly beauty Delphine Chaneac, who plays the part-woman, part-beast hybrid hellion created by Brody and Polley.
The Web certainly picked up on the newcomer quickly: Searches from the last 7 days on "delphine chaneac" bubbled up the charts almost 500%.
The up-and-coming actress and singer -- who got her start on French television and film -- was discovered by the movie's director Vincenzo Natali ("Cube") on the streets of Paris. He liked her look. Hey, who wouldn't. The porcelain skin, the wide-set eyes -- and the ability to make being a monster actually enviable are some major assets.
One hitch: The French native didn't speak English. Turned out, for this horror movie, that wouldn't be a problem, unless she didn't speak mutant: squeaks, trills, and cat purrs. She got the part.
In the trailer, the bald beast is seen hopping in a menacing way on top of her human mother, actress Sarah Polley, who loves her even though she's different -- and deranged.
More---( includes trailer )
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/buzz-log-splice-girl-meet-delphine-chaneac.html
Movie Stills Photo Gallery---
http://movies.yahoo.com/photos/movie-stills/gallery/2596/splice-stills#photo2Buzz Log: 'Splice' Girl: Meet Delphine Chaneac
We have seen the future.... more
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Man wrongfully imprisoned for decades happy to start relearning life
By Rich Phillips, CNN
May 24, 2010 8:43 p.m. EDT
Tampa, Florida (CNN) -- Meeting 54-year-old James Bain, the one thing that stands out is that the smile never seems to leave his face. He appears happy and positive, and the bitterness that might be buried inside a man who was wrongly sent to prison for 35 years is nowhere to be found.
"I kind of see myself as a man of God and being like Joseph," he said.
"In a sense, I feel like a bear, coming out of hibernation. Like, they come out to eat, mine would be coming out to enjoy what I have missed."
Bain has missed a lot. His life was returned to him and his family in December, when a Florida judge freed him after DNA testing proved he did not kidnap and rape a 9-year-old boy in 1974 in Lake Wales, Florida.
With the help of the Innocence Project, a national public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA tests, Bain left a Florida courtroom and entered a world he had left a lifetime ago. He is now on the outside, in a world that has changed technologically and socially, and one in which he must now learn how to live -- again.
"I've been planning on going back to school, and getting ready to take my driving test again, and hoping to get a motorcycle license," Bain said.
In the backyard of his mother's home in Tampa, Florida, Bain said that he'd like to tour the country on his motorcycle. CNN spoke with him amidst grapefruit and orange trees that weren't even planted when he went to prison so many years ago.
"You spend 35 years in prison, and just the little things, like a grapefruit tree or an orange tree ... those had vanished for me," he said. "I never thought I'd get a chance to see another one of these."
The past six months have been a whirlwind, and Bain has become a celebrity. He was brought to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by the Martin Luther King Jr. Association for Nonviolence to ring the Liberty Bell on Martin Luther King day.
When it was revealed that his favorite movie was "Titanic," the owners of the Orlando, Florida, exhibit "Titanic -- the Experience" invited him and his family to spend the day at the site, where characters from the movie tell the story of the sunken vessel.
Noting the movie symbolized hope and strength for him while in prison, Bain said the film sends chills through his body.
"To me, it means love and care for what you feel about other persons, like my sisters and mother. I think about that key word from 'Titanic,' 'Don't ever let go,' " Bain said.
Bain was invited to Orlando by Lowell Lytle, the man who portrays the Titanic's captain, Edward Smith. Lytle was touched by the torment James experienced while wrongly imprisoned.
"It just hit me how horrible that must have been. That man's youth was taken away from him," Lytle said. "I thought, I need to do something to help this man. If I can bring a smile to his face ... to be able to take him through this exhibit here, and take him through an experience he will remember forever, that was fun for me."
During the past six months, Bain also has spoken to church groups and organizations.
"I try to show whoever I'm speaking to about choices. That's my key word. Choice. Only you can make it because you have to live with it," he said.
"My choice was snatched. ... It was taken from me. They didn't leave me no alternative. It's like the old saying, the right place at the wrong time."
But Bain insists that he's not bitter. He said he believes he's returned to a better society -- a better country than the one he left in 1974. He points to the fact that an African-American was elected president.
"I saw a big difference when the president changed, which I never dreamed would happen," he said. "To see that change, that goes to show me, now, that there's a lot of good that we've done in this country."
Bain has been living with his mother in Tampa. He's been paid to speak in a couple of places, money that will help tide him over until his big payday. He and his attorneys have filed with the state of Florida for the restitution that Bain is entitled to -- $50,000 for every year he spent behind bars, for a total of $1.75 million. That's a lot of money to most of us, but not nearly enough to make up for 35 years, Bain said.
"Not even if they gave me $100 million," he said. "Even if they gave me that, it still wouldn't replace what I lost."
He said it's the money that's keeping him on his guard -- and is one reason why he doesn't yet have a girlfriend.
"I just don't want no woman to want me for my money, to be honest with you," he said. "... You don't know what they have planned."Man wrongfully imprisoned for decades happy to start relearning life
By Rich... more
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BY VENTER ET AL" [5.20.10]
PZ Myers, Richard Dawkins, George Church, Nassim N. Taleb, Daniel C. Dennett, Dimitar Sasselov, Antony Hegarty, George Dyson, Kevin Kelly, Freeman Dyson
http://www.edge.org/discourse/creation/creation_index.html
Introduction
On May 20th, J. Craig Venter and his team at J.C Venter Institute announced the creation of a cell controlled by a synthetic genome in a paper published in SCIENCE. As science historian George Dyson points out, "from the point of view of technology, a code generated within a digital computer is now self-replicating as the genome of a line of living cells. From the point of view of biology, a code generated by a living organism has been translated into a digital representation for replication, editing, and transmission to other cells."
This new development is all about operating on a large scale. "Reading the genetic code of a wide range of species," the paper says, "has increased exponentially from these early studies. Our ability to rapidly digitize genomic information has increased by more than eight orders of magnitude over the past 25 years." This is a big scaling up in our technological abilities. Physicist Freeman Dyson, commenting on the paper, notes that "the sequencing and synthesizing of DNA give us all the tools we need to create new forms of life." But it remains to be seen how it will serve in practice.
One question is whether or not a DNA sequence alone is enough to generate a living creature. One way of reading the paper suggests this doesn't seem to be the case because of the use of old microplasma cells into which the DNA was inserted — that this is not about "creating life" since the new life requires an existing living recipient cell. If this is the case, what is the chance of producing something de novo? The paper might appear to be about a somewhat banal technological feat. The new techniques build on existing capabilities. What else is being added, what is qualitatively new?
While it is correct to say that the individual cell was not created, a new line of cells (dare one say species?) was generated. This is new life that is self-propagating, i.e. "the cells with only the synthetic genome are self replicating and capable of logarithmic growth."
The paper concludes with the following:
If the methods described here can be generalized, design, synthesis, assembly, and transplantation of synthetic chromosomes will no longer be a barrier to the progress of synthetic biology. We expect that the cost of DNA synthesis will follow what has happened with DNA sequencing and continue to exponentially decrease. Lower synthesis costs combined with automation will enable broad applications for synthetic genomics.
Will the new techniques described in the paper allow us to bring extinct species back to life? Here are three examples of three possible stages after the production of a bacterial cell: 1. generating a human, i.e. a Neanderthal; 2. generating a woolly mammoth; 3. generating a tasmanian wolf.
Generating a Neanderthal, given the recent mapping of the Neanderthal genome by Svante Pääbo, seems to be feasible, but it will raise ethical hackles. Don't hold your breath waiting for someone to try it. Generating a woolly mammoth will not be an ethical problem but it also seems feasible by using an elephant's placenta: inject mammoth DNA into a modern elephant egg from which elephant DNA has been removed, then import the elephant egg into an elephant. A real challenge will be to generate a truly extinct species such as a Tasmanian wolf for which no host cells exist.
What does this mean? We don't know yet, and we may not know for years. For now, all we can do is speculate responsibly. As Freeman Dyson notes:
I feel sure of only one conclusion. The ability to design and create new forms of life marks a turning-point in the history of our species and our planet.
Life goes on.. but it won't be the same.
To provide context, we have put together a retrospective of Edge events, transcripts, and videos featuring the pioneers in this area who are among the key players in what we are calling "A New Age of Wonder" [click here]
The Edge Reality Club discussion on the paper, "Creation Of A Bacterial Cell Controlled By A Chemically Synthesized Genome," is below (follow the link).
http://www.edge.org/discourse/creation/creation_index.htmlBY VENTER ET AL" [5.20.10]
PZ Myers, Richard Dawkins, George Church, Nassim N.... more
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