Ethics // Current TV

Florida District School Board Shooting

Latest News Updates shooting in Florida during a school board meeting. With news... more

websmeo
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Progressive capitalism: Tocqueville, RJ Reynolds, and taking back our American birthright

I find myself thinking about how years of fat cat scandal and abuse here in America... more

hoosierdaddy
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Rangel wants censure penalty lightened

WASHINGTON — Rep. Charles Rangel is ready to make a last stand to salvage his... more

Radical_Centrist
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Rangel Gives Emotional Plea To Ethics Committee

CarlosBobthe3rd
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Response to Charlie Rangel hearing decision

While the U.S. wages criminal wars around the world, and no one is held accountable,... more

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We're doing experiments on poor children

Washington state is working to reverse a disturbing trend: the disproportionate use of... more

PepsiJuror
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$$ - Psychiatrists Dominate "Doctor-Dollars" Database Listing Big Pharma Payments - $$

October 22, 2010 — Psychiatrists dominate a list of physicians receiving the... more

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The Party of Hate: Tea and No Sympathy

As a blogger at Good Business (Good-B), I usually write about money, not politics.... more

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Charity offers UK drug addicts £200 to be sterilised

Project Prevention, is a controversial charity which pays drug addicts £200 to... more

Mcellie
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Scientists under attack: Genetic engineering in the magnetic field of money: film review

Billed as "a political thriller on GMOs and freedom of speech", this film by the German film-maker Bertram Verhaag tells the stories of two scientists, Dr Arpad Pusztai and Dr Ignacio Chapela, whose research showed negative findings on GM foods and crops. Both suffered the fate of those who challenge the powerful vested interests that dominate agribusiness and scientific research. They were vilified and intimidated, attempts were made to suppress and discredit their research, and their careers were derailed.

Pusztai found that the internal organs of rats fed GM insecticidal potatoes either increased in size or did not develop properly compared with controls. His experiments turned up no less than 36 significant differences between GM-fed and non-GM-fed animals. Pusztai, encouraged by his research institute, gave a 150-second interview on British TV in which he summarised his findings and said it was unfair to use our fellow citizens as guinea pigs for GM foods.

For two days, Pusztai was treated as a hero by his institute. But following a phone call from UK prime minister Tony Blair to the institute's head, Pusztai was fired and gagged under threat of a lawsuit. His research team was disbanded and his data were confiscated. Lies were circulated about his research that he could not counter due to the gagging order, lifted only later when he was due to appear before a Parliamentary Committee. For Pusztai’s co-researchers, the gagging order remains in place for life.

Pusztai's results threatened the GM industry because they showed that it wasn't the insecticide engineered into the potatoes that damaged the rats, but the genetic engineering process itself. So the problem wasn't just with these GM potatoes but potentially with all GM foods on the market. The only solution for the industry and its friends in government was to shoot the messenger.

Traumatic though this was for Pusztai, it wasn't the biggest shock he had to face regarding GM foods. That came when he was asked to review safety submissions from the GM industry for crops we were already eating – and found that they were scientifically flimsy. "That was a turning point in my life," said Pusztai. "I was doing safety studies; they were doing as little as possible [in terms of safety testing] to get their foods on the market as quickly as they could."

Another scientist whose run-in with the GM industry is featured in the film is Ignacio Chapela, a molecular geneticist at UC Berkeley. His research, co-authored with David Quist and published in the journal Nature, revealed that Mexican maize had been contaminated with GM genes. The finding was explosive because Mexico is the centre of origin for maize and the planting of GM maize there was illegal.

Chapela found himself the target of a vicious internet campaign condemning him as more of an activist than a scientist and claiming that his paper was false. Nature's editor published a partial retraction of the paper. As Chapela points out in the film, the editor's action flew in the face of scientific method. In the normal way of things, a journal editor publishes a study that he and peer reviewers judge to be sound. It is for subsequent published studies to confirm or correct the findings. It is not for the editor to state that he would not have published a study had he known then what he knows now – without the benefit of further peer reviewed scientific input. The editor's move showed how the GM industry is rewriting the rules of science for its own ends.

To add insult to injury, the internet campaign against Chapela turned out not to have been initiated and fuelled not by his scientific peers but by fake citizens, "sockpuppets" invented by the Bivings Group, a public relations firm contracted by Monsanto.

Scientists Under Attack goes on to show how the GM industry has blocked the evolution of scientific knowledge. When Russian scientist Irina Ermakova's study found high mortality rates and low body weight in rats fed GM soy, and when Austrian government research found that decreased fertility in mice fed GM maize, the industry carried out its usual campaign of vilification. If the industry were interested in scientific truth, it would push for studies to be repeated with the alleged "flaws" corrected. But this never happens. Instead, GM companies use their patent-based ownership of GM crops to deny scientists access to research materials – the GM crop and the non-GM parent line control. So the original research showing problems with GM crops is buried under a deluge of smears and follow up studies are not done. For the public, the difficulty and expense involved in accessing full research papers makes it hard to find where the truth lies.

The film also highlights an extreme example of the corporate takeover of science – at University of California, Berkeley (UCB), where Chapela is a professor. In 1998, UCB entered into a $25 million research partnership with biotech company Novartis (now Syngenta). The deal provoked angry debate on campus and was criticized by a number of faculty members, including Chapela. Then in 2007, UCB entered into a $500 million research deal with oil giant BP. The partnership was negotiated in secret, without consultation even within the university. In return for its money, BP gained access to UCB’s researchers, control over the research agenda, and co-ownership of commercial rights over inventions. Chapela says of BP, "They decide what is called science."Billed as "a political thriller on GMOs and freedom of speech", this film by... more

JanforGore
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Frito Lay Loses Backbone And Surrenders To Human Stupidity | Enviralment

FRITO LAY PULLING MOST OF ITS BIODEGRADABLE SUNCHIPS BAGS AFTER NOISE COMPLAINTS... more

Weemz
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When should clemency be granted for death row inmates?

Tonight Teresa Lewis will be executed by the state of Virginia. Lewis was convicted of... more

joshuaheller
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1 year ago
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Richard I Fine Released (after 18 months confinement for contempt charges)

Jailed for contempt. Some speculate that the contempt charges and subsequent... more

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10 comments

Dr. Stephen Baskerville, "The Family Crisis and the Future of Western Civilization"

Government of/for the governed; and Power Games/plays by authorities within... more

justadad
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1 year ago
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2 comments

Save the Manatee Club Calls for Boaters' Help

The last of the big summer holidays is almost here. An upswing in boating traffic is... more

julesrs007
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1 year ago
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2 comments

WANTED BY ANGRY MILLIONS: Antonia Miskic (aka Katja Puschnik) Puppy Killer

It seems there is an online manhunt for the girl who was responsible for throwing six... more

julesrs007
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1 year ago
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MARINE RECEIVES SLAP ON THE WRIST FOR BRUTALLY KILLING GIRLFRIENDS DOG

THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST TIME JAMIE MALDONADO HAD BEATEN THE POOR LITTLE DOG... more

julesrs007
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1 year ago
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Puppy dragged, picked up by animal services & now scheduled for euthanasia... tomorrow.

Baldwin Park, CA - The dog was dragged by a car, but survived. Whether he was... more

julesrs007
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1 year ago
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Soldier’s dogs surrendered to AZ shelter - public help needed to facilitate a reunion

Arizona - Two Yellow Labradors recently found themselves in a precarious position. The dogs, owned by a soldier currently serving in Iraq, had been in the care of a friend of the deployed soldier. The couple caring for the dogs was entrusted with the dogs care until the soldier returned from duty.

Dogs cared for by a friend, and therefore safe - right? Not so fast. Apparently, legal guardianship was transferred to the friend for vet purposes, and the friend had a wife with allergies.

Despite being entrusted with the dogs' lives by a man off serving his country, the friend chose to turn the 2 dogs over to the Pinal County Animal Care and Control, rather than finding the dogs a guaranteed safe haven.

Thankfully, the shelter took pity on the 2 dogs, and contacted Helping Orphaned Hounds for help. Had they not, the dogs would have had only 24 hours to either be adopted or euthanized because they were considered to be an owner surrender to the shelter facility.

Boulder Falls Pet Resort wants to see the dogs reunited with their true owner and is currently housing them for free until every effort has been made to make that reunion possible. The rescue volunteers desperately want to contact the deployed soldier to let him know that his dogs are safe, and that they will be held until his return, but they have no way to contact him.

The friend that surrendered the dogs to the shelter refuses to release the soldier's name - merely stating that the person is deployed to Iraq. The public's help is needed to help locate the owner of these dogs. Someone is bound to recognize the dog's beautiful faces and can help to get word to the soldier to let him know what has transpired.

The dogs are approximately 2-4 years of age, one male, and one female. One dog is named Wyatt and the other is named Storm. If anyone has information about the person that owns Wyatt and Storm, they are asked to contact Rhonda Wagner Kuehn at Helping Orphaned Hounds at 406-697-5975.

Please circulate this article and ask others to do the same. The more people that read about Wyatt and Storm, the better the chances of a happy reunion.Arizona - Two Yellow Labradors recently found themselves in a precarious position. The... more

julesrs007
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1 year ago
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Learning "Ethiquette" with Independent Eco-Designer SA VA

Enter Philadelphia-based designer Sarah Van Aken – dreamer and designer behind... more

AwakenedAesthetic
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1 year ago
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