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Monsanto Roundup: It's your future edition
This is the next installment in the monthly Monsanto Roundup, brought to you without corporate sponsorship or commercial interruption.
In this edition the discussion surrounds events taking place in the world of Monsanto and biotech:
* Monsanto's new poison, and DOW's reinvention of an old one
* Regulate and label GMOs President Obama !
* Illegal transgenic contamination events in New Zealand, Italy, Ireland,...
* Submission from Norway on the risks of GMOs to biodiversity... you know, that thing that allows us to continue living on Earth.
In lieu of reports of both declining ocean and plant diversity, I truly think it is time to take stock in just what the hell we are doing to this planet and yes, that does include climate change!
So please avail yourself of the knowledge available on the Sustainable Agriculture Group, and thanks for the support. Knowledge is power.
Monsanto, out of our food!This is the next installment in the monthly Monsanto Roundup, brought to you without... more-
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UK & US gov't scientists parrot Monsanto's talking points
The U.S. isn't the only country whose public research institutions have been bought by corporations pushing the agricultural biotechnology industry's wares and research agenda. According to the UK Guardian, the scientist in charge of a publicly funded genetically engineered potato trial that may affect the future of genetically modified crops in the UK is also the co-founder of Mendel Biotechnology. Mendel's website states that its "most important customer and collaborator for [their] technology business is Monsanto." Professor Jonathan Jones, who works for the UK’s leading plant research center, has publicly attacked anti-GE campaigners as "fussy eaters" and defended the trial against detractors. Critics point out that, because blight resistance is already found in several naturally occurring strains of potato, the trial is both a waste of tax-payer dollars and an increasingly transparent ploy to "sell" GE technology to the public.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/18/gm-scientist-defends-monsanto-links
Back in the U.S., Jonathan Jones has a twin in industry/government revolving-door beneficiary Roger Beachy. Beachy was president of the Danforth Plant Science Center (the nonprofit that is Monsanto's de facto research arm) before being appointed head of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture in September and made Chief Scientist of the USDA in January of this year. Having admitted his own bizarre fear of organic farming methods to Grist's Tom Philpott last March, Beachy is now ramping up his pro-GE fear-mongering, taking his talking point from Monsanto's playbook. He told SmartPlanet that in order to feed more people, we need to utilize GE technology to grow more crops per acre, because, "'If we don't, we'll have to expand [agriculture] to our parks, forests and golf courses.'"
Jill Richardson of La Vida Locavore points to several experts who explain that this just isn't so. The Union of Concerned Scientists has amply documented the fact that GM crops have failed to deliver on their promise of increased yields, and Jack Heinemann, a professor of genetics and molecular biology, says the prospect of GE drought tolerance will never materialize because, “'the physiology of stress tolerance involves the interactions of many different genes working in a complex, environmentally-responsive network... genetic engineering is unlikely to produce reliable drought tolerance in most crops grown in actual field conditions because it is unable to mix and match so many genes at once.'" "Apparently," reports Richardson, "the Obama administration never got the memo that the biotech industry's "feed the world" rhetoric was based on market research to promote GE food acceptance among Americans and not on [the technology's] ability to deliver."The U.S. isn't the only country whose public research institutions have been... more-
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Lab errors lead to illegal GM seed release in New Zealand
A probe into the escape of genetically engineered plants from a government laboratory found scientists had left routes open.
Scientists also washed out their high-security specialist containment laboratory with water that was flushed straight into the storm water system.
Details of a criminal investigation into a GE breach at a Plant and Food Research glasshouse laboratory are exposed in papers released under the Official Information Act.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry documents describe a slew of failures and oversights by the government agencies charged with overseeing New Zealand GE laws.
The errors were made by the Environmental Risk and Management Authority, charged with allowing the importation and use of GE material; Plant and Food Research; and MAF, which audits the controls.
The investigation by MAF's enforcement unit was launched after GE cress plants (arabidopsis thaliana) were found growing outside a supposedly secure glasshouse.
The glasshouse was on Lincoln University property in Christchurch but leased out to Plant and Food Research for its experiments.
A senior staff member followed protocols and alerted MAF after the cress leak.
In the six months that followed, scientists refused to be interviewed by MAF staff, potential evidence was destroyed and paperwork showed the GE seeds used to grow the plants should never have been allowed into New Zealand.
The investigation led to no criminal charges being filed - because investigators could not identify beyond reasonable doubt how the seeds escaped confinement to grow outside the glasshouse.
Problems included Plant and Food Research staff using mesh over an air vent and a storm water drain that had holes bigger than the seeds they were meant to stop.
The issues began with the entry to New Zealand of two batches of seeds used in the experiment. The seeds were inaccurately identified as not GE on import documents.
The lead investigator said technically it could mean the "seeds were never cleared ... to enter the country".
The MAF audit also discovered Plant and Food Research was signed off as having passed the audit and "we simply take the operators' word for it that the work has been done".
The lead investigator also revealed that Plant and Food Research was the agency used to test and store the GE material collected in the criminal investigation.
He said he could not fault Plant and Food Research during the investigation but "they may have a vested interest in not identifying or locating any further positive sampling".
He said any further legal action could be compromised because the "primary suspect" had tested and stored the "exhibits".
The investigation was further stymied by the destruction of possible evidence on the lab coats of scientists working in the glasshouse.
The search of the surrounding area was also not completed to the satisfaction of the lead investigator.
Other documents revealed that scientists and staff initially refused to be interviewed by MAF staff. They cited a section of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act which grants the right to silence when cooperating could lead to incrimination.
They eventually agreed to be interviewed, although many had a Plant and Food Research lawyer present. Investigators had a search warrant prepared to enter the lab and seize evidence because of the resistance they faced.
It was Plant and Food Research's second major breach of GE containment in two years.
continuedA probe into the escape of genetically engineered plants from a government laboratory... more-
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Bad Vibrations
Alice Dreger and Ellen K. Feder, 06/16/2010
Bad Vibrations
(Human Bodies) Permanent link
In “The Rhetoric of Dehumanization: An Analysis of Medical Reports of the Tuskegee Syphilis Project,” Martha Solomon brilliantly demonstrates how the project’s researchers hid their work in plain sight. Specifically, Solomon used the published reports of the Tuskegee syphilis study – which involved medical professionals actively withholding medicines from black men with syphilis for four decades – to show how the dehumanizing, scientized language of modern medicine “can obscure and deemphasize any ethical, non-scientific perspective.”
Solomon’s insights come to mind as we read the 2007 Journal of Urology paper, “Nerve Sparing Ventral Clitoroplasty: Analysis of Clitoral Sensitivity and Viability” by Jennifer Yang, Diane Felsen, and Dix P. Poppas. Writing in the typically dry, quantifying language of modern medicine, the authors report why they believe Poppas, a pediatric urologist at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, has left a group of girls still able to have sexual sensation after he has removed parts of the girls’ clitorises. With parental consent, these girls’ clitorises have been cut down in size after the physician deemed these clitorises too big.
For over a decade, many people (including us) have criticized this surgical practice. Critics in medicine, bioethics, and patient advocacy have questioned the surgery’s necessity, safety, and efficacy. We still know of no evidence that a large clitoris increases psychological risk (so is the surgery even necessary?), and we do know of substantial anecdotal evidence that it does not increase risk. Importantly, there also seems to be evidence that clitoroplasties performed in infancy do increase risk – of harm to physical and sexual functioning, as well as psychosocial harm.
But we are not writing today to again bring attention to the surgeries themselves. Rather, we are writing to express our shock and concern over the follow-up examination techniques described in the 2007 article by Yang, Felsen, and Poppas. Indeed, when a colleague first alerted us to these follow-up exams – which involve Poppas stimulating the girls’ clitorises with vibrators while the girls, aged six and older, are conscious – we were so stunned that we did not believe it until we looked up his publications ourselves.
Here more specifically is, apparently, what is happening: At annual visits after the surgery, while a parent watches, Poppas touches the daughter’s surgically shortened clitoris with a cotton-tip applicator and/or with a “vibratory device,” and the girl is asked to report to Poppas how strongly she feels him touching her clitoris. Using the vibrator, he also touches her on her inner thigh, her labia minora, and the introitus of her vagina, asking her to report, on a scale of 0 (no sensation) to 5 (maximum), how strongly she feels the touch. Yang, Felsen, and Poppas also report a “capillary perfusion testing,” which means a physician or nurse pushes a finger nail on the girl’s clitoris to see if the blood goes away and comes back, a sign of healthy tissue. Poppas has indicated in this article and elsewhere that ideally he seeks to conduct annual exams with these girls. He intends to chart the development of their sexual sensation over time.
Yang, a pediatric urologist, and Felsen, a pharmacologist, reported in e-mail messages to Feder that they did not participate in the follow-up “clitoral sensory testing” described in the article, but were concerned only with the analysis of the data collected during the post-operative evaluations. Yang indicated that all testing was conducted by Poppas and his nurse practitioner. Poppas told Feder by email that a family member is in the room when the touching takes place.
Although we have tried, we have been unable to locate any other pediatric urologist who uses these techniques. Indeed, we doubt many would, because we think most would – as we do – find this technique to be impossible to justify as being in these girls’ best interests. We understand that these tests might produce generalized knowledge that shows whether Poppas’s techniques are better than some other surgeons’, but it isn’t clear to us how this kind of genital touching post-operatively is in individual patients’ best interests. If the testing shows a girl has lost sensation through the surgery, her lost clitoral tissue cannot be put back. However, the tests would seem to expose the girls to significant risk of psychological harm.
In the course of our inquiries, made in preparation for this publication, nearly all clinicians to whom we described Poppas’s “clitoral sensory testing and vibratory sensory testing” practices thought them so outrageous that they told us we must have the facts wrong. When we showed them the 2007 article, their disbelief ceased, but they then seemed to become as agitated as we were. At an international conference two weeks ago, when Dreger told Ken Zucker, a psychologist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and member of the clinical establishment, about this, Zucker said that we could quote him as saying this: “Applying a vibrator to a six-year-old girl’s surgically feminized clitoris is developmentally inappropriate.” We couldn’t find a clinician who disagreed with Zucker.
Yang, Felsen, and Poppas describe the girls “sensory tested” as being older than five. They are, therefore, old enough to remember being asked to lie back, be touched with the vibrator, and report on whether they can still feel sensation. They may also be able to remember their emotions and the physical sensations they experienced. Their parents’ participation may also figure in these memories. We think therefore that most reasonable people will agree with Zucker that Poppas’s techniques are “developmentally inappropriate.”
What is Poppas thinking? So far as we can tell, from published articles, presentations to parents, and his communications with Feder, he thinks he is responding to critics of genital surgery, like us, and thus reassuring parents that everything is going to be fine. Notably, though, there is a lack of control data for most of the patients described, meaning that we don’t know what sensation these girls might have had without the surgeries, nor do we know what a “normal” level of sensation is at these ages. (We can’t imagine any sane parent giving up his or her daughter to be the control.) We also don’t know that what the surgically altered girls feel in childhood will map onto their adult sexual lives. And we don’t know how Poppas’s tests are going to affect their psychosocial development.
And what about institutional ethics oversight in this case? Yang, Felsen, and Poppas report IRB approval for retrospective chart review, but apparently have no IRB approval for the post-op “sensory testing.” We asked for a read on this from Anne Tamar-Mattis, the attorney who runs Advocates for Informed Choice, who has joined with us in formally expressing concerns about another medical procedure aimed at preventing the prenatal formation of ambiguous genitalia (and maybe also preventing the development of tomboyism, aggressiveness, and lesbianism in girls). Tamar-Mattis replied:Alice Dreger and Ellen K. Feder, 06/16/2010 Bad Vibrations (Human Bodies) Permanent... more-
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No More Dirty Looks: The Story of Cosmetics
The truth about your beauty products...
If you've been hanging out on the site lately, you know we've been doing a lot of writing about cosmetics, personal-care products, sunscreen, and the like in our No More Dirty Looks series. Based on a book I wrote with my friend Alexandra Spunt, the series is our attempt to share what we've learned about the health and environmental impacts of all the goop we put on ourselves every day.
Anyway, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has been working tirelessly to change legislation since 2004, and today they have some huge news. First, they announced the introduction of new legislation by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and second, they have launched this amazing new video with the Story of Stuff Project. It's eight minutes long, and you should watch all eight of them.
GOOD is a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward. Since 2006 we've been making a magazine, videos, and events for people who give a damn.
http://www.sustainlane.com/reviews/the-story-of-cosmetics/1H1I82QIWZBC9O3JUQOS1CNJ78PYThe truth about your beauty products... If you've been hanging out on the site... more-
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Congressman Dennis Kucinich proposes GMO right to know legislation
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a long-time advocate of family farmers and organic foods, today introduced H.R. 5577, The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act, as well as supporting legislation that will provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for all Genetically Engineered (GE) plants, animals, bacteria, and other organisms.
“To ensure we can maximize benefits and minimize hazards, Congress must provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for all Genetically Engineered products. Structured as a common-sense precaution to ensure GE foods do no harm, these bills will ensure that consumers are protected, food safety measures are strengthened, farmers’ rights are better protected and biotech companies are responsible for their products,” said Kucinich.
In addition to the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act, Kucinich introduced the Genetically Engineered Safety Act, HR 5578, which prohibits the open-air cultivation of GE pharmaceutical and industrial crops and establishes a tracking system to regulate and ensure the safety of GE pharmaceutical and industrial crops.
The third bill is the Genetically Engineered Technology Farmer Protection Act, HR 5579 which would protect farmers and ranchers that may be harmed economically by genetically engineered seeds, plants, or animals, to ensure fairness for farmers and ranchers in their dealings with biotech companies that sell GE products.
Congressman Kucinich has long been a proponent of ‘Right to Know’ legislation, and has introduced similar bills in previous sessions of Congress.Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a long-time advocate of family farmers and organic... more-
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Enviropig - A piggy you hope never to meet at market
As technology grows increasingly complex and our environmental problems ever more serious, the proposed "technological fixes" from industry grow more ludicrous and dangerous. And so it is with genetic engineering. The common disconnect between science and reality is represented perfectly by the ridiculous, and yet threateningly real GM Enviropig project. Enviropig is the grotesque realization of early scientific aspirations and laboratory accidents. Born of scientific curiosity, hubris and a complete misunderstanding of the real world, a GM pig with less phosphorus in its feces is being proposed as a solution to water pollution caused by run-off from factory farms.
Enviropig is a classic false technological fix that ignores the real causes of a problem and instead tries to develop, at great cost, a shiny, new, patented product for sale to mask the symptoms.
Enviropig is expressly designed to support existing factory farming practices. In the early days, before the advent of extensive public relations, University of Guelph scientist and Enviropig developer John Philips said as much. (item 1)
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http://www.commonground.ca/iss/227/cg227_enviropig.shtml
Fifteen years ago in a lab at the University of Guelph in Ontario - then home to some of Canada's most ardent supporters of the new science of genetic engineering - an idea was conceived. Five years later, "Wayne," a genetically modified (GM) pig was born. Now, the so-called "Enviropig™" could soon be approved for human consumption in Canada and possibly the US as well.
As technology grows increasingly complex and our environmental problems ever more serious, the proposed "technological fixes" from industry grow more ludicrous and dangerous. And so it is with genetic engineering. The common disconnect between science and reality is represented perfectly by the ridiculous, and yet threateningly real GM Enviropig project. Enviropig is the grotesque realization of early scientific aspirations and laboratory accidents. Born of scientific curiosity, hubris and a complete misunderstanding of the real world, a GM pig with less phosphorous in its feces is being proposed as a solution to water pollution caused by run-off from factory farms.
Enviropig™ is the trademarked industry name for a pig that has been genetically engineered to excrete less phosphorous in its feces. It will produce the enzyme phytase in its salivary glands to enable more effective digestion of phytate, the form of phosphorus found in pig feed ingredients like corn and soybeans. Scientists inserted a transgene sequence that includes an E-coli bacteria phytase gene and a mouse promoter gene sequence.
Enviropig is a classic false technological fix that ignores the real causes of a problem and instead tries to develop, at great cost, a shiny, new, patented product for sale to mask the symptoms.
Phosphorous from animal manure is a nutrient for plants that becomes a pollutant if there's too much of it for crops to absorb and the excess runs off into streams and lakes. When pig manure spread on farmland exceeds the amount crops can use while growing, the excess phosphorus runs off as fields drain into surface waters. There, it promotes excessive algae growth. The algae form thick mats, blocking sunlight from reaching deeper waters and when the algae dies and decomposes, it uses up dissolved oxygen in the water, killing fish and other organisms. Blue-green algae, which often grow in phosphorus-rich waters, produce cyanotoxins that can kill livestock and pets if they drink the polluted water.
But phosphorus pollution is a problem specific to the industrial model of hog production where tens of thousands of pigs under one roof produce too much manure for the surrounding land to use productively. Such intensive, concentrated production means that operations import tonnes of pig feed from distant sources and must then pay the cost of disposing of millions of gallons of liquified hog manure. Operations prefer to spread manure on land within a mile or two of the industrial pig barns rather than pay to transport heavy liquid manure to more distant fields.
Enviropig is designed to reduce the amount of phosphorous produced by the pigs themselves so factory farms don't have to pay for other measures, such as reducing the number of pigs they raise in one place, trucking liquid manure longer distances or expanding the area of land for spreading manure. The real solution, however, lies in changing the model of production, not in genetically engineering the pigs.
Enviropig is expressly designed to support existing factory farming practices. In the early days, before the advent of extensive public relations, University of Guelph scientist and Enviropig developer John Philips said as much. In 1999, a Reuters article* included Philips articulating the economic rationale that, if phosphorous in pig manure is reduced by 50 percent, theoretically, farmers can raise 50 percent more pigs and still meet environmental restrictions. Philips went on to say that, in North America, Europe and in some parts of Asia, the only thing holding back a farmer's hog output is the restriction on phosphorous leaching into the water table. (*This Little Piggie Smells Better.)
Smaller farms means less "waste"
In an alternative model characterized by smaller hog production units dispersed over a wide geographic area, phosphorus in pig manure does not become an environmental problem; it is used as a valuable fertilizer instead. Phosphorus is an important plant nutrient and an essential element of soil fertility in farming. Animal manure is a source of phosphorus for growing field crops, including those used to feed pigs.
Twenty years ago, hog production in Canada was based on a successful model where tens of thousands of farmers earned a livelihood raising pigs in modest-sized operations. Now, the hog industry is dominated by a few giant hog production corporations where thousands of pigs are raised under one roof. Smaller, independent farmers have been forced out of business through loss of market access and unfair competition from huge, vertically integrated companies that own hog barns as well as packing plants and other related businesses. Hog production has doubled over the past 20 years, but in the 13 years between 1996 and 2009, the numbers of farms reporting hogs was cut by nearly two-thirds – from 21,105 to 7,675.
Intensive production has made Canada a major global supplier of hogs, but we can’t compete with other countries that have lower labour and feed costs. The result is that Canada’s hog producers have been forced to sell below their cost of production for many years and small producers have retired, sold out or gone bankrupt. Only the biggest producers and some contract producers are left, surviving almost exclusively on government subsidy programs and bailout packages. Adding a GM pig to this economically and environmentally unsustainable model will only deepen the crisis.
snip
Is Enviropig safe to eat?
Enviropig, like all GM foods in Canada, will be assessed for human safety by Health Canada and classified as a "novel food." Health Canada, however, has not yet developed specific guidelines for evaluating the safety of GM animals for human consumption. Instead, Canada will rely on the United Nations Codex guidelines and refer to the US Food and Drug Administration. Health Canada does not conduct any of its own safety tests of GM foods, but relies on data submitted directly from the product developer, in this case the University of Guelph. The data is classified as "Confidential Business Information" and is not accessible to the public or to independent scientists. Of course, there is no mandatory labelling of GM foods in Canada or the US so approval of GM pork is likely to spark an unprecedented crisis of consumer confidence in the food system.
continuedAs technology grows increasingly complex and our environmental problems ever more... more-
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Study: "No Benefits of Organics"... Failure to Disclose Research Study's Link to Monsanto
By Holly Case, Natural Food Network Newsletter Editor
Every now and then the media reports a story that intends to "prove" that organic foods are no better than their conventional counterparts. However, there are flaws that can usually be found with each such story.
What is also not disclosed is the name of the company behind the research: MONSANTO.
The latest example is a story by researchers with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Health in the UK that shows no health advantages of organic foods.
The study in question was actually a literature review of 162 articles, looking for any studies that directly compared organic foods to conventional. The results were very small, with only 12 articles found that directly compared the two.
What the researchers found is that few studies have been done to date that evaluate the health benefits of organics, and what studies exist mostly look at antioxidant effects.
The authors of this literature review admit that not only is there a limited number of published data on the topic, their own research only looks at relatively short-term effects of organics rather than a long-range view of the effects of pesticides.
The article's source is listed as "The American Society for Nutrition." This represents a conflict of interest because MONSANTO is a "sustaining member" of this group.
There is not anything significant or new in this review of the literature and committed organic shoppers should not be swayed by this study.
http://www.naturalfoodnet.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=By Holly Case, Natural Food Network Newsletter Editor Every now and then the... more-
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Environmentalists try to ban release of synthetic life forms into the wild
Environmentalists have begun a concerted campaign to ensure that new forms of "artificial life" are never released into the wider environment because of fears that the life-forms will hasten the extinction of wild species.
A Canadian environmental group has already claimed partial victory in trying to impose a global moratorium on scientists such as Craig Venter, the controversial genome entrepreneur who last week claimed that he had made a synthetic cell in at test-tube controlled by a chromosome created from scratch.
The Etc Group, based in Ottawa, said it had helped to formulate a "de facto moratorium" on synthetic biology at a side meeting of the UN Conventional on Biological Diversity, which ended at the weekend in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. A scientific body attached to the convention, called the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, drew up a proposal on synthetic biology that is likely to result in any release experiments into the wild being banned if adopted by a meeting of environment ministers in Japan this year, the Etc Group said.
"The draft adopted by the meeting amounts to a de facto moratorium on the release of synthetic life forms. But the text will remain in 'square brackets', meaning that it has not achieved unanimous agreement among the Biological Convention's 193 member countries at this time," a spokesman said.
The moratorium on any release of synthetic life-forms is likened to the earlier moratoria on "terminator technology", a suicide gene that prevents GM seeds from being fertile after they are harvested, and ocean fertilisation, an attempt to spread iron into the sea to stimulate the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air.Environmentalists have begun a concerted campaign to ensure that new forms of... more-
- JanforGore
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Corexit is killing the Gulf
Nick Pozzi, a former oil pipeline engineering and operations project manager is puzzled why BP did not salvage perfectly good crude oil for later sale, and to thereby protect marine and wildlife.
What Mr. Pozzi does not know is the oil companies are owned by the world’s only legal counterfeiters – the International Monetary/Banking Cartel – who can “print” all the money they want, so making money on Gulf oil was not important to them. Killing the Gulf of Mexico, apparently, is important to them, for their own cryptic and esoteric reasons.
If the Cartel had wanted to save marine life, any oil they had not vacuumed up could have been mulched with any number of non-toxic materials, such as “Oil Sponge,” a name trademarked by Phase III, Inc.
Rated as the “best performing” absorbent by the US Army Corp of Engineers, Oil Sponge is 100% organic, and is made from renewable resources.
Oil Sponge is built using a microbial and nutrient package, capable of transforming oil hydrocarbons into a safe bi-product of carbon dioxide and water.
But, the governmental bureaucrats of the Obama administration, and the Cartel’s oil executives, had no interest in using an environmentally friendly product to clean up what is the greatest man-made environmental disaster of all time … they seemed intent on making this unbelievable cataclysm far, far worse, and one that could never be cleaned up.
It cannot yet be proven that the Monetary Cartel purposely blew up their own wellhead, but the crimes they have committed in their so-called “clean-up” efforts are well documented, in spite of no corporate media outrage. Well, of course not, the Cartel that owns the oil companies also own their corporate media.
After the Exxon Valdez incident of March 1989, Mycelx of Georgia developed what looks like a paper towel to soak up to 50 times its weight in oil. And while this product is used from the Middle East to Europe to Canada it was of no interest to the parties Obama charged with cleaning up the Gulf of the floating oil those very same parties caused.
Then there is the AmeriHaz Petroleum Solidifier that encapsulates environmental contaminants, making crude oil and other oil like substances easy to retrieve, which also proved to be of no interest to the Cartel.
Even hair naturally separates oil from water, leaving large tar globs, in which mushrooms can then be seeded. And as the mushrooms grow, they digest the oil, leaving non-toxic organics, which can then be composed into soil, great for growing healthy vegetables.
Anyone who has ever had a bad hair day knows how well hair will retain oil. In fact, Lisa Gautier, president of Matter of Fact (website for hair salons) has collected 400,000 pounds of hair, and stuffed it all into nylons to be used as booms near Gulf shores.
This idea could have been a shot in the arm of our dying economy, by creating organic compose for the millions of nutrient depleted farm acres in the world. Also there could have been a viable cottage industry of collecting hair from salons.
And, hair is certainly a renewable resource, with most of us contributing. But neither Obama or the Cartel has done anything for our dying US and world economy, but ensure it dies, while feebly pretending to resuscitate it.
And now that they’ve probably destroyed the tourist, shrimping, and fishing industries along the Gulf Coast, we’ll be hearing about more “stimulus packages” that will make what money we do have even more worthless as it enriches the Cartel’s Wall Street.
But in the world of what could have been, there’s hay, sawdust, crushed volcanic rock, sheep’s wool, and even kitty litter that could have mulched with the oil on the surface of the Gulf waters, making for easy pick-up.
But, oil industry executives and their confederates in the Obama administration quickly made sure that all spewing oil would either sink well below the surface, or never rise to it, with over half a million gallons of their dispersants. Now the oil that’s been gushing for weeks can never be vacuumed up or safely neutralized.
continued.Nick Pozzi, a former oil pipeline engineering and operations project manager is... more-
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Junk food, poor eating habits are killing pets
The junk food and poor eating habits affecting humans is also killing their four-legged pals, say veterinary surgeons and experts.
Allergies and obesity are reducing the life expectancy of Lassies and Mittens nourished worldwide on industrial foodstuffs, said Gerard Lippert, a Belgian acupuncturist for animals who has just completed a study on the diets of 600 dead dogs.
“Pets, like humans, are victims of junk food,” he said.
Of the 600 furry corpses he examined “those fed on processed foods died three years earlier than those fed on food made in the home.”
Dogs, he said, “originally were omnivores who shared their food with humans.”
Rippert said he was increasingly called on to heal skin, motor and digestive problems as acupuncture was an all-embracing method enabling work on practically all organs.
“Dry dog food and cat food croquettes are overheated, which destroys vitamins, trace elements and other basic nutritional elements,” he said.
“We don’t know the origin of the proteins in the foods,” he said. “And there’s an excessive amount of cereal, often genetically modified, and very little vegetables.”
*Follow linked page for more - http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2010/04/13/2003470434The junk food and poor eating habits affecting humans is also killing their... more-
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This cigarette is for medicinal purposes....No Realy!
Here's an idea: Rehabilitate the tobacco plant by using it to make flu vaccine. (This may sound like a double-whammy nightmare for anyone who believes that vaccines are killing us all and GMOs are killing us all, but let's put that aside and examine what the scientists are doing, and why.)Here's an idea: Rehabilitate the tobacco plant by using it to make flu vaccine.... more-
- ocanada
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- 2 years ago
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- 3 comments
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Induced stem cells perform poorly compared to embryonic counterparts
A long term study of human stem cell types has shown that tissue-derived human stem cells performed poorly and are more likely to die prematurely than their human embryo-derived stem cell counterparts.
The research, lead by leading stem cell scientist Robert Lanza, M.D., compared the growth and differentiation characteristics of what are called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) with those of human embryonic stem cells (hESC). Induced pluripotent stem cells are derived from adult tissue taken from certain organs of the body, including the liver or bone marrow, while hESC are derived from the cell mass of four- to five-day old human embryos. Both are capable of growing into most any organ cell, though iPSC are somewhat limited in the types of cells they can become.
Read more...
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-6378-Baltimore-Science-News-Examiner~y2010m2d11-Tissue-derived-stem-cells-perform-poorly-compared-to-embryonic-counterpartsA long term study of human stem cell types has shown that tissue-derived human stem... more-
- greekmaria
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- 2 years ago
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- 0 comments
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Pig lung transplants for humans move closer
Animal organ transplants in humans are now a step closer to reality: Scientists have successfully combined animal lungs with human blood, keeping a pig lung alive and functioning as the blood flowed through it. “The blood went into the lungs without oxygen and came out with oxygen, which is the exact function of the lungs," a researcher tells the Daily Telegraph. The first pig-human transplant could happen within five years.
Previous attempts to combine pig lungs with human blood had failed because the blood formed clots. The scientists overcame this problem by removing a section of pig DNA and adding human DNA to the pigs as they were reared. A medical ethicist who objected to this process said, “It is basically a human-pig, a hybrid. ... It is about whether the community is prepared to accept a part human, part animal."
http://www.newser.com/story/80037/pig-lung-transplants-for-humans-move-closer.html
What do you think about inserting human DNA into baby pigs so that they can later be used as spare parts for human beings?Animal organ transplants in humans are now a step closer to reality: Scientists have... more-
- unimatrix0
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- 2 years ago
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- 27 comments
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Stephen Colbert: Fax your health bills to Max Bachus
Stephen Colbert had a brilliant idea last night on his show. Max Baucus says that he wants a healthcare bill and that is why he's voting against the public option. So Colbert's logic is simple, if Max want's a bill than send him yours. Send him your unpaid or outrageously expensive health care bills so that he can use his health company contributions which now number above three million just from the last year and a half since healthcare began debate in the the Kennedy H.E.L.P. committee so long ago. Well steven didn't include fax information or mailing information for Max on his show so I felt obligated to provide it for you right here. Here is his website, email, faxes for his offices, and the mailing addresses. As well as phone numbers for all of them.
After all Max says on his own website about getting grants for constituent problems.
"Although I am unable to influence the awarding of grant money, I can provide some resources you can use to find the funds you seek. I can also provide a letter of support, in most cases, which you can include in your grant application."
Well I'd say that any of us faxing in could use exactly that a letter of Max's support. On his own Bill once it makes it to the Senate floor for a vote, when it is given the public option existing in the other two Senate bills. Until then I'd love to hear what "resources we can use to find the funds we seek." other than Max's healthcare company campaign funds.
http://baucus.senate.gov/
Billings
222 North 32nd Street
Suite 100
Billings, MT 59101
(406) 657-6790
Bozeman
Federal Building
32 East Babcock
Suite 114
Bozeman, MT 59715
(406) 586-6104
Butte
27 North Wyoming St
Suite A
Butte, MT 59701
(406) 782-8700
Great Falls
113 3rd Street North
Great Falls, MT 59401
(406) 761-1574
(406) 452-1117 (TDD)
Helena
Empire Block
30 West 14th Street
Suite 206
Helena, MT 59601
(406) 449-5480
Kalispell
8 Third Street East
Kalispell, MT 59901
(406) 756-1150
Missoula
280 E. Front St.
Suite 100 Missoula, MT 59802
(406) 329-3123
Glendive
122 West Towne St
Glendive, MT 59330
(406) 365-7002
Washington D.C.
511 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2651(Office)
(202) 224-9412 (Fax)
Please use the fax below for schedule requests
(202) 228-1493 (Fax-Scheduling)
(800) 332-6106 (from MT)
(202) 224-1998 (TDD)Stephen Colbert had a brilliant idea last night on his show. Max Baucus says that he... more-
- ocanada
- added this
- 2 years ago
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- 3 comments
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Help Us Interview Dr. Rand Paul
This is the first of what we hope to be many interviews from your friends here at Current: U.S. Politics. Dr. Rand Paul is a full time Physician, the son of republican and libretarian presidential candiate, Ron Paul, and a candidate for the reupublican nomination for Senate in Kentucky. We will be focusing on Healthcare and poverty issues in our interview and WE WANT YOUR HELP. We will be utelizing at least one member submitted question.
We have a preference for questions on Healthcare, Poverty Issues, and the Environmnent but suggestions are by no means limited to these topics. We would ask that users submit no more than two questions for consideration. No suggestion will be accepted later than nine pm thursday of this week.
Thank you so much for your participation and for joining us here at U.S. Politics!This is the first of what we hope to be many interviews from your friends here at... more-
- ocanada
- added this
- 2 years ago
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- 17 comments
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Another Glenn Beck Temper Tantrum
Screaming infant with its own radio show. This is a great country!-
- Progresshiv
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- 2 years ago
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- 17 comments
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Bishop: "President Obama is forcing all American taxpayers to pay for this homicidal research"
The Bishop of Phoenix in Arizona has written a straight-talking column responding to President Barack Obama's executive order providing federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.The Bishop of Phoenix in Arizona has written a straight-talking column responding to... more -
Suleman Octuplet Unveils Bioethical Controversy
As the mastermind craftsman behind the Sulemon Octuplet has been indetified, a bigger ethical dillemma is unveiled: The majority of clinics failing to meet guidelines. Should bioethics committees demand legal rules or stick with weak penalties already set implace?
...Click Picture for the Huffingtonpost Article with CDC links at the end.As the mastermind craftsman behind the Sulemon Octuplet has been indetified, a bigger... more -
Indian media sleeps as the country moves to becoming minority Report Society
India has introduced brain scanning and mapping techniques (Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature test) in criminal investigations and this has also been admitted in a sessions court. Using it in investigations to help crack the case is one thing, but to base a judgement on it alone is scary, especially when countries with cutting edge neuroscience research have chosen caution before rushing into applying this little known technology.India has introduced brain scanning and mapping techniques (Brain Electrical... more-
- makemywish
- added this
- 3 years ago
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- 0 comments
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