09.26.10
Posted in you've got mail at 10:33 am by nemo
Published on Saturday, September 25, 2010 by the Boston Globe
Keep Frankenfish Fiction
by Derrick Z. Jackson
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/25-3
I’M NOT getting anywhere near Frankenfish. I mean, do I really want to eat an aquatic Roger Clemens?
The Food and Drug Administration is close to approving a farm-raised salmon jacked up with enough growth hormone to come to market in 18 months instead of three years. In a publicity photo, the genetically-modified salmon is a battleship to the dinghy of a normal one. I do not care that the FDA says it is safe. We seethe at athletes on steroids and growth hormones, yet we’re about to digest a food that is the equivalent of Shaquille O’Neal growing to seven feet by fourth grade? I don’t think so.
But there is a far more important reason to shun Frankenfish. We need to rethink farmed fish, period. Aquaculture messes with Mother Nature far too much for the convenience of having fish available 24/7.
Farmed salmon are a classic case.
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:31 am by nemo
Published on Sunday, September 26, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
The American Way: Spreading Democracy to Afghanistan, One Journalist’s Arrest at a Time
by Dave Lindorff
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/26-4
US-led forces in Afghanistan sure did a bang-up job this week at promoting the concept of Western “democracy.”
Permalink
Posted in General at 10:29 am by nemo
Craven Republicans and Spineless Democrats
A Ten Percent Shift?
By RALPH NADER
http://www.counterpunch.org/nader09242010.html
How does the Big Business-indentured Republican Party get away with expectations of a runaway election victory this November? If such a victory should occur in Congress and for many governorships and state legislatures, it will be due to a ten percent or so shift in voters who voted Democratic in 2008 and are expected to vote Republican this year or stay home in despair or disgust. The rest of the voters who do vote will still stay with their hereditary Republican or Democratic candidates.
So what is accounting for a possible ten percent shift?
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:26 am by nemo
CLIMATE AND CAPITALISM
http://climateandcapitalism.com
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/CandC-FaceBook
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:24 am by nemo
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/26/gm-food-battle-salmon
RG mail
GM food battle moves to fish as super-salmon nears US approval
Consumer groups fear green light for engineered species will bring
environmental disaster to the oceans
* Jamie Doward
* The Observer, Sunday 26 September 2010
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:20 am by nemo
RG mail
Venezuela Secures Electoral System as Venezuelans to Vote on Course of
Bolivarian Revolution
By James Suggett
Venezuelanalysis.com
September 24, 2010
Mérida – As the streets of Venezuela bustle with campaign-closing rallies,
voters prepare to choose 165 National Assembly representatives in a
nation-wide vote on Sunday that could either accelerate or put limits on the
“Bolivarian Revolution” led by President Hugo Chavez.
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5661
Permalink
09.25.10
Posted in Fourth Edition, World History and The Eonic Effect at 2:12 pm by nemo
Big Histories, Universal Histories
The idea of Big History, histories told since the Big Bang, and Universal Histories, which can be taken as histories that assume the action of human freedom, need to meet and become a new and higher form.
Permalink
Posted in General at 10:54 am by nemo
For Atheists and Believers, Ignorance Is No Excuse
Unfortunately (or fortunately!) ignorance is an excuse, for an agnostic. Knowledge of god has never progresses one inch beyond that ignorance.
I have long been a critic of the ignorance of the New Atheists, but that charge applied, not to their ignorance of theology, but to their ignorance of the history of religion in general, across world history.
I can see that my original series of critiques, two years of them, are being twisted to new ends, new forms of religious propaganda/
Permalink
Posted in Science & Religion at 10:44 am by nemo
Cardinal Newman’s “miracle” By STEVEHILL
Updated: Friday, 24 September 2010 at 10:01 AM
http://richarddawkins.net/discussions/521492-cardinal-newman-s-miracle
In order to be beatified by the Pope, Cardinal Newman is required to be responsible for at least one miracle.
Despite having died 111 years earlier, Newman was credited with curing this Boston cleric’s bad back (he prayed to Newman, allegedly). He was however cured by modern state of the art surgery in 2001: at best, his faith – let alone Newman – might be responsible for an earlier than expected recovery from surgery.
On this slender foundation, Newman’s body was exhumed and removed from his preferred repose next to his lifelong (male) companion. And the Pope made a trip to England to permit the faithful to put “blessed” before Newman’s name.
Does the church really think that anybody is going to be impressed by this sort of irrational nonsense in 2010?
If they want to hand out posthumous medals to the faithful, that’s their business. But “miracles”? Please – credit humanity with some intelligence.
Permalink
Posted in Evolution at 10:41 am by nemo
The most ludicrous depictions of evolution in science fiction history
At its best, science fiction can help people better understand science, explaining new ideas and theories in the context of a thrilling, gripping story. And then there are these 10 utterly ridiculous stories about evolution
Permalink
Posted in General at 10:35 am by nemo
The Blind Faith of Stephen Hawking: The Eternal Universe
By Brian Melton, on September 24th, 2010
By universally acknowledged definition, anything that occurred before the Big Bang is inaccessible to science. So, any statement affecting what occurs before the Bang or the assumed eventual Crunch (or Freeze, or whatever) must be made primarily based on blind faith.
Permalink
Posted in archaeology at 10:32 am by nemo
Taking a New Look at Old Digs: Trampling Animals May Alter Stone Age Sites
ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2010) — Archaeologists who interpret Stone Age culture from discoveries of ancient tools and artifacts may need to reanalyze some of their conclusions.
Permalink
Posted in General at 10:31 am by nemo
Newly Created Material Resembles Cilia
ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2010) — University of Southern Mississippi scientists recently imitated Mother Nature by developing, for the first time, a new, skinny-molecule-based material that resembles cilia, the tiny, hair-like structures through which organisms derive smell, vision, hearing and fluid flow.
Permalink
Posted in archaeology at 10:29 am by nemo
Ancient Egypt’s Pyramids: Norwegian Researcher Unlocks Construction Secrets
ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2010) — Scientists from around the world have tried to understand how the Egyptians erected their giant pyramids. Now, an architect and researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) says he has the answer to this ancient, unsolved puzzle.
Permalink
Posted in General at 10:26 am by nemo
Mimicking Nature, Water-Based ‘Artificial Leaf’ Produces Electricity
ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2010) — A team led by a North Carolina State University researcher has shown that water-gel-based solar devices — “artificial leaves” — can act like solar cells to produce electricity. The findings prove the concept for making solar cells that more closely mimic nature. They also have the potential to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than the current standard-bearer: silicon-based solar cells.
Permalink
Posted in global warming at 10:25 am by nemo
Arctic sea ice has melted back to its third lowest extent on satellite record, and probably to its lowest volume since before the rise of human civilization …more
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:22 am by nemo
Published on Friday, September 24, 2010 by The Nation
“The Republican Pledge to Privatize Social Security”
by John Nichols
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/24-9
The House Republican “Pledge to America” would make permanent George Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, at a cost of more than $3 trillion over the coming decade.
Yet, the GOP gameplan proposes to address the massive shortfall with a freeze on only some domestic programs that would save about $100 million a year.
How will the rest of the massive budget deficits proposed in the GOP pledge be offset?
Buried in the 21-page document is the real pledge: a discussion of “reviewing” Social Security and other entitement programs” and a commitment to a program “requiring a full accounting of Social Security.”
DC bureaucrat speak, to be sure. But it is not hard to translate.
“What’s hidden in this pledge is the Republican pledge to privatize Social Security,” says Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Florida.
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:21 am by nemo
Published on Saturday, September 25, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
The Dismantling of Civilized Society
by David Michael Green
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/25-0
How stupid are you?
I mean, let’s just face it, shall we? That is precisely the question the right has been asking the American public for thirty years (and more) now. And that is the question the American public has been enthusiastically answering for the same period of time.
Like a crack junkie, in fact.
In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan presented America with a set of economic lies so transparent that even a monster like George H. W. Bush called them “voodoo economics”. When he was contesting Reagan for the Republican nomination, that is. Once Bush had lost it, and when he wanted to be added to the ticket as the Vice Presidential nominee, everything became hunky dory, and no more voodoo critiques were uttered. That was one of the greatest acts of treason (I choose my words carefully) in American history.
But back to Reagan. “Watch this”, he said. “I’m gonna slash taxes, especially for the rich, spend huge sums on ‘defense’, and balance the budget at the same time”.
Okay, so he wasn’t a math major in college. Two out of three ain’t bad, though, eh? Well, it is if you have to pay for his ‘mistakes’, plus interest, as so many of us continue to do to this day. Prolly not a big problem, though. Even though Americans hate taxes with the passion of the truly infantile, I’m sure they don’t mind working extra hours flipping burgers each week to pay for the enrichment of the previous generation of plutocrats and defense contractors. Right?
Or maybe it’s just that their answer to the “How stupid” question is: “Very”.
Permalink
Posted in General at 10:18 am by nemo
The Indispensable People?
The Collapse of Western Morality
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts09242010.html
Yes, I know, as many readers will be quick to inform me, the West never had any morality. Nevertheless things have gotten worse.
In hopes that I will be permitted to make a point, permit me to acknowledge that the US dropped nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities, fire-bombed Tokyo, that Great Britain and the US fire-bombed Dresden and a number of other German cities, expending more destructive force, according to some historians, against the civilian German population than against the German armies, that President Grant and his Civil War war criminals, Generals Sherman and Sheridan, committed genocide against the Plains Indians, that the US today enables Israel’s genocidal policies against the Palestinians, policies that one Israeli official has compared to 19th century US genocidal policies against the American Indians, that the US in the new 21st century invaded Iraq and Afghanistan on contrived pretenses, murdering countless numbers of civilians, and that British prime minister Tony Blair lent the British army to his American masters, as did other NATO countries, all of whom find themselves committing war crimes under the Nuremberg standard in lands in which they have no national interests, but for which they receive an American pay check.
I don’t mean these few examples to be exhaustive. I know the list goes on and on. Still, despite the long list of horrors, moral degradation is reaching new lows. The US now routinely tortures prisoners, despite its strict illegality under US and international law, and a recent poll shows that the percentage of Americans who approve of torture is rising. Indeed, it is quite high, though still just below a majority.
And we have what appears to be a new thrill: American soldiers using the cover of war to murder civilians. Recently American troops were arrested for murdering Afghan civilians for fun and collecting trophies such as fingers and skulls.
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:16 am by nemo
mxmail
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/25/AR2010092500560.html
Obama invokes ‘state secrets’ claim to dismiss suit against targeting of
U.S. citizen al-Aulaqi
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 25, 2010; 1:49 AM
The Obama administration urged a federal judge early Saturday to dismiss
a lawsuit over its targeting of a U.S. citizen for killing overseas,
saying that the case would reveal state secrets.
The U.S.-born citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, is a cleric now believed to be
in Yemen. Federal authorities allege that he is leading a branch of
al-Qaeda there.
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:13 am by nemo
Sue Sturgis: The New Political Money Game
http://act.commondreams.org/go/2452?akid=214.96588.a83K3P&t=26
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:12 am by nemo
Robert Reich: The Super Rich Get Richer, Everyone Else Gets Poorer, and the Democrats Punt
http://act.commondreams.org/go/2450?akid=214.96588.a83K3P&t=22
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:11 am by nemo
Ralph Nader: Why Say Yes to the Party of No?
http://act.commondreams.org/go/2449?akid=214.96588.a83K3P&t=20
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:10 am by nemo
Michael Moore on the ‘Small Lie’
http://act.commondreams.org/go/2446?akid=214.96588.a83K3P&t=14
Permalink
Posted in you've got mail at 10:07 am by nemo
In Blind Taste-Test, Americans Prefer Swedish ‘Wealth Distribution’
http://act.commondreams.org/go/2441?akid=214.96588.a83K3P&t=4
Permalink
09.24.10
Posted in Evolution at 1:55 pm by nemo
Neanderthals More Advanced Than Previously Thought: They Innovated, Adapted Like Modern Humans, Research Shows
ScienceDaily (Sep. 22, 2010) — For decades scientists believed Neanderthals developed `modern’ tools and ornaments solely through contact with Homo sapiens, but new research from the University of Colorado Denver now shows these sturdy ancients could adapt, innovate and evolve technology on their own.
Permalink
Posted in Evolution at 1:53 pm by nemo
Why Are There No Hyenas in Europe?
ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2010) — A team from the National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC) has analysed the impact of climate change on spotted hyena survival in Europe over 10,000 years ago. These changes played an important role, but the scientists say studies are still needed to look at the influence of human expansion and changes in herbivorous fauna on the definitive extinction of this species across the continent.
Permalink
« Previous Page — « Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries » — Next Page »