With ‘hormone-free’, ‘cage-free’ and ‘antibiotic-free’ becoming common labels on our supermarket shelves, might ‘pain-free’ be the next sticker slapped onto a rump roast? As unlikely as that may seem, progress in neuroscience and genetics in recent years makes it a very real possibility. In fact, according to one philosopher, we have an ethical duty to consider the option. ‘If we can’t do away with factory farming, we should at least take steps to minimise the amount of suffering that is caused,’ says Adam Shriver, a philosopher at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. In a provocative paper published this month, Shriver contends that genetically engineered pain-free animals are the most acceptable alternative (Neuroethics, DOI: 10.1007/s12152-009-9048-6). ‘I’m offering a solution where you could still eat meat but avoid animal suffering.’ I’m offering a solution where you could still eat meat but avoid animal suffering Humans consume nearly 300 million tonnes of meat each year. Our appetite for flesh has risen by 50 per cent since the 1960s, and the trend looks set to continue. Most of this will likely come from factory farms, notorious for cramped quarters and ill treatment of animals. Battery farm chickens, for instance, routinely […]
In the days immediately after Bernie Madoff’s arrest, some enforcement experts I talked to speculated that the errant financier might have been an honest investment manager for much of his career. They said it was likely that he started scamming his investors only after he found himself underwater at some point and got desperate. After all, they reasoned, no one had ever gotten away with a Ponzi scheme for so long, more than 20 years. (The eponymous Charles Ponzi himself was discovered after only two years.) As we know, Madoff did. And the report from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s inspector general, released earlier this week, finally explains why: sheer regulatory incompetence over two decades, through several SEC chairmen, both Democratic and Republican. The scariest thing about the report, perhaps, is that it isn’t about what happened in the past as much as it’s an indicator of what our future looks like. The Madoff Ponzi scheme was a relatively simple scam: all anyone in enforcement ever had to do over the years was to obtain documents showing that wily old Bernie wasn’t doing any trading at all. They never did. This is the same agency, slightly tweaked, that we’re […]
WASHINGTON — More than 35 million Americans received food stamps in June, up 22 percent from June 2008 and a new record as the country continued to grapple with the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The food stamp program, which helps cover the cost of groceries for one in nine Americans, has grown in step with the U.S. unemployment rate which stood at 9.4 percent in July. The Labor Department will release August employment figures on Friday. June was the seventh straight month in which food stamp rolls set a record. The average benefit in June was $133.12 per person.
More than 70,000 breast cancer cases a year in the U.S., or 40% of all cases, could be prevented with lifestyle measures like maintaining a healthy weight, eating well, exercising, and limiting alcohol consumption, a new analysis shows. The joint project from the nonprofit research groups American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund represents the largest review ever of the research examining lifestyle and breast cancer. Researchers analyzed nearly 1,000 studies, including 81 conducted since the data were last examined in 2007. ‘It is now very clear that lifestyle is a strong modifiable risk factor for breast cancer, but I don’t think women have really gotten the message,’ says Cancer Institute of New Jersey epidemiology professor Elisa Bandera, MD, PhD, who helped write the report. ‘Women tend to overestimate the role of genetics in breast cancer and underestimate lifestyle,’ Bandera tells WebMD. ‘I don’t know how many times I’ve heard a patient say, ‘I can’t have breast cancer. Nobody in my family has it.’ Women are very concerned about breast cancer, and they need to know they can lower their risk with lifestyle.’ Lose Weight to Lower Risk of Breast Cancer […]
Amid ongoing debate over health-care reform, thousands gathered Wednesday night at events held across the nation, including at least four in the Washington area, to urge Congress and the Obama Administration to approve a bill soon. ‘These vigils are to remind decision makers that the debate around health-care is not about politics but about people who are being crushed under the current health-care system,’ said Nita Chaudhary, the national campaigns and organizing director of MoveOn.org, a liberal group that helped organize the ‘We Can’t Afford to Wait’ vigils. Outside the U.S. Capitol, D.C. resident Iris Green spoke about her son, an assistant at a small business. The son, whose name Green didn’t give, was born with a heart defect and does not have health insurance. ‘My worries are that something will happen that could have been prevented in an earlier stage. I’m very concerned with where he’s going to go for healthcare,’ Green told a crowd of at least 150 people, some of whom held signs reading ‘Public option now!’ ‘The worst part is that there are millions of other people like him who are uninsured,’ Green said. At the Government Center in Fairfax, about […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
