ANDREW CURRY, - The New York Times
Stephan: Another dogma falls. For the past half century the idea that the first Americans were tied to the Clovis Model was dogma for archaeology. A few archaeologists and others, and I was amongst them, argued that Clovis Model was wrong. My view has always been that modern humans were on the American continent much earlier, and they didn't all come over the landbridge, or in a single incursion. I wrote a book in 1978 arguing this. Time and research has proven this to be true, as this report makes clear.
The story of our past is so much for complex and interesting than we have previously understood. Our modern form ancestors were smart, highly adaptive, and close observers. They developed observational sciences, and were as curious and adventurous as we are today. They loved beauty, and went to great lengths to produce art. It is always important to keep that in mind when reading about the past, particularly the deep past.
When and how did the first people arrive in the Americas?
For many decades, archaeologists have agreed on an explanation known as the Clovis model. The theory holds that about 13,500 years ago, bands of big-game hunters in Asia followed their prey across an exposed ribbon of land linking Siberia and Alaska and found themselves on a vast, unexplored continent. The route back was later blocked by rising sea levels that swamped the land bridge. Those pioneers were the first Americans.
The theory is based largely on the discovery in 1929 of distinctive stone tools, including sophisticated spear points, near Clovis, N.M. The same kinds of spear points were later identified at sites across North America. After radiocarbon dating was developed in 1949, scholars found that the age of these ‘Clovis sites
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GINA KOLATA, - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Stephan: As with so many ideas set as dogma, this one has now fallen to more recent research. Read this, and discuss it with your primary care physician.
The name alone sounds so encouraging: HDL, the ‘good cholesterol.’ The more of it in your blood, the lower your risk of heart disease. So bringing up HDL levels has got to be good for health.
Or so the theory went.
Now, a new study that makes use of powerful databases of genetic information has found that raising HDL levels may not make any difference to heart disease risk. People who inherit genes that give them naturally higher HDL levels throughout life have no less heart disease than those who inherit genes that give them slightly lower levels. If HDL were protective, those with genes causing higher levels should have had less heart disease.
Researchers not associated with the study, published online Wednesday in The Lancet, found the results compelling and disturbing. Companies are actively developing and testing drugs that raise HDL, although three recent studies of such treatments have failed. And patients with low HDL levels are often told to try to raise them by exercising or dieting or even by taking niacin, a drug that raised HDL but failed to lower heart disease risk in a recent clinical trial.
‘I’d say the HDL hypothesis is on the ropes right now,’ said James […]
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DANIEL IMHOFF, - Mother Earth News
Stephan: Industrial agriculture has destroyed the family farm system, and we are the worse for that. Here is an effort to reverse this trend. As I have said before, I think the obesity pandemic that threatens the wellness of the country arises not just from sloth and over-eating. It is also affected by the hormones, the high fructose corn syrup, and a range of DNA altering GMO soy and corn. The solution is locally produced, organically grown food, and that requires farmers. Farming is a very complex skill set that takes years to learn, and we need to start training new farmers now.
Every five to seven years, Congress passes a little understood legislation called the Farm Bill. To a large extent, the Farm Bill writes the rules and sets the playing field for America’s contemporary food system, determining what we eat, how much it costs, and where it is grown. You may not be happy with what you learn. In this excerpt from Daniel Imhoff’s Food Fight (Watershed Media, 2012), read about the current state of American farmers and how the Farm Bill affects this vital community. The following excerpt is taken from Chapter 12, ‘Who Will Grow Our Food?
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KATHRYN GILJE, - Ground Truth
Stephan: Read this carefully, then alert friends. There is a very slick PR campaign going on in parts of the country to greenwash this terrible toxin. Click through there are lots of useful links.
The controversial pesticide atrazine, found in U.S. drinking water and linked to cancers, birth defects and low fertility, is on the big screen this weekend. And Syngenta, largest pesticide corporation in the world and maker of atrazine, is fighting with fire.
The chemical giant’s PR machine is in high gear, downplaying the risks of atrazine exposure and even claiming that its gender-bending chemical can save the day. Greenwashing at its best.
Corporate spin machine
In response to last week’s release of the film Last Call at the Oasis, Syngenta’s PR firm Jayne Thompson and Associates launched a new website, ‘Saving the Oasis.
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JOHN M. BECKER, - Truth Wins Out
Stephan: This apology matters for several reasons, not least because it has been the intellectual underpinning for the 'pray away the Gay' movement. This is a watershed moment in the LGBT cause.
Today, in a letter to Dr. Ken Zucker obtained exclusively by Truth Wins Out, Dr. Robert Spitzer made an unprecedented apology to the gay community - and victims of reparative therapy in particular - for his infamous, now-repudiated 2001 study that claimed some ‘highly motivated
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