Saturday, July 14th, 2012
Stephan: As you can see from this report, fewer and fewer corporations own larger and larger shares of all media. As this trend continues it is going to culminate in a handful of corporations essentially controlling all aspects of news presentation. As even an 8th grader in civics class -- in those few schools that still teach civics -- would recognize, a healthy Fourth Estate is essential to a successful democracy. This is not a good trend.
In May, 2012 Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Company announced the purchase of 63 newspapers, including 23 dailies, from the debt-ridden Media General Company. The transaction was a course reversal for Buffett, who earlier had said he wouldn’t buy newspapers, and created a major new player in the industry. It also left Media General-whose history with newspapers dates back to the mid-1800’s-with only one remaining daily, the Tampa Tribune, which many predict it will still try to sell.
The purchase, seen as a rare vote of confidence in a struggling industry, also capped a period of intense change in U.S. newspaper ownership. In the last 18 months many better known newspaper companies divested most or all of their holdings while a number of new entities, including hedge funds and private equity firms, jumped in.
According to the investment banking firm of Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, which monitors newspaper transactions, a total of 71 daily newspapers were sold as part of 11 different transactions during 2011, the busiest year for sales since 2007.
And newspapers were not the only media to undergo major changes. The last 18 months also saw local television sales reach new heights, the merging of Newsweek and the Daily Beast, […]
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Saturday, July 14th, 2012
JENNIFER PRESTON, - The New York Times
Stephan: Here is more on the food crisis. The effects of climate change are beginning to bite and the results will effect everyone's life. I am paying very close attention to this trend because I think it may be the first social destabilizer arising from climate change.
I have included some of the farmer-reader comments posted to this report to give some sense of how farmers are thinking about this
Scattered rain fell in parts of the Midwest on Friday, but it was not enough to provide relief to farmers struggling to salvage crops scorched by worsening drought conditions and ranchers worried about feeding livestock.
More than 1,000 counties in 26 states across the country were named natural-disaster areas on Thursday in a statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It was the single largest designation in the program’s history and the worst drought since 1988, government officials said.
michael sims @farmersims
Corn is starting to go brown!! What next? #drought12
13 Jul 12
Nearly 61 percent of the contiguous U.S. was listed in drought this week, up from 56 percent for the previous week, according to the National Weather Service’s Drought Monitor, a weekly government report.
The report found that nearly two-thirds of the states in the Midwest are facing drought conditions, up from 50 percent a week earlier, prompting deep concerns about the deteriorating crop conditions in the Corn Belt.
In Iowa, and 17 other important corn-growing states, the report said that ’30 percent of the crop is now in poor or very poor condition, up from 22 percent the previous week.
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Saturday, July 14th, 2012
GEORGE WIGMORE, - University College London (U.K.)
Stephan: The DNA research that has been going on for almost two decades has transformed our understanding of the great human diaspora. Here is the latest, this time on how 'native' Americans immigrated into North America.
Scientists have found that Native American populations - from Canada to the southern tip of Chile - arose from at least three migrations, with the majority descended entirely from a single group of First American migrants that crossed over through Beringia, a land bridge between Asia and America that existed during the ice ages, more than 15,000 years ago.
By studying variations in Native American DNA sequences, the international team found that while most of the Native American populations arose from the first migration, two subsequent migrations also made important genetic contributions. The paper is published in the journal Nature today.
‘For years it has been contentious whether the settlement of the Americas occurred by means of a single or multiple migrations from Siberia,’ said Professor Andres Ruiz-Linares (UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment), who coordinated the study. ‘But our research settles this debate: Native Americans do not stem from a single migration. Our study also begins to cast light on patterns of human dispersal within the Americas.’
In the most comprehensive survey of genetic diversity in Native Americans so far, the team took data from 52 Native American and 17 Siberian groups, studying more than 300,000 specific DNA sequence variations called Single Nucleotide […]
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JUDSON PARKER, - San Francisco Examiner
Stephan: Finally, we may get GMO labelling, thanks to what happens in California. Because the state is so large, and is such a big market, if California compels GMO labelling, it will become nationwide, despite what the Congressional lackeys of Big Agra do to protect their masters. The alternative would be different labelling for virtually all processed foods, and much produce -- one for California, one for the rest of the country. That would cut into profits, so it is not going to happen.
California’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act will be on November’s ballot as Proposition 37, according to proposition numbers released late yesterday by the California Secretary of State’s office. The Right to Know measure calls for labeling genetically engineered foods and, if passed, would be the first law in the United States requiring labeling of a wide range of genetically engineered foods.
‘Prop 37 is about our fundamental right to know what’s in the food we eat and feed our children,
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Stephan: The dirty little secret of American politics is that an embarrassingly large percentage of Caucasians, particularly poor marginally educated white religious men are racists, and they hate having a partially Black man as President. They would vote for a chipmunk rather than Obama, as this report makes clear. It is the trend no one wants to confront honestly.
A.J. WADE, a lifelong Democrat and one of three elected commissioners who run Hardy County in West Virginia, fiddles with his bolo tie as he tries to explain the results of his party’s presidential primary, back in May. ‘People here
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