JUDSON PARKER, - Examiner.com
Stephan: Monsanto, in my view, is an evil corporation. Not the only one, but a real stand-out. They are doing everything in their power to kill the California proposition which, if voters affirm it, will compel the labelling of GMO foods. I support California proposition 37 and, to my California readers, I ask you to vote for it.
To learn more about the campaign to label genetically engineered foods in California, please visit http://www.carighttoknow.org
And try to avoid buying any product made by Monsanto and the five other corporations - BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont and Syngenta -- known as the 'Big Six.
With the California general election less than four months away, pesticide manufacturers gave more than $750,000 [Update: this number has increased to $1.71 million as of 8/1/2012] to efforts to stop labeling of genetically engineered food, according to filings released by the state’s Secretary of State late today.
‘Much of the rest of the world – including Japan, Australia, the European Union and China – already requires genetically engineered foods to be clearly labeled. But in the U.S., pesticide corporations like Monsanto continue to enjoy unfettered and unlabeled access to the market, and a consumer population that is left largely in the dark,
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SHAHID HUSAIN, - The International News (Pakistan)
Stephan: There is an extensive literature showing that breastfeeding gives an infant a better start, and that the longer nursing goes on the greater the effect. Also that nursing has a big impact on the health of the mother as well. Now comes research showing that it can literally be the difference between life and death. This is about Pakistan, but much the same could be said about any country.
KARACHI, PAKISTAN — Provincial Nutritional Focal Person, Programme Coordinator, World Food Programme, Sindh Health Department, Dr Dure Shehwar Khan has said that there could be 20 per cent less mortality rate if provision of proper nutrition is ensured to the baby.
She made this observation while speaking at a workshop, especially designed for creating awareness in the media, at a local hotel on Friday.
‘It will be a regular part of our pediatric practice,
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Stephan: The 2012 election torqued as it is by Citizens United, and Republican voter suppression efforts at the state level, I think, has taken on an importance quite unlike 2010, 2008, or earlier elections. There is a concerted conservative effort to fundamentally alter the nature of American democracy, and it has never been more important that every social progressive vote.
As the presidential campaign heads for the stretch, the political and legal battles over voter suppression are also coming to a head. To understand the unfolding class warfare-and that’s exactly what it is-it’s important not just to grasp the specifics of the many suppression schemes sweeping the nation. It’s vital to place those schemes in the larger context of the American right’s long-cherished goal of redrafting the nation’s legal architecture and forging a new corporate political order.
Consider the specifics first. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, since the start of 2011, 16 states-accounting for 214 electoral votes-have passed restrictive voting laws. Each law is different, with states such as Florida seeking to curb voter registration drives and others such as South Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania imposing new requirements on voters to produce government-issued photo IDs at the polls.
The laws raise different technical legal issues. States such as Texas and South Carolina, with a legacy of discrimination against the electoral rights of minorities, are required to obtain ‘preclearance
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ROBERT PARRY, - AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: I was considering writing an essay on why voting matters and, in the course of doing some research came across this, which makes the case very well.
My recent article, ‘The Vanity of Perfectionism [3],
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MICHELLE HEALY, - USA Today
Stephan: In the recent tragedy about the Batman movie in addition to all the horrors of that event one of the things that stood out for me was how many small children were at that utterly inappropriate late night showing. Here is research making the point.
Changing the type of DVDs, videos and TV shows that preschoolers watch during the day may help them sleep better at night.
An intervention program that encouraged families with children ages 3 to 5 to replace age-inappropriate, violent media content with enriching, age-appropriate media finds significant reductions in sleep problems.
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A program that encouraged parents of kids ages 3 to 5 to replace age-inappropriate media content with more suitable programming found ‘long-lasting, significant reductions in sleep problems,’ says Michelle Garrison of Seattle Children’s Research Institute, lead author of the study in Monday’s Pediatrics.
Researchers made no attempt to change the amount of TV viewed or the time of day it was watched. ‘We know that media is already playing a large role in the lives of many families,’ says Garrison. ‘We felt that just by changing the content, we could have an impact on the health and development of these kids,’ she says. ‘That was borne out in results.’
Preschoolers with sleep problems improved in both sleep and daytime tiredness over the course of the 12-month study, she says, and children who didn’t initially have sleep problems were less likely to develop them.
Insufficient and disrupted sleep has been associated with obesity, behavior […]
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