Thursday, September 20th, 2012
Stephan: This is part of the Homo Superiorus trend which, I believe, will reshape us in the most profound ways, ultimately creating a new species, and a new social structure. One can see the first glimmerings in this report.
The British public is being asked for how they feel about the creation of IVF babies with three genetic parents.
What they say could pave the way to a landmark change in the law as early as next year that would affect future generations.
The controversy surrounds ‘uncharted territory’ techniques aimed at preventing a special category of diseases caused by inherited genes.
They involve children being conceived with the help of a third genetic ‘parent’: a woman whose donated egg provides a source of replacement healthy DNA.
A baby created this way would have a full compliment of nuclear DNA from its mother and father, plus a tiny amount of donated mitochondrial DNA.
Mitochondria are rod-like bodies in the cell that act as powerhouses, supplying energy.
They have their own set of genes, separate from those in the cell nucleus, which are only passed on by mothers.
Defects in mitochondrial DNA give rise to a range of serious and potentially life-threatening diseases including a form of muscular dystrophy and conditions leading to the loss of hearing and vision, heart problems and intestinal disorders.
The new mitochondrial replacement treatments would remove the damaged DNA, thereby breaking the generational chain of disease.
But they are banned because any tampering with inherited […]
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Thursday, September 20th, 2012
VALERIE STRAUSS and PASI SAHLBERG, - The Washington Post
Stephan: Here is a remarkably cogent and coherent assessment of U.S. schools in the context of the superior Finnish education model. We look pathetic in comparison.
Finland’s high-achieving public school system is now part of the conversation about U.S. education reform these days. What, it is often asked, can we learn from Finland? (Plenty, actually, though U.S. reformers consistently ignore the lessons .) The query has been asked and answered so often that it seems like a good time to ask what the United States can’t learn from Finland. So I asked Pasi Sahlberg, author of ‘ Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland?
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Thursday, September 20th, 2012
, - Committee for Research and Independent Information on Genetic Engineering
Stephan: The business of GMOs increasingly reveals itself to be about profit above all other considerations. Study after study suggests the ingestion of GMO tainted foodstuff, animal or vegetable, is inimical to human health.
SOURCE: 'Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize.' Food and Chemical Toxicology, Séralini G.E. et al. 2012
For the first time, the health impact of a GMO and a widely used pesticide have been comprehensively assessed (see source above) in a long term animal feeding trial of greater duration and with more detailed analyses than any previous studies, by environmental and food agencies, governments, industries or researchers institutes.
The two tested products are in very common use : (i) a transgenic maize made tolerant to Roundup, the characteristic shared by over 80% of food and animal feed GMOs, and (ii) Roundup itself, the most widely used herbicide on the planet. The regulatory approval process requires these products to be tested on rats as a surrogate for humans.
The new research took the form of a two year feeding trial on 200 rats, monitored for outcomes against more than 100 parameters. The doses were consistent with typical dietary/ environmental exposure (from 11% GMO in the diet, and 0.1 ppb in water).
The results, which are of serious concern, included increased and more rapid mortality, coupled with hormonal non linear and sex related effects. Females developed significant and numerous mammary tumours, pituitary and kidney problems. Males died mostly from severe hepatorenal chronic deficiencies. Professor Seralini’s team in the University of Caen is […]
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Wednesday, September 19th, 2012
, - Alliance for Natural Health
Stephan: Most of us don't think a great deal about TB, but in much of the developing world it is a large and growing problem for the reasons this report explains.
For country-by-country data on TB:
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/tbpc-latb/itir-eng.php
Hint: It’s not the flu.
Tuberculosis (TB) is one the world’s most common diseases mainly because it is so highly infectious-it’s spread with a mere cough or sneeze. It’s second only to HIV as the leading infectious killer of adults worldwide, and it is the third largest cause of death among women aged 15 to 44.
The World Health Organization estimates that two billion people-that’s one-third of our planet’s population-are infected with the bacteria that cause TB. Ten percent of these carriers will become sick, and if left untreated, half of those will die from the disease.
Conventional medicine is panicking because TB is becoming resistant to multiple drugs and fear it may become ‘virtually untreatable.
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Wednesday, September 19th, 2012
LAURIE GOODSTEIN, - The New York Times
Stephan: Here is a potential bomb from antiquity. I have always thought it probable that Jesus was married, since he was an observant Jew, and marrying would have been the normal course of life for such a man at that time. Reincarnation got written out of the Bible, in 553 CE , except for a few tantalizing references: 'Mat 17:12 But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Mat 17:13 Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. So why not Jesus' wife? It will be interesting to see how this develops.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: ‘Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …’
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