Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Mod

Stephan:  This is the abstract from a peer-reviewed paper providing further proof of the toxic nature of Glyphosate, the principal ingredient of Round Up. This stuff is truly dangerous. It is going to be the next DDT -- for those old enough to remember that. Click through and you can download the full text of the paper.

Abstract: Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup®, is the most popular herbicide used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue otherwise. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate’s inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics. Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body. Here, we show how interference with CYP enzymes acts synergistically with disruption of the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids by gut bacteria, as well as impairment in serum sulfate transport. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We explain the documented effects of glyphosate and its ability to induce disease, and we show that glyphosate is the ‘textbook example

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World’s Largest Fat-burning Power Station to Burn Blubber From London Sewers

Stephan:  Here is a recycling opportunity I never even considered. It just goes to prove yet again, how profligate we are with resources, and how much can be gained through recycling.

East London is set to play host to the world’s biggest power station to run solely on fat, which will provide a much-needed use for the discarded fat which can block the city’s sewer system. The station will generate 130 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to power about 39,000 houses.

The power station is to be built in Beckton, East London, where some 75 GWh (58 percent) of the output will be sent directly to the nearby Beckton sewage works, run by Thames Water, as well as a local desalination plant brought online during droughts and emergencies. The rest of the energy will be fed into the national grid. Set to contribute a little over 6 percent of the 1.3 terrawatt-hours of electricity Thames Water uses every year, the new plant will boost Thames Water’s renewably-sourced energy from 14 to 20 percent.

As part of the deal, Thames Water will provide more than half of the power station’s fuel. Every day, the company will hand over 30 tonnes of fat, oil and grease (a charming combination given the innocuous acronym FOG), which it says is enough to fill a six-meter shipping container. Thames Water says the fat causes 80,000 blockages along […]

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World’s Fish Have Been Moving to Cooler Waters for Decades, Study Finds

Stephan:  More alarm bells to which no one in power is listening.

Fish and other sea life have been moving toward Earth’s poles in search of cooler waters, part of a worldwide, decades-long migration documented for the first time by a study released Wednesday.

The research, published in the journal Nature, provides more evidence of a rapidly warming planet and has broad repercussions for fish harvests around the globe.

Can zoos save polar bears from extinction?:

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The Geography of Hate

Stephan:  Once again the difference between the Blue value and Red Value states, and the reality of this Great Schism is made clear. Be sure and click through and see the dynamic map. It is very sobering. The full interactive map is available here: http://users.humboldt.edu/mstephens/hate/hate_map.html

UPDATE (5/13/13 @ 10:45pm): We have written and published a FAQ to respond to some of the questions and concerns raised in the comments here and elsewhere. Please review our comments there before commenting or emailing.

Following the 2012 US Presidential election, we created a map of tweets that referred to President Obama using a variety of racist slurs. In the wake of that map, we received a number of criticisms – some constructive, others not – about how we were measuring what we determined to be racist sentiments. In that work, we showed that the states with the highest relative amount of racist content referencing President Obama – Mississippi and Alabama – were notable not only for being starkly anti-Obama in their voting patterns, but also for their problematic histories of racism. That is, even a fairly crude and cursory analysis can show how contemporary expressions of racism on social media can be tied to any number of contextual factors which explain their persistence.

The prominence of debates around online bullying and the censorship of hate speech prompted us to examine how social media has become an important conduit for hate speech, and how particular terminology used to degrade a given […]

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New Phone app Allows Users to Boycott Koch Brothers and Monsanto Products

Stephan:  This is wonderful news. One of those little social acupunctures that allows the 99 per cent to speak out effectively -- don't buy their stuff. Go to: http://www.buycott.com/ to download. I urge all my readers to do so and shop accordingly.

A phone app allowing users to identify products used by questionable companies like Koch Industries and Monsanto has generated enough demand to cause problems for the developer, Forbes reported on Tuesday.

‘The workload is a bit overwhelming now,

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