JOAN WALSH, Editor-at-Large - Salon
Stephan: The entire security apparat, perhaps because it is predicated on priorities other than those of the Constitution is inherently in conflict with democracy. Here is yet another aspect of what I mean.
You don’t have to think Edward Snowden is a hero, to be horrified by the latest revelations about the secret workings of the court that approves the president’s many requests for surveillance. Or at least you shouldn’t have to think that.
But revelations by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal in the last few days about the sweeping yet secret workings of the FISA court, appointed solely by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, have gotten far less attention than Snowden’s original revelations – and far less than they deserve. The man who just presided over a genteel gutting of the Voting Rights Act, who is laying the groundwork for doing away with affirmative action and who may have led his liberal colleagues to dramatically curtail the power of Congress to compel state action with his Obamacare ruling, has huge sway over our national security machinery. He has appointed all the sitting judges, and 10 of 11 are Republicans, with no confirmation or even oversight by Congress. Both of Roberts’ roles are hugely influential, and disturbing.
A few weeks ago Reuters reported the sweep of Roberts’ influence: He appoints all FISA judges, drawn from the federal bench, and right now […]
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Saturday, July 13th, 2013
TOM PHILPOTT, - Mother Jones
Stephan: Just as the illness profit system is failing, our commitment to an agriculture model based on dominating nature, instead of working with it is similarly afflicted.
Ah, high summer. Time to read stories about the declining effectiveness of GMO-seed giant Monsanto’s flagship products: crops engineered to resist insects and withstand herbicides.
Back in 2008, I felt a bit lonely participating in this annual rite-it was mainly just me and reporters in a the Big Ag trade press. Over the past couple of years, though, it’s gone mainstream. Here’s NPR’s star agriculture reporter Dan Charles, on corn farmers’ agrichemically charged reaction to the rise of an insect that has come to thumb its nose at Monsanto’s once-vaunted Bt corn, engineered to contain the bug-killing gene of a bacteria called Bacillus thuringiensis:
It appears that farmers have gotten part of the message: Biotechnology alone will not solve their rootworm problems. But instead of shifting away from those corn hybrids, or from corn altogether, many are doubling down on insect-fighting technology, deploying more chemical pesticides than before. Companies like or that sell soil insecticides for use in corn fields are reporting huge increases in sales: 50 or even 100 percent over the past two years.
And this, from a veteran observer of the GMO-seed industry who-in my view-sometimes errs on the side of being too soft on it.
The […]
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Saturday, July 13th, 2013
Alex Greig, - The Mail (U.K.)
Stephan: The negative social outcomes arising from social policies whose only priority is unregulated profit manifest in many ways, one of which is birth rates. One of the huge trends going on is that no high technology nation has a sustainable birthrate. This is why I think it is important to bear in mind that two of the defining characteristics of a successful nation are going to be gender equality, and the assimilation of minorities.
Click through to see charts.
The recession has been over for four years, but the birth rate in the U.S. continues to fall as many people struggle with a sluggish economy and financial uncertainty.
According to a recent analysis by the Pew Institute, since 2007 when there were a record 4,316,233 births, the number of births has been steadily declining, with 4,007,000 births in 2012 – the lowest number since 1998.
Analysts say that the birthrate is dictated by the economy.
Baby bust: The U.S. national birthrate hit an all-time low in 2011 and didn’t pick up in 2012
Baby bust: The U.S. national birthrate hit an all-time low in 2011 and didn’t pick up in 2012
‘When times are up, births go up,’ D’Vora Cohn, a senior writer at Pew Research Center, told Today. ‘When times are bad, births go down.’
Despite the recession being officially over for four years, the weak recovery and economic uncertainty has resulted in the national birthrate hitting an all-time low in 2011, and staying there in 2012.
There were 63.2 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in 2012, according to the Center for Disease Control, down from 69.3 births per 1,000 women in that age bracket in 2007.
The connection between the economy […]
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Saturday, July 13th, 2013
, - Agence France-Presse (France)
Stephan: If you are taking Omega supplements you should read this carefully. It has stopped my taking them. This is a replication study. So the results need to be taken seriously.
US scientists said Wednesday they have confirmed a surprising 2011 study that found a higher risk of prostate cancer among men who consume omega-3 fatty acids, raising new questions about the safety of supplements.
The research in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported a 71 percent higher risk for dangerous high-grade prostate cancer among men who ate fatty fish or took fish-oil supplements, which are often touted for their anti-inflammatory properties.
‘We’ve shown once again that use of nutritional supplements may be harmful,’ said Alan Kristal, researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and senior author of the paper.
Scientists are still puzzled as to why omega-3s appear linked to a greater risk of prostate cancer, but they said the findings suggest they are somehow involved in the formation of tumors.
The same team of researchers published similar findings in 2011, linking high blood concentrations of DHA to a more than double risk of high-grade prostate cancer, which is more likely to be fatal than other types.
A large European study also found the same omega-3 and prostate cancer link.
‘The consistency of these findings suggests that these fatty acids are involved in prostate tumorigenesis and recommendations to increase long-chain omega-3 fatty acid […]
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Saturday, July 13th, 2013
STEVE CONNOR, - The Independent (UK)
Stephan: This is fascinating science but the ethical implications seem hardly to be considered.
Scientists have created genetically-engineered mice with artificial human chromosomes in every cell of their bodies, as part of a series of studies showing that it may be possible to treat genetic diseases with a radically new form of gene therapy.
In one of the unpublished studies, researchers made a human artificial chromosome in the laboratory from chemical building blocks rather than chipping away at an existing human chromosome, indicating the increasingly powerful technology behind the new field of synthetic biology.
The development comes as the Government announces today that it will invest tens of millions of pounds in synthetic biology research in Britain, including an international project to construct all the 16 individual chromosomes of the yeast fungus in order to produce the first synthetic organism with a complex genome.
A synthetic yeast with man-made chromosomes could eventually be used as a platform for making new kinds of biological materials, such as antibiotics or vaccines, while human artificial chromosomes could be used to introduce healthy copies of genes into the diseased organs or tissues of people with genetic illnesses, scientists said.
Researchers involved in the synthetic yeast project emphasised at a briefing in London earlier this week that there are no plans to build […]
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