Thursday, September 3rd, 2015
Colbeigh Spero, - Upriser
Stephan: Not every one, every where buys into the Monsanto model of industrial chemical poison agriculture. Hungary for instance has chosen to go in a different direction as this report describes.
Hungary has taken a bold stand against biotech giant Monsanto and genetic modification by destroying 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds, according to Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar.
Unlike many European Union countries, Hungary is a nation where genetically modified (GM) seeds are banned. In a similar stance against GM ingredients, Peru has also passed a 10 year ban on GM foods.
“Almost 1000 acres of maize found to have been ground with genetically modified seeds have been destroyed throughout Hungary, deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar said.
The GMO maize has been ploughed under, said Lajos Bognar, but pollen has not spread from the maize, he added.
Unlike several EU members, GMO seeds are banned in Hungary. The checks will continue despite the fact that seek traders are obliged to make sure that their products are GMO free, Bognar said.
During the invesigation, controllers have found Pioneer Monsanto products among the seeds planted.
The free movement of goods within the EU means that authorities will not investigate how […]
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Thursday, September 3rd, 2015
Lindsay Abrams, Staff Writer - Salon
Stephan: I have wondered how long it would be before people began to notice that the magnates of petroleum are getting filthy (a word I chose deliberately) rich destroying Earth's equilibrium, and humanity's future. Let's hope this article is the first of many.
ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson
Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
The executives at the helms of the 30 biggest oil, gas and coal companies in the United States took home a collective $6 billion in compensation over the past five years, a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies found. (emphasis added)
That’s twice the money, just to drive the point home, that the U.S. pledged to help developing nations adapt to the impacts of climate change, by which they are expected to be disproportionately affected.
The CEOs of these companies, the report further found, are some of the most handsomely compensated executives in the country, making 9 percent more than the S&P 500 average. Another pointed statistic: they’ve accumulated a collective $1.2 billion in retirement assets, ensuring that they, if not everyone else, are ensured comfortable futures.
Look, maybe I’m just jealous because these guys (it’s all guys) are raking in the big bucks while I sit here writing all day about how they’re destroying the planet for relative (and […]
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Thursday, September 3rd, 2015
Sarah Knapton, Science Editor - The Telegraph (U.K.)
Stephan: Here is the latest on the negative health effects of obesity.
AGY01X Obese man sending a text message from mobile phone, Surbiton, UK.. Image shot 2007. Exact date unknown.
The devastating cost of carrying excess pounds in middle age has been highlighted in a new study which shows every extra point of BMI speeds up the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by nearly seven months.
The obesity epidemic has risen alongside the increase in dementia, and scientists have long suspected a link.
Now US researchers from the government-affiliated National Institute on Ageing have found that even having a BMI (Body Mass Index) just one point over a safe level, speeds up the onset of dementia for people aged 50 or over. For people who are seriously obese, they could develop neurodegenerative disease […]
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Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015
Stephan: I don't think, and studies support this, that people really understand the true nature of the inequality How very vast the difference is. This report my help.
Since the beginnings of democracy, debate has raged as to how responsive politicians are to their constituents. Though such debates stretch back centuries, only recently have academics gotten the ability to use data to test how well legislatures represent the people they ostensibly serve. So far, the evidence hasn’t been kind, with two leading academics arguing recently that, “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
That’s academic for: “American democracy is a joke.”
Much of the academic work, and nearly all of the press coverage of the field, has focused solely on the United States. In a new working paper, a luminary in the field, political scientist Larry Bartels, expands his analysis to explore the relationship between policy and public preferences to the international arena. First, Bartels finds increasing demand for a stronger safety net across in many countries where data stretch back more than two decades, including the United States. (Indeed, support for more social spending has increased the most dramatically in […]
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Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015
Bryan Nelson, - mother nature network
Stephan: The breakthroughs in solar just keeping coming.
The Solar Sunflower has a pretty design, but it’s the technology behind it that really makes it shine.
Credit: via IBM.com
The latest in solar power comes to us from Swiss inventors working for Airlight Energy, Dsolar (a subsidiary of Airlight), and IBM Research in Zurich, reports Ars Technica. It’s called the Solar Sunflower, and like its namesake, it tracks the sun and cools itself by pumping water through its veins like a plant.
Aside from its aesthetically-pleasing design, the Solar Sunflower also makes use of some innovative technology. It uses something called HCPVT (Highly Efficient Concentrated PhotoVoltaic/Thermal) to generate electricity and hot water from solar power. Basically, this method entails using reflectors to concentrate the sun, as well as highly efficient photovoltaic cells (known as gallium-arsenide photovoltaic cells) to convert that concentrated solar energy into electricity.
Though concentrated solar thermal power and PVs are nothing new to the solar power industry, […]
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Hungary has taken a bold stand against biotech giant Monsanto and genetic modification by destroying 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds, according to Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar.
