Saturday, February 20th, 2016
, - Healthy Life and Fitness
Stephan: Here is some lovely good news about Monsanto one of the truly evil corporations. I hope this is the beginning of a trend.
Credit: Sustainablepulse.com
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — California just dealt Monsanto a blow as the state’s Environmental Protection Agency will now list glyphosate — the toxic main ingredient in the U.S.’ best-selling weedkiller, Roundup — as known to cause cancer. (Emphasis added)
Under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 — usually referred to as Proposition 65, its original name — chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm are required to be listed and published by the state. Chemicals also end up on the list if found to be carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) — a branch of the World Health Organization.
In March, the IARC released a report that found glyphosate to be a “probable carcinogen.”
Besides the “convincing evidence” the herbicide can cause cancer in lab animals, the report also found:
“Case-control studies of occupational exposure in the U.S.A., Canada, and Sweden reported increased risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma that persisted after adjustments to other pesticides.”
California’s decision to place glyphosate on the toxic chemicals list is the first of its kind. As Dr. Nathan Donley of the Center for Biological Diversity
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Saturday, February 20th, 2016
Jennifer Swann, Culture and Lifestyle Reporter - Takepart
Stephan: I do so love the clarity of data. Listening to the Republican Presidential candidates, particularly Donald Trump, one would fear Muslim immigrants as one would run from a plague. But the actual facts say something quite different. As I keep saying it is not Muslims we need to be concerned about, it is White Theocratic Rightist "Patriots" that are the real threat. Here is some data.
Migrants moving through a transit camp in Gevgelija, Macedonia, after entering the country by crossing the border with Greece.
Credit: Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters
Fears that increased immigration could be linked to a spike in terrorism have spurred presidential hopeful Donald Trump to propose banning Muslims from entering the country, deporting all undocumented immigrants, and even erecting a wall across the 2,000-mile U.S.–Mexico border. But a new study suggests such drastic measures would do little to curb extremist violence.
Researchers at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom found that more migration could actually minimize rather than intensify the occurrence of terrorist attacks. The authors of Does Immigration Induce Terrorism?, published this month in The University of Chicago’s The Journal of Politics, used data from the World Bank to examine migration patterns between 145 countries over the span of 1970–2000. The authors then measured terrorist attacks […]
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Friday, February 19th, 2016
Stephan: Just as humanity has destabilized the world ocean's ecosystem destroying marine life upon which so much of humanity depends, so we have destabilized the ecosystem of the great forests of North America. Our greed and willful ignorance are literally killing us.
A 100,000-acre spruce beetle kill drapes this alpine mountain park like a heavy wool blanket. Except for a green strip of young trees along the old logging roads that crisscross forested areas like these, 90 percent or more of the rest of the forest has been killed. Groundhog Park, La Garita Range, Rio Grande National Forest, south central Colorado, elevation 11,000 feet. Background: Mesa Mountain, elevation 12,994 feet.
Credit: Bruce Melton
We were awash for 19 days in a tumultuous sea of mountains and forests, drifting a course through the heart of the US Rockies on a 6,000-mile journey of observation. Our film,
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Friday, February 19th, 2016
Jake Anderson, - Anti Media
Stephan: This story is so creepy and Orwellian it makes one's skin crawl.
In a troubling new development in the domestic consumer surveillance debate, an investigation into Samsung Smart TVs has revealed that user voice commands are recorded, stored, and transmitted to a third party. The company even warns customers not to discuss personal or sensitive information within earshot of the device. (emphasis added)
This is in stark contrast to previous claims by tech manufacturers, like Playstation, who vehemently deny their devices record personal information, despite evidence to the contrary, including news that hackers can gain access to unencrypted streams of credit card information.
The new Samsung controversy stems from the discovery of a single haunting statement in the company’s “privacy policy,” which states:
“Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.”
This sparked a back and forth between the Daily Beast and Samsung regarding not only consumer privacy but also security concerns. If our conversations are “captured and transmitted,” eavesdropping hackers may be able to use our “personal or other sensitive information” for identity theft or any number […]
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Friday, February 19th, 2016
Mark Potok, Senior Fellow - Southern Poverty Law Center
Stephan: Here is yet more data supporting my assertion that White Christian Theocratic terrorists are a much bigger threat than anything the Muslims are doing.
The number of hate and antigovernment ‘Patriot’ groups grew last year, and terrorist attacks and radical plots proliferated.
Charleston. Chattanooga. Colorado Springs. In these towns and dozens of other communities around the nation, 2015 was a year marked by extraordinary violence from domestic extremists — a year of living dangerously.
Antigovernment militiamen, white supremacists, abortion foes, domestic Islamist radicals, neo-Nazis and lovers of the Confederate battle flag targeted police, government officials, black churchgoers, Muslims, Jews, schoolchildren, Marines, abortion providers, members of the Black Lives Matter protest movement, and even drug dealers.
They laid plans to attack courthouses, banks, festivals, funerals, schools, mosques, churches, synagogues, clinics, water treatment plants and power grids. They used firearms, bombs, C-4 plastic explosives, knives and grenades; one of them, a murderous Klansman, was convicted of trying to build a death ray.
The armed violence was accompanied by rabid and often racist denunciations of Muslims, LGBT activists and others — incendiary rhetoric led by a number of mainstream political figures and […]
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