A collection of articles defining our times. The pages contain clickable links, don't let the titles fool you, some of the best articles have very non-descript titles and there are usually more articles on the matters in the days and week pages the links land on so it's a sort of treasure hunt through history, Enjoy!
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
The Weakening of the U.S.: Why Americans Won’t Face Reality
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| We mythologize ourselves as clear-eyed dwellers of a shining city on a hill, but the fact is: we can’t handle the truth. |
We fight two far-flung wars while, for the first time in history, cutting taxes in the same breath, and then wonder why we’re having a rough go of it. We know at some level that our deficit is unsustainable but can’t agree on what is abundantly clear: that reducing it requires some combination of budget cuts and greater revenues. Meanwhile, the planet is lashed by extreme weather events of singular ferocity (including one that left parts of Washington, D.C., itself blacked out for nearly a week this summer), and yet we debate climate change as if it were a contested theory.
It goes on. Because white births are no longer the majority in a citizenry with deep Anglo-Saxon roots, and because many Americans recoil from this reality, we resist any sensible solution to the problem of the roughly 12 million illegal immigrants living among us and instead build high-tech barriers in a futile effort to stem the flow. Indeed, we are further away from any such solution than we were just six or eight years ago, when George W. Bush and some of his more enlightened Republican allies tried to think seriously about the question but were shot down by conservatives in their own party. The advent of Barack Obama has meant that alarming numbers among us cling not just to God and guns (as Obama once infelicitously put it) but to the conviction that the president must be a foreigner or a Marxist or a Muslim or even the Antichrist, and not merely cool, cerebral, and—oh, yes—black. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life found that the percentage of conservative Republicans who think Obama is a Muslim has more than doubled over the past four years, from 16 percent in 2008 to 34 percent now. READ MORE
Study finds tumors in rats fed on Monsanto's GM corn
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| Would He Oppose GM Foods? |
French
scientists said on [September 19] that rats fed on Monsanto's
genetically modified corn or exposed to its top-selling weedkiller
suffered tumors and multiple organ damage. Gilles-Eric Seralini
of the University of Caen and colleagues said rats fed on a diet
containing NK603 - a seed variety made tolerant to dousings of
Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller - or given water with Roundup at levels
permitted in the United States, died earlier than those on a standard
diet.
The animals on the GM diet suffered mammary tumors, as well as
severe liver and kidney damage.
The study was published in the
peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology and presented at a news conference in London.
The
researchers said 50 percent of males and 70 percent of females died
prematurely, compared with only 30 percent and 20 percent in the control
group.
GMOs are deeply unpopular in Europe and many other
countries, but dominate key crops in the United States after Monsanto in
1996 introduced a soybean genetically altered to tolerate Monsanto's
Roundup weed killer. Seralini was part of a team that has voiced
previous safety concerns based on a shorter rat study
in a scientific
paper published in 2009. This new study takes things a step further by
tracking the animals throughout their two-year lifespan. Seralini
believes his latest lifetime rat tests give a more realistic and
authoritative view of risks than the 90-day feeding trials that form the
basis of GM crop approvals, since three months is only the equivalent
of early adulthood in rats.
Note: For disturbing photos and more from the above long-term study on the dangers of GM food, click here. For an excellent article and a great two-minute video clearly explaining the major dangers of GM food, click here. For a powerful summary of the health risks from GM foods, click here.
NYPD Footage of Zuccotti Park Raid Leaked
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| NYPD beats Occupy protester with fist in Zuccotti Park, 11/15/11. (photo: AP/SA) |
26 September 12
he
presence of NYPD TARU (Technical Assistance Response Unit) officers at
Occupy protests has long been a source of contention among occupiers and
legal observers. The precise role and remit of the camera-wielding
officers is ill-defined; the end product of their constant filming
usually goes unseen by those featured in it.
However, on Sunday a group claiming Anonymous
affiliation released 60 hours of TARU footage from the night of the
Zuccotti Park eviction on Nov. 15. The footage is considered
particularly relevant in fleshing out the NYPD versus Occupy narrative,
since both mainstream and citizen journalists and videographers were
forcibly kept away from the park as officers dismantled the encampment
and rounded up protesters that night.
A release introducing the footage dump notes, “The
NYPD denied freedom of the press the night of the Zuccotti raid by
kicking out media and keeping them two blocks away … Much of the video
being released is edited by the NYPD, and at times edits are quite
blatant, probably trying to cover up their brutality.”
The release urges that readers share the TARU footage
and take note of any glitches or time stamp changes, which might suggest
selective editing. “We ask for an unedited version of the tapes,” it
notes.
New Yorkers Plaster 'Racist' Stickers Over Islamophobic Subway Ads
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| Stickers appeared on ads paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative. (photo: IMEU) |
26 September 12
fter
the anti-American protests erupted in the Middle East earlier this
month, Pam Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) decided
to re-up its anti-Muslim ad campaign in New York’s subway system. The ad, borrowing from an Ayn Rand quote, is meant to imply that Muslims are savages.
New York City transit authorities did not want to
display the ads but a federal court said refusing the ads would violate
AFDI’s First Amendment rights. But now that the ads are up, New Yorkers
are taking matters into their own hands, writing “RACIST” and “HATE SPEECH” over the ads in certain subway stations:
AFDI is trying to run a similar campaign in the Washington DC Metro but
authorities there have so far been successful at blocking the campaign “out of a concern for public safety.” READ MORE
Russia Suspends Import of Monsanto Corn on Health Concerns
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| California voters will decide on mandatory labeling of GMOs in November. (photo: California Right to Know) |
26 September 12
ollowing
the recent rat study on NK603 GMO corn, Russia has suspended imports of
Monsanto corn, while France continues investigations into the possible
dangers of GMOs to human health.
On Tuesday this week, Russia suspended the import and
use of Monsanto's genetically engineered corn, following the scientific
study released on September 19 on rats fed with this corn, which caused serious health problems, including tumors and organ failure.
The study was run over a period of two years, which is
the lifetime of the rats being studied and was the first animal feeding
trial, set up to study the lifetime effects of exposure to NK603
Roundup tolerant GM maize, and also to Roundup, the world's best-selling
herbicide and weedkiller.
This Presidential Race Should Never Have Been This Close
Rolling Stone Magazine
26 September 12
The press everywhere is buzzing this week with premature obituaries of the Romney campaign.
New polls are out suggesting that Mitt Romney's electoral path to the presidency is all but blocked. Unless someone snags an iPhone video of Obama taking a leak on Ohio State mascot Brutus Buckeye, or stealing pain meds from a Tampa retiree and sharing them with a bunch of Japanese carmakers, the game looks pretty much up – Obama's widening leads in three battleground states, Virginia, Ohio and Florida, seem to have sealed the deal.
That's left the media to speculate, with a palpable air of sadness, over where the system went wrong. Whatever you believe, many of these articles say, wherever you rest on the ideological spectrum, you should be disappointed that Obama ultimately had to run against such an incompetent challenger.
Weirdly, there seems to be an expectation that presidential races should be closer, and that if one doesn't come down to the wire in an exciting photo finish, we've all missed out somehow. Frank Bruni of The New York Times wrote a thoughtful, insightful editorial today that blames the painful, repetitive and vacuous campaign process for thinning the electoral herd and leaving us with only automatons and demented narcissists willing to climb the mountain: READ MORE
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Discovery Channel Crashes a Passenger Jet… for Science!
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By Jason Robey
Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:28 PM ET - This past weekend, Discovery Channel orchestrated the crash of a
Boeing 727 passenger jet in a remote and uninhabited Mexican desert as
part of a scientific experiment for an unprecedented international
television documentary for Discovery Channel, Channel 4 in the UK and
Pro Sieben in Germany.
The pilot evacuated the 170-seat aircraft (via parachute) just minutes before the collision after setting it on a crash course. It was then flown remotely from a chase plane. The crash went according to plan and there were no injuries or damage to property.
The plane was packed with scientific experiments, including crash test dummies in lieu of passengers. Dozens of cameras recorded the crash from inside the aircraft, on the ground, in chase planes and even on the ejecting pilot’s helmet.
An international team of experts will use the data to study the crash-worthiness of the aircraft’s airframe and cabin, as well as the impact of crashes on the human body, with the goal of finding new ways to help increase passenger survivability. The experiment will also help them evaluate new “black box” crash-recording technology.
PHOTOS: See more pictures of Discovery Channel’s Boeing 727 plane crash.
The plane was crashed in a remote and unpopulated part of the Sonoran Desert of Baja California, Mexico. The location was chosen after an extensive international search to find a suitable location offering the perfect conditions for this groundbreaking scientific project. READ MORE
