Exposed: the great GM crops myth

Major new study shows that modified soya produces 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent 

  Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.

Professor Barney Gordon, of the university's department of agronomy, said he started the research – reported in the journal Better Crops – because many farmers who had changed over to the GM crop had "noticed that yields are not as high as expected even under optimal conditions". He added: "People were asking the question 'how come I don't get as high a yield as I used to?'"
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History of the United States public debt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the United States, national debt is money borrowed by the federal government of the United States. Debt burden is usually measured as a ratio of public debt to gross domestic product.
Debt as a share of the US economy reached a maximum during Harry Truman's first presidential term. Public debt as a percentage of GDP fell rapidly in the post-World War II period, and reached a low in 1973 under President Richard Nixon. The debt burden has consistently increased since then, except during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. In recent years sharp increases in deficits and the resulting increases in debt have led to heightened concern about the long-term sustainability of the federal government's fiscal policies.^{[1] READ MORE}

Fact-Checkers Stymied as Romney and Ryan Recall Their Seafaring Days

Now that a half-dozen independent fact-checking organizations have cited candidates Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan for repeatedly lying about Obama’s record, Messrs. Romney and Ryan have begun telling whoppers that have nothing to do with their quest to hold the most powerful offices in the world.

Both candidates have stated that Obama ended the work requirement under welfare; that Obama closed a GM factory in Janesville, WI, when it was actually closed before he took office; and that his Affordable Care Act cuts $716 billion from Medicare benefits.

Fresh out of political falsehoods, but seemingly pathological fabulists, Romney and Ryan spun unverifiable yarns about their exploits at sea.

“Ahoy me fine reporters,” Ryan began the press conference. “If ye be lookin’ for gripping adventure on the high seas, Mitt Romney be the man for ye,” he said, gesturing to the Republican presidential hopeful.

Romney chortled and said, “Of course, Paul is only kidding. But he hoisted me mizzenmast and shivered me timbers, yar!”

At that, the two men laughed hysterically. When Ryan pulled himself together, he added, “No, no, really. As crewmembers aboard the Farley Mowat, we spent months hunting down the Japanese whaling fleet near Antarctica. Isn’t that right, Mitt?” READ MORE

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The Conservative Psyche: How Ordinary People Come to Embrace Paul Ryan's Cruelty

Scientific research into the way we think explains the reasons decent people wind up supporting horrific policies.

August 19, 2012

Earlier this year, Democratic operatives looking for the best way to define Mitt Romney discovered something interesting about Paul Ryan's budget. The New York Times reported that when the details of his proposals were run past focus groups, they found that the plan is so cruel that voters “ simply refused to believe any politician would do such a thing.”

In addition to phasing out the Earned Income Tax Credit that keeps millions of American families above the poverty line and cutting funding for children's healthcare in half, Jonathan Cohn described the “America that Paul Ryan envisions” like this:

Many millions of working-age Americans would lose health insurance. Senior citizens would anguish over whether to pay their rent or their medical bills, in a way they haven’t since the 1960s. Government would be so starved of resources that, by 2050, it wouldn’t have enough money for core functions like food inspections and highway maintenance.READ MORE

Chemist in drug lab scandal posts $10,000 bail

Annie Dookhan  Finally Arrested

By Erin Smith, Joe Dwinell And O’ryan Johnson
Friday, September 28, 2012 - Updated 1 day ago

Annie Dookhan, the former state chemist at the center of a massive lab scandal which may jeopardize thousands of drug cases, could face decades behind bars if convicted, said Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Dookhan, 34, pleaded not guilty this afternoon in Boston Municipal Court to two counts of obstruction of justice and falsely pretending to hold a degree from a college or university. She posted $10,000 bail late this afternoon.

Prosecutors said today Dookhan would sprinkle cocaine on negative test results, test them again, and report the positive finding; and test a few samples out of a batch of 25 and list them all as positive.

Coakley added Dookhan could face more charges as the investigation continues. Each obstruction charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

“This is not the end of the charging,” Coakley vowed.

State police arrested Dookhan this morning at her home in Franklin, leading her out of her modest split-level after handcuffing her inside shortly before noon. She did not speak and kept her head down as she was led down her walkway in front of reporters to one unmarked police car, then again to a cruiser which sped away up the suburban street not far from Interstate 495 with the rogue chemist inside.  READ MORE

‘Frightening’ influx of criminals feared

Eyed as fallout from drug lab scandal

By Dave Wedge

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Coming to the night sky, the comet fifteen times brighter than the moon

Comet ISON is so named because it was first spotted on
photos taken by Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok
from Russia using the International Scientific Optical
Network telescope Photo: E. Guido, G. Sostero and
N. Howes

September 26, 2012, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

Astronomers have discovered a new supercomet that will be fifteen times brighter than the moon when it crosses the night sky next year. 

Calculations show that the celestial visitor could be dazzlingly bright in November 2013 and be easily visible in broad daylight as it rounds the Sun. 

Comet ISON is so named because it was first spotted on photos taken by Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok from Russia using the International Scientific Optical Network telescope. 

It is currently very faint because it is out in the depths of space near Jupiter's orbit. But it will steadily brighten over the coming months until it passes less than two million km from the Sun on November 28. 

That makes it a type of comet called a sungrazer, and there is a risk that the comet - essentially a giant ball of rock and ice, will break up when it makes that close approach. Comet ISON, which has the official label C/2012 S1, appears to be on a nearly parabolic orbit which leads scientists to believe that it is making its first trip through the Solar System. 

This means it may have been dislodged from a vast reservoir of icy debris surrounding the Sun far beyond the planets, called the Oort Cloud. It is a giant ball of rock and ice that is likely to be packed with volatiles including water ice that will erupt as brilliant jets of gas and dust when it is at its best. READ MORE

Why the US demonises Venezuela's democracy

October 3, 2012, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

On 30 May, Dan Rather, one of America's best-known journalists, referred to [Venezuelan president Hugo] Chávez as "the dictator" – a term that few, if any, political scientists familiar with the country would countenance. 

Here is what Jimmy Carter said about Venezuela's "dictatorship" a few weeks ago: "As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we've monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world." Carter won a Nobel prize for his work through the election-monitoring Carter Center, which has observed and certified past Venezuelan elections. The opposition will probably lose this election ... because the living standards of the majority of Venezuelans have dramatically improved under Chávez. 

Since 2004, when the government gained control over the oil industry and the economy had recovered from the devastating, extra-legal attempts to overthrow it (including the 2002 US-backed military coup), poverty has been cut in half and extreme poverty by 70%. And this measures only cash income. 

 Millions have access to healthcare for the first time, and college enrolment has doubled, with free tuition for many students. Inequality has also been considerably reduced. By contrast, the two decades that preceded Chávez amount to one of the worst economic failures in Latin America, with real income per person actually falling by 14% between 1980 and 1998. 

In Washington, democracy has a simple definition: does a government do what the state department wants it to do?

Note: For a powerful movie which shows how much our media distorts our perception of global events, watch "The Revolution Will Not be Televised" about Venezuela and Hugo Chavez at this link. 

For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on mass media corruption, click here.