Editorial

Genetically modified cotton seeds "could lead to total destruction of soil organisms, leaving dead soil unable to produce food"

From Global Research, here.

A recent scientific study carried out by Navdanya, compared the soil of fields where Bt-cotton had been planted for 3 years with adjoining fields with non GMO cotton or other crops. The region covered included Nagpur, Amravati and Wardha of Vidharbha which accounts for highest GMO cotton planting in India, and the highest rate of farmers suicides (4000 per year).

In 3 years, Bt-cotton has reduced the population of Actinomycetes by 17%. Actinomycetes are vital for breaking down cellulose and creating humus.

Bacteria were reduced by 14%. The total microbial biomass was reduced by 8.9%.

Vital soil beneficial enzymes which make nutrients available to plants have also been drastically reduced. Acid Phosphatase which contributes to uptake of phosphates was reduced by 26.6%. Nitrogenase enzymes which help fix nitrogen were reduced by 22.6%.

At this rate, in a decade of planting with GM cotton, or any GM crop with Bt genes in it, could lead to total destruction of soil organisms, leaving dead soil unable to produce food.

Note: this image is of a drought.

Top scientists ask medical journal "Science" to retract original AIDS papers

Thirty-seven doctors, senior researchers and attorneys have asked the journal Science to retract four articles published in 1984 that supposedly established that HIV was the cause of AIDS.  The articles, by a group led by Dr. Robert Gallo, have drawn criticism for some time.  An investigation in the early 90s by the US Department of Health and Human Services concluded that the lead paper was “fraught with false and erroneous statements.” A Congressional Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations produced a staff report on the papers which contains scathing criticisms of their integrity.

Now, new analysis of the documentation behind the papers has revealed even more reason to doubt Gallo’s findings.  The letter refers to “recent revelation of an astonishing number of previously unreported deletions and unjustified alterations made by Gallo…”

Dr. Mikulas Popovic wrote the manuscripts while Gallo was in Europe, but Gallo made handwritten changes to the manuscripts upon his return.  Popovic wrote: "Despite intensive research efforts, the causative agent of AIDS has not yet been identified.”  This sentence was deleted and replaced by a statement that the findings suggest that HIV is the cause of AIDS.

Gallo submitted micrographs to Science that were identified as containing the HIV virus. But just four days before he submitted them, Dr. Matthew A. Gonda, then Head of the Electron Microscopy Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute, wrote a letter to Gallo and Popovic stating that he “does not believe” that the micrographs contain images of HIV.  The micrographs were published in Science on May 4, 1984 and identified as containing HIV. 

These developments add to the mounting body of evidence that the original conclusion that HIV causes AIDS is deeply flawed. 

Thus far there has been no response from Science regarding the request for retraction.

Everything you know about AIDS is wrong

 Published in the November, 2008 Rock Creek Free Press.

By Sheila Casey / RCFP

On April 23, 1984, Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler and researcher Robert Gallo from the National Cancer Institute held a press conference and announced that Gallo had found the cause of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the retrovirus HIV. Heckler estimated that a vaccine would be available in just two years. That same day in 1984, Gallo patented the blood test to detect the HIV antibodies.

As a retrovirus researcher, Gallo had previously tried to pin the blame for Alzheimer’s, leukemia and neurological disorders on a retrovirus, all without success. Now AIDS was in his sights.

But Gallo had skipped an important step in the scientific process: his HIV research had never been subjected to peer review, and was not published until after the press conference with Heckler had already conferred legitimacy on it.

Billions of dollars poured into research programs and millions of people lined up to have their blood checked; by 2006, 72 million Americans had been tested, with a third of that number tested every year. As its creator, Gallo received a percentage of the cost of each test.

To receive a positive HIV test result was considered a death sentence: you would get AIDS and die a miserable death, sooner or later.

As the years passed, it became apparent that this was not true. Only five percent of the people who tested HIV positive went on to develop AIDS. A vaccine has never been found. And there is now a growing group of scientists who dispute that HIV causes AIDS.

If airlines were honest about safety

Courtesy of The Economist

"GOOD morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the airline that tells it like it is.  At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust.

The flight attendants are now pointing out the emergency exits. This is the part of the announcement that you might want to pay attention to. So stop your sudoku for a minute and listen: knowing in advance where the exits are makes a dramatic difference to your chances of survival if we have to evacuate the aircraft. Also, please keep your seat belt fastened when seated, even if the seat-belt light is not illuminated. This is to protect you from the risk of clear-air turbulence, a rare but extremely nasty form of disturbance that can cause severe injury. Imagine the heavy food trolleys jumping into the air and bashing into the overhead lockers, and you will have some idea of how nasty it can be. We don’t want to scare you. Still, keep that seat belt fastened all the same.

Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.

How Exercise Protects Your Brain

By Robin Nixon, Special to LiveScience

posted: 06 August 2008 09:21 am ET

Athletes and people who exercise not only have better bods — they have better brains too, a host of studies have now firmly established.

A review of studies published earlier this month, in fact, found that a balanced diet and regular exercise can protect the brain and ward off mental disorders.

Other research has focused just on the effects of exercise. The bottom line: Exercisers learn faster, remember more, think clearer and bounce back more easily from brain injuries such as a stroke. They are also less prone to depression and age-related cognitive decline.

But why should a mindless half-hour on a treadmill affect your brain?

Move fast enough and the electrical activity doesn’t have time to dissipate between each message. It begins building up in the brain and eventually triggers a release of chemicals called growth factors.

Exercise, like hunger, is a stress on your body. "And sometimes," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla of UCLA, "stress can be good."

Protecting the brain

Because it burns calories so quickly, aerobic exercise is a threat to the body's energy reserves. Heeding this danger, the body acts to protect one of its most precious, and energy-demanding, organs: the brain.

Unlike cells in less critical organs, neurons are extremely vulnerable to disruptions in energy supply. "If deprived of energy for more than one minute," said Gomez-Pinilla, "the neuron dies." For that reason, he continued, "all the physiology of the body is designed to protect the brain."

By acting as a mild stressor, exercise is an alternative way to spur many of the protective benefits associated with calorie restriction and the release of brain-building growth factors, said Carl Cotman, director of the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at the University of California in Irvine.

And exercise not only protects the brain; it actually improves brain function. This may be one more way, theorizes Cotman, that nature helped ensure the survival of those who were particularly good at prehistoric Jazzersize — which in those days meant hunting and defending grub.

Why it works

How does the treadmill get inside your head?

Even when we are sitting or lying down, our bodies send our brains regular updates about how our limbs are positioned. When we, say, stand and begin walking, these electric messages need to be sent more often. (Knee is bent, straight, bent, straight ...) Move fast enough and the electrical activity doesn’t have time to dissipate between each message. It begins building up in the brain and eventually triggers a release of chemicals called growth factors.

Growth factors are like manna for neurons. "They make neurons stronger, healthier and improve their ability to learn," Cotman said. In the presence of growth factors, new neurons are born and old ones sprout, grow and form better connections with each other. Blood vessels blossom along side the neurons, giving them quick access to glucose and other nutrients. All this, in turn, improves our ability to think, learn and remember. As Cotman said, exercise "builds the pipes" for improved cognition.

You might also be wondering how much exercise you need to keep your smarty-pants fitting, so to speak.

While we do need to get off the couch regularly to reap the brain-benefits of exercise, we don't have to be Jane Fonda. Exercising every other day is just as good as daily exercise, as long as we sustain it for at least a half-hour, Cotman said.

And we don't have to pump iron to remain an intellectual powerhouse; anaerobic exercise such as weight-lifting and resistance work, says Gomez-Pinilla, "are not that relevant to the brain."

Internal BlueCross memo re. "Sicko"

Thank you to the BlueCross employee who forwarded this internal memo from Barclay Fitzpatrick, VP of Corporate Communications for Capital BlueCross, to Michael Moore. Moore had this to say about the memo:

If the rest of your executive team hasn't seen "Sicko," it opens in an additional 100 cities tonight for a total of over 700 screens across North America. Attendance went up a whopping 56% on the 4th of July, higher than any other film in the theaters right now. But don't be scared, and certainly don't be ashamed to be a capitalist. Greed is good! Especially good for you. There's nothing like having the pre-existing condition of being rich, should you ever get sick and need help.

--Michael Moore

Page 1 of 4

Subject: Capital BlueCross Sicko memo
Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2007 1:42 PM
From:
To:
Conversation: Capital BlueCross Sicko memo

[The following memo was written by Barclay Fitzpatrick, VP of Corporate Communications for Capital
BlueCross]
I was able to see Sicko last night in Lancaster. There were about 30 other viewers in the theatre
covering all age groups. I have attached the well-written memo from one of our partners, which
describes cases used in the movie, to the end of my memo. Also attached are the latest talking
points from BCBSA. I will focus on impact to our brands, issues, and suggested strategies in this
memo.
The Movie
You would have to be dead to be unaffected by Moore's movie, he is an effective storyteller. In
Sicko Moore presents a collage of injustices by selecting stories, no matter how exceptional to the
norm, that present the health insurance industry as a set of organizations and people dedicated to
denying claims in the name of profit. Denial for treatments that are considered "experimental" is
a common story, along with denial for previous conditions, and denial for application errors or
omissions. Individual employees from Humana and other insurers are interviewed who claim to have
actively pursued claim denial as an institutionalized goal in the name of profit.

What will YOU drop dead of?

It's fun and entertaining to think about these things. So on a day when you need a few laughs, check out http://www.yourdiseaserisk.harvard.edu/english/ and find out how the grim reaper's gonna git you. Will it be your boobs, your gut, your arteries? The folks at Harvard have the answer.

Michael Moore's indictment of the US healthcare industry: Sicko

Here's the trailer. Coming June 29, I can't wait.

For maximum smarts, stay single

Link: IOL: Sharing the bed is a no-brainer for men....

Vienna - Scientists in Austria say sharing a bed with someone temporarily reduces men's brain power.

When men spend the night with someone, their sleep is disturbed, whether they make love or not, and this impairs their mental ability the next day.

According to the New Scientist study, women who share a bed fare better because they sleep more deeply.

As for this woman, I'm with the guys: I sleep better alone. Call me an ornery, un-romantic scrooge, but how could it be otherwise? For an activity that is about going unconscious, and staying unconscious as long and deeply as possible, having anything in your environment to pull you back to consciousness is unwelcome. That includes random appendages flailing about, snoring, sleep-muttering and the pattering of heavy male feet on midnight errands down the hall.

I keep hearing about women who are "too tired" to have sex. This might change if they slept alone and got some solid ZZZs. That's a tough choice though. Nuzzling elbows while both zonked in the Delta zone, or nuzzling you-know-whats while wide awake. Hmmm. Tough choice.

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

All great films exist somewhere on a continuum between pure entertainment and pure art. Entertainment is often achieved through production values other than the essential triad of writer/director/actor. Art requires little else. Entertainment passes through us, leaving no mark. Art changes us.

If you make your stand solidly in the entertainment camp, skip The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. It's the tale of the last hours of an unloved and unkempt alcoholic, trying to get care for his headache and stomach-ache at a series of Bucharest hospitals. There is no music and almost no editing. Indeed, there is barely any "camerawork," in that the camera hardly moves through many long scenes. There will be no Oscars for makeup or costume. What there is, is a story that will rip your heart out, one tiny piece at a time.

Art-lovers, writer-director Cristi Puiu's "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" is not to be missed. It is difficult to watch. Chicago Tribune movie critic Michael Phillips notes "It is also more grueling in some stretches than anything in "United 93." But, as with those who bite off a big chunk of suffering in this lifetime so as to make real headway, those who stick with "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" will be rewarded.

Why are art films so often a downer? Carl Gustav Jung had a good answer: "There is no coming to consciousness without pain."

The writing and dialogue bring verisimilitude to new heights. It is hard, after a while, to remember that this is a movie, not a documentary. People make conversation in ways we've heard a thousand times, in ways that have nothing to do with the "plot" per se. There is great art in its seeming artlessness.

Like Paul Greengrass, writer-director of United 93, Cristi Puiu is afforded exceptional artistic latitude, simply because we know from the get-go that the outcome will be dire. What might have seemed tedious--the endless humiliations suffered by Mr. Lazarescu--become instead the tableau of a dying man, and the events that killed him.

The acting, writing and directing are uniformly superb. There are no super-villains or super-heroes. We see the ordinary coldness of the human heart, and its lethal consequences. I didn't know how long the movie was when I started it, but once it began, I never thought about the time. There was no thought but to stay with Mr. Lazarescu, to see it through, and to hope (despite the movie's title) that he would get help in time.

What others had to say

Peter Rainier, Christian Science Monitor: ...heartbreakingly powerful masterpiece that affected me far more deeply than any other film I've seen all year.

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: a stunner, so hypnotic that the length hardly matters

Ken Fox, TV Guide: It's full of humor, pathos and a deep humanism that comes as a warm blast in this age of lifeless, cinematic junk.

Ethan Alter, Premiere Magazine: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is never anything less than wholly engrossing.