Month: May 2013

Gee

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

I wonder how that got there?

WASHINGTON — Japan has suspended some imports of U.S. wheat after genetically engineered wheat was found on an Oregon farm.

The Agriculture Department announced the discovery of the modified wheat on Wednesday. No genetically engineered wheat has been approved for U.S. farming.

Japan is one of the largest export markets for U.S. wheat growers. Katsuhiro Saka, a counselor at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, said Thursday that Japan had canceled orders of western white wheat from the Pacific Northwest and also of some feed-grade wheat. He said the country was waiting for more information from the Agriculture Department as it investigates the discovery.

“In most countries the unapproved genetically modified wheat would be a target of concern,” Saka said. “The Japanese people have similar kinds of concerns.”

USDA officials said the wheat was the same strain as a genetically modified wheat that was designed to be herbicide-resistant and was legally tested by seed giant Monsanto a decade ago but never approved. Monsanto stopped testing that product in Oregon and several other states in 2005.
Continue reading “Gee” →

Jurassic Park?

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

This could get interesting.

MOSCOW (AP) — A perfectly preserved woolly mammoth carcass with liquid blood has been found on a remote Arctic island, fueling hopes of cloning the Ice Age animal, Russian scientists said Thursday.

The carcass was in such good shape because its lower part was stuck in pure ice, said Semyon Grigoryev, the head of the Mammoth Museum, who led the expedition into the Lyakhovsky Islands off the Siberian coast.

“The blood is very dark, it was found in ice cavities bellow the belly and when we broke these cavities with a poll pick, the blood came running out,” he said in a statement released by the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, which sent the team.

Wooly mammoths are thought to have died out around 10,000 years ago, although scientists think small groups of them lived longer in Alaska and on islands off Siberia.

The high cost of incarcerating the high

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

This really is incredibly stupid and pointless:

NEW YORK — American taxpayers could spend upwards of $1.2 million over the next decade imprisoning Jerry Duval, a Michigan medical marijuana patient who was convicted of distributing the drug.

Duval has a kidney and pancreas transplant, as well as glaucoma and neuropathy. His family grew marijuana on his Michigan farm in part to treat his ailments. But when the Department of Justice prosecuted him in federal court, Duval was barred from presenting evidence of his compliance with Michigan’s medical marijuana law. He will report to prison on June 11.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons initially told Duval he would have to serve out his 10-year sentence in a prison that lacked specialized medical facilities but then relented after an outcry from marijuana reform advocates. He will now serve his time at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Mass. — the same facility where Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being held because of injuries he sustained during his apprehension.

According to Bureau of Prisons estimates, on average the annual cost of a stay in a federal medical center prison works out to $51,420. After support costs are included, the total comes to about $157.74 per day per prisoner.

But Duval believes he is no ordinary prisoner, even for a medical center prison. In a request to the Bureau of Prisons’ compassionate release program he made in a letter on Tuesday, he estimated that preserving his kidneys and pancreas alone costs more than $100,000 annually. All told, he writes, keeping him out of prison would save the federal taxpayer $1.2 million over 10 years.

Fox News Cavemen worried about female breadwinners…

~ Boohunney ~ 5 Comments

A study released by Pew Research yesterday revealed that 40% of all households today in America with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income for the family.

Lou Dobbs, Juan Williams and Erick Erickson believe this a tragic, tragic trend in our country.

On his Fox business program, Dobbs described the Pew study as ‘showing that women have become the breadwinners in this country, and a lot of other concerning and troubling statistics.’ He went on to call the report suggestive of “society dissolv[ing] around us.

Juan Williams believes the breadwinning women are destroying the institution of marriage…

What we’re seeing with four out of 10 families, now the woman is the primary breadwinner. You’re seeing the disintegration of marriage, you’re seeing men who were hard hit by the economic recession in ways that women weren’t. But you’re seeing, I think, systemically, larger than the political stories that we follow every day, something going terribly wrong in American society, and it’s hurting our children, and it’s going to have impact for generations to come

Erick Erickson, says people that aren’t troubled by this trend are being anti-science.

I’m so used to liberals telling conservatives that they’re anti-science. But liberals who defend this and say it is not a bad thing are very anti-science. When you look at biology — when you look at the natural world — the roles of a male and a female in society and in other animals, the male typically is the dominant role. The female, it’s not antithesis, or it’s not competing, it’s a complementary role

Oh, dear Erick, this may help. A little science lesson prepared for you…

The one thing any observer of the natural world knows is that the animal kingdom is marked by its diversity. Boy Biologist Erick’s first mistake was to open his yap and say “typically” in regards to the natural world. Because nothing is typical in nature. No such thing,

Let’s start at the bottom of the food chain for an example. That would be the male spider, frequent post-coital meal of the larger, more dominant female spider. Or let’s look at fish. Did you know that all clownfish are born male? And the most dominant male clownfish becomes female? True story. It appears a male clownfish’s highest aspiration is to be female. Suckit, Boy Biologist.

The animal kingdom is filled with examples of female-dominant sexual dimorphism. And in many animal species, it’s not just size which matters: it’s social order and behavior, too. Look at hyenas, where females have all the power — and it’s inherited, regardless of other hyenas’ age or size. Even in primates, female dominance is prevalent.

Yes, even in primates. That means humans.

The next thing those breadwinning women will want is equal pay and bust through glass ceilings.

Well, of course, there were no silly little women on the panel.

http://youtu.be/kORINpVUEtE

 

 

Meet Zach Sobiech

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Via Upworthy:

Zach Sobiech, at the age of 14, found out he had a rare form of terminal cancer. So he became a rock star, and millions of people got to see his music before he passed away on May 20, 2013. This is his beautiful story.

You never know what to expect until you lose someone dear to your heart this way.  I lost my dad to pancreatic cancer far too early. If you wouldn’t mind sharing this so more people hear Zach’s story, I’d love it. His family has requested that anyone who is interested in helping change the fate for future children like Zach donate to the research fund set up on his behalf.

UPDATE: You can also buy his album on iTunes here, with the proceeds going to the research fund.