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New GM frankenfoods in the pipeline: Scientist produces swine-fever resistant pigs

Christina Sarich
Natural Society
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC
GMO pigs
The US Food and Drug Administration approved the nation's first genetically modified animal in 2015 - GMO salmon - and scientists can't wait to add more to the batch. Head of development biology at the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute, Professor Bruce Whitelaw has produced swine fever-resistant pigs through a new gene-editing technique. Yeah, he wants to see them also approved by the FDA. [1]

Whitelaw says that much more work is required to refine what he calls a 'precise' process.
"It's a swap of sequence. It's a .00000001 percent change, which is a tiny portion," he adds. "The technology has allowed us to add in and create very precise breeding."
Though these are the claims of many in the biotech industry, gene-editing and other 'cutting-edge' genetic modification techniques don't always work out as they plan. With GM plants bred to resist pests in the field, the industry inadvertently (some argue purposefully) created super bugs, requiring more and more toxic chemicals to be sprayed.

Comment: What could possibly go wrong?
"Anyone that says, 'Oh, we know that this is perfectly safe,' I say is either unbelievably stupid, or deliberately lying. The reality is, we don't know. The experiments simply haven't been done, and now we have become the guinea pigs." ~ David Suzuki, geneticist

What we do know is that the unintended consequences of the recombinant DNA process employed to create genetically engineering organisms are beyond the ability of present-day science to comprehend. This is largely due to the post-Human Genome Project revelation that the holy grail of molecular biology, the overly-simplified 'one gene > one trait' model, is absolutely false.

Only recently, for instance, a previously unidentified viral gene fragment was discovered to be present in most of the GM crops commercialized to date; a finding which calls into question the safety of 54 commercialized crops already commercialized and being used in both food and feed. There could be hundreds of viral-gene altered proteins within these foods, whose complex interactions with DNA and toxicity have never been characterized.


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Attention

The dirty racial politics of pollution: 7 toxic assaults on communities of color besides Flint

David J. Krajicek
Alternet
Sat, 23 Jan 2016 19:57 UTC
Environmental racism
© environmentalstudiesblog.wordpress.com
The lead poisoning of children in Flint is only the latest example of environmental racism in the U.S.

Don't try to tell Dr. Robert D. Bullard that the noxious water disaster in Flint, Mich., is anything but business as usual in the United States.

"My first take was that this is déjà vu all over again," Bullard says. "When will this madness stop?"

For 30 years, Bullard, dean of the school of public affairs at Texas Southern University in Houston, has been writing books and journal articles about environmental racism, the fact that sewage treatment plants, municipal landfills and illegal dumps, garbage transfer stations, incinerators, smelters and other hazardous waste sites inevitably are sited in the backyard of the poor.
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Bad Guys

Fear Inc: Poll shows that hyping the threat of ISIS may make nuclear weapons more popular


RT
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 19:07 UTC
nuclear sub
© Danny Lawson / Reuters
Maintaining Britain's arsenal of nuclear weapons has won greater public support in the last year in response to the rise of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), pollster Orb International claims.

In a study commissioned by the Independent newspaper and published on Monday, researchers claim "the rise of ISIS and an increase in the security threat back home may well have turned the tide a little."

The poll also shows a Britain narrowly split on the issue of Trident nuclear missiles, with a 1 percent majority backing full renewal. The majority of Scots, meanwhile, are firmly against such a move.
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Quenelle - Golden

Muslim women take to Twitter in response to David Cameron's anti-Muslim remarks


RT
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 18:47 UTC
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron
© Kacper Pempel / ReutersBritain's Prime Minister David Cameron
Muslim women have been tweeting Prime Minister David Cameron to highlight their professional achievements after he suggested the demographic suffered from a traditional submissiveness, which could be resolved by language training.

The irate tweeters were up in arms about what he is alleged to have termed the "traditional submissiveness of Muslim women," suggesting it was a factor in radicalization.

His view was reported on January 17 shortly before he called for Muslim women to learn English so they could act as a brake on extremism.

Comment: Cameron's submission to the US' anti-Muslim propaganda is nauseating. He tells Muslim women to learn English in order to put a 'brake' on extremism, even as British soldiers are caught waving the ISIS flag and fighting for the Islamic State. Lunatics like Cameron are at the wheel, blaming their victims for not applying the brakes!

Also see: Who is hunting Angela Merkel with 'rapefugee' hysteria? US network war against the German government

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Stock Down

One-third of US oil industry faces bankruptcy as oil prices fall to near $20

Bradley Olson & Erin Ailworth
Contra Corner
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 19:16 UTC
industry
© Unknown
Crude-oil prices plunged more than 5% on Monday to trade near $30 a barrel, making the spectre of bankruptcy ever more likely for a significant chunk of the U.S. oil industry.

Three major investment banks— Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc.—now expect the price of oil to crash through the $30 threshold and into $20 territory in short order as a result of China's slowdown, the U.S. dollar's appreciation and the fact that drillers from Houston to Riyadh won't quit pumping despite the oil glut.

As many as a third of American oil-and-gas producers could tip toward bankruptcy and restructuring by mid-2017, according to Wolfe Research. Survival, for some, would be possible if oil rebounded to at least $50, according to analysts. The benchmark price of U.S. crude settled at $31.41 a barrel, setting a 12-year low.

More than 30 small companies that collectively owe in excess of $13 billion have already filed for bankruptcy protection so far during this downturn, according to law firm Haynes & Boone.

Comment: Also see: The U.S. is at the epicenter of a worldwide economic meltdown

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Arrow Down

Russian economy contracted 3.7% in 2015 due to collapse in oil prices


RT
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 18:57 UTC
Moscow Russia
© Maxim Shemetov / ReutersMoscow, Russia
Russia's Federal Statistics Service says the country's economy contracted 3.7 percent last year. This corresponds to the prediction from the Economic Development Ministry.

Unemployment in Russia grew to 7.4 percent last year or 4.2 million jobless.

Retail trade turnover fell by 10 percent compared to the previous year at 27.6 trillion rubles (or $452.5 billion at 61 rubles per dollar, average exchange rate in 2015). Capital investment decreased by 8.4 percent to $230 billion.

Comment: And yet: Russians remain calm throughout financial difficulties because their economy is 'unsinkable'

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Evil Rays

Adelson newspaper rewrites history to make the case that Swedish foreign minister deserves assassination for questioning Israeli policy

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Sat, 23 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC
Margot Wallström of Sweden
Margot Wallström of Sweden
Today on my Facebook wall, I posted the following headline:
SWEDISH FOREIGN MINISTER WALLSTRÖM MAY BE ASSASSINATED, SUGGESTS ISRAELI FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE PEDAGOGIC SECRETARIAT OF THE EDUCATION MINISTRY.
The article by Zvi Zameret was posted as an op-ed in the rightist Sheldon Adelson-sponsored paper Makor Rishon ('First Source'), under the title, "Margot Wallström's source of inspiration," referring to the Swedish Foreign Minister. As it is in Hebrew, I shall try to make some mention of its salient contents, without translating the whole due to time constraints.

The matter was now brought to my attention via a tweet by journalist Barak Ravid (Haaretz) and via post of journalist David Sheen and forwarded by PS Arihant.

Comment: Once again we see how willing Israel's establishment is to rewrite history, 'blame the Mufti style', and pathologically threaten any powerful voices that would dare level legitimate and overdue criticism of its murderous policies. And If all else fails, just scream "antisemite!!"

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Heart - Black

Guards lock schizophrenic inmate in scalding shower; his death is ruled an accident

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:49 UTC
Darren Rainey
© Florida Dept. of Corrections
In 2012, a 50-year-old mentally ill prison inmate named Darren Rainey died while locked in a scalding hot shower, rigged to inflict retribution on prisoners, by guards at Dade Correctional Institution.

Guards put the schizophrenic man in the shower as punishment for defecating in his cell. Instead of getting Rainey the help that he obviously needed, guards took it upon themselves to inflict torturous punishment for hours.

When guards finally checked on prisoner 060954, he was on his back and dead. According to the original documents involving his death, investigators noted that he'd been left in the hot steam for so long that his skin had shriveled from his body, a condition referred to as slippage.
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Handcuffs

Rights violation: Bahraini regime jails 250 children on political grounds, terrorism charges


Press TV
Thu, 21 Jan 2016 10:39 UTC
2 boys
© www.presstv.irTwo Bahraini children arrested February 14, 2015. Do they look like terrorists to you?
At least 250 children are behind bars on political grounds in Bahrain which is facing almost daily protests for years now, a report says. According to a report by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights released on Wednesday, the incarcerations violate Article 16 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Under the provision, no child should be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with their privacy, family, or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on their honor and reputation, it said.

The center also called on the Bahraini regime to stop detention and interrogation of children on terrorism charges. On Tuesday, a court in Bahrain sentenced a 17-year-old boy to an additional 10 years in prison over alleged acts of terror. Ahmad al-Arab had earlier been sentenced to 120 years in jail. The ruling was the latest in a series of harsh punishments handed down to dissidents in Bahrain, a tiny Persian Gulf island nation that has been hit by anti-regime protests for years.

Many human rights groups have criticized the Bahraini judiciary for handing down long jail terms to protesters and activists. Amnesty International and other rights groups have also censured the regime over "rampant" human rights abuses. Bahraini protesters rallied in the northern village of Abu Saiba Tuesday, calling on officials to heed calls by UN and human rights organizations to release all political prisoners.

Comment: According to Humanitarium, an international organization dedicated to stopping violations of children's rights, Bahraini children -- arrested and sent to prison for participating in demonstrations -- are detained with adults and parents are deprived access. Human Rights Watch confirms accounts of torture, harassment, incarceration, false arrest, coerced confessions, inhumane treatment and denial of legal counsel and representation for arrested children. US Department of Labor cites Bahrain as having some of the worst forms of child labor, including commercial sexual exploitation. The Bahraini government has made little effort to rectify these atrocities.

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Airplane

American Airlines Miami to Milan flight makes emergency landing in Canada after severe turbulence injures 7


RT
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 04:08 UTC
AA flight diverted
© Paul Daly / THE CANADIAN PRESSSeveral passengers and crew were taken to hospital with unspecified injuries that occurred when their American Airlines flight heading to Milan from Miami encountered severe turbulence and emergency landed in St. John's.
Seven people aboard an American Airlines flight from Miami to Milan were injured when the aircraft encountered severe turbulence and was forced to divert and make an emergency landing in Canada.

American Airlines flight 206 carrying 192 passengers and 11 crew members experienced "severe turbulence" which forced the Boeing 767 to make an emergency landing at St. John's airport at 9:46pm on Sunday.

Paramedics and up to half a dozen ambulances, along with a fire truck, waited on the tarmac for the flight to land. Four passengers and three flight attendants were rushed to the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's for further evaluation, the airline said in a statement.

Comment: One passenger, Kristoo Prakash described a 'sudden, steep dive' that caught those standing up off guard. Another passenger, Jordan Case said that about four hours into the flight, the plane 'suddenly dropped' and rolled toward one side.

Less than a month ago freak turbulence injured over 20 people on board an Air Canada flight from Shanghai to Toronto. For related articles, see also:

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