The Tea Party is now clearly a distinctly minority faction. It’s prospects for obtaining future majority rule are small. The most radical (Todd Aiken) and shallow (Scott Brown) Senators lost. Reformers like Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin won. We now have powerful voices for progressive reform that can join figures …
I think everyone knows how I feel about vaccines. My calm, (somewhat) rational opinion is this: They are, for the most part, not necessary, not working, and not safe. The lack of science—not to mention common sense—behind the dozens of vaccines injected into our children is beyond appalling. There are …
A new report1 on shale resources and hydraulic fracturing from the Government Accountability Office (GAO)—an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress—concludes that fracking poses serious risks to health and the environment. The report, which reviewed studies from state agencies overseeing fracking as well as scientific reports, found that the extent of …
Increased ozone harms forests, aggravates droughts situations. It reduces water supply to rivers. Rising levels of ozone, a GHG, may amplify the impacts of higher temperatures and reduce streamflow from forests to rivers, streams, and other water bodies. Such effects could potentially reduce water supplies available to support forest ecosystems …
5 hours after the 9/11 attacks, Donald Rumsfeld said “my interest is to hit Saddam”. He also said “Go massive . . . Sweep it all up. Things related and not.” And at 2:40 p.m. on September 11th, in a memorandum of discussions between top administration officials, several lines below the statement …
A new study by a German think tank warns that a euro exit by Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy would cut global GDP by 17 trillion euros and plunge the world into recession, with France suffering the biggest loss. A Greek exit alone would be manageable, but must be avoided …
The so-called Free Syrian Army is trafficking the body organs of Syrian civilians and army soldiers after kidnapping and murdering them, media reports said. The FSA rebels in Syria trade the body organs of the Syrian martyrs whom they abduct and kill. Then, they sell the stolen body organs …
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was granted to the European Union (EU) for its relentless contribution to “the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.” While the EU’s contribution to peace is debatable, the key issue is whether a union of nation states, which constitutes a …
The team led by Manel Esteller, director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program in the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona and ICREA researcher, has identified epigenetic changes that occur in adult stem cells to generate different body tissues. The finding is …
The World Bank rejected a call by aid group Oxfam International to freeze the lender’s investment in land-intensive agricultural projects, saying such a move would not help prevent abusive practices in the purchase of acreage. Oxfam, in a report released yesterday, urged the Washington-based bank to declare a moratorium on its agricultural …
Think twice the next time you play a videogame or surf the Net: ‘Internet-use disorder’ is set to be added to the list of mental illnesses in the worldwide psychiatric manual. Kids are identified as being especially at risk. The international mental health encyclopedia known as the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical …
The overwhelming impression from watching the Republican and Democratic conventions is this may be the first national election in which voters are being told by both parties notto ‘vote for’ their candidate but to ‘vote against’ his opponent. The main message of the Republican convention and Romney team is: ‘if …
A string of negative reports coinciding with the start of the fourth quarter has revealed a significant deterioration in the global economy, with world trade slowing, manufacturing contracting, and the number of unemployed workers in the euro zone hitting a record high. Despite these disastrous figures, stock prices in Europe …
If the Southwest is warmer and drier in the near future, widespread tree death is likely and would cause substantial changes in the distribution of forests and of species, the researchers report this week in the journal Nature Climate Change. Southwestern forests grow best when total winter precipitation is high combined …
In a 2008 study published in the journal Food Chemistry & Toxicology titled, “Comparative evaluation of the hypolipidemic effects of coconut water and lovastatin in rats fed fat-cholesterol enriched diet,”1 the beverage coconut water was found as effective as a popular cholesterol-lowering drug in positively modulating blood lipid levels in rats. The conclusion …