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After Successfully Killing Hostess, Let's Kill The Remaining Food Companies

After Successfully Killing Hostess, Let's Kill The Remaining Food Companies

Nov 21 2012 | comment(s)

We have a cultural problem brewing.  Business is evil, when you are selling something to voters, but class warfare may have worked too well and so a week after Hostess decided to give up and sell its brands to someone who could make them without having to deal with union labor, and just before airport workers and Wal-Mart workers go on strike to piss off the public who just got done voting for the same candidate unions donated all of their money to, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced a bill to remove federal tax deductions for marketing if that marketing includes 'junk food' aimed at children. 
Asymmetry In Time:

Asymmetry In Time:

Nov 20 2012 | comment(s)

New BaBar results are a strong verification of the predictions of the Standard Model of particles, demonstrating that—at least for some elementary particle processes—the direction of time matters.

Unlike our daily experience, the world of elementary particle physics is mostly symmetrical in time. Run the clock backward on your day and it won't work; run the clock backward on a process in particle physics and things are just fine. However, to preserve certain fundamental aspects of space-time the Standard Model predicts that certain reversible events nevertheless have different probabilities, depending on which way they go.
Eat Meat? You Are A Liar And A Sex Criminal, Says New Textbook

Eat Meat? You Are A Liar And A Sex Criminal, Says New Textbook

Nov 17 2012 | comment(s)

If you eat meat you "easily cheat, lie, forget promises and commit sex crimes", according to a controversial school textbook called New Healthway, which is on hygiene and health for 11 and 12 year-olds and is printed by one of India's leading publishers.

"The strongest argument that meat is not essential food is the fact that the Creator of this Universe did not include meat in the original diet for Adam and Eve. He gave them fruits, nuts and vegetables," reads a chapter entitled Do We Need Flesh Food?
Worrying About 'Frankenfoods' Is Scientifically Precipitous

Worrying About 'Frankenfoods' Is Scientifically Precipitous

Nov 17 2012 | comment(s)

To suggest genetically modified ingredients pose a threat to consumers is scientifically precipitous. Most studies that draw this conclusion are either methodologically unsound or contain flawed data sets. Thus far, science has demonstrated that products containing GMOs are perfectly safe for human consumption. Since they have only been on the market since 1994, however, more research is obviously warranted.
The Secret To Science (And Life) - Be Wrong

The Secret To Science (And Life) - Be Wrong

Nov 15 2012 | comment(s)

What's worse than being on a grant treadmill always picking a safe subject with a conservative hypothesis designed only to advance to the next round of funding?

Nothing I can imagine. Most scientists probably feel the same way, though everyone knows someone in research who gets by just as I described.
Man In Vegetative State Communicates With Doctors Via MRI Communication

Man In Vegetative State Communicates With Doctors Via MRI Communication

Nov 14 2012 | comment(s)

What would you say if you had been in a vegetative state for 12 years? 

39-year-old Scott Routley has been able to communicate to doctors that he is not in any pain, marking the first time an uncommunicative, severely brain-damaged patient has been able to give direct answers regarding their care and treatment.

The communication was done with doctors who are monitoring his brain activity through Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans. 
Autoscopic Doubles - If You See Yourself In A Hallucination, Stay Calm

Autoscopic Doubles - If You See Yourself In A Hallucination, Stay Calm

Nov 12 2012 | comment(s)

What a strange condition to be visited by your perfect double, your doppelganger. Dr. Oliver Sacks, in his new book on hallucinations, calls these episodes "autoscopic doubles," and he cites a number of cases from medical history.

Luckily, autoscopic doubles obey certain rules. "The autoscopic double is literally a mirror image of oneself, with right transposed to left and vice versa, mirroring one's positions and actions," says Sacks.
The Tau Of Alzheimer's

The Tau Of Alzheimer's

Nov 12 2012 | comment(s)

The American public loves underdogs, the outlier or even outcast who defies convention and is proven right.

Dr. Claude Wischik may be just that. He believes that a protein called tau, which forms twisted fibers known as tangles inside the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients, is largely responsible for driving the disease.

"Up" In Real Life: Jonathan Trappe Wants To Take Helium Balloons Across The Atlantic

Nov 09 2012 | comment(s)

If you haven't seen the movie "Up", you should.  It's a cartoon but it tells a more authentic love story in a three-minute montage than every Katherine Heigl movie combined.

And it has inspired a 2,500 mile trip for Jonathan Trappe. The only thing keeping him up? 365 helium balloons.

Balloonists have wanted to cross the Atlantic for decades but there is a 'demon in the air' and five have died while no one succeeded. Trappe got attention flying across the English Channel so he is crowd-sourcing the funding for this new, much more expensive endeavor.  He also expects to set an altitude record in the process - 25,000 feet up.
2,400-Year-Old Thracian golden jewelry unearthed in Bulgaria

2,400-Year-Old Thracian golden jewelry unearthed in Bulgaria

Nov 09 2012 | comment(s)

Archaeologists have unearthed an almost 2,400-year-old treasure in an ancient Thracian tomb in northern Bulgaria. The Thracians lived in Bulgaria and parts of modern Greece, Romania, Macedonia, and Turkey from 4,000 B.C. until they were wiped out and assimilated by invading Slavs in the 7th century AD.

The treasure was found near the village of Sveshtari, 250 miles northeast of Sofia, team leader Diana Gergova said. Among the artifacts, dating back to the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third century B.C., were gold jewelry and applications for horse trappings, a tiara with reliefs of lions and fantasy animals, as well as four bracelets and a ring.
Even The Bones Of Richard III Divide England

Even The Bones Of Richard III Divide England

Nov 04 2012 | comment(s)

What exactly should they do when a despised English monarch is found under a provincial car park?

He wasn't buried under a car park, of course.  He was buried in a monastery, which was disbanded by King Henry VIII when he created the Anglican Church so he could get a divorce.  Richard's story came at the end of the War of the Roses, he was the last Plantagenet king, so the people of York think he should be buried there.  A minority contends he should be moved to London to be with his wife but Leicester is saying they should keep him where he has been for more than 500 years.  Reburying him as a Catholic is far less controversial today than the potential tourism money.
Canada Recalls Organic Spices Due To Salmonella Contamination

Canada Recalls Organic Spices Due To Salmonella Contamination

Oct 30 2012 | comment(s)

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issued a warning that the public should not consume the Clef Des Champs brand organic products described below because these products may be contaminated with Salmonella bacteria (no one hospitalized yet, thankfully).

Organic Ginger Ground root
Organic Curry Spices Culinary Mix (3 sizes)
Organic Spice Cake Culinary mix
Organic Ginger

The manufacturer, Herboristerie La Clef Des Champs Inc., Val-David, Quebec is voluntarily recalling the affected products. More info on Salmonella, if you need it.
Organic Food Self-Deceit

Organic Food Self-Deceit

Oct 29 2012 | comment(s)

Is organic food grown without pesticides?  Of course not, that would be silly, the yields would be 10%.

Then why do so many organic food buyers think they have no pesticides?  Mostly because a $29 billion industry relies on that sort of casual deception. And Dr. Oz helps.
Physicists Take The Schrödinger Equation To The Streets

Physicists Take The Schrödinger Equation To The Streets

Oct 29 2012 | comment(s)

The Schrödinger equation, devised in 1926 following a huge international effort by many scientists, describes the 'beautiful and surprising' ways that light and matter behave when they interact at the smallest scale.  Ithas led to much of the technological development of the modern world, for example fiber optics that create the Internet's backbone, solar panels, GPS and electron microscopes. 

Now it is getting some attention for it.  A 14-day marketing campaign by Imperial College London artist-in-residence Geraldine Cox and quantum physicist Professor Terry Rudolph shows off the equation for drivers and pedestrians in London.
1878: Oldest American Recording Also Has World's First Blooper

1878: Oldest American Recording Also Has World's First Blooper

Oct 25 2012 | comment(s)

Want to hear the world's first blooper?

You can, along with the oldest recording of an American voice and the first-ever recording of a musical performance. It is now digital, not on tinfoil. The recording was originally made on a Thomas Edison-invented phonograph in St. Louis in 1878.

The recording opens with a 23-second cornet solo of an unidentified song, followed by a man's voice reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Old Mother Hubbard." The man laughs at two spots during the recording, including at the end, when he recites the wrong words in the second nursery rhyme. "Look at me; I don't know the song," he says.
The Mad, Creative Genius Is Not Just A Stereotype

The Mad, Creative Genius Is Not Just A Stereotype

Oct 22 2012 | comment(s)

The stereotype of the mad, creative genius is well established - because it is firmly rooted in reality.

A new study shows that bipolar disorder - e.g. manic depression - is more common among all groups that have artistic or scientific professions, from dancers and photographers to researchers and authors. Even mental patients’ relatives are more likely to have creative professions, according to the researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, who analyzed 1.2 million patients and all their relatives, as far removed as second cousins.

It may mean that the definition of crazy needs a rethink; bad for psychiatrists but maybe better for patients.

Most at risk: book authors. 
Predict An Earthquake Or Go To Jail: L'Aquila Earthquake Trial Verdict - Guilty

Predict An Earthquake Or Go To Jail: L'Aquila Earthquake Trial Verdict - Guilty

Oct 22 2012 | comment(s)

In a closely watched trial, prosecutors who argued that a group of Italian scientists is accountable for not adequately warning residents about the risks of an earthquake in the town of L'Aquila have succeeded. 

The Italian scientific community has naturally been concerned; how can you penalize people for not doing the impossible? Nevertheless, legal minds have found that the seven scientists charged with manslaughter for failing to predict an earthquake and alerting residents to evacuate their homes are to blame. The court in L'Aquila Monday evening handed down six-year-prison sentences to the defendants, members of a national "Great Risks Commission."
School Textbooks Are Not Just Knowledge, They Are Culture And Politics

School Textbooks Are Not Just Knowledge, They Are Culture And Politics

Oct 22 2012 | comment(s)

What do French attitudes about capitalism, American attitudes about sex and Korean attitudes about evolution have in common? 

They are all in school textbooks used by their countries.  

It's not news that school textbooks have a powerful influence on developing minds, that is why efforts to hijack school teaching for the purpose of social engineering have always been a factor - heck, the origin of government school control was social engineering, not education.
What Do Autism, Vaccines, BPA And Arsenic In Foods Have In Common? Dr. Oz

What Do Autism, Vaccines, BPA And Arsenic In Foods Have In Common? Dr. Oz

Oct 20 2012 | comment(s)

Dr. Oz, the famous television doctor/celebrity, has never found a bit of scare journalism or a miracle vegetable he didn't promote. He is infamous among public health professionals for exaggerating the origins of autism, vaccines, dangers of BPA and chemical additives, arsenic in foods. His latest misadventure in questionable pop science was an October 12 program titled “GMO Foods: Are They Dangerous to Your Health?”

in his “investigation,” Oz provided uncritical time for Jeffrey Smith, an activist with no scientific or medical background, and Dr. Robin Bernhoft, a leading proponent of unconventional medical interventions and a belief, unsupported by mainstream science, that most chronic medical problems are caused by “toxic environmental exposures.”
NPR Busts 5 Common Myths Of GMOs

NPR Busts 5 Common Myths Of GMOs

Oct 20 2012 | comment(s)

Wouldn't it be great if seeds from GMO plants were sterile?  Then, unlike with regular seeds, farmers would have to buy them over and over again.

Wait, Monsanto already does that, right?  No, but it's a nice myth.  Heck, I bet even Monsanto lets that one slide, because then gullible people will buy their seed every year, even for crops that don't need it. And it perpetuates the shrill claims by anti-science progressives that evil corporations are all corporation-y and out to kill us all with their evil seed, except when they are getting rich making us addicted to it.

And if you accidentally get seeds from a Monsanto crop, they are going to sue you, right?  Well, that isn't true either.