Culturite

Is your nation facing skyrocketing food prices, widespread hunger, and an impending state of total chaos and panic? Fear not, citizens!

Monsanto is here to alleviate your fears, by doubling your yield of proprietary staple crops.

Yes, thanks to Monsanto the future will bright, safe, friendly and genetically modified to be extra delicious!

Monsanto, the leader in agricultural biotechnology, pledged Wednesday to develop seeds that would double the yields of corn, soybeans and cotton by 2030 and would require 30 percent less water, land and energy to grow.

The announcement, coming as world leaders are meeting in Rome to discuss rising food prices and growing food shortages, appears to be aimed at least in part at winning acceptance of genetically modified crops by showing that they can play a major role in feeding the world.

Much of what is in the commitment are things the company was doing anyway, though it now becomes a formal goal.

Monsanto said it had developed its new commitment after consulting farmers, political leaders, academics and advocacy groups as to what needed to be done to increase food production to cope with a rising population and the demand for biofuels without converting more forests into farmland.

“In short, the world needs to produce more while conserving more,” the company’s chief executive, Hugh Grant, said in a statement.

How much genetic engineering, which involves adding bacterial or other foreign genes to the DNA of plants, could contribute to improving output is a matter of debate.

Source: nytimes.com via Jarrett Martineau

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Tags: Corn | cotton | energy | farmers | land | Rome | supply | AGRICULTURAL | BIOFUELS | Biotechnology | culturite | food | Genetic | leader | modified | Monsanto | population | seeds | soybeans | Tech & Biz | Water | YIELDS

So the geek chic of the Bluetooth earpiece is going to save our brains from cancer-producing, cellphone microwave-induced brain radiation?

I think I’ll opt for speakerphone and forego having any more private conversations.

What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don’t?

Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. “I think the safe practice,” said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.”

Dr. Vini Khurana, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Australian National University who is an outspoken critic of cellphones, said: “I use it on the speaker-phone mode. I do not hold it to my ear.” And CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital, said that like Dr. Black he used an earpiece.

Along with Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s recent diagnosis of a glioma, a type of tumor that critics have long associated with cellphone use, the doctors’ remarks have helped reignite a long-simmering debate about cellphones and cancer.

That supposed link has been largely dismissed by many experts, including the American Cancer Society. The theory that cellphones cause brain tumors “defies credulity,” said Dr. Eugene Flamm, chairman of neurosurgery at Montefiore Medical Center.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, three large epidemiology studies since 2000 have shown no harmful effects. CTIA — the Wireless Association, the leading industry trade group, said in a statement, “The overwhelming majority of studies that have been published in scientific journals around the globe show that wireless phones do not pose a health risk.”

The F.D.A. notes, however, that the average period of phone use in the studies it cites was about three years, so the research doesn’t answer questions about long-term exposures. Critics say many studies are flawed for that reason, and also because they do not distinguish between casual and heavy use.

Cellphones emit non-ionizing radiation, waves of energy that are too weak to break chemical bonds or to set off the DNA damage known to cause cancer. There is no known biological mechanism to explain how non-ionizing radiation might lead to cancer.

But researchers who have raised concerns say that just because science can’t explain the mechanism doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. Concerns have focused on the heat generated by cellphones and the fact that the radio frequencies are absorbed mostly by the head and neck. In recent studies that suggest a risk, the tumors tend to occur on the same side of the head where the patient typically holds the phone.

Source: nytimes.com via Jarrett Martineau

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Tags: brain | mobile | antenna | cancer | cellphone | culturite | Health | link | microwave | Phone | speakerphone

The moment has arrived. Having successfully claimed the U.S. Democratic nomination Tuesday night, Barack Obama received congratulations from President Bush and Condoleeza Rice, made a strongly pro-Israel speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Council, and pledged to include Senator Clinton in any future administration. Let the real battle begin!

Should Obama pick Clinton as his VP candidate? Vote here.

See additional NowPublic coverage of this issue here:

DCPSR reports on “Barack Obama, The Democratic Nominee“
Politisite reports on “Clinton Concession Clues at AIPAC“
Kwapi V reports on “How They Will Try to Destroy Obama“
Karen Hatter reports on “The ‘Reality’ Card“

Gawker’s Obama “Victory Gallery”

Barack Obamais the Democratic nominee for President! It’s so exciting and historic!Finally, newspapers across the nation get to run all those “what doesit mean that we have a black candidate” pieces they’ve been sitting onfor months. In the interest of having something new to sayabout this campaign of a thousand cuts, we’ve compiled a gallery ofnewspaper front pages from around the nation (but mostly New York andDC).

Source: gawker.com via Jarrett Martineau

Obama Clinches Democratic Nomination:

With Senator Barack Obama crossing the threshold of delegates he needed to claim the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday evening, party leaders began to move on Wednesday to bring their lengthy primary battle to a close and unite the party, even as questions swirled about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s next move.

Four top Democratic leaders on Wednesday morning asked all uncommitted superdelegates to make their preferences known by Friday. While they did not formally endorse Mr. Obama or urge Mrs. Clinton to exit the race, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Harry Reid and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said in a joint statement: “Democrats must now turn our full attention to the general election.” They added that the party needed to “stand united and begin our march toward reversing the eight years of failed Bush/McCain policies that have weakened our country.”

Source: nytimes.com via Jarrett Martineau

Condolezza Rice and George W. Bush congratulate Obama:

Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, the highest-ranking black member of the Bush administration, congratulated Barack Obama Wednesday on his history-making achievement in securing the Democratic presidential nomination.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino also extended President Bush’s congratulations.

Obama on Tuesday gathered enough delegates to seize the nomination, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party toward the White House.

Source: examiner.com via Jarrett Martineau

Obama a “true friend” of Israel:

US Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama said Wednesday that Jerusalem must remain the “undivided” capital of Israel in a speech to a powerful US-Israel lobby group here.

“Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided,” Obama told the vast annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Council (AIPAC).

Addressing the group in almost his first act since claiming the Democratic nomination late Tuesday, Obama said he was a “true friend” of Israel and that the US bond with the Jewish state was “unbreakable.”

Obama drew a standing ovation as he arrived to address the mighty US-Israel lobby, and also addressed perceived suspicion of him in some sectors of the Jewish community.

“As president I will never compromise when it comes to Israel’s security,” Obama said in a cavernous Washington conference center, his image emblazoned across eight massive cinema-style screens.

Obama said in the strikingly pro-Israel speech that the US bond with the Jewish state was “unbreakable today, unbreakable tomorrow, unbreakable for ever,” adding he was speaking from his heart as a “true friend” of Israel.

Source: news.yahoo.com via Jarrett Martineau

Obama vows to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapon:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Wednesday Iran posed a serious threat in the Middle East and vowed to stop it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“The danger from Iran is grave, it is real, and my goal will be to eliminate this threat,” Mr. Obama said in a speech to a conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby group.
“I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon – everything,” he said to a standing ovation.

Source: theglobeandmail.com via Jarrett Martineau

Obama makes unity bid

Mr Obama has paid tribute to Mrs Clinton and hinted that she would play a role in any future Obama administration.

Mrs Clinton has said she would be “open” to the idea of being Mr Obama’s vice-presidential running-mate.

Correspondents say the Democratic campaign to choose a nominee has been deeply divisive which is why senior Democrats have called for the party to unite and focus on the general election.

They urged the remaining super-delegates – party officials with a free choice over who to support at the party’s selection convention in August – to make their choice by Friday.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk via Jarrett Martineau

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Tags: Politics | Washington | Israel | Bush | Iran | democrat | Election | president | Nomination | United States | World | nominee | Lobby | Rice | george | Obama | CANDIDATE | DEMOCRATIC | Jewish | condoleeza | Barack | culturite