Does High Debt Cause Slow Growth? Or does slow growth cause high debt?

Does High Debt Cause Slow Growth? Or does slow growth cause high debt? http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/does-high-debt-cause-slow-growth/?smid=pl-share

stop Canada-China investor deal, FIPA

Breaking news from Ottawa -- In just 24 hours, a vote in Parliament could stop the secretive and extreme Canada-China investor deal, FIPA, for good. FIPA is the most sweeping trade deal in a generation, and experts thought Prime Minister Harper would sneak it through Parliament without a vote last November.[1-2] Nobody expected your campaign to unite Canadians against FIPA. But, together, we've put overwhelming pressure on Conservative MPs, divided their caucus, and the government had to shelve the deal while they try to repair the damage.[3] Now, the NDP are holding a vote in Parliament that could stop FIPA. There are deep divisions inside the Conservative benches, and if we create a massive public outcry right now we have a chance to stop this terrible trade deal for good. We only have 24 hours -- click here to tell your MP and all the party leaders to VOTE TO STOP FIPA, then forward this to everyone! If the Canada-China FIPA is ratified, this extreme and secretive deal would pave the way for a massive natural resource buyout, and allow China’s companies to sue Canadian governments in secret tribunals for unlimited damages, restricting Canadians from making democratic decisions about our economy, environment and energy.[4] Canadians have a right to determine our future, but this investor deal will undermine our democratic rights and lock us into an inescapable path of foreign-ownership and resource extraction until at least 2040. Click here to tell your MP and party leaders to vote to stop FIPA. In December, Prime Minister Harper approved the takeover of Canadian oil company Nexen by China's state-owned giant, CNOOC. If FIPA passes, companies like CNOOC can take over Canadian resources and then sue Canadian governments in secret, if the government does anything that threatens the company’s profits. Any Canadian law or government decision – even ones that protect Canada’s environment, create jobs and stop dangerous projects – could be fought in secret tribunals outside of our legal system. Arbitrators unaccountable to the Canadian public would have the power to award billions in damages to foreign corporations if we do anything that hurts corporate profits, like improve environmental standards or slow down the export of cheap, unprocessed resources.[4,5,6] We need to act now. Click here to tell your MP and party leaders: VOTE TO STOP the secretive and extreme Canada-China FIPA. http://www.leadnow.ca/stop-fipa-vote With thanks for all that you do, Matthew, Heather, Jamie, Maggie and the whole Leadnow.ca team p.s. We’ve only come this far because tens of thousands of us have stepped up to stop this FIPA - by taking action, by sharing, by donating to fund radio ads and supporting First Nations who are challenging FIPA in court. We need you now more than ever. Click here to send your urgent message. Sources [1] Tories quietly table Canada-China investment treaty (Globe and Mail) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-quietly-table-canada-china-investment-treaty/article4573635/ [2] Battle over CNOOC’s proposed Nexen Takeover Heats Up In Ottawa (Financial Post) http://business.financialpost.com/2012/09/17/battle-over-cnoocs-proposed-nexen-takeover-heats-up-in-ottawa/ [3] Opposition, activists in last minute push for more scrutiny of Canada-China treaty (Globe and Mail) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/opposition-activists-in-last-minute-push-for-more-scrutiny-of-canada-china-treaty/article4762814/ [4] Canada-China Investment Deal Allows for Confidential Lawsuits Against Canada (Toronto Star) http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1264290--canada-china-investment-deal-allows-for-confidential-lawsuits-against-canada [5] Chinese Companies Can Sue BC for Changing Course on Northern Gateway, says Policy Expert (Vancouver Observer) http://www.vancouverobserver.com/sustainability/chinese-companies-can-sue-bc-changing-course-northern-gateway-says-policy-expert [6] Chairman Harper and the Chinese Sell-Out (The Tyee) http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/10/11/Chairman-Harper/

we need to expose and break up Monsanto’s worldwide grip

Dear Avaazers, we need to expose and break up Monsanto’s worldwide grip. Monsanto, the chemical giant that gave us poisons like Agent Orange and DDT, has a super-profitable racket. Step 1: Develop pesticides and genetically modified (GM) seeds designed to resist them, patent the seeds, prohibit farmers from replanting their seeds year to year, then send undercover agents out to investigate and sue farmers who don’t comply. Step 2: Spend millions lobbying government officials and contributing to political campaigns, get former Monsanto bigwigs into top government jobs, and then work with them to weaken regulations and push Monsanto goods into markets across the world. As long as US law allows corporations to spend unlimited sums to influence policy, they can often buy the laws they want. Last year, Monsanto and biotech giants spent a whopping $45m to kill a ballot initiative that would have labelled GMO products just in California, despite 82 percent of Americans wanting to know if they are buying GM. And just this month, the company helped ram through the "Monsanto Protection Act,” that blocks courts from stopping the sale of a product even if they’ve been wrongly approved by the government. Monsanto’s power in the US gives them a launch pad to dominate across the world. But brave farmers and activists from the EU, to Brazil, to India and Canada are resisting and starting to win. Monsanto is driving an industrial farming takeover -- trampling small farmers and small businesses as vast ‘monoculture’ farms of single crops leech the land of nutrients, diminish genetic diversity, and create dependency on fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals. The irony is, it’s not clear that the decimation of natural, sustainable farming has brought any boom in crop yields. Just more profit for the corporations. Our governments should step in, but Monsanto’s lobbying obstructs them. Monsanto’s near monopoly is breath-taking, with patent rights over 96% of the GM seeds planted in the US. And despite concerns about health and safety, the same patents allow Monsanto to prevent any farmer or scientist from testing their seeds! Still, a few countries have banned or restricted Monsanto products. They claim their products cost less, but often farmers are lured into multi-year contracts, then seed prices rise, and they have buy new seed each season and use more herbicides to keep out ‘superweeds’. In India, the situation is so dire that one cotton area has been called ‘the suicide belt’, as tens of thousands of the poorest farmers have taken their lives to escape crippling debt. But farmers and scientists are also fighting back -- and winning. One group in India has helped win three patent battles against the corporations, and in Brazil five million farmers sued Monsanto for unfair collection of royalties, and won a $2 billion payout! Scientists are campaigning for sustainable agriculture models, and just last week 1.5 million of us joined the fight against conventional patents in the EU. Only a massive, global, united force can stand up to Monsanto and the corporate capture of our governments. Let’s expose this dominance of our democracies, help farmers speak out, challenge unjust laws and patents, and go head to head with the corporate lobbies. Pledge $4 to support action now: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_nd2/?bOUfzbb&v=24246 We are running out of time. As we confront massive environmental, climate and food crises, we need sustainable agriculture and innovation, but that is best done by multiple farmers and scientists who know what works best in different ecosystems, rather than one monolith driven by their own profit, taking control our food future. This corporate Goliath is increasing in power across our world. But if our 21 million strong community stands together, we have a chance. Avaaz members have repeatedly stood up against the world's biggest bullies, and won. Now it is time for us to go big to save our policies from special interests, protect our food supply, and get justice for poor farmers. With hope and determination, Alice, Oli, Joseph, Ricken, Pascal, Chris, Michelle, Emily, and the whole Avaaz team MORE INFORMATION Seeds of discontent (Texas Observer): http://www.texasobserver.org/seeds-of-discontent/ Monsanto sued small farmers to protect seed patents, report says (The Guardian): http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/12/monsanto-sues-farmers-seed-patents Political contribution discloslures (Monsanto): http://www.monsanto.com/whoweare/Pages/political-disclosures.aspx The Real Monsanto Protection Act: How The GMO Giant Corrupts Regulators And Consolidates Its Power (ThinkProgress): http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/10/1832621/monsanto-protection-act-power/ Monsanto Protection Act put GM companies above the federal courts (The Guardian): http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/apr/04/monsanto-protection-act-gm Biodiversity for food and agriculture (UN Food and Agriculture Organization): http://www.fao.org/sd/EPdirect/EPre0040.htm Monsanto’s harvest of fear (Vanity Fair): http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805 Wikileaks shows US pushes GM on EU (The Guardian): http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/03/wikileaks-us-eu-gm-crops USDA Greenlights Monsanto's Utterly Useless New GMO Corn (Mother Jones): http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/01/monsanto-gmo-drought-tolerant-corn Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research (New York Times): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/20crop.html?_r=0 Additional sources (Avaaz): http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_sources/

various

I went to talk to someone who did not hire me over the 200 plus competition over the years and he questioned my CV which did not move from appointment to appointment. I took it so calmly that I came home with 2 bags of 50% off frenemy bread. Then my horoscope for today (thanks Australia) instead of talking about the future is about the health dangers of refined foods - I know that. Then the blogosphere is full of this Reinhart and Rogoff story (See Progressive Econ blog below). Their research was used as a prop for austerity and high unemployment. Now someone (not the econ blogger that I have spent so much time reading), has gotten their data and found what would be called fraud if the authors were lesser known, but is instead being called error by under paid grad students. Rogoff won the 2011 Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics which comes with more money than I have earned in years. Beating Back the Ghosts: Be Gone Appeals to Reinhart and Rogoff Authority. Welcome the Triumph of Reason. Posted by Arun DuBois under debt, deficits, fiscal policy. April 16th, 2013 Comments: none They’ve haunted me. Incessantly. The ghosts of Reinhart and Rogoff. Their research here, there, everywhere. Bank of Canada speeches? Yes. Finance Department talking points? Check. House of Commons debates? Yup. Globe editorials? Ditto. Discussions with fellow progressives? Sadly, yes. Results? Arguments conjured in their name. Reason decapitated. Modern Monetary Theorists (MMT) banished to the netherworld of cranks. But we told you so. We told you so**: Randy Wray, writing a little more than a year ago, called them out, saying: “One hopes that the database they have assembled might provide more detail. We have tried contacting both authors to access the database, but so far with no response“ Bill Mitchell: pointing to the inconvenient truth of the underlying analysis and its emphasis on external (not domestic) debt. And then the countless exaggerations that followed by the authors and their propagandists. Me, in private, countless times running through the arguments to no avail. Authority wins. Fear of trespassing on the sacred convention of balanced budgets wins. Fear of the narrative wins. For a nice roundup of what I speak, cryptically because I dare not tempt the gods, please check out the following. Hopefully, this will suffice for the exorcism: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/holy-coding-error-batman/ http://www.nextnewdeal.net/rortybomb/researchers-finally-replicated-reinhart-rogoff-and-there-are-serious-problems http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/working_papers/working_papers_301-350/WP322.pdf Arun ** I use we in the royal we sense not to mean me but the (far far far) more prolific MMT writers who I greatly admire.

Spanish language thesis on EVM - Saberes campesinos y medicina animal en Río

Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí Saberes campesinos y medicina animal en Río Frío, Víctor Rosales, Zacatecas TESIS QUE PARA OBTENER EL GRADO DE LICENCIATURA EN ANTROPOLOGÍA http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/13805247/655060087/name/tesis+terminada+para+enviar.pdf

One million against Monsanto patents

One million against Monsanto patents in 36 hours! let's build the biggest petition to stop Monsanto ever. Sign now and tell everyone.

Dear Avaazers,

It’s unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These greedy biotech companies have found a way to gain exclusive control over the seeds of life – the source of our food. But if we can pressure key European countries to slam the patent door shut on their destructive plans, we can stop this attack on our food. Help build the biggest food defense call ever by clicking here:

It’s unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to gain exclusive control over the seeds of life – the source of our food. They’re trying to patent away varieties of our everyday vegetables and fruits like cucumber, broccoli and melons, virtually forcing growers to pay them for seed and risk being sued if they don’t.

But we can stop them from buying up Mother Earth. Companies like Monsanto have found loopholes in European law to have exclusive rights over conventional seeds, so we just need to close them shut before they set a dangerous global precedent. And to do that, we need key countries like Germany, France and the Netherlands -- where opposition is already growing -- to call for a vote to stop Monsanto’s greedy plans. The Avaaz community has shifted governments before, and we can do it again.

Many farmers and politicians are already against this -- we just need to bring in people power to pressure these countries to keep Monsanto’s hands off our food. Sign now and share with everyone to help build the biggest food defense call ever:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_rb/?bOUfzbb&v=24061

Once a patent exists in one country, trade agreements and negotiations often push other countries to honour it as well. That’s why patents change everything about how our food chain works: for thousands of years, farmers could choose which seeds they’d use without worrying about getting sued for violating intellectual property rights. But now, biotech companies are getting patents on the seeds and then charging farmers exorbitant royalty fees. And farmers can’t even save patented seeds for replanting the next season -- Monsanto has sued hundreds of them for practicing the age-old art of seed-saving and plant breeding. Monsanto and Co. claim that patents drive innovation -- but in fact they create a corporate monopoly of our food.

But luckily, the European Patent Office is controlled by 38 member states who, with one vote, can end dangerous patents on food that is bred using conventional methods. Even the European Parliament has issued a statement objecting to these kinds of destructive patents. Now, a massive wave of public outcry could push them to ban the patenting of our everyday food for good.

The situation is dire already -- Monsanto alone owns 36% of all tomato, 32% of sweet pepper and 49% of cauliflower varieties registered in the EU. With a simple regulatory change, we could protect our food, our farmers and our planet from corporate control -- and it's up to us to make it happen:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_rb/?bOUfzbb&v=24061

The Avaaz community has never been afraid to stand up to corporate capture of our institutions, from pushing back the Rupert Murdoch mafia, to helping ensure that telecoms keep their hands off our Internet. Now it’s time to defend our food supply from this corporate takeover.

With hope and determination,

Jeremy, Michelle, Oli, Dalia, Pascal, Ricken, Diego and the whole Avaaz team

PS - Many Avaaz campaigns are started by members of our community! Start yours now and win on any issue - local, national or global: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?bgMYedb&v=23917


SOURCES:

Conventionally-bred plants or animals should be exempt from patents, say MEPs (EU Parliament)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20120509IPR44733/html/Conventionally-bred-plants-or-animals-should-be-exempt-from-patents-say-MEPs

President of the European Patent Office gives green light for patents on plants and animals (No Patents on Seeds)
http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/en/information/background/green-light-for-patents-on-plants-and-animals

Monsanto: All Your Seeds Belong to Us (Mother Jones)
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/02/scotus-hears-monsanto-soybean-case

Seeds and Patents on Life (World Agriculture Report)
http://www.globalagriculture.org/index.php?id=2156

Structures and developments of the swiss and international seed markets through the a case study on certain vegetables varieties (Berne decleration, Swissaid and others) (German only)
http://www.evb.ch/cm_data/Saatgutmarkt_Juni_2012.pdf

Plant Patentability Questions Deepen In EPO Tomato Patent Case (IP Watch)
http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/06/13/plant-patentability-questions-deepen-in-epo-tomato-patent-case/

Tomato patent back before EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal (Europolitics)
http://europolitics.eis-vt-prod-web01.cyberadm.net/business-competitiveness/tomato-patent-back-before-epo-s-enlarged-board-of-appeal-art336003-7.html

THE DOWNFALL OF EXTRAVERTS AND RISE OF NEUROTICS: The Dynamic Process of Status Allocation in Task Groups

THE DOWNFALL OF EXTRAVERTS AND RISE OF NEUROTICS: The Dynamic Process of Status Allocation in Task Groups

http://amj.aom.org/content/early/2012/07/20/amj.2011.0316.abstract

1. Corinne Bendersky⇓ and
2. Neha Shah

+ Author Affiliations

1. C Bendersky, Organizational Behavior, UCLA, Los Angeles, 90095-1481, United States
2. N Shah, Rutgers Business School, Management and Global Business, Rutgers University, Piscataway, 08854, United States

1. Correspondence: Corinne Bendersky, Email: corinne.bendersky@anderson.ucla.edu

Abstract

We advance previous research that has associated extraversion with high status and neuroticism with low status in newly-formed task groups by examining how variations in personality affect status changes over time. By building on research that emphasizes the dark sides of extraversion (e.g., Grant, Gino, & Hofmann, 2011; Judge, Piccolo, & Kosalka, 2009) and the bright sides of neuroticism (e.g., Norem & Cantor, 1986; Tamir, 2005), we challenge the persistence of extraverts' advantage and neurotics' disadvantage in task group status hierarchies. In a field and an experimental study, we find that extraversion is associated with status losses and disappointing expectations for contributions to group tasks and neuroticism is associated with status gains due to surpassing expectations for group-task contributions. Whereas personality may inform status expectations through perceptions of competence when groups first form, as group members work together interdependently over time, actual contributions to the group's task are an important basis for reallocating status.

• Received April 7, 2011.

‘What if Chicken Conquers the World?’

‘What if Chicken Conquers the World?’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p013d1wp The documentary series about the world’s love affair with chicken meat ‘What if Chicken Conquers the World?’ will be broadcast in two successive weeks in the Your World documentary slot on BBC World Service. Susie Emmett of Green shoots goes on a journey to investigate chicken production, an industry which dates back 10,000 years. In one programme Emmett visits farms with millions of birds, speaks to the reclusive world-dominating poultry breeders who control the genetics of most of the 50 billion chickens eaten globally each year, and travels to the US to see the grain harvest which feeds the birds that feed us. Emmett also hears concerns that modern chicken-keeping is all about the needs of those who eat them and not those of the chickens. Back on the farm, Emmett also examines what has made the all-important 'feed conversion ratio' even better and faster than ever. Surprisingly, it's not some new high tech intervention that is making the difference. Giving the chickens a bit of exercise is what matters Link: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p013d1wp

First US-China Trade Ship Carried 30 Tons of American Ginseng

First US-China Trade Ship Carried 30 Tons of American Ginseng Helped Establish American Identity and Roots of International Trade http://cms.herbalgram.org/heg/volume9/05May/EmpressofChinaGinseng.html?t=1335902799

Though modern political relations between the United States and China can sometimes appear shaky, the 2 power countries have an undeniably strong and deep-rooted trade relationship. According to the US-China Business Council, the United States is China’s number one trade partner, exchanging about $385 billion worth of goods in 2010.1 Although it is a story that most Americans have never heard, a medicinal plant, wild American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), played an essential role in establishing the roots of this colossal, centuries-old trade alliance.2,3 In late 1783, the United States of America, which had just won its independence from Great Britain, was in dire economic straits partly because Britain had banned many trade hubs from dealing with the new country.3 In an effort to establish its own trade routes and rescue the country’s financial system, the United States sent a ship named the Empress of China from New York Harbor to Canton, China (now called Guangzhou) on February 22nd of 1784.2 It carried 30 tons of wild American ginseng, mostly gathered from southern Appalachia. While British and European settlers in North America had been trading with other countries for several years, the Empress cargo was the first shipment under the American flag. According to David Taylor, author of Ginseng, the Divine Root, loading the ship with ginseng was a smart and safe strategic decision. “We knew they wanted ginseng because there was already a history of demand for it, rather than a range of goods we didn’t know if they would like,” he said (oral communication, April 10, 2012). David Wang, PhD — manager of Queens Library in Laurelton — said the early Americans saw ginseng “as a valuable opportunity to break their economic blockage by Britain” (e-mail, April 23, 2012). Other sources document the Empress as an attempt to establish a new source of tea, which was becoming dearly missed after the United States was banned from trading with the British West Indies.4 Meanwhile, China also had a need for new ginseng sources. Though the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) first sought to protect the region’s ginseng populations by controlling collection, it eventually gave up that mission. According to Taylor’s Divine Root, “Resigned that ginseng would be overharvested no matter what, the imperial court decided to reap the plant’s riches while it could… In the end, China’s last dynasty ebbed and the wild root vanished from its forests.”2 Much of the Empress’s success depended on a French missionary traveling through the New World.2 In the early 1700s, a Jesuit cleric who had heard of this mysterious root from Asia discovered the Mohawks’ use of ginseng. He recorded it and published a booklet on ginseng,2 which led to the trade of wild ginseng roots throughout North America and eventually China. “[The Empress] triumphed because it made it there and back, and made a profit, which was never guaranteed at that point in time. Economically, it was important in terms of making contact between the US and China,” said Taylor, noting a Congressional resolution, passed after the Empress’s return, encouraging more such ventures. According to Dr. Wang, American ginseng “was the most important commercial good in the trade between China and the United States during the late 1700s leading into the early 1800s.” Not only was the Empress’s ginseng cargo an economic success, it also tied the countries together on another — and perhaps equally important — level. “Ginseng opened the door to the idea that there were natural and cultural resources shared between North America and Asia,” said Taylor. Instead of becoming competition for Asian ginseng, the American variety was viewed as being complementary, said Dr. Wang. “[The Chinese] discovered that Chinese ginseng is warm and good for people who have recovered from a serious illness and need to regain their strength; on the other hand, American ginseng has cooler properties and is normally used to cool down fevers or summer heat. The Chinese considered it good for people with deficient yin or excessive yang. Therefore, American Ginseng was welcomed all the time.” But both Taylor and Dr. Wang indicated that the Empress and early ginseng trade influenced America more than it did China. “[The Empress of China] definitely shifted [China’s] view to realize this new country that had a complement of Asian ginseng,” said Taylor. “On the American side, it probably had more impact because it really set the pattern for foreign trade for more than 3 decades.” Most Americans, he continued, were driven by a potential for trading and making a living and ginseng was one of the first products that enabled them to find success in these aspirations. Similarly, Dr. Wang noted that ginseng helped “Americanize” the new country. Among famous early Americans, George Washington, Daniel Boone, and John Jacob Astor were reportedly involved with the ginseng trade.5 “It also, however, seems pretty clear that lots of ginseng was collected [for trading] by native peoples, especially the Cherokee,” said Dan Moerman, author of Native American Ethnobotany and an anthropology professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. “I think it's likely that ginseng became more interesting to native peoples after they realized how valuable it was in trade. Maybe that Americanized them.” “The search for ginseng, the most important and lucrative export to China, became an important driving force of the westward expansion,” said Dr. Wang. “From the Eastern coast areas all the way out west… searching for Ginseng became a fever.” In return for ginseng and other goods aboard the Empress and early trading ships to China, the United States imported much tea, which Dr. Wang said helped popularize the beverage, especially for lower classes of society that previously were unable to afford such a luxury item. The United States exported hundreds of thousands of pounds of ginseng in the years after the Empress set sail, over-exploiting many of the country’s wild populations.5 When the US Fish and Wildlife Services implemented the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, or CITES, in 1977, the agency began controlling wild ginseng harvest and trade. “There is an unquenchable interest in the plant and how it grows and how people can use it,” said Taylor. “It also points out the boom and bust cycle of natural products from the wild, particularly medicinal products, especially if they’re not regulated.” —Lindsay Stafford References US-China Trade Statistics and China's World Trade Statistics. US-China Business Council website. Available at: www.uschina.org/statistics/tradetable.html. Accessed March 19, 2012. Taylor D. Ginseng, the Divine Root. 2006: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill; New York, NY. Wang D. Ginseng: the herb that helped the United States to enter international commerce. World Huaren Federation website. Available at: www.huaren.org/members-contribution/ginseng--us-commerce. Accessed April 23, 2012. Markoe K. Two hundred years of U.S. Trade with China (1784-1984). Asia for Educators, Columbia University. 2009. Available at: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1750_us.htm. Accessed April 23, 2012. Beyfuss R. Ginseng growing. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation website. Available at: www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7472.html. Accessed April 23, 2012.

Monsanto: All Your Seeds R Belong to Us

Dear Avaazers,

It’s unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to exclusively ‘own’ something that freely belongs to us all -- our food! They’re trying to patent away our everyday vegetables and fruits lik e cucumber, broccoli and melons, forcing growers to pay them and risk being sued if they don’t.

But we can stop them from buying up Mother Earth. Companies like Monsanto have found loopholes in European law to get away with this, so we just need to close them shut before they set a dangerous global precedent. And to do that, we need key countries like Germany, France and the Netherlands -- where opposition is already growing -- to call for a vote to stop Monsanto’s plans. The Avaaz community has shifted governments before, and we can do it again.

Many farmers and politicians are already against this -- we just need to bring in people power to pressure these countries to keep Monsanto’s hands off our food. Sign now and share with everyone to help build the biggest food defense call ever:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_loc/?tOUfzbb

Once a patent exists in one country, trade agreements and negotiations often push other countries to honour it as well. That's why these food patents change everything about how our food chain works: for thousands of years, farmers could choose which seeds they’d use without worrying about getting sued for violating intellectual property rights. But now, companies launch expensive legal campaigns to buy patents on conventional plants and force farmers to pay exorbitant royalty fees. Monsanto and Co. claim that patents drive innovation -- but in fact they create a corporate monopoly of our food.

But luckily, the European Patent Office is controlled by 38 member states who, with one vote, can end dangerous patents on food that is bred using conventional methods. Even the European Parliament has issued a statement objecting to these kinds of destructive patents. Now, a massive wave of public outcry could push them to ban the patenting of our everyday food for good.

The situation is dire already -- Monsanto alone owns 36% of all tomato, 32% of sweet pepper and 49% of cauliflower varieties registered in the EU. With a simple regulatory change, we could protect our food, our farmers and our planet from corporate control -- and it's up to us to make it happen:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_loc/?tOUfzbb

The Avaaz community has never been afraid to stand up to corporate capture of our institutions, from pushing back the Rupert Murdoch mafia, to helping ensure that telecoms keep their hands off our Internet. Now it’s time to defend our food supply from this corporate takeover.

With hope and determination,

Jeremy, Michelle, Oli, Dalia, Pascal, Ricken, Diego and the whole Avaaz team


SOURCES:

Conventionally-bred plants or animals should be exempt from patents, say MEPs (EU Parliament)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20120509IPR44733/html/Conventionally-bred-plants-or-animals-should-be-exempt-from-patents-say-MEPs

President of the European Patent Office gives green light for patents on plants and animals (No Patents on Seeds)
http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/en/information/background/green-light-for-patents-on-plants-and-animals

Monsanto: All Your Seeds Belong to Us (Mother Jones)
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/02/scotus-hears-monsanto-soybean-case

Plant Patentability Questions Deepen In EPO Tomato Patent Cas e (IP Watch)
http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/06/13/plant-patentability-questions-deepen-in-epo-tomato-patent-case/

Tomato patent back before EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal (Europolitics)
http://europolitics.eis-vt-prod-web01.cyberadm.net/business-competitiveness/tomato-patent-back-before-epo-s-enlarged-board-of-appeal-art336003-7.html

The Library is a workplace

I just want to repeat what I said more rudely a few months ago. The University Library is a workplace for me and others. Since when do staff and patrons get to use a workplace to "pick up?" people who are trying to work there? If the patron leaves and moves to another library branch, isn't that enough of a hint that the patron only wants to work at the library? If those men were interested in my employment (who knows, I guess I can give them the benefit of the doubt so that I don't undermine any job offers I might get) I have an email address and a Linkedin account that they can use. Further proof - since the last time that I saw two of the men that I moved away from to go to another library branch I have published two papers that I worked on in the library and have had no interviews in the same period. So the library is therefore more of a workplace for me in terms of my CV than the actual workforce. Just like the Temporary Foreign Program is being discussed this week as undermining the employment of people already in Canada, I have to wonder at the motives of men who must know that I am looking for work but only motivate themselves to have me followed for non-employment reasons that also undermine my ability to work in the library and to move around freely.

Older men not as fertile and have genetic changes

1. Dad's Age Raises Down Syndrome Risk, Too

   www.webmd.com/infertility-and.../news/.../dad-age-down-syndrome

   Jul 1, 2003 – Infertility & Reproduction Health Center ... A new study found that older fathers were responsible for up to 50% of the ... Older fathers over 40 had twice the rate of Down syndrome births compared with men 24 years old and ...
2. Age Raises Infertility Risk in Men, Too

   www.webmd.com/infertility.../age-raises-infertility-risk-in-men-too

   "Not only are men not aware of the impact their age has on infertility, they deny it. They walk around like they're 18 years old," Fisch tells WebMD. It's no wonder.
3. Secondary infertility: what is it? - BabyCenter Canada

   www.babycenter.ca/a563459/secondary-infertility-what-is-it

   When you have trouble conceiving again, it's called secondary infertility. ... Your partner, like all men, will become less fertile as he gets older. ..... This site is published by BabyCenter, L.L.C., which is responsible for its contents as further ...

Death of a Revolutionary Shulamith Firestone

When Shulamith Firestone’s body was found late last August, in her studio apartment on the fifth floor of a tenement walkup on East Tenth Street, she had been dead for some days. She was sixty-seven, and she had battled schizophrenia for decades, surviving on public assistance. There was no food in the apartment, and one theory is that Firestone starved, though no autopsy was conducted, by preference of her Orthodox Jewish family. Such a solitary demise would have been unimaginable to anyone who knew Firestone in the late nineteen-sixties, when she was at the epicenter of the radical-feminist movement, surrounded by some of the same women who, a month after her death, gathered in St. Mark’s Church In-the-Bowery, to pay their respects

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/04/15/130415fa_fact_faludi#ixzz2Pz5KkiM3

Shulamith Firestone, Feminism, and the Private Life of Power

http://crookedtimber.org/2013/04/09/shumalith-firestone-feminism-and-the-private-life-of-power/

by Corey Robin on April 9, 2013

In The Reactionary Mind, I wrote:

One of the reasons the subordinate’s exercise of agency so agitates the conservative imagination is that it takes place in an intimate setting. Every great blast—the storming of the Bastille, the taking of the Winter Palace, the March on Washington—is set off by a private fuse: the contest for rights and standing in the family, the factory, and the field. Politicians and parties talk of constitution and amendment, natural rights and inherited privileges. But the real subject of their deliberations is the private life of power: “Here is the opposition to woman’s equality in the state,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote. “Men are not ready to recognize it in the home.” Behind the riot in the street or debate in Parliament is the maid talking back to her mistress, the worker disobeying her boss. That is why our political arguments—not only about the family but also the welfare state, civil rights, and much else—can be so explosive: they touch upon the most personal relations of power.

Cooperate for Canada campaign ??

Thousands of Canadians have joined the Liberals, NDP and Greens through our Cooperate for Canada campaign that's calling for a one-time agreement between the NDP, Liberals, and Greens to cooperate in the next election then pass crucial reforms.¹
Voting in the Liberal leadership race begins at midnight tonight, and there is only one candidate, Joyce Murray, with a strong position in favour of cooperation. Within the race, Joyce also has some of the strongest positions on the other issues the Leadnow community have told us they care about - electoral reform, climate change, inequality, tankers and pipelines.

Please share this video now...

Joyce Murray: "Change Is In Your Hands"

Video to share: http://youtu.be/z5HnLwHjc8I

Scientific Articles Accepted (Personal Checks, Too)

Scientific Articles Accepted (Personal Checks, Too)

A parallel world of pseudo-academia, with prestigiously titled conferences and journals that will print seemingly anything for a fee, has the scientific community alarmed.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html?smid=pl-share

Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime

Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime States are restricting undercover operations by activists in response to exposés that industry groups say have led to unfair scrutiny. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/us/taping-of-farm-cruelty-is-becoming-the-crime.html?smid=pl-share

Hijacking feminism - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Hijacking feminism - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Efficacy and toxicity of thirteen plant leaf acetone extracts used in ethnoveterinary medicine in South Africa on egg hatching and larval development of Haemonchus contortus Mathew Adamu1,2, Vinasan Naidoo3 and Jacobus N Eloff1* * Corresponding author: Jacobus N Eloff kobus.eloff@up.ac.za Author Affiliations 1 Phytomedicine Programme, Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa 2 Department of Veterinary Parasitology and Entomology College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agriculture Makurdi, Makurdi, Nigeria 3 UPBRC, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa For all author emails, please log on. BMC Veterinary Research 2013, 9:38 doi:10.1186/1746-6148-9-38 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/9/38 Received: 19 July 2012 Accepted: 21 February 2013 Published: 26 February 2013 © 2013 Adamu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background Helminthiasis is a major limitation to the livestock industry in Africa. Haemonchus contortus is the singular most important helminth responsible for major economic losses in small ruminants. The high cost of anthelmintics to small farmers, resistance to available anthelmintics and residue problems in meat and milk consumed by humans further complicates matters. The use of plants and plant extracts as a possible source of new anthelmintics has received more interest in the last decade. Our aim was not to confirm the traditional use, but rather to determine activity of extracts. Based on our past experience acetone was used as extractant. Because it is cheaper and more reproducible to evaluate the activity of plant extracts, than doing animal studies, the activity of acetone leaf extracts of thirteen plant species used traditionally in ethnoveterinary medicine in South Africa were determined using the egg hatch assay and the larval development test. Cytotoxicity of these extracts was also evaluated using the MTT cellular assay. Results Extracts of three plant species i.e. Heteromorpha trifoliata, Maesa lanceolata and Leucosidea sericea had EC50 values of 0.62 mg/ml, 0.72 mg/ml and 1.08 mg/ml respectively for the egg hatch assay. Clausena anisata; (1.08 mg/ml) and Clerodendrum glabrum; (1.48 mg/ml) extracts were also active. In the larval development assay the H. trifoliata extract was the most effective with an EC50 of 0.64 mg/ml followed by L. sericea (1.27 mg/ml). The activities in the larval development test were generally lower in most plant species than the egg hatch assay. Based on the cytotoxicity results C. anisata was the least toxic with an LC50 of 0.17 mg/ml, while Cyathea dregei was the most toxic plant with an LC50 of 0.003 mg/ml. The C. anisata extract had the best selectivity index with a value of 0.10 and 0.08 for the two assays, followed by H. trifoliata and L. sericea with values of 0.07, 0.07 and 0.05, 0.04. The C. dregei extract had the worst selectivity index with a value of 0.00019 for both assays. Conclusion The result of this study indicates which species should be further investigated in depth for isolation of compounds.

Efficacy and toxicity of thirteen plant leaf acetone extracts used in ethnoveterinary medicine in South Africa on egg hatching and larval development of Haemonchus contortus

Mathew Adamu^1,2, Vinasan Naidoo³ and Jacobus N Eloff^1*

• * Corresponding author: Jacobus N Eloff kobus.eloff@up.ac.za

Author Affiliations

¹ Phytomedicine Programme, Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
² Department of Veterinary Parasitology and Entomology College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agriculture Makurdi, Makurdi, Nigeria
³ UPBRC, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

For all author emails, please log on.

BMC Veterinary Research 2013, 9:38 doi:10.1186/1746-6148-9-38

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/9/38

Received:	19 July 2012
Accepted:	21 February 2013
Published:	26 February 2013

© 2013 Adamu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

Helminthiasis is a major limitation to the livestock industry in Africa. Haemonchus contortus is the singular most important helminth responsible for major economic losses in small ruminants. The high cost of anthelmintics to small farmers, resistance to available anthelmintics and residue problems in meat and milk consumed by humans further complicates matters. The use of plants and plant extracts as a possible source of new anthelmintics has received more interest in the last decade. Our aim was not to confirm the traditional use, but rather to determine activity of extracts.

Based on our past experience acetone was used as extractant. Because it is cheaper and more reproducible to evaluate the activity of plant extracts, than doing animal studies, the activity of acetone leaf extracts of thirteen plant species used traditionally in ethnoveterinary medicine in South Africa were determined using the egg hatch assay and the larval development test. Cytotoxicity of these extracts was also evaluated using the MTT cellular assay.

Results

Extracts of three plant species i.e. Heteromorpha trifoliata, Maesa lanceolata and Leucosidea sericea had EC₅₀ values of 0.62 mg/ml, 0.72 mg/ml and 1.08 mg/ml respectively for the egg hatch assay. Clausena anisata; (1.08 mg/ml) and Clerodendrum glabrum; (1.48 mg/ml) extracts were also active. In the larval development assay the H. trifoliata extract was the most effective with an EC₅₀ of 0.64 mg/ml followed by L. sericea (1.27 mg/ml). The activities in the larval development test were generally lower in most plant species than the egg hatch assay. Based on the cytotoxicity results C. anisata was the least toxic with an LC₅₀ of 0.17 mg/ml, while Cyathea dregei was the most toxic plant with an LC₅₀ of 0.003 mg/ml. The C. anisata extract had the best selectivity index with a value of 0.10 and 0.08 for the two assays, followed by H. trifoliata and L. sericea with values of 0.07, 0.07 and 0.05, 0.04. The C. dregei extract had the worst selectivity index with a value of 0.00019 for both assays.

Conclusion

The result of this study indicates which species should be further investigated in depth for isolation of compounds.

The Tar Sands Disaster President Obama will be doing Canada a favor if he blocks the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all.

The Tar Sands Disaster

President Obama will be doing Canada a favor if he blocks the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/opinion/the-tar-sands-disaster.html?smid=pl-share

Integrative medicine a way to treat chronic conditions

Integrative medicine a way to treat chronic conditions