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Keyword: luddites

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  • Tighter controls needed for nanotechnology, says UN report

    02/06/2007 10:03:25 AM PST · by Red Badger · 19 replies · 515+ views
    www.technologyreview.com ^ | 02/05/2007 | AP (Almost Pravda) Staff
    NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- The U.N. called Monday for tighter regulation on technology to change or create materials at the atomic and molecular level, a process being used to develop new drugs, foods and other commercial products. In its annual report of the global environment, the U.N.'s Environment Program said ''swift action'' was needed by policy makers to properly evaluate the new science of nanotechnology. Although nanotechnology could transform electronics, energy industries and medicine, more research is needed to identify environmental, health and socio-economic hazards, Achim Steiner, who heads UNEP, said in the 87-page report. The report was released on...
  • Archaeology trumps oil, gas

    02/04/2007 4:50:17 PM PST · by xcamel · 15 replies · 649+ views
    The Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 02/02/2007 | Joe Baird
    ** Board shoots down BLM leasing of 14,000 acres on sensitive lands Environmentalists have won another round in challenging a series of Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease sales in Utah. The Interior Department's Board of Land Appeals this week reversed the BLM's leasing of roughly 14,000 acres for energy development north of Nine Mile Canyon and just south of the Book Cliffs in central Utah. The leases, covering 16 parcels, have been suspended, effective immediately. The agency, the board ruled, failed to adequately identify sensitive archaeological sites before offering the lease parcels for sale in October 2003....
  • Rep. Cynthia McKinney: Blacks Must Oppose Electronic Voting

    08/16/2006 5:39:23 AM PDT · by Arcy · 100 replies · 2,424+ views
    WSBTV news Atlanta ^ | August 16, 2006 | WSBTV news Atlanta
    Rep. Cynthia McKinney, in her first public appearance since losing her re-election bid last week, said Tuesday that the black community needs to oppose electronic voting machines, which she warned can be used to steal elections. McKinney also said the state of Georgia should prohibit crossover voting among political parties in primary elections and end its system of runoff elections. You won't know who won as long as we have those electronic voting machines, with the problems that have been manifested by them,'' she said, criticizing Georgia officials for not requiring that paper records be kept of all votes. She...
  • Light Pollution (If you think it's a joke, think again. The movement seeks to change laws)

    08/05/2006 2:32:45 PM PDT · by sully777 · 294 replies · 3,590+ views
    Light Pollution At the beginning of the 21st century, humanity is losing a valuable and beautiful part of its heritage. For the first time in history, poorly designed and badly aimed lighting is denying vast numbers of humanity a view of the night sky. Urban sky glow now pollutes nearly all of Britain's night skies. As amateur astronomers we have a responsibility to guard our night time environment against light pollution. What is light pollution?  Light pollution is the popular name for sky glow - a brightening of the night sky caused by the scattering of artificial light by aerosol...
  • Creating 'human-animals' for research

    07/27/2006 10:12:29 AM PDT · by budlt2369 · 79 replies · 1,342+ views
    Organic Consumers Association ^ | Sunday, May 1, 2005 | Organic Consumers Association
    Creating 'human-animals' for research Ethics report endorses mingling human cells with lesser beings Sunday, May 1, 2005 Posted: 0316 GMT (1116 HKT) RENO, Nevada (AP) -- On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs. The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about his plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can't wait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into the fetus' brain about two...
  • 'Biopharming' firm raises ire as it alters rice to fight diarrhea

    05/28/2006 10:07:56 PM PDT · by Lorianne · 10 replies · 371+ views
    Rocky Mountain News ^ | May 22, 2006 | Paul Elias
    SAN FRANCISCO - In its quest to genetically engineer rice with human genes to produce a treatment for childhood diarrhea, tiny Ventria Bioscience has made an astonishing number of powerful enemies spanning the political spectrum. Environmental groups, corporate food interests and thousands of farmers across the country have succeeded in chasing the company's rice farms out of two states. And critics continue to complain that Ventria is recklessly plowing ahead with a mostly untested technology that threatens the safety of conventional crops grown for the food supply. "We just want them to go away," said Bob Papanos of the U.S....
  • Biotech Firm Raises Furor With Rice Plan (human gene)

    05/14/2006 5:24:52 PM PDT · by decimon · 9 replies · 369+ views
    Associated Press ^ | May 14, 2006 | PAUL ELIAS
    SAN FRANCISCO - A tiny biosciences company is developing a promising drug to fight diarrhea, a scourge among babies in the developing world, but it has made an astonishing number of powerful enemies because it grows the experimental drug in rice genetically engineered with a human gene. Environmental groups, corporate food interests and thousands of farmers across the country have succeeded in chasing Ventria Bioscience's rice farms out of two states. And critics continue to complain that Ventria is recklessly plowing ahead with a mostly untested technology that threatens the safety of conventional crops grown for food. "We just want...
  • WTO: EU Broke International Trade Rules

    02/07/2006 4:09:51 PM PST · by SmithL · 4 replies · 258+ views
    AP ^ | 2/7/6 | SAM CAGE
    GENEVA -- The WTO has ruled that the EU broke international trade rules by stopping imports of genetically modified foods, officials said Tuesday. The preliminary judgment by a World Trade Organization panel concluded that the European Union had an effective ban on biotech foods for six years from 1998, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it is a confidential report. The report sided with a legal complaint brought by the United States, Canada and Argentina over an EU moratorium on approval of new biotech foods, the officials said. The panel ruled that individual bans in six...
  • Importing Poverty: The Cheap Labor Trap

    09/06/2005 10:35:51 AM PDT · by Willie Green · 125 replies · 1,733+ views
    AmericanEconomicAlert.org ^ | Monday, September 05, 2005 | William R. Hawkins
    For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Even with the economy adding jobs last year, the number of Americans who fell into poverty in 2004 rose to 37 million, up 1.1 million from 2003, according to Census Bureau figures released August 29. It marks the fourth straight increase in the government's annual poverty measure, indicating that the recovery from the 2000 recession has not "trickled down" to everyone. Indeed, the Census Bureau also reported that "2004 marked the second consecutive year in which real median household income showed no change." These new statistics put a damper on the...
  • CA: Congressman says Sen. Aanestad ignorant of the North Coast and its economy

    07/14/2005 12:15:53 PM PDT · by calcowgirl · 28 replies · 413+ views
    Enterprise-Record ^ | 07/13/2005 | Larry Mitchell
    Irked by state Sen. Sam Aanestad's continuing criticism of his wilderness bill, Rep. Mike Thompson Wednesday said the Grass Valley state legislator was ignorant. "He doesn't understand the North Coast or its economy," said Thompson, D-Napa Valley, in a telephone interview. Aanestad doesn't understand his bill, either, he added. Thompson, who represented Butte County in the state Senate before he was elected to Congress, has been promoting legislation to designate as wilderness more than 300,000 acres of land along California's northern coast. After Thompson introduced his latest version of this bill, House Resolution 233, in January, Aanestad attacked it as...
  • UK scientists clone human embryo

    05/19/2005 12:22:48 PM PDT · by cooper72 · 51 replies · 975+ views
    BBC Online ^ | 19 May 2005
    British scientists say they have successfully cloned a human embryo - the country's first. The Newcastle University team took eggs from 11 women, removed the genetic material and replaced it with DNA from embryonic stem cells. Three of the resultant clones lived and grew in the laboratory for three days and one survived for five days. The critical factor for success appeared to be how quickly the egg was collected and manipulated. Patient-specific stem cell first Any longer than an hour and there was no success, Professor Alison Murdoch and colleagues found. The clone that lasted for five days had...
  • Ignoring science at our peril [Review of book on eco-fundamentalism, excerpt re: biotech foods]

    05/03/2005 12:25:12 PM PDT · by Constitutionalist Conservative · 10 replies · 560+ views
    The Washington Times ^ | May 1, 2005 | Henry I. Miller
    --SNIP-- Mr. Taverne argues compellingly that the conflict over gene-spliced crops is the most important battle of all between the forces of reason and unreason, both because of the consequences should the forces of darkness prevail, and also because their arguments are so perverse and so consistently and completely wrong. In fact, agricultural practices have been "unnatural" for 10,000 years, and with the exception of wild berries and wild mushrooms, virtually all the grains, fruits and vegetables in our diets are genetically modified. Many of our foods (including potatoes, tomatoes, oats, rice and corn) come from plants created by "wide...
  • Denmark, Corn Pops and Organic Madness (Europeans are very sophisticated!)

    09/08/2004 11:37:38 AM PDT · by quidnunc · 25 replies · 873+ views
    American Outlook ^ | September 8, 2004 | Alex A. Avery
    Denmark has become so paranoid over chemicals in their food that they are literally taking key nutrients from the mouths of children. A couple of weeks ago, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration actually blocked Kellogg's from selling its breakfast cereals because they are fortified with vitamins and minerals. We simply can't make up stuff this kooky. Denmark has become infatuated with the organic philosophy of chemophobia. In the late 1990s, the government even briefly considered converting the entire country to organic farming over fears of the dangers of pesticides. While the authorities wisely backed off their organic-only scheme-after studies...
  • Woman Caught Taking Photos at Wedding Party (Our Saudi Friends)

    09/04/2004 4:08:18 PM PDT · by Land_of_Lincoln_John · 35 replies · 1,730+ views
    Arab News ^ | September 5, 2004 | Arab News
    BISHA, 5 September 2004 — A female guest at a wedding party in Bisha was beaten up badly after she was caught taking photos of women, Al-Watan newspaper reported. A young girl caught the guest taking photos of other guests with her cell phone. The girl asked her to erase the photos from her cell phone but the guest refused. She tried to flee the hall but the girl would not let her go until she got rid of all the photos from the cell phone. This triggered a fight between the two. When the news reached the men’s section,...
  • THE ABSURDITIES OF WATER FLUORIDATION (November 2002)

    06/12/2004 7:07:25 PM PDT · by Coleus · 103 replies · 563+ views
    Red Flags Daily.com ^ | 11.28.02 | Paul Connett, PhD
    November 28, 2002THE ABSURDITIES OF WATER FLUORIDATIONThis Practice Is Unethical, Unnecessary, Ineffective, Unsafe, And Inequitable. Any So-Called Expert On Fluoridation Who Thinks Otherwise Is Invited To An Open Public Debate On This Issueby Paul Connett, PhDWater fluoridation is a peculiarly American phenomenon. It started at a time when Asbestos lined our pipes, lead was added to gasoline, PCBs filled our transformers and DDT was deemed so "safe and effective" that officials felt no qualms spraying kids in school classrooms and seated at picnic tables. One by one all these chemicals have been banned, but fluoridation remains untouched.For over 50 years...
  • Environmentalists Rejoice at Monsanto GM Decision

    06/04/2004 7:25:59 PM PDT · by Coleus · 26 replies · 386+ views
    Reuters ^ | 05.11.04
    Environmentalists Rejoice at Monsanto GM DecisionLondon -- Environmentalists claimed a victory and the death knell for genetically modified crops on Tuesday as U.S. chemical giant Monsanto declared it was giving up on the GM wheat it had hoped would smash consumer resistance. "This is the end of GM. It is the final nail in the coffin. I am sure the companies will come back with more proposals in the future but basically the damage is done," Tony Juniper, director of green lobby group Friends of the Earth said. "I am sure a combination of exporters, farmers and consumers has finally...
  • Parents Who Choose Not to Vaccinate Children Upset with Some in the Medical Community

    04/09/2004 8:25:54 PM PDT · by chance33_98 · 215 replies · 1,082+ views
    Parents Who Choose Not to Vaccinate Children Upset with Some in the Medical Community Friday, April 09, 2004, 9:49:53 PM By KCRG-TV9 News Anchor/Reporter Renee Chou – TV9 Cedar Rapids Newsroom Some eastern Iowa parents feel they're treated with hostility because they refuse to immunize their children. They've discovered that saying no to vaccines means that pediatric offices can say no to providing care to their children. At 19 months old, Ambryia Mulnix has never felt a needle poke into her skin. Her mother, Arielle, says she's done her own research and comes to this conclusion on vaccines. Arielle...
  • NASA director defends Mars plan

    01/29/2004 5:04:59 PM PST · by ambrose · 5 replies · 129+ views
    AJC.Com ^ | 1.29.04 | AJC.Com
    [ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 1/29/04 ] NASA director defends Mars plan By LARRY LIPMAN The Atlanta Journal-Constitution WASHINGTON -- Defending President Bush's goal of sending a manned mission to Mars in the face of skyrocketing budget deficits, the nation's space agency director told a skeptical Senate panel Wednesday that there are some things only humans can do. Testifying before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said Bush's space exploration plans were both fiscally prudent and realistic and would comply with the administration's goal of cutting the budget deficit in half by the end of the...
  • Senators Skeptical About Bush NASA Vision [Moon, Mars]

    01/28/2004 2:11:39 PM PST · by ambrose · 10 replies · 131+ views
    AP ^ | 1.28.04 | AP
    Posted on Wed, Jan. 28, 2004 Senators Skeptical About Bush NASA Vision ROBERT GEHRKE Associated Press WASHINGTON - Skeptical senators grilled NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe on Wednesday on whether President Bush's vision of returning astronauts to the Moon and exploring Mars is feasible in light of strained federal budgets. In the past, Congress has seen NASA project budgets balloon well beyond what they were ever projected to cost, said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. "Space flight is costly," said Dorgan. "I don't want to be a wise guy, but we've been promised the Moon before." Earlier this month, the president sought...
  • Bush's corporate gravy train to Mars

    01/26/2004 1:53:41 AM PST · by ambrose · 21 replies · 170+ views
    Green Left Weekly ^ | 1.28.04 | Green Left Weekly
    Bush's corporate gravy train to Mars On January 14, US President George Bush announced the he had set a human mission to Mars as a long-range goal after NASA, the US space agency, builds a base on the Moon. According to the January 16 Washington Post, a senior Bush administration official said the impetus for the new space policy was Bush's desire to give NASA a clear mission after the February 1 disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia during its atmospheric re-entry. Under the new policy, the fleet of three remaining space shuttles will be retired once construction of the...