A blockbuster revelation in the melamine scandal arrived today in the form of a little-noticed statement by the world’s largest food company, Nestle, which announced that melamine discovered in its baby formula in South Africa was caused by “contaminated animal feed” fed to dairy animals.  In a May 7, 2007 diary, I  had warned about such a problem and urged FDA officials to test U.S. milk supplies after melamine was discovered here in corn gluten that is sometimes fed to dairy cows.

Today’s news follows an Associated Press report, on Wednesday, that the FDA had found traces of melamine or cyanuric acid had been found in U.S.-produced infant formula, prompting demands for a recall

Government Claims Refuted

Citing a report by Feedinfo News Service, Flexnews, an industry publication, writes that Nestle’s conclusions give “credence to the possibility that the industrial chemical may be able to cross from the feed to the food chain” despite longstanding claims by US and other food safety officials that melamine is not transferred to meat and other animals products because it is excreted in urine.  Importantly, melamine is 66% nitrogen. Nitrogen is excreted in urine; but, also in milk.

From DKos blogger Deep Harm-

“Marijuana Nation” National Geographic special airs Tuesday, Dec. 2nd at 9pm central time on National Geographic Channel.

Video of Israeli military robots.

Two wildlife smugglers transporting hundreds of live turtles and pythons jammed into the backs of cars have been arrested by Cambodian officials. The drivers were apparently heading to neighboring Vietnam to sell the animals—many of them rare—to the region’s illegal wildlife markets.

Everything is priced to move.

Dude clears gorge on jetpack.

Footage of meteor over Alberta, Canada.

Maybe thats because the idea of other beings out there makes a whole hell of a lot more sense than an bitter, spiteful, angry father figure looming around ready to smack us down for thinking too much.

Full text.

More people believe in aliens and ghosts than in God, a new survey finds, according to a British newspaper.

That said, the poll of 3,000 people found that 58 percent believe in the supernatural, including paranormal encounters, while 54 percent believe God exists. Women were more likely than men to believe in the supernatural and were also more likely to visit a medium.

For nearly a hundred years, physicists have worked to develop intricate mathematical theories for dealing with the plasma state, but detailed knowledge about plasma constituents and their precise interaction dynamics has been hard to come by. Conventional plasmas are hot, complex and difficult to characterize either in the natural world or in the laboratory.

Recently, a handful of laboratories have begun work on a new class of plasma so simple that it promises to take our understanding to a new level. Termed ultracold plasmas, these systems start with trapped atoms, cooled to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, to form clouds of ions and electrons that are nearly standing still. With this control, scientists have found it possible to study the elementary steps by which atomic plasmas are born and grow.

Now, for the first time, UBC researchers have found a way to make ultracold plasmas out of molecules.

More.

Michio Kaku on teleportation. Beam me up!

The subject here is the Burkle Crater, located in the western Indian ocean. At 18 miles in diameter, this was no small chunk of rock to fall from the sky.

From the Holocene Impact Working Group at the 2006 Geological society of America meeting:

Chevron dunes are not formed by wind. Chevron dunes are not oriented in the direction of the prevailing wind, they can form where there are no beaches, and they contain grains larger than 2 mm in diameter. Chevrons are produced by megatsunamis originating from point sources, i.e. landslides, impact craters, and volcanic explosions. We have assembled data on chevrons worldwide. Most are best explained as the result of tsunami generated from large impact cratering events. We now have data confirming an impact origin of two chevron sources. In the Indian ocean, chevron dunes in Western Australia, India, and Madagascar point towards the 29 km Burckle Crater at 30.865S, 61.365E. The impact ejecta from Burckle crater contain meteorite fragments, impact glass, oceanic mantle fragments, and impact spherules. The impact spherules are >200 microns in diameter, consistent with a 29 km crater. The impact glasses have no K and cannot be continental in origin. In the Gulf of Carpentaria, we found impact ejecta that contain impact glass and meteoritic material: merrillite, high Ni metal, and probable melted carbonaceous chondrite [1].

This sentence suggests the wave from this impact may have raped its way through the middle east all the way to the Mediterranean.

In the Mediterranean, a megatsunami source near the Rhone delta is of undetermined origin.

They point to two other craters, here and here, both of which are smaller in size (11 and 7 miles respectively) that may be responsible for the Australia dunes, but not the Madagascar ones.
The best part about this is that they think it happened around 4,000-5,000 years ago. A list of deluge myths from around the world. The longer we keep looking, the more “myths” we are going to discover as true. Sometimes you don’t even need to look for it as when it shows up illuminating the entire sea, as far as you can see, underneath your oceangoing vessel. In my mind, this calls into question even further certain aspects of a few individuals work that has been derided by science for their heretical interpretations of mythology. Not saying that myths can be taken as literal accounts of something that happened, but that there had to be some source for the story, whether it be a metaphorical teaching, or an event that was described the best a people could understand it.

As an anti-spam-comment measure, I have made it so that users must be registered and logged in to comment.

[Gonzo Blog Team: comments function now automatically enabled on all posts unless you specifically turn it off.] 

Thanks~

…I have added a link to Jim Fetzer’s “Reasoning About Assassinations” (pdf file) to the Critical Thinking section in the sidebar.

Question: What do you get when you juxtapose this current Scientific American article about cell phones and brain cancer with this interview with arch-heretic Dr. Robert O. Becker from 2000 on the same topic?

Answer: The sinking feeling that science isn’t really trying that hard to find out if cell phones are going to turn our brains into tapioca.

MPR is running a site where you can look at disputed ballots, and then vote as to what you think the voter intended, whether to void the ballot altogether, etc.

Check it out. 

The videos of McCain supporters at these pre-election rallys on this Dkos post really leave nothing to the imagination. Bleah.

We all knew this was coming. Let the mass hysteria begin.

In the waning months of the Bush administration, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) has joined the ranks of federal
agencies rushing through new regulations that weaken protections
for human health and the environment. USDA has released a
proposed rule that would significantly weaken oversight of all
genetically engineered crops, and which continue to allow
companies to grow food crops engineered to produce drugs and
industrial chemicals.

The USDA began this process over four years ago by promising
stricter oversight. Unfortunately, improvements considered early
on have been dismissed, and the proposed rule now has the same
gaping holes as the policy it is replacing, and creates a few
new ones, as well. For instance:

* USDA has created a huge loophole allowing biotech companies to
assess their own crops to determine whether USDA should regulate
them. And the criteria are open-ended, very subjective, and will
certainly reduce USDA?s oversight of GE crops.

* The proposed rules could also allow companies to grow untested
GE crops with no oversight whatsoever: “Over time, the range of
GE organisms subject to oversight is expected to decrease…,” a
move which USDA itself admits will make contamination of
conventional/organic crops with untested GE material more
likely.

* To add insult to injury, USDA has proposed to write into law
its “Low Level Presence” policy, which excuses it from taking
any action to remove untested GE crops from conventional or
organic food, feed and seed. This contamination often occurs
through cross-pollination or seed dispersal, and has cost
farmers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales and
lowered profits.

* USDA rejected options that would have banned outdoor
cultivation of pharmaceutical-producing GE (food) crops, the
only way to ensure that untested drugs don’t end up in our food,
despite strong support from citizens and the food industry.

* USDA has refused to propose any controls on
pesticide-promoting GE crops, despite increasing pesticide use
and an epidemic of resistant weeds that have been fostered by
these crops.

* Finally, USDA snuck in a last-minute “correction” that bars
state or local regulation of GE crops more protective than its
own weak rule. CFS strongly opposes such preemptive language
that would bar local or state authorities from putting
meaningful regulations or restrictions on GE crops in place that
best suit their communities. This last-minute change should be
cause to extend the public comment period.

The USDA is treading dangerous new ground here. The structure of
the new proposal opens loopholes that can be exploited by
biotech companies and expose consumers to more untested and
unlabeled genetically engineered foods.

After denying requests for an extension to the short comment
period given for the proposed rules, USDA’s comment period
closes on Monday. Sign our petition to the USDA today and demand
stronger–not weaker–regulations for genetically engineered
crops!
Sign this petition via the web at:
http://ga3.org/campaign/GMOregs/8u8kesb9f7kiixxt?

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
http://ga3.org/campaign/GMOregs/forward/8u8kesb9f7kiixxt?

We encourage you to take action by November 25, 2008

USDA Rushing Through Dangerous New Rules on GE and
Pharmaceutical Crops

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take action on this
alert by going to the following URL:

http://ga3.org/campaign/GMOregs/8u8kesb9f7kiixxt?

Petition:
Docket No. APHIS-2008-0023
Regulatory Analysis and Development
PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8
4700 River Road Unit 118
Riverdale, MD 20737-1238.

Re: Docket No. APHIS-2008-0023, Importation, Interstate
Movement, and Release into the Environment of Certain
Genetically Engineered Organisms.

I am very concerned about the risks genetically engineered
crops–especially those engineered to produce drugs and
industrial chemicals–pose to human health, family farmers,
wildlife, and the environment. I urge USDA to close the gaping
loopholes in its proposed rules, and put stronger–not
weaker–regulations in place. In particular:

1)Please follow the advice of the National Academy of Sciences
and make genetic engineering the trigger for USDA oversight so
that ALL experimental GE crops are properly regulated. This
approach is scientifically sound, administratively efficient,
and more protective of public health, the environment, and the
interests of farmers. Eliminate loopholes that exempt any GE
crop that has not undergone a determination of non-regulated
status from USDA regulatory oversight.

2)Please do NOT incorporate the “Low Level Presence”
policy in the final rule. Instead, make zero presence of
experimental GE crops in food and feed your management goal, and
gear your implementing regulations to achieve it as fully as
possible. In particular, make all field trials of experimental
GE crops subject to strict gene containment standards at least
as stringent as those now applied to pharmaceutical-producing GE
crops.

3)Please reconsider your “business as usual” pharma crop policy,
and instead adopt one of two alternatives you proposed in the
Draft Environmental Impact Statement - a simple ban on outdoor
cultivation of all pharmaceutical-producing crops, or at least
pharmaceutical-producing food crops - to best protect public
health and the environment.

4)Please regulate as necessary pesticide-promoting,
herbicide-tolerant GE crops in order to address the rise in
pesticide use these crops have fostered, and to mitigate the
growing threat posed by herbicide-resistant weeds to farmers and
the interests of American agriculture.

5)Remove any preemption clause that bars state and local
authorities from enacting laws or regulations to control GE
crops as they best see fit.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20001221c.asp

Forwarded by princelumber.

Yet more evidence the most dangerous technologies on earth need to have a wee bit better security.

Almost too nutty to be real.

“What we have witnessed in Western societies since the end of the Second World War is the development of mass education on a scale unprecedented in human history - resulting in economic growth, scientific and technological advances, and the cultural and social enrichment of billions of people’s lives,” he said.

“However, every human endeavor has a dark side, due to original sin and concupiscence. In the case of education, we can see its distortion through the widespread dissemination of radical scepticism, positivism, utilitarianism and relativism.

“Taken together, these intellectual trends have resulted in a fragmented society that marginalizes God, with many people mistakenly thinking they can live happy and productive lives without him.

Yeah, and that pesky devil just wanted to give us, ya know, knowledge and enlightenment and all. Sheesh.

Cannabis may actually enhance memory, reduce memory impairment, and is beneficial to the aging brain. Can’t wait to see the drug warriors try and explain this one away. Oh wait, they won’t. They’ll just dump a few more billion of our tax dollars into primetime anti-cannabis scare-o-mercials.

The research suggests that the development of a legal drug that contains certain properties similar to those in marijuana might help prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Could people smoke marijuana to prevent Alzheimer’s disease if the disease is in their family? We’re not saying that, but it might actually work.

Oh you conservative wimp! Just say it already.

What we are saying is it appears that a safe, legal substance that mimics those important properties of marijuana can work on receptors in the brain to prevent memory impairments in aging. So that’s really hopeful,” Wenk said.

“The end goal is not to recommend the use of THC in humans to reduce Alzheimer’s,” Marchalant said. “We need to find exactly which receptors are most crucial, and ideally lead to the development of drugs that specifically activate those receptors. We hope a compound can be found that can target both inflammation and neurogenesis, which would be the most efficient way to produce the best effects.”

Last time I checked, nature had conveniently put everything necessary into a nice little flower already. Sorry, no need for your synthetic scum.

“It’s not that everything immoral is good for the brain. It’s just that there are some substances that millions of people for thousands of years have used in billions of doses, and we’re noticing there’s a little signal above all the noise,” said Gary Wenk, professor of psychology at Ohio State and principal investigator on the research.

I would say the evidence out there is more like a sonic fucking boom.

In the end though, another step towards victory for one of our favorite allies.

…monstrous.

More than 7,000 live monitor lizards, almost 900 owls—plucked and plastic wrapped for easy cooking—and other wild animals were seized in two raids in a single week by Malaysian officials earlier this month.

Yep, thats right. 20 million. That is the estimated number of people who have been arrested for cannabis “violations” since the war on counterculture..err.. I mean drugs, began.

Hopefully Paul Armentano’s words regarding tobacco policy will ring home with some of the politico’s over at Congress Blog.

Unreal. I’m speechless. Kudos to Kos once again.

An interesting blog by way of Dkos.

But can it make a good latte?

Asimo Bloopers.

Video link

Short video about how we are all being tracked, followed, and analyzed with the intent of predicting and knowing how groups of people behave.

A manhunt is under way in western Germany for a convicted drug dealer who escaped by mailing himself out of jail.

The 42-year-old Turkish citizen - who was serving a seven-year sentence - had been making stationery with other prisoners destined for the shops.

At the end of his shift, the inmate climbed into a cardboard box and was taken out of prison by express courier. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Into the criminal record books.

It might be clichéd to say that religious people see the world differently, but new research finds that Dutch Calvinists notice embedded visual patterns quicker than their atheist compatriots.

Culture has long been known to distort visual perception, says Bernhard Hommel, a psychologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands who led the new study.

For example, one previous experiment found that Asians tend to dart their eyes around a photograph, while North Americans fix on specific people.

To see if religious differences might skew perception, Hommel’s team tested 40 Dutch atheist and Calvinist university students, who, religion aside, had similar cultural backgrounds.

Looking inwards

On a computer screen, Hommel’s team showed participants a large triangle or square made of either smaller triangles or squares. The volunteers had to focus on either the big object or its component shapes, and indicate whether they were square or triangular.

Both groups recognised the large shapes more quickly than small, embedded ones, but the Calvinists picked out the smaller shapes 30 milliseconds faster than atheists, on average - a small, but significant, difference.

This could reflect a greater focus on self than external distractions for Calvinists, says Hommel.

He suggests it may even be a cognitive consequence of their religion and speculates that Calvinists might be more inward looking than atheists because they have lived their whole lives with an emphasis on minding their own business.

The Hawaii County Council has voted to uphold a ban on genetically modified taro and coffee.

Mayor Harry Kim initially vetoed the ban.

Thursday the council voted seven to zero to override that veto.

The decision makes it illegal to grow genetically engineered taro and coffee crops.

Anyone caught could face a $1,000 fine.

Those supporting the ban say they want to preserve the brand-name value of their crops.

With video.