http://ngm.nationalgeographic.comAs we've come to depend on a handful of commercial varieties of fruits and vegetables, thousands of heirloom varieties have disappeared. It's hard to know exactly how many have been lost over the past century, but a study conducted in 1983 by the Rural Advancement Foundation International gave a clue to the scope of the problem.
It compared USDA listings of seed varieties sold by commercial U.S. seed houses in 1903 with those in the U.S. National Seed Storage Laboratory in 1983. The survey, which included 66 crops, found that about 93 percent of the varieties had gone extinct.
With a significantly reduced variety of food crops, the danger of GMOs replacing real foods becomes more pressing.
This makes it more appealing to consider self-sufficient sustainable farming in the face of a possible future mass food shortage.
AMSTERDAM (AP) -- This country of canals and tulips is also famous for "coffee shops" where joints and cappuccinos share the menu. Now, the Netherlands' famed tolerance for drugs could be going up in smoke. A judge on Friday upheld a government plan to ban foreign tourists from buying marijuana by introducing a "weed pass" available only to Dutch citizens and permanent residents.
http://www.huffingtonpost.comWhen Stuart Chaifetz sent his 10-year-old son to New Jersey's Horace Mann Elementary School wearing a hidden audio recorder, he couldn't have predicted what he would uncover.
The move came in reaction to accusations from the school that his son Akian was having "violent outbursts," including hitting his teacher and teacher's aide -- claims that Chaifetz claims are against his son's "sweet and non-violent" nature.
Akian, who has Autism, returned with a tape containing hours of apparent verbal and emotional abuse from his classroom aide and teacher -- whom Chaifetz identifies as "Jodi" and "Kelly" -- a recording which his father later published on YouTube.
Diabetes will cost the NHS more than a sixth of its entire budget by 2035, a report has found.
The disease and its complications account for 10 per cent (?9.8 billion) of NHS spending, but this is projected to rise to ?16.9 billion over the next 25 years, or 17 per cent of the health service's funds.
Pediatricians in Canada are starting to discharge children whose parents refuse to have them vaccinated.
More and more, doctors are taking a stand when their medical advice is being ignored, said Dr. Hirotaka Yamashiro, chair of the pediatrics section for the Ontario Medical Association and president of the Pediatricians Alliance of Ontario.
Consumers may look at the grocery store shelves and think they've got a multitude of options, but the truth is, the same huge corporations own all of the brand names, use the same toxic ingredients in the products and care not the slightest about your nutrition or health. Take a look at this diagram for proof that your freedom of choice in the grocery store is an illusion.
The Republican-led New Hampshire House on Wednesday passed legislation that would allow seriously ill patients to use marijuana.
The House voted 236-96 to approve SB 409. The Senate passed the bill by a 13-11 vote in March.
Democratic Gov. John Lynch has threatened to veto the legislation, which would allow patients with a written certification from their doctor to cultivate up to six ounces of marijuana.
It seems all of the healthy ways of fighting cancer are being made harder to get.
Websites that sell Essiac Tea are being forced to close. The mandatestates that essiac tea is considered a "new drug" and may not be legally marketed in the United States without prior approval from FDA. So, it can not be sold as a herbal or healing tea.The FDAdisapproves of the inrgedients, the benefits, etc.
What it all boils down to is the FDA does not want essiac tea on the market.
Researchers interested in determining the direct effects of a high saturated fat and high cholesterol (HFHC) diet on implanted fetal hippocampal tissues have found that in middle-aged laboratory rats the HFHC diet elevated microglial activation and reduced neuronal development. While the resulting damage was due to an inflammatory response in the central nervous system, they found that the effects of the HFHC diet were alleviated by the interleukin (IL)-1 receptor antagonist IL-1Ra, leading them to conclude that IL-Ra has potential use in neurological disorders involving neuroinflammation.
While the question of whether vitamin E prevents or promotes cancer has been widely debated in scientific journals and in the news media, scientists at the Center for Cancer Prevention Research, at Rutgers Mario School of Pharmacy, and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, believe that two forms of vitamin E - gamma and delta-tocopherols - found in soybean, canola and corn oils as well as nuts do prevent colon, lung, breast and prostate cancers.
"There are studies suggesting that vitamin E actually increases the risk of cancer and decreases bone density," says Chung S. Yang, director of the center. "Our message is that the vitamin E form of gamma-tocopherols, the most abundant form of vitamin E in the American diet, and delta-tocopherols, also found in vegetable oils, are beneficial in preventing cancers while the form of vitamin E, alpha- tocopherol, the most commonly used in vitamin E supplements, has no such benefit."
Hispanic people with lung cancer tend to live longer than white or black people with the disease, according to a new study.
Researchers say Hispanics' increased likelihood of survival may be due to genetic factors or environmental advantages, such as lower rates of tobacco use.
In the study, the researchers examined diagnosis and survival data on cancer patients from a national database that pooled information from U.S. cancer registries.
They identified 172,000 adults diagnosed with any stage of the most common form of lung cancer, known as non-small cell lung cancer, between 1988 and 2007. Of these patients, Hispanics had a 15 percent lower risk of death during the study than whites. This was true for both U.S.- and foreign-born Hispanics.
Riddled with regret over missed opportunities? You may want to let it go. A new study suggests that being able to set aside regret might make for happier years later in life.
Researchers from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, in Germany, examined regret in 20-somethings and 60-somethings to see how it affected their emotional health.
"Regret is a powerful mental energy which can be your best friend or worst enemy. You can harness it to improve your future by learning from it, but if you let it grow inside you, it is destructive to both healthy aging and emotional resilience," said Dr. Murali Doraiswamy, a professor and head of the division of biological psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine. He was not involved in the research.
It's not jus the high fructose corn syrup and the aspartame.
Drinkingsoda may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, and gout, according to several studies. And the phosphate in both regular and diet colas may be linked to kidney failure.
Childrenare negatively affected by drinking soda as well -- researchers link it to the rising rate of childhood obesity. Some studies link sodas to infertility, but this is controversial. And some sodas may even contain cancer-causing coloring and flame-retardant chemicals!
The Food and Drug Administration is warning doctors, hospitals and clinics thatcontaminated ultrasound gel produced by a New Jersey company infected 16 cardiac patientsand could pose serious risks to pregnant women and otherswho undergo ultrasound imagingand treatment.
The gel is used by radiologists, urologists, gastroenterologists, OB-GYNs, internists, nurses and ultrasound technicians for diagnostic ultrasound testing. Chiropractors and physical therapists use the gel for therapeutic ultrasound treatment of pain, inflammation and injuries.
The agency told the health professionals to stop using the gel because of contamination with two strains of bacteria. "Although Other-Sonic Generic Ultrasound Transmission Gel is not labeled as either sterile or non-sterile, it is NOT sterile," the FDA cautioned.
What's the true cost of your clothes? Shanghai-based NGO Greenovate illustrates the effects of globalization on the supply chain.
There's a price tag that's being hidden from us everyday. Not the one that tells us how much money to pay but the underlying costs of every outfit's life cycle. Uncover the lives that our clothes led before they got to the store and discover your voting power as a consumer towards a fairer, healthier and more sustainable planet.
As natural gas development has pushed into populated areas, gas drillers have consistently disclosed to shareholders and potential investors daunting lists of possible mishaps, including leaks, spills, explosions, bodily injury, limited insurance coverage - and death.
The reason for these warnings: federal law, enforce by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, aims to protect investors against fraud by requiring companies that sell stock to disclose "the most significant factors that make the offereing speculative or risky."
But according to landowners, attorneys and industry documents, gas drillers paint a far more benign picture in the millions of unregulated transactions in which they persuade landowners to lease their property for drilling in exchange for a share of the proceeds. In its filings with the SEC, Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp., the nations second-largest natural gas producer, proudly called its aggressive pursuit of these leases a multi-million-acre "land grab."
AUSTIN, Texas(CBS Houston) -An Austin police officer fatally shoots a dog after showing up at the wrong address for a domestic violence call.
When police officer Thomas Griffin arrived to the address last Saturday, he witnessed Michael Paxton playing Frisbee with his dog, Cisco.
According to reports obtained by CBS Houston, the officer yelled at Paxton to show him his hands. The police car dashboard cam then caught Cisco coming to his owner's rescue by barking at the officer. The officer responded by yelling, "Get your dog!"
Griffin then opened fire on Cisco, killing the dog.
PORTLAND, Ore. -- A Portland man protesting TSA's security procedures on Tuesday stripped naked in the TSA line at Portland International Airport.
And so he won't be making his flight after all.
"When interviewed about his actions Mr. Brennan stated he flies a lot and had disrobed as a form of protest against TSA screeners who he felt were harassing him," said the arresting officer in his report. "Mr. Brennan had been scheduled to fly on Alaska Airlines to San Jose, California. Mr. Brennan was transported to Multnomah County Detention Center and lodged."
Hearing set for today, Tuesday, April 17, 2012 in California State Assembly Health Committee
AB 2109 creates a new additional requirement for parents who choose to use the current personal beliefs waiver to exempt their child from one or more of the vaccinations required for school enrollment. AB 2109 would require a parent to obtain the signature of a doctor, stating that he has provided the parent with information about the benefits and risks of vaccinations, and about specified communicable diseases, before their child would be exempted. This would apply to all children regardless of what type of school they are in, including a private homeschool. The personal beliefs waiver, by itself, would no longer be enough.
In short, AB 2109 would diminish parental rights by effectively requiring parents to receive what will be viewed as "permission" from a doctor to not vaccinate their child.
Such a form could then be used to further undermine the parent in future situations as well.
ScienceDaily (Apr. 16, 2012) -- By mating with nearly 100 males, queen bees on isolated islands avoid inbreeding and keep colonies healthy. The results, published in the current issue of PLoS ONE, focused on giant honey bee colonies on Hainan Island, off the coast of China. Since these bees have long been separated from their continental cousins, it was thought that the island bees would be prime candidates for inbreeding as well as having very different genes, said Zachary Huang, Michigan State University entomologist.
