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News Briefs 07-08-2014

Only 2 months left!

  • Prion Pee-on: New urine test could determine if you’re going to turn into a human mad cow.
  • Romancing the (cold) stone: ESA’s Rosetta becomes the 1st human spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet.
  • Neil deGrasse Tyson has had it with your Monsanto fear-mongering!
  • After several memorable cameos, Stephen Hawking is finally having his own movie –and it has Oscar written all over it.
  • Mike Clelland: If you’ve seen a UFO up close, there’s a chance you are an abductee –and my 2 cents on the matter.
  • Robotic exoskeleton gives Korean workers super-strength. Now in case of an alien queen attack, they can all do a proper Gangnam-style fight.
  • Giant spiders: Monstrous myth or terrifying truth?
  • What’s next for the Newkirk couple after visiting the lair of Mothman? Why visiting a secret Nazi compound in California!
  • Last week I said adiós to my long-running Red Pills of the Week on Mysterious Universe, so I decided to go out with a bang.
  • The ‘retirement’ didn’t last long though: Here’s my essay on the weird connections between Alien close encounters, Celtic traditions, Mayan legends &… salt?
  • You wanna cry about something worthier than the Red Pills? Studio Ghibli is shutting down!! :'(
  • Just act natural: Video of a bear walking on two legs is Sasquatchly freaky.
  • Attention, conspiracy theorists! The Warren Commission report on JFK assassination has been digitized, and is available online
  • Grimerican blogger Fortean Mind, on the ‘Science’ of Myth building.
  • Tangentially Speaking: Chris Ryan talks to Ethnobotanist extraordinaire Dennis McKenna.
  • Red Pill of the Day: The downside of inviting Dr. Ian Malcolm to your wedding.

Quote of the Day:

“Psychologists have hitherto failed to realize that imagination is a necessary ingredient of perception itself.”

~Immanuel Kant

  1. Ghibli *sobs manly tears*
    *heart breaks* I….I feel sick…..I feel soooo sick. Hold me RPG….I think I’m dying…

    ….it’s getting cold….
    ….
    ….
    ….so cold….

  2. other news
    No more red pills: YOU ARE TEARING ME APART RPG!!!!!! FUUUUUUU

    Bear: They’re learning…O_O – great for Bigfoot debunkers though.

    Goldblum: Why do I feel like this image was tweaked? Maybe because it looks like it should be on the cover of a TV Guide magazine and underneath in Bold Italic Myriad Pro it reads “COMING THIS FALL TO FOX!”

    Tyson chicken: Firstly, GMO foods are banned in European countries for a reason. Secondly, Monsanto is a problem because they like to sue farmers for having their seeds on their farms even when the farmers don’t use Monsanto seed. Why? Because Monsanto has been impregnating fields with their seeds without the knowledge of the farmers just to sue them. I did an entire semester JUST on Monsanto and seeing what they are doing. Kids who are allergic to soy are suddenly now allergic to corn! This has killed people! This is what’s killing the bees! That is why it’s a problem. Neil, stick to space, and you don’t even do that good now that you’ve got Fox sucking your dick. It continues to amaze me how far behind the US is to other countries when it comes to the environment…and now we know why Mr. Chicken because of dimwits like you.

    I’ll settle down now, all the feels man…I need some scotch.

    1. A bear walks into a Monsanto lab…
      Your tearing apart is much appreciated 😉

      And yeah, I feel as if Tyson’s new notoriety is forcing him to asume himself as the new cultural reference for ANYTHING, not just Astronomy. Sagan’s protege, keeping the candle of Rationality lit against the demons haunting our world!

      I found his opinion to be painfully naive. One thing is to improve the traits of a species through artificial selection, but ANOTHER is to create chimeras that you would NEVER see developing all by themselves in the wild.

      And if Tyson doesn’t see a difference between the open-source approach of Norman Bourlag, the father of the Green Revolution, and the monopolization of food pursued by Monsanto & the likes, then he needs to stop spending so much time with his buddy Seth McFarlane 😉

      1. Bear – in case you want more info
        Apparently the bear has become famous around the town, locals call him “Vinnie”. Biologists think he got hit by a car as both his front paws are injured. They say he should be healed in a couple more weeks and then go back to 4 legs…if he chooses to that is…

        It is the top story on the refuge’s Facebook page:
        https://www.facebook.com/WoodlandsWildlifeRefuge?ref=br_tf

        My co-worker lives in this town. Small world.

          1. Yes
            but they are more concerned that people are feeding him or attracting him there to film him. It actually isn’t unusual in NJ to get black bears walking through your backyard. It’s important not to attract them by leaving garbage or pet food outside, but people are stupid sometimes. I think they are monitoring him and if he becomes an issue he will be tranquilized and moved. Black bears are less brave as grizzlies and will run most of the time from people. But if they loose that fear then they become a problem. I would NOT want to be outside if a bear came walking through my town no matter how many legs he’s on. We get coyotes where I am and I do not want to run into them as they have zero fear of people.

  3. Monsanto
    Anyone who is for science should be appalled by DeGrasse Tyson jumping in bed with Monsanto. In recent years there have been many peer-reviewed independent scientific studies clearly proving a dramatic increase in the use of pesticides for GMO crops. This is because they’re creating superweeds, resistant to pesticides and requiring more to knock them out. Insects are also growing resistant. Yet Monsanto’s website continues to claim their GMO crops require less pesticides. That’s not science, Mr DeGrasse Tyson, it’s selling snake oil. Studies of GMO soy crops also show they’re producing LESS than non-GMO soy crops. But Monsanto continues to advertise GMO produces more bang for your buck.

    Phil Angell, Monsanto’s director of corporate communications, was quoted in the October 25 1998 New York Times Magazine article Playing God in the Garden: “Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the F.D.A.’s job.”

    Excuse me for repeating that quote, but it’s a gem:

    “Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible.”

    Yet the FDA’s Statement of Policy – Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties states that “Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety.” And considering the FDA’s approval process has been proven corrupt, who do you trust? The company who wants to make a kazillion billion dollars worth of profit, or the watchdog in bed with them? This goes a long way to explaining why GMO was shoved onto the market with the attitude that scientific studies and arguments could be done later. They want their profit now, and they don’t want the facts to get in the way of that.

    This is the issue. Monsanto controls over 80% of the world’s GMO industry. You can also argue they control a hell of a lot more if you factor their “cooperation” with the other GMO player DuPont. Monsanto is responsible for some of history’s biggest corporate fuckery imaginable, from Agent Orange to DDT to Roundup (which by the way is a lot more toxic than has been made public). Who in their right mind would want Monsanto, responsible for chemical misery and some of the worst corporate deception (not just in recent years, but for almost 100 years), to completely dominate global food supplies?

    Yet DeGrasse Tyson would rather ignore the science, believe a corporation that has lied to the world again and again and again, and drum up sensationalism to gain support rather than do some actual science. His fanboys should be tearing him apart.

    And who will actually eat GMO foods? It’s certainly not China’s elite. Despite being one of the biggest customers of GMO, China’s One Percent would rather eat organic food, kept secret from the unwashed masses. Those darlings of the conspiracy world, the Rockefellers, loud supporters of Monsanto and GMO, also prefer their own organic produce. The impending global food shortage is a farce — it’s distribution that is the issue, and multinationals who put profit before people. Afterall, there’s no profit in communities growing their own produce. Better to enslave them to patented GMO crops they’d need a team of lawyers to wean themselves off. If they can afford them.

    Then there’s what happened to one of the first GMO critics, Dr. Arpad Pusztai, a Hungarian research biologist. He completed his doctorate in London’s Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine and then went to work at the prestigious Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. He published over 270 scientific papers. An insidious smear campaign destroyed him, yet you won’t hear DeGrasse Tyson backing up his fellow scientist.

    Tyson jumping on board doesn’t surprise me considering there has been a concerted effort to smear all anti-GMO protestors with the same brush as nutjob anti-vaxxers and Apollo lunar landing conspiracy theorists. Yeah, there are some very irrational anti-GMO arguments out there — but to smear the majority for the beliefs of a minority?

    He should shut his yap and stick with astrophysics if he’s too lazy to do some, y’know, actual science and research the issue.

    Don’t ask yourself whether GMO is safe — ask yourself whether you want Monsanto in charge of over 90% of the world’s GMO market.

    1. This ^^^^
      [quote=]Yet DeGrasse Tyson would rather ignore the science, believe a corporation that has lied to the world again and again and again, and drum up sensationalism to gain support rather than do some actual science. His fanboys should be tearing him apart.[/quote]

      Well said sir!

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