CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH MARS: Today, Mars is at its closest to Earth for 2012. The Red Planet is only 101 million km away and shines about six times brighter than a 1st magnitude star. Look for it in the eastern sky at sunset. The burnt-orange color of Mars is very distinctive, especially when seen from rural areas with clear skies.
fr/spaceweather.com
By Dr. Mercola
Above, ABC’s “Nightline,” Bill Weir talks with Microsoft founder Bill Gates about his charitable endeavors.
Gates’ latest plan is to try to end world hunger by growing more genetically modified (GM) crops.
He’s already invested $27 million into Monsanto Company—leading some countries to reject his charity due to the high risks, such as:
- New disease vectors
- Mutated pesticide-resistant insects
- Resistant “superweeds”
- Contamination of surrounding non-GM crops
We already know how deeply entrenched the U.S. government has become with Monsanto.
For a visual illustration of their ‘revolving-door-relationship’ with the governmental regulatory agencies, see the graph toward the bottom of this article.
It is this type of government infiltration that allowed genetically engineered alfalfa to be approvedwithout any restrictions at all, despite the protests of the organic community and public comments from a quarter of a million concerned citizens.
In Bill Gates, Monsanto also has one of the wealthiest and most influential “philanthropists” supporting their agenda and spreading misleading propaganda about their products.
In recent years, it has become disappointingly clear that Gates may be leading the pack as one of the most destructive “do-gooders” on the planet… His views on what is required to make a difference in poverty- and disease-stricken third world nations are short-sighted and misinformed at best. A recent article in the Seattle Times1 joins me in arguing that Bill Gates’ support of genetically modified (GM) crops as a solution for world hunger is based on unsound science. A team of 900 scientists funded by the World Bank and United Nations, investigated the matter over the course of three years, and determined that the use of GM crops is simply NOT a meaningful solution to the complex situation of world hunger.
Instead, the scientists suggested that “agro-ecological” methods would provide the most viable means to ensure global food security, including the use of traditional seed varieties and local farming practices already adapted to the local ecology.
In a recent article with the same headline, “Philanthropy is the Enemy of Justice”, Robert Newman criticizes2 the choice of Bill Gates as the designated “voice” of the world’s poor at the World Economic Forum, held in January.
“Am I saying that philanthropy has never done good? No, it has achieved many wonderful things… But beware the havoc that power without oversight and democratic control can wreak,” Newman writes.
“The biotech agriculture that Lord Sainsbury was unable to push through democratically he can now implement unilaterally, through his Gatsby Foundation. We are told that Gatsby’s biotech project aims to provide food security for the global south. But if you listen to southern groups such as the Karnataka State Farmers of India, food security is precisely the reason they campaign against GM, because biotech crops are monocrops which are more vulnerable to disease and so need lashings of petrochemical pesticides, insecticides and fungicides – none of them cheap – and whose ruinous costs will rise with the price of oil, bankrupting small family farms first. Crop diseases mutate, meanwhile, and all the chemical inputs in the world can’t stop disease wiping out whole harvests of genetically engineered single strands.
Both the Gatsby and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundations are keen to get deeper into agriculture, especially in Africa. But top-down nostrums for the rural poor don’t end well.”
I agree. Donating patented seeds, which takes away the farmers’ sovereignty, is not the way to save the third-world poor. As reported by Netline last year3, Monsanto and other biotech companies have collaborated with the Gates Foundation via the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to promote the use of genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa. The Gates Foundation has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to AGRA, and in 2006 Robert Horsch was hired for the AGRA project. Horsch was a Monsanto executive for 25 years. In a nutshell, the project may be sold under the banner of altruism and ‘sustainability’, but in reality it’s anything but. It’s just a multi-billion dollar enterprise to transform Africa into a GM-crop-friendly continent.
Gates’ philanthropic methods came under scrutiny back in August 2010, when it was discovered that The Gates Foundation had purchased 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock; dramatically increasing its previous holdings—and hence its financial conflicts of interest—in the biotech firm. AGRA-Watch commented on the ties stating4:
“The Foundation’s direct investment in Monsanto is problematic on two primary levels,” said Dr. Phil Bereano, University of Washington Professor Emeritus and recognized expert on genetic engineering.
“First, Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests and well-being of small farmers around the world, as well as an appalling environmental track record. The strong connections to Monsanto cast serious doubt on the Foundation’s heavy funding of agricultural development in Africa and purported goal of alleviating poverty and hunger among small-scale farmers. Second, this investment represents an enormous conflict of interests.”
It would be naive to think that all these philanthropic collaborations are designed to solve any problem besides how to help Monsanto monopolize the world’s food supply with expensive patented GM seeds, and the herbicides to go with them.
to read more and find out more, go to: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/03/04/clueless-fabrication-on-gmo.aspx?e_cid=20120304_SNL_Art_1
BIG SUNSPOT: A sunspot almost four times as wide as Earth itself is rotating onto the solar disk. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded its entrance on March 2nd and 3rd; click to view a 24-hour animation:
The sunspot has a ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic field that harbors energy for strong M-class solar flares. Indeed, it has already unleashed an M3-class eruption on March 2nd that created mild waves of ionization in the atmosphere over Europe.
Earth-effects could become stronger as the sunspot turns toward our planet in the days ahead. NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% chance of additional M-class flares and a 5% chance of an X-flare during the next 24 hours.
fr/spaceweather.com
HuffPost Weird News David Moye Posted: 03/ 2/2012 2:55 pm
Nevada allows gambling, prostitution and, now, robot driver’s licenses.
As of March 1, the state allows robot researchers to apply for a special license allowing them to test robotic vehicles on open roads, according to RobotLiving.com, which sayid the cars driven by the robots will be marked with a red license plate during the testing phase.
Once the robot drivers prove their metal — er, mettle — the license plates will change to green.
Nevada governor Brian Sandoval signed A.B. 511 into law last June after Google pushed a campaign to give androids the right to the same access to roads as humanoids. Robotic Prius cars are already driving semi-legally in California, according to SingularityHub.com.
The robot drivers have already driven more than 200,000 miles in California semi-legally, but experts believe Nevada’s openess will help researchers perfect the robotic technology.
The state may have hit the jackpot with this law: anyone who wants a robot car license has to post a bond in excess of $1 million to ensure against damage and they have to provide the Nevada DMV with a detailed report on what they are testing with each car.
It could take years before robotic cars are a reality but Buzz60.com correspondent Maureen Aladinanticipates they will be an improvement over humans.
“At least with robots, there won’t be any human error,” she said. “No robot profiling, texting while driving or road rage.”
The fable of the werewolf gets a clever and communist remake in Sirocco Research Labs’ “Red Moon,” a quirky twist on a horrible tale.
The short film was produced by the creative collective more than a year ago, and released to the public in full on Friday. Official selection at a handful of film festivals, it’s been making the rounds at the Atlantic Film Festival, Hollyshorts Film Festival, St. Louis International Film Festival and the 2012Oxford Film Festival.
“Red Moon” follows the story of Captain Alexei Ovechkin, a captain of a Russian submarine, a Soviet Union devout and a sufferer of lycanthropy. In a valiant effort to escape the torture of murdering people as a wolf, and to prove his dedication to his communist state, Ovechkin joins the navy and plunges deep into the sea, away from the terror of the full moon. But due to a series of unfortunate events (damn Americans on their tail), the Captain returns to his hunter ways, and in turn, reigns terror on the state he loves so much.
The beautifully shot 15 minute short is full of mangy mustaches kitschy wolf costumes, and equally as kitschy Russian accents. The spillage of blood comes with red puffs of fabric and puffs of fur. We’ve never seen blood shed look so cute.
Watch below for “Red Moon:”
RED MOON from Sirocco Research Labs on Vimeo.
First Posted: 03/ 3/2012 1:26 pm Updated: 03/ 3/2012 1:27 pm
Each Olympics, there’s a lesser-known cultural olympics that runs parallel to the main event. Over the years, there hasn’t been consistency as to how long it runs, or what the cultural olympiads in various nations feature (artists, and artistic activities, mainly). This year’s event in London is said to be the “largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements” (according to their own website). As part of the festivities, earlier this week international artist Yvette Mattern’s laser rainbow projection, Global Rainbow, was flipped on in Whitley Bay, England, to celebrate London’s Cultural Olympiad in the north-east of England.
According to the BBC, the rainbow, which stands for “diversity and peace,” has previously been installed in Germany, France and the United States, and was first created in 2009 to celebrate Martin Luther King Day. This time around, the five colors are references to the olympic rings. The projection will shine along the North Tyneside coastline until Sunday. From there, it will spread its light to other parts of the UK. Go here for more information on London’s Cultural Olympiad, and look! Pretty pictures of light below.
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| Wheels were invented circa 3,500 B.C., and rapidly spread across the Eastern Hemisphere. CREDIT: James Steidl | Shutterstock |
Wheels are the archetype of a primitive, caveman-leveltechnology. But in fact, they’re so ingenious that it took until 3500 B.C. for someone to invent them. By that time — it was the Bronze Age — humans were already casting metal alloys, constructing canals and sailboats, and even designing complex musical instruments such as harps.
The tricky thing about the wheel is not conceiving of a cylinder rolling on its edge. It’s figuring out how to connect a stable, stationary platform to that cylinder.
“The stroke of brilliance was the wheel-and-axle concept,” said David Anthony, aprofessor of anthropology at Hartwick College and author of “The Horse, the Wheel, and Language” (Princeton, 2007). “But then making it was also difficult.”
To make a fixed axle with revolving wheels, Anthony explained, the ends of the axle had to be nearly perfectly smooth and round, as did the holes in the center of the wheels; otherwise, there would be too much friction for the wheels to turn. Furthermore, the axles had to fit snugly inside the wheels’ holes, but not too snugly — they had to be free to rotate.
The success of the whole structure was extremely sensitive to the size of the axle. While a narrow one would reduce the amount of friction, it would also be too weak to support a load. Meanwhile, a thick axle would hugely increase the amount of friction. “They solved this problem by making the earliest wagons quite narrow, so they could have short axles, which made it possible to have an axle that wasn’t very thick,” Anthony told Life’s Little Mysteries.
The sensitivity of the wheel-and-axle system to all these factors meant that it could not have been developed in phases, he said. It was an all-or-nothing structure.
Whoever invented it must have had access to wide slabs of wood from thick-trunked trees in order to carve large, round wheels. They also needed metal tools to chisel fine-fitted holes and axles. And they must have had a need for hauling heavy burdens over land. According to Anthony, “It was the carpentry that probably delayed the invention until 3500 B.C. or so, because it was only after about 4000 B.C. that cast copper chisels and gouges became common in the Near East.”
The invention of the wheel was so challenging that it probably happened only once, in one place. However, from that place, it seems to have spread so rapidly across Eurasia and the Middle East that experts cannot say for sure where it originated. The earliest images of wheeled carts have been excavated in Poland and elsewhere in the Eurasian steppes, and this region is overtaking Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) as the wheel’s most likely birthplace. According to Asko Parpola, an Indologist at the University of Helsinki in Finland, there are linguistic reasons to believe the wheel originated with the Tripolye people of modern-day Ukraine. That is, the words associated with wheels and wagons derive from the language of that culture.
Parpola thinks miniature models of wheeled wagons, which are commonly found in the Eurasian steppes, likely predated human-scale wagons. “It is … striking that so many models were made in the Tripolye culture. Such models are often thought to have been children’s toys, but it seems more likely to me that they were miniature counterparts of real things,” he said. “The primacy of the miniature models is suggested by the fact that wheeled images of animals even come from native Indian cultures of Central America, where real wheels were never made.”
Toys or not, those popular models of old have their counterparts in today’s Hot Wheels and miniature fire trucks. Who appreciates wheeled vehicles more fully than babies and toddlers? Their almost universal fascination with the way tiny vehicles can be rolled along the floor, and the joy they derive from transportation in life-size ones, calls attention to the remarkable ingenuity of the wheel.
EMERGING SUNSPOT, STRONG FLARE: A big new sunspot is emerging over the sun’s northeastern limb. It announced itself on March 2nd at 1746 UT with anM3-class solar flare. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:
Although the blast site was partially eclipsed by the solar limb, the flare nevertheless created waves of ionization in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Dave Gradwell of Birr Ireland detected the effect of these waves on the propagation of low-frequency radio signals across Europe. The explosion also hurled a faint CME over the northeastern limb: SOHO movie. The expanding cloud is not Earth-directed.
NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% chance of additional M-class flares and a 5% chance of an X-flare during the next 24 hours. Solar activity is picking up
from: spaceweather.com
fr/spaceweather.com:
BLUE FLASH: We’ve all heard of the green flash, the fleeting emerald light that sometimes appears just above the setting sun. Once thought to be a fable, the green flash was popularized by Jules Verne in his 1882 novel “Le Rayon Vert” (The Green Ray). Now it is generally known to be real.
But what of the even rarer blue flash? Turns out, that’s real too. Peter Rosén photographed one from Stockholm, Sweden, on Feb. 29th:
“I was shooting the sunset when, suddenly, just as the sun was about to disappear behind the treetops, there was a mighty blue flash,” says Rosén.
Blues flashes are formed in the same way as green flashes: a mirage magnifies tiny differences in the atmospheric refraction of red, green and blue light. Blue flashes are generally harder to see than green flashes, because blue flashes blend into the surrounding blue sky. When the air is exceptionally clear, however, the blue flash emerges.
Verne described the green flash as something “which no artist could ever obtain on his palette, a green of which neither the varied tints of vegetation nor the shades of the most limpid sea could ever produce the like! If there is a green in Paradise, it cannot be but of this shade, which most surely is the true green of Hope.”
Ditto the blue.
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| CREDIT: Dreamstime |
Marketers trying to keep their finger on the pulse of American consumers’ shopping preferences may want to take notice of a new survey that suggests Americans are becoming more concerned with substance than they are with appearances.
That’s the finding of a new survey from mini car makersmart USA and Harris Interactive which found that the majority of Americans surveyed preferred smarts and substance over good looks or flashy material possessions.
The survey, which was conducted online in December and included more than 2,000 American adults, found that 88 percent – both young and old, male and female – would prefer to date a person who is intelligent and philanthropic over someone who is simply attractive.
The survey also found the following:
Survey respondents also indicated that their days of over consumption may be numbered.
“The fact that a majority of Americans are deeply concerned with right-sizing their lifestyles and making intelligent choices shows why smart has so much curb appeal today,” says smart USA General Manager Tracey Matura. “People are rethinking whether bigger is actually better and focusing instead on value. They’re looking at how they can cut down the clutter in their lives, whether in their choice of vehicle, home or other purchases, so they have fewer, better things rather than simply more, more, more. And smart is proof that good things do come in small packages.”
http://www.livescience.com/18699-americans-consumption-shifting.html
