Stop, you are killing me!
Tuesday, July 17, 2001Ok, so now that everyone knows that smoking can kill you (suprise suprise) what approach can an enterprising tobacco company take to make it's product more palatable? When all else fails I guess the last appeal is to the bottom line. In a move which only an insane entity that cares not one whit for life itself could propose - Tobacco Giant Phillip Morris has drawn up a report for the Czech Republic government claiming that death is an economic benefit. How so you ask? well, it seems that people who die young don't use up the governments money for pensions and elderly housing and medical benefits. Which does make sense - a dead citizen sure puts a lot less strain on the goverment's ability to provide services. Hey, maybe governments should just try killing _all_ their citizens to really keep costs down.
Tuesday, March 20, 2001A few days ago explosions rocked the world's largest offshore oil rig killing 10 people and today it sinks in a few minutes with no explanation? Guess it's not that noteworthy.
Wednesday, January 17, 2001Hope for a fossil-fuel-free future? Solar power may finally become affordable and practical if new cells being developed by NASA work as well as expected.
Wednesday, January 10, 2001Recent stories in the news about high incidences of rare diseases suffered by soldiers has received a lot of dismissive press in recent years, with the large media outlets often just reporting that someone is complaining and then repeating verbatim one or another government's claims that there is no evidence to link any of the diseases to any condition related to the soldiers tours of duty. For seem it would seem that not only is the absence of verifiable evidence of a link proof that no link exists (The "I can't see oxygen therefore it doesn't exist" school of scientific thought), but for some it seems that the absence of proof negates the very real and growing circumstantial evidence that soldiers who served in certain places/times appear to have much higher rates of certain diseases. At various times, "The Gulf-War Syndrome" has been all but ridiculed by the goverment, but the latest soldier-sickness patterns are showing up in Italian and British soldiers who served in Eastern Europe and are being linked by some to exposure to unsafe levels of depleted uranium which exists in tank piercing shells used extensively by US/Nato troops in areas the affected soldiers served. While the linkage is being denied by the US, European allies are calling for investigations. What isn't often mentioned in news stories is that the question of whether Uranium exposure could be causing some of these rare diseases to occur at such a high rate in veterans was identified as far back as 1996 as a possible cause. Until Britain's suprising reversal yesterday by announcing they were going to conduct voluntary screening tests, they were standing firm with the US in claiming that there was no linkage between exposure to depleted uranium and British soldiers' illnesses despite a comment from the British Ministry of Defence in September 2000 which stated that they were "aware of independent tests which showed that veterans are excreting unusually high levels of uranium in their urine".
Saturday, November 25, 2000The World Health Organization(Who?) predicts there will be 3 million AIDS deaths during this calendar year of 2000. That's more deaths than during any single year of the Holocaust, 10 times more than the combined American AND Vietnam casualties for the entire Vietnam War, etc.
Friday, November 03, 2000How many products did you hear about that were tainted by the not-approved-for-human consumption genetically engineered starlink corn? Two or three? Five? Ten? How about 300! The FDA recalled all Starlink tainted foods and reported that the recall covered nearly 300 varieties of tacos, tortillas, tostadas, and chips.
Thursday, August 03, 2000As if having a terminal disease weren't stressful enough, a new study says that stress speeds up the progression of AIDS. [story]
More cross-species disease transmission. What to be wary of? British scientists that said that there is a "theoretical risk" that Mad Cow disease could be transmitted from human to human. One of the most likely transmission avenues? Dental Surgery. [story]
Despite assurances from cell phone manufacturers that cell phones are perfectly safe, the US Food and Drug Administration is now teaming up with outside experts to assess any health risks caused by using cell phones. [story]
Saturday, July 29, 2000More wildfires threaten additional Nuclear labs and sites run by the U.S. Government. Although the labs claim there is no risk, tests of the air quality show "an increased -- but not harmful -- concentration of plutonium in public areas outside the Hanford reservation." Fortunately the government has a sterling reputation for revealing risks to human safety, so we have nothing to fear. I wonder just how much exposure to plutonium is considered "safe"? [story]
Monday, July 24, 2000Refusing to admit that nature has cycles we can't control, firefighters once again try to save national parks from raging wildfires. The still growing Mesa Verde wildfire nearly tripled in size in 24 hours, burning more than 17,000 acres by Monday morning. Other current wildfires include a 5,500-acre blaze in a canyon in Death Valley National Park, a 7,300 acre fire near Oroville, WA and three smaller fires in NW Colorado which have burned more than 3,500 acres. Total so far? 56,000 fires have destroyed 2.8 million acres. [story]
Thursday, July 20, 2000Have you heard Campbell's has a new soup? It's their Genetically Altered Soup, and green groups are finding it less then good. Seems Campbell's uses gene-spliced ingredients in it's soups, breads, juices and other products. Campbell's products also include Pepperidge Farm breads and cookies, Prego pasta sauce, V8 juice, and Godiva chocolates. Due in part to European resistance to genetically-modified crops, American farmers did reduce the amount of genetically modified crops they planted this year, but more than half of U.S. soybeans and one-fourth of corn will still be grown with bioengineered varieties.[story
Aren't sure if the so-called "functional foods" (foods with herbal additives) that claim to boost memory power, strengthen the immune system, improve energy levels, or reduce stress are nothing more than modern day "snake oil" or are really helpful dietary supplements? Try some now before the government steps in to regulate them away. Reasons given for eliminating or regulating the additives include claims that the foods haven't been proven safe for use in food - never mind that many of these ingredients have been used for hundreds or thousands of years in other cultures, and that a FEW "herbal preperations" are known to "interfere with the absorption of some drugs such as the protease inhibitors, used to treat HIV, and birth control pills". Why if there is a danger to having these ingredients in food does the FDA allow the very same materials to be sold over the counter as dietary supplements suitable for ingestion?[story]
Global warming is leading to all kinds of changes in the world, including the introduction of tropical diseases into regions that were once inhospitable to them. Despite a cold winter and a serious effort to wipe out mosquito breeding grounds, the New York City Health Commissioner isn't all that suprised to find that the sometimes fatal West Nile Virus has been found in NY mosquitos. Quote: "it's not terribly surprising that we've got these findings of WNV". [story]
Another "Don't go in the water" report, this time from Brazil, where the largest oil spill in decades (4 million liters / 1.06million gallons) has travelled at least 24 miles downstream from the refinery it spilled from. This is the state-owned oil company's second major spill in less then 6 months.[story
Is there any danger from radioactive or other toxins washing offsite and into neighboring properties when rains hit the fire-denuded Los Alamos research property? Well, if you believe our government, no. Los Alamos Lab's Emergency Rehabilitation Team says "Our belief it that even if the contaminants don't stay on site, it won't have an impact on anyone because the concentrations are so low." and "All risk assessments indicate no significant impact to people and animals." Paul Ritzman, deputy secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department reassures us even more by saying "We're not terribly concerned about radioactive and hazardous contaminants from the lab getting off lab property" They further state that their PRIMARY concern is that ash will get into the river and deplete the oxygen and cause fish-kills. Of course one has to wonder why if the only concern is for fish, the government has to date had Airplanes spread 750,000 pounds of grass seed and hydromulch over 21,000 acres of land at the lab, had workers rake the burned soil to increase water absorption, and removed "contaminated soil" from sites "identified as threats". Also the US Army Corp of Engineers is assisting crews building weirs and rock walls "to prevent runoff from flowing into sites containing radioactive or chemical contaminants". This article states that LANL work crews have completed erosion-control efforts at 88 of 91 known contamination sites affected by the fire. Recomendation? Don't drink the water this summer if you live in Pajarito, Pueblo or Los Alamos canyons.
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