Well, well, surprise! Surprise! NOT!!!

When will mankind learn that nothing exists in isolation! When will mankind learn, that there is no such thing as ‘we will only change this bit; it won’t affect anything else’. When will mankind learn from history? When will mankind learn that nature got it right, long before mankind took its first steps! When will mankind learn that in its quest for the dollar that it is destroying itself!
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Pesticide Use Increases as GMO Technology Backfires

Posted by Mary West

The GMO nightmare continues to unfurl, as the crop technology designed to reduce the need forpesticides has backfired. Farmers’ heavy adoption of these modified crops has sparked an increase in “superweeds” and hard-to-kill insects, creating the need to use more toxic herbicides.

Proponents of GMOs have alleged that these crops are a vital tool for weaning farmers off of toxic pesticides, but this claim has been resoundingly refuted by a recent study published in Environmental Science Europe. Chuck Benbrook, a researcher for Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, found that GMO use has led to a “monsoon in herbicides.” Not only have these crops necessitated the need for higher applications of Roundup, Monsanto’s herbicide, but the problem has also forced farmers to use older herbicides that have more harmful effects, says Benbrook.

Statistics demolish Monsanto’s claim that GMOs reduce the need for herbicides.

The magnitude of the increase in pesticide use is illustrated by the statistics of the study. In the period between 1996, when the use of Roundup-ready crops began, and 2011, herbicide use increased by 527 million pounds, equating to 11 percent.

During the first few years of the use of Roudup-ready crops, these GMOs actually fulfilled Monsanto’s promise of reducing the need for herbicides: they reduced the use of these chemicals by 2 percent between 1996 and 1999. This advantage, however, was short-lived. After this period, weeds started developing resistance to Roundup, which led to farmers’ increasing their application of this herbicide by 21 percent, evidenced by a 19 million spike in its use, Benbrook tells The Guardian. The stepped up use of Roundup eliminated the weak weeds, which gave the resistant weeds, or “superweeds,” the opportunity to proliferate and take over.

Statistics revealing a 24 percent increase in pesticide use between 2009 through 2010 show the problem is only getting worse. Benbrook relates to The Guardian that by this time the problem of resistant weeds had fully kicked in, resulting in the use of greater volumes of Roundup as well as more toxic herbicides such as 2,4-D, a component of the infamous Agent Orange.

What about Bt seeds, the other main biotech product?

Resistance problems leading to pesticide increases are not limited to Roundup-ready crops but also include the other primary biotech product – Bt seeds. These seeds have been engineered to contain a gene present in Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that is toxic to insects. This product’s purported benefit is that it will take care of the insect problem, but has it worked?

Although it initially reduced the need for insecticides, the resistance problem developed by Roundup-ready crops has now begun to manifest in these crops as well. Just as weeds acquired resistance to Roundup, so also rootworm, the biggest pest of corn, is showing signs of resistance to the Bt technology. In areas of the Midwest where these crops have been popular, agricultural experts are advising farmers to spray other insecticides because the Bt trait is failing.

Greater use of chemicals translates into more health hazards.

The harmful effects of pesticides, including Roundup, are not confined to weeds and inserts. Studies show they increase health risks in people and animals exposed to them through food and water. Experts say the use of more chemicals leads to more health hazards. Benbrook aptly characterizes the GMO problem as a “slowly unfolding train wreck.”

Sources:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/02/usa-study-pesticides-idUSL1E8L202I20121002

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/pesticides-gmo-monsanto-roundup-resistance_n_1936598.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/03/gmo-herbicides

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Mary West is a natural health enthusiast, as she believes this area can profoundly enhance wellness. She is the creator of a natural healing website where she focuses on solutions to health problems that work without side effects. You can visit her site and learn more athttp://www.alternativemedicinetruth.com. Ms. West is also the author of Fight Cancer Through Powerful Natural Strategies.

Never seen before whale, found on New Zealand beach!

WORLD’S RAREST WHALE SPOTTED FOR FIRST TIME

Yahoo!7   November 6, 2012, 1:41 pm

Enlarge photo

The world’s rarest whale has been spotted for the first-ever time after washing up on a New Zealand beach.

A mother and her calf were washed up on a New Zealand beach and were initially thought to be Gray’s beaked whales, reports the Daily Telegraph.

However, after a routine DNA analysis, scientists have in fact determined they are Spade-toothed whales, which have never been seen before.

Spade-toothed whales were first discovered in 1872 via bone fragments – and although two partial skulls have since been found they had remained entirely hidden from human view.

The mother and calf were stranded on Opape Beach in December 2010 but a report describing the whales and analysis of their DNA has only just appeared in the November journal of Current Biology.

Dr Rochelle Constantine of the University of Auckland said: “This is the first time this species — a whale over five meters in length — has ever been seen as a complete specimen, and we were lucky enough to find two of them.

“Up until now, all we have known about the spade-toothed beaked whale was from three partial skulls collected from New Zealand and Chile over a 140-year period. It is remarkable that we know almost nothing about such a large mammal.”

Dr Constantine added: “It may be that they are simply an offshore species that lives and dies in the deep ocean waters and only rarely wash ashore. New Zealand is surrounded by massive oceans. There is a lot of marine life that remains unknown to us.”

The spade-toothed whale, which was stranded and died on a beach in December 2010. Photo: New Zealand Department of Conservation

We don’t need this shit here!

In olden day’s what this fuckhead is promoting would have been classed as treason, and would have been sentenced to death! Is this just another example of an impotent creature from the primordial soup trying to overcome deficiencies that would otherwise, made him a man!

Funnily enough, this is exactly what these primitive peoples do in their own countries!!!

And the whole world turns a blind eye to this! But let it happen in a western society, and all the fucking civil rights wankers get all het up and in arms! And allow these misfits to multiply and spread their unacceptable notions and ideas! And for all I know, I would not be surprised if most of these fucking dickhead civil rights workers were muslin’s (sic) anyway! 

What The Fuck is he doing back here??? 

Ours is no longer a Christian Society, so the concept of turning the other cheek, no longer applies,…, So when you fond someone inciting violence and jihad, in our society, it is time to get rid of this primitive escapee from the primordial soup!

I have always, in the past, been respectful of all other cultures irrespective of whether I agreed with their customs, or not, including those folks who were Muslims.

But I cannot any longer, accept, the actions of these muslim’s that seek to undermine the structures of our own christian societies. And unless the good Muslim peoples within our society start to eradicate the bad elements, the Muslim community will, in my eyes, be condoning the activities of these radicals, and therefore, by association, be linked together with them. 
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Radical Springvale imam returns to preach jihad

Date  November 4, 2012

Nino Bucci

Harun Mehicevic. Photo: Wayne Taylor

THE leader of an Islamic group at the centre of anti-terror raids has returned from overseas to resume his hardline preaching in Melbourne.

Harun Mehicevic, also known as Abu Talha, returned from Bosnia late last month and is again extolling the virtues of jihad at the Al-Furqan Islamic Information Centre in Springvale South.

The Australian Federal Police raided the centre and Mr Mehicevic’s home in September during an operation that focused on 12 properties, most of them in Melbourne’s south-east. Mr Mehicevic was in Bosnia at the time.

As a result of the raids, Adnan Karabegovic, 23, was charged with four counts of collecting documents in connection with the preparation of a terrorist act. The maximum penalty for the offence is 15 years’ jail.

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The raids led to the seizure of items including a computer memory stick containing ”violent extremist materials”, as well as imitation firearms and registered guns.

Speaking from the driveway of a flat in Springvale South, Mr Mehicevic said he had been silent since the raids because he felt nothing could be gained from speaking while the Al-Furqan centre was being criticised.

”With all the hype of raids and everything, you get no benefit of talking,” he said. ”You wait for everything to settle down.”

Mr Mehicevic said he was angry that he had been described as the leader of a religious cult, but would wait until after the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha, which was held on the last weekend in October, before deciding whether to discuss the raids in detail. He wrote in an email that the centre had ”decided to keep identical line related to media. Without engagement at all.”

Mr Mehicevic is a controversial figure within the Muslim community. The imam of the nearby Bosnian mosque in Noble Park, Ibrahim Omerdic, said Mehicevic had led a group of ”radical followers” away from the Noble Park mosque about 10 years ago.

Another community source who also spoke of Mr Mehicevic soon after the raids said he was not well respected in Melbourne’s Islamic community.

Mr Mehicevic said reports about his past and a protest outside the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne had made him wary of the media. He said some aspects of his history had been reported accurately, but he would not elaborate. Fairfax reported after the raids that sources said he had come to Australia from Bosnia as a young adult in the mid-1990s, and that he had a Pakistani-born wife and six children. Mr Mehicevic studied arts at Deakin University and possibly gained a diploma in teaching.

He turned to a conservative form of Islam known as Salafism, became a follower of hardline Melbourne cleric Sheikh Mohammed Omran, and associated with Abdul Nacer Benbrika, who is serving 15-years’ jail for planning a terrorist attack in Melbourne in 2005. When Benbrika split from Omran, Mr Mehicevic remained loyal to the senior cleric.

He said any interview to be conducted after Eid al-Adha would need to be conducted on his terms. ”Whatever we say to you is to be recorded and made to fit what we have said.”

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/radical-springvale-imam-returns-to-preach-jihad-20121103-28rac.html#ixzz2BGhzE0Nf

Oh Mazda! For Victorian driver’s…

Zoom doom! Bestseller Mazda fails driving test

Date  November 4, 2012

David McCowen

Guidelines surrounding speedometers have stopped people from using the best-selling car to try for their licence.

AUSTRALIA’S best-selling car cannot be used in the VicRoads licence test – despite being approved for use in other states.

It’s the latest blow for novice drivers who are already forced to apply for a special exemption to drive the many modern low-power, fuel-efficient, turbocharged cars.

New drivers must tackle some of the strictest rules in the country before they are allowed on the road, as VicRoads guidelines surrounding speedometers have stopped people from using the best-selling Mazda3 to try for their licence.

Mazda owner Owen Shemansky was told this year that his wife could not use their car to take her driving test as its speedometer was not visible from the passenger seat.

”We bought the Mazda before she was even going for her learner’s licence. We were thinking she would take the car and use it when the time comes,” Mr Shemansky said. ”They knocked us back on the day [of the test] … they turned us away on the spot.”

Mr Shemansky said he was frustrated. ”Buying a brand-new car in Victoria, you’d think a consumer could have a reasonable expectation that it could be used in Victoria for a driver’s test.”

Shrouds around the Mazda3 dashboard limit the view of its speedometer from the passenger seat. A VicRoads spokeswoman said some cars were not suitable for driving exams because the entire speedometer ”must be easily visible to the testing officer from the front and rear passenger seat”. She said a supplementary speedo could be fitted to test cars, but that GPS speed readouts were not allowed and would not be considered in the future ”unless they can be proven to be as accurate as speedometers”.

Provisionary drivers already cannot take the wheel of turbocharged cars such as Volkswagen’s base-model 1.2-litre Golf without applying for special exemption, but can drive Toyota’s 3.5-litre Aurion with double the power.

David Stannus, owner of Australian Design Rules consultancy firm Protech Developments, said VicRoads was out of touch with technology and that GPS units provided a more accurate measurement of speed. He said most dashboard speedometers had a 4 per cent error margin.”GPS will give you an accuracy of 0.5 per cent,” he said.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/zoom-doom-bestseller-mazda-fails-driving-test-20121103-28r5a.html#ixzz2BAnzWNH3

This eBook rights stuff must be stopped!

If one buys a hardcopy of a book, one is permitted to do with it what one wants. To read it, to give it away, to bequeath it, to do with it, absolutely anything one wants.

These same rights must be applied to digital versions! Especially when many digital versions cost the same or nearly the same as the printed copies!

I will no longer buy online books from organisations who can delete my access to them, at their whim!

Although I appreciate the convenience of digital reading, I will not be held to ransom by organisations that take my money, and can retake their goods at any time!
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An ebook enigma: here one day, gone the next

Date  November 3, 2012

Linda Morris

Ebooks don’t grant ‘tangible’ ownership, as with any hard-copy book. Photo: Reuters

BUYERS of ebooks may have no greater legal rights than ”tenant farmers” it has emerged following the case of a Kindle user whose digital library was wiped by Amazon.

The fine print in online agreements inserted at the behest of publishers to protect authors’ copyright, licences readers to the digital files but does not grant ”tangible” ownership, as with any hard-copy book.

These conditional ebook licences are policed and can be revoked at the discretion of the ebook retailer, as a Norwegian Kindle customer discovered when in October they allegedly violated Amazon’s terms and conditions and had their digital library deleted, then reinstated.

Additionally readers are physically prevented from transferring content to friends and immediate family, or between devices, by encryption software called Digital Rights Management, devised to protect a creator’s copyright from piracy and prevent buyers from on-selling the digital file for profit.

The case of ”repossession” has been seized on by the copyright activist and Canadian science writer Cory Doctorow, who sells DRM free copies of his own books to argue for unshackled ownership of ebooks.

On his blog spot Boing Boing, Doctorow said digital licensing deals circumvented the right for books to be transferred, sold or bequeathed to another person, rendering the reader a mere ”tenant farmer”.

Readers’ limited rights are one of the major pitfalls with ebooks as sold by some retailers, according to Jon Page, president of the Australian Booksellers Association.

”This is not the first time Amazon has done something like this. They famously removed George Orwell’s 1984, yes, the irony, from everybody’s Kindles after they discovered they didn’t have the rights to sell the ebook. People woke up one morning and it was gone from their library. This is very easy for the likes of Amazon, Apple and Google to do because they force their customers to store ebook purchases in their walled garden or cloud through their devices and apps.”

Retailers like Kobo and ReadCloud make it easier for their customers to download ebook files to their home computer so the customer can keep a copy of the digital file on their own closed system, Page said.

”But it does highlight the fact that ebooks are software and that you are purchasing a licence to read … a licence that can be revoked”.

Anne Fitzgerald, professor of law at Queensland’s University of Technology, says the prevailing view that digital products should be licensed rather than sold was under challenge in many legal jurisdictions. The actor Bruce Willis had begun proceedings in the US claiming he should be able to leave his digital music collection to his children.

”The inability to legally on-sell or on-distribute digital products may be something which consumers consider in determining whether to purchase a hard copy or a digital product – this will apply to books, but also to products such as CDs.”

The fantasy, science fiction and horror publisher Tor books, and the Australian digital only imprint Momentum have asked retailers to drop restrictions on readers from transferring their ebooks between devices.

Ultimately, however, the convenience of digital reading outweighed most people’s concerns, Momentum’s publisher Joel Naoum said.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/an-ebook-enigma-here-one-day-gone-the-next-20121102-28ppb.html#ixzz2B4Zl8DMi