Connecticut Approves Labeling Genetically Modified Foods, Conditions Delay Implementation
June 5th, 2013Via: New York Times:
Connecticut on Monday became the first state to pass a bill that would require food manufacturers to label products that contain genetically modified ingredients — but only after other conditions are met.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has said he would sign the bill into law, after reaching an agreement with the legislature to include a provision that the law would not take effect unless four other states, at least one of which shares a border with Connecticut, passed similar regulations.
The Connecticut bill also hinges on those states including Northeastern states with a total population of at least 20 million.
“This bill strikes an important balance by ensuring the consumers’ right to know what is in their food while shielding our small businesses from liability that could leave them at a competitive disadvantage,” Mr. Malloy said in a statement issued over the weekend after negotiations on the necessary provisions.
The legislature passed the bill on Monday, 134 to 3.
More than 20 other states are considering labeling laws, including New York, Maine and Vermont. Early polling suggests widespread support for a ballot initiative that would require labeling in Washington, as concern spread about the impact of genetically engineered salmon and apples on two of the state’s marquee businesses.
High-School Teen Builds One-Man Submarine for $2,000
June 5th, 2013That roll of duct tape on the third gallery image… Thumbs up to that, brother.
Via: CNN:
The submarine’s body may be constructed from drainage pipes and the hatch from a recycled skylight, but according to its 18-year-old inventor, this single-person U-boat can plunge to a depth of 30 feet and has already completed three successful dives.
The Nautilus took high school inventor Justin Beckerman just six months and $2,000 to put together — all while keeping on top of his homework.
“He has been building things since he was two years old,” says his mother, Jess Beckerman. “If we tried to help him we would just get in the way and mess things up.”
The submarine has ballast tanks to maintain its depth and equilibrium; air vents that bring oxygen down from the surface; a functioning PA and a range of emergency systems including back-up batteries, a siren, strobe lights, a breathing apparatus and a pump to fight leaks. The vessel can remain submerged for up to two hours and travels beneath the waves at one and a half miles per hour.
Beckerman says he is going to use it to “explore the lake, see fish and hopefully find a bit of history, like the cannons from my neighbors’ historic house” that, he says, were dumped in the lake during renovations in the 1960s.
France Claims Sarin Gas Used Several Times in Syria
June 4th, 2013Via: CNN:
Sarin gas has been used in Syria several times, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday, citing results from test samples in France’s possession.
Fabius announced that conclusion after meeting Tuesday with the head of a U.N. mission set up to establish the facts about alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.
“I gave him the results of tests carried out by our lab appointed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to identify chemical warfare,” Fabius said in a statement, referring to the Swedish scientist, Prof. Ake Sellstrom.
“These results show the presence of sarin in the samples that are in our possession,” Fabius said. “In view of these elements, France now has the certainty that the sarin gas was used in Syria several times and in a localized manner.”
The announcement did not say when, where or by whom it may have been used in Syria, where rebels have been fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war.
Afghanistan: Pentagon Has No Idea What 108,000 Contractors Are Doing
June 4th, 2013Via: The Fiscal Times:
The number of contractors working in Afghanistan now vastly outnumbers American troops stationed there, according to a Congressional Research Service report. CRS, along with the Government Accountability Office, also determined that the Pentagon is unable to properly document the work these contractors are doing. And the information DOD is receiving is often unreliable and inaccurate.
According to CRS, there are now 108,000 private workers in Afghanistan, a workforce that dwarfs the 65,700 American troops still stationed there. That means there are 1.6 contractors for every American soldier in Afghanistan. This is an increase from last month, when The Fiscal Times reported that there were 1.4 contractors per American soldier.
Given the size of the private forces, it’s not surprising that CRS found that in recent years, the Defense Department spent more than any other agency to support contractor work.
Disney’s Electronic Wristband Illustrates Why Big Companies Push Contactless Wallets
June 4th, 2013Via: MIT Technology Review:
Disney just announced an electronic wristband for visitors to its theme parks that neatly illustrates why companies like Google and cellphone networks are pushing the idea of using contactless technology in phones for payments, tickets, boarding passes and more. The short answer? They want data.
Disney’s MagicBand, an ID tag that uses Bluetooth and contactless NFC technology, is being introduced at Walt Disney World in Florida. It replaces a person’s ticket and can be used to tag into rides and other attractions at the park. It can also be used to open a guest’s hotel door, and to pay in stores at the resort. In the future, the Bluetooth link will make it possible for you to wander up to an attraction or Disney character and be greeted using your first name.
To sum up, a person opting to use a MagicBand could find their stay much more convenient, and perhaps even leave their wallet back at their hotel. It’s a very similar pitch to that made by companies including Google, and the consortium of major cellphone networks, Isis, for contactless “wallets” based on near field communication chips (NFC) built into phones.
However, Disney’s MagicBand program has significant benefits to the company, too. The MagicBand collects valuable data each time it is tagged or used to buy something, providing a new perspective on what Disney’s customers are doing at the resort. It becomes possible to do things like look for relationships between the attractions and rides a person visits, or the characters they meet, and what they spend money on in the gift shop. Disney could look for signs of the social dynamics of groups of people that arrive at the park together.
…
Some people will be wary of such data collection, many more probably won’t care.
Crowdfunded Stenographer Denied Press Pass To Cover Transcriptless Bradley Manning Trial
June 4th, 2013Via: Techdirt:
A large group of established news organizations — including the LA Times, NPR, the New Yorker, Fox News, Newsweek, Bloomberg and NY Magazine — have all asked the military to open up two additional press passes for stenographers (two so that they can overlap while switching shifts). The judge in the case, on Monday, announced that it would be okay for a stenographer to record a transcript using a stenography machine, which is great… except that without a press pass, they still can’t get the stenographer in. Thankfully, for Monday, a Bradley Manning supporter with a pass gave it up to the stenographer, but it’s somewhat ridiculous that it had to even come to that.
At this point, it really just seems like the Army is being incredibly petty over this case in its desire to limit the details of coverage.
Japan and South Korea Bar Imports of U.S. Wheat
June 4th, 2013Via: New York Times:
Japan and South Korea suspended some imports of American wheat, and the European Union urged its 27 nations to increase testing, after the United States government disclosed this week that a strain of genetically engineered wheat that was never approved for sale was found growing in an Oregon field.
Although none of the wheat, developed by Monsanto Company, was found in any grain shipments — and the Department of Agriculture said there would be no health risk if any was shipped — governments in Asia and Europe acted quickly to limit their risk.
Acid Jobs
June 4th, 2013Via: Reuters:
“All this anti-fracking language misses the target and I am very concerned it is a diversion,” said Steve Shimek, of environmental group Monterey Coastkeeper.
The Monterey shale holds an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil, more than most estimates for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and twice the reserves of North Dakota’s Bakken shale oil deposit, which has transformed that state and moved the country a bit closer to energy independence.
California’s focus on fracking, which uses water and chemicals to shatter rock formations and release oil or gas, threatens to divert attention from what some environmentalists are starting to see as the real threat: acid jobs.
It is an old well completion method that involves pumping chemicals such as hydrofluoric acid into wells to melt rocks and other impediments to oil flow, and companies are not required to report when they do it.
“These are super-hazardous, poisonous chemicals and we have no idea what they are doing out there with it – how deep it is going, the volumes – nothing,” said Bill Allayaud of the Environmental Working Group. “Why shouldn’t our state agency be regulating it as we hope they’ll be regulating hydraulic fracturing?”
Occidental Petroleum Corp, which is leading the way on Monterey development, said in 2011 it was mainly using acid jobs to get at the shale, and Occidental said this month that only a sixth of its California wells were fracked.
Russian Official: FBI Missed Boston Warning
June 4th, 2013Via: AP:
A senior Russian official said Tuesday that the Boston Marathon bombings could have been prevented if American officials had followed through with Russian intelligence.
Officials previously hewed to President Vladimir Putin’s statement that Russia had no information that could have prevented the attacks.
“The Russian side warned the American side about the Tsarnaev brothers, but this information was not taken seriously by the American side, which is what led to that tragedy,” Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of Russia’s senate, said Tuesday, referring to suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Interfax news agency reported.
Matvienko made the remarks after a meeting with Britain’s ambassador to Russia.
Two-Thirds of Uninsured Americans Don’t Know If They Will Buy Insurance Under Obamacare
June 4th, 2013Via: CNBC:
There’s no assurance folks will be buying insurance under Obamacare, and that could spell trouble for the Affordable Care Act.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans who currently lack health insurance don’t know yet if they will purchase that coverage by the Jan. 1 deadline set by the ACA, a new survey revealed Monday.
