Monsanto GM Corn MON810 Damaged the Intestines of Rats
January 4th, 2017Via: GM Watch:
Rats fed GM Bt corn MON810 for only 90 days suffered serious damage to the surface mucous membranes of the jejunum (part of the small intestine), according to a new study.[1]
The type of corn fed to the rats was MON810: Ajeeb YG, a GM version of Ajeeb, a locally adapted variety of corn grown in Egypt. MON810: Ajeeb YG was developed by Monsanto for the Egyptian market. The GM-fed rats ate a diet containing 30% of MON810: Ajeeb YG corn. Control rats were fed the same amount of non-GM corn.
In the GM-fed rats, some areas of the villi – finger-like structures in the intestine that absorb nutrients from food – were damaged. They were distorted and flattened, with some cells joined together. The damage can clearly be seen in the images included in the study. The crypts (mucosal glands) were disrupted and blood vessels were congested. Signs of inflammation – white blood cell infiltration – were seen around areas of damage. In addition, the cells of the intestinal lining were abnormal in structure.
Other signs of damage included increased shedding of mucosal cells, increased numbers of mucous-secreting goblet cells, and higher rates of division of cells lining the crypts.
The study, conducted by Marwa Ibrahim, MD and Ebtsam Okasha of the Faculty of Medicine at Tanta University, Egypt, was published in the journal Experimental and Toxicologic Pathology (abstract below).
The researchers concluded that “consumption of GM-corn profoundly alters the jejunal histological [microscopic] structure”. They added, “Results from the current study could show that in spite of the assuring reports on GM products, GM corn has profoundly altered the histological structure of the jejunal mucosa at many levels and revealed several alarming signs, as the proliferative and eroded hemorrhagic lesions in addition to several ultrastructural alterations described here for the first time for jejunum under GM corn influence.”
Mining 24 Hours a Day with Robots
January 4th, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review:
Mining companies are rolling out autonomous trucks, drills, and trains, which will boost efficiency but also reduce the need for human employees.
Each of these trucks is the size of a small two-story house. None has a driver or anyone else on board.
Mining company Rio Tinto has 73 of these titans hauling iron ore 24 hours a day at four mines in Australia’s Mars-red northwest corner. At this one, known as West Angelas, the vehicles work alongside robotic rock drilling rigs. The company is also upgrading the locomotives that haul ore hundreds of miles to port—the upgrades will allow the trains to drive themselves, and be loaded and unloaded automatically.
Rio Tinto intends its automated operations in Australia to preview a more efficient future for all of its mines—one that will also reduce the need for human miners. The rising capabilities and falling costs of robotics technology are allowing mining and oil companies to reimagine the dirty, dangerous business of getting resources out of the ground.
Rethinking The Cost of War
January 4th, 2017Via: ProPublica:
There are many ways to measure the cost of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War: In bombs (7 million tons), in dollars ($760 billion in today’s dollars) and in bodies (58,220).
Then there’s the price of caring for those who survived: Each year, the Department of Veterans Affairs spends more than $23 billion compensating Vietnam-era veterans for disabilities linked to their military service — a repayment of a debt that’s supported by most Americans.
But what if the casualties don’t end there?
The question has been at the heart of reporting by The Virginian-Pilot and ProPublica over the past 18 months as we’ve sought to reexamine the lingering consequences of Agent Orange, the toxic herbicide sprayed by the millions of gallons over Vietnam.
We’ve written about ailing Navy veterans fighting to prove they were exposed to the chemicals off Vietnam’s coast. About widows left to battle the VA for benefits after their husbands died of brain cancer. About scores of children who struggle with strange, debilitating health problems and wonder if the herbicide that sickened their fathers has also affected them.
Along the way, we noticed some themes: For decades, the federal government has resisted addressing these issues, which could ultimately cost billions of dollars in new disability claims. When science does suggest a connection, the VA has hesitated to take action, instead weighing political and financial costs. And in some cases, officials have turned to a known skeptic of Agent Orange’s deadly effects to guide the VA’s decisions.
Frustrated vets summarize the VA’s position this way: “Delay, deny, wait till I die.”
This month, after repeated recommendations by federal scientific advisory panels, Congress passed a bill directing the VA to pursue research into toxic exposures and their potential effects across generations. But even that will take years to produce results, years some ailing vets don’t have.
The questions we’ve posed have no easy answers. But science — and our own analysis of internal VA data — increasingly points to the possibility that Agent Orange exposure might have led to health problems in the children of veterans. And we can’t help but think of the words displayed at the entrance to the VA headquarters in Washington: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.”
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What about the thousands of other children of Vietnam veterans who shared their stories with us over the past year? What about the children of Gulf War veterans exposed to depleted uranium? The children of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans exposed to toxic burn pits? The children of future service members exposed to yet unknown toxins on the modern battlefield?
IBM Watson Replaces Insurance Claim Workers at Japanese Insurance Company
January 4th, 2017Via: Quartz:
Most of the attention around automation focuses on how factory robots and self-driving cars may fundamentally change our workforce, potentially eliminating millions of jobs. But AI that can handle knowledge-based, white-collar work are also becoming increasingly competent.
One Japanese insurance company, Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance, is reportedly replacing 34 human insurance claim workers with “IBM Watson Explorer,” starting by January 2017.
The AI will scan hospital records and other documents to determine insurance payouts, according to a company press release, factoring injuries, patient medical histories, and procedures administered. Automation of these research and data gathering tasks will help the remaining human workers process the final payout faster, the release says.
Fukoku Mutual will spend $1.7 million (200 million yen) to install the AI system, and $128,000 per year for maintenance, according to Japan’s The Mainichi. The company saves roughly $1.1 million per year on employee salaries by using the IBM software, meaning it hopes to see a return on the investment in less than two years.
Ford Announces $4.5 Billion Investment in Electric Vehicles
January 4th, 2017Via: Ars Technica:
Today at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant, Ford Motor Company CEO Mark Fields unveiled a large-scale electric vehicle initiative that will run through the company’s next five years. Ford plans to invest $4.5 billion in electric vehicle production by 2020, and the company said it will produce 13 new electric vehicles, including a Mustang, an F-150, police cars, and a Transit Custom van. Additionally, Fields revealed that Ford would be canceling a previously announced $1.6 billion-production facility in Mexico. Instead, the company wants to invest $700 million in the existing Flat Rock facility, generating 700 new jobs focused on EV and autonomous initiatives at that location, according to Ford.
“Electrified vehicles have driven millions of miles and saved consumers millions on costs in fuels,” Fields said. “Now, imagine electrifying a pick-up truck for more productivity—or a commercial van, a police car. That’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Nestlé Admits Slavery in Its Supply Chains
January 4th, 2017This is from nearly a year ago… For your already hemorrhaging Nestlé file folder.
Via: Guardian:
It’s hard to think of an issue that you would less like your company to be associated with than modern slavery. Yet last November Nestlé, the world’s largest foodmaker and one of the most recognisable household brands, went public with the news it had found forced labour in its supply chains in Thailand and that its customers were buying products tainted with the blood and sweat of poor, unpaid and abused migrant workers.
By independently disclosing that Nestlé customers had unwittingly bought products contaminated by the very worst labour abuses, the company said it was moving into a new era of self-policing of its own supply chains. A year-long investigation by the company confirmed media reports that the seafood industry in Thailand is riddled with forced labour and human trafficking and that slave labour was involved in the production of its Fancy Feast catfood brand.
Engineering Efforts Increasing with Quantum Computers
January 4th, 2017Via: Nature:
“People are really building things,” says Christopher Monroe, a physicist at the University of Maryland in College Park who co-founded the start-up IonQ in 2015. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s no longer just research.”
Google started working on a form of quantum computing that harnesses superconductivity in 2014. It hopes this year, or shortly after, to perform a computation that is beyond even the most powerful ‘classical’ supercomputers — an elusive milestone known as quantum supremacy. Its rival, Microsoft, is betting on an intriguing but unproven concept, topological quantum computing, and hopes to perform a first demonstration of the technology.
Which Bitcoin Wallet?
January 4th, 2017Update: Going with Electrum
To the people who support Cryptogon with Bitcoin: Please see the Support page for the current Bitcoin address. Thank you.
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I hadn’t looked at my Bitcoin wallet in a while and I just noticed that a couple of anonymous someones sent me some coin.
The blockchain has grown far beyond anything I can personally deal with at my house. I’ve had to set up a computer at different location with an unlimited datacap Internet connection so I can pull down the blockchain with Bitcoin core. I’ll get that coin eventually!
Question to people who are into Bitcoin: I don’t want to deal with the full blockchain anymore.
Is Electrum a good way to go?
Catholic Priest Accused of Organising Orgies in Rectory and Pimping Out 15 Women
January 3rd, 2017Just another day at the office.
Via: Independent:
An Italian priest is being investigated for allegedly organising orgies in his rectory and pimping out up to 15 lovers.
Catholic Father Andrea Contin, a parish priest in the northern city of Padua in Veneto, is under police investigation on suspicion of living off immoral earnings and psychological violence.
A variety of sex toys and videos, purportedly showing orgies taking place on the San Lazzaro church premises, have been seized after complaints from three female parishioners.
The 48-year-old also allegedly concealed pornographic home videos in covers bearing the names of various popes.
He is accused of farming out some of his lovers to men on wife-swapping websites, according to The Times.
The priest also allegedly took his female friends for stays at a naturist and swingers resort in Cap d’Agde on the southern French coast.
How Is the Facebook Android App So Diabolical?
January 2nd, 2017Update: How Facebook Learns About Your Offline Life
I found this, but it doesn’t mention the “hot mics” issue that is obviously real:
How Facebook Learns About Your Offline Life
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Can anyone explain this one?
During Christmas, I was over at a house with a bunch of family members. My brother in law’s girlfriend was there. Let’s call her Jane. She’s in IT and we were talking about how diabolical the Facebook Android app is. She had it on her phone anyway. I don’t have it on my phone, and I set my phone in another room.
Anyway, there were Corona beers being tipped back and I mentioned how, through clever marketing, horse urine like Corona can be promoted to a global brand that people can buy even in a place like Northland, NZ.
Jane also friended another girl there who I met once about 10 years ago. Let’s call her Kate.
I’m friends with Jane on Facebook, but not Kate.
The next time I went on Facebook, to check my Star Wars humor and video game news in my throw-a-way browser, Facebook was displaying Corona beer ads to me and asking me if I knew Kate, the girl that Jane friended.
I get that the Facebook app is listening to conversations taking place in the room, but here’s my question:
Did Facebook automatically spam all of Jane’s friends with Corona ads and “Do you know?” prompts for Kate? Or was it more targeted? In other words, did that thing somehow know it was me, even though my phone doesn’t have the app installed and was 15 metres away in another room with the door closed?
Whatever sorcery that Facebook app is up to on mobile devices, it’s very bad. If this was a malware app, it would be front page news, but even people who know better are installing this shit on their phones on purpose. My point is: Even if you don’t have the app on a mobile device, chances are that you are having conversations with people who do.
I would assume that all of that audio is up for grabs by Facebook/U.S. Intelligence/Cops/_____ fill in the blank.
