MONSANTO ORDERED TO PAY $289 MILLION IN WORLD’S FIRST ROUNDUP CANCER TRIAL
August 10th, 2018Via: Reuters:
A California jury on Friday found Monsanto liable in a lawsuit filed by a man who alleged the company’s glyphosate-based weed-killers, including Roundup, caused his cancer and ordered the company to pay $289 million in damages.
The case of school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson was the first lawsuit to go to trial alleging glyphosate causes cancer. Monsanto, a unit of Bayer AG following a $62.5 billion acquisition by the German conglomerate, faces more than 5,000 similar lawsuits across the United States.
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Brent Wisner, a lawyer for Johnson, in a statement said jurors for the first time had seen internal company documents “proving that Monsanto has known for decades that glyphosate and specifically Roundup could cause cancer.”
Classified Human Subjects Research Continues at DOE
August 10th, 2018Via: Federation of American Scientists:
A dozen classified programs that involved research on human subjects were underway last year at the Department of Energy.
Human subjects research refers broadly to the collection of scientific data from human subjects. This could involve physical procedures that are performed on the subjects, or simply interviews and other forms of interaction with them.
Little information is publicly available about the latest DOE programs, most of which have opaque, non-descriptive names such as Tristan, Idaho Bailiff and Moose Drool. But a list of the classified programs was released this week under the Freedom of Information Act.
Human subjects research erupted into national controversy 25 years ago with reporting by Eileen Welsome of the Albuquerque Tribune on human radiation experiments that had been conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission, many of which were performed without the consent of the subjects.
Man Arrested at New Mexico Compound Is Son of Imam with Possible Link to 1993 World Trade Center Bombing
August 9th, 2018Update: New Mexico Jihad Compound Mysteriously Destroyed By Authorities
Via: ZeroHedge:
New Mexico authorities have executed a court order to destroy an encampment where the son of a famous New York Imam ritualistically murdered his three-year-old son and trained nearly a dozen other children to commit school shootings, according to Taos, NM prosecutors.
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Refer to the remarkable recordings of FBI informant Emad Salem with his FBI handler to get an idea of the Bureau’s role in the first World Trade Center bombing. The whole operation was supervised by the FBI.
More: FBI Blunders and the First World Trade Center Bombing
And now…
Via: CBS:
The man arrested at a squalid New Mexico compound is the son of a controversial Brooklyn imam who was on a list of people who “may be alleged as co-conspirators” to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, according to court documents released by prosecutors Wednesday. Siraj Wahhaj, who shares a name with his son who was arrested Saturday, testified as a character witness for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the notorious “blind sheikh” who was convicted in 1995 of plotting terror attacks in the U.S.
Authorities found 11 children and four adults living in “filthy” conditions at the compound Saturday in Amalia, New Mexico. Prosecutors also alleged in court documents that Wahhaj, 39, was teaching the children to commit school shootings. The documents claim Wahhaj was conducting weapons training with assault rifles at the compound with the children.
Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe previously said adults at the compound were “considered extremist of the Muslim belief.” He did not elaborate, saying it was part of the investigation.
Fewer Than 1 in 5 Residents Can Afford a Home in Bay Area
August 9th, 2018Via: Mercury News:
The Bay Area continues to lead the state in shattered home-ownership dreams.
Record home prices and rising interest rates have pushed statewide home affordability rates to a 10-year-low. In the Bay Area, fewer than 1 in 5 residents can afford to buy into one of the nation’s most expensive real estate markets, according to a study released Wednesday by the California Association of Realtors.
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A typical state resident needs an annual income topping $125,000 to afford a median home priced at $596,000. In Los Angeles, about 3 in 10 households could afford to buy, while about 4 in 10 residents in the Inland Empire could make a purchase.
Bay Area residents find a much starker balance sheet. A household needs roughly $220,000 in income to afford a home at the median price of $1.04 million, according to CAR. After a down payment of more than $200,000, a typical new Bay Area homeowner would have a $5,500 monthly mortgage payment.
Psychological Techniques Used to Keep Kids Online
August 8th, 2018Parental controls. Use them.
Via: AP:
Children’s advocates want the American Psychological Association to condemn the tech industry’s practice of using persuasive psychological techniques to keep kids glued to their screens.
The advocates, citing research that links excessive use of social media and video games with depression and academic troubles, say it’s unethical for psychologists to be involved in tactics that risk harming kids’ well-being. Skeptics say the research is inconclusive, and they note that psychologists have been involved in other industries’ marketing and advertising for decades.
The group seeking intervention includes 60 U.S. psychologists, researchers, children’s advocates and the Children’s Screen Time Action Network, a project of the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. The network was publishing a letter Wednesday to the American Psychological Association, coinciding with the association’s annual meeting in San Francisco.
Millennials Try to Explain the First Amendment
August 7th, 2018Via: Campus Reform:
A recent survey found that many Americans are unable to name a single one of the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. Would Ivy League students do any better?
Massive Wildfire Becomes Largest in California History
August 6th, 2018Via: Reuters:
The Mendocino Complex became the largest wildfire in Californian history on Monday as it raged at the southern tip of the Mendocino National Forest where crews battled to keep flames from descending into foothill communities.
The Mendocino Complex Fire, made up of two separate conflagrations that merged, grew to 283,800 acres (114,800 hectares) and was still growing, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
The fire surpassed the Thomas Fire, which burned 281,893 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in 2017, as prime weather conditions are expected to persist.
Older Americans Increasingly Filing for Bankruptcy
August 6th, 2018Via: SSRN:
The social safety net for older Americans has been shrinking for the past couple decades. The risks associated with aging, reduced income, and increased healthcare costs, have been off-loaded onto older individuals. At the same time, older Americans are increasingly likely to file consumer bankruptcy, and their representation among those in bankruptcy has never been higher. Using data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, we find more than a two-fold increase in the rate at which older Americans (age 65 and over) file for bankruptcy and an almost five-fold increase in the percentage of older persons in the U.S. bankruptcy system. The magnitude of growth in older Americans in bankruptcy is so large that the broader trend of an aging U.S. population can explain only a small portion of the effect. In our data, older Americans report they are struggling with increased financial risks, namely inadequate income and unmanageable costs of healthcare, as they try to deal with reductions to their social safety net. As a result of these increased financial burdens, the median senior bankruptcy filer enters bankruptcy with negative wealth of $17,390 as compared to more than $250,000 for their non-bankrupt peers. For an increasing number of older Americans, their golden years are fraught with economic risks, the result of which is often bankruptcy.
Oil Giant Shell Leads Investment in Startup with ‘Electric Cars for Everyone’ Goal
August 6th, 2018Via: Electrek:
Shell, the major British–Dutch multinational oil and gas company, has been leading several efforts having to do electric cars as it sees the auto industry transition to electric propulsion affecting its business.
Now the oil giant Shell is leading an investment in a startup with the goal to make ‘Electric Cars for Everyone’ with a new charging technology.
Shell’s VC arm Shell Ventures confirmed that it is leading a $31 million Series A round of financing in Ample, which describes itself as “a technology company focused on solving the energy delivery challenge for electric cars.”
Facebook, Apple and Spotify Ban Infowars’ Alex Jones
August 6th, 2018Update: YouTube Deletes Alex Jones Channel
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Via: Guardian:
Facebook has banned four pages run by the American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for “repeated violations of community standards”, the company said on Monday.
The removal of the pages – the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the Infowars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page – comes after Facebook imposed a 30-day ban on Jones personally “for his role in posting violating content to these pages”.
Following that suspension, a Facebook spokesperson said: “More content from the same pages has been reported to us – upon review, we have taken it down for glorifying violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, and using dehumanising language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies.”
Related: YouTube Deletes Entire Health Ranger Video Channel
