Author Archives: Nathanmlm

Fossil fuel favorite Lamar Smith just lost a big ol’ endorsement.

by Nathanmlm Posted on October 19, 2016

The San Antonio Express-News, the fourth-largest daily newspaper in Texas, has refused to repeat its prior endorsement of Rep. Smith, who has represented Texas’ 21st congressional district since 1987.

Smith is chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee — and a climate change denier. The paper’s editorial board accuses him of “abuse” of that position and “bullying on the issue of climate change”:

[L]ast year Smith threatened the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Kathryn Sullivan, with criminal charges if she didn’t release emails from scientists about a certain climate change study. That study refuted gospel by deniers that global warming slowed between 1998 and 2012.

Smith said he was shielding scientific inquiry. But the real effect would be to chill such efforts. And in 2015, Smith sought to cut NASA funding for earth science — a science that includes climate science research. He said the agency should focus on space exploration. Both are necessary.

The non-endorsement ends with an acknowledgment that Smith will probably win in his largely conservative district anyway.

Luckily for Smith, he has other friends in high places: namely, the fossil fuel industry, which has donated more than $92,000 to his campaign this season.

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Fossil fuel favorite Lamar Smith just lost a big ol’ endorsement.

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Don’t Forget: Sepp Blatter’s Odds-On Replacement Is Also Pretty Terrible

by Nathanmlm Posted on June 3, 2015

Mother Jones

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Michel Platini, the legendary former French midfielder who now runs Europe’s soccer governing body, is already the oddsmaker’s favorite to become the next head of FIFA.

He also kind of sucks.

Blatter unexpectedly resigned on Tuesday, just days after winning a fifth term as FIFA president. His resignation was prompted by the arrest of FIFA officials last week as part of a Justice Department investigation into corruption and bribery at the organization. Though Blatter professed shock and said he had no intention of leaving FIFA, the widening scope of the investigations—along with huge global media coverage and schadenfreude—finally drove Blatter out of office.

“FIFA needs a profound overhaul,” he said at the announcement.

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Don’t Forget: Sepp Blatter’s Odds-On Replacement Is Also Pretty Terrible

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China doesn’t want our genetically modified corn

by Nathanmlm Posted on December 23, 2013

China doesn’t want our genetically modified corn

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Genetically modified strains of corn not authorized for sale in China have been showing up in cargoes exported from the U.S., prompting China to reject them.

And we’re not talking about trifling amounts here. In November and December, the country rejected more than 500,000 tons of American corn that had been genetically modified by Syngenta to repel caterpillar pests.

It’s hard to conceptualize that much corn, but it works out to more than a dozen shipments, or nearly a third of the corn shipped from the U.S. to China this year. Another way to think about it: The rejected shipments weighed more than 100,000 elephants.

Here’s the latest from the BBC:

An unapproved strain called MIR162 was found in 12 batches of corn, China’s product safety agency said. …

The agency called on US authorities to tighten controls to ensure unapproved strains are not sent to China. …

China has already approved 15 varieties of genetically-modified corn for imports and MIR162 is awaiting approval.

“The safety evaluation process [for MIR162] has not been completed and no imports are allowed at the moment before the safety certificate is issued,” said China’s vice agricultural minister, Niu Dun.

The rejections follow similar problems for wheat and alfalfa growers and exporters earlier this year, when supposedly GMO-free fields were found to contain strains that had been developed by Monsanto.


Source
China rejects US corn on fears over genetic modification, BBC
China rejects 30 pct of corn shipped in from U.S. this year, Reuters

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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China doesn’t want our genetically modified corn

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21 Great Tracks for Your (Grownup) Halloween Playlist

by Nathanmlm Posted on October 28, 2013

Mother Jones

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Halloween is one of those holidays that gets harder to enjoy with age. Because it’s taboo to trick-or-treat after the age of, say, 14—and because they generally lack young children of their own—young adults are left with the options of 1) passing out candy or 2) waiting for the weekend to throw a party with friends. Luckily, for those of us doing the latter, there is a rich trove of appropriately themed music for the occasion. Here are 21 songs to add to your playlist this Halloween.

1. “Dance Magic Dance,” by David Bowie (from Labyrinth soundtrack)

2. “Superstition,” by Stevie Wonder

3. “Terror!” by The Rakes

4. “Boris the Spider,” by The Who

5. “Coffin Trick,” by Atlas Sound

6. “Nail in my Coffin,” by the Kills

7. “Pluto,” by Björk

8. “Little Ghost,” by The White Stripes

9. “The Ghost Who Walks,” by Karen Elson

10. “I Put a Spell on You,” by Nina Simone

11. “Hell,” by The Squirrel Nut Zippers

12. “Sympathy for the Devil,” by The Rolling Stones

13. “Dead Man’s Party,” by Oingo Boingo

14. “Little Drop of Poison,” by Tom Waits

15. “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” by Johnny Cash

16. “Blood Like Lemonade,” by Morcheeba

17. “Dandy’s in the Underworld,” by T.Rex

18. “Jump in the Line (Shake Senora),” as performed by Harry Belafonte

19. “This is Halloween,” from The Nightmare Before Christmas

20. “Thriller,” by Michael Jackson

21. “Werewolf Bar Mitvah,” from 30 Rock

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21 Great Tracks for Your (Grownup) Halloween Playlist

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Salmonella breaks out around U.S. as feds stay home

by Nathanmlm Posted on October 9, 2013

Salmonella breaks out around U.S. as feds stay home

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Yum.
Hundreds of customers of California poultry producer Foster Farms have a health problem: An especially potent strain of salmonella.

And the country has a governance problem: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials have been furloughed by the federal government shutdown.

These two problems do not play nicely together.

As the tainted chicken makes it way onto plates as far away as the East Coast, Hawaii and Alaska (seriously — this is what our food system looks like now), the CDC is summoning dozens of its employees back to work to help handle the emergency. According to an NBC report:

Of 183 complete cases, 76 patients have been hospitalized. Among those, many infections appear to be resistant to the most common antibiotics used for them [said CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds].

At least seven different strains of Salmonella Heidelberg have been tied to the outbreak, which led CDC officials on Tuesday to recall 30 staffers, including 10 who work for the agency’s PulseNet team, which monitors the electronic fingerprint of dangerous foodborne bugs. They’d been on furlough because of a government shutdown stretching into its second week.

“We had said from the beginning that we were monitoring 30 outbreaks of foodborne illness,” Reynolds said. “This is one of them. It’s breaking loose now.”

The CDC move follows a USDA public health alert issued Monday for the raw chicken products.

We’d hate to imagine how Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) would react if he ended up in the hospital because of food-borne bacteria that spread to his state while Congress forced the country’s food cops to stay at home.


Source
Salmonella tied to Foster Farms chicken hospitalizes dozens, may be drug-resistant, NBC News

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Salmonella breaks out around U.S. as feds stay home

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Friday Cat Blogging – 16 August 2013

by Nathanmlm Posted on August 16, 2013

Mother Jones

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Obviously this has been a trying week for humans here at the Drum household, what with all our elbow and ankle injuries. But there are silver linings. Back when I was almost totally immobilized, Marian brought down a huge collection of pillows to prop me up in various spots. Then I got better and didn’t need the pillows, so they got piled up on the sofa. That turned out to be a boon for Domino, who very much enjoyed playing princess-and-the-pea with the big stack of downy softness that we had obviously laid down just for her.

Sadly, the pillows have now been moved to their usual resting spot upstairs, so once again Domino has to make do with ordinary cushions, carpets, and sunny spots on the floor. Sic transit etc.

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Friday Cat Blogging – 16 August 2013

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