Sounding Circle

Sunday, June 15, 2003

Farmer vs Monsanto 1 comment

15 Jun 2003 @ 12:08 Monsanto vs Schmeiser I cannot believe this nonsense has gotten this far! Here's the story for newcomers. Percy Schmeiser is a farmer. His farm is near a field where Monsanto's patented genetically modified canola was growing. By way of wind, bees, and nature in general, and totally unbeknownst to Schmeiser, pollen from the Monsanto canola traveled to Schmeiser's field and contaminated his canola crop. Monsanto, instead of apologizing for the contamination, has sued Schmeiser for patent infringement! This is like my painting your house without your permission and going to court to force you to pay for it. Percy Schmeiser  More >

Associated Press To Do Vote Tabulation 1 comment

15 Jun 2003 @ 12:08 TV networks signs contracts for AP to count the vote on election night (05-15) 15:56 PDT NEW YORK (AP) -- The Associated Press announced Thursday it has signed agreements with five television networks to provide special vote tabulation services for them starting with next year's presidential primaries. The AP will provide continuous running election-night returns on presidential, gubernatorial and congressional races for ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox News Channel under contracts that run through 2008. The agreements mean that AP will be taking over one of the two primary functions of the Voter News Service, a consortium that had been created by the six news organizations in 1993 to conduct exit-polling and count votes. VNS was disbanded after election-night failures in 2000 and 2002. In the past, AP provided an independent vote count as a backup to the VNS tabulation, as well as providing results in thousands of state and local election races that VNS did not cover. AP will continue to provide election returns to its other members and subscribers as part of their regular news service, and it will also offer some newly developed election services. "AP has been tabulating the national vote and telling the nation who won since the year we were founded, which was 1848," said David Tomlin, assistant to AP President Louis D. Boccardi. "We're very good at it, and we appreciate the trust and confidence in that ability that our network partners are showing with this agreement." The other VNS function, conducting exit surveys of voters, will be taken over by two veteran polling experts under an agreement reached earlier this year with the six news organizations. Exit poll information is used to help project winners in individual elections and provide information on why people voted the way they did. In 2000, VNS provided flawed information that led television networks to prematurely call the presidential election for George W. Bush. Last year, it was unable to provide exit poll data for November's off-year election. The terms of the agreements for the special new vote tabulation services to the networks were not disclosed.  More >

Free, Household, Electronic Waste Recycling 5 comments

15 Jun 2003 @ 12:08 Maybe there's something like this in YOUR neighborhood... I recently went and recycled two printers, a vcr, two computers, a cd player and a monitor. Some of it goes to correctional facilities for repair training and some to recycling plants. It's important to ask where the materials are headed . Some recyclers simply sell it and ship it to countries in Indonesia where there are no recycling laws and the e-waste is burned or buried. There are villages where the rivers are completely toxic and the people are severely impacted, Here's a great place for free, household, electronic waste recycling: Computers, monitors, printers, cartridges, fax machines, VCRs, microwave ovens, toasters, irons, vacuum cleaners, stereo systems, bicycles, televisions, washers and dryers will be accepted Oxnard Recycling Remember: a lot of e-waste contain toxic materials which will leak into landfills and subsequently our water.  More >

Bush Signs To Build Alaska Anti-Missile Shield 1 comment

15 Jun 2003 @ 12:08 Bush Signs To Build Alaska Anti-Missile Shield Wahington Times President Bush signed a secret document called National Security Policy Directive 23. The public version of this secret document outlines a world-wide missile defense system, starting with the first installation to be in Alaska about 30 miles from the existing HAARP site. The purported aim of this missile system is to protect against missiles coming from North Korea and other rising rogue nation/states. A look at the orbital paths of all missiles coming to the United States over Alaska show that they can only come from North Korea or China. And not from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan or any other "Axis of Evil" middle eastern rogue states who might be building missiles. The Secret Directive can only approve the currently funded construction for a small missile defense system at Fort Greeley just up the road from HAARP. The advanced billion dollar world-wide system has not yet even been turned into a bill to present to Congress. But if that bill does pass Congress, then the Bush campaign coffers would be filled to the brim by defense contractors all wanting to build missiles. If it is exposed that HAARP already is a complete operating anti-missile system which covers all of the Pacific Ocean and most of eastern Asia, including China and Korea, then the need to build the big missile system and the campaign contributions to Bush all suddenly dry up. And thus the reason for completely covering up the truth about HAARP. The public is only supposed to know HAARP to be some quirky mind or weather control experiment only believed in by conspiracy theorists. The use by the Navy and Air Force, who jointly operate HAARP, to bring down a threatening North Korean missile over Alaska last February 1, at the same time Shuttle Columbia was landing is about to expose HAARP for the advanced defense/weapon system it is. If the truth about HAARP is exposed it will probably mark the swift end of the Bush administration. Now you can understand the inane and almost desperate need for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to prove that the Shuttle was brought down by a dry piece of foam about the size of a breadbox. Marshall Smith Editor, Brother Jonathan Gazette  More >

Brain Scans Show That Buddhists Really Are Happy 0 comments

15 Jun 2003 @ 12:08 Brain Scans Show That Buddhists Really Are Happy 5-22-3 LONDON (Reuters) - Buddhists really are happy, calm and serene people -- at least according to their brain scans. Using latest scanning techniques, neuroscientists have discovered that certain areas of the brain light up constantly in Buddhists, and not just when they are meditating, which indicates positive emotions and good mood. "We can now hypothesise with some confidence that those apparently happy, calm Buddhist souls one regularly comes across in places such as Dharamsala, India, really are happy," Professor Owen Flanagan, of Duke University in North Carolina, said on Wednesday. Dharamsala is the home base of exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama. The scanning studies by scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison showed activity in the left prefrontal lobes of experienced Buddhist practitioners. The area is linked to positive emotions, self-control and temperament. Other research by Paul Ekman, of the University of California San Francisco Medical Centre, suggests that meditation and mindfulness can tame the amygdala, an area of the brain which is the hub of fear memory. Ekman discovered that experienced Buddhists were less likely to be shocked, flustered, surprised or as angry as other people. Flanagan believes that if the findings of the studies can be confirmed they could be of major importance. "The most reasonable hypothesis is that there is something about conscientious Buddhist practice that results in the kind of happiness we all seek," Flanagan said in a report in New Scientist magazine.

Mice Make Their Own Signposts 0 comments

15 Jun 2003 @ 12:08 Nature Science Update Mice make their own signposts First evidence of animal creating markers to navigate 2 May 2003 Hannah Hoag Wood mice fashion portable signposts from bright leaves and shells when they explore fields for food, a new study suggests. This is the first time that animals other than humans have been found to use moveable landmarks. "No one thought that mice would be clever enough to use tools for navigation," says biologist Pavel Stopka of Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic. Wood mice fashion portable signposts from bright leaves and shells when they explore fields for food, a new study suggests. This is the first time that animals other than humans have been found to use moveable landmarks. "No one thought that mice would be clever enough to use tools for navigation," says biologist Pavel Stopka of Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic. Wood mice live in large fields that often lack features that they might use to locate nests, food sources or danger zones. So the animals build bundles of leaves and twigs as they explore, report Stopka and his colleague, David Macdonald of the University of Oxford, UK. When a mouse has thoroughly investigated a place it picks up its pile and moves on. In the lab, the rodents did the same with small plastic disks that the researchers gave them. Should a predator send a mouse scurrying for cover, a quick glance at a marker returns it to where it was before the disturbance. "It's extremely interesting as a potential new mechanism that wood mice use to find their way back to places," says Jane Hurst of the University of Liverpool, UK, who studies scent cues in the common house mouse2. "It gives us new insight into the capabilities of these animals - most people think they are pretty dim," she says. But the use of scent should be ruled out, Hurst warns. "All rodents have scent glands in the mouth area," she says. The house mouse signposts its territory with urinary proteins, but wood mice don't do this, as these signs could reveal their location to predators.

Ehrlich Signs Medical Marijuana Bill Into Law 4 comments

15 Jun 2003 @ 12:08 Ehrlich Signs Medical Marijuana Bill Into Law TheWBALChannel.com May 22, 2003 BALTIMORE -- Gov. Robert Ehrlich's decision to sign a medical marijuana bill strongly opposed by the Bush administration will help many patients end their suffering, supporters said Thursday. "These are people who are suffering. They're dying. It will help those people," said Delegate Dan Morhaim, D-Baltimore County, a sponsor of the bill and an emergency room doctor at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. Despite opposition from some Republicans, Ehrlich had indicated support for the bill early on because of his belief that people can differentiate between legalizing the drug and allowing those dying of chronic illnesses to alleviate their pain. "This is a position I've had for many, many years," Ehrlich said at Thursday's signing ceremony. "It is not without controversy. It's not without controversy across parties, across chambers, across states, across the country." Ehrlich, however, said he didn't think signing the bill would damage his relationship with the White House. "Certainly we received a lot of pressure from the administration," the first-term governor said. "This is an issue I have dealt with for a decade. My views are well-known." Ehrlich's former GOP colleagues in the House of Representatives are acting to take drug enforcement money from state and local police officers in states where marijuana for medical use has been legalized. The new law does not legalize marijuana, but reduces the penalty to a maximum $100 fine with no jail time. Defendants, however, must convince a judge they need marijuana for medical reasons. Previously, possession or use of marijuana brought penalties of up to a year in prison or a $1,000 fine. Eight other states -- Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Nevada and Maine -- have medical marijuana laws. Backers of the legislation say smoking marijuana can ease the symptoms of serious illnesses such as cancer, HIV or AIDS, multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease, and help patients suffering from nausea hold down food and medications. Opponents, including White House drug czar John P. Walters, have been pressuring Ehrlich to veto the measure, which they say offers a false and illegal remedy to the sick. "I suspect that Gov. Ehrlich acted with the best of intentions, with an honest desire to help people, but it looks like he may have been misled on the actual science and public health issues here," Walters said Thursday in response to the signing. "It would be truly unfortunate if today's actions led, however unintentionally, to greater use or availability of dangerous drugs in Maryland." Joe McGeeney, Elks State Drug Awareness chairman for Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, said he was disappointed in the governor's decision to sign the bill and vowed to help repeal it. "It's sending the wrong message to our kids that it's OK to use because there is medicinal powers," he said. "Other states that have approved [similar bills] have seen a sharp increase in the youth smoking marijuana."  More >