Monsanto's sugar

This is good to know and better to avoid.

Update: Click the Monsanto tab at the bottom of this post to see a collection of articles on Monsanto. And then look at your food in a totally new way....

How else can they spread the Word?

Focus on the Family has a message for gay rights activists: stay off the playground.

Candi Cushman, an education analyst for the James Dobson-founded group, told The Denver Post this weekend that gay rights advocates have inserted their agenda into anti-bullying efforts, at the expense of Christian values.

"We feel more and more that activists are being deceptive in using anti-bullying rhetoric to introduce their viewpoints, while the viewpoint of Christian students and parents are increasingly belittled," Cushman told the Post.

In an email to TPM, Cushman expanded her argument. "Listing certain categories creates a system ripe for reverse discrimination, sending the message that certain characteristics are more worthy of protection than others," she said.

Cushman's argument has two levels: first, she says anti-bullying efforts wrongly put the focus on the "characteristics of the victim" instead of the "wrong actions of the bullies." Second, she thinks that gay rights activists are using the whole issue to sneak their agenda into the nation's schools. She denounced the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

"In many cases, these politicized bullying policies are being used as tools to undermine parental rights," she said, "and censor or marginalize students and parents with differing viewpoints."

So.... you want your Christianist children to be able to call suspected gay children names and beat up on kids with wrong religious beliefs or something? Just WHAT are you saying here?

What bed bugs are

And what they are not.

Update 8/31: More on the rapidly rising infestation.

And what you can do without trying to bring back DDT.

Quick! Alert the wingnut sex police!

Somebody's using birth control!

The U.S. birth rate has dropped for the second year in a row, and experts think the wrenching recession led many people to put off having children. The 2009 birth rate also set a record: lowest in a century.
Births fell 2.7% last year even as the population grew, numbers released Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics show.

"It's a good-sized decline for one year. Every month is showing a decline from the year before," said Stephanie Ventura, the demographer who oversaw the report.

I mean.. how will the rich stay rich if the poor stop having babies to add to the overworked underpaid work force?

Don't think an umbrella will help ....

This animation from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico plots the positions of all the known asteroids in the solar system in 1980, and adds new ones as they are discovered. The pace and patterns of asteroid discovery give a neat visual illustration of the history of solar system exploration.

New asteroids appear in flashes of white, to make them easy to pick out. The final color codes for how close the object comes to Earth: Asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit are shown in red, “Earth approachers” that come to 1.3 times the Earth-sun distance are yellow, and all others are green. The bunches of new asteroids follow Earth in its orbit, usually in the region directly opposite the sun (that is, in the Earth’s night sky). Some clusters appear on the line between Earth and Jupiter, the side effects of surveys looking for Jovian moons.

In the mid-1990s, the pace of discovery picks up, showing the results of automated sky surveys. By 2001, the area just outside the orbit of Mars is filled in by a bright green ring of asteroids, and it keeps getting denser.

The beginning of 2010 brings a new pattern of discovery, with new asteroids fanning out on either side of the Earth. This new pattern is thanks to the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), an infrared space telescope that is expected to find hundreds of new asteroids by seeking their heat rather than their light.

And to follow up the theme:

Top 5 Ways the Universe Could Wipe Out Humankind

Update... this guy has waaaaaayyyyy too much fun with a simulated asteroid strike:

Blog sprinkles

The Chinese just have to do everything better:

The jam on the main north-south motorway into Beijing has been blamed on a set of roadworks that is intended to alleviate congestion caused by thousands of trucks bring coal and perishable goods into the city.

At its farthest extent trucks joining the back of queue in Inner Mongolia were taking several days to reach their destination, crawling along at about 2mp/d – or miles per day, the measure of speed on the clogged section.

Fantastic ancient art work:

Spectacular 2,000-year-old Hellenistic-style wall paintings have been revealed at the world heritage site of Petra through the expertise of British conservation specialists. The paintings, in a cave complex, had been obscured by centuries of black soot, smoke and greasy substances, as well as graffiti.

Just looking for a scapegoat to beat to death and hang in the village square:

This is teabaggery crowd in America today.

Oh happy news!! New microbe discovered eating oil spill in Gulf!!.... Wait a minute.... If you read down to the last paragraph, who is funding these marvelous scientists who have discovered this microbe? (my bold):

Scientists also had been concerned that oil-eating activity by microbes would consume large amounts of oxygen in the water, creating a "dead zone" dangerous to other life. But the new study found that oxygen saturation outside the oil plume was 67 percent, while within the plume it was 59 percent.

The research was supported by an existing grant with the Energy Biosciences Institute, a partnership led by the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Illinois that is funded by a $500 million, 10-year grant from BP. Other support came from the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of Oklahoma Research Foundation.

Ah. Prostituted scientists. So why on earth should I believe you guys, then? And ignore the crude dumped in the local landfills.... and ignore the guy who was telling the truth months ago:

What Steiner said to me during that first interview was blunt, depressing -- and struck me as having the ring of truth. Little did I know how true.

"Government and industry will habitually understate the volume of the spill and the impact, and they will overstate the effectiveness of the cleanup and their response," he told me at the time. "There's no such thing as an effective response. There's never been an effective response -- ever -- where more than 10 or 20 percent of the oil is ever recovered from the water.

"Most of the oil that goes into the water in a major spill stays there," he said. "And once the oil is in the water, the damage is done."

Steiner was also one of the first scientists to warn that much if not most of BP's oil was remaining underwater, forming giant and potentially deadly toxic plumes.

Credo Action: We need to cut military spending, not Social Security:

Sign our petition to the members of the deficit commission telling them to make recommendations that significantly lower military spending, allow the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% to expire, and modify health care reform to include a robust public option to lower costs.

Putting Glenn Beck into perspective using MLK.

Omg.... Sean Connery is 80.

Marcellina of The Practice Room has a link showing how far it is from Ground Zero to the 'mosque'.

You do that. I'm sure you'll learn something: Conservatives Across The U.S. Plan Parties To Read The Constitution Out Loud

Obviously because it's fun! Sloth and Gluttony Hard to Shake Even For the Healthy

If we were listening to Ray Bradbury we'd be packing our bags right now!

New solar system looks much like home

The newly discovered solar system may contain the largest number of planets ever found orbiting another star.

Although... if you look at the space junk we've left in our wake just around Earth, I'm sure the other star systems hope we won't figure out how to space travel....

Anyway... we're all gonna diiiiiieeeeeee! Or lose all our invested money which comes down to the same thing....

Apparently we are at war with soldiers' individual freedoms

Because we need them to protect our national freedoms.... or something:

Troops Punished After Refusing to Attend Evangelical Concert

Pvt. Anthony Smith is the type of guy who stands up for what he believes in. That's why he decided to hold his commanding officers accountable for punishing him and fellow soldiers after they refused to attend an evangelical Christian rock concert at the Fort Eustis military post in Virginia.

After a day of training at Fort Eustis, Smith and other trainees were normally released to have personal time, but on May 13, Smith and dozens of others were "required" to march in formation to a concert headlined by an evangelical Christian rock band.

[snip]

"No option was presented to us off the bat," Smith told Truthout about the required concert.

[snip]

Once outside the concert, Smith and the other trainees were finally given an option and told to split into two groups: those who wanted to attend, and those who did not. Smith and about 80 others decided not to attend, even though they were obviously being "pressured" to do so. Smith and the others were sent back to their barracks on "lockdown," a punishment that Smith said withholds even basic freedoms like using their own electronics.

I want to ask the commanding officer... are you at war with our Constitution? What about freedom of religion AND freedom from religion? Are you at war with Islam?

Update: More details.

Amazing Super Powers....

Politicians v wrestlers.

This is what we've been telling you all along

But did you listen? NoooOOOOooOOOOooo.

While officials claim most of the oil from America's worst-ever spill has disappeared, fishermen hired by BP are still finding tar balls—and being instructed to hide their discoveries.

Two weeks ago, as federal officials prepared to declare that some three-quarters of the estimated 5 million barrels of oil released into the Gulf over three months had disappeared, Mark Williams, a fishing boat captain hired by BP to help with the spill cleanup, encountered tar balls as large as three inches wide floating off the Florida coast

Reporting his findings to his supervisor, a private consulting company hired by BP, the reply, according to his logbook came back: "Told—no reporting of oil or tar balls anymore. Don't put on report. We're here for boom removal only," referring to the miles of yellow and orange containment barriers placed throughout the Gulf.

[snip]

The miraculous disappearance of the oil and the pending transfer of $20 billion to Ken Feinberg, who is independently overseeing the claims fund, have resulted in the oil giant cutting back its response operations. With a recent halving of the Vessels of Opportunity program, which hired fallow charter and commercial fishing boats, captains and deckhands are now less reticent to describe their experiences.

Link via Bryan of Why Now?

There is NO GROUND ZERO MOSQUE

Just how stupid are these people?

Good grief.

The stupidity is flying so fast around the blogosphere, I feel like hunkering down in my bunker.

Did the Era of Bush start this celebration of the Era of Stupid? Does high fructose corn syrup clog our arteries AND slow our brain activity? Did the melamine in our genetically altered food make Americans cease to think?

If the Teabaggery Party is the newest 'revolution', being stupid must be the first tenet on its party platform: Keep your hands off my Medicare but no government health care! Soldiers are dying for our freedoms so we can hunt illegals and prevent mosques from being built! Take us back to the happy age somewhere in our past (but actually only found on tv) where white males were in power and everybody else knew their place!

Stupid is as stupid does.... and that's why I'm stocking up on canned food and catapults.

Update 8/18: Speaking of which...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Dick Armey Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Update: And even more to the point:

In a new segment called "Jon Stewart And Anderson Cooper Look At Gaping Holes,' Stewart analyzed the plot holes in Rep. Gohmert's story. First of all, wouldn't it be easier to recruit adult Americans than to raise them from scratch? Secondly, Stewart pointed out that raising a terror baby would be difficult because, "you know, when they become terror teens they tune you out."

As always, Stewart introduced a logical solution: hero babies! We can raise our own babies to fight the terror babies to be prepared for the wait-listed attack. "These babies don't run... Yet," Stewart said.

Stewart then took a look at some of Rep. Gohmert's other causes by showing clips of him speaking in Congress. Let's just say the topics ranged from animal protection to sleeping with corpses to Hitler. In that order.

WWII

On Facebook.

Boiling our oceans and killing our fish

But remember... there is no global warming! (my bold)

VILLAS, N.J. - The removal of thousands of dead fish from eight miles of Delaware Bay shoreline is expected to begin Friday after a determination that low oxygen levels in the water likely caused the massive kill.

Water samples taken Thursday "strongly suggest" that extraordinarily low levels of dissolved oxygen - the result of higher air and water temperatures - killed the menhaden, according to state Department of Environmental Protection officials.

The lowest oxygen reading was recorded at Pierces Point, one of the areas hardest hit by the fish kill. Bay water at the time the fish washed ashore was around 85 degrees, approximately 10 degrees above normal for this time of the year.

[snip]

The warmer water is, the less dissolved oxygen it can hold, Van Fossen said. At night, oxygen levels also may drop significantly because aquatic plants near the water's edge stop their process of photosynthesis.

"If the fish schooled very tightly in shallows . . . they may have simply used up all the oxygen that was available to them," he said.

An early theory of investigators was that predators had driven the menhaden toward shore and in nearby creeks, where they quickly depleted the dissolved oxygen.

Menhaden, which measure from 31/2 inches to 4 inches, are bony fish not usually consumed by humans. They are prey for species such as bluefish, drum, flounder, mackerel, striped bass, and tuna.

Oceans, we should be taking better care of you....

They know they're lying when they print this

So what 'news' organization would do this? Newsmax.com. (My bold at the end.)

Calif. Chamber: Pot Law Would Allow Smoking at Work

Supporters and opponents of a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in California are dueling over the law's possible effects on employers and the workplace.

The California Chamber of Commerce claims in a legal analysis released Thursday that Proposition 19 would lead to more workplace accidents by forcing employers to let workers smoke pot on the job.

The analysis also contends the law would make California companies ineligible for federal contracts because employers could not guarantee a drug-free workplace.

The proposition's supporters dispute the chamber's findings. They point to the determination of the state Legislative Analyst's Office that employers would retain their right to enforce existing workplace pot rules under the new law.

So they have a logical answer to their hyped up headline WITHIN their own article.... but they go with the scary lead in.

As is pointed out, employers can enforce existing laws... like not smoking on the premises. How about zero tolerance for baked drivers or stoned workers? Do this at home, not at work?

Just think how many Mexican drug lords would be angry at us if we legalized pot.....

It's Friday!

Bleh!

Tell the FCC....

Incessant barking might work better (Steve Bates in comments :D ) but sign the petition anyway:

Tell the FCC: It's up to you, not Google and Verizon, to regulate the Internet: "Chairman Genachowski: The FCC, not big corporations, should make important decisions about the future of the Internet. Stop delaying and use your powers to enact strong net neutrality provisions immediately."

Who hasn't felt like doing this on occasion....

(fixed link thanks to Ali in comments)

Nuclear bombs

What it is like to experience a nuclear bomb.

Why we need to get rid of them. Some in government agree.

Don't be evil

The petition reads:

"As a Google user, I am telling you, 'Don't be evil.' The deal between Google and Verizon as reported by the New York Times is evil because it undermines the open Internet upon which hundreds of millions of people rely. Live up to your founding motto, walk away from this deal and save the Internet."

Tell Google what you think.

This is so incredibly stupid

There must be a scandal about it.

Oh boy....

Let the games begin....

Obama Warned Israel May Bomb Iran

Now it's the AP that's being stupid

Work remains even with BP leak plugged, oil fading.

No. No, you guys. THE OIL IS NOT FADING. The oil is lurking. Down below because of the heavy use of poisonous dispersants. It is STILL THERE.

CNN and now AP. Who is next?

Update 8/5: The BBC joins the idiot crowd.

And the New York Times.

Update 8/7: Bryan of Why Now? notes some scientists are skeptical. Real scientists not bought and paid for.... Bought and Paid for... I just realized what BP stands for!

It would be like denying the Quakers a meeting house

Near where the KKK firebombed a building. But nuance is not a teabaggery strength.

Newsmax:

A New York City panel has denied landmark status to a building near ground zero, freeing organizers to build an Islamic center and mosque there.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission's decision allows organizers to transform the 152-year-old building into an Islamic community center blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks.

National and New York politicians and the Anti-Defamation League have come out in recent weeks against plans for the mosque, saying it disrespects the memory of Sept. 11 victims. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has supported the mosque.

The commission voted 9-0 against granting landmark status to the building. Commissioners said the building didn't meet historic criteria to qualify as a landmark.

The mosque would be part of an Islamic community center to be operated by a group called the Cordoba Initiative, which says the center will be a space for moderate Muslim voices.

But opponents say building a mosque near ground zero would be an insult to the memory of those who died at the hands of Muslim extremists on Sept. 11, 2001.

How is refusing a peaceful and religious group of Muslims an area to build a community center a 'Christian' action? What have they to do with 9/11?

Nothing.

Will the wingnuts and teabaggers ever acknowledge the difference?

No. It's too comforting to hate and too profitable to reeducate the haters.

Update: I love to be proved wrong. Go Temecula!

The teabaggery party is giving Bin Laden what he wants

By hating Muslims as if they were a monolithic entity:

This seems like such an obvious point, but it is apparently not obvious to the many people who oppose the Cordoba Initiative's planned mosque in lower Manhattan, so let me state it as clearly as possible: The Cordoba Initiative, which is headed by an imam named Feisal Abdul Rauf, is an enemy of al Qaeda, no less than Rudolph Giuliani and the Anti-Defamation League are enemies of al Qaeda. Bin Laden would sooner dispatch a truck bomb to destroy the Cordoba Initiative's proposed community center than he would attack the ADL, for the simple reason that Osama's most dire enemies are Muslims. This is quantitatively true, of course -- al Qaeda and its ideological affiliates have murdered thousands of Muslims -- but it is ideologically true as well: al Qaeda's goal is the purification of Islam (that is to say, its extreme understanding of Islam) and apostates pose more of a threat to Bin Laden's understanding of Islam than do infidels.

I know Feisal Abdul Rauf; I've spoken with him at a public discussion at the 96th street mosque in New York about interfaith cooperation. He represents what Bin Laden fears most: a Muslim who believes that it is possible to remain true to the values of Islam and, at the same time, to be a loyal citizen of a Western, non-Muslim country. Bin Laden wants a clash of civilizations; the opponents of this mosque project are giving him what he wants.

I don't think sunscreen's gonna help....

Nasa scientists braced for 'solar tsunami' to hit earth:

Experts said the wave of supercharged gas will likely reach the Earth on Tuesday, when it will buffet the natural magnetic shield protecting Earth.
It is likely to spark spectacular displays of the aurora or northern and southern lights.
Scientists have warned that a really big solar eruption could destroy satellites and wreck power and communications grids around the globe if it happened today.
Nasa recently warned that Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation “space storm”.

And the oceans are dying:

Phytoplankton Population Drops 40 Percent Since 1950

Researchers find trouble among phytoplankton, the base of the food chain, which has implications for the marine food web and the world's carbon cycle

And our economic future is diminishing. Deflation could be coming. Republicans could take back Congress.

Our cereal could be poisoned with unknown chemicals.

But all is not lost! Buy gold! Glenn Beck says it's the thing to do!

The Era of Stupid

E.J. Dionne asks the question:

Can a nation remain a superpower if its internal politics are incorrigibly stupid?

I think the answer is no.

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

CNN: Was the oil disaster overblown?

How can you ask such a question? Anderson Cooper? LSU's Ed Overton? How could you even talk about how the crude has made little impact? IT ISN'T EVEN OVER! How could you say that using dispersants was ok? IT IS POISONOUS!!

WTF???