USDA Outsources Biotech Crop Evaluation to the GMO Industry

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What kind of logic prevails when environmental impact statements
on biotech crops
are outsourced to the GMO industry itself?

The U.S. is already cultivating 165 million acres of genetically modified crops, up 7 million acres from just two years ago. Modified seeds and large monocultures in general, are monopolizing our nation’s agriculture system like never before and crop after crop are deemed “safe” by the USDA. We’re headed full speed down a dark, winding road and it seems we’re driving blindfolded. And most recently, according to a story on Grist, the USDA is starting a new program which will outsource environmental impact statements on biotech crops to the GMO industry. Obviously, biotech companies are thrilled with the idea…

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The 7-Stage Evolution of a Socially Responsible Brand

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Becoming a Socially Responsible Brand takes teamwork.

For decades, the decision to be an environmentally and socially responsible company has been based on the bottom line: Would it be profitable? In general, companies have crunched the numbers and chosen shareholder profits over a sufficient commitment to invest in greater social responsibility. In terms of traditional accounting and the legal requirements of corporations, costs always outweighed benefits.

But it now seems that this equation is starting to lean the other way as brands recognize the potential financial and reputational advantages they can gain by engaging with consumers around the shared ambition of building a better world…

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Smell Like A Nerd: RPG Performance Perfumes

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Don’t you wish you could smell like me?

Yesterday we told you about blood type perfumes. Today we have something even wackier. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is selling a line of RPG-inspired perfumes intended to invoke the mythical races of elves, dwarves, half-elves, hobbits and orcs, as well as the distinctive aromas of clerics, fighters, mages, paladins and such. I totally guessed that paladins smelled like vanilla and “evil” smelled of “Smouldering opium tar, tobacco absolute, green tea, black plum, kush, ambergris accord, ambrette seed, and costus root…”

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Active Twitter Users Have Shorter Relationships

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OkTrends has an intriguing post about sex compiled from the data from the bazillion interaction data of members of the OkCupid dating site, but this one is particularly intriguing: active Twitter users have shorter relationships…

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One In Three US Citizens Live 50 Miles Or Less From A Nuclear Reactor

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All manner of wonderful graphics are being created from the newly-available 2010 US Census data. A new sort of nuclear family, for example, is portrayed with this mouse-over map showing the population density inside 10 and 50 mile evacuation radii around the US’ 65 nuclear power plants (containing a total of 104 reactors).

The upshot: One in every three Americans currently resides less than 50 miles from an operating nuclear reactor. MSNBC mapped the details in Nuclear neighbors: Population rises near US reactors …

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Phonetic Clues Hint Language Is Africa-Born

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Is this the origin of language?

A researcher analyzing the sounds in languages spoken around the world has detected an ancient signal that points to southern Africa as the place where modern human language originated. The finding fits well with the evidence from fossil skulls and DNA that modern humans originated in Africa. It also implies, though does not prove, that modern language originated only once, an issue of considerable controversy among linguists…

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FBI Shuts Down Poker Sites in Online Gambling Crackdown

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This is not what you want to see on your site when you log in in the morning.

On Friday, the FBI shut down three of the world’s most popular online poker sites, replacing their home pages with the message: “This domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant.” (as shown above)

Joe Menn at the Financial Times nails the story first and best, and describes it as “the largest crackdown since Congress banned electronic gambling transactions in 2006.”

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Authorities In Tajikistan Plan Ban On Divorce By Text Message

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Convenient but soon to be banned.

Tajikistan’s Council of Ulema is set to issue a fatwa banning a so-called SMS-divorce, the state religious committee have announced. The move comes amid growing complaints that some Tajik men – working as migrant laborers in Russia – divorce their wives by sending a mobile-phone text message or just making a phone call.

Sunni Islamic traditions allow men to divorce their wives by merely saying “talaq,” an Islamic term for a declaration of divorce. Tajik religious leaders, however, insist that ending a marriage is not such a simple matter…

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