Category: Historical Perspectives

Impact Lab > Historical Perspectives
Analysis, Animals, Big Problems, Current Events, Food, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, New Discoveries

Dairy Industry Fights FDA’s Proposed New Drug Testing for Milk

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How could there possibly be antibiotics in my milk?

The dairy industry is butting heads with the FDA over the agency’s plan to increase testing for antibiotics in milk. Food safety advocates are concerned about overuse of drugs in dairy cows (and increased antibiotic resistance in humans), while the industry says the new testing procedures would cause a lot of milk to be wasted because the results can take a full week to come back.

Certain farms are already caught regularly with milk containing illegal levels of drugs—and farmers also use drugs that are not regularly tested for.

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Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Corporate Manipulation, Culture, Current Events, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Internet, Latest News, Latest Trend

Google Engages in Subtle Form of Censorship

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Google, the company that fought censorship in China and vowed not to censor even anti-Semitism, has begun a subtle censorship campaign of its own.

As of today, if a Google search user begins typing in a term such as “BitTorrent,” Google’s Auto Suggest feature stops listing possible terms as soon as he types the second “T” in the word. Likewise, it won’t auto-complete the pirate-familiar words “megaupload,” “utorrent” or “rapidshare.”

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

Ending Left Turns

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Left turns have their place, don’t they?

UPS saved a lot of money by eliminating left turns from its delivery routes. Would this practice be effective on a larger scale? At Smithsonian, Sarah Zielinski writes:

UPS minimizes left turns for its delivery trucks to save on fuel. (And it works, as the Mythbusters demonstrated last year.) In the 1960s, the state of Michigan designed an intersection known as the “Michigan left” that prevents people driving on side streets from making left turns onto a multi-laned divided road; if they wish to go left, they’ll first have to go right and then make a U-turn…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Current Events, Historical Perspectives

The United States of Shame

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Your state has problems. Really it does.

Jeff Wysaski of Pleated Jeans wrote “Whether it’s a fat population, high rate of STDs or excessive tax rate, it turns out that every state ranks dead last in at least one unsavory category.” So he compiled a most unusual “worst of” list, featuring your favorite home state (Oh, poor, poor North Dakotans!)

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Analysis, Art, Food, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Latest News, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

First-Ever Global Map to Delve Deep Into Earth Surface Helps Reveal Water Supply

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Water, water everywhere?

Questions such as how much fresh water we have left on Earth, where it is located, and how we can access it are all nearly impossible to answer. However, scientists working on understanding and revealing the planet’s surface structure are helping to hone in on an answer. University of British Columbia researchers have created a world’s-first with their new map that outlines how fluid flows through Earth’s various porous surfaces. Information gleaned from the map can help us discover more about water supplies worldwide.

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Fashion, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives

Color-Changing Shirts Sniff Out Air Pollution

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Thermochromatic Fabric Shows Off Air Pollution

What if detecting urban pollution was as easy as looking down at your neighbor’s chest? It is–if your neighbor is wearing one of the high-tech sweatshirts designed by NYU grad students Sue Ngo and Nien Lam. The shirts, designed for a class on wearable technologies, feature internal organs that change colors depending on the levels of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Culture, Current Events, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, Medical Breakthrough

Becoming The Wal-Mart of Weed

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Big Plans for the Future Growth of Marijuana

Dhar Mann, 26, and Derek Peterson, 36, are the owners of the weGrow marijuana superstore in Oakland, California. The 15,000 square-foot weGrow is just their first hit though. Mann and Peterson are also shooting a reality show pilot, training medical pot growers, and manufacturing high-end grow gear. They say they’re in contract on 75 franchise stores in 5 states and are considering an IPO. According to Mann, their vision is to become the “Wal-Mart of Weed.”

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Analysis, Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Current Events, government, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Latest News, New Discoveries

Portugal: 10 Years of Decriminalized Drugs

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Here’s a good Boston Globe report on the first decade of Portugal’s bold experiment with drug decriminalization and increased treatment. Ten years ago, Portugal — whose drug problem had been spiraling out of control — decided to treat drug addiction as a public health matter, not as a criminal matter. They decriminalized possession of drugs, and increased treatment available to addicts, and experienced an immediate, dramatic and sustained drop in negative effects from drug use — though the use of some drugs went up…

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Analysis, Brain, Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Food, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Latest News

Alcohol Placebos Can Impair Memory

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Even as you look at this picture you are getting forgetful.

It’s common knowledge that drinking alcohol can impair your memory but what about simply suggesting that you’ve drunk alcohol?

Turns out, alcohol placebos can also impair your memory and judgment…

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Analysis, Great Videos, Historical Perspectives, Internet, Science & Technology News

Tim Wu’s “Master Switch” – The Rise and Fall of Companies Who Develop New Technologies

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Tim Wu, the Columbia law professor who came up with the term “net neutrality” in a research paper, has just written a new book, “The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires,” published by Knopf. The book chronicles the rise and fall of companies that develop new technologies, and discusses the future of the Internet.

 

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