Category Archives: planetkillers

Golden Rice Still Won’t Solve the Political Problem of Hunger and Poverty | Food & Water Watch

Every industry has its go-to PR strategies, the ones they revisit periodically out of habit or when they hit a rough patch in the news. For the biotechnology industry, their old reliable is how genetically engineered crops are going to solve some pressing social problem, like curing disease or ending global hunger. Their favorite example is golden rice. And this weekend, the New York Times ran a piece that rehashed the same old debate, wondering how anyone could possibly be opposed to this miracle crop that will supposedly save poor people around the world from vitamin A deficiency.

Unfortunately, the piece missed the point that sustainable agriculture and peasant farmer advocates have been making for years: that unleashing an unproven, unwanted technology into the food systems of developing countries won’t solve the political issues that create hunger.

via Golden Rice Still Won’t Solve the Political Problem of Hunger and Poverty | Food & Water Watch.

Assad’s Cold Calculation: The West’s Reputation Is at Stake – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Same or similar arguments used to get us to attack and invade Iraq. You’d think, they just did a search and replace in material written in 2003 and using for a new war in 2013!?!

The credibility of both the United States and its Western allies is on the line: Anyone who mentions a red line but doesn’t back it up may as well forget about making any threats in the future. If that becomes its reputation, how will the United States ever rein in North Korea’s bomb-makers or Tehran’s mullahs?

This latest chemical weapons attack should finally set aside reservations about a military intervention. Poison gas is outlawed internationally — a ban that should be respected. The 1999 Kosovo mission showed that citizens of Western countries are prepared to accept a well-founded humanitarian intervention. The Americans’ invasion of Iraq triggered so much outrage precisely because the weapons of mass destruction Washington had claimed as justification were never found. No one doubts they exist in Syria.

via Assad’s Cold Calculation: The West’s Reputation Is at Stake – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Little doubt on chemical weapons use in Syria | Germany | DW.DE | But!

Anyone can make sarin gas or steal it – suspect this has more to do with forcing a war like people did before Iraq war against its WMD that could never be found!

One of the problems is that sarin gas, unlike other toxic chemical agents, has a very short shelf-life. In Syria’s arid climate, the gas is only deadly for up to two hours. It decomposes rapidly into nontoxic phosphoric acid derivatives and generally degrades entirely in a matter of weeks – making it difficult to trace.

The nerve agent was discovered in the 1930s by two German scientists looking for a more effective pesticide. “In 1938, German army headquarters realized that this insecticide could also be used as a weapon. It’s just a question of the concentration,” said Klaus Koehler, whose company helped destroy stockpiles of chemical weapons in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Possible trail leads to Russia

No one doubts that Syria possesses chemical weapons; it is believed that the Assad regime has bunkered some 1,000 tons. “Basically, anybody who has access to normal chemical equipment can make chemical weapons,” said Koehler.

via Little doubt on chemical weapons use in Syria | Germany | DW.DE | 26.08.2013.

Turkey’s Wannabe Caliph Fears NATO Action Will Spark Syrian Gas Attacks – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Since the nerve gas attack in Syria last Wednesday, in which hundreds of people were reportely killed near the capital Damascus, politicians and generals in Turkey have been asking a frightening question: If the situation escalates, for example if the US carries out a military strike, would Syria fight back? And would Syrian President Bashar Assad dare to attack Turkey, and therefore NATO, using chemical weapons?

via Turkey Fears NATO Action Will Spark Syrian Gas Attacks – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Dumb beats for war coming from those who are afraid of their own people and want to appear strong against a foe that is not attacking it. Spin, spin, spin

The Himalayan Times : Close to one million birds culled – Detail News : Nepal News Portal

(Before the global growth in poultry trade which fueled the growth of avian influenza – there would have been far fewer such farms and less of a threat to the economy from an industry that cannot stand in the long run)

The government has culled 9,90,981 fowls and chicks from several farms in Bhaktapur since the bird flu was first confirmed in the district.

According to Bhaktapur District Bird Flu Control Section, 5,23,921 fowls and 1,56,726 chicks have been culled from as many as 439 poultry farms since the government declared Bhaktapur a crisis-hit zone on August 15.

Bird flu was first confirmed in Bhaktapur on July 26. As many as 1,91,063 fowls and 1,19,271 chicks were culled before the district was declared crisis-hit following the flu confirmation.

via The Himalayan Times : Close to one million birds culled – Detail News : Nepal News Portal.

Japan scrambles fighter jets to head off China plane | News , International | THE DAILY STAR

Britain, France, Turkey want US to bomb Syria and Japan wants to prove its “manhood” and gain ? by threatening China… 

Boys just wanna play at war… but that’s gotta end!

Japan scrambled fighter jets on Monday to head off a Chinese government plane flying towards disputed islands in the East China Sea, the defence ministry in Tokyo said.

A Y-12 propeller plane flew about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from airspace around the Tokyo-controlled Senkakus, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyus, the ministry said.

The aircraft headed back towards China without entering disputed airspace after Japan’s military planes became airborne, defence officials said, declining to give further details.

In December, a similar plane from China’s State Oceanic Administration breached airspace over the disputed islands, prompting the launch of Japanese F-15s.

It was the first known incursion by a Chinese plane into Japanese airspace, the government said at the time.

Monday’s incident came as four Chinese coastguard ships sailed in the contiguous zone around the islands, Japan’s coastguard said.

The moves were the latest in a series by Chinese government ships since Tokyo nationalised three islands in the chain last September, reigniting a long-simmering dispute.

via Japan scrambles fighter jets to head off China plane | News , International | THE DAILY STAR.

US senator on foreign relations committee wants ‘surgical’ air strike against Syria

(Don’t know much about rithmatic but I do know, I love to look tough and crack wise…)

Corker says the Obama administration “feels like there’s no question chemicals were used” and says it is seeking to rally its NATO allies to support a military response.

He adds, “I think it should be surgical, it should be proportional. It should be responsive to what happened on the ground.”

But Corker also said, “I think we can get that right without us getting mired in a conflict.”

via US senator on foreign relations committee wants ‘surgical’ air strike against Syria.

U.N. team headed to site of alleged chemical attack comes under sniper fire, turns back – The Washington Post

Deja vu – Gotta go to war in Iraq, err, Syria… Fool me once, shame on you; twice, shame on me!

The United States has been consulting with its allies about possible responses, and on Monday the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Turkey said in separate radio interviews that they would be prepared to back U.S. action outside the parameters of a United Nations mandate.

via U.N. team headed to site of alleged chemical attack comes under sniper fire, turns back – The Washington Post.

Anime characters fuel interest in Japan’s military amid territorial dispute with China | South China Morning Post

This year, a record 110,000 people applied for the approximately 6,000 places at the military exercises, with some suggesting the sudden sexiness of howitzers and squealing tank tracks is partly thanks to Girls und Panzer.

The animated show revolves around a group of girls – all of whom wear short-skirted school uniforms and have outsize doe-eyes – studying “the way of the tank,” as if it were a martial art.

via Anime characters fuel interest in Japan’s military amid territorial dispute with China | South China Morning Post.

 

Remilitarization and rebuilding Imperial Japan is gaining ground and should be closely watched. 50,000+ Americans killed by them in WWII and millions of Chinese, Koreans, Burmese…

BBC News – Ducks were bird flu ‘melting pot’

(BBC passing on load of you know what from Chinese who want to blame wild birds and not gazillions of caged birds that provide the most perfect breeding ground for new viruses that get passed on to wild birds afterwards. It is not accident that the problem is bigger since the poultry market went global about 20 years ago and you have billions more birds being raised and sold in live markets than ever before and chicks and eggs being shipped all over the globe 24/7.)

 

Ducks were the melting pot of viruses that led to the new bird flu emerging in China early this year, according to Chinese scientists tracking the evolution of the virus.

Ducks picked up viruses from migrating birds and passed them onto chickens.

The study, published in the journal Nature, showed humans were probably then infected with H7N9 due to contact with chickens at live poultry markets.

There have been 133 human cases of the bird flu and 43 deaths.

The team, including researchers at the Shantou University Medical College, were trying to trace the root of the outbreak.

They took samples from 1,341 chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, partridges and quail as well as faecal and water samples from live poultry markets.

By comparing the similarities and differences between the genetic codes of influenza viruses in each of the animals, scientists can work out how the virus evolved and spread.

Their report said: “Domestic ducks seem to act as key intermediate hosts by acquiring and maintaining diverse influenza viruses from migratory birds.

via BBC News – Ducks were bird flu ‘melting pot’.