Hamilton to amend rules for neighborhood farming | www.journal-news.com

Elizabeth Torres, an intern with Hamilton Urban Garden Systems, waters tomato plants at a community garden lat University Commerce Park. Hamilton is set to amend an ordinance that will allow residents to use city-owned or private property to grow produce to be eaten, sold or donated.

via Hamilton to amend rules for neighborhood farming | www.journal-news.com.

Mantis And Shrimp: Australian For Robots – Mobile Magazine – Skynet meet Earthnet!

DroneCulture

Ethics to be debated or not, robots are certainly becoming more popular these days. While some are busy arguing that we should all start asking questions as early as possible, before Skynet happens, many have already made plans with robots in the center. Say hello to “Mantis” and “Shrimp”, Australia’s agricultural robots.

Developed by Salah Sukkarieh, Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Sydney, these robots can sense color and therefore can tell if a fruit is ripe or not. And that’s why they are named after the Mantis shrimp which has 16 different color receptors for detecting up to 12 colors.

And not just colors. According to Sukkarieh, “We have fitted them with a lot of sensors, vision, laser, radar and conductivity sensors – including GPS and thermal sensors“. The robots are currently being tested at the moment and it is hoped that after more development the machines will be able to perform more complex tasks such as watering or applying fertilizer depending on the data collected and ultimately harvesting. Also under development are unmanned aircrafts, seen below.

via Mantis And Shrimp: Australian For Robots – Mobile Magazine.

US: Idaho spud giant bets on biotech potatoes

US: Idaho spud giant bets on biotech potatoes

A dozen years after a customer revolt forced Monsanto to ditch its genetically engineered potato, an Idaho company aims to resurrect high-tech spuds.

This month, tuber-processing giant J.R. Simplot Co. asked the US government to approve five varieties of biotech potatoes. They’re engineered not to develop ugly black bruises. McDonald’s, which gets many of its fries from Simplot, rejects those. They’re also designed to have less of a natural – but potentially cancer-causing neurotoxin – acrylamide.

Much has changed in 12 years, according to the Boise-based company.

Unlike transgenic varieties Monsanto sold in the 1990s using genes from synthetic bacteria to kill insect pests, Simplot’s new “Innate” brand potatoes use only potato genes.

Haven Baker, Simplot’s Yale and Harvard University-trained vice-president of plant sciences, said his scientists journeyed inside the vegetable’s genome to “silence” unwanted attributes, while making sure it remained 100 percent potato.

“You’ll never get as much beneficial effect from traditional plant breeding,” he said. “And it’ll take twice as long.”

(this is the catch – they want more profit faster and are willing to risk messing with the whole system for their benefit!)

Those in the industry remember Monsanto’s ill-fated foray and say Simplot’s major challenge in avoiding a similar fate is ensuring its product is acceptable among growers, processors and, ultimately, people eating it.

“Unless your customers are prepared to embrace this product, it’s not going to be successful,” said Frank Muir, president of the Idaho Potato Commission that represents Idaho’s $3 billion industry. His group, whose website boasts Idaho potatoes aren’t genetically engineered, hasn’t weighed in on Simplot’s endeavor.

Baker said with Simplot’s new potatoes, growers would earn more money with less wastage from bruising, something that can affect up to 5 percent of their harvest. Additionally, the spuds are designed to produce acrylamide levels so low they skirt California’s strict, voter-mandated cancer labels on french fries and potato chips, he said.

Joe Guenther, a University of Idaho professor of agricultural economics, in 2011 won funding from Simplot to survey potato industry players about re-introducing genetically engineered potatoes into the food chain. His conclusion: It could succeed, provided potatoes were modified with potato genes, not foreign micro-organisms that in the 1990s spawned terms such as “frankenfood.”

“The Monsanto product crossed that species line,” Guenther said. “The exciting thing about the Simplot product is, it stays within the potato species.”

via US: Idaho spud giant bets on biotech potatoes.

Israel to build 1,100 new settler homes in East Jerusalem | Maan News Agency

Israel is preparing to build 1,100 new settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem as the United States strives to revive dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, an NGO said.

Danny Seidemann, director of Jerusalem settlement watchdog Terrestrial Jerusalem, told AFP that contracts for 300 homes in the northeastern settlement of Ramot were signed and another 797 plots were to be offered for sale in the southern Jerusalem settlement of Gilo, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Both are in Palestinian areas of the holy city which were occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day war then annexed, in a move still unrecognized by the international community.

Seidemann said that the plans were approved last year, before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quietly ordered a settlement freeze, but the latest steps in their implementation were leaked to media by the office of hardline Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel.

via Israel to build 1,100 new settler homes in East Jerusalem | Maan News Agency.

Egypt’s Cultural Scene Under Threat? | Egyptian Streets شوارع مصر

Several weeks ago, President Morsi appointed a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Alaa Abdel-Aziz, as Minister of Culture.

Initially, this sparked concerns that the Muslim Brotherhood intended to ‘purge’ Egypt’s cultural scene by installing Islamists into influential positions in the Ministry. These concerns were quickly dismissed by the government as absurd.

Yet in just few weeks, the new Minister has fired the heads of the Cairo Opera House, the Fine Arts Sector and the Egyptian General Book Authority. The Minister also attempted to fire the head of the Academy of Arts, but the law states that he can only be fired by a Presidential decree.

The sackings were yesterday followed by the resignation of the Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Culture, Said Tawfik, over what he called “a plan to destroy Egyptian culture.” The Supreme Council for Culture is arguably one of the most important parts of the Ministry, as it is responsible for setting policies and organizing activities.

In a show of support for those who were sacked, workers and artists at the Cairo Opera House cancelled a planned opera show – Aida – and announced a strike in solidarity with the sacked head of the Opera House and to protest the ‘Brotherhoodization’ of Egypt’s culture

via Egypt’s Cultural Scene Under Threat? | Egyptian Streets شوارع مصر.

The Neo-Dictatorship of Hezbollah: Rami and Marwa Olleik

Being neo-dictators will not get you re-elected nor protect your interests or Lebanon’s

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Hezbollah’s practices towards Lebanese citizens, whose protection theoretically justifies the party’s entire existence, have been nothing short of unacceptable lately, especially against Lebanese Southerners who became outspoken against some of the party’s practices.

Imagine the following scenario: you live in a town in Lebanon with a predominant political affiliation. The party in question decides to do something with which you don’t agree and you decide to speak out. The next thing you know, you are thrown out of your house and forbidden from returning to your hometown or even attacked on your way home.

This is Hezbollah’s did with two Lebanese Southerners Shiites who dared speak against its involvement in Al Qusayr or against the party in general.

The case of Rami Olleik was always baffling to me. He was a militant Hezbollah member, swiftly rising among the party’s rank, until he came to believe that the party’s entire ideology…

View original post 565 more words

WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome- coronavirus – update

Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 49 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 27 deaths.

WHO has received reports of laboratory-confirmed cases originating in the following countries in the Middle East to date: Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). France, Germany, Tunisia and the United Kingdom also reported laboratory-confirmed cases; they were either transferred for care of the disease or returned from the Middle East and subsequently became ill. In France, Tunisia and the United Kingdom, there has been limited local transmission among patients who had not been to the Middle East but had been in close contact with the laboratory-confirmed or probable cases.

via WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome- coronavirus – update.

Yahoo faces uphill popularity struggle | Technology | DW.DE | 29.05.2013

Yahoo is no longer a recognizable brand – at least not amongst the 20-somethings we spoke with. And who can blame them? While Google has spent recent years locking in its customer base by adding in service after service, Yahoo has had less success. And services like Flickr, Tumblr and Summly may not help because they have not been rebranded, so Internet users may still feel that they have little or nothing to do with Yahoo.

via Yahoo faces uphill popularity struggle | Technology | DW.DE | 29.05.2013.

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