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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

14 July - News Articles of Note

View from the Clock Tower at The Old Post Offi...Image by giveawayboy via Flickr

 Nature News

 News blog

Check The Great Beyond for an up-to-the-minute digest of what is being reported elsewhere.


The gut's 'friendly' viruses revealed
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100714/full/news.2010.353.html

Giant, poisonous weed spreading across Canada
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100714/giant-hogweed-100714/20100714
It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel: a towering, toxic weed that can burn the skin if touched and even cause blindness.

But giant hogweed is real and is being spotted all across the country.

EPA Fines Monsanto for Selling Mislabeled GM Cotton in Forbidden Areas

http://www.celsias.com/article/epa-fines-monsanto-selling-mislabeled-gm-cotton-fo
Supreme Court Lifts Ban on Planting GM Alfalfa
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/06/21/21greenwire-supreme-court-lifts-ban-on-planting-gm-alfalfa-57894.html

DNA patent ruling hinders Monsanto
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100709/full/news.2010.345.html?s=news_rss
he court said that such a patent can be enforced only when the DNA is performing the function for which it was originally patented — known as purpose-bound protection.

The ruling is being viewed as the first test of the European Union's biotechnology directive, passed in 1998, which set down policy on what kind of genetic material was patentable, and on what protection that patent enjoyed. Lawyers disagree about the wider impact of the court ruling, but some feel that it will restrict the scope of European patents on DNA.

Social Networking Takes Flight
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/business/13social.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=business
a growing number of frequent fliers are using their mobile devices to create an informal travelers’ community in airports and aloft.

10 Things that are ruining your skin
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/10-things-that-are-ruining-your-skin-1959395

Factory Efficiency Comes to the Hospital
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/business/11seattle.html?src=me&ref=business
 Seattle Children’s Hospital has found that checklists, standardization and nonstop brainstorming with front-line staff and customers can pay off.

“It turns out the highest-quality care also is the most cost-effective because we make fewer mistakes and create better outcomes,” says Patrick Hagan, the hospital’s president. 


Automated Debt-Collection Lawsuits Engulf Courts
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/business/13collection.html?src=me&ref=business
Monday, the Federal Trade Commission weighed in, saying the system for resolving disputes over consumer debts was broken and in need of “significant reforms.”

The commission, which says debt collection is its top consumer complaint, proposed that states require collectors to include more information about debts in their lawsuits, including a breakdown of the current balance by principal, interest and fees, and the relevant terms of the original credit contract, if not the contract itself.


Chinese rating agency strips Western nations of AAA status
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7886077/Chinese-rating-agency-strips-Western-nations-of-AAA-status.html

China's leading credit rating agency has stripped America, Britain, Germany and France of their AAA ratings, accusing Anglo-Saxon competitors of ideological bias in favour of the West.
Chinese president Hu Jintao said in April that the world needs "an objective, fair, and reasonable standard" for rating sovereign debt. Dagong appears to have stepped into the role, saying its objective was to assess countries using methods that would "not be affected by ideology".

"The reason for the global financial crisis and debt crisis in Europe is that the current international credit rating system does not correctly reveal the debtor's repayment ability," said Guan Jianzhong, Dagong's chairman. 

Related Articles
EMU break-up risks global deflation shock that would dwarf Lehman collapse, warns ING
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/212010-EMU-break-up-risks-global-deflation-shock-that-would-dwarf-Lehman-collapse-warns-ING

Responsible criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report

No extraditions to the US
http://norightturn.blogspot.com
the European Court of Human Rights has halted the extradition of a suspected terrorist from the UK to the US. Not because he would receive an unfair trial (he won't), or because he might face the death penalty, but because the penalty if convicted may constitute torture. 
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