Slashdot Mirror

They should make a law to require all medical books be approved by one of Bayer, GSK or Pfizer. Then people will know they're getting the unbiased truth.

Science is no more immune from monetary corruption than any other industry. Asbestos, Cigarettes, and Glysophate are just a few modern examples of this.

Of course, pointing this out will often result in one being called an 'anti-vaxxer'. I am not. I just have a healthy skepticism for any scientific studies funded by industry insiders.

https://www.foodnavigator.com/...

When you make yourself too dependent on others, you have more instability than if you're self sufficient. That's actually an argument against free trade.

Are you self sufficient? I seriously doubt it. I doubt you went to medical college and became an MD, you farm and or hunt with a box and arrow you made and gather, and built your own home. Unless you did these yourself, you're not self sufficient either. As a matter of fact I bet you didn't manufacture the computer you used to write your response, from designing and fabricating the CPU to laying out out the motherboard. No, if you didn't buy a compleat system at most you bought the components off the self and assembled it.

The problem comes in if we were trading Cats for bags of wheat, now the market for heavy equipment dries up, we get no more wheat.

Actually the US is the biggest exporter of wheat. And with Australia the second largest but drought devastating agriculture there there will be more demand for US wheat.

You're assuming that the economy is largely dependent on foreign trade

It is. Take just oil. Most of the oil the US uses is imported. During the 1970s the US imported 1/2 of it's oil, now we import more. The US uses a quarter of the world's oil production. And it's not just wheat the US is the biggest exporter of, the US is one of the biggest exporters of other food produce as well. With the subsidies US agricultural businesses, the government gives hundreds of billions in subsidies, this drives third world farmers off their farms. Now that is bad, now only does it make others dependent on the US for food, it also gives large businesses billions of taxpayer dollars. I firmly believe in food security but this has nothing to do with it.

SHOULD we be if the result is more instability

Whereas lack of trade can cause instability trade can inprove it.

Also, can you explain why buying a foreign product in the hope that the foreigner will eventually buy a domestic product is even rational? When you have the power to ensure a 100% of the domestic product being bought by buying it yourself?

And every nation has all the minerals and other natural resources to make everything themselves? Yea, right. NOT!!! OIL!

The food subsidy issue goes back to what I was really asking about. At what point do you accept "economic inefficiency" (in terms of comparative advantage) for the sake of security? To me, the global food crisis demonstrated that food security is a real concern. Countries that depended on cheap foreign food imports got totally boned.

As stated above I totally agree. Every nation should have food security but there can still be trade in food after food security is met. Oranges don't grow everywhere, neither do bananas, or coffee? Are you willing to give up a cup of joe? Trade in food add spice to people's diet. That coffee originally came from Ethiopia in Africa. Yet it's drunk all over the world. A shortage of potatoes caused by late bligh, used to make vodka as well, caused the Irish Potato Famine. However potatoes are not native of Ireland.

International trade has made man people's lives better.

Falcon

Sadly, this move to vegetable oil has already been initiated in Europe. Some countries already practice it regularly, while some try to fight it (like italy, and france)

References:

* Directive name: 73/241/EEC (Sets the definition and labeling of chocolate products)
* reference about italy's situation

I can't help but think this might be due to the WTO somehow

Oh, the EU has fined so many companies for price fixing, I don't even know where to begin--Bayer & Chemtura, Siemens, Dow, escalator firms, Heineken, Aventis, animal feed companies, the Deutsche Post, many vitamin producers, Nintendo and, of course, the well known case of Microsoft.

I'm not saying that none of these fines are unjustified but I am saying that, if I may opine, the EU has been issuing a lot of fines. With this recent Apple one, it does seem as though Apple had no choice and if they aren't given an alternative to losing their contracts with record companies for the sake of running one Europe encompassing store, then I don't blame them. On the surface, the EU Commissions seem to be discouraging big businesses from selling things like XBoxes, PS3s or iTunes inside all of the countries. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I guess time will tell ...

Pepper is also supposed to help fat burning. In a fast search i only found link telling about red (cayenne) pepper having
that effect but ive read that black pepper is supposed to have some effect (with exercise, as parent pointed out). http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?id=52759- red-pepper-for

The only reason Peapod still exists is because they sold out to the international grocery giant Royal Ahold in 2001, for the princely price of $2.15 a share -- down from $18.50 at its 1997 IPO. Ahold's investment was the only thing that kept Peapod from folding.

Considering that they never earned a profit as an independent operation and were spending $1.60 to ship $1 worth of groceries, it's probably safe to chalk them up with the dot-bombs, even if the Peapod brand is still around.

You are too late: GM Beer to hit the shelves