Slashdot Mirror

Why would slashdotters support GM crops? The goal of such research is to make plants into intellectual property - not usually the favourite kind of property around here.

Goals for GM food vary, and include increased yields, resistance to disease, and other properties. One important one is to better the lives of the people eating them by combating disease. Consider "golden rice." I would think (hope?) most people on Slashdot aren't big fans of disease and starvation of other people.

Why is that modded down? The medical device tax is widely seen as a bad thing. Or are we only allowed to cheer ever for bad ideas contained in the "ACA"?

How A Tax On Medical Devices United Political Rivals

A 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices that took effect at the beginning of 2013 should be undone, they say. House Republicans included a provision to do that in a funding bill passed over the weekend that also sought a one-year delay in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said in a statement last week that "there is strong bipartisan support for repealing the medical device tax, with Democrats and Republicans uniting behind our effort. I will continue to work to get rid of this harmful tax so Minnesota's medical device businesses can continue to create good jobs in our state and improve patients' lives."

No, here in the states, it's the federal government which has been subsidizing bad behavior. See: National Flood Insurance Program.

A decent discussion was had just yesterday: Nixed Flood Insurance Subsidy Drowns Coastal Home Values Yea, yea it's NPR. If you can't handle that, check out The Weather Channel's version: Skyrocketing Flood Insurance Rates Bring Financial Chaos, Heartache to Coastal Homeowners Across U.S.

There is magnitudes more money on the other side.

Do the math. Wikipedia claims half a trillion in fossil fuel subsidies versus almost 90 billion just in renewable energy subsidies in 2011. That's not an order of magnitude, much less several orders. And I mentioned a number of other big business sectors than just renewable energy.

Most of the fossil fuel subsidies are provided by oil producer nations such as OPEC memberes and Russia. Not everyone can get the subsidies and rent seeking opportunities that state-owned Gazprom or Saudi Aramco have. For example, at least 40 billion was due to Saudi Arabia alone (it's domestic oil consumption subsidy (which incidentally is significant enough to impair production!) and subsidies for oil-based electricity and water desalinization). I see that Gazprom had around $5 billion per year just in subsidies to former Soviet republic members. Venezuela has similar consumption subsidies kicking in about $4 billion a year currently.

In comparison, those renewable energy and other subsidies are ripe for the taking and not previously claimed by a state actor. And there's no reason a business can't claim both fossil fuel subsidies and climate change-related subsidies. It's not that hard.

I only recognize that reference because of a recent "NPR Planet Money". http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/07/19/201430727/what-actually-happens-at-the-end-of-trading-places

NPR and ProPublica have done a few pieces regarding this topic that I think you should check out before writing off the phenomena completely.

GM can always just bribe legislators to ban manufacturers from selling directly, like in Texas! =\ http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2013/09/10/why-tesla-lost-the-fight-to-sell-cars-in-texas/

There is no pause. Please inform yourself - it's embarrassing.

Some information for you: Scientific American: Is the Pacific Ocean Responsible for a Pause in Global Warming?

NPR: A Cooler Pacific May Be Behind Recent Pause In Global Warming

USA Today: Pacific Ocean cools, flattening global warming

But maybe the UK Met Office admitting it's been flat for 16 years, or just looking at the HADCRUT4 data would be a better source?

There seems to be a market for quality recordings http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/09/11/219727031/what-does-a-song-that-costs-5-sound-like

This isn't a Republican vs Democrat thing, but it _is_ very political. Planet Money had an explanation of the economics of car dealerships and how dealerships and politicians prevent sales directly to consumers.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/19/172402376/why-buying-a-car-never-changes

NPR was just doing a similar story about folks who skydive in flying squirrel wingsuits. They say there's no thrill like flying above the earth at well over 100MPH. It is also implied and understood there is no such thing as a do-over either. Life is inherently risky, while risks of death can be a real turn-on for folks.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/27/215784315/wingsuit-flying-incredible-thrill-but-no-second-chance

"So I'm going to tell you what the facts are, and the facts are the facts, but then we know the truth. That always overcomes facts,"
pastor Terri Copeland Pearsons, The Eagle Mountain International Church, Texas.
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/01/217746942/texas-megachurch-at-center-of-measles-outbreak

While I have no doubt that TFA describes a fine public service built by those of the highest integrity, I must confess that my first thought was quite the opposite, given recent history.

With cash reserves like their's, they can just move instead. There is nothing special about the land they are using... the historical reason such projects made sense in the past was they were reclaiming farmable land, which is not quite as interchangeable as corporate parks.

It is not just San Francisco that is worried. Water levels won't just rise in that one city.

Turns out people have already done research on who lives in low-lying coastal regions. About 10% of the global population will likely need to move. 2/3 of the world's largest cities would be swamped or submerged.

The United States might lose only 5% of its land. Countries like India will lose half of their land. Some island nations will be completely uninhabitable.

Even if sea walls cost quadrillions of dollars globally to delay the eventual flooding of the land, that is likely still cheaper than such a massive sudden loss of existing infrastructure. It is cheaper (for a few centuries, at least) to spend a few trillion dollars protecting major cities than it is to completely rebuild the cities elsewhere.

Yes the people will need to eventually move through both a planned migration and normal population growth. Relocating 10% of the global population in just a few short decades is a much harder problem to solve, and a much more expensive proposition, than to build the massive walls around existing large cities.

There are 2 approaches.
Top down would be the carbon tax. If you are concerned about exporting pollution to the 3rd world there are ways of handling that – like via a tariff (and still not be a protectionist).
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21572180-can-trade-restrictions-be-justified-environmental-grounds-air-trade/print

Or you can go bottom up, implementing various subsides and plans, figuring out the loopholes, then adding another layer, see the loop holes, etc.

You want the plan that gives the most bang for the buck which is the Carbon Tax.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/06/28/196355493/economists-have-a-one-page-solution-to-climate-change

From NPR, how the Rotovirus vaccine has prevented thousands of hospitalizations directly, and even more because the virus didn't spread via the vaccinated kids.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/08/27/216177042/vaccinating-babies-for-rotavirus-protects-the-whole-family

Quote: "In total we estimate around 15,000 hospitalizations a year are avoided due to the rotavirus vaccination program, solely due to this indirect benefit or herd immunity,"

Here is another good article

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/19/172402376/why-buying-a-car-never-changes

In short, it’s not illegal – probably (Tessla is trying to do this but are having a few issues).

The short answer is that you can either sell your products directly or use a franchise system but you can’t compete against your own franchise system. It is to stop big business from abusing around small, locally owned business who are highly active in local politics. (I can point to abuses on both sides)

I suggest listening to this story. I'm not saying there's isn't some biological difference at play, but this study and others like it demonstrate that gien the right conditions, girls are just as likely to show interest in STEM fields as boys, so your assertion that it's only biological seems very unlikely. We need to determine just what conditions keep girls from showing as much interest, or more correctly stated, losing interest. We can then work to eliminate those conditions.

Of course, if you're an Australian and come to the USA to play baseball (rounders for those outside the US), then you risk being shot to death from behind by some bored teenagers who've just decided that they felt like killing someone because they've nothing better to do, and that it would be "fun". (ref: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/20/213781714/australians-shooting-death-echoes-from-oklahoma-to-melbourne) The US is "the best" ? hmmmmm.

Yes, it's terrible to think that professional sports players should actually be rewarded for training and talent rather than drugs.

You mean, like the old timers? Good ol' Babe Ruth, he didn't need any steroids! Oh, wait, yes he did (ctrl-F "sheep's testicles").

Let 'em use whatever the hell they want, and get the FDA the hell out of moralizing our biological mediocrity.

Cute, but what could we possibly make in the US that can compare to the prices you get when you don't bother with labor and environmental regulations?

Aircraft
CPUs
Software
Movies
Tourism
Food
Although, except for food, these don't take up much space on container ships, so many are empty on the return trip to China.
America is the world's second biggest exporter.

You should also read this... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439

300 tons of contaminated water doesn't seem like a lot when you consider there are (roughly) 784,430,000,000,000,000.00 tons of water in the pacific ocean alone. I think I'll still eat fish...

Make that 300 tons of contaminated water per day, something that Japan's environmental agency says has been happening since very soon after the initial accident in March of 2011. According to NPR, the next plan is to dig a bunch of cooling pipes into the ground and create an underground "ice wall" to stop the contamination from flowing out in to the ocean. No, really

You can trivialize all you want, but if I were you I'd avoid eating the fish from anywhere near the Japanese coast, and anything that eats there during annual migrations. Could be bad for your health. Radioactivity builds up in plants and animals over time, and it's been pouring in for 2 1/2 years now.

If that isn't bad enough, a newly stated concern is the proximity of melted fuel in relation to the Tokyo aquifer that extends under the plant. If and when the corium reaches the Tokyo aquifer, there will be 40 million people in the Tokyo area without access to safe water.

The Cubans don't want them there, and they haven't cashed any of the checks for the 'rental'.

The previous Cuban government was content to cash the checks, and Castro's government did cash the first check they received. They haven't cashed more as a protest against the US by the communist Cuban government.

Since there were Cubans that crossed the fence from Cuba proper to Guantanamo and back to work on a daily basis until 9 months ago, there are do doubt some Cubans that were content to see them there. Most likely there would be well over a thousand Cubans working there as there were in the past, but the communist government won't allow retiring Cuban workers to be replaced by other Cubans. As a result, the very good wages by local standards are not being paid to Cubans, but to workers imported from the Dominican Republic and the Philippines. Given Cuba's anemic economy the communist Cuban government is harming Cuban workers to spite the US.

Since many Cubans have tried to escape Cuba over the years to get to the US, it seems likely that there are more fans of the US than you let on.

1994 Cuban Exodus Remembered

When Fidel Castro announced that his government would not stand in the way of Cubans who wanted to flee the island, Domingo Perera saw the chance he had been waiting for.

A carpenter, Perera already had made rafts and tried to leave, only to be thwarted and imprisoned four times. After Cuba opened the door in August 1994, Perera, his daughter and nine others launched a raft toward the United States....

Today, Perera, 55, is a published author who owns a tile business on Florida's Gulf Coast. He said he is glad he risked fleeing his homeland.

"I never complain about this country," he said. "I tell people, `You have to thank God that this country opened its doors to you.' "

During a month in 1994, more than 35,000 rafters, or balseros, left Cuba for the United States, many aboard flimsy homemade rafts.

Marielitos' Stories, 30 Years After The Boatlift

In April of 1980, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared the Port of Mariel open, permitting Cubans to freely depart for the U.S. In the next six months, an estimated 125,000 Cubans arrived in a massive wave on American shores. "Marielitos" remember their journeys on the 30th anniversary of the Mariel Boatlift.

I suspect that most of the Cuban people are bigger fans of the US than you. Maybe you have had a chance to wave a "Castro Si!" banner enough?

But don't also forget that China openly brags [google.com] about doing weather modification such as clearing smog for the Beijing Olympics or around other cities

Yeah, well, China also tries to pass off dogs as lions . So, yeah.

Yeah, it's those darn TeaBaggers! I mean after what they did in CA to UC Berkeley...

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/19/141505658/why-is-college-so-expensive

You're a tool.

Pretty much this.

There was a Planet Money episode where they go into all the evil-ness that is medical billing. It even has George Bush's cousin in it.

Some things aren't the way they are because people are stupid/lazy. Somethings are the way they are cause some things are hard.

As far as change goes: any time you think "hey, that's stupid, we'll change it.. its so stupid it should be easy to change".. remember that every situation is the way it is for a reason. In every stupid situation there will be some people who make money on the situation precisely because it's stupid, and you'll have to convince them to give up their cash. Good luck with that.

Can we measure two benefits?

1) Create Biofuel

2) Clean the environment

Example 1: Cattails remove toxins & pollution from wetlands, stormwater. http://www.scer.rpi.edu/bwe/?p=369

Example 2: Sunflowers decontaminate radioactive soil. http://www.ecaa.ntu.edu.tw/weifang/cea/sunflowers.htm

Example 3: Algae blooms http://www.npr.org/2013/08/11/211130501/the-algae-is-coming-but-its-impact-is-felt-far-from-water

Carol Lee, WSJ: "Can you understand, though, why some people might not trust what you're saying right now about wanting to --"

Obama: "No, I can't."

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/09/210574114/transcript-president-obamas-news-conference

But the on-site / server backdoors are necessary unless there's some unknown backdoor built into SSL that the NSA, MI6, IDF, etc. can utilize. By default, my GMail uses HTTPS, but the NSA's backdoor to Google servers negates that advantage.

So, unless there's an unknown backdoor built into SSL, as long as Runbox.com uses HTTPS, how should "Australia, the UK, the US", etc. know what was transmitted unless they use a brute-force attack?

Just yesterday, NPR indicated that US-based cloud platforms stand to lose between $21 billion and $35 billion over the next few years over the NSA scandal... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=210570888 . Lavamail and Silent Circle shut down unexpectedly & destroyed all data they had to not get caught up in the scandal...

In that case, the world ended a while ago:
http://www.npr.org/2013/04/20/177981747/al-gore-plays-not-my-job-extended-cut

Slow your kneejerk, young Padawan. This is a sticky problem. Because the problem is about population distribution.

If 51% of the population is female, but only 12% (pulling hypothetical number out of my ass) of pop culture role models were female, what would be the solution? Should feminists sit down and agree on which 39% are doing something "wrong" by merely being male, and attack them? That's absurd.

The disproportion is systemic, so the response is naturally also systemic. Remember that feminists are ultimately just a big group of people, too, not some single-minded organization. If one feminist happens to like Doctor Who, then that one feminist might write an article wondering why Doctor Who couldn't take advantage of its nerdy plot device to tip the proportion a little closer to that of the population at large.

Oh, and be wary of your own perceptions.

We just heard a fascinating and disturbing study, where they looked at the ratio of men and women in groups. And they found that if there's 17 percent women, the men in the group think it's 50-50. And if there's 33 percent women, the men perceive that as there being more women in the room than men.

Not everything every feminist does is a good idea. But the movement as a whole is certainly necessary. The gender divide has some alarming symptoms that are very easy to overlook.

They pay their own salaries every year without fail. They have a 291 million dollar budget.

Non profit means that there should be, and normally is nothing left after covering their costs and salaries, rent, plant, etc. You might want to read up on it.

It doesn't mean that their vendors don't get paid and everyone who works there works for free.
Support services make up 21% of their budget.

Government bonds have very strict terms on repayment and that is for a reason - they need to be exceptionally predictable and reliable to function in their primary role of being reliable bonds.

Who said anything about postponing payment? Although that is in many cases an indirect option. Many bonds have terms that permit early retirement (not all but more than a few) and others are coming due regularly and the US can buy these bonds back and issue new ones with new payment terms. The Fed does this all the time entirely within the terms of the bonds issued. The only caveat is that you need someone interested in buying the debt. 90% of the buyers of US debt are not China and more than half are inside the USA.

All of above events would cause severe harm to US, and by extension world economy, which is why they are unlikely to occur. We are effectively in a state of financial MAD in credit system.

Correct. And my point is that China is if anything in a worse position. They have a MUCH larger poor population and their economy would likely be hurt far worse than the US economy in the event of a problem. China simply doesn't have a sufficiently developed domestic market yet. No one is suggesting that the US default in any way. What I am stating point-blank however is that the notion of the Chinese coming to collect the $1.1 trillion in debt they hold is absurd. They cannot do it even if they wanted to.

All the computer manufacturers use chips made in Taiwan. Have a NVIDIA or ATI GPU? Taiwan. Have a Realtek audio or network chip? Taiwan. The list goes on.

Most computer manufacturers use the Chinese factories of Taiwanese companies (e.g. Foxconn, Quanta, Compal) to assemble their PCs. This includes HP, Dell, Apple and others.

Lenovo has a factory in the US that assembles computers unlike some of these "american" computer companies.

So it all smells like trade protectionist bullshit to me.

Well first of all, no, I am not a paid Monsanto shill. I know, shocker. No, I'm a network engineer who recently came down with kidney disease due to a freak allergy condition, and in that process have done all kinds of research about proper nutrition (I have to baby my metabolic system as part of managing my chronic kidney disease.) In addition to that, I have a very diminished ability to work, so my wallet is tight. Therefore, I have a vested interest in nutritional food being available on the cheap.

Beyond that, I have no dog in the agriculture industry. None. I'm not invested in any company, I own no stocks, I don't work for any food related business, I don't have any friends in the business, and I don't have any relatives in the business. Zero ties, period.

First, nearly all of your claims have been pretty well established as false, especially the ones about terminator genes:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/18/163034053/top-five-myths-of-genetically-modified-seeds-busted

Do I think Monsanto is in it to end world hunger? Nope. They're in it to make money, just like any other business. However through their developments, the farmers are able to grow crops at a reduced overall cost per yield in addition to higher yields in general; in other words your food costs less and there is more of it. This is why Monsanto products are sought after. Do we use more glyphosate based pesticides? Probably. Given that we have created a situation where the plants we want are immune to them, and it kills the plants we don't want, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest that we now make more of them. Why, did that surprise you? If it did, that doesn't say much about your intelligence. Glyphosate doesn't end up on our dinner plates in any significant quantities, so it's not a problem.

The organic industry hates Monsanto because now they have to compete with their prices. And it sucks for them particularly bad because organic farming has otherwise very high profit margins, but its costs will never go down, even though it is already scientifically proven to offer zero health or taste benefit over any other form of farming. You know why the costs for organic will never go down? Because it is technologically capped - i.e. there are strict limits on what kinds of technologies they can use for their farming. Worse is that the organic crops will continue to adapt to the pesticides they use, which means they'll always need to use larger quantities of them as time goes by since they can't use synthetic pesticides (which is why modern farming uses far less pesticides than organic already.)

The organic industry isn't suing Monsanto because they want to protect you from bad food, they're suing because they want to protect their revenue stream long term. How you like that one? Whole Foods is in it to make money as well. And what do you know, I don't shop there because I can't afford their food. I've found that a wal-mart strawberry tastes the same as a whole foods strawberry, only costs about half as much, so I shop there. Does that anger you? Makes me happy to be honest, because as the saying goes: A penny saved is a penny earned.

Fun fact: Since the 1950's, the food yields from American farms has increased 300% while the landmass required to produce them has only increased 12%. Not true of Organic though - organic farming requires increased landmass at a closer to linear scale. And as if that isn't enough, organic farming will continue on that trend. Contrary to popular belief, organic farming is unsustainable.

The anti-GMO movement in my mind equates to the following:

anti-vaccine movement
9/11 conspiracy theorists
moon landing hoaxers
chemtrail fearmongerers

Yes, it being anti-GMO is every bit as unreasonable and even harmful as all of the above things to me. To me there is no difference, all of these people conveniently ignore any evidence that they

I did find a similar discussion that aired 6 months ago with Shankar Vedantam. Fear vs. dread, but not as well presented.

And another I should have mentioned is Peter Sandman on how outrage drives hazard perception. Outrage at being attacked makes it seem much more of a hazard - not more likely, nor more risky. And outrage will drive spending. So everyone focuses on what outrages them, rather than just what will statistically harm them.

Actually, they're flip-flopped on that one just a couple of days ago. Check out this headline from July 9, 2013:

FBI Nominee Agrees: Waterboarding Is 'Torture' And 'Illegal'

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/09/200529915/fbi-nominee-agrees-waterboarding-is-torture-and-illegal

you know what would work out? if the tables are really all reserved all the fucking time, make a reservation cost.
then increase cost until you hit a spot. the restaurant should just charge more, if people want to pay a months rent to eat there then so be it.

That works if you're just in it to make a profit, and don't care about who is able to come to the restaurant.

Planet Money had a podcast about this in regard to concert tickets. They had Kid Rock talking about it, and pointed out that it would be super simple to keep jacking up the price until supply & demand balances out and it's no longer worth scalping tickets.

However, selling tickets to the highest bidder greatly changes the tone of the audience you get. You no longer get people who are there because they want to enjoy the experience, you instead you get people there just to show off their affluence. (Kid Rock mentioned the bored-looking old guys in the front row who are obviously just there to impress half-their-age girlfriends.) You'd see that with increasing the price to restaurant reservations. You'll no longer get people going to the restaurant because they want to enjoy the food, you'd get people there because a table at State Bird Provisions is rare, and it will impress a girlfriend/business associate. As a chef, cooking for people who want to enjoy your food and cooking for people who are just there to show off are greatly different things, and you may be willing to reduce your profit if you can ensure the former.

While true, it leaves out the fun fact that this has been happening to many, many other organizations. See: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/06/25/195599362/Democrats-Want-Answers-On-Progressives-Targeted-By-IRS

So no, the IRS wasn't targeting those groups because they don't agree with the administration. It targeted those groups because claiming 501c(4) status while advertising politically charged terms is a red flag. Finally, the link you're including has nothing to do with the IRS, with participating in public discourse or even with political discrimination. These speeches are PR events. As such, they are fairly tightly controlled. And quite frankly, I'm rolling my eyes at the comment that "we just wanted to watch the speech". I'd like to hear this story from some non-GOP-propaganda outlet before I even look further into it.

People don't want to sign up for the armed services knowing that they're just going to be shipped off immediately to one of these middle-eastern hell holes to fight some undeclared war over some bullshit "terror" campaign to "keep us safe" from that big, evil Constitution that is making government's job so difficult.

Your entire comment is stupendously wrong.

Pilots love to fly, and most of them like their missions. Unfortunately the sequestration budget cuts mean that they are losing a lot of light time with some units being grounded completely. On top of that the Air Force in particular, and the military in general, has been ratcheting up the stifling level of political correctness and engaging in a growing number of witch hunts due to policies instituted by the current administration. In short, they are whittling away at the reason pilots are there - to fly - and filling them full of politically correct BS. Who could possibly imagine that might cause a retention problem?

Sequester Has Air Force Clipping Its Wings

The Pentagon says the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration could leave the U.S. with a military that is simply unprepared for the most challenging combat missions. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told Congress in April that the military is eating its seed corn. "The cuts will fall heavily on maintenance and training, which further erodes the readiness of the force and will be costly to regain in the future," he said. "As the service chiefs have said, we are consuming our readiness." The Air Force says it's in a special bind. Cuts in flying hours mean that pilots can't do the thing they need to practice most: flying. . . . "We were told to cut our flying budget roughly in half," Lt. Col. James Howard says. Because of that order, Howard says, he had to ground the 336th Fighter Squadron so that the other units on this base could keep flying. The tricky thing for Howard is that the longer his pilots remain idle, the longer it will take for them to get ready to fly again. Fighter pilots must fly and drill their skills on a regular basis, from dogfighting to helping ground troops under fire. Otherwise, they lose their certification. "All those skills are extremely perishable," Howard says. Most pilots, he says, are required to do eight to nine flights per month to maintain readiness status.

Who wouldn’t want to be a US Air Force fighter pilot?

The war against al Qaida is authorized by this law passed by Congress. It is legally equivalent to a declaration of war.
SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.

"Bullshit "terror" campaigns" don't leave thousands of Americas dead. Al Qaida has managed to do that, and they keep trying to find new ways. Maybe you've heard of 9/11?

So you're troubled that they ""keep us safe" from that big, evil Constitution"? Could you be more specific? Did somebody quarter troops in your house in violation of the 3rd Amendment? Or is that just empty emoting?

That's been tried, in an umber of schools in the US and Europe.
Here's one article: http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2012/02/14/cincinnati-school-pays-students-for-good-attendance/

So, they didn't test water pollution, only checked that fracking didn't contaminate water by using markers.
Hower, other studies showed a correlation between fracking and presence of water pollutants.

Therefore, the only logical conclusion is: water pollution causes fracking !

on some level that's actually probably true, areas where they give fracking licenses easily might have sloppier overall environmental checks, regardless of what the fracking happens to do.

some americans get really weird about drinking water though, like being afraid that some company is exporting the water from the big lakes to china as drinking water.. fuck if you can get someone to pay for drinking water from other side of the globe then do it!

So, they didn't test water pollution, only checked that fracking didn't contaminate water by using markers.
Hower, other studies showed a correlation between fracking and presence of water pollutants.

Therefore, the only logical conclusion is: water pollution causes fracking !

She did not purposefully release that this was her pseudonym, so kind of a bad example. There have been numerous news posts today about how she's "mad" at the PR firm that "leaked" the info...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/19/203548818/book-news-j-k-rowling-very-angry-that-law-firm-leaked-her-name

FTFY, you forgot the scare quotes.

Funny side note, from the article you linked:

The saga has a strange parallel with one of the plot lines in The Cuckoo's Calling — a supermodel, Lula Landry, hounded by press and fans, is driven into a paranoid panic wondering which of her friends was leaking her secrets to the press.

What a coincidence, at least to people who believe in such things.

She did not purposefully release that this was her pseudonym, so kind of a bad example. There have been numerous news posts today about how she's mad at the PR firm that leaked the info... http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/19/203548818/book-news-j-k-rowling-very-angry-that-law-firm-leaked-her-name

My first thought when reading this: So, the CIA has realized climate change could be a problem in the future. It sounds like the CIA is putting together a research group tasked with looking at alternatives if existing methods for reducing pollution don't end up working or if we can't get enough of the population to buy into them. For that matter, I've seen reports that global warming is irreversible. If that's true, shouldn't we be looking into these alternatives?

BBC is the closest news network to cover it?

Cases Of Mysterious Valley Fever Rise In American Southwest [May 13]

Valley Fever Outbreaks Lead California to Move Inmates [July 5]

I agree that it's a slippery-slope when trying to define a person's totality via genes, alone. Lest we not forget "Trading Places"!

It's interesting that this neuroscientist found he actually had the high-aggression variant of the MAO-A gene. He attributes his doting parents (basically, a positive environment) to the fact that he didn't turn into a bad apple. Again, while interesting, it's just scratching the surface of the 'environment vs genetics' quandary.

Now, scientists have known that geothermal power plants cycling water from underground can cause small quakes. But Brodsky's research actually matches the amount of water moved to the frequency of the quakes.

However, they're still not sure what causes the larger quakes. The hypothesis is that the really big ones might be triggered by other unrelated tremors.

So what van der Elst wanted to know was: "What prompts that slip?" Sometimes it's just all that water building up. However, he discovered that in three cases in the past decade — in Oklahoma, in Colorado and in Texas — the trigger was yet another earthquake, a really big one, thousands of miles away. In each case, the large earthquakes set up large seismic waves that traveled around the surface of the earth "kind of like ripples," van der Elst says. "You can even see them on seismometers, going around the world multiple times."

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/07/11/200515289/wastewater-wells-geothermal-power-triggering-earthquakes