Koldo Bertoldo

Shark Fin Soup

Published: 09 August, 2012, 17:42
Reuters / Pichi Chuang

Endangered shark species are being used in Chinese restaurants across the United States, according to a one-of-a-kind DNA-based study. Concerns are also high that the prohibited practice of “finning” is rife.

The Pew Environment Group, working with the Discovery Channel, has made a stunning discovery coming from 14 cities.

Overall 33 different species of sharks were discovered through the investigation, including scalloped hammerhead sharks, classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The $100-150 per bowl meals also included school sharks, smooth hammerheads and spiny dogfish, all listed as vulnerable to extinction.

Prohibition

Even as smoking up became protected by state law in Washington starting Thursday, coast-to-coast prohibition as provided by a long-standing federal ruling remains on the books. For marijuana advocates in the Pacific Northwest, the lifting of the ban is a pretty big victory. That doesn’t mean that the Justice Department has ruled out an intervention, though.

Since voters in Washington and Colorado opted on Election Day to legalize small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, the Department of Justice has been relatively quiet over how it will handle what is likely to become a heated debate regarding states’ rights. In an article published by The New York Times this week, reporter Charlie Savage says senior White House and Justice Department officials are already attempting to tackle how to handle the new marijuana laws, and are amid deliberations right now that will determine when, where and how national law enforcement can intervene.

Savage cites anonymous sources familiar with the discussions in DC, whom he says are considering plans for legal action against the states of Colorado and Washington. Meanwhile this week the Obama administration once again chimed in on the topic, but as with earlier abbreviated statements, the only words out of the nation’s capital forecast an ominous battle likely to brew for some time.

When the results of the legislations up for vote in both states trickled through on the evening of Election Day, the Justice Department dispatched a short statement clarifying the federal classification of marijuana as an illegal substance. This week, the United States attorney for Seattle, WA once again warned that federal law is still on the books.

“In enacting the Controlled Substances Act, Congress determined that marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance,” state attorney Jenny A. Durkan announced in a statement. “Regardless of any changes in state law, including the change that will go into effect on December 6 in Washington State, growing, selling or possessing any amount of marijuana remains illegal under federal law.”

Additionally, the New York Times quotes Durkan as saying the Justice Department maintains that its "responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged,"  meaning federal law enforcement isn’t necessarily interested in adhering to local rules.

Bureaucrat

German sociologist Max Weber defined a bureaucratic official as the following:^[1]

• He is personally free and appointed to his position on the basis of conduct.
• He exercises the authority delegated to him in accordance with impersonal rules, and his loyalty is enlisted on behalf of the faithful execution of his official duties.
• His appointment and job placement are dependent upon his technical qualifications.
• His administrative work is a full-time occupation.
• His work is rewarded by a regular salary and prospects of advancement in a lifetime career.
• He must exercise his judgment and his skills, but his duty is to place these at the service of a higher authority. Ultimately he is responsible only for the impartial execution of assigned tasks and must sacrifice his personal judgment if it runs counter to his official duties.
• Bureaucratic control is the use of rules, regulations, and formal authority to guide performance. It includes such things as budgets, statistical reports, and performance appraisals to regulate behavior and results.

In Imperial China, bureaucrats largely composed the social elite. Known in Europe as Mandarins, after the Portuguese word for 'councillor', this variety of bureaucrats passed a set of complicated examinations and were posted throughout the empire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucrat

binaural beat mixes

I-Doser is an application for the playback of proprietary audio content. The developer claims the separately purchasable content aims to simulate specific mental states through the use of binaural beats, and much of it is named after prohibited recreational drugs.^[1] The I-Doser player has been downloaded more than a million times^[2] and is based on the audio technology of a GPL-licensed binaural beat generator, SBaGen.^[3] The player can be downloaded for free, but the audio content has to be purchased.

Research into the neurological technology behind I-Doser is sparse. Peer-reviewed studies exist suggesting that some specific binaural beat mixes can affect aspects of mental performance and mood,^[4][5] act as analgesic supplements^[6] or affect perceptions,^[7] but there have been no formal studies of any effects of mixes particular to I-Doser. Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University interviewed about I-Doser have expressed skepticism over its scientific basis, citing a four person controlled study of binaural beats that demonstrated no evidence of brainwave entrainment.^[8] Other universities have also stated skepticism.^[9]

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Methods for Stimulation of Brainwave Function Using Sound

Dr. Jeffrey D. Thompson, D.C., B.F.A.

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change.^[1] Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light. Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution. The Blacksmith Institute issues an annual list of the world's worst polluted places. In the 2007 issues the ten top nominees are located in Azerbaijan, China, India, Peru, Russia, Ukraine and Zambia.

bottled water

Jingoism

Jingoism is extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy.^[1] In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, it refers to excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others – an extreme type of nationalism.

The term originated in Britain, expressing a pugnacious attitude towards Russia in the 1870s. "Jingoism" did not enter the American vernacular until near the end of the 19th century. This nationalistic belligerence was intensified by the sinking of the battleship USS Maine in Havana harbour that led to the Spanish-American War of 1898.

The chorus of a song by G. H. MacDermott (singer) and G. W. Hunt (songwriter) commonly sung in British pubs and music halls around the time of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) gave birth to the term.^[2][3] The lyrics had the chorus:

We don't want to fight but by Jingo if we do
We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too
We've fought the Bear before, and while we're Britons true
The Russians shall not have Constantinople.

The phrase "by Jingo" was a long-established minced oath, used to avoid saying "by Jesus". Referring to the song, the specific term "jingoism" was coined as a political label by the prominent British radical George Holyoake in a letter to the Daily News on 13 March 1878.^[4] The term eventually caught on in the United States.

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Just six months before the start of World War II, Raoul de Roussy de Sales attempted to define the spirit of American nationalism. It was, he believed, a patriotism like no other.

"America," the author asserts in the March 1939 issue of The Atlantic, "is a permanent protest against the rest of the world." This young country produced a specific self-image, one shaped more by antagonism than cooperation.

Why did this particular type of nationalism -- which, when described by the author, sounds oddly similar to xenophobia -- arise? De Sales gives several reasons:

Most Americans believe to-day the following facts concerning their nation: 1. that this continent was peopled by men who rebelled against the tyrannies of Europe
2. that these men dedicated themselves, from the very beginning, to the purposeful establishment of a kind of freedom that should endure forever
3. that they succeeded, by a 'revolution,' in breaking away forever from the oppressive domination and the cupidity of European imperialisms
4. that in the establishing a democratic government they determined forever the course of political perfection, and that whoever followed another course was on the road to damnation
5. that although European nations were becoming progressively harmless in relation to the increasing power and resources of the ever-growing America, they remained a potential danger to the integrity of this great nation on account of their deplorable habit of wandering away from the true path of civilization, which is democracy, the pursuit of material comfort and more happiness for everybody on this earth as soon as possible.

As de Sales saw it, American patriotism was born out of a forceful break with Europe's "tyrannies." It was this sense of superiority -- as the world's most authentic democracy -- that carried into the 20th century and made people feel like true Americans, far more than a tie "to a definite spot on the planet." At the time this article was published, America's tendency to set itself above the rest of the world had led to a policy of isolationism. Europe was not to be trusted; it was a danger to the identity and the integrity of America's much more moral society. (It should be noted that although de Sales applauded this view, he was, somewhat ironically, a French journalist.)

In retrospect, de Sales's article seems a bit short-sighted. He predicted that America's "protest against the rest of the world" would continue throughout the generations: "All those who are coming to-day and those who will come to-morrow are required first of all to accept a certain outlook on life and certain moral and political principles which will make them American." But despite initial attempts to remain neutral, America would soon join Allied forces in World War II. Isolationism would be sacrificed for engagement in a common cause.

Even so , de Sales' article leaves us with important questions: Do we still consider ourselves the world's only true democracy? And is our sense of superiority still one of the most fundamental things that makes us American?

Read the "What Makes an American?" in the March 1939 issue of The Atlantic.

The five monkeys, the banana, and the water spray

Does any one knows the origin of the tale about the five monkeys on a torture cage? It´s all over in many languages almost verbatim indicating an specific source. This experiment involved 5 monkeys (10 altogether, including replacements), a cage, a banana, a ladder and, an ice cold water hose.

Joe Horn

the legalization of drugs

Milton Friedman puts forward a compelling case for the legalization of drugs

children in Colorado are experiencing rising rates of hunger and obesity

October 27, 2011; Source: Westword | Nutrition education programs promoting healthy eating habits are spreading in schools throughout the country, and one Colorado-based nonprofit provides an interesting case study for why the country’s changing demographics makes this focus on food so important right now. According to Westword, at an event last week in Denver representatives from the Colorado Children’s Campaign, a nonprofit advocacy organization focusing on health and education, revealed that children in Colorado are experiencing rising rates of hunger and obesity. As indicators of this relatively recent shift, representatives from the organization explained that between 2000 and 2009 the number of children living in poverty in the state doubled, and that the state jumped from having the second lowest rate of obese and overweight children in 2003 to having the tenth highest rate in 2007 (the second highest rate of growth, behind Nevada). As added evidence of the severity of the situation in the state, last year one in five children was living in a household where the availability of food was uncertain or “insecure” at least once, and one in six children currently lives in poverty.
In an effort to reconcile the seemingly conflicting findings of rising rates of obesity and food insecurity, the Children’s Campaign invited Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of PolicyLink, a research organization focused on advancing social and economic equity, to speak. Blackwell explained that “both are driven by poverty,” and emphasized the value of food programs such as the Pennsylvania Food Financing Initiative that provide nutrition education and fresh food to underserved communities.
Bill Shore, founder and CEO of Share our Strength and also an attendee at the event added that preexisting free and reduced-price lunch programs could make it possible to definitively end childhood hunger by 2015. "If you think of our school lunch or school breakfast programs or summer meals, these are programs that have been around for 35, 40 years, they have bi-partisan support, they are one of the few things Democrats and Republicans agree on by and large, and the amazing thing is, even in this era of budget constraints, they're funded," he said. Shore also highlighted the ongoing problem of children and families not being aware of state and federal benefits, and as a result not claiming them. As a gentle reminder for an audience of adults, he noted, "They're kids, they don't belong to political actions committees, they don't have lobbyists, they don't make campaign contributions."—Anne Eigeman

the noble experiment

In some parts of the United States prohibition never ended - but how much longer can the remaining "dry" counties stay alcohol-free?

It was known as the noble experiment.

A law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages had been the dream of temperance campaigners in the United States since the early 19th Century.

When prohibition came into force, in 1920, saloons across the country were boarded up and the streets foamed with beer as joyful campaigners smashed kegs and poured bottles down the drain.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

If it takes a town of drunks and people that drink to be prosperous, we are going in the wrong direction”

Matthew Ratliffe Williamsburg resident

But far from ending corruption and vice, as opponents of the "demon rum" had hoped, prohibition led to an unprecedented explosion in criminality and drunkenness.

Thousands of speakeasies selling illegal liquor, often far stronger than legal varieties, sprang up across the country - and gangsters such as Al Capone fought bloody turf wars over the control of newly created bootlegging empires.

National prohibition was finally repealed in 1933, but it never quite died out.

When alcohol regulation was handed back to individual states, many local communities voted to keep the restrictions in place, particularly in the southern Bible Belt.

Today there are still more than 200 "dry" counties in the United States, and many more where cities and towns within dry areas have voted to allow alcohol sales, making them "moist" or partially dry.

The result is a patchwork of dry, wet and moist counties stretching across the south.

ban smoking

Anti-tobacco laws in several European countries prompted many smokers to ban smoking at home and to cut their cigarette consumption, according to a study reported in the journal Tobacco Control on Tuesday.

Doctors pored over a survey into smoking habits in France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, both before and after bans on smoking in the workplace, restaurants and bars took effect in the last decade.

The trends in those countries were compared with Britain, which at the time did not have smoke-free legislation.

After the laws took effect, the percentage of smokers who banned all smoking at home rose by 17 percent in France, 25 percent in Ireland, 28 percent in the Netherlands and 38 percent in Germany, the study found.

The overall number of cigarettes that an individual smoked each day also fell "significantly" in Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, but not in France.

The authors, led by Ute Mons of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, say the findings rebut those who claimed banning smoking in public places would simply shift the habit to the home, exposing family members to dangerous second-hand smoke.

In fact, the new laws prompted many smokers to ban smoking at home, especially if they had already been mulling an intention to kick the habit, supported smoke-free legislation or had a young child exposed to passive smoke.

"Our findings strongly support the premise that smoke-free legislation does not lead to more smoking in smokers' homes," says the paper.

"The data suggest rather that smoke-free legislation may stimulate smokers to establish total smoking bans in their own home."

The research was based on responses from 4,634 smokers in the four countries and 1,080 in Britain. The British results came from across the United Kingdom except Scotland.

What if the U.S. Legalized All Drugs?

http://www.browndailyherald.com/pro-legalization-speaker-dominates-debate-1.2669318#.Tr0m3kP7i2w