Problems with Roundup?

Roundup  was recently labelled by the WHO as a "probable human carcinogen".

But farmers still love it: LibertyLink soybeans testimonial

Because it works:  Time-lapse video of herbicide treatment


I previously wrote about chemical use versus abuse in American agriculture, as well as some of the new stacked-trait GMO crops that are resistant to multiple herbicides.

Do We All Have an Equal Chance for Health?

Unnatural Causes, a PBS documentary, asks the pointed question "Is Inequality Making Us Sick" and answers strongly affirmative. According to information presented in the video series, poverty is correlated with disease, more so than any other socioeconomic variable. This correlation is more than the obvious fact that (in the US at least) you have to have money to see a doctor. The series argues convincingly that there may be a causative factor in poverty that predisposes people to illness, weakened immune systems, increased heart disease, and cancer: increased stress. While our society often thinks of 9-5 businessmen as stressed out, the cortisol levels of the on-call janitors, cooks, and welfare recipients tests out as significantly higher.

Cortisol has been shown by numerous scientific studies to lead to disease. However, the ability to manage and control our circumstances may be the actual barometer of cortisol levels in humans. If that is true, then it will take more than just increased wealth and decreased stress to bring healthier outcomes to the majority of Americans. They will have to have a feeling of control over their lives, too. Furthermore, correlation does not prove causation: poverty need not necessarily be stressful, so poverty need not necessarily lead to poor health. However, the sociologists interviewed in the series may not be concerned with such nit-picking as long as the overwhelming correlation holds.

Alien Invaders in Tucson, Arizona

Don't Panic, but the mayor and other elected officials are unanimous: this is an urgent threat to our home and way of life: if something isn't done soon, our fair city may be "unrecoverable".



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Guest post from Henry

Not that long ago there was a bad Evil Man, a sorcerer so powerful the seas themselves bent to his command. One day from atop his throne of bare hard rock his saw a princess collecting pebbles from the water's edge. At once enthralled by her beauty and furious that she would take his property, he cast a spell to fence her in. The sun had shown brightly at the hour of her birth, and his magic was little against her: moments after the spell was cast it broke, leaving her free to leave. So the sorcerer recast the spell, and again it broke, and again he cast it, again and over again. And so his cruelty imprisoned the both of them. It is said that they both are still there, trapped... but beware if you find that hidden beach: the Evil Man's craaazy eyes may spot you too. (holla!)