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What you should know about GMOs, and how to avoid them

You’ve probably heard a lot of talk about GMOs, genetically modified organisms - genetically modified crops or foods where specific changes were made to the DNA by genetic engineering.

This is done through the insertion of a gene from another species of plant, animal, bacteria, or even a virus, and is used primarily in agriculture to increase a particular crop’s resistance to herbicides, pests, or bad weather.

These genetically engineered or modified foods first became available for sale commercially in 1994, while the first genetically modified plant was produced back in 1983 (an antibiotic resistant tobacco plant).

Common crops include soy, corn, canola, sugar beets, and cottonseed. The corn one is of huge importance because so many companies use high fructose corn syrup in their products. Aside from being one of the causes of the obesity epidemic that has swept the country over the past couple of decades, high fructose corn syrup is usually made using GM corn. Americans now consume more high fructose corn syrup than actual sugar. In tests on laboratory rats, males given high fructose corn syrup often did not reach adulthood, developed anemia, high cholesterol, and heart hypertrophy. That last one means that their little hearts enlarged until they exploded.

So how can you avoid GM foods?

First you could buy food that is labeled 100% organic. U.S. and Canadian governments do not allow companies to label something as 100% organic if it has been genetically modified, or has been fed genetically modified feed. You could also start shopping at organic stores. You will definitely want to start doing that after you learn that 80% of the processed food found in traditional grocery stores contains genetically engineered ingredients.

Another thing that is important to mention is that these foods are not tested by the FDA before they’re allowed on the market. They are overseen by the FDA, yes, but there is no actual approval process for genetically modified foods. Foods are typically assumed to be safe unless the FDA has some evidence to the contrary. The FDA, in other words, has to prove that there’s a problem with the food, as opposed to the company needing to prove the product is safe to the FDA’s satisfaction before it goes on the market.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) urges doctors to prescribe non-GMO diets for all patients, citing animal studies that show immune system disorders, accelerated aging, infertility, organ damage, and gastrointestinal problems. Some human studies on GM foods show that the material left behind inside us can potentially cause long-term problems. This fits in pretty well with a study by the Food and Chemical Toxicology Journal that showed rats fed a lifetime of GM corn developed mammary tumors, as well as severe liver and kidney damage.

Another shocking thing about the use of GMOs is that there have been next to no studies done on their safety. On Monsanto’s website, it says “aspects of the GM crop which are the same as the non-GM counterpart do not require safety assessment.” I guess that basically means that if a crop is the same, in their opinion, as the non-GMO crop, then they don’t have do tests to ensure they’re safe to consume.

Here’s how to tell if the food you’re consuming has been genetically modified: one of the easiest ways to do this is with fruit and vegetable labels. If the number on the label is a 4 digit number, then that means it has been conventionally produced. If it’s a 5 digit number beginning with an 8, then it has been genetically modified. And if it has a 5 digit number beginning with a 9 that means the product is organic. There are also many non-GMO shopping guides that you can download on your phone, to use while you’re grocery shopping.

Most developed nations do not consider GMOs safe for human consumption. In nearly 50 countries around the world, including all of the E.U., restrictions are placed on the sale of GMOs, or they are banned outright. Most of the American GMO watchdog groups are pushing for the same types of restrictions in the US.

Ask yourself, how comfortable are you with GMO food? Are you willing to step outside your comfort zone to shop for healthy alternatives?

Image at the top of this post is by By Lotus Head from Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa (sxc.hu) GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why I am not too happy with President Obama right now

If you’ve been on the internet recently, I’m sure you’ve heard of the Monsanto Protection Act, which is a name given by opponents of the bill to H.R. 933, a short-term resolution aimed at avoiding a government shutdown. Buried 78 pages into the bill is a provision that protects industry giants like Monsanto from future litigation. What this piece of the spending bill does is actually quite shocking. It would, in essence, bar federal courts from being able to stop the sale or planting of genetically modified seeds, regardless of any health issues that may arise over them in the future. Umm what? You have got to be kidding me! So if it turns out that one of Monsanto’s GMO crops is causing massive tumors in people all over the planet, the government wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop them?

The worst part about all of this is, that even after hearing of the public’s outrage over such a law even being considered, he still signed it! Oh how I wish this was an April fools joke! Over 250,000 people signed petitions asking the president to veto the bill. 

The fact that he signed it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, though, as he was the president who appointed Michael Taylor as Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the FDA. Prior to serving Obama, Taylor worked for a law firm that represented… wait for it… Monsanto! This is the same president who, while running for president back in 2008, said that foods that contain GMOs should definitely be labeled. I guess this just proves that old adage by Lord Acton that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts, absolutely.

Image at the top of this entry is By Infoeco (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0] (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

 

Some suggestions on how to improve Pinterest

Pinterest just launched their new look to, I guess, everybody. I am not too happy with it so far, and I’ll explain why. For starters the pins aren’t all showing up in the “pins” feed. (This is where you click on all of your pins, right next to the likes button, that displays every pin you’ve ever liked). I pinned one image earlier, didn’t think it pinned, so I pinned it again. Shouldn’t be a problem, right? Except Pinterest isn’t letting me delete the duplicate pins! It keeps saying "Whoops! Sorry! Something went wrong on our end!” 

One more suggestion I would give them is to start notifying us when somebody comments on one of our pins again. Why they ever removed this feature I do not know. You can get notifications for it via email, so why can’t you within the site itself? I have no earthly idea why they ever removed this feature.

I’m not going to suggest the “notify me when I’m about to pin something I’ve already pinned,” because that shouldn’t be Pinterest’s job. Sure it’d be nice if they could figure out a way to notify you if you’re about to pin something you’ve already pinned, but honestly I’m not sure how that would even be possible.

Sub-boards! This is one of the most suggested additions to Pinterest, I’m sure. And rightfully so! It would be so cool to be able to create boards within boards.

There is no more “edit” button within the pins themselves (that I can find, anyway). You have to go back to the board view to edit a pin. And I just now tried to edit a pin, and met this error message (LOL): ¡Vaya! ¡Lo sentimos! ¡Se ha producido un error en nuestros sistemas!

Another complaint: just now, when I tried to click on a pin of mine that somebody repinned (on the left side of my feed) it gave me yet another error message. This one said “Whoops! We couldn’t find that page.” And when I clicked on the “Go Back” link underneath the message, it didn’t do anything.  

This next suggestion is something I really hope Pinterest implements. Why can you not turn off group board invitations? If you only have 20 followers then I can see how they wouldn’t be a huge problem for you. But when you have 5,000+ followers as I do, you get constant invitations to group boards. And most of them I want nothing to do with. No, I do not want to pin to your gorgeous purses board, thank you very much!

 My final suggestion would be for them to add an adult content box that you can check when you create a new board. Obviously people want to be able to pin nudity. Instead of removing any pins that show “breasts, buttocks, or genitalia,” why don’t they just do what I - and many others - have suggested? I don’t understand why Pinterest isn’t more interested in solutions. Tumblr has their NSFW blogs section, and so too should Pinterest.

I hope at least some of these suggestions are implemented. It would make the site a lot easier to use, and more fun to boot.

This is a link to my Pinterest boards, in case you want to check them out and follow me: http://pinterest.com/iankc/

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There is a new pope!

Amid rumors that the previous pope, Pope Benedict XVI, resigned to avoid arrest and seizure of church assets, a new pope has just been appointed by the College of Cardinals. Enter Pope Francis I. I am not a religious person. At all. In fact I think religion is one of the biggest problems with society these days or, ever. But I know it is hugely important to many people. I just hope that this new pope, who was previously known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, can help to usher in a new age. An age of peace and love throughout the world. But, at the very least, an age of no more priests molesting kids.

 

Aliens!

Why do we always automatically assume that any life in the universe will be as violent as we are? Perhaps that is even the reason we haven’t been contacted by any extraterrestrial life: because we are far too violent. The US alone is involved in something like four wars right now. And we’re drone bombing countless more countries (some who we aren’t even at war with!) So, why would these civilizations that would have to be much, much, much more advanced than we are, even need to resort to violence? They could be so much more evolved than we are.  

Also, I'm experimenting with a new style of blog entry, a much shorter style. Hopefully this way I will be able to update my blog a bit more often. 

 

 

Why I voted for Gary Johnson

 

I’ll be honest. I supported Ron Paul in the primaries. He best reflected my values and what I would want my president to be. But as he did not win the Republican nomination, I was left with a bit of a quandary over who to vote for. That is, until I started looking into Governor Gary Johnson.

After researching him quite a bit, I voted for him.  Whenever I’ve told anyone that I voted for Gary Johnson in this election, I am often met with mixed reactions. Some say “good for you! I’d love to see him win.” Others criticize me for possibly making it easier for Mitt Romney to win. I’ll say here what I say to those people: I just couldn’t see myself voting for Barack Obama after all he’s done to erode our civil liberties (NDAA, anyone?) and the additional wars he’s gotten us into.

Today American forces are fighting in four countries (Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Yemen), and we still have quite a few “contractors” left in Iraq. We’re also conducting drone strikes in many more countries (namely Pakistan).  

So, yes. I voted for Gary Johnson, even though he wouldn’t necessarily stop the drone strikes. He does agree that they create more enemies than they kill, so that’s at least something. And he’s the only candidate running for president that doesn’t want to bomb Iran.

He also believes the “war on drugs” has been a complete failure, and should be ended. That is something he and I are in complete agreement on. He also advocates for the legalization of marijuana.

He wants a complete audit of the Federal Reserve. He has called for the complete and total repeal of the Patriot Act. He is in favor of gay marriage.
He agrees that no criminal or terrorist suspect captured by the US should ever be subject to physical or psychological torture.

I could go on and on about why I voted for Governor Johnson. But I’ll end by urging every one of you to look into him as a possible alternative to Obama and Romney. 

 

 

We are now on Mars!

We are now exploring Mars!

I can’t tell you how excited this makes me, being the space geek that I am. What will the future of space exploration hold for mankind? Hopefully someday we will actually be able to make “first contact” with an alien species… that isn’t bent on destroying us. Though I have to assume that if we ever met an alien species (I am assuming that we haven’t yet, of course)… that we wouldn’t try to wipe them out of existence like we have done with so many other civilizations throughout history.

Then again, I’m sure any species that has learned how to master space travel would have to be much, much more advanced than we are. To quote the great Neil Degrasse Tyson: “I mean, if you have a spaceship that can cross the galaxy, you’re way smarter than us, because we have nothing that remotely approximates that. So why would we assume that we would be interesting enough that they would want to study us? That’s just humorous. How interested are you when you walk past a worm crawling on the ground? Do you ever say, ‘Hey, I wonder what that worm is thinking?’ I’m sure you’ve never had that thought in your life. You might have even just stepped on the worm.”

One of the first discoveries to be made was that Mars has tectonic plates. So it is entirely possible that the planet has earthquakes, just like happen here on Earth. "Mars is at a primitive stage of plate tectonics. It gives us a glimpse of how the early Earth may have looked and may help us understand how plate tectonics began on Earth," said An Yin, a UCLA professor of Earth and space sciences.

The only reason we ever landed on the moon was because we were in a race with the Russians to be the first ones there and plant an American flag on the surface. The NASA budget is currently a half of a penny on the dollar of the entire United States budget.  

One of the stated purposes of the mission to Mars is to determine whether or not it would be feasible for humans to ever venture to the red planet. We will only get there, though, if we continue funding space exploration. So I am urging everyone to please contact their congressmen and senators, and President Obama and urge them to stop cutting funding to NASA.

How much would you pay for the universe? I will end this entry with a video that I hope will inspire you (and hopefully even anger you just a bit). It stars one of my favorite people, Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson.

 

The photo at the top of this post is of the Martian surface, taken with the Navigation cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover, which are located on the rover's "head" or mast.

 

 

The Big 30

Ian writing up a storm!

So in another couple of months (on August 18^th, to be exact) I will be turning the big 30. It seems like only yesterday that I was graduating from high school. Where does the time go? I recently blogged about “Does time seem to be speeding up?” But after having time to reflect on that question for a bit, I am convinced that no, it isn’t. I think it’s just that I’ve been having more fun recently. Not having to go out to a 9-5 job helps, too. I’m sure that I will have to start working here again sometime soon. But hopefully when I do, it will be to a job I enjoy doing.

But I guess realizing that my life is AT LEAST 1/3 over is kind of a wake-up call for me. What do I have to show for the 1/3 of my life I’ve lived? I don’t have a career yet. Hell, I don’t even have a job! I’m not married. I guess almost dying 3 years ago kind of switched my life around a bit. I know what I want to do with my life now. And that is what I’m doing this very second: writing. Will I ever get paid a lot of money for my skills? I have no idea. But for now, I’m content just to write. 

 

 

Is a zombie apocalypse coming?

What is going on with all of these zombie attacks recently? First a man in Miami, Florida was shot and killed by police after he was spotted on an off ramp EATING ANOTHER MANS FACE! Witnesses say the responding officer fired half a dozen shots before the attacker finally called it quits.  And then there’s the story of a Morgan State University student who murdered his roommate and then proceeded to eat his heart and part of his brain! This stuff is straight out of The Walking Dead. And worst of all, most of it appears to be happening in my state: Florida.

This sudden wave of zombie-like attacks has prompted the Centers For Disease Control to issue the following statement: "CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms)." I don’t know about you, but when my government starts denying something is true, that just makes me believe it that much more. 

Meanwhile, in Sweden, a man has been arrested for allegedly cutting off and eating his wife's lips! 

Still not scared? Police in Hackensack, New Jersey say a man stabbed himself in front of them, and then thew his intestines and skin at them! The officers sprayed two cans of pepper spray at the guy, without any effect. In a related story, a doctor spat blood in the face of a Florida Highway Patrol officer, then proceeded to kick the door of the patrol car so hard that he damaged the hinges.

Yeah, I know the explanation given to the media is that "bath salts" (a synthetic drug) are to blame, at least in the Miami story. But what if that is all a smokescreen? And a zombie apocalypse is actually about to happen? I recently wrote a blog entry asking how prepared you were for any eventuality. I will be the first to admit that I am probably not prepared for a zombie apocalypse. At all. Sure, I guess technically zombies have to be dead first to be considered zombies. But that doesn't make any of these stories any less frightening.

 

 

What the hell is happening in Syria?

What the hell is going on in Syria? Men, women, and worst of all children are being slaughtered left and right. I read one article that said “they killed entire families, from parents on down to children, but they focused on the children.” I am usually strongly anti-war, but in this case, I think a regime change is warranted. The only question is who would replace Bashar Assad? If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our constant interfering in the politics of the middle east it’s that the puppet you replace a dictator with can often turn out to be worse than the person who was in power to begin with. Though, in this case, that is hard to imagine.

Now, I don’t know what plans the US government has towards Syria. They may choose not to get involved, because, let’s face it, starting a war in the country would only lead to countless deaths. And I think we’ve already meddled in their affairs enough (we supported a coup of their country in 1949). But as I’ve already discussed, people are already dying in horrific numbers.
Yes, there have been UN observers sent to the country. They can’t do much if Assad stops the killing while they are around, and then resumes once they leave, though. So one of the only possible answers I can see is to increase the amount of observers in country. This won’t stop all the killing, but it might make Assad a bit more hesitant about indiscriminately killing people while they’re around.

Even Russia, one of Syria’s staunchest allies has recently (sort of) condemned the mass killings in Houla, saying that the Syrian government was at least partly to blame for one of the deadliest events in the 15 month uprising. Just partly? Really, Russia? Yeah, I guess the rebels share some of the responsibility. But can you blame them? If I was being constantly bombed and shelled, I would sure as shit would be uprising too!  The Syrian government has brought down apartment buildings right on top of the people living in them.

I can only hope that the Syrian government starts to have a little more respect for humanity, but barring that, at least respect for international law, which forbids pretty much everything they have been doing over the past year and a half. 

The photo at the top of this entry is Syrian protesters burning tires and waving independence flags during an anti-regime demonstration on February 4, 2012 (AFP Photo / HO / LCC Syria)