Friday, May 27, 2011

Marijuana May Fight Lung Tumors

I believe this WebMD health item is legit even though I can't find anything else about the Harvard study on the Internet. The results showed that mice implanted with human lung cancer cells, who received THC treatment, demonstrated a fifty percent reduction in tumor size after three weeks. Preliminary results also show that THC, the primary ingredient in cannabis, may well be effective in fighting brain, prostate and skin cancers too. 
http://www.webmd.com/lung-cancer/news/20070417/marijuana-may-fight-lung-tumors

This Natural News piece details the National Cancer Institutes listing of cannabis as a Complimentary Alternative Medicine on its website for the first time, and how it subsequently distanced itself from cannabis treatment in later actions.

Understanding Cannabis Therapeutics Before it is Censored

http://www.NaturalNews.com/031936_cannabis_therapy.html

NYC Wins Award for Most Marijuana Arrests in the World
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-levine/nyc-wins-award-for-the-mo_b_867120.html

10 Steps to Defeat the Corporatocracy

"Many Americans know that the United States is not a democracy but a "corporatocracy," in which we are ruled by a partnership of giant corporations, the extremely wealthy elite and corporate-collaborator government officials. However, the truth of such tyranny is not enough to set most of us free to take action. Too many of us have become pacified by corporatocracy-created institutions and culture."
http://www.alternet.org/economy/151018/10_steps_to_defeat_the_corporatocracy/?page=1

High School Student Stands Up Against Prayer at Public School and Is Ostracized, Demeaned and Threatened

When an high school student wrote to his public school that the prayer planned for graduation was unconstitutional and illegal, and that he would contact the ACLU if government-sponsored prayer occurred, his identity was leaked to the community. Damon Fowler, an atheist, would then suffer the wrath of Christians scorned - damn the law - as teachers, students and his own parents spouted rage and condemnation. Wouldn't it be nice to see a little more tolerance in the country and respect for constitutional law?
http://www.alternet.org/belief/151086/high_school_student_stands_up_against_prayer_at_public_school_and_is_ostracized,_demeaned_and_threatened/?page=1

Bee Numbers Plummet as Billions of Colonies Die Across the World

The crisis in worldwide bee populations, called Colony Collapse Disorder, has been recognized since 2006. Three million bee colonies in America, and billions of bees worldwide, have died during that span. Scientists now expect a full third of the bee population to die each winter. The ramifications for agriculture and food production, should bees become extinct, is profound. Bees are responsible for pollinating most of the world's crops and if they were to perish so too would much of the foods that are commonly grown and raised today.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1270698/Bees-face-extinction-billions-colonies-die-worldwide.html

The USDA's Top Bee Scientist Talks Pesticides and Colony Collapse 
http://www.grist.org/industrial-agriculture/2011-04-21-usda-bee-scientist-pesticide-research-pettis

Bees 'Entomb' Pesticide-tainted Pollen in Effort to Protect Themselves From Extinction
http://www.naturalnews.com/032057_honey_bees_pollen.html

Research prompts calls for GE food ban

A Canadian study has discovered pesticides associated with genetically modified foods circulating in the blood of pregnant women and fetuses. This has prompted watchdog organizations in New Zealand to call for thorough testing and a potential ban on GM foods. You may wonder why I often cite European stories related to GMOs and the primary reason is that there is very little awareness or concern about these issues in the US, not to mention a dearth of press coverage about the potential health hazards represented by biotech-driven agriculture. In fact, the USDA has willfully ignored rules that require Environmental Impact Studies on such crops and foods, having only performed two EIS studies in the 15 years that GM crops have been planted in the US, both times as a result of court-ordered directives.
http://tvnz.co.nz/health-news/research-prompts-calls-ge-food-ban-4188129

Maternal and fetal exposure to pesticides associated to genetically modified foods in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21338670

Let's Get Pingy With It

We recently switched our Internet service to Verizon based on a price difference with RCN, against my rather passive disapproval. Fiber optic so far ain't what it's been cracked up to be, and the service seems to be exactly the same in terms of speed compared to the RCN cable feed. But I got a rude surprise tonight when I tried to go to the following website:
This is a site I've used to try and index my Ransacked Nation blog, and I think it's brought some traffic. With Verizon I cannot get to the site. Instead it directs me to a Verizon search page that says the address cannot be resolved. If they're filtering my Internet access and denying certain sites, I will immediately cancel the service and go back to RCN (for lack of a better choice in telecom options). I'd love it if some of you would try to go to the URL above and let me know the results and your carrier. Thanks.

Emails Show Drug Company Used Third-Party Medical Groups to Influence Regulators, Undercut Rivals

ProPublica, dedicated to investigative journalism in the public interest, continues to shed light on the pharmaceutical industry. This story reveals a public relations campaign unleashed by Sanofi-Aventis through several venerable contacts in the medical world to lobby the FDA to delay approval for a generic drug that threatened their blockbuster patented concoction.
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/e-mails-show-drug-company-used-third-party-medical-groups-to-influence-regu

FBI Arrests 4 Activists as “Terrorists” for Chalking Slogans, Leafleting and Protesting

The FBI has mounted a series of investigations and arrests against activists for various causes recently, charging them as 'terrorists' under provisions of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. This miscarriage of justice, serious felony charges for exercising free speech, is part of an alarming nation-wide trend of government actions to stifle and attack organizations and individuals who express dissent to policies of the US.
http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/aeta-arrests/1070/

FBI Targeting Political Activists as Terrorists
http://rt.com/usa/news/fbi-political-activists-terrorists/

Two Thousand Six Hundred Activists Arrested in US Protests
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/two-thousand-six-hundred-_1_b_866029.html

Senators Say Patriot Act Is Being Misinterpreted

Two Democratic Senators warned today, after passage to extend several expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, that the government has interpreted the law to allow more surveillance of Americans without cause. Kudos to them, but where are the other Senators on this issue? Like Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand from New York? Nobody cares about this stuff but it very well could be what brings American Democracy down, leaving an oligarchical police state in its stead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/us/27patriot.html?hp