The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, has urged Panama’s government to ensure the safety of indigenous peoples, farmers and others protesting against new reforms to the country’s mining code.
Dozens of men, women and children  have been injured and arrested since the protests began on February 7, when Panama’s […]

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I always say: “Follow the money”.
A couple of days ago, a lot of my green bloglinks were rhapsodic about those isolated Amazon tribes who were filmed from a plane. So when I checked on the group that released the photos and story, voila, sure enough: they are run by folks with very European/white American names, […]

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Despite the fact that the shooting in Arizona was caused by a mentally ill person, the spin was followed by a week of Sarah Palin bashing.
With the State of the Union address, it’s calmed down a bit, but nevertheless Time Magazine decided it was important news to complain that Sarah Palin put the flag on […]

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I originally picked this book up at my local library to review it for a future column in the Senior News newspaper. My monthly column covers books that are either written by Texas authors, set in Texas, or of interest to Texans. Space limitations mean I have four hundred words maximum to cover two books […]

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It took years, and an enterprising reporter to check on the facts, but now it’s official: The  “MMR vaccine causes Autism”paper was not only flawed, but was made up. It was part of a money making scam concocted by a lawyer who hoped to make money off of a class action lawsuit, with the help […]

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This week on Surviving The 21st Century was a little different from our regular health and nutrition program. Joining my regular panel of the writing and research team of Mannie Barling and Ashley F. Brooks was a musician, Jaime Michaels.
I am always amazed at the way life has this uncanny habit of working out to […]

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A lot of fundamentalist Christians see radical environmentalism as a neo pagan religion, so when some bimbo invoked a Mayan goddess, it was sure to raise a few eyebrows.
From the WashingtonPost:
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, invoked the ancient jaguar goddess Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates gathered […]

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As an Asian, I am aghast that Thomas Friedman is picking up the propaganda line coming out of China and disseminating it on the New York Times editorial page.
From today’s editorial:
What if China had a WikiLeaker and we could see what its embassy in Washington was reporting about America?
Reality check:
China would jail anyone who even […]

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MSG and High Fructose Corn Syrup were the subject of discussion on our regular Saturday radio program. Joining me to discuss and explain the implications of these food additives were the husband and wife research and writing team of Mannie Barling and Ashley Brooks.
I must confess that I do enjoy working with Mannie and Ashley, […]

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We will be running our regular program at 10am pacific, 1pm eastern.
Joining me on the panel will be Mannie Barling and his wife Ashley Brooks.
The original plan was to include an update on the Gulf oil spill. For the past three weeks we have been talking about health in the Gulf region and the possible […]

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Frankenfish!
In the first part of the broadcast we discussed the health issues caused by the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf region. In our second segment we took a look at another potential ecological disaster, GMO Salmon.
The FDA are currently considering the question of permitting GMO Salmon to be farmed for human consumption. Many […]

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The Gulf Oil Spill Uptate

I was joined by my regular panel, the husband and wife research and writing team of Mannie Barling and Ashley Brooks.
Our plan was to explore the ramifications of two current news stories. The oil pollution in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the BP disaster on the Deep Horizon drilling rig. […]

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We will be running our regular Saturday program at 1pm eastern, 10am pacific.
My panel will consist of the husband and wife team of researchers and authors Mannie Barling and Ashley Brooks.
We are also going to be joined by Joannie Hughes from the Coastal Heritage Society Of Louisiana. Joannie will be giving us an update on […]

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This was another surprising program. I am glad to act as host and let my guests educate me. Joining me on the panel were my good friends and very smart research and writing team Mannie Barling and his wife Ashley Brooks. Our initial idea was to spend the time talking about that colorless, orderless, and […]

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This Saturday at 10am pacific, 1pm eastern we will have another broadcast in our Surviving The 21st Century series. Very much this will be a continuation of our program last week.
Water is the very lifeblood of the planet, yet our modern ways are doing much to harm this vital resource. As man plunders and pillages […]

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This is a guest article by Mannie Barling and Ashley Brooks - Simon
When we talk to people in the Gulf, they ask, “What can I do to avoid the dangers of acid rain?” There is no one thing nor is there one simple answer. But, there are precautions you can take and here are […]

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This is a guest article by Mannie Barling and Ashley Brooks. It certainly gave me pause for thought - Simon
While America ponders the effects of the BP Deepwater Horizon Well explosion on wild life and first responders, the plight of the average American in the Gulf has been either ignored or placed on the back-burner. […]

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This was a subject brought up on our Surviving The 21st Century radio program last Saturday. I for one was shocked. According to our guest Joannie Hughes of the Coastal Heritage Society Of Louisiana the FDA were forcing Fishermen to sign a waiver prior to fishing in the Gulf. This waiver is simple in its […]

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We will be running what seems to becoming a regular radio event at noon central on Sept/11. My panel will be well known Hollywood Legal Eagle Mannie Barling and his wife Ashley Brooks R.N.
Both Mannie Barling and Ashley Brooks have spent well over a decade researching our modern life. Much of it is problematic. This […]

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That actually is a hard one to answer. The Bhopal disaster happened on terra firma and the exact number of deaths attributed to it is still a subject of discussion. Many estimate that the number killed from the immediate explosion as more than died in the Twin Towers 9/11 attack, many sources also claim that […]

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I was born in 1955 and during the past 55 years I have been stunned by the huge advances in the field of medicine. At the age of 12 I watched a TV news report about a South African surgeon named Christiaan Barnard, he had performed an operation thought impossible, a heart transplant. Today, while […]

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I have to admit that I am rapidly becoming a believer that every time a see a BP or government official spew forth the latest update, I see their nose’s grow. BP had to remove Tony Hayward, his nose would no longer fit on the CNN TV set!
The well is capped, well sort of. Oil […]

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As the narrator explains in the opening minutes of this educational video, the story of oil stretches across a “gulf of unimaginable time” with carbon as the main character. The film is conveniently broken into three 30-minute chapters, including:
1. The Age of Oil
2. The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight
3. Back to the Future
With the help […]

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Unlike the US, where our priests would rarely preach about anything more serious than “Jesus loves you”, here in the Philippines, our clergy is politically active. And one of the latest campaigns in our district is to oppose a local casino.
So the sermon in our church this week was “No to Casinos, No to resorts, […]

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“I do spend some of my time on bottled water… but I have other responsibilities as well,” says Lauren Robin, the one employee at the FDA in charge of ensuring that the bottled water industry meets federal safety guidelines. But since 60-70% of bottled water is produced and sold within state lines, the FDA has […]

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I was puzzled to read that a study showed an increase in cancer if one takes a certain medicine for one’s blood pressure.
The devil is in the details, of course, but the headlines blaring out cancer risk, but the details in these articles admit that the risk is tiny. From Reuters:
Overall, they found that […]

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I had written before about foolhardy publicity stunts which are cheered on and encouraged by the willingness of the media to publicize them.
ABC (US) news is an example of this. Their headline proclaims:
Rescued Teen Sailor: ‘Since When Does Age Create Gigantic Waves and Storms?’
Family Happy to Hear From 16-Year-Old Plucked From Indian Ocean in Failed […]

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The British media and commentariat is working itself into a frenzy over President Obama’s attack on BP. The Mayor of London, the patrician Boris Johnson, has said “I do think there’s something slightly worrying about the anti-British rhetoric that seems to be permeating from America … when you consider the huge exposure of British pension […]

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The Middle East figures Obama is a patsy and is vieing for who can hate Israel the most (the reborn Ottoman Empire, or the reborn Persian Empire?).
At the same time, Obama’s oil spill policy gets ripped in the Rolling Stone of all places.
There go the baby boomers.
Time for a distraction, folks.
Certain bloggers […]

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I was bemused when a minor lambast against “pacifists” trying to start a war against Israel led to this comment:
“…the Israelis steadfastly refuse to publish a list of allowed goods and appear to change their minds daily on what is allowed. Eg. Hair conditioner is banned at the moment…”
Oh my, no wonder the people in […]

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