Organic farmers sue Monsanto

Nearly 300,000 organic farmers are filing suit against corporate agriculture giant Monsanto, who have in recent years squashed independent organic farms from coast to coast.

270,000 organic farmers filed a lawsuit in March 30 in an attempt to keep a portion of the world’s food supply organic. The plaintiffs in the case are members of around 60 family farms, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations.

Led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, the suit lashes out at Monsanto to keep their engineered Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola seed out of their farms. Organic agriculturalists say that corn, cotton, sugar beets and other crops of theirs have been contaminated by Monsanto‘s seed, and even though the contamination has been largely natural and unintended, Monsanto has been suing hundreds of farmers for infringing on their patent for incidentally using their product.

Not only are organic farmers trying to keep things — well, organic — but now many of them are being forced to throw in the towel as Monsanto unfortunately continues a successful war on the competition by suing indie growers that run organic farms. In recent years, Monsanto has acquired more than 20 of the biggest seed producers and sellers in the country, and The Street reports that they have instituted a policy whereas their customers are forced to use their bionengineered seeds — and purchase them each and every year — lest they want to be blacklisted forever.

The Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation into Monsanto’s “customer incentive programs” last year, and the Department of Justice has been probing into possible antirust violation relating to the blacklisting of customers since 2009.

As Monsanto buys out competitors and sues others, last year’s profits went up by 77 percent to $680 million.

US federal Judge Naomi Buchwald will be overseeing the case of Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto in a Manhattan court room.

Dan Ravicher, executive director of the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), said in a statement that the case comes down to “whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto’s transgenic seed or pollen should land on their property.”

“It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of our clients.”

PUBAT has filed the lawsuit on behalf of the 270,000 plaintiffs. The foundation serves as a not-for-profit legal service organization that is affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Then, there’s Evelyn who eats nothing but grapefruit and Evie has surrendered herself to some crazy macrobiotic cult. In the midst of all this, you start to feel insecure about yourself and wonder if you too should get into some fancy diet. Well, don’t! Here are 10 reasons why…

1. You don’t have to drink a nasty-tasting diet soda.

2. So that the gentleman at that other table doesn’t come over and offer to buy you a meal after noticing you staring, with longing puppy eyes, at the cheese-dripping hamburger that he was sinking his teeth into.

3. You won’t end up looking like Calista Flockhart or Lara Flynn Boyd. Eeeks! Even your broomstick would have more curves.

4. When you’re invited to a fancy dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant, you won’t be obliged to order two slivers of asparagus and three sprigs of basil and then feel bad about being such a glutton.

5. You won’t become a topic of gossip. Word gets around real quick you know — gossip pots thrive on the what-diet-is-she-on guessing game.

6. When you’re watching your fav romantic comedy, you don’t have to munch on carrot sticks. Bring on the butter popcorn!

7. When you re-read Enid Blyton’s The Enchanted Tree, you don’t have to feel guilty about shamelessly fantasizing about the butter scones, google buns and toffee tarts.

8. Your man will thank his stars for giving him a rare goddess who has some curves and bumps.

9. What will happen to the world economy if you stop over-indulging in the tastiest chocolates of the world?

10. On a more serious note, if you’re not on some crazy diet that promises insane results, you might actually be inspired to slip into your sports shoes and head out for a brisk walk.

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids

Other Part Of This Posting

Photographs Of The Naughty Kids 1
Photographs Of The Naughty Kids 3
Photographs Of The Naughty Kids 4

Lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret put out their annual ‘What Is Sexy?’ list yesterday.

Rihanna, Sofia Vergara and more scored titles like ‘Sexiest Curves’ and ‘Sexiest Beach Body’ — here’s a look at the beauties who are hot for 2011!

Sexiest Summer Style

We start off with the flavour of the season and bootylicious babe Beyonce, whose sultry curves give a whole new meaning to the word ‘sizzling’! Ouch!

Sexiest Actress

This title went to Emma Stone, 22, whose popularity soared with roles in movies likeSuperbad and Easy A.

Sexiest Curves

Colombian actress Sofia Vergara‘s voluptuous appeal was celebrated with the ‘Sexiest Curves’ tag.

Sexiest Eyes

With her smouldering gaze, it’s not surprisingBlack Swan star Mila Kunis seized this honour.

Sexiest Songstress

The bold and beautiful Rihanna made it as Sexiest Songstress, courtesy her sultry voice — and looks.

Sexiest legs

With the best set of pins in showbiz, dancer, singer and actress Julianne Hough asserted her Sexiest Leg title.

Sexiest Beach Body

With her rock-hard abs and toned figure, American actress Minka Kelly was a shoo-in for this one.

Sexiest Lips

Actress Amanda Seyfried‘s pretty pout saw her carry off the ‘Sexiest Lips’ tag.

Sexiest Sense of Humour

Stand-up comedian Chelsea Handler emerged the winner when it came to ‘Sexiest Sense of Humour’.

Sexiest Beach Waves

With her beautiful brunette hair, High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens claimed this title.

Sexiest Chef

Italian-American TV chef Giada De Laurentiis has a remarkable body for someone who’s around food all day, which is why she donned the Sexiest Chef hat.

Sexiest Sun-Kissed Glow

Canadian actress and singer Jessica Lowndes‘ beautiful beachy complexion saw her to the Victoria’s Secret list with Sexiest Sun-Kissed Glow.

Sexiest Smile

Glee actress Dianna Agron‘s pearly whites saw her grab the ‘Sexiest Smile’ title.

Sexiest International Import

Swedish-Canadian bombshell Malin Akermanrocked the vote for Sexiest International Import.

Sexiest TV Cast

Cast members of hit TV series The Vampire Diaries swept the Sexiest TV Cast category.

Facebook fans’ choice: Sexiest Up-and-Coming Bombshell

Twenty-year-old actress Jennifer Lawrenceseems to have smitten online audiences, who crowned her Sexiest Up-and-Coming Bombshell.

Facebook fans’ choice: Sexiest Tweeter

And finally, we have Twilight hottie Ashley Greeneas Sexiest Tweeter — her Facebook fans voted in her favour.

Click below image to view larger image :

smallpox

After ravaging humanity for three millennia, the virus behind smallpox is facing its comeuppance. In May, at a meeting of the World Health Organization, nations will decide if it’s finally time to sterilize and incinerate into oblivion the known remaining samples of the virus.

Smallpox is sometimes described as the most devastating disease in human history, and the eradication of the disease — there has not been a naturally acquired case since 1977 — ranks as, arguably, the greatest modern public health achievement. But the path toward a destruction date has been tortuous.

The debate over whether or not to destroy the samples being preserved by the United States and Russia began in the 1980s. It has centered on whether or not we already have enough information to prevent the virus from ever wreaking havoc again.

“If it’s destroyed, the statement is made that after this date, any scientists, any lab, any country that has that smallpox virus is guilty of crimes against humanity,” said Dr. DA Henderson, former director of the campaign to eradicate the disease and author of the book “Smallpox: Death of a Disease” (Prometheus Books, 2009).

Destruction of the remaining virus also would eliminate the possibility of accidental release. There is precedent for this; in 1978 an accidental release in a British lab resulted in one death.

Others, however, warn that labeling possession of the virus a crime against humanity will in no way deter terrorists, and that without the live smallpox virus, called variola, we won’t be able to prepare for the worst.

“It would be very important to have something on the shelf that would help prevent or treat an epidemic, whether a virus was introduced by a terrorist or Mother Nature,” said Dennis Hruby, chief scientific officer of the pharmaceutical company SIGA, which is developing a treatment for smallpox. It is possible for humans to catch other closely related pox viruses, and it’s also possible that a smallpox-like virus could re-emerge from the remaining pox viruses, Hruby said. [7 Devastating Infectious Diseases]

The politics

The countries that own the two remaining stockpiles appear to be digging in their heels against setting a date for destroying them.

“The United States fully agrees that these samples should eventually be destroyed. However, we believe the timing of this destruction will determine whether we eliminate the potential threat posed by the virus or continue to live with the risk of re-emergence of the disease through deliberate misuse of the virus,” Bill Hall, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Global Health Affairs, wrote in an email to LiveScience. “That is why we strongly believe the WHA [World Health Assembly] should recommend continued retention of the samples until the needed research is complete.”

Media reports indicate Russia’s chief health official, Gennady G. Onishchenko, has taken a similar position. “It would be premature and even harmful to dispose of these collections,” Onishchenko said, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

The drive to destroy the samples has been led by African nations — those that would be least able to respond to an outbreak — and supported by Asian and Middle Eastern countries, according to Edward Hammond, a consultant for the Third World Network, a nongovernmental organization that advocates destruction.

“Theoretically everybody still agrees this should be done,” Hammond said. “The debate is over when it should be done. The truth is the U.S. and Russia are stalling.”

World Health Organization delegates are scheduled to discuss this and other topics at the member nations’ annual assembly, May 16-24 in Switzerland.

End of a disease

Variola, which causes smallpox, belongs to a family of pox viruses that include camelpox, monkeypox, cowpox, buffalopox and others. The variola virus is faithful to its human host; other animals do not carry or spread it.

An infection causes flu-like symptoms, followed by the appearance of lesions. Roughly a third of those infected die. [How Smallpox Changed the World]

“Smallpox, it is about one of the most horrible things you can imagine,” Henderson said. He saw cases for the last time in the spring of 1975 in Bangladesh. “What a horrible sight. These people looked miserable, they were sort of begging, but they couldn’t drink the water if you gave it to them, and they had hideous lesions, and of course these hospitals were not screened and flies were all over… There was a distinctive odor that permeated. It’s been described as the odor of rotting flesh, this horrible odor. You couldn’t do anything for them, and they were reaching out for you.”

In 1796, an English country doctor named Edward Jenner obtained pus from a lesion on the hand of a milkmaid infected with cowpox and used it to innoculate a young boy, protecting him from smallpox, a far more deadly disease. This was the first iteration of the smallpox vaccine. The version used to eradicate smallpox worldwide was based on a different, but closely related, pox virus called vaccinia, according to Jonathan Tucker, a biosecurity expert and author of “Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox” (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001).

A decade-long WHO global vaccination campaign to eradicate smallpox was successful; the last natural case occurred in October 1977, in Somalia. Destroying the virus is the natural end to the eradication campaign, according to Hammond.

“There is a moral and historical obligation to see the eradication through the end,” he said.

liver disorders

People with diabetes are 70% more likely to die from liver disease than those without the condition, according to new research.

It is already known that diabetes can increase the risk of some types of liver disease, with poor blood sugar control boosting the risk.

This can lead to scarring of the liver – also known as cirrhosis – and cancer.

In the study, Edinburgh researchers analysed the records of people aged 35 to 84 over a six-year period to 2007.

They compared 1,267 diabetes sufferers to 10,100 people without the condition, who all died of liver disease.

The results showed about one in four (24%) people with diabetes died of liver cancer, compared to one in ten (9%) of non-diabetics.

liver

However, more people without diabetes died from alcoholic liver disease (63%) compared to those with diabetes (38%).

Previous studies have found a link between diabetes and liver disease and this research adds to that knowledge”

End Quote Dr Iain Frame Diabetes UK

Diabetic patients are advised not to drink too much alcohol because of its potential impact on blood sugar levels and the risk of weight gain.

Dr Sarah Wild, of Edinburgh University, said: “Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has become much more common recently, particularly among people with diabetes.

“The major risk factor for it is being overweight, which is also an important risk factor for Type 2 diabetes.

“Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease increases the risk of cirrhosis which in turn increases the risk of liver cancer.

“A healthy lifestyle can reduce the risk and prevention is particularly important because the options for treatment are limited.”

The research is being presented at the Diabetes UK Annual Professional Conference, which ends on Friday.

Diabetes UK director of research, Dr Iain Frame, said: “Previous studies have found a link between diabetes and liver disease and this research adds to that knowledge.

“We now need further investigation into how diabetes affects the liver to find new methods of preventing this complication.”

moist

Does the sudden sprouting of acne leave you depressed? If you are one of those young women suffering from acne, living in the myth of using creams and cosmetics to cure it, this is the right time to know the fact. Acne could be the result of PCOS (Polycystic ovarian syndrome), which is one of the leading causes of infertility in women.

Most women merely depend on creams and home remedies to cure it, without caring too much for the real cause. The fact is that acne has nothing to do with skin care; it’s all because of imbalance hormones. The best way to avoid acne is to seek PCOS treatment.

Seema, a 17-year-old had acne since she was 13. When she turned 16, the acne started breaking out on her chin and cheeks. It grew to new levels and she started getting cystic acne. All those homemade remedies or medications she used didn’t work out. Later she was recommended to a gynaecologist, this was when she came to know the connection of acne to PCOS.

Gynaecologist Dr. Duru Shah says, “PCOS could be the reason of acne. It is a condition in which there is an imbalance of a woman’s female sex hormones, which also causes irregular periods, skin changes, trouble in getting pregnant and other problems. To treat acne, it is necessary to control the hormones. Before the acne worsens, it is always recommended to consult a gynecologist and proper advice and medications should be provided to the patient. It is not possible to cure PCOS, but it can be treated.”

What is PCOS and how common is it?

Polycystic ovary syndrome is a condition in which there is an imbalance of a woman’s female sex hormones. It is the most common hormonal disorder occurring in women during their reproductive years. It’s thought that 4-10 per cent of all women have the disorder. It is one of the leading causes of infertility. Symptoms start to show up soon after puberty.

What causes PCOS?

Researchers are not certain about the exact causes of PCOS, as they have always been associated with one or more of these factors:

- Weight gain
- High blood levels of insulin
- Genetic predisposition
- Excessive production of male hormones
- Organ/Hormonal disorder
- Environmental chemical pollution
- Food adulteration
- Chronic inflammation

Signs and symptoms of PCOS:
The symptoms of PCOS vary from woman to woman but some of the most common symptoms are:

- Acne
- Irregular or absent menses
- Infertility
- Obesity or inability to lose weight
- Excessive body or facial hair
- Insulin resistance and possibly diabetes
- Thinning of scalp hair
- Multiple ovarian cysts
- High blood pressure
- Impaired lung function
- Sleep apnea
- Disordered immune system
- Mood disorders, including anxiety and depression
- Appetite disorder

What is the treatment for PCOS?
One of the most common forms of PCOS treatment is the birth control pill. Other kinds of hormonal therapy include “vaginal ring” and “the patch”. Even if the woman is not sexually active, birth control pills may be useful because they contain the hormones that the body needs to treat your PCOS.

By taking the birth control pill either continuously or in cycles one can:

- Correct the hormone imbalance
- Lower the level of testosterone (which will improve acne and lessen hair growth)
- Regulate menstrual periods
- Lower the risk of endometrial cancer (which is slightly higher in young women who don’t ovulate regularly)
- Prevent an unplanned pregnancy if one is sexually active

Is there any other medicine to treat PCOS?
Metformin, a medicine which helps the body lower insulin level can treat PCOS. It is particularly helpful in girls who have high levels of insulin, or have pre-diabetes or diabetes. Some girls are treated with both Metformin and birth control pills at the same time.

amla

Indian gooseberry, better known as amla, is botanically known as Emblica officinalis. This fruit is power-packed with a host of nutrients offering tremendous health benefits. Amla may not be pleasant to the tastebuds because of its sour and bitter taste

Here are some health benefits of amla:

* Amla is one of the most potent natural sources of vitamin C available in nature. When vitamin C is taken in the form of supplements, it is not easily absorbed by the body. Eating amla is one of the best ways to have your body absorb vitamin C.
* Rich in anti-oxidants that are known to protect against the formation of free radicals in the body, amla is good for preventing the risk of cancer.
* Because it contains anti-inflammatory properties, amla is beneficial for reducing inflammation due to joint pains and arthritis.
* Amla is also high in fibre and therefore is useful for treating constipation.
* Possessing sedative properties, amla can be used to alleviate stress and thus help in treating sleep disorder like insomnia by aiding in better quality sleep.
* To heal mouth ulcers, gargle using water mixed with fresh amla juice.
* To seek relief from menstrual cramps, have fresh amla juice mixed with a ripe banana, two to three times a day.
* To seek relief from cold and cough, take two tablespoons of fresh amla juice along with a teaspoon of honey, two to three times a day.

health

lean meats

White foods

Being active

health

total fat

diet low in starch and fibre

smoking

alcohol

Taking care in the sun

Chronic, unremitting stress

Cancer screening

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