This is quite entertaining!

This is absolutely fascinating! Well worth a listen!


Post-apocalyptic genetic mutants are one of our favorite ways of scaring ourselves. But this crazy story challenges some of our basic sci-fi assumptions about what happens to human DNA when it's exposed to gamma rays. Cuz it's not like some of us haven't already lived through a nuclear bomb, right? What about two?! Yes, that really happened. Nothing stranger than real life, people. Listen in!

http://www.upworthy.com/his-dna-was-shredded-by-2-atomic-bombs-so-what-happened-when-he-had-kids?c=ufb1

This seems quite well thought out to me but a lot of it is over my head with my limited knowledge of the issue. I am interested in seeing a discussion over it. Pros and Cons :


Paul
Long island 9 hours ago
As an American of Jewish background whose family lost hundreds in the Holocaust, my heart goes out to ALL innocent victims of this latest round of trauma and tears in the troubled history of Israel and Palestine. Blame and finger-pointing have only led to more conflict and death for the past 67 years. You are right in saying that there can be peace "[w]without two states." It's time for the U.N. to implement the rest of Resolution 181 and establish a demilitarized State of Palestine in the West Bank under PLO control which recognizes Israel's right to exist before Hamas or an even more radical ISIS-like group succeeds in taking it over. The Warsaw Ghetto that Gaza has become must also be seized as a demilitarized, U.N. protectorate. Both Hamas and Israel are wrong; they each seek mutual destruction. Yes, "The Oslo accords are dead." Moreover, the U.S. has ceased to be "an honest broker" with its extreme pro-Israel stance backed by an unlimited supply of arms and intelligence that serve to fuel the current devastation in Gaza. The lesson from all the turmoil in the Middle East is and has been that protracted conflict leads to further radicalization. It's time now (and it is "running out" for a new approach led by the world community through the U.N.


It was a comment on this Op-Ed by Roger Cohen of the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/opinion/roger-cohen-start-with-gaza.html?_r=0

This was posted a few years back but it's still worth a watch.



And this is the kind of stuff they are talking about and there are 100 more where this one came from:

And lest you think that the hed is the work of an irresponsible editor, it is not: Yochanan Gordon, a frequent contributor to the Times, lays out the case for the complete obliteration of not just Hamas, but of everyone — women, children, innocent civilians — who lives in the Gaza strip.

“Hamas has stated forthrightly that it idealizes death as much as Israel celebrates life,” he writes. “What other way then is there to deal with an enemy of this nature other than obliterate them completely?”

He goes on, emphasis ours:


News anchors such as those from CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera have not missed an opportunity to point out the majority of innocent civilians who have lost their lives as a result of this war. But anyone who lives with rocket launchers installed or terror tunnels burrowed in or around the vicinity of their home cannot be considered an innocent civilian. If you’ll counter, that Hamas has been seen abusing civilians who have attempted to leave their homes in response to Israeli warnings to leave – well then, your [sic] beginning to come to terms with the nature of this enemy which should automatically cause the rules of standard warfare to be suspended.

In conclusion: “If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?”

The blog post soon went viral due to the nature of the hed, and was quickly removed by editors — but not before we uploaded a PDF of the article (below).

The editorial was also printed in the Five Towns Jewish Times, a news outlet founded by Gordon’s father.

More: http://www.mediaite.com/online/whoa-times-of-israel-op-ed-advocates-genocide-against-gazans/

Easy to understand, historically accurate http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/ mini- primer about why Israelis and Palestinians are fighting, why the US-backed peace process has been an impediment to peace, and what you can do to make a difference. This conflict is essentially about land and human rights, not religion and culture. Endorsed by Palestinian, Israeli and American scholars and peace activists.

Although he may be not as fast as he used to be, 182-year-old Jonathan the giant tortoise is still going strong. He just might be the oldest living tortoise, or even terrestrial animal, in the world.

It is thought that Jonathan was brought to the island of St. Helena in 1882. A photo from 1902 shows him at his full adult size and it can take 50 years for a giant tortoise to reach its adult size, meaning that he could have been born in 1832.

Jonathan is probably the oldest land animal currently living, but he isn’t the oldest ever – other tortoises have lived longer, with one unconfirmed tortoise in India that may have lived up to as many as 250 years of age.




http://www.boredpanda.com/182-year-old-tortoise-jonathan/

I would say he strikes a nice balance if you watch to the end. I was also the one who posted the thread on Neil deGrasse Tyson's take on GMO's and while I mostly agree with Tyson, I felt he simplified things way too much and came across as talking down to folks with legitimate concerns and suspicions of companies like Monsanto. Concerns I myself have. This is a very complicated topic and really deserves at least an hour to look at all the pros and cons. You don't get an hour with Nye but at least you get to look at some of the complexities of the issue.

Yes, Nye and Tyson are not experts in the field but who here is? The second video points out that 1/3rd of all studies on GMO's were done by independent researchers, not just those with an interest in profits from them.