Ron Jacobs - Attacking Iran for All the "Right" Reasons

Unlike a couple years ago, when the consensus was split, there recently seems to be a growing consensus among pundits and certain politicians that Washington will be launching a military attack on Iran.  While pundits do not have the power to make war, politicians in Congress certainly do.  Furthermore, pundits convinced that this is an advisable route will do their best to bend the ears of those politicians so that there wishes can be filled, especially if those pundits are representing interests that believe they would benefit from such an attack.

Why now?  Part of the reason is because the majority of US troops are out of Iraq, thereby leaving a minimal number of American soldiers available for Iranian retaliation.  A related  reason could be the loss of prestige to Washington with the withdrawal of those troops.  It’s not like Washington won its war in Iraq; it’s more like it was a stalemate with Tehran still holding on to a couple key cards.  Israel, with an element of its ruling elites always ready to attack any perceived enemy, is of course a constant element in the drive to destroy Iran, as are the ruling families of certain Arab Gulf states that compete with Tehran in the oil market.  Iran’s alleged support for various resistance movements in the Middle East and Asia provides Israel with but one more reason to call for war, especially since those resistance movements are primarily opposed to Israel’s expansionist anti-Palestinian policies.

Read More:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/31/rationalizing-idiocy/

New Study: Climate Change Threatens World's Wheat Crop

A study released Sunday afternoon finds that wheat crop yields could plunge due, in part, to climate change. The study, published in Nature Climate Change, researchers warn that current projections underestimate the extent to which hotter weather in the future will accelerate this process. Extreme heat causes wheat crops to age faster and reduce yields, the Stanford University-led study shows, underscoring the challenge of feeding a rapidly growing population as the world continues to warm.

New Scientist magazine reported Sunday:

It could be much more difficult than we thought to feed everyone in a warmer world. Satellite images of northern India have revealed that extreme temperatures are cutting wheat yields. What's more, models used to predict the effects of global warming on food supply may have underestimated the problem by a third.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/29-2

Are Dormant Viruses Killing You: Even While They Are Asleep?

The Center for the Biology of Chronic Disease is a not-for-profit organization specializing in researching the biology of chronic disease (the original disruption that causes the disease and the sequence of events that lead from the disruption to the clinical symptoms.) CBCD believes it is crucial to understand the biology of the disease in order to effectively develop drugs that will cure chronic diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or arthritis. 

CBCD’s work is based on the research of Dr. Hanan Polansky, author of ‘The Purple Book’ - Microcompetition with Foreign DNA and the Origin of Chronic Disease. This highly technical well-researched book has been lauded for its biological theories on the origin of chronic disease by medical experts around the world including distinguished researchers from the National Institute of Health.^1.

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http://sanevax.org/are-dormant-viruses-killing-you-even-while-they-are-asleep/

We Can Now See the True Cost of Globalization

When Karl Marx called for the workers of the world to unite, it seems unlikely he had in mind an iPhone boycott. But suggestions for just such a campaign in the US have thrown the spotlight on possible abuses at firms producing goods for hi-tech giant Apple, urging the public to think again about what happens at the other end of the production pipeline that leads to its swish, minimalist stores. Stung by the criticisms, Apple boss Tim Cook told his staff last week: "We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain," and the company is now inspecting scores of factories, providing the latest evidence that the public is no longer willing to ignore the dark underbelly of world capitalism.

Before the Great Crash, critics of globalization were isolated on the loony fringe: tear-gassed in Seattle and whacked with truncheons in Prague, as the west's leaders gathered to congratulate themselves on reaping the benefits of unfettered world trade. When the Asian financial crises of the 1990s toppled governments and forced one desperate country after another into mass impoverishment and emergency bailouts by the International Monetary Fund, the west's leaders – even many on the left – explained it away as a result of shoddy governance or poor economic management, instead of a devastating side-effect of globalization.

Read More:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/29/observer-editorial-global-capitalism-bad

Warning of unrest, new study shows millions risk losing lands in Africa

New studies released in London today suggest that the frenzied sell-off of forests and other prime lands to buyers hungry for the developing world's natural resources risk sparking widespread civil unrest—unless national leaders and investors recognize the customary rights of millions of poor people who have lived on and worked these lands for centuries. "Controversial land acquisitions were a key factor triggering the civil wars in Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and there is every reason to be concerned that conditions are ripe for new conflicts to occur in many other places," said Jeffrey Hatcher, director of global programs for the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), which sponsored an expert panel today at the Royal Society on the trends shaping rural lands and rights worldwide.

In presenting the results of an analysis of tenure rights in 35 African countries, by international land rights specialist Liz Alden Wily, Hatcher noted that despite the clear potential for bloodshed, "local land rights are being repeatedly and tragically ignored during an astonishing buying spree across Africa." Alden Wily's review found that the majority of 1.4 billion hectares of rural land, including forests, rangelands or marshlands, are claimed by states, but held in common by communities, affecting "a minimum" of 428 million of the rural poor in sub-Saharan Africa. "Every corner of every state has a customary owner," Alden Wily concluded.¹

Read More:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-02/bc-nss013012.php

FDA STOMPS ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT: TAKE ACTION

As reported in the Washington Post on January 30, 2012, six current and former FDA employeesare suing to stop the agency from illegally spying on private communications to Congress and otheroversight agencies. The problem began in 2007 when nine scientists and doctors in the Office ofDevice Evaluation complained internally that the FDA was in the process of approving at least twelveradiological devices which were potentially harmful and posed risks to millions of patients. Insteadof investigating the devices, the FDA set up a secret surveillance system to monitor those who hadcomplained. Information illegally gathered from personal email accounts was used to harass thewhistleblowers. The FDA twice asked Health and Human Services to launch an investigation, accusingthe scientists of releasing confidential business information about devices they believed to be unsafe.Of the six scientists who have filed suit against the FDA, two were fired, two did not have their contractsrenewed, and two continue to suffer harassment and have been passed over for promotion.

Stephen Kohn, host of PRN’s Honesty Without Fear: The Whistleblower’s Radio Hour, is one of thelawyers representing the six FDA whistleblowers. Please take action by clicking on the following linkto let the FDA, the President, and your legislators know that the FDA must stop harassing doctors andscientists who are trying to protect Americans from defective and unsafe medical devices: http://www.whistleblowers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1333.

Music Training Has Biological Impact On Aging Process

Age-related delays in neural timing are not inevitable and can be avoided or offset with musical training, according to a new study from Northwestern University. The study is the first to provide biological evidence that lifelong musical experience has an impact on the aging process. Measuring the automatic brain responses of younger and older musicians and non-musicians to speech sounds, researchers in the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory discovered that older musicians had a distinct neural timing advantage.

"The older musicians not only outperformed their older non-musician counterparts, they encoded the sound stimuli as quickly and accurately as the younger non-musicians," said Northwestern neuroscientist Nina Kraus. "This reinforces the idea that how we actively experience sound over the course of our lives has a profound effect on how our nervous system functions." Kraus, professor of communication sciences in the School of Communication and professor of neurobiology and physiology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, is co-author of "Musical experience offsets age-related delays in neural timing" published online in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

Read More:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130172402.htm