AAAS Board Says GMO No Less Safe Than Conventional Mods

. . Foods containing ingredients from genetically modified (GM) crops pose no greater risk than the same foods made from crops modified by conventional plant breeding techniques, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Board of Directors has concluded. Legally mandating labels on GM foods could therefore “mislead and falsely alarm consumers,” the Board said in a statement approved 20 October.
. . In releasing the Board’s statement, AAAS noted that it is important to distinguish between labeling intended to protect public health—about the presence of allergens, for example—and optional labeling that aids consumer decision-making, such as “kosher” or “USDA organic,” which reflects verifiable and certifiable standards about production and handling.
. . Several current efforts to require labeling of GM foods are not being driven by any credible scientific evidence that these foods are dangerous, AAAS said. Rather, GM labeling initiatives are being advanced by “the persistent perception that such foods are somehow ‘unnatural,’” as well as efforts to gain competitive advantages within the marketplace, and the false belief that GM crops are untested.
. .In the United States, in fact, each new GM crop must be subjected to rigorous analysis and testing in order to receive regulatory approval, AAAS noted. It must be shown to be the same as the parent crop from which it was derived and if a new protein trait has been added, the protein must be shown to be neither toxic nor allergenic. “As a result and contrary to popular misconceptions,” AAAS reported, “GM crops are the most extensively tested crops ever.”
http://www.aaas.org/news/aaas-board-directors-legally-mandating-gm-food-labels-could-%E2%80%9Cmislead-and-falsely-alarm 

Only 3% of Added CO2 From Human Sources

From all the noise one would think humans are pouring CO2 into the atmosphere.  However, the US Energy Information Center says it is only 3% of the total annual increase.  So, eliminating ALL human emission would have trivial impact.  The focus needs to be on adapting to climate change.  Like the sun rising in the morning, it's inevitable.

http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/1605/archive/gg04rpt/pdf/tbl3.pdf

Religious Upbringing Harms Childs Ability to Judge Reality

. . The results of the study Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds. Cognitive Science. doi: 10.1111/cogs.12138 by Corriveau, K. H., Chen, E. E. and Harris, P. L. (2014) suggest that exposure to religious ideas has a powerful impact on children's differentiation between reality and fiction, not just for religious stories but also for fantastical stories. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cogs.12138/abstract

. . In two studies, 5- and 6-year-old children were questioned about the status of the protagonist embedded in three different types of stories. In realistic stories that only included ordinary events, all children, irrespective of family background and schooling, claimed that the protagonist was a real person.

. . In religious stories that included ordinarily impossible events brought about by divine intervention, claims about the status of the protagonist varied sharply with exposure to religion. Children who went to church or were enrolled in a parochial school, or both, judged the protagonist in religious stories to be a real person, whereas secular children with no such exposure to religion judged the protagonist in religious stories to be fictional.

. . Children's upbringing was also related to their judgment about the protagonist in fantastical stories that included ordinarily impossible events whether brought about by magic (Study 1) or without reference to magic (Study 2). Secular children were more likely than religious children to judge the protagonist in such fantastical stories to be fictional.

Garbage Telephone Calls

. . A couple of months ago I shared some techniques I use to block the ‘crap’ calls.  I found out there is a free service that can do it for you. It is called Nomorobo. Here is a link that explains it.

Free service proves it can block pesky robocalls. 
 http://www.cnbc.com/id/101314254

It works for Comcast, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work for Verizon.

. . For wireless phones there is however, an app you can use for them

Want to get rid of those $#%@ robocalls? There's an app for that http://www.cnbc.com/id/101758815

. . I still answer no calls outside my area code unless I know who they are.  We don’t get as many ‘crap’ calls on the cell phone, but they are increasing. I set the phone to reject those I have ‘googled’ and found to be garbage. However, these cell phone apps claim to do the ‘google’ and reject task for you. Check them out.

Another IPCC and Obama Lie?

The UN IPCC AR5 report claims:

It is very likely that the mean rate of global averaged sea level rise was 1.7 [1.5 to 1.9] mm/yr between 1901 and 2010, 2.0 [1.7 to 2.3] mm/yr between 1971 and 2010, and 3.2 [2.8 to 3.6] mm/yr between 1993 and 2010. Tide-gauge and satellite altimeter data are consistent regarding the higher rate of the latter period. It is likely that similarly high rates occurred between 1920 and 1950.

The latest mean sea level rise trend data from NOAA simply does not support these assertions that mean sea level rise trends are increasing since 1971.  The UN (and Obama speeches) fails to report that the long duration period mean sea level trend data behavior is constant and unchanging linear.  http://goo.gl/crxbJk

FACEBOOK AND IDENTITY THEFT

. . Identity theft is exploding and FACEBOOK offers a storehouse of invaluable information which thieves can use with the aid of a Google search to recreate another identity.  To see what might be done, just google "FACEBOOK and Identity Theft". 
. . According to Frank Abagnale, made infamous by the "Catch Me If You Can" book and movie,

If you tell me your date of birth and where you’re born and I’m 98 percent on the way to stealing your identity. Never state your date of birth and where you were born, otherwise you are saying ‘come and steal my identity’. Never using a passport-style photo as your Facebook profile picture – group photos are deemed much safer – and refrain from making comments that reveal too much. Every time you say you ‘like’ or ‘don’t like’ you are telling someone your sexual orientation, ethnic background, voting record.”

. . Many say that they don't worry because they have locked down their account and that information is available only to their friends, all 1000 of them.  Okay, without looking at your FACEBOOK page please name those 1000 people.  What is to keep any of those 1000 "friends" from re-posting any of your information to their 1000 friends and so forth.
. . The most effective form of identify theft is the socially-engineered email. The thief can pull personal information from your FACEBOOK page and then uses it to pretend to be someone you know and sends you a link to click on in an email about some irresistible topic.

. . With the internet and extremely low cost for data storage, privacy, once lost, can never be retrieved.

What NOT To Post On Facebook: 13 Things You Shouldn't Tell Your Facebook Friend.
http://goo.gl/qigLMF

 

What Do We Really Know About Climate Change

Dr. Roy Spencer is keynote speaker at International Conference on Climate Change.  He tells what we REALLY know about climate change

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

FACEBOOK Experiment

. . Users are outraged about the FACEBOOK manipulation of its users.  That responses seems remarkably disingenuous considering the enormous amount of personal information that many freely post for the world to see, such as their birth date, schedules, and family members list.
. . Some claim to have locked down that data to be share with ONLY their friends, all 1000 or more of them.

Internet outraged by Facebook's 'creepy' mood experiment, http://goo.gl/cHq7jY

How to get customer data without being creepy, http://goo.gl/p27Isu

Climate Consensus Scam

If you read most of the policy statements of the organizations, which are claimed to be part of the "consensus", they will not be much different than

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/11/the-climate-consensus-is-not-97-its-100/#more-112798 

The Enigma of FACEBOOK

. . For about a half dozen years we have been an observer of the FACEBOOK phenomena.  A discussion of it always generates two types of response: people either "like" it or hate it.  The "like its" spend at least an hour every day perusing and contributing to the content while the other camp either avoid it altogether or keep their visits secret.  Most people who are "wired" most like have FACEBOOK accounts.  The questions are "why" and is "too much sharing" dangerous.

. . We have 'googled' the "Psychology of FACEBOOK" and the results were hardly definitive. For example, What draws us to Facebook: Psychologists and communication researchers are studying how Facebook so successfully lures us in. American Psychology Organization Mar 2013. This article is far too broad in scope. Our more limited quandary was why do some people spend so much time posting the minute details of their life and have hundreds and even thousands of "friends", what risk does such extreme exposure create, and what are some of the abuses of the medium.

. . We'll add subsequent posts about these question using the label FACEBOOK as we research what others have concluded.

Hottest Record Month in USA - July 1936