You mean we're supposed to think about next quarter's returns too?

Save the world: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5% annually.

...what about the Social Forum?  Can you tell us about it?  Was environmentalism on anybody's agenda?  Was anyone trying to link environmental concerns with other social problems?  Link global warming to the economy, as in reconstructing the economy would be good for jobs?  Social justice issues, anything about Hawken's Blessed Unrest movements?  Maybe when your sore throat is better.

When I read this article and the item regarding Gene's I could not help, but think those exact words.

Let me give you why I have been thinking this all along. I have lived in many many countries and the latest being Switzerland. Swiss are among those that live the longest. Every now and then I glance in the obituary and when I see people who died at 70 they usually add, "but he died way too early." Having people die at 80 to 95 is not rare in the obituary.

So how is that Swiss live so long? They climb mountains, no kidding here. It is not rare to see a 65 year old mountain biking up a 3000 ft mountain. And they eat very healthy and natural. The Swiss care about their food and for the most part any food produced in Switzerland is organic by default. Combine the two and you get long life.

But what made me really skeptical about the diet is something that happened in my family. My father got brain cancer and died at 56, and my mother got breast cancer. Both of my parents were German immigrants and cancer was essentially non-existent in either family tree. About 85% died of a heart attack or old age. I cannot remember any family member who died of cancer.

This made me wonder. Why would a family that never had cancer get whacked twice? Maybe it is a statistical outlier. Or maybe there is a problem in the North American diet? My mom when she got breast cancer completely changed her diet and it appears five years and then some later all is ok even though she is living in North America.

Makes you think, and it made me change my diet pronto...

What is the diet of the Swiss, my mother and I? Easy NO, and I mean NO processed food. Cook from scratch, fresh vegetables, pumper-nickel type bread, reasonable amounts meat, plenty of natural cheese, etc.

Tom Philpot wrote...

<<< But what really got my fevered brain ticking was Denise Curuso's article on changes in gene theory -- specifically, evidence challenging the idea that genes operate in isolation, with each sequence of the DNA tied to a single function. >>>

and

<<< "To their surprise," Caruso writes, "researchers found that the human genome might not be a 'tidy collection of independent genes' after all, with each sequence linked to a specific function, such as a predisposition to diabetes or heart disease."

Instead, she goes on, "genes appear to operate in a complex network, and interact and overlap with one another and other components in ways not fully understood." >>>

This is very old news. The notion of DNA not being tied to a single function or multiple genes affecting a single trait was covered in my freshman genetics course over two decades ago. Its okay to be worried about it, but if researchers are surprised, they are either faking it to save their asses or not qualified to work in the area.

It is corporate efforts to cover up potential hazards that destroy the possiblity of using this technology for good purposes. They should be ashamed of themselves. It is one more reason for the public to wrestle control over GMOs from corporations.

Forward!

I have a number of friends who are university biologists, and some of them work in genetic engineering (of bacteria, for research).  To them, the idea of non-separable, non-isolated genes falls firmly in the category of what I like to call "the science of No Duh!".  It seems to be widely understood among scientists that the model we have of genetics is broken. However, it's the only model we have, and it sort of works much of the time.  So the publication record supports it, engineers use it, and non-technical folks readily believe that it describes what's really going on.