Monsanto corn damaged intestines

Monsanto's GM corn MON810 has damaged rat intestines, according to a new study stored at the NIH. Damaged intestines can lead to poor nutrient uptake, leading to a host of diseases and conditions, although the symptoms may be subtle. This GM corn contained delta toxins, the same emitted by Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).

Source
GM Watch. 2016-11-24.
Study at the NIH. 2016-11.

Tiny batteries with nanopores charge in 12 minutes

A new battery type, made with nanopores, could store more energy in a smaller space and improve battery technology.

Highlights:

1. They are 80,000 times thinner than a human hair. I wonder if they could be made flexible.
2. One billion nanoholes could fit on a postage stamp. 
3. Recharges thousands of times. (Not likely, current batteries don't even do that.)
4. It could take 3-5 years to commercialize this product. 
5. These batteries have the potential to triple a cell phone's battery life and give electric vehicles a 300-mile driving range. 
6. It took two decades to bring the initial lithium-ion battery to the market.

Source
National Geographic, 2014.
Follow NatGeoGreen on Twitter.

USDA: 85% of foods tested contain pesticides

The USDA runs a program called the Pesticide Data Program where it tests foods for pesticide residues. The 2015 report (released Nov 2016) says 85% of foods tested contained pesticides. One sample of strawberries contained 20 pesticides. Only 15% of foods were free from pesticides.

1. There were 10,000+ samples collected.
2. Apples, cherries (fresh and frozen), cucumbers, grapefruit, grapes, green beans, lettuce, nectarines, oranges, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, sweet corn (fresh and frozen), tomatoes, and watermelon.
3. Because PDP data are mainly used for risk assessments, PDP laboratory methods are geared to detect the lowest possible levels of pesticide residues.
4. Samples were taken from a variety of US states. Both domestic items and imported items were sampled.

Source
Archive.is backup link to PDF.

Parmasan cheese might contain wood cellulose

Some Parmesan cheeses contain at least some cellulose, and some contain no cheese at all. It says right on the bottle: cellulose.

• Castle Cheese Inc is doctoring it's Parmesan cheese with wood cellulose. They make the Market Pantry brand for Target.
• Cellulose is a safe additive, and an acceptable level is 2 percent to 4 percent, according to Dean Sommer, a cheese technologist at the Center for Dairy Research in Madison, Wisconsin.
• The FDA regulates what can legally be called Parmesan or Romano according to standards established in the 1950s to ensure that manufacturers wouldn’t sell cheeses wildly different in composition.

Source
Bloomberg.

Aloe vera gels may not contain aloe vera

Consumers be warned: Popular aloe vera gels may have no aloe vera in them at all! Gels from Target, Walmart and CVS were tested and found to have no aloe vera at all.

Beware of store brands. This is similar to another story where store brand Walgreen's vitamins didn't have the amount of vitamin in them that the label said.

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t approve cosmetics before they’re sold and has never levied a fine for selling fake aloe.
• Aloe’s three chemical markers — acemannan, malic acid and glucose — were absent in the tests. 
• In all the samples, lactic acid, a component that indicates degraded aloe vera, was absent.
• The four gels that Bloomberg had analyzed were Wal-Mart’s Equate Aloe After Sun Gel with pure aloe vera; Target’s Up & Up Aloe Vera Gel with pure aloe vera; CVS Aftersun Aloe Vera Moisturizing Gel; and Walgreens Alcohol Free Aloe Vera Body Gel.

Source
Foxnews.
The actual Bloomberg report.

EM Drive produces thrust without exhaust

NASA confirms the EM drive works. Their study here. Energy goes in, and thrust comes out, but there is no exhaust. It seems to defy Newton's law of conservation of momentum.

Source
Forbes. Nov 23, 2016.

Demand for organic feed increasing

This mill wants farmers to have animal feed which doesn't sicken their animals. Sick and dead animals are expensive for farmers.

Farmers describe how GMO feed makes their animals sick:

Many things were tried, but the one common thread among the farmers on the film was that they all ditched GMO feed for a non-GMO blend. The improvements were significant and they were noticed in a short period of time. The cows and pigs continued to improve more and more as time went on.

Danish farmer switches to non-GMO feed, health of pigs improve dramatically.

Iowa farmer switches to non-GMO feed, drug costs for animals cut in half. Jim Blomgren switches to non-GMO seed, which is cheaper.

Long-term toxicology study on pigs fed GMO feed. PDF. ISSN 1177-4258. Journal of Organic Systems, 2013. Flawed study claims GMO feed is safe. Discussion here.

Source
Scratch and Peck.

Swearing grandma makes vegan Thanksgiving food

I just thought it was funny.

Link.

Kindle Fire 7" to be $33.33 on Black Friday

Go to this link, or search for it on Amazon. This will be the version that has ads, but if you don't connect to the internet, the ad won't change. That's what I did with my Kindle K3, and it was fully functional without connecting to the internet.

WARNING: electronics often are produced specially for Black Friday sales. These electronics are produced cheaply, using cheaper components, and don't last as long, and usually have a slightly different model number just for Black Friday. Thus these products will sometimes not last as  long. Cheaper does not mean a better value.

Source
ZDNet.
BJ's Wholesale to feature $33.33 Kindle Fire with ads.

Local Gov't can Prohibit GMOs says US Court of Appeals

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its decisions Friday on whether federal and Hawai'i state laws preempt Hawai'i counties' authority to regulate genetically engineered (GE) crops and pesticide use. Of significance to state and local communities throughout the U.S., the Ninth Circuit ruled that federal law—specifically, the Plant Protection Act—does not prohibit states and counties from passing local laws to regulate and ban commercially-grown GE crops.

At the same time, however, the court ruled that under Hawai'i law, counties and municipalities do not have the authority to regulate GE crops (as some in other states do), and that Hawai'i state law places such authority in the hands of the State alone.

Source
Ecowatch.