| The First Amendment Gone Wild: Big Pharma’s ‘Right’ to Find Out ...
The founders of the United States took the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the concepts of free speech and freedom of conscience very seriously. "Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech," said Benjamin Franklin. "Information is the currency of democracy," intoned Thomas Jefferson — one of countless Jefferson odes to the central importance of ideas and free transmission of information in fostering a working democracy. But could they possibly have imagined the twisted purposes to which the First Amendment is put today? Two crucial developments in U.S. constitutional jurisprudence — the grant of Bill of Rights protections to corporations, and the extension of First Amendment protections to commercial speech — have enabled corporations to invoke the First Amendment to defend their right to hawk goods, so long as they are legal, by almost any means short of outright lying or clear deception.
DMN editorial board recommends Mike Huckabee for the Republican ...
Huckabee's emphasis on diplomatic engagement in the Middle East is fresh and welcome. Mr. Huckabee established a respectable record of fiscal responsibility in Arkansas. Rather than run up deficits, he backed raising taxes to pay for needed infrastructure, health care and education. That's called prudence, and it was once a Republican virtue. Mr. Huckabee is not an ideal candidate. Once a Bush-style Republican on immigration, his recent hard-right turn smells of opportunism. He too often wings it on foreign policy. But Govs. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also took office without foreign-policy experience. Much depends on the quality of a president's advisers. A chief executive's core foreign-policy convictions matter most, and on those, Mr.
UMDNJ-School of Public Health joins child study
The UMDNJ-School of Public Health in Piscataway will join forces with the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute in a vast new federal research project targeting children's health. The National Children's Study will run for more than two decades, making it the largest long-term study of environmental and genetic effects on children's health ever attempted in the United States. The study will follow 100,000 children from before birth to age 21, seeking information that will uncover new ways to prevent and treat some of the nation's most pressing childhood health problems, including autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. "We are especially excited about helping to lead such a monumental study," said Dr. George Rhoads, chairman of the Department of Epidemiology, UMDNJ-School of Public Health.
Why so many fall into Burke's web
It sounds more like a parent coaching a young child than a lobbyist talking to a minister of the Crown. Burke tells Marlborough the phone they are talking on is to be used exclusively for secret conversations between them, and that he is to tell no one else he has it. Burke wants to be able to call Marlborough so he can find out what's going on in cabinet. When Premier Alan Carpenter appointed Marlborough a minister, he stressed to him that he could not leak material to his old friend Burke. After the revelation of the tapes, when Carpenter had to sack Marlborough, he asked him why he had done it. Marlborough's response said it all: "I just couldn't say no toBrian." As one long-time observer of Burke said: "He was (as premier) one of those lovable Irish rogues - if you needed a quid, he'd give you a quid.
State support doesn't make grade
A study of 120 new homes in Central Bucks shows their property taxes would cover the cost of educating students from those developments, if the state subsidized newcomers as much as those already here. More Philadelphia Suburbs news In making the case against development, the cost to school districts is an often-cited statistic. The Central Bucks School District has long offered numbers to show that each new house adds thousands of dollars of costs beyond what it brings in through property taxes. .
Deepak Chopra Leads Me on a Journey Into Consciousness
I have been following the work and teachings of Dr. Deepak Chopra since the mid-nineties when I first heard him speak about the power of the mind to generate healthy cells thereby eliminating many localized and systemic illnesses in the human body. Deepak Chopra was explaining his theories to another strong influence of mine, self help icon Anthony Robbins. This was back in 1997, and although Dr. Chopra’s ideas and explanations sounded like music to my ears, I was still a bit hazy on the logistics of how these reactions actually take place within the body. At the time I was just vaguely becoming aware of the mind/body connection and holistic healing. One thing I knew for sure is that I wanted to learn more about what would later be largely attributed to the science of quantum physics (think "The Secret").
50 people who could save the planet
Then the Guardian's science, environment and economics correspondents met to add their own nominations and establish a final 50. Great names were argued over, and unknown ones surfaced. Should Al Gore be on the list? He may have put climate change on the rich countries' agenda, but some felt his solution of trading emissions is not enough and no more than what all major businesses and western governments are now saying. But in the end he squeaked through. There was also debate over Leonardo DiCaprio. It would be easy to sniff at someone who seemed to have merely pledged to forgo private jets and made a couple of films about the environment, but we felt the Hollywood superstar who has grabbed the green agenda had to be included because of the worldwide influence he is expected to have.
Researchers succeed in giving carrots a boost of calcium
Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M University have figured out how to get more calcium into carrots and then how to get the vital mineral out of the popular vegetable and into the bloodstream of people. The amount of calcium in the genetically modified carrots still pales in comparison to the quantity in milk. But the work demonstrates that laboratory-engineered fruits and vegetables can contribute more of the important nutrient, researchers said. Lots of small increases could add up to a big nutritional punch, said Jay Morris, a scientist at the Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor and a lead author in the study. "Increases across the board in many different fruits and vegetables in a diet could have a significant impact in the amount of calcium in a diet," said Morris, a San Antonio native.
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