[unable to retrieve full-text content]The campaign to label foods containing genetically modified organisms is gaining ground in some parts of the U.S. But GMO ingredients are found in some 70 percent of foods we buy in the U.S. Would a ubiquitous GMO label scare off consumers, or would they learn to accept it and buy anyway?Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NprProgramsATC/~3/anjVnk18lXY/so-what-happens-if-the-movement-to-label-gmos-succeeds
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Sunday, October 20, 2013
Egypt's Crackdown On Islamists Spreads To Mosques, Charities
Members of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi shout slogans against the military and interior ministry in front of Amr Ibn El-Aas mosque after Eid al-Adha prayers in Cairo, Oct. 15. A crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood has expanded now to charities and mosques linked to the Islamist group.
Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters /Landov
Members of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi shout slogans against the military and interior ministry in front of Amr Ibn El-Aas mosque after Eid al-Adha prayers in Cairo, Oct. 15. A crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood has expanded now to charities and mosques linked to the Islamist group.
Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters /Landov
Mohammed is a teacher, and for the past 17 years, he has also worked with an Islamic charity in Cairo. But a little more than two weeks ago that charity was shut down.
Security forces raided its office, took everything and began searching for the head of the board of directors because he's connected to the Muslim Brotherhood — the Islamist group of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.
Mohammed, who asked that only his first name be used, fled.
“ We had hoped the political crisis here would not affect charitable work. But now, people will suffer. These are dark and depressing days.
He left his job and his home, worried he'd be arrested. Thousands of people have already been rounded up, some just on suspicion of being connected to the Brotherhood.
This week marked Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, one of the holiest days on the Islamic calendar and a time when charities work overtime to help the poor. But Mohammed doesn't know how he can help this year.
The organization he worked for supported 2,000 families, providing school uniforms for the children, a monthly stipend, and for Eid, gift baskets and money.
"We had hoped the political crisis here would not affect charitable work," Mohammed says. "But now, people will suffer. These are dark and depressing days."
Since the military coup on July 3 that removed Morsi, the authorities have been systematically trying to break the Brotherhood and reclaim control of the country. The crackdown, which began with the group's leaders and rank-and-file — has now spread to mosques and charitable organizations.
Mosques As A Political Base
Using its vast social network, the Brotherhood dominated elections after Egypt's 2011 uprising. Mosques and charities were major parts of that network, but those outlets are closing for the Brotherhood.
A physician collects medical equipment and medicines from the remains of the partially destroyed Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque compound hospital on Aug. 15 in Cairo.
Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
A physician collects medical equipment and medicines from the remains of the partially destroyed Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque compound hospital on Aug. 15 in Cairo.
Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
Heba Morayef is the Egypt director for Human Rights Watch.
"All of these charities that are either controlled by members of the Muslim Brotherhood or affiliated loosely with the Muslim Brotherhood are now seen as a potential space for organizing politically by the authorities," Morayef says. "I think that's why they want to go after them and control them."
And they're doing it with the mosques, too. Morayef says under the autocratic leaders of Egypt's past, the mosques were always tightly controlled to ward off opposition political organizations.
But after Morsi was elected president, the Brotherhood began to send its own people to the pulpits. Many Egyptians accuse the organization of using religion to bolster its political standing and control the state.
"We will see a reversal and much tighter control overall over the mosques," Morayef says.
Licensing Preachers, Closing Mosques
Recently, the Ministry of Endowments banned all preachers who are not licensed through Al Azhar, the thousand-year-old center of Islamic learning in Cairo. Already-licensed preachers must now be vetted and reaccredited. And the ministry is shutting down all small, unregistered mosques.
The reason? Officials say it's to distance religion from politics.
As a result, places like Mohamed Atteya's small outdoor prayer space are no longer functioning. A preacher and engineer, Atteya shut it down when the new rules were announced.
Many Egyptians support the new controls; they say they will keep extremism at bay. But 70-year-old Atteya worries.
He has stopped preaching at his makeshift downtown mosque. He says he didn't want any problems as an unlicensed preacher.
"Since there is a decision, whether I agree or I do not agree, I have to obey it," he says. "This is the regulations. ... I am an old man."
But, he says, what's happening is wrong. The mosque is for all Muslims, not just for the state. He says the military-backed government is enforcing stricter regulations than ever before, even during the reign of Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in 2011.
"They are afraid of the popularity of the Muslim [Brotherhood]. [It] is not a group, but it is an idea, and this idea, it is very difficult to be taken from the hearts of the people," Atteya says.
When there is a conflict in society, the imam of a mosque should never take sides, he adds. That's because those who pray behind the preacher are from both sides of the conflict, he says, so one side will be angered and the instability will grow.
All those who pray at the mosques are Muslims, he says, adding the authorities shouldn't have a monopoly on God — nor should anyone else.
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Whales Don’t Spray Water Out of Their Blowholes
Contrary to what you may have seen in such movies as Pixar’s otherwise extremely entertaining Finding Nemo, whales don’t spray water out of their blowholes. Further, the whale’s trachea doesn’t connect to the esophagus of the whale; so when Dory and Marlin went down the whale’s throat, in real life, they’d have simply been eaten.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/whales-don-t-spray-water-out-of-their-blowholes-1445483468Similar Articles: hayden panettiere fiona apple constitution day Cal Worthington Yosemite Fire
Superman Can't Outfly Marriage Struggles! Tom Welling Headed For Divorce!
Guess he isn't immune to the Kryptonite that is marriage.
We kid, we kid!
But srsly, Tom Welling is unfortunately finding his marriage of ten years coming to an end.
Jamie White Welling filed the divorce docs due to "irreconcilable differences." After ten years of marriage, it seems the Smallville actor and his wife separated almost one year ago.
Although they do not have any children together, his wife is seeking spousal support.
But does this mean she has to divorce Clark Kent as well? How does that all work?!
[Image via AXELLE/BauerGriffinOnline.]
Tags: divorce, irreconcilable differences, love line, marriage, separated, smallville, spousal support, superman, support, tom welling, wedding waltz
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Verizon third-quarter earnings, revenue beat Wall Street estimates
By Sinead Carew
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc on Thursday posted stronger- than-expected third-quarter earnings and revenue driven by wireless growth, sending its shares up nearly 4 percent.
While wireless customer growth was slightly below Wall Street estimates, its Verizon Wireless venture with Vodafone Group Plc posted good profit and revenue growth as customers spent more on data services. Verizon has agreed to buy out Vodafone's 45 percent share of the venture.
The subscriber shortfall caused some concern the company, the first U.S. telephone operator to report this quarter, was losing market share to rivals such as T-Mobile US Inc.
New Street analyst Jonathan Chaplin said that while Verizon's financials were "outstanding," "there were clear signs that a resurgent TMUS is impacting even Verizon."
Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo conceded some lower-spending customers moved to rival services in the quarter, but said some customer additions were delayed to the fourth quarter mostly due to supply constraints involving Apple Inc's iPhone. About one-half its smartphone sales were iPhones.
Still, Shammo told analysts on the company's quarterly conference call that "we continue to gain market share."
The executive said that 8.4 percent service revenue growth at Verizon Wireless was sustainable in the short term but expected the growth rate to decline in the future.
Verizon Wireless added 927,000 net retail subscribers in the quarter, compared with Wall Street expectations of about 1 million customers, according to eight analysts, with estimates ranging from 900,000 to 1.2 million.
While much of Verizon's growth was from customers connecting devices like tablet computers, Verizon said phone customers, still made up the most of its growth at 481,000.
Verizon said it expects wireless customer growth to improve sequentially in the fourth quarter but did not give specific estimates.
ENTERPRISE WEAKNESS
Verizon reported a third-quarter profit of $2.2 billion (1.3 billion pounds), or 78 cents per share, compared with $1.59 billion, or 56 cents per share, a year ago.
Excluding unusual items, Verizon earned 77 cents per share in the quarter, compared with Wall Street expectations of 74 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Its wireless profit margin was 51.1 percent, based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization(EBITDA) as a percentage of service revenue, and above its target range of 49 percent to 50 percent for the full year.
Rethemeier said the profit margin would likely come down in the fourth quarter due to steep holiday season costs, since the company kept its wireless margin target for the year despite the strong third-quarter number.
Revenue rose 4.4 to $30.28 billion from $29.01 billion. Wall Street expected $30.16 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Strong wireless service revenue growth for the quarter was offset by a decline of 3 percent in its global enterprise business and a slower 4.3 percent rise in its consumer business, which includes its FiOS television service.
Verizon's enterprise business was affected by government budget cutbacks and cost cuts in the private sector, according to Shammo, who expects the business to remain flat in 2014.
"Generally speaking, enterprise customers continue to be cautious regarding new investment decisions," Shammo said.
Verizon shares rose 3.7 percent to $49.02 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/verizon-third-quarter-earnings-revenue-beat-wall-street-125802608--finance.html
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Saturday, October 19, 2013
Oyster turns the page on its subscription e-book service, now open to all
Previously requiring an invitation, subscription based e-book service Oyster has today gone live to all and brings a universal iPhone and iPad app to the App Store to make full use of it. If you read a lot of e-books, Oyster's $9.95 monthly subscription fee could be right up your street, with a library of over 100,000 books.
The app is free to download, and many of the books within the Oyster library are from HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and all kinds of smaller publishers. The choice isn't going to come close to something like the Kindle store at this point, but for the price of a book a month you're opened up to as many pages as you can turn. Grab the iOS app from the App Store link below, or head on over to the Oyster homepage to sign up. The first month is free, so take a look and let us know what you think of it.
- Free (monthly subscription applies) - Download Now
Source: Oyster
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Michael Bay Gives Play-By-Play Of How He Got Attacked By 'Drugged Up' Guys on Transformers Set!
You can't script an attack this crazy!
Director Michael Bay is talking for the first time since being assaulted in Hong Kong while filming Transformers 4!
The Hollywood heavy-hitter took to his personal blog to get the facts straight about what went down on the set this week. According to Bay, this was all an attempt at extortion!
It all started on their first day of shooting when the crew had to deal with a group of greedy brothers! Michael explained:
"…some drugged up guys were being belligerent asses to my crew for hours in the morning of our first shoot day in Hong Kong. One guy rolled metal carts into some of my actors trying to shake us down for thousands of dollars to not play his loud music or hit us with bricks."
The film had previously paid a fair price to all of the vendors on the street where they were shooting for their inconvenience. But the Mak brothers, as police later identified them as, wanted MORE money!
Michael put his foot down and told them that wasn't going to happen! He described the confrontation:
"I personally told this man and his friends to forget it we were not going to let him extort us. He didn’t like that answer. So an hour later he came by my crew as we were shooting, carrying a long air conditioner unit. He walked right up to me and tried to smack my face, but I ducked."
OMG! Who uses an A/C unit as a weapon?!
Security soon pounced on the guy but it took SEVEN of them to bring him down!
Bay described the assailant as being like a zombie in Brad Pitt's movie World War Z because in addition to his super strength, he actually tried to bite one of the guards!
Holy hell! That is scary!
In the end, it took 15 Hong Kong police in riot gear to take away the four men charged with the attack! They were all placed under arrest and dragged from the set.
Michael's injuries weren't serious and he refused medical attention. And as he puts it, they had a great day shooting after all of this went down!
Woah! What a way to start the work day!
[Image via Ramey Pix.]
Tags: arrest, assault, attack, film flickers, filming, icky icky poo, michael bay, movie, scary, scary!, security, shooting, transformers
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