Category: General Interest

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Here's your weekly Science Matters column by David Suzuki with Faisal Moola

Human hormones mess with male fish
Most people alive today were born after 1950. To these people, our modern world is just the way things have always been. Imagining life without TV, radio, telephones and the Internet is next to impossible. Teenagers probably have a
hard time imagining life without text messaging!
And it’s true, human reach is now profound. We are the most integrated, interconnected and mobile species that has ever existed on this planet. Some of these interconnections produce marvelous results. We get to know other cultures. We understand more about history and each other. We can easily chat with friends and family on the other side of the world.
But we have to remember that, although we are connected with each other more than ever, we are also intimately connected to the rest of the natural world. These connections can manifest themselves physically, such as through global warming. But they can also manifest themselves biologically – and in some surprising ways.
Recently, researchers writing in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Scientists reported that male fish became “feminized” when exposed to human hormones. Some of the fish, a type of fathead minnow, produced early-stage eggs in their testes while others actually developed tissues for both reproductive organs.
How would fish be exposed to female human hormones? Through treated or untreated municipal wastewater, of course. It seems that widespread use of birth control pills has elevated the amount of estrogenic substances going into our waste stream. Remember, things that go down our toilets don’t just disappear. They can actually survive simple sewage treatment processes and end up in our rivers, lakes and oceans.
Reports of fish feminization due to human female hormones are today fairly well documented – but long-term studies of what impact this can have on fish populations have not been done. For this latest study, researchers actually
added the synthetic estrogen found in contraceptive pills to a remote lake in northern Ontario in amounts that are normally found in human wastewater. They did this for three years, and monitored the results over a period of seven years.
The results were startling. As expected, the male fish developed some feminized characteristics, such as producing proteins normally synthesized in females. But what really disturbed the scientists was how populations of the fish crashed to near extinction levels by the end of the experiment. Feminization of the males combined with hormonal changes to the females apparently damaged their overall reproductive capacity to the point that the fish were unable to maintain their population.
Conclude the researchers: “The results from this whole-lake experiment demonstrate that continued inputs of natural and synthetic estrogens and estrogen mimics to the aquatic environment in municipal wastewaters could decrease the reproductive success and sustainability of fish populations.” This spells trouble. Most Canadians have probably never heard of the fathead minnow, but these fish are a vital food source for well-known and popular sport fish that people have heard of – such as walleye, lake trout and northern pike. They are also well-studied and often used in toxicology testing because they have short life cycles, adapt well to lab conditions and are representative of a large family of fish.
The report authors describe the fathead minnow as “a freshwater equivalent of the miner’s canary.” In other words, what happens to the fish, as with the bird, could happen to humans in short order unless we are very careful. Cell phones and the Internet aren’t our only connections with each other and with the world. We are biological creatures too and we have to remember that these are the connections that ultimately matter the most.
Take the Nature Challenge and learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org

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More on the Ron Paul Presidential Campaign

Many people following the Ron Paul Presidential Campaign are being educated on how we all got into the problems we are all facing today as a collective of nations and individuals. As a result of the education running along side and in support of the Ron Paul Presidential Campaign the numbers in support are growing at an unprecedented rate. Ron Paul Support Groups are springing up all across the world.

Here is a short educational animation series that is one of the key reasons why people are joining to support the Ron Paul Presidential Campaign from all across the world:
Collectivism vs. Individualism

This is an outstanding animated series that explores the concepts Collectivism and Individualism based on the research by G. Edward Griffin.

Introduction
Part 1: The Nature and Origin of Human Rights
Part 2: Group Supremacy
Part 3: Coercion vs. Freedom
Part 4: Equality and Inequality under Law
Part 5: Proper role of Government
You can download the videos with this or your favourite YouTube downloader.

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Security Tips For Your Wallet

A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company:
1. Next time you order cheques, have only your initials (instead of your first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your chequebook, they will not know if you sign your cheques with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your cheques.
2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put “PHOTO ID REQUIRED”.
3. When you are writing cheques to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the “For” line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your cheque as it passes through all the cheque processing channels won’t have access to it.
4. Put your work phone number on your cheques instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your Centrelink Number printed on your cheques. You can add it if it is necessary, but if you have it printed, anyone can get it.
5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine Do both sides of each licence, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when travelling either here or abroad. We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.
Unfortunately I, an attorney, have first-hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly mobile phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Dell computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information on-line, and more. But here’s some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:
1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately, but the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.
2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).
3. But here’s what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.) Call the three national credit reporting organisations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorise new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves’ purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away. This weekend someone handed it in. It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.
Now, here are some Australian telephone numbers which you might need to contact if your wallet etc has been stolen:
ANZ 1800 033 844
Bankcard Australia (02) 9281 6633
BankWest 131 718
Centrelink Fraud 137 230
Citibank 132 484
Commonwealth 132 221
CUSCAL- MyCard 1300 135 538
GE Capital 1300 369 904
MasterCard Australia (02) 9466 3700
MasterCard International 1800 120 113
Medicare 132 011
Members Equity 1300 654 998
National 132 265
Passport 131 232
Seniors Card 1300 364 758
St George 1800 028 208
Coles/Myer Source 1300 306 397
Travellers’ Cheques 1800 127 477
Virgin 2000 1800 080 000
Visa Card Australia 1800 621 199
Visa Card International 1800 450 346
Westpac 1800 230 144
Woolworths Ezy Banking 137 288