Modern Day Cannibalism? Scientists Plan to Produce Gelatin from Human DNA

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Photo Credit: ALAMYReports last week that researchers could be just six months away from producing the world’s first artificial meat, using thousands of stem cells bred in a laboratory, sent a wave of fascination around the world. Yet there is an even more ghoulish prospect ahead: the idea of eating artificial food made from humans.

This may sound like science fiction, yet a new technique for making gelatin from human DNA is attracting “increasing interest from research and industrial circles”, according to a new study by scientists from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. The paper, published recently in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, revealed that successful experiments had been carried out in which human genes were inserted into a strain of yeast to “grow” large amounts of recombinant (genetically engineered) human gelatin.

Gelatin has a long history of use as a gelling agent by the food industry – and, according to the journal’s publisher, the American Chemical Society, human-derived gelatin “could become a substitute for some of the 300,000 tons of animal-based gelatin produced annually for desserts, marshmallows, candy and innumerable other products”.

There would be safety issues to consider. When an ice-cream parlour in London began selling flavours derived from human breast milk earlier this year, it was soon withdrawn for hygiene reasons. The Food Standards Agency said: “There would be a restriction on the sale or import of this type of product, because it would require a pre-market safety assessment.”

However, scientists do not believe that the new gelatin product would pose any risk. “There’s a very high degree of similarity between gelatin that comes from a cow, a pig, and a human,” explains Dr David Olsen, senior scientist at FibroGen, which specialises in recombinant gelatins. “So due to their similarities, I can’t see why there would be a health risk to it. It’s a very similar protein to what people have been ingesting for many years.”

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Five Jaw-Dropping Quotes from the Catastrophically Awful Obamacare Press Conference

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President Obama had three goals coming into yesterday’s press conference: First, to shift responsibility for the Obamacare fiasco onto insurers by saddling them with mid-implementation changes. Second, to quell Democratic panic on Capitol Hill. And third, to nudge the media toward turning the page on his healthcare debacle. He accomplished none of these things. Indeed, he made things worse — sinking his presidency to a new nadir. A few jaw-dropping quotes:

(1) “What we’re also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy.” Really, Mr. President? You’re “discovering” this minor detail three years after you forced through a massive, unpopular overhaul of the entire system? This statement is a breathtaking admission of abject dereliction and incompetence. ABC News’ Rick Klein also notes that the administration’s long-time talking points assured skeptical consumers that Obamacare would be easy to buy. That’s what all of the “just like Expedia!” comparisons were about. Now, with millions getting booted from their plans, with a horribly broken website exacerbating the pain, Obama suddenly sees the light. A disgrace.

2) “What we’re essentially saying is the Affordable Care Act is not going to be the factor in what happens with folks in the individual market.” Points for candor, I guess. Here the president explicitly spells out the motivation behind his so-called “fix” — which even liberal wonks and industry experts are admitting are unworkable and will make the law’s problems worse. The goal is not to repair the damage; the goal is to scapegoat someone else for the Obamacare wreckage that awaits. Insurance companies are the new villains. Insurers, who’ve been in bed with Obama on this law from the beginning, aren’t going to take the demonization lying down. Obama is decreeing a 13th-hour disruption that they cannot comply with at this stage, and that will throw their finances into chaos. They will, in turn, hike premiums even more next year. This is the death spiral, ladies and gentlemen. And Obama will try to stand to the side and point at his former Obamacare partners as the culprits. It’s shameful. And I suspect it won’t work. His credibility is in the tank.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Announces One Year Optional Delay In Requiring Insurance Companies To Cancel Policies (+video)

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Photo Credit: Breitbart By David Espo and Julie Pace.

Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama on Thursday announced changes under his health care law to give insurance companies the option to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be canceled.

The administrative changes are good for just one year, though senior administration officials said they could be extended if problems with the law persist. Obama announced the changes at the White House.

“This fix won’t solve every problem for every person, but it’s going to help a lot of people,” the president said.

But it was unclear if state officials, who would have to implement the changes, would go along. Insurers also had concerns.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners said the president’s proposal could undermine the new health insurance markets his law seeks to create.

Read more from this story HERE.

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‘Fairy Tale’ Continues as Obama Proposes Extralegal Obamacare Fix

By Daniel Halper.

Earlier this week, former President Bill Clinton advised President Obama to “honor the commitment” he made and to allow Americans to keep their health care plans, if they like them. That was a central promise Obama made when he sold Obamacare, but one that turned out not to be true when Obamacare began to be implemented last month.

“So I personally believe, even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got,” Clinton in an interview released Tuesday.

Now President Obama is taking Clinton’s advice and trying to honor that commitment. In remarks today at the White House today, Obama said, “I completely get how upsetting this can be” to lose insurance plans that I promised Americans would be able to keep. “To those Americans, I hear you loud and clear.”

But there’s a catch with president’s proposed solution. The president is not proposing that the law be changed to allow all health insurance plans grandfathered into Obamacare’s eligibility requirements.

No, instead the White House is saying that it will use “enforcement discretion” to allow illegal health insurance plans to be able to still be sold. That is, the Obama administration will not enforce the penalty on individuals for not having eligible health insurance plans and they’ll allow the insurance companies to still sell so-called bad plans — plans they technically can’t sell under Obamacare.

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Miller Calls Out Begich Duplicity On ANWR

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Photo Credit: SenateDemocratsFairbanks, Alaska. November 14, 2013 –  In response to the junior senator’s statement earlier this week on US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell’s Speech before the National Press Club, US Senate candidate Joe Miller today highlighted the duplicity of Mark Begich’s position on resource development in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
 
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell re-asserted her insistence that ANWR “should remain off-limits to development,” because “there are some places too special to develop.” In return, Senator Begich pledged to “fight any effort by the Obama Administration to make ANWR off limits.”

“I think it is worth noting that Mark Begich’s way of fighting for ANWR development includes voting to confirm Sally Jewell as Secretary of Interior.” Miller said. “It is a mystery to me how Mr. Begich can imagine that he has any credibility on this issue when he is, at least in part, personally responsible for elevating the very people to power who are blocking access to Alaska’s resources.”

Last year the state’s oil production hit a record low of 526,000 barrels a day, down from its 1988 peak when 2.1 million barrels of oil flowed through the Alaska Pipeline daily. Alaska has fallen to fourth in total oil production among the 50 states.

 
It should also be noted that Mr. Begich’s own party platform explicitly opposes ANWR development, as does his choice for president, Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Secretary Jewell, and EPA administrator Regina McCarthy, who Begich also voted to confirm.

Alaskans overwhelmingly support the development of ANWR, but what they are coming to realize is that, as in the case of Begich’s 60th and deciding vote for ObamaCare, the Obama-Reid agenda comes first.

Miller concluded, “Mark Begich runs ads in the state claiming to be ‘as independent as Alaska.’ What he apparently means is that his actions in DC are independent from his rhetoric at home.”  
 

Obama Likens Health Care Law To Forcing People to ‘Buy a New Car’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Charles DharapakBy Melanie Hunter.

President Barack Obama on Thursday compared the grandfather clause in Obamacare to telling people they have to buy a new car right now even if they can’t afford it – when cars were first required to have seat belts or air bags.

“So what we’re saying now is if you’re buying a new car, you’ve got to have a seat belt. Well, the problem with the grandfather clause that we put in place is it’s almost like we said to folks, ‘You gotta buy a new car, even if you can’t afford it right now,’” he said during Thursday’s press conference on how to fix the Affordable Care Act.

“And sooner or later, folks are going to start trading in their old cars, but if their life circumstance is such that for now at least, they want to keep their old car even if the new car is better, we should be able to give them that option, and that’s what we want to do,” Obama said.

According to healthcare.gov, grandfathered health insurance plans “are those that were in existence on March 23, 2010 and haven’t been changed in ways that substantially cut benefits or increase costs for consumers. Insurers must notify customers with these policies that they have a grandfathered plan.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APObama: ‘I Must Win Back Credibility’

By Ben Shapiro.

On Thursday, President Obama took to the White House podium to explain that he would be unilaterally allowing insurance companies to continue selling health insurance plans Americans liked and wanted to keep. Obamacare has already wiped away those plans, and will undoubtedly drive up rates in both the now-broken individual market and the high-risk pool of people likely to enter the Obamacare exchanges.

President Obama was half an hour late to his press conference, which was supposed to begin at 11:35 a.m. ET. During his comments, he never called Obamacare by that name; instead, he reverted to terming it the Affordable Care Act. “Today I want to update the American people on our efforts to implement and improve the Affordable Care Act,” Obama said.

From there, Obama turned to the horrendously low Obamacare enrollment numbers. He noted that 106,000 Americans had selected a health insurance plan. “Is that as high a number as we’d like?” Obama said. “Absolutely not. But it does mean that people want affordable healthcare.” After blaming the website again, Obama said, “there’s no question that there’s real demand for quality affordable health insurance.”

Later, when asked by National Journal’s Major Garrett why he had continued to pump the website just one week before launch, and whether he had been informed about the technical problems, President Obama claimed ignorance. “I was not informed directly that the website was not working,” Obama said. “If I’d been informed, I wouldn’t have gone out and said ‘The website is going to be great.’” He added, “I don’t think I’m stupid enough” to compare the website to Amazon or Travelocity knowing it would fail.

Read more from this story HERE.

State Insurance Regulators ‘Concerned’ about Obama’s Proposed Health Care Fix

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Photo Credit: ThinkstockAt a Thursday press conference, President Obama, in attempt to calm the backlash from millions of Americans losing their insurance coverage, announced that insurers would no longer be bound by the requirements of his health care law for plans currently in effect.

He said that now the issue would be up to insurers and state regulators.

But Jim Donelon, president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (the organization representing state insurance commissioners), said that state regulators are “concerned” about Obama’s announcement and aren’t clear on how it could be workable.

Here is the full statement from Donelon, emailed through a NAIC spokesman:

We share the President’s and Congress’ concerns about policy cancellations and issues including gaps in coverage that may result from them, and fully understand the anxiety of the residents of our states who have received these notices. This anxiety is especially heightened given the issues with the federal exchange.

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Health Law Rollout’s Stumbles Draw Parallels to Bush’s Hurricane Katrina Response

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Photo Credit: Gabriella Demczuk/The New York TimesBarack Obama won the presidency by exploiting a political environment that devoured George W. Bush in a second term plagued by sinking credibility, failed legislative battles, fractured world relations and revolts inside his own party.

President Obama is now threatened by a similar toxic mix. The disastrous rollout of his health care law not only threatens the rest of his agenda but also raises questions about his competence in the same way that the Bush administration’s botched response to Hurricane Katrina undermined any semblance of Republican efficiency.

But unlike Mr. Bush, who faced confrontational but occasionally cooperative Democrats, Mr. Obama is battling a Republican opposition that has refused to open the door to any legislative fixes to the health care law and has blocked him at virtually every turn. A contrite-sounding Mr. Obama repeatedly blamed himself on Thursday for the failed health care rollout, which he acknowledged had thrust difficult burdens on his political allies and hurt Americans’ trust in him.

“It’s legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this health care law in particular and on a whole range of these issues in general,” Mr. Obama said. The president did not admit to misleading people about whether they could keep their insurance, but again expressed regret that his assurances turned out to be wrong.

“To those Americans, I hear you loud and clear,” Mr. Obama said as he announced changes intended to allow some people to keep their insurance.

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Ben Stein: Obama Making ‘Annihilation’ of Jews Possible

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Photo Credit: Murray State/flickrCommentator Ben Stein said on Thursday that President Barack Obama’s “deeply naïve” premise that Iran would suddenly end its nuclear activities in exchange for an easing of sanctions that have crippled its economy for five years would make the “annihilation” of Jews possible.

“Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror,” Stein said in The American Spectator. “The Iranians in the recent past have pledged to destroy the Jewish people in the Middle East.

“Some of their leaders have boasted that if Iran gets nuclear weapons, Iran will have ‘a holocaust in an afternoon’ by rocketing a few nuclear weapons into Israel,” Stein added. “Naturally, the Israelis are desperately worried.”

A round of talks between Iran and world powers in Geneva fell short of an expected deal on Sunday after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius objected, saying the terms of a preliminary agreement were too easy on Tehran.

The deal would not have required Iran, for instance, to close any of its 18,000 uranium centrifuges or its heavy water reactor in Arak, which would serve as a source of plutonium when it starts operations in about two years.

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Americans’ Personal Data Shared with CIA, IRS, Others in Security Probe

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Photo Credit: MELINA YINGLING AND DANNY DOUGHERTY — MCTU.S. agencies collected and shared the personal information of thousands of Americans in an attempt to root out untrustworthy federal workers that ended up scrutinizing people who had no direct ties to the U.S. government and simply had purchased certain books.

Federal officials gathered the information from the customer records of two men who were under criminal investigation for purportedly teaching people how to pass lie detector tests. The officials then distributed a list of 4,904 people – along with many of their Social Security numbers, addresses and professions – to nearly 30 federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.

Although the polygraph-beating techniques are unproven, authorities hoped to find government employees or applicants who might have tried to use them to lie during the tests required for security clearances. Officials with multiple agencies confirmed that they’d checked the names in their databases and planned to retain the list in case any of those named take polygraphs for federal jobs or criminal investigations.

It turned out, however, that many people on the list worked outside the federal government and lived across the country. Among the people whose personal details were collected were nurses, firefighters, police officers and private attorneys, McClatchy learned. Also included: a psychologist, a cancer researcher and employees of Rite Aid, Paramount Pictures, the American Red Cross and Georgetown University.

Moreover, many of them had only bought books or DVDs from one of the men being investigated and didn’t receive the one-on-one training that investigators had suspected. In one case, a Washington lawyer was listed even though he’d never contacted the instructors. Dozens of others had wanted to pass a polygraph not for a job, but for a personal reason: The test was demanded by spouses who suspected infidelity.

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Printed Plastic Guns a Growing Worry for Law Enforcement

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Photo Credit: Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post Federal law enforcement officials are increasingly concerned about the public-safety threats posed by plastic handguns made with 3-D printers because they can potentially slip past metal detectors and are capable of firing lethal rounds.

At a media briefing Wednesday, senior officials of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they had built and tested the Liberator, a printed handgun designed by Defense Distributed, a Texas organization. Cody Wilson, its co-founder, is a former law student leading a campaign for do-it-yourself firearms.

In one test, ATF officials fired eight rounds from the Liberator. Other tests and simulations showed that the weapon was capable of firing with enough power to injure vital organs.

The Liberator’s designs were downloaded more than 100,000 times in just two days before federal officials demanded their removal in May. The risk, officials said, is not that street criminals will use printed weapons in their day-to-day operations. Rather, ATF officials are concerned about individuals slipping plastic guns past metal detectors and into schools, sporting events or government offices.

Depending on the sensitivity of a metal detector, a bullet might not be enough to set it off. Only X-ray machines could spot the handgun itself, and in many public places they aren’t available.

Read more from this story HERE.