Another Student Killing Animals for Art

Back in April a University of California-Berkeley student caused a stir when he slaughtered a chicken in class as part of an art project to protest people’s supposed separation from the food they eat. In May, an art student at the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia also killed a live chicken as part of an art performance.

In the most recent case, the student apparently “bashed” the chicken to death as a way of criticizing the media depiction of violence and the war in Iraq. The student filmed himself killing the chicken and then screened the film during class.

Numerous complaints were filled with Australia’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but the student got off with a warning both from the school and the RSPCA.

What the hell is going on at art schools and departments these days?

Sources:

Caution over chicken kill. Andra Jackson, The Age.Com (Australia), May 24, 2003.

‘Chicken bashing’ sparks probe. Andra Jackson, The Age.Com (Australia), May 22, 2003.

British Mayor Refuses to Wear Fur Trimmed Robe

New Stockport Mayor Ken Holt made news in May by refusing to don the robes of his office during a swearing in ceremony because the robes were trimmed with ermine.

Holt said of his decision,

When I realized the mayoral robe was decorated with real fur, I refused to wear it and will not be doing so during my year in office. I am very much opposed to any cruelty to animals and have read recently in the press about the appalling cruelty to animals when furs is obtained in countries like Belgium and ares of the Far East.

A few years ago Holt made headlines by calling for a boycott of Stockport’s twin city in France, Beziers, to protest bullfighting. Holt says he is considering boycotting the annual visit that the mayor of Stockport traditionally makes to Beziers. Beziers said,

There are two ways of looking at it: either to go and make the point to our friends in Beziers while I am there or to make the point by staying away.

Source:

Fur fight as mayor refuses his robe. Manchester Online, May 2003.

Latest Research on Atkins Diet

In May the New England Journal of Medicine published two new studies looking at the Atkins Diet which, oddly enough, received diametrically different spin from different news agencies.

Here’s how the Associated Press covered the new studies,

Atkins Diet Bolstered by Two New Studies

A month after Dr. Robert C. Atkins’ death, his much-ridiculed diet has received its most powerful scientific support yet: Two studies in one of medicine’s most distinguished journals show it really does help people lose weight faster without raising their cholesterol.

But here’s how Reuters covered the exact same story,

Atkins Diet May Be No Better Than Just Cutting Fat

Shunning starchy foods in favor of meat and fat helps obese people shed some weight faster than a standard low-fat diet, but over time there may not be a big difference, researchers said on Wednesday.

In reality, these two studies really did little more than affirm previous research about the Atkins Diet. Can you lose weight on the Atkins Diet? Absolutely, especially in the short term. But in the long term, as with most fad diets, people tend to give up on the diet and/or weight loss tends to stop.

The two studies tracked people on the Atkins Diet for 6 months and 12 months. In the 6 month study, people on the Atkins Diet lost 13 pounds compared to just 4 pounds for people on a low-fat diet. But in the 12 month study, there was no significant difference in total weight loss between the two groups.

On the other hand, while showing that people can lose weight on a high protein diet, this just reinforces the likelihood that what is really going on is simply that people on these diets are simply switching from high calorie high carbohydrate diets to low calorie high protein diets. The Atkins nonsense about needing to cut carbs to burn fat is simply that — nonsense.

The magic formula for losing weight remains the same — increase exercise and reduce calories.

Sources:

Atkins diet bolstered by two new studies. Associated Press, May 21, 2002.

Atkins diet may be no better than just cutting fat. Reuters, May 21, 2002.

Why Does the BBC Do This?

Imagine doing a story focused on the release of a new study and not once mentioning the authors or institution who produced the study. That would seem to be journalism at its worst, and yet the BBC does just that with surprising regularity.

For example, here’s a short article the BBC published on Friday about a study of genetically modified cotton in India,

‘Indian GM cotton a failure’

A new study in India says that 71% of farmers who tried out a genetically modified pest-resistant variety of cotton suffered an average decrease in crop yield of 35%, compared with farms where traditional coton was grown.

The study says it also found that the new variety failed to live up to claims that it needed significantly less pesticide treatment, and that its cultivation was cheaper.

However, a spokesman for Monsanto, the biotech company which introduced the new cotton seeds, disputed the study’s findings, and said that the lower yield could be due to drought.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

Who were the authors of the study? Which institutions do they work at? Where was the study published?

These are all essential things to know in evaluating such information, but the BBC story is written as if the study simply burst into existence in the middle of its newsroom.

Source:

‘Indian GM cotton a failure’. The BBC, June 6, 2003.

Killing Malaria by Starving It

Researchers at St George’s Hospital Medical School have come up with a novel way to attack the malaria parasite — starve it of the sugar it needs.

The malaria parasite uses large amounts of glucose. The St. George’s researchers were the first to prove that the parasite uses a special transport protein to absorb the glucose. The importance of this finding is that if a way can be found to block that transport protein, the malaria parasite can be effectively starved.

St. George’s researcher Sanjeev Krishna said of the discovery,

This discovery proves for the first time that it is worth going after transport proteins of the malaria parasite and that parasites cannot live without this transporter working properly.

. . .

We are very excited about this research, as this new information gives us the potential to design new drugs against malaria.

The research of Dr. Krishna and his colleagues was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Sources:

Scientists starve malaria parasite. The BBC, June 4, 2003.

Parasite’s sweet tooth may provide malaria cure. Ananova, June 3, 2003.

Is GM Cotton a Failure in India?

Back in February of this year American and German researchers released a study showing that Monsanto’s genetically modified Bt cotton almost doubled crop yields while requiring less pesticides. But a new study of Bt cotton claims that most Indian farmers who used the GM cotton saw a decline in crop yields by about 35 percent. What gives?

The February study looked at 157 farms that used Bt cotton. The cotton is designed to be especially resistant to the boll weevil which traditionally causes significant crop loss. GM cotton has been used successfully in China, resulting in a 70 percent decline in pesticide use, but India has a far more severe pest problem. That study found that even though Bt cotton was more expensive, farmers who used it still managed to increase their income five-fold.

But the latest study — which the BBC did not bother to identify the source — says that 71 percent of farmers who used the GM cotton found that their yields declined an average of 35 percent compared to farmers who used traditional crop varieties.

The BBC reports that a Monsanto spokesperson ascribed the decline in crop yields to a drought, which would still seem to imply that if the GM cotton is more pest resistant, it might be more sensitive to drought.

Sources:

‘Indian GM cotton a failure’. The BBC, June 6, 2003.

GM cotton doubles yield in India trials. Tim Radford, The Guardian, February 7, 2003.