In 1995 the then Scottish Office of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Department (SOAEFD) advertised a research programme on safety aspects of GM crops. Until then, there was not a single publication in peer-reviewed journals on the safety of GM food. Not surprisingly, this was of great public and scientific concern, so it was thought that a research programme ought to be commissioned.
SOAEFD solicited project proposals to look at all possible angles of GM food crops: environmental aspects, effects on soil, effects on animals directly or indirectly, and on risks for human consumers.
To obtain funding for experiments to test GM food safety, we had to write a detailed proposal, something like 50 pages. It had to specify what we wanted to do and how, detailing the design of all the experiments, what we were going to deliver and when, etc.
Originally there were 28 proposals which were whittled down to eight, and all these went for peer-review to the BBSRC (Biological and Biotechnological Sciences Research Council). Ours was chosen as the most sound proposal. Within the BBSRC there were a few Royal Society Fellows who had a look at our proposal and passed it in their peer-review. Nobody gives £1.6 million for a research proposal only on the basis of the opinion of a few scientists within the Scientific Advisory Unit (SAU) advising SOAEFD.
In this project there were three research units involved: the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI), University of Durham, Department of Biology and ourselves at the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen. We divided the work tasks among ourselves. At the request of the scientists participating in the programme, I co-ordinated it.
The GM potatoes which we used had been created in Durham by scientists financed by Axis Genetics, a Cambridge biotechnology company. They were field-grown at Rothamstead Experimental Station for 2 years, so they were coming from field trials beyond the laboratory stage of development. We used these GM potatoes as a model in our studies, aiming to find suitable methods for the risk assessment of GM crops. At the Rowett, we even had a profit-sharing agreement with the company which developed the potatoes: should they be commer-cially released, the Rowett would share the profits of the enterprise with Axis Genetics. So this was good academic work aimed to help a project of commercial significance. When critics claimed, "These were academic studies," this claim was to belittle their significance.
The idea was to use the gene of snowdrop bulb lectin, GNA, because we knew that it would not pose major health problems for the animals, according to our previous studies (Pusztai et al., 1990). We had done extensive nutritional-physiological studies for 6 years and published them before the genetic transformation was carried out. In these studies we incorporated the gene product, GNA, into the rats' diet at different concentrations; we went up to something like 800-fold the level that we were expecting to be expressed in the potatoes. The rats still had no major health problems. So we had the assurance that this was a safe lectin and therefore a safe gene.
Moreover, from studies at Durham and SCRI, we also knew that the gene product, GNA, expressed in the potatoes did interfere with both the development and mortality of one of their main pests, the potato aphid. One can test for this effect in artificial feeding trials with aphids, and they had done this. So we started off with a gene which appeared to be doing the job of controlling insect damage but which wouldn't do any harm to the rat. Nevertheless problems with our research appeared from the start, firstly in the insect-control part of the work, which we discussed extensively at our regular project meetings (confidential minutes of flexible research project 818). There appeared to be no correlation between the expression level of GNA in the potato plant and the protection it afforded against the aphids. This lack of quantitative correlation was very worrying. Sometimes the expression level of the GNA was low but the protection was high, and sometimes vice versa.
No results were ever published.
Now this result was very difficult to understand. And the scientist who persevered with this line of research, the co-ordinator at SCRI (Walter Robertson), was suddenly offered early retirement. With some arm-twisting, he accepted it.
In science we are very good at achieving the primary objectives of genetic modification, e.g. controlling aphid damage. We selected a gene which would achieve this objective, then did the genetic transformation and finally we checked in the laboratory whether or not we had achieved it. However, in the environment there are always other things which will also be affected. In this world nothing stands in isolation; when one changes something, there are also consequences for other things around.
Some of my colleagues found disturbing indications that the GM potatoes, in addition to harming potato pests, also damaged non-target and potentially beneficial insects. Nick Birch (1997) at SCRI, together with other members of the group, published a paper on how GNA expression in the potato affected aphids. They also looked at the two-spotted ladybirds which, in nature, feed on aphids and so control their population (Birch et al., 1999).
At the same time we at the Rowett were also beginning to obtain nutritional data which somehow did not fit into our ideas. Somehow the gene product was safe when one used GNA sprinkled on to the diet, but it was less safe when expressed by the GM potatoes: in fact, expressed at a lower level than in the GNA-supplemented control diet. We couldn't understand how.
So, these two strands of our experimentation were yielding unexpected results. At that time we were beginning to think that there must be something wrong with this supposedly precise technology, for which it has been claimed that one can change the pheno-type by simply inserting one gene in a particular way. We had two successful lines of GM potatoes, both coming from the same transformation event, done at the same time and in the same vessel; yet they were different.
Now how can one understand this difference? We were beginning to suspect that the problems were likely to come from the position where the genes had been inserted because they could have interfered with the plant's own gene expression. If the transferred genes landed in different parts of the genome, they could have differently affected the expression level of the potato's own genes. I would guess that this is the most likely explanation for the unexpected problems.
Some people said to me, "You're a controversial scientist and your results have been criticized." Fine, there is nothing wrong with that view, provided that it involves legitimate scientific criticism. In science we do experiments, then write them up, submit them to a journal where it is going to be peer-reviewed, if the work is good enough, it will eventually be published.
The people who criticized us said that "These are the wrong results, wrong data, wrong experiments," etc. Top scientific committees, including the Royal Society of London, told us, "You are only telling us about your uncensored, non-peer-reviewed results which had been obtained by poor experimentation, bad design and wrong conclusions." Supposedly in my previous 270 papers, some 40 of them with the same design and methodology, I was scientifically all right, but then suddenly I had a mental breakdown.
Incidentally, the Royal Society never had the design of our experiments or the methods used by us. The only thing they had was some of the edited internal Rowett Institute reports which, against my wishes, had been passed on to them by the Director of the Rowett. Our successful, peer-reviewed 1995 project proposal was not amongst those listed by them for their so-called "peer review". So apparently the Royal Society never asked to see the design of our experiments.
The Royal Society has never before publicly conducted a peer-review of controversial scientific results. Moreover, against all natural justice, the Royal Society did not publish our data but only their criticism of it. The Lancet in its Editorial called this "breathtaking impertinence" against a senior scientist. In science the only thing acceptable as a counter-claim is when other scientists, preferably in several other laboratories, do similar work and go through exactly the same process as we have done with our Lancet article; they get it peer-reviewed and published. This is the way science progresses. It doesn't really matter whether the President of the Royal Society voices his opinion, because it is merely an opinion and as such has no scientific validity.
After our paper was published in The Lancet (Ewen and Pusztai, 1999), some people in the scientific establishment maligned it. Under normal conditions the peer-review is done by two referees. Ours had six referees. Indeed, I have all the referees' comments because the author communicates with them via the Editor. True, there were criticisms, but we dealt with them. When we thought that the criticisms were fair, we amended the manuscript. However, when we did not accept the referees' criticism, we countered their argument with our point of view.
There is nothing unusual about this procedure; it is the normal course in journal publication. Because it is good to have your colleagues' opinion, I have done this many times before with other publications. But the opinion of your colleagues may not be better than yours; after all, you've done the work. So you accept some criticisms but reject others.
In such a way, our paper had been revised three times. Despite this, there are no substantial alterations in the paper. The changes were more about the format than substance. Because of the sensitivity of the whole business, the referees insisted that we should give all the data, regardless of whether they were significantly different or not. Thus, we had a huge table in the paper containing all statistical analyses, which incidentally were done by my wife, Dr Susan Bardocz, with the help of one of the referees.
The original purpose of the refereeing system is to improve papers. I am very grateful for those referees who did contribute to the paper in this helpful way. Most importantly, when the refereeing process was finished, our paper was accepted on both scientific merit and public interest, as explained by Richard Horton, The Lancet Editor. As he went on: in view of the clear evidence of support, i.e. that five of the six referees accepted it, he could not refuse to publish it.
At the time, the Rowett still had the right to scrutinize our papers but had no right to change them. Thus, we thought that it would be best if we sent by fax the galley proofs to the Director of the Rowett just before it would be published on Saturday, 1 October 1999. So we faxed it to him late Friday afternoon, and then we went away, as we were sure it would be published in that form.
But then the Editors looked at it and they said that the table was not in the right format for The Lancet because the statistical significances were marked with stars, and not by the actual p (significance) values. Unfortunately, they couldn't get in touch with us; Dr Ewen was at his time-share flat and we were in Hungary. So the publication was held up for 2 weeks. This delay gave the pro-GM brigade a fortnight in which they tried to stop the publication. The Director of the Rowett straight-away faxed it on to the Scottish Office, and to the Royal Society. It came as a bombshell to them that the paper was going to be published after all.
According to The Guardian, Professor Peter Lachmann phoned Richard Horton and threatened him. Unfortunately for Lachmann, The Guardian journalists found out that he cannot be regarded as impartial because he was involved with the biotech industry. He was also involved with a previous report of the Royal Society (1998), which did not recommend the need for future research into the possible health effects of GM food. Funnily enough, when his threats became common knowledge, the Royal Society washed their hands of the whole affair; they said that they did not know anything about this phone call.
The scientific establishment had to find some reason for rubbishing the paper to justify their original rejection of our work. So that was probably the reason why the President of the Royal Society said, "we still cannot accept this publication because Dr Pusztai did not use the right low protein controls". Surely the six referees could not have missed something as important as this. You needn't be a Nobel Prize winner to read our paper and see that all diets contained the same amount of protein and energy.
But the journalists did not question the judgement of the President of the Royal Society. They assumed that he gave a proper scientific judgement on the paper, so they accepted his words at face value. In making such an untrue claim, was he scientifically incompetent? Or did he knowingly misrepresent our experiment?
As regards the comments made by Professor Pickett, FRS, the referee who opposed the publication of our paper, the story becomes even more curious. He told the Independent that Richard Horton (The Lancet Editor) must have had some political motivation for publishing the paper, because "the referees" did not accept it.
Significantly, he did not say "one referee" but "the referees". And this claim was repeated many times at the OECD conference in February 2000. A senior scientist involved in the present field trials of GM crops, Nigel Halford, said, "We should not spend time on Pusztai's paper here because it had been rejected by the referees".
And one can go on with this story. Professor Pickett, for example, said that the design of my experiment was terrible: if it was presented by one of his students, he would fail the student "because what we did was wrong, by changing horses in mid-stream". That is to say, we supposedly changed the experimental design in the middle of the experiment: we started by feeding the rats with the control diet and then we switched to GM and vice versa.
It was absolutely clear in our paper that we did nothing like this. The design of the experiment was described in a clear-cut way. And Professor Pickett was one of the referees. If he actually read the paper, then why would he misrepresent our experiment? And if he did not read the paper, then how could he reject it? I don't know which one is the worst of these two explanations. It appears that peoples' attitude profoundly changes when their interests are jeopardized, contradicted or threatened by some scientific findings.
Nowadays ethics unfortunately is not much involved in science. When one looks at pronouncements from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and from other powerful scientific committees, one finds that they generally take the side of the establishment. When I was in front of the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons, I made the point that most of the important decisions are taken by the wrong people. These are often has-beens, people who have long retired from active scientific work, though I don't want to be unkind to these people.
For example, Professor James was the nutrition expert on the ACNFP (Advisory Committee for Novel Foods and Processes). Undoubtedly he has worked in a scientific environment as the Director of the Rowett, the premier nutrition institute of this country. But I wouldn't regard his expertise to be based on his direct scientific experience. He does not do any experimental work and, unfortunately, people like him seldom listen to scientists still working at the bench. There is a huge difference between doing something or just reading or hearing about it.
In contrast, my previous Director, Sir Kenneth Blaxter, was a great man. Although he was very busy, he always spent at least a day each month in the lab of every senior bench-scientist. He came in and asked, "What are you doing? Show me." This is the minimum that a top scientific administrator should do - to come into the lab and see for himself what is happening, to see what are the problems and to experience them on this level. Ours is an experimental science. You can't simply read about it and learn it that way.
Unfortunately, with some scientific administrators nowadays, this experience is reduced to a once-a-year occasion. At best they call the working scientists in to their office, where they are supposed to tell him about the work done in the last year. When one goes up together with the whole group of something like 18 people to the Director's office and tries to explain to him in an hour the progress we have made in the previous year, he faces an almost impossible task to take in all this. The most he can possibly learn is that we are working with lectins and that some of this work is done with GM crops.
I was responsible for eight research programmes, four of which were core-funded from the public purse. Another two (including our GM potato work) were financed by the Scottish Office (SOAEFD), in addition to another two commercially funded research programmes. Even I, as an active scientist, had real difficulties keeping abreast with all the work and the people carrying out the work.
Scientific administrators have no time to properly read anything. I personally know that all the papers and the submissions by the biotech companies to the ACNFP usually end up with people like us to read them. Unfortunately, most of the time the committee members cannot even wait to ask for our advice because they are so busy. Many times I was told, "You just phone the guy at the Ministry and tell him what your advice is". These 12 committee members sit around a table, have a nice meal together and then make momentous judgements about whether the government should approve a novel food.
That is the reality of the situation, even though they may put a scientific gloss on it. This is what is meant when the ministers say, "We get the best scientific advice". But if you are out of the lab and only have this superficial contact with science, your ideas can be worse than to have no science at all. It is likely that whatever common sense they may have had disappeared some time ago. They think that they know, when in fact they do not. These guys have insufficient knowledge or time; they are on other committees and [fl]y all over the world.
For example, our Director seldom spent more than a week per month at the Rowett. Eventually he was criticized for that. As he did not spend long enough at the Institute, he could not possibly know what was going on. So I told the Science and Technology Com-mittee that these important committees must have proper working scientists as members, or they should contract out some matters to working scientists. They must bring in real scientific advice, not just to the Ministers but to the members of the scientific committees because they're not working scientists themselves.
For example, in some of the Rowett press releases, it was said that Dr Pusztai had this very important work and that his results had been passed onto the appropriate committees, such as the ACNFP. This was in the days when everything seemed to go well for the Rowett, and they were trying to take credit for it. But in fact my papers had never been passed onto any of the committees. Indeed, it became apparent that the members were totally unaware of our research.
Moreover, they didn't know about other relevant pieces of research. As became clear from Granada's "World in Action" TV programme, Professor Janet Bainbridge was totally unaware of Professor Doerer's work, which showed that some pieces of DNA could escape digestion, get into the circulation, even pass on to the next generation through the placenta.1 When she was quizzed about it, she said, "There are thousands of papers, I cannot be aware of them all".
Professor Bainbridge is the chairperson of ACNFP, the committee which is responsible for advising government on whether or not to approve novel foods. Yet she didn't know anything about this paper. What sort of impression does this create?
These committees must be made broader by bringing in consumer representatives, ethicists, representatives of the social sciences - but also active experimental scientists. And then one should get up-to-date professional advice which is based on actual experimental work. It should not be based on third-hand knowledge which seeps through the system.
Our work was commissioned by SOAEFD, Scotland's equivalent of MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries), which was responsible for regulating the safety of GM foods. Nevertheless, on the day of my TV interview on "World in Action", a guy from MAFF kept phoning me to complain that he had been kept in the dark: "Why is it that I had not been told about this work? There are reporters queuing outside my office and demanding information on your work, but I have no information to give."
He kept asking me to send him a letter pronto, so that he would know what it was all about. The TV company put out a press release the night before, so reporters naturally assumed that they could go to the right department of MAFF and would get everything explained. This poor guy kept saying to me "I haven't got the faintest idea." He never talked to anyone at SOAEFD about this work.
If all our results had been passed on to the appropriate committees, as Professor James asserted, then why had MAFF never heard about our work? So the Science and Technology Committee should have listened to my advice. If the ministers really want to act on the "best scientific advice", then they should appoint some real working scientists to these committees - not just those whom they presume to be scientists. Then perhaps in future we could avoid these embarrassing happenings.
Commercialization of scientific research has come gradually since the middle of the 20th century.2 It accelerated with the Conservative government of Prime Minister Thatcher. She managed to destroy true British science. The research institutes and the universities became more and more commercially orientated. In fact, we prostituted ourselves.
In the 1980s the Cabinet Office established a "think tank" which suggested that the only good science is that which can be exchanged for money at the end of the day. For example, then knowledge could be regarded as good science if it meant that electronics was understood better - and thus led to the production of better TV sets, more money and more profit. Now, there is nothing wrong with such applications and I would not be against them. Technology is important and needs to be underpinned with science. However, when the whole relationship is turned the other way round, then the commercial product (e.g. the TV set) becomes far more important than its inside (e.g. the circuitry), the science that made it possible. When commercially orientated science is regarded as the only good science, then I disagree.
This mission- and product-oriented science ruled supreme until the beginning of the 1990s. Then Mrs Thatcher said: this good science should be supported by industry, not by public funds. Now, there is nothing wrong with industry support, but substantial funds which used to come from the government were now to come entirely from industry. As a result, we had to prostitute ourselves to commerce.
Industrial involvement in science and commercial funding of research is not wrong per se, but it must be done in a balanced way, so that we are not selling our soul to industry. Commercial research must be only a part of the whole scene. From the following example it will be easier to understand the situation.
At the Rowett Institute we had a major research programme with a pharmaceutical company. Through our contract, the company bought all our research on lectins in the human gut context, even those parts which they have not financed at all. So, everything which we did in this field belonged to them. The Rowett sold us because it was in their financial interest. They drew up a contract, which was signed on our behalf.
This is prostitution. I have no other word for it. This was a clever way for the government to reduce scientific expenditure. But in the process they left us at the mercy of the commercial companies.
Although we were very successful with this project, any progress to capitalize on our work was totally dependent on the company. If they wanted to push the project forward, they could do it either with or without us; but equally, if they wanted to drop it, we could not do anything about it. They bought everything in advance, so that we could not even initiate our own research without their agreement.
Moreover, all the research work we did with lectins in a gut context belonged to this company, so the GM potato project also belonged to this company. They financed only our work using lectins for the prevention of radiation- and chemotherapy-induced mucositis damage, yet they could have claimed all of our results and could have stopped the publication of everything else. I still cannot publish the results. The company could take me to court if we published it, because the Rowett signed an exclusive agreement with them. In a sense we were sold to them - lock, stock and barrel. And that's not exceptional in government-funded research institutes.
Professor James said I was suspended for something like 12 days from GM work only, not from the other work. Yet I was suspended from all my research, including what was financed by this pharmaceutical company. The company in fact disowned us, in order to avoid bad publicity which could affect their other investments too. The patent was in our name, yet we were not allowed to do any more work for them. Although this mucositis work had nothing to do with GM food, my dismissal meant the end of our project, because all the decisions were up to the company, which had the legal right to shut us out of our own invention and work.
In order to put our invention into medical practice, one has to go through a number of regulatory steps, culminating in human clinical trials. As the Rowett Institute obviously does not have money to develop our idea, the only way open was to sell us and our idea to this company. For this contractual arrangement, the company should have assured us that this noble objective of alleviating human suffering was going to be achieved through their financing.
benefited the public for the work to be published, but we cannot legally do it.
Obviously, we can understand that inventions need to be protected, especially when a company spends about half a million pounds. We even understand that they ought to have some return for their investment. But are they going about it in the right way? And is it right to shelve a valuable invention? In some instances it may even be in the interest of the company to publish the results because of their PR value and because they may help them to raise extra funds for developing the invention.
However, the decision is entirely for the company and we have no say in the matter. If the interests of the scientists and the company go hand in hand, that's fine. The problem arises when we are shut out of our own invention.
Unfortunately, nowadays this is a general problem in science. The cards are stacked against the scientist. It's the company which has all the aces, because they have the money and the lawyers. Which scientist can afford to go to litigation? Even research institutes cannot do it because they haven't got enough money to finance the expensive, risky business of legal litigation. So I think that there ought to be some form of adjudication. It's unreasonable for a company to delay something for 5 years. This is against the public interest and against the scientists' interest.
In the debate on the safety of GM food, two opposing sides are running in parallel. Although I'm told the two extremes will meet in infinity, in reality we are really just taking up positions, and these two parallel lines don't seem to meet. The pro-GM scientists say that the issue has been hijacked by the mass media, as if the public concerns were based on journalistic sensationalism. Of course, newspapers are in the business of selling newspapers, not in the pursuit of scientific enlightenment. However, the scientific truth usually asserts itself after a time.
Far more serious is that the scientific establishment is going over the top. In some instances they are not just economical with the truth, but in fact they are lying. Such behaviour is far more serious because it's not just distorting science, but it is also taking the debate in a wrong direction.
At issue is not just whether GM food is good or bad, but whether scientific debate is conducted in an ethical manner. This is a very important issue. We can all make mistakes, but deliberate ones are far more serious than anything that the Daily Mail may write about the scientific issues. I'm afraid that this is what characterizes this whole debate. The scientific establishment is not willing to concede that there are points which need to be clarified, which could be done only by further research. There are many issues on which the scientific establishment says something which is manifestly untrue. This is not the way to conduct a serious scientific debate. They may not like the experiments that we did, but that's beside the point.
In my TV interview I said that genetic modification technology - if it is properly developed -may be a good thing. I am not against it. What I am against is this uncritical view. And it is not just uncritical, but it is being used to make safety claims for products which have not been properly tested.
Now surely there cannot be anything wrong with that statement, but you see how the scientific establishment responded to our concerns.
It is often said, for example, "Genetic engineering is just the same thing as was done in the past; it's a faster and more precise method of conventional breeding." They know perfectly well that this is not true. Genetic modification may be better or worse, but it is different, and there is no doubt about that difference. And those who make claims for similarity, usually from the scientific or political elite, know perfectly well that it is untrue. So I don't really understand why they say it.
Again it is said, "We eat tons of cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) during our lifetime. It is therefore inconceivable that using the DNA part of this virus - the CaMV 35s promoter, as a molecular switch to turn on the transferred gene in the genome of the plant  should present any safety problems in GM foods." As they know perfectly well, however, what we normally eat is the full virus, which has a protein coat that covers the DNA. This is what our immune system already recognizes. If you take off this coat, which determines the species specificity of the virus, then it is a different matter again. It could be better or worse for safety, but it is different. Therefore the associated risks ought to be investigated.
Likewise it is said, "DNA is all degraded in the gut'" when they know perfectly well that 0.1% does not break down, as documented in publications. (That figure may be higher for vegetarians.) The intact DNA should be of great concern to us. However, the associated risks have not been investigated either.
Indeed, the top scientific establishment ignore these uncertainties, perhaps because they are reluctant to fund research to investigate them. We have methods to investigate them, so why don't we?
Whatever the daily newspapers say, by tomorrow that's yesterday's story. But when prominent scientists speak, their statements may carry real weight. These two types of statement cannot be put on the same scale.
I take a practical scientific point of view. In the few instances when these uncertainties were investigated by independent scientists, potentially serious problems surfaced. We don't know whether these problems can occur generally, whether they are irreversible and whether they have any pathological significance.
Another problem is that we have very few data on the safety of GM foods. Our data base is extremely limited. In my TV interview I always limited my comments to GM potatoes and did not draw any general conclusions about GM food. However, we must admit that our results have a relevance to the general debate on GM food safety. If you want to challenge existing data or concepts, the only way in experimental science is to do more experiments. But if we don't do this, then the lack of evidence cannot be taken to support a contrary point of view, i.e. safety claims. According to Sir John Krebs, drawing conclusions from the February 2000 Edinburgh OECD conference, there was no evidence that GM food poses any health risk.3 This may be true, empirically speaking, but unfortunately there has never been any attempt to study the question, so the converse claim may also be true: that there is no meaningful evidence of safety.
If the head of our Food Standards Agency talks about "no evidence of risk'" then what conclusions can we draw? Is he omniscient?
Clearly he has expressed an unscientific view. When such views are publicly announced by top scientists, then one always has this uneasy feeling that they may have some political agenda, because it cannot be regarded as a scientific agenda. After a friend pestered Sir Robert May about the issue of testing of GM food on humans, eventually he admitted that there has never been any human testing. Nevertheless, we are told, "But millions of Americans are eating it, and nobody has died." Now, for a start, how do we know that nobody died? We don't know who is eating what, when, and how much. No records are kept, no post-market monitoring has been done, and GM crops are not segregated from non-GM crops. Therefore we have no way of knowing any of the effects of GM food.
Science makes quantitative comparisons. When we create something new, we compare it with something old which we think we do know. And the comparison must be quantitative. Take the principle to extremes: it does matter how much potassium cyanide one swallows. With a microgram, nothing will happen to you. But when one swallows a milligram, something lethal will happen. One cannot assume that quantities are irrelevant. So, when not even qualitative comparisons are made, how can one draw any conclusions?
These are very serious issues. No glossing over them, or being economical with the truth, or even lying, will make these issues go away. They will still be there. If you do science and you don't stick to the truth as you see it, then the whole business of science loses its main reason. If I know in advance what result I will get, then why should I do an experiment? For me a great attraction of science is that it's unpredictable; you don't know what result you're going to get. You may have your pet ideas, as we had in our group when we started. We thought that GM potatoes would be OK because it's a great idea. But scientists must be able and free to make up their minds on the basis of the experimental evidence obtained.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) don't like natural products to be used in medical applications. According to the FDA, such products are too variable and not homogenous. If you use genetic modification technology, however, the FDA would look at the products more favourably. There are several genuine scientific problems with their safety assumption, but most regulators haven't a clue about them.
Genetic modification usually produces new proteins in E. coli. If one transfers DNA from a higher plant to a prokaryote like E. coli, they are billions of years apart on an evolutionary scale, though the same genetic code still applies. So the DNA sequence will still be transcribed and eventually expressed the same way, regardless of whether it comes from a prokaryote or from the eukaryote.
But there are possibly major differences too in what happens after the gene is transcribed. One of the best examples is glycosylation, the covalent attachment of carbohydrate residues to the peptide chain. This doesn't occur in prokaryotes like E. coli. Therefore if the gene product is a glycoprotein, it cannot be reproduced in a prokaryote. Even in two different plants, the glycosylated products of the same gene will be different.
Many other differences exist. In 1996 the Monsanto GM cotton became unstable in the Southern states of the USA, probably because of the high temperatures, yet the similar Novartis GM cotton didn't. Some people say that the GM technology is not a proper technology because its products should be precise and predictable, repeatable and reproducible - which they are not. For example, one of our GM potatoes - that was derived from the same transformation and grown on the same plot - still contained 20% less protein than its parent line or the second GM line.
It is claimed that we know all the factors which control this process. I have just read a big review article on the role of transposons. These are highly mobile pieces of DNA within the plant's own genome which are responsible for producing phenotypic variability. It is said that we know all about the human genome, but we only know about 5% of it; we don't know anything about the other 95%, the in-between bits. There are particular sequences, usually inverse repeats in the genome, which are very prone to transposition. In this sequence there is also a DNA sequence which codes for a transposing enzyme which excises bits of the sequence and shifts them along. As a result, the elements which control the regulation of the gene are moved over, leading to the establishment of a different regulatory network.
There is no way that we can truly predict this change.
GM technology - the transfer of genes with viral promoters - destabilizes the genome. This gives more scope for transpositions, one of the main mechanisms for creating biological diversity. Once the new forms are created, then biological competition and natural development will decide whether that species is good or bad, whether or not it will be viable. The genetic instability due to GM technology is a nightmare because one can't really predict what is going to happen. If one adds the possibility of intentionally creating new DNA sequences by recombination, i.e. a new life form, then the outcome will be even more uncertain. If this new DNA codes for something possibly harmful, then our immune system wouldn't recognize this new life form, so it could go on the rampage, by creating new incurable diseases.
We are being told, "But there is no evidence for this scenario." However, and more importantly, neither have we any evidence that this could not happen.
For predicting environmental risks, too, the initial research had great limitations. Further research has simulated a tri-trophic interaction, where one looks beyond the behaviour of the selected pest that needs to be eliminated, towards the next thing in the chain of events. Tri-trophic interactions involve a plant toxin, pest and predator. Such interactions have not been extensively explored in GM re-search, although they may have huge ecological importance. Indeed, there are only three pieces of such research published in the scientific literature.
A Swiss study showed that Bt toxin-expressing maize could also harm beneficial lacewings. Although these were mainly laboratory/semi-field studies, they indicated potential harm (Hilbeck et al., 1998a,b). These tri-trophic interactions could also occur under field conditions. So these studies should have at least stimulated further research.
There is the classic case of the Bt toxin-expressing GM maize developed to control the European corn borer, a main pest of maize. Unfortunately, it has been shown that the pollen of this GM maize can also potentially harm the Monarch butterfly (Losey et al., 1999). This study has now been taken a step further by scientists at Iowa University who demonstrated that this can also occur in semi-field conditions (Hansen and Obrycki, 1999).
If I understood Prince Charles correctly, he said that science has become a way to get a quick fix for outstanding problems. I certainly agree with that. For example, if one wants to get rid of aphids which harm potatoes, we can create GM insecticides. There are a number of genes whose protein products can do that job, so that the problem can be fixed. But the real problem comes when you try to put this "fix" into its real-life context. It is often said that such views are "anti-science", but I think this is rubbish. Successful scientists used to look at the problem in its context, rather than take it out of context and artificially boost a part which appeared desirable to them. Formerly, the main criterion for funding a piece of work was its scientific merit, rather than its perceived or supposed merit for the public good. Science now is highly directed, driven by tasks and products.
In my opinion, the main criterion for good science is not how useful it is, but how well it is done. It is often said that one must promote the public good. But the road to hell is paved with the best intentions, and if your intentions are not even the best, then you get to hell very quickly. So I think this whole business has been twisted out of context. Science ought to be done for finding out. It's not for fixes. I listened to the Reith lecture, particularly what Prince Charles said. Although he's not a scientist and knows that he's not a scientist, he spoke a lot of sense. Strangely, in this democratic age, he speaks for most of the people - the common people.
Science ought to aim at finding out. Science should be the pursuit of truth, without any financial advantage. That is the definition of science - the scientific enquiry. Unfortunately for all of us, this has been twisted out of its original meaning. Now they say that science must not be pursued just to please the scientific mind: it's not the truth that is important, but the truth for a particular social context. The context is set by government and the scientific establishment because they have a pre-conceived idea of what is good for us all. So we have moved away from academic freedom.
This agenda is anathema to science. If you know in advance all the things which you are going to find, then there is not much point in doing it, is there? You are told this is what you must do and what you must find. If you are sceptical, then you are branded a Luddite, as if you want to stop progress.
When I was not taking the "official line" many times I was told, "You are proposing an anti-science agenda". Quite the opposite: I want more science, not less. But I want science to be objective, as much as possible - not what the establishment have in mind. And not because science gives you a financial advantage.
I have recently lectured at a liberal arts college in the USA. In this college they are trying to get the students to understand that everything in our society is always done in a social context. Courses in government science and ecology and so on are intended to help the students to absorb this basic philosophy. Even students whose primary education is in science are made to see that their scientific activities will be done in a social context. Some people voice the opinion, quite rightly, that the direction that science research takes should be influenced not only by scientists but also by non-scientists who bring different perspectives and values. I think this is very important. For me, the last 2 years I was on a real learning curve. Although in life our opinions are formed by all our life experiences, a great deal of these come from our own profession. However, for most people, life and professional experi-ences seem to be running on separate lines.
Like others, I had some basic ideas about what my life ought to be like. Early in my life I vowed never to be involved with any biological project which had obvious warfare implications. I have never wanted my science to be used against people. Had I been a physicist, I would have never considered taking part in the Manhattan Project to build an atom bomb.
However, even with these philosophical commitments, one does not always anticipate what are the potential outcomes, implications and consequences of our work. One has very little free time to do so. If you are a successful scientist, you have enough problems keeping up with your scientific activities. So if anything is not very obvious at the beginning, you don't start to question its implications.
When we started with this genetic modification work in 1995, we thought that it was a great idea. For example, we accepted claims that GM crops would enable society to reduce the application of agrochemicals to the land. Clearly, this is a noble aim, but we didn't have the knowledge or the data to question its validity. In fact, we thought it was more than likely all right.
However, as we went through the whole process of research and our doubts were beginning to emerge, the realization also came that perhaps these doubts have implications which go beyond science. After all, I'm not just a scientist but also a member of the public who wants to live in a clean environment. So I started to look at GM from a different point of view, a much broader perspective.
Then, when I voiced my doubts over the safety of GM in public, what followed was a true eye-opener. To my cost, I found out just how far the establishment would go to try to destroy someone who brought into the open his concern, which was based on his own experimental work. My message was obviously uncomfortable to the scientific-political establishment with vested interests in the success of the GM technology. Even scepticism is not tolerated by them. For them this is almost like a religious crusade. The establishment must crush anyone who appears to be standing in their way. If this had happened 500 years ago, I would have probably been put to the stake and burnt. They did to me the equivalent - what they could do in our age. They certainly went out of their way to destroy me, both as a person and definitely as a scientist.
I think that ethical and social considerations must come into scientific issues, both for the individual scientist and also for the scientific-political establishment. The scientist may think that he must have an absolute right to do anything, but he has no such right. For example, human cloning is reprehensible, both for me and many other scientists. I think that this questions and jeopardizes all our basic moral values; it is also unsettling for the whole structure of society and human existence.
Moreover, we have no right at all to subject people to the results of our work without consulting the public about this and securing their consent. Indeed, we have no justification to do experiments in which there is a human involvement without their consenting to this role. Moreover, we should have a strong enough ethical stance to self-regulate our research activities whose results might jeopardize the long-term future and development of the human race. Even if some people consent to such experiments, the responsible scientist should draw the line somewhere. If scientists cannot draw this line, then others in society must do it for them. Scientists are sometimes too close to their subject to be able to make rational long-term decisions which take the whole human race into consideration. Scientists must not be allowed to do experiments with human eugenics, for example. I thought that we fought a world war against that.
There must be a strong involvement with the public, though obviously 7.5 billion people cannot be sitting around a table to discuss the issues. We have to find the best ways to involve people in discussing issues which may affect them. There has also to be involvement from other sciences, liberal arts, social sciences, environmentalists, philosophers, religious representatives, etc.  people who may legitimately hold different viewpoints. And the debate has to be done beforehand, not just after a technology has been developed, as with GM technology now. The damage might have been done already, and we might not know.
This article was developed from an interview transcript provided by Maggie Scott from her PhD research, based at the Open University.
1. See scientific papers by Doerer et al. (1997), Doerer and Schubbert (1998) and Schubbert et al. (1994, 1998). See also the review article by Traavik (2000).
2. According to a major report, government departments "do not require scientific support, but [rather] applied R&D, to achieve specific predetermined objectives". Moreover, applied research should be subject to the "customer-contract" principle (Rothschild, 1971). For public sector research institutes, initially the main "customers" were government departments, which made contracts for specific policy-relevant research projects. In retrospect, this shift can be seen as a step towards commercializing public-sector research. Corporate influences on public-sector research have been widely analysed, e.g. Harvey (1998).
3. "Worldwide, many people are eating GM foods (especially in North America and China) with no adverse effects on human health being reported in the peer-reviewed scientific literature", declared John Krebs (2000).
Birch, N. et al. (1997) "Interactions between plant resistance genes, pest aphid populations and beneficial aphid predators", in SCRI Annual Report 1996-97, pp. 68-72. Dundee: Scottish Crop Research Institute.
Birch, N. et al. (1999) "Tri-trophic interactions involving pest aphids, predatory 2-spot ladybirds and transgenic potatoes expressing snowdrop lectin for aphid resistance", Molecular Breeding, 5: 75-83.
Doerer, W. et al. (1997) "Integration of foreign DNA and its consequences in mammalian systems", Tibtech, 312: 401?406.
Doerer, W. and Schubbert, R. (1998) "Uptake of foreign DNA from the environment: the gastrointestinal tract and placenta as portals of entry", Wien Klin. Wochenschr, 110: 40-44.
Ewen, S.W.B. and Pusztai, A. (1999) "Effect of diets containing genetically modified potatoes expressing Galanthus nivalis lectin on rat small intestine", The Lancet, 354: 1353-1354.
Hansen, L. and Obrycki, J. (1999) "Non-target effects of Bt corn pollen on the Monarch butterfly (Lepidoptera: Danaidae)", http://www.pme.iastate.edu/info/monarch.htm.
Harvey, D. (1998) "University, Inc.", Atlantic Monthly, October, http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98oct/ruins.htm.
Hilbeck, A. et al. (1998a) "Effects of transgenic Bt corn-fed prey on mortality and development time of immature Chrysoperla carnea", Environmental Entomology, 27(2): 480-487.
Hilbeck, A. et al. (1998b) "Toxicity of Bt Cry1Ab toxin to the predator Chrysoperla carnea", Environmental Entomology, 27(5): 1255-1263.
Krebs, J. (2000) Report on OECD conference, "GM Food Safety: Facts, Uncertainties and Assessment', http://www.oecd.org/subject/biotech.
Losey, J., Rayor, L. and Carter, M. (1999) "Transgenic pollen harms monarch larvae", Nature, 399: 214.
Pusztai, A. et al. (1990) "Relationship between survival and binding of plant lectins during small intestinal passage and their effectiveness as growth factors", Digestion, 46(suppl. 2): 306-316.
Rothschild Report (1971) The Organization and Management of Government Research and Development, Cmnd 4814. London: HMSO.
Royal Society (1998) Genetically Modified Plants for Food Use. London: Royal Society, http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/.
Schubbert, R. et al. (1994) "Ingested foreign (phage M13) DNA survives transiently in the gastrointestinal tract and enters the blood stream of mice", Molecules, Genes and Genetics, 242: 495-504.
Schubbert, R. et al. (1998) "On the fate of orally ingested foreign DNA in mice: chromosomal association and placental transmission in the fetus", Molecules, Genes and Genetics, 259: 569-576.
Traavik, T. (2000) "Horizontal gene transfer", in GM on Trial, pp. 45-62. London: Greenpeace.


text:
TradeBeam, PanPacifics Partner to Deliver GTM in China
Solution providers ally to develop global trade management solutions targeted at key trading industries exporting to, from China
San Mateo, CA — September 13, 2005 — Global trade management (GTM) specialist TradeBeam Holdings has entered into a joint venture agreement with PanPacifics Corporation to deliver a GTM platform to China, with the expectation that the joint venture will develop and support enterprise software applications and industry solutions for the Chinese market.
According to TradeBeam, upon its incorporation, the joint venture will tackle the critical and growing challenges China faces in managing trade by leveraging the solution provider's suite for managing order, logistics and financial settlement processes involved in moving goods across borders.
The joint venture will focus on launching commercial activities within the region, building strategic partnerships with key customs and government organizations as well as extending product functionality, including localization of specific GTM modules, according to TradeBeam.
"Targeting key trading industries exporting to and from China, TradeBeam and PanPacifics are focused on helping organizations recognize the immediate value of automating the entire global trade process from order through to payment," the two companies said in a statement on the deal.
"TradeBeam is the most advanced technology platform available today to enable trade," said Hubert Xian, president and CEO of PanPacifics. "We spent over a year reviewing potential partners for this initiative, and we are delighted we have come to an agreement."
"We are excited about our partnership with PanPacifics because of our shared vision for GTM in one of the fastest growing markets in the world," said Graham R.F. Napier, president and CEO of TradeBeam. "The alliance represents an important opportunity to automate the physical and financial supply chain processes for companies that trade with China."
Additional Articles of Interest
— Imminent terrorist attacks or no, your competitive advantage demands that you secure your company's supply chain. Read more in "Supply Chain Security: Is Your Company Complacent or Engaged?," in the February/March 2005 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
— For a look at how Tyco Fire & Security is tackling trade compliance issues in its global supply chain, see "Turning Global Trade Compliance Into a Competitive Advantage," in the August/September 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
— For more information on the challenges and opportunities presented by increasingly global supply chains, see the special in-depth report in the August/September 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive, which includes the following articles:
Making Global Supply Chains Work Supply and demand chain practitioners take on the challenges and opportunities of world marketplace.
The Hidden Costs of a Global Supply & Demand Chain - Veteran industry observers warn of potential hidden costs of offshoring.
Mastering the Complexity Challenge in the Global Supply Chain - While many companies are acting globally, they are still thinking locally.
Ensuring Security of Supply in the Lean Supply Chain - Balancing the demands of security with the requirements of today's lean supply chains
The World Is Enough - Making the global high-tech supply chain more accessible.
— For more information on the global supply chain, with a focus on security issues, see "Building the Secure Supply Chain," the Net Best Thing article in the June/July 2003 issue of iSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive) magazine.
— For more information on the latest trends in the logistics space, see the article "The Analyst Corner: Fulfillment & Logistics" in the October/November 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
More articles about TradeBeam.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Commercial printer Greenhouse Graphics has invested around £500,000 in a Komori Lithrone S429 with H-UV curing to benefit from its production efficiencies and environmental credentials.
Crossley: "Komori's H-UV process is a real game-changer"
The four-colour B2 16,000sph press was installed and commissioned at the Basingstoke-based firm's premises over the Christmas period and is now in full production.
The press is the first Komori that the firm has bought new and has replaced a 14-year-old five-colour Lithrone 528, which has been part exchanged.
Managing director Ian Crossley said: "Komori's H-UV process is a real game-changer. We first saw it at Ipex in London last year and, having very carefully evaluated it alongside other new UV alternatives, we feel that Komori is ahead of the curve and leads the field with its H-UV technology.
The company, which has 11 staff and a turnover of around £1m, has experienced growth over each of the past two years.
"A new press is such a critical commitment that even after trialling the H-UV Lithrone at Komori's technology centre and visiting H-UV users, we needed to exhaustively analyse the financial and production implications," said Crossley.
"This included calculating monthly output, platemaking savings, time and material savings and the various gains we could expect to make through faster customer response.
"We concluded that, along with a move to extended day working, the new Lithrone would enable us to increase our turnover by 50% to £1.5m in the next two years and simultaneously decrease our production costs.
"We're just going to the market now and telling people about it and we're organising some demonstrations to show people what it's capable of doing.
Crossley said another main driver for the purchase was the environmental benefits of the press, which are in line with the company's own green ethos.
"In addition to reducing waste, it enables us to totally eliminate spray powder from the factory, print completely alcohol free and noticeably reduce our energy levels. In addition, with no requirement any more for a fifth unit to seal jobs, we're making floor space and consumable savings," said Crossley.
Greenhouse Graphics also operates a B3 Ryobi litho press, a Screen LED UV flatbed, Roland roll-to-roll machinery and finishing equipment including Stahl folders, a Heidelberg Cyldinder and a Horizon stitch-fold-trim device.
The business was established in 1993 with the aim of delivering a more sustainable approach to print and related services. Its services include strategic marketing consultancy, large-format printing, signage and vehicle livery production.
The firm uses only FSC paper and it was the first UK commercial printer to install PV solar panels in 2005 and introduce hazardous waste-free colour printing in 2007. In 2010 it developed its own carbon calculator for printed products, giving print buyers key carbon information prior to printing.
"Our clients include many colleges and local education establishments and our environmental policies and transparency suits their ethos," said Crossley.


text:
Q: Android efficient layouting I'm writing an app with a custom theme and layout (some CI) for API 18+, so I need to align a lot of elements.
I read several times, that one should avoid nested layouts as good as possible, but also that some layout types are less efficient than others (RelativeLayout).

*

*should I still avoid nested views these days?

*if yes, what is more efficient

*

*flat RelativeLayout

*nested LinearLayout (2 levels)

*what about TableLayout with TableRows
Currently I already have this layout hierarchy:

*

*Drawer (for sidemenu)

*

*Relative (because of header and footer)

*

*Frame (Content goes below here, just used for easy replacing of fragments)

A: Your current layout hierarchy is very sample and under normal circumstances it should not be slow at all. Of course the FrameLayout is not needed as you are using a relative layout because your can align the center content below and above the header and footer of the relative layout children.
For this level of nesting the view there is absolutely no problem as for performance.
Both RealtiveLayout and LinearLayout extend FrameLayout with relative being a little heavier as it handles what else the relationships between the views.
If you need to align many element (like editexts and textview) in a form-type layout the best option is TableLayout.
General speaking layout inflation from XML is expensive, but nesting a view inside another makes no difference in real life. The problem would be if you had a thousand views in a TableView with TableRows having nested layout inside.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Now we're not naming names, but have you ever had a laptop with only 1 or 2 measly USB-C ports? There's no denying the speed and reliability of USB-C Power Delivery charging, but what if you need to plug in a mouse? And if you were hoping to make a PowerPoint presentation via HDMI, from a USB drive, while making sure your laptop doesn't die mid-meeting? Forget about it.
Suddenly, you find yourself wondering why you dropped top dollar on this laptop that arguably has less functionality than your desktop computer from 5 years ago. What was [CENSORED COMPANY NAME] thinking!?
Well, we've been busy thinking up a solution. Enter the Premium 7-in-1 USB-C Hub.
This hub supports high-speed data sync letting you transfer movies, full seasons of TV shows, or an entire music library in mere seconds. Then, display your media in vivid 4K via the HDMI port.
Hot-swap accessories to your heart's content, and transfer massive numbers of photos and files from cameras or other equipment to your laptop, thanks to universal compatibility with SD and TF cards.
But the best is yet to come. This hub conducts an enormous 100W of power, but only requires 20W to operate. Where is all this extra power going, you ask? Straight into your laptop, of course! That 80W Power Delivery output is enough to provide a MacBook with a full-speed charge—while you're using all these extra ports and features.
A word to the wise: this hub's USB-A ports are optimized for SuperSpeed data, but this means that they aren't designed for charging. Also, you'll want to remember that hubs of this type aren't compatible for transferring data to and from iPad Pro 2018.
For your other devices, however, the Premium 7-in-1 USB-C Hub is the ideal accessory for any situation, transforming your single USB-C port into a powerhouse of productivity. To start making USB-C work for you and not against you, take a look at our Premium 7-in-1 USB-C Hub on Amazon, and use code AKCHUB46 when you check out to get 30% off.
For hubs with different port configurations (including Ethernet-enabled hubs), check out our entire range of USB-C charging hubs available on Amazon now.
Power On! With Power Delivery!
Anker 5-in-1 USB C Hub, with 4K USB C to HDMI, Ethernet Port, 3 USB 3.0 Ports Due to high demand, this code is no longer valid.
Odd it says all the ports you need then says if you need different ports you can get one of the others. Why didn't they put Ethernet in the 7 port?
I guess the censored company is Apple.
Be aware of USB version. I own the earlier HDMI dongle and I tried it last night on my USB-C OnePlus 6, USB-C Pixel C, USB-C Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus, and none of them worked with HDMI as they are not USB 3 which can output to HDMI. So I keep with the Chromecast dongle and casting screen.
When will anker support double displays on their hubs?
It depends how many people need it!
When will this be available on amazon.ca?
Anychance to make this deal available to Amazon.fr ?
It will be available on Canada market in April.


text:
After 25 Years, Former Chad Dictator Accused of Killing 40,000 Goes on Trial
By Pierre Longeray and Pierre-Louis Caron Jul 20, 2015
After a 25-year campaign to bring former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré to justice, his trial opened Monday in Senegal's capital of Dakar.
Habré stands accused of "crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture" allegedly committed during his brutal eight-year rule. A reported 40,000 people were killed and 200,000 were tortured under his regim, though Habré denies the claims.
After threatening to boycott his own trial, Chad's former president was brought to Dakar's Lat-Dior courthouse by security guards to appear before the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC), a special tribunal set up by the African Union in 2013 to prosecute the "person or persons" responsible for crimes committed in Chad during Habré's rule.
Big crowd today for opening of — Henri Thulliez (@HenriThulliez)July 20, 2015
"[The trial] is a farce by rotten Senegalese politicians!" Habré shouted while waiting for proceedings to start. "African traitors! Valet of America!" The former Chadian leader was then escorted off the premises and returned to Cap Manuel prison, in Dakar.
Empty chair. — Thomas Fessy (@bbcfessy)July 20, 2015
"It was a rather strange opening — both solemn and ridiculous," said Henri Thuillez, the coordinator at Human Rights Watch (HRW) for the Hissène Habré case. In 2013, HRW published a 738-page study of the abuses and crimes committed under Habré's régime. Speaking to VICE News following Monday's hearing, Thuillez said that Habré's outburst was directed at gathered journalists.
More than 4,000 people have registered as civil parties to the case, and 100 witnesses are expected to give evidence during the trial, which will last an estimated three months. In a statement released on July 9, HRW said Habré had been charged with "the massive practice of murder, summary executions, [and] kidnapping followed by enforced disappearance and torture, amounting to crimes against humanity."
"The people we are helping want justice, first and foremost," Thuillez told VICE News. "They want to know why they and their loved ones were targeted, and [they want] to find out what happened. The victims are of course seeking reparations, but that is secondary."
Habré's political career in Chad began in 1971, when he returned to his native country after studying political science in Paris. According to journalist Michael Bronner, who profiled Habré for Foreign Policy in 2014, Habré soon relocated to northern Chad "to build a militia and lay the groundwork for his political future."
In 1979, Habré was appointed defense minister in an interim government formed by Chad's neighbors in an attempt to unite 11 warring Chadian factions ahead of future elections. In 1982, Habré and 2,000 of his fighters took control of Chad's capital, N'Djamena, and declared the founding of the Third Republic of Chad.
Watch VICE News' 'Chad's Fight Against Boko Haram.'
Habré ruled with an iron fist from the start, executing prisoners of war and political opponents, and enforcing a violent crackdown on civilians suspected of being opposition sympathizers.
"He had to show that [his faction] was the most powerful of all the factions that were fighting for power, and in order to do that, he had to strike very hard," said Roland Marchal, a researcher at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and an expert on Central African conflicts. "All those who had other political ambitions for Chad were brought into the ranks — either willingly or through force."
Habré was particularly ruthless with two Chadian ethnic groups — the Hadjerai and Zaghawa. In 1987, he launched a campaign of ethnic violence against the Hadjerai after a military officer from the tribe launched an opposition movement against the government. Under Habré's direction, the regime's secret police — the Direction of Documentation and Security (DDS) — targeted civilians and dignitaries alike.
Two years later, the dictator turned his attentions toward the Zaghawa tribe for similar reasons, and again, civilians were targeted.
In 1990, forces loyal to current president Idriss Déby took N'Djamena, and Habré fled to Senegal with, allegedly, a share of the national treasury. Speaking to VICE News Monday, Marchal said that Habré's fortune may have played a role in ensuring his legal peace of mind.
"There [in Senegal], he surrounded himself with allies to avoid or delay legal proceedings," Marchal said.
In 1992, the Chadian Truth Commission accused Habré's regime of killing 40,000 people for political reasons and torturing 200,000 people. Most of the abuses were carried out by the DDS, whose heads reported directly to the president.
Related: In Photos: On the Banks of Despair With Lake Chad's Boko Haram Refugees
In 2000, seven Chadian victims of Habré filed a complaint against the former president in Senegal, and in 2006, the African Union waded into the discussion, calling on Senegal to prosecute Habré "on behalf of Africa." Negotiations between Senegal and the AU culminated in the inauguration of the EAC in Dakar, in 2013.
The trial that is currently underway in Dakar marks the first time that officials in one African country will try a former ruler of another country on such charges. If the 72-year-old Habré is found guilty, he could face up to 30 years in prison, to be served either in Senegal or in another country of the African Union.
Follow Pierre Longeray (@PLongeray) and Pierre-Louis Caron (@pierrelouis_c) on Twitter.


text:
McIlroy tames Tiger in China exhibition
Sports // Golf
Staff and wire reports Oct. 28, 2013
Rory McIlroy (left) shot a 6-under 67 to top Tiger Woods by a shot at Mission Hills Blackstone Course in Haikou, China.
Photo: Lintao Zhang / Getty Images
Rory McIlroy won for the first time this year — even if it was an 18-hole exhibition against Tiger Woods on Monday in Haikou, China.
McIlroy made four birdies and an eagle over the last seven holes at Mission Hills for a 6-under 67, giving him a one-shot win over Woods. It was the second straight year McIlroy has defeated Woods at the medal match in China.
"I would like to play all my tournaments in China where I can beat Tiger," McIlroy said.
The banter was free and easy, mostly about equipment. Woods was trying to recover from a virus he picked up from his daughter and spent most of the afternoon asking his caddie for cough drops.
The golf was spectacular over the final hour on the Blackstone Course, however.
Woods had a one-shot lead and hit a marvelous approach to 10 feet on the par-5 12th. McIlroy followed with a long iron into 5 feet, and both made eagle. They both made birdie on the 13th, and McIlroy caught him with a 6-foot birdie on the 14th.
Woods could hardly raise his voice after the round.
"I don't sound all that well now, but it was nice that it was warm out there today," Woods said. "I tell you what, when you have kids, they bring home some strong bugs, and this one has definitely been kicking my butt for the last couple of days."
Tiger 'going forward': Woods issued a veiled challenge to Golf Channel over a column written by analyst Brandel Chamblee that a series of rules violations by Woods amounted to cheating.
Woods spoke publicly for the first time since Chamblee, a longtime critic of the world's No. 1 player, wrote a column for SI Golf Plus in which he gave Woods an "F" for his season for being "a little cavalier" with the rules.
"All I am going to say is that I know I am going forward," Woods said. "But then, I don't know what the Golf Channel is going to do or not. But then that's up to them."
Elsewhere: Electronic Arts announced it would be ending its 15-year relationship with Woods, the namesake for the "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" video game series. ... The LPGA Tour waived its age
requirement for players to be 18 and older for Lydia Ko, clearing the way for the 16-year-old from New Zealand to join the tour in 2014. Ko already is a two-time winner on the tour.
Writers' roundtable: The state of the NBA
For Presti, can't miss became can't win
As Marcus Morris defects, Spurs turn to Trey Lyles
Spurs' Lonnie Walker IV teams with PETA to keep dogs safe
As league keeps shaking, meltdowns could loom
Growth and growing pains from Samanic at Summer League
In a New York state of mind, Morris has Spurs in flux
Tough-guy Morris could leave Spurs in tough spot


text:
"Hellish Nell," The Last Person Imprisoned for Witchcraft in Britain
BY Bess Lovejoy
Harry Price, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain
As a little girl in Callander, Scotland, in the earliest days of the 20th century, Helen MacFarlane was known for acting like a tomboy. Her rowdiness and sometimes-violent temper gave rise to her nickname, "Hellish Nell." But she also known for something else—her seeming ability to communicate with spirits and her frequent visits from ghosts.
Banished from the family home at age 16 after getting pregnant, she went on to marry a devoted Spiritualist named Harry Duncan, who believed in her powers. In the wake of World War I and its massive death toll, communicating with the dead via spirit mediums became a popular pastime, and the freshly named Helen Duncan found a new mission in life: she became a Spiritualist medium. (Though the term "Spiritualist" is often misused today to mean someone who is "spiritual," it was once a flourishing religion that involved communicating with the dead.)
Duncan earned her living traveling throughout Britain, conducting séances at spiritualist societies and in private homes and charging admission for her services. Duncan was known as a "materialization medium"—someone who could not just commune with the dead but produce physical manifestations of them. Her séances frequently included strings of otherworldly white ectoplasm produced from various orifices, as well as ghostly images of the faces and bodies of departed "spirit guides."
However, a 1931 investigation by famed psychic researcher Harry Price concluded that the ectoplasm was actually cheesecloth covered in egg whites, iron salts, and other chemicals, which Duncan stored in her stomach and then regurgitated. The "spirits" were pictures cut from magazines, while a "spiritual hand" glimpsed in one séance was revealed to be a rubber glove. Price's investigations failed to dim enthusiasm for Duncan's séances, however. Neither did a 1933 trial and imprisonment for fraudulent mediumship, which resulted after one of Duncan's spirit guides, "Peggy," was revealed to be a vest. As the cultural historian Malcolm Gaskill wrote for History Today, "Spiritualists … thrived on feelings of persecution by orthodox science, organized religion, and, above all, the police, who sought to protect the public against imposture. Accordingly, Helen Duncan was lionised and her fame grew to the extent that even a conviction for fraud at Edinburgh in 1933 saw her hailed as a martyr."
After the outbreak of World War II, Duncan's services were especially in demand. The spirits offered consolation amid fear and despair, and in some cases, even shared information that seemingly broke through the tight shroud of secrecy the government had imposed. But it was this wartime climate that proved to be Duncan's undoing.
In November 1941, the battleship HMS Barham was sunk by German torpedoes, with more than 800 lives lost. The British government censored news of the sinking to protect morale; by some reports, they even forged Christmas cards from dead sailors to their families. A few months later, however, at a séance in Portsmouth (the town where Duncan lived, which also happened to be home to the Royal Navy), Duncan told a mother that her son had appeared wearing a hatband with the words HMS Barham on it and saying: "My ship is sunk."
When news of the séance reached officials, they were appalled. And once preparations for D-Day began, they decided to take action. By some accounts, Duncan had also revealed specific details of the sinking of the HMS Broadwater in 1941, and there were concerns that her information—whatever its source—would endanger the secrecy needed for a successful invasion of occupied France.
In January 1944, police burst into one of Duncan's séances, arresting her and three members of the audience. She was originally charged under Section 4 of the 1824 Vagrancy Act, which was commonly used at the time to punish offenses related to fortune-telling, astrology, and spiritualism. Such charges usually resulted in no more than a fine. But Duncan's case was different: as Gaskill notes, "at this most sensitive point in the war the authorities wanted her in prison." In March, Duncan was prosecuted at London's Old Bailey for conspiracy to contravene the Witchcraft Act of 1735, the first change of its kind in more than a century.
Despite what it sounds like, the Witchcraft Act wasn't meant to prosecute actual witches, so much as punish people for pretending to have the powers of a witch. During the trial, which was a media sensation, Duncan was accused of pretending "to exercise or use human conjuration" so "spirits of deceased persons should appear to be present."
Her lawyer, a spiritualist himself, attempted to defend her by proving she wasn't just pretending. He called more than 40 witnesses who had seen Duncan's powers at work, and even offered a private séance to the jury (they declined). The defense, however, was unsuccessful, and Duncan was imprisoned for nine months at North London's Holloway women's prison, the last person to be jailed under the act.
Winston Churchill, who was then prime minister, denounced Duncan's conviction as "obsolete tomfoolery." By some accounts, he also visited her in jail. In 1951, he finally repealed the 200-year-old Witchcraft Act, but Duncan's conviction stood. She died five years later, shortly after yet another police raid. To this day, family members and others are working to clear her name.
History myths witchcraft witches
CBS Is Live-Streaming Its 1969 Coverage of the Apollo 11 Launch Right Now on YouTube
The Saturn V rocket lifts off with the Apollo 11 mission on July 16, 1969.
NASA, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain
Today is the 50th anniversary of the July 16, 1969 launch of the Apollo 11 mission, which resulted in the first Moon landing in history. CBS News is commemorating the momentous event with a YouTube live stream of its special coverage from that day, which you can watch below.
CBS anchor Walter Cronkite brought all the thrill and wonder of the takeoff into the homes of countless Americans, and he also introduced them to three soon-to-be-famous astronauts: former Navy pilot Neil Armstrong, Air Force colonel Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and former Air Force fighter pilot (and experimental test pilot) Michael Collins.
Cronkite chronicled the astronauts' journey from their 4:15 a.m. breakfast at the command space center to Kennedy Space Center's launch station 39A, where they boarded the Saturn V rocket. CBS sports commentator Heywood Hale Broun reported from the Florida beach itself, interviewing spectators who were hoping to witness history happen in real time. "I just hope they make it successfully and have no problem," said a visitor from California.
In the final seconds before liftoff, Cronkite counted down, not knowing what the future of the mission would hold.
Tune into the live stream below, or check out the highlights from CBS News here.
[h/t CBS News]
History moon NASA News Space Television
Alan Turing, WWII Codebreaker Who Was Persecuted for Being Gay, Is the New Face of England's £50 Note
BY Michele Debczak
The Bank of England has chosen a new person to grace one of its pound sterling notes, the BBC reports. Alan Turing, the computer scientist who lent his code-breaking expertise to the Allied powers in World War II, will soon be the new face of the £50 banknote.
Alan Turing's life story has been the subject of a play, an opera, and the 2014 Oscar-winning film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Turing's biggest claim to fame was cracking the Enigma code used by the Nazis to send secret messages. By decrypting the system and interpreting Nazi plans, Turing helped cut World War II short by up to two years, according to one estimate.
Despite his enormous contributions to the war and the field of computer science, Turing received little recognition during his lifetime because his work was classified, and because he was gay: Homosexual activity was illegal in the UK and decriminalized in 1967. He was arrested in 1952 after authorities learned he was in a relationship with another man, and he opted for chemical castration over serving jail time. He died of cyanide poisoning from an apparent suicide in 1954.
Now, decades after punishing him for his sexuality, England is celebrating Turing and his accomplishments by giving him a prominent place on its currency. The £50 note is the least commonly used bill in the country, and it will be the last to transition from paper to polymer. When the new banknote enters circulation by the end of 2021, it will feature a 1951 photograph of Alan Turing along with his quote, "This is only a foretaste of what is to come and only the shadow of what is going to be."
Turing beat out a handful of other British scientists for his spot on the £50 note. Other influential figures in the running included Rosalind Franklin, Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, Stephen Hawking, and William Herschel.
[h/t BBC]
Finance History LGBTQ money News world war two


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AutoCAD Units, Part 2
Article 2 in a series
Units are Key in AutoCAD
To be on a first-name, good-buddy basis with AutoCAD, I believe that you need to thoroughly understand units.
A fisherman, to be outstanding at fishing, needs to understand the nature of water, lakes, and the sea. It's the same with AutoCAD. All of our created objects swim in a sea of units.
We'll focus on length units in this article. Angular units will be discussed in a future post.
Illustration of the 3-D Grid used by AutoCAD
In the first article of this series, we discussed the absolutely central role of units in AutoCAD. I've linked that article HERE if you'd like to review it.
We saw how AutoCAD organizes its universe into an imaginary three-dimensional grid. All of the objects placed in it are organized by their x, y, and z coordinates. Those coordinates relate back to the origin, which is at the 0, 0, 0 location where all of AutoCAD's internal measurements begin. Here's the animated video I made of the grid: STOMP!
17th-Century map of the universe with Earth at the center
This origin point is literally the center of the universe to AutoCAD, even though, as a designer, I may usually be unaware of its location relative to my work.
AutoCAD doesn't much care what real-world units that you (the designer) have in mind for your project. Do you like inches? Millimeters? Cubits? Furlongs?Light years? Whatever, says ACAD. To AutoCAD, it's all about units.
It's our job as designers to be clear and consistent about units as they're used in our project.
The actual real-world length measurement of a unit is only of secondary importance to the software. It's really up to us, as designers, to be clear, and to stay consistent, on the nature of the units as they're used in our project.
Two Places to Set Up Units
There are two critical places in an AutoCAD project where we need to carefully set up the units:
Drawing Utilities and
Dimension Styles.
These two roles, while related, are really quite separate. The setting of one has no effect whatsoever on the other. What works well in the first may not be appropriate in the second, and vice versa.
The two roles are aimed at different audiences. The designer sees the results of the unit settings made in the Drawing Utilities dialog box. The builder or manufacturer who receives the drawings sees the results of the unit settings that the designer makes in the Dimension Styles dialog box.
Drawing Utilities is where units get defined for the direct, two-way communication between the AutoCAD software and us (the designers). The Properties dialog box is the main place that AutoCAD software "talks" to us, the designers. When you check the properties of a line or other object, how does the length appear? Does it show up with feet, inches and fractions? Or does it appear as simply a number, possibly with decimals?
The LIST command's output is another place where the unit settings in Drawing Utilities affect the display of lengths. The Area and Volume displays are affected by the type of length unit setting.
Very importantly, this Drawing Utilities setting controls the default unit which is assumed by AutoCAD when you type in a number (like 36) for a distance or length.
Dimension Styles is where we control how units appear in our dimensions. These dimensions appear in the printed documents and tell the builder what sizes we expect them to produce in the physical objects.
I'll address setting up units in Dimension Styles in an upcoming post.
Choosing Unit Type and Precision Settings
Within the definition of the project's units, there are two main settings for us to consider:
Type and
You say you want your house's walls laid out using meters as a measurement system? Great. We'll choose Decimal units as the type. It's important to note that AutoCAD will not automatically append "cm" (meaning centimeters) or "mm" (millimeters) onto the units' display. Again, it's up to the designer to keep track of the type of metric unit that she intends to be the default unit in the drawing.
If you choose Architectural units as your type, AutoCAD will help you out by displaying an apostrophe or double quotation marks after the unit quantity in the Properties.
Now tell me — how many decimal places do you want to see in the properties box? In the dimensions? And do you want the building's concrete foundations laid out—and dimensioned—to the same level of precision as the kitchen cabinetry? Probably not.
These are the kind of unit-related considerations that the designer needs to address when setting up units for a project. Ideally, the designer will have a custom AutoCAD template (DTE file) where all of these decisions will be stored for use in the next project. Of course, even the best template file needs to be reviewed and updated periodically.
Setting the project's units in Drawing Utilities
The first place where we need to specify the type of units that we want to use for a project is in the Drawing Utilities. Again, this is where we control how the units will appear in the Properties dialog, the LIST command's output, and other internal locations. The settings can be found by clicking the Big Red A (Application Browser) button and then following the menu to Units.
Drawing Units dialog box
Opening the Drawing Units dialog box shows you various controls used to specify the Length and Angle units (image at left). Here we will focus on length.
Expanding the Length Type selector gives you the following options:
Architectural (meaning feet, inches, and fractions). Mainly used in the United States. Also known as "Imperial" units.
Decimal (which can mean meters, centimeters, millimeters, or many other types of units).
Engineering (combines feet and decimal inches)
Fractional (inches and fractions, with no feet. Footless.)
Scientific (using exponents)
Let's look at these one at a time.
Using the Architectural Unit Type
When you select Architectural units, the software translates lengths and distances into feet, inches, and fractions in its output to the designer. An apostrophe designates feet, and double quotation marks indicate inches.
The format of Architectural units that we input to AutoCAD is not the same as the output units' format. In AutoCAD's output to the designer, a sample length might be: 12′-3 1/2″. To input that same length into AutoCAD, the syntax changes. The designer is expected to type that length like this: 12'3-1/2. Go figure.
Weird Syntax
This makes some sense when you consider that AutoCAD from Version 1.0 has always used the [SPACEBAR] key to be equivalent to the [ENTER] key. So typing that space between the inch number and the fraction (in 12′-3 1/2″) would throw you out of the input part of the process before you could get the fraction typed. That's how I justify the weird syntax required by AutoCAD for its input of Architectural unit quantities.
Using Architectural units, also known as Imperial units, the default unit that AutoCAD assumes for designer input is inches. Say you're executing a COPY or MOVE command. Type in 36 for the move distance, with no unit type specified, and AutoCAD moves your object 36 inches, not feet.
Fractions are rounded to whatever the precision level is set to be. The AutoCAD options are:
1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128, or 1/256 of an inch.
Using Decimal, Engineering, Fractional, or Scientific Unit Type
With Decimal unit type chosen, the default unit could be meters, centimeters, or just about anything imaginable (other than feet, inches, and fractions).
In civil engineering and surveying workplaces in the U.S., the default unit would be decimal feet. In a U.S. machine shop, it would usually be decimal inches. In Europe it could be either meters, centimeters, or millimeters, depending on the industry that you're working in.
Engineering unit type: I don't know of any industry that uses a combination of feet and decimal inches. Seems strange. Almost as strange as Architectural units. A sample: 30′-2.375″.
Fractional unit type: The cabinet-building industry in the United States uses what AutoCAD calls Fractional units (inches and fractions, but no feet). A sample: 36 1/2″.
The Scientific unit type might be useful for very large or very small work. Maybe for astronomical-scale projects, or designing microscopic nanobots. A sample: 10.1467E+01.
By the way, I'm told that companies that design and build microchips use mils as the standard unit for their design drawings and manufacturing. A mil equals one-thousandth of an inch. In SI (International Standard) units, 1 mil is equal to 2.54E-5 meters.
This all may seem to be basic stuff, and for many experienced users it is. Still, I think it's helpful to think about the way that AutoCAD sees the universe. By doing this, we can align our thinking with the internal processes of the software.
This understanding prepares us to respond effectively to special or unexpected challenges that arise.
Thanks for reading! Please share in the comments about your experience with unit-related matters. And as always . . .
Keep on CADDing!🙂


While many clients will gain the proverbial 10 to 20 lbs this holiday season after overindulging in an abundance of food, desserts, and drinks, RDs can pass on the good news that this doesn't necessarily have to happen.
In this month's E-News Exclusive, Today's Dietitian (TD) provides tips and appetizer recipes dietitians can share with clients to help them keep many unwanted pounds at bay. After reading the article, visit TD's website at www.TodaysDietitian.com to read the digital edition of the December issue, which includes articles on plant-based appetizers, nutrients for a sharp memory, high-protein diets and weight loss, and vitamin E.
It's hard to believe 2018 is right around the corner. The new year often means different things to many people. It's a time to reflect on where they've been, where they are, and perhaps where they hope to be this time next year. Whether you or your clients shun the idea of making resolutions or enter the new year with a laundry list of goals, we all have some areas of our lives we'd like to improve. Not surprisingly, most resolutions focus on diet and exercise.
The anticipation of gluttony over the holidays can strike fear in all of us, as though we're doomed to gain those dreaded holiday pounds. As nutrition professionals, we know gaining unwanted weight isn't inevitable, and it will be important to regularly remind clients of this throughout this festive season.
In the spirit of celebrating this upcoming new year, I'm sharing some of my tried and true tips to stay healthy during the holiday plus my favorite (and simple) appetizer recipes that are sure to shine at any New Year's Eve gathering.
The recently opened Riverview Hope Campus in Fort Smith, Arkansas, serves three meals per day on a nominal budget to residents in need, the Greenwood Democrat reports.
A nutrition report released by the World Health Organization shows that undernutrition is still persistent in Africa at large and the number of stunted children has increased.
A bite of bad yogurt or sip of spoiled milk could be a thing of the past thanks to a new sensor developed by Silvana Andreescu, PhD. The innovative "smart label" is a low-cost, portable, paper-based sensor that can determine when food or cosmetics spoil and has the ability to transform the commercial marketplace.
Through the use of nanostructures, the sensors catch and bind the predetermined compounds to distinguish change. To test a sample, researchers simply add it to the reactive surface.
How far beyond expiration the item is can be detected based on the intensity of the transformation, which is emitted as a color or electrical change. It's a simple innovation that could tell consumers when the quality of the product changes—even if the item is past its "best before" date.
Learn about statin medications and the role RDs play in the management of patients with hyperlipidemia in this month's issue of Today's Dietitian. Read the CPE Monthly article, take the 10-question online test at CE.TodaysDietitian.com, and earn two CEUs!
Holiday Rate only $249 through December 31! REGISTER NOW!
Registration does not include accommodations or travel to and from Austin, TX.
Coming up in our January 2018 issue is our Fresh Ideas Showcase. E-mail a sales representative to be part of this unique advertising opportunity.


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National Park Virginia
A scarlet tanager in Shenandoah National Park.
NPS/Neil Lewis
Class: Aves
Family: Thraupidae
Genus: Piranga
Species: Piranga olivacea
Despite their bright coloring, sightings of this bird are a rarity. This is primarily because they are found only in the upper canopy of trees where they spend their time moving slowly in search of food. Besides being rarely seen, they are also rarely heard. This is because of the similarity between the Scarlet Tanager and Robin or Rose-breasted Grosbeak calls and songs. Bird watchers with patience and perseverance will, however, find the Scarlet Tanager.
Scarlet Tanagers are a beautifully colored bird. The male's breeding plumage is red on the body and black on the wings and tail.Scarlet Tanagers are unusual among the 230 species of the Neotropical tanager family because they have seasonal changes in plumage. Only one other tanager, a South American species, does this. Females, immature males, and winter males have an olive colored back, yellow underside, and brownish wings. Adult birds are approximately 7 inches (18 cm) long.
Lifespan / Reproduction
Tanager nests can be situated between four and seventy-five feet above ground on horizontal branches far from the trunks. Nests are constructed of loosely woven twigs and roots and are lined with grass and weed stems.
Breeding occurs from May to August with the males performing courtship displays low in the branches as the females watch from above. The male's display is with the wings held drooping slightly away from the body with elongated necks allowing for their scarlet backs to be seen. Three to five, usually four, eggs, which are greenish with brown spots, are laid. The female incubates the eggs for thirteen or fourteen days. After hatching, the male assists in feeding the young.
Range / Habitat
The range of the Scarlet Tanager extends from southeastern Canada to the southern United States and from the east coast to the mid-west.
The primary habitat of the Scarlet Tanager is a mixed deciduous forest interspersed with hemlocks and pines. This forest type is abundantly present at ShenandoahNational Park. Scarlet Tanagers also inhabit urban parks and suburban areas with large trees. Within these areas, a Scarlet Tanager is most commonly found in oak trees, which they use during feeding, breeding, and nesting.
After spending the winter in the canopy of the northwestern South American tropical forest, Scarlet Tanagers begin their nocturnal migration north through Central America and across the Gulf of Mexico. The first birds arrive in North America mid March with the peak time in April.
Males usually arrive from their winter stay in South America slightly before the females and stake out territories in choice tall trees. To warn the other males away, each sings frequently from his own spot with songs such as :"querit, queer, queery, querit, queer" along with the call note "CHIP-churr or CHICK-bur". Females are attracted to the singing males, who court potential mates by hopping about on low perches in woods near the ground, spreading their wings and displaying their scarlet backs. The males often feed their partners as the nesting season approaches.
Ecosystem Role / Threats
Adult scarlet tanagers are eaten by birds of prey, including various owls. Eggs and nestling predators include blue jays, grackles, American crows, squirrels, chipmunks, and snakes.
Scarlet tanagers mob most predators, diving and swooping around them while calling at them. However, scarlet tanagers respond to American crows and merlins by becoming quiet and watchful, apparently in an attempt to be inconspicuous.
Scarlet tanagers eat insects that some humans may consider to be pests.
Unfortunately, like so many migratory birds the Scarlet Tanager is facing a decline in numbers as they continue to lose habitat on both their breeding and wintering grounds. Scarlet Tanagers are also subject to the influences of climate change and collision with towers.
Insects are the primary food preference of the Scarlet Tanager. Most often the Scarlet Tanager moves slowly through tree tops searching for beetles and caterpillars; however they do feed on other insects as well like bees, wasps, and butterflies. They even are known to feed on fruits and buds, but primarily as a supplement in their insectivorous diet.
"Piranga olivacea, scarlet tanger," Animal Diversity Web
"Scarlet Tanager," All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
"Scarlet Tanager," Audubon Field Guide
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Luray , VA 22835
Emergency Phone: 1-800-732-0911


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