Wow! I got an email from the International Monetary Fund!

And they want to give me money! How fortuitous!

Head Office
International Monetary Fund
700 19th Street,
N.W. , Washington , D.C 20431
E-Mail: RemittanceDept@IMF.com

Attn:

First of all IMF apologizes for passing this message through to you in this manner; we wanted to ensure that the identity of the recipient is properly scrutinized. This is not a hoax or scam as you might think it is. Your undivided attention is highly needed to execute a charity project before the end of the March 2010.

Natwest Bank will be in charge of initiating transfer/delivery of your fund ($10.000.000.00usd) for charity work when your file has been forwarded to their office. You are further advised to contact immediately the office of Bernise Charity Foundation requesting that they forward your payment file to Natwest Bank immediately with the below information's accordingly:

Name: Mr. Donald Miller (Co-founder)
Office Address: 11 El Shams Bldgs., 8th District Nasr City
E-mail: Bernisecharityfoundation_A4@hotmail.com
Tel: (+2) 0116618850

IMF is monitoring the services of Natwest Bank with due process of law and order as the paying bank of your inheritance; we assure you that this inheritance awarded to you is free from any irregularities and it is completely risk free. The above fund was allocated to you after a MATRIX RESEARCH TEAM (MRT) was hired by Bernise Charity Foundation after the passing away of Mr. Michael Harson the founder of Bernise Charity Foundation which he left for his wife Dr. Mrs. Bernise Harson. She is now diagnosed of having Cancer of the lungs and has limited time left to be with her husband in Heaven. Kindly contact the foundation immediately requesting that they give urgent attention to your payment file and proceed with transfer.

MATRIX RESEARCH TEAM (MRT) will be visiting you in your country with a bank representative attached to have further discussions with you after transfer/delivery of your fund. We believe your good heart can continue the project for the World to see and benefit from.

Thank you very much for anticipated Co-operation and God bless.

Best regards

Paul V. Letterman
Head of Operations
International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Why do I think that perhaps the IMF might not have a clue who I am? I must say though, this is somewhat more interesting than some of the Nigerian hoaxes. Though my fav, and I'm really ticked that I didn't preserve the email, was the FedEx Courier Service one that they have oodles of money to give me.

Documented organ damage in rats from eating GMO corn -- for just 90 days!

"A study published in December 2009 in the International Journal of Biological Sciences found that three varieties of Monsanto genetically-modified corn caused damage to the liver, kidneys, and other organs of rats. One of the corn varieties was designed to tolerate broad-spectrum herbicides, (so-called 'Roundup-ready' corn), while the other two contain bacteria-derived proteins that have insecticide properties. The study made use of Monsanto's own raw data. Quoting from the study's 'Conclusions' section: 'Our analysis highlights that the kidneys and liver as particularly important on which to focus such research as there was a clear negative impact on the function of these organs in rats consuming GM maize varieties for just 90 days.' Given the very high prevalence of corn in processed foods, this could be a real ticking time bomb. And with food manufacturers not being required by law to declare GMO content, I think I'll do my best to avoid corn altogether. Pass the puffed rice and pour me a glass of fizzy water!"

http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/01/13/0328221/Organ-Damage-In-Rats-From-Monsanto-GMO-Corn?art_pos=33

I've had a dislike of GMO-anything from Monsanto ever since I learned about it years ago. It looked to me like they were way too fast getting it patented and to market, I didn't think that adequate testing had been done and the results published. And don't even get me started on their legal enforcement and business practices of their patents against farmers who've had GMO-seed blow in to their fields from neighbors who use Monsanto's products!

On the other hand, let's publish another Monsanto story!

It seems that Monsanto's patent for Roundup Ready for soy beans is expiring in 2014. So they're introducing Roundup Ready 2 Yield, a newly patented strain to renew the patent window.

Says one farmer, "... his seed costs shot up almost 50 percent last year. That's because farmers are contractually prohibited from saving seeds and planting them the following year."

Roundup Ready is in soy beans, cotton, and corn. It works something like this. It's a trait in the seed that makes it highly resistant, if not immune, to Monsanto's Round Up weed killer. So plant their seed, then use their herbicide, and it kills everything not containing that genetic trait.

And, as seen in the preceding article, could have some very serious long-term health consequences.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122498255&ps=cprs

Department of Justice says Kindles in classrooms denies blind students equal access

"Three US universities will stop promoting the use of Amazon.com's Kindle DX e-book reader in classrooms after complaints that the device doesn't give blind students equal access to information. Settlements with Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Pace University in New York City and Reed College in Portland, Oregon, were announced Wednesday by the US Department of Justice. The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind had complained that use of the Kindle devices discriminates against students with vision problems."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/01/13/2159231/US-DOJ-Says-Kindle-In-Classroom-Hurts-Blind-Students?art_pos=15

I think the Kindle is a heck of a product even though I don't own one. I did get to play with one and was fairly impressed, what doesn't impress me is the DRM lockdown and the price of books. I didn't like the idea of a Kindle being your 'only' college text book as I didn't think the implementation had evolved enough. When some universities started integrating Kindles, one student's comment summed it up for me perfectly. The student said that when I'm working on a paper, I've got four or five books open at the same time, flipping back and forth between them. You just can't do that with a Kindle. You can do it with a laptop with ebooks, but even then it's better to have the physical book.

But the interesting thing is that the Kindle has text-to-speech built-in. But apparently their navigation functions aren't usable by blind people, I guess that's where the problem started.

I worked at NMSU and have attended a lot of different colleges, including working in computer labs. They've always had Braille printers, and those things are noisy as hell. They weren't used all the time, but they were still frequently used.

Doonesbury Say What?

"They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, 'credibility' with the black community -- in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. It's made to order for them."
-- Rush Limbaugh on Obama administration and Haiti disaster

Because Bush did such a fantastic job with New Orleans and the Gulf?