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Life, Nature, Society
French star Gerard Depardieu to quit France due to tax hike; Brigitte Bardot may follow his move to defend elephants
Two most famous French stars, cultural icons, are indeed very much French - they act on passion. Brigitte Bardot is determined to defend elephants (population shockingly dropped from 13,000,000 to 400,000 within 20 years) while Gerard Depardieu is extremely upset that 85% of his hard-earned money is not his: "I will neither complain nor brag, but I refuse to be called 'pathetic'". Per Daily Mail UK - 'Over 45 years, Depardieu has paid €145million euros' since he started working at age 14 as a printer. [Guardian UK] In protest not at tax hikes but at treatment of elephants, Brigitte Bardot threatens to follow Gérard Depardieu's move to quit France.
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Wordsworth: world's too much w/ us; late & soon, getting& spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that's ours

"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."
~ William Wordsworth
from ebook Poem in Art and Story Collection 1
Albert Einstein: "I want to know how God created this world... I want to know His thoughts; ..."
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.
France: GM corn linked to cancer. EU bans 7 GM foods, battery cages, animal testing, seal imports, condemns whaling...
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*update* Jan. 14, 2013 EU releases all data on GM corn linked to cancer Monday's move "aims to make data used in risk assessment publicly available," Geslain-Laneelle said, by promoting research and working with scientists.
*update* Siding with EU's ban on animal testing, Dec. 21 2012 Air Canada can refuse to ship monkeys for research
Seven Food Products Banned in Europe Still Available in the U.S.
1. Genetically Modified Foods
2. Stevia, the Natural Sweetener
3. Bovine Growth Hormone
4. Chlorinated Chickens
5. Food Contact Chemicals
6. Herbicides, Fungicides and Insecticides read more »
"Could computers become cleverer than humans and take over the world"? as unmanned plane "put judge's robe on missile" (Colbert)
new version "all-in-one: judge, jury and executioner"
Hal 9000, the supercomputer who commits murder in Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Einstein warned us long ago: "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."...
Philosophers and scientists: "In the case of artificial intelligence, it seems a reasonable prediction that some time in this or the next century intelligence will escape from the constraints of biology" (...will, or have escaped?) "...advanced technology could be a threat when computers start to direct resources towards their own goals, at the expense of human concerns like environmental sustainability."
VP of space technologies at Physical Sciences: "30,000 unmanned drones (which can hover 100 feet above your home or zip past your office window) estimated could be aloft by 2020. 'We’re in a rapid spool-up phase now, where we’re thinking about going from producing tens of aircraft per month to a thousand or more...' "
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Passion for Ocean. 3600 whales saved: world volunteers' direct action; Simon fortune to Whales' Navy: Zero cruelty. Zero kills
Buddha quotes (Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.) “What is evil? Killing is evil". Japan's ICR has set itself a quota of nearly one thousand minke and 50 fin whales to be culled during the 2012/2013 Australian summer in Antarctica: in the name of "science". Earth Dr Reese Halter, biologist: "four Japanese whale-killing, factory ships armed with coast guards and grenade-tipped harpoons are within hours of entering a demilitarized zone and the international Great Southern Ocean Sanctuary. The bloody 'War Against Nature' is set to rage."
*update* Jan. 7, 2013 Sea Shepherd Australia To Lead Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign - Former Greens leader Bob Brown takes helm. Whalers' legal action has forced Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson to resign as president after more than three decades at the helm, saved thousands of most innocent sea lives from merciless slaughter...
Captain Watson Gives Speech at Sea Shepherd 35th Anniversary Event in Colorado
