Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Notable books from Paris writers Fall 2012

 

Angels of Paris

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Angels of Paris: An Architectural Tour Through the History of Paris by Rosemary Flannery

French safety expert Joël Guillemain refuses 2 years life-cycle tests for genetically modified crops.

Joël GUILLEMAIN, chairman of  ANSES' working group on Biotechnology deems a 90 day study by Monsanto, the company most interested in approval, as perfectly sufficient, even though the details of Monsanto's studies have never and will never be published. Says no need for longer study by independent agency because it's "'materially impossible." 

Interview with Guillaume Serina, author of Obama, face aux 9 plaies de l’Amérique

This week, Dominique Godreche talks with LA-based French journalist Guillaume Serina, author of Obama face aux 9 plaies de l’Amérique**

Literary Events in Paris for the English speaking community October 2012

This month, news from Anca Metiu, D.T. Max, Marjorie Williams, Anne Korkeakivi, Adam Biles, Anne Marsella, Stephen Dau, Gerald Fleming, Kate Noakes,  Laurel Zuckerman, Bloom Where You Are Planted, Claude Moisy, Paula Deitz, Syvia Whitman, Timothy Jay Smith, Krista Halverson, Jema Brinel, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky, Kate Kemp-Griffin, Anne Marsella and Stephen Dau, and poet Gerald Fleming,  Liza Klaussmann Lisa Samuels, Rémi Bouthonnier and Sunjeev Sahota. In honor of the upcoming presidential elections in the USA, we are also including political events. Every vote counts!!

French Academies of Science, Monsanto, Seralini and NK603 GMO corn

 

In an unsigned PDF published on the internet, six French academies (Agriculture, Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences, Technology, and Veterinary ) declared that they did not need to conduct an "expertise approfondie" into Séralini's study of Montanto NK603 GMO corn because "studies have already been carried out by specialized institutions." They named the EFSA (European  Food Safety Authority)  which Séralini has repeated pointed to as a kind of lapdog for OGM industrialists like Monsanto.

Romnesia: the power of one poetic word

If you thought that poetry had lost its power or that twitter was just a fad for young people - look again. 

To sum up in one word all Mitt Romney's changes of position, someone coined "Romnesia". Twitter has, in an instant, transformed itself into the world's largest poetry slam, as tweeters (twitternauts? twits?) rival each other in ingeniosity.

French scientists find Monsanto's NK603 GMO corn accelerates tumors: will independent scientists replicate results?

 

 

 In a two-year study, a team of French researchers led by Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini found that rats fed Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” corn developed significantly more tumors than a control group not fed GM corn. The rats fed a GM diet also developed tumors that appeared earlier and behaved more aggressively, and died sooner than rats in the control group.

The Monsanto corporation has been orchestrating a public relations campaign to downplay and discredit the results, pointing out that the species of rat used is prone to tumors and that its own studies showed no problem.