Short Takes: News From All Over: June 3, 2004

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Battle Over Organic Standards Continues
By Corie Brown, Los Angeles Times
Maybe George W. does eat his homegrown greens after all. The Bush administration saved face last Wednesday by withdrawing four changes in organic food directives that had organic farmers, the $11 billion organic food industry, its advocates, and bipartisan supporters in Congress in an absolute uproar, worried that the changes would undermine the public's trust in the word 'organic.' USDA staffer Barbara Robinson, the author of the directives, plans to pursue the revisions. -- Jacob Wheeler
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-organic2jun02,1,1686859.story

FBI Abducts Artist, Seizes Art
By Staff, CAE Defense Fund
Apparently we should be afraid of artists too. Steve Kurtz, an art professor at the State University of New York, Buffalo was detained by the FBI after calling 911 to report that his wife had died in her sleep from cardiac arrest. Responders discovered A DNA extraction unit that Kurtz uses in his biotech-themed artworks, and seized it, along with manuscripts, other art materials, and even Kurtz's wife's body. As the CAE Defense Fund puts it, the lawmen couldn't distinguish art from biological weapons. He will be indicted before a grand jury on June 15. -- Jacob Wheeler
http://www.rtmark.com/CAEdefense/

Monikers Progress
By Staff, The Economist
Girls are sugar and spice and all things nice, and apparently they are also more likely to have unique names. Alexander Bentley, of University College, London, found a higher 'mutation rate' in names of girls than boys. In other words, writes The Economist, parents 'are more liable to be inventive when choosing a name for a baby girl. The researchers have found that for every 10,000 daughters born in America there is an average of 2.3 new names. For sons, the figure is 1.6.' -- Jacob Wheeler
http://www.economist.co.uk/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2685710

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