such a belle!

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

International land investors and biofuel producers have taken over land around the world that could feed nearly 1bn people.

Analysis by Oxfam of several thousand land deals completed in the last decade shows that an area eight times the size of the UK has been left idle by speculators or is being used largely to grow biofuels for US or European vehicles.

In a report, published on Thursday, Oxfam says the global land rush is out of control and urges the World Bank to freeze its investments in large-scale land acquisitions to send a strong signal to global investors to stop "land grabs".

"More than 60% of investments in agricultural land by foreign investors between 2000 and 2010 were in developing countries with serious hunger problems. But two-thirds of those investors plan to export everything they produce on the land. Nearly 60% of the deals have been to grow crops that can be used for biofuels," says the report.

The Russian government has revealed that a vast quantity of high-quality diamonds rests beneath a Siberian impact crater, numbering in the "trillions of carats".

The Popigai crater, 100km-wide and located in the isolated north of the country, was formed roughly 35.7 million years ago by the impact of an asteroid estimated to be between five and eight kilometres wide. Its collision created a wealth of impact diamonds -- which form when an existing diamond seam is hit by a large falling body -- in such quantities that could, it is claimed, supply the world diamond market for the next 3,000 years.

Main findings of Initial Review

The task force, whose members were drawn from the Authority's GMO, pesticide and scientific assessment units, has outlined a list of issues about the paper that would need to be resolved before it could be viewed as well-conducted and properly-reported study.

• The strain of rat used in the two-year study is prone to developing tumours during their life expectancy of approximately two years. This means the observed frequency of tumours is influenced by the natural incidence of tumours typical of this strain, regardless of any treatment. This is neither taken into account nor discussed by the authors.
  
• The authors split the rats into 10 treatment sets but established only one control group. This meant there was no appropriate control for four sets - some 40% of the animals - all of whom were fed GM maize treated or not treated with a herbicide containing glyphosate.
  
• The paper has not complied with internationally-recognised standard methods - known as protocols - for setting up and carrying out experiments. Many of these procedures are developed by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development).
  
• For a study of this type, the relevant OECD guideline specifies the need for a minimum of 50 rats per treatment group. Séralini et al used only 10 rodents per treatment set. The low number of animals used is insufficient to distinguish between the incidence of tumours due to chance rather than specific treatment effects.
  
• The authors have not stated any objectives, which are the questions a study is designed to answer. Research objectives define crucial factors such as the study design, correct sample size, and the statistical methods used to analyse data - all of which have a direct impact on the reliability of findings.
  
• No information is given about the composition of the food given to the rats, how it was stored or details of harmful substances - such as mycotoxins - that it might have contained.
  
• It is not possible to properly evaluate the exposure of the rats to the herbicide as intake is not clearly reported. The authors report only the application rate of the herbicide used to spray the plants and the concentration added to the rats' drinking water but report no details about the volume of the feed or water consumed.
  
• The paper does not employ a commonly-used statistical analysis method nor does it state if the method was specified prior to starting the study. The validity of the method used is queried and there are questions over the reporting of tumour incidence. Important data, such as a summary of drop outs and an estimation of unbiased treatment effects have not been included in the paper.
  
• Many endpoints - what is measured in the study - have not been reported in the paper. This includes relevant information on lesions, other than tumours, that were observed. EFSA has called on the authors to report all endpoints in the name of openness and transparency.

The 2nd longest lasting Tropical Storm ever recorded in the Atlantic has bit the ...

dust(?)

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

On 5 October 1962, the Beatles' first record came out, Love Me Do. It only reached number 17 in the charts, but that was it, the Beatles had got started, which is why, 50 years later, there will be anniversary celebrations, dancing in the streets, imposing symposiums, TV and radio progs, and thousands, yes I do mean thousands, of lookalike Beatles groups performing all over the globe. Plus a few events in England, where it all began. And ended.