>>8120524

Senomyx is an American biotechnology company working toward developing additives to amplify certain flavors and smells in foods. The company claims to have essentially "reverse engineered" the receptors in humans that react for taste and aroma, and that they are capitalizing on these discoveries to produce chemicals that will make food taste better. On 17 Sept 2018, Firmenich completed the acquisition of Senomyx.

Senomyx develops patented flavor enhancers by using "proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems", which have been previously expressed in human cell culture, in HEK293 cells.[

HEK293 cells are a cell line widely used in biological and medical research, immortalised through a genetic modification removed from the original human embryonic kidney cells taken from a healthy, electively aborted human fetus in the early 1970s.[3] The receptors in the assay are used to identify flavours; they are not used as flavours themselves. No human taste receptors are used as ingredients in any flavourings. Using information from the human genome sequence, Senomyx has identified hundreds of taste receptors and currently owns 113 patents on their discoveries. Senomyx collaborates with seven of the world's largest food companies to further their research and to fund development of their technology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senomyx

>>8120576

Been lurking many sites, reading comments, and there are many people who feel the same way. Like they're being played again. Trying to keep their heads up, and stay positive, but the stress is definitely getting to them, watching the negative energy spewing daily from the evil entities is a touch much.

Teacher under fire for questioning 5th graders' sexualities in front of class

A Florida teacher is under fire for asking two female fifth grade students if they were in a relationship in front of class, leading one of the students to withdraw from school.

Jezinia Gambino, the mother of one of the students, told NBC affiliate WPTV that “the rumor was that my daughter and another fifth grade little girl were dating.” After the teacher learned of the rumor, she summoned the children before the class and asked them if they were a couple “in a way that they felt they were in trouble,” Gambino said.

After the incident, Gambino said her daughter was texted by the other student, who said she “wasn’t sure if they should hang out together anymore because of what happened in school.”

“She didn’t want anyone to think they were gay,” Gambino said of the other student.

Gambino said her daughter felt humiliated and will be homeschooled for at least the rest of the year. "What they did affected my daughter in a way that now I'm having to go back and fix," she added.

The teacher was reported to the Florida Department of Education for engaging in inappropriate communication with students and was given a verbal warning, according to WPTV.

Regardless of the perceived sexuality of the two students, a 2016 report by Human Rights Watch found that many U.S. public schools are hostile environments for LGBTQ youth, with the report documenting multiple examples of school administrators lobbing homophobic abuse at students.

Ryan Thoreson, an LGBTQ researcher at Human Rights Watch, said these incidents happen because so few schools train teachers and administrators on LGBTQ cultural competency.

“One of the most surprising findings from our research on LGBT issues in U.S. schools was that a lot of students said teachers and administrators were a bigger problem for them than other students,” Thoreson wrote in an email Wednesday. “Other students knew it wasn't OK to be overtly homophobic or transphobic, but school staff would still publicly humiliate LGBT kids for who they dated, what they wore, or how they identified.”

A number of incidents involving school officials mistreating LGBTQ students have made national news this past year. In November 2018, an assistant principal at a West Virginia public school was accused of harassing and following a 15-year-old transgender boy into the bathroom, telling him “you freak me out.” And last month, a Kentucky girl was expelled from a private Christian school for “behavioral issues” after she was pictured in a photograph with a rainbow birthday cake. Her mother later filed a lawsuit claiming her daughter was expelled for her “perceived sexuality.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/teacher-under-fire-questioning-5th-193349989.html

Merkel’s Succession Battle Kicks Off Ahead of Contender Talks

The search to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor has started to get rolling as the first two contenders register their interest amid growing pressure to accelerate the process to choose a candidate for the next election.

Friedrich Merz will run to be leader of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and is open to a non-binding membership vote, where he’s optimistic about getting a majority to support him, according to a person familiar with his plans. The former CDU heavyweight, a longtime Merkel antagonist, launched a failed bid for the post in 2018.

Health Minister Jens Spahn, 39, said he’s prepared to “take on responsibility” and signaled that potential Merkel successors were holding talks to discuss how to proceed.

“We’ll be discussing in the coming days what form that takes,” Spahn said in Berlin, according to Deutsche Presse Agentur. “We all need to make sure to give it a few days so that we can discuss things in quiet.”

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the CDU leader who shook up the establishment this week by dropping her ambitions for the chancellorship and announcing she’d quit as party chairwoman, will begin talks with potential candidates next week, a CDU spokesman said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the party’s Bavarian allies demanded a say in choosing the conservative bloc’s next chancellor candidate, throwing a twist into the process and foreshadowing months of potential acrimony over who gets to run for the job of leading Europe’s biggest economy.

At stake is Germany’s future orientation as Merkel’s succession evolves into an ideological battle over where the CDU, which has governed for Germany for most of its post-World War II history, is headed. The political fallout was triggered by an outcry over CDU lawmakers in the eastern state of Thuringia aligning with the far-right Alternative for Germany to install a regional leader last week.

Kramp-Karrenbauer said Monday that she’ll stay on until a new CDU leader is found, who would also be the chancellery candidate. The new setup would be approved by a party conference in December, but that time frame was quickly assailed by party grandees who said a new leader should be found sooner. Merkel has said she’ll stand down after the next election, in autumn 2021 at the latest.

For its part, the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of the CDU, said the decision on a candidate would be made by both parties. CSU leader Markus Soeder, also touted as a potential successor, will likely meet Kramp-Karrenbauer over the weekend at the Munich Security Conference, she said during a NATO meeting in Brussels.

In addition to Spahn, Soeder and Merz, another likely candidate is Armin Laschet, a CDU moderate who leads Germany’s largest state, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Markus Blume, the CSU general secretary, was the latest official to rule out waiting until December to seal a decision at the CDU’s conference.

A party spokesman left open the possibility of an extraordinary meeting to install a new chair, but said no decision had been made.

The CDU must first decide on a replacement for Kramp-Karrenbauer as party leader and then a joint decision will be made on the best candidate from the conservative bloc to contest the next election, Blume told Deutschlandfunk radio.

“This can of course in the end be the same person, but that doesn’t have to be the case,” he added.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/merkel-bavarian-allies-flex-muscles-095237354.html

8 Republicans join Democrats in vote to limit Trump's military powers in Iran

The Senate voted 51-45 on Wednesday to limit President Trump from pursuing military action in Iran without congressional approval.

Eight Republicans sided with all Democrats to approve Sen. Tim Kaine's (D-Va.) resolution. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) didn't vote as they were likely on the presidential campaign trail, and recent 2020 dropout Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) didn't vote either.

President Trump tweeted earlier Wednesday to encourage senators to vote against the resolution, saying "this is not the time to show weakness" to Iran. He'll very likely veto the bill, and the Senate won't have the votes to overturn it.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/8-republicans-join-democrats-vote-203438997.html

Girls sue to block participation of transgender athletes

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The families of three female high school runners filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block transgender athletes in Connecticut from participating in girls sports.

Selina Soule, a senior at Glastonbury High School, Chelsea Mitchell, a senior at Canton High School and Alanna Smith, a sophomore at Danbury High School are represented by the conservative nonprofit organization Alliance Defending Freedom. They argue that allowing athletes with male anatomy to compete has deprived them of track titles and scholarship opportunities.

“Mentally and physically, we know the outcome before the race even starts," said Smith, who is the daughter of former Major League pitcher Lee Smith. “That biological unfairness doesn't go away because of what someone believes about gender identity. All girls deserve the chance to compete on a level playing field.”

The lawsuit was filed against the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and the boards of education in Bloomfield, Cromwell, Glastonbury, Canton and Danbury.

“Forcing girls to be spectators in their own sports is completely at odds with Title IX, a federal law designed to create equal opportunities for women in education and athletics,” attorney Christiana Holcomb said. "Connecticut’s policy violates that law and reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women.”

The Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference says its policy follows a state anti-discrimination law that says students must be treated in school by the gender with which they identify and the group believes the policy is “appropriate under both state and federal law.”

Read more

https://www.yahoo.com/news/girls-sue-block-participation-transgender-181702551.html