Skype allowing police access to user information

by Craig Timberg and Ellen Nakashima
July 25, 2012

from WashingtonPost Website

 

 

 

 

Skype, the online phone service long favored by political dissidents, criminals and others eager to communicate beyond the reach of governments, has expanded its cooperation with law enforcement authorities to make online chats and other user information available to police, said industry and government officials familiar with the changes.

Surveillance of the audio and video feeds remains impractical - even when courts issue warrants, say industry officials with direct knowledge of the matter. But that barrier could eventually vanish as Skype becomes one of the world’s most popular forms of telecommunication.

The changes to online chats, which are written messages conveyed almost instantaneously between users, result in part from technical upgrades to Skype that were instituted to address outages and other stability issues since Microsoft bought the company last year. Officials of the United States and other countries have long pushed to expand their access to newer forms of communications to resolve an issue that the FBI calls the “going dark” problem.

Microsoft has approached the issue with,

“tremendous sensitivity and a canny awareness of what the issues would be,” said an industry official familiar with Microsoft’s plans, who like several people interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

The company has,

“a long track record of working successfully with law enforcement here and internationally,” he added.

The changes, which give the authorities access to addresses and credit card numbers, have drawn quiet applause in law enforcement circles but hostility from many activists and analysts.

Authorities had for years complained that Skype’s encryption and other features made tracking drug lords, pedophiles and terrorists more difficult. Jihadis recommended the service on online forums.

 

Police listening to traditional wiretaps occasionally would hear wary suspects say to one another,

“Hey, let’s talk on Skype.”

Hacker groups and privacy experts have been speculating for months that Skype had changed its architecture to make it easier for governments to monitor, and many blamed Microsoft, which has an elaborate operation for complying with legal government requests in countries around the world.

“The issue is, to what extent are our communications being purpose-built to make surveillance easy?” said Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility, a digital privacy group.

 

“When you make it easy to do, law enforcement is going to want to use it more and more. If you build it, they will come."

The Fractional Reserve Banking Scam Explained

Prescription Drugs Now Kill More People than Illegal Drugs

The availability of prescription medicines in the home, is causing many teens and young adults to raid their own medicine cabinets for drugs, in place of soliciting a dealer on the street. Almost everyone has several partial left over prescriptions of drugs for pain or anxiety, such as Vicodin, Percocet, Demerol, or Xanax. Many grandmas take Oxycontin for relief of the pain of rheumatoid arthritis or fibromyalgia, and dentists are handing it out like candy, for pain relief after dental work. Recently, we had to explain to our 19 year old daughter, that she should use it very sparingly, after her wisdom teeth were removed. (She was under the impression that she needed to finish the whole bottle, like former prescription medicines that she had taken.) No one stops to think that prescription medicines can be just as deadly as street drugs. But it is a fact, that more people lose their lives, as a result of prescription medicine overdoses, than through the use of heroin or cocaine combined. Teenagers and young adults will often find all the drugs that they desire, right in the family medicine cabinet. Few people count their pills, or lock up their prescription medicine bottles, but if you want to spare a teen from drug addiction (or even death) you should consider locking up your potentially dangerous prescription medicines in a family safe. (Some teens also steal drugs, from the medicine cabinet at a friend's house.)

Pepsi now selling ‘fat-blocking' soda

An advertisement for the new Pepsi Special (Pepsi Japan)Pepsi Japan launched a new line of soda on Tuesday that it claims blocks the body's absorption of fat.

Pepsi Special is infused with indigestible dextrin, a synthetic dietary fiber. Even though dextrin has not been proven to have dietary benefits for humans, it has been successfully tested on rats. Which, apparently, is good enough for Pepsi and the Japanese government, which has formally backed the soda manufacturer's claims.

The Japanese Ministry of Health says products carrying its FOSHU label are "intended to be consumed for the maintenance/promotion of health or special health uses by people who wish to control health conditions, including blood pressure or blood cholesterol."

In order to received the FOSHU seal, products must meet the following requirements:

• Effectiveness on the human body is clearly proven
• Absence of any safety issues (animal toxicity tests, confirmation of effects in the cases of excess intake, etc.)
• Use of nutritionally appropriate ingredients (e.g., no excessive use of salt, etc.)
• Guarantee of compatibility with product specifications by the time of consumption
• Established quality control methods, such as specifications of products and ingredients, processes and methods of analysis

The average American drinks 44.7 gallons of soda per year, according to 2010 statistics from the Beverage Marketing Corporation. That's actually down from 51.5 gallons in 2005. So, it's easy to see how consumers could be tempted by the idea of drinking a soda that actually helps them lose weight.

But don't get your hopes up just yet.

"It's true that naturally occurring soluble fiber that's present in oats, barley, cruciferous vegetables and the stuff in seeds and the skin of apples does help block cholesterol absorption," Melina Jampolis, a physician nutrition specialist and CCNhealth expert, told Forbes. "But there's no publicly available evidence suggesting that synthetic fibers do this, too."

Pepsi Special is reportedly being marketed primarily at young Japanese men and comes packaged in a black and gold plastic bottle. And as Forbes notes, this isn't the first "fat-blocking soda" to be unveiled in Japan. Beer manufacturer Kirin launched its own fiber-infused soda earlier in 2012.

Suntory, which distributes Pepsi products in Japan, doesn't stop with the weight loss claims. On its website announcing the launch of Pepsi Special, it also claims the soda can "calm the postprandial rise in triglycerides in the blood."

Source: Yahoo

The Vaccine Hoax is Over

Freedom of Information Act in the UK filed by a doctor there has revealed 30 years of secret official documents showing that government experts have

1. Known the vaccines don’t work
2. Known they cause the diseases they are supposed to prevent
3. Known they are a hazard to children
4. Colluded to lie to the public
5. Worked to prevent safety studies

Those are the same vaccines that are mandated to children in the US.

Educated parents can either get their children out of harm’s way or continue living inside one of the largest most evil lies in history, that vaccines – full of heavy metals, viral diseases, mycoplasma, fecal material, DNA fragments from other species, formaldehyde, polysorbate 80 (a sterilizing agent) – are a miracle of modern medicine.

Freedom of Information Act filed in the US with the CDC by a doctor with an autistic son, seeking information on what the CDC knows about the dangers of vaccines, had by law to be responded to in 20 days. Nearly 7 years later, the doctor went to court and the CDC argued it does not have to turn over documents. A judge ordered the CDC to turn over the documents on September 30th, 2011.

On October 26, 2011, a Denver Post editorial expressed shock that the Obama administration, after promising to be especially transparent, was proposing changes to the Freedom of Information Act that would allow it to go beyond declaring some documents secret and to actually allow government agencies (such as the CDC) to declare some document “non-existent.”

Simultaneous to this on-going massive CDC cover up involving its primary “health” not recommendation but MANDATE for American children, the CDC is in deep trouble over its decades of covering up the damaging effects of fluoride and affecting the lives of all Americans, especially children and the immune compromised. Lawsuits are being prepared. Children are ingesting 3-4 times more fluoride by body weight as adults and “[t]he sheer number of potentially harmed citizens — persons with dental fluorosis, kidney patients tipped into needing dialysis, diabetics, thyroid patients, etc — numbers in the millions.”

MAYAN EXPLAINS - What Will happen December.21.2012

You Should Never Inject Yourself with Vaccines ~ This is Why

Did the Israeli military defy PM Netanyahu?

What’s Going On In the Skies Above Denver?

Is Genetically Modified Food Killing Us?

Last month, a group of Australian scientists published a warning to the citizens of the country and of the world who collectively gobble up some $34 billion annually of its agricultural exports. The warning concerned the safety of a new type of wheat.

As Australia's number-one export, a $6-billion annual industry, and the most-consumed grain locally, wheat is of the utmost importance to the country. A serious safety risk from wheat – a mad wheat disease of sorts – would have disastrous effects for the country and for its customers.

Which is why the alarm bells are being rung over a new variety of wheat being ushered toward production by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia. In a sense, the crop is little different than the wide variety of modern genetically modified foods. A sequence of the plant's genes has been turned off to change the wheat's natural behavior a bit, to make it more commercially viable (hardier, higher yielding, slower decaying, etc.).

Franken-Wheat?

What's really different this time – and what has Professor Jack Heinemann of the University of Canterbury, NZ, and Associate Professor Judy Carman, a biochemist at Flinders University in Australia, holding press conferences to garner attention to the subject – is the technique employed to effectuate the genetic change. It doesn't modify the genes of the wheat plants in question; instead, a specialized gene blocker interferes with the natural action of the genes.

The process at issue, dubbed RNA interference or RNAi for short, has been a hotbed of research activity ever since the Nobel Prize-winning 1997 research paper that described the process. It is one of a number of so-called "antisense" technologies that help suppress natural genetic expression and provide a mechanism for suppressing undesirable genetic behaviors.

RNAi's appeal is simple: it can potentially provide a temporary, reversible off switch for genes. Unlike most other genetic modification techniques, it doesn't require making permanent changes to the underlying genome of the target. Instead, specialized siRNAs – chemical DNA blockers based on the same mechanism our own bodies use to temporarily turn genes on and off as needed – are delivered into the target organism and act to block the messages cells use to express a particular gene. When those messages meet with their chemical opposites, they turn inert. And when all of the siRNA is used up, the effect wears off.

The new wheat is in early-stage field trials (i.e., it's been planted to grow somewhere, but has not yet been tested for human consumption), part of a multi-year process on its way to potential approval and not unlike the rigorous process many drugs go through. The researchers responsible are using RNAi to turn down the production of glycogen. They are targeting the production of the wheat branching enzyme which, if suppressed, would result in a much lower starch level for the wheat.

The result would be a grain with a lower glycemic index – i.e., healthier wheat.

This is a noble goal. However, Professors Heinemann and Carman warn, there's a risk that the gene silencing done to these plants might make its way into humans and wreak havoc on our bodies. In their press conference and subsequent papers, they describe the possibility that the siRNA molecules – which are pretty hardy little chemicals and not easily gotten rid of – could wind up interacting with our RNA.

If their theories prove true, the results might be as bad as mimicking glycogen storage disease IV, a super-rare genetic disorder which almost always leads to early childhood death.

"Franken-Wheat Causes Massive Deaths from Liver Failure!"

Read more: Casey Research

Millions of GMO Mosquitoes Released Without Risk Assessment or Oversight

Translation

Barbara H. Peterson

Farm Wars

Look out people of planet earth, genetically engineered bugs are here. Just in case you haven’t figured it out yet, our technocracy is working ever diligently on genetically engineering every last living cell on the planet – WITHOUT EXCEPTION. What does this mean for life here on earth? Ever hear the expression “soup sandwich?” Well, after these “scientific” geniuses are through with us, that is exactly what all life will be – a genetic soup sandwich, made in a lab, and stamped with a corporate logo embedded in our DNA.

If the following report from Testbiotech doesn’t send chills up your spine, I don’t know what will. Get ready world, because nothing will ever be the same. Ever. There is no remediation technique available to clean up genetically engineered mutations released into the wild and spread through horizontal gene transfer. Barb

Regulatory decisions on releasing genetically modified (GM) insects biased by corporate interests

Dr Helen Wallace, Director of GeneWatch UK said “The public will be shocked to learn that GM insects can be released into the environment without any proper oversight. Conflicts-of-interest should be removed from all decision-making processes to ensure the public have a proper say about these plans.”

London/ Munich Thursday 8^th November 2012 A briefing published today by public interest groups highlights how regulatory decisions on GM insects in Europe and around the world are being biased by corporate interests.

The briefing shows how UK biotech company Oxitec has infiltrated decision-making processes around the world. The company has close links to the multinational pesticide and seed company, Syngenta. Oxitec has already made large-scale open releases of GM mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands, Malaysia and Brazil and is developing GM agricultural pests, jointly with Syngenta. Plans to commercialise GM insects would result in many millions of GM insects being released in fields of crops, including olives, tomatoes, citrus fruits, cabbages and cotton. In future, any insect species might be genetically modified.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is highlighted as one of several examples showing how industry organises its influence. In EFSA´s GM insects working group, which was established to develop guidance for risk assessment of genetically engineered insects, there are several cases of conflicts of interest, including experts with links to Oxitec who only partially declared their interests. The draft Guidance on risk assessment of GM insects shows some significant deficiencies: for example it does not consider the impacts of GM insects on the food chain. Oxitec’s GM insects are genetically engineered to die mostly at the larval stage so dead GM larvae will enter the food chain inside food crops such as olives, cabbages and tomatoes. Living GM insects could also be transported on crops to other farms or different countries. EFSA has excluded any consideration of these important issues from its draft guidance. Many other issues are not properly addressed.

The briefing also highlights problems with a World Health Organisation (WHO)-funded project which has allowed the company to bypass requirements for informed consent for the release of GM mosquitoes. The WHO-funded Mosqguide project, which was supposed to be developing best practice, also allowed the company to gain approval from Brazilian regulators to release 16 million GM mosquitoes before draft regulations on the release of GM insects had been finalised or adopted, without publishing a risk assessment.

Dr Helen Wallace, Director of GeneWatch UK said “The public will be shocked to learn that GM insects can be released into the environment without any proper oversight. Conflicts-of-interest should be removed from all decision-making processes to ensure the public have a proper say about these plans.”

Christoph Then, Executive Director, Testbiotech, said: “Risk assessment of genetically engineered animals touches many areas where there is lack of knowledge. We are concerned that EFSA will apply a biased and selective protocol to safety without really sorting out potential hazards.”

François Meienberg, Berne Declaration, said: “Companies such as Syngenta and Oxitec have to learn that negative impacts on the environment or health can arise from their lobbying activities. To act responsibly they have to change their lobbying behaviour immediately.”

Nina Holland, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), said: “Experts on EFSA’s working groups should not be allowed to have any conflict of interests with industry, let alone ties with companies producing the very product they are assessing – in this case GM insects. This clearly shows that EFSA’s rules to deal with conflicts of interest still have major gaps.”

Tina Goethe, SwissAid, said: “The development of GM-insects for agriculture implies unforeseeable risks for human health and environment. In order to meet the challenges of small scale agriculture in poor countries, we do not need expensive and high risk technologies, but agro-ecological solutions.”

The briefing highlights multiple attempts by Oxitec to influence regulation around the world, which have included:

• Attempts to define ‘biological containment’ of the insects (which are programmed to die at the larval stage) as contained use, by-passing requirements for risk assessments and consultation on decisions to release GM insects into the environment;
• Attempts to avoid any regulation of GM agricultural pests on crops which will end up in the food chain;
• Avoidance of any discussion of how GM insects can be contained at a site, or products produced using GM insects can be labelled;
• Exclusion of many important issues from risk assessments, including impacts of surviving GM mosquitoes on the environment and health, and impacts of changing mosquito populations on human immunity and disease;
• Failure to follow transboundary notification processes for exports of GM insects correctly;
• Undermining the requirement to obtain informed consent for experiments involving insect species which transmit disease;
• Attempts to avoid liability for any harm if anything goes wrong;
• Pushing ahead with large-scale open releases of GM mosquitoes before relevant guidance or regulations are adopted.

Source: Farm wars

It’s official. Goodbye Windows live Messenger. Hello Skype.

We've got good news to share! Skype and Messenger are coming together. Millions of Messenger users will be able to reach their Messenger friends on Skype. By updating to Skype, Messenger users can instant message and video call their Messenger friends.

This effort started with the release of Skype 6.0 for Mac and Windows a few weeks ago, which allows you to sign into Skype using a Microsoft account. Now Messenger users just need to update to the latest version of Skype, sign in using a Microsoft account, and their Messenger contacts will be there.

Our goal remains to deliver the best communications experience for everyone, everywhere. We want to focus our efforts on making things simpler for our users while continuously improving the overall experience. We will retire Messenger in all countries worldwide in the first quarter of 2013 (with the exception of mainland China where Messenger will continue to be available).

Once you update to Skype, here are some of the other great features Messenger users can expect:

• Broader device support for all platforms, including iPad and Android tablets
• Instant messaging, video calling, and calling landlines and mobiles all in one place
• Sharing screens
• Video calling on mobile phones
• Video calling with Facebook friends
• Group video calling

We will work with you over the next few months to help you transition and offer information and help along the way. To help you learn how to get the most out of Skype, be on the lookout for some special offers later this year as you join your Messenger friends in the migration. We think you will enjoy using Skype, and encourage you to download the latest version, sign in with your Microsoft account, and experience it for yourself.

Here is a quick look at what you, as a Messenger user, can do to talk to your Messenger contacts on Skype:

On the sign in screen, select the option to sign in with your Microsoft account. You will be asked if you are already using Skype or are a new user.

If you use Skype and Messenger already, you can merge your Skype and Messenger account into your Microsoft account.

When you complete the installation process you will be welcomed into Skype with your buddy list already synced into your Skype contact list.

And you can start instant messaging right away!

We'd love to hear your feedback. Discuss what matters to you on the Skype Support Network or share your feedback on Twitter with hashtag #SkypeWLM. We are here to help!

The People’s Bailout

This is a long post but it’s about something pretty interesting so I hope you’ll indulge …

Like many folks, Occupy Wall Street has been some doing good work in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, helping people on the ground.

Now OWS is launching the ROLLING JUBILEE, a program that has been in development for months. OWS is going to start buying distressed debt (medical bills, student loans, etc.) in order to forgive it. As a test run, we spent $500, which bought $14,000 of distressed debt. We then ERASED THAT DEBT. (If you’re a debt broker, once you own someone’s debt you can do whatever you want with it — traditionally, you hound debtors to their grave trying to collect. We’re playing a different game. A MORE AWESOME GAME.)

This is a simple, powerful way to help folks in need — to free them from heavy debt loads so they can focus on being productive, happy and healthy. As you can see from our test run, the return on investment approaches 30:1. That’s a crazy bargain!

Now, after many consultations with attorneys, the IRS, and our moles in the debt-brokerage world, we are ready to take the Rolling Jubilee program LIVE and NATIONWIDE, buying debt in communities that have been struggling during the recession.

We’re kicking things off with a show called THE PEOPLE’S BAILOUT at Le Poisson Rouge on Thursday, November 15. It will also stream online, like a good ol’-fashioned telethon!

Friends, the line-up is insane. Performers include:

- JEFF MANGUM (Neutral Milk Hotel)

- JANEANE GAROFALO

- GUY PICCIOTTO (Fugazi)

- LIZZ WINSTEAD

- HARI KONDABOLU

- TUNDE ADEBIMPE and KYP MALONE (TV on the Radio)

- members of DAS RACIST

and other great talents including a group of radical nuns! I’ll be playing the role of JERRY LEWIS, emceeing in my tuxedo from MEN’S WEARHOUSE.

This will be a joyful, positive night about people banding together and subverting a predatory financial system in order to help each other. BOOM! That’s a movie pitch right there, goddamn why am I not a Hollywood mogul?!

Anyway, HERE IS THE INFORMATION about THE PEOPLE’S BAILOUT:

- The LIVE SHOW is at Le Poisson Rouge on THURSDAY 11/15, 8 - 11 PM. Tickets are $25 (each ticket buys $500 of distressed debt).

- The LIVE STREAM will be at http://rollingjubilee.org (you’ll be able to donate online)

- Here’s the FACEBOOK PAGE

- The HASHTAG is #peoplesbailout

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

- Spread the word! Share this info with your friends, family, and followers
- Donate money via http://rollingjubilee.org

$25 abolishes an estimated $500 worth of debt
$50 abolishes an estimated $1000 worth of debt
$100 abolishes an estimated $2000 worth of debt
$250 abolishes an estimated $5000 worth of debt

- Host a live-stream party! Get together with folks in your town and watch the show online and donate money and maybe even drink a beer if you’re feeling crazy.

- If you are Jerry Seinfeld or Bill Cosby: Call me about doing a set at the live show! We’ll fit you in.

Okay, that was a really long tumblr post. I feel very vulnerable right now. Thanks for reading.

Bye!
—David Rees

Source: Wil Wheaton

McDonald's Same-Store Sales Crumble All Around The World

Screengrab from McDonaldsCanada on YouTube

Pretty ugly same-store sales from McDonald's.

Here's the key part of the press release.

---------------------

McDonald's Corporation today announced that global comparable sales decreased 1.8% in October.  Performance by segment was as follows:

• U.S. down 2.2%
• Europe down 2.2%
• Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa down 2.4%

"The McDonald's System remains focused on serving the evolving needs of our more than 69 million customers daily," said McDonald's President and Chief Executive Officer Don Thompson.  "Though October's sales results reflect the pervasive challenges of today's global marketplace, I am confident that our strategies and the adjustments we are making in response to the current business headwinds will build sales momentum and drive sustained, profitable growth."

In October, U.S. comparable sales decreased 2.2%.  Modest consumer demand and heightened competitive activity offset the impact of local Dollar Menu advertising, the Monopoly promotion, and the recent launch of the Cheddar Bacon Onion premium sandwiches.  Moving forward, the U.S. remains focused on enhancing its value leadership position by balancing strong everyday value messaging with affordable premium menu options.

In Europe, comparable sales declined 2.2% as positive results in the U.K. were offset by declines across many markets.  Amid the segment's ongoing economic uncertainty, Europe is reinvigorating its value offerings through increased advertising and new meal combinations at various price tiers, featuring core and premium menu items, and enhancing the restaurant experience to attract more customers.

In Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA), October's comparable sales declined 2.4% with negative results in Japan, Australia and other markets, including China.  Looking ahead, APMEA seeks to further differentiate the McDonald's experience through unique daypart value platforms, locally-relevant menu choices and unmatched customer conveniences.

Source: Business Insider

Total hypocrisy: Monsanto, agribusiness and big food companies spent more than $45 million to kill 'costly' Prop 37 GMO labeling bill

Labeling genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) is simply too costly, and any law requiring that GMOs be properly labeled will raise food prices significantly. This was one of the many lies propagated by the biotechnology and processed food industries in the months and weeks leading up to the vote on Proposition 37 in California, the historic GMO labeling initiative that was defeated in large part due to the more than $45 million that Monsanto, Dow, Kraft Foods, and dozens of other industry players hypocritically pumped into the fraudulent No on 37 campaign during the final hour.

For the past few weeks, Californians have had to endure a seemingly endless barrage of misleading television commercials and phony voter guide mailers urging them to vote against the labeling proposal because it would allegedly "cost taxpayers and consumers millions," to quote California "family farmer" Ted Sheely, who was prominently featured in a No on 37 propaganda commercial that aired throughout the state. The same commercial, along with several others, also claimed that GMO labeling would increase grocery bills by about $400 per year for the average California family.

Such claims are bald-faced lies, of course, as food manufacturers change their labels constantly without issue, not to mention the fact that the supposed "Prop 37 Economic Impact Study" from which many of these bogus claims and figures were pulled is nothing but fabricated, industry-backed nonsense. Even so, these nonstop lies were apparently enough to close the gap on an earlier 2-to-1 lead in favor of the bill -- The Los Angeles Times reported back in September that 61 percent of registered voters supported Prop. 37, while only 25 percent opposed it.

Labeling GMOs is apparently too costly, but spending millions to fight labeling is no big deal

So what happened to cause the bill to eventually fail in the eleventh hour? Nearly $50 million in lobbying funds is what happened. In a demonstration of sheer irony and hypocrisy, the same companies that have been complaining about supposed food cost increases from GMO labeling are the very ones that spent tens of millions of dollars making sure the GMO labeling bill did not pass. And in the end, the GMO cartel got its wish, at least in the short term.

The good news, however, is that more than 4.2 million Californians saw through the lies of Monsanto, and voted in favor of Prop. 37 despite the propaganda campaign. And the long-term momentum the Yes on 37 campaign generated about the presence of GMOs in the food supply means it is only a matter of time before GMOs are eventually on the radar of all Americans.

"Yesterday, we showed that there is a food movement in the United States, and it is strong, vibrant and too powerful to stop," said the Yes on 37 campaign following the election. "We always knew we were the underdogs, and the underdogs nearly took the day. Dirty money and dirty tactics may have won this skirmish, but they will not win the war."

To begin proactively fighting against the unlabeled presence of GMOs throughout the American food supply, be sure to check out the Label It Yourself initiative.

Also, be sure to boycott the "natural" and organic imposters that contributed to the No on 37 campaign, and support those that fought for the people's right to know what they are eating and feeding their families.

Source: Natural News

Don Alejandro talks about The Shift of the Ages

Colorado Legalizes Recreational Marijuana and Industrial Hemp

In a victory for freedom and common sense, it appears that marijuana will be legalized for recreational use in Colorado. Amendment 64: Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is leading 53.18% to 46.82% with 56% of counties partially reporting.

Amendment 64 legalizes the personal use, possession, and limited home-growing of marijuana legal for adults 21 years of age and older; establishes a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol; and allows for the cultivation, processing, and sale of industrial hemp.

In particular, the law removes all legal penalties for personal possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and allows people to grow up to six marijuana plants at their home in an enclosed locked space.

A study by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy found that marijuana legalization could produce more than $120 million annually in new revenue and savings within the first five years. Wholesale recreation cannabis in Colorado will be taxed at 15% with the first $40 million allocated to the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Fund.

In addition, its passage is expected to create a plethora of new jobs, especially in industrial hemp. Hemp is a non-psychoactive strain of the cannabis plant and an agricultural crop that is widely cultivated across the globe for its seed and fiber. Hemp has thousands of modern industrial uses from paper, textiles, construction materials, fuel, to dietary supplements. Significantly, it is much more sustainable than current competitor materials. Watch the video below for the potential of industrial hemp:



Two other states, Oregon and Washington, are also voting on similar measures. Early results show Washington state will likely legalize marijuana as well with the Yes votes leading by double digits for Initiative Measure 502. Meanwhile it appears Oregon's Measure 80 is headed for defeat.

Massachusetts also voted by a dominant margin (63%) to legalize medical marijuana bringing the total number of medical cannabis states to 18.

Source: Activist Post

Pot Legalization Vote State by State

Synthetic Biologist: Cloned Children, ‘Handpicked Genes’ Right Around the Corner

If you’ve been following the sci-tech section of any major news site over the past few years, chances are you have seen more than a few stories discussing the possibility of extending the highly problematic act of genetic modifications onto the human race. A step that has been foretold by science fiction novels and simultaneously discounted as conspiracy for years. According to one leading synthetic biologist with a passion for eugenics (meaning ‘selective breeding’) and cloning technology, it may be just around the corner.

Scientist George Church envisions a world where traits are pre-determined by parents for their offspring — children created via cloning technology to create ‘better’ humans. He also claims to be creating Neanderthal cells within his laboratory, holding an inventory of Neanderthal ‘parts’ across the lab space. In the near future, he even plans to ‘create’ a Neanderthal baby within his lab.

You may think that Church is just some mad scientist cooped up in his lab experimenting with genetics in his spare time, but he actually is heavily recognized within the scientific community where like-minded eugenicists seek to push cloning technology into the moral and social stratosphere in order to fulfill their visions. Working as a professor at Harvard Medical School and an adviser to more than 20 major corporations, Church thinks that it’s only a matter of time until someone injects an argument into the mainstream media that allows for full-scale cloning technology to be unleashed upon the world.

In an interview with Bloomberg, he said:

“At some point, someone will come up with an airtight argument as to why they should have a cloned child. At that point, cloning will be acceptable. At that point, people will already be choosing traits for their children.”

Of course over 40,000 patents currently exist on human genetics, granting the very ownership of the human genome to major corporations who have been seeking to secure a monopoly over the human coding for over 100 years. Altogether, more than 20 percent of the human genome belongs to corporations. This would give major corporations the ability to actually ‘sell’ genes to parents for their new cloned offspring, generating an entire new market for biotechnology giants.

‘Faulty Genetics’ Means no Right to Fertility

And as for those with ‘faulty’ genetics, they may actually not even be allowed to reproduce. In a similar fashion to the rampant eugenics campaign that ran from 1929 to 1974 and claimed a ‘better society’ through forcing sterilizations upon criminals and those with mental health disorder. All in all, more than 60,000 were sterilized nationwide. But now modern technology exists to actually claim that certain individuals will be criminals or suffer from disease in the future. This, in the mind of the eugenicists, gives them the authority to preemptively sterilize certain sectors of the population. This is the same thinking that is used to remove body parts preemptively in those with a particular cancer gene to avoid the onset of cancer.

But the madness doesn’t end there. According to George Church, they also may create various ‘types’ of cloned children such as Neanderthal babies. He stated:

“We are creating Neanderthal cells. Let’s say someone has a healthy, normal Neanderthal baby. Well, then, everyone will want to have a Neanderthal kid.”

It has already been revealed that many scientists have already secretly created human-animal hybrid experiments in the lab using similar technology. In fact, the ‘horrendous’ creations actually led to some scientists to call for new rules on the subject. Creations that Church asserts will eventually be commonplace if he and his group of Monsanto-esque scientists get their way.

It is concerning enough that genetic modification within crops has led to the onset of tumors, organ damage, and other serious concerns. The health implications alone surrounding the direct genetic modification of humans is enough to sound the alarm. When considering the Orwellian aspects of reproduction control and rampant cloning mixed in with outlandish hybrid experiments, it’s easy to see that there’s simply no place for the unscrupulous usage of such biotechnology. The argument will, however, be thrown right into the mainstream media using a heartwarming story about how cloning can help fuel research for heart disease and cancer — yet another scam.

And if George Church is right, such a scenario could be right around the corner.

Source: Natural Society

Report reveals Japanese nuclear safety experts received large sums of money from nuclear industry

Destroyed unit 3 reactor building of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is seen in Fukushima prefecture, Monday, Feb. 20, 2012. (Issei Kato)

While the “profoundly man-made disaster” at the Fukushima nuclear power plant continues unabated with independent experts continually blocked from gaining access, it has now been revealed that the six members of a Japanese government team drafting the new nuclear reactor safety standards have received tens of thousands of dollars from the nuclear industry.

According to a report put out by Japan’s Kyodo News a whopping four out of six experts on the panel drafting new safety standards have received funds from companies directly involved in the nuclear industry.

The grants, donations and compensation range from 3 million yen (around $37,290) to over 27 million yen (around $335,600) each, according to data released by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA).

While the NRA claimed that the members of the panel “have been selected in line with rules, and there should be no problem,” Kyodo News rightly points out that critics “say the members’ judgments might be swayed by the wishes of donors, exposing safety regulations to the risk of being watered down.”

Indeed it seems so painfully obvious that it is somewhat laughable to even qualify such a statement with the word “might.”

The NRA requires experts like the ones assigned to draft the new safety standards to disclose the funds they receive but they have “no rules for disqualifying them in light of such information,” according to AFP.

One of the experts, Akira Yamaguchi, a professor at Osaka University, received at least 27.14 million yen in both donations and research grants from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., a company which just happens to manufacture nuclear plant equipment, along with “other relevant entities,” according to the report.

Akio Yamamoto, a professor at Nagoya University, received 10.1 million yen, also from a builder and operator of nuclear plants, Japan Atomic Power Co., along with other companies.

Yutaka Abe, a professor at Tsukuba University, received 5 million yen from various entities including a laboratory of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the same company behind the atrocious Fukushima disaster.

Tomoyuki Sugiyama, a Japan Atomic Energy Agency researcher, received 3 million yen from Nuclear Fuel Industries, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the spent fuel pool at reactor four remains precarious and technology is being developed which, in theory at least, could assist the disturbingly slow cleanup process.

TEPCO, in what appears to be an attempt to maintain at least some shred of legitimacy, “plans to set up a regional headquarters in Fukushima prefecture to better oversee local reconstruction, decontamination and compensation payments, Kyodo and other media said,” according to AFP.

Do you think these apparent conflicts of interest can be considered unimportant or justifiable as the Japanese authorities apparently do? Let us know in the comments section.

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Source: End the Lie

ICE Releases Documents Detailing Electronic Surveillance Problems . . . and then Demands Them Back a Year Later

This is a first for us in all of EFF's history of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation—Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has demanded we return records it gave us more than a year ago. The release of these documents doesn't endanger national security or create a risk to an ongoing law enforcement investigation. Instead, it seems that ICE simply wants to stymie further FOIA requests from EFF as we try to get answers about the government's electronic surveillance procedures.

It started a year ago when ICE produced records in response to one of our Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. The records show that companies like Comcast, Cricket Communications, Metro PCS, Southern Linc Wireless, and T-Mobile either pushed back on or failed to comply with specific requests for information on their customers. For example, in response to one of ICE’s pen register/trap and trace orders, Southern Linc said it “did not like the wording of [the] order” and “would not give ‘real time’ ping location for [the] phone, [it] would only give 1 hour old history.” ICE also reported that it experienced “technical issues . . . on almost a daily basis” trying to get data on a suspect from Cricket Communications.” And Comcast gave ICE the runaround for a month before it turned over IP log history.

These records are the first we’ve received in response to our FOIA litigation that actually provide some of the information we asked for—specific examples of problems federal agents have faced getting companies to comply with communications surveillance orders. We filed this request two years ago after the New York Times reported that the FBI and other agencies were pushing Congress to expand the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to require companies like Blackberry, Skype and Google to build back doors into their systems. And ICE should be commended for releasing these records with only minimal redactions.

However, ICE should not be commended for what happened next. Based on the important information revealed in this limited set of records, we asked ICE to give us copies of all other records that looked like these. It didn’t seem like a tough request to fill, given that these seem to be standardized reports—and that we included a copy of the records so that ICE would know what to look for.

But ICE refused. First the agency argued EFF’s request was too broad—that it couldn’t possibly search through all its individual offices to find these forms (despite the fact that ICE officers seemed to be encouraged to send the forms to a central fax number). So, to lessen the burden on the agency, we narrowed our FOIA request to cover only a handful of specific ICE offices that reported having problems.

It took ICE almost a year to get back to us on the narrowed request, and when it did, its response was frustrating. Not only did the agency decide that it would still be too burdensome to conduct any kind of a search for similar records, but ICE also told us it never should have turned over the original records in the first place—and it wanted them back. The problem for ICE is, these records have already been in the public’s hands for over six months—we filed them as an exhibit (pdf) in our FOIA litigation (pdf) in March 2012, and they’re readily available on the PACER docket for the case (or from the Internet Archive).

This is yet another example of the federal government failing to comply with the letter and spirit of the Freedom of Information Act—reverting to secrecy when it should be promoting transparency. It’s hard to imagine what harm could come from the release of these documents. ICE was careful to block out any information in the records that would identify the target of the investigation, and the information that isn't blocked out seems to reinforce the government's position on CALEA.

And it’s another disappointment from an administration that lauded its commitment to transparency on the first day the President took office four years ago. We can only hope that if the President wins this tight election, he’ll use the next four years to fulfill this commitment.

Read ICE's reports here and the agency's letters to EFF here, here, and here.

Source: EFF

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Bitcoins: The Currency of the Darknet

Bitcoins are an online currency with no ties to a government or central bank. Since their inception in 2009, it has become a medium for all kinds of black market activities online. Here’s what you need to know about the not-so-legal side of Bitcoins.

Antidepressant drugs are murdering babies before they’re even born: SSRIs cause birth defects, miscarriages and complications

(NaturalNews) Big Pharma wants pregnant women to take prescription drugs, vaccine shots and even chemotherapy. It's the latest insanity from an industry that kills more Americans ever year than died in the entire Vietnam War. And the latest science reveals that antidepressant use during pregnancy is causing babies to be born with physical defects -- or sometimes not born at all because they're miscarried.

This disturbing new science published in the journal Human Reproduction was authored by Dr. Adam Urato, obstetrician and chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, Mass., and Dr. Alice Domar, a psychologist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

The study shows drastically increased rates of birth defects in children who are exposed to SSRI drugs (antidepressants) while in the womb. The risk of miscarriages also skyrockets with antidepressant drug use during pregnancy.

Study author Dr. Urato is also warning that at least 40 studies now link SSRI use during pregnancy with pre-term births.

The abstract of the study lays out the findings in clear language:

Antidepressant use during pregnancy is associated with increased risks of miscarriage, birth defects, preterm birth, newborn behavioral syndrome, persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn and possible longer term neurobehavioral effects.

As The Telegraph reports:

The situation amounts to "a large scale human experiment", according to Dr Adam Urato, assistant professor of maternal-fetal medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts. Drugs firms were overstating the benefits and underplaying the risks for the sake of profit, he claimed. Family doctors were failing to grasp the true dangers and tell pregnant patients of them, he argued.

Antidepressants double risk of babies being born with autism

"A recent study has further documented some doctors' concerns that the use of SSRIs increases the risk of babies being born with autism. This particular research indicates the antidepressants double the risk," reports DrugWatch.com

In addition, antidepressants offer no benefit to pregnancy outcomes! As stated by the study authors:

"There is no evidence of improved pregnancy outcomes with antidepressant use."

In other words, antidepressants deliver all sorts of risks, but virtually no benefits, especially considering that even the psychological "benefits" of SSRI drugs are completely fabricated by the corrupt pharmaceutical industry which routinely fabricates clinical trial data.

Mainstream media tries to downplay risk

The mainstream media is, of course, incessantly running cover for the toxic pharmaceutical industry. That's why instead of seeing headlines that warn about "birth defects" from SSRIs, you get headlines like this one from a local Fox affiliate:

"Antidepressants during pregnancy can be tricky"
(http://fox13now.com/2012/11/01/antidepressants-during-pregnancy-can-b...)

Tricky? The story then goes on to push the warped psychiatric "view" of these drugs, which is essentially that everybody needs to be medicated in order to be normal. And that includes pregnant women.

The entire charade is so sick and even criminal that it's hard to even watch. If an herbal supplement were causing birth defects, you wouldn't see the media reporting that decision about the herbal supplement are "tricky." Instead, you would see the media SCREAMING about how dangerous and deadly the supplement was, demanding the FDA to take immediate action to ban the substance and pull it from store shelves.

But somehow, when prescription drugs cause miscarriages and birth defects, it's all okay because the drug companies are involved.

Murdering babies is perfectly fine, you see, as long as Big Pharma and the psychiatric industry and pocketing some cash at the same time.

And don't forget: Vaccines are also being pushed on pregnant women now, even though throughout the history of medicine pregnant women were always warned to avoid vaccines due to mercury toxicity. But suddenly, the authorities and the drug companies want to inject pregnant women with as much mercury as possible.

It's not just mercury, either: As Natural News has just exposed in a shocking new article, even the CDC openly admits that today's vaccines are made with MSG, mercury, formaldehyde and aluminum -- on purpose!

And what's one of the most common side effects of all these toxic metals and chemicals in vaccines? Spontaneous abortions, of course.

Source: Natural News

New Russian Law Allowing Govt To Take Websites Off Internet Goes Into Effect TO PROTECT CHILDREN

The New Facebook Buttons: Promote, Despise, Abandon

How many people would click "despise FB" and "abandon FB" if those were offered alongside the new "promote for a fee" button?

Just in case you haven't noticed, your Facebook activity may not be reaching the FB audience you enjoyed a few months ago.

If you want to reach your previous audience, you need to click that little "promote" button and pay the fee.

My friend Richard Metzger of Dangerous Minds alerted me to a remarkable coincidence: shortly after Facebook's May launch of the "promote" option for business accounts, business users noticed an 85% reduction in their FB reach. Facebook: I Wany My Friends Back.

Like many other "stealth" revenue campaigns in social media, the "promote" revenue stream was first introduced as a marketing tool for enterprises and groups: Facebook's tempting 'Promote' button for business (CNET).

It was presented as a way to expand one's reach on FB, to friends of friends, etc. What was not highlighted was the "stealth" reduction in reach to "encourage" use of the "promote" option: Broken on Purpose: Why Getting It Wrong Pays More Than Getting It Right:

Many of us managing Facebook fan pages have noticed something strange over the last year: how our reach has gotten increasingly ineffective. How the messages we post seem to get fewer clicks, how each message is seen by only a fraction of our total “fans.”

It’s no conspiracy. Facebook acknowledged it as recently as last week: messages now reach, on average, just 15 percent of an account’s fans. In a wonderful coincidence, Facebook has rolled out a solution for this problem: Pay them for better access.

As their advertising head, Gokul Rajaram, explained, if you want to speak to the other 80 to 85 percent of people who signed up to hear from you, “sponsoring posts is important.”

In other words, through “Sponsored Stories,” brands, agencies and artists are now charged to reach their own fans--the whole reason for having a page--because those pages have suddenly stopped working.

Facebook is broken, on purpose, in order to extract more money from users.

Does anyone else smell the stench of burning opium in the air? Step right this way, ladies and gentlemen, for free access to exciting new marketing thrills--unlimited reach to a global audience!

Next, encourage them to depend more and more on your product for their marketing and thus financial survival.

Excellent! They're now addicted, and without really noticing the rise of their dependence.

Now reduce their reach. We're sorry to hear you're experiencing withdrawal symptoms; but unfortunately we've run out of the "free" good stuff. We do, however, have a substitute that will fill your need, but there is a modest fee, of course.

Yes, it's the addict-pusher model.

Since few addicts complained or refused the new paid substitute, Facebook is testing the addiction level of personal-account FB users: Facebook’s ‘promote’ button rolls out beyond pages to some personal accounts (9/18/12, Inside Facebook).

Facebook testing promoted user posts in the US.

The "promote" service is being, well, promoted, as a way to spread the word about your garage sale this weekend, for instance. With the promote button, all the friends of your friends in Ningbo, China, will helpfully find out about your garage sale in Phoenix AZ. Just how helpful is that?

And all for only $7, if you have a small audience. The price scales up along with your audience. Richard calculated that promoting all of his site's daily posts would require $672,000 annually. The price of that once-free marketing is now rather stiff.

I have always been skeptical of the entire social media phenomenon. I recounted some of my experiences in How I Friended a Dead Guy and Became a Social Media Zombie (February 22, 2011).

I have also opined that Facebook Is a Utility Which Can't Charge Its Users (July 22, 2010) for the basic reason that Facebook has the same customer satisfaction ratings as hated cable providers and the I.R.S. Users view Facebook as a free utility, and tolerate it because it's free.

I have also commented on the underlying dynamics of social media:

800 Million Channels of Me (February 21, 2011)

Are You Loving Your Servitude Yet? (July 25, 2012)

The Last Refuge of Wall Street: Marketing To Increasingly Insolvent Consumers (December 12, 2011)

What's happening is that Facebook is realizing the advert model of revenue is fatally limited. Adverts just don't generate billions of dollars in profit, even with 1 billion users. So it was inevitable that those using the FB platform to generate revenue in some fashion would be squeezed to "share" their revenues with FB.

Previously "free" distribution would no longer be free, and users would face a stark choice: either start paying for distribution or lose 85% of their audience.

The response depends on the users' level of dependence. Those who are well and truly hooked on the FB platform can either make ineffectual protests and end up paying to reach their former audience, or they can quit: cold turkey, baby.

The alternative FB hopes they don't choose is to do nothing, accept their reduced reach and audience, and move their social media energy elsewhere. Most personal account holders don't really care about their reach; as long as their inner circle still get their posts and photos, they're happy.

So FB will eventually have to decide if it can profit with a customer base in which 99% don't pay anything. They could try squeezing users in more "stealth" ways, for example, making the first 10 friends and first 10 posts a week free, and charging for useage above a low threshold. If it follows this revenue model, it will follow MySpace down the path to hosting tens of millions of zombie users.

Or FB (and Wall Street) could accept that it is fundamentally a low-profit utility and always will be. It could charge individuals $1 a month--a utility fee, in effect-- $10 a month for groups and small enterprises and $100/month for corporations and large organizations. This model would recognize FB is basically offering server space. If users aren't getting $1 a month in value, then why be users at all?

How addicted are we? It's a good question of all social media, especially the (currently) "free" stuff. How many people would click "abandon FB" if that were offered alongside the new "promote" button?

Source: Of Two Minds

32,000 Year Old Alien City Found In India

Vaccinated children have up to 500% more disease than unvaccinated children

Suspicions have been confirmed for those wary of vaccinating their children. A recent large study corroborates other independent study surveys comparing unvaccinated children to vaccinated children.

They all show that vaccinated children have two to five times more childhood diseases, illnesses, and allergies than unvaccinated children.

Originally, the recent still ongoing study compared unvaccinated children against a German national health survey conducted by KiGGS involving over 17,000 children up to age 19. This currently ongoing survey study was initiated by classical homoeopathist Andreas Bachmair.

However, the American connection for Bachmair's study can be found at VaccineInjury.info website that has added a link for parents of vaccinated children to participate in the study. So far this ongoing survey has well over 11,000 respondents, mostly from the U.S.A. Other studies have surveyed smaller groups of families.

Nevertheless, the results were similar. Of course, none of these studies were picked up by the MSM (mainstream media). None were funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the World Health Organization (WHO) or any national or international health agency or medical profession group (http://healthimpactnews.com).

They don't dare compare the health of unvaccinated children to vaccinated children objectively and risk disrupting their vaxmania (vaccination mania). The focus for all the studies was mostly on childhood illnesses occurring as the children matured.

Dramatic, debilitating, or lethal vaccine injuries were not the focus since so few, five percent or less, actually get reported to VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Injury Reporting System) in the U.S.A. for various reasons including:

* It's a complicated system that takes time from a doctor's practice.
* Most parents don't know about it.
* Only adverse reactions that occur immediately after vaccinations are considered.
* Since VAERS is voluntary, most doctors don't want to incriminate themselves with vaccination injuries and maintain their denial of vaccine dangers.

Consequently, even the most terrible adverse reactions are minimally acknowledged, while long term negative health issues resulting from vaccines are not even considered relevant.

Different surveys summarized

The childhood diseases usually posed to respondents by the independent surveys involved asthma, reoccurring tonsillitis, chronic bronchitis, sinusitis, allergies, eczema, ear infections, diabetes, sleep disorders, bedwetting, dyslexia, migraines, hyperactivity, ADD, epilepsy, depression, and slower development of speech or motor skills.

In 1992, a New Zealand group called the Immunization Awareness Society (IAS) surveyed 245 families with a total of 495 children. The children were divided with 226 vaccinated and 269 unvaccinated. Eighty-one families had both vaccinated and unvaccinated children.

The differences were dramatic, with unvaccinated children showing far less incidence of common childhood ailments than vaccinated children (http://www.vaccineinjury.info/images/stories/ias1992study.pdf).

From a different survey in the South Island New Zealand city of Christchurch, among children born during or after 1977, none of the unvaccinated children had asthma events where nearly 25% of the vaccinated children were treated for asthma by age 10 (http://www.vaccineinjury.info/images/stories/ias1992study.pdf).

Many of the comments from non-vaccinating parents to VaccineInjury.info for the ongoing Bachmair survey mentioned vaccination danger and developing true immunity naturally were concerns (http://www.vaccineinjury.info).

A PhD immunologist who wrote the book Vaccine Illusion, Dr. Tetyana Obukhanych, has gone against the dogma of her medical training and background. She asserts that true immunity to any disease is not conferred by vaccines. Exposure to the disease, whether contracted or not, does (http://www.vaccinationcouncil.org).

Perhaps the most informal grass-roots survey going on now is by Tim O'Shea, DC, author of Vaccination is Not Immunization. He simply has non-vaccinating parents email him with comparisons of their children's health to friends and families they know with vaccinated children. That and more is available on his site (http://www.thedoctorwithin.com).

Source: Natural News

Italy and Switzerland Ban Novartis Flu Vaccines

Amid political controversy, the Italian government took the highroad last week by suspending sales of flu vaccines when their quality and safety were called into question.

Novartis AG (NOVN) told Italian and Swiss authorities that their products were safe, although the shots did contain particle buildup. Citing Novartis’ failure to provide adequate information for the safe sale of the shots, however, the Italian Health Ministry has banned the 488,000 doses in question.

Swiss drug regulator Swissmedic followed Italy’s example and halted distribution of the vaccines just in case. Novartis is based in Basel, Switzerland.

No illnesses have been reported—a far different outcome than the fungus-contaminated steroids spreading meningitis across the United States.

Delayed Notification to Authorities

Italian Health Minister Renato Balduzzi met Novartis executives late last week to discuss the company’s delayed notification of proper authorities. (Novartis knew of the buildup back in early July. The company said in a statement that particles can occur in vaccines and that they are “confident that there is no impact on safety or efficacy of the vaccine.”

This, of course, smacks of the same kind of confidence Monsanto has about the safety of its 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T herbicides (half the recipe for Agent Orange) and genetically modified crops. One wonders why, then, they paid $93 million in a settlement to residents of Nitro, West Virginia for dioxin contamination and related injuries. An incensed biotech scientist did recently say GMOs’ ability to cause fertility problems was ‘awesome,’ as well. Some corporations just see the world in terms of dollar signs.

Innate Dangers of Vaccines

The downside of most vaccines, however, is simply this: they don’t really work. The Lancet published a study involving 13,095 unvaccinated adults, only 2.7 percent of whom developed the flu compared to 1.2 percent of vaccinated adults. The flu vaccine’s efficacy was a humble 1.5 percent.

Meanwhile, even low doses of vitamin D—either through the sun, diet, or supplementation—reduces risk of contracting the flu by 42 percent according to a Japanese study involving 430 children. Vitamin D in moderate amounts has none of the horrible side effects that often occur after vaccination, including but not limited to Type 2 diabetes-linked inflammation, autoimmune disease stimulation, and a deadly nerve disease known as Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

Natural Ways to Prevent Sickness

Please remember through the cold months that there are far cheaper and more effective ways to ward off the flu than harmful vaccines. If you’re already congested or have a sinus infection or cough, look for natural solutions right here on Natural Society. Similarly, don’t hesitate to implement these 9 ways to boost your immune system.

Source: Activist Post

Mayans protest government sponsored apocalypse party and slam “doomsday myth”

The world will not end. It will be transformed. -- Mayan elders.



For years the Mayans have been fighting against the doomsday myth surrounding the incorrect reading of their ancient calendar. As the date of December 21, 2012 approaches the hype has caused an increasing amount of distress for the indigenous Mayan people, especially with their homeland in Guatemala being turned into a cheap tourist attraction for the coming “apocalypse”.

Just this week, Guatemala’s Mayan people accused the government and state sponsored tour groups of perpetuating the myth that their calendar predicts the end of the world, so they can benefit financially from tourist revenue.

The Culture Ministry of Guatemala is hosting a massive event in Guatemala City, which as many as 90,000 people are expected to attend, all being promoted under the pretext of a “doomsday” celebration.

Felipe Gomez, leader of the Maya alliance Oxlaljuj Ajpop protested this week with other Mayans, urging the Tourism Institute to rethink the doomsday celebration, which he criticized as a “show” that was disrespectful to Mayan culture.

“We are speaking out against deceit, lies and twisting of the truth, and turning us into folklore-for-profit. They are not telling the truth about time cycles” Gomez told the AFP news agency.

In a statement released by Oxlaljuj Ajpop, the end of the Mayan calendar simply means that “there will be big changes on the personal, family and community level, so that there is harmony and balance between mankind and nature.”

Last year, a Mayan elder named Carlos Barrios interviewed over 600 other senior Mayan elders to get the clearest possible understanding of the situation. In an online interview representing the Organization for Mayan and Indigenous Spiritual Studies, Carlos made the following statement:

“Anthropologists visit the temple sites and read the inscriptions and make up stories about the Maya, but they do not read the signs correctly. It’s just their imagination. Other people write about prophecy in the name of the Maya. They say that the world will end in December 2012. The Mayan elders are angry with this. The world will not end. It will be transformed. We are no longer in the World of the Fourth Sun, but we are not yet in the World of the Fifth Sun. This is the time in-between, the time of transition. As we pass through transition there is a colossal, global convergence of environmental destruction, social chaos, war, and ongoing Earth Changes. Humanity will continue, but in a different way. Material structures will change. From this we will have the opportunity to be more human.”

As the Mayans believe, and as many modern researchers also believe, the human species has already went through many different changes during their history on the planet earth. Those changes have many times been difficult, but have also been followed by rapid leaps in understanding, compassion and social advancement.

As I discussed in my book Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance “The doomsday theory is unlikely and overused by power hungry governments that wish to keep their populations in fear. As we have seen quite recently in the past decade in the United States, the establishment constantly uses fear to manipulate the minds of US citizens. This technique is not new either, it has been used for centuries whether it be the fear of economic collapse, natural disaster, the enemy, or the fear of god, fear has been used by the few to dominate the many for ages.

When the Spaniards were conquering the Mayan empire they learned through missionaries that 1698 was the end of the Mayan time cycle. So the Spanish waited until 1698 to invade and the Mayans took it as a sign and fled without resistance. One of the most celebrated of all doomsday predictions was made by astrologers who predicted a great flood that would end the world on February 20 1524 based on the conjunction of all the planets in the heavens mercury, Venus, Mars Jupiter and Saturn. We have also seen quite recently with the media hoax Y2K, which threatened us with a “cyber Armageddon” at the turn of the millennium. In both cases obviously, the world continued to turn. “

The end of the world has been predicted many times and has yet to come, the last time that this kind of hysteria swept the world was just over a decade ago, around the change of the millennium with the y2k scare. The world didn’t end last time, and it is not going to end next time. However, there may be some truth that we are on the verge of some sort of societal transition, looking around the world all of the signs are certainly there.

Oxlajuj Ajpop is holding events it considers sacred in five cities to mark the event and Gomez said the Culture Ministry would be wise to throw its support behind their real celebrations. However, there it is not likely that the government tourist agency and the ministry will change their course.

Monsanto’s Roundup, Glyphosate Linked to Parkinson’s and Similar Diseases

We already know the links between herbicides and sterility in men, birth defects, mental illness, obesity and possibly cancer—but now we have something new to add to the nasty effects of pesticides list — Parkinson’s disease and similar neurodegenerative conditions.

New research, published in the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology, indicates a connection between a component in Monsanto’s Roundup and Parkinson’s disease. Glyphosate is said to induce cell death, with frightening repercussions.

GreenMedInfo.com reports the study was investigating the links between herbicides (weed killers) and brain damage. These chemicals, the study’s authors say, “have been recognized as the main environmental factor associated with neurodegenerative disorders,” like Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative nervous system disease. It slowly progresses as time goes on with common symptoms like tremors, rigidity, difficulty walking, poor posture, lack of movement, and slowness of movement, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.

The CDC reports Parkinson’s as the 14th leading cause of death in the U.S. In 2010 (the last year for which data is available), there was 4.6% increase in the number of deaths attributed to this disease. One has to wonder if there is a connection between this jump and the ever-growing prevalence of herbicides like Roundup in our air, food, and water.

Studies indicate that glyphosate is toxic to human DNA “at concentrations diluted 450-fold lower than used in agricultural applications.” Worded differently—the levels considered safe by our government are 450 times the levels at which glyphosate has been found to damage and destroy human DNA. Yes, it’s that serious.

One case study found a woman who was exposed to glyphosate in the workplace for 3 years at a chemical factory. She wore gloves and a face mask. She was initially a healthy, middle-aged women. But, she developed “rigidity, slowness, and resting tremor in all four limbs.” She was also experiencing severe dizziness, weakness, and blurred vision. And hers isn’t the only such case.

What’s so scary about the growing body of research on Monsanto’s Roundup, its components, and their presence in nearly everything around us, is that the federal government refuses to recognize the risk. Despite a growing concern on an international level, the powers-that-be are seemingly content to turn their eyes while the people demand accountability and safe food.

Until pesticides and herbicides are no longer used on a mass scale, the growth of these diseases will likely continue. Eat 100% organic produce whenever possible to bypass exposure to destructive pesticides and herbicides.

Source: Activist Post

Facebook Now Censoring Political Posts As ‘Hate Speech’

Facebook is now apparently censoring political posts which violate its “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities” as hate speech, after the social networking giant threatened to close radio host Alex Jones’ account over an image of Osama Bin Laden with the words “Al-CIA-da” written underneath.

Attempting to login to Alex Jones’ Facebook account, which has over 321,000 subscribers, Infowars staff were met with a message from Facebook denying access to the account until it was acknowledged that Facebook’s terms had been violated.

“We removed content you posted,” stated the message, underneath which was a black and white image of Osama Bin Laden with the words “Al-CIA-da” emblazoned across it. Facebook removed the image because it “violatesFacebook’s Statement of RIghts and Responsibilities.”

A secondary screen then warned that other infringing images should be removed if the account was to remain in good standing.

Since the image is not copyrighted, according to Facebook’s terms of agreement one can only assume that it was removed because it represented an example of “hate speech,” yet the picture was merely a commentary on the admitted fact that Osama Bin Laden was aided by the CIA during the cold war and that Al-Qaeda terrorists are now being supported by the Central Intelligence Agency in Syria and Libya.

Facebook advertises and poses as a public commons yet, much like Google-owned You Tube, routinely censors political content on flimsy pretexts.

This is by no means the first time Facebook has shown its hostility towards those with alternative political viewpoints.

In September 2011, Infowars reporter Darrin McBreen was told by Facebook staff not to voice his political opinion on the social networking website.

Responding to comments McBreen had made about off-grid preppers being treated as criminals, the “Facebook Team” wrote, “Be careful making about making political statements on facebook,” adding, “Facebook is about building relationships not a platform for your political viewpoint. Don’t antagonize your base. Be careful and congnizat (sic) of what you are preaching.”

The spelling error contained in the email suggested that Facebook staff had specifically investigated McBreen’s political post and that he had not merely received a boilerplate message.

While the likes of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi are free to push their political agenda without interference, individuals are being warned not to use Facebook even to express political opinions.

Facebook is monitoring private discussions conducted on its network for suspicious behavior and in some casesforwarding those conversations to police with scant regard for privacy rights.

Earlier this year, former Marine Brandon Raub was kidnapped from his home by police, FBI and Secret Service agents and forcibly incarcerated in a psychiatric ward by authorities in Virginia in response to Facebook posts which the FBI deemed “terrorist” in nature yet which were later dismissed by a judge.

Source: Infowars