Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Vaccinated children have up to 500% more disease than unvaccinated 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”
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
Monday, October 29, 2012
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.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Micro-Drones Combined With DNA Hacking Could Create A Very Scary Future
Sightings of insect-sized micro drones have been occurring for years, but combined with the direction of genome sequencing outlined in this Atlantic piece — the pair make for a futuristic and potentially deadly mix.
Even back in 2007, when Vanessa Alarcon was a college student attending an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. she heard someone shout, "Oh my God, look at those."
"I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?'" she told The Washington Post. "They looked like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects," she continued.
A lawyer there at the time confirmed they looked like dragonflies, but that they "definitely weren't insects".
And he's probably right. In 2006 Flight International reported that the CIA had been developing micro UAVs as far back as the 1970s and had a mock-up in its Langley headquarters since 2003.
While we can go on listing roachbots, swarming nano drones, and synchronized MIT robots — private trader and former software engineer Alan Lovejoy points out that the future of nano drones could become even more unsettling.
Lovejoy says "Such a device could be controlled from a great distance and is equipped with a camera, microphone. It could land on you and then use its needle to take a DNA sample."
Assuming all that to be possible, the Atlantic paints a complimentary scenario.
Authors Andrew Hessel, Marc Goodman, and Steven Kotler outline futuristic human genome work that evolves from the very real GE $100 million breast cancer challenge.
In the group's scenario a bunch of brilliant freelancers receive bids to design personalized virus' offering customized cures for the sick.
Say you get pancreatic cancer, instead of chemo' — the first step in treatment will be decoding your genome — which costs about $1,000 right now and takes a couple of days.
An eternity when you're rife with cancer, no doubt, but a far cry from the two years and $300 million it required less than a decade-and-a-half ago.
But imagine, the three writers ask: it's 2015, and with information about the disease and your exclusive genome sequence, tomorrow's virologists will have only a simple design problem on their hands.
The problem will be freelanced out for bids, like a brochure design on Elance, and the winning design will be a formula that'll rid your body of the cancer.
All of this is pretty plausible, if not a bit short on the timeline, but imagine the request for proposal of your pancreatic cancer cure was something else.
Imagine it was the genome of a particular African leader recruiting children to fight his wars, and that his DNA had been high-jacked in 2009 at the UN by order of Hillary Clinton.
Same scenario applies. The request for a drug tailored to that particular genome is accepted. It's paid for and forwarded to an online bio-marketplace, which sends it to a synthesis start-up that turns "the 5,984 base-pair blueprint into actual genetic material."
Here the future of drones and virology could intersect.
A few days later tablets are delivered to a group that dissolves them and injects the liquid into a handful of micro-drones. The team releases the drones and infects the people in the African leader's circle of advisors or family.
The infected come down with flu like symptoms, coughs and sneezes that release billions of harmless virus particles — but when they bring their symptoms in the vicinity of the African leader — the particles change.
Once the virus particles are exposed to that very specific DNA sequence, a secondary function within their design unlocks. In the Atlantic piece the target is the U.S. president via sneezing Harvard students, but the effect would be the same. In that case it was a "fast-acting neuro-destructive disease that produced memory loss and, eventually, death."
Same for the African leader, though the symptoms could be tailored an infinite number of ways. Designed to reflect a uniquely local affliction like Dengue Fever, or to appear like symptoms of a genetic condition.
The drone and bio-technologies are approaching the point where something like this is theoretically possible, even if for now, it's only imagination.
Renewable Energy: The Vision And A Dose Of Reality
In recent years, there has been more and more talk of a transition to renewable energy on the grounds of climate change, and an increasing range of public policies designed to move in this direction. Not only do advocates envisage, and suggest to custodians of the public purse, a future of 100% renewable energy, but they suggest that this can be achieved very rapidly, in perhaps a decade or two, if sufficient political will can be summoned. See for instance this 2009 Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables:
A year ago former vice president Al Gore threw down a gauntlet: to repower America with 100 percent carbon-free electricity within 10 years. As the two of us started to evaluate the feasibility of such a change, we took on an even larger challenge: to determine how 100 percent of the world’s energy, for all purposes, could be supplied by wind, water and solar resources, by as early as 2030.
See also, as an example, the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan proposed by Beyond Zero Emissions:
The world stands on the precipice of significant change. Climate scientists predict severe impacts from even the lowest estimates of global warming. Atmospheric CO2 already exceeds safe levels. A rational response to the problem demands a rapid shift to a zero-fossil-fuel, zero-emissions future. The Zero Carbon Australia 2020 Stationary Energy Plan (the ZCA 2020 Plan) outlines a technically feasible and economically attractive way for Australia to transition to a 100% renewable energy within ten years. Social and political leadership are now required in order for the transition to begin.
Read more: The Automatic Earth
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Man Buys 1 Million Facebook Users’ Personal Information for $5
How much is your personal information worth? How about a data set consisting of over 1 million individual’s personal information complete with their full legal name, personal E-mail address, and URL to their Facebook account as confirmation?
According to one ‘mystery’ company that recently sold 1 million Facebook users’ personal information to a very surprised blogger, not very much at all. About $5, to be specific.
It all started when one blogger, a self-proclaimed seeker of ‘cheap’ deals that pertain to potentially useful or interesting subjects, stumbled across an offer for ’1 million Facebook accounts’ for $5. Skeptical but willing to try it out, the blogger purchased the list to be met with much surprise when he actually personally identified many of the users on the list to be people he actually knew personally. Complete with their personal E-mail address (which Facebook is supposed to keep ‘hidden’), full names, and a link to their page to verify, this blogger had stumbled across a major corporation’s dream come true.
According to the description from the seller of the list, the information was collected through Facebook applications and even checked monthly to ensure validity. The description stated:
The information in this list has been collected through our Facebook apps and consists only of active Facebook users, mostly from the US, Canada, UK and Europe… The list is checked and validated once a month so you won’t get a list full of invalid or duplicate email addresses… this list has a great potential for you.
After purchasing the list and being amazed at its legitimacy, the IT blogger posted an entry detailing the event along with screenshots and a surprising follow-up. Using his personal E-mail provided when signing up for his Facebook account, Facebook’s ‘policy’ team member sent him an E-mail asking him to set up a call with the company. During the call, things got very concerning.
Facebook Rep: Send Us the File, Delete it, And Tell No One
Starting off with a warning to the blogger that the phone call was being recorded, the unnamed Facebook rep told the blogger to send them the file of the 1 million users’ information, delete it, and delete all traces of its mentioning off of his blog.
Not agreeing to censor the information, the blogger posted the quote from the phone conversation on his website:
Now we would like you to send us this file, delete it, tell us if you have given a copy of it to someone, give us the website from which you bought it including all transactions with it and the payment system and remove a couple of things from your blog. Oh and by the way, you are not allowed to disclose any part of this conversation; it is a secret that we are even having this conversation.Proceeding to ask whether or not the rep would fill him in on what would be done by the company, the rep said that it was an internal issue and that he would not be allowed to know the result.
It has been known for years that Facebook’s very own terms of service allows for blatant privacy intrusions, and the company has been even caught syncing up with major third party corporations to track you online and offline. What has not been seen, however, is an event of this caliber taking place involving the average consumer. No longer are the days where major corporations were forced to buy your personal information and habits through terms of service changes and large volumes of cash.
Now, almost anyone can go online and buy 1 million E-mails, names, and Facebook URLs for a total of $5. In other words, you could purchase tens of millions of E-mails to spam or otherwise for a very inexpensive amount. What’s more is that criminals could also purchase this database for further malicious reasons. It’s no wonder that Facebook refuses to discuss the matter in any capacity, demanding that the blogger remove all content on the subject and pretend that it never happened.
If you absolutely cannot delete your Facebook, you can at least stop using apps on the platform that are known to be siphoning your personal information. Also be sure to use a Facebook specific ‘dummy’ E-mail when signing up and choose a nickname or alternative name that is not the same as your full legal name.
Source: Activist Post
Friday, October 26, 2012
Berlusconi Sentenced to Four Years in Prison for Fraud
It is unlikely that Berlusconi will serve any jail time given his age, 76, and the Italian appeals process, which can run out the statute of limitations. The court pardoned three years of the sentence. He was also barred from public office for five years, according to a sentence read today by a judge in Milan.
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, pauses during a news conference following the Group of 20 (G20) Cannes Summit in this file photo. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire former Italian prime minister, was found guilty of tax fraud and sentenced to four years in prison in a film-rights case involving his Mediaset SpA television company. Berlusconi's sentence was read today by a judge in Milan. Sara Eisen and Erik Schatzker report on Bloomberg Television's "Market Makers." (Source: Bloomberg)
Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who describes himself as the persecuted man in history, was found guilty of tax fraud and sentenced to four years in prison in a film-rights case involving his Mediaset SpA television company. Sara Eisen reports on Bloomberg Television's "Market Makers." (Source: Bloomberg)
“He won’t go to jail because criminal sentences in the first instance aren’t executed if an appeal is presented within 15 days,” said Fabio Belloni, a criminal lawyer who previously defended Parmalat (PLT) Chairman Calisto Tanzi in Italy’s biggest bankruptcy case.
“‘The sentence remains suspended until the end of the appeals process. The same thing with the ban from public office,” he said.
The ruling came in the same week that the three-time prime minister announced that he would not run for the premiership in elections due by May. Berlusconi has accused prosecutors of trying to destroy him politically and has said that he has spent more than 400 million euros ($517 million) on his legal defense in more than a dozen corruption trials since he entered politics in 1994.
Mediaset Declines
Shares in Mediaset SpA, Berlusconi’s media company at the center of the case, fell 2.8 percent to 1.34 euros. That compared with an advance of 0.2 percent in Italy’s benchmark FTSE MIB index.
“The sentence confirms years of judicial persecution,” Paolo Bonaiuti, Berlusconi’s, spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.
Berlusconi’s lawyers, Niccolo Ghedini and Piero Longo, called the verdict “absolutely incredible” and “lacking legal logic,” in an e-mailed statement. They plan to file an appeal of the decision, and said “they trust” that a higher court will overturn the verdict. Berlusconi can appeal the verdict two more times under Italian law.
The ruling comes as Berlusconi faces another trial on charges of paying for sex with a minor. The revelations about his relationship with a 17-year-old Milan nightclub dancer and the so-called Bunga Bunga parties he threw at his Milan residence led to a slump in his popularity last year that contributed to his resignation as prime minister in November.
The charges in the Mediaset case stem from before Berlusconi entered politics, when he was still actively managing the media company that he founded. Fedele Confalonieri, chairman of Mediaset and a co-defendant in the trial, was absolved by the court.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
India prepares to kick Monsanto to the curb
According to a recent story in Science magazine:
Sounding what some regard as the death knell for the development of genetically modified food crops in India, a high-profile parliamentary panel last week recommended that GM crop "field trials under any garb should be discontinued forthwith," and that agricultural GM research should "only be done under strict containment." If implemented, the report's recommendations would paralyze research and erode India's food security, warns India's chief of crop research.
Even more damning is this: Following the release of the report, the panel's chair, Basudeb Acharia, said in no uncertain terms: "India should not go in for GM food crops."
According to the author of the piece, Pallava Bagla, the panel's recommendation has been looked upon by some "as the death knell of the development of genetically modified food crops in India," a development that, despite the country's burgeoning population, would nonetheless be a sound policy decision, given what we know about the ill effects of GM foods.
'Sending mixed signals'
Consider that, from a public policy perspective, it's fair to ponder just how much India will save in healthcare costs alone for its citizens - health expenditures that would have been caused by GM foods but that would never materialize if the country abandons such foods altogether.
As you might have guessed, not everyone is pleased, or agrees with, the panel's recommendation. Swapan Dutta, a rice geneticist and deputy director of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, suggested that if the panel's recommendation is implemented, it would paralyze research and threaten the country's food security. He added that "hope for GM research in India is lost."
But this development is not a new one to those who have been following India's souring relationship with Monsanto over the past few years.
"The Indian government has been sending mixed signals about its commitment to agricultural GM technology," writes Sayer Ji, founder of the scientific health food website GreenMedInfo.com.
For example, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has voiced his support recently for GM crops, telling Science magazine, "In due course of time we must make use of genetic engineering technologies to increase the productivity of our agriculture."
Also, in 2002, the government approved Bt-toxin carrying cotton as the first GM commercial crop in India, a decision that has led to more than 1,100 varieties of GM cotton in the country now, accounting for some 93 percent of total cotton production.
"But," Ji points out, "Singh's own ministers are not towing the party line." He says the Science article notes that "in 2010, former environment minister Jairam Ramesh imposed a moratorium on the commercialization of Bt brinjal, a traditional Indian eggplant, even after the ministry's scientific advisory panel had given the GM variety approval."
History of grief between India and Monsanto
The article further points out in its June issue that environmental minister Jayanthi Natarajan was quoted as saying, "Genetically modified foods have no place in ensuring India's food security."
Indian officials generally admit that utilizing GM foods has managed to allow the country to produce much higher yields of economically important crops, such as cotton. But, they argue, perhaps the biggest driver of the panel's decision is Monsanto's trademarking of its seeds; controlling the seeds, they believe, is compromising India's food safety and security.
The panel's recommendation will carry political weight but it is not mandatory. Ji says "the next step is for government ministries to digest the panel's report and to decide if the report's recommendations, which carry political weight but are not mandatory, will be implemented."
The panel's recommendation is just the latest snafu between India and Monsanto.
A year ago, India sued the agribusiness giant for "biopiracy," accusing the company of stealing India's indigenous plants in order to re-engineer them into patented varieties.
Indian officials complained then that Monsanto and other agri-giants were attempting to exploit the country's crops for their own personal gain.
Source: Natural News
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Company settles lawsuit over unstoppable user tracking methods once used by Hulu, Spotify and others
The website analytics firm KISSmetrics finally settled a lawsuit which accused the company of violating the law by creating an unstoppable tracking method which allowed them to recreate cookies after users deleted them and even track users who chose to block cookies.
While the settlement is relatively small, it could very well set a precedent and perhaps create a climate less conducive to the ongoing Silicon Valley data mining arms race, the blatant disregard for the privacy rights of users and digital spying operations in general.
Note: to learn how to block many of the various tracking methods please read our guides here and here. Implementation is quick, relatively easy and affordable.
The lawsuit was filed in August 2011, shortly after it was revealed that researchers at UC Berkeley including Ashkan Soltani uncovered the insane KISSmetrics tracking.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of John Kim and Dan Schutzman and originally included some of the major companies that implemented the KISSmetrics technology, although the clients were later dismissed from the lawsuit.
In the suit, the Kim and Schutzman accused KISSmetrics of “violating California and federal anti-hacking laws and misappropriating their personal information for profit,” according to Threat Level.
The proposed settlement (see PDF here, courtesy of Threat Level), will leave the plaintiffs with a mere $2,500 each while their lawyers will get over 100 times that amount. The case involved over $500,000 in legal fees at rates ranging from $350 to $580 per hour, so this lawsuit obviously isn’t going to make Kim and Schutzman rich.
While this didn’t result in a large payout for the plaintiffs or the public, it did result in KISSmetrics “largely” agreeing not to use their highly questionable techniques any longer, unless users are given notice and a choice in the matter.
“Those methods include using JavaScript, HTML5, Flash and browser caches to store copies of a cookie’s unique ID in order to re-create it if the cookie was deleted,” according to Threat Level.
Personally, I find the tentative language employed hardly satisfying since they stop short of saying that they will never use such methods again under any circumstances.
While that might seem like a little much to ask for, keep in mind that the tracking methods employed by KISSmetrics continued to track users even when they had cookies disabled and the private browsing mode enabled in their browser.
Indeed, even the name of the functions in the tracking code put out by KISSmetrics betrayed the less-than-admirable methods they used, namely, the “cram cookie” function.
“We don’t do it for malicious reasons. We don’t do it for tracking people across the web,” Shah said to Wired last year. “I would be having lawyers talk to you if we were doing anything malicious.”
Also unsurprising is the fact that KISSmetrics did not actually admit any guilt in the proposed settlement, which still has to be approved by a federal judge before being implemented.
Interestingly, Hulu.com (which used KISSmetrics tracking in 2011) still faces a lawsuit over their use of tracking since they already agreed in the settlement of a previous suit that they would no longer use these types of invasive cookies.
While that might seem like an unimportant detail to some, it should be noted that it just goes to show that in reality, there is nothing stopping KISSmetrics from continuing these practices. All they have to worry about is another relatively small settlement.
Source: Activist Post
Thursday, October 18, 2012
What’s Next for GMOs? How About Genetically Modified Trees!
Industries are all about making more money, at any cost. If they can develop something now that will save money and produce more down the road, they will—often tossing ethical concerns to the side. Need proof? Just look at Big Pharma’s sales of harmful drugs, their cycle of side effects and treatments, or even how they want to make genetically modified plants to produce pharmaceutical drugs. Need more proof? Look at Monsanto and environmentally destructive herbicides. The latest movement towards increased production at a lesser cost comes in the form of genetically modified trees.
Further Altering Nature, Now with Genetically Modified Trees!
Genetically modified trees are being developed in the U.S. and around the world. A new paper, circulated at outside of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Convention on Biological Diversity cautions that GM tree research is being done without much oversight and with limited information.
As reported on the Science and Development Network, the industries pushing this research are those that can serve to make money off of the GMO trees. They are testing their genetic alterations in the lab with poplars, pines, acacias, and eucalyptus trees just to name a few.
So far, the U.S. has the most patents with 53% and Brazil follows close behind. In all, 21 countries are working on the GMO trees. So, what are they trying to do? From an industrial standpoint, they are looking to “perfect” the trees—make them more useful and more valuable, not recognizing the value of trees goes far beyond their ability to make nice paper or fancy hardwood floors.
They are working on developing wood with less lignin, for instance, which will make it easier to process. They are also working to develop trees that are more pest-resistant, obviously ignoring the issues of GMO crops and their damage to the delicate natural balance.
Isis Alvarez, of the Global Forest Coalition, cautions that these researchers are being hasty in their projects. She says they are pushing the industry to “escalate without any consideration to the environmental or social impacts, and with little or no oversight or monitoring from governments”.
One has to wonder if they’ve thought ahead, to what would happen, for instance, if the trees were completely pest resistant. What would happen to the pests who no longer had wood for homes and food? When they died off, what would happen to the birds who depend on them for their own food—and so on. Likely, the corporations which are no doubt behind the research are concerned with one thing and one thing only—their bottom line.
Source: Activist Post
Google threatens to drop links to French media
Google has threatened to exclude French media sites from its search results if France implements a proposed law forcing search engines to pay for content, according to a letter obtained by AFP. The letter sent by Google to several ministerial offices this month said it "cannot accept" such a move and the company "as a consequence would be required to no longer reference French sites."
Google has threatened to exclude French media sites from its search results if France implements a proposed law forcing search engines to pay for content, according to a letter obtained by AFP. The letter sent by Google to several ministerial offices this month said it "cannot accept" such a move and the company "as a consequence would be required to no longer reference French sites."
Google has threatened to exclude French media sites from its search results if France implements a proposed law forcing search engines to pay for content, according to a letter obtained by AFP.
The letter sent by Google to several ministerial offices this month said it "cannot accept" such a move and the company "as a consequence would be required to no longer reference French sites."
It said such a law, which would require Google to make payments to media sites for displaying links to their content, would "threaten (Google's) very existence".
It also noted that Google "redirects four billion 'clicks' per month towards the Internet pages" of French media.
Leading French newspaper publishers last month called on the government to adopt a law to force Internet search engines such as Google to pay for content.
They said a law should impose a settlement in the long-running dispute with Google, which receives high volumes of advertising revenue from user searches for news contained on media websites.
Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti told a parliamentary commission this week that she was in favour of the idea, calling it "a tool that it seems important to me to develop".
Google France said earlier that it believed such a law "would be harmful to the Internet, Internet users and news websites that benefit from substantial traffic" sent to them by Google's search engine.
Newspapers around the world have seen their bottom lines come under pressure as their print advertising revenues slide and online readers resist paying for access when so much content is free on the Internet.
French lawmakers last year rejected plans for a tax on online advertising revenues, fearing the project would hurt small local companies more than global Internet giants like Google, Facebook or Twitter.
Google France representatives are to meet Friday with officials from the finance ministry to discuss the project and this week's statement from European data protection agencies saying Google's new privacy policy does not comply with EU laws.
Google rolled out the new privacy policy in March, allowing it to track users across various services to develop targeted advertising, despite sharp criticism from US and European consumer advocacy groups.
The EU agencies told Google it had a few months to fix the policy or face legal action.
Patent could shackle 3D printers with DRM
(Image: Martine Roch/Flickr/Getty)
One of the greatest benefits of 3D printing technology - the ability to make replacements or parts for household objects like toys, utensils and gadgets - may be denied to US citizens thanks to the granting of a sweeping patent that prevents the printing of unauthorised 3D designs. It has all the makings of the much-maligned digital rights management (DRM) system that prevented copying of Apple iTunes tracks - until it was abandoned as a no-hoper in 2009.
US patent 8286236, granted on 9 October to Intellectual Ventures of Bellevue, Washington, lends a 3D printer the ability to assess whether a computer design file it's reading has an authorisation code appended that grants access for printing. If it does not, the machine simply refuses to print - whether it's a solid object, a textile or even food that's being printed.
The piracy of 3D designs is an emerging concern, and 3D object sharing - rather than file sharing - sites have already sprung up. While no 3D printer maker has adopted what might be called "3D DRM", international treaties like the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement mean it is not out of the question. Clamping down on moves to 3D-print handguns may fuel such moves, for instance.
What has riled some tech commentators (here and here for instance) is the fact that Intellectual Ventures that does not make 3D printers at all, but simply trades in patent rights - a practice detractors call patent trolling.
The firm, run by Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, quietly files patents under the names of a great many shell companies (as this Stanford University analysis shows) and then licenses them to companies using the ideas it lays claim to, litigating if it has to. Intellectual Ventures is thought to hold more than 40,000 patents.
The new patent may face challenges to its validity, however, because it extends rights management beyond 3D printing to much older computerised manufacturing techniques, such as computer-controlled milling, extrusion, die casting and stamping.
Companies in those businesses are likely to have previously considered some kind of design rights authentication, says Greg Aharonian, of bustpatents.com in San Francisco. He says that museums were wondering how to protect 3D sculptures against printer piracy back in 2002 and that DRM was in the frame then. So Intellectual Ventures' claim to novelty - a key part of whether any patent is determined to be valid and enforceable - looks weak.
Google opens window into secretive data centers
CORRECTS LOCATION- This undated photo provided by Google shows a Google data center in Douglas County, Ga. Google is opening a virtual window into the secretive data centers that serve as its nerve center. The unprecedented peek is being provided through a new website unveiled Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012. The site features photos from inside some of the eight data centers that Google Inc. already has running in the U.S., Finland and Belgium. (AP Photo/Google)
Google is opening a virtual window into the secretive data centers where an intricate maze of computers process Internet search requests, show YouTube video clips and distribute email for millions of people.
The unprecedented peek is being provided through a new website unveiled Wednesday at http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/#/ . The site features photos from inside some of the eight data centers that Google Inc. already has running in the U.S., Finland and Belgium. Google is also building data centers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Chile.
Virtual tours of a North Carolina data center also will be available through Google's "Street View" service, which is usually used to view photos of neighborhoods around the world.
The photographic access to Google's data centers coincides with the publication of a Wired magazine article about how the company builds and operates them. The article is written by Steven Levy, a journalist who won Google's trust while writing "In The Plex," a book published last year about the company's philosophy and evolution.
This undated photo provided by Google shows a Google technician working on some of the computers in the Dalles, Ore., data center. Google is opening a virtual window into the secretive data centers that serve as its nerve center. The unprecedented peek is being provided through a new website unveiled Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012. The site features photos from inside some of the eight data centers that Google Inc. already has running in the U.S., Finland and Belgium. (AP Photo/Google)
The data centers represent Google's nerve center, although none are located near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California.
As Google blossomed from its roots in a Silicon Valley garage, company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked with other engineers to develop a system to connect low-cost computer servers in a way that would help them realize their ambition to provide a digital roadmap to all of the world's information.
This undated photo provided by Google shows a Google data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Google is opening a virtual window into the secretive data centers that serve as its nerve center. The unprecedented peek is being provided through a new website unveiled Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012. The site features photos from inside some of the eight data centers that Google Inc. already has running in the U.S., Finland and Belgium. (AP Photo/Google)
Initially, Google just wanted enough computing power to index all the websites on the Internet and deliver quick responses to search requests. As Google's tentacles extended into other markets, the company had to keep adding more computers to store videos, photos, email and information about their users' preferences.
The insights that Google gathers about the more than 1 billion people that use its services has made the company a frequent target of privacy complaints around the world. The latest missive came Tuesday in Europe, where regulators told Google to revise a 7-month-old change to its privacy policy that enables the company to combine user data collected from its different services.
This undated photo provided by Google shows a Google data center in Hamina, Finland. Google is opening a virtual window into the secretive data centers that serve as its nerve center. The unprecedented peek is being provided through a new website unveiled Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012. The site features photos from inside some of the eight data centers that Google Inc. already has running in the U.S., Finland and Belgium. (AP Photo/Google)
Google studies Internet search requests and Web surfing habits in an effort to gain a better understanding of what people like. The company does this in an effort to show ads of products and services to the people most likely to be interested in buying them. Advertising accounts for virtually all of Google's revenue, which totaled nearly $23 billion through the first half of this year.Even as it allows anyone with a Web browser to peer into its data centers, Google intends to closely guard physical access to its buildings. The company also remains cagey about how many computers are in its data centers, saying only that they house hundreds of thousands of machines to run Google's services.
Google's need for so many computers has turned the company a major electricity user, although management says it's constantly looking for ways to reduce power consumption to protect the environment and lower its expenses.
The company's data centers are located in: Berkeley County, South Carolina; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Douglas County, Georgia; Mayes County, Oklahoma; Lenoir, North Carolina; The Dalles, Oregon; Hamina, Finland; and St. Ghislain, Belgium. Other data centers are being built in Quilicura, Chile; Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.
Is The Nation of India Rearing To Kick Monsanto Out?
A report from the August 17 edition of the American Association for the Advance of Science's journal Science titled, "Negative Report on GM Crops Shakes Government's Food Agenda," revealed that an Indian high-profile parliamentary panel, only a week before, recommended that GM crop "field trails under any garb should be discontinued forthwith," and that further GM agricultural research should "only be done under strict containment."[i]
Moreover, in a press conference after the report's release, the panel's chair, Basudeb Acharia, said in no uncertain terms: "India should not go in for GM food crops."
According to the Science article's author, Pallava Bagla, the panel's recommendation is being regarded by some "as the death knell of the development of genetically modified food crops in India." Dissenting interests, such as India's chief of crop research, Swapan Dutta, a rice geneticist and deputy director at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, responded to the report by suggesting that if implemented, the panel's recommendations would paralyze research and threaten India's food security, and "hope for GM research in India is lost."
The Indian government has been sending mixed signals about its commitment to agricultural GM technology. For instance, in 2002 the government approved Bt-toxin carrying cotton as the first GM commercial crop in India. Today, there are over 1100 Bt varieties of GM cotton, accounting for 93% of all the cotton sown in India. The prime minister of India himself, Manmohan Singh, voiced his support for GM crops in a recent interview with Science (24 Feb, p. 907), stating: "In due course of time," he said "we must make use of genetic engineering technologies to increase the productivity of our agriculture."
But, as the Science article points out, Singh's own ministers are not toeing the party line. For instance, in 2010, former environment minister Jairam Ramesh imposed a moratorium on the commercialization of Bt brinjal, a traditional Indian eggplant, even after the ministry's scientific advisory panel had given the GM variety approval.
Moreover, GM crop researchers in India were already having problems since 2011, because state governments refused to issue certificates that allow GM crop field trials to commence. Also, in the June issue of Science, environmental minister Jayanthi Natarajan was quoted as saying: "genetically modified foods have no place in ensuring India's food security."
While the primary justification within Indian government for supporting GM agriculture is based on the fact that it has increased production of economically important products such as cotton, which skyrocketed from .02 million hectares in 2002 to 9.33 million hectares in 2011, the latest panel's decision was influenced by the fact that all Bt cotton grown commercially in India is derived from technology sold by the multinational food giant Monsanto, who by owning and controlling the seeds has seriously compromised India's food sovereignty and security.
It has been estimated that 70% of India's 1.2 billion people are farmers who have no alternative but to buy Bt cotton seed from Monsanto. Also, Monsanto relationship to India farmers is already tenuous considering it was accused of biopiracy earlier this year by India's National Biodiversity Authority.[ii] The panel also stated "there is a connection between Bt cotton and farmer's suicides," as thousands of indebted farmers in India's cotton producing regions have committed suicide in a desperate attempt to rid themselves and their families of debt.
The next step is for government ministries to digest the panel's report and to decide if the report's recommendations, which carry political weight but are not mandatory, will be implemented. The Science article concluded:
If the government doesn't make a forceful case for GM crops, Bhan says, there may be no alternative but to 'stop all use of GM crop technology till it has been totally made in India.' And if Monsanto becomes 'a nuisance,' he added, 'it can be kicked out.' [emphasis added]
Source: Activist Post
How Facebook Is Trying to Kill Independent Media
For years we’ve been sold the lie that the internet was the last great refuge for the freedom of speech. People talk about how the internet has helped small business and independent media sites compete with the large corporations of the world.
But is that really true anymore? Was it ever true?
What most people fail too realize, is these corporate powers have rigged the system. The whole thing is complete bullshit! 99.9% of people who use the internet use one of three search engines to find their information. They primarily use one social network to communicate with their friends and family, and most of the video and news consumed online is done so through YouTube.
What’s the problem?
That’s a lot of power in the hands of a couple large internet corporations. Now I know the powers that be would like you to believe that these corporations can do no wrong, but a growing number of people are starting to wake up to the fact that these large internet corporations are manipulating what you see, choosing when you see it and determining how you share it with your friends and family.
“What that can’t be” you say.
Well then let me share with you a small example of how the system is becoming increasingly rigged against small independent news websites. In fact, I’ll share with you an example from our own site.
The picture above is what I have to spend in order to have my posts shared with my friends and followers on Facebook. You see, Facebook has a new policy that completely screws independent news companies and small business owners.
Even though over 15,000 people have subscribed to receive our updates, via our facebook page, the corporate bigwigs over at Facebook have decided that you no longer get to choose which type of media you actually see. If I want my posts shared with the 15,000 people who specifically asked to receive them through facebook, I will now have to pay over $75 per article. If more people subscribe, that price can get even higher.
Well, I can’t do that. I’m not selling products, I’m reporting on the news and helping people become better prepared.
So Facebook has effectively censored my posts, along with hundreds of thousands of other small business people and independent media companies, in favor of promoting posts that can now only be purchased by major media companies and large corporations.
Yes, we still have our loyal readers who come directly to the site, but how long will that last?
With a growing number of companies following the Facebook model of Censorship, the internet will soon resemble the crap we see on T.V. – A couple of large corporations deciding what we can and can’t see, what news we can and can’t hear about and what product and services the drones should buy.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Fight back using their own technology against them. At first I though about leaving Facebook altogether, but then I realized I would be helping to perpetuate the problem. Sometimes the best way to fight the war is from within the enemy’s camp. While I refuse to share anything created by the corporate media; I will continue to share my posts (even if only a fraction of the people actually see them) I hope you’ll do the same.
While I am in no way against people making money, I would rather see small business owners have the opportunity to compete. What’s most ironic about that statement is the fact that companies like Facebook are the ones out there talking about “greedy business owners” and supporting candidates who talk about the “evils of capitalism”, all the while screwing the small guy every chance they get.
Share and Promote independent media. The Corporate bigwigs have all the money in the world to promote their propaganda. The only way we can fight back is to start setting up our own networks and promoting each other. As part of this effort we list a number of survival websites and then promote it on ever page on this site. We will soon be setting up a section for independent news media. While technically some of these people may be our competitors; if we don’t stand together, pretty soon none of us will have a voice.
While I may not agree with everything that’s said on some of these sites, at least the opinions expressed are not scrubbed through mass media filters.
Break out of the Matrix. Although I still think we should use some of these systems to spread other independent viewpoints – especially to those who haven’t woken up – it’s time to start networking outside the system.
- Visit other independent websites.
- Join the discussion and talk to people who are commenting at the end of articles.
- Instead of wasting your time commenting on Facebook, where they decide who sees the message, start engaging in conversations with people on this site and other sites like it.
In fact, if you have a unique point of view or think you can help people that visit this site, please join the conversation.
GMO madness: Frankenscientists develop genetically-modified chickens they claim will halt avian flu transmission
For their work, Laurence Tiley, a molecular virologist at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., and his colleagues injected a short-hairpin RNA gene into chicken embryos that artificially produces what the Guardian describes as a "decoy" molecule in the birds' cells. This decoy molecule is then picked up by the bird flu virus, which incorporates it, rather than its own genetic material, into the virus' genetic line, preventing it from replicating and spreading.
In tests, birds modified with the decoy molecule were fully capable of contracting H5N1 avian flu, but they were unable to spread it to other birds, including other GM birds. Infected non-GM birds, on the other hand, were fully able to spread the disease as they normally would, which the scientists claimed was evidence that their experiment was a success.
You can read an abstract of the study, which was published in the journal Science, here:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6014/223.short
Like all other GM foods and animals, the GM chickens developed for the study have yet to undergo any long-term safety studies, which means there is no indication that they are in any way safe for human consumption. Even the Frankenbirds' creators admit that their science experiment is only intended for research purposes, and not for human consumption.
It is the unintended consequences of such research that are the most concerning; however, as much of the scientific community is now literally obsessed with genetically-altering every plant, food crop, animal, and even human being it can get its hands on. There is nothing sacred, in other words, when it comes to leaving things alone in their natural form -- every living being and organism is now considered to be "flawed" and in need of genetic correction.
The answers to flu prevention are right in front of us, and every single one of them exists in nature. Vitamin D, medicinal mushrooms, aloe vera, garlic, olive leaf extract, oil of oregano -- these are just a few of the many natural compounds that possess powerful immune-boosting, flu-fighting capabilities. Why are researchers not spending more time investigating these natural solutions to disease rather than tampering with the blueprints of life at every chance they get?
Source: Natural News
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Linux camp has key to Windows 8 boot lockout
(Phys.org)—Microsoft's rocky reputation with the open source community was not exactly obliterated with hardware news surrounding the upcoming launch of the operating system, Windows 8. Systems will come with Secure Boot enabled in the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). Only operating systems with an appropriate digital signature will be able to boot. The worry was that only Windows 8 will run on these systems. Users would find it hard to boot non-Microsoft operating systems. UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)and it defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware.
Numerous PCs designed for the mass market will be labeled with Windows 8 and that in turn set many users to think these are tough times for Linux users to boot their favorite Linux flavors. Some see this as a way for Microsoft simply to ensure security over its machines while others see it as a way for Microsoft to push Linux distributions to the back of the line.
Systems with the Designed for Windows 8 that include the Secure Boot can stop unsigned code such as malware from running during the boot process. Any operating system will also be prevented to run if it doesn't have the approved bootloader.
Open source advocates recognize that UEFI has its security merits. Earlier this year, Olaf Kirch, director of the SUSE Linux Enterprise department in SUSE Engineering, called UEFI Secure Boot a useful technology, as it makes life more difficult for attackers to hide a rootkit in the boot chain. At the same time, he said, the basics of its operation, establishing a single root of trust, "conflict with the principles of Open Source development, which must be independent and distributed to work."
Outside Microsoft, big name vendors have been responding with workarounds. Leading Linux names, Canonical, Red Hat, and SUSE have been working on ways that allow their distributions to boot on Windows 8-certified hardware.
The Linux Foundation, meanwhile, has come up with a plan to bypass the problem presented by Secure Boot to enable users of open source operating systems to continue to boot on hardware certified for Windows 8. The foundation has announced it will obtain a key from Microsoft and sign a small pre-bootloader. This will allow the booting of any operating system. In a guest post from James Bottomley, Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board, talked about the Windows 8 move. "In a nutshell, the Linux Foundation will obtain a Microsoft Key and sign a small pre-bootloader which will, in turn, chain load (without any form of signature check) a predesignated boot loader which will, in turn, boot Linux (or any other operating system)."
This will be a general purpose solution, not just for Linux. The key would not directly enable booting but instead would transfer control to another bootloader to boot an operating system. As such, the workaround is called the"pre-bootloader." The pre-bootloader goes past the Secure Boot process. A boot-loader such as GRUB2 takes over and handles the OS booting.
According to the Foundation, all the work is left to the real bootloader which "must be installed on the same partition as the pre-bootloader with the known path loader.efi (although the binary may be any bootloader including Grub2)."
Once the pre-bootloader is run, the user can boot any OS without having to worry about Secure Boot lockouts. As for a risk that it will turn out to be a vector for malware, the pre-bootloader can be used to boot a CD/DVD installer or LiveCD distribution or even boot an installed operating system in secure mode for any distribution. The pre-bootloader will involve a "present user test." Someone must be present at boot time to confirm the user wants a particular OS to run. After the pre-bootloader carries out its work, it will wait for a prompt for a user before continuing The user test removes the fear that it can be used to carry malware.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Restaurant removes urinals shaped like woman's mouth
AFP - A sumptuous new French restaurant in Sydney said Wednesday it would remove two urinals designed to resemble a woman's lipsticked mouth, apologising for any offence they have caused.
The Ananas Bar and Brasserie said the bright red-lipped urinals shaped like an open mouth were "a commonly used European design piece from female Dutch artist Meike van Schijndel".
"We sincerely apologise if they have caused offence. They are being removed today," a spokeswoman said in a statement.
The stylish restaurant opened three weeks ago, with the Sydney Morning Herald's food reviewer describing the urinals as "no real surprise here at Ananas, merely adding to the extraordinary collision of statements and intent".
But feminist, former political adviser and writer Anne Summers said the design was offensive. "Misogyny is very widespread, and this is just an example of misogyny," said Summers.
"The concept is pretty challenging and confronting. They're asking men to put their d(expletive) in these mouths as urinals."
Australia is the grip of a fierce political debate about sexism after Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the nation's first woman leader, accused opposition leader Tony Abbott of being a misogynist.
The unmarried Gillard said Tuesday she had been personally offended by many of Abbott's remarks over the years -- from urging her to "make an honest woman of herself", to his cat-calling at her in parliament.
"If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror," she said in stinging comments.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Tokyo’s compromise sends subtle message
We think there is no possibility of Japan making any substantial compromise with China over Diaoyu at this time. Chinese public opinion should have no such expectations. The so-called compromise proposed by Japan can only be a gesture aimed at tempering the tension and reducing the damage caused to the Japanese economy.
But this gesture also signals a new development in Sino-Japanese relations. Tokyo's arrogance has been dampened, while China is getting the upper hand in its tussle with Japan.
The mutually agreed principle of putting aside the dispute was broken when Japan sought to change the status quo. China was forced to become engaged in a struggle with Japan. International opinion hasn't linked China's response with its rise, which paves the way for long-term competition over the Diaoyu Islands through national strength.
Though Japan has announced its intention to nationalize Diaoyu, China has made more tangible progress by deploying regular maritime administrative vessels in the surrounding waters. This will create favorable conditions for further effective law enforcement in the area, and even actual control over the islands in the future.
Japan has learned a hard lesson through this round of competition. Clearly, China shouldn't be easily provoked. The offensives constantly launched by Japan toward China in recent years may reach a turning point.
China's current strength doesn't allow for an immediate solution to the Diaoyu issue. It also has no dominance in the expansive waters surrounding Diaoyu at this point. Besides securing its claim of sovereignty over the islands, the country has to conserve its resources to ensure its peaceful development. Now, the two tasks are more closely interlinked. China's growing strength will mean more advantages in solving the Diaoyu issue.
China used to be overly worried about how its diplomatic maneuvers would be perceived by others. Now it's clear it has ample room to make diplomatic moves. China can decide how to respond to Japan's compromise depending on its specific content. In the long run, it is almost inevitable that Japan will make a strategic compromise with China.
Source: Global Times