The Electronic Concentration Camp

Google and the NSA Connection

The data mining technology that is integral to the Google AdWords experience is a power tool in creating an individual profile for anyone who surfs the web. The amazing capacity to target specific ads to personal search topics, geographic locations and web history is the harbinger of a total recall on your personality. If the benefits of getting relevant advertisement that maximize sales opportunities were the only purpose of the process, the relatively benign intrusion of a materialistic message might be tolerable to most internet users. However, the bull in the china shop is not merely in the business of making a commercial profit. Google is a wonder creation of the calculate surveillance society.

Research at Google acknowledges:

"When data mining systems are placed at the core of interactive services in a rapidly changing and sometimes adversarial environment, statistical models need to be combined with ideas from control and game theory; for example, when using learning in auction algorithms.

Research at Google is at the forefront of innovation in machine learning and data mining - we have one of the most active groups working on virtually all aspects of data mining."

OK, so the dominant internet technology company is in business to harvest information on the inner recesses of each unique login. Should a cyber sleuth be concerned? Well, according to the scholarly paper, The Google-NSA Alliance: Developing Cybersecurity Policy at Internet Speed by Stephanie A. DeVos:

"On February 4, 2010, the Washington Post reported that Google and the National Security Agency had partnered to analyze the cyberattacks, with the objective of better defending Google and its users from future attack. Though neither organization commented on the partnership, sources told the Washington Post that the alliance allows for the sharing of critical information without violating Google’s policies or laws that protect Americans’ privacy of online communications. Under the terms of the alliance, Google will not be sharing proprietary data and the NSA will not be viewing users’ searches or e-mail accounts. The article stated that Google approached the NSA shortly after the attacks, but due to the sensitivity of the alliance, the deal took time to be formulated. Any agreement would be the first instance where Google had entered a "formal information-sharing relationship" with the NSA."

PC World in the article, The Google-NSA Alliance: Questions and Answers lists the following concerns and would have you believe there is nothing ominous behind any alleged relationship.

1) Is the Google-NSA alliance really happening?

2) What would be the point of a Google-NSA partnership?

3) Would the government gain access to my personal information?

4) Why would Google work with the NSA instead of the Department of Homeland Security?

5) Has the NSA worked with Google before?

If the nature of the relationship between Google and the National Security Agency is innocent, where is the transparency? This item from Legal Times, DOJ Asks Court To Keep Secret Any Partnership Between Google, NSA, has a disturbing appearance.

"The Justice Department is defending the government's refusal to discuss—or even acknowledge the existence of—any cooperative research and development agreement between Google and the National Security Agency.

The Washington based advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center sued in federal district court here to obtain documents about any such agreement between the Internet search giant and the security agency.

The NSA responded to the suit with a so-called "Glomar" response in which the agency said it could neither confirm nor deny whether any responsive records exist. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington sided with the government last July."

Another concern comes from a report in Higher Thinking Primate. "The ruling comes as controversy has been growing around CISPA, a bill that passed the House last month that would allow private firms like Google to share a wide range of information with government agencies like the NSA for cybersecurity reasons."

Even if one accepts that, the NSA agreement preserves Google's stated policies on Americans' privacy, what will be the effect of the new CISPA legislation on the supposed firewall protecting your personal data history?

The technology behind the most successful search engine evolves as different objectives develop. Anyone conducting Google searches knows that changes to their algorithms have the net effect of filtering out results that once were routine. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has concerns about "the vagueness of what Google considers to be a high number of removal notices, how Google plans to make its determinations, and how "there will be no process of recourse for sites who have been demoted."

Many civil libertarians fear that the sordid political agenda of the NSA is influencing the business practices of Google to ban "undesirable" content from search queries.

Wire publishes a disturbing article, NSA Mimics Google, Pisses Off Senate.

"In 2008, a team of software coders inside the National Security Agency started reverse-engineering the database that ran Google.

They closely followed the Google research paper describing BigTable — the sweeping database that underpinned many of Google’s online services, running across tens of thousands of computer servers — but they also went a little further. In rebuilding this massive database, they beefed up the security. After all, this was the NSA."

Even more sinister is the description of NSA projects on How The NSA Used Google To Spy On Americans — Until The Internet Figured It Out. The 634-page book, "Untangling the Web: A Guide to Internet Research", which is available for download and was published by the NSA’s Center for Digital Content, has an interesting chapter entitled "Google Hacking."

If you are still a skeptic, watch the video, Google is an NSA tool DE-CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT.

The lingering questions about the nature of the Google – NSA relationship, jeopardize business confidence in the use of their services and ad programs. The persistent claims that Google data integration is coordinated with the NSA and that the Utah Data Center has linkage with the Google server network, gains traction when the government refuses public disclosure of the full historical relationship.

Once online, the data lives eternally. Act accordingly.

Source: Blacklisted News

Starbucks Used 'Toilet Water' To Brew Coffee In Hong Kong: Report

Starbucks' head honchos in Hong Kong may have some explaining to do.

After photos of a "Starbucks Only" water spout in a bathroom emerged on the web, many customers questioned whether Starbucks is using "toilet water" to brew its coffee.

The series of photos, reportedly taken at the chain's Bank of China Tower location, appear to show a man retrieving water from a spout in a men's bathroom a few feet away from a urinal and then using a container on a cart to transport it to the coffee shop.

Hong Kong-based tabloid Apple Daily first published images of the questionable practice along with a report stating that Starbucks staff fetch water from the public restroom in the building's parking garage several times every day and use it to brew coffee.

The publication, which sent reporters to investigate after receiving a tip, noted that employees filter the water before brewing. It is believed that the practice has been occurring since the Starbucks first opened in 2011.

According to the Agence France-Presse, Starbucks spokeswoman Wendy Pang confirmed that water used to brew coffee at Starbucks' Bank of China Tower location was taken from a dedicated tap in a restroom and put through a filtration system in order to meet standards established by local authorities and the World Health Organization.

"There is no direct water supply to that particular store, that’s why we need to obtain the drinking water from the nearest source in the building,” Pang told AFP.

However, she added, the branch is now using distilled water.

While the filtered water may have adhered to set standards, the system may have failed to remove all potential hazards to humans.

Ben Cowling, an associate professor at University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health, told HK Magazine that a filtration system may remove bacteria, but could miss viruses, which tend to be smaller in size.

Cowling also expressed another concern: “If the staff need to frequently visit the toilet they may increase the risk of bringing other pathogens from the washroom into their food and drink preparation area."

Starbucks did not respond to The Huffington Post's request for comment at the time this story was published.

Source: Huffington Post

Japan halts imports of U.S. wheat after USDA's shock finding of genetic pollution from GMOs

It has already begun: Japan has just cancelled a large contract to purchase U.S. wheat. "We will refrain from buying western white and feed wheat effective today," Toru Hisadome, a Japanese farm ministry official in charge of wheat trading, told Reuters.

As many readers well know, I predicted precisely this scenario just yesterday in a Natural News article warning about the consequences of genetic pollution. There, I wrote, "All wheat produced in the United States will now be heavily scrutinized -- and possibly even rejected -- by other nations that traditionally import U.S. wheat. This obviously has enormous economic implications for U.S. farmers and agriculture."

Now we're already seeing the result: the ditching of U.S. wheat by world nations that want nothing to do with GMOs.

Monsanto is a ticking time bomb for U.S. agriculture

This proves, without any question, that Monsanto's genetic experiments which "escaped" into commercial wheat fields are now going to devastate U.S. wheat farmers. Expect the floor to drop out on wheat prices, and watch for a huge backlash against the USDA by U.S. farmers who stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars on this.

As the USDA has now admitted, Monsanto's GMO experiments from 1998 - 2005 were held in open wheat fields. The genetically engineered wheat escaped and found its way into commercial wheat fields in Oregon (and possibly 15 other states), causing self-replicating genetic pollution that now taints the entire U.S. wheat industry.

"Asian consumers are keenly sensitive to gene-altered food, with few countries allowing imports of such cereals for human consumption," writes Reuters. It continues:

Asia imports more than 40 million tonnes of wheat annually, almost a third of the global trade of 140-150 million tonnes. The bulk of the region's supplies come from the United States, the world's biggest exporter, and Australia, the No. 2 supplier.

Another incredible Monsanto achievement: the genetic contamination of the U.S. wheat supply

Nice job, Monsanto. You've managed to spew your genetic pollution across the fields of innocent U.S. farmers who are now going to lose huge sums of money due to the reject of U.S. wheat by all the other world nations that refuse to feed their populations GMO.

And a big thumbs up to the USDA, too, for screwing U.S. farmers by green-lighting open-field GMO experiments that we all warned were going to result in runaway genetic pollution. The USDA, of course, is the official cheerleading squad for Monsanto's criminal "science" that we all know is a total fraud. How do these scientists now suggest this self-replicating genetic pollution be put back into the black box from which it emerged?

It can't be done, of course. So now the entire future of the U.S. wheat supply is at risk thanks to Monsanto and the USDA. Nice one, folks. Score another victory for the scumbag destroyers in Washington D.C. and the greed-driven executives at our favorite corporation, Monsanto.

And remember: Genetically modified wheat is only the beginning. Monsanto has no doubt unleashed genetic pollution across many other crops as well. We're now living in an age where Monsanto is essentially ejaculating its patented seed across all the farms of America, then claiming to "own" the contaminated crops. What a wonderful image of corporate responsibility and service to humankind. I can't wait to see what other U.S. crops will be rejected by world nations due to Monsanto's genetic pollution.

Source: www.naturalnews.com

Phone Users Monitored Without Consent

Report covers how a research company covertly gathered and attempted to sell personal data to the London Met, while in the United States it has emerged that the FBI has warrantless access to electronic communications.

Why Do Kids Vitamins Contain Aspartame, GMOs, Trans Fats & Hazardous Chemicals?

The #1 Children's Vitamin Brand in the US contains ingredients that most parents would never intentionally expose their children to, so why aren't more opting for healthier alternatives?

Kids vitamins are supposed to be healthy, right? Well then, what's going on with Flintstones Vitamins, which proudly claims to be "Pediatricians' #1 Choice"? Produced by the global pharmaceutical corporation Bayer, this wildly success brand features a shocking list of unhealthy ingredients, including:

• AspartameCupric Oxide
• Coal tar artificial coloring agents (FD&C Blue #2, Red #40, Yellow #6)
• Zinc Oxide
• Sorbitol
• Ferrous Fumarate
• Hydrogenated Oil (Soybean)
• GMO Corn starch

On Bayer Health Science's Flintstones product page designed for healthcare professionals they lead into the product description with the following tidbit of information:

82% of kids aren't eating all of their veggies1. Without enough vegetables, kids may not be getting all of the nutrients they need. 

References: 1. Lorson BA, Melgar-Quinonez HR, Taylor CA. Correlates of fruit and vegetable intakes in US children. J Am Diet Assoc. 2009;109(3):474-478.

The implication? That Flintstones vitamins somehow fill this nutritional void. But let's look a little closer at some of these presumably healthy ingredients....

ASPARTAME

Aspartame is a synthetic combination of the amino acids aspartic acid and l-phenylalanine, and is known to convert into highly toxic methanol and formaldehyde in the body. Aspartame has been linked to over 40 adverse health effects in the biomedical literature, and has been shown to exhibit both neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity [1] What business does a chemical like this have doing in a children's vitamin, especially when non-toxic, non-synthetic non-nutritive sweeteners like stevia already exist?

CUPRIC OXIDE

Next, let's look closer at Cupric Oxide, 2mg of which is included in each serving of Flinstone's Complete chewable vitamins as a presumably 'nutritional' source of 'copper,' supplying "100% of the Daily Value (Ages 4+), according to Flintstones Vitamins Web site's Nutritional Info.[2]

But what is Cupric Oxide? A nutrient or a chemical?

According to the European Union's Dangerous Substance Directive, one of the main EU laws concerning chemical safety, Cupric Oxide is listed as a Hazardous substance, classified as both "Harmful (XN)" and "Dangerous for the environment" (N). Consider that it has industrial applications as a pigment in ceramics, and as a chemical in the production of rayon fabric and dry cell batteries. In may be technically correct to call it a mineral, but should it be listed as a nutrient in a children's vitamin? We think not.

COAL TAR ARTIFICIAL COLORING AGENTS

A well-known side effect of using synthetic dyes is attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. For direct access to study abstracts on this topic view our Food Coloring research page. There is also indication that the neurotoxicity of artificial food coloring agents increase when combined with aspartame,[3] making the combination of ingredients in Flintstones even more concerning.

ZINC OXIDE

Each serving of Flinstones Complete Chewable vitamins contain 12 mg of zinc oxide, which the manufacturer claims delivers 75% of the Daily Value to children 2 & 3 years of age. Widely used as a sun protection factor (SPF) in sunscreens, The EU's Dangerous Substance Directive classifies it as an environmental Hazard, "Dangerous for the environment (N)." How it can be dangerous to the environment, but not for humans ingesting it, escapes me. One thing is for sure, if one is to ingest supplemental zinc, or market it for use by children, it makes much more sense using a form that is organically bound (i.e. 'chelated') to an amino acid like glycine, as it will be more bioavailable and less toxic.

SORBITOL

Sorbitol is a synthetic sugar substitute which is classified as a sugar alcohol. It can be argued that it has no place in the human diet, much less in a child's. The ingestion of higher amounts have been linked to gastrointestinal disturbances from abdominal pain to more serious conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome.[4]

FERROUS FUMARATE

The one clear warning on the Flinstone's Web site concerns this chemical. While it is impossible to die from consuming iron from food, e.g. spinach, ferrous fumarate is an industrial mineral and not found in nature as food. In fact, ferrous fumarate is so toxic that accidental overdose of products containing this form is "a leading cause of fatal poisoning in children under 6." The manufacturer further warns:

Keep this product out of reach of children. In case of accidental overdose, call a doctor or poison control center immediately.

HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL

Finding hydrogenated oil in anything marketed to children is absolutely unacceptable. These semi-synthetic fatty acids incorporate into our tissues and have been linked to over a dozen adverse health effects, from coronary artery disease to cancer, violent behavior to fatty liver disease.[5]

GMO CORN STARCH

While it can be argued that the amount of GMO corn starch in this product is negligible, even irrelevant, we disagree. It is important to hold accountable brands that refuse to label their products honestly, especially when they contain ingredients that have been produced through genetic modification. The 'vitamin C' listed as ascorbic acid in Flintstones is likely also produced from GMO corn. Let's remember that Bayer's Ag-biotech division, Bayer CropScience, poured $381,600 of cash into defeating the proposition 37 GMO labeling bill in California. Parents have a right to protect their children against the well-known dangers of genetically modified foods and the agrichemicals that contaminate them, don't they? GMO corn starch is GMO, plain and simple. We'd appreciate it if Bayer would label their "vitamins" accordingly.

In summary, Bayer's Flintstone's vitamin brand is far from a natural product, and the consumer should be aware of the unintended, adverse health effects that may occur as a result of using it.

Source: Activist Post

Database Your Face: Drones to Employ Facial Recognition, Ending Anonymity

In a matter of just a few years, we have gone from drones in American skies being a conspiracy theory, to drones being openly debated by Congress for full deployment over the U.S. by 2015. However, you know things have gone to a new level when establishment media begins covering the full range of privacy-ending capabilities employed by drones matched with biometric databases ... inside America.

A recent Associated Press article, reposted at major corporate media sites such as Business Insider, surprisingly grasps the near totality of what is being planned in much the same way as we have been covering in the alternative media for some time.

Entitled, "Drones With Facial Recognition Technology Will End Anonymity, Everywhere," we are presented with this news as a statement, not a question.

The AP is in fact a bit behind the curve to suggest that the capabilities they highlight, are "to be sure ... in its infancy" when we have documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) which reveal that the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection is already operating drones in the United States capable of recognizing a person on the ground. Or how about the fact that drones can already see inside your bedroom? Wired's Danger Room reported back in 2011 that not only were drones with facial recognition in development, but also algorithms that could predict behavior.

Rather, what we are witnessing with this news from AP is the mainstream rollout and conditioning of the public to what is already here and what is about to become even more pervasive. Once that is accomplished, we can expect the spin machine to go into overdrive and justify the wonders of constant surveillance, as they attempted to do in the Chris Dorner manhunt.

However, the AP certainly offers a correct summary of how the databases that already exist, where we thought our personal information was protected, will be opened and utilized any time necessary.

From seeing just the image of a face, computers will find its match in a database of millions of driver's license portraits and photos on social media sites. From there, the computer will link to the person's name and details such as their Social Security number, preferences, hobbies, family and friends. 

Adding that capability to drones that can fly into spaces where planes cannot — machines that can track a person moving about and can stay aloft for days — means that people will give up privacy as well as the concept of anonymity.

Naturally, the AP peddles this softly as it recounts these "new" developments in a tale of researchers with Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab Biometrics Center attempting to assist in sharpening FBI images of Boston bombing suspects, the Tsarnaev brothers. This is reminiscent of the above-mentioned Chris Dorner manhunt where we heard calls for how nice it would have been to have a drone at the ready for quicker identification and possible assassination.

In a real-time experiment, the scientists digitally mapped the face of "Suspect 2," turned it toward the camera and enhanced it so it could be matched against a database. The researchers did not know how well they had done until authorities identified the suspect as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger, surviving brother and a student at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. 

"I was like, 'Holy shish kabobs!' " Marios Savvides, director of the CMU Cylab, told the Tribune-Review. "It's not exactly him, but it's also not a random face. It does fit him."

This astonishment is somewhat absurd considering that drones have already been developed that are equipped with cameras systems like DARPA's Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS) seen in the video below. This sensor system can instantly see an area roughly the "size of a small city" with an "all-seeing" eye according to retired Lieutenant, David A. Deptula. The next generation of surveillance tech sees the landscape through a 1.8 billion pixels camera, the highest resolution yet created.

Using a touchscreen interface that can produce up to 65 windows for analysis, military observers can see down to the individual object level to track the movements of vehicles and people. Beyond the real-time surveillance, the system can store everything for future review right down to the minutes and seconds.



Other programs such as Mind's Eye and Gorgon Stare have already been admitted by the military to be able to "see everything."

The only thing truly new about this AP story is the announcement that what most people thought to be limited to overseas theaters of war will now definitely be used across Battlefield USA. And researchers are breathless with excitement about how facial recognition technology will be used to "decode the face."

Students working with Savvides are figuring out how to break up appearance into landmarks as unique as a fingerprint and to build a 3-D image from a single picture so it can be matched from different angles. 

"The things we can do are endless," said Savvides. "We're basically decoding the face." 

For now, the database holds only the images of lab workers and visitors who agree to participate. Savvides said he can envision a day when images collected by tiny cameras embedded in police cruisers and attached to officers' uniforms are matched against a database of wanted criminals. As soon as a driver looks into a rear-view mirror to see an officer pulling up, the person's face could be matched. 

That technology does not exist, but the students have built a camera that collects facial identifiers from as far as 60 feet away.

Perhaps that specific technology is not used militarily or for police work in America, but the use of biometrics overseas to identify and match among a database has been used extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq. And with the biometric push in America surrounding everything from immigration to trendy new apps, our anonymity is a hair's breadth from becoming a myth as it is.

Does anyone really believe that the full capabilities posited as "in development" by the establishment media aren't currently on the shelf for full rollout when the right crisis arises inside the United States?

The AP reminds us about what is being envisioned by Department of Defense's Biometrics Identity Management Agency:

Taken steps further using tiny drones that can fly over public areas and link to databases from social media sites, the technology might sweep down any American street and identify almost anyone instantly. Facebook users upload 2.5 billion images a month, but the company limits public access. 

A separate research team at CMU has conducted experiments that matched photos of students on campus with their Facebook profiles — and then predicted their interests and Social Security numbers.

An off-handed dismissal/conclusion to all of this is offered by the AP to anyone who might be worried that this tech could get out of hand . . . as if it hasn't already:

Not to worry, said Nita Farahany, a Duke University law professor who specializes in digital privacy. The U.S. Constitution will keep the government from peering into homes, and state laws block Peeping Toms.

Unless states get serious about banning drones from their skies, as well as protecting each person's biometrics as private property, the entire U.S. will start to look like Bloomberg's New York, where pervasive databasing and surveillance of citizens becomes something that we'll "just have to get used to."

Add the potential for autonomous drones and insect-sized drone swarms that can stay aloft nearly indefinitely, surveiling, and even killing targets, and we are just about at the endgame where humanity has completely lost its mind by deferring to computerized machines with weapons to keep them safe.

To see the future of pervasive surveillance and detection right down to the nano-level, please read, How Close Are We to a Nano-based Surveillance State?  Imagine this type of surveillance linked to all known databases. This is a crucial issue that we must speak out about immediately. Contact your local police department and educate them about what is coming. Remind them that they and their families, too, will be put under this digital nightmare surveillance state. Urge them not to cooperate with federal directives to make this become a reality. Also contact your state officials and tell them not to succumb to the economic incentives to become a drone testing site, as states like South Carolina and others have done.

Source: Activist Post

Google developing high-altitude blimps to bring WiFi to Africa

Google plans to bring WiFi to remote parts of Africa and Asia using low frequency white space television airwaves.

Google has been pushing the idea of using white space television airwaves for Internet transmission since 2008, and they’re finally making some headway in remote parts of Africa. Since white space channels allow for transmission of WiFi data on a low frequency band, they can provide Internet access over long distances and not worry about thick walls degrading signal strength (like what we generally experience with more traditional WiFi routers).

Using a series of high-altitude balloons or blimps, they will float around the Cape Town area providing Internet access to 10 schools as part of the trial. There are also reports that Google is developing a low-cost Android cellphone that will also use the white space spectrum to act as a long-range WiFi broadcasting device.

White space bands are traditionally used for international communication, with some bands not being used to maintain separation from each other as to prevent transmission interference. They’ve actually been pushing for usage of these bands in the US since 2010 and are working on an extensive database on available white space bands.

Source: Vyralize

Consumers Will Soon Have Devices In Their Hands To Detect GMO and Toxic Foods

In the not too distant future, consumers will be able to run on-the-spot tests for environmental toxins, GMOs, pesticides, food safety and more with their smartphones and other hand-held devices.

Every human being on every developed nation on Earth, whether living in a rural or isolated area, in the middle of a large city, or near an industrialized area, now contains at least 700 contaminants in their body including pesticides, pthalates, benzenes, parabens, xylenes and many other carcinogenic and endrocrine disrupting chemicals.

We are being bombarded on a daily basis by an astronomical level of toxicity, all controlled by chemical terrorists on behalf of the food industry. Morever, many of these toxins affect our fertility and those of successive generations.

It's time for people to know exactly what they are putting in their bodies and technology is coming to the rescue. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers have developed a cradle and app that uses a phone’s built-in camera and processing power as a biosensor to detect toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses and other molecules.

“We’re interested in biodetection that needs to be performed outside of the laboratory,” said team leader Brian Cunningham, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and of bioengineering at Illinois. “Smartphones are making a big impact on our society -- the way we get our information, the way we communicate. And they have really powerful computing capability and imaging. A lot of medical conditions might be monitored very inexpensively and non-invasively using mobile platforms like phones. They can detect molecular things, like pathogens, disease biomarkers or DNA, things that are currently only done in big diagnostic labs with lots of expense and large volumes of blood.”

"Modern biological research is also allowing an extension of laboratory devices on to small computer chips to detect biological information within DNA sequences," said biotech specialist Dr. Marek Banaszewski. "Bioinformatic algorithms within programs will aid the identification of transgenes, promoters, and other functional elements of DNA, making detection of genetically modified foods on-the-spot and real-time without transportation to a laboratory."

The wedge-shaped cradle created by Cunningham's team contains a series of optical components -- lenses and filters -- found in much larger and more expensive laboratory devices. The cradle holds the phone’s camera in alignment with the optical components.

At the heart of the biosensor is a photonic crystal. A photonic crystal is like a mirror that only reflects one wavelength of light while the rest of the spectrum passes through. When anything biological attaches to the photonic crystal -- such as protein, cells, pathogens or DNA -- the reflected color will shift from a shorter wavelength to a longer wavelength.

The entire test takes only a few minutes; the app walks the user through the process step by step. Although the cradle holds only about $200 of optical components, it performs as accurately as a large $50,000 spectrophotometer in the laboratory. So now, the device is not only portable, but also affordable for fieldwork in developing nations.

In a paper published in the journal Lab on a Chip, the team demonstrated sensing of an immune system protein, but the slide could be primed for any type of biological molecule or cell type. The researchers are working to improve the manufacturing process for the iPhone cradle and are working on a cradle for Android phones as well. They hope to begin making the cradles available next year.

In addition, Cunningham’s team is working on biosensing tests that could be performed in the field to detect toxins in harvested corn and soybeans, and to detect pathogens in food and water.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies EMFT in Regensburg have also engineered an ingenius solution to detecting toxins - a glove that recognizes if toxic substances are present in the surrounding air.

The protective glove is equipped with custom-made sensor materials and indicates the presence of toxic substances by changing colors. In this regard, the scientists adapted the materials to the corresponding analytes, and thus, the application. The color change -- from colorless (no toxic substance) to blue (toxic substance detected). The researchers also envision other potential applications for the glove in the food industry.

Other handheld devices currently in development are portable chemiluminescence detectors, but based on enzyme-catalyzed reactions emitting light. The detection devices for nucleic acids, biotin associated with the target DNA provides the handle for the chemiluminescent detection. The non-radioactive DNA detection chemistry will be able to readily identify single-copy genes in transgenic plants making them suitable for GMO detection.

Earth Is Not Orbiting The Sun in the way we were taught

Here we find an understanding of Why the Earth & our solar system do not actually orbit the Sun as taught, "Rather", We follow or better still, are dragged by the Sun in a Spiral Pattern through the universe & time.

Trailblazing Israeli electric car company to close

JERUSALEM — It was an audacious idea that came to symbolize Israel's self-described status as "Start-Up Nation," a company that believed it could replace most gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles and reduce the world's reliance on oil — and all within a few years.

But it all came crashing down.

The company, Better Place, started out as a source of pride and a symbol of Israel's status as a global high-tech power, but it suffered from a local brand of hubris and overreach. On Sunday, it announced plans to liquidate after burning through almost a billion dollars and failing to sell its silent fleet of French-made sedans to a skeptical public.

"This is a very sad day for all of us. We stand by the original vision as formulated by Shai Agassi of creating a green alternative that would lessen our dependence on highly polluting transportation technologies," the company said. "Unfortunately, the path to realizing that vision was difficult, complex and littered with obstacles, not all of which we were able to overcome."

It capped a stunning fall from grace for Better Place and its founder Agassi, a former high-tech whiz kid who sought to change the world by building a revolutionary network of battery-swapping stations.

Agassi, 45, believed that in an era of global warming and rising oil prices, environmentally friendly electric cars could be the wave of the future, if only a way could be found to overcome the limited range of their batteries.

Better Place offered an elegant solution. The vast majority of travelers who commute short distances could plug in their cars at home or work each day to keep their batteries recharged. For longer distances, customers could stop at the swapping stations, remove their used battery and replace it with a fully charged one in a matter of minutes.

Agassi's native Israel was chosen as the company's main laboratory, and a network of several dozen stations was installed, offering travelers nationwide coverage.

Israel was a particularly ideal testing ground, thanks to high fuel prices, a supportive government, its relatively small size and dense population centers. The cars were expected to appeal to Israel's tech-savvy population, and the ability to weaken the political clout of its oil-rich enemies was an added plus.

The project won the support of President Shimon Peres, received generous financial incentives from the Israeli government and an endorsement from former President Bill Clinton.

Agassi, a former top executive at software maker SAP, became a celebrity CEO. He was a central character in "Start-Up Nation," a best-selling book about Israel's high-tech industry, he was named to Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in 2009 and became a fixture at international conferences such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In roughly five years, Better Place raised some $850 million from investors like General Electric Co., HSBC Holdings PLC and the European Investment Bank. Israel Corp., controlled by billionaire Idan Ofer, was the largest shareholder. Agassi persuaded French car maker Renault to make a customized electric version of its Fluence sedan.

Agassi promised to 5,000 of his cars on Israel's roads by the end of 2011 and predicted that a majority of cars sold in Israel would be electric by 2016.

"The end of the oil era will not come because we ran out of oil — it will come become we don't want to use oil any more to drive," Agassi told The Associated Press in a 2011 interview. "I can guarantee you that we will finish the need for oil as an energy source for cars before we run out of oil in the ground."

The numbers never panned out. Only about 1,000 Better Place cars are on the roads, and the company ran into trouble with investors. Last October, Agassi was forced to step down, and the company never gained its footing. Reached by the AP on Sunday, Agassi declined comment.

Better Place claimed to be the first nationwide network of battery-swapping stations. Other countries, such as Germany, have public networks of charging stations, while in other places, travelers typically recharge their vehicles at home.

For the most part, electric cars have not enjoyed their expected success anywhere. The battery alone in an electric car costs as much as a new gasoline-powered car, and electric vehicles are not selling nearly as fast as once projected. General Motors expected to sell 60,000 Chevy Volts globally last year, but sold just half that many. Sales of Nissan's all-electric Leaf grew 22 percent around the world last year to 26,000, short of Nissan's projected 50 percent growth.

One exception has been American electric car maker Tesla Motors, which recently posted its first profitable quarter.

Among Better Place's mistakes, the company misjudged consumers' willingness to embrace the new technology. There was the issue of "range anxiety," the fear of some that the batteries, with ranges of about 160 kilometers, or 100 miles, would conk out in inconvenient places.

Others balked at the price. The cars sold for roughly $32,000, comparable to other sedans in Israel. And the pricing plans, roughly $300 to more than $500 a month depending on mileage, did not provide enough savings to overcome the doubters.

Sunday's announcement left many questions unanswered, especially what will happen to its cars and charging stations. Better Place has also installed a network of stations in Denmark and has operations in Australia, the Netherlands, China, Hawaii and Japan.

Several hundred workers in Israel are expected to lose their jobs, and stunned customers said they did not know whether they would be able to continue driving.

Local celebrity Arik Zeevi, a former Olympic judoka, said he was sorry to see the company go.

"I really like the idea of not being dependent on gas. That is something that really speaks to me, and beyond that I really enjoy driving the car. It is an amazing experience," he told Channel 2 TV. "I will be really bummed out if I need to give that up."

In its court motion Sunday, Better Place said it was seeking the appointment of a temporary liquidator. In light of its failure to raise additional funds, the company asked for the court's assistance in protecting the rights of its employees, customers and creditors.

"On a personal level this is one of the hardest moments of my career," CEO Dan Cohen said Sunday. "The feeling this morning is one of loss because we didn't reach the finish line, the finish line is still far away."

Source: Online Athens

Over 2 million people peacefully took to streets around the world to protest the poisoning of the global food supply by the biotech giant, Monsanto.

Not surprisingly, the mainstream media has been pretty quiet about the event.

After relentless phone calls and emails by protesters, some coverage has finally been achieved, preventing the event from being completely blacked out. The same article was published throughout global media, including Yahoo, CTV, Huffington Post, ABC News, and the UK Guardian. The article downplayed the magnitude of the March and the importance of the cause:

Protesters rallied in dozens of cities Saturday as part of a global protest against seed giant Monsanto and the genetically modified food it produces, organizers said. 

Organizers said “March Against Monsanto” protests were held in 52 countries and 436 cities, including Los Angeles where demonstrators waved signs that read “Real Food 4 Real People” and “Label GMOs, It’s Our Right to Know.” 

Genetically modified plants are grown from seeds that are engineered to resist insecticides and herbicides, add nutritional benefits or otherwise improve crop yields and increase the global food supply. (Huffington Post)

Discover even published a hit piece, calling the event “cartoonish”:

The only thing that’s truly being poisoned is the biotech debate by such rhetoric. I’m also willing to bet that organizers are being as truthful about the number of marchers as they are about the science on genetically modified foods…Nonetheless, there does seem to be many people who buy the notion that dangerous GMOs are being foisted on the world by Monsanto.

The truth of the matter is, over two million people marched in more than 50 countries around the globe (See RT’s excellent timeline of the global event). Despite the grudging media coverage in the mainstream, a sleeping giant has awakened. Many people will no longer accept that what lines grocery store shelves is safe to eat.

We know that we have been sold out, betrayed by the politicians that were duly elected to represent the wishes of their constituencies. The day before the event, the US Senate shot down a bill that would have allowed individual states to require labeling of GMOs. We are fighting a company with billions of dollars, links to the FDA, the USDA and the Supreme Court, and a whole bunch of sketchy politicians in their back pockets. They have fought a sneaky social media war against us, and will continue to pull out all the stops to marginalize the movement against them.

So…

We have to keep the momentum going that we have achieved with the March Against Monsanto. Don’t let it end on May 25, 2013. The only way to defeat Monsanto and the rest of the biotech industry is by spreading information far and wide. We clearly cannot rely on the mainstream media to do this, as evidenced above. So we must use social media, alternative media, and word of mouth.

Print off some labels and put them in the grocery store. Organize your own pickets and hand out flyers in front of the grocery store, letting people know what they’re buying. Go to farmers markets and support your local growers. Sow the seeds of revolution by growing as much of your own food as possible. Most of all, vote with your wallet and don’t buy ANYTHING that puts money into the pockets of companies that support GMOs or that fought against California’s Proposition 37, which would have called for the labeling of GMOs.

Source: Activist Post

Monsanto Wins Fight to Take Away State Food Labeling Rights

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) fought hard to give his state and others the right to label GMO foods, but faced nonsensical opposition from Monsanto-bought Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). Did reason win?

German Government: New XBOX "ONE" is a monitoring device

Microsoft's new game console Germany's top privacy advocates worried. The Xbox one is a "monitor", Peter Schaar, told SPIEGEL. Users could not control what information would be stored on it.

Berlin - The Federal Data Protection Commissioner Peter Schaar has announced the Microsoft Xbox game console One criticism. "Under the heading, game device 'Microsoft pushes a monitoring device in the market," Schaar told SPIEGEL. "The Xbox continuously records all sorts of personal information about me. Reaction rates, my learning or emotional states. The are then processed on an external server, and possibly even passed on to third parties. Whether they will ever deleted, the person can not influence."

The game console is equipped with a camera system to capture the spatial information and can recognize the faces of users. Microsoft plans for the console a deep integration into the consumer electronics equipment of its users - all devices from the TV receiver to the amplifier should be controlled via voice and gesture control console. The group wants the apparatus further than use market research tool : The Xbox One, says Microsoft executive Phil Spencer, will ensure that "we know what people are busy We can take a vote and feed their voice in the creative process.".

A patent application suggests that Microsoft's console might also want to use in other ways - for example, to calculate using the Kinect camera prices for movie downloads then, how many people sit in front of the TV set . Microsoft has not yet commented on the patent application.

Afraid that Microsoft is listening on conversations about the console's built-in camera microphones, data protection, Peter Schaar has not: "The fact that Microsoft now spying on my living room is merely a twisted nightmare." In some media reports had pointed out that the game console can also be turned on with a voice command. This means that the microphones the console must be turned on in the standby state.

The Xbox was the last one was presented Tuesday in Redmond , they should come to the market for the Christmas season.

Source: Der Spiegel

Millions against Monsanto: Putting Words into Action

Saturday, May 25, 2013, marches protesting GMO food [and the lack of food labeling in the USA] will take place in cities around the globe. There is every good reason to support this ‘mega march’ wherever you live because we are losing our sources of food and nutrition, which are being replaced by biotech industry oligarchs who think they can and must patent the human food supply.

If you don’t think activism counts and works, please check out what U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) did and said May 20, 2013 regarding what’s become known as the “Monsanto Protection Act.”

Senator Mikulski actually apologized for allowing the Monsanto Protection Act to go through and vowed to fight against GMOs and Monsanto. Bravo, Senator Mikulski. Let’s hope other members of Congress see the light about the dangers of GMOs and their not being labeled in the USA. Go, Barbara go!

http://www.nationofchange.org/monsanto-protection-act-may-soon-be-repealed-thanks-activism-1369061405

GMO food crops are sprayed with inordinate amounts of the chemical herbicide glyphosate. For some—not all—information regarding glyphosate, see what Wikipedia says here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate.

For information about genetically modified corn, a dietary staple in the USA and in many cultures, read what Natural News has to say here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/040210_gm_corn_march_against_monsanto_glyphosate.html

Will corn-on-the-cob become taboo? Who, in their right mind, would want to take a chance on the possibility of Bacillus thurigiensis growing in their gut?

Organically-grown corn ought to be safe, if it’s not been cross-pollinated by GMO pollen.

To find out where the nearest march to your zip code address will take place, please visit:

March Against Monsanto Everywhere

http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/

Here are some reminders why we should turn out in droves at the Millions against Monsanto marches:

Food Crops that are GMO or GMO contaminated Animal Foods:

• Alfalfa
• Milk (rBST hormone) dairy products
• Canola
• Beef fed GMO feed
• Corn

• Eggs from chickens fed GMO feed
• Cotton (cottonseed cooking oil)
• Chicken raised on GMO feed
• Hawaiian papaya
• Honey from bees in GMO fields
• Plums
• Rice
• GMO Fish
• Soy
• GMO Salmon
• Sugar beet 
• Some tobacco 
• Tomato
• Wheat
• Yellow squash
• Zucchini

New Animated Video About the TPP and its Chilling Effects on Internet Users

When most people think of a trade agreement, they're unlikely to think that it would have anything to do with regulating the Internet. For more than a decade however, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has included copyright enforcement in international trade deals. Such provisions empower countries to enact digital restrictions in the name of preventing illegal file sharing. In practice, these copyright measures strip Internet users of their rights to privacy, free speech, and access to knowledge and culture, and could even work to undermine their very purpose of enabling and promoting innovation and creativity.

Such provisions closely mirror the language carried in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Up to this point, we have already seen over 15 years of harmful effects due to the DMCA and now there are widespread efforts in the U.S. to reform it. It's therefore both improper and contradictory for the U.S. Trade Rep to push the U.S. copyright system around the world when our own government recognizes that our system is defective.

This new animated video explains how two provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement's intellectual property chapter threaten users' rights. First, it creates legal incentives for Internet and online service providers to police their users' activities for copyright infringement. Second, the TPP carries rigid protections for digital rights management (DRM) in ways that could create expansive chilling effects for anyone who wishes to legally share and interact with their content and devices.

Please share this video, spread the word about this secretive multinational trade agreement, and let others know how they can help fight it.

Take Action

You can express your concern about these problems — and others — that arise from a secret copyright agenda driving international agreements by signing our petition to stop it.

Wherever you are in the world, you can sign on to this petition directed at decision-makers to demand a Fair Deal.

If you’re in the U.S., take our action to send a message to your representative to demand an end to these secret backroom negotiations.

If you're in Peru, join Hiperderecho and tell the Peruvian president that our rights on the Internet are non-negotiable.

Spread the Word

Our website “Why the Heck Should I Care About the TPP?” lays out some of the worst consequences for Internet users if this agreement were to pass.

Share our infographic about the TPP! We have versions in both English and Spanish.

Source: EFF

The Government Wants A Backdoor Into Your Online Communications

According to the New York Times, President Obama is "on the verge of backing" a proposal by the FBI to introduce legislation dramatically expanding the reach of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA. CALEA forces telephone companies to provide backdoors to the government so that it can spy on users after obtaining court approval, and was expanded in 2006 to reach Internet technologies like VoIP. The new proposal reportedly allows the FBI to listen in on any conversation online, regardless of the technology used, by mandating engineers build "backdoors" into communications software. We urge EFF supporters to tell the administration now to stop this proposal, provisionally called CALEA II.

The rumored proposal is a tremendous blow to security and privacy and is based on the FBI's complaint that it is "Going Dark," or unable to listen in on Internet users' communications. But the FBI has offered few concrete examples and no significant numbers of situations where it has been stymied by communications technology like encryption. To the contrary, with the growth of digital communications, the FBI has an unprecedented level of access to our communications and personal data; access which it regularly uses. In an age where the government claims to want to beef up Internet security, any backdoors into our communications makes our infrastructure weaker.

Backdoors also take away developers' right to innovate and users' right to protect their privacy and First Amendment-protected anonymity of speech with the technologies of their choice. The FBI's dream of an Internet where it can listen to anything, even with a court order, is wrong and inconsistent with our values. One should be able to have a private conversation online, just as one can have a private conversation in person.

The White House is currently debating whether or not to introduce the bill. Here's why it shouldn't:

There's Little Darkness: Few Investigations Have Been Thwarted

The starting point for new legislation should be a real, serious, and well-documented need. Despite the FBI's rhetoric, there are few concrete examples of the FBI's purported need to expand its already efficient all-seeing eye. Current law requires annual reporting by the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding the use of the government's wiretapping powers; the report includes statistics on how often Federal law enforcement has been impeded in a court-authorized investigation by encryption or has been unable to access communications. These statistics show that this has happened only rarely. In its most recent report—from 2010—DOJ reported that encryption had only been encountered all of 12 times.

Did the encryption stop the investigation, or even prevent the wiretappers from figuring out what was being said? No. The report admits that in all of these instances, police were able to obtain the plain text of communications. Previous years' numbers are similar. Aside from government reports, in 2012 telecommunications companies also revealed that a very low percentage of law enforcement requests for user information were rejected. In AT&T's case, only 965 out of over 250,000 requests for user information were rejected. Overall, the available public statistics don't appear to support the FBI's claims about its inability to access communications.

Read more: EFF

High Fructose Corn Syrup Addictive Like Cocaine, Says Researcher

Is the obesity epidemic due to the addictive qualities in food or that a lot more food is cheap and plentiful than ever before in history?

A paper presented at the 2013 Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience - Association Canadienne des Neurosciences (CAN-ACN), says the problem is addiction rather than food wealth - the authors claim that high-fructose corn syrup can cause behavioral reactions in rats similar to those produced by drugs of abuse such as cocaine.  It's the "Food Addiction" hypothesis that has recently become popular, which posits that we could be addicted to food just like drugs.  

Addiction happens when drug use shifts from positive reinforcement to the negative kind; drugs are relied on to prevent or relieve negative states that otherwise result from abstinence (e.g., withdrawal) or from adverse environmental circumstances (e.g. stress).

Francesco Leri, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Applied Cognitive Science at the University of Guelph, suggest food addiction could explain the global obesity epidemic, though binge eaters have greater rates of psychiatric diagnoses involving negative emotional states compared to the general population, so eating may be the symptom and not the cause. The National Institute of Mental Health recently declared an end to support for symptom-based treatment in mental health.

Leri says increased availability of such highly-palatable foods could partly explain the high incidence of obesity around the world, but simple availability does not explain why some people are obese and others are not, given the same amount of available food. Leri, and others have instead suggested individual differences in vulnerability to addiction. Surveys of consumption of cocaine show that though many individuals try these drugs, only a small percentage of them become addicted. Leri set out to show that the same could be true of "addictive foods". "We have evidence in laboratory animals of a shared vulnerability to develop preferences for sweet foods and for cocaine" says Leri. Specifically, Leri wants to prove that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is worse for us than table sugar.

Other studies instead say addiction is a disorder of decision-making. 

Leri used rats to examine the behavioral, chemical and neurobiological changes induced by consumption of "addictive foods" containing HFCS. "We are not rats, but our children do not think too much about the impact of sweets on their brain and behaviour. There is now convincing neurobiological and behavioural evidence indicating that addiction to food is possible. Our primary objective is to discover biological predictors of vulnerability to develop excessive consumption of high fructose corn syrup ," says Leri.

John W. Bode, President and C.E.O. of the Corn Refiners Association, said in a statement, “It is irresponsible and ultimately counter-productive for these researchers to associate safe and widely used foods, such as high fructose corn syrup, with illegal narcotics such as cocaine. There remains no credible scientific evidence to suggest that caloric sweeteners, such as sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), are addictive to humans in general. One of the main weaknesses of the research conducted by Dr. Francesco Leri, like most research seeking to demonize HFCS and other caloric sweeteners, is they are often conducted on animals, such as rats, in scenarios not likely found in the real world experienced by humans."

Source: Science 2.0

Youth rioting in Stockholm, PM calls for calm

Rioters have set fire to 30 cars and torched a school and a nursery in poor immigrant suburbs of Stockholm. Three nights of unrest in one of Europe's richest capitals has marred Sweden's reputation for social justice.

Swedish police said Wednesday they had arrested eight young men during a third night of urban unrest in low-income suburbs of Stockholm from Tuesday into Wednesday.

The rioting had erupted on Sunday after police shot dead a 69-year-old man on May 13.

Police said officers had acted in self-defense when the man wielded a machete in the northwestern suburb of Husby. The shooting was being investigated by a special police unit.

A group Megafonen which works with youth in deprived areas, accused police of being heavy-handed and targeting immigrants indiscriminately. Cuts in services and closures of youth centers have fuelled discontent, said its spokesman Rami al-Khamisi.

Premier calls for calm

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who heads a center-right government, told the news agency TT that "burning your neighbor's car is not an example of freedom of speech, it's hooliganism." He appealed to "everyone" to take responsibility for restoring calm.

Stockholm police spokesman Kjell Lindgren said "around 30" cars had been set ablaze in the greater Stockholm area as rioting spread to southern Stockholm.

A school and a nursery had been torched and rocks thrown at police and firefighters.

'Failed integration,' says Reinfeldt

On Tuesday, Reinfeldt referred to heated Swedish debate on immigration by attributing the outburst to failed integration.

"Sweden is a country that receives large groups from other countries. I'm proud of that," he said, adding that the government had sought to improve Swedish language education.

The anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party, which has risen to third in surveys ahead of a general election due next year, said the Stockholm riots were the result of an "irresponsible" immigration policy.

"Never before has so much money been spent on immigrant-heavy suburbs as today," party leader Jimmie Aakesson told the daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.

Anna-Margrethe Livh of the opposition Left Party wrote in the Svenska Dagbladet: "We have failed to give many of the people in the suburbs a hope for the future,"

Social welfare benefits reduced

Reinfeldt's center-right government has over six years reduced social welfare benefits for which Sweden once had a world-wide reputation. As a result sharp inequalities have emerged, according to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The left-leaning tabloid Aftonbladet said the riots represented a "gigantic failure" of government policies, which had underpinned the rise of ghettos in the suburbs.

Some 15 percent of Sweden's population is foreign-born, the highest proportion in the Nordic region. Unemployment among those born outside Sweden stands at 16 percent, compared with 6 percent for native Swedes, according to OECD data.

OECD figures also show that Reinfeldt's reforms, as well as earlier changes, some under the Social Democrats, introduced since a 1990s crisis, have given Sweden the steepest increase in inequality over 15 years amongst the 34 members of the organization.

Source: DW

After you read this kid's story, you'll think twice about what you post on Facebook. (And that's the problem.)

Meet Cameron D'Ambrosio. He's 18 and lives in a small town outside Boston. He wants to be a rapper and calls himself "Cammy Dee" in his YouTube videos.

Oh, and he's been locked up without bail for weeks -- facing terrorism charges and 20 years in prison -- all for something he posted on Facebook.

On May 1st, Cam was skipping school and messing around online. He posted some lyrics that included a vague reference to the Boston Marathon Bombing and called the Whitehouse a "federal house of horror." Shortly after that he was arrested and charged with Communicating a Terrorist Threat, a felony that carries 20 years in prison.

The post contained no specific threat of violence against any person or group of people, and in the context of the rest of the lyrics and Cams' rap persona, it was clearly nothing more than a metaphor. A search of Cam's house found NO evidence that he was planning any violence, but a judge still ordered him held without bail for the next 3 months, pending trial.

Source: Fight the Future

Monsanto CEO Says Public Not Playing Fair

As the huge global protest, March Against Monsanto, is set to take place May 25th, CEO Hugh Grant told Bloomberg opponents of his company are capitalizing on increased public concern regarding how genetically modified foods are made, and pushing anti-GMO sentiment through social media sites.

March Against Monsanto activists are protesting, among other things, the serious risks GMO’s pose to both health and the environment, ex-Monsanto executives steering government agencies like the FDA, Monsanto’s monopoly over the world’s food supply, and political favoritism.

Grant says those critics aren’t giving Monsanto the opportunity to feed the world with technological advances.

“I’d feel a whole lot better if it was marinated on a little where is that extra chicken going to come from or who is going to grow the new bushel,” Grant said, adding that, “There is space in the supermarket shelf for all of us.”

Perhaps if Monsanto wasn’t bankrupting small farmers over patent infringement, or suing dairy farmers for labeling their milk Monsanto-produced rBGH-free, critics wouldn’t have to ponder where their next meal will come from.

If Monsanto’s legal practices weren’t enough to enrage America’s agricultural sector, the passing of the so-called “Monsanto Protection Act” certainly has. The Act – co-authored by a senator that received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Monsanto – puts GM companies above the law by effectively banning courts from halting the sale, planting, harvest, or distribution of any GM seeds, even if those seeds are linked to illness or environmental problems.

“There is this strange kind of reverse elitism: If I’m going to do this, then everything else shouldn’t exist.” Grant told Bloomberg, saying opponents of Monsanto think there should be conventional agriculture or organic and nothing else.

The irony is that Monsanto pays millions of dollars a year lobbying politicians and funding thinktanks to combat opposition. Ex-Monsanto executives work on their behalf in government positions including the Supreme Court, FDA, EPA and USDA, all the while denying consumers the right to have labels and information regarding genetically modified products.

As if this wasn’t enough to affirm their omnipotent reach, Monsanto is embroiled in controversy yet again after State Department cables from 2005 to 2009 show the government lobbied foreign nations on behalf of the biotech giant.

Food & Water Watch summarized the cables showing how the United States has pursued policies to benefit the largest seed companies, including urging embassies to generate positive media coverage to sway public opinion.

The four goals of biotech diplomacy, according to Food & Water Watch, are to: Promote biotech business interests; Lobby foreign governments to weaken biotech rules; Protect U.S. biotech exports; and Press developing world to adopt biotech crops.

“The seed companies including Monsanto, DuPont, Pioneer, Syngenta, Bayer CropScience, and Dow Agro-chemical, are more commonly mentioned in the biotech cables than food aid.” According to the Food & Water Watch biotech report. “The State Department worked especially hard to promote the interests of Monsanto, the world’s biggest biotech seed company…Monsanto appeared in 6.1 percent of the biotech cables analyzed between 2005 and 2009 from 21 countries.”

Meanwhile, Grant is focused on the growing voices of concerned citizens who refuse to fall in line with government-approved biotech propaganda.

Monsanto has already purchased the approval of Washington to advance their agenda worldwide, yet anti-GMO activists armed only with their Facebook status threaten the endgame?

Well, if those stifled voices are able to unite into one glorious global uproar, Grant’s fears may be validated.

Source: Infowars

Nigel Farage: I hope taxpayers all over Europe listen to this

Woody Harrelson ‘Ethos’ – Time to Unslave Humanity

This documentary examines the flaws in our systems, and the mechanisms that work against democracy and the environment. From conflicts of interests in politics and unregulated corporate power, to a news media that serves the interests of powerful elites; ETHOS explores the systems that lead us into over consumption and warfare. Too often the media celebrates aspects of our society that belong in the dark ages, while at the same time ignoring or ridiculing progressive thinking or ideas. Many aspects of the way our systems work almost guarantee our destruction as a society and that’s what this film is about. Fractured societies, poverty, disparity, pollution, warfare. Is there something inherently wrong with the human race? Is that what we should think of ourselves? We have tried to set up forms of law and government that safeguard the public good.

UPDATE 1-EU draft bank rescue law would not shield big deposits

* EU law to shield small savers in bank rescues

* Deposits over 100,000 euro may be affected

* Deal establishes national resolution funds

* Needs approval of EU finance ministers

By Claire Davenport

STRASBOURG, France, May 20 (Reuters) - A draft law that a group of European Union lawmakers voted for on Monday would shield small depositors from losing their savings in future bank rescues, but customers with more than 100,000 euros in savings when a bank failed could suffer losses.

A group of lawmakers in the European Parliament's economics committee overwhelmingly voted that, from 2016, large depositors in the EU might suffer losses if a bank gets into serious trouble. The plan was similar to a deal in Cyprus, where wealthy depositors at two banks took hits to save the country from bankruptcy.

Under the EU proposal, a bank would dip into large deposits of over 100,000 euros once it had exhausted other avenues such as shareholders and bondholders. But deposits under 100,000 euros would be spared.

"The case in Cyprus showed how important it is to have clear procedures for making shareholders, bondholders and ultimately depositors foot the bill," a press release from the committee said after the vote.

Some countries have also mooted the idea of using banks' deposit guarantee schemes. But lawmakers voted against this because it could hurt smaller savers.

The European Parliament has joint say with the 27 countries in the EU on the law that would give regulators powers to impose losses on creditors and take other steps during a bank rescue.

EU finance ministers agreed last week that large, uninsured depositors should be subject to losses but some countries may still seek some flexibility on how they wind down their banks.

"The struggle will be how binding the bail-in and the hierarchy of liabilities is," Sven Giegold, a German Green lawmaker said after the vote.

The legislation envisions creation of national resolution funds based on bank contributions. Some lawmakers are calling for a Europe-wide resolution fund and the European Commission is due to propose such a fund in the coming months but that faces resistance from Germany.

Earlier on Monday, Bank of England Deputy Governor Paul Tucker said the EU law on bank recovery and resolution would be a milestone towards a global system and help convince markets that governments were no longer willing to rescue "too big to fail" lenders.

Source: Reuters

Processed Meats Declared Too Dangerous for Human Consumption

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has just completed a detailed review of more than 7,000 clinical studies covering links between diet and cancer. Its conclusion is rocking the health world with startling bluntness: Processed meats are too dangerous for human consumption. Consumers should stop buying and eating all processed meat products for the rest of their lives.

Processed meats include bacon, sausage, hot dogs, sandwich meat, packaged ham, pepperoni, salami and virtually all red meat used in frozen prepared meals. They are usually manufactured with a carcinogenic ingredient known as sodium nitrite. This is used as a color fixer by meat companies to turn packaged meats a bright red color so they look fresh. Unfortunately, sodium nitrite also results in the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines in the human body. And this leads to a sharp increase in cancer risk for those who eat them.

A 2005 University of Hawaii study found that processed meats increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by 67 percent. Another study revealed that every 50 grams of processed meat consumed daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 21 percent. These are alarming numbers. Note that these cancer risks do not come from eating fresh, non-processed meats. They only appear in people who regularly consume processed meat products containing sodium nitrite.

Sodium nitrite appears predominantly in red meat products (you won’t find it in chicken or fish products). Here’s a short list of food items to check carefully for sodium nitrite and monosodium glutamate (MSG), another dangerous additive:

• Beef jerky
• Bacon
• Sausage
• Hot dogs
• Sandwich meat
• Frozen pizza with meat
• Canned soups with meat
• Frozen meals with meat
• Ravioli and meat pasta foods
• Kid’s meals containing red meat
• Sandwich meat used at popular restaurants
• Nearly all red meats sold at public schools, restaurants, hospitals, hotels and theme parks

If sodium nitrite is so dangerous to humans, why do the FDA and USDA continue to allow this cancer-causing chemical to be used? The answer, of course, is that food industry interests now dominate the actions by U.S. government regulators. The USDA, for example, tried to ban sodium nitrite in the late 1970′s but was overridden by the meat industry.5 It insisted the chemical was safe and accused the USDA of trying to “ban bacon.”

Today, the corporations that dominate American food and agricultural interests hold tremendous influence over the FDA and USDA. Consumers are offered no real protection from dangerous chemicals intentionally added to foods, medicines and personal care products.

You can protect yourself and your family from the dangers of processed meats by following a few simple rules:

1. Always read ingredient labels.
2. Don’t buy anything made with sodium nitrite or monosodium glutamate.
3. Don’t eat red meats served by restaurants, schools, hospitals, hotels or other institutions.

And finally, eat more fresh produce with every meal. There is evidence that natural vitamin C found in citrus fruits and exotic berries (like camu camu) helps prevent the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines, protecting you from the devastating health effects of sodium nitrite in processed meats. The best defense, of course, is to avoid eating processed meats altogether.

Source: Dreamhealer

Teen invents 20-second cell phone charger

A California teenager has invented a device that fully charges a cell phone in 20 seconds flat, and leading technology firms, including Google, are turning interested eyes her way.

Esha Khare, 18, of Saratoga, Calif., showcased her invention at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix this past week. She took home $50,000 for the super-fast charging device — which could make charges that take hours just a dim memory in the tech world, the Daily Mail reported.

Another plus of her device: It holds the charge longer than current devices, the Daily Mail said.

Ms. Khare, who’s headed to Harvard, said she hopes to one day “[set] the world on fire,” the Daily Mail reported.

Google has already contacted her to discuss specifics of cell phone battery changes, the paper said.

Source: Washington Times

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.”

The CDC is obviously acting against the health of the American people. But the threat to the lives of the American people posed by the CDC’s behavior does not stop there. It participated in designed pandemic laws that are on the books in every state in the US, which arrange for the government to use military to force unknown, untested vaccines, drugs, chemicals, and “medical” treatments on the entire country if it declares a pandemic emergency.

The CDC’s credibility in declaring such a pandemic emergency is non-existent, again based on Freedom of Information Act. For in 2009, after the CDC had declared the H1N1 “pandemic,” the CDC refused to respond to Freedom of Information Act filed by CBS News and the CDC also attempted to block their investigation.  What the CDC was hiding was its part in one of the largest medical scandals in history, putting out wildly exaggerated data on what it claimed were H1N1 cases, and by doing so, created the false impression of a “pandemic” in the US.

The CDC was also covering up e financial scandal to rival the bailout since the vaccines for the false pandemic cost the US billions. And worse, the CDC put pregnant women first in line for an untested vaccine with a sterilizing agent, polysorbate 80, in it. Thanks to the CDC,  “the number of vaccine-related “fetal demise” reports increased by 2,440 percent in 2009 compared to previous years, which is even more shocking than the miscarriage statistic [700% increase].

The exposure of the vaccine hoax is running neck and neck with the much older hoax of a deadly 1918-19 flu. It was aspirin  that killed people in 1918-19, not a pandemic flu. It was the greatest industrial catastrophe in human history with 20-50 million people dying but it was blamed on a flu. The beginning of the drug industry began with that success (and Monsanto was part of it). The flu myth was used by George Bush to threaten the world with “another pandemic flu that could kill millions” – a terror tactic to get pandemic laws on the books in every state and worldwide. Then the CDC used hoax of the pandemic hoax to create terror over H1N1 and to push deadly vaccines on the public, killing thousands of unborn children and others.  (CDC will not release the data and continues to push the same vaccine.)

The hoax of the vaccine schedule is over, exposed by FOIAs in the UK. 

The hoax of the CDC’s interest in children’s lives has been exposed by its refusal to respond to a doctor’s FOIAs around its knowledge of vaccine dangers.

The 1918-19 pandemic hoax has been exposed by Dr. Karen Starko’s work on aspirin’s role in killing people.

And despite refusing to respond to FOIAS, the CDC’s scandalous hoax of a 2009 flu pandemic and its part in creating it, was exposed by CBS NEWS. 

And the Obama administration, in attempting to salvage the last vestige of secrecy around what is really happening with vaccines, by declaring agency documents non-existent, has made its claim of transparency, non-existent.

But pandemic laws arranging for unknown vaccines to be forced on the entire country are still in place with HHS creating a vaccine mixture that should never be used on anyone and all liability for vaccines having been removed. Meanwhile, a Canadian study has just proven that the flu vaccine containing the H1N1 vaccine which kills babies in utero, actually increases the risk of serious pandemic flu.

Americans who have been duped into submitting their children to the CDC’s deadly vaccines, have a means to respond now. People from every walk of life and every organization, must

1. take the information from the UK FOIAs exposing 30 years of vaccine lies, the refusal of the CDC to provide any information on what it knows about those lies, and the Obama Administration’s efforts to hide the CDC’s awareness of those lies, and go to their state legislatures, demand the immediate nullification of the CDC vaccine schedule and the pandemic laws.

2. inform every vet. active duty military person, law enforcement people, DHS agents and medical personnel they know, of the vaccine hoax, for their families are deeply threatened, too, but they may not be aware of it or that they have been folded into agency structures by the pharmaceutical industry (indistinguishable from the bankers and oil companies) that would make them agents of death for their country with the declaration of a “pandemic” emergency or “bio-terrorist” attack. It is completely clear now that the terrorism/bioterrorism structures are scams so that any actions taken to “protect” this country using those laws would in fact be what threatens the existence of Americans.

It was aspirin that killed millions in 1918-19.  Now it is mandated and unknown, untested vaccines with banned adjuvants in them that threaten the country with millions of deaths.  At the same time, the CDC is holding 500,000 mega-coffins, built to be incinerated, on its property outside Atlanta.  Not to put to fine a point on this, but it’s clear now that the CDC should not be involved in any way with public health.

Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), we know that vaccines are not a miracle of modern medicine.  Any medical or government authority which insists vaccines prevent diseases is either ignorant of government documents (and endless studies) revealing the exact opposite or of the CDC’s attempts to hide the truth about vaccines from the public, or means harm to the public.

Source: Food Freedom News