Thursday, July 18, 2013
Hemp vs Cotton: The Ultimate Showdown
Hemp has been making a lot of noise lately, especially with the growing awareness surrounding the use of hemp oil for treating cancer. Although the word ‘hemp’ still often gets confused and lumped into the same definition as Cannabis, a similar but psychoactive plant, it’s important to realize hemp can be a major game changer for our world if used to its potential.
As we go through this post, you will be wondering ‘why don’t we use this stuff all the time...for everything?!’ Simple answer, farming hemp was banned in the US and other countries in the 1937 because of the threat it caused to certain companies and their businesses. More about that here.
Although hemp has many practical uses, let’s focus on one that would affect us every day; clothing. For this, we will compare hemp to cotton, as cotton is a very popular resource used in clothing production. We’ll need to focus on various areas that have to be taken into consideration when comparing the two so we can determine not only what is better for us, but also what is best for our environment as it’s important to view things holistically. Let’s do it.
Cotton: To grow cotton you require about 1400 gallons of water for every pound you intend to produce. That’s a lot of water! Some areas of the world that produce cotton are running out of fresh water due to the production of cotton as well as clothing. Some areas of the world have even experienced desertification as a result of producing cotton.
Hemp: You require about half the amount of water to produce hemp as you would if producing cotton. Hemp is a strong and reliable plant that grows very quickly. Not only that, hemp produces about 200% – 250% more fiber on the same amount of land compared to cotton.
The victor: Hemp
Pesticides
Cotton: One of the biggest downsides to cotton is how much pesticides are used to grow the plant. Although organic cotton farming is beginning to catch on a bit more, the production of cotton worldwide takes up about 25% of the world’s pesticide use. The other unfortunate factor is that these chemicals can end up being absorbed into our skin as we wear our clothing.
Hemp: The beauty of hemp is that it requires no pesticides to grow. In fact, it doesn’t require any chemicals at all to grow. The growing nature of the plant competes with weeds and overpowers their ability to sustain themselves. This allows the hemp plant to grow freely and quickly.
The victor: Hemp
Comfort & Longevity
Cotton: Generally very comfortable to begin with, as you continue to wear cotton it ‘breaks in’ to become even more comfortable. There is no denying how soft cotton can be, but it is also true that cotton fibers break down over time, and the more it is washed the faster it breaks down.
Hemp: The hemp fiber used in clothing is a strong natural fiber that, like cotton, gets progressively softer with each passing day you wear it and each time you wash it. Although it may not start off quite as soft, it is still soft and certainly would not be considered uncomfortable. The plus is that the fiber is much stronger and more durable. Repeated washing will not break the fiber down anywhere near as quickly as cotton. Creating more hemp clothing would mean we would need to produce much less clothing.
The victor: Hemp
Breathability & Wicking
Cotton: Breathability is certainly a strong suit for cotton. It also does not hold odors very much. This is quite possibly one of the biggest downsides to synthetic fibers; they don’t dispel odor well and don’t often deal with moisture well either. While cotton has a natural wicking system, it also holds moisture a little longer than what might be considered most desirable.
Hemp: Performs very well when it comes to breathability and wicks moisture away from the body effectively. Hemp also carries anti-bacterial properties that trump any other natural fiber. This means hemp will not mold or grow mildew very easily. Since it also does not hold odors, hemp clothing edges out cotton slightly on this one
The victor: Almost a tie, but hemp is our pal on this one again
Aesthetics
Cotton: Without the use of dyes, cotton comes naturally in white, cream and off-white. Cotton can be dyed naturally or synthetically to achieve a desired color. The growing knowledge that cotton is very taxing on the environment and not healthy for our skin is creating quite the demand for organic cotton. In terms of the fashion market, organic cotton is showing up more and more.
Hemp: Given the various processes available to remove fibers from the stem of a hemp plant, hemp can be naturally creamy white, black, green, grey or brown. Without even requiring the use of dye, hemp comes in a variety of colors. Of course, you are still able to dye hemp both naturally and synthetically. Hemp is quickly becoming more and more popular in the fashion market as designers see the potential in the material while being a very environmentally sound option. Since it is durable and lasts a long time, it can be attractive to certain designers.
The victor: Hemp
Final Decision
Winner by knockout and growing undisputed champion of natural harmony, HEMP! This isn’t to say that cotton, especially grown organically, is not a good material; it simply isn’t better all around than hemp. In some cases, cotton could be a must use if something specific is being produced. The biggest differences are in the facts that hemp requires much less water and no pesticides to produce. Not only that, it boasts a lot more fiber per acre. Concerned about excess CO2 in the atmosphere? Hemp is spectacular at sequestering CO2! Take the time to check out some hemp clothing around the Internet or see if there are some local stores that sell it. Although options can sometimes be limited right now, look out for more hemp clothing as awareness continues to spread!
Source: Activist Post
Disturbing Photos of Fukushima Mutant Fruit
Photos have recently surfaced from Japan showing some of the most mutated fruit ever seen!
Anyone who follows the alternative media knows that the nuclear fallout from Fukushima is far worse than the governments of the world and the mainstream media will admit.
A series of different photos have been posted on the web, showing the kind of mutations that the fallout has caused plants in nearby areas. Recently it was also reported that radioactive water from the site has been leaking into the Pacific ocean for two years, causing untold contamination in the seas.
One can only imagine the effect that this has had on biological life in the oceans, or the effect that it will have on local human and animal populations.
You can view the photos (posted to imgur) below:
ACLU: Police technology tracks every motorist
Info could allow authorities to track movements of everyone who drives a car
The information potentially allows authorities to track the movements of everyone who drives a car.
The ACLU documented the police surveillance after reviewing 26,000 pages of material gathered through public records requests to almost 600 local and state police departments in 38 states and the District of Columbia.
Police are gathering the vehicle information with surveillance technology called automatic license plate readers, and it's being stored -- sometimes indefinitely -- with few or no privacy protections, the ACLU said.
"The documents paint a startling picture of a technology deployed with too few rules that is becoming a tool for mass routine location tracking and surveillance," the ACLU said in a written statement.
The license plate readers alert police to an automobile associated with an investigation, "but such instances account for a tiny fraction of license plate scans, and too many police departments are storing millions of records about innocent drivers," the ACLU said.
"Private companies are also using license plate readers and sharing the information they collect with police with little or no oversight or privacy protections. A lack of regulation means that policies governing how long our location data is kept vary widely," the ACLU said.
The civil liberties group is advocating legislation regulating the use of the technology.
The readers have been proliferating at "worrying speed" and are typically mounted on bridges, overpasses and patrol cars, the ACLU said.
The devices use high-speed cameras, and the software analyzes the photographs to retrieve the plate number, the group said.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
New study links wheat (gluten) consumption to autism
For their study, the team from both the Columbia University Department of Medicine and the Celiac Disease Center set out to assess how children diagnosed with autism respond immunologically to gluten consumption. Since previous research on the subject has been largely inconclusive, the researchers felt it was important to investigate the matter further using strict evaluative guidelines and research criteria in order to arrive at a solid and trustworthy conclusion.
After comparing the effects of gluten consumption among autistic children both with and without gastrointestinal problems to their unaffected siblings and age-matched healthy controls, the team learned that the autistic children had significantly higher levels of the IgG antibody, which targets a gluten protein known as gliadin. And based on the way this antibody functions within the body, many now believe that high levels of it can also interfere with proper neurological function.
"It has been theorized that when the immune system forms antibodies against gliadin, these antibodies cross react with self-structures within the nervous system," writes Sayer Ji for GreenMedInfo.com about the process. "Known as molecular mimicry, this breakdown of immunological self-tolerance can contribute to a wide range of neurological problems including neuropathy, ataxia, seizures, and neurobehavioral changes including mania, schizophrenia and autism."
"Anti-gliadin antibodies are therefore a possible cause of autoimmune neurological damage," he adds.
In other words, many of the symptoms exhibited by individuals diagnosed with autism could actually be the result of an antibody response caused by exposure to wheat gluten. Regardless of whether or not the blood markers of actual Celiac disease are present, wheat gluten appears to greatly elevate levels of this anti-gliadin antibody within the body.
"A subset of children with autism displays increased immune reactivity to gluten, the mechanism of which appears to be distinct from that in Celiac disease," wrote the authors in their conclusion. "The increased anti-gliadin antibody response and its association with GI symptoms points to a potential mechanism involving immunologic and/or intestinal permeability abnormalities in affected children."
Eliminating wheat has helped many people with autism
The obvious takeaway from all this is that eating wheat is probably not a good idea if you fall anywhere on the autism spectrum, and especially if you suffer from GI disorders. Though conventional wheat is technically not good for anybody, it appears to be distinctly harmful for people with autism, and something worth avoiding.As far as the specific benefits associated with cutting out gluten, a recent study published in the Journal of Child Neurology documents the case of one young child with autism and epilepsy who went completely symptom-free as a result of cutting out both gluten and casein, a type of milk protein. Others have reported similar improvements as a result of going gluten-free, including Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, M.D., creator of the Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet, also known as GAPS diet, which she used to essentially cure her son's autistic condition.
Source: Natural News
Warning: Genetically Modified “Agent Orange Corn” Coming Soon to a Plate Near You
Remember Agent Orange, the herbicide sprayed in Vietnam linked with devastating birth defects, cancer and Parkinson’s disease?
Dow AgroSciences would like to feed this toxic chemical to the American population via a new breed of genetically modified corn. If the corporation has its way, “Agent Orange corn” will arrive on dinner plates across the U.S. as early as 2014.
Poisonous history of Agent Orange
Da Thi Kieu experienced the deadly effects of Agent Orange first hand. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military sprayed her fields with the herbicide. Likewise, her husband was exposed when he fought in the army and died an early death due to cancers associated with the toxin. Of their eight children, seven were born with birth defects and only two survived.
Sadly, Kieu’s story is not an unfamiliar one. Countless others throughout Vietnam and America have suffered at the hands of Agent Orange. Parkinson’s, Hodgkin’s disease, Bcell leukemias and multiple myeloma are all linked with exposure to the herbicide. And the poisons don’t just magically disappear — decades later, traces are still found in the soil. Additionally, many view Agent Orange as chemical warfare. According to Global Research:
“In US Senate Congressional Records dated August 11, 1969, a table presented to senators showed that congress clearly classified 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T (main components of Agent Orange) in the Chemical and Biological Warfare category.”
If Agent Orange is so toxic, why does Dow AgroSciences want to introduce more of it into our food supply?
Follow the money
As with all genetically modified crops, the reason comes down to one point: corporate profit. It is not about feeding the hungry masses or improving the lives of millions. The main motivating force is always money, plain and simple. This is why whenever a new GM crop is on the ticket for approval, food activist groups like the Organic Consumers Association go on high alert. They realize mega corporations such as Monsanto and Dow are up to something — and it’s most likely harmful.
New “Frankencorn” crop
Enlist brand GM corn is Dow AgroSciences latest mutant baby. It’s a crop developed to withstand extreme amounts of 2,4-D — an ingredient found in Agent Orange that severely jeopardizes the health of the environment as well as that of humans and wildlife. Round Up Ready resistant ‘superweeds’ apparently need something stronger. Enter Agent Orange.
As accurately observed by conventional soybean and corn farmer George Naylor, “Farmers are on the front lines of this potential chemical disaster,” and adds, “I’m also very concerned about the further pollution of the air and water in my community.” Scientists and more than 140 advocacy groups have flooded U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s inbox with letters protesting Dow’s regulatory application for the Enlist crop. But further pressure is needed to stop the approval. To take action against this toxic new breed of corn, click here.
Have long-lost pyramids been found in Egypt?
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| The structures were spotted last year by amateur satellite archaeologist Angela Micol using Google Earth [Credit: Mohamed Aly Soliman] |
"Moreover, it has emerged these formations are labeled as pyramids on several old and rare maps," Micol told Discovery News.
Located about 90 miles apart, the two possible pyramid complexes appeared as groupings of mounds in curious positions.
One site in Upper Egypt, just 12 miles from the city of Abu Sidhum along the Nile, featured four mounds with an unusual footprint.
Some 90 miles north near the Fayum oasis, the second possible pyramid complex revealed a four-sided, truncated mound approximately 150 feet wide and three smaller mounds in a diagonal alignment.
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| While
the site in the Fayum has not been investigated yet, a preliminary
on-the-ground expedition has already occurred at the site near Abu Sidhum [Credit: Mohamed Aly Soliman] |
First reported by Discovery News, her claim gained widespread media attention and much criticism. Authoritative geologists and geo-archaeologists were largely skeptical and dismissed what Micol called "Google Earth anomalies" as windswept natural rock formations -- buttes quite common in the Egyptian desert.
"After the buzz simmered down, I was contacted by an Egyptian couple who claimed to have important historical references for both sites," Micol said.
The couple, Medhat Kamal El-Kady, former ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman, and his wife Haidy Farouk Abdel-Hamid, a lawyer, former counselor at the Egyptian presidency and adviser of border issues and international issues of sovereignty, are top collectors of maps, old documents, books and rare political and historical manuscripts.
El-Kady and Farouk have made important donations to the Egyptian state and the U.S. Library of Congress. Their various gifts to the Library of Alexandria include Al-Sharif Al-Idrissi's map of the Earth drawn for King Roger II of Sicily in 1154.
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| Suspecting
the mounds were ancient in origin, locals tried to dig into one of the two smaller mounds [Credit: Mohamed Aly Soliman] |
"For this case only, we have more than 34 maps and 12 old documents, mostly by scientists and senior officials of irrigation," El-Kady and Farouk told Discovery News.
For the site near the Fayum, they cited three maps in particular -- a map by Robert de Vaugoudy, dating from 1753, a rare map by the engineers of Napoleon Bonaparte, and a map and documents by Major Brown, general of irrigation for Lower Egypt in the late 1880s.
The documents would point to the existence of two buried pyramids which add to the known Fayum pyramids of Lahoun and Hawara.
"They would be the greatest pyramids known to mankind," the couple said. "We would not exaggerate if we said the finding can overshadow the Pyramids of Giza."
Their sources would indicate the pyramids at the Fayum site were intentionally buried in a "damnatio memoriae" -- an attempt to intentionally strike them from memory.
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| The excavation failed due to striking very hard stone that Aly and Micol believe may be granite [Credit: Mohamed Aly Soliman] |
"Those mounds are definitely hiding an ancient site below them," Mohamed Aly Soliman, who led the preliminary expedition near Abu Sidhum, told Discovery News.
"First of all, the land around them is just a normal flat land. It is just desert -- sand and stones," he said. "The mounds are different: You will find pottery everywhere, seashells and transported layers. These are different layers, not belonging to the place, and were used by the Egyptians to hide and protect their buried sites," he said.
"Describing himself as "one of the many Egyptians obsessed with the pharaohs’ civilization," Aly has a background as a private investigator and has been studying to identify archaeological sites in Egypt.
"If we look back in history we will find that pharaohs were using seashells in building their tombs and pyramids for ventilation purpose," Aly said.
"Even the rocks used in building pyramids contained up to 40 percent seashells."
 |
| Located about 90 miles apart, the two possible pyramid complexes appeared on aerial imagery as an unusual groupings of mounds with intriguing orientations. One site near the Fayum oasis revealed a four-sided, truncated mound approximately 150 feet wide and three smaller mounds in a diagonal alignment (left). The other site, just 12 miles from the city of Abu Sidhum along the Nile, featured two large and two small mounds (right) [Credit: Angela Micol] |
According to the amateur geo-archaeologist, the local people living near the mounds had long suspected the formations were ancient in origin. They had tried to dig on one of the small mounds years ago, but the excavation failed due to striking very hard stone that Aly and Micol believe may be granite.
"What made us sure those mounds are hiding pyramids was a special cavity and metal detector we used over the mounds," Aly Soliman said. "The detector we used showed an underground tunnel heading north on both the big mounds."
"It also signaled metal was present in the mounds," he said. "Most Egyptian pyramids have north facing entrance tunnels, so this is another promising piece of evidence we have found."
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| Apart from the two larger and smaller mounds, the expedition team believes the site features a temple or habitation and a row of what may be mastaba tombs adjacent to the mounds. They are shown in the red rectangle thanks to a false color imaging technique developed by Micol [Credit: Angela Micol] |
"Whether they prove to be anything more than nature must be verified on the ground, but this location seems promising and is the result of research beyond simply pointing out the first sand dune noticed on Google Earth," archaeologist Patrick Rohrer told Discovery News.
To further research the pyramid puzzle and examine other sites, Micol's set up the Satellite Archaeology Foundation, Inc. a pending non-profit -- and launched a crowdfunding campaign.
"Due to unrest and economic distress in Egypt, life is not easy for archaeologists" Micol said. "We found no one from the Egyptian academic community who is interested in finding out about these sites at this time."
"Now that we have ground proof and historical evidence," she added, "my goal is to go to Egypt with a team of U.S. scientists and videographers to help validate the evidence found by the expedition team and to prove if these sites are lost pyramid complexes."
Source: The Archeology News Network
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Giant Pyramids and Sphinxes Found in The Bermuda Triangle
The disaster may have occurred at the end of the last Ice Age. As the Arctic icecap catastrophically melted it caused sea levels to rise quickly around the world, especially affecting the Northern Hemisphere. Coast lines changed; land was lost; islands (even island continents) disappeared.
Arclein observes: “At the time uplifted portions of the Mid Atlantic Ridge subsided also including Lyonese and the home islands and land mass around the Azores. Even if that had not happened, this subsidence was amply large enough
This would have produced an orthogonal pressure forcing subsidence to either East or West. Since the ridge between Cuba and Yucatan is the natural point of weakness between the Gulf subsidence basin and the Caribbean subsidence basin, it naturally subsided deeply. The driver for all this was the hydrostatic changes brought about by both the original crustal shift of 12,900 years ago that I have called the Pleistocene Nonconformity and the slow uplift of the Hudson Bay Basin brought about by the ending of the Ice Age.”
Cuban missile crisis stops research
According to journalist Luis Mariano Fernandez the city was first discovered decades ago, but all access to it was stopped during and after the Cuban Missile Crisis. (http://www.luismarianofernandez.com/AtlantidaEnCuba4.html) To view in other languages, use the google translate tool bar.
The U.S. government discovered the alleged place during the Cuban missile crisis in the sixties, Nuclear submarines cruising in the Gulf (in deep sea) met pyramid structures. They immediately shut down the site and took control of him and the objects, in order that it will not come to Russians hands.”
The science team of deep ocean experts, archaeologists and oceanographers found ruins of ancient buildings 600 feet below the ocean. They say the city is Atlantis.
Look carefully, in the muky water a giant pyramid is visible(http://i1260.photobucket.com/albums/ii567/riseearth/Atlantis_02.jpg)
Pyramids and sphinxes bigger than Egypt’s
Evidence that the island of Cuba is the vestige of a once mighty culture is supported by Zalitzki’s discovery on the island of extremely ancient symbols and pictograms identical to those seen on the underwater structures.
Using exploration submersibles, they discovered amazingly huge pyramid structures similar to (but larger than) the pyramids in Giza, Egypt. They estimate the Atlantis pyramids are constructed with stones weighing many hundreds of tons.
Speaking with a scientist about the possibility that the ruins are indeed Atlantis, Fernandez reports the expert replied:
“…in the Yucatan cultures today is possible that what still remains of the aborigines of those places perhaps the Olmecs or some very primitive civilization of Yucatan, the northern part of Central America—originated according to them on an island that sank by a cataclysm. This island is called Atlanticú.”
That too fits the stories about the sudden demise of the wondrous Atlantis.
Atlanticú. Atlantis. The aboriginal natives still call it that in their history.
During an interview about the exploration of the mega-city, Fernandez asked lead scientist Pauline Zalitzki about the civilaztion that built it.
“When we published the first news of this finding,” she said, “the University of Veracruz was interested in our work and we had recorded images of these structures on the seabed. Specifically, the Institute of Anthropology of the University excavations invited me. They were doing [studies] on parts and ruins of the Olmec civilization.
The Olmecs and other native peoples all have primary morphology marking the arrival of this continent. This mean coming from the direction of Cuba, and had to occur in a very large earthquake where their land sank. Morphologies indicate that they belong to three families who were saved. One of these families came to the coast of Veracruz, which are supposedly the Olmec. Others came to Central America and traveled to the Pacific coast, and these families created the civilization of the Americas as we know it today, because they distributed all their knowledge.
When these anthropologists saw underwater images of this city, and saw some stone monoliths, some symbol, and inscriptions, they identified with Olmec motifs. They were very surprised.”
The Olmecs devolved from the survivors of Atlantis, a much superior culture destroyed aft the end of the Ice Age flooding. The world was reshaped and a super-civilization destroyed, remembered for millennia only in legend and a passing refernce by the philosopher Plato.
But Atlantis was real, is real: scientists Paul Weinzweig and Pauline Zalitzki have found it.
Sonar images of mega-structures on the seabed ( http://i1260.photobucket.com/albums/ii567/riseearth/Mega_structure.jpg)
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Vaccination Causes Autism – Here’s What They Know…
For many years, parents have believed that multiple vaccinations have caused their children to become autistic. Governments from around the world, however, have categorically denied this possibility.They continue to bury their heads in the sand and ignore what is happening. They refuse to carry out relevant studies and will not answer any questions that may uncover the truth about vaccines.
Their actions are clearly demonstrated in a video titled AutismOne & Generation Rescue 2013 Conference Congressional Panel, featuring Congressman Burton (R-IN), Congressman Weldon, MD (R-FL) and Congressman Bill Posey (R-FL), published on May 11, 2013.
The video highlights what has been going on behind closed doors over the years and gives parents the rare opportunity to witness first hand the lies that are being told and the sheer enormity of the vaccine deception. [1]
Vaccines, Lies, and Videotape
The video begins in the year 2000.
Representative Dan Burton, chairman of the 2000 House Government Reform Committee on Autism and Childhood Vaccines, opened the conference by stating that autism, once considered a rare disorder, has become a near epidemic. He said that it is a top priority to carry out as much research into the potential connection between vaccines and autism as possible. He finished his introduction to Congress by stating that we must stop burying our heads in the sand and ignoring this possibility.
Turning to Dr. Coleen Boyle, the Director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), he asked:
We have been checking all the financial records of the FDA, the HHS, the CDC, do you believe that anybody who is getting funds from Merck or any of the other pharmaceutical companies should be on advisory panels that are making judgments about pharmaceuticals coming from those companies, or do you believe that is a conflict of interest?
Now, for many of us, this question would appear to be relatively simple for someone of Dr. Boyle’s standing to answer. However, it was not simple for Dr. Boyle; she appeared to be rendered speechless, before stating:
I think that is a difficult question to answer.Congressman Burton then turned to Dr. Paul Offit and said:
You talk about collaboration, I guess with the Merck pharmaceutical company?To which Offit stuttered:
Yes, I, um, as I, um, disclosed in my written report, I have been in collaboration with Merck and Company on the development of the Rotavirus vaccine since 1992.To which Congressman Burton simply replied:
They produce the MMR, don’t they?Looking back towards Dr. Boyle, Burton asked her why the CDC did not include the possibility that some of these vaccines may have caused the autism increase as one of the potential causes they were investigating, asking her to check out this matter. Despite replying that she would, it appears that once again this relatively simple task was too difficult for Dr. Boyle, because thirteen years later, we are still awaiting her answer.
After speaking to other members of Congress, Congressman Burton turned back to Dr. Doyle and stated very firmly:
Dr. Boyle, for your information, at a public meeting in Brick Township in January in 1997, and you should know this, with the CDC and others present, several of the audience members asked about the vaccines and the possible autism link and they asked for that to be checked.He continued:
And I submit that maybe, just maybe, it’s because the pharmaceutical company that manufactures it had some influence on the people in that meeting and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t want to get into that,’ and if that’s the case, that is damn near criminal.Concluding the 2000 clip, I feel that Dr. Bernard Rimland made the most honest response of the day, when he answered Dan Burton’s question as to whether, after listening to the comments made at the meeting and carrying out his own scientific research, there was any possibility that vaccines were contributing to the increase in autism.
Dr. Rimland answered:
There is not only the possibility, there is an extremely high likelihood, from all the evidence available.Those are strong words, so why has he been ignored?
Government Agencies Continue to Ignore Pleas for Intervention
Moving on to 2002, it appeared as if nothing much had changed. Once again, Congressman Dan Burton can be seen chairing the panel meeting, opening with an extremely poignant and moving piece of film of a child suffering with severe autism to demonstrate what parents cope with on a daily basis.
This piece of film moved the audience to tears and Congressman Burton commented that his grandson, along with thousands of other children across the country, were perfectly normal until they received multiple vaccines and continued by adding this extremely strong statement:
So, we can’t let the pharmaceutical industries and our government cover this mess up today because it ain’t gonna go away and it’s going to cost the taxpayers trillions more if we wait around on it and for our FDA, the HHS and the health agencies to continue to hide behind this facade that there have been studies that conclusively prove otherwise, is just wrong, too!In fact, the whole video from beginning to end clearly shows evidence that this heated debate has carried on for more than a decade. Each year the same issues and the same problems appear to be discussed, and yet the panel comes to the same conclusion that studies are not being carried out to investigate the link between vaccines and autism.
So, why is this happening and why is nothing being done?
Government Investigator Turned Fugitive
In 2012, we see Congressman Bill Posey has taken over the task of trying to question the elusive and now somewhat greying Dr. Boyle from the CDC, about vaccinations and autism.
Congressman Posey asks:
Dr. Boyle, my predecessor Congressman Welder was a well-respected, competent medical doctor and I glean from him with some certainty he felt thimerosal in vaccinations definitely was a contributory factor to autism and I wonder if the CDC has conducted or facilitated a study comparing vaccinated children with unvaccinated children yet? Have you done that?As expected, instead of answering the question asked of her, Dr. Boyle avoids his question completely and answers by stating:
We have done a number of studies looking at the relationship between thimerosal vaccines and autism and other developmental disabilities.Not to give up on his line of questioning, Congressman Posey rephrased his question in the hope that he may have gotten a direct answer, asking:
So, clearly, definitely, unequivocally, you have studied vaccinated versus unvaccinated?To which she replied:
We have not studied vaccinated versus unvaccinated.Just as she tried to continue with yet more waffle, Congressman Posey stopped her in her tracks, saying:
Never mind, that was the meaning of my question, you have wasted two minutes of my time.He then asked:
What steps has the CDC undertaken to ensure the integrity of the research that was performed by Dr. Thorsen, who, as you know, has been indicted for misconduct in the misallocation of resources?Once again Boyle can be seen avoiding his question. Instead of answering Congressman Posey directly, she tried to palm him off with incorrect data, stating that Dr. Thorsen was a co-investigator in just two of the studies carried out. This was immediately refuted by Posey, who asked if he would be allowed to submit, for the record, information proving that Dr. Thorsen was in fact involved in 21 of the 24 studies undertaken.
At no time in any part of the video did Dr. Boyle answer any question without evading the issue put before her, even when Posey asked:
Have you gone back to validate the variety of studies he participated in? I mean, you know this guy is a humongous scumbag, one of the most wanted men on earth, and you relied on him for data to determine whether thimerosal had a negative effect?Rather than admit to Dr. Thorsen’s failings, Dr. Boyle immediately jumped to Thorsen’s defense, even though this is a man who tops the federal most wanted list for 22 counts of wire fraud and money laundering, facing a total of 260 years in jail for his crimes. [2]
Conclusion
It is obvious from listening to the video that not one person whom Congressman Burton or the panel questioned had any conclusive evidence that vaccines did not cause autism. Instead, leading figures gave false information and avoided all of the questions being asked of them. Many had conflicts of interest with the pharmaceutical industry manufacturing the vaccines and saw no problem with this.
Members of the CDC, the FDA and other organizations sanctioning vaccinations are supposed to be independent. If, like Paul Offit, they hold patents to vaccines or are in collaboration with the companies manufacturing the vaccines, they are not independent and therefore not impartial.
Surely, parents trusting those officials with their children’s lives deserve better than this. It is time for change. For parents to have faith in the vaccine programs, they need to see concrete evidence proving that the vaccines are safe. Instead of bringing out more and more vaccines and trying to mandate vaccinations, governments and their representatives need to answer the questions being asked of them. This video is conclusive evidence that this is not happening.
Miniature, Freaky Fast Quadruped Robots
One of the longstanding goals in robotics is the mastery of motion, such that balance, precision, and control provide the same kind of all-terrain navigation seen in biological quadruped counterparts. Another goal? Make robots fast…like so freaky fast that NASCAR fans are left with mouths gaping.
Fortunately, researchers seem happy to provide robot enthusiasts with blazingly fast bots. In a recent video with the unfortunately underwhelming title of “Efficiency and Effectiveness Analysis of a New Direct Drive Miniature Quadruped Robot,” researchers from the University of Maryland and John Hopkins have constructed a miniature robot with independent drive motors propelling its four whegs, which are hybrid-wheel-legs that offer the best of both.
The bot can travel up to 30 body lengths a second (2.2 m/s or around 5 MPH). As IEEE Spectrum points out, a human traveling the equivalent relative distance in the same time would be going approximately 120 MPH.
The research was recently presented at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Germany.
As the video shows, the bots just aren’t fast, but able to climb up objects and have a zero turning radius. Future modifications to the design are predicted to make the little bots travel even faster. There are also plans to replace the multispoked whegs with single spokes, thereby more closely resembling a true quadruped.
Though cuteness doesn’t appear to have been one of the project goals for the team, it’s hard not to want to make up cutesy names for this little guy motoring around.
Co-author Christopher Brown stated in the IEEE Spectrum comments to “Keep following our research and you’re bound to see a real quadruped doing many different gaits (walk/trot/canter/gallop/jump) in the future!”
With other robotics groups actively pushing the speed envelope for their own creations, it’s clear that the race for highly mobile, speedy bots is just getting started.
Using a Smartphone’s Eyes and Ears to Log Your Every Move
New tricks will enable a life-logging app called Saga to figure out not only where you are, but what you’re doing.
Many of us already record the places we go and things we do by using our smartphone to diligently snap photos and videos, and to update social media accounts. A company called ARO is building technology that automatically collects a more comprehensive, automatic record of your life.
ARO is behind an app called Saga that automatically records every place that a person goes. Now ARO’s engineers are testing ways to use the barometer, cameras, and microphones in a device, along with a phone’s location sensors, to figure out where someone is and what they are up to. That approach should debut in the Saga app in late summer or early fall.
The current version of Saga, available for Apple and Android phones, automatically logs the places a person visits; it can also collect data on daily activity from other services, including the exercise-tracking apps FitBit and RunKeeper, and can pull in updates from social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Once the app has been running on a person’s phone for a little while, it produces infographics about his or her life; for example, charting the variation in times when they leave for work in the morning.
Software running on ARO’s servers creates and maintains a model of each user’s typical movements. Those models power Saga’s life-summarizing features, and help the app to track a person all day without requiring sensors to be always on, which would burn too much battery life.
“If I know that you’re going to be sitting at work for nine hours, we can power down our collection policy to draw as little power as possible,” says Andy Hickl, CEO of ARO. Saga will wake up and check a person’s location if, for example, a phone’s accelerometer suggests he or she is on the move; and there may be confirmation from other clues, such as the mix of Wi-Fi networks in range of the phone. Hickl says that Saga typically consumes around 1 percent of a device’s battery, significantly less than many popular apps for e-mail, mapping, or social networking.
That consumption is low enough, says Hickl, that Saga can afford to ramp up the information it collects by accessing additional phone sensors. He says that occasionally sampling data from a phone’s barometer, cameras, and microphones will enable logging of details like when a person walked into a conference room for a meeting, or when they visit Starbucks, either alone or with company.
The Android version of Saga recently began using the barometer present in many smartphones to distinguish locations close to one another. “Pressure changes can be used to better distinguish similar places,” says Ian Clifton, who leads development of the Android version of ARO. “That might be first floor versus third floor in the same building, but also inside a vehicle versus outside it, even in the same physical space.”
ARO is internally testing versions of Saga that sample light and sound from a person’s environment. Clifton says that using a phone’s microphone to collect short acoustic fingerprints of different places can be a valuable additional signal of location, and allow inferences about what a person is doing. “Sometimes we’re not sure if you’re in Starbucks or the bar next door,” says Clifton. “With acoustic fingerprints, even if the [location] sensor readings are similar, we can distinguish that.”
Occasionally sampling the light around a phone using its camera provides another kind of extra signal of a person’s activity. “If you go from ambient light to natural light, that would say to us your context has changed,” says Hickl, and it should be possible for Saga to learn the difference between, say, the different areas of an office.
The end result of sampling light, sound, and pressure data will be Saga’s machine learning models being able to fill in more details of a users’ life, says Hickl. “[When] I go home today and spend 12 hours there, to Saga that looks like a wall of nothing,” he says, noting that Saga could use sound or light cues to infer when during that time at home he was, say, watching TV, playing with his kids, or eating dinner.
Andrew Campbell, who leads research into smartphone sensing at Dartmouth College, says that adding more detailed, automatic life-logging features is crucial for Saga or any similar app to have a widespread impact. “Automatic sensing relieves the user of the burden of inputting lots of data,” he says. “Automatic and continuous sensing apps that minimize user interaction are likely to win out.”
Campbell says that automatic logging coupled with machine learning should allow apps to learn more about users’ health and welfare, too. He recently started analyzing data from a trial in which 60 students used a life-logging app that Campbell developed called Biorhythm. It uses various data collection tricks, including listening for nearby voices to determine when a student is in a conversation. “We can see many interesting patterns related to class performance, personality, stress, sociability, and health,” says Campbell. “This could translate into any workplace performance situation, such as a startup, hospital, large company, or the home.”
Campbell’s project may shape how he runs his courses, but it doesn’t have to make money. ARO, funded by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, ultimately needs to make life-logging pay. Hickl says that he has already begun to rent out some of ARO’s technology to other companies that want to be able to identify their users’ location or activities. Aggregate data from Saga users should also be valuable, he says.
“Now we’re getting a critical mass of users in some areas and we’re able to do some trend-spotting,” he says. “The U.S. national soccer team was in Seattle, and we were able to see where activity was heating up around the city.” Hickl says the data from that event could help city authorities or businesses plan for future soccer events in Seattle or elsewhere. He adds that Saga could provide similar insights into many other otherwise invisible patterns of daily life.
Xbox One to feature biometric targeted advertisements
Now that both Microsoft and Sony have announced new platform offerings, details are starting to slowly emerge, and biometrics have come up in conversations more than once –most recently, in regards to the Xbox One and its use of facial recognition ad-targeting.
According to an interview in SickTwiddlers, through the system’s Kinect camera, ads can be targeted based on who is seen sitting in front of the console and is something the company has considered very seriously. Dashboard advertisements are a core part of the Xbox experience.
Though the company says it receives minimal data through its Kinect camera, ads can be targeted based on age, gender and other demographics. According to an Xbox LIVE Advertising Developer quoted in the SickTwiddlers interview, the company doesn’t receive much biometric information collected by the Kinect, in order to preserve user privacy.
In the past few months it has also been reported that the new Xbox console can measure heart rate based on a user’s skin color and transparency, though how this will be used by the system has yet to be seen.
Reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, Microsoft filed a patent last year for the Xbox, which also makes use of facial recognition. In the filing, facial recognition is used to facilitate a system in which players can join a game already in progress, just by entering the room.
Also last year, Microsoft filed a separate patent which outlined a biometric controller, which could be used for user authentication.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
From food forests to healthy soil. 5 Incredible permaculture videos.
When I posted 7 no-cost ways to grow more food from your veggie garden, one commenter argued that mulching was not a good strategy—suggesting that gardeners should plant polycultures instead, following the principles of permaculture.
While I'd dispute the idea that there is one "right" way of gardening, or that mulching and polycultures, or mulching and permaculture for that matter, are mutually exclusive, I do agree on one matter. Understanding permaculture design—which can loosely be described as a design discipline informed by principles observed in nature—can definitely make you a better gardener.
We've posted a fair few videos on permaculture and permaculture-inspired gardening over the years. I thought I'd round up a few of our favorites.