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Evil Rays

Best of the Web: Flashing Blue Light Seen Above Exploded Nuclear Reactor


Health

Best of the Web: Carbs are bad news for the brain

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Alzheimer's disease (a form of dementia) is characterized by the build-up in the brain of a protein known as 'amyloid-beta'. Not surprisingly, amyloid-beta has been 'targeted' by drug companies, including Eli Lilli who produced the drug Semagacestat which did a nice job of retarding amyloid-beta synthesis. However, in trials, Semagacestat accelerated decline in brain function in those who took it.

I learned this fact today reading a review from the European Journal of Internal Medicine entitled "Nutrition and Alzheimer's disease: The detrimental role of a high carbohydrate diet" [1]. The review is dense with information, and I might extract its information over more than one blog. But for starters, I thought I would pull out at least some of the interest insights this paper contains.

One of the major points made in the paper is this: cholesterol and fat is really important to the brain. It points out that although the brain is only about 2 per cent of body weight, it contains about a quarter of the total cholesterol in the body. The authors point out several roles for cholesterol in the brain, including the synapse - the 'gap' where one cell can communicate with another. Communication here is via what are known as 'neurotransmitters', which are released by one nerve cell and float across the synaptic gap to exert the effect on the nerve adjacent to it. The authors summarise the importance of cholesterol in the brain like this:

Cholesterol is required everywhere in the brain as an antioxidant, an electrical insulator (in order to prevent ion leakage), as a structural scaffold for the neural network, and a functional component of all membranes. Cholesterol is also utilized in the wrapping and synaptic delivery of the neurotransmitters. It also plays an important role in the formation and functioning of synapses in the brain.

It's also true that the brain actively takes up cholesterol (in the form of LDL cholesterol). This in itself suggests that cholesterol is desired in the brain and does something useful. Interestingly, a gene defect which leads to impaired cholesterol uptake by the brain is also associated with an enhanced risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Cult

Best of the Web: Killed for believing in communism

It's been 60 years since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage in the United States . They were accused of stealing information about the atomic bomb for the Soviets during the Cold War and convicted in a time largely ruled by anti-communist sentiment.The controversial case continues to be debated, especially in light of recent events involving Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks. Brian Becker from the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and Less Government's Seton Motley debate.


Snowman

Best of the Web: Glaciers Growing on Mt. Shasta

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© USGS Lyn TopinkaMount Shasta and Shastina, California.
Although the media has done a great job of covering this up, the inconvenient fact is that all seven glaciers on California's Mount Shasta are growing. This includes Whitney Glacier, the state's largest.

Yes, growing. Not melting.

Not only are Mt. Shasta's glaciers growing, two have nearly doubled in size.

Both the Hotlum and Wintun Glaciers have nearly doubled in size since 1950, says this article on Wikipedia. The Bolam Glacier has increased by half, while the Whitney and Konwakiton Glaciers have grown by a third.

Scientists first became aware of these growing California glaciers in 2002, and I began writing about them in 2003. Now, eight years later, most media outlets still refuse to acknowledge that these glaciers are growing.

After this year's record snowfall, it will become harder to continue the deception.

2 + 2 = 4

Best of the Web: Drugging America: The drug industry exposed

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© UnknownGwen Olsen
Washington D.C., March 27, 2011 - Pharmaceuticals are a $650 plus billion dollar a year industry. For years the most profitable business in the U.S. has been the pharmaceutical corporations, which routinely top the annual fortune 500 list. Doctor prescribed drugs support an industry which out-earns the GNP of many nations.

A core attribute to big Pharma's overwhelming 'success' lays in the liaison between the corporations and the 'symptoms management' health care industry: The pharmaceutical representative. The men and women we see meeting with physicians, walking into offices with gifts of lunch for the staff, meeting with the doctor while you wait for our appointment.

Gwen Olsen was a top level pharmaceutical rep for some of the biggest in the industry: Johnson & Johnson, Syntex Labs, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott Laboratories and Forest Laboratories.

Through some chilling wake up calls in her tenure, and the tragic drug-related death of her niece, Gwen has dedicated her life to making people aware of the dangers of prescription drugs and how the drug industry manipulates doctors into prescribing, and over prescribing, their drugs.

She is exposing the dark, deep-rooted deception and corruption that is prevalent in this industry.

Gwen Olsens words are powerful. Her message absolutely frightening. Below is a transcript of our conversation as well as a video of Gwen speaking out, including her appearance on a CBS Evening News Eye On Your Children news segment.

Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Natural disasters will increase: British report

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© British Department for International DevelopmentThe British government has highlighted the areas of the world most likely to be made unstable as a result of environmental stress.
Major disasters like the Japanese earthquake and tsunami or Pakistan's floods are likely to become more frequent, and global governments must prepare for an uncertain future, according to a British report.

Paddy Ashdown, a member of the British House of Lords and ex-United Nations high representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, said rich nations must help poorer countries to build up their defences against disasters.

In a government report published Monday, he said scientists believe recent natural disasters were not an aberration, but "the beginnings of a new kind of future in which mega-disasters are going to be more frequent."

"The scale, frequency and severity of rapid onset humanitarian disasters will continue to grow in the coming years, and at an accelerating pace," said the report issued by the International Development ministry.

Ashdown said a lack of prior support for Haiti and Pakistan worsened the impact of recent events.

USA

Flashback Best of the Web: AMERICA: Y UR PEEPS B SO DUM? Ignorance and courage in the age of Lady Gaga


Comment: Joe Bageant died March 26th 2011 after a relatively brief struggle with cancer. Joe was a prolific social commentator and author who used his keen insight and raw sense of humor to dissect and expose the ugly truth about the failed experiment that is human 'civilization'. Hailing from the backwoods of Virginia, Joe saved his most incisive commentary for life in the USA and his last article, written in December 2010, shows why his voice of sanity will be sorely missed.


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© Joe Bageant
If you hang out much with thinking people, conversation eventually turns to the serious political and cultural questions of our times. Such as: How can the Americans remain so consistently brain-f*cked? Much of the world, including plenty of Americans, asks that question as they watch U.S. culture go down like a thrashing mastodon giving itself up to some Pleistocene tar pit.

One explanation might be the effect of 40 years of deep fried industrial chicken pulp, and 44 ounce Big Gulp soft drinks. Another might be pop culture, which is not culture at all of course, but marketing. Or we could blame it on digital autism: Ever watch commuter monkeys on the subway poking at digital devices, stroking the touch screen for hours on end? Those wrinkled Neolithic brows above the squinting red eyes?

But a more reasonable explanation is that, (A) we don't even know we are doing it, and (B) we cling to institutions dedicated to making sure we never find out.

Crusader

Best of the Web: Was the Bible Forged? Author Claims Some New Testament Books Were Written by 'People Pretending to be Apostles'

garden of Eden
© AlamyAgenda: Professor Erhman claims whoever wrote 1 Timothy was trying to put women in their place by citing the garden of Eden as an example of what can happen when women are in charge
Parts of the Bible were written by people who lied about their identity, an author has claimed.

Bart D Ehrman claims many books of the New Testament were forged by people pretending to be the apostles Peter, Paul or James.

Writing in the Huffington Post, Professor Ehrman, best selling author of Misquoting Jesus and Jesus, Interrupted, said religious scholars were well aware of the 'lies' of the Bible.

While some were happy to acknowledge them others refer to them as pseudepigrapha - meaning a falsely attributed work -, he wrote.

In his new book , Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are, Professor Ehrman claims The Second Epistle of Peter - or 2 Peter - was forged.

Comment: See also:

Who Wrote the Bible

and The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins by Burton L. Mack

and The Most Dangerous Cult in The World

and Gnosticism and the Christian Myth

If you don't like these views which are the views of the founder of this site, find another website to hang around. The sooner the sheep are separated from the goats, the better.


Vader

Best of the Web: Libya: The Objective of "Humanitarian Bombing" is Death and Destruction

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© UnknownSeveral hundred people gather at a funeral. The latter is dismissed as Qadhafi propaganda.
The Bombing of Civilian Targets

The objective is not to come to the rescue of civilians.

Quite the opposite. Both military as well as civilian targets have been pre-selected.

Civilian casualties are intentional. They are not the result of "collateral damage".

Early reports confirm that hospitals, civilian airports and government buildings have been bombed.

Within hours of the air attacks, a Libyan government health official "said the death toll from the Western air strikes had risen to 64 on Sunday after some of the wounded died." The number of wounded was of the order of 150. (Montreal Gazette, Gadhafi hurls defiance as allied forces strike Libya, March 19, 2011).

The death toll resulting from aerial bombings and missile attacks (March 24) is of the order of 100 civilians, according to Libyan government sources ( UN Chief Expects Int'l Community to Avoid Civilian Casualties in Libya, March 25, 2011)

Media Disinformation

These deaths resulting from US-NATO missiles and aerial bombings are either denied or casually dismissed as 'collateral damage'. According to British Foreign Secretary William Hague modern humanitarian warfare does result in civilian deaths, a totally absurd proposition:
"This operation has been doing what it was meant to do, protect the civilian population of Libya, and there is no confirmed evidence of any casualties at all, civilian casualties, caused by the coalition strikes on the Gaddafi regime," (British Foreign Secretary William Hague, No evidence of civilian casualties in Libya strikes: UK | Reuters, March 25, 2011)
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirms that "The coalition is going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties and most of the targets are air defence targets isolated from populated areas." (West trying to avoid Libyan civilian deaths: Robert Gates - World - DNA, March 22, 2011)

The objective of the media disinformation campaign is to blatantly obfuscate the loss of life of civilians. Western media reports on casualties are heavily convoluted. Tomahawk missiles and aerial bombings are upheld as instruments of peace and democracy. They do not result in civilian deaths.

Without media disinformation, the legitimacy of the military operation under R2P would collapse like a deck of card.

Nuke

Best of the Web: Yellow Rain Falls In Tokyo? Pollen Excuse Exact Same As Chernobyl Yellow Rain Lie

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© Unknown
While the Japanese government continues to say that the yellow rain seen in Japan was simply "pollen," many have been reminded of a very similar occurrence after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Almost on que, the Japan Meteorological Agency has confirmed the rain to be pollen after receiving hundreds of calls from concerned citizens.

The ''yellow rain'' seen Wednesday in the Kanto region surrounding Tokyo was caused by pollen, not radioactive materials as many residents had worried, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Thursday, reported the Japan Times.

That's right, according to so called experts, enough pollen to cause hundreds to report their findings, rained down on Tokyo at the same time as a devastating nuclear disaster has released high levels of radiation at least 20km from the nuclear plant.

This explanation has reminded many of the yellow rain that hit after the Chernobyl disaster.