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Bullseye

Best of the Web: The Academic Culture of Fraud

academia dumpster fire culture of fraud
© Chris Karidis
In 2006, Sylvain Lesné and seven coauthors published a paper on Alzheimer's disease, "A specific amyloid-beta protein assembly in the brain impairs memory," in Nature, the world's most prestigious scientific journal. This was a major paper in the development of the "amyloid hypothesis," a proposed mechanism for how Alzheimer's disease afflicts its victims. About 50 million people suffer from Alzheimer's disease, more than the entire population of California, making it the world's most common cause of dementia. This population will grow as the world's average population gets older. There is no effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease, and its pathology is poorly understood. Any progress in understanding this disease represents a massive humanitarian victory. Encouraged by this paper and other promising studies, funding and talent poured into investigating the amyloid hypothesis. By 2022, such research had received over $1 billion in government funds.

That year, neuroscientist Matthew Schrag discovered doctored images in this and many of Lesné's other papers, including others purporting to provide evidence for the amyloid hypothesis. These images had been manually edited and cropped together to falsely show support for the papers' hypotheses. Notably, these frauds all made it through the formalized "peer review" processes of Nature and six other academic journals undetected, before eventually being uncovered by unrelated channels.

Popcorn

Best of the Web: Israel's opposition leader Gantz and Foreign Affairs magazine warn country at risk of 'civil war'

Israeli soldiers and police clash with far-right nationalist
© OREN ZIV/AFP/GETTYFILE: Israeli soldiers and police clash with far-right nationalist protesters after they broke into the Beit Lid army base over the detention for questioning of military reservists suspected of abusing a Palestinian detainee, July 29, 2024, in Kfar Yona, Israel. Israeli Channel 14 reported on his statements, indicating that he expressed his thoughts during a public ceremony held Monday commemorating the so-called "destruction of the Temple."
Israeli Knesset member and opposition leader Benny Gantz has warned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not "sacrifice his government to protect Israelis," or do what is necessary to prevent civil war.

The former member of the Israeli war cabinet stressed that if Israelis "do not come to our senses, there will be a civil war here... It is forbidden to hide the truth."

According to him, there is a "leadership that divides the people and poisons the well from which everyone drinks."

Israeli Channel 14 reported on his statements, indicating that he expressed his thoughts during a public ceremony held Monday commemorating the so-called "destruction of the Temple."

Comment: One of the more revealing points that has since become clear, is that Israel isn't at risk of serious civil unrest because of a split between pro and anti-genocide supporters, on the contrary, the vast majority support the crimes against humanity. And this is foreboding for Israel, because it seems that a society that founded on such principles will inevitably ruin itself.

There are various signs that this slow implosion has already begun, in Israel's government, its military, and civilian society. Notably, Israel's allies are suffering similar crises.

This is allegedly what some in the axis of resistance are counting on, and it's why they're not being provoked into taking any unnecessary risks. Unfortunately, it's this undeniable trajectory that is also likely to compel those running Israel into ever more diabolical behaviour:


Cloud Precipitation

Best of the Web: All-time records shattered as Canada's weather turns upside down

Cars drive slowly through water overflowing on to highway 40 in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue
© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter McCabeCars drive slowly through water overflowing on to highway 40 in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue on the island of Montreal after heavy rains hit the area on Friday, August 9, 2024.
An astonishing bevy of rainfall and heat records fell this week as a strange pattern enveloped Canada

Montreal just trudged through its wettest day on record. Communities in the Northwest Territories logged Canada's hottest temperatures several times this week.

It's hard to shatter all-time records any day, but to see multiple records fall within the course of a few days takes some serious effort aloft.

The country's weather turned upside down this week as strange patterns evolved from coast to coast. Here's a look at some of the astounding records that have fallen over the past couple of days, and what it could mean for your conditions heading into next week.


Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: 'Inconceivable depravity': Former BBC zoologist jailed for raping and torturing dogs

Adam Britton
© CopyrightAdam Britton (pictured) has been jailed for more than 10 years over his 'grotesque' depravity and cruelty towards dogs.
A crocodile expert and former BBC zoologist who filmed himself raping and torturing dogs has been jailed for more than 10 years in Australia for what a judge condemned as 'inconceivable depravity'.

Adam Robert Corden Britton was sentenced in Darwin Supreme Court on Thursday having pleaded guilty to 56 offences related to the torture and sexual exploitation of more than 42 dogs on his rural property.

The 53-year-old, who was born in West Yorkshire and earned a PhD in zoology from Bristol University before emigrating to Australia, was sentenced to 10 years and five months with a non-parole period of six years, backdated to his April 2022 arrest.

Chief Justice Michael Grant also ordered that the once-respected academic be banned from owning or having on his property mammal-type animals for the term of his natural life.

Comment: Hell is fast becoming empty:


Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Washington's web of lies is backfiring over Venezuela

maduro election 20204
© Yuri CORTEZ / AFPVenezuelan President Nicolas Maduro addresses supporters in Caracas on August 7, 2024
Even if Maduro stole the election, no one would believe the US anyway

The 2024 presidential election in Venezuela, held on July 28, has stirred international concern - much like the preceding elections in the Caribbean state. A clear divide has emerged, with the United States and its allies supporting the opposition, while countries in the emerging multipolar world order are backing President Nicolas Maduro.

In much the same way that the US and its allies have disputed the legitimacy of Maduro's presidency since the 2018 election, spurring an artificial "presidential crisis" with former opposition leader Juan Guaido recognized by Washington as the "legitimate" president, the West is doing this again with former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez.

Star of David

Best of the Web: Nothing's changed since 1948 - except now Israel's excuses don't work

We have been lied to for decades about the creation of Israel. It was born in sin, and it continues to live in sin
headline gaza evacuation order IDF
The headline above, about yet another Israeli operation to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians in the tiny, besieged and utterly destroyed enclave of Gaza, was published in yesterday's Middle East Eye.

When I began studying Israeli history more than a quarter of a century ago, people claiming to be experts proffered plenty of excuses to explain why Israelis should not be held responsible for the 1948 ethnic cleansing of some 750,000 Palestinians from their homes - what Palestinians call their Nakba, or Catastrophe.

Star of David

Best of the Web: Leaked video shows Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting Palestinian detainee

israel prison
A leaked video showing Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee from Gaza in the notorious Israeli detention camp Sde Teiman has come to the fore.
The footage from surveillance cameras, aired by Israeli Channel 12, shows a group of Israeli reservist soldiers picking a detainee out of more than 30 others, who are all laid on the ground blindfolded. The detainee is then taken to a corner.

"It is clear that they know about the surveillance cameras, and try to hide their act with shields," the report said. "The video contains a documentation to the felony of the reservists: the act of sodomy in these circumstances."

Comment: What's particularly insidious is that these crimes against humanity are undeniable - there's now even video documentation for this particular crime - however, yet again, the 'international, rules based order', the citizens thereof, as well as Israel's population, in their silence and inaction, may be making themselves complicit. And complicity with such heinous acts does not bode well for the future of those peoples: Whom The Gods Would Destroy...

As the following posts note: the UN found no evidence of the rape or sexual assault of Israelis by Palestinians or Hamas, and Israeli officials and commentators openly laud the systematic sexual abuse and rape of Palestinians:





No Entry

Best of the Web: Ukrainian plot to assassinate Putin at Russia's Navy Day parade blocked after Kremlin alerts Pentagon - Moscow

putin parade
Sixteen days before the parade, Belousov says he called US defence secretary Lloyd Austin for a 'genuinely tough conversation'
A suspected assassination plot against Vladimir Putin by Ukraine was halted after Russia's defence minister called his opposite number at the Pentagon, according to Moscow.

Russian intelligence allegedly had discovered a Kyiv covert operation to strike at the Navy Day parade in St Petersburg on July 28.

Such an attack would have plunged Russia and the US into an 'uncontrollable conflict', implying a nuclear World War Three, according to Russian state TV Rossiya 1, which interviewed Putin's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, who described the alleged plot as 'madness'.


Comment: Interestingly, less than a month ago Russia revealed that a number of assassination threats and attempts had been thwarted. And so what's perhaps notable is that this one is being divulged, and in detail.

It's unlikely that these attempts have just begun occurring, nor, despite this announcement, will it be the last. If anything, it may be that the attempts are occurring with an increased intensity and, now, with the Trump assassination attempt in the public consciousness, Russia feels there's more reason to call attention to it.


Comment: Whilst Putin has been a target of the establishment for at least a decade, with all the assassination and coup attempts, in addition to all the escalations and provocations in recent months, it appears that they're going all out, and it's likely that there'll be even more yet to come:


Caduceus

Best of the Web: The Great Blood Pressure Scam

blood pressure
Ever since I first encountered the medical field, something struck me as off about their relentless focus on blood pressure. Before long, I began to notice that the blood pressures the same acquaintances (e.g., relatives or friends) shared with me varied immensely. As I was pondering this, a long-time Eastern spiritual teacher shared with me their belief that the West's relentless focus on blood pressure was due to it being much easier to measure than blood perfusion (healthy blood flow).

Then, as I became more acquainted with the medical field, I began to notice a consistent pattern — whenever a drug existed that could treat a number or statistic, as the years went by, the acceptable number kept on being narrowed, making more and more people eligible to take the drugs that treated the number.

For example, as I discussed recently, once the statins drugs entered the market (which unlike their predecessors, could effectively lower cholesterol), the acceptable blood cholesterol levels kept on being lowered, and before long almost everyone was told they would die from a heart attack unless they started a statin — despite statins have an almost non-existing mortality benefit (e.g., taking them for 5 years at best makes you live 3-4 days longer) and causing (often severe) side effects for roughly 20% of users. Broadly recommending these drugs hence appears unconscionable, but as I showed in that article, these unjustifiable guidelines were a product of clever pharmaceutical marketing and targeted bribery of public officials.

Whistle

Best of the Web: Bangladesh coup: India's growing anger with US foreign policy

bhangladesh modi india
© AP Photo / Manish Swarup
Bangladesh Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced in a televised address on Monday afternoon that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and an "interim government" would be formed. Reports suggest that Hasina left the country on a military chopper, before protesters stormed her official residence.

There is a palpable anger and frustration in India directed at the US in the wake of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's flight from Bangladesh as she succumbed to pressure from anti-government protesters, backed by opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) - Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) as well as having implicit support from western powers, according to experts.

Several former Indian military and intelligence officials told Sputnik India that the US seemed to have finally succeeded in destabilizing Bangladesh by toppling Hasina, widely viewed as pro-India for bolstering economic and security ties with New Delhi in the last 15 years since she had been in power.

Comment: To sum it up:


This is just the latest coup in recent months, clearly the West-Israeli establishment are going for broke.

A fairly comprehensive list, that includes the assassination attempts, can be found at the following link: Bolivia appoints new military commander following failed coup attempt

And, whilst the West escalates its chaos creation efforts, the multi-nodal world busies itself with more productive, and protective, activities: Russia's Putin meets Syrian president Assad in Moscow to discuss 'escalation' in Middle East

Also, regarding the protests that were a prelude to today's new - reported 18th July: Bangladesh rocked by massive university 'anti-quota' protests, 6 dead, hundreds injured