Best of the Web:


Health

Best of the Web: The Vaccination Agenda: An Implicit Transhumanism/Dehumanism

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:00 UTC
Vaccinations
© GreenMedInfo

Let's face it: the only real justification for using vaccines to "immunize" ourselves against disease is derived from the natural fact that when challenged by infectious agents the humoral arm of our immune system launches a successful response capable of conferring lasting immunity. Were it not for the elegance, proficiency, and mostly asymptomatic success of our recombinatorial immune system in dealing so well with infectious challenges, vaccination would have no cause, no scientific explanation, no justification whatsoever.

In fact, ever since the adaptive, antigen-specific immune system evolved in early vertebrates 500 million years ago, our bodies have been doing a pretty good job of keeping us alive on this planet without need for synthetic, vaccine-mediated immunity. Indeed, infectious challenges are necessary for the development of a healthy immune system and in order to prevent autoimmune conditions from emerging as a result of TH2 dominance. In other words, take away these natural infectious challenges, and the immune system can and will turn upon itself; take way these infectious challenges and lasting immunity against tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pathogens we are exposed to throughout our lives, would not be possible.

Can vaccines really co-opt, improve upon, and replace natural immunity with synthetic immunity?

How many will this require?

Are we not already at the critical threshold of vaccine overload?

By "improving" on our humanness in this way, are we not also at the same moment departing dramatically from it?
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Laptop

Best of the Web: Israel Rattled as Hackers Hit Bourse, Banks, El Al

Maayan Lubell
Reuters
Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:18 UTC
jewshacked
© ReutersAn ultra-Orthodox Jewish man walks past an El Al Israel Airlines logo at Ben Gurion International airport near Tel Aviv,in this file picture taken August 22, 2011.
Hackers disrupted online access to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, El Al Airlines and three banks on Monday in what the government described as a cyber-offensive against Israel.

The attacks came just days after an unidentified hacker, proclaiming Palestinian sympathies, posted the details of thousands of Israeli credit card holders and other personal information on the Internet in a mass theft.

Stock trading and El Al flights operated normally despite the disruption, which occurred as Israeli media reported that pro-Palestinian hackers had threatened at the weekend to shut down the TASE stock exchange and airline Web sites.

While apparently confined to areas causing only limited inconvenience, the attacks have caused particular alarm in a country that depends on high-tech systems for much of its defense against hostile neighbors. Officials insist, however, that they pose no immediate security threat.

"They have demanded an apology for Israel's defensive measures," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on his Facebook page, alluding to the conflict with Palestinians.

Comment: Giving the PTB MORE reason to shut down the internet.

Geeze, it's starting to look a lot like False Flag terrorist attacks every day. You know, like so-called Palestinian suicide bombers?

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Laptop

Best of the Web: Anonymous Shuts Down Corporate and Government Websites Worldwide ... The Timing Couldn't Be Worse


Washington's Blog
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:43 UTC
anonymous graphic
© n/a
Anonymous Shuts Down MPAA, RIAA, FBI, DOJ and Copyright Office

Anonymous launched one of the largest hacking attacks in history today.

Gizmodo reports that - in response to the Feds' shutting down of the extremely popular file-sharing site MegaUpload - Anonymous has shut down the sites of the main corporate copyright enforcers, including:
  • Motion Picture Association of America
  • Recording Industry Association of America
  • Universal Music
  • EMI
Anonymous has also shut down the main U.S. governmental copyright enforcers, including:
  • U.S. Copyright Office
  • Department of Justice
  • FBI
Plus foreign agencies, including:
  • French copyright authority HADOPI

Comment: Comment by Michael Rivero of WhatReallyHappened:

I have had my doubts about "Anonymous" ever since they showed up supporting Julian Assange and his extortion racket pretending to be a whistle blower site. In aligning with the pirates and attacking the DOJ, anonymous has handed the US government more justification for draconian controls on the internet.

I see your true colors shining through.

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Attention

Best of the Web: Update on SOPA and PIPA: What's Happening With the Web Censorship Bills?


Washington's Blog
Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
In the face of massive Internet protest today, key senate and house backers of the SOPA and PIPA web censorship bills - including Senators Marco Rubio, Roy Blunt, John Cornyn, Orrin Hatch, John Boozman and Jim DeMint, and Representatives Ben Quayle and Lee Terry - have dropped their support. So have a number of other senators.

At least 17,000 websites allegedly joined in the protest.

Indeed, even several congresspeople joined in the protest. Here's what Congresswoman Anna Eshoo's homepage looks like right now:
Image
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Whistle

Best of the Web: STOP SOPA: Piracy distributors are SOPA Promoters

Michael Mozart
You Tube
Sat, 22 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC

More information Michael Mozart has collected can be found on his website here.
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Crusader

Best of the Web: English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout

Sue Gardner
Wikimedia Foundation
Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:29 UTC
To: English Wikipedia Readers and Community
From: Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director
Date: January 16, 2012

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States - the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate - that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it's a decision that wasn't lightly made. Here's how it's been described by the three Wikipedia administrators who formally facilitated the community's discussion. From the public statement, signed by User:NuclearWarfare, User:Risker and User:Billinghurst:
It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web.

Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a "blackout" of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

On careful review of this discussion, the closing administrators note the broad-based support for action from Wikipedians around the world, not just from within the United States. The primary objection to a global blackout came from those who preferred that the blackout be limited to readers from the United States, with the rest of the world seeing a simple banner notice instead. We also noted that roughly 55% of those supporting a blackout preferred that it be a global one, with many pointing to concerns about similar legislation in other nations.

Comment: To see a list of those expressing concern with SOPA and PIPA, compiled by the Center for Democracy & Technology, go here.

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Attention

Best of the Web: Fluoride Linked to #1 Cause of Death in New Research

Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society
Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:00 UTC
Water
© Natural Society

Groundbreaking new research has linked sodium fluoride to cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death worldwide. Researchers found that fluoride consumption directly stimulates the hardening of your arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis that is highly correlated with the #1 killer. Sodium fluoride is currently added to the water supply of many cities worldwide, despite extreme opposition from health professionals and previous studies linking it to decreased IQ and infertility.

In their research, scientists examined the relationship between fluoride intake and the hardening (calcification) of the arteries. Studying more than 60 patients, the researchers found a significant correlation between fluoride consumption and the calcification of your arteries. Published in the January edition of the journal Nuclear Medicine Communications, the research highlights the fact that mass fluoride exposure may be to blame for the cardiovascular disease epidemic that takes more lives each year than cancer.

According to the authors of the study:
"The coronary fluoride uptake value in patients with cardiovascular events was significantly higher than in patients without cardiovascular events."
Amazingly, this is not the first report to come out on the dangers of water fluoridation, however the United States government along with other nations have allowed for the continued fluoridation of the public water supply despite these key findings. In fact, the U.S. government has even gone on record stating that a reduction in water fluoridation needs to occur following the results of a massive study that found water fluoridation affected cognitive function to the point of lowering the IQ of children. It turns out that the announcement was little more than a public relations stunt to curtail the massive wave of activism that followed the findings.
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Wolf

Best of the Web: We've Lost Nearly All of Our Wild Foods -- What Happened? And What Are We Missing?

Jill Richardson
AlterNet
Sat, 29 Dec 2012 17:33 UTC
foraging
© n/a
Fish are the last wild food that most of us will eat.

A few days from now, a single bluefin tuna will make international headlines when it sells for an ungodly amount of money -- perhaps more than $100,000 -- at Tokyo's Tsukiji market. And while the high price of the first bluefin of the year will be extraordinary, the rarity, and thus the prestige and high pricetag of bluefin in general, provides a clue to humans' dietary history. Once upon a time, wild foods were a regular and beloved part of the American diet. Today, the American epicure might dine on foraged mushrooms and ramps, but for many of us, fish are the last wild food we eat. What happened? And what are we missing?

Georgia Pellegrini, a chef who has worked in elite restaurants in New York and France, decided to answer this question for herself when she set out to hunt her own food. As her new book's title implies -- Girl Hunter: Revolutionizing the Way We Eat, One Hunt at a Time -- she entered into a masculine realm in which she was often the only woman. Pellegrini traveled across the United States and even England, hunting everything from squirrel to elk. As much as she stands out as a woman, she also stands out among the local and sustainable food movement. (An anthropologist recently pointed out that the local food movement "has been reticent to embrace hunting as an integral part of sustainable eating.")

As a chef, Pellegrini focuses on her meal's flavor more than many other sustainable food writers. At one point, while contemplating pulling the trigger to shoot a javelina, Pellegrini says, "I wonder if I had to work hard enough for this. I wonder if I had to exert myself enough... Then I wonder how javelina taste."
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War Whore

Best of the Web: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery ... and Fighting Back is "Aggression"

Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society
Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:23 UTC
US naval force
© n/a
The US Department of Defense recently promulgated a new "defense" guidance document: "Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense." I use scare quotes because it just doesn't seem quite right to use "defense" to describe a document that - like its predecessors - envisions something like an American Thousand-Year Reich.

The greatest shift in emphasis is in the section "Project power despite Anti-Access/Area Denial Challenges." The "threat" to be countered is that China and Iran "will continue to pursue asymmetric means to counter our power projection capabilities."

That refers to a long-standing phenomenon: What Pentagon analysts call "Assassin's Mace" weapons - cheap, agile weapons that render expensive, high-tech, weapons systems ineffective at a cost several orders of magnitude cheaper than the Pentagon's gold-plated turds. In the context of "area denial," they include cheap anti-ship mines, surface-to-air missiles, and anti-ship missiles like the Sunburn (which some believe could destroy or severely damage aircraft carriers).
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Igloo

Best of the Web: Prominent Scientist Doubts Global Warming

Josh Holloway
The Western Front
Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:14 UTC
Don Easterbrook
© Rachel HowlandProfessor emeritus Don Easterbrook is a specialist in glacial geology. “I’ve been on them, in them, under them and over them,” Easterbrook said.
Easterbrook has studied climate change from the ice ages to the present day. His focus is in studying the movements of glaciers from climate change, as well as doing isotopic analysis of the elements found in ice cores.

He believes the Earth is currently in a cooling period. He continues to research climate change with an international team of over 50 members, including solar physicists, atmospheric physicists and glacial geologists. He is the author of eight books and more than 150 journal publications, including Evidence-Based Climate, which was published in September 2011.

How long have you been working or researching specifically climate change, and what is your background in the field?

I've been working on climate change 50 years. The way I approached it is by first studying the fluctuations of glaciers, both modern ones and ancient ones, which allow you to reconstruct what the climate was like when the glaciers were advancing and retreating. They're like very old paleo-thermometers. They allow you to determine what the climate was doing.

When the climate is cold and snowy the glaciers advance, and when it is warm and dry they retreat. They leave a footprint of where they have been. So you follow those footprints, and you can tell what the glaciers have been doing, which tells you what the climate was doing. I also work with isotopes. They too carry a signature footprint of old climates.
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