Hopi Knowledge

Etched equilateral cross petroglyph seen at Inscription Canyon near Prescott,
Arizona. (Source)

In “Kásskara: Sunken Land of the Hopi Ancestors” (18th March 2020), Hopi elder Oswald “White Bear” Fredericks (1905-1996) described the Hopis’ epic migration story as it unfolded through aeons and on several continents, a couple of them now on the ocean floor. Their mythology, which I explain more fully in the first article, essentially envisions a series of “worlds” through which the human being, personally and collectively, must pass, these worlds corresponding generally to vast periods of time and changing configurations of global geology.

White Bear described a succession of cycles through which human societies develop and then self-destruct because they have fallen out of harmony with the intelligent universal force from which all life springs.

According to Hopi mythology, the First World, Tokpela, was destroyed by fire. The Second World, Tokpa, was destroyed by ice. Both conditions may have come about through disturbances in the Earth’s orbit and polar shifts. In the previous article I mentioned that Plato, recounting in Critias his uncle’s Egyptian sojourn, said a temple priest at Sais had told Solon that “a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals…” caused the sinking of Atlantis, a notion consonant with the Hopi world view. Kásskara (Lemuria) was coeval with Talawaitichqua (Atlantis) and was destroyed by water, White Bear said, in the following manner:

“The kickmonguity, or Queen of Atlantis, had been threatening Kásskara with destruction from weapons that could be fired from space. Our people had knowledge comparable with the people of Atlantis, but we used it only for good and useful ends. As I already mentioned, we studied the secrets of nature, the power of the Creator in living things,” White Bear said, explaining that his ancestors did not seek revenge and avoided killing even to defend themselves. The Hopi culturally embody Jesus’ admonition not to resist evil: “Turn the other cheek”.

The Shield of Protection

“My people did not defend themselves when [Kásskara was] attacked. And it was right! If that seems strange to you, look at what the Hopi do today. The government of the United States gave us a reservation. Can you imagine? And then they kept coming to cut pieces out of it. They reduced our country more and more. Each time the government does that we say, ‘It is not right’, as we were instructed [to do] by the Creator,” White Bear said, noting that even if his ancestors had not defended themselves actively, they still had their “shield of protection.” He said he could not scientifically explain what this shield was and how it worked, but he described it this way:

“If there is lightning, it reaches our shield, and there it explodes. It does not cross the shield. I remember well how my grandmother showed me the way in which the shield acts. One day when I was still a child, she took a basin and turned it over, saying, ‘Now you are under the basin. If something falls on it, it will not hurt you’. Perhaps I should tell you that she wanted me to repeat all the stories that she told me,” White Bear said. “When I made a mistake she stopped me, and I had to start all over again. It’s why I know by heart all of what my grandmother told me.”

We might, in our modern sophistication, feel tempted to disregard or trivialise White Bear’s grandmother as a credible source of information, but consider that the matrilineal Hopi respect and value wisdom passed down by their elders. His grandmother would not intentionally lie to him, and her insistence that he repeat minor details he hadn’t easily recalled suggests that she took seriously the transmission of this knowledge to her grandson. This transmission is the basis of all oral traditions. The Hopi in their annual cycle of ceremonies re-enact these stories because they consider them too important to be forgotten.

“All the bombs, or whatever they were, exploded far above our heads, and the shield protected all people who were to be saved and had been gathered in a certain area. Cities were attacked and many people perished. Only we were saved. And then—as my grandmother said—somebody pushed the ‘bad button’ and the two continents sank,” White Bear explained. “However, the destruction was not universal. The entire Earth was not destroyed, and not all men were killed. But Atlantis disappeared very quickly into the ocean and our Third World, Kásskara, disappeared very slowly.”

The Laws of the Creator

One interesting feature of the Hopi religious mindset is its similarity to that of certain Eastern religions. The Hopi embrace the idea of reincarnation. They acknowledge “Kundalini energy” and the vortices of psychic vitality called “chakras, and they also recognise the universal law of karma, the spiritual equivalent of Newton’s third law of motion: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The law of karma is also expressed eloquently in the biblical admonition, “As you sow, so shall you reap.” White Bear explained the Hopi view of karma:

“Let us suppose that I want to kill somebody and that I have an accomplice. We agree to do it. Even if it is me that kills, the accomplice does it in thought. But he is not as guilty as me,” White Bear said. “It is the reason for the fast destruction of Atlantis; they attacked. We, or some of our people, were only collaborators at the time Atlantis attacked Kásskara. This is why the fault on our side was minor and our group had a new chance. If we had been as guilty as the people from Atlantis, we also would have been quickly destroyed,” he added.

“The power external to the human capacity did not allow that the People of Peace be destroyed completely. These people were reincarnations of men who had lived in the Second World, Tokpa, and who had followed the laws of the Creator. It was His will to give to those who were to be saved the means of succeeding.

“We were saved and we came here because since the First World, Tokpela, we have always obeyed the Divine Laws! We will see now what occurred then and what role the Kachinas played in bringing us to this continent in the Fourth World,” White Bear said.

Kachinas: Emissaries from Space

Since their emergence in the First World, the Hopi and their ancestors remained in a close relationship with Kachinas, who White Bear defined as “initiated, highly ranked, esteemed beings.” They were originally called Kyákyapichina, the plural form of Kyápchina, the term also incorporating the word “chinakane”, which means “growth” as in the growth of a plant, although in this context the word also indicates the spiritual growth that the Kachinas inspire. The language evolved over time, and now these entities are simply called Kachinas.

Pahlikmana, Hopi kachina doll, c. late 19th century, held in the Brooklyn Museum. (PD0)

Kachinas can manifest visibly or invisibly, but White Bear made it clear that these beings come from locations vastly distant from Earth.

“The Kachinas come from space. They do not come from our solar system but from very distant planets. It would require several generations for our astronauts to get there,” White Bear said. “The Hopi name for these planets is Tóónatakha, which means ‘close to each other’, in a spiritual sense rather than a material one because all their inhabitants share the same responsibilities and work closely together. For this reason, the Hopi translate “Tóónatakha” as “Confederation of Planets”; and because we know there are 12 such worlds, we also refer to the “Confederation of Twelve Planets”, he explained, adding: “While I pronounce this sentence, they can traverse vast distances. Their vessels fly with magnetic force even when they circle the Earth.”

In 1978, White Bear accompanied my anthropology teacher, Henry Denny, and me to Inscription Canyon near Prescott, Arizona, an area noted for its ancient petroglyphs. He pointed out an equilateral cross on a rock slab, its deeply etched outline suggesting an amniotic enclosure. The glyph pre-dates the birth of Christ, he told us, saying that it anticipated this future divine incarnation. White Bear also showed us a glyph of the aforementioned Confederation of Planets, indicating those inhabited worlds that communicate with each other.

In ancient times it was known among certain people that intelligent beings had come from space and helped cultivate mankind out of its primitive state, but this knowledge was nearly lost when the Earth suffered global and semi-global cataclysms. Some of this knowledge survived in the mythologies of aboriginal people, and even in the West some of this information remained concealed by various powerful institutions, often with contradictory interests, such as Freemasonry and the Roman Catholic Church.

White Bear explained that Kachinas have varying ranks depending upon their capacities. While they’re all called Kachinas‚ some are also called Wuyas, which means “divinity” and denotes an exceptionally wise person.

“Comparing Kachinas and Wuyas with Christian entities, we might say Angels for Kachinas and Archangels for Wuyas. They are all Angels‚ but the highest in rank you would call Archangels. The divinities are positioned above the Kachinas, and above all there is the Creator,” White Bear said. “Only Kachinas are in contact with the human beings‚ not the divinities who only give instructions to the Kachinas.”

The Hopi refer only to Kachinas when familiarising children with the initiated beings. “It would be too difficult to explain the difference to them, and this is where the Kachina puppets serve their role: they accustom children to these beings’ physical appearance so they do not fear seeing the dancers,” White Bear explained, adding that even tourists who buy these puppets call them Kachinas, but it doesn’t really matter if they are unaware of the deeper meanings.

“We do the same thing with the San Francisco mountains [a sacred range southwest of Hopiland]. When children see those high peaks, they understand when we tell them that this is where the Kachinas go when they leave us,” White Bear said, saying that it’s easier for children to understand a high mountain than a distant planet. “Think about what you tell your children about Santa Claus and the child Jesus. But when the children are accepted among the adults‚ the difference is explained. The Kachinas come from a very distant planet, and when they leave us they return there. The men who carry out the dances represent these learned beings who came to us a long time ago,” he said.

The San Francisco Peaks, a volcanic mountain range in north-central Arizona, sacred to the Hopi. (PD0)

White Bear described three kinds of Kachinas. The first involves survival and the continuity of life. In the Hopi dances, these Kachinas appear in mid-winter when in nature all life sleeps.

“They offer the certainty to us that life will return and continue; and as reincarnation belongs to the continuity of life‚ it means that we will take birth again and have the possibility to improve,” White Bear said.

The second group consists of the teachers. “We learn from them who we are and where we are‚ what transformations we can undergo and what we must do,” he noted.

The third group represents the guardians of the law. “They are the ones who warn us. They explain to us patiently what not to do,” White Bear said, “but in time they stop informing us and start punishing us for any evil we do.”

White Bear reported that children have been born following a “mystical relation” between Hopi women and Kachinas. “There was a physical proximity between our people and Kachinas. We could touch them. But even if that seems strange‚ they never had sexual relations. The children were conceived in a mystical way,” he said, apparently referring to the phenomenon called “virgin birth” in Christian doctrine.

“Such children‚ when grown, possessed great knowledge and wisdom and sometimes even supernatural capacities, which they had received from their spiritual father,” White Bear explained. “They were splendid, powerful men who were always ready to help but never to destroy.”

Flying Shields and Magnetic Fields

White Bear made it clear that Kachinas have physical bodies. “That’s why they need vessels to travel in our skies and return to their planets,” he said, adding that the spaceships have various sizes and names. “One name is Patoowa, ‘the object which can fly above water’. Pahu means ‘water’ in our language, and Toowata is ‘an object with a curved surface’. Because of this form, we also call it a ‘flying shield’. I will tell you what it resembles: if you cut a calabash [gourd] in two‚ a form is obtained with the aspect of a saucer. You may assemble two of these and approximate the shape of the vessel which they used formerly to go to these planets. A pilot sitting inside can move the craft in all the directions and does not lose balance regardless of speed. Because of this form, we call it Inioma,” he said.

I haven’t been able to locate a definition for Inioma beyond White Bear’s description that suggests the occupants were unaffected by the ship’s velocity. It’s also clear that White Bear believed that the spaceships flew by somehow utilizing magnetic or gravitational fields.

The Hopi know that some of their ancestors flew in these spaceships, which had also been used in other countries. In India, for example, they were called Vimanas. “People from Atlantis came to us in these vessels. Near Oraibi there is a petroglyph representing a woman in a flying shield. The arrow signifies high speed,” he said. “You can see that she carries the hair of a married woman.”

Describing these spaceships, White Bear said the two halves are held together by a “support” which the pilots must actuate. When they turn a lever to the right‚ the ship goes up. When they turn it to the left‚ it goes down.

“The vessels do not have engines like aeroplanes and do not use fuel. They fly in a magnetic field. Pilots must only know the adequate height. If they want to move towards the east‚ they choose a certain height. If they want to go north‚ they choose another height. It is enough to go up to the height corresponding to the selected direction and the vessel flies in the desired direction. This way, they can reach any place inside our atmosphere and can also leave the Earth,” White Bear said. “It is very simple!”

Toowakachi, The Fourth World

It’s clear that the Hopi embrace a world view which is more expansive, timeless and wondrous than our own. Members of our “modern culture” are slowly abandoning the anthropocentric view that humanity represents a pinnacle of Creation. Life must exist elsewhere in the Universe and permeate it.

It took our clever culture of reason and science hundreds of years to apprehend knowledge that the Hopis have embodied all along—awareness that malicious human activity, including large-scale warfare and wilful environmental destruction, disturbs a delicate balance that directly harms all life on the planet. The Hopi say they know what’s coming because their ancestors have seen this inevitable cycle play out before.

After a great war between Kásskara and Talawaitichqua—the land we call Atlantis—Kásskara had begun slowly sinking, while Atlantis submerged quickly. A long time before Kásskara and Atlantis had been “absorbed into the earth” as White Bear described it, the Kachinas had noticed a continent to the east emerging from the water. “It was the same country as that we had lived on in our Second World, Tokpa, but its appearance was different, so now we called it ‘Toowakachi’— the Fourth World,” he said, referring to the continent we today call South America.

The Kachinas had been monitoring this emerging land mass, and when a sufficient portion was above the water, they began preparing for great migrations to this new continent, White Bear explained. These migrations spanned centuries. The Creator had decided to save these people and directed the Kachinas to help them reach this new homeland.

The initial groups, consisting of those essential to the development of infrastructure such as planners and engineers, arrived on various types of flying craft. The largest groups of immigrants were transported using reed boats via a chain of islands, Easter Island being the only one still above water.  ∞

from:    https://grahamhancock.com/hamiltons2/

The Younger Dryas Event

Scientists Agree: Younger Dryas Impact Event Wiped Out Ancient Civilization | Ancient Architects

by

Via Ancient Architects

The Earth was hit by a fragmented comet around 13,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene Era and scientists are now starting to agree.

A new research paper has been published in Scientific Reports regarding an ancient civilisation in what is modern-day Syria that was wiped out by the cataclysm, as academics finally come round to the idea that yes this event did happen.

Even the sceptic Michael Shermer, who famously debated Graham Hancock on the Joe Rogan podcast has tweeted Graham saying:

“Ok Graham, I shall adjust my priors in light of more research like this, and modify my credence about your theory.”

The evidence always spoke for itself for a lot of people, but it’s positive to see him address Graham in a public manner like this.

So what have the scientists discovered? Well, remnants of glass have been found that could only have been created during a high-impact event. Other minerals such as chromium, iron, nickel and others were discovered too, all of which form at temperatures higher than 2,200 degrees, according to a statement from the University of California-Santa Barbara.

The site the discovery was made is known as Abu Hureyra, which was abandoned around 5,000 years ago.

The glass finds are believed to have been formed from the instantaneous melting and vaporization of regional biomass, soils and floodplain deposits, followed by instantaneous cooling. This is really only common during impact events.

Graham Hancock and others such as Randall Carlson have long said that it was likely a fragmented comet, and that is what the scientists are saying who are analysing the Syrian finds. A single, major asteroid impact could not have caused the widely scattered material discovered at Abu Hureyra and the experts say that it is more likely a fragmented comet.

The Younger Dryas Event is what caused a large megafaunal extinction, seeing the end of woolly mammoths, species of bison, American horses and camels, and giant sloths. It also saw the end of the North American Clovis culture.

The evidence is there in the field and it continues to stack up. Two years ago we read about reports of a 19-mile wide crater in Greenland that could be related to this cataclysmic event and in October 2019, a study was published that said there was a mini ice age 12,800 years ago that was caused by an impact event.

But at the beginning of this mini ice age there were huge levels of burning and now we know that Abu Hureyra was abruptly destroyed from what can only be an impact event. We have new direct evidence of the disaster, together with tons of data from around the world. History is finally being re-written!

All images are taken from Google Images and the below sources for educational purposes only.

Sources:
https://nypost.com/2020/03/10/giant-a…
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159…

from:    https://sacredgeometryinternational.com/scientists-agree-younger-dryas-impact-event-wiped-ancient-civilization-ancient-architects/

New Findings RE: Gobekli Tepi

Göbekli Tepe’s Architectural Layout Required an Understanding of Geometry and Complex Planning—13,000 Years Ago

Archaeologists with Israel’s Tel Aviv University have discovered a previously-unnoticed geometric pattern in the layout of the excavated portions of Göbekli Tepe, the 13,000-year-old megalithic complex in modern-day Turkey that has upended modern archaeological assumptions since its unveiling over two decades ago. This geometric pattern not only predates the advent of writing and the wheel by at least a millennium, but it also appears to hint at the evolution of human society and consciousness—specifically, the change in our understanding of our place in the natural world.

The discovery of these geometric patterns was made by Tel Aviv University’s Gil Haklay and Avi Gopher, with the architectural pattern apparent in both the internal and external layouts of the three stone circles at Göbekli Tepe known as enclosures B, C and D. An analytical method called “architectural formal analysis” was applied to the complex’s layout by Haklay, an Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist and a former architect; this form of analysis is used to determine the planning methods and principles used in the design of existing structures.

The analysis was used to determine the center points of each of the three otherwise irregularly-shaped enclosures, each of which sat roughly between the set of twin T-shaped pillars that dominate the center of each circle. While that outcome was expected, one important pattern became apparent: the three points formed a nearly perfect equilateral triangle, with each point only 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) away from forming a perfect triangle with 19.25-meter (63.16-foot) sides.

“I certainly did not expect this,” Haklay said. “The enclosures all have different sizes and shapes so the odds that these center points would form an equilateral triangle by chance are very low.”

Specifically, a line can be traced through enclosure B and C’s four central pillars, forming the southern side of the triangle; a line drawn perpendicularly through the midpoint of this line intersects the triangle’s northern point in the middle of enclosure D, consistent with the geometry of an equilateral triangle.

While such a simple geometric arrangement might be easily taken for granted today, this layout implies that the supposedly hunter-gatherer builders of Göbekli Tepe made a plan of the layout before they commenced construction of the three enclosures, at a time when written language had yet to be invented. The layout would have required the use of a scaled floor plan, according to Haklay, possibly using something as simple as a diagram set out on the ground using reeds cut to equal lengths.

“Each enclosure subsequently went through a long construction history with multiple modifications, but at least in an initial phase they started as a single project,” Haklay explains, referring to the commonly-held assumption that each of Göbekli Tepe’s enclosures were made individually over a long period of time. However, the complex—or at least enclosures B, C and D—appear to have at least been planned as one project, if they weren’t actually built as such. However, if the three circles were constructed at the same time, then even more manpower would be required to build the complex than previously assumed.

“The implication is that a single project at Göbekli Tepe was three times larger than previously thought and required three times as much manpower – a level that is unprecedented in hunter-gatherer societies,” Haklay concludes.

This large-scale coordination of planners and workers (not to mention the people supporting the project with food and other necessities) would make Göbekli Tepe the oldest known example of a stratified society, requiring a hierarchy to successfully plan and execute the project.

The site itself may also indicate that the complex’s builders were aware of such changes to their way of life: Haklay and Gopher suspect that the triangle itself may represent the emergence of a hierarchy in the builders’ society. And while the stonework at Göbekli Tepe is rich with carved reliefs of both humans and animals, the twin pillars at the center of enclosure D are the only ones that depict human figures exclusively, in what may be a powerful message that the humans there began to consider themselves above the natural world.

“In Paleolithic art humans are rare, and this is true here as well, but you start to see change, the beginning of an anthropocentric world view in which animals and plants are no longer equal to humans but are subordinated to them,” according to Gopher.

“The end of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle is more of an ideological transformation than an economic or technological one,” Gopher continues. “Hunter-gatherers cannot domesticate anything; it’s against their world view, which is based on equality and trust. Once that ideology changes, the entire structure of society is transformed and a new world is born.”

Image Credits:
News Source:

from:    https://www.unknowncountry.com/headline-news/gobekli-tepes-architectural-layout-required-an-understanding-of-geometry-and-complex-planning-13000-years-ago-unknowncountry-x/

On Earth Day – WIlliam Henry

On this Earth Day 2020 our world is changing…fast. We’re growing from one paradigm to another. We seeds have had a lot of fertilizer thrown on us of late. What we need to help make sense of things is to push through all that and get out of our box. Look at things from a higher perspective. Act more like the cosmic tree that we are, rather than identifying with the seed.

For instance, what if we view earth as a doughnut? Or a torus? A wormhole? You can see it everywhere – in atoms, cells, seeds, flowers, trees, animals, humans, hurricanes, planets, suns, galaxies and even the cosmos as a whole.

What if we begin to identify with this pattern?

Agnes Denes. 

Agnes Denes did this. She reimagined our globe’s spatial coordinates, squished them a bit, and voila, our beautiful home now bends to torus physics. In fact, our universe may be torus shaped.

There are wonderful similarities between the torus model of the universe and such mythic models as Yggdrasil, the World Tree or Cosmic Tree.

Yggdrasil. 

Yggdrasil is understood to be two trees in one, the part which branches above ground and the part which branches below.

The Cosmic Tree compares geometrically with the torus, the trunk being the central worm hole. Also, both trees are a single dynamic recirculating systems like the torus.

Yggdrasil is understood to be two trees in one, the part which branches above ground and the part which branches below. From its central trunk — or central wormhole — we see the lustrous rainbow bridge Bifröst , the shimmering wormhole.

With its branches in the heavens and its roots in the underworld, the Cosmic Tree is a common feature of religions and mythologies around the globe.

Ultimately the Cosmic Tree is our body. We are like Odin hanging on Yggsdrasl. Each of us is a tree rising in the center of the universe. Our body is a ladder we use to descend into the underworld or ascend into the heavens. We are heavens bridge.

How would this change your personal relationship with the universe?

What would you differently if you know that with every breath the universe collapse into you, just as you collapse into it?

from:    https://www.williamhenry.net/2020/04/we-cosmic-trees/

Tornadoes – Gaia Roars

At least 5 dead as tornadoes touch down in Oklahoma, Texas

A sixth person died in Louisiana floodwaters.

An outbreak of reported tornadoes across Oklahoma and Texas on Wednesday night has killed at least three people.

An official with Marshall County Emergency Management confirms that at least two people were killed and several others injured when a tornado struck in Madill, OK. It hit as people were getting off of work in two manufacturing facilities and were in cars. He could not confirm if the two dead were in cars or in buildings.

There are at least three people dead in Polk County, Texas, following severe weather Wednesday. The hardest hit area was in Onalaska, Texas.

At this time, search and rescue is ongoing, and Polk County Emergency Management officials said there are at least 20-30 injuries.

Video showed a massive tornado in Madill, flinging sheet metal and debris into the air Wednesday afternoon.

Madill is in far southern Oklahoma, about 10 miles from the Texas border.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed there was tornado damage in Polk County, in eastern Texas. There was a “large and extremely dangerous” tornado near Sebastopol at about 5:45 p.m. local time, according to the NWS.

“My office, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and other state agencies are working with local officials to provide immediate support to the areas devastated by this tornado,” Abbott said in a statement. “The state has already deployed response teams and medical resources to help Texans in need and to provide assistance to these communities. Our hearts are with our fellow Texans tonight and the state will continue to do everything it can to support those affected by this severe weather.”

Polk County issued a disaster declaration, saying there has been significant damage to residential and commercial structures, and to public infrastructure.

There was also a confirmed tornado on the ground in Jasper, Texas, near the Louisiana border.

Officials in Louisiana said a man died after getting caught in floodwaters.

Deputy Mark Pierce, a spokesman for DeSoto Parish Sheriff’s Office, told ABC News a male victim somehow got caught in a drain/ditch and was swept away by floodwater in Mansfield, Louisiana.

“Mansfield PD received a call in reference to an individual that was seen trying to get a trash can from some flooded water,” Sheriff Jayson Richardson told ABC affiliate KTBS. “He ended up getting swept into that water. We, ultimately, found him 50 to 60 yards downstream.”

As of 7 a.m. Eastern time Thursday, there had been 24 tornadoes reported across Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana.

There are still tornado watches in effect until 2 p.m. for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

At least 34 people were killed in an outbreak of tornadoes earlier this month in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

ABC News’ Marilyn Heck, Melissa Griffin and Cammeron Parrish contributed to this report.

from:    https://abcnews.go.com/US/dead-tornadoes-touch-oklahoma-texas/story?id=70299741

Curious Dolphin Traits

9 mind-boggling dolphin facts

Dolphins are exceptionally smart — and a little quirky, too.

Jaymi Heimbuch

April 1, 2020,
Never underestimate the intelligence or abilities of dolphins.

Never underestimate the intelligence or abilities of dolphins. (Photo: Matt9122/Shutterstock)

Dolphins never cease to amaze. As researchers delve into the underwater world of these brilliant cetaceans, we’re learning how full of surprises these creatures are, from their intricate social lives to their intelligence. Here are just some of the ways dolphins are exceptional, both physically and mentally.

1. Dolphins evolved from land-based animals

Dolphins didn’t always live in the water. They are what’s called reentrants. Millions of years ago, the ancestors of dolphins roamed across land. The dolphins we know today are evolved from even-toed ungulates, which had hoof-like toes at the end of each foot. But around 50 million years ago, these ancestor animals decided the ocean was a better place to live. They eventually returned to the water and evolved into the dolphins that we know today.

The evidence for this evolutionary history can still be seen in dolphins today. Adult dolphins and whales have remnant finger bones in their flippers, as well as vestigial leg bones. (For a quick refresher on homologous structures, the structures found in different species that originated from a common ancestor, read 8 uncanny examples of convergent evolution.)

2. Dolphins stay awake for weeks on end

A female dolphin with her calf. Neither of them are getting much sleep! A female dolphin with her calf. Neither of them are getting much sleep! (Photo: Jman78/iStockPhoto)

Recent research has shown the surprising capability of dolphins to stay awake for days or weeks on end — or possibly indefinitely.

On the one hand, the ability makes perfect sense. Dolphins need to go to the ocean’s surface to breathe, so they can’t simply breathe automatically like humans do. They have to stay constantly awake to take a breath and avoid drowning. How do they do this? By resting just one half of their brain at a time, a process called unihemispheric sleep.

Brian Branstetter, a marine biologist with the National Marine Mammal Foundation, and fellow researchers conducted a test with two dolphins, seeing how long they could stay alert. According to Live Science:

The scientists found these dolphins could successfully use echolocation with near-perfect accuracy and no sign of deteriorating performance for up to 15 days. The researchers did not test how much longer the dolphins could have continued. “Dolphins can continue to swim and think for days without rest or sleep, possibly indefinitely,” Branstetter said. These findings suggest that dolphins evolved to sleep with only half their brains not only to keep from drowning, but also to remain vigilant.

Breathing and not being eaten are two excellent reasons to keep at least half of the brain active at all times. But what about baby dolphins? Turns out, they don’t sleep either. For as long as a month after birth, dolphin calves don’t catch a wink of sleep. Researchers think this is an advantage, helping the calf to better escape predators, keeping the body temperature up while the body accumulates blubber, and even encouraging brain growth.

3. Most dolphins don’t chew

Dolphin's teeth close up Dolphin do have teeth, but they aren’t used for chewing. (Photo: Alicia Chelini/Shutterstock)

If you’ve ever watched a dolphin eat, you may have noticed that they seem to gulp down their food. That’s because dolphins can’t chew. Instead, their teeth are used to grip prey, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Sometimes, they’ll shake their food or rub it on the ocean floor to tear it into more manageable pieces. One theory for why they’ve evolved to do away with chewing is because they need to quickly consume fish before dinner can swim away. Skipping the process of chewing ensures their meal doesn’t escape.

4. Dolphins have worked for the Navy since the 1960s

Navy dolphin wearing a locating pinger, Sgt. Andrew Garrett A Navy-trained dolphin wears a locating pinger as it performs mine clearance work in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War. (Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Brien Aho [public domain]/Wikimedia Commons)

The idea of dolphins being employed by the military to scan harbors for enemy swimmers or pinpoint the location of underwater mines may seem like the plot of a B-rated movie, but it’s true — and has been for decades.

Since the 1960s, the U.S. Navy has been utilizing dolphins and training them to detect underwater mines. Much the same way bomb-detecting dogs work by using smell, dolphins work by using echolocation. Their superior ability to scan an area for particular objects allows them to zero in on mines and drop a marker at the spot. The Navy can then go in and disarm the mine. The echolocation abilities of dolphins far outstrip any technology people have come up with to do the same job.

Dolphins are also used to alert the Navy to the presence of enemies in harbors. There has also been much speculation about other uses of dolphins for the military, including claims they train them to kill people or plant explosives on ships. None of this has been confirmed by the military. Still, animal activists have long opposed the use of dolphins for military purposes.

5. Dolphins teach their young how to use tools

Dolphins have have several behaviors that are passed down from one generation to the next. Dolphins possess several behaviors that are passed down from one generation to the next. (Photo: Joost van Uffelen/Shutterstock)

Researchers discovered that a population of dolphins living in Shark Bay, Australia, use tools, and they pass that knowledge down from mother to daughter. The behavior is called “sponging,” and the researchers found it was not only the first instance of tool use in cetaceans, but it was also evidence of culture among non-humans, according to research published by Eric M. Patterson and Janet Mann in the journal PLOS ONE.

Individuals in this small group of dolphins search for several minutes to find cone-shaped sea sponges. They tear this sea sponge free of the ocean floor, then carry it on their beaks to a hunting ground where they use it to probe the sand for hiding fish. The researchers think this helps protect their sensitive snouts while they hunt.

6. Dolphins form friendships through shared interests

This particular group of dolphins in Shark Bay have been keeping researchers busy over the years, revealing information about group culture and social habits.

Researchers from the universities of Bristol, Zurich and Western Australia discovered that the Shark Bay dolphins form friendships based on a shared interest — in this case, the sponge-hunting habit. This tool-using characteristic was found primarily in female dolphins, but by studying the behavior of the few male dolphins that exhibited the behavior, the researchers saw something new: relationships formed over shared tool technique.

“Foraging with a sponge is a time-consuming and largely solitary activity so it was long thought incompatible with the needs of male dolphins in Shark Bay — to invest time in forming close alliances with other males. This study suggests that, like their female counterparts and indeed like humans, male dolphins form social bonds based on shared interests,” Dr. Simon Allen, a co-author of the study and senior research associate at Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, told Phys.org.

The researchers. findings were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

7. Dolphins call each other by name

Atlantic bottlenose dolphins leaping, Tursiops truncatus When dolphins hear their names, they respond. (Photo: Tory Kallman/Shutterstock)

We know dolphins communicate, but we’re learning more about how they do this all the time.

Dolphins have names and respond when called. Dolphins within pods have their own “signature whistle,” just like a name, and other dolphins can use that special whistle to get the attention of their pod mates. Considering dolphins are a highly social species with the need to stay in touch over distances, it makes sense they would have evolved to use “names” much the same way people do.

According to the BBC, researchers followed a group of wild bottlenose dolphins, recording their signature whistles and then playing the calls back to the dolphins.

“The researchers found that individuals only responded to their own calls, by sounding their whistle back. The team believes the dolphins are acting like humans: when they hear their name, they answer.”

What’s more, they don’t respond when the signature whistles of dolphins from strange pods are played, showing that they’re looking for and responding to specific information within whistles. The research opens up whole new questions about the extent of dolphin vocabulary, and it also could reveal clues about the evolution of our own language skills.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

8. Dolphins work together as a team

dolphins work together cooperatively Male dolphins synchronize their calls when they work together as a team, a behavior once thought to be unique to humans. (Photo: bluehand/Shutterstock)

More recent research takes this idea of cooperative communication even further. A team of researchers from Bristol University found that male dolphins don’t just synchronize their calls; they work together as a team, and attribute previously thought to unique to humans.

In describing the behavior of male dolphins as they work together to herd female dolphins, the researchers saw cooperative rather than competitive behavior, which is especially unusual in terms of finding a mate.

“The males aren’t attracting a female here, they have her, they are herding her,” Dr. Stephanie King, co-author of the study, told The Guardian. The team’s findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

9. Dolphins get high on fish toxins

We know that pufferfish have strong toxins. Apparently dolphins know this too, and they use this for recreational benefit.

Normally, pufferfish toxin is deadly. However, in small doses the toxin acts like a narcotic. BBC filmed dolphins gently playing with a pufferfish, passing it between pod members for 20 to 30 minutes, then hanging around at the surface seemingly mesmerized by their own reflections.

Rob Pilley, a zoologist who also worked as a producer on the series, was quoted in The Independent: “This was a case of young dolphins purposely experimenting with something we know to be intoxicating … It reminded us of that craze a few years ago when people started licking toads to get a buzz, especially the way they hung there in a daze afterwards. It was the most extraordinary thing to see.”

Apparently humans aren’t the only species to knowingly dabble in strange substances to achieve an altered state of mind.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with new information since it was first published in June 2016.

from:    https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/7-mind-boggling-dolphin-facts

Send a Little Love to Gaia

WHAT IS ACTION FOR THE EARTH?
by Elizabeth Meacham
http://www.shamanicecotherapy.com/

What is action for the Earth? What is within our power to change during this time of great pain and peril for our world? I’ve spent 30 years struggling with this question: through great throes of pain, fear, activism, study, contemplation, prayer, hope, visioning, writing, teaching, and more and more often lying face down on the Earth begging for guidance.

What I’ve learned from this long and ongoing struggle—what the Earth teaches me—is that the power of love in community is greater than we can possibly imagine in the context of the global techno-industrial mindset. Though it can seem ridiculous to the “rational” mind, our usual guidance system in Western culture, one person sending love to all things in the world ripples and grows beyond what seems possible to us in “this” reality. How can we love the pain, the horror, the “bad actors” – in my longest and most quiet times of listening, my heart tells me that this is what the Earth asks of us now.

Many people sending love to all things in the world with commitment and shared intention is a re-evolution of consciousness. In these moments we connect with others across time and space, pulsing the thrumming rhythm from the center of the Earth across the plane of the human world. With each new dream that echoes from within our Earth-grounded heart-minds, we become the Healers of the Earth.

I invite you now to join with me: to commit each day to consciously give love and gratitude to the Earth. And, to give love to all things in the world if you can, or to whatever you can.

We take so much, consciously and unconsciously, from the planet. We are so often pulling from the Earth in ways that are completely out of our awareness. We want, we need, we crave, we draw from Earth sources with every breath. Shifting this orientation by actively focusing love and gratitude to the Earth, whenever and wherever we are able, shifts who we are, what we think and feel, how we know.

Our dominant human paradigm on the planet at this time may laugh at the simplicity of such acts; we may ourselves question the power of something so seemingly ephemeral in the face of so much destruction and madness. Yet love is a true and powerful path to finding our way back to our home within the Earth community.

As we take actions of love for the Earth, together in concentric circles of care for one another and all of life, we open channels to speak with Earth. As we enter into this communication that is always available to us, we can bring the questions that are aching within our hearts. Give the gift of your feelings, your questions, your dreams to the Earth, so that together we may grow our collective wisdom as dreamers of a healing dream.

from:    http://www.shamanicecotherapy.com/blog/what-is-action-for-the-earth

Buckminster Fuller

Buckminster Fuller’s Three Keys to Waking Up & Changing the World

Buckminster Fuller

Buckminster Fuller was one of the most brilliant thinkers of the 20th century, an architect and designer who created inventions like the geodesic dome. He saw the best in humanity, and had a vision for how we could engineer a world with enough for everyone. Here’s three critical things we can learn from him.

Buckminster Fuller was one of the most brilliant thinkers of the 20th century, an architect and designer who made it his mission to advance the evolution of humanity and to “do more with less.” He created inventions like the geodesic dome (most prominently seen in Disney World’s Epcot Center) and the Dymaxion car, and sought to use technology to benefit humanity, specifically to provide cheap shelter and transportation for the world. Though his inventions have not been widely adopted (yet), his theories and ideas have influenced the world in many key ways (if you’ve ever heard anybody in an office meeting use the word “synergy,” for instance, you’ve just heard a Fullerism — he popularized the phrase to mean doing more with available resources).

Fuller’s key idea is that we have enough resources to house, clothe and feed everybody on the planet, but we aren’t doing so. His mission, then, was to create systems solutions that would allow us to properly use the resources we already have for the good of all, instead of maintaining inequality.

Here are three key concepts that Buckminster Fuller embodied that can bring immense value to your life, whatever you do:

1. Your life does not belong to you.

 

As a young man, Fuller worked in a textile mill, in the US Navy and in the meat-packing industry. In his twenties, he founded a company with his father-in-law to build lightweight housing—but the company failed. By the age of 32, he was broke and living in public housing in Chicago; his daughter died of complications from polio and spinal meningitis. Deciding he was a complete failure and responsible for his daughter’s death, Fuller became a heavy drinker and decided to kill himself. On the verge of suicide, he had a transcendental insight—his life was not his own property; it belonged to humanity. He then pledged to dedicate the rest of his life to “an experiment, to find what a single individual [could] contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity.” (This would be an example of the “deal with God,” little publicized compared to the “deal with the Devil.”)

2. Don’t change people—change the environment.

 

Buckminster Fuller was an architect, on a mission to change our species, traditionally the role of religious reformers. But his approach was different—he realized that it’s nigh-on impossible to change people. He instead sought to change the environment around people, prompting inventions like the geodesic dome and Dymaxion house: simply seeing or walking around in such structures could shift people’s idea of the possible and prompt them to start rethinking their assumptions. Instead of grabbing and shaking people and shouting “The world’s on fire!” he created environments that demonstrated a possible solution.

3. We have enough for everybody—to see how, think of the world as a whole system.

 

Fuller thought of the world as a whole system, instead of as disconnected nations and warring tribes. (This type of thinking is still the number one thing we need as a species, and is less common than you might believe.) He coined the phrase “Spaceship Earth” to describe where we are, famously stating that “The most important fact about Spaceship Earth: an instruction manual didn’t come with it.” If we can think of the world of a coherent system, we can begin to address resource-waste problems as a whole instead of leaving some to die while others have too much.

Fuller’s work is extensive and complex to say the least—if this starting point has raised your curiosity, check out A Fuller View, which is a collection of introductory essays by other people explaining his key concepts. It’s a great and quick read.

from:    https://ultraculture.org/blog/2017/04/28/buckminster-fuller/

Dusty Betelgeuse —In Case You Were Worried

The star Betelgeuse might just be dusty, not about to explode

The red supergiant’s time doesn’t appear to be nigh after all

This infrared image, taken in December 2019 with the Very Large Telescope in Chile, shows dust surrounding the star Betelgeuse. That dust may explain why the star recently dimmed, scientists say. The orange dot is Betelgeuse, and the black disk blocks out most of the star’s light so that the dust can be seen.

ESO, P. Kervella, M. Montargès et al, Eric Pantin

Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars in the sky, suddenly faded in late 2019, startling astronomers and prompting speculation that the star was about to explode.

But by the end of February, Betelgeuse had started to brighten again, quashing rumors of its demise. Now a study suggests that the dimming was due to dust recently shed by the star.

“I think some people wanted this to be seen as the death throes of the star, and it’s very much not,” says astrophysicist Emily Levesque of the University of Washington in Seattle.

Betelgeuse, a type of massive, elderly star called a red supergiant, lies about 700 light-years away from Earth and marks the shoulder of the constellation Orion. Astronomers have known for decades that, someday soon, the star is going to run out of fuel and detonate in a brilliant supernova (SN: 2/8/17).

So when the star began dimming in October 2019, astronomers took notice. By December 23, it had slipped from the sixth or seventh brightest star in the sky to the 21st. That didn’t necessarily mean an explosion was imminent, but any strange behavior in a red supergiant is worth watching, Levesque says.

“When people think about stars that are visible in our sky that could explode soon, Betelgeuse is near the top of the list,” she says. “So when people said this star is doing something weird, it caught people’s attention.”

Levesque and astronomer Philip Massey of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., decided to investigate more mundane possibilities than an imminent supernova that could explain the dimming. Those options include the star’s surface cooling off suddenly, as boiling blobs of plasma rise and sink within it (SN: 1/29/20), or a cloud of dust recently puffing off the star, temporarily obscuring starlight and making Betelgeuse appear dimmer than it really is.

The pair observed the star on February 14 — when it was nearly at its dimmest — looking for signs of titanium oxide molecules in the star’s outer layers, a clue to its temperature. Comparing those observations with similar ones that Levesque had taken in 2004 showed that the temperature had dropped by about a measly 50 degrees Celsius.

These images, from the SPHERE instrument on the Very Large Telescope in Chile, show Betelgeuse before (left) and after (right) its dramatic dimming episode.ESO, M. Montargès et al

“To our surprise, Betelgeuse didn’t look that different,” Levesque says. “The temperature couldn’t explain how much dimmer Betelgeuse had gotten in the last few months.”

That leaves the dust explanation, the scientists report in a study to appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “It’s partly process of elimination,” Levesque says. Red supergiants like Betelgeuse are known to puff out clouds of gas which condense into dust. And the star did dim uniformly over all wavelengths of light that Levesque and Massey measured, which supports the idea that dust from the star is to blame. By contrast, dust that lies in the spaces between stars would block certain wavelengths of light more than others.

The study “is a first step to a better understanding of what is happening to Betelgeuse,” says astrophysicist Miguel Montargès of KU Leuven in Belgium, who wasn’t involved in the research.

Montargès and colleagues have observed Betelgeuse with the Very Large Telescope in Chile. The star looked markedly dimmer in December 2019 than it did when the telescope observed it in January 2019, before the fade-out began. But the dimming seemed to appear only in the star’s southern hemisphere, not uniformly across Betelgeuse, according to an image the team released February 14. That could be explained by an asymmetrical dust cloud, although the situation may be more complicated. Montargès plans to observe Betelgeuse again the week of March 16 and publish the results later this year.

If the dimming is due to dust, that will give astronomers an opportunity to watch a nearby star losing mass in real time. “There’s that famous quote, we are stardust,” Montargès says, paraphrasing a line spoken by the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan. “Perhaps the atoms we are looking at will one day be part of a planet, and perhaps sentient beings. That’s why it’s really exciting.”

Covid-19 — Some Questions From the Experts

12 Experts Questioning the Coronavirus Panic

Below is our list of twelve medical experts whose opinions on the Coronavirus outbreak contradict the official narratives of the MSM, and the memes so prevalent on social media.

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Dr Sucharit Bhakdi is a specialist in microbiology. He was a professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and head of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene and one of the most cited research scientists in German history.

What he says:

We are afraid that 1 million infections with the new virus will lead to 30 deaths per day over the next 100 days. But we do not realise that 20, 30, 40 or 100 patients positive for normal coronaviruses are already dying every day.

[The government’s anti-COVID19 measures] are grotesque, absurd and very dangerous […] The life expectancy of millions is being shortened. The horrifying impact on the world economy threatens the existence of countless people. The consequences on medical care are profound. Already services to patients in need are reduced, operations cancelled, practices empty, hospital personnel dwindling. All this will impact profoundly on our whole society.

All these measures are leading to self-destruction and collective suicide based on nothing but a spook.

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Dr Wolfgang Wodarg is a German physician specialising in Pulmonology, politician and former chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In 2009 he called for an inquiry into alleged conflicts of interest surrounding the EU response to the Swine Flu pandemic.

What he says:    Politicians are being courted by scientists…scientists who want to be important to get money for their institutions. Scientists who just swim along in the mainstream and want their part of it […] And what is missing right now is a rational way of looking at things.

We should be asking questions like “How did you find out this virus was dangerous?”, “How was it before?”, “Didn’t we have the same thing last year?”, “Is it even something new?”

That’s missing.

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Dr Joel Kettner s professor of Community Health Sciences and Surgery at Manitoba University, former Chief Public Health Officer for Manitoba province and Medical Director of the International Centre for Infectious Diseases.

What he says:

I have never seen anything like this, anything anywhere near like this. I’m not talking about the pandemic, because I’ve seen 30 of them, one every year. It is called influenza. And other respiratory illness viruses, we don’t always know what they are. But I’ve never seen this reaction, and I’m trying to understand why.

[…]

I worry about the message to the public, about the fear of coming into contact with people, being in the same space as people, shaking their hands, having meetings with people. I worry about many, many consequences related to that.

[…]

In Hubei, in the province of Hubei, where there has been the most cases and deaths by far, the actual number of cases reported is 1 per 1000 people and the actual rate of deaths reported is 1 per 20,000. So maybe that would help to put things into perspective.

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Dr John Ioannidis Professor of Medicine, of Health Research and Policy and of Biomedical Data Science, at Stanford University School of Medicine and a Professor of Statistics at Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences. He is director of the Stanford Prevention Research Center, and co-director of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS).

He is also the editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Clinical Investigation. He was chairman at the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine as well as adjunct professor at Tufts University School of Medicine.

As a physician, scientist and author he has made contributions to evidence-based medicine, epidemiology, data science and clinical research. In addition, he pioneered the field of meta-research. He has shown that much of the published research does not meet good scientific standards of evidence.

What he says:

Patients who have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 are disproportionately those with severe symptoms and bad outcomes. As most health systems have limited testing capacity, selection bias may even worsen in the near future.

The one situation where an entire, closed population was tested was the Diamond Princess cruise ship and its quarantine passengers. The case fatality rate there was 1.0%, but this was a largely elderly population, in which the death rate from Covid-19 is much higher.

[…]

Could the Covid-19 case fatality rate be that low? No, some say, pointing to the high rate in elderly people. However, even some so-called mild or common-cold-type coronaviruses that have been known for decades can have case fatality rates as high as 8% when they infect elderly people in nursing homes.

[…]

If we had not known about a new virus out there, and had not checked individuals with PCR tests, the number of total deaths due to “influenza-like illness” would not seem unusual this year. At most, we might have casually noted that flu this season seems to be a bit worse than average.

– “A fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data”, Stat News, 17th March 2020

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Dr Yoram Lass is an Israeli physician, politician and former Director General of the Health Ministry. He also worked as Associate Dean of the Tel Aviv University Medical School and during the 1980s presented the science-based television show Tatzpit.

What he says:

Italy is known for its enormous morbidity in respiratory problems, more than three times any other European country. In the US about 40,000 people die in a regular flu season and so far 40-50 people have died of the coronavirus, most of them in a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington.

[…]

In every country, more people die from regular flu compared with those who die from the coronavirus.

[…]

…there is a very good example that we all forget: the swine flu in 2009. That was a virus that reached the world from Mexico and until today there is no vaccination against it. But what? At that time there was no Facebook or there maybe was but it was still in its infancy. The coronavirus, in contrast, is a virus with public relations.

Whoever thinks that governments end viruses is wrong.

– Interview in Globes, March 22nd 2020

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Dr Pietro Vernazza is a Swiss physician specialising Infectious Diseases at the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen and Professor of Health Policy.

What he says:

We have reliable figures from Italy and a work by epidemiologists, which has been published in the renowned science journal ‹Science›, which examined the spread in China. This makes it clear that around 85 percent of all infections have occurred without anyone noticing the infection. 90 percent of the deceased patients are verifiably over 70 years old, 50 percent over 80 years.

[…]

In Italy, one in ten people diagnosed die, according to the findings of the Science publication, that is statistically one of every 1,000 people infected. Each individual case is tragic, but often – similar to the flu season – it affects people who are at the end of their lives.

[…]

If we close the schools, we will prevent the children from quickly becoming immune.

[…]

We should better integrate the scientific facts into the political decisions.

– Interview in St. Galler Tagblatt, 22nd March 2020

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Frank Ulrich Montgomery is German radiologist, former President of the German Medical Association and Deputy Chairman of the World Medical Association.

What he says:

I’m not a fan of lockdown. Anyone who imposes something like this must also say when and how to pick it up again. Since we have to assume that the virus will be with us for a long time, I wonder when we will return to normal? You can’t keep schools and daycare centers closed until the end of the year. Because it will take at least that long until we have a vaccine. Italy has imposed a lockdown and has the opposite effect. They quickly reached their capacity limits, but did not slow down the virus spread within the lockdown.

– Interview in General Anzeiger, 18th March 2020

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Prof. Hendrik Streeck is a German HIV researcher, epidemiologist and clinical trialist. He is professor of virology, and the director of the Institute of Virology and HIV Research, at Bonn University.

What he says:

The new pathogen is not that dangerous, it is even less dangerous than Sars-1. The special thing is that Sars-CoV-2 replicates in the upper throat area and is therefore much more infectious because the virus jumps from throat to throat, so to speak. But that is also an advantage: Because Sars-1 replicates in the deep lungs, it is not so infectious, but it definitely gets on the lungs, which makes it more dangerous.

[…]

You also have to take into account that the Sars-CoV-2 deaths in Germany were exclusively old people. In Heinsberg, for example, a 78-year-old man with previous illnesses died of heart failure, and that without Sars-2 lung involvement. Since he was infected, he naturally appears in the Covid 19 statistics. But the question is whether he would not have died anyway, even without Sars-2.

– Interview in Frankfurter Allgemeine, 16th March 2020

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Dr Yanis Roussel et. al. – A team of researchers from the Institut Hospitalo-universitaire Méditerranée Infection, Marseille and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Marseille, conducting a peer-reviewed study on Coronavirus mortality for the government of France under the ‘Investments for the Future’ programme.

What they say:

The problem of SARS-CoV-2 is probably overestimated, as 2.6 million people die of respiratory infections each year compared with less than 4000 deaths for SARS-CoV-2 at the time of writing.

[…]

This study compared the mortality rate of SARS-CoV-2 in OECD countries (1.3%) with the mortality rate of common coronaviruses identified in AP-HM patients (0.8%) from 1 January 2013 to 2 March 2020. Chi-squared test was performed, and the P-value was 0.11 (not significant).

[…]

…it should be noted that systematic studies of other coronaviruses (but not yet for SARS-CoV-2) have found that the percentage of asymptomatic carriers is equal to or even higher than the percentage of symptomatic patients. The same data for SARS-CoV-2 may soon be available, which will further reduce the relative risk associated with this specific pathology.

– “SARS-CoV-2: fear versus data”, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, 19th March 2020

Dr. David Katz is an American physician and founding director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center

What he says:

I am deeply concerned that the social, economic and public health consequences of this near-total meltdown of normal life — schools and businesses closed, gatherings banned — will be long-lasting and calamitous, possibly graver than the direct toll of the virus itself. The stock market will bounce back in time, but many businesses never will. The unemployment, impoverishment and despair likely to result will be public health scourges of the first order.

– “Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease?”, New York Times 20th March 2020

Michael T. Osterholm is regents professor and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

What he says:

Consider the effect of shutting down offices, schools, transportation systems, restaurants, hotels, stores, theaters, concert halls, sporting events and other venues indefinitely and leaving all of their workers unemployed and on the public dole. The likely result would be not just a depression but a complete economic breakdown, with countless permanently lost jobs, long before a vaccine is ready or natural immunity takes hold.

[…]

[T]he best alternative will probably entail letting those at low risk for serious disease continue to work, keep business and manufacturing operating, and “run” society, while at the same time advising higher-risk individuals to protect themselves through physical distancing and ramping up our health-care capacity as aggressively as possible. With this battle plan, we could gradually build up immunity without destroying the financial structure on which our lives are based.

– “Facing covid-19 reality: A national lockdown is no cure”, Washington Post 21st March 2020

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Dr Peter Goetzsche is Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis at the University of Copenhagen and founder of the Cochrane Medical Collaboration. He has written several books on corruption in the field of medicine and the power of big pharmaceutical companies.

What he says:

Our main problem is that no one will ever get in trouble for measures that are too draconian. They will only get in trouble if they do too little. So, our politicians and those working with public health do much more than they should do.

No such draconian measures were applied during the 2009 influenza pandemic, and they obviously cannot be applied every winter, which is all year round, as it is always winter somewhere. We cannot close down the whole world permanently.

Should it turn out that the epidemic wanes before long, there will be a queue of people wanting to take credit for this. And we can be damned sure draconian measures will be applied again next time. But remember the joke about tigers. “Why do you blow the horn?” “To keep the tigers away.” “But there are no tigers here.” “There you see!”

– “Corona: an epidemic of mass panic”, blog post on Deadly Medicines 21st March 2020

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If you can find any other examples of noteworthy experts deviating from the mainstream narrative, please post them below. As always, this list have been impossible to build without Swiss Propaganda Research. Follow their work and share widely. An indispensable resource.

from:    https://off-guardian.org/2020/03/24/12-experts-questioning-the-coronavirus-panic/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=5631d40c98cb7d4dabb507a7d0291d7953adda33-1585808870-0-AQscOsM-haWHOsme8xd1jb-NlXavlPcyb_lamMdHkl9c6mMCcC1R_M3btUJI5b_qY9M7dvUl3NiQ8SRWfUqJDJ2ZcoqY5Pdw4VmjrVNJ0YOi1l5QrAEHQfC3zThjQtsRfs8EnJ5jtZYc3Pks151AENXlJeLLMnfut-vF9n55acVbJtO-FupadXicqIQ6gSxeh5Mg4pqrLaL3mRxTgY1LUO8jxUqgRIS09TGs3f5U8Wrq9Lt10nzPq-kWh7i4Sy6vTWMyhtg3EyTRsTXuz0AzRhep1QgvFfiOXoKRbU1eARaq3QUDGqx8CQHvizbHAYBphGJzdEsEMnHnQoMHzDKhAejy7Vkl8wXvLZZKBV1Y0lKm