Vaccines from China – Sure, They’re Safe

Posted on July 27, 2018 by marcia

Bang: another China vaccine scandal

by Jon Rappoport

July 23, 2018

Reuters: “The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement on Sunday evening that its investigation had found that Changsheng fabricates [vaccine] production records and product inspection records, and arbitrarily changes process parameters and equipment, ‘serious violations’ of the law.”

Tainted products from China? Who ever heard of such a thing? Isn’t China the most quality-conscious nation on the planet? No?

Here’s a headline on this story from fiercepharma.com (7/17): “Top Chinese rabies vaccine maker ordered to stop production over forged data.” Oops.

Fiercepharma: “China’s drug regulator just pulled a manufacturing permit for the country’s second-largest maker of rabies vaccines over data falsification, marking the latest episode in China’s drug safety scandal.”

“During an inspection, China’s State Drug Administration found Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences forged production records for its Vero cell-based rabies vaccines. The agency immediately moved to revoke the company’s GMP license tied to the vaccine—just three months after its issuance—and dispatched a team to investigate the incident on site, according to a Sunday statement…”

“In its announcement filed to Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the Changchun, China-based company said it has started recalling all unexpired rabies vaccines, even though the batches under question weren’t released to the market, and it hasn’t received any adverse event report related to the quality of the vaccines through years of monitoring.”

“Changsheng’s recent scandal comes eight months after a batch, or 252,600 doses, of its diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis (DTP) combo shot was found below the potency requirement. It also comes shortly after the company became one of the first two companies to get Chinese approvals for quadrivalent flu vaccines.”

“Besides rabies, DTP and flu vaccines, Changsheng also sells vaccines against chickenpox, hepatitis A and group ACYW meningococcal. A small proportion of its business comes from abroad, including India, Cambodia, Egypt and Belarus, among others. It’s not yet clear whether it sells its rabies vaccines outside of China.”

CNBC drops this bomb: “It [the current China vaccine scandal] is very much a case of deja vu. China’s pharmaceutical industry has been exposed to a slew of scandals recently. Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical, a Shanghai-listed drug maker, found a toxic impurity called N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in ingredients it exports to medicines for treating hypertension in laboratory tests. The substance, a by-product of industrial processes, is toxic to the liver and classified as a carcinogen for its ability to cause cancer in humans.”

I issued an extensive warning about China pharma in 2017. Here it is:

I’ll put it to you this way. Your child is about to get vaccinated. You believe in the efficacy of vaccines. In the doctor’s office, there is a large wheel. It has two sections. One is marked: ‘this injection for your child comes from the US or Germany.’ The other section is marked: ‘this injection for your child might come from China, or if not, the raw ingredients in the shot might come from China, and, keep in mind that even if the injection and the raw ingredients don’t come from China, in a pinch, because the Chinese vaccines are cheap, the US might buy the injection or the ingredients from China—now spin the wheel…and let’s see where the arrow stops…for your child’.

In the spring of 2016, a vaccine scandal erupted in China.

Time Magazine reported:

“Furious parents and health care professionals in China are demanding to know how almost $90 million of improperly stored and potentially fatal vaccines were distributed across some two-thirds of the country over the past five years, in the latest public-health scandal to raise serious questions over the efficacy of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule.”

“According to state media, a mother and daughter from eastern China’s Shandong province have been caught peddling 25 kinds of unrefrigerated vaccines — including for polio, mumps, rabies, hepatitis B, encephalitis and meningococcal diseases — to medical facilities across 24 Chinese provinces since 2010.”

“Inflaming the public backlash, authorities had apparently known about the case since last April, though only publicized the news late Friday in a belated attempt to trace potential victims. Moreover, the elder suspect, a 47-year-old woman surnamed Pang, had apparently been convicted of the same offense in 2009 but only received a suspended sentence. State media admitted the compromised inoculations could have resulted in paralysis and even death.”

“’Twenty-four provinces, five years already, and how many children! It’s been nearly a year and then they reveal this! Isn’t this genocide? Words cannot express how angry I am!’ posted one user of China’s Twitter-like microblog Weibo, reports the BBC.”

“’This is a matter of life and death,’” one Beijing-based doctor told Radio Free Asia. ‘They should make an announcement about this as soon as possible … so we can locate these items and cut off the supply, so no more people are harmed.’”

Major media couldn’t even keep their stories straight.

The NY Times, reporting on the China scandal, and relying on the World Health Organization (a PR front for the vaccine industry) took an assuring tone:

“Despite such fears, the tainted vaccines are more likely to be ineffective than harmful…The World Health Organization has said that outdated or poorly stored vaccines rarely if ever trigger illness or toxic reactions. Chinese government investigators said last week that they had not found any cases of adverse reactions or spikes in infections linked to ineffective vaccines.”

Really?

Perhaps editors at the NY Times and the World Health Organization would like to prove their faith and confidence by taking shots in the arm of those spoiled vaccines.

Now, here are quotes from an excellent article by Marco Caceres at thevaccinereaction.org (4/13/16). The article points up the uncertainty about whether processed and/or raw vaccine ingredients are entering the US from China:

“The past few weeks, there have been a series of news reports coming out of China revealing that thousands of doses of improperly stored and expired vaccines for children and adults were illegally sold for millions of dollars on the black market by more than 100 people associated with Chinese companies and vaccination centers.”

“Most Americans do not understand that many pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, are not made in the United States and foreign pharmaceutical companies are not subject to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quality control regulations.”

“It is unclear what percentage of the vaccines currently used in the United States are made by Chinese pharmaceutical companies in China or by Western companies with manufacturing facilities in China. We do know that major U.S. and European vaccine makers such as Merck & Co., GlaxoSmithKline plc, and Sanofi Pasteur SA maintain vaccine manufacturing operations in China, that this activity is on the rise, and that Western vaccine makers are also establishing joint venture partnerships with Chinese vaccine companies.”

“Consequently, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish which vaccines are manufactured by American and European firms and which are produced by the Chinese. A 2012 article in USA Today, however, did report that the FDA estimates that 80% of the ingredients in pharmaceuticals [only drugs, or vaccines as well?] produced by U.S. companies and 40% of the ‘finished medications’ Americans take come from outside the U.S. and, increasingly they come from China and India.”

“The article cited a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found the FDA inspects drug manufacturing facilities in China and India only once every 14 years, and that FDA inspectors are not permitted to enter those facilities unannounced. USA Today noted that, according to the GAO report, ‘Up to two-thirds of foreign pharmaceutical sites have never undergone an FDA inspection’.”

So: even if you believe in the safety and efficacy of vaccines, do you want to spin the big wheel in the doctor’s office? Do you want to take a chance? Do you want to have your child injected?

Do you want to say, “Well, the news media and the government and the experts and the doctors all tell me vaccines are safe, so I’ll go along with that. I’ll believe. And I’ll risk the future and the life of my child on that belief.”

Do you?

from: https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2018/07/23/bang-another-china-vaccine-scandal/

Supercharge Your Body with Superfoods

Posted on July 27, 2018 by marcia

4 SUPPRESSED SUPERFOODS WITH AMAZING MEDICINAL POTENTIAL

July 25, 2018

Ethan Indigo Smith, Guest
Waking Times

Today information on curatives and healthy foods are constantly suppressed, and substances are even prohibited, like cannabis (which remains turmeric’s fiercest competition for its balancing and curative effects.) In fact, the systematic suppression of information concerning the curative effects of foods and herbs like cannabis, turmeric, garlic, ginger and habanero (for a few simple but powerful examples), as well as systems of herbalism, traditional medicine, and anything natural and not pharmacological, has been so successful during the rise of allopathy and Big Pharma that rejecting natural remedies as “alternative” has become an automatic response among most in our society — so much so that to suggest their powerful medicinal potential in public is to be labeled as crazy, a fringe-dweller, or some such parallel.

The following superfoods are adaptogenic balancers and curatives I have come across on my journey as a ‘crazy’ writer, health nut, truth seeker, and the son of a farmer and a nurse.

1. Chaga

Chaga (pictured above) and other medicinal mushrooms are supremely powerful modes for increasing vitality and achieving healthy and balanced states. Chaga extract is one of the most powerful sources of antioxidants on the planet, and notably, has demonstrated anti-cancer properties. Chaga causes cell death of malformed cells without hurting the body otherwise, preventing the growth of cancer cells. It has also been shown to protect cellular DNA and stimulate the immune system.

In countries where the allopathic oligarchy has less of a stranglehold on the bounds of medicine and medical research, chaga is both well researched and medically prescribed, as is the reishi mushroom. In Russia in particular, chaga is widely utilized for its medicinal value, and is also being integrated with extracts of birch — the only tree chaga will grow on in nature — to potentially enhance the health effects of the chaga extract.

Personally, I very much enjoy consuming chaga with ginseng. If your needs are medicinal, I encourage you to do your own research to see if chaga, medicinal mushrooms, and/or ginseng might be appropriate for you.

Note: This is one of those times when tradition remains frustratingly ahead of science. The healing potential of mycotherapy (mushroom medicine) is vast, and while it is only just beginning to be understood by science, the scientific evidence is already inarguable, and yet psychoactive mushrooms remain widely prohibited by law regardless of their medicinal value. Even though chaga itself is not deemed illegal, the sense of ‘taboo’ surrounding mushroom medicine in our society has greatly diminished its therapeutic use.

2. Almonds and Apricots (in Combination)

I was in a Turkish Café in San Francisco, sometime after first learning about and experiencing internal alchemy of the almond and the apricot. They had a little apricot and almond pastry and I ordered one with my coffee. I said, “Oh, the almond and apricot, that’s the magic, I’ll have one of those.”

They looked at me like I just told them a secret in their native language. On picking up their jaws, they inquired how I knew about the magic of the almond and apricot.

The almond and apricot combination included in my pastry is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The simple combination has long been considered a cancer cure. It is associated with longevity, since one of the most well-aged peoples in the world, hun tzu in, eat almonds and apricots frequently. According to what I have experienced, it is also a powerful bowel cleanser! (Be advised, the combination does not cause diarrhea per se, but increases elimination.)

Western scientists have also utilized extracts to prove the effectiveness of the apricot and almond, however the curative properties could not be replicated by using only extracted compounds in isolation. Traditional Chinese Medicine noted that the alchemy of the digestion process potentiated their medicinal value, and extracts would thus not work.

3. Shilajit

Literally meaning “mountain tar”, Shilajit is a thick, sticky substance that seeps out of the rocks in the high mountains of Asia. Containing at least 85 minerals in their ionic form, it has been revered in Ayurveda for millennia as the best carrier of energy and nutrition into the human body.

A Vedic expression in regards to shilajit goes something like, “There is no disease which shilajit cannot defeat if consumed soon enough.” And from my own personal experience, I have started to think that shilajit is the actual philosopher’s stone for internal alchemy.

This stuff is straight-up illegal in Canada. Apparently there are a lot of poorly produced shilajit extracts on the global market, some containing lead. From what I understand it largely depends on how this extract is handled as to whether it contains toxins or not.

With an ancient history, legends of shilajit abound, and modern science still has many questions about shilajit — such as whether it is derived from a mineral or vegetable source, and how it behaves as an oil but is water soluble. What is undeniable is that shilajit is packed with minerals like no other substance on the planet, and generally has the effect of enhancing whatever herbal medicinal or food one consumes with it.

There are only a very few disorders I have come across which are not helped but hindered by the gentle inclusion of shilajit in one’s diet, however, again, I encourage you to do your own research about shilajit (also known as mumeo in Russia) and whether it is right for you.

4. Nothing But the Elements

The most powerful thing we can do for ourselves, often enough, is nothing! Being quiet in the four elements without trying to do anything is essentially one of the most powerful healing and strengthening practices you can undertake. Spend some time doing nothing and consuming nothing but the four elements in their purest form.

Fire: Go out and play in the Sun! Sunlight triggers healing potential in our bodies in hundreds of different ways. If you are sensitive to sunlight minimalize exposure and wear a hat. There is always the potential of using too much of any medicine, including heliotherapy.

Water: Drink pure water. Fast for a time and consume water only. Numerous immunological functions begin when we go without food for certain time periods; 16 hour, 1 day and 2 day water fasts can all be extremely beneficial.

Air: Breathe and play in the fresh air. Do nothing but breathe in nature — be it the mountaintop, beachhead, public park, or wherever is accommodating.

Earth: Take of your rubber shoes and connect with The Earth. The healing feel-good energy of the planet is as easy to connect with as removing your shoes! We are chemical electrical beings. Walking barefoot, or at least with shoes that do not disconnect us from literally being grounded into the electromagnetism of the earth, creates measurable chemical and electrical benefits. (Personally I recommend cotton soled tai chi/kung fu shoes for gentle walking.)

About the Author

Activist, author and Tai Chi teacher Ethan Indigo Smith was born on a farm in Maine and lived in Manhattan for a number of years before migrating west to Mendocino, California. Guided by a keen sense of integrity and humanity, Ethan’s work is both deeply connected and extremely insightful, blending philosophy, politics, activism, spirituality, meditation and a unique sense of humour.

from: http://www.wakingtimes.com/2018/07/25/4-suppressed-superfoods-with-amazing-medicinal-potential/

Myths We Live By

Posted on July 27, 2018 by marcia

American Society Would Collapse If It Weren’t for These 8 Myths

Our society should’ve collapsed by now. You know that, right?

No society should function with this level of inequality (with the possible exception of one of those prison planets in a “Star Wars” movie). Sixty-three percent of Americans can’t afford a $500 emergency. Yet Amazon head Jeff Bezos is now worth a record $141 billion. He could literally end world hunger for multiple years and still have more money left over than he could ever spend on himself.

Worldwide, one in 10 people only make $2 a day. Do you know how long it would take one of those people to make the same amount as Jeff Bezos has? 193 million years. (If they only buy single-ply toilet paper.) Put simply, you cannot comprehend the level of inequality in our current world or even just our nation.

So … shouldn’t there be riots in the streets every day? Shouldn’t it all be collapsing? Look outside. The streets aren’t on fire. No one is running naked and screaming (usually). Does it look like everyone’s going to work at gunpoint? No. We’re all choosing to continue on like this.

Why?

Well, it comes down to the myths we’ve been sold. Myths that are ingrained in our social programming from birth, deeply entrenched, like an impacted wisdom tooth. These myths are accepted and basically never questioned.

I’m going to cover eight of them. There are more than eight. There are probably hundreds. But I’m going to cover eight because (A) no one reads a column titled “Hundreds of Myths of American Society,” (B) these are the most important ones and (C) we all have other shit to do.

Myth No. 8—We have a democracy.

If you think we still have a democracy or a democratic republic, ask yourself this: When was the last time Congress did something that the people of America supported that did not align with corporate interests? … You probably can’t do it. It’s like trying to think of something that rhymes with “orange.” You feel like an answer exists but then slowly realize it doesn’t. Even the Carter Center and former President Jimmy Carter believe that America has been transformed into an oligarchy: A small, corrupt elite control the country with almost no input from the people. The rulers need the myth that we’re a democracy to give us the illusion of control.

Myth No. 7—We have an accountable and legitimate voting system.

Gerrymandering, voter purging, data mining, broken exit polling, push polling, superdelegates, electoral votes, black-box machines, voter ID suppression, provisional ballots, super PACs, dark money, third parties banished from the debates and two corporate parties that stand for the same goddamn pile of fetid crap!

What part of this sounds like a legitimate election system?

No, we have what a large Harvard study called the worst election system in the Western world. Have you ever seen where a parent has a toddler in a car seat, and the toddler has a tiny, brightly colored toy steering wheel so he can feel like he’s driving the car? That’s what our election system is—a toy steering wheel. Not connected to anything. We all sit here like infants, excitedly shouting, “I’m steeeeering!”

And I know it’s counterintuitive, but that’s why you have to vote. We have to vote in such numbers that we beat out what’s stolen through our ridiculous rigged system.

Myth No. 6—We have an independent media that keeps the rulers accountable.

Our media outlets are funded by weapons contractors, big pharma, big banks, big oil and big, fat hard-on pills. (Sorry to go hard on hard-on pills, but we can’t get anything resembling hard news because it’s funded by dicks.) The corporate media’s jobs are to rally for war, cheer for Wall Street and froth at the mouth for consumerism. It’s their mission to actually fortify belief in the myths I’m telling you about right now. Anybody who steps outside that paradigm is treated like they’re standing on a playground wearing nothing but a trench coat.

Myth No. 5—We have an independent judiciary.

The criminal justice system has become a weapon wielded by the corporate state. This is how bankers can foreclose on millions of homes illegally and see no jail time, but activists often serve jail time for nonviolent civil disobedience. Chris Hedges recently noted, “The most basic constitutional rights … have been erased for many. … Our judicial system, as Ralph Nader has pointed out, has legalized secret law, secret courts, secret evidence, secret budgets and secret prisons in the name of national security.”

If you’re not part of the monied class, you’re pressured into releasing what few rights you have left. According to The New York Times, “97 percent of federal cases and 94 percent of state cases end in plea bargains, with defendants pleading guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence.”

That’s the name of the game. Pressure people of color and poor people to just take the plea deal because they don’t have a million dollars to spend on a lawyer. (At least not one who doesn’t advertise on beer coasters.)

Myth No. 4—The police are here to protect you. They’re your friends.

That’s funny. I don’t recall my friend pressuring me into sex to get out of a speeding ticket. (Which is essentially still legal in 32 states.)

The police in our country are primarily designed to do two things: protect the property of the rich and perpetrate the completely immoral war on drugs—which by definition is a war on our own people.

We lock up more people than any other country on earth. Meaning the land of the free is the largest prison state in the world. So all these droopy-faced politicians and rabid-talking heads telling you how awful China is on human rights or Iran or North Korea—none of them match the numbers of people locked up right here under Lady Liberty’s skirt.

Myth No. 3—Buying will make you happy.

This myth is put forward mainly by the floods of advertising we take in but also by our social engineering. Most of us feel a tenacious emptiness, an alienation deep down behind our surface emotions (for a while I thought it was gas). That uneasiness is because most of us are flushing away our lives at jobs we hate before going home to seclusion boxes called houses or apartments. We then flip on the TV to watch reality shows about people who have it worse than we do (which we all find hilarious).

If we’re lucky, we’ll make enough money during the week to afford enough beer on the weekend to help it all make sense. (I find it takes at least four beers for everything to add up.) But that doesn’t truly bring us fulfillment. So what now? Well, the ads say buying will do it. Try to smother the depression and desperation under a blanket of flat-screen TVs, purses and Jet Skis. Nowdoes your life have meaning? No? Well, maybe you have to drive that Jet Ski a little faster! Crank it up until your bathing suit flies off and you’ll feel alive!

The dark truth is that we have to believe the myth that consuming is the answer or else we won’t keep running around the wheel. And if we aren’t running around the wheel, then we start thinking, start asking questions. Those questions are not good for the ruling elite, who enjoy a society based on the daily exploitation of 99 percent of us.

Myth No. 2—If you work hard, things will get better.

According to Deloitte’s Shift Index survey: “80% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs” and “[t]he average person spends 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime.” That’s about one-seventh of your life—and most of it is during your most productive years.

Ask yourself what we’re working for. To make money? For what? Almost none of us are doing jobs for survival anymore. Once upon a time, jobs boiled down to:

I plant the food—>I eat the food—>If I don’t plant food = I die.

But nowadays, if you work at a café—will someone die if they don’t get their super-caf-mocha-frap-almond-piss-latte? I kinda doubt they’ll keel over from a blueberry scone deficiency.

If you work at Macy’s, will customers perish if they don’t get those boxer briefs with the sweat-absorbent-ass fabric? I doubt it. And if they do die from that, then their problems were far greater than you could’ve known. So that means we’re all working to make other people rich because we have a society in which we have to work. Technological advancements can do most everything that truly must get done.

So if we wanted to, we could get rid of most work and have tens of thousands of more hours to enjoy our lives. But we’re not doing that at all. And no one’s allowed to ask these questions—not on your mainstream airwaves at least. Even a half-step like universal basic income is barely discussed because it doesn’t compute with our cultural programming.

Scientists say it’s quite possible artificial intelligence will take away all human jobs in 120 years. I think they know that will happen because bots will take the jobs and then realize that 80 percent of them don’t need to be done! The bots will take over and then say, “Stop it. … Stop spending a seventh of your life folding shirts at Banana Republic.”

One day, we will build monuments to the bot that told us to enjoy our lives and … leave the shirts wrinkly.

And this leads me to the largest myth of our American society.

Myth No. 1—You are free.

And I’m not talking about the millions locked up in our prisons. I’m talking about you and me. If you think you’re free, try running around with your nipples out, ladies. Guys, take a dump on the street and see how free you are.

I understand there are certain restrictions on freedom we actually desire to have in our society—maybe you’re not crazy about everyone leaving a Stanley Steamer in the middle of your walk to work. But a lot of our lack of freedom is not something you would vote for if given the chance.

Try building a fire in a parking lot to keep warm in the winter.

Try sleeping in your car for more than a few hours without being harassed by police.

Try maintaining your privacy for a week without a single email, web search or location data set collected by the NSA and the telecoms.

Try signing up for the military because you need college money and then one day just walking off the base, going, “Yeah, I was bored. Thought I would just not do this anymore.”

Try explaining to Kentucky Fried Chicken that while you don’t have the green pieces of paper they want in exchange for the mashed potatoes, you do have some pictures you’ve drawn on a napkin to give them instead.

Try running for president as a third-party candidate. (Jill Stein was shackled and chained to a chair by police during one of the debates.)

Try using the restroom at Starbucks without buying something … while black.

We are less free than a dog on a leash. We live in one of the hardest-working, most unequal societies on the planet with more billionaires than ever.

Meanwhile, Americans supply 94 percent of the paid blood used worldwide. And it’s almost exclusively coming from very poor people. This abusive vampire system is literally sucking the blood from the poor. Does that sound like a free decision they made? Or does that sound like something people do after immense economic force crushes down around them? (One could argue that sperm donation takes a little less convincing.)

Point is, in order to enforce this illogical, immoral system, the corrupt rulers—most of the time—don’t need guns and tear gas to keep the exploitation mechanisms humming along. All they need are some good, solid bullshit myths for us all to buy into, hook, line and sinker. Some fairy tales for adults.

It’s time to wake up.

If you think this column is important, please share it. Also, check out Lee Camp’s weekly TV show “Redacted Tonight” and weekly podcast “Common Censored.”

Lee Camp

Lee Camp is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and activist. Camp is the host of the weekly comedy news TV show “Redacted Tonight With Lee Camp” on RT America. He is a former comedy writer for…

from: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/american-society-would-collapse-if-it-werent-for-these-8-myths/

Resurrecting Worms

Posted on July 27, 2018 by marcia

Worms Frozen for 42,000 Years in Siberian Permafrost Wriggle to Life

By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | July 27, 2018 01:23pm

Did you ever wake up from a long nap feeling a little disoriented, not quite knowing where you were? Now, imagine getting a wake-up call after being “asleep” for 42,000 years.

In Siberia, melting permafrost is releasing nematodes — microscopic worms that live in soil — that have been suspended in a deep freeze since the Pleistocene. Despite being frozen for tens of thousands of years, two species of these worms were successfully revived, scientists recently reported in a new study.

Their findings, published in the May 2018 issue of the journal Doklady Biological Sciences, represent the first evidence of multicellular organisms returning to life after a long-term slumber in Arctic permafrost, the researchers wrote.

Though nematodes are tiny — typically measuring about 1 millimeter in length — they are known to possess impressive abilities. Some are found living 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometers) below Earth’s surface, deeper than any other multicellular animal. Certain worms that live on an island in the Indian Ocean can develop one of five different mouths, depending on what type of food is available. Others are adapted to thrive inside slug intestines and travel on slimy highways of slug poop.

For the new study, researchers analyzed 300 samples of Arctic permafrost deposits and found two that held several well-preserved nematodes. One sample was collected from a fossil squirrel burrow near the Alazeya River in the northeastern part of Yakutia, Russia, from deposits estimated to be about 32,000 years old. The other permafrost sample came from the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia, and the age of nearby deposits was around 42,000 years old, the scientists reported.

They isolated the worms — all females — from the permafrost samples, finding they represented two known nematode species: Panagrolaimus detritophagus and Plectus parvus. After defrosting the worms, the researchers saw them moving and eating, making this the first evidence of “natural cryopreservation” of multicellular animals, according to the study.

However, the nematodes weren’t the first organism to awaken from millennia in icy suspension. Previously, another group of scientists had identified a giant virus that was resuscitated after spending 30,000 years frozen in Siberian permafrost. (Don’t panic; amoebas are the only animal affected by this ancient attacker.)

Further study will be needed to unravel the mechanisms in the ancient nematodes that enabled them to survive such lengthy freezing; pinpointing how those adaptations work could have implications in many scientific areas, “such as cryomedicine, cryobiology, and astrobiology,” the researchers concluded.

Original article on Live Science.

from: https://www.livescience.com/63187-siberian-permafrost-worms-revive.html

GMO’s, Health, Survival

Posted on July 23, 2018 by marcia

THE PERIL ON YOUR PLATE: FILM EXPLORES THE HUMAN HEALTH EFFECTS OF GENETIC ENGINEERING AND CHEMICAL AGRICULTURE

June 27, 2018

Dr. Mercola, Guest
Waking Times

After being told by her doctor that genetically engineered (GE) food and pesticides could be responsible for her son’s food allergies, Ekaterina Yakovleva set out to investigate. Her quest for answers was captured by the Russian Times in the featured film, “The Peril on Your Plate: Genetic Engineering and Chemical Agriculture.”

The film shows Yakovleva and her team traveling the world to meet “the people who lift the lid on the perils of GMOs and the chemicals used in the industry,” as well as proponents of GMOs who argue that genetic engineering is a “high-tech” solution to feeding the world’s growing population. Advocates for genetic engineering tell Yakovleva that the technology is beneficial to farmers in that it increases resistance to pests and disease, as well as produces higher yields. But Yakovleva isn’t convinced.

She learns nothing could be further from the truth after witnessing the devastation caused by mass farmer suicides in India as a result of the failure of Monsanto’s Bt cotton. Yakovleva visits the U.K. where she meets Lady Margaret, Countess of Mar, a member of the House of Lords and a former farmer who suffered from chemical use, and then to the U.S. where she meets with Zen Honeycutt of Moms Across America about the link between GMOs, pesticides and chronic disease in humans.

What Is Genetic Engineering?

In order to better understand genetic engineering and its impact on human health, Yakovleva starts to research the technique and how it’s used. She learns that genetic engineering enables DNA to be transferred not only between different kinds of plants, but even between different kingdoms, meaning scientists can take DNA from an insect or animal and insert it into the genome of a plant.

Many GMO proponents claim that genetic engineering is just an extension of natural breeding methods, and just as safe. Nothing could be further from the truth — on both counts. Genetic engineering is radically different from conventional breeding techniques used to improve a crop. For starters, it’s a laboratory-based technique allowing scientists to create a food that could never be created by nature.

Claire Robinson, editor of GM Watch and coauthor of the book, “GMO Myths and Truths: A Citizen’s Guide to the Evidence on the Safety and Efficacy of Genetically Modified Foods and Crops,” says:

US Leads World in GM Crop Production

Yakovleva learns that an estimated 190 million hectares (469.5 acres) of GE crops¹ — an area three times the size of France — are cultivated in 28 countries worldwide.² The U.S. leads the world in GM crop production, growing about 40 percent,³ while Brazil grows 27 percent and Argentina 13 percent. Canada and India each grow 6 percent.⁴ GE crops currently in production include squash/pumpkin, alfalfa, sugar beet, potato, papaya, rapeseed oil, corn, soy and cotton.

Monsanto, soon to forgo its name and merge with Bayer, controls a vast majority of GE crops including 80 percent of GE corn and 93 percent of GE soy in the U.S. The first GE crop to hit the market was tobacco. It was genetically modified in 1983 to be resistant to an antibiotic.⁵ It was later altered for other reasons, including to remove a gene that turns nicotine into a carcinogen in tobacco leaves,⁶and to increase the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.⁷

The first genetically engineered food crop was the Flavr Savr tomato, produced by Calgene, a California-based company later bought by Monsanto. The tomato was genetically modified to stay riper longer by inhibiting a gene responsible for producing a protein that makes a tomato soften.⁸ Calgene is reported to have been transparent in its marketing of the tomato, clearly labeling the product and adding an 800 number for people with questions. Monsanto later removed the Flavr Savr tomato from store shelves.

A Growing List of Countries Say No to GMOs

The film highlights regions that are completely GMO-free, including Romania, which stopped cultivating GE crops despite being the first country in geographical Europe to introduce them.⁹ Portugal and Spain have reduced the amount of areas under GE crop cultivation,¹⁰while a number have enacted a total ban including France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Greece, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Russia forbids GE crop cultivation,¹¹ but does not prevent GMOs from entering the country’s food chain, according to the film. Yakovleva travels to the Agrarian University in Moscow to meet GMO proponent Arkady Zlochevsky, chairman of the Russian Grain Union. She confronts him about the human health effects of eating GE foods.

“There is absolutely no risk to the human body associated with eating GM foods compared to traditional equivalents, not a single one,” he says, adding that GMOs are “high-tech” and have “significant advantages.” He even went so far as to say that glyphosate, the key active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, is safer than 100 percent manure.

Glyphosate Doubles as Herbicide and Suicide Poison in India

Unconvinced, Yakovleva travels to India where glyphosate doubles as a lethal human poison. The Punjab region, formally known as the bread basket of India, is now known for colossal suicides among farmers, particularly young farmers between the ages of 20 and 35.

Yakovleva meets with families of farmers who committed suicide. She learns that thousands of farmers have taken their own lives after agriculture corporations granted them loans they could never repay to purchase seeds and pesticides that ultimately failed to provide the profits that were promised.

Inderjit Singh Jaijee, chairman of Punjab’s Baba Nanak Educational Society, says farmers who commit suicide often take drugs, drink alcohol or even take a swig of glyphosate to muster up the courage to go through with it. Singh Jaijee, who is on a mission to raise awareness about the serious issue of suicides in Punjab, says that young farmers are more susceptible because they don’t yet have the experience older people do to survive.

Thousands of Indian Farmers Commit Suicide Over Faulty GE Crops

The amount of suicides in the Punjab region is so massive that some people are making a profit removing dead bodies from a local canal. Ashu Malik, an underwater diver, uses surveillance cameras to monitor the canal for floating bodies. If a body is not claimed, it’s placed back into the water, he says. Ending up in the canal as a result of suicide is so common in this region that families built a house on the canal’s shoreline for them to stay in while they search for their loved ones who are missing.

The exact number of suicides occurring annually in the Punjab region remains unknown. One estimation found the annual suicide rate to be about 2,200. However, Singh Jaijee’s research estimates it to be closer to 4,000 suicides per year, while farmer organizations estimate up to 6,000. Shocked by what’s become a normality for agricultural communities in India, Yakovleva interviews agricultural scientist Kiran Kumar Vissa to learn more about Monsanto’s Bt cotton, the crop responsible for placing so many farmers into debt.

Monsanto’s Bt cotton was marketed as a solution to the challenges faced by cotton farmers, many of whom were in crisis; however, it ended up causing farmers more problems. There are many places where Bt cotton is not suitable for cultivation, including dry, nonirrigated areas, explains Vissa. The packaging says that Bt cotton is suitable for both irrigated and nonirrigated conditions, but it’s not true, says Vissa, adding, that it’s deceptive to farmers.

Big Ag Uses Images of Rich, American Farmers to Sell GMOs Abroad

Next, Yakovleva meets with renowned scholar and environmental activist Vandana Shiva, who blames the mass suicides solely on the corporations that sell the seeds and chemicals. Monsanto spends huge amounts of money on advertising. Between the fiscal years 2011 to 2017, Monsanto spent more than $500 million on advertising worldwide.¹²

Shiva explains that seed and chemical agents show farmers in India images of American farmers with big tractors and promise them that if they just take this seed, which they can pay for later, they will be rich. But what they don’t tell the farmer is that they can’t save the seed and that it might fail because the seeds aren’t meant for dry, nonirrigated areas, says Shiva.

So, the farmer takes it on credit, not having a good understanding of the costs involved, and the seed fails, Vandana explains, adding that in two years’ time the agents who sold the seed and pesticide return and repossess the farmer’s land because he could not pay his loan. Shiva tells Yakovleva that she has personally spoken to widows whose farmer husbands committed suicide and when she asked what their debt was, they showed her packages of Monsanto’s Bt cotton seed.

Are Farmers Risking Their Health by Using Chemicals?

Yakovleva’s investigation proceeds to the U.K. where she meets with Lady Margaret, Countess of Mar, a member of the House of Lords and a former farmer who suffered from chemical use.

While serving organic tea and pudding, Lady Margaret says she had to give up farming after she was exposed to harmful chemicals while dipping sheep. The sheep dip contained organophosphates, the same class of chemicals to which glyphosate belongs. The chemicals are used as both flame retardants and pesticides. According to National Geographic:

Within weeks of being exposed, Lady Margaret says she began to suffer from intense fatigue and neurological problems. She even felt suicidal. At one point, she was forced to rely on an oxygen tank for up to 16 hours a day. Lady Margaret was ill for three years before doctors diagnosed her with organophosphate poisoning.

Most of Americans Have Glyphosate in Their Bodies

Humans are increasingly testing positive for residues of glyphosate.¹⁴ In tests conducted by a University of California San Francisco lab, 93 percent of the participants tested positive for glyphosate residues.¹⁵ In the European Union, when 48 members of Parliament volunteered for glyphosate testing, everyone one of them tested positive.¹⁶ Humans are exposed to glyphosate via the food they eat, the air they breathe, the water they drink and the lawns, gardens, parks and other environments they frequent.

What impact is this having on human health? To find out, Yakovleva and her team head to the U.S. to meet with Honeycutt, who blames chemicals in our food for the rise in chronic disease. A number of chronic diseases have been linked to pesticides, including autism, cancer, food allergies, endocrine disruption, diabetes and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.¹⁷

One in 4 females over the age of 30 now has a gluten intolerance, says Honeycutt; however, she believes it’s not gluten that’s the problem, but the glyphosate that’s applied to wheat as a drying agent prior to harvest.

“It’s destroying their gut lining. They can’t process it and then the body acknowledges it as a gluten intolerance,” says Honeycutt, adding that food today not only has more chemicals, but is also less nutritious. Chemical-intensive agriculture has depleted our soils of essential nutrients and has drawn out vitamins and minerals that make our food healthy, she adds.

Long-Term Safety Studies Are Sorely Lacking

Yakovleva and her team reached out to Monsanto regarding the public health concerns tied to its Roundup weed killer, but the company refused to comment, instead directing them to its website which, of course, states that all of their products are safe and environmentally friendly. The deceptive GMO talking points Yakovleva received from the seed and chemical industry failed to convince her that GE crops are safe for human consumption, as there’s no real evidence to support this claim.

While few in number, longer-term animal feeding studies have been published over the past several years showing there’s definite cause for concern. Liver and kidney toxicity and immune reactions tend to be the most prevalent. Digestive system, inflammation and fertility problems have also been seen. A major part of the problem is that safety studies conducted for regulatory purposes to gain market approval for a GE product are too short to show the damage that could occur from life-long consumption of the GE food.

Some independent studies looking at lifetime consumption of GMOs have found rather dramatic health effects, whereas the safety studies used to promote GE foods as safe have all been short-term. There seems to be an agreement among biotech scientists to not test GE foods longer than 90 days in rats, which is only about seven to nine years in human terms. That’s nothing when you consider the average human life span is somewhere in the 70s, and the current generation is fed GMO food from Day 1.

How to Protect Yourself From Toxic Agriculture

The biotech giants have deep pocketbooks and political influence and are fighting to maintain their position of dominance. At the end of the day, we must shatter Monsanto’s grip on the agricultural sector. There is no way to recall GMOs once they have been released into the environment. The stakes could not be higher. Will you continue supporting the corrupt, toxic and unsustainable food system that Monsanto and its industry allies are working so hard to protect?

For more and more people, the answer is no. Consumers are rejecting genetically engineered and pesticide-laden foods. Another positive trend is that there has been strong growth in the global organic and grass-fed sectors. This just proves one thing: We can make a difference if we steadily work toward the same goal.

One of the best things you can do is to buy your foods from a local farmer who runs a small business and uses diverse methods that promote regenerative agriculture. You can also join a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program, where you can buy a “share” of the vegetables produced by the farm, so that you get a regular supply of fresh food.

I believe that joining a CSA is a powerful investment not only in your own health, but in that of your local community and economy as well. In addition, you should also adopt preventive strategies that can help reduce the toxic chemical pollution that assaults your body. I recommend visiting these trustworthy sites for non-GMO food resources in your country as well:

Organic Food Directory (Australia)	Eat Wild (Canada)
Organic Explorer (New Zealand)	Eat Well Guide (United States and Canada)
Farm Match (United States)	Local Harvest (United States)
Weston A. Price Foundation (United States)	The Cornucopia Institute
Demeter USA	American Grassfed Association

Monsanto and its allies want you to think that they control everything, but they are on the wrong side of history. It’s you, the informed and empowered, who hold the future in your hands. Let’s all work together to topple the biotech industry’s house of cards. Remember — it all starts with shopping smart and making the best food purchases for you and your family.

Biotech Companies Are Gaining Power by Taking Over the Government

to read the rest of the article, go to: http://www.wakingtimes.com/2018/06/27/the-peril-on-your-plate-film-explores-the-human-health-effects-of-genetic-engineering-and-chemical-agriculture/

Collective Consciousness vs. AI

Posted on July 23, 2018 by marcia

ALTERNATIVE NEWS

Elon Musk And Over 2400 AI Scientists Sign Pledge Against Killer Robots

July 22, 2018

By. Richard Enos

IN BRIEF

The Facts:More than 2,400 AI scientists and researchers have signed a pledge which intends to deter military firms and nations from building lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS).
Reflect On:Are we as individuals, working together on shared concerns for all humans on the planet, starting to see the power we have to effect positive change?

It is not an uncommon story in the history of science and technology: the most brilliant and innovative minds of their time discover, create, and invent technologies that can have hugely positive benefits for mankind as a whole. Inevitably, the largest and wealthiest ‘consumer’ of such technologies is the Military-Industrial Complex, and the main ways these technologies are produced in our world are as tools of control, warfare, and human suffering.

In earlier times scientists and inventors didn’t have much say in how their work was used, and could often be persuaded that their use in military applications was actually for the benefit of humankind. Today, those naive days are gone, and the landscape is different. Some of the most prominent minds that are creating advanced technologies are starting to speak out more and more about how their work is being used in the world.

More Than 2400 Signatories

Elon Musk of SpaceX and Demis Hassabis at Google DeepMind are among more than 2,400 signatories to the pledge which intends to deter military firms and nations from building lethal autonomous weapon systems, also known as LAWS. The signatories are scientists who specialize in artificial intelligence, (AI) and have declared that they will not participate in the development or manufacture of robots that can identify and attack people without human oversight. The pledge was created by the Future of Life Institute:

LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS PLEDGE

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to play an increasing role in military systems. There is an urgent opportunity and necessity for citizens, policymakers, and leaders to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI.

In this light, we the undersigned agree that the decision to take a human life should never be delegated to a machine. There is a moral component to this position, that we should not allow machines to make life-taking decisions for which others – or nobody – will be culpable. There is also a powerful pragmatic argument: lethal autonomous weapons, selecting and engaging targets without human intervention, would be dangerously destabilizing for every country and individual. Thousands of AI researchers agree that by removing the risk, attributability, and difficulty of taking human lives, lethal autonomous weapons could become powerful instruments of violence and oppression, especially when linked to surveillance and data systems. Moreover, lethal autonomous weapons have characteristics quite different from nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and the unilateral actions of a single group could too easily spark an arms race that the international community lacks the technical tools and global governance systems to manage. Stigmatizing and preventing such an arms race should be a high priority for national and global security.

We, the undersigned, call upon governments and government leaders to create a future with strong international norms, regulations and laws against lethal autonomous weapons. These currently being absent, we opt to hold ourselves to a high standard: we will neither participate in nor support the development, manufacture, trade, or use of lethal autonomous weapons. We ask that technology companies and organizations, as well as leaders, policymakers, and other individuals, join us in this pledge.

The Power Of Public Shaming

The pledge hopes to amount to more than just words. In calling on countries to legislate laws, technology companies to not accept contracts, and individuals to voice their support against lethal autonomous weapons, they hope to sway public opinion overwhelmingly against LAWS, and in doing so shame any person or group who would go ahead with its development. There is some precedent for this approach working, according to Yoshua Bengio, an AI pioneer at the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms:

This approach actually worked for land mines, thanks to international treaties and public shaming, even though major countries like the US did not sign the treaty banning landmines. American companies have stopped building landmines

The timing of this pledge is crucial. The military is one of the largest funders and adopters of AI technology. With advanced computer systems, robots can fly missions over hostile terrain, navigate on the ground, and patrol under seas. More sophisticated weapon systems are in the pipeline. Toby Walsh, a professor of AI at the University of New South Wales in Sydney who signed the pledge, had this to say about it:

We need to make it the international norm that autonomous weapons are not acceptable. A human must always be in the loop.

We cannot stop a determined person from building autonomous weapons, just as we cannot stop a determined person from building a chemical weapon. But if we don’t want rogue states or terrorists to have easy access to autonomous weapons, we must ensure they are not sold openly by arms companies.

Collective Consciousness Rising

This pledge is but one example of how people are implicating themselves in the future of the planet. No longer are we waiting on the sidelines and leaving decisions up to corporations, the military, or our political leaders. When we identify ourselves not as a race, culture or nation but as a planet, where all of humankind is considered part of the family, then we get to have greater access to the power of our collective consciousness. Once we harness that power, no initiative that is for the benefit of humanity is beyond our abilities.

from: https://www.collective-evolution.com/2018/07/22/elon-musk-and-over-2400-ai-scientists-sign-pledge-against-killer-robots/

What’s Going on In Antartica?

Posted on July 23, 2018 by marcia

AS ALWAYS, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH:

Exposing Antarctica: Secret Space Program, Underground Bases, Reptilians, Nordics

In Dr Michael Salla’s latest book “Antarctica’s Hidden History” we learn about the Thule Society, the German Secret Space Programme, the Reptilians, the Nordics and so much more. A brief summary of his book is below.

German Secret Space Programmes

Before World War 2, Adolf Hitler was supported by the German Workers Party (who later became the NAZI party). The German Workers Party was soon to be supported by the Thule Society, once they realised what an asset Adolf Hitler was.

The Thule Society believed in a mysterious force called Vril, a force that could be harnessed by individuals; their aim was to gain power using this force.

With the help of a psychic called Maria Orsic who telepathically communicated with Inner Earthhumans they obtained information and plans to build flying saucers.

The Thule society started to produce flying saucers.

Pictures collage or various models of real Nazi Vril flying saucers

During the 2nd world war when the Germans realised that they were losing, the Thule Society transferred all their manpower, knowledge and technology to the Antarctic.

The Thule society split into two separate groups. The Thule Society was working with reptilians from Earth and Maria Orsic was working with Nordics from inner earth.

Antarctica is about the same size as the USA and Mexico combined. It has 3 large mountain ranges and approximately 138 volcanoes. So there was plenty of room for both groups to expand.

The Thule society group wanted power and when they moved to the Antarctic they took many slaves along with them.

Both groups carried on with their work in Antarctica, one with the help of the reptilians and the other with the help of the Nordics.

USA Intervenes

The USA was aware of the Germans in Antarctica and tried to come to an agreement with them.

In 1946 Rear Admiral Richard Byrd went down to the Antarctic to destroy the German bases.

This was called Operation High Jump, 4,700 Military, 6 Helicopters, 6 Martin PBM flying Boats, 2 Seaplanes, 15 other Aircraft, 13 Navy Supply Ships and 1 Aircraft Carrier accompanied Rear Admiral Byrd.

Operation High Jump’s cover story was said to be one of scientific research in the area. Really it was a Military Force against a secret enemy.

The mission was supposed to last 6 months, it only lasted 8 weeks. The German Secret Space Programmes technology was far too advanced for Admiral Byrd and his military to overcome. He was defeated.

Many of the UFO’s originally seen flying around at this time were the German Secret Space Programme UFO’s

In 1952 UFO’s appeared over the White House. At the time they were thought to be Aliens from another planet but really it was the Germans showing off their hardware.

In February 1954 Eisenhower had a secret meeting at Edwards Base with Maria Orsic and the human looking Nordics; they attempted to dissuade Eisenhower to continue with nuclear weapons and warned about the Germans who worked with the Reptilians.

Maria Orsic’s group wanted peace and the new technology to benefit all of mankind. Ultimately Maria wanted humanity to be part of the galactic community. Eisenhower rejected their offer.

In February 1955 Eisenhower had another secret meeting this time with the German and Reptilian group at Holloman Air Force Base. It is believed that an agreement was reached with this group.

Corey Goode has said that after the treaty was signed a US Secret Space Programme began. The US SSP and the German Secret Space Programme tried to infiltrate each other’s groups. The German SSP eventually won. They soon took over US financial systems, the military industrial complex and the US government.

It was agreed that worldwide corporations would produce equipment for the German Secret Space Programme. This was possible because many US and German industrialists belonged to a secret group who had no national affiliations.

This group is known today as the elite, the cabal or the illuminati.

German Secret Space Programme Expansion

There are now many cities under the ice of Antarctica in huge caverns. The German Secret Space Programme has expanded beyond comprehension.

Artistic interpretation of a secret military base under the ice of Antarctica

Many countries around the world have now worked with the German SSP in Antarctica along with the US and the European nations. Many more large corporations from around the world have also collaborated with the Antarctic Germans.

Eventually the German SSP built bases on the Moon and Mars and they still used human slaves to do their work for them. William Tompkins says the slave trade is big business and it is still happening today.

The German SSP became known as The Dark Fleet and the USA Navy SSP became known as Solar Warden.

Corey Goode says the human slave trade is now run by the Interplanetary Corporate Conglomerate which was started by the elites who secretly control the earth’s governments.

The elites believed many humans were being abducted anyway so they decided to make a profit from this activity. They now sell humans to extra-terrestrials as slaves.

Antarctica Now

The Dark Fleet is still operational in the Antarctic and they were the first to become aware of its hidden secrets.

In recent years the volcanoes have caused the ice to melt revealing alien spaceships and many artefacts. Inside these alien space ships they have found the bodies of pre-Adamites in stasis chambers.

Pre-Adamites have elongated skulls and strange shaped bodies due to the different gravitational pull on their home planet as opposed to the earths.

They are said to have arrived on earth 55,000 years ago. It is said they arrived from a planet in our solar system, generally assumed to be Mars. It is this group that is believed to have created human alien hybrids by interbreeding with the humans at that time.

They took over the world with their advanced technology.

The illuminati, elite, cabal or powers that shouldn’t be claim to be descended from the pre Adamites and that is why they feel they should rule over the world and we should all be their slaves.

It is not sure how the pre Adamites came to be frozen in the Antarctic, one theory is that the Antarctic was once in a different position and the poles shifted suddenly causing the area to freeze instantly. Some of the space ships have crash landed in the area causing another puzzle.

Corey Goode has visited Antarctica and seen the large caverns and huge cities. He has seen the artefacts and the huge space ships. This information as usual is being kept secret from the general public by the governments of the world.

There is obviously far more going on around us on this earth than we could ever have realised. More and more information leaks out every day.

Emery Smith has stated that the earth will reveal the answers to us all eventually and in the case of Antarctica once the ice melts, he will certainly be right.

Let’s hope we don’t have to wait that long!

By Julie Alexander, HumansAreFree.com

About the author: I realized what was really going on in the world in 2013. Since then I have been trying to make sense of it all and help others along the way. I am still learning more each day. You can visit my Facebook here and my website here.

from: http://humansarefree.com/2018/07/exposing-antarctica-secret-space.html

How Safe is the Impossible Burger?

Posted on July 21, 2018 by marcia

News Release: “Bleeding” veggie burger has “no basis for safety,” according to FDA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Creators of a fake-meat burger made with a high-profile genetically engineered ingredient may have landed their experimental industry in a sizzling food safety mess, casting doubt on a Silicon Valley foodtech investor bubble.

As reported on in today’s New York Times, recently obtained documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reveal that Impossible Foods, maker of the Impossible Burger, the meatless burger that supposedly “bleeds,” was told by FDA officials that it hadn’t provided adequate proof of safety for a genetically engineered protein that gives the burger its meat-like taste and color. Impossible Foods put the genetically engineered product on the market for public consumption even though the company privately admitted to the FDA that it had not conducted or designed safety tests. The FOIA-produced documents state that the “FDA believes that the arguments presented, individually and collectively, do not establish the safety of SLH for consumption, nor do they point to a general recognition of safety.”

“The FDA told Impossible Foods that its burger was not going to meet government safety standards, and the company admitted it didn’t know all of its constituents. Yet it sold it anyway to thousands of unwitting consumers. Responsible food companies don’t treat customers this way,” said Jim Thomas of ETC Group. “Impossible Foods should pull the burgers from the market unless and until safety can be established by the FDA and apologize to those whose safety it may have risked.”

“Under no circumstances should any food company ignore FDA safety warnings and put consumers’ health at risk,” Dana Perls, senior food and technology campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “The FDA must be the authority when it comes to determining food safety, and that means overhauling the broken regulatory process so that companies like Impossible Foods cannot self-regulate and rubber stamp their products as safe.”

The FDA’s safety designation of “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) allows a manufacturer, like Impossible Foods, to decide for itself, without FDA input, whether or not a product is safe. The self-determination does not require notice to the public or the FDA, and may apply to food chemicals regardless of industry conflicts of interest, or whether the chemicals are new or not widely studied.

U.S. government documents, obtained by ETC Group and Friends of the Earth U.S. through the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that Impossible Foods was warned by FDA officials that its key genetically engineered ingredient, “soy leghemeglobin” (SLH), would not meet the basic FDA GRAS status. SLH, or “heme,” is a bio-engineered protein additive that adds meat-like taste and color. Impossible Foods recognizes that SLH has never been widespread in the human diet in its natural or genetically engineered form. Despite touting the color properties of the engineered “heme,” Impossible Foods did not seek FDA approval as a color additive, which has stricter safety regulations.

In discussion with FDA, Impossible Foods also admitted that up to a quarter of its “heme” ingredient was composed of 46 “unexpected” additional proteins, some of which are unidentified and none of which were assessed for safety in the dossier.

The case of Impossible Burger raises concerns that surpass this one patty and implicates the extreme genetic engineering field of synthetic biology, particularly the new high-tech investor trend of “vat-itarian” foods (meat, dairy, and other animal proteins grown in a biotech vat instead of from an animal). While Impossible Burger is the poster child for this vat-grown approach, other companies such as Perfect Day (synthetic biology cow milk) and Clara Foods (synthetic biology egg whites) appear also to be racing to market. Just as biofuels were pitched as a “clean tech” fix to climate change a decade ago, the vat-itarian venture capitalists are now attempting to capitalize on animal welfare concerns through “molecular farming.”

While the health and environmental damage caused by large-scale industrial livestock production should not be minimized, the success of non-animal burgers like the non-GMO Beyond Burger demonstrates that plant-based animal substitutes can succeed without resorting to genetic engineering.

A 2013 US National Survey by Hart Research found that 61% of respondents felt negative about synthetic biology-produced food additives. Polls also show that consumers increasingly want GMOs to be labeled as such, but so far, most companies selling products with synthetic biology ingredients, including Impossible Foods, are not labeling on the products or menus.

Friends of the Earth and ETC Group reached out last week to Impossible Foods, inviting the company to a discussion on the safety of the Impossible Burger.

###

Impossible Burger FOIA documents are available here.

For further information and analysis see ETC Group’s on-line searchable database of synthetic biology derived ingredients, including Impossible Food’s “heme”.

See Friends of the Earth’s blog on synthetic biology animal replacement products “Is ‘Food-Tech’ the Future of Food?” and website for additional information on synthetic biology’s risks to our health and environment.

from: http://www.synbiowatch.org/2017/08/bleeding-veggie-burger-has-no-basis-for-safety-according-to-fda/?lores

Are You Too Smart for Love?

Posted on July 21, 2018 by marcia

Your Level Of Intelligence May Be The Reason You Can’t Find Love

Being single doesn’t have to be a horrible experience. In fact, being single can be fun, but only if you know how to make the best of the situation. You don’t have anyone to slow you down; you don’t even have anyone to tell you what and when to do things.

While you are single, you will have all the time in the world to learn more about your self. Being single and being lonely are not synonymous. In actuality, someone who is involved in a relationship can be lonelier than people who are single.

Being single means you have time to understand your own inner thoughts. It means you have time to think about who is perfect for you.

If you are single, it means you are not rushing into a relationship. It means you are looking for the perfect match. When you are waiting for your better half, you can be single for a very long time.

You may go on frequent dates and not be able to find someone for you. You may even get the feeling that someone more special is bound to come into your life.

Intelligence is one of the things preventing you from settling down. The smarter a person is, the longer they go without settling down. This is because they are taking their time in finding their true love.

INTELLIGENT PEOPLE HAVE SELF-AWARENESS

An intelligent person’s self-awareness causes them to know what they like and dislike. They are able to tell faster than unintelligent people if they like someone.

This means they won’t spend a lot of time getting to know someone.

They will know after the first date if things are going to click or not. Intelligent people aren’t able to simply be with anyone: they require a real connection.

INTELLIGENT PEOPLE HAVE SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS

Intelligent people already know what they are looking for in a partner. This means they aren’t getting to know a person they are dating. Instead, they are seeing if a person meets their criteria.

This can be an extremely long process. Someone that doesn’t meet these requirements won’t even get a second date from an intelligent person. These requirements range from interests to hobbies and all points in between.

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE CAN MATCH THEIR INTELLIGENCE

Having similar intelligence is an important part of getting along with someone. No one likes a know-it-all, and if you only date people below your own intelligence that is exactly what will happen.

An intelligent person wants a higher quality of conversation. Most people won’t be able to keep up with their conversational topics. Being attracted to someone is more than just physical: it is mental as well.

INTELLIGENT PEOPLE REQUIRE CONSTANT BRAIN STIMULATION

Boredom is a serious problem for someone of higher intelligence. Intelligent people lose interest after figuring something out.

They are ready to move on to something else once they have something down.

Intelligent people need to constantly be introduced to new ideas and thoughts. It can be hard to find someone with these same personality traits.

INTELLIGENCE IS A HEAVY BURDEN

Intelligent people tend to put a lot of thought into things. They like to spend a lot of time alone while analyzing their thoughts.

This can lead to them being reclusive. This is why intelligent people need someone who is similarly minded.

INTELLIGENT PEOPLE AREN’T EASILY TRICKED

An intelligent person needs someone who is honest. Intelligence has nothing to do with morality, but intelligent people are able to tell when someone is lying. A liar and an intelligent person simply won’t be able to get along.

Source: apost

from: https://gostica.com/love-vitamins/your-level-of-intelligence-may-be-the-reason-you-cant-find-love/

Intelligence & Talent

Posted on July 21, 2018 by marcia

There Is More Than One Type Of Intelligence

July 21, 2018

By. Alanna Ketler

IN BRIEF

The Facts:The current model of schooling puts emphasis on one particular type of education, which only covers a small percentage of the population of children. It also educates children in batches, assuming they are all ready for the same thing.
Reflect On:Is it time to reevaluate this method of schooling to be more inclusive to children with all types of other intellect and creative ability? Is our education system even bringing out the full potential in our children?

What was your experience in school like? Did you hate it or love it? Were you an all ‘A’ student and found it to be a breeze or did you struggle with understanding some of the subjects you were being taught?

The fact of the matter is, our modern education system is not catering to students as individuals, but lumping them all into the same category and expecting them to succeed, even at things they are not particularly good at or even interested in, while those who got the highest test scores were praised and reminded of their perceived superiority and intelligence.

Because of this, many children experience anxiety around tests because they have been taught over and over again that their value is determined by a letter grade and not their creative abilities. If one child has an amazing skill to write poetry, but then fails a math exam, the latter will be the topic that is looked at and how this failure can be turned around. Often telling the child they need to pay attention more in class or study longer, even though this particular topic may not be where the child’s intelligence lies. This system is designed strictly for children to learn how to memorize and regurgitate what they have learned in the form of tests, not giving much leeway for other talents and abilities.

Our modern-day schooling system was designed to train children into becoming the perfect employee, to sit at a desk perhaps, or follow orders effectively for when they are old enough to enter the workforce. The hours, little time for play, taking instructions from a person with authority and unfortunately, leaving little room for exploring creative abilities. This system, in reality, only caters to a small percentage of people in the world, and because of this, we are effectively killing the creative potential that exists within all human beings.

…As it says in the video( from Sustainable Human, check out link for video link), “How did we get to the point where we decided the best way to school our children is to sit them behind a desk and insist they keep still?”

Children are meant to play, to explore, to observe, to stumble, to be curious, to ask questions, to find answers, to learn from others and as they go. Sitting them in a desk seems far from natural, yet this is something that to this day we still accept as normal and see it as, ‘just the way it is.’ However, it hasn’t actually been that long that this has been our generally accepted method of schooling.

“If a kid is failing, it is not the kids fault, the fault is within the system.”

Let us not forget that there are MANY forms of intelligence and it’s time we embraced every single one. The schooling system as we know it, needs an overhaul.

from: https://www.collective-evolution.com/2018/07/21/there-is-more-than-one-type-of-intelligence/