rants – Lifeboat News: The Blog

The USD is Tulip Mania—BTC is not

Posted by Philip Raymond in bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, economics, rantsTagged altcoins, bitcoin, bitcoin investment, bitcoin speculation, cryptocurrency, ICO, Peter Bergstrom | Leave a Comment on The USD is Tulip Mania—BTC is not

05.15.
2018

Please don’t pay any attention to this posting. It is not for you… *

This graph presents indisputable fact: It compares US dollar growth as reported by the US government and Bitcoin growth (for all time), extrapolated by pure math.

I wish that this would put to bed the fake news, conspiracy theories, and “nothing backs it” nonsense. Unfortunately, seismic shifts in architecture or process take time for society to understand and accept. Early adopters will be the fortunate buckos. Timid or clueless denizens will complain bitterly about the unfair advantage of those who wise up before it hits a 6 figure exchange rate. Eventually, comparisons with legacy currencies will be utterly meaningless. It will become the currency. It will be the gold-pressed latinum of universal recognition and intrinsic value.

15 years from now, some will look back on our era and claim that the Winkelvoss twins were lucky. Risk, patience and an understanding of economics is not ‘luck’. They have the gift of prescience.

Bitcoin cannot be manufactured. Despite it being open-source and easily copied, it is very unlikely to be displaced by an altcoin or ICO. The fact that there will never be more than 21 million original bitcoin presents incredible opportunity to the frugal and wise—for a short time.

* Hopefully, few people will heed the siren call. Investing is Bitcoin might be good for you, but it is bad for the community. How so?! The more that individuals or institutions hoard, speculate or invest in Bitcoin—as opposed to driving adoption by actually using it—the longer it will take to gain traction as a functional payment instrument, or as the money itself.

So, this article is not for you. Move along. These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.

Related: 10 Reasons People Can’t See The Crypto Light

Philip Raymond sits on Lifeboat’s New Money Systems board. He co-chairs CRYPSA, hosts the Bitcoin Event, publishes Wild Duck and is keynote speaker at global Cryptocurrency Conferences. Book a presentation or consulting engagement.

^{Credit: (title & image): Peter Bergstrom
Did you catch the omage to both Star Trek and Star Wars? Look again}

Unexpected Futurist: Mark Twain, Tesla, and a Worldwide Visual Telephone System

Posted by Johnny Boston in education, entertainment, fun, futurism, internet, media & arts, mobile phones, rantsTagged future, futurism, futurist, GPA, history, Literature, mark twain, nikola tesla, science, technology, Tesla, twain, video | Leave a Comment on Unexpected Futurist: Mark Twain, Tesla, and a Worldwide Visual Telephone System

09.14.
2017

When one thinks of Mark Twain, one thinks of folksy wit, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer and the Mississippi River. Twain’s work immortalized the rapidly changing United States of the 1800s. But in his personal life, Twain often preferred the future to nostalgia, supporting women’s suffrage and civil rights, and frequently being contemptuous of what he considered to be the absurd and corrupt values of the past. He harbored a long running fascination with technology and new gadgets, and frequently invested in the latter — albeit with spotty success, at best. But Twain cemented his becoming an honorary futurist via his long friendship with inventor and Mad-scientist archetype Nikola Tesla.

Sex Equality: I’m With Her

Posted by Philip Raymond in education, ethics, policy, rants, sexTagged Elizabeth Cady Stanton, equality, feminism, Lydia Begag, Seneca Falls conventionx, sex equality, sexual liberation, Title 9 | Leave a Comment on Sex Equality: I’m With Her

05.23.
2017

Lifeboat Editorial

Lydia Begag is a high school junior at Advanced Math and Science Academy in Massachusetts. She got our attention when she published an editorial critical of the school’s uniform policy. With eloquence and articulation, she laid out a brilliant and persuasive argument that the policy was anything but uniform. It was ambiguous, arbitrary and discriminatory.

I’m with Her
Ideas Regarding Sex Equality
—Forget the Rest

Political and social turmoil are everywhere we turn, especially in the early months of 2017. Lunch conversations, small talk at work, and, of course, the media we consume have all become related to a singular topic: the United States government and its workings. Emotionally, I want to curl up in a ball and block out the political nonsense being spewed left and right until the day I die (pun very much intended)—but I feel intellectually obliged to confront the controversy.

All who live and breath America understand why politics have always been a hot topic for debate. Every ideology, action, and word are potentially contentious. Such is especially the case with modern feminism. Everyone seems to have a different opinion of it and portrays it in different ways, from the group of men wolf whistling at a woman on her way to her car after work to powerful cultural figures who associate themselves with the movement. Before we can even begin to familiarize ourselves with conflicting beliefs towards women and feminism in general and their reflection of a worrisome mentality, it is crucial to first understand feminism’s roots in the United States, and how interpretations of the word and the movement have varied throughout the years.

Feminism begins its legacy in 19th-century America, where its first-wave arises at the Seneca Falls Convention of July 1948. Prominent feminists of the era (including Elizabeth Cady Stanton—more on her later!) issued a Declaration of Sentiments for women that emulated the Declaration of Independence their husbands had crafted 170 years earlier. The document asserted that women had fundamental rights that were denied without cause, including suffrage. However, the first-wave feminist movement raised a series of questions regarding whether it was acceptable to promote black civil rights over and into women’s rights. Should the rights of black men be prioritized over establishing and recognizing rights for women? Should black women be considered in the fight for gender equality as well, or would that undermine the cause white women had been fighting for for so long? The moral conflict eventually resulted in a success for the women’s suffrage movement in 1920. White women, led by famous feminists such as Stanton, Alice Paul, and Lucy Burns, gained the right to vote in federal and state elections via the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Women of color, however, were left in the dust and did not start to gain suffrage until 1965. This type of exclusive feminism did not end when women of color gained suffrage; it has proven itself to be significant even today.

The list of American feminist milestones goes on and on. Women experienced sexual liberation in the Roaring 20s, when life was grander and more exquisite than ever. They essentially took over maintenance of the U.S. economy when men went to fight in the world wars, and Rosie the Riveter was born. Women were also becoming increasingly influential in politics. Such milestones included the first woman to run for president on a major-party ticket in 1972 to landmark Supreme Court cases asserting that a right to privacy does include guaranteed legal accessibility to abortion and contraceptives. Title 9, the amendment to the Education Amendments Act of 1972, enabled girls in schools across the country to receive the same benefits as their male peers. All of these milestones reshaped a woman’s role in society throughout the 20^th century onwards, but they did not come without drawbacks. The ’20s was an intense era of sexist and classist attitudes. Female sexual liberation resulted in extreme objectification. After WWI was over and soldiers came home, women were whisked back into the households to resume their roles as obedient housewives. Male dominance made running for public office harder for a woman, despite having the opportunity. And let us not forget the controversy surrounding a woman’s right to privacy. A significant factor involves religious morals and/or other ethical reasoning that are not related to gender equality, but it is impossible to ignore the misogynistic rationale that many pro-lifers exhibit. All of the achievements we’ve had have seemingly been countered by just as much dissent as support, a persistent reality since Abigail Adams urged her husband to support gender equality.

We are currently in the era of what fundamentalist feminists call “Take A Shot Every time You Offend Someone With One of Your Comments.” That term, of course, is colloquialism at its finest. You’re probably more familiar with something called third-wave feminism. This type of feminism has become increasingly less focused on the kind of feminism Stanton was prominent for (Yay! Exclusivity!) and more on queer and non-white women. The concept of intersectionality was introduced in the late ’80s just before this third wave began. It has received great support by women of color and those who had always been ignored by exclusive feminists, but as we already know, dissent is just around the corner.

The most popular criticism focuses on a lack of cohesion. First wave feminism fought for and gained female suffrage. The second wave fought for the right for women to have access to equal opportunity in the workforce and an end to legal sex discrimination. What is third wave feminism’s goal? Is there even a goal, or are its advocates serving as the world’s determinators of what is PC and what is not? The stigma around the feminist movement has existed ever since its origins in this country, but the increasing disassociation of women from the term ‘feminism’ has become alarming in recent years. For every outspoken celebrity and political feminist there is out there (think Emma Watson, Shonda Rhimes, Nancy Pelosi) there is an equally prominent female figure that opposes the movement, such as Lana del Rey, Tomi Lahren, and Shailene Woodley. Here’s the kicker: these role models usually aren’t misogynistic or demeaning. They simply seek to avoid affiliation with the word itself and its modern day supporters. This is understandable; we’re a country founded on grounds of freedom. If a person doesn’t want to associate themselves with a movement, there’s no obligation to. However, the fact that women don’t even want to be labeled feminists because of what it has come to signify is something I find very problematic. I don’t see this as an inadequate reflection of what 21^st century women believe in, but rather a poor reflection on the feminist crusade. The way I look at it is this: apples don’t fall off a tree because they are too heavy. Rather, they fall off because the stem is too weak to support them.

This creation of a conflict within a conflict has led to major confusion on what “right” feminism is. As defined by Merriam Webster, “feminism” is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. This most basic meaning of the word is something most women, if not all, should consider when they debate whether or not to label themselves a feminist. Sex equality is really the only thing the third-wave feminist movement should be focused on. Issues such as racial inequality, and rights for LGBT and disabled persons, are a matter for a cause much broader than feminism (think egalitarianism). The more narrow a movement and its fight becomes, the more likely it is to accomplish its goals. The first two waves of feminism all had a set goal in mind, which was something that followed core feminism to the nines. In the midst of all of the social unrest that has risen since the ’80s, the feminist movement has been trying to take over the egalitarianist one. However, if women ever wish to gain social equality between the sexes, it is necessary to narrow the cause to its fundamental roots.

Another issue with the modern feminist movement is that, in the effort towards sex equality, many feminists have interpreted being equal to men as trying to act just like them. Men and women are different, biologically and perhaps psychologically, but of equal value. To quote Mary Ramirez’s “Dear Daughter: Here’s Why I Didn’t March For You”: “…we are biologically and physically and emotionally different from men, but that doesn’t mean we’re less. It means we’re special.”

Nonetheless, achieving social equality between the sexes is something I consider crucial, particularly for the girls just starting to grow up in this country. It is disheartening for women to live in a world where, from the moment we start to grow up and find ourselves in a male-centric society, life becomes a tale of denigration and overt sexualization. However, the problem with using modern feminism to change this sexist attitude is that it has turned into a male resentment club, and no longer seems to revolve around sex equality in society. Off the top of my head, I can think of multiple times where the “feminists” surrounding me on a daily basis have remarked on female superiority or denounced women who do not wholeheartedly accept their idea of feminism. Feminism should preach equality and acceptance. Instead, it has turned into a catty game of doing to the men what the men have done to us. We live in a world where raising people up has turned into knocking others down. Vulgarity and impertinence has turned into the ideal image of a “strong” woman, and has become more and more acceptable. The idea of a feminist who respects others’ opinions has seemingly been swapped with one that thrives off of the idea of being regarded as “bitchy,” angry, or disrespectful. We’ve come a long way since our feminist founding mothers marched down Pennsylvania Avenue fighting for suffrage, and unfortunately, it’s not for the best.

Envisioning myself in the world of politics five or ten years down the road…I won’t pretend it doesn’t worry me at times.Influential female politicians over the years have found not their beliefs or their policy agendas as the primary subject of media conversation, but rather whether or not they’re menstruating or have considered cosmetic surgery. Seeing myself and others in my current situation has worried me as well. Despite growing up in a privileged setting where I receive nothing but acceptance from my family, the school and work environment has offered me and similar girls slut-shaming, catcalling, and the craftiest of off-hand remarks (“Who are you trying to impress today with that outfit?”). A multitude of women who come from different backgrounds have experienced similar toxicity in their surroundings. Ultimately, any setting for a woman can be a problematic one, and a promotion of classic feminism could turn things around. To me, an advocacy for respect on both sexes’ parts—rather than claimed superiority—would be transformative in making these conditions for bearable for young American women and men. Right now, what we have is extreme exclusivity and not enough acceptance.

Want to call yourself a feminist? Great! Reluctant to associate yourself with the movement but still support sex equality? Sounds good! Don’t support sex equality and a reversal of traditional gender roles? That is still okay! Obviously if an opinion undermines the cause you are fighting for, you’re not inclined to encourage it. But what the American public needs to realize is that, when advocates contradict the cause of unity and respect with their actions and words change will not come. Crudity does not empower you; it only cheapens you.

As mentioned before, narrowing down the movement’s goals is also crucial in moving forward. In comparison to many nations around the world, the United States has seen great success when it comes to fighting for sex equality. The third-wave feminist movement does have some valid issues to advocate for—domestic violence, raising awareness for rape victims, pay discrimination, etc.—but also chooses to focus on trivial causes like Free the Nipple and eliminating “manspreading.” Perhaps it is because we have obtained legal equality (thanks, first two waves!). But now that social equity has become the main focus, a blur of ideas and beliefs have resulted in a chaotic, incohesive movement. If you consider feminism at its core, the social issue to fight for is clear. There are many causes worth fighting for: racial inequality, ableism, and marriage justness, to name a few. But for the love of God, leave the aspects that do not relate to sex equality for the egalitarians. They’re there for a reason.

Author’s Note: This is my first article for Lifeboat Foundation.
Add comments below. I will drop in from time to time to respond.

— Lydia Begag

Cargo Cult Science

Posted by Eric Baum in climatology, environmental, existential risks, health, information science, philosophy, rants, science, sustainabilityTagged collective intelligence, existential risks, research, sustainability, technology | Leave a Comment on Cargo Cult Science

09.01.
2016

Feynman told us clearly: “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.” Check anything from first principles and experience, ignoring no logical holes, and that is science. Cargo Cult Science arises when the opposing arguments aren’t emphasized. Experts then form and pass down firm beliefs that are delusions. Cargo Cult science is like a perfect replica radio made all of wood: it may have all the trappings of degrees and chairs and journals, but it is missing the key ingredient and won’t function.[1][2]

Vaccine science is cargo cult science according to Feynman’s definition. There are a ton of peer reviewed papers demonstrating that vaccine aluminum is damaging, that vaccines are full of contaminants, that they can disrupt brain and immune system development, that the smallpox vaccine was ineffective, the polio vaccine is of questionable utility, other vaccines’ immunity wanes after only a few years. They never rebut as you can easily verify yourself by examining the citation list here for opposition and then searching the vaccine survey pdfs for the cites. They just ignore it.[3][4][5]

Climate science is cargo cult science. Climate “scientists” have been known to “hide” their own most interesting data, the data contradicting the prevailing theory which is what Feynman said a scientist should emphasize most prominently[6][7]. Alternative theories and methodological objections are ignored or white washed. (Search the IPCC reports for discussion of the opposition.) To say a science is cargo cult science is not to say that there are no papers published in it that are science, but it is to say one should repose zero or negative confidence in any pronouncement one has not personally verified from first principles.

http://TruthSift.com supports Feynman’s model of science applied to everything. Just as in mathematical practice, you can post proofs and refutations. But nothing is considered established unless every proposed refutation has an established counter-refutation. No proposed refutation can be ducked, and anybody who believes they have a rational objection may post it (and see the establishment statuses reflect the objection in real time). Try it out. Check out (and please contribute to) the ongoing diagrammings of the vaccine/climate science etc literatures. When they have passed through true logical review, confronting all the opposing arguments, what remains will be a genuine science.

[1] Richard P Feynman, What is Science? (1968) http://www-oc.chemie.uni-regensburg.de/diaz/img_diaz/feynman_what-is-science_68.pdf
[2] Richard P Feynman, CARGO CULT SCIENCE (adapted from Caltech Commencement Address 1974) https://www.lhup.edu/~DSIMANEK/cargocul.htm
[3] Eric Baum The Top Ten Reasons I Believe Vaccine Safety Is an Epic Mass Delusion (2016) https://lifeboat.com/blog/2016/06/the-top-ten-reasons-i-believe-vaccine-safety-is-an-epic-mass-delusion
[4] TruthSift Topic: Are Vaccines Safe? (2016) http://truthsift.com/search_view?statement=Vaccines-are-Safe&id=406&nid=4083
[5] TruthSift Topic: The Evidence is Weak Vaccines Have Saved More Lives than They Have Cost (2016), http://truthsift.com/search_view?topic=The-Evidence-Is-Weak-That-Vaccines-Have-Saved-More-Lives-than-They-Have-Cost–&id=520
[6] Climate data hidden both early (data showing very rapid rise before 1500) and in 20th century (showing decline): https://climateaudit.org/2011/03/21/hide-the-decline-the-other-deletion/
[7] More data contradicting theory hidden. https://climateaudit.org/2011/12/01/hide-the-decline-plus/

3 Reasons You Are Living in the Matrix / How to Make a Red Pill

Posted by Eric Baum in complex systems, disruptive technology, education, governance, government, philosophy, physics, policy, rants, science, scientific freedomTagged collective intelligence, culture, education, existential risks, health, politics, technology, transhumanism | 4 Comments on 3 Reasons You Are Living in the Matrix / How to Make a Red Pill

07.11.
2016

“Appearances have always played a much more important part than reality in history, where the unreal is always of greater moment than the real.“
–Gustav LeBon, The Crowd (1895)

I’ve gotten no substantive response to my last post on vaccine safety– neither in the comments, nor the TruthSift diagram, nor anywhere else, nor have the papers I submitted to two medical journals… but I have gotten emails telling me I’m delusional and suggesting I seek psychiatric attention. And this of course is integral to the explanation of how such delusions as vaccine safety persist so widely when it is so demonstrably a delusion: the majority who believe the majority must be right because its the majority are emotionally unwilling to confront the evidence. They assume the experts have done that, and they rely on the experts. But the experts assume other experts have been there. Ask your Pediatrician if he’s personally read Bishop et al and formulated an opinion on vaccine aluminum. Neither has the National Academy, except perhaps their members have and decided, perhaps tacitly, not to review the subject. Their decision not to review the animal literature was not tacit, they said they explicitly decided to omit it, although elsewhere they say they couldn’t find human evidence that addressed the issues. So everybody is trusting somebody else, and nobody has picked up the ball. And can you blame them? Because when I pick up the ball, what I receive in return is hate mail and people’s scorn. The emotional response cuts off any possible inspection of the logic.

On most questions where a majority with authority is facing a minority of dissenters or skeptics, the majority is delusional.
In other words, you are living in the matrix; much of what you and people believe is fundamentlaly wrong.

Reason 1, as above, is that the majority forms its view by circular reasoning, and rejects any attempt at logical discussion without considering it seriously, so it is prone to delusion.
Once the crowd concluded vaccines are safe and effective, for example, the question of whether the aluminum is damaging can apparently no longer be raised (even as more gets added to vaccines). And when I or others try to raise it, we are scorned and hated, and ineffectual in changing the opinion supported by circular reasoning. When new research papers appear that call it into question, they are ignored, neither cited in the safety surveys nor influencing medical practice in any way. This paragraph is all simple reporting of what has repeatedly happened.

Reason 2 is a minority wouldn’t be holding out without a good reason, because they are punished for their opposition with scorn and hatred at least. Except perhaps for explicitly religious issues, the usual reason they are so stubborn is they are defending rational truth.

Reason 3 is there’s often big money to be made or political power to be gained by influencing the majority opinion, and experts given good budgets appear to be pretty good at influencing majority opinion, especially with the aid of mass media, covertly staged stunts, and in many areas time enough to have long ago started from kids and education. On the other hand, rationality and reality don’t usually have press agents or forward looking media strategies, and there’s little or no money in swaying the minority position.

Show me a question with a majority with authority facing a minority where the majority isn’t delusional, and I’ll show you a minority that’s being paid under the table or planted to discredit rationalists in other controversial areas. At least I’ll suggest you strongly consider that as an alternative theory of what you see. The only one I can think of off hand are flat-earthers.

Mass Delusions were famously studied in 19th century first by Charles Mackay in
Popular Mass Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1852) but more interestingly IMO in Gustave Le Bon, (1895) The Crowd. This latter was arguably the single book that had the most influence on the shape of the twentieth century. By their own accounts “The Crowd” was on Theodore Roosevelt’s bedside table, and dogeared by Mussolini. Lenin and Stalin took from it, and “Hitler’s indebtedness to Le Bon bordered on plagiarism” in the words of historian and Hitler-biographer Robert G. L. Waite. Sigmund Freud wrote a book discussing Le Bon, and Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays, acknowledged his deep debt, as Goebbels did of Bernays’ reflected insights.

Bernays equally isn’t as widely known as he should be. He invented the field of public relations, the “panel of doctors”, the slogan “making the world safe for democracy”, the diamond engagement ring, broke the taboo on women’s smoking and practically doubled sales by recruiting protesters smoking “torches of freedom”, bacon and eggs, and flouridated water, among many other things. There weren’t any decent safety studies on fluoridated water, and some modern studies say its taking multiple IQ points off the population, and nations and regions that don’t fluoridate have just as good teeth today as nations and regions that do, and putting fluoride in mouthwash and toothpaste rather than the drinking water would plainly have made a lot more sense from the point of view of public safety and health, but one thing you can count on: once he put it in the water supply and convinced everybody it was a health measure, you couldn’t sue for damage from fluoride runoff any more, and potentially multi-asbestos scale class action suits against the Government and aluminum manufacturers disappeared. Since Bernays got done, just raising the issue of fluoride gets you branded fruitcake and shunned to this day.

They are also still “making the world safe for democracy”, which he coined for WW1. But is this what they are doing, or is that another widely held delusion?
Bernays also wrote the book Propaganda which begins: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”

I’ve quoted from and summarized and discussed Le Bon extensively before so I will give only a brief flavor here.
“It is not necessary that a crowd should be numerous for the faculty of seeing what is taking place before its eyes to be destroyed and for the real facts to be replaced with hallucinations unrelated to them….

“To return to the faculty of observation possessed by crowds, our conclusion is that their collective observations are as erroneous as possible, and that most often they merely represent the illusion of an individual who, by a process of contagion, has suggestioned his fellows.”

“The events with regard to which there exists the most doubt are certainly those which have been observed by the greatest number of persons. To say that a fact has been simultaneously verified by thousands of witnesses is to say, as a rule, that the real fact is very different from the accepted account of it.”…

“By the mere fact that an individual forms part of a crowd, his intellectual standard is immediately and considerably lowered….

“The inferior reasoning of crowds is based, just as is the reasoning of a high order, on the association of ideas, but between the ideas associated by crowds there are only apparent bonds of analogy or succession. The mode of reasoning of crowds resembles that of the Esquimaux who, knowing from experience that ice, a transparent body, melts in the mouth, concludes that glass, also a transparent body, should also melt in the mouth…
The characteristics of the reasoning of crowds are the association of dissimilar things possessing a merely apparent connection between each other, and the immediate generalization of particular cases. It is arguments of this kind that are always presented to crowds by those who know how to manage them. They are the only arguments by which crowds are to be influenced. A chain of logical argumentation is totally incomprehensible to crowds…”

“When these convictions [of crowds] are closely examined,…, it is apparent that they always assume a particular form which I can not better define than giving it the name of a religious sentiment…
Intolerance and fanatacism are the necessary accompaniments of the religious sentiment. They are inevitably displayed by those who believe themselves in the possession of the secret of earthly or eternal happiness. These two characteristics are to be found in all men grouped together when they are inspired by a conviction of any kind. The Jacobins of the Reign of Terror were at bottom as religious as the Catholics of the Inquisition, and their cruel ardour proceeded from the same source. The convictions of crowds assume those characteristics of blind submission, fierce intolerance, and the need of violent propaganda which are inherent in the religious sentiment, and it is for this reason that it may be said that all their beliefs have a religous form.

Whether the feelings exhibited by a crowd be good or bad, they present the double character of being very simple and very exaggerated… a throng knows neither doubt nor uncertainty.”

The Red pill

So, now what’s in the red pill? Why, its a placebo. You can use any old red jelly bean. But if you swallow it and believe that the majority may be totally delusional about anything, and start looking into practically any subject with dissenters with an open mind, then I predict if you are skilled at critical thinking, you will shortways find the majority is in fact delusional, that is, you are indeed living in the matrix.

Much more widely than you are likely to imagine. For example, the news is basically propaganda, in lockstep among all the mainstream media, who accept whatever the government and political correctness tells them to believe uncritically. Was the passenger plane over Ukraine brought down by missile or strafing? Did the CDC conspire to hide a vaccine autism connection? Is the congress being run behind the scenes by a uniparty? You won’t find any of those subjects discussed unless to whitewash in the US mainstream media. What you want in a media system is ostensible diversity that conceals an actual uniformity. –Joseph Goebbels The history books are no better, as Le Bon observed. The banking system is all based on smoke and mirrors and a healthy skim. Etc.

I don’t expect TruthSift.com to convince the masses they are delusional, because Le Bon assures me logic will never sway a crowd, but I offer it as a tool to shortcut a lot of work for those who swallow the red pill. Rather than having to study a field in detail for years as I have with vaccines and needing to be able to supply PhD level understanding of what you are reading and needing the confidence of your convictions against the many, you can much more rapidly peruse a diagram and find what the real situation is, assuming the diagram has been created and debated.
So I beg readers here to create such diagrams on TruthSift for any topic you are interested in.
Of course, they are fun and interesting too.

I also commend TruthSift to corporations and others wanting to escape the kind of crowd think delusions so well characterized by Le Bon, and achieve actual rationality in your decisions. Use it on Private Diagrams. Everybody in your organization will be able to contribute to the document, if you invite them, exactly where its pertinent. It will naturally divide and conquer your problems in ways where different people can address different problems, achieving true collaboration. Nobody will be able to get confused or pursue some other agenda without being transparently refereed. The answer will be far more rationally derived and argued for than what you are doing now. You can allow people to contribute under pseudonyms if you want. http://TruthSift.com

Find my first blog post describing TruthSift here.

Do you have a right to view an ISIS Kill List?

Posted by Philip Raymond in counterterrorism, ethics, geopolitics, rants, terrorism, transparencyTagged Al-Qaida, Clarion, intolerance, ISIL, ISIS, Islam, kill list, Muslim, radical islam, Terrorism, terrorist | Leave a Comment on Do you have a right to view an ISIS Kill List?

06.29.
2016

According to The Clarion Project, a political information bureau that warns westerners of the growing threat from radical Islam, ISIS has published a ‘kill list’ that includes the names, addresses and emails of 15,000 Americans.

Clarion_300 So far, this is interesting news, but it is not really new. I found ISIS, Hezbollah and Al-Qaida kill lists going back at least 8 years. This 2012 bulletin complains that NBC would not release the names contained on a kill list.

A kill list is newsworthy, and the Clarion article is interesting—but the article has more “facts” with which the publisher wishes to generate mob frenzy…

It explains that 4,000 of the names on the Kill List have been leaked by hackers
It echos a report by Circa News that the FBI has decided to not inform citizens that they are on the ISIS kill list.

In a clear effort to whip up and direct audience indignation, it asks readers to take a one-question poll. Which answer would you choose?

I have a right to know if I am on an ISIS kill list
I do not need to know if my name is on the ISIS kill list.
The FBI can protect me without my knowing

Let’s ignore, for a moment, that the editorial comment appended to answer #2 involves a misleading assumption (i.e. that your safety is related to inclusion on the list and that you need or would be the focus of FBI protection). Even before this cheap tactical mis-direction, I am frustrated with the sleazy promotional and shock tactics of The Clarion Project (formerly, stopradicalislam.org).

Muslim Imam, orders the destruction of Christian churches

This a pity—because the Clarion Project also creates and distributes valuable educational literature. For a few years, they were the credible standard in defining and issuing warnings about the dangers of radical Islam—especially as it is seeded and spread from within. The Clarion Project also produces terrific “wake-up” videos and documentary evidence about life under Sharia law and the shocking intolerance, misogyny and disrespect for human rights that characterize ISIS. It highlights the brutal tactics that emerge when regional governments are controlled by religious zealots. Like any repressive dictatorship, ISIS rules through fear instilled by bands of roaming thugs and by turning everyone into snitches.*

But the Kill List Poll points to a growing trend at Clarion. Four years ago, I objected to Meira Svirsky’s inflammatory report that criticizes a DOJ official for refusing to answer a complex and subtle question with a Yes-or-No response. The Clarion Project has a critical and noble goal. But pushing the emotional hot buttons of an audience by over simplifying or vilifying subtleties undermines the entire organization. In the end, it only demonstrates that they are bullies. And just like Donald Trump, bullying plays only to mobs. It is no the way to win hearts and minds.

My Answer to the Poll

I do not need to know if my name is on the ISIS kill list

Rationale

Both ISIS leaders and radical clerics have repeatedly declared that *all* Americans, American allies, Jews and non-believers may be killed on the spot or taken as sex slaves to pleasure suicide bombers and Jihadist soldiers. quran They state that doing this fulfills Jihad and prophecy and is sanctioned by the Holy Qur’an. With this in mind, I the choice of poll responses is political, selfish and offensive. It assumes that readers are idiots…

The multiple choice answers are incomplete and misleading. Of course, Americans have a right to know if they are on a kill list—and, in fact, we already know We are all on that list!

About Radical Islam

The warning bell at the heart of Clarion journalism is an alarm that must be heard—very loudly. Radical Islam is a cancer and not just figuratively. It exhibits all earmarks of a spreading cancer that invades and attaches itself to its neighbors while building offensive outposts far from the region that it started. It has not yet been contained and excised. It presents a significant ongoing threat to our safety, our health and our wealth.

_{—Philip Raymond is a Lifeboat board member and columnist. He hosted The}
^{Bitcoin Event and is co-chair of the Cryptocurrency Standards Association}

* I could illustrate my point with photos of men being burned in a cage, the abduction of preteen school girls from their homes (they were give to soldiers), a child slitting the throat of captives, or a women having her nose cut off because she was raped by a stranger. After all, in the twisted world of radical Islam, anyone who is different, unique gay, Christian, or not in agreement with the local Imam are to be tortured and killed.

But I can similarly point to even this comparatively mild video. It shows a Turkish music store under attack last week (June 2016), because a group of thugs suspects that the band signing autographs represents secular hedonism—or that that fans must be consuming alcohol during Ramadan.

The Top Ten Reasons I Believe Vaccine Safety Is an Epic Mass Delusion

Posted by Eric Baum in biotech/medical, ethics, existential risks, government, health, life extension, policy, rants, science, scientific freedomTagged collective intelligence, existential risks, health, longevity, risks, vaccines | 5 Comments on The Top Ten Reasons I Believe Vaccine Safety Is an Epic Mass Delusion

06.28.
2016

Its painful to bear views that make many think I’m an imbicile and dislike me. So please, if anybody has a rational argument why any of this is wrong, I beg to be enlightened. I’ve set up a diagram for the purpose that will support you to add your criticism exactly where it is pertinent. https://truthsift.com/graph/Are-Vaccines-Safe/406/0/-1/-1/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0

(1) The National Academy’s Reviews Of Vaccine Safety
The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies has provided several multi-hundred page surveys studying the safety of vaccines, but rather than reassuring, these itemize some iatrogenic conditions being caused, and pronounce the scientific literature inadequate to say whether most others are. The 2011 Institute of Medicine (IOM) Review[1] looked at 146 vaccine-condition pairs for causality, reporting:

14 for which the evidence is said to convincingly support causality, the vaccine is causing the condition.
4 where the evidence is said to favor acceptance.
5 where the evidence is said to favor rejection, including MMR causing autism.
123 where the evidence is said insufficient to evaluate.

The 2003 IOM Review on multiple vaccines said[2]:
“The committee was unable to address the concern that repeated exposure of a susceptible child to multiple immunizations over the developmental period may also produce atypical or non-specific immune or nervous system injury that could lead to severe disability or death (Fisher, 2001). There are no epidemiological studies that address this.”
and:
“the committee concludes that the epidemiological and clinical evidence is inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship between multiple immunization and an increased risk of allergic disease, particularly asthma.”

None of the IOM Safety Reviews[1][2][3][4] addressed the aluminum (for example whether the aluminum is causing autism), or mentioned contaminants, or discussed animal models although they had concluded as just quoted there is generally no epidemiological or clinical data worth preferring.

(2) The Aluminum.
Alum was added to vaccines back in the 1920’s, with no test of parenteral toxicity until recently[5], because it prods the immature immune system out of its normal operating range.[6] Maybe they figured aluminum is common in the environment, but injection bypasses half a dozen evolved sequential filters that normally keep it out of circulatory flow during development. Vaccines put hundreds of times as much aluminum into infants’ blood as they would otherwise get, and in an unnatural form that is hard for the body to remove.[7][8 (cfsec 4.2)][9]. The published empirical results indicate its highly toxic.

Bishop et al in NEJM 97 reported a Randomized Placebo Controlled(RPC) test on preemies.[10][11] Scaling the toxicity they measured to the 4000 mcg in the first six months projects the vaccine series’ aluminum as costing each recipient maybe 15 IQ points and bone density.[12]
Animal RPC experiments also show highly toxic[13][14][15][16]
The applicable epidemiology suggests its highly toxic.[8][18][19][20][21][22] Discussed more in point 8 below, basically every study that compares more to less finds less much better.
Numerous clinical publications, whole special issues, on ASIA (Autoimmune Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants)[23][24][25]
Any “placebo” controlled test I’ve ever found of an adjuvanted vaccine, the “placebo” contained an adjuvant.
Safety reviews ignore the issue. Search the pdfs. [1][2][3][4]
The FDA[26] cites a theory paper[27] that compares a published MRL based on dietary experiments in weaned rodents (thus completely uninformed about toxicity in early development) to a theoretical model of blood aluminum levels from the vaccines, and disdains all the above cited empirical evidence.

(3) The Safety Studies Ignore Confounding Patient Behavior
Since there are no Randomized Placebo Controlled (RPC) trials supporting vaccines, virtually all studies report on the association (or lack thereof) between vaccines and some iatrogenic condition. But parents who believe vaccines made their kids sick, stop vaccinating them, which systematically moves sick or vaccine damaged kids in the studies into the “low vaccine”, “low thimerisol”, or etc. bin. This invalidates most studies supporting safety (and the few remaining ones suck for other reasons). Numerous studies report incredible preventative effects for vaccines, presumably because of this corruption, like having more thimerisol or more MMR’s is strongly preventative of autism and other mental development issues[28][29][30], or like having more vaccines was strongly preventative of atopy, apparently even years before patients got the vaccines[31]. The fact this confounding factor is overlooked demonstrates extreme confirmation bias and is the defining factor of Cargo Cult Science according to R.P. Feynman.[32]

(4) The Animal Models
Animal models reliably and repeatably show in RPC tests (a) that vaccines at the wrong time in development damage the adult brain or behavior [33][34] and (b) that multiple vaccines cause autoimmune disease even in animals bred to be non-autoimmune[35][36]. The effects are said to be robust, and as we’ve already seen there isn’t good human data rebutting them.

(5) The Contaminants
Studies have repeatedly found contaminants such as viruses, retroviruses, circoviruses, and human DNA in vaccines seemingly whenever tested,
and I’ve found no reason to believe off the shelf vaccines are free[37][38][39][40][41]. Reported contaminants have included SV-40 in polio vaccines which were administered even though scientists knew the vaccines were contaminated and already had hunches and experiments indicating SV-40 causes cancer[41][42]. Chimpanzee Coryza Virus became known in humans as RSV and has killed many millions of infants and hospitalizes 100,000/yr in America today[43]. Contaminated polio vaccine is plausibly also the origin of HIV[44][41]. There are discovered viral contaminants in vaccines today[38][39], with unknown long term effects, as well as I expect many undiscovered contaminants.

(6) Studies Ask Whether Some One Vaccine Damages, and Thus Miss That Many Do.
Virtually every study not reporting damage compares kids who got numerous vaccines to kids who got numerous vaccines. Such studies wouldn’t show statistically significant results no matter how much damage the vaccines are doing, unless one vaccine or vector by itself is doing comparable or more damage than the rest put together. The studies more or less test the hypothesis one vaccine is invisibly damaging, the rest are fine, and the studies are all obscured in the presence of multiple problems, much less the kind of timing and interaction effects observed in animal models. The one study[45] often touted as proving “The Risk of Autism is Not Increased by ‘Too Many Vaccines Too Soon’”[46] in fact compares patients based on antigens, and since DTP had more than 3000 antigens and no other vaccine common among the study patients had more than a handful, effectively compared patients who’d had DTP and dozens of vaccines to patients who did not have DTP (many had DTaP instead) and dozens of vaccines. The only counterexamples to this I’ve found are contrived in bizarre ways to avoid reality, such as the study that withheld the 2 month vaccines till 3 months from a group of kids, and asked the mothers, who were terrified enough a bunch insisted on changing back to the early vaccination group, to record symptoms with no doctor even consulted, identifying the placebo effect as vaccine prevention of diseases. The authors wrote it would have been unethical to give a placebo at 2 months to the kids getting the vaccine at 3 months, in order to do the experiment blind, but apparently consider it ethical to inject dozens of vaccines into your kids with zero placebo controlled testing.[47] [48]

(7) The Extensive Evidence Indicating Flu Vaccines Damage Immune Systems, Particularly in Children.

RPC test reported child flu vaccine recipients getting 4 times the respiratory illnesses of placebo recipients[49]
Children seen at the Mayo Clinic 1996–2006 were 3 times as likely to be hospitalized if they had had a flu vaccine[50]
Prior receipt of 2008-09 TIV was associated with increased risk of medically attended pH1N1 illness during the spring–summer 2009 in Canada[51]
Multiple papers report flu vaccines damage CD8+ T Cells in both children and animal models[52][53][54]
Flu vaccine recipients’ blood produced less IFN-gamma in response to new flu than people not previously vaccinated[55].
The equation they use for flu vaccine “effectiveness” counts making recipients sick as effectiveness. Mathematically, if vaccine recipients get twice as many respiratory illnesses that counts the same as if they get half as many flu illnesses.[56][57] The published evidence of “effectiveness” is published evidence of collateral damage.

(8) The Epidemiological Studies That Aren’t Blatantly Confounded
All the credible ecological or epidemiological studies comparing people who got more vaccines to less indicate damage. For example,

a 1/1000 increase in Infant Mortality is associated with each 7 additional vaccines in a national series regressed over the developed nations [18].
An extra 680 ASD or Language impaired are associated with every 1% increase in compliance regressed over the 50 US states [19].
High correlation between and within nations of vaccine aluminum to autism.[8]
Two studies in Guinea-Bisseau that showed recipients of DTP died far more frequently than non-recipients, even though the recipients were from far more fortunate backgrounds[20][21].
Vaccine adverse event reports are far more likely to be fatal if they follow multiple vaccinations than two[58].
1 in 10 girls is reported to make an ED visit within 42 days of receiving HPV vaccine[59][60].

Every empirical study I’ve read with a methodology that’s not clearly confounded consistently indicates vaccine damage.

(9) The Consistent Anecdotal and Informal Reports
Anecdotal and informal reports actually compare vaccinated and unvaccinated, unlike the contrived and confounded studies offered to support safety.

Virtually all the Amish who are autistic turn out to have been vaccinated, the large numbers of unvaccinated in certain communities having no ASD whatsoever.[61]
The Homestead Medical Practice in Chicago’s Dr. Mayer Eisenstein reports: ““My partners and I have over 35,000 patients who have never been vaccinated. You know how many cases of autism we have seen? ZERO, ZERO.” Also he reports virtually zero asthma.[61]
Southern religious homeschoolers were anecdotally reported to have very low vaccination rates, and similarly virtually no autism.[61]
An online survey of 13000 fully unvaccinated shows them to have less than a third of the prevalence of numerous conditions from allergies to skoliosis.[62](Figure 1.)
More than a thousand parents, some of them Doctors, have posted Youtube reports describing why they are confident they saw their child given autism by vaccines.[63]

Figure 1: Online survey of 13,000 unvaccinated compared to peer-reviewed survey data of the German vaccinated population[62]. The peer-reviewed data shows the vaccinated population averaging better than one chronic ailment per person, the unvaccinated report less than a third of that. The unvaccinated survey is online, selection biased, and self-reported, but there is no trustworthy data rebutting it.

(10) The Authorities, Big Pharma, and Media Are Demonstrably Not Trustworthy.

All the above 9 points and more are readily observable, but you wouldn’t learn that from the media or in med school.
A Senior PhD CDC whistleblower has provided numerous documents and testified to congress about an explicit cover-up within CDC of a vaccine-autism connection,[64][65] and media whitewashed it.
The vaccine manufacturers are exempt from any liability for vaccine damage.
The same companies repeatedly plead guilty to marketing and safety violations and pay billions in fines.[66]
They pay vast sums to media and fund the medical schools and research and give boondoggles and perks and contracts to doctors and revolving door government officials.[67][68]
The authorities and big pharma never publicly commented while contaminated vaccines scientists expected to cause cancer and other dire problems were administered[41][42][43].
The way the authorities have averted their eyes from contrary results is again the defining factor of Cargo Cult Science[32].

To summarize 10 points in two: (A) the safety literature, wherever it doesn’t outright show vaccine damage, demonstrably is bollixed to where it doesn’t show much of anything. (B) Lots of peer reviewed publications cogently report lots of consistent damage that no published evidence rationally opposes, but are ignored by authorities and media.

The vaccine safety literature is laid out in considerable detail on this TruthSift diagram http://truthsift.com/search_view?topic=Are-Vaccines-Safe-?&id=406&nid=4083 where readers are invited to add more pertinent citations or arguments. Anybody who thinks I am confused on any point is invited to challenge any claim above and explain why[69]. Please feel free to ask your Pediatrician or other authority, and let me know what they say. I’ve submitted to 2 medical journals so far, but been unable to obtain a substantive review, a review citing any papers or making a case I’m wrong. As I receive no substantive rebuttal, it reaffirms what I have already concluded from extensive research, none exists.

If you’ve read the above, and are thinking: “you were right, I was deluded,” the next step is to ask yourself what else you may be deluded about, and what you can do about it. https://truthsift.com was designed to answer those questions.
If you think this post contains information that should be more widely known please share it.

References
[1] Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality, Kathleen Stratton, Andrew Ford, Erin Rusch, and Ellen Wright Clayton, Editors; Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines; Institute of Medicine, The National Academies press 2011. 862pp.http://www.commed.vcu.edu/IntroPH/Communicable_Disease/2012/adverseffectsVaccines.pdf
[2] Immunization Safety Review: Multiple Immunizations and Immune Dysfunction Kathleen Stratton, Christopher B. Wilson and Marie C. McCormick, Editors, Immunization Safety Review Committee, Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10306.html ISBN: 0−309−50866−5, 152 pages, 6 x 9, (2002) Institute of Medicine.
[3] Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines and Autism, Immunization Safety Review Committee, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies ISBN: 0−309−53275−2, 214 pages, 6 x 9, (2004) http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10997.html
[4] The Childhood Immunization Schedule and Safety: Stakeholder Concerns, Scientific Evidence, and Future Studies, Committee on the Assessment of Studies of Health Outcomes Related to the Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Institute of Medicine ISBN 978−0−309−26702−1 230 pages (2013) http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/~/media/files/report%20files/2013/childhood-immunization-schedule/childhoodimmunizationscheduleandsafety_rb.pdf
[5] Conference report Workshop summary Aluminum in vaccines Vaccine 20 (2002) S1–S4 http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.hhs.gov%2Fnvpo%2Fnvac%2Fdocuments%2FAluminumws.pdf&ei=nZQoU5eIIoX0oAT5pYGgCg&usg=AFQjCNG_Zx126W2-nIJIMyTvE9LZz47V1g&sig2=c8Nu9WKzK27SBfJENfQXMw&bvm=bv.62922401
[6] Neonatal and early life vaccinology. Siegrist CA. Vaccine. 2001 May 14;19(25-26):3331-46. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11348697
[7] Infants’ exposure to aluminum from vaccines and breast milk during the first 6 months, Dórea JG, Marques RC, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology Volume 20, Issue 7, November 2010, Pages 598-601 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20010978
[8] Do aluminum vaccine adjuvants contribute to the rising prevalence of autism? Tomljenovic L, Shaw CA. J Inorg Biochem. 2011 Nov;105(11):1489-99 http://omsj.org/reports/tomljenovic%202011.pdf
[9] http://truthsift.com/search_view?topic=Are-Vaccines-Safe-?&id=406&nid=4083 See statement views for discussion and further citations
[10] Aluminum Neurotoxicity in Preterm Infants Receiving Intravenous-Feeding Solutions, Nicholas J. Bishop, M.D., Ruth Morley, M.B., B.Chir., J. Philip Day, Ph.D., and Alan Lucas, M.D. N Engl J Med 1997; 336:1557-1562May 29, 1997DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199705293362203 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199705293362203#t=articleResults
[11] Aluminum exposure from parenteral nutrition in preterm infants: bone health at 15-year follow-up. Fewtrell MS, Bishop NJ, Edmonds CJ, Isaacs EB, Lucas A. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19858156 Pediatrics. 2009 Nov;124(5):1372-9. doi: 10.1542/peds.2009-0783. Epub 2009 Oct 26. Erratum in Pediatrics. 2009 Dec;124(6):1709.
[12] http://truthsift.com/search_view?statement=Animal-Studies-report-results-tending-to-indicate-the-aluminum-is-toxic-in-the-quantities-administered-&id=406&nid=4133 See statement views for discussion and further citations
[13] Administration of aluminum to neonatal mice in vaccine-relevant amounts is associated with adverse long term neurological outcomes, C.A. Shaw, Y. Li , L. Tomljenovic, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, V 128, November 2013, Pages 237–244 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0162013413001773
[14] Slow CCL2-dependent translocation of biopersistent particles from muscle to brain, Zakir Khan, Christophe Combadière, François-Jérôme Authier, Valérie Itier, François Lux, Christopher Exley, Meriem Mahrouf-Yorgov, Xavier Decrouy, Philippe Moretto, Olivier Tillement, Romain K Gherardi BMC Medicine 201311:99 DOI: 10.1186÷1741−7015−11−99 http://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7015-11-99
[15] http://truthsift.com/search_view?topic=Are-Vaccines-Safe-?&id=406 For discussion of other confirmatory citations
[16] Examination of the safety of pediatric vaccine schedules in a non-human primate model: assessments of neurodevelopment, learning, and social behavior. Curtis B, Liberato N, Rulien M, et al. 2015. Environ Health Perspect 123:579–589; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4455585/
[18] Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity? Miller NZ, Goldman GS, Hum Exp Toxicol. 2011 Sep;30(9):1420-8. doi: 10.1177÷0960327111407644. Pub 2011 May 4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3170075/
[19] A positive association found between autism prevalence and childhood vaccination uptake across the U.S. population. Delong G. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2011;74(14):903-16. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21623535
[20] Routine vaccinations and child survival: follow up study in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa Commentary: an unexpected finding that needs confirmation or rejection, Ines Kristensen, Peter Aaby, Henrik Jensen, BMJ 2000; 321 dos: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.321.7274.1435
[21] Oral polio vaccination and low case fatality at the paediatric ward in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Aaby P, Rodrigues A, Biai S, et al ‚Vaccine. 2004 Aug 13;22(23-24):3014-7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15297050
[22] http://truthsift.com/search_view?id=406&nid=4144 See for further discussion and citations
[23] Special Issue ASIA – Autoimmune Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants, Lupus February 2012; 21 (2) http://lup.sagepub.com/content/21/2.toc
[24] Biopersistence and brain translocation of aluminum adjuvants of vaccines Front. Neurol., 05 February 2015 |http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2015.00004
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fneur.2015.00004/full
[25] Chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia following immunization with the hepatitis B vaccine: another angle of the ‘autoimmune (auto-inflammatory) syndrome induced by adjuvants’ (ASIA). Agmon-Levin N1, Zafrir Y, Kivity S, Balofsky A, Amital H, Shoenfeld Y. Immunol Res. 2014 Dec;60(2–3):376–83. doi: 10.1007/s12026-014‑8604-2.
[26] Study Reports Aluminum in Vaccines Poses Extremely Low Risk to Infants (2015−2016) http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/ScienceResearch/ucm284520.htm
[27] Updated aluminum pharmacokinetics following infant exposures through diet and vaccination, Mitkus RJ, King DB, Hess MA, Forshee RA, Walderhaug MO., Vaccine 29(51) 9538-43 2011. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22001122
[28] Thimerosal Exposure in Infants and Developmental Disorders: A Retrospective Cohort Study in the United Kingdom Does Not Support a Causal Association, Nick Andrews; Elizabeth Miller; Andrew Grant et al, Pediatrics September 2004, VOLUME 114 / ISSUE 3 http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/114/3/584.full-text.pdf
[29] Prenatal and Infant Exposure to Thimerosal From Vaccines and Immunoglobulins and Risk of Autism, Cristofer S. Price, William W. Thompson, Barbara Goodson,et al, Pediatrics October 2010, VOLUME 126 / ISSUE 4 http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/126/4/656
[30] Autism Occurrence by MMR Vaccine Status Among US Children With Older Siblings With and Without Autism, Anjali Jain; Jaclyn Marshall; Ami Buikema; et al. JAMA. 2015;313(15):1534-1540. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.3077. http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2275444
[31] Transient suppression of atopy in early childhood is associated with high vaccination coverage, Gruber, C., S. Illi, S. Lau, R. Nickel, J. Forster, W. Kamin, C.P. Bauer, V. Wahn, U. Wahn, and the MAS-90 Study Group. 2003. . Pediatrics 111(3):e282-e288. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/111/3/e282
[32] CARGO CULT SCIENCE (adapted from Caltech Commencement Address 1974), Richard P Feynman https://www.lhup.edu/~DSIMANEK/cargocul.htm
[33] Peripheral immune challenge with viral mimic during early postnatal period robustly enhances anxiety-like behavior in young adult rats.
Konat GW, Lally BE, Toth AA, Salm AK.Metab Brain Dis. 2011 Sep;26(3):237-40. doi: 10.1007/s11011-011-9244-z http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21643765
[34] Postnatal Inflammation Increases Seizure Susceptibility in Adult Rats, Michael A. Galic, Kiarash Riazi, James G. Heida, et al, The Journal of Neuroscience, 2 July 2008, 28(27): 6904-6913; doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1901-08.2008 http://www.jneurosci.org/content/28/27/6904.full
[35] Vaccine model of antiphospholipid syndrome induced by tetanus vaccine, L Dimitrijevi, I ivkovi, M Stojanovi, V Petrui, S ivanevi-Simonovi dos: 10.1177÷0961203311429816 Lupus February 2012 vol. 21 no. 2 195-202 http://lup.sagepub.com/content/21/2/195.abstract
[36] Self-Organized Criticality Theory of Autoimmunity, Ken Tsumiyama, Yumi Miyazaki, Shunichi Shiozawa 2009 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008382
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0008382
[37] Some oral poliovirus vaccines were contaminated with infectious SV40 after 1961. Cutrone R, Lednicky J, Dunn G, et al. Cancer Res. 2005 Nov
15;65(22):10273-9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16288015
[38] Viral Nucleic Acids in Live-Attenuated Vaccines: Detection of Minority Variants and an Adventitious Virus, J. G. Victoria, C. Wang, M. S. Jones,et al. J. Virol. June 2010 vol. 84 no. 12 6033-6040 http://jvi.asm.org/content/84/12/6033
[39] Viruses and Virus Nucleic Acid Contaminate Many Vaccines: Risks of cancer and creation of new pathogens should not be underplayed by regulators Prof. Joe Cummins http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Viruses_and_Virus_Nucleic_Acid_Contaminate_Vaccines.php
[40] Impact of environmental factors on the prevalence of autistic disorder after 1979, Theresa A. Deisher, Ngoc V. Doan, Angelica Omaiye, et al. Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology Vol. 6(9), pp. 271-284, 2014 DOI: 10.5897/JPHE2014.0649 http://soundchoice.org/scpiJournalPubHealthEpidem092014.pdf
[41] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13QiSV_lrDQ Dr. Maurice Hillman, The Merck Chief Scientist, discusses how the polio vaccine was administered although they knew it was contaminated with SV-40, which they strongly believed caused cancer. According to the tape, the monkeys from which the vaccine was being grown, were being kept in epidemic conditions crowded into cages, so they were all sick with a variety of viruses which then contaminated the vaccine stock. As Hillman discusses, SIV could very well have entered the human population this way as well.
[42] Association between simian virus 40 and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Vilchez RA, Madden CR, Kozinetz CA, et al. Lancet. 2002 Mar 9;359(9309):817-23. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11897278
[43] Polio eradication: a complex end game, Viera Scheibner, BMJ 2012;344:e2398 http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e2398/rapid-responses
[44] Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS: some key writings, http://www.uow.edu.au/~bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/
[45] Increasing Exposure to Antibody-Stimulating Proteins and Polysaccharides in Vaccines Is Not Associated with Risk of Autism, Frank DeStefano, MD,MPH, Cristofer S. Price, ScM, Eric S. Weintraub, MPH DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2013.02.001
[46] The Risk of Autism is Not Increased by “Too Many Vaccines Too Soon”, Editorial of The Journal of Pediatrics http://www.jpeds.com/content/JPEDSDeStefano
[47] General Non-specific Morbidity is Reduced After Vaccination Within the Third Month of Life – the Greifswald Study, S. Otto, B. Mahner, I. Kadow, J. F. Beck, S. K.W. Wiersbitzky and R. Bruns, Journal of Infection (2000) 41, 172–175 doi: 10.1053/jinf.2000.0718, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com
[48] http://truthsift.com/node_info?nid=5340&superNode=No&subNode=No&isFlagged=No&probability=1&likelihoodEstimateT=0.5&likelihoodEstimateF=0.5&likelihoodEstimate=0.5&rating=TE
[49] Increased risk of noninfluenza respiratory virus infections associated with receipt of inactivated influenza vaccine. Cowling BJ, Fang VJ, Nishiura H, Chan KH, Ng S, Ip DK, Chiu SS, Leung GM, Peiris JS. Clin Infect Dis. 2012 Jun;54(12):1778-83. doi: 10.1093/cid/cis307. Epub 2012 Mar 15. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22423139
[50] Effectiveness of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in influenza-related hospitalization in children: a case-control study. Joshi AY, Iyer VN, Hartz MF, Patel AM, Li JT. Allergy Asthma Proc. 2012 Mar-Apr;33(2):e23-7. doi: 10.2500/aap.2012.33.3513. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22525386
[51] Association between the 2008-09 Seasonal Influenza Vaccine and Pandemic H1N1 Illness during Spring–Summer 2009: Four Observational Studies from Canada, Danuta M. Skowronski , Gaston De Serres, Natasha S. Crowcroft, et al.PLOS(2010), http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000258
[52] Vaccination with whole inactivated virus vaccine affects the induction of heterosubtypic immunity against influenza virus A/H5N1 and immunodominance of virus-specific CD8+ T-cell responses in mice. Bodewes R, Kreijtz JH, Hillaire ML, Geelhoed-Mieras MM, Fouchier RA, Osterhaus AD, Rimmelzwaan GF. , J Gen Virol. 2010 Jul;91(Pt 7):1743-53. doi: 10.1099/vir.0.020784-0. Epub 2010 Mar 24. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20335492
[53] Vaccination against human influenza A/H3N2 virus prevents the induction of heterosubtypic immunity against lethal infection with avian influenza A/H5N1 virus. Bodewes R, Kreijtz JH, Baas C, Geelhoed-Mieras MM, de Mutsert G, van Amerongen G, van den Brand JM, Fouchier RA, Osterhaus AD, Rimmelzwaan GF. PLoS One. 2009;4(5):e5538. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005538. Epub 2009 May14. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19440239
[54] Annual vaccination against influenza virus hampers development of virus-specific CD8+ T cell immunity in children. Bodewes R, Fraaij PL, Geelhoed-Mieras MM, van Baalen CA, Tiddens HA, van Rossum AM, van der Klis FR, Fouchier RA, Osterhaus AD, Rimmelzwaan GF., J Virol. 2011 Nov;85(22):11995-2000. doi: 10.1128/JVI.05213-11.Epub 2011 Aug 31. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21880755
[55] Difference in immune response in vaccinated and unvaccinated Swedish individuals after the 2009 influenza pandemic, Isabelle Magalhaes Mikael Eriksson, Charlotte Linde, Rashid Muhammad, Lalit Rane, Aditya Ambati, Rebecca Axelsson-Robertson, Bahareh Khalaj, Nancy Alvarez-Corrales, Giulia Lapini, Emanuele Montomoli, Annika Linde, Nancy L Pedersen,3 and Markus Maeurer BMC Infect Dis. 2014; 14: 319.Published online 2014 Jun 11. doi: 10.1186÷1471−2334−14−319 PMCID: PMC4067073 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4067073/
[56] “Vaccine effectiveness was estimated as 100% x (1 — odds ratio [ratio of odds of being vaccinated among outpatients with influenza-positive test results to the odds of being vaccinated among outpatients with influenza-negative test results])”, Center for Disease Control, Early Estimates of Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness — United States, January 2015 Weekly January 16, 2015 / 64(01);10-15 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6401a4.htm
[57] http://truthsift.com/node_info?nid=2823&superNode=No&subNode=No&isFlagged=No&probability=1&likelihoodEstimateT=0.5&likelihoodEstimateF=0.5&likelihoodEstimate=0.5&rating=TE for more discussion
[58] Combining Childhood Vaccines at One Visit Is Not Safe, Neil Z. Miller, Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 21 Number 2 Summer 2016 http://www.jpands.org/vol21no2/miller.pdf
[59] Adverse events following HPV vaccination, Alberta 2006–2014, Xianfang C. Liu, , Christopher A. Bell, , Kimberley A. Simmonds, , Lawrence W. Svensona, Margaret L. Russell, Vaccine Volume 34, Issue 15, 4 April 2016, Pages 1800–1805 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X16002036
[60] For further data analysis and discussion see http://truthsift.com/node_info?nid=5196&superNode=No&subNode=No&isFlagged=No&probability=1&likelihoodEstimateT=0.5&likelihoodEstimateF=0.5&likelihoodEstimate=0.5&rating=TE
[61] http://www.vaccinationcouncil.org/2009/05/22/a-pretty-big-secret/
[62] http://www.vaccineinjury.info/survey/results-unvaccinated/results-illnesses.html
[63] https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23hearthiswell
[64] http://www.morganverkamp.com/august-27-2014-press-release-statement-of-william-w-thompson-ph-d-regarding-the-2004-article-examining-the-possibility-of-a-relationship-between-mmr-vaccine-and-autism/
[65] https://sharylattkisson.com/cdc-scientist-we-scheduled-meeting-to-destroy-vaccine-autism-study-documents/
[66] http://projects.propublica.org/graphics/bigpharma
[67] http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/06/editors-in-chief-of-worlds-most-prestigious-medical-journals-much-of-the-scientific-literature-perhaps-half-may-simply-be-untrue-it-is-simply-no-longer-poss.html
[68] http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2009/01/15/drug-companies-doctorsa-story-of-corruption/
[69] http://truthsift.com/search_view?topic=Are-Vaccines-Safe-?&id=406

Pet Peeve #4: Time zones are for locals

Posted by Philip Raymond in education, humor, internet, rants | 1 Comment on Pet Peeve #4: Time zones are for locals

06.11.
2015

Have you ever made a list of pet peeves? I’m not referring to the behavioral quirks that couples develop over years of cohabitation. That’s part of every relationship and it is only addressed through give and take and a lot of patience. Rather, I refer to the little things that have become institutionalized all around us—and yet, we know that they are just plain idiotic. The problem is that they are too small to be picked up by the national news and too common to believe that they can be avoided.

Let’s say that you are driving along a road that comes to an end by forming a ‘T’ at the side of a much busier road. The cross street is busy, but it’s not divided. You plan to make a left turn after clearing a string of high-speed cars approaching from the right.

Conditions are good and there are no obstructions. There is no one coming from the left. Looking to the right, you can see a mile down the road. There are 4 cars speeding toward you, a long space and then a major throng of cars that will tie up the intersection for minutes. You get ready to drop the hammer as soon as that 4th car passes the intersection. You are patient, in a good mood and your car is well tuned.

Traffic Intersection

What’s the dumbest thing that the driver in car #4 could do? Does he have the power to ruin your day and raise your blood pressure while trying to be a nice guy? He sure does!

He can hesitate—slowing just enough to get honked by the parade behind him and just enough to close your window of opportunity. If you are in a hurry to get somewhere, he will ruin your morning faster than you can mime “Move your friggin’ tailpipe!!”. He is oblivious to the fact that his gesture of good will has backfired.

Cross street drivers who let up on the gas are one of my three pet peeves. But today, I was reminded of another minor irritation. From now on, I will call it “Pet Peeve #4”.

I have a good friend in Germany. He is a high tech entrepreneur and tends to move about the globe. His businesses are in Australia and New Zealand, and he spent a long part of the past year in Shanghai. I never know where he will be. But he is currently in Germany and he knows that I am in America.

Realizing that we need to discuss an important matter, he asks me if I will be available during my weekday mornings, between 9 and 11 AM my time. Noting that he has already contemplated the time difference, I check my calendar. “Sure. That works for me,” I tell him… “Why don’t you set the schedule? Any morning this week is good.” He commits to have a colleague figure out the final date.

Taj Mahal_1 Minutes later, I receive a Google Calendar link for my approval. It asks that our meeting be scheduled for next Wed from 21:30 to 22:00, India Standard Time. I was unprepared for the involuntary groan that arose from the pit of my stomach. Here, is an open letter to my buddy and the colleague who scheduled our conference to be held on India Time…

C’mon guys / gals… The Internet works on “Internet Time”, also known as UTC or GMT. It is effectively Earth time. It never changes with seasons, war, edict, accidents or daylight savings. It just moves forward as the universal heartbeat of the Internet.

Please don’t make me translate your Indian Standard Time. I will get it wrong. I always do.

And please don’t figure it out in “USA-Eastern Standard Time”. Here in the US, politicians shift Daylight Savings dates, sometimes splitting it by local counties. In some areas, they change it by only 30 minutes for border towns. (Yes! We are that nuts).

So please: Just tell me the time in UTC. It is the only time that should ever be cited when dealing with anyone that you can’t reach with a personal handshake.

P.S. Don’t take insult when I post your suggested meeting time (and this sarcastic response) to Lifeboat. Sure, you helped me to discover a new peeve—But you have also hit upon my funny bone!

Faithfully yours, ~Phil

_{Philip Raymond is Co-Chair of The Cryptocurrency Standards Association. He sits on the New Money Systems Board at Lifeboat and advises banks & brokers on}_{new age currencies. Raymond was master of ceremonies and speaker at The Bitcoin Event in New York.}

Finding the crossroads of politics and technology — @HJBentham

Posted by Harry J. Bentham in computing, education, futurism, internet, lifeboat, media & arts, rantsTagged Antistatism, culture, Democracy, Harry J. Bentham, politics, Society, Technology and Politics, technoprogressivism | Leave a Comment on Finding the crossroads of politics and technology — @HJBentham

05.14.
2014

Visit ClubOfINFO

- @ClubOfINFO — Rather than location, education or privilege, having something to offer seems to now be the only determining factor for a writer or activist to be published and gain a voice internationally.

As a student, I initially chose postgraduate study as a route to publishing nonfiction and becoming a political scientist, but I never accessed the necessary funding to start this. After graduating from Lancaster University in 2012 and not being able to become the academic I wanted to be, I have found that postgraduate study is unnecessary to become a nonfiction author or even a political theorist.

There are many alternative media options, especially thanks to the internet. So, since March 2013, I have had work published in well over 40 different publications and the number is growing.

Rather than being a cheap alternative, publishing in online magazines is actually a more effective way of gaining recognition and a strong publishing history than academic publishing. It also takes less time and effort, and you achieve more rewards along the way. As such, the internet has truly overcome the need for educated elites in the old-fashioned sense, since anyone with sufficient knowledge and background is now positioned to gain recognition and have their say.

For some months now, I have been a member of the Lifeboat Foundation. This US-based scientific think tank includes many eminent futurists, including Google’s Ray Kurzweil, and is a credible and influential source of much revolutionary thinking about science, technology and politics. I got invited to this think tank and I continue to contribute to it, despite that I live in the UK and have never travelled to the United States.

Because I have also been writing science fiction for years, my futurist publishing success has provided a valuable means of exploring and attracting interest to ideas I might use in that fiction. It serves to add to the conversation on science and technology, if sci-fi authors can write works with powerful and relevant themes. The link between science fiction, scientific discovery and engineering is far greater than many predict, making artistic or cultural perspectives valuable for influencing science and ethics.

My interest is drawn mainly to what I call the crossroads of politics and technology. Part of this interest comes down to the fact that alternate media is transforming politics, aided by the internet, and this has been instrumental in my own success. This very same interest has led me to launch ClubOfINFO (clubof.info), a new biweekly webzine I am editing from Wigan. This publication occupies a niche for offbeat politics and science articles, activism-savvy product recommendations and sci-fi eBook downloads. I highly recommend a visit to this publication, and subscription is free (follow on Twitter @ClubOfINFO).

Much like the World Wide Web, I believe we can expect many other highly democratic world-changing technologies, and they are set to fundamentally change society. These have been of greatest interest to me, and I have written on what I consider to be the most socially and politically significant technologies. Contributing to the futurist h+ Magazine and the progressive Institute for Emerging Technologies think tank, I have put forward articles praising the potential social and political revolutions resulting from advances in 3D printing, synthetic biology, nanotechnology and other key developments.

Among the work I have published are some of the best in-depth reviews available for consequential books, such as Julian Assange’s Cypherpunks. In this book, Assange eerily predicts a bleak future of “total surveillance” even speaking prior to the shocking revelations of warrantless email and phone interception from whistle-blower Edward Snowden. However, he also acknowledges the possibility of a more favourable outcome: the emergence of a “rebel elite”, a tech-savvy global society of activists and experts who know how to restrain and counter the might of governments bent on using technology for repression and domestic spying. Assange’s book is exactly the kind of work that stimulates the discussion that should be happening all over the world, addressing how exponentially improving technology and the democratization of that technology can empower common citizens against their governments. It is the essence of the crossroads of politics and technology.

My own view of where to go on the crossroads of politics and technology is not important, but I am dedicated to exploring possibilities. Increasingly, users improvise new uses for technology that were not thought of or conceived by the designers themselves. The more rapidly our technology evolves, as depicted repeatedly in trends celebrated by futurists, the less control monolithic companies and governments have over how it will ultimately be used. Depending on your point of view, this may be either worrying or exhilarating. In the grand scheme of things, it cannot be stopped, and people should instead be thinking about how society can adapt to the inevitable change.

It is possible to build a community of internet-based thinkers and activists who are not intellectual snobs, but who have online publishing and political credentials, are trusted by their readers and taken seriously by their opponents. I encourage writers at every level of society to be bold in tackling political subjects and talking about how new science and technology can alter politics or the whole future of civilization. This is the goal I hope to promote with projects such as ClubOfINFO, and it is fully in line with the activities of tens of influential similar publications like h+ Magazine.

For people who believe they have something decisive to offer to futurist discussions about where technology is carrying society and the state, there is no reason to defer to academics and self-proclaimed experts. Everyone’s interests should be taken into consideration, and all should take part in what should be the most democratic explosion in history.

By Harry J. Bentham — More articles by Harry J. Bentham

The Future Observatory

Posted by Andres Agostini in 3D printing, asteroid/comet impacts, automation, big data, biological, bionic, bioprinting, biotech/medical, bitcoin, business, chemistry, climatology, complex systems, computing, cosmology, counterterrorism, cybercrime/malcode, cyborgs, defense, driverless cars, drones, economics, education, energy, engineering, entertainment, environmental, ethics, events, evolution, existential risks, exoskeleton, finance, food, futurism, genetics, geopolitics, government, habitats, hardware, homo sapiens, human trajectories, humor, information science, innovation, law, law enforcement, life extension, lifeboat, media & arts, military, nanotechnology, neuroscience, nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, open access, open source, particle physics, philosophy, policy, polls, posthumanism, privacy, rants, robotics/AI, science, scientific freedom, security, singularity, space, space travel, supercomputing, surveillance, sustainability, time travel, transhumanism, transparency, transportation, water | Leave a Comment on The Future Observatory

02.04.
2014

FEBRUARY 05/2014 UPDATES [LIST]. By Mr. Andres Agostini at www.Future-Observatory.blogspot.com

Do autistic brains create more information at rest or do they have weaker connectivity — or both?
http://www.kurzweilai.net/do-autistic-brains-create-more-information-at-rest-or-do-they-have-weaker-connectivity-or-both

‘Electronic tongue’ identifies brands of beer with 81.9% accuracy
http://www.kurzweilai.net/electronic-tongue-identifies-brands-of-beer-with-81-9-accuracy

Bodily maps of emotions
http://www.kurzweilai.net/bodily-maps-of-emotions

Antibiotic ‘smart bomb’ can target specific strains of bacteria
http://www.kurzweilai.net/antibiotic-smart-bomb-can-target-specific-strains-of-bacteria

Trends and Predictions: How the Future Looks Like for Web Design in 2014

Trends and Predictions: How the Future Looks Like for Web Design in 2014

Credit cards of the future: 4 exciting trends
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/credit-cards-of-the-future-4-exciting-trends-cm128025#ixzz2sMsGbooH

The 5 foods best-suited for 3D printing
http://www.fooddive.com/news/the-5-foods-best-suited-for-3d-printing/222556/

Nature is Not Human-Centric
http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2014/01/nature-is-not-human-centric/

Your Brain Is Fine-Tuning Its Wiring Throughout Your Life
http://myscienceacademy.org/2014/02/03/your-brain-is-fine-tuning-its-wiring-throughout-your-life/?fb_action_ids=10152136722100795&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=[238069896376047]&action_type_map=[%22og.likes%22]&action_ref_map=[]

The World’s Smallest Engine Runs on a Single Atom
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/extreme-machines/the-worlds-smallest-engine-runs-on-a-single-atom-16451781

Guest column: Constituent care — Are government contact centers ready for the generational flood?
http://fedscoop.com/guest-column-constituent-care-government-contact-centers-ready-generational-flood/#.UvAFKBasOSY.twitter

Searching for Life on Earth-Like Planets May Be a Mistake, Need to Consider Superhabitable Planets

Searching for Life on Earth-Like Planets May Be a Mistake, Need to Consider Superhabitable Planets

Survey says more attention being paid to data privacy, but still a ways to go
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2014/013114-survey-says-more-attention-being-278332.html?source=nww_rss&utm_content=buffer90b74&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Quantum engineers make a major step towards a scalable quantum computer
http://www.kurzweilai.net/quantum-engineers-make-a-major-step-towards-a-scalable-quantum-computer

Was There A Beginning Of Time And Will There Be An End Of Time?
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/timeslowingdown.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Messagetoeaglecom+%28Message+To+Eagle+-+News%29#.UvEN9LTSmHd

DHS has become the epicenter for government cybersecurity
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/node/32882?c=cyber_security

THE FUTURE OF THE MIND: Official Trailer
http://knopfdoubleday.com/book/89414/the-future-of-the-mind/

What the Internet of Things Will Mean for CIOs
http://www.cio.com/article/747634/What_the_Internet_of_Things_Will_Mean_for_CIOs

Why predictive maintenance is more relevant today than ever before
http://www.simafore.com/blog/bid/204618/Why-predictive-maintenance-more-relevant-today-than-ever-before

Stanford scientists put free text-analysis tool on the web
http://engineering.stanford.edu/research-profile/stanford-scientists-put-free-text-analysis-tool-web

Dangerous ideas: About that Princeton Facebook study — wrong, but not entirely crazy
http://which-50.com/post/75339864941/dangerous-ideas-about-that-princeton-facebook-study

Personal Banking and the Data-Driven Approach

DSC Webinar Series: Data Contributions to a Conversational AI Platform

20 Lessons Enterprise CIOs Can Learn from Supercomputing
http://www.datanami.com/datanami/2012-11-12/20_lessons_enterprise_big_data_buffs_can_learn_from_supercomputing.html

Big data misused to justify vaccination
http://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/big-data-misused-to-justify-vaccination

First Single-Molecule LED
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/nanotechnology/first-single-molecule-led

Employment in Renewable Energy Sector Reaches 5.7 Million Globally
http://www.irena.org/News/Description.aspx?NType=A&mnu=cat&PriMenuID=16&CatID=84&News_ID=351

The World Has Deep Areas of Expertise. We Need Agility and Context
http://bigthink.com/big-think-edge/the-world-has-deep-areas-of-expertise-we-need-agility-and-context?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+bigthink/main+%28Big+Think+Main%29

Marc Andreessen Has A Great Answer For Why Bitcoin Matters
http://www.businessinsider.com/marc-andreessen-on-why-bitcoin-is-worth-money-2014-1

Motorola Patents Electronic Telepathy

Motorola Patents Electronic Telepathy

New Solar Cells Get the Blues in a Good Way

Energy Update: New Solar Cells Get the Blues in a Good Way

A window to the future of research
http://www.mpg.de/7865824/Science_Tunnel

Surface map of a brown dwarf
http://www.mpg.de/7870755/surface-map-brown-dwarf

The future of oil supply
http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/site/2014/2006.xhtml

The Human enhancement and the future of work project
http://royalsociety.org/policy/projects/human-enhancement/workshop-report/

Whole-genome sequence of a flatfish provides insights into ZW sex chromosome evolution and adaptation to a benthic lifestyle
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.2890.html

Scientists reading fewer papers for first time in 35 years
http://www.nature.com/news/scientists-reading-fewer-papers-for-first-time-in-35-years-1.14658

Elsevier opens its papers to text-mining
http://www.nature.com/news/elsevier-opens-its-papers-to-text-mining-1.14659

Top UK university pledges reform to ‘change the culture’ of its animal research

Top UK university pledges reform to ‘change the culture’ of its animal research

Challenging Israel

Challenging Israel

Pruning Synapses Improves Brain Connections
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39055/title/Pruning-Synapses-Improves-Brain-Connections/

Science Cartoonist Doesn’t Draw “Funny Style”
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39033/title/Science-Cartoonist-Doesn-t-Draw–Funny-Style-/

Opinion: The Burden of Proof
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39053/title/Opinion–The-Burden-of-Proof/

The Dilemma of Space Debris
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2014/1/the-dilemma-of-space-debris

Flights of Fancy in Avian Evolution
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2014/1/flights-of-fancy-in-avian-evolution

How to Fight Back Against Antibiotic Resistance
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2014/1/how-to-fight-back-against-antibiotic-resistance

Ocean Acidification: The Other Climate Change Issue
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2014/1/ocean-acidification-the-other-climate-change-issue

QUOTATION: “…The flattening of the world is going to be hugely disruptive to both traditional and developed societies. The weak will fall further behind faster. The traditional will feel the force of modernization much more profoundly. The new will get turned into old quicker. The developed will be challenged by the underdeveloped much more profoundly. I worry, because so much political stability is built on economic stability, and economic stability is not going to be a feature of the flat world. Add it all up and you can see that the disruptions and going to come faster and harder. No one is immune ─ not me, not you, not Microsoft. WE ARE ENTERING AN ERA OF CREATIVE DESTRUCTION ON STEROIDS. Dealing with flatism is going to be a challenge of a whole new dimension even if your country has a strategy. But if you don’t have a strategy at all, well, again, you’ve warned…”

RECOMMENDED BOOK: The Living Company: Growth, Learning and Longevity in Business by Arie De Geus
ISBN-13: 978–1857881851

Regards,

Mr. Andres Agostini
www.Future-Observatory.blogspot.com
www.TheProfessionalFuturist.blogspot.com
www.ThisSuccess.wordprocessor.com
www.xeeme.com/AAgostini