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blog-cosmosuniverse1 · 3 years ago

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What Does It Mean to 'Trust the Science'?

We’re told to “trust the science” and “follow the science.” But what science are we supposed to follow? There’s plenty of scientific evidence refuting everything we’re told to accept as “fact,” including the claim that masks work, that lockdowns slow down the spread, that school closures protect children, that there are no effective early treatments for COVID-19, and that the fast-tracked COVID shots are safe, effective and necessary even if you have natural immunity Four whistleblowers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently stepped forward to expose corruption within the EPA that is allowing dangerous chemicals to be approved The EPA, according to these whistleblowers, is violating the Toxic Substances Control Act, and when staffers actually follow the science wherever it leads, they are punished Scientists have sounded the alarm, saying our reproductive capability is so severely impacted by toxic environmental factors that by 2045, all couples will require fertility treatment. If true, this signals a true existential emergency, but the declining sperm count findings are now being reframed as a racist, “far right” ideological issue Two philosophy professors are trying to debunk the work of reproductive health scientists who have spent their entire careers looking at this issue simply by interjecting their own ideology into the mix, all while accusing the actual scientists of ideology-based hype — and media are uncritically reporting it. This is why you cannot trust just any science

In the featured video,1 James Corbett of The Corbett Report explores what it means to "trust the science," demolishing along the way the notion that science can ever be "settled" and beyond question. This is important, because scientific deception will continue to be used in the biosecurity state being built around us.What Science Should You Trust? With increasing frequency, we're told to "trust the science" and "follow the science." Yet what science are we supposed to follow? Exactly who's an expert and who's not, and who decides which is which? As I've been writing about for nearly two years now, there's plenty of scientific evidence refuting everything we're being told to accept as "fact."This includes the claim that masks protect against viral infection, that lockdowns slow down the spread, that school closures protect children, that there are no effective early treatments for COVID-19, and that the fast-tracked COVID shots are safe, effective and necessary even if you have natural immunity.Whistleblowers Expose Corruption at the EPA Corbett starts out by reviewing a recent Intercept story, published in two parts: "Whistleblowers Expose Corruption in EPA Chemical Safety Office,"2 published July 2, 2021, and "Leaked Audio Shows Pressure to Overrule Scientists in 'Hair-On-Fire' Cases,"3 published August 4, 2021.According to four whistleblowers — Elyse Osterweil, Martin Phillips, Sarah Gallagher and William Irwin, all of whom are scientists employed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and hold doctorates in toxicology, chemistry, biochemistry and medicinal chemistry — managers and career staffers in the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention have tampered with the risk assessments of dozens of chemicals to hide their dangers. According to The Intercept:4 "The whistleblowers, whose jobs involve identifying the potential harms posed by new chemicals, provided The Intercept with detailed evidence of pressure within the agency to minimize or remove evidence of potential adverse effects of the chemicals, including neurological effects, birth defects, and cancer.On several occasions, information about hazards was deleted from agency assessments without informing or seeking the consent of the scientists who authored them.Some of these cases led the EPA to withhold critical information from the public about potentially dangerous chemical exposures. In other cases, the removal of the hazard information or the altering of the scientists' conclusions in reports paved the way for the use of chemicals, which otherwise would not have been allowed on the market."At the EPA, Following the Science Is a Punishable Offense The EPA, according to these whistleblowers, is violating the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and when staffers actually do follow the science wherever it leads, they are punished.In a statement to The Intercept and Rep. Ro Khanna, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, the EPA whistleblowers state that they fear "their actions (or inactions) at the direction of management are resulting in harm to human health and the environment."They certainly have cause for concern. For example, one recent study5 warns exposure to organochlorine pesticides and polybrominated diphenyl ethers during pregnancy can cause the chemicals to accumulate in multiple fetal organs and contribute to chronic health problems. This is the first study to demonstrate that toxic chemicals can be present in the fetus even if the mother does not have detectable levels in her blood. As noted by Beyond Pesticides:6“… studies like these help government and health officials better identify fetal exposure contaminants and subsequent health concerns otherwise missed by current chemical monitoring methods.”In Part 27 of its report, The Intercept discusses a particular chemical that Irwin had been assessing. He had concerns that the unnamed chemical in question was analogous to bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical now recognized for its detrimental effects on reproduction,

fertility and human hormones.When he refused to sign off on the chemical as safe, he was removed from the assessment, and the chemical was approved, despite the potential harms he'd uncovered.So, what scientists should we trust? Scientists like these four whistleblowers? Or "the EPA" as a catchall designation, where corrupt career managers have overruled the scientists doing the actual work and who have the actual science credentials? Believing (the Wrong) Science Now Proves You're Racist As noted by Corbett, this issue is no small matter. Determining what science is "valid" and what's not has enormous repercussions for society. To illustrate his point, he goes on to review the issue of hormone-disrupting chemicals and their reproductive effects.Some scientists have sounded the alarm, saying our reproductive capability is so severely impacted by toxic environmental factors that by 2045, all couples will require fertility treatment if they want to conceive. Sperm counts have dropped precipitously ever since the 1970s, and the trend is showing no signs of leveling off.If true, this signals a true existential emergency, but as has become the norm over the past couple of years, the declining sperm count issue is now being reframed as a racist, "far right" issue. This in and of itself ought to signal that we've left science and moved into ideology, but no.The narrative we're asked to swallow is the complete opposite: That the scientists who made these discoveries used sham science to fit an ideological narrative rooted in white supremacy. Meanwhile, "the science" offered by nonscientists says there's no problem here, and that's that.Corbett cites a Quillette article by Geoffrey Kabat, "The Sperm Count Culture War," published mid-June 2021, which states:8"The latest entry in the sperm count debate comes from a Harvard-MIT research team led by philosophy professors Marion Boulicault and Sarah Richardson.They recently published a paper in the journal Human Fertility entitled 'The Future of Sperm Variability for Understanding Global Sperm Count Trends.' They also published an article in Slate9 summarizing their findings for a lay audience.While the scientific paper is dense and difficult to navigate, the Slate article gets straight to the point with its title: 'The Doomsday Sperm Theory Embraced by the Far Right.'Its subheading elaborates: 'The idea that male fertility is on the decline is an old myth dressed up as science.' The authors tell us why they believe the accepted science on declining sperm counts should be rejected:'The human species is in grave reproductive danger, according to recent headlines. Some scientists say that sperm counts in men around the world have been plummeting, with Western men approaching total infertility by 2045.Far-right 'Great Replacement' theorists, who fear that people of color are 'replacing' the white population, have taken up the research with gusto …The narrative that white, Western men are in danger of emasculation and disappearance has deep roots in white nationalist discourse. It is tied to a nostalgic cultural myth of a past in which white men held unchallenged power.'"Human Extinction Concerns Dismissed as Fearmongering As noted by Kabat, the two philosophy professors "all but ignore the science to focus on what they believe is more important — the ideological framing of the issue in socio-cultural discourse."Interestingly, the paper they published is in response to "what is widely considered to be the most definitive research on science of sperm count decline," Kabat notes, and perhaps that's why they did it. It's real science being debunked as "science driven by ideology," by nonscientists who have an ideological agenda but pretend not to!As 'The Science' more and more dictates whether you can step outside your own home … I hope you understand that the stakes have been raised to the point where this is not some mere philosophical concern. This is the heart of the biosecurity state that we are being steeped in. ~ James Corbett

Here we have two philosophy professors trying to debunk 50 years of research by some of the most respected researchers in the field — by declaring the whole investigation racist, misogynistic and "overtly white supremacist." They roundly dismiss concerns about impending global infertility and thus human extinction, stating:10

"What these anxieties have in common with the threat of sperm count decline is the premise that, in an environmentally clean and appropriately-gendered social past, there existed an optimal and natural manifestation of masculinity …

It is all too easy for scientific institutions, with majority-white researchers, to center white people and further these myths, which circulate often unconsciously … The recent sperm count decline research demonstrates how racist, sexist, and Eurocentric ideas can get embedded in the categories that scientists use to analyze data."

In their paper, Boulicault et.al. offer their own hypothesis to explain and dismiss the decline in sperm count as a natural variation that has no bearing on fertility or health — none of which is accurate or true.

Expertise Matters

The take-home message here is that philosophy professors can depose (or at least attempt to depose) a team of reproductive health scientists who have spent their entire careers looking at this issue, simply by interjecting their own ideology into the mix, all while accusing the actual scientists of ideology-based hype. And here's how mainstream media covered this clearly insufficient debunking attempt:11

Yahoo! News — "Freaking Out About Declining Sperm Count? Don't, Harvard Researchers Say."

The Telegraph — "Threat of Human Extinction from Falling Sperm Counts Greatly Exaggerated."

Haaretz — "Spermaggedon in the West? Relax, Harvard Has Good News for You."

Vox — "Sperm Counts Are Falling. This Isn't the Reproductive Apocalypse — Yet."

Kabat writes:12

"None of the news stories … so much as remarked on the inflammatory rhetoric of the Boulicault paper, which will appear to the fair-minded reader as an activist manifesto masquerading as a scientific hypothesis. Even the New York Times fumbled this. It provided a useful discussion of some of the questions raised by the Harvard study and presented different points of view …

But it treated the study as a serious critique of the sperm count controversy, giving no indication of Boulicault and colleagues' ideological framing of the issue or that their alternative hypothesis has little to do with science …

It is difficult to explain the deference paid to the Harvard paper by various commentators. Perhaps we are in a time in which even trained scientists are reluctant to call out an uninformed but ideologically fashionable treatment of a high-profile issue."

Are You Seeing How This Applies to the COVID Narrative?

These stories tell us a lot about our current situation, where ideological gatekeepers are commanding us to "look here, not there." Actual, reproducible science by bonafide scientists is being dismissed as "ideology masquerading as science," while fake or flimsy science is being held up as the only science worthy of that designation.

If you chose to trust science that counters the technocratic transhumanist Deep State narrative, well, then you're labeled a racist, a misogynist, a white supremacist, a domestic terrorist or some other unpleasant and derogatory term, the only purpose of which is to shame and shut you up.

As noted by Corbett, when politicians and health authorities urge us to "trust the science," they are referring to select agency-branded science, meaning science that has the stamp of approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization, for example.

The assumption we're supposed to accept is that these organizations aren't tainted by the kind of corruption we're now told exists within the EPA — financially driven corruption that sidelines actual scientists, even within those organizations, that may have serious concerns. But regulatory capture is a longstanding problem, and there's no evidence to suggest it's been rooted out of the agencies we're now told to trust without question. As noted by Corbett:

"As 'The Science' more and more dictates whether you can step outside your own home, or what kind of experimental interventions you are forced or coerced into putting into your body against your will, I hope you understand that the stakes have been raised to the point where this is not some mere philosophical concern. This is the heart of the biosecurity state that we are being steeped in."

Sen. Warren Threatens Amazon to Ban ‘The Truth About COVID-19’

Since the publication of my latest book, “The Truth About COVID-19,” which became an instant best seller on Amazon.com, there’s been a significant increase in calls for censorship and ruthless attacks against me.

Most recently, so-called “progressive” U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in an outrageous, slanderous and basically unconstitutional attempt to suppress free speech, sent a letter to Amazon, demanding an “immediate review” of their algorithms to weed out books peddling “COVID misinformation.”

Warren specifically singled out “The Truth About COVID-19” as a prime example of “highly ranked and favorably tagged books based on falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines and cures” that she wants to see banned from sale.

Two days later, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., followed in Warren’s footsteps, sending letters to Facebook and Amazon, calling for more prolific censorship of vaccine information. Even President Joe Biden has recently used a debunked report as his sole source to call for my censorship.

Sadly, these attacks are being levied by the very people elected to safeguard democracy and our Constitutional rights. Essentially, what they are calling for is modern-day book burning. This is a democracy, not a monarchy.

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96thdayofrage · 7 years ago

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How dumb do Senators Cory Booker, D-NJ, Al Franken, D-MI, and Elizabeth Warren, D-OK, think we are? All three Democratic presidential hopefuls are “initial co-sponsors” of an Orwellian bill to “enhance” our government’s ability to “prevent genocide and mass atrocities” with military force: S enate Bill 1158, the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2017 .

Remember the US war to prevent genocide and mass atrocities in Libya? Where the Obama Administration toppled the secular Libyan state, and destroyed its national oil company to make way for US oil corporations? Where Hillary Clinton ordered the assassination of an African president, and left a failed state of warring militias, including ISIS, plus a modern-day slave trade and streams of desperate refugees risking their lives to get to Europe from Libyan shores.

The US war to “prevent genocide and mass atrocities” in Syria is of course ongoing, even though President Trump shut down Obama’s billion-dollar operation to train Islamist militias who were fighting each other when they weren’t fighting President Bashar al-Assad. The casualties in Syria are well into the hundreds of thousands, the refugees and internally displaced persons equal to half the pre-war population of 22 million. Nevertheless, Syria’s secular state, its national oil company, and its national bank still stand, thanks to Russia’s decision to draw the line and lend military support.

Let’s not forget Bush’s preemptive war. He gave us an absolutely ridiculous excuse: that he had to prevent Saddam Hussein from attacking the US with “weapons of mass destruction.” So the US invaded Iraq, destroying much of its infrastructure and archaeological heritage, killing a million or more Iraqis, and discharging so much toxic ordnance that the people of Basra and Fallujah now suffer high rates of cancer and unprecedented rates of birth defects. The US destroyed Iraq’s national oil company, opened its oil fields to Bush’s oil tycoon cronies, toppled a secular government, let a Shia minority seize power, and made way for the current battles raging between Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish militias. Most recently, the US destroyed the City of Mosul to save it from ISIL.

Saddam Hussein was not a nice guy, but if anyone—including Cory Booker, Al Franken, and Elizabeth Warren—believes that’s why the US did all that to Iraq, I’d like to sell them 500 tons of yellowcake uranium ore from Niger, along with the Washington Post and the New York Times—all at a one-time bargain basement price.

But they don’t believe that, and they don’t believe any outlandish claims that the US prevents genocide and mass atrocities or wants to. They don’t believe that WAR IS PEACE and FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, because whatever else we may think about Senators Booker, Franken, and Warren, they’re not that stupid. They’re just hoping that we are, or that we’re so mortified by Donald Trump that we’ll line up behind one of them or another militarist Democrat in 2020. Or they’re hoping that most of us are too damaged, distracted, disaffected, or disengaged to care.

Origins of S.1158 – the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2017

Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, the Democrats’ top dog on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act. He is an avowed Zionist, frequently lauded by AIPAC, the Zionist Organization of America , and the Zionist press. He has supported US wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, opposed the Iran nuclear deal, called for the removal of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, and said that the US cannot accept North Korea’s status as a minor nuclear power.

Cardin also joined Ohio Republican Ron Portman to introduce Senate Bill 7.20 – the Israel Anti-Boycott Act , which would make it a felony for Americans to support the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement that was created to protest Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestine. If S.720 becomes law, avoiding the purchase of Israeli goods for political reasons will become a federal crime punishable by a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of up to $1 million and 20 years in prison.

Neither Cory Booker, nor Al Franken, nor Elizabeth Warren have joined the 43 Senators, mostly Republicans, co-sponsoring S.720. Such an outright assault on our civil rights might go down less well with their liberal base than preventing genocide and mass atrocities. Doesn’t every liberal Democrat, and indeed every American of good will, want to prevent genocide and mass atrocities? Only a psychopath wouldn’t.

As the US and NATO’s war on Libya began, Pakistani scholar Tariq Ali wrote in the Monthly Review, “The sheer cynicism is breathtaking. We're expected to believe that the leaders with bloody hands in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are defending the people in Libya. The fact that decent liberals still fall for this rubbish is depressing.”

On the fifth anniversary of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, Ali wrote that, “The human cost of this war would, if some other country were doing it, be labeled genocide.”

Democrats for Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocities

Twenty Democrats, including Booker, Franken, and Warren, but only five Republicans, have signed on as co-sponsors of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Mass Atrocities Prevention Act. Indeed, much of this Orwellian movement is coordinated within the elite, richly resourced, corporate funded, ideological bastions of the Democratic Party. One of these is the “ENOUGH Project to counter genocide and crimes against humanity ,” founded by career militarists John Prendergast and Gayle Smith. Enough is an NGO subsidiary of a larger NGO, the Center for American Progress (CAP). CAP is a think tank, aka propaganda vehicle, founded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta. Podesta played key roles in both the Clinton and Obama Administrations prior to his Wikileaks notoriety.

Another key pillar of genocide prevention propaganda is Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy , founded by Samantha Power. After Power became its first Executive Director. she worked with “the US Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute” to produce Mass Atrocity Response Operations , a Military Planning Handbook . As President Obama’s Ambassador, she went on to crusade for US/NATO wars in Libya and Syria, then to rant, rave, and fulminate about Russia.

One of ENOUGH’s greatest propagandistic achievements is STAND , “the student-led movement to end mass atrocities,” which declares that it’s on a mission “to empower individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and end genocide.” STAND has chapters on high school, college ,and university campuses all over the US with regional coordinators in the West, Midwest, Southeast, Eastern, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast. John Kerry, Ben Affleck, George Clooney, and John Prendergast have all appeared to speak at its campus events.

STAND shows a list of films and promotes a list of books about Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur, the Holocaust, and Rwanda, all of which support the justifying narratives that prevail in the US foreign policy establishment. STAND’s R2P— [ Responsibility to Protect ] — Student Journal is now accepting submissions from both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

I’m sure that a few veterans of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) , and the movement to end the Vietnam War are reading this and shaking their heads, as are a few of the millions who surged into streets all over the world desperate to stop the Iraq War in 2003. Who imagined that one year later, a national, networked student lobby for war would be growing out of the Save Darfur movement with so much institutional support in Washington D.C.?

STAND, the Aegis Trust, and their matching concerns

In 2015, STAND became the official youth chapter of the Aegis Trust , an offshoot of the UK National Holocaust Center. Aegis claims responsibility for the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, which exists to enshrine the official lies equating the Holocaust and the Rwandan massacres of 1994. These lies are at the heart of the Western interventionist canon and the Rwanda/Israel Pact . A page of the Aegis website reads:

“We failed in Rwanda. We failed in Srebrenica. But you are writing a different future. Today I am moved, and I am inspired.” - UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon

That reminded me of Norman Finkelstein calling Ban Ki-moon “a comatose puppet of the United States.”

STAND’s “conflict areas” of concern match those of the Aegis Trust: Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Burma, and Syria. Palestine has never been on their lists. STAND’s “policy statements” read like those of the Aegis Trust, the Enough Project, and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, and STAND chapters lobby their House Reps and Senators accordingly. How deep into the deep state is that?

Whatever the answer, passage of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act is now among STAND’s top priorities, so they’re no doubt on the phone requesting meetings and urging Senators Booker, Franken, Warren and others to move their bill out of committee to the Senate Floor.

Will anyone call to tell these Senators that WAR IS NOT PEACE, THE US DOES NOT PREVENT GENOCIDE, and there’s no way they could honestly believe the bs in this bill?

#war and empire

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wildlyhardphilosopher-blog · 5 years ago

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Dog Training York Region | Top Online Resource Available Here

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svfedotov · 7 years ago

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Punching Nazis for Freedom: Comics VS Fascism

With the world one button away from destruction and hate-rhetoric swarming the streets of America like a million cockroaches, your favorite comic reviewer has decided to do a very special article about the evils of Nazi Fascism through the that wonderful medium of superheroes (and a villain) punching Nazis. It’s no surprise that comics and Nazism have never gotten along, going way back to Captain America slapping the dickens out of Hitler during WW2, and the comic genre hasn’t slowed down since. Superman fought the KKK, Shazam punched Captain Nazi, and Hellboy, well Hellboy just likes punching people with goofy mustaches. With so many wonderful examples, it was hard to narrow it down to only a handful of samples, but hopefully the ones I chose prove that hate not only has no place in our comic books, but no place in America either.

Punisher: War Journal Vol 2 #6-10 (2007)

Punisher is man who takes no shit. Having survived Vietnam, his family being killed, and being hunted by mobsters, he’s a one man hunting machine that’ll see all villains dead at his feet. In War Journal Vol 2, Punisher meets a brand new villain known as Hatemonger, a 6’ 2” slab of beef who preaches white supremacy and looks a bit like Captain America (a fact that sends Punisher to find him and “and shoot that guy in the face.”) Even in the Marvel database, Hatemonger’s occupation is listed as terrorist, another thing that Punisher hates and he who is hated by Punisher feels the sting of the Punishers bullets!

As a special treat, I have included two priceless pics of Punisher beating up Nazis. The first is him slamming a Nazi into a cactus full speed and the second, of course, is the kill shot of Hatemonger himself. Classic Punisher.

Wonder Woman #240 (1978)

Oh Wonder Woman. What can’t be said about her that hasn’t been written a thousand times by a thousand talented writers? But did you know that she also punches Nazis? I’m sure you’re not surprised, she did emerge in the 1940’s when the Great War the Second was in full swing and you bet your last yellow onion that she jumped right into kicking some ass for America. In Wonder Woman #240, our heroine dukes it out with mysterious Nazi agent known as Siegfried the Speedster. Oddly enough, this Nazi accidently proves Wonder Woman’s innocence after she stands trial for treason when she was mind-tricked into seeing the American army as Nazi soldiers. So, all’s well that ends well? Either way, check out this pic of her knocking that punk right the fuck out!

Captain America Comics #1 (1941)

You can’t have the name America in your moniker without knocking out a few fascist, so obviously, the very first Captain America comic has him giving the ol’ American Hello to Hitler himself. Hell, the first issue proved so effective in stirring up some pots, that on top of the overwhelming support, his creators Kirby and Simon, even got some serious hate mail, proving that it’s not art until someone threatens you’re life. But death threats aside, Captain America went on to be the symbol of American hope and kept fighting Nazism, fascism, and all things that threatened the American way of life for decades afterwards (current Hydra arc notwithstanding.) Pictured here is the famous first cover itself, complete with a first introduction of his sidekick Bucky, who goes on in his own comics freeing concentration camps.

Action Comics #59 (1943)

Despite its alluring promise of Superman peeling open Nazi tanks like an orange and eating the delicious German fruit inside, Superman doesn’t actually fight Nazis in this issue. In fact, the majority of Action Comics that feature Superman versus The Reich did not have an accompanying story-arc and instead had other heroes out on the war front, as each issue acted more of an anthology than a one-man comic. Action Comics #59 has two war-related stories, one featuring The Three Aces blowing up a Nazi base and the other featuring Americommando delivering the last message of a British spy while managing to blow up one of Mousselines military bases. Still, I chose this cover because one, I thought it was funny, and two, what’s more awesome than an American space alien dismantling tanks to the horror of Nazi soldiers? Nothing, that’s what.

Every Hellboy Comic Ever

Hellboy was born to fight Nazis. Well, he was actually born to take over Hell, but he was also born to fight Nazis. Even his backstory started off with him being called up by Nazi occult leaders only to be adopted by an American doctor and raised to fight those that brought him to Earth. This is what he does. Hell, there were so many issues and so many images to choose from, I almost didn’t know which one to go with! I decided to use this slash page as a representation of his Nazi-kicking powers; Hellboy keeping the world safe with only a fist and a quip. I don’t even know which issue this is from, that’s how much Hellboy loves beating up Nazis! Seriously, go grab one, he’s probably punching one three pages in!

Saga of the Human Torch #3 (1990)

Before there was Johnny Storm, the Human Torch was originally a humanoid android created by Carl Burgos in the 1939. Though he only had a handful of comics under his belt before being adapted to his more popular form by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he has definitely not been forgotten as proven by The Saga of the Human Torch, a 4-issue mini-series released in 1990. The series retells the origin of android Torch and in issues two and three, commences with a hearty Nazi ass-whooping ending in Hitler being set aflame! That’s right, true believers, Hitler set on goddamn fire! Though Hitler asks that his death be kept secret, we know the real story now. It was the Human Torch all along.

Batman and Captain America (Elseworlds) (1997)

If you’ve been around the internet long enough, I’m sure you’ve seen this picture of Joker working with the Red Skull only to immediately turn the tables when finding out his partner was an actual, honest-to-goodness, Nazi. What the picture doesn’t answer is the many questions that surely follow such as: how did Joker and the Red Skull get together despite coming from two different comic companies and when did Joker get so cool? The answer is Elseworlds, a series of DC comics that basically answers every what-if question you ever had, this one being, what-if Captain America and Batman met up in WW2-era Gotham to secretly hunt down the Red Skull? With Red Skulls villainy and Jokers untethered hate (love?) for Batman, it’s no surprise that the two would naturally work together, but Joker will be damned if he’s caught trading hijacking tips with an actual Nazi. As he says, he may be a criminal lunatic, but he’s an American criminal lunatic. Trust me when I tell you, Joker punches the crap out of him.

**********

I’m going to end this article on a special message from Stan Lee himself but I will say this: wherever there is evil, there is hope, and where there is hope, heroes will emerge. Be that hero, stand up and fight.

#comics #anti nazi #superhero

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juniperpublishersjojoos · 5 years ago

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Plastic Surgery in Ayurveda-Juniper Publishers

Journal of Orthopedic & Orthoplastic Surgery

Research Article

Plastic Surgery in Ayurveda

*Dnyaneshwar kantaram Jadhav

Department of Ayurved Medicine, Director of Nakshatra Ayurved clinic & Research center, India

Submission: March 31, 2017; Published: April 20, 2017

*Corresponding author: Dnyaneshwar kantaram Jadhav, Department of Ayurved Medicine, Director of Nakshatra Ayurved clinic & Research center, Mumbai, India, Email: [email protected]

How to cite this article: Dnyaneshwar k J. Plastic Surgery in Ayurveda. JOJ Orthoped Ortho Surg. 2017; 1(1): 555552. DOI: 10.19080/JOJOOS.2017.01.555552

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Abstract

From ancient Indian surgery, it has been observed that various operations successfully performed in those days also. In ancient period Acharya were doing surgery in Ayurveda. Sushrut was the first and famous surgeon of ancient science. There are so many examples and descriptions of surgery available in Ayurvedic Samhita. Sushrut has described plastic surgery like Nasa-sandhan (Rhinoplasty),> Karna-sandhan (Auroplasty] and Oshta-sandhan (lipoplasty]. Contribution of ancient Indian surgery in the field of plastic operation cannot be over-estimated.

It’s true that in old days one of Royal punishment was to cut way ear-lobe, nose etc. Indian surgeon correcting such deformity by shifting the skin flap to reform the nose and ear. They had plenty of opportunity to do Rhinoplasty which was first to be done in this country and itself made Indian surgery unique. They also appreciated the importance of proper wound healing for successful plastic surgery operation. It is common man’s thinking that there is no surgical treatment for disease in the science of Ayurved. After the turn over the pages of sushrut Samhita, one will understand that sushrut has laid done the basic concept of the present surgery. The present article is an attempt to highlighting on reference of ancient plastic surgery in Ayurveda.

Keywords: Plastic surgery, Sandhan Karma, Ayurveda, Sushrut.

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Introduction

Ayurved science of life which is divided into 8 branches. Shalya (surgery) is one of the branches of Ashtanag Ayurved [1]. In ancient time Ayurveda was at top point of mountain but in between there was long period of slavery and Indian become depend country on British government. This is period of decline period of Ayurved and now common man’s thinking that there is no surgical treatment for disease in the science of ayuvred. It takes a beet troubles to turn over the pages of sushrut Samhita, one will find that sushrut has laid done the basic concept of the present surgery. Sushruta is considering as father of modern surgery, because of his logical approach prudent and Clare view and marvellous presentation which is time tested. From ancient Indian surgery, it has been observed that various operations successfully performed in those days also. The various surgical procedures were divided in chedya, bhedya and vedhya [2]. Chedankarma was performed in those disease were suppuration is absent, swelling is herd and immovable or in those diseases where gangrene develops. The same procedure is still being adopted in modern science. Hand is best instrument for surgery [3].

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Materials and Methods

For the present review detailed literary study is performed. The Detail content of and references are analysed from available text. Principal texts referred are Sushrutasamhita and some Vedas. Also relevant references are taken from other Research articles available from internet.

Meaning of Plastic Surgery

Plastic surgery is a surgical speciality involving the restoration, reconstruction, or alternation of human body. It includes cosmetic or aesthetical surgery, hand surgery, microsurgery and treatment of burns [4].

History of Plastic Surgery

The oldest surgical references found in Ancient Egyptian medical text [5]. This Reconstructive surgery technique was being carried out in India. Sushruta was a physician that made important contributions to the field of plastic and cataract surgery in 6th century BC. The medical works of both Sushruta and Charak originally in Sanskrit were translated into the Arabic language during the Abbasid Caliphate in 750 AD [6]. The Arabic translations made their way into Europe via intermediaries. After that surgical technique of sushruta is followed in Italy.

British physicians travelled to India to see rhinoplasties being performed by native methods. They Reported on Indian rhinoplasty performed by a Kumharvaidya which was published in the Gentleman’s Magazine by 1794 [7]. Joseph Constantine Carpue spent 20 years in India studying local plastic surgery methods. Carpue performed the first major surgery in the Western world by 1815 [8]. Instruments described in the Sushruta Samhita were further modified in the Western world. The Roman scholar Aulus Cornelius Celsus recorded surgical techniques, including plastic surgery, in the first century AD. The Romans also performed plastic cosmetic surgery. They were able to perform simple techniques, such as repairing damaged ears, from around the 1st century BC.

References of Plastic Surgery in Vedas[

]

Description of Sandhan karma found in ancient times. During Vedik period science of Sandhan karma is very well developed. Reference of Magical operative surgery of Ashwinikumaras mentioned in vedas.

In anger Lord Shiva cuts the head of Ganesha, later on which is replaced with head of elephant. After that event shree Ganesha is known as "Gajanana" This is best example of transplantation which is well listen since childhood from our mothers and grandmother in stories.

Bispala is wife of king Khela. She lost her leg in war. Ashwinikumaras was transplanted her leg with an iron leg [10]. The lost part of body of Rishi Atriwas was re-joined by Ashwinikumaras. The body of Acharya Shyaba was cut into three parts. Ashwinikumarsimmediately re-joined all parts and give him life [11]. Beside the Rigved, Padampuran also have written examples of reconstructive plastic surgery [12]. Bhairav cut the head of Brahma and Dadhichi. Ashwinikumaras re-joined their head. They also transplanted the head of Yahnya. Dadhyancha was the master of Madhu Vidya. Ashwinikumaras showed them interest in learning of Madhu Vidya. So they cut head of Dadyyancha and kept separate. Then they transplant the head of horse to the body of Dadhyancha and learnt Madhu Vidyafrom them. After learning Madhu Vidya, they transplanted his own head [13]. Dakshya cut head and trunk of Chyavan. Ashwinikumarasperformed the first plastic operation to join them [14].

According to Upanishad, Ashwinikumaras also operated and repaired the excised head of Yagyana by Rudra. Ashwinikumaras were doing both homo and hetero transplantations at that time.

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Plastic Surgery in Ayurved

Sushrut has described plastic surgery. In plastic surgery particular Nasa-sandhan (Rhinoplasty), Karna-sandhan (Auroplasty) and Oshta-sandhan (lipoplasty) are mentioned in Ayurved. Contribution of ancient Indian surgery in the field of plastic operation cannot be over-estimated. It's true that in old days one of Royal punishment was to cut way ear-lobe, nose etc [15]. Indian surgeon has applied their injurious technique for correcting such deformity by shifting the skin flap to reform the nose and ear. They had plenty of opportunity to do rhinoplasty which was first to be done in any country and itself made Indian surgery unique. They also appreciated the importance of proper wound healing for successful plastic surgery operation.

Sushruta has described 15 methods of Karna-sandhan (Auroplasty) repairs of the several ear-lopes [16] (Table 1).

Sandhanarthajivitamansa (pedicled skin flap) [

If skin flaps unavailable from ear during Auroplasty than for Sandhanprakriya (plastic surgery) than it can take from Gandapradesha(living flap connected as base of cheek).

karnasandha-vidhi (Auroplasty)

Mahrshi Sushruta described the detail procedure of karnasandha-vidhi (Auroplasty) in his sushrutasamhita [18].

Nasa-sandhanvidhi (Rhinoplasty)

Sushruta mentioned Nasa-sandhanvidhi (Rhinoplasty) for nose either lost by disease or by trauma/accident. Description of Nasa-sandhanvidhi (Rhinoplasty) is available in sushrutsamhita. The original method of Nasa-sandhan (Rhinoplasty) reveals that first of all the leaf of creeper should be collected. It should be adequate in length and breath, to cover the entire severed portion. Then a patch of living hash of the size of previously trimmed leaf should be excised with an attached pedicals. So the excised skin flap is maintained by its vascularity. Thus skin flap is than over lapped to severe portion and stitched. The insertion of kamalnaal into nostril to vacillated respiration and to maintain the suture [19].

Oshthasandhan-vidhi (lipoplasty)

Maharshisushruta mentioned sandhan-vidhi of china oshtha (lipoplasty) for khandoshta (harelip) [20]. sandhan-vidhi of china oshtha (lipoplasty) is same as Nasa-sandhanvidhi (Rhinoplasty). The only difference is that in lip surgery there is no use of stem of Erandanaala. In Sushruta it is also mentioned that, Vaidya who get skilled in these reconstructive surgery, become Rajvaidya i.e. who can treat the king. So From above review it can be said that, sushruta was the original plastic surgeon not only in India but also in the world.

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Conclusion

In Ayurvedic achrya Sushrut has described plastic surgery. Nasa-sandhan (Rhinoplasty), Karna-sandhan (Auroplasty) and Oshta-sandhan (lipoplasty) and many more sandhan (plastic surgery) are mentioned in Ayurved. Contribution of ancient Indian surgery in the field of plastic operation cannot be over-estimated. All of this it made Indian surgery unique.

To read more articles in Journal of Orthopedic & Orthoplastic Surgery

Click on https://juniperpublishers.com/jojoos/index.php

To Know More about Juniper Publishers click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/

#Surgery #Knee #Anthroplasty #Neurosurgery #Spine

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johnaculbreath · 6 years ago

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The top 10 law and tech news stories of 2018

Home

Daily News

The top 10 law and tech news stories of 2018

Legal Technology

The top 10 law and tech news stories of 2018

By Jason Tashea

Posted December 21, 2018, 6:30 am CST

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What were 2018's most important legal tech stories? ABA Journal legal affairs writer Jason Tashea takes a look back on the biggest news in law and technology, including Facebook’s never-ending missteps, the creation of new data privacy standards and the destruction of federal net neutrality.

1. The Fourth Amendment evolves for a digital era.

One of the year’s U.S. Supreme Court barnburners was U.S. v. Carpenter, where a 5-4 court found that a warrant was necessary when seeking geolocation data about a suspect from a service provider.

“Given the unique nature of cellphone location records, the fact that the information is held by a third party does not by itself overcome the user’s claim to Fourth Amendment protection,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in the majority opinion.

At the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago this year, Electronic Privacy Information Center senior counsel Alan Butler told the ABA Journal that Carpenter is a major inflection point for the Fourth Amendment.

“I think many will look back on Fourth Amendment cases as before Carpenter and after Carpenter,” he said.

Even with this win for privacy advocates, there are plenty of unresolved issues as law enforcement agencies wrangle with technology and their search powers. For example, it was reported this year that the FBI and police in North Carolina are using “reverse” search warrants to collect cellphone location data of individuals near crime scenes. These warrants lack specificity and do not identify suspects.

2. Data protection gets some teeth.

Speaking of inflection points, data privacy got one May 25, when the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation went into effect.

The GDPR, which replaced a 1995 EU directive, covers topics as diverse as a right to be forgotten and an individual’s ability to confront automated decision-making systems.

Enforcement of the law will be done through data protection authorities, which are government agencies in the EU member states. Failure to comply could be devastating—a company could be fined up to 4 percent of its global annual revenue.

In June, California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, the country’s strictest consumer privacy law.

The law applies to any company that does business in California and has gross revenues above $25 million; annually buys, receives or sells personal information of 50,000 or more consumers, households or devices; or derives 50 percent or more of its annual revenue from selling personal information.

Tracking parts of the EU’s GDPR, the CCPA gives consumers access to their data, the power to have that data deleted and the ability to opt out of having their data sold. California passed a separate law protecting the data collected and transmitted by internet-enabled devices.

The need for these laws and smarter cybersecurity was underscored by the hack of hotel company Marriott International revealed in November, which spilled the data of as many as 500 million customers, ranging from names to contact information to passport numbers. Experts told Wired the breach was as big as it was because it went on for about four years; it was a vulnerability Marriott inherited when it bought Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide in 2016.

3. Facebook’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

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Already under fire for its role propagating misinformation that may have affected the 2016 presidential election, Facebook got more bad news this year.

In March, the New York Times detailed the links between the social network giants and London-based Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm that had been involved with the presidential campaigns of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and then-candidate Donald Trump. The company had access to personal data of about 87 million Facebook users and was able to mine that data in order to better target potential voters.

Shortly after this news broke, the Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into Facebook’s privacy practices. The results of that investigation are still forthcoming. Company CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg have since testified in front of Congress and the European Parliament.

In December, a British Parliamentary committee made public internal Facebook emails illustrating how the company would favor some companies and punish others. Reaction was harsh on both sides of the Atlantic. Claude Moraes, a member of the European Parliament, called for tougher regulations of the “possible monopoly” of social media giants.

In the states, Columbia University law professor Tim Wu Tweeted that the recent revelations should bring more attention to Facebook’s antitrust and anti-competitive behavior.

The antitrust / competition implications of the latest Facebook revelations need be discussed more by the media. Among other things, I think they clearly add to the case that the acquisition of WhatsApp was illegal; also suggest exclusionary conduct against Twitter/Vine

— Tim Wu (@superwuster) December 5, 2018

4. Net neutrality, we hardly knew ye.

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On June 11, net neutrality ceased to exist at the federal level.

Originally passed in 2015 and upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2016, the rules required that internet service providers like AT&T and Comcast treat all web traffic equally. This meant that, for example, providers would not be allowed to “throttle” or change the speed with which a person accesses a website. The repeal allows ISPs to block or slow some online traffic. In other cases, the provider can negotiate with a website for “fast lanes” to users.

There was a last-minute attempt by Congress to save the rule. While the Senate passed a bill in a rare showing of bipartisan support, the legislation did not gain traction in the House.

With no federal rules on the books, California passed its own net neutrality law this year. The Department of Justice sued to stop the state’s rules from going into effect. The case is ongoing.

California is not alone. Governors in six states signed executive orders supporting net neutrality principles and three states enacted net neutrality legislation this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

5. Trump makes a Chinese phone company great again.

Chinese telecom company ZTE Corp. was saved from collapse this year.

The company, which uses American technology, pleaded guilty in 2017 to exporting that technology to Iran and North Korea, agreeing to pay a $1.19 billion penalty. In April, the U.S. Department of Commerce determined that ZTE made false statements on its compliance documents. This led the U.S. to ban American companies from exporting products to ZTE for seven years. In response, ZTE suspended its major operations.

In May, President Donald Trump stated he would work with Chinese president Xi Jinping to end the ban. Under a new settlement, the ban was lifted in July.

The Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 blocked the settlement, but a similar bill in the House that the president ultimately signed let the deal stand.

Beyond working around U.S. sanctions, many believe that the company—which has close ties to the Chinese government—and its products are a national security threat. The National Defense Authorization Act largely banned the use of ZTE and rival Chinese company Huawei’s products by U.S. agencies and government contractors.

“I think both Huawei, ZTE and multiple other Chinese companies pose a threat to our national interests—our national economic interests, and our national security interests,” U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said on CBS’ Face the Nation this month.

In December, Japan banned the two companies’ hardware from its 4G networks. Canada, where Huawei’s CFO was arrested this month at the behest of the American government, is considering a similar ban.

6. Mega media mergers are proposed.

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Telecommunications and media companies made big moves in 2018.

In June, T-Mobile filed with the Federal Communications Commission to buy rival Sprint for $26 billion. The companies are respectively the third and fourth biggest cellular carriers in the country. In September, the FCC announced it would take more time to review the proposed deal. While speaking at a conference in Barcelona, J. Braxton Carter, T-Mobile chief financial officer, said the deal may close in the first half of 2019, according to Reuters.

Walt Disney Co. had announced its plan to buy 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion in stock back in 2017, but Comcast set off a bidding war this year. Once the dust settled, Disney won with a $71.3 billion counteroffer.

The deal is expected to be set in the early part of 2019. Reuters reports that Brazil’s antitrust regulator released a report in December that raised concerns about concentration of power and market control if the merger went through.

The third major deal is in a protracted legal dispute. A federal judge greenlighted AT&T’s proposed $85 billion purchase of Time Warner in June, but the Department of Justice has fought against the decision. In a filing, attorneys for the DOJ argued that U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington, D.C., ignored “fundamental principles of economics and common sense” in making his decision.

The case is on appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and arguments took place earlier in December.

7. Apple and Samsung call a truce.

Shutterstock

The heavyweight matchup between smartphone producers is finally over.

Dating back to 2011, the litigation surrounded design and utility patents and involved multiple retrials and appeals, including one round at the U.S. Supreme Court. The appeals largely pertained to significant jury awards for Apple, including one from a 2012 trial totaling $1 billion. Those damages were lowered to $930 million after a retrial.

In June, the companies finally settled outstanding claims and counterclaims in the Northern District of California. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh signed the order dismissing with prejudice, meaning the claims cannot be brought again.

“This settlement marks the official end of the ‘smartphone patent wars,’” Brian Love, an assistant professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law, told the CNET. “So, it seems like an opportune time to ask: After almost a decade of litigation, what was accomplished? I’d say very little.”

8. Manufacturers of self-driving cars temporarily pause tests after pedestrian fatality.

In March, an autonomous vehicle owned by ride-sourcing company Uber hit and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona. It was likely the first known pedestrian fatality from to self-driving technology.

During the night of the incident, the car was traveling under the posted speed limit of 45 miles per hour. The vehicle did have a human driver in the driver’s seat, however she was watching television show on her phone at the time of the accident, according to a report by the Tempe Police Department.

Uber quickly settled with the victim’s family for an undisclosed amount, according to Tech Crunch.

After the incident, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey suspended Uber’s ability to test its technology on the state’s public streets. Uber also stopped tests of its self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto.

The criminal investigation was transferred to the Yavapai County Attorney, and the case is still under review, according to Penny Cramer, administrative assistant to Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk.

In December, Uber stated its intention to restart its tests. However, the vehicles will only be used on a path between two of the company’s Pittsburgh offices and will not be tested at night or in wet conditions. The cars will also be capped at 25 mph.

9. Legal tech acquisitions carry on.

Screenshot courtesy of Lexicata’s Twitter feed.

It’s been another year of significant legal technology mergers.

In January, Avvo was acquired by Internet Brands, which already owned the Martindale-Nolo Legal Marketing Network. This summer, Internet Brands announced it would discontinue Avvo Legal Services, a fixed-cost service, and in October, the company rebranded its legal offerings as Martindale-Avvo.

Legal research company Fastcase purchased legal technology company Docket Alarm and Law Street Media, a legal news site, marking an entrance into the media market. According to a press release at the time, Law Street will be retooled and relaunched in the second quarter of 2019 to highlight national and state legal news complemented by analytics provided by Fastcase’s other products.

In April, court technology company Tyler Technologies acquired analytics firm Socrata. In October, cloud computing platform Clio announced its acquisition of Lexicata, a cloud-based client intake and management tool.

In November, legal consulting and technology company Elevate Services bought data analysis and consulting company LexPredict and contract management company Sumati Group in December.

This is just a small sample of this year’s numerous acquisitions.

10. Mugshots.com’s alleged owners get their own mugshots.

Thomas Keesee, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office; Sahar Sahid, Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

In a new step against online extortion schemes, the four alleged owners and operators of Mugshots.com were arrested and extradited to California this summer. The men face charges of extortion, money laundering and identity theft.

Mugshots.com and other similarly situated websites operate “depublishing” schemes where they collect public mugshot and arrest records and publish them to their site. When someone asks for the photo to be taken down, the website demands a fee. For many, paying one site leads to the mugshot appearing on a different website, according to an affidavit filed May 10.

The California Attorney General’s Office alleged in its release that over a three-year period, the defendants collected more than $64,000 in removal fees from approximately 175 individuals with California billing addresses; and during the same period collected more than $2 million in removal fees from approximately 5,703 individuals.

States, including California, have attempted to rein in these websites with dubious impact. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, 18 states have passed laws to restrict mugshot websites. California passed a ban on charging money to take down photos in 2014.

Because of the industry’s response and lackluster action taken by law enforcement up until now, Pew points out that the success of these laws has been limited.

The top 10 law and tech news stories of 2018 republished via ABA Journal Daily News - Business of Law

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loislaneinvestigatesauthors · 6 years ago

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From lab science to the art of the novel: historical fantasy writer Linda McCabe

Linda McCabe speaks in Oakland, CA at 2pm at the California Writers’ Club meeting at 1204 Preservation Park Way this Sunday, October 21st. Open to the public for a $10 cash donation at the door.

More info on the Club and on Linda here.

1. What drew you in to Greek mythology and to the story of Orlando Furioso? Why do you think those stories have appealed to readers throughout time? I started reading Greek mythology as a small girl. I loved the larger than life stories and characters. The first time I ever stayed awake reading until the wee hours of the night was with D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths. I adore that book. It is wonderfully illustrated and it introduces each member of the Greek pantheon with their own story. My favorite Greek goddess is Athena. She is powerful, respected and derives her strength from her intellect and not from beauty. She's not only the goddess of wisdom and victory, but also of the arts such as weaving tapestries. One of my favorite stories is of a mortal who was a gifted weaver who had boasted she was more skilled than Athena. The goddess disguised herself, tried to get the girl to take back her words. The girl, named Arachne, refused to take back the boast and instead issued a challenge to the goddess. Athena threw off her disguise and accepted the challenge. They both created incredible tapestries. While Athena's depicted the Olympian gods in all of their glory, Arachne's made fun of Zeus and his various wives. Athena's wrath brought about the destruction of the irreverent artwork and transformed the talented girl into a spider who would weave for all eternity.

Harsh, but fair punishment. Pride cometh before the fall. Hubris. Greek mythology is filled with these kinds of stories. I started reading Orlando furioso in 2003 when I was engaged in online debates regarding the Harry Potter series. This was before the series was finished, and there were many various theories floating about. One theory involved the symbolic meaning of hippogriffs. I wound up reading Ariosto's masterpiece because that was the first time a hippogriff was used as a character in literature. I became drawn to the love story between Bradamante and Ruggiero, which was considered one of many subplots in this epic poem. Bradamante reminded me of Athena. She was a respected warrior who was cool under pressure. The major difference is that Bradamante fell in love, whereas Athena never allowed herself to love a man. Bradamante was the niece of Charlemagne and was a Christian. She fell in love with an honorable warrior who was a Muslim and on the opposing side of a holy war. Their love was kept secret until they could find a way to be together with honor, and there were many, many obstacles for this couple to overcome. She was even given the Call to Adventure to rescue him when he was being held captive by a wizard. It is amazing that this incredible kick-ass heroine was created over 500 years ago, but has somehow become largely forgotten over the years.

These stories become timeless because they demonstrate heroism and perseverance as well as Karmic punishments for those without honor. 2. How do you know when you've done enough research and you're ready to write? This is a gut feeling. There's a point when I feel like I am procrastinating more than I am doing research. Sometimes I just have to shift gears and stop researching if the aspect I am trying to understand isn't "knowable" or maybe isn't all that important. I spent over a week wondering about diapering in the middle ages. This was all because I wanted to have a character do some action in a scene with her baby. I started imagining the characters in my setting and thought of where would the dirty diaper would be placed. Then I wondered how the diaper would be closed, (did they have diaper pins?) How often would they wash them? How many diapers would a noble household have for a baby? Some research suggested that babies might not have been put in diapers at all. Instead, the parents would watch them carefully and hold them at arm's length over straw to absorb urine flow. I considered this matter for too long. I was obsessing over a minor detail that did not enhance or further the plot. I decided to take it out and not "go there." Instead, I described the baby as been freshly bathed in the scene.

3. Conversely, where can you go to make sure your writing doesn't contain obvious historical errors or anachronisms? Are there 'continuity readers' or 'historical readers' available to regular authors? I have several beta readers who have looked at various passages or aspects of the story to give me this kind of feedback. Finding experts for your writing can be a challenge. I suggest during the writing process to try and identify those who may be able to provide specific feedback. I joined different list servs where I could ask experts questions that I had been unable to find answers to on my own.

There is a wonderful internet resource for a multitude of disciplines called H-Net for Humanities and Social Services. https://networks.h-net.org/ I recommend that resource for those who wish to find experts. Go to the website, explore different listings, subscribe and read back postings to get familiar with the style of discussion before posting. Most of the subscribers are university faculty members, so being an "independent scholar" will set you apart. Don't be intimidated, but try not to ask overly broad questions showing that you haven't done research on your own first. Tell them you are a writer and have a few specific questions. Or write a post stating that you are looking for beta readers for historical accuracy who will give feedback. Many of the professors read fiction in their spare time, make an appeal asking for help in identifying errors might work. Finding good 'continuity readers' is a more difficult nut to crack. You have to find close, careful readers who will notice nit-picky items that contradict earlier details in your story. This cannot be done effectively for beta readers who get a few pages here and there. You need critique group members who will read large chunks or the entire manuscript *and* will focus on minutiae. For example, someone who will pull up a calendar from the year your story takes place and notice if there really was a full moon on the night of the murder. That's the kind of thing I do for my critique group partners, and sometimes they appear annoyed prior to expressing gratitude for my corrections/feedback.

In regard to historical errors or anachronisms, I have had some instances where I balance historical accuracy versus dramatic needs. I initially try to find a way to make the historical record work, but there are times when it would lessen the drama. Or it would cause the narrative to become immensely more complicated. In those occasions, I will choose dramatic necessity over historical accuracy and write a disclaimer in my author notes to detail the reasons behind my decision. I feel that the greatest sin a writer can commit is to bore readers.

An example of this type of decision regarded the Medieval walls around the city of Paris. The poets described a complex set of ramparts that were first built by King Philippe Auguste in the 12th century. The story of Charlemagne and his knights is set in the 9th century. I considered removing the historically inaccurate walls, but quickly realized that my already complicated plot would become exponentially worse. I decided to keep the walls and mention my dilemma in my author notes. After all, I am retelling a grand story originally written to entertain one noble family in Italy and it featured wars that never took place with mostly fictional characters, magical realms and flying hippogriffs. Therefore, know that I took care in telling this tale, so please just enjoy the ride! 4. I notice you also write essays and editorials in addition to your historical fiction. Would you agree with the advice I myself heard as an aspiring novelist, to get other pieces of writing published before you go out there to agents and publishers with a first novel? While I believe that having publication credits is important to demonstrate your authority as a writer, it isn't as important to an agent as the sample pages of your completed novel. Writing an article or short story is like running a 100 yard dash while writing a novel is more like running a marathon. Perfecting the art of the query letter or verbal pitching to an agent in order to get the request to submit sample pages is a different skill set than regular writing. Once you get the go-ahead to send your manuscript and synopsis, your overall craft will be on full view. The agent and subsequent potential publishers will only green light a publishing contract based on the strength of your finished product and not because you had an op-ed published in the LA Times. Honestly, I think getting a pithy book description will do more for you with agents and publishers than having multiple credits to your name. However, it is a different matter if you are writing non-fiction. If you had publication credits in magazines or peer-reviewed journals and you were submitting a book proposal on the same topic - it might help influence the decision of the agent/publisher to sign you as a client/author.

5. How do your feel your "day job" has influenced your writing? And what is your educational background? While I love writing, my education is in the sciences. My undergraduate degree is in Laboratory Medicine and my master's degree is as an Historian of Science. I also have training in competitive public speaking from high school and acting in plays. My only creative writing classes were in screenwriting and those were taken without being applied to any degree program. Screenwriting helped me analyze scenes in movies to determine how best to distill narrative and reveal characters into scenes that further a plot. Participating in debate and drama helped me understand how to craft a strong argument and then overlay my steel girder like-logic with pathos to stir the emotional senses. As a laboratorian, over the years I have developed a keen analytical mind. One of my previous jobs, I managed the organ recipient list of over one hundred patients for a laboratory in downtown Detroit. I reviewed and monitored changes and updates to the statewide list published by the Organ Procurement Agency of Michigan. Soon after I took over that responsibility I discovered and corrected numerous errors on our list of patients . Learning to have a scope of memory to track and manage so many details helped prepare me for adapting a story of epic grandeur with a massive cast of characters.

Similarly, having been trained in historical methods of researching for my master's degree, I feel obligated in learning about the time, place, cultural practices, etc., in my story. I have done my best to ground this story in a real time and place, giving my narrative the historical details of ninth century Francia. So once I decided on doing an adaptation of Orlando furioso, I had to learn about Medieval history and the life of Charlemagne. I immersed myself in research while simultaneously trying to determine parts of the story to retain and parts to cut. After doing an intense analysis of my source material, I discovered continuity errors. One enchanted castle was located in three (!) separate and distinct locations. The narrative is immensely complicated, and I doubt the patrons noticed the discrepancies let alone raised any objections. However, I am well aware of L.O.O.N.s (the League of Obsessive Nitpickers) and so I had to fix one location for this enchanted castle and made this determination based on my plot necessities. I also moved several locations of other plot points that I felt made more logical sense.

The Carolingian legend cycle spanned several centuries in the south of France and north of Italy. The jongleurs and troubadours told and retold these legends for the nobles and the masses. By the time Ludovico Ariosto and Matteo Maria Boiardo wrote their masterpieces, these characters were popular. My contribution in this legend cycle is to transform a portion of these stories into a tale for modern day audiences using current storytelling techniques. ***side note*** The Italians do not capitalize the second word in the title of the poems. I'm not sure why, because I do not speak Italian or know the particulars of Italian grammar rules. So my use of Orlando furioso and not Orlando Furioso is not accidental, it is purposeful. If you do a quick Google search, the results for capitalization are not consistent. However, once this was pointed out to me, I have endeavored to follow the Italian convention.

More about Linda McCabe and her current works here.

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dispatchdcu · 2 years ago

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Punisher War Journal: Base #1 Preview

Punisher War Journal: Base #1 Preview #punisher #thepunisher #jasonaaron #MARVEL #marvelcomics #comics #comicbooks #news #mcu #art #info #NCBD #comicbooknews #previews #reviews #thehand

Punisher War Journal: Base #1 Preview: THE ORIGIN OF THE WAR JOURNAL! Before he was the Punisher, Frank Castle was a husband, a father and a Marine. Not necessarily in that order. In this story from between the pages of PUNISHER, Frank tries to come home…but finds it impossible to leave the war behind him. TORUNN GRØNBEKK DJIBRIL MORISSETTE-PHAN (A) Cover by JAVIER RODRÍGUEZ Variant Cover by…

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#comic books #comics #marvel comic books #marvel comic previews #Marvel Previews #Previews #punisher #Punisher War Journal #Punisher War Journal: Base #Punisher War Journal: Base 1 #Punisher War Journal: Base 1 Preview

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lucyskyyy-blog · 7 years ago

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Our Film Picks for the 55th Annual New York Film Festival

The 55th annual New York Film Festival has begun! One of New York's most classic film showcases, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's NYFF is once again offering the newest and some of the freshest international films slates for the viewing public.

Here are some of the films Bold as Love feels you should definitely check out, but also look out for reviews from us on select films.

NYFF runs from September 28th to October 15th in New York City.See more about the entire festival and get tickets at FilmLinc.org

MUDBOUND

Directed by Dee Rees 2017/USA/ 134 minutes Series: Main Slate With Mary J. Blige, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, and Jonathan Banks (NYC Premiere)

Thursday October 12 at 6:00 PM & Friday October 13 at 9:15 PM (Alice Tully Hall) Q&A with Dee Rees on 10/12

From the director of Pariah and HBO's Bessie, writer-director Dee Rees's historical epic, based on the novel by Hillary Jordan, details the daily hardships and vicissitudes of farm life in Mississippi during the postWorld War II era, focusing on two families, one white (the landlords) and one black (the sharecroppers), working the same miserable piece of farmland.

At an off-glance Mudbound may look seem a bit downtrodden, but we assure you that as one the most-anticipated films of 2017, with Black talent and otherwise, Mudbound is the film to see at NYFF. With breakthrough performances from Jason Mitchell and Rob Morgan, come awards season, you can tell your friends you were among the first to see it!

FLICIT

Directed by Alain Gomis 2017/ France,Senegal,Belgium,Germany,Lebanon/124 minutes Series: Main Slate (U.S. Premiere)

October 4 at 9:15 PM (Alice Tully Hall), October 5 at 6:00 PM (Walter Reade Theater) Q&As with Alain Gomis on 10/4 and 10/5

Largely set in the roughest areas of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Flicit (Vro Tshanda Beya Mputu) who just scrapes together a living as a singer in a makeshift bar, goes in search of money for her son's medical care after he is injured in an accident. But Flicit's ordeal becomes a double journey, one through the punishing outer world of the city and the inner world of the soul. Flicit is tough, tender, lyrical, mysterious, funny, and terrifying, both responsive to the moment and fixed on its heroine's spiritual progress.

Winner of the best film award at the 13th African Movie Academy Awards, Flicit is the fourth feature film directed by Alain Gomis, a French director of Guinea-Bissauan and Senegalese descent. His previous film Tey (Aujoud'hui), a dream-like and also lyrically mysterious drama starring the musician/actor Saul Williams, Assa Maga (Bamako), and Anisia Uzeyman, was also a journey of the soul, so there's little mistaking the power that Gomis' new film can possess.

THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR

Directed by Nancy Buirski 2017/ USA/90 minutes Series: Spotlight on Documentary (North American Premiere)

Sunday, October 1st at 9pm, Walter Reade Theater Tuesday, October 3rd at 6pm, Francesca Beale Theater Q&A's with Nancy Buiriski on 10/1 and 10/3

Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. Exposing a legacy of physical abuse of Black women by white men, which despite its harrowing history and still existing mindset is seldom spoken about, Recy hits on multiple notes, most of which is the ongoing fight for justice for countless women like Taylorand the revelation of Rosa Parks' intimate role in Recy Taylor's story and Parks' ongoing place in history prior to (and after) the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

This story of this film will and should fuel outrage (I was yelling at the screen while watching it!). A full review will we posted here on BaL.

For now, see more about the film at their film's website.

BOOM FOR REAL: THE LATE TEENAGE YEARS OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

Directed by Sara Driver 2017/ USA/79 minutes Series: Spotlight on Documentary

(U.S. Premiere) Sunday, October 8, 1:00pm at Alice Tully Hall Wednesday, October 11, 9:00pm at Francesca Beale Theater Q&A's with Sara Driver on 10/8 and 10/11

This look at Jean-Michel Basquiat's life pre-fame, and how New York City, the times, the people and the movements around him formed the artist he became, BOOM FOR REAL weaves the story of Jean-Michel and the city with never before seen works, writings and photographs.

Even if you're from New York City, this look back at this time and scene is fascinating. If you're not, it may even be alarming.

Director Sara Driver worked closely and collaboratively with her friends and other artists who emerged from that scene: Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quinones, Nan Goldin, Jim Jarmusch, James Nares, Luc Sante and many others. Their thoughts, period film footage, music, images, and anecdotes of their young friend, help to visually tell the story of Jean-Michel's Lower East Side and SOHO downtown NYC pre AIDS, President Reagan, the real estate and art boom, and before anyone was motivated by money and ambition. The definition of fame, success and power were very different than today - to be a penniless but published poet was the height of success, until everything changed in the early 1980's. This is both Basquiat's and New York City's story before that change.

A full review will we posted here on BaL.

ZAMA

Directed by Lucrecia Martel 2017/ Argentina-Brazil-Spain-/France-Mexico-USA-The Netherlands-Portugal/115 minutes Series: Main Slate (U.S. Premiere)

Saturday September 30 at 6:00 PM and Monday October 2 at 6:00 PM at Alice Tully Hall

Q&As with Lucrecia Martel on 9/30 and 10/2

The great Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel ventures into the realm of historical fiction and makes the genre entirely her own in this adaptation of Antonio di Benedetto's 1956 classic Argentinean novel.

In the late 18th century, in a far-flung corner of what seems to be Paraguay, the title character, an officer of the Spanish crown (Daniel Gimnez Cacho) born in the Americas, waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. Martel renders Zama's world-his daily regimen of small humiliations and petty politicking-as both absurd and mysterious, and as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia, subject to a creeping disorientation. Precise yet dreamlike, and thick with atmosphere (a Martel trademark), Zama is an intoxicatingly welcome return from one of contemporary cinema's most brilliant minds.

CIELO

SECTION: Spotlight on Documentary Directed by Alison McAlpine 2017/Canada/Chile/78 minutes

(World Premiere)

Friday October 6 at 6:00 PM and October 7 at 2:45 PM at the Walter Reade Theater Q&As with Alison McAlpine on 10/6 and 10/7

The first feature from Alison McAlpine, director of the beautiful 2008 nonfiction ghost story short Second Sight, is a dialogue with the heavens-in this case, the heavens above the Andes and the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, where the sky is more urgent than the land. McAlpine keeps the vast galaxies above and beyond in a delicate balance with the earthbound world of people, gently alighting on the desert- and mountain-dwelling astronomers, fishermen, miners, and cowboys who live their lives with reverence and awe for the skies. Cielo itself is an act of reverence and awe, and its sense of wonder ranges from the intimate and human to the vast and inhuman.

Also check out:

WONDERSTRUCK

Directed by Todd Haynes, written by Brian Selznick with Julianne Moore, Oakes Fegley, Michelle Williams, Millicent Simmonds, Jaden Michael Saturday October 7 at 6:00p & 6:15pm (Alice Tully Hall and Walter Reade Theater)

The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.

THE FLORIDA PROJECT

Directed by Sean Baker 2017/ USA/115 minutes Sunday October 1 at 3pm, Tuesday October 3 at 6pm (Alice Tully Hall) Q&As with Sean Baker and cast on 10/1 and 10/3

A six-year-old girl (the remarkable Brooklynn Prince) and her two best friends run wild on the grounds of a week-by-week motel complex on the edge of Orlando's Disney World. Meanwhile, her mother (talented novice Bria Vinaite) desperately tries to cajole the motel manager (an ever-surprising Willem Dafoe) to turn a blind eye to the way she pays the rent. A film about but not for kids, Baker's depiction of childhood on the margins has fierce energy, tenderness, and great beauty. After the ingenuity of his iPhone-shot 2015 breakout Tangerine, Baker reasserts his commitment to 35mm film with sun-blasted images that evoke a young girl's vision of adventure and endurance beyond heartbreak.

HALL OF MIRRORS

Directed by Ines Talakic and Ena Talakic 2017/USA/87 minutes World Premiere: Monday, Oct. 2 at 6pm (Walter Reade Theater),Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 9pm (Francesca Beale Theater)

In this documentary portrait, the great nonpartisan investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein, still going strong at 81, takes us through his most notable articles and books, including close looks at the findings of the Warren Commission, the structure of the diamond industry, the strange career of Armand Hammer, and the inner workings of big-time journalism itself. These are interwoven with an in-progress investigation into the circumstances around Edward Snowden's 2013 leak of classified documents, resulting in Epstein's recently published, controversial book How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft. One of the last of his generation of journalists, the energetic, articulate, and boyish Epstein is a truly fascinating character.

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sherristockman · 7 years ago

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Class and Race Profiling in the Vaccine Culture War none By Barbara Loe Fisher The Vaccine Culture War is heating up.1 Ground zero is America, Europe and other economically developed countries, where the pharmaceutical industrial complex is raising an iron fist to protect multibillion-dollar profits by disempowering the people.2,3,4,5,6,7,8 In America, professors and doctors in academia and government are profiling parents by class and race to shame and discredit those challenging vaccine orthodoxy. Elite members of the highest paid professions in our society are using academic journals and mainstream media to openly preach fear, hate, prejudice and discrimination against people who disagree with them about vaccination. Law Professor: Mothers of Unvaccinated Children Are Criminals “When it comes to vaccines, rich parents get away with child neglect,” the headline in The Washington Post proclaimed on May 10, 2017. The OpEd was written by Linda C. Fentiman, a Pace University law professor promoting criminal prosecution of mothers whose children are not vaccinated.9 She alleged that state legislatures are accommodating “wealthy” mothers by allowing exemptions in vaccine laws, while poor pregnant women have “faced charges of criminal child abuse” and imprisonment for “failing to deliver adequate nutrition or delivering drugs via their breast milk.” She suggested that ALL mothers who don’t vaccinate their children are criminals and should be punished — “regardless of socioeconomic status” — because vaccination is a “collective obligation” and “the science on the efficacy and safety of vaccines is clear.” Boston Herald: Hang People Talking Bad About Vaccines That “punish the mothers” OpEd was preceded by a May 8 Boston Herald editorial revealing just how far the persecution of people advocating for vaccine safety and informed consent has gone. The Boston Herald editorial staff called for the execution of individuals who exercise free speech about vaccine risks and failures. As in, it should be “a hanging offense” to inform parents (especially, to inform parents in “immigrant communities”) that vaccines carry an unpredictable risk of injury or death and often fail to work as advertised.10 Nobody should be surprised. Prejudice and discrimination against groups of people, whether because of the color of their skin, their gender, how they dress, what they eat, where they live, their religious beliefs, their cultural values and political opinions — or simply because they choose to stay healthy in a different way — is always a slippery slope once it is allowed to gain a foothold in society. MD, Professor, Vaccine Developer Calls for ‘Funeral’ of Vaccine Safety and Choice Advocacy In 2011, Dr. Gregory Poland, a University of Minnesota professor of medicine and vaccine developer at Mayo Clinic,11,12 profiled parents concerned about vaccine risks in the New England Journal of Medicine. He said, “Antivaccinationists tend toward complete distrust of government and manufacturers, conspiratorial thinking, denialism, low cognitive complexity in thinking patterns, reasoning flaws and a habit of substituting anecdotes for data.” Then he used a death image to invoke a thinly veiled threat. He asked, “What can we do to hasten the funeral of antivaccination campaigns?”13 CDC on Mothers: Who Are They and Where Do They Live? Trash talk has become the weapon of choice for a select group of professors and doctors using academic journals and mainstream media to humiliate and bully people who disagree with them about the science, policy, law and ethics of vaccination. In the 21st century, it has been going on in earnest since about 2004 when Centers for Disease Control (CDC) officials kicked off the Vaccine Culture War by asking this question in the Journal of Pediatrics: “Children Who Have Received No Vaccines: Who Are They and Where Do They Live?”14 The CDC study authors played with the words “undervaccinated” and “unvaccinated” so mothers could be profiled by class and race. They said: “Undervaccinated children tend to be black, to have a younger mother who was not married and did not have a college degree, to live in a household near the poverty level, and to live in a central city. Unvaccinated children tended to be white, to have a mother who was married and had a college degree, to live in a household with an annual income exceeding $75,000 and to have parents who expressed concerns regarding the safety of vaccines and indicated that medical doctors have little influence over vaccination decisions for their children.” There it was, the uncomfortable truth that it is college educated, financially stable middle class mothers independently evaluating the benefits and risks of vaccination rather than blindly trusting and relying on someone else to do their thinking for them. Although the CDC’s 2004 profiling study drew lines between mothers based on race and socio-economic class, there was no discussion of the distinct possibility that those lines would disappear if ALL mothers were financially stable, able to access full information about vaccination, and were truly free to make voluntary vaccine decisions without being punished for the decision they make. Your skin doesn’t have to be a certain color and you don’t have to belong to a certain socioeconomic class — or have a college degree — to figure out that you are not being told the whole truth about risks that doctors insist your child must take. All you have to do is vaccinate your healthy child and witness that child have symptoms of severe vaccine reactions and either die or become a totally different child physically, mentally and emotionally. Delegitimizing Vaccine Exemptions and Those Who Take or Give Them For more than a decade, professors at Johns Hopkins and Emory universities have published articles profiling parents making independent vaccine choices for their children for the purpose of creating a public narrative that delegitimizes vaccine exemptions and the human right to exercise freedom of thought, conscience, religious belief and informed consent to vaccine risk taking.15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24 In 2012 these esteemed professors also put the squeeze on pediatricians to discourage them from exercising professional judgment and conscience when giving children medical vaccine exemptions,25,26 directing them to strictly conform to narrow vaccine contraindications approved by the CDC, which exclude 99.99 percent of children from qualifying for a medical exemption.27,28,29 Since doctors cannot predict who will be harmed by vaccination,30,31 this kind of cruel utilitarian public health policy selects an unknown number of children, who are biologically vulnerable to being harmed by vaccines, for sacrifice. When doctors with big titles in government and academia put a target on the backs of parents and doctors opposing inhumane one-size-fits-all public health policies and laws, it gives a green light for legislators to do the same thing. In 2012, California pediatrician politician Richard Pan lobbied to eliminate the personal belief vaccine exemption for children to attend school. He told The Associated Press that, "In private schools, these are people who have money, who are upper middle-class, and they are going on the internet and seeing information and misinformation.”32,33 Educated Critical Thinkers Eating Organic, Leaning Holistic In 2013, the flames of prejudice were fanned by an online publication profiling parents in a San Francisco community and labeling them “vaccine deniers.”34 The parents were described as “wealthy, educated, liberal leaning” and often working in “technology, law and other white collar professions that demand critical thinking skills,” who put their children at risk by feeding them non-GMO organic food, taking them to holistic doctors, and paying $20,000 a year to send them to private schools where self-reliance, independence and critical thinking are taught. So, by 2015, the narrative about parents being stupid and crazy for questioning the safety of vaccines had morphed into one profiling parents by class and race. The New York Times had no problem running the headline, “Rich, White and Refusing Vaccinations.”35 2015 Measles in Disneyland Unleashes Media Hate Fest Attacking Parents and Civil Liberties And when a measles outbreak popped up in 2015 at Disneyland, it didn’t matter that only 2.5 percent of California children were attending kindergarten with a personal belief vaccine exemption.36 It was an opportunity for the pharmaceutical industrial complex to create a media hate fest that turned into a competition for who could suggest the most egregious violations of civil liberties and the nastiest kinds of punishment for parents declining to give their children every one of the 69 doses of 16 vaccines on the CDC’s poorly studied childhood vaccine schedule.37,38,39 An Arizona State University magazine editor wrote, “Shouldn’t we know where they live? Every single exemption request should be reviewed in a public meeting and approved by a public body (like a city council or school board). And if the exemption is approved, basic information — the parent’s name, address and the vaccinations declined — should be available on the internet via a publicly maintained registry.”40 Professors at major universities suggested the government should impose a tax on unvaccinated people,41 suspend free speech about vaccination,42 and deny elected representatives public office and strip doctors of their medical licenses if they talk bad about vaccines.43 A science writer urged Americans to turn on each other and conduct a “concerted campaign of person-to-person shaming and shunning.”44 A USA Today OpEd stated flatly: “Parents who do not vaccinate their children should go to jail.”45 By the end of 2015, the California legislature had narrowly voted to eliminate the personal belief vaccine exemption, while denying medical care to the children of parents making vaccine choices had become standard behavior in pediatric offices across the country.46,47 Professor and Vaccine Developer: ‘Snuff Out’ Vaccine Safety and Choice Advocates In 2016, the profiling of vaccine hesitant parents based on race and class had become so politically correct in America that two Michigan pediatricians felt comfortable describing them this way: “These parents almost always come from privilege, and they are almost never punished for their actions ... they are by and large white, educated and affluent.”48 By 2017, Peter Hotez, a Baylor University professor of medicine and vaccine developer,49,50 slapped the “high educational attainment and socioeconomic status” label on parents defending vaccine freedom of choice. In Scientific American magazine, he called on the U.S. government and G-20 nations to take steps to “snuff out” the “American anti-vaccine movement.”51 To “snuff out” means to “crush or kill.”52 It is no wonder the Boston Herald editorial staff did not hesitate to suggest that the hangman’s noose was the kind of punishment that these “white, educated and affluent” parents deserved.53 Apparently, you get a free pass to engage in race and class baiting if you have M.D., Ph.D. or J.D. written after your name and or bang the drum loudly for forced vaccination, suggesting that those who refuse to believe get a taste of the whip. History does reveal that it is much easier to wage a reign of terror when the gallows and guillotine in the public square are used to teach unbelievers a lesson. Clearly, the doctors and professors demanding that we roll up our children’s sleeves to prove we are willing to take one for the team are getting nervous. They know that more than 90 percent of American parents are asking pediatricians questions about vaccine safety and want to make voluntary vaccine decisions for their children.54 Professor and Vaccine Developer: Take Away Vaccine Exemptions Wealthy vaccine developers, like pediatrician and professor of vaccinology Dr. Paul Offit,55,56,57 are lobbying to eliminate all vaccine exemptions that have not been approved by doctors, so parents are legally prohibited from exercising freedom of thought and conscience when making health care decisions for their children.58,59,60 Offit believes that children can safely receive 10,000 vaccines at once61 and has contempt for parents who do not agree with him about that. He said, “They’re people who believe they can know anything and know as much as their doctor — if not more — by simply studying it, reading about it.”62 Wealthiest Profession in America: Medical Doctors Offit is a member of the highest paid profession in America — medical doctors63,64 — and he also belongs to an elite academic community where professors of medicine at some universities are paid $3 to $4 million per year,65 which is comparable to pharmaceutical company salaries. In 2011, the annual salary for an M.D. vice president at Merck was $6 million.66 There are about 750,000 medical doctors working in the U.S. and, although currently the top five medical specialties earn an average $400,000 to half a million dollars per year, the average annual income for most doctors is between $190,000 and $240,000, which is more than six times the U.S. median income of about $36,000 and four times the U.S. household median income of $56,000.67,68,69 There are about 33,000 medical doctors working for the federal government, and they are paid an average $206,000 per year.70 Full professors at colleges and universities are paid on average between $140,000 and $220,000,71,72 but some are paid millions.73 Give No Safe Harbor to Race and Class Baiting While doctors and professors certainly have the legal right to make a lot of money, it does not give them the moral right to dictate what other people in society can value, think, believe, say or do. Their vicious attacks on people who disagree with them about health and vaccination is an attack on basic human rights that protect all people, rich and poor, and of every race in every country, against tyranny. Class and race baiting has no place in the public conversation about vaccination and there should be no safe harbor for those who engage in it. Until laws are passed limiting the authority of medical doctors using the heel of boot of the state to violate human rights, the people’s health and freedom will be in danger. Learn more about vaccination and health within NVIC.org. It’s your health. Your family. Your choice.

#VitalityPath

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wildlyhardphilosopher-blog · 6 years ago

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Dog Training 76244 | Best Online Resources

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Dog Training 76244 | Best Online Resources

3. How easy was it to find the information you were looking for? Jump up ^ Burch, Mary R; Duane Pickel (1990). “A toast to Most: Konrad Most, a 1910 pioneer in animal training”. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 23 (2): 263–4. doi:10.1901/jaba.1990.23-263. PMC 1286234 . PMID 16795731. Email : [email protected] This class lays the foundations for more advanced training by teaching your dog to focus on you. Your dog also learns to sit and drop and respond to their name. It sounds simple, but these form a strong foundation and help you understand your dog and how they learn. Accessories In 1935, the American Kennel Club began obedience trials, and in the following years popular magazines raised public awareness of the benefits of having a trained pet dog, and of the recreational possibilities of dog training as a hobby.[17] After WWII, the increasing complexities of suburban living demanded that for a pet dog’s own protection and its owner’s convenience, the dog should be obedient. William Koehler had served as principal trainer at the War Dog Training Center, in California, and after the war became chief trainer for the Orange Empire Dog Club—at the time, the largest dog club in the United States—instructor for a number of breed clubs, and a dog trainer for the Walt Disney Studios.[18] In 1962 Koehler published The Koehler Method of Dog Training, in which he is highly critical of what he calls “tid-bit training techniques” based in “the prattle of ‘dog psychologists'”.[17] Amongst the training innovations attributed to Koehler is the use of a long line in conjunction with a complete absence of oral communication as a way of instilling attentiveness prior to any leash training. Koehler insisted that participants in his training classes used “emphatic corrections”, including leash jerks and throw chains, explaining that tentative, nagging corrections were cruel in that they caused emotional disturbance to the dog.[19] Vicki Hearne, a disciple of Koehler’s, commented on the widespread criticism of his corrections, with the explanation that it was the emotionally loaded language used in the book that led to a number of court cases, and to the book being banned in Arizona for a time.[20] Despite the controversy, his basic method forms the core of many contemporary training systems.[21] Animal, species, breed, name Filter Media Mary Parker Working Dogs Owning a Pet Press Releases Choke collar (slip collar or check collar) Cost: $110.00 A career in veterinary nursing Main Menu Contact details for Council · 4 February 2018 Dog health Perches On leash areas KID 5: If they get scared or in a frightful situation or if they’re overwhelmed, you work with those areas particularly around their ears. You can also work their little paws as well, that seems to calm them down. Arrive 10 minutes before class Defining Your Own Path as a Trainer w/ Kacie Gauld Entertainment Books – – – – – Support Courses – – – – – A Perfect Spot Dog Training The Guard Dog Training Centre welcomes National and International group bookings, buses welcome. Click to view the recent Japanese Visitors Photo Gallery. Pre-requisites When I read the reviews about often only taking one session, I was a bit skeptical…. Pet Park at Chestnut Reserve Golden Grove Eeshika : Products AAR Great Deals & Payment options Add a listing We are available in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Sunshine Coast, Canberra, Melbourne, Cairns and Adelaide, and offer after-hours and weekend sessions at no extra charge. This way you can involve your whole family at a time that suits you. Located on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, the Guard Dog Training Centre has been established for over 30 years. The Guard Dog Training Centre has an international reputation for excellence in training dogs. Jump up ^ Pryor 1984, p. ix. 25 Sep 2017 3:32:27am Step 1. Helping at a shelter Dog Age Calculator Related changes Tracking Training Group classes are a great way to teach your dog manners, basic obedience and how to respond to commands. They give you an opportunity to learn how to handle your dog in an environment that you need the most control, around other people and other dogs. Classes are offered at several locations throughout the Brisbane area. 28 Aug 2017 9:33:03am Agriculture Well trained dogs go more places, more often. Our dogs live in a rich and diverse society, and need to be able to cope with changes easily. Dogs Victoria Fundraising Reserves with playgrounds 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Goodog Positive reinforcement dog and puppy training Toggle navigation The use of punishment in dog training is an ongoing debate among a … Like us on Facebook We liked this BTN story because the people were kind enough to train the puppies help the blind and deaf people. How can you teach a puppy to signal that it needs to go out to eliminate? ©2015 City of Tea Tree Gully Ownership Dog Training home It is not compulsory to attend Orientation prior to Puppy Preschool or Undergrad Puppy classes but highly recommended. Positions vacant a written or oral examination on the theory of dog training Lee Cornelius 07 Sep 2017 9:49:30am Become a member Rally’O Training Worm Treatments Note: RSPCA South Australia does not officially endorse this list. Small Dogs Live Large! Lizard Purely positive or motivational training employs the use of rewards to reinforce good behavior, and ignores all bad behavior.[58] It is based in Thorndike’s Law of Effect, which says that actions that produce rewards tend to increase in frequency and actions that do not produce rewards decrease in frequency.[59] GameChanger® We can provide you with your own personal private consult. I would just like to say that I was not looking forward to completing this but found that Blue Dog Training made it almost enjoyable – well done to you, your website was easy to use, understand and informative – I shall be recommending your company in the future. – Karen Cera At 2-3 months of age, a puppy does not have reliable control of their bladder. You can begin housebreaking them from the moment you bring them home but practising patience will make this transition easier. Use positive reinforcement when your puppy shows successful signs of housebreaking and consistently return them to the appropriate place when they make a mistake. Establishing the right patterns means your puppy will be housebroken as soon as they master the control of their bladder. Locations Tidy Cats Become a puppy class instructor. Heartworms and Worms Email: [email protected] Big or Small Friendly towards people Rabbit & Guinea Pig Food Last night was the first night that Bear hasn’t demanded us to play and wrestle and was happy to lay quietly on his bed while we were relaxing. Pet Boarding Feedback On Our Courses Dog Training Cairns Certificate III In Engineering – Maintenance – Fitting and/or Turning Schools and community Issues Soi Dog Foundation Stage 4 Pathology Services Olivia :

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fbq('track', 'ViewContent', content_ids: 'dogtraining.dknol', ); Puppy Training Programs Pets in emergencies RSPCA NSW Our classes are tailored to meet the individual needs of you and your dog. After assessing your dog/s we will recommend one of the following: After 2 visits, a total of 3 hours, merlin is more confident and relaxed. Not only did George teach Merlin that he can trust us to be in control of situations he finds stressful, he more importantly taught us how to handle Merlin and showed us strategy’s we can continue to use under any situation! If you have ticked one or more box one of our 7 week training programs could change your relationship with your dog for the better. Jump up ^ Burch 1999, p. 4. We believe puppy school training doesn’t give you adequate knowledge or to teach your dog how to behave at home, learn boundaries or build self-control, respect and trust. Let’s not forget, puppies learn how to be calm and well-mannered from older dogs or their guardians (you), not other puppies. Dog Training Locations Bark Busters – Speaking Dog the Bark Busters Way Dogs SA Why is our Behavioural Training the best choice for you? [email protected] Canine behavioural science has come a long way in the last two decades, and that includes research on the connection between early puppy socialisation and adult dog behaviour. We know beyond doubt that early socialisation – exposing young puppies to positive experiences in the world they’ll live in – is the most effective thing pet parents can do to enjoy a relaxed, social dog they can be proud to take anywhere. Doggy Bootcamp – Dog Boarding School Keep your dogs safe at Territory Day! About us Latest News More in Puppy Marlo, Shelby (1999). New Art of Dog Training, Chicago: Contemporary Books, ISBN 0-8092-3170-0 Greeting guests calmly Search Find Out More Dogs off leash areas(PDF,49KB) Buy Fractions Decimals Percentages Our Affiliates Jump up ^ Monks of New Skete 1978, p. 3. Mutts with Manners: Basic Dog Training Course Water Bottles Training and behavioural problems Rabbit & Guinea Pig Food Ranga Wheatbix Bathing Powered By T3 Framework Dog Socialisation | More Information Here Dog Socialisation | More Info Available Here Dog Socialisation | More Information Available Here Legal | Sitemap

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clubofinfo · 7 years ago

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Expert: There has been much disingenuous criticism of those, like me, who question why the western corporate media have studiously ignored the latest investigation by renowned journalist Seymour Hersh on Syria. Hersh had to publish his piece in a German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag, after the entire US and UK media rejected his article. There has still been no mention of his investigation more than a week later. Those who support, either explicitly or implicitly, the meddling in Syria’s affairs by hostile foreign powers are, of course, delighted that Hersh’s revelations are being kept out of the spotlight. They don’t want every side heard, only their side. And those of us who expect all the evidence to be aired, so we aren’t corralled into yet another disastrous “intervention” in the Middle East, are being mischievously denounced as Assad loyalists. A good example of this kind of wilful misrepresentation is by Brian Whitaker, the Guardian’s former Middle East editor. In a recent blog post, he has accused me and Media Lens, among others, of being “loyal supporters of Hersh” – and by insinuation, of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad – of being “sarin denialists”, and of demonstrating blatant hypocrisy in approving Hersh’s use of anonymous sources when we oppose reliance on such sources by other journalists. Before I address these criticisms, let’s briefly recap on what Hersh’s investigation found. His sources in the US intelligence establishment have countered an official narrative – spread by western governments and the corporate media – that assumes Assad was behind a chemical weapons attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun on April 4. Hersh’s account suggests that Syria used a conventional bomb to hit a jihadist meeting in the town, triggering secondary explosions in a storage depot containing pesticides, fertilisers and chlorine-based decontaminants. A toxic cloud was created that caused symptoms similar to sarin for those nearby. Trump was so convinced that Assad had used sarin in Khan Sheikhoun that he violated international law and fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase as punishment, even though, according to Hersh, his own intelligence community disputed that this is what had happened. Given that Vladimir Putin is closely allied with Assad, the move had the potential to drag Russia into a dangerous confrontation with the US. So let me address Whitaker’s allegations. 1. Neither I nor Media Lens are “loyal supporters” of Hersh – or Assad. Whitaker is projecting. He has chosen a side in Syria – that of what he simplistically terms the “rebels”, now dominated by Al-Qaeda affiliates and ISIS, backed by an unholy alliance of Saudi Arabia, the US, Europe, Israel and Turkey. But not everyone who opposes the Islamic extremists, or Whitaker’s group of western interventionists, has therefore chosen Assad’s side. One can choose the side of international law and respect for the sovereignty of nation-states, and object to states fomenting proxy wars to destabilise and destroy other regimes. More than that, one can choose to maintain a critical distance and, based on experience, remain extremely wary of official and self-serving narratives promoted by the world’s most powerful states. Some of us think there are lessons to be learnt from the lies we were told about WMD in Iraq, or a supposedly imminent massacre by Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi in Benghazi. These examples of deception should be remembered when we try to assess how probable is the story that Assad wanted to invite yet more destructive interference in his country from foreign powers by gassing his own people – and to no obvious strategic or military advantage. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three times, I should just admit I am a gullible fool. I and Media Lens (if I may presume to speak on their behalf as a longtime follower) are not arguing that Hersh’s account must be right. Just that it deserves attention, and that it should be part of the media/public discourse. What concerns us is the inadmissibility of relevant information to the public realm, and concerted efforts to stifle debate. Manufactured groupthink, it has been repeatedly shown, works to the benefit of the powerful, those promoting the destructive interests of a now-global military-industrial complex. Whitaker and the interventionists want only the official narrative allowed, the one that serves their murky political agenda; we want countervailing voices heard too. That doesn’t make us anyone’s loyalists. It makes us loyal only to the search for transparency and truth. 2. Whitaker suggests that I and Media Lens have ascribed the failure by the corporate media to report on Hersh’s investigation to a “conspiracy”. He argues instead that Hersh has been ignored because “editors found [his recent Syria] articles flaky”. Neither I nor Media Lens, of course, are claiming the corporate media’s decision is a conspiracy. Like most mainstream journalists, Whitaker shows how ignorant he is of the most famous critique of his own profession: Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman’s Propaganda Model. That posits not a conspiracy of journalists but structural factors that make a corporate-owned media, one dependent on corporate advertising, incapable of allowing any meaningful pluralism of the kind that might threaten its own core interests. That is no more to state a conspiracy than it would be to argue that corporations are driven by profit. It is simply to recognise the nature of the beast. Aside from that, Whitaker treats Hersh as though he is a one-off, a lone, non-credible voice with a hidden pro-Assad agenda, using anonymous sources in the US intelligence world, presumably with the same hidden agenda. Those like me who want Hersh’s account visible are dismissed as “sarin denialists”, partisans so blinded by our secret love of Assad that we refuse to admit the evidence staring us in the face. But Whitaker is mischaracterising the evidence. The doubts raised by Hersh’s investigation have been shared by former senior intelligence and security officials, such as Lawrence Wilkerson, Philip Giraldi and Ray McGovern, as well as journalists with extensive contacts in the intelligence field, such Robert Parry and Gareth Porter. Concerns with the official narrative have also been raised by undoubted experts on ballistic and chemical weapons issues, such as Ted Postol and Scott Ritter. They doubt a sarin attack by Assad’s forces took place, based on technical matters they are well-placed to judge. Remember it was Ritter, a weapons inspector in Iraq, who warned that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs as the US and UK were making precisely the opposite, mendacious case for war. Ritter’s voice was excluded from the corporate media in 2002-03, precisely when it might have pulled the rug from under those in the political and media establishments cheering on the disastrous US-UK invasion of Iraq. Whitaker and the interventionists argue, apparently with a straight face, that this time the corporate media are silencing Hersh only because of a supposed “flakiness” in his journalism. So how do they explain the fact that in 2002-03 the same media silenced experts like Ritter and Hans Blix, former head of the UN agency monitoring Iraq’s weapons programme, while aggressively promoting entirely flaky individuals like the supposed Iraqi “opposition leader” Ahmed Chalabi? If the media considered Ritter and Blix, but not Chalabi, as flaky in the run-up to the illegal Iraq invasion, maybe it’s time for Whitaker and editors like him to reassess the meaning of “flaky”. 3. Finally, what of the claim that it is hypocritical to allow Hersh his anonymous sources when we disapprove of them in other cases? First, the issue of using anonymous sources does not need to be judged according to our own standards, but rather those of the corporate media. Mainstream editors have repeatedly proved they have absolutely no problem using anonymous sources when they support the official narrative, one that promotes war. Liberal papers like the New York Times are filled most days with stories from unnamed officials, telling us what we are supposed to believe. The fake “revelations” of Saddam’s WMD were largely sourced from anonymous officials over many months. Whitaker himself worked as an editor at the Guardian when it was running similarly unverifiable stories from anonymous sources. So our complaints about Hersh’s treatment are based, in part, on the glaring hypocrisy of journalists like Whitaker. Why are anonymous sources fine when they confirm the narrative of the security state, but problematic – “flaky” – when they challenge it? Whitaker doesn’t have a problem with Hersh using anonymous sources, any more than does the Guardian, New York Times, New Yorker, or London Review of Books. They have a problem with Hersh using anonymous sources when those sources say things that are not supposed to be said. And second, there is a world of difference between using anonymous sources to reveal things the powerful do not want stated, and using anonymous sources to say exactly what the security state wants to be said but does not want to be held accountable for. Whistleblowers and those who challenge the powerful often need protection in the form of anonymity from the likely retaliation of state actors. Anonymity is never ideal, but sometimes it is necessary. And when necessary, as in the case of whistleblowers, safeguards should be put in place. They appear to have been in the case of the Hersh investigation. Fact-checkers like Scott Ritter were used to ensure the story was technically plausible, and Welt editors say they were given the identities of Hersh’s sources. The intelligence officials who spoke to Hersh may be unknown to the reader, but they are apparently known to the editors overseeing the story’s publication. Contrast that to the anonymous government, military and intelligence officials who regularly brief journalists anonymously, often to spread what turns out to be misinformation. There is no reason why any official needs to be unnamed when they are acting as spokesperson for their government. The only protection such anonymity offers is protection from accountability. Finally, it is worth noting that Syria has become a hugely divisive issue on the left, as Libya did before it. It has made the left all but powerless to advance any kind of critique of western imperialism and its current round of violent interference in the Middle East. The spirit that spurred the global marches in 2003 against the attack on Iraq has dissipated. The left’s confusion allowed Libya to be torn to shreds on the pretext of a non-existent threat to Benghazi. And now Syria is being wrecked by proxy wars in which the west is a central, if largely veiled, actor. None of this is accidental. The US has long had a plan to destabilise and break apart the Middle East – sometimes referred to by officials as “remaking” it – to better control the region’s resources. And hand in glove with this plan are efforts to destabilise and break apart those who should be dissenting from the latest bouts of western imperialism. http://clubof.info/

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