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brigdh · 7 years ago

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Reading Wednesday

Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns. Adda and Iridian are two engineers newly out of university and in love; Adda specializes in Artificial Intelligences while Iridian is an army vet who does mechanical engineering. Unfortunately in the capitalist dystopia of the future, they're both saddled with enormous student debt and see their only future as signing draconian job contracts that will force them to live on separate planets. So instead they decide to join the galaxy's foremost pirate crew! :D However, when they reach Barbary Station – the nickname of the abandoned space station the ungendered pirate Captain Sloane has taken over – they find out that matters are more complicated than they appear. Namely, the station is controlled by a murderous AI security program determined to kill all "invaders" (ie, the pirates), and there's no way for anyone to escape or for help from the outside to arrive. The pirates, in fact, have been stuck there for the last two years (long enough for a few kids to have been born) and have deliberately lured Adda there without warning in the hopes that she knows enough about AIs to provide a solution. If she can do so, she and Iridian might just escape with their lives and be given the chance to join the pirate crew. Complicating matters is the fact that most of the pirates fought on the opposite side of the recent war than Iridian did, and some of them might just hold enough of a grudge to secretly kill one or both of our main characters. So that's the plot. As for my opinion on it.... Argh, I have such mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand: lesbian space pirates of color! INCREDIBLE! And there are some genuinely fantastic bits of worldbuilding. One of my favorites was the notion that people living on a space station don't use terms like north and south or starboard and port, but rather lockside (ie, towards the airlock, towards the outside) and homeward (the opposite, deeper into the station). I loved that everyone in the pirate crew had to justify how much atmo (a slang term combining oxygen, pressure, heat, gravity, and all the other stuff it takes to keep a human alive in space) they used; anyone who cost more than they brought in was likely to get booted. "The cold and the black" is a common substitute for saying "space", which is deliciously eerie. On the other hand... there are a lot of problems. The worldbuilding is incredibly complicated and prone to being conveyed in confusing infodumps. As a random example: "The forty ticks shuttle to and from the hub has never been hit before.” Signs in the docking bay below the base put the pirates twenty-three ticks from the docking bay which served as station north at 100/0. That was the point where the increments that divided the station into one hundred virtual cross-level slices started over at one. The shuttle was closer to forty-six ticks, over a third docking bay, if the symmetric modular layout continued all the way around the station. Ring station points of reference were much easier to follow with a mobile map. A more helpful station AI would’ve been nice too. “The shuttle’s a blind spot,” said Si Po. WHAT. I cannot turn that into an image in my head despite reading it four times now. Indeed, after finishing the whole book, I still have no idea of the details of the often-referenced past war or any coherent sense of what the station or the pirate's hull base looks like; there are all sorts of plot twists hinging on the difference between a regular AI, a zombie AI, and an awakened AI, whatever the hell those are. This bewilderment is not helped by the fact that the book seems to have needed one more editing pass; occasional dropped words or repeated words make things even more confusing. (And I bought a physical copy, so it's not just an ebook's miscoding!) For example: Her armor’s O2 reservoir had enough empty space for the portable tank’s remaining contents. When she connected the O2 tank to her suit, her HUD reported that the suit reservoir had enough empty space for the portable tank’s remaining contents. To be fair, this example is by far the worst in the book. I didn't notice a whole sentence repeated anywhere else. Adda and Iridian are an established relationship at the beginning of the book, which should be fine – I'm actually a huge fan of established relationships and wish they were more common in fiction! Their romance is extremely healthy and conflict-free. That's nice and all, but it unfortunately doesn't make for intriguing reading. Nothing changes between them over the course of the whole book because there's nothing to improve on from what's already there. The closest thing to a plot in their relationship is that Iridian wants to propose to Adda, but can't find a good moment to do so. That is not exactly page-turning suspense. You can totally write healthy, established relationships that have exciting plots, but Adda and Iridian have no tension, no worry, no angst, no drama, no longing, no victory between them – nothing to make me care about them as characters or as a couple. In addition, the explanation behind Adda and Iridian's decision to become space pirates never convinced me. I mean, student loan debt sucks, but we've got plenty of it in the US today and roving bands of pirates have not yet appeared. As Iridian puts it at one point, They’d sacrificed all the money they had, their clean criminal records, their academic connections, hell, maybe even their Near Earth Union citizenship, for this. Not to mention risking their lives. I need to believe they would give all that up, and they're just not given enough of a reason. They also seem weirdly disconnected from the reality of being pirates; they both reiterate at multiple points that they don't believe in murder, and Adda even gets upset at seeing a minor character beaten up. I can enjoy the Disneyfied version of piracy myself, but it's a moral dissonance that's hard to sustain for an entire adult novel that's taking itself seriously. What does piracy even mean to Adda and Iridian if it apparently involves nothing immoral? So, in conclusion... I have no idea. There are amazing parts to Barbary Station, there are dumb parts, there are ill-thought out parts. Do I recommend it? Eh, who knows. Overall I'm glad I read it rather than skipping it, but it could have been a great deal better than it is. The Birds at My Table: Why We Feed Wild Birds and Why It Matters by Darryl Jones. A nonfiction book about the science and research behind those little feeders many of us hang up in our backyards or apartment fire escapes. From the cover and blurb, I'd expected a light, breezy read, but The Birds at My Table is instead a quite academic review of the various studies that have analyzed how and why humans feed birds, the effect of all this free seed on the birds themselves, and the history of bird-feeding as an organized hobby and (these days) enormous commercial industry. Sometimes academic to the book's detriment, to be honest; I was looking forward to funny anecdotes more than I was to analyses of the calcium/phosphorus ratios in seed mixes or the effect of adding Vitamin E to fat-heavy supplementary foods. Still, there's lot of interesting factoids to be found here. Did you know that bird-feeding is hugely controversial in Australia, with many wildlife organizations recommending against it? Or that many Australians who feed their backyard birds anyway do so with meat instead of seed? I was also fascinated to learn that one potential cause of the passenger pigeon's extinction may have been trichomoniasis, a disease commonly carried by the non-native pigeon of city streets, and which may have been passed across species by their coming into close contact at feeders. Overall a good book if you're interested in the topic of feeding birds, but only if you're prepared for a rigorous dive into the current scientific research. I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.

[DW link for easier commenting]

#books #book reviews #r. e. stearns #barbary station #darryl jones

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ameliorator · 5 years ago

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May Covid-19 be one of the greatest PSYOP ever? Some reflections on what is happening in Italy. [rough draft]

Disclaimer:

This article is just rought draft, so by definition it is incomplete.

I was initially asked by some foreign friends about what is happening in Italy: therefore, I decided to put some information in the same space, rather than having bits and pieces scattered all over the place.

This is not an academic paper, it is more like an open letter.

Its main goal is to push the reader to ask questions, questions, questions: nobody should presume to be a carrier of truth, but we all need to act humbly and cooperatively now.

You will notice that some concepts are repeated throughout the short text like a mantra: this is a deliberate devise, as those concepts are the most striking evidence supporting the analysis.

With this in mind, all the sections need additional depth and references to give breadth and strength to the research: needless to remark, any contribution from all of you is more than welcome.

If someone who reads this text by chance wants to wear the sordid mask of the debunker in order to attack me as a conspiracy theorist, he/she needs to note that all the sources (with a couple of exceptions) are either official pubblications, press releases, entries on Wikipedia or articles from the mainstream media.

Avoiding “antagonist” authors or websites is a precise choice to make crystal clear that all the information you need is in plain sight on your average news sources, and to avoid wasting time in useless diatribes.

The driving force behind the following text is just common sense, paired with an attitude which can be easily defined with the words of the controversial Timothy Leary: «To think for yourself you must question authority».

Please do the same all the time, all of you.

Thank you!

1. An introduction (or the core of this brief article?)

While we are several weeks into this unprecedented situation, there are too many elements that don’t make sense in the official narrative: a further analysis driven by mere common sense and rationality is needed.

Let’s use a holistic approach while dealing with what everyone who still keeps some lucidity in these dire times would eventually come to understand as an unprecedented act of psychological warfare, that may lead to unwanted (at least by a minority of people who still has a tendency to think independently) changes and transformations, which we are supposed to clarify and debate with attention before it is too late.

Therefore, let’s try for a few minutes to get far away from the media-fuelled compulsively obsessed state of mind which keeps all of us focused only on the origins of the virus ("Is it a natural occurrence? Is it the outcome of a chemical warfare attack coming from the U.S.A or China? ___add here your favorite version___?”) and its supposedly extreme deadliness.

The starting point for this thesis is that any situation of “emergency” or “crisis” is the perfect precondition to arbitrarily change the rules of the game.

We will clearly see how marginal in the equation is the virus itself, with its very low case fatality rate and mortality rate.

As of now, we will only focus on what is happening in Italy. Let’s go straight to the point: the draconian measures adopted are absolutely disproportionate, when compared to the seriousness of the current risk. Besides that, they are unconstitutional.

In fact, the series of “DPCM - Decreti del Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri (prime minister’s decrees)” are mere administrative acts which, upon the pretext of the emergency caused by the virus, violate at least the articles 16, 25 and 77 of the Italian constitution.

Unfortunately this is becoming even more sinister, as the government added to the aforementioned “prime minister’s decree” some so-called “decreti-legge” (decrees-law). Therefore, while the violation of article 77 of the Italian constitution is no longer the case, the scenario looks even worse. Let’s read a quickly translated excerpt of the Wikipedia article about the topic (which is in Italian only, of course):

« In the Italian legal system a decree-law (plural decrees-law and abbreviated in dl), also written decree law, is a provisional regulatory act having force of law, adopted in extraordinary cases of necessity and urgency by the Government, pursuant to art. 77 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic. It comes into force immediately after publication in the Official Gazette of the Italian Republic, but the effects produced are temporary, because the decrees-laws lose their effectiveness if Parliament does not convert them into law within 60 days of their publication».

The risk is that these totalitarian measures which Italians are experiencing at the moment, first introduced with an administrative act (the “prime minister’s decree”, emergency-based and basically worthless), then strengthened with another temporary measure (the “decree-law”, valid only for 60 days), might be finally converted into ordinary laws.

This might mean that some important aspects of the way Italians live their lives might be modified for good: beware, not according to the standardized procedures of the legislative process, but through the aforementioned stratagem (through the “backdoor”, so to say).

If you want to have a look at the series of DPCMs and Dls related to the Covid-19, please check the “Gazzetta Ufficiale”.

You would justify this scenario and the lockdown of an entire country in case of a plague, a major war or some alien attack: on the other hand, the culprit is a virus which up to now killed around 3,300 people in China, a country which counts around 1,435,000,000 inhabitants according to the 2017 Census (0.000002 per cent of the population. Yes, you read it right: there are 5 zeros after the comma).

Now, you can tell me that the law enforcement in China is what you expect from an authoritarian state and that the measures which were adopted in order to achieve the so-called “containment” of the contagion are even stricter than in Italy, with drones, robots, face recognition, tracking of the population via phone apps and all sort of available technology for surveillance and control.

An Orwellian nightmare, you would say, but again: for the risk posed by a virus which eventually would bring a few thousand deaths out of more than 1 and half a billion people?

This is nonsensical, and there is a growing number of scientists who is at least puzzled by the panic generated by this novel coronavirus.

If you want to watch a somehow “watered-down” (because it was not shot in Wuhan, the epicenter of the first contagion) version of what is described above, please have a look at this Japanese short documentary on the major Chinese city of Nanjing (taken from an Italian news website, but luckily the video is in the original language with English subtitles).

Moreover, it is now common knowledge that there are potentially millions of asymptomatic carriers, while millions more both in China and outside could have been affected by the virus at least between October 2019 (don’t forget that the virus has “19” for 2019 in its name, not “20” for 2020) and the beginning of January 2020, totally unaware of it.

So what’s the problem now? The ruling elites tell us through their spokespersons in the government (starting from the prime minister) that we have to prevent the contagion from spreading because the Italian healthcare system is collapsing. Why is that? Is it because of this specific disease? Clearly not.

Is it because of more than 3 decades of widespread adoption of the western neoliberal dogma which led to privatizations, shrinking and closure of hospitals, extreme cost-cutting and reduction of personnel? Well, yes.

If you are familiar with the Italian language or you are keen to use a translator, please have a look at this report. To have an additional reference on the effects of such phenomenon in a different country, you can read a much shorter newspaper article here.

After this pretty long introduction, let’s have a quick look at some aspects of this situation.

2. “Simulations”

In recent years, the ruling elites that shape the dominant narrative are telling us that it is necessary to be ready for a pandemic: besides the constant recommendations (which inspire in me more than a suspicion, but that’s only my humble reaction), they indulge in exercises and simulations to assess the potential readiness of governments and international organizations in dealing with such a scenario.

Recently, a lot of talking surrounded the simulation dubbed “Event 201”, organized by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in September 2019: beyond all the so-called conspiracy theories, at least some doubts arise about the timing and the chosen theme.

While their previous major simulation on the preparation to react to a pandemic as a result of a natural occurrence or bacteriological war is from 2005 (2-3 years AFTER the emergence of SARS, which – for those who still remember the propaganda machine at the time- was advertised as potentially leading to millions of deaths, but eventually resulted in a few thousands), this last simulation was carried out and published only a couple of months BEFORE the spread of Covid-19.

Macroscopic coincidences like this cannot be dismissed light-heartedly, especially when even kids nowadays know that one of the richest individuals in the world is actively both predicting scenarios AND prescribing solutions against pandemics.

Keeping on using some old-fashioned common sense and rationality as our only guides, we might ask ourselves: are these the acts of a good-hearted “philanthropist” or the very interested maneuvers of someone who is having a huge conflict of interest, being involved in vaccines development and SURVEILLANCE for decades with his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? Going back to the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (and, by the way, am I the only one who reads on their website “Johns Hopkins - Bloomberg School of Public Health”? We are talking about one of the richest individuals in the world – well, yet ANOTHER one1), you can compare the 2005 simulation (“Atlantic Storm”) with the 2019 simulation (the already mentioned “Event 201”).

A video recap of the latter is here.

Isn’t that strange that they constantly refer to the possibility of a deliberate release of a virus generating a pandemic? Pretty strange, isn’t it?

Please ask questions and make your own considerations, I am not adding anything else on this subject for now.

3. Some extremely quick historical references to similar pandemics

The main point here is to give some background to the repressive measures adopted while dealing with the current pandemic and hypothesize the potential scenarios2 in which all or some of them are maintained in the phase following the “containment” (see above for the stratagem used in Italy, which might lead to major changes in the Italian legislation by means of using the backdoor: this is completely anti-democratic).

In this regard, a crucial consideration is the following: the 1918 pandemic (the "Spanish flu3") caused between 17,000,000 and 50,000,000 deaths (other sources speak of 100,000,000), while so far we can use data from China (which is in an advanced phase of the "containment", even if it is not yet "out of danger") for an incomplete comparison with this Covid-19: in the Asian country, we are dealing with around 3,300 deaths out of around 1,435,000,000 Chinese citizens registered in the 2017 census (0.000002 % of the population). You will read these stats on the deaths caused by the novel coronavirus in China over and over again: this is done on purpose, as a red alert for our brains.

With this simple consideration in mind, we can easily realize that we are already going too far with this unprecedented experiment of transformation and individual and social re-programming, under the pretext of the virus.

A little glimpse on the last two decades: had not the SARS, the MERS and the 2009’s iteration of H1N1 been described as pandemics “with potentially millions of deceases” when they magically appeared?

In this regard, let’s use again Wikipedia and read about the 2009’s iteration of H1N1 (the so-called “swine flu”), which had both the highest case fatality rate and mortality rate among the aforementioned pandemics: “Meanwhile, some studies estimated that 11 to 21 per cent of the global population at the time – or around 700 million to 1.4 billion people (out of a total of 6.8 billion) – contracted the illness. This was more than the number of people infected by the Spanish flu pandemic,[6][11] but only resulted in about 150,000 to 575,000 fatalities for the 2009 pandemic.[12] A follow-up study done in September 2010 showed that the risk of serious illness resulting from the 2009 H1N1 flu was no higher than that of the yearly seasonal flu.[13] For comparison, the WHO estimates that 250,000 to 500,000 people die of seasonal flu annually.[8] ”

This seems pretty crystalline, right?

4. “... but hospitals are collapsing!”

The concept of “herd immunity” heralded in the UK hypothesized a scenario of millions of serious cases, so this seems to be yet another act of propaganda aimed at instilling fear and panic (please stay focused on what I keep on repeating about China: until now, a mere 0.00002% of the population died. How can everybody ignore that huge elephant in the room?), but in Italy they decided to do quite the opposite: they bring everyone who is showing symptoms (albeit especially acute) to intensive care units, so that the already underfunded and understaffed hospitals collapse.

This is the worst part of playing with people’s lives and emotions: do you think it is a standard procedure to admit everyone who has been infected by the seasonal influenza (albeit severely) to an intensive care unit? The answer is no, due to the limited availability of beds and equipment (which is shrinking for decades, as you can clearly understand with the help of the report mentioned in the introduction).

In the worst case scenario, the infected die in their houses, maybe without even being counted in the statistics of people dying for the seasonal influenza on a yearly basis (and the World Health Organization - not your local conspiracy theorist - estimates that 250,000 to 500,000 people die of seasonal flu annually, as seen above).

Those poor souls might be put into the accounts of other diseases they already have (comorbidities) or simply be accounted as victims of the inescapable process of aging: there is no clear standard on which “box” to use when the calculation of the deceased is performed.

With this in mind, when you create such a panic and you let everyone who is diagnosed with the Covid-19 be admitted to intensive care, what do you think you will get? A total CHAOS.

Besides, did anybody ask the relevant authorities what are the risks and collateral effects of testing drugs for Ebola or malaria on patients affected with Covid-19?

I would be extremely curious to have a full report on the effects on people who are already sick and/or old, besides merely knowing what are the ongoing experiments.

But, of course, they are feeding all of us with the dramatic story about the pain and suffering of Italian people and the collapsing healthcare system in Italy, without providing even the slightest motivation for this state of things.

Beware, I am not saying that the healthcare system is not actually collapsing: I am just inferring that this might be INDUCED.

Why would you otherwise justify the fact that our “heroic government” did not proceed with a requisition of all the private clinics/hospitals in the country from DAY ONE of the emergency?

Weren’t we all supposed to make sacrifices for the common good, for the sick and the elderly, for our overwhelmed medical personnel?

Well, apparently “some animals are more equal than others”.

Now they are talking about this topic of requisitioning and some regions got ready or are getting ready for such a “bothering” task: why so late? Why don’t we ask such a question?

As we will see in a very clear way in a moment, the average age of people accounted for having died since the outbreak and up to now in Italy is around 80 years. Besides, all the cases of deaths under the age of 60 are related to one or more comorbidities (when it comes to the statistics, let’s state once more that it seems that there is no clear agreement among at least the bulk of the major European countries when differentiating between deaths with Covid-19 and deaths due to Covid-19, i.e. HEALTHY people who died because they were infected with the virus).

For this reason, at the moment we can only rely on the analysis of the most precise data available to us: a good example of how crucial is a higher level of detail could be the study on the case fatality rate and characteristics of the deceased performed by the Italian Istituto Superiore di Sanità4, which you can download and read here. Regular updates can be found here.

What is really striking in this study is the plain fact that only 6 out of 481 deaths in that sample had no comorbidity (1.2%). This means that 98.8% of the deceased were having from 1 to 3 comorbidities (pre-existing health conditions). The mean age was 78.5.

In other words, those people were old and/or sick (suffering from 1 to 3 diseases), meaning at high risk of dying for whatever infection/additional disease pairing with their pre-existing health conditions. This is a clear and undeniable statement, which leaves little room to the provoked scare of “millions of deaths”. Talking about millions, do we really understand how many millions of people could have already been infected with the virus (and come out of it) in the months before the so-called "emergency"? They might have confused it with bronchitis, pneumonia, a severe form of seasonal influenza or simply not have noticed it because it presented itself in an asymptomatic form.

Even the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S.A. indirectly admitted that the virus was already around for quite a long time (at least from the period of the last seasonal influenza, which is what matters now) and they might have miscategorized it: this, in turn, led to accusations from the Chinese government to the U.S.A. (but that’s another story and we won’t deal with it at the moment).

5. 60 million people under house arrest

What is the outcome of such an orchestrated mass psychosis? There are 60 million Italians who currently slaughter each other (on social networks and from the safety of their houses, of course) to defend their theses on the origin of the virus, offending each other for being either a conspiracy theorist or a dumb brainless individual, basically erasing each other’s position in a useless chatter (while wasting useful time and energies which should be devoted to figure out how to stop this).

Everyone is under house arrest, of course (because going out to buy groceries and medicines is NOT freedom of movement): in the meantime, the unconstitutional measures go from a restriction to another, inspiring (or not really?) other countries to do the same.

Theoretically we could (well, ahem, practically we are forced to) accept, obviously for a limited period of time, the prohibitions of gathering and meeting in "public" places, but forbidding a solitary walk in the countryside is unjustified, illogical and intolerable.

All of this is forced upon us due to the state of emergency that is based on provoked fear, which clashes with the basic common sense and especially with the already mentioned data from the Istituto Superiore di Sanità: if the statistics follow the same trend (and there is currently no indication that this will change), in more than 95% of the cases, the elderly and sick (with 1 to 3 comorbidities) die, with absolutely negligible figures when it comes to the total numbers of dead people against the overall population (once more, let’s keep on repeating it as a mantra, 0.000002% of the population in China died), especially if compared to the absolutely many more deaths per year due to war, famine, other diseases and all sort of accidents.

Once more, do those people die

DUE TO Covid-19

WITH Covid-19 AND 1 to 3 comorbidities?

Simple question: are those statistics reliable?

Once more, there are millions of asymptomatic carriers and millions more who might have contracted the disease before the WHO and the other big actors in what seems a big theatre-play gave it a name (as an experiment to prove what I am suggesting here, please ask your loved ones and friends or colleagues who felt sick between November 2019 and January 2020) and used it as a pick to change the "rules of the game". For these reasons, I keep repeating to observe and analyse the whole picture with a holistic approach, but leaving for a moment the origin and supposed deadliness of the virus out of the equation.

I call it psychological warfare because by means of this constant brainwashing the ruling elite keeps us in a cage and verbally fighting one against the other, under the pretext of the virus (which reproduces the classic them/us, bad/good, right/left dichotomies, in this case natural event/bacteriological weapon or, if you are in geopolitics, NATO/SCO), while the puppeteers use their puppets that are “in charge” for governing us to impose a totally unacceptable and unprecedented situation.

Mind you: not for the plague, smallpox, leprosy, world war, a nuclear explosion, aliens (!!!), but for one of the about 40 species of Coronaviridae, with a clear pattern when it comes to the case fatality rate, which is strongly linked to the characteristics of the infected (whether they are old and/or sick) while the mortality rate is even lower (as shown by the case of China up to now).

On top of that, everybody is asking for a vaccine, even if there is little or no doubt that it might prove completely worthless (because viruses keep on mutating, as you can read in whatever official source of your choice).

Isn’t it enough?

6. Why Lombardy?

A lot of people started linking the spread of Covid-19 with the rollout of 5G in Wuhan. I wouldn't go so far as to hypothesize a direct causality.

None the less, even almost 10 years ago, in a press release from 2011, the World Health Organization / International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans.

The mentioned research referred only to the damage of cellphones, at best with the 3G technology (4G was massively deployed only from 2011 onwards): as we are running faster towards the new generation (the 5G itself 5), the link between the damages to the immune system deriving from the continuous exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields and the occurrence of contracting diseases should be clear to everyone. Of course, all the sycophants of Big Pharma and also the pro-technology lobbies will keep on denying it, but as usual time will tell.

It sounds like a very strange coincidence, but guess where both the Italian company TIM and the well-known Vodafone started the rollout of 5G in Italy? Yes, ladies and gentlemen: Milan (described by Vodafone as the European capital of 5G in the above linked article) and the whole region of Lombardy!

Moreover, and again not hypothesizing a direct causality, guess where is the epicentre in Lombardy? The cities and provinces of Bergamo and Brescia.

What happened there just before the spread of Covid-19, besides the fact that they were graced with this amazing new technology? Well, in those provinces public institutions took care of a mass vaccination against meningitis (they even wanted to clearly highlight that it was for free for those up to 60).

Without articulating the matter with too much depth, let’s keep on using some old-age common sense (or maybe 50 studies?) and realize that even kids (ahem, especially them) know that vaccines have some disturbing side effects when it comes to the immune system.

On top of that, guess what is one the worst and THE largest geographical area in Europe impacted by pollution due to PM 2.5, which causes very well known and documented respiratory diseases? Lombardy (and all the other heavily industrialized parts of Northern Italy, which are showing the highest number of cases)!

Have a look at this official publication by the European Environment Agency and scroll the page for this emblematic figure (pay special attention to the red level). This latter evidence alone would suffice to understand why the virus hit so hard those areas.

All this considered, what do you think about the circumstance of having these high levels of different forms of pollution AND the hotbed of Covid-19 in the same places? I keep on asking myself questions.

7. Positive aspects VS dystopian scenarios

Taking out of the account the incredible restriction of freedom and the nightmarish mass profiling, nobody could underestimate how good is for the environment to temporarily halt all the man-made pollution on such a large scale, and this is something we all should be happy for.

A lot of people are forced to rediscover their family ties, which is surely a great thing.

Moreover, hundreds of thousands are getting used to remote working (which was sort of a taboo topic in Italy until a couple of months ago): this may lead to good opportunities to achieve a better work/life balance, especially for mothers of young kids or for those who can’t afford a caretaker for the elders or any sick member of their families.

Some behavioral changes might be for the good, and we can only be hoping (especially if we are let free to choose, of course) that those traits will stay when the emergency ends.

None the less, there are some heavily dark clouds on the horizon. Are you ready for the dystopian scenarios?

Well, I am sorry: I won’t be your Charon.

As clarified in the disclaimer, I don’t want to get trapped in the counterproductive dichotomy conspiracy theorist/debunker. I am just trying to use my brain and analyse the potential outcomes of the course of actions led by an official narrative which makes no sense (as shown before and as it should be already clear to you, once you start asking questions).

Apologies, but I can’t stop myself from repeating that the keys here are common sense and rationality.

I won’t describe anything in detail, just check for yourself the Real ID project, the ID20206 Alliance, the role of GAVI in setting agendas and shaping policies, especially when it comes to their dream of mandatory vaccines, traceable with a very nice and tiny new system.

Of course, we all hope that no dystopia is going to come true (it really depends on whether we create or not a critical mass of critical thinkers, in my humble opinion) and that one day soon we will all wake up from this nightmare and go back to our “normal” lives: if it’s the contrary, though, please do not say that nobody alerted you!

All the best, my friends!

Sincerely,

Raffaele Amelio

1 Here is a story about another one of our favorite top-10 billionaires, who recently made some additional profits by a stroke of luck (NOT due to insider trading, of course).

2 One easy example to see how they want to make it seem “inevitable”: http://www.ansa.it/amp/sito/notizie/cronaca/2020/03/23/coronavirus-cambia-moduo-autocertificazione.-arrivano-i-droni-per-i-controlli_b6fa411d-89ac-46db-b247 -148735e6eab6.html

First part of the title: The paper form (to fill and sign and show to the cops in order to justify why you are out of your cage) is changed. Second part of the title: Drones arrive for patrolling. A nice way to communicate it, right?

3 When it comes to the Spanish flu, what a strange case of coincidence (or is it what someone calls “predictive programming”?) one can find in this article on USA Today from December 2019!

4 In another article of the Italian news agency Ansa, referring to a previous study by ISS with less cases (355, on the 17th of March), you can read the following excerpt (translated from the original Italian): «Only 0.8% of the victims had no other pathologies - says Bernabei - while 25% had one, another 25% two and 48% three. And only 10% were under 60 years old. They are the results of an ISS study on 355 medical records of the first victims of the coronavirus. "The fact that photographs the reality well - says the member of the technical scientific committee - is that the real risk factor is that of having a geriatric age and concomitant pathologies, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, diabetes above all, which find fertile ground. This is what explains the excess mortality»

5 The 5G has a peak data rate up to 10 times faster and a connection density per km² up to 1000 times higher than 4G, with a very short reach. In other words, more cells are required and they need to be placed closer to each other than the cells used to support the previous generations. On top of this, think about the fact that the number of connected devices is destined to grow exponentially, with hundreds of millions of smart “things” (in the “magic” world of IoT) just waiting for us to be used by them ;-)

6 https://www.biometricupdate.com/201909/id2020-and-partners-launch-program-to-provide-digital-id-with-vaccines

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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duaneodavila · 6 years ago

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The Simplest Solution

Nelson Rockefeller thought he figured out the secret code. Everybody knew that drugs were bad, evil, destructive, but nobody knew how to stop them. They had been seen as a social and public health issue, but that failed to stem the tide, so Rocky chose to address them as a law enforcement problem, one to be dealt with harshly.

The rationale made complete sense: make the punishment for drugs so harsh, so Draconian, that no one would risk such ridiculous penalties, either to make a few bucks or to get his next fix. There was only flaw in the theory was that it failed miserably. It turned out the neither drug dealers or addicts saw it as Rocky did, as law enforcement did, and so it changed nothing.

The Rockefeller Drug laws were enacted in 1973. Not only does the drug problem remain, but we’ve endured several iterations of it since. The current flavor is the opioid epidemic, and much like the crack epidemic, people are dying. Cue the syllogism, as something must be done.

North Carolina saw 2,323 people die from opioid and other drug overdoses in 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated, nearly double the number who died in car crashes. That total rose 14.5 percent from 2016 — one of the most dramatic increases in the country.

The scope of the crisis — both the numbers killed and the socio-economic lines the fatalities cross — put opioid drugs in a different class, said Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman.

One of the most curious aspects of the current crisis is that it’s not primarily a minority problem, black guys dying in back alleys in the ghetto. There was never any sincere doubt that white people used drugs just like black people, but their bodies weren’t found lifeless on the streets. Now they are, which significantly raises the stakes for government to deal with the “problem.” And ignoring the lessons of history, they’ve latched onto a new scheme.

Given the deaths and the media attention these drugs have drawn, she said, it is harder for a drug dealer to plead ignorance about the risks — especially with prior arrests. Some cases are cloudy. Multiple drugs may be involved in an overdose, and they might have come from different places. But with opioids, it is easier for prosecutors to draw a direct line between a sale and a death.

There was never a question of “drug dealer[s] plead[ing] ignorance about the risks,” and this is sheer fantasy. These are drugs, whether cocaine, heroin or a synthetic analogue. The dealers sold it. The users bought it. Often, they were both the same person. And nobody shot junk into their veins because they thought it was good for them.

So history repeated itself, because it was simple narrative, sold hard over the decades since Rocky took the plunge, and provided a “solution” to the “something must be done” syllogism. Rather than try dealers for dealing, they were now murderers if the user overdosed. Even if they just shared, they were murderers. Someone died. Someone must pay.

In April 2016, Cindy Patane found her son unconscious in his bedroom, needles on the table nearby, beaten by a disease he could not conquer.

After years of struggle to stay clean, including a six-month stay at a halfway house, Matt Eyster ground up and injected Opana, a synthetic opioid so powerful and addictive it is no longer sold by pharmaceutical companies. The drug left him brain dead at 21.

In their last moments together before Matt was taken off life support, Patane pressed her forehead to her son’s face as he breathed through a tube.

A tragic story. They’re all tragic stories, because if they weren’t, nobody would use them to sell their narrative. Some of the tragic stories are about the poor kid who struggled to stay clean. Others about the tragic story of the guy in prison for life for trying to survive, his children hungry and the cycle repeating itself. But the sad story of Cindy Patane sheds no tears for the prisoners because her son is dead.

But for mothers such as Patane, nothing but a murder charge could fit the crime.

“That’s the only way you can fix it,” said Patane, a second-grade teacher with two other children. “You just want accountability. Somebody did this to my boy. Just because Matt made a bad choice doesn’t make your crime less of a crime. Matt had consequences. She should have consequences as well.”

It’s hard to blame Patane for feeling as she does. A mother lost her child, and no one can question the pain she must feel for her loss. But when she calls for “accountability,” what does that mean? When she absolves her son, and herself, from accountability by saying “just because Matt made a bad choice,” does that increase accountability for the person who sold her son drugs? Is it not sufficient that the dealer be accountable for dealing? Are the consequences her son suffered, death, the measure of his dealer’s consequences?

But more to the point, does this sad story provide a useful solution to the problem? Even if it assuages her pain, will it do anything to end the problem or just put people in prison for longer periods while new people pick up the slack. As long as people want to buy drugs, someone will sell drugs.

The current thrust of reform against the failed War on Drugs is to return to the days when it was understood to be a social and health problem. But as Nelson Rockefeller found, that didn’t stop people from using, or selling, drugs. History is a bitch.

Unless we’re prepared to accept the premise that illegal drug use can’t be stopped, and the best we can do is to make it as safe as possible with “safe injection sites,” greater availability of rehabilitation for those seeking to end their addiction and eliminating prison sentences as a solution since they double down on the harm rather than eradicate it, we’re fresh out of answers.

But even if we do adopt measures designed to make the solutions less carceral and more about health and saving lives, there will be people addicted to drugs and there will be people selling them drugs. And there will be overdoses, dead children and mothers who demand the something must be done. Hard as we may wish, believe, this shouldn’t be the case, experience proves that people will still be people, with all their foibles, fragility and poor choices.

The only question becomes whose sad stories you prefer, the ones about the poor marginalized miscreants in prison for life plus cancer or the ones about the good boy gone bad with his struggle with addiction, ultimately end in his death.

Don’t ask me for the answer. I don’t have one. But when you read the sad stories, remember that there’s one for every tragedy, and much as they may bring tears to your eyes for one side, the other side has a sad story of its own.

The Simplest Solution republished via Simple Justice

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inimiuta · 7 years ago

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An Analysis Of Fast Strategies For Stevia Sweetened Iso Xp

Great Ideas For No-nonsense Methods Of Whey Protein New Zealand Canada

This is why it’s always a bit confusing when isolates like Xwerks or Muscle Feast focus on the fact that they’re grass-fed. Isolates are practically fat-free, so they probably don’t have many health benefits from the grass. SFH Pure does contain fat, so it likely has more benefits than a grass-fed isolate. But it only has one gram of fat per serving. So, yes, there is some benefit to getting a grass-fed concentrate. But it’s probably small. You can pick up a 2-pound bag for $50. That provides 30 servings, so it winds up at $1.66 per serving, or 7.2 cents per gram of protein. That’s pretty expensive. Most big name protein powders come somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5 cents per gram of protein. But the differences with are that a) SFH is from free range grass-fed hormone-free cows, and b) it was sweetened naturally (but without calories) from stevia. These factors are going to give you a more expensive protein powder. That said, I can’t ignore the fact that Xwerks , which is a grass-fed isolate, is cheaper at 6.53 cents per gram.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://barbend.com/sfh-pure-whey-protein-review/

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Fitness Tips For A New And Healthier You

You do not have to spend your life in a gym in order to achieve physical fitness. In the following paragraphs, you'll read excellent advice that will help you become fit using different approaches, not just by going to the gym. Mix up workout routines with plenty of different exercises. A varied routine makes it easier to stay focused and motivated when you are trying to become more fit. Your muscles also present a symptom where they become used to a specific position or routine and you begin to achieve less of a benefit from the workouts. The right posture and form is critical to keep walking exercises from causing injuries. Your shoulders should be back and your torso upright. Put your elbows at a 90-degree angle. Your foot and arms should be totally opposite each other. Every time you take a step, make sure your heel touches the ground, then move the rest of your foot forward. If you tend to backslide on your workout routine, write down a schedule so you don't forget to get it done. Make your schedule include workouts on a certain number of days during each week, and keep the workout date with yourself regardless of what else comes up. If you end up missing your workout for whatever reason, make it a priority to reschedule it at a later date. Some people perceive exercise as inefficient and do extreme workout routines to try and burn a large number of calories. Doing this comes with a host of risks, including cardiovascular problems, muscle damage and dehydration. Also, if you exercise for too long, fat won't be burned, anyway. Do you want to know how to complete chin-ups more easily? Changing your way of thinking can help you greatly. Don't think about pulling your body upward. Instead, think of moving your elbows downward. Mind tricks like these will make executing chin-ups easier and it will enable you to do a lot of them. Increase your workouts to a higher intensity to help accelerate weight loss. Your weight-loss results will improve if you reduce the duration of your workout while maintaining (or even increasing) the number of exercises you do. Shortening the breaks between exercise intervals or removing them entirely will result in "denser" exercises. This will help tremendously in your overall fitness program. Try counting backwards. Instead of counting upwards from zero, try counting down from your chosen number of reps. This can help all of your workouts feel like they take less time Whey Protein to complete as well. Thinking of how many reps are left instead of focusing on counting up can increase your motivation. Getting your body into better shape can be quite a challenge, but it can be enjoyable at the same time. Use some of the tips you read about in this article by adding them to your program. You have to start looking at working out as a daily part of your life. If you exercise more, you will be making leaps towards your weight loss.

Professional Ideas On Swift Products In Canada

A related concern is the fact that the government has decided to limit the supply of legal marijuana to a small number of big, licensed providers, rather than inviting erstwhile illegal providers into the market subject to rigorous controls. This means that there will still be quite a bit of illegal marijuana out there, and those peddling the illegal product will be more than happy to continue supplying our kids. It might be easier to strangle the supply to adolescents if suppliers were all invited into the lucrative legal market, on the condition that they subject themselves to rigorous quality controls and that they strenuously enforce legally mandated age restrictions. The alternative, of course, is to ramp up criminal enforcement of drug laws outside of the narrowly defined legal market. This means, in effect, relaunching the disastrous war on drugs. The irony here should not be lost on those who have been following failed attempts throughout the world to regulate drugs through the criminal law. Finally, part of the fun of federalism is that the responsibility for implementing a complex policy falls not just to one, but to several levels of government. So, there are myriad ways in which the legalization of marijuana could end up yielding undesirable consequences that have nothing to do with the federal government. To give just one example, the government of Quebec is proposing to implement a zero-tolerance policy with respect to driving with even trace levels of marijuana in your system. This will inevitably put enormous pressure on the court system, as the policy would be far more draconian than the one that currently governs permissible blood-alcohol levels for motorists. The legalization of marijuana is a bold move on the part of the Liberal government. The failure of electoral reform, which had been another of this government’s marquee platform planks, and the political disaster of its handling of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, point to a government in dire need of a policy win.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-red-flags-ahead-of-canadas-marijuana-legalization/

Wondering If Vitamins And Minerals Are Right For You? Read This Article Now!

Almost everyone knows that vitamins and minerals are an essential part of a healthy life. However, many people don't realize they are not getting enough of them. There is some basic information that is needed to fully reap the benefits these nutrients provide. Read on to learn exactly what you must do. For your body to use vitamins, they need to be synthesized. So, be aware of the reaction minerals and vitamins have when taken together. Take iron, for example. Iron is not absorbed as well in the presence of calcium. Try to avoid dairy or a calcium supplement within half an hour of taking iron. The first step to proper nutrition is eating a balanced, healthy, whole foods diet. Ideally, you should be eating a minimum of five to seven servings of veggies and fruits everyday. Also, be sure you incorporate some protein in your diet. Supplements can make up for anything you are missing. Schedule your supplement doses for mealtimes when any supplements have fats that need to be taken along with food. Several vitamins, including E, K, and A are best absorbed by your body when taken with a meal. They work their best when you've eaten fatty foods. Two of the best sources for vitamin D are exposure to the sun and milk. If you don't care for milk or don't get any sun, try taking a vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D is important for your bones and it keeps them strong. Add quality vitamins to your diet each day. In addition to saving money by not having to see your doctor as often, they also will make you feel better. Riboflavin or vitamin B2 is found in bananas, green beans, popcorn, dairy, and asparagus. Dry skin, parched lips, and low red blood cell count are all symptoms of deficiencies. This nutrient has been proven as helpful with cancer prevention, anemia, cataracts and carpal tunnel syndrome. Vitamin A is an essential antioxidant that helps increase your immunity, reduces the chance of heart disease and provides many other benefits. It may be toxic if too much is taken, so stay within the daily dosage that is recommended. That amount is 2300 IU, or International Units. Some good places to get Vitamin A are squash, carrots, and dark leafy greens. Getting enough vitamins and minerals is growing in importance. Many foods in the grocery stores are over-processed, which leads to the depletion of many nutrients. One way to make up for it is by taking daily multivitamins. Do not take any prenatal vitamins if you are already past the age of menopause. Because of the benefits of these supplements for nails and hair, many woman take them. Although this is not normally problematic, they include higher levels of iron than necessary for women who are post-menopausal. Vegetables and fruits have a plethora of nutrients, especially when consumed raw. Add a multivitamin to your diet and you'll be good to go! It's easy in these hard times to eat cheap food and not worry about getting the proper nutrition. Get some bottled vitamins to make sure you have the nutrients to stay healthy. Always get your vitamin and mineral supplement information from a reliable source. Most advertisers are more interested in selling a product to you than they are with your health. Question all you see when you obtain this information. If you have doubts on any supplements, ask your doctor. Since you've read this, you should know some things regarding vitamins and minerals. You now understand they are necessary for a healthy life. Take what you've just read, and put it into practice now. This key information will surely lead to a more happy and healthy life for you.

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sherristockman · 7 years ago

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Doctor Wants to ‘Snuff Out’ Pharmaceutical Skeptics Dr. Becker By Dr. Mercola In the vaccination debate, what happens all too often is notan open, scientifically based discussion but, rather, inappropriate name-calling and threats. It has been suggested by doctors and attorneys promoting forced vaccination policies that experienced and enlightened physicians who question vaccine safety be stripped of their medical licenses, that parents who oppose vaccine mandates be imprisoned and that online discussions of vaccine risks and failures be censored. It's also not unusual for doctors to criticize, belittle or refuse to see children whose parents question the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) one-size-fits-all approach to vaccination. Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, has taken this to another level entirely, going so far as to bully parents of vaccine-injured children and classify the nonprofit National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) as a "hate group." "[Anti-vaccine organizations] camouflage themselves as a political group, but I call them for what they really are: a hate group," Hotez told Duke University's The Chronicle. "They are a hate group that hates [our] family and hates [our] children."1 Yet, as explained by Barbara Loe Fisher, NVIC president and cofounder:2 "In the 21st century, the term 'hate group' is most frequently used to describe groups of individuals associated with 'hate crimes,' which are defined by state laws and include threats, harassment or physical harm. Hate crimes are motivated by prejudice against someone's race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation or physical or mental disability … A child health advocacy group that points out vaccine science research gaps, criticizes paternalism in medical practice and challenges the use of utilitarianism as the moral foundation for public health policy does not qualify as a 'hate group.'" Hotez Bullies Parents of Vaccine-Injured Children In a global health lecture at Duke University, Hotez called on scientists to "engage the public" to counter the "anti-vaccine movement," which he blamed as a key cause of preventable deaths. He said the movement had been propelled by "anti-vaccine websites" like NVIC.org, which is, unquestionably, the best resource for accessing referenced information on U.S. vaccine policy and law and the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. "The article reported that Hotez castigated politicians from the 'peace, love, granola' political left, who believe that 'we have to be careful what we put into our kid's bodies,' and politicians from the political right, who tell doctors like him 'you can't tell us what to do with our kids,'" Fisher said, adding:3 "But Dr. Hotez reserved the bulk of his venom for parents of vaccine-injured children. Like a schoolyard bully who engages in name calling when he can't come up with anything intelligent to say, he slapped the label 'anti-vaccine' onto parents of vaccine-injured children speaking about what happened to their children after vaccination." Hotez, by the way, is a vaccine developer, a former president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. And this isn't the first time he's criticized those who favor vaccine choice and safety. He's gone so far as to say that the movement calling for increased scientific study into vaccine efficacy and risks, and calling for protection of informed consent, should be "snuffed out," i.e., crushed or killed. As noted by The Vaccine Reaction, published by NVIC:4 "In March [2017] … Scientific American published an article by Peter Hotez, M.D., of Texas Children's Hospital, also inciting violence against people who do not agree with current government vaccine policies. Dr. Hotez stated: 'An American anti-vaccine movement is building and we need to take steps now to snuff it out.'" In 2015, USA Today published a column by Alex Berezow advocating that "anti-vax" parents should be imprisoned. At the time that seemedto be a draconian proposal, but certainly less so compared to today's calls by vaccine developers and forced vaccination proponents like Hotez, who use violent imagery to suggest violent suppression of people who object to one-size-fits-all vaccine policies and advocate for the human right to informed consent. Further, Hotez also serves as a director on the board of The Immunization Partnership (TIP), a Texas-based coalition that supports the universal use of vaccines, electronic vaccine-tracking registries and mandatory vaccination laws. "During the 2017 legislative session in Texas, TIP representatives directly gave testimony and lobbied for bills that would make it harder for families to decline vaccines or choose to vaccinate their children using a schedule that differs from the CDC's recommended schedule," the NVIC advocacy team explained last fall during Vaccine Awareness Week . A 'One-Size-Fits-All' Vaccine Policy Isn't Right for Everyone No matter where you stand in the vaccination debate, most would agree that in the case of medical care, one size does not fit all. What works for your child (or yourself) may not work for your neighbor's, but in the case of vaccinations they're prescribed exactly the same for every child. Today we know, however, that some children, like those with mitochondrial disorders, are at increased risk from vaccinations. Others are as well. For instance, Dr. Suzanne Humphries, author of "Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History," is a nephrologist who has committed the latter part of her medical career to exposing the truth of vaccinations. She was accustomed to giving vaccinations to her patients with kidney disease, including those on dialysis, until she realized that hospital patients were experiencing worsening kidney function and kidney failure after being vaccinated. Initially Dr. Humphries thought these may have been anomalies or unfortunate coincidences, but as the number of cases continued to rise, even in those who were previously healthy with no known medical problems, the association became too great to ignore. She uncovered a link between the aluminum adjuvant and mercury in many vaccines and health damage. For genetic or biological reasons that we don't yet understand, some people appear predisposed to poor aluminum detoxification, so aluminum accumulates in their tissues and leads to myalgias, fatigue, cognitive deficiencies and other health problems. Aluminum is also known to be toxic to kidney patients on dialysis, which is why the water used for this processed is carefully screened to be sure its aluminum free (as well as free of other toxins). In addition to aluminum being toxic for some people who are chronically ill, there are also questions as to whether it's safe to vaccinate babies with aluminum-containing vaccines. When aluminum, for instance, is injected into the body, it's known to disrupt enzymes, cross the blood-brain barrier, bind to DNA and act as a gene disrupter and act as a cell signaling and membrane toxin. As Humphries said: "We're very careful as nephrologists when treating babies because the kidney functions of babies isn't the same as adults — it's vastly reduced. But when it comes to vaccines, this reduced kidney function in infants is always left out of the discussion." More Research Is Urgently Needed to Uncover Vaccine Safety or Lack Thereof In 2013, a JAMA Pediatrics study evaluated aluminum levels in 2-month-old infants following the administration of three vaccines at once, which is given per usual according to the infant vaccine schedule. This exposes the child to 1,200 micrograms of aluminum. Urine and blood were collected, but no significant changes in levels of aluminum were seen after vaccination.5 The researchers described the finding as "reassuring," but as Humphries noted, where did the aluminum go? If it wasn't excreted and blood levels didn't rise, it means it was retained in tissues. Despite this, infants are routinely vaccinated without regard for their immature kidney function. According to Humphries, "Aluminum is also injected into many babies on the day of birth in the hepatitis B vaccine. That's 250 micrograms of aluminum at a time when kidney function is even lower than it is at 2 months." The fact remains that studies are urgently needed to determine if vaccines are safe for sick people, babies and in many other special cases. Further, you can see, then, how vaccine mandates may turn out to be health disasters for some people. "The doctors operating the mandatory vaccination system with an iron fist, who refuse to acknowledge or address the suffering of people for whom the risks of vaccination turned out to be 100 percent," Fisher stated, "would do well to reflect upon the primary role they have played in the crisis of public trust in the safety of vaccines and doctors forcing everyone to use them."6 Indeed, trying to get unbiased, truthful information about vaccines is not easy, and the cards are very much stacked against you receiving the truth, especially when those who dare to question vaccine safety are often ridiculed or threatened. Yet burning questions exist, like why aren't efforts being made to identify children who may be at increased risk of vaccine side effects in order to prevent any unnecessary harm? An individual's response to a vaccine is actually influenced by manyfactors. For instance, an individual's gut microbes may help determine their immune response to vaccines. Infants that responded to the rotavirus vaccine had a higher diversity of microbes in their gut, as well as more microbes from the Proteobacteria group, than infants who did not mount the expected immune response.7 Epigenetic science, which now tells us that our genes are not our destiny, is another variable in vaccine safety, because no one knows how vaccines affect your genes (and it's likely different in every person). Part of the problem is that once you start to epigenetically tinker with the infant immune system, you are basically depositing what Humphries refers to as "little cluster bombs" that will eventually "explode into a big problem." As an example, she cites a study by Nikolaj Orntoft, in which African girls were injected with a tetanus vaccine to see which genes might be upregulated or downregulated (basically "turned on" or "turned off"). What they found is that there's really no way to predict which genes will be affected. So not only will each individual have a unique response to any given vaccine based on their age, current health status and microbial makeup, but individuals are also epigenetically predisposed to respond differently in terms of the side effects we might develop. Yet, doctors like Hotez, instead of opening up the playing field for legitimate questions into vaccine safety and efficacy, would rather engage in name-calling (NVIC and other vaccine choice organizations are "exporting … anti-vax garbage" to communities around the world, he said)8 and have parents who disagree with him "snuffed out." Protect Your Right to Informed Consent and Defend Vaccine Exemptions With all the uncertainty surrounding the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, it's critical to protect your right to make independent health choices and exercise voluntary informed consent to vaccination. It is urgent that everyone in the U.S. stand up and fight to protect and expand vaccine informed consent protections in state public health and employment laws. The best way to do this is to get personally involved with your state legislators and educating the leaders in your community. When you ask your physician about vaccine safety, you will most likely get a canned answer, one assuring you vaccines are safe. At the very least, physicians should be explaining to parents that their children can get a blood titer test that measures the level of antibodies in their blood. If the levels are high enough, a person is considered "immune" to that particular disease and no further vaccinations or boosters should be necessary. If your doctor is unwilling to discuss titers with you, find one who is. From my point of view, there can be little doubt that we need to review the safety and effectiveness of the current vaccination program in the U.S. This review needs to include methodologically sound investigative studies that are not compromised by conflicts of interest within industry and government. As Fisher stated in 2016 when criticizing vaccine orthodoxy and urging everyone to defend civil and human rights when it comes to vaccination:9 "Vaccine injury and death does not discriminate between races or social classes, except when people are kept ignorant, economically dependent and unable to make informed choices. … While we still have freedom of speech, press, thought, conscience and religion in America, please exercise and defend those civil and human rights at every opportunity. If we all stand up for the freedom we have left today, we will not lose more of it tomorrow. Knowledge is the antidote to vaccine orthodoxy because knowledge is power."

#VitalityPath

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njawaidofficial · 7 years ago

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Some school counselors are using code to let their LGBTQ students know they're safe.

http://styleveryday.com/2017/08/15/some-school-counselors-are-using-code-to-let-their-lgbtq-students-know-theyre-safe/

Some school counselors are using code to let their LGBTQ students know they're safe.

Photo by Mark Ralston/Getty Images.

William isn’t allowed to tell his LGBTQ students he’s on their side, so he has to do it in code. When he overhears them chatting with friends, he strains to absorb the language they use with one another and repeat it one-on-one. In counseling sessions, he refers to the significant others of students and school staff as their “partners” instead of “boyfriends” or “girlfriends.”

He had second thoughts about hanging a sign in his office that reads: “Your identity is not an issue.”

“I actually checked with my bosses ahead of time,” he says. “They were like, ‘Nope, you’re good!'”

As a middle-school psychologist in Virginia, William (who requested his real name not be used, for fear of retaliation) has always had to skirt around school board rules restricting his ability to address the fears and challenges of his lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer students out loud. But things have changed.

Before January, William says he would hear a homophobic or transphobic slur from a colleague (not all bullies are students, it turns out) maybe once a month. Now, he says, those voices have gotten much louder — and more persistent.

“The sad part is I can’t be as loud as they can be without getting in trouble,” he says.

For many school psychologists, sticking up for their LGBTQ students in the Trump era feels a lot like paddling over a cultural tidal wave.

Their efforts are frequently complicated by having to navigate a patchwork of guidelines and legislation governing what they can and can’t say, and what they must reveal to parents if asked. Eight states restrict how teachers discuss some LGBTQ topics in schools.

That leaves some educators worried they’re not doing enough.

“I’m seeing school counselors who were maybe feeling like they were sitting pretty with their programs and what they had been offering their LGBTQ youth at their sites now ramping it up,” says Catherine Griffith, assistant professor of student development at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst School of Education. That means asking for more trainings and workshops, particularly on how to talk about trans-specific issues, like pronoun usage and bathroom conflicts.

A student in Massachusetts works on homework. Photo by Jewel Samad/Getty Images.

Griffith recommends approaching conversations with struggling students by listening first and recognizing their expertise on their own lives. She also endorses approaches like William’s, in which counselors use visual cues (like a sign hanging in an office) and specific language to signal support. Her research into interventions for LGBTQ youth led to the development of a curriculum — which she distributes free to educators — that emphasizes the helpfulness of organized groups to combat social isolation.

For students, Griffith explains, the ability to organize helps them learn from peers, develop a sense of altruism, and bear witness to others’ challenges, especially when it feels like voices in positions of authority are aligned against them.

While William struggles to sneak a kind word to a struggling eighth-grader, 3,000 miles away, the kids in Cynthia Olaya’s Campus Pride Club are lighting bonfires on the beach.

A 14-year veteran psychologist from Long Beach, California, Olaya looks younger than her 40 years, a stroke of genetic good fortune that she believes makes it easier for students to open up to her.

“I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to use that,” she jokes.

Here in Fountain Valley, where she helps oversee the two-decade-old group, the Trump administration feels far away — literally and figuratively. Earlier this year, when rumors began swirling that the president was prepared to sign an executive order allowing business owners who cite religious convictions to discriminate against LGBTQ customers, her principal addressed the controversy, bluntly, over the school loudspeaker.

“He said, ‘Don’t worry students. We’ve still got your back,'” Olaya recalls.

The club, formerly a Gay-Straight Alliance, recently rebranded to be “more trans-inclusive.” Her LGBTQ students benefit, she explains, not only from the group, but from robust institutional support and, perhaps most critically, support from their elected representatives. Last year, the state board of education approved a measure requiring that schools add the contributions of LGBTQ Americans to history lessons as early as second grade. A 2017 law bans state-funded travel to states that have anti-LGBTQ laws on the books. In California, there are no rules preventing her from freely discussing her students’ gender and sexual orientation.

Her students are worried about what the Trump administration might do to rollback their rights, but most are not panicking — yet.

“I think they feel like, ‘We’re safe here,'” she says.

The Trump administration has alternated between playing coy with LGBTQ rights and launching an all-out assault on the policies of the Obama administration.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

At times, both approaches appear to be on the table simultaneously. The draconian religious freedom order Olaya’s students feared in February turned out to be little more than a symbolic statement when it was signed in May. The president announced a similarly harsh measure to ban transgender Americans from serving in the military — but has yet to take steps to implement it. The military, it appears, is ignoring it for the time being.

How LGBTQ kids fare in this whipsaw environment can have less to do with how much their counselors want to help and more with the institutional and legal frameworks that govern how much they can help.

Some communities have followed the president’s lead in loosening, or refusing to enforce, current protections. Others are resisting the charge.

In some places — the jury is still out.

Holiday, Florida, is an area in constant transition. In the middle school where psychologist Jacalyn Kay Jackson works, immigrants and students of color mix with white students from “more conservative” families. Many arrive in the district for a year or two before moving on. 80% are on reduced or free lunch. Many are LGBTQ.

Since the inauguration, Jackson says her students have been showing “more anxiety” than usual. While Muslim and immigrant students have received the bulk of harassment from their right-wing peers, the backlash has been stinging her LGBTQ kids as well.

“We did have some transgender students and gender-nonconforming students who were worried that some of the rights that they felt that they had fought hard for were being taken away,” she says.

Jackson has held the role of LGBTQ liaison for her district since last school year — and she’s thrilled about it. She spends half a day a week teaching other educators in the district how to best support gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans youth, how to navigate locker and restroom issues, and how to create safe spaces for discussion and recovery from trauma. She’s working on a 60-page best practices guide, which she plans to distribute to teachers in her district this coming school year. Despite the occasional complaint, her district is fully behind her work — which gives her much-needed cover.

In her area of Florida, the 2016 shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub opened a lot of eyes to the dangers LGBTQ youth face. She hesitates to call it a “silver lining,” but that’s the phrase that comes to mind. More parents have been going to Pride parades. Many who were formally opposed to, or equivocating on, expanding LGBTQ rights in the district have come around a bit.

“Not that they’re actively supportive, but maybe they’re more possibly supportive, perhaps because it hit closer to home than it ever has been,” Jackson says.

A person builds a balloon rainbow near the site of the Pulse shooting in Orlando. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

It’s not a cakewalk. Some students in Jackson’s school still face rejection from their families. As the Trump administration attempts to dismantle Title IX guidelines and rollback trans-inclusive policies in the military, LGBTQ kids, she explains, need a “buffer to what [they’re] hearing on the news,” which for many, isn’t at home.

Still, with support strong and growing, at school, that “buffer” appears to be holding — for now.

The only reason her work is possible in this social and political climate, she explains, is the last five years of rapid-fire progress toward LGBTQ inclusion and equality.

“Kids really heard a message when marriage equality came through, and prior to that as some of the individual states started recognizing marriage equality,” she says. Meanwhile, parents and colleagues who were previously supportive are looking for ways to be more supportive — particularly of trans students.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

“A lot of them were wondering, ‘What pronoun do I use?’ and ‘How do I support them?’ and ‘How do I have this conversation?'” Olaya says.

Even in areas where it’s hard to keep the door open, there are signs that a metaphorical lock has been smashed off. William recalls counseling one student whose relatives were debating sending her cousin to a conversion therapy camp, and she was worried she would be next. Students, especially younger ones, who reveal too much about their sexuality to teachers often run the risk of being outed to their parents, even if the crisis originates at home. This student, like many others, knew she could come to William for help and that he would keep her confidence.

“The kids know how to ask the right kinds of questions,” he says.

Increasingly, their school psychologists are trying to find the space to send the right message back.

“The message is: We’re listening, we’re here for you.”

#Code #Counselors #LGBTQ #Safe #School #Students #They039Re

#Code #counselors #LGBTQ #safe #School #Students #they039re

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tragicbooks · 7 years ago

Text

<p>Some school counselors are using code to let their LGBTQ students know they're safe.</p>

Photo by Mark Ralston/Getty Images.

William isn't allowed to tell his LGBTQ students he's on their side, so he has to do it in code. When he overhears them chatting with friends, he strains to absorb the language they use with one another and repeat it one-on-one. In counseling sessions, he refers to the significant others of students and school staff as their "partners" instead of "boyfriends" or "girlfriends."

He had second thoughts about hanging a sign in his office that reads: "Your identity is not an issue."

"I actually checked with my bosses ahead of time," he says. "They were like, 'Nope, you’re good!'"

"The sad part is I can't be as loud as they can be without getting in trouble," he says.

For many school psychologists, sticking up for their LGBTQ students in the Trump era feels a lot like paddling over a cultural tidal wave.

Their efforts are frequently complicated by having to navigate a patchwork of guidelines and legislation governing what they can and can't say, and what they must reveal to parents if asked. Eight states restrict how teachers discuss some LGBTQ topics in schools.

That leaves some educators worried they're not doing enough.

"I’m seeing school counselors who were maybe feeling like they were sitting pretty with their programs and what they had been offering their LGBTQ youth at their sites now ramping it up," says Catherine Griffith, assistant professor of student development at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst School of Education. That means asking for more trainings and workshops, particularly on how to talk about trans-specific issues, like pronoun usage and bathroom conflicts.

A student in Massachusetts works on homework. Photo by Jewel Samad/Getty Images.

Griffith recommends approaching conversations with struggling students by listening first and recognizing their expertise on their own lives. She also endorses approaches like William's, in which counselors use visual cues (like a sign hanging in an office) and specific language to signal support. Her research into interventions for LGBTQ youth led to the development of a curriculum — which she distributes free to educators — that emphasizes the helpfulness of organized groups to combat social isolation.

For students, Griffith explains, the ability to organize helps them learn from peers, develop a sense of altruism, and bear witness to others' challenges, especially when it feels like voices in positions of authority are aligned against them.

While William struggles to sneak a kind word to a struggling eighth-grader, 3,000 miles away, the kids in Cynthia Olaya's Campus Pride Club are lighting bonfires on the beach.

A 14-year veteran psychologist from Long Beach, California, Olaya looks younger than her 40 years, a stroke of genetic good fortune that she believes makes it easier for students to open up to her.

"I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to use that," she jokes.

"He said, 'Don’t worry students. We’ve still got your back,'" Olaya recalls.

The club, formerly a Gay-Straight Alliance, recently rebranded to be "more trans-inclusive." Her LGBTQ students benefit, she explains, not only from the group, but from robust institutional support and, perhaps most critically, support from their elected representatives. Last year, the state board of education approved a measure requiring that schools add the contributions of LGBTQ Americans to history lessons as early as second grade. A 2017 law bans state-funded travel to states that have anti-LGBTQ laws on the books. In California, there are no rules preventing her from freely discussing her students' gender and sexual orientation.

Her students are worried about what the Trump administration might do to rollback their rights, but most are not panicking — yet.

"I think they feel like, 'We’re safe here,'" she says.

The Trump administration has alternated between playing coy with LGBTQ rights and launching an all-out assault on the policies of the Obama administration.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

At times, both approaches appear to be on the table simultaneously. The draconian religious freedom order Olaya's students feared in February turned out to be little more than a symbolic statement when it was signed in May. The president announced a similarly harsh measure to ban transgender Americans from serving in the military — but has yet to take steps to implement it. The military, it appears, is ignoring it for the time being.

Some communities have followed the president's lead in loosening, or refusing to enforce, current protections. Others are resisting the charge.

In some places — the jury is still out.

Holiday, Florida, is an area in constant transition. In the middle school where psychologist Jacalyn Kay Jackson works, immigrants and students of color mix with white students from "more conservative" families. Many arrive in the district for a year or two before moving on. 80% are on reduced or free lunch. Many are LGBTQ.

Since the inauguration, Jackson says her students have been showing "more anxiety" than usual. While Muslim and immigrant students have received the bulk of harassment from their right-wing peers, the backlash has been stinging her LGBTQ kids as well.

"We did have some transgender students and gender-nonconforming students who were worried that some of the rights that they felt that they had fought hard for were being taken away," she says.

Jackson has held the role of LGBTQ liaison for her district since last school year — and she's thrilled about it. She spends half a day a week teaching other educators in the district how to best support gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans youth, how to navigate locker and restroom issues, and how to create safe spaces for discussion and recovery from trauma. She's working on a 60-page best practices guide, which she plans to distribute to teachers in her district this coming school year. Despite the occasional complaint, her district is fully behind her work — which gives her much-needed cover.

In her area of Florida, the 2016 shooting at Orlando's Pulse nightclub opened a lot of eyes to the dangers LGBTQ youth face. She hesitates to call it a "silver lining," but that's the phrase that comes to mind. More parents have been going to Pride parades. Many who were formally opposed to, or equivocating on, expanding LGBTQ rights in the district have come around a bit.

"Not that they’re actively supportive, but maybe they’re more possibly supportive, perhaps because it hit closer to home than it ever has been," Jackson says.

A person builds a balloon rainbow near the site of the Pulse shooting in Orlando. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

It's not a cakewalk. Some students in Jackson's school still face rejection from their families. As the Trump administration attempts to dismantle Title IX guidelines and rollback trans-inclusive policies in the military, LGBTQ kids, she explains, need a "buffer to what [they're] hearing on the news," which for many, isn't at home.

Still, with support strong and growing, at school, that "buffer" appears to be holding — for now.

The only reason her work is possible in this social and political climate, she explains, is the last five years of rapid-fire progress toward LGBTQ inclusion and equality.

"Kids really heard a message when marriage equality came through, and prior to that as some of the individual states started recognizing marriage equality," she says. Meanwhile, parents and colleagues who were previously supportive are looking for ways to be more supportive — particularly of trans students.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

"A lot of them were wondering, 'What pronoun do I use?' and 'How do I support them?' and 'How do I have this conversation?'" Olaya says.

Even in areas where it's hard to keep the door open, there are signs that a metaphorical lock has been smashed off. William recalls counseling one student whose relatives were debating sending her cousin to a conversion therapy camp, and she was worried she would be next. Students, especially younger ones, who reveal too much about their sexuality to teachers often run the risk of being outed to their parents, even if the crisis originates at home. This student, like many others, knew she could come to William for help and that he would keep her confidence.

"The kids know how to ask the right kinds of questions," he says.

Increasingly, their school psychologists are trying to find the space to send the right message back.

"The message is: We’re listening, we’re here for you."

0 notes

socialviralnews · 7 years ago