Opposing Digits

Feb. 24 – Upping the ante in what may be a high-stakes legal battle, an Upstate New York lawyer filed a $20 billion class-action lawsuit against Verizon last week, charging that the company violated customer confidentiality in aiding warrantless eavesdropping by a federal spy agency.

The civil suit is the second to challenge corporations for helping the National Security Agency carry out a secret order by the president to spy on communications between people in the United States and parties overseas without first obtaining warrants.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:20 PM 0 comments

Now we know the truth: For months in 2002, when George W. Bush and his top lieutenants were publicly insisting on their adherence to the Geneva Conventions, they were privately torpedoing efforts by Alberto Mora, the Navy’s courageous general counsel, to prevent, and establish accountability for, brutal treatment of detainees. Two years before the publication of the Abu Ghraib photos, Mora confronted the highest-level Pentagon officials over abuse of prisoners at Guantánamo and warned the Administration that its interrogation policies invited torture and cruelty. The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer revealed Mora’s lonely campaign just as Kofi Annan and a team of United Nations investigators declared Guantánamo a torture camp that should be closed and its prisoners either tried or released.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:35 PM 0 comments

As the crisis in Iraq deepens, youth around the US are confronting military recruiters and driving them out of their schools. From Ohio to Washington, students are taking actions against recruitment efforts.

Some anti-recruitment ideas:

• Set up a table next to the recruiter’s table with anti-war literature and information about debunking the recruiter’s lies.
  
  
• Get a group together and surround the recruiting table, loudly chanting and distributing anti-military fliers. Community college students in Seattle did this and forced the recruiter to leave their campus.
  
  
• Physically disrupt the recruiting efforts by trashing the military propaganda, puking on the recruiting table, pieing the recruiter, or spilling food/drink all over the recruiter and his table.
  
  
• Post anti-military posters and fliers all over your school, letting other students know the truth about what joining the military.
  
  
• Pay a visit to the recruiter’s car…
  
  
• Organize discussions about the war and the role youth play in it.
  
  
• Write articles in your school newspaper about why students should resist recruitment and the war in general.
  
  
• Make fliers and posters that draw connections between the war in Iraq and other forms of exploitation and domination.
  
  
• Talk to youth in other schools about actions they’re taking and how you can work together.
  
  
• Support students punished for their anti-recruitment activities. Never snitch.

Be persistent and don’t give up. If you can’t make the recruiter leave, make sure his time at your school is hell!

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:30 PM 0 comments

I will tell you how this is winnable and very simply, no matter how much money any of these crooks have.

There is an utter absolutism in science and a term that all real scientists understand, not just the FDA, and not just BigPharma. That term is a "scientific validation." The validation of a scientific analytical method has the same requirements regardless of the analytical system: Specificity, Accuracy, Precision, Linearity (range), Limit of Detection or Quantitation.

Specificity means the test does not detect something else incidentally or accidentally. Accuracy means how many known-to-be-positives-ahead-of-time, will test positive.

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:19 PM 0 comments

The US government has taken the extraordinary step of dangling the contract for control of the internet above the heads of the world.

In a "Sources Sought Notice" put out by the Department of Commerce (DoC) late on Tuesday and only just noticed by the internet community, it is asking for "potential respondents" for the contract to run the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

The IANA "function" is the maintenance of the main root file of the internet, the internet's directory. It decides who runs all the branches of the internet, including all the world's country codes such as .uk for Britain or .de for Germany.

By not stating the process as a "rebid", which the US government is entitled to do, the notice has been widely seen by the industry as a stark warning to internet overseeing organisation ICANN to pull its socks up.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:55 AM 0 comments

As the “non-partisan” Council on Foreign Relations assures us, Iraqi National Guard troops are trained and fully “vetted” by the Pentagon. “National guard troops receive three weeks of formal training and then on-the-job training by working with U.S. forces,” a CFR backgrounder explains. “The National Guard has replaced the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps as the largest security force in Iraq,” reports the World Tribune. “The 45,000-member force has been trained and equipped by the United States, with help from Britain and Jordan.” In short, the Iraqi National Guard is a subsidiary of the Pentagon, organized and trained to do the bidding of the Anglo-American occupation forces and their installed minions. Thus it should come as no surprise the Iraqi National Guard may play an important role in the recent bombing of the Golden Dome mosque in Samarra, according to locals.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:50 AM 0 comments

Doctors piss me off.

I visited the doctor with kidney pains today.
Yes I know you would all love for me to die… but this is about doctor incompetency not your wish to see me dead. Anyway back on story.

The Doctor at the hospital gave me Naproxen(aleve) for the pain without pinpointing what my pain was because he didn’t do blood test, creatinine test, scan, or tissue sample. Though Naproxen causes kidney failure, and he hands me Naproxen when i say i have kidney inflammation ! ! “Patients at greatest risk of (renal toxicity) reaction are those with impaired renal function, heart failure, liver dysfunction, In humans, there have been reports of acute interstitial nephritis with hematuria, proteinuria, and occasionally nephrotic syndrome. ” Naproxen Warning

I tell the doctor I believe I have impaired Renal Function, and he doesn’t disprove my theory, and all he does is hand me a drugs that cause more Renal damage! Doctors are going to kill me! !

Naproxen is a COX-2 inhibitor. COX-2 inhibitors have been linked to Renal Failure (Kidney failure) as a side effect. I purposely didn’t take any drugs, and they hand me them like they are candy.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:46 AM 0 comments

Dubai Ports World is scheduled to take over operations at 22 U.S. ports, not six as previously reported by most major media.

According to the website of P&O Ports, the port-operations subsidiary of the London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O), DPW will pick up stevedore services at 12 East Coast ports including Portland, Maine; Boston; Davisville, R.I.; New York; Newark; Philadelphia; Camden, N.J.; Wilmington, Del.; Baltimore, Md.; and Virginia locations at Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth.

Additionally, DPW will take over P&O stevedoring operations at nine ports along the Gulf of Mexico including the Texas ports of Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Houston, Freeport, and Corpus Christi, plus the Louisana ports of Lake Charles and New Orleans.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:39 AM 0 comments

The revised version of the Patriot Act is on a fast track for congressional approval, indicating the level of corruption in the U.S. Senate calls for each and every Senator to be removed from office on charges of treason.

While millions of Americans throughout the country protest the erosion of their privacy rights, the hijacking of the U.S. Constitution is in its final stages on Capitol Hill, as the severe revisions of the Patriot Act are set for "permanent" approval.

And what makes the permanent passage so dangerous is that it replaces "suspicion" of being a "domestic terrorist" without a probable cause warrant as the legal standard for surveillance, leaving innocent Americans wide open for intrusive spying programs based on the unjustified whims of government agents.

Further, the target words "domestic terrorist" are not sufficiently defined, again leaving the government a huge legal loophole to detain and arrest an innocent person based on unfounded suspicions.

As legal scholars in both camps argue the constitutionality of the law, the premise behind the passage of the law - the true source of terrorism - has never been fully explored by Congress.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:39 AM 0 comments

"Stability is the hallmark of the Catholic Church, but there are many reasons, especially the large number of parishioners who are disenchanted with church leadership, that affect how Americans think about and practice Catholicism," says Davidson, whose essays are based on columns he has written for 12 diocesan newspapers, including ones in Indiana, California, Maryland and Utah.

The disenchantment Davidson talks about in his book also exists among New Jersey's Catholics, said Teresa Padovano, member and co-founder of the Northern New Jersey branch of Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic lay reform group.

"Their concerns are with the hierarchy not taking responsibility for the sex abuse business, the way pedophiles are not being supervised, they have lots of questions about finances, they're not finding real financial accountability," she said. "These are problems that they are very concerned about."

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:28 AM 0 comments

In a handwritten note posted on their website, they called the institution "urine in wine".

"We're not your monkeys, we're not coming. You're not paying attention," continued the statement.

The band, named as inductees alongside Blondie, Herb Alpert and Black Sabbath, were due to take part in an induction ceremony in New York on 13 March.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:21 AM 0 comments

The White House turned over last week 250 pages of emails from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. Senior aides had sent the emails in the spring of 2003 related to the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald revealed during a federal court hearing Friday.

The emails are said to be explosive, and may prove that Cheney played an active role in the effort to discredit Plame Wilson’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of the Bush administration’s prewar Iraq intelligence, sources close to the investigation said.

Sources close to the probe said the White House “discovered” the emails two weeks ago and turned them over to Fitzgerald last week. The sources added that the emails could prove that Cheney lied to FBI investigators when he was interviewed about the leak in early 2004. Cheney said that he was unaware of any effort to discredit Wilson or unmask his wife’s undercover status to reporters.

Cheney was not under oath when he was interviewed. He told investigators how the White House came to rely on Niger documents that purportedly showed that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from the African country.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:30 AM 0 comments

Korean war veterans and Vietnamese civilians will make joint efforts to seek compensation from U.S. manufacturers of Agent Orange for their alleged damage from the defoliant chemical widely used during the Vietnam War.

The retired soldiers and war-zone civilians from both countries have recently been engaged in legal battles over the harmful effects of Agent Orange, claiming that exposure to it caused skin disease, diabetes, cancer and birth defects.

The Korean Victims of Agent Orange Veterans Association (KAOVA) said it will join a group of Vietnamese civilians to hold a rally in front of the White House in Washington sometime during April, calling for the U.S. government to provide a framework for compensation.

# posted by madthumbs @ 5:08 PM 0 comments

A government scientist has been forced to resign, after discovering dangerous levels of a toxic chemical in the Mississippi River. The toxin, specifically known as perfluoronated chemicals (PFCs), is a byproduct of the manufacture of a number of products including Teflon. In late 2005, Dr. Oliaei Fardin found dangerous levels of PFC's in the Mississippi River downstream from a 3M Corporation's dumping site in Minnesota.

3M had been dumping 50,000 pounds of the toxic chemical in the river every year, in a heavily populated metropolitan area, where the river serves as the main drinking water source. PFCs have caused birth defects and deaths in animal studies and are considered a likely human carcinogen. Fardin, a scientist at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, found levels of PFCs in the area's fish that were the highest ever discovered in the world.

# posted by madthumbs @ 5:04 PM 0 comments

Under cover of the fake “SARS Crisis” currently saturating the western media, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration has suddenly moved to outlaw and remove from store shelves about 80% of all vitamin and other related alternative products. Although less than a week ago customers were happily buying everything from vitamin A to G, and enthusiastically chewing every conceivable mineral and trace element, these same customers today face empty shelves in more than 5,000 health food stores across the nation.

# posted by madthumbs @ 4:55 PM 0 comments

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at Guantánamo Bay warned military interrogators that some aggressive interrogation techniques were illegal, according to documents released on Thursday.

The American Civil Liberties Organisation released internal FBI memos that outline agents’ concerns about the interrogation tactics being used by Defense Intelligence Agency interrogators at the prison.

According to a May 2003 memo, FBI agents in late 2002 believed DIA interrogators were using tactics that were of “questionable effectiveness”.

“Not only are these tactics at odds with legally permissible interviewing techniques used by US law enforcement agencies in the US, but they are being employed by personnel in GTMO [Guantánamo] who appear to have little, if any, experience eliciting information for judicial purposes,” the memo said.

# posted by madthumbs @ 4:23 PM 0 comments

The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is steamrolling across the great indexing plains. Tuesday brought news the eDonkey2000 indexing server Razorback2 was taken offline by Belgian Police, in conjunction with the MPAA. Today, the MPAA has announced a tremendous escalation in their fight against online piracy - this time targeting BitTorrent, eDonkey2000 and Newsgroup NZB indexing sites.

Specifically, seven lawsuits were filed in Federal Court across the United States. Most remarkable of these lawsuits was the MPAA's strategy to target Newsgroup NZB indexing sites. Newsgroup indexing sites function much differently than eDonkey2000 or BitTorrent sites, as their role is to supply "NZB" or Newzbin files. These NZB files greatly simplify the task of downloading material from the Newsgroups. It eliminates the once lengthy process of digging through multiple groups and headers to find the desired archive.

# posted by madthumbs @ 2:22 PM 0 comments

The internal logs of at least 40 Sequoia touch-screen voting machines reveal that votes were time and date-stamped as cast two weeks before the election, sometimes in the middle of the night.

Black Box Voting successfully sued former Palm Beach County (FL) Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore to get the audit records for the 2004 presidential election.

After investing over $7,000 and waiting nine months for the records, Black Box Voting discovered that the voting machine logs contained approximately 100,000 errors. According to voting machine assignment logs, Palm Beach County used 4,313 machines in the Nov. 2004 election. During election day, 1,475 voting system calibrations were performed while the polls were open, providing documentation to substantiate reports from citizens indicating the wrong candidate was selected when they tried to vote.

Another disturbing find was several dozen voting machines with votes for the Nov. 2, 2004 election cast on dates like Oct. 16, 15, 19, 13, 25, 28 2004 and one tape dated in 2010. These machines did not contain any votes date-stamped on Nov. 2, 2004.

You can find the complete set of raw voting machine event logs for Palm Beach County here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/6628.html
Note that some items were not provided to us and are ommitted from the logs.

# posted by madthumbs @ 2:15 PM 0 comments

A Letcher County woman suffered a horrible injury early Thursday when her arm was severed in a car crash on the Mountain Parkway in Clark County.

Jacqueline Dotson and her six-year-old daughter had to be cut out of their vehicle after the accident in which Dotson veered into the median and over-corrected, rolling her truck over the guardrail and landing upside down after flipping several times.

Several people stopped to help, and it turns out, the good samaritans may very well have saved Dotson's life. Sheila Vice, a nurse's aide, and an off-duty EMT from another county stopped to help, and put a tourniquet on Dotson's arm to stop the bleeding. Her arm was found near the accident still clutching a cell phone.

# posted by madthumbs @ 1:59 PM 0 comments

Emboldened by my own experience of health transformation, I made it my life's work to explore and share the truths about nutrition, diseases, health and healing. Over the last few years, I've spent more than 5,000 hours studying the true causes of disease vs. health. I've built a massive private research library, authored more than 1,500 articles on health, interviewed today's greatest pioneers in alternative medicine, and completed dozens of books and special reports on the subject.

And through this research, I've discovered something truly astonishing: the vast majority of all diseases can be easily prevented and even cured without drugs or surgery.

Real cures exist right now for diabetes, cancer, heart disease, depression, osteoporosis, and many other so-called "diseases." They are simple, straightforward, and readily available to virtually everyone. I can show any person how to reverse type-2 diabetes in a few weeks, for example. And I can teach anyone how to prevent and avoid every major chronic disease, using strategies that are largely available free of charge.

And, no, I don't have any diet pills for sale. No vitamins, no weight loss gimmicks. I don't sell any physical products whatsoever, and I earn absolutely nothing from the sale of the few items I do recommend. I sell ideas, not products.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:34 AM 0 comments

David Bay knows the "nasty little secret" kept hidden by the leaders of world's major religions and governments.

And he knows exposing the evil secret is extremely dangerous, since the "keepers of doom" play for keeps, using deception, bribery and murder as their daily working tools.

In fact, as the days appear to dwindle to a precious few for America, the "keepers of doom" better known as the Illuminati, actually think they have won the final battle of their Luciferian prophecy, the plan now leading up to World War III and the destruction of America.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:19 AM 0 comments

The Most Resilient Lawn Ever!
(Exclusively tested at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.)

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:29 AM 0 comments

Stun-gun maker Taser International of Scottsdale, Ariz., is developing a shotgun shell that will be far more powerful than current ones, a report said.

Taser's eXtended Range Electro-Muscular Projectile, or XREP, is meant to combine the blunt-force trauma of a fast-moving baseball with the electrical current of a stun gun, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.

It will truly cause incapacitation, said company spokesman Steve Tuttle. The product, expected to be available next year, was funded by the Office of Naval Research.

Taser's stun guns largely are used by law enforcement agencies but also have been used by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, Tuttle said. The new product is designed to hit targets from a distance of up to 300 feet, compared to 25 feet for a Taser.

Human rights groups have criticized Tasers, blaming them for several deaths. The company rejects the charge, blaming instead drug use and health conditions for the deaths. It also claims Tasers saved several lives of people who otherwise would have been shot by police.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:16 AM 0 comments

Lie #1: Prescription drugs will make you healthier.

Truth #1: Prescription drugs only mask symptoms. They do nothing to correct the underlying biochemical causes of disease. Simultaneously, most prescription drugs cause nutritional deficiencies which lead to further progression of chronic disease.

See http://www.newstarget.com/001352.html

Lie #2: You should actively treat the swelling of sprains, strains and other injuries.

Truth #2: Swelling is your body's natural strategy for enhancing the flow of blood and nutrients to the injured area. If drugs or hormones are used to prevent swelling, the injured tissues won't heal correctly, greatly increasing the likelihood of repeat injuries to the same area.

Lie #3: Mammograms prevent cancer.

Truth #3: Mammograms actually cause cancer. They dose the breast tissues with harmful radiation. Even when they spot breast cancer tumors, they aren't "preventing" breast cancer; they're merely detecting breast cancer. True prevention requires changes in food choice and lifestyle, not the use of imaging technology. See http://www.newstarget.com/000895.html

Lie #4: Vitamins give you "expensive urine."

Truth #4: The most expensive urine in the world is created by taking multiple overpriced prescription drugs, not vitamins. With more than 40% of the U.S. population now on prescription drugs, the drug content in human urine is now so high that trace amounts of antidepressant drugs can be found in public water supplies. Compared to drugs, vitamins are cheap prevention.

See http://www.newstarget.com/001891.html

Lie #5: The sun will give you cancer.

Truth #5: The sun will prevent cancer due to the creation of vitamin D by the skin. Most Americans (and Canadians and Europeans, for that matter) are deficient in vitamin D. As a result, tumor cell growth in the breast and prostate is unregulated. Sensible exposure to natural sunlight generates cancer-preventing vitamin D... at no charge! Sunburns are actually caused by nutritional deficiencies (lack of antioxidants in the skin), not by sensible exposure to sunlight.

See http://www.newstarget.com/Vitamin_D.html

Lie #6: CT scans (CAT scans) are perfectly safe.

Truth #6: CT scans expose patients to 1000 times the radiation of chest X-rays. Repeated exposure to CT scans raises a patient's cumulative radiation to levels experienced by many hydrogen bomb victims in Hiroshima. In addition, rigorous studies have concluded that CT scans offer no medical benefit whatsoever. See http://www.newstarget.com/004060.html

Lie #7: The U.S. health care system is the best in the world.

Truth #7: The health of U.S. citizens is actually the worst of any industrialized nation. We pay double, triple, and even quadruple the price for prescription drugs as any other country. We also have the highest rates of obesity, Alzheimer's, cancer and diabetes, plus the highest health insurance costs in the world. The U.S. health care system ("sick care system") is so bad that people are fleeing the country to seek medical services in Asia. It's a trend called "medical tourism," and it's flourishing.

See http://www.newstarget.com/007097.html

Lie #8: All surgical procedures have been proven safe and effective.

Truth #8: There is currently NO requirement whatsoever that surgical procedures must be either safe or effective in order to be practiced. Hundreds of thousands of medically unnecessary surgical procedures are performed each year in the U.S. alone, including hysterectomies and prostate cancer surgeries.

See http://www.newstarget.com/002608.html

Lie #9: You can get all the nutrition you need from three balanced meals a day.
Related article
CT scans expose patients to 1,000 times the dose of chest x-rays
(Concept: CT scans)

Truth #9: Today's foods are nutrient depleted, and they come from depleted soils. Processed and manufactured foods would have to be eaten at the rate of 10,000 calories a day just to meet minimum RDA requirements for basic nutrition. The only way to get adequate nutrition is to supplement with superfoods or whole food concentrates (vitamins, whole food powders, supplement capsules, etc.) along with eating healthy meals. Organizations like the AHA, however, insist that nutrient supplementation is actually bad for your health.

See http://www.newstarget.com/001587.html

Lie #10: All these lab tests are for your own good.

Truth #10: At least half of all diagnostic tests ordered by doctors are medically unnecessary. They're often conducted merely to generate revenues for the hospital or medical group that owns the doctor's clinic. Some doctors are actually required to generate a certain dollar amount of lab test revenues in order to keep their jobs.

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:23 PM 0 comments

Imagine yourself in a laboratory.

Imagine that your skull has been sliced open and part of your brain has been removed. Then imagine that you have spent fifteen years imprisoned in a barren cage denied contact with your own species, never feeling the sun, the wind or the rain on your face, never experiencing the natural world into which your forebears were born, and that you have been experimented on over and over again by your jailers. Without any respite, without any hope. Now imagine that this scenario is being enacted as you are reading this. This isn't fiction - it's fact. That's what animals at Oxford University are forced to endure every day.

Now Oxford University want to increase the number of animals they use in experiments and are attempting to build a new research centre.

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:14 PM 0 comments

Grapefruit, especially the deep red star ruby variety, can help reduce cholesterol in some patients who do not respond to statin drugs, researchers in Israel are reporting.

The researchers tested 57 patients ages 39 to 72 who had undergone coronary bypass surgery and had found that Zocor, or simvastatin, was ineffective. They divided them randomly into three groups.

Each group consumed the same diet, except that one ate one red grapefruit daily, the second ate one white grapefruit, and the third ate no grapefruit at all. None took lipid-lowering drugs during the test.

After one month, there were no differences in the heart rate, blood pressure or weight of the three groups. Antioxidant activity in both white and red groups was increased compared with the group that ate no grapefruit.

But the group that ate red grapefruit every day also had significantly decreased blood levels of triglycerides.

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:04 PM 0 comments

MONTREAL, Feb. 21 /CNW Telbec/ - Monsanto, the world's largest seed and agbiotech company, made a public promise in 1999 not to commercialize 'Terminator Technology' - plants that are genetically engineered to produce sterile seeds. Now Monsanto says it may develop or use the so-called 'suicide seeds' after all. The revised pledge from Monsanto now suggests that it would use Terminator seeds in non-food crops and does not rule out other uses of Terminator in the future. Monsanto's modified stance comes to light as the biotech and seed industry confront peasant and farmer movements, Indigenous peoples and their allies in an escalating battle at the United Nations over the future of Terminator.

In 2000 the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a de facto moratorium on sterile seed technologies, also known as Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs). But at next month's high-level meeting of the CBD in Curitiba, Brazil (20-31 March 2006) the biotechnology industry will intensify its push to undermine the six-year old de facto moratorium.

In response, over 300 organizations today declared their support for a global ban on Terminator Technology, asserting that sterile seeds threaten biodiversity and will destroy the livelihoods and cultures of the 1.4 billion people who depend on farm-saved seed.

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:16 AM 0 comments

In the world of health news, I'm not sure who's worse: Dishonest researchers or illiterate science reporters. But in this case -- lucky us -- we get both. The issue surrounds the reporting of a recent study on calcium supplements in post-menopausal women conducted by the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a U.S. government program. According to practically everybody in the mainstream press, the study shows little or no benefit of taking calcium supplements. Here's a sampling of the headlines you may have seen in the popular press:

• No broad benefit from calcium found for women
  - San Jose Mercury News
  
  
• Back to milk: Few benefits found from calcium pills
  - International Herald Tribune
  
  
• Study Shows Limited Benefits From Calcium
  - Houston Chronicle
  
  
• Studies Question Benefits Of Calcium, Vitamin D
  - CBS (affiliate, California)

Anyone who actually reads the study, however, learns that calcium was shown to produce a whopping 29% reduction in bone fractures for those actually taking the pills. That's a huge reduction in risk that would be called a "breakthrough" if it were attributed to a drug.

So how did the mainstream media miss the boat on this one? Simple: They just parroted the conclusions of conventional medicine, which conveniently average in all the results of people who did NOT take the calcium supplements during the study. Huh? Yes, they counted the results of all the people who didn't take the calcium supplements, and then declared that calcium itself is useless.

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:11 AM 0 comments

The first sign of putting the muzzle on the "bad dogs" in the alternative press is starting to rear its ugly head on Capitol Hill, as freedom of speech leading to a citizen rebellion is one thing the fascists in Washington fear the most.

And as a way to silence Bush administration critics, many first amendment advocates for years have called attention to an eventual "clampdown" on the internet, including dissident forum bloggers, by the use of sophisticated technical means.

But now legislators and attorneys in the Justice Department are busy at work drafting 'Nazi-like' speech suppression laws, geared at putting "the finishing touches" on any serious movement that could topple the fascist neo con agenda.

It is no secret the mainstream press is in total syncopation with the administration, allowing its domestic and foreign war agenda to proceed on schedule and without serious question, leading to an eventual destruction of America.

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:01 AM 0 comments

That idea moves a step closer to becoming a reality this week, as the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) considers the final stages of an application to license a natural human protein extracted from the milk of goats.

If the EMEA says "yes" on Thursday, Atryn will become the world's first medicine to be produced from a genetically modified animal and represents the vanguard of this long-promised science.

The 57 unique goats that produced the drug-laden milk reside on an anonymous-looking farm belonging to GTC Biotherapeutics, an hour's drive from Boston, Massachusetts.

To the eye, they are indistinguishable from their fellow ruminants, jostling in their pens for a better look at their visitors. But what marks them out is an extra snippet of DNA entwined in their genome.

# posted by madthumbs @ 6:49 AM 0 comments

Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago say Cheney was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting.

Agents observed several members of the hunting party, including the Vice President, consuming alcohol before and during the hunting expedition, the report notes, and Cheney exhibited "visible signs" of impairment, including slurred speech and erratic actions.
According to those who have talked with the agents and others present at the outing, Cheney was drunk when he gunned down his friend and the day-and-a-half delay in allowing Texas law enforcement officials on the ranch where the shooting occurred gave all members of the hunting party time to sober up.

We talked with a number of administration officials who are privy to inside information on the Vice President's shooting "accident" and all admit Secret Service agents and others say they saw Cheney consume far more than the "one beer' he claimed he drank at lunch earlier that day.

"This was a South Texas hunt," says one White House aide. "Of course there was drinking. There's always drinking. Lots of it."

# posted by madthumbs @ 6:39 AM 0 comments

There are many benefits to studying at Lakehead University. Ubiquitous wireless Internet access, however, isn’t one of them.

That’s because president Fred Gilbert won’t allow it until he’s satisfied EMF (electric and magnetic fields) exposure doesn’t pose a health risk, particularly to young people.

Gilbert, who was interviewed last week on the CBC about the university’s policy as stated in a town hall meeting last fall, told ITBusiness.ca he based his decision on scientific literature that indicates the potential for “some fairly significant” health consequences.

“These are particularly relevant in younger people (who have) fast-growing tissues, and most of our student body are late teenagers and still growing, so it’s just a matter of taking precautions and providing an environment that doesn’t have a potential risk associated risk,” he said.

# posted by madthumbs @ 6:23 AM 0 comments

New photos of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq and a blistering United Nations Report calling on the U.S. to shut down the Guantanamo Prison in Cuba have once again reminded us that this chapter in our nation?s history is a moral disgrace and must end.

A few days ago the National Council of Churches' General Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging compliance with the United Nations recommendations. Edgar also renewed a request to allow an interfaith delegation to Guantanamo to monitor the physical, mental, and spiritual condition of the detainees.

We are asking for your endorsement of this important letter. Please read, then sign. Your name, with thousands of others, will be forwarded to the U.S. State Department supporting the NCC letter.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:29 PM 0 comments

In this simple, anonymous test, you can assess your own Gullibility Factor (GF) score. Simply answer TRUE or FALSE to the following questions, click SUBMIT, and your score will be instantly calculated and displayed along with an explanation and the correct answers.

Your GF score will tell you whether you're a free-thinking individual, or a total mind slave. Please answer all questions, or your score will be artificially low.

This test was authored by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, primary author at NewsTarget.com. This test is offered for entertainment purposes only.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:16 PM 0 comments

The numbers cited by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for possible attention deficit drug-related deaths and injuries represent a gross understatement of statistics. The truth is that these drugs are responsible for and endless stream of deaths and injuries all over the country.

According to the latest investigation by the FDA, in the four year period between 1999 and 2003, there were twenty-five deaths in persons using Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) drugs, 19 of which were children. Officials also acknowledged that more than 50 cases of cardiovascular problems had been reported, including stoke, heart attack, hypertension, palpitations and arrhythmia. There are many more documented adverse events caused by these drugs and the FDA knows it.

For instance, on November 20, 1986, after being on Ritalin since the third grade, fourteen-year-old Rod Mathews lured a classmate, Shawn Ouillette, into a wooded area near his home in Canton, Massachusetts, under the pretense of a plan to build a snow fort, and beat him to death with a baseball bat.

Although he had no prior history of violence, Rod beat Shawn until he died and just left the body in the woods. Rod took 2 friends to see the body, and threatened them with the same fate if they told anyone about the murder.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:07 PM 0 comments

For those that might be interested I'm running an on going experiment
with a colon cleansing product called Colonix. I'm not affiliated with
the product and will be posting my findings be they good or bad.

You can find the site here :
http://www.experimentmonkey.com/category/colon-cleanse/

If anybody else has used this product I'd love for you to post you
experiences as well.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:00 PM 0 comments

THOUSANDS of Scottish children, some as young as six, are wrongly being labelled hyperactive and given controversial drugs to stop anxious parents thinking they are to blame for unruly behaviour, a leading academic has warned.

Dr Gwynedd Lloyd says doctors are wrongly diagnosing ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) when many youngsters are just behaving badly as a normal part of growing up.

The Edinburgh University academic claims this is leading to "widespread abuse" of the controversial drug methylphenidate, commonly known as Ritalin, by doctors who over-rely on checklists when deciding on medication for children.

Ritalin, nicknamed the "chemical cosh", has been criticised amid claims it has dangerous side-effects, including abdominal pain, anxiety, dizziness, headaches and psychosis.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:56 PM 0 comments

A chemist at the Food And Drug Administration (FDA) said testing in recent weeks had revealed some soft drinks contaminated with benzene at levels above the legal limit for water set by the US and Europe.

Benzene is listed as a poisonous chemical shown to increase the risk of leukaemia and other cancers.

The FDA was originally alerted in 1990 to the problem of benzene in soft drinks triggered by the preservative sodium benzoate. It never made the findings public, but came to an arrangement with the US soft drinks association that the industry would “get the word out”.

But in recent months, internal documents and private tests have begun to surface, supported by claims from a former chemist for Cadbury Schweppes, who is now keen to blow the whistle on the health risk involved. He and a US lawyer commissioned new tests that have now prompted the FDA to re-open the case.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:45 PM 0 comments

Sir David King, the UK Government's chief scientific adviser has said that “Climate change is a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism.” This is true, since there is no threat from terrorism at all, unless you are unfortunate enough to be in the cross-fire when Her Majesty’s Secret Service are bombing public transport to blame Muslims, but global warming is real and “nearly all climate scientists today” agree that it is caused primarily by humans. This is also true, but it is not due to the size of the human “footprint” and our greenhouse emissions, but because the weather is being engineered.

Dr. Geoff Jenkins of the Centre for Climate Prediction and Research said, “We have reached the point where it’s only by including human activity that we can explain what’s happening.” This activity must include the daily spraying of chemicals into our skies, which prevents energy escaping from the Earth's surface and atmosphere, contributing to excessive warming which can distort natural patterns of climate. The pollution from chemtrails, which has made blue skies a vague memory, is much worse than the damage caused by all fossil fuel consumption combined and poses a major threat to life on Earth.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:41 PM 0 comments

Aspartame, an artificial sweetener used by more than 200 million people around the world, has passed numerous safety evaluations in the past quarter-century. It is used as a tabletop sweetener (Equal, NutraSweet) and as an ingredient in more than 6,000 processed foods, including diet sodas, desserts, candy and yogurt, among others. But now comes a provocative if inconclusive report that says aspartame may cause cancer, even at levels long considered safe. There is no reason for panic, but surely good reason for regulatory authorities to look again at this much-studied
sweetener.

The new alarm was raised by a large study in laboratory rats conducted at the European Ramazzini Foundation in Italy. The study found a statistically significant increase in lymphomas, leukemias and other cancers in rats that were fed aspartame for a lifetime and compared with rats that were not. Excess cancers were found even in rats fed doses equal to 20 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, well below the 50-milligram level currently deemed acceptable for humans in the United States. If these results hold up under further scrutiny, the guidelines will need re-evaluation.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:32 PM 0 comments

In an Oct. 17, 2005 meeting, Director Charles Currie announced that the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) no longer endorses the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP). Upon hearing this news, the Government Accountability Project and numerous other watchdog groups breathed a huge sigh of relief: Finally. In a nutshell, TMAP embodies everything that is wrong with mainstream medicine and the government's relationship with Big Pharma, and, in the opinion of many, it proves that our government is corrupt at its highest levels.

What's wrong with TMAP? Let's start with the basics: Many patients already feel the negative effects of contemporary, mainstream medicine's detached, objective approach to treatment. As if mainstream medicine were not impersonal enough, TMAP takes the complex, subjective physician-patient decisions necessitated by the nature of mental illness and pars them down into a "decision tree" approach to psychiatric

Follow the money to Big Pharma
Given TMAP's "drug-'em-all" approach to psychiatric treatment, it should come as no surprise that Big Pharma played a major role in its creation. To create TMAP's algorithms, Dr. Shon, nationally known psychopharmacologist Dr. John Rush and the former chair of the University of Texas-Southwestern's psychiatry department, gathered three panels of experts to create "consensus guidelines" for major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. So, what's the problem? Of the 46 members of the three panels, 27 have conducted research on behalf of pharmaceutical companies, served on drug company speakers' bureaus or served as consultants to a drug company, according to a review conducted for Mother Jones by the Center for Science in the Public Interest," reveals reporter Rob Waters in his 2005 article "Medicating Aliah."

However, Big Pharma's sticky grip on TMAP doesn't end there. In spite of Dr. Shon's earlier claims that drug companies only gave $285,000 in funding for TMAP, Austin-based investigative reporter Nanci Wilson reviewed the Texas Department of State Health Service's financial records and discovered that pharmaceutical companies gave the DSHS $1.3 million from 1997 to July 2004, of which at least $834,000 was intended for TMAP.



High-profit psychotropic drugs get top billing
As a matter of fact, TMAP's sponsors produce the pharmaceuticals recommended as "first line treatment" -- Prozac, Risperdal, Adderall, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Buspar, Geodon, Depakote, Effexor, Paxil, Celexa, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Serzone and Remeron. TMAP's financial ties with Big Pharma run into the millions and TMAP's sponsors represent all of the Big Pharma heavyweights, including:



Doctors are strong-armed into prescribing brand-name drugs
Even if some state doctors recognize that these newer drugs are not necessarily the safest or most effective pharmaceuticals to treat a patient, they are not allowed to prescribe a generic drug until at least two, but preferably three, of these newer, patented drugs have failed, according to Jones. In fact, going against TMAP puts a state doctor at excessive liability for the success or failure of the generic medication, an unpredictable factor in any pharmaceutical treatment decision.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:25 AM 0 comments

Detention Centers
Plus, there was that curious development in January when the Army Corps of Engineers awarded Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root a $385 million contract to construct detention centers somewhere in the United States, to deal with “an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs,” KBR said. [Market Watch, Jan. 26, 2006]

Later, the New York Times reported that “KBR would build the centers for the Homeland Security Department for an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people in the event of a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space.” [Feb. 4, 2006]



Labor Camps
There also was another little-noticed item posted at the U.S. Army Web site, about the Pentagon’s Civilian Inmate Labor Program. This program “provides Army policy and guidance for establishing civilian inmate labor programs and civilian prison camps on Army installations.”

The Army document, first drafted in 1997, underwent a “rapid action revision” on Jan. 14, 2005. The revision provides a “template for developing agreements” between the Army and corrections facilities for the use of civilian inmate labor on Army installations.



Pentagon Surveillance
Despite the Posse Comitatus Act’s prohibitions against U.S. military personnel engaging in domestic law enforcement, the Pentagon has expanded its operations beyond previous boundaries, such as its role in domestic surveillance activities.

The Washington Post has reported that since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the Defense Department has been creating new agencies that gather and analyze intelligence within the United States. [Washington Post, Nov. 27, 2005]



Homeland Defense
As the administration scoops up more and more names, members of Congress also have questioned the elasticity of Bush’s definitions for words like terrorist “affiliates,” used to justify wiretapping Americans allegedly in contact with such people or entities.

During the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the wiretap program, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, complained that the House and Senate Intelligence Committees “have not been briefed on the scope and nature of the program.”

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:43 AM 0 comments

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday he was mistaken when he stated last week that the U.S. military had stopped paying Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-American articles.

Rumsfeld had said in a television interview on Friday that the U.S. military had ceased paying to place positive stories in Iraqi media after criticism in the U.S. Congress and press. Rumsfeld made similar comments the same day to the Council on Foreign Relations.

"I just misstated the facts," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the military command in Iraq was still paying to plant positive stories, even as U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk investigates it.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:48 PM 0 comments

Women who use the Ortho Evra birth-control patch face twice the risk of developing blood clots than those who take the pill, the patch's manufacturer said late Thursday, citing recent company-funded research.

The finding comes from one of two studies comparing the patch and pill, said Ortho Women's Health & Urology, maker of the once-a-week patch. The Raritan, N.J.-based company is owned by Johnson & Johnson.

The first study found no increased risk of clots while its findings on the risk of stroke or heart attack are still being evaluated. Meanwhile, interim results from the second study suggested a twofold increase in the risk of venous thromboembolic events, or clots in the legs and lungs, in women using the patch, Ortho said.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:23 PM 0 comments

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# posted by madthumbs @ 10:07 PM 0 comments

Few law enforcement institutions have been so thoroughly discredited in recent years as the FBI's forensic lab. In 1997 the Bureau's inspector general of the time issued a devastating report, stigmatizing one instance after another of mishandled and contaminated evidence, inept technicians, and outright fabrication. The IG concluded that there were "serious and credible allegations of incompetence" and perjured courtroom testimony.

CounterPunch's view is that taken as a whole, forensic evidence as used by prosecutors is inherently untrustworthy. For example, for years many people went to prison on the basis of the claims of a North Carolina anthropologist, Louise Robbins. She helped send people to prison or to Death Row with her self-proclaimed power to identify criminals through shoe prints. As an excellent recent Chicago Tribune series on forensic humbug recalled, on occasion she even said she could use the method to determine a person's height, sex and race. Robbins died in 1987, her memory compromised by the conclusion of many Appeals Courts that her methodology was bosh. There have been similarly hollow claims for lip prints and ear prints, all of (added "of") them invoked by their supporters as "100 per cent reliable" and believed by juries too easily impressed by passionate invocations to 100 per cent reliable scientific data.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:28 PM 0 comments

Hyde Park Corner is one of the most famous and hallowed spots in this great city. There, each Sunday morning, orators, preachers, revolutionaries and crazies would mount soapboxes and say whatever they pleased.

Nothing was taboo. This was Britain's temple of free speech.

Last week, PM Tony Blair rammed a new law through Parliament making "glorification of terrorism" a criminal offence.

Meanwhile, Blair's big brother, U.S. President George W. Bush, is in deep, deep doodoo over the Iraq debacle, mounting casualties in Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina and the storm of national ridicule caused by trigger-happy VP Dick Cheney. Republicans are gasping for air.

The image of Cheney, the warlord who avoided the Vietnam draft, blasting defenceless little birds and an unlucky friend on a hunting trip last weekend probably did more damage to the Bush administration than all its lies about Iraq.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:18 PM 0 comments

I am weary of those apologists for Thimerosal in medicine who, faced with the realities set forth in this title, continue to support the use of Thimerosal in vaccines and other medicines and medical preparation systems WITHOUT any unequivocal toxicological proof of what is the SAFE level of Thimerosal in any of these products.

I am weary of those who publish papers claiming to prove safety BUT conveniently ignoring one or more of the PROVEN aspects of the systemic toxicity of Thimerosal and related "ethyl mercury" compounds, ethylmercurihydroxide, ethylmercurichloride, and, after metabolism, "inorganic mercury," at levels in the low ppm range (< 2 ppm) and, in some cases, down to the sub-ppm level (< 0.02 ppm).

I am weary of those mercury-in-medicine apologists who attempt to paint "Thimerosal" as somehow a special form of mercury that must be safe because it has been used for decades and not everyone has been poisoned -- tell that to the "Pink Disease" survivors who heard the same littany for "Calomel (84.98% Hg)," a "special" form of inorganic mercury CLAIMED to be harmless that killed and maimed tens of thousands in the period from the 1800s to the mid-1950s BEFORE it was UNEQUIVOCALLY PROVEN to severely mercury-poison about 1 in 500 babies but only those administered Calomel-laced teething/soothing powders.

I am weary of those in the healthcare establishment and government who chant their "there is no proof" that:

1. Thimerosal (49.55% mercury by weight mercury) poisons all who are administered medicines containing it to some degree, some of those are poisoned to the degree that they exhibit one or more of the symptoms exhibited by those who are subacutely mercury poisoned, and a few are severely mercury poisoned to the degree they are diagnosed as having "autism" and, sadly, those who are poisoned to death WHEN there is a large body of experimental evidence that SUPPORTS the reality that injecting mercury into humans in the form of Thimerosal mercury-poisons humans.

# posted by madthumbs @ 1:12 PM 0 comments

Yahoo! is banning the use of allah in email names - even if the letters are included within another name.

This was uncovered by Reg reader Ed Callahan whose mother Linda Callahan was trying to sign up for a Verizon email address. She could not get it to accept her surname.

Enquiries to Verizon revealed that a partnership with Yahoo! was to blame. Yahoo! will not accept any identies which include the letters "allah".

Nor will Yahoo! accept yahoo, osama or binladen. But it will accept god, messiah, jesus, jehova, buddah, satan and both priest and pedophile.

Ed Callahan told us: "On one level this is just silliness. But we have a war on terrorism and it's migrating to be a war on Muslims - this just shows the confusion there is between the two and how pervasive this is."

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:40 PM 0 comments

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Selling national IDs as a necessary tool for fighting terrorism helped supporters ensure the passage of the REAL ID Act, but in reality, the data-enhanced driver's licenses mandated by the law will not likely prevent terrorism, security and policy experts said on Thursday at the RSA Conference.

The REAL ID Act, which became law by a political maneuver attaching it to a critical spending bill, requires that state driver's licenses meet criteria set by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to be effective tools to identify people. For many states, that's a problem, said panelist member Linda Lewis-Pickett, the president and CEO of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

"The mission creep of the license has really left the DMVs (Departments of Motor Vehicles) back in smoke," she said. "I think each state agency has looked at DMVs as revenue generators--'Come in and pay taxes and give us money.' All of that has changed. They are now the identity management system."

The panel members agreed that a national ID will not be an effective tool to fight terrorism. The cost, which the Citizens Against Government Waste estimates at $9 billion to $13 billion over 6 years, will be a bad use of taxpayer money, argued panelist Bruce Schneier, a security expert and chief technology officer for Counterpane Internet Security.

"Going back to 9-11, every one of those terrorists had an ID," he said. "Some of them had forged IDs, some used their real name, and some of them got real IDs with a fake names by bribing a motor-vehicles clerk."

# posted by madthumbs @ 12:21 PM 0 comments

Google on Friday rejected US government demands that it give up search information claiming that its customers' privacy, as well as its own business secrets, should be protected.

The search giant filed a response to the demand from the US government that it hand over two months of search terms and all the web addresses within its index. Google said the demands were unreasonable and were not likely to provide useful information.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:42 AM 0 comments

While initially received as definitive by a rapturous official press, the 9/11 Report has been overtaken by reality, not only because of unsatisfying content--like all "independent" government reports, it is fundamentally an apology and a coverup masquerading as an exposé--but because we now know more: more about the feckless invasion of Iraq, more about the occupation of Afghanistan and the purported hunt for Osama bin Laden, more about the post-9/11 stampede to repeal elements of the Bill of Rights, more about the rush to create the Department of Homeland Security, an agency to "prevent another 9/11," which, in retrospect, is plainly about cronyism, contracts, and Congressional boodle.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:37 AM 0 comments

The Dick Cheney shooting "accident" is now well into its second week of news domination - its time to ask the question, WHY?

As we have exposed over the past week, the official line on the incident is obviously flawed and multiple mysteries and discrepancies still surround the event. This, In addition to the underlying stupidity of it that continues to provide a hotbed of golden material for satirists, has ensured that the story has stuck around the front pages.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:32 AM 0 comments

From mugs and pens to expense-paid trips, the pharmaceutical industry's largess to doctors and hospitals has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. Now, a number of states want an even closer look.

At least nine states are considering bills that would require drugmakers to publicly report how much they and their sales representatives give to doctors, hospitals and pharmacists each year. A few proposals go further: A bill under debate in Massachusetts would ban all gifts to medical professionals from the drug industry.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:21 PM 0 comments

Depriving children of a loving family environment causes lasting damage to their intelligence, emotional wellbeing and even their physical stature, according to the most extensive study of social deprivation yet.

A lack of care and attention left children with stunted growth, substantially lower IQs and more behavioural and psychological problems than children who had been better cared for, according to the report at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in St Louis yesterday.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:36 PM 0 comments

An Austrian court sentenced historian David Irving to three years in prison on Monday for denying the Holocaust during a 1989 stopover in Austria, dismissing his argument that he had changed his views.

Irving pleaded guilty, hoping for a suspended sentence, but the Vienna criminal court concluded he was only making a pretence of acknowledging Nazi Germany's genocide against Jews in order to escape a jail term.

"The court did not consider the defendant to have genuinely changed his mind," presiding judge Peter Liebetreu told the court after pronouncing the sentence. "The regret he showed was considered to be mere lip service to the law."

# posted by madthumbs @ 3:21 PM 0 comments

Scientists at Keele University, Staffordshire, compared levels of the metals in the urine of people with MS and others without the condition.

Significantly higher levels than expected were found in both groups.

Experts said the research was interesting, but MS was a complex disease and more work was needed before a link could be confirmed.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:45 AM 0 comments

Mauri had a tough beginning, being sold by her parents to an Illuminati cult group as a child sacrifice.

At the age of three, offered up in a bathtub drowning, she miraculously survived, coming back from the dead on a slab in a Cedar City, Utah, morgue.

But from that day forward, death may have been a better alternative. It may have been better since Mauri's life became a living hell.

Now, at age 63, she wants to tell it all, telling all the grizzly details of her life filled with torture and sex slavery, since she fears the Illuminati, - whose Luciferian philosophy is based in torture and abuse - is now setting the American public up for fascist takeover.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:32 AM 0 comments

And from among at least a dozen recent, painful examples of how big business manages to protect itself from such wet-blanket considerations as the good of the public, I'd like to select one as a representative: the continued approval of the reliance by processed food and beverage manufacturers on the chemical aspartame.

As an artificial sweetener, one now being added to some 6,000 products, it is difficult for most Americans to not consume aspartame daily. Its safety (and clearing up any doubts about that safety) would seem to be of critical importance to millions of us. But any discussion of this topic has been postponed in New Mexico indefinitely-through influence exerted by representatives hired by the Japanese manufacturer of aspartame, the Ajinomoto Corporation.

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:26 AM 0 comments

RADIATION detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the “shock and awe” bombing campaign against Iraq, according to a report.

Environmental scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of information laws say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was carried by wind currents to Britain.

Government officials, however, say the sharp rise in uranium detected by radiation monitors in Berkshire was a coincidence and probably came from local sources.

The results from testing stations at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston and four other stations within a 10-mile radius were obtained by Chris Busby, of Liverpool University’s department of human anatomy and cell biology.

Each detector recorded a significant rise in uranium levels during the Gulf war bombing campaign in March 2003. The reading from a park in Reading was high enough for the Environment Agency to be alerted.

# posted by madthumbs @ 7:17 AM 0 comments

The Cancer Research Center of the European Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences in Bologna, Italy reported this week that a long-term study to evaluate the potential carcinogenic effects of aspartame demonstrates the chemical sweetener "induces an increase in lymphomas and leukemias in female rats." The research will be presented at a September international scientific conference, "Framing the Future in the Light of the Past: Living in a Chemical World."

Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock M.D. commented: "The new study released in the European Journal of oncology by Morando Soffritti and co-workers should terrify mothers and all those consuming aspartame sweetened products. This was a carefully done study which clearly demonstrated a statistically significant increase in several types of lymphomas and leukemias in rats. Both of these malignancies have increased significantly in this country since the widespread use of aspartame.

"This study confirmed the previous study by Dr. Trocho and co-workers, which also found the formaldehyde breakdown product of aspartame to be damaging to cellular DNA and that this damage was accumulative. The type of damage was a duplicate of that associated with cancers. Along with this most recent study, this means that drinking a single diet cola sweetened with aspartame every day could increase one's risk of developing a lymphoma or leukemia.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:52 PM 0 comments

Oyster cards, the "smart" little blue thing in London commuters' wallets that enable them to travel at will around the capital, have another, unexpected function. They could also be a one-way ticket to the divorce courts.

For the cards, introduced by the London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, in 2003, don't only let you on to public transport - they also record your every journey. And, private detectives and lawyers report, that is information the suspicious are accessing to track their partner's movements.

# posted by madthumbs @ 10:46 PM 0 comments

Scott Tooley, a Republican, and former Congressional aide and law school graduate, educated at renowned Christian universities, has filed suit against the President, Vice President and relevant federal agencies for their illegal surveillance programs.

According to the complaint, the Bush-Cheney Administration initiated numerous illegal and perpetual surveillance methods on Mr. Tooley and his family after he was incorrectly placed on the TSA's "selectee" or watch list.

Mr. Tooley's case is unique because the suit alleges the Bush Administration has used additional illegal surveillance methods on him in addition to the illegal wiretapping. Mr. Tooley is also the first Republican to file suit with regard to the Bush Administration's surveillance programs.

# posted by madthumbs @ 2:11 PM 0 comments

Twenty of the biggest chemical companies in the United States have launched a campaign to discredit two historians who have studied the industry's efforts to conceal links between their products and cancer. In an unprecedented move, attorneys for Dow, Monsanto, Goodrich, Goodyear, Union Carbide and others have subpoenaed and deposed five academics who recommended that the University of California Press publish the book Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner. The companies have also recruited their own historian to argue that Markowitz and Rosner have engaged in unethical conduct. Markowitz is a professor of history at the CUNY Grad Center; Rosner is a professor of history and public health at Columbia University and director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia's School of Public Health.

The reasons for the companies' actions are not hard to find: They face potentially massive liability claims on the order of the tobacco litigation if cancer is linked to vinyl chloride-based consumer products such as hairspray. The stakes are high also for publishers of controversial books, and for historians who write them, because when authors are charged with ethical violations and manuscript readers are subpoenaed, that has a chilling effect. The stakes are highest for the public, because this dispute centers on access to information about cancer-causing chemicals in consumer products.

# posted by madthumbs @ 11:22 AM 0 comments

Researchers at the North West Lung Centre, run by The University of Manchester and based at Wythenshawe Hospital, have discovered that vacuum cleaners with 'high-efficiency particulate air' or HEPA filters are no more effective than standard models at reducing exposure to dust-mites.

The team compared nasal air samples taken before and during vacuum cleaning using both HEPA and non-HEPA vacuum cleaners. They found a small increase in exposure to dust-mite during vacuuming with either type of machine, which was increased when emptying the dust compartments of either.

Lead investigator Dr Robin Gore said: "These vacuum cleaners are marketed to allergy-sufferers on the basis that they reduce a person's exposure to air-borne particles raised from carpeted floors. For allergy sufferers, such particles can trigger asthma attacks. However, we have already found that both HEPA- and non-HEPA vacuum cleaners can actually increase an individual's exposure to particles containing cat allergens.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:44 AM 0 comments

After ejaculation, sperm reside in the female reproductive tract for several hours. During this time, a number of biochemical changes take place within sperm, collectively known as "capacitation," that render the sperm competent to penetrate and fertilize the female oocyte.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:39 AM 0 comments

The BYU physics professor who claims the WTC fell from a controlled demolition and 9/11 was an inside government job now wants to organize a Watergate-type independent investigation in order to get at the illusive truth hidden by corrupt Washington Luciferian worshipping politician.

Coming from Utah and the LDS church, whose hierarchy is infested with satanic traditions and rituals, Professor Steven E. Jones is an unlikely candidate to be swinging the 9/11 truth torch, swinging it from the historically Masonic-Freemason BYU podium where these traditions have a long and storied background in the foundation of LDS principals.

Jones, however, appeared at first to be a straight-shooter but in the 9/11 truth movement, where deception is wielded with an unsteady sword, it has always been difficult to put the true finger on the real players and the real imposters.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:28 AM 0 comments

I have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I have dissociated states that I go into that can appear remarkably different from my usual demeanor. (Hey, it even freaks me out sometimes.) I "change" because being tortured and abused has a tendency to damage a person's personality and brain structure. Healing from trauma is not easy to do.

Trauma and past trauma can cause a person to slip into trance states, to cope with overwhelming emotional pain. I was a cutter. I could slice my arms with razors and knives until I saw the muscle underneath and not feel it at all. I was using physical pain to dull the far worse emotional pain in a situation where I had no-one to express this emotional pain to, no-one I could trust or who was capable of LISTENING to me.

To a religious zealot, that kind of pain suppression could look saintly or demonic, depending on the whim or beliefs of the congregation and appearance of my state at the time. Ignorance and zeal can do a lot of damage, and if you add a closed social institution with a shared belief system and it can get dangerous.

# posted by madthumbs @ 9:03 AM 0 comments

An Auckland University professor seconded to the Army set off a series of underwater explosions triggering mini-tidal waves at Whangaparaoa in 1944 and 1945.

Professor Thomas Leech's work was considered so significant that United States defence chiefs said that if the project had been completed before the end of the war it could have played a role as effective as that of the atom bomb.

Details of the tsunami bomb, known as Project Seal, are contained in 53-year-old documents released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:45 AM 0 comments

The world-famous restaurant with the golden arches isn't having a very good track record this year of telling the truth about what's in their French fries.

First, they were caught red-handed last week underestimating the amount of trans fats is their popular carb-loaded sticks.

Now, this Palm Beach Post story says they're in trouble again for misrepresenting the allergens contained in their fries and an upset parent and an activist vegan have filed lawsuits against them because of it.

Mark and Theresa Chimiak from West Palm Beach, Florida claim in their lawsuit filed on Friday that their little 5-year-old daughter named Annalise, who has celiac disease and is not allowed to consume anything that contains dairy or wheat products, became violently sick with complications from her gluten intolerance which affects her autoimmune system in addition to suffering from epileptic seizures and stomach ulcers after their family doctor told them the source of the gluten she consumed was the French fries from McDonald's.

"The family had checked and double-checked to make sure this product was safe for their child," the family attorney told reporters on Friday. "They were assured by McDonald's Web site and local restaurant managers that the product was gluten-free."

# posted by madthumbs @ 8:23 AM 1 comments