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Arab prisoners expose Press TV's role in extracting confessions under torture
By labadmin	May 21, 2012 August 22nd, 2019 No Comments
Justice for Iran: The first trail session of the 13 Arab political prisoners of Khalaf Abad (Ramshir) met this morning at the second branch of the Revolutionary Court in Ahvaz. Five months ago, the Iranian English speaking satellite stations, Press TV, introduced Hadi Rashedi and Hashem Sa'bani, two of the 13 individuals, as terrorists and members of armed groups. The TV station broadcast the images and names of the individuals while in today's session, the two called all the accusations lies and announced that they were forced to make the confessions under severe torture.
According to local sources, in 2010, Hadi Rashedi and Hashem Sha'bani were under severe torture in order to give information. The sources told JFI that the family of the accused were able to meet with them a few minutes before the court convened and said that Rashedi, who suffers from an ailment, suffered heavily from torture. His hip bone is shattered. Hadi Rashedi is a 38 year old chemistry instructor at Khalaf Abad (Ramshisr) High School.
Hashem Sha'bani, a 31 year old father of one girl, is a masters student of political science. He was tortured with boiling water and is in critical condition. When Press TV introduced Sha'bani and Rashedi as members of armed terrorist groups, the two individuals had not yet been tried anywhere. Under Iranian law, membership in armed terrorist groups carries a death penalty. Therefore, Press TV effectively issued the death sentence for the two individuals before they were even tried.
In its new announcement, Amnesty International expressed concern regarding the danger of execution for the 13 individuals tried today, including Rashedi and Sha'bani. Four other of the individuals are Mohammad Ali Amouri (weblogger), Rahman Assakereh (high school teacher), and two brothers by the names of Jaber and Seyyed Mokhtar Alboshoukeh. After months of detention at the Ministry of intelligence's detention center, the aforementioned are being held at Ahvaz's Karoun Prison. Amnesty International has requested immediate medical attention for the detainees. Local sources say that Jaber Alboshoukeh's jaw and a few teeth are broken as a result of torture and he has lost 10 kilos of weight. As a result of torture, Mokhtar Alboshoukeh is suffering from memory loss.
One family members of the detainees told JFI, "The attorneys of these six individuals have not been permitted to visit with their client or read the case file." This is while Press TV recorded and broadcast the confession of the detainees while they were in Intelligence Ministry's detention centre and had no access to their family or their attorneys. Prior to this, JFI issued "Cut! Take Press TV Off the Air," a report that demonstrates how Press TV satellite station records confession acquired under torture from prisoners with the collaboration of Ministry of Intelligence and Sepah Intelligence Office. None of the video confessions documented in the report were broadcast from Press TV with the verbal or written permission of the prisoner. Majority of the time the prisoner was coerced with promise of release and told that the video taping is done for internal or research use only never to be broadcast. This is while, according to Islamic Republic Law, the media do not have the right to broadcast the image and names of individuals accused of any crimes prior to their conviction and violators will be penalised.
In April 2005, a letter was released allegedly written by Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Secretary of the president of the time. It discussed choosing a policy regarding changing the population demographic of the Arab residing areas in the south of Iran. Widespread protest spread through the Arab residing areas of the south to be continuously and violently crushed by the Iranian government. A large number of Arab activists, including women, have been arrested since; numerous cases of lengthy imprisonment terms for women, along with their young children, have been reported. In one such case, Fahimeh Badavi, a 26 year old elementary school teacher, was 8 months pregnant when she was arrested on February 26, 2006 along with her husband Ali Matouri Zadeh. After her husband was executed, she was sentences to 15 years' imprisonment and is now serving her sentence in exile at Yasouj prison. Hoda Hashemi who was herself detained at the Intelligence Office's detention centre along with her 16 month old son, told JFI, "Without being transported to prison or given any equipment or assistance, Fahimeh Badavi delivered her daughter in her cell at the Ministry of Intelligence's detention centre, a fully male dominated location."
As a result of the new wave of arrests in the city of Shush and Ahwaz during last winter, at least two detainees names Naser Alboshoukeh Dorafshan and Mohammad Ka'abi were killed in detention. In March 2011, Reza Maghamesi was killed under torture in Dezful Prison. So far, no information has been given to the family members of the three about the individuals responsible for their death.
What the Arab detainees spoke of in prison regarding being tortured for the purpose of extracting false confessions once more proves collaboration of Press TV with the offices in charge of violating the rights of the political prisoners through recording and broadcasting the confessions.
Read more about this:
Justice For Iran Call-to-Action for Identifying those Responsible for the Murder of the Detainees in Khuzistan
http://justiceforiran.org/call-for-action/ahvaz/?lang=en
Press TV Violates the Rights of the Detainees in Khuzistan
http://justiceforiran.org/reports/presstv-khuzestan/?lang=en
Cut! Take Press TV off the Air
http://justiceforiran.org/reports/english-cut-take-press-tv-off-the-air/?lang=en
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tehranJune 25, 2020


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Nick Cannon stars in 'Miracles Across 125th Street', John Legend produces 'Phantom of the Opera' film, and more
December 13th, 2021 by KRNB
Courtesy VH1
As Nick Cannon continues to mourn the passing of his five-month-old son, Zen, he dropped the trailer for his new VH1 holiday movie, Miracles Across 125th Street. Nick directed, produced and stars in the film about a Harlem rapper who returns to his family's church after battling drug addiction.
As part of VH1's "Naughty or Nice" holiday programming, the movie also stars Lil Kim, Teyana Taylor, Chrisette Michele, Akon, Jim Jones, Kierra Sheard-Kelly, Tommy Davidson, Fred Hammond, Karen Clark Sheard, Marsha Warfield and more.
"I'm excited to bring all the uplifting elements of gospel, hip-hop and comedy together with such an inspiring and talented cast," the TV host said in a statement. Miracles Across 125th Street premieres on December 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on VH1.
In other news, John Legend is among the producers of a new film version of the horror classic Phantom of the Opera, simply titled Phantom, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Universal Pictures has picked up the project inspired by the silent film which premiered in 1925.
Finally, Keke Palmer is hosting the new competition series Foodtastic, premiering December 15 on Disney+. The show features food artists competing to create sculptures of Disney characters and objects from Disney films.
"We always see the food competition shows that are like, the food tastes good and this that and the third, but I'd never seen [one] where people are actually taking the food and making actual constructs and really turn it into this miraculous piece of art," Palmer tells Essence. As host, the 28-year-old Emmy winner will dress up as characters from the films Beauty of the Beast, Pirates of the Caribbean and more.
125th across cannon film legend Miracles Opera Phantom produces stars street
John Legend and Usher to perform at The Beloved Benefit honoring the late Congressman John Lewis Read More
Kanye West, Doja Cat, and Megan Thee Stallion among the stars performing at Coachella Read More
Silk Sonic's Anderson .Paak to appear on Thursday's episode of 'Sesame Street' Read More
Joseph Sikora stars in 'Power Book IV: Force' trailer; the late Michael K. Williams stars in 'Black Market' second season; and more Read More

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Thames & Hudson, 9780500239193, 224pp.
In Global Art Compass, Alistair Hicks demonstrates his belief that no single curator, critic, or dealer should monopolize our view of what is happening in the art world today, but that by listening to the artists themselves, we can gradually make out an ever-evolving web of patterns, relationships, and themes. Organized by continent and including extracts from interviews with artists from around the world, the book offers a fresh view of the contemporary art world through artists from France, Albania, Slovakia, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, The United States, China, India, and beyond. The range of artists whose work is explored includes Laure Prouvost, Anri Sala, Roman Ond k, Gabriel Orozco, Sandra Gamarra, Cai Guo-Qiang, and Nandan Ghiya, among many others.
The results of Hicks's approach clearly show that the preoccupations of artists in the 21st century are largely universal: that ever-faster communications are balanced by a resistance to globalization; that an awareness of the unprecedented complexity of our world is equaled by a rising skepticism of the systems that impose order on our lives; and that while art is seen by many as a commodity, it also has the power to be a regenerative tool.


Pakistan's exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will return home on 10 September to challenge President General Pervez Musharraf, he says.
Mr Sharif's announcement came as former PM Benazir Bhutto claims she is nearing a deal to share power with Gen Musharraf.
Correspondents have said Mr Sharif could still face jail if he goes home.
Mr Sharif said he planned to "start a decisive struggle against dictatorship", adding that Gen Musharraf should step down from the presidency and from his army post.


We are all expecting AMD to be announcing all things 7nm during Computex 2019 in the last week of May, but what I've been told my exclusive sources is that AMD might touch on its next-gen Navi GPU at Computex 2019 but will instead do a full announcement at E3 2019.
E3 2019 takes place a few weeks after Computex does, with E3 2019 taking place between June 12-14 in LA. AMD launched Radeon RX Vega graphics cards in LA back in 2017 alongside the first-gen Ryzen Threadripper, but unlike Vega… Navi will be a muhc better GPU architecture and from what I'm hearing about performance it'll also be surprising.
E3 2019 is the perfect time to launch t he most exciting card in Radeon history in years, as it's a total gaming-centric event. All eyes can be on Radeon, as Navi will also be powering the two next-gen consoles in the future Xbox and PlayStation 5 families.
As for performance I've heard that we are looking at it easily beating the Radeon RX Vega 64 and coming close to the RTX 2080, but NVIDIA will continue playing for keeps in the high-end graphics card market with its dominant GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. However, AMD doesn't need to hit that high on the first go so what about Navi 20, the successor to Navi 10 which will replace what we will see announced at E3 2019 and launched on 7/7.
Navi 20 will reportedly not be that much of an upgrade in performance of what is launched on 7/7 with the first-gen Navi graphics card, but this remains to be seen. If AMD can do a little damage with teh first-gen Navi then I can only see improvements from it going forward. But I think we'll see NVIDIA step into the 7nm stage with Ampere in the near future and that will definitely knock some things around.
Remember that in 18 months from now we'll be greeted with Intel's first discrete graphics card since the Intel i740 from all those years ago, and surely it will be on 7nm given that Intel has struggled on 10nm for so long now. Navi won't be enough to fight off NVIDIA let alone whatever Intel will have in 18 months so the post-Navi 20 product should be much better as it'll be the second post-GCN architecture from the company.
AMD's first post-GCN architecture is Navi which is where most of the improvements in performance comes from as it is an aging architecture, something Navi really changes up on its first go post-Polaris and Vega. I don't have any GPU-specific details to share other than the news of the launch at E3 2019 and its performance (beats Vega 64 and competes at times with the RTX 2080).
It should be a big deal as it'll be the first time in many, many years that AMD can be boldly proud of its GPU architecture. Polaris was a mid-range offering built for the current-gen Xbox One X and PS4/PS4 Pro while Vega was a write-off if you want to be honest, and built for Apple but never properly used and then chopped into parts (literally) and put out into various APUs by AMD and various Intel CPUs as on-board graphics.
Navi marks the largest change in AMD's GPU architecture in a long time, and for the first time in a while, we should begin to get a little excited. Especially if it's anything like the recent success the CPU division of AMD has gone through with Ryzen, Threadripper, and EPYC courtesy of the Zen CPU architecture.


Participants in the 2014 Dive Extravaganza pose for a group photograph.
A local club is diving into a May Long weekend event.
May 15, 16 and 17, the The Top Island Econauts Dive Club will be hosting its annual Weekend Dive Extravaganza at Telegraph Cove.
According to President Jackie Hildering, the Econauts have hosted the event at Telegraph Cove for more than 30 years.
"The May long weekend Dive Extravaganza is one of the very few remaining inter-club dive events in British Columbia," Hildering said.
By hosting six other BC dive clubs, the Extravaganza helps keep the culture of scuba diving in BC going.
"The event showcases the mind-blowing diving of our area and the funds raised from the raffle allow us to continue our socio-environmental efforts. The event normally hosts 60 visiting divers making for some 75 divers total," she said.
Participants for this year include the Aquarius Scuba Club (Esquimalt/Victoria); Duncan Divers; Coquitlam Scuba Club; Vancouver Pescaderos; Campbell River Tide Rippers and the hosting Top Island Econauts (Northern Vancouver Island).
The event kicks off Friday evening with a meet and greet and orientation event. There will be two dives on Saturday and two on Sunday.
The club is a non-profit society aimed at facilitating safe and ecologically-sound recreational diving on northern Vancouver Island. This is achieved through shared facilities and expertise.
The Top Island Econauts are dedicated to sharing their expertise and adhering to safe practices. The Club practises a strict "no touch, no take" approach and has a strong commitment to marine research and education.
In addition to diving, the club is also involved in the community.
They give out bursaries each year to local high school students continuing on in (marine) science-related studies and/or excelling in their efforts for the environment.
The club also provides marine education services such as giving presentations, having a presence at community events, holding an annual Ocean Day beach walk, and providing detailed educational content on their webpage.
They also offer a non-commercial voice for local diving which was a significant factor in Five Fathom Rock in Port Hardy being recognized as a Rockfish Conservation Area.
The Top Island Econauts Dive Club was established in 1975 to promote safe and environmentally-sound recreational diving on Northern Vancouver Island. They were incorporated on April 7, 1976.


It was wet and, with the wind, the rain swept down the field; it was also very heavy, with the hurling being heavy going as well, on an afternoon when Inagh-Kilnamona's dream of scaling the heights of Munster at Junior B level came unstuck.
In truth, they could have little to grumble about at the end of 60 minutes that left those on and the field tried and tested but, at the same time, the Clare side will see this two-point defeat to the Limerick champions as a real opportunity lost.
All because in pursuit of victory down the stretch, when they strained every sinew and battled so bravely into the elements, they just left it too late, allowing a mightily relieved Cappamore side limp over line to bring this Munster crown to the home of the All-Ireland champions.
At the three-quarter stage, it looked as if Cappamore would canter home. With wind advantage, they'd been imperious in the first 15 minutes of the half in building decisively on their interval lead of 0-5 to 0-4 by doubling their total.
They had the hurling, the physicality and, above all, the accuracy against an Inagh-Kilnamona side that was simply too profligate when opportunities knocked in the first half, when playing with the elements sweeping down the field.
When Inagh-Kilnamona roused themselves in the final 10 minutes, as veteran Dermot Gannon kickstarted their belated charge with a pointed free, they did manage to bring the contest to the wire. Ultimately, however, it wasn't enough as Cappamore scraped home.
The Limerick side would have been kicking themselves had they been hit for a goal at the death, as this was a game they had largely dominated and one in which they were never headed.
They'd put a real marker down in the opening quarter, taking to the difficult conditions much the better as they opened up a 0-4 to 0-1 lead, with Liam Creamer, Mark Treacy, Jack Walsh and Jamie McCarthy all on the mark from play, with a lone reply coming from a Dermot Gannon free.
With that, it looked as if the Clare champions would be in for a long afternoon, but not for the first time they battled away, with another point by Gannon in the 18th minute finally getting them going, before Cian Shannon and Thomas Barry found the target by the 25th minute, as they really warmed to their task that left just a point between them at the break.
Inagh-Kilnamona's cause was further bolstered just two minutes before the break, when Paul Keating made a brilliant save to deny Liam Creamer from a penalty that was awarded after Eamonn Moloney was upended just outside the small square.
It gave them great heart facing into the elements on the turnover but Cappamore turned the screw in the early stages, thanks to points from Conor O'Brien, Kevin Ryan and Donal O'Mahoney inside five minutes to open up a double scores advantage.
With 25 minutes remaining, it was as good as game over, especially when Liam Creamer and Jack Walsh brought Cappamore to double figures by the 40th minute.
They were winning all the physical battles, while their wide count was just five to Inagh-Kilnanmona's 10 and looked like coasting home until the Clare champions decided to throw caution to the wind.
Cian Shannon had been desperately unlucky not to hit the net six minutes in when his low drive had the keeper beaten, only to drift agonisingly wide of the left-hand post, but the spirit within the Inagh-Kilnanmona camp never flagged.
With that, a hat-trick of Dermot Gannon frees between the 50th and 55th minutes brought it back to a three-point game and a great escape was on the cards.
John Rynne was thrown in to the edge of the square and proved to be an effective targetman in the closing minutes, as Inagh-Kilnamona laid siege on a Cappamore defence that grew increasingly nervous.
Alas, after Damian Shaughnessy reduced the gap to two points entering injury time, the goal that would have propelled Inagh-Kilnamona over the line never came.


Preheat the oven to 425oF (400oF convection).
For the seasoning mix: In a medium bowl, combine all of the seasoning mix ingredients together and mix well. Place the seasoning mix in a tightly covered container (you will use 2 tablespoons of seasoning mix for each batch of four potatoes).
For the Game Day Savoury Potato Wedges: Scrub the potatoes well (do not peel). Dry the potatoes with a paper towel.
Cut each potato in half lengthwise. Cut each half into four wedges lengthwise. Repeat with the other potato half (eight wedges per potato). Place the wedges in a large bowl. Do the same with the remaining potatoes.
Add 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of olive oil and 2 tablespoons (20 g) of the Seasoning Mix to the potatoes.
Toss the potatoes well in the oil and seasoning mix.
Place the potato wedges on a parchment lined baking sheet upright (peeling side down), as shown in the photograph.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the potato wedges are golden and cooked through. CHEF TIP: Leave the potatoes upright without turning for the best result.
Serve with Dressed Up Sour Cream and ketchup.
CHEF TALK: This family favourite snack is gluten-free and preservative-free. The seasoning mix will make several batches of flavourful potatoes. It is a great way to feed a crowd.
The secret behind these delicious potato wedges comes from the Savoury Seasoning Blend. In this post, you will first learn how to make Savoury Potato Wedge Seasoning Mix and then, using some of the Savoury Seasoning Blend, make Game Day Savoury Potato Wedges for your next sports event.
If you try my recipe for Game Day Savoury Potato Wedges or Savoury Potato Wedge Seasoning Mix, please leave me a comment below with your feedback.
Your seasoning mix looks great! I like the way you've photographed it, too. Isn't it great how many uses there can be for a blend of seasonings once you've mixed it up! Thank you for a great gluten free snack recipe!
OOO! I love potato wedges! And so Does my daughter! It seems to be the only way she'll eat potato! I can definitely see these being on my appetizer hit list!
I love them too, Markus. I can't wait to hear how the little one likes them. Make sure to make the Dressed Up Sour Cream with them – it is a must! https://urbnspice.com/my-recipes/dressed-up-sour-cream/ Thanks so much for your comments.
Those look so delicious! I always buy potato wedges from the grocery store when I'm in a hurry, but never thought to make them. I can imagine just how much more healthy and delicious they'd be!
Thanks so much, Terri! If you trying making these at home, I believe you will never buy them again in the grocery store. And, no preservatives – just flavour 🙂 Let me know if you try them – I can't wait to hear how you enjoy them.
Yum! Great addition to the Superbowl Party menu for sure! I like your chef tip about not flipping them – I find this is a good method too!
Okay, fine. I'm not *that* clueless…but what I look forward to most is all the delicious game day recipes that come out around this time of year. Potato wedges are a delicious classic!


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Posts tagged 'mercury'
Should I Get the Flu Shot? Dr. Mark Hyman
by Mark Hyman, MD
While we are all trying to enjoy the change of seasons and soak up the beauty of fall, one question persists among the masses. Should I get the flu shot?
My team and I are constantly asked this question and while we can't give a blanket statement for the general public, I wanted to take the opportunity in today's blog to provide you with more information about the flu vaccine so you can make the best decision for you and your family with the help of your local medical doctor.
As a Functional Medicine physician I approach the flu, like all imbalances in the body, which is to say I don't assume the human body is subject to illness when the proper diet and lifestyle precautions are taken. When a patient is sick, some detective work is necessary to find out what missing pieces are interfering with the efficacy of their immune system.
My goal is to help every single one of you strengthen the integrity of your immune system so there is less risk of a virus affecting you, leaving you vulnerable to its aftermath of feeling sick and miserable.
See, when the immune system is compromised it has less ability to fight off the flu, or really any of the myriad viruses, bacteria or toxins we are perpetually faced with every minute of every day.
That is why my #1 priority is to help you support your immune system! In a previous year's discussion of the flu, I provided information about the steps I wanted you to take to balance your system and achieve a robust immunity.
You can review my suggestions for preventing the flu and enjoying excellent immunity here: Prevent the Flu. Personally, I always start with food because it is the best medicine.
Functional Medicine is not a one-size-fits-all approach- it is patient-centered and honors each of our individual medical needs.Why does the pharmaceutical industry proclaim that everyone 6 months of age and older should get vaccinated? For starters, Itake a look at how flu vaccines work.
The Vaccine:
Each year health officials inoculate this year's virus into chickens. Then, they take the created viral strains to use as the antigen-the agent which elicits an immune reaction in the human body so you create your own antibodies against the flu. Antibodies are the body's way of fighting an illness.
It takes about two weeks after you are vaccinated for your body to create these antibodies. We assume scientists match the vaccine to the exact flu strain going around. It's an educated guess essentially and the efficacy of the vaccine lies in our ability to match the two correctly.
You can still get the flu if you have been vaccinated if the strain you caught doesn't match that which was in your vaccine. And you can still get the flu even if the strains were properly matched but your immune system was not intact!
This grey area is why a lot of controversy exists about whether or not the flu vaccine is effective. To learn more about this, go to The CDC's "Flu View" for weekly updated surveillances on the flu: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/.
Egg proteins: Including avian contaminant viruses
Formaldehyde: Known carcinogen
Thimerosal: Mercury-based preservative (only in multi-dose vials)
Other heavy metals such as aluminum: Known neurotoxin
Sugar: The essence of all inflammatory disease
Triton X100: A detergent
Other additives known to cause allergic reactions
The biggest controversy about the ingredients in the shot surrounds the use of the preservative thimerosal. Thimerosal contains mercury. Exposure to mercury leads to systemic health problems running the gamut from neurological dysfunction (memory loss, confusion, inability to concentrate) to depression, renal failure, skin troubles and gastrointestinal disturbances.
I have written extensively on how grave a matter mercury and heavy metal toxicity is and why it is so important to screen forproper detoxification from heavy metal toxicity.
Pregnant women and infants are often advised to opt for the single dose mercury-free vaccines as once mercury is in the body it can enter the fetus via the placenta. Studies have also reported that children can become symptomatic from mercury toxicity from as little exposure as 10 mcg/kg/day.
Many vaccines contain up to 25 mcg of mercury per dose so this is one area where I will state how important it is to look for a mercury-free vaccines. Here are some options to ask your doctor about:
Types of Vaccines Available:
Single-dose vaccines such as Fluzone: Contains a purified, inert virus that is incapable of causing infection and tends to be free of mercury.
Nasal spray such as FluMist: Contains a small amount of a weakened live virus which might make this form slightly more effective but also poses a higher risk for side effects and complications. These are mercury-free. Not for pregnant women or children 6-24 months.
Some pre-filled syringes such as Afluria are mercury-free.
Multi-dose vaccines tend to contain the most mercury.
If mercury is such a problem, then why are we even using it? Mercury is part of the preservative necessary when using multi-dose vaccines. The single-dose vaccine doesn't require the preservative which is why this vaccine is preferred. It is also the least cost-effective for manufacturers to produce so until this changes. YOU, the consumer, need to advocate for yourself.
How Safe is the Flu Vaccine?
While the CDC reports that safety is always being monitored to ensure risk from the vaccine is negligible, certain serious complications have been reported:
Allergic reactions (anaphylactic)
Guillain-Barre Syndrome (can be fatal)
Always contact your local physician if you suspect any serious complications post injection.
While not everyone necessarily needs to get vaccinated, especially if you are generally healthy and follow my advice about boosting your immune system with a whole foods diet and an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, there are still some people that might want to consider it.
The CDC recommends the following people for receiving the flu vaccine: Health-care workers with direct patient contact, pregnant women, caregivers of children younger than 6 months, and children and adults under age 24.
Ideal Candidates for the Vaccine:
Immuno-compromised patients
Heart disease patients
Morbidly obese
Why Do We Get Sick?
Why do we get the flu in the first place? Why is the integrity of our immune system compromised? What changes can we make in order to prevent illness from taking hold rather than suffer its nasty consequences?
Why confuse ourselves about the pros and cons of a vaccine's worth, safety, and availability when we have so much in our medicinal arsenal to fight the flu's onset?
Preventing the flu depends on improving the quality of our lifestyles to include more pleasure and relaxation, increasing access to fresh, nutrient-dense food, and limiting sugary and industrial junk food in our lives.
Taking care of the way we eat, keeping fit, getting enough sleep and taking a few nutritional supplements including a multivitamin, fish oil, and vitamin D can prevent most from ever getting sick in the first place. In fact I have never had the flu even though, as a doctor, I am in contact with it on a regular basis.
The influenza virus can be very uncomfortable and cause a major disruption in our busy lives. It is important to remember that most healthy people will suffer a mere 3-5 days.
While the fever/chills, sore throat, headache, and fatigue are definitely not fun, they usually come and go without much major harm caused to the body.
In fact, most deaths are only associated with the flu via contraction of pneumonia and its influence on existing medical conditions. The flu's mortality rate itself is much less common-in fact, more people die each year from malnutrition than from the flu!
So do yourself a favor and pay attention to your vitamin D status, optimize your diet by focusing on antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, eat lean and clean protein and healthy anti-inflammatory fats from fish, nuts, and seeds, and healthy olive, grape seed, and coconut oils.
Stay well hydrated, practice common sense hygiene, and create time to rest and restore your energy. And of course get outside and enjoy all that nature has to offer this season!
Wishing you and your loved ones a happy and healthy flu-season.
Please leave your thoughts by adding a comment below – but remember, we can't offer personal medical advice online, so be sure to limit your comments to those about taking back our health!
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, MD
About Mark Hyman, MD
MARK HYMAN, MD is dedicated to identifying and addressing the root causes of chronic illnessthrough a groundbreaking whole-systems medicine approach called Functional Medicine. He is a family physician, a four-time New York Times bestselling author, and an international leader in his field. Through his private practice, education efforts, writing, research, and advocacy, he empowers others to stop managing symptoms and start treating the underlying causes of illness, thereby tackling our chronic-disease epidemic. More about Dr. Hyman or on Functional Medicine. Click here to view all Press and Media Releases
View all posts by Mark Hyman, MD →
http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/10/23/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/?utm_source=WhatCounts+Publicaster+Edition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=drhyman+newsletter+issue+%2397&utm_content=Get+the+story
Cholesterol, Diabetes, Health, Health Experts, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Obesity
Afluria
anaphylactic
avian contaminant viruses
FluMist
Guillain Barre Syndrome
themerosal
triton x100
The Hidden Risks in This Heavily Promoted Seasonal Routine…
Thimerosal, a widely used vaccine preservative that metabolizes to ethylmercury, contains close to 50% mercury by volume—and mercury is a well-known neurotoxin. Based on the amount of mercury in a standard flu shot, you have to weigh over 265 pounds in order for this exposure to mercury to be safe according to EPA guidelines
Getting your flu vaccination at a local pharmacy compounds the risks to your health, as most pharmacists are not trained or equipped to respond to acute adverse events that may occur after vaccination or follow-up on people they have vaccinated and report vaccine reactions to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS)
The flu vaccine may pose an immediate risk to your cardiovascular system due to the fact that vaccines provoke an acute inflammatory response in the body that can become chronic in some individuals
The inflammatory response is a MAJOR concern in pregnant women, as stimulating a woman's immune system during pregnancy can increase health risks for the pregnant woman and some researchers think that it increases risks that the baby will develop neurological dysfunction anywhere from 7 to 14-fold! Other adverse perinatal health outcomes also have an inflammatory component, including preeclampsia and preterm birth
By Dr. Mercola
Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) is not contagious.
It is an autoimmune disorder that develops when a person's own immune system attacks and damages the myelin sheath of the body's nerves, causing muscle weakness and paralysis.
GBS symptoms can last for a few weeks or months or can become permanent.
In rare cases, people die from GBS, usually because they cannot breathe.
In the U.S., an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people develop GBS annually.
Some healthy people, who develop GBS, have recently recovered from a viral or bacterial infection within the previous 4-8 weeks but others have recently been vaccinated.
The inactivated influenza vaccine has been associated with development of GBS since 1976, when an inactivated "swine flu" shot given to millions of healthy Americans caused GBS in several hundred previously healthy Americans and there were 30 deaths.
The CDC says: "In 1976 there was a small increased risk of GBS following vaccination with an influenza vaccine made to protect against a swine flu virus. The increased risk was approximately 1 additional case of GBS per 100,000 people who got the swine flu vaccine. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) conducted a thorough scientific review of this issue in 2003 and concluded that people who received the 1976 swine influenza vaccine had an increased risk for developing GBS.
Scientists have multiple theories on why this increased risk may have occurred, but the exact reason for this association remains unknown."
Early symptoms of GBS include sudden muscle weakness, fatigue and tingling sensations in the legs that can take days or weeks to spread to the arms and upper body and can become painful, eventually ending with either partial or total paralysis.
When there is total paralysis, GBS becomes life-threatening because it can impair breathing and interfere with the heart rate and cause high or low blood pressure that can lead to serious complications, such as heart attack and stroke.
It is important to recognize the early symptoms of GBS, whether you have been vaccinated or not, and seek immediate medical care.
Powerful Profile of a Vaccine Victim
While infants and young children are at greatest risk, NO ONE is exempt from the potential serious complications of vaccination, one of which is GBS.
In the video profile of vaccine injury above, Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the non-profit National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), interviews a Connecticut artist and her mother, a former professor of nursing, who developed Guillaine-Barre syndrome after getting a seasonal flu shot in 2008 and today is permanently disabled with total body paralysis. This family has chosen to share their heartbreaking story to help those, who have had the same experience, feel less alone, and to educate others about what it means to be vaccine injured. What happened to this family is a potent reminder of just how important it is to make well-informed decisions about vaccinations.
Getting Flu Shot at Pharmacy is a Risky Proposition
While many have become used to vaccines being considered "routine," there's really nothing routine about them. Each and every vaccine carries an inherent risk of causing a reaction, injury or death that can be greater for some individuals than others. The seasonal flu vaccine is no exception when it comes to serious health risks, both short- and long-term, for some people. This is why the trend of getting your flu shot at the local drugstore, grocery store or other non-medical setting is so troubling.
According to a recent article in NPR:
"In 2010, 18.4 percent of adults who were immunized received the flu vaccine at a supermarket or drugstore, just edging out workplace vaccinations for the second most popular venue, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
… [W]hile more people are going to the pharmacy, the number of Americans who get the flu vaccine each year has remained fairly constant at about 40 percent of all adults. Drugstores and supermarket pharmacies are eager to stake out a bigger piece of that market. Nationwide, the number of pharmacists trained to deliver vaccines has nearly quadrupled since 2007, from 40,000 to 150,000."
While pharmacists are trained to administer the vaccine, they're not necessarily trained to address a sudden and life threatening health emergency that may arise after the shot is given. It's important to understand that ALL vaccines carry a risk for provoking an acute adverse reaction, such as fainting or having a seizure, which could be truly life threatening if you're driving a car or crossing a street after you have left the store, for example.
All Vaccines Suppress Your Immune System
Vaccines can also be immune suppressive—that is, they can suppress your immune system, which may not return to normal for weeks to months. Here are just some of the ways vaccines can impair and alter your immune response:
Some components in vaccines are neurotoxic and may depress your immune response or cause brain and immune dysfunction, particularly heavy metals such as mercury preservatives and aluminum adjuvants
The lab altered vaccine viruses themselves may also affect your immune response in a negative way
Vaccines may alter your t-cell function and lead you to become chronically ill
Vaccines can trigger allergies or autoimmune disorders. Vaccines introduce large foreign protein molecules into your body. Your body can respond to these foreign particles in a way that causes an allergic reaction or triggers autoimmunty, especially in persons genetically or biologically vulnerable to allergy and autoimmunity
The flu vaccine may also pose an immediate risk to your cardiovascular system due to the fact that they elicit an inflammatory response. One 2007 study published in the Annals of Medicine concluded that:
"Abnormalities in arterial function and LDL oxidation may persist for at least two weeks after a slight inflammatory reaction induced by influenza vaccination. These could explain in part the earlier reported increase in cardiovascular risk during the first weeks after an acute inflammatory disorder."
Mercury is a Well-Known Neurotoxin
Thimerosal, which is 49 percent mercury by volume, is a widely used vaccine preservative.
It is present in many different vaccines used in the U.S., including the majority of seasonal flu vaccines, although there are a few million doses of thimerosal-free single dose vials of influenza vaccine manufactured by drug companies that are supposed to be reserved for infants and pregnant women.
However if you are pregnant or have an infant and want to get a flu shot, be aware that you may have to specifically insist on getting the thimerosal-free single vial version as many health practitioners and pharmacists are still clueless about the health risks associated with thimerosal.
Some don't even know that thimerosal is a mercury derivative!
A typical dose of thimerosal-containing flu vaccine contains 25 micrograms thimerosal. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the safe limit for human exposure to mercury is 0.1 mcg per kilo of weight per day.
Since almost half of the thimerosal is mercury, this means that each flu shot contains just over 12 mcg's of mercury, which would be considered unsafe for anyone weighing less than 120 kilos, or just under 265 pounds.
There's really no debate about whether or not mercury is a neurotoxin. It's a well-established fact that it is. It's also well understood that mercury is particularly damaging to young, developing brains, and this is one of the core concerns about vaccines. If it'sunsafe to breathe or ingest mercury, why would it suddenly become harmless when injected directly into your body, bypassing all of your body's natural detoxification pathways?
If anything, the damage is likely to be far more profound! The following video offers a powerful illustration of how mercury literally destroys brain neurons.
Why Did Vaccine Maker Fail to Reveal Massive Increase in Reactions?
On October 18, The Australian published an article questioning the omission of research showing a dramatic uptick in side effects from the flu vaccine in 2006. As you may recall, last year, Australia temporarily suspended all seasonal flu vaccinations for children under the age of five after noticing a 200 percent increase in unusual fevers and convulsions. At that time, CSL submitted updated research from 2006 showing a sharp rise in fevers linked to its vaccine, which they had omitted from the legally required product information sheets given to doctors.
The product sheets instead listed figures from 2005.
The 2005 information showed 22.5 per cent of children under three, and nearly 16 percent of children aged three to nine experienced fever as a side effect. Meanwhile the updated figures for 2006 showed the rate of unusual fevers had nearly DOUBLED, to 39.5 percent in children up to three, and 27 percent for three to nine-year olds.
According to The Australian:
"Both sets of results were published in 2009, but CSL has still not included the more alarming set of figures in the product information. The Medical Journal of Australia reported… that CSL did not give this information to Australia's drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, until last year when the spate of serious febrile convulsions in young children given the annual flu jab triggered a suspension on the use of such vaccines for children under five."
The CSL's explanation for the omission is that they didn't think the 2006 figures were "clinically substantially different" to the 2005 figures. Really? If a doubling of side effects is not substantially and clinically different, then what is?
Was Blend of Flu Viruses to Blame for Increase in Adverse Effects?
CSL now claims to have pinpointed the potential problem causing their H1N1 vaccine (Fluvax) to be so much more reactive than seasonal flu vaccines of the past. According to a September 3 article in The Australian:
"CSL followed World Health Organisation recommendations when it concocted its controversial Fluvax vaccine, which combined swine flu with two seasonal strains of influenza for the first time… CSL yesterday revealed a breakthrough in its 18-month scientific investigation… It said the interim findings pointed to a problem with how the three virus strains interacted.
"Our scientific studies indicate that the interaction between the particular virus strains used in the 2010 . . . vaccine contributed to the reactions, but we are still working to understand the how and why," a CSL spokeswoman told The Weekend Australian. "We have completed comprehensive investigations into our manufacturing operations (which) have not identified any change or deviation in our standard registered manufacturing process that could have contributed to the increased reactions.""
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has rebutted CSL's conclusions stating that:
"None of the other manufacturers have seen the same sort of effects with these strains," Dr [Ian] Barr [deputy director of the WHO's influenza research laboratory in Melbourne] said. He ruled out testing the WHO's flu-shot recipe — which tends to change each year — before new vaccines were used on people. "It's just not possible because this is more or less a just-in-time vaccine," he said."
Both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Australian counterpart, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), have blamed the problem on manufacturing deficiencies, poor management, and inadequate cleaning and testing at the CSL facility. According to The Australian:
"The TGA said yesterday different manufacturing processes could explain why only CSL's vaccine caused such widespread side-effects in children last year."While the different brands of seasonal influenza vaccines use the same strains of virus, there are differences in manufacturing processes that may result in differences in the biology of the vaccines," an administration spokeswoman said.
Finland Vows to Pay for Lifetime Medical Care for Kids Harmed by H1N1 Vaccine
The 2009-2010 H1N1 swine flu vaccine wreaked uncommon havoc in many countries. For example, several European countries noticed a staggering uptick in narcolepsy —a rare and devastating sleeping disorder. Unfortunately, vaccine makers are completely shielded from liability for any harm caused by a pandemic vaccine, which is what the H1N1 flu vaccine was, so the fact that this vaccine turned out to be so harmful is a red flag for everyone to carefully weigh potential benefits and risks, and not trust blindly when health officials and doctors give standard assurances of vaccine safety and effectiveness.
In a rare and welcome demonstration of compassion and respect for the vaccine injured, the Finnish government and major health insurance companies recently announced they will pay for lifetime medical care for all the children diagnosed with narcolepsy after receiving the swine flu vaccine.
As reported by Yahoo News:
"Finnish and international researchers recently found a conclusive link between the Pandemrix swine flu vaccine and new cases of narcolepsy… The Finnish Pharmaceutical Insurance Pool (LVP), which represents insurance companies, said… it would honor all insurance claims in this category… The Finnish government meanwhile agreed to cover any medical costs exceeding the insurance claims.
In Finland, 79 children between the ages of four and 19 developed narcolepsy after receiving the Pandemrix vaccine in 2009 and 2010. Of these cases, an unusually high number, 76, also suffered from bouts of cataplexy, suffering hallucinations or paralysing physical collapses, according to Finnish research."
Flu Vaccine for Pregnant Women Now Called into Question
In the U.S., trivalent influenza vaccination is universally recommended for all pregnant women, but a new study now calls this practice into question. The study examined "the magnitude, time course, and variance in inflammatory responses following seasonal influenza virus vaccination among pregnant women." The women were assessed prior to, and at one day, two days, and one week following vaccination..
The analysis showed significant increases in C-reactive protein (CRP) and other markers of inflammation following the vaccinations. According to the authors:
"Trivalent influenza virus vaccination elicits a measurable inflammatory response among pregnant women … There was considerable variability in magnitude of response; coefficients of variation for change at two days post-vaccination ranged from 122 percent to 728 percent, with the greatest variability in IL-6 responses at this timepoint.
… As adverse perinatal health outcomes including preeclampsia and preterm birth have an inflammatory component, a tendency toward greater inflammatory responding to immune triggers may predict risk of adverse outcomes, providing insight into biological mechanisms underlying risk… further research is needed to confirm that the mild inflammatory response elicited by vaccination is benign in pregnancy."
Are Flu Vaccines Increasing Inflammation in Pregnant Women to Dangerous Levels?
The issue of inflammation is very important, and may be a crucial concern for pregnant women and infants. Pregnant women experiencing acute inflammation, whether from natural infection or from a vaccination, may well suffer an increased risk of their unborn child suffering health damage as a result.
It has always been a principle in medicine that one should not expose pregnant women to unnecessary risks from smoking or ingesting drugs or alcohol or other toxins because the risk to the unborn child is too great. Until a decade ago, most women were not routinely advised by doctors to get vaccinated during pregnancy but, today, there is a big push by the CDC and medical trade organizations to vaccinate all pregnant women in any trimester. The really big push began in earnest during the much-hyped pandemic "swine flu" influenza scare of 2009, a flu that turned out to be less severe than most annual "flu seasons."
Researchers are now questioning the assumed safety of giving flu shots to pregnant women because stimulating a woman's immune system during midterm and later term pregnancy may significantly increase the risk that her baby will develop autism during childhood and schizophrenia sometime during the teenage years and afterward. This risk is not minor. According to Dr. Blaylock, it's a well-accepted fact within neuroscience that eliciting an immune response during pregnancy increases the risk of autism and schizophrenia in her offspring seven- to 14-fold!
In fact, a number of neurodevelopmental and behavioral problems can occur in babies born to women immunologically stimulatedduring pregnancy. For example, in one study done by Dr. Laura Hewitson, a professor of obstetrics at the University of Pittsburg Medical Center, found that a single vaccine used in human babies, when used in newborn monkeys, caused significant abnormalities in brainstem development.
It's true that serious flu infections or E. coli infections during pregnancy are a major risk for all these complications, but a woman's risk of actually becoming infected is quite small.
Two years ago, I interviewed Dr. Blaylock, a board certified neurosurgeon and author of Excitotoxins: the Taste that Kills, on this topic. At the time, we were discussing the swine flu and H1N1 vaccine, but one particular segment relates to the issue of vaccinations during pregnancy in general. As stated above, vaccines elicit an inflammatory response, and according to Dr. Blaylock, this is of considerable concern for pregnant women.
Based on the data Dr. Blaylock shared in that interview, pregnant women had about a 99.97 percent chance of NOT becoming so ill from the swine flu that they would require any type of hospital care. Put another way, a pregnant woman only had a 0.03 percent chance of contracting a life-threatening case of influenza. These statistics would likely be applicable for most "regular" flu seasons as well. With the risk of suffering complications from naturally-acquired influenza being so low, why is the US government insisting on vaccinating ALL pregnant women; thereby significantly increasing the risk to ALL unborn infants?
What Your Obstetrician Doesn't Know about Vaccines Can Jeopardize Your Baby
Each year, the CDC and medical trade associations like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) urge pregnant women and young children to get a flu shot because, they say, pregnant women and young children are "particularly at risk" for flu complications and death. However, the statistics simply do not support this recommendation.
Neither does the science…
Unfortunately, many obstetricians and pediatricians strongly recommend the flu vaccine to their pregnant patients because they simply don't know any better.
Doctors typically do not read neuroscience journals, perhaps because they don't have the time or because it is a lot easier to just blindly trust and follow the CDC or AAP "recommendations" without every checking them out. But the link between inflammatory cytokine production during pregnancy and subsequent health problems in infants and young children is well explained in the medical literature; it's been published in well-respected journals and is already accepted within the field of neuroscience.
How to Protect Yourself Against the Flu Without Vaccination
Fortunately, avoiding a serious case of the flu doesn't require a flu vaccine. By following these simple guidelines, you can keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you're far less likely to acquire the infection to begin with or, if you do get sick with the flu, you are better prepared to move through it without complications and soon return to good health.
Optimize your vitamin D levels. As I've previously reported, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency is likely the TRUE culprit behind the seasonality of the flu — not the flu virus itself. This is probably the single most important and least expensive action you can take. Regularlymonitor your vitamin D levels to confirm your levels are within the therapeutic range of 50-70 ng/ml.
Ideally, you'll want to get all your vitamin D from sun exposure or a safe tanning bed, but as a last resort you can take an oral vitamin D3 supplement. According to the latest review by Carole Baggerly (Grassrootshealth.org), adults need about 8,000 IU's a day.
Avoid Sugar and Processed Foods. Sugar impairs the function of your immune system almost immediately, and as you likely know, a healthy immune system is one of the most important keys to fighting off viruses and other illness. Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice.
Get Enough Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you're tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu. Be sure to check out my article Guide to a Good Night's Sleep for some great tips to help you get quality rest.
Have Effective Tools to Address Stress . We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness. If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique, which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma.
Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads.
Take a Good Source of Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health. It is also vitally important to avoid damaged omega-6 oils that are trans fats and in processed foods as it will seriously damage your immune response.
Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don't use antibacterial soap for this — antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to.
Use Natural Antibiotics. Examples include colloidal silver, oil of oregano, and garlic. These work like broad-spectrum antibiotics against bacteria, viruses, and protozoa in your body. And unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics, they do not appear to lead to resistance.
Avoid Hospitals. I'd recommend you stay away from hospitals unless you're having an emergency and need expert medical care, as hospitals are prime breeding grounds for infections of all kinds. The best place to get plenty of rest and recover from illness that is not life-threatening is usually in the comfort of your own home.
What You Can Do to Make a Difference
While it seems "old-fashioned," the only truly effective actions you can take to protect the right to informed consent to vaccination and expand vaccine exemptions, is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community.
THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.
Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact.
Signing up for NVIC's free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org not only gives you access to practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community, but when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips to make sure your voice is heard.
So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.
Write or email your elected state representatives and share your concerns. Call them, or better yet, make an appointment to visit them in person in their office. Don't let them forget you!
It is so important for you to reach out and make sure your concerns get on the radar screen of the leaders and opinion makers in your community, especially the politicians you elect and are directly involved in making vaccine laws in your state. These are your elected representatives, so you have a right and a responsibility to let them know what's really happening in your life and the lives of people you know when it comes to vaccine mandates. Be sure to share the "real life" experiences that you or people you know have had with vaccination.
Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know
If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, please talk about it. If we don't share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.
I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the "other side" of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.
We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than "statistically acceptable collateral damage" of national one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn't be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.
Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More
I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:
NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or government officials for making independent vaccine choices.
Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One that Will Listen and Care
If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.
However, there is hope.
At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.
So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/31/flu-vaccination-epa-safety-limit-for-mercury.aspx
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Mercury Contamination in Corn Syrup?
You've got to see this, especially the classic ads for sugar and lard!
Fifty different brands of high fructose corn syrup containing foods were tested for mercury.
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Mercury Testing Recommended Before Pregnancy
Recent testing of mercury concentrations in three national brands of canned tuna found that "55% of all tuna examined was above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's safety level for human consumption." And the problem appears to be getting worse. Previous studies on canned tuna, in 1993 and 2004, showed concerning levels of mercury contamination, but not as bad as it is now. See my profile of the paper in my 2-min. videoWhich brand of tuna has the most mercury?
Given the average level of mercury pollution found in canned tuna, researchers suggest that your average 9 year old would exceed the EPA limit even if they only ate a can of tuna every 6 weeks! They conclude: "These results indicate that stricter regulation of the canned tuna industry is necessary to ensure the safety of sensitive populations such as pregnant women, infants, and children."
Some question whether the federal safety limits are even sufficiently protective. A recent review from researchers at Harvard and elsewhere on the adverse effects of mercury in fish proposed that the exposure limits set in the United States should be cut in half. Already, current regulations in the United States allow up to 10 times as much mercury in fish as the EPA limit allows, and so our fish is allowed to have 20 times more mercury than may be considered safe.
Because the EPA safety limit on mercury in fish may not sufficiently protect pregnant women in the United States, a recommendation has been put forth that fish-eating women may want to get tested for mercury before considering getting pregnant. It's a simple test. Since mercury basically contaminates our whole body, all they need is a hair sample. See more details in my 2-min. video Hair Testing for Mercury Before Consider Pregnancy.
Studies on children of the neurobehavioral toxicity of mercury suggest that no level of mercury exposure can truly be considered safe, but pressure from the fish industry may be preventing safety limits from dropping further. In my video Nerves of Mercury I profile a famous study published in the Journal of Pediatrics showing brain damage in adolescents at below the mercury limits placed on fish in this country. As one former EPA toxicologist told theWall Street Journal, "They really consider the fish industry to be their clients, rather than the U.S. public."
Mercury is not just a problem for children. Mercury and other toxic pollutants in fish is thought to be why the consumption of dark fish (such as salmon, swordfish, bluefish, mackerel, and sardines) may increase one's risk of atrial fibrillation, an irregularity of heart beat rhythm associated with stroke, dementia, heart failure, and a shortened lifespan. See my 2-min. video Red Fish, White Fish; Dark Fish, Atrial Fibrillation. Also check out Fish Fog, which discusses the link between fish consumption and neurobehavioral abnormalities in adults. For more information on industrial pollutants in fish, see Xenoestrogens & Sperm Counts and Fish Intake Biomarker.
There are also natural toxins that can bioaccumulate up the aquatic food chain. See my 2-min. video Amnesic Seafood Poisoning about a rare toxin called domoic acid. It can turn up in tuna and other seafood and can cause anterograde amnesia, the loss of short-term memory popularized in the movie Memento. Even drugs can build up in fish. In my 1-min. video A Fine Kettle of Fluoxetine, I follow up on my earlier video Prozac Residues in Fish about the occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in fish fillets.
For more on canned tuna specifically, see Carcinogenic Putrescine, The Effect of Canned Tuna on Future Wages,Amalgam Fillings vs. Canned Tuna, and Mercury in Vaccinations vs. Tuna.
Fish aren't the only source of toxic heavy metals, though. Mercury has been found in both high fructose corn syrup-containing products (see Mercury in Corn Syrup?) and Ayurvedic dietary supplements (Get the Lead Out).
-Michael Greger, M.D.
http://nutritionfacts.org/2012/07/27/mercury-testing-recommended-before-pregnancy/?utm_source=NutritionFacts.org&utm_campaign=01e5f60041-RSS_BLOG_DAILY&utm_medium=email
Image credit: veer66 / Flickr
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New CRISPR-Combo Boosts Genome Editing Power in Plants | College of Agriculture & Natural Resources at UMD
Ten years ago, a new technology called CRISPR-CAS9 made it possible for scientists to change the genetic code of living organisms. As revolutionary as it was, the tool had its limitations.
Like the first cell phones that could only perform one function, the original CRISPR method can perform one function: removing or replacing genes in a genetic sequence. Later iterations of CRISPR were developed for another function that allowed scientists to change gene expression by turning them on or off, without removing them from the genome. But each of these functions could only be performed independently in plants. Now, scientists from the University of Maryland's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources have developed CRISPR-Combo, a method to edit multiple genes in plants while simultaneously changing the expression of other genes. This new tool, developed with support from USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will enable genetic engineering combinations that work together to boost functionality and improve breeding of new crops.
Top Photo: On the left: poplar sprouts containing CRISPR-edited genes. On the right, poplar sprouts with the same CRISPR edit plus gene enhancements to improve growth. Photo courtesy of the University of Maryland.
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PWD recognized as 'District of Distinction and Transparency'
by The AV Times Staff • September 29, 2015
Palmdale Water District board members showcase their awards. [L to R] Joe Estes, secretary; Kathy Mac Laren, president; Gloria Dizmang, treasurer; Robert E. Alvarado, vice president; Vincent Dino, director. [contributed]
PALMDALE – The Palmdale Water District has received "District of Distinction" accreditation from the Special District Leadership Foundation (SDLF) for its sound fiscal management policies and practices in district operations. The agency was also awarded the "Transparency Certificate of Excellence" for its exceptional efforts to promote transparency and good governance.
Specific criteria must be met in order to achieve this standard, including an audit review of the last three years of the District's operations to ensure prudent fiscal practices; educational training in public governance, ethics and harassment prevention; and ensuring a spirit of openness by posting election procedures and deadlines, Board meeting schedules and agendas, the current District budget, most recent financial audit, and a listing of compensation to Board members and staff or a link to the State Controller's webpage with the same data.
"Our District Board has worked tirelessly to ensure that we, as Board members, are educated in proper and open governance to ensure that our customers have the ability to easily communicate any concerns to the District and that all District information is available to the community," said Kathy Mac Laren, Palmdale Water District Board President. "We expect ourselves to operate at a high level in order to provide our customers with the best and most cost-effective water we can."
The PWD produces, on average, 6.83 billion gallons of water per year and maintains over 400 miles of pipe, 24 wells, 20 tanks, two reservoirs and a state-of-the-art treatment plant. Reinvestment into the District's infrastructure has significantly reduced leaks and water waste and has assisted in keeping water rates low, while not impacting local property values. In 2010, the District reported 781 water main leaks alone. Comparatively, through August 2015, only 85 have been reported and fixed.
A recent survey of monthly residential water rates based upon similar production levels at 11 statewide water agencies shows that an average monthly bill ($46.87) for a four person household in Palmdale is significantly lower than most others reviewed. Additionally, the recent State-of-the-City address featured a rise in property values by 8.3 percent, even in the midst of the on-going drought and State mandated watering restrictions.
"The District has been focused during these difficult times on keeping rates low, continuing to provide clean, high quality water and, further, becoming an open and professional partner within the Palmdale community," said Joe Estes, Director of the Palmdale Water District Board. "We are proud to have received these prestigious awards, but as our community continues to make sacrifices to reduce water use, due to the State of California's mandates, our Board, our District, and all PWD employees will continue to help make those sacrifices a little easier."
SDLF review committee members include district controllers, directors of finance and certified general managers. The independent, nonprofit organization was formed to promote good governance and best practices among California's special districts through certification, accreditation and other recognition programs.
The Water District is asking the community to continue pushing to conserve water. Residents should only water outside on Wednesdays and Saturdays, before 10 a.m. and after 6 p.m., and report water waste or watering at non-designated times by calling 661-456-1099 or emailing waste@palmdalewater.org.
For more information on the Palmdale Water District's watering restrictions, visit www.palmdalewater.org.
[Information via news release from the Palmdale Water District.]
Filed Under: Business, Palmdale


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Tribal groups unite against rising killings
Indigenous people face ever increasing violence
ucanews.com reporter, Manila
Published: November 13, 2012 08:48 AM GMT
Indigenous peoples' groups in the Philippines yesterday joined together to launch a new network to combat what they say is rising violence against their diverse peoples. Named 'Stop Killings of Indigenous Peoples' Network', the grouping blamed an escalation in land grabbing by mining firms, plantation owners and dam companies as a leading cause of extra-judicial killings of tribal people in the Philippines. "The non-recognition of indigenous peoples' rights to ancestral land and to self determination and the blatant violation of their civil-political rights remain dire to this day," said Joana Jaime, coordinator of the National Federation of Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines. State forces, state-sanctioned paramilitary groups and mercenaries were typically responsible for indigenous killings, she added. Of at least 1,206 extrajudicial killings recorded by human rights group Karapatan over the past decade, 168 are of indigenous people. "In spite of the increasing number of indigenous peoples being killed, their descendants will continue to stand firm and fight for their rights to land, their life," said Juliet Aguilar of UCCP, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. She added that members of the Church who support indigenous groups had also become targets in recent years. Datu Jimmy Liguyon, a Matigsalog tribe chieftain and UCCP pastor, was killed in March by a member of a paramilitary group in Mindanao after refusing entry to mining operations in his area. Late last month, soldiers allegedly shot and killed the pregnant wife and two young children of a tribal leader, Daguil Capion, who opposed a gold and copper mine owned by Xstrata Copper and Indophil Resources NL of Australia in Mindanao. Thirteen soldiers face court martial and may face life imprisonment if found guilty over the killings. Related reports Indigenous groups honor martyrsTribal leader's family shot dead


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Individual Leadership in Guiding Change in Global Governance Institutions: Theory and Practice
Wouters, J. and Odermatt, J. ORCID: 0000-0002-6073-3033 (2016). Individual Leadership in Guiding Change in Global Governance Institutions: Theory and Practice (171). Leuven, Belgium: Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies.
It is increasingly accepted that in order for international organizations to address fully the panoply of threats and concerns at the international level the current structure of global governance, particularly the design of major international institutions, requires some level of reform. In different fields and at different levels, this reform has been discussed and debated, but has mostly stalled. Increasingly, it is the executive heads of an organization that are called upon to show stronger leadership during times of crisis and change. No longer viewed as merely managers or administrative posts, the leadership shown byexecutive heads of international organizations is now strongly linked with the effectiveness of these organizations. This working paper seeks to understand the role of leaders in driving, and responding to, change in international organizations. What does leadership, a term often used in relation to national politics, mean in the context of an international organization? How do leaders drive change within these bodies, and how do they effectively respond to external and internal challenges and threats? This paper argues that individual leaders, particularly during times of crisis, can play an important role in guiding change and reform. The first part discusses the concept of leadership in the context of international organizations, and discusses some of the ways in which executive heads can pursue change and reform in their organization. The second part turns to the specific example of the UN Secretary General, an executive head who, despite having a relatively minor role on paper, in some cases has been able to implement meaningful change in the organization. The paper argues that executive heads can and should show greater political leadership in reforming organizations and improving their effectiveness.
J Political Science > JX International law
J Political Science > JZ International relations
The City Law School > International Law and Affairs Group
Text - Published Version


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Benefits advice and worries about paying the bills: Citizens Advice data shows the changing picture of the nation�s concernsPublished 15/04/2020
Citizens Advice has seen record-breaking demand for advice on its website over the past month with nine million pageviews, a 39% rise on the same period last year.
After an initial surge in enquiries about sick pay and redundancy, data from the charity now shows a dramatic increase in people seeking advice on paying bills and accessing benefits.
Over the month, pages on benefits were viewed over 2.2 million times, this includes just under 750,000 views of the Universal Credit pages. Advice pages on work, for example sick pay or being furloughed, were viewed 1.6 million times.
Coronavirus was the most searched word on the charity's website, followed by people looking for information on Universal Credit and the government's furlough scheme.
Citizens Advice, founded the day after World War II was declared, has since become a multi-channel service providing face-to-face appointments alongside phone, email and web chat.
The service, which is now only provided via telephone, email and web chat due to social distancing rules, helped 220,000 people one-to-one with specific issues over the last month
Since the charity started recording whether a problem was related to coronavirus, 32,000 people have required help with a query specific to this pandemic. Half of those wanted help with Universal Credit and a third wanted to talk about employment problems.
"Last month we helped millions of people. Behind each enquiry was a family struggling to pay rent, someone self-employed who could no longer afford their bills, or a person attempting to claim benefits for the first time.
"These personal stories combine to paint a bigger picture of how lives have been interrupted by coronavirus.
"Not only will we continue to help as many people as we can with their individual problems, we'll use that bigger picture to advocate for change to make sure no one is left behind."
Graphs and trends:
The challenges that people are seeking guidance on have changed drastically over the past month, this graph shows the changes in daily rankings of the most viewed page on the Citizens Advice website.
It tells the story of how people's concerns and problems have changed as the pandemic continues and new government measures are put in place.
On 20 March, Citizens Advice published a new page on what to do if you can't pay your bills because of coronavirus. Within two days this was the number one viewed page and it has stayed in the top seven ever since.
After the Prime Minister announced lockdown measures on 23 March, Citizens Advice published a page on checking what benefits you can get. This quickly moved into the top 10 most viewed pages. With people having their hours cut, being laid off or made redundant, this page has remained in the top 10.
On 25 March the charity published another new page on what to do if your employer has told you not to work. After the Chancellor announced further details on the job retention scheme the next day, the page entered the top ten and has remained in the top two since 31 March.
Enquiries about Universal Credit first began to spike in mid-March, and have remained at high levels, mirrored by the unprecedented numbers of people applying for the benefit through the DWP.
The trends over the last week show people are still worried about what to do if their employer has told them not to work and what to do if they won't be able to pay their bills.
The top pages people were looking at for help online over the last month were:
Coronavirus: what it means for you
Coronavirus: if your employer has told you not to work
Check if you're entitled to sick pay
Coronavirus: check what benefits you can get


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Accountant turned crooner pays tribue to Bethnal Green roots
Published: 10:00 AM June 8, 2019 Updated: 8:54 AM October 14, 2020
Joe performing. Picture: HELEN MEISSNER - Credit: Archant
An accountant who realised his singing talents after turning 60 has paid tribute to his East End roots.
Joe Rose, whose real name is John Froggett, was born and bred in Bethnal Green spent most of his working life crunching numbers as an accountant, but a chance encounter on a dating website helped him launch a singing career.
The father of five, from Royston, said: "To be honest, I am at a stage of life where you can't afford to put things off.
"A life time of procrastination and playing relatively safe has not done me much harm, and I am very good at it, but with my singing, I really feel an impetus, a motivation and excitement which is new and energising."
Growing up, Joe lived in Vallance Road with parents John and Joyce but didn't take much of an interest in music aside from listening to 45s on the family's record player.
And there were no opportunities to learn music at St Jude's school in Old Bethnal Green Road which John left with few qualifications.
After a stint selling detergent at a Bethnal Green Road market, Joe gained an apprenticeship at the firm RW Barrow and Co where he trained to be an accountant before setting up his own company.
For most of his life, Joe's singing was confined to the shower, but after meeting his partner Helen Meissner, who ran her own record label called Folkstock Records, things changed.
At his 60th birthday party he performed pop group Radiohead's single Creep and his voice immediately caught Helen's attention.
Soon after she asked him to join her daughter, singer-songwriter Lauren Deakin Davies, in the studio where the pair recorded tracks. This led to a recording of 'Empty Chairs at Empty Tables' from John's favourite musical Les Miserables.
The self-styled crooner explained that his singing talent comes from his granddad, Joe, who inspired his stage name.
Paying tribute to his Bethnal Green roots, he said: "It gave me a toughness and a resilience. There's a kind of respect given to people from East London now, especially my generation."
The Tom Jones fan, who traces his links to the East End as far back as the 1850s, hopes to appear at a Bethnal Green stage soon.


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Market Commentary – Pure Imagination – December, 2021
Adam Eagleston, CFA
Market Commentary December, 2021 – Pure Imagination
One meme we omitted last month was this, which, per Wikipedia, is known as Condescending Wonka.
For those unfamiliar, this is Gene Wilder playing the title character in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Over Thanksgiving, we watched the movie again, and it seems appropriate to use it as inspiration for our newsletter this month, given the market's current state is as confusing as any we have seen, leaving us to pure imagination to try to decipher what might be next.
A little nonsense, now and then, is relished by the wisest men.
We have written extensively in the past about what we considered the Fed's nonsense in deeming inflation "transitory." Well, Fed Chair Powell finally agreed, and stated in late November in testimony before Congress that it is "probably a good time to retire that word." Investors, to put it mildly, did not appreciate this change in tone, especially when combined with the resultant acknowledgment that the non-transitory nature of inflation would require the Fed to begin its tapering at a quicker and more aggressive pace.
Equities, especially longer duration, i.e., growth-oriented companies, declined sharply at this hint of a slowing rate of bond purchases. Bonds, on the other hand, reacted in a confused manner, with the short end of the yield curve, i.e., shorter maturity bonds, increasing, while longer maturities, like the benchmark U.S. 10-year, decreased significantly, at least in percentage terms. The story that bonds seem to be telling is they believe the Fed will taper and/or raise shorter term rates, but that this is a policy mistake that will lead to slowing growth.
In our imagination, we see the Fed as being more bark than bite here and think its ability to taper or raise rates will be held hostage by the market's reaction to any meaningful effort to remove accommodation, especially in an election year.
Bubbles, bubbles everywhere, but not a drop to drink…yet
Though not everywhere, we still see some very bubbly areas of the market, many of which might be pricked if the Fed follows through with its tapering/tightening or if the mere threat changes the aggressive investor behavior that has fomented these bubbles.
One could easily make the case that bonds, given where inflation stands, represent a bubble. At a minimum, many forms of traditional fixed income reflect a poor risk/reward at this point, especially in real, i.e., adjusted for inflation, terms.
Second would be something like cryptocurrencies, where we are seeing a return to high volatility. In fairness, crypto investors may be desensitized to such price action, given this is the third decline of over 30% so far in 2021.
However, despite the recent pullback, cryptocurrencies as an asset class remain well over five times as large as they were pre-Covid:
It is not just ethereal assets, but real ones as well that have seen bubbles inflate and burst. Much like lumber over the summer, natural gas prices are collapsing from their bubbly highs.
Lastly, and most importantly in terms of equities, the most obvious (and dangerous) bubble we see is in option buying, especially in NASDAQ stocks (seems familiar, right?).
Stop. Don't. Come back.
My favorite thing about Willy Wonka is his complete indifference to the plight of the contestants who refuse to listen to his admonitions and are subsequently subjected to some sort of candy-induced calamity. The type of greedy and reckless behavior that afflicted Augustus Gloop et al. is on display now in the options market.
The result has been to mask more broad-based weakness in equities with outsized performance in a handful of highly valued technology-oriented stocks, buoyed by options dealers hedging their books. Since the second half of the year began, the S&P 500 is up 6.9%; here are the contributions of the highflyers:
Microsoft – 1.3%
Apple – 1.2%
Nvidia – 0.8%
Tesla – 1.0%
Alphabet – 0.6%
So, these six stocks accounted for over 70% of the return of the index. We can only speculate as to the impact of options trading on these names, but anecdotally we would say that some of the action we have seen, especially in Apple and Tesla, is beyond anything we have ever seen, and is often heaviest in weekly call buying. In other words, for those speculating in the stocks' price movement over the next week. This is a phenomenon we do not believe is sustainable, especially given these valuations:
Under the surface, the damage at the individual stock level has been severe, especially for smaller companies:
We've seen this type of narrowness in prior periods that portended a challenging future:
Little surprises around every corner, but nothing dangerous.
This is said more hopefully, but as far as these little surprises go, we have seen myriad over the last few weeks:
November 18th – S. government agrees to buy 10 million doses of anti-Covid drug
November 19th – Both boosters (Moderna and Pfizer) approved
November 22nd – Powell put forward for reconfirmation
November 23rd – President Biden deploys strategic petroleum reserve
November 26th – Omicron announced as "variant of concern", markets decline sharply
November 30th – Taper is announced to "maybe" be ending early
The surprise that awaited us after Thanksgiving was the WHO noting omicron as a variant of concern. While hyperbole exists on both sides of the omicron divide, only time will tell what the impact will be. We defer to the WHO here:
Because of the high number of mutations, the efficacy of current vaccines is under scrutiny, though no data exists at present. Similarly, the severity remains an unknown. Could omicron represent a more virulent strain that requires draconian restrictions and torpedoes a nascent recovery? Yes. Could it represent a less virulent strain that reflects the virus becoming endemic and less lethal? Also, yes. We just do not know at present, but the uncertainty has seemingly cast a shadow over markets.
Against a backdrop of massive uncertainty, investors in technology stocks via the NASDAQ are the only ones who have been unscathed.
Index 1-Month 3-Month YTD 1-Year
S&P 500 INDEX -0.70 1.32 23.17 27.90
Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight E -2.64 -1.37 21.77 26.83
NASDAQ Composite Index 0.34 1.99 21.31 28.28
Russell 2000 Index -4.19 -3.06 12.28 21.99
MSCI EAFE Index -4.63 -5.02 6.40 11.38
MSCI Emerging Markets Index -4.07 -6.93 -4.21 2.99
Bloomberg US Agg Total Return 0.30 -0.60 -1.29 -1.15
Bloomberg US Treasury Total Re 0.77 -0.40 -1.82 -2.05
Source: Bloomberg (as of most recent month end)
More specifically, here was the performance for the Fed tone shift and omicron surprises:
Are they choosing wisely? In the near term, it seems so, but valuations for technology stocks relative to industrials (using the NASDAQ and Dow is somewhat obtuse, but direction and magnitude are likely close here). The large cap Russell 1000 value and growth indices paint a similar picture in terms of the premium valuation for growth stocks being at late 1990s levels.
The suspense is terrible, I hope it will last.
The original Wonka debuted in 1971, the height of the nifty fifty bubble in U.S. growth stocks. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which starred Johnny Depp as Wonka, premiered in 2005, close to the height of the housing bubble. We are a mere eighteen months from the release of Wonka. As we prepare to close the books on 2021, what terrible suspense awaits us?
Aside from the obvious villians (tapering and omicron), on the periphery we see some trouble lurking as a result of the sugar high provided by the fiscal and monetray response to what we will call original Covid.
First, profit margins are at levels not seen since the early 1950s. As I remind my children, who are obsessed with World War II, America was the only country that emerged with its productive capacity unscathed, which contributed to these outsized margins. As you can see from the graph, margins tend to be mean reverting, so continuing to rely on margin expansion to fuel corporate profits may lead to disappointment.
Next, what matters most to all assets are fund flows. As mentioned in the title of the following graph, the last 12 months have seen flows to equities that exceed the last almost two decades combined. One may notice that slight inflection at the end of the graph, meaning the rate of change may start to work against us.
We mentioned call options earlier, but leveraged bets are another sign of market speculation, and we are at elevated levels here, too.
It is important to note we are on pace for a great year for the index as a whole. This has typically portended well for the following year.
However, we would caution against overexubernace, given valuations and the potential inflections in fiscal and monetary policy, not to mention fund flows and economic growth. One need look no further than today's economic data to see signs of slowing growth and increasing costs, which is our base case for 2022.
Accordingly, we believe positioning portfolios for a much different environment in 2022 is prudent, and we are not going to chase overvalued technology stocks in hopes of finding a golden ticket.
Before we close the commentary for this month, it is important to touch on a topic that affects smaller companies, especially at this time of year. In a year when gains for the index have been sizable, investors have been relentless in selling positions to harvest tax losses. This has certainly had an outsized impact on a few of our holdings, which have suffered declines despite what we would consider incredibly positve developments at the company level. We will touch on a few here.
Nano One
Nano One announced that is has named Dr. Yuan Gao as a strategic advisor to the company. Formidable finds this piece of news expected, as Nano One (OTC: NNOMF) continues down the path of fabrication in conjunction with companies like Lithium Americas, (NYSE: LAC) of which, Dr. Gao is a board member. Of note, Dr. Gao is also the former CEO of Pulead Technologies, a company with which Nano One has done business in the past. This announcement supports our belief that Nano One is moving to be a cathode technology provider to both OEMs and EV suppliers. Nano One's flurry of recent new hires seems supportive of their stated initiative of being an integral component of the North American LFP supply chain. We see this announcement is one more, very relevant reason, for our continued confidence in Nano One's evolving role in the EV space.
Acacia Research
To paraphrase the words of the illustrious Bob Uecker in his legendary portrayal of Harry Doyle in the movie Major League, "In case you haven't noticed and judging by the stock price, you haven't", Acacia Research (NASDAQ: ACTG) owns approximately four percent of Oxford Nanopore (LSE: ONT), having divested some shares upon Oxford's IPO in October. Since November's omicron unveiling, lost in the shuffle was Oxford Nanopore. Pretty relevant too, since they are the company that isolated the gene sequencing for omicron in South Africa. Ironically, Acacia's Oxford Nanopore position is now worth over $300 million dollars, not including the approximately $100 million realized from the divestiture. With Acacia trading at a $237 million-dollar market capitalization seems "Juuussttt a bit outside" as Harry Doyle might say.
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