Vitamin K source

Calcium is the ultimate bone-building nutrient, right? Just down your three glasses of milk a day, or pop a supplement, and you’re good to go—at least that’s the message that’s been repeated by countless nutritionists for years. New evidence, however, suggests we should reconsider how much calcium we take and focus instead on an often-overlooked nutrient: vitamin K2.A recent meta-analysis in Osteoporosis International found that K2 supplementation significantly improved bone mineral density and reduced fracture risk in women who already had osteoporosis. Meaning, it helped repair bones that were already weak and damaged—pretty cool, right? The latest research on calcium, however, isn’t nearly as glowing. A new review in BMJ found increased calcium intake to be ineffective at boosting bone density or reducing risks of fractures in older adults, with one study author warning it could up your risk of heart attack and stroke.

K2 builds strong bones by activating a protein responsible for depositing calcium into bones and teeth, says Laura Schoenfeld, RD, holistic nutritionist at Ancestralize Me. It also works with vitamin D to reduce activity of cells responsible for bone breakdown.

RSOE EDIS

According to the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, 8 workers from the landfill of Monte Anaiz, in the municipal district of Bilbao, are suffering from Q fever related to the presence of remains of cattle in the waste. In addition to the 8 confirmed cases, 25 are pending study. An initial focus of the outbreak has been recently traced to the Mechanical Biological Treatment Plant at Monte Anaiz and a 2nd cluster is located in Berriatua, where up to 10 people may have been infected. The outbreak is due to the fact that animal remains not intended for human consumption (byproducts such as heads, or goat and sheep hides) repeatedly enter the processing plant mixed in with urban waste. The symptoms of Q fever are similar to those of a flu, although sometimes it also affects the liver. The Basque Government and the Provincial Government of Bizkaia, in a coordinated manner, have adopted measures to control the outbreak. Extreme precaution is being taken and diagnostic tests have been applied to all staff and subcontractors as a preventive measure. Authorities are trying to identify the origin of these products, a difficult task, because the animal remains have come in garbage bags from which the identification tags have been removed.

Biohazard name:

Q Fever

Biohazard level:

3/4 Hight

Biohazard desc.:

Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.

Signs and symptoms

Incubation period is usually two to three weeks.[8] The most common manifestation is mild flu-like symptoms with abrupt onset of fever, malaise, profuse perspiration, severe headache, myalgia (muscle pain), joint pain, loss of appetite, upper respiratory problems, dry cough, pleuritic pain, chills, confusion and gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The fever lasts approximately seven to 14 days.[citation needed]

Less often, Q fever causes (granulomatous) hepatitis, which may be asymptomatic or becomes symptomatic with malaise, fever, liver enlargement (hepatomegaly) and pain in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen. Whereas transaminase values are often elevated, jaundice is uncommon. Retinal vasculitis is a rare manifestation of Q fever.[9]

The chronic form of Q fever is virtually identical to inflammation of the inner lining of the heart (endocarditis),[10] which can occur months or decades following the infection. It is usually fatal if untreated. However, with appropriate treatment, the mortality falls to around 10%.

Clinical signs in animals

Cattle, goats and sheep are most commonly infected, and can serve as a reservoir for the bacteria. Q fever is a well recognized cause of abortions in ruminants and in pets. C. burnetii infection in dairy cattle has been well documented and its association with reproductive problems in these animals has been reported in Canada, USA, Cyprus, France, Hungary, Japan, Switzerland and West Germany.[11] For instance, in a study published in 2008,[12]a significant association has been shown between the herds’ seropositivity and typical clinical signs of Q Fever observed such as abortion, stillbirth, weak calves and repeat breeding. Moreover, experimental inoculation of C. burnetii in cattle induced not only respiratory disorders and cardiac failures (myocarditis) but also frequent abortions and irregular repeat breedings.[13]

Health Benefits of Alfalfa Sprouts

By Juniper Russo

Photo Credit healthy foods image by Steve Lovegrove from Fotolia.com

The sprouts, or young seedlings, of the alfalfa plant are associated with several potential health benefits. Although adult alfalfa plants are too coarse and bitter to eat, alfalfa sprouts are tender and appropriate for use in salads, sandwiches and soups. When used appropriately and in moderation, alfalfa sprouts can be a healthy component of a balanced diet. Consult your health care provider before eating alfalfa sprouts on an ongoing or excessive basis, particularly if you have a medical condition or take medication.

Dietary Fiber

According to NutritionData, a service of Self magazine, alfalfa sprouts are a good source of dietary fiber. Each 33-gram serving of alfalfa sprouts provides one gram of fiber, or three percent of an average adult’s necessary intake. For this reason, alfalfa sprouts may be a suitable food for people suffering from chronic constipation, diverticulitis or other digestive upsets.

Protein

Every serving of alfalfa sprouts provides 1 gram of plant-based protein, according to NutritionData. Unlike most other vegan protein sources, such as beans and peas, alfalfa sprouts are edible and palatable without any exposure to heat. Alfalfa sprouts are a good protein source for people eating raw and vegan diets.

Micronutrients

Alfalfa sprouts are a good source of several micronutrients, or vitamins. NutritionData reports that alfalfa sprouts contain B vitamins such as niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, folate, pantothenic acid and vitamin B6. Additionally, alfalfa sprouts provide roughly 13 percent of an adult’s recommended daily intake of vitamin K. Because of alfalfa’s high vitamin K content, the National Institutes of Health advise patients taking blood-thinners to avoid foods and supplements made from the plant.

16 May 2013
Information is reviewed on a regular basis and updated as required.

Risk Assessment

The public health risk posed by HCoV-EMC/2012 to Canada is considered low at this time. There have been a limited number of cases reported to date, and while there is evidence of limited capacity for human-to-human transmission, zoonotic transmission is still presumed to be the source of infection.

Updated risk assessments will be conducted as new evidence becomes available.

Event Summary

Cases of Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) – subsequently identified and named Human Coronavirus Erasmus Medical Centre (HCoV-EMC/2012) have been reported in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and France since the Fall of 2012.

As of 14 May 2013, 34 laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with novel coronavirus (nCoV) have been reported to WHO: two from Jordan, two from Qatar, 25 from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Kingdom (UK), one from the United Arab Emirates and two from France. Most patients are male (82%; 27 of 33 cases with sex reported) and range in age from 24 to 94 years (median 56 years). Most patients presented with severe acute respiratory disease requiring hospitalization and eventually required mechanical ventilation or other advanced respiratory support. Eighteen patients have died (case fatality rate 53%). Animal exposures were of concern in earliest cases, but the majority of recent cases do not have that history. For the latest updates on the total number of cases and deaths please visit the Global Alert and Response website.

Since 14 April 2013, 15 new cases of infection have been confirmed and reported in Saudi Arabia, seven of these have died. All patients were reported to have at least one comorbid medical condition and most had more than one. Most of the cases were patients at a single health care facility. Two were family members of two patients from that facility; no health care workers have been affected. Preliminary investigations indicate that a small number of these cases had contact with animals in the time leading up to their illness.

On May 8, 2013, The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in France reported one confirmed case with infection of nCoV. The patient was hospitalized and preliminary investigations revealed that the patient had a history of travel to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A secondary case was reported on May 12, 2013 in a patient who shared a hospital room with the first laboratory-confirmed case. Among 120 persons identified as contacts of the first laboratory-confirmed case in France, laboratory tests were conducted on five suspected cases, of which four tested negative, one (mentioned above) tested positive. No healthcare workers have been affected to date.

Several cases have occurred in clusters, including in a health care setting in Jordan in April 2012, in the UK among family members of an infected patient who had recently arrived from Saudi Arabia, the cluster in Saudi Arabia and now the cluster in France. Nosocomial transmission has occurred once and possibly two other occasions (investigations ongoing); and the UK and France clusters confirmed the potential of the virus to transmit between humans with close contact. In neither instance did transmission appear to go beyond the immediate outbreak into the community, and the likely current scenario is multiple introductions into humans with local spread rather than persistent low human transmission.

No vaccine is currently available for novel coronavirus.

The National Institutes of Health has found that a combination of two antiviral drugs, ribavirin and interferon-alpha 2b, can inhibit replication of the virus in cell culturesFootnote 1.

Toronto SARS expert to go to Saudi Arabia to help with coronavirus

Dr. Allison McGeer in a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto on Tuesday January 27, 2004. (/Frank Gunn / The Canadian Press)

Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, May 8, 2013 1:37PM EDT
Last Updated Wednesday, May 8, 2013 5:02PM EDT

Authorities in Saudi Arabia have invited outside experts to help it deal with a large outbreak of the new coronavirus in the eastern Saudi city of al Hofuf, and a Canadian infectious diseases specialist is among them.

Toronto SARS expert Dr. Allison McGeer arrived in the Middle Eastern country on Wednesday, travelling at the request of the kingdom’s government, a source revealed.

The outbreak, which involves at least 13 cases, has ratcheted up worry about the coronavirus, the World Health Organization acknowledged in an update on the virus, which is from the same family as the SARS coronavirus.

“The reappearance of this virus and the pattern of transmission currently being observed in Saudi Arabia increase the level of concern regarding this novel pathogen,” the statement said.

“The questions of the exposures that result in human infection, the mode of transmission, the source of the virus and the extent of infection in the community urgently need to be answered and are being actively pursued by the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia.”

In addition to McGeer, two officials of the World Health Organization were in or travelling to the country to meet with senior officials of the ministry of health in the capital, Riyadh.

“It’s likely they will also visit al Hofuf,” WHO spokesperson Gregory Hartl said. He would not reveal the names of the WHO personnel.

The news came on the same day as France reported it had confirmed a case in one of its citizens, a 65-year-old man who got sick in late April after travelling to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. His infection was confirmed May 7.

It was reported that the man was in the Middle Eastern country on a package tour, a fact that suggests his case may help disease investigators in their efforts to track down the source of the virus. That key fact has to date evaded detection.

Piecing together possible exposures with this coronavirus has been tough. Of the 31 confirmed cases, 18 have died. Of the others, many remain in hospital in critical condition, often on breathing machines. So questioning cases about what they did in the days before they fell ill can be difficult or impossible.

http://www.ihealthtube.comhttp://www.facebook.com/ihealthtube Journalist Liam Scheff has done research into the vaccine system in the United States. He also has an interesting family history in the practice. He discusses some of the things vaccines still contain and how the premise behind vaccines is flawed.

Congress Slams NIH, CDC Reps For Evading Vaccine/Autism Evidence

January 2, 2013

Inept, disjointed agencies waste almost $1 billion, seek more funds

A government health agency director who a decade ago proposed diluting vaccine/autism data was one of two testifiers interrogated at a Congressional hearing yesterday on the federal government’s poor response to the autism epidemic costing the U.S. $137 billion a year.

Dr. Coleen Boyle, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, testified that her goal is “raising awareness of the importance of this as a health problem and one we need to address.” An April 2000 email obtained via FOIA shows that Boyle contacted the CDC’s Frank DeStefano suggesting dilution of vaccine/autism data by adding one- and two-year-olds to his dataset – children too young to have an autism diagnosis then.

“Does autism in history predate vaccines?” asked Rep. Darryl Issa (R-Calif.), chair of the U.S. House of Representatives House Oversight & Government Reform Committee. Yes, according to agencies administering the shots; no, according to legislators, physicians and parents filling in the gallery, who reported that their children regressed after receiving vaccinations.

Dr. Alan Guttmacher, a medical geneticist from the National Institutes of Health, defended his highly-criticized Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. Both Guttmacher and Boyle testified that autism has no known cause or cure, and their only offerings of help were statistical tracking, detection tools, and behavioral therapies.

Outgoing Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) stated that autism has more than one cause, but “the one we’re talking about today is mercury in vaccination and the environment.” He played a video from the University of Calgary showing destruction of brain neurons after low-level mercury exposure (here), and wondered how anybody from the CDC can watch and say that mercury doesn’t have an impact on neurodevelopment. Rep. Burton said that shortly after his grandson got nine vaccines in one day, the boy began banging his head against the wall and lost continence.

When Boyle claimed that since 2001 Thimerosal has been removed from all vaccines given to children, voices erupted from the audience. Boyle added, “With the exception of the multi-dose flu vaccine” but omitted mentioning that the 50,000 parts per billion injected is exceedingly higher than the 4 ppb “safe” limit for drinking water established by the Environmental Protection Agency and that it took until nearly 2004, not 2001.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), a physician, criticized the wasted research opportunities into familial disease processes. Gosar’s physician sister has a son once labeled autistic. “As soon as we took him off wheat, gluten and milk products, this kid sits, reads, does everything appropriately.”

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) brought up the infamous “Lilly Rider,” an industry-protective provision snuck into a Homeland Security conference report and passed before anyone could read it. He mentioned special interests such as coal emission producers, and how companies such as Eli Lilly, once a manufacturer of the mercury-based vaccine preservative Thimerosal, give millions of dollars to affect the outcome of elections. “There are reasons why this Congress and this government has not effectively addressed this issue,” said Rep. Kucinich. “You have special interest groups who resist any deeper research on it, because it is going to affect their bottom line. Meanwhile you have children all of the country turning up with autism.”

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) asked about services for adults with autism. Dr. Guttmacher replied with an irrelevant comment about more effective diagnosis, which prompted Del. Norton to repeat her question. After Dr. Guttmacher responded by posing a question, Del. Norton concluded, “In other words, we’re doing nothing for them.” Dr,. Guttmacher then repeated a previous statement about NIH offering “free tools for parents to identify autism, to which Del. Norton announced impatiently, “The mother knows it. The father knows it. The question is what to do…. In other words, it’s up to the family to try to figure it out.”

Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Penn.) asked Boyle if she had ever seen a statistical trend with such an accelerating pace in a 6-year period; she said, “The only one that showed an increase was hyperactivity attention deficit disorder.” Rep. Meehan asked Boyle, “You said, ‘This is a public health concern.’ Would you explain why this is not a public health crisis?” Stumbling over her words she replied that the CDC’s “excellence is tracking epidemiologic research.” Rep. Meehan asked, “What is being done to have a genuine comprehensive plan in which we are looking for accountability year to year on the progress that is being made?” Dr. Guttmacher said the IACC is charged with that duty, but he failed to mention that that committee’s membership is new, meetings erratically attended, and recommendations are not enforceable.

Rep. Mike Kelley (R-Penn.) asked whether the CDC or NIH interview actual families, rather than just reporting statistics gathered through its handful of Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network sites. “We have a second research program… in 6 states to get more information from medical records,” Boyle replied, saying CDC hopes to have data out in 2013. Rep. Kelley asked, if there was “anything on the horizon that could be a cure” for autism. Boyle remarked about differentiating between preventable causes vs. cure, but did not answer the question.

Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) stated that his predecessor, Congressman Weldon was “a well-respected, competent medical doctor,” adding, “I gleaned from him some certainty that Thimerosal from vaccines was a contributing factor to autism.” Rep. Posey noted that African children were autism-free until vaccines were introduced on that continent. He asked whether the CDC has done a study comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Boyle dodged the question, instead referring to old CDC studies on Thimerosal, saying that the Institute of Medicine evaluated the vaccine/autism issue in 2004 and 2011. Sounding frustrated, Rep. Posey asked again and Boyle admitted, “We have not studied vaccinated versus…” – to which Rep. Posey replied, “That was my question; you wasted 2 minutes of my time.

Rep. Posey also brought up the curious case of vaccine researcher Dr. Poul Thorsen, co-producer of 21 CDC studies, some used to deny any vaccine/autism link. Rep. Posey noted that Thorsen has been indicted for misallocation of resources; the vaccine researcher tops the Office of Inspector General’s Fugitive Profiles list here. Though Boyle claimed Thorsen was “really just one investigator,” Rep. Posey said the CDC had relied on “a humongous scumbag” and asked whether the CDC had gone back to validate the studies Thorsen worked on; Boyle replied with more prevarication.

MB Comment: The CDC has refused to study the autism rate in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated kids, because they are a captive agency of vaccine manufacturers. The former head of the CDC is now the head of Merck vaccines, the largest US vaccine manufacturer. CDC officials have been disrespectful, bumbling fools when required to testify before Congress.

The CDC is reluctant to compare autism rates in unvaxed vs. vaxed because it will likely show the same thing as the following study and survey, a huge increase in autism risk in the vaccinated. Of course such data will indict the CDC and expose their responsibility for creating the biggest epidemic in US history: Vaccine-induced autism.

– Vaccinated boys were 155% more likely to have a neurological disorder (RR 2.55)
– Vaccinated boys were 224% more likely to have ADHD (RR 3.24)
– Vaccinated boys were 61% more likely to have autism (RR 1.61)

************************************************************

HON. Bill Posey
Of Florida
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Friday, April 26, 2013

I rise today to draw the attention of the Congress and the American people to the Autism epidemic that is tragically ravaging too many of America’s children.

April is Autism Awareness Month, and I am pleased to join with parents, siblings, grandparents, special education school teachers, medical care providers, and interventionists to draw attention to the rapidly expanding autism community.

When I was young, autism was virtually unheard of. In the 1980s rarely did you meet someone who knew someone with autism. Yet, in the 1990s there was an explosion of autism. Indeed, in the course of just my lifetime, Autism Spectrum Disorder has grown from a very rare condition to – according to the Centers for Disease Control – a developmental disorder affecting 1-in-50 school aged children. And, tragically, the rate for school aged boys is a disturbing 1-in-33.

On December 19, 2006, the effort to address this epidemic took a major step forward as President Bush signed into law the bipartisan Combating Autism Act. I look forward to working with my colleagues and the Autism community to reauthorize this program next year. Though the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee each year produces a strategic plan to address Autism, the billion-dollar allocation of resources to autism has not been evenly invested among genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors. I must concur with the experts who have been willing to speak out, that the epidemic increase in the rates of autism are not a ‘genetic’ epidemic. Indeed, you don’t have genetic epidemics. While there is likely a genetic component to many who have been diagnosed with Autism, we must seriously consider that there are likely several key factors in autism.

Also, so some who have suggested that the increase in Autism is due to better diagnosis, you don’t go from 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 80 in three decades due to better diagnosis alone. And, if that were the case, where are the tens of thousands of autistic adults in their 40s, 50s and 60s. While better diagnosis may be a factor, common sense says there is a real increase and something is causing it.

While some may be borne with Autism, there are many parents who testify to the fact and present cases where their children were progressing normally but something triggered a regression where they lost speech, abilities, and regressed from developmental milestones that they had earlier met. Was that regression due to external factors such as medical injury, exposure to environmental toxins such as lead or mercury, or was it adverse reactions to medications that lead to high fevers, brain inflammation or seizures? We must get answers to these questions.

Is there anyone better at wasting money then the U.S. government? Despite the sequester and all of the talk about “deep cutbacks”, the federal government continues to waste money in some of the most outrageous ways imaginable. For example, does the U.S. government really have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to study the size and shape of the reproductive organs of ducks? Does the U.S. government really have to spend 1.5 million dollars to study why so many lesbians are overweight? There is so much waste that could still be cut out of the federal budget, and yet the very small sequester cuts that just happened are being described as “catastrophic” by many of our politicians. But you know what? The federal government will still spend more money in fiscal year 2013 than it did in fiscal year 2012 even after the sequester cuts are factored in. So if this is how much whining our politicians will do even though government spending is still going up, what would they do if we were actually forced to start living within our means at some point? That is something to think about. In any event, please show this article to anyone that believes that the U.S. government is actually “tightening the belt”. Sadly, the truth is that the federal government is still wasting our money in some of the most frivolous ways that you could possibly imagine.

The following are some of the completely outrageous ways that the U.S. government is wasting money…

#1 The National Science Foundation has given $384,949 to Yale University to do a study on “Sexual Conflict, Social Behavior and the Evolution of Waterfowl Genitalia”. Try not to laugh, but much of this research involves examining and measuring the reproductive organs of male ducks.

#2 The IRS spent $60,000 on a film parody of “Star Trek” and a film parody of “Gilligan’s Island”. Internal Revenue Service employees were the actors in the two parodies, so as you can imagine the acting was really bad.

#3 The National Institutes of Health has given $1.5 million to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts to study why “three-quarters” of lesbians in the United States are overweight and why most gay males are not.

#4 The National Institutes of Health has also spent $2.7 million to study why lesbians have more “vulnerability to hazardous drinking”.

#5 The U.S. government is giving sixteen F-16s and 200 Abrams tanks to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt even though the new president of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi (a member of the Muslim Brotherhood), constantly makes statements such as the following…

“Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them”

#6 During 2012, the salaries of Barack Obama’s three climate change advisers combined came to a grand total of more than $370,000.

#7 Overall, 139 different White House staffers were making at least $100,000during 2012, and there were 20 staffers that made the maximum of $172,200.

#9 During 2012, $25,000 of federal money was spent on a promotional tour for the Alabama Watermelon Queen.

#10 The U.S. government spent $505,000 “to promote specialty hair and beauty products for cats and dogs” in 2012.

#11 NASA spends close to a million dollars a year developing a menu of food for a manned mission to Mars even though it is being projected that a manned mission to Mars is still decades away.

#12 During 2012, the federal government spent 15 million dollars to help Russian weapons institutes recruit nuclear scientists.

#13 Over the past 15 years, a total of approximately $5.25 million has been spent on hair care services for the U.S. Senate.

#14 The U.S. government spent 27 million dollars to teach Moroccans how to design and make pottery in 2012.

#15 At a time when we have an epidemic of unemployment in the United States, the U.S. Department of Education is spending $1.3 million to “reduce linguistic, academic, and employment barriers for skilled and low-skilled immigrants and refugees, and to integrate them into the U.S. workforce and professions.”

#16 The federal government still sends about 20 million dollars a year to the surviving family members of veterans of World War I, even though World War I ended 94 years ago.

#17 The U.S. government is spending approximately 3.6 million dollars a year to support the lavish lifestyles of former presidents such as George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

#18 During fiscal 2012, the National Science Foundation gave researchers at Purdue University $350,000. They used part of that money to help fund a study that discovered that if golfers imagine that a hole is bigger it will help them with their putting.

#22 If you can believe it, $10,000 of U.S. taxpayer money was actually used to purchase talking urinal cakes up in Michigan.

#23 When Joe Biden and his staff took a trip to London back in February, the hotel bill cost U.S. taxpayers $459,388.65.

#24 Joe Biden and his staff also stopped in Paris for one night back in February. The hotel bill for that one night came to $585,000.50.

#25 If you can believe it, close to 15,000 retired federal employees are currently collecting federal pensions for life worth at least $100,000 annually. That list includes such names as Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Dick Gephardt and Dick Cheney.

#26 The U.S. Department of Agriculture has spent $300,000 to encourage Americans to eat caviar.

#27 The National Institutes of Health recently gave $666,905 to a group of researchers that is conducting a study on the benefits of watching reruns on television.

#28 The National Science Foundation has given 1.2 million dollars to a team of “scientists” that is spending part of that money on a study that is seeking to determine whether elderly Americans would benefit from playing World of Warcraft or not.

#29 The National Institutes of Health recently gave $548,731 to a team of researchers that concluded that those that drink heavily in their thirties also tend to feel more immature.

#30 The National Science Foundation recently spent $30,000 on a study to determine if “gaydar” actually exists. This is the conclusion that the researchers reached at the end of the study….

“Gaydar is indeed real and… its accuracy is driven by sensitivity to individual facial features”

#1 In 2011, the National Institutes of Health spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop.

#2 The National Institutes of Health has spent more than 5 million dollars on a website called Sexpulse that is targeted at “men who use the Internet to seek sex with men”. According to Fox News, the website “includes pornographic images of homosexual sex as well as naked and scantily clad men” and features “a Space Invaders-style interactive game that uses a penis-shaped blaster to shoot down gay epithets.”

#3 The General Services Administration spent $822,751 on a “training conference” for 300 west coast employees at the M Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

The following is how the Washington Post described some of the wasteful expenses that happened during this “conference”…

Among the “excessive, wasteful and in some cases impermissable” spending the inspector general documented: $5,600 for three semi-private catered in-room parties and $44 per person daily breakfasts; $75,000 for a “team-building” exercise — the goal was to build a bicycle; $146,000 on catered food and drinks; and $6,325 on commemorative coins in velvet boxes to reward all participants for their work on stimulus projects. The $31,208 “networking” reception featured a $19-per-person artisanal cheese display and $7,000 of sushi. At the conference’s closing-night dinner, employees received “yearbooks” with their pictures, at a cost of $8,130.

You can see some stunning pictures of GSA employees living the high life in Las Vegas right here.

Earth Watch Report – Biological Hazards

A beaver die-off at Urbana’s Meadowbrook Park, thought to have been caused by tularemia, has emphasized the importance of keeping pets indoors or on a leash, for their own safety and that of wildlife. It also has raised questions about the impact of drought, overpopulation and habitat destruction on wildlife. Officials say there are no reports of human illness. Mateus-Pinilla, a wildlife veterinary epidemiologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, said it is possible that severe drought exacerbated the outbreak, with low water levels forcing beavers and other animals to live in closer quarters. Continuing destruction of wildlife habitat has a similar effect, she said. Derek Liebert, project manager at the Urbana Park District, said a wildlife biologist suggested to him that if tularemia is in fact the cause, the die-off may be a corrective measure for a population that grew too large.The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District issued an alert notifying residents of tularemia in the area. The alert cited a Meadowbrook beaver diagnosed with clinical symptoms of tularemia and an unrelated 2011 outbreak among 5 pet cats in Champaign, Urbana and Savoy. Health district planning director Awais Vaid said people should not let their pets roam and should take them to a veterinarian if they exhibit symptoms such as loss of appetite or difficulty with movement. People who see sick animals in the wild or along trails should not approach them, Vaid said, not only because of the risk of tularemia but of rabies. The park district warns Meadowbrook users to keep pets leashed and to stay on trails in the park. Mateus-Pinilla reinforced local government warnings about allowing domestic animals to roam or run unleashed. “Then you are bringing them into your house, where there is direct contact. That is more serious,” she said. According to the National Institutes of Health, tularemia is common among wild rodents and can be transmitted to other animals and humans through direct contact and by ticks, biting flies and other insects. In humans, tularemia bacteria can cause illness ranging from asymptomatic to life-threatening.Liebert said the 1st dead beaver was found in January 2012. It was taken to the University of Illinois veterinary diagnostic laboratory, where tests were conducted, with inconclusive results. Then in June and September, 2 adult beavers were found dead but were too decomposed to be necropsied, he said. The biggest spate of deaths occurred in October 2012, when 3 beavers were found, 2 of which were necropsied. In November, a 7th beaver was found. Liebert said the most recent sighting of a live beaver, a single individual, occurred 19 Dec 2012. The effort to isolate the cause of the deaths was hampered by several circumstances, Mateus-Pinilla said. One is that decomposition sets in rapidly, and sometimes there is not much a pathologist can do because of the condition of the body. The “gold standard” for a confirmed diagnosis, Mateus-Pinilla said, is the ability to grow a culture of the suspect bacteria. The Meadowbrook beavers were tested for several pathogens, including tularemia, salmonella, leptospira and canine distemper. No tests resulted positive.

However, investigators were able to rule out toxins, such as from run-off, and also found evidence pointing to tularemia, even if it did not amount to a confirmed diagnosis. Mateus-Pinilla said salmonella and leptospira were eliminated, for example, because salmonella would not have caused a die-off, and leptospira is associated with lesions not found in the necropsies. But investigators did find certain changes in the lungs typical of tularemia. In the end, Mateus-Pinilla said, what signs there were pointed to tularemia. Mateus-Pinilla said it is unlikely that the habitat provided by the park itself was to blame. Indeed, she said, the fact that beavers were thriving there “tells us it was a suitable habitat.” Unfortunately, she said, the die-off “also tells us that natural habitats are more and more disturbed, forcing the beavers to be in a more dense population.” Human attraction to nature puts people in closer contact with wildlife diseases, she added. “We want to put our house in the woods,” and as a result “we are getting closer to diseases that we wouldn’t find in the middle of New York City.”

Biohazard name:

Unidentified die-off (beaver)

Biohazard level:

2/4 Medium

Biohazard desc.:

Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.

The first laboratory chimpanzees from a south Louisiana research center have got a taste of the great outdoors after they were ‘retired’ to a national sanctuary.

Nine chimps were taken from University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s New Iberia Research Center and have been given a sprawling home in the ‘Chimp Haven’ sanctuary in Keithville.

And as these photos show, the chimps were thrilled – if a little nervous – about their new home.

Hold tight! A mother chimp holds a piece of lettuce in her mouth as she carries her baby at Chimp Haven in Keithville

All mine! A hungry chimp gathers food. It is one of the first of 111 chimpanzees coming to the national sanctuary for chimpanzees

Getting to know their new home: Chimps use sticks to poke into a mock termite mound to taste a sweet substance

World’s only retirement home for chimps

The curious creatures munched on fruit and explored their new home, larking about in the sunshine and wandering around their wild habitat.

The research center, which no longer has an NIH chimp research contract, is expected to deliver seven more tomorrow and a further 95 will make their way to the outdoor haven in the following months, according to Yahoo.

The huge research center, which has ‘6,000 non-human primates representing eight species’ studies and tests chimps for ‘research aimed at promoting human quality of life.’

Hatching a plan

Play with me! A baby chimp rolls around in the grass as the chimps get to know their new home

“I’ve never seen scientific evidence discounted and refused to be looked at the way they’re doing with fluoride.” We’re facing a bottom-line reality. There can be no question that the US government’s policy is that water will be fluoridated no matter how much harm is done to the people.

In this age of repression on genuine scientific research, we need to take note that scientists free to do open and honest research, and report on it, have often taken stands that dispute their agencies’ officials stances. Nowhere has that been more true than in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the issue of fluoride. Rank and file EPA scientists have strongly opposed water fluoridation.

EPA scientists protected by the National Treasury Employees Union were approached by an employee in 1985. His concern was that he was:

… being forced to write into the regulation a statement to the effect that EPA thought it was alright for children to have “funky” teeth. It was OK, EPA said, because it considered that condition to be only a cosmetic effect, not an adverse health effect. The reason for this EPA position was that it was under political pressure to set its health-based standard for fluoride at 4 mg/liter. At that level, EPA knew that a significant number of children develop moderate to severe dental fluorosis, but since it had deemed the effect as only cosmetic, EPA didn’t have to set its health-based standard at a lower level to prevent it.[1]

A statement issued by EPA scientists stated that they tried to “settle this ethics issue quietly, within the family, but EPA was unable or unwilling to resist external political pressure.” Therefore, they went public with it and filed an amicus curiae brief supporting a public interest group’s suit against the EPA. In their statement, from which the above quote was extracted, the scientists avered that their opposition to fluoridation only grew stronger after that incident.

Studies Showing Fluoride Lowers Intelligence

That article goes on to document research by Phyllis Mullenix, PhD, who had established the Department of Toxicology at the Forsyth Dental Research Institute. She was also involved with a research program at Harvard’s Department of Neuropathology and Psychiatry. That research documented significant neurotoxic effects of fluoride.

Dr. Mullenix described going to a conference of the National Institute of Dental Research, a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to present her findings and realizing, on walking in, that she was in hostile territory. The entry areas were filled with propaganda declaring “The Miracle of Fluoride”. Of her experience at that conference, she stated:

The fluoride pattern of behavioral problems matches up with the same results of administering radiation and chemotherapy [to cancer patients]. All of these really nasty treatments that are used clinically in cancer therapy are well known to cause I.Q. deficits in children. That’s one of the best studied effects they know of. The behavioral pattern that results from the use of fluoride matches that produced by cancer treatment that causes a reduction in intelligence.[2]

On meeting with dental industry representatives afterwards, she was asked if she’d been saying that fluoride lowers children’s IQ. She says, “And I told them, ‘basically, yes.’”[2]

That was the end of her career. She was fired from Forsyth Dental Center and has gotten no related grants since then. Shortly after her firing, Forsyth received a quarter million dollar grant from Colgate, the toothpaste manufacturer. She has since stated:

I got into science because it was fun, and I would like to go back and do further studies, but I no longer have any faith in the integrity of the system. I find research is utterly controlled.

EPA scientists also noted a Chinese study documenting that children between ages 8 and 13 consistently score 5-10 IQ points lower than children subjected to less fluoride.

Friends and Sponsors

The Animal Rescue Site

The Hunger Site – Your click helps to feed the hungry

Wheatgrass Kits.com

FAIR USE NOTICE

The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of scientific, environmental, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal or technical advice.

Any materials (ie. graphics, articles , commentary) that are original to this blog are copyrighted and signed by it's creator. Said original material may be shared with attribution. Please respect the work that goes into these items and give the creator his/her credit. Just as we share articles , graphics and photos always giving credit to their creators when available. Credit and a link back to the original source is required.

If you have an issue with anything posted here or would prefer we not use it . Please contact me. Any items that are requested to be removed by the copyright owner will be removed immediately. No threats needed or lawsuit required. If there is a problem and you do not wish your work to be showcased then we will happily find an alternative from the many sources readily available from creators who would find it amenable to having their work presented to the subscribers of this feed.