MICHAEL HOLLOWAY'S ScienceBlogs

Swine Flu Inoculations Probably Useless

2009-10-30T20:26:00.000-04:00

The best defence against the flu is plenty of rest, some chicken soup and plenty of fluids. Flu kills people every year, this year is no exception.

I don't get the yearly flu injection because I think the wide spread inoculation of the population is a bad idea, it leaves the culture in question open to a out-of-left-field virus. I do my part by being one of those who will get the odd flu and build an immunity to it, your welcome.

I know the new swine flu vaccine being circulated now is a Tami-flu type and is unlikely to be effective against the new round of H5N1, as it has mutated around the world in the interim.

In fact (and - this is entirely my take - I haven't seen anyone suggest this possibility) the inoculation of farm-workers with this Tami-flu type vaccine may introduce the morphed disease back into the swine population - resulting in the next round - being a truly pandemic version. I am of the opinion that the source of the swine flu is the inhuman conditions in which we raise livestock - in the current industrial farming model the flu jumps from swine to human farmer-worker and back to swine and so on until it morphs enough to jump from human to human. The key though, I reiterate is the in-human conditions animals are subjected to in factory farms.

Last years events that resulted in the WTO declaring a Pandemic, and the Bird flu hysteria a few years back, have taught me the experts don't know how to predict the coarse virus's will take over generations - there are too many variables. The impetus towards researching and distributing these vaccines isn't therefore good science - but rather the private profit and the funding of the process. Don't get me wrong I believe we need the infrastructure to create vaccines, and this may be one of the reasons we're going through the process - those in positions of power realize that a vaccine for a true pandemic will take months to produce and months more to produce widely enough to have effect - the result will be 1000's of deaths and injury. With out this hysteria the funding for the process's we're going to need Someday will fall idle and become necrotic.

Finally, President Obama is surrounded by advisors who are telling him scary things - but if I have gleaned these ideas surely he must be aware of these other perspectives as well - he therefore must be aware when he talks to his close advisors on health care he is looking into the eye-ball of the private medical colossus. He thus has to choose which fight to fight first.

The public consultation process which is leading to a health reform bill in in it's final phases, he knows this same attempt by the Clinton administration resulted in it's neutering (yes, my allusion is intentional). I expect President Obama has chosen to put this to one side; by calling this an emergency he on the one hand shows the benefit of a centralized health care system and on the other, satisfies the greedy beast with the subsequent cash flow in the near term. Win Win.

This from GlobalReasearch.ca who's article entitled "Obama Administration Launches Deceptive Swine Flu Propaganda Blitz" is slightly hysterical - in the opposite direction to the spectacle media - but has some data to back up their assertions:

"The recent CBS Investigative Report, published on October 21, is one example. After the CDC refused to honor CBS’s Freedom of Information request to receive flu infection data for each individual state, the network performed independent outreach to all fifty states to get their statistics. Their report contradicts dramatically the CDC’s public relations blitz. For example, in California, among the approximate 13,000 flu-like cases, 86 percent tested negative for any flu strain. In Florida, out of 8,853 cases, 83 percent were negative. In Georgia and Alaska, only 2.4 percent and 1 percent respectively tested positive for flu virus among all reported flu-like cases. If the infectious-rate ratios obtained by CBS are accurate, the CDC’s figures are significantly reduced and agree with earlier predictions that the H1N1 virus will be simply an unwelcomed annoyance. So we are in the midst of an enormous medical hoax, a design and purpose that has yet to unfold completely, that will nevertheless reap huge revenues for the vaccine industrial complex."

Good sum up of the science, with out so much hysteria at GlobalReasearch.ca.

CBS News Investigates - October 21, 2009.

mh

Could Quantum Mechanics be a Function of Gravity and Orbit/Spin?

2009-04-01T03:54:00.001-04:00

Could Quantum probabilities be a function of gravity, spin, and orbit?

In this model the fabric that holds the universe together is the interaction of proximate inertia fields, rather than Einstein's space/time. Time is determinate to inertia fields, as is space/time.

In this model I propose that Gravity (mass) and orbit/spin (the inertial qualities of a mass in motion) should be understood to be instant in its effect over distance; and weakened by distance.

So, for example the various inertial fields effecting an atom in the CERN particle accelerator - starting with the weakest - would be:

the inertia of nearby galaxies,
the spin of the milky way,
the movements proximate stars,
the spin of the sun,
the spin of all the planets in our solar system,
the orbit of the moon,
the spin of the mass of the earth,
and so on.

The pulls of each acting at infinite speed, weakening proportionately over distance, and functioning over time.

Thus, quantum probabilities are a map of the effects of the billions of proximate fields tearing at the electromagnetic force at a subatomic level.

----

Without spin the world would not exist as we know it, all the matter would be shrunk down to a small dense ball.

----

(To be continued! Constructive criticism welcome.)

mh

The Personal Blog of Don McArthur

2007-08-22T04:43:00.000-04:00

Back a few months back, I posted a comment at The Personal Blog of Don McArthur that he thought was 'snotty', he hence blocked my IP and every IP I've tried since (Canada?).

It's his right, but not, I think, in the spirit of the thing.

All my readers and Don's who may be wondering why I haven't been around there, should know.

This is what blogs are for in my opinion.

Cosmology's 'Spinning Bucket' Problem

2007-08-18T06:40:00.000-04:00

Explain this:

Hang a bucket from a rope, full of water -- spin the bucket until the water begins to spin with the bucket.

Why does the water become concave? The Water cups up the sides of the bucket, the travel, consistent with it's velocity.

Obviously, The friction of the spinning bucket imparts energy into the water and eventually the water achieves close to 100% of the velocity of the spinning bucket (minus heat).

But why does the spinning water crawl up the sides of the bucket? The water never goes faster than the spinning bucket. The energy required to raise the water up the sides against gravity must be tremendous. Where does the energy come from?

The answer is that the water, outside the influence of the proximate spin of the earth's mass, is spherical. Time/spin, 'flattens' mass and energy; the natural state of the universe is the shape we see in large masses, the sphere.

As energy is imparted over time, the water begins to assume it's own "gravity well", the spin is how we see the creation of a field, inside the rather weak, earth gravity well field.

This is a first hand example of how proximate fields interact. A clue to the voyager anomalies, and the distant red shift anomalies as well as the missing mass problem.

ScienceBlogs Cosmology link.

FilterBlogs Cosmology link.

mh

The Large Hadron Collider - Why Bury 8 Billion Dollars Under Europe?

2007-07-22T07:58:00.000-04:00

From a great article in the New Yorker, A Cosmology "Crash Course" by Elizabeth Kolbert.

Below, Elizabeth sketches the link between cosmological theory and practical matters, like public money (my added links):

"In 1969, the Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy held a hearing at which the physicist Robert Wilson was called to testify. Wilson, who had served as the chief of experimental nuclear physics for the Manhattan Project, was at that point the head of CERN’s main rival, Fermilab, and in charge of $250 million that Congress had recently allocated for the lab to build a new collider. Senator John Pastore, of Rhode Island, wanted to know the rationale behind a government expenditure of that size. Did the collider have anything to do with promoting “the security of the country”?:

Wilson: No sir, I don’t believe so.

Pastore: Nothing at all?

Wilson: Nothing at all.

Pastore: It has no value in that respect?:

Wilson: It only has to do with the respect with which we regard one another, the dignity of men, our love of culture. . . . It has to do with are we good painters, good sculptors, great poets? I mean all the things we really venerate in our country and are patriotic about. . . . It has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to make it worth defending.

Asked to explain how their work, supported by public funds, contributes to the public good, particle physicists often cite Wilson, or offer some variation on his non-answer answer: the search for knowledge cannot be justified on other grounds; its value, like the particles under study, is irreducible."

Irreducible?

FilterBlogs reduction: Hover Cars. We want Hover Cars!

FilterBlogs Cosmology label.

mh

China REALLY Serious About Melamine Contamination In Food

2007-07-12T13:26:00.000-04:00

Poisonous Glycol's recently found in Pet foods, toothpaste and medicine, made in China, has lead the Chinese government to act, harshly.

From The Guardian Unlimited

"State media announced yesterday that Zheng Xiaoyu - former director of the State Food and Drug Administration - has been executed less than two months after being sentenced."

Image from Xinhua News

I guess the Chinese Really like Free Trade.

mh

Transportation Sector Should Follow Boeings 787 Lead

2007-07-10T13:44:00.000-04:00

From: Boeing 787 Dreamliner Home

The Boeing 787, built from carbon-fiber composites, is far lighter and thus more fuel efficient...

(Boeing 787 unveiling, from News.com.au)

From an article by Elizabeth M. Gillespie published last month in The Honolulu Advertiser Online,

"The 787 will be the first large commercial airliner built mostly from light, sturdy composite materials instead of aluminum, making the plane more fuel-efficient and less expensive to maintain. Not only that but the manufacturing process is revolutionary.

Boeing has lined up a vast network of suppliers around the globe that are manufacturing large pieces of the 787, which are then flown on a superfreighter to the final assembly plant in Everett, north of Seattle, where the plane is essentially snapped together."

The entire transportation sector should be forced by government, if necessary, to achieve 100mpg. as soon as is feasible though this light weight strategy.

An interesting contradiction comes to mind that could slow things down in government...

In the online publication "The Project For A New American Century/Rebuilding Americas Defenses" (pdf) the Empirists from American Enterprise Institute envision a global army, which use heavy Humvee's that are able to carry armor plate.

The society that makes the switch to light-weight carbon fiber transportation model would have a more expensive army, due to efficiencies of scale.

Technological progress is anathema to war.

Links:

Rocky Mountain Institute, Winning The Oil End Game/Executive Summary.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Home

mh

NASA's Heliophysics Team Begins Processing Themis Mission Data

2007-07-04T18:49:00.000-04:00

Processing Themis Mission Data to get us hover cars!

From the THEMIS Mission press release of June 7, 2007

"All stored science and engineering data are recovered regularly with a success rate of nearly 100% across the constellation. The THEMIS ground systems continue to function very well."

From the THEMIS orbits page:

Stage 1: Injection or “Coast” Phase
2/15/07 - 9/15/07

Right after launch all spacecraft are lined up in the same orbit with a 15.4 Re apogee.

Stage 2: Orbit Placement Phase
9/15/07 - 12/15/07

The orbit placement phase is also called “Dawn phase” because the apogee of the orbits are on the dawn side of the magnetosphere. Probe 1 apogee is at 30 Re, Probe 2 at 20 Re, Probes 3 and 4 at 12 Re, and Probe 5 at 10 Re.

Stage 3: Tail Science Phase
12/15/07 – 4/15/08

In the tail science phase the apogee of the orbits are in the magnetotail. Probe 1 apogee is at 30 Re, Probe 2 at 20 Re, Probes 3 and 4 at 12 Re, and Probe 5 at 10 Re.

See more at the THEMIS Mission Page

Check out the THEMIS mission video page for a NASA science briefing.

(scroll down untill you see this icon :)

Space Station Navigation Computer Hit By Electrical Surge - Space Station Could Spiral To Earth!

2007-06-16T04:11:00.000-04:00

When Space Station Astronauts were hooking up a new solar panel on Friday, a static charge surged through the power system from the new solar array and fried the main navigation computer.

Ultimately the station could spiral out of orbit.

The fried Space Station computer controlled the orientation of the station. Attitude control will be the determining factor if they have to abandon ship. If the station begins to roll, inertia could tear it apart. Any roll must be quickly corrected before it effects the astronauts ability to work on solving the computer part of the problem.

Image credit: NASA TV

Oxygen and water supply have had to be jerry-rigged to by pass ruined switches in the computer.

From the BBC

Without the Russian oxygen machine running, the space station has a 56-day supply of oxygen left. "If we are in that position, we have an option to depart," Mr Suffredini (ISS programme manager for the US space agency) said.

Tonight, I saw on TV, a report the Russians were thinking of launching a rocket, carrying a replacement replica Russian computer.

If they have the time...

NASA, Friday morning statement:

Earlier in the day, International Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini told reporters Russian and U.S. flight controllers and engineers are focusing on efforts for recovering the computers and options to maintain attitude control until the problem is resolved.

"..options to maintain attitude control..."

I wonder if they should drop trying to fix the computer, and jerry-rig some way to fire the stabilizers.

The get away vehicle is still in orbit with the station, it's scheduled to be there for three more days. NASA's thinking on how to use the shuttles rockets to stabilize the station as well.

Can they take everyone off the station, on one shuttle flight?

Will they have to?

Exciting stuff!

Space.com

mh

Cosmologys' Standard Model In Crisis: A Solution Could Be 'Propagating Bubbles'

2007-06-15T23:11:00.000-04:00

UPDATED July 22, '07 4:44 AM.

A 'bubble' or 'onion' theory of cosmology.

A continuously expanding series of bubbles (a propagating bubble), each in succession; related to the next, and the one before by a mathematical function - thus creating a linear mathematical quality (a Higgs field) related to all corresponding points of the wave propagation. IE. sun light - but particular in all wave lengths.

Thus, a quality is discernible in the logic that embodies energy, time, and matter, in the form of a wave that is omnipresent - and that ties quantum functions to galactic scale observations.

These interactions create new fields that will eventually cause the collapse of the universe. Or, in other words, the relationships between all the meshing 'propagating bubbles', is the depository of the missing energy in the standard model.

The Pioneer anomaly is a result of the meshing of the solar propagating bubble and the milky ways' galactic one.
The irreconcilable measurements we're getting from red shift observations in deep space, are the result of the effects of the meshing of the propagating bubble on some wavelengths, and differently on others.

The theory unifies all forces by conditioning everything by their unique quantum functions as qualities of the propagating field.

Gravity in this model is effected over distance by these forces, thus gravity it is not instantaneous everywhere. We need to uncover a function that describes this to get a true picture of deep space.

Right now it's like we suffer a collective astigmatism. A starting point to understanding the properties that will form the prescription (a mathematical function), is in the interaction of earth, and near earth, fields - like the interface of the oceans and the atmosphere, or the solar wind and the magnetosphere - the fields we know best. We begin by mapping the medium of space, until we can see clearly, that we can then begin to map space itself.

That's it. That's my take.

The reading I did today, gave me the term 'propagating waves' or 'scalar waves' which allowed me to visualize the thing.

Thanks to 'RB' for the 'scalar' link.

Scalar Waves Source

Figure this stuff out, and we get 'hover cars'.

mh

NASA's Themis Rocket Blasting Off To Get Us 'Hover Cars'

2007-02-19T00:09:00.000-05:00

Originally published February 12, 2007

NASA Video! of Themis lift-off (Quick Time Player)

February 16, 2007 6:08 PM EST
NASA's Themis Mission Lift Off - Hi Resolution Pictures
Mapping The Bow Wave Of Planet Earth
(to get us hover cars)
Lauch Photo: NASA

The bands of iridescent light we see as the Northern(or Southern) Lights are the collision of the solar wind and the earths magnetosphere. The Themis Mission will deploy five satellites equipped with ultraviolet sensors that will study this phenomena in more detail than ever before.

Once the satellites are in their proper orbits, they will line up above the north polar region every four days for 2 years. The Thimes mission will thoroughly map the northern lights; from the light we can see here on earth to the distant wave nodes they create beyond the orbit of the moon. NASA will gather data that could be used to create a four dimensional map of solar wind deflecting off the earths magnetosphere(x,y and z axis plus time).

Up until recently(1970s) space was thought to be mostly empty; now scientists are finding all kinds of stuff up there. The Themis Mission is one of several first steps humans are taking to map the medium of space. The European Space Agency has several mapping expeditions under way using different elemental particles as media.

Like a boat through the water, scientists theorize that the planet, the solar system and even the milky way galaxy create 'bow waves' in front of them as they move through space.(see image at the bottom of this story)

As the earth orbits the sun it creates a bow wave in front of it as it swings through space. The earths bow wave creates electrical storms above the north and south polar regions we see as 'Arora borealis'.

An understanding of how large masses effect the medium of space will help illuminate what Space is made up of.

A better map of the invisible matter in the universe will help cosmologists with their modeling. If they can't find all the 'dark matter' that their models predict is out there, we'll have to throw out Newtons law of Inertia and much of Einsteins Relativity. That would set us back a hundred years in our search for the Grand Unified Theory.

The Grand Unified Theory (G.U.T.) is a model that can describe both massive events like the the rotation of the solar system; and nano events like how molecules change.

If solved, the GUT will get us those 'Hover Cars' Sci/Fi has been predicting since the genre was invented.

That's what this is really all about you know, Hover Cars.

We want Hover Cars!

Image courtesy NASA

Themis gets a pay load, Feburary 10,2007

May 27, 2007
New link at NASA just came to my attention -- with event/time data.
NASA Video! of Themis lift-off (Quick Time Player)

NASA Heliophysics Division (Missions)

mh

Cosmology Interactive Mash up Fun

2007-02-15T15:10:00.000-05:00

Q) What do these links have in common(check out each colored link and try your answer A, B, C and D, at the bottom).

Themis Mission
Advanced Concepts Team
Bow Wave of the Solar System
Aurora Borealis
Grand Unified Theory
Curved Space
The Jetson's

ANSWER: click the red letters

A. PBS show ZOOM?
B. Karl Rove's plan to Win in '08?
C. Goddesses?
D. Hover Cars?

Interactive learning technology Mashup

mh

The Birth of My First Widget: I'm officially a Geek!

2007-02-01T02:56:00.000-05:00

Today I am happy to announce the birth of my first widget.

Completely self taught we've been trying to conceive for 2 months now.

Conceived in bed late night a day and a half ago; I rushed to the keyboard yesterday morning and began writing the code on my blogger template. The birth was smooth, with few complications. Other than the fact the blogger code over ruled my color choice on the buttons, and the bigged up letters kept appearing off the button; but we got that fixed and simpled it down pretty good I think.

I've been so busy I forgot to send out an announcement, or cards to anyone until today; Thanks everyone for your support. Have a some code, enjoy!

I'm officially a Geek!

I know it's nothing new, but it's my widget and I love it!

LIST

SCIENCE

Climate Change, Ocean Currents: New Species of Fish?

2007-01-28T16:08:00.000-05:00

Could climate change, this years El Nino, changing patterns in the ocean's currents, have 'funneled' this prehistoric fish into shallow waters?

From National Geographic News

..a frilled shark swims at Japan's Awashima Marine Park on Sunday, January 21, 2007. Sightings of living frilled sharks are rare, because the fish generally remain thousands of feet beneath the water's surface. Spotted by a fisher on January 21, this 5.3-foot (160-centimeter) shark was transferred to the marine park, where it was placed in a seawater pool... ..the "living fossil" died hours after it was caught.

—Ted Chamberlain

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

2007-01-26T17:35:00.000-05:00

Every letter of the English alphabet is used in this Pangram. Read from left to right, top to bottom; follow the dots back up to the sentence to confirm.

This sentence is used to make sure the keys on typewriters and computer keyboards are working.

mh

Mobile phone use 'linked to tumour'

2007-01-26T13:29:00.000-05:00

Long-term users of mobile phones are significantly more likely to develop a certain type of brain tumour on the side of the head where they hold their handsets, according to new research.

A large-scale study found that those who had regularly used mobiles for longer than 10 years were almost 40 per cent more likely to develop nervous system tumours called gliomas near to where they hold their phones.

The new research, to be published later this year in the International Journal of Cancer, is the second study to suggest increased risks of specific types of brain tumours in regions close to where mobile phone emissions enter the head.

However, a number of other studies have found no increased health risks associated with mobile phone use.

mh

Researchers have installed a molecular engine into a "car" just a few billionths of a metre long

2007-01-22T18:58:00.000-05:00

Image: Takashi Sasaki/Rice University

14 April 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Tom Simonite

"Jim Tour and colleagues at Rice University in Houston, US, built a chassis and wheels for a nano-car from organic molecules...

The nano-car's molecular motor contains a pair of bonded carbon molecules that rotate in one direction if illuminated by a specific wavelength of light."

12:18 22 January 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Tom Simonite

"..researchers at the Free University of Berlin in Germany and the Center for Material Elaboration & Structural Studies in Toulouse, France"...

..using an electron microscope, have produced images of the nanowheels in action...

"..hundreds of these "nanowheels" were sprayed onto a sheet of copper. The researchers then used the tip of a scanning tunnelling electron microscope (STEM) to push individual molecules across a copper surface."

As soon as a Nano-movie of the light powered Nanowheels or a Nanocar become available I will load it here at SCIENCE BLOGS, and at the fast breaking site MICHAEL HOLLOWAY'S FilterBlogs.

mh

Super Bowl Marketing on DIGG

2007-01-17T04:17:00.000-05:00

On January 16.2007 an article appeared on DIGG, the democratically edited news site.

This DIGG story placement was a carefully engineered piece; it was designed to create a buzz Diggers think they are joining.

This is a new type of marketing campaign developed by SEOmoz.org called a Viral Video Product Placement. This is how it works...

This is the piece that appeared on DIGG:

I'm Blogging! Pay Attention to Me!

Rand sent me the above comic strip and instructed me to let it inspire me (it seems he enjoys giving me the occasional homework assignment), and the first thing I thought of when I read it was, "Why do people blog?"

The Title of the piece draws you in; people like to read about themselves or connect with a group of people like themselves. The first line promises a cartoon by clicking on the story. Now your at SEOmoz.org and viola the Cartoon:

The site looks like an ordinary new-business blog site, inter-office chatter. The cartoon is funny, so you read the piece about blogging.

It turns out the community of people here are really nice. You find out that Someone knows Someone who's going to propose marriage during the Super Bowl! Clicking the link confirms JP is going to pop the question. Not only that, but there's some Buzz developing around this, a radio spot, an appearance on Good Morning America... ..and a marketing company is involved and "the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital will also benefit from the buzz"

The DIGG story placement was a carefully engineered piece of writing; it was designed to create the buzz they pretend you are now joining.

This is a new type of marketing campaign called a Viral Video Product Placement, according to Storybids.com the strategy plays out like this:

"the bride-to-be will be under the impression that her smart and wonderful boyfriend was able to win them and some friends a Super Bowl party (compliments of a major corporate sponsor)."

"the potential bride and groom-to-be, along with several of their closest friends, will be filmed by their corporate sponsor, enjoying the game and the product that has paid for their good time"

"suddenly the image of the groom-to-be appears on the (TV) screen (at the party). The venue filled with friends and the bride-to-be, as well as the rest of America, will be viewing the much anticipated proposal that has been building a media frenzy over the past several weeks"

"viewers will view the web address of where they can go to see the response video that was taped during and AFTER the television proposal."

To sum up the idea... the corporate and media savy 'average American guy' sets up a free corporate party during the Super Bowl , which is being filmed; then the proposal of marriage comes on the TV in the party venue - which the television audience is watching - them watch, - at the end of the spot a web address comes up. The television audience can't believe it and America rushes to their computers. The web site resolves the brides answer to the question - but not all the machinations of how it came about. The buzz could last days until we all figure out what happened around the water cooler at work.

Well, now you're ready, now you know, now you can be the smart hip one.

By the way - what is 'Super Bowl'?

mh

Before You Click SPAM...

2007-01-16T10:09:00.000-05:00

January 15, 2007

Allison Randal at Radar O'Reilly in an article entitled "Spamonomics 101" recieved this useful bit of insight from Ken Simpson of MailChannels an Email Security Solutions Company,

Ken Simpson says:

"Those messages are sent by spammers to poison the spam filters. When someone receives a message full of gibberish and reports it as spam, the spam filters tune themselves to recognize gibberish as spam—which reduces their overall accuracy."

When your cleaning your E-mail In-box, check the content of mail you'd usually not even look at. If it's gibberish as noted above don't SPAM it; DELETE instead.

NASA Movie of Black Hole at the Centre of the Milky Way Galaxy

2007-01-14T20:06:00.000-05:00

Sgr A*: Fast Stars Near the Galactic Center

Explanation: Why are these stars moving so fast? Shown above is a time-lapse movie in infrared light detailing how stars in the central light-year of our Galaxy have moved over the past eight years. The yellow mark at the image center represents the location of a peculiar radio source named Sgr A*. If these fast stars are held to the Galactic Center by gravity, then the central object exerting this gravity must be both compact and massive. Analysis of the stellar motions indicates that over one million times the mass of our Sun is somehow confined to a region less than a fifth of a light-year across. Astronomers interpret these observations as strong evidence that the center of our Galaxy is home to a very massive black hole.

Source APOD

Feeling Sick All The Time? Here's Why

2006-12-28T16:59:00.001-05:00

Photo link

Zoonotic is defined as a disease which can be passed from animal to human. All humans at any given time have a variety of these pathogens and defenses against them(antigens) with-in our stomachs, as a part of our immune system; both can cause deteriorating health and death.

Over time the whole of human civilization individually build defences to these pathogens; but at a price, sometimes taking the form of a mass death epidemic.

The rate of increase in the incidence and variety of zoonotic pathogens in our food supply at the present time is alarming the experts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concludes with respect to the new abundance of these zoonotic pathogens, "...public health concerns must now include the safety of what food animals themselves eat and drink." This suggests a return to an old standard of how we husband livestock.

The standard inspection regime right now is, if the animal appeares healthy at the slaughter house door - if it can stand steady, has a normal temperature, is not showing outward signs of ill health - it is considered fit to eat by humans. But with the help of antivirals, antibiotics, and Antimicrobials, Livestock are adapting to pathogens in unsanitary conditions; so they look healthy while the diseases they harbour are deadly.

So the old way of ensuring public health, including these casual 'check-up' style inspections and line inspections to ensure no fecal matter comes in contact with slaughtered meat - is now insufficient. Even Kosur or Halal type slaughter regimes will not protect us from these new emerging pathogens that are developing in the barnyard.

Livestock are adapting to new pathogens at a rate faster than humans are adapting to new pathogens in their diet. This is due the inhuman conditions in which we raise livestock, in cattle barns and feed lots; to global food distribution, which introduces new pathogens to new populations of animals and humans; and to underfunded health networks, which undermine our ability to cope with crisis.

As we've seen this summer and fall, the effluent running off these production sites into our waterways are funneling new pathogens into produce growers water supplies and then into the produce food chain as well.

Animal husbandry is a term you don't hear alot today - it's a term from the era of the family farm. Farmers who run large scale family farms unexpectedly prefer the phrase 'livestock production' to descibe what they do. For corporate farms managed by boards of directors and run by waged workers the term 'livestock production line' is entirely appropriate and where the term originates. For both kinds of production entities the new phrase is integral to a mindset that produces profit. The scale of new farming demands a new mindset. Yet the choice of the term 'animal husbandry' says volumes about the way we treat our livestock.

The continuing industrialization of our food production and the global distribution model is a critical new health threat. The mass production model must include animal Care. The result of ignoring so called 'animal rights' could be an epidemic spread through the global food supply chain.

If we permit the animals we eat to live their lives in feed lots, regularly up to their bellies in their own excrement, we get what we get; we reap what we sow. Poultry for example get no exercise, living the vast majority of their lives in cages - only big enough for the full grown bird. In the case of pigs they also live their lives immobile, inhaling high levels of ammonia that eminate from their stool.

As a result of this unhealthy environment the animals we eat are adapting to pathogens faster than we, in our healthy evirons are. Add to this the fact that the global trade in livestock is also a global trade in pathogens, and one can say without qualification: this state of affairs will eventually lead to a mass death epidemic.

What we're seeing in industrial food production amounts to abuse. So the moral imperative groups like PETA are acting upon in the spiritual dimention can now be seen in a larger sence; choosing not to eat meat is not essencially a moral choice, but a health safety issue.

This clairity demands an expansion of the moral imperative; not eating meat is now a Hedonistic Reaction - choosing not to eat meat that is produced in this industrial manner is a Moral Imperative.

These new findings by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others are the canary in the coal mine - a warning; our food production/distribution model must change.

LINKS TO THIS POST

THE RAMS HORN - a monthly journal of food systems analysis.

CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal

CANADIAN FOOD INSPECTION AGENCY - Food Recalls and Allergy Alerts

THE LANCET.COM - "Europe set to tackle zoonotic infections"

MED-VET-NET - a vitual journal working for the prevention and control of zoonoses...

Food Recalls, Mario Saroli Sales Inc. and the CFIA.

2006-12-06T23:43:00.001-05:00

On Decmber 1, 2006 The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced a food recall that may involve botulism, distibuted by a little known food Wholesaler in Ontario. Which food Retailers are involved is not being disseminated and thus consumers don't have enough information to protect themselves against this deadly toxin.

Transparancy in food quality situations should be the guiding philosophy of companies and the CFIA. Instead big retailers and government seem to be afraid of the consumer. By approaching this situation with a Need-To-Know Mind Set, the Government of Canada and corperations are complicating a deadly situation for consumers.

To be clear, SAROLI BRAND GREEN BELLA DI CERIGNOLA OLIVES, sold in 1 litre containers bearing UPC 7 79390 00404 1 and the lot code 075/6, imported to Canada by Mario Saroli Sales Inc. are being removed from the market, "because the product may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum (that)... may cause botulism, a life-threatening illness." says The Canadian Food Inspection Agency(CFIA) which is over seeing the voluntary recall. No updates have to this time, been released as to the effectiveness of the recall.

Botulism is amoung the most deadly of food toxins, most dangerous because it is colourless and odourless and thus impossible for consumers to detect.

What retail companies recieved these foods from Mario Saroli Sales Inc.? Why don't consumers know?

Granted it's probably not Mario Sarolis' fault that the olives may contain the precursors of botulism; and understood by consumers that Mario Saroli Sales Inc. dosn't want to injure the reputations of their retail clients, but fault and reputation pale in relation to the deadly nature of the contaminent in question.

The situation demands more transparancy from corperations and government.

The consumer is left with the burden of checking each package of olives at every retailer they may shop at. We're left relying on the store manager at our neighbourhood stores who may be stressed-out this week because of all the recalls, or the increased volume of shoppers at this time of year; what if a low wage stock person misses aome packages?

If Loblaws was listed as one of the companies involved in the recall, and I shop at my local 'Loblaws Market Store', I'd pobably print out the info noted above on my way to my 'Loblaws Market Store' next Friday. As it is I don't know where I should be looking, Sobeys, Dominion, Value Mart, at the small delicatessen I like to go to for that extra special Christmas thing? Or at the corner grocer I occasionaly visit on my way home? Because it's so difficult I'll probably decide not to buy olives this month; thus further injuring the industry at a time when it can least absorb the shock.

Transparancy is the best policy. Are big retailers afraid of the consumer? By being opaque, approaching this Deadly situation with a need-to-know mind set, the Government of Canada and corperations are just complicating the situation for consumers.

Companies like Mario Saroli Sales Inc. who have very little presence in the market place or on the web, (just a brief public listing in www.profilecanada.com.), should ask the CFIA to publish a supply chain 'tree' diagram showing exactly what went where when - in the CFIAs' press release.

Creating Transparancy through Real Time tracking should be our long term goal; rather than worrying that retailers brand names may suffer if pertinent information is made available to consumers.

The up side for retailers and governments alike, is a sence of trust that will develop among shoppers as we all work together to protect our food security through information sharing.

You can recieve e-mail press releases from the CFIA at this LINK

Telephone CFIA at 1-800-442-2342, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. local time Ottawa, Canada, Monday to Friday.

WARNING: Using Your Mirco-Wave Oven Can Slow The Spin of the Earth

2006-06-25T13:44:00.000-04:00

Image

Ask a physicist.

The micro waves that heat your coffee, do it by polarizing H2O molecules, inverting their polarization. As the wave passes the molecule flips back to normal position and energy in the form of heat is released, we don't know why.

The energy must come from anti-matter, goes one conjecture. Or there is the hypothesis that the energy is dark matter coming from other dimensions. A bubble theory might explain the forces we experience are the interaction of the field waves of all proximate matter and energy.

I like this last one: It keys with how we now calculate the spins in our solar system, All the matter is in This Universe, It explains why information were getting from distant places keeps upsetting the standard model, And, its the simplest.

So every time you heat your cup of coffee in a micro-wave oven, the entire colossal functioning of the universe - hiccups - and draws a nano-something to its inevitable collapse.

Enjoy!

mh

If 'Spin' is Dark Matter...can we tell what time it is?

2006-05-16T13:14:00.000-04:00

Theorists can't find half the matter they need to account for the activities we see with-in the Gravity Model.

I personally don't believe in gravity in the usual sense, I think we are held in place as we are by a matrices of wave patterns, a functioning of all the planets and all else - like an invisible transmission, each planet rotating with-in complex relationship with all the others.

I say the missing matter simply put, is 'spin'.

So... We can see gases, slowly rotating around a center point. From a distance they seem to be collapsing, but backwards - like a spring, coiling. Take a closer look, the gasses are eddying into smaller little-galaxies, separate relatively to the influence of the whole.

Counter-spinning matrices in relative functioning with their opposites. This dual functioning of opposites causes the 'collapse' of the galaxy.

I say, when the Galaxy is young and all spread out, it contains almost entirely, 'light' matter. As it ages, or 'edifies' it turns more and more, into 'dark' matter.

Our Solar System is Old. As one 'eddy' in the milky way, the milky way, as we can see, is all spread out, or Young. Our sun will eventually swallow all the planets and the next stage in the collapse of this piece of the universe will have begun.

Question: Can we measure the age of the galaxy by the rate of decay of light matter into dark matter?

We need to know;

Volume of all the matter in question. Done
or Spread of the young Galaxy. Done
Time elapsed. Done
The 'Chunkiness' of the matter. Need new formula.
and the total Mass. Done

So the mass of the galaxy equals: light matter (visible stars gases and matter we can deduce is there by the functioning of the things we can see) + dark matter(the energy contained with-in the chunks of stable stuff, usually spinning or in orbit or both).

The time elapsed around here is 4 billion years.

... .

Growing Symmetry Between Science and Creationism

2006-05-15T19:18:00.000-04:00

What we're seeing happening right in front of us, is Wonderful. And scary.

The WWW is creating advance in science and technology in a multi-exponential fashion, and at an ever quickening pace. Like a lab full of petri dish growing bacteria, now faster.

So all disciplines of knowledge are exploding, but not only that. The inter-connectivity of it all, is creating a super-consciousness, an awareness of the whole, AND the Process.

A grand unified post-modernism approaches.

The same risks apply as in the industrial revolution, the thing must be grown with as much foresight as we can provide. The task seems monumental, god like.

We Know we don't know more now than we know, right now, but know we will soon know more and perhaps at one point more than we don't know. We have a map and the scale is astonishing. Science now must believe we will never know everything, we have "proof" of that now - at least as a thought experiment.

Enter spiritual affairs.

..Just a thought.

Global Warming May Create A Pole Shift.

2006-05-10T17:03:00.000-04:00

I call this idea a "Gaia Top". It embraces an idea first presented by Prof. James Lovelock, in 1979- that the earth is a single life form, we, perhaps billions of bacteria on her skin.

If we choose this hypothesis we see our actions have consequences; the macro becomes linked to the individual, or the collective. A dialectic emerges. Understanding the earth as a "Gaia Top" may shine a light into the functioning of Global Warming.

Imagine the earth as a spinning top; this top is complex though: it has rock, liquid some frozen distributed here and there. When Global warming begins to melt the frozen poles of this special top, the resultant liquid will be redistributed by the centrifugal forces to the equator. The oceans will rise higher at the equator than away from it!

Question: What effect will migrating densities have on the axis? Will the poles shift or wobble?

Could this account for the reversing of polarities we find in all volcanic rock? Work has been done on these physics at Departments of Physics; One I looked up was titled: Optimization of Turbine Disk Profiles by Metamorphic Development. So the math is out there and the computing capacity.

After I've done more research, I will update this idea.

Earth is a Spinning Top...

2006-05-08T19:18:00.000-04:00

The earth can be seen as a rotating hunk of rock, water and ice populated with an abundance of life forms. This view catagorizes things; Rocks are dead things, ever unchanging; All living things were put here by someone or something, and we the pinical of that life, with our consciousness, are special, part of a mysterious uber-plan, a plan to be revealed to us by a higher consciousness, a teacher, or parent type figure. Some wait fearfully for judgement day, or 'for when your father gets home'.

What if that uber-plan was just the on-going functioning of things that we are experiencing? Perhaps the lesson the universe is trying to teach us is that we are one, that we are connected to the life breath of the entire universe, our consciousness of this, mearly the next step in the evolution of the stars.

As much as we'd wish it wasn't true, we're all alone in this universe, with only the laws of nature to support us. Like a kid leaving home, only their faith in community - taught them by thier community - to guide them.