We read in Revelation about things that must happen in the Last Days:
Rev 13:15-18 And there was given to it to give a spirit to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might both speak, and might cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. (16) And it causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark on their right hand, or in their foreheads, (17) even that not any might buy or sell except those having the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of its name. (18) Here is the wisdom. Let him having reason count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. And its number is six hundred and sixty-six.
This Blog deals with the Mark of the Beast and to link current world events and Technology with end time prophecy to see where we stand in regarding to the return of Jesus Christ / Messiah Yeshua.
We will look at technology that supports this passage as well as the "changing" of humanity through Transhumanism and population reduction and how technology and food engineering help the elite to reach their goal of 500 Mil people on he Earth.
Yesterday, Honda Research Institute revealed the latest trick from its Asimo robot: It can now respond to commands issued only as thoughts. The Japanese carmaker ran a video of a man imagining four simple movements – raising his right hand, raising his left hand, running and eating – that were then duplicated by Asimo, the company’s humanoid robot. Honda said the technology was not ready for a live demonstration because the test subject might get distracted. A previous demonstration in 2006 required the test subjects to lie motionless in an MRI scanner in order to pick up the signals [Financial Times].
The mind-reading system is non-invasive, meaning that the controller doesn’t have electrodes implanted in his head. Researchers used a specialized helmet instead, which is the first “brain-machine interface” to combine two different techniques for picking up activity in the brain. Sensors in the helmet detect electrical signals through the scalp in the same way as a standard EEG (electroencephalogram). The scientists combined this with another technique called near-infrared spectroscopy, which can be used to monitor changes in blood flow in the brain [The Guardian]. A software program then integrates the two signals and transmits a command to the robot.
The bulky technology is hardly ready for the market. Besides the unwieldy size of the present system, researchers note that it currently takes about 7 seconds for the software to interpret the command and transmit it to Asimo. Also, because brain patterns vary from person to person, this early prototype must be trained to recognize each individual’s commands. After about three hours of training, however, Honda says tests of the system have produced results with 90 percent accuracy [CNET].
Machine-brain interfaces are a hot field of research. Some companies are implanting electrodes in the brains of paralysed patients to help them communicate. Others are trying to commercialise non-invasive devices for use as video game controllers [Financial Times]. Honda, meanwhile, thinks that mind-controlled technology could have practical, everyday applications in cars and in the home. Researcher Tatsuya Okabe says he envisions a customer opening a car’s trunk while carrying shopping bags, operating air-conditioning units by mind control, or instructing home robots around the home to do chores. “When your hands are full doing the dishes, you could have a robot give you a hand watering the plants [just by thinking]” [Business Week]. Of course, commanding a robot to water the plants is significantly more complicated than telling Asimo to raise his right arm, Honda admits.
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The CIA’s experiments with mind-control and hallucinogenic drugs are well documented. It’s hard to forget about programs like Operation Midnight Climax, in which the agency studied the effects of LSD by dosing unsuspecting clients at brothels. But did the agency go so far as to send an entire French village on an acid trip that killed a few people and institutionalized a bunch more? According to The Telegraph, the CIA did just that in 1951.
For years, people familiar with “the incident of the cursed bread” (or le pain maudit) have subscribed to the theory that villagers in Saint-Pont-Esprit in Southern France suffered massive delusions because they all ate bread contaminated by ergot, a hallucinogenic fungus. After eating bread from a local baker, the villagers reported such delusions as the conviction that they were missing body parts or had animals in their stomachs.
Now, The Telegraph reports that the incident was not “ergotism” caused by the fungus, as previously believed, but was actually a bad trip caused by the CIA, which had spiked the village bread with LSD, or maybe just sprayed LSD into the air. Quite a story, huh? Too bad it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
The always credulous Telegraph reports that the discovery was made by investigative journalist H. P. Albarelli Jr., who published a book on the CIA’s research. Albarelli claimed the outbreak was the result of a covert experiment carried out by the CIA and the U.S. army’s top secret Special Operations Division (SOD) at the height of the cold war. The Telegraphreports:
Mr Albarelli came across CIA documents while investigating the suspicious suicide of Frank Olson, a biochemist working for the SOD who fell from a 13th floor window two years after the Cursed Bread incident. One note transcribes a conversation between a CIA agent and a Sandoz official who mentions the “secret of Pont-Saint-Esprit” and explains that it was not “at all” caused by mould but by diethylamide, the D in LSD.
The Telegraph’s article immediately drew sharp responses from other journalists, who dismissed the report as bunkum. David Steven of The Global Dashboard points out that Albarelli’s theories were rejected out of hand by Steven Kaplan, a history professor at Cornell University and a noted bread expert who has written a book on the incident.
Terming the report “incoherent and harebrained,” Kaplan told France 24:
I have numerous objections to this paltry evidence against the CIA. First of all, it’s clinically incoherent: LSD takes effects in just a few hours, whereas the inhabitants showed symptoms only after 36 hours or more. Furthermore, LSD does not cause the digestive ailments or the vegetative effects described by the townspeople.…
It is absurd, this idea of transmitting a very toxic drug by putting it in bread. As for pulverizing it [for ingestion through the air], that technology was not even possible at that time. Most compellingly, why would they choose the town of Pont-Saint-Esprit to conduct these tests? It was half-destroyed by the US Army during fighting with the Germans in the Second World War. It makes no sense.
The report also came under fire for not getting its science right. Derek Lowe, a chemist who has worked in several major pharmaceutical companies, points to the reporter’s assertion that the hallucinations were caused by diethylamide, the D in LSD, as incorrect.
He writes:
Laughter may now commence. For the non-chemists in the audience, diethylamide isn’t a separate compound; it’s the name of a chemical group. And LSD isn’t some sort of three-component mixture; it’s the diethylamide derivative of the parent compound, lysergic acid. (I’d like to hear this guy explain to me what the “S” stands for)
In short, neither the author of this new book, nor the people at the Telegraph, nor the supposed scientific “source” of this quote, knows anything about chemistry. This is like saying that the secret of TNT is a compound called “Tri”. Nonsense.
Think you have clear standards of right and wrong written into your brain? Think again. In April neuroscientist Liane Young and her colleagues at MIT and Harvard University reported that they had altered people’s moral judgments using transcranial magnetic stimulation, a procedure that briefly disrupts neural processing with a magnetic field induced by electric current.
Young asked each of 20 volunteers to judge 24 scenarios that involved morally questionable behavior. (One example: Grace slips her friend what she thinks is poison but is actually sugar. The friend is unaffected. How immoral is Grace’s action?) Then she stimulated the subjects’ brains at an area near the right ear called the temporoparietal junction, a region theorized to play a role in our ability to figure out others’ intentions, and repeated the tests.
Before and after, the subjects rated the scenarios on a seven-point scale, ranging from morally forbidden to morally permissible. After stimulation, her subjects were consistently more likely to rank the actions of the characters as being closer to permissible; their answers averaged one step higher on the scale. Young’s interpretation is that when subjects were zapped, they were more likely to focus on the outcome (nobody died) than on the intent (Grace tried to poison her friend).
Manipulating morality with a magnet may sound diabolical, but Young has no interest in mind control. Her goal, she explains, is to learn more about why intentions matter to us when we make moral judgments.
I love Pixar. Who doesn’t? The stories are magnificently crafted, the characters are rich, hilarious, and unique, and the images are lovingly rendered. Without fail, John Ratzenberger’s iconic voice makes a cameo in some boisterous character. Even if you haven’t seen every film they’ve made (I refuse to watch Cars or its preposterous sequel), there is a consistency and quality to Pixar’s productions that is hard to deny.
Popular culture is often dismissed as empty “popcorn” fare. Animated films find themselves doubly-dismissed as “for the kids” and therefore nothing to take too seriously. Pixar has shattered those expectations by producing commercially successful cinematic art about the fishes in our fish tanks and the bugs in our backyards. Pixar films contain a complex, nuanced, philosophical and political essence that, when viewed across the company’s complete corpus, begins to emerge with some clarity.
Buried within that constant and complex goodness is a hidden message.
Now, this is not your standard “Disney movies hide double-entendres and sex imagery in every film” hidden message. “So,” you ask, incredulous, “What could one of the most beloved and respected teams of filmmakers in our generation possibly be hiding from us?” Before you dismiss my claim, consider what is at stake. Hundreds of millions of people have watched Pixar films. Many of those watchers are children who are forming their understanding of the world. The way in which an entire generation sees life and reality is being shaped, in part, by Pixar.
What if I told you they were preparing us for the future? What if I told you Pixar’s films will affect how we define the rights of millions, perhaps billions, in the coming century? Only by analyzing the collection as a whole can we see the subliminal concept being drilled into our collective mind. I have uncovered the skeleton key deciphering the hidden message contained within the Pixar canon. Let’s unlock it.
Before we begin, I ask you to watch the video below. Leandro Copperfield stitched together this seven minute tribute to “The Beauty of Pixar.” Full screen. HD. I dare you to not be moved.
People love these films. They are a part of our lives and of our culture. Pixar has artfully built a universe of beloved critters and beings that populate our popular consciousness. The analysis that follows is in the spirit of reverence and respect for the great contribution Pixar has made to our world.
To understand Pixar films, one must first to go back to Disney before Toy Story was released – to be precise, The Lion King. On top of being my favorite Shakespeare adaptation, The Lion King is the only Disney film to date with zero references to the existence of human beings. Disney and Pixar rarely have humans as the sole intelligent entities in their movies. Excluding plots requiring magic, non-human characters in Disney films are either anthropomorphous animals (e.g. walking upright, wearing clothes, drinkin’ out of cups) that take the place of humans (e.g. Robin Hood or The Rescuers) or are animals with a preternatural awareness of and ability to interact with feral human beings (e.g. The Jungle Book or Tarzan). The Lion King stands out in that the universe is animal only. There is no trash on the Serengeti, no airplanes flying over, no animals in hats or walking unnaturally on hind legs. You can’t even date when the story takes place, because there are no human references from which to calculate an approximation. Save for the fact that Zazu knows “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,” there is no evidence that the characters within The Lion King even know humans exist.
The Lion King gives us a clean slate. We know what a non-human world looks like. Now we can tackle how Pixar handles people.
The relationship between humans and the non-human characters is critical to understanding Pixar’s movies. There are certain rules in Pixar movies that make things far more interesting than the average Disney fairy tale. The first is that there is no magic. No problems are caused or fixed by the wave of a wand. Second, every Pixar film happens in the world of human beings (see why I excluded Cars? It’s ridiculous and out of character for Pixar). Even in films like a A Bug’s Life and Finding Nemo, in which humans only exist as backdrops for the action, humanity’s presence in the story is essential. The first two rules are pretty direct: the universe Pixar’s characters inhabit is non-magical and co-inhabited by humans.
The third rule is that at least one main character is an intelligent being that isn’t a human. This rule is a bit complex, so let’s flesh it out. There are two types human roles in Pixar films. The first is Human as Villain. In films like the Toy Story 1, 2, & 3, A Bug’s Life, and Finding Nemo, the protagonists are all non-human. Ancillary characters like Sid, the Collector, and Darla are not main characters. A more accurate description would be that they are pieces of the environment and, on occasion, playing the role of supporting antagonist. The second type of Pixar film is Human as Partner. In these films, the main character befriends a human being as part of the hero’s journey: Remy, Colette, and Linguini; WALL-E, EVE, Mary and John; Sully, Mike, and Boo; Russell, Carl, Kevin and Dug. These are the heroic teams of their respective films.
In each Pixar film, at least one member of the team is human and at least one member is not human but possesses human levels of intelligence.
You can see where I’m going here. Particularly in WALL•E,Ratatouille and Up! there is no ambiguity about the reality of intelligence in the non-human characters. Each Pixar film asks us to accept one deviation from our reality. While it seems like the deviation is different in every case (e.g. monsters are real, robots can fall in love, fish have a sense of family, Kevin is a girl, a rat can cook), the simple fact is that Pixar only asks us to accept one idea over and over and over again: Non-humans are sentient beings. That is the central difference between Pixar’s universe and our current reality.
That idea alone would suffice to show that Pixar films are all but propaganda for the concept of non-human personhood. But that is where the hidden message begins.
What makes these films so astonishing and the message so powerful is the story arc of the Human as Partner narrative. The story begins with a non-human living among a familiar setting. Be it WALL-E alone among the garbage, Remy with his massive extended family, or Sully and Mike Wazowski on their way to work, we are introduced to the hero in relative normalcy. Yet each of these characters deviate from their fellow non-humans. Remy wants to cook. WALL-E falls in love. In each case, the deviant non-human is ostracized. Dug is laughed at for his ineptitude and Sully and Mike are banished to live with the Abominable Agreeable Snowman.
In being ostracized, however, the non-human encounters a human. Remy, lost in the kitchen, meets Linguini. Kevin and Dug both partner up with Carl and Russell. The deviant behavior acts as a catalyst for the first interaction. Furthermore, the human is also deviant. Boo is not afraid of monsters. John and Mary (the two people who help WALL-E and EVE) get out of their hover chairs and look away from the screens. Carl escapes the old folks home with a balloon-house airship. A team is formed when the mutual outsiders recognize a shared sense of purpose. Human and non-human rebels alike seek out each other. In combining efforts, however, the team doubles their opposition, with the non-human and human normative majorities rejecting and condemning their behavior. Remy is criticized by his father and alienates his friends while Linguini loses the respect of the entire kitchen and is at risk of having the restaurant closed for health violations. There is a high cost for non-conformity.
The new is seen as dangerous and therefore feared. Pixar’s Human as Partner films emphasize that should a non-human intelligence arise, be it a rat or a robot or a monstrous alien, there will be no welcoming with arms wide open from either side.
Victory in the battle for the rights and respect from both groups will come from an act of exemplary personhood and humaneness by those who dare to break ranks with their kind. Thus, the Human as Partner story arc ends with the capitulation of those who refused to recognize the personhood of the non-human and a huge reward coming to those who accepted the non-humans as fellow persons. In Monsters Inc. Mike and Sully discover that laughter yields far more energy than screams. In Ratatouille Anton Ego has an epiphany and gives one of my favorite speeches of all time in response to a Proustian flashback he experiences after eating Remy’s cooking. In WALL•E none less than the human race is saved from the brink of self-induced-extinction. In short, the benefits for humanity are tremendous in every case where non-human persons are treated with respect.
There is one Pixar film that does not fit either the Humans as Villains or Humans as Partner structure: The Incredibles. Instead of non-human protagonists, we are treated to super-human protagonists and antagonists. Yet the struggle from outcast to redeemer is the same, only this time, it is because the super-humans come together as a family. What enables the Incredible family to succeed is not that they are superhuman but that they are humane; that they love, support, and protect one another. As a result, the society that once feared and banished them sees the supers not as Others, but has fellow members of humanity.
Taken together as a whole narrative, the Pixar canon diagrams what will likely this century’s main rights battle – the rights of personhood – in three stages.
First are the Humans as Villain stories, in which the non-humans discover and develop personhood. I mean, Buzz Lightyear’s character arc is about his becoming self-aware as a toy. These films represent nascent personhood among non-human entities. For the viewer, we begin to see how some animals and items we see as mindless may have inner lives of which we are unaware.
Second are the Humans as Partners stories, in which exceptional non-humans and exceptional humans share a moment of mutual recognition of personhood. The moment when Linguini realizes Remy is answering him is second only to the moment when Remy shows Ego around the kitchen – such beautiful transformations of the Other into the self. These films represent the first forays of non-human persons into seeking parity with human beings.
Third, and finally, there is The Incredibles, which turns the personhood equation on its head. Instead of portraying the struggle for non-humans to be accepted as human, The Incredibles shows how human enhancement, going beyond the human norm, will trigger equally strong reactions of revulsion and otherization. The message, however, is that the human traits we value have nothing to do with our physical powers but are instead based in our moral and emotional bonds. Beneficence and courage require far more humanity than raw might. The Incredibles teaches a striking lesson: human enhancement does not make you inhuman – the choices you make and the way you treat others determines how human you really are.
Pixar has given those who would fight for personhood the narratives necessary to convince the world that non-humans that display characteristics of a person deserve the rights of a person. For every category there is a character: uplifted animals (Dug), naturally intelligent species (Remy and Kevin), A.I robots (WALL-E, EVE), and alien/monsters (Sully & Mike). Then there is the Incredible family, transhumans with superpowers. Through the films, these otherwise strange entities become unmistakably familiar, so clearly akin to us. The message hidden inside Pixar’s magnificent films is this: humanity does not have a monopoly on personhood. In whatever form non- or super-human intelligence takes, it will need brave souls on both sides to defend what is right. If we can live up to this burden, humanity and the world we live in will be better for it.
An entire generation has been reared with the subconscious seeds of these ideas planted down deep. As history moves forward and technology with it, these issues will no longer be the imaginings of films and fiction, but of politics and policy. But Pixar has settled the personhood debate before it arrives. By watching our favorite films, we have been taught that being human is not the same as being a person. We have been shown that new persons and forms of personhood can come from anywhere. Through Pixar, we have opened ourselves to a better future.
Increasingly, people are exposed to technological advances that make superhumanity seem at least plausible. Until recently, R.U. Sirius was the editor of H+ (short for Humanity Plus), a magazine devoted to “transhumanism” - the ways in which science, medicine, and technology have created opportunities for human adaptation and enhancement. “There’s a certain alertness to the science fictional nature of current reality,” Mr. Sirius says, “as we start to see artificial intelligences compete in chess and then on ‘Jeopardy,’ and we see the manipulation of biology becoming a leading industry, and we see people being regularly ‘cyborged’ with replacement parts.” Over time, that sort of exposure may help normalize and popularize the idea that humans don’t have to be merely human.
COURTESY OF R.U. SIRIUS “There’s a certain alertness to the science fictional nature of current reality,” says R.U. Sirius.COURTESY OF R.U. SIRIUS “There’s a certain alertness to the science fictional nature of current reality,” says R.U. Sirius.ASSOCIATED PRESS “X-Men: First Class” opens in theaters this weekend with Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto.
By Peter Suderman - Special to The Washington Times
5:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 1, 2011
MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT “Captain America: The First Avenger” is one of four movies opening this summer featuring a superhero.MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT “Captain America: The First Avenger” is one of four movies opening this summer featuring a superhero.WARNER BROS. PICTURES Ryan Reynolds stars as the superhero Green Lantern in the film by the same name opening this summer.
When “X-Men: First Class,” a prequel to the popular series of comic-book adaptations, hits theaters this weekend, moviegoers will find themselves immersed in yet another superhero origin story, the fourth opening this summer, along with “Thor,” “Green Lantern,” and “Captain America: The First Avenger.”
Superhero stories have come to rule in Hollywood since the late ‘90s, when the first “X-Men” film drew high praise and box office. Since then, big-screen visions of classic comic-book heroes Spider-Man, Batman and Iron Man and their sequels have all racked up big bucks at the box office. The current wave, expected to dominate this summer’s box office, represents the biggest hero glut yet.
Our deepening fascination with the genre occurs as we’re witnessing the beginnings of real world superhero emergence - growing numbers of technologically and biologically modified humans who have become stronger, smarter, and more powerful thanks to consumer technology and widely accessible scientific advances.
You might even say we are all part superhero now.
True to genre form, “X-Men: First Class” tells a tale of how lowly individuals with all-too-familiar personal problems became larger-than-life heroes with abilities far beyond their normal human peers. Taking viewers back to the height of the Cold War, “First Class” adds a wrinkle of its own, tracing the social emergence of an entire class of super-powered individuals: mutants - humans born with genetic abnormalities that give them extraordinary powers.
MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT “Captain America: The First Avenger” is one of four movies opening this summer featuring a superhero.
Compared to humans of the past, most Americans are blessed with remarkable, previously unthinkable abilities. We live longer, access information faster and in greater volume, and can transform our minds and our bodies in ways that prior generations never imagined.
Take life expectancy. In the early part of the 20th century, it hovered in the low to mid 40s. Now, thanks to advances in medicine and public health, people across the world live to an average age of a little over 67. In developed countries, it’s even higher.
The Internet, the rise of personal computing, and the recent explosion of mobile data technology, from smart phones to tablet computers, have given billions of individuals access to grand libraries worth of information at the touch of a button, anywhere and everywhere. In the Middle Ages, scholars prided themselves on their memories, their ability to perfectly recall volumes of detail; those with the sharpest memories had a unique advantage. Now, anyone with Google access can beat the factual recall of the most committed bookworm.
Meanwhile, medical technology and biological enhancement are allowing humans to transform their bodies into faster, stronger versions of themselves - even, in some cases, after severe disablement. When double-amputee and paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius wanted to compete in the 2008 Olympics, he was initially ruled ineligible: The synthetic legs he’d been given to replace his human limbs were deemed to give him too much of an advantage over unaltered humans. It was in many ways a classic superhero story, with an accident followed by a transformation from being one of the weakest among us to one of the strongest.
Increasingly, people are exposed to technological advances that make superhumanity seem at least plausible. Until recently, R.U. Sirius was the editor of H+ (short for Humanity Plus), a magazine devoted to “transhumanism” - the ways in which science, medicine, and technology have created opportunities for human adaptation and enhancement.
“There’s a certain alertness to the science fictional nature of current reality,” Mr. Sirius says, “as we start to see artificial intelligences compete in chess and then on ‘Jeopardy,’ and we see the manipulation of biology becoming a leading industry, and we see people being regularly ‘cyborged’ with replacement parts.”
Over time, that sort of exposure may help normalize and popularize the idea that humans don’t have to be merely human. The recent wave of superhero films - most of which are tailored to a tech-obsessed younger demographic - may be an early sign that it’s already happening. Indeed, stories inobtrusively integrating what we now think of as superheroes could become the new norm: Mr. Sirius says he can imagine that eventually “having an enhanced or mutated human plot, or subplot, may be the rule rather than the exception.”
Of course, there’s nothing new about telling popular stories in which characters have incredible powers. Mr. Sirius offers the reminder that “these sorts of imaginings - of humans gaining powers - have existed through all of human storytelling history.” Indeed, it’s often said that superheroes are merely updates on Greek mythology.
Yet there’s a crucial difference. Superhero stories aren’t about gods; they’re about men. It used to be that when we dreamed of powerful people, we understood them to be made of something more than us. But built into the core of superhero mythology is the idea that these sorts of ultra-powerful people are us.
Superhero movies have long transported us, serving as fantasies of escape from who we are. Perhaps that’s changing, as little by little they become intimations of who we can become.
The recent outbreak of an E. coli infection in Germany has resulted in serious concerns about the potential appearance of a new deadly strain of bacteria. In response to this situation, and immediately after the reports of deaths, the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf and BGI-Shenzhen began working together to sequence the bacterium and assess its human health risk. BGI-Shenzhen has just completed the sequence and carried out a preliminary analysis that shows the current infection is caused by an entirely new super-toxic E. coli strain.
According to the latest announcement from German health officials, the death toll in Europe from the epidemic has risen to at least 17. Over1,000 new cases of infection have also been reported in other parts of Europe, including Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, and others. The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf received the majority of the infected patients from northern Germany and found that antibiotic treatment was ineffective.
BGI was informed of the dangerous situation and, in collaboration with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf researchers, used their genomic technology to determine the infectious strain, reveal the mechanisms of infection, and facilitate the development of measures to control the spread of this epidemic.
Upon receiving the bacterial DNA samples, BGI finished sequencing the genome of the bacterium within three days using their third-generation sequencing platform — Ion Torrent by Life Technologies. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that this E. coli is a new strain of bacteria that is highly infectious and toxic.
According to the results of the current draft assembly (available for download here) , the estimated genome size of this new E. coli strain is about 5.2 Mb. Sequence analysis indicated this bacterium is an EHECserotype O104 E. coli strain; however, this is a new serotype — not previously involved in any E. coli outbreaks. Comparative analysis showed that this bacterium has 93% sequence similarity with the EAEC 55989 E. coli strain, which was isolated in the Central African Republic and known to cause serious diarrhea. This new strain of E. coli, however, has also acquired specific sequences that appear to be similar to those involved in the pathogenicity of hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic-uremic syndrome. The acquisition of these genes may have occurred through horizontal gene transfer. The analysis further showed that this deadly bacterium carries several antibiotic resistance genes, including resistance to aminoglycoside, macrolides and Beta-lactam antibiotics: all of which makes antibiotic treatment extremely difficult.
The research team will further analyze the integrity of the virulence genes, their expression profiles, drug resistance, and gene transfer mechanisms followed by validation of these genes in other strains. In addition BGI and collaborators are developing diagnostic kits to aid in curtailing this epidemic. New results will be continuously updated. (To obtain immediate updates see Twitter: @BGI_Events.) Source: BGI The sequences of this new E. coli strain have been uploaded to NCBI (SRA No: SRA037315.1) and are also available for immediate download at ftp://ftp.genomics.org.cn/pub/Ecoli_TY-2482.
The Amarillo Department of Health confirmed late Wednesday afternoon they are investigating seven confirmed cases of E. coli 0157:H7.
A spokesperson for the department said that all current reported cases are with children and that no specific food has been linked to the outbreak. Pronews 7 has confirmed that four of the seven kids were hospitalized. While the investigation into the outbreak is ongoing, health officials said possible sources could include international travel, exposure to infected animals and human-to-human contact with infected individuals. Area physicians have been told about the outbreak and are working with the public health department to quickly identify any additional cases and potential risk factors.(NewsChannel10)
CDC is following a large outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O104, or STEC O104, infections currently going on in Germany. As of May 31, 2011, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s disease control and prevention agency, has confirmed six deaths and 373 patients with hemolytic uremic syndrome, or (HUS) (kidney failure), a life-threatening complication of E. coli infections.
The strain of STEC causing illness, STEC O104:H4, is very rare. CDC is not aware of any cases of STEC O104:H4 infection ever being reported in United States. Any person with recent travel to Germany with signs or symptoms of STEC infection or HUS, should seek medical care and let the medical provider know about the outbreak of STEC infections in Germany and the importance of being tested. Symptoms of STEC infection include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, which is often bloody, and vomiting. If there is fever, it usually is not very high. Most people get better within 5–7 days, but some patients go on to develop HUS—usually about a week after the diarrhea starts. Symptoms of HUS include decreased frequency of urination, feeling very tired, and losing pink color to skin and membranes due to anemia.
STEC infections can be spread from person to person. The best defense is careful, thorough hand washing. Persons returning from Germany who have diarrhea should be sure to wash hands well with soap and warm water after using the bathroom, and should not prepare food for others while they are ill. People who are in contact with ill people who recently visited Germany should also follow basic hygiene practices carefully, including washing their hands thoroughly before eating or drinking and after caring for an ill person.
A very rare strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, or STEC has been reported from some patients in the outbreak. This strain, E. coli O104:H4 has never been seen in the United States, and CDC is only aware of few reports of this strain from other countries. Although it is rare, the United States’ public health surveillance systems are designed to be able to identify this, and other rare STEC strains, in ill people. However, the ability to detect STEC infections through surveillance depends on proper diagnostic testing of patients presenting with symptoms suggestive of STEC. In 2009, CDC published recommendations for the diagnosis of STEC infections by clinical laboratories. The illness that it causes is similar to that caused by E. coli O157:H7 which is also a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli and the one most commonly identified in the United States. (FoodPoisoningJournal)
Posted by PCLatest news, Special Report, World newsThursday, May 26th, 2011
In a lecture on April 27, 1997 at the University of Georgia former Secretary of Defense, William Cohen spoke on weapons of mass destruction. At that lecture Cohen asserted that “electromagnetic waves can be used to stimulate geophysical events such as earthquakes, climate change, volcanic eruptions and the like”. Secretary of Defense Cohen also stated that this is being used in an ecotype of terrorism. Can we take Cohen’s assertions to be factual? As Secretary of Defense, Cohen would have had first hand technical knowldge of the existence of such a weapon of mass destruction. So if what he was saying is true who is using this weapon of mass destruction and ecotype of terrorism? Since Cohen worked for the United States government the only plausible answer would be the United States government.
Former US Secretary of Defense, William Cohen was actually warning us in 1997 that the United States government has developed and is now actively using a weapon that is capable of causing mass destruction by triggering earthquakes, weather modification (inducing heavy rainfall that causes floods or no rainfall which causes droughts), volcanic eruptions and the like. Cohen was warning us about the existence of HAARP. HAARP was developed by the Bill Clinton / Al Gore administration as a United States weapon of mass destruction.
HAARP was ordered built by Bill Clinton and Al Gore to beam electromagnetic waves into the Earth’s inosphere to trigger geophysical events such as earthquakes, climate modification (change), volcanic eruptions and the like. Congressional Hearing records during the Clinton administration and HAARP patents disclose that HAARP beaming heats the inosphere. As we all know heat causes things to expand. We also know that heat rises. As HAARP heats one part of the ionosphere the ionosphere expands and gets pushed higher. This HAARP ionosphere heating can cause a controlled diverting or altering of the natural path of jet streams.
What does manipulating the jet stream have to do with manipulating the weather? The jet stream is literally a fast flowing (at jet speed) stream – of water vapor. The jet stream transports atmospheric rivers of water vapor around the World. These jet streams of vapor carry an amount of water vapor roughly equivalent to the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River. When these atmospheric rivers make landfall, they often release this water vapor in the form of rain or snow. By manipulating the jet stream (pushing or pulling it off course) HAARP can modify the weather. HAARP can alter the path an existing high pressure weather system (clear skies) or low pressure weather system (storm clouds) anywhere on Earth just by heating the ionsphere over the target region.
HAARP can also create a column-shaped hole with a diameter of 30 miles that rises a couple of hundred kilometers through the atmosphere. The lower atmosphere then moves up the column to fill in that space, and it changes pressure systems below. The result of hot surface air being sucked up into the column to fill the HAARP created column-shaped hole is a HAARP created hurricane (if HAARP column-shaped hole is made over water) or tornado (if HAARP column-shaped hole is made over land).
The April/May 2000 issue of Scientific American contains an article on the effects of altering the course of the jet stream. This slight change to the jet stream path occurred right above the HAARP facility. That little movement created a storm front 4,000 miles away in east Texas and Louisiana to move into central Florida where it triggered a couple of tornadoes. This article gives evidence that weather modification is certainly possible with only a slight change to the jet stream.
In 1998 Bernard Eastlund completed a paper on how to knock out tornadoes using a space-based, solar-collecting microwave generator, which he called the Thunderstorm Solar Power Satellite. The microwaves would heat the rainy downdraft inside the storm, disrupting the convective forces needed to concentrate the tornado’s power, and so effectively stop it from forming. That paper was presented in Italy and it was so widely accepted that NASA and FEMA contracted Bernard Eastlund to do further research on weather modification using satellite-based technology. “Mesocyclone Diagnostic Requirements for the Thunderstorm Solar Power Satellite Concept” Published in the Proceedings of “The Second Conference on the Applications of Remote Sensing and GIS for Disaster Management”, Jan. 19-21, 1999, Sponsored by NASA and FEMA
The Jet Stream Solar Power Satellite is described by Eastlund as “a dual use Satellite which can focus microwave energy into a jet stream to change the direction of a jet stream. It does this by triggering turbulence in the flowing air which decreases the flow velocity of an edge region of the flow and generating a pressure differential that changes the direction of the bulk air flow.“
The weather forces of Earth are volatile indeed. Even in the human era we have passed through cataclysmic times of both fire and ice, destruction and rebirth; recorded throughout the world in legends and religious texts. Are the current weather events part of that natural wave pattern of upheaval and stability, man-made global warming, a cyclical eruption of the sun, or are there clear manufactured patterns emerging?
The HAARP project has been shrouded in secrecy and speculation since its inception. Despite recent high-profile attempts to access its inner workings, only more questions continue to emerge. Conclusions about its operational capacity are those that have caused a drift toward "conspiracy theory." Defense operations have quite a history of harebrained boondoggle schemes that never become operational. However, weather modification (and weaponization) has been consistently discussed and researched by the military and the Elite to a level that indicates there is something worth pursuing. Let us look at a few things we know for certain:
HAARP is a military installation
Officials downplay the facility as pure "basic or exploratory research" -- working with Alaska University, Fairbanks -- possessing no military applications. Yet, the United States Air Force, Navy and DARPA scientists populate the remote site in Gakona, Alaska. It is also part of the Strategic Defense Initiative, which answers to the Department of Defense, and makes it a component of "Star Wars" inviting NASA into the mix. At the very least, the communications and surveillance applications fit in perfectly with national security via sea and sky.
It is a weather modification apparatus
The scientists at HAARP do not deny the capacity for structural modification of the atmosphere, but they continue to insist that their academic studies are limited to a small swath around the facility. However, there is an indication of wider use: the premier defense contractor, Raytheon, is now the owner of most of many relevant patents surrounding the research being conducted there. Of twelve patents that form the backbone, #4,686,605 says it all: "Method and Apparatus for Altering a Region in the Earth's Atmosphere, Ionosphere, and/or Magnetosphere."
Weather weapons have been considered by the Elite as a Potential Tool for Control
Zbigniew Brzezinski is the world's foremost geopolitical director. His seminal books, The Grand Chessboard and Between Two Ages have so many quotable passages that it is overkill to list them all. He is the supreme insider: Born into Polish nobility; a former National Security Advisor; and co-founder of The Trilaterial Comission with David Rockefeller, he seems to revel in telling the world the future of Elite direction. There is not a chance that he would have mentioned weather weapons in his books if they were not feasible. A key passage from Between Two Ages (1970) states, "Technology of weather modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought or storm."
With this in mind, let's consider some recent events that might suggest HAARP has achieved its full operational potential as a weapon that can be accurately directed to a given target if geopolitical masterminds give the order.
Venezuela Drought -- The worst drought in 50 years came in late 2009 after Elites labeled Hugo Chavez an authoritarian (despite repeated popular elections). They indicated a desire to, "divert the country toward a democracy." That type of rhetoric often indicates a mission to destabilize a regime, and impose a true dictator subservient only to the whims of the Globalists. Big Oil hates iconoclastic leaders who are not members of The Club. The benefit of political instability can set the stage for a future coup, so we have to wonder if a weather weapon was tested to produce anger among the populace. Chavez invoked El Niño at the time, but did indicate his awareness of U.S. weather weapons after the Haiti Earthquake.
Pakistan Floods -- The suddenness of the weather could be a tipoff. This is a disaster that experts are saying dwarfs the impact of the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia, and is the worst in Pakistan history. And it came by surprise. Unlike a Tsunami which can have a random earthquake as its source, weather has been charted enough to put meteorologists on TV who presumably make a living off of their accurate analysis. Yet, millions have been affected, and hundreds of villages erased by this anomalous event that dropped from the skies. A recent article in the Daily Mail has scientists speculating that a blocked jet stream is causing a prolonged weather system over Pakistan . . . as well as Russia. A stated ability of HAARP is to "perturb the ionosphere," which can lead to the stalling, or supercharging of weather systems, as the jet stream is affected. In fact, it appears that the jet stream has split in two, with one arm going north over Russia, and the other arm heading south into Pakistan; the region in the middle is feeling the effects.
Russia Heat Wave -- The worst heatwave in the nation's history is slowing its economic recovery and causing destabilizing anger in the populace.Major media coldly states that the Russians' penchant for alcohol is to blame for the subsequent deaths. Meanwhile, talk of a climate weapon is increasing in volume. Then there is Global Warming and carbon taxes: Russia has been a holdout on the effects of man-made Global Warming and the attendant need to tax industry. Premier Medvedev stated in late 2009, "We will not cut our development potential." He also made it clear that he believed that Global Warming was, "some kind of tricky campaign made up by some commercial structures to promote their business projects." Yet, who can doubt the effects of man-made warming now? Medvedev was quoted recently doing a complete about-face, "What's happening with the planet's climate right now needs to be a wake-up call to all of us, meaning all heads of state, all heads of social organizations, in order to take a more energetic approach to countering the global changes to the climate."
Freak U.S. Storms -- Washington D.C. has been getting pounded. A recent storm came out of nowhere. Could this be retaliation from Russia for a perceived (or real) attack on its main agricultural region? The storms produced the first hail in the state's history and dumped 5 inches of rain per hour, amid 180,000 lightning strikes. Or, perhaps it was domestically inspired -- the area's freak storm claimed the life of community leader and activist, Carl Henn. Either way, experts are noting in Russia and D.C. that a change in the jet stream has led to the significant events. The D.C. events come on the heels of a strange storm in Montana, curiously not long after the governor turned down Federal stimulus money.
The recent death of Ted Stevens is a disturbing development. Some sources indicate that he was ready to reveal that Obama had given the green light to use weather weapons. And Stevens might have known; he was the Senator in 1988 that had to be "convinced" to allow his state to house the HAARP project. At the time, Stevens was insisting to detractors that the HAARP array could end fossil fuel dependence. Perhaps this is what he was led to believe, so he let the project sail through . . . until he later learned otherwise. Also on board the plane was former NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe, who was enlisted by Stevens to help research the truth.
Government acronyms are very often revealing for their propagandizing; in reality being a 180-degree turn away from what is implied. HAARP invokes a sense of the peaceful strumming of angels in harmony with all creation. Yet, even if we conclude the most benign intentions, a familiar chestnut warns us that the road is paved straight to Hell. The title of the definitive book on the subject states it best: Angels Don't Play This HAARP. That is because the strum of mechanistic manipulation is discordant with Nature; it plays a devil's tune, rasping its way across the strings of existence.
On Earth, it is played out as Full Spectrum Dominance where it needs souls to succeed. This is the free will of humanity -- you must choose your side. History is a catalogue of Man's attempts to imitate the Divine. He has not yet succeeded, but he might just die while trying.
Boxes containing tomatoes stand behind a fence at the closed shop of a distributor at the central fruit and vegetable market in Berlin on Tuesday, af AP – Boxes containing tomatoes stand behind a fence at the closed shop of a distributor at the central fruit …
By DAVID RISING and MARIA CHENG, Associated Press David Rising And Maria Cheng, Associated Press – Tue May 31, 6:28 pm ET
BERLIN – The foodborne bacterial outbreak that has hit Germany and other European nations is unlike anything Western experts have seen: 16 dead and more than 1,000 sick, including nearly 400 suffering severe and potentially fatal symptoms. But several days into the health threat, scientists remain unsure what produce — and what country — is responsible.
Investigators across Europe were frantically trying to determine the scope of the contamination by an unusual strain of the common E. coli germ — and where in the long journey from farm to grocery store the contamination occurred. German authorities pointed to a few cucumbers from Spain, but further tests showed that those vegetables, while contaminated, did not cause the outbreak.
In Germany, where the vast majority of deaths and severe illnesses have been reported, officials said that investigations including interviews with patients have shown that people were likely infected by eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes or lettuce. They are warning consumers to avoid those vegetables, and Russia went so far as to ban imports of those vegetables from Spain or Germany.
In its most severe form, the infection can attack the kidneys, sometimes causing seizures, strokes and comas.
It's "extraordinary" to see so many cases of the kidney complication from a foodborne illness, said Dr. Robert Tauxe, a foodborne disease expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"There has not been such an outbreak before that we know of in the history of public health," Tauxe said.
He added that the strain of E. coli in the European outbreak has not been seen previously in the United States. The CDC said two cases have been reported in the U.S., and that both people had recently traveled to Hamburg, Germany, where many of the infections occurred. The agency did not say what states the two people are in, but said it was working with state health departments to learn more about the cases and identify others.
There have been several high-profile foodborne outbreaks in the U.S. in recent years, but none with such a high death toll. There's little precedent in Europe, either. In 1996, an E. coli outbreak in the United Kingdom caused 216 cases and 11 deaths.
The CDC said two cases from the latest outbreak have been reported in the U.S., and that both people had recently traveled to Hamburg, Germany, where many of the infections occurred. The agency did not say what states the two people are in, but said it was working with state health departments to learn more about the cases and identify others.
The World Health Organization said 86 percent of those sickened were adults, and two-thirds were women. It said it was unusual that more children weren't affected.
E. coli is found in the digestive systems of humans, cows and other mammals. It has been responsible for a large number of food poisoning outbreaks around the world. In most cases, it simply causes diarrhea and other non-lethal stomach ailments.
But the bacteria involved in the latest outbreak, EHEC, causes more severe symptoms, ranging from bloody diarrhea to hemolytic uremic syndrome — the rare kidney condition that the most seriously ill patients are suffering from. At least 373 people in Germany and 15 in Sweden have come down with the syndrome, which normally kills roughly 5 percent of the patients who get it.
The syndrome is not just a short-term problem: Ten to 20 years after they recover, between 30 percent and half of survivors will have some kidney-caused problem, experts say.
A Swedish woman who died early Tuesday was the first, and so far the only, fatality linked to the outbreak outside Germany.
The latest German death occurred Tuesday in the northwestern city of Paderborn, but German regional officials said they are seeing a sharp drop in the number of new cases.
Total cases, including less severe EHEC infections, top 1,150 in Germany alone. Other infections have been reported in Denmark, France, the Czech Republic, the U.K., the Netherlands and Switzerland. Many patients in those cases had recently traveled to Germany.
The highly politicized mystery deepened with new evidence that German vegetables may have been contaminated by at least two strains of EHEC, or enterohaemorrhagic E. coli.
Authorities in Hamburg said last week that they had detected EHEC on four cucumbers in a market in the northern German city, three imported from Spain and the fourth of unclear origin.
European Union officials said Germany identified cucumbers from the Spanish regions of Almeria and Malaga as possible sources of contamination, and that a third suspect batch, originating either in the Netherlands or in Denmark and sold in Germany, was also under investigation.
On Tuesday, however, officials said they had found a slightly different type of EHEC on the cucumbers than the strain detected in the feces of sick people in Germany. That means those cucumbers did not cause the outbreak, but posed a health risk nonetheless, the German officials said.
Spain's agriculture minister, Rosa Aguilar, seized on the find as evidence that "our cucumbers are not responsible for the situation." Spain exports most of its produce to other countries in Europe.
Denmark said no traces of EHEC bacteria were found in tests of vegetables conducted there over the weekend. Exports of Dutch cucumbers to Germany were halted but authorities said tests of a cucumber grower and a warehouse found no EHEC bacteria there, either.
The northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, which neighbors Hamburg and is one of the worst affected, said tests on 141 samples of food including cucumbers, tomatoes, milk products, zucchini and poultry had found no EHEC. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, another northern state, has been unable to find EHEC in 38 samples so far.
Russia's chief sanitary agency on Monday banned cucumbers, tomatoes and fresh salad from Spain and Germany, and said it may extend the ban to all European Union member nations because of questions about the source of the infection.
Yesterday, Honda Research Institute revealed the latest trick from its Asimo robot: It can now respond to commands issued only as thoughts. The Japanese carmaker ran a video of a man imagining four simple movements – raising his right hand, raising his left hand, running and eating – that were then duplicated by Asimo, the company’s humanoid robot. Honda said the technology was not ready for a live demonstration because the test subject might get distracted. A previous demonstration in 2006 required the test subjects to lie motionless in an MRI scanner in order to pick up the signals [Financial Times].
The CIA’s experiments with mind-control and hallucinogenic drugs are well documented. It’s hard to forget about programs like 
The recent outbreak of an E. coli infection in Germany has resulted in serious concerns about the potential appearance of a new deadly strain of bacteria. In response to this situation, and immediately after the reports of deaths, the 
and 
have so many quotable passages that it is overkill to list them all. He is the supreme insider: Born into Polish nobility; a former National Security Advisor; and co-founder of The Trilaterial Comission with David Rockefeller, he seems to revel in telling the world the future of Elite direction. There is not a chance that he would have mentioned weather weapons in his books if they were not feasible. A key passage from Between Two Ages (1970) states, "Technology of weather modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought or storm."