Saturday, March 23rd, 2013
Stephan: Our children are obese because of the 'foods' they eat. They have diabetes because of the high fructose corn syrup. We have girls experiencing menarche at 9, and breast development at 10 because of the hormones they unwittingly absorb because of industrial animal husbandry. And now we are discovering a growing number of them are autistic. The list goes on an on, all resulting from a society that is structured for maximum profit for the few.
According to the latest estimates from the CDC, as many as 1 in 50 kids in U.S. schools have autism. That’s a high number, even higher than last year’s estimate of one in 88 schoolchildren.
The statistic includes all disorders on the autism spectrum, including Asperger’s Syndrome. The study, which compared diagnoses in 2007 (at 1 in 86, according to their study) to those in 2011-’12, attributes ‘much’ of the increase in prevalence to ‘diagnoses of children with previously unrecognized autism spectrum disorder.’ Those diagnosed after 2008 were more likely to have a less severe form of autism, according to researchers. Increases in prevalence were statistically significant for all age groups, and for boys, but not for girls. Boys were four times more likely to have an autism disorder than girls were.
The study relied on parents to report diagnosis, severity, and the approximate date of diagnosis themselves, instead of relying on medical records. The latter, as the Associated Press explains, was the method used by last year’s study resulting in a 1 in 88 estimate for autism diagnosis, leading some to conclude that the current study is less reliable. In any case, the study’s authors are not really […]
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MARK MORFORD, - AlterNet (U.S.)/San Francisco Chronicle
Stephan: Here is why movements like the Tea Baggers, the modern version of the Know Nothings who plagued America in the 19th century, prosper. Willful Ignorance is like a dark cloud spreading across the nation. This essay is too polemic, but the points it makes are sound.
Six percent of Americans believe in unicorns. Thirty-six percent believe in UFOs. A whopping 24 percent believe dinosaurs and man hung out together. Eighteen percent still believe the sun revolves around the Earth. Nearly 30 percent believe cloud computing involves
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JURRIAAN MAESSEN, - Blacklisted News
Stephan: This is the latest in the Homo Superiorus Trend. I predict this is going to become a major issue very quickly.
According to a leading evolutionary biologist, the Chinese are engaging in a massive breeding operation with the aim of ultimately creating a breed of cognitively enhanced individuals. And what’s more, the China-based eugenics factory recently bought up a large genome research institute in the United States, giving the Chinese access to the DNA of Americans.
In a recent interview with Vice magazine, evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller admits to have donated his DNA to an endeavor headed up by the world’s largest genetic research institution based in China’s Shenzhen province. Miller, by his own admission, is one of 2000 ‘brainiacs
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STEPHEN C. WEBSTER, - The Raw Story
Stephan: Here is the latest on the Surveillance Trend. Once again I caution you to remember that everything you write or say that is made digital is being watched, read, or listened to by the government. The Soviet Union never achieved anything like this level of surveillance. Even George Orwell could not imagine this.
Click through to see the video.
Speaking to a crowd of technology professionals Wednesday at GigaOM’s Structure:Data conference in New York City, the Central Intelligence Agency’s chief technology officer explained that the CIA is so infatuated with big data that it tries ‘to collect everything and hang onto it forever.
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GOSIA WOZNIACKA, - Mercury News (Silicon Valley)
Stephan: Here is some potentially good news about the bees. If the beekeepers prevail it may save not just the bees, but humanity's food supply.
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA — Commercial beekeepers and environmental organizations filed a lawsuit Thursday against federal regulators for not banning the use of two pesticides they say harm honeybees.
In the suit, filed by the Center for Food Safety in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the group asks the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to suspend the use of insecticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam-known as ‘neonicotinoids,’ a class of chemicals that act on the central nervous system of insects.
The chemicals are used to treat corn, cotton and other crops against a variety of pests. Research shows that the chemicals build up over time in the soil, plants and trees. They are used widely in the Midwest, where many bees used for California’s annual almond pollination are located. Each February, more than half of the country’s honeybees-about 1.5 million hives-are trucked to California’s almond orchards, the nation’s biggest pollination event.
Beekeepers and some scientists have for years blamed the pesticides for higher bee die-offs. Bees are exposed to the insecticides via residues in nectar and pollen and in contaminated dust from planting of treated seeds. Critics of neonicotinoids say they are toxic to bees, making them more susceptible to pathogens, and could be a significant […]
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