wikipedia | In 1967, Puthoff earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.[1][2][3]
He then worked with, and invented, tunable lasers and electron beam
devices, concerning which he holds patents, and he is co-author (with R.
Pantell) of Fundamentals of Quantum Electronics (Wiley, 1969), published in English, French, Russian and Chinese. Puthoff published papers on polarizable vacuum (PV) and stochastic electrodynamics topics, which are examples of alternative approaches to general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Puthoff took an interest in the Church of Scientology in the late 1960s and reached what was then the top OT VII level by 1971.[3] Puthoff wrote up his "wins" for a Scientology publication, claiming to have achieved "remote viewing" abilities.[4] In 1974, Puthoff also wrote a piece for Scientology's Celebrity magazine, stating that Scientology had given him "a feeling of absolute fearlessness".[5] Puthoff severed all connection with Scientology in the late 1970s.[6]
In 1985, Puthoff founded a for-profit company, EarthTech
International in Austin, Texas. At about the same time, he founded an
organization, Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin (IASA), also in
Austin, Texas, where he is Director.[9] Independent of the Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton, New Jersey, IASA pursues ideas that Puthoff finds
interesting specifically related to energy generation and space
propulsion, with funding from anonymous donors.
Puthoff and EarthTech were granted a US Patent 5,845,220[10]
in 1998 after five years delay. The claims were disputed that
information could be transmitted through a distance using a modulated
potential with no electric or magnetic field components. The case is
used for educational purposes in patent law[11] as an example of a valid
patent where "The lesson of the Puthoff patent is that in a world where
both types of patents are more and more common, even a competent
examiner may fail to distinguish innovation from pseudoscience."
wikipedia |1970s - In 1970 United States intelligence sources believed that the Soviet Union was spending 60 million rubles annually on "psychotronic"
research. In response to claims that the Soviet program had produced
results, the CIA initiated funding for a new program known as SCANATE
("scan by coordinate") in the same year.[11]Remote viewing research began in 1972 at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California.[11] Proponents (Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff) of the research said that a minimum accuracy rate of 65% required by the clients was often exceeded in the later experiments.[11]
PhysicistsRussell Targ and Harold Puthoff began testing psychics for SRI in 1972, including one who would later become an international celebrity, Israeli Uri Geller. Their apparently successful results garnered interest within the U.S. Department of Defense. Ray Hyman, professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, was asked by Air Force psychologist Lt. Col. Austin W. Kibler (1930–2008)—then Director of Behavioral Research for ARPA—to
go to SRI and investigate. He was to specifically evaluate Geller.
Hyman's report to the government was that Geller was a "complete fraud"
and as a consequence Targ and Puthoff lost their government contract to
do further work with him. The result was a publicity tour for Geller,
Targ and Puthoff, to seek private funding for further research work on
Geller.[12]
One of the project's successes was the location of a lost Soviet
spy plane in 1976 by Rosemary Smith, a young administrative assistant
recruited by project director Dale Graff.[13]
In 1977 the Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI)
Systems Exploitation Detachment (SED) started the GONDOLA WISH program
to "evaluate potential adversary applications of remote viewing."[11] Army Intelligence then formalized this in mid-1978 as an operational program GRILL FLAME, based in buildings 2560 and 2561 at Fort Meade, in Maryland (INSCOM "Detachment G").[11]
1980s
In early
1979 the research at SRI was integrated into GRILL FLAME, which was
redesignated INSCOM CENTER LANE Project (ICLP) in 1983. In 1984 the
existence of the program was reported by Jack Anderson, and in that year it was unfavorably received by the National Academy of SciencesNational Research Council.
In late 1985 the Army funding was terminated, but the program was
redesignated SUN STREAK and funded by the DIA's Scientific and Technical
Intelligence Directorate (office code DT-S).[11]
1990s
In 1991 most of the contracting for the program was transferred from SRI to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), with Edwin May controlling 70% of the contractor funds and 85% of the data. Its security was altered from Special Access Program (SAP) to Limited Dissemination (LIMDIS), and it was given its final name, STAR GATE.[11]
Closure (1995)
In
1995 the defense appropriations bill directed that the program be
transferred from DIA to CIA oversight. The CIA commissioned a report by
the American Institutes for Research
(AIR) that found that remote viewing had not been proved to work by a
psychic mechanism, and said it had not been used operationally.[4]: 5–4 The CIA subsequently cancelled and declassified the program.[11]
In 1995 the project was transferred to the CIA and a retrospective evaluation of the results was done. The appointed panel consisted primarily of Jessica Utts and Ray Hyman. Hyman had produced an unflattering report on Uri Geller and SRI for the government two decades earlier, but the psychologist David Marks
found Utts' appointment to the review panel "puzzling" given that she
had published papers with Edwin May, considering this joint research
likely to make her "less than [im]partial".[1]
A report by Utts claimed the results were evidence of psychic
functioning; however, Hyman in his report argued Utts' conclusion that
ESP had been proven to exist, especially precognition, was premature and
the findings had not been independently replicated.[14] Hyman came to the conclusion:
archive | PROJECT SUN STREAK; was an umbrella term for the Intelligence
Community effort that used remote viewers who claimed to use
clairvoyance, precognition, or telepathy to acquire and describe
information about targets that were blocked from ordinary perception.
The records include documentation of remote viewing sessions, training,
internal memoranda, foreign assessments, and program reviews. The STAR
GATE program was also called SCANATE, GONDOLA WISH, DRAGOON ABSORB,
GRILL FLAME, CENTER LANE, SUN STREAK. Files were released through CREST
and obtained as TIF files by the Black Vault and converted to PDF by
That 1 Archive.
cia.gov | Project GRILL FLAME is an Army and DIA jointly financed effort to study novel intelligence collection techniques. The fiscal year 1982 'justification material states that GRILL FLAME studies will help to identify the capabilities and vulnerabilities associated with paranormal phenomenon having military applications.
Use of these audio files requires good quality headphones or ear buds. The files are in .flac format for highest possible audio fidelity. Two .flac files per CD and 3 CD's per zip file except for the Experience Discovery zip file which also contains a detailed usage manual as well as most of the books referenced in the DoD Analysis and Assessment document. These .flac files should play with sufficiently high fidelity using any contemporary smartphone or PC audio player. They're zipped and average 900 MB per zip file except for Experience Discovery which is 2GB. They were created using 7zip.
academia | There is no question that something happened 11,000-12,000 years ago in Anatolia. By putting Archaeoacoustics into the mix, we may have an answer.
Researching a subject about prehistory that cannot be photographed or handled requires input from a wide range of disciplines combined with informed observation. Those of us working with Archaeoacoustics: the archaeology of sound in ancient ritual and ceremonial spaces, have always thought that the next step was a collection of on-site biofeedback. Happily, Neuroscience is now filling in the gap of knowledge about the psycho-physiological impact of certain resonant sound which is present in the world’s oldest monuments. Add that to new discoveries in Anatolia, and a solution for the “Sapient Paradox” practically leaps right out of the stone.
A paper published in 2008[iii] is recognized as the first official source indicating an effect on brain activity of sound in a specific frequency that has been measured in various megalithic enclosures. While a range of 90 to 130 Hz is the target area, this report cites abrupt changes at 110 Hz in a small group of volunteers. Thanks to the internet, this number has taken on a cultish following and prompted wild speculation about all the ways and places that 110 might be significant. This is the sort of stuff television shows are made of, but it is not grounded in science.
What has been scientifically detected is a “megalithic range” for highest resonance between 90 and 130 Hz in stone chambers, which has also been confirmed in Malta’s incomparable Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. An estimated 2000 tons of stone were removed to create this place, by the same people who built the megalithic temples above ground on the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo. By virtue of being undetected underground until 1902, Hal Saflieni is still acoustically intact. We hear sound in there today exactly as it was heard by the folks who were using it 5000 years ago, and it can be hair-raising.[iv] Since its discovery, a sort of mythology has been built up about the way sound behaves in Hal Saflieni. Echoes that last as long as 13 seconds and sound waves that circle around the walls create a sonic atmosphere that is difficult to describe.
One chamber called the Oracle Room, functions as a giant resonator. There is a high carved out shelf curving around the dead end of the chamber that seems to serve no purpose but to channel sound waves. The remains of red ochre on the ceiling in this chamber are an intricate pattern of disks and curls that begin above a side compartment and spin out like some kind of prehistoric musical notation, stopping at the entrance portal that frames more finely carved halls beyond.
The side compartment was cut into the wall of the eggplant-shaped Oracle Room at face height. It has been said that a male voice speaking into this niche is heard throughout the three stories of the underground complex in a way that is far different from a female voice. There is a scientific explanation for it. Like Newgrange passage tomb and every other tested megalithic site, the range for standing wave resonance in Hal Saflieni is within the range of a bass baritone. Basically, it means that in Hal Saflieni, the echo of a deep voice is occurring at maximum strength in those pitches.
Actually the acoustics of Hal Saflieni are even more complex, with a second peak and loads of low frequency vibration that is beyond human hearing, although one might be able to feel it.[v][vi] Try to imagine standing in that space in the presence of sound in the range of that standing wave. It’s like being inside a giant bell. The air is vibrating; the walls and floors and ceilings are vibrating; the sound is swimming all around and can be felt in the tissues of the body. There can be a sort of buzzing in the ears that one sometimes gets when singing along with the radio in the car, when a pitch has been exactly matched. It’s mesmerizing. When it stops, this writer always wants to say “do it again.”
5,000 years ago, visitors to this site shared it with the bones of their ancestors which were kept here, treated with red ochre and placed into communal beds, as if they were planted in some sort of rebirth ritual. That would fit the ideology of the time. Workers in the space, even talking to each other, would have been exposed to the acoustic effects. Quite a bit of the architecture in Hal-Saflieni suggests features of our performance spaces today. Considered with artifacts recovered from this site, it is clear that something more than interment of the dead was going on in here.
It is difficult to imagine that human beings would let the potential a sound phenomenon such as that in Hal Saflieni go unexploited. If it’s impressive today, for people who have answers for everything. the thought of what they might have created in here thousands of years ago is extraordinary. Were they listening for the voices of the dead, or perhaps spirits of the earth? There would have been an aroma, as well as an echo, creating a very sensory and emotional experience. We now know that while the goosebumps were rising, dopamine was being released in their brains.
According to the theories of psychologist Ronald Stone and the biomedical engineering models of Itshak Bentov, hypnosis is basically ·a technique which permits acquisition of direct access to the sensory motor cortex and pleasure centers, and lower cerebral(emotional) portions(and associated pleasure centers) of the right side of the human brain following successful disengagement of the stimulus screening function of the left hemisphere of the brain.
The left hemisphere of the brain is the self-cognitive, verbal and linear reasoning component of the brain. It fulfills the function of screening incoming stimuli by categorizing, assessing and assigning meaning prior to allowing passage to the right hemisphere of the brain. The right hemisphere, which functions as the noncritical, holistic, nonverbal and pattern-oriented component of the brain appears to accept what the left hemisphere passes to it without question.
Consequently, if the left hemisphere can be distracted either through boredom or through reduction to a soporific, semi-sleep state, external stimuli to include hypnotic suggestions are allowed to pass unchallenged into the right hemisphere where they are accepted and acted upon directly. The result may involve an emotional reaction originating in the lower cerebral region, sensory/motor responses requiring involvement of the cortex, and so on.
Both the sensory and the motor cortices of the right cerebral portion of the brain contain a sequence of points known as the "homunculus" which corresponds to points in the body(see Exhibit 1, next page). Stimulation of the corresponding area on the cortex causes intermediate response in the associated portion of the body. Consequently, induction of the suggestion that the left leg is numb, if it reaches the right hemisphere unchallenged and is referred to the appropriate area of the sensory cortex, will result in an electrical reaction being generated that will induce the feeling of numbness.
Similarly, the suggestion that the person is experiencing a general feeling of happiness and well being would be referred to the appropriate pleasure centers located in the lower cerebral portion or in the cortex of the right hemisphere, thereby inducing the suggested feeling of euphoria. Finally, suggestions such as one that informs the hypnotic subject that he enjoys enhanced concentration or powers of memory would be responded to in the right hemisphere by accessing unused information storage capacity normally held in reserve as a result of left hemisphere selection and control processes. This aspect will become significant in the context of the Gateway process when attention is given to examining the way that hypnosis may be used to accelerate progress in the early stages of the Gateway Experience.
Transcendental Meditation. On the other hand, transcendental meditation works in a distinctly different fashion. In this technique, intense and protracted single minded concentration on the process of drawing energy up the spinal cord ultimately results in what appears to be creation of acoustical standing waves in the cerebral ventricles which are then conducted to the gray matter in the cerebral cortex on the right side of the brain.
As a result, according to Bentov, these waves "will stimulate and eventually 'polarize' the cortex in such a way that it will tend to conduct a signal along the homunculus, starting from the toes and on up." The Bentov bio-medical model, as described in a book by Lee Sannella, M.D., entitled:Kundalini-Psychosis or Transcendence, states that the standing acoustical waves are the result of the altered rhythm of heart sounds which are occasioned by prolonged practice of meditation, and which set up sympathetic vibrations in the walls of the fluid filled cavities which comprise the third and lateral ventricles of the brain.
In addition, according to Bentov: "The states of bliss described by those whose Kundalini symptoms have completed the full loop along the hemispheres may be explained as a self-stimulation of the pleasure centers in the brain caused by the circulation of a 'current' along the sensory cortex." Bentov also notes, "that most of the described symptoms start on the left side of the body means that it is mostly a development occurring in the right hemisphere." Although normally a period of meditation involving intense concentration and practice for five years or some is required to "bring up the Kundalini," Bentov states that exposure to mechanical or acoustical vibrations in the range of 4-7 Hertz(cycles per second) for protracted periods may achieve the same effect. Bentov cites as an example "repeated riding in a car whose suspension and seat combination produce that range of vibrations,_or being exposed for long periods of time to these frequencies caused, for instance, by an air conditioning duct."
He also notes that:"The cumulative effect of these vibrations may be able to trigger a spontaneous physio-Kundalini sequence in susceptable people who have a particularly sensitive nervous system."
vice | The
Gateway Report is so dense in parts, it compromises its own
accessibility. The goal of my initial synthesis was to create a written
and visual experience (including, ahem, some premium custom graphics)
that might help folks without a PHD in quantum physics benefit from its
huge thinking.
It struck a nerve.
Over
the course of a 3-week period, millions of readers made their way
through an admittedly arduous editorial obstacle course. Studios reached
out.
Two days after the article’s release, we inserted an invitation:
“Have
you had an experience with The Monroe Institute, Hemi-Sync or had an
out-of-body experience? Get in touch: ex0gene5i5@substack.com”
Thousands
of emails came in from folks all over the world who described their
out-of-body experiences. To me, it signaled the possibility that many of
us are searching for something more than what seems currently
available. To describe my experience in telling this story and the
search in many senses, I produced a visual reinterpretation of page 25.
'The
Gateway' is a high-resolution digital image of a print of the missing
page 25 of the CIA's Gateway Report. It contains 659 digital
micro-inscriptions of out-of-body experience accounts, that only become visible at 300%+ magnification.
downthecupracabrahole | In 1958 radio
broadcasting executive Robert Monroe suffered a series of bizarre
events. At the age of 43, he began feeling a strong vibration deep
within his chest. Suddenly the sensation grew so intense that he was
forced to lay down. Once reclined, the typically rational businessman
found himself hovering outside of his body. He immediately panicked
thinking he had died but the crippling fear abruptly returned him to his
physical form. Similar episodes soon followed in which he weightlessly
floated around the room. A concerned Monroe visited several doctors and
psychologists yet each medical professional determined he was perfectly
healthy. Relieved by their positive diagnoses, the telecommunication
executive decided to hone his newly acquired skill. Before long he left
his comfortable corporate career and dedicated his life to the
exploration of consciousness.
Hemispheric Synchronization
For the next three decades, Robert intently studied out-of-body
experiences. His primary goal was to gather scientific evidence proving
the existence of alternate realities. In hopes of making cosmic travel
more easily attainable, he developed a technology called Hemispheric
Synchronization. Also known as Hemi-Sync, this system utilizes audio
patterns containing binaural beats to create harmonization of the
brain’s left and right hemispheres. Independent clinical neurologists
conducted extensive testing on participants engaging in the experimental
technique. To their shock, the results were clearly visible on every
EEG scan conducted. Both sides of the brain simultaneously measured
equal in both amplitude and frequency. Monroe’s work was pioneering the
path to tangible altered states.
Portals to Other Dimensions Closely monitoring the astral explorer’s groundbreaking findings was the US government. One day in 1978 representatives from the Central Intelligence Agency contacted Monroe. High-ranking officials invited him to join a highly classified military project. They wanted to implement his mind-expanding practice in attempts of sending soldiers into deep remote viewing sessions. Should subordinates succeed, America would have a huge advantage over Soviet enemies. Troops could be catapulted into past, present, and future timelines or even the multiverse. Given Robert’s extensive background and various patented applications, he was the perfect choice for this trailblazing operation. Hoping to obtain further credibility in the study of paranormal phenomena, Robert agreed to join them.
Since those involved were opening portals to other dimensions, researchers aptly named the assignment Gateway Process. According to declassified files, the program is “a training system designed to bring enhanced strength, focus and coherence to the amplitude and frequency of brainwave output between the left and right hemispheres so as to alter consciousness, moving it outside the physical sphere so as to ultimately escape even the restrictions of time and space. The participant then gains access to the various levels of intuitive knowledge the universe offers.” Discoveries listed in Commander Wayne M. McDonnell’s final analysis paper included detailed information about the nature of reality. Investigators ascertained we live in a holographic universe and waking life is a projected electromagnetic matrix.
Reptilians Emerge
To enter the unearthly realms, headphone-donning voyagers sat in isolated darkness while listening to various tones at specific hertz. Participants had no contact or communication with one another. After their journey was finished, volunteers would report what they experienced with staff members. According to Robert, subjects would often encounter interdimensional entities. Most frequently witnessed were reptilian humanoids. Viewers referred to the uncanny creatures as ‘the alligators’ due to their crocodilian features. Curiously, Monroe was already quite familiar with the unsettling breed. During countless expeditions, he observed identical saurian creatures. For over thirty-five years the etheric investigator gathered insight about these startling beings.
quora |Al
Ubaid archeological site in Iraq is a gold mine for archeologists and
historians. It has yielded numerous objects from a pre-Sumerian time
called the Ubaid period (5900–4000 B.C.). Strangely, just as with the
Sumerians, the origin of the Ubaidian culture remains a profound mystery
for modern-day scholars. It is as if these ancient cultures came into
existence one day and disappeared the next.
A
small mound of about half a kilometer in diameter and two meters above
ground, the site was first excavated by Harry Reginald Hal in 1919.[1] Subsequent excavations were conducted by C.L. Woolley in 1923 and 1924[2]
followed by Seton Lloyd and Pinhas Delougaz in 1937, the latter working
for the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.[3]
The
lower level of the site featured large amounts of Ubaid pottery and
associated kilns. Evidence for Ubaid period pottery manufacture has also
been observed on the surface of the site.[4]
The size of the surface scatter indicates that pottery production was a
specialized craft, and this confirms finds from other Ubaid sites like
Eridu.
The
site also yielded a cemetery and some finds from the Jemdet Nasr
period. The temple of Ninhursag at the summit was on a cleared oval
similar to that at Tell Khafajah. The wall surrounding the temple was
built by Shulgi of the Ur III Empire.[5]
Interestingly,
according to scholars, it was during this period that numerous
advancements were made by Ubaid communities. During this time, our
ancestors started acting and thinking differently. Ubaid Culture started
building large unwalled settlements, mainly characterized by their
multi-room rectangular mud houses. This culture is also credited
appearance of the first temples of public architecture in Mesopotamia,
with a growth of a two-tier settlement hierarchy of centralized large
sites of more than 10 hectares surrounded by smaller village sites of
less than 1 hectare.[6]
Archaeologists
firmly agree that it was during the Ubaid Period when society began the
transformation towards social, cultural, political and economic
complexity..[7] The Ubaid Culture built incredible T-shaped houses, open courtyards, paved streets, and used food processing tools.
However,
some of the earliest 'Ubaid artifacts are quite unnerving. Excavators
unearthed caches of 7,000-year-old artifacts - humanoid figurines with
lizard-like features. These male and female lizard-like humanoid figures
exhibit unique, unceremonious poses, dramatically different from the
Venus statues and Mother Goddess and fertility figures of the preceeding
periods. Some appear to be wearing helmets, while others have shoulder
padding. Other figurines hold a scepter or staff, while other female
statues breastfeed or hold infants possessing reptilian features as
well.[8]
businessinsider | As Conservative MPs returned to their constituencies after another
week of fresh allegations of lockdown-busting parties at Downing Street,
they were left wondering what reaction they would find back home.
Boris
Johnson, the man once seen as electoral dynamite, is now increasingly
seen as politically toxic. The question his backbenchers will have to
answer this weekend is whether his toxicity is terminal.
Then
came another set of revelations. This time, two leaving parties, for
which a No. 10 staffer was dispatched to buy a suitcase's worth of wine,
were held in Downing Street on April 16, 2021, the night before Prince
Philip's funeral.
swisspolicyresearch |In the end, the truth will always be revealed, and the truth
about the coronavirus policy is beginning to be revealed. When the
destructive concepts collapse one by one, there is nothing left but to
tell the experts who led the management of the pandemic – we told you
so.
Two years late, you finally realize that a respiratory virus cannot
be defeated and that any such attempt is doomed to fail. You do not
admit it, because you have admitted almost no mistake in the last two
years, but in retrospect it is clear that you have failed miserably in
almost all of your actions, and even the media is already having a hard
time covering your shame.
You refused to admit that the infection comes in waves that fade by
themselves, despite years of observations and scientific knowledge. You
insisted on attributing every decline of a wave solely to your actions,
and so through false propaganda “you overcame the plague.” And again you
defeated it, and again and again and again.
You refused to admit that mass testing is ineffective, despite your
own contingency plans explicitly stating so (“Pandemic Influenza Health
System Preparedness Plan, 2007”, p. 26).
You refused to admit that recovery is more protective than a vaccine,
despite previous knowledge and observations showing that non-recovered
vaccinated people are more likely to be infected than recovered people.
You refused to admit that the vaccinated are contagious despite the
observations. Based on this, you hoped to achieve herd immunity by
vaccination — and you failed in that as well.
You insisted on ignoring the fact that the disease is dozens of times
more dangerous for risk groups and older adults, than for young people
who are not in risk groups, despite the knowledge that came from China
as early as 2020.
You refused to adopt the “Barrington Declaration”, signed by more
than 60,000 scientists and medical professionals, or other common sense
programs. You chose to ridicule, slander, distort and discredit them.
Instead of the right programs and people, you have chosen professionals
who lack relevant training for pandemic management (physicists as chief
government advisers, veterinarians, security officers, media personnel,
and so on).
You have not set up an effective system for reporting side effects
from the vaccines, and reports on side effects have even been deleted
from your Facebook page. Doctors avoid linking side effects to the
vaccine, lest you persecute them as you did with some of their
colleagues. You have ignored many reports of changes in menstrual
intensity and menstrual cycle times. You hid data that allows for
objective and proper research (for example, you removed the data on
passengers at Ben Gurion Airport). Instead, you chose to publish
non-objective articles together with senior Pfizer executives on the
effectiveness and safety of vaccines.
yahoo | Leading British and US scientists thought it was likely that Covid accidentally leaked from a laboratory but were concerned that further debate would harm science in China, emails show.
An
email from Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, on
February 2 2020 said that “a likely explanation” was that Covid had
rapidly evolved from a Sars-like virus inside human tissue in a low-security lab.
The
email, to Dr Anthony Fauci and Dr Francis Collins of the US National
Institutes of Health, went on to say that such evolution may have “accidentally created a virus primed for rapid transmission between humans”.
But
a leading scientist told Sir Jeremy that “further debate would do
unnecessary harm to science in general and science in China in
particular”. Dr Collins, the former director of the US National
Institutes of Health, warned it could damage “international harmony”.
Viscount
Ridley, co-author of Viral: the search for the origin of Covid, said:
“These emails show a lamentable lack of openness and transparency among
Western scientists who appear to have been more interested in shutting
down a hypothesis they thought was very plausible, for political
reasons.”
In the emails, Sir Jeremy said that other scientists
also believed the virus could not have evolved naturally. One such
scientist was Professor Mike Farzan, of Scripps Research, the expert who
discovered how the original Sars virus binds to human cells.
Scientists
were particularly concerned by a part of Covid-19 called the furin
cleavage site, a section of the spike protein which helps it enter cells
and makes it so infectious to humans.
Summarising Professor
Farzan’s concerns in an email, Sir Jeremy said: “He is bothered by the
furin site and has a hard time (to) explain that as an event outside the
lab, though there are possible ways in nature but highly unlikely.
“I
think this becomes a question of how do you put all this together,
whether you believe in this series of coincidences, what you know of the
lab in Wuhan, how much could be in nature - accidental release or
natural event? I am 70:30 or 60:40.”
ekstrabladet |For ALMOST
two years, we - the press and the population - have been almost
hypnotically preoccupied with the authorities' daily coronatal.
WE HAVE STARED at the oscillations of the number pendulum when it came to infected, hospitalized and died with corona. And
we've got the meaning of the pendulum's smallest movements laid out by
experts, politicians and authorities, who have constantly warned us
about the dormant corona monster under our beds. A monster just waiting for us to fall asleep so it can strike in the gloom and darkness of the night.
THE CONSTANT mental alertness has worn off tremendously on all of us. That is why we - the press - must also take stock of our own efforts. And we have failed.
WE HAVE NOT
been wax enough at the garden gate when the authorities were required
to answer what it actually meant that people are hospitalized with
corona and not because of corona. Because it makes a difference. A big difference. Exactly,
the official hospitalization numbers have been shown to be 27 percent
higher than the actual figure for how many there are in the hospital,
simply because they have corona. We only know that now.
IT IS OF COURSE first and foremost the authorities who are responsible for informing the population correctly, accurately and honestly. The
figures for how many are sick and died of corona should, for obvious
reasons, have been published long ago, so we got the clearest picture of
the monster under the bed.
IN ALL , the messages of the authorities and politicians to the people in this historic crisis leave much to be desired. And therefore they lie as they have ridden when parts of the population lose confidence in them.
ANOTHER example: The vaccines are consistently referred to as our 'superweapon'. And our hospitals are called 'superhospitals'. Nevertheless,
these super-hospitals are apparently maximally pressured, even though
almost the entire population is armed with a super-weapon. Even children have been vaccinated on a huge scale, which has not been done in our neighboring countries.
IN OTHER WORDS, there is something here that does not deserve the term 'super'. Whether it's the vaccines, the hospitals, or a mixture of it all, is every man's bid. But at least the authorities' communication to the population in no way deserves the term 'super'. On the contrary.
mediaite | Two hundred and seventy “scientists, medical professionals,
professors, and science communicators” are requesting Spotify add a
misinformation policy for its platform due to Joe Rogan’s massively popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE).
The “Open Letter to Spotify” calling for action against Rogan came as a result of Rogan’s interview with Dr. Robert Malone. The Malone episode has been called out for promoting conspiracy theories regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.
The letter states, “By allowing the propagation of false and
societally harmful assertions, Spotify is enabling its hosted media to
damage public trust in scientific research and sow doubt in the
credibility of data-driven guidance offered by medical professionals.”
The letter continues to slam Rogan for his stance on Covid-19
treatments. “Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Joe Rogan has repeatedly
spread misleading and false claims on his podcast, provoking distrust in
science and medicine. He has discouraged vaccination in young people
and children, incorrectly claimed that mRNA vaccines are ‘gene therapy,’
promoted off-label use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 (contrary to FDA
warnings), and spread a number of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.”
“Notably, Dr. Malone is one of two recent JRE guests who has compared pandemic policies to the Holocaust,” the letter charged.
YouTube has removed
Rogan’s interview with Malone, and Twitter suspended Malone’s account
earlier this month for breaking the platform’s guidelines around the
posting Covid-19 misinformation.
You can read the full Open Letter to Spotify here.
downwithtyranny |Wokeness, “a term referring to awareness of issues that concern social justice and racial equality,” is everywhere these days. What is going on? The CIA going woke? The Pinkertons, long-time nemesis of labor unions, flying the Rainbow Pride flag? Raytheon pushing critical race theory? Has the U.S. Left finally triumphed over their foes? No, in fact, progressives are circling the drain (Medicare for All is going nowhere, the minimum wage remains $7.25/hr, unions are on the verge of extinction, impotent Twitter protestations by Bernie notwithstanding) but so are their woke-boosting corporate foes. Why and how is this so? The explanation has its roots in 1) the state-sponsored battle against civil unrest U.S that began in the 1960s. and 2) intellectual concepts discovered by polymath thinker Gregory Bateson.
The U.S. during the 1960’s suffered an eruption of domestic rebellion, ranging from the civil rights movement and the feminist revolution to organized labor and the anti-war movement. Strangely enough, most of the leaders in these movements were assassinated (RFK, MLK, Malcolm X) or died under mysterious circumstances (Walter Reuther). Was it enough for the ruling elite that the leaders of these movements were dead (neutralized)? I contend that it was not and that the elites embarked on an additional strategy: capture of the movements to 1) prevent a resurgence of rebellion against the ruling elites and 2) prevent cross alliances between the various rebel factions, a reason theorized by some to explain the death of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, who was trying to unite the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, and the organized labor movement at the time of his death. From feminism, where a movement leader (Gloria Steinem) has been revealed to have worked for the CIA, to civil rights, where Black Lives Matters is subsidized by the Ford Foundation to the tune of $100 million, to organized labor, where the AFL-CIO provided assistance to various U.S. government regime change efforts, these movements are infested with corporate and state actors. Meanwhile, concrete measures of material progress, such as increased wages for the working class, universal healthcare, and support for organized labor remain curiously out of reach.
There is a name for this highly effective signal jamming by government and corporate elites: maintaining the schismogenesis.
Schismogenesis means the beginning of the breakdown of a relationship or a system. Gregory Bateson, a scientific polymath, actively conducting research from the 1930s throughout the 1970s, in a wide array of fields including anthropology, semiotics, cybernetics, linguistics, and biology, first developed it while observing the social interactions of a New Guinean tribe called the Iatmul. Interestingly enough, Bateson later weaponized the idea of schismogenesis and deliberately sowed divisions while working for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. This perpetuation of division, schismogenesis, is what I contend all of these woke corporations and government agencies are actively engaged in.
The explosion in wokeness launched in the years immediately following the Occupy rebellion of the Left and the Tea Party rebellion of the Right. Very curious timing indeed. Absent in all of these modern woke campaigns, of course, are the aforementioned measures that actually represent material improvements for the working class nor any mention of the menace of war and imperialism Even now, divisive and unpopular concepts like Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality, launched from academia by upper class elites, are being touted by woke corporations and labor unions. Against this goliath force, it looks like progressives are doomed. Ironically, it looks like the woke propagators may have created a tool that will also insure their own demise. Why? This explanation relies on another of Gregory Bateson’s concepts: the double bind.
theatlantic | To understand how ideologically
scrambling the Omicron wave has been, consider this: Some 2022 Democrats
are sounding like 2020 Republicans. In spring 2020, many Republicans,
including President Donald Trump, insisted that COVID was hardly worse
than the flu; that its fatality risk was comparable to an everyday
activity, like driving in a car; and that an obsessive focus on cases
wouldn’t give an accurate picture of what was going on in the pandemic.
In the current Omicron wave, these Republican talking points seem to have mostly come true—for most vaccinatednon-senior adults, who are disproportionately Democrats.
But
Democratic talking points about the severity of COVID and the need for
commensurate caution remain valid and not only for the sick and elderly.
Ironically, they are especially true for the unvaccinated—a disproportionately Republican group
that has seen their hospitalization rates soar this winter to all-time
highs. About 9,000 Americans are dying of COVID every week. Preliminary
state data suggest that more than 90 percent of today’s deaths are still among unvaccinated people. This year, COVID is on pace to kill more than 300,000 unvaccinated people who would, quite likely, avoid death by getting two or three shots.
The messiness of Omicron data—record-high cases! but much milder illness!—has deepened our COVID Rashomon,
in which different communities are telling themselves different stories
about what’s going on, and coming to different conclusions about how to
lead their lives. That’s true even within populations that, a year ago,
were united in their desire to take the pandemic seriously and were
outraged by those who refused to do so.
A
virus that seems both pervasive and mild offers an opening to people
who are, let’s call them, “vaxxed and done.” The attitude of the VADs is
this:
For
more than a year, I did everything that public-health authorities told
me to do. I wore masks. I canceled vacations. I made sacrifices. I got
vaccinated. I got boosted. I’m happy to get boosted again. But this
virus doesn’t stop. Year over year, the infections don’t decrease.
Instead, virulence for people like me is decreasing, either
because the virus is changing, or because of growing population
immunity, or both. Americans should stop pointlessly guilting themselves
about all these cases. In the past week, daily confirmed COVID cases per capita
were higher than the U.S. in Ireland, Greece, Iceland, Denmark, France,
the U.K., Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and even Australia, one
of the most COVID-cautious countries in the world. As the coronavirus
continues its unstoppable march toward endemicity, our attitude toward
the virus should follow a similar path toward stoicism. COVID is
becoming something like the seasonal flu for most people who keep up
with their shots, so I’m prepared to treat this like I’ve treated the
flu: by basically not worrying about it and living my life normally.
It’s
hard to put a number on how many people are in this group, but we have
some hard data to prove that their ranks are growing. This past
December, airports processed twice as many travelers
compared with the same period in 2020, despite many flights being
canceled. On several days, TSA-checkpoint numbers exceeded their totals
from pre-pandemic 2019. This is not the picture of a country that is
hunkering down for Omicron. It is the limited snapshot of a mostly
vaccinated population with millions of people who are eager to move on.
I have a lot of sympathy for this group’s case, especially as it relates to schools. The risk of COVID to vaccinated teachers and even unvaccinated students seems lower than we initially thought. Meanwhile, the costs of remote schooling seem higher than we feared.
The White House and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona have come out
strongly in support of keeping schools open. Other Democratic leaders,
like Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, are fighting reluctant teachers to
keep school in person. Even among pro-vaccine Americans, a growing
number of people seem to be saying they are done with remote school as a
baseline COVID policy.
Heritage | The Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal workers went into effect Nov. 22, despite vocal opposition from
some members of Congress. This mandate could result in more than a
hundred thousand people being disciplined or fired for refusing to
comply, even if those workers are otherwise excellent employees or if
their loss will severely disrupt the government’s ability to function.
The White House reports that 92% of
3.5 million total federal workers have received at least one dose of a
COVID-19 vaccine. Another 4.5% are considered “in compliance” by way of
having requested an exemption, with some but not all of those exemptions
having been approved thus far. Federal employees who had already
resigned or found new employment due to the vaccine mandate are not
included in these figures.
If all those exemptions granted for the 4.5% and 96.5% are “in
compliance,” that’s still a likely loss of 3.5%, or 122,500 federal
workers who are not willing to get vaccinated.
Under ordinary circumstances, firing even a single federal worker is
extremely difficult. Federal managers attempting to fire an employee must prove “a preponderance of evidence” and prove that dismissing the employee will improve the performance of the agency.
At a minimum, firing a federal worker takes 170 days, but often it takes well over a year—and sometimes even two years. The nearly impossible process
of firing a federal worker even with just cause means that federal
managers almost never even attempt to dismiss or discipline workers.
In a complete disregard for what ordinarily constitute an excessive
amount of protections for federal workers, the president’s vaccine
mandate could allow federal employees—including the best, the brightest,
the longest-serving, and even those crucial to federal missions—to be
disciplined or dismissed exclusively because they make a personal health
decision to not get a COVID-19 vaccine.
cbs | The State Police Association of Massachusetts says roughly 300 of its
members still have not complied with Governor Charlie Baker’s vaccine mandate for state employees.
About 200 of them have sought exemptions. Union president Sgt.
Michael Cherven said the state hasn’t responded yet to the exemptions.
At a news conference Monday in Boston, the union said the lack of
communication between the state and those who applied for exemptions is
causing anxiety.
“Let me be clear, our concern is not one of anti-vaccination, in
fact, the vast majority, almost 85% of our membership is vaccinated. Our
concern is based in the lack of fundamental fairness in the
Administration’s consistent efforts to undermine the processes by which
organized labor secures the rights of its members. On August 19,
Governor Baker announced that there would be 60 days to bargain and
implement a policy for mandated vaccinations. Well, 60 days has passed.
Though we are beyond the deadline, we have not received even one reply
to the several hundred medical and religious exemption requests that
were submitted,” said Cherven.
The mandate could also draw down on an already understaffed force, the union argued.
“We’ll make sure that we do what we need to do to make sure that they
continue to perform the duties that they’re expected to perform, I’m
not concerned about that,” Baker said.
According to the Baker administration, 40,462 active state employees
submitted the required proof of vaccination or submitted an exemption
waiver by Sunday’s deadline, about 1,571 have not responded. That’s
roughly 4 percent.
“That is a much bigger number than we had two weeks ago,” Baker said.
That means managers in state departments will now have to seek out
those employees to ask their status, and after that, they could face
progressive discipline and ultimately termination.
foxnews | Two hundred and fifty people who worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan and its affiliates are out of a job because they didn't comply
with its vaccine mandate.
Now, some of those employees are gearing up to take the matter to federal court.
Attorney
Noah Hurwitz is representing over 100 of the terminated employees and
says this case is a clear violation of Title VII employment laws
allowing for religious accommodation.
“The
courts for a long time have been upholding an employee’s right to
religious accommodation from the flu vaccine. So we expect that same
precedent of law to apply here,” Hurwitz said.
One former employee
we spoke with, who requested anonymity, said he asked Blue Cross Blue
Shield of MIchigan for a religious accommodation and was denied. He says
at a time when there is lots of talk about diversity and inclusion,
this policy seems out of touch.
“It didn’t turn into diversity. It
turned into something else entirely. It seems like its more like
conformity and exclusion is what it turned into and its been sad to
see,” he said.
Amy Castinon of the UAW Amalgamated Local 2256,
says seven union members in the Lansing branch of Blue Cross Blue Shield
and the Blue Care Network were part of the terminations this week.
She
said the union is taking grievances for anyone impacted by the mandate
and plans to head to the bargaining table to get back pay and
reinstatement for anyone who lost their job.
A statement from Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Michigan says in part, “Since announcing our
policy on Oct. 29, over 1,900 unvaccinated employees have made the
choice to receive their vaccines, or have been approved for a medical or
religious accommodation. Out of more than 10,000 employees at Blue
Cross and our subsidiaries, more than 96 percent are vaccinated.
Regrettably, 250 employees chose not to comply with the company’s
vaccine mandate and were therefore terminated Jan. 5.”
The statement goes on to say that the vaccine policy is meant to “safeguard the collective health and well-being of employees.”
Hurwitz
says it will be at least six months before a suit can be filed because a
complaint has to be filed and investigated by the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission first.
nbcnews | The Mayo Clinic fired roughly 700 employees who failed to comply with the nonprofit medical center's mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policy.
Workers at the Mayo Clinic
had been given until Monday to get their first dose of a vaccine or
obtain a medical or religious exemption to the rule. They were also
expected not to delay on receiving a second dose if they had already
gotten the first jab.
Hundreds
of employees failed to meet those requirements and were let go, the
Mayo Clinic said in a statement shared with NBC News on Wednesday.
"Nearly
99 percent of employees across all Mayo Clinic locations complied with
Mayo’s required Covid-19 vaccination program by the Jan. 3 deadline,"
the clinic said of its staff, which consists of around 73,000 workers.
The Mayo Clinic said approximately 1 percent of its staff, or around 700 people, would be "released from employment."
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April Three
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4/3
43
When 1 = A and 26 = Z
March = 43
What day?
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64th day is March 5
My birthday
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...
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sciencemag | This spring, after days of flulike symptoms and fever, a man
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He ...
