Earth’s massive extinction: The story gets worse

New finding on mercury-volcanic link could re-write history on past annihilations

Scientists have uncovered a lot about the Earth’s greatest extinction event that took place 250 million years ago when rapid climate change wiped out nearly all marine species and a majority of those on land. Now, they have discovered a new culprit likely involved in the annihilation: an influx of mercury into the eco-system.

“No one had ever looked to see if mercury was a potential culprit. This was a time of the greatest volcanic activity in Earth’s history and we know today that the largest source of mercury comes from volcanic eruptions,” says Dr. Steve Grasby, co-author of a paper published this month in the journal Geology. “We estimate that the mercury released then could have been up to 30 times greater than today’s volcanic activity, making the event truly catastrophic.” Grasby is a research scientist at Natural Resources Canada and an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Benoit Beauchamp, professor of geology at the University of Calgary, says this study is significant because it’s the first time mercury has been linked to the cause of the massive extinction that took place during the end of the Permian.

“Geologists, including myself should be taking notes and taking another look at the other five big extinction events,” says Beauchamp, also a co-author.

During the late Permian, the natural buffering system in the ocean became overloaded with mercury contributing to the loss of 95 per cent of life in the sea.

“Typically, algae acts like a scavenger and buries the mercury in the sediment, mitigating the effect in the oceans,” says lead-author Dr. Hamed Sanei, research scientist at Natural Resources Canada and adjunct professor at the University of Calgary. “But in this case, the load was just so huge that it could not stop the damage.”

About 250 million years ago, a time long before dinosaurs ruled and when all land formed one big continent, the majority of life in the ocean and on land was wiped out. The generally accepted idea is that volcanic eruptions burned though coal beds, releasing CO2 and other deadly toxins. Direct proof of this theory was outlined in a paper that was published by these same authors last January in Nature Geoscience.

The mercury deposition rates could have been significantly higher in the late Permian when compared with today’s human-caused emissions. In some cases, levels of mercury in the late Permian ocean was similar to what is found near highly contaminated ponds near smelters, where the aquatic system is severely damaged, say researchers. …

via Earth’s massive extinction: The story gets worse.

Evidence-based vaccinations: A scientific look at the missing science behind flu season vaccines

Mike Adams – As someone with a good deal of education in scientific thinking and the scientific method, I have put considerable effort into attempting to find any real scientific evidence backing the widespread use of influenza vaccines (flu season shots). Before learning about nutrition and holistic health, I was a computer software entrepreneur, and I have a considerable scientific background in areas such as astronomy, physics, human physiology, microbiology, genetics, anthropology and human psychology. One of my most-admired thought leaders is, in fact, the late physicist Richard Feynman.

I don’t speak from a “scientific” point of view on NaturalNews very often because it’s often a dry, boring presentation style. But I do know the difference between real science and junk science, and I find examples of junk science in both the “scientific” side of things as well as the “alternative” side of things.

For example, so-called “psychic surgery,” as least in the way it has been popularized, is nothing more than clever sleight-of-hand where the surgeon palms some chicken gizzards and then pretends to pull diseased organs out of the abdominal cavity of some patient. The demonstrations I’ve seen on film are obvious quackery.

Similarly, flu season vaccines are mainstream medicine’s version of psychic surgery: It’s all just “medical sleight of hand” based on nothing more than clever distractions and the obfuscation of scientific facts. Flu season shots, you see, simply don’t work on 99 out of 100 people (and that’s being generous to the vaccine industry, as you’ll see below).

A year ago, I offered a $10,000 reward to any person who could find scientific proof that H1N1 vaccines were safe and effective (http://www.naturalnews.com/027985_H…). No one even made a claim to collect that reward because no such evidence exists.

via Evidence-based vaccinations: A scientific look at the missing science behind flu season vaccines.

Just because there is no evidence that the flue vaccines work (if that is the case), does not mean no vaccines work. There is supposedly good evidence that the individual vaccines for mumps, measles and rubella have saved millions of lives:

Before the widespread use of a vaccine against measles, its incidence was so high that infection with measles was felt to be “as inevitable as death and taxes.”^[6] Today, the incidence of measles has fallen to less than 1% of people under the age of 30 in countries with routine childhood vaccination.^{[citation needed]} Reported cases of measles in the United States fell from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands per year following introduction of the vaccine in 1963. Increasing uptake of the vaccine following outbreaks in 1971 and 1977 brought this down to thousands of cases per year in the 1980s. An outbreak of almost 30,000 cases in 1990 led to a renewed push for vaccination and the addition of a second vaccine to the recommended schedule. Fewer than 200 cases have been reported each year since 1997, and the disease is no longer considered endemic.^[7][8][9]

The benefit of measles vaccination in preventing illness, disability, and death has been well documented. The first 20 years of licensed measles vaccination in the U.S. prevented an estimated 52 million cases of the disease, 17,400 cases of mental retardation, and 5,200 deaths.^[10] During 1999–2004, a strategy led by the World Health Organization and UNICEF led to improvements in measles vaccination coverage that averted an estimated 1.4 million measles deaths worldwide.^[11]

Measles is endemic worldwide. Although it was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, high rates of vaccination and good communication with persons who refuse vaccination is needed to prevent outbreaks and sustain the elimination of measles in the U.S.^[12] Of the 66 cases of measles reported in the U.S. in 2005, slightly over half were attributable to one unvaccinated individual who acquired measles during a visit to Romania.^[13] This individual returned to a community with many unvaccinated children. The resulting outbreak infected 34 people, mostly children and virtually all unvaccinated; 9% were hospitalized, and the cost of containing the outbreak was estimated at $167,685. A major epidemic was averted due to high rates of vaccination in the surrounding communities.^[12]

Mumps is another viral disease of childhood that was once very common. If mumps is acquired by a male who is past puberty, a possible complication is bilateral orchitis which can in some cases lead to sterility.^[14]

Rubella, otherwise known as German measles, was also very common before the advent of widespread vaccination. The major risk of rubella is in pregnancy. If a pregnant woman is infected, her baby may contract congenital rubella from her, which can cause significant congenital defects.^[15]

All three diseases are highly contagious.

The combined MMR vaccine was introduced to induce immunity less painfully than three separate injections at the same time, and sooner and more efficiently than three injections given on different dates.

In 2005, the Cochrane Library published a review of 31 scientific studies. One of its main results: “We could not identify studies assessing the effectiveness of MMR that fulfilled our inclusion criteria even though the impact of mass immunisation on the elimination of the diseases has been largely demonstrated.” Its authors concluded, “Existing evidence on the safety and effectiveness of MMR vaccine supports current policies of mass immunisation aimed at global measles eradication in order to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with mumps and rubella.”^[16]

via Wikipedia

Purdue Newsroom – Down to the wire for silicon: Researchers create a wire 4 atoms wide, 1 atom tall

… This image from a computational simulation run of the wires shows electron density as electrons flow from left to right. The wires are 20 times smaller than the smallest wires now available and measure just four atoms wide by one phosphorus atom tall. (Purdue University image/Sunhee Lee, Hoon Ryu and Gerhard Klimeck)

The smallest wires ever developed in silicon – just one atom tall and four atoms wide – have been shown by a team of researchers from the University of New South Wales, Melbourne University and Purdue University to have the same current-carrying capability as copper wires.

Experiments and atom-by-atom supercomputer models of the wires have found that the wires maintain a low capacity for resistance despite being more than 20 times thinner than conventional copper wires in microprocessors.

The discovery, which was published in this week’s journal Science, has several implications, including:

* For engineers it could provide a roadmap to future nanoscale computational devices where atomic sizes are at the end of Moore’s law. The theory shows that a single dense row of phosphorus atoms embedded in silicon will be the ultimate limit of downscaling.

* For computer scientists, it places donor-atom based silicon quantum computing closer to realization.

* And for physicists, the results show that Ohm’s Law, which demonstrates the relationship between electrical current, resistance and voltage, continues to apply all the way down to an atomic-scale wire.

Bent Weber, the paper’s lead author and a graduate student in the Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at the University of New South Wales, was thrilled with the finding.

“It’s extraordinary to show that Ohm’s Law, such a basic law, still holds even when constructing a wire from the fundamental building blocks of nature – atoms,” he says.

The innovation of the Australian group was to build the circuits up atom by atom, instead of the current method of building microprocessors, in which material is stripped away, says Gerhard Klimeck, a Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology.

via Purdue Newsroom – Down to the wire for silicon: Researchers create a wire 4 atoms wide, 1 atom tall.

Low vitamin D levels linked to depression, UT Southwestern psychiatrists report

Low levels of vitamin D have been linked to depression, according to UT Southwestern Medical Center psychiatrists working with the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study. It is believed to be the largest such investigation ever undertaken.

Low levels of vitamin D already are associated with a cavalcade of health woes from cardiovascular diseases to neurological ailments. This new study – published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings – helps clarify a debate that erupted after smaller studies produced conflicting results about the relationship between vitamin D and depression. Major depressive disorder affects nearly one in 10 adults in the U.S.

“Our findings suggest that screening for vitamin D levels in depressed patients – and perhaps screening for depression in people with low vitamin D levels – might be useful,” said Dr. E. Sherwood Brown, professor of psychiatry and senior author of the study, done in conjunction with The Cooper Institute in Dallas. “But we don’t have enough information yet to recommend going out and taking supplements.”

UT Southwestern researchers examined the results of almost 12,600 participants from late 2006 to late 2010. Dr. Brown and colleagues from The Cooper Institute found that higher vitamin D levels were associated with a significantly decreased risk of current depression, particularly among people with a prior history of depression. Low vitamin D levels were associated with depressive symptoms, particularly those with a history of depression, so primary care patients with a history of depression may be an important target for assessing vitamin D levels. The study did not address whether increasing vitamin D levels reduced depressive symptoms.

The scientists have not determined the exact relationship – whether low vitamin D contributes to symptoms of depression, whether depression itself contributes to lower vitamin D levels, or chemically how that happens. But vitamin D may affect neurotransmitters, inflammatory markers and other factors, which could help explain the relationship with depression, said Dr. Brown, who leads the psychoneuroendocrine research program at UT Southwestern.

Vitamin D levels are now commonly tested during routine physical exams, and they already are accepted as risk factors for a number of other medical problems: autoimmune diseases; heart and vascular disease; infectious diseases; osteoporosis; obesity; diabetes; certain cancers; and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, multiple sclerosis, and general cognitive decline.

Investigators used information gathered by the institute, which has 40 years of data on runners and other fit volunteers. UT Southwestern has a partnership with the institute, a preventive medicine research and educational nonprofit located at the Cooper Aerobics Center, to develop a joint scientific medical research program aimed at improving health and preventing a wide range of chronic diseases. The institute maintains one of the world’s most extensive databases – known as the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study – that includes detailed information from more than 250,000 clinic visits that has been collected since Dr. Kenneth Cooper founded the institute and clinic in 1970. …

via Low vitamin D levels linked to depression, UT Southwestern psychiatrists report.

Warren Buffett to perform for China over Chinese New Year

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett will reach out to millions of Chinese in the most curious of ways: singing for the online version of China’s annual Spring Festival gala.

The Berkshire Hathaway chief executive, best known in China for his investment in automaker BYD Co Ltd, has recorded a video specially for the gala in which he sings and plays the guitar, state news agency Xinhua said, citing Wang Pingjiu, a production executive for the broadcast.

“We all know that Buffett is good at investment, but few knew he also did well in singing,” Xinhua quoted Wang as telling a news conference.

Xinhua said Wang gave no details of the song. Berkshire Hathway was not available for comment on Thursday.

The gala will be broadcast on the website of China’s Network Television on CNTV.cn on the first day of Chinese New Year, which falls on January 23, Xinhua said, adding that a condensed version will be shown on China Central Television.

The broadcast on the eve of Chinese New Year is the most watched program of the year. Millions tune in for the heavily scripted and censored five-hour extravaganza filled with rehearsed comedy skits and armies of dancers.

via Warren Buffett to perform for China over Chinese New Year | Reuters.

Air Swimmer shark toy startles airline pilot in New Zealand

Just when you thought it was safe to re-enter Christchurch airspace this summer – shark!

The pilot of a passenger jet, thought to be an Air New Zealand flight, was on his descent to Christchurch International Airport on Boxing Day when he radioed ground control with an unlikely sighting – a shark flying at several thousand feet.

The fish out of water was identified as a remote-controlled, helium-filled shark that has topped must-have present lists this Christmas.

Advertisement: Story continues below

The 1.44-metre-long Air Swimmer toy has a radio receiver attached to its underside and can be operated by remote control over a range of 15m.

Designer-developer William Mark Corporation warns that the shark is for “strictly indoor use only”.

A spokeswoman for air traffic control company Airways, Monica Davis, said a pilot had reported the shark and its location about nine kilometres from the airport at 2pm on December 26.

“We advised subsequent traffic of its location, but no-one else reported seeing it.”

It was not yet known whether the sighting would be formally logged as an air-safety incident, she said.

The shark’s altitude and how close it came to the plane were unclear, Davis said.

The Civil Aviation Authority had not received a report of any shark encounters, but because the Christchurch incident was only a sighting, there is a 30-day reporting period. …

New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association president Glen Kenny said a helium-filled shark would not pose a serious risk if it was sucked into an aircraft engine.

“The engine probably wouldn’t stop, but it would do a bit of damage,” he said.

“Helium is an inert gas, so there’s no issue in that regard. The biggest hazard would be startling the pilot.”

Wayward party balloons had been an air-safety issue overseas, especially in the United States, Kenny said.

He had heard about the Christchurch shark incident and had some experience with the toy, having bought his daughter the 91-centimetre clownfish version for Christmas.

He hoped common sense would prevail as people tried out their helium-filled toy.

“It says it’s an indoor toy on the box. If you take them outside and the wind gets them, they can be goneburger, so you’ve got to be a bit careful,” he said. …

via Air Swimmer shark toy startles airline pilot in New Zealand.

Goneburger!

‘Artificial sperm grown in laboratory’, a step toward more GM humans

Scientists have for the first time grown mouse sperm in a laboratory, a breakthrough they claim may soon pave the way for production of artificial human semen that could help infertile men father children.

An international team, led by Professor Stefan Schlatt at Muenster University in Germany, claims to have grown mouse sperm by using few germ cells in a laboratory dish. These are the cells in testicles responsible for semen production.

In fact, the scientists grew the sperm by surrounding the germ cells in a special compound called agar jelly to create an environment similar to that found in testicles. Mahmoud Huleihel, a team member from Israel’s Ben Gurion University in Beersheba, said: “We were able to produce viable sperm that could have been used to create baby mice. The sperm appeared healthy and were not genetically damaged.” “I believe it will eventually be possible to routinely grow human male sperm to order by extracting tissue containing germ cells from a man’s testicle and stimulating sperm production in the laboratory.”

Now, the scientists, whose findings are published in the latest edition of the Asian Journal of Andrology, have begun experiments that they claim would hopefully lead to the “Holy Grail” — human sperm grown outside a man’s body. …

via ‘Artificial sperm grown in laboratory’ | The Asian Age.

I expect future attempts at controlling our evolution through more direct genetic manipulation  (GM humans).  We already have some GM humans, in case you didn’t know:

While debate on germline gene therapy is still going on worldwide, geneticists have gone ahead. Prof. Joe Cummins and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho report on how scientists have sidestepped regulators and created the first GM human beings, despite fierce public opposition.

“Researchers have announced “the first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in normal healthy children.” Specifically, the researchers transplanted ooplasm from donor eggs into the eggs of women whose infertility was due to ooplasmic defects. One side effect of those transplants was the transfer of mitochondria, introducing new mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) into the eggs. This news should gladden all who welcome new children into the world. And it should trouble those committed to transparent public conversation about the prospect of using “reprogenetic” technologies to shape future children.” So began an editorial in the April 20 issue of Science magazine [1].

Germline gene therapy amounts to changing the gene pool of the human species by genetic modification of the gametes produced by individuals. While the pros and cons of GM crops and GM animals are still being debated, genetic modification of human beings has met with almost universal condemnation. The prospect of maniacal dictators trying to produce super races is none too theoretical for those who have lived under the Nazi regime. And all the more abhorrent that academic science should be perverted to such ends. Human germline therapy has been shelved, if not rejected, by most advanced countries, and copious volumes have been generated by ethicists, philosophers and geneticists from ivy league universities, telling us why rushing into human germline therapy is not prudent.

In spite of those academic reservations and widespread public concern, a form of germline therapy has already been performed in New Jersey with little fanfare and no opportunity for public input. A university laboratory completed an experiment that led to the birth of fifteen apparently healthy babies as the result of germline gene therapy [2]. But worldwide, there have already been 30 babies born that have been created in this way.

In the US, the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) was created to oversee and publicly discuss federally funded gene transfer research. RAC’s guidelines say that it “will not at present entertain proposals” for germline interventions. “Given RAC’s de facto ban on germline intervention, what reasons might have moved highly respected researchers to announce that they had achieved just that?” Science magazine asks [1]. – link
 

Village where nothing works after electrical signal failures

Villagers were left unable to use their showers, doorbells and even car key fobs for several days in the latest case of suspected wireless interference.

Families in Kingsclere on the Hampshire-Berkshire border, spent much of the festive season without heating after the failure of household systems which rely on digital technology.

One family, the Smiths, were baffled when their heating, shower, doorbell and even their car’s remote-control door locks refused to work.

They then discovered similar problems were being experienced by their neighbours.

Chris Smith, whose wife’s birthday on Christmas Eve was ruined by the systems failure, spent more than £250 trying to fix the heating and shower but neither worked until late on Dec 27.

A spokesman for Ofcom, which oversees radio communications, said: “Often these problems can be caused by a video sender that transmits a television signal to other sets in the house. They are not the source of all the problems but in a lot of cases interference is tracked down to those devices.”

Mr Smith, who had the heating system installed 18 months ago, said he did not know of anyone nearby with a video sender.

In October, people living in a street in Southampton reported that their remote car key fobs had stopped working. The problem was tracked down to a faulty video sender which was “leaking” a frequency which interfered with the fobs.

Residents in a street in Windermere, Cumbria, had similar problems in March 2010, which were eventually traced back to a wireless device used to take orders at a nearby restaurant.

Mr Smith has now concluded that the common link between the failed devices was that they all used radio-frequency identification (RFID).

But he said: “The question is: what caused the blocking of the RFID frequency in the village and how do you even begin to find out?

“Kingsclere is in the shadow of the Hannington television transmitter, so it could have been engineering work that went wrong and unnoticed over the holiday period.”

The Hannington transmitter serves the surrounding area. Arqiva, the company responsible for it, admitted that a strong signal could affect RFID devices, but said on this occasion it was not to blame. …

via Village where nothing works after electrical signal failures – Telegraph.

China: Tycoon Dies Eating Poisoned Cat Meat Stew

Police investigating the sudden death of a billionaire fear he was killed when he ate the poisoned flesh of a cat.

Tycoon Long Liyuan died in Guangdong province in China after having dinner with two business associates on December 23.

The trio ate slow-boiled cat meat stew, a local delicacy. While all three men became sick, 49-year-old Mr Long died.

Officers initially detained the owner of the restaurant for allegedly serving unsanitary food, but the dead businessman’s family refused to believe it was food poisoning and pressed police to make further checks.

Local official Huang Guang has now been arrested on suspicion of poisoning the dish with a toxic herb called Gelsemium elegans. Police say the pair had fallen out over money.

Mr Long attended the lunch to discuss plans to develop a piece of woodland, according to state newspaper Nanfang Daily.

One of the men present said the meal tasted “more bitter” than usual.

Businessman Mr Long reported feeling sick and dizzy before going into fatal cardiac arrest.

His family has posted a 100,000 yuan (£10,100) reward for further information about his death.

via China: Tycoon Long Linyuan Dies In Guangdong As Police Allege Poisoned Cat Meat Stew Responsible | World News | Sky News.

Don’t eat cats.

Flies walk on air in levitation experiment

The technique, known as ”diamagnetic levitation”, allows water and organic based materials to become weightless.

Floating freely inside a plastic tube, the flies were observed closely to spot any changes in their behaviour.

The scientists confirmed effects previously seen in similar experiments in Earth orbit. The flies walked more quickly and more frequently while floating in zero gravity than they did on the ground.

Previously it was not clear whether the changing G-forces associated with space flight may have affected the flies.

The research is published today in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

Author Dr Richard Hill, from the University of Nottingham, and colleagues wrote: ”This study shows that the walking speed of fruit flies and their ‘activity’ is altered significantly by counteracting gravitational force.

”Diamagnetic levitation enabled us to maintain tight control over the experimental conditions of all the experimental subjects. This allowed us to identify, unambiguously, the alteration of effective gravity as the cause of the anomalous behaviour.

”Four billion years of evolution have equipped life on Earth to withstand the stresses generated by the ever-present pull of gravity. Here, we have shown that diamagnetic levitation can be used to investigate directly the influence of changing gravity on the locomotion of a complex multi-cellular organism, and that close comparison can be made with experiments performed in space.”

via Flies walk on air in levitation experiment – Telegraph.

Most biological materials are “diamagnetic,” Richard Hill, the study’s lead author, said. “This is a different type of magnetism from what we’re familiar with,” explained Hill, who is a physicist at the University of Nottingham in England. “What we ordinarily think of as ‘magnetic materials’ are ferromagnetic materials such as iron — these are strongly attracted by magnetic fields. ^[2] Magnetic fields have been used in previous studies to levitate organic materials, as well as small living organisms and even a live frog. “Diamagnetic material is weakly repelled from magnetic fields, compared with the more commonly known ‘magnetic’. materials such as iron, which are strongly attracted to a magnetic field,” the scientists wrote. ^[6] Magnetic fields have been previously been used in a range of experiments to levitate organic materials, as well as small living organisms, including a frog, grasshoppers and fish. ^[4]

Scientists have used magnetic fields to ‘levitate’ flies in the first weightless tests conducted outside space. ^[7]

via newsfeedresearcher.com