Layers for IPad Adds Online Gallery, Pro Options PC World In addition, both versions of Layers will have the option to upload your work to an online gallery, where you can also browse others' work and leave ... |
Portland Plans to Spend $600 million on Master Bike Plan

Portland, Oregon is leading the nation with a 2030 master bike plan that calls to spend up to $600 MILLION! Talk about a lot of money for bicycles! The more people that get out of their cars, the more livability will improve and hopefully improved air quality.
The city of Portland has already committed to spending $20 million this year for bike boulevards. Portland is taking some cool steps toward making travel via bike more safe and easy. The newly implemented techniques in the video below show how the city is taking steps to improve the experience for cyclists and drivers. The greenest city in America has also installed several "swales" alongside many city streets to filter street water run off, which also double as barriers between pedestrians and auto traffic. Implementations like these are only a few of the strategies Portland has taken to make alternative travel fun and safe for even those who are new to biking in the city. Along with the title of Greenest City in America Portland has claimed the #1 spot for most bicycle friendly city in the nation.
On the Right Track from Mayor Sam Adams on Vimeo.
Thoughts, Comments, Questions...
My NCCAM Wish List
For a number of reasons, well-argued many times here on SBM, it would be beneficial to American citizens if the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) were abolished. This does not seem to be in the cards anytime soon. Here, then, are my suggestions for making the Center less dangerous and less of a marketing tool for pseudomedicine than it has been since its inception. Some suggestions might even make the Center somewhat useful. They are listed in order of priority. The Center should:
1. Abandon all unethical trials, beginning with the Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT, which is under the joint auspices of the NHLBI). This should be done in a very public manner. The reasons for abandoning the TACT, in summary, are as follows.
- The TACT was conceived and approved not because of any scientific or medical promise, but because of pressure from a powerful demagogue in Congress, Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN). Burton was acting on behalf of a tiny, fringe group of physicians whom the editor of Chest and Archives of Internal Medicine had correctly called “pseudoscientific zealots” whose practices were “an abuse of the physician’s freedom of choice.” Barely 15 years later, TACT literature emanating from the NIH renamed the same practitioners “respected experts.” Their organization, the American Association for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM), actively lobbied for the TACT.
- The TACT Principal Investigator (PI) made numerous false statements in his application for the grant and in his subsequent protocol submission, the effect of which was to give the erroneous impression that chelation is a promising treatment for coronary artery disease. I believe that those false statements constitute scientific misconduct. If the PI had offered an accurate review of the existing literature, any scientific review board or IRB worth its salt would have refused to approve the trial. In the event, the “Special Emphasis Panel” that the NCCAM convened to review the application included the very practitioner who, as President of the ACAM, had been instrumental in securing Rep. Burton’s influence. That practitioner was also named, in the application that he reviewed, as a member of a TACT committee, and would shortly thereafter become a TACT investigator. This is a violation of the NIH conflict of interest policy.
- We have shown, and both the federal Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP) and the University of Miami IRB have acknowledged, that the TACT proceeded with a misleading consent form—so misleading that any change now, more than 6 years after the trial began, couldn’t possibly reverse the damage already done. Misleading statements in the consent form included a strong implication that the study drug was the relatively less dangerous calcium-sodium ETDA, not the very dangerous disodium EDTA used in the trial. The consent form also failed to state important risks, including death.
- Almost 2 years ago the FDA withdrew its approval for disodium EDTA, which it had previously approved only for emergency treatments of digitalis toxicity and hypercalcemia. The FDA cited the dangers of the drug, including recent deaths associated with unapproved uses by ACAM members. Thus there is now no point in studying this drug because it is, for practical purposes, illegal.
- We also showed, and the OHRP and U. Miami IRB also agreed, that many of the investigators in the TACT have criminal records, histories of discipline by state medical boards, histories of membership in IRBs disciplined by the FDA, and other indications of incompetent practices or worse. They are the pseudoscientific zealots mentioned above. I have argued on SBM that at least 2 deaths of human subjects in the TACT can be attributed to incompetent care at the hands of such investigators.
- The TACT protocols, including far-too-biased investigators, inadequate blinding methods, multiple primary and secondary endpoints, and more (discussed here), are so tainted that whatever the reported outcome, it is unlikely that it will solve the very problem that it was intended to solve. The outcome will likely be equivocal, but even if it is reported as confirming or disconfirming, either conclusion will almost certainly be rejected by those who disagree.
- This suggestion—to abandon the TACT—isn’t really optional, although I am not so naïve as to think that NIH policy-makers will agree. It is not optional because the TACT violates numerous tenets of internationally recognized human studies ethics and numerous articles of the U.S. Federal Code of Regulations, and those violations are not retroactively remediable. As Henry Beecher wrote in his seminal article on human studies ethics, “an experiment is ethical or not at its inception; it does not become ethical post hoc…”
Thus to continue the trial, now that such violations are known, is not an ethically viable option for the NIH. Nor should the NIH succumb to political pressure framed as the “legislative mandate” of the NCCAM, which is its usual justification for such mischief. The reason is found in the Helsinki Declaration:
Physicians should consider the ethical, legal and regulatory norms and standards for research involving human subjects in their own countries as well as applicable international norms and standards. No national or international ethical, legal or regulatory requirement should reduce or eliminate any of the protections for research subjects set forth in this Declaration.
The NCCAM should also publicly address the horribly unethical trial of the Gonzalez regimen for cancer of the pancreas, even though that trial is over. It was spawned by much the same political pressure as was the TACT, it involved NIH-sponsored torture of hapless subjects, and its disconfirming outcome has done nothing to dissuade Gonzalez himself or his champions, including Burton and long time NCCAM advisee (and “Harkinite”) Ralph Moss.
Finally, the NCCAM must reconsider one of its recurrent public justifications for such trials: popularity. I have written about this several times (including in both the TACT article linked above and the Gonzalez regimen series here on SBM, also linked above) so I won’t go into detail here. In summary, “popularity”—which is almost always exaggerated, as it was in both of those cases—is a weak basis for a human trial: it should not trump a lack of scientific promise, and it never trumps welfare of individual subjects.
2. Stop using its public information function as an advertisement for fanciful, implausible claims. That it does this is apparent from even a passing glance at its website, but if examples are sought I refer you to a previous discussion.
3. Start using its public information function for some good, such as informing citizens that homeopathy is nonsense, or that those who claim a vaccine-autism link are both wrong and dangerous. It needs to confront the longstanding, close affiliation between “CAM” proponents and antivax hysteria.
4. Stop putting the cart before the horse by giving grants to medical schools to create “integrative medicine” centers, and stop promoting puff treatments of “CAM” for medical students.
5. Stop funding studies of “CAM” use and popularity, and begin trying to find out why it is that some people are drawn to implausible treatments, even in the face of compelling, contradictory evidence. Such investigations might begin by looking at the work of Beyerstein and Alcock, for example.
That’s it for now.
All American Properties: Eagle Island
When many American’s are looking for a private island, they look to the Caribbean or overseas. It is unfortunate that more prospective island owners don’t see the amazing variety of islands that are available on our own doorstep. One of my favorite islands is Eagle Island
This pristine 6.8 acre wooded island is located on Lake Antoine, one the largest four seasons recreational lakes in Michigan. Located just 5 minutes from downtown Iron Mountain in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula the entire property is over 7 acres and has over 3700 feet of lake frontage.
The island in its present state is undeveloped. However, the development opportunities are unlimited. The island could be turned into a private retreat or a multi home compound. Really this is one of the best advantages of purchasing an American island, they are purchased freehold and often the development laws are lax.
For more information on this property visit Private Islands Online.
Car Challenge: Hummers vs. Unimog
Never let it be said we don't listen to suggestions. Frequent Hemmings Six Degrees of Automotive Separation Challenge participant marmer recently told us he'd like to see an occasional return to the "classic" Six Degrees format, in which you find as many different possible connections between
Contemplating the Ocean
The new ‘Miami Medical’ on CBS is a Friday TV pick – Seattle Times
![]() Los Angeles Times | The new 'Miami Medical' on CBS is a Friday TV pick Seattle Times "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," 9 pm (ABC): The school's director of food services allows Jamie to cook for Huntington High School; Jamie asks some ... The outdated 'Miami Medical' is a TV trauma all on its ownUSA Today CBS debuts a medical showPhiladelphia Inquirer Northam makes 'Miami Medical' worth watchingSt. Louis Post-Dispatch Ottawa Citizen all 85 news articles » |
Survey: Low job satisfaction at Stony Brook med school – Newsday (subscription)
Survey: Low job satisfaction at Stony Brook med school Newsday (subscription) In a survey by the nation's medical school association that rated job satisfaction among medical school faculty, Stony Brook scored at the bottom in a ... |
Trip to Haiti inspiration for East Texas teen – KLTV
Trip to Haiti inspiration for East Texas teen KLTV If you see news happening, upload your video or photos here! More>> By Sara Story - bio | email GLADEWATER, TX (KLTV) - Less than a year after Brandon ... |
Why are pipe bomb ‘how to’ videos legal? Answer is alarming – KLTV
Why are pipe bomb 'how to' videos legal? Answer is alarming KLTV If you see news happening, upload your video or photos here! More>> By Courtney Lane - bio | email TYLER, TX (KLTV) - The ATF says there is a lot of ... |
Barack Obama has blessed Americans with Free! Health Care for everyone
NEW VIDEO FROM THE NRSC
"The sky will open. The light will come down. Celestial choirs will be singing..." -- fmr. Obama critic, turned supporter
Video: Constitutionality of Health Care Law
Judge Andrew Napalitano discusses why the Federal government cannot direct State-raised tax dollars, and why this is a power grab by the Federal government.
This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.
The Next Big Thing in Hosting: The Hostatulator
Here at The Planet, work has been proceeding in order to bring reliability, scalability and burstability to the crudely conceived idea of a hosting and communication platform that would not only supply inverse binary data for use in an internet protocol transfer request, but would also be capable of automatically and redundantly synchronizing cardinal base-qualifiers to streamline the load times of a business’s Web site. Such a configuration is commonly known as the hostatulator.
The original infrastructural configuration had an internal architecture of prefabricated aluminum cabinetry, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the pentametric fans in devices in close geographic proximity would exhaust rectified cooling agents multidirectionally … The primary consumption involved uncompressed lotus-o-delta rays reconfiguring the standard operation of the panendermic semi-boloid coded computing sector, but inefficiencies were noticed when the thermodynamic coupler connected to the nonreversible sonic transfiber caused the differential components to misdiagnose the ‘up’ end of the RAM modules. By sequentially incorporating a combination of hostatulators and retro-serverations, amazing results have been observed [see schematic below for preliminary calculations].
Basically, by reengineering the way the seventy-four cloud accelerators navigated the channels of the Cisco grouting router drives, a simple operating system reload brought about unbelievable improvement in per-core output and rotor slipstream variance … The consolidated, hardware-independent dependencies were all but eliminated.
While our slight modifications involved the forced diathetical retrograde of the data center’s coefficient of efficiency and its temperature phase disposition, the annular network bandwidth deviation was kept below four exabytes during peak usage. This traffic was measured with the aid of a Dell metapolar refractive hypervisor, and with the latest beta firmware release, the transcendental hopper dadoscope’s KVM output completely modified the terminal response and alleviated any need for conversion by the quadratic requantifier. By restoring the fundamental database with an emergency serial loop, the hierarchy immediately became an oligarchy, and the workload was redistributed much more efficiently.
Undoubtedly, the hostatulator has now reached a very high level of technical development, and they are immediately available for custom solution provisioning at the low price of $43,234.44 per server per month.
-Kevin
P.S. We’re looking to spread the word about this unbelievable technological innovation. The first person to record a video of with the above content will get an awesome T-shirt! Post the video on YouTube and link to it in a comment here. That is all.
Related Posts:
California Libertarian: Sarah Palin only hope to Save America from Obama/Soros Tyranny
by Mike Zeldis, fmr. State Treasurer, Libertarian Party of California
I have been a Libertarian for over 30 years and many years ago was the CA Libertarian Party Treasurer.
I am also a big supporter of Palin for reasons to be explained below.
These are very dangerous times for America. Obama is an extremely dangerous person for all those who believe in America and the principles on which it was founded.
It is my opinion that Obama is a front for George Soros who wants to establish a one-world government dominated by left wing socialist thinkers and policies. You can check the Net to find the Soros-Obama links including moveon.org.
Please view these videos at the link of EU proceedings.
It seems to me that Soros is using Obama to try and take away America's sovereignty. He is trying to do this by having Obama explode the deficit which as we know will lead to hyper inflation and the crash of the U.S. dollar. Remember how Soros made hundreds of millions if not billions as a direct result of his destruction of the British pound. At that point Obama and his administration will push for America to give up the U.S. dollar and accept a one-world currency which could initially be the Euro. Soros tried this with Great Britain but so far has not succeeded. The next step would be to replace the U.S. Constitution, not that the Democrats or even Republicans adhere to it, with the EU Constitution as the governing law in the U.S.
Based upon what I have observed Palin is the one person, if she gets elected as POTUS in 2012 who could stop this if it hasn't happened by then. Soros/Obama will stop at nothing to win the 2012 election.
As Stalin wrote. It is not the votes that count but who counts the vote that matter. See the recent election in Iran for the latest example of this law.
To that end Soros has set in place an Attorney's General program, which can be Googled, whose goal is to get as many of his people elected to the State Attorneys General position as is possible. In addition news has already surfaced that auditors of the 2010 IT Census program have found all kinds of irregularities in the program. Some of which could very well be used to gerrymander the 2010 and 2012 election results in favor of the Soros/Obama agenda. In addition there has been a bill introduced in Congress to give all U.S. felons, almost all of which are Democrats and number about four million the right to vote. Then there is the Obama's illegal immigration agenda which would add more millions to the Democrat voter rolls.
These are indeed very perilous times for Americans who value their freedom and it is only going to get worse.
It seems to me that Palin is the only person that for the most part represents a true U.S.Constitutional position as envisioned by our founding fathers who could get elected in 2012 and have a chance of stopping and reversing this tyrannical destruction of the U.S that is being advanced by Soros/Obama.
Sarah Palin can save us from the Soros/Obama tyranny.
Editor's Note - Mike Zeldis is a regular reader of LR. He was deeply involved in the California Libertarian Party in the lates 1970s and 80s working closely with California LP Chair and 1984 Libertarian Presidential candidate David Bergland.
NYC’s Conservative Punk Todd Seavey hired by Fox News??
Just breaking...
Todd Seavey (photo 2nd from left) of ToddSeavey.com "Conservatism for Punks," and the longtime science writer/editor for American Council on Science and Health, may be going to Fox News.
Libertarian Republican received a tantalizing notice that Seavey "may be going to work for the fairest cable news organization in all the land." Though, the name of the media outlet was ommited.
Seavey has worked with Fox in the past, mostly in defending the rights of cigarette smokers; John Stossel show from FoxBusinessNews.com. He is a longtime participant and speaker at libertrian events such as Americans for Limited Government, Sam Adams Alliance, Cato, Reason, and the Manhattan Libertarian Party.
He recently sent out an email notice for his regional tour promoting Ayn Rand's individualist treatise.
As journalists everywhere should be documenting, I am trekking to three campuses this year to give Ayn Rand's speech "Faith and Force: Destroyers of the Modern World" on the fiftieth anniversary of her delivery of it in these places (beginning with Yale and ending with Columbia). This Sunday (coincidentally Easter), April 4, 2010, at 11am, I will give the speech (followed by Q&A) on the steps of the library of Brooklyn College, facing the main green. Join me there or travel with me from Manhattan on the F train by rallying at precisely 10am that morning on the western steps of Bryant Park. Nothing can poszibley go wrong.
Editor's Note - our source assures us this is no April Fool's joke. Seavey indeed really is in line for a big promotion.
Cartoon: The Omnipresence Of Pharma Advertising
Why The Secretary of State Race Matters
It may come as a surprise to newer Libertarians that in Indiana, the Secretary of State (SOS) race is the most important in the four year cycle.
Oligarchy’s WWF Goal: Destroy South Africa
by Douglas DeGroot
[PDF version of this article]
June 4—Prince Philip's World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is going on the offensive against South Africa, dictating that the WWF's depopulation policies be implemented in South Africa. The anti-South African offensive was signaled by the June 1 announcement of a campaign against industry by the South African branch of the WWF, using the fraudulent pretext of the danger of a carbon dioxide buildup.
The goal of the WWF and the British Imperial financial cartel, is to use the anti-scientific CO2 ruse to force South Africa to dump its goal of developing advanced-technology power generation as a means of industrialization. The alternative being offered, is to reduce energy consumption, and use inadequate "renewable energies." Prince Philip and his cohorts in the London-based imperial financial cartel are the top culprits who are pushing these racist, Nazi-style policies to depopulate the globe.
The implicit target of the WWF is the South African Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project, which is a world leader in developing a fourth-generation, high-temperature, gas-cooled, pebble bed reactor. Successful development of the PBMR project would defeat Philip and his like-minded Neanderthals who are intent on preserving their old order by imposing a policy of technological apartheid on Africa and the rest of the yet-to-be developed nations of the world. The defeat of these fanatics would destroy all the scenarios now being cooked up to eliminate South Africa as the continent's leading industrial nation.
Crucial to that defeat is a shift of policy in the United States. The British population-reduction policy was brought to the United States by Henry A. Kissinger in 1974, when he initiated the process that made genocidal population reduction a required tenet of U.S. policymaking.[1] The U.S. thus joined the British in seeking to prevent the ex-colonial sectors from using their resources, considered "strategic" by the policy's promoters, to encourage population growth by modernization and industrialization. The time is more than ripe for the U.S. to break from British imperial policy.
WWF Calls for War
The call for green fascism in South Africa was announced in a June 1 interview with Saliem Fakir, the head of WWF's Living Planet unit. He called for lowering carbon dioxide emissions, and developing solar power technology in South Africa, and said that the WWF will target ten companies over the next five years to be involved in the Fund's "Climate Savers' " initiative. (See the fraudulent carbon dioxide argument against development exposed as a hoax in the interview with Lord Christopher Monckton.)
As a result of the bankruptcy of the globalized monetarist system, South Africa is in the throes of its worst economic crisis since 1992. The WWF picked this moment of vulnerability to launch its offensive, less than a month after Jacob Zuma was inaugurated as President of South Africa, on May 9.
Zuma, as the African National Congress (ANC) candidate, ran a populist campaign, promising to reduce poverty, and he continues to pledge more jobs. However, in the first quarter of this year, mining production has dropped by 32.8%, and manufacturing output plunged 22.1%, the biggest fall in these two sectors since records began to be kept in 1960. Zuma is now trapped. He cannot deliver on his promises.
British Fabian Society Assets
The core of Zuma's support is the Cosatu trade union federation and its close ally, the South African Communist Party (SACP), an alliance going back to the fight against apartheid. The leaders of this alliance are assets of the British Fabian Society. Cosatu has 21 affiliated unions, and a combined membership of over 1.9 million. The SACP has 37 of the 400 seats in the National Assembly.
Cosatu is demanding protection from the economic crisis by means of more social spending and protectionism, but the globalized business sector isn't going to see South Africa as "business friendly" if it turns to protectionism. South Africa risks being destroyed by the conflict between these two opposing forces.
Trying to buy some maneuvering room, Zuma said in his inaugural State of the Nation speech yesterday, that job creation and fighting poverty will be his main focus. He announced that the South African Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has developed a program to fund South African companies that are in trouble because of the global collapse, to protect jobs. He vowed to create 500,000 job opportunities by the end of the year, and 4 million jobs by 2014. South Africa's unemployment rate has climbed to 23.5% in the first quarter this year, from 21.9% in the last quarter of 2008.
But, indicative of the trap he is caught in, Zuma also sought to dampen expectations of what his government could do to alleviate poverty and create more jobs: he said that the economic crisis calls for prudent spending.
On June 1, two days before Zuma's State of the Nation speech, Irvin Jim, the general-secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers, one of the three biggest trade unions, threatened mass strikes to force interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank (the central bank): "If matters are not resolved, we will have mass rolling action." In response, Jessie Stuart, spokesperson for the ANC, urged caution: "What will have to happen," she said, "is an understanding that during a recessionary time there is a slight difference, that we might as a ruling party have to mediate and talk about all of us taking responsibility that the recession doesn't deepen."
Cosatu leaders approved of Zuma's speech yesterday, but the honeymoon didn't last long. Today, Cosatu backed the metalworkers' call for strikes to demand deeper interest rate cuts, as a way of fostering economic growth, and thus save jobs. Cosatu general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said: "We fully endorse that we must engage in mass action." Cosatu also said today that it would not support the renewal of Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni's contract, which expires in August.
The Cosatu-SACP alliance played a key role in dumping former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who was forced to resign last Sept. 20. This opened the way for the election of Zuma. It was the legwork carried out by Cosatu which ousted Mbeki and gave Zuma his April electoral victory, setting him up for his no-win trap. Now, the Cosatu-SACP alliance, not comprehending the nature of the crisis, is being played against Zuma. It is telling the Cosatu membership that it is payback time for them, for having ousted Mbeki and his backers. The Fabian Society-manipulated Cosatu-SACP alliance is now is a position to destroy the nationalist institutions of the ANC.
The British imperial Fabian Society will use its assets to pressure the South African government to dump the PBMR project, or cut it way back, and instead use the financial resources for programs to alleviate the immediate effects of the economic crisis.
The WWF and South Africa
There is a long, deep, and intimate connection between the WWF and South Africa. The British imperial elites and like-minded elements amongst the South African elites of British and Afrikaaner extraction were, and still are, intent on stopping human development and progress, and greatly reducing the world's population. If they don't succeed, they will not be able to maintain their control in the world.
The WWF was founded in 1961, at the time many former European colonies in Africa were gaining nominal independence; it was an initiative of Julian Huxley and Edward Nicholson, and was dedicated to preserving a "natural order" undisturbed by humans. Huxley approvingly reported, for example, his discovery on a trip to British colonial Tanganyika, that the wildlife on the Serengeti plain was almost undisturbed, because the tsetse fly (the vector for the trypanosome parasite which causes sleeping sickness in humans) prevented human settlement there.
Nicholson was a longtime intimate of the British imperial order. He accompanied Winston Churchill to the Yalta summit, before the end of World War II, and also accompanied him to the post-war meeting with Josef Stalin and Harry Truman in Potsdam, among his other services to the British imperialist cartel.
Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands was WWF president from 1962 to 1976, when his involvement in the Lockheed scandal became public. Prince Philip was president 1981-96. Both princes were from not very distinguished European royal families, and only acquired their more elevated status when they married their respective spouses, both of whom later became queens.
Although the WWF was set up to raise money to preserve the old order in South Africa by pushing population-reduction policies, it reportedly was not very successful until South African businessman Anton Rupert joined the board. Rupert was one of the richest men in South Africa, rivaled only by Harry Oppenheimer, the gold and diamond magnate. Rupert made his initial fortune in tobacco and alcohol. According to reports, Rupert came to the rescue of the WWF by coming up with the idea of the 1001 Club, which gathered together wealthy individuals who were expected to give substantive contributions.
An inordinately large proportion of the 1001 were South Africans. The percentage of South Africans, relative to its total white population, was higher than the percentage of any other country in the WWF. Of course, black Africans were not counted. The imperial cabal only counted them as an indicator for determining where populations were getting too large.
Rupert appointed an employee of his, Charles de Haes, as a personal assistant to Prince Bernhard, for WWF fundraising. After two years, de Haes was put in charge of the WWF, paid by Rupert.
The South African group in the WWF saw eye-to-eye with Princes Bernhard and Philip, agreeing that the "natives" should not be allowed to disturb the natural order by becoming "uppity" and thinking that they should have the right to industrialize their countries to provide for, and benefit from the growing population. Hence, the fixation of Prince Philip et al, on depopulation (see "In Their Own Words," p. 27).
PBMR Is the Only Option for a Future
South Africa is at the forefront of developing fourth-generation nuclear power plants for the 21st Century. With a 700-member team, PBMR has one of the largest nuclear reactor design teams in the world. This is a notable accomplishment, because the ability to design civil nuclear power reactors is not widespread.
Successful development of this technology has enormous implications for Africa and the rest of the world. Africa has about 15% of the world's population, but only generates 4% of the world's electricty. South Africa is about 75% electrified, but only 10% of the 700 million people on the continent have access to regular electricity. Presently, 90% of South Africa's power is produced in coal burning plants.
The high energy flux-density of power that would be produced by the direct cycle gas-cooled PBMR reactors could provide the cheap power needed to develop South Africa and the rest of Africa.
It is critical to keep this project going. South Africa's electrical power generation parastatal, Eskom, owns 41% of the project, the IDC owns 14%, and the South African government holds a 30% direct interest in the project. U.S.-based Westinghouse also has a 15% stake.
The PBMR project will run out of money next March. Therefore, PBMR is currently shifting the reactor design from a direct cycle, helium gas-turbine concept for direct production of electricity, to the more quickly marketable indirect, steam-turbine concept that can generate electricity or be used for process-heat applications. This application would involve using the helium coolant gas that becomes super-heated, to create high temperature steam.
Because of rapidly growing interest from petrochemical groups and tar sands companies in applying the PBMR to activities requiring process heat, the pebble bed project is now busy modifying the PBMR design. PBMR's Tom Ferreira said that "given the limited funding available, we are considering whether we could build a more versatile reactor that could do both electricity and process heat. The same basic machine for both applications."
In this variation of the project, the gas is used to generate steam, which can be used for heavy oil recovery in oil sands; for reforming methane to produce hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol; water splitting; coal to liquids and coal to methane; and desalination. As a result, there are more commercial applications with this approach, rather than limiting it to direct production of electrical power. The PBMR project team hopes this will keep the project alive, despite the global financial collapse.
[1] On Dec. 10, 1974, National Security Advisor Henry A. Kissinger issued National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM 200), which linked what it termed "overpopulation" to U.S. national security interests. After Kissinger became Secretary of State, his NSC successor, Brent Scowcroft, issued National Security Decision Memorandum 314, which adopted NSSM 200 as official (covert) U.S. policy on population matters. See EIR April 18, 2008, for excerpts of NSSM 200. [Full text of NSSM 200]
NWO Eugenics to Global Depopulation
Pharma Planning to Dump Experimental and Controversial Vaccines in Public Schools
The golden calf of public health was smashed in this recent flu season as many in the United States outright rejected the H1N1 vaccine. Pharmaceutical companies are now holding the bag, as millions of doses of the vaccine are rotting on shelves or being discarded as hazardous waste. Or are they? The manufacturer may find it more cost effective to dump them into the arms of our public school systems.
Parents would revolt if they knew that the pharmaceutical industry, the Department of Health and Human Services, and Centers for Disease Control have allocated millions of dollars in funding to establish vaccine clinics in the public schools. Pumping children with experimental vaccines in public school is about to be pursued as a matter of policy.
Denver Public Schools the Target
Recently, a news article (http://www.denverpost.com/commented...) in the Denver Post highlighted two grants issued by the Centers for Disease Control totaling $1.6 million dollars to vaccinate students attending Denver Public Schools (http://communications.dpsk12.org/an...).
One grant (http://communications.dpsk12.org/an...) funds an effort to establish a sustainable school-based vaccination program utilizing the yearly influenza and experimental H1N1 vaccine. The hope is to create a partnership between public health (Denver Health), school personnel (Denver Public Schools), and an entity (Kaiser Permanente) that would bill third party payers.
The second grant (http://www.cdc.gov/od/pgo/funding/I...) provides cash for vaccinating children with the newly approved diphtheria toxoid and acellular pertussis vaccine (Tdap), meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV4), and human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV). The new vaccines for adolescents are among the most expensive vaccines (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/program...) recommended today for any age group.
Lead investigator of Denver In-School Immunization Project, Dr. Judith Shlay, of Denver Health, readily admits that if all goes well, plans are in place to implement school-base vaccine clinics (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHji... ) nation-wide (a high level overview of this plan (http://www.nasbhc.org/site/c.jsJPKW...) was presented to the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care by Dr. Shlay).
School Based Health Clinics As the Conduit
The Denver In-School Immunization Project (http://denverhealth.org/portal/Serv...) has long been in the works. It was paved in the late 1970s and early 1980s by incrementally creating School-Based Health Clinics (SCHC). In 1978, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a non-profit organization funded by the Pharmaceutical Company, Johnson and Johnson (http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/d...), contributed $2.3 million dollars to the state of Colorado, (http://www.rwjf.org/reports/grr/032...) making SBHCs a reality.
Illnesses such as ADD/ADHD, Cervical Cancer, diabetes, asthma, obesity, and learning disabilities were of little consequence in the '70s. However, these disabling syndromes and the medications aimed at treating them have all reached epidemic proportions and astronomically profitable sales.
In the past, parents have discovered challenging a school-based medical model can be extremely dangerous. In September, 2000, Ms. Patti Johnson, a former Colorado State education board member, testified before Federal Congress (http://www.politicalwatchdog.com/ps...) concerning Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). In the 1990s, the much-hyped drug, Ritalin, was maneuvered into public schools to address the growing epidemic of hyperactivity. Mrs. Johnson testimony was prophetic and foreshadowed a future scenario where parents could be charged with medical neglect if they refused to medicate their child per the school's request.
Vaccines for All School Children is the Goal
If School Based Health Clinics are being used as the conduit to vaccinate children, the federally-funded Vaccines For Children (VFC) (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/program...) program and third party insurance coverage provide the finances. According to the grant approved by the CDC, the VFC program would provide "free" vaccines to an estimated forty percent of children in the United States who are not covered by third party insurance plans.
"The goal is for this (Denver In-School Immunization Project) to be a sustainable program that can immunize all children in the schools regardless of their insurance. And we need to see at the end of the day, when all the dust settles at the end of this school year, whether the amount that was reimbursed for all these different insurance companies, adds up to the amount of time and effort it took to actually have the clinic." (Emphasis added)
Dr. Matthew Daley
Evaluator of the Denver In-School Immunization Project
Kaiser Permanente
Colorado Public Radio Interview
February 17th, 2010
(http://www.kcfr.org/index.php?optio...)
Put into context, the implications of the Denver In-School Immunization Project are enormous. We are speaking of a captured market for vaccine manufacturers (guaranteed purchase of vaccines), insurance companies (guaranteed rise in premiums), and government funding (VFC) all footed by taxpayer dollars. The total price per vaccinated adolescent in the private sector is approximately $500 (http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/au...). That's a lot of cash.
What Does Pharma Know?
Dr. Matthew Daley is very aware that a paltry 1/3rd of adolescents receive their yearly influenza vaccine, for example. In a semi-recent presentation, (http://www.preventinfluenza.org/NIV...) Dr. Daley shows obtaining parental consent is a barrier to mass vaccination in a school setting. Furthermore, the presentation suggests improved financial incentives for providing influenza vaccinations. Dr. Daley must be sharing his notes with RAND Corporation because it is almost the exact message RAND pitched to the pharmaceutical giant, Sanofi Pasteur.
In 2007, a study performed by RAND Corporation, funded by Sanofi Pasteur, investigated the most efficient way to vaccinate (http://www.rand.org/pubs/documented...) low-income adolescents. Nicole Lurie,(http://www.opensecrets.org/revolvin...) one authors of the white paper, is now an adviser to Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Human Health Services (HHS). Mrs. Lurie has a long history of traversing the revolving door between private industry, government duties, and academic appointments (there is no difference from the former head of the CDC, Julie Gerberding, (http://vactruth.com/2010/01/04/juli...) becoming President of Merck Pharmaceuticals Vaccine Division).
RAND's report identifies barriers that would obstruct "alternative vaccination campaigns," otherwise known as "in-school vaccination programs." The list of legal issues includes parental consent laws, absence of a reliable medical home (where an adolescent receives medical treatment such as a doctor's office), and access to vaccine registration information.
That's right, mom and dad. Your current ability to refuse vaccines, which is protected by most state laws, is considered a barrier to Pharmaceutical Interests!
*As a side note, many states are taking steps to move parents out of the way and allow public officials the right to vaccinate children, without parental consent. By example, legislation is being considered in New York that would give absolute authority to health professionals to vaccinate children under 18 years old without the parental consent. Another bill in New York (http://vactruth.com/2010/02/12/new-...) seeks to mandate the controversial HPV vaccine (Gardasil) for school entry.
With Public Relations at the foreground, The RAND paper further recommends that Sanofi Pasteur create "Vaccine Champions" or "Registration Champions." Vaccine champions are "ardent supporters of a cause … They can bring about change by educating those around them and spurring others into action through local events, meetings, or publications." Coincidentally, non-profit organizations such as The Immunization Partnership are following lockstep with the RAND Corporation's group-think. It also has "Immunization Champions." (http://www.immunizeusa.org/iz-champ...)
If vaccines are mandated for public school attendance, and most likely they will be, you can bet that it won't matter whether the vaccine is experimental or not. With rising awareness of the chronic effects of mass vaccination, public skepticism and outcries will likely be countered with fear mongering (http://www.scribd.com/doc/19212191/...) by fanatical vaccine advocates and lobbying groups funded by Big Pharma interests. The only real way to protect the safety of our children is to fiercely safeguard state exemption laws that uphold parents' freedom to choose whether to vaccinate or not.
Yet, by blending society's Federal Educational Framework with a superficial medical model, vaccine proponents have a road map to overcome any damaging future resistance to experimental vaccines. Could it be any clearer that if left unchecked, the pharmaceutical industrial complex soon will be calling the shots instead of parents?
About the author: Jeffry John Aufderheide is the father of a child injured as a result of vaccination. As editor of the website http://www.vactruth.com he promotes well-educated pediatricians, informed consent, and full disclosure and accountability of adverse reactions to vaccines.











