By Robert Foyle Hunwick
Motherboard October 9, 2013
The first thing you notice are the straws: long, bright, pink-and-purple-striped, with bent necks reminiscent of childhood parties. They’re all over the place, on benches, tables and trays, being passed around like lemonade. Otherwise, the room is exactly as you’d expect a private karaoke room would look like in Guilin, known as south China’s most beautiful city, if you were to wander in at two in the morning.
A rumpled Taiwanese businessman makes eye contact. As his friends gear up for the next big song, he enthusiastically bids me enter. There’s a lot of collar loosening and hugging, flabby, middle-aged male bellies and toasting. A couple of women have lost their tops. Everyone takes a big hit of the enormous lines on the tray, and then they ignore me.
A couple hours later, I’m in a very different part of the house. Not untypically for a Chinese KTV nightclub, it features a large, neon-soaked dance floor and several bars that no one is paying the least attention to. The main draw in this cavernous area is a network of concealed VIP rooms squirreled out back among a warren of identical corridors and floors accessible only to paying guests—and the very curious.
Down one of these hallways, there’s another party happening, this time with a more extreme crowd. They’re brighter-eyed and drunkenly energetic. It is a half-male, half-female crew, all around the same age. In front of a gigantic plasma TV blaring Korean pop videos, a young girl sallies forth to claim her song, watched by the stupefied group. The women are in black tops and skirts, the men are stripped to the waist and near skeletal thin; several are tattooed. All of them are off their heads on ketamine.
A worldwide rally against genetically modified food giant Monsanto is being held across the globe. Activists are protesting the use of potentially harmful chemicals in food production, something Monsanto says is the only way to feed the globe’s growing population. Hundreds of cities are set to take part in the march across more than 60 countries. RT’s Marina Portnaya reports from New York. LIVE UPDATES http://on.rt.com/4x3bwp
RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 1 billion YouTube views benchmark.
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” We’ve heard it many times, that breakfast shouldn’t be skipped for fear of weight gain, metabolic syndrome, or brain fog. While we pay a lot of attention to whether or not we eat breakfast and which foods are included, not much has been said about the optimal size of breakfast. Until now. Recently, researchers with the British Heart Foundation found that a big breakfast could be better for at least one morning-meal benefit: weight loss.
The researchers used a pool of 93 obese women, splitting the women into two groups. Looking solely at meal size based on calories, one group received the majority of their calories in the morning, while the other group received the biggest meal at supper time. The study found those who ate more in the morning hours were able to lose more weight in a 12 week period.
Medical marijuana patients in Canada can expect a 50-100% increase in the cost of medication next year, all so that large commercial interests can monopolize the habilitative herb, CBC News reports.
Health Canada has banned private-dwelling production of this 34-million-year-old plant, because the Mounties complained about missing out on taxes for weed sold outside the licensed market. Actually, they called the activity “criminal” because, after all, no matter that the plant is safer and more effective than many lab-drugs, the government criminalized it.
The 4,200 small growers, who are limited to selling to only two patients, must close down all operations by March 2014, or apply for licensing under the new regime which has much stronger security protocols, necessitating serious infrastructure upgrades and paperwork protocols.
Users will be required to buy only from the large-scale factory farms, because – we all know – factory farms are so much better for the environment and the local economy.
In June, Canada passed new regulations banning pot “home grown” by cannabis patients, and bowed to pharmacist refusal to sell the herb, The Province reports, referring to the potential for break-ins and theft. It’s okay to sell highly addictive and destructive oxycontin, barbiturates and amphetamines, and, lawd knows, no pill head would ever break into a pharmacy for these drugs.
Over two-thirds of Canada’s 37,359 approved medical marijuana users grow their own under a license, some for as low as $1 a gram. (Mail order buyers pay around $5 a gram.) Home production is being criminalized so that major corporations can overcharge the sick and dying at the rate of $7.60 – $10 a gram.
The CBC News report characterized the profit potential under Canada’s new weed regime as “enormous” for the big companies, estimating a $1.3 billion business in 2014. No doubt. It’s easy to get rich when you criminalize your competition.
Genetically modified strains can also be sold without notice to patients, since Canada lacks a right-to-know policy regarding GM products. The new policy deliberately defeats the “know your farmer” notion, so patients will be stuck ingesting whatever is engineered into the plant.
Though small ops are being wiped out, Canada will allow cannabis imports. Nice to know the nation is doing so well economically that small-time growers don’t need the income. And we can be sure that creative inventions like the one below will fall prey to pesticide laden plants in factory labs:
A Tacoma, WA man got 15 years (!) in prison for designing and operating eight of these ‘Ferris Wheel’ growers that rotated over 1,500 plants under grow lights while periodically spraying them with a nutrient solution.
Heaven forbid cost-effective treatment for a wide variety of illnesses could be manufactured in the home, naturally, organically and safely. No, no, Big Pharma and the biotech industry would lose profits, and predatory capitalism as featured in the West doesn’t allow anyone to be independent of it. These are the real criminals in all of this, along with their crony regulators.
We would expect nothing less from Health Canada who fired its food safety scientists for exposing the dangers of genetically modified bovine growth hormone.
Rady Ananda is the creator of Food Freedom News and COTO Report, Rady Ananda’s work has appeared in several online and print publications, including four books. With a B.S. in Natural Resources from Ohio State University’s School of Agriculture, Rady tweets @geobear7 and @RadysRant .
Giant Hornets Such As The Ones Pictured Above Have Been Responsible For Multiple Deaths In Nebraska Last Month
<NR>In the wake of the world’s most catastrophic nuclear disaster, hospitals in central Nebraska have recently been reporting several deaths caused by a particularly venomous species of Asian wasp that has found its way into the states.
It was reported that these pests have been contaminated by radioactive debris from the failed Fukushima power plant. This has caused them to nearly quadruple in size, and become hyper aggressive.
As if that wasn’t horrific enough, the giant hornet also possesses venom which is nearly 2000 times stronger than that of the common wasp. We spoke to doctor Leon Hobbes of the Nebraska Medical Research Symposium and he reported the following:
“I have never seen anything like it… One sting causes nearly immediate necrosis of surrounding tissue. The venom then quickly spreads causing the destruction of organs. Most victims succumb to renal failure often within hours. Some have had such intense allergic reactions that the complications were enough to cause death within a matter of minutes…”
<NR>In the wake of the world’s most catastrophic nuclear disaster, hospitals in central Nebraska have recently been reporting several deaths caused by a particularly venomous species of Asian wasp that has found its way into the states.
It was reported that these pests have been contaminated by radioactive debris from the failed Fukushima power plant. This has caused them to nearly quadruple in size, and become hyper aggressive.
As if that wasn’t horrific enough, the giant hornet also possesses venom which is nearly 2000 times stronger than that of the common wasp. We spoke to doctor Leon Hobbes of the Nebraska Medical Research Symposium and he reported the following:
“I have never seen anything like it… One sting causes nearly immediate necrosis of surrounding tissue. The venom then quickly spreads causing the destruction of organs. Most victims succumb to renal failure often within hours. Some have had such intense allergic reactions that the complications were enough to cause death within a matter of minutes…”
Welcome to http://NewWorldNextWeek.com — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week:
Story #2: 23andMe Receives Patent To Create Designer Babies, Denies Plans To Do So http://ur1.ca/fv706
Google Reportedly Investing Hundreds of Millions Into Its New Life Extension Company, Calico http://ur1.ca/fv707
Story #3: Shutdown Ends Food Inspections in US, Leaving 90% of U.S. Seafood Imports Unchecked http://ur1.ca/fv708
Bees and Seeds Festival – A World Food Day Celebration http://ur1.ca/fv70c
Organizer/Activist Tiffany Ayers on Portland’s Bees And Seeds Event on World Food Day October 12 http://ur1.ca/fv70d
OK, it sounds crazy, but sociologist Robert Bartholomew believes that Facebook and other social media platforms can give rise to Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI), also known as Mass Hysteria. Laura Dimon reports for The Atlantic:
“Eerie and remarkable.”
Those are the words that Robert Bartholomew used to describe this past winter’s outbreak of mass hysteria in Danvers, Massachusetts, a town also known as “Old Salem” and “Salem Village.”
Bartholomew, a sociologist in New Zealand who has been studying cases of mass hysteria for more than 20 years, was referring to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693, the most widely recognized episode of mass hysteria in history, which ultimately saw the hanging deaths of 20 women.
Fast-forward about 300 years to January 2013, when a bizarre case of mass hysteria again struck Danvers. About two dozen teenagers at the Essex Agricultural and Technical School began having “mysterious” hiccups and vocal tics.
“The Massachusetts State Health Department refuses to say publicly,” Bartholomew wrote in an email in late August, “but I have heard from some of the parents privately who say that the symptoms are still persisting.”
The location might be eerie, but Bartholomew is not surprised by the outbreak in the slightest. He said that there has been a “sudden upsurge” in these types of outbreaks popping up in the U.S. over the past few years. It starts with conversion disorder, when psychological stressors, such as trauma or anxiety, manifest in physical symptoms. The conversion disorder becomes “contagious” due to a phenomenon called mass psychogenic illness (MPI), historically known as “mass hysteria,” in which exposure to cases of conversion disorder cause other people—who unconsciously believe they’ve been exposed to the same harmful toxin—to experience the same symptoms.
Though the Massachusetts State Health Department still has not declared the Danvers outbreak to be MPI, back in March, Bartholomew said, “[Danvers] could turn into another Le Roy, if they don’t watch their step.”Typically, mass hysteria is confined to a group of girls or young women who share a common physical space for a majority of the time. Bartholomew has studied over 600 cases, dating back to 1566, and said that the gender link is undeniable; it’s just a question of why. It is accepted within the psychiatric community that conversion disorders are much more common in females. There are also social, biological, and anthropological theories that have to do with how and why females might cope with stress.
He was referring to an episode of mass hysteria in Le Roy, a small town in western New York, that garnered massive media attention in the winter of 2011 when about 18 girls at the local high school came down with a very dramatic—and very real—case of hysteria. Bartholomew said that the Danvers case looks extremely similar to the case in Le Roy and that the lessons from Le Roy have gone “unheeded.”
One major lesson missed: the power of social media to spread and exacerbate an episode…
OK, it sounds crazy, but sociologist Robert Bartholomew believes that Facebook and other social media platforms can give rise to Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI), also known as Mass Hysteria. Laura Dimon reports for The Atlantic:
“Eerie and remarkable.”
Those are the words that Robert Bartholomew used to describe this past winter’s outbreak of mass hysteria in Danvers, Massachusetts, a town also known as “Old Salem” and “Salem Village.”
Bartholomew, a sociologist in New Zealand who has been studying cases of mass hysteria for more than 20 years, was referring to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693, the most widely recognized episode of mass hysteria in history, which ultimately saw the hanging deaths of 20 women.
Fast-forward about 300 years to January 2013, when a bizarre case of mass hysteria again struck Danvers. About two dozen teenagers at the Essex Agricultural and Technical School began having “mysterious” hiccups and vocal tics.
“The Massachusetts State Health Department refuses to say publicly,” Bartholomew wrote in an email in late August, “but I have heard from some of the parents privately who say that the symptoms are still persisting.”
The location might be eerie, but Bartholomew is not surprised by the outbreak in the slightest. He said that there has been a “sudden upsurge” in these types of outbreaks popping up in the U.S. over the past few years. It starts with conversion disorder, when psychological stressors, such as trauma or anxiety, manifest in physical symptoms. The conversion disorder becomes “contagious” due to a phenomenon called mass psychogenic illness (MPI), historically known as “mass hysteria,” in which exposure to cases of conversion disorder cause other people—who unconsciously believe they’ve been exposed to the same harmful toxin—to experience the same symptoms.
Though the Massachusetts State Health Department still has not declared the Danvers outbreak to be MPI, back in March, Bartholomew said, “[Danvers] could turn into another Le Roy, if they don’t watch their step.”Typically, mass hysteria is confined to a group of girls or young women who share a common physical space for a majority of the time. Bartholomew has studied over 600 cases, dating back to 1566, and said that the gender link is undeniable; it’s just a question of why. It is accepted within the psychiatric community that conversion disorders are much more common in females. There are also social, biological, and anthropological theories that have to do with how and why females might cope with stress.
He was referring to an episode of mass hysteria in Le Roy, a small town in western New York, that garnered massive media attention in the winter of 2011 when about 18 girls at the local high school came down with a very dramatic—and very real—case of hysteria. Bartholomew said that the Danvers case looks extremely similar to the case in Le Roy and that the lessons from Le Roy have gone “unheeded.”
One major lesson missed: the power of social media to spread and exacerbate an episode…
by Elizabeth Renter
by Rady Ananda
disinformation
PN 