On September 20, 1950, a US Navy ship just off the coast of San Francisco used a giant hose to spray a cloud of microbes into the air and into the city’s famous fog. The military was testing how a biological weapon attack would affect the 800,000 residents of the city. The people of San Francisco had no idea. The Navy …
Kieran Cooke – Anthrax strikes in rapidly thawing Arctic
Record high temperatures in Arctic Russia are believed to be one of the main factors behind the emergence of the deadly anthrax disease in northwestern Siberia. LONDON, 15 August, 2016 – A full-scale medical emergency has broken out in the Yamal region of Siberia, with troops from the Russian army’s special biological warfare unit spearheading efforts to contain an outbreak of anthrax. A 12-year-old …
Brandon Turbeville – South Africa’s Secret Plan to Sterilize Blacks through Vaccines
South Africa’s apartheid system will always be known for the tragic example of the institutionalized racism that it was as well as for all of the horrific acts of oppression, violence and dehumanization it produced. Much of what took place under the system will never be revealed as both its victims and perpetrators have taken the information to their graves. …
Energy Stew – Christian de Quincey – 10.09.15
So many of us believe what we’re told when often, science is just making things up. Recently, The Lancet, one of the foremost medical journals admitted that about half of published research is false.
We know human beings can be very smart but how many are truly wise? If we didn’t have so many blindspots, maybe we’d have a healthier planet.
Christian de Quincey wrote “Blindspots, 21 Good Reasons to Think Before You Talk” to look at many misconceptions about life. His previous books include “Radical Nature” and “Radical Knowing” and is a Professor of Philosophy and Consciousness Studies.
The Dangers of Human Gene Editing – Ulson Gunnar
It is often said that if it can be imagined, it will inevitably be done. And such a sentiment could not be any truer in terms of applying genetic engineering and synthetic biology to the genomes of our planet’s organisms including humans themselves. While the process of synthesizing and arranging genetic code has many processes, perhaps none has been as …
The Biological Weapons Convention Turns 40 — Are we any safer? – Janet Phelan
This year, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) celebrated its 40th birthday in Geneva, at the Palais Nacions. Amidst speeches and backslapping within the coterie of the BWC crowd, the question that hangs in the air is—Are we really any safer? The Biological Weapons Convention was signed by the three depositary countries—Russia, Great Britain and the United States—in 1972 and entered …
Vaccines and National Security – Ulnar Gunnar
One can easily see in the emerging information and cyber war that a nation having its own IT infrastructure, its own hardware, and its own versions of social media platforms is quickly becoming a matter of national security. Without control over these assets, a nation must depend on foreign suppliers for their computers, peripheries and software. Already, this dependence has opened …