$100-Million Brain-Mapping Project
April 2nd, 2013Via: io9:
President Obama announced plans this morning for a long-term research project to improve our understanding of the brain. Comparing it to the Human Genome Project, Obama said the brain-mapping initiative could lead to cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s and autism, while fueling economic growth and job creation.
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BRAIN stands for “Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies,” and the last word in that acronym is a telling one. When we spoke with Rafael Yuste (one of the neuroscientists whose advice the Obama Administration has sought in planning the initiative) back in February, he told us that the endeavor would be first and foremost “a technical development project.” The ultimate goal of the BRAIN may be to create a functional map of neuron activity throughout the human brain, but charting such a map is – as of today – impossible.
To create such a map will require tools that can measure the activity of any one of the brain’s tens of billions of neurons, along with the activity of any and all neurons it’s connected to. Scale this measurement up to the level of the entire brain and you’ve got yourself a functional activity map. Neuroscientists recently managed something akin to this in zebrafish embryos; but doing the same for a human brain – which contains about 85,000 times more neurons than that of a zebrafish – will require nothing short of a technological revolution in the field of neuroscience.
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On the public-funding front, the NIH will be joined by the National Science Foundation and DARPA in supporting the Initiaive. Private partnerships include the Allen Institute, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Kavli Foundation, and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
California State Government Net Worth: -$127.2 Billion
April 2nd, 2013Via: The Sacramento Bee:
Were California’s state government a business, it would be a candidate for insolvency with a negative net worth of $127.2 billion, according to an annual financial report issued by State Auditor Elaine Howle and the Bureau of State Audits.
The report, which covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, says that the state’s negative status — all of its assets minus all of its liabilities — increased that year, largely because it spent more than it received in revenue.
The Brussels Business: Who Runs The European Union?
April 2nd, 2013Via: The Brussels Business:
Research Credit: RP
What Does a Tablet Do to the Child’s Mind?
April 2nd, 2013Via: New York Times:
I recently watched my sister perform an act of magic.
We were sitting in a restaurant, trying to have a conversation, but her children, 4-year-old Willow and 7-year-old Luca, would not stop fighting. The arguments — over a fork, or who had more water in a glass — were unrelenting.
Like a magician quieting a group of children by pulling a rabbit out of a hat, my sister reached into her purse and produced two shiny Apple iPads, handing one to each child. Suddenly, the two were quiet. Eerily so. They sat playing games and watching videos, and we continued with our conversation.
After our meal, as we stuffed the iPads back into their magic storage bag, my sister felt slightly guilty.
“I don’t want to give them the iPads at the dinner table, but if it keeps them occupied for an hour so we can eat in peace, and more importantly not disturb other people in the restaurant, I often just hand it over,” she told me. Then she asked: “Do you think it’s bad for them? I do worry that it is setting them up to think it’s O.K. to use electronics at the dinner table in the future.”
I did not have an answer, and although some people might have opinions, no one has a true scientific understanding of what the future might hold for a generation raised on portable screens.
“We really don’t know the full neurological effects of these technologies yet,” said Dr. Gary Small, director of the Longevity Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind.” “Children, like adults, vary quite a lot, and some are more sensitive than others to an abundance of screen time.”
But Dr. Small says we do know that the brain is highly sensitive to stimuli, like iPads and smartphone screens, and if people spend too much time with one technology, and less time interacting with people like parents at the dinner table, that could hinder the development of certain communications skills.
Nearly One in Five High School Age Boys and 11 Percent of School-Age Children Over All Have Received a Medical Diagnosis of ADHD
April 2nd, 2013Profits.
Via: New York Times:
Nearly one in five high school age boys in the United States and 11 percent of school-age children over all have received a medical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to new data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
These rates reflect a marked rise over the last decade and could fuel growing concern among many doctors that the A.D.H.D. diagnosis and its medication are overused in American children.
The figures showed that an estimated 6.4 million children ages 4 through 17 had received an A.D.H.D. diagnosis at some point in their lives, a 16 percent increase since 2007 and a 53 percent rise in the past decade. About two-thirds of those with a current diagnosis receive prescriptions for stimulants like Ritalin or Adderall, which can drastically improve the lives of those with A.D.H.D. but can also lead to addiction, anxiety and occasionally psychosis.
“Those are astronomical numbers. I’m floored,” said Dr. William Graf, a pediatric neurologist in New Haven and a professor at the Yale School of Medicine. He added, “Mild symptoms are being diagnosed so readily, which goes well beyond the disorder and beyond the zone of ambiguity to pure enhancement of children who are otherwise healthy.”
And even more teenagers are likely to be prescribed medication in the near future because the American Psychiatric Association plans to change the definition of A.D.H.D. to allow more people to receive the diagnosis and treatment. A.D.H.D. is described by most experts as resulting from abnormal chemical levels in the brain that impair a person’s impulse control and attention skills.
Air Force Wants New Energy Weapons to Cause Non-Lethal ‘Bioeffects’
April 1st, 2013To be clear…
Via: Danger Room:
The Air Force is preparing to spend millions researching how unknown “bioeffects” happen when the human body is blasted by radiowaves and high-powered microwaves — which the Air Force hopes could lead to exotic new energy weapons.
Recently, the Air Force Bioeffects Division announced it’s exploring how radiation from non-lethal energy weapons can causes changes to the body at the molecular level. The Air Force is pretty broad about what kind of weapons it wants to test: “directed energy, riot control agents, broadband light, acoustic sounds, and blunt impact materials.” An award for a $49 million contract to conduct studies, laboratory tests and field experiments is expected in September, and tests in San Antonio are expected to last for seven years.
If those weapons are developed by another nation and used on Americans, the Air Force wants to know what kind of unusual health effects its troops might encounter. But there’s a flipside. The announcement notes that discovering new bioeffects on the human body could have “defensive or offensive” uses, and lead to the “development and deployment of future DE [directed energy] weapons.” Hmm.
The Air Force still has to do the research first. For that, it’ll carry out “proteomic, genomic, and metabolomic studies that identify critical biochemical or molecular changes following exposure to DE [directed energy weapons] prior to or during mission operations.” That could mean looking at how concentrated blasts of radio frequency waves and high-power microwaves manipulate our proteins, DNA and metabolites.
To be clear: The Air Force doesn’t want to kill you by messing with your DNA. These are explicitly tests for non-lethal weapons. The announcement notes that the tests may involve human subjects (and animals), and that it will “prohibit research that presents unacceptable hazards or otherwise fails to comply with DoD procedures.”
Gladio, NATO’s Dagger at the Heart of Europe: The Pentagon-Nazi-Mafia Terror Axis by Richard Cottrell
April 1st, 2013Disclosure: The publisher sent me a copy of this book for review.
This is a very richly detailed and terrifying account of Operation Gladio. There are many more tentacles than I had previously known about. While the imbroglios set in motion after World War II may seem like ancient history to the uninitiated, Gladio actually represents a sort of dynasty that never went away. Its descendents are still operational and shaping current events. Cottrell’s grimoire shows us that the perpetrators are still running the same scripts, over and over again.
He writes, “Each time we are told that in order to be free, we must revere our chains and shackles. Sodomised by political rhetoric and corporate media plainsong, we fall for it.” Gladio, NATO’s Dagger at the Heart of Europe: The Pentagon-Nazi-Mafia Terror Axis by Richard Cottrell
On Amazon: Gladio, NATO’s Dagger at the Heart of Europe: The Pentagon-Nazi-Mafia Terror Axis by Richard Cottrell:
In this “non-fiction corollary to Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy,” wet works and false flags keep Europe a colony of the US. Leaders are murdered, movements are subverted. Under the surface, the empire rules by death squads, as it always has south of the border. The attack on Libya laid bare the iron fist within the velvet glove of slogans such as “humanitarian intervention.” Like the destruction of Yugoslavia and the rape of Afghanistan, the reduction of Libya to a virtual slave colony was performed under the banner of NATO. And what exactly is NATO? Richard Cottrell tells the story of mayhem and murder behind the “alliance for peace,” and predicts an emerging military colossus fighting to seize control of strategic resources such as oil, gas, minerals and water anywhere on the planet.
Masquerading as a rear guard against Soviet invaders, NATO’s covert forces warped into psychological and physical terrorism. These were the years of lead, in which hundreds perished in a synthetic war in the streets of Europe. NATO commander General Lyman Lemnitzer ordered serial attacks on French president Charles de Gaulle. Sacked from the Pentagon by John F. Kennedy for rank insubordination, then exiled to Europe, Lemnitzer reaped revenge in Dallas.
The secret armies forged bonds with organized crime and neo-fascists. NATO-backed coups struck down governments in Greece and Turkey; the island state of Cyprus was sundered amid bitter genocide. Urban guerrillas like the Red Brigades and the Baader-Meinhof Gang were cunningly manipulated. Italy gained a deep-state government, the ultra-secret P2 pseudo-Masonic lodge, founded by former Blackshirts.
Swedish premier Olof Palme and Italian ex-PM Aldo Moro were assassinated. Pope John Paul II was shot by Turkish gangsters who had regular work as Gladio guns for hire. In 2009, a Gladio copy-cat outfit codenamed Ergenekon came to light in Turkey. The shootings in Norway in July 2011, and in Belgium, France and Italy in 2012, all bore the classic stripe of Gladio false-flag operations.
(Amazon.co.uk for British readers.)
Fusion Center Director: We Don’t Spy on Americans, Just Anti-Government Americans
March 31st, 2013Via: Russia Today:
Law enforcement intelligence-processing fusion centers have long come under attack for spying on Americans. The Arkansas director wanted to clarify the truth: centers only spies on some Americans – those who appear to be a threat to the government.
In trying to clear up the ‘misconceptions’ about the conduct of fusion centers, Arkansas State Fusion Center Director Richard Davis simply confirmed Americans’ fears: the center does in fact spy on Americans – but only on those who are suspected to be ‘anti-government’.
“The misconceptions are that we are conducting spying operations on US citizens, which is of course not a fact. That is absolutely not what we do,” he told the NWA Homepage, which supports KNWA-TV and Fox 24.
After claiming that his office ‘absolutely’ does not spy on Americans, he proceeded to explain that this does not apply to those who could be interpreted as a ‘threat’ to national security. Davis said his office places its focus on international plots, “domestic terrorism and certain groups that are anti-government. We want to kind of take a look at that and receive that information.”
Texas District Attorney, Wife Found Dead
March 31st, 2013Via: Dallas Morning News:
Kaufman County’s district attorney and his wife were found slain Saturday, raising fears that their deaths may be part of a plot that included the death of one of the county’s assistant district attorneys in January.
Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh and other officials confirmed that Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia Woodward McLelland, had been shot at their home near Forney.
Their deaths followed the Jan. 31 slaying of Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse.
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A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity described the scene at the McLellands’ home as an awful scene where the door appeared to have been kicked in.
“There are shell casings everywhere,” the official said. “This is unprecedented. This is unbelievable. This is huge.”
Direct Conversion of Australian Dollar Into Yuan
March 31st, 2013Via: The Australian:
A CURRENCY deal enabling the Australian dollar to be converted directly into Chinese yuan, slashing costs for thousands of businesses, is set to be the centrepiece of Julia Gillard’s mission to China next weekend.
Australia would become the third country, after the US and Japan, to secure such an arrangement from China, which is Australia’s top trading partner, with exports and imports totalling $120 billion last financial year.
