80% of Americans Test Positive for Chemical Found in Conventionally Grown Oats That May Cause Infertility
February 16th, 2024Commentary on Cornell Researchers Developing On-Demand Male Contraceptive:
I never got around to writing it, but long ago, in the spirit of Rainbox Six, I envisioned a story that involved a sort of binary bioweapon. If a man drinks a soda containing compound A by itself, he doesn’t become infertile. If he eats a candy bar containing compound B by itself, he doesn’t become infertile. But if he consumes products containing both compound A and compound B within a few hours, he would be infertile for a week, a month or whatever.
The SPECTRE-type group gives up on eat-ze-bugs, etc. and switches to sprinkling these additives in things that sit under heat lamps in gas stations and drop out of vending machines.
It would be very insidious and difficult to find. Medical professionals would shrug shoulders and tell people having infertility problems that they were unlucky. Researchers who got close would commit suicide, etc.
I researched the topic a bit and determined that it wouldn’t make for that thrilling of a story, because it already happened in one way or another.
In a related anecdote, my children learned that students at public schools here in New Zealand are provided with and encouraged to eat snack bars made mostly out of conventionally grown oats.
I sort of half joked: “I wonder what’s in those bars…”
Via: New York Post:
Four out of five Americans are being exposed to a little-known chemical found in popular oat-based foods — including Cheerios and Quaker Oats — that is linked to reduced fertility, altered fetal growth and delayed puberty.
The Environmental Working Group published a study in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology on Thursday that found a staggering 80% of Americans tested positive for a harmful additive called chlormequat.
The “highly toxic agricultural chemical” is federally allowed to be used on oats and other grains imported to the US, according to the EWG.
When applied to oat and grain crops, chlormequat alters a plant’s growth, preventing it from bending over and thus making it easier to harvest, per the EWG.
“Just as troubling, we detected the chemical in 92% of oat-based foods purchased in May 2023, including Quaker Oats and Cheerios,” the nonprofit organization said in a report published alongside the group’s findings.
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Another particularly concerning data point: After testing for the presence of chlormequat in urine collected from 96 people between 2017 and 2023, the EWG’s tests “found higher levels and more frequent detections of chlormequat in the 2023 samples … which suggests consumer exposure to chlormequat could be on the rise.”
Study: A pilot study of chlormequat in food and urine from adults in the United States from 2017 to 2023
2014: Air Force Research: How to Use Social Media to Control People Like Drones
February 16th, 2024I was considering the success of the Covid operation and what the upcoming AI generated video capabilities will enable, in terms of social control. Think about applying advanced AI tools to this decade old research.
It could make Covid look like tiddlywinks.
Via: Ars Technica:
Military social network research has been ongoing over the past decade as part of the DOD’s efforts to leverage “open source intelligence” and use social network analysis (using mobile phone records, other electronic relationships, and physical-world relationships) to target manufacturers of improvised explosive devices and leaders of insurgent cells. Along the way, the research has shifted more toward “hearts and minds” goals than “search and destroy” ones.
DARPA launched its SMISC program in 2011 to examine ways social networks could be used for propaganda and what broadly falls under the euphemistic title of Military Information Support Operations (MISO), formerly known as psychological operations. Early in July, DARPA published a list of research projects funded by the SMISC program. They included studies that analyzed the Twitter followings of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber among others; investigations into the spread of Internet memes; a study by the Georgia Tech Research Institute into automatically identifying deceptive content in social media with linguistic cues; and “Modeling User Attitude toward Controversial Topics in Online Social Media”—an IBM Research study that tapped into Twitter feeds to track responses to topics like “fracking” for natural gas.
The AFRL-sponsored research by Dixon, Zhen Kan, and Justin Klotz of University of Florida NCR group and Eduardo L. Pasiliao of AFRL’s Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base was prompted by a meeting Dixon attended while preparing a “think piece” for the Defense Science Study Group. “I heard a presentation by a computer scientist about examining behaviors of people based on social data. The language that was being used to mathematically describe the interactions [between people and products] was the same language we use in controlling groups of autonomous vehicles.”
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While DARPA’s research funding comes with specific ethical and legal constraints [sic.], it’s clear that there is other research being conducted in social media manipulation not happening with such oversight. As Ars reported earlier this week, documents provided to The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden show that the British intelligence agency GCHQ has developed tools specifically aimed at leveraging social media for “effects” operations. The organization has shared its methods with the NSA, and these capabilities have been used in Afghanistan and elsewhere to “shape” information available to members of targeted organizations online and via mobile phones.
Related:
2014: GCHQ’s “Chinese Menu” of Tools Spreads Disinformation Across Internet
2012: Using Mobile Phone User Location Data for ‘Crowd (Soft) Control’
The U.S. Government Will Soon Spend More on Interest Payments Than Military
February 16th, 2024Via: Wall Street Journal:
Treasury yields have sprung to multiyear highs, forcing the U.S. government to pay a lot more in interest and putting pressure on the budget.
The U.S. government is expected to pay an additional $1.1 trillion in interest over the coming decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s latest estimates. Interest costs are on pace to surpass defense this year as one of the largest government expenses in the budget. Only Social Security and Medicare are forecast to be bigger burdens in the coming years.
Russia: Alexei Navalny Dies in Prison
February 16th, 2024Via: Reuters:
Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable opponent, collapsed and died on Friday after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” Arctic penal colony where he was serving a three-decade jail term, the Russian prison service said.
The death of Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, robs the disparate Russian opposition of its most courageous leader as Putin prepares for an election which will keep the former KGB spy in power until at least 2030.
There are now no opposition leaders of such prominence left in Russia. For some young urban Russians, Navalny also offered hope of an alternative future to Putin, who has served as Russia’s paramount leader longer than anyone since Josef Stalin.
Navalny rose to prominence more than a decade ago by documenting and speaking publicly about what he said was the vast corruption and opulence among the “crooks and thieves” running Putin’s Russia.
Open AI Announces Sora, an AI Text to Video Model
February 16th, 2024Up until now, text to video AI has been most effective for generating surreal and hilarious nightmare fuel. Morphing humanoids and other bizarre hallucinations make for a sort of weird comedy gold:
OpenAI’s Sora produces much more impressive results.
While many of the example videos contain anomalies, these tend be far less glaring than with previous systems.
It’s hard to imagine where this will be in five or ten years…
The potential for PSYOP is unlimited.
Via: OpenAI:
We’re teaching AI to understand and simulate the physical world in motion, with the goal of training models that help people solve problems that require real-world interaction.
Introducing Sora, our text-to-video model. Sora can generate videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user’s prompt.
More: OpenAI Collapses Media Reality with Sora, a Photorealistic AI Video Generator
Collapse in San Francisco
February 15th, 2024This is clearly happening for a reason, but what’s the reason? I don’t buy the explanation that it’s just a bunch of stupid Democrats doing stupid things.
Is this acting as a sort of economic bomb to drive down property prices so some group can buy the place up?
What’s actually behind this?
Via: Tyler Oliveira:
U.S. Air Force Takes Delivery of First Autonomous Electric Cargo Plane
February 14th, 2024Via: Electrek:
Pyka, a Silicon Valley startup, delivered its first electric autonomous cargo plane to AFWERX, the US Air Force’s network of innovators.
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Pyka’s CEO believes DAF is “an ideal customer” for the long-range electric aircraft. Powered by four electric motors (100 kW combined) and a 50 kWh lithium-ion battery, the Pelican Cargo has up to 200 miles range (with a 20 min reserve).
The aircraft also has up to 400 lb payload capacity. With a sliding cargo tray, loading can be done in as little as five minutes. The electric plane can even fly at night with added GPS and Laser/Radar-based navigation.
This was the first Pelican electric cargo plane of three that will be leased to AFWERX. It will be used to study defense logistics uses for the US Air Force.
SpaceX Readying Four Rockets on Launchpads Simultaneously
February 14th, 2024If we exclude woowoo theories, no other entity has had more of a space launch capability than SpaceX.
Four SpaceX rockets vertical on SpaceX's four launch pads in Florida, California, and Texas pic.twitter.com/KpXXDyDKao
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 14, 2024
Israel Launches Airstrikes in Lebanon
February 14th, 2024Via: CBS:
The Israeli military said Wednesday its fighter jets “began a series of strikes in Lebanon,” raising fears of a war between the two countries after months of cross-border fire and increasing tension fueled by the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military gave no further details on the airstrikes, but Lebanese media said three villages were hit.
Stupor Bowl Antics
February 14th, 2024Via: Vigilant Citizen:
Super Bowl 2024 was the most watched telecast of all time and an enormous number of viewers tuned in specifically for Taylor Swift. And she spent most of the time hanging out with an industry plant wearing a huge inverted cross. And that was only the start of the freak show. Here’s a look at the weirdness that surrounded Super Bowl 2024.
