"Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy" -Henry Kissinger
5 hours ago
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
"Big Bother Comes Knocking In Pennsylvania"
TerrorPatriot say's "Fuck Pennsylvania And The Horse They Rode In On" "Lock And Load...Rock And Roll" Everybody gotta die sometime Tom.
"Armageddon Can Come From Many Different Angles"
Inside the U.S. biodefense program
Lynn Klotz ’65 and Edward Sylvester ’65 say that government labs make us more vulnerable
By W. Barksdale Maynard ’88
Published in the February 24, 2010, issue
Courtesy The University of Chicago Press
Lynn Klotz ’65, top, and Edward Sylvester ’65 take readers inside laboratories where mistakes occur.
Two former Lockhart Hall roommates have written a book to make you lie awake at night. Breeding Bio Insecurity: How U.S. Biodefense Is Exporting Fear, Globalizing Risk, and Making Us All Less Secure argues that $60 billion in taxpayer funding that has been spent combating bioweapons since Sept. 11 has failed to protect us. On the contrary, they say, we are paying scientists to tinker with deadly substances in our own backyards.
The bioterror threat is overhyped, believes biodefense expert Lynn Klotz ’65, and the U.S. response — in terms of funds invested and the number of labs conducting research — has been disproportionate. He foresees no major attack on U.S. soil — these are hard to pull off except by foreign states that would face massive retaliation.
Yet the tinkering that goes on in government labs, Klotz writes in Breeding Bio Insecurity, is making us less secure. He was inspired to begin writing this book when he saw that Bostonians were ignorant about a proposed high-security laboratory, now complete but not fully operational, in the heart of their city, at Boston University. He was active in protesting against its opening. Klotz and his co-author, science journalist Edward Sylvester ’65, paint chilling scenarios: Suppose a researcher unknowingly infected with the SARS virus takes the subway home at the end of the day, sneezing as she goes.
Published by the University of Chicago Press, Breeding Bio Insecurity warns of the hazards inherent in spreading bioterror research across hundreds of laboratories nationwide and cloaking each one in secrecy. In a survey of recent snafus, Klotz and Sylvester take readers inside sloppy facilities that, they say, employ inexperienced workers. Anthrax has spilled onto scientists’ desks. And in 2005, mice infected with bubonic plague disappeared from a lab in Newark, N.J., perhaps having scurried out into the surrounding neighborhood. The authors argue that scientists probe Pandora’s box: sequencing smallpox DNA, then posting the results on the Internet; bringing the 1918 flu virus back to life by exhuming a corpse in Alaska. Such data in the wrong hands could be used to produce a catastrophe, Klotz says. Scientists “don’t see that they might be creating the next Nagasaki.”
A math major at Princeton, Klotz earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. He taught biochemistry at Harvard and Princeton but left academia to launch a biotech startup in the 1980s. Eventually he became a consultant on disarmament and today is a senior science fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Sylvester, a philosophy major at Princeton, has written several books on cutting-edge medical research and The Gene Age (1983) with Klotz about the then-emerging biotechnology revolution.
Breeding Bio Insecurity calls on the United States to abandon its secretive approach, scale back its numerous laboratories, and partner with global allies for a more effective war on bioterror. A more likely threat than a major bioterror attack, says Klotz, is pandemic disease, which deserves additional research dollars.
Lynn Klotz ’65 and Edward Sylvester ’65 say that government labs make us more vulnerable
By W. Barksdale Maynard ’88
Published in the February 24, 2010, issue
Courtesy The University of Chicago Press
Lynn Klotz ’65, top, and Edward Sylvester ’65 take readers inside laboratories where mistakes occur.
Two former Lockhart Hall roommates have written a book to make you lie awake at night. Breeding Bio Insecurity: How U.S. Biodefense Is Exporting Fear, Globalizing Risk, and Making Us All Less Secure argues that $60 billion in taxpayer funding that has been spent combating bioweapons since Sept. 11 has failed to protect us. On the contrary, they say, we are paying scientists to tinker with deadly substances in our own backyards.
The bioterror threat is overhyped, believes biodefense expert Lynn Klotz ’65, and the U.S. response — in terms of funds invested and the number of labs conducting research — has been disproportionate. He foresees no major attack on U.S. soil — these are hard to pull off except by foreign states that would face massive retaliation.
Yet the tinkering that goes on in government labs, Klotz writes in Breeding Bio Insecurity, is making us less secure. He was inspired to begin writing this book when he saw that Bostonians were ignorant about a proposed high-security laboratory, now complete but not fully operational, in the heart of their city, at Boston University. He was active in protesting against its opening. Klotz and his co-author, science journalist Edward Sylvester ’65, paint chilling scenarios: Suppose a researcher unknowingly infected with the SARS virus takes the subway home at the end of the day, sneezing as she goes.
Published by the University of Chicago Press, Breeding Bio Insecurity warns of the hazards inherent in spreading bioterror research across hundreds of laboratories nationwide and cloaking each one in secrecy. In a survey of recent snafus, Klotz and Sylvester take readers inside sloppy facilities that, they say, employ inexperienced workers. Anthrax has spilled onto scientists’ desks. And in 2005, mice infected with bubonic plague disappeared from a lab in Newark, N.J., perhaps having scurried out into the surrounding neighborhood. The authors argue that scientists probe Pandora’s box: sequencing smallpox DNA, then posting the results on the Internet; bringing the 1918 flu virus back to life by exhuming a corpse in Alaska. Such data in the wrong hands could be used to produce a catastrophe, Klotz says. Scientists “don’t see that they might be creating the next Nagasaki.”
A math major at Princeton, Klotz earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. He taught biochemistry at Harvard and Princeton but left academia to launch a biotech startup in the 1980s. Eventually he became a consultant on disarmament and today is a senior science fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Sylvester, a philosophy major at Princeton, has written several books on cutting-edge medical research and The Gene Age (1983) with Klotz about the then-emerging biotechnology revolution.
Breeding Bio Insecurity calls on the United States to abandon its secretive approach, scale back its numerous laboratories, and partner with global allies for a more effective war on bioterror. A more likely threat than a major bioterror attack, says Klotz, is pandemic disease, which deserves additional research dollars.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
"The Hard Truth Is...Our Worst Fears Are Now Unfolding."
Deepwater Horizon Incident, Gulf of Mexico
This is not the time for finger pointing or casting stones. That time will surely come. Now is the time for all of us on the Gulf Coast to unite in a herculean effort. Our local officials must now lead by acting quickly and thinking outside the box on this one if we are to mitigate the impact of what we can not avoid.
The hard truth and reality of this catastrophe; We have opened an artery in Mother Earth and she is bleeding all over us from an ocean depth of over a mile deep.
The worst part is there is no way to stem the flow. The technology does not exist. We have unleashed Armageddon in the Gulf Of Mexico and our lives are forever changed in drastic ways that all will soon comprehend. TP.
Situation: Thursday 29 April
Today the Deepwater Horizon incident declared a Spill of National Significance (SONS). A SONS is defined as, "a spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge" and allows greater federal involvement. Estimates of the release rate increased to 5000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day based on surface observations and reports of a newly discovered leak in the damaged piping on the sea floor.
NOAA is assisting the Unified Command in evaluating a new technique to apply dispersants to oil at the source - 5000’ below the surface, if successful this would keep plumes and sheens from forming. Work continues on a piping system designed to take oil from a collection dome at the sea floor to tankers on the surface; this technique has never been tried at 5000’. Drilling of a relief or cut-off well is still planned, but will not be complete for several months.
This is not the time for finger pointing or casting stones. That time will surely come. Now is the time for all of us on the Gulf Coast to unite in a herculean effort. Our local officials must now lead by acting quickly and thinking outside the box on this one if we are to mitigate the impact of what we can not avoid.
The hard truth and reality of this catastrophe; We have opened an artery in Mother Earth and she is bleeding all over us from an ocean depth of over a mile deep.
The worst part is there is no way to stem the flow. The technology does not exist. We have unleashed Armageddon in the Gulf Of Mexico and our lives are forever changed in drastic ways that all will soon comprehend. TP.
Situation: Thursday 29 April
Today the Deepwater Horizon incident declared a Spill of National Significance (SONS). A SONS is defined as, "a spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge" and allows greater federal involvement. Estimates of the release rate increased to 5000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day based on surface observations and reports of a newly discovered leak in the damaged piping on the sea floor.
NOAA is assisting the Unified Command in evaluating a new technique to apply dispersants to oil at the source - 5000’ below the surface, if successful this would keep plumes and sheens from forming. Work continues on a piping system designed to take oil from a collection dome at the sea floor to tankers on the surface; this technique has never been tried at 5000’. Drilling of a relief or cut-off well is still planned, but will not be complete for several months.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Campaign for Liberty - Audit the Fed
Campaign for Liberty - Audit the Fed: "'Audit the Federal Reserve'
Petition to my U.S. Senators
Whereas: The Federal Reserve refuses to give a public accounting of the TRILLIONS in recent taxpayer-backed loans; and
Whereas: Congress has the responsibility to force a public audit of the Federal Reserve, and the American people deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent; and
Whereas: Allowing the Fed to remain out of control and shrouded in secrecy clearly allows for abuse and the continued stealing of our tax dollars through inflation and unaccounted electronic bank 'loans'; and
Whereas: The Federal Reserve's abuses lead to constant economic crises like the current housing crisis, international banking crisis and the resulting chaos; and
Whereas: The Federal Reserve System forces fuel, food, housing, medical care and education costs upward, meaning that everyone who is NOT on the government dole is forced to make do with less as the value of money slowly decreases; and
Whereas: History shows us that riots, violence and full-scale police states can result when people finally realize fiat money isn't worth the paper it's printed on and REFUSE to accept it;
Therefore: I urge you to cosponsor and make every effort to seek roll call votes on the Audit the Fed Bill, S 604."
Petition to my U.S. Senators
Whereas: The Federal Reserve refuses to give a public accounting of the TRILLIONS in recent taxpayer-backed loans; and
Whereas: Congress has the responsibility to force a public audit of the Federal Reserve, and the American people deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent; and
Whereas: Allowing the Fed to remain out of control and shrouded in secrecy clearly allows for abuse and the continued stealing of our tax dollars through inflation and unaccounted electronic bank 'loans'; and
Whereas: The Federal Reserve's abuses lead to constant economic crises like the current housing crisis, international banking crisis and the resulting chaos; and
Whereas: The Federal Reserve System forces fuel, food, housing, medical care and education costs upward, meaning that everyone who is NOT on the government dole is forced to make do with less as the value of money slowly decreases; and
Whereas: History shows us that riots, violence and full-scale police states can result when people finally realize fiat money isn't worth the paper it's printed on and REFUSE to accept it;
Therefore: I urge you to cosponsor and make every effort to seek roll call votes on the Audit the Fed Bill, S 604."
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