The breaking news today from Europe is that the current outbreak of serious E. coli infections there represents the third-largest spread of the bacteria within the last decade or so. The BBC reported today that the World Health Organization has identified the latest outbreak as representing a “completely new strain” of the dangerous bacteria. While such outbreaks have occurred throughout the world before, and while widespread infections are not unheard of, there are a few characteristics about this particular outbreak that should have anti-terrorism experts and biological weapons watchdog groups on full alert. According to the BBC report: –> The WHO identified the E. Coli bacteria as a genetically new form of the bacteria. This new strain comes from two known strains – enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC). According to Dr. Paul Wigley, the most toxic elements of each strain have been combined to form a newer, deadlier strain of E. Coli with two toxins that attack the kidneys as well as the central nervous system. Sounds like something a mad scientist would do…or maybe a terrorist? ~ more... ~
–> This new form specifically causes haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS) which affects the kidneys and the blood.
–> Scientists at Beijin Genomics Institute reported that this particular strain is especially infectious and toxic.
–> Experts report this outbreak is unique due to the high number of cases of haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS).
Monday, June 6, 2011
Mutant Strain of E Coli Bacteria Causing European Outbreak
Poll finds Americans angry about pretty much everything
No wonder David Bowie was afraid of Americans. A new Newsweek/Daily Beast poll finds that Americans are angry about…pretty much everything. From President Obama to congressional Republicans to even God (who has a 33 percent approval rating), everyone needs to watch out for an angry mob coming their way. [ ... ] Fifty-six percent are so angry that they can’t even sleep and 13 percent say the anxiety has affected their sex life.
Inner Mongolia Under Martial Law
Provincial cities of Inner Mongolia such as Hohhot, Tongliao, Chifeng, alongside Xilingele, Blue Banner and Xiwu Banner tribes are under CCP' martial law. Internet access is blocked in the capital Hohhot. Transportation is suspended in some regions and school students in Blue Banner tribe are forced to stay at school over the weekend.
Colleges are tightly watched by armed police and have no access to other venues and Internet.
Netizens at Inner Mongolia University said about a new rule, "Get back soon after finishing the exam." Plainclothes police are on campus, Internet is cut off, students ID cards are checked in and out of campus. Riot police is settled in Mongolian colleges.
Ethnic Mongolians in North America and Europe go on public protests, supported by other ethnicities, like Zang, Wei, Han, etc. They call for legal rights of ethnic Mongolians in China.
South Mongolian human rights information center assembled on May 30 on Amsterdam's Dam Square, distributing flyers in protest of CCP's policies on Inner Mongolia and the pastoralists. Participants included exiled ethnic Mongolians Zang, Wei, Han.
Ethnic Mongolians in New York and Washington sat in protest at the Chinese embassy on May 29, asking for an unbiased trial on Mr. Mo's case, and calling on CCP to respect them.
On May 27, Amnesty International published an article, "China Urged to Exercise Restraint Over Inner Mongolia Protests," asking CCP to respect the legal rights of protestors.
Exiled president of Inner Mongolia Rights League in Germany, Xi Haiming, said that Mr. Mo's case is just the tip of the iceberg of CCP destroying grassland and wrecking ethnic Mongolian families.
Xi Haiming: "There were two stages in CCP's seize of Mongolia territory. In Mao's time, CCP reclaimed wasteland for farming over animal husbandry; in Deng Xiaoping's time, CCP deprived their lands through mining industry."
With demonstrations occurring in Inner Mongolia, local herdsmen and 2000 students are calling for punishment of the truck driver who killed Mo. The protest is now spreading around the world.
From May 27, CCP tightened its grip and imposed martial law within Xilin Gele, with military forces placed on streets and around government buildings.
NTD reporters Zhao Xinzhi and Zhou Xinyi
The Rise of the Second-String Psychopaths
by David Schwartz, CommonDreams.org
The great writer Kurt Vonnegut titled his final book A Man without a Country. He was the man; the country was the United States of America. Vonnegut felt that his country had disappeared right under his – and the Constitution’s – feet, through what he called “the sleaziest, low-comedy Keystone Cops-style coup d’état imaginable.” He was talking about the Bush administration. Were Vonnegut still alive in the post-Bush era, he would not have felt that his country had returned.
How had our country disappeared? Vonnegut proposed that among the contributing factors was that it had been invaded – as if by the Martians – by people with a particularly frightening mental illness. People with this illness were termed psychopaths. (The term nowadays is anti-social personality disorder.) These are terms for people who are smart, personable, and engaging, but who have no consciences. They are not guided by a sense of right or wrong. They seem to be unaffected by the feelings of others, including feelings of distress caused by their actions. Straying from a decent way of treating people, or violating ethical codes causes no anxiety, the anxiety which is what causes the rest of us to moderate our more greedy impulses. If most children feel anxiety when they are pilfering the forbidden cookie jar, psychopaths feel just fine. They can devour the cookies, shatter the jar as evidence and stuff it in the trash can. When accused, they can argue with apparent sincerity that the cookie jar has been missing for at least a week. There suffer no remorse, no guilt, no shame. They are free to do anything, no matter how harmful.
Psychopaths can be very tricky to recognize. As psychiatrist Dr. Hervey Cleckly wrote in his classic The Mask of Sanity in 1941, psychopaths are not technically insane. They don’t have a psychosis, like schizophrenia. They are experts in appearing normal. They can act the role of a caring, concerned executive, even though they actually do not seem to experience such feelings. If they hurt somebody, they don’t modify their behavior.
The United States corporate and government spheres have become, Vonnegut suggested, a perfect habitat for psychopaths. What has allowed so many psychopaths to rise so high in corporations, and then government, he wrote,
“is that they are so decisive. They are going to do something every fuckin’ day and they are not afraid. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they don’t give a fuck what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich!
image from http://www.spitting-image.net
