The President Supports Stem Cell Research

Controversial science has a powerful ally! Barack Obama, in a press conference in 2009, pledged financial and governmental support for stem cell research. "We will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research. And we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield. At this moment, the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown, and it should not be overstated. But scientists believe these tiny cells may have the potential to help us understand, and possibly cure, some of our most devastating diseases and conditions.", says the President. He also added that "that potential will not reveal itself on its own. Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident. They result from painstaking and costly research -- from years of lonely trial and error, much of which never bears fruit -- and from a government willing to support that work. From life-saving vaccines, to pioneering cancer treatments, to the sequencing of the human genome -- that is the story of scientific progress in America. When government fails to make these investments, opportunities are missed. Promising avenues go unexplored. Some of our best scientists leave for other countries that will sponsor their work. And those countries may surge ahead of ours in the advances that transform our lives."

 These are some of my favorite quotes of Barack Obama's. I think they carry a lot of weight, and though outdated, bring up interesting questions. How acceptable is it for the federal government to back up controversial research? And when is it appropriate for said government to remove their support should the science not deliver? Personally I think it's commendable what Obama is trying to do. No progress is made without risk, and this is especially true for science. Many credible scientists believe that stem cell research is how we will make progress medically, and their opinions are not arbitrary. Let's hope that the Obama administration remains effective long enough to see results!

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/03/63835921/1#.T1gvpnKXTCM

2012; My Thoughts

I feel pretty confident that the world will not, in fact, come to a violent, epic end in the near future. When I think of time, I see a line that extends forever in two directions. I think most people see a line. I don't see an end.
And, I am willing to bet money that on December 22, I will wake up, brush my teeth, comb my hair and continue on with my life. Cause here's the thing. Too many highly credible sources have discredited the whole 2012 thing for me to buy in to it.
I don't believe the Nibiru crap because I feel as though it may be really difficult for a planet that doesn't actually exist to collide with earth.
I don't believe that the Mayan calendar ending in 2012 is some sort of awesome foreshadowing. No, I think those guys just ran out of rock, or maybe the Play Station network just came back up.
We all know that Nostradamus is just a crackpot. He gets a lot of credit for absolutely nothing. When was the last time that guy was right about anything? I mean seriously.
Now, the earth usually doesn't just do things on a whim. It takes a long time for the earth to do anything. I'm pretty sure we don't have to worry about the earth just flipping it's polarity over night.
As for the film 2012, it is a freaking movie. That's all. If I were to get freaked out over every damn movie I ever saw, I'd be in a lot of trouble. I'd be really concerned about all kinds of nonsense. And at that point, I might even welcome the end of the world, just to put me out of my misery.
Needless to say, I will not be investing in any dooms day gear. And I don't recommend that you do either.

Everybody, PANIC!

We've reached the beginning of the end! It's evident that the apocalypse of 2012 is upon us! "Earth's magnetic field is about to be shaken like a snow globe by the largest solar storm in five years."-Seth Borenstien

So with solar flares sending solar storm particles rushing through space at us at speeds in the billions of miles per hour, we are starting to realize our demise is upon us. These storms are part of the suns 11-year cycle, however this cycle is said to be the stormiest and most intense of any before this. Why is this? I do not know, but the Mayan's must have. This is only the beginning of our problems, folks! Though the particles sent out by the sun, growing larger as they fly through space, may be a large issue in terms of physical impact, there are worse issues for our modern world. During the last set of solar storms in 2002, GPS systems were down, with newer technologies it is predicted that more technological systems will fail--it is not known which ones yet. A NOAA scientist, Joe Kunches, has confirmed that this spot on the sun could send more particles our way. Could this mean total technological collapse? Will the fear of Y2K re-appear with the threat of these solar storms? I think that as the year progresses and these particle disturbances become more frequent and intense we will be sent into a world-wide technological collapse creating complete chaos. This will lead to system failures, riots, and eventually the storms will be so intense the Earth will explode!!

No, maybe not that. But scientists are nervous about this episode, expecting more to come. NASA's solar physicist calls this storm "...particularly nasty" and seems to think it is an irregular pattern. The same scientists say that there are only three ways to disrupt our technology: magnetic, radio, and radiation emissions. The scientists are worried however because all three disruptions will be present in this blast, as well as in the storms to follow, and that their effects will be strong. So stock up on food and candles everyone because power grids, GPS, radiation, communication systems, and satellites will all be effected or knocked out entirely. Yikes!

You may be have wondered earlier on, if this is an 11-year cycle and and the last surge was in 2002, then shouldn't we not be worried until 2013? Maybe not, but this is only the build-up to something way worse. And with this years solar storms being more intense than ever, as they build up, they could become so bad that the world may end before the worst of the storms (December 21, 2012--to be exact). Technological collapse? Likely. World-wide disaster? Hopefully not. But plan for the worst my friends, for the worst is surely ahead!

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2012/03/07/solar_storm_headed_toward_earth_may_disrupt_power/

Just thought all of you people would enjoy this. it gave me a good chuckle.

Response to previous posts as a whole, and what to do about the misinformation

While reading over the posts over the last few days, I've noticed a particular problem. Some of the posts (including my almost all of my own) seem to be very fond of trashing the outlandish claims conspiracy theorists propose, and admittedly some are quite ridiculous. But I think it's very easy to put ourselves up on a pedestal and say "look those idiots, they're so stupid" and just think of him or her as some random person typing up an article while foaming like a rabid dog. I do recognize the hypocrisy of ranting about this on a blog. But rather than just foaming ourselves (and believe me, I want to just as much as the next person), I think we need to find more productive ways of expressing ourselves. I've seen this in many of the blogs as well, when people back their claims up with factual evidence in order to disprove strange theories.

I think that fundamentally, the primary reason people come up with strange conspiracy theories is because it's hard to access the factual information. For example: in the case of vaccines causing autism, information explaining the effects (or lack thereof) of thimerisol is accessible, but tends to be either too vague or too technical, there's very little in between. I think that the way to at least reduce the number of conspiracy theorists is to make the information more widely available through a variety of mediums. I don't watch cable TV very frequently, but when I do, I am depressed to find that shows such as Animal Planet and Discovery Channel are filling up with reality TV shows about people who own pit bulls and "ghost scientists" performing exorcisms in people's basements. You would think that with so many people getting on television these days (especially if it can include bubble heads from New Jersey), that at least one person has a good idea about how to go about invalidating conspiracy theories in and educational and entertaining way. Obviously there will always be the naysayers who hang onto a conspiracy theory with their fingernails, but at the very least, the correct information will be out there. If we do that, then I think we will have a more informed public and therefore can make better decisions regarding science, technology, and conspiracy.

HAARP and "Weather Warfare"

As far as conspiracy theories go and the posts we have done so far from doomsday to stem cell research, it seems as though HAARP is the most real and threatening conspiracy that faces us today (out of the topics chosen in class, of course). The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Plan has been studied for years by top scientists and tested by military and air-force throughout the United States. The whole concept to me feels a lot like the discovery and existence of nuclear warfare. It didn't take long to find out how destructive nuclear weapons were, for more than just the enemy. But this doesn't mean that all nuclear weapons were demolished, and almost 24,000 exist today over nine countries alone. So any time we could blow half the world to smithereens. Add HAARP to the mix and we could easily wipe out most everything on the planet. The video I have attached shows how important the atmosphere is to the Earth, and HAARP is one of its biggest threats. HAARP can also shake tectonic plates causing massive earthquakes due to the strong vibrations that the high-frequency wave provides.

http://www.staticbrain.com/archive/haarp-weather-modification-for-weather-warfare/

(see first video)

The question however, is will the United States be using this any time soon, and what for? No one really knows. This article claims the military's plan to "control the weather by 2025". But for now I think similar to the nuclear bombs that exist around the world, HAARP will just exist like any other mass means of destruction, until a reason for its use comes up.

But I got to thinking, if HAARP is said to really be able to control the weather, then will the next question be whether or not HAARP can be a substitute for poor weather caused by climate change and global warming. And will it be argued that the holes in the atmosphere caused by HAARP will be helpful in releasing some of the harmful gasses trapped in now? Seems far fetched, yes, but it was one of the first things that came to mind as I was reading about the environmental and weather affecting qualities of HAARP.

There is no "Devil" in "Vaccine"

This video cites Andrew Wakefield (who you should all be familiar with by now) as a reputable source.

Now, that should be more than enough condemning evidence for me to go off of, but it's really SO big that I'm not going to bother with it for a bit. Honestly, there's a lot of stupid you can pack into a video 8 minutes long (like this one)- lots of claims, few citations. The video mentions cases of multiple girls that have taken the vaccine and experienced symptoms such as seizures, severe abdominal pain, wart outbreaks, paralysis, and fainting spells. They say there were 18 deaths, nearly 4.5 of which due to "blood clots" (by the way, the 4.5 comes from the language in the video, saying "nearly a quarter cited blood clots"). However, the video is titled: "HPV Gardasil Vaccine Proves Lethal - 47 Girls Now Dead". There is mention of one more death, in total, that I could find, bringing the number of alleged deaths up to 19. Although that 18 could have come from just one study (in fact, I believe it did), the video is obligated to mention the source for what otherwise just looks like a wild exaggeration.

That's pretty far from 47 in my book, but I'll chalk that poor bit of math up to the same reason the creator of the video uses Andrew Wakefield (notice the lack of a doctorate- for good reason) as a credible source to back up their point.

To sum it up, this video is chock full of anecdotal evidence, accusations, and exaggerations; all of which it claims are fact-based and rational arguments. Unfortunately, some people still believe that the plural of "anecdote" is "data".