Friday 12-07-12

Very similar to Jerry's story, that was suppose to be fiction, makes you wonder?
http://www.jerrydyoung.com/st/index.php?page=downloads&type=entry&id=jerry-d-young-prep%2Fdon-t-bug-me

Hundreds of thousands of genetically modified mosquitoes set to be released into the Florida Keys in experiment to fight dengue feverThe non-biting male mosquitoes genetically modified would pass along a birth defect killing their progeny before reaching maturity


After a few generations officials say Key West's Aedes aegypti population would die off reducing risk of dengue fever

FL Keys Mosquito Control District: Modified genes will disappear after mosquitoes carrying it die making no permanent change to wild population

Hundreds of thousands of genetically modified mosquitoes are awaiting federal approval for release into the Florida Keys as part of an experiment aimed at reducing the risk of dengue fever.
Mosquito control officials have requested the Food and Drug Administration's sign off on the experiment that would be the first of its kind in the U.S.
Some residents of the tourist town of Key West worry though on how much research has been done to determine the risks of releasing genetically modified mosquitoes on the Keys' fragile ecosystem.

Let us go! An entomological technician with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, sorts and counts dead mosquitoes in Key West, where officials are hoping to release genetically modified mosquitoes into the wild

Officials are targeting the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes because they can spread dengue fever, a disease health officials thought had been eradicated in the U.S. until 93 cases originated in the Keys in 2009 and 2010.
The trial planned by mosquito control officials and the British company Oxitec would release non-biting male mosquitoes that have been genetically modified to pass along a birth defect that kill their progeny before reaching maturity.
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The idea is that they will mate with wild females and their children will die before reproducing. After a few generations, Key West's Aedes aegypti population would die off, reducing the dengue fever risk without using pesticides and at relatively a low cost, the proponents say. There is no vaccine for dengue fever.
'The science of it, I think, looks fine. It's straight from setting up experiments and collecting data,' said Michael Doyle, pointing to research Oxitec has had published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. He inherited the project when he took the lead at the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District in mid-2011.

Genetic adaptions: An Aedes aegypti mosquito is seen feeding on a woman's arm while the ones genetically modified would be non-biting males that pass along a birth defect killing their progeny before reaching maturity

The district's website says the modified genes will disappear from the environment after the mosquitoes carrying it die, resulting in no permanent change to the wild mosquito population. The district also says that the mosquito species isn't native to the Keys, nor is it an integral food source for other animals.
Dengue fever is a viral disease that inflicts severe flu-like symptoms — the joint pain is so severe its nickname is 'breakbone fever.' It isn't fatal but victims are then susceptible at subsequent exposures to dengue hemorrhagic fever, which can be.
'It's very uncomfortable. You ache all over, you have a terrible fever,' said Joel Biddle, a Key West resident whose dengue fever symptoms lasted more than a week in 2009.
Biddle is among those concerned about the Key West trial. He worries the modified genetic material will somehow be passed to humans or the ecosystem, and he wants more research done. He and other Key West residents also chafe at the fact that the project was in the works long before it was made public late last year.

No vaccine: Influenza vaccines are seen before a worker while there is no vaccine for dengue fever which causes similar non-fatal symptoms but also makes victims susceptible to dengue hemorrhagic fever, which is

Only female mosquitoes bite, so the modified genetic material wouldn't be passed on to humans, Mosquito control and Oxitec officials said. They also say they're being transparent about their data and the trial.
Real estate agent Mila de Mier has collected more than 117,700 signatures on a petition she posted on Change.org against the trial. Most come from outside the Keys, which de Mier says shows that tourists don't support the mosquito control district.
'We are dependent here on our tourists, and people from all over the country have been sending the message,' de Mier said.
A University of Florida professor who studies mosquito control said Oxitec's technology works and evidence from the company's experiments elsewhere show it can control mosquito populations, but it's not clear whether its methods are as effective at controlling the risk of disease transmission.
Phil Lounibos of the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory also said it would take repeated releases of modified mosquitoes for the program to work, and the public outcry against genetically modified organisms, even when it's irrational, may be insurmountable.

Growing problem: A field inspector with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District tests a sprayer used to spray pesticides which have unfortunately become less effective on mosquitoes today

'The public resistance and the need to reach some agreement between mosquito control and the public, I see that as a very significant issue, outside of the (operating) costs, since this is not just a one-time thing,' Lounibos said.
The Aedes aegypti has shown resistance to pesticides used to control other species, and is the most difficult for the district to manage. Common in the Southeast and the Caribbean, it lurks in standing water around homes and businesses and can breed in containers as small as bottle caps.
District inspectors go door-to-door to remove the standing water where they breed, a time-consuming task. The district spends roughly $1 million a year to suppress Aedes aegypti, 10 to 15 percent of the agency's budget, Doyle said.
'Unfortunately, control of Aedes aegypti is a never-ending job,' said Larry Hriber, the mosquito control district's research director.
In the trial, thousands of male mosquitoes bred by Oxitec would be released in a handful of Key West blocks where the Aedes aegypti is known to breed; the number of mosquitoes in those neighborhoods would be measured against the numbers from similar blocks where no modified mosquitoes were released.

Exhausting count: Key West's district spends roughly $1 million a year to suppress Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, what they say is 10 to 15 percent of the agency's budget

The state's agriculture department oversees the mosquito control district, and Doyle said he would not expect any challenge from the state if the FDA signed off on the trial.
The mosquito control district wouldn't need any local permit for the trial, either, but officials held a public meeting earlier this year and have posted information on the agency's website.
Still, it could take years for the FDA to approve the trial.
There hasn't been a case of dengue fever in Key West since November 2010, but two othcases were reported elsewhere in South Florida this fall.
The mosquito trial proposed for Key West wouldn't be the first release of genetically modified insects in the U.S.
In 2009, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service concluded that integrating genetically modified pink bollworms, bred by Oxitec to be sterile but more competitive in mating than regular bollworms, into the agency's plant pest control program was 'the environmentally preferable alternative' to combat the cotton pest.
The program was discontinued, however, after officials found that the genetically modified insects were not as hardy as pink bollworms sterilized through irradiation, and that their use would cause farmers to lose their organic certification.
Oxitec said the USDA's environmental assessment is one of several examples of proof that the trial's risks and methods are being independently evaluated. The company has trials in Brazil, the Cayman Islands and Malaysia, and it says it's gotten positive reviews from the latter two governments. It also cites its published research in peer-reviewed journals.
But Biddle, the onetime dengue patient, wants Oxitec to continue testing the modified mosquitoes outside the U.S.
'Why the rush here?' the Key West man said. 'We already have test cases in the world where we can watch what is happening and make the best studies, because wouldn't it be wonderful if we could find out how it can be fail-safe — which it is not right now. It's an open Pandora's box.'
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2244272/Florida-officials-consider-releasing-genetically-modified-non-biting-mosquitoes-battle-dengue-fever.html#ixzz2EMxxEfpX

I dont like to bash police or anyone else, but

FBI and State Police Conduct Massive Manhunt and Raid Against Prepper Who Was Angry Over Obama Reelection


Due to its close proximity to Washington DC, in recent years Maryland has become one of the worst police states in the country.
Last month, we reported on a botched FBI raid in Maryland, where unarmed teenagers were shot at simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Then, just the other day in Baltimore, an activist and blogger had his house surrounded by police over a trumped-up charge that was over 3 years old.
Now, in a more rural area of Maryland, a man named Terry Porter became the target of a massive manhunt involving FBI and state police after being reported to be a “survivalist” with a “collection of guns” who outlined his anger over the presidential reelection to an undercover officer.
This situation apparently stemmed from an anonymous tip from someone who reported Terry to the police because he owned guns and invested in a bomb shelter.
Where this “anonymous” tip actually came from is still a mystery due to the fact that many of the neighbors in the area who were questioned by reporters have expressed support for Terry and have said that they are extremely offended by the tax dollars and police resources that were used to hunt down a nonviolent person.
It seems from all accounts that Mr. Porter is a nonviolent person who has come under federal suspicion simply for preparing himself and his family for any trouble that may occur in the future.
Sadly, AFTER the police begun to investigate the man, they found out that he had a 1992 felony drug conviction on his record which enabled them to be able to then attack his house with 150 armed officers.
This is not some doomsday maniac as the mainstream media would suggest, disasters happen all the time, and more often than not, people are unprepared just as we are seeing in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
According to the initial local news report:
A Sharpsburg area man who was the subject of a massive search by police Thursday afternoon turned himself in to Maryland State Police on Friday and was charged with 14 firearms violations, according to the Washington County State’s Attorney’s Office and Sheriff Douglas W. Mullendore.
Terry Allen Porter, 46, of 4433 Mills Road, was being held on $75,000 bond Friday night at the Washington County Detention Center, according to a jail spokesperson.
State police issued a press release after 6 p.m. Friday that said Porter turned himself in at the Hagerstown Barrack at 9:30 a.m., and that he and his attorney met with investigators.
Police went to Porter’s home Friday and seized a rifle and a shotgun, the release said. That was in addition to two rifles and three shotguns recovered Thursday night, the release said.
The confirmation that Porter was at the detention center was the first acknowledgment that he was the subject of Thursday’s manhunt.
Earlier Friday, a day after FBI agents, Maryland State Police, Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputies, two special response units and others descended on an area south of Sharpsburg for a massive manhunt, authorities had little to say about what they were doing, why they were doing it and for whom they were searching.
After receiving complaints from the anonymous tipper, police sent in an undercover officer posing as a customer for the mans business.
A Sharpsburg man charged last week with illegal possession of firearms is a “doomsday prepper” who told an undercover Maryland State Police trooper about an underground bunker and surveillance cameras on his property, according to a charging document filed in Washington County District Court.
[.....]
A state police corporal went to Porter’s home Nov. 16, posing as a customer for the business Porter runs from his home, the charging document said. Porter got “very irritated” during a discussion of the recent presidential election and “openly admitted to being a prepper,” the document said.
From all accounts, Porter had been a law-abiding sentence for the last 20 years. An article by a local Maryland blogger confirmed this fact.
It is true that Porter had a 20-year-old drug conviction on his record (confirmed here by the Hagerstown Herald Mail) but apparently had no subsequent run-ins with the law.
He is legally not allowed to own a gun so he does have a legal problem, but that doesn’t justify the cost and scope of this massive operation.
Heather Hamilton, 35, who lives at 18809 Burnside Bridge Road, around the corner from Porter’s house, said Friday that a Maryland State Police trooper went to her home the day before to talk to her about what was going on and mentioned that it was regarding a man she had known since childhood.
“You had helicopters flying over, SWAT crews down here, excavation equipment was brought in, and armored vehicles,” she said.
“It was ridiculous for (the man), who would not hurt another person for anything. Unless you would attack him, he’s not going to go after anyone.”
She said she viewed the operation as “a big waste of taxpayer money.”
Another neighbor, Doug Bigelow, also outlined his support for Porter. “Surprised at what was going on, Bigelow said he always found his friend to live his life on the “straight and narrow.

Bigelow said he would feel safe leaving his kids with the man.”
Basically, a man worried about the tyrannical Obama regime as well as a possible collapse of society was raided by at least 150 agents acting on initial information that the man was a survivalist.
The fact that 20 years before he had a drug conviction enabled the FBI to carry out a raid they would have never even considered if it wasnt for the fact that they knew that the man was preparing and was distrustful of the government. To say the raid was simply for illegal possession of firearms is to ignore all the facts of this horrific story.
Terry Porter was doing nothing illegal by preparing and basically made the mistake of being too public with his preparedness and dislike for Obama which apparently is now cause for a FBI investigation which could in turn lead to a raid in what has now become the modern American police state.
http://theintelhub.com/2012/12/04/fbi-and-state-police-conduct-massive-manhunt-and-raid-against-prepper-who-was-angry-over-obama-reelection/