Unintended (Or Perhaps Intended) Consequences of Terror Watch List
My son is on [the Terror Watch] list. He is listed as a suspected terrorist. He was even visited by DHS agents, and his passport was revoked.
Now, I raised my son better than that, and he is most certainly not a terrorist, so how did he wind up on that list?
My son is a travelling nurse. He flies all over the world, treating and transporting patients from one place to another. It pays very well. He recently got paid for a 4 day trip, escorting a patient to Australia, and was paid $4000 for 4 days’ work. This week, he is in Milwaukee, and is being paid $12,000 for ten days’ work. In between trips, he works at the local trauma centers, and was one of the nurses on duty this past weekend in the Orlando area.
Now that you have the background, here is how he wound up on the terror watch list:
A known terrorist was arrested, trying to enter the country with my son’s passport. Well, not his actual passport, but a forgery with all of his information on it.
In all of his travels, he once had to go to the Dominican Republic to bring a patient home. While he was there, a government official photocopied the passports of the entire crew: 3 members of the flight crew, a respiratory therapist, and my son. Those photocopies were sold to people who make forged identity papers, and that information was used to create fake papers.
My son received a visit from DHS, they revoked his passport, and he had to apply for a new one. His name, birth date, and other information is now on the suspected terrorism watch list, because that information is now known to be used by terrorists.
This proposed law would prevent my son from buying a firearm, even though he has not broken a single law, nor is he likely to.
And remember, the Dems don’t want there to be any way for you to get off the list. They rejected the Coburn/NRA bill because it would provide for that. That’s because the goal is not to protect us from terrorists. The goal is to make as many people prohibited as possible so gun ownership becomes more burdensome and legally risky than it already is.
http://www.pagunblog.com/2016/06/17/unintended-consequences-of-terror-watch-list/
Oh Look, Another Microphone On In Your House!
As expected, this new version of macOS will finally bring support for Siri to the desktop. To bring up Siri, which is getting its own improvements today, too, all you have to do is say “hey Siri,” and Apple’s modestly useful AI assistant will be at your beck and call.And, of course, it will be transmitting your speech back to Apple whenever it feels like it.
Siri will be able to help you find files on your Mac and send messages, and because it works in the background, it’ll also help you perform tasks while you are using other apps in full-screen mode, Apple says.
Welcome to spying corporate-style. Well, at least until the government “asks”, at which point it will be open season.
My only question to Apple would be this: Can I shut that piece of crap off and actually know it’s off or do I need to open up the Mac and snip the microphone connector wire physically?
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/06/20/oh-look-another-microphone-on-in-your-house/
Experts Admit Threat Fraud Zika
mosquito-borne virus researcher said the risk of Zika in the continental U.S. is “near zero”. Experts suggest there may be small clusters of Zika outbreaks in certain southern states and little risk elsewhere in the continental U.S.
We’re in the midst of prime mosquito season for much of the U.S.
Fears of Zika virus, which some believe may be associated with suspected cases of the birth defect microcephaly, started in Brazil and have quickly spread throughout the U.S. But are such fears warranted? Experts Admit Zika Threat Risk ‘Near Zero’
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would provide $622 million to fight Zika virus. Yet, by White House estimates, this is "woefully inadequate." They've recommended directing $1.9 billion to fight this latest declared public health emergency
But mosquito experts are questioning the extent of emergency that actually exists. Chris Barker, Ph.D. a mosquito-borne virus researcher at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, told WebMD:2
"I think the risk for Zika actually setting up transmission cycles that become established in the continental U.S. is near zero.”
Barker expects Zika to go the way of other tropical diseases spread by mosquitoes, such as dengue fever and chikungunya, in the U.S. with perhaps small clusters of outbreaks in southern states and little activity elsewhere.
Even in the Florida Keys (Florida, along with Louisiana and Texas, is said to be one of the states most at risk of mosquito-borne illnesses), the Monroe County Tourist Development Council reported:3
“Dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika viruses are currently not a health threat in the Florida Keys including Key West …
There has never been a report of a locally acquired case of chikungunya or Zika anywhere in the Florida Keys, according to officials at the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County.”
No Locally Transmitted Cases of Zika Virus Reported in U.S.
As of May 25, 2016, Zika has not been spread by mosquitoes anywhere in the continental U.S.4 Calls to control the Aedes mosquitoes, which may carry Zika, have increased nonetheless, including in New York state, where experts say the risk of local transmission is low.
Laura Harrington, Ph.D., chair of Entomology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York told WebMD:5
"Here in New York state, there's been a lot of pressure placed on mosquito-control districts to do as much as they can. And, they're really strapped for resources, and there's not a huge risk of transmission … ”
Maps released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show it’s possible for Aedes mosquitoes to travel as far north as New York, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri and California. According to Harrington, the maps are inaccurate and causing unnecessary hysteria. Harrington continued:6
"They're showing this mosquito in places where there's no way you're going to find them … It's really unfortunate, because it's causing a lot of hysteria in places where people should be focusing on other health issues, like Lyme disease."
GE Mosquitoes to Fight Zika Virus?
Biotech company Oxitec has created genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes that carry a “genetic kill switch.” When they mate with wild female mosquitoes, their offspring inherit the lethal gene and cannot survive.7
To achieve this feat, Oxitec has inserted protein fragments from the herpes virus, E. coli bacteria, coral and cabbage into the insects. The GE mosquitoes have proven lethal to native mosquito populations.
In the Cayman Islands, for instance, 96 percent of native mosquitoes were suppressed after more than 3 million GE mosquitoes were released in the area, with similar results reported in Brazil.8
Oxitec is seeking to release the GE mosquitoes in the U.S. to fight Zika, but as pointed out by Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to USA Today, the GE mosquitoes have not been shown to reduce rates of diseases such as Zika.9
The GE mosquitoes may also prove to be too expensive for areas that are plagued with mosquito-borne diseases.
Environmental red flags have also been raised. The potential exists for these foreign genes, which hop from one place to another, to infect human blood by finding entry through skin lesions or inhaled dust.
Such transmission could potentially wreak havoc with the human genome by creating "insertion mutations" and other unpredictable types of DNA damage.10
And according to Todd Shelly, an entomologist for the Agriculture Department in Hawaii, 3.5 percent of the GE insects in a laboratory test survived to adulthood despite presumably carrying the lethal gene.11
The FDA’s report is only preliminary, but Oxitec wants the FDA to throw caution to the wind and give the GE mosquitoes emergency approval in order to fight the Zika virus.
If approved, Oxitec, in partnership with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD), plans to release the GE mosquitoes, which go by the name of OX513A, in Key Haven, Florida, an island of the Florida Keys located about 1 mile east of Key West.
More than 270,000 people have submitted comments criticizing the FDA’s environmental assessment, and numerous environmental groups are calling for the agency to conduct a more thorough review of the GE mosquitoes’ risks. Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, said:14
“The FDA really missed the mark on this one … The agency seems so eager to speed the process along that they have failed to do a real review of the potential risks, and are ignoring widespread concern in the community where the release will happen.”
Catnip oil (according to one study, this oil is 10 times more effective than DEET19)
[-] Sources and References
No comments:
Post a Comment