Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 461

Brits seek out EXPIRED food as they cope with meteoric rise in food prices

(Natural News) The cost of food continues to rise in the UK, and the country’s food retailers have warned that price inflation will continue into the foreseeable future. The latest figures show grocery prices are now increasing at their fastest rate on record.

Figures provided by retail analyst Kantar found that grocery price inflation in the country reached a new record high of 16.7% in the four weeks that ended on January 22. This amounts to a nearly £800 pound increase on a typical yearly shopping bill. This is a notable increase from the 14.4% recorded in December and the highest level since figures were first tracked in 2008.

Some categories of food that have noted particularly sharp rises recently include eggs, milk and dog food. However, fruit, vegetables, sugar and alcohol have also noticed steep rises in the past month. According to Kantar, the price of basics such as cheese, milk, butter and bread is up 16.7% in a year over year basis. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that olive oil has risen by nearly 40% in the last year, while low-fat milk is up 46% and sugar is up 38.5%.

People are turning to store label products, cheap carbs and expired food to feed their families

In response to record-setting inflation, some supermarkets are expanding their store label ranges to provide customers with more value. In January, sales of store label products climbed by 9.3%; sales of branded alternatives only rose by 1%.

Four out of every 10 British families with children under the age of 12 have been replacing meat in their diet with carbohydrates such as pasta and bread to bulk out their meals and get more out of their money. 18% of Brits are buying fewer vegetables and fruits, and almost a third are purchasing less meat, according to Red Tractor.

Another way some people are making ends meet is by eating food that is well past its use-by date. According to the ONS, almost one in five adults say they have eaten food that was beyond its use-by date, which indicates when perishable food can safely be consumed. This is despite the Food Standards Agency warning that individuals should never eat food after this date – even if it smells or looks acceptable – because it could result in serious illness.

The ONS also found that 15% of adults are somewhat or very worried that they will run out of food before they can afford to purchase more. It also revealed that Brits are struggling to stay warm amid the higher costs of energy, with nearly a quarter of those polled saying that they struggled to stay comfortably warm during the previous two weeks.

Discount grocery chains like ALDI and Lidl have noted rising sales. For the fourth month in a row, ALDI was the country’s fastest-growing grocer, noting sales that were 26.9% higher year on year and taking a 9.2% share of the market. Sales at Lidl climbed by 24.1%; they took a market share of 7.1%. Meanwhile, the sales at bigger rivals like Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco only saw increases of 6%; sales at Morrisons dropped by 1.9%.

It’s bad news for Brits who are already struggling with inflation across the board. The Bank of England recently raised interest rates for the 10th time in a row, which is pushing monthly mortgage payments higher; its 0.5 percent rise places rates at 4%, which is the highest level seen since the financial crisis of 2008. A further rise to 4.25% is widely expected next month.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund forecasts that the British economy will shrink this year and experience the poorest performance out of all developed countries, including Russia. The news isn’t much better in the U.S., where the prices of many foods have risen exponentially as well.

Via https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-02-03-brits-cope-meteoric-rise-food-prices.html

Australia Becomes First Country to Legalize Therapeutic US of MDMA and Psilcybin

Trisha Suppes, founder of the Bipolar and Depression Research Program at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center in California, points during a November 4, 2022 presentation to what she called “stunning” results showing a reduction in treatment-resistant depression among patients undergoing psilocybin therapy. Photo: Steve Jurvetson/flickr/cc

Brett Wilkins

Common Dreams

One expert called the move a “very welcome step away from what has been decades of demonization.”

After decades of criminalization, Australia’s government said Friday that it will legalize the prescription of MDMA and psilocybin for the treatment of two medical conditions, a historic move hailed by researchers who have studied the therapeutic possibilities of the drugs.

Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said in a statement that starting July 1, psychiatrists may prescribe MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine), commonly called “Molly” or “ecstasy” by recreational users, to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psilocybin—the psychedelic prodrug compound in “magic” mushrooms—for treatment-resistant depression.

“These are the only conditions where there is currently sufficient evidence for potential benefits in certain patients,” TGA said, adding that the drugs must be taken “in a controlled medical setting.”

Advocates of MDMA and psilocybin are hopeful that one day doctors could prescribe them to treat a range of conditions, from alcoholism and eating disorders to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

David Caldicott, a clinical senior lecturer in emergency medicine at Australian National University, toldThe Guardian that Friday’s surprise announcement is a “very welcome step away from what has been decades of demonization.”

Caldicott said it is now “abundantly clear” that both MDMA and psilocybin “can have dramatic effects” on hard-to-treat mental health problems, and that “in addition to a clear and evolving therapeutic benefit, [legalization] also offers the chance to catch up on the decades of lost opportunity [of] delving into the inner workings of the human mind, abandoned for so long as part of an ill-conceived, ideological ‘war on drugs.'”

\u201cFrom 1 July this year, medicines containing the psychedelic substances psilocybin and MDMA can be prescribed by specifically authorised psychiatrists for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment-resistant depression.\n\nRead more: https://t.co/rJI9dRs3M7\u201d

— TGA Australia (@TGA Australia) 1675387806

MDMA—which has been criminalized in Australia since 1987—was first patented by German drugmaker Merck in the early 1910s. After World War II the United States military explored possibilities for weaponizing MDMA as a truth serum as part of the MK-ULTRA mind control experiments aimed at creating real-life Manchurian candidates. A crossover from clinical usage in marriage and other therapies in the 1970s and ’80s to recreational consumption—especially in the disco and burgeoning rave scenes—in the latter decade sparked a conservative backlash in the form of emergency bans in countries including Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration classifies MDMA and psilocybin as Schedule I substances, meaning they have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

Patients who’ve tried MDMA therapy and those who treat them say otherwise. A study published last year by John Hopkins Health found that in a carefully controlled setting, psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy held promise for “significant and durable improvements in depression.”

The California-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)—the world’s premier organization for psychedelic advocacy and research—interviewed Colorado massage therapist Rachael Kaplan about her MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD:

For the majority of my life I prayed to die and fought suicidal urges as I struggled with complex PTSD. This PTSD was born out of chronic severe childhood abuse. Since then, my life has been a journey of searching for healing. I started going to therapy 21 years ago, and since then I have tried every healing modality that I could think of, such as bodywork, energy work, medications, residential treatment, and more. Many of these modalities were beneficial but none of them significantly reduced my trauma symptoms. I was still terrified most of the time…

In my first MDMA-assisted psychotherapy session I was surprised that the MDMA helped me see the world as it was, instead of seeing it through my lens of terror. I thought that the MDMA would alter my perception of reality, but instead, it helped me see… more clearly… The MDMA session was the first time that I was able to stay present, explore, and process what had happened to me. This changed everything… There are no words for the gratitude that I feel.

Jon Lubecky, an American Iraq War combat veteran who tried to kill himself five times, toldNBC‘s “Today” in 2021 that MDMA therapy—also with MAPS—enabled him “to talk about things I had never brought up before to anyone.”

“And it was OK. My body did not betray me. I didn’t get panic attacks. I didn’t shut down emotionally or just become so overemotional I couldn’t deal with anything,” he recounted.

“This treatment is the reason my son has a father instead of a folded flag,” Lubecky said in a message to other veterans afflicted with PTSD. “I want all of you to be around in 2023 when this is [U.S. Food and Drug Administration]-approved. I know what your suffering is like. You can make it.”

MAPS’ latest clinical research on MDMA—which is aimed at winning FDA approval—is currently in phase three trials. The Biden administration said last year that it “anticipates” MDMA and psilocybin would be approved by the FDA by 2024 and is “exploring the prospect of establishing a federal task force to monitor” therapeutic possibilities of both drugs.

\u201cFounder and Executive Director of @MAPSnews, @RickDoblin Ph.D., discusses a new #psychedelic study that supports MDMA-assisted therapy as a treatment for post traumatic stress disorder (#PTSD) on @FoxBusiness. \n\nhttps://t.co/im1QEz3vdR\u201d

— Psychedelic Science (@Psychedelic Science) 1675357038

Like MDMA, psilocybin—which occurs naturally in hundreds of fungal species and has been used by humans for medicinal, spiritual, and recreational purposes for millennia—remains illegal at the federal level in the U.S., although several states and municipalities have legalized or decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms, or have moved to do so.

There have also been bipartisan congressional efforts to allow patients access to both drugs. Legislation introduced last year by U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) would permit therapeutic use of certain Schedule I drugs for terminally ill patients. Meanwhile, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) passed amendments to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act providing more funding for psychedelic research and making it easier for veterans and active-duty troops suffering from PTSD to try drug-based treatments.

[…]

Via https://www.commondreams.org/news/legal-psychedelics-australia

New Russian Technology Deciminates Starlink in Ukraine

By Dmitry Orlov

A major development seems to be underway on the Ukrainian side of the slow-moving frontline. For months now the only reason the Ukrainians have been able to hold their own against the Russians is because their access, via mobile internet, to NATO satellite data and analytical information has been allowing their artillery and rocket systems to precisely target Russian equipment and troops. This forced the Russians to act quickly: roll to a position, fire a salvo ata Ukrainian target and scoot away before that position can be targeted.

The data feed is provided by Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet terminals, some 20000 of them, spread out across the entire 1000km frontline. As often happens, and as I pointed out in my 2017 book Shrinking the Technosphere, often the most efficient and cost-effective form of technology is counter-technology: cheap but effective devices that turn very expensive, advanced technology into a useless heap of junk. This is precisely what is happening now thanks to the efforts of brilliant young Russian engineers and scientists working at the Sestroretsk military factory.

They have done something that the American designers of Starlink terminals thought was impossible. Their new truck-mounted system, Borschevik https://mkpborshchevik.ru/, is able to pinpoint the locations of active Starlink terminals within a 180º sector and a 10km radius to an accuracy of 5m. It is a passive system, meaning that it cannot be discovered using the signal it sends because it doesn’t send any. The truck is a small, moving target and the system does its job in two minutes if stationary and in 15 minutes if moved from point to point, targeting a maximum of 64 Starlink terminals at a time. The targeting information is then transmitted to artillery and missile batteries automatically.

So far, the results have been very positive: Borshchevik has been able to locate not just carefully camouflaged artillery emplacements but also gatherings of foreign mercenaries (who are, no doubt, internet addicts) and detachments of Ukrainian infantry (who can’t fight without NATO telling them where to go and in which direction to direct their fire). These positions were flattened then either using multiple-launch rocket systems of guided missile systems such as Krasnopol.

With the help of Borschevik, the Russian tactics will change. Whereas up until now they had to “shoot and scoot” to avoid return fire, now they’ll be able to take out all Starlink terminals in the area first, then roll up to the frontline with trucks full of ordnance and just keep firing until nothing on the Ukrainian side still moves, and only then move in with infantry, mop up and establish new positions.

Without Starlink, the Ukrainian troops will simply sit there waiting for NATO orders, not knowing where to go or where to fire and hoping for a chance to surrender. Once enough trucks with Borschevik are in place all along the front, the Ukrainians will have no choice except to keep their Starlink terminals off most of the time and just turn them on periodically to receive new orders, although by then it may be too late to carry them out or they might get targeted and destroyed before they have a chance to do so.

This is the Achilles’ heel of the American plan of attacking Russia using a proxy army of, essentially, remote-controlled puppets, and the Russians have found it and found a way to exploit it: cut its communications to NATO, and it’s pretty much over.

[…]

Via https://boosty.to/cluborlov/posts/ac7124b4-1efe-4b41-9887-376514854f63

Dangers of Raising Vegan Babies

Dr Joseph Mercola

Story at-a-glanceChildren eating vegan diets faced an increased risk of nutritional deficiencies and lower bone mineral content (BMC), and were shorter by about 3.15 centimeters (1.2 inches) than omnivoresConcerning nutrient deficiencies were also found in the vegan children fed a nutritionist-planned dietNutrient deficiencies in vegan children included vitamin A insufficiency and “markedly low” levels of total, HDL and LDL cholesterol, essential amino acids and the omega-3 fat DHAOne of the pitfalls of a vegan (or vegetarian) diet is that many people end up relying on ultraprocessed foods such soy infant formula, soy milk or fake meat productsIn most cases, infants and children do best with whole, animal foods in their diet to meet their complex nutritional needs

The debate over the healthiest diet for children is almost as controversial as the debate over plant- versus meat-based diets. And, no vegan parent wants to be told that feeding their baby a vegan diet is dangerous. However, it could, in fact, be damaging to children’s health.

While it’s true that most people, children included, could benefit from adding more whole foods to their diets — including certain plant-based foods — there are risks involved when you move from eating a diet rich in plant foods to one that is strictly plant-based.

While the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) compiled a guide to feed vegan infants and children ages 5 and under, it noted:1

“We are not recommending a vegan diet. It is important to note that meeting the nutritional requirements of babies and young children will be challenging on a vegan diet, and using fortified foods and some supplements will be essential. Animal sourced foods provide good sources of many nutrients to the diet.”

Vegan Children May Face Stunted Growth, Bone Problems

A study of Polish children between the ages of 5 and 10 years evaluated body composition, cardiovascular risk and micronutrient status of vegetarian and vegan children compared to omnivores.2

The study claimed vegan diets were associated with a healthier cardiovascular risk profile, but this was largely based on lower levels of LDL cholesterol — a flawed marker of heart health. The children eating vegan diets also faced an increased risk of nutritional deficiencies, lower bone mineral content (BMC) and were shorter by about 3.15 centimeters (1.2 inches). According to the study:3

“Our data suggest that restriction of animal-based foods could prevent children from achieving optimal height or bone mineral status and could lead to selected nutritional deficiencies. The shorter height of children consuming PBDs [plant-based diets] may have mixed implications for long-term health. Taller height is associated with higher social status, and this association may be causal rather than just an artifact of social correlates.”

The researchers called the lower bone mineral content among those eating a vegan diet “concerning,” since maximizing bone mineral content in childhood is recommended to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and fractures later in life:4

“We found that vegans have lower BMC even after accounting for smaller body and bone size. It does not seem optimal to enter adolescence, a phase when bone-specific nutrient needs are higher, with a BMC deficit already established. If such deficits are caused by a diet that persists into adolescence, this might increase the risk of adverse bone outcomes later in life.”

Vegans Faced Several Nutrient Deficiencies

The vegan children in the group were more likely to suffer from vitamin B12 deficiency, low HDL levels and lower vitamin D levels,5 each of which could have implications for their current and future health.

Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is necessary for your body to make red blood cells as well as for proper nerve function and DNA synthesis. Without adequate levels, a number of physical symptoms, ranging from numbness to fatigue, can occur. Mental health can also suffer significantly, as vitamin B12 plays an important role in neurological function.

It’s been shown, for instance, that people with depression and high B12 levels have better responses to treatment,6 while up to 30% of patients hospitalized for depression may be B12 deficient.7

While choline, a B vitamin known for its role in brain development, wasn’t covered in the featured study, it’s another essential nutrient that humans must get from dietary or supplement sources. Animal foods are a major contributor of choline to the diet, and it’s difficult to get enough of this essential nutrient if you don’t consume them, particularly eggs, according to a study published in the journal Nutrients.8

Additionally, important nutrients such as carnitine, carnosine and creatine are also very low in a plant based diet and ideally need to be supplemented. In another example, researchers followed 40 children with a median age of 3.5 years who attended a Finnish daycare.9 There, they received nutritionist-planned vegan or omnivore meals designed to meet their nutritional needs.

However, even then, concerning nutrient deficiencies were found in the vegan children, including vitamin A insufficiency and “markedly low” levels of total, HDL and LDL cholesterol, essential amino acids and the omega-3 fat DHA. According to the researchers:10

“The markedly low cholesterol in vegan infants and children in our study raises the question of whether such levels are healthy, as cholesterol is essential for cellular growth, division, and development of physiological systems due to its major role in the synthesis of cell membranes, steroid hormones, bile acids, and brain myelin …

DHA and active vitamin A are both important for eyesight, and the low statuses of both in [vegan] children may raise a concern for the visual health.”

Recommendations for Soy Milk Put Children at Risk

NHS also states that, from the age of 1, “you can give your baby unsweetened, calcium-fortified, plant-based drinks (such as soya, oat and almond drinks) as part of a healthy balanced diet.”11,12

However, not only is most soy genetically engineered (GE) and sprayed with toxic pesticides and herbicides like Roundup, with its dangerous active ingredient glyphosate, but soy products contain phytoestrogens such as genistein, which may affect the development of the reproductive system.13

When it comes to soy formula, I believe it’s unsuitable for all children. But soy-based beverages should also be avoided later in childhood, and you’ll definitely want to steer clear of ultraprocessed foods like Soylent.

Soylent is a Silicon Valley creation, dreamed up by a group of software engineers14 with no education in nutrition or human biology. The primary premise behind Soylent is that you can drink your complete nutritional requirements and never have to eat real food again. But this GE concoction, which is heavily promoted as a panacea to fill in nutritional gaps in those following plant-based diets, will not propel you, or your children, to optimal health.

Its products contain ingredients like soy protein isolate, canola oil — a major dietary source of toxic linoleic acid — artificial flavors and the artificial sweetener Sucralose.15 Unfortunately, one of the pitfalls of a vegan (or vegetarian) diet is that many people end up relying on ultraprocessed foods such as this, mistakenly believing them to be healthy.

[…]

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/02/04/raising-vegan-babies/

Arizona Senate rocked by claims of election violations, as Lake presses appeal challenging 2022 vote

State Senate Elections Committee hearing testimony from election integrity groups alleging maladministration of elections in Maricopa County.

Natalia Mittelstadt

Just he News

The Arizona Court of Appeals held a private conference Wednesday in Kari Lake’s election challenge, as a state Senate panel is hearing explosive allegations of 2022 election failures in Maricopa County, and the Democrat Secretary of State seeks to have Lake, the 2022 GOP nominee for governor, prosecuted for tweeting evidence from the public Senate hearings of mismatched ballot signatures.

The appeals court’s conference was regarding Lake’s appeal of a December decision in Maricopa County Superior Court rejecting her election lawsuit against county election officials and Gov. Katie Hobbs. Lake’s suit alleged that numerous irregularities in the 2022 gubernatorial election, including election machine issues in nearly 60% of the county’s 115 vote centers, effectively suppressed heavily Republican Election Day vote.

The court reviewed Lake’s case two days after she was separately referred for criminal prosecution by Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to Attorney General Kris Mayes regarding a Lake tweet about Senate testimony on the improper counting of ballots with mismatched signatures.

“Today’s Senate Testimony CONFIRMS nearly 40,000 ballots illegally counted (10% of the signatures reviewed),” Lake tweeted on Jan. 23. “I think all the ‘Election Deniers’ out there deserve an apology.”

Lake included a graphic displaying a sampling of ballots that were counted despite being signed in a hand that appeared to differ sharply from the voter’s signature in the voter registration database.

The signatures that Lake posted were shared in a presentation to the Arizona state Senate Elections Committee the day she tweeted them.

On Monday, Fontes wrote in a letter to Mayes that Lake may have committed a class 6 felony by posting voter signatures online.

“This is becoming all too common in politics — another attempt to weaponize the justice system with a phony allegation against a Republican,” Lake attorney Tim LaSota fired back on Wednesday. “Adrian Fontes selectively quotes the statute in an attempt to distort the law and smear Kari Lake in the process. Kris Mayes should immediately say that she will have no part in this shameful, disgusting effort.

“This information came from the Arizona Senate investigation on acceptance of clearly mismatched signatures on early ballots, and Kari Lake has an absolute right under the First Amendment to republish the information presented to the Senate.”

The Arizona state Senate Elections Committee, chaired by Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers, has been hearing testimony since last week from election integrity groups regarding the administration of elections in Maricopa County.

During a hearing last week on 2022 election irregularities, Shelby Busch, the cofounder of We the People AZ, testified before the committee that 47,366 of verified voter signatures reviewed by her group didn’t meet the basic Arizona Secretary of State standards, showing pictures of the signatures in her presentation.

Busch’s group was commissioned by outgoing state Senate President Karen Fann to submit public records requests to the Maricopa County Elections Department. We the People AZ investigated both the 2020 and 2022 elections in the county.

Busch also reported that 217,305 ballots of the 464,926 ballots fed into tabulators on Election Day in Maricopa County in 2022 were rejected.

On Monday, Busch told the committee that her group found multiple violations of state election law by the county. The alleged infractions include excessive ballot adjudication; the effective disenfranchisement of thousands of (mostly Republican) voters on Election Day; and around 300,000 ballots that didn’t have chain of custody.

Busch found, for example, that the number of ballots referred to a bipartisan board for adjudication due to missing information or an overvote jumped sharply in the last two election cycles. While the normal rate of adjudication isn’t greater than 4%, the percentage rose to 11.9% in 2020, then 14.36% in 2022.

She testified that 64% of the 4,021 people waiting in lines of 85 or more people when the polls closed at 7 p.m. never got to vote.

Heather Honey, the founder of election integrity watchdog Verify Vote, testified that there was a lack of chain of custody for around 300,000 Early Voting ballots dropped off in drop boxes on Election Day. Honey previously gave similar testimony during Lake’s election trial in December.

Technical problems at vote centers on Election Day are a central focus of Lake’s lawsuit. At her rally in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Sunday, she revealed more on what her team has found.

Lake showed a heat map that hangs in the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center that represented 2020 Republican in-person Election Day and early voting turnout and overlaid it with pins indicating where vote centers experienced major election machine malfunctions on Election Day in 2022. Most of the problematic vote centers were in deep red, or Republican, areas of the county.

“Coincidence??” Lake tweeted with pictures of the map with the pins on Wednesday. “Look how perfectly Election Day Polling FAILURES on November 8th match up with the REPUBLICAN heat map.”

[…]

Via https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/amid-kari-lakes-legal-fight-az-senate-election-committee-hears-testimony

The Ultimate Warship of Ancient Greece

Lecture 23: Reconstructing the Greek Tireme

Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: From the Catapult to the Pantheon

Dr Stephen Ressler (2013)

Film Review

Reaching its peak with the tireme in the 5th century BC, Greek long ship construction subsequently declined. When wrecked, tiremes could be swamped but not sunk (owing to their light weight and buoyancy). Thus none were left on the ocean floor for future archeologists to discover. Thus historians and engineers have relied on ancient texts and artwork to reconstruct what they looked like.

The first Greek long ships appeared during the 3rd millennium BC. By the time of the Trojan War (12th century BC), they were fully evolved. Homer writes about them in the 8th century BC as the primary vehicle for troop transport. By that time the bireme (with oarsmen on two levels) emerged (late 8th century BC) the long ship had become an offensive weapon used to ram other ships.

Early in the 7th century BC, either the Phoenicians or the Corinthians added a third level of rowers (creating the tireme). Essential for any regime wishing to assert their political dominance, the Persians used them to suppress the Ionian Revolt, the Greeks to defeat. The Persians used them to suppress the Ionian Revolt, the Greeks to defeat the Persians in the first Greco-Persian war and the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War despite their ultimate defeat. Ressler believes the golden age of Athens would have been impossible without them

Classical Greeks also designed a quadrireme, employing two banks of oars with two men per oar and a quinquireme. It had three banks of oars with two men per oar on the two upper levels and one per oar on the lowest level.

Under Alexander the Great, the purpose of naval vessels changed from ramming other boats to boarding and capturing and capturing. His long ships became heavier to carry more soldiers and and artillery.

The Romans opted for tiremes and quadriremes as standard warships to carry their seaborne warriors. However they built nothing to compare to the Hellenic tireme of the 3rd century BC. The Hellenic Empire built thousands over three centuries in Greece, Egypt and the Levant.

A tireme’s standard crew consisted of

1 captain1 helmsman10 infantry4 archers1 purser1 shipwright (to make repairs)1 piper to help keep the rowing rhythm10 deckahnds170 rowers

Rowers were highly trained specialists forbidden to serve as warriors because they were too valuable.

Tiremes carried two sails, which were used for long voyages. However when vessels were cleared for battle, the masts and sails were left ashore. They had a maximum speed of 7-8 knots (8-9 mph).

All tiremes had a hypozoma, a  loop of heavy rope anchored near the bow and stern to prevent hogging.* It used a windlass to twist and tighten the hypozoma.

In June 1987, the Greek government commissioned the Olympias Project to reconstruct a fully operational reconstruction of the tireme (top image).

*Hogging is the stress a ship’s hull or keel experiences (on op of a wave) that causes the center or the keel to bend upward.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/146678/146724

UK Regulator: Pfizer CEO Made ‘Misleading’ Comments About COVID Shots for Kids

Albert Bourla. Photo credit: World Economic Forum/flickr.

By  Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Ph.D., made “misleading” and “unqualified” comments promoting the use of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines for young children during an interview on the BBC, a U.K. regulatory agency found.

The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), an independent, self-regulatory body established by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), found Bourla breached several rules in its Code of Practice for advertising.

U.K. pharmaceutical industry watchdog UsForThem filed the complaint with the PMCPA. In a Substack post after the ruling, UsForThem accused the BBC’s medical editor, Fergus Walsh, of conducting the interview “as a friendly fireside chat,” giving Bourla “a free pass promotional opportunity that money cannot buy” by allowing him to promote vaccine uptake, particularly among young children for whom the vaccine had not even been authorized.

As the U.K.’s national public service broadcaster, the BBC is meant to follow strict guidelines regarding commercial advertising or product placement, which UsForThem said the Bourla interview failed to follow.

The BBC published the interview with Bourla in December 2021 on its website, its news app and in the “BBC News at One” program, as a video interview and an accompanying article, “Pfizer boss: Annual Covid jabs for years to come.”

The interview aired two days after the U.K. government announced it had agreed to purchase 54 million more doses of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and 60 million more from Moderna.

The PMCPA can fine Bourla only for administrative costs. It does not have the authority to impose other penalties.

The BBC is the founding member of the Trusted News Initiative (TNI). Children’s Health Defense last month sued the BBC and three other TNI members, alleging they partnered with several Big Tech firms to “collectively censor online news,” including stories about COVID-19 that were not aligned with official narratives regarding those issues.

Bourla: Immunizing young children ‘would be a very good idea’

In the BBC interview, Bourla said it was up to the regulatory agencies to determine whether to approve and distribute vaccines to children under 11, but he thought that “immunising that age group in the UK and Europe would be a very good idea,” according to the PMCPA case report published last week.

At the time, no COVID-19 vaccines had been approved by the U.K.’s Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for children under 12, so the panel found Bourla’s comments were in breach of code.

Citing possible disruptions in schooling and the potential for long COVID, Bourla also said, “So, there was no doubt in my mind that the benefits completely were in favour of doing it [vaccinating children against COVID-19].”

He added, “I believe it’s a good idea.”

The panel found these strong opinion statements could lead the public to infer there was no need to be concerned with potential side effects or that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks, which had not been determined by the health authorities.

On Dec. 11, 2021, UsForThem filed its complaint with the PMCPA citing the promotional nature of the BBC’s reports and Bourla’s failure to comply with U.K. rules governing the promotion of medicines.

After the PMCPA ruled Bourla’s statements breached a number of rules in the ABPI’s code of practice, Pfizer appealed, including that his statements were of a “strong unqualified nature.”

The regulator also said the statements implied there was “no need to be concerned about potential side-effects of vaccination in healthy children aged 5-11” and that the implication was “misleading and incapable of substantiation.”

The appeal board upheld five counts of breaches of three ABPI codes that require information and claims “to be accurate, balanced, capable of substantiation, not raising unfounded hopes of successful treatment, and not be misleading with respect to the safety of the product,” The Epoch Times reported.

The PMCPA posted its final ruling on Jan. 27, more than a year after the initial complaint was filed.

During that time — in February 2022 — the U.K.’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation ruled children ages 5-11 could be offered the vaccine, but the committee said the recommendation was “non-urgent.”

UsForThem celebrated on Twitter:

BREAKING:

UK regulator finds Pfizer boss guilty of misinformation — full case report published.

Read our inside story here.

https://t.co/87aSbyHnC8

— UsForThemUK (@UsforThemUK) February 2, 2023

 

Neither Pfizer nor Bourla commented publicly on the ruling.

The Epoch Times reported that in a November 2022 statement on the case, a spokesman for Pfizer said the company was “committed to the highest levels of integrity in any interaction with the public.”

As of Feb. 12, the U.K. will no longer recommend COVID-19 boosters for healthy people under age 50, and will discontinue free distribution of the primary two-shot series,

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/albert-bourla-pfizer-ceo-covid-vaccine-kids-uk/

Growing Number of Physicians Refusing COVID19 Booster Shots

Dr Eddy Betterman

A growing number of doctors have voiced out their refusal to get injected with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) booster shots, citing a lack of clinical trial evidence.

Dr. Todd Lee of McGill University in Canada is one such doctor who rejected the boosters. Lee contracted the B11529 omicron strain despite being triple-vaccinated.

“I have taken my last COVID-19 vaccine with RCT (randomized clinical trial) level evidence it will reduce my risk of severe disease,” he tweeted. Lee alluded to the lack of results for the updated boosters, which were cleared for use in both the U.S. and Canada in the fall of last year based on data from mice experiments.

“Pay close attention to note that this isn’t anti-vaccine sentiment. This is ‘provide evidence of benefit to justify ongoing use,’ which is very different. It is only fair for a $30 billion-a-year product given to hundreds of millions,” he added.

Dr. Vinay Prasad of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) also remarked that he will not take any additional boosters unless clinical trial data becomes available. “I took at least one dose against my will,” he recounted. “It was unethical and scientifically bankrupt.”

Epidemiologist Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, also from UCSF, joined Lee and Prasad in opposing the boosters. She recounted how she experienced an adverse reaction to her first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, and that she took the second dose “against [her] will.”

“If I could do it again, I would not have had any COVID-19 vaccines,” Hoeg tweeted.

“I was glad my parents in their 70s could get COVID vaccinated, but have yet to see non-confounded data to advise them about the bivalent booster. I would have liked to see an RCT for the bivalent for people their age and for adults with health conditions that put them at risk.”

Other experts call for a stop to mRNA COVID shots

Other experts, meanwhile, urged a halt in the use of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines – particularly those from Pfizer and Moderna.

“At this point in time, all COVID mRNA vaccination [programs] should stop immediately,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Retsef Levi said in a video statement.

“They should stop because they completely failed to fulfill any of their advertised [promises] regarding efficacy. More importantly, they should stop because of the mounting and indispuGtable evidence that they cause unprecedented level of harm – including the death of young people and children.”

Levi pertained to myocarditis or inflammation of the heart muscle following vaccination, which authorities have acknowledged as linked to the COVID-19 shots. He cited two studies to back up his call.

The first study Levi cited found that nearly three in 10 children injected with Pfizer’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine suffered from cardiac issues. Meanwhile, the second study detected the presence of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antigens in the blood of vaccinated youth.

Louisiana-based physician and researcher Dr. Joseph Fraiman commented that “people should not be given the [vaccines] outside of a clinical trial.”

“I see the likelihood that the harm could outweigh the benefit in the group who stood to benefit the most from the vaccine,” he said. “I don’t see how anyone couldn’t be certain that the benefits are outweighing the harms on a population level, or even in the high-risk groups. I don’t see the evidence to support that claim.”

“Given alternative causes are unlikely to cause myocarditis within one week of vaccination, this is essentially conclusive evidence that we’re seeing sudden cardiac deaths from the vaccines.”

Fraiman and his colleagues re-analyzed the original Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trials that led to their approval. They concluded in a peer-reviewed study that vaccinated individuals were at higher risk of serious adverse events.

[…]

Via https://dreddymd.com/2023/02/03/growing-number-physicians-refusing-covid-19-booster-shots/

Vaccines and sudden infant death: An analysis of the VAERS database 1990–2019 and review of the medical literature

Neil S Miller

Toxicology ReportsVolume 8, 2021, Pages 1324-1335Highlights• Additive or synergistic toxicity may occur following multivalent vaccination.•Infant deaths post-vaccination are often misclassified as SIDS or suffocation in bed.•Of all reported SIDS cases post-vaccination, 75 % occurred within 7 days (p < 0.00001).•Inflammatory cytokines in the infant medulla act as neuromodulators causing prolonged apneas.•Adjuvants that cross the BBB may induce fatal disorganization of respiratory control.Abstract

Although there is considerable evidence that a subset of infants has an increased risk of sudden death after receiving vaccines, health authorities eliminated “prophylactic vaccination” as an official cause of death, so medical examiners are compelled to misclassify and conceal vaccine-related fatalities under alternate cause-of-death classifications. In this paper, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database was analyzed to ascertain the onset interval of infant deaths post-vaccination. Of 2605 infant deaths reported to VAERS from 1990 through 2019, 58 % clustered within 3 days post-vaccination and 78.3 % occurred within 7 days post-vaccination, confirming that infant deaths tend to occur in temporal proximity to vaccine administration. The excess of deaths during these early post-vaccination periods was statistically significant (p < 0.00001). A review of the medical literature substantiates a link between vaccines and sudden unexplained infant deaths. Several theories regarding the pathogenic mechanism behind these fatal events have been proposed, including the role of inflammatory cytokines as neuromodulators in the infant medulla preceding an abnormal response to the accumulation of carbon dioxide; fatal disorganization of respiratory control induced by adjuvants that cross the blood-brain barrier; and biochemical or synergistic toxicity due to multiple vaccines administered concurrently. While the findings in this paper are not proof of an association between infant vaccines and infant deaths, they are highly suggestive of a causal relationship.

[…]

Via https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214750021001268?via=ihub

Are Public Health Authorities Sacrificing Our Children on the Altar of Vaccines?

Marc Girardot

COVID, the pinnacle of a medical collective lunacy entrenched in vaccine propaganda at any cost, even at the expense of our children’s health. This needs to stop.

I want to give credit to and compliment Neil Z. Miller of the Institute of Medical and Scientific Inquiry in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for a courageous and insightful article that triggered and inspired me today : “Vaccines and sudden infant death: An analysis of the VAERS database 1990–2019 and review of the medical literature”. All of you should read it. It’s an eye opener.

[…]

Mislabeling Vaccination Deaths for 50 Years?

[…]

In 1979, the W.H.O. and the C.D.C. redesigned the ICD coding list – International Classification of Diseases – and erased the possibility for the world’s coroners to label a cause of death related to vaccination!

[…]

“Vaccines and sudden infant death: An analysis of the VAERS database 1990-2019 and review of the medical literature” by Neil Miller, 2021

In the US alone, in the past 25 year, nearly $ 5 billion have been awarded to 9,946 victims [2] of vaccination, or to their families. Obviously, 10,000 people represents the tip of a much larger iceberg. Those who had the clairvoyance to acknowledge vaccination harm, who had the fortitude and resources to fight for compensation and who benefited from the good fortune to win in court are a happy few in the tens of millions of vaccines injured, most of whom lived through their pain and health drama never knowing the vaccination was the cause of their Parkinson’s disease, or their cancer.

National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Monthly Statistics Report 

However there’s no question : In front of the Law, despite public health manipulations, vaccines harm exists and vaccination has been recognised as a killer in many cases, notably of babies.

Collectively, if we continue to hide vaccination harm, we will never get to understand the underlying cause of these dramas, and will never stop them.

[…]

Data show that for decades, public health officials and doctors have been playing Gods, indiscriminately injecting kids with an ever growing arsenal of products, occasionally killing them, often harming them for life.

Prior to the 1960s, the concept of sudden infant death syndrome didn’t even exist, and was not listed in the main causes of mortality. So, between 1960 and 1980, public health had to realise immunisation was a cause for serious concern. In 1979, they chose to hide it from the public and to protect vaccine manufacturers. And so harm has continued … as if nothing could be done to avoid vaccine adverse effects.

Between 1990 and 2019, 2,605 infant deaths were reported in VAERS, 78.3% of these deaths occurring within a week of vaccination! For the record, using a 59x myocarditis under-reporting factor (likely conservative) as per the Engler et al study on SmallPox vaccines – one can estimate that nearly 153,700 babies died of vaccination over thirty years. Some 5,120 families sorrowed each year during decades.

17% of all infant deaths reported in VAERS occur the day of vaccination. And 78% within a week!

That’s no coincidence. In any other business, that synchronicity would be evidence enough, specially given:

healthy kids don’t normally die,the stake are high: our kids’ lives!the precautionary principle would invite to a review, if not an immediate complete halt.

[…]

Public Health Authorities have managed to turn ethics upside-down supposedly for the greater good.

Except if it’s truly for the greater good, why are they spending so much energy trying to:

Erase all traces of vaccination-induced death or harm by stopping coroners using the appropriate label;Relabel vaccination-caused deaths with other illegal labels: bed suffocation, strangulation fallacies, COVID…Fragment and camouflage all adverse effects so as to make them acceptable (viral, bacterial, genetic, unexplainable!) as if Guillain-Barré, autism, SIDS, hepatitis or pediatric myocarditis hadn’t the same root cause. A very dark divide and conquer strategy built on hubris and arrogance, possibly corruption.

[…]

Whether it is to capture billions of dollars in revenue, or to pay tribute to the vaccine God (some are religious and utterly irrational about vaccines), we have sacrificed our collective health to this lunacy, and the emotional and economic consequences of this are simply gigantic.

Imagine if we could avoid many cancers, most Parkinson and Alzheimer’s diseases, MSI, autism…and more. That’s what we are contemplating, however hard it is to believe.

As we are witnessing in the gruesome aftermath of COVID vaccination, immumisation accidents occur frequently [4]

[…]

Throughout multiple articles, I have demonstrated that inadvertent intravascular injection of vaccines is a reality, and that the mechanism of harm [5]can – and will – apply across the endothelium according to the exposure of the endothelium. And so to SIDS, one needs to add clinical and sub-clinical damage to:

the brain likely explaining the explosion of autism this past 20 years,

the heart explaining the rise in pediatric myocarditis [6]the liver explaining hepatitis as we saw over summer

the bone marrow explaining children blood cancers such as Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia which particularly touch toddler below 5 years of age;

the pancreas with Type 1 Diabetes

Contrary to what we have been made to believe, vaccination is neither safe for our children, nor for us. Poor vaccination protocols have been the likely premier cause of illnesses for over a century.

[…]

Via https://covidmythbuster.substack.com/p/have-public-health-authorities-been