Accepted Memory Formation Model Refuted

This is a neat bit of science that clearly shows us that the working hypothesis simply does not work. Implied in all that is that repetition is effects memory formation when that would be quite an inefficient protocol. Why not infer instead that the mind makes a specific decision to retain a memory point which can then be over ridden by further work? Do not infer that this process is passive and automatic.

That certainly explains the plasticity of memory. In my own case I have observed my own mind balking at actual memorization of any kind whenever I tried to retain apparent nonsense. Yet if I choose to note something and I determine a need much later for that item, my memory becomes clear as glass. It really impresses folks when you reference an item read or a lecture comment from decades ago.

I have also noted that my mind also balks learning a mathematical proof that is flawed. A rather handy trick when working on new ideas or mushy old ideas. Think about this and then test your own mind to see if it works for you.

Bye the bye. A perfect memory allows you to know and believe every error produced by mankind while lacking sufficient skills to understand this. The process of remembering these errors naturally firmly embedded them in your mind making it almost impossible to change your thinking. Thus the majority of scholars who naturally depended on powerful memories are usually trapped by their own training.

Study refutes accepted model of memory formation

by Staff Writers

Baltimore MD (SPX) Jan 04, 2013

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Study_refutes_accepted_model_of_memory_formation_999.html

A study by Johns Hopkins researchers has shown that a widely accepted model of long-term memory formation - that it hinges on a single enzyme in the brain - is flawed. The new study, published in Nature, found that mice lacking the enzyme that purportedly builds memory were in fact still able to form long-term memories as well as normal mice could.

"The prevailing theory is that when you learn something, you strengthen connections between your brain cells called synapses," explains Richard Huganir, Ph.D., a professor and director of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Department of Neuroscience.

"The question is, how exactly does this strengthening happen?"

A research group at SUNY Downstate, led by Todd Sacktor, Ph.D., has suggested that key to the process is an enzyme they discovered, known as PKM-zeta. In 2006, Sacktor's group made waves when it created a molecule that seemed to block the action of PKM-zeta - and only PKM-zeta.

When the molecule, dubbed ZIP, was given to mice, it erased existing long-term memories. The molecule caught the attention of reporters and bloggers, who mused on the social and ethical implications of memory erasure.

But for researchers, ZIP was exciting primarily as a means for studying PKM-zeta. "Since 2006, many papers have been published on PKM-zeta and ZIP, but no one knew what PKM-zeta was acting on," says Lenora Volk, Ph.D., a member of Huganir's team. "We thought that learning the enzyme's target could tell us a lot about how memories are stored and maintained."

For the current study, Volk and fellow team member Julia Bachman made mice that lacked working PKM-zeta, so-called genetic "knockouts." The goal was to compare the synapses of the modified mice with those of normal mice, and find clues about how the enzyme works.

But, says Volk, "what we got was not at all what we expected. We thought the strengthening capacity of the synapses would be impaired, but it wasn't." The brains of the mice without PKM-zeta were indistinguishable from those of other mice, she says.

Additionally, the synapses of the PKM-zeta-less mice responded to the memory-erasing ZIP molecule just as the synapses of normal mice do.

The team then considered whether, in the absence of PKM-zeta, the mouse brains had honed a substitute synapse-building pathway, much in the way that a blind person learns to glean more information from her other senses.

So the researchers made mice whose PKM-zeta genes functioned normally until they were given a drug that would suddenly shut the gene down.

This allowed them to study PKM-zeta-less adult mice that had had no opportunity to develop a way around the loss of the gene. Still, the synapses of the so-called conditional knockout mice responded to stimuli just as synapses in normal mice did.

What this means, the researchers say, is that PKM-zeta is not the key long-term memory molecule previous studies had suggested, although it may have some role in memory.

"We don't know what this ZIP peptide is really acting on," says Volk. "Finding out what its target is will be quite important, because then we can begin to understand at the molecular level how synapses strengthen and how memories form in response to stimuli."

Other authors on the paper are Richard Johnson and Yilin Yu, both of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

This study was supported with funds from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (grant number NS36715), the National Institute of Mental Health (grant number T32MH15330) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Creature Stalking Dogs in Missouri Town

It is not small and easily cuts two inch deep slashes. More important though is two other key facts here. It kills and does not eat. And it is hanging around to challenge dogs. This is surely behavior conforming to the giant sloth which we have already investigated and described.

All cats generally avoid contact and they do eat their victims. They also avoid dogs because they know that dogs will form a pack and bring a human hunter along to finish the job after they are cornered. That is why human contact with the wild in daytime is so slight. They know better. Thus we can safely rule out anything we expect and know.

On the other hand, there were tracks unremarked and that needs to be addressed. Size matters here and claw marks should be in evidence. An alternative explanation could be a small bear although it is clear that these dogs are been stalked. Otherwise, after the first encounter, the dogs would be avoiding the creature. Thus it is something that has their number and is set on killing a few. That is what has everyone quite rightly spooked.

Unseen Beast Brutally Killing Dogs in Missouri Town

JANUARY 15, 2013
GREG NEWKIRK

http://whofortedblog.com/2013/01/15/unseen-beast-brutally-killing-dogs-missouri-town/

Since Thanksgiving, residents of Neosho, Missouri have been living in fear of a mysterious beast stalking their forest and viciously attacking their pets. The attacks have so far claimed the lives of two dogs, and the community has banded together to hire professional trackers over fears that the next set of incidents may happen to them.

Reta Liles is the owner of two dogs that have been attacked, one more fortunate than the other. Her golden lab, Buddy, was found dead, while her dog Punk’n survived with a set of ferocious battle wounds.

“Two slashes across her back, and in some places, it’s two inches deep,” Reta told the KSN Local News. ”It was bad. She was laid open from side to side.”

So far, at least 8 canine companions from the Mint Lane neighborhood have been the victims of the unexplained attacks, and it hasn’t just been the smaller breeds with the nasty run ins. Larger, more powerful dogs like pit bulls and mastiffs have been found wounded as well, prompting concern that whatever is behind the attacks is big, mean, and very scary.

“This thing needs to be relocated or eradicated or something. I don’t want to see any of my kids or my neighbors get tore up,” Reta said.

Leanna Williams, Reta Liles neighbor and the president of the Faithful Friends Animal Advocates, went so far as to write a piece for the Neosha Daily News about the creature.

My neighbor (and friend) had called me to say her Puggle, Punk’n, had been seriously injured with deep lacerations, across her back that started at her rib cage on one side and went all the way to her belly on the other side, as if something had tried to open her up like a can opener. [...]

This animal seems to attack for “sport.” It does not drag off or eat whatever it attacks but just leaves it to die. We are concerned about letting our dogs (or family members) spend time outdoors, especially at night, although these attacks have been at all times of day. When our family and grandchildren were here for the holidays, all were uneasy about going out and for good reason. Some neighbors have small children (smaller than these dogs), and are concerned about allowing their children outside to play until we know this thing is gone.

So far, whatever creature is to blame has not yet been seen, and the local game commission has stated that they won’t step in until visual evidence of the beast is presented to them, believing that the animal in question could be a coyote. Residents, however, don’t agree.

“Thought it was a mountain lion because of the depth of the tracks and so forth,” Liles said.

The community had banded together to install a few game cameras in hopes of capturing photographic evidence of the beast once and for all.

Has the Chupacabra migrated to snow-covered Missouri? Can a coyote really take down a pit bull in a battle to the death? Or has a bob cat recently gotten a taste for dogs? Let us know what you think on twitter @WhoForted, join the coversation on our official Facebook page, or chime in down in the comments section!

The Geological Relationship Between CO2 Concentrations and Sea Level

 First off, it is important to understand the actual sequence. When the climate warms more CO2 is released into the atmosphere and the sea level rises. The geological evidence gives us many such cycles. We have no geological evidence of CO2 release from geological sources and any such should be identified in some way.

What is true is that if our global heat content remains high, the ice will melt and more CO2 will leave the ocean and enter the atmosphere. The process can be expected top take centuries.

However, it is much more likely that we will be seeing a reversal in which the temperature drops somewhat at least and even potentially a lot. If we are lucky, we will have nice warm conditions lasting centuries. That would surprise me much more.

Please note that geologically, global warming produced higher CO2 as a lagging effect. There has been little if any evidence of the reverse.

The relationship between CO2 concentrations and sea level

by Staff Writers

Southampton UK (SPX) Jan 07, 2013

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/New_study_documents_the_natural_relationship_between_CO2_concentrations_and_sea_level_999.html

By comparing reconstructions of atmospheric CO2 concentrations and sea level over the past 40 million years, researchers based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton have found that greenhouse gas concentrations similar to the present (almost 400 parts per million) were systematically associated with sea levels at least nine metres above current levels.

The study determined the 'natural equilibrium' sea level for CO2 concentrations ranging between ice-age values of 180 parts per million and ice-free values of more than 1,000 parts per million.

It takes many centuries for such an equilibrium to be reached, therefore whilst the study does not predict any sea level value for the coming century, it does illustrate what sea level might be expected if climate were stabilized at a certain CO2 level for several centuries.

Lead author Dr Gavin Foster, from Ocean and Earth Science at the University of Southampton which is based at the centre, said, "A specific case of interest is one in which CO2 levels are kept at 400 to 450 parts per million, because that is the requirement for the often mentioned target of a maximum of two degrees global warming."

The researchers compiled more than two thousand pairs of CO2 and sea level data points, spanning critical periods within the last 40 million years. Some of these had climates warmer than present, some similar, and some colder. They also included periods during which global temperatures were increasing, as well as periods during which temperatures were decreasing.

"This way, we cover a wide variety of climate states, which puts us in the best position to detect systematic relationships and to have the potential for looking at future climate developments," said co-author Professor Eelco Rohling, also from Ocean and Earth Science at the University of Southampton.

The researchers found that the natural relationship displays a strong rise in sea level for CO2 increase from 180 to 400 parts per million, peaking at CO2 levels close to present-day values, with sea level at 24 +7/-15 metres above the present, at 68 per cent confidence limits.

"This strong relationship reflects the climatic sensitivity of the great ice sheets of the ice ages," said Dr Foster. "It continues above the present level because of the apparently similar sensitivity of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, plus possibly some coastal parts of East Antarctica."

According to the study, sea level stays more or less constant for CO2 changes between 400 and 650 parts per million and it is only for CO2 levels above 650 parts per million that the researchers again saw a strong sea level response for a given CO2 change.

"This trend reflects the behaviour of the large East Antarctic ice sheet in response to climate changes at these very high CO2 levels. An ice-free planet, with sea level 65 metres above the present, occurred in the past when CO2 levels were around 1200 parts per million."

Professor Rohling said, "Sea level rises to these high values will take many centuries, or even millennia, but the implications from the geological record are clear - for a future climate with maximum warming of about two degrees Centigrade, that is with CO2 stabilized at 400 to 450 parts per million, sea level is set to steadily rise for many centuries, towards its natural equilibrium position at around 24 +7/-15 metres, at 68 per cent confidence.

In Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change terms, this is a likely rise of at least nine metres above the present. Previous research indicates that such rises above present sea level may occur at rates of roughly one metre per century."

Based on these results, which document how the Earth system has operated in the past, future stabilization of CO2 at 400-450 parts per million is unlikely to be sufficient to avoid a significant steady long-term sea level rise.

The study is published this week online ahead of print in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS manuscript # 2012-16073R). Co-authors are Dr Gavin Foster (Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK) and Professor Eelco J. Rohling (Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK; and from 1 March 2013, Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia).

Apple as Superfood

The compelling take home here is that we should be eating three apples a day every day as a matter of course. I grew up doing just that rather curiously.

In practice, the weight of evidence favoring apples and fresh produce of all kinds is completely compelling. Not so compelling is any argument supporting meat which leaves you short in terms of the full spectrum of complex nutrients in exchange for easy energy.

As argued our original progenitors were tropical foragers who ate fruit continuously and everything else sporadically. Moving into less fruitful environs, we learned to depend on meat more and more as the harshness increased. Our bodies struggled to adjust.

Why The Apple Is One Of The World’s Most Healing Superfoods

January 8, 2013

Sayer Ji,

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/01/08/why-the-apple-is-one-of-the-worlds-most-healing-superfoods/

This commonly overlooked superfood protects the body from nuclear fallout, kills a wide range of cancers, and keeps the arteries unclogged – to name but a few, experimentally confirmed ways in which the apple awakens your inner physician.

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

This age old saying has never rang with greater promise and authority than it does today. As in the modern era, doctors bring with them a battery of tests, drugs, and interventions, all of which carry unintended, adverse health risks that often outweigh their purported benefits, and are therefore best avoided whenever possible.

Also, apples are also far cheaper than doctors, and in the worst case scenario of coerced ormandatory treatment can be thrown as a non-deadly (downright nutritious) form of self-defense.

While some might take this opening aphorism as mere folk medicine fantasy, the reality is that the medicinal properties of apple are well-documented within the biomedical literature.

For instance, apple consumption has been the subject of quite a few studies on colorectal cancer risk reduction. [i] [ii] [iii]  Other cancers that apple constituents have been studied to kill in pre-clinical research include:

• Liver Cancer: apple juice, apple pectin and apple peel has been experimentally confirmed to kill liver cancer,[iv]
• Breast Cancer: apples have been found to both prevent and to suppress mammary cancers in the animal model.[v]
• Multi-Drug Resistant Cancer: carotenoids extracted from apple have been found to inhibit drug resistant cancer cell line proliferation.[vi]
• Esophageal Cancer: An apple-derived procyanidin has been found to suppress esophageal cancer. [vii]
• Stomach Cancer: One of the ways in which apple constituents prevent stomach cancer is through their inhibition of Helicobacter pylori, one of the main infectious agents linked to both ulcer and gastric cancer.[viii]  But apple procyanidin has also been studied for its ability to directly induce programmed cell death within stomach cancer cells.[ix]

It is likely that many of the fundamental processes involved in cancer initiation and promotion are inhibited by apples and their constituents, and therefore apples may protect against far more cancers than referenced above. It appears that no matter what part of apple is studied, it has anti-tumor properties. Apple cider vinegar, for instance, has been found to contain an anti-tumor compound which results from the acetic acid fermentative process known as alpha-glycan.

Another proven way in which apples reduce the risk of cancer is through their ability to remove carcinogenic radioisotopes that have accumulated in our bodies as a result of the fallout from nuclear weapons, depleted uranium munitions, and nuclear energy and disaster-associated pollution, e.g. Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Post-Chernobyl, for instance, apple pectin was used to reduce Cesium-137 levels in exposed children, in some cases by over 60%.[x] From 1996 to 2007, a total of more than 160,000 “Chernobyl” children received pectin food additives. As a result, levels of Cs-137 in children’s organs decreased after each course of pectin additives by an average of 30-40%.[xi] Significant reductions were noted in as short a time period as 16 days.[xii]  Apple pectin has even been found to prevent the most deadly, and entirely man-made radioisotope, Plutonium-239, from absorbing in the gastrointestinal tract of animals fed it.[xiii]

We could, therefore, modernize our apple aphorism by saying “an apple a day keeps the nuclear fallout away.” And truly, there are very few other substances, natural or synthetic, that have ever been found to protect against plutonium exposure. Apples, therefore, are truly super-foods in this respect.

Other noteworthy “evidence-based” medicinal properties of apple include:

• Diarrhea: Apple, in combination with chamomile, shortens the course of unspecific diarrhea in children.[xiv]
• Hardening of the Arteries (Atherosclerosis): Preclinical research indicates that apple contains compounds which prevent the formation of plaque within the arteries.[xv] One rabbit study, for instance, found that apple juice was capable of preventing the progression of atherosclerosis in a high cholesterol diet induced model of atherosclerosis.[xvi]
• Overweight: A human study found significant weight loss associated with a daily intake of three apples or three pears among overweight women.[xvii]
• Anti-Aging (Brain): Apples have been found to prevent oxidative damage and impaired maze performance,[xviii]as well as decreases in cognitive performance in aging mice.[xix] Also, a study performed on mice found that apple juice actually reduced the production of pathological amyloid-beta levels (associated with Alzheimer’s disease) in the mouse brain.[xx]
• Bowel Inflammation: Preclinical research has found that apple procyanidins [xxi]reduces bowel inflammation.[xxii]
• Vaccine-Induced Toxicity: Many natural substances, including breast milk, have been found to decrease the synthetically-produced immune reaction associated with vaccines, and their adjuvants. Apple polyphenol counts among these, and has been found to prevent cholera toxin when used as an immune stimulant within vaccines from doing as much damage than it would otherwise do.
• Periodontal Disease: We all know the sensation that follows eating an apple – that astringent property, where our gums feel squeaky clean. This is due, in part, to quercetin, which is found in apples, tea and onions, for example. It bears significant antimicrobial properties.[xxiii] Apple polyphenol also protects against periodontal ligament cell destruction associated with Porphyromonas gingivalis, a pathogenic anaerobic bacteria, infection.[xxiv]
• Advanced Glycation End-products (AGEs): AGEs are associated with the oxidation of blood sugars, primarily. These sugars becomes caramelized when exposed to oxidants, and then binds to cell structures, e.g. fats/proteins, causing damage. Apple leaves have been found to have significant anti-AGE activity, including the vasoconstriction associated with AGE-induced endothelial dysfunction.[xxv]
• Hair Loss: Remarkably, a procyanidin, labeled B-2, from apples promotes hair growth, in the cell model.[xxvi]
• Staphylococcal Infections: Apple pectin has been shown to inhibit synthesis of types A and B staphylococcal enterotoxins, which can cause profound bodily damage.[xxvii]
• Influenza Infection: Over 60 years ago researchers found that the complex carbohydrates that make up apple pectin inhibit the infectivity of influenza A virus in chicken blood, as well in embryonated eggs, indicating its potential anti-influenza properties.[xxviii]

The list of evidence-based therapeutic properties of apple is rather extensive. To view the full range of experimentally confirmed benefits view them here: Apple’s Health Benefits.

Ultimately, this research on apples indicates how important whole foods are to our overall health. Apples are not medicine, rather, they are the means by which medicines become unnecessary. It is through authentic nourishment and detoxification – both functions which are provided to us through most fruits – that we prevent and treat disease (note: these statements likely will never be evaluated or approved by the FDA, because they are true). Also, fruit are archetypally beneficial foods for the human species; we have indexed over 300 experimentally confirmed health benefits of fruit on our database so far. Our evolutionary legacy (confirmed through modern genetic testing*) indicates that our pre-human ancestors lived in a jungle setting, where fruit would have been available year round.

This would, in fact, explain why we no longer synthesize vitamin c from glucose – we were so “spoiled” by the abundance of fruit available for so long that we gave up (via genetic mutation or atavism) our ability to provide it to ourselves.  Plants and animals live in symbiosis. For the same reason that our lungs take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide (which is live-giving to plants), the fruits of these same plants provide a seed (which we help disperse), and a flesh to entice us to consume it. Fruit, therefore, is a food source that is as ancient as human origins itself. Could this be one reason why apples seem capable of these amazing feats of healing? Perhaps.

Next time you crunch into a crisp, fresh, organic apple, consider all that it has to offer, not theoretically, but viscerally. Experience the joy (the word fruit, etymologically, comes from the Latin word frui, meaning ENJOY), on a first hand basis. Also, if you have never done an apple mono-diet before, consider it. It is not so much a fruit fast, as a feast. Grab a bag of organic apples, and whenever you are hungry eat one. You will be surprised by how immediate you are satiated, and how cleansing and liberating on the body the exclusive consumption of such a simple, perfect food like the apple really is. One can easily go a day or two using this approach, often with the result of feeling completely renewed and refreshed.

Resources

*Note: It is a little known and under-appreciated fact that all humans are born with a serious, life-threatening genetic defect: namely, the inability to manufacture Vitamin C.

This defect occurred approximately 63 million years ago, when our haplorrhini (“simple nosed”) primate predecessors lost the gene (Gulnolactone oxidase pseudogene – GULOP), responsible for the manufacture of Vitamin C from glucose.

The ability to synthesize Vitamin C, in fact, has been lost several times in vertebrates, e.g. in guinea pigs, some bats, some fishes, passeriform birds and in primates of the suborder Haplorrhini, which includes monkes, apes and humans.

• [i] Wieslaw Jedrychowski, Umberto Maugeri. An apple a day may hold colorectal cancer at bay: recent evidence from a case-control study. Rev Environ Health. 2009 Jan-Mar;24(1):59-74. PMID: 19476292

• [ii] Wieslaw Jedrychowski, Umberto Maugeri, Tadeusz Popiela, Jan Kulig, Elzbieta Sochacka-Tatara, Agnieszka Pac, Agata Sowa, Agnieszka Musial. Case-control study on beneficial effect of regular consumption of apples on colorectal cancer risk in a population with relatively low intake of fruits and vegetables. Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol. 2009 Mar;104(3):262-71. Epub 2009 Jan 20. PMID: 19926998

• [iii] H Deneo-Pellegrini, E De Stefani, A Ronco. Vegetables, fruits, and risk of colorectal cancer: a case-control study from Uruguay. Nutr Cancer. 1996;25(3):297-304. PMID: 8771572

• [iv] GreenMedInfo.com, Apple’s Anti-Liver Cancer Properties

• [v] GreenMedInfo.com, Apple’s Anti-Breast Cancer Properties

• [vi] Péter Molnár, Masami Kawase, Kazue Satoh, Yoshitaka Sohara, Toru Tanaka, Satoru Tani, Hiroshi Sakagami, Hideki Nakashima, Noboru Motohashi, Nóra Gyémánt, Joseph Molnár.Biological activity of carotenoids in red paprika, Valencia orange and Golden delicious apple. Phytother Res. 2005 Aug;19(8):700-7. PMID: 16177974

• [vii] Roberto Pierini, Paul A Kroon, Sylvain Guyot, Kamal Ivory, Ian T Johnson, Nigel J Belshaw.Procyanidin effects on oesophageal adenocarcinoma cells strongly depend on flavan-3-ol degree of polymerization. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2008 Dec;52(12):1399-407. PMID: 18683822

• [viii] GreenMedInfo.com, Helicobacter Pylori and Apples

• [ix] Hiroshige Hibasami, Toshihiko Shohji, Ichirou Shibuya, Kazuko Higo, Tomomasa Kanda.Induction of apoptosis by three types of procyanidin isolated from apple (Rosaceae Malus pumila) in human stomach cancer KATO III cells. Int J Mol Med. 2004 Jun;13(6):795-9. PMID: 15138614

• [x] V B Nesterenko, A V Nesterenko, V I Babenko, T V Yerkovich, I V Babenko. Reducing the 137Cs-load in the organism of “Chernobyl” children with apple-pectin. Swiss Med Wkly. 2004 Jan 10;134(1-2):24-7. PMID: 14745664

• [xi] Vassily B Nesterenko, Alexey V Nesterenko. 13. Decorporation of Chernobyl radionuclides. Phytother Res. 2009 Apr;23(4):564-71. PMID: 20002057

• [xii] G S Bandazhevskaya, V B Nesterenko, V I Babenko, T V Yerkovich, Y I Bandazhevsky.Relationship between caesium (137Cs) load, cardiovascular symptoms, and source of food in ‘Chernobyl’ children — preliminary observations after intake of oral apple pectin. Swiss Med Wkly. 2004 Dec 18;134(49-50):725-9. PMID: 15635491

• [xiii] V S Kalistratova, G A Zalikin, P G Nisimov, I B Romanova. [Study of the effect of a food additive Medetopect on metabolic kinetics of transuranic radionuclides in animal body]. Radiats Biol Radioecol. 1998 Jan-Feb;38(1):35-41. PMID: 9606404

• [xiv] Brigitta Becker, Ulrike Kuhn, Bettina Hardewig-Budny. Double-blind, randomized evaluation of clinical efficacy and tolerability of an apple pectin-chamomile extract in children with unspecific diarrhea. Arzneimittelforschung. 2006;56(6):387-93. PMID: 16889120

• [xv] GreenMedInfo.com, Apple’s Anti-Atherosclerosis Properties

• [xvi] Mahbubeh Setorki, Sedighe Asgary, Akram Eidi, Ali Haeri Rohani, Nafiseh Esmaeil.Effects of apple juice on risk factors of lipid profile, inflammation and coagulation, endothelial markers and atherosclerotic lesions in high cholesterolemic rabbits. Lipids Health Dis. 2009;8:39. Epub 2009 Oct 5. PMID: 19804641

• [xvii] Maria Conceição de Oliveira, Rosely Sichieri, Anibal Sanchez Moura. Weight loss associated with a daily intake of three apples or three pears among overweight women. Nutrition. 2003 Mar;19(3):253-6. PMID: 12620529

• [xviii] Flaubert Tchantchou, Amy Chan, Lydia Kifle, Daniela Ortiz, Thomas B Shea. Apple juice concentrate prevents oxidative damage and impaired maze performance in aged mice. Ann Clin Psychiatry. 2009 Jul-Sep;21(3):148-61. PMID: 16340085

• [xix] [No authors listed]. Apple juice concentrate maintains acetylcholine levels following dietary compromise. J Alzheimers Dis. 2006 Aug;9(3):287-91. PMID: 16914839

• [xx] Amy Chan, Thomas B Shea. Dietary supplementation with apple juice decreases endogenous amyloid-beta levels in murine brain. Int J Mol Med. 2010 Oct;26(4):447-55. PMID: 19158432

• [xxi] Naoto Yoshino, Kohtaro Fujihashi, Yukari Hagiwara, Hiroyuki Kanno, Kiyomi Takahashi, Ryoki Kobayashi, Noriyuki Inaba, Masatoshi Noda, Shigehiro Sato . Co-administration of cholera toxin and apple polyphenol extract as a novel and safe mucosal adjuvant strategy. Vaccine. 2009 Jul 30;27(35):4808-17. Epub 2009 Jun 17. PMID: 19539583

• [xxii] GreenMedInfo.com, Apples and Bowel Inflammation

• [xxiii] F Geoghegan, R W K Wong, A B M Rabie. Inhibitory effect of quercetin on periodontal pathogens in vitro. Phytother Res. 2009 Dec 2. Epub 2009 Dec 2. PMID: 19957242

• [xxiv] Hiroaki Inaba, Motoyuki Tagashira, Tomomasa Kanda, Takashi Ohno, Shinji Kawai, Atsuo Amano. Apple- and hop-polyphenols protect periodontal ligament cells stimulated with enamel matrix derivative from Porphyromonas gingivalis. J Periodontol. 2005 Dec;76(12):2223-9. PMID: 16332233

• [xxv] Thomas Dugé de Bernonville, Sylvain Guyot, Jean-Pierre Paulin, Matthieu Gaucher, Laurent Loufrani, Daniel Henrion, Séverine Derbré, David Guilet, Pascal Richomme, James F Dat, Marie-Noëlle Brisset . Dihydrochalcones: Implication in resistance to oxidative stress and bioactivities against advanced glycation end-products and vasoconstriction. Phytochemistry. 2009 Dec 18. Epub 2009 Dec 18. PMID: 20022617

• [xxvi] A Kamimura, T Takahashi. Procyanidin B-2, extracted from apples, promotes hair growth: a laboratory study. Sci Total Environ. 2010 Feb 13. Epub 2010 Feb 13. PMID: 11841365

• [xxvii] F S Fluer, D D Men’shikov, E B Lazareva, V Ia Prokhorov, A V Vesnin. [Influence of various pectins on production of staphylococcal enterotoxins types A and B]. Zh Mikrobiol Epidemiol Immunobiol. 2007 Nov-Dec(6):11-6. PMID: 18277535

• [xxviii] R H Green, D W Woolley. INHIBITION BY CERTAIN POLYSACCHARIDES OF HEMAGGLUTINATION AND OF MULTIPLICATION OF INFLUENZA VIRUS. J Exp Med. 1947 Jun 30;86(1):55-64. PMID: 19871655

About the Author

Sayer Ji is the founder and director of GreenMedInfo.com and co-author of the bookThe Cancer Killers: The Cause Is The Cure. His writings and research have been published in the Wellbeing Journal, the Journal of Gluten Sensitivity, and have been featured on Mercola.com, NaturalNews.com, Reuters.com, GaryNull.com, and Care2.com. Check out his newest project with co-author Tania Melkonian:EATomology: An Edible Philosophy of Food

Super Earthquake Hot Spots

 It is worth remarking that both Sumatra and Northern Japan were ultimately surprises. This allows us to identify the rick of such a surprise.

Other such risks as may still exist are remnant subsidence events left over from the Ice Age. That includes the Mid Atlantic Ridge and the Cuban Arc. The time frames there though are surely measured in thousands of years and have steadily lessened.

Otherwise it is all about the ring of fire and the impact of the Indian sub plate on the Middle East. That effect also extends into the Mediterranean.

There is still far too much country in the wrong place that is badly exposed to huge low probability risk.

Scientists pinpoint great-earthquake hot spots

by Staff Writers

Paris, France (SPX) Dec 11, 2012

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Scientists_pinpoint_great_earthquake_hot_spots_999.html

"We find that 87% of the 15 largest (8.6 magnitude or higher) and half of the 50 largest (8.4 magnitude or higher) earthquakes of the past century are associated with intersection regions between oceanic fracture zones and subduction zones," says Dietmar Muller, researcher at the University of Sydney in Australia and lead author of the Solid Earth paper. The connection is less striking for smaller earthquakes.

Powerful earthquakes related to these intersection regions include the destructive 2011 Tohoku-Oki and 2004 Sumatra events.

"If the association we found were due to a random data distribution, only about 25% of great subduction earthquakes should coincide with these special tectonic environments. Therefore, we can rule out that the link we found is just due to chance," he adds.

The researchers considered about 1,500 earthquakes in their study. They used a database of significant post-1900 events, as well as geophysical data mapping fracture zones and subduction zones, among others. They analysed information from these databases by using a specific data mining method.

"The method was originally developed for analysing online user data," says Thomas Landgrebe, also involved in the study. "The technique we apply is commonly used to find a few specific items which are expected to be most appealing to an Internet user. Instead, we use it to find which tectonic environment is most suitable for generating great earthquakes."

Since earthquake generation is a very complex process, the scientists don't yet have a complete understanding of why great earthquakes prefer the intersection areas. They suggest that it is due to the physical properties of fracture zones, which result in "strong, persistent coupling in the subduction boundaries," Landgrebe explains. This means that the subduction fault area is locked and thus capable of accumulating stress over long periods of time.

"The connection we have uncovered provides critical information for seismologists to, in the long run, pinpoint particular tectonic environments that are statistically more prone to strong seismic coupling and great earthquake supercycles," Muller says. An area with earthquake supercycles experiences recurring powerful earthquakes every few centuries or millennia.

Regions that have long earthquake supercycles are usually not picked up as risk areas by seismic hazard maps as these are constructed mainly using data collected after 1900. An example is the area of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, which had no record of large earthquakes over the past century and was not predicted to be of significant risk by previous hazard maps.

"The power of our new method is that it does pick up many of these regions and, hence, could contribute to much-needed improvements of long-term seismic hazard maps," Muller explains.

"Even though we don't fully understand the physics of long earthquake cycles, any improvements that can be made using statistical data analysis should be considered as they can help reduce earthquake damage and loss of lif

Epidemic of Homicidal Violence Med Driven

This article was recently prepared for Forbes Magazine and apparently will not run. This is no surprise. The industry is clearly attempting to outrun the lawsuits while redirecting rage to the NRA as pointed out here.

At best the science will be challenged and the challenge will lose in front of the courts just as tobacco lost. What is going to have to happen now is for defense lawyers to take the science into court to defend their mass murderer as a deliberate victim of clearly dangerous drugs. Then the publicity bandwagon will start to counter the gross abuse now obviously underway.

It will likely turn out that some of these drugs are actually safe and remain highly useful. Yet some are dangerous as can be. Doctors need to know which are which and to also have a real handle on known side effects in order to judge the patient's susceptibility.

The human mind is quite able to toss up unhealthy impulses in all of us. The healthy disciplined mind is quite able to wash those away as simply annoying. Drugs interfering with all that is a really bad idea as we are obviously discovering.

Perhaps we need a class action suit of all victims of an act of violence associated with these drugs launched. It would certainly allow data to be assembled and the true scope of the problem to emerge and be counted.

Way more important. Anyone using these drugs and their entire household should automatically be fully disarmed forthwith as part of any gun management legislation. It is clearly necessary. We do not understand enough to guarantee safety.

Psychiatric Drugs, Not A Lack Of Gun Control, Are The Common Denominator In Murderous Violence

JANUARY 14, 2013 · 11:25

Lawrence Hunter, Contributor Forbes.com

1/14/2013 @ 8:00AM

http://heavenearthandman.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/psychiatric-drugs-not-a-lack-of-gun-control-are-the-common-denominator-in-murderous-violence/

In 2000, New York legislators recognized the ubiquitous and unambiguous connection between violence, especially gun violence and mass murder, and the widespread prescribed use of psychiatric drugs. Senate Bill 7035 was introduced in the New York State Senate that year requiring police agencies to report to the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) on certain crimes and suicides committed by a person who is using psychiatric drugs, including assault, homicide, sex offenses, robbery offenses, firearms and other dangerous weapons offenses, kidnapping and arson. The preamble to the bill read, in part:

There is a large body of scientific research establishing a connection between violence and suicide and the use of psychotropic drugs in some cases. This research, which has been published in peer reviewed publications such as the American Journal of Psychiatry, The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and The Journal of Forensic Science, has shown, among other things, that: certain drugs can induce mania (a psychosis which can produce bizarre, grandiose and highly elaborated destructive plans, including mass murder);. . .and certain drugs can produce an acute psychotic reaction in an individual not previously psychotic.

The bill died in committee. Since that time, there have been at least 12 additional high-profile mass murders linked to the use of psychiatric drugs, about one a year. And, in virtually every mass school shooting during the past 15 years, the shooter has been on or in withdrawal from psychiatric drugs. Here is a partial list of 24 such horrific events that occurred since 1998, not including the Virginia Tech shootings and the recent Sandy Hook shootings where the authorities continue to suppress information about whether and to what extent the shooters were on or in withdrawal from a psychiatric drug.

These examples are not unique. According to the Citizens Commission On Human Rights International (CCHR), between 2004 and 2011, there were 12,755 reports to the U.S. FDA’s MedWatch system of psychiatric drugs causing violent side effects including: 1,231 cases of homicidal ideation/homicide, 2,795 cases of mania and 7,250 cases of aggression. Since the FDA admits that only one to ten percent of all side effects are ever reported to it, the actual occurrence of violent side effects from psychiatric drugs is certainly nine or ten times higher than the official data suggest.

Yet, federal and state governments continue to ignore the connection between psychiatric drugs and murderous violence, preferring instead to exploit these tragedies in an oppressive and unconstitutional power grab to snatch guns away from innocent, law-abiding people who are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution the right to own and bear arms to deter government tyranny and to use firearms in self defense against any miscreant who would do them harm. Therefore, it is pharmaceutical makers, not law-abiding gun owners or gun manufacturers, who should be held to account for the series of “lone-wolf,” mass shootings that have occurred since the widespread use of psychiatric drugs began.

Although it is doubtful any single variable can explain what causes someone to commit such unspeakable acts as we saw recently at Sandy Hook, one common denominator surfaces time and time again, in hundreds and hundreds of cases where a “lone wolf” commits violence, murder and mayhem for apparently no reason: Prescribed psychiatric drugs, which are well documented to induce mania, psychosis, violence, suicide and murder, including mass murder for no apparent reason by otherwise non-psychotic people.

Given the mass of supporting data linking psychiatric drug use/withdrawal and violence, and given the fact it has been ignored studiously by the U.S. Congress and federal agencies, it is well past time that Congress and state legislatures and government agencies at all levels formally investigate the well established link between prescribed use of psychiatric drugs, school shootings and similar acts of senseless violence.

This video reveals the indisputable connection between psychiatric drugs and violence, especially young “lone-wolf” shooters in gun massacres.

As psychiatrist Peter Breggin observes in the video:

“One of the things in the past that we’ve known about depression is that it very, very rarely leads to violence. It’s only been since the advent of these new SSRI drugs that we’ve had murderers even mass murders taking these antidepressant drugs.”

Instead of intimidating the NRA into negotiating away Americans’ Second Amendment rights through its seat at the table in Washington, the government should be demanding answers and explanations from PhRMA and the pharmaceutical companies.

Instead of extorting NRA chairman Dave Keene and NRA president Wayne LaPierre into participating with the gun snatchers’ efforts to nullify the Second Amendment in the name of reducing gun violence, why aren’t the White House and Congress putting former Business Roundtable President and current head of PhRMA, John Castellani, along with the presidents of the pharmaceutical companies on the hot seat?

Why isn’t Castellani sitting in on White House and congressional meetings about the connection between his products and mass shootings instead of Keene and LaPierre of the NRA?

Why isn’t there a White House Task Force on the connection between psychiatric drugs and violence, suicide and murder, both gun related and otherwise?

Why aren’t there congressional hearings on the connection between violence and psychiatric drugs?

Why aren’t there bills being introduced in Congress and state legislatures to tighten down on the indiscriminate, unmonitored use of these killer drugs?

Why is the government still suppressing information about the shooters’ psychiatric drug use at Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech?

Why is the government turning America into a police state in the name of protecting us against nonexistent “reefer madness” while it turns a blind eye to the real, deadly med madness created by psychiatric drugs and the uncontrollable violent rages they produce in some people?

Could it be there is a quiet conspiracy afoot among pharmaceutical companies, the government and the gun grabbers to make Mr. and Mrs. Gun Owner of America the patsies for the violence and to blame lone-wolf violence on guns rather than psychiatric drugs?

Could it be that power-hungry politicians and gun snatchers are out to exploit rare tragedies such as Sandy Hook and use the blood of innocent children to scare America into giving up its constitutional rights to own and bear arms and use them as a deterrent against tyranny?

Could it be that big pharma is today’s big tobacco?

Could it be there is an intentional effort underway in the centers of power in Washington, DC to hide the truth from the American people about the strong connection between psychiatric drugs and violence and to protect the pharmaceutical companies from civil and criminal charges for their responsibility in these heinous crimes?

Could that be the explanation for why there continue to be lawsuits against gun manufacturers — not for defects in their products but rather for the misuse of their products by drug-addled individuals — and why there are few lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for the obvious flaws in their products, which are producing violence and mayhem?

Could it be the Gun Control movement is simply a blind; just an effort by the triple alliance of left-fascists, big-government politicians and big-pharma prescription-drug dealers to dose and oppress the American people in the name of public safety, “officer safety” and social order?

The gun snatchers such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg all shamefully exploit the bloody murder of children as a pretext to nullify the Second Amendment and short arm the American public with their so-called “assault-weapons” ban and ammunition/clip restrictions. The fact is, the kinds of guns used by mass shooters are far less relevant than the kinds of drugs they were prescribed.

Could that be the explanation for why there continue to be lawsuits against gun manufacturers — not for defects in their products but rather for the misuse of their products by drug-addled individuals — and why there are few lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for the obvious flaws in their products, which are producing violence and mayhem?

Could it be the Gun Control movement is simply a blind; just an effort by the triple alliance of left-fascists, big-government politicians and big-pharma prescription-drug dealers to dose and oppress the American people in the name of public safety, “officer safety” and social order?

The gun snatchers such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg all shamefully exploit the bloody murder of children as a pretext to nullify the Second Amendment and short arm the American public with their so-called “assault-weapons” ban and ammunition/clip restrictions. The fact is, the kinds of guns used by mass shooters are far less relevant than the kinds of drugs they were prescribed.

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