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“Must be 21” (UN agenda)

21IMAGE

In the 1910s, the discovery of zinc, lead, and iron ore turned Treece, Kans., from a desolate outpost into a mining boomtown. The population went from a few dozen to more than 20,000, and billions of dollars worth of iron ore were produced, much of it during the two World Wars.

But when the mines were exhausted, so were the jobs, and the town then lost the restaurants, clothiers, grocers, hardware stores, car lots, furniture dealers, barber shops, and construction companies whose existence had been made possible by the mining income.

All that was left to indicate the town’s mining past were rusting signs and unsightly chat piles. But the few persons who remained had to deal with more than the loss of jobs, stores, and friends. The lead pollution made it an unsafe place to live, so the EPA offered buyouts to the residents, with plans to clean up the soil once the town was emptied. Of the 80 residents who were offered payments to leave, all but two accepted. The UK’s Daily Mail profiled the pair of holdouts as part of a backdrop on an article that detailed Treece’s rise, collapse, and poisoning.

There was no fooling reader John, who fumed, “Utter bull. This is Agenda 21 in action. Using taxpayers’ money to clear people out of an area and into bigger population centers. It’s all in the UN documents.”

He got that last part right. Most conspiracy theories center on something being kept secret: Area 51, 9/11 being an inside job, a hidden cancer cure. But some theories, like the one centering on Agenda 21, takes publicly available information and misinterprets or distorts it.

Agenda 21 grew out of an international UN conference in 1992. It is related to sustainable development and is a non-binding suggestion to local, regional, and federal governments. It aims to combat poverty, achieve a more sustainable population, protect the environment, and strengthen the underprivileged. Its implementation has been hampered because of a misinformed opposition.

Opposition can include reader John, or others more prominent, such as Colorado gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes, who described a proposed bike-sharing program as an “attempt to turn Denver into a United Nations community.” Meanwhile, the Republican Party platform opposes Agenda 21 as a violation of U.S. sovereignty, and some states have prohibited government participation in it.

Most of this fear has been sown by Glenn Beck, who offers such phrases such as, “They will put their fangs into our communities and suck all the blood out of it, we will not be able to survive.”

Beck wrote a novel about the country being completely enveloped by Agenda 21, and one line reads, “Once-proud people of America have become obedient residents who live in barren, brutal Compounds and serve the autocratic, merciless Authorities.” While that sentence is from a work of fiction, it is indistinguishable from the language Beck and other opponents used to portray what they call a future reality. I relish dystopian novels like 1984 and Darkness at Noon, and it’s a shame Beck wasted a potentially fine example of such in order to tilt at UN windmills and stoke fears of an imaginary enemy.

Beck says code words bely the danger. Sure, some are phrases conservatives are already averse to: wetlands, climate change, social justice. But also be wary of “local,” “vision,” “high speed rail,” “economy,” “restoration,” and “consensus.” The list of more than 100 words that will lead to our eventual displacement and internment are here.

So “safe school route” is to be properly read as “forced resettlement behind barbed wire.” Once persons are concentrated and restricted to overcrowded barracks, they will be dressed in mandatory uniforms, while the government suspends the Constitution and asserts ownership of all natural resources.

The John Birch Society warns that Agenda 21 “seeks to curtail your freedom to travel, own a gas-powered car, live in suburbs or rural areas, and raise a family.” Trying desperately to match the society for hyperbole, Beck offers that “sustainable development is just a really nice way of saying centralized control over all human life on Earth.”

In actuality, Agenda 21 is merely a suggestion that local planning and zoning boards consider environmental impact when doing expansion or renovation. Most of these mid-level bureaucrats had never heard of Agenda 21 until they were descended on by Beck minions, who accused them of stamping out civil liberties and plotting a roundup of the masses.

Unlike most conspiracy theories, the adherents of this one are able to influence government action, or more accurately, the lack thereof. A proposal to increase development and reduce traffic around a Maine highway was interpreted thusly by the theorists in a Tea Party alert: “This is the hard core agenda 21. This is the centralized planning for the de-industrialization of large segments of Maine, and the relocation and isolation of the population into human habitation zones.”

Stacy Benjamin, Maine’s Department of Transportation project manager, said she had never heard of Agenda 21 or its human habitation zones until a handful of believers showed up during a public comment session and succeeded in getting the project shuttered.

Then in La Plata County, Colo., a 17-member group was tasked to “to rein in sprawl, encourage bicycling and public transportation, protect agriculture and promote sustainability.” For theorists, this was not a local solution to land use issues, but was instead a dictate from NWO headquarters to invade and conquer. The proposal was voted down.

Meanwhile in Tampa, Agenda 21 opponents engineered the defeat of a measure to fund light rail and road improvements. The Tampa Bay Examiner suggested this proposal was a “cover for an agenda to transfer American sovereignty to various tentacles of the United Nations.”

In these cases, the proposed changes are not being debated on their merits. Opponents of sustainable growth are able to succeed without making logical, deductive arguments against sustainable growth. Even if the proposal makes sense for the community, this is overriden by the warnings of it being ordered by international subjagators. 

In Wyoming, the Constitution Party candidate for Laramie County Commission, Frank Smith, learned of Agenda 21 through his membership in the John Birch Society. He wasn’t too concerned until his hometown was visited by the horror of smart meters.

“New appliances have smart chips in them, and these meters can be shut off at the headquarters,” Smith said in an interview with the Wyoming News. “It also allows people to monitor your electric usage minute by minute. It’s another way of controlling things and giving them the ability to spy on you.”

Suddenly, Smith saw what was going on. “You’ve got the EPA and HUD coming into communities to do public projects. The idea is to throttle transportation, narrow the streets, and get people out of their personal vehicles into mass transit. “

Today, choosing to get on the bus. Tomorrow, forced by bayonet into a cattle car.

 

 

 

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“No need to get snippy” (Circumcision)

NOSCISSORS

Because a Middle East nomad wrote a myth during the Bronze Age, U.S. males routinely have their healthy flesh mutilated at birth in a procedure as painful and unnecessary as slicing off an earlobe.

In the tale, Yahweh told 99-year-old Abraham that his nonagenarian wife would give birth to Isaac, and that the subsequent generations would make Abe the patriarch of a favored nation. Yahweh asked in return that Abraham and his male descendants be circumcised. So, to continue being blessed, Jewish parents then and now practice the procedure. 

It consists of strapping down and restraining a baby, then cutting off the foreskin,  dividing tissues that don’t come apart easily. This is so painful that some African and South Pacific religions use it as an initiation ritual for teenagers. Being able to weather highly-innervated tissue being cut off shows that the youngster is worthy of manhood.

For those born into other religions, specifically Judaism and Islam, the procedure is  performed at birth. Even though Christians reject most Old Testament rules, slicing off parts of infant penises is one that has been kept.

There is one other religious reason that infant circumcision has remained the norm in the United States. In 19th Century America, circumcision was part of the anti-masturbation movement. For reasons unclear, crusaders believed removing the foreskin would take away the pleasure and thereby discourage boys from accessing the self-service pump. I know I’m not much on anecdotal evidence, but I can attest this is an ineffective strategy. While this theory, and anti-Onanism in general, has fallen out of favor, the accompanying circumcision has endured.

Some of the reasons cited by circumcision advocates are so that the baby will look like his father, or would be made fun of in adolescence, or be unattractive to potential mates. These are horrible justifications for subjecting a baby to an unnecessary painful procedure that slices away a healthy, functioning part of the body. Another pro-snip plank is that an intact penis can produce a buildup of sebum and skin cells, but this innocuous substance easily washes away.

There are rare times that circumcision makes sense, such as in instances of penile cancer. But wholesale whacking is as nonsensical as removing breasts from every developing female in order to preempt breast cancer. If we performed routine infant appendectomies, appendicitis would be eliminated. But we don’t do that because of the risk/reward analysis. Abdominal surgery is too dangerous to justify without there being an immediate need.

While uncommon, there are instances of babies suffering long-term effects from circumcision. These effects include deformity, infection, amputation, and death. This century in New York City, at least 11 babies have been infected with herpes when Ultraorthodox rabbis passed the disease onto them during a hybrid of religious ritual and sexual assault. In this rite, rabbis slice the newborn’s penis, then suck the blood out. There have been at least two infant deaths that have resulted from this contracting of herpes. That’s a mighty steep price to prevent potential mocking in a middle school locker room.

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“Left, right, wrong” (Brain hemisphere dominance)

BRAIN
One of the enduring ideas about the human brain is that its hemispheres determine someone’s personality and cognitive skills. Those who are organized and good at math are considered left-brained, while those who are intuitive and artistic are labeled right-brained. Not sure where that leaves me, given my less than stellar grades in both algebra and drawing classes.

As it turns out, however, the idea of persons being either left-brained or right-brained dominant lacks a scientific grounding.

True, the brain is divided into left and right hemispheres, which are responsible for different tasks. But just because there are functions that take place in one hemisphere, that does not mean this drives personalities or cognitive abilities.

For one thing, not all cognitive abilities are specific to either left or right. Short-term memory depends on the frontal lobe, which is housed in both hemispheres. Also, long-term memory (if I’m recalling correctly) is maintained by neural connections that run throughout the brain.

Then there are abilities like vision processing that localize in one hemisphere for the benefit of the other side.

But let’s get back to the abilities that localize in one hemisphere, such as language on the left and music on the right. It is these delineations that likely gave birth to the left-brained, right-brained myth. However, researchers in a 2013 study examined subjects’ MRI scans and deduced there was no scientific basis for the notion of hemisphere-dominant cognitive styles. When performing tasks, the subjects showed activity in either the left or right side, but none of them demonstrated a pattern of being consistently dominant in one hemisphere.

Another reason for this myth is a misunderstanding of the results achieved by neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga and neurobiologist Roger Sperry when they were doing doctorate research. Sperry discovered that slicing the connective fibers of monkeys’ brains resulted in the right side of the brain seeming not knowing what the left side was doing. This suggested the fibers may serve as communication wires between the two hemispheres.

Gazzaniga found a similar effect in epilepsy patients when these fibers were severed to prevent seizures from spreading through the brain. When one of his patients who had had this surgery was shown a picture that only his left hemisphere could process, the patient was able to identify it. But when trying to process the image with his right hemisphere, the patient could only point at the picture, and was unable to name it.

Gazzaniga theorized that both hemispheres usually process an image, but that only the left can articulate what it is. Even though this research suggests the two hemispheres communicate with each other to help us execute cognitive tasks, popular culture has embraced an opposite idea that the hemispheres are segregated, and that this determines what kind of person we are and what kind of abilities we possess.

As to the difference between a neuroscientist and a neurobiologist, I don’t know. My left hemisphere is misfiring today.

 

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“Theoretical improbability” (True conspiracy theories)

CONSP

Without question, there are conspiracies, which occur when two or more people plot to do something, usually illegal or harmful. It’s also certain that there are theories, which are a set of ideas intended to explain facts or events.

So strictly speaking, the idea that the Tsaranev brothers were responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing could be considered a conspiracy theory. But this designation fails in any meaningful sense because what we call conspiracy theorists reject ideas propagated by the mainstream media or government. Many theorists highlight a list of incidents in which the government was caught doing something unsavory, and use it to establish that conspiracy theories are real, and say they are out to expose more. However, what are passed off as proven conspiracy theories were exposed by government insiders or investigative journalists, not by WakeTheSheeple’s YouTube channel.

For example, the Lincoln assassination involved at least nine conspirators and there were plans for George Atzerdot to take out Vice President Johnson and for Lewis Powell to kill Secretary of State William Seward. This was revealed in a court room, not a chat room, and the details were announced by government prosecutors, not by those whispering about captive aliens, Rothschild wars, and other sinister secrets.

Brian Dunning at Skeptoid has identified two criteria that need to be satisfied if we are to credit someone with exposing a conspiracy. First, the theory must be falsifiable. Dunning explained, “You can’t just say ‘Some airplanes spray an unknown chemical.’ But if you say ‘United Airlines tail number NC13327 is equipped to spray VX nerve gas, and that one right there is spraying it right now,’ then that’s a claim that can be disproven with a single inspection.” So if I write, “The Illinois government is doing something corrupt with tax dollars,” that’s probably going to be “proven” at some point. But it lacks any specifics that would make it an exposé on my part.

Second, any secret knowledge needs to be uncovered by the theorist first. Richard Nixon’s presidency did not unravel because of the dogged determination of conspiracy theorists. It happened because two investigative journalists did interviews, examined evidence, and pieced together a puzzle that revealed the truth behind the Watergate break-in and cover-up.

And when doing genuine investigations, the only goal is the truth. If a reporter or detective comes across a piece of evidence that cast doubts on their suspicions, they weigh that with other information they’ve gathered and, if justified, will go down another path. By contrast, a conspiracy theorist considers any evidence that disproves the theory to be part of the conspiracy. Consider Barack Obama’s birth announcement in Honolulu newspapers. Birthers answered this by insisting his stateside relatives were tipped off by his parents in Kenya, then submitted a request for a Certificate of Live Birth from the state of Hawaii, and finally submitted this certificate to the newspapers. Likewise, Earth’s image on the moon during a lunar eclipse is attributed by Flat Earthers to an unexplained object that orbits near the sun. NASA knows when this mystery object will pass between the sun and moon, then announces there will be as a lunar eclipse at that time.

No one is claiming we live in a world free of government malfeasance and attempts to keep it quiet. But we learn of corruption and abuse from reporters and government insiders, not from Alex Jones, Jesse Ventura, and David Icke. They and their fellow theorists claim they are bringing evil to light and point to what they consider conspiracy theories that were proven to be true.

Usually topping the list if the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was used as a pretext for the United States to enter the Vietnam War. No one disputes that on Aug. 2, 1964, a small naval battle took place between U.S. and North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin. It was a purported skirmish two days later in the same locale that is doubtful.

That day, U.S. forces fired on radar targets, but no one reported seeing any North Vietnamese. As the action, or lack thereof, was unfolding, the USS Maddox commander communicated to the Pentagon that no enemies were giving or receiving fire. What’s more, Sen. Wayne Morse held a press conference that day saying the supposed attack was unsupported by evidence. All of this played out in public from the start. The U.S. entered the war following an attack that was either intentionally fabricated or based on sloppy intelligence. But this was all pointed out by military officers and senators right away and nothing was exposed by conspiracy theorists.

Another example touted as a genuine conspiracy theory was the FBI attempting to foil the U.S. civil rights movement. This really happened, under the bureau’s domestic counter-intelligence program. But this was exposed by eight men who broke into an FBI office, seized 1,000 documents related to the program, and mailed them to newspapers. Until this point, no one had leveled accusations that the FBI was working to hamper the civil rights movement, especially in the specific ways that were exposed in the stolen documents. This might have been a victory for vigilante justice, but not for conspiracy theorists.

Then we have the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, one of the most revolting events in U.S. history. For 40 years, the government provided free health care to black sharecroppers, many of whom had syphilis. This appeared benevolent, but after the disease became treatable with penicillin, the government withheld the cure in order to conduct further studies on 600 blacks. These victims suffered painful deaths, blindness, and other ailments that could have been prevented. Theorists consider this another feather in their tinfoil cap. However, no theorist had suggested the government was engaging in this specific atrocity. It became known only when a former Public Health Service investigator revealed it in 1972.

Dunning studies this issue extensively and has said he “can’t find a single case of a conspiracy theorist having made a specific, falsifiable claim that was later proven true by investigators.”

Indeed, Watergate, the Gulf of Tonkin, FBI domestic counter-intelligence, and Tuskegee were all exposed by reporters or whistleblowers. Meanwhile, we are still waiting for WakeTheSheeple and his cronies to provide solid evidence that the government created AIDS, is poisoning the populace with chemtrails, and brought down Pan Am Flight 103 with the assistance of drug smugglers.

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“Ghost is the machine” (Infrasound)

ghostfreq

Most ghostly encounters center on location. They are more likely to occur in a 19th Century three-story New England mansion than in subdivision ranch home, and much more likely than at a Sav a Lot. They occur in homes built on former Indian burial grounds, but probably not on the site of a former fabric store. Also relevant is the time of day, as most ghostly encounters occur at night.

However, there may be larger factor than location, time, or even expectation. This was addressed in an article in Cracked, which has undergone one of the more amazing transformations in U.S. pop culture history. Once a Mad Magazine clone, it is now an online source with insightful articles on a broad range of topics featuring humor, intelligence, and social commentary.

And one of its articles told the tale of how a lab assistant’s ear bleed led to a potential discovery about what really happens during ghostly experiences. Scientist Vladimir Gavreau noticed his assistant was bleeding from the ear and, in the spirit of discovery and strangeness, put various vibrating pipes near the assistant and discerned that pipes of a certain length and weight led to mental and physical discomfort for the assistant. Garvrea had discovered infrasound, which is noise whose frequency is low enough that humans can sense it but not hear it. The hypothesis is that it drives a person bonkers to receive sensory input without knowing where it’s coming from.

This was put to scientific, albeit unethical, test when low frequency sounds were unleashed on an unwitting concert audience, with 22 percent reporting feelings of dread, chills, and depression. Researchers have found that sounds between seven and 19 Hertz can elicit these symptoms, along with nausea, disorientation, and loss of equilibrium.

A more proper test was conducted by engineer Vic Tandy after he and fellow researchers experienced all these unpleasantness in their laboratory. For added spookiness, they were also seeing gray shapes out of the corner of their eyes. Tandy deduced that these experiences were confined to a specific section of the laboratory. Also in this location, metal sheets would vibrate uncontrollably when placed in a vice.

He traced the culprit to an air conditioner ventilator emitting low frequency vibrations that bounced off the lab’s walls at 18.9 Hertz. It was even powerful enough to cause the blurry peripheral vision because the vibrations were subtly affecting the eyeballs. Once the ventilator was removed, the fear and apparitions disappeared.

Tandy further tested this idea in an allegedly haunted abbey. Local lore had it that visitors to the abbey cellar would become nauseous and see gray ghostly images in their periphery. Tandy investigated and learned the cellar’s shape was creating a chamber that caused frequencies to resonate at 18.9 Hertz. Unlike Ghost Hunters, engineers actually find what they are looking for, but no one would watch a show that solves the mystery after one episode.

I pride myself on considering new ideas and challenging my preconceptions. When I first heard that race was social construct, it contradicted what I thought I knew and what I considered to be reasonable, perhaps even obvious. But setting that bias aside and considering the science and evidence, my position changed. And it will change back if a better case is made for race realism. I have, in fact, read three essays that purported to make the case for race being a biologic reality. But they were skimpy on the science and failed to even identify the races, so my position for now is that race is a social construct. Similarly, while praising the Scientific Method and peer review, I have included in my blog an overview of the shortcomings and potential for manipulation contained within them. My primary interest is finding and promoting the truth.

So while the infrasound explanation is attractive to a skeptic, I must point out that not all studies have reached this conclusion. One example of this was a double blind study conducted by Dr. Richard Wiseman and associates. For the study, actor Todd Robbins read a story about a professor who had been murdered in the hotel room the volunteers had assembled in. All the while, low frequency sounds were pumped in (or not, depending on which group it was). The results showed no statistically significant difference in responses between the group that was exposed to infrasound and the group that was not. Nor was there any difference in the reactions of self-described skeptics and self-described believers.

For now, there have not been enough studies conducted on this issue to reach a sound conclusion. The Wiseman experiment may prove to be an outlier, or it may be part of metadata that refutes the infrasound-instead-of-poltergeist hypothesis. In science, nothing is ever proven, we can only add to the body of evidence that suggests one outcome is the most likely one. The feelings of dread may come from infrasound, they may come from ghosts, but whatever the source, we’ll keep searching for it, and that is good science.

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“Hear we go again” (Binaural beats)

headphone

Many times, what skeptics see as scientifically invalid, New Agers see as mysterious and benevolent, and conspiracy theorists see as hushed up and dangerous. This can even apply to how headphones are used.

When two different tones are played in each ear, it creates the illusion of a single beat. These are called binaural beats and are touted by some as a way to have a safe, legal high. It is the auditory equivalent of the urban legend that dried banana leaves mimic marijuana.

While binaural beats exist, they do not affect the listeners beyond whatever pleasure they receive from the music. Those who assert it does much more than that base their claims on a misunderstanding of how brain waves function.

Brain waves are patterns of activity repeated several times per second and can be detected by an electroencephalograph. The basic brainwaves are their correlating conditions are: Delta (sleeping), theta (sleepy), alpha (relaxed), beta (alert), and gamma (hyper).

The crucial point, however, is that brain states produce brain waves; brain waves don’t produce brain states. Theta waves may be detected as you are drifting off to sleep watching Sesame Street, but replacing Grover’s ruminations with a gamma wave recording will not snap you back to a heightened state.

And it certainly won’t have the physical and mental benefits attributed to them by a number of proponents. These benefits include dieting, smoking cessation, memory aid, and pain relief. If desiring more of a New Age flavor, we are also promised a higher state of consciousness, third eye awareness, and chakra balancing. Makers of the I-Doser go so far as to claim different binaural beats are the equivalent of taking prescription medication. However, while a person may exhibit certain brain wave patterns while taking prescription medication for heartburn, we cannot create those waves to get the medical benefits. The music will do nothing to inhibit acid production or impact any other condition.

Many proponents cite as proof the experiments of 17th Century Dutch mathematician and scientist Christiaan Huygens. When Huygens placed two pendulum clocks side by side on a wall, he noticed the pendulums eventually became exactly opposite from the other. When one was at the far left of its swing, the other was at the far right. Binaural beat therapy practitioners consider this an example of how systems can become connected through an unexplained energy field.

However, Brian Dunning at Skeptoid explained that this is not what happened with Huygens’ timepieces. When Huygens took one clock off the wall, the effect disappeared. This is because when the pendulum swung, it imparted a tiny, equal, and opposite reaction to the wall. “And with two clocks on the wall,” Dunning wrote, “the system naturally sought the lowest energy level, per the laws of thermodynamics.” Thus, each pendulum swung counter to the other.

Lacking favorable results in double blind studies, proponents fall back on anecdotes. But these rely on the placebo effect and the power of suggestion. As Dunning noted, “If I give you a music track and tell you that it will cure your headache, you’re more likely to report that it cured your headache than you are to say, ‘It didn’t effect my headache, but it made my short-term memory better.’”

While New Agers are finding positive attributes that aren’t there, conspiracy theorists have spotted attempts to control our behavior. Not necessarily through binaural beats, but through the similar extreme low frequency waves. These cover the same range as brain waves, so some theorists believe that Illuminati reptilians or similar critters induced brain waves through HAARP and used them as a mind control device. Curiously, the perpetrators never used this power to convince the theorists of HAARP’s benevolence, or to subliminally suggest they bake them cinnamon rolls.

 

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“Dust in the lens” (Soul photo)

ghostcycle

The photo above is from a fatal motorcycle crash last week and features a white, vaguely humanoid figure rising above the site. Some are claiming this image is of the man’s soul or of an angel. I even encountered one person speculating it was the demon who caused the wreck.

The idea of it being a soul escaping his dying body is contradicted by the fact that the victim died in the hospital, not on the highway. Some of the more creatively credulous have speculated that perhaps God lets spirits in such cases go to Heaven a little early so the person no longer suffers, and it only appears they are writhing, moaning, or crying. This, of course, is based on no evidence whatsoever, and is using an unprovable notion to justify another unprovable one.

Even if we go the angel or demon route, we have the sizable obstacle of none of the emergency workers or other witnesses on the scene reporting having seen this supernatural entity. It is only visible in the viral photo. The idea that spirts can be captured in an in-between world of video and photography dates to almost the advent of film. But if this really happened, we would be seeing regular instances of it. Yet no souls are seen leaving the body in videos of the Sept. 11 attacks. The extensive coverage of World War II battles features no departing spirits. The macabre compilations of suicides and other deaths on YouTube and other sites are likewise spirit-free.

Souls were once presented in Christian folklore as naked children, symbolizing an innocence that came with leaving a sinful body and world. Ghosts later became clothed adults, with chains for added effect. Today, they are most often detected in orb form since photo defects make the white circles more ubiquitous in photographs. This is especially true when the photo is taken at night or features a high contrast. The motorcycle victim, however, is a retro ghost since it somewhat resembles a body, though lacking extremities and facial features.

Proving either way whether the milky image is a soul is nearly impossible, so we will consider potential earthbound explanations. One suggestion is that the image is indeed the remnant of the deceased, as it is an out-of-focus bug that splattered on the windshield of the photo taker. However, that man, Saul Vazquez, said he took the photo out a side window, which he rolled down before snapping it. Indeed, for Vazquez to have taken the photo through his windshield, he would had to have been parked sideways on the shoulder. Besides, there’s no reason to disbelieve him when he says he rolled down the window.

So with a fauna explication not forthcoming, let’s consider a flora one. The image shows foliage emerging from the shade of trees in the area, so we may be seeing a tree trunk or light-colored branch. It could also be sunlight coming between the space between two trees.

But the most likely explanation is camera-related. Specifically, the image may be a dust spot that has affixed itself to the camera’s lens or internal sensor. This could cause a white or gray fuzzy appearance, such as what we see in the photo.

Also, the photographer had a large depth of field and the lens is stopped down to a smaller aperture. Investigating the picture, Snopes noted, “When the lens is stopped down and the aperture is significantly smaller, light rays coming from the lens diaphragm are perpendicular to the sensor filter. Because the angle is more or less straight, dust specks also cast direct and defined shadows on the sensor. That’s why dust shows up in images much smaller, darker, and with more defined edges at small apertures.”

Mix that with the photo being taken at a fatal crash site, then add a pinch of pareidolia, and the speck of dust takes on human spirit form. I’m anticipating a counterargument that this confirms Genesis 2:7: “Then God formed a man from the dust of the ground.”

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“Bee gone” (Colony collapse disorder)

bee

For 10 years, European and American beekeepers have been experiencing larger than expected losses in their populations. After leaving for the winter, more bees than before are failing to return to the hive. This has been dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder.

Scientists have a pretty good idea what is causing the problem, but because of its complexity, are unsure of the precise manner to attack it. A USDA release identified the probable culprits: Invasive mites, insect pests, pathogens, pesticides, the Africanization of managed colonies, and nutritional deficiencies that are due to the lack of forage. Unfortunately, having a good idea as to the cause doesn’t translate into an easy fix. There are a number of complexities to weave through. There are many invasive mites and pathogens, for instance, and deducing which ones might impact CCD requires significant research. Also, many of the culprits overlap and untangling all this is arduous.

By way of comparison, bark beetles have caused a reduction in the number of coniferous trees in the western United States. However, targeting bark beetles would not be enough of a strategy. The insects are endemic to conifers, but drought is what’s causing the trees to be susceptible. Without the drought, the trees would be able to thwart the beetles. Without the beetles, the trees would survive the drought. But combined, the beetles and drought are lethal to the trees. And this involves only two factors, both of which are known. CCD is much more complicated, involving at least six factors, each of which have multiple components. Solving CCD will take time, effort, research, and money.

While this happens, some persons will pounce on this opportunity to advance a pseudoscientific agenda. No good tragedy can go to waste without Monsanto being pegged as the perpetrator. According to many a meme, the bees are being killed off due to Roundup. However, this is a herbicide, meaning it operates on a plant enzyme that is not present in bees. Furthermore, its use is inconsistent with the geography and temporal nature of Colony Collapse Disorder.

No anti-GMO claim has been backed by sound science, so let’s continue that trend by blaming GMOs on CCD. The accusation is that the bees pollinate genetically modified crops, which in turn poison the bees. But genetic modification transfers agricultural benefit, not poison, to a crop. A meta-analysis of independent studies showed that GMOs were not effecting bee survival. Besides, GMOs also lack geographical and temporal correlation with bee colonies.

Anyone sharing links about Roundup or GMOs’ role in the Beepocalypse had best not do so on their cell phone. According to a third reactionary rumor, cell phone signals are the reason the swarming, stinging insects are disappearing. But since these signals are non-ionizing radiation, they won’t change an electron’s orbit. This means they are unable to trigger a chemical reaction, and so are harmless to living creatures, a group that includes bees.

Roundup, GMOs, and cell phones are frequently assailed in alt-med and conspiracy circles, but if preferring a less traditional target in this case, consider torison physics.   This fabricated field rests on the notion the quantum spin of particles can cause emanations lacking mass and energy to carry information through vacuums faster than warp. As to what that has to do with CCD, the idea is that the emanations are disorienting the bees, causing them to wonder from the hive forever. This is a case of Tooth Fairy Science, where an assertion is made about a phenomenon without bothering to establish that the phenomenon exists.

Back in reality, scientists are employing different approaches, such as trying to determine what pesticides, and at what dosages, produce which effects, and how this can combat CCD. In one success, a British apiarist developed a strain of bees that proved resistant to varroa mites. I anticipate a counterargument that it’s because the bees don’t use cell phones.

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“The Frozen One” (Whole body cryotherapy)

FROZENMAN

After delivering Cleveland’s first professional sports championship in 52 years, LeBron James stood in a large cylinder for three minutes so his body could be exposed to temperatures as low as -300. The frigid temps, 159 degrees from absolute zero, are reached through nitrogen-cooled vapors that are the centerpiece of whole body cryotherapy. It is a nouveau approach that counts many athletes among its clients, with James being the most famous. The players consider the therapy a way to relieve aches and to speed body recovery.

Normally by the time I get around to writing about an untraditional tactic or technique, there are a series of failed double blind studies in its wake, or perhaps a refusal by proponents to engage such studies or other meaningful research. With whole body cryotherapy, however, not much investigation has been done and properly-designed trials are lacking. There is insufficient research on the effects the therapy has on blood pressure, heart rate, metabolism, and so forth.

This has not stopped proponents from claiming victory over rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, asthma, Alzheimer’s, anxiety, chronic pain, depression, fibromyalgia, insomnia, migraines, and obesity. They have taken potential physiological effects and abruptly extrapolated them into all manner of health benefits.

The FDA warns there is no evidence to support any of this, and that the therapy can be dangerous. The biggest hazard is asphyxiation, which can happen when the liquid nitrogen cools the vapor. Also, this introduction of nitrogen into a sealed enclosure decreases oxygen, which can lead to hypoxia and unconsciousness. Other risks include frostbite, burns, and eye injuries.

Dr. Steven Novella has noted that the technique might justify preliminary studies, but that proponents have leapfrogged several more obstacles to call this a wonder therapy. For example, cryohealthcare.com uses anecdotal evidence to bolster support for its assertion that WBC effectively treats stress, insomnia, rheumatism, muscle tension, joint pain, and skin conditions.

Those at cancerdefeated.com are even less morally constrained, and claim WBC will treat cancer. The hocus pocus is described thusly: “While in the pod, your skin temperature drops so fast, your body thinks it’s in a state of hypothermia. Because of that, blood drains out of your extremities and into your core, which is the body’s natural response to keep you alive by saving your vital organs. This reaction to hypothermia nitrifies and oxidizes your blood before it’s released back into the rest of your body. The process actually elevates your red blood cell count as part of a natural defense mechanism.”

Accompanying this are the hackneyed references to detoxification, immune system boosters, and improved circulation, all of Novella calls “the trifecta of alternative medicine bogus claims.”

Again, Novella stresses that the therapy could prove to have value. He explained, “Reductions in muscle and skin tissue temperature after WBC exposure may stimulate cutaneous receptors and excite the sympathetic adrenergic fibers, causing constriction of local arterioles and venules.”

This means that WBC “may be effective in relieving soreness or muscle pain. Cryotherapy is a reasonably plausible treatment for various conditions, but requires further study before the net health effects can be sorted out for specific indications.”

The problem is that providers aren’t waiting for the results of any study. They are jumping to conclusions with a vertical leap that would put to shame their most famous client.

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“Unfounded conCERN” (Particle accelerator clouds)

CONCERN

This month’s ushering in of the apocalypse took place on the Franco-Swiss border at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN. The focal points were clouds and lightning above the Large Haldon Collider particle beam smasher.

As portents of doom go, this one had a fair amount of specificity. We knew the date, June 24, the location, and who shot the photos: Joelle Rodrigue, Dean Gill, and Christophe Suarez. They are stunning photos, both for their subject matter and the quality of framing, light work, and depth. They were taken by either professionals or enthusiastic hobbyists.

While the colored clouds, twisting lightning, and refracted sunlight do look somewhat foreboding, other photographs have captured much more ominous skylines without an accompanying Armageddon announcement. In this case, it was a combination of clouds, lightning, and a vivid imagination which sparked the conspiracy theory that CERN is paving the way for demons or aliens to overtake Earth.

It’s not the first time CERN has been so accused. Theorists have noted that its logo proudly proclaims 666, though it more resembles 09D. There is also a statue of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction in front of the CERN building. Connect those dots and add a few more of your own, and that cloud can become what rightsidenews.com called the “opening up of mysterious inter-dimensional portals that disrupt the fabric of space and time and expose Earth to the risk of alien or demon invasion from a parallel universe.”

Besides the location, the date was also a factor in this hyperbolic thinking. June 24 was when CERN began its Advanced Wakefield Experiment. Per the CERN website, this experiment is meant to be demonstrate “how protons can be used to generate wakefields and will also develop the necessary technologies for long-term, proton-driven plasma acceleration projects.”

As to how that plasma acceleration paves the way for invading demonic hordes and their Andromedan allies, we defer to prophecywatchnews.com. The website made the connection between a new CERN experiment and an old religious text, specifically Revelation chapter nine: “To him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and they had a kind over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name is Apollyon.”

These clouds and lightning don’t really form a pit, as they are in the sky and not the ground, and the “had a kind over him” is nonsensical in this or any other context. But, hey, doomsdays are too infrequent to quibble over details.

Beyond Apollyon, a few other supernatural beings are in play. The website excitedly notes that a horned god named Cernunnos has a name that starts with C-e-r-n. So it deduces, “Is this just a coincidence? Is it also a coincidence that CERN has to go deep underground to do their god harnessing experiments? Cernunnos was the god of the underworld.” Since you asked, yes, it is just a coincidence. What is not a coincidence is that someone with a paranoid mindset would take the acronym for “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire” and note that it has 44 percent of the letters in an otherwise forgotten Celtic deity, and tie that to storm clouds over a particle accelerator intended to destroy the world.

Theorists also claim the site was once an Apollo temple, which worshippers felt was a gateway to the underworld. The portal is above, the underworld is below, once they find a lateral evil, they’ll have it all covered.

As mentioned earlier, Shiva loiters outside, which theorists like because he is the destroyer. However, that is but one of his almighty attributes. For Shiva is also a benefactor, giving him a complexity and ambiguity that makes for a more developed character in Hindu tales. If the statue is your evidence, one could argue that the benevolent side is what CERN is appealing to. Then there is my interpretation, which is that the good and bad balance each other, so the sculpture will have no impact on atom smashing or apocalypses.

Rightsidenews.com takes a somewhat evenhanded approach to the issue, though it seems a little more sympathetic to the credulous. It wrote, “Some people just see normal thunderstorms when they look at these clouds, but others are convinced that they are looking at inter-dimensional portals.” The key factor here is that we know what thunderstorms look like, interdimensional portals not so much. To be clear, I would probably be OK with elite physicists accessing interdimensional portals, but I need more than storm clouds above a particle accelerator to convince me it’s happening.

Unencumbered by this stuffy skepticism is the maintainer of freedomfighters.com. She writes, “CERN is notorious for opening portals and then denying it. The cloud looks to be rotating in a circular motion and some have claimed to see a face in the lightning-filled cloud. Last year we reported that there were clear images of demons in the pictures of CERNs beams. Could this be an outer manifestation of one?”

To keep church and doomsdays separate, we should consider that making out shapes in rotating clouds can easily have overtones free of demonic embodiment.