Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 8

In earlier posts (see "The Undiscovered Side of Science & Life - 3" and links therein) we Dredd Blog readers & writers perused some of the recent scientific data showing that microbes and humans have a symbiotic relationship.

The information discussed in those posts is earth shaking in the sense that microbes existed alone on the planet for billions of years prior to the existence of our human species.

Those microbes are still the most abundant form of biological life on the planet Earth, having survived well either with or without a human symbiont.

Why microbes "recently" (in terms of the enormous span of time which that form of biological life is known to have existed on Earth) became symbiotic with humans is a mystery.

Was there a cosmic or biological expectation of some sort, some quasi-visionary activity that "foresaw" the need, or was it accidental, chance, the introduction of extraterrestrial microbes, or some other systemic or random event that triggered the symbiosis?

Further, did humans themselves or did some type of microbe originally initiate the event sequence which caused the symbiotic relationship to develop?

Did that symbiotic relation develop very early on in human evolution, and did those humanoid species who failed to survive (e.g. Neanderthal) fail because they did not attain the symbiotic relationship, or did all humanoids inherit their symbiont microbes (genetically, etc.) from another species, such as primates?

There are many questions of that nature involved in this inquiry into the history and purpose for the symbiotic realationship.

I recently read an article indicating that medical researchers are now also aware of the fact that microbes help us fight tumors and cancers in some ways:

The mutualistic microorganisms that colonize the gastrointestinal tract are crucial for health. Disruption of the homeostatic balance between the host and microflora is now understood to be part of the pathogenesis of HIV infection and inflammatory bowel disease. Immune-based treatments for cancer, particularly those involving profound lymphodepletion, adoptive transfer of immune cells, or radiation have high potential to disrupt the host/microflora relationship and change it from mutualistic to pathogenic. As cancer immunotherapy develops, it is particularly important to understand the impact of these treatments on host/microbe homeostasis and the role of microorganisms in tumor immunity.

(Microbial Translocation). That is to say that our symbiont microbes within us can help trigger positive human immune system reactions within our own human body's built in immune system, at least with regard to the human appendix.

Medical researchers found out some time ago that Darwin had originated an error, which some current medical, physiological textbooks perpetuate to this day, concerning the human appendix, so treatments of any sort must take that into consideration or risk damage to either or both symbiont species.

Some of the ignorance about that symbiotic relationship (microbes take part in at least one level of our immune system) shown in the post "The Appendix of Vestigial Textbooks", has engendered the wide spread practice of surgical removal of the human appendix.

That folly caused millions of people to have their appendix removed, by their doctors who were ignorant, because of what they were told or read in the errant medical textbooks.

That medical practice in general destroyed the beneficial symbiotic relationship between the appendix and symbiont microbes being stored there to replenish any damaged or destroyed microbes within that person's intestines.

This practice of the surgical removal of the appendix eventually led to the insane practice of sh*t transplants:

One day in 2008, Ruth, a Long Island teacher, walked into her doctor's office with a container of a relative's feces, lay down, and had her doctor pump the stool inside her.

(Fickle Fecal Transplants). You can't make this sh*t up alone, it takes experts who know their sh*t, but not their microbes.

Seriously.

While it would be inappropriate to overestimate the role or ability of microbes by elevating them to some magical realm, let's not forget for a moment that in the post "The Tiniest Scientists Are Very Old - 2" we noted that microbes have been involved in quantum physics for billions of years prior to human science.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Triage: Still In Deep Water - 2

As Hurricane Irene sets a course for The Carolinas, then up the East Coast towards New York, then on to the New England area, some people are taking it seriously.

The U.S. Navy for instance.

Did you watch The Second Fleet leave port from Norfolk, Virgina yesterday?

They wisely left the harbor and went into open water far out into the Atlantic Ocean to face Hurricane Irene from a safer place.

Safer in the sense that those ships are designed to handle open ocean, but can be sitting ducks while in a harbor during a hurricane.

They did not take any elderly, sick, homeless, or financially impaired people with them.

The elderly, sick, homeless, and financially impaired people are being beaten down, and have been beaten down for some time now by Hurricane GOP.

The wealthy right wing, whom the GOP serve, have left town for vacations in Europe, Hawaii, or exotic places to "ride out the storm" with their new tax refunds, originally called "The Bush II tax cuts for the wealthy".

Once upon a time every government agency considered themselves to have a mission of protecting elderly, sick, homeless, or financially impaired people in times when conditions make it impossible for them to stand alone.

That is why we all gave those agencies a little of our money, our tax dollars, to use to help elderly, sick, homeless, or financially impaired in such times of need.

The elderly, sick, homeless, and financially impaired people on the streets won't be on any naval ships, won't be rescued by state and local governments who need help themselves, because of Hurricane Bad-Economy, which was brought to us originally by the Bushies.

In the first post of this series Dredd Blog posted:

Long before the Deepwater Horizon disaster Dredd Blog predicted the future of governmental response to disastrous catastrophes.

For example, in the post New Government Climate Change Policy: Triage we pointed out that governments would morph into hyper-selfish entities.

Dredd Blog opined that those entities would develop programs to ensure the survival of government bureaucrats, programs not designed to ensure the survival of their people, and would increasingly keep those policies hidden from their people by the power of the state secrets doctrine.

(Triage: Still In Deep Water, see update here). The right-wing doctrine of "me first, you last" has now permeated the governments, so the people will continue to suffer.

The courts have ruled that it was MOMCOM that caused the flooding catastrophe in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, by making defective levees to protect the elderly, sick, homeless, and financially impaired people on the streets of New Orleans.

The GOP now say that government itself is bad, when actually it is only bad government that is bad ("bad government" means right-wing imperialistic forms of militant government).

Good government, government which is solemnly dedicated to the populace, not the military fortress or Wall Street, is not a bad concept.

Thankfully Irene lost power and came down to a Cat 1 at landfall.

That means more elderly, sick, homeless, and financially impaired people on the streets will survive this one.

Founding Fathers' Conspiracy Theories - 2

Two years ago on this date, Dredd Blog published a post concerning the viewpoint founding fathers had on the dangers of war.

We are not speaking of the dangers that may first come to mind, that is, those dangers that happen in a far away place where a war is ongoing.

No, rather, we are talking about the dangers to a nation that war engenders at home, yes, those dangers we speak of in this case are the dangers to "public liberty" and the dangers to "the public treasuries", as shown in the following copy of that post:

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James Madison was the 4th President, Bill of Rights author, Congressman, Cabinet Member, and was also called the "Father of the U.S. Constitution".

He voiced a conspiracy theory in 1795:

In war, the public treasuries are to be unlocked; and it is the executive hand which is to dispense them.

In war, the honors and emoluments of office are to be multiplied; and it is the executive patronage under which they are to be enjoyed; and it is the executive brow they are to encircle.

The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venal love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.

(Toxins of Power Blog, emphasis added). The above quote is from his "Political Observations," April 20, 1795, in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Volume IV, page 491.

This is the type of "shadow movement" or "shadow government" talked about in a previous post; meaning these conspiracies are not individual people conspiring, instead they are unseen forces at work against us all.

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He went on to say:

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied : and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Those truths are well established.

(ibid). Those truths President Madison spoke of, those truths Dredd Blog revisited two years ago in the post republished above, are still in existence, still true, in our world today.

Obama Polls Downward - 2

On this date two years ago, Dredd Blog noted a trend that seems to still be valid.

In that post we also gave a heads up which the Obama Administration has totally ignored to their detriment:

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Polls indicate that people are changing their opinions about how things may go, but the pollsters say they have changed their minds about President Obama.

My take on it is that these people, for the most part, are seeing the effects of the shadow movement, and are losing their faith that any one president or congress ever can change the way things are going.

One interpretation of the poll is:

The Washington Post-ABC News survey found that less that half of Americans — 49 percent — say they believe the president will make the right decisions for the country. That's down from 60 percent at the 100-day mark of the Obama presidency.

(Yahoo AP News[removed by Yahoo, see this]). Posts on this blog a while back postulated that the advisers had forgotten that the election was a rejection election, and that such a miscalculation would lead to the talk of change but a continuation of the policies that were rejected in the election, and ultimately to another rejection of those policies:

It is time to bring some wrath down on the ideology and the perpetrators of the ideology that was rejected in our recent election.

If that does not happen, the damage that will be done as a result of that failure will not go unnoticed. I expect a 20% drop in popularity when all is said and done.

(Dredd Blog, 3/31/09). It has not reached the 20% drop from where it was on March 31, well before the 100 day mark, but it is getting there fast.

Dredd Blog also pointed out that President Obama inherited pure hell and that in and of itself would limit what he could do even if he set out to totally comply with the will of the people.

That said, if the Obama Administration continues to think it is all about the personality of Obama so that he can continue the policies of Bush II, the 20% drop may end up being overly optimistic.

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Let readers decide if Dredd Blog had the proper expectations two years ago today, if so stick with Dredd Blog, if not find better.

You deserve it!

Man Of Constant Sorrow

Will the real man, the real Uncle Sam, please stand up to sing the song "Man of Constant Sorrow", and stop puking out the propaganda?

Endless wars leading to endless unemployment is a constant sorrow to millions of Americans and others around the globe.

Endless rhetoric threatening the poor and needy Americans is another source of constant sorrow.

Endless propaganda about "the American Dream" while millions live "the American Nightmare" is a source of constant sorrow.

Endless talk about a green revolution with lots of green jobs, even as offshore drilling and every other polluting scourge on the Earth is blessed by the government, is a source of constant sorrow to millions of Americans who see the pollution and its effects with their own eyes.

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Broccoli Fields Forever

The presstitutes of MOMCOM are cranking out the Libyan propaganda today. They tell the glory daze tale of "rebels" driving rusted out Toyota pickup trucks with rusted out AK-47 rifles who overthrew the Libyan government (the U.S. and NATO were not really involved of course, they just held hands). We have discussed the reality of this episode in the global war for oil, while other blogs have sarcastically stated that the Libyan war is really about broccoli fields forever (wink, wink). Once the "holy-capitalism batman" oil extraction and supply routes are secured for western civilization, MOMCOM will eventually provoke the masses of eastern civilization, eventually triggering a nuclear war. Funny how "energy" (whether sicko oil, sicko coal, or sicko nuclear) is used in war as well as being the cause of these wars. MOMCOM, you can't leave home or stay home without it anymore, until the next civilization.