We are literally crippling and killing our children so the few can become richer. It is a form of national insanity. Click through to see video.

Growing Evidence That Autism Is Linked to Pollution
ALEXANDRA SIFFERLIN – Time

A new study offers strong evidence that environmental toxins play a role in the disorder. The report looked at birth defects associated with parental exposure to pollution and found a 1% increase in the defects corresponded to a 283% increase in autism

Several studies have shown a link between air pollution and autism, but a new study published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology is one of the largest to put the two together.

Researchers studied insurance claims from around 100 million people in the U.S., and used congenital malformations in boys as an indictor for parental exposure to environmental toxins. ‘Autism appears to be strongly correlated with rate of congenital malformations of the genitals in males across the country. This gives an indicator of environmental load and the effect is surprisingly strong,” study author Andrey Rzhetsky from the University of Chicago said in a statement.

Every 1% increase in malformations corresponded to a 283% increase in autism in the same county.

Read full article.

2014/04/05

SchwartzReport: Alzheimer’s Break-Through Blocked by Grant Approval Mind-Sets Locked into Past Failures

Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

This has the potential to be a tremendous breakthrough, It reminds of the the shift in research concerning ulcers.

Twenty Years of Alzheimer’s Research May Have Focused on the Wrong Protein
ELIZABETH LOPATTO – The Daily Beast

Phi Beta Iota: Whether it's the National Science Foundation or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or DARPA/IARPA, a major obstacle to exploring alternative paths is the retro mind-sets of those deciding who gets the grants.

Anthony Judge: Internyet Nescience? Doing the Wrong Things Righter is Still Doing the Wrong Thing

Koko: Bloomberg & Soros Do Wrong Thing Righter

Reference: Russell Ackoff on Doing Right Things Righter

Ric Merrifield: When Metrics & Assumptions Are Wrong

Wikipedia / Reflexivity (social theory)

2014/03/282014/03/28

Jean Lievens: Francine Mestrum on Promoting the Social Commons

Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

Francine Mestrum on Promoting the Social Commons

“All major international development organisations, from the World Bank over the ILO and the European Commission, plan to promote social protection in all developing countries. This may seem bizarre, since, at the same time, social protection mechanisms are being dismantled in the region where they first came about: Western Europe and Scandinavia. It is important to know, then, that words do not have the same meaning for all, and the ‘social protection’ of the World Bank is not the same as ‘social protection’, let us say in Sweden. In other words, there are no ‘welfare states’ emerging in Africa. But these plans are now being implemented and social movements have largely been absent from the debates. Where are the alternatives? What can we do to avoid social protection being at the service of markets?

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: Francine Mestrum on Promoting the Social Commons”

2014/03/282014/03/28

SchwartzReport: Myth of Nuclear “Safety” and True Cost of Nuclear Power to Earth and to 99% — HORRENDOUS

05 Energy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, Idiocy

Nuclear energy is clearest example we have of profit for the few trumping the wellbeing of the many. There is no need for this technology. When its true costs are calculated it is absurdly expensive and, nothing about it is unique except its exceptional danger and toxicity. Logically this technology should have been abandoned with the end of the cold war. But ! zombie-like it endures.

The Myth of Nuclear Safety: Fukushima Reveals That Nuclear Power Is Here to Stay
DONALD G. SCHWEITZER – Truthout

2014/03/272014/03/27

Jean Lievens: World Open Hash Design

#OSE Open Source Everything, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

WO#D

WorldOpenHashDesign

WO#D

Manifesto

“The present day global set of sovereign states is not capable of keeping peace, and it is not capable of saving the biosphere’s non-replaceable natural resources. What has been needed for the last 5,000 years, has become technologically feasible in the last 100, but not yet politically, is a global body politic composed of cells on the scale of the Neolithic-Age village community — a scale on which participants could be personally acquainted with each other, while each of them would also be a citizen of the world state.”

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: World Open Hash Design”

2014/03/262014/03/26

Yoda: Goats Smarter, Also Crows, Pigs, and Dogs….

Earth Intelligence

Human tests do not test goat intelligence, they test goat abilities to dumb down to human levels.

Goats are apparently smarter than anyone thought

Researchers found that goats can learn to solve complicated tasks quickly and can remember the solutions they’ve learned for 10 months or more.

Science is having to constantly reevaluate how we look at animal intelligence. Recent evidence has shown that crows, pigs and dogs, for example, are even more intelligent than previously believed.

Most recently, researchers at Queen Mary University of London have found that goats can learn to solve complicated tasks quickly and can remember the solutions they’ve learned for 10 months or more. Scientists believe that this may explain the animal’s ability to adapt to harsh environments.

Published in the March 26th edition of the journal Frontiers in Zoology, the researchers found that the goats could be taught to accomplish complicated tasks in order to obtain rewards. The goats were taught to pull a lever with their mouths and release it in order to access food in a box.

Read full article.

2014/03/262014/03/26

Stephen E. Arnold: The [MIT] Observatory of Economic Complexity

Commercial Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

The Observatory of Economic Complexity

The future of search may just be here, in the form of a specialized search engine courtesy of MIT (quelle surprise!) The Observatory of Economic Complexity (ECI) is the result of a 2010 Master Thesis in Media Arts and Sciences by one Alexander Simoes, and enjoys the continuing support of the MIT Media Lab‘s consortia for undirected research. A history of the project’s contributions is available on Github. Some technical details from the project’s FAQ page:

“Where does the data come from?

“The observatory provides access to bilateral trade data for roughly 200 countries, 50 years and 1000 different products of the SITC4 revision 2 classification. For historical SITC classification data, we use data from The Center for International Data from Robert Feenstra. For up to date HS classification data, we use data provided by UN COMTRADE.

“Can I download this data?

Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: The [MIT] Observatory of Economic Complexity”

Category: Earth Intelligence

SchwartzReport: Autism of the Poor Linked to Pollution for the Rich