Tag Archives: Media

Charlie Sheen’s 9/11 “truth” stance made him target of mind controllers, author suggests

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Charlie Sheen’s questions about the 9/11 attacks may have him in the crosshairs of mind controllers trying to embarrass the outspoken actor, says Sign of the Times blogger Joe Quinn:

Obviously, the topic I am broaching here is the possible link between Sheen’s public stance on 9/11 and his subsequent psychological collapse and the media portrayal of him with good reason as being ‘crazy’. Despite what many think, the idea that Sheen may be the target of surreptitious psychological interference by those who would prefer he keep his mouth shut about the 9/11 attacks is a reasonable one.

The idea, as in the case of former MI5 agent David Shayler, who become a cross-dresser and a self-proclaimed messiah, is to secretly drug and otherwise destabilize whistleblowers and outspoken government critics…

via Charlie Sheen, Mind Control, 9/11 and The Sixth Extinction — Society’s Child — Sott.net.

Healthcare spin control plan vs. ProPublica

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Photo: shanelkalicharan/Flickr CC

Worried by a ProPublica investigation revealing disgusting and dangerous conditions at dialysis clinics nationwide, PR people for the billion-dollar industry braced itself with a spin control document, with talking points.

From an industry PR memo obtained by ProPublica:

Despite our collective efforts, we do not anticipate a balanced presentation (in the ProPublica report), and we therefore feel it’s essential to create the “machinery” necessary to orchestrate an aggressive and prompt community-wide response.

The authors of the spin control doc suggests that docs and administrators, if contacted by the media in the wake of the ProPublica report, emphasize technological advances in the industry — rather than taking criticisms head-on.

The doc also shows industry flacks fretted that the story will get “will get traction through other media outlets.”

The reason my wife watched BSG with me

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Photo: Liane Chan/Flickr CC

Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore barred the BS technobabble that made so much of every show after the original Star Trek series aired.

That’s what allowed the epic space opera to come through.

And the guy he hired to keep the show honest has written a book about it:

Grazier – whose new book The Science of Battlestar Galactica finally puts geeks out of their misery by explaining the “hows”, “whys”, and “what ifs” – is blunt in explaining BSG’s success. BSG, he says, was not a technology show.This formula worked. BSG became a cult and critical hit. BSG was the first ever sci-fi show to earn a prestigious Peabody Award for its treatment of contemporary subjects. It won over fans of the 1970s original who were initially suspicious of Moore’s plans for their beloved show, and BSG secured a rarity for any TV sci-fi creation: the nodding approval of members of the science community.

via Shut up, Spock! – how Battlestar Galactica beat Trek babble • The Register.

Lazy press watch: Just what are "global communications," anyway?

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Orwell advises against using the vague language found in the Independent’s story about the dead MI6 guy, saying Gareth Williams worked for an MI6 division that “eavesdrops on global communications.”

Better to have said “international calls and email messages,” or “between the UK and other countries.” “Global,” though often used, is so vague as to be meaningless.

The Independent (link and excerpt, below) also seems in a hurry to shoot down, based on no evidence either way, any suggestion the agent’s murder might be work-related:

The reality, however, is likely to be more mundane. Sources within the murder inquiry led by the Metropolitan Police’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command insisted that “the suggestion there are terrorism or national security links to this case is pretty low down the list of probabilities”. They are believed to be concentrating on Mr Williams’ private life.

via Mystery of the MI6 man who was found dead in his bath – Crime, UK – The Independent.

Mel-ennial madness, from father to son

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Christopher Knowles at the Secret Sun reminds us this week that Mel Gibson’s crazed dad — a reputed Holocaust denier and darling of white nationalist broadcasters — deserves much of the credit for creating Hollywood’s favorite real-life monster.

Knowles calls upon his own experiences, as well, to make the case:

I very much doubt that growing up with a guy like Hutton as your father made for a lot of smiles and sunshine. I wouldn’t be surprised if that belt didn’t come off at the slightest possible infraction. Growing up in a neighborhood with a lot of people raised in the pre-Vatican II church, I got to know the mentality.

via The Secret Sun: Mel-ennium, or The Real Passion.

Potent evidence for THC as a cancer-killer

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Another week brings fresh evidence that for some THC will prove to be “God’s own medicine”:

Our results show that both Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the most abundant and potent cannabinoid in marijuana, and JWH-133, a non-psychotropic CB2 receptor-selective agonist, reduce tumor growth, tumor number, and the amount/severity of lung metastases in MMTV-neu mice. Histological analyses of the tumors revealed that cannabinoids inhibit cancer cell proliferation, induce cancer cell apoptosis, and impair tumor angiogenesis. Cannabinoid antitumoral action relies, at least partially, on the inhibition of the pro-tumorigenic Akt pathway. We also found that 91% of ErbB2-positive tumors express the non-psychotropic cannabinoid receptor CB2.

via Abstract | Cannabinoids reduce ErbB2-driven breast cancer progression through Akt inhibition.

Verizon's "Rule the Air" message: "Be the surveillance you fear"

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Rules nothing. Photo: Ed Yourdon/Flickr CC

Given that Verizon allowed the NSA to secretly tap millions of calls in the past decade, it’s stunning to see the company selling surveillance as sexy and empowering.

I am referring, of course, to Verizon’s new “Rule the Air” campaign.

In what might pass for a scenes from a remake of John Carpenter’s “They Live,” Verizon’s ads have buildings, a parking meter and other objects flowering into antennae that stalk cell phone-wielding models.

One blogger (excerpt and link below), notes the disturbing surveillance theme in “Rule the Air.”

But it is not enough to say that “Rule the Air” is Orwellian, just because it evokes a surveillance state nightmare. (Invariably, when people say, “Orwellian,” they are referring to “1984.”)

Even more insidious, and Orwellian, is the ad campaign’s vague and contradictory slogan. (Orwell warns of the perils of using imprecise language in his 1946 essay, “Politics and the English Language.”)

The truth, dear Verizon customers, is that you rule nothing.

Rather, as you can read here, Verizon and the US Federal Communications Commission “rule you.”

If you ask me the whole thing seems a bit Orwellian and the Verizon red coupled with the vintage logo and the tag line, “Rule the air”, strangely evoked old-time war propaganda to me, but the effects are cool—and who doesn’t like the concept of reception everywhere.

via Verizon Sets Out to “Rule the Air”.

"Never be apart" from a piece of Lost history

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Profiles in History, the same company that auctioned off Captain Kirk’s conn for $250,000, will soon take bids on everything from Dharma Initiative beer to the wedding band that symbolized everyone’s favorite Lost couple, Sun and Jin.

The inscription inside Jin’s ring reads, in Korean, “We will never be apart.”

Of course the two spent a heck of a lot of time apart. From the item description:

When Locke decides to bring the Oceanic Six back to the Island, Jin begins to have misgivings about letting Sun return to the place of “death.” As a result, he gives Locke his wedding ring to give to Sun. This would tell Sun that he had died and would take away her own reason to return. For his part, Locke keeps his promise. However, after Ben strangles Locke and takes the ring, Ben uses it to his advantage and convinces Sun that Jin is indeed alive and that she should return to the Island.

Profiles in History has not yet published estimated values for its Lost auction items. But if Jin’s ring proves too pricey, you might try your luck with the pearl necklace Sun’s previous lover in Korea offered to her. (Sun refused the gift, which the poor guy held in his hand when he jumped to his death.)

via Jin’s Wedding Ring – Lost Auction Preview – Profiles in History.

Space junk? MSM provides "cloaking device" for military space mission

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The US military on July 8 will toss a $500 million satellite into orbit to observe space junk circling Earth.

At least, that’s what the AP is reporting about the July 8 launch of the US Air Force’s new “Space-Based Space Surveillance” (SBSS) satellite.

But the sat will be much more than a space junk surveyor: It will serve at the core of the Air Force’s ongoing space-based missile defense program. If you read the words of the military’s top brass on the subject of SBSS, you will find that the Air Force’s priorities for the program are to track (if not disable) Iran’s and North Korea’s sats.

A snip from the AP story:

Currently, the Air Force relies on a ground-based network of radar and optical telescopes around the globe to monitor about 1,000 active satellites and 20,000 pieces of debris. The telescopes can be used only on clear nights, and not all radar stations are powerful enough to detect satellites in deep space orbit, about 22,000 miles from Earth.

via New US satellite to monitor debris in Earth orbit – USATODAY.com.

Pot regrows brain cells, but might not make you smarter, study finds

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Photo: Joe Szilagyi/Flickr CC

The effects of pot on the brain are proving as complex as they are promising, as scientists pull apart the plant’s components…

One new study (its methodology is detailed, below), finds that “CBD did not impair learning but increased adult neurogenesis, whereas THC reduced learning without affecting adult neurogenesis.”

For people suffering from severe depression, this might be good news: The finding here suggests that patients can regain hippocampal cells lost to major depressive episodes. (As the psychedelics expert Sasha Shulgin has pointed out, this is how SSRI’s such as Zoloft appear to work.)

Adult neurogenesis is a particular example of brain plasticity that is partially modulated by the endocannabinoid system. Whereas the impact of synthetic cannabinoids on the neuronal progenitor cells has been described, there has been lack of information about the action of plant-derived extracts on neurogenesis. Therefore we here focused on the effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD) fed to female C57Bl/6 and Nestin-GFP-reporter mice on proliferation and maturation of neuronal progenitor cells and spatial learning performance. In addition we used cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) deficient mice and treatment with CB1 antagonist AM251 in Nestin-GFP-reporter mice to investigate the role of the CB1 receptor in adult neurogenesis in detail.

via Abstract | Cannabinoid receptor CB1 mediates baseline and activity-induced survival of new neurons in adult hippocampal neurogenesis.