About Pepper Spray

By Deborah Blum | November 21, 2011

One hundred years ago, an American pharmacist named Wilbur Scoville developed a scale to measure the intensity of a pepper’s burn. The scale – as you can see on the widely used chart to the left – puts sweet bell peppers at the zero mark and the blistering habanero at up to 350,000 Scoville Units.

I checked the Scoville Scale for something else yesterday. I was looking for a way to measure the intensity of pepper spray, the kind that police have been using on Occupy protestors including this week’s shocking incident involving peacefully protesting students at the University of California-Davis.

As the chart makes clear, commercial grade pepper spray leaves even the most painful of natural peppers (the Himalayan ghost pepper) far behind. It’s listed at between 2 million and 5.3 million Scoville units. The lower number refers to the kind of pepper spray that you and I might be able to purchase for self-protective uses. And the higher number? It’s the kind of spray that police use, the super-high dose given in the orange-colored spray used at UC-Davis.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-...

A Vancouver doctor who has been using a ritual hallucinogenic tea to help addicts has been ordered by Health Canada to stop or face criminal prosecution.

Dr. Gabor Maté received a letter in the mail from Health Canada on Monday, warning him to stop using ayahuasca because it is considered a controlled substance and requires proper authorization.

Maté says he has tried helping up to 150 addicts with the traditional Amazonian medicine for about two years. His work is featured in the documentary, The Jungle Prescription, airing on CBC’s The Nature of Things on Thursday night. CBC’s The National featured a news item on Maté’s use of ayahuasca last Sunday.

“I wish it was otherwise because I have seen how I can help people with this and now it is going to be much longer to seek approval if we even get it,” Maté said in a telephone interview from Vancouver.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article...

Given any money to Herman Cain lately? There’s a decent chance some of it went directly into the coffers of a for-profit company Cain runs.

A review of Cain’s last two FEC reports shows the campaign transferring just over $100,000 in cash to Herman Cain T.H.E. New Voice, a company that promotes Cain’s books and political philosophy.

In the Federal Election Commission (FEC) report his campaign filed in July, Cain’s team reported sending $50,831.35 to T.H.E. New Voice. The expenditures listed included “booklets” and “books” (presumably copies of the handful of short pamphlet-like books available for sale at THE New Voice website along with Cain’s new full-length book, This Is Herman Cain!, published by a division of Simon and Schuster), along with items such as “overnight”, “lodging”, “ground transportation” and “air fare.”

Around the time the campaign filed its latest FEC report which was due Oct. 15, the campaign revised its old report and listed two expenses that went to THE New Voice: $36,511.20 for “books” and a separate $50,011.35 expense listed as “See Below,” indicating the money went to “books” as well. An amended report is meant to replace an original report, meaning the money the campaign first said they spent on “overnight”, “lodging”, “ground transportation” and “air fare,” is now simply listed as “books.”


http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/...

"Now, up until today, most Americans have never heard of the combat Lord’s Resistance Army. And here we are at war with them. Have you ever heard of Lord’s Resistance Army, Dawn? How about you, Brian? Snerdley, have you? You never heard of Lord’s Resistance Army? Well, proves my contention, most Americans have never heard of it, and here we are at war with them. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. It means God." - Limbaugh


Much more:


http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/1...

An extensive report on the fallacy of GMO's. Well worthy of a read.


The Emperor’s New Clothes is a story by Hans
Christian Andersen about an emperor who hires
two tailors who promise to make him a set of
remarkable new clothes that will be invisible
to anyone who is either incompetent or stupid.
When the emperor goes to see his new clothes, he
sees nothing at all — for the tailors are swindlers
and th ere aren’t any clothes. Afraid of being
judged incompetent or stupid, the emperor
pretends to be delighted with the new clothes
and “wears” them in a grand parade through
the town. Everyone else also pretends to see
them, until a child yells out, “He hasn’t got any
clothes on!” However, the Emperor, arrogantly
continues parading with his courtiers as though
there was no problem.
Hans Christian Andersen’s fable is an apt parody
for what is happening today with genetically
modified organisms (GMOs) in food and
agriculture. The GMO Emperor Monsanto has
no clothes: its promises to increase crop yields
and feed the hungry have proven to be false; its
genetic engineering to control weeds and pests
have created super weeds and super pests. Yet the
Emperor struts around hoping the illusion will
last and the courtiers, not wanting to be seen as
stupid, will keep applauding and pretending they
see the magnificent robes of the GMO emperor.
The fable that GMOs are feeding the world has already
led to large-scale destruction of biodiversity and
farmers’ livelihoods. It is threatening the very basis of
our freedom to know what we eat and to choose what
we eat. Our biodiversity and our seed freedom are in
peril. Our food freedom, food democracy and food
sovereignty are at stake.


Citizens around the world can see the false
promises and failures of GMOs. And like the
child who speaks up, are proclaiming “What the
Emperor is telling us is not true. It is an illusion.
The GMO Emperor has no clothes”.
Joining together to say that “The GMO Emperor
has no clothes” empowers citizens to create a
GMO-free world, rich in biodiversity and healthy
food. It also advances alternatives that are truly
sustainable and provides food security and food
democracy for all.

http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/wp-cont...

Obie Anthony spent 17 long years in prison for a murder in South Los Angeles.

Now, Anthony has been exonerated and was able to walk out of prison Tuesday night into the arms of his fiancee and family.

“It’s breathtaking … it’s amazing … it’s so, so, so relieving to be free, finally,” Anthony said. “I don’t know, it’s hard exactly how to express it.”

Anthony’s release is due, in large part, to the work of legal volunteers working for the “Project for the Innocent” team at Loyola Law School and the “Northern California Innocence Project” at Santa Clara University School of Law. These student volunteers and new attorneys have worked on the case for nearly four years and appeared at a September evidentiary hearing.


http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/10/04/... /


I can't help but read that and think about Troy Davis.

(snip)

In regards to dominionist linkages to the bloody slaughter in Norway, here are our findings so far:

a) In particular, with a video manifesto (which has been linked on Youtube until it was pulled there, and which has since shown up on Liveleak) the shooter makes some very specific references that show he has familiarity with, and probably shares terminology with (if not overtly sharing intel with) “Christian patriot” militia groups in the US (including material that has been posted on racist and far-right-wing forums in the US, use of particular catch phrases associated with the “Christian Patriot” movement in the US, and others). I’ve just spent nine hours typing up an extensive analysis of the video; he is clearly connected with religious-nationalist groups in Europe and in the US. The degree of references to material originating in the US, in fact, indicate he has been in somewhat regular contact with anti-Muslim racists in the “Christian Patriot” movement in the US, rather than obtaining racialist material from racist groups elsewhere in the world.

b) One thing that stands out (if one is unaware of racialist movements in Europe)–most racist activity in Europe so far has been from “odinists” and “Satanists” in the black-metal community (and are largely doing it in a pattern of occasionally bloody attention-whoredom) or from blatantly neo-Nazi groups. A group or person claiming a “Conservative Christian” basis for this, especially in Europe, stands out like a sore thumb; generally (unlike the US) there has not been a tradition of “racist right” churches like Christian Identity that claim to be “Bible-based”.

c) One thing that stands out in the killer’s videos and writings is a certain obsession with the Knights Templar, the Third Crusade, and the idea of setting up what amount to European “Christian Patriot militias” (often using the very same terminology, of note, as “Christian patriot” groups associated with dominionism and the racist right use in the US) to foment a revolution in the same way as planned by “Christian Patriot militias” here in the US.

d) In particular, the killer is a known guest writer on the site “Jihad Watch”, which has had very close linkage with Dominionist groups (including NAR groups). Jihad Watch is sufficiently infamous (and sufficiently tied to Dominionist activity, particularly among the NAR) that it is one of those groups that Southern Poverty Law Center keeps a very careful watch on (and is on verge of listing it formally as a hate site), and writers to that site almost inevitably have ties to NAR groups.


A lot more:
http://www.politicususa.com/en/norway-terr...

Traditional Chinese acupuncture curbs the severity of hot flushes and other menopausal symptoms, suggests a small study published March 8 in Acupuncture in Medicine.

The effects did not seem to be related to changes in levels of the hormones responsible for sparking the menopause and its associated symptoms, the study shows.
The authors base their findings on 53 middle aged women, all of whom were classified as being postmenopausal -- they had spontaneously stopped having periods for a year. Their somatic (hot flushes) urogenital (vaginal dryness and urinary tract infection) and psychological (mood swings) symptoms were measured using a five point scale (MRS).
Twenty seven of the women received traditional Chinese acupuncture twice a week for 10 weeks, with needles left in position for 20 minutes without any manual or electrical stimulation. The rest were given sham acupuncture.
snip

Estrogen levels also rose, while LH levels fell in the group treated with traditional Chinese acupuncture. Low levels of estrogen and high LH and FSH levels are characteristic of the menopause, as the ovaries start to fail.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/...

This is a non-copywrited press release, so I'm posting in full. There is also more information at the link below.
* * * * *

PRESS ADVISORY: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Obama Administration Recognizes Joshua Tree National Park’s Importance To The American People

Contact:

Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager, CREDO Action: (415) 369-2000
Jessica Lass, Natural Resources Defense Council: (310) 434-2300
Donna or Larry Charpied, Citizens for the Chuckwalla Valley: (760) 392-4722

Eagle Mountain, CA: On Friday, February 25, the Obama Administration dealt a heavy blow to the proposed Eagle Mountain dump at Eagle Mountain, nestled in the arms of Joshua Tree National Park. After nearly 24 years of defending the dump in court, the Department of Interior reversed its longstanding position and opposed the dump developer’s petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. This substantially weakens the developer’s case and may persuade the Supreme Court to reject the petition, leaving in place lower court rulings that protect the park.

CREDO Action, the activism arm of CREDO Mobile, alerted the Public to the severe consequences to Joshua Tree National Park if the dump would go to fruition. The Action Alerts said in part,

“…Landfill impacts have a nasty habit of creeping over borders and boundaries. And Eagle Mountain would be an especially nasty neighbor.

The landfill would take in 20,000 tons of garbage per day, 16 hours a day, six days a week, for 117 years—posing a profound threat to the desert ecosystem and imperiled species that the next-door National Park is designed to protect.

The Department of the Interior has twice sided with the developers in favor of the landfill—but so far hasn’t taken a position on their appeal to the Supreme Court. The agency’s position could impact whether or not the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case. And if that happens, it likely won’t be good news for Joshua Tree.

The Department of the Interior has a deadline of February 25th to submit its position to the Court. Secretary Salazar needs to hear from us this week that he must act to protect Joshua Tree National Park…”

“We were stunned by Kaiser Venture’s outrageous proposal and overwhelmed by the response from more than 95,000 CREDO Action members who love Joshua Tree and took action to protect it. It’s thrilling that Secretary Salazar listened to the voices of so many citizens, and made the right decision”, CREDO’s Elijah Zarlin exclaims.

Donna Charpied, a long time dump foe, desert activist, and recent recipient of the Presidential Volunteer Service Award said she is proud of the government for not siding with the polluters again. “This may well be the death knell for the dump project. During these times with partisan politics and brutal negativity, it is quite refreshing to witness a step in the right direction”.

Larry Charpied, speaking for Plaintiffs Desert Protection Society, and the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, is cautiously optimistic. “We have steadfastly worked to protect Joshua Tree National Park and desert communities from this dump. The land trade BLM approved here would have literally “trashed” a spectacular national park whose outstanding natural values have earned it designation as a World Biosphere Reserve. Shy of Yosemite Valley, I cannot think of a worse place to dump LA’s trash for the next century than the fragile desert wilderness adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park.”

The response to the action alerts put out by NRDC and CREDO provided the necessary tool for supporters of Joshua Tree National Park to reach the Obama Administration. NRDC staff attorney Damon Nagami said, ‘We have supported the efforts of those seeking to protect this majestic park for many years. Working with CREDO and desert activists to craft and publish action alerts was an effective tool to raise awareness, particularly with Secretary Salazar.”

Kaiser’s dump project would have transformed 4,654 acres of canyons south and west of Joshua Tree National Park into the world’s largest garbage dump, which would have received 20,000 tons of garbage per day, 6 days a week, for up to 16 hours per day, with dumping operations going 24 hours a day. Kaiser would have received 3,481 acres of public lands in exchange for 2,846 acres of private land and $20,100. The thousands of acres of undisturbed canyons that would have been covered with trash presently provide habitat for the threatened desert tortoise and sensitive bighorn sheep, and provide a spectacular visual backdrop for those hiking and camping in Joshua Tree National Park’s remote wilderness areas. Now it is time for these exchange lands to be returned to Joshua Tree National Park, where they originated.


http://dpcinc.org/index.php/site/article/o...

ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2011) — A new University of Colorado Boulder study indicates an ancient form of complementary medicine may be effective in helping to treat people with mild traumatic brain injury, a finding that may have implications for some U.S. war veterans returning home.


"We found that the study subjects with mild traumatic brain injury who were treated with acupressure showed improved cognitive function, scoring significantly better on tests of working memory when compared to the TBI subjects in the placebo control group," said Hernandez, a professor in CU-Boulder's psychology and neuroscience department. "This suggests to us that acupressure could be an effective adjunct therapy for those suffering from TBI."

snip

The team used a standard battery of neuropsychological tests to assess the results. In one test known as the Digit Span Test, subjects were asked to repeat strings of numbers after hearing them, in both forward and backward order, to see how many digits they could recall. Those subjects receiving active acupressure treatments showed increased memory function, said Hernandez.

snip

A paper on the subject was published in the January issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed publication on the latest advances in both clinical and laboratory investigations of traumatic brain and spinal cord injury. Co-authors on the study included CU-Boulder's Kristina McFadden, Kyle Healy, Miranda Dettman, Jesse Kaye and Associate Professor Tiffany Ito of psychology and neuroscience


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/...

Developers are trying to put the nation's largest garbage dump right next to Joshua Tree National Park.

The proposed Eagle Mountain landfill would cover 3,500 acres of federal land, bordered on three sides by Joshua Tree's unique beauty, and fragile ecosystem.

The proposal by developers Kaiser Ventures has been struck down by two courts. Now Kaiser Ventures is asking the Supreme Court to review the case, and the Department of the Interior has until February 25th to weigh in.

Tell Secretary Ken Salazar: Don't trash Joshua Tree! Oppose the Eagle Mountain landfill project. Sign the petition before the February 25th deadline.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/dont_t...


Please K and R so that everyone who values near pristine wilderness will have a chance to see this.

It must be tempting to be a TSA screener, seeing bags full of expensive goodies going through your scanner and knowing how easy it would be to make those bags disappear. Two TSA agents at JFK Airport in NYC gave into that temptation, swiping at least $160,000 from travelers.

The two thieves were caught earlier today when they were arrested for the Jan. 30 theft of $39,000 from a single passenger's bag. Police say they have subsequently fessed up to $160,000 worth of stolen cash.

From the NY Daily News:

“
The source said the agents worked in tandem. One would watch for money as the bags were screened, then notify the other about the loot. One would swipe the money once the luggage was placed in a baggage room.
”

The TSA agents were charged with grand larceny, possession of stolen property and official misconduct.

http://consumerist.com/2011/02/tsa-screene...

This is friggin brilliant. What Abramoff wanted to say - played by Kevin Spacey with the real john mccain.
I don't think it's on youtube so I couldn't embed.


http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce...

A useful site if you want to choose airports where you'll have less chance of being exposed to possibly harmful x-rays:

http://ofsevit.dynalias.com:8081/ari/tsa/

Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old Marine private accused of leaking classified information to Wikileaks, has been held in the brig at Quantico Marine Corp Base for five months in inhumane conditions, with severe restrictions on his ability to exercise, communicate, or even sleep. Manning has not been convicted of any crime. Nor is there a date certain for any court hearing.

The conditions of Bradley Manning’s confinement became a top issue in the press last week as bloggers traded blows with US officials over allegations that Manning endures inhumane treatment at the Quantico, VA detainment facility. In the midst of this rush by the Defense Department to contextualize Manning’s confinement, I traveled to see the man himself at the Marine Corps detainment facility in Quantico, VA.

In my visit to see Bradley at the Quantico brig, it became clear that the Pentagon’s public spin from last week sharply contradicts the reality of Bradley Manning’s detainment. In his five months of detention, it has become obvious to me that Manning’s physical and mental well-being are deteriorating. What Manning needs, and what his attorney has already urged, is to have the unnecessary “Prevention of Injury” order lifted that severely restricts his ability to exercise, communicate, and sleep.

http://my.firedoglake.com/blog/2010/12/23/...