The 25 Rules of Disinformation

The 25 Rules of Disinformation

https://academic.oup.com/phe/article-abstract/6/2/185/1555903

Ethical Vaccine Distribution Planning for Pandemic Influenza: Prioritizing Homeless and Hard-to-Reach Populations

The manner in which limited vaccines are distributed during a pandemic is an ethical issue. The utility principle has been used to argue priority be given to certain individuals based on factors such as the epidemiology of the spread of disease and maintaining the functioning of

Read more “Ethical Vaccine Distribution Planning for Pandemic Influenza: Prioritizing Homeless and Hard-to-Reach Populations”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-09/peter-thiel-s-palantir-wins-876-million-u-s-army-contract

Billionaire investor Peter Thiel got a fresh victory in Washington. His data-mining startup, Palantir Technologies Inc., won a much-contested contract to provide software to the U.S. Army.

Palantir will work with Raytheon Co. to replace the troubled Distributed Common Ground System now in effect. They beat out seven other proposals for a decade-long, $876 million contract, according to the U.S. Defense Department. Terms of the partnership between Palantir and Raytheon weren’t disclosed, and the companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Thiel, the co-founder and chairman of Palantir, approved the company’s move in 2016 to sue the Army over what it called an unfair bidding process. A judge found in Palantir’s favor and ordered the Army to revamp the way it solicits bids for the Distributed Common Ground System. The U.S. Government Accountability Office determined that the Army’s current system was over-budget and underperforming.

Since the election of President Donald Trump, Thiel has gained significant influence in Washington. He was the most prominent supporter of Trump from Silicon Valley and contributed money to the campaign. Thiel helped fill positions in the Trump administration with former staff, including Trae Stephens, a onetime Palantir employee. Although he recently told the New York Times that Trump’s presidency had “fallen short” in some ways, Thiel said he has no regrets about supporting him.

In addition to the Army deal, Palantir has been making inroads elsewhere in the U.S. government. After the company made a similar legal challenge to the U.S. Navy, officials agreed to revamp its technology procurement process last year.

Founded in 2004, Palantir is used by dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to aggregate far-flung data, find patterns and present results in colorful, easy-to-interpret graphics. Its use by police in Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans and elsewhere has raised ethical concerns about the potential for unfairly targeting minorities.

Alex Karp, who started the company with Thiel and serves as chief executive officer, said the 2,000-person company would turn its first-ever profit in 2017, based on performance early in the year. The company has declined to say whether it met that goal. Karp has also raised the possibility of an initial public offering or some other kind of transaction to let existing shareholders cash out. A research report from October suggested Palantir would struggle to retain the $20 billion valuation private investors had given it.

http://cinemalibrestudio.com/injecting-aluminum/IAevent.html

Welcome to the Injecting Aluminum FREE 7 Day Replay event! The full feature film documentary is FREE to watch until March 8 at noon PST.  LINK ABOVE

Why male fertility is in crisis

Why male fertility is in crisis

Health experts are warning of a crisis in male fertility that they fear is making it harder for couples to conceive – a problem they say is compounded by a lack of scientific understanding.

The average sperm count has dived by 52 per cent in the past four decades – while men are leaving it later and later before trying to have a child.

Yet scientists don’t know why the sperm count is falling or even whether the decline is reducing fertility – although logic suggests that it is, leading academics said today.

Men become less fertile

And while there is now evidence to show that men, like women, become less fertile with age, they know very little about when and how this happens.

Read more

Male fertility alert after sperm count dives by more than half

Male infertility: ‘The pain does not fade with time, it intensifies’

In short, our understanding of the key male fertility questions has moved on very little from the 1990s, according to Professor Richard Sharpe, of the University of Edinburgh.

“We still don’t know what causes most cases of male infertility, which means we don’t have the tools to correct them,” he said.

“And the flip side of that coin is that we can’t induce infertility for contraceptive purposes – we haven’t developed a new effective male contraceptive since the condom,” Professor Sharp added.

Finally, among the big unanswered questions, scientists still know very little about sperm production – the fundamental driver of male fertility.

“We know it’s absolutely dependent on high levels of testosterone. But we should know how that works and we still don’t – it’s a big black box,” said Prof Sharp.

Millions of people affected

It’s estimated that around 1 in 6 couples, or about 3.5 million people in the UK, are affected by infertility.

In more than half of cases the problem lies with the male partner, for example if he has a low sperm count or his sperm are poor swimmers.

“Despite how common male fertility problems are, incredibly there’s nothing that we can prescribe, nor add to his sperm to cure it,” said Dr Sarah Martins Da Silva, of the University of Dundee.

“So couples rely on fertility treatment such as IVF which is expensive and invasive and doesn’t guarantee success,” she said.

Fertility ‘crisis’

Professor Allan Pacey, of the University of Sheffield, added: “I do think male fertility is in a bit of a crisis….the quality of evidence we’ve got in this area falls way behind that of other branches of medicine and that’s something that we need to change.”

Normal sperm densities range between 15 to 200 million per millilitre, with anything less than that regarded as low, making it potentially much more difficult to conceive naturally.