I admit I didn't read the article, but this is all a little oversimplified (but with a little good research thrown in) What's killing Americans? Top 10 prescribed medications of 2016 give us a troublesome answer 'Let food be thy medicine' is a saying attributed to Hippocrates, who is known as the Father of Modern Medicine. We would be well off to heed his advice, but by and large, we do not, for it is the Standard American Diet that is making us sick. A look at the most often prescribed medications reveals the most common health conditions we are being treated for. And these conditions reveal a problem with our diet, because our poor health is closely correlated with our poor food choices.
Our food supply has been adulterated by heavy processing, it's laden with chemical additives and pesticides, and it lacks the all-important mineral content, due to poor quality soil, after years of high-intensity agricultural practices. Is it any wonder that we are one of the sickest nations in the developed world?
You are what you eat
This truism is all too true, for if we eat healthy foods, we will be healthy. But if we eat unhealthy foods, we will be unhealthy. Here is a list of the top ten prescriptions in America in 2016 (from LowestMed.com), along with the associated health condition, the dietary culprit, and a healthier dietary approach.
1. Atorvastatin Calcium is prescribed for high cholesterol. The most recent research bucks conventional wisdom and attributes high cholesterol to refined carbohydrates, not fats. Substituting high quality fats and oils for the empty carbs is the solution.
Yes but this doesn't account for individuals (generally older citizens who can't get much exercise), and the fact that there is conclusive evidence that statins are a preventitave measure against stroke/heart disease and other similar ailments in the older generation. Of course it would have been better if they led a more healthy life in their youth, but statins still are effective as a preventative measure.
2. Levothyroxine is used to treat hypothyroidism, or an underactive thyroid. Fluoride in our food and water is absorbed by the body in place of iodine. Iodine is woefully deficient in most people and is essential for healthy hormone production by the thyroid gland. Try to avoid ubiquitous fluoride and supplement iodine.
Levothyroxine is also used to treat sufferers of thyroid cancer, some of which have had their thyroid gland removed (including my mother, who developed thyroid cancer at the age of around 60). It is an essential drug for people like my mother, as they don't produce thyroxin any more, which can lead to tiredness and depression, amongst other symptoms. It has helped her regain her normal quality of life, after a year or two of treatment. And she was very emotional and scared at the time, now she is full of energy and doing loads of activities etc - Levothyroxin probably saved her ife.
3. Lisinopril is used for high blood pressure, which is associated with heart attacks. Too much salt is blamed for high blood pressure, but low magnesium is most often overlooked.
Can't comment on this as I don't know much about it. Bear in mind magnesium is generally in the form of a salt, when you say salt I assume you mean sodium chloride, not magnesium salt. 4. Omeprazole treats reflux symptoms, which medical orthodoxy says is caused by too much stomach acid, whereas it is likely caused by too little production of hydrochloric acid. Make sure you get enough sodium chloride, or table salt in your diet.
Again, I havent done much research on Omeprazole, only that it seems to help stomach ulcers. An important point with Omeprazole is that it inhibits certain enzymes (CYP2C19 and CYP3A4) that break down benzodiazepine drugs such as diazepam and alprazolam (Valium and Xanax). As such, it can be dangerous to take benzos if you are also talking Omeprazole = the effects could be overwhelming. Just a little harm reduction from your resident pharmacologist, protokol.
5. Metformin is used to lower blood sugar for diabetes patients. Many physicians now blame a diet rich in refined carbohydrates for the onset of type 2 diabetes, and believe that it can be controlled solely through diet.[/size]
[/quote] Dont know anything about this one, but I'll certainly look it up. It does seem like a solution from a problem that should be tackled much earlier though, ie don't eat too much refined carbs, do some exercise and you won't get diabetes!! No, I won't read anything from that sorry excuse for a "news source" - it is quite simply (and fucking blatantly) a badly researched, misleading and generally shitty website. Look again how I FUCKING DESTROYED the article you linked. They are out to make money, nothing more nothing less. They don't care whether their readers live or die - they are charlatans and snake oil salesmen of the highest degree, and their only goal is $$$. And what's actually a little bit sad, is that they prey on a demographic of people who are disillusioned with the general establishment, and think that spreading their (mis)information will actually change the world for the better. They are fucking capitalist scum, the sooner you realize that, the more you will understand this confusing phenomenon of internet sites claiming a certain ideology, while secretly following another one. It's hypocritical and it makes me fucking sick.  |
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Yeah, you can get nice cheap laptops if you're not bothered about 4k displays or good graphics cards. I just got a 17" Lenovo "Gaming" laptop with i7 6700HQ CPU and a GTX 960M graphics card - pretty good specs but not for playing the latest games in high quality. Only a 1080p display as well, but it was a huge step up from my previous laptop, and only cost me £800 (refurbished with a 12 month warranty) It's expensive for an average lappy, but cheap for a gaming laptop even though the GPU is a little weak. Also has a nice red backlit keyboard, and amazing sound quality - even has a sub woofer built-in! Few bad points, keyboard is a little cramped, and the touchpad is good but not as good as a macbook pro. But I don't think paying £1000 more for a better touchpad is good value tbh  Don't care about any display above 1080p for gaming laptops, because unless you're spending thousands they can't handle games at higher than 1080p anyway. |
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I absolutely LOVE the ignore link under peoples ID's. Anyone not willing to do the work isn't worth the effort to reply to. Show me the curve! Put up or shut up! LOL
Anyone who understands the basic laws of Newtonian physics and gravity, can deduce quite easily that a globe Earth is by far the most likely shape, and that we live on a small blue dot, surrounded by a solar system, and a universe of billions of galaxies, each with millions of stars, many with spherical planets orbiting them. If you really don't understand the physics, and need to actually see the curve to believe it, I guess you need to take a trip on a high altitude spy plane or into space. Unfortunately I don't have the funds to give to you for your mission, but I suggest you escape your filter bubble, learn some mathematics and physics and have an open mind. Because everything about a flat Earth defies the general consensus about how the universe works, and there are tens of thousands of scientists such as astrophysicists that confirm this data every day. The only way you would believe "the curve" (I'm assuming you're a flat Earther), is if you actually went into space and saw it for yourself. So there's no point asking for people to "show you the curve" because you would immediately claim the photo/video was fake or distorted. Stop asking stupid questions that don't have possible answers and do some actual research. |
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As a counter argument, antibiotics such as penicillin (originally derived from a natural mould) actually do weaken the immune system. But they're natural right, so they must be good! Nonsense.
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Since the immune system is a thing of nature (doctors didn't invent it), treating the immune system with natural foods, etc., strengthens it so that it can control the cancer. Drugs merely weaken the immune system, so that the cancer can't be controlled, and so that the medical has more excuse to attempt their cures.
Modern medicine is a belief system. That's all... except that it is a false one.
That's literally nonsense. Everything is a thing of nature, doesn't mean that drugs or chemical compounds aren't effective against illness. Newsflash:: All elements (and most compounds used in medicine) already exist in nature! There are very few purely synthetic drugs, and even those are synthesized from natural elements. As for "modern medicine is a belief system", I find it hilarious that you are a super-evangelical Christian, believe in creation and that that the world is 6,000 years old, but can't see the importance of empirical medical research. I hope you don't plan on having children, or have any already... My heart bleeds for them. LOL! You are promoting poison as a method of healing because it is a thing of nature? That's exactly the biggest thing the medical does.  No, you just said "natural things are beneficial for the immune system because they are natural". I retorted by saying most drugs are natural, or produced with natural elements, and now you accuse me of "promoting poison as a method of healing" So you agree that nature can produce poisons as well as beneficial medicine? How do you tell which natural things are beneficial are which are poisons? I guess you just browse naturalnews.com and believe whatever they tell you. Good luck soldier, you're gonna need it... |
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...
I already said that I believe ...
Who cares what you said, or how many times you said it? What you and yours say is as often as not a dead match for what Sharyl Attkisson in her TEDx talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYAQ-ZZtEUI've already said that I've listened intently to at least 100 presentations from real medical doctors and scientists who unhappy enough to torpedo their careers by speaking out. And I've read a lot more. In point of fact, it's getting obvious enough by this time that your rapidly expanding vaccination regime is fucking up a lot of people's immune systems and contributing to a cascade of problems. Anyone who pays much attention to contentious scienctific debates in our time (vaccinations, GMOs, global climate change, etc) recognizes 'peer review' as a laughable circle-jerk which means little or nothing when corporate money is involved and corporate profits are on the line. Do you have a particular problem that made you clip my rather common sense suggestion?" If I felt confident that the risk/reward of 'doing good' by someone who has misfortune was transparently and accurately calculated, I very well might do just that. This is not AT ALL the case with the medical/industrial complex in this country at this time. Fix that problem BEFORE you force-march people into the the clinic to get whatever big-pharma wishes injected into their bloodstream. Or expect significant resistance.
Answer me this: Why is the life expectancy of the majority of the world's population (at least in the most developed countries) at an all time high? If vaccines are deadly, wouldn't we be seeing a decrease in life expectancy? Food for thought. |
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OK, let's do some critical analysis on this article. Firstly, it is well known (and pretty obvious) that naturalnews.com is a seriously questionable source when it comes to professional medical advice. You only need to look at how much they rely on dodgy ads (and a specific demographic of readers that lap up this anti-establishment/alternative medicine/anti Big Pharma journalism) to get an idea of how they make money. Just look at the sidebar ads on this page alone. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt this time, and actually check the sources for the article. It claims, that a doctor (Jennifer Margulis, PhD) claims, that a paper was published in the journal "Frontiers in Public Health", and then removed without explanation. OK, so now we check what sort of a "doctor" Jennifer Margulis is. Margulis has a B.A. in English literature and Russian language from Cornell University, a Master’s in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in English source: http://kindredmedia.org/author/jennifer-margulis-phd/Right, the plot thickens... she's not a medical doctor at all, just a journalist with a BA in Engish and Russian, and a doctorate in English. Hmm, this is where alarm bells start to ring. Then we can look up some information on the journal itself, "Frontiers in Public Health". While it is a peer-reviewed journal, it has had many criticisms and even been added (albeit controversially) to a "blacklist of questionable publications" by another academic, Jeffrey Beall. source: http://www.nature.com/news/backlash-after-frontiers-journals-added-to-list-of-questionable-publishers-1.18639So both the "doctor" and the journal are now both sounding less reputable than the article implies. But, lets give them both the benefit of the doubt and look at the details given on the paper itself: the abstract described a study comparing health outcomes of 660 fully vaccinated or fully unvaccinated children between the ages of 6 and 12 living in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oregon. Information was collected via parental survey in 2012. Ding ding ding!! This is where we start to really see how unreliable the source for the article is. Any bonafide medical doctor or scientist will tell you that "parental surveys" are an incredibly questionable source of data for any study, (and I wouldn't be surprised if this was the reason that the paper was pulled from publication). Not to mention that the sample was taken from a rather specific section of the population, limited to a few of the more backward States of America (OK, OK, citation needed for that  ) The article doesn't quote any other studies, but goes on to mention a few other "doctors" that agree with the findings, that all seem just as sketchy as good old doctor of English and controversial journalist, Jennifer Margulis. I could probably find a bunch of dirt on them too, but I can't be bothered to investigate further as the article has already lost most of its credibility. While I would personally agree that studies into the potential dangers of vaccination should continue (even if just to socially educate people), this article stinks. I haven't done much research into vaccines causing "ADD/ADHD, asthma and other auto-immune disorders", but there are some very meticulous and thorough studies that suggest that vaccines absolutely do not cause autism. For example, here is the abstract of a meta-analysis of 10 studies involving over 1.2 million children: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24814559And an article explaining it: http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/final-nail-coffin-vaccine-autism-myth/My personal opinion is that in recent years, a greater understanding of autism and ADHD type disorders has led to an increase in their diagnosis. Most children get vaccinated, and if even a small percentage of these children develop autism or ADHD, it's understandable (but incorrect) that the parents could make a false assumption that one had caused the other. Imagine you started feeding your kid solid food, perhaps PB & J sandwiches for the first time in their life, and a few months later they got some weird disease. Then you read about other parents who did the same thing, and their kids got the same disease. That absolutely doesn't mean that PB & J sandwiches gave them the disease, it was just a coincidence, but these parents get sucked into this filter bubble/echo chamber, and suddenly everything they're reading and hearing is confirming what they suspected. It's called confirmation bias, and is extremely easy to succumb to on the internet. Moral of the story is, check your sources thoroughly and be extremely careful with websites like "naturalnews.com" - they are using you as a means of making money, and they themselves probably don't believe the majority of the shit they post. I don't have the time right now to answer everything you have said. But in general, all the things that you say can be applied in just the opposite way. The whole medical and university set-up is to promote making money. This includes hiding as much of the truth about how they are damaging people for profit, as well as limiting the cures for that same profit. Consider cancer. The trophoblast theory of cancer that has been around for over 100 years, shows that everyone has cancer. It is a natural thing that is in everybody. When you add a weakening of the immune system, cancer steps out into the open. So, what strengthens the immune system? Since the immune system is a thing of nature (doctors didn't invent it), treating the immune system with natural foods, etc., strengthens it so that it can control the cancer. Drugs merely weaken the immune system, so that the cancer can't be controlled, and so that the medical has more excuse to attempt their cures. Modern medicine is a belief system. That's all... except that it is a false one. The trophoblast theory of cancer is seldom heard. Yet it has never been proven wrong. The medical barely speaks of it if they do at all. No money in it. It's the same with vaccines. If vaccines are any good, it's only in emergency situations, and there are other things that are better. Um OK, you post an article and then I helpfully show you how the article is misleading you. I actually did a small amount of research and showed the flaws. Your answer is basically a total cop-out - "Oh but everything you said can be equally applied in the opposite way!". No, they can't, because my sources are from actual medical doctors and researchers, not from some dumb bitch with a doctorate in English, like yours was. The rest of your post is simply hyperbole, claiming the "whole medical and university set-up is to promote making money." Well no, it does make money but it aso relies on peer-reviewed research of a good quality, unlike the websites you post articles from. I already addressed the corruption of Big Pharma and agreed that it is a problem. That's why we look at good quality data and evidence rather than believing clickbait from bullshit sites designed to make money. As for your cancer comments, you should know that one of the main reasons that cancer has become so prevalent is because humans are living longer and longer, giving cancer more time to develop. That's why you don't see many animals in their natural environments get cancer, because they die from other causes before cancer kills them. Modern medicine has increased the life expectancy by a huge amount, so cancers have obviously become a statistically higher killer. This is well known in the scientific community. Since the immune system is a thing of nature (doctors didn't invent it), treating the immune system with natural foods, etc., strengthens it so that it can control the cancer. Drugs merely weaken the immune system, so that the cancer can't be controlled, and so that the medical has more excuse to attempt their cures.
Modern medicine is a belief system. That's all... except that it is a false one.
That's literally nonsense. Everything is a thing of nature, doesn't mean that drugs or chemical compounds aren't effective against illness. Newsflash:: All elements (and most compounds used in medicine) already exist in nature! There are very few purely synthetic drugs, and even those are synthesized from natural elements. As for "modern medicine is a belief system", I find it hilarious that you are a super-evangelical Christian, believe in creation and that that the world is 6,000 years old, but can't see the importance of empirical medical research. I hope you don't plan on having children, or have any already... My heart bleeds for them. |
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i see human planet from space
come space ship land on earth
big round blue shape
lots light on big earth
Earth footstool? earth footstool possible you sit see if disappear in butt then group know if footsttol only way know sure earth baloon is shoot stupid group in space I wrote a series of haikus about the flat Earth crew! Uneducated people think the Earth is flat, Pythagoras weeps. These guys don't venture far from their home, so don't see the movement of stars, or the sun and moon, which seem to suggest: Globe Earth with gravity laws. I pity these fools, cause they're not real scientists, they regurgitate... lies, from shit websites, that fabricate false concepts, To earn bucks from ads. Footstools are real good for putting both your feet up! But don't prove flat Earth. |
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A big big no! You were fooled by news and all media reports out there.
Fooled? Are you suggesting all these bombings, shootings and lorry rampages have been fabricated by the media? You talking about how we are currently and for the last 20 years if not more, bombing shooting and destroying entire Muslim nations around the world but the media don't say a word about it? The news only reports news that is newsworthy. One set of rare events gets more coverage than another that is more common. For example, bad weather, which happens relatively rarely, always gets disproportionate coverage compared with good weather coverage. I'm not saying it right, I'm just saying that's the way it works. Of course. But that means you should keep in mind when talking about how "they make bombings and shootings" and else, that we're doing far worse to them and we've been doing this for freaking decades. So let's not all start acting like little virgins who get unfairly attacked while they were completely innocent. We attacked first. We destroyed entire nations without reason. We killed dozens of thousands of civilians. How do you want them to deal with us in any way but with hate, violence and revenge of desire? Good post, yes at the moment it seems to be mostly muslims who are performing despicable acts such as suicide bombing and terrorism. But you rightly say that the West have been doing similar "terrorism" for years, and not only against Middle Eastern countries (anyone remember the IRA bombings?) And many hundreds of years ago, it was the Christians who were indiscriminately killing during the Crusades. An important point to make is that this concept of "martyrism" and suicide bombing is an extremely new phenomenon - it only started in the second half of the 20th century, in part due to Western influences on Middle Eastern government. One example would be the Islamic Revolution in Iran, where the USA overthrew the Shah and allowed a government run by the Shia muslim Ayatollah Khomeini to gain power. This leader held far more strict rules on social discipline, and turned Iran into a far more authoritarian country than it was before the revolution. The Civil War in Syria was also responsible, and certain countries supporting Al-Assad (the current Al-Assad's father), for geopolitical gain. Not to mention that earlier, in the aftermath of WW1, many western politicians decided to draw arbitrary borders on a map to separate certain Middle Eastern cultures/countries, and ended up putting people that didn't get on in the same country all of a sudden, causing civil wars. The Western support of Saddam Hussein (and the sale of arms to him to win his civil war), and then later his demise when he became useless to the USA and Britain. The list goes on. And it's worth mentioning that a few hundred years ago, the Islamic world were actually at the forefront of science and medicine, while the rest of the world were throwing "witches" in lakes and seeing whether they floated or not. There has always been individuals ready to battle for their religion, question is are they actually doing it for their religion or just using religion as an excuse for barbaric behaviour? It's a very complicated situation. |
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What do you think about immortality? Will people find immortality in the future?
Is it possible to transfer a digital copy of the brain to a computer environment?
Immortality in the sense of a digital copy is not true immortality. It is more along the lines of cloning. For instance, think of an organic human as a vinyl record and the digital copy as an mp3. For the most part you can say there is no distinguishing differences yet, the mp3 does not log all the dings, scratches and every other error present in the original. Just as when you copy any file on a computer it is not the original file, but a copy. If your goal is to continue yourself from the state you were at when you died, then yes, that will suffice. The problem is, it isn't you. You still died. So you feel nothing. Your copy is what will experience the world after you die. Just as when you make a clone of say a dog, you know it is not your actual dog, but a clone of it. There is no difference from a dog and a person when you are copying its data. Both had an original and both have a copy. The main problem is how we are created. Humans as they are now will never be immortal. But, if you follow the beliefs of tranhumanism, eventually humanity and technology will meld together until there is a point where there is no distinguishing difference between the two. Those of us born before that time will be doomed to die. After that phase though, humans will be created in a digital environment, so technically they would live forever as they do not have to deal with organic flaws. They would also not be classified as Homo Sapiens, or from the viewpoint of some, not human at all. Also, I've always thought that if reincarnation is real then there is no reason to find immortality. You technically already are. You just don't stay in the same state forever. Which sounds more fun than watching the world pass by as the same person or thing. I agree, the idea of copying the human consciousness into a machine/digital copy would result in the original human carrying on with it's own life, and the copy continuing life as a clone with a separate consciousness. But perhaps, in the future, there might be a way to "transfer" the organic brain's memories and consciousness into the digital version, in a seamless transfer which results in the original human transgressing to the digital state with no loss of conscious awareness. As if they "became" the digital version and carried on their life experience from there... Who knows? It reminds me of this excellent music video by LORN, which depicts a girl transferring her consciousness to a radical virtual "social media" world, where she will live on after her death in the real world. It has amazing animation, proper cyberpunk style shit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqaAs_3azSs |
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Your first picture is just dumb, because just because something looks flat, doesn't mean it is. Go back to the analogy of a tiny ant on a large beachball - it doesn;t look round to him because of his viewpoint, but it actually is round, just the ant can't perceive the roundness. As for your second picture, well the figures are way off for a start: Highest point in the Alps - 4809m Distance to horizon from 4809m in altitude = 247.7 km = 153.9 miles (not 190) And this is half the height of commercial aircraft - 35,000 ft (over 10,000 m) and it's debatable whether you can even see the curvature from there. So both of the things you posted are bullshit.  To even slightly see the curvature you need to go a lot higher, for instance in a Lockheed U-2 Spy plane, which goes to twice the height of normal commercial planes. nice vid on the U-2 plane... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb6r34mSw6s |
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I use private Internet Access. Pretty good. Has a client for my phone as well. Cheap and fast.  also great torrent speeds. Me too, couldn't be happier with PIA. It doesn't keep logs (they have had multiple subpoenas thrown at them from the Feds, and none have been successful because they showed that they don't keep logs, so they couldn't possibly give up any info). They allow up to (I think) 4 devices on a single subscription which is $40 per year, have one of the largest numbers of servers based in different countries (good for getting around regional blocks), and best of all, you can pay in Bitcoin!!! The only other VPN I've heard that is as professional is NordVPN, but I'm very happy with the service from PIA - have it on my phone, laptop and PC. |
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Moral of the story is, check your sources thoroughly and be extremely careful with websites like "naturalnews.com" - they are using you as a means of making money, and they themselves probably don't believe the majority of the shit they post.
Exactly. IMO, the government must prosecute the owners of these websites for attempting to harm the health of the people. Anyone who advocates against the usage of modern medicine deserves criminal prosecution. The prosecution is not correct. Person has the right to dispose of their health. Another thing is that if the person refuses vaccination, he represents the threat of the epidemic. He needs to pay for insurance in case of illness. That assumption is not entirely correct, since person has no right to risk lives of other people. There is a thing called collective immunity. One who are applying vaccination is protecting not only himself, but he also provides protection to those who either have weak immune response or can't be immunized due to medical contraindications. It is our civil responsibility to ensure that infection will not spread through us to the most vulnerable members of our society, such us children, elders or disabled people. If somebody denies that simple fact then he should be exiled to uninhabitable island. [...] sicken myself in order to offset the risk of someone else who has a regrettable deficiency which I have nothing to do with. Or simply the power to buy their way out. Screw that! Logically speaking, the tiny minority with the supposed deficiency should be the ones who are ' exiled to an uninhabitable island'. Being a classical liberal rather than an indoctrinated collectivist totalitarian wannabe, however, I don't wish malice upon them and would favor more humanitarian conditions. [...] Bolded by me. You say "sicken yourself" but all the reputable data shows us that you are not in fact sickening yourself by getting vaccinated. You are actually protecting yourself and others by getting vaccinated. There are small children (too young to get vaccinated), not just people who have medical conditions that prevent themselves from getting vaccinated, and by refusing vaccination you are putting them at risk. You are sounding a little like you condone ethnic/genetic cleansing. Your posts so far in this thread have been hyperbole/personal opinion, and you haven't added any actual evidence to back up your claims. At least I analysed the OP's article and showed the glaring holes in it, demonstrated how certain media outlets with a money making agenda profit from the disinformation and misleading sources, and posted some very thorough conflicting evidence that vaccines are relatively safe. If they are so dangerous and cause diseases, where is the evidence for that? Where are all the people dying from vaccination, a common process in the modern world that is used on the vast majority of the population? I already said that I believe that increasing diagnoses of ADHD and autism are almost certainly a result of increased understanding in the conditions, not due to any vaccination poisoning or other such unsubstantiated nonsense. In past, sufferers of conditions like these would have been branded "imbeciles", "idiots" or "cretins", and probably sent to psychiatric wards for the rest of their lives. Smallpox was eradicated from the Earth due to vaccination (pretty much, some strains still exist in high security virology labs, but the general population doesn't suffer from it because it was destroyed through vaccination programmes). That in itself is a some pretty thorough evidence that some vaccines at least work as they should. Many other serious diseases are now under control through vaccination. If you have any proper, reputable peer reviewed evidence that vaccines cause any sort of disease then why not post that, instead of your own personal conspiracy theories? And don't Gish Gallop, just post the single best piece of research/study/meta-analysis you can find and we'll analyse and debate its scientific trustworthiness. |
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Cool, yeah it's starting to sound like a much more plausible plot already! The reason I don't like the idea of mixing "magic" with "advanced technology" in a story is because I think it's a thematic contradiction. Whoever controls the "advanced technology" would be certainly researching the "magic" and trying to find out how it works. And if it's real magic, that can't be proven by science, then it makes all the earlier technology (mind control, implants, trackers, surveillance etc.) a bit pointless because that could all have been magic too. It just seems like a bit of a kick in the balls to the reader, because the whole world you've established is based on computers and technology, and then it seems like lazy writing if you just start throwing in magical spells and magical forcefields. I'm not trying to be rude here, just giving my personal opinion. Mixing magic and sci-fi together is a very hard thing to pull off, a few books and films have done it (Stars Wars, Stranger in a Strange Land, Superman etc.) but they get away with it by implying/explaining that it isn't really magic, just advanced science that isn't understood. Perhaps the inhabitants of Planet Grogan could possess some sort of secret resource, that allows them to use technology more advanced than The Jennie uses, that seems like magic but actually is scientifically explainable. Maybe a massive power source of some kind, or a previously unknown chemical element, (or even a chemical compound that is produced by alien creatures living on the planet), that gives them the power to create the forcefield. Then when they are invaded, the reason for the war on Planet Grogan could be "They came for Radcliffe, but then discovered this new, previously unknown resource and decided they wanted it for themselves. And so they sent all their ships and declared war". I recently watched another episode of "Black Mirror" - called "Men Against Fire". I don't want to spoil it in case you watch it, but there are a few concepts in there that could give you some ideas about why everyone might be so "dumbed-down" at the start of your story. One of the key concepts in the episode is soldiers that have optical implants giving them an advantage on the battlefield (like a HUD in a game), but the implants are controlled by the authorities and can change the soldiers' perceptions of their environment. I'd definitely recommend you check out all the Black Mirror episodes, they are all standalone short stories so you don't need to watch them in order, I'd start with the most recent Series 3 and watch the earlier ones if you like them. I'm sure they'd give you some more inspiration for your story! Just throwing some ideas out there man! |
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Moral of the story is, check your sources thoroughly and be extremely careful with websites like "naturalnews.com" - they are using you as a means of making money, and they themselves probably don't believe the majority of the shit they post.
Exactly. IMO, the government must prosecute the owners of these websites for attempting to harm the health of the people. Anyone who advocates against the usage of modern medicine deserves criminal prosecution. I'm not sure if this is irony or not. Assuming that ''modern medicine" is always right is insane. Modern medicine may have preserved the life of many, but there have also been catastrophic mistakes, even advocated by highest rank authorities in the field (e.g. think of prefrontal lobotomy). Vaccination related negative health conditions are a reality. Today they are assumed to be very rare, but comparative long term assessment of vaccination-related health status is largely unavailable. Without commenting on the particular study in question, assuming a publication bias is at least plausible, because there is significant capital allocated in the vaccination industry. The decision to receive vaccination or not should be made freely by every single individual. You're right in saying that we shouldn't just trust modern medicine/Big Pharma, because they have made huge mistakes in the past (eg the Thalidomide catastrophe) and are known to sometimes be corrupt (eg withholding data that shows their drugs to be ineffective, as is the case with Roche and their Tamiflu drug). But that doesn't mean that everything Big Pharma makes is dangerous or ineffective. We just need to be careful, and study the actual data and evidence, rather than rely on hearsay. comparative long term assessment of vaccination-related health status is largely unavailable. Well, the eradication/control of many diseases such as smallpox, polio, yellow fever, measles and many more constitute a long term assessment that vaccines are effective. You can compare the data and see the correlation quite clearly. There are also many studies/research into the side effects of vaccines (such as the research I linked in my post regarding autism), and the general consensus is that it's far safer to get vaccinated than not, even though there are minuscule chances for allergic reactions. I don't like the idea of too much state involvement in people's personal lives, but I also don't believe herd immunity should be compromised because some parents refuse to vaccinate their children - it puts others in danger that may not be able to be vaccinated for real medical reasons (such as allergic reactions) I don't think full on prosecution of parents is fair, but I do think they should be "persuaded" to vaccinate - for example some countries have started stopping welfare/benefits for parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. That seems like a good idea to me. |
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Hah, that's actually a pretty good idea for a plot, although it does seem like you've hashed together too many ideas for a single universe.
I'm not sure about introducing actual magical elements to the plot when you've already established a futuristic cyberpunk world with mind control etc, it doesn't make sense and introduces loads of plot holes.
The beginning sounds very similar to a recent episode of "Black Mirror" (called Nosedive), which itself is a dystopian vision of social media.
Maybe try and work out why only the lower class people know about the spying, and why they aren't just wiped out by the government, perhaps there could be a genetic/technological reason that the A-listers can't see the truth?
Also your protagonist Radcliffe Rock sounds cool but I'm not sure he needs to have 7 ninja friends, sounds like a rip off of the 7 dwarves or Lord of the rings. If you start adding too many characters it gets very hard to develop them.
Also it seems unlikely that these guys just steal a ship and happen to find a paradise planet, and the Jennie needs a tracking device to find out where they've gone. Why didn't the Jennie know about this planet before, and plunder its resources?
Maybe Radcliffe could open up some sort of wormhole to another unknown part of the universe to find this new planet, and they leave some trace behind that is picked up by the Jennie?
Sounds like a fun story man, good luck with it. I love the idea of the shadowy Las Vegas casino/pub, reminds me of Blade Runner or Neuromancer, very cyberpunk.
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Yeah, he didn't used to be this bad. In fact if this is the same user "Anonymint" and his account hasn't been sold/transferred, I've seen him disagree with Armstrong on a number of occasions. But you're right, those are sorry excuses for "research", no sources or even real explanations.
For example, where's the data for "Antarctic sea ice record high" come from, is it an all time record, is it a record of thickness or area, is it a seasonal record based on percentage between summer/winter etc?
When you question him or post conflicting data, he just calls you a "leftist idiot". It's become like trying to debate with a brick wall...
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Przemax... So this thread has now devolved to people just literally making things up. Um OK, but that's not really how "science" works exactly, I mean yeah, you can make a hypothesis and test it or get others to challenge it, but for it to be plausible it needs to be empirically testable for a start, and be based on some sort of physical framework or theory. And when you say things like "planets could be living creatures" and "Stars are... well. Im not sure. Those apears to be some kind of connected by plasma with the center of the earth, or at least they are just a displayed on the karman line other words the glass of heaven..." Well, let's just say that you don't sound particularly sure of yourself, let alone capable of convincing other people. I don't know why I'm posting this really, I mean I'm just here for the entertainment value to be honest. I guess like jonnybravo said, at least make the effort to actually make a proper theory that explains the "plasma connections" or the "displays on the karman line", or even explain logically what you mean. Scientificky words do not a scientifical person make. (But I do suspect you might be a bot...)
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OK, let's do some critical analysis on this article. Firstly, it is well known (and pretty obvious) that naturalnews.com is a seriously questionable source when it comes to professional medical advice. You only need to look at how much they rely on dodgy ads (and a specific demographic of readers that lap up this anti-establishment/alternative medicine/anti Big Pharma journalism) to get an idea of how they make money. Just look at the sidebar ads on this page alone. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt this time, and actually check the sources for the article. It claims, that a doctor (Jennifer Margulis, PhD) claims, that a paper was published in the journal "Frontiers in Public Health", and then removed without explanation. OK, so now we check what sort of a "doctor" Jennifer Margulis is. Margulis has a B.A. in English literature and Russian language from Cornell University, a Master’s in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in English source: http://kindredmedia.org/author/jennifer-margulis-phd/Right, the plot thickens... she's not a medical doctor at all, just a journalist with a BA in Engish and Russian, and a doctorate in English. Hmm, this is where alarm bells start to ring. Then we can look up some information on the journal itself, "Frontiers in Public Health". While it is a peer-reviewed journal, it has had many criticisms and even been added (albeit controversially) to a "blacklist of questionable publications" by another academic, Jeffrey Beall. source: http://www.nature.com/news/backlash-after-frontiers-journals-added-to-list-of-questionable-publishers-1.18639So both the "doctor" and the journal are now both sounding less reputable than the article implies. But, lets give them both the benefit of the doubt and look at the details given on the paper itself: the abstract described a study comparing health outcomes of 660 fully vaccinated or fully unvaccinated children between the ages of 6 and 12 living in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oregon. Information was collected via parental survey in 2012. Ding ding ding!! This is where we start to really see how unreliable the source for the article is. Any bonafide medical doctor or scientist will tell you that "parental surveys" are an incredibly questionable source of data for any study, (and I wouldn't be surprised if this was the reason that the paper was pulled from publication). Not to mention that the sample was taken from a rather specific section of the population, limited to a few of the more backward States of America (OK, OK, citation needed for that ) The article doesn't quote any other studies, but goes on to mention a few other "doctors" that agree with the findings, that all seem just as sketchy as good old doctor of English and controversial journalist, Jennifer Margulis. I could probably find a bunch of dirt on them too, but I can't be bothered to investigate further as the article has already lost most of its credibility. While I would personally agree that studies into the potential dangers of vaccination should continue (even if just to socially educate people), this article stinks. I haven't done much research into vaccines causing "ADD/ADHD, asthma and other auto-immune disorders", but there are some very meticulous and thorough studies that suggest that vaccines absolutely do not cause autism. For example, here is the abstract of a meta-analysis of 10 studies involving over 1.2 million children: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24814559And an article explaining it: http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/final-nail-coffin-vaccine-autism-myth/My personal opinion is that in recent years, a greater understanding of autism and ADHD type disorders has led to an increase in their diagnosis. Most children get vaccinated, and if even a small percentage of these children develop autism or ADHD, it's understandable (but incorrect) that the parents could make a false assumption that one had caused the other. Imagine you started feeding your kid solid food, perhaps PB & J sandwiches for the first time in their life, and a few months later they got some weird disease. Then you read about other parents who did the same thing, and their kids got the same disease. That absolutely doesn't mean that PB & J sandwiches gave them the disease, it was just a coincidence, but these parents get sucked into this filter bubble/echo chamber, and suddenly everything they're reading and hearing is confirming what they suspected. It's called confirmation bias, and is extremely easy to succumb to on the internet. Moral of the story is, check your sources thoroughly and be extremely careful with websites like "naturalnews.com" - they are using you as a means of making money, and they themselves probably don't believe the majority of the shit they post. |
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