News that a research laboratory in China is deliberately engineering new hybrid strains of bird-flu virus and human influenza which could cause a pandemic has some experts alarmed.

Lord May of Oxford, former president of the UK’s Royal Society, has denounced the results conducted by a team under Professor Chen Hualan, the director of China’s National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory.

H7N9, most commonly referred to as bird flu, has been making headlines around the world recently after China confirmed 126 cases which had killed 24 people as of May 1, 2013. That virus, however, has not yet been confirmed to be human-to-human transmissible, which would greatly increase the risk of a pandemic.

That missing leap into human contagion is precisely what scientists as Harbin Veterinary Research Institute in China were interested in experimenting with, which ultimately led that laboratory to produce new viral strains by mixing the H5N1 bird-flu, which can be lethal, but is not easily transmitted between humans, with a 2009 strain of the H1N1 flu virus, which is highly communicable between humans.

According to Lord May, who spoke with The Independent, the experiment represents a breach of safety.

“The record of containment in labs like this is not reassuring. They are taking it upon themselves to create human-to-human transmission of very dangerous viruses. It’s appallingly irresponsible,” said May.

The research was conducted by Chen’s team within a laboratory with the second highest security level to prevent the virus escaping containment. According to results published by the periodical Science on Thursday the study produced 127 different viral hybrids among H5N1 and H1N1, five of which demonstrated airborne transmission between guinea pigs test subjects.


According to Chen, the value of what some experts seem to think is an unnecessary risk is to observe these human transmissible strains to head off a potential pandemic.

“High attention should be paid to monitor the emergence of such mammalian-transmissible virus in nature to prevent a possible pandemic caused by H5N1 virus,” Chen told The Independent.

Others viral experts are less than enthusiastic about Chen’s work, however. Professor Simon Wain-Hobson, a prominent virologist at the Pasteur Institute in France, lauded the work, but also questioned its usefulness.

“It’s a fabulous piece of virology by the Chinese group and it’s very impressive, but they haven’t been thinking clearly about what they are doing. It’s very worrying,” said Wain-Hobson to The Independent.

“The virological basis of this work is not strong. It is of no use for vaccine development and the benefit in terms of surveillance for new flu viruses is oversold,” he added.

A similar H5N1 experiment published in March was conducted by virologist Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands. That experiment led scientists to impose a year-long moratorium on hybrid viral experiments due to the belief that safeguards were insufficient for that type of work.

Microbiologist Richard Ebright of Rutgers University, who was critical of Fouchier’s work, was equally skeptical of the Chinese laboratory’s research.

“The sole major difference is the use of guinea pigs in this paper and ferrets in that paper,” said Ebright.

“In my assessment, neither paper contains substantive new information that justifies the risks posed by the research,” he told Wired.

According to Wain-Hobson, hybrid viral experiments such as Chen’s could not, in the end, be extrapolated to determine the danger to humans.

“We don’t know the pathogenicity [lethality] in man and hopefully we will never know. But if the case fatality rate was between 0.1 and 20 per cent, and a pandemic affected 500 million people, you could estimate anything between 500,000 and 100 million deaths,” Wain-Hobson said.

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More than 900 people have been arrested in China for involvement in meat-related crimes, including producing fake beef and mutton from animals such as rats, minks and foxes, authorities reported.

A total of 382 cases of alleged crimes in food industry were uncovered in a three-month campaign launched by China’s Ministry of Public Security on January 25, the ministry reported.

In addition to producing falsely-labeled meat, the crimes included using banned chemicals in processing of products, selling meat infected with various diseases and injecting water into meat to pad up its weight, according to Xinhua news agency.


Security officials seized more than 20,000 tons of illegal meat products during the crackdown.

The ministry said it will now focus on dairy products, continuing a larger campaign to combat crime and violations in food industry.

Crook producers faking meat to beef up the bottom line is hardly China’s exclusive problem. Europe recently had a major scandal over horsemeat laced with banned drug, which was sold as more expensive beef.

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Discoveries of giants have also been reported in Mexico. The  Dominican friar Diego Durán is responsible for writing some of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs. His family moved from Spain to Mexico City when he was very young, which allowed him to grow up around the remaining natives of Mexico. While attending school he was frequently exposed to Aztec culture, then under the colonial rule of Spain. He continued to study and travel within the remaining city-states of the Aztec empire. In Texcoco he learned to speak and read the native Nahuatl Aztec language. By winning the Aztecs’ trust, he was able to gain access to a vast amount of knowledge concerning the history of pre-Columbian Mexico.

 His writings are some of the oldest known surviving texts that give us actual firsthand narratives from the ancient Aztecs. Because he spent thirty-two years among the Aztecs gathering information, learning how to read ancient native hieroglyphics, and interviewing old shamans, scholars regard Durán’s work as extremely important. In The History of the Indies of New Spain, he exhaustively describes the history of Mexico from its mysterious ancient origins up to conquest and occupation by the Spaniards. In these writings the Aztecs were not shy when it came to talking about giants. But Durán didn’t need to hear or read about them, he could see them. While living in Mexico he came in contact with giant Indians on several occasions. Writing about these encounters, he says emphatically:

It cannot be denied that there have been giants in this country. I can affirm this as an eyewitness, for I have met men of monstrous stature here. I believe that there are many in Mexico who will remember, as I do, a giant Indian who appeared in a procession of the feast of Corpus Christi. He appeared dressed in yellow silk and a halberd at his shoulder and a helmet on his head. And he was all of three feet taller than the others.

 During his thirty-two years among the Aztecs, Duran also interviewed many old Indians knowledgeable in the ancient ways and traditions of their people. From all these sources he learned about the giants. Bernardino de Sahagun and Joseph de Acosta, two other notable historians of about the same period, also knew about a tribe of giants who once occupied central Mexico, but Duran's book offers us the best and most complete account. Duran writes that, according to the Aztecs, the giants and a bestial people of average size once had this land all to themselves. Then, in A.D. 902, six tribes of people from Teocolhuacan, which "is found toward the north and near the region of La Florida," began arriving in Mexico. They soon took possession of the country. These six kindred tribes included the Xochimilca, the Chalca, the Tecpanec, the Colhua, the Tlalhuica, and the Tlaxcalans. A seventh tribe, the Aztecs, were brothers to these people, but they "came to live here three hundred and one years after the arrival of the others." When these six tribes had settled, Duran continues, "they recorded in their painted books the type of land and kind of people they found here.

 These books show two types of people, one from the west of the snow-covered mountains toward Mexico, and the other on the east, where Puebla and Cholula are found. Those from the first region were Chichimecs and the people from Puebla and Cholula were 'The Giants,' the Quiname, which means 'men of great stature.' "The few Chichimecs on the side of Mexico were brutal, savage men, and they were called Chichimecs because they were hunters. They lived among the peaks and in the harshest places of the mountain where they led a bestial existence. They had no human organization but hunted food like the beasts of the same mountain, and went stark naked without any covering on their private parts....When the new nations came, these savage people showed no resistance or anger, but rather awe. They fled towards the hills, hiding themselves there.... The newly arrived people seeing, then, that the land was left unoccupied, chose at will the best places to live in. The other people who were found in Tlaxcala and Cholula and Huexotzinco are said to have been 'Giants.' These were enraged at the coming of the invaders and tried to defend their land.


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Everything in the Word of God has a Dual Meaning to it. You can always perceive God’s Word from the perspective of Enlightenment or you can perceive it from the perspective of Redemption. Because God is Both a Universal God and a Personal God. The enlightenment perspective of God’s Word is true because it is the Gnosis and universal truth of God (Elohim) But the other half of the truth reveals God as Salvation. It is the personal side of the truth revealed in the Son of God Jesus Christ.


Now, which heavenly being is SO ENLIGHTENED to perceive the Word of GOD from the perspective of Enlightenment? He is none other than the Enlightener of the World, LUCIFER. Lucifer whose real name is Helel (Shining Star or Morning Star) is more enlightened than all of us put together. He was created to be the highest spiritual power of heaven. But the bible says that Lucifer/Helel’s heart was lifted up because of his beauty, and he has corrupted his wisdom by reason of his brightness.

Now is Lucifer wrong about the perspective of God’s Word as enlightenment? NO! Because Lucifer knows God better than we all. But what he has done is to hide the perspective of Salvation about God’s Word from Man. Why? Because he is Satan (Adversary). He doesn’t want Man to believe in the Personal Aspect of God (The Trinity) and God’s idea of Salvation. Satan believes that the perspective of the trinity is false and that he is here to reveal a higher truth to all beings in the universe about God.

He has convinced one third of Heaven’s Angels that they can all be like the MOST HIGH, The Trinity, the Godhead, because they are all God. You are God, I am God, we are all God (Elohim). That is true because The Lord has said we are gods (Elohim) because all of us are children of the Most High. But Jesus has said that we should worship The Lord (Yahweh/Jehovah) and serve only him for he is the Godhead. For the Lord is God of gods, and Lord of lords. He is God the Highest among all the Elohim.

We may all be One Consciousness, but within the One Consciousness, there are Many personalities. There is One Personality that is EL ELYON (God Most High) and He is The LORD. We are all part of the BODY of GOD (ELOHIM) but the GODHEAD is the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). These are Three Personalities in One Godhead. In the beginning, the One Consciousness differentiated into the Three divine personalities in order to express itself as Love. The Three and One are equal.

You have to understand that the differentiation between the One into the Three did not take place in the Time Domain since it occurs outside space-time, but in the Consciousness or Logic Domain that transcends space-time. In terms of time, the Universal and Personal aspect of God can be considered to exist simultaneously. In terms of Logic, the One Pure Source or Consciousness existed first before the Three Divine Personalities emanated out of it.

 One of Satan’s biggest lies is that there is no Satan, there is only God. In all other religious teachings such as Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Gnosticism, etc, there is ONLY GOD, no SATAN. Where did Satan go? Well, he simply did a disappearing act like the master magician he is. Satan has become God in his religious and esoteric teachings. Satan wants to be like the Most High God. The only place that mentions the truth about Satan is the bible because it is where the Lord reveals this reality.

Satan means Adversary. He is the adversary of the TRUE GOD of Christianity. The Bible is the ONLY place that mentions the truth of Satan, the Devil. Satan opposes Christianity so much, especially in the work of Theosophy, because he is the adversary of THE LORD. Remember, Satan is greatest LIGHT BEING in heaven. His light shines so brightly that anyone who looks at him would THINK HE IS GOD because he looks like God. That is how Brilliant THE LORD created his First Angel as.

But LUCIFER/SATAN/HELEL thought that he could be like the LORD in glory and majesty. He has convinced one third of heavens Angels to believe that they are of equal glory and majesty with THE LORD. Now he is working to convince MAN of the same thing. The work of Helel is to overrule the will of The Lord. For he says that we are God therefore we should worship no other gods but ourselves. Lucifer has sinned against the Trinity, by doubting and accusing the perception of The Most High God.

The bible says that Satan/Helel/Lucifer shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods. Lucifer claims that the trinity is simply the Atzilut or the First Emanation of The One. Lucifer accuses the trinity of being a tyrant God in making all other beings worship them and for claiming sovereignty. He claims that sovereignty belongs to The All, therefore every being has the right to be like the Most High.

Lucifer is the god of this world now, and he has created his own version of the Word of God through Gnosticism by claiming that the creator God is the demiurge (tyrant god), and that the true God is the One Consciousness from which the demiurge came. The bible calls Lucifer/Satan the one who deceives the whole world with his corrupted truth about The Lord. The reference here is not to God (Elohim) because Lucifer is also part of Elohim (God The All), but the reference is to The Lord.


Satan is an Enlightened being and so are all the angels on his side. The work of evil that they do is actually part of a higher purpose that Satan has in mind. Satan uses his work of evil as a means to enlighten people about the sin of ignorance being the cause of all suffering. So that people will move from the darkness to the light, which is the light that he shines unto them. Satan’s ultimate agenda is to turn everyone to God, but not the Lord. He turns them to the universal God which he represents.

The darkest part of the world is really the brightest part. It is because it is where the light of Satan/Helel/Lucifer shines so brightly that people are deceived to think they are in the light when they are really in darkness towards the Lord. The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. People are not blinded by darkness, but they are blinded by light which is the light of Satan/Lucifer.

All the forms of terror, beastliness and unsightliness that Satan uses are only a means to scare people to his light side. Satan’s true form is a god or angel of light. EL is the term for Star or God. When it is used to mean God, the name Helel literally means God of light or light of God. The gospel is to open your eyes, and to turn you from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that you may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance for those who are sanctified by faith that is in The LORD.

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In mid-April, the Chinese government said the increased U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific region causes a lot of tension, and they plan to send more military forces and strengthen their partnerships with neighboring countries. A recent study found that China increasingly threatens to end the military supremacy of the USA.

China has the largest army in the world ...

In mid-April, the Chinese government said the increased U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific region causes a lot of tension, and they plan to send more military forces and strengthen their partnerships with neighboring countries.

A recent study found that China's growing industrial power increasingly threatens to end the military supremacy of the United States (U.S.) in Asia-Pacific waters, making it difficult for Washington to be able to maintain their "status quo" in the region, achieved through its alliances with Japan and South Korea.


The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a study of nine U.S. researchers, who claim that "in the next two decades, China will reach the U.S. in its military capabilities, including the ability to build aircraft carriers and stealth type fighter aircraft."

"Will the United States maintain its leadership of the last 60 years in the area? Our own country says yes, but it is still not very clear whether it is really so," said one of the report's authors, Michael D. Swaine, an expert on China's defense policy.

According to experts, due to the economic interdependence between the two countries, "Beijing will probably prevent the use of military force and not cause an armed conflict in order to try to expel Washington from the region."

The document also states that the change in the strategic balance in the region most strongly affects Japan, an economic power whose security has depended for a long time on its alliance with the U.S. government.

Experts also believe that Japan could respond to the growing power of China, further tightening its ties with Washington, as it did recently during the escalation of tension that arose from the islands whose sovereignty is disputed between the two nations.

The report concluded that the most likely outcome of this "arms race" will be a "delicate balance" across the region, causing U.S. hegemony to gradually weaken with increasing Chinese military capabilities.

In mid-April, the Chinese government said the increased U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific region causes a lot of tension, therefore, they intend to send more military forces and strengthen their partnerships with neighboring countries.


China's armed forces have always been a staunch force upholding world peace and regional stability, according to a white paper on national defense released on Tuesday.

"China's security and development are closely connected with the peace and prosperity of the world as a whole," the white paper says.

According to the document, the country's armed forces are now mainly engaged in maintaining world peace and regional stability by participating in UN peacekeeping operations, international disaster relief and humanitarian aid, safeguarding the security of international sea lines of communication (SLOCs), and joint exercises and training with foreign armed forces.

Wang Xinjun, a research fellow on war theory and strategy with the Academy of Military Sciences of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), said, "Taking on the obligations of a major power is an important feature marking China's entering into the world stage."

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Does Pope Francis intend to help the global elite achieve their goal of uniting all of the religions of the world under a single banner? Will he be instrumental in establishing a single global religion for the glorious “new age” that the global elite believe is coming? After he was elected, the cover of Time Magazine declared Pope Francis to be the “New World Pope“, and since his election Pope Francis has made it abundantly clear that he is going to make ecumenical outreach a top priority. He has spoken of his “determination to continue on the path of ecumenical dialogue“, and he has already held a number of very high profile ecumenical meetings. Not only has he worked hard to reach out to leaders from various Christian traditions, he has also made it a point to try to acknowledge the mutual bonds that he feels with all other religions. For example, in one recent address he made it a point to say that he believes that Muslims worship and pray to the “one God” that he also worships. This “all roads lead to the same God” philosophy is a hallmark of the one world religion that the global elite have been slowly building toward for decades. The global elite know that even with a one world economy and a one world government, humanity will never be truly united until there is a single global religion. Unfortunately, this one world religion that they are seeking to establish is diametrically opposed to the Christianity that we find in the Bible. By throwing out Biblical truth for the sake of “friendship between men and women of different religious traditions“, is Pope Francis fundamentally betraying the faith that he claims to represent?

If there is going to be a one world religion, there will have to be a bond formed between Roman Catholicism and Islam. They are the two largest religious traditions on the planet, and so any truly “global religion” would definitely require the participation of both of them.

That is one reason why what Pope Francis has already had to say about Islam is so noteworthy. The following comes from remarks that he made during his very first ecumenical meeting…

I then greet and cordially thank you all, dear friends belonging to other religious traditions; first of all the Muslims, who worship the one God, living and merciful, and call upon Him in prayer, and all of you. I really appreciate your presence: in it I see a tangible sign of the will to grow in mutual esteem and cooperation for the common good of humanity.

The Catholic Church is aware of the importance of promoting friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions – I wish to repeat this: promoting friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions – it also attests the valuable work that the Pontifical Council for interreligious dialogue performs.

But are “Allah” and the God of the Bible the same thing?

Of course not. For example, Christians believe that Jesus Christ is God. Muslims deny this vehemently. For much more on why “Allah” and the God of the Bible are not the same.

So either Pope Francis is denying the divinity of Jesus Christ, or he is exhibiting a frightening ignorance of basic Christian theology, or there is some other agenda at work here.

During that same ecumenical meeting, Pope Francis also made it a point to state that he feels “close” to those that belong “to any religious tradition”…

In this, we feel close even to all those men and women who, whilst not recognizing themselves belonging to any religious tradition, feel themselves nevertheless to be in search of truth, goodness and beauty, this truth, goodness and beauty of God, and who are our precious allies in efforts to defend the dignity of man, in building a peaceful coexistence among peoples and in guarding Creation carefully.

It is one thing to love people and to seek to build friendships with them, but it is another thing entirely to throw out the most basic beliefs of the faith that you supposedly represent in order to promote a specific agenda.

And Pope Francis definitely appears to have an agenda. On another occasion, Pope Francis declared that it was time “to intensify dialogue” with other religions, and that he was “thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam.”

But this affinity for Islam did not just begin recently. The truth is that Pope Francis was working hard to build bridges with Islam even when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires…

“His humility drew my attention,” Sheik Mohsen Ali, an important Islamic leader in Argentina, told the Buenos Aires Herald. He “always showed himself a friend of the Islamic community.”

And Pope Francis has a reputation for being a cleric that really “knows Islam“…

Sumer Noufouri, secretary-general of the Islamic Center of the Republic of Argentina, told the Buenos Aires Herald that the new pope is a “respectful, pro-dialogue person who knows Islam.”

But of course Pope Francis is not just reaching out to the Islamic world.

He has also been working hard to “intensify dialogue” with other Christian traditions.

In particular, he seems quite interested in improving relations with the Orthodox churches of the east…

Before his address, the pope had a private meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew from Istanbul, who attended Francis’s inaugural Mass on Tuesday.

It was the first time the spiritual head of Orthodox Christians had attended a Roman pope’s inaugural Mass since the Great Schism between western and eastern Christianity in 1054.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Francis called Bartholomew “my brother Andrew,” a reference to the apostle who was the brother of St. Peter and was the first bishop of the Church of Byzantium.

Francis also held a private session with Metropolitan Hilarion, the foreign minister of the Russian Orthodox Church, the largest in the Orthodox world.

 It won’t happen tomorrow, of course, but could Pope Francis be the Pope that brings the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox back together?

And of course a one world religion will not appear overnight either. There are far too many differences to overcome right now.

But as the world becomes increasingly unstable, people are going to be looking for answers. After the world is ravaged by economic collapse, food shortages, nightmarish pandemics, unprecedented natural disasters and horrifying wars, will it finally be ready for a one world religion that promises “peace and friendship” among all of the religions of the globe?

This is something to watch for in the years ahead. The global elite desperately want a single global religion, and they will keep moving things in that direction.


For now, Pope Francis just seems to be laying the groundwork for the one world religion that is coming. There is a 900-year-old prophecy that indicates that Pope Francis could be the last Pope. If that prophecy is true, then it will be very important to watch the actions of this Pope very carefully.

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The evangelist Martin-Luther church in Krumpendorf in Styria, in southern Austria has been hit by a plague of flies

A church which has been 'cursed' by a plague of flies has been rendered unusable and could be demolished if a solution is not found.

The evangelist Martin-Luther church has stood on the site in Krumpendorf in Styria, in southern Austria, since 1969.

But three years ago, it was struck by an infestation of flies, forcing the congregation out.

It has become so bad that after pest control efforts failed, curator Helga Duffek and vicar Renate Mooshammer have even resorted to bringing in a team of ghost hunters and exorcists to the site, but all without success.

The church was built in 1969. But three years ago, it was suddenly struck by an infestation of flies

The church takes so long to clean before each service, at least two hours, that the congregation has been forced to use a nearby catholic church in Krumpendorf

But they have been unable to explain why they are attracted to the church and why they keep returning.

Vicar Renate Mooshammer joked: 'I can imagine this wonderful building offers not only plenty of room – but also peace. With one service per month, the flies aren’t exactly being disturbed.'

The church stands empty now the congregation has been forced to move.

There have not been any firm decisions made as to the future of the evangelist church building yet. If the national heritage agency agrees, it could be demolished or sold.

The head of the local monumental protection Association Gorazd Živkovic said they were considering lifting the status of the church so that it could be demolished because of the fly problem but admitted it was unlikely they would allow it to be knocked down immediately.

It has become so bad, that after pest control efforts failed, curator Helga Duffek and vicar Renate Mooshammer have even resorted to bringing in a team of ghost hunters and exorcists to the site, but all without success

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In the last days, the Bible tells us of a horrible series of events that will take place in the lands of Israel and Syria. One of these events is the disappearance of Damascus as one of the premiere cities in the world. The oldest continuously inhabited city on the planet, Damascus has witnessed at least 5,000 years of human history, and some historians believe the city actually dates back to the seventh millennium BC. In fact, Paul was on the road to Damascus when Christ first appeared to Him, an event that transformed not only his life, but the course of human history.

In the very near future, Damascus will once again play a major role in human events. The prophet Isaiah provides us with God’s commentary on a future conflict between Damascus and Israel, and in so doing, he reveals certain prophecies which have been partially fulfilled in the past. However, the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah 17 remains in the future. The current existence of Damascus, which will one day cease to be a city, as well as the historical absence of the coalition of nations prophesied to attack Israel and be destroyed by God, is proof that Isaiah 17 prophesies events yet future.

There are actually two key Biblical prophecies that explain that at unspecified time in the future, the city of Damascus will be completely destroyed — judged by God — and will not be inhabited again.

* Isaiah 17:1-3 — “The oracle concerning Damascus. ‘Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city and will become a fallen ruin. The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be for flocks to lie down in, and there will be no one to frighten them. The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and sovereignty from Damascus….’”

‘Look, Damascus will disappear! It will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer will be deserted. Sheep will graze in the streets and lie down unafraid. There will be no one to chase them away. The fortified cities of Israel will also be destroyed, and the power of Damascus will end. The few left in Aram will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah 17:1-3 (NLT)

* Jeremiah 49:23-27 — “Concerning Damascus. ‘Hamath andArpad are put to shame, for they have heard bad news; they are disheartened. There is anxiety by the sea, it cannot be calmed. Damascus has become helpless; she has turned away to flee, and panic has gripped her; distress and pangs have taken hold of her like a woman in childbirth. How the city of praise has not been deserted, the town of My joy! Therefore, her young men will fall in her streets, and all the men of war will be silenced in that day,’ declares the Lord of hosts. ’I will set fire to the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the fortified towers of Ben-hadad.’”

These prophecies have not yet been fulfilled. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth. It has been attacked, besieged, and conquered. But Damascus has never been completely destroyed and left uninhabited. Yet that is exactly what the Bible says will happen. The context of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49 are a series of End Times prophecies dealing with God’s judgments on Israel’s neighbors and enemies leading up to — and through — the Tribulation.

This prophecy was only partially fulfilled when the Assyrians defeated the Arameans and Damascus, in 732 BC. Today Damascus is one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city with a 5000-year history yet Isaiah 17:1 indicates that it will one day cease to exist. Some authorities believe the phrase “cities of Aroer” should be rendered “the cities thereof shall be forsaken.”

The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim [ie Northern Kingdom], and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites,” declares the LORD Almighty. “In that day the glory of Jacob [ie Northern Kingdom] will fade; the fat of his body will waste away. It will be as when a reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the grain with his arm- as when a man gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. (Isaiah 17:3-5)

This refers to the fall of Samaria 10 years later , and the deportation of almost everyone to the far reaches of the Assyrian Empire. Jacob and Ephraim are alternate names for the Northern Kingdom.

According to these verses, the cities of Aroer, which are located on the northern bank of the Arnon River just east of the Dead Sea, will also be deserted. However, the passage doesn’t say they will be destroyed in the same manner as Damascus, just that they will be deserted. It may be that people simply flee these cities out of fear.

In addition, many of the fortified cities in northern Israel will also be destroyed. Those few who remain in Aram, 38 miles south southeast of Damascus, will share the fate of these northern Israeli cities.

“‘In that day the glory of Israel will be very dim, for poverty will stalk the land. Israel will be abandoned like the grain fields in the valley of Rephaim after the harvest. Only a few of its people will be left, like the stray olives left on the tree after the harvest. Only two or three remain in the highest branches, four or five out on the tips of the limbs. Yes, Israel will be stripped bare of people,’ says the Lord, the God of Israel.” Isaiah 17:4-6 (NLT)

The breadth and scope of destruction is clearly illustrated as God describes the Israeli landscape as stripped bare of people. Only a small fraction of people either choose to stay in the land or else survive what is a massive holocaust, leaving only a few inhabitants who struggle in poverty.

“Then at last the people will think of their Creator and have respect for the Holy One of Israel. They will no longer ask their idols for help or worship what their own hands have made. They will never again bow down to their Asherah poles or burn incense on the altars they built.” Isaiah 17:7-8 (NLT)

As a result of this event, the people of Israel will once again turn to God Almighty. Currently, the nation of Israel is predominantly secular in nature. Other biblical passages infer that this will change as the prophesied rebuilding of the Temple in the last days indicates a spiritual resurgence among the Jews of Israel. Nevertheless, this passage clearly indicates the people of Israel will turn away from all false idols and gods.

Knowing that this will happen, we must ask: why does it happen? The answer is found in the verses that follow:

“Their largest cities will be as deserted as overgrown thickets. They will become like the cities the Amorites abandoned when the Israelites came here so long ago. Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you – the Rock who can hide you. You may plant the finest imported grapevines, and they may grow so well that they blossom on the very morning you plant them, but you will never pick any grapes from them. Your only harvest will be a load of grief and incurable pain.” Isaiah 17:9-11 (NLT)

The devastation that overshadows Israel will come about because Israel has “turned from the God who can save them.” All the hard work performed prior to this event will be lost. Those who have been distracted by the things of this world will be disappointed, for they have forgotten God, and by putting faith in the things of this world, they will ultimately be disappointed. Their only harvest will be “a load of grief and incurable pain.” This grief will be brought to a climax when, in the midst of their suffering, the nation of Israel faces an imminent invasion:

“Look! The armies rush forward like waves thundering toward the shore. But though they roar like breakers on a beach, God will silence them. They will flee like chaff scattered by the wind or like dust whirling before a storm. In the evening Israel waits in terror, but by dawn its enemies are dead. This is the just reward of those who plunder and destroy the people of God.” Isaiah 17:12-14 (NLT)

HOW EXACTLY WILL DAMASCUS BE DESTROYED? WHEN WILL EXACTLY IT BE DESTROYED? WHAT WILL THAT LOOK LIKE, AND WHAT WILL BE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE REST OF SYRIA, FOR ISRAEL AND FOR THE REGION? THE HONEST ANSWER IS THAT THE BIBLE DOES NOT SAY

Notice the language in that prophecy. It is passive tense. It does not say that Israel wipes out the city. It does not say which enemy destroys the city. It does not say that God destroys the city. We do not know who or how the city ceases. We don’t know how it will happen or from whom. Only that it will. We only know the result. In other prophecies God says who will do what, and how. Not this time.

Let’s look at what is going on in Syria as of December 2012:

Residents say entire sections of mostly Sunni enclaves in northeastern Damascus have been bulldozed to the ground by government troops. WSJ’s Sam Dagher reports from the Syrian capital.

DAMASCUS—All that remains of Abu Mohammed’s ancestral home here in Syria’s capital are two small adobe brick rooms and a few fig, loquat and mulberry trees.

It was bulldozed as part of a government slum-clearance program that appears to have a political motive: isolate neighborhoods sympathetic to Syria’s armed insurrection, and then obliterate them, according to critics, human-rights groups and even some officials within the government itself. “We are like gypsies now,” says Mr. Mohammed, who took his wife and five children to another part of the city after sections of his neighborhood, Qaboun—one of the first to rise up against Syria’s regime—were flattened and ringed by military posts.

The campaign stands in contrast to the all-out urban warfare in the northern city of Aleppo. Here in the capital, Damascus, the strategy appears designed to cripple and disperse the rebels through the destruction and encirclement of communities where they operate.

For the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the stakes in Damascus are nothing short of retaining control of the nation itself. “If they lose Damascus, they lose the state,” says Patrick Seale, a British author and Syria expert.

Senior security officials within the Assad regime say partial demolitions of pro-rebel neighborhoods in and around Damascus are a key element of an ambitious counterinsurgency plan now unfolding.

On a recent morning in mid-October, soldiers from the Syrian Army’s Fourth Division, commanded by Mr. Assad’s brother Maher, oversaw demolition in Zulaikha, a patch of nearly 24 acres of apartments in the Tadamoun neighborhood on the capital’s southern fringe.

“Go, go!” shouted a soldier as a grim-faced family packed into a pickup truck weighed down with belongings—furniture, foam mattresses, a satellite dish—they salvaged from their apartment. “We are going to blow up a building now!” the soldier said as the truck pulled away.

Another soldier nearby said the residents were among the lucky ones. “Not everyone is being allowed in to take their possessions,” he said. Security and army checkpoints now ring Tadamoun.

Is Syria slowly being demolished?

Today many believe that Syria will soon try to provoke a Jewish response, and if that escalates things further it can easily result in the destruction of Damascus in the final fulfillment of Isaiah 17.

We all assume Israel will do the deed but it really could be anyone, even God as He smote Sodom and Gomorrah. It could be NATO. It could be Turkey. It could happen as rebels get a hold of chemical weapons of mass destruction and unleash – accidentally or on purpose – a holocaust that destroys the city.

It could be that rebels with Libyan weapons that had gone missing from Libya make an attack and things get out of hand. No matter, the fact is, as Damascus becomes increasingly belligerent and the Middle East hotbed that is the epicenter of last days prophecies climbs over the horizon and hurtles toward us, we are closer than ever to that final obliteration of the city of 6 million Isaiah prophesied 2700 years ago. The city of Damascus will become a heap of ruins, utterly destroyed. Few, if any, buildings will be left standing. The once great city will be devoid of human life and will become home to all manner of wildlife in the absence of humans to chase them away.

SOURCE

On Monday May 6th a draconian new law will be put before the European Commission, which creates new powers to classify and regulate all plant life anywhere in Europe.

The "Plant Reproductive Material Law" will regulate all plants. It contains immediate restrictions on reproduction of vegetables and woodland trees, while creating powers to restrict all other plants of any other species at a later date.

Under the new law, it will immediately be illegal to grow, reproduce or trade any vegetable seed or tree that has not been tested, approved and accepted by a new "EU Plant Variety Agency". Moreover, an annual fee must also be paid to the Agency if that particular variety is to be used by anyone.


Following a huge outcry from consumer groups, small-scale farmers, and genebanks, last-minute alterations have been made, allowing home gardeners (but not farmers) to at least give seed to each other for free without breaking the law.

But the rest of the law is still hugely damaging to the seed supply and will make it much harder for people to get hold of the seeds they want to grow at home.

Ben Gabel, vegetable breeder and director of The Real Seed Catalogue, said:

"This law will immediately stop the development of vegetable varieties for home gardeners, organic growers, and small-scale market farmers. Home gardeners have really different needs - for example they grow by hand, not machine, and can't or don't want to use such powerful chemical sprays. There's no way to register the varieties suitable for home use as they don't meet the strict criteria of the Plant Variety Agency, which is only concerned about approving the sort of seed used by industrial farmers."

"We used to be able to sell 'Amateur' varieties of vegetable seed, so home growers could buy seed that big farmers wouldn't be interested in, but that has been abolished. It will become really hard to get hold of the seed you want to grow at home as any company with more than 4 employees is now banned from producing them."

"Even worse, it will reduce the choice available to large farmers as well. For industrial-scale agriculture, the law will only allow new varieties of vegetable if they are tested and proven to be better than ones currently in use. This is foolish, often you don't discover the benefits of a new variety until you've been growing it for several years, for example when a new disease comes along that it turns out to be resistant to. In a free market, it should be up to farmers to try out any new crop they like and decide what variety is best based on their own experience."

"There's no need for this complex new regulation. We already have very strong consumer-protection laws that cover all this - seeds must be fit for the purpose sold, match their description, and perform as advertised. The old seed laws already cover health, traceability and safety. Anyone who produces seed is already inspected and certified by the Secretary of State. "

"This is an instance of bureaucracy out of control. All this new law does is create a whole new raft of EU civil servants being paid to move mountains of papers round all day, while killing off the seed supply to home gardeners and interfering with the right of farmers to grow what they want. It also very worrying that they have given themselves the power to regulate and licence any plant species of any sort at all in the future - not just agricultural plants, but grasses, mosses, flowers, anything at all - without having to bring it back to the Council for a vote."

"This law was written for the needs of the globalised farm-seed industry, who supply seed by the ton to industrial farmers. It should not apply to seed used by home gardeners and small market growers, who have very different needs." "We call for a total exemption from the law for seed supplied in small packets directly to individual consumers."

SOURCE

As Russia significantly upgrades and modernizes its nuclear forces, the Obama administration is preparing to launch yet another round of nuclear missile cuts, according to reports last Wednesday.

Moscow announced in April that it will deploy the first of its new intercontinental ballistic missiles this year, named the Yars-M. The missile’s range is 6,835 miles, it can carry a warhead weighing up to 1.5 tons, and it’s capable of penetrating U.S. missile defenses. “[W]e achieve the most complex part of the rocket boost so fast that the enemy does not have time to calculate its trajectory and, therefore, cannot destroy it,” said retired Russian strategic forces commander Col. Gen. Viktor Yesin. Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia is also developing new rail-mobile icbms, submarine-launched missiles, Topol missiles and a new strategic bomber.

Trends in the U.S. are moving in precisely the opposite direction.

The American military is short somewhere between $1 billion and $1.6 billion that policymakers had allocated back in 2010 for nuclear modernization. This shortage has already prompted officials to scrap plans to build a plutonium facility in New Mexico and to postpone a test launch of a Minuteman iii missile. The shortage also jeopardizes a new strategic submarine program, and programs for life extension of three key warhead types.

According to reports, President Obama is also expected to soon announce that he aims to cut U.S. nuclear stockpiles to as few as 1,000. Policy experts like Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces, says the planned cut undermines U.S. deterrence and Washington’s ability to extend a nuclear umbrella to its allies in Europe and Asia. “I find this deeply concerning, given the sorry state of the nuclear modernization commitments made during the last round,” Rogers said.

The U.S. has displayed a further lack of resolve in its nuclear commitment by mysteriously ordering a study on the environmental impact of closing an entire wing for land-based nuclear missiles. None of the announced plans call for closing a missile wing, and no explanation was offered for the study. Could orders for such a study be designed to condition the American people and policymakers for more drastic cuts to the U.S.’s arsenal than have even been announced? Some analysts think so. As nations in Eastern Europe, and beyond, see Russian might growing and American will deteriorating, they will be increasingly inclined to abandon the sinking U.S. ship, and to rally instead behind Russia. For more about the significance of Russia’s strides toward resurgence.


The final count had Vladimir Putin crushing all his rivals with 63.6 percent of the March 4 vote for Russia’s president. Yes, he rigged the elections a little. After all, it is Russia. There, even if a strongman’s victory is certain, he still pulls some levers behind the scenes, if only out of political tradition. But monitoring agencies agree that, even without cheating, Putin would still have garnered about 53 percent of the vote—placing him head and shoulders above the second-place contender’s 17 percent.

Thus, Mr. Putin has made his rule of Russia official once again, and Russians, by and large, are happy about it. But that doesn’t mean that Putin is returning to the Kremlin exactly as he left it.

At his victory rally in Moscow Square, Putin gently wept (his spokesman insisted his tears were the result of wind, not emotion) as he spoke to multitudes of flag-waving citizens. He said their decision to reelect him was “a sign of Russia’s growing political maturity.” A few days earlier, Dmitry Medvedev—still Russia’s official president until May—had said Russian “society is growing up.”

Is the Russian bear maturing? Certainly, change is under way in Russia.

A ‘White Rider’ Resurrects a Dead Empire

When Putin took the reins in 2000, Russia had fallen into chaos after the Soviet collapse and resulting financial crisis; the nation was threatened internally and externally. But the former kgb agent aggressively consolidated the country socially, politically and, above all, economically. During Putin’s eight years in the Kremlin, Russia’s industry increased by 76 percent and investments grew by 125 percent. Real incomes of Russian citizens grew by over 100 percent, and the average salary increased from $80 per month to $640, a staggering sevenfold. The middle class swelled from 8 million to more than 55 million, and the percentage of Russians living below the poverty line fell from 30 percent to 14 percent. Moscow’s oil exports steadily climbed throughout Putin’s presidency, and in 2009, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia to become the world’s top energy exporter.

The advancements were stark, and the nation rallied around Putin as Russia’s “savior,” with many even espousing the belief that he is the heartbeat of Russia.

Constitutional term limits mandated that Putin leave office in 2008, and he officially handed the reins to Medvedev. But he assumed the position of prime minister and remained Russia’s de facto ruler throughout Medvedev’s term. Though most facets of Russian life continued to improve, dissatisfaction with Moscow’s leadership began to emerge in some circles. The dissatisfaction gave way to some dissent, and many pundits have regarded it as evidence that the “savior Putin” days are over.



Is a ‘Slavic Spring’ Under Way? 

The dissent became stark in September of last year when Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev somewhat casually announced that, come election time, they would swap places, returning the presidency to Putin. The anti-democratic nature of the announcement soured the mood of some Russians, and the popularity of Putin’s United Russia party slid. In the December 2011 parliamentary election, United Russia lost its supermajority in the Duma. The week after the vote, demonstrations against alleged election rigging started stirring and coalesced in a December 24 rally of over 80,000 protesters.

Some nations, especially the United States, strive to paint this uproar as evidence that Putin and the Russian bear are weakening. Western groups have openly supported the anti-Kremlin movements, and Western journalists have rushed to interview Russia’s minority of smart, English-speaking, self-confident opposition supporters—while ignoring the less-affluent majority. In one instance revealing the Western media’s exaggeration of Russia’s protests, Fox News “accidentally” aired video footage of fierce riots in Athens, Greece, while reporting on what was actually a peaceful rally in Moscow.

The truth is that the various anti-Kremlin protest groups have never blended into a unified force that could threaten Putin’s reelection. The demonstrators—everything from free-market reformers and radical feminists to unapologetic Communists and far-right ultranationalists—are not at all linked in their ideologies or goals. Despite Western hopes that Russia’s protest movements are signs of a “Slavic Spring,” the hodgepodge is far less like the effectual Middle Eastern uprisings than it is like the flaccid Occupy Wall Street movement.

The Russians who hate Putin are mostly from among the urban elite in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and they loudly criticize him from atop their ivory towers. But the average low-income Russians in Omsk, Dagestan and Chechnya and beyond continue to view Putin as Russia’s savior. They are the silent majority who made their support inescapably clear during the March elections. These politically silent masses have seen their incomes dramatically increase since 2000, and they can’t but attribute their improved standard of living to Putin’s leadership.

Russia is still overwhelmingly supportive of the white rider who lifted the nation from the doldrums of the Soviet collapse. But has that white rider now served his purpose?

The Russian Cycle

A look back through the annals of Russian history reveal that the country operates on a four-phase cycle. First comes a national calamity—usually the result of foreign invasion or poor internal planning. Second, from out of the ruins emerges an idealistic “white rider” ushering in an era of the thing Russians crave most: national stability. Third, after the white rider succumbs to political frustration, he hands the reins of rulership to a dark rider—bent on internal control and external aggression. The dark rider ruthlessly quashes domestic opposition and expands Russia’s unsecurable borders until the overextended empire collapses into the final phase: stagnation and decline. It declines until finally collapsing into the first phase of calamity once again, and so the cycle goes.



Where is Russia in this cycle now?

In the 1990s, Russia suffered great national calamity with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then, Putin emerged as the heroic white rider to resuscitate the dying bear. But Russia’s changing landscape indicates that the white rider phase is rapidly nearing its end.

Does this mean White Rider Putin is soon to be replaced by another Russian ruler—a dark rider? Or does Mr. Putin have something else in mind?

In 2007, as it became clear that Putin would install a puppet ruler in the Kremlin while he plotted his return to official rule, Stratfor wrote this about the Russian cycle: “Russia’s current white horse period is coming to an end. Putin’s efforts to stabilize Russia have succeeded, but his dreams of Westernizing Russia are dead. The darkness is about to set in. … In particularly gloomy periods in Russia’s past (which is saying something) the white rider himself actually has shed his idealism and become the dark rider.”

These were sobering words in 2007, and much more so now that Putin has confirmed all suspicions that his departure from the Kremlin was temporary and largely artificial.
Even during Putin’s white rider days, his economic sunshine often cast dark political shadows. He restructured Russia’s political architecture to amass his personal power, he created policies whereby the Kremlin can prevent whomever it pleases from participating in politics, and he altered the constitution to expand presidential terms from four years to six—just in time for his next term. Putin is no stranger to corruption, and now the stage is set for him to exchange his white robes for black.

Putin is well aware of Russia’s changing political landscape. It may not be “maturing” as he and Medvedev recently said it is, but it is changing, and he will use the change to his advantage.


In February, Stratfor wrote this of the shift under way in Russia: “[M]uch of the generation now coming of age was not raised under the Soviet Union or during the chaotic years immediately following its collapse. An extremist brand of nationalism has also risen across the country, leading more Russians to have no interest in a balanced government. … Now [Putin] is beginning to form a strategy to deal with the crises in the short term and formulate long-term political and social policies to take into account the shifts in Russia” (February 1).

In 2004, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explained that the most significant aspect of Russia’s resurgence would be its catalytic effect on European unification: “A more dictatorial Russian government is coming fast .… That power will be able to challenge Europe when nobody else can, including the U.S. … Russian elections have recently moved President Vladimir Putin much closer to becoming a dictator. This strikes intense fear in Europe. The Europeans still remember how violent Russia was in World War ii, and Russia is a close neighbor with massive piles of nuclear weapons. … The Russian election is triggering a fear that will hasten the uniting of the European Union. The Russian election will cause Germany and other European nations to want a stronger leader. Throughout history, Germany has often sought a strong leader. Bible prophecy says it will do so again—for the last time!” (January 2004).

As Vladimir Putin enters into the Kremlin once again, he does so with more power than any Russian since the collapse of communism. And the stage is set for him to take on a new and much more dictatorial role. 

History proves that once a dark rider becomes Russia’s ruler, he uses every possible measure to secure the nation: Domestic challengers are crushed, economic life is completely subjugated to Moscow’s needs, and Russia’s military is built up with the goal of securing and expanding the nation’s borders. Putin has long been working to rebuild Russia’s influence in its former Soviet periphery, and analysts believe his reelection will intensify these efforts. Such moves in Moscow will frighten Russia’s European neighbors and hasten their unification. Although these trends have sobering implications for the short term, biblical prophecy makes plain that they immediately precede the most hope-filled event ever to occur: the return of Jesus Christ! To understand how today’s headlines about Russia intricately connect to this awesome future.

SOURCE 1
SOURCE 2

There is no doubt that AIDS erupted in the U.S. shortly after government-sponsored hepatitis B vaccine experiments (1978-1981) using gay men as guinea pigs. The epidemic was caused by the "introduction" of a new retrovirus (the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV for short); and the introduction of a new herpes-8 virus, the virus that causes Kaposi's sarcoma, widely known as the "gay cancer" of AIDS. The taboo theory that AIDS is a man-made disease is largely based on research showing an intimate connection between government vaccine experiments and the outbreak of "the gay plague"

The widely accepted theory is that HIV/AIDS originated in a monkey or chimpanzee virus that "jumped species" in Africa. However, it is clear that the first AIDS cases were recorded in gay men in Manhattan in 1979, a few years before the epidemic was first noticed in Africa in 1982. It is now claimed that the human herpes-8 virus (also called the KS virus), discovered in 1994, also originated when a primate herpes virus jumped species in Africa. How two African species-jumping viruses ended up exclusively in gay men in Manhattan beginning in the late 1970s has never been satisfactorily explained.

Researchers who claim AIDS is a man-made disease believe it is much more likely that these two primate viruses were introduced and spread during the government's recruitment of thousands of male homosexuals beginning in 1974.

Large numbers of gay men in Manhattan donated blood for the experimental hepatitis B vaccine trial, which took place at the New York Blood Center in Manhattan in 1978. Extensive evidence supporting the man-made theory of AIDS is easily found on the Internet by Googling: man-made origin of AIDS; and in my two books, "AIDS and the Doctors of Death" and "Queer Blood: The Secret AIDS Genocide Plot."

Government interest in "gay health" before the AIDS epidemic

Beginning in the mid-1970s, government scientists became interested in the health of gay men, particularly in the realm of sexually-transmitted diseases, and specifically in the sexual transmission of the hepatitis B virus. The early 1970s was a time when large numbers of gays come out of the closet and identified themselves as homosexuals at government-sponsored health clinics. Organizations such as the Gay Men's Health Project were formed at this time. Promiscuous gays were avidly sought as volunteers to test the efficacy of a newly-developed hepatitis B vaccine manufactured by Merck and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

By 1977 over 13,000 Manhattan gays were screened to secure the final 1083 men who would serve as guinea pigs to test the hepatitis B vaccine. The vaccine was manufactured from the combined plasma of 30 highly selected gay men who carried the hepatitis B virus in their blood. Developed over a period of 65 weeks during 1977-1978 and tested for six months in chimpanzees (the primate in which HIV is thought to have originated), the first group of gay men were inoculated at the New York Blood Center in November 1978.

That same year a final cohort of 6875 homosexual men at the San Francisco City Clinic was assembled to study hepatitis B virus sexual transmission in that city. By the end of the decade gays in clinics in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, and St. Louis, also came under surveillance by the Centers for Disease Control. An additional 1402 volunteers were finally selected to participate in similar vaccine experiments in those cities beginning in March 1980.

Before 1978 there was no stored blood anywhere in the U.S. that tested positive for HIV or the KS virus. There were no cases of AIDS and no cases of "gay cancer" in young men.

The first cases of AIDS appeared shortly after the experiment began in Manhattan. In June 1981 the epidemic became official and was quickly labelled the "gay ­related immune deficiency syndrome", later known as AIDS.

The gay community was the most hated minority in America. After the experiments ended, the gay community was decimated by the "gay plague." In the first years of AIDS, the epidemic was largely ignored by the government (see Randy Shilt's best-seller, And the Band Played On) and the disease was blamed on gay anal sex, drugs, and promiscuity. Gays were immediately labelled "high risk."

In my view, what made gay men "high risk" was the fact that they were the exclusive volunteers for government medical experiments that undoubtedly put them at "high risk." The evidence for this conclusion is outlined in this report. Further evidence can be obtained from abstracts of scientific reports available on the Internet at the PubMed website of the National Library of Medicine.



The gay hepatitis B experiments (1978-1981)

The experimental hepatitis B vaccine injected into gays was unlike any other vaccine previously made. As stated, it was developed in chimpanzees and manufactured in a year-long process of sterilization and purification of the pooled blood of 30 gay men who were hepatitis B virus carriers.

The final group of 1083 selected for the first experiment at the Blood Center were inoculated from November 1978 until October 1979. At one point, there was great concern that the vaccine might be contaminated. According to June Goodfield's Quest for the Killers, p 86, "This was no theoretical fear, contamination having been suspected in one batch made by the National Institutes of Health, though never in Merck's." Each gay man was given three inoculations of the vaccine over a period of three months. The vaccine proved successful with 96% of the men developing protective antibodies against the hepatitis B virus.

It has been assumed by some that these men might have been already immunosuppressed due to promiscuity and venereal disease. Although the young men in the study were indeed "promiscuous" (this was a requirement for entrance into the study), they were in excellent health. Despite many previous sexual partners, these volunteers had never been infected with the hepatitis B virus, which was a requirement for participation in the experiment. Furthermore, the 96% success rate would not have been accomplished if the men were immunosuppressed, because such people often do not respond to the vaccine.

When Robert Gallo's blood test for HIV became available in the mid-1980s, the New York Blood Center's stored gay blood specimens were re-examined. Most astonishing is the fact that 20% of the gay men who volunteered for the hepatitis B experiment in Manhattan were discovered to be HIV-positive in 1980 (one year before the AIDS epidemic became "official" in 1981). This signifies that Manhattan gays in 1980 had the highest incidence of HIV anywhere in the world, including Africa, the supposed birthplace of HIV and AIDS. In addition, we now know that one out of five gay men (20%) tested positive for the new KS herpes-8 virus in 1982 when stored blood samples from an AIDS trial in New York City were re-examined by epidemiologists at the NCI in 1999.

Never mentioned by AIDS historians is the fact that the New York Blood Center established a chimp virus laboratory for viral vaccine research in West Africa in 1974. One of the purposes of VILAB II, in Robertsfield, Liberia, was to develop the hepatitis B vaccine in chimps. The lab also prides itself by releasing "rehabilitated" (but virus-infected) chimps back into the wild, perhaps accounting for some of the ancestors of HIV and the KS virus found in the jungle by some government researchers. The Virus Cancer Program and the birth of AIDS,

In the decade before AIDS the Virus Cancer Program (1968-1980), sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, attempted to prove that viruses caused human cancer. Ultimately the Program was unsuccessful in providing proof, yet it succeeded in building up the field of animal retrovirology, which led to a more complete understanding of how cancer-causing and immunosuppressive viruses in animals might cause disease in humans. The VCP was also the birthplace of genetic engineering, molecular biology, and the human genome project. As the VCP was winding down in the late 1970s, the gay experiments began in New York City.

The introduction of HIV and the KS herpes virus into gay men during this period (along with some "novel" and now-patented mycoplasmas discovered at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology) miraculously revived the career of Robert Gallo and made him the most famous virologist in the world. And, of course, turned the "failure" of the VCP into a triumph by providing proof that these primate-derived viruses could cause disease in humans.

The fear of the hepatitis B vaccine

When AIDS began there were scattered reports in the medical journals questioning whether the "gay plague" might have its origin in the hepatitis B experiments. It was well-known in medical circles that the vaccine was made from the pooled plasma of gay men - and there was fear that the AIDS agent might be in the vaccine. As a result, when the hepatitis B commercial vaccine became available in July 1982, many people refused to be injected with it.

The fear of the vaccine was readily admitted by the CDC. Nevertheless, in detailed reports the CDC concluded that the vaccine was safe. Although it was clear the hepatitis B vaccine eliminated all "known" viruses, this obviously did not apply to "unknown" viruses at the time, such as HIV and the KS virus.

After HIV was discovered in 1984 some of the vaccine was retested and declared free of HIV. Of course, it was impossible to say whether the vaccine contained the KS virus, because this virus was undiscovered until 1994. I am unaware of any subsequent testing of the vaccine for this herpes KS virus.

Possible contamination problems with the hepatitis vaccine was the impetus that led Luc Montagnier to hunt for a virus in the new gay disease in the autumn of 1982. He began testing batches of human plasma for "reverse transcriptase activity", a biochemical sign indicating the possible presence of a retrovirus. (See page 46 of his book "Virus"). Montagnier's research eventually led to the first discovery of the AIDS virus at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Although the CDC and the New York Blood Center claimed it was safe, many health professionals refused the hepatitis B vaccine. In 1985, only 23 out of 162 Rhode Island dentists agreed to take the vaccine because of concerns about AIDS. As late as 1990, 13 out of 14 black nurses at a university hospital refused to take the vaccine for the same reason.




The fate of the gay men in the gay experiments

The purpose of the gay experiments was to test a vaccine that could immunize people against hepatitis B virus. Infection with this virus could lead to severe liver disease and sometimes to liver cancer. Ironically, an unprecedented explosion of cancer took place in male homosexuals after the experiment. Reports of the fate of these men attest to the fact that participating in the government's experiments was clearly injurious to the health of gay men.

Significantly, there were no reported blood specimens anywhere in the U.S. that were HIV-positive prior to the epidemic in 1979, except in the samples stored at the NYBC.

In a May 12, 1983, letter to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, Cladd Stevens (who supervised the NYBC experiment) wrote : "No cases haves occurred in the vaccine recipients from populations at low risk of AIDS, and there is no excess incidence in the high-risk population." But this proved to be incorrect in later reports co-authored by Stevens.

In a 1985 report Cladd Stevens et al. claimed that seven men (out of 1083) were HIV-positive before they received either vaccine or placebo. If true, this indicates that HIV (and possibly the KS virus) was already present in the blood of Manhattan homosexuals and could have contaminated the pooled blood of gays whose plasma was used to make the vaccine in 1977.

As stated previously, a 1986 report in JAMA showed 20% of the men in the experiment were already infected with HIV by the end of 1981; and by 1984, more than 40% of the men were HIV-positive and doomed to death.

Another follow-up study of 8,906 gay men who donated blood for the hepatitis experiments in Manhattan was released in 1992. Statistical analysis of this group showed that mortality rates for men aged 25-44 began to rise in the 1980s, with AIDS the leading cause of death among young men in New York City. Remarkably, "The all-cause mortality in this cohort in 1988 was 24 times higher that the mortality rate in the cohort before the beginning of the AIDS epidemic."

Was the hepatitis B vaccine contaminated with HIV and the KS virus?

Largely forgotten in AIDS history is the hepatitis B vaccine trial that also took place with 685 gay Dutch volunteers in Amsterdam between November 1980 and December 1981. Unlike the American vaccine makers, the Dutch researchers heated their experimental hepatitis B vaccine for added safety.

A 1986 report of the trial clearly states the AIDS virus "was not transmitted by the heat inactivated hepatitis B vaccine." Of the 685 participants, five were already infected with HIV when the trial began. The researchers theorized that HIV entered the Dutch gay population at the end of the 1970s.

Another follow-up Dutch report of this trial in 1993 again suggests the efficacy of heating the vaccine for safety. (The experimental vaccine was not heated in the U.S. until after all the gay experiments were completed.) At the end of 1982, one year after the Dutch experiment had ended, only As stated previously, a 1986 report in JAMA showed 20% of the men in the experiment were already infected with HIV by the end of 1981; and by 1984, more than 40% of the men were HIV-positive and doomed to death.

7.5% of the Amsterdam men were infected. In contrast, 26.8% of the men in the New York experiment were HIV-positive; and a whopping 42.6% of the San Francisco men were HIV-positive. These statistics showing many men infected in the American trials in 1982 further prove that Cladd Stevens of the NYBC, and the CDC, were incorrect in declaring there was no excess incidence of AIDS in the "high-risk" gay male population.

The fate of all the men who participated in the hepatitis B vaccine trials in six U.S cities has never been revealed. However, it is likely from the statistics presented in JAMA in 1986 that many, if not most, of the men eventually died of AIDS. The actual number of AIDS deaths has never been revealed, nor have the individual medical records been studied. Attempts to secure this information have been rebuffed by the Blood Center, due to the "confidential" nature of the experiment.


"Gay Cancer" and the origin of AIDS

After the introduction of HIV and the KS virus into the U.S. gay male population in the late 1970s, the incidence of KS skyrocketed.

A 1989 report by Biggar found no cases of KS in young men in New York City during the years 1973-1976. But by 1985 the incidence of KS in "never-married men" in Manhattan had increased 1850 times. In San Francisco the rate of KS increased over 2000 times!

KS is now 20,000 times more common in AIDS patients than in the general population. A 1985 autopsy study by Lee Moskowitz of 52 AIDS cases (23 Haitians, 19 gays, 5 intravenous drug abusers, 2 hemophiliacs, and 3 persons at unknown risk) showed that 94% of AIDS patients from the various risk groups had internal KS. The CDC claims KS now occurs in only 15% of gay men (down from 30% at the beginning of the epidemic), but these statistics are not based on current autopsy studies

KS was never a sexually-transmitted disease before the introduction of HIV into gays. For a century after the first reported KS cases were discovered in Vienna in 1872, there was no evidence that KS could be transmitted from person-to-person.

By 1950, a more aggressive "endemic" form of KS was uncovered in African blacks. Still, there was no evidence the disease was transmissible or contagious. Suddenly with the introduction of HIV into the homosexual community, scientists began to view KS as a contagious "gay cancer" out of Africa.

The new KS virus is closely related to a monkey tumour virus, known as herpes virus saimiri, that was extensively studied by researchers in the VCP in the decade before the epidemic. Initially found only in KS from AIDS patients, the new KS virus has also been found in non-AIDS-related KS tumours and in other forms of cancer, such as lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

HIV is a cancer-causing virus. Infection with HIV (with or without the KS virus) has resulted in a noticeable increase in various forms of cancer. A 2005 study of over 4000 AIDS patients showed higher rates of melanoma, basal and squamous cell skin carcinomas, anal carcinoma, prostate carcinoma, and Hodgkin disease, when compared with age-adjusted rates for the general United States population.

The KS virus is now in the U.S. blood supply; and blood is not screened routinely for this virus. A 2001 study indicated that 15% of normal Texas blood donors showed evidence of KS virus infection in the blood. A 2002 study of healthy children (ages 4-13) in South Texas showed that 26% had antibodies to the KS virus in their blood.


Is AIDS a man-made disease?

How did these two viruses of primate origin get into the gay male population to cause AIDS and a contagious form of cancer? AIDS experts blame monkeys and chimps in the African jungle. My research indicates it is much more likely these viruses were introduced during government-sponsored hepatitis B experiments using gays as unsuspecting guinea pigs. Extensive documentation of past "secret medical experiments" by the government can be found on Google. A recent BBC news report (30 Nov 2004) uncovering unauthorized and dangerous HIV drug experiments on infants and children in New York City orphanages can be found by “Googling“: BBC + guinea pig kids.

Until proven otherwise, a "new" HIV retrovirus and a "new" KS virus could easily have been developed in a laboratory as part of the Virus Cancer Program. In the decade before AIDS it was common to transfer and adapt primate retroviruses and herpes viruses into human cells in genetic engineering experiments. Such viruses were deemed potential "candidate human viruses," as clearly stated in the annual progress reports of the VCP. For further details on the relationship of the VCP to the introduction of HIV, Google: virus cancer program + AIDS.

The connection between the hepatitis experiments and the AIDS epidemic was quickly dismissed by government authorities two decades ago. However, it is clear from a review of the scientific literature that the "gay plague" began immediately after the government experiments; and the experiments permanently damaged the health of the gay community, and led to continuing spread of HIV into the "general population."

Are we to believe that all this is merely a coincidence -and that AIDS in America resulted simply from two viruses jumping species in the African jungle? Or is the origin of HIV and AIDS -and the KS virus- related to secret medical research and covert human testing, as suggested here.

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CROSSHAIRS (Counter Rocket-Propelled Grenade and Shooter System with Highly Accurate Immediate Response) - This program aims to develop an all-in-one, vehicle-mounted , detection and weapons unit that will be able to locate enemy ambushers and snipers while moving or while stopped. It will also be designed with the capability to destroy incoming threats, such as rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, by firing directly on them using automated, radar guided weapons.

Given combat theatres such as Afghanistan and Iraq, where small, hit and run tactics such as roadside RPG attacks are common, this technology could potentially engender a substantial reduction in casualties and lost equipment.

ChemBots (Chemical Robots) -This program, the product of cooperation between DARPA and technical research institutions such as MIT and Harvard, is developing surveillance robots that are small, flexible, and that use material-chemistry technologies such as gel-solid transitions to physically alter their shape in order to manoeuvre through small, irregularly shaped openings in enemy perimeters.

Chembots would broaden the military's ability to conduct surveillance in hostile spaces, assisting in covert operations and providing a boon to national intelligence, which would better inform policy decisions regarding suspected nuclear or WMD programs, for example.

EXACTO (Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance) - This project seeks to revolutionize the practice of military sniping. It will create the first-ever guided 50-calibre round, which will be capable of adjusting its own course mid-air using information from an optic sensor system. The value of a successful, self-correcting sniper round is substantial. Failed sniper shots notify enemies of an imminent attack, leading to unnecessary engagements that risk personnel and equipment.

EXCALIBUR – This project seeks to deploy directed weapons lasers that are many times smaller and lighter than current technology allows. These lasers generate irradiance levels strong enough to be lethal, but are far more accurate, precise, and damage-limiting than conventional weapons. In particular, compact EXCALIBUR laser systems could be mounted on aircraft, enabling aerial strikes with pinpoint accuracy, limiting collateral damage. This level of precision would ease the political and ethical consequences with which defence forces struggle when they are forced to engage military targets in civilian areas.

HELLADS (High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System)– A system that compliments the EXCALIBUR project, HELLADS seeks to use a similar technology in order to mount defensive lasers on aircraft, capable of intercepting and destroying enemy surface-to-air weapons. The increasing sophistication of anti-air weaponry has been identified as a severe threat, and the development of the HELLADS project would substantially counter this danger, saving lives and equipment in future sorties.

Disc-Rotor Compound Helicopter – This technology essentially combines the capabilities of traditional, high speed aircraft and a helicopter. Its current design is a fixed-wing, airplane-like vehicle with retractable helicopter blades mounted on a disc above the fuselage. The Compound Helicopter, therefore, will have the survivability and speed of an airplane but will be able to transition fully into a helicopter with vertical liftoff, landing, and hover modes for troop and cargo insertion.

Nano Air Vehicle - This program seeks to develop very small and very light vehicles to perform surveillance and potentially other kinds of military missions in all environments. These vehicles could be disguised, for example, as a hummingbird, using technology modelled after flapping wings and other aerodynamic techniques. The covert nature and lightweight design of NAVs would be extremely useful in urban combat settings, where bulky equipment is a hindrance and where ambushes and surprise attacks are a constant danger. By using NAV technology to perform missions discretely, service-members reduce the risks associated with revealing their position and operating heavy equipment in a hostile urban environment where the layout may be largely unknown.

Assured Arctic Awareness – This program seeks to develop an automated, unmanned sensor net capable of being deployed for long periods of time in arctic conditions, all with little need for maintenance. Still in the research phase, DARPA aims to create a long-term monitoring system above and below the ice. This would drastically reduce the cost and resources necessary for the United States to project its presence in the disputed arctic region – sovereignty over which will become increasingly important as the resources therein are developed – as they currently conduct monitoring and surveillance using ships and submarines or expensive unmanned equipment such as satellites.

Lightweight Ceramic Armor (LCA)– This technology envisions a considerable advantage for soldiers deployed in the field, as present armour technologies are extremely heavy, fatiguing, and bulky, which means an overall reduction in mobility. Body armour made from ceramic materials would be equally effective but far lighter and thinner, offering the same protection without compromising mobility or causing fatigue. It is estimated that physical fatigue is among the leading causes of compromised combat-readiness among US armed forces, so LCA would present a significant improvement in military performance.



Medical Projects

Fracture Putty – This malleable material would be used to treat compound bone fractures suffered by friendly personnel. When packed around the fractured bone, it would harden, similar to a kind of internal cast, providing fast load-bearing support to the bone while it healed normally. Eventually the putty would be reabsorbed harmlessly by the body. This project would increase overall combat readiness by reducing the long-term treatment and recovery time service-members currently face for broken bones, and by reducing the incidence of complications such as persistent pain and infection that arise as a result of conventional treatments such as rods and screws.

Dialysis-Like Therapeutics – This technology is creating a relatively small, light-weight device capable of draining contaminated blood from infected service members, treating the blood to remove toxic elements, and returning the blood to the body, much like current dialysis treatments. Portable technology like this would contribute significantly to reducing the strain on operations in the field, as infections in the bloodstream affects more than a thousand service members a year.



Logistics Projects

Legged Squad Support System (LS3) – This project is developing a robotic load-bearing machine to accompany squads of troops in the field, similar to a pack animal. It will be able to carry 400lbs of equipment and will have the physical ability to move through any necessary terrain, while also serving as a portable backup power source. Physical fatigue has been identified as a one of the greatest threats to combat readiness, and a modern service-member in the field can often be responsible for over 100lbs of gear. The LS3 is expected to greatly improve overall mission effectiveness.

Vulcan – This is a major project involving contracts from the private sector to develop turbines and engines for heavy military vehicles which utilize a combustion technology designed to consume much less fuel, known as pressure gain combustion. This project is currently exploring applying this technology to ship propulsion and aircraft turbines. As the global price of oil continues to rise, outfitting ships and aircraft with turbines that reduce their fuel consumption could save a substantial amount of money.



Cyber Security Projects

ADAMS (Anomaly Detection at Multiple Scales) - Given the rise of digital technology and the massive systems that accompany it, cyber security and the protection of digital information is becoming increasingly important. With this in mind, DARPA has initiated the ADAMS project which aims to process and monitor enormous data sets of digital activity, with the ability to detect anomalous behaviour. The initial intent with such anomaly flagging is to detect compromising or malicious behaviour from within.

Plan X - Still in the formulation phase, Plan X represents an effort to understand and approach cyber warfare in a new paradigm. It aims to develop a platform that allows US defence departments to defend against, conduct, and train for cyber warfare. Such practices and capabilities will only become more important in the future, as the current trend in international conflict is moving away from conventional interstate war. With increased digitization of security and defence technologies, and the proliferation of non-state enemies who lack the means to conduct conventional warfare, cyber warfare is a growing threat which Plan X will help counter.

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WASHINGTON—In a gripping testimonial, an ailing former member of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has talked via video for the first time publicly about his experience dealing with extraterrestrials, their craft and a cover-up.

The 15 minute prerecorded video of an anonymous former senior CIA officer was broadcast May 3 on the final day of the week long Citizen Hearing on Disclosure. The 77-year-old man, though he was articulate, and sitting up as he spoke, was obviously in a poor state of health. He worked for the CIA under President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958 and had chosen to break his long-held silence as he approached the end of his life.


Organizer of the Citizen Hearing, Steve Bassett, introduced the video saying it offered an insight into the suffering of many military and government officials who are forced to live a world of secrecy and fear in what he calls the “truth embargo” about extraterrestrial encounters.

“In a sense, this video represents the many individuals out there who could not come before a committee like this, who want to talk, but it’s difficult. The vast majority of individuals who have interacted with this issue while working for the government, going back to the 40s, took the information that they had to their grave and did not talk if they were told not to talk.

“This gentleman has received numerous threats from his government not to talk, but he wanted this testimony to be presented and we agreed. He has only been interviewed by two researchers who are here today, Linda Moulton Howe and Richard Dolan,” he said.


After the screening Linda Moulton Howe authenticated the former CIA official’s credentials and his account, telling the hearing she had spent three days with him in which she had recorded eleven 90 minute audio tapes in 1994. She said on her return to her home after the three days she had received a phone call from him saying he and his wife had been threatened with retaliation if they went public and she could not release the tapes.

Richard Dolan, who is visible in the video, also authenticated the man’s position.

The former CIA official had been involved with the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book study of UFOs, which was initiated soon after the crash of a large object at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.

Those are just a few of the questions asked after a streak of lightning struck a man’s front yard this weekend, blowing a hole in the ground and revealing a Lovecraftian monstrosity smoking in the dirt. Believing it to be an organic creature of some kind, the man wasted no time texting photos of the gross-looking thing to his friends, one of whom took to social media for answers.

“Lightning struck my friend’s yard yesterday and left this monstrosity,” ben51959 posted to reddit. “What the hell is it?”

Immediately, theories began to pour in from morbidly curious internet slueths, ranging from everything to a coagulated earthworm colony, to fulgarite, to a fried Koosh ball, to the hilariously horrifying “lightning placenta”.

Many of the armchair skeptics settled on the Koosh theory, but a few hours later another surfer popped in to add that a similar event had been witnessed by him, providing an even weirder photo of the same phenomena. 



As of yet, it would seem that no satisfying answer can be found in the case of the alien mystery meat, and it meant that there was only one test worth implementing before forming an opinion:


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When a photographer and her husband trekked into the desert for a routine shoot, they didn’t expect to stumble onto an odd scene that left them scratching their heads: thousands of mysterious, gelatinous, purple orbs scattered in a circle in the middle of nowhere.

“We were taking photos around the area and we just… I mean, how could you miss this?” Geradine Vargas told KGUN-9. “It was just, like, glittering in the sun.”

Littered on the desert dirt were thousands of weird, purple orbs. They appeared to be gelatinous, filled with some kind of liquid, almost resembling frog eggs. Only supplementing the strangeness of the spheres were their location – the middle of the desert. Luckily, Vargas was a photographer and managed to snap a few photos of her find.

“We did email a friend of ours who’s a zoologist, but she didn’t know…i mean, she didn’t seem to recognize what it was.”

The KGUN-9 News team did their own research into the objects, with a Tucson Botanical Gardens botanist telling them that the strange orbs could be a kind of slime mold or jelly fungus. Our friend and Phoenix, AZ resident Jim Lippard let us know that the find comes after a record rain in the area, which could support the slime mold theory.

Another theory posed by some members of the Above Top Secret forums is that the purple spheres could be “art deco beads” used to keep plants hydrated (and stylish). But yet.. what would thousands of them be doing in the middle of the Arizona desert? Adding to the mystery is that if they were decorative plant beads (which are a bit expensive to be discarding so many of casually), they would need to be getting moisture from somewhere, otherwise they would dry and shrivel up quite quickly.

According to KGUN-9, the spheres are still there, glistening away in the sun, and they ooze a strange liquid when squeezed. One only hopes they washed their hands afterwards.


While the debate about exactly what these weird globs are, it’s worth mentioning the strange coincidence that on the exact date just last year, some very similar looking objects fell from the sky in Dorset, England. Those odd little orbs were a blue color, and fell in a “flash storm” that lasted about 20 seconds. Could there be a connection? Extraterrestrial eggs dumped from a passing UFO? The product of an unexplained meteorological event?

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The religious ritual taking place in Chandauli was attended by the NewsX crew who filmed a priest boiling milk and pouring it over his body in front of a large crowd. The priest then pulled a reportedly sick child to his side and did the same to him, a process which looked rather uncomfortable, if not extremely painful, to say the least.

Reporters were shocked to find Transportation Minister Durga Prasad Yadav not only attending the ceremony, but make no attempt at stopping the dangerous display, going so far as to encourage it.

The strange ritual is generally seen as a way of proving one’s faith to the Goddess Durga, who keeps the boiling milk bather from being burned via miraculous intervention.

In the late 1800s, Thomas Otto and his family moved in to a mansion at the corner of Eaton and Simonton streets in Key West, Florida now known as the Artist House. The Ottos were known to be stern with their servants, sometimes even mistreating them. It was the treatment of one such Haitian servant that provides a twist in this story. This woman was hired to take care of their son, Robert. One day, Mrs. Otto supposedly witnessed her practicing black magic in their backyard and fired her.

Before she left, the woman gave Robert a life-like doll which stood 3 feet tall, had buttons for eyes, human hair (believed to be Robert's), and was filled with straw. Dolls that resembled children were not unheard of during this time, but this one proved to be special. Robert named the doll after himself and often dressed it in his clothes. Robert, the doll, became his trustworthy companion. He took it with him on shopping trips into town. The doll had a seat at the dinner table where Robert would sneak it bites of food when his parents weren't looking. Robert would even be tucked into bed with the boy at night. Soon this innocent relationship took on a strange nature.

Soon after, Robert chose to be referred to by his middle name, Gene, after being scolded by his Mother. He told her that Robert was the doll's name, not his. Gene was often heard in his toy room having conversations with Robert. Gene would say something in his childish manner and responses could be heard in a much lower voice. Sometimes Gene would become very agitated, worrying the servants and his mother. She would, on occasion, burst in to find her son cowering in a corner while Robert sat perched in a chair or on the bed glaring at him. This was only the beginning.


Household objects would be found thrown across the room, Gene's toys turned up mutilated, and giggling could be heard. Whenever these unusual acts took place, Gene always said, "Robert did it!" The boy took the punishment but always insisted that the blame was Robert's. As the mischief grew, more and more servants took their leave as new ones were hired. The Ottos' relatives felt it was time to do something. With the recommendation of a great aunt, Gene's parents removed Robert from his care and placed him in a box in the attic. This is where he resided for many years.

After the death of his father, Gene was willed his boyhood home. He decided to live in the Victorian mansion with his new wife. Gene had become an artist, and felt the house was spacious and would provide a place for him to paint. He went to the attic and dusted off his childhood toy. He became attached to the doll despite his wife's displeasure. Gene would take the doll along with them everywhere they went. He even sat in his favorite little chair while Gene and his wife slept nearby. The Turret Room became Robert's domain after Mrs. Otto moved him back to the attic. Their marriage slowly became sour until Mrs. Otto supposedly went insane and died of unknown reasons. Gene followed soon behind.


Robert supposedly attacked people, sometimes locking them in the attic. People who passed by claimed to hear evil laughter coming from the Turret Room. For some time, Robert remained in the empty house by himself until a new family purchased the mansion and restored it. The doll was once again moved to the attic. This pleased it as much as the last time. The doll was often found throughout the house. On one certain night, Robert was found at the foot of the owners' bed giggling with a kitchen knife in hand. This was enough to send them fleeing from the home.

Robert was later moved to the East Martello Museum in Key West, where he sits perched in a glass box. Despite his new living quarters, the doll is believed to not have given up his menacing ways. Visitors and employees claim they have seen the doll move. His smile has been known to turn in to a scowl. One employee cleaned Robert, turned off all the lights and left for the night. The next day, he returned to find lights turned on, Robert sitting in a different position than the night before and a fresh layer of dust on his shoes. Some say he'll even curse you. If you want to take a picture of him, you must ask politely. He'll tilt his head in permission. However, if he doesn't and you take the picture anyways, a curse will befall upon you and anyone who accompanied you to the museum. The same will happen if you make fun of him.

To this day, Robert remains at the East Martello Museum in his sailor suit clutching his stuffed lion, continuing his menacing ways.

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Doctors are warning that a drug-resistant strain of gonorrhea could be more deadly than AIDS, and are urging members of US Congress to spend $54 million for the development of a drug that would fight it.

"This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly," Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine, told CNBC.

The new strain of gonorrhea, H041, was first discovered in 2009 after a sex worker fell victim to the superbug in Japan. Medical officials reported that the medication-resilient ‘sex superbug’ was discovered in Hawaii in May 2011, and has since spread to California and Norway, the International Business Times reports.

Nearly 30 million people die from AIDS-related causes each year, and the H041 superbug could have similar consequences, according to Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine.

"Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days," Christianson said. "This is very dangerous."

The gonorrhea strain has not yet claimed any lives, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have asked Congress for $54 million to find an antibiotic to treat the strain.

In a Capitol Hill briefing last week, health officials said an education and public awareness campaign is crucial in minimizing the effective of HO41. William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition for STD Directors, said that if the ‘sex superbug’ spreads, it could quickly kill many people before a treatment is discovered. And that risk becomes increasingly more likely if Congress does not provide the funds to find a cure, he said.

"It's an emergency situation. As time moves on, it's getting more hazardous," he told members of Congress.

"We have to keep beating the drum on this," he added. "The potential for disaster is great."


 In the United States, there are 20 million new STD infections each year, which results in about $16 billion in medical costs, the CDC reports. More than 800,000 of these cases gonorrhea infections, most of which occur in young people ages 15 to 24. Gonorrhea is sometimes difficult to detect, since it shows no symptoms in about half of all women. Those who fall ill to the deadly strain may not notice it until it’s too late.



“That’s what’s kind of scary about this,” Smith said.

Although health officials have widely reported that cases of H041 were discovered in California, Hawaii and Norway, the CDC has disputed those claims and told CNBC on Monday that the infection has not been confirmed anywhere outside of Japan. The CDC did, however, make an announcement in 2011 that it was noticing greater gonorrhea bacterial resistance to certain types of antibiotics in Hawaii and California.

CDC officials said that the US and Norwegian cases were treated effectively with antibiotics not routinely recommended and that these cases were mistakenly identified as H041. But the agency continues to urge Congress for research funding, indicating that the risk of infection is high regardless of where the cases occurred.

Christianson is urging people to practice safe sex and get STD tests if they are in a new relationship, since a superbug infection could be around the corner.

"This is a disaster just waiting to happen," he told CNBC. "It's time to do something about it before it explodes. These superbugs, including the gonorrhea strain, are a health threat. We need to move now before it gets out of hand."

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Introducing the Ratburger! If you've never tried the Ratburger, you're missing out on the latest in affordable cuisine from China, home of the most trusted food on the planet.

The Ratburger is made only of hand-picked, select cuts of rat meat, finely textured and enhanced for your enjoyment. Don't worry: The head, feet and tails are completely removed by slave labor workers!

The Ratburger comes with a side of "rice" made largely out of plastic, meaning zero calories! Eat as much as you want, we'll make more!

It's served up on a sesame seed bun made, in part, from human hair from which the l-cysteine amino acid is derived. This ingredient, by the way, is used throughout the commercial bread industry as a "dough enhancer." It is derived from human hair collected from the floors of hair salons across China, making it fashionable! You'll also find this ingredient in the pizza dough at your favorite pizza restaurants across the USA.

The bun is adorned with black sesame seeds that have been turned black by dousing regular sesame seeds with black ink. A little ink is good for ya!

When you buy our Ratburger, you get a free Melamine Milkshake, made with extra melamine that causes permanent kidney damage! But kidney damage is cool, because you get to experience the joys of dialysis for the rest of your life, so what's not to like?

On top of all that, every ingredient in the Ratburger is loaded with an extra dose of heavy metals poisoning, including cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury and also aluminum as a bonus. Where else can you get this kind of value across the full table of elements? Only in the Ratburger from China!

Don't miss the RATBURGER from China, available for a limited time only!

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria—often called "superbugs"—are entering the nation's food system and endangering consumers at an alarming rate, according to researchers who analyzed data from the federal government.

The Environmental Working Group said Monday that it had parsed studies from the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System published in February.

"I think this is one of the greatest threats to us as a nation and the planet," said Lance B. Price, a professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University who helped review the government information for EWG.

"These bacteria are finding ways to get around antibiotics in animals, and it's similar to what's going on with the bacteria that's resistant in humans. They go hand in hand and it's a very under appreciated as a threat," Price said.


The group found that NARMS had reported—but had not highlighted—that antibiotic resistant bacteria was turning up in 81 percent of raw ground turkey, 69 percent of raw pork chops, 55 percent of raw ground beef and 39 percent of raw chicken bought over the counter in 2011.

The rate of occurrence in salmonella superbug strains in chicken rose from 50 percent in 2002 to 74 percent in 2011.

Nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics were administered to livestock in 2011, according to EWG, a 22 rise from 2005. Antibiotics used on food-producing animals account for nearly 80 percent of the total market for such drugs in the U.S., according to the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming.

In addition to fighting disease, antibiotics are administered to put weight on animals headed for the kitchen table. Critics say this combination of uses helps bacteria develop resistance, just as overuse of antibiotics in humans has resulted in current medications' ineffectiveness against life-threatening micro-organisms.

"We've actually run out of antibiotics that really keep animals healthy," Price said. "We're finding strains of bacteria in animals that are resistant to so many antibiotics."

Those who promote antibiotic use in food animals argue that keep consumers safe.

"Antibiotics are a critical tool to prevent, control and treat disease in animals," states the Animal Health Institute, a trade group of drugmakers that develop veterinary medicines, on its website. "That's why the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of antibiotics in livestock and poultry."

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