Entries Tagged 'medical' ↓
February 3rd, 2008 — UK, medical, terrorism, smiley, counterjihad, Islam, wikis
How did Parviz Khan get that bruise on his forehead?
Parviz Khan is one of nine defendants on trial in the UK for a terrorist plot against the British military. Family Security Matters has been following the trial:
Those shrill cries claiming persecution can now be exposed as false. A trial is currently taking place in Leicester Crown Court. And it is only now revealed that 37-year-old Parviz Khan, one of the nine people arrested in late January and early February 2007, has pleaded guilty to plotting to kidnap and decapitate a British Muslim soldier.
Khan, an “unemployed charity worker,” admitted his guilt earlier this month, but the news was suppressed until a trial involving two other individuals, Amjad Mahmood, 33, and Zahoor Iqbal, 31, began. These two denied involvement in the plot.
But did he get the bruise while in custody?
Evidently not. Dymphna at Gates of Vienna explains that this bruise is nothing unusual among devout Muslims:
What I hadn’t been able to find is any commentary on Mr. Khan’s bruised forehead. Had the police been having a go at him with billy clubs, perhaps? Why no mention of it by the MSM? Strange that it would go unremarked…
Well, sorry, this is nothing as pedestrian as torture. What creates these Muslim stigmata is the effect of devout head-pounding fervor. Fundamentalist Muslims do not touch their head to the ground in prayer. Instead, they bounce their cranium forcefully onto the stone floors on which they kneel. Performing this act of adoration five times a day will get you that prune-shaped hematoma our head-banger suspect now sports. By their bruises you shall know them.
And these people have the nerve to complain about Gitmo…
The Wikipedia whitewash
A prayer bump, also known as a prayer scar, or a zabiba or zebiba (raisin) in Arabic is a mark on the forehead of a pious muslim, caused by rubbing the forehead against a prayer mat. Islam requires its adherents to pray five times a day (known as salah), which involves kneeling on a prayer mat and touching the ground with one’s forehead. When done for extended periods of time, a prayer bump may develop. Devout Muslims consider the presence of a prayer bump to be a worthy sign of religious dedication and piety.
The prayer bump can take the form of a discolouration of the skin, caused by repeated chafing and the build-up of callous. In extreme cases, the callous can be thick enough to create a real bump that portrudes from the forehead. Prayer bumps are common in Islamic countries such as Egypt, where they are colloquially called a ‘zabiba’ (raisin).
Could he have gotten a deep bruise like this merely from rubbing his forehead on a mat?
A mark from dirt, yes. Chafed skin, maybe. A callus, possibly. But a deep bruise? No. Rubbing the surface of the skin against a flat surface does not cause bruising in a normal individual. A bruise is evidence of a strong enough impact to break blood vessels below the surface.
Now I’m not a neurologist, but…
Repeated blows to the head can cause permanent damage to the brain. Any brain function can become impaired when the brain is damaged - motor and sensory capabilities, regulation of internal body processes, sleep and wakefulness, emotional states, memory, reasoning, judgment, personality, and character. The dangers of concussion are well known from studies of athletes, soldiers, and others who have suffered such trauma.
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By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
Thousands of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan may be risking permanent brain damage by returning to combat with relatively minor but undiagnosed concussions, often caused by bomb blasts, military researchers say.
Doctors say they are only now understanding the scope of the problem. Researchers screening returning soldiers and Marines at four military bases found that about 10% suffered at least a minor brain injury during combat. About 20% of troops in front-line infantry units suffered such injuries.
The injuries frequently go undiagnosed because troops have no visible wounds or may not know they suffered a concussion, doctors say. Medics and field doctors often aren’t aware of what happened during fighting.
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Sports-Related Recurrent Brain Injuries - United States
An estimated 300,000 sports related traumatic brain injuries, TBIs, of mild to moderate severity , most of which can be classified as concussions, (i.e., conditions of temporary altered mental status as a result of head trauma, occur in the United States each year. The proportion of these concussions that are repeat injuries is unknown; however, there is an increased risk for subsequent TBI among persons who have had at least one previous TBI. Repeated mild brain injuries occurring over an extended period (i.e., months or years can result in cumulative neurologic and cognitive deficits, but repeated mild brain injuries occurring within a short period (i.e., hours, days, weeks) can be catastrophic or fatal. The latter phenomenon, termed “second impact syndrome” has been reported more frequently since it was first characterized in 1984. This page describes two cases of second impact syndrome and presents recommendations developed by the American Academy of Neurology to prevent recurrent brain injuries in sports and their adverse consequences.
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Hits To Boxers’ Heads Cause More Chemical Markers For Brain Injury
(WebMD) A blow to the head may do more than just make you feel woozy.
A new study shows repeated blows to the head cause an increase of chemicals in the fluid that circulates around the brain and spinal cord. These chemicals are markers for brain and nerve cell injury. The rise of these chemicals of the brain may also help explain what is commonly known as “punch drunk” syndrome, with symptoms of long-term neurological damage.
Researchers studied a group of amateur boxers and found those who had recently suffered repeated blows to the head during a recent boxing match had higher-than-normal levels of certain chemicals in their cerebrospinal fluid (fluid that circulates around the spinal cord and brain). These chemicals, known as neurofilament light protein and total tau, have also been shown to be increased in some neurologic disorders with damage of brain neurons and cells.
Researchers say about 20 percent of professional boxers develop chronic traumatic brain injury as a result of years of repeated blows to the head during their careers in the ring. But little is known about the brain injury risks faced by amateur boxers who must wear protective headgear and compete in shorter bouts.
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ScienceDaily (May 5, 2000) — SAN DIEGO, CA – The first scientific survey of head injuries in professional football players suggests that head trauma from the sport may lead to later neurological problems.
More:
December 2nd, 2007 — medical, Orthodox Christianity, Serbia, Christianity
For current updates:
Update Dec. 21, 2007:
The Bulletin issued by the VMA’s (Military Medical Academy) Permanent Medical Council on the health condition of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle on the 21st of December, 2007, states:
The tendency towards a slight improvment of His Holiness’ health condition continues, with vital functions remaining stable.
Treatment, intenive monitoring and a rehabilition program are maintained.
Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church
Update Dec. 17, 2007:
(AP) BELGRADE, Serbia: The health of the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Pavle, has worsened, doctors said Monday.
The 93-year-old patriarch is suffering from heart and other problems due to his age and is being treated at the Belgrade Military Hospital.
Patriarch Pavle has “heightened temperature, followed by respiratory and urinary infections,” doctors said in a statement. No other details were released.
Serbian media have reported in the past month that the patriarch’s life is in danger.
Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Coast, has been appointed to assist Patriarch Pavle, who is hospitalized.
Amfilohije, as the oldest member of the Holy Synod, will help in the discharge of daily duties at the Synod, Serbian Patriarchate Managing Board and the Archbishopric of Belgrade and Karlovac.
The Serbian Orthodox Chuch said in a statement that the decision had been made by the Holy Synod, which also appointed Bishop Atanasije of Hvostan to assist Metropolitan Amfilohije in church affairs.
The statement said that Church regulations did not mention the term deputy and added that it was “clear that in the case of the Patriarch’s illness somebody has to replace or assist him.”
The statement said that this “does not prejudice the future election of the Patriarch in any way.”
From: Fr. Nektarios Serfes [mailto:father@serfes.org]
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 3:44 PM
To: Archbishop Jovan (arhiepohrid@mt.net.mk)
Cc: sparta; St. Anthony’s G. O. Monastery; St Paisius Monastery (stpaisius@aznex.net); St. Herman Brotherhood; Teresa A, Polychronis
Subject: Patriarch Pavel very ill let us all pray our God to comfort him….
Beloved in Christ our Lord,
Evlogeite!
May our Gracious God always bless you!
I have just learned that His Holiness, Patriarch Pavel is very ill and in the hospital in Serbia.
Let us all pray for this Christ-loving soul Patriarch Pavel that our Lord will comfort him during his time of illness.
We have all been ever blessed with this unbelievable and gracious soul especially his love for the church and for us all!
Peace to your soul!
Humbly in Christ our Lord,
+Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
Who prays for you!
http://www.serfes.org
father@serfes.org
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November 15th, 2007 — medical, incident tracking, disaster preparedness, microbes, military
ATLANTA (AP) - A mutated version of a common cold virus has caused 10 deaths in the last 18 months, U.S. health officials said Thursday. Adenoviruses usually cause respiratory infections that aren’t considered lethal. But a new variant has caused at least 140 illnesses in New York, Oregon, Washington and Texas, according to a report issued Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC officials don’t consider the mutation to be a cause for alarm for most people, and they’re not recommending any new precautions for the general public.
“It’s an uncommon infection,” said Dr. Larry Anderson, a CDC epidemiologist.
The illness made headlines in Texas earlier this year, when a so- called boot camp flu sickened hundreds at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The most serious cases were blamed on the emerging virus and one 19-year-old trainee died…
US military officials are working on a vaccine for the mutant adenovirus that will be given to US troops.
Here’s the official CDC MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report):
Acute Respiratory Disease Associated With Adenovirus Serotype 14 - Four States - 2006-2007
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October 26th, 2007 — political correctness, enemy propaganda, women's issues, medical, Islam, 1389 Message Blog, Bush, Israel, clothing, cancer
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(For rolling updates,
please scroll down)
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Remember the Nancy Pelosi hijab flap?
Pelosi had no business going to Syria, undermining Bush Administration foreign policy, and giving an undeserved PR boost to Bashar Assad in the first place. She had to compound that error by wearing the symbol of a religion that she (supposedly) does not believe in, and by embracing a symbol for the oppression of women. But then, tasteless behavior and bad judgment is exactly what one would expect from a liberal Democrat, especially one from California. (See Syrian Reformists: The Damage from Pelosi’s Visit Will Be Felt for Years.)
Covering the cranium to cuddle up to CAIR
Bush officials don the hijab for the rededication ceremony of The Islamic Center in Washington June 27, 2007. They took some heat in the blogosphere for that. Here again, they had no business attending such a gathering at all.
Did Laura Bush get the take-home lesson?
Photo op: Touring the Middle East for breast cancer awareness
Laura Bush plans six-day tour of the Middle East; spokeswoman says she won’t wear abaya
Laura Bush departs Saturday on a six-day tour of the Middle East, with stops planned in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. The White House says the first lady plans to meet with government officials and leaders of medical and women’s groups during her overseas trip.
Given that the first lady wore a headscarf when she visited a Jewish holy site in Jerusalem and a mantilla when she met with Pope Benedict XVI, we asked if Bush will be wearing some sort of abaya while she’s in Saudi Arabia. “No,” Sally McDonough, the first lady’s spokeswoman, tells USA TODAY’s David Jackson, adding: “they do not expect nor encourage it” of Western visitors.
There’s nothing wrong with working for improved detection and cure of breast cancer, or any other type of cancer. I’m all for that, and you may recall that I have blogged about cancer both here and on the 1389 Message Blog. But some have questioned Laura Bush’s priorities in taking that quest to the Muslim world, where there are more severe and immediate threats to females’ health and survival. To put it bluntly, too many girls will not live long enough to be at much risk for a disease that mainly afflicts mature women.
But that’s not all: Laura Bush went back on her word about not wearing the abaya, as you can see from the photo above.
“So she’s wearing an abaya. Why does this matter?”
Why does breast cancer goes untreated in the Middle East?
See Breast cancer often untreated in Mideast, Lifting the Veil From A Deadly Disease, and Cancer in Saudi Arabia.
Evidently, Laura Bush donned the abaya because it was a gift and she felt that it would be appropriate to be photographed in it. Unfortunately, this was a setup that sends exactly the wrong message, on so many levels!
In a nutshell, when women are veiled and kept in seclusion according to Islamic principles, how likely are they to go out and get proper medical care, which would include screening for, and treatment of, breast cancer? In Saudi Arabia, women still aren’t allowed to drive. Many Muslim women are unwilling to be examined by male doctors. Girls are too often discouraged from becoming educated in medicine or anything else.
And don’t forget that the country that is responsible for the bulk of the advances in medical treatment in the Middle East is, of course, Israel. But Israeli physicians are not welcome in the Muslim Middle East.
Poor Longevity for Saudi Women
Stein hoist to mean Gene on LGF for the above link and for these statistics:
I often use the CIA World Fact Book’s stats about demographics.
In regards the “kingdom,” the stats show an incredible drop off in women after age 15….
0-14 years:
male 5,369,285
female 5,162,585
15-64 years:
male 9,316,694
female 7,089,370
What does this picture reveal?
In this picture, Laura herself is unveiled, but she is seated between two veiled breast cancer survivors. If women like these were free to seek whatever medical care they needed, without the necessity of wearing veils, of finding a male relative to drive them, and finding a female doctor to examine them, wouldn’t their chances of early detection and remission be far better?
It’s about CANCER, not photo ops and protocol!
By wearing an abaya to meet with dignitaries, Laura Bush is promoting the anti-woman Islamic ideology that is causing the problem in the first place!
Updated 10/27/07:
Accepting such “gifts” means accepting Islamization!
The handlers for the Bush entourage should have made it clear, before the trip, that gifts of an Islamic nature should not be given and cannot be accepted. The Saudis don’t even allow Christian or Jewish items into the Tragic Kingdom at all!
Update (10/28/07): Laura Bush missed a great opportunity to keep quiet
“They do not see covering as some sort of subjugation of women:” Laura Bush defends the hijab.
Note: wearing the abaya in Saudi Arabia is not a “choice.” It’s mandatory for all women when they are in public. If they show even a little bit of ankle, they’re subject to being beaten and arrested by the Saudi religious police (mutaween).
Does Laura Bush really think those women will be honest about their opinions on this misogynistic practice?
More bizarre pix!
Updated 1/1/08:
Lack of sunlight is unhealthy for women, unborn babies, and nursing infants.
Technorati : Bush, Islam, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, breast cancer, cancer, enemy propaganda, health, political correctness, women
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October 25th, 2007 — medical, PSA
From the article:
In the United States people are often surprised when they learn that a person who is not African American has sickle cell disease. The disease originated in at least 4 places in Africa and in the Indian/Saudi Arabian subcontinent. It exists in all countries of Africa and in areas where Africans have migrated. The transatlantic slave trade was largely responsible for introducing the sickle cell gene into the Americas and the Caribbean. However, sickle cell disease had already spread from Africa to Southern Europe by the time of the slave trade, so it is present in Portuguese, Spaniards, French Corsicans, Sardinians, Sicilians, mainland Italians, Greeks, Turks and Cypriots. Sickle cell disease appears in most of the Near and Middle East countries including Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Yemen. Sickle-cell in the western part of Saudia is similar to the type that shows up in Africa however, the type of sickle-cell in Eastern Province in Saudi Arabia is called the “Indian” sickle-cell mutation and is thought to have been introduced from/to the sub-continent via ancient maritime trade routes hundreds of years ago.
Ironically, another study claims the reason sickle-cell has spread across so many diverse populations has everything to do with MALARIA. They propose that because people with sickle-cell are protected from malaria, they lived longer than their sickle-cell-free brethren in areas with high incidences of malaria enabling them to reproduce more thus, passing on their malaria-free though, sickle-cell tainted blood to their children. Judging by pictures like this of old Al-Hassa and how my house is filled with mosquitoes every winter during the “wet” season, I can go along with this theory as I imagine malaria used to be a big problem here.
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September 8th, 2007 — Orthodox Christianity, Czech Republic, books, medical, CzechRebel (author), Islam, history, Serbia, Kosovo, Nazism, Christianity
By CzechRebel
Aftermath to One of History’s Most Important Assassinations
Growing up as a Czech-American in the shadow of the Second World War, I learned the heroic tale of the “Czechoslovakian” commandos who managed to kill one of the most dangerous Nazi leaders in the entire Third Reich. Assassination has gotten quite a bad name in recent years. We think of the JFK murder and of the subsequent changes in US foreign policy that put the tactic of assassination of any head of state-even of the most dangerous criminal-off limits, and we tend to condemn the practice out of hand.
Even so, how many lives could have been saved if someone had the foresight to have assassinated Hitler and/or Stalin? Perhaps there are others who belong in that list also, but the actions of Hitler and Stalin could have been so easily predicted. Hitler put the pen to his evil and left us a book full of his nefarious plans. Stalin was so dangerous that even Lenin, at the end of his life, warned that he should be kept out of power.
The Assassination of Hitler’s More Evil Successor?
While those two were dangerous enough, there was a third man of incredible evil on the world stage during the time of the Third Reich. He was a fiercely competent, up-and-coming Nazi leader whom many expected would someday succeed Hitler in power. That man was Reinhard Heydrich. Assigned to oversee occupied Czechoslovakia (now two separate states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), he conducted a brutal reign of terror over the Slavic inhabitants, whom the Nazis regarded with hatred and contempt.
Were Heydrich to have become Hitler’s successor, he most likely would have continued Hitler’s evils, but with far greater efficiency.
The story of the assassination itself is relatively straightforward. Two men-Jan Kubis, a Czech, and Josef Gabcik, a Slovak-had been trained in Britain, as were many other Eastern European resistance fighters during WW II. One was to conceal a submachine gun under his raincoat and the other was to hold a hand grenade, while waiting for Heydrich’s open-top car. The grenade would be tossed into the oncoming vehicle and the machine gun would pump Heydrich’s body full of bullets.
But on the day of the assassination, May 29, 1942, the gun jammed and would not fire. The grenade was tossed under the vehicle. It produced only enough shrapnel to injure Heydrich, who rose from the explosion, drew his pistol and shot at the fleeing assassins.
Nazi Vengeance
However, something unexpected intervened. The explosion had damaged Heydrich’s spleen and had driven contaminated upholstery fragments from the car into his body. An infection set in and Heydrich was dead within a few days. On what came to be his deathbed, Heydrich had ordered extensive and brutal reprisals.
Even after the death of Heydrich, the Nazis obediently continued their reprisals against the Czech people, of which the most infamous was the destruction of the village of Lidice. All men and older boys were given shovels and told to dig what would be their graves. The women and children were whisked off to concentration camps where most of them died. The buildings of the town of Lidice were burned or otherwise destroyed, so as to leave no trace of the community.
The Czech underground resistance movement hid Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik at Saints Cyril and Methodios Church. The Nazis discovered the resistance hideout in the crypt below the church and began storming the building. The resistance fighters killed and injured many Nazis before realizing that their ammunition was in short supply. Rather than face torture and interrogation at the hands of the Nazis, the resistance fighters took their own lives in a final act of defiance.
The story was told to us many times. The most notable was a television docudrama from a series called, if I remember correctly, This Is True. The battle scene at the church is still vivid in my memory. I do remember a clergyman suffering Nazi persecution as a result, but the fact that the Church was Eastern Orthodox either slipped my memory or had been covered up completely.
The Orthodox Perspective
Jan Hus Opposed the Roman Church
The Czech Republic and Slovakia are not generally thought of as bastions of Orthodox Christianity. But for a quirk of history, it might well have been otherwise. About 100 years before the time of Martin Luther, Jan Hus was burnt at the stake for heresy. Hus died in the same way, and on the same day, as Joan of Arc. Like Luther, Hus saw the need to reform the Roman Church. Unlike Luther, he had planned to combine his movement with the Orthodox Church in Constantinople. Tragically, Constantinople fell to the Turks before those plans could come to fruition.
Had Jan Hus succeeded, there might have been no cause for a Protestant Reformation.
On September 6, 1987, The Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia canonized Bishop Gorazd for his martyrdom as a result of his heroism in the aftermath to the Heydrich assassination.
Nazi hatred of Orthodox Christians was extreme, and it went hand in hand with their contempt toward Slavic peoples. While the Final Solution to the Jewish problem was well publicized, the Serbs, who are Orthodox Christians, were also high on the list of peoples that Hitler and company wished to exterminate. Hitler’s hatred of the Czechs was well known; he once called Czechoslovakia “a dagger in the heart of Germany.” His demand for what he called the Sudetenland-which included much of Bohemia, the largest province in Czechoslovakia-led to one of the savage Nazi land-grabs of the years before World War II. Therefore, the combination of being both Czech and Orthodox Christian would have put such an individual into two of the categories of Nazi hatred.
Hitler’s reaction to the Heydrich assassination was predictable. He always took revenge for any sign of defiance with vastly disproportionate rage and cruelty. It also appears that Hitler used the Heydrich assassination as a pretext for hunting down and killing Orthodox Christians in Czechoslovakia.
Bishop Gorazd wrote a letter to Nazis offering to surrender himself to their captivity in return for stopping their slaughter of his fellow Orthodox Christian countrymen. True to Nazi infamy, they not only arrested, tortured, and killed Bishop Gorazd, but also captured and killed over 250 other Orthodox Christians, including some priests. The Orthodox Church could no longer function until after the war, but thanks to Bishop Gorazd, many Orthodox believers survived. The Czech Orthodox Church thrives once again in the present-day Czech Republic.
The Invisible Christianity
How the Orthodox angle to this story escapes notice is truly amazing. In the last hundred years or so, most parts of the world with a significant Orthodox Christian (a/k/a “Eastern Orthodox”) population have suffered at the hands of the Nazis, the Communists or the Muslim Ottoman Turks. In many cases, two or even three of these evil forces have persecuted Orthodox Christians.
Yet, this persecution seems to go unnoticed in the Western world. During the 1999 Kosovo War, the media successfully mischaracterized the conflict as “ethnic violence.” Viewing it in those terms, the media were hard pressed to explain the “anomalies” where ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians had worked together to prepare for an invasion of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The explanation is simple enough-why wouldn’t Orthodox Christian Albanians and Orthodox Christian Serbs have cooperated to protect one another from the KLA or any other Islamic terrorist organization? President Reagan said it best when he remarked that any organization clever enough to use the word “liberation” in its name would be able to get away with murder. So it has been for the Muslim narcoterrorists of the Kosovo Liberation Army-at least for the time being.
The very fact that Hitler felt secure in taking revenge on innocent Orthodox Christians in retaliation for Heydrich’s assassination was just one more example of the invisible nature of Orthodoxy. Had the victims been Baptist, Lutheran, Roman Catholic or Methodist, there would have been an international outcry of religious persecution.
The Early Church
The people of the Orthodox Christian faith claim to be the remnant of the Early Church of the New Testament. The Roman Church claims legitimacy through Apostolic succession, and some other Christian denominations regard themselves as special sects based upon a revival of New Testament practices. But the Orthodox Christian Church is truly unique in claiming a faith unchanged since the time of the Early Church, perhaps since the actual time of the Apostles.
There is an eerie sense that the level of persecution encountered by the Orthodox Christian community in the past hundred years is likewise similar to that directed against the Early Church. In fact, the twentieth century saw more persecution of Orthodox Christians than any other. The martyrdom of Bishop Gorazd is yet another spine-tingling example, and his heroism serves as an inspiration to us all.
Links:
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August 8th, 2007 — American South, counterjihad, incident tracking, travel, medical, Twitter, disaster preparedness, current events, security, tech tips, MySpace, moblog, Technorati
I practically never post anything to this blog about myself and my day-to-day experiences. After all, this blog is not about me! But this time, I’m making an exception, simply because, on my travels, I recently witnessed an odd series of events, and those events raised questions that need to be answered. I liveblogged these events on Twitter, along with more mundane details of the journey.
Event #1: Last Friday, northbound through rural Georgia on I-75, we were caught in an unexpected traffic jam. The slowdown turned out to be a “gaper’s block” caused by a roadside vehicle fire. When we got to the scene, we saw a motorhome that had burned all the way down to the chassis. We saw no other damaged vehicles, nor anything else indicating why the motorhome had burned.
Event #2: That same day, just a few hours later, we were westbound on I-24 through the mountains of Tennessee, when, once again, traffic came to a complete halt. When the traffic flow started up again, all motorists were herded onto the left shoulder, while a hazmat response vehicle sped by with its siren screaming. This time, we saw a truck cab that had burned all the way down to its chassis. Some liquid, probably fuel, had spilled onto the pavement. Little remained of the truck cab, but the remainder of the rig appeared undamaged. Here again, it was not apparent what had caused the fire.
Event #3: While I was still pondering the odds of having seen two roadside fires involving large vehicles on the same day, traffic stopped again, just up the road on I-24 in the mountains of Tennessee. Sure enough, we could see clouds of smoke in the distance. When we finally went past the scene, we saw two active grass fires, with firefighters working on putting them out. At one of the fires, I saw a large rectangular area of burned grass. It appeared that a burned vehicle, the size of a truck, bus, or motorhome, had just been removed.
Was this a coincidence, or something else? I discussed this with someone else who shares my interest in counterterrorism and tracking unusual events. He said that fires like these are strictly local news, and that if they don’t take place near a city or town, they might not be reported at all. Even when they do make the local news, it’s very unlikely that anybody would put them all together and report on the fact that an unusual number of vehicle fires happened on the same day. These three fires might well have been a coincidence, but we have too little data to draw that or any other conclusion.
On the other hand, what if it wasn’t a coincidence? If a group of people wanted to cause havoc and destruction, and to have a good chance of getting away with it, what might they do? We’ve all been led to expect an apocalyptic attack one or more major cities, which would make the national news and launch an immediate manhunt. But what if they were to sabotage and burn dozens, or hundreds, of vehicles in rural areas instead? How would anybody connect the dots?
Since then, I’ve been searching for any mention of these fires in the local news, to no avail. As of this writing, I’ve yet to find any news story that I can associate with the date and location of these particular fires. That’s frustrating, but it tells me that we can’t rely on the mainstream media, or official sources, to recognize these dots, much less connect them!
This is where citizen journalism comes in, which means you and me. Use whatever tools are available to do the job. If you don’t have a video camera or a camera phone, at least get a phone with web browsing and text messaging capability, so that you can transmit the details of what you encountered.
How would a database or wiki help? The task of “connecting the dots” would be much easier if we had a database or wiki that everyone could use for reporting unusual events and local-scale disasters, and that everyone could search to find patterns and causes of events. In order to be useful, this would have to be a large-scale project that takes in and organizes detailed data from all over the U.S. It would take plenty of resources to start up such a database or wiki on a server that could handle the traffic, to launch and promote the project, and to sign up enough participants to give the project a good start. This is not a one-person job; clearly, it would take more funds and more time than I presently have at my disposal. Nonetheless, this is my proposal for the future, and if enough other people are interested, we could get it done!
For now, we can improvise by using the “blogosphere” itself as our database. If you witness anything unusual, regardless of whether or not you think it is terrorism-related, just blog about it and then pass the information along to others. If possible, set up your blog so that you can make blog posts from your mobile device. Even if all you have is a forum membership somewhere, a Twitter account, or a MySpace page, use it as a vehicle for recording what you saw! After awhile, the search engines on the Web will find these blog posts, and anyone will be able to use them to look for patterns in unusual events. Using even the simplest blogging or microblogging system will get your data out into the world where good use can eventually be made of it.
Tech tip: Did you know that you can claim your Twitter account as a blog on Technorati?
It’s very easy to do. It will make your tweets searchable and it will give you more of a presence on Technorati.
On Digg, I posted a comment to elaborate further on what this database or wiki should contain:
If you can find an interactive, real-time map of disasters, please let me know. But I’m looking for records of disasters on a local scale, that are never posted anywhere but the local news - or are not posted to any media at all. And I’m also looking for a repository of data that goes back into the past, to make it easier to search for patterns over time.
Noteworthy things to track include the following:
- Disease outbreaks in humans, animals, and plants
- Unusual numbers of, or disappearances of, wildlife (such as the recent bee dieoff)
- Power outages, Internet and phone service outages, and other infrastructure failures (such as the recent bridge collapse) whether there were casualties or not
The vast majority of these things will result from natural causes or human error, and not from terrorism. Nonetheless, knowing about those other causes could potentially save many lives also.
Update - August 16, 2007:
Here’s a link to a very disturbing incident. I have no further information about this, and do not know whether there is any connection between this new incident and the ones that I noticed previously. In this instance, the news story implies gang activity.
Bomb blows up truck, owner inside
I found out about this incident by using this resource:
Global Terrorism Incident Map: Here are the Links and Contact Info
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June 17th, 2007 — medical, women's issues, PSA, cancer
First National Consensus On Ovarian Cancer Symptoms Stresses Education For Earlier Diagnosis
From the article:
Researchers, including Dr. Barbara Goff, a gynecologic oncologist at the University of Washington, have conducted conclusive research that demonstrates that the following symptoms are much more likely to occur in women with ovarian cancer than women in the general population. These symptoms include:
- Bloating
- Pelvic or abdominal pain
- Difficulty eating or feeling full quickly
- Urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency)
Women who have these symptoms almost daily for more than a few weeks should see their doctor, preferably a gynecologist. [emphasis mine]
This is an important breakthrough because, up to now, ovarian cancer has been known as the “silent killer.” Without obvious, clear-cut symptoms, it has been difficult to detect ovarian cancer before it has spread too far for successful treatment. But now we know what to look for, and this can offer women stricken with this disease a much better chance for early detection and cure.
Whether or not you yourself happen to be an adult woman at risk for ovarian cancer, please pass this information along to the women in your family. It could save someone’s life!
Technorati tags:
cancer
ovarian cancer
PSA
More about ovarian cancer at Science Daily.
