1469: The Nurge

Also, I've been meaning to email you guys since you've been talking about Adderall, or as Adam calls it, legal meth. Unfortunately, I have a very bad story about Adderall and Vyvanse (a similar drug) from my personal life the last year.

My girlfriend at the time had been prescribed Adderall and Vyvanse (not at the same time) for about 4 years for ADD. She took it as prescribed for a while and it worked great for her, helping her graduate college, which she had struggled with for 6 years before getting on the meds. And all of a sudden, last summer, something changed and she literally started going crazy. I didn't know what was happening for a while, i thought that maybe she was developing schizophrenia or something. She was paranoid about her phone being hacked and people constantly following her, and that all of her friends and colleagues were collaborating on some elaborate plot against her. She tore our apartment apart looking for bugs and cameras. It was insane. After months of this, I happened to be talking to a friend who knew someone who went through this same thing, and he had been clinically diagnosed with Aderall induced psychosis. So my ex girlfriend ended up going to a treatment center to get clean (which she probably wouldn't have done if she hadn't gotten arrested, because she was addicted to the stuff), and sure enough, that's what they told her too...adderall induced psychosis. When she got out, she told me that a lot of the people in the treatment center were meth addicts and they had the same exact paranoia. Even after she got out and had been clean for months, she's still been having delusions and it has not been easy. Luckily, she recently started on some anti-psychotics or something that seem to be helping a lot.

So yeah...that shit is legal meth. It is f****d and dangerous and scary. I would recommend everyone to stay the f**k away from it. I think that it can be helpful for some people, but not at the rate they're giving it out, and ultimately, even if it is helpful for you, like it was for my ex, it is not worth the risk of going crazy. This has literally been the hardest thing I've every dealt with in my life. I do not wish mental illness upon my worst enemy.

If you share this story on the show, please keep it anonymous.

USDR

Link

The Sovereign accounts of the rich and powerful exposed - Oculum Labs

Facts about each CSRQ-SM class - Oculum Labs

First, nearly all commercial transactions in China are electronic - with the phone. Occasionally I will see pensioners pay with cash at the local corner store (usually less than 50 RMB).

But we even pay rent electronically; pay for ebike repair - from the guy on the street - electronically; buy a tailor made 2000 RMB suit at the silk market; get some vape juice; even get shipments of vitamin supplements and or Indian food from Shenzhen and Guangzhou. It is all electronic - via WeChat or Alipay.

There is no need to go to a bank, except to take foreign currency out of the country. And even when I was in Thailand and Indonesia, I could withdraw local currency, with no fee from the ATM; or I could pay locals (in Bali and Thailand) with WeChat transfer.

Locally, in the ex-pat news, I see nothing about bank runs. And WeChat credit, works just fine.

Best

JCJ

Canadians buy 55% more Kraft Dinner (mac and cheese) than USA and it is the most popular grocery store item sold.

Typically, the casket industry remains pretty stable, and an unusually big casket order usually indicates a traumatic event, but recent sales indicate that this has changed. “Not only are all sales up, but in the past, for every five full-sized caskets we sold, we sold one youth size. Now, for every five, it’s two youth sized.”

According to Haddock, he and his colleagues in the industry thought they would see an uptick in 2020 when we were being told that covid was lethal and killing people indiscriminately, in their many thousands. But that didn’t happen. “It wasn’t until the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 that we saw sales increase. We didn’t see any increase in sales before vaccines were introduced, and people started traveling again,” says Haddock. “And I don’t want to blame it on the travel that’s been killing everybody because, in truth, most of these places around the world are still light on what travelers can do. Even accidental deaths are still limited.”

For the first time in over 30 years, we are receiving bulk orders for smaller-sized caskets.”

Link

Just grabbing random links that match the headlines...

https://www.brgeneral.org/news-blog/2022/july/heart-attacks-on-the-rise-among-under-40-crowd/

https://euroweeklynews.com/2022/06/08/sudden-adult-death-syndrome-sads/

https://yournews.com/2022/06/08/2356461/healthy-young-people-are-dying-suddenly-and-unexpectedly-from-a/

https://www.the-sun.com/health/3935532/little-known-heart-attack-strikes-healthy-women/

https://www.today.com/popculture/popculture/josh-gad-mourns-death-20-year-old-nephew-rcna35586

27-year old, newly engaged...

27-year old, heart attack...

https://nypost.com/2022/06/28/comedian-nick-nemeroff-dead-at-32-fans-mourn-sudden-passing/

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/31/asia/indian-singer-kk-dies-intl/index.html

https://pagesix.com/2022/04/27/hailey-bieber-had-heart-surgery-after-blood-clot-caused-stroke/

30-year old new bride...

24-year old dies day after birthday...

https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/family-speaks-after-wentzville-police-dispatcher-suddenly-dies/

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/tributes-kind-laid-back-man-7221394

32-year old...

https://vimbuzz.com/who-is-catherine-keane-woman-31-who-went-to-gym-and-walked-10000-steps-a-day-dies-suddenly-in-sleep/

After a police officer entered the premises, a journalist followed him in and documented that the clinic was almost entirely run by Chinese workers.

Link

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 17:04

Changes in PTSD symptoms, which will be measured by The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale 5 (CAPS-5). [ Time Frame: Baseline, Initial Drug Dose and Second Drug Dose, 24 hours and 1 week after initial and second drug dose. ]Assesses PTSD symptoms. It is a structured interview that consists of 30 items. Items are rated using a 0 to 4 severity scale. In addition to assessing the 20 DSM-5 PTSD symptoms, questions target the onset and duration of symptoms, subjective distress, impact of symptoms on social and occupational functioning, improvement in symptoms since a previous CAPS administration, overall response validity, overall PTSD severity, and specifications for the dissociative subtype (depersonalization and derealization. Higher scores indicate more severe PTSD symptoms.

Changes in depression symptoms, which will be measured by The Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II). [ Time Frame: Baseline, Initial Drug Does and Second Drug Dose, 24 hours after initial and second drug dose, 3 and 5 days after initial and second drug dose (by phone), 1 week after initial and second drug dose, 15, 17, 19, and 21 days after second drug dose (phone). ]Assesses depression symptoms. Consists of 21 items and uses a 0 to 3 severity scale. Total scores range from 0 to 63, with higher scores indicating more severe depression.

Changes in sleep patterns, which will be measured by The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). [ Time Frame: Baseline, 24 hours after first and second drug dose, 1 week after initial and second drug dose. ]Assesses the quality and patterns of sleep in adults. It differentiates "poor" from "good" sleep quality by measuring seven areas (components): subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleeping medications, and daytime dysfunction over the last month. Items are rated using a 0 to 3 scale. The component scores are summed to produce a global score (range 0 to 21). Higher scores indicate worse sleep quality.

Changes in PTSD symptoms, which will be measured by The Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for the DSM-5 (PCL-5). [ Time Frame: Baseline, 24 hours after initial and second drug dose, 3 and 5 days after initial and second drug dose (phone), 1 week after initial and second drug dose, 15, 17, 19, and 21 days after second drug dose (phone). ]Assesses PTSD symptoms. It is a 20-item self-report measure that assesses the 20 DSM-5 symptoms of PTSD. Items are rated using a 0 to 4 scale. Total scores range from 0 to 80, with higher scores indicating more severe PTSD symptoms.

Changes in personality traits, which will be measured by The NEO Personality Inventory - Revised (NEO PI-R). [ Time Frame: Baseline, 1 week after initial and second drug dose. ]Assesses changes in personality traits. It is a personality inventory that examines a person's Big Five personality traits. It consist of 240 items that assess 30 specific traits, which in turn define the five factors: Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), Openness to Experience (O), Agreeableness (A), and Conscientiousness (C). Items are rated on a five-point Likert scale, from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Changes in mental states, which will be measured The 5-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness Scale (5D-ASC). [ Time Frame: Initial and second drug dose. ]Assesses different mental states induced by the interventions. Consists of 94 items which are rated by placing marks on a horizontal visual analogue scale (100 millimeters in length). The scale ranges from no, not more than usual (on the left) to yes, very much more than usual (on the right). The items are scored by measuring the millimeters from the low end of the scale to the participant's mark (from 0 to 100).

Changes in growth following a traumatic event, which will be measured by The Post traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI). [ Time Frame: Baseline, 24 hours after initial and second drug dose, 1 week after initial and second drug dose. ]Assesses positive outcomes reported by persons who have experienced traumatic events. It is a 21-item scale that includes factors of New Possibilities, Relating to Others, Personal Strength, Spiritual Change, and Appreciation of Life. Participants are asked to rate the degree to which this change occurred in their life as a result of the crisis/disaster. Each item is rated from 0 (I did not experience this change as a result of my crisis) to 5 (I experienced this change to a very great degree as a result of my crisis). Total score is calculated by summing all items. Individual factors are scored by adding responses to items on each factor. Higher scores indicate greater growth.

Changes in well-being, which will be measured by The Well-Being Inventory (WBI). [ Time Frame: Baseline, 1 week after initial and second drug dose. ]Assesses well-being across life domains and such as work, finances, health, and social relationships. Participants are first asked questions about their level of functioning in each domain. Items are rated from 1 (never) to 5 (most or all of the time). Then they are asked questions about their satisfaction in each domain. Items are rated from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). Higher total scores indicate greater well-being.

Changes in psychological inflexibility/experiential avoidance, which will be measured by The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire II (AAQ-II). [ Time Frame: Baseline, 1 Week after initial and second drug dose. ]Assesses psychological inflexibility/experiential avoidance. Participants are asked to rate how true each statement is for them. Items are rated from 1 (never true) to 7 (always true). Higher scores equal greater levels of psychological inflexibility.

Changes in emotional regulation, which will be measured by The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). [ Time Frame: Baseline, 1 week after initial and second drug dose. ]Assesses emotional regulation. A 10-item scale designed to measure respondents' tendency to regulate their emotions in two ways: (1) Cognitive Reappraisal and (2) Expressive Suppression. Participants answer each item on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The higher the scores the greater the use of the emotion regulation strategy.

Changes in cognitive and emotional empathy, which will be measured by the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET). [ Time Frame: Baseline, Initial and Second Drug Dose, 24 hours after initial and second drug dose, 1 week after initial and second drug dose. ]Measures cognitive and emotional empathy simultaneously and independently using a series of photorealistic stimuli computer based tasks.

Changes in the quality of specific relationships in terms of supportive and conflictual dynamics will be assessed with the Quality of Relationships Inventory (QRI) [ Time Frame: Baseline, Initial and Second Drug Dose, 1 week after initial and second drug dose. ]The 25 question task assesses the contemporary quality of specific relationships (between the patient and a specific individual, such as a family member) at a particular point in time in terms of conflict, support, and depth. It uses a Likert-type 4 point scale going from "1" indicating the item does not apply at all, while "4" indicates the item applies quite a lot.

Cognitive schemas about oneself and others, will be assessed by the Trauma and Attachment Beliefs Scale (TABS) [ Time Frame: Baseline ]The 84 item self-report scale, which measures responses on a 1-6 scale (1 = "Disagree Strongly, 6 = Agree Strongly) the degree to which respondents believe the statements correspond with their own beliefs. The measures of these beliefs relate to self-safety, other-safety, self-trust, other-trust, self-esteem, other-esteem, self-intimacy, other-intimacy, self-control, and other control.

Brain injury will be assessed for with the CogState Neuropsychological Test [ Time Frame: Baseline, 1 week after initial and second drug dose. ]Brain injuries associated with traumatic events, such as concussions, will be screened for in the CogState Neuropsychological Test, a standard computerized test used to assess neuropsychological deficits associated with brain injury.

Moral injury, or the sense of distress due to contradiction of deeply-held beliefs due to a traumatic event, will be measured by the Moral Injury Events Scale (MIES) [ Time Frame: Baseline, Initial and Second Drug Dose, 24 hours after initial and second drug dose, 1 week after initial and second drug dose. ]This 9 item self-report scale measures the moral injury, or distress due to the contradiction to a deeply-held belief about the world that often accompanies a traumatic incident. The injury is assessed in terms of "perceived transgression" and "perceived betrayal." Items are assessed with a Likert-type Scale (1 to 6, 1 = "strongly disagree," 6 = "strongly agree," with no neutral option). Higher scores indicate greater severity of associated event.

Changes in concept and sense of existential meaning will be measured with the Purpose and Meaning scale (PIL) [ Time Frame: Baseline, 1 week after second drug dose. ]Measures evaluation of the sense of existential purpose and enthusiasm for life in a three part self-report survey. Part A is a 20 point scale test which uses a 1-7 scale in which low number answers correspond attitudes such as boredom and directionless-ness. Parts B and C are not empirically useful, but ask for participants to completes sentences and compose a paragraph respectively. Higher scores indicate a greater existential sense of purpose, with scores above 113 indicate a high degree of purpose, scores below 92 suggesting a lack of purpose, and scores between 92 and 112 indicate moderate levels of purpose.

Changes in depression symptoms, which will be measured Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). [ Time Frame: Baseline, Initial and Second Drug Dose, 24 hours after initial and second drug dose, 1 week after initial and second administration. ]Assesses depression symptoms. Consists of 10 items and uses a 0 to 6 severity scale. Total scores range from 0 to 60, with higher scores indicating more severe depression.

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 17:03

Italy was plunged into fresh political turmoil on Thursday (14 July) as prime minister Mario Draghi announced his resignation after a key ally within his grand coalition government boycotted a parliamentary vote of confidence.

The government survived the Senate vote by a 172-39 margin, but the populist Five Star Movement (M5S), the second-largest member of the coalition, walked out before ballots were cast. Draghi had previously warned that such a snub would have led him to quit.

"I want to announce to you that tonight I will tender my resignation in the hands of the president of the Republic," the prime minister later told members of his cabinet, according to a government statement.

The outcome of the Senate vote means that the "national unity coalition that has supported this government since its creation no longer exists," Draghi continued, lamenting that "the pact of trust" between allies had been broken.

The crisis raises the spectre of snap elections in late September or early October '-- about six months before they are due '-- unless the prime minister can be made to reverse his decision.

President Sergio Mattarella came out in support of this solution, as his office said he "did not accept" Draghi's resignation and told him to go back to parliament for "an assessment of the situation."

The leader of the M5S, ex-premier Giuseppe Conte, has hinted he would be ready to make peace, but it is unclear at what price, and whether Draghi and others would be prepared to pay it.

The leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, said the next five days '-- Draghi is expected to address parliament on Wednesday '-- would decide whether the crisis can be patched up, saving Italy from "the dramatic tailspin in which it is going in these hours."

Earlier this week, the prime minister signalled he had no appetite for clinging to power at all costs, leaving him exposed to more insurgencies and hostile posturing from the M5S or the far-right League, another recalcitrant coalition member.

"If there is a feeling that staying in this government causes extraordinary pain, is a struggle, causes no pleasure, that there is no satisfaction from what the government does, then we should be clear, no?" he said Tuesday.

"In other words, if the government can work it continues, if it cannot work, it does not continue," Draghi added.

The M5S broke ranks over a '‚¬ 26bn aid package that includes plans to build a waste incinerator to address Rome's garbage crisis. The party opposes the incinerator out of toxic emissions concerns; it also accuses the government of not doing enough against poverty.

The act of rebellion gives the formerly anti-establishment party the chance to rekindle its radical credentials as it gears for upcoming elections, after years in government marred by internal feuds, policy U-turns, mass defections and sliding poll numbers.

The M5S came out on top in the 2018 general elections, winning around 33 percent of the vote, but now polls at around 11 percent and has lost nearly half of its elected MPs, including its former leader, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio, who formed a new party last month.

Italy is used to political crises, having had 67 different governments since it became a republic in 1946, with prime ministers lasting in office an average of little more than a year. Draghi lasted a bit longer, having been sworn in 17 months ago.

Known in his previous role of president of the European Central Bank as the man who saved the euro, the 74-year old was called out of retirement to lead a national unity government tasked with speeding up Covid vaccinations and implementing EU-required reforms.

His resignation comes as Italy remains under pressure from Brussels to comply with reform targets tied to the around '‚¬200bn in loans and grants from the EU post-Covid recovery plan.

The country also faces a worsening economic outlook as a result of the war in Ukraine, with an energy crunch, rising inflation, slowing growth and renewed market concerns about its high level of public debt, standing at more than 150 percent of GDP.

The European Commission is following political developments in Italy with "worried bewilderment," EU economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni a former Italian premier, said in Brussels.

"In these troubled waters, [with] war, high inflation, energy risks, geopolitical tensions, stability is a value in itself, and I think we need cohesion right now, not to cause instability," Gentiloni said.

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 17:01

Starbucks will close 16 U.S. stores, mostly on the West Coast, by the end of July because of safety concerns, according to the company. Most of the stores set to close are in the Los Angeles and Seattle metro areas.

"We've had to make the difficult decision to close some locations that have a particularly high volume of challenging incidents that make it unsafe for us to operate," a Starbucks spokesperson told CNBC.

The map below shows the six stores in California and the six in Washington State that will close. The coffee chain will also close two stores in Portland, Oregon, one store in Philadelphia and another in Washington, D.C., also for safety.

'We cannot serve as partners if we don't first feel safe at work'Concern about store safety was central to a letter to employees published on Monday from Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelson, two senior vice presidents of U.S. operations at the coffee chain. The letter cites several societal safety concerns, including increased violence and drug use in the area of the stores.

"We know these challenges can, at times, play out within our stores too. We read every incident report you file '-- it's a lot," the letter said. "Simply put, we cannot serve as partners if we don't first feel safe at work."

The closures come at a unique time for Starbucks as more stores vote to unionize: over 100 of the company's 9,000 U.S. stores since workers at a store in Buffalo, New York, became the first to join a union at the end of 2021.

One of the 16 stores being shuttered, 505 Union Station in Seattle, had also voted to join Starbucks Workers United '-- a fact that the union tweeted about after the announcement.

Property crimes up across Seattle and Los AngelesStarbucks' letter to employees about safety did not mention unions, and focused solely on safety concerns. Starbucks officials have said, however, that the closures are about matters of safety .

And crime data from Seattle and Los Angeles seems to the back up those concerns. In Seattle, property crimes, which include car theft, larceny theft and burglary, and violent robberies are up nearly 20% for the first five months 2022 from the year-earlier period, according to the Seattle Police Department.

In Los Angeles, those types of crimes are up citywide more than 14% for the first six months of 2022 compared to the same period last year, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

In West Hollywood, however, those figures are much higher: Property crimes and violent robberies have more than doubled in 2022 from 2021, according to the LA County Sheriff.

Read the full list of stores that Starbucks will close below:

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 17:01

More than 10 million people rely on Ring video doorbells to monitor what's happening directly outside the front doors of their homes. The popularity of the technology has raised a question that concerns privacy advocates: Should police have access to Ring video doorbell recordings without first gaining user consent?

Ring recently revealed how often the answer to that question has been yes. The Amazon company responded to an inquiry from US Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), confirming that there have been 11 cases in 2022 where Ring complied with police "emergency" requests. In each case, Ring handed over private recordings, including video and audio, without letting users know that police had access to'--and potentially downloaded'--their data. This raises many concerns about increased police reliance on private surveillance, a practice that has long gone unregulated.

Ring says it will only "respond immediately to urgent law enforcement requests for information in cases involving imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to any person." Its policy is to review any requests for assistance from police, then make "a good-faith determination whether the request meets the well-known standard, grounded in federal law, that there is imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requiring disclosure of information without delay."

Critics say it shouldn't be left up to Ring and the police to decide when data can be accessed or how long that data can be stored.

"There are always going to be situations in which it might be expedient for public safety to be able to get around some of the usual infrastructure and be able to get footage very quickly," says Matthew Guariglia, a policy analyst for Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting civil liberties online. "But the problem is that the people who are deciding what constitutes exigent circumstances and what constitutes the type of emergency, all of these very important safeguards, are Ring and the police, both of whom, as far as I know, don't have a great reputation when it comes to deciding when it's appropriate to acquire a person's data."

Advertisement To improve the situation, Guariglia wants regulators to lay more ground rules limiting how much police can rely on private surveillance. He also wants companies like Ring to take more steps to protect users from potentially unlawful surveillance by changing the doorbell's default settings to turn audio recording off and automatically store data to prevent third parties, including the police and Ring, from accessing it.

Ring refused to commit to doing either. The company says that it only stores data for users with subscription plans, and those users can easily choose to use higher security settings if desired. Responding to Ars' request for comment, Ring would not share whether 11 cases of sharing data without user consent in 2022 was higher or lower than average; the company supplied a prior statement pushing back against media reports that question Ring's judgment on when to share data with police:

"It's simply untrue that Ring gives anyone unfettered access to customer data or video, as we have repeatedly made clear to our customers and others. The law authorizes companies like Ring to provide information to government entities if the company believes that an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to any person, such as a kidnapping or an attempted murder, requires disclosure without delay. Ring faithfully applies that legal standard."

Markey is counted among Ring's biggest critics, seeming to suggest in a statement that Ring might be sharing data with police in less high-stakes circumstances by referring to Ring's law enforcement policy as having a "so-called 'emergency circumstance exception.'" In his response, Markey agreed with Guariglia that changing Ring default settings would immediately enhance data security for potentially millions of users. Absent those changes, the senator says Ring leaves its users open to threats, which could include potential invasions of privacy, self-surveillance risks, surveillance of First Amendment activities, and coercion, among other risks.

"As my ongoing investigation into Amazon illustrates, it has become increasingly difficult for the public to move, assemble, and converse in public without being tracked and recorded," Markey said.

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 17:01

ROME '-- Pope Francis urged European youth this week to eat less meat as a means of curbing global warming and preserving the planet.

''There is an urgent need to reduce the consumption not only of fossil fuels but also of so many superfluous things,'' the pontiff told participants in an EU youth conference Monday. ''In certain areas of the world, too, it would be appropriate to consume less meat: this too can help save the environment.''

The pope encouraged the young people to embrace a life of simplicity and austerity as a means of being ecologically responsible.

''May you aspire to a life of dignity and sobriety, without luxury and waste, so that everyone in our world can enjoy a dignified existence,'' he told them.

Pope Francis continued his ecological campaign in Madagascar this weekend while warning of a loss of biodiversity. https://t.co/FiaIjRpIKJ

'-- Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) September 11, 2019

''Don't let yourselves be seduced by the sirens that propose a life of luxury reserved for a small slice of the world,'' he said. ''Instead, have that 'broad outlook' that can take in all the rest of humanity, which is much bigger than our little continent.''

In his address, the pope also urged the young people to read his encyclical letter on the environment Laudato S¬ to find ''solid motivations'' for committing to ''an integral ecology.''

The future of the planet is in the hands of young people, Francis said, and only they can reverse the current path of environmental self-destruction.

More than ever, this is the right time for ''concrete initiatives'' to save the planet, he declared.

''If you do not succeed in turning this self-destructive trend around, it will be difficult for others to do so in the future,'' he warned.

Follow @tdwilliamsrome

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:59

Ivana Trump arrives at World Premiere of "Basic Instinct 2" held at AMC Lincoln Square Theatre in New York, NY, on March 27, 2006.

Vlasic Slaven | Gamma-Rapho | Getty Images

Ivana Trump, the first wife of former President Donald Trump, died in an accident as a result of suffering blunt impact injuries to her torso, New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Friday.

A senior New York City official with direct knowledge of the matter said the circumstances of her death are consistent with a fall on the stairs, NBC News reported. The official added the death is not suspicious.

The official ruling came a day after Ivana, 73, was found dead in her Manhattan residence after the New York Fire Department responded to a call from there.

Earlier Friday, the New York state Attorney General's Office said it had agreed at the request of lawyers for Donald Trump and two of his children to postpone depositions of them that had been scheduled for next week in light of Ivana's death.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said the cause of Ivana's death was "blunt impact trauma" and the manner of her death was "accident."

"Having released this determination, OCME will not comment further on the investigation," the spokesperson said.

A senior New York City official told NBC News on Thursday that Ivana Trump was found on the spiral staircase of her apartment when authorities first arrived.

Before the medical examiner's findings were released Friday, Donald Trump said that "out of love and respect for Ivana" he was postponing a rally scheduled for Saturday in Arizona to support the Republican candidate for governor, Kari Lake, until July 22.

Ivana, who was a former model and ski racer, was born in what at the time was Czechoslovakia.

She married the brash real-estate mogul Trump in 1977 and went on to hold top positions in his companies, including the Trump Organization.

The couple had three children '-- Donald Trump Jr., 44, Ivanka Trump, 40, and Eric Trump, 38.

The Trumps' divorce in 1990 was acrimonious, with both parties waging their battle in the Big Apple's tabloid newspapers, the New York Post and the New York Daily News, as much as in the courtroom.

The split was at least partially sparked by Donald Trump's affair with Marla Maples, who went on to become his second wife.

Trump, 76, married his third wife, Melania, in 2005.

The elder Trump, Donald Jr. and Ivanka had been set to be deposed next week by investigators from Attorney General Letitia James' office as part of an investigation into how the Trump Organization has stated the value of various real estate assets. James is eyeing whether the company illegally manipulated those valuations for financial benefits, such as reduced taxes or more favorable loan terms.

Eric Trump previously was deposed in the case, but invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 500 times, James' office said in a January court filing.

James' spokesperson on Friday said, "In light of the passing of Ivana Trump yesterday, we received a request from counsel for Donald Trump and his children to adjourn all three depositions, which we have agreed to."

"This is a temporary delay, and the depositions will be rescheduled as soon as possible. There is no other information about dates or otherwise to provide at this time," the spokesperson said.

"We offer our condolences to the Trump family."

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:59

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said her technology-heavy city will have to adjust to the new reality that many workers aren't coming back to the office.

In an interview airing Friday evening on CNBC's "The News with Shepard Smith," Breed acknowledged that tech workers have been slower to return to physical spaces in San Francisco than in other major cities.

"I wouldn't call this an exodus. I would call it a change," Breed said. "We've experienced a global pandemic. People have been working from home. And I think that most employees want some level of work from home as they returned to the office. And a lot of employers are providing that as an option."

The office vacancy rate in San Francisco rose to 24.2% in the second quarter from 23.8% in the prior period, according to CBRE research. Breed's office estimates that one-third of San Francisco's workforce is now remote and outside of the city. Last year, that resulted in a $400 million hit to tax revenue, according to San Francisco's Office of the Controller.

''Of course I'm worried about the trend, but again, you know, this was a global pandemic where life has changed,'' Breed said.

Some tech companies have moved out of California for states like Texas and Florida. Others have closed their offices in favor of a transition to remote work or downsized in preparation for a hybrid future. Salesforce, San Francisco's largest private employer, said this week it's cutting its San Francisco office space for the third time during the pandemic, and is now listing 40% of a 43-story building that's across the street from the main Salesforce Tower.

However, not every major tech employer is cutting back. Breed, who said she works from her office five days a week, pointed to companies like Autodesk, Google and Twilio, which have expanded their office space in recent years.

"They have extended their spaces, but they've also committed to San Francisco as their headquarters," Breed said, referring to some companies. ''Certain companies are looking into other alternatives," but what San Francisco offers, she said, is the highest concentration of venture capitalists "anywhere in the country."

Breed said there's been a recent uptick in downtown foot traffic, following an extended drought due to the Covid-19 shutdown. She highlighted the recent Golden State Warriors championship parade, which attracted an estimated 800,000-plus people in a city of about 875,000 residents.

Last month, Breed proposed a $14 annual billion budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year. Over one-third of that money has been set aside for public works, transportation and commerce, including the Municipal Transportation Agency.

For San Francisco to thrive, ''I think it's really going to be about making adjustments," Breed said. "Our concerts, our activities, our conventions, a lot of the things that people would want to visit a major city for is what we have to also focus on, and working in the office is just going to be an adjustment to change.''

WATCH: Living the 'pod life' in San Francisco

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:52

Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times,

House Democrats on July 13 voted to add an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual military spending bill, to identify ''neo-Nazis'' in the military and law enforcement.

The NDAA amendment was sponsored by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) and instructs the FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Department of Defense (DOD) to publish a report analyzing ''white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity'' within military and law enforcement.

The amendment passed in a 218''208 vote where it faced unilateral opposition from Republicans.

''Such behavior, such extremism is a threat to us in all segments of society. There is no reason to believe that our military is any different,'' Schneider said on the House floor late on the evening on July 13 in defense of the amendment.

''These are exceptions,'' Schneider insisted. ''They are rare, but we must do everything we can to identify them and to thwart them before risks become a reality.''

If the amendment is passed by the Senate, the FBI, DHS, and DOD would be required within 180 days to send Congress a report on the number of people discharged from either military service or law enforcement for ''white supremacist'' or ''neo-Nazi'' ideology.

House Republicans opposed the amendment, which they said was overly intrusive and ''denigrates'' law enforcement.

''This amendment attempts to create a problem where none exists by requesting investigations into law enforcement and the armed services for alleged rampant white supremacist or white national sympathies,'' one such critic, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), said in opposition to the amendment on the House floor.

This is not the first effort by Democrats to pass such a measure, and similar measures have faced condemnation by Republicans in the past for trying to impose ''thought police'' on military service members and law enforcement officers.

....

In a reference to George Orwell's ''1984,'' Sen Rand Paul said the new departments created by the bill would have essentially been the ''thought police'' of the military.

''Congressional Democrats have gotten so extreme, so radical, so out of touch with the American people that when they read it, they think this is something worthwhile to do,'' he said.

...

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:51

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:50

When adults gained access to Covid vaccines last year, most knew to expect headaches, fatigue and soreness as side effects.

But some researchers think it's time to add another common one to the list: temporary menstrual changes.

An analysis published Friday in the journal Science Advances found that 42% of people with regular menstrual cycles said they bled more heavily than usual after vaccination. Meanwhile, 44% reported no change and around 14% reported a lighter period. Among nonmenstruating people '-- those post-menopause or who use certain long-term contraceptives, for example '-- the study suggests many experienced breakthrough or unexpected bleeding after their Covid shots.

The survey included over 39,000 people 18 to 80 years old who were fully vaccinated and had not contracted Covid. The study authors cautioned, though, that the percentages do not necessarily represent the rate of menstrual changes in the general population, since people who observed a difference were more likely to participate. The survey's aim was simply to provide evidence for future studies, not to establish cause and effect.

Still, other recent research also found that the Covid vaccine is associated with a small change in menstrual cycle length.

The new survey started in April 2021, around the time people began to report unexpected bleeding and heavier flow post-vaccine. However, these anecdotes were at the time met with the rebuttal that there was no data linking menstrual changes to vaccination.

That was both true and indicative of a larger problem. Individuals who took part in Covid vaccine trials were not asked if they experienced menstrual changes.

''Before the vaccinations came out, I would say our knowledge on the subject of the connection between immunization and menstrual changes, in general, was nil,'' said Candace Tingen, a program director with the gynecologic health and disease branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Tingen was not involved in the recent survey.

Overall, few studies assess the direct effect of vaccination on the menstrual cycle, and most pharmaceutical trials have not included questions about changes to menstruation.

Tingen views this as a mistake. Perhaps, she said, if Covid-19 vaccine trials had asked about menstruation, people would not have been surprised '-- or frightened '-- by this unexpected side effect.

''It was really this lack of information that I think caused confusion, fear and perhaps vaccine hesitancy,'' she said.

Study co-author Katherine M.N. Lee said that overall, menstruation is understudied when it's not relevant to pregnancy.

''It gets ignored because of the structure of science,'' Lee, an assistant professor at Tulane University, said. ''There are very few senior people in science and medicine who are not white men. It's just not something they are thinking about as part of their lived experience.''

Lee and her colleagues were inspired to ask people about their menstruation cycles after being vaccinated after seeing both friends and strangers online wonder why they experienced an unexpected change.

The survey group included more than 3,500 people who identify as gender diverse. Approximately 84% of participants were white, and none were between the ages of 45 and 55 because the researchers didn't want to include changes associated with perimenopause, when the body begins the transition to menopause.

The respondents were vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax.

A health care worker administers the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at the American Museum of Natural History vaccination site in New York on April 30, 2021. Gabby Jones / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileThe group included people who do not usually menstruate because they are post-menopausal, use long-acting reversible contraceptives or hormonal contraceptives, or are undergoing gender-affirming treatment that stops menstruation. A majority of these respondents experienced breakthrough bleeding after the vaccine.

Among the 238 postmenopausal people in the study who were not on hormonal treatments and had not bled for at least 12 months before their vaccination, 66% reported breakthrough bleeding.

The survey found that in general, people who experienced a heavier flow after their shots were more likely to be nonwhite and older; to use hormonal contraception; to have a diagnosed reproductive condition; to have also experienced fever or fatigue as side effects; or to have been pregnant in the past.

As part of the survey, the team also included free response sections where participants could share their experiences.

''A large number of people reported the feeling that 'I'm so angry that I didn't know this ahead of time, but I'm glad I still got it,''' said Kathryn Clancy, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois and the study's other co-author. ''They wouldn't have changed their decision to get the vaccine, but they felt betrayed by the fact that no one told them to expect it.''

It's not yet understood why menstrual changes happen after vaccination. Tingen said the answer will likely stem from the overlap between the immune system and endocrine system, which plays a role in reproduction. (There are immune cells in the uterus that help during the process of menstruation, for example.)

''Diet, sleep and stress can all affect the menstrual cycle,'' Tingen said. ''It is perhaps not surprising that a large immune reaction might throw menstruation off temporarily, in a minor way.''

Covid itself has been shown to disrupt menstruation more significantly than vaccines. This may be because of an ongoing immune reaction and the lifestyle changes that come with being sick. People with long Covid are especially affected, Tingen said, and more research on the reason is needed.

Menstrual changes as a vaccine side effect are on par with others like muscle pain: While uncomfortable, they do not change how safe or effective the shots are. But Clancy said unexplained side effects cause people to feel fearful '-- and in some cases spread vaccine hesitancy.

Some people skeptical of vaccines have falsely conflated the possibility of short-term menstrual changes with long-term harm to fertility, messaging that Lee described as an ''active disinformation campaign.''

Clancy said she's received messages from parents who've heard about menstruation changes and are concerned that vaccinating their child will cause early puberty, even though there is no evidence for this.

Period-related surprises post-vaccine posed particular challenges for trans men and genderqueer people, according to the study, since some had to navigate public or workplace bathrooms after experiencing unexpected menstruation.

''Unexpected bleeding runs the risk of psychological distress for those who experience gender dysphoria with menstruation and physical harm for people for whom managing menstruation in public is dangerous,'' the authors wrote.

Clancy, Lee and their colleagues hope their work inspires further research, encourages clinicians to talk to patients about the link between vaccination and menstrual changes, and validates people who have felt ignored or alone in their experiences.

''If you want to improve trust in government, trust in pharmaceutical companies, trust in medicine, trust in vaccines, then you have to take the time to do the work, so people know what to expect going into it,'' Clancy said. ''That effort makes people more likely to get their second shot or booster.''

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:35

A federal district court in Ohio has granted a temporary restraining order for the entire class of the U.S Air Force against the unlawful Department of Defense COVID shot mandate. Thousands of these service members who oppose receiving the shot due to their sincerely held religious beliefs have been denied their religious exemptions.

In his order for Hunter Doster, et al. v. Hon Frank Kendall, et al., Judge Matthew McFarland stated that, ''All active-duty and active reserve members of the United States Air Force and Space Force, including but not limited to Air Force Academy Cadets, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) Cadets, Members of the Air Force Reserve Command, and any Airman who has sworn or affirmed the United States Uniformed Services Oath of Office and is currently under command and could be deployed, who: (i) submitted a religious accommodation request to the Air Force from the Air Force's COVID-19 vaccination requirement, where the request was submitted or was pending, from September 1, 2021 to the present; (ii) were confirmed as having had a sincerely held religious belief by or through Air Force Chaplains; and (iii) either had their requested accommodation denied or have not had action on that request'' are covered in the temporary restraining order.

Judge McFarland also wrote, ''The proposed class satisfies the (b)(2) requirement. Defendants' attempt to characterize the relief sought as hinging on individualized determinations concerning their religious accommodation requests and sincerely held religious beliefs. But the relief the proposed class seeks is the same: a religious accommodation relating to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. And they have been harmed in 'essentially the same way.'''

''They face separation from the Air Force and other disciplinary measures. A single injunction would provide relief to the entire class. Indeed, the main purpose of a (b)(2) class is to provide relief through a single injunction or declaratory judgment. Because Defendants have uniformly maintained a policy of overriding Airmen's religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine, they have acted 'on grounds that apply generally to the class.' Moreover, the class definition requires that a Chaplain certify that the airman's religious beliefs are sincerely held. Finally, a single injunction would provide the proposed class with the relief they seek from the harm they stand to suffer,'' the court wrote.

The Department of Defense has until July 21 to file a brief arguing why the temporary restraining order should not be extended into a preliminary injunction.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, ''This is a great decision that grants protection for the religious freedom for all Air Force personnel from Joe Biden's unlawful COVID shot mandate. No service member should be required to choose between service to the country and service to God. Liberty Counsel will be pursuing class-wide protection for the remaining branches of the military.''

Liberty Counsel advances religious liberty, the sanctity of human life, and the family through litigation and education. We depend on your support, which enables us to represent people at no cost. Click here to GIVE NOW .

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 15:24

June 21, 2022

''It should have been an open and closed case of a tragic robbing,'' writes Gretchen Small in Bustle.com of the 2016 Seth Rich murder, ''but what ensued was an alt-right conspiracy theory movement designed to take attention off of Donald Trump and put pressure on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.''

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Small accurately summarized the thesis of ''A Murder in D.C.,'' an episode in the Netflix series, ''Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies and the Internet.'' I suppose she could be forgiven her failure to know that Rich wasn't robbed. The producers failed to share that rather critical detail, one detail out of many that allowed them to keep airheads like Small ignorant of the real scandal -- the media scandal. In this case, the cover-up may well have been worse than the crime.

Although I do not know who killed Seth Rich, I do know that the media did everything in its power to discourage anyone from finding out. Ron Howard, a loyal Democrat, served as executive producer of this visually well-crafted series. Not surprisingly, the episode in question does little but showcase the media's ongoing role as protector of Democratic Party secrets.

The Alt Right -- whatever that is -- had almost nothing to with the case save for a little internet gossip. Julian Assange, the darling of the media before he started releasing DNC emails, was the man who moved the curious beyond the ''botched robbery'' scenario trotted out by the D.C. Police.

'); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1609270365559-0'); }); }Interviewed on Dutch TV four weeks after the shooting, Assange said, unprompted, ''Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often very significant risks. There's a twenty-seven-year-old, works for the DNC, was shot in the back, murdered just a few weeks ago for unknown reasons as he was walking down the street in Washington.'' The Netflix producers showed this interview, then spent the rest of the episode trying to dismiss its relevance.

The Dutch TV show host, as compromised as his American peers, tried to head off Assange's line of thought. He said, ''That was just a robbery, I believe. Wasn't it?'' Assange would not be reined in. Said he, accurately, ''No. There's no finding.'' Although Assange evaded the question of whether Rich was a source, his offer of a $20,000 reward to find Rich's killer raised the possibility that Rich was one.

Assange's theorizing was given legs by B-grade media personality Ellen Ratner. The producers knew about Ratner, a Democrat and Hillary supporter. They showed her on camera and mentioned her in passing as someone who worked with Ed Butowsky, the villain of the piece. They then seem to have forgotten about her. My guess is they chose to edit Ratner's real contribution out and overlooked the initial intro.

Butowsky, a financial guy with Republican leanings, met Ratner through their occasional TV appearances. Ratner was a friend of Assange. Her late brother Michael Ratner, a hard-core leftist, had been one of Assange's American lawyers.

On the day after the 2016 election, Ratner boasted during an otherwise banal panel discussion at a Florida university, "I spent three hours with Julian Assange on Saturday at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London." She then added without prompting, "One thing he did say was the leaks were not from, they were not from the Russians. They were an internal source from the Hillary campaign or from somebody that knew Hillary, an enemy."

Fortunately for the media, Ratner's self-involved fellow panelists ignored her comments and returned to their banalities. The video did not surface until much later. It did not interest the media when it did surface.

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 15:01

NPR launches Disinformation Reporting team : NPR Extra NPR Launches disinformation reporting team

In a note to newsroom staff, Terence Samuel, VP and Executive Editor and Nancy Barnes, SVP of News and Editorial Director announced the following update:

NPR Newsroom 2016. PHOTOS by Stephen Voss Election Night, 2016. Stephen Voss/NPR. Stephen Voss/Stephen Voss hide caption

toggle caption Stephen Voss/Stephen Voss NPR Newsroom 2016. PHOTOS by Stephen Voss Election Night, 2016. Stephen Voss/NPR.

Stephen Voss/Stephen Voss Shannon Bond needs little introduction. Shannon is currently a tech correspondent based in the Bay Area. That beat has already given her extensive experience and sourcing in the disinformation world. Shannon joined NPR in 2019 from the Financial Times and quickly became known as an unflappable and generous colleague who's stayed on top of breaking news about Meta, Twitter and other tech platforms while also finding time to report out original stories, like the existence of computer-generated fake profiles on LinkedIn. Shannon's first day on the disinformation beat will be August 1st, though she'll continue to help the Business Desk with breaking technology news while fellow tech reporter Bobby Allyn is on a fellowship in Germany.

Lisa Hagen joins NPR from member station WABE in Atlanta. Her first day is July 18th. Working with NPR's investigations team, Lisa reported and co-hosted the No Compromise podcast about the most radical wing of the gun rights movement. That serieswon the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting. Her reporting illuminates and helps humanize the unfamiliar, which should come in useful on the disinformation beat. She's fascinated by how we arrive at our beliefs and navigate who to trust in these strange times. In Georgia, Lisa covered criminal and social justice in addition to guns for WABE. Before that she worked as a stringer for the New York Post. While Lisa is originally from Hawaii, she would like everyone to know that she does not surf.

Huo Jingnan has been with NPR since 2018, most recently as an associate producer with the investigations team. In Jingnan's new role as a data-savvy reporter focusing on disinformation, she'll work on both her own projects and with reporters on the team and around the newsroom to flesh out patterns and money trails related to the spread of false information. During her time with the investigations team, Jingnan quantified the extent of toxic silica exposure the federal government knew that coal miners had undergone and looked for lessons learned from courts that ran remote jury trials during the pandemic. Jingnan will start on the disinformation beat later this month and she'll continue to be based in the Washington, DC area.

Brett Neely has worked at the intersection of political coverage and collaborative journalism since he arrived at NPR in 2015, including leading our coverage of voting rights and election security through the 2016 and 2020 elections. When we launched the pop-up disinformation team last year, Brett took on the beat and has worked with reporters from the Washington, Science, Business and National desks as well as member stations to deepen our coverage. As the disinformation team's Supervising Editor, he'll continue to lead that coverage and work with partners across the newsroom and public radio network. Brett remains based in Colorado, where he moved after the 2020 election.

Nancy and Terry

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 14:42

NEW YORK (AP) '-- A former CIA software engineer was convicted Wednesday of federal charges accusing him of the biggest theft of classified information in CIA history.

Joshua Schulte, who chose to defend himself at a New York City retrial, had told jurors in closing arguments that the CIA and FBI made him a scapegoat for an embarrassing public release of a trove of CIA secrets by WikiLeaks in 2017.

Schulte watched without visibly reacting as U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman announced the guilty verdict on nine counts, which was reached in mid-afternoon by a jury that had deliberated since Friday.

The so-called Vault 7 leak revealed how the CIA hacked Apple and Android smartphones in overseas spying operations, and efforts to turn internet-connected televisions into listening devices. Prior to his arrest, Schulte had helped create the hacking tools as a coder at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

A sentencing date was not immediately set because Schulte still awaits trial on charges of possessing and transporting child pornography. He has pleaded not guilty.

Attorney Sabrina Shroff, who advised Schulte during the trial, told Schulte's mother after the verdict that the outcome was a ''kick to the gut, the brain and heart.'' It was unclear if Shroff was expressing her own sentiments or Schulte's.

In his closing, Schulte claimed he was singled out even though ''hundreds of people had access to (the information). '... Hundreds of people could have stolen it.''

''The government's case is riddled with reasonable doubt,'' he added. ''There's simply no motive here.''

Prosecutors alleged the 33-year-old Schulte was motivated to orchestrate the leak because he believed the CIA had disrespected him by ignoring his complaints about the work environment. So he tried ''to burn to the ground'' the very work he had helped the agency to create, they said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Denton encouraged jurors to consider evidence of an attempted cover-up, including a list of chores Schulte drew up that had an entry reading, ''Delete suspicious emails.''

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that Schulte was convicted of ''one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history.''

Williams said Schulte, motivated by resentment toward the CIA, leaked to the public and to U.S. adversaries some of the nation's ''most valuable intelligence-gathering cyber tools used to battle terrorist organizations and other malign influences around the globe.''

The prosecutor said Schulte knew the leak would render the CIA's tools ''essentially useless, having a devastating effect on our intelligence community by providing critical intelligence to those who wish to do us harm.''

While behind bars awaiting trial, prosecutors said he continued his crimes by trying to leak additional classified materials as he carried on an ''information war'' against the government.

Once the jury left the courtroom for deliberations, the judge complimented Schulte on his closing argument.

''Mr. Schulte, that was impressively done,'' Furman said. ''Depending on what happens here, you may have a future as a defense lawyer.''

A mistrial was declared at Schulte's original 2020 trial after jurors deadlocked on the most serious counts, including illegal gathering and transmission of national defense information. Schulte told the judge last year that he wanted to serve as his own attorney for the retrial.

He has not announced whether he wants to represent himself at his next trial, which involves allegations that after leaving the CIA, Schulte moved to New York from Virginia with a computer that contained images and videos of child pornography he had downloaded from the internet from 2009 to March 2017.

Schulte has been held behind bars without bail since 2018. Last year, he complained in court papers that he was a victim of cruel and unusual punishment, awaiting the two trials in solitary confinement inside a vermin-infested cell of a jail unit where inmates are treated like ''caged animals.''

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 14:23

Farmers in England are to receive a lump sum from the UK government to retire. The Lump Sum Exit Scheme is for Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) applicants in England who wish to leave farming, either to retire or take up a different occupation.

Applications for the scheme opened last week, but farmers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will not be eligible.

A lump sum of up to £100,000 will be paid to successful applicants on the basis that they sell or let owned land or surrender their tenancy on rented land.

The payment will be based on the average direct payments made to the farmer for the 2019 to 2021 BPS years. This reference figure will be capped at £42,500 and multiplied by 2.35 to calculate the lump sum.

English farmers can apply to the Lump Sum Exit Scheme until midnight on 30 September 2022 and the scheme is not expected to open for applications in future years.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the retirement scheme, farmers must have drawn BPS payments in the 2018 scheme year or in an earlier scheme year or inherited agricultural land in England after 15 May 2018.

Therefore, a farmer who inherited land as recently as four years ago can now be paid to retire from farming it.

The decision to retire or exit the farming industry can be extremely difficult.But we're here to help.

The voluntary Lump Sum Exit Scheme is open for applications.

Those who wish to leave can now so do in a managed way.

Find out more ?? https://t.co/MN3opWnqg6 pic.twitter.com/tzcnigSkOu

'-- Defra UK (@DefraGovUK) April 12, 2022To receive the lump sum payment, farmers must sell, gift or let their agricultural land in England or plant it with trees under a woodland creation scheme. Farmers can keep up to 5ha and any farm buildings, such as a farm house, and still be eligible.

They must also transfer grazing and pannage rights they have on common land in England and ''surrender'' their English BPS entitlements.

Once the lump sum is received from London, farmers can still work as an agricultural contractor or for other farmers.

The scheme does not have any rules about what farmers do with any of their land they keep, except that they cannot use it to claim any future BPS payments (set to become ''delinked payments'' in 2024). This means farmers could still keep animals or grow crops on their 5ha.

Transferring land

Farmers entering the scheme do not need to transfer out all of their land at the same time or to the same person. Owner-occupier landowners can sell or gift their land. They can also rent it out under a farm business tenancy with a minimum term of five years.

If the farmer is a tenant of the agricultural land, they can transfer it out by surrendering the tenancy to their landlord or ending the tenancy having served a notice to quit. They can also assign the tenancy to someone else if the tenancy agreement allows this.

Notably, land also counts as transferred out if a tenancy expires or the landlord ends a tenancy.

If a farmer is a sole trader, they cannot transfer the land to a spouse or civil partner or anyone they are cohabiting with as a couple. However, the land can be transferred to a son or daughter.

Agricultural land must be transferred out in one of these ways by 31 May 2024.

Reaction

Responding to the opening of the scheme, National Farmers' Union (NFU) vice-president David Exwood said: ''For those thinking of leaving the industry, the opening of the scheme gives them the opportunity to do so. Farming is a job like no other and deciding to leave the industry will be deeply subjective to each person.

''We will also continue working with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on the crucial new entrants scheme which we hope will provide a pipeline for new talent to enter the industry.''

Read more

Green light in principle for dairy farm retirement scheme

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 14:22

Exclusive

MUSK BE KIDDING 23:00 ET, Jul 13 2022 Updated : 14:03 ET, Jul 15 2022 ELON Musk's father has claimed he's had a second unplanned child with his 35-year-old stepdaughter in a bombshell interview.

Errol Musk, 76, told The Sun he welcomed a daughter with 35-year-old Jana Bezuidenhout three years ago.

3

Errol Musk has claimed he's had a second unplanned child with his stepdaughter Credit: AFP 3

He welcomed a daughter with 35-year-old Jana Bezuidenhout three years ago Credit: Instagram/@janaloves_lifeIt emerged in 2018 that Errol had baby Elliot Rush, nicknamed Rushi and now five, with Jana, who is 41 years his junior and he had raised since she was four.

Tech CEO Elon was reported to have gone "berserk" when he found out his South African engineer dad was having a child with Jana, who lived with him while growing up.

Errol was married to Jana's mother Heide for 18 years and had two children together.

Now Errol has told The Sun his purported second child with Jana was "unplanned" but that he was living with her after the birth of their son.

The tech CEO's dad said: "I haven't checked her DNA. But she looks just like my other daughters. She looks like Rose and Tosca mixed up.

"She looks exactly like Rushi and she behaves like him. So it's pretty obvious you know."

He added: "She wasn't planned. But I mean, we were living together. She [Jana] stayed here for about 18 months after Rushi was born.

"But I realised she's two generations behind whereas her mother was one generation behind when I married her.

"So any man who marries a woman, even if you feel very sprightly, it's going to be nice for a while. But there's a big gap'... And that gap is going to show itself.

"I married her mother when she was 25 and I was 45. She was probably one of the best looking woman I've ever seen in my life."

Errol said he no longer lives with Jana but confirmed they "have a lot of affection for each other".

He added: "But the thing is it's not practical. She's 35 next birthday. So she's getting on. So eventually if I'm still around she might wind up back with me. It's difficult.

"I mean, I would much rather have them here. But Jana came and spent a few days here about six months ago. And the kids were starting to get on my nerves.

"Then I miss them as soon as they have gone."

As for having more children, Errol said: "The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce.

"If I could have another child I would. I can't see any reason not to.

"If I had thought about it then Elon or Kimbal wouldn't exist."

But Errol does admit his other daughters were "shocked" by his relationship with Jana because "to them it was their sister".

He added: "And they still don't like it. They still feel a bit creepy about it, because she's their sister. Their half-sister.''

And Errol said he is no stranger to women claiming to have had his child.

He claimed: "I have about six people, women who claim that their child is my child right now. Obviously they are opportunists.

"There was a period in Johannesburg in the eighties that I was going out with different woman every night. I had plenty of dates.

"So it's quite conceivable that that one of them could actually come back and say, this is your child. It's possible.

"But I haven't had anything genuine presented to me. But I've got a lot of people claiming."

Speaking to The Sun earlier this month, Errol appeared to hint at his son's political ambitions.

He also joked about his son's number of kids after the tech titan appeared to confirm he had twins with one of his top executives.

Errol said that he finds it hard to "keep track" of his grandchildren.

It emerged on July 6 2022 that Musk had welcomed two more kids with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis.

Shivon, 36, is the third woman the entrepreneur has had kids with.

And Errol claimed that his son had been called a highly offensive slur by teachers when he was seven.

Musk's father has been revealing details about his relationship with Elon and the tycoon's mom, Maye, 74.

He denies claims that he has had a bad relationship with his son for years.

In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, Elon described his dad as a "terrible human being" and claimed his childhood was "painful and isolated."

One reason for the bitter rift was thought to be that Errol fathered love child Rushi with Jana, which he described as a "one-off mistake."

Meanwhile, Elon's strained relationship with one of his children was thrust into the spotlight last month after the teen filed a petition to change her gender.

The legal document revealed that the former Xavier Alexander Musk, 18, wanted to change her gender identity from male to female and be known as Vivian Jenna Wilson.

She said she's changing her name because she "no longer lives with or wishes to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form."

On Father's Day, Musk tweeted that he loved all of his kids "so much."

When approached by The Sun, Jana declined to comment.

3

Elon's strained relationship with one of his children was thrust into the spotlight last month Credit: Getty

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 14:20

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Loss of the Y chromosome in blood cells of men is associated with disease and mortality, but no clear, causal relationship has been identified. Now, researchers from Uppsala University show in an international study in the journal Science that loss of the Y chromosome in white blood cells causes development of fibrosis in the heart, impaired heart function and death from cardiovascular diseases in men.

Men die on average several years younger than women, a difference that previous studies have linked to loss of the Y chromosome in the white blood cells of men. This genetic change, that occurs during life, is called mLOY (for mosaic Loss Of Y). It is very common and detected in at least 20% of 60-year-olds and 40% of 70-year-old men. Previous studies have shown that men with mLOY in their blood have increased risk of developing age-related diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease. The current study establishes that men with mLOY in the white blood cells also have an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases, the most common cause of death in humans.

It has not been known previously, however, whether mLOY in the white blood cells has a direct effect on disease progression in other organs. The current study describes a new causal relationship when the researchers used the gene-editing tool CRISPR to generate mouse models with mLOY in their white blood cells. They found that mLOY caused direct damage to the animals' internal organs and that mice with mLOY had a shorter survival than mice without mLOY.

"In the mouse models used in the study, the mouse Y chromosome was eliminated to mimic the human mLOY condition and we analyzed the direct consequences that this had. Examination of mice with mLOY showed an increased scarring of the heart, known as fibrosis. We see that mLOY causes the fibrosis which leads to a decline in heart function," says Lars Forsberg, Associate Professor at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University, and co-leader of the study together with Professor Kenneth Walsh, University of Virginia, U.S.

The researchers were also able to corroborate the causal effect in mouse via epidemiological studies in humans, where they found mLOY to be a new significant risk factor for death from cardiovascular disease in men. These studies were performed using data from UK Biobank, a database with genomic and health information from half a million normally aging individuals aged 40''70 years at the start of the study. Men with mLOY in their blood at the start of the study displayed an approximately 30% increased risk of dying from heart failure and other types of cardiovascular disease during approximately 11 years of follow-up.

"We also see that men with a higher proportion of white blood cells with mLOY in the blood have a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. This observation is in line with the results from the mouse model and suggests that mLOY has a direct physiological effect also in humans," says Lars Forsberg.

The study describes for the first time a mechanism by which mLOY in blood causes disease in other organs and further identifies a possible treatment. It is shown that mLOY in a certain type of white blood cell in the heart of mice, so-called cardiac macrophages, stimulates a known signaling pathway that leads to increased fibrosis. When the researchers blocked this signaling pathway, the pathological changes in the heart caused by mLOY could be reversed.

"The link between mLOY and fibrosis is very interesting, especially given the new treatment strategies for heart failure, pulmonary fibrosis and certain cancers that aim to counteract the onset of fibrosis. Men with mLOY could be a patient group that responds particularly well to such treatment," adds Lars Forsberg.

More information: Soichi Sano et al, Hematopoietic loss of Y chromosome leads to cardiac fibrosis and heart failure mortality, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abn3100. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn3100

Journal information: Science

Provided by Uppsala University

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 14:20

Cold weather exposure can increase the risk of cardiac responses, including heart attacks. This is because blood vessels respond to low temperatures by constricting, which increases blood pressure and reduces circulation, putting strain on the heart.

A heart attack, or myocardial infarction, occurs when something creates a blockage in the blood vessels, usually a blood clot, causing a sudden interruption to the blood flowing to the heart. Doctors classify heart attacks as an emergency, as they deprive the body of oxygen and can cause sudden death. It is important to seek immediate medical attention if a person is experiencing heart attack symptoms.

Cold weather increases strain on the heart, as it affects cardiac and circulatory functions. People with existing cardiovascular conditions are at particularly high risk of heart attacks during cold weather. As a result, it is not uncommon for more cases of severe heart problems to occur during winter months and cold spells.

This article discusses how cold weather can influence the risk of heart attacks, other factors that increase this risk, and preventive measures individuals can take.

A large 2017 study in Sweden investigating the link between different weather conditions and heart attacks found that they were more common on colder days. During colder weather, the heart needs to work harder to keep a person warm. As such, cold weather can affect the heart and cause:

a higher heart ratean increase in blood pressurea higher oxygen demandthe blood to thicken, which can lead to blood clottingPeople with cardiovascular diseases may experience more adverse effects due to cold weather, including high blood pressure and arterial stiffness. All these factors put further strain on the heart, increasing the risk of a heart attack. Additionally, respiratory tract infections are more severe and spread more easily during winter, which, in turn, can trigger a heart attack.

It is important to be able to recognize the signs of a heart attack. If a person experiences one, the sooner they get help, the more likely they are to recover. The severity of heart attacks can differ between people, as some individuals experience severe pain while others only notice slight discomfort.

It is important to seek immediate medical attention if a person thinks they may be experiencing heart attack symptoms. If an individual has the training to use CPR or a defibrillator, they could provide help until emergency medical personnel arrive.

The risk of having a heart attack is higher with a combination of cold weather exposure and a sudden burst of exercise. As such, it is advisable for people to avoid sudden exertion in snowy weather, including shoveling snow or going for a walk through heavy, wet snow.

Risk factors for heart attacks and heart disease can include the following:

high blood pressurehigh blood cholesterolsmoking agefamily historydiabetesobesitylack of regular exercisehigh alcohol consumptionconsuming a diet high in saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterolHowever, some risk factors may have greater influences on how cold weather affects the condition that the heart is in than others. For example, a 2016 study suggests that smoking status and alcohol consumption were the risk factors most likely to trigger a heart attack in low temperatures. This is because they directly influence vasoconstriction, increasing blood pressure as a result.

There are steps to reduce a person's chances of having a heart attack during cold spells. To minimize the effect of low temperatures on the heart, individuals should try to reduce the duration and intensity of their exposure to cold weather.

A person can achieve this by:

wearing plenty of layers of clothing and a warm hat to maintain body temperaturestaying out of the wind and avoiding damp areasavoiding or limiting consuming alcoholic beverages when spending time in cold conditions, as they can create a false sense of being warmtaking regular breaks from physical activity and avoiding overworking the bodygoing indoors regularly to warm up if spending long periods outdoorsConsuming hot meals and warm drinks are a suitable way of warming up when cold. Additionally, it is important to stay active and participate in exercise indoors when it is cold outside. This is because regular exercise can help delay or prevent cardiovascular diseases from developing.

Other preventive measures relate to minimizing respiratory infection during winter. Pneumococcal and flu vaccines are suitable prevention measures, as they can help reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular complications. Other, more regular, preventive measures include regularly washing hands, avoiding touching the face, and avoiding visiting busy areas.

If a person acquires an infection, they should rest until they have completely recovered before spending time in cold conditions.

A heart attack is a serious health event that usually occurs when a blockage in the blood vessels prevents blood flow to the heart. Cold weather can increase the risk of having one, as low temperatures may put extra strain on the heart.

Other factors can also increase the risk of a heart attack. Some of these, such as vigorous exercise in the cold, can further exacerbate the risk. It is also advisable to dress appropriately, regularly go inside for breaks, and stay warm.

If a person experiences symptoms of a heart attack, an individual should contact emergency services immediately. The sooner someone receives help, the better their chances are of recovery.

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 14:19

A common childhood virus called parechovirus, which can cause severe illness in infants younger than 3 months, is spreading in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a health alert issued Tuesday.

Since May, the agency has received reports from health providers in multiple states of newborns and young infants being infected with the virus, which tends to circulate in the summer and fall. The CDC is encouraging clinicians to consider the virus as a possible diagnosis in infants with fever, sepsis-like symptoms, or seizures and meningitis when no other cause is apparent.

A parechovirus infection can "cause a spectrum of disease in humans," from asymptomatic or mild symptoms to "severe illness," the CDC noted. It's common in childhood, with most kids having been infected by the time they start kindergarten. In children between 6 months and 5 years old, the virus usually causes upper respiratory tract infection, fever and rash.

But in infants less than 3 months, and especially for those under 1 month, it can lead to seizures, swelling of the brain and surrounding tissue, and sepsis-like illness, often requiring hospitalization. Sepsis is when the body's response to an infection damages the body and leads to poor organ function. Sepsis symptoms include fever, shortness of breath, sweating and extreme pain. Parechovirus infection can also lead to long-term neurodevelopmental issues, though it's rare.

Parechovirus spreads through fecal particles that end up in the mouth (the fecal-oral route), saliva and respiratory droplets. Shedding from the upper respiratory tract can last up to three months and in the gastrointestinal tract up to six months, per the CDC. Infected individuals who do not have any symptoms can also spread the virus.

There's no nationwide surveillance of parechovirus, so it's unclear if this year's rates are higher than those in previous years. If you're concerned that your child has been infected the parechovirus, contact your health provider.

Maura Hohman is the senior health editor for TODAY.com and has been covering health and wellness news and trends since 2015, when she graduated from journalism school. Her byline has appeared on TODAY, NBC News, US News & World Report, People, Everyday Health, WhatToExpect.com, History.com and more. Her interests include women's health, racial health disparities, mental health and COVID-19.

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 14:14

Authroed by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A growing number of hosts are leaving a Spanish-language radio station after it was bought by a group backed by billionaire leftist George Soros.

Hungarian-born U.S. investor and philanthropist George Soros answers to questions after delivering a speech on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 24, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)Nelson Rubio announced his resignation from Radio Mambi on July 12, following Dania Alexandrino and Lourdes Ubieta.

Radio Mambi ''has been the voice of the Cuban exile, the voice of conservative men and women who defend freedom, democracy, family principles, truth, and faith in God,'' Rubio said during a press conference in Miami. ''Many in this community have felt betrayed by the acquisition of this radio by a company financed by the left liberal extremist, George Soros.''

Rubio and Ubieta are joining Americano Media, where Alexandrino already had a show.

''Being faithful to my principles I couldn't accept being part of any business associated with these leftist activists and their socialist agenda,'' Alexandrino told reporters.

Radio Mambi was one of 18 radio stations in 10 cities that was recently purchased by the Latino Media Network from Univision. The stations were said to reach about one-third of U.S. Latinos. The deal was $60 million, all cash, according to the network.

The network, which did not respond to a request for comment, said its funding came from ''leading Latino investors'' and Lakestar Finance LLC, an investment entity affiliated with the Soros Fund Management, one of the many entities owned or linked to Soros.

Lourdes Ubieta. (Courtesy of Americano Media)'Relevant Content'Jess Morales Rocketto, one of the network's founders, said in a statement that the group ''hope[s] to create relevant content for radio and other audio platforms with content that our community can trust and rely on'' and ''is going to ensure that the Latino community continues to be served with the news and information that local communities deserve.''

Read more here...

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 14:12

Protesters gathered outside of a Child vaccination center near Times Square in New York City on July 6. They were completely stunned by what they saw.

''Don't touch the kids! Don't touch the kids! Don't touch the kids!'' the protesters shouted.

ViralNewsNYC was the originator of the viral video footage.

Activist storm the Children's vaccination site in Time Square in NYC and disrupt the site ( This was sent to me by one of the activists ) #vaccine #news #protests pic.twitter.com/KaRYHprDdw

'-- Viral News NY (@ViralNewsNYC) July 12, 2022

After a police officer entered the premises, a journalist followed him in and documented that the clinic was almost entirely run by Chinese workers.

''Don't touch my phone,'' the journalist said. ''You're not allowed to do that. So don't touch my phone, please. Don't touch my phone. You cannot. No, you cannot.''

The journalist was able to reveal what was going on behind-the-scenes at the clinic.

反ç–è‹—è…è­å‡>>了纽çº...åç¥æŽ¥ç§ä¸­åƒ¼Œå´å‘现它完全ç--±ä¸­å›½äººç>>è¥'...'...

它ä>>¬å'¨åŸå¤–人çšæ‰‹æ'æ­>>å­(C)子¼ pic.twitter.com/ZgmtG178Aq

'-- Lucs (@Lucs24659702) July 13, 2022

''Anti-vaxxers attacked New York's Children's Vaccination Center, only to find it was run entirely by Chinese,'' a tweet in Chinese reads. ''They are killing children at the hands of foreigners!''

The protest was further documented by NJEG media.

An infant is brought into the Times Square vaccination center in NYC #nyc #HappeningNow #news #protest #COVID pic.twitter.com/TrfpHkNrcy

'-- NJEG Media (@NJEGmedia) July 6, 2022

''An infant is brought into the Times Square vaccination center in NYC,'' NJEG Media reported.

Protesters chant ''shut it down!'' Outside vaccine center near Times Square #nyc #newyork #news #protest pic.twitter.com/cmeYOHjceh

'-- NJEG Media (@NJEGmedia) July 6, 2022

''Protesters chant 'shut it down!' Outside vaccine center near Times Square,'' NJEG also reported.

Police and protesters fight over the barricade as families bring infants into NYC vaccination site #nyc #police #nypd #HappeningNow #protest #news #CovidIsNotOver pic.twitter.com/BmQXwYejXU

'-- NJEG Media (@NJEGmedia) July 6, 2022

''Police and protesters fight over the barricade as families bring infants into NYC vaccination site,'' the report added.

The tense confrontation between police and protesters was further captured on a video hosted at BitChute.

East Ghost Reports posted video on Tik Tok that further confirms the New York City location of the Childhood vaccination site.

The protesters had gathered outside of the clinic in opposition to Covid-19 vaccinations for small children ages 6 months to 5 years old.

The video evidence that the childhood vaccination clinic is run by Chinese workers is only problematic due to the origins of Covid-19 in China and the documented fact that China does not allow mRNA vaccines to be given to its population.

''China's lack of an mRNA shot '-- and its delay in approving a viable foreign option '-- has poked holes in Beijing's victorious pandemic narrative and prompted experts to question whether the country's go-it-alone approach is less triumphant than officials would have the world believe,'' the New York Times pointed out in a propaganda piece in February.

China has also focused on children as the key to its own vaccination strategy.

''The push is part of Beijing's unrelenting march toward herd immunity, the point at which enough people are immune to the virus that it cannot spread through the population,'' the report noted.

The United States has already attained herd immunity, due to the prevelance of natural immunity due to prior infection. Critically, according to CDC data from February, 74.2% of ''children and adolescents had serologic evidence of previous infection with SARS-CoV-2, with approximately one third becoming newly seropositive since December 2021.''

Healthy children are at a miniscule risk from Covid-19 regardless of variant, and indeed, the coronavirus has been shown to be less risky to this age group than the seasonal flu. Children are being subjected to shots that have failed to stop the spread of infection and have known side effects such as myocarditis.

That the Communist Chinese refuse to give such mRNA vaccines to their own children is a serious red flag.

NOW READ:

FDA Panel Ignores Red Flags in Covid Vaccine Data, Recommends Jabs for 'Very Young' Children

OPINION: This article contains commentary which reflects the author's opinion.

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 14:09

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is promoting to youth an online chat space that discusses sex, polyamorous relationships, the occult, sex change operations, and activism, and is specifically designed to be quickly hidden while being used. It also mixes LGBT adults and children and is run in part by Planned Parenthood.

Called Q Chat Space , the platform is advertised on the CDC's LGBT Health Youth Resources page , archived here . The chat service, which describes itself as ''a community for LGBTQ+ teens,'' is available for those ages 13-19, can be hidden from parents, and focuses on a number of mature themes.

Q Chat hosts conversations on a number of different mature and sexual topics, including '' Drag Culture 101 ,'' '' Sex and Relationships ,'' and '' Having Multiple Genders ,'' intended for 'Bi/Pan Youth.''

One chat celebrates Ru Paul's Drag Race while another is called '' Queer Youth Activism ,'' which is intended for ''youth of color.''

Q Chat also features conversations on ''Gender Affirmation Surgeries,'' as well as on hormone replacement therapy. The chats are used in part to tell children ''where you can find resources'' related to their transition.

Above: Screen Shot (2022-07-14 at 10.47.08 a.m.) from Q Chat Space

There are also chats on astrology , including '' self discovery in astrology '' and one titled ''Queering Tarot,'' a reference to tarot cards commonly used in occult practices.

The sexually, politcally, and even spiritually charged material is intermixed with content that appeals to young children, such as conversations on video games , Pokemon , and StarWars .

One meme posted on Q Chat's Instagram page displays a Trojan horse, explaining that children may realize they're queer after ''learning about queerness'' from their friends.

The chat seems specifically designed to be concealed from parents and family members. Each section of the website has a large button on the bottom of the screen that says ''Click/Tap here for a quick escape '...'' and shows a stick figure running towards an exit. When clicked, the button takes users to the Google homepage, hiding the site.

The site also notes that users can get reminders that obscure the name of the chat, e xplaining, ''There are 2 text message reminder options: Discreet or Detailed,'' going on to explain that ''Discreet text reminders are private, they do not include 'Q Chat Space' or the name of the chat.''

One of the rules of Q Chat is to ''Keep confidentiality'' and agree that ''what's shared here, stays here.''

An academic article about Q Chat, published on the National Library of Medicine website, praised the service for its ability to be hidden from parents, saying that ''The platform's chat-based nature likely helps youth avoid concerns about family members accidentally overhearing their conversations.''

But while the chats are designed to be hidden from parents and family members, one chat session was called '' Finding Chosen Family ,'' while another was titled ''how to deal with family during the holidays.''

The conversations are facilitated by leftwing activists from a number of organizations. Some facilitators use alternative pronouns like ''xe/xem,'' with one identifying as ''Black, genderqueer, gray-ace, and neurodivergent.''

Another facilitator is a self-described ''drag artist'' and is '' Black nonbinary queer asexual.''

When children apply to join Q Chat, they are asked a number of different questions regarding their race, gender, and mental health. The application asks children their racial and ethnic background, how often they feel depressed or hopeless, what their ''sexual/romantic'' orientation is, and how they feel about their gender identity.

Q Chat is run in part by Planned Parenthood , which Breitbart News recently revealed offers hormone replacement therapy to minors and has claimed that transgender identity can be ''cemented early in elementary school.'' Planned Parenthood has also promoted Q Chat in a video posted to their Tumblr account.

Breitbart News revealed in May that the Arizona Department of Education has promoted Q Chat.

The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at slindquist@breitbart.com

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:57

Yesterday we reported that just in case the world didn't have enough things to worry about, it is now also petrified about Europe's potential "doomsday" on July 22 when Putin will decide the fate of the continent: if he resumes gas flows along the Nord Stream 1 pipeline which is currently undergoing ten-day maintenance, things will be back to normal(ish). If not, this is the scenario contemplated by Wall Street strategists: "European stocks plunging 20%. Junk credit spreads widening past 2020 crisis levels. The euro sinking to just 90 cents, before a full-blown recession slams the world's 2nd biggest economy."

Then overnight, in a note from Deutsche Bank senior economist Eric Heymann (available to pro subscribers), the largest German lender laid out the three most likely scenarios for what the post-maintenance period could look like. As Heymann writes, "we developed three scenarios on how Russian gas supplies to Germany via Nord Stream 1 as well as the transition point Waidhaus might evolve over the next few months."

Scenario 1: Status quo ante. Here, DB assumes that Russian gas deliveries return to the level we had seen in the weeks before the current maintenance period of Nord Stream 1, i.e. 60% below the level at the end of May.

Scenario 2: Balanced on a knife-edge. Here, the bank assumes another halving of Russian gas supplies via both pipelines. That would correspond to only 20% of Russian gas supplies seen until May 2022 (this scenario was validated today as described in "Gazprom Casts Doubt On Reopening Nord Stream Even As Canada Grants Sanctions Waiver For Stranded Turbines").

Scenario 3: This is the downside case: welcome to a winter of gas rationing. In a third scenario DB assumes that Russia completely turns off the gas taps to Germany after the maintenance period. That also includes supplies via Waidhaus over the next few months. This is quite a large number in historical comparison even though it is below the recent peak of roughly 3,000 GWh per day. The Netherlands and Norway have already increased their exports to Germany since late May by roughly 20% (with significant volatility).

So far so good, and there is much more in the full note available to pro subs - which we strongly recommend that anyone living in Europe and naively believing the local energy propaganda, must read now. But what we find most remarkable is DB's assessment not of supply but demand, i.e., the bank's projection of German gas consumption.

Here, as Heymann writes, demand will remain some 10% below the respective level one year ago over the next few months: "This reduction is driven by savings of private households, industry, and the services sectors, incentivized by very high gas prices."

It gets worse: according to DB, the overall weaker economic development - because as a reminder, Europe will very soon be in a deep recession - will dampen gas demand in the manufacturing industry.

But the punchline is when DB contemplates possible "substitution for gas" by other energy sources - the bank lists hard coal and lignite in the power sector, as for private households, it predicts that "wood will be used for heating purposes where possible," while industries will switch to oil derivatives, all of which contributes to lower gas demand.

You read that right: the largest European bank now predicts that a growing number of German households will be using firewood for heating! Maybe allowing a petulant Scandinavian teenager to set the country's energy policy was not the brightest idea after all.

Finally, DB notes that both savings and substitution have already led to a reduction in German gas consumption by more than 14% yoy in the first five months of 2022. However, as the bank notes, "large shares of these savings are driven by the mild winter 2021/22 which is why we assume a reduction by another 10% "only"."

Of course, chopping kindling and using it for firewood - a return to the glory days of 19th century Bismarck Germany if only in terms of heating - will be an option for a very small number of German households; the sad truth is that should Europe suffer a cold winter, there will be tens of thousands of casualties if not more. But at least Germany will have taught Putin a lesson (what lesson that is, we are not quite sure).

The full report as always is available to pro subscribers.

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:49

W hen the call came, my brother was at work in the open office in Cambridge, Mass., he shares with seven colleagues who, like him, help run clinical trials for a drug developer. The phone number came up blocked, so he knew it must be the doctor. He stood up, unsteady on his feet. Was he a little nauseous? Or was that just adrenaline? He ducked into the hallway in search of quiet.

My brother Evan, 35, is a stocky guy of medium height with a trimmed, fuzzy blond beard and two gem studs in each earlobe. He usually wears a Red Sox hat, and when he's nervous, he'll remove it and obsessively bend the rim. But on that September afternoon, both of his hands were clutching his phone, the right one cupping the left for privacy. ''Hello?''

''This is Dr. Kowalik,'' said the voice. The identification was unnecessary. Ania Kowalik is a reproductive endocrinologist at a clinic called Fertility Solutions in Dedham, Mass. They'd spoken regularly for more than six months. Evan, who was born female, had wanted to be a parent since he was very young, when he played with dolls just a bit longer than the other kids. He'd helped pay for college by nannying triplets. And when he first came out to friends as transgender at 19, changing his name and beginning his long physical transformation, he didn't stop adding to the list of baby names in the back of his journal: Kaya, Eleanor, Huxley.

Evan knew he should feel excited. But instead, he felt a chill of anxiety and anticipation. He'd wanted this for so long, he later told me, and had been close to getting it. Then, four months earlier, he'd miscarried after Kowalik told him she couldn't find a heartbeat during his first ultrasound.

She was brief: Evan was pregnant. Kowalik told him he had low levels of progesterone, a hormone that helps maintain a healthy pregnancy, and prescribed some pills for him to start taking right away. ''Congratulations,'' she said after a pause. ''This is a good start.''

Evan isn't sure how long he stood in the hallway after the call. People from other offices brushed by him, caught up in their work. He called his partner, and her gasp was loud enough that Evan held the phone away from his ear momentarily. He pulled up a calculator to figure out his due date.

I'd have no reason to tell you about this moment in my brother's life were it not for the fact of his gender. Now that gay marriage is legal, the social battleground has shifted to new frontiers, frontiers that include the most private aspects of people's lives. Transgender Americans have gained greater visibility and acceptance as stars like Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox have trained a pop-culture spotlight on trans issues. Corporate leaders across the Fortune 500 have moved to protect their transgender employees. And in May, the Obama Administration declared that all public schools must treat students equally regardless of their gender identity, classifying inner feelings of maleness and femaleness as protected by the government. We have come to the point where the President of the United States can candidly and comfortably discuss gender fluidity.

We have also come to the point where the backlash against these rapid changes has manifested in sometimes surreal fashion, as it did earlier this year during the so-called battle of the bathroom, when about half of all states joined lawsuits against the Obama Administration. There have been reports of increased violence directed at transgender people. At least 21 trans Americans were murdered in 2015, according to the Human Rights Campaign, up 62% from the year before. And that was before the mass murder in June at an Orlando nightclub, the deadliest incident of violence against LGBT people in U.S. history.

Pregnancies like Evan's'--and the many that are likely to follow'--will stretch our cultural perceptions of gender norms even further. Americans are just starting to open up to the idea that you may be born into a female body, but believe that you are really a man. But what if you are born into a female body, know you are a man and still want to participate in the traditionally exclusive rite of womanhood? What kind of man are you then?

This question can bother people. It can make them uncomfortable. That's partly why, when Evan texted me to say, ''I'm pregnant!'' I was excited for him, but also frightened. I thought about what strangers might say to my bearded, big-bellied little brother when he was nine months along. And I wondered, Would he be safe?

I am six years older than Evan. We also have a middle sister, Katje. As a trio, we've always resembled one another, but Evan and I were the most alike. We still have the same patterns of speech and the same slight roll to our shoulders that we inherited from our grandmother on our dad's side. Once, when Evan was in college at Oberlin and I was in grad school at the University of California, Berkeley, he flew across the country to visit me. When he got off the plane, we were both wearing the same thing: puffy down vests over long-sleeved ultimate-frisbee T-shirts and baseball caps worn backward.

By then, my brother had already come out to himself and friends as trans, but he didn't tell me until 2003, when he started taking hormones. He called me to say that when he came for my graduation, I should call him Evan.

Over the next few months, I watched his body change. He started binding his chest with a thick bandage wrap. His hair began to thin. His hips disappeared and were replaced by thick muscles around his chest. But mostly, I remember his hands. We both have the same small hands, the same indelicate, stubby fingers. I watched the hair grow thick over his knuckles, which were my knuckles. I felt sad that, feature by feature, I was losing my doppelg¤nger.

The transition was messy. Our parents were supportive but distracted. They were in a protracted divorce after my father had, at 50, come out as gay. Katje and I dated women, and I would kid Evan that being gay wasn't rebellious enough in our family; he had to do us one better and change gender. Looking back, I regret these jokes. They were a crass way to cover the pain of knowing that the childhood we all shared''the one in which we were three round-faced, pigtailed girls in matching dresses''had been a charade for my brother.

I said the wrong things all the time. That first year Evan looked strange to me, like a butch lady or a girly man. He went through a sped-up version of puberty that brought changes to his voice and testosterone-fueled impulses he didn't understand. I often she'd him by accident. I'd forget and call him by his given female name, or refer to him as her. And in an attempt to sound interested and supportive, I asked him invasive and personal questions, often in mixed company. Once, during a brunch with our extended family, I asked him about whether he planned to alter his genitals. ''Jessi,'' he said, raising his right eyebrow in that way we both do. ''I don't talk about your vagina in front of Aunt Rosie.''

Thirteen years later, no one mistakenly she's my brother. Physically, he is transformed. He's 5 ft. 6 in., just tall enough that he makes a respectable short guy. Before his pregnancy, he injected hormones into his thigh once weekly to lower his estrogen while boosting his testosterone. He elected not to have top surgery, the double mastectomy that many trans men undergo, because he is allergic to most antibiotics. Also, he knew he might one day want to nurse a baby. So he wears two compression-tank binds made by a company called Underworks beneath his shirt. ''It hurts, but I've gotten used to it,'' he told me. ''I imagine it's like some women getting used to high heels.''

We have come to the point where the President of the United States can candidly and comfortably discuss gender fluidity.

His transformation is as much social as it is physical. It's not just that Evan looks like a guy. For nearly a dozen years, the world has responded to him as a guy. At first, particularly when he was with other men who didn't know he was trans, this made him nervous''like he would somehow say the wrong thing and out himself. But now he's comfortable. To medical professionals, he's a trans guy, but to the rest of the world and to himself, he's just a guy.

In 2013, when Evan made an appointment with his primary-care physician at the Boston LGBT health center Fenway Health, he was the first prospective birth father his doctor had seen. Several years earlier, a few trans men who, like my brother, had undergone hormone treatment but kept their reproductive organs, had begun consulting physicians about pregnancy and speaking openly about wanting to give birth. In 2008, Thomas Beatie posed for People magazine, bare-chested with a rotund belly, and went on Oprah to talk about his pregnancy. Trans men began to trickle into fertility clinics more frequently. When Andy Inkster was turned away from a Massachusetts clinic in 2010 because he was told he was ''too masculine'' to have a baby, he sued for gender discrimination. The case settled a few years later; Inkster sought out another clinic and later gave birth to a daughter.

What happened to Inkster is not uncommon. Medical care of all kinds is complicated for trans Americans. Roughly 1 in 5 have been turned away by a medical professional at some point, according to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Published in 2011 by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National LGBTQ Task Force, it is one of the largest surveys about trans people, with 6,456 respondents. Half of them reported that they'd had to teach the medical professionals they visited how to treat them. That's why, until my brother tried to get pregnant, he mostly avoided doctors.

There is very little research about trans pregnancies. One of the only medical papers addressing the topic was written in 2015 by the University of California, San Francisco's Dr. Juno Obedin-Maliver and Harvard Medical School's Dr. Harvey Makadon. They noted that, in form and function, getting pregnant as a trans man is not that different than getting pregnant as a woman. Most of the time, trans men stop taking testosterone, and their bodies begin ovulating again. (Testosterone doesn't necessarily preclude a pregnancy. Some trans men may have unintentional pregnancies while taking it.) If their partner is biologically male, trans men may try to conceive without medical intervention.

My brother has a female partner, so he inseminated using donor sperm. It took a while. The first time Evan tried, five years ago, he was unsuccessful. He took a break before starting again three years ago. He stopped his T shots, Kowalik prescribed two medications to trigger ovulation and monitored Evan's body throughout the process to get the timing right.

Evan estimates that the entire process, including medication, doctor visits, co-pays and ultrasounds, cost him close to $12,000 over the course of several years. That's expensive, but it can cost much more. If home insemination doesn't work, trans men may turn to other fertility treatments, like in vitro fertilization. Each round of IVF costs an average of $12,400, and often, by that point, aspiring parents have already invested a considerable sum in earlier, unsuccessful methods.

If the physical process of getting pregnant is fairly straightforward, transgender birth parents often face more challenges when it comes to mental health. Obedin-Maliver and Makadon referred to two recent studies that highlighted psychological issues involved with trans pregnancies. In both cases, the sample sizes were too small to be statistically relevant, but significant themes emerged. For one, the birth parents were often lonely. And they reported complex feelings about their gender identity. ''While having a family is something that many transgender individuals want, pregnancy can lead men to acknowledge that they still have female reproductive organs, which for many can be difficult, however rewarding the pregnancy may ultimately be,'' they wrote.

My brother has a good friend, also trans, who'd gotten pregnant a year earlier. He'd had a rough pregnancy because he felt a traumatizing disconnect between his masculinity and the female attributes of his body. He took medical leave from work for much of the time and was relieved to restart testosterone immediately after his child's healthy birth. I spoke to another trans dad who had given birth to his son at age 20. He said the pregnancy catapulted him into depression. ''It was as if all the things I'd hated about my body were re-emerging, and I felt awful about myself,'' he told me. Evan didn't have this experience. ''It was a gamble,'' he said. ''I didn't know how I'd feel, but it turns out I just feel like it's really cool that my body can do this.''

Evan estimates that the entire process, including medication, doctor visits, co-pays and ultrasounds, cost him close to $12,000 over the course of several years.

When I called Obedin-Maliver to discuss the research, she cautioned against drawing any conclusions about trans pregnancies based on a few conversations. ''Take two pregnant women and their experiences will be different and we don't ascribe that to their womanhood,'' she said. ''We have to be careful about that and not say there's one trans-man experience going through pregnancy.''

Trans men compare notes among themselves and seek support and advice on the Internet. My brother and I belong to a private Facebook group called Birthing and Breast or Chestfeeding Trans People and Allies. It has about 1,780 members. A list of guidelines spells out who can join the group: ''People on the transfeminine spectrum, those who are genderfluid, nongender folks, transmasculine individuals, and cisgender allies.'' (I am cisgender. This means that my self-identity conforms to the gender of my biological sex. I was born a girl, and I feel like a woman.)

My brother turns to this group when he has questions about chest-feeding''the term trans men have adopted for nursing''or choosing a trans-friendly pediatrician. For many members, it is a primary source of community. One trans dad told me he believes he would have killed himself during the early months of his pregnancy if he hadn't found friends through the group.''When I went off the hormones [to get pregnant], all the mental-health stuff I had as a teenager came back,'' he told me, referring to a time in his adolescence when he was deeply depressed. ''My online friends were the only people who got me.''

Just how many trans people have given birth? I asked Makadon, who is also the director of education and training at Fenway Institute, a division of Fenway Health. He couldn't even guess, but he said he expected to see the numbers rise based on the increasing number of trans patients coming to the clinic. Fenway currently sees more than 2,000 of them, a figure that has doubled in less than a decade. He said that, as he visits hospitals across the country, he hears a lot of stories about health providers treating pregnant trans men. ''There's more of it than we know that people aren't tracking,'' he told me. ''There's a lot of people just doing it.''

As doctors prescribe hormones, it is becoming standard practice for them to talk with patients about reproduction. ''We get questions about cryopreservation,'' says Obedin-Maliver, referring to the process of freezing healthy eggs. Although there's no data to suggest that regular testosterone treatments will prevent trans men from growing healthy eggs later, some of them elect to do this before starting testosterone treatment. Says Obedin-Maliver: ''Trans men want to know what their options are.''

During my brother's first trimester, he only wanted to eat Fla-Vor-Ice pops, Sour Patch Kids and hard-boiled eggs. He threw up constantly. Normally, Evan worked until 7 each day, came home for dinner and then answered a few more emails before bed. But once he was pregnant, his body stopped cooperating. At 8:30 p.m., no matter where he was, he fell asleep. By November, he could tell his supervisor had started to wonder why he was ''slacking off.'' It was time to tell his employer.

During his next trip to his company's Oxford headquarters, Evan scheduled a meeting with the woman in charge of human resources. That morning, he found himself in an office with an open plan; even the conference rooms had glass on three sides. He had just vomited in the bathroom. He tried to fight his nausea as he saw the HR lead approach. She was a short woman with a high voice and a warm demeanor who, Evan thought, was more or less his age. He straightened his tie and followed her into an exposed conference room.

Evan took a moment to center himself, to quell his anxiety. There would never be an easy time for this conversation. He had to get it out. ''It wasn't that I expected her to have a negative reaction,'' my brother said. ''I just had no idea at all.''

He told the woman he wanted to share some personal information. ''I am transgender, which you might know because of my health care paperwork,'' he said. Paperwork, according to my brother, is how many transgender people are inadvertently outed in the workplace. An employer will send a letter to Social Security or to the Internal Revenue Service to verify a new hire's personal information; the agency will respond that the wrong gender has been listed. (Evan's friends call this a ''no-match letter.'') Evan had lived with the possibility that at any moment this could surface, since he'd started the job six months earlier. Maybe this woman had known he was trans all along, he thought.

It turned out she hadn't. She nodded as he spoke and didn't seem fazed. She asked why my brother was bringing it up. ''Well, I'm pregnant,'' he told her. A moment passed. Then, bit by bit, her face broke into a smile. ''Well, this is unexpected, but that's great!'' she said, and the tension flooded from my brother's shoulders. She told him about her two little girls and how wonderful parenthood was. My brother sat there with her, talking about spit-up and dance recitals, and he remembers feeling like part of a club he'd always looked into from the outside. The normal things that happen to normal parents would be his things, he thought.

For the most part, this is how it went when my brother told people he was expecting. ''With most folks, I phrased it, 'Well, you know my partner and I are having a baby, and it works best for our family that I carry the baby,''' he told me. It usually took them a few minutes. Then, as best they knew how, they said supportive, kind things. Our mother started knitting a sweater for the baby. His dermatologist said, ''That makes all the sense in the world.'' When he finally screwed up the courage to tell his supervisor a few weeks after his Oxford trip, she asked how she could be supportive.

Evan took a moment to center himself, to quell his anxiety. There would never be an easy time for this conversation. He had to get it out.

This positive attitude is less surprising when you consider that my brother didn't tell many people he didn't know well. He didn't need to. Even at full term, he never looked pregnant. He looked like a guy with a beer belly. He wore collared shirts to work, often with sweater-vests, and when he couldn't button the shirts any longer, he bought bigger ones. When his pants stopped buttoning, he wore them lower and got suspenders. ''People talk about the attention you get when you're pregnant, and for the most part that was absent for me,'' he said. No one rubbed his belly, asked when he was due or commented that he was carrying the baby low so it must be a boy. ''Mostly I liked that, because I don't like body attention normally,'' he added, ''but there's also a loss.''

One April afternoon, when Evan was< in his eighth month, he stopped by Goodwill to sift through baby clothes. He took a few outfits to the counter. Evan opened his wallet, and the woman behind the register noticed the small ultrasound snapshot he kept tucked inside. She looked at his belly, and smiled at him. His blood ran hot. ''That felt incredible!'' he said. ''She read me! She got me.''

Evan's midwife was Clare Storck. Really, that's her name. She'd been catching babies for five years at a practice attached to Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, but she'd been working with expectant mothers for most of her adult life as a doula. My brother was her first male birth parent.

When Evan arrived at the midwifery center for his first appointment, he filled out an intake form, but the receptionist had trouble entering his information: if she checked the ''male'' box, she couldn't open an obstetric record for him. This was a problem throughout the pregnancy''medical forms and insurance claims are not set up to allow people like Evan to be honest about their medical needs.

At first, he fought this at every turn. When his health insurance refused to cover his pregnancy test because he was male, he spent several hours explaining his situation to a representative, waiting on hold and explaining it again. ''My sex is female, and my gender is male,'' he told the rep. She was able to override the system and get the cost reimbursed, but he had to call back and do the same thing every time he had an appointment.

Eventually, Evan decided it wasn't worth the effort to fight weekly for coverage. He called his insurer and asked that his gender be changed to female. ''When I get insurance letters, they don't say 'sir' or 'ma'am.' They say 'Dear Evan Hempel,' and that's just fine. At the end of the day, it was just frustrating to get denial after denial of services,'' Evan said.

Despite the initial software limitation, my brother got excellent care from the midwifery practice at Mount Auburn. Practitioners had received some training from Makadon, who had visited recently from Fenway to lead a grand rounds''an hour-long lecture open to anyone on staff at the hospital''on trans births. They shared notes on Evan's preferred gender pronouns and terms for his body, and he had regular appointments with Storck, who listened to his baby's heartbeat, checked in to see how he was feeling and referred him to an acupuncturist when he developed back pain.

Several weeks before the birth, I interviewed Storck, who has an ebullient personality, about her experience treating Evan. She was supportive of my brother's choice to get pregnant. We both marveled at the technological advances and social changes that have enabled my brother's efforts to make a family. ''If physiologically your body can do this, and you're comfortable with the process and still want to present as a man, you can,'' she said. ''And that's awesome.''

My nephew arrived on the day he was expected. ''I'm not sure he's mine,'' my brother texted from the hospital. ''I've never been on time to anything in my entire life.'' Six days later, my partner and I drove to Boston to meet the baby. When we arrived, Evan had just finished chest-feeding. He answered the door in pajama bottoms and a nursing tank, with the baby swaddled in the crook of his right elbow. Evan handed my nephew to me, and right away, the baby began squalling, his mouth gnawing at my arm. I handed him back to my brother, who gestured for all of us to sit at the big wooden kitchen table and then started chest-feeding again.

If physiologically your body can do this, and you're comfortable with the process and still want to present as a man, you can. "And that's awesome."

We sat there like that, in the kitchen of my brother's second-floor apartment, munching on the lemon bars my mom had made, as the summer daylight stretched into evening. The baby ate and slept and ate some more, his right arm curled up to his chin. Evan recounted the birth, giving us a blow-by-blow. He and his partner had arrived at the hospital just after midnight, he said, and as they lumbered toward the receiving room, a nurse passed them. ''Can you imagine what she must have been thinking?'' my brother asked. Here were a woman and a man walking toward the maternity ward. The woman was weighed down with suitcases, a backpack and the paperwork folder. The man carried nothing but a purple yoga birthing ball, and every few steps, he'd push it up against the wall, lean over it and moan. Evan snickered, and soon we were all laughing at the thought of it.

I asked Evan if childbirth had changed how he thought about his gender. Wasn't there some part of him that questioned his masculinity? Since he'd first come out, I'd watched him challenge our binary notions of gender''male or female, boy or girl, husband or wife. And yet I still had questions. Were you always a boy trapped in a girl's body, I wanted to ask him, or are you really a girl who got lost for a decade? ''You know, people who are not trans talk about being 'trapped in a body.' But that's not really the way my friends talk about it,'' he said. ''I was always Evan. I always had these parts. I always just felt like me, and like I was a guy.''

As I puzzled over this, he gulped milk from a glass with a blue sea horse on it. There are sea horses all over their home''on onesies and bibs, in drawings and stitched on blankets. It has become Evan's emblem, because like my brother, the male sea horse gives birth after carrying eggs in a protective pouch on his belly. A sea horse's masculinity is not threatened by gestation; it is reinforced by it.

Evan will continue to chest-feed for a while. Eventually, he'll begin taking testosterone again. His beard will fill out, and the fuzz will return to his knuckles. His chest will shrink to the point where his bind will be comfortable to wear again. To outsiders, his family will look like any other''a tossed-together group of kids and adults raising one another. At night, my brother will watch his son lift a tiny fist above his head as he sleeps and know what all parents know: this baby is a miracle.

This appears in the September 12, 2016 issue of TIME.

Contact us at letters@time.com.

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:48

Congress is considering an onslaught of legislation targeting the largest tech platforms in the U.S., addressing topics such as mobile apps, advertising, merger review, content moderation, liability protection, algorithms, and data collection. Many of the bills empower the chief antitrust enforcers, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).[1]

From the looks of it, Congress seeks to follow the misguided European playbook on antitrust and tech regulation.[2] The European Union (EU) recently adopted the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA),[3] two legislative measures that will likely transform the digital economy.[4] The DMA is predicated on the dubious premise that there is a considerable distinction between online and brick-and-mortar businesses. It also codifies the novel legal concept of ''gatekeeper,'' which would likely be applied to large digital platforms considered by regulators to have an entrenched dominant position in the digital economy, including ''search engines, social networks, operating systems, intermediating platforms (connecting sellers and buyers), video sharing sites, communication services, cloud computing, and advertising services.''[5]

Some U.S. lawmakers seem willing to follow the EU's lead. In many ways, some of the tech bills introduced in the 117th Congress are piecemeal versions of the EU's DMA and DSA.[6] At a June 2002 hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportations Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a sponsor of several bills on this list, said:

Right now, we have four major gatekeeper monopolies. '... with vertical dominance on their platforms. And they buy stuff, and then they're self-preferencing it above other competitive businesses.[7]

While these bills are being advanced in the names of innovation, competition, and choice, they will accomplish the opposite. Consumers will risk paying the increased costs incurred in complying with these legislative measures while the products they enjoy decline in quality, functionality, and variety.

American Innovation and Choice Online Act. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (H.R. 3816, S. 2992), sponsored by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) and Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Charles Grassley (R-IA), would prohibit self-preferencing by companies that allow competitors to distribute goods and services on their platform.[8] It would bar practices like Google's promotion of Google Maps and Apple's preinstalling of its iMessage and FaceTime apps.

Support from the Biden administration is strong. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo endorsed the proposal while testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee in April.[9] And in March the DOJ issued a letter expressing support,[10] its first public backing of an antitrust bill.[11]

The DOJ's letter states that congressional direction on discriminatory and self-preferencing tactics ''would enhance the ability of the DOJ and FTC to challenge that conduct efficiently and effectively and better enable them to promote competition in digital markets.''[12]

The antitrust focus on large technology platforms rests heavily on the assumption that there is a substantial difference between in-person and online commerce. As CEI Senior Fellow Ryan Young points out, the bill's narrow focus on online commerce is misplaced:

Sure, you buy store brand products all the time at the grocery store and from Costco, but have you ever bought store brand products'--ONLINE?! The distinction between in-person commerce and online commerce is silly. '... Nearly every business, big or small, has at least some online presence, and they have for a while. Sellers sell and buyers buy. Whether in person, by phone, by mail, or online are just different means to the same end.[13]

The legislation would limit a company like Amazon from displaying its generic brand products, such as Amazon Basics, while a user shops on its platform. The practice is no different than Walmart stocking its Great Value brand strategically on its store shelves. It may even place its products closer to the entrance than competing name-brand items. Walmart markets its private brand AAA batteries at about half the price of its competitors' products.[14] Yet, consumers still choose to purchase name-brand options like Energizer and Duracell. There is nothing different or more concerning when the same thing happens online.

Sen. Klobuchar released a substitute amendment to the American Innovation and Choice Online Act on May 25, but the new language does little to address these and other criticisms.[15] As Josh Withrow of the R Street Institute points out, the changes to the bill are more strategic in nature and have little if any substantive effect. As he puts it, ''the original bill as a whole was economically unsound, and it is difficult to conceive of an amendment that would make it supportable from a free market point of view.''[16]

Of the big tech bills introduced during the 117th Congress, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act appears to be the centerpiece of the antitrust agenda, and its proponents expect a push to pass the bill before the midterm elections in November.[17] The American Innovation and Choice Online Act, its title notwithstanding, would lead to less innovation and less consumer choice.[18]

Open App Markets Act. The Open App Markets Act (H.R. 7030, S. 2710) is a particularly intrusive piece of legislation that would force companies to change the way their products are designed. Sponsored by Rep. Henry C. ''Hank'' Johnson, Jr. (D-GA) and Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), it has garnered bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.[19]

The bill requires large covered platforms to allow sideloading, which enables users to download third-party apps and app stores. Apple has been at the center of the sideloading discussion, having prohibited the practice altogether, but Google has also been criticized for a series of security warnings associated with sideloading on Google-certified Android devices.[20] Ultimately, as CEI's Jessica Melugin points out, the bill would limit consumer choice:

Apple has long prioritized security and integration for its customers over the more open approach this legislation would mandate. The advantage for Apple users is a ''walled garden'' that offers increased peace of mind thanks to a more closed and heavily vetted online ecosystem. '... But for those who would rather trade away some safety for more choice and flexibility, there's the Google Play store and its Android operating system.[21]

The Open App Markets Act shows little faith in consumers' ability to make choices. Consumers can already avoid app store fees by using Web browsers to download apps and pay for subscriptions. Such downloads come without the official app stores' security and quality guarantees'--which those fees pay for'--but consumers are capable of making their own decisions.

Additionally, the legislation ignores the security risks associated with sideloading applications. Sideloading apps is a risky practice, because it increases users' potential exposure to malware.[22] Apple has been very vocal on this point, even releasing a 30-page threat analysis in October 2021.[23]

Interestingly, iPhone users have sideloaded applications since 2008. Four months before Apple launched its App Store, a third-party app store emerged through a process called ''jailbreaking.''[24] It essentially involved hacking one's device and allowed users to sideload games and applications from outside of Apple's walled garden.

Jailbreaking was on shaky legal grounds until 2010, when federal regulators made clear that the process did not violate the Digital Millennium Copyrights Act.[25] But now, the Open App Markets Act would make sideloading mandatory.

Tech platforms should be allowed to maximize user security when designing their products, but with this bill, Congress continues to either misunderstand those threats or ignore them altogether.

Prohibiting Anti-Competitive Mergers Act of 2022. The Prohibiting Anti-Competitive Mergers Act of 2022 (H.R. 7101, S. 3847) is one of the more partisan bills included on the list. Introduced in March by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), the bill has zero Republican sponsors.[26]

The legislation outright bans, without review, mergers that:

Are worth more than $5 billion;Lead to a company having a 33 percent market share in a relevant market;Lead to a company having a 25 percent market share in a relevant labor market; andReach certain increases on the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index.[27]Here we find what is known as the relevant market fallacy.[28] If antitrust regulators want to find a monopoly, they need only to define the relevant market as narrowly as necessary, which often involves excluding some potential competitors. And the Prohibiting Anti-Competitive Mergers Act would grant more power to the already emboldened FTC and Department of Justice to do so.

The bill's prohibition on mergers worth more than $5 billion would inhibit companies from improving products on behalf of their consumers. Google's acquisition of the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, announced in March and valued at $5.4 billion, is a prime example. Google sought to fortify its cloud computing services by purchasing and integrating Mandiant.[29] That acquisition, even if more vertical in nature, would be prohibited.[30]

Affected companies would have the opportunity to appeal. However, as CEI's Ryan Young points out, the prospect of success is less than optimistic:

While companies could appeal this automatic denial in court, they would have to prove the Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department, or both acted in an ''arbitrary and capricious'' manner in denying a merger. That is an uphill climb that stacks the deck against companies, and may dissuade many from even trying.[31]

Furthermore, the bill allows for retroactive review and unwinding of completed mergers that could lead to a market share over 50 percent, which raises constitutional concerns on the prohibition of ex post facto laws.

The bill's sponsors appear to have large tech platforms in mind. Rep. Mondaire Jones, lead sponsor of the House version, mentioned Facebook's acquisition of Instagram as supposed justification for this bill.[32]

The problems with the Prohibiting Anti-Competitive Mergers Act are abundant. Fortunately, the bill is unlikely to gain traction. It may also be intended to draw a contrast to make other legislation, like the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, appear more moderate in comparison, and more to make a statement than to become actual policy. For competition's sake, let's hope it stays that way.

EARN IT Act. There is no shortage of legislation addressing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act introduced in the 117th Congress, with some legislators seeking to amend the liability provisions and others seeking to repeal it altogether. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is trying to do both.[33] The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act (H.R. 6544, S. 3538) was introduced at the start of 2022 with bipartisan support.[34] The bill would limit liability protections for online platforms for alleged online exploitation of children.

The purported goal of the bill is noble, but, as CEI's Jessica Melugin points out, ''Bad policy made with good intentions still delivers poor results.''

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which provides liability protection to websites and Internet service providers for content posted by their users, is credited with creating the modern Internet.[35] In large part, the provision was meant to encourage the moderation of pornography, violence, and other content harmful to children.

Before Section 230 was enacted, online providers were faced with the ''moderator's dilemma.''[36] One could avoid liability by refraining from moderating content on a given platform. However, once someone takes active steps to moderate a platform, that website or provider could be held liable for failing to remove certain content.

The EARN IT Act mimics past attempts to curb Section 230 protection. Graham introduced a similar version of the bill in 2020 during the 116th Congress.[37] The most recent version makes the same mistakes as the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), which was passed in 2018. As Melugin points out:

FOSTA's reduced liability protections made hosting borderline or questionable content too risky for many websites. That pushed online interactions between sex workers and clients offline and back onto the streets, where they are often more dangerous. FOSTA shows how curtailing liability in this way will have unintended consequences, no matter how noble the goals of the legislation. That should be a red flag for those considering adopting the same approach with the EARN IT Act.

The most recent reintroduction of the EARN IT Act also raises significant privacy concerns. Some have contended that the legislation would disincentivize the use of encryption services by Internet companies, an important tool in protecting user data and privacy from both private and government actors.[38]

It also would encourage affected companies to scan all user messages, essentially pressuring private entities to do what government officials are prohibiting from doing. As Ari Cohn and Berin Sz"ka of TechFreedom point out, the EARN IT Act would likely undermine both user privacy and criminal prosecution of crimes against children:

[T]he bill will, for the first time, compel private companies to monitor their users' communications. This may sound like an improvement, but it will convert the voluntary efforts of companies into state action subject to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement. Because private companies do not, and cannot, obtain warrants before conducting such monitoring, any evidence they obtain will be tainted, and courts will have no choice but to toss out any criminal prosecutions based on such evidence.[39]

Furthermore, the EARN IT Act would disproportionally affect smaller Internet companies. While complying with the legislation would pose logistical problems for large tech platforms, the effect on small companies and startups could be fatal.

Protecting children from violent crimes and sexual exploitation is of paramount importance, but it is also important that legislation accomplishes what it is intended to accomplish. The EARN IT act does neither.

Platform Competition and Opportunity Act of 2021.The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act of 2021 (S. 3197, H.R. 3826), introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rep. Hakim Jeffries (D-NY) with bipartisan support, would prohibit certain covered platforms from acquiring current, nascent, and even potential competitors.[40] Proponents of the legislation view these acquisitions as anticompetitive attempts by established platforms to maintain their dominance. The bill covers platforms with over $600 billion in annual sales or capitalization that also have either 50 million active users or 100,000 active business users a month in the U.S. In the purported pursuit of competition, the Platform Competition and Opportunity Act dampens opportunities for startups and innovative new products.

Tech startups are thriving. In January 2022, The New York Times reported that over 900 tech startups are valued at over $1 billion, up from 80 in 2015.[41] The COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding government response created unique problems for facilitating communication, goods, and services. Fortunately, tech innovation helped fill the void by making it easier for people to work, shop, and be entertained at home, so much so that investors are lining up to get involved.

Veteran tech entrepreneur Bettina Hein pointed out'--in December 2021 written testimony on the legislation submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights'--that the bill would have unintended consequences by disincentivizing tech startups that are ultimately seeking to be acquired by a larger platform:

For fragile startups, there are three principal outcomes: fail, go public, or be acquired. Failure is the most common outcome. Many entrepreneurs dream of taking their company public, but most startups never achieve the scale that going public requires. Acquisition, therefore, is by far the most likely avenue for entrepreneurs and their employees to realize the value of what they have created through years of hard work and sacrifice. In a typical year, ten times as many startups are acquired as go public.[42]

Hein points to a February 2020 report by Silicon Valley Bank that found that over half of startups in the U.S. consider acquisition to be their long-term goal.[43] The Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd Frank Acts have made initial public offerings, or IPOs, too expensive for many smaller companies and startups, making acquisition a more obtainable goal for entrepreneurs and investors.

The bill also overlooks the risks taken by established tech companies when acquiring smaller platforms. Mergers and acquisitions fail more often than antitrust proponents tend to acknowledge.[44]

Twitter purchased the video sharing app Vine in 2012 for $30 million and shut it down after only four years. Fortune reported that Vine cost Twitter $10 million a month and never turned a profit.[45] Twitter and Vine failed to keep up with the growing presence of Snapchat and Instagram, which led to the project's demise.[46]

Facebook, now branded Meta, is also taking risks with its virtual reality acquisitions. The FTC is taking a strong interest in the social media platform's purchase of the virtual reality company Oculus.[47] The company appears to be going all in on the ''Metaverse,'' a fluid concept involving a mixture of virtual and augmented reality that implements other emerging technologies like virtual headsets and cryptocurrency.[48] However, doubts regarding the venture are widespread, and it remains to be seen if it will pan out.[49]

Furthermore, some startups opt not to sell out. Snapchat, founded in 2011, rebuffed two attempts by Facebook to purchase it. In 2013, it made zero revenue and rejected a $3 billion offer from Facebook.[50] Then in 2016, Snapchat purportedly again declined Facebook's invitations to sell and went public the following year.[51]

Nearly every tech platform began as a startup. Some seek to be acquired, and others don't. No platform is the same, and each offers varied products and services. Their success or failure should be determined by consumer choice, not arbitrary government designations.

ACCESS Act. The Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (ACCESS) Act (H.R. 3849) is the most convolutedly named bill on the list. Introduced by Reps. Mary Scanlon (D-PA) and Burgess Owens (R-UT),[52] it would require some of the largest social media platforms to maintain accessible interfaces that allow for portability and interoperability.

The interoperability requirements would allow competitors, or potential competitors, to access the platforms' user data in compliance with FTC standards. That raises obvious privacy concerns for users, something Congress has claimed to care about. Covered platforms would need to make data transferable to its users or to a third-party business with users' consent.

Both Facebook and Twitter already allow users to download an archive of their data.[53] The problem occurs when user data are connected to the data of other users who have not consented to a data transfer, usually in the form of comments, tags, and likes.

The legislation delegates substantial power to the FTC to both promulgate applicable standards and enforce them. It would enable the FTC to carry out a managerial role over social media platforms.[54] Online platforms would have to first petition the FTC for review and approval before they are allowed to make a design change that ''may affect its interoperability interface.''

It also entrusts the FTC to define ''data,'' which raises other issues. While the transfer of a photo or video may seem like a simple concept, it is unclear what other user data will be included in the FTC's definition. No social media platform is the same. Each offers unique and varying products and services.

Standardizing that data for portability and interoperability will likely prove difficult in practice. As Samuel Bowman of the International Center for Law and Economics points out, achieving data interoperability is harder than it looks.[55] Sometimes it may be beneficial, and companies often interoperate their networks voluntarily. Microsoft and Yahoo!, after several years of delay, announced that they had achieved interoperability between their instant messaging services in 2006. By then, it was too late. With the growing presence of text messaging, Myspace, and Facebook, classic instant messengers fell into obscurity. The companies later abandoned the interoperability feature to focus on modernizing their own respective products.

Standardization will also lead to less choice and innovation, as deployment of new code would require FTC approval. As Bowman puts it:

[M]andatory interoperability might limit differentiation among competitors''like, for example, how imposing the old micro-USB standard on Apple might have stopped us from getting the Lightning port. '... But if we could entrust this degree of product design to regulators, weighing the costs of a feature against its benefits, we wouldn't need markets or competition at all.[56]

The ACCESS Act essentially attempts to mandate a service for which consumers have shown little demand.[57] Considering that the average social media user engages in at least six different social media services, the ACCESS Act would only lead to costly regulation, diminished user security, and less innovation.[58]

Filter Bubble Transparency Act. Social media platforms typically customize content feeds based on users' previous interactions and viewing history. For example, if your significant other changes his or her profile picture on Facebook, the post will often be displayed first on your newsfeed.

Congress has a problem with this, and the Filter Bubble Transparency Act (H.R. 5921, S. 2024)'--sponsored by Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) with bipartisan support'--is the proposed solution.[59]

It would force social media platforms to provide an option to view feeds and postings chronologically as an alternative to the use of algorithms and personal data to display personalized content. The obligation would apply to platforms with more than 500 employees, at least $50 million in annual revenue, and more than 1 million users annually. The bill would exclude platforms that are ''operated for the sole purpose of conducting research that is not made for profit either directly or indirectly.''

Lawmakers have depicted algorithms as nefarious and politically biased. As Melugin points out, ''politicians have blamed algorithms for everything from addictiveness, privacy violations, and political extremism to being a tool for censorship.''[60] But algorithms are more accurately understood as a crucial tool for curating the online experience and pleasing users.

Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit already provide options to view feeds chronologically. Instagram announced that it would bring back the chronological view option shortly after the introduction of the Filter Bubble Transparency Act in the House, showing that Congress can cyberbully, too.

Additionally, the legislation would more likely do the opposite of its intended effect. Klon Kitchen of the American Enterprise Institute points to an internal experiment conducted by Facebook in which the algorithmic newsfeed was disabled for 0.05 percent of users:

Its findings showed that engagement dropped precipitously, users hid 50 percent more posts (meaning they found these posts to be irrelevant or uninteresting), use of Facebook Groups'--where some of the most extreme and concerning content resides'--skyrocketed, and Facebook actually made more money on advertising because users had to scroll longer to find the content they were looking for, and therefore, were exposed to more ads.[61]

Consumers are more than capable of choosing social media platforms of their liking. If a platform does not provide users with the chronological view they want, they can take their business to one that does. The Filter Bubble Transparency Act wants to make that choice on consumers' behalf. Instead of allowing companies to compete, the bill would make all social media platforms more alike.

Ending Platform Monopolies Act. The Ending Platform Monopolies Act (H.R. 3825)'--introduced in the House in June of 2021 and sponsored by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Lance Gooden (R-TX), [62] with bipartisan support from over a dozen cosponsors'--takes an approach similar to the American Innovation and Choice Act (H.R. 3816, S. 2992), by limiting a company's ability to operate a business that competes with other companies on its platform.[63]

But it goes further than banning self-preferencing. It also prohibits companies from distributing products that compete with third parties on their platform. If a covered platform violates the provisions of the bill, the FTC and DOJ could impose civil penalties, move to break up the platform, or both. As TechFreedom's Berin Sz"ka and Corbin K. Barthold put it, ''This is, in effect, common carriage regulation on steroids.''[64]

Appearing on the GeekWire podcast in September 2021, Rep. Jayapal attempted to explain the legislation's rationale in simpler terms:

It's sort of like when you have two teams on a field and the person that is the referee [is] the person that sets the rules for the game, the person that calls all of the plays, and the person that happens to play on one of the teams.[65]

The sports analogy is a poor one. There are more than two teams or one referee. In addition to laws created by Congress, the FTC and DOJ both referee and set rules using their adjudication and rulemaking powers. And no team is forced to play any particular game on any particular field.

Here is a better analogy: You purchase a Trek bike after evaluating the options, user reviews, and specifications, but the bicycle is delivered without tires. You attempt to purchase tires from Bontrager, a Trek-owned brand. The company informs you that it cannot sell you tires for your Trek bike because federal law prohibits it. Bontrager can sell you tires for a Schwinn bike, but the same company selling you both a bike and tires would constitute a conflict of interest and could prompt the Federal Trade Commission to file a civil action against it.

That is what this bill would do. It would deter platform companies like Apple and Google from preinstalling apps on their hardware.[66] Apple iPhones would no longer come out of the box with its iMessage, FaceTime, and Find My iPhone apps installed. Likewise, Google's Android operating system would exclude popular apps like Google Maps and Chrome. And Amazon may be limited in its ability to offer free shipping on eligible Prime products or distribute its Amazon Basics brand.

Furthermore, depending on how the law is enforced, both Apple's iOS and App Store could be designated as covered platforms. Thus, the company would be prohibited from both preinstalling and distributing Apple apps. The same would apply to Google's Android OS and Play Store. In theory, one could download the Google Maps app, but not Apple Maps, onto an Apple device, while an Android user could download the Apple TV app, but not Google's YouTube app.

The legislation would also disincentivize brick-and-mortar retailers from growing their online presence to compete with Amazon. If they grow to meet the monthly threshold of 50 million users or 100,000 business users in the U.S., it would bring them under the purview of the Act. That would discourage innovation and competition.

Online platforms have created a ripe ecosystem for startups, small businesses, developers, and entrepreneurs to reach customers and deliver their products. But, according to the Ending Platforms Monopolies Act, opening up your platform to competitors is a bad thing.

Banning Surveillance Advertising Act of 2022. As its name implies, The Banning Surveillance Advertising Act of 2022 (H.R. 6416, S. 3520)'--sponsored by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI)'--seeks to ban surveillance advertising.[67] The practice, also called targeted or behavioral advertising, directs personalized ads to specific users based upon their prior online activity.

Congress has long had its eye on targeted advertising. In 2008, following hearings in both the House and Senate on behavioral advertising, the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to over 30 cable and Internet companies requesting information on their privacy policies.[68] As CEI's Wayne Crews points out, targeted advertising ''helps fuel today's flood of information, frictionless e-commerce, and the global blogger soapbox.''[69] Also, privacy between two private parties is not something to legislate and a one-size-fits-all privacy policy would undermine consumer choice.

Companies like Google and Facebook use behavioral advertising to benefit both producers and consumers. Banning the practice would only hurt the internet economy. The bill would lead to both less effective advertising and less revenue for websites and apps that depend on ads to keep their products free of charge.[70] Targeted advertising uses cookies to direct ad content that is relevant to a user's interests and preferences. Some estimates have found that digital ads without cookies receive half the revenue as those with cookies.[71]

Furthermore, the Act would likely disproportionally harm smaller companies that rely on targeted advertising to attract new customers. It may require some to increase their marketing budgets, which would leave them with fewer resources to invest in producing innovative and quality products. Established brands with more robust advertising budgets would be less affected.

For users who prefer to evade behavioral advertising, there are alternative products on the market, such as DuckDuckGo. Launched in 2008, the online search engine has centered its product around privacy. It proudly proclaims, ''We don't collect or share personal information.''[72] The company is a success story. Last year, its annual search queries surpassed 35 billion, an impressive uptick from just under 6 billion in 2017.[73]

DuckDuckGo has been heralded by proponents of the bill as what should become the standard, not just an option.[74] The privacy search engine uses contextual advertising, which displays advertisements based upon the content of the website being visited. DuckDuckGo, quite obviously, was named after the game Duck, Duck, Goose'--which is appropriate (even if the metaphor is unintentional),[75] because the popular playground game hinges on choice. The Banning Surveillance Advertising Act seeks to make all search engines like DuckDuckGo, eliminating consumer choice altogether.

Fair Repair Act. The Fair Repair Act (H.R. 4006, S. 3830)'--sponsored by Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-NY) and Sens. Ben Ray Lujn (D-NM), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Ron Wyden (D-OR)'--has garnered less attention in the mire of tech bills this congressional session.[76] This bill would require manufactures of mobile phones, tablets, and laptops to make certain diagnostic material, tools, and parts available for sale to users and repair shops.

The bill is part of the larger ''right to repair'' movement.[77] Yet, users already have the right to repair their electronic devices, and the Fair Repair Act contains nothing suggesting the contrary. There may be room for improvement in the realm of copyright law and the application of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), an issue addressed in a separate House bill.[78] Rather, the Fair Repair Act would force companies like Apple and Samsung to contract the sale of parts and information.

The text of the legislation raises significant security concerns, as it applies to ''digital electronic equipment that contains an electronic security lock or other security-related function.'' It requires manufactures to provide ''any special documentation, tools, and parts needed to disable the lock or function.'' These security features exist to protect user data and devices. The Fair Repair Act would weaken them.

Proponents of right to repair legislation often equate repair inconvenience with prohibition. Speaking on the bill, Sen. Lujn said, ''Too many manufacturers have made it nearly impossible for consumers to service their own equipment or seek independent repairs.''[79]

Some electronic devices are easier to repair than others. That is just one feature that consumers consider when purchasing those products. Furthermore, the price range for devices vary widely. Affordable smartphones and tablets are available for under $150, a lower price than the cost of some Apple device repairs.

Even so, the independent electronic repair industry is vibrant, with cell phone repair comprising an estimated $4 billion market with nearly 10,000 businesses across the U.S.[80] Electronic and computer repair is estimated to be $19 billion with over 40,000 businesses.[81]

The Fair Repair Act is a solution in search of a problem. The Wall Street Journal reported last year that an independent repair shop can provide services for as little as one third of the cost charged by the original manufacturer.[82] The prevalence of high-end personal electronic devices in the market has created the demand for affordable repair services, a win-win for both consumers and thousands of small businesses.

Conclusion. The above terrible tech bills from the 117th Congress illustrate an eagerness by lawmakers to embrace the European Union's flawed model of protecting competitors, rather than consumers. This flurry of legislation targeting ''big tech'' is unlikely to halt when the 118th Congress convenes in 2023. One can expect to see these bills, or similar versions of them, reintroduced. That is unfortunate.

The free market has provided an environment for unparalleled innovation in technological goods and services. Government intervention has not. Congress should resist the temptation to enact these statutory and regulatory hurdles that will ultimately stifle innovation and harm consumers.

Notes

[*] Alex Reinauer is a research fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

[1] A few bills did not make the list, either due to low co-sponsorship or too distant a relation to the tech industry. Legislation like the Digital Services Oversight and Safety Act of 2022 (H.R. 6796), which would increase the size of the FTC by one-third and require hiring dozens of ''technologists'' and ''sociotechnical experts,'' attracted only two cosponsors and never made its way to the Senate floor. Others bills, like the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2021 (S. 228), seek to bolster the budgets of the DOJ and FTC by increasing filing fees for proposed mergers. H.R. 6796 '' Digital Services Oversight and Safety Act of 2022, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/6796. H.R. 3843 '' Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2021, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3843;

S. 228 '' Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2021, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/228.

[2] Jessica Melugin, ''Don't Follow Europe on Tech Regulation,'' National Review, May 31, 2022, https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/05/dont-follow-europe-on-tech-regulation/.

[3] Sam Schechner and Kim Mackrael, ''EU Lawmakers Approve Sweeping Digital Regulations,'' Wall Street Journal, updated July 5, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-lawmakers-approve-sweeping-new-digital-regulations-11657040485?mod=tech_lead_pos1.

[4] Jaume Duch Guillot, European Parliament, ''EU Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act Explained,'' reference no. 20211209STO19124, April 25, 2022, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/pdfs/news/expert/2021/12/story/20211209STO19124/20211209STO19124_en.pdf.

[5] Henrique Schneider, ''The European Union's Digital Markets Act Seeks to Regulate Competition with Little Regard to Impact on Consumers,'' OnPoint No. 277, Competitive Enterprise Institute, May 25, 2022, p. 4, https://cei.org/studies/the-european-unions-digital-markets-act-seeks-to-regulate-competition-with-little-regard-to-impact-on-consumers/.

[6] Some European lawmakers have voiced support for these efforts in the U.S. In May 2022, Andreas Schwab, a member of the European Parliament from Germany who helped lead the negotiations on the DMA, met with Rep. Cicilline, and Sens. Klobuchar and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). Emphasizing the importance of cooperation in regulating digital platforms, he said: ''We want this to be done together because it's a common Western world principle. '... The more we can partner, the better for everyone.'' Leah Nylen, ''EU Parliamentarian Welcomes Tech Antitrust Push in Congress,'' Bloomberg, May 12, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-12/eu-parliamentarian-welcomes-tech-antitrust-push-in-congress.

[7] ''Oversight of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration,'' Hearings, U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation, June 9, 2022, https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2022/6/oversight-of-the-national-telecommunications-and-information-administration.

[8] H.R. 3816 '' American Innovation and Choice Online Act, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3816;

S. 2992 '' American Innovation and Choice Online Act, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2992.

[9] Rebecca Klar, ''Commerce Department Backs Key Antitrust Bill Targeting Tech Giants,'' The Hill, April 27, 2022, https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3469226-commerce-department-backs-key-antitrust-bill-targeting-tech-giants/.

[10] Peter S. Hyun, Acting Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, letter to Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Rep. David Cicilline, Rep. Jim Jordan, and Rep. Ken Buck on Department Views Letters on S. 2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, and H.R. 3816, March 31, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/ola/page/file/1488741/download.

[11] Jessica Melugin, '''Letter' Rip: The Justice Department Would Like More Power, Please,'' Open Market (blog), Competitive Enterprise Institute, March 30, 2022, https://cei.org/blog/letter-rip-the-justice-department-would-like-more-power-please/.

[12] Hyun.

[13] Ryan Young, ''Sen. Klobuchar's Half-Baked Antitrust Bill,'' Open Market, Competitive Enterprise Institute, October 14, 2021, https://cei.org/blog/sen-klobuchars-half-baked-antitrust-bill/.

[14] ''Great Value Alkaline AAA Batteries, 8 Count,'' Walmart, accessed June 13, 2022, https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Alkaline-AAA-Batteries-8-Count/736873502.

[15] Substitute amendment is a parliamentarian term of art for an amendment that substitutes a portion of an amendment.

[16] Josh Withrow, ''The Revised American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) is Still Fundamentally Flawed,'' R Street Institute, May 26, 2022, https://www.rstreet.org/2022/05/26/revised-antitrust-bill-remains-fundamentally-flawed/.

[17] Lauren Feiner, ''Lawmakers Are Racing to Pass Tech Antitrust Reforms before Midterms,'' CNBC, June 4, 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/04/lawmakers-racing-to-pass-tech-antitrust-tech-reforms-before-midterms.html.

[18] Brian Albrecht, ''The American Innovation and Choice Online Act Would Foster Neither Innovation nor Choice,'' The Dispatch, February 2, 2022, https://thedispatch.com/p/the-american-innovation-and-choice?s=r.

[19] H.R. 7030 '' Open App Markets Act, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/7030;

S. 2710 '' Open App Markets Act, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2710/text.

[20] Complaint, Utah v. Google LLC, No. 3:21-cv-05227 (N.D. Cal. July 7, 2021), https://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Utah-v-Google.1.Complaint-Redacted.pdf.

[21] Jessica Melugin, ''Protect Consumers, Not Competitors,'' Open Market, Competitive Enterprise Institute, February 3, 2022, https://cei.org/blog/protect-consumers-not-competitors/.

[22] Adam Kujawa, ''Sideloading Apps Is a Dangerous Game,'' Malwarebytes Labs, last updated March 31, 2016, https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2014/04/sideloading-apps-is-a-dangerous-game/.

[23] Apple, ''Building a Trusted Ecosystem for Millions of Apps: A Threat Analysis of Sideloading,'' October 2021, https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Building_a_Trusted_Ecosystem_for_Millions_of_Apps_A_Threat_Analysis_of_Sideloading.pdf.

[24] Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai and Brian Merchant, ''The Life, Death, and Legacy of iPhone Jailbreaking,'' Vice News, June 29, 2017, https://www.vice.com/en/article/8xa4ka/iphone-jailbreak-life-death-legacy.

[25] The Library of Congress and the Copyright Office consider exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act every three years. In granting ''jailbreaking'' an exemption, the Copyright Office said, ''while a copyright owner might try to restrict the programs that can be run on a particular operating system, copyright law is not the vehicle for imposition of such restrictions.'' David Kravets, ''U.S. Declares iPhone Jailbreaking Legal, Over Apple's Objections,'' Wired, July 26, 2018, https://www.wired.com/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jailbreaking/.

[26] H.R. 7101 '' Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act of 2022, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/7101;

S. 3847 '' Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act of 2022, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3847.

[27] The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index is commonly used by federal agencies to measure market concentration. For a discussion on the origin and development of the Herfindahl-Hershman Index, see Stephen Calkins, ''The New Merger Guidelines and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index,'' California Law Review, Vol 71, No. 2 (March 1983), pp. 402-429, http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/lawfrp/33.

[28] Ryan Young, ''Antitrust Basics: Relevant Market Fallacy,'' Open Market, Competitive Enterprise Institute, June 24, 2019, https://cei.org/blog/antitrust-basics-relevant-market-fallacy/.

[29] Nico Grant, ''Google to Buy Cybersecurity Firm Mandiant for $5.4 billion,'' Fortune, March 8, 2022, https://fortune.com/2022/03/08/google-buys-cybersecurity-firm-mandiant-for-5-4-billion/.

[30] Vertical acquisitions involve the purchase of a company within the same line of production, but at a different level. Horizontal acquisitions involve the purchase of a company that competes on the same level.

[31] Ryan Young, ''New Antitrust Merger Bill is Fatally Flawed,'' Open Market, Competitive Enterprise Institute, March 17, 2022, https://cei.org/blog/new-antitrust-merger-bill-is-fatally-flawed/.

[32] Office of Elizabeth Warren, ''Warren, Jones Introduce Bicameral Legislation to Ban Anticompetitive Mergers, Restore Competition, and Bring Down Prices for Consumers,'' news release, March 16, 2022, https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-jones-introduce-bicameral-legislation-to-ban-anticompetitive-mergers-restore-competition-and-bring-down-prices-for-consumers.

[33] S. 2972 '' A bill to repeal section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, 117th Congress, First Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2972.

[34] H.R. 6544 '' Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act of 2022, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/6544;

S. 3538 '' Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act of 2022, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3538.

[35] Jeff Kosseff, The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet, (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2019).

[36] Jessica Melugin, ''Preserving Section 230 Is Key to Maintaining the Free and Open Internet,'' OnPoint No. 271, Competitive Enterprise Institute, June 23, 2021, p. 2, https://cei.org/studies/preserving-section-230-is-key-to-maintaining-the-free-and-open-internet/.

[37] H.R. 8454 '' Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act of 2020, 116th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8454;

S. 3398 '' Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act of 2020, 116th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3398.

[38] J.D. Tuccille, ''EARN IT Act Abuses Privacy in the Guise of Protecting Kids,'' Reason, February 16, 2022, https://reason.com/2022/02/16/earn-it-bill-abuses-privacy-in-the-guise-of-protecting-kids/.

[39] Letter from Berin Sz"ka, President of TechFreedom, and Ari Cohn, TechFreedom counsel, to Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Sen. Chuck Grassley, and Members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Committee Markup of S. 3538, the EARN IT Act, February 8, 2022, https://techfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/TechFreedom-Letter-re-EARN-IT-Amendments-for-Markup-2.8.22.pdf.

[40] H.R. 3826 '' Platform Competition and Opportunity Act of 2021, 117th Congress, First Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3826;

S. 3197 '' Platform Competition and Opportunity Act of 2021, 117th Congress, First Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3197.

[41] Erin Griffith, '''It's All Just Wild': Tech Start-Ups Reach a New Peak of Froth,'' New York Times, last updated January 24, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/technology/tech-startup-funding.html.

[42] Bettina Hein, founder and chief executive officer, juli, written testimony submitted to the Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. Senate, ''The Impact of Consolidation and Monopoly Power on American Innovation,'' December 15, 2021, https://startupsusa.org/the-impact-of-consolidation-and-monopoly-power-on-american-innovation/.

[43] Silicon Valley Bank, 2020 Global Startup Outlook, 11th ed., February 2020, https://www.svb.com/globalassets/library/uploadedfiles/content/trends_and_insights/reports/startup_outlook_report/suo_global_report_2020-final.pdf.

[44] Roger L. Martin, ''M&A: The One Thing You Need to Get Right,'' Harvard Business Review, June 2016, https://hbr.org/2016/06/ma-the-one-thing-you-need-to-get-right.

[45] Jeremy Quittner, ''Twitter Announces End Date for Vine,'' Fortune, January 5, 2017, https://fortune.com/2017/01/05/twitter-end-date-vine/.

[46] Casey Newton, ''Why Vine Died,'' The Verge, October 28, 2016, https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/28/13456208/why-vine-died-twitter-shutdown.

[47] Nick Statt, ''The FTC is Now Probing Meta's Oculus Acquisition as Part of Antitrust Investigation,'' Protocol, January 14, 2022, https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/meta-facebook-oculus-ftc-investigation.

[48] Deborah Lovich, ''What Is the Metaverse and Why Should You Care?'' Forbes, May 11, 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahlovich/2022/05/11/what-is-the-metaverse-and-why-should-you-care/?sh=1fbe92782704.

[49] Benjamin Troth, ''3 Reasons Why the Metaverse Won't Work,'' Medium, January 4, 2022, https://medium.com/predict/3-reasons-why-the-metaverse-wont-work-cb38e5afd337.

[50] Evelyn M. Rusli and Douglas MacMillan, ''Messaging Service Snapchat Spurned $3 Billion Facebook Bid,'' Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2013, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303789604579196023009484870.

[51] Georgia Wells and Maureen Farrell, ''Evan Spiegel's Imperious Style Made Snapchat a Success'--Until Users Fled,'' Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/evan-spiegels-imperious-style-made-snapchat-a-successuntil-users-fled-11545588892.

[52] H.R. 3849 '' ACCESS Act of 2021, 117th Congress, First Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3849.

[53] Charlie Osborne, ''How to Delete Yourself from the Internet Search Results and Hide your Identity Online,'' ZDNet, May 11, 2022, https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-delete-yourself-from-internet-search-results-and-hide-your-identity-online/.

[54] Jessica Melugin, ''ACCESS Bill Would Increase Consumer Privacy Risks and Stifle Innovation,'' Open Market, Competitive Enterprise Institute, June 16, 2021, https://cei.org/blog/access-bill-would-increase-consumer-privacy-risks-and-stifle-innovation/.

[55] Sam Bowman, ''Why Data Interoperability is Harder than It Looks: The Open Banking Experience,'' CPI Antitrust Chronicle (April 2021), https://laweconcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CPI-Bowman.pdf.

[56] Sam Bowman, ''Mandatory Interoperability Is Not a 'Super Tool' for Platform Competition,'' Truth on the Market, November 29, 2021, https://truthonthemarket.com/2021/11/29/mandatory-interoperability-is-not-a-super-tool-for-platform-competition/.

[57] As CEI's Jessica Melugin points out, ''There is little evidence that consumers are interested in data portability or that data volume is a barrier to entry for nascent competitors.'' Iain Murray, Jessica Melugin, and John Berlau, Competitive Enterprise Institute, ''House Judiciary Committee Antitrust Bills Would Compromise U.S. as Global Leader on Tech and Harm Consumers,'' news release, June 11, 2022, https://cei.org/news_releases/house-judiciary-committee-antitrust-bills-would-compromise-u-s-as-global-leader-on-tech-and-harm-consumers/.

[58] Brian Dean, ''Social Network Usage & Growth Statistics: How Many People Use Social Media in 2022?'' Backlinko, updated October 10, 2021, https://backlinko.com/social-media-users.

[59] H.R. 5921 '' Filter Bubble Transparency Act, 117th Congress, First Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5921;

S. 2024 '' Filter Bubble Transparency Act, 117th Congress, First Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2024.

[60] Jessica Melugin, ''An Option Isn't an Option When It's Mandatory, Even Online,'' Open Market, Competitive Enterprise Institute, January 6, 2022, https://cei.org/blog/an-option-isnt-an-option-when-its-mandatory-even-online/.

[61] Klon Kitchen, ''Legislation Can't Fix Social Media,'' The Dispatch, November 15, 2021, https://thedispatch.com/p/legislation-cant-fix-social-media?s=r.

[62] H.R. 3825 '' Ending Platform Monopolies Act, 117th Congress, First Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3825.

[63] H.R. 3816 '' American Choice and Innovation Online Act, 117th Congress, First Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3816;

S. 2992 '' American Innovation and Choice Online Act, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2992.

[64] Letter from Berin Sz"ka, president, TechFreedom, and Corbin K. Barthold, TechFreedom counsel, to Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Rep. Jim Jordan on H.R. 3816, the American Choice and Innovation Online Act; and H.R. 3825, the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, June 22, 2021, https://techfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/TechFreedom-Letter-re-HJC-Bills-6.2021.pdf.

[65] Mike Lewis, ''Rep. Jayapal: Biden Administration Supports Amazon-busting 'Ending Platform Monopolies Act,''' GeekWire, September 10, 2021, https://www.geekwire.com/2021/rep-jayapal-biden-administration-supports-amazon-busting-ending-platform-monopolies-act/.

[66] Jessica Melugin, ''When Antitrust is Anti-Consumer,'' National Review, June 22, 2021, https://cei.org/opeds_articles/when-antitrust-is-anti-consumer/.

[67] H.R. 6416 '' Banning Surveillance Advertising Act of 2022, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/6416;

S. 3520 '' Banning Surveillance Advertising Act of 2022, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3520.

[68] Stephanie Clifford, ''Web Privacy on the Radar in Congress,'' New York Times, August 10, 2008, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/technology/11privacy.html.

[69] Clyde Wayne Crews, ''Online Marketing Myopia,'' Washington Times, August 6, 2008, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/06/online-marketing-myopia/.

[70] Ashley Johnson, ''Banning Targeted Ads Would Sink the Internet Economy,'' Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, January 20, 2022, https://itif.org/publications/2022/01/20/banning-targeted-ads-would-sink-internet-economy.

[71] Garrett Johnson, Twitter post, October 21, 2020, 2:55 p.m., https://twitter.com/garjoh_canuck/status/1318989360407236609.

[72] ''Privacy,'' DuckDuckGo, accessed June 13, 2022, https://duckduckgo.com/privacy.

[73] Sara Morrison, ''The Free Speech Search Engine that Never Was,'' Vox, March 16, 2022, https://www.vox.com/recode/22981115/duckduckgo-free-speech-privacy-oops.

[74] Alex Reinauer, ''House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce Hosts Less than Festive Parade for Big Tech Accountability,'' Open Market, Competitive Enterprise Institute, March 7, 2022, https://cei.org/blog/house-subcommittee-on-energy-and-commerce-hosts-less-than-festive-parade-for-big-tech-accountability/.

[75] Matt Burgess and Victoria Woollaston-Webber, ''DuckDuckGo: What Is It and How does It Work?'' Wired, January 2, 2017, https://www.wired.co.uk/article/duckduckgo-anonymous-privacy#:~:text=DuckDuckGo%20doesn't%20have%20an,the%20term%20%22Duck%20it!%22.

[76] H.R. 4006 '' Fair Repair Act, 117th Congress, First Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4006;

S. 3830 '' Fair Repair Act, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3830.

[77] Alex Reinauer, '''Right to Repair' Bill Is a Move in the Wrong Direction,'' Open Markets, Competitive Enterprise Institute, April 7, 2022, https://cei.org/blog/right-to-repair-bill-is-a-move-in-the-wrong-direction/.

[78] H.R. 6566 '' Freedom to Repair Act of 2022, 117th Congress, Second Session, https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/6566.

[79] Office of Sen. Ben Ray Lujn (D-N.M.), ''Lujn, Lummis, Wyden Introduce Legislation to Protect Consumers by Ensuring Right to Repair,'' news release, March 16, 2022, https://www.lujan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/lujan-lummis-wyden-introduce-legislation-to-protect-consumers-by-ensuring-right-to-repair/.

[80] IBISWorld, Cell Phone Repair Industry in the US '' Market Research Report, updated April 26, 2021, https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/cell-phone-repair-industry/.

[81] IBISWorld, Electronic & Computer Repair Services Industry in the US '' Market Research Report, updated August 15, 2021, https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/electronic-computer-repair-services-industry/.

[82] Joanna Stern, ''How the 'Right to Repair' Might Save Your Gadgets'--and Save You Money,'' Wall Street Journal, August 30, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-right-to-repair-might-save-your-gadgetsand-save-you-money-11630324800.

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:46

Draghi resigns but head of state asks him to stayInvestors question Italy's debt sustainabilityCore issue is lack of economic growthFRANKFURT/ROME, July 15 (Reuters) - Ten years after Mario Draghi's "whatever it takes" pledge saved the euro, Italy is once again in the middle of a debt crisis - but the country's prime minister and former head of the European Central Bank may struggle to solve this one.

Just like a decade ago, investors are questioning whether some euro zone countries can continue to roll over their public debts, which have ballooned during the pandemic and are becoming more expensive to refinance as the ECB prepares to raise interest rates.

This time, however, the epicentre of the crisis is Italy's secular lack of economic growth, rather than the financial excesses that landed Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain in trouble 10 years ago.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comThe situation for Italy has just become a lot more unstable.

Draghi offered to resign on Thursday after one of the parties in his fractious coalition refused to back him in a confidence vote, only to have his resignation rejected by the head of state. Draghi is due to address parliament on Wednesday with his future still in the balance. read more

Italy's benchmark 10-year yield rose to a high of 3.5% on Thursday and the spread over safer German Bunds widened to 227 points by the close, having more than doubled since the start of the year.

"Things just got worse; how much worse is difficult to tell," said Dirk Schumacher, an economist at Natixis.

Draghi, 74, dubbed "Super Mario" due to his long career as a financial problem solver, has seen Italian borrowing costs rise during his 17-month premiership, something he acknowledged at a news conference two months ago.

"This shows I'm not a shield against all events. I'm a human being, and so things happen," he told reporters.

The deeper issue is that Italy is big enough to bring down the rest of the euro zone periphery as its 2.5 trillion euro ($2.52 trillion) government debt pile is larger than those of the other four countries combined and too big for a bailout.

Ten years ago, the then ECB president restored market calm by saying the ECB would do "whatever it takes" to save the euro - code for buying the bonds of troubled countries.

His words on July 26, 2012, reverberate to this day, keeping markets relatively calm on the expectation the ECB will once again put a lid on borrowing costs, including via a new bond-buying scheme now in the works. read more

But this is only likely to be another stop-gap solution as investors are bound to test the ECB's resolve for as long as Italy does not convince them it can stand on its own two feet.

"The real problem is that Italy has been a growth underperformer for two decades," Moritz Kraemer, chief economist at LBBW, said. "And the fiscal situation is not the cause, it's the consequence of that weakness."

TABLES HAVE TURNEDItaly never had to deal with the bursting of a housing bubble during the global financial crisis and its budget problems were smaller than those of the other four troubled countries.

So it didn't have to follow them in requesting a bailout from a so called Troika comprised of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the ECB.

It may now come to regret it.

Under pressure and supported by money from international lenders, Portugal fixed its budget, Spain and Ireland cleaned up their banking sectors, and even Greece made reforms including to its pension systems, labour market and product regulations.

Such efforts allowed these countries, to varying degrees, to start growing their economies again.

Italy, by contrast, has not done enough to kick-start growth despite some changes to its pension system, labour market and, under Draghi, its notoriously slow justice system. read more

As a result, the country that was once seen as the best of a bad lot is now paying the highest premium to borrow on the bond market after Greece - a country that defaulted twice in the past decade and is still rated "junk".

Lingering anti-euro rhetoric from some right-wing parties is also keeping investors on edge, with Intesa Sanpaolo estimating that the risk of a return of the lira outweighed that of a default in the cost of buying insurance on Italian debt.

"It very much paid off for Spain, Portugal and Greece to have the Troika," Holger Schmieding, an economist at Berenberg, said.

"Draghi is trying, has done a little bit here and there but neither I nor the market are yet convinced that trend growth in Italy is strong enough."

KICKED DOWN THE ROADAs ECB chief Draghi regularly stressed the importance of fiscal and other reforms by governments. But as premier of Italy he has had to spend much of his time mediating between parties with very different views on economic policy, meaning contentious issues like tax and pension reforms have been largely kicked down the road.

Even if he rides out Rome's current political turmoil, with his governing coalition weakened by divisions and general elections looming in the spring of 2023 at the latest, few expect the prime minister to turn things around.

Draghi did finalise a plan presented to the European Union in return for almost 200 billion euros of pandemic recovery funds and ensured a solid start in meeting the hundreds of so-called "targets and milestones" it contains.

But these are mostly small-scale tweaks to legislation - a total of 527 of which will need to be ticked off by 2026, long after Draghi is due to leave office.

This money, made up of grants and cheap loans, could prove a lifeline for Italy if it needs to tighten its own budget.

But the country's track record on using financial help from Brussels is dismal. It managed to spend only half its EU funds in the last budget cycle, the second lowest share after Spain.

LOST DECADE(S)In fairness to Draghi and his predecessors, Italy's malaise is much older than the global financial crisis.

Its GDP per capita is lower now than 20 years ago, when it was only a touch below France's and Germany's.

All other European countries have grown over that period except Greece which has shrunk by less, leaving Italy as the worst performer in the bloc.

Trend growth - or the average rate of increase over the economic cycle - is pointing up across all the so-called peripheral countries except for Italy, Eurostat data shows.

Italian productivity - or how much economic output is squeezed out of an hour worked or a euro invested - stopped growing in the 1990s and has since fallen.

Behind this lies a web of problems that include a rapidly ageing population, a low-skilled workforce, cloying red tape, a slow and dysfunctional justice system and chronic under-investment in education, infrastructure and new technology.

Many euro zone countries have some of these problems, but few if any have all of them.

Some economists including Chicago Booth School of Business professor Luigi Zingales say Italy essentially missed the digital revolution and blame what they call the Italian disease of entrepreneurs who opt to keep a small business in the family rather than grow it with the help of outside investors.

By joining the euro, Italy also lost the quick fix of being able to devalue its currency - a trick that helped Italian industry prosper for decades by making its exports cheap.

"We chose the wrong growth model back in the 1980s," said Francesco Saraceno, economics professor at Rome's Luiss University and Sciences-Po in Paris.

"To respond to globalisation we tried to compete with emerging markets by lowering costs instead of following the German example of investing in higher-quality production."

($1 = 0.9917 euros)

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comReporting by Francesco Canepa and Gavin Jones; Additional reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Dhara Ranasinghe; Editing by Susan Fenton and Daniel Wallis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:44

Business | Gates Foundation Adds $20 Billion to Its Coffers https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/business/gates-foundation-giving.htmlThe organization, still run by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, will eventually spend $9 billion a year, up from $6 billion, on causes like global health and education.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it would increase its annual giving to $9 billion by 2026. Credit... Lindsey Wasson/Reuters When the news emerged last year that Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates were divorcing, the question of whether their foundation would lose ready access to its founders' substantial resources quickly arose.

On Wednesday, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation appeared to answer those doubts with an announcement that it will significantly speed up its giving in areas including global health, economic development, gender equality and education as its co-founders continue to pump money into what was already by most measures the world's largest charitable foundation.

The foundation said it would increase the rate of its grant making from nearly $6 billion annually before the pandemic to $9 billion each year by 2026. To put that $3 billion increase in context, the Open Society Foundations, funded by George Soros and itself one of the nation's biggest philanthropies, reported total spending in 2020 of $1.4 billion.

Mr. Gates and Ms. French Gates promised last summer to inject an additional $15 billion in funds into the foundation. Mr. Gates said on Wednesday that as part of that commitment, he was giving $20 billion to the foundation this month.

And there is likely more money where that came from. ''As I look to the future, my plan is to give all my wealth to the foundation other than what I spend on myself and my family,'' Mr. Gates, who Forbes estimates has a fortune of $122 billion, wrote on Wednesday on his personal blog, Gates Notes.

''I will move down and eventually off of the list of the world's richest people,'' added Mr. Gates, believed to be the world's fourth-richest man even though he and Ms. French Gates had already given $39 billion to the foundation since 1994. ''My giving this money is not a sacrifice at all. I feel privileged to be involved in tackling these great challenges.''

Each year the foundation also receives a gift from the investor Warren E. Buffett in the form of shares of his company, Berkshire Hathaway. This year's gift came in last month valued at $3.1 billion. All told, Mr. Buffett has given the foundation nearly $36 billion. The foundation estimated that, with the new funds, its endowment would grow to $70 billion.

Mark Suzman, the Gates Foundation chief executive, said the foundation would not expand its focus. Rather, it believes that the urgency of its existing projects '-- like the fights against polio and malaria worldwide and against learning loss in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic '-- justifies higher expenditures.

Mr. Suzman cautioned that increasing spending in an effective manner would not be simple. ''At that scale, giving is actually incredibly complex, and we've learned that the hard way,'' he said in an interview.

''We're actively looking right now at whether we can and should be doing more around the food security crisis,'' he added.

While the foundation has earned praise over the years for its leading role in global philanthropy, it also has been scrutinized over its influence. It is one of the largest donors at the World Health Organization, for example, and in poorer countries the scale of the foundation's giving means that, intentionally or otherwise, it can end up setting many of the priorities for crucial ministries such as health and education.

Mr. Gates wrote on his blog that the increased pace of giving was a reaction to the many challenges facing the world right now, including the war in Ukraine, the pandemic, rising inflation and climate change.

In a statement, Ms. French Gates said: ''The foundation has spent more than two decades forging relationships with a broad range of partners with the vision and expertise to accelerate the pace of progress for everyone. This additional spending will support our partners' important work to promote a fair and inclusive recovery and a healthier, more equal future.''

Under federal tax laws, private foundations are annually required to give out roughly 5 percent of their endowment, which for the Gates Foundation would come to around $3.5 billion.

The foundation has undergone significant changes over the past year. Mr. Buffett resigned as one of the three trustees last summer. Mr. Gates and Ms. French Gates announced that they had agreed she would leave the foundation if they found they could not work together. In January, the foundation said it was creating a new governing board that included Mr. Gates, Ms. French Gates, Mr. Suzman and three outsiders.

''At a time when the impulse may be to turn inward, it's critical we do the opposite,'' said one of those new board members, Minouche Shafik, the director of the London School of Economics, in a statement on Wednesday. ''Strengthening our resolve and stepping up contributions is the only way to reverse these trends.''

Mr. Gates added: ''The great crises of our time require all of us to do more.''

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:43

A record-breaking heat wave could cause ''danger to life'' in the U.K., forecasters warned as scorching temperatures fueled wildfires and prompted weather warnings in several European countries.

On Saturday Britain's government held a meeting of its emergency committee, known as Cobra, after the country's national weather service issued its first-ever ''red warning'' for extreme heat for Monday and Tuesday.

This means ''it very likely that there will be a risk to life, with substantial disruption to travel, energy supplies and possibly widespread damage to property and infrastructure,'' the Meteorological Office, known as the Met Office, said on its website.

It came after the U.K. Health Security Agency increased its heat- health warning from level three to level four '-- which constitutes a national emergency.

Temperatures in southern England were forecasted to reach 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the Met Office said Friday. They could also surpass U.K.'s highest-ever temperature of 101.7 degrees, recorded in July 2019.

As a result, officials in a country where air-conditioning in homes is rare have urged people not to take public transportation, and some schools have said they would hold classes remotely.

Across Britain, Met Office data showed that cities like London and Manchester would hit temperatures forecasted in long-range climate projections for the year 2040. Highs of almost 104 degrees are predicted.

Scorching temperatures are also forecast for parts of France and Spain, where a high of 107.6 degrees is predicted on Monday.

A man uses a drinking fountain to cool his face in Paris on Wednesday. Bertrand Guay / AFP - Getty ImagesIn the Bordeaux region of southwestern France, 12,200 people have been forced to evacuate their homes as wildfires sweep through, the local authority for the Gironde Department said in a statement Saturday.

Almost 1,200 firefighters and four specialist planes were battling to contain two blazes that have burned 25,000 acres of land, including woodlands south of the Atlantic resort town of Arcachon, which have burned since Tuesday, the statement added.

Although one of the fires had been partially contained, hotter temperatures and winds over the weekend could complicate the firefighting efforts, according to the department's statement.

''We are living through an exceptionally harsh (summer) season,'' French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday during a visit to the government crisis management center at the Interior Ministry in Paris.

The number of French forests burned in fires this year is already triple those destroyed in 2020, he said.

Further south in Portugal, a national high of 117 degrees was recorded in the northern town of Pinhao on Wednesday, as the mass of hot and dry air from Africa blew over the western edge of the Iberian Peninsula.

On Saturday, More than 3,000 firefighters continued to battle multiple blazes as citizens desperately sought to save their homes.

A water-bomber pilot died Friday after his aircraft crashed while he fought a raging wildfire in the northern Portuguese municipality of Torre de Moncorvo, near the Spanish border.

Portugal's Civil Protection Agency said just under 25,000 acres of land had been scorched this week alone.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Spain, temperatures topped 104 degrees for several days while firefighters struggled to control a fire erupted by a lightning strike on Monday in the west-central Las Hurdes area that consumed about 13,600 acres of land.

Around 400 people from eight villages were evacuated on Thursday as flames approached their homes and spread into the nearby Monfrague National Park. In the Spanish town of Seville, some unions called for workers to be sent home.

Firefighters in Croatia and Hungary also battled blazes throughout the week, brought by high temperatures and lightning.

Firefighters discovered a corpse Thursday morning among the ruins of a burned farmhouse, Hungary's disaster management authority said Thursday in a statement.

Several villages were also evacuated in Greece and Morocco as fires swept across the Mediterranean.

As a result, the European Union has urged member states to prepare for wildfires this summer as the continent faces another extreme weather shift that scientists say has been triggered by climate change.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed.

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:37

While Italians prepare for their fourth Covid ''vaccine'' injections, the count of sudden deaths continues to rise inexorably '' 11 under 60 years old in just the last hours.

Now that beach season is upon us, a new heartbreaking phenomenon is taking place, healthy vacationers dropping dead from sudden and unexpected ''medical emergencies.'' Worldwide, beachgoers are collapsing while walking on the beach or swimming. Many of them suffer cardiac arrest and die. Blogger Tom Stahl reports, ''At the beginning of July, in just 24 hours, at least 11 vacationers dropped dead on Italian beaches.'' How many more cases occurred that have not been reported in the news?

As of July 2022, almost 48.7 million people in Italy have received two doses of the controversial Covid ''vaccines,'' roughly 90.1 percent of the total population over 12 years of age. Additionally, three out of four Italians have also received the booster shot.

While Stahl makes it clear that he does not want to automatically attribute the sudden and unexpected deaths to the experimental gene injections, the amounts of incidents seem worrying.

Medical emergencies on Italian beachesThe coast of Fondi, Italy:

On July 4, 2022, on the coast of Fondi: a healthy 70-year-old man walking on the beach with his wife at around 5 pm dropped dead.

Beach of Grado, Italy

On July 4, 2022, on the beach of Grado, an 85-year-old woman died. The woman felt ill while she was walking on the beach. The lifeguards and emergency services intervened immediately, but despite their attempts to revive the woman, there was nothing they could do. The couple had been on vacation in Grado since last weekend.

Island of Palmaria, Italy

On July 4, 2022, an 85-year-old retired Marine died on a beach island of Palmaria from a sudden medical emergency while swimming in shallow water.

Alba Adriatica, Italy

On July 4, 2022, an 82-year-old Apulian tourist dropped dead on the beach. It happened in Alba Adriatica on the Marconi seafront, near the Hotel Lido: the man felt suddenly ill. Despite being immediately rescued, he died during transport to the Giulianova hospital.

Marche coast, Italy

On July 1, 2022, an 84-year-old Tuscan tourist on vacation on the Marche coast with his wife died while taking a short swim. Lifeguards discovered the man's lifeless body.

Northern Rome

On July 1, 2022, a fifty-year-old Ecuadorian on the beach with his wife and two children fell ill in the water and died.

Ardesio, Italy

On July 4, 2022, a 68-year-old man collapsed on the Seria river, and rescue workers could not revive him.

Silvi Marina, Italy

On July 4, 2022, a 72-year-old from Ortucchio, on vacation with his family in Silvi Marina, felt ill while swimming. The man flagged the lifeguards down, who brought him back to sure. Sadly the man died while being transported to the hospital.

Campania, Italy

On July 2, 2022, a healthy 67-year-old woman dropped dead on the shores of Campania. Two other people were saved after suffering sudden medical emergencies. The same day on Patrizia beach, rescuers were able to save 20-year-old suffering from respiratory arrest.

On July 3, a man suffered healthy man suffered a medical emergency in the water. He was saved by a nurse who performed a cardiac massage with a defibrillator. He was transported to the hospital, where he was treated.

Adda River, Italy

On July 3, 2022, A 36-year-old man from Senegal suffered a sudden medical emergency while bathing on a beach along the Adda River. The man was transported to the hospital but unfortunately died.

Basilicata, Italy

On July 4, 2022, a man died on the beach of Terzo Cavone after a sudden medical emergency. The media reports that he died after a sudden medical emergency.

Cala Liberotto, Italy

On July 4, 2022, a 79-year-old vacationer died while swimming after a sudden medical emergency. Resuscitation operations continued for a long time, but sadly, the woman could not be saved.

Marzocca di Senigallia, Italy

An 87-year-old tourist had an unexpected medical emergency while at sea in Senigallia and died. It happened in the morning at the seafront in Marzocca di Senigallia (Ancona). The man was in the water about ten meters from the shore when he collapsed.

The death list continues to growMeanwhile, the list of ''unexplained deaths'' and ''sudden deaths'' continues inexorably. This phenomenon is so common it even has its own acronym: SADS, for Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.

While Italians prepare for their fourth Covid ''vaccine'' injections, the count of sudden deaths continues to rise inexorably '' 11 under 60 years old in the last hours. The youngest victim was 22 years old; another was a 52-year-old doctor. All the deaths were ''sudden and unexpected'':

52-year-old Doctor Pier Giorgio Paesano died42-year-old Eligio Greco died 45-year-old Guardia Mangano died59-year-old Giuseppe Bottani died51-year-old Rachid Khlifa died 22-year-old Guardia Mangano dead 59-years-old Giuseppe Bottani dead63-year-old man dead53-year-old man dead48-year-old man, Danny, dead33-years-old Mauro Libralesso dead 30-year-old boy from Varese, Mattia deadElected Italian officials, police, and medical workers should be demanding investigations into these deaths. Are the number of people dying not ''significant'' enough for them. Authorities' inaction is a slap in the face to the victims' families.

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:37

Mars, Incorporated is being sued by a consumer who claims that Skittles are ''are unfit for human consumption.''

Consumer Jenile Thames filed the lawsuit in Oakland, California, on Thursday, claiming in court documents obtained by NBC News that the candy contains ''heightened levels'' of titanium dioxide (TiO2).

In a statement to TODAY, a Mars, Inc, spokesperson said, ''While we do not comment on pending litigation, our use of titanium dioxide complies with FDA regulations.''

The lawsuit claims that the company ''has long known of the health problems posed'' by TiO2. It states that in February 2016, the company ''committed to phasing out'' the TiO2 in its product but has yet failed to do so.

The lawsuit notes that the toxin was banned in France in 2019 and that the company announced it would comply with the country's law. Just last May, the European Food Safety Authority determined that TiO2 ''could not be considered safe for consumption,'' prompting the European Commission's announcement that it would ''adopt a ban on the use of TiO2 as a food additive.''

In the U.S., the company continues to use TiO2 in the product and has failed ''to inform consumers of the implications of consuming the toxin,'' per the lawsuit.

The document claims consumers ''are at heightened risk of a host of health effects for which they were unaware stemming from genotoxicity '-- the ability of a chemical substance to change DNA.''

The lawsuit claims that TiO2 is used in paints, coatings, adhesives, plastics, printing inks and roofing materials and that it ''has demonstrated an ability to pass through biological membranes, circulate through the body and enter cells.''

Per the lawsuit, Thames would not have purchased the Skittles if he had known it contained TiO2. He claims the ingredients on the candy are difficult to read due to the contrast in color between the font and packaging.

Thames seeks unspecified damages for fraud and violations of California consumer protection laws.

Liz Calvario is a Los Angeles-based reporter and editor for TODAY.com who covers entertainment, pop culture and trending news. She enjoys rocking a stylish outfit, a good cup of coffee, traveling and the soulful sounds of the Backstreet Boys.

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:35

The Sovereign accounts of the rich and powerful exposed

As we have reported, the IT whistle blowers (aka white hat hackers) tasked with stress-testing the Financial Reset CSRQ-SM software immediately took issue with the disturbing, exclusionary class system being implemented. They did not agree with it, and they have blown the whistle.

Over the course of many months, they searched different individuals to learn about their classification and took screenshots of these results.

Below, Bill Sweet and Gideon discuss through Telegram what was discovered (please open the class system article and Gideon's Q & A for further context; join our Telegram for discussion).

*The following exchanges occurred over the past year and have been edited for grammar, brevity and clarity. Funds amounts have been blurred to prevent triangulation of the time when the photos were taken.

Bill: Did your men look up any Congresspeople?

Gideon: ''No, they're Europeans, so they looked up some European politicians. Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel were all class Sovereign.''

Bill: I have some names, you let me know if you have their status or any screenshots, will that work?

Gideon: ''Sure.''

Bill: Ok, let's start with the President, sorry, the United States President, Joe Biden.

Gideon: ''We checked, he's Sovereign, no screenshot but I can get one.''

Bill: How about the California governor, Gavin Newsom? I think he wants to be President.

Gideon: ''I did have them look him up and we got a screenshot. No surprise on his status.''

Bill: That's what I would expect. How about Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis?

Gideon: ''We looked them up and both were Sovereign. I didn't get any screenshots but I can ask again if I can get some. What was odd was neither of them had transferred any funds.''

Bill: Interesting. Well, I guess I'm disappointed but not shocked they are Sovereigns.

Gideon: ''We've gone over so many of these people, we've found one or two exceptions to the rule out of all the politicians and celebrities we've looked up. Almost all are Sovereign.''

Bill: They obviously care more about themselves than us, because they aren't telling anyone about this. They know about it, don't they? They would have to.

Gideon: ''They do because of the in-flows. We see them putting real funds into these accounts. There's no way it would happen without their knowledge. They know.''

Bill: But Trump and DeSantis had no account activity, no in-flows? They weren't putting anything in? Maybe they don't know.

Gideon: ''It's hard to say. They are among a few who didn't have any in-flows.''

Bill: That's only mildly encouraging. Assuming they don't know, when they find out and they don't tell the world, then we know they're compromised. Right?

Gideon: ''I think it's safe to say that. They're going to find out at some point if they don't know, so yes. That's definitely a test of their character, unless they say nothing and try to sabotage the system from within. It's an unknowable at this point.''

Bill: There's a list here of names I'm going to send you, pick out the ones you've looked up or you can look up.

*Gideon received the list and over the ensuing months, the white hat hackers looked up some of the names and took screenshots.

Gideon : ''We'll start with Glenn Beck, you were curious. He's Sovereign. We saw a lot of in-flows into his account.''

''We checked on Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager and Tucker Carlson, by most standards they would be considered mainstream conservatives who shouldn't be Sovereigns or supportive of this reset. They are all Sovereign, all had in-flows.''

Bill: Wow, I liked them. Not anymore. These are big names. Look at Tucker's account! $500 Million, am I reading that right?

Gideon: ''Yes, but it's going to be a lot more. They're going to end up with five times that by the time this is over. They're moving all the money in pretty slowly. They get this amazing conversation rate for everything they put in. We still don't know how this is going to work, to me it just looks like they are draining the planet of all its wealth and putting it into USDR.''

Bill: If we put this out to the public, what's our exposure, our legal risk?

Gideon: ''There might be some, but the public should know this. They should know the political commentators and journalists they trust are lying about how they are a protected class. Lying, or at least withholding information, about this software, about this financial reset, about what's coming.''

Bill: What about the biometric ID, should we cover that up?

Gideon: ''I feel like we would be protecting them if we did that, if that makes sense.''

Bill: I agree, why protect them? Who cares, let the world see their ID number.

Gideon: ''I'm in agreement. It's riskier for us, in terms of them escalating our case, but it's the right thing to do. Let the world see it.''

Bill: What's confusing to me is that these conservatives are not going to be in favour of this reset. How could they support this once it happens, after it happens? What are they going to be saying?

Gideon: ''My guys have given me a lot of information about documentation they were required to read. This was the sort of introductory stuff you would get if you were first learning how to use, maybe, Windows, or any new major software. They're going to give you a presentation, walk through, 'This is what this does, this is why this does this.' So they learned a lot from these presentations and the required reading that came with it.

Now, it wasn't explicit. It doesn't say, 'We're going to put the Quarantined in camps,' nothing like that. It's the kind of legalese you would expect, carefully worded. Something like, 'The necessary discourse needed for plausible acceptance.' From all that, they concluded guys like Tucker Carlson, conservatives, they are going to speak out against this. They will be against it. They will complain relentlessly about it. But, this is a big but, they will steer the conversation a certain way. They will ignore the plight of the Quarantined. They will lie and say they are Common, when they're really Sovereign. They are essentially disinfo agents. They won't be any kind of galvanizing threat to the system, they'll just whine about it.''

Bill: Right, ok, makes sense. They'll do what they're doing now, then. Complain, but leave out certain things, give you some truth but not all of it. Meanwhile, they're Sovereign class, protected, wealthy beyond belief!

Gideon: ''They need to be exposed for what they are. Endlessly talking. Not really calling out the real players behind all this. Not really saving the Republic. Not taking any real risks that could get them hurt or deplaformed or cancelled. If they're on TV and have a huge audience, you can bet they're allowed to be there.''

Bill: What about Alex Jones, did you find out?

Gideon: ''He's Sovereign, but we didn't see any in-flows. So they must have a need for him, otherwise he would be put in the Q class and his life would be, or will be, over.''

Bill: Then he's either compromised now, or he will be later. Did you check Paul Joseph Watson? I'm curious about him, he's really against the New World Order. He's always bashing it.

Gideon: ''He's Sovereign. Here's the screenshot.''

Bill: Unbelievable. How can he be Sovereign?

Gideon: ''He must be leaving out key details. I don't watch him, but he must be doing something they want.''

Bill: What about the Q Anon people? I mean the people promoting it? I don't mean the followers. I'm assuming all the Q Anon followers are Restricted or Quarantined.

Gideon: ''You're correct on the followers. I haven't checked on the leaders, except for Ron and Jim Watkins. It would be harder to get their names, most of them don't use their full names. Do we know the person behind X22 Report?''

Bill: Well, he goes by Dave, let me see. [Google searches turn up nothing, other than an erroneous link to a David Booth.] The media linked Dave to the wrong Dave, there's nothing on him.

Gideon: ''Then we'll have to dig deeper on him. We need a last name and probably more, a birth date.''

Bill: I want to know if the Q promoters are Sovereigns. That would tell us a lot. That would lift the lid on everything. If they're not, then we know we can trust them. If they are, then we know they're full of shit.

Gideon: ''Agreed.''

Bill: So what about Ron and Jim Watkins?

Gideon: ''Both are Common Class.''

Bill: Ok, that's weird. Huge promoters of Q, but Common.

Gideon: ''I looked into them a little bit on my own, and they don't have a lot of political backing or money. They're not rich from Q Anon, but we know other people are. We need to look at those other people.''

''The fact they're Common means they're not considered a threat at all, but they are not part of this cabal, either. They're very low-level operators that don't have any connections. That's my conclusion.''

Bill: Do you think they are Q, or they started it?

Gideon: ''I believe they took over an account that started it on the forum they ran, and they posted a lot under it. I don't know if they do now. I think there are tons of agents involved with Q, or piggybacked or co-opted Q, who are running the show now. They're not in charge of the narrative, in my opinion, at least not anymore.''

Bill: We have to follow-up on the Q people, check on more, don't let me forget.

Gideon: ''I won't. I think it's important, too.''

Bill: I asked about Bolsonaro. Did you check him?

Gideon: ''Yes. He's one of the rare exceptions. He's listed at Restricted, and they put his vaccination status at plus 5 booster shots instead of the required 3.''

Bill: I'm happy to hear it. I really like him. We can trust him. What do you think they'll do to him?

Gideon: ''The collapse will happen and they'll get rid of him. I know Brazil is a problem but not a big priority, either. Their number one focus is the United States by far, then Europe, then Canada, making sure they all come to heel and accept this.

The UK, Australia and New Zealand are no issue for them, because in fact they're leading this. China is on board completely. The sub-Asian countries will all fall in line. Most of Africa will comply, but their infrastructure is such a mess it's going to take a few years to get them sorted out. The Middle East is fully on board, Iran, Pakistan, completely on board. Israel will feign a bit a disagreement with it, but in reality, they are more on board than anyone. Eventually, the world government will be moved to Israel.

India was given a lot of promises, now they're on board. They weren't at first. Lots of pieces had to be moved around to get them on board, now they are. For all their nationalism, they didn't care at all about the people, all they cared about was that their particular caste system was going to stay in place and their wealthy citizens were going to be Sovereigns. It turns out a lot were going to get moved to Common and they were furious about it. It was sorted out.''

Bill: Ok, we have to check on Putin, did you get him?

Gideon: ''No. They've searched, some names come up, they're convinced none of those names are him. So we don't know right now. It could be he's cloaked, hidden, or just under a completely different name or false name, or maybe his real name? I think Putin just isn't his real name, or the one connected to his biometric ID.''

Bill: I bet it's not his real name! The one we know him by.

Gideon: ''That's my guess. Because so far, they never had an issue accessing anyone. So the name just being wrong would make sense. We just don't know his real name.''

Bill: Do your guys run into issues with names?

Gideon: ''Well, the software is very deep. So you search a name, find the best match, line up the basics, like a birth date and go from there. If it's not clear, they have sub systems and categories you can delve into and eventually you can pinpoint the right person. Very common names do present a bit of a challenge, so if Dave of X22Report is 'Dave Smith' it will take some work, but it should show who is posting under his social accounts if you look for those.''

Bill: What about Elon Musk?

Gideon: No screenshot, but he's Sovereign.

Bill: Once again, not a surprise! They're all Sovereign, aren't they?

Gideon: ''Almost all of them.''

Bill: They have this locked in, don't they?

Gideon: ''They do. It's decades of planning.''

Bill: Can we stop it? Can prevent it now?

Gideon: ''Not unless, I think, what we're going to expose went extremely viral to the point we're talking about 50 million views. It would have to be on all the social media, people seeing this software, seeing that it's real. They have to see it's real, Bill. It can't be some article, some opinion, do you understand?''

Bill: Of course. The public is totally brain-dead. It has to be real for them to even penetrate the brain damage. My opinion, your opinion, videos of Klaus Schawb admitting this, it doesn't move the needle! They don't care, they don't get it. But seeing a class system, in real life, in front of them, that could get them to wake up.

Gideon: ''Yes it could. But then, the brainwashing is so deep, some will say, 'Oh, free money, a fair system.' They will like it, Bill. A lot will agree with this, even if we expose it.''

''What destroys it all, Bill, is the Sovereign status. That alone destroys it for them, the liberals will hate that, too, and that's why it's a very closely guarded secret and will remain one. That's why what we are doing is so dangerous.''

Bill: I know. I very much know. We expose this Sovereign thing, that is what really gets us killed. The other classes, some people won't like it, but if they're all on the same playing field, they can wrap their heads around it. They can't accept some special class, that's lying to them, pretending to be something else.

Gideon: ''That's the only way I see we win. Otherwise, it's plan B, it's looking at how we can do something by changing ourselves to Sovereigns and on the other side of this, sabotaging the whole thing. Bill, if we're not Sovereign, you realize it's slavery?''

Bill: Yes. I'm scared to death for people. We already have not much power, this means we have zero power. Zero. No free speech, no money, nothing. Nothing.

Gideon: ''If people knew how bad this is going to get, they would riot right now. They don't know. Ten people know right now.''

Bill: I've asked you this so much you're going to get annoyed with me, but we can't switch all the Trump voters to Sovereign in one fell swoop can we? We can't do maybe one thousand?

Gideon: ''It's by hand. It's one edit, at a time. There is an option to select multiple accounts, up to 500,000 at a time, something like that, and perform a mass edit, but they refuse to risk that. It would be a red flag. It would trigger something. 'Why was this huge edit made by this employee on this day at this time?' sort of thing.''

''So they can't do that. But they can make edits, one by one, over a few days. They've done it probably thirty times now with no problem. They go in, delete all the social data and voting data, then copy data from a random Democrat, then spoof some of it, make a few changes, then switch the class to Sovereign. Now it's set.''

Bill: Can they add USDR?

Gideon: ''Yes, they can move it.''

Bill: No, I mean can they change that? Just create it?

Gideon: ''There's no function for that, to create it out of thin air. It seems there's a reason they want to move capital, existing capital, and turn it into USDR. We think it plays into how they are collapsing the wealth of the world, like siphoning it away so the collapse actually happens. We also think it may have to do with some kind of need for accounting.

For example, let's say some low-level media person at the New York Times is a Sovereign. Maybe they have a net worth, or liquid capital, of $50,000 USD. Now they move it into USDR. They get the nice conversion, but they're not going to be at the level of a Billionaire. It seems like this is how they want this all done, so the Sovereigns are graded based on their existing wealth under the current system.

They're not just assigning people wealth. They're not saying, 'Oh, ok, Ron DeSantis, here's $1 Billion in USDR.' No, Ron will have to slowly and carefully move his money into the account. He hasn't yet. Maybe he will tomorrow. We don't know. If he doesn't, we don't know the result of that. He will have privileges, but nothing in his account.''

''So I'm curious how that will play out. It could be a bargaining chip, 'Ok, Ron, we did this reset, here's your Sovereign account, but nothing is in it, you have zero USDR, so you need to play ball with the program, then we'll get you shored up.' If he says 'No', ok, he either has no money, or he's going to get downgraded to Common or worse.''

Bill: It makes perfect sense to me. They have this game-planned for maximum control. They used AI, didn't they? They're using AI for our writing patterns, they're doing it for everything.

[Part 2 of Bill's Q & A article will discuss how advanced AI is already linking anonymous accounts to existing, real-world data and exposing the identity of those who are not Sovereign and have not had their data deleted.]

Gideon: ''They are doing it with everything, Bill. It makes it really hard for us to stop them. It means they know every outcome. They know our behavioural tendencies. I'm not saying they can look past free will, but they can make really good guesses.''

''I'm really worried about the writing AI, too. Right now it's not very good. In a year, maybe two years, now it's so good just about everything you write they can link it to your data. If you don't get changed to Sovereign, after this reset, you won't be able to write anonymously at all. If you don't even know about this, you'll get found out easily. This is where the extreme restriction to free speech comes in and renders the Internet useless for people trying to resist this.''

''They'll know its you, with any bulk of a writing sample. The voice AI is also pretty good, too.''

Bill: The lower classes won't even know this if we don't inform them. They'll think they can still be anonymous after this reset, they won't be.

Gideon: ''They will falsely think they can do anonymous communications. They won't even think that their writing style or voice will expose them. They won't make the adjustments to fool the AI, which don't always work, either.''

Bill: That's why getting your data deleted is so important.

Gideon: ''Yes, it un-links you from your old data, because your old data is now gone. You can write and speak and be yourself without any worry.''

Bill: Being Sovereign brings with it all of this freedom, but we still have to be smart about it. What's the risk we get found out after the reset?

Gideon: ''I give it about 5% or less. It will be very hard for them to figure out that you're not supposed to be Sovereign. Your old data is gone. Your writing data is gone. Your social data is gone, or spoofed with that of a Democrat. Your voting data is gone, or spoofed with that of a Democrat.''

''My guys just copy the data of some liberal or Democrat, and make a few changes so it looks more unique, and poof, now the system likes you. They have a randomizer they use to change online handles and spin some of the writing samples, it looks unique to the software. It takes a few hours to complete all the changes. You now have a history of posting on Reddit, supporting Bernie, the system loves you. The system thinks you're the best thing since sliced bread and has no reason to question your status.

So, there's almost no way for them to know. The only way is if you, as a Sovereign, start behaving in a way that gives off red flags after the reset. So we'll have to be careful. The sabotage will have to be carried out in a discreet way.''

Bill: Right, right. The deleting of the data is the game-changer. I feel a lot safer and freer because of it. On the other side of this, we won't be sitting on our hands. As Sovereigns, we can just wreck this whole thing.

Gideon: ''We can if we're careful and plan. Being Sovereign gives us a huge edge. They won't know who we are. They won't suspect anything. They'll think we're one of them. It's very powerful what we will be able to do.

Based on what my guys can do, we can even place ourselves in better positions. There's internal data they can change. So we can put ourselves right in the mix, politically. We can't make ourselves heads of state, of course, but we can move up the ladder, by changing the data.

They don't have redundancies for this, because my guys are vetted at the top level. Top clearances. They are not expecting sabotage from them, specifically. My guys know the system better than their supervisors, too, another wrinkle in all this. The supervisors do some basic monitoring but can't see or have any clue about these changes being made.

''It puts my guys in a key position to literally save the human race. That's not an overstatement. That's the reality of this and how important this is.''

Please copy and share this information so more can prepare and be aware of what is coming.

Visit the WeAreSovereign website for links and resources. Join our Telegram for discussion.

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:35

Facts about each CSRQ-SM class

Each class within the CSRQ-SM software app has specific parameters. Each class contains dozens of metrics and variables. Listed below are the most basic, which appear on the account profile when the account is queued.

C '' Common Class

Amount of accounts: 7.1 Billion or 95.5% of humans (approximate)

Covid vaccination required: Yes

Booster shots required: Yes (2 or more)

Asset limitations: Yes (no greater than $5,000 USDR net worth at any given time)

Account limitations: Yes (bank account cannot exceed $1,000 USDR)

Carbon score: Yes (restricts travel and food consumption; 1 is lowest and best, 500 is highest and worst).

S '' Sovereign Class

Amount of accounts: 7-8 Million or 0.1% of humans (approximate)

Covid vaccination required: No

Booster shots required: No

Asset limitations: No (no maximum or ceiling for total net worth)

Account limitations: No (bank account has no limit)

Carbon score: No (no score is calculated or enforced)

R '' Restricted

Amount of accounts: 250 Million or 3.36% of humans (approximate)

Covid vaccination required: Yes

Booster shots required: Yes (3 or more)

Asset limitations: Yes (no greater than $1,000 net worth at any given time)

Account limitations: Yes (bank account cannot exceed $500 USDR)

Carbon score: Yes (restricts travel and food consumption; 1 is lowest and best, 500 is highest and worst).

Q '' Quarantined

Amount of accounts: 75 Million or 1% of humans (approximate)

Covid vaccination required: Yes

Booster shots required: Yes (5 or more)

Asset limitations: Yes (no greater than $500 net worth at any given time)

Account limitations: Yes (bank account cannot exceed $250 USDR)

Carbon score: Yes (restricts travel and food consumption; 1 is lowest and best, 500 is highest and worst).

Each class also contains separate screens for fines, demerits, penalties and so on, as well as sections for rewards for good behaviour.

Sovereign accounts do not have these variables, though they appear to contain a separate module for certain benefits, such as vacations, golf club memberships and so on.

More details will be added to this page soon.

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 13:26

The globalist billionaire who funded the woke transformation of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello paid for a similar overhaul of James Madison's house '-- where the author of the US Constitution has been shoved into a supporting role, while slavery and racism take center stage.

No American flags fly at Montpelier, Madison's plantation home in rural Virginia, and not a single display focuses on the life and accomplishments of America's foremost political philosopher, who created our three-branch federal system of government, wrote the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers, and served two terms as president.

Instead, blindsided tourists are hammered by high-tech exhibits about Madison's slaves and current racial conflicts, thanks to a $10 million grant from left-leaning philanthropist David M. Rubenstein.

''I was kind of thinking we'd be hearing more about the Constitution,'' one baffled dad said when The Post visited the president's home this week. ''But everything here is really about slavery.''

''It's been inspirational '... I guess,'' shrugged John from Wisconsin after taking the $35 guided tour.

Not a single exhibit at Montpelier focuses on James Madison's life and accomplishments. Photo by GraphicaArtis/Getty ImagesReviewers on social media have been more harsh.

''They really miss the mark,'' Greg Hancock of Mesa, Ariz. posted last week. ''We left disappointed not having learned more about '... the creation of the Constitution.''

''The worst part were the gross historical inaccuracies and constant bias exhibited by the tour guide,'' complained AlexZ, who visited July 8.

The overhaul was due to a $10 million grant from philanthropist David M. Rubenstein. AP Photo/Manuel Balce CenetaVisitors to Montpelier get to see just three rooms in the sprawling mansion. The estate ''made Madison the philosopher, farmer, statesman, and enslaver that he was,'' the guide said as The Post's group entered the home '-- a line she repeated at the end of her spiel.

Outdoors and in the house's huge basement, dozens of interactive stations seek to draw a direct line between slavery, the Constitution, and the problems of African Americans today.

''A one hour Critical Race Theory experience disguised as a tour,'' groused Mike Lapolla of Tulsa, Okla., after visiting last August.

A visitor at Montpelier entering an exhibit called ''The Mere Distinction of Color.'' Adrienne Eichner/eichnerstudios.comHurricane Katrina flooding, the Ferguson riots, incarceration, and more all trace back to slavery, according to a 10-minute multi-screen video.

Another exhibit damns every one of the nation's first 18 presidents '-- even those, like John Adams and Abraham Lincoln, who never owned slaves '-- for having benefited from slavery in some way.

The only in-depth material about the Constitution itself appears in a display that pushes the claim, championed by the controversial 1619 Project, that racism was the driving force behind the entire American political system.

An exhibit in the estate about ''Slavery and the Presidency.'' Adrienne Eichner/eichnerstudios.com Visitors can push a button to learn which presidents owned slaves. Adrienne Eichner/eichnerstudios.comEven the children's section of the gift shop leans far left, with titles like ''Antiracist Baby'' by Ibram X. Kendi and ''She Persisted'' by Chelsea Clinton.

Virginia Rep. Bob Good called the historical rewrite ''a deliberate attack on those founding institutions.''

''The left is trying to revise our history and is perpetuating a dishonest narrative,'' the Republican said.

A section in the home dedicated to ''Slavery and the Constitution.'' Adrienne Eichner/eichnerstudios.com Visitors watching a video presentation that includes topics like the Ferguson riots and Hurricane Katrina flooding. Adrienne Eichner/eichnerstudios.comBut the progressive programming will likely accelerate in the wake of a board battle at the Montpelier Foundation, the nonprofit that runs the estate.

In May, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns the home, forced the board to accept a slate of left-wing activist members in the name of racial equity.

The new members aim to transform Montpelier into ''a black history and black rights organization that could care less about James Madison and his legacy,'' board member Mary Alexander, a documented descendant of Madison's slave Paul Jennings, told the Orange County Review.

''There were hundreds of thousands of slave owners,'' Alexander said. ''But not hundreds of thousands who wrote the Constitution.''

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who rose to power on parent outcry over critical race theory in public schools, refused to comment on Rubensteins donation '-- although the two were close allies at the Carlyle Group investment firm, where both made their fortunes.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation brought left-wing activists to the board of the estate in May. Adrienne Eichner/eichnerstudios.com''The governor believes we should teach all history, including the good and the bad, but firmly believes that we shouldn't distort it,'' said Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter.

''This is part of a larger movement to distort the legacy of the Founders and undermine the principles they put forth,'' said Brenda Hafera of the Heritage Foundation's Simon Center for American Studies.

''If you can undermine the Founders, you create the opportunity for those principles to be replaced by something else,'' she said '-- ''something like Critical Race Theory or identity politics.''

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 12:54

Two of America's top health agencies are reportedly hemorrhaging staff as poor decision-making, described by staff as 'bad science,' has led to low morale.

Dr. Marty Makary (pictured), a public health expert from Johns Hopkins University, is a critic of both school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic and in vaccines for children aged four and younger

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are both suffering staff shortages, according to Dr. Marty Makary, a top public-health expert at Johns Hopkins University, writes at Common Sense, the Substack run by former New York Times columnist, Bari Weiss.

Major decisions made by the agencies that hurt morale included support for masking in schools, school closures during the pandemic and the authorization of COVID-19 vaccines for children four and under.

Both agencies, along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been mired in controversy throughout the pandemic for inconsistent messaging and for decision-making that didn't seem to line up with available science.

'They have no leadership right now. Suddenly, there's an enormous number of jobs opening up at the highest level positions,' an anonymous NIH scientist told Common Sense.

Schools became a battleground of the COVID-19 pandemic in America.

When the virus stormed the world in 2020, many officials immediately shut things down - schools, retail stores, entertainment venues, restaurants - out of an fear of the unknown.

Initial data showed children suffered limited risk when they contracted the virus, though, and that it was mainly the elderly and severely immunocompromised that bore the virus's burden.

The CDC and NIH are facing staffing issues after low morale and poor decision-making from leadership led to many leaving the agencies, Common Sense reports

Despite the evidence, the CDC still recommended schools stay closed until the end of the 2019-2020 school year.

While individual school districts were allowed to make decisions for themselves - and many Republican leaning counties did quickly reopen schools - many major metropolitan areas under Democratic control kept schools closed for extended periods of time.

Earlier this year, Makary told DailyMail.com that the decision to keep schools closed was one of the worst made in the pandemic, specifically citing that minority communities who disproportionately lived in these areas were set the furthest behind academically.

'CDC failed to balance the risks of COVID with other risks that come from closing schools,' an anonymous CDC scientist told Common Sense.

'Learning loss, mental health exacerbations were obvious early on and those worsened as the guidance insisted on keeping schools virtual. CDC guidance worsened racial equity for generations to come. It failed this generation of children.'

When schools did reopen, many required children to remain masked at all times outside of lunch periods, following guidance from the CDC.

COVID tsar Dr. Anthony Fauci repeatedly warned that lifting mask mandates from children was 'risky,' while simultaneously saying it was time to return back to normal. That was in February.

On July 13, Fauci flip-flopped again, recommending that masks still be work in indoor public gatherings while telling Americans they shouldn't let the BA.5 COVID-19 variant 'disrupt our lives.'

On July 13, Fauci flip-flopped again , recommending that masks still be work in indoor public gatherings while telling Americans they shouldn't let the BA.5 COVID-19 variant 'disrupt our lives.'

Makary, however, warned masks may've harmed kids' social and emotional development as they couldn't properly read human emotions or the facial expressions of covered faces.

The decision that seemed to raise the most commotion was the authorization of COVID-19 jabs for children aged six months to five years old.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky signed off on those vaccines in June, after a panel of advisors to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted 12 to 0 in favor of COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as six months on June 18.

'We now know, based on rigorous scientific review, that the vaccines available here in the United States can be used can be used safely and effectively in children under five. Vaccinating children is a critical opportunity to protect them against hospitalization and death from COVID-19,' she said.

Officials at the FDA and CDC authorized COVID-19 vaccines for children aged six months to five years old, despite little evidence that the shots were effective, according to Makary. Pictured: A young girl in New York City receives a COVID-19 vaccine on June 21

Makary criticized the data submitted by Pfizer and Moderna to receive the green-light, saying it was lacking: Pfizer's trial included under 1,000 children and didn't show any efficacy against infection, he reports.

Moderna reported just a four percent reduction in infection in their trial of around 6,000 children.

'A more honest announcement would have been: 'We approved the vax for babies & toddlers based on very little data. While we believe its safe in this population, the study sample size was too low to make a [conclusion] about safety. Note that studies were done in kids w/o natural immunity,'' Makary told DailyMail.com about the decision in June.

'The public has no idea how bad this data really is. It would not pass muster for any other authorization,' an FDA official said.

Amid the many controversies the agency was facing at the time, the CDC announced in April that it would reevaluate its structure and processes in the hopes of developing better processes to communicate with Americans.

It is unclear what changes, if any, were made as a result of the evaluation.

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 12:47

I had the great honor of being interviewed by Dr. Reiner Fuellmich , Viviane Fischer , and Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg during Session 111: ''Reconstellation'' of the Corona Investigative Committee , whose heroic fact-finding discussions with hundreds of physicians, scientists, and other experts since July 2020 have formed a crucial part of my own education .

They asked me to speak on the depopulation agenda explored in my Anatomy of a Philanthropath series. I regret that I overestimated how much I could cram into fifty-odd minutes so was unable to complete my presentation before the next guest arrived in the studio. I let them know I would be publishing my notes here so people can read the information I skipped over and reference the hyperlinked sources.

Since the beginning of this manufactured crisis, the Berlin Corona Investigative Committee has been conducting the exploratory work that I would have expected every government and so-called public health organization to have undertaken from the outset.

The fact that this did not occur was one of the first signs that COVID represented a departure from all prior pandemic protocols, but the question I kept asking myself is, Why?

Here are some of the permutations of that question I started asking beginning in early 2020 and continuing through the present-day:

TOTALITARIANISM Why are governments, public health agencies, the media, Big Tech, and ''experts'' stoking fear instead of calmly assessing the data and attempting to dispel panic'--like every responsible authority has done for genuine crises in the past?

Why are all of these entities speaking in unison with a single voice as if everyone has been handed the same script?

Why are they covering COVID 24/7 on every available outlet , drumming up the death tallies and case counts and behaving as if it were the only newsworthy story on the planet?

Why are people all suddenly parroting the same phrases like ''social distancing,'' '' New Normal ,'' ''Build Back Better,'' and the Orwellian double-think gem ''together apart''?

Why does it seem like everyone has suddenly lost their capacities for critical thinking, reasoning, logic, and scientific analysis?

Why are they encouraging discrimination against those who refuse to comply with unscientific and nonsensical guidelines?

Why did they turn the world into an open-air prison ?

Why are governments patterning their policies after Biderman's Chart of Coercion ?

Why does it feel like we're being subjected to a permanent Milgram Obedience''Stanford Prison''Asch Conformity experiment ?

Why are Big Tech and Big Media silencing people'--especially scientists , physicians , and other knowledgeable individuals who are most qualified to speak about these matters?

Why are California and the federal government threatening physicians with loss of their licenses for spreading '' misinformation ,'' which happens to be based on scientifically demonstrable evidence and clinical experience?

Why are such extreme measures being taken for a disease with an infinitesimal fatality rate that primarily only affects those who are already likely to die'--namely the elderly and those with serious comorbidities?

Why are governments rewriting human rights policies and revising statutes to allow the forced quarantining of healthy individuals?

Why are ordinary, working-class Canadians who are bravely protesting authoritarian policies being vilified by the media and their leaders ?

Why are they pushing for International Health Regulations (IHR) amendments that would grant an unelected bureaucrat and accused genocidal war criminal control over the entire world's public health policy?

Why is the WHO drafting a pandemic accord that would give it the ability to set a ''OneHealth'' policy for all member states and seize supranational powers in times of declared public health ''emergencies''?

Why are Australians and New Zealanders being bullied, abused, arrested, and quarantined like they're living in a police state?

Why are so many colluders willingly serving as implements of tyranny?

Why aren't people worried that the ten stages of genocide are unfolding before our eyes ?

Why do people think relinquishing their liberties in exchange for ''safety'' is temporary when it has never been so in the past ?

Why are so many people belligerently bamboozled ?

Why are values such as independent thought, integrity, ethics, freedom, transparency, and individuality being denigrated while groupthink, obedience, complicity, prejudice, collectivism, fear, rage, and hatred are being promoted?

Why are governments and employers mandating vaccines and pushing for vaxxports when they have been proven both unsafe and ineffective ?

Why does it feel like we're living in a dystopian fairy tale ?

HARMFUL & ILLOGICAL HEALTH POLICIES Why aren't health authorities making dietary, lifestyle, and supplement recommendations that would bolster people's immunity'--like encouraging them to eat healthy; reduce their stress levels; get proper sleep; exercise; enjoy sunshine and fresh air; and practice other habits that help prevent illness?

Why aren't they focusing on the conventional practices for preventing respiratory illnesses such as washing your hands and staying home when you have symptoms?

Why are we being commanded to ''Trust the Science'' when scientific inquiry is a continually evolving process and requires transparency and diverse viewpoints to progress?

Why are they suddenly telling us asymptomatic spread exists , when there was no evidence for such transmission and no studies demonstrating that this has occurred with past coronaviruses?

Why are they pretending like there's no such thing as natural immunity ?

Why did they previously redefine ''pandemic'' to exclude ''simultaneous epidemics worldwide with enormous numbers of deaths and illness''?

Why did they change the definition of ''herd immunity'' to inject the idea that it is acquired through vaccination when it was previously understood by immunologists and virologists to be achieved naturally when a virus spreads throughout a community?

Why did they change the definitions of '' vaccine ,'' '' fully vaccinated ,'' '' cause of death ,'' and '' case ,'' for that matter?

Why did they censor Bakersfield doctors Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi when they provided sensible, experience-based, and reassuring textbook information about COVID transmission, treatment, and herd immunity at their April 22, 2020, press conference ?

Why are they using PCR tests to calculate case counts when their Nobel-Prize''winning creator said it ''allows you to take a very minuscule amount of anything and make it measurable and then talk about it in meetings and stuff like it is important'' ?

Why did Fauci'--or as I like to call him, Dr. Mengelfauci '--first tell the truth about masks not working, then lie about them working, and then say he lied when he'd originally told the long-established truth that masks are ineffective for respiratory viruses? And why did he lie about so many other things ?

Why are they telling us staying six feet apart will magically protect us?

Why are they counting deaths with and not just from COVID?

Why are they putting infected patients in nursing homes , where the population is the most vulnerable?

Why are nursing home residents being isolated, tortured, neglected, eldercided with midazolam , and deprived of the visiting rights even prisoners enjoy?

Why are they instituting policies the WHO previously warned against '--from lockdowns to masking to disinfection to border closures'--because they are known to cause mass-scale harm, poverty, and even death?

Why are they closing schools (and later, pushing injections on kids ) when children are at the least risk of contracting and spreading COVID?

Why are they requiring children to mask, social-distance, and follow other ineffective rules that impair their development, inflict psychological and emotional damage, and even cause physical harm ?

Why are they continuing to use ventilation for COVID patients when it was found early on to be causing deaths ?

Why is so much data not shared or being hidden from the public?

Why are they financially incentivizing the administration of a drug found to cause multiple-organ failure and with no clinical efficacy for COVID?

Why are hospital staff getting away with ''bagging'' COVID patients with plastic equipment covers to ''protect'' the workers?

THWARTING OF EARLY TREATMENT PROTOCOLSWhy didn't they immediately start searching for treatments and researching the effectiveness of repurposed drugs per standard operating procedure?

Why aren't they providing recommendations for at-home care and instead telling people to wait until their lips turn blue and then go to the hospital?

Why are disinformation campaigns being launched against early-treatment protocols ?

Why are the doctors who prescribe these life-saving treatments being smeared and stripped of their licenses ?

Why is scientific fraud being committed to discredit a Nobel-Prize''winning medications ?

GLOBAL MASS INJECTION EXPERIMENTWhy are people okay with skipping long-term clinical trials for a novel gene therapy that has never been deployed on humans?

Why are they embarking on a coercive global mass injection campaign when such a feat has also never been attempted'--let alone with a genetic inoculation lacking long-term clinical safety data?

Why aren't people bothered that pharmaceutical companies have zero liability for these products thanks to emergency use authorizations?

Why aren't people being told they are experimental subjects and that the Pfizer clinical trials won't be completed until March 31, 2023 ?

Why are they advising pregnant women to get injected with an experimental product when they excluded pregnant and breastfeeding women from clinical trials ?

Why did Pfizer and the FDA ignore the devastating injuries suffered by twelve-year-old Maddie De Garay as a result of their clinical trial for adolescents ?

Why did the FDA want to hide the Pfizer clinical trial data from the public for seventy-five years ?

Why isn't the media shouting from the rooftops about the 1,223 deaths, 158,000 adverse events, and 1,291 side effects reported in the first ninety days of Pfizer's clinical trial and only recently disclosed to the public due to the FOIA request resulting in their release at a rate of 55,000 pages per month ?

Why, for that matter, aren't the media, government, or regulatory agencies concerned about the 1,314,592 adverse event reports received by the CDC through June 24, 2022'--including 29,031 deaths and 50,400 child reports ?

Why has the CDC never monitored its own adverse events reporting system for COVID injection safety signals'--only discovered recently thanks to another FOIA request ?

Why isn't anyone concerned that they keep moving the goalposts for the injection'--first promising that it would set us free , then saying it's not working because of the evil unvaxxed , then saying it loses efficacy after a few months and you need a booster shot , then saying you need second booster , then saying you need it every four months ?

Why are there so many breakthrough infections ?

Why are the boosted contracting COVID more than the uninjected?

Why did deaths attributed to COVID increase instead of decreasing after the mass injection program was rolled out?

Why does the immune system appear to suffer progressive destruction with each additional shot?

Why are cancers exploding in the injected?

Why are birth rates dropping around the world?

Why are there so many miscarriages , stillbirths , fertility problems , and disabilities in the babies of injected mothers?

Why are so many people developing myocarditis and having heart attacks after injection?

Why do they make it so difficult for medical staff to report adverse events?

Why are children , millennials , athletes , and other healthy people suddenly dying and becoming disabled ?

Why are pathologists finding that 93 percent of people who died after injection were killed by it?

Why are embalmers discovering mysterious wormlike strings in the corpses of the vaxxed?

Why did such a cosmically unprecedented mass fatality rate start in 2021'--so bad that they've had to make up SADS (Sudden Adult Death Syndrome) to cover for the reality that massive numbers of people are unexpectedly dropping dead ?

Why did life insurance companies pay out as much as 163 percent more for 18''64-year-olds and 258 percent more overall in 2021 over 2020?

Why is one of the largest casket manufacturers in North America reporting that sales of child-sized caskets have by 400 percent since December 2021 ?

Why is the funeral industry booming ?

Why did a German insurance executive get fired for reporting alarming numbers of vaxx injuries ?

Why aren't people being given informed consent about the risks of Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE), blood clots , Bell's Palsy , Guillain-Barr(C) syndrome , cardiac diseases , and the innumerable other debilitating and fatal side effects?

Why aren't the vaccine manufacturers making any efforts to improve their products to reduce mortality and adverse reactions?

Why is it okay to keep pharmaceutical products in circulation despite historically unprecedented rates of deaths and injuries when, before 2020, such drugs would have been recalled as soon as a tiny handful of serious reactions had been reported?

Why aren't the vaxxed more curious about what they've been injected with?

Finally, why are so few people asking these questions, and why are they censoring us for asking them?

After assessing and meticulously assembling thousands of pieces of evidence over the past two years, I have concluded the only logical answers to the above questions are:

PROFIT: accomplishing the largest wealth transfer from the middle class to the super-wealthy / super-rich in history;

POWER: setting the stage for The Great Reset and a global technocratic one-world tyranny ; and

DEMOCIDE: reducing the population to ''save the planet.''

In his 1928 book Propaganda , masterful consent engineer Edward Bernays revealed:

''The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.''

Most ordinary people cannot fathom the degree to which their beliefs and perceptions have been molded by the public-opinion engineers'--especially if they watch television and consume other mainstream media.

They are stuck in Plato's Cave and stubbornly refuse to believe the tales of those who have escaped the cave and returned to rescue them:

They call the ones trying to liberate them from their deception ''conspiracy theorists,'' ''antivaxxers,'' ''right-wingers,'' and ''fascists'' because those are the scripts their programmers have installed to prevent them from questioning the illusion they are voluntarily imprisoned in.

They merely need to take five minutes to view the data that is hiding in plain sight at OpenVAERS , but they aren't even willing to do that. Their captors are so confident the hypnotized will never awaken, they don't bother to conceal their corruption.

You've heard of turtles all the way down ? Well, this is corruption all the way down.

Getting back to those three end goals I mentioned earlier: profit, power, and democide.

Bernays and his fellow social engineers knew they had to work from the end goal backward. Want to capture women as a new consumer audience for cigarettes? Stage a ''Torches of Freedom'' demonstration at the 1929 Easter parade with glamorous debutantes sporting cigarettes as a sign of women's liberation.

Want to orchestrate a massive transfer of wealth, get people to accept one-world authoritarianism, and knock off a good portion of the population while you're at it?

Stage a pandemic and terrorize the public into relinquishing their liberties in the name of an illusory ''safety'' that will never arrive. Tell them the only way out is to accept a novel pharmaceutical product that governments (i.e., taxpayers) will be required to fork out billions of recurring dollars to fund. Decimate small businesses, evaporate jobs, wreck the economy, and force the vassals to depend on the State for survival. Make them think it's all for the ''greater good.''

Despite one sucker punch after another, the deceived will cling to their belief in their Stockholm saviors and attack those trying to free them from their enslavement until their dying breath.

Those who don't die immediately will generate a fortune in revenue for the pharmaceutical-medical complex thanks to their lifelong vaxx injuries and ravaged immune systems.

Pfizer, for example, reported a 77-percent increase in sales of VYNDAQEL®/VYNDAMAX® '--its product for treating transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy'--in second-quarter 2021. ''Coincidentally,'' the injections appear to cause cardiac amyloidosis, or stiff heart syndrome, according to this groundbreaking discovery by Dr. Jessica Rose , who will soon be submitting her paper on this research for peer review.

Meanwhile, the noble liars will perpetuate the Problem''Reaction''Solution hamster wheel until the requisite number of people have been eliminated'--or we stop the string-pullers from completing their democidal agenda.

They don't just want us to eat bugs'--to them, we are bugs.

Great Reset co-conspirator Prince Philip famously said :

''In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus to contribute something to solving overpopulation.''

Rik Mayall tried to warn us about this in his 2014 film, One by One , before his sudden death at fifty-six:

In Letter to a Holocaust Denier , I map the ten stages of genocide to the contemporary democide underway, citing menacing quotes from futurist and Fran§ois Mitterand special advisor Jacques Attali under #9) Extermination :

Below are excerpts from a 1981 interview conducted by Michel Salomon, in which Attali states:

''I believe rather in implicit totalitarianism with an invisible and decentralized 'Big Brother.' These machines for monitoring our health , which we could have for our own good, will enslave us for our own good . In a way, we will be subjected to gentle and permanent conditioning.''

''But as soon as you go beyond 60/65, people live longer than they produce and they cost society dearly. ''

''Indeed, from the point of view of society, it is much better for the human machine to come to an abrupt halt than for it to deteriorate gradually.''

''As a socialist, I am objectively opposed to extending life because it is an illusion, a false problem.''

'' Euthanasia will be one of the essential instruments of our future societies in all cases. In a socialist logic, to begin with, the problem is as follows: socialist logic is freedom and fundamental freedom is suicide ; consequently, the right to direct or indirect suicide is an absolute value in this type of society. In a capitalist society, killing machines , prostheses that will make it possible to eliminate life when it is too unbearable or economically too costly , will come into being and will be common practice. I therefore believe that euthanasia , whether it is a value of freedom or a commodity, will be one of the rules of future society .''

''Medicine is indicative of the evolution of a society that is moving towards a decentralized totalitarianism. We can already see a certain conscious or unconscious desire to conform as much as possible to social norms.''

''It is clear that the discourse on prevention, health economics and good medical practice will lead to the need for each individual to have a medical file which will be put on a magnetic tape. For epidemiological reasons, all these files will be centralized in a computer to which doctors will have access.''

''I believe that we are leaving a universe controlled by energy to enter the universe of information . If matter is energy, life is information . This is why the major producer of tomorrow's society will be living matter. Thanks in particular to genetic engineering , it will produce new therapeutic weapons , food and energy.''

You will recognize echoes of these prophesies when we get to fellow futurist and Attali intellectual heir Yuval Noah Harari a bit later.

While these concerns about overpopulation were all the rage in the 1970s and 1980s, reality has not borne out their dire predictions. Contrary to the sky-is-falling Malthusian projections of the Club of Rome ; philanthropath Bill Gates , inexplicably-unconvicted war criminal Henry Kissinger ; and other tyrants and colluders , the ''world's population is projected to nearly stop growing by the end of the century'' according to Pew Research .

Whether these diehard depopulationists are forging ahead with their culling plans because they genuinely believe the human species is growing at a rate that threatens the planet or they simply want to horde the Earth's resources for themselves is purely speculative'--although betting on malicious, self-serving intentions has historically paid off.

Either way, they have used COVID as a cloak to achieve all three of these objectives'--profit, power, and democide'--in record time.

My series of articles, Anatomy of a Philanthropath: Dreams of Democide & Dictatorship , outlines the depopulation agenda that has been brewing for centuries. I have merely dipped my toe into this ocean so far and hope to explore the iceberg submerged beneath the murky surface in future articles.

Next, I will present highlights from Anatomy of a Philanthropath . I encourage you to read the original articles for a more comprehensive portrait if you haven't yet done so:

Part 1: A Mostly Peaceful Depopulation Let's start out by defining ''philanthropath.'' A philanthropath is a psychopath masquerading as a philanthropist .

There is perhaps no more important tool for turning the tide of public opinion than framing, so if we want to win this war against the democidal dictators and their enablers, we must use framing, repetition, and viralization to propagate the truth.

Special note to the viewers of this video and readers of this article: If you only remember one thing from this presentation, make it ''philanthropath.'' Every time you reference Bill Gates, George Soros, Klaus Schwab, the Rockefellers, or any other philanthropaths, remember to use that term. Use the hashtag #Philanthropath in your social media. I want ''philanthropath'' to be synonymous with the architects of democide and tyranny. People need to feel disgust, revulsion, and a desire for justice when they see any of these perpetrators.

Most people are familiar with the exploits of Bill Gates'--including the African women who have been sterilized via his foundation's infertility-technology''laced tetanus vaccines and the Indian children who died or suffered vaxx injuries from Merck 's Gardasil HPV vaccine , so I'll skip over him and jump straight to April 1968, when ''a group of thirty individuals from ten countries'--scientists, educators, economists, humanists, industrialists, and national and international civil servants'--gathered in the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome,'' The Limits to Growth foreword tells us.

This was the historic moment during which the Club of Rome was founded and their Project on Predicament of Mankind was launched. You probably have a lot of questions about them. I do, too, so I will likely cover them in greater depth in a future article.

For now, however, let's take a look at this 2017 interview with former Club of Rome Director Dennis Lynn Meadows , one of the coauthors of the 1971 Predicament of Mankind report and 1974 book The Limits to Growth :

''Globally, we are so far above the population and consumption levels which can be supported by this planet that I know in one way or another it's gonna come back down.'... I hope that it can occur in a civil way, and I mean 'civil' in a special way. Peaceful. Peace doesn't mean that everybody's happy, but it means that conflict isn't solved through violence, through force but rather in other ways, and so, that's what I hope for, that we can, I mean'-- the planet can support something like a billion people , maybe two billion, depending on how much liberty and how much material consumption you want to have. If you want more liberty and more consumption, you have to have fewer people.

'' Conversely, you can have more people '... we could even have eight or nine billion probably if we have a very strong dictatorship which is smart. Unfortunately, you never have smart dictatorships. They're always stupid. But if you had a smart dictatorship and a low standard of living, you could have them. But we want to have freedom, and we want to have a high standard, so we're going to have a billion people. And we're now at seven, so we have to get back down. I hope that this can be slow, relatively slow, and that it can be done in a way which is relatively equal so that people share the experience and you don't have a few rich trying to force everybody else to deal with it. So those are my hopes.'' (emphases mine here and in subsequent quotes)

Also in 1974, Klaus Schwab 's mentor Henry Kissinger authored a National Security Study Memorandum (NSSM 200) on overpopulation, noting:

''[I]t is urgent that measures to reduce fertility be started and made effective in the 1970's and 1980's.''

'-- Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for US Security & Overseas Interests (The Kissinger Report)

Kissinger's greatest concern lay with least developed countries (LDCs), partly because it could threaten access to ''depletable resources (fossil fuels and other minerals).''

The report stresses the urgency of implementing a population control plan in these nations:

''[15] We cannot wait for overall modernization and development to produce lower fertility rates.''

Kissinger advises the following action:

''[31(d)] Initiate an international cooperative strategy of national research programs on human reproduction and fertility control covering biomedical and socio-economic factors.''

This passage is chilling:

37. There is an alternative view which holds that a growing number of experts believe that the population situation is already more serious and less amenable to solution through voluntary measures than is generally accepted. It holds that '... even stronger measures are required and some fundamental, very difficult moral issues need to be addressed .''

He warns:

''barring both large-scale birth control efforts '... or economic or political upheavals, the next twenty-five years offer non-communist LDCs little respite from the burdens of rapidly increasing humanity .

''Moreover, short of Draconian measures there is no possibility that any LDC can stabilize its population at less than double its present size.''

''The burdens of rapidly increasing humanity'''--I told you they see us like bugs, vermin to be eradicated for their philanthropathic aspirations.

Kissinger recommends sterilization as part of their short-term strategy:

'' Sterilization of men and women has received wide-spread acceptance in several areas when a simple, quick, and safe procedure is readily available.''

He also praises abortion as a mechanism of population control:

''No country has reduced its population growth without resorting to abortion.''

''Indeed, abortion, legal and illegal, now has become the most widespread fertility control method in use in the world today.''

Part 2: Downloadable Digital Dictatorships Nearly half a century later, Klaus Schwab advisor/ World Economic Forum (WEF) programmer Yuval Noah Harari is telling us we are on the brink of achieving Dennis Meadows's dreams of a smart dictatorship, saying, ''You can really buy a package of how to create a digital dictatorship just off the shelf'':

Harari is best-known for his classification of humans as ''hackable animals'' :

''Now, in the past, many tyrants and governments wanted to do it, but nobody understood virology well enough, and nobody had enough computing power and data to hack millions of people . Neither the Gestapo nor the KGB could do it.

''But soon, at least some corporations and governments will be able to systematically hack all the people. We humans should get used to the idea that we are no longer mysterious souls. We are now hackable animals .''

At the 2021 Athens Democracy Forum during Dialogue: The Geopolitics of Technology , Harari described the emergent ability to eradicate privacy:

''For the first time in history, it's possible to completely eliminate privacy .'... Dictators always dreamt about completely eliminating privacy, monitoring everybody all the time and knowing everything you do, and not just everything you do but even everything you think and everything you feel.'... Now it's possible.''

During the Panel Discussion on Technology and the Future of Democracy at the same event, Harari revealed that COVID is the pivotal turning point that was used to persuade people to submit to biosurveillance:

''Maybe in a couple decades when people look back, the thing they will remember from the COVID crisis is this is the moment when everything went digital, and this was the moment when everything became monitored, that we agreed to be surveilled all the time, not just in authoritarian regimes, but even in democracies , and maybe most importantly of all, this is the moment when surveillance started going under the skin .

''Because really, we haven't seen anything yet. I think the big process that's happening right now in the world is hacking human beings, the ability to hack humans, to understand deeply what's happening within you, what makes you go. And for that, the most important data is not what you read and who you meet and what you buy, it's what's happening inside your body.

''We have these two revolutions: the computer science revolution, or the infotech revolution, and the revolution in the biological sciences. And they are still separated, and they are about to merge. They are merging around '... the biometric sensor. It's the thing, it's the gadget, it's the technology that converts biological data into digital data that can be analyzed by computers. And having the ability to really monitor people under the skin, this is the biggest game-changer of all because this is the key for getting to know people better than they know themselves. '...

'' COVID is critical because this is what convinces people to accept, to legitimize, total biometric surveillance. If we want to stop this epidemic, we need not just to monitor people, we need monitor what's happening under their skin, their body temperature '...

'' I'm not against surveillance, it's an important tool, especially to fight epidemics. The question is who is doing it, and how. If you give it to a security service to do it, that's extremely dangerous.

''Yes, now they're using it to see whether you have the coronavirus, but exactly the same technology can determine what you think about the government. You know, anger is a biological phenomenon, just like disease. It's not some spiritual thing out there, it's a biological pattern in your body. With this kind of surveillance, I mean you watch the big president, a big leader give a speech on television, the television could be monitoring you and knowing whether you're angry or not just by analyzing the cues, the biological cues coming from your body.

''So people are now watching us online, all over the world, this conversation, now, maybe even right now, the people who are watching us are being watched and analyzed.'...

''We know that you're watching this, and we also know how you feel. Are you angry about what you hear? Are you frightened? Are you bored?

'' This is the kind of power that Stalin didn't have. When Stalin gave a speech, everybody of course clapped their hands and smiled. Now how do you know what they really think about Stalin? It's very difficult. You can't have a KGB agent following everybody all the time. And even if you do it, he's just watching your outside behavior. He doesn't really know what's happening in your mind. But in ten years, the future Stalins of the twenty-first century, they could be watching the minds, the brains, of all the population all the time and also, they will have the computing power to analyze all it. '...

''Now you don't need human agents, you don't need human analyzers. You just have a lot of sensors and an AI which analyzes it, and that's it, you have the worst totalitarian regime in history. And COVID is important because COVID legitimizes some of the crucial steps even in democratic countries. ''

Some of you may have seen the clip going around of Albert Bourla bragging about their new technology for biometric compliance at the 2018 WEF :

''FDA approved the first 'electronic pill', if I can call it like that. It is basically a biological chip that is in the tablet and, once you take the tablet, and it dissolves into your stomach, it sends a signal that you took the tablet.

''So, imagine the applications of that, the compliance . The insurance companies would know that the medicines that patients should take, they do take them. It is fascinating what happens in this field.''

What better vehicle for delivering the soma Harari imagines as part of the solution to the problem of '' all these useless people '':

''Again, I think the biggest question in maybe in economics and politics of the coming decades will be what to do with all these useless people ?

''The problem is more boredom and how, what to do with them and how will they find some sense of meaning in life, when they are basically meaningless, worthless ?

''My best guess, at present is a combination of drugs and computer games as a solution for [most]. It's already happening.'...

''I think once you're superfluous , you don't have power.''

It may be the destiny of humanity, Harari postulates, to simply be consumers :

''Maybe the ultimate destiny of homo sapiens is just be consumers. You don't need humans for anything except as consumers.''

Harari sees COVID-19 as a global solidarity test , asking, ''If you want to test global solidarity, what's easier than a global pandemic?''

'' If you want to test global solidarity, what's easier than a global pandemic that, you know, it threatens all of us, it's obvious that as long as the pandemic keeps spreading in one country, it poses a threat to all of the other countries because of the mutations and so forth. It's not a human enemy, so you know, it's all, all of us humans uniting against this terrible virus.''

Observing the radical changes governments made in the name of a threat as innocuous as COVID, he notes:

'' [I]t shows that '... you can change things on a massive scale . Again, you can stop all flights. You can lock down entire countries. '... And this may make us more open to radical ideas '...''

Later in the video , he observes:

''a crisis is an opportunity to also do good reforms that in normal times people will never agree to.''

Henry Kissinger shares his glee over this '' crisitunity ,'' as Homer Simpson would say:

'''... the pandemic is imposing on us a universal world order. '... But it's now being dealt with on a purely national basis. But we'll be forced to look at the broader view by its internal dynamic. ''

In other words, a New World Order'--a.k.a. The Great Reset !

Klaus Schwab is game , notoriously saying:

''The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world.''

Part 3: Yuval Noah Harari: Not the Man We Think He Is?Based on the clips of Harari that have gone viral, most people have come to the conclusion that he is actually in favor of the global digital biosurveillance dictatorship.

Most of his darkest statements, however, are actually warnings about what could be'--if we don't use this ''narrow window of opportunity,'' to borrow Klaus's phrasing, to ensure the technology is used for beneficent purposes.

I know, right? Hard to believe he would be that gullible. I realize this is a generous interpretation based on the surface of his statements. His boyish enthusiasm may really be masking an infernal agenda, but I always try to ground my conclusions on the available evidence, and for now, we have his overt admonitions about the technocratic totalitarianism biotechnology can enable, which he'--also unbelievably na¯vely'--thinks institutions will rescue us from:

''[W]e need institutions actually more , but there is this wave of distrust against them.'... The idea that we can just do without them, that we'll have just this free market of ideas and anybody can say anything, and we don't want institutions to kind of stand in the middle, and curate and decide what is reliable and what is not reliable, this doesn't work.''

He also seems to think adding an ethics curriculum for engineering and computer science programs will prevent them from implementing tyrannical technologies'--yeah, it would help, but I mean, c'mon, man. As if philanthropathic toadies would be likely to choose ethics over lavish incomes and power trips.

Even as he recommends Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism , he entirely misses the irony that he is helping to fulfill this ominous warning Arendt quotes from the 1948 Social Research article The Origins of Scientism :

'''... thus totalitarianism appears to be only the last stage in a process during which 'science [has become] an idol that will magically cure the evils of existence and transform the nature of man.'''

During the Athens Democracy Forum Dialogue: The Geopolitics of Technology , Harari suggested that citizens have the ability to surveil governments as a check on their power:

''[T]urn it around. Survey the governments more. I mean, technology can always go both ways. If they can surveil us, we can surveil them.''

It doesn't even occur to him that people should absolutely never-in-a-million years submit to biosurveillance or that will be the end of freedom, forever. He just takes that as a given to protect us from ''pandemics'' and other emergencies.

Here is Harari's utopian vision of what the future looks in a hundred years:

''I think that the two key things is that first the power resulting from all these inventions is shared, not equally between everybody but at least not concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, either a human elite or a nonhuman elite, and secondly '... the power to hack human beings is used not to manipulate us, not to control us but to help us understand ourselves better and improve ourselves. You know the old saying, 'Know thyself.' Now we have the technology to do it if the technology is used for our benefit and not for the benefit of some big corporation or totalitarian government, then this can be, really, the best society that ever existed.''

It scarcely matters whether Harari is genuinely credulous enough to trust the institutions he is empowering or a mega-villain disguising his deeper motives. What does matter is that he is advising Klaus Schwab , who has been busy setting up the dominoes to achieve the transhumanist totalitarian terror Harari has been describing.

An apparent victim of mass formation , Harari views organizations such as the WEF and WHO as agents of good rather than potential vehicles for one-world tyranny , arguing that the WHO should be granted more power and funding :

'' The skeleton of such a global anti-plague system already exists in the shape of the World Health Organization and several other institutions. But the budgets supporting this system are meagre, and it has almost no political teeth. We need to give this system some political clout and a lot more money , so that it won't be entirely dependent on the whims of self-serving politicians.

''As noted earlier, I don't believe that unelected experts should be tasked with making crucial policy decisions. That should remain the preserve of politicians. But some kind of independent global health authority would be the ideal platform for compiling medical data, monitoring potential hazards, raising alarms, and directing research and development.''

Fine by Klaus, who boasts about owning all of the stakeholders necessary to gain world dominion:

Schwab: If I look at our stakeholders, we have business, of course. That's a very important audience, and we have politics. We have continuous partnerships with many governments around the world. Then, of course, we have NGOs, we have trade unions, we have all those different parts.

Interviewer: Media, of course.

Schwab: Media, of course. And very important, experts and scientists and academia. Because if we are looking at the future, I think we should look at new solutions, and the new solutions will be very much driven by technological developments.

Interviewer: And we even have, you even have religious leaders, right?

Schwab: Religious leaders. We have social entrepreneurs. Very important, social entrepreneurs.

From philanthropaths Gates to Soros to Schwab and their intellectual henchmen Meadows to Kissinger to Harari, all believe they are righteously fulfilling their calling as defenders of the planet, conquering threats such as disease, overpopulation, populism, disinformation, and chaos.

In so doing, they have become monsters themselves, as Nietzsche cautions:

''Whoever fights monsters should see to it that, in the process, he does not become a monster himself. Gaze long enough into an abyss, and the abyss will gaze right back into you.''

'-- Beyond Good & Evil ( Kindle , paperback , hardcover , audiobook )

We, too, must remain alert to this possibility as we raise our metaphorical sword to defeat the monsters described here. We defend against such an outcome by steadfastly clinging to our principles of integrity, truth, liberty, and love.

I can think of no finer embodiment of that grand-hearted heroism than Dr. Vladimir ''Zev'' Zelenko .

In honor of Dr. Zelenko's courageous life, I wish to close with his final reflections on his legacy, which I think each one of us here can proudly say we are fulfilling:

''I started the Zelenko Freedom Foundation because I'm dying.'...

''As I look at this stage of my life, my body is failing me. Legacy becomes essential. I think life is much bigger than any one individual, and if we can set up systems in place that can propagate principles of truth, of love, of courage. Do what's right, not what's easy. I think that's a worthy use of someone's last energies.

''I want the epitome of truthful messaging, journalism, through various platforms, whether it's social media, regular media, print media, irrelevant, word of mouth, and houses of worship.

''I want the truth like a mantra propagated. I'm presenting to you a different perspective from what you've been told.''

(C) Margaret Anna Alice, LLCFor a limited time, you can download the beautifully typeset and illustrated e-book of my fairy tale, The Vapor, the Hot Hat, & the Witches' Potion . It is equivalent to the paperback version (retails $12.99 ) and much prettier than the Kindle version (retails $5.99 ). Click here to access the downloadable PDF (the post will be unlocked once you subscribe).

Are you willing to spend 16.4 cents/day (annual) or 19.7 cents/day (monthly) to help me continue fighting tyranny and democide?This has been a week of milestones'--from making my first public appearance (on two-and-a-half hours' sleep, no less) to reaching 10,079 people on my mailing list. I will be publishing a special letter I have been saving for this moment later but wanted to share this news in the meantime.

''Philanthropath'' is spreading like Omicron, thanks to you guys repeatedly using it and pairing it with every mention of ''Bill Gates,'' ''George Soros,'' ''Klaus Schwab,'' and other philanthropaths!

Just so we're all on the same page regarding definition, I have decided to drop the ''socio/'' part because sociopaths don't try to hide their evil, whereas psychopaths do .

Here is the definition I'm now using:

''A psychopath masquerading as a philanthropist.''

Urban Dictionary Entry Special thanks to JulesV for adding ''philanthropath'' to the Urban Dictionary ! JulesV, if you're reading this, I'm wondering if it would be possible to insert this definition at the beginning for consistency and clarity?

Here's a suggested revision to blend with your existing definition:

A psychopath masquerading as a philanthropist. These wealthy individuals make donations under the guise of contributing to a good cause but are actually investing in their sinister and self-serving agendas.

For example, Bill Gates's $10,000,000,000 ''compassionate donations'' to worldwide vaccines yielded a 20-to-1 financial return, making him one of the wealthiest philanthropaths in the world.

Even more awesome if you could add a pointer to the original Anatomy of a Philanthropath series for more details:

Sign up for upcoming IPAK-EDU courses like Medical Rights & Informed Consent ! See the announcement at the end of this post for more details, and please use my affiliate link ( MAA1IPAK ) to register for any courses you decide to take.

If you feel the work I am doing is worthwhile and want to make it possible for me to spend more time writing and researching in my aim to unmask totalitarianism and awaken the sleeping before tyranny triumphs, please consider supporting me, whether it be by subscribing, donating, buying me a coffee, or sharing my posts. I thank you for reading, thinking, sharing, and supporting my work in whichever ways you choose.

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Sat, 16 Jul 2022 20:25

1997 film directed by Andrew Niccol

Gattaca is a 1997 American dystopian science fiction thriller film written and directed by Andrew Niccol in his filmmaking debut. It stars Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, with Jude Law, Loren Dean, Ernest Borgnine, Gore Vidal, and Alan Arkin appearing in supporting roles.[4] The film presents a biopunk vision of a future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic selection to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents.[5] The film centers on Vincent Freeman, played by Hawke, who was conceived outside the eugenics program and struggles to overcome genetic discrimination to realize his dream of going into space.

The film draws on concerns over reproductive technologies that facilitate eugenics, and the possible consequences of such technological developments for society. It also explores the idea of destiny and the ways in which it can and does govern lives. Characters in Gattaca continually battle both with society and with themselves to find their place in the world and who they are destined to be according to their genes.

The film's title is based on the letters G, A, T, and C, which stand for guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine, the four nucleobases of DNA.[6] It was a 1997 nominee for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.

Plot [ edit ] In the "not-too-distant" future, eugenics is common. A genetic registry database uses biometrics to classify those created as "Valids" while those conceived naturally and more susceptible to genetic disorders are known as "In-Valids". Genetic discrimination is illegal, but in practice genotype profiling is used to identify Valids to qualify for professional employment while In-Valids are relegated to menial jobs.

Vincent Freeman was conceived naturally and his genetic profile indicates a high probability of several disorders and an estimated lifespan of 30.2 years. His parents, regretting their decision, use IVF, PIGD, and genetic engineering in creating their second child, Anton. Growing up, the two brothers often play a game of "chicken" by swimming out to sea as far as possible, with the first one returning to shore considered the loser; Vincent always loses. Vincent dreams of a career in space travel but is always reminded of his genetic inferiority. One day, Vincent challenges Anton to a game of chicken and beats him. Anton starts to drown and is saved by Vincent. Shortly after, Vincent leaves home.

Years later, Vincent works as an In-Valid, cleaning office spaces including that of spaceflight conglomerate Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. He gets a chance to masquerade as a Valid by using donated hair, skin, blood and urine samples from former swimming star Jerome Eugene Morrow, who was paralyzed after being hit by a car. With Jerome's genetic makeup, Vincent gains employment at Gattaca, and is assigned as navigator for an upcoming mission to Saturn's moon Titan. To conceal his identity, Vincent must meticulously groom and scrub down daily to remove his own genetic material, pass daily DNA scanning and urine tests using Jerome's samples, and hide his heart defect.

When a Gattaca administrator is murdered a week before a possible launch, the police find one of Vincent's eyelashes near the crime scene. Recognizing it as from an In-Valid rather than an employee, they immediately assume the owner to be a suspect and launch an investigation. During this, Vincent becomes close to a co-worker, Irene Cassini, with whom he shares a mutual attraction. Though a Valid, Irene has an accidental higher risk of heart failure that will bar her from any space mission. Vincent also learns that Jerome's paralysis is self-inflicted; after placing silver in the Olympics, Jerome threw himself in front of a car. Jerome maintains that he was designed to be the best, yet still wasn't, and suffers under the 'burden of perfection'.

Vincent repeatedly evades the grasp of the investigators. It is finally revealed that one of Gattaca's directors (Josef) killed the mission director because he threatened to cancel the mission. Vincent learns that the detective who closed the case was his brother Anton, who consequently has discovered Vincent's presence at Gattaca. The brothers meet, and Anton warns Vincent about his illegal actions, but Vincent asserts that he has gotten to this position on his own merits. Anton, unwilling to believe this, challenges Vincent to a final game of chicken. As the two swim out at night, Vincent's stamina surprises Anton, and Vincent reveals that he won by not saving energy for the swim back. Anton turns back and begins to drown, but Vincent rescues him again and swims them both back to shore, proving to Anton that his status does not define him.

On the day of the launch, Jerome reveals that he has stored enough DNA samples for Vincent to last 'two lifetimes' upon his return, and gives him an envelope to open 'upstairs'. After saying goodbye to Irene, Vincent prepares to board but discovers there is a final urine test, and he currently lacks any of Jerome's samples. He is surprised when Dr. Lamar, who oversees health checks, reveals that he knows Vincent has been posing as a Valid. Lamar admits that his son looks up to Vincent and wonders whether he, genetically selected but "not all that they promised", could exceed his potential just as Vincent has. The doctor changes the test results, allowing Vincent to pass. As the rocket launches, Jerome dons his swimming medal and immolates himself in his home's incinerator; in space, Vincent opens the note from Jerome to find a lock of Jerome's hair. As the film ends, Vincent muses that "For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess, I'm suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once a part of a star. Maybe I'm not leaving; maybe I'm going home."

Cast [ edit ] Production [ edit ] The film was shot under the working title The Eighth Day, a reference to the seven days of creation in the Bible. However, by the time its release was scheduled for the fall of 1997, the Belgian film Le huiti¨me jour had already been released in the US under the title The Eighth Day. As a result, the film was retitled Gattaca.[7]

Filming [ edit ] The exteriors (including the roof scene) and some of the interior shots of the Gattaca complex were filmed at Frank Lloyd Wright's 1960 Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California.[8] The speakers in the complex broadcast announcements both in Esperanto and English; Miko Sloper from the Esperanto League of North America went to the recording studio to handle the Esperanto part.[9] The parking lot scenes were shot at the Otis College of Art and Design, distinguished by its punch card-like windows, located near Los Angeles International Airport. The exterior of Vincent Freeman's house was shot at the CLA Building on the campus of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Other exterior shots were filmed at the bottom of the spillway of the Sepulveda Dam and outside The Forum in Inglewood. The solar power plant mirrors sequence was filmed at the Kramer Junction Solar Electric Generating Station.

The film is noted for its unique use of color. Cinematographer Slawomir Idziak employed vibrant gold, green, and electric blue tones throughout the film, and shot the film in Super 35mm format, which adds an enlarged layer of grain.

Design [ edit ] The movie uses a swimming treadmill in the opening minutes to punctuate the swimming and futuristic themes.[10] The production design makes heavy use of retrofuturism; the futuristic electric cars[11] are based on 1960s car models like Rover P6, Citron DS19 and Studebaker Avanti.[12]

Title sequence [ edit ] The opening title sequence, created by Michael Riley, features closeups of body matter (fingernails and hair), which are later revealed to be from Vincent's daily bodily scourings, hitting the floor accompanied by loud sounds as the objects strike the ground. According to Riley, oversized models of the fingernails and hair were created for the effect.[13]

Music and soundtrack [ edit ] The score for Gattaca was composed by Michael Nyman, and the original soundtrack was released on October 21, 1997.[14]

Release [ edit ] Box office [ edit ] Gattaca was released in theaters on October 24, 1997 in the United States by Columbia Pictures and opened at number 5 at the box office; trailing I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Devil's Advocate, Kiss the Girls and Seven Years in Tibet.[15] Over the first weekend the film brought in $4.3 million. It ended its theatrical run with a domestic total of $12.5 million against a reported production budget of $36 million.[16]

Home media [ edit ] Gattaca was released on DVD on July 1, 1998,[17] and was also released on Superbit DVD.[18] Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray versions were released on March 11, 2008.[19][20] Both editions contain a deleted scene featuring historical figures like Einstein, Lincoln, etc., who are described as having been genetically deficient.[16]

Gattaca was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray in 2021.[21]

Reception [ edit ] Critical response [ edit ] Gattaca received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film received an approval rating of 81% based on 64 reviews, with a rating average of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus states that "Intelligent and scientifically provocative, Gattaca is an absorbing sci-fi drama that poses important interesting ethical questions about the nature of science."[22] On Metacritic, the film received "generally favorable reviews" with a score of 64 out of 100, based on 20 reviews.[23] Roger Ebert stated, "This is one of the smartest and most provocative of science fiction films, a thriller with ideas."[24] James Berardinelli praised it for "energy and tautness" and its "thought-provoking script and thematic richness."[25]

Although critically acclaimed, Gattaca was not a box office success, but it is said to have crystallized the debate over the controversial topic of human genetic engineering.[26][27][28] The film's dystopian depiction of "genoism" has been cited by many bioethicists and laypeople in support of their hesitancy about, or opposition to, eugenics and the societal acceptance of the genetic-determinist ideology that may frame it.[29] In a 1997 review of the film for the journal Nature Genetics, molecular biologist Lee M. Silver stated that "Gattaca is a film that all geneticists should see if for no other reason than to understand the perception of our trade held by so many of the public-at-large".[30]

Accolades [ edit ] Legacy [ edit ] Television series [ edit ] On October 30, 2009, Variety reported that Sony Pictures Television was developing a television adaptation of the feature film as a one-hour police procedural set in the future. The show was to be written by Gil Grant, who has written for 24 and NCIS.[31]

Influence on In Time [ edit ] Writer-director Andrew Niccol has called his 2011 film In Time a "bastard child of Gattaca".[32][33] Both films feature classic cars in a futuristic dystopia as well as a caste privilege schism which the protagonist challenges and which prejudices the authorities into neglecting a thorough investigation in favor of condemning the protagonist.

Political references [ edit ] U.S. Senator Rand Paul used near-verbatim portions of the plot summary from the English Wikipedia entry on Gattaca in a speech at Liberty University on October 28, 2013 in support of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's campaign for Governor of Virginia. Paul accused pro-choice politicians of advocating eugenics in a manner similar to the events in Gattaca.[34][35]

Transhumanism [ edit ] In the 2004 democratic transhumanist book Citizen Cyborg, bioethicist James Hughes criticized the premise and influence of the film as fear-mongering, arguing:

Astronaut-training programs are entirely justified in attempting to screen out people with heart problems for safety reasons;In the United States, people are already screened by insurance companies on the basis of their propensities to disease, for actuarial purposes;Rather than banning genetic testing or genetic enhancement, society should develop genetic information privacy laws such as the U.S. Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act signed into law on May 21, 2008 that allow justified forms of genetic testing and data aggregation, but forbid those that are judged to result in genetic discrimination. Citizens should then be able to make a complaint to the appropriate authority if they believe they have been discriminated against because of their genotype.[36]See also [ edit ] List of films featuring surveillanceGattaca argumentTranshumanism § Genetic divideGerminal choice technologyReferences [ edit ] ^ "Gattaca (15)". British Board of Film Classification. November 5, 1997 . Retrieved February 21, 2019 . ^ "Gattaca Financial Information". The Numbers . Retrieved February 21, 2019 . ^ "Gattaca (1997)". Box Office Mojo. ^ "Review of Gattaca". Challengingdestiny.com. 2004-02-25 . Retrieved 2009-10-10 . ^ "NEUROETHICS | The Narrative Perspectives". Neuroethics.upenn.edu . Retrieved 2018-02-22 . ^ Zimmer, Carl (November 10, 2008). "Now: The Rest of the Genome". The New York Times. ^ "Gattaca on Hulu". Slashfilm. 28 November 2008. ^ "Gattaca a Not-So-Perfect Specimen", Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, October 24, 1997, URL retrieved 19 February 2009 ^ "Esperanto in 'Gattaca' (NPR pt 11, NASK 2000 pt 19)". Archived from the original on 2021-12-11. ^ "Endless Pools in the Press". Endlesspools.com . Retrieved 2012-09-07 . ^ "Avanti in the Science Fiction Film Gattaca". www.theavanti.com . Retrieved 2020-12-29 . ^ " "Gattaca, 1997": cars, bikes, trucks and other vehicles". IMCDb.org . Retrieved 2009-10-10 . ^ Vlaanderen, Remco. "Gattaca title sequence - Watch the Titles". watchthetitles.com . Retrieved 2018-10-11 . ^ "Gattaca soundtrack overview". AllMusic . Retrieved 2008-10-30 . ^ "US Movie Box Office Chart Weekend of October 24, 1997". The Numbers. 1997-10-24 . Retrieved 2009-10-10 . ^ a b "Movie Gattaca - Box Office Data, News, Cast Information". The Numbers . Retrieved 2009-10-10 . ^ Amazon.com: Gattaca (1997). ISBN 0767805712. ^ "Amazon.com: Gattaca (Superbit Collection) (1997)" . Retrieved April 7, 2013 . ^ "Amazon.com: Gattaca (Special Edition) (1997)" . Retrieved April 7, 2013 . ^ "Amazon.com: Gattaca [Blu-ray] (1997)" . Retrieved April 7, 2013 . ^ "Gattaca '' Media Play News" . Retrieved 2021-04-24 . ^ "Gattaca (1997)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 2009-08-01 . ^ "Gattaca reviews at". Metacritic.com . Retrieved 2011-10-05 . ^ Roger Ebert (1997-10-24). "Gattaca :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Rogerebert.suntimes.com . Retrieved 2009-10-10 . ^ "Review: Gattaca". Reelviews.net . Retrieved 2009-10-10 . ^ Jabr, Ferris (2013). "Are We Too Close to Making Gattaca a Reality?" . Retrieved 2014-04-30 . ^ Darnovsky, Marcy (2008). "Are We Headed for a Sci-Fi Dystopia?" . Retrieved 2008-03-23 . ^ Pope, Marcia; McRoberts, Richard (2003). Cambridge Wizard Student Guide Gattaca. Cambridge University press. ISBN 0-521-53615-4. ^ Kirby, D.A. (2000). "The New Eugenics in Cinema: Genetic Determinism and Gene Therapy in GATTACA. Science Fiction Studies, 27: 193-215" . Retrieved 2008-01-08 . ^ Silver, Lee M. (1997). "Genetics Goes to Hollywood". Nature Genetics. 17 (3): 260''261. doi:10.1038/ng1197-260. S2CID 29335234. ^ Schneider, Michael (2009-10-29). "Apostle preps for post-'Rescue' life". www.variety.com. Archived from the original on 2010-01-06. ^ Capps, Robert (October 6, 2011). "Director Calls In Time 'Bastard Child of Gattaca' ". Wired . Retrieved August 15, 2019 . ^ McCarthy, Eric (October 28, 2011). "In Time: Andrew Niccol on His Gattaca-Inspired New Film". Popular Mechanics . Retrieved August 15, 2019 . ^ Carroll, James R. (October 28, 2013). "Senator: Scientific advances could bring back eugenics". The Courier-Journal. USA Today . Retrieved October 29, 2013 . ^ Kopan, Tal (October 28, 2013). "Rachel Maddow: Rand Paul ripped off Wikipedia". Politico. Sinclair Broadcast Group . Retrieved October 29, 2013 . ^ Hughes, James (2004). Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-4198-1. Further reading [ edit ] Frauley, Jon (2010). "Biopolitics and the Governance of Genetic Capital in GATTACA". Criminology, Deviance and the Silver Screen: The Fictional Reality and the Criminological Imagination. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 195''216. doi:10.1057/9780230115361_7. ISBN 978-0230615168. Interview with Dr. Paul Durham, Director of Cell Biology and the Center for Biomedical and Life Sciences at Missouri State University, about Gattaca.External links [ edit ] Wikiquote has quotations related to

Gattaca.

Official website Gattaca at IMDbGattaca at AllMovieGattaca at Box Office MojoGattaca at Rotten TomatoesGattaca at Metacritic Gattaca ScreenplayGenetic Determinism in Gattaca

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Sat, 16 Jul 2022 20:14

1859 book on evolutionary biology by Charles Darwin

On the Origin of Species (or, more completely, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life),[3] published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin that is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. The book presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had collected on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation.[5]

Various evolutionary ideas had already been proposed to explain new findings in biology. There was growing support for such ideas among dissident anatomists and the general public, but during the first half of the 19th century the English scientific establishment was closely tied to the Church of England, while science was part of natural theology. Ideas about the transmutation of species were controversial as they conflicted with the beliefs that species were unchanging parts of a designed hierarchy and that humans were unique, unrelated to other animals. The political and theological implications were intensely debated, but transmutation was not accepted by the scientific mainstream.

The book was written for non-specialist readers and attracted widespread interest upon its publication. Darwin was already highly regarded as a scientist, so his findings were taken seriously and the evidence he presented generated scientific, philosophical, and religious discussion. The debate over the book contributed to the campaign by T. H. Huxley and his fellow members of the X Club to secularise science by promoting scientific naturalism. Within two decades, there was widespread scientific agreement that evolution, with a branching pattern of common descent, had occurred, but scientists were slow to give natural selection the significance that Darwin thought appropriate. During "the eclipse of Darwinism" from the 1880s to the 1930s, various other mechanisms of evolution were given more credit. With the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s, Darwin's concept of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection became central to modern evolutionary theory, and it has now become the unifying concept of the life sciences.

Summary of Darwin's theory [ edit ] Darwin pictured shortly before publication

Darwin's theory of evolution is based on key facts and the inferences drawn from them, which biologist Ernst Mayr summarised as follows:[6]

Every species is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce, the population would grow (fact).Despite periodic fluctuations, populations remain roughly the same size (fact).Resources such as food are limited and are relatively stable over time (fact).A struggle for survival ensues (inference).Individuals in a population vary significantly from one another (fact).Much of this variation is heritable (fact).Individuals less suited to the environment are less likely to survive and less likely to reproduce; individuals more suited to the environment are more likely to survive and more likely to reproduce and leave their heritable traits to future generations, which produces the process of natural selection (fact).This slowly effected process results in populations changing to adapt to their environments, and ultimately, these variations accumulate over time to form new species (inference).Background [ edit ] Developments before Darwin's theory [ edit ] In later editions of the book, Darwin traced evolutionary ideas as far back as Aristotle;[7] the text he cites is a summary by Aristotle of the ideas of the earlier Greek philosopher Empedocles.[8] Early Christian Church Fathers and Medieval European scholars interpreted the Genesis creation narrative allegorically rather than as a literal historical account;[9] organisms were described by their mythological and heraldic significance as well as by their physical form. Nature was widely believed to be unstable and capricious, with monstrous births from union between species, and spontaneous generation of life.[10]

Cuvier's 1799 paper on living and fossil elephants helped establish the reality of

extinction.

The Protestant Reformation inspired a literal interpretation of the Bible, with concepts of creation that conflicted with the findings of an emerging science seeking explanations congruent with the mechanical philosophy of Ren(C) Descartes and the empiricism of the Baconian method. After the turmoil of the English Civil War, the Royal Society wanted to show that science did not threaten religious and political stability. John Ray developed an influential natural theology of rational order; in his taxonomy, species were static and fixed, their adaptation and complexity designed by God, and varieties showed minor differences caused by local conditions. In God's benevolent design, carnivores caused mercifully swift death, but the suffering caused by parasitism was a puzzling problem. The biological classification introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1735 also viewed species as fixed according to the divine plan. In 1766, Georges Buffon suggested that some similar species, such as horses and asses, or lions, tigers, and leopards, might be varieties descended from a common ancestor. The Ussher chronology of the 1650s had calculated creation at 4004 BC, but by the 1780s geologists assumed a much older world. Wernerians thought strata were deposits from shrinking seas, but James Hutton proposed a self-maintaining infinite cycle, anticipating uniformitarianism.[11]

Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus Darwin outlined a hypothesis of transmutation of species in the 1790s, and French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck published a more developed theory in 1809. Both envisaged that spontaneous generation produced simple forms of life that progressively developed greater complexity, adapting to the environment by inheriting changes in adults caused by use or disuse. This process was later called Lamarckism. Lamarck thought there was an inherent progressive tendency driving organisms continuously towards greater complexity, in parallel but separate lineages with no extinction.[12] Geoffroy contended that embryonic development recapitulated transformations of organisms in past eras when the environment acted on embryos, and that animal structures were determined by a constant plan as demonstrated by homologies. Georges Cuvier strongly disputed such ideas, holding that unrelated, fixed species showed similarities that reflected a design for functional needs.[13] His pal...ontological work in the 1790s had established the reality of extinction, which he explained by local catastrophes, followed by repopulation of the affected areas by other species.[14]

In Britain, William Paley's Natural Theology saw adaptation as evidence of beneficial "design" by the Creator acting through natural laws. All naturalists in the two English universities (Oxford and Cambridge) were Church of England clergymen, and science became a search for these laws.[15] Geologists adapted catastrophism to show repeated worldwide annihilation and creation of new fixed species adapted to a changed environment, initially identifying the most recent catastrophe as the biblical flood.[16] Some anatomists such as Robert Grant were influenced by Lamarck and Geoffroy, but most naturalists regarded their ideas of transmutation as a threat to divinely appointed social order.[17]

Inception of Darwin's theory [ edit ] Darwin went to Edinburgh University in 1825 to study medicine. In his second year he neglected his medical studies for natural history and spent four months assisting Robert Grant's research into marine invertebrates. Grant revealed his enthusiasm for the transmutation of species, but Darwin rejected it.[18] Starting in 1827, at Cambridge University, Darwin learnt science as natural theology from botanist John Stevens Henslow, and read Paley, John Herschel and Alexander von Humboldt. Filled with zeal for science, he studied catastrophist geology with Adam Sedgwick.[19][20]

In mid-July 1837 Darwin started his "B" notebook on

Transmutation of Species, and on page 36 wrote "I think" above his first

evolutionary tree.

In December 1831, he joined the Beagle expedition as a gentleman naturalist and geologist. He read Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology and from the first stop ashore, at St. Jago, found Lyell's uniformitarianism a key to the geological history of landscapes. Darwin discovered fossils resembling huge armadillos, and noted the geographical distribution of modern species in hope of finding their "centre of creation".[21] The three Fuegian missionaries the expedition returned to Tierra del Fuego were friendly and civilised, yet to Darwin their relatives on the island seemed "miserable, degraded savages",[22] and he no longer saw an unbridgeable gap between humans and animals.[23] As the Beagle neared England in 1836, he noted that species might not be fixed.[24][25]

Richard Owen showed that fossils of extinct species Darwin found in South America were allied to living species on the same continent. In March 1837, ornithologist John Gould announced that Darwin's rhea was a separate species from the previously described rhea (though their territories overlapped), that mockingbirds collected on the Galpagos Islands represented three separate species each unique to a particular island, and that several distinct birds from those islands were all classified as finches.[26] Darwin began speculating, in a series of notebooks, on the possibility that "one species does change into another" to explain these findings, and around July sketched a genealogical branching of a single evolutionary tree, discarding Lamarck's independent lineages progressing to higher forms.[27][28][29] Unconventionally, Darwin asked questions of fancy pigeon and animal breeders as well as established scientists. At the zoo he had his first sight of an ape, and was profoundly impressed by how human the orangutan seemed.[30]

In late September 1838, he started reading Thomas Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population with its statistical argument that human populations, if unrestrained, breed beyond their means and struggle to survive. Darwin related this to the struggle for existence among wildlife and botanist de Candolle's "warring of the species" in plants; he immediately envisioned "a force like a hundred thousand wedges" pushing well-adapted variations into "gaps in the economy of nature", so that the survivors would pass on their form and abilities, and unfavourable variations would be destroyed.[31][32][33] By December 1838, he had noted a similarity between the act of breeders selecting traits and a Malthusian Nature selecting among variants thrown up by "chance" so that "every part of newly acquired structure is fully practical and perfected".[34]

Darwin now had the basic framework of his theory of natural selection, but he was fully occupied with his career as a geologist and held back from compiling it until his book on The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs was completed.[35][36] As he recalled in his autobiography, he had "at last got a theory by which to work", but it was only in June 1842 that he allowed himself "the satisfaction of writing a very brief abstract of my theory in pencil".[37]

Further development [ edit ] Darwin continued to research and extensively revise his theory while focusing on his main work of publishing the scientific results of the Beagle voyage.[35] He tentatively wrote of his ideas to Lyell in January 1842;[38] then in June he roughed out a 35-page "Pencil Sketch" of his theory.[39] Darwin began correspondence about his theorising with the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker in January 1844, and by July had rounded out his "sketch" into a 230-page "Essay", to be expanded with his research results and published if he died prematurely.[40]

Darwin researched how the skulls of different pigeon breeds varied, as shown in his

Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication of 1868.

In November 1844, the anonymously published popular science book Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, written by Scottish journalist Robert Chambers, widened public interest in the concept of transmutation of species. Vestiges used evidence from the fossil record and embryology to support the claim that living things had progressed from the simple to the more complex over time. But it proposed a linear progression rather than the branching common descent theory behind Darwin's work in progress, and it ignored adaptation. Darwin read it soon after publication, and scorned its amateurish geology and zoology,[41] but he carefully reviewed his own arguments after leading scientists, including Adam Sedgwick, attacked its morality and scientific errors.[42] Vestiges had significant influence on public opinion, and the intense debate helped to pave the way for the acceptance of the more scientifically sophisticated Origin by moving evolutionary speculation into the mainstream. While few naturalists were willing to consider transmutation, Herbert Spencer became an active proponent of Lamarckism and progressive development in the 1850s.[43]

Hooker was persuaded to take away a copy of the "Essay" in January 1847, and eventually sent a page of notes giving Darwin much-needed feedback. Reminded of his lack of expertise in taxonomy, Darwin began an eight-year study of barnacles, becoming the leading expert on their classification. Using his theory, he discovered homologies showing that slightly changed body parts served different functions to meet new conditions, and he found an intermediate stage in the evolution of distinct sexes.[44][45]

Darwin's barnacle studies convinced him that variation arose constantly and not just in response to changed circumstances. In 1854, he completed the last part of his Beagle-related writing and began working full-time on evolution. He now realised that the branching pattern of evolutionary divergence was explained by natural selection working constantly to improve adaptation. His thinking changed from the view that species formed in isolated populations only, as on islands, to an emphasis on speciation without isolation; that is, he saw increasing specialisation within large stable populations as continuously exploiting new ecological niches. He conducted empirical research focusing on difficulties with his theory. He studied the developmental and anatomical differences between different breeds of many domestic animals, became actively involved in fancy pigeon breeding, and experimented (with the help of his son Francis) on ways that plant seeds and animals might disperse across oceans to colonise distant islands. By 1856, his theory was much more sophisticated, with a mass of supporting evidence.[44][46]

Publication [ edit ] Time taken to publish [ edit ] In his autobiography, Darwin said he had "gained much by my delay in publishing from about 1839, when the theory was clearly conceived, to 1859; and I lost nothing by it".[47] On the first page of his 1859 book he noted that, having begun work on the topic in 1837, he had drawn up "some short notes" after five years, had enlarged these into a sketch in 1844, and "from that period to the present day I have steadily pursued the same object."[48]

Various biographers have proposed that Darwin avoided or delayed making his ideas public for personal reasons. Reasons suggested have included fear of religious persecution or social disgrace if his views were revealed, and concern about upsetting his clergymen naturalist friends or his pious wife Emma. Charles Darwin's illness caused repeated delays. His paper on Glen Roy had proved embarrassingly wrong, and he may have wanted to be sure he was correct. David Quammen has suggested all these factors may have contributed, and notes Darwin's large output of books and busy family life during that time.[50]

A more recent study by science historian John van Wyhe has determined that the idea that Darwin delayed publication only dates back to the 1940s, and Darwin's contemporaries thought the time he took was reasonable. Darwin always finished one book before starting another. While he was researching, he told many people about his interest in transmutation without causing outrage. He firmly intended to publish, but it was not until September 1854 that he could work on it full-time. His 1846 estimate that writing his "big book" would take five years proved optimistic.[48]

Events leading to publication: "big book" manuscript [ edit ] An 1855 paper on the "introduction" of species, written by Alfred Russel Wallace, claimed that patterns in the geographical distribution of living and fossil species could be explained if every new species always came into existence near an already existing, closely related species.[51] Charles Lyell recognised the implications of Wallace's paper and its possible connection to Darwin's work, although Darwin did not, and in a letter written on 1''2 May 1856 Lyell urged Darwin to publish his theory to establish priority. Darwin was torn between the desire to set out a full and convincing account and the pressure to quickly produce a short paper. He met Lyell, and in correspondence with Joseph Dalton Hooker affirmed that he did not want to expose his ideas to review by an editor as would have been required to publish in an academic journal. He began a "sketch" account on 14 May 1856, and by July had decided to produce a full technical treatise on species as his "big book" on Natural Selection. His theory including the principle of divergence was complete by 5 September 1857 when he sent Asa Gray a brief but detailed abstract of his ideas.[52][53]

Joint publication of papers by Wallace and Darwin [ edit ] Darwin was hard at work on the manuscript for his "big book" on Natural Selection, when on 18 June 1858 he received a parcel from Wallace, who stayed on the Maluku Islands (Ternate and Gilolo). It enclosed twenty pages describing an evolutionary mechanism, a response to Darwin's recent encouragement, with a request to send it on to Lyell if Darwin thought it worthwhile. The mechanism was similar to Darwin's own theory.[52] Darwin wrote to Lyell that "your words have come true with a vengeance, ... forestalled" and he would "of course, at once write and offer to send [it] to any journal" that Wallace chose, adding that "all my originality, whatever it may amount to, will be smashed".[54] Lyell and Hooker agreed that a joint publication putting together Wallace's pages with extracts from Darwin's 1844 Essay and his 1857 letter to Gray should be presented at the Linnean Society, and on 1 July 1858, the papers entitled On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection, by Wallace and Darwin respectively, were read out but drew little reaction. While Darwin considered Wallace's idea to be identical to his concept of natural selection, historians have pointed out differences. Darwin described natural selection as being analogous to the artificial selection practised by animal breeders, and emphasised competition between individuals; Wallace drew no comparison to selective breeding, and focused on ecological pressures that kept different varieties adapted to local conditions.[55][56][57] Some historians have suggested that Wallace was actually discussing group selection rather than selection acting on individual variation.[58]

Abstract of Species book [ edit ] Soon after the meeting, Darwin decided to write "an abstract of my whole work" in the form of one or more papers to be published by the Linnean Society, but was concerned about "how it can be made scientific for a Journal, without giving facts, which would be impossible." He asked Hooker how many pages would be available, but "If the Referees were to reject it as not strictly scientific I would, perhaps publish it as pamphlet."[59][60] He began his "abstract of Species book" on 20 July 1858, while on holiday at Sandown,[61] and wrote parts of it from memory, while sending the manuscripts to his friends for checking.[62]

By early October, he began to "expect my abstract will run into a small volume, which will have to be published separately."[63] Over the same period, he continued to collect information and write large fully detailed sections of the manuscript for his "big book" on Species, Natural Selection.[59]

Murray as publisher; choice of title [ edit ] On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 2nd edition. By Charles Darwin, John Murray, London, 1860. National Museum of Scotland.

By mid-March 1859 Darwin's abstract had reached the stage where he was thinking of early publication; Lyell suggested the publisher John Murray, and met with him to find if he would be willing to publish. On 28 March Darwin wrote to Lyell asking about progress, and offering to give Murray assurances "that my Book is not more un-orthodox, than the subject makes inevitable." He enclosed a draft title sheet proposing An abstract of an Essay on the Origin of Species and Varieties Through natural selection, with the year shown as "1859".[64]

Murray's response was favourable, and a very pleased Darwin told Lyell on 30 March that he would "send shortly a large bundle of M.S. but unfortunately I cannot for a week, as the three first chapters are in three copyists' hands". He bowed to Murray's objection to "abstract" in the title, though he felt it excused the lack of references, but wanted to keep "natural selection" which was "constantly used in all works on Breeding", and hoped "to retain it with Explanation, somewhat as thus",'-- Through Natural Selection or the preservation of favoured races.[66]On 31 March Darwin wrote to Murray in confirmation, and listed headings of the 12 chapters in progress: he had drafted all except "XII. Recapitulation & Conclusion".[67] Murray responded immediately with an agreement to publish the book on the same terms as he published Lyell, without even seeing the manuscript: he offered Darwin '…-- of the profits.[68] Darwin promptly accepted with pleasure, insisting that Murray would be free to withdraw the offer if, having read the chapter manuscripts, he felt the book would not sell well[69] (eventually Murray paid £180 to Darwin for the first edition and by Darwin's death in 1882 the book was in its sixth edition, earning Darwin nearly £3000[70]).

On 5 April, Darwin sent Murray the first three chapters, and a proposal for the book's title.[71] An early draft title page suggests On the Mutability of Species.[72] Murray cautiously asked Whitwell Elwin to review the chapters.[59] At Lyell's suggestion, Elwin recommended that, rather than "put forth the theory without the evidence", the book should focus on observations upon pigeons, briefly stating how these illustrated Darwin's general principles and preparing the way for the larger work expected shortly: "Every body is interested in pigeons."[73] Darwin responded that this was impractical: he had only the last chapter still to write.[74] In September the main title still included "An essay on the origin of species and varieties", but Darwin now proposed dropping "varieties".[75]

With Murray's persuasion, the title was eventually agreed as On the Origin of Species, with the title page adding by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.[3] In this extended title (and elsewhere in the book) Darwin used the biological term "races" interchangeably with "varieties", meaning varieties within a species.[76][77] He used the term broadly,[78] and as well as discussions of "the several races, for instance, of the cabbage" and "the hereditary varieties or races of our domestic animals and plants",[79] there are three instances in the book where the phrase "races of man" is used, referring to races of humans.[80]

Publication and subsequent editions [ edit ] On the Origin of Species was first published on Thursday 24 November 1859, priced at fifteen shillings with a first printing of 1250 copies.[81] The book had been offered to booksellers at Murray's autumn sale on Tuesday 22 November, and all available copies had been taken up immediately. In total, 1,250 copies were printed but after deducting presentation and review copies, and five for Stationers' Hall copyright, around 1,170 copies were available for sale.[2] Significantly, 500 were taken by Mudie's Library, ensuring that the book promptly reached a large number of subscribers to the library.[82] The second edition of 3,000 copies was quickly brought out on 7 January 1860,[83] and incorporated numerous corrections as well as a response to religious objections by the addition of a new epigraph on page ii, a quotation from Charles Kingsley, and the phrase "by the Creator" added to the closing sentence.[84] During Darwin's lifetime the book went through six editions, with cumulative changes and revisions to deal with counter-arguments raised. The third edition came out in 1861, with a number of sentences rewritten or added and an introductory appendix, An Historical Sketch of the Recent Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species,[85] while the fourth in 1866 had further revisions. The fifth edition, published on 10 February 1869, incorporated more changes and for the first time included the phrase "survival of the fittest", which had been coined by the philosopher Herbert Spencer in his Principles of Biology (1864).[86]

In January 1871, George Jackson Mivart's On the Genesis of Species listed detailed arguments against natural selection, and claimed it included false metaphysics.[87] Darwin made extensive revisions to the sixth edition of the Origin (this was the first edition in which he used the word "evolution" which had commonly been associated with embryological development, though all editions concluded with the word "evolved"[88][89]), and added a new chapter VII, Miscellaneous objections, to address Mivart's arguments.[2][90]

The sixth edition was published by Murray on 19 February 1872 as The Origin of Species, with "On" dropped from the title. Darwin had told Murray of working men in Lancashire clubbing together to buy the fifth edition at 15 shillings and wanted it made more widely available; the price was halved to 7s 6d by printing in a smaller font. It includes a glossary compiled by W.S. Dallas. Book sales increased from 60 to 250 per month.[3][90]

Publication outside Great Britain [ edit ] American botanist Asa Gray (1810''1888)

In the United States, botanist Asa Gray, an American colleague of Darwin, negotiated with a Boston publisher for publication of an authorised American version, but learnt that two New York publishing firms were already planning to exploit the absence of international copyright to print Origin.[91] Darwin was delighted by the popularity of the book, and asked Gray to keep any profits.[92] Gray managed to negotiate a 5% royalty with Appleton's of New York,[93] who got their edition out in mid-January 1860, and the other two withdrew. In a May letter, Darwin mentioned a print run of 2,500 copies, but it is not clear if this referred to the first printing only, as there were four that year.[2][94]

The book was widely translated in Darwin's lifetime, but problems arose with translating concepts and metaphors, and some translations were biased by the translator's own agenda.[95] Darwin distributed presentation copies in France and Germany, hoping that suitable applicants would come forward, as translators were expected to make their own arrangements with a local publisher. He welcomed the distinguished elderly naturalist and geologist Heinrich Georg Bronn, but the German translation published in 1860 imposed Bronn's own ideas, adding controversial themes that Darwin had deliberately omitted. Bronn translated "favoured races" as "perfected races", and added essays on issues including the origin of life, as well as a final chapter on religious implications partly inspired by Bronn's adherence to Naturphilosophie.[96] In 1862, Bronn produced a second edition based on the third English edition and Darwin's suggested additions, but then died of a heart attack.[97] Darwin corresponded closely with Julius Victor Carus, who published an improved translation in 1867.[98] Darwin's attempts to find a translator in France fell through, and the translation by Cl(C)mence Royer published in 1862 added an introduction praising Darwin's ideas as an alternative to religious revelation and promoting ideas anticipating social Darwinism and eugenics, as well as numerous explanatory notes giving her own answers to doubts that Darwin expressed. Darwin corresponded with Royer about a second edition published in 1866 and a third in 1870, but he had difficulty getting her to remove her notes and was troubled by these editions.[97][99] He remained unsatisfied until a translation by Edmond Barbier was published in 1876.[2] A Dutch translation by Tiberius Cornelis Winkler was published in 1860.[100] By 1864, additional translations had appeared in Italian and Russian.[95] In Darwin's lifetime, Origin was published in Swedish in 1871,[101] Danish in 1872, Polish in 1873, Hungarian in 1873''1874, Spanish in 1877 and Serbian in 1878. By 1977, Origin had appeared in an additional 18 languages,[102] including Chinese by Ma Ch¼n-wu who added non-Darwinian ideas; he published the preliminaries and chapters 1''5 in 1902''1904, and his complete translation in 1920.[103][104]

Content [ edit ] Title pages and introduction [ edit ] John Gould's illustration of

Darwin's rhea was published in 1841. The existence of two rhea species with overlapping ranges influenced Darwin.

Page ii contains quotations by William Whewell and Francis Bacon on the theology of natural laws,[105] harmonising science and religion in accordance with Isaac Newton's belief in a rational God who established a law-abiding cosmos.[106] In the second edition, Darwin added an epigraph from Joseph Butler affirming that God could work through scientific laws as much as through miracles, in a nod to the religious concerns of his oldest friends.[84] The Introduction establishes Darwin's credentials as a naturalist and author,[107] then refers to John Herschel's letter suggesting that the origin of species "would be found to be a natural in contradistinction to a miraculous process":[108]

WHEN on board HMS Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species'--that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers.[109]

Darwin refers specifically to the distribution of the species rheas, and to that of the Galpagos tortoises and mockingbirds. He mentions his years of work on his theory, and the arrival of Wallace at the same conclusion, which led him to "publish this Abstract" of his incomplete work. He outlines his ideas, and sets out the essence of his theory:

As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.[110]

Starting with the third edition, Darwin prefaced the introduction with a sketch of the historical development of evolutionary ideas.[111] In that sketch he acknowledged that Patrick Matthew had, unknown to Wallace or himself, anticipated the concept of natural selection in an appendix to a book published in 1831;[112] in the fourth edition he mentioned that William Charles Wells had done so as early as 1813.[113]

Variation under domestication and under nature [ edit ] Chapter I covers animal husbandry and plant breeding, going back to ancient Egypt. Darwin discusses contemporary opinions on the origins of different breeds under cultivation to argue that many have been produced from common ancestors by selective breeding.[114] As an illustration of artificial selection, he describes fancy pigeon breeding,[115] noting that "[t]he diversity of the breeds is something astonishing", yet all were descended from one species of rock pigeon.[116] Darwin saw two distinct kinds of variation: (1) rare abrupt changes he called "sports" or "monstrosities" (example: Ancon sheep with short legs), and (2) ubiquitous small differences (example: slightly shorter or longer bill of pigeons).[117] Both types of hereditary changes can be used by breeders. However, for Darwin the small changes were most important in evolution. In this chapter Darwin expresses his erroneous belief that environmental change is necessary to generate variation.[118]

In Chapter II, Darwin specifies that the distinction between species and varieties is arbitrary, with experts disagreeing and changing their decisions when new forms were found. He concludes that "a well-marked variety may be justly called an incipient species" and that "species are only strongly marked and permanent varieties".[119] He argues for the ubiquity of variation in nature.[120] Historians have noted that naturalists had long been aware that the individuals of a species differed from one another, but had generally considered such variations to be limited and unimportant deviations from the archetype of each species, that archetype being a fixed ideal in the mind of God. Darwin and Wallace made variation among individuals of the same species central to understanding the natural world.[115]

Struggle for existence, natural selection, and divergence [ edit ] In Chapter III, Darwin asks how varieties "which I have called incipient species" become distinct species, and in answer introduces the key concept he calls "natural selection";[121] in the fifth edition he adds, "But the expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer, of the Survival of the Fittest, is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient."[122]

Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring ... I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection.[121]

He notes that both A. P. de Candolle and Charles Lyell had stated that all organisms are exposed to severe competition. Darwin emphasizes that he used the phrase "struggle for existence" in "a large and metaphorical sense, including dependence of one being on another"; he gives examples ranging from plants struggling against drought to plants competing for birds to eat their fruit and disseminate their seeds. He describes the struggle resulting from population growth: "It is the doctrine of Malthus applied with manifold force to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms." He discusses checks to such increase including complex ecological interdependencies, and notes that competition is most severe between closely related forms "which fill nearly the same place in the economy of nature".[123]

Chapter IV details natural selection under the "infinitely complex and close-fitting ... mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life".[124] Darwin takes as an example a country where a change in conditions led to extinction of some species, immigration of others and, where suitable variations occurred, descendants of some species became adapted to new conditions. He remarks that the artificial selection practised by animal breeders frequently produced sharp divergence in character between breeds, and suggests that natural selection might do the same, saying:

But how, it may be asked, can any analogous principle apply in nature? I believe it can and does apply most efficiently, from the simple circumstance that the more diversified the descendants from any one species become in structure, constitution, and habits, by so much will they be better enabled to seize on many and widely diversified places in the polity of nature, and so be enabled to increase in numbers.[125]

Historians have remarked that here Darwin anticipated the modern concept of an ecological niche.[126] He did not suggest that every favourable variation must be selected, nor that the favoured animals were better or higher, but merely more adapted to their surroundings.

This tree diagram, used to show the divergence of species, is the only illustration in the

Origin of Species.

Darwin proposes sexual selection, driven by competition between males for mates, to explain sexually dimorphic features such as lion manes, deer antlers, peacock tails, bird songs, and the bright plumage of some male birds.[127] He analysed sexual selection more fully in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). Natural selection was expected to work very slowly in forming new species, but given the effectiveness of artificial selection, he could "see no limit to the amount of change, to the beauty and infinite complexity of the coadaptations between all organic beings, one with another and with their physical conditions of life, which may be effected in the long course of time by nature's power of selection". Using a tree diagram and calculations, he indicates the "divergence of character" from original species into new species and genera. He describes branches falling off as extinction occurred, while new branches formed in "the great Tree of life ... with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications".[128]

Variation and heredity [ edit ] In Darwin's time there was no agreed-upon model of heredity;[129] in Chapter I Darwin admitted, "The laws governing inheritance are quite unknown."[130] He accepted a version of the inheritance of acquired characteristics (which after Darwin's death came to be called Lamarckism), and Chapter V discusses what he called the effects of use and disuse; he wrote that he thought "there can be little doubt that use in our domestic animals strengthens and enlarges certain parts, and disuse diminishes them; and that such modifications are inherited", and that this also applied in nature.[131] Darwin stated that some changes that were commonly attributed to use and disuse, such as the loss of functional wings in some island-dwelling insects, might be produced by natural selection. In later editions of Origin, Darwin expanded the role attributed to the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Darwin also admitted ignorance of the source of inheritable variations, but speculated they might be produced by environmental factors.[132][133] However, one thing was clear: whatever the exact nature and causes of new variations, Darwin knew from observation and experiment that breeders were able to select such variations and produce huge differences in many generations of selection.[117] The observation that selection works in domestic animals is not destroyed by lack of understanding of the underlying hereditary mechanism.

Breeding of animals and plants showed related varieties varying in similar ways, or tending to revert to an ancestral form, and similar patterns of variation in distinct species were explained by Darwin as demonstrating common descent. He recounted how Lord Morton's mare apparently demonstrated telegony, offspring inheriting characteristics of a previous mate of the female parent, and accepted this process as increasing the variation available for natural selection.[134][135]

More detail was given in Darwin's 1868 book on The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, which tried to explain heredity through his hypothesis of pangenesis. Although Darwin had privately questioned blending inheritance, he struggled with the theoretical difficulty that novel individual variations would tend to blend into a population. However, inherited variation could be seen,[136] and Darwin's concept of selection working on a population with a range of small variations was workable.[137] It was not until the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s that a model of heredity became completely integrated with a model of variation.[138] This modern evolutionary synthesis had been dubbed Neo Darwinian Evolution because it encompasses Charles Darwin's theories of evolution with Gregor Mendel's theories of genetic inheritance.[139]

Difficulties for the theory [ edit ] Chapter VI begins by saying the next three chapters will address possible objections to the theory, the first being that often no intermediate forms between closely related species are found, though the theory implies such forms must have existed. As Darwin noted, "Firstly, why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?"[140] Darwin attributed this to the competition between different forms, combined with the small number of individuals of intermediate forms, often leading to extinction of such forms.[141] This difficulty can be referred to as the absence or rarity of transitional varieties in habitat space.

Another difficulty, related to the first one, is the absence or rarity of transitional varieties in time. Darwin commented that by the theory of natural selection "innumerable transitional forms must have existed," and wondered "why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?"[142] (For further discussion of these difficulties, see Speciation#Darwin's dilemma: Why do species exist? and Bernstein et al.[143] and Michod.[144])

The chapter then deals with whether natural selection could produce complex specialised structures, and the behaviours to use them, when it would be difficult to imagine how intermediate forms could be functional. Darwin said:

Secondly, is it possible that an animal having, for instance, the structure and habits of a bat, could have been formed by the modification of some animal with wholly different habits? Can we believe that natural selection could produce, on the one hand, organs of trifling importance, such as the tail of a giraffe, which serves as a fly-flapper, and, on the other hand, organs of such wonderful structure, as the eye, of which we hardly as yet fully understand the inimitable perfection?[145]

His answer was that in many cases animals exist with intermediate structures that are functional. He presented flying squirrels, and flying lemurs as examples of how bats might have evolved from non-flying ancestors.[146] He discussed various simple eyes found in invertebrates, starting with nothing more than an optic nerve coated with pigment, as examples of how the vertebrate eye could have evolved. Darwin concludes: "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case."[147]

In a section on "organs of little apparent importance", Darwin discusses the difficulty of explaining various seemingly trivial traits with no evident adaptive function, and outlines some possibilities such as correlation with useful features. He accepts that we "are profoundly ignorant of the causes producing slight and unimportant variations" which distinguish domesticated breeds of animals,[148] and human races. He suggests that sexual selection might explain these variations:[149]

I might have adduced for this same purpose the differences between the races of man, which are so strongly marked; I may add that some little light can apparently be thrown on the origin of these differences, chiefly through sexual selection of a particular kind, but without here entering on copious details my reasoning would appear frivolous.[151]

Chapter VII (of the first edition) addresses the evolution of instincts. His examples included two he had investigated experimentally: slave-making ants and the construction of hexagonal cells by honey bees. Darwin noted that some species of slave-making ants were more dependent on slaves than others, and he observed that many ant species will collect and store the pupae of other species as food. He thought it reasonable that species with an extreme dependency on slave workers had evolved in incremental steps. He suggested that bees that make hexagonal cells evolved in steps from bees that made round cells, under pressure from natural selection to economise wax. Darwin concluded:

Finally, it may not be a logical deduction, but to my imagination it is far more satisfactory to look at such instincts as the young cuckoo ejecting its foster-brothers, '--ants making slaves, '--the larv... of ichneumonid... feeding within the live bodies of caterpillars, '--not as specially endowed or created instincts, but as small consequences of one general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.[152]

Chapter VIII addresses the idea that species had special characteristics that prevented hybrids from being fertile in order to preserve separately created species. Darwin said that, far from being constant, the difficulty in producing hybrids of related species, and the viability and fertility of the hybrids, varied greatly, especially among plants. Sometimes what were widely considered to be separate species produced fertile hybrid offspring freely, and in other cases what were considered to be mere varieties of the same species could only be crossed with difficulty. Darwin concluded: "Finally, then, the facts briefly given in this chapter do not seem to me opposed to, but even rather to support the view, that there is no fundamental distinction between species and varieties."[153]

In the sixth edition Darwin inserted a new chapter VII (renumbering the subsequent chapters) to respond to criticisms of earlier editions, including the objection that many features of organisms were not adaptive and could not have been produced by natural selection. He said some such features could have been by-products of adaptive changes to other features, and that often features seemed non-adaptive because their function was unknown, as shown by his book on Fertilisation of Orchids that explained how their elaborate structures facilitated pollination by insects. Much of the chapter responds to George Jackson Mivart's criticisms, including his claim that features such as baleen filters in whales, flatfish with both eyes on one side and the camouflage of stick insects could not have evolved through natural selection because intermediate stages would not have been adaptive. Darwin proposed scenarios for the incremental evolution of each feature.[154]

Geological record [ edit ] Chapter IX deals with the fact that the geological record appears to show forms of life suddenly arising, without the innumerable transitional fossils expected from gradual changes. Darwin borrowed Charles Lyell's argument in Principles of Geology that the record is extremely imperfect as fossilisation is a very rare occurrence, spread over vast periods of time; since few areas had been geologically explored, there could only be fragmentary knowledge of geological formations, and fossil collections were very poor. Evolved local varieties which migrated into a wider area would seem to be the sudden appearance of a new species. Darwin did not expect to be able to reconstruct evolutionary history, but continuing discoveries gave him well-founded hope that new finds would occasionally reveal transitional forms.[155][156] To show that there had been enough time for natural selection to work slowly, he cited the example of The Weald as discussed in Principles of Geology together with other observations from Hugh Miller, James Smith of Jordanhill and Andrew Ramsay. Combining this with an estimate of recent rates of sedimentation and erosion, Darwin calculated that erosion of The Weald had taken around 300 million years.[157] The initial appearance of entire groups of well-developed organisms in the oldest fossil-bearing layers, now known as the Cambrian explosion, posed a problem. Darwin had no doubt that earlier seas had swarmed with living creatures, but stated that he had no satisfactory explanation for the lack of fossils.[158] Fossil evidence of pre-Cambrian life has since been found, extending the history of life back for billions of years.[159]

Chapter X examines whether patterns in the fossil record are better explained by common descent and branching evolution through natural selection, than by the individual creation of fixed species. Darwin expected species to change slowly, but not at the same rate '' some organisms such as Lingula were unchanged since the earliest fossils. The pace of natural selection would depend on variability and change in the environment.[160] This distanced his theory from Lamarckian laws of inevitable progress.[155] It has been argued that this anticipated the punctuated equilibrium hypothesis,[156][161] but other scholars have preferred to emphasise Darwin's commitment to gradualism.[162] He cited Richard Owen's findings that the earliest members of a class were a few simple and generalised species with characteristics intermediate between modern forms, and were followed by increasingly diverse and specialised forms, matching the branching of common descent from an ancestor.[155] Patterns of extinction matched his theory, with related groups of species having a continued existence until extinction, then not reappearing. Recently extinct species were more similar to living species than those from earlier eras, and as he had seen in South America, and William Clift had shown in Australia, fossils from recent geological periods resembled species still living in the same area.[160]

Geographic distribution [ edit ] Chapter XI deals with evidence from biogeography, starting with the observation that differences in flora and fauna from separate regions cannot be explained by environmental differences alone; South America, Africa, and Australia all have regions with similar climates at similar latitudes, but those regions have very different plants and animals. The species found in one area of a continent are more closely allied with species found in other regions of that same continent than to species found on other continents. Darwin noted that barriers to migration played an important role in the differences between the species of different regions. The coastal sea life of the Atlantic and Pacific sides of Central America had almost no species in common even though the Isthmus of Panama was only a few miles wide. His explanation was a combination of migration and descent with modification. He went on to say: "On this principle of inheritance with modification, we can understand how it is that sections of genera, whole genera, and even families are confined to the same areas, as is so commonly and notoriously the case."[163] Darwin explained how a volcanic island formed a few hundred miles from a continent might be colonised by a few species from that continent. These species would become modified over time, but would still be related to species found on the continent, and Darwin observed that this was a common pattern. Darwin discussed ways that species could be dispersed across oceans to colonise islands, many of which he had investigated experimentally.[164]

Chapter XII continues the discussion of biogeography. After a brief discussion of freshwater species, it returns to oceanic islands and their peculiarities; for example on some islands roles played by mammals on continents were played by other animals such as flightless birds or reptiles. The summary of both chapters says:

... I think all the grand leading facts of geographical distribution are explicable on the theory of migration (generally of the more dominant forms of life), together with subsequent modification and the multiplication of new forms. We can thus understand the high importance of barriers, whether of land or water, which separate our several zoological and botanical provinces. We can thus understand the localisation of sub-genera, genera, and families; and how it is that under different latitudes, for instance in South America, the inhabitants of the plains and mountains, of the forests, marshes, and deserts, are in so mysterious a manner linked together by affinity, and are likewise linked to the extinct beings which formerly inhabited the same continent ... On these same principles, we can understand, as I have endeavoured to show, why oceanic islands should have few inhabitants, but of these a great number should be endemic or peculiar; ...[165]

Classification, morphology, embryology, rudimentary organs [ edit ] Chapter XIII starts by observing that classification depends on species being grouped together in a Taxonomy, a multilevel system of groups and sub-groups based on varying degrees of resemblance. After discussing classification issues, Darwin concludes:

All the foregoing rules and aids and difficulties in classification are explained, if I do not greatly deceive myself, on the view that the natural system is founded on descent with modification; that the characters which naturalists consider as showing true affinity between any two or more species, are those which have been inherited from a common parent, and, in so far, all true classification is genealogical; that community of descent is the hidden bond which naturalists have been unconsciously seeking, ...[166]

Darwin discusses morphology, including the importance of homologous structures. He says, "What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions?" This made no sense under doctrines of independent creation of species, as even Richard Owen had admitted, but the "explanation is manifest on the theory of the natural selection of successive slight modifications" showing common descent.[167] He notes that animals of the same class often have extremely similar embryos. Darwin discusses rudimentary organs, such as the wings of flightless birds and the rudiments of pelvis and leg bones found in some snakes. He remarks that some rudimentary organs, such as teeth in baleen whales, are found only in embryonic stages.[168] These factors also supported his theory of descent with modification.[31]

[ edit ] The final chapter, "Recapitulation and Conclusion", reviews points from earlier chapters, and Darwin concludes by hoping that his theory might produce revolutionary changes in many fields of natural history.[169] He suggests that psychology will be put on a new foundation and implies the relevance of his theory to the first appearance of humanity with the sentence that "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history."[31][170] Darwin ends with a passage that became well known and much quoted:

It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us ... Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.[171]

Darwin added the phrase "by the Creator" from the 1860 second edition onwards, so that the ultimate sentence begins "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one".[172]

Structure, style, and themes [ edit ] Nature and structure of Darwin's argument [ edit ] Darwin's aims were twofold: to show that species had not been separately created, and to show that natural selection had been the chief agent of change.[173] He knew that his readers were already familiar with the concept of transmutation of species from Vestiges, and his introduction ridicules that work as failing to provide a viable mechanism.[174] Therefore, the first four chapters lay out his case that selection in nature, caused by the struggle for existence, is analogous to the selection of variations under domestication, and that the accumulation of adaptive variations provides a scientifically testable mechanism for evolutionary speciation.[175][176]

Later chapters provide evidence that evolution has occurred, supporting the idea of branching, adaptive evolution without directly proving that selection is the mechanism. Darwin presents supporting facts drawn from many disciplines, showing that his theory could explain a myriad of observations from many fields of natural history that were inexplicable under the alternative concept that species had been individually created.[176][177][178] The structure of Darwin's argument showed the influence of John Herschel, whose philosophy of science maintained that a mechanism could be called a vera causa (true cause) if three things could be demonstrated: its existence in nature, its ability to produce the effects of interest, and its ability to explain a wide range of observations.[179]

Literary style [ edit ] The Examiner review of 3 December 1859 commented, "Much of Mr. Darwin's volume is what ordinary readers would call 'tough reading;' that is, writing which to comprehend requires concentrated attention and some preparation for the task. All, however, is by no means of this description, and many parts of the book abound in information, easy to comprehend and both instructive and entertaining."[174][180]

While the book was readable enough to sell, its dryness ensured that it was seen as aimed at specialist scientists and could not be dismissed as mere journalism or imaginative fiction. Unlike the still-popular Vestiges, it avoided the narrative style of the historical novel and cosmological speculation, though the closing sentence clearly hinted at cosmic progression. Darwin had long been immersed in the literary forms and practices of specialist science, and made effective use of his skills in structuring arguments.[174] David Quammen has described the book as written in everyday language for a wide audience, but noted that Darwin's literary style was uneven: in some places he used convoluted sentences that are difficult to read, while in other places his writing was beautiful. Quammen advised that later editions were weakened by Darwin making concessions and adding details to address his critics, and recommended the first edition.[181] James T. Costa said that because the book was an abstract produced in haste in response to Wallace's essay, it was more approachable than the big book on natural selection Darwin had been working on, which would have been encumbered by scholarly footnotes and much more technical detail. He added that some parts of Origin are dense, but other parts are almost lyrical, and the case studies and observations are presented in a narrative style unusual in serious scientific books, which broadened its audience.[182]

Human evolution [ edit ] From his early transmutation notebooks in the late 1830s onwards, Darwin considered human evolution as part of the natural processes he was investigating,[183] and rejected divine intervention.[184] In 1856, his "big book on species" titled Natural Selection was to include a "note on Man", but when Wallace enquired in December 1857, Darwin replied; "You ask whether I shall discuss 'man';'--I think I shall avoid whole subject, as so surrounded with prejudices, though I fully admit that it is the highest & most interesting problem for the naturalist."[185][186]On 28 March 1859, with his manuscript for the book well under way, Darwin wrote to Lyell offering the suggested publisher John Murray assurances "That I do not discuss origin of man".[64]

In the final chapter of On the Origin of Species, "Recapitulation and Conclusion", Darwin briefly highlights the human implications of his theory:

"In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history."[187]

Discussing this in January 1860, Darwin assured Lyell that "by the sentence [Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history] I show that I believe man is in same predicament with other animals.[188] Many modern writers have seen this sentence as Darwin's only reference to humans in the book;[183] Janet Browne describes it as his only discussion there of human origins, while noting that the book makes other references to humanity.[189]

Some other statements in the book are quietly effective at pointing out the implication that humans are simply another species, evolving through the same processes and principles affecting other organisms. For example,[183] in Chapter III: "Struggle for Existence" Darwin includes "slow-breeding man" among other examples of Malthusian population growth.[190] In his discussions on morphology, Darwin compares and comments on bone structures that are homologous between humans and other mammals.[191]

Darwin's early notebooks discussed how non-adaptive characteristics could be selected when animals or humans chose mates,[192] with races of humans differing over ideas of beauty.[193] In his 1856 notes responding to Robert Knox's The Races of Man: A Fragment, he called this effect sexual selection. He added notes on sexual selection to his "big book on species", and in mid-1857 he added a section heading "Theory applied to Races of Man", but did not add text on this topic.[195]

In On the Origin of Species, Chapter VI: "Difficulties on Theory", Darwin mentions this in the context of "slight and unimportant variations":[196]

I might have adduced for this same purpose the differences between the races of man, which are so strongly marked; I may add that some little light can apparently be thrown on the origin of these differences, chiefly through sexual selection of a particular kind, but without here entering on copious details my reasoning would appear frivolous."[196]

When Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex twelve years later, he said that he had not gone into detail on human evolution in the Origin as he thought that would "only add to the prejudices against my views". He had not completely avoided the topic:[197]

It seemed to me sufficient to indicate, in the first edition of my 'Origin of Species,' that by this work 'light would be thrown on the origin of man and his history;' and this implies that man must be included with other organic beings in any general conclusion respecting his manner of appearance on this earth.[197][198]

He also said that he had "merely alluded" in that book to sexual selection differentiating human races.[199]

Reception [ edit ] The book aroused international interest[201] and a widespread debate, with no sharp line between scientific issues and ideological, social and religious implications.[202] Much of the initial reaction was hostile, in a large part because very few reviewers actually understood his theory,[203] but Darwin had to be taken seriously as a prominent and respected name in science. Samuel Wilberforce wrote a review in Quarterly Review in 1860[204] where he disagreed with Darwin's 'argument'. There was much less controversy than had greeted the 1844 publication Vestiges of Creation, which had been rejected by scientists,[201] but had influenced a wide public readership into believing that nature and human society were governed by natural laws.[31] The Origin of Species as a book of wide general interest became associated with ideas of social reform. Its proponents made full use of a surge in the publication of review journals, and it was given more popular attention than almost any other scientific work, though it failed to match the continuing sales of Vestiges.[205] Darwin's book legitimised scientific discussion of evolutionary mechanisms, and the newly coined term 'Darwinism' was used to cover the whole range of evolutionism, not just his own ideas. By the mid-1870s, evolutionism was triumphant.[202]

While Darwin had been somewhat coy about human origins, not identifying any explicit conclusion on the matter in his book, he had dropped enough hints about human's animal ancestry for the inference to be made,[206][207] and the first review claimed it made a creed of the "men from monkeys" idea from Vestiges.[208][209] Human evolution became central to the debate and was strongly argued by Huxley who featured it in his popular "working-men's lectures". Darwin did not publish his own views on this until 1871.[210][211]

The naturalism of natural selection conflicted with presumptions of purpose in nature and while this could be reconciled by theistic evolution, other mechanisms implying more progress or purpose were more acceptable. Herbert Spencer had already incorporated Lamarckism into his popular philosophy of progressive free market human society. He popularised the terms 'evolution' and 'survival of the fittest', and many thought Spencer was central to evolutionary thinking.[212]

[ edit ] Scientific readers were already aware of arguments that species changed through processes that were subject to laws of nature, but the transmutational ideas of Lamarck and the vague "law of development" of Vestiges had not found scientific favour. Darwin presented natural selection as a scientifically testable mechanism while accepting that other mechanisms such as inheritance of acquired characters were possible. His strategy established that evolution through natural laws was worthy of scientific study, and by 1875, most scientists accepted that evolution occurred but few thought natural selection was significant. Darwin's scientific method was also disputed, with his proponents favouring the empiricism of John Stuart Mill's A System of Logic, while opponents held to the idealist school of William Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, in which investigation could begin with the intuitive idea that species were fixed objects created by design.[213] Early support for Darwin's ideas came from the findings of field naturalists studying biogeography and ecology, including Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1860, and Asa Gray in 1862. Henry Walter Bates presented research in 1861 that explained insect mimicry using natural selection. Alfred Russel Wallace discussed evidence from his Malay archipelago research, including an 1864 paper with an evolutionary explanation for the Wallace line.[214]

Huxley used illustrations to show that humans and apes had the same basic skeletal structure.

[215]Evolution had less obvious applications to anatomy and morphology, and at first had little impact on the research of the anatomist Thomas Henry Huxley.[216] Despite this, Huxley strongly supported Darwin on evolution; though he called for experiments to show whether natural selection could form new species, and questioned if Darwin's gradualism was sufficient without sudden leaps to cause speciation. Huxley wanted science to be secular, without religious interference, and his article in the April 1860 Westminster Review promoted scientific naturalism over natural theology,[217][218] praising Darwin for "extending the domination of Science over regions of thought into which she has, as yet, hardly penetrated" and coining the term "Darwinism" as part of his efforts to secularise and professionalise science.[219] Huxley gained influence, and initiated the X Club, which used the journal Nature to promote evolution and naturalism, shaping much of late-Victorian science. Later, the German morphologist Ernst Haeckel would convince Huxley that comparative anatomy and palaeontology could be used to reconstruct evolutionary genealogies.[216][220]

The leading naturalist in Britain was the anatomist Richard Owen, an idealist who had shifted to the view in the 1850s that the history of life was the gradual unfolding of a divine plan.[221] Owen's review of the Origin in the April 1860 Edinburgh Review bitterly attacked Huxley, Hooker and Darwin, but also signalled acceptance of a kind of evolution as a teleological plan in a continuous "ordained becoming", with new species appearing by natural birth. Others that rejected natural selection, but supported "creation by birth", included the Duke of Argyll who explained beauty in plumage by design.[222][223] Since 1858, Huxley had emphasised anatomical similarities between apes and humans, contesting Owen's view that humans were a separate sub-class. Their disagreement over human origins came to the fore at the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting featuring the legendary 1860 Oxford evolution debate.[224][225] In two years of acrimonious public dispute that Charles Kingsley satirised as the "Great Hippocampus Question" and parodied in The Water-Babies as the "great hippopotamus test", Huxley showed that Owen was incorrect in asserting that ape brains lacked a structure present in human brains.[226] Others, including Charles Lyell and Alfred Russel Wallace, thought that humans shared a common ancestor with apes, but higher mental faculties could not have evolved through a purely material process. Darwin published his own explanation in the Descent of Man (1871).[227]

Impact outside Great Britain [ edit ] Haeckel showed a main trunk leading to mankind with minor branches to various animals, unlike Darwin's branching evolutionary tree.

[228]Evolutionary ideas, although not natural selection, were accepted by German biologists accustomed to ideas of homology in morphology from Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants and from their long tradition of comparative anatomy. Bronn's alterations in his German translation added to the misgivings of conservatives, but enthused political radicals. Ernst Haeckel was particularly ardent, aiming to synthesise Darwin's ideas with those of Lamarck and Goethe while still reflecting the spirit of Naturphilosophie.[96][229] Their ambitious programme to reconstruct the evolutionary history of life was joined by Huxley and supported by discoveries in palaeontology. Haeckel used embryology extensively in his recapitulation theory, which embodied a progressive, almost linear model of evolution. Darwin was cautious about such histories, and had already noted that von Baer's laws of embryology supported his idea of complex branching.[228]

Asa Gray promoted and defended Origin against those American naturalists with an idealist approach, notably Louis Agassiz who viewed every species as a distinct fixed unit in the mind of the Creator, classifying as species what others considered merely varieties.[230] Edward Drinker Cope and Alpheus Hyatt reconciled this view with evolutionism in a form of neo-Lamarckism involving recapitulation theory.[229]

French-speaking naturalists in several countries showed appreciation of the much-modified French translation by Cl(C)mence Royer, but Darwin's ideas had little impact in France, where any scientists supporting evolutionary ideas opted for a form of Lamarckism.[99] The intelligentsia in Russia had accepted the general phenomenon of evolution for several years before Darwin had published his theory, and scientists were quick to take it into account, although the Malthusian aspects were felt to be relatively unimportant. The political economy of struggle was criticised as a British stereotype by Karl Marx and by Leo Tolstoy, who had the character Levin in his novel Anna Karenina voice sharp criticism of the morality of Darwin's views.[95]

Challenges to natural selection [ edit ] There were serious scientific objections to the process of natural selection as the key mechanism of evolution, including Karl von N¤geli's insistence that a trivial characteristic with no adaptive advantage could not be developed by selection. Darwin conceded that these could be linked to adaptive characteristics. His estimate that the age of the Earth allowed gradual evolution was disputed by William Thomson (later awarded the title Lord Kelvin), who calculated that it had cooled in less than 100 million years. Darwin accepted blending inheritance, but Fleeming Jenkin calculated that as it mixed traits, natural selection could not accumulate useful traits. Darwin tried to meet these objections in the fifth edition. Mivart supported directed evolution, and compiled scientific and religious objections to natural selection. In response, Darwin made considerable changes to the sixth edition. The problems of the age of the Earth and heredity were only resolved in the 20th century.[87][231]

By the mid-1870s, most scientists accepted evolution, but relegated natural selection to a minor role as they believed evolution was purposeful and progressive. The range of evolutionary theories during "the eclipse of Darwinism" included forms of "saltationism" in which new species were thought to arise through "jumps" rather than gradual adaptation, forms of orthogenesis claiming that species had an inherent tendency to change in a particular direction, and forms of neo-Lamarckism in which inheritance of acquired characteristics led to progress. The minority view of August Weismann, that natural selection was the only mechanism, was called neo-Darwinism. It was thought that the rediscovery of Mendelian inheritance invalidated Darwin's views.[232][233]

Impact on economic and political debates [ edit ] While some, like Spencer, used analogy from natural selection as an argument against government intervention in the economy to benefit the poor, others, including Alfred Russel Wallace, argued that action was needed to correct social and economic inequities to level the playing field before natural selection could improve humanity further. Some political commentaries, including Walter Bagehot's Physics and Politics (1872), attempted to extend the idea of natural selection to competition between nations and between human races. Such ideas were incorporated into what was already an ongoing effort by some working in anthropology to provide scientific evidence for the superiority of Caucasians over non-white races and justify European imperialism. Historians write that most such political and economic commentators had only a superficial understanding of Darwin's scientific theory, and were as strongly influenced by other concepts about social progress and evolution, such as the Lamarckian ideas of Spencer and Haeckel, as they were by Darwin's work. Darwin objected to his ideas being used to justify military aggression and unethical business practices as he believed morality was part of fitness in humans, and he opposed polygenism, the idea that human races were fundamentally distinct and did not share a recent common ancestry.[234]

Religious attitudes [ edit ] The book produced a wide range of religious responses at a time of changing ideas and increasing secularisation. The issues raised were complex and there was a large middle ground. Developments in geology meant that there was little opposition based on a literal reading of Genesis,[235] but defence of the argument from design and natural theology was central to debates over the book in the English-speaking world.[236][237]

The liberal theologian

Baden Powell defended evolutionary ideas by arguing that the introduction of new species should be considered a natural rather than a miraculous process.

[238]Natural theology was not a unified doctrine, and while some such as Louis Agassiz were strongly opposed to the ideas in the book, others sought a reconciliation in which evolution was seen as purposeful.[235] In the Church of England, some liberal clergymen interpreted natural selection as an instrument of God's design, with the cleric Charles Kingsley seeing it as "just as noble a conception of Deity".[239][240] In the second edition of January 1860, Darwin quoted Kingsley as "a celebrated cleric", and added the phrase "by the Creator" to the closing sentence, which from then on read "life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one".[172] While some commentators have taken this as a concession to religion that Darwin later regretted,[84] Darwin's view at the time was of God creating life through the laws of nature,[241][242] and even in the first edition there are several references to "creation".[243]

Baden Powell praised "Mr Darwin's masterly volume [supporting] the grand principle of the self-evolving powers of nature".[244] In America, Asa Gray argued that evolution is the secondary effect, or modus operandi, of the first cause, design,[245] and published a pamphlet defending the book in terms of theistic evolution, Natural Selection is not inconsistent with Natural Theology.[239][246][247] Theistic evolution became a popular compromise, and St. George Jackson Mivart was among those accepting evolution but attacking Darwin's naturalistic mechanism. Eventually it was realised that supernatural intervention could not be a scientific explanation, and naturalistic mechanisms such as neo-Lamarckism were favoured over natural selection as being more compatible with purpose.[235]

Even though the book did not explicitly spell out Darwin's beliefs about human origins, it had dropped a number of hints about human's animal ancestry[207] and quickly became central to the debate, as mental and moral qualities were seen as spiritual aspects of the immaterial soul, and it was believed that animals did not have spiritual qualities. This conflict could be reconciled by supposing there was some supernatural intervention on the path leading to humans, or viewing evolution as a purposeful and progressive ascent to mankind's position at the head of nature.[235] While many conservative theologians accepted evolution, Charles Hodge argued in his 1874 critique "What is Darwinism?" that "Darwinism", defined narrowly as including rejection of design, was atheism though he accepted that Asa Gray did not reject design.[248][249] Asa Gray responded that this charge misrepresented Darwin's text.[250] By the early 20th century, four noted authors of The Fundamentals were explicitly open to the possibility that God created through evolution,[251] but fundamentalism inspired the American creation''evolution controversy that began in the 1920s. Some conservative Roman Catholic writers and influential Jesuits opposed evolution in the late 19th and early 20th century, but other Catholic writers, starting with Mivart, pointed out that early Church Fathers had not interpreted Genesis literally in this area.[252] The Vatican stated its official position in a 1950 papal encyclical, which held that evolution was not inconsistent with Catholic teaching.[253][254]

Modern influence [ edit ] Various alternative evolutionary mechanisms favoured during "the eclipse of Darwinism" became untenable as more was learned about inheritance and mutation. The full significance of natural selection was at last accepted in the 1930s and 1940s as part of the modern evolutionary synthesis. During that synthesis biologists and statisticians, including R. A. Fisher, Sewall Wright and J. B. S. Haldane, merged Darwinian selection with a statistical understanding of Mendelian genetics.[233]

Modern evolutionary theory continues to develop. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, with its tree-like model of branching common descent, has become the unifying theory of the life sciences. The theory explains the diversity of living organisms and their adaptation to the environment. It makes sense of the geological record, biogeography, parallels in embryonic development, biological homologies, vestigiality, cladistics, phylogenetics and other fields, with unrivalled explanatory power; it has also become essential to applied sciences such as medicine and agriculture.[255][256] Despite the scientific consensus, a religion-based political controversy has developed over how evolution is taught in schools, especially in the United States.[257]

Interest in Darwin's writings continues, and scholars have generated an extensive literature, the Darwin Industry, about his life and work. The text of Origin itself has been subject to much analysis including a variorum, detailing the changes made in every edition, first published in 1959,[258] and a concordance, an exhaustive external index published in 1981.[259] Worldwide commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species and the bicentenary of Darwin's birth were scheduled for 2009.[260] They celebrated the ideas which "over the last 150 years have revolutionised our understanding of nature and our place within it".[261]

In a survey conducted by a group of academic booksellers, publishers and librarians in advance of Academic Book Week in the United Kingdom, On the Origin of Species was voted the most influential academic book ever written.[262] It was hailed as "the supreme demonstration of why academic books matter" and "a book which has changed the way we think about everything".[263]

See also [ edit ] On the Origin of Species '' full text at Wikisource of the first edition, 1859The Origin of Species '' full text at Wikisource of the 6th edition, 1872Charles Darwin bibliographyHistory of biologyHistory of evolutionary thoughtHistory of speciationModern evolutionary synthesisThe Complete Works of Charles Darwin OnlineThe Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, published in 1871; his second major book on evolutionary theory.Transmutation of speciesReferences [ edit ] ^ Darwin 1859, p. iii ^ a b c d e Freeman 1977 ^ a b c The book's full original title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. In the 1872 sixth edition, "On" was omitted, so the full title is The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. This edition is usually known as The Origin of Species. The 6th is Darwin's final edition; there were minor modifications in the text of certain subsequent issues. See Freeman, R. B. "The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist." In Van Wyhe, John, ed. Darwin Online: On the Origin of Species, 2002. ^ "Darwin Manuscripts (Digitised notes on Origin)". Cambridge Digital Library . Retrieved 24 November 2014 . ^ Mayr 1982, pp. 479''480 ^ Darwin 1872, p. xiii ^ Aristotle, Physics, translated by Hardie, R. P. and Gayle, R. K. and hosted by MIT's Internet Classics Archive , retrieved 23 April 2009 ^ Forster & Marston 1999, pp. 26''27 ^ Bowler 2003, pp. 27, 43, 45 ^ Bowler 2003, pp. 27''36, 39''42, 57''62, 67, 70, 77''80 ^ Bowler 2003, pp. 84''90 ^ Desmond 1989, pp. 47''54 ^ Bowler 2003, pp. 111''114 ^ Browne 1995, pp. 91, 129 ^ Bowler 2003, pp. 115''117 ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, pp. 34''35 ^ Browne 1995, pp. 80''88 ^ Bowler 2003, pp. 148''149 ^ Browne 1995, pp. 133''140 ^ Larson 2004, pp. 56''62 ^ Darwin 1845, pp. 205''208 ^ Browne 1995, pp. 244''250 ^ Keynes 2000, pp. xix''xx ^ Eldredge 2006 ^ Quammen 2006, pp. 24''25 ^ Herbert 1980, pp. 7''10 ^ van Wyhe 2008, p. 44 ^ Darwin's Notebook B: Transmutation of species. pp. 1''13, 26, 36, 74 , retrieved 16 March 2009 ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, pp. 240''244 ^ a b c d van Wyhe 2009 ^ Larson 2004, pp. 66''70 ^ Darwin's Notebook D: Transmutation of species. pp. 134''135 , retrieved 8 April 2009 ^ Darwin's Notebook E: Transmutation of species. p. 75 , retrieved 14 March 2009 ^ a b van Wyhe 2007, pp. 186''187 ^ Browne 1995, p. 436 ^ Darwin 1958, p. 120 ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, p. 292 ^ Browne 1995, pp. 436''437 ^ van Wyhe 2007, p. 188 ^ Darwin Correspondence Project '' Letter 814'--Darwin, C. 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Retrieved 21 March 2016 . ^ Darwin Correspondence Project '' Letter 2285'--Darwin to Lyell (June 1858), archived from the original on 28 August 2007 , retrieved 15 March 2008 ^ Larson 2004, pp. 74''75 ^ Quammen 2006, pp. 162''163 ^ Bowler 2003, pp. 175''176 ^ Bowler 2013, pp. 61''63 ^ a b c "Darwin in letters, 1858''1859: Origin". Darwin Correspondence Project. 2 June 2015 . Retrieved 17 January 2017 . ^ "Letter 2303 '-- Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., 5 July (1858)". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 7 September 2010 . ^ Darwin 2006, pp. 36 verso ^ "Letter 2432 '-- Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., 15 March (1859)". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 7 September 2010 . It [geographical distribution] was nearly all written from memory ^ "Letter 2339 '-- Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., 12 (October 1858)". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 17 January 2017 . See letter to T. C. Eyton, 4 October (1858), in which CD first mentioned the possibility that his 'abstract' would form a small volume. ^ a b "Letter 2437 '-- Darwin, C. R. to Lyell, Charles, 28 March (1859)". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 16 January 2017 . Would you advise me to tell Murray that my Book is not more un-orthodox, than the subject makes inevitable. That I do not discuss origin of man.'-- That I do not bring in any discussions about Genesis &c, & only give facts, & such conclusions from them, as seem to me fair. Darwin, C. R. proposed title page for Origin of species draft. (1859) APS-B-D25.L[.38] Transcribed by Kees Rookmaaker, edited by John van Wyhe ^ "Letter 2439 '-- Darwin, C. R. to Lyell, Charles, 30 March (1859)". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 16 January 2017 . ^ "Letter 2441 '-- Darwin, C. R. to Murray, John (b), 31 March (1859)". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 16 January 2017 . ^ "Letter 2443 '-- Murray, John (b) to Darwin, C. R., 1 April 1859". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 16 January 2017 . ^ "Letter 2445 '-- Darwin, C. R. to Murray, John (b), 2 April (1859)". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 16 January 2017 . ^ "Charles Darwin and his publisher". Darwin Correspondence Project. 2010. Archived from the original on 7 October 2010 . Retrieved 7 September 2010 . ^ "Letter 2447 '-- Darwin, C. R. to Murray, John (b), 5 April (1859)". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 16 January 2017 . ^ Darwin, C. R. [early draft title of Origin] On the mutability of species [& other notes] CUL-DAR205.1.70 Transcribed by Kees Rookmaaker, edited by John van Wyhe ^ "Letter 2457A '-- Elwin, Whitwell, to Murray, John (b), 3 May 1859". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 16 January 2017 . ^ "Letter 2459 '-- Darwin, C. R. to Murray, John (b), 6 May (1859)". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 16 January 2017 . ^ "Letter 2448 '-- Darwin, C. R. to Murray, John (b), 10 September (1859)". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 16 January 2017 . ^ "Defining Evolution". National Center for Science Education. 24 August 2000 . Retrieved 27 June 2016 . ^ Robert Bernasconi; Tommy Lee Lott (2000). The Idea of Race. Hackett Publishing. p. 54. ISBN 0-87220-458-8. The full title [of the book] employs the term 'race' only in the broad biological use of the word, which refers to varieties throughout organic life; however, speculation about the implications of his views specifically for the question of the human races began almost as soon as the book was published. ^ Sober 2011, p. 45, Quote: "There nonetheless are a few cases in which Darwin does discuss selection processes in which groups are the units, and these will be the focus of the present chapter. But even here it does not matter whether the groups are from different 'races' or from the same race. It is nests of honeybees that compete with each other, and human tribes that compete with other human tribes. For Darwin, the question of group selection had nothing special to do with 'race.' Still, writing in the heyday of empire, Darwin saw European nations outcompeting the nations, kingdoms, and tribes that occupy the rest of the globe. In this one very salient example, Darwin did see races struggling with each other. In any event, the word race in Darwin's subtitle needs to be understood very broadly; it encompasses competition among individuals, competition among groups in the same 'race,' and competition from groups from different 'races.' This is a much broader meaning than the word 'race' tends to have today." ^ Darwin 1859, p. 15 ^ the three instances of the phrase "races of man" are found on Darwin 1859, pp. 199, 382, 422 ^ Dupree, A. Hunter (1988). Asa Gray, American Botanist, Friend of Darwin. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-801-83741-8. ^ Browne 2002, p. 89 ^ Darwin 1958, p. 122 ^ a b c Browne 2002, pp. 95''96 ^ Darwin 1861, p. xiii ^ "This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection', or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life." Spencer 1864, pp. 1345, 817, 57&source=bookclip 444''445 ^ a b Mivart 1871 ^ Browne 2002, p. 59 ^ Freeman 1977, pp. 79''80. "Evolution" in the transformist sense had been used by Charles Lyell in 1832, Principles of Geology vol 2, p. 11; and was used by Darwin in The Descent of Man in 1871, p. 2 onwards. ^ a b Desmond & Moore 1991, pp. 577, 582, 590, 592''593 ^ Darwin Correspondence Project '' Letter 2592'--Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa, 21 December (1859), archived from the original on 13 February 2009 , retrieved 6 December 2008 ^ Darwin Correspondence Project '' Letter 2665'--Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa, 28 January (1860), archived from the original on 13 February 2009 , retrieved 6 December 2008 ^ Darwin Correspondence Project '' Letter 2706'--Gray, Asa to Darwin, C. R., 20 February 1860, archived from the original on 13 February 2009 , retrieved 6 December 2008 ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, p. 492 ^ a b c Browne 2002, pp. 256''259 ^ a b Browne 2002, pp. 140''142 ^ a b Darwin Correspondence Project '' The correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 10: 1862, archived from the original on 5 June 2010 , retrieved 6 March 2009 ^ Darwin Correspondence Project '' The correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 14: 1866 , retrieved 6 March 2009 ^ a b Browne 2002, pp. 142''144 ^ Ch. Darwin, Het ontstaan der soorten van dieren en planten door middel van de natuurkeus of het bewaard blijven van bevoorregte rassen in de strijd des levens, transl. by T.C. Winkler (Haarlem 1860) Source: Teyler, Winkler, Darwin Archived 2 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine Lecture by Marijn van Hoorn MA at the Congress of the European Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Group, Prague, 23 April 2009 ^ "Freeman Bibliographic Database". ^ Freeman 1977, pp. 83, 100''111 ^ Freeman 1977, p. 100 ^ Jin, Xiaoxing (2018). "Translation and transmutation: the Origin of Species in China". The British Journal for the History of Science. 52 (1): 117''141. doi:10.1017/s0007087418000808. PMID 30587253. S2CID 58605626. ^ Darwin 1859, p. ii ^ Phipps 1983 ^ Secord 2000, p. 510 ^ van Wyhe 2007, p. 197 ^ Darwin 1859, p. 1 ^ Darwin 1859, p. 5 ^ Darwin & Costa 2009, p. 1 ^ Darwin 1861, p. xiii ^ Darwin 1866, pp. xiv''xv ^ Darwin & Costa 2009, p. 7 ^ a b Quammen 2006, pp. 184''186 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 20''28 ^ a b David Reznick (2009) The Origin Then and Now, Princeton University Press, p.49. ^ Winther, Rasmus G. (2000), "Darwin on Variation and heredity", Journal of the History of Biology" 33, pp. 425''455 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 44''59 Chap. II ^ Darwin & Costa 2009, p. 44 ^ a b Darwin 1859, pp. 60''61 Chap. III ^ Darwin 1869, p. 72 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 62''76 ^ Darwin 1859, p. 80 ^ Darwin 1859, p. 112 ^ Quammen 2006, p. 189 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 87''101 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 117''130 ^ Larson 2004, p. 85 ^ Darwin 1859, p. 13 ^ Darwin 1859, p. 134 ^ Larson 2004, pp. 86''87 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 131''150 ^ Quammen 2006, pp. 159''167 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 159''167 ^ Richard Dawkins (8 February 2003). "An early flowering of genetics, Books". The Guardian. UK . Retrieved 24 October 2010 . ^ Bowler 2003, pp. 200''201 ^ Bowler 1989 ^ McBride, P. D., Gillman, L. N., & Wright, S. D. (2009). Current debates on the origin of species. Journal of Biological Education, 43(3), 104''107. ^ Darwin 1859, p. 171 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 171''178 ^ Darwin 1859, p. 172 ^ Bernstein H.; Byerly H.C.; Hopf F.A.; Michod R.E. (December 1985). "Sex and the emergence of species". J. Theor. Biol. 117 (4): 665''90. Bibcode:1985JThBi.117..665B. doi:10.1016/S0022-5193(85)80246-0. PMID 4094459. ^ Michod, Richard E. (1995). Eros and evolution: a natural philosophy of sex . Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. ISBN 0-201-44232-9. ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 171''172 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 180''181 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 187''190 ^ Darwin & Costa 2009, pp. 194''199Darwin 1859, pp. 197''199, Quote: "We are profoundly ignorant of the causes producing slight and unimportant variations; and we are immediately made conscious of this by reflecting on the differences in the breeds of our domesticated animals in different countries" ^ Darwin & Costa 2009, p. 199Darwin 1874, p. vi, Quote: "'... I gave, however, a tolerably clear sketch of this principle in the first edition of the 'Origin of Species,' and I there stated that it was applicable to man." ^ Darwin 1859, p. 199 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 243''244 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 245''278 ^ Darwin 1872, pp. 168''205 ^ a b c Bowler 2003, p. 182 ^ a b Wesley R. Elsberry (1996), Punctuated Equilibria , retrieved 30 April 2009 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 282''287 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 306''308 ^ Schopf 2000 ^ a b Darwin 1859, pp. 312''345 ^ Rhodes 1987 ^ Darwin & Costa 2009, p. 108 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 350''351 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 346''382 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 408''409 ^ Darwin 1859, p. 420 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 434''435 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 450''451 ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 484''488, Quote: "When the views entertained in this volume on the origin of species, or when analogous views are generally admitted, we can dimly foresee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural history. ..." ^ Darwin 1859, p. 488Darwin 1871, p. 1, Quote: "'... this implies that man must be included with other organic beings in any general conclusion respecting his manner of appearance on this earth." ^ Darwin 1859, pp. 489''490 ^ a b Darwin 1860, p. 490 ^ Darwin 1871, p. 152 ^ a b c Secord 2000, pp. 508''511 ^ Quammen 2006, pp. 183''188 ^ a b Bowler 2003, pp. 180''181 ^ Quammen 2006, pp. 190, 200''201 ^ Larson 2004, pp. 88''89 ^ Darwin & Costa 2009, p. xvii ^ Crawford 1859 ^ Quammen 2006, pp. 176''181 ^ Darwin & Costa 2009, p. ix ^ a b c Carroll, Joseph (2003). On the Origin of Species / Charles Darwin. Broadview Press. pp. 51''52. ISBN 1-55111-337-6. Following Darwin's lead, most commentators cite this one passage as the only reference to man in the Origin, but they thus overlook, as did Darwin himself, two sentences that are, in their own quiet way, even more effective. ^ Browne 2007, p. 42, quoting Darwin, C. R. Notebook C (February to July 1838) pp. 196''197 "Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy the interposition of a deity, more humble & I believe truer to consider him created from animals." ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, pp. 412''441, 457''458, 462''463Desmond & Moore 2009, pp. 283''284, 290''292, 295 ^ "Letter 2192 '' Darwin, C. R. to Wallace, A. R., 22 December 1857". Darwin Correspondence Project. ^ Darwin 1871, p. 488 ^ "Letter 2647 '' Darwin, C. R. to Charles Lyell, 10 January (1860)". Darwin Correspondence Project . Retrieved 18 September 2017 . ^ For example, Browne 2002, p. 60, "In this book, he was completely silent on the subject of human origins, although he did refer in several places to mankind as an example of biological details. The only words he allowed himself'--and these out of a sense of duty that he must somewhere refer to human beings''were gnomic in their brevity. 'Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history'." ^ Darwin 1859, p. 64, Quote: "There is no exception to the rule that every organic being naturally increases at so high a rate, that if not destroyed, the earth would soon be covered by the progeny of a single pair. Even slow-breeding man has doubled in twenty-five years, and at this rate, in a few thousand years, there would literally not be standing room for his progeny." ^ van Wyhe 2008Darwin 1859, p. 434, Quote: "What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions?"Darwin 1859, p. 479, Quote: "The framework of bones being the same in the hand of a man, wing of a bat, fin of the porpoise, and leg of the horse '... at once explain themselves on the theory of descent with slow and slight successive modifications." ^ Darwin, C. R. Notebook C, CUL-DAR122.- Transcribed by Kees Rookmaaker. (Darwin Online), notes from de Beer, Gavin ed. 1960. Darwin's notebooks on transmutation of species. Part II. Second notebook [C] (February to July 1838). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). Historical Series 2, No. 3 (May): pp. 79 ^ Desmond & Moore 2009, pp. 139''141, quotes "our acquiring the instinct one notion of beauty & negroes another" from Darwin, C. R. Notebook M : [Metaphysics on morals and speculations on expression (1838)]. CUL-DAR125.- Transcribed by Kees Rookmaaker, edited by Paul Barrett. (Darwin Online, p. 32 ^ Desmond & Moore 2009, pp. 290''291 Stauffer, R. C. ed. 1975. Charles Darwin's Natural Selection; being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 213 Chapter Vi On Natural Selection first draft, completed on 31 March 1857, [The outline of this original form of the chapter appears in the original table of contents] "63 [pencil addition] Theory applied to Races of Man." ^ a b Darwin 1859, pp. 197''199 ^ a b Darwin 1871, p. 1, Quote: "During many years I collected notes on the origin or descent of man, without any intention of publishing on the subject, but rather with the determination not to publish, as I thought that I should thus only add to the prejudices against my views." ^ See also Darwin 1958, pp. 130''131, Quote: "My Descent of Man was published in Feb. 1871. As soon as I had become, in the year 1837 or 1838, convinced that species were mutable productions, I could not avoid the belief that man must come under the same law. Accordingly I collected notes on the subject for my own satisfaction, and not for a long time with any intention of publishing. Although in the Origin of Species, the derivation of any particular species is never discussed, yet I thought it best, in order that no honourable man should accuse me of concealing my views, to add that by the work in question 'light would be thrown on the origin of man and his history.' It would have been useless and injurious to the success of the book to have paraded without giving any evidence my conviction with respect to his origin." ^ Darwin 1871, pp. 4''5, Quote: "During many years it has seemed to me highly probable that sexual selection has played an important part in differentiating the races of man; but in my 'Origin of Species' (first edition, p. 199) I contented myself by merely alluding to this belief." ^ Browne 2002, pp. 376''379 ^ a b van Wyhe 2008, pp. 48''49 ^ a b Bowler 2003, pp. 177''180 ^ "Darwin in letters, 1860: Answering critics". 2 June 2015. ^ Wilberforce, Samuel. "[review of] On the origin of species, by means of natural selection; or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin, M. A., F.R.S. London, 1860. Quarterly Review 108: 225''264". darwin-online.org.uk . 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(1979), "Wilberforce and Huxley: A Legendary Encounter", The Historical Journal, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 313''330, doi:10.1017/S0018246X00016848, PMID 11617072, S2CID 19198585 , retrieved 22 November 2008 Mayr, Ernst (1982), The Growth of Biological Thought, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-36446-5 Miles, Sara Joan (2001), "Charles Darwin and Asa Gray Discuss Teleology and Design", Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, vol. 53, pp. 196''201 , retrieved 22 November 2008 Mivart, St. George Jackson (1871), On the Genesis of Species , New York: Appleton Moore, James (2006), Evolution and Wonder '' Understanding Charles Darwin, Speaking of Faith (Radio Program), American Public Media, archived from the original on 22 December 2008 , retrieved 22 November 2008 Phipps, William E. (1983), "Darwin, the Scientific Creationist", Christian Century (14''21 September 1983): 809''811, archived from the original on 8 January 2007 , retrieved 11 January 2007 Peckham, Morse, ed. (1959), The Origin of Species: a variorum text (2006 reprint ed.), Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press., ISBN 978-0-8122-1954-8 Quammen, David (2006), The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, New York: Atlas Books, ISBN 0-393-05981-2 Radick, Gregory (2013). "Darwin and Humans". In Ruse, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary Thought. Cambridge University Press. pp. 173''181. Rhodes, Frank H. T. (June 1987), "Darwinian Gradualism and Its Limits: The development of Darwin's Views on the Rate and Pattern of Evolutionary Change", Journal of the History of Biology, Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Springer Netherlands (published 6 November 2004), vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 139''157, doi:10.1007/BF00138435, S2CID 84054280 Richards, Evelleen (2017), Darwin and the making of sexual selection, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-43706-4, OCLC 956947766 Schopf, J. William (2000), "Solution to Darwin's dilemma: Discovery of the missing Precambrian record of life", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 97 (13): 6947''6953, Bibcode:2000PNAS...97.6947S, doi:10.1073/pnas.97.13.6947 , PMC 34368 , PMID 10860955 Secord, James A. (2000), Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-74411-6 Sober, Elliott (2011), Did Darwin Write the Origin Backwards?: Philosophical Essays on Darwin's Theory, Amherst: Prometheus Books, ISBN 978-1-61614-278-0 Spencer, Herbert (1864), The Principles of Biology, Vol. 1, London: Williams and Norgate van Wyhe, John (2007), "Mind the gap: Did Darwin Avoid Publishing his Theory for Many Years?", Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 61 (2): 177''205, doi:10.1098/rsnr.2006.0171, S2CID 202574857 , retrieved 5 January 2009 van Wyhe, John (2008), Darwin: The Story of the Man and His Theories of Evolution, London: Andre Deutsch, ISBN 978-0-233-00251-4 van Wyhe, John (2009), Charles Darwin: Gentleman Naturalist: A Biographical Sketch, The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online , retrieved 6 June 2009 Further reading [ edit ] Browne, Janet (2007), Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography, Grove Press, ISBN 978-0-87113-953-5 Malthus, Thomas Robert (1826), An Essay on the Principle of Population: A View of its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness; with an Inquiry into Our Prospects Respecting the Future Removal or Mitigation of the Evils which It Occasions, vol. 1 (6th ed.), London: John Murray , retrieved 13 November 2017 (Vol. 2)Reznick, David N. (2009), The Origin Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the Origin of Species, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-12978-5 Schopf, J. William; Scheibel, Arnold B. (1997), The Origin and Evolution of Intelligence, Boston: Jones and Bartlett, ISBN 0-7637-0365-6 van Hoorn, Marijn (2009), Teyler, Winkler, Darwin (Lecture given at the Congress of the European Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Group, Prague, 23 April 2009) , Teyler Net (Weblog of the Teylers Museum, Haarlem), archived from the original on 2 December 2011 , retrieved 27 April 2010 Contemporary reviews [ edit ] Carpenter, William Benjamin (1859), "Darwin on the Origin of Species", National Review, vol. 10, no. December 1859, pp. 188''214 . Published anonymously.Gray, Asa (1860), "(Review of) The Origin of Species", Athenaeum (1710: 4 August 1860): 161 . Extract from Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 4 (1860): 411''415.Huxley, Thomas Henry (1859), "Time and Life: Mr Darwin's Origin of Species", Macmillan's Magazine, 1: 142''148 .Huxley, Thomas Henry (1859), "Darwin on the Origin of Species", The Times (26 December 1859): 8''9 . Published anonymously.Jenkin, Fleeming (1867), "(Review of) The Origin of Species", North British Review, 46 (June 1867): 277''318 . Published anonymously.Murray, Andrew (1860), "On Mr Darwin's Theory of the Origin of Species", Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 4: 274''291, doi:10.1017/S0370164600034246 .Owen, Richard (1860), "Review of Darwin's Origin of Species", Edinburgh Review, 3 (April 1860): 487''532 . Published anonymously.Wilberforce, Samuel (1860), "(Review of) On the Origin of Species, by means of Natural Selection; or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life", Quarterly Review, 108 (215: July 1860): 225''264 . Published anonymously.For further reviews, see Darwin Online: Reviews & Responses to Darwin, Darwin Online, 10 March 2009 , retrieved 18 June 2009 External links [ edit ] Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online:Table of contents, bibliography of On the Origin of Species '' links to text and images of all six British editions of The Origin of Species, the 6th edition with additions and corrections (final text), the first American edition, and translations into Danish, Dutch, French, German, Polish, Russian and SpanishOnline Variorum, showing every change between the six British editionsOn the Origin of Species at Standard EbooksOn the Origin of Species eBook provided by Project Gutenberg On the Origin of Species public domain audiobook at LibriVoxOn the Origin of Species on In Our Time at the BBCOn the Origin of Species, full text with embedded audioA collection of Victorian Science TextsDarwin Correspondence Project Home Page, University Library, CambridgeView online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library On the Origin of Species 1860 American edition, D Appleton and Company, New York, with front insert by H. E. Barker, LincolnianaDarwin's notes on the creation of On the Origin of Species digitised in Cambridge Digital Library

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English polymath (1822''1911)

Francis Galton

Born ( 1822-02-16 ) 16 February 1822Died17 January 1911 (1911-01-17) (aged 88)Resting placeClaverdon, Warwickshire, EnglandNationalityBritishAlma materKing's College, LondonTrinity College, CambridgeKnown forEugenicsBehavioural geneticsRegression toward the meanStandard deviationAnticycloneIsochrone mapWeather mapGalton boardGalton distributionGalton''Watson processGalton's problemGalton's whistle

Awards Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Medal (1853)Royal Medal (1886)Huxley Memorial Medal (1901)Darwin''Wallace Medal (Silver, 1908)Copley Medal (1910) Scientific careerFieldsAnthropology, Sociology, Psychology, StatisticsInstitutionsMeteorological CouncilRoyal Geographical SocietyAcademic advisorsWilliam HopkinsNotable studentsKarl PearsonAuthor abbrev. (zoology)F. Galton, GaltonSir Francis Galton, FRS FRAI (; 16 February 1822 '' 17 January 1911), was an English Victorian era polymath: a statistician, sociologist, psychologist,[1] anthropologist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician and a proponent of social Darwinism, eugenics and scientific racism. He was knighted in 1909.

Galton produced over 340 papers and books. He also created the statistical concept of correlation and widely promoted regression toward the mean. He was the first to apply statistical methods to the study of human differences and inheritance of intelligence, and introduced the use of questionnaires and surveys for collecting data on human communities, which he needed for genealogical and biographical works and for his anthropometric studies. He was a pioneer of eugenics, coining the term itself in 1883, and also coined the phrase "nature versus nurture". His book Hereditary Genius (1869) was the first social scientific attempt to study genius and greatness.

As an investigator of the human mind, he founded psychometrics (the science of measuring mental faculties) and differential psychology, as well as the lexical hypothesis of personality. He devised a method for classifying fingerprints that proved useful in forensic science. He also conducted research on the power of prayer, concluding it had none due to its null effects on the longevity of those prayed for. His quest for the scientific principles of diverse phenomena extended even to the optimal method for making tea.

As the initiator of scientific meteorology, he devised the first weather map, proposed a theory of anticyclones, and was the first to establish a complete record of short-term climatic phenomena on a European scale.[6] He also invented the Galton Whistle for testing differential hearing ability. He was Charles Darwin's half-cousin.

Early life [ edit ] Galton was born at "The Larches", a large house in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham, England, built on the site of "Fair Hill", the former home of Joseph Priestley, which the botanist William Withering had renamed. He was Charles Darwin's half-cousin, sharing the common grandparent Erasmus Darwin. His father was Samuel Tertius Galton, son of Samuel Galton, Jr. He was also a cousin of Douglas Strutt Galton. The Galtons were Quaker gun-manufacturers and bankers, while the Darwins were involved in medicine and science.

Both the Galton and Darwin families included Fellows of the Royal Society and members who loved to invent in their spare time. Both Erasmus Darwin and Samuel Galton were founding members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, which included Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley and Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Both families were known for their literary talent. Erasmus Darwin composed lengthy technical treatises in verse. Galton's aunt Mary Anne Galton wrote on aesthetics and religion, and her autobiography detailed the environment of her childhood populated by Lunar Society members.

Galton was a child prodigy '' he was reading by the age of two; at age five he knew some Greek, Latin and long division, and by the age of six he had moved on to adult books, including Shakespeare for pleasure, and poetry, which he quoted at length. Galton attended King Edward's School, Birmingham, but chafed at the narrow classical curriculum and left at 16. His parents pressed him to enter the medical profession, and he studied for two years at Birmingham General Hospital and King's College London Medical School. He followed this up with mathematical studies at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1840 to early 1844.[11]

According to the records of the United Grand Lodge of England, it was in February 1844 that Galton became a freemason at the Scientific lodge, held at the Red Lion Inn in Cambridge, progressing through the three masonic degrees: Apprentice, 5 February 1844; Fellow Craft, 11 March 1844; Master Mason, 13 May 1844. A note in the record states: "Francis Galton Trinity College student, gained his certificate 13 March 1845".[12] One of Galton's masonic certificates from Scientific lodge can be found among his papers at University College, London.[13]

A nervous breakdown prevented Galton's intent to try for honours. He elected instead to take a "poll" (pass) B.A. degree, like his half-cousin Charles Darwin. (Following the Cambridge custom, he was awarded an M.A. without further study, in 1847.) He briefly resumed his medical studies but the death of his father in 1844 left him emotionally destitute, though financially independent,[citation needed ] and he terminated his medical studies entirely, turning to foreign travel, sport and technical invention.

In his early years Galton was an enthusiastic traveller, and made a notable solo trip through Eastern Europe to Constantinople, before going up to Cambridge. In 1845 and 1846, he went to Egypt and travelled up the Nile to Khartoum in the Sudan, and from there to Beirut, Damascus and down to Jordan.

In 1850 he joined the Royal Geographical Society, and over the next two years mounted a long and difficult expedition into then little-known South West Africa (now Namibia). He wrote a book on his experience, "Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa". He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Gold Medal in 1853 and the Silver Medal of the French Geographical Society for his pioneering cartographic survey of the region. This established his reputation as a geographer and explorer. He proceeded to write the best-selling The Art of Travel, a handbook of practical advice for the Victorian on the move, which went through many editions and is still in print.

Middle years [ edit ] Galton was a polymath who made important contributions in many fields, including meteorology (the anticyclone and the first popular weather maps), statistics (regression and correlation), psychology (synaesthesia), biology (the nature and mechanism of heredity), and criminology (fingerprints). Much of this was influenced by his penchant for counting and measuring. Galton prepared the first weather map published in The Times (1 April 1875, showing the weather from the previous day, 31 March), now a standard feature in newspapers worldwide.[17]

He became very active in the British Association for the Advancement of Science, presenting many papers on a wide variety of topics at its meetings from 1858 to 1899. He was the general secretary from 1863 to 1867, president of the Geographical section in 1867 and 1872, and president of the Anthropological Section in 1877 and 1885. He was active on the council of the Royal Geographical Society for over forty years, in various committees of the Royal Society, and on the Meteorological Council.

James McKeen Cattell, a student of Wilhelm Wundt who had been reading Galton's articles, decided he wanted to study under him. He eventually built a professional relationship with Galton, measuring subjects and working together on research.

In 1888, Galton established a lab in the science galleries of the South Kensington Museum. In Galton's lab, participants could be measured to gain knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses. Galton also used these data for his own research. He would typically charge people a small fee for his services.

In 1873, Galton wrote a controversial letter to The Times titled 'Africa for the Chinese', where he argued that the Chinese, as a race capable of high civilization and only temporarily stunted by the recent failures of Chinese dynasties, should be encouraged to immigrate to Africa and displace the supposedly inferior aboriginal blacks.[21]

Heredity and eugenics [ edit ] Galton in his later years

The publication by his cousin Charles Darwin of The Origin of Species in 1859 was an event that changed Galton's life. He came to be gripped by the work, especially the first chapter on "Variation under Domestication", concerning animal breeding.

Galton devoted much of the rest of his life to exploring variation in human populations and its implications, at which Darwin had only hinted in The Origin of Species, although he returned to it in his 1871 book The Descent of Man, drawing on his cousin's work in the intervening period. Galton established a research program which embraced multiple aspects of human variation, from mental characteristics to height; from facial images to fingerprint patterns. This required inventing novel measures of traits, devising large-scale collection of data using those measures, and in the end, the discovery of new statistical techniques for describing and understanding the data.

Galton was interested at first in the question of whether human ability was hereditary, and proposed to count the number of the relatives of various degrees of eminent men. If the qualities were hereditary, he reasoned, there should be more eminent men among the relatives than among the general population. To test this, he invented the methods of historiometry. Galton obtained extensive data from a broad range of biographical sources which he tabulated and compared in various ways. This pioneering work was described in detail in his book Hereditary Genius in 1869. Here he showed, among other things, that the numbers of eminent relatives dropped off when going from the first degree to the second degree relatives, and from the second degree to the third. He took this as evidence of the inheritance of abilities.

Galton recognized the limitations of his methods in these two works, and believed the question could be better studied by comparisons of twins. His method envisaged testing to see if twins who were similar at birth diverged in dissimilar environments, and whether twins dissimilar at birth converged when reared in similar environments. He again used the method of questionnaires to gather various sorts of data, which were tabulated and described in a paper The history of twins in 1875. In so doing he anticipated the modern field of behaviour genetics, which relies heavily on twin studies. He concluded that the evidence favored nature rather than nurture. He also proposed adoption studies, including trans-racial adoption studies, to separate the effects of heredity and environment.

Galton recognized that cultural circumstances influenced the capability of a civilization's citizens, and their reproductive success. In Hereditary Genius, he envisaged a situation conducive to resilient and enduring civilization as follows:

The best form of civilization in respect to the improvement of the race, would be one in which society was not costly; where incomes were chiefly derived from professional sources, and not much through inheritance; where every lad had a chance of showing his abilities, and, if highly gifted, was enabled to achieve a first-class education and entrance into professional life, by the liberal help of the exhibitions and scholarships which he had gained in his early youth; where marriage was held in as high honor as in ancient Jewish times; where the pride of race was encouraged (of course I do not refer to the nonsensical sentiment of the present day, that goes under that name); where the weak could find a welcome and a refuge in celibate monasteries or sisterhoods, and lastly, where the better sort of emigrants and refugees from other lands were invited and welcomed, and their descendants naturalized.

Galton invented the term eugenics in 1883 and set down many of his observations and conclusions in a book, Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development. In the book's introduction, he wrote:

[This book's] intention is to touch on various topics more or less connected with that of the cultivation of race, or, as we might call it, with "eugenic"1 questions, and to present the results of several of my own separate investigations.1 This is, with questions bearing on what is termed in Greek, eugenes, namely, good in stock, hereditarily endowed with noble qualities. This, and the allied words, eugeneia, etc., are equally applicable to men, brutes, and plants. We greatly want a brief word to express the science of improving stock, which is by no means confined to questions of judicious mating, but which, especially in the case of man, takes cognizance of all influences that tend in however remote a degree to give the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable than they otherwise would have had. The word eugenics would sufficiently express the idea; it is at least a neater word and a more generalized one than viriculture, which I once ventured to use.

He believed that a scheme of 'marks' for family merit should be defined, and early marriage between families of high rank be encouraged via provision of monetary incentives. He pointed out some of the tendencies in British society, such as the late marriages of eminent people, and the paucity of their children, which he thought were dysgenic. He advocated encouraging eugenic marriages by supplying able couples with incentives to have children. On 29 October 1901, Galton chose to address eugenic issues when he delivered the second Huxley lecture at the Royal Anthropological Institute.

The Eugenics Review, the journal of the Eugenics Education Society, commenced publication in 1909. Galton, the Honorary President of the society, wrote the foreword for the first volume. The First International Congress of Eugenics was held in July 1912. Winston Churchill and Carls Elliot were among the attendees.

According to the Encyclopedia of Genocide, Galton bordered on the justification of genocide when he stated: "There exists a sentiment, for the most part quite unreasonable, against the gradual extinction of an inferior race."[23]

In June 2020, UCL announced that it was renaming a lecture theatre which had been named after Galton because of his connection with eugenics.[24]

Model for population stability [ edit ] Sir Francis Galton, 1890s

Galton's formulation of regression and its link to the bivariate normal distribution can be traced to his attempts at developing a mathematical model for population stability. Although Galton's first attempt to study Darwinian questions, Hereditary Genius, generated little enthusiasm at the time, the text led to his further studies in the 1870s concerning the inheritance of physical traits. This text contains some crude notions of the concept of regression, described in a qualitative matter. For example, he wrote of dogs: "If a man breeds from strong, well-shaped dogs, but of mixed pedigree, the puppies will be sometimes, but rarely, the equals of their parents. They will commonly be of a mongrel, nondescript type, because ancestral peculiarities are apt to crop out in the offspring."

This notion created a problem for Galton, as he could not reconcile the tendency of a population to maintain a normal distribution of traits from generation to generation with the notion of inheritance. It seemed that a large number of factors operated independently on offspring, leading to the normal distribution of a trait in each generation. However, this provided no explanation as to how a parent can have a significant impact on his offspring, which was the basis of inheritance.

Galton's solution to this problem was presented in his Presidential Address at the September 1885 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, as he was serving at the time as President of Section H: Anthropology.[28] The address was published in Nature, and Galton further developed the theory in "Regression toward mediocrity in hereditary stature" and "Hereditary Stature." An elaboration of this theory was published in 1889 in Natural Inheritance. There were three key developments that helped Galton develop this theory: the development of the law of error in 1874''1875, the formulation of an empirical law of reversion in 1877, and the development of a mathematical framework encompassing regression using human population data during 1885.

Galton's development of the law of regression to the mean, or reversion, was due to insights from the Galton board ('bean machine') and his studies of sweet peas. While Galton had previously invented the quincunx prior to February 1874, the 1877 version of the quincunx had a new feature that helped Galton demonstrate that a normal mixture of normal distributions is also normal. Galton demonstrated this using a new version of quincunx, adding chutes to the apparatus to represent reversion. When the pellets passed through the curved chutes (representing reversion) and then the pins (representing family variability), the result was a stable population. On Friday 19 February 1877 Galton gave a lecture entitled Typical Laws of Heredity at the Royal Institution in London. In this lecture, he posited that there must be a counteracting force to maintain population stability. However, this model required a much larger degree of intergenerational natural selection than was plausible.

In 1875, Galton started growing sweet peas, and addressed the Royal Institution on his findings on 9 February 1877. He found that each group of progeny seeds followed a normal curve, and the curves were equally disperse. Each group was not centered about the parent's weight, but rather at a weight closer to the population average. Galton called this reversion, as every progeny group was distributed at a value that was closer to the population average than the parent. The deviation from the population average was in the same direction, but the magnitude of the deviation was only one-third as large. In doing so, Galton demonstrated that there was variability among each of the families, yet the families combined to produce a stable, normally distributed population. When Galton addressed the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1885, he said of his investigation of sweet peas, "I was then blind to what I now perceive to be the simple explanation of the phenomenon."[28]

Galton was able to further his notion of regression by collecting and analyzing data on human stature. Galton asked for help of mathematician J. Hamilton Dickson in investigating the geometric relationship of the data. He determined that the regression coefficient did not ensure population stability by chance, but rather that the regression coefficient, conditional variance, and population were interdependent quantities related by a simple equation. Thus Galton identified that the linearity of regression was not coincidental but rather was a necessary consequence of population stability.

The model for population stability resulted in Galton's formulation of the Law of Ancestral Heredity. This law, which was published in Natural Inheritance, states that the two parents of an offspring jointly contribute one half of an offspring's heritage, while the other, more-removed ancestors constitute a smaller proportion of the offspring's heritage. Galton viewed reversion as a spring, that when stretched, would return the distribution of traits back to the normal distribution. He concluded that evolution would have to occur via discontinuous steps, as reversion would neutralize any incremental steps. When Mendel's principles were rediscovered in 1900, this resulted in a fierce battle between the followers of Galton's Law of Ancestral Heredity, the biometricians, and those who advocated Mendel's principles.

Empirical test of pangenesis and Lamarckism [ edit ] Galton conducted wide-ranging inquiries into heredity which led him to challenge Charles Darwin's hypothesis of pangenesis. Darwin had proposed as part of this model that certain particles, which he called "gemmules" moved throughout the body and were also responsible for the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Galton, in consultation with Darwin, set out to see if they were transported in the blood. In a long series of experiments in 1869 to 1871, he transfused the blood between dissimilar breeds of rabbits, and examined the features of their offspring.[35] He found no evidence of characters transmitted in the transfused blood.

Darwin challenged the validity of Galton's experiment, giving his reasons in an article published in Nature where he wrote:

Now, in the chapter on Pangenesis in my Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication I have not said one word about the blood, or about any fluid proper to any circulating system. It is, indeed, obvious that the presence of gemmules in the blood can form no necessary part of my hypothesis; for I refer in illustration of it to the lowest animals, such as the Protozoa, which do not possess blood or any vessels; and I refer to plants in which the fluid, when present in the vessels, cannot be considered as true blood. The fundamental laws of growth, reproduction, inheritance, &c., are so closely similar throughout the whole organic kingdom, that the means by which the gemmules (assuming for the moment their existence) are diffused through the body, would probably be the same in all beings; therefore the means can hardly be diffusion through the blood. Nevertheless, when I first heard of Mr. Galton's experiments, I did not sufficiently reflect on the subject, and saw not the difficulty of believing in the presence of gemmules in the blood.

Galton explicitly rejected the idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics (Lamarckism), and was an early proponent of "hard heredity" through selection alone. He came close to rediscovering Mendel's particulate theory of inheritance, but was prevented from making the final breakthrough in this regard because of his focus on continuous, rather than discrete, traits (now regarded as polygenic traits). He went on to found the biometric approach to the study of heredity, distinguished by its use of statistical techniques to study continuous traits and population-scale aspects of heredity.

This approach was later taken up enthusiastically by Karl Pearson and W. F. R. Weldon; together, they founded the highly influential journal Biometrika in 1901. (R. A. Fisher would later show how the biometrical approach could be reconciled with the Mendelian approach.) The statistical techniques that Galton invented (correlation and regression'--see below) and phenomena he established (regression to the mean) formed the basis of the biometric approach and are now essential tools in all social sciences.

Anthropometric Laboratory at the 1884 International Health Exhibition [ edit ] In 1884, London hosted the International Health Exhibition. This exhibition placed much emphasis on highlighting Victorian developments in sanitation and public health, and allowed the nation to display its advanced public health outreach, compared to other countries at the time. Francis Galton took advantage of this opportunity to set up his anthropometric laboratory. He stated that the purpose of this laboratory was to "show the public the simplicity of the instruments and methods by which the chief physical characteristics of man may be measured and recorded." The laboratory was an interactive walk-through in which physical characteristics such as height, weight, and eyesight, would be measured for each subject after payment of an admission fee. Upon entering the laboratory, a subject would visit the following stations in order.

First, they would fill out a form with personal and family history (age, birthplace, marital status, residence, and occupation), then visit stations that recorded hair and eye color, followed by the keenness, color-sense, and depth perception of sight. Next, they would examine the keenness, or relative acuteness, of hearing and highest audible note of their hearing followed by an examination of their sense of touch. However, because the surrounding area was noisy, the apparatus intended to measure hearing was rendered ineffective by the noise and echoes in the building. Their breathing capacity would also be measured, as well as their ability to throw a punch. The next stations would examine strength of both pulling and squeezing with both hands. Lastly, subjects' heights in various positions (sitting, standing, etc.) as well as arm span and weight would be measured.

One excluded characteristic of interest was the size of the head. Galton notes in his analysis that this omission was mostly for practical reasons. For instance, it would not be very accurate and additionally it would require much time for women to disassemble and reassemble their hair and bonnets. The patrons would then be given a souvenir containing all their biological data, while Galton would also keep a copy for future statistical research.

Although the laboratory did not employ any revolutionary measurement techniques, it was unique because of the simple logistics of constructing such a demonstration within a limited space, and because of the speed and efficiency with which all the necessary data were gathered. The laboratory itself was a see-through (lattice-walled) fenced off gallery measuring 36 feet long by 6 feet long. To collect data efficiently, Galton had to make the process as simple as possible for people to understand. As a result, subjects were taken through the laboratory in pairs so that explanations could be given to two at a time, also in the hope that one of the two would confidently take the initiative to go through all the tests first, encouraging the other. With this design, the total time spent in the exhibit was fourteen minutes for each pair.

Galton states that the measurements of human characteristics are useful for two reasons. First, he states that measuring physical characteristics is useful in order to ensure, on a more domestic level, that children are developing properly. A useful example he gives for the practicality of these domestic measurements is regularly checking a child's eyesight, in order to correct any deficiencies early on. The second use for the data from his anthropometric laboratory is for statistical studies. He comments on the usefulness of the collected data to compare attributes across occupations, residences, races, etc. The exhibit at the health exhibition allowed Galton to collect a large amount of raw data from which to conduct further comparative studies. He had 9,337 respondents, each measured in 17 categories, creating a rather comprehensive statistical database.

After the conclusion of the International Health Exhibition, Galton used these data to confirm in humans his theory of linear regression, posed after studying sweet peas. The accumulation of this human data allowed him to observe the correlation between forearm length and height, head width and head breadth, and head length and height. With these observations he was able to write Co-relations and their Measurements, chiefly from Anthropometric Data. In this publication, Galton defined what co-relation as a phenomenon that occurs when "the variation of the one [variable] is accompanied on the average by more or less variation of the other, and in the same direction."

Innovations in statistics and psychological theory [ edit ] Historiometry [ edit ] The method used in Hereditary Genius has been described as the first example of historiometry. To bolster these results, and to attempt to make a distinction between 'nature' and 'nurture' (he was the first to apply this phrase to the topic), he devised a questionnaire that he sent out to 190 Fellows of the Royal Society. He tabulated characteristics of their families, such as birth order and the occupation and race of their parents. He attempted to discover whether their interest in science was 'innate' or due to the encouragements of others. The studies were published as a book, English men of science: their nature and nurture, in 1874. In the end, it promoted the nature versus nurture question, though it did not settle it, and provided some fascinating data on the sociology of scientists of the time.[citation needed ]

The lexical hypothesis [ edit ] Sir Francis was the first scientist to recognise what is now known as the lexical hypothesis. This is the idea that the most salient and socially relevant personality differences in people's lives will eventually become encoded into language. The hypothesis further suggests that by sampling language, it is possible to derive a comprehensive taxonomy of human personality traits.

The questionnaire [ edit ] Galton's inquiries into the mind involved detailed recording of people's subjective accounts of whether and how their minds dealt with phenomena such as mental imagery. To better elicit this information, he pioneered the use of the questionnaire. In one study, he asked his fellow members of the Royal Society of London to describe mental images that they experienced. In another, he collected in-depth surveys from eminent scientists for a work examining the effects of nature and nurture on the propensity toward scientific thinking.

Variance and standard deviation [ edit ] Core to any statistical analysis is the concept that measurements vary: they have both a central tendency, or mean, and a spread around this central value, or variance. In the late 1860s, Galton conceived of a measure to quantify normal variation: the standard deviation.[45]

Galton was a keen observer. In 1906, visiting a livestock fair, he stumbled upon an intriguing contest. An ox was on display, and the villagers were invited to guess the animal's weight after it was slaughtered and dressed. Nearly 800 participated, and Galton was able to study their individual entries after the event. Galton stated that "the middlemost estimate expresses the vox populi, every other estimate being condemned as too low or too high by a majority of the voters", and reported this value (the median, in terminology he himself had introduced, but chose not to use on this occasion) as 1,207 pounds. To his surprise, this was within 0.8% of the weight measured by the judges. Soon afterwards, in response to an enquiry, he reported[47] the mean of the guesses as 1,197 pounds, but did not comment on its improved accuracy. Recent archival research has found some slips in transmitting Galton's calculations to the original article in Nature: the median was actually 1,208 pounds, and the dressed weight of the ox 1,197 pounds, so the mean estimate had zero error. James Surowiecki uses this weight-judging competition as his opening example: had he known the true result, his conclusion on the wisdom of the crowd would no doubt have been more strongly expressed.

The same year, Galton suggested in a letter to the journal Nature a better method of cutting a round cake by avoiding making radial incisions.

Experimental derivation of the normal distribution [ edit ] Studying variation, Galton invented the Galton board, a pachinko-like device also known as the bean machine, as a tool for demonstrating the law of error and the normal distribution.

Bivariate normal distribution [ edit ] He also discovered the properties of the bivariate normal distribution and its relationship to correlation and regression analysis.

Correlation and regression [ edit ] Galton's correlation diagram 1886

In 1846, the French physicist Auguste Bravais (1811''1863) first developed what would become the correlation coefficient. After examining forearm and height measurements, Galton independently rediscovered the concept of correlation in 1888 and demonstrated its application in the study of heredity, anthropology, and psychology. Galton's later statistical study of the probability of extinction of surnames led to the concept of Galton''Watson stochastic processes.

Galton invented the use of the regression line and for the choice of r (for reversion or regression) to represent the correlation coefficient.

In the 1870s and 1880s he was a pioneer in the use of normal theory to fit histograms and ogives to actual tabulated data, much of which he collected himself: for instance large samples of sibling and parental height. Consideration of the results from these empirical studies led to his further insights into evolution, natural selection, and regression to the mean.

Regression toward the mean [ edit ] Galton was the first to describe and explain the common phenomenon of regression toward the mean, which he first observed in his experiments on the size of the seeds of successive generations of sweet peas.

The conditions under which regression toward the mean occurs depend on the way the term is mathematically defined. Galton first observed the phenomenon in the context of simple linear regression of data points. Galton developed the following model: pellets fall through a quincunx or "bean machine" forming a normal distribution centered directly under their entrance point. These pellets could then be released down into a second gallery (corresponding to a second measurement occasion). Galton then asked the reverse question "from where did these pellets come?"

The answer was not "on average directly above". Rather it was "on average, more towards the middle", for the simple reason that there were more pellets above it towards the middle that could wander left than there were in the left extreme that could wander to the right, inwards.

Theories of perception [ edit ] Galton went beyond measurement and summary to attempt to explain the phenomena he observed. Among such developments, he proposed an early theory of ranges of sound and hearing, and collected large quantities of anthropometric data from the public through his popular and long-running Anthropometric Laboratory, which he established in 1884, and where he studied over 9,000 people. It was not until 1985 that these data were analysed in their entirety.

He made a beauty map of Britain, based on a secret grading of the local women on a scale from attractive to repulsive. The lowest point was in Aberdeen.[58]

Differential psychology [ edit ] Galton's study of human abilities ultimately led to the foundation of differential psychology and the formulation of the first mental tests. He was interested in measuring humans in every way possible. This included measuring their ability to make sensory discrimination which he assumed was linked to intellectual prowess. Galton suggested that individual differences in general ability are reflected in performance on relatively simple sensory capacities and in speed of reaction to a stimulus, variables that could be objectively measured by tests of sensory discrimination and reactiontime. He also measured how quickly people reacted which he later linked to internal wiring which ultimately limited intelligence ability. Throughout his research Galton assumed that people who reacted faster were more intelligent than others.

Composite photography [ edit ] Galton also devised a technique called "composite portraiture" (produced by superimposing multiple photographic portraits of individuals' faces registered on their eyes) to create an average face (see averageness). In the 1990s, a hundred years after his discovery, much psychological research has examined the attractiveness of these faces, an aspect that Galton had remarked on in his original lecture. Others, including Sigmund Freud in his work on dreams, picked up Galton's suggestion that these composites might represent a useful metaphor for an Ideal type or a concept of a "natural kind" (see Eleanor Rosch)'--such as Jewish men, criminals, patients with tuberculosis, etc.'--onto the same photographic plate, thereby yielding a blended whole, or "composite", that he hoped could generalise the facial appearance of his subject into an "average" or "central type". (See also entry Modern physiognomy under Physiognomy).

This work began in the 1880s while the Jewish scholar Joseph Jacobs studied anthropology and statistics with Francis Galton. Jacobs asked Galton to create a composite photograph of a Jewish type. One of Jacobs' first publications that used Galton's composite imagery was "The Jewish Type, and Galton's Composite Photographs," Photographic News, 29, (24 April 1885): 268''269.

Galton hoped his technique would aid medical diagnosis, and even criminology through the identification of typical criminal faces. However, his technique did not prove useful and fell into disuse, although after much work on it including by photographers Lewis Hine and John L. Lovell and Arthur Batut.

Fingerprints [ edit ] The method of identifying criminals by their fingerprints had been introduced in the 1860s by Sir William James Herschel in India, and their potential use in forensic work was first proposed by Dr Henry Faulds in 1880. Galton was introduced to the field by his half-cousin Charles Darwin, who was a friend of Faulds's, and he went on to create the first scientific footing for the study (which assisted its acceptance by the courts) although Galton did not ever give credit that the original idea was not his.[63]

In a Royal Institution paper in 1888 and three books (Finger Prints, 1892; Decipherment of Blurred Finger Prints, 1893; and Fingerprint Directories, 1895), Galton estimated the probability of two persons having the same fingerprint and studied the heritability and racial differences in fingerprints. He wrote about the technique (inadvertently sparking a controversy between Herschel and Faulds that was to last until 1917), identifying common pattern in fingerprints and devising a classification system that survives to this day. He described and classified them into eight broad categories: 1: plain arch, 2: tented arch, 3: simple loop, 4: central pocket loop, 5: double loop, 6: lateral pocket loop, 7: plain whorl, and 8: accidental.

Final years [ edit ] Francis Galton (right), aged 87, on the stoep at Fox Holm, Cobham, with the statistician

Karl Pearson.

In an effort to reach a wider audience, Galton worked on a novel entitled Kantsaywhere from May until December 1910. The novel described a utopia organized by a eugenic religion, designed to breed fitter and smarter humans. His unpublished notebooks show that this was an expansion of material he had been composing since at least 1901. He offered it to Methuen for publication, but they showed little enthusiasm. Galton wrote to his niece that it should be either "smothered or superseded". His niece appears to have burnt most of the novel, offended by the love scenes, but large fragments survived, and it was published online by University College, London.

Galton is buried in the family tomb in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels, in the village of Claverdon, Warwickshire.[68]

Personal life and character [ edit ] In January 1853, Galton met Louisa Jane Butler (1822''1897) at his neighbour's home and they were married on 1 August 1853. The union of 43 years proved childless.[70]

It has been written of Galton that "On his own estimation he was a supremely intelligent man." Later in life, Galton proposed a connection between genius and insanity based on his own experience:

Men who leave their mark on the world are very often those who, being gifted and full of nervous power, are at the same time haunted and driven by a dominant idea, and are therefore within a measurable distance of insanity.

Awards and influence [ edit ] Over the course of his career Galton received many awards, including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society (1910). He received in 1853 the Founder's Medal, the highest award of the Royal Geographical Society, for his explorations and map-making of southwest Africa. He was elected a member of the Athenaeum Club in 1855 and made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1860. His autobiography also lists:

Silver Medal, French Geographical Society (1854)Gold Medal of the Royal Society (1886)Officier de l'Instruction Publique, France (1891)D.C.L. Oxford (1894)Sc.D. (Honorary), Cambridge (1895)Huxley Medal, Anthropological Institute (1901)Elected Hon. Fellow Trinity College, Cambridge (1902)Darwin Medal, Royal Society (1902)Linnean Society of London's Darwin''Wallace Medal (1908)Galton was knighted in 1909. His statistical heir Karl Pearson, first holder of the Galton Chair of Eugenics at University College, London (now Galton Chair of Genetics), wrote a three-volume biography of Galton, in four parts, after his death.

The flowering plant genus Galtonia was named after Galton.

University College London has in the twenty-first century been involved in a historical inquiry into its role as the institutional birthplace of eugenics. Galton established a laboratory at UCL in 1904. Some students and staff have called on the university to rename its Galton lecture theatre. "Galton's seductive promise was of a bold new world filled only with beautiful, intelligent, productive people. The scientists in its thrall claimed this could be achieved by controlling reproduction, policing borders to prevent certain types of immigrants, and locking away "undesirables", including disabled people."

Published works [ edit ] The art of travel, or, Shifts and contrivances available in wild countries. London: John Murray. 1855. Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa. London. 1853. Hereditary Genius. London: Macmillan. 1869. "Statistical Inquiries into the Efficacy of Prayer". Fortnightly Review. 12: 125''35. 1872. "On men of science, their nature and their nurture". Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. 7: 227''236. 1874. "Typical laws of heredity". Nature. 15 (388): 492''495, 512''514, 532''533. 1877. Bibcode:1877Natur..15..492.. doi:10.1038/015492a0 . "Composite portraits" (PDF) . Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 8: 132''142. 1878. doi:10.2307/2841021. JSTOR 2841021. Inquiries Into Human Faculty and Its Development. Macmillan. 1883. p. 24. "Anthropometric Laboratory", Science, London: William Clowes, 5 (114): 294''295, 1884, Bibcode:1885Sci.....5..294., doi:10.1126/science.ns-5.114.294, PMID 17831706 "On the Anthropometric Laboratory at the Late International Health Exhibition". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 14: 205''221. 1 January 1885a. doi:10.2307/2841978. JSTOR 2841978. Zenodo: 1449574. "Regression Towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 15: 246''263. 1886. doi:10.2307/2841583. JSTOR 2841583. Zenodo: 1449548. "Hereditary stature". Nature. 33 (848): 295''298. 1886b. Bibcode:1886Natur..33..295.. doi:10.1038/033295c0 . "Co-Relations and Their Measurement, Chiefly from Anthropometric Data". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 45 (273''279): 135''145. 1 January 1888. Bibcode:1888RSPS...45..135G. doi:10.1098/rspl.1888.0082. JSTOR 114860. S2CID 13851067. Natural Inheritance (PDF) . London: Macmillan. 1889. "Cutting a Round Cake on Scientific Principles (Letters to the Editor)" (PDF) . Nature. 75 (1938): 173. 20 December 1906. Bibcode:1906Natur..75..173G. doi:10.1038/075173c0. S2CID 3980060. "Vox Populi" (PDF) . Nature. 75 (1949): 450''451. 7 March 1907. Bibcode:1907Natur..75..450G. doi:10.1038/075450a0 . S2CID 4013898. Memories of My Life. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company. 1909. p. 331. Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry Into Its Laws and Consequences. Macmillan. 1914. "The Eugenic College of Kantsaywhere". Utopian Studies. 12 (2): 191''209. 2001. ISSN 1045-991X. JSTOR 20718325. OCLC 5542769084. See also [ edit ] A Large Attendance in the Antechamber, a play about GaltonDarwin''Wedgwood familyEfficacy of prayerEugenics in the United StatesHistoriometryRacial hygieneBritish peopleReferences [ edit ] Citations [ edit ] ^ "Francis Galton - Biography, Books and Theories". famouspsychologists.org . Retrieved 9 January 2017 . ^ Barile, Margherita; Weisstein, Eric W. "Francis Galton (1822-1911)". Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography . Retrieved 9 January 2017 . ^ "Galton, Francis (GLTN839F)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. ^ 'Scientific Lodge No. 105 Cambridge' in Membership Records: Foreign and Country Lodges, Nos. 17''145, 1837''1862. London: Library and Museum of Freemasonry (manuscript) ^ M. Merrington and J. Golden (1976) A List of the Papers and Correspondence of Sir Francis Galton (1822''1911) held in The Manuscripts Room, The Library, University College London. The Galton Laboratory, University College London (typescript), at Section 88 on p. 10 ^ "Francis Galton: Meteorologist". Galton.org . Retrieved 22 April 2013 . ^ Galton, Francis (5 June 1873). "Africa For The Chinese:To The Editor Of The Times". The Times '' via galton.org. ^ Charny, Israel W.; Adalian, Rouben Paul; Jacobs, Steven L.; Markusen, Eric; Sherman, Marc I. (1999). Encyclopedia of Genocide: A-H. ABC-CLIO. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-87436-928-1. ^ "UCL renames three facilities that honoured prominent eugenicists". The Guardian. 19 June 2020 . Retrieved 20 June 2020 . ^ a b Galton, Francis (1885b). "Opening address as President of the Anthropology Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, September 10th, 1885, at Aberdeen". Nature. 32: 507''510. ^ "Sir Francis Galton". Science Show. 25 November 2000. Archived from the original on 14 January 2008 . Retrieved 8 September 2007 . ^ Chad Denby. "Science Timeline". Science Timeline . Retrieved 22 April 2013 . ^ "The Ballot Box", Nature, 28 March 1907 ^ "Francis Galton: The man who drew up the 'ugly map' of Britain". BBC. 16 June 2011 . Retrieved 24 June 2020 . ^ "Tribute to fingerprinting pioneer". BBC News. 12 November 2004 . Retrieved 1 June 2019 . ^ Challis, Debbie. "The Grave of Francis Galton". UCL Museums & Collections Blog . Retrieved 27 January 2019 . ^ "Sir Francis Galton FRS FRGS '' I7570". Archived from the original on 20 November 2012 . Retrieved 28 June 2010 . Sources [ edit ] Bravais, A (1846). "Analyse math(C)matique sur les probabilit(C)s des erreurs de situation d'un point" [Mathematical analysis of the probabilities of errors in a point's location]. M(C)moires Presents Par Divers Savants l'Acad(C)mie des Sciences de l'Institut de France. Sciences Math(C)matiques et Physiques. 9: 255''332. Bulmer, Michael (1998). "Galton's law of ancestral heredity". Heredity. 81 (5): 579''585. doi:10.1038/sj.hdy.6884180. Bulmer, Michael (2003). Francis Galton: Pioneer of Heredity and Biometry. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-7403-1. Caprara, G. V.; Cervone, D. (2000). Personality: Determinants, Dynamics, and Potentials. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-58310-7. Clauser, Brian E. (2007). "The Life and Labors of Francis Galton: A Review of Four Recent Books About the Father of Behavioral Statistics". Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics. 32 (4): 440''444. doi:10.3102/1076998607307449. S2CID 121124511. Conklin, Barbara Gardner; Gardner, Robert; Shortelle, Dennis (2002). Encyclopedia of Forensic Science: A Compendium of Detective Fact and Fiction . Oryx Press. ISBN 978-1-57356-170-9. Cowan, Ruth S. (22 September 2005). "Galton, Sir Francis, (1822''1911)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33315. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) Darwin, C. R. (27 April 1871). "Pangenesis". Nature. 3 (78): 502''503. Bibcode:1871Natur...3..502D. doi:10.1038/003502a0 . Darwin, Francis (1887). The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. Vol. 1. New York: Appleton and Co. Forrest, D.W. (1974). Francis Galton: The Life and Work of a Victorian Genius. Taplinger. ISBN 978-0-8008-2682-6. Gillham, Nicholas Wright (2001a). A Life of Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-534943-6. Gillham, Nicholas (2001b). "Evolution by Jumps: Francis Galton and William Bateson and the Mechanism of Evolutionary Change". Genetics. 159 (4): 1383''1392. doi:10.1093/genetics/159.4.1383. PMC 1461897 . PMID 11779782. Gillham, Nicholas W. (2001c). "Sir Francis Galton and the Birth of Eugenics". Annual Review of Genetics. 35: 83''102. doi:10.1146/annurev.genet.35.102401.090055. PMID 11700278. Gillham, Nicholas (9 August 2013). "The Battle Between the Biometricians and the Mendelians: How Sir Francis Galton's Work Caused his Disciples to Reach Conflicting Conclusions About the Hereditary Mechanism". Science & Education. 24 (1''2): 61''75. Bibcode:2015Sc&Ed..24...61G. doi:10.1007/s11191-013-9642-1. S2CID 144727928. Hergenhahn, B. R.; Henley, Tracy (2013). An Introduction to the History of Psychology. Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-133-95809-3. Innes, Brian (2005). Body in Question: Exploring the Cutting Edge in Forensic Science . Barnes & Noble. ISBN 978-0-7607-7560-8. Jensen, Arthur R. (April 2002). "Galton's Legacy to Research on Intelligence". Journal of Biosocial Science. 34 (2): 145''172. doi:10.1017/s0021932002001451. PMID 11926452. S2CID 20153127. Novak, Daniel A. (May 2008). Realism, Photography and Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-88525-6. Pearson, Karl (1914a). The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton. Vol. 1. Cambridge: University Press. Pearson, Karl (1914b). The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton. Vol. 2. Cambridge: University Press. Pearson, Karl (1930a). The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton. Vol. 3A. Cambridge: University Press. Pearson, Karl (1930b). The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton. Vol. 3B. Cambridge: University Press. Pearson, Karl. "The life, letters and labours of Francis Galton (3 vols. 1914, 1924, 1930)". Saini, Angela (3 October 2019). "In the twisted story of eugenics, the bad guy is all of us". The Guardian. Stigler, Stephen M. (1986). The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900 . Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-40341-3. Stigler, Stephen M. (1 July 2010). "Darwin, Galton and the Statistical Enlightenment". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A. 173 (3): 469''482. doi:10.1111/j.1467-985X.2010.00643.x. ISSN 1467-985X. S2CID 53333238. Surowiecki, James (2004). The Wisdom of Crowds. New York: Random House. Wallis, Kenneth F (2014). "Revisiting Francis Galton's forecasting competition". Statistical Science. 29 (3): 420''424. arXiv:1410.3989 . Bibcode:2014arXiv1410.3989W. doi:10.1214/14-STS468. S2CID 53642221. Winston, Robert (23 February 2020). "Robert Winston: eugenics has evil in its DNA". The Times. Further reading [ edit ] Brookes, Martin (2004). Extreme Measures: The Dark Visions and Bright Ideas of Francis Galton. Bloomsbury. Cowan, Ruth Schwartz (1969). Sir Francis Galton and the Study of Heredity in the Nineteenth Century (PhD). Georgetown University. hdl:10822/548629. Ewen, Stuart; Ewen, Elizabeth (2006), "Nordic Nightmares", Typecasting: On the Arts and Sciences of Human Inequality, Seven Stories Press, pp. 257''325, ISBN 978-1-58322-735-0 Quinche, Nicolas (2006). Crime, Science et Identit(C). Anthologie des textes fondateurs de la criminalistique europ(C)enne (1860''1930) [Crime, Science and Identity: An Anthology of Foundational Texts in European Criminology] (in French). Gen¨ve: Slatkine. p. 368. External links [ edit ] Galton's Complete Works at Galton.org (including all his published books, all his published scientific papers, and popular periodical and newspaper writing, as well as other previously unpublished work and biographical material).Francis Galton at Find a GraveWorks by Francis Galton at Project GutenbergWorks by or about Francis Galton at Internet ArchiveWorks by Francis Galton at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) The Galton Machine or Board demonstrating the normal distribution on YouTubePortraits of Francis Galton at the National Portrait Gallery, London O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Francis Galton", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews Biography and bibliography in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of ScienceHistory and MathematicsHuman Memory '' University of Amsterdam website with test based on the work of Galton An 8-foot-tall (2.4 m) Probability Machine (named Sir Francis Galton) comparing stock market returns to the randomness of the beans dropping through the quincunx pattern. on YouTube from Index Funds Advisors IFA.comCatalogue of the Galton papers held at UCL ArchivesGalton's novel KantsaywhereFrancis Galton, ''Management of Savages,'' The Art of Travel, 1861 at the Wayback Machine (archived 2 January 2017) The Scientific Way to Cut a Cake on YouTube, demonstrated by Alex Bellos"Biography of Francis Galton".

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American physicist and inventor

William Bradford Shockley Jr. (February 13, 1910 '' August 12, 1989) was an American physicist and inventor. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for "their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect".[1]

Partly as a result of Shockley's attempts to commercialize a new transistor design in the 1950s and 1960s, California's Silicon Valley became a hotbed of electronics innovation.

In his later life, while a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University and afterward, Shockley became widely known for his extreme views on race and his advocacy of eugenics.[2][3][4][5]

Early life and education [ edit ] Shockley was born to American parents in London on February 13, 1910, and was raised in his family's hometown of Palo Alto, California, from the age of three.[6] His father, William Hillman Shockley, was a mining engineer who speculated in mines for a living and spoke eight languages. His mother, May (n(C)e Bradford), grew up in the American West, graduated from Stanford University and became the first female U.S. Deputy mining surveyor.[7] Shockley was homeschooled up to the age of eight, due to his parents' dislike of public schools as well as Shockley's habit of violent tantrums.[8] He spent two years at Palo Alto Military Academy, then briefly enrolled in the Los Angeles Coaching School to study physics and later graduated from Hollywood High School in 1927.[9][10]

Shockley earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Caltech in 1932 and a PhD from MIT in 1936. The title of his doctoral thesis was Electronic Bands in Sodium Chloride, a topic suggested by his thesis advisor, John C. Slater.[11]

Career [ edit ] Shockley was one of the first recruits to Bell Labs by Mervin Kelly, who became director of research at the company in 1936 and focused on hiring solid-state physicists.[12] Shockley joined a group headed by Clinton Davisson in Murray Hill, New Jersey.[13] Executives at Bell Labs had theorized that semiconductors may offer solid-state alternatives to the vacuum tubes used throughout Bell's nationwide telephone system. Shockley conceived a number of designs based on copper-oxide semiconductor materials, and with Walter Brattain unsuccessfully attempted to create a prototype in 1939.[12]

Shockley published a number of fundamental papers on solid state physics in Physical Review. In 1938, he received his first patent, "Electron Discharge Device", on electron multipliers.[14]

When World War II broke out, Shockley's prior research was interrupted and he became involved in radar research in Manhattan (New York City). In May 1942, he took leave from Bell Labs to become a research director at Columbia University's Anti-Submarine Warfare Operations Group.[15] This involved devising methods for countering the tactics of submarines with improved convoying techniques, optimizing depth charge patterns, and so on. Shockley traveled frequently to the Pentagon and Washington to meet high-ranking officers and government officials.[16]

In 1944, he organized a training program for B-29 bomber pilots to use new radar bomb sights. In late 1944 he took a three-month tour to bases around the world to assess the results. For this project, Secretary of War Robert Patterson awarded Shockley the Medal for Merit on October 17, 1946.[17]

In July 1945, the War Department asked Shockley to prepare a report on the question of probable casualties from an invasion of the Japanese mainland. Shockley concluded:

If the study shows that the behavior of nations in all historical cases comparable to Japan's has in fact been invariably consistent with the behavior of the troops in battle, then it means that the Japanese dead and ineffectives at the time of the defeat will exceed the corresponding number for the Germans. In other words, we shall probably have to kill at least 5 to 10 million Japanese. This might cost us between 1.7 and 4 million casualties including 400,000 to 800,000 killed.[18]

This report influenced the decision of the United States to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which preceded the surrender of Japan.[19]

Shockley was the first physicist to propose a log-normal distribution to model the creation process for scientific research papers.[20]

Development of the transistor [ edit ] Shortly after the war ended in 1945, Bell Labs formed a solid-state physics group, led by Shockley and chemist Stanley Morgan, which included John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, physicist Gerald Pearson, chemist Robert Gibney, electronics expert Hilbert Moore, and several technicians. Their assignment was to seek a solid-state alternative to fragile glass vacuum tube amplifiers. Its first attempts were based on Shockley's ideas about using an external electrical field on a semiconductor to affect its conductivity. These experiments failed every time in all sorts of configurations and materials. The group was at a standstill until Bardeen suggested a theory that invoked surface states that prevented the field from penetrating the semiconductor. The group changed its focus to study these surface states and they met almost daily to discuss the work. The rapport of the group was excellent, and ideas were freely exchanged.[21]

By the winter of 1946 they had enough results that Bardeen submitted a paper on the surface states to Physical Review. Brattain started experiments to study the surface states through observations made while shining a bright light on the semiconductor's surface. This led to several more papers (one of them co-authored with Shockley), which estimated the density of the surface states to be more than enough to account for their failed experiments. The pace of the work picked up significantly when they started to surround point contacts between the semiconductor and the conducting wires with electrolytes. Moore built a circuit that allowed them to vary the frequency of the input signal easily. Finally they began to get some evidence of power amplification when Pearson, acting on a suggestion by Shockley, put a voltage on a droplet of glycol borate placed across a P''n junction.[22]

John Bardeen(l), William Shockley and Walter Brattain(r) at

Bell Labs, 1948

Bell Labs' attorneys soon discovered Shockley's field effect principle had been anticipated and devices based on it patented in 1930 by Julius Lilienfeld, who filed his MESFET-like patent in Canada on October 22, 1925.[23][24] Although the patent appeared "breakable" (it could not work) the patent attorneys based one of its four patent applications only on the Bardeen-Brattain point contact design. Three others (submitted first) covered the electrolyte-based transistors with Bardeen, Gibney and Brattain as the inventors.[citation needed ]

Shockley's name was not on any of these patent applications. This angered Shockley, who thought his name should also be on the patents because the work was based on his field effect idea. He even made efforts to have the patent written only in his name, and told Bardeen and Brattain of his intentions.[25]

Shockley, angered by not being included on the patent applications, secretly continued his own work to build a different sort of transistor based on junctions instead of point contacts; he expected this kind of design would be more likely to be commercially viable. The point contact transistor, he believed, would prove to be fragile and difficult to manufacture. Shockley was also dissatisfied with certain parts of the explanation for how the point contact transistor worked and conceived of the possibility of minority carrier injection.

On February 13, 1948, another team member, John N. Shive, built a point contact transistor with bronze contacts on the front and back of thin wedge of germanium, proving that holes could diffuse through bulk germanium and not just along the surface as previously thought.[26]:'Š153'Š [27]:'Š145'Š Shive's invention sparked[28] Shockley's invention of the junction transistor.[26]:'Š143'Š A few months later he invented an entirely new, considerably more robust, type of transistor with a layer or 'sandwich' structure. This structure went on to be used for the vast majority of all transistors into the 1960s, and evolved into the bipolar junction transistor. Shockley later described the workings of the team as a "mixture of cooperation and competition". He also said that he kept some of his own work secret until his "hand was forced" by Shive's 1948 advance.[29] Shockley worked out a rather complete description of what he called the "sandwich" transistor, and a first proof of principle was obtained on April 7, 1949.

Meanwhile, Shockley worked on his magnum opus, Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors which was published as a 558-page treatise in 1950. The tome included Shockley's critical ideas of drift and diffusion and the differential equations that govern the flow of electrons in solid state crystals. Shockley's diode equation is also described. This seminal work became the reference text for other scientists working to develop and improve new variants of the transistor and other devices based on semiconductors.[30]

This resulted in his invention of the bipolar "junction transistor", which was announced at a press conference on July 4, 1951.[31]

In 1951, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). He was forty-one years old; this was rather young for such an election. Two years later, he was chosen as the recipient of the prestigious Comstock Prize[32] for Physics by the NAS, and was the recipient of many other awards and honors.

The ensuing publicity generated by the "invention of the transistor" often thrust Shockley to the fore, much to the chagrin of Bardeen and Brattain. Bell Labs management, however, consistently presented all three inventors as a team. Though Shockley would correct the record where reporters gave him sole credit for the invention,[33] he eventually infuriated and alienated Bardeen and Brattain, and he essentially blocked the two from working on the junction transistor. Bardeen began pursuing a theory for superconductivity and left Bell Labs in 1951. Brattain refused to work with Shockley further and was assigned to another group. Neither Bardeen nor Brattain had much to do with the development of the transistor beyond the first year after its invention.[34]

Shockley left Bell Labs around 1953 and took a job at Caltech.[35]

Shockley Semiconductor [ edit ] In 1956, Shockley started Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View, California, which was close to his elderly mother in Palo Alto, California.[36][37] The company, a division of Beckman Instruments, Inc., was the first establishment working on silicon semiconductor devices in what came to be known as Silicon Valley.

After he received the Nobel Prize in 1956 his demeanor changed, as evidenced in his increasingly autocratic, erratic and hard-to-please management style.[38] Shockley became increasingly domineering and paranoid. In one well-known incident, he demanded lie detector tests to find the "culprit" after a company secretary suffered a minor cut.[39] In late 1957, eight of Shockley's best researchers, who would come to be known as the "traitorous eight", resigned after Shockley decided not to continue research into silicon-based semiconductors.[40][35] They went on to form Fairchild Semiconductor, a loss from which Shockley Semiconductor never recovered and which led to its purchase by another company three years later. Over the course of the next 20 years, more than 65 new enterprises would end up having employee connections back to Fairchild.[41]

A group of about thirty colleagues met on and off since 1956 to reminisce about their time with Shockley as, the group's organizer said in 2002, "the man who brought silicon to Silicon Valley".[42]

Views on race and eugenics [ edit ] After Shockley left his role as director of Shockley Semiconductor, he joined Stanford University, where he was appointed the Alexander M. Poniatoff Professor of Engineering and Applied Science in 1963, a position which he held until he retired as a professor emeritus in 1975.[43]

In the last two decades of his life, Shockley, who had no degree in genetics, became widely known for his extreme views on race and human intelligence, and his advocacy of eugenics.[2][5] As described by his Los Angeles Times obituary, "He went from being a physicist with impeccable academic credentials to amateur geneticist, becoming a lightning rod whose views sparked campus demonstrations and a cascade of calumny." He thought his work was important to the future of humanity and he also described it as the most important aspect of his career. He argued that a higher rate of reproduction among purportedly less intelligent people was having a dysgenic effect, and argued that a drop in average intelligence would lead to a decline in civilization. He also claimed that black people were genetically and intellectually inferior to white people.[2] (Shockley's biographer Joel Shurkin notes that for much of Shockley's life in the racially segregated America of the time, he had almost no contact with black people.) In a debate with psychiatrist Frances Cress Welsing M.D. and on Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr., Shockley argued, "My research leads me inescapably to the opinion that the major cause of the American Negro's intellectual and social deficits is hereditary and racially genetic in origin and, thus, not remediable to a major degree by practical improvements in the environment."[45]

Shockley was one of the race theorists who received money from the Pioneer Fund, and at least one donation to him came from its founder, the eugenicist Wickliffe Draper.[46] Shockley's writings and lectures were partly based on the writings of psychologist Cyril Burt.[citation needed ] Shockley proposed that individuals with IQs below 100 should be paid to undergo voluntary sterilization.[2] Anthropologist Roger Pearson defended Shockley in a self-published book co-authored with Shockley.[48] In 1973, University of Wisconsin''Milwaukee professor Edgar G. Epps argued that "William Shockley's position lends itself to racist interpretations".[49] The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Shockley as a white nationalist who failed to produce evidence for his eugenic theories amidst "near-universal acknowledgement that his work was that of a racist crank".[50] The science writer Angela Saini describes Shockley as having been "a notorious racist".[46]

Shockley's advocacy of eugenics triggered protests. In one incident, the science society Sigma Xi, fearing violence, canceled a 1968 convocation in Brooklyn where Shockley was scheduled to speak.

In Atlanta in 1981, Shockley filed a libel suit against the Atlanta Constitution after a science writer, Roger Witherspoon, compared Shockley's advocacy of a voluntary sterilization program to Nazi human experimentation. The suit took three years to go to trial. Shockley won the suit but he only received one dollar in damages[52] and he did not receive any punitive damages. Shockley's biographer Joel Shurkin, a science writer on the staff of Stanford University during those years, sums this statement up by saying that it was defamatory, but Shockley's reputation was not worth much by the time the trial reached a verdict.[53] Shockley taped his telephone conversations with reporters, transcribed them, and sent the transcripts to the reporters by registered mail. At one point, he toyed with the idea of making the reporters take a simple quiz on his work before he would discuss the subject matter of it with them. His habit of saving all of his papers (including laundry lists) provides abundant documentation on his life for researchers.[54]

Shockley was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 1982 United States Senate election in California. He ran on a single-issue platform of opposing the "dysgenic threat" that he alleged African-Americans and other groups posed.[55][50][56] He came in eighth place in the primary, receiving 8,308 votes and 0.37% of the vote.[57] According to Shurkin, by this time, "His racism destroyed his credibility. Almost no one wanted to be associated with him, and many of those who were willing did him more harm than good."

A 2019 study in the journal Intelligence found him to be the second-most controversial (behind Arthur Jensen) intelligence researcher among 55 persons covered.[59]

Personal life [ edit ] At age 23 and while still a student, Shockley married Jean Bailey in August 1933. The couple had two sons and a daughter.[60] Shockley separated with her in 1953.[35] He married Emily Lanning, a psychiatric nurse, in 1955; she helped him with some of his theories.[35][61] Although one of his sons earned a PhD at Stanford University and his daughter graduated from Radcliffe College, Shockley believed his children "represent a very significant regression ... my first wife '' their mother '' had not as high an academic-achievement standing as I had."[2]

Shockley was an accomplished rock climber, going often to the Shawangunks in the Hudson River Valley. His route across an overhang, known as "Shockley's Ceiling", is one of the classic climbing routes in the area.[22][62] Several[verification needed ] climbing guidebooks changed the route's name to "The Ceiling" in 2020 due to Shockley's eugenics controversies.[63] He was popular as a speaker, lecturer, and amateur magician. He once "magically" produced a bouquet of roses at the end of his address before the American Physical Society. He was also known in his early years for elaborate practical jokes.[64] He had a longtime hobby of raising ant colonies.[9]

Shockley donated sperm to the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank founded by Robert Klark Graham in hopes of spreading humanity's best genes. The bank, called by the media the "Nobel Prize sperm bank", claimed to have three Nobel Prize-winning donors,[citation needed ] though Shockley was the only one to publicly acknowledge his involvement. However, Shockley's controversial views brought the Repository for Germinal Choice a degree of notoriety and may have discouraged other Nobel Prize winners from donating sperm.[65]

According to PBS, Shockley was cruel towards his children and unhappy in his life. He reportedly tried playing Russian roulette as part of an attempted suicide.[35]

Death [ edit ] Shockley died of prostate cancer in 1989 at the age of 79.[66] At the time of his death, he was estranged from most of his friends and family, except his second wife, the former Emmy Lanning (1913''2007). His children reportedly learned of his death by reading his obituary in the newspaper.[67] Shockley is interred at Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto, California.

Honors [ edit ] National Medal of Merit, for his war work in 1946.[17]Comstock Prize in Physics of the National Academy of Sciences in 1953.[68]First recipient of the Oliver E. Buckley Solid State Physics Prize of the American Physical Society in 1953.Co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1956, along with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. In his Nobel lecture, he gave full credit to Brattain and Bardeen as the inventors of the point-contact transistor.Holley Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1963.Wilhelm Exner Medal in 1963.[69]Honorary science doctorates from the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University in New Jersey, and Gustavus Adolphus Colleges in Minnesota.IEEE Medal of Honor from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1980.Named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.Listed at No.'¯3 on the Boston Globe's 2011 MIT150 list of the top 150 innovators and ideas in the 150-year history of MIT.Patents [ edit ] Shockley was granted over ninety US patents.[70] Some notable ones are:

US 2502488 Semiconductor Amplifier. April 4, 1950; his first granted patent involving transistors. US 2569347 Circuit element utilizing semiconductive material. September 25, 1951; His earliest applied for (June 26, 1948) patent involving transistors. US 2655609 Bistable Circuits. October 13, 1953; Used in computers. US 2787564 Forming Semiconductive Devices by Ionic Bombardment. April 2, 1957; The diffusion process for implantation of impurities. US 3031275 Process for Growing Single Crystals. April 24, 1962; Improvements on process for production of basic materials. US 3053635 Method of Growing Silicon Carbide Crystals. September 11, 1962; Exploring other semiconductors.Bibliography [ edit ] Prewar scientific articles by Shockley [ edit ] Johnson, R. P.; Shockley, W. (March 15, 1936). "An Electron Microscope for Filaments: Emission and Adsorption by Tungsten Single Crystals". Physical Review. American Physical Society (APS). 49 (6): 436''440. Bibcode:1936PhRv...49..436J. doi:10.1103/physrev.49.436. ISSN 0031-899X. Slater, J. C.; Shockley, W. (October 15, 1936). "Optical Absorption by the Alkali Halides". Physical Review. American Physical Society (APS). 50 (8): 705''719. Bibcode:1936PhRv...50..705S. doi:10.1103/physrev.50.705. ISSN 0031-899X. Shockley, William (October 15, 1936). "Electronic Energy Bands in Sodium Chloride". Physical Review. American Physical Society (APS). 50 (8): 754''759. Bibcode:1936PhRv...50..754S. doi:10.1103/physrev.50.754. ISSN 0031-899X. Shockley, W. (October 15, 1937). "The Empty Lattice Test of the Cellular Method in Solids". Physical Review. American Physical Society (APS). 52 (8): 866''872. Bibcode:1937PhRv...52..866S. doi:10.1103/physrev.52.866. ISSN 0031-899X. Shockley, William (August 15, 1939). "On the Surface States Associated with a Periodic Potential". Physical Review. American Physical Society (APS). 56 (4): 317''323. Bibcode:1939PhRv...56..317S. doi:10.1103/physrev.56.317. ISSN 0031-899X. Steigman, J.; Shockley, W.; Nix, F. C. (July 1, 1939). "The Self-Diffusion of Copper". Physical Review. American Physical Society (APS). 56 (1): 13''21. Bibcode:1939PhRv...56...13S. doi:10.1103/physrev.56.13. ISSN 0031-899X. Postwar articles by Shockley [ edit ] Shockley, W. (1949). "The Theory of p-n Junctions in Semiconductors and p-n Junction Transistors". Bell System Technical Journal. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 28 (3): 435''489. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1949.tb03645.x. ISSN 0005-8580. Shockley, W.; Pearson, G. L.; Haynes, J. R. (1949). "Hole Injection in Germanium-Quantitative Studies and Filamentary Transistors". Bell System Technical Journal. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 28 (3): 344''366. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1949.tb03641.x. ISSN 0005-8580. Shockley, W. (1951). "Hot Electrons in Germanium and Ohm's Law". Bell System Technical Journal. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 30 (4): 990''1034. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1951.tb03692.x. ISSN 0005-8580. Shockley, W. (1954). "Negative Resistance Arising from Transit Time in Semiconductor Diodes". Bell System Technical Journal. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 33 (4): 799''826. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1954.tb03742.x. ISSN 0005-8580. Sze, S. M.; Shockley, W. (May 6, 1967). "Unit-Cube Expression for Space-Charge Resistance". Bell System Technical Journal. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 46 (5): 837''842. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1967.tb01716.x. ISSN 0005-8580. "On the Statistics of Individual Variations of Productivity in Research Laboratories", Shockley 1957On heredity, dysgenics and social issues:Shockley 1965, "Is Quality of US Population Declining." U.S. News & World Report, November 22, pp. 68''71Shockley 1966, "Possible Transfer of Metallurgical and Astronomical Approaches to Problem of Environment versus Ethnic Heredity" (on an early form of admixture analysis)Shockley 1966, "Population Control or Eugenics." In J. D. Roslansky (ed.), Genetics and the Future of Man (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts)Shockley 1967, "The Entrenched Dogmatism of Inverted Liberals", manuscript by Shockley from which major portions were read in lecturesShockley 1968, "Proposed Research to Reduce Racial Aspects of the Environment-Heredity Uncertainty", proposal read by Shockley before the National Academy of Science on April 24, 1968Shockley 1968, "Ten Point Position Statement on Human Quality Problems", revised by Shockley from a talk which he presented on "Human Quality Problems and Research Taboos"Shockley 1969, "An Analysis Leading to a Recommendation Concerning Inquiry into Eugenic Legislation", press release by Shockley, Stanford University, April 28, 1969Shockley 1970, "A 'Try Simplest Cases' Approach to the Heredity-Poverty-Crime Problem." In V. L. Allen (ed.), Psychological Factors in Poverty (Chicago: Markham)Shockley 1979, "Proposed NAS Resolution, drafted October 17, 1970", proposed by Shockley before the National Academy of SciencesShockley 1970, "New Methodology to Reduce the Environment-Heredity Uncertainty About Dysgenics"Shockley 1971, "Hardy-Weinberg Law Generalized to Estimate Hybrid Variance for Negro Populations and Reduce Racial Aspects of the Environment-Heredity Uncertainty"Shockley 1971, "Dysgenics '' A Social Problem Evaded by the Illusion of Infinite Plasticity of Human Intelligence?", manuscript planned for reading at the American Psychological Association Symposium entitled: "Social Problems: Illusion, Delusion or Reality.""Models, Mathematics, and the Moral Obligation to Diagnose the Origin of Negro IQ Deficits", W. Shockley, (1971) [71]"Negro IQ Deficit: Failure of a 'Malicious Coincidence' Model Warrants New Research Proposals", Shockley 1971[72]"Dysgenics, Geneticity, Raceology: A Challenge to the Intellectual Responsibility of Educators", Shockley 1972a[73]"A Debate Challenge: Geneticity Is 80% for White Identical Twins' I.Q.'s", Shockley 1972b[74]Shockley 1972, "Proposed Resolution Regarding the 80% Geneticity Estimate for Caucasian IQ", advance press release concerning a paper presented by ShockleyShockley 1973, "Deviations from Hardy-Weinberg Frequencies Caused by Assortative Mating in Hybrid Populations"[75]Shockley 1974, "Eugenic, or Anti-Dysgenic, Thinking Exercises", press release by Shockley dated 1974 May 3Shockley 1974, "Society Has a Moral Obligation to Diagnose Tragic Racial IQ Deficits", prepared statement by Shockley to be read during his debate against Roy InnisShockley 1978, "Has Intellectual Humanitarianism Gone Berserk?", introductory statement read by Shockley prior to a lecture given by him at UT DallasShockley 1979, "Anthropological Taboos About Determinations of Racial Mixes", press release by Shockley on October 16, 1979Shockley 1980, "Sperm Banks and Dark-Ages Dogmatism", position paper presented by Shockley in a lecture to the Rotary Club of Chico, California, April 16, 1980Shockley 1981, "Intelligence in Trouble", article by Shockley published in Leaders magazine, issue dated 1981 Jun 15Books by Shockley [ edit ] Shockley, William '' Electrons and holes in semiconductors, with applications to transistor electronics, Krieger (1956) ISBN 0-88275-382-7Shockley, William and Gong, Walter A '' Mechanics Charles E. Merrill, Inc. (1966)Shockley, William and Pearson, Roger '' Shockley on Eugenics and Race: The Application of Science to the Solution of Human Problems, Scott-Townsend (1992) ISBN 1-878465-03-1Interviews [ edit ] Interview of William Shockley by Lillian Hoddeson on 1974 Sep. 10, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USAPlayboy 1980, William Shockley interview with PlayboyNotes [ edit ] ^ Borrell, Jerry (2001). "They would be gods". Upside. 13 (10): 53 '' via ABI/INFORM Global. ^ a b c d e Boyer, Edward J. (August 14, 1989). "Controversial Nobel Laureate Shockley Dies". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved May 11, 2015 . ^ Saxon 1989 ^ Sparks, Hogan & Linville 1991, pp. 130''132 ^ a b "Inventors of the transistor followed diverse paths after 1947 discovery". Bangor Daily News. Associated Press. December 26, 1987 . Retrieved July 13, 2022 . Although he has received less publicity in recent years, his views have become, if anything, more extreme. He suggested in an interview the possibility of bonus payments to black people for undergoing voluntary sterilization. ^ "Contributors to Proceedings of the I.R.E". Proceedings of the IRE. 40 (11): 1605''1612. 1952. doi:10.1109/JRPROC.1952.274003. ^ Shurkin 2006, p. 5 ^ "Palo Alto History". www.paloaltohistory.org . Retrieved December 14, 2020 . In Palo Alto, William's temper improved little at first. But ignoring psychiatric recommendations for more socialization, his parents decided to home school William until age eight. Finally, feeling they were unable to keep him out of a school setting any longer, they sent him to the Homer Avenue School for two years, where his behavior improved dramatically --- he even earned an "A" in comportment in his first year. ^ a b Hiltzik, Michael A. (December 2, 2001). "The Twisted Legacy of William Shockley". Los Angeles Times. ^ Moll, John L. (1995). A Biographical Memoir of William Bradford Shockley (PDF) . Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. ^ Shurkin 2006, pp. 38''39 ^ a b Transistor '' Innovation at Bell Labs Encyclopedia Britannica ^ Cooper, David Y. (2000). Shockley, William Bradford (13 February 1910''12 August 1989), physicist. American National Biography Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1302153. ^ Shurkin 2006, p. 48 ^ Broken Genius p. 65''67 ^ Dean Barrett, David (2020). 140 days to Hiroshima : the story of Japan's last chance to avert Armageddon. New York. ISBN 978-1-63576-580-9. OCLC 1149147965. ^ a b Shurkin 2006, p. 85 ^ Giangreco 1997, p. 568 ^ Newman, Robert P. (1998). "Hiroshima and the Trashing of Henry Stimson". The New England Quarterly. 71 (1): 27. doi:10.2307/366722. JSTOR 366722. ^ The Artful Universe by John D. Barrow, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995, p. 239 ^ Brattain quoted in Crystal Fire p. 127 ^ a b Crystal Fire p.132 ^ CA 272437 "Electric current control mechanism", first filed in Canada on October 22, 1925 ^ Lilienfeld Archived October 2, 2006, at the Wayback Machine ^ "William Shockley". IEEE Global History Network. IEEE . Retrieved July 18, 2011 . ^ a b Michael Riordan & Lillian Hoddeson (1998). Crystal fire: the invention of the transistor and the birth of the information age. ISBN 978-0-393-31851-7. ^ Hoddeson, Lillian; Daitch, Vicki (2002). True genius: the life and science of John Bardeen : the only winner of two Nobel prizes in physics . Joseph Henry Press. ISBN 978-0-309-08408-6 . Retrieved December 30, 2014 . Diana Buchwald (March''April 2003). "John Who?". American Scientist. Vol. 91, no. 2. Archived from the original on January 2, 2015. ^ Brittain 1984, p. 1695 "an observation that William Shockley interpreted as confirmation of his concept of that junction transistor" ^ "Inventors of the transistor followed diverse paths after 1947 discovery". Associated press '' Bangor Daily news. December 25, 1987 . Retrieved May 6, 2012 . 'mixture of cooperation and competition' and 'Shockley, eager to make his own contribution, said he kept some of his own work secret until "my hand was forced" in early 1948 by an advance reported by John Shive, another Bell Laboratories researcher' ^ Broken Genius, p 121-122 ^ "1951 '' First grown-junction transistors fabricated". Computer History Museum. 2007 . Retrieved July 3, 2013 . ^ "Comstock Prize". ^ ScienCentral, ScienCentral. "Bill Shockley, Part 3 of 3". www.pbs.org. ^ Crystal Fire p. 278 ^ a b c d e "Transistorized! William Shockley". www.pbs.org. 1999 . Retrieved July 10, 2022 . ^ "Holding On". The New York Times. April 6, 2008 . Retrieved December 7, 2014 . In 1955, the physicist William Shockley set up a semiconductor laboratory in Mountain View, partly to be near his mother in Palo Alto. ... ^ "Two Views of Innovation, Colliding in Washington". The New York Times. January 13, 2008 . Retrieved December 7, 2014 . The co-inventor of the transistor and the founder of the valley's first chip company, William Shockley, moved to Palo Alto, Calif., because his mother lived there. ... ^ "Silicon Valley | American Experience | PBS". www.pbs.org. 2013 . Retrieved July 10, 2022 . ^ Crystal Fire p. 247 ^ Goodheart 2006 "Fed up with their boss, eight lab workers walked off the job on this day in Mountain View, Calif. Their employer, William Shockley, had decided not to continue research into silicon-based semiconductors; frustrated, they decided to undertake the work on their own. The researchers '-- who would become known as 'the traitorous eight' '-- went on to invent the microprocessor (and to found Intel, among other companies). ^ Gregory Gromov. "A legal bridge spanning 100 years: from the gold mines of El Dorado to the "golden" startups of Silicon Valley". ^ Dawn Levy (October 22, 2002). "William Shockley: still controversial, after all these years" (Press release). Stanford University. Archived from the original on April 4, 2005 . Retrieved June 14, 2005 . ^ Crystal Fire p. 277 ^ "Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: Shockley's Thesis (Episode S0145, Recorded on June 10, 1974)". YouTube. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021 . Retrieved September 17, 2017 . ^ a b Saini, Angela (2019). Superior : the return of race science. Boston. ISBN 978-0-8070-7694-1. OCLC 1091236746. ^ Pearson, Roger (1992). Shockley on Eugenics and Race, pg. 15''49. Scott-Townsend Publishers. ISBN 1-878465-03-1 ^ Epps, Edgar G (February 1973). "Racism, Science, and the I.Q." Integrated Education. 11 (1): 35''44. doi:10.1080/0020486730110105. ^ a b "William Shockley". Southern Poverty Law Center. ^ Kessler, Ronald. "Absent at the Creation; How one scientist made off with the biggest invention since the light bulb". Archived from the original on February 24, 2015. ^ Shurkin 2006, pp. 259''260 "Essentially, the jury agreed that Witherspoon's column met the standards of defamation, but that by then, Shockley's reputation wasn't worth very much." ^ Shurkin 2006, p. 286 ^ Moll, John L. (1995). "William Bradford Shockley 1910'--1989" (PDF) . National Academy of Sciences. ^ "Shockley, Nobel Winner, Files for Senate Race in California". The New York Times. February 12, 1982. ^ "CA US Senate '' D Primary". OurCampaigns . Retrieved November 12, 2019 . ^ Carl, N.; Woodley of Menie, M. A. (November 1, 2019). "A scientometric analysis of controversies in the field of intelligence research". Intelligence. 77: 101397. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2019.101397. ISSN 0160-2896. S2CID 209513578. ^ A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: William Shockley PBS ^ Hoddeson, Lillian (2002). True genius : the life and science of John Bardeen : the only winner of two Nobel Prizes in physics. Vicki Daitch. Washington, District of Columbia. ISBN 0-309-16954-2. OCLC 1162253791. ^ "Shockley's Ceiling". Mountain Project . Retrieved December 12, 2018 . ^ "Rock Climb The Ceiling, The Gunks". Mountain Project . Retrieved September 16, 2020 . ^ Crystal Fire p. 45 ^ Polly Morrice (July 3, 2005). "The Genius Factory: Test-Tube Superbabies". The New York Times . Retrieved February 12, 2008 . ^ "William B. Shockley, 79, Creator of Transistor and Theory on Race". The New York Times. August 14, 1989. Archived from the original on October 15, 2009 . Retrieved July 21, 2007 . He drew further scorn when he proposed financial rewards for the genetically disadvantaged if they volunteered for sterilization. ^ "William Shockley (Part 3 of 3): Confusion over Credit". PBS. 1999 . Retrieved January 1, 2015 . ^ "Comstock Prize in Physics". National Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on December 29, 2010 . Retrieved February 13, 2011 . ^ Editor, –GV. (2015). Wilhelm Exner Medal. Austrian Trade Association. –GV. Austria. ^ "Google Patents assignee:(Shockley William)". patents.google.com . Retrieved December 12, 2020 . ^ Shockley, William (1971). "Models, Mathematics, and the Moral Obligation to Diagnose the Origin of Negro IQ Deficits". Review of Educational Research. 41 (4): 369''377. doi:10.2307/1169443. ISSN 0034-6543. JSTOR 1169443. ^ Shockley, William (1971). "Negro IQ Deficit: Failure of a "Malicious Coincidence" Model Warrants New Research Proposals". Review of Educational Research. 41 (3): 227''248. doi:10.2307/1169529. ISSN 0034-6543. JSTOR 1169529. ^ Shockley, Wiliam; Shockley, William (1972). "Dysgenics, Geneticity, Raceology: A Chalenge to the Intelectual Responsibility of Educators". The Phi Delta Kappan. 53 (5): 297''307. ISSN 0031-7217. JSTOR 20373194. ^ Shockley, William (1972). "A Debate Challenge: Geneticity Is 80% for White Identical Twins' I.Q.'s". The Phi Delta Kappan. 53 (7): 415''419. ISSN 0031-7217. JSTOR 20373251. ^ Shockley, William (1973). "Deviations from Hardy-Weinberg Frequencies Caused by Assortative Mating in Hybrid Populations". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 70 (3): 732''736. Bibcode:1973PNAS...70..732S. doi:10.1073/pnas.70.3.732 . ISSN 0027-8424. JSTOR 62346. PMC 433346 . PMID 4514986. Other notes [ edit ] Park, Lubinski & Benbow 2010, "There were two young boys, Luis Alvarez and William Shockley, who were among the many who took Terman's tests but missed the cutoff score. Despite their exclusion from a study of young 'geniuses,' both went on to study physics, earn PhDs, and win the Nobel prize."Leslie 2000, "We also know that two children who were tested but didn't make the cut '' William Shockley and Luis Alvarez '' went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. According to Hastorf, none of the Terman kids ever won a Nobel or Pulitzer."Shurkin 2006, p. 13 (See also "The Truth About the 'Termites'" Kaufman, S. B. 2009)Simonton 1999, p. 4 "When Terman first used the IQ test to select a sample of child geniuses, he unknowingly excluded a special child whose IQ did not make the grade. Yet a few decades later that talent received the Nobel Prize in physics: William Shockley, the cocreator of the transistor. Ironically, not one of the more than 1,500 children who qualified according to his IQ criterion received so high an honor as adults."Eysenck 1998, pp. 127''128 "Terman, who originated those 'Genetic Studies of Genius', as he called them, selected ... children on the basis of their high IQs, the mean was 151 for both sexes. Seventy''seven who were tested with the newly translated and standardized Binet test had IQs of 170 or higher''well at or above the level of Cox's geniuses. What happened to these potential geniuses''did they revolutionize society? ... The answer in brief is that they did very well in terms of achievement, but none reached the Nobel Prize level, let alone that of genius. ... It seems clear that these data powerfully confirm the suspicion that intelligence is not a sufficient trait for truly creative achievement of the highest grade."References [ edit ] Brittain, J.E. (1984). "Becker and Shive on the transistor". Proceedings of the IEEE. 72 (12): 1695. doi:10.1109/PROC.1984.13075. ISSN 0018-9219. S2CID 1616808. an observation that William Shockley interpreted as confirmation of his concept of that junction transistor Eysenck, Hans (1998). Intelligence: A New Look. New Brunswick (NJ): Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7658-0707-6. Giangreco, D. M. (1997). "Casualty Projections for the U.S. Invasions of Japan, 1945-1946: Planning and Policy Implications". Journal of Military History. 61 (3): 521''581. doi:10.2307/2954035. ISSN 0899-3718. JSTOR 2954035. S2CID 159870872. Goodheart, Adam (July 2, 2006). "10 Days That Changed History". The New York Times . Retrieved January 2, 2015 . Leslie, Mitchell (July''August 2000). "The Vexing Legacy of Lewis Terman". Stanford Magazine . Retrieved June 5, 2013 . Park, Gregory; Lubinski, David; Benbow, Camilla P. (November 2, 2010). "Recognizing Spatial Intelligence". Scientific American . Retrieved June 5, 2013 . Shurkin, Joel (2006). Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-8815-7. Brian Clegg (June 2, 2013). "Review - Broken Genius - Joel Shurkin". Popular Science. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016 . Retrieved November 13, 2010 . Simonton, Dean Keith (1999). Origins of genius: Darwinian perspectives on creativity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512879-6. JSTOR 3080746. Riordan, Michael; Hoddeson, Lillian (1997). Crystal Fire: The Invention of the Transistor and the Birth of the Information Age. Sloan Technology Series. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04124-8. Arthur P. Molella (July 2000). "Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age (review)". Technology and Culture. 41 (3): 623''625. doi:10.1353/tech.2000.0121. Saxon, Wolfgang (August 14, 1989). "William B. Shockley, 79, Creator of Transistor and Theory on Race". The New York Times . Retrieved January 2, 2015 . He drew further scorn when he proposed financial rewards for the genetically disadvantaged if they volunteered for sterilization. "Contributors to Proceedings of the I.R.E." Proceedings of the I.R.E. November 1952. p. 1611. Archived from the original on November 26, 2012. Sparks, Morgan; Hogan, Lester; Linville, John (1991). "[Obituary:] William Shockley". Physics Today. 44 (6): 130''132. Bibcode:1991PhT....44f.130S. doi:10.1063/1.2810155. ISSN 0031-9228. Tucker, William H. (2007) [first published 2002]. The funding of scientific racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07463-9. Andrew S. Winston (July 2003). "The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund (review)". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 58 (3): 391''392. doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrg016. External links [ edit ] National Academy of Sciences biographyWilliam Shockley on Nobelprize.org including his Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1956 Transistor Technology Evokes New PhysicsPBS biographyGordon Moore. Biography of William Shockley Time MagazineInterview with Shockley biographer Joel ShurkinOral history interview transcript for William Shockley on 10 September 1974, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives - interview conducted by Lillian Hoddeson in Murray Hill, New JerseyHistory of the transistorWilliam Shockley (IEEE Global History Network)Shockley and Bardeen-Brattain patent disputesWilliam Shockley vs. Francis Cress-Welsing (Tony Brown Show, 1974)Works by or about William Shockley in libraries (WorldCat catalog)Guide to the William Shockley Papers SC0222

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1968 book predicting worldwide famine

The Population Bomb is a 1968 book written by Stanford University Professor Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne Ehrlich.[1][2] It predicted worldwide famine in the 1970s and 1980s due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals, and advocated immediate action to limit population growth. Fears of a "population explosion" existed in the 1950s and 1960s, but the book and its author brought the idea to an even wider audience.[3][4][5]

The book has been criticized since its publication for its alarmist tone, and in recent decades for its inaccurate predictions. The Ehrlichs stand by the book despite its flaws, stating in 2009 that "perhaps the most serious flaw in The Bomb was that it was much too optimistic about the future" and believe that it achieved their goals because "it alerted people to the importance of environmental issues and brought human numbers into the debate on the human future."[2]

General description of the book [ edit ] Graph of

human population from 10,000 BC to 2017 AD. It shows the extremely rapid growth in the world population since the eighteenth century.

The Population Bomb was written at the suggestion of David Brower, the executive director of the environmentalist Sierra Club, and Ian Ballantine of Ballantine Books following various public appearances Ehrlich had made regarding population issues and their relation to the environment. Although the Ehrlichs collaborated on the book, the publisher insisted that a single author be credited, and also asked to change their preferred title: Population, Resources, and Environment.[2] The title Population Bomb was taken (with permission) from General William H. Draper, founder of the Population Crisis Committee and a pamphlet issued in 1954 by the Hugh Moore Fund. The Ehrlichs regret the choice of title, which they admit was a perfect choice from a marketing perspective, but think that "it led Paul to be miscategorized as solely focused on human numbers, despite our interest in all the factors affecting the human trajectory."[2]

Early editions of The Population Bomb began with the statement:

The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate...[6]

Much of the book is spent describing the state of the environment and the food security situation, which is described as increasingly dire. Ehrlich argues that as the existing population was not being fed adequately, and as it was growing rapidly, it was unreasonable to expect sufficient improvements in food production to feed everyone. He further argued that the growing population placed escalating strains on all aspects of the natural world. "What needs to be done?" he wrote, "We must rapidly bring the world population under control, reducing the growth rate to zero or making it negative. Conscious regulation of human numbers must be achieved. Simultaneously we must, at least temporarily, greatly increase our food production." Ehrlich described a number of "ideas on how these goals might be reached."[7] He believed that the United States should take a leading role in population control, both because it was already consuming much more than the rest of the world, and therefore had a moral duty to reduce its impact, and because the US would have to lead international efforts due to its prominence in the world. In order to avoid charges of hypocrisy or racism it would have to take the lead in population reduction efforts.[8] Ehrlich floats the idea of adding "temporary sterilants" to the water supply or staple foods. However, he rejects the idea as unpractical due to "criminal inadequacy of biomedical research in this area."[9] He suggests a tax scheme in which additional children would add to a family's tax burden at increasing rates for more children, as well as luxury taxes on childcare goods. He suggests incentives for men who agree to permanent sterilization before they have two children, as well as a variety of other monetary incentives. He proposes a powerful Department of Population and Environment which "should be set up with the power to take whatever steps are necessary to establish a reasonable population size in the United States and to put an end to the steady deterioration of our environment."[10] The department should support research into population control, such as better contraceptives, mass sterilizing agents, and prenatal sex discernment (because families often continue to have children until a male is born. Ehrlich suggested that if they could choose a male child this would reduce the birthrate). Legislation should be enacted guaranteeing the right to an abortion, and sex education should be expanded.

After explaining the domestic policies the US should pursue, he discusses foreign policy. He advocates a system of "triage," such as that suggested by William and Paul Paddock in Famine 1975!. Under this system countries would be divided into categories based on their abilities to feed themselves going forward. Countries with sufficient programmes in place to limit population growth, and the ability to become self-sufficient in the future would continue to receive food aid. Countries, for example India, which were "so far behind in the population-food game that there is no hope that our food aid will see them through to self-sufficiency" would have their food aid eliminated. Ehrlich argued that this was the only realistic strategy in the long-term. Ehrlich applauds the Paddocks' "courage and foresight" in proposing such a solution.[11] Ehrlich further discusses the need to set up public education programs and agricultural development schemes in developing countries. He argues that the scheme would likely have to be implemented outside the framework of the United Nations due to the necessity selecting the targeted regions and countries, and suggests that within countries certain regions should be prioritized to the extent that cooperative separatist movements should be encouraged if they are an improvement over the existing authority. He mentions his support for government mandated sterilization of Indian males with three or more children.[12]

In the rest of the book Ehrlich discusses things which readers can do to help. This is focused primarily on changing public opinion to create pressure on politicians to enact the policies he suggests, which he believed were not politically possible in 1968. At the end of the book he discusses the possibility that his forecasts may be wrong, which he felt he must acknowledge as a scientist. However, he believes that regardless of coming catastrophes, his prescriptions would only benefit humanity, and would be the right course of action in any case.[13]

The book sold over two million copies, raised the general awareness of population and environmental issues, and influenced 1960s and 1970s public policy.[2] For the 14 years prior the book's appearance, the world population had been growing at accelerating rates, but immediately after the book's publication, the world population growth rate coincidentally began a continuing downward trend, from its 1968 peak of 2.09% to 1.09% in 2018.[14]

Context [ edit ] In 1948, two widely read books were published that would inspire a "neo-Malthusian" debate on population and the environment: Fairfield Osborn's Our Plundered Planet and William Vogt's Road to Survival. These inspired works such as the original Population Bomb pamphlet by Hugh Everett Moore in 1954, as well as some of the original societies concerned with population and environmental matters.[3] D.B. Luten has said that although the book is often seen as a seminal work in the field, The Population Bomb is actually best understood as "climaxing and in a sense terminating the debate of the 1950s and 1960s.''[15] Ehrlich has said that he traced his own Malthusian beliefs to a lecture he heard Vogt give when he was attending university in the early 1950s. For Ehrlich, these writers provided ''a global framework for things he had observed as a young naturalist."[3]

Criticisms [ edit ] Restatement of Malthusian theory [ edit ] The Population Bomb has been characterized by critics as primarily a repetition of the Malthusian catastrophe argument that population growth will outpace agricultural growth unless controlled. Ehrlich observed that since about 1930 the population of the world had doubled within a single generation, from 2 billion to nearly 4 billion, and was on track to do so again. He assumed that available resources on the other hand, and in particular food, were nearly at their limits. Some critics compare Ehrlich unfavorably to Malthus, saying that although Thomas Malthus did not make a firm prediction of imminent catastrophe, Ehrlich warned of a potential massive disaster within the next decade or two. In addition, critics state that unlike Malthus, Ehrlich did not see any means of avoiding the disaster entirely (although some mitigation was possible), and proposed solutions that were much more radical than those discussed by Malthus, such as starving whole countries that refused to implement population control measures.[16]

Ehrlich was certainly not unique in his neo-Malthusian predictions, and there was a widespread belief in the 1960s and 70s that increasingly catastrophic famines were on their way.[17]

Predictions [ edit ] The Ehrlichs made a number of specific predictions that did not come to pass, for which they have received criticism. They have acknowledged that some predictions were incorrect. However, they maintain that their general argument remains intact, that their predictions were merely illustrative, that their and others' warnings caused preventive action, or that many of their predictions may yet come true (see Ehrlich's response below) . Still other commentators have criticized the Ehrlichs' perceived inability to acknowledge mistakes, evasiveness, and refusal to alter their arguments in the face of contrary evidence.[18] In 2015 Ehrlich told Retro Report, "I do not think my language was too apocalyptic in The Population Bomb. My language would be even more apocalyptic today."[19]

In The Population Bomb ' s opening lines the authors state that nothing can prevent famines in which hundreds of millions of people will die during the 1970s (amended to 1970s and 1980s in later editions), and that there would be "a substantial increase in the world death rate." Although many lives could be saved through dramatic action, it was already too late to prevent a substantial increase in the global death rate. However, in reality the global death rate has continued to decline substantially since then, from 13/1000 in 1965''74 to 10/1000 from 1985''1990. Meanwhile, the population of the world has more than doubled, while calories consumed/person have increased 24%. The UN does not keep official death-by-hunger statistics so it is hard to measure whether the "hundreds of millions of deaths" number is correct. Ehrlich himself suggested in 2009 that between 200-300 million had died of hunger since 1968. However, that is measured over 40 years rather than the ten to twenty foreseen in the book, so it can be seen as significantly fewer than predicted.[20]

Famine has not been eliminated, but its root cause has been political instability, not global food shortage.[21] The Indian economist and Nobel Prize winner, Amartya Sen, has argued that nations with democracy and a free press have virtually never suffered from extended famines.[22] And while a 2010 UN report stated that 925 million of the world's population of nearly seven billion people were in a constant state of hunger,[23] it also notes that the percentage of the world's population who qualify as "undernourished" has fallen by more than half, from 33 percent to about 16 percent, since Ehrlich published The Population Bomb.[24]

Ehrlich writes: "I don't see how India could possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980."[6] This view was widely held at the time, as another statement of his, later in the book: "I have yet to meet anyone familiar with the situation who thinks that India will be self-sufficient in food by 1971." In the book's 1971 edition, the latter prediction was removed, as the food situation in India suddenly improved (see Green Revolution in India).

As of 2010, India had almost 1.2 billion people, having nearly tripled its population from around 400 million in 1960, with a total fertility rate in 2008 of 2.6.[25] While the absolute numbers of malnourished children in India is high,[26] the rates of malnutrition and poverty in India have declined from approximately 90% at the time of India's independence (1947), to less than 40% in 2010 (see Malnutrition in India) . Ehrlich's prediction about famines did not come to pass, although food security is still an issue in India. However, most epidemiologists, public health physicians and demographers identify corruption as the chief cause of malnutrition, not "overpopulation".[27] As Nobel Prize''winning economist Amartya Sen noted, India frequently had famines during British colonial rule. However, since India became a democracy, there have been no recorded famines.[28]

Journalist Dan Gardner has criticized Ehrlich both for his overconfident predictions and his refusal to acknowledge his errors. "In two lengthy interviews, Ehrlich admitted making not a single major error in the popular works he published in the late 1960s and early 1970s '... the only flat-out mistake Ehrlich acknowledges is missing the destruction of the rain forests, which happens to be a point that supports and strengthens his world view'--and is therefore, in cognitive dissonance terms, not a mistake at all. Beyond that, he was by his account, off a little here and there, but only because the information he got from others was wrong. Basically, he was right across the board."[29]

Jonathan Last called it "one of the most spectacularly foolish books ever published".[30]

Persistence of trends [ edit ] Economist Julian Simon and medical statistician Hans Rosling pointed out that the failed prediction of 70s famines were based exclusively on the assumption that exponential population growth will continue indefinitely and no technological or social progress will be made.[31][32] In The Ultimate Resource Simon argued that resources, such as metals, which Ehrlichs extensively discuss in their books as examples of non-sustainable resources, are valued exclusively for the function they provide, and technological progress frequently replaces these: for example, copper was largely replaced by fiber optic in communications, and carbon fiber replaced a wide range of alloys and steel in construction (see Simon-Ehrlich wager and The Ultimate Resource) .[33] Simon also argued that technological progress tends to happen in large steps rather than linear growth, as happened with the Green revolution.[34]Hans Rosling in Factfulness demonstrated that fertility rate has significantly decreased worldwide and, more importantly, high fertility is a natural response to high mortality in low-income countries and once they enter higher income group, fertility drops quickly (see Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World '' and Why Things Are Better Than You Think) . According to environmentalist Stewart Brand, himself a student and friend of Ehrlich, the assumption made by the latter and by authors of The Limits to Growth has been "proven wrong since 1963" when the demographic trends worldwide have visibly changed.[35]

Showmanship [ edit ] One frequent criticism of The Population Bomb is that it focused on spectacle and exaggeration at the expense of accuracy. Pierre Desrochers and Christine Hoffbauer remark that "at the time of writing The Population Bomb, Paul and Anne Ehrlich should have been more cautious and revised their tone and rhetoric, in light of the undeniable and already apparent errors and shortcomings of Osborn and Vogt's analyses."[3] Charles Rubin has written that it was precisely because Ehrlich was largely unoriginal and wrote in a clear emotionally gripping style that it became so popular. He quotes a review from Natural History noting that Ehrlich does not try to "convince intellectually by mind dulling statistics," but rather roars "like an Old Testament Prophet."[36] Gardner says, "as much as the events and culture of the era, Paul Ehrlich's style explain the enormous audience he attracted." Indeed, an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson helped to propel the success of the book, as well as Ehrlich's celebrity.[37] Desrochers and Hoffbauer go on to conclude that it seems hard to deny that using an alarmist tone and emotional appeal were the main lessons that the present generation of environmentalists learned from Ehrlich's success.

Social and political coercion [ edit ] On the political left the book received criticism that it was focusing on "the wrong problem", and that the real issue was one of distribution of resources rather than of overpopulation.[2] Marxists worried that Ehrlich's work could be used to justify genocide and imperial control, as well as oppression of minorities and disadvantaged groups or even a return to eugenics.[38]

Eco-socialist Barry Commoner argued that the Ehrlichs were too focused on overpopulation as the source of environmental problems, and that their proposed solutions were politically unacceptable because of the coercion that they implied, and because the cost would fall disproportionately on the poor. He argued that technological, and above all social development would lead to a natural decrease in both population growth and environmental damage.[39][40] Commoner engaged in a fierce debate with Ehrlich at an environmental United Nations convention in Stockholm:

A feud about how to deal with overpopulation surfaced in Stockholm, between Ehrlich and his nemesis, Barry Commoner, whose popular book, The Closing Circle (1971), directly criticized Ehrlich's population-bomb thesis. Both were on panels in Stockholm, with Commoner slyly planting invidious questions aimed at Ehrlich among various Third World participants in the conference, and Ehrlich yelling back. Commoner's argument was that population policies weren't needed, because what was called ''the demographic transition'' would take care of everything'--all you had to do was help poor people get less poor, and they would have fewer children. Ehrlich insisted that the situation was way too serious for that approach, and it wouldn't work anyway: You needed harsh government programs to drive down the birthrate. The alternative was overwhelming famines and massive damage to the environment.

Ehrlich's response [ edit ] In a 2004 Grist Magazine interview,[41] Ehrlich acknowledged some specific predictions he had made, in the years around the time The Population Bomb was published, that had not come to pass. However, as to a number of his fundamental ideas and assertions he maintained that facts and science proved them correct.

In answer to the question: "Were your predictions in The Population Bomb right?", Ehrlich responded:

Anne and I have always followed UN population projections as modified by the Population Reference Bureau -- so we never made "predictions," even though idiots think we have. When I wrote The Population Bomb in 1968, there were 3.5 billion people. Since then we've added another 2.8 billion -- many more than the total population (2 billion) when I was born in 1932. If that's not a population explosion, what is? My basic claims (and those of the many scientific colleagues who reviewed my work) were that population growth was a major problem. Fifty-eight academies of science said that same thing in 1994, as did the world scientists' warning to humanity in the same year. My view has become depressingly mainline!

In another retrospective article published in 2009, Ehrlich said, in response to criticism that many of his predictions had not come to pass:[2]

the biggest tactical error in The Bomb was the use of scenarios, stories designed to help one think about the future. Although we clearly stated that they were not predictions and that ''we can be sure that none of them will come true as stated,' (p. 72)'--their failure to occur is often cited as a failure of prediction. In honesty, the scenarios were way off, especially in their timing (we underestimated the resilience of the world system). But they did deal with future issues that people in 1968 should have been thinking about '' famines, plagues, water shortages, armed international interventions by the United States, and nuclear winter (e.g., Ehrlich et al. 1983, Toon et al. 2007)'--all events that have occurred or now still threaten

In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Ehrlich, while still proud of The Population Bomb for starting a worldwide debate on the issues of population, acknowledged weaknesses of the book including not placing enough emphasis on overconsumption and inequality, and countering accusations of racism. He argues "too many rich people in the world is a major threat to the human future, and cultural and genetic diversity are great human resources." He advocated for an "unprecedented redistribution of wealth" in order to mitigate the problem of overconsumption of resources by the world's wealthy, but said "the rich who now run the global system '-- that hold the annual 'world destroyer' meetings in Davos '-- are unlikely to let it happen."[42]

See also [ edit ] Club of RomeSimon''Ehrlich wagerThe BlipZ.P.G.References [ edit ] ^ "Paul R. Ehrlich - Center for Conservation Biology". Stanford University. ^ a b c d e f g Paul R. Ehrlich; Anne H. Ehrlich (2009). "The Population Bomb Revisited" (PDF) . Electronic Journal of Sustainable Development. 1 (3): 63''71 . Retrieved 2010-02-01 . ^ a b c d Pierre Desrochers; Christine Hoffbauer (2009). "The Post War Intellectual Roots of the Population Bomb" (PDF) . The Electronic Journal of Sustainable Development. 1 (3): 73''97 . Retrieved 2010-02-01 . ^ The phrase "population bomb", was already in use. For example, see this article. Quality Analysis and Quality Control, Canadian Medical Association Journal, June 9, 1962, vol. 86, p. 1074 ^ Ehrlich, Paul. "The population bomb" (PDF) . project avalon.net. ^ a b Ehrlich, Paul R. (1968). The Population Bomb . Ballantine Books. ^ Ehrlich, Paul R. (1968). The Population Bomb . Ballantine Books. p. 131. ^ Ehrlich, Paul R. (1968). The Population Bomb . Ballantine Books. p. 135. ^ Ehrlich, Paul R. (1968). The Population Bomb . Ballantine Books. p. 136. Those of you who are appalled at such a suggestion can rest easy. The option isn't even open to us, thanks to the criminal inadequacy of biomedical research in this area. If the choice now is either such additives or catastrophe, we shall have catastrophe. It might be possible to develop such population control tools, although the task would not be simple.... Technical problems aside, I suspect you'll agree with me that society would probably dissolve before sterilants were added to the water supply by the government. Just consider the fluoridation controversy. Some other way will have to be found. ^ Ehrlich, Paul R. (1968). The Population Bomb . Ballantine Books. p. 138. ^ Ehrlich, Paul R. (1968). The Population Bomb . Ballantine Books. p. 161. ^ Ehrlich, Paul R. (1968). The Population Bomb . Ballantine Books. pp. 165''66. When he [Indian Minister Sripati Chandrasekhar] suggested sterilizing all Indian males with three or more children, we should have applied pressure on the Indian government to go ahead with the plan. We should have volunteered logistic support in the form of helicopters, vehicles, and surgical instruments. We should have sent doctors to aid in the program by setting up centers for training para-medical personnel to do vasectomies. Coercion? Perhaps, but coercion in a good cause. I am sometimes astounded at the attitudes of Americans who are horrified at the prospect of our government insisting on population control as the price of food aid. All too often the very same people are fully in support of applying military force against those who disagree with our form of government or our foreign policy. We must be relentless in pushing for population control around the world. ^ Ehrlich, Paul R. (1968). The Population Bomb . Ballantine Books. p. 198. ^ "World Population by Year". Worldometers . Retrieved 27 December 2018 . ^ Luten, DB 1986."The Limits-to-Growth Controversy" InTR Vale (ed.). Progress against Growth. Daniel B. Lutenon the American Landscape. New York: The Guilford Press, pp. 293''314. [Originally published in K. A. Hammond, G. Macinko and W. Fairchild (eds.) (1978). Sourcebook on the Environment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 163''180. ^ Dan Gardner (2010). Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail '' and Why We Believe Them Anyway. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. pp. 247''48. William and Paul Paddock, authors of Famine 1975!, advocated a policy they called "triage": Rich nations should send all their food aid to those poor countries that still had some hope of one day feeding themselves; hopeless countries like India and Egypt should be cut off immediately.... The Paddocks knew countries that lost the aid would plunge into famine... In The Population Bomb, Paul Ehrlich lavishly praised Famine 1975! ... and declared that "there is no rational choice except to adopt some form of the Paddocks' strategy as far as food distribution is concerned." Even in 1968 it should have been clear that this was glib nonsense. ^ Dan Gardner (2010). Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail '' and Why We Believe Them Anyway. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. pp. 130''31. In 1974, at a World Food Congress in Rome, delegates listened somberly to dire forecasts by the likes of Philip Handler, a nutritionist and president of the United States National Academy of Sciences, who concluded that the worst pessimists - the Paddocks and Paul Ehrlich = had been on the mark. ^ Dan Gardner (2010). Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail '' and Why We Believe Them Anyway. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. ^ "The Population Bomb?". Retro Report. 1 June 2015 . Retrieved 15 July 2015 . ^ Dan Gardner (2010). Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail '' and Why We Believe Them Anyway. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. pp. 7''8, 229''31. ^ "Food Security and Nutrition in the Last 50 Years", FAO Corporate Document Repository, publication date unavailable. ^ Massing, Michael (1 March 2003). "Does Democracy Avert Famine?". The New York Times . Retrieved 28 December 2010 . ^ "Hunger Stats" . Retrieved 28 December 2010 . ^ "Proportion of undernourished people in developing countries, 1969''71 to 2010" (PDF) . Retrieved 5 March 2011 . ^ "Total Fertility Rate in India on decline". 10 December 2010. ^ Sengupta, Somini (13 March 2009). "As Indian Growth Soars, Child Hunger Persists". The New York Times. ^ Sengupta, Somini (13 March 2009). "As Indian Growth Soars, Child Hunger Persists". The New York Times. ^ Sachs, Jeffrey (26 October 1998). "The Real Causes of Famine". Time. Archived from the original on February 16, 2007. ^ Dan Gardner (2010). Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail '' and Why We Believe Them Anyway. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. p. 230. ^ Last JV (2013) What to expect when no one's expecting, Encounter Books, New York, pp 7. ^ "Famine 1995? Or 2025? Or 1975?". ^ "Do Humans Breed Like Flies? Or Like Norwegian Rats?". ^ "The Amazing Theory of Raw-Material Scarcity". ^ "The Ultimate Resource II: People, Materials, and Environment". www.juliansimon.com . Retrieved 2020-05-17 . ^ Brand, Stewart (2010). Whole Earth Discipline. ISBN 978-1843548164. The theory's Malthusian premise has been proven wrong since 1963, when the rate of population growth reached a frightening 2 percent a year but then began dropping. The 1963 inflection point showed that the imagined soaring J-curve of human increase was instead a normal S-curve. The growth rate was leveling off. No one thought the growth rate might go negative and the population start shrinking in this century without an overshoot and crash, but that is what is happening. ^ Charles T. Rubin (1994). The green crusade:rethinking the roots of environmentalism. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield. p. 79. ISBN 9780847688173. ^ Dan Gardner (2010). Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail '' and Why We Believe Them Anyway. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. p. 164. ^ See for example: Ronald L. Meek, ed. (1973). Marx and Engels on the Population Bomb. The Ramparts Press. Archived from the original on 2000-05-21. ^ Barry Commoner (May 1972). "A Bulletin Dialogue: on "The Closing Circle" - Response". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: 17''56. Population control (as distinct from voluntary, self-initiated control of fertility), no matter how disguised, involves some measure of political repression, and would burden the poor nations with the social cost of a situation'--overpopulation'--which is the current outcome of their previous exploitation, as colonies, by the wealthy nations. ^ Brand, Stewart (2010). Whole Earth Discipline. ISBN 978-1843548164. I was for Ehrlich and against the ecosocialist Commoner. But Ehrlich's predicted famines never came, thanks largely to the green revolution in agriculture, nor did the need for harsh government programs. Instead, Commoner's thesis of demographic transition turned out to be mostly right. ^ Paul Ehrlich, famed ecologist, answers readers' questions, August 13, 2004, Grist ^ Carrington, Damian (March 22, 2018). "Paul Ehrlich: 'Collapse of civilisation is a near certainty within decades' ". The Guardian . Retrieved April 4, 2018 . Further reading [ edit ] Robertson, Thomas (2012). The Malthusian Moment: Global Population Growth and the Birth of American Environmentalism. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-5272-9External links [ edit ] Dr. Albert Bartlett, 2004 lecture, "Arithmetic, Population and Energy""The Global Food Crisis", June 2009 article, National Geographic MagazineThe Population Bomb (working title), Documentary Film

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May 9, 2022 at 1:20 AM (PT) Lewis

"THE AUDACITY TO PODCAST" host and INTERNATIONAL PODCAST DAY co-founder DANIEL J. LEWIS has departed the Board of Directors of THE PODCAST ACADEMY after he tweeted comments supporting the leaked SUPREME COURT opinion on abortion. LEWIS, in a since-deleted tweet responding to a tweet by POD.DRALAND's ALEXANDRA COHL criticizing Justice SAMUEL ALITO's opinion, wrote, "Stopping the mass murder of blacks and women, along with all the other babies, will be wonderful for the USA. How anyone could be so barbaric to endorse the murder of nearly 1 million babies every year is unbelievable." LEWIS' comments and previous tweets on other topics drew a backlash from several podcasters on social media and led to his departure from the board, to which he was recently elected.

A statement from the organization read, "The value of inclusivity is always at the forefront at THE PODCAST ACADEMY. We take matters seriously when a leader within our organization creates an environment where the community questions their commitment to that value. After thoughtful discussion -- that included the newly elected governor in question -- effective immediately DANIEL J. LEWIS no longer serves on the Board of Governors."

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 14, 2022 / 10:26 am

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas has said he is ''sad'' over the way Pope Francis has handled the controversy surrounding the pro-abortion actions of President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose positions on the issue are at sharp odds with the teaching of their Catholic faith on the sanctity of human life.

Naumann's comment was one of several pointed statements he made on the controversy in an interview with the German newspaper Die Tagespost published Wednesday.

''I think the pope doesn't understand the U.S., just as he doesn't understand the Church in the U.S.,'' the archbishop told the newspaper, according to CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner.

"His advisers and the people surrounding him have completely misinformed him on this," Naumann added.

In an interview with CNA on Thursday, Naumann stood by his comments to the newspaper, saying, ''I said what I said.''

However, Naumann clarified that he spoke to the German news outlet prior to becoming aware of Pope Francis' most recent comments regarding Biden, in which the pope referred to the U.S. president's pro-abortion position as an ''incoherence'' in respect to his Catholic faith.

In the interview with Univisi"n and Televisa broadcast July 12, the pope said he leaves the matter to Biden's ''conscience,'' but he also suggested that Biden discuss the conflict with his pastor.

''I wasn't aware of that statement by the Holy Father and I do think that's helpful,'' Naumann told CNA. ''It's very helpful because I think that's exactly true, that his position is incoherent with Catholic teaching. So I'm grateful for that clarification by the Holy Father.''

In his comments to Tagespost, Naumann said, ''Of course we have to be pastoral'' when dealing with such matters.

"However, it is not pastoral to tell someone they are a good Catholic and can receive Communion as a matter of course, when that person has committed a grave evil,'' he continued. ''The fact that the pope received Pelosi was politically exploited. In doing so, Francis is doing exactly what he warns others not to do."

Though a Catholic, Biden has repeatedly supported abortion rights despite the Church's teaching that human life must be respected and protected from the moment of conception. After meeting with Pope Francis in October, Biden said the pope told him to "keep receiving Communion." The Vatican has not confirmed Biden's account.

Biden, the archbishop told the newspaper, "knows what is right in this regard. There is no excuse. He should not keep presenting himself as a devout Catholic."

Through his behavior, Naumann said, the president was showing the public, "I support legal abortions and I'm a devout Catholic at the same time, so you can, too." Naumann said it crosses the line when politicians "flaunt their Catholic faith and advocate such evil."

"President Biden claims to be a devout Catholic, but it's not really clear from his actions," Naumann continued.

"In my view, he is using the rosary and his Mass attendance to portray himself as a faithful Catholic. If you look at Joe Biden's career, you see that he followed the Democratic line, not the teachings of the Church."

Last week Biden signed an executive order aimed at protecting abortion access in response to the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion throughout the U.S. Responding to Biden's action, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, the chair of the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee, called the move ''deeply disturbing and tragic.''

In recent years the U.S. bishops have discussed and commented on the issue of ''Eucharistic coherence'' at length, especially in regard to Biden and other American Catholic politicians.

Those discussions led to the publication in November of a new document on the Eucharist, ''The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church,'' and the launch of a three-year Eucharistic revival initiative, culminating with a national Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July 2024.

While the Eucharist document does not mention Biden or any Catholic politicians by name, it does reiterate the bishops' prior guidance that Catholics who are not in communion with the Church's teaching should not present themselves for Communion.

AC Wimmer is Editor-in-Chief of CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner.

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Sat, 16 Jul 2022 17:13

Unconstitutional Texas law banning the sale of sex toys

The Texas obscenity statute is statute prohibiting the sale of sex toys in Texas. The law was introduced in 1973, and was last updated in 2003. While the law was never formally repealed, in 2008 a U.S. District Judge released a report declaring it to be "facially unconstitutional and unenforceable".

History [ edit ] In 1973, the Texas Legislature passed Section 43.21 of the Texas Penal Code, which, in part, prohibited the sale or promotion of "obscene devices". The statute defines "obscene device" as "a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs". The legislation was last updated in 2003, and Section 43.23 currently states, "A person commits an offense if, knowing its content and character, he wholesale promotes or possesses with intent to wholesale promote any obscene material or obscene device".[1] Section (h) of the law also criminalizes the possession of six or more devices (or "multiple identical or similar" devices) as "presumed to possess them with intent to promote".[1]

Prosecuted cases [ edit ] Prosecution under the statute is rare but has occasionally occurred. In 2001, attorneys Mary and Ted Roberts used the obscenity statute in an elaborate extortion scheme against a number of men who had engaged in extramarital relations with Mary Roberts.[2] In Burleson in 2004, Joanne Webb faced up to one year in prison for selling a vibrator to two undercover police officers posing as a married couple at a private party.[3] She was later acquitted, and the undercover officers were issued reprimands. In 2007, a lingerie shop in Lubbock was raided, and items "deemed to be illegal by the Texas Penal Code" were confiscated. The clerk on duty at the time was arrested, but charges were later dropped.[4][5]

Appeals [ edit ] Reliable Consultants, Inc., who operate four retail stores in Texas that carry a stock of sexual devices, and PHE, Inc., which is also engaged in the retail distribution of sexual devices through their website and catalogs, both filed lawsuits against the legislation,[when? ] claiming that the statute is unconstitutional. In an appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned the statute on February 12, 2008, by a vote of 2''1, holding that "the statute has provisions that violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution".[6] The State of Texas filed a petition on February 22, 2008, for the Circuit Court to rehear the argument en banc.[7]

On July 3, 2008, Texas's 13th Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi[8] in the case of Villareal vs. State,[9] addressed the ruling of the federal Court of Appeals. The 13th Court of Appeals ruled that until the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules that Section 43.23 is unconstitutional, the promotion of obscene devices remains illegal.[10] Therefore, despite the actions of the federal courts and the Texas Attorney General described elsewhere in this article, Section 43.23 remains in effect in the twenty-county area of Texas within the jurisdiction of the 13th Court of Appeals.[11]

On August 1, 2008, the Fifth Circuit denied Texas's request to re-hear the case en banc.[12] The refusal created a split between federal circuits: the 5th Circuit overturned the Texas law and the 11th Circuit upheld the nearly identical Anti-Obscenity Enforcement Act in Alabama. The presence of a "circuit split" is one of the factors that increases the likelihood of the Supreme Court of the United States granting a writ of certiorari and ruling in order to clear up the disagreement between the two Courts of Appeals.[13]

On November 4, 2008, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel released a two-page document dated October 29, 2008, in which he stated that the Texas Attorney General's Office notified him that they would not file a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court. The next month, on November 13, Yeakel filed a "joint status report" that noted the parties had come to an agreement. "Texas Penal Code §§ 43.23, to the extent that it applies to'obscene devices' as defined in Texas Penal Code § 43.21(a)(7), is declared to be facially unconstitutional and unenforceable throughout the State of Texas".[14]

See also [ edit ] Anti-Obscenity Enforcement Act (Alabama statute)References [ edit ] ^ a b "Penal Code Chapter 43. Public Idecency". Statutes.legis.state.tx.us. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012 . Retrieved July 15, 2017 . ^ "There's something about Mary1 '...". Texas District & County Attorneys Association. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012 . Retrieved July 15, 2017 . ^ "Texas mom faces trial for selling sex toys". CNN. February 11, 2004. Archived from the original on January 10, 2013 . Retrieved July 15, 2017 . ^ "Police Raid Lingerie Shop". klbk13.tv. May 21, 2007. Archived from the original on May 25, 2007 . Retrieved May 21, 2007 . ^ "Lubbock District Attorney Drops Charges Against Lingerie Store". July 16, 2007. Archived from the original on December 10, 2021 . Retrieved July 15, 2022 . ^ "PHE v. State of Texas, Intervenor-Defendant-Appellee". FindLaw. Archived from the original on July 15, 2017 . Retrieved July 15, 2017 . ^ Reliable Consultants, Inc v. Ronnie Earle, 06-51067 & 06-51104 (5th Cir. February 22, 2008). ^ Texas Office of Court Administration. "Welcome to the official site of the Thirteenth Court of Appeals of Texas". 13thcoa.courts.state.tx.us . Retrieved 2013-09-01 . ^ "Texas Judiciary Online - HTML Opinion". 13thcoa.courts.state.tx.us . Retrieved 2013-09-01 . ^ Guest, Robert (October 6, 2008). "Are Dildos Illegal in Texas (again)?". Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012 . Retrieved July 15, 2017 . ^ "Dildos & Sexually Obscene "Toys" Illegal in Texas '... for now | Austin Attorney Dax Garvin". Dax Legal. January 31, 2012. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012 . Retrieved July 15, 2017 . ^ "United States Court of Appeals" (PDF) . Ca5.uscourts.gov . Retrieved 2013-09-01 . ^ Brayton, Ed (August 11, 2008). "Dildos at the Supreme Court?". ScienceBlogs. Archived from the original on October 18, 2008 . Retrieved August 11, 2008 . ^ "2008-11-13 Texas Western Court Order Obscenity Law | PDF | Attorney's Fee | Judgment (Law)". External links [ edit ] Austin Chronicle articlePDF Version of Circuit Court Opinion (Rev Mar 10, 2008)

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Sat, 16 Jul 2022 16:14

Decrease in genetic traits deemed desirable

Dysgenics (also known as cacogenics) is the decrease in prevalence of traits deemed to be either socially desirable or well adapted to their environment due to selective pressure disfavoring the reproduction of those traits.[1]

The adjective "dysgenic" is the antonym of "eugenic". In 1915 the term was used by David Starr Jordan to describe the supposed deleterious effects of modern warfare on group-level genetic fitness because of its tendency to kill physically healthy men while preserving the disabled at home.[2][3] Similar concerns had been raised by early eugenicists and social Darwinists during the 19th century, and continued to play a role in scientific and public policy debates throughout the 20th century.[4] More recent concerns about supposed dysgenic effects in human populations have been advanced by the controversial psychologist Richard Lynn, notably in his 1996 book Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations, which argued that a reduction in selection pressures and decreased infant mortality since the Industrial Revolution have resulted in an increased propagation of deleterious traits and genetic disorders.[5] In popular culture, concerns about dysgenics have also formed the basis for speculative fiction, notably the 2006 film Idiocracy.

Despite these concerns, genetic studies have shown no evidence for dysgenic effects in human populations.[6][7][8][9]

In fiction [ edit ] Cyril M. Kornbluth's 1951 short story "The Marching Morons" is an example of dysgenic fiction, describing a man who accidentally ends up in the distant future and discovers that dysgenics has resulted in mass stupidity. Mike Judge's 2006 film Idiocracy has the same premise, with the main character the subject of a military hibernation experiment that goes awry, taking him 500 years into the future. While in "The Marching Morons", civilization is kept afloat by a small group of dedicated geniuses, in Idiocracy, voluntary childlessness among high-IQ couples leaves only automated systems to fill that role in[10]

See also [ edit ] Devolution (biology)Flynn effectHeritability of IQList of congenital disordersList of biological development disordersNotes [ edit ] ^ R(C)dei, George P. (2008). Encyclopedia of Genetics, Genomics, Proteomics, and Informatics, Volume 1. Springer. p. 572. ISBN 978-1-4020-6755-6. ^ Jordan, David Starr (2003). War and the Breed: The Relation of War to the Downfall of Nations (Reprint ed.). Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 978-1-4102-0900-9. ^ Carlson, Elof Axel (2001). The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. pp. 189''193. ISBN 9780879695873. ^ Carlson, Elof Axel (2001). The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. ISBN 9780879695873. ^ Richard Lynn: Dysgenics: genetic deterioration in modern populations Westport, Connecticut. : Praeger, 1996., ISBN 978-0-275-94917-4. ^ Fischbach, Karl-Friedrich; Niggeschmidt, Martin (2022). "Do the Dumb Get Dumber and the Smart Get Smarter?". Heritability of Intelligence. Springer. pp. 37''39. doi:10.1007/978-3-658-35321-6_9. ISBN 978-3-658-35321-6. S2CID 244640696. Since the nineteenth century, a 'race deterioration' has been repeatedly predicted as a result of the excessive multiplication of less gifted people (Galton 1869; see also Fig. 9.1). Nevertheless, the educational and qualification level of people in the industrialized countries has risen strongly. The fact that the 'test intelligence' has also significantly increased (Flynn 2013), is difficult to explain for supporters of the dysgenic thesis: they suspect that the 'phenotypic intelligence' has increased for environmental reasons, while the 'genotypic quality' secretly decreases (Lynn 1996, p. 111). There is neither evidence nor proof for this theory. ^ Conley, Dalton; Laidley, Thomas; Belsky, Daniel W.; Fletcher, Jason M.; Boardman, Jason D.; Domingue, Benjamin W. (14 June 2016). "Assortative mating and differential fertility by phenotype and genotype across the 20th century". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113:24 (24): 6647''6652. doi:10.1073/pnas.1523592113 . PMC 4914190 . PMID 27247411. ^ Bratsberg, Bernt; Rogeberg, Ole (26 June 2018). "Flynn effect and its reversal are both environmentally caused". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115:26 (26): 6674''6678. doi:10.1073/pnas.1718793115 . PMC 6042097 . PMID 29891660. ^ Neisser, Ulric (1998). The Rising Curve: Long-Term Gains in IQ and Related Measures. American Psychological Association. pp. xiii''xiv. ISBN 978-1557985033. There is no convincing evidence that any dysgenic trend exists. . . . It turns out, counterintuitively, that differential birth rates (for groups scoring high and low on a trait) do not necessarily produces changes in the population mean. ^ Mitchell, Dan (2006-09-09). "Shying away from Degeneracy". The New York Times . Retrieved 2008-06-29 . Further reading [ edit ] Devlin, Bernie; Fienberg, Stephen E.; Resnick, Daniel P.; et al., eds. (1997). Intelligence, Genes, and Success: Scientists Respond to the Bell Curve . New York: Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-94986-4. Neisser, Ulric, ed. (1998). The Rising Curve: Long-Term Gains in IQ and Related Measures . APA Science Volume Series. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN 978-1-55798-503-3. Beauchamp, Jonathan P. (11 July 2016). "Genetic evidence for natural selection in humans in the contemporary United States". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113 (28): 7774''7779. doi:10.1073/pnas.1600398113 . PMC 4948342 . PMID 27402742. Barban et al. 2016, "Genome-wide analysis identifies 12 loci influencing human reproductive behavior"

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:58

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:56

NATO : Russia continues to spread many false myths about #NATO. So let us set the record straight https://t.co/dsysMtaWLQ

Wed Jul 13 12:19:00 +0000 2022

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:39

Geert Vanden Bossche, Covid Mass Vaccination Triggering New Pandemics and Epidemics

In his first interview with The New American, renowned scientist Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche described why mass vaccination with non-sterilizing (''leaky'') vaccines could not lead to herd immunity, and why he expected the Covid infection and disease to aggravate in the vaccinated individuals.

The New American is proud to become the first media to speak with Dr. Vanden Bossche about his latest research dedicated to the issue of Covid mass vaccination initiating a chain reaction of new pandemics and epidemics with a potentially catastrophic impact on global health. In addition to that, the doctor explained how the constant Covid reinfections trigger relapse or metastasis of certain cancers in vaccinated people.

If the antiviral treatments are not made massively available to the vaccinated people, the highly vaccinated countries will likely experience a tsunami of hospitalizations and deaths among the vaccinated, especially the elderly and those vaccinated early on, said Dr. Vanden Bossche.

The doctor pleaded with the parents NOT to vaccinate their children against Covid. The vaccination would irreparably damage their innate immune system and leave them vulnerable to infection and re-infection by Covid and a range of other deadly pathogens. That would result in a massive loss of children's lives.

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:36

Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis : Testing the new Twitter:''Triple vaxxed are the most likely to die from COVID-19'' https://t.co/uiI8lmosg7

Tue Apr 26 02:09:54 +0000 2022

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Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:32

A Toronto-area casket manufacturer has seen a dramatic rise in orders for smaller-sized coffins since the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. Children are dying.

Ultimately, everything in life comes down to death.

We are raised to believe that there's a time for living and a time for dying. The time for dying comes with illness, accidents, and old age. Except it doesn't anymore.

In an exclusive interview with RAIR Foundation USA, Mick Haddock, a manufacturer of caskets in northern Toronto, says things have changed markedly in the industry in the last nine months. ''Small people are passing away,'' he says. ''It's noticeable in our industry. For the first time in over 30 years, we are receiving bulk orders for smaller-sized caskets.''

Typically, the casket industry remains pretty stable, and an unusually big casket order usually indicates a traumatic event, but recent sales indicate that this has changed. ''Not only are all sales up, but in the past, for every five full-sized caskets we sold, we sold one youth size. Now, for every five, it's two youth sized.''

According to Haddock, he and his colleagues in the industry thought they would see an uptick in 2020 when we were being told that covid was lethal and killing people indiscriminately, in their many thousands. But that didn't happen. ''It wasn't until the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 that we saw sales increase. We didn't see any increase in sales before vaccines were introduced, and people started traveling again,'' says Haddock. ''And I don't want to blame it on the travel that's been killing everybody because, in truth, most of these places around the world are still light on what travelers can do. Even accidental deaths are still limited.''

In fact, in 2020, Haddock saw a 60 percent drop in sales. ''It was only once the vaccines were pushed to younger and younger demographics that we started seeing the uptick,'' he says. ''It was just senior citizens and the very frail at first. Within two months of the approval of the vaccine for the 11- to 15-year-olds, we noticed more demand for smaller units.''

Overall sales have increased by 30 and 40 percent compared to 2019. ''It's staggering how much more there is,'' says Haddock. ''It started to climb by mid-2021; by 2022, growth was measurable.''

Haddock's experience mirrors that of British funeral director John O'Looney of Milton Keynes Family Funeral Services, who went public in September 2021 to explain a similar pattern of death. O'Looney remarked that there was no surge in deaths during the initial covid wave, and if anything, fewer deaths. But after the vaccine was introduced in January 2021, O'Looney said that calls soared, going up 300 percent. ''I've never seen a death rate like it in 15 years,'' he said. ''Initially, [the deaths were] all exclusively care homes,'' O'Looney said. But after the rollout of the mRNA injection, the deaths were no longer exclusively from nursing homes, and the ages of the dead varied significantly.

O'Looney described a woman in her fifties, fit, a runner, and without health issues, who was given a booster and died of liver failure the following week. Haddock confirms that this measurable increase has all happened in Canada in the last six to seven months, ''(Initially) it wasn't at the rate it is now, but by the time we hit the round of boosters was when we started noticing multiple calls a week from the same (casket) distributors. All casket sales are dramatically up,'' he says. It's just that youth-sized sales are up more than any other category.

While Haddock and his colleagues have seen the greatest increase in sales in the mid-sized category, ''everyone is at risk with these vaccines,'' he says. ''It's hard to deny. What can it be blamed on? What has changed? Why is the death rate exceeding that of before the vaccines?'' he ponders.

Children aged six to 12 are robust human beings. ''Now, these are the sizes we are selling,'' says Haddock. ''Children don't just die. It doesn't happen. Never in history.''

Miranda SellickMiranda Sellick has been a journalist for more than 25 years. She has worked for newspapers in the U.K. and Canada and is the author of two books. She was aware that the covid play was not what it appeared to be very soon after it was unleashed on the world.

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Jul. 15, 2022 - 03:09 - Fox News contributor discusses the concerned opinions of health care providers and rebuilding trust in the medical world on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

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