Of course there’s a measure of beast’s blood in anyone who aspires to maintain a place in the world, anyone who lacks that ultimate decency to remove themselves from the herd either by violence to themselves or total capitulation to their dread. It’s simply a matter of degree.

- Thomas Ligotti in My Work Is Not Yet Done

That about sums it up, don’t you think?

Leave it to Canadian reporting to sum up the entirety of an exasperating issue fraught with futile appeals to logic in a single expository sentence:

In 1976, then U.S. president Gerald Ford ordered a national vaccination campaign in response to an outbreak of swine flu at a military base in New Jersey. In the end, only one person died from swine flu, while roughly 25 people died from a rare neurological syndrome believed to have been a side-effect of the vaccine. The program, now considered a case study in how not to handle a flu outbreak, cost roughly $500 million US in today’s dollars.

- Virus raises tough vaccination questions
Canada.com

So… where did the money go? Cui bono?

It’s that time again – time to shell out for a Swine Flu shot – because:

• You don’t want to die
• You don’t want to kill your family
• You really like lining the pockets of your friendly neighborhood multinational pharmaceutical corporation

US data on influenza deaths are false and misleading. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledges a difference between flu death and flu associated death yet uses the terms interchangeably. Additionally, there are significant statistical incompatibilities between official estimates and national vital statistics data. Compounding these problems is a marketing of fear—a CDC communications strategy in which medical experts “predict dire outcomes” during flu seasons.

… [The CDC states] that influenza is causing severe illness and/or affecting lots of people, helping foster the perception that many people are susceptible to a bad case of influenza.” Preceding the summit, demand [for influenza vaccine] had been low early into the 2003 flu season.

“At that point, the manufacturers were telling us that they weren’t receiving a lot of orders for vaccine for use in November or even December,” recalled Dr Nowak on National Public Radio.

“It really did look like we needed to do something to encourage people to get a flu shot.” If flu is in fact not a major cause of death, this public relations approach is surely exaggerated. Moreover, by arbitrarily linking flu with pneumonia, current data are statistically biased. Until corrected and until unbiased statistics are developed, the chances for sound discussion and public health policy are limited.

- Are US flu death figures more PR than science?
by Peter Doshi

Wait, maybe that Thimerosal (“mercury-containing organic compound”)-bolstered dose of virus you paid $20 to get injected into your arm a few months ago will protect you? Nope.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly doubts that this year’s flu vaccine will offer people any protection from the swine flu. “We don’t think that any of the existing vaccines are effective,” acting CDC Director Richard Besser said yesterday at a press conference.

- Will Your Flu Shot Protect You Against Swine Flu?
by Jon Cohen for ScienceNOW Daily News

The practice of implying or threatening harm should one’s demands go unmet is also known as extortion – in this case the vaccine’s manufacturer is aided and abetted by both media and government bagmen.

Could public relations be a euphemism for extortion?

… what of public health?

Alex Trochut is an impressive artist – but don’t take my word for it… go to his site and drool over the exceedingly-slick typographical arrangements for yourself.

Organized stacks of paper which have accumulated over the last five months, sipping from a fifth of whiskey left over from the metal show and wandering recidivist neighborhoods last night. (What were those undercovers doing with walkie-talkies, redirecting foot traffic? Is that how it goes down?)

Still have to face Monday at work, still have to finish putting things in order, still have to get to      ‘s studio and do some recording… (Will there be any whiskey left?)

What was that about my lists and lifestyle? Ah, quotidian, right – pedantic overseer that I am to myself, there is no helping it.

Don’t know where I’m going with this, don’t know that I care.

Update: (A few hours later…)

Bad flu epidemics can hit young adults hardest because they provoke their powerful immune systems into overreaction, so to stay healthy spend the next few weeks drunk and sleep-deprived to keep yours suppressed.

- XKCD

Check and double-check.

George Orwell’s Big Brother represents the totalitarian rule of the party: a figure of dubious veracity imbued with absolute authority and control whose omniscient watch over its subjects is permanent and unquestionable.

Surveillance underpins the efforts of any totalitarian state – the power of an authority is limited to the information upon which it may act, therefore comprehensive information collection must occur (or the illusion of comprehensive information collection must be fabricated) to quash the suggestion of rebellion and create actionable knowledge for the orchestration of continued control.

It is no secret that increased surveillance is a prerogative in government. The management of large populations is facilitated and, oftentimes, made convenient with the introduction of electronic eyes and database repositories for review and data mining.

William Orville Douglas, the longest-running Associate Justice to the United States Supreme Court, hinted at the present state of surveillance (and its future) in the United States with a cautionary advisement:

We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government.

- Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations #1529
Justice WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS, dissenting
Osborn v. United States, 385 U.S. 341 (1966).

Can freedom of speech, an underpinning of democracy itself, exist despite the chilling effect of surveillance?

What does it mean to be a citizen in a state which furtively aspires to Total Information Awareness?

How much time will pass before FBI spyware, facial recognition technology, biometric and vehicular tracking, social network / “Human Terrain Mapping” data mining, and other intrusive technologies are trained on private citizens?

What other measures may the government of the United States presently be developing (in the name of public health, prevention of terrorism, copyright enforcement, prosecution of illicit activity, et cetera) to eliminate privacy?

If invasive marketing spyware, the prying eyes of employers seeking information beyond résumé contents, medical and health information blackmail, and other abuses of privacy at the hands of individuals and private entities were not concern enough, what can a private citizen do to ensure that he or she does not experience the ultimate abuses of surveillance at the hands of government?

A Strategy To Protect Personal Privacy

1. Know Your Enemy – Familiarize yourself with the scope of electronic surveillance
2. Study Self-Defense – The Electronic Frontier Foundation has put together a comprehensive Surveillance Self Defense guide to offer privacy best-practices information to regular people (quite possibly those who need it most desperately at this point in time)
3. Follow Trends – Keep up with recent news in topics such as electronic surveillance, data mining, and privacy on the internet

… and watch your back, because you won’t be the only one …

Let’s vivisect a live specimen over at USAToday.com to get a feel for the anatomy of a news article…

Nearly one in 10 children and teens who play video games show behavioral signs that may indicate addiction, a new study reports.

The study found 8.5% of those who played had at least six of 11 addictive symptoms, including skipping chores and homework for video games, poor test or homework performance and playing games to escape problems. The research, which is published in the May issue of the journal Psychological Science, is based on a 2007 Harris poll of 1,179 U.S. youngsters, the first nationally representative poll on the subject.

…

Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health Science University, called the study “valuable” to the American Psychiatric Association’s decision on whether compulsive computer and Internet use should be considered a mental disorder.

Block, an APA adviser, warns that the study has weaknesses. The research should be replicated because it is supported by the National Institute for Media and the Family, which he likens to a lobbying group. And the survey could have found higher game use because it was collected in January as opposed to summer. It also classifies 8.5% as addicted without a physician interview: “The people they are claiming have a problem, it’s not entirely clear that they do have a problem.”

- Study: Video-game-playing kids showing addiction symptoms
by Mike Snider for USAToday.com

Artifacts of biased journalism:

1. Headline: Study: Video-game-playing kids showing addiction symptoms Plan: get the reader’s attention and then fail to follow through with anything substantiative. The presence of addiction is directly correlated to neurochemistry (something which was not tested in any fashion over the course of the “study”) and not the completion of questionnaire. The “discovery” of a new addiction should certainly require scientific rigor – otherwise carefully-crafted questionnaires could reveal the prevalence of food addiction, reading addiction, ellipsis addiction … et cetera
2. Introductory Line: Nearly one in 10 children and teens who play video games show behavioral signs that may indicate addiction, a new study reports. – Taken at face value, this must be quite an important study (should one read on, one shall find that it is little more than the typical public relations/manipulations propaganda one would expect from a group with an agenda)
3. Assertion: “valuable” to the American Psychiatric Association’s decision – An interesting assertion (contradicted, should one read on)
4. Retraction: Block, an APA adviser, warns that the study has weaknesses. The research should be replicated because it is supported by the National Institute for Media and the Family, which he likens to a lobbying group. – Perhaps this should have preceded the bit about the study being “valuable”?

What does the study have to say for itself?

I prefer the term pathological computer or video game use rather than computer, Internet, or video game addiction. Addiction is not a proper medical term, really, and the ultimate issue seems to be that the pattern of use is pathological – that is, it disrupts the ability to function socially, psychologically, occupationally, academically, or otherwise.

- Pathological video game use among youth 8 to 18
Dr. Douglas Gentile

And the title of the study’s news page? “Video Game ‘Addiction’” – that should clear things up a bit.

I would be interested to run a comprehension exit survey on a few hundred of this article’s readers (perhaps with a control group who had read nothing of the article and a second test group who had read only the headline) to determine what the take-away may have been… My hypothesis: the arrangement of shock-and-then-fact inures the casual reader to the shock (perhaps those are supporting facts?) and allows the development of incorrect viewpoints despite the presentation of contradictory evidence.

fundiemental

Multiple pronunciations: \fun-DEE-men-tal\, \fun-DIE-men-tal\, \fun-dee-MEN-tal\, \fun-DEE-mon-tal\, noun

Definition: Any follower of a religious sect who professes significant faith in the teachings of his or her religious sect but whose actions fail to coincide with the core doctrines of the religious sect and, often, the prevailing inclinations of human beings to avoid injury and prevarication. Not to be confused with a true believer

Origin: fundiemental comes from Pig Latin ypocriticalhay eligiousray ychologicalpsay utcasenay “one who prioritizes heavenly real estate over the practical application of religious teachings insofar as tolerance and goodwill toward fellow human beings are concerned”

Antonyms: atheist, secular humanist

Common misspellings: “fundie-mental”, “fundemental”

fundiementalism

Pronunciation: \fun-DEE-men-tal-izm\, noun

Definition:

1. A political and cultural movement sweeping Merika
2. An excuse to hold social events in which multiple fundimentals gather to compare material possessions and gossip about one another
3. The state of being a fundiemental

Origin: The reptilian complex of the human brain

Antonyms: existentialism, postmodernism, pragmatism

Common misspellings: “fundie-mentalism”, “fundementalism”

true believer

Pronunciation: \TRU bee-LEE-vur\, noun

Definition: One who wholly accepts the teaching of any religious sect and follows every guideline presented in his or her daily life (including the contradictory guidelines, where possible). See also: Stockholm syndrome, patsy

Origin: Thorough conditioning/indoctrination coupled with trauma at a young age

Antonyms: atheist, rationalist

Common misspellings: tru believer, trubelevr

The pioneering idea-shapers at Fox News long ago stumbled upon a very sly phrasing which effectively allowed their commentators to interject personal opinion into dialogue, as evinced in this wittily-composed clip from the Fox News exposé OutFoxed:

Invoking the same anonymous “people”, Obama has taken a lesson in persuasive rhetoric:

Often he plays Aunt Sally for rhetorical effect. He doesn’t mischaracterize, exactly, but he exaggerates to bring his point into higher relief—as he did last week when talking about the ongoing threat of terrorism: “Some people say … if we changed our policies with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or if we were more respectful towards the Muslim world, suddenly these organizations would stop threatening us. That’s just not the case.”

- The Careful Exaggerator by John Dickerson for Slate.com

The problem of persuasive rhetoric and the proverbial smooth operator is that double-edged sword of a tongue – is Obama’s sly talent of manipulating meaning truly serving your interests … and when are you on the receiving end?

Ask him and you’re sure to feel as though you got the answer you were looking for – regardless of what has been said.

Still awake – thinking about shutting down is about as close as I will get to sleep for another twenty hours.

About two hundred and fifty pages left to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – an excellent book, though I wonder whether it will ever reveal the world beyond its solipsist well’s subterranean darkness and ephemeral glimpses of the stars.

I followed the usual route back home, but to my eyes the alley looked different, unfamiliar. Maybe because of the strangely naked moonlight, signs of stagnation and putrefaction stood out with unusual intensity, and I could smell something like the rotting flesh of dead animals and the very definite stink of feces and urine. In many of the houses, people were still up, talking or eating while they watched television. From one window drifted the smell of greasy food, assaulting my brain and stomach.

- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
p. 271 Hunger as Pain … Bird as Prophet