This quote stuck out to me: But as Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman once said, “Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”
I’ve seen his warning play out time and time again in the medical field, where experts cannot say certain things for fear of upsetting the powers that be.
This quote stuck out to me: But as Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman once said, “Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”
I’ve seen his warning play out time and time again in the medical field, where experts cannot say certain things for fear of upsetting the powers that be.
We need more scientists like Begley that are willing to go against their peers and suggest that some of their ideas are wrong.
While Feynman's genius was in itself something unusual even in a field of genius, it's his characteristic courage combined with his unusual genius which made him so important and so very rare.
Science education has been failing across many of its varied disciplines The proper place to address these scandalous stories is in the places where scientists of all disciplines begin and conclude their studies. There are precious few like Richard Feynman; but anyone can--and ought to--learn from his examples. We are suffering needless harms because so many have not.
"If we keep clearly before our minds that our theories are our own work; that we are fallible; and that our theories reflect our fallibility, then we shall doubt whether general features of our theories, such as their simplicity, or their prima facie deterministic character, correspond to features of the real world."
--- Karl Popper, pp. 42-43, "The Open Universe", (1982), Hutchinson & Co. publishers, London.
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
Cancer was mentioned in the article as being more advanced in therapies than Alzheimer's. As I am no doctor I stand to be corrected, but as the quote alludes, it is the reality on the ground that matters. Immune therapies are all the rage in cancer care now, but it took seventy years of repeated failures from the standard approach of radiology and chemotherapy to enable an alternative approach to emerge. And only then were dissenting voices finally heard.
The reality of failure and disappointment, if repeated enough, does concentrate the mind and force a different approach. Even pharmaceutical companies and the medical establishment will have to acknowledge that, eventually.
Perhaps when the standard theory to Alzheimers therapy is met by such pronounced and long term failure, we will see an alternative arise since the research establishment will be obligated to change course. We're just not there yet. Soon, hopefully.
Necessity forced it upon me. A family member suffered from a proteinopathy that was to claim her life. But before it did, I determined to find an alternative. There is one, but it may need work yet. I (and others) believe the root cause is free radicals in the form of free electrons damaging proteins that distort as a result, lose function and become resistant to clearance.The two parts of the approach are to 1.) Reduce the effect of the source by ingesting a redox dye, methylene blue, and 2.) Deliberately trigger the Autophagy system with drugs that are already FDA approved. They do exist; see Nature Chemical Biology "Novel targets for Huntington’s disease in an mTOR independent autophagy pathway" Andrea Williams was the primary author; David Rubinsztein ran the laboratory. 2008 was the year, but I had an online version without the proper reference. My apologies!
We keep just treating the symptoms, or just cut off the body part that is diseased. Most treatements for disease just help us survive, not thrive. The root of the problem is our lifestyle, and the poisons in our enviroment, including the chemicals in processed foods. Alzheirmers start decades before we show symptoms. No one seems to ask why there is so much Alzheimers, Autism, type 2 diabetes, cancer, etc. Well they do, but they are silenced or ignored. But the treatments are a cash cow for the medical system.
"experts cannot say certain things for fear of upsetting the powers that be." I think this is how we came to the Trans Takeover of Medicine including "Gender Affirming Care". What is more shocking is that no mainstream journalists want to practice real journalism for the same reasons.
NPR is among the worst. It would be nice if Joanne or someone would speak to her colleagues about one sided reporting and major omissions of facts.
"On October 6th, I listened to Melissa Block on NPR report that “Courts have blocked a number of the anti-LGBTQ laws from going into effect” and, as usual with NPR’s reporting on this issue, my blood began to boil. From start to finish, the gender ideology movement turns language upside down and NPR, amongst many others, including journalists, is fully participating in the lies to support the trans movement’s agenda. In order to win and save our children we must retake language. I will start."
"Have you heard the latest headlines out of the U.K, that the National Health Service has ended “gender-affirming care” and replaced it with “holistic and appropriate” care? This is huge news—and a huge departure from the way it’s been for the last decade—and the way it continues to be in the US. Maybe you should study the Cass review that concluded that gender affirming care provides very low evidence.
So, why is this not being reported? Why instead are Americans being subjected to breathless news reports about trans influencers getting cookies from Biden in the White House, touting Biden’s diehard support of trans-everything?"
There was a recent TikTok posted by a girl w/her uterus in a glass jar complete w/a little illuminating light to set it on for display. Look she said 'there's my cervix'. In another TikTok a young man/woman (couldn't tell by looking) who had gone through 'gender affirming' care was holding a literal hand basket full of pills pleading that others not make the mistake saying "I hate my life -I hate it'. -------- Can American horror get any deeper? Yes.
So, it is possible (1000% speculation) that NPR refused to let her report on the problems with Alzheirmer's drugs, so she left NPR (but still retains some loyalty and thus isn't dishing the dirt).
Yes, I kept thinking, "Boy isn't that pot calling the kettle black!" after reading that she worked for NPR. She only recognizes the problem when it strikes close to home. I wonder if it will change her at all? Will she be able to see it working in other areas in the future?
I think these problems also reflect the Green Religion science. There are far too careers invested in the 'peer reviewed' theory that humans have contributed, to some degree, to climate change, and what, if anything, can be done to reverse it.
My father developed Alzheimer's at the same time as the author's and died after eight years. His father did as well. Needless to say I've always donated generously to Alzheimer's societies hoping for a cure before I suffered the same fate, but can see I was just pissing my money away.
Another thing to remember when the Left references 'settled science'.
I couldn't help but notice the similarity to the research into our changing climate as I read this sad tale of bureaucratic group think and the profound effect that such rigidity to a theory can have on research.
This is an inheritable disease. I hope that you have not bred and continued the problem. We are no better than other animals, many of whom we breed for superiority. German Shepherds suffer from hip displasia. We suffer from much worse.
We live in an age of developing gene therapies. We have RNAi vectors for gene suppression under development, and I have been personally involved with cell-type-specific vectors. That combination should unleash fantastic power and control over our genetic inheritances.
We are an inventive lot. We had better be, because most of us have at least one deleterious gene. We could fix our inherited components, which sounds far more appealing to me than eugenics.
I love science and tech, but you have more faith than I in the scientists involved in the pharmaceutical business.
How smart is it to practice gain of function in the middle of a crowded city? Today it's still being done in Wuhan and other insecure locations. War torn Ukraine has Pharma labs practicing gain of function.
So tell me again how smart are these scientists? Science does not require trust, it is a process and not a person. Many scientists today have proven themselves unworthy if trust, especially those in the high profit pharmaceutical businesses. Medical science is more of a "soft science" and is often wrong. Why else would your doctor recommend a second "opinion"? Because it's more opinion than hard science.
We actually paid them billions for an ineffective clean up of their own global man made environmental disaster. Over 5 million dead and every human damaged in some way, and yet they are treated as heroes?
Forgive me for not replying for so very long. You have made many good points regarding the advertised moral worth vs the actual morality of scientists in general. I earned my PhD at a corrupt institution, and was forcibly redirected from fiscally promising research after dedicating years to it in an effort by others to try to insulate a tenured prof from the legal consequences of his actions. I also personally intervened and halted an (accidental) gain-of-function project by my then-colleagues, who were oblivious to the dangers it posed. Doing so won me stunned admiration but no friends, but I sleep well at night knowing that I helped prevent a different COVID-level incident more than two decades before the one you wrote about.
Knowledge is power. Some get drunk on it. Others use it in "sheepdog" fashion, and risk much to prevent the worst things from happening. I knew the late 1990's papers on Ad5 vectors were hiding something (dangerous immunogenicity), and proposed a fix (site-directed peglyation) as the project for advanced standing for my Doctorate. How I wish I could have followed up on it in a timely manner and saved a few lives (and an emerging industry!!) There is much, much more I could add here.
While it is true that our leadership is often morally bankrupt, there are still those who work towards moral outcomes.
Most of us are not bred to please someone's idea of an aesthetic, including yours.
We are naturally attracted to find a mate and reproduce, regardless of our genetic "defects". If Alzheimer's were subject to natural selection, then nature would take care of it. Old age is not a genetic defect, it's a necessity of life, and he debilitation that comes with old age takes many forms, some of which can be treated in a humane way.
Surely you don't object to treating humans humanely?
Why do you presume that I would not want to treat ANY sentient being less than humanely? How is it humane, however, to increase lifespans to the point where dementia and related diseases are almost inevitable? Keeping individuals staggering around or even worse, warehoused in so-called "retirement" centers while their last dollars are siphoned out of the bank, is hardly humane. Many of those centers are constantly shorthanded and the residents are often left to fester in their own waste products for hours. Yeah, humane my ass.
Well, you did write you would prefer they be aborted, and never have a chance to live. That does not sound humane to me. Some of the most debilitated people I know prefer life as they are over never having lived.
100 years ago most people did not live long enough to become demented. We are so humane that we have found ways for people to live longer and more productive lives. The trade off is that we have more people with old age related disease. For most of us, having grandparents around longer is preferable to having them die young. Most Grandparents also want to watch their Grandchildren grow up. It's probably the biggest reward in life, regardless of how disabled one becomes.
Not so long ago, families lived together with grandparents as a family unit. I agree that sending to the nursing home has had a negative effect on society. So we agree on something. Like abortion, it has been done mostly out of convenience, but it is still better than casting them out in the street to die or suffer. They do get better medical care than most families can provide in the home.
Grotesque comment. There is probably a genetic component to Alzheimer’s but it’s not 100%, doesn’t arise until very late in life, and shouldn’t preclude having children in any case. You sound like a eugenicist.
There is nothing wrong with being a eugenicist when it serves the purpose of screening for debilitating diseases that bankrupt families and could be avoided with screening and therapeutic abortion. I wonder how many people are dealing with the care of drooling idiots and succoring themselves with the chant, "It's God's will" or something else like that.
There is a difference between what they did and using modern science to keep people from breeding their obviously inferior genes. Time to stop bringing up that tired, emotional, and untrue example to keep those of us who shouldn't breed breeding. They were killing groups of people just to kill them. There is no comparison, even if you want one.
Alzheimer's develops relatively late in life. Is it horrible? Yes. But your stance would have robbed us of people who accomplished spectacular things before the disease struck. President Reagan comes immediately to mind. I'm sure there are legions of others that research would uncover. Not to mention the many people who were simply kind, loving and supportive parents and friends. You are perfectly entitled to refrain from passing on your genes. But your nostrum would have robbed the world of some very talented and gifted people who gave much to society.
You are correct. ApoE4 is the gene most commonly associated with Alzheimer's. However, not everyone with an ApoE4 gene gets Alzheimer's and some people with Alzheimer's do not carry the gene. We still have very much to learn.
Your opinion. Mine differs. I don't think we're smart enough to know what genes are good and what are bad necessarily. Look at all the British and American eugenics ideas of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
You cite information that is over 100 years old. Things have moved light years beyond them. What HASN'T changed is the fact that we are no different than any other carbon unit, flora or fauna. I say this as one who is a product of a family that has a history of cancer. I live with a Damocles sword over my head and thankfully I have no children to whom I will pass it on. Knowing that, were I to have had children, how is that any different than abusing them???? Just a matter of degree.
You’re making the case for committing suicide and for not having children because one day they will die, just like everyone else. Your comment about how we’re identical to plants tells me you are an atheist, which explains all the rest.
And further, you are a Catholic, which pretty much explains your views, along with fatherhood. Guess you also supported the late pope, who covered up years of child abuse and pedophilia among his bishops, priests, and others. I hope he and his minions rot and if I believed in hell that is where he and supporters belong. Done here trying to talk to a self-righteous hypocrite.
Science and Religion are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are somewhat similar in motivation and practice. They are complimentary practices.
Einstein wrote:
"Now, even though the realms of religion and science in themselves are clearly marked off from each other, nevertheless there exist between the two strong reciprocal relationships and dependencies. Though religion may be that which determines the goal, it has, nevertheless, learned from science, in the broadest sense, what means will contribute to the attainment of the goals it has set up. But science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
"Since 1901–2013, 22% of all Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews despite them being less than 1% of the world population.[209]
Between 1901 and 2000, 654 Laureates belonged to 28 different religions. Most (65%) have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference. Specifically on the science related prizes, Christians have won a total of 73% of all the Chemistry, 65% in Physics, 62% in Medicine, and 54% in all Economics awards.[208] Jews have won 17% of the prizes in Chemistry, 26% in Medicine, and 23% in Physics.[208] Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers have won 7% of the prizes in Chemistry, 9% in Medicine, and 5% in Physics.[208] Muslims have won 13 prizes (three were in scientific categories)."
You might be interested to learn that most scientists are not Atheist.
Albert Einstein was educated in first through third grade in a Catholic School. He has been described as a Pantheist, and he expressly denied being an Atheist.
The Catholic Church is responsible for educating most of the great scientists in history. Even if you don't like the dogma of Catholicism, or the hierarchy , it cannot be denied that they have educated some of the most productive members of society.
Many great scientists were educated by Catholics. Yes, the church hierarchy has a sex problem. I believe it could be healed by removing the celibacy requirement.
Any profession which deals exclusively with children is prone to attract pedophiles. The shaming associated with sexuality is probably the main reason that pedophiles are not dealt with promptly and removed. Clergy in particular are prone to denial of any notion that they too are sexual beings, so there is an innate cover-up aspect involved.
Abortion is also a topic which would be unnecessary if we were not such a prudish society. Most young girls who become pregnant are shamed by their peers and their parents. Parents feel ashamed of what society may think of them when a young girl gets pregnant. Many of the convenience abortions would not have happened if this shaming were not the case.
A young girl is very susceptible to peer pressure, and even her natural instinct to protect her child can be broken by the feeling of being cast out from society. They go into survival mode and have only one way out, abortion.
I don't blame young girls for submitting to this cruelty, they are victims. I do blame the doctors who perform abortions on young girls. They know exactly what they are doing, and they do it in a cold, unfeeling callous manner, for money. They are murderers in my opinion, and should be charged with fetucide.
As for older women who have elective abortions, there are ways to avoid becoming pregnant, including the morning after pill. No adult woman is unaware that sex without protection can result in pregnancy, and she bears primary responsibility for the care of the life nature creates within her. At that point, choosing not to be safe and then choosing an abortion is murder.
Today, the father can be legally held responsible for supporting his children, and paternity testing is very simple. Young boys should be taught that a child he fathers will become at least a financial and legal obligation to him, if not a moral and spiritual one.
The problem of convenience abortion can be reduced significantly by a combination of education prior to puberty, and support of common legal remedies. There is no good reason to be aborting perfectly viable human fetuses.
Furthermore, the advent of birth control has had a downside. What once came naturally is now reduced to a choice, whether or not to have a child. I doubt that I would have ever made the decision to father a child. That is a very difficult decision.
Most of us feel rather unworthy of children. I know I did, until nature provided them to me without having made a conscious decision. I am grateful for my children. While I still feel unworthy of such a blessing, the happiness they bring give me solace that even a sinner like me can be blessed by God (or nature if you prefer).
Oh, and in every example you cite, those disorders were easily fixed with lifestyle changes and exercise, as well as x-rays which could see the problems. There is no comparison.
In fact, exercise HAS been proven to help prevent AD. Controlling hypertension is another. Smoking cessation is yet another. There are more. We just need doctors to address these issues before the onset of symptoms instead of trying to treat a disease with medicines that actually do nothing. Not everyone with "Alzheimers gene" gets Alzheimer's. And many who have Alzheimer's don't carry the gene. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31964800/
Check out Dr. Richard Isaacson's work. Here is a link to his interview on a podcast I subscribe to. Or you could just google him. He is at the forefront of preventative medicine for Alzheimer's.
Chances are you're simply trolling, but in the event anyone actually takes you seriously, yes, I believe there is a genetic predisposition for Alzheimer's, but there is also for many cardiac, orthopedic and other disorders, and they've come up with treatments and therapies to deal with them.
And yet they continue to smack us with this trash over and over again. The Covid lockdowns were a case in point, there was no science there was fear and panic, and yet 21/2 years later the powers that be are still smacking us with the same BS it beggars belief at times!
You have a point, if it’s not your iPhone it’s your iPad, if not those two, its cable, for recreation it’s Netflix they are where we live and eat we need to get them out of lives, the deep state is brainwashing it’s very scary.
And more scientists and physicians who courageously issued and supported the Great Barrington Declaration and who suffered the opprobrium and scorn of the DNC and their media handmaidens and their legions of dupes, many of whom screeched loudly on these pages.
you bray like a jackass from the Alex Jonex/Koch Bros troll farm, just like the jackasses on the "left" bray cheap, meaningless [, toxic] slogans from the Soros troll farm.
your narratives all follow the same structure: idiotic propaganda, paranoia and circular reasoning.
you should be profoundly embarrassed by your absurd lies, but since you are a narcissistic sociopath (or a troll-b0t imitating a sociopath), you aren't.
This quote stuck out to me: But as Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman once said, “Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”
I’ve seen his warning play out time and time again in the medical field, where experts cannot say certain things for fear of upsetting the powers that be.
We need more scientists like Begley that are willing to go against their peers and suggest that some of their ideas are wrong.
Before Feynman, there was Mark Twain: "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
Same as it ever was.
While Feynman's genius was in itself something unusual even in a field of genius, it's his characteristic courage combined with his unusual genius which made him so important and so very rare.
Science education has been failing across many of its varied disciplines The proper place to address these scandalous stories is in the places where scientists of all disciplines begin and conclude their studies. There are precious few like Richard Feynman; but anyone can--and ought to--learn from his examples. We are suffering needless harms because so many have not.
"If we keep clearly before our minds that our theories are our own work; that we are fallible; and that our theories reflect our fallibility, then we shall doubt whether general features of our theories, such as their simplicity, or their prima facie deterministic character, correspond to features of the real world."
--- Karl Popper, pp. 42-43, "The Open Universe", (1982), Hutchinson & Co. publishers, London.
He was great
“If you thought that science was certain – well, that is just an error on your part.” — Richard Feynman
“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
― Mark Twain
And
“Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.” — Richard Feynman
My fave Twain quote
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
–Mark Twain
Cancer was mentioned in the article as being more advanced in therapies than Alzheimer's. As I am no doctor I stand to be corrected, but as the quote alludes, it is the reality on the ground that matters. Immune therapies are all the rage in cancer care now, but it took seventy years of repeated failures from the standard approach of radiology and chemotherapy to enable an alternative approach to emerge. And only then were dissenting voices finally heard.
The reality of failure and disappointment, if repeated enough, does concentrate the mind and force a different approach. Even pharmaceutical companies and the medical establishment will have to acknowledge that, eventually.
Perhaps when the standard theory to Alzheimers therapy is met by such pronounced and long term failure, we will see an alternative arise since the research establishment will be obligated to change course. We're just not there yet. Soon, hopefully.
Necessity forced it upon me. A family member suffered from a proteinopathy that was to claim her life. But before it did, I determined to find an alternative. There is one, but it may need work yet. I (and others) believe the root cause is free radicals in the form of free electrons damaging proteins that distort as a result, lose function and become resistant to clearance.The two parts of the approach are to 1.) Reduce the effect of the source by ingesting a redox dye, methylene blue, and 2.) Deliberately trigger the Autophagy system with drugs that are already FDA approved. They do exist; see Nature Chemical Biology "Novel targets for Huntington’s disease in an mTOR independent autophagy pathway" Andrea Williams was the primary author; David Rubinsztein ran the laboratory. 2008 was the year, but I had an online version without the proper reference. My apologies!
We keep just treating the symptoms, or just cut off the body part that is diseased. Most treatements for disease just help us survive, not thrive. The root of the problem is our lifestyle, and the poisons in our enviroment, including the chemicals in processed foods. Alzheirmers start decades before we show symptoms. No one seems to ask why there is so much Alzheimers, Autism, type 2 diabetes, cancer, etc. Well they do, but they are silenced or ignored. But the treatments are a cash cow for the medical system.
"experts cannot say certain things for fear of upsetting the powers that be." I think this is how we came to the Trans Takeover of Medicine including "Gender Affirming Care". What is more shocking is that no mainstream journalists want to practice real journalism for the same reasons.
NPR is among the worst. It would be nice if Joanne or someone would speak to her colleagues about one sided reporting and major omissions of facts.
Parents With Inconvenient Truths About Trans say:
"Today on National Predator Radio..."
https://pitt.substack.com/p/today-on-national-predator-radio
"On October 6th, I listened to Melissa Block on NPR report that “Courts have blocked a number of the anti-LGBTQ laws from going into effect” and, as usual with NPR’s reporting on this issue, my blood began to boil. From start to finish, the gender ideology movement turns language upside down and NPR, amongst many others, including journalists, is fully participating in the lies to support the trans movement’s agenda. In order to win and save our children we must retake language. I will start."
And
"Where are the American Mainstream Journalists?"
https://pitt.substack.com/p/where-are-the-american-mainstream
"Have you heard the latest headlines out of the U.K, that the National Health Service has ended “gender-affirming care” and replaced it with “holistic and appropriate” care? This is huge news—and a huge departure from the way it’s been for the last decade—and the way it continues to be in the US. Maybe you should study the Cass review that concluded that gender affirming care provides very low evidence.
So, why is this not being reported? Why instead are Americans being subjected to breathless news reports about trans influencers getting cookies from Biden in the White House, touting Biden’s diehard support of trans-everything?"
There was a recent TikTok posted by a girl w/her uterus in a glass jar complete w/a little illuminating light to set it on for display. Look she said 'there's my cervix'. In another TikTok a young man/woman (couldn't tell by looking) who had gone through 'gender affirming' care was holding a literal hand basket full of pills pleading that others not make the mistake saying "I hate my life -I hate it'. -------- Can American horror get any deeper? Yes.
It is American Horror. It starts with the ideology which is backed by the State. Please see today's PITT:
"Parents' Response to LQBTQ Talks in Schools"
https://pitt.substack.com/p/parents-response-to-lqbtq-talks-in
Her last NPR report appears to have been dated June 2021.
She apparently became a "freelance" journalist July 2021, which correlates to her first reporting on the problems with Alzheimer's drugs:
https://goodstory.io/ep-16-the-abracadabra-of-the-fdas-surprise-approval-of-biogens-alzheimers-drug-aduhelm-dr-robert-pearl-physician-author-podcast-co-host-fixing-healthcar/
So, it is possible (1000% speculation) that NPR refused to let her report on the problems with Alzheirmer's drugs, so she left NPR (but still retains some loyalty and thus isn't dishing the dirt).
I would not be surprised to find that that is the case. Doctrinaire stupidity is the order of the day at National (Predictable) Radio.
-- a former listener for thirty-five years
Yes, I kept thinking, "Boy isn't that pot calling the kettle black!" after reading that she worked for NPR. She only recognizes the problem when it strikes close to home. I wonder if it will change her at all? Will she be able to see it working in other areas in the future?
Exactly
I think these problems also reflect the Green Religion science. There are far too careers invested in the 'peer reviewed' theory that humans have contributed, to some degree, to climate change, and what, if anything, can be done to reverse it.
My father developed Alzheimer's at the same time as the author's and died after eight years. His father did as well. Needless to say I've always donated generously to Alzheimer's societies hoping for a cure before I suffered the same fate, but can see I was just pissing my money away.
Another thing to remember when the Left references 'settled science'.
I couldn't help but notice the similarity to the research into our changing climate as I read this sad tale of bureaucratic group think and the profound effect that such rigidity to a theory can have on research.
This is an inheritable disease. I hope that you have not bred and continued the problem. We are no better than other animals, many of whom we breed for superiority. German Shepherds suffer from hip displasia. We suffer from much worse.
We live in an age of developing gene therapies. We have RNAi vectors for gene suppression under development, and I have been personally involved with cell-type-specific vectors. That combination should unleash fantastic power and control over our genetic inheritances.
We are an inventive lot. We had better be, because most of us have at least one deleterious gene. We could fix our inherited components, which sounds far more appealing to me than eugenics.
I love science and tech, but you have more faith than I in the scientists involved in the pharmaceutical business.
How smart is it to practice gain of function in the middle of a crowded city? Today it's still being done in Wuhan and other insecure locations. War torn Ukraine has Pharma labs practicing gain of function.
So tell me again how smart are these scientists? Science does not require trust, it is a process and not a person. Many scientists today have proven themselves unworthy if trust, especially those in the high profit pharmaceutical businesses. Medical science is more of a "soft science" and is often wrong. Why else would your doctor recommend a second "opinion"? Because it's more opinion than hard science.
We actually paid them billions for an ineffective clean up of their own global man made environmental disaster. Over 5 million dead and every human damaged in some way, and yet they are treated as heroes?
Forgive me for not replying for so very long. You have made many good points regarding the advertised moral worth vs the actual morality of scientists in general. I earned my PhD at a corrupt institution, and was forcibly redirected from fiscally promising research after dedicating years to it in an effort by others to try to insulate a tenured prof from the legal consequences of his actions. I also personally intervened and halted an (accidental) gain-of-function project by my then-colleagues, who were oblivious to the dangers it posed. Doing so won me stunned admiration but no friends, but I sleep well at night knowing that I helped prevent a different COVID-level incident more than two decades before the one you wrote about.
Knowledge is power. Some get drunk on it. Others use it in "sheepdog" fashion, and risk much to prevent the worst things from happening. I knew the late 1990's papers on Ad5 vectors were hiding something (dangerous immunogenicity), and proposed a fix (site-directed peglyation) as the project for advanced standing for my Doctorate. How I wish I could have followed up on it in a timely manner and saved a few lives (and an emerging industry!!) There is much, much more I could add here.
While it is true that our leadership is often morally bankrupt, there are still those who work towards moral outcomes.
Most of us are not bred to please someone's idea of an aesthetic, including yours.
We are naturally attracted to find a mate and reproduce, regardless of our genetic "defects". If Alzheimer's were subject to natural selection, then nature would take care of it. Old age is not a genetic defect, it's a necessity of life, and he debilitation that comes with old age takes many forms, some of which can be treated in a humane way.
Surely you don't object to treating humans humanely?
Why do you presume that I would not want to treat ANY sentient being less than humanely? How is it humane, however, to increase lifespans to the point where dementia and related diseases are almost inevitable? Keeping individuals staggering around or even worse, warehoused in so-called "retirement" centers while their last dollars are siphoned out of the bank, is hardly humane. Many of those centers are constantly shorthanded and the residents are often left to fester in their own waste products for hours. Yeah, humane my ass.
Well, you did write you would prefer they be aborted, and never have a chance to live. That does not sound humane to me. Some of the most debilitated people I know prefer life as they are over never having lived.
100 years ago most people did not live long enough to become demented. We are so humane that we have found ways for people to live longer and more productive lives. The trade off is that we have more people with old age related disease. For most of us, having grandparents around longer is preferable to having them die young. Most Grandparents also want to watch their Grandchildren grow up. It's probably the biggest reward in life, regardless of how disabled one becomes.
Not so long ago, families lived together with grandparents as a family unit. I agree that sending to the nursing home has had a negative effect on society. So we agree on something. Like abortion, it has been done mostly out of convenience, but it is still better than casting them out in the street to die or suffer. They do get better medical care than most families can provide in the home.
Grotesque comment. There is probably a genetic component to Alzheimer’s but it’s not 100%, doesn’t arise until very late in life, and shouldn’t preclude having children in any case. You sound like a eugenicist.
There is nothing wrong with being a eugenicist when it serves the purpose of screening for debilitating diseases that bankrupt families and could be avoided with screening and therapeutic abortion. I wonder how many people are dealing with the care of drooling idiots and succoring themselves with the chant, "It's God's will" or something else like that.
Forget God if you must, but is it not nature's will that we mate and reproduce in spite of our genetic defects?
Today, some in society view autism as a defect. Elon Musk is a very productive member of society who has Asperger's, a mild form of this "defect".
Perhaps the things we view as defects are actually positive steps in human evolution.
Would you have advised that Musk be aborted?
So happy you are not reproducing
And German eugenists tried an even stronger mediation.
There is a difference between what they did and using modern science to keep people from breeding their obviously inferior genes. Time to stop bringing up that tired, emotional, and untrue example to keep those of us who shouldn't breed breeding. They were killing groups of people just to kill them. There is no comparison, even if you want one.
Alzheimer's develops relatively late in life. Is it horrible? Yes. But your stance would have robbed us of people who accomplished spectacular things before the disease struck. President Reagan comes immediately to mind. I'm sure there are legions of others that research would uncover. Not to mention the many people who were simply kind, loving and supportive parents and friends. You are perfectly entitled to refrain from passing on your genes. But your nostrum would have robbed the world of some very talented and gifted people who gave much to society.
Great comment. I think the genetics of it arent a sure thing in any event.
You are correct. ApoE4 is the gene most commonly associated with Alzheimer's. However, not everyone with an ApoE4 gene gets Alzheimer's and some people with Alzheimer's do not carry the gene. We still have very much to learn.
Your opinion. Mine differs. I don't think we're smart enough to know what genes are good and what are bad necessarily. Look at all the British and American eugenics ideas of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
You cite information that is over 100 years old. Things have moved light years beyond them. What HASN'T changed is the fact that we are no different than any other carbon unit, flora or fauna. I say this as one who is a product of a family that has a history of cancer. I live with a Damocles sword over my head and thankfully I have no children to whom I will pass it on. Knowing that, were I to have had children, how is that any different than abusing them???? Just a matter of degree.
Better to have lived and lost than to never have lived at all.
I sincerely hope you are still young enough to have children, and that one day you will see the miracle of a grandchild.
No money, no fame is as rewarding as a grandchild. Without progeny, old age would be a rather selfish and dismal affair.
You’re making the case for committing suicide and for not having children because one day they will die, just like everyone else. Your comment about how we’re identical to plants tells me you are an atheist, which explains all the rest.
And further, you are a Catholic, which pretty much explains your views, along with fatherhood. Guess you also supported the late pope, who covered up years of child abuse and pedophilia among his bishops, priests, and others. I hope he and his minions rot and if I believed in hell that is where he and supporters belong. Done here trying to talk to a self-righteous hypocrite.
Science and Religion are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are somewhat similar in motivation and practice. They are complimentary practices.
Einstein wrote:
"Now, even though the realms of religion and science in themselves are clearly marked off from each other, nevertheless there exist between the two strong reciprocal relationships and dependencies. Though religion may be that which determines the goal, it has, nevertheless, learned from science, in the broadest sense, what means will contribute to the attainment of the goals it has set up. But science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
https://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm
Statistics on Religious Scientists:
"Since 1901–2013, 22% of all Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews despite them being less than 1% of the world population.[209]
Between 1901 and 2000, 654 Laureates belonged to 28 different religions. Most (65%) have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference. Specifically on the science related prizes, Christians have won a total of 73% of all the Chemistry, 65% in Physics, 62% in Medicine, and 54% in all Economics awards.[208] Jews have won 17% of the prizes in Chemistry, 26% in Medicine, and 23% in Physics.[208] Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers have won 7% of the prizes in Chemistry, 9% in Medicine, and 5% in Physics.[208] Muslims have won 13 prizes (three were in scientific categories)."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationship_between_religion_and_science
You might be interested to learn that most scientists are not Atheist.
Albert Einstein was educated in first through third grade in a Catholic School. He has been described as a Pantheist, and he expressly denied being an Atheist.
The Catholic Church is responsible for educating most of the great scientists in history. Even if you don't like the dogma of Catholicism, or the hierarchy , it cannot be denied that they have educated some of the most productive members of society.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lay_Catholic_scientists
Many great scientists were educated by Catholics. Yes, the church hierarchy has a sex problem. I believe it could be healed by removing the celibacy requirement.
Any profession which deals exclusively with children is prone to attract pedophiles. The shaming associated with sexuality is probably the main reason that pedophiles are not dealt with promptly and removed. Clergy in particular are prone to denial of any notion that they too are sexual beings, so there is an innate cover-up aspect involved.
Abortion is also a topic which would be unnecessary if we were not such a prudish society. Most young girls who become pregnant are shamed by their peers and their parents. Parents feel ashamed of what society may think of them when a young girl gets pregnant. Many of the convenience abortions would not have happened if this shaming were not the case.
A young girl is very susceptible to peer pressure, and even her natural instinct to protect her child can be broken by the feeling of being cast out from society. They go into survival mode and have only one way out, abortion.
I don't blame young girls for submitting to this cruelty, they are victims. I do blame the doctors who perform abortions on young girls. They know exactly what they are doing, and they do it in a cold, unfeeling callous manner, for money. They are murderers in my opinion, and should be charged with fetucide.
As for older women who have elective abortions, there are ways to avoid becoming pregnant, including the morning after pill. No adult woman is unaware that sex without protection can result in pregnancy, and she bears primary responsibility for the care of the life nature creates within her. At that point, choosing not to be safe and then choosing an abortion is murder.
Today, the father can be legally held responsible for supporting his children, and paternity testing is very simple. Young boys should be taught that a child he fathers will become at least a financial and legal obligation to him, if not a moral and spiritual one.
The problem of convenience abortion can be reduced significantly by a combination of education prior to puberty, and support of common legal remedies. There is no good reason to be aborting perfectly viable human fetuses.
Furthermore, the advent of birth control has had a downside. What once came naturally is now reduced to a choice, whether or not to have a child. I doubt that I would have ever made the decision to father a child. That is a very difficult decision.
Most of us feel rather unworthy of children. I know I did, until nature provided them to me without having made a conscious decision. I am grateful for my children. While I still feel unworthy of such a blessing, the happiness they bring give me solace that even a sinner like me can be blessed by God (or nature if you prefer).
Oh, and in every example you cite, those disorders were easily fixed with lifestyle changes and exercise, as well as x-rays which could see the problems. There is no comparison.
In fact, exercise HAS been proven to help prevent AD. Controlling hypertension is another. Smoking cessation is yet another. There are more. We just need doctors to address these issues before the onset of symptoms instead of trying to treat a disease with medicines that actually do nothing. Not everyone with "Alzheimers gene" gets Alzheimer's. And many who have Alzheimer's don't carry the gene. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31964800/
Check out Dr. Richard Isaacson's work. Here is a link to his interview on a podcast I subscribe to. Or you could just google him. He is at the forefront of preventative medicine for Alzheimer's.
https://peterattiamd.com/category/diseases/neurodegenerative-disease-prevention/
Chances are you're simply trolling, but in the event anyone actually takes you seriously, yes, I believe there is a genetic predisposition for Alzheimer's, but there is also for many cardiac, orthopedic and other disorders, and they've come up with treatments and therapies to deal with them.
Feynman was brilliant. He is worth some study - books by him and about him.
Plus down to earth, funny and approachable. We need more like him desperately.
A paradigm shift is the science equivalent of enlightenment. There are many dogmas currently plaguing the advancement of science.
How many valuable minds are wasted pursing the following paradigms which are unsupported by current observation?
Catastrophic Climate Change.
Big Bang Theory.
Mrna Vaccines.
And yet they continue to smack us with this trash over and over again. The Covid lockdowns were a case in point, there was no science there was fear and panic, and yet 21/2 years later the powers that be are still smacking us with the same BS it beggars belief at times!
They seem to be hypnotized.
Don't laugh.
Therapists use hypnosis videos to treat patients. Regular watching enhances the effect. Daily watching is almost a certainty.
That, or the queen of diamonds....
You have a point, if it’s not your iPhone it’s your iPad, if not those two, its cable, for recreation it’s Netflix they are where we live and eat we need to get them out of lives, the deep state is brainwashing it’s very scary.
Yep.
And more scientists and physicians who courageously issued and supported the Great Barrington Declaration and who suffered the opprobrium and scorn of the DNC and their media handmaidens and their legions of dupes, many of whom screeched loudly on these pages.
conspiratard bot narrative
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Ah the slavering minions of the legion of dupes reliably appear......................
Ah, the psychotic paranoia-conspiratard dupe reliably appears ....................................
A retort worthy of a dull kindergartener. Try again.....
you bray like a jackass from the Alex Jonex/Koch Bros troll farm, just like the jackasses on the "left" bray cheap, meaningless [, toxic] slogans from the Soros troll farm.
your narratives all follow the same structure: idiotic propaganda, paranoia and circular reasoning.
you should be profoundly embarrassed by your absurd lies, but since you are a narcissistic sociopath (or a troll-b0t imitating a sociopath), you aren't.
A toddler with a thesaurus. Emptied over these pages like a toddler empties and plays with the contents of their diaper.
Even more comical.
Isn't it time to grow up?
Give it up Bruce. This guy is off his meds.
He was braying like a jackass. Now you are braying like a jackass.
D1psh1t.
Yet another PROJECTION from the paranoid-conspiratard buffoon squad.
https://www.thefp.com/p/where-is-the-cure-for-alzheimers/comment/11843542
You are still braying like a jackass. Psycho b0t.
A retort worthy of a psychotic troll. Try again ......
The role of iconoclast is a lonely and painful one, but so very necessary throughout our society.