Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 31, 2013
On Friday 5 April, an imam in Khusus (a poor area on the outskirts of Cairo) issued a call from the mosque: ‘Kill the Christians and cleanse Al Khusus’ of ‘infidels’. Four local Copts were killed in the subsequent Islamic pogrom. On Sunday 7 April, as Coptic Christians gathered at St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo for the funeral of the four, Muslims came and started stoning the mourners. The mob grew as more and more Muslims joined in, many arriving with weapons, including guns and Molotov cocktails. Cairo police took more than an hour to respond and when they did arrive, they did nothing to quell the attack. Live TV footage shows most police remaining motionless throughout the attack, while some actually join in, lobbing tear gas grenades into the church compound. One Copt died from gunshot wounds whilst dozens were wounded. The police didn’t help the Christians, in fact it arrested four Christians It is clear by now, that, if the police arrest anyone, it will only be Christians; Muslims will not be charged. The courts will never or almost never rule in the favor of any Christians. Indeed, high-ranking government officials accused the Christians themselves of attacking the cathedral! there are, according to baptismal records of the Coptic Orthodox Church, some 16 million Christian Copts in Egypt.
In Egypt “Islam is taught in all state schools to all pupils, but Christianity cannot be taught to Christian children. Coptic teachers cannot teach Arabic. Copts are encouraged to convert to Islam, but Muslims who convert to Christianity face harassment and severe persecution. Copts, despite being loyal to their original country, despite their pious prayers for their country, for their government, for its president, for all Egyptians, for the Nile, and for the army, Copts are woefully underrepresented in Egypt’s military, judiciary, diplomatic corps, academia and almost all electoral bodies.
The disturbing thing is the Islamist regime continues getting big loans and U.S. military aid. With Egypt threatening Nile riparian countries like Ethiopia, things would even go worse. The ignorant world remains indifferent; the hypocritical, despicable main stream mediais usually determined to be “even-handed” or to ignore the extent of the situation, preferring to seek alleged abuses and human rights violations in other, near-by countries like Ethiopia. In the coming days, they will start perpetuating a massive fraud, talking trash, spewing venomous lies and leveling false accusations towards Ethiopia, concerning the construction of the Renaissance Dam.
History about to repeat itself?
In the historically crucial years of 1875 – 1876, Khedive Ismail of Egypt invaded Ethiopia without much success. This was the time when Egypt was suffering because of food shortage after the annual Nile River flood failed. Economic crisis hits Egypt, its total foreign debt came to £94,000,000. Seriously concerned with the country’s financial situation, Ismail asked for British help in fiscal reform. Britain responded by sending Steven Cave, a member of Parliament, to investigate. Cave judged Egypt to be solvent on the basis of its resources and said that all the country needed to get back on its feet was time and the proper servicing of the debts. Cave recommended the establishment of a control commission over Egypt’s finances to approve all future loans. A year earlier, Khedive Ismail sold 176,000 Suez Canal shares to the British government
In order to divert attention from Egypt’s state of confusion and disorderliness, Europe and America encouraged Egypt to invade Ethiopia – by arming the Muslim Khedive Ismael’s army and sending mercenaries alongside the Egyptian army to fight against the Orthodox Christian country of Ethiopia. But, Ismael’s Egyptian forces were again defeated by Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia. The battle at Gura involved 12,000 well-equipped Egyptians, hundreds of European, almost fifty American, and several Ottoman mercenary officers. Of the 6,000 Egyptians that took part in the battle, 4,000 were either killed, wounded or captured (and then killed).
The humiliating defeat of Egypt and its allies followed by their cowardice murder of Ethiopian leaders like Emperor Yohannes. This hatred, of course, was driven by a shame-based Muslim culture that is deeply humiliated by Arab weakness and Ethiopian strength. During the Crimean War, troops from the same Egyptian army fought admirably in southern Russia (Orthodox Christian State) and a decade later, also performed well fighting in the army of Napoleon III in Mexico. Yet, this same army suffered disastrous defeats in the 1870s during Western-powered campaigns in Ethiopia. Losing a war is a traumatic experience for any country, and it often leads to an internal revolution and scapegoating.
In 1876, Egypt was punished not only by the Ethiopian army, but also by mother nature. In the next consecutive years Egypt was repeatedly struck by food shortage because the annual Nile River flood failed. In 1878, England and France gain cabinet seats and control over Egyptian finances. The food shortage, the whole chaos and military fiasco eventually lead later to the British occupation of Egypt.
Currently, we are witnessing similar scenarios, as the situation in Egypt is more or less marked by correspondence of Khedive Ismael’s Egypt. The economy is in decline, the financial food security is precarious, the waters of the Nile are speaking, is and Islamic intolerance is soaring. Yes, life is like the river, sometimes it sweeps us gently along and sometimes the rapids come out of nowhere. Now, Egypt seems to be like fish in troubled waters, it’s a tinderbox!
Over the past couple of years everyone has become curious to know why the Western World go over to ally with those forces who later become their own enemies. US defense minister, Hagel was recently in Egypt to try and preserve military ties with the Muslim Brotherhood-led gov’t
In the above short video, FOX News’ Hanniti asks why the US government is ready to unconditionally give billions of dollars in aid to the rouge state of Egypt. It’s amazing to observe how the three discuss so emotionally about a country whose mainstream society has never been, will never be an ally to the United States. You never see this sort of emotional devotedness to nations like Ethiopia. In fact, in time of war, God forbid!, one of the speakers sounds like the useful idiot who would be willing to serve the Egyptian army as mercenary.
“In that day Egypt will be like women, and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He waves over it. And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt; everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts which He has determined against it. In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction”. [Isaiah 19:16-18]
U.S.-Ethiopian relations were established in 1903
U.S.-Egyptian relations were established in 1922
Ethiopia and Ethiopians never been hostile to Western nations
Egypt’s Muslim brotherhood is the root source of Islamic terrorism
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 21, 2013
The most popular fresh fruit in the world, mangoes are a whole lot more than just a delicious, refreshing treat produced by nature. As evidenced by copious scientific research, mangoes are a powerful medicinal food, and:
contain nutrients that can help clear up skin
promote eye health
stave off diabetes
prevent the formation and spread of cancer
Research recently presented at a meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), for instance, revealed that eating mangoes every day can help moderate and even lower blood sugar levels, despite their natural sugar content. This is good news for people with type 2 diabetes who may benefit from consuming mangoes regularly as part of a low-sugar diet.
For their study, researchers tested the effects of mangoes on a group of obese animals, some of whom were given 10 grams of freeze-dried mango every day for 12 weeks. At the end of three months, the blood sugar levels of those animals that consumed mango were compared to those that did not consume mango. Based on the data, mango consumption was found to result in a significant decline in blood sugar levels.
“Although the mechanism by which mango exerts its effects warrants further investigation, we do know that mangoes contain a complex mixture of polyphenolic compounds,” says Dr. Edralin Lucas, Ph.D., author of the study.
Similar research out of Australia found back in 2006 that eating mango can also help decrease inflammation and resulting high cholesterol, as well as block the formation of various health conditions included under the banner of metabolic syndrome. In essence, mangoes actually work better than cholesterol drugs at naturally balancing and optimizing cellular function throughout the body.
“We don’t know yet how the whole thing’s going to play out but we know some of the individual components (of mango) activate these receptors and even inhibit them,” said a doctor from University of Queensland about the effects of mango consumption on cellular processes. “That could end up with positive nutritional health benefits for diabetes and high cholesterol.”
And again in 2011, researchers from Oklahoma State University found that mango consumption helps lower insulin resistance and improve glucose tolerance in test mice. The same study also found that mangoes help normalize lipid levels throughout the blood, which in turn can help prevent the development of cardiovascular disease.
Eating mangoes can also help you avoid cancer
But the health benefits of mango do not stop here. Science has identified more than 4,000 different antioxidant polyphenols in the plant kingdom, and many of these polyphenols are present in mangoes. The primary benefit of these polyphenols is that they scavenge damaging free radicals and protect cells against damage, which is believed to facilitate and even promote cancer.
“If you look at [mango] from the physiological and nutritional standpoint, taking everything together, it would be a high-ranking superfood,” says Dr. Susanne Talcott, who together with her husband discovered back in 2010 that mango compounds target both colon and breast cancer cells.
“What we found is that not all cell lines are sensitive to the same extent to an anticancer agent. But the breast and colon cancer lines underwent apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Additionally, we found that when we tested normal colon cells side by side with the colon cancer cells, that the mango polyphenolics did not harm the normal cells.”
In other words, mango compounds effectively target and eliminate harmful cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone, a phenomenon that is unique to nature and nowhere to be found in pharmaceutical-based medicine. Chemotherapy and radiation, for instance, which are the two most popular conventional treatments for cancer, damage healthy cells along with malignant cells, which is why the treatments are a failure as far as long-term survival is concerned.
For more information about fresh mango varieties and availability, storage, handling tips, recipes and nutrition, visit www.mango.org
This African Fruit Produces the World’s Most Intense Natural Color
The tiny, rock-hard fruits of Pollia condensata, a wild plant that grows in the forests of Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania and other African countries, can’t be eaten raw, cooked or turned into a beverage. In Western Uganda and elsewhere, though, the plant’s small metallic fruits have long been used for decorative purposes because of an unusual property: They stay a vibrant blue color for years or even decades after they’ve been picked. A specimen at the Kew Botanical Gardens in London that was gathered in Ghana in 1974 still retains its iridescent hue.
Intrigued, a team of researchers from Kew, the University of Cambridge and the Smithsonian Natural History Museum decided to look into how this plant produces such a dazzling and persistent color. When they attempted to extract a pigment to study, though, they were surprised to discover the fruit had none.
When they examined P. condensata on a cellular level, they realized that the fruit produces its characteristic color through structural coloration, a radically different phenomenon that is well-documented in the animal kingdom but virtually unknown in plants. They determined that the fruit’s tissue is more intensely colored than any previously studied biological tissue—reflecting 30 percent of light, as compared to a silver mirror, making it more intense than even the renowned color of a Morpho butterfly’s wings. Their findings were revealed in a new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The vast majority of colors in the biological world are produced by pigments—compounds produced by a living organism that selectively absorb certain wavelengths of light, so that they appear to be the color of whichever wavelengths they reflect. For example, most plants are green because of the pigment chlorophyll, used in photosynthesis, which absorbs most wavelengths of visible light except green, reflecting that color into our eyes. As a consequence, plant colors created by pigmentation appear to be the exact same hue no matter which angle we view them from, and the color degrades when the plant dies.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 20, 2013
My Note: I can not answer that. But, I am positive that prayers do wonders. I am also certain that the real universal New Year’s Day is September 11, which is celebrated among Ethiopians. For them it’s a very significant Holiday to celebrate the beginning/arrival of the “Day of Salvation”. There are even alternative thoughts that the real Birth Day of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Mother Holy Mary, Saint John, and many others saints, Holy men and women is September 11, Meskerem 1 according to the Ethiopian calendar. In any case, it would be wise if the rest of the world would take notice of the powerful signs that were displayed over the skylines of the great new Babylon city of New York (big apple), on this very day, 11 years ago, and join the Ethiopians in prayer and fasting, instead of conspiring to destroy them. Dark evil powers are out there actively fighting against humanity and against Egziabher The Lord. So, it would do us good, we would be blessed if we spend September 11 dedicating ourselves to contemplations, meditations and prayers. Let’s not forget to fast, specially on every Friday to contain Saudi zombies (Areb = Friday, in Ethiopic).
“And they threw dust on their heads and were shouting with weeping and mourning, “Woe, Woe, O great city – in which all those who had ships on the sea got rich from her wealth – because in a single hour she has been destroyed!”” [Rev 18:19] This could indicate what might come in the future, please read the whole chapter.
Could prayer events in the U.S. be behind the revelation of political scandals unfolding in the nation’s capital on nearly a daily basis?
That’s what some supporters are beginning to suggest – albeit quietly
On May 2, the nation observed its official day of prayer – one proclaimed by Barack Obama at the request of Congress. Then on May 8, a special prayer meeting in the Capitol was observed by several members of Congress and former members including House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
A special message was delivered by Jonathan Cahn, author of “The Harbinger” and the inspiration behind “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” documentary. And now plans are being made for another National Day of Prayer and Repentance on Sept. 11.
Some supporters are beginning to suggest there may be a connection between recent news events and the prayers and calls for prayers.
Talk-show host Barry Farber, who announced his support for the 9-11-13 National Day of Prayer and Repentance on his nationally syndicated program this week was one of those who made the link.
“You’re reminding me of the lessons I learned – and forgot – during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956,” he told WND’s Joseph Farah, who first made the call for the 9/11 event.
“Everybody in Hungary went to bed on October 22, 1956, thinking they were the only anti-Communists left alive in Hungary. By mid-afternoon the next day, there were no Communists left in Hungary. Ditto for those of us who believe in God, endorse prayer, oppose abortion, despise Benghazi lies. Do you realize the extent of the revolution you might be leading? I forgive you if you don’t. It’s all too huge.”
Neither the earlier prayer events nor the upcoming one is meant to be political, but could they have political implications? That’s the question being raised.
Farah says he made the call for the 9-11-13 National Day of Prayer and Repentance out of a sense of frustration with politics and the decline in morality in the country. He suspects there is a connection between the revealing of national “sins” and the desire by believers to confess their own sins to God in unity with other believers.
“The key to this call is II Chronicles 7:14,” said Farah. “This is the prescription of a Holy God for national healing. He tells believers they are to do four things: humble themselves, pray, seek His face and turn from their wicked ways. In turn, God says He will hear their prayers, forgive their sins and heal their land. Honestly, I believe if believers across America do this, we will see miracles. Could it be they are already occurring? I wouldn’t be surprised.”
The 9-11-13 National Day of Prayer has been enthusiastically embraced by thousands around the country, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., Chuck Norris, David Barton, Jonathan Cahn, Greg Laurie and even syndicated radio talk-show host Mancow Muller. Recently Farah and a small working group behind the project have decided to give the event a new focus – repentance.
“Since the biblical prescription behind this project is II Chronicles 7:14, we determined, after much prayer ourselves, that repentance is the most important missing ingredient in America today,” said Farah. “God told Solomon that when the nation faces judgment for disobedience, there are four requirements for restoration: humility, prayer, seeking His face and repentance. Prayer without repentance is useless – that’s what the verse suggests. In fact, it suggests the prayers of believers go unheard unless is it accompanied by turning ‘from their wicked ways.’”
Also, significantly, Sept. 11, 2013 is the biblical Day of Teshuvah, which means repentance.
And while fasting is often a good idea as a companion to serious prayer, Sept. 11, 2013, comes just three days before Tishri 10 or Yom Kippur, which is a day of fasting.
The Whole World Will Soon Use The Ethiopian Calendar
According to the report, all United Nations member counties voted to abandon Gregorian calendar and adopt the correct Ethiopian Calendars.
Starting from Wednesday, September 11, 2013, all countries in the world are going to use the Ethiopian calendar and celebrate the new year Meskerem 1, 2006.
The Reactions
The Germans said, “it is time we start using the correct calendar. We have been wrong all this time and the time has come to the world to follow our lead, start using the Ethiopian calendar.”
Brits are also agreed that the whole world should use Ethiopian Calendar.
The Italians said that Catholic Church is the one responsible to screw the whole world to use the current Gregorian calendar system and made every country use the wrong calendar for more than 1500 years.
An Italians said “ It is time we stop fooling ourselves and start following the real calendar year”.
The Americans are also 100% for it. “ohh…Yeah..New Year. Let’s party!!!” said an American citizen expressing his willingness to start to use the Ethiopian calendar.
However when we interviewed Japanese citizen Mr. Tokyoshi Chigamta, he asked “Wouldn’t it be easier for Ethiopians to start using Gregorian Calendar than the whole world change to use Ethiopian calendar?” He added “What benefit did Ethiopians get from becoming the only country in the world to use their own calendar? Did Ethiopia take loans and decided to change the calendar to pay 7 years later? I wonder what really happened.”
But too bad for Mr. Tokyoshi, the Japan’s government has already indorsed the decision and he has to use the Ethiopian calendar from now on.
In addition to the calendar, all countries will adopt the Ethiopian way of counting hours. The pm and am system is now out and the easy to use Ethiopian time system is going to be used by every country in the world.
In a recently published book, Blinded by Science, the author Matthew Silverstone, proves scientifically that trees improve many health issues such as; mental illnesses, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), concentration levels, reaction times, depression and the ability to alleviate headaches.
Countless studies have shown that children show significant psychological and physiological effects in terms of their health and well being when they interact with plants. They demonstrate that children function better cognitively and emotionally in green environments and have more creative play in green areas.
A large public health report that investigated the association between green spaces and mental health concluded that “access to nature can significantly contribute to our mental capital and wellbeing”.
So what is it about nature that can have these significant effects? Up until now it has been thought to be the open green spaces that cause this effect. However, Matthew Silverstone, shows that it is nothing to do with this by proving scientifically that it is the vibrational properties of trees and plants that give us the health benefits and not the open green spaces.
The answer to how plants and trees affect us physiologically turns out to be very simple. It is all to do with the fact that everything vibrates, and different vibrations affect biological behaviours. It has been proven that if you drink a glass of water that has been treated with a 10Hz vibration your blood coagulation rates will change immediately on ingesting the treated water. It is the same with trees, when touching a tree its different vibrational pattern will affect various biological behaviours within your body.
This vibrational idea is backed up throughout the book by hundreds of scientific studies to provide overwhelming proof that tree hugging after all is not such a crazy idea. Not only is it good for our health but it can also save the Government a lot of money by offering an alternative form of treatment that is free.
One report concluded with the following: “safe, green spaces may be as effective as prescription drugs in treating some forms of mental illnesses”.
Wouldn’t it be nice to hear from now on that doctors treat some forms of illnesses by suggesting a walk in the park rather than taking a packet full of pills.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 18, 2013
My Note: Woow! If this is the harvested fruit of academic excellence, the world is braced for more immense confusion and trouble. By qualifying Somalia artificially as less homogeneous than European countries they attempt to prove, Homogeneity = Prosperity. Mind you, every European country is heterogeneous. Next, they speak of Pakistan as more tolerant than India or Germany. Does this make sense at all?! Even, racially more divided South Africa is bluer than, probably, the most tolerant state in history, Ethiopia. Yes! The world’s 20 most diverse countries are all African, but in their diversity lies their richness. All these diverse countries in Africa are more tolerant, and have more stability and peace than such relatively homogeneous and intolerant nations like Somalia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan.
The world knows which populations of the planet have refused to grow up, hence remained intolerant to their fellow human beings – yet, some of these “academicians” perform fraud representation – make superficial and dishonest studies to manipulate the obvious reality. Either they are blind or simply cynical!
Now back to the study…
When two Swedish economists set out to examine whether economic freedom made people any more or less racist, they knew how they would gauge economic freedom, but they needed to find a way to measure a country’s level of racial tolerance. So they turned to something called the World Values Survey, which has been measuring global attitudes and opinions for decades.
Among the dozens of questions that World Values asks, the Swedish economists found one that, they believe, could be a pretty good indicator of tolerance for other races. The survey asked respondents in more than 80 different countries to identify kinds of people they would not want as neighbors.
If we treat this data as indicative of racial tolerance, then we might conclude that people in the bluer countries are the least likely to express racist attitudes, while the people in red countries are the most likely.
The Aon 2013 Terrorism and Political Violence Map, released on Wednesday, looks at 200 countries and is used as a gauge for the overall intensity of the risk of terrorism and political violence to business in each country – based on three icons indicating the forms of political violence which are likely to be encountered:
Terrorism and sabotage
Strikes, riots, civil commotion and malicious damage
Political insurrection, revolution, rebellion, mutiny, coup d’etat, war and civil war
Neil Henderson, head of Aon Risk Solutions’ Crisis Management Terrorism team, said, “Terrorism is having an increasing impact on today’s global organizations and terrorist attacks are now regarded as a foreseeable risk. An attack not only on, but near an organization’s premises can result in human casualties, property damage, business interruption, legal liability issues and long term damage to brand and reputation.”
On the terrorism front, 44% of countries measured have a real threat of on-going terrorism. Although the report did not specifically define terrorism as religious in motivation, as has been the case throughout major U.S. and European terrorist outbursts, emerging market giants Russia and India were high on the list. Russia had a risk rating of three. India was worse, ranked four out of five.
Overall, Europe had the most positive regional outlook, with 47% of the countries seeing a decline to their risk ratings this year. Limited incidents of terrorism outside of Greece and Northern Ireland also accounted for lowered risk scores.
Middle East most unstable
As expected, the Middle East and Africa are the most unstable by far when it comes to terrorist risk. A total of 64% of those countries are rated a severe political risk, while North Africa, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan in particular faced the obvious bouts of extreme terrorism on a daily basis.
The Middle East is the most unstable region, according to the map, with 64% of countries assigned high or severe risk ratings. The risk of terrorism and sabotage was most prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa, with 85% of countries in that region at risk, according to the research.
Oil rich countries were the most risky. Nigeria was ranked a 5 on a scale of 1 to 5 for terrorist risk, while Tanzania and Mozambique were on par with the United States and Canada at a ranking of 2.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 15, 2013
Associated Press feels the wrath of the Orwellian police state government it helped put into power
Associated Press reporters are outraged over recent revelations that the Obama administration engaged in a “sweeping seizure” of the private phone records of AP reporters as part of a Justice Department investigation. No probable cause was given to anyone, and hundreds of AP reporters were simply deemed guilty by the government as their phone call records were confiscated without explanation.
Politico is now reporting:
The behind-the-scenes anger — and heads-down determination of the AP staff members to keep doing their jobs amid the extraordinary public flap — comes as top executives from the wire service have mounted an aggressive public pushback against DOJ, calling its snooping a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” in a letter fired off to Attorney General Eric Holder. And yet something of a bunkerlike atmosphere has taken hold at the AP in Washington with no bureau-wide meetings or announcements about the DOJ’s action, AP sources told POLITICO.
But what’s not being reported is that
the Associated Press helped create the very police state it now condemns for violating its freedoms and privacy.
How AP helped build a tyrannical government
Over the last several years, AP has come down on the side of big government on practically every story, routinely attacking the Bill of Rights, demonizing protectors of the Constitution and endorsing government monopolies over everything from health care to the money supply.
The AP, in fact, falsely refers to itself as a “news organization” when the truth is that it has functioned far more like a
big government propaganda mouthpiece that anything resembling independent news reporting.
The AP apparently thought that if it went along with the tyranny, it would be given a pass by the oppressive, criminal government now in power in the United States of America. But they were wrong:
Going along with the police state does not make you immune to it, and now the AP is coming to learn that the hard way.
What is Media Manipulation?–A Definition and Explanation
If you don’t know, you should. Because media manipulation currently shapes everything you read, hear and watch online. Everything.
In the old days, we only had a few threats to fear when it came to media manipulation: the government propagandist and the hustling publicist. They were serious threats, but vigilance worked as a clear and simple defense. They were the exceptions rather than the rule—they exploited the fact that the media was trusted and reliable. Today, with our blog and web driven media cycle, nothing can escape exaggeration, distortion, fabrication and simplification.
I know this because I am a media manipulator. My job was to use the media to make people do or think things they otherwise would not. People like me are there, behind the curtain, pulling the puppet strings. But that is about to get harder: I’m spilling my secrets to you and turned my talents from exploiting media vulnerabilities to exposing them—for your benefit.
When the news is decided not by what is important but by what readers are clicking; when the cycle is so fast that the news cannot be anything else but consistently and regularly incomplete; when dubious scandals scuttle election bids or knock billions from the market caps of publicly traded companies; when the news frequently covers itself in stories about ‘how the story unfolded’—media manipulation is the status quo. It becomes, as Daniel Boorstin, author The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, once put it, a “thicket …which stands between us and the facts of life.
Today the media—driven by blogs—is assailed on all sides, by the crushing economics of their business, dishonest sources, inhuman deadlines, pageview quotas, inaccurate information, greedy publishers, poor training, the demands of the audience, and so much more. These incentives are real, whether you’re the Huffington Post or CNN or some tiny blog. They warp everything you read online—and let me tell you, thumbnail-cheating YouTube videos and paid-edit Wikipedia articles are only the beginning.
Everyone is in on the game, from bloggers to non-profits to marketers to the New York Times itself. The lure of gaming you for clicks is too appealing for anyone to resist. And when everyone is running the same racket, the the line between the real and the fake becomes indistinguishable.
The Rise of the Manipulator
At top of the pantheon of the media manipulators, of course, sits the late Andrew Brietbart. “Feeding the media is like training a dog,” he once said, “You can’t throw an entire steak at a dog to train it to sit. You have to give it little bits of steak over and over again until it learns.” And learned it did: they followed his lead exactly in the Shirley Sherrod story, and continue to fall for the manipulations of his student, James O’Keefe, who has ravaged NPR, ACORN, and many other liberal organizations.
But in this rising class, I also place some unlikely figures. Michael Arrington, former editor and founder of the popular blog TechCrunch. Manipulator is the only word for Arrington, a man who once said “Getting it right is expensive, getting it first is cheap” and made $25 million from around that fact. Nick Denton and his cabal of Gawker writers—partially paid by how many visitors their posts get—use the same tricks to get your attention and sell it to advertisers. You can see it in how Brian Moylan, one of Denton’s minions, once explained the art of online headlines: “[the key is to] get the whole story into the headline but leave out just enough that people will want to click.”
And the old threat of government abuse of the media? We know that the Bush administration was a pro at it. Think of Dick Cheney leaking bogus information to Judith Miller at the New York Times as an anonymous source and then citing himself (without disclosing the conflict) to justify the build up to the war in Iraq. He planted the information which he then alluded to as support. That happened in 2002. Today, this loop is even easier, because as political strategists like Christian Grantham admit, “Campaigns understand that there are some stories that regular reporters won’t print. So they’ll give those stories to the blogs.”
So it goes: manipulators on both sides of the equation—the writers and the marketers and press agents—all influencing the news to their own benefit. I know because I used to be one of them. I plied the trade for bestselling authors and billion dollar brands. I can recognize manipulation when I see it…because I invented many of the plays myself.
Where It Comes From and What to Do About It
Media manipulation exploits the difference between perception and reality. The media was long a trusted source of information for the public. Today, all the barriers that made it reliable have broken down. Yet the old perceptions remain. If a random blog is half as reliable as a New York Times article that was fact checked, edited and reviewed by multiple editors, it is twice as easy to get coverage on. So manipulators (myself included) play the volume game. We know that if we can generate enough online buzz people will assume that where there is smoke there is fire…and the unreal becomes real.
This all happens because of the poor incentives. When readers don’t PAY for news, the creators of the news don’t have any loyalty to the readers either. Everything is read one off, passed around on Facebook and Twitter instead of by subscription. As a result, there is no consequence for burning anyone. Manipulators can deceive journalists because journalists are not held responsible for deceiving readers.
To combat these manipulations, we must change the incentives. If we want loyalty to the truth, we must be loyal to the people who provide us with it—whoever they are. This probably means paying for information in one form or another. It means we have to be more patient. Good information takes time to acquire after all. The idea that news can be given to us iteratively and reliably is preposterous. Screw Michael Arrington. I’d rather have my news right than first.
The Illusion of Net Neutrality: Political Alarmism, Regulatory Creep, and the Real End to Internet Freedom
In The Illusion of Net Neutrality, coauthors Bob Zelnick and his daughter, Eva Zelnick, sound the alarm on how the ever-increasing threat of regulations, rules, and powerful competing interests could strip the Internet of its unfettered, open nature—the very framework that has allowed it to become a life-altering invention. In just two short decades, this powerful global information and retail powerhouse has changed the way we communicate, how we stay informed on national and world events, how we manage our health and finances, and how we research virtually any subject—from genealogy to astrology.
In their riveting, cautionary treatise, the Zelnicks clearly and simply outline the technologies and factors that allowed the Internet to evolve and to become such a society-changing force in such a short period of time. They also carefully lay out the imminent threats that could rob the Internet of its full potential. They expose “network neutrality” for what is truly is, explain how FCC regulations would harm the Internet, and, in the end, make a strong, compelling case for an independent, unregulated Internet.
Bob Zelnick is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a professor of national and international affairs at Boston University, and, as a former longtime ABC News correspondent, a frequent television analyst.
Eva Zelnick, who specializes in public policy and Internet-related issues, is a cum laude graduate of the University of Virginia and Boston University’s School of Law.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 6, 2013
How is this possible that it’s allowed for companies like Senomyx to use aborted fetuses in the food we eat, in the drink we drink?
Lots of food companies and tasters are creating novel flavor enhancing compounds for the processed food industry in order to make foods and beverages that taste good
The biotech company using this novel process, Senomyx, has signed contracts with Pepsi, Ajinomoto Co. (the maker of aspartame and meat glue), Nestlé and other food and beverage companies over the past several years.
Below is a list of products that contain aborted fetal cells. This case is just the tip of the iceberg
Please avoid these products!
PEPSI BEVERAGES
– All Pepsi soft drinks
– Sierra Mist soft drinks
– Mountain Dew soft drinks
– Mug root beer and other soft drinks
– No Fear beverages
– Ocean Spray beverages
– Seattle’s Best Coffee
– Tazo beverages
– AMP Energy beverages
– Aquafina water
– Aquafina flavored beverages
– DoubleShot energy beverages
– Frappuccino beverages
– Lipton tea and other beverages
– Propel beverages
– SoBe beverages
– Gatorade beverages – Fiesta Miranda beverages – Tropicana juices and beverages
NEOCUTIS PRODUCTS This company produces anti wrinkle creams that contain cells from a 14 week gestationaborted male baby. Following is the list of the creams, but we recommend a full boycott of all Neocutis Products.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 5, 2013
ብሪክ ትንሳዔ/ A Blessed Pasha
Reblogged from April 5, 2012
Ethiopian Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter anywhere from a week to two weeks after the western Church (sometimes, they occur at the same time, due to the vagaries of the Eastern Orthodox calendar, which Ethiopians follows). Fasika (Easter) follows eight weeks of fasting from meat and dairy. On Easter Eve, Ethiopian Christians participate in an hours-long church service that ends around 3 a.m., after which they break their fast and celebrate the risen Christ.
On Friday 5 April, an imam in Khusus (a poor area on the outskirts of Cairo) issued a call from the mosque: ‘Kill the Christians and cleanse Al Khusus’ of ‘infidels’. Four local Copts were killed in the subsequent Islamic pogrom. On Sunday 7 April, as Coptic Christians gathered at St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo for the funeral of the four, Muslims came and started stoning the mourners. The mob grew as more and more Muslims joined in, many arriving with weapons, including guns and Molotov cocktails. Cairo police took more than an hour to respond and when they did arrive, they did nothing to quell the attack. Live TV footage shows most police remaining motionless throughout the attack, while some actually join in, lobbing tear gas grenades into the church compound. One Copt died from gunshot wounds whilst dozens were wounded. The police didn’t help the Christians, in fact it arrested four Christians It is clear by now, that, if the police arrest anyone, it will only be Christians; Muslims will not be charged. The courts will never or almost never rule in the favor of any Christians. Indeed, high-ranking government officials accused the Christians themselves of attacking the cathedral! there are, according to baptismal records of the Coptic Orthodox Church, some 16 million Christian Copts in Egypt.
Addis Ethiopia Weblog 