Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

[Higgenbotham]

Reference that discusses transgenerational effects:

Fetal exposures cause disease in future generations. Remarkably, it appears that early life exposures can lead to health problems not only in adulthood, but also down through subsequent generations. For instance, adult diseases linked to newborns' low birth weight, enumerated above, cause adverse effects not only in those babies born small, but also in their children of any birth size, through heritable changes in gene expression that result in a phenomenon known as "epigenetic inheritance." Very different from genetic mutations, which are physical changes in gene structure, epigenetic inheritance is instead characterized by certain genes being turned on or off, but near permanently in ways that can be inherited.

If a genetic mutation is like changing a light fixture, the comparable epigenitic change would involve taping the light switch on or off. Since genes are responsible for making the chemicals that build and repair the body, this unnatural forcing to a permanent on or off position can have far-reaching consequences. In humans, both kinds of genetic changes, mutations as well as epigenetic changes in gene expression, can be passed down to a baby in the womb.

Scientists have recently found heritable epigenetic changes linked to the fungicide vinclozolin and pesticide methoxychlor, which impaired sperm counts and sperm motility not only among animals exposed in utero, but also in three subsequent generations (Anway et al. 2005). In other words, what each of us was exposed to in our mother's womb might affect the health of our great-grandchildren.

Notably, both of these pesticides were recently banned under a federal law that requires pesticides to be safe for newborns and children. The government gives children no explicit protection under the federal law meant to ensure the safety of other commercial chemicals (the Toxic Substances Control Act), even though risks from childhood exposures to industrial chemicals are no lower than those from pesticides.

https://www.ewg.org/research/body-burde ... n-newborns

The EWG and groups like them do good work as far as it goes.

But I don't think they are right when they say above that "this unnatural forcing to a permanent on or off position can have far-reaching consequences." I don't think such things are as permanent as they lead people to believe.

Also, the EWG will say, for example, that they found such and such chemical in the blood of all X number of newborns that they tested, or whatever group they tested. This is good information, but I've never seen them highlight the considerable range of test results that are found. As an example, in order to get this information, it is necessary to click on the profile of each test subject and scroll down to get the number. These are the test results for PCB levels in the cord blood of 10 newborns (ng/g): 4.31, 18.0, 4.53, 8.02, 2.95, 3.36, 3.96, 19.2, 6.0, 6.65. These results would probably have lower variance than others because PCBs are spread fairly evenly throughout the environment at this point, having been around a long time and having been banned in 1979.

https://www.ewg.org/sites/humantoxome/p ... ?group=bb2

[Guest]

I have been reading through this thread and find it extremely interesting; however, I would like to ask what do you think life will be like for the average American in ten years (barring a nuclear war)?

I am curious what life will be like for the man on the street? Will America be just like Mexico? Or will it be like Haiti? I think both are bad outcomes (as I have been to both).

Could America breakup? That's what Martin Armstrong has said in interviews. I hope he is right.

Mexico and Haiti exist on the periphery of the hegemon and are in slow decline. Once the giant sucking sound from printed US dollars is silenced forever, it will not be a slow decline for the US or the man on the street in the US. It will be like jumping out of a 40th floor window versus taking the stairs down. I would expect the man on the street to be quickly transported back to approximately early 20th century living conditions without the infrastructure to support those conditions. So, for example, he will have a computerized front load washer and dryer hooked up to public utilities when what he needs is a wash board and well with hand pump like my grandmother had all the way until 1968. Very broadly speaking that should be approximately the day to day level if someone or some group can in theory isolate themselves from all the chaos that will be going on around them. But not even the Amish can; for example, idiots have been dumping radioactive oil industry waste along their roadsides, etc., as one of the previous articles I linked a few hours ago described and it will get worse after the giant sucking sound is silenced. America will effectively break up but I doubt there will be any formal lines drawn for a few decades or maybe even centuries after the collapse.

I have been thinking about the collapse in racial/ethnic terms. With open borders and a collapsing welfare state, how well that affect American society.

40 million illegals (plus offspring) plus the welfare dependent population losing life support worries me MUCH MORE than nuclear war.

[Higgenbotham]

This is another example of how the emphasis is on how it's everywhere with no investigation of why it is that the range of measurements varies 100 fold in this case.

Microplastics Found in Every Human Placenta Tested, Study Finds
HEALTH
26 February 2024
By CARLY CASSELLA

It's been over three years since scientists first found microplastics swimming in four different human placentas, and as it turns out, that was just the tip of the iceberg.

A few years later, at the start of 2023, researchers announced they had found microscopic particles of plastic waste in no fewer than 17 different placentas. By the end of 2023, a local study in Hawai'i analyzed 30 placentas that were donated between 2006 and 2021 only to find plastic contamination had increased significantly over time.

Using a new technique, researchers have now identified tiny particles and fibers of plastic less than a micron in size in the largest sample of placentas yet.

In all 62 tissue samples studied, the team found microplastics of various concentrations in every single one. These concentrations ranged from 6.5 to 685 micrograms per gram of tissue, which is much higher than levels found in the human bloodstream.

No one yet knows what this plastic pollution is doing – if anything – to the health of the fetus or the mother. While microplastics have been found in every major organ of the body in mice, including the brain, it's unknown if these pollutants are temporary visitors or permanent and accumulating threats to health.

As environmental plastic pollution continues to worsen, contamination of the placenta is on track to only increase, as humans breathe in and ingest more plastic than ever before.

"Dose makes the poison," explains biologist Matthew Campen from the University of New Mexico.

"If the dose keeps going up, we start to worry. If we're seeing effects on placentas, then all mammalian life on this planet could be impacted. That's not good."

Determining how much microplastics are accumulating in human tissue has proved extremely difficult given the very small size of these particles.

For years now, scientists have been working on a solid detection method that can quantify the mass of these pollutants and determine their specific brand of plastic. Only then can the impact on health be properly evaluated.

The new study uses a novel, high resolution technique to scan for plastics in human blood and tissue. First, researchers separated the majority of biological material from plastic solids, using chemicals and extremely high speed ultracentrifuges to separate very small molecules. Then, they broke down the polymers to determine their specific compounds.

When applied to the 62 placenta samples the technique revealed that more than half of all plastics found in placenta are polyethylene – the most commonly produced plastic on our planet, responsible for most single-use bags and bottles.

Other plastic particles identified in the placenta include polyvinyl chloride, nylon, and polypropylene, all of which are probably several decades old, having been weathered and oxidized for years in the environment before being inhaled or ingested by humans.

"This method," the authors of the study argue, "paired with clinical metadata, will be pivotal to evaluating potential impacts of nano MPs on adverse pregnancy outcomes."

So far, clinical studies on the effects of plastic pollution are few and far between. Early research suggests that the smaller plastic pollutants are, the more easily they can invade cells. And yet at this miniscule size it is harder to determine their potentially toxic effects.

In research on mini-models of the human intestine, microplastics show potentially dangerous immune effects. What's more, early experiments on mice suggest that micro- and nanoplastics have the "potential to disrupt fetal brain development, which in turn may cause suboptimal neurodevelopmental outcomes."

The reasons for the wide range of microplastic concentrations found in human organs, including the placenta, is currently unknown. It could be due to analytical error, or, researchers say, it could be due to "a combination of environmental, dietary, genetic, maternal age, and lifestyle factors."

"The factors that drive such extreme concentration ranges are not known, nor is it apparent if such concentrations contribute negatively to growth and development of the placenta or fetus, or to other maternal health consequences," add the researchers.

"The placenta receives relatively high blood flow and takes up a great deal of nutrients from the maternal blood, which might make it more highly exposed; the extent to which nano- and microplastic pollution can be carried across the complex placental barrier, either passively or actively requires further investigation.'

The study was published in Toxicological Sciences.

https://www.sciencealert.com/microplast ... tudy-finds

[aeden]

The results from 1933 study indicated when and they new why the carcinogen pathways.
Humans are assets to be allocated was the only reply. The pounding Troopers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tglZ6A8SGQ
The alleged new mind virus we are unmasking is the derivative of Godwins Law in play in real time.

[Higgenbotham]

First, I read all your comments and don't feel compelled to comment on most of it. I agree with perhaps 20 percent of it.

Part of the perhaps 20 percent Bob Butler says that I substantially agree with.

I see the conflict changing at least by the awakening. The conservatives will be selfish and greedy. The progressives will have environmental concerns.

BB, what issues do you think will define the Crisis of 2100?

I think a combination of environmental problems - global warming, pollution, resource management and population - will rise to a head. What do we intend the Earth to be like steady state? By that time you will have to be absurdly willfully blind to ignore the threat of rising sea levels, hurricanes, fires, shifting crop areas and the rest. We have taken significant action this time around, but I expect this will be the central focus. Some tipping points will have been reached. We will take it seriously too late.

It's been established for at least 35 years that everyone in the US is carrying a body burden of industrial pollutants. It's been established for nearly as long that passing this body burden through the placenta to a fetus is very likely harmful. Yet, in those 35 years, about all that has been done by mainstream American culture is to continue to measure an increasing body burden of industrial pollutants. I think it'll be somewhere around 2045 that a tipping point will be reached where this will be taken seriously by mainstream American culture. By then, it will be too late for most. It's already too late for many in my estimation. Though, to be more clear, I'm not referring to global warming, but something more along the lines of environmental damage and pollution.

[Bob Butler]

I'm not referring to global warming, but something more along the lines of environmental damage and pollution.

Agreed with the concern, but part of a larger environmental emphasis. Has anyone compared the number of deaths associated with fires in CA and HI, Hurricanes in FL and TX, increased tornadoes in the midwest? To me, it seems the many aspects of elite greed dominating over a concern for the environment is apt to converge during the next awakening.

[Guest]

AI must surely be the most terrible thing ever wrought by human effort, far more terrifying than the H-bomb. My mind literally blows a gasket when considering AI and its myriad malign possibilities.

I've felt that way ever since staggering out of the ABC cinema in Bradford one Saturday evening in the summer of 1985, blown away by a (strangely unheralded) film called The Terminator....and the horror of Skynet.

AI has always been presented to the public as a fait accompli, just another 'inevitable' aspect of so-called 'progress' . Yet it didn't 'just happen'. Somebody came up with it. Somebody wanted it, and somebody funded it. AI represents the terrible harvest of a mighty R &D effort. It would be very interesting to look at its origins, development, funding and ownership.

[Bob Butler]

The Terminator is a Hollywood Arnold Schwarzenegger adventure movie based on sentient programs spontaneously coming into existence. Associating artificial intelligence with nuclear weapon authorization would be dumb, associated only with Hollywood. Makes for an interesting if absurd premise. As a software engineer who has worked on real world ICBM launch authorization, I can safely say it reflects something the nuke people would never do.

The use of AI which has caused trouble of late is the ability to create false videos of anyone. Input a good sample of somebody speaking and create a video of him saying anything. It can be detected with sufficient software. If it becomes widely distributed, the person forged will look at it and inform people it is a fake. It is a nuisance, but hardly comparable to a nuke and a good way to lose credibility. Recent examples include a fake Biden speech and an edit of a Princess Kate Middleton photo.

I do not doubt AI could be abused. The capability is too new to make illegal. Are there any more vaguely realistic examples you fear?

[aeden]

How to clear 20 acres.
Fence in.
Hogs cleared the roots.
Goats ate the bark.
Cut what firewood that is a value.
Cows eat the grass since the work was done.

Open borders are no different than models done for over 5000 years on import debt labor.
You liberals think you model is not understood and who did what first.
Thats right the smug liberals. Fear was expression on their face before they rounded the rest of
the target classes.
Should we explain the sophist way to four steps since Marx and Engels who copied a existing model?

Change position of the opponents via irregular means.
That which is seen and unseen: Domestic Consequences of Asymmetric Thinking
In his seminal text The Law, Frederic Bastiat encourages economists to look beyond the superficial effect of a law
or policy and broaden their perspective to consider secondary and tertiary consequences.

[Higgenbotham]

With a great deal of effort, there are things that an individual who is lucky enough to have adequate resources can probably do to protect themselves and their offspring. Though that's not the main reason for the existence of the Dark Age Hovel and I have no qualifications to give any advice, I will talk about it from the perspective of what I personally know and have done.

But I don't think they are right when they say above that "this unnatural forcing to a permanent on or off position can have far-reaching consequences." I don't think such things are as permanent as they lead people to believe.

This is another example of how the emphasis is on how it's everywhere (industrial chemicals) with no investigation of why it is that the range of measurements varies 100 fold (between different people) in this case.

I try to keep the information in this Dark Age Hovel somewhat limited to what is not generally appreciated or known.

Avoiding Toxic Exposures. The general idea would be to inventory everything in the environment that someone comes in contact with and make a decision as to how to handle it. Obviously, nearly everyone can easily know by now that drinking bottled water isn't a good idea and lots of other similar things. So I'll just mention a couple that seem underappreciated. When moving to a metro area, I've generally tried to locate upwind and at least 1 mile from a major arterial freeway that has a lot of truck traffic. Some are now saying to be at least 10 miles away. Asthma and cancer rates for children living close to freeways are astronomically higher, anywhere from 2 to 6 fold. Also, many workplaces are located right on freeways. I was in such a workplace. The building had 6 floors and was located less than 100 yards from the most heavily traveled freeway in the city. People would be outside the building walking and playing volleyball on their lunch hour every day they could. Management encouraged it as healthy activity and that was repeated as if it was fact, which I found kind of strange considering there were probably over 300 engineers and scientists working there out of about 600 people total. I found the building maintenance man the first week and asked him about the ventilation. He discussed the positive pressure in the building and that the air was being pulled from the top of the building. He said that in the years he had worked there I was the first person who had ever asked him about the ventilation. I then checked around for any evidence of diesel soot inside the building, didn't find any and opened the door at ground level to ensure inside air was leaving the building rather than entering.

Staying in Detox Mode. American culture demands differently, but I don't use anti-perspirant or, more generally, knowingly do anything that blocks natural detoxification pathways. Minimizing the use of air conditioning is another one. I think one of the best pieces of advice any teacher gave was from my homeroom teacher who was a physical education teacher and would tell the kids in homeroom that, "You should break a sweat every day." I know, I know, by American cultural standards it's really "weird" not to use your anti-perspirant and air conditioning. I think making it a cultural requirement to block your natural detoxification pathways is even weirder, especially given the load of toxic chemicals people are exposed to.

Eating a Truly Good Diet. Many say they do but I found out I only really have for less than 6 months of my life. That was in the time before my daughter was conceived. I was eating 12 fruits and vegetables per day and exercising enough to handle the increased food intake. After a few months on this diet, some of my gray hairs were dark at the roots and my bald spot was noticeably filling in. That's how I kind of knew I really was eating a good diet. I was doing other things along with that but mainly attribute it to the fruits and vegetables. I guess now my diet is just sort of OK.

Seeking Out Competent Alternative Practitioners. About 15 years ago, I made the mistake of buying a sofa that had particle board in it and was off gassing. The smell really bothered me (to the point that I covered the sofa with plastic) so I knew I had a problem. It was then that I thought more about the fact that scents like those found in laundry soap had been bothering me too. I found an alternative practitioner who gave a class for $100 per month one day per week. The students were supposed to go home and practice every day. The purpose of it was general health but during the course of it a lot of people's health problems went away. A few days into doing his recommended exercises, I was urinating more each morning than I thought was humanly possible. Then about 50 red things that looked like mosquito bites came out on my back and oozed orange liquid out of them. He had seen this before. After a couple weeks it was all over and the sofa smell and other smells no longer bothered me. One of the most interesting things I heard in the class was from an advanced student who was doing the lung training. She said she had last smoked menthol cigarettes 20 years before and the exercises were releasing menthol out of her lungs. Last year, I saw him again for the first time in 14 years when my daughter had a reaction to a flu shot. I discussed that recently. An ENT's Physician Assistant had looked at her and told us to get her ready for a tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy, maybe not now, but it would be inevitable within 3 or 4 months tops, so we might as well get ready. I asked the PA how many kids she sees that are in a similar situation and she said, "Ten a week." 14 months later, my daughter's tonsils and adenoids are normal.

By paying attention to these kinds of things, I think that people can get their body burdens of toxic chemicals down into the low end of the range and possibly reverse transgenerational effects from these chemicals.