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"Some virologists suggest the virus may eventually become "almost harmless" as it continues to evolve"

It would be harmless if the virus did not encode for a homologue of the human lipid peroxidase inhibitor glutathione peroxidase. See Keshen's disease (China).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K...

What they say might be happening but what *also* would explain that (and they did not check, a simple serum selenium test would differentiate) is:

Bloomberg news 2013:
"... selenium for two years were able to delay their need for antiretroviral therapies by about half compared with those given a placebo, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study followed 878 HIV-infected adults from Botswana, a nation with one of the highest rates of infection of the AIDS virus."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/...

(they need to read Fosters papers, B, C and E boost the immune system but it's Tryptophan, Glutamine and Cysteine that the virus encodes for and strips from the body)

Summary:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Aidsan...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...

Watch these -
Theory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Case study:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Then read his (free) book:
http://www.soilandhealth.org/0...
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/cont...

See also:
http://www.doctoryourself.com/...
http://aras.ab.ca/articles/rfw...
http://www.fosterhealth.ca/nut...

Also:
1. Foster HD. How HIV-1 causes AIDS: Implications for prevention and treatment," Medical Hypotheses, Vol. 62(4), p 549-553, 2004.

2. Foster HD. What really causes AIDS. Victoria, BC: Trafford, 2002. Free download at www.hdfoster.com .

For further reading:

"HIV/AIDS: a nutrient deficiency disease," Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, 2005, Vol. 20(2), p 67-69.
Environmental factors and the pathogenesis of selenium-CD-4 cell tailspin in AIDS. Chinese Journal of AIDS and STD, Vol. 10(5), p 390-392,402 2004.

AIDS and the selenium-CD4T cell tailspin," World Journal of Infection, Vol. 3(6), p 456-459, 2003.
Micronutrients in pathogenesis and treatment of AIDS," Foreign Medical Sciences: Section of Medgeography, Vol. 24(2), p 49-53, 2003.

Why HIV-1 has diffused so much more rapidly in Sub-Saharan Africa than in North America. Medical Hypotheses, Vol. 60(4), p 611-614, 2003.

"How HIV-1 kills: Implications for the treatment and prevention of AIDS. Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, No. 255, p 76-78, 2002.

"Aids and the 'selenium - CD4T cell tailspin': the geography of a pandemic," Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, No. 209, p 94-99, 2000.

Quite a few intelligent and informative commenters here today, while the post itself is either completely moronic or dishonest.

Zucker-dood isn't giving anything away, doucheys.

They claimed the very same thing about the Rockefellers, Mellons, du Ponts, Harrimans (Mortimers), Morgans, et al., and they simply shifted their wealth and ownership over to foundations and trusts to hide it, and better control it, and avoid taxation.

A short item from the 1968 Congressional Report on Foundations and Trusts, by Rep. Wright Patman, the greatest populist out of Texas, and perhaps America's absolutely greatest populist of all time, a real man of the people!

Congressman Wright Patman, chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, proved in 1967 Hearings that 14 Rockefeller foundations held assets of more than $1 billion in Standard Oil stock. Not only did they pay no tax on this stock, but it gave them permanent control over the family owned firm. Rival financiers could not buy control of Standard Oil because its stock was insulated by foundation ownership. As Patman pointed out, the fact that the Rockefellers escaped paying huge sums in taxes gave them an unsurpassed market advantage over other firms which had to pay normal rates of taxation. The agitation for increased "corporate taxation" adds to Rockefeller's advantage. Patman said, "The Foundations are the best investments the Rockefeller family could have made."

The poster's homework assignment is to read the following:

http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/030304lberg/030304toc.html

Yeah, as an example, in ancient China, you only paid the doctor when you were well...
http://www.dailypaul.com/256879/tcm-traditional-chinese-medicine-paying-your-doctor-to-keep-you-well

Even now, Chinese doctors get good but not outrageous pay:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_in_China#Physician_compensation

Maybe they were on to something in their overall approach?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_medicine
"TCM's view of the body places little emphasis on anatomical structures, but is mainly concerned with the identification of functional entities (which regulate digestion, breathing, aging etc.). While health is perceived as harmonious interaction of these entities and the outside world, disease is interpreted as a disharmony in interaction. TCM diagnosis includes in tracing symptoms to patterns of an underlying disharmony, by measuring the pulse, inspecting the tongue, skin, eyes and by looking at the eating and sleeping habits of the patient as well as many other things."

People like Andrew Weil seem to focus on integrating the best of all the medical approaches.
http://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/

For a more extreme criticism of Western Medicine, see Ivan Illich's book "Medical Nemesis":
http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/030313illich/Frame.Illich.Ch1.html

No apology needed; thanks for the thought though. Glad if you found some of the stuff I wrote interesting or useful. Probably you finding anything I wrote interesting is explained by the psychedelics? :-)

Yeah, it's hard to know where to start sometimes, especially with complex interwoven stuff like this:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3862853&cid=44084615

Sometimes the best way to start is just to stop. :-)

I just came off a ten day water-only fast I started the evening after visiting someone I know who is in a hospice with an inoperable brain tumor. I've been meaning to get back to fasting for a while to reset my taste buds, and that (along with some other things) was enough to get me over some threshold. Now I've moved onto vegetable juices, and this afternoon had a bit of shitake mushroom and kale soup with wakame and some brown rice miso. Most of the fast fit over weekends or holidays. I would have fasted longer, but had to get back to various obligations that require moving around more (which is not that compatible with fasting, when your body tries to conserve energy so every movement feels harder). I've done one longer fast before about three years ago (31 days) which I had built up to after five or six other much shorter fasts. I got interested in fasting mainly from reading "The Pleasure Trap" book. I actually found Fuhrman's nutrition (and fasting) stuff while already fasting. But, there are many reasons why water-only fasting is not right for everyone. And ultimately the biggest benefits come from eating well, so fasting by itself may not help much unless it is part of a general shift.

I might continue some juice "fasting" or "feasting" for a time, but it is a totally different thing from water-only fasting.

In water-only fasting, the body switches into fat-burning ketogenic mode and does more garbage collection like of pre-cancerous stuff it is suggested. Basically, water-only fasting boosts the immune system in otherwise healthy people, which can help destroy pre-cancerous cells, plus the body is selectively breaking down problematical tissues it is claimed, and also cancer cells run off of sugar but when your body goes ketonic, normal cells go into self-protective mode and generally burn fat, but cancer cells don't and so still need sugar and so starve. Spending some time in the sun helps too, giving vitamin D to help the immune system do its job. Lots to learn, the most important thing is to break a long fast slowly on simple water-heavy foods like vegetable juice or part of an orange:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasting-cancer/
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.toc.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Fasting-Eating-Health-Medical-Conquering/dp/031218719X
http://www.quickfasting.com/

Fasting is not something someone on any kind of prescription medication should do without coordinating it with their doctors, as medication needs will likely change, or the medication dose may need to be tapered off beforehand. Dr. Joel Fuhrman knows a lot about that sort of thing, and his group does phone consultations. The True North Health Center in CA is another great place (the authors of the Pleasure Trap help run it).
http://www.healthpromoting.com/

Anyway, it's a fine balance of psychology to navigate health and our society and possible addictions. Our lower level drives (as in the Pleasure Trap) to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and minimize energy use, are generally directing us to healthy ways to be (at least in a pre-historic world). But the newer part of our brain has helped make

It is certainly reasonable to be skeptical of such claims; all I ask is you keep an open mind and do some research for yourself.

Again from Marcia Angell, an editor of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine:
http://pdfernhout.net/to-james-randi-on-skepticism-about-mainstream-science.html#Some_quotes_on_social_problems_in_science
"The problems I've discussed are not limited to psychiatry, although they reach their most florid form there. Similar conflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices. It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine."

Places to start on how much of modern medicine has been a scam for a century:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexner_Report
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/shelton.bio.bidwell.htm
"At this time in 1927, Dr. Shelton is already being harassed in his Hygienic practice by advocates of The Medical Mentality and by the police. In 1927, Dr. Shelton is jailed for the first time for "practicing medicine without a license" and is fined $100.oo. This same year of 1927, a second arrest takes place, under similar circumstances and with charges of $300.oo. His money is so tight this second time, he has to borrow to be released. Also, in 1927, the New York Evening Graphic lets Dr. Shelton go because he will not co-operate with their advertisement policies and insists on running an anti-smoking article. Still, during this time, Dr. Shelton's Hygienic practice grows; he is respected and admired for his efforts. The third arrest also occurs, all in New York, for "practicing medicine without a licence." The great irony is that Dr. Shelton would never "practice medicine"! Still, that is what the authorities call it when someone tells people how to live, how to sleep, how to eat, and how not to take medicines!"

Fuhrman learned from Shelton (who cured him of a leg injury that would not heal -- probably in part from vitamin D deficiency), and then went beyond him.
http://bruisedfruits.net/3050/joel-fuhrman-fasting-story-world-class-athlete.html

Did you know MD doctors used to recommend smoking? And infant formula? And they essentially beat to death the guy who suggested handwashing would save the lives of all the patients they were killing? And so on?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

Medicine has a very weird history...

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink

So, given that, is this really surprising, even now?
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/PCI_angioplasty_article.aspx
"Interventional cardiology and cardiovascular surgery is basically a scam based on a misunderstanding of the nature of heart disease."

Of course, many other institutions have similar problems as they focus on self-perpetuation and profits and job creation. We need to move beyond that somehow (perhaps starting with a basic income, home 3D printers, a gift economy, better planning, etc.) to at least reduce the profit motive for giving harmful but profitably self-serving advice that is potentially driving our society off a cliff.

Sad, but true...

And it gets even worse:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/PCI_angioplasty_article.aspx
"Interventional cardiology and cardiovascular surgery is basically a scam based on a misunderstanding of the nature of heart disease. Searching for and treating obstructive plaque does not address the areas of the coronary vascular tree most likely to rupture and cause heart attacks. If there was never another CABG or angioplasty performed or stent placed, patients with heart disease would be better off. Doctors would be forced to educate our citizens that their heart disease risk is determined by what they place on their forks. Millions of lives would be dramatically extended. To abandon the theory of stretching and cutting out areas with plaque would shut down interventional cardiology, nearly all cardiovascular surgery, and many suppliers of the biotechnology. In many cases, interventional cardiology is the major income generator to hospitals. The ending of this ill-conceived, out-dated and ineffective technology would dramatically downsize hospitals in the United States and free up over $100 billion annually in medical care costs. Besides being ineffective, interventional cardiology places the responsibility in the hands of the doctor and not the patients. When patients finally realize they must take control of their heart problems with aggressive dietary modifications (and when needed medications for temporary periods) we will essentially solve the health crisis in America.
The sad thing is surgical interventions and medications are the foundation of modern cardiology and both are relatively ineffective compared to nutritional excellence. My patients routinely reverse their heart disease, and no longer have vulnerable plaque or high blood pressure, so they do not need medical care, hospitals or cardiologists anymore. The problem is that in the real world cardiac patients are not even informed that heart disease is predictably reversed with nutritional excellence. They are not given the opportunity to choose and just corralled into these surgical interventions.
Trying to figure out how to pay for ineffective and expensive medicine by politicians will never be a real solution. People need to know they do not have to have heart disease to begin with, and if they get it, aggressive nutrition is the most life-saving intervention. And it is free."

And:
http://www.pdfernhout.net/to-james-randi-on-skepticism-about-mainstream-science.html#Some_quotes_on_social_problems_in_science
"The problems I've discussed are not limited to psychiatry, although they reach their most florid form there. Similar conflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices. It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. (Marcia Angell)"

Much of the path to better health was known 100 years ago by the natural hygienists. See:
http://soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/shelton.bio.bidwell.htm
"At this time in 1927, Dr. Shelton is already being harassed in his Hygienic practice by advocates of The Medical Mentality and by the police. In 1927, Dr. Shelton is jailed for the first time for "practicing medicine without a license" and is fined $100.oo. This same year of 1927, a second arrest takes place, under similar circumstances and with charges of $300.oo. His money is so tight this second time, he has to borrow to be released. Also,

The "back to sleep" campaign for infants aims to prevent a terrible tragedy of two in a thousand infants dying suddenly in their sleep for reasons as not yet full understood (and this practice supposedly cuts that rate of sudden infant death syndrome - SIDS -- in about half).
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/sids/

Basically, the entire process involves making infants uncomfortable -- put them on their backs instead of their stomachs, don't cover them, keep the room cold, don't co-sleep with them, and other things. But it is accepted that this distorts the backs of children's heads to be flatter, and also delays crawling development by a month or two in many children. If this was side-effects from a drug prescribed, we might question it more.

To be clear, I think it is worth to think about preventing SIDS, but one needs to ask about the costs in flattened heads and delayed developmental milestones to the other 998 out of 1000 babies. As someone else told us, the road to genius starts on the belly. We followed this back to sleep advice for our child and I regret it, especially as our child had trouble sleeping a lot in the first place, and following this well-meant advice probably just made that all worse.

Other bad advice from the medical establishment has been to avoid the sun, which has led to widespread vitamin D deficiency probably leading to increased autism rates and other health issues.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201104/autism-and-vitamin-d/

Again, we made the mistake of following well-meant advice by medical practicioners to avoid the sun and had serious health consequences from that.

Ironically, the lack of sunlight seems also to have increased melanoma rates, since vitamin D helps in the immune system destroying cancer. Ways to avoid that:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml

The four food groups was another scam that has lead to a lot of bad health. Better advice:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/foodpyramid.aspx
http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/11/the-subsidized-food-pyramid.html
http://drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx

But these sorts of bad advice by the medical establishment have been great boons to mattress manufactures, the processed foods and animal products industries, and the medical industry.

Iodine may be another similar issue:
http://www.lmreview.com/articles/view/iodine-the-next-vitamin-d-part-I/

Remember, doctors used to recommend smoking and push infant formula, too. Example:
http://www.old-time.com/commercials/1940's/More%20Doctors%20Smoke%20Camels.html

And they helped cretae institutions that persecuted those who suggested otherwise:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexner_Report
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/shelton.bio.bidwell.htm

Vaccinations are another problematical area where it is not always clear the risk is worth the rewards for specific vaccines, or that with all the conflicts of interest involved one can know who to really believe on all that. The story on the influenza vaccine's value keeps changing, for example. As I quote here:

You're welcome. Thanks for the comment. I've been refining the message. I hope the meme continues to propagate and others adapt it for local circumstances and their own unique style. James P. Hogan's Voyage From Yesteryear is one big source of that meme for me. Marcine Quenzer was influential too:
    http://www.marcinequenzer.com/creation.htm#The%20Field%20of%20Plenty
As was Doug Lisle:
    http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
And others (Gerry Pournelle to an extent with his "Survival with Style" essay, lots of other writers with a bit here and there, including Theodore Sturgeon and "The Skills of Xanadu"). So I'm just standing on the shoulders of giants. :-)

BTW, if you like Edgar Cayce, how do you feel about Herbert Shelton, Joel Fuhrman, and Blue Zones?
    http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/shelton.bio.bidwell.htm
    http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/foodpyramid.aspx
    http://www.bluezones.com/

The Flexner Report (by Abraham Flexner, in conjunction with the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations) is where things really started to go wrong with US medicine, as someone with success doing hands-on stuff with K-12 education tried to apply it to medicine where it was less appropriate since prevention, infrastructure, and complex psychology/spiritual issues are more important for wellness:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexner_Report
Ironically, now we have hands-on treatment focused medicine, and abstraction-oriented K-12, mostly just the opposite of how it should be...

More on that from one perspective:
    http://www.sntp.net/fda/piper_griffin.htm
"In the meantime, while doctors are forced to spend hundreds of hours studying the names and actions of all kinds of man-made drugs, they are lucky if they receive even a portion of a single course on basic nutrition. Many have none at all. The result is that the average doctor's wife or secretary knows more about practical nutrition than he does."

More on how medical and other research has gone wrong in the USA (another post I made to this story):
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1964112&cid=34989572

If this cold fusion thing does work out (or even if it does not), these issues may help explain why it (as well as alternative medicine) encountered so much resistance. Still, I hope things may have improved somewhat from the days of Ignaz Semmelweis:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

Here are some related ideas. Herbert Shelton advocated whole foods, fasting, and sunbathing, and was attacked by the medical community for it almost a century ago. His bio:
    http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.toc.htm
And writings:
    http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.toc.htm

More recent advocates of similar things:

Whole foods (and some fasting):
    http://www.drfuhrman.com/

Whole foods (but maybe too whole grain heavy):
    http://www.drweil.com/

Sunlight (as in curing vitamin D3 deficiency):
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml

An approach towards promoting moderate exercise and good eating by promoting physical infrastructure in our communities:
  http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about

Psychological health, to combat depression and promote healthy transformation:
    http://books.google.com/books?id=bCuC2H-6k_8C
    http://books.google.com/books?id=RKZreNYKNHQC

Economic health:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobless_recovery#Four_long-term_heterodox_alternatives

The big problem is simply that real cures (or preventatives) are inexpensive (sunlight, fasting, whole foods) for most expensive diseases of industrialized countries like cancer, hearth disease, and diabetes. The big profits are just in life long treatments, so no one pushes everyone to eat right, exercise, build community infrastructure, etc. And the medical insurance system is not set up to pay for people to live in healthy places, eat well (perhaps with a personal chef buying organic foods), have a better economic system with less stress for most people, etc.

Related recent discussion I was involved in on Slashdot:
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1691318&cid=32642764

There are solutions. The biggest problem is, as you imply, social, not technical.

With that said, modern medicine and better sanitation and infrastructure as we now enjoy can treat or prevent a lot of things that were big issues in the past (accidents, infectious diseases). So, there have been improvements. But going forward, we really need to go back to the basics again.

Here are some related ideas. Herbert Shelton advocated whole foods, fasting, and sunbathing, and was attacked by the medical community for it almost a century ago. His bio:
    http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.toc.htm
And writings:
    http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.toc.htm

More recent advocates of similar things:

Whole foods (and some fasting):
    http://www.drfuhrman.com/

Whole foods (but maybe too whole grain heavy):
    http://www.drweil.com/

Sunlight (as in curing vitamin D3 deficiency):
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml

An approach towards promoting moderate exercise and good eating by promoting physical infrastructure in our communities:
  http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about

Psychological health, to combat depression and promote healthy transformation:
    http://books.google.com/books?id=bCuC2H-6k_8C
    http://books.google.com/books?id=RKZreNYKNHQC

Economic health:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobless_recovery#Four_long-term_heterodox_alternatives

The big problem is simply that real cures (or preventatives) are inexpensive (sunlight, fasting, whole foods) for most expensive diseases of industrialized countries like cancer, hearth disease, and diabetes. The big profits are just in life long treatments, so no one pushes everyone to eat right, exercise, build community infrastructure, etc. And the medical insurance system is not set up to pay for people to live in healthy places, eat well (perhaps with a personal chef buying organic foods), have a better economic system with less stress for most people, etc.

Related recent discussion I was involved in on Slashdot:
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1691318&cid=32642764

There are solutions. The biggest problem is, as you imply, social, not technical.

With that said, modern medicine and better sanitation and infrastructure as we now enjoy can treat or prevent a lot of things that were big issues in the past (accidents, infectious diseases). So, there have been improvements. But going forward, we really need to go back to the basics again.

"Phage Therapy: Where Communism Succeeded and Capitalism Failed"
  http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL9910/S00096.htm
"""
While there are some genuine reasons why phage treatments of bacterial diseases were overlooked in the 1930s and 1940s, the failure to develop a western research program into bacteriophage treatment in the 1980s and 1990s represents an inexcusable failure of western capitalism. By the 1980s, there could be no denial that antibiotic resistance was going to be a major problem in (if not before) the twenty-first century. Yet, we just didn't want to know about what will probably turn out to be the most important medical breakthrough in the twentieth century; a breakthrough made in communist Georgia, in Stalin's Soviet Union.
    It is embarrassing when western science is out-trumped, especially by the "communists". Usually, when out-trumped, we don't tell anyone. That's what happened here. Not only did we not have the nous to start a western programme in bacteriophage research; we looked the other way when the files of phials threatened to be destroyed following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and during the little reported civil war that engulfed Georgia a few years ago. So much for the knowledge economies of the west. How can such valuable knowledge be so cheap?
    It's not too late for western medicine to enter the post-antibiotic bacteriophage era. Our grandchildren will hardly thank us if we persevere with our corporate-profit-motivated conservatism.
    The Soviets were able, eventually, to admit that they were wrong to follow Lysenko. Will we in the west be equally able to admit that we were wrong to put all our medical eggs into the one antibiotic basket, in the process ignoring the most basic tenets of the theory of evolution?
"""

So, with this as an example, what else has capitalism ignored as it relates to cancer?
Nutrition?
    http://www.drfuhrman.com/
Vitamin D?
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
Fasting?
    http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/shelton.bio.bidwell.htm
    http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/fasting-cure-for-health.html
   

Albert Eintsein on the need for *both* science and religion:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm

Also, while you would be right to say some things are better than in the past, many things are not. Rampant vitamin D deficiency from too much time indoors (and listening to dermatologists) is contributing to all sorts of health problems like cancer, heart disease, and even increasing autism.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
Depression from lack of community (something not valued by modern economists) is widespread.
http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Americas-Depression-Epidemic-Community/dp/1933392711
Herbert Shelton, who from the 1920s advocated sunlight, better diet, and occasional fasting as proven ways for good health, was hit with endless lawsuits and harrasment from medical professionals:
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/shelton.bio.bidwell.htm
Our entire society has become locked in pleasure traps associated with supernomal stimuli, manipulated by advertisers to destroy children for profit:
http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X
http://www.amazon.com/War-Play-Dilemma-Childhood-Education/dp/080774638X
http://www.amazon.com/So-Sexy-Soon-Sexualized-Childhood/dp/0345505077

Sure, we have neat iPads now. What does it matter if the kids are all obese and depressed?

The mainstream USA is in a death spiral as a society because it refuses to acknowledge things like the irony of using the tools of abundance like robotics, AI, material science, and so on to build weapons of destruction like nuclear millsiles and killer robot drones, rather than use the same tech to create abundance for all and have a basic income. Likewise, our society is unable to admit the declining value fo most human labor and the need for a rethink of our economics like a basic income. Renewable energy like solar thermal, geothermal, and wind have been cheaper than fossil fuels or nuclear for decades when you factor in the external costs of war, pollution, health costs, and risks, but our society refuses to price those costs in. I could go on about many other issues (like how organic agriculture is cheaper when looking at all the costs including soil depletion and oil, singple payer health care being way cheaper, and so on). Still, there are hopeful signs here and there, so our society may yet heal itself -- but such a society might not be recognizable to many in the USA today.

So, while you have some points, the poster you are replying too makes many good ones too. As Albert Einstein says in the link at the top, science can tell us what is, maybe some of what was, and matbe even some of what could be, but science can't tell us what *should* be. That is a realm beyond science, to set our goals and the patterns we choose to preserve or strive for. Unfortunately, too often science gets misused to claim it is telling what should be. (Economists often do that with claimed mathematical precision.)

To understand another aspect of how academic science is a cult in a sense, with conservative politics woven throughout is, see Jeff Schmidt on how all professio

[Fukuoka method]...that's given me something to Google...

Try his book, The One Straw Revolution, if you can find it. It is available on-line as a PDF.

So growing vegetables actually *does* use about as much water as farming livestock then?

It depends on the vegetable. Grains - which form the bulk of most traditional vegetable-based diets - use much less water. Fruits, at least citrus, much less. Leaf vegetables, squashes, etc., I don't know, that source didn't say.

I recently picked up a microbiology book at a thrift store, not terribly new but an edition sometime after 2000. In the first chapter, it stated that recent estimates claim that 50% of the world's living biomass can be found under the land's surface, mostly in the form of (wait for it...) microbes. :) That 60-to-80% doesn't seem far-fetched at all, at least to me. Good soil is largely humus, which is decomposed organic material. This provides breeding grounds for all those good critters mentioned well above this post (earthworms, bacteria, nematodes, insects, etc.).

There's a wonderfully enlightening public domain book from 1911 called Farmers for Forty Centuries, which describes China's pre-industrialization agriculture. While Americans were sustaining themselves on 20-acre plots (at a minimum), the Chinese were thriving on 2 acres. They worked the soil w/o destroying it for 3000+ documented years, while the US was well on its way to over-farming (or paving over) most of its prime arable land. Sad part is, the US (and its big-agriculture industries) have managed to totally screw up most other countries' agriculture in the name of profits, by pushing the "American way" of doing things (spend big money on big inputs and big equipment which is not needed if farming is done right).

Remember, folks, modern agriculture is about making money, not feeding healthy food to the population. That giant farm bill Congress is pushing through is there to help Monsanto and McDonals keep their products selling, not feeding us in any meaningful way. Distributed (grown near where it's consumed), natural farms could feed far more people than we want to admit. But nobody wants a "real" farm with cows, pigs, chickens, pastures and fields near the suburbs. Classic NIMBY mentality.

I see no mention of nutrition in these comments. Everyone seems focused on quantity of food while mostly ignoring the issue of quality. The decline in nutritional quality of food produced by current agricultural methods may be a significant factor in the widespread malnutrition and obesity in our supposedly affluent cultures. Of course, the major factor is consumption of "refined", "processed", and "junk" foods that have little nutritional value for their caloric content. You can find some related reports here: http://www.organic-center.org/science.nutri.php?ac tion=view&report_id=41 and http://www.soilandhealth.org/06clipfile/Nutritiona l%20Quality%20of%20Organically-Grown%20Food.html

There's an excellent but controversial essay on the subject, actually, called "The Student as Nigger": http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/0303 01studentasnigger.html

I found that Wikipedia has great historical bios about companies and company web sites frequently have a history page. Be careful about Wikipedia, make sure that you verify data (or that it sounds about right if you are reasonably aware of the topic) and be especially careful about company history on company websites because public relations types tend to neglect to mention things. For instance, Coca-Cola does not admit that the original Coca-Cola formula contained cocaine. aspirin.com, from Bayer AG, gives a small history of Bayer aspirin but does not mention that the Bayer aspirin sold in the US and Canada for over 50 years was not at all associated with Bayer AG. Bayer AG also neglects to mention the IG Farben years.

For some I.G. Farben history, get a copy of "The Crime and Punishment of I. G. Farben", it is available from http://www.soilandhealth.org/copyform.aspx?bookcod e=030311

Secrity was picked because I needed a random nick and I saw a magnet on my cube that said "Secrity - all that's missing is U".

There are, of course, a variety of indicators of the malaise of the system; one of the more interesting I've seen recently is this commentary on how textbooks used in schools actually get produced.

Actually, I think Joel of Joel on Software has a parallel example of part of the problem with schools, which is that good teaching doesn't scale -- and neither does good programming. Chances are, most slashdot readers can remember a few really great teachers (I can) and can't remember a slew of mediocre or indifferent ones. That's because really good teachers can't be produced by an assembly line, and there is no good system for figuring out who the good teachers are; instead, we have a system today in which teachers willing to put in the time are kept in regardless of whether or not they're actually good (Insert political comment here regarding unions, depending on one's alignment).

We have two big problems: the system as a whole and the quality of particular teachers. The real question becomes how one solves the riddle; I don't know, but I suspect the solution is deeper than "throw money at it."

The chief irony, of course, was that by trying to punish me for doing nothing wrong, the school reinforced the exact points made in the essay.

The book in question is indeed available. Though you cannot get diamonds for free, you certainly can get this book. (Free as in beer!)

The Australian's seem to have an intelligent way of dealing with out of print, and unavailable books that people are interested in. Give them away.
Just follow this URL:

http://www.soilandhealth.org/copyform.asp?bookcode =030211

Fill out the Name and email address for a direct link to the book. (The book itself is in html) I respect their thoughtful approach to copyrights, and so, will not post the direct link myself (as they ask not to). I only ask that others do the same.

Incidentally, if you are curious, their list of books available in such a way can be found here: http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302hsted/0302h omested.html

Instant information. Instant enlightenment. This is the internet, the way it was meant to be.

the_alabaster_zoroaster

The book in question is indeed available. Though you cannot get diamonds for free, you certainly can get this book. (Free as in beer!)

The Australian's seem to have an intelligent way of dealing with out of print, and unavailable books that people are interested in. Give them away.
Just follow this URL:

http://www.soilandhealth.org/copyform.asp?bookcode =030211

Fill out the Name and email address for a direct link to the book. (The book itself is in html) I respect their thoughtful approach to copyrights, and so, will not post the direct link myself (as they ask not to). I only ask that others do the same.

Incidentally, if you are curious, their list of books available in such a way can be found here: http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302hsted/0302h omested.html

Instant information. Instant enlightenment. This is the internet, the way it was meant to be.

the_alabaster_zoroaster

***BUY THIS BOOK***

Or you can fill out a form and get access to is free online.

Apparently Aussies can download it.

Recycling human manure is not exactly cutting edge technology. In fact, there's actually a fascinating book that covers the subject, among others, called Farmers of Forty Centuries that goes into lots of detail on the Chinese agricultural system that worked so brilliantly for so long.