http://www.oxitec.com/press-release-intrexon-to-acquire-oxitec-pioneer-of-innovative-insect-control-solutions-addressing-global-challenges/

Press Release: Intrexon to acquire Oxitec, pioneer of innovative insect control solutions addressing global challenges
Germantown, MD, and Oxford, England, August 10, 2015

Jan. 28, 2016 | Charlie Rose
Excerpt (1:01 min) - Dr. Fauci on the likelihood of Zika's spread

Dr. Anthony Fauci answers "the critical question" regarding the Zika virus.

http://www.charlierose.com/
http://www.hulu.com/watch/899423

FULL SHOW VIDEO - Air Date 1/27/2016

ESSENTIAL VIEWING: Dr. Anthony Fauci interview between minutes 16:03 - 27:00

A preview of Super Bowl 50 with Bill Cowher, studio analyst for the “The NFL Today.” Dr. Anthony Fauci on the mosquito-borne Zika virus. “Fighting ISIS,” a new special report from Vice on HBO. Charlie is joined by the correspondent, Ben Anderson.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/01/26/meet-the-heroic-professor-who-helped-uncover-the-flint-lead-water-crisis/

Inspired Life
The heroic professor who helped uncover the Flint lead water crisis​ has been asked to fix it

By Colby Itkowitz
January 27


Marc Edwards shows the difference in water quality between Detroit and Flint after testing during a Sept. 15 news conference in Flint.
(Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)

In Flint, Mich., there is a famous block of concrete that for decades has served as a community message board. Like an old-school Facebook feed, residents use it to post personal news, images, upcoming events and commentary in sprawling graffiti.

This week, several residents went to “The Block” (or “The Rock,” depending on whom you ask) with a message. In big, black capital letters they painted: “YOU WANT OUR TRUST?? WE WANT VA Tech!!!” Underneath they wrote “PSI” and circled it in red with a line through it. It stands for Professional Service Industries Inc., the independent business the city had wanted to hire to test its water for contamination, and which the residents don’t trust.

They want Marc Edwards.

And now, they’re getting him.


Marc Edwards, Charles Lunsford Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Virginia Tech.
(Photo by Jim Stroup)

On Wednesday, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced that he was appointing Edwards to the newly created “Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee,” tasked with finding a long-term strategy to address the water crisis. The 17-person team of experts will have three years to report their recommendations.

Edwards is the environmental engineering professor from Virginia Tech who once led, almost entirely on his own, a crusade against the federal government’s failure to protect residents of Washington from lead in the city’s water. And he won.

It was Edwards, 51, who more than a decade earlier proved, along with an investigation by The Washington Post, that corrosion in the nation’s capital’s pipes had caused lead to seep into the water supply and pass through kitchen faucets and shower heads. After helping to expose that water crisis in 2004, he spent six years challenging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to admit they weren’t being honest about the extent of the damage the lead had on children.

He burned through thousands of dollars of his own money, as well as $500,000 from a MacArthur Foundation genius grant he won in 2008, to take on the federal government. He was harassed, lampooned, and threatened. He lost friends.

Then, in 2010, he was vindicated when it was proven that the CDC had lied to the public in a misleading report, which falsely claimed lead levels in the water had not posed a health risk to D.C. residents.

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https://iacc.hhs.gov/about/member-bios.shtml#john-robison

John Elder Robison
Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence at the College of William and Mary

Mr. John Elder Robison joined the IACC as a public member in 2012. Mr. Robison is the Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. He is an autistic adult who is best known for working to increase public understanding of autism, and helping schools, businesses and government accommodate and accept people with autism. He is committed to diversity and is a strong advocate for autism science and research. He is dedicated to the goal of helping people with autism obtain an equal opportunity at success in work and social life. Mr. Robison is active on numerous ASD-related boards and committees in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. In addition to his service on the IACC, Mr. Robison has served on the steering committee for the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Autism Core Set project, and on organizing committees for the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), panels and committees for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and boards for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Mr. Robison's books Look Me in the Eye, Be Different, and Raising Cubby are some of the most widely read accounts of life with autism in the world. In addition to his work as an autism advocate and author, Mr. Robison has had a lifelong interest in cars. He is the founder of JE Robison Service of Springfield, Massachusetts, a business that restores Rolls-Royce, Land Rover, Jaguar, Mercedes, and BMW automobiles. Earlier Mr. Robison worked as an engineer in music and electronics. In his youth he was the American engineer for Britannia Row Audio, the sound company formed by the musical group Pink Floyd; and was the creator of the signature illuminated, fire breathing, and rocket launching special effects guitars played by KISS.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2016/01/the-autismland-that-neurodiversity-forgot.html

The AutismLand That Neurodiversity Forgot
By Kim Stagliano


FROM COMMENTS:

Posted by: John Elder Robison | January 25, 2016 at 11:42 AM

It has always been my belief that autistics who speak out for acceptance, therapy, services, have a duty to also speak out on behalf of autistics with much greater disability. You are absolutely right that we have a population who has seizures, terrible gi issues, and lots of rage and frustration that's leading to both self injurious and aggressive behavior problems.

And it's true that we have done little to remediate those things in the past decade.

The emergent concept of neurodiversity is great in its human rights, acceptance, and respect aspects. But at the same time I agree that the presence of autistic people talking unwittingly makes those who cannot talk, and who have terrible challenges, more invisible. As much as people like me say otherwise, the broad public tends to equate "we want acceptance" to "we are not disabled," even as many neurodiversity proponents stress ongoing disability and the need for supports.

Another thing that troubles me is the attempt to separate the worst complications of autism by saying "that's the epilepsy," or "that's a co morbidity, not autism" as if that renders that persons challenge not part and parcel of autism. I am always clear that we need to study and treat it all together in context. And we have to be clear - while we may love our children, and accept their epilepsy or gut troubles for now, we should certainly strive to remediate those things.

I don't think anyone asks you or anyone else to like the autism that disabled your daughters. What's asked is that your daughters have the same respect and acceptance as anyone else. One of the things I have come to see is the need for adult services and living options for severely disabled autistics, because we do not have realistic options to relieve their disability.

Some of us have gotten better with age; others have not.

It's frankly a mystery to me why GI and epilepsy issues seem so insoluble in some autistic people. It's also alarming that we are so ineffective in treating psychiatric disorders that accompany it. The fact of suicide speaks to that.

Five years ago I felt we were on the verge of real breakthroughs. Now I see what a long slog this is turning into, and it's hard to see a speedier path ahead. That is why I am pushing in IACC for greater focus on deliverable benefits for the community.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2016/01/age-of-autism-weekly-wrap-case-1s-biomed-recovery-and-why-it-still-matters.html

Weekly Wrap: Case 1’s Biomed Recovery, and Why It Still Matters
By Dan Olmsted


FROM COMMENTS:

Posted by: John Stone | January 23, 2016 at 06:58 AM

Dan

Stated with loads of good sense and dignity. The other day while considering the glaring awfulness of Donvan and Zucker (or was it Conman and Sucker?) I lighted on the Danny Kaye version of the Emperor's New Clothes - how he spells it out for his young audience. "In order not to appear a fool" everyone has to declare the very opposite of reality. A century before Ed Bernays Hans Christian Andersen already knew the score. In order not to look a fool you have to take your cue from the manipulators, even if it is quite obvious what they are doing. And in this case it is very obvious: these characters are going from mainstream media outlet to mainstream media outlet (the courtiers and the yes-men) dropping heavy hints about what to do and say.

Meanwhile, I also note the comment of Jonathan Rose in these columns the other day:

"It's wonderful that Donald Triplett grew up in small town (population 3000) where he was loved and accepted. But if the real autism rate in the 1930s was equal to what it is today (2 percent of children) there would have been 60 autistic people in this small community. And their neighbors and doctors simply overlooked 59 of them? They were just like Donald Triplett, and no one noticed them?"

So now, with thanks to Anne Dachel and the Examiner for pointiing it out, Seattle Children's Hospital say 1 in 20 children under 5 are epileptic:

http://www.seattlechildrens.org/medical-conditions/brain-nervous-system-mental-conditions/epilepsy/

Apparently, this is nothing to be concerned about. We read:

"Epilepsy in Children: Epilepsy happens more in children than it does in adults. It affects about 1% of the general population - one out of every 100 people. About 5% of children younger than 5 years old have epilepsy. That is about one in every 20 children under 5."

So, that's that then. One in 20 children under 5 have epilepsy, but they probably always did and no one noticed (Conman and Sucker can go around the studios saying that too). At least the Examiner has go it right for once: "Parents question vaccines as epilepsy rates rise to 1 in 20 children under five"

http://www.examiner.com/article/parents-question-vaccines-as-epilepsy-rates-rise-to-1-20-children-under-five

http://theautismintensive.com/



A Free Online Summit Airing January 10th - 18th 2016
37 Experts Expose the Latest Science About the Gut Microbiome, Immunity and Methylation

http://www.today.com/health/pediatricians-new-warning-limit-childrens-exposure-cellphones-t53541

Pediatricians' new warning: Limit children's exposure to cellphones

Nov. 5, 2015 at 7:50 AM
Danielle Dellorto

There are now more cellphones in use in the United States than there are people. But how safe are they?

U.S. government agencies including the FCC (which decides how much radiation mobile phones are allowed to emit) say there is little to be concerned about.

But others beg to differ. Earlier this year 190 independent scientists representing 39 countries (including the United States) appealed to global health organization to strengthen cellphone guidelines and ensure the public be "fully informed about the potential health risks from electromagnetic energy." These scientists, who have collectively authored more than 2,000 papers on the topic, add to a growing number of prominent experts and government agencies around the world who are holding up a caution sign for consumers — particularly when it comes to kids.

CTIA, which represents cellphone manufacturers, tells NBC News that mobile phones are tested at independent labs to ensure they meet the FCC's mandatory radiation exposure limits. But the FCC does not independently test cellphones for safety; they base their guidelines on information provided by other government agencies and independent experts.

The guidelines were last updated in 1996. In a letter to the FCC, the American Academy of Pediatrics urged the agency to adopt U.S. standards that protect children's health, reflect use patterns of cellphone users today, and "provide consumers the information they need to make informed decisions."

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