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Student Arrested And Charged With 'Terrorizing' For Shooting Classmates... With An iPhone App
from the reportedly,-assailant-also-made-'pew-pew-pew'-noises-with-his-mouth dept
Much like non-terroristic threats are now the new terroristic threats, in today's climate of zero tolerance policies, fake weapons have become the new real weapons. Pop tart bitten into a vaguely gun-ish shape? That's a weapon. Fingers clasped together in a gun-like fashion? That's a weapon. Drawing of a gun? That's a weapon. And now, virtual, video-game, only-appear-on-a-powered-up-iPhone guns? Those are weapons.
In a story that sounds as absolutely made-up and ridiculous as the name of the high school at which it occurred (which I would love to believe is a mashup of H.L. Mencken and the upper middle class twits he would have tweaked bitterly and mercilessly), a student has been arrested for "shooting" his classmates with an augmented reality app. NO. I AM SERIOUS.
A student at H. L. Bourgeois High School accused of using a mobile phone app to simulate shooting his classmates was booked and jailed in Terrebonne Parish.There's no part of that preceding sentence that isn't mind-flayingly ridiculous. Want to see how lifelike this "simulation" is? Here's some "exciting" video of the app (Real Strike) in action.
If you'll note, the other mall patrons don't seem the least bit alarmed that someone is firing off round after virtual round at them with an iPhone. In fact, everyone looks completely unaware, not to mention unscathed. I suppose it might be a bit more unsettling if this were uploaded and publicly viewable [oh wait...], but the emphasis is on "a bit." Unless you're Major Malcolm Wolfe of the Terrebonne Sheriff's Department.
[Major Malcolm] Wolfe's office says a 15-year-old was arrested after posting a video on YouTube using the Real Strike app to shoot other kids at school, "He said it was a result of him being frustrated and tired of being bullied. He said that he had no intentions of hurting anybody. We have to take all threats seriously and we have no way of knowing that without investigating and getting to the bottom of it."Wolfe says "investigating," but nothing else in his statements indicates any sort of investigation has taken place. As for the charges, they seem disproportionate, to say the least. No one was terrorized or interfered with while the video was being recorded. After the video was uploaded, there still wasn't much "terrorizing" or "interfering" occurring. People were being not being physically shot by an arsenal of fake weapons contained entirely within a kid's cell phone, nor were they being threatened in any specific sense. Just because it was (temporarily) uploaded to YouTube doesn't suddenly make the "shooting" more "real."
He says the student was arrested for terrorizing and interference of the operation of a school.
Here's the actual wording for Louisiana's "terrorizing" statute, not much of which seems to fit the student's actions.
§40.1. TerrorizingThat's a whole lot of time served and a hefty fine for playing an iPhone game. It's going to be pretty hard for a prosecutor to make this stick as none of the above really applies to the teen's actions. Some concerned parents contacted the authorities after viewing the video, but it's hard to believe the student's actions resulted in creating "sustained fear" or a "serious disruption." The school wasn't evacuated or put on lock down so other than someone in administration overreacting (and there's no details suggesting anyone has), there's really no "interference" there.
A. Terrorizing is the intentional communication of information that the commission of a crime of violence is imminent or in progress or that a circumstance dangerous to human life exists or is about to exist, with the intent of causing members of the general public to be in sustained fear for their safety; or causing evacuation of a building, a public structure, or a facility of transportation; or causing other serious disruption to the general public.
B. It shall be an affirmative defense that the person communicating the information provided for in Subsection A of this Section was not involved in the commission of a crime of violence or creation of a circumstance dangerous to human life and reasonably believed his actions were necessary to protect the welfare of the public.
C. Whoever commits the offense of terrorizing shall be fined not more than fifteen thousand dollars or imprisoned with or without hard labor for not more than fifteen years, or both.
But I guess this all depends on whether the prosecutor is as easily moved to overreaction as the Sheriff's Department is. Wolfe sounds overly worried. Let's hope that's not contagious.
"You can't ignore it," says Major Malcolm Wolfe. "We don't know at what time that game becomes reality."I don't know, Maj. Wolfe, but I'll try to guess. It becomes reality when the student has access to 25 military-grade weapons? Or access to any weapons? The willingness and ability to actually gun down his classmates with real weapons? His parents stated their son didn't have access to any guns. But still: safety.
Here's the money quote, the one that indicates that "safety" means overreacting.
"With all the school shooting (sic) we've had in the United States, it's just not a very good game to be playing at this time," according to Wolfe.With all the school shootings? As a member of law enforcement, it might do Wolfe some good to exchange his hysteria for facts. The number of mass shootings (school or otherwise) isn't rising. Just because something happened recently doesn't mean it's increasing and just because you want to arrest a kid for exercising a little non-violent catharsis doesn't make this belief any more true.
And for all the tough talk by school districts and other authority figures about fighting bullying, it's the bullied kid who ends up in cuffs. Nice one, Team Safety First.
Filed Under: arrests, augmented reality, kids, overreaction, police, terror


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I wanted to ask regarding khilt baynariwaayat [mixing different ways of reading the Qur'an].
I wanted to ask regarding khilt baynariwaayat [mixing different ways of reading the Qur'an]. What is the stance of the scholars with regards to not sticking to one riwaayah when reading but mixing the ikhtilaaf taking into consideration that the 7 ahruf according to a vast amount of scholars is 7 possible differences. Obviously when reciting in this way the qirah will not be attributed to one specific imam, as this would be incorrect.
jazakallah kahir.
The best answer we can give is that of Ash-Sheikh Abdulaziz 'Uyoon As-Sood in his poem on talkheesi Sareehi-n-naS fi-l- kilimaati- l-mukhtalafi 3an Hafs;
If mixing [them] is detested or faulty and its forbiddance is more than its correctness.
The scholar Adh-Dhabba3 said that mixing turuq together and assembling them together is not allowed.
An-Nawawi said in his explanation of Ad-Durrah, that mixing turuq and is haraam, or detested, or faulty.
Ibn Al-Jazaree divided this issue up into degrees. If one of two ways of reading is organized with different words in a way to convey a meaning and the other way is organized a different way and they are mixed together, it is haram. If one way of reading is mixed with another so that Arabic grammar rules are violated, then it is not allowed. If however the two mixed ways do not violate the organization of the special words or Arabic grammar but supposedly being read as a riwaayah, it is not allowed; if it is not read as a riwaayah or transmission just in ones tilaawah [usually out of ignorance], then Imam Ibn Al Jazaree allowed it, but it is faulty or looked down upon by the imams of recitation.
The Qur'an was revealed in 7 ahruf, but it is mistaken to think these 7 ahruf are limited to the seven qira'aat outlined by Imam Ash-Shaatibiyy or the ten qira'aat which includes the way of Ash-Shatibiyyah and Ad-Durrah, or the ten grand qir'aat outlined by Imam Al-Jazaree in an-Nashr. Each of the qira'aat have variances or allowed differences within themselves, so possible differences in an aayah are often more than seven or ten.
Each of the ten qira'aat we have today have authentic chains of transmission going back to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, and each stand on their own. We should not purposely read in a way not revealed by Allah or without a sound transmission to the Messenger of Allah, and mixing different riiwaayaat or turuq would be just that, if done on purpose.
And Allah knows best.
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Post subject: HOW TO UPLOAD A PHOTO FOR YOUR CLASSIFIED AD
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Placing a photo in your Classified Ad will greatly improve your chances of success. To upload a photo for your ad, please following these instructions:
1. Upload the desired photo to your computer and place it in a file where you can find it.
2. Create your Pinecam Classified ad.
3. Open your browser, and go to http://www.tinypic.com
4. Under UPLOAD IMAGES AND VIDEOS, click on the BROWSE button and locate your photo.
5. Select the pull down menu next to the word RESIZE and select MESSAGE BOARD (640x480)
6. Click on UPLOAD
7. Click on the box under YOUR ANSWER and type in the exact words shown in the colored box above.
8. Click UPLOAD NOW
9. Under SHARE THIS IMAGE, select and highlight the entire box that contains the word IMG, which is the second box from the top.
10. Copy that URL.
11. Return to your Pinecam ad, and paste that URL into your ad where you would like for the photo to appear.
12. Repeat the process to add additional photos.
You may select PREVIEW to ensure that your photo is there, and if satisfied, click SUBMIT.
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Mike Nikolaiev is the chairman of TPC's Energy Subcommittee and Director of ISS Performance Engineering at Hewlett-Packard Company.
In the past, performance and price/performance were the key criteria in data center purchasing decisions. Today, energy efficiency has become another significant factor in evaluating computing hardware. To address the shifting needs of IT purchasers, the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) is developing a new Energy Specification to supplement its widely used benchmark standards. The addition of power consumption metrics to the TPC's arsenal of performance and price/performance benchmarks will help buyers identify energy efficient equipment that meets their computational and budgetary requirements.
Since the inception of the TPC in 1988, the organization has developed nine distinct benchmarks, each according to industry demand. The TPC Energy Specification is a continuation of the TPC's work over the past two decades, beginning with the creation of performance benchmarks that quickly became industry standards. The TPC Energy Specification is poised to become another essential tool for computing industry stakeholders to compare, choose, and improve technology solutions, and is currently in the final stages of development.
Driving Forces Behind the TPC Energy Specification
The rapid growth in the use of computers and the Internet has led to an explosion in server installations, both in size and in number, and the amount of energy required to run and cool them has been increasing exponentially in recent years -- a trend that will continue into the future. In fact the Environmental Protection Agency anticipates that data center energy consumption within the U.S. will surpass 100 billion kWh by 2011, with an annual electricity cost of $7.4 billion (see EPA Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency).
The need to reduce power bills, even in the face of mounting demand for computing resources, has taken center stage for many organizations. Data center growth is constrained by hard limits on energy consumption due to facility issues, limitations of the power grid and/or political decisions. Additionally, increasing public awareness centered on data center energy consumption and its impact on the environment has led many companies to place a high priority on choosing "greener" technologies.
As Figure 1 illustrates, the three most important criteria in IT purchases are performance, price, and energy consumption. Today's complex IT environment demands that price and energy consumption be put in perspective of the performance. Reducing costs or energy consumption at the expense of performance is often unacceptable, and customers are increasingly requiring that price/performance and energy/performance be provided for IT purchasing decisions.
Buyers require an objective method of comparing all three factors in order to select equipment that best fits their requirements. TPC's Energy Specification is being carefully designed to address this need. And like the TPC Pricing Specification, the TPC Energy Specification is a supplement to existing benchmarks rather than a standalone measurement framework. This means that it is highly flexible and is intended to be compatible with TPC benchmark standards currently in use including TPC-App, TPC-C, TPC-E, and TPC-H. The resulting metrics will enable comparison of systems on all three axes -- price, performance, and energy consumption.
Introduction to the TPC Energy Specification
Throughout its history, the TPC has adhered to an important principle. A System Under Test (SUT) should be reasonably similar to a typical customer installation rather than highly tuned and customized to run a specific benchmark. The TPC Energy Specification fits this criterion as well. It puts forth multiple guidelines that help manufacturers provide energy usage measurements, which mirror what an average user of a given system would experience. For example, the specification will require that the components of the SUT be commercially available and that the physical environment in which the test is conducted be comparable to typical business settings in terms of temperature, humidity and altitude.
To help manufacturers reduce the cost and difficulty of implementing the TPC Energy Specification and improve the comparability of results, the TPC intends to provide a software package currently known as the Energy Measuring System (EMS). EMS will provide services like power instrumentation interfacing, power and temperature logging, report generation and so on. Additionally, because most hardware makers already sponsor tests using TPC benchmark standards, adding the TPC Energy Specification to benchmark runs and reporting the data in the context of performance and price/performance measurements is expected to be straightforward.
Looking to the Future: The TPC Technology Conference on Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking
The TPC is conducting a conference in conjunction with the 35th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB) on August 24, 2009 in Lyon, France. The conference will be keynoted by Michael Stonebraker, recognized as one of the top five software developers of the 20th century and an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The TPC encourages industry experts and analysts to submit innovative ideas and methodologies in performance evaluation, measurement, and characterization within, but not limited to the following areas: appliance, business intelligence, cloud computing, complex event processing, database performance optimizations, green computing, data compression, disaster tolerance and recovery, energy and space efficiency, hardware innovations, high-speed data generation, hybrid workloads or operational data warehousing, unstructured data management, software management and maintenance, virtualization and very large memory systems.
The proceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. Selected papers may be considered for future TPC benchmark developments.
The deadline for abstract submission is June 5, 2009 and additional information, including submission guidelines, is available at www.tpc.org/tpctc2009.
TPC TC 2009 Contacts: Raghunath Nambiar, General Chair, [email protected]; Meikel Poess, Program Committee Chair, [email protected]; Nicholas Wakou, Publicity Committee Chair, [email protected]com.
As manufacturers adopt the TPC Energy Specification and begin providing power metrics along with performance and price/performance metrics, customers will be able to go to the TPC Web site to identify systems that meet their price, performance and energy requirements. So, for example, if purchasers require a specific transaction throughput, they can choose the least expensive and most energy efficient system that meets their needs. Or if purchasers have a limited amount of power in a rack, room, building, or region, they can identify peak-performance hardware that fits within the confines of their energy limitations. And when purchasers choose systems that use less energy, they can reduce their cooling requirements because of the direct relationship between power usage and heat generation.
High-quality, robust benchmarks are crucial to the advancement of the computing industry, and the TPC strives to develop benchmark specifications that enable highly relevant, realistic, comparable and transparent measurements. The new TPC Energy Specification is a continuation of TPC's ongoing efforts to meet the needs of a rapidly changing industry, and to provide industry-wide benchmarks that are relevant to a broad audience.


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Out of Our Depth: Sea Level on the Rise
Podcast Transcription
Voice: Station, this is Houston, are you ready for the event?
DiChristina: Hello I'm Mariette DiChristina, editor in chief of Scientific American. Win the space competition of a lifetime. See your experiment done on the International Space Station. Get a zero-g flight, specialized astronaut training and more. To find out how, go to https://www.youtube.com/spacelab
Voice: …Lift Off
Steve: Welcome to the Scientific American podcast Science Talk, posted on December 8th, 2011. I'm Steve Mirsky. One of the most worrisome consequences of global warming is that sea levels could rise substantially this century and beyond. Scientists look back into the geological record to see how carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere correlated to sea level and track a few basic measurements of the atmosphere in current times to predict how much sea level might rise in the future. Eelco Rohling, an ocean and climate scientist at the University of Southampton in England, has studied the paleoclimate record going back 50 million years. On December 6th, at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, Rohling presented calculations indicating that sea level worldwide could rise far more than scientists had previously thought. He also sat down with Scientific American senior editor, Mark Fischetti to explain how the basic measurements of carbon dioxide in parts per million in the air and the added heat in the atmosphere that the carbon dioxide creates called Forcing leads to water, water everywhere.
Fischetti: We hear about several different sorts of key numbers, and that's part per million of carbon dioxide or the global forcing, which is in watts per square meter, and give us the basic numbers and which ones matter most?
Rohling: Okay, so I think the first number, really, to take into account is the preindustrial carbon dioxide value, which is round about 280 parts per million in the atmosphere. Now that is, you could say, that's the zero level from which we started to increase. We're currently very, very close to 400, so we have increased it a lot, and we have increased it by 120 ppms. And to put that in context during the last ice age, we were at a 180, so we were 100 ppm lower than in the preindustrial state. So we've already increased CO2 by more than from the last glacial maximum to the present interglacial.
Fischetti: Okay. So that's the parts per million. So now let's equate that to watts per meter squared and you can explain what the forcing really means.
Rohling: So, the watts per meter square with CO2, you have to convert. So if we have the first doubling of CO2, so we go from 280 to 560 ppms—bearing in mind we're already on 400—but if we go to 560 that equates to roughly four watts per meter square of radiative forcing on the planet. That's four watts per meter square, so you can do the division on the 400 that we're on at the moment, so we're not on a doubling now. So currently we have experienced something between two and three watts per meter square already since the preindustrial times and there's been a bit of global dimming to take into account and the net forcing we are experiencing at the moment, relative to preindustrial is 1.6.
Fischetti: Let me ask you just about the global dimming, because that's something that I think people don't understand, and it's an interesting factor. What causes the global dimming and how does that affect the numbers?
Rohling: So global dimming is essentially when we were combusting especially, sort of, coal and, you know, dirty combustion of fuels, we pump out aerosol particles. So that you know, these are little combustible particles in soot etcetera, into the atmosphere and these particles act as nucleation for clouds and the clouds are reflective. So, the clouds reflect a little bit more of the incoming solar radiation and as a result, the global dimming has done exactly what it says—it's slightly reduced the incoming solar radiation and slightly offset the radiative forcing from the, say, CO2 increase and that has reduced the value down from two to three watts per meter square from the greenhouse gas forcing down to about 1.6 net forcing.
Fischetti: Great. And so the irony then is that as we burn cleaner sources of fuel, we don't help keep carbon dioxide's effects down, is that right?
Rohling: That's correct. I mean, what's going to happen now is that we are, you know, getting much cleaner in the way that we combust things and as a result of global dimming is going to reduce, and that's going to give us a little bit more warming. But of course, you know, there are enormous benefits from cleaner burning, so I'm not advocating that you should stop that. (laughs)
Fischetti: No I don't think we would advocate that either. (laughs) So okay, so then in this session we've been doing here at AGU, this all, kind of, comes down to sea-level rise and what can we expect. So if you could then bring all these together—parts per millions, the global forcing and sea-level rise—based on the paleoclimate record, which is, kind of, the really more a recent data that the new view is built on.
Rohling: Yeah, so what we see is that for a current level of forcing, so 1.6 watts per meter square net forcing, if we look in the relationship that we now recognize between sea-level change and climate forcing, we're are, more or less, looking at in the equilibrium state, natural equilibriumstate, where the planet would like to be that is similar to where we were 3.5 million years ago and that's where we're looking at sea level, you know, at least 15 meters, maybe 25 meters above the present. So, we're talking about this period 3.5 million years ago, this is the middle Pleistocene, and that's where the CO2 concentrations were round about 400 ppm; and if we want to look at CO2 concentrations considerably higher than that, we're going to go much deeper in time, and then we're really going into periods where sea level was even higher. We're looking at an ice-free planet, for example, 55 million years ago and then sea level would be 60 to 70 meters above the present. But that's a really scary number that will take an enormously long period to achieve. But the 15 to 20 meters is where the planet, at the moment for the current climate forcing in the atmosphere today, where the climate would like to be, if you give it enough time.
Fischetti: And the related question then is okay, 15 to 25 meters higher—how long would it take? I know that's the, sort of, the impossible question, but maybe there's a rate per year, decade or something that that might equate to?
Rohling: So, the big thing to point out there is these are very long-term processes, but what we're doing now is we're warming the planet up so fast, like really pulling an elastic band really quickly. So, what we're doing is we're creating a disequilibrium, and that could lead to very fast steps in the sea-level adjustment, in the ice volume adjustment. We can get some measure of how fast this could go by looking at the last interglacial 125 thousand years ago. At that time the sea level had risen to about four or six meters above the present due to natural circumstances, but we've recently reconstructed the rate at which this happened, and that was rates of a meter or more per century at which this happened. So I think it's very realistic, if we want to look at the adjustment to that big disequilibrium then that we have generated, to look at those sort of rates of change that we will eventually achieve; and maybe not this century, we'll be working our way up to that, but certainly in the next century, we need to think about that as the rate of sea-level rise.
Steve: Go to http://www.ScientificAmerican.com for more of Mark Fischetti's coverage of the activities at the AGU meeting as well as reporting from David Biello, our man at the U.N. Climate Change negotiations in Durban, South Africa. And follow us on Twitter, where you'll get a tweet every time a new article hits our Web site. Our Twitter name is @sciam (S-C-I-A-M). For Science Talk, I'm Steve Mirsky. Thanks for clicking on us.


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The biggest surprise to me was Eduardo Escobar landing in AAA. The slick fielding shortstop played 49 games with the Barons last year and hit just .262 with an OPS south of .700. That said, he impressed Ozzie Guillen among others this spring.
Terry Doyle starts for Winston-Salem tonight while SBT favorite Andre Rienzo is also on the Winston-Salem's starting pitching rotation:
On the mound, the Dash boasts a pair of top 30 prospects in the starting rotation. Brazilian right-hander Andre Rienzo was one of Kannapolis' best starters last year, going 8-4 with a 3.65 ERA and holding opponents to two runs or fewer in each of his last ten starts. Rienzo is ranked by Baseball America as the 25th best prospect in the White Sox farm system. RHP Cameron Bayne was 29th on that list after finishing 2010 12-9 with a 3.60 ERA and 101 strikeouts last season for the Intimidators. Bayne and Rienzo should be joined in the rotation by RHP Terry Doyle, LHP Hector Santiago, RHP Justin Collop, and possibly LHP Joe Serafin.
Roster overviews:
- Kannapolis Intimidators (A)
- Winston-Salem Dash (A+)
- Birmingham Barons (AA)
- Charlotte Knights (AAA) (link to roster, couldn't find overview)
FutureSox previews:
- Charlotte Knights (AAA)
- Birmingham Barons (AA)
- Kannapolis Intimidators (A)
- Winston-Salem Dash (A+)


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Born in Oamaru, on the eastern shore of the South Island of New Zealand, John Kent began his career working in the art department of and advertising firm in Auckland. He moved to England in 1959, where he further pursued his career as an artist and advertising copywriter. Unsatisfied by this line of work, he set out to become a political cartoonist. From 13 October 1969 to 1979, Kent wrote and drew 'Varoomshka', the first British political cartoon strip. This long-running strip combined sex with political satire, and was a weekly eye-opener in the UK newspaper, the Guardian. When the strip was dropped in 1979, feminists have claimed that it was because of their pressure, but this was not the case.
Also in 1969, Kent began a 35-year collaboration with Private Eye magazine. He created a variety of comic strips, all based on the governments of the time. The first one was 'Grocer Heath', based on Edward Heath, and this was followed by 'The Brothers', covering Harold Wilson and the unions, then 'Fifth Form at St. Maggie's' and 'Maggie Rules, OK', both based on Margaret Thatcher's politics, and 'John Major's Big Top'. Other much-loved characters for the Eye included 'Worzel Gummidge' (a spoof on Michael Foot MP), 'Capt. Bob' (Robert Maxwell) and 'The Dirty Digger' (Rupert Murdoch).
Kent also contributed to The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Sunday Times and The Times. For the latter, he also created his 'La Bimba' strip in 1998. In addition to his cartooning work, John Kent has written and illustrated a couple of celebrated travel books. He passed away from cancer in April 2003.


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Tom Crago
Mass Effect 3 Wii U: Straight Right being 'very gentle'
The Wii U's unique hardware features and unfamiliarity mean Straight Right has more than a simple port on its hands with Mass Effect 3. We spoke to founder Tom Crago about working on one of this generation's most important franchises.
Tom Crago headlines
Mass Effect 3 Wii U dev has "two other titles in development" for the console
Mass Effect 3 isn't the only Wii U title based on a large franchise Straight Right is working on, according to studio boss Tom Crago. Speaking with Eurogamer, Crago said the studio also has its own IP in the works for the console, as well as a Wii U title based on "another big franchise" […]
Risen being refused classification in Australia is ridiculous, says GDAA president
Reaction to Risen being refused classification in Australia has caused the president of the Game Developers Association of Australia to describe the rating system as "awful", "ridiculous" and "antiquated"."We are once again caught in this awful, ridiculous web of the antiquated classification system that we all have to endure," Tom Crago stated in a radio […]
Crago: LA Noire is a year away, 360 and PS3, is massive
Tom Crago, the CEO of Tantalus and the president of the Game Developers' Association of Australia, spilled some beans on Team Bondi-developed LA Noire at GC Asia yesterday, saying the mysterious Rockstar title is likely to have one of the biggest development budgets of any game. Ever.Crago said the game's "got – I'd suggest – […]
Oz dev head calls for "immediate implementation of an R18+ games rating"
Writing for ABC News, Game Developers' Association of Australia head Tom Crago has called for Australia's "unjustified and draconian censorship" of videogames to be called into check."The focus of this debate should be upon how the Australian classification system can best give adults the information they need to chose video game content for themselves and […]
Tom Crago latest
Mass Effect 3 Wii U dev has "two other titles in development" for the console
Risen being refused classification in Australia is ridiculous, says GDAA president
Oz dev head calls for "immediate implementation of an R18+ games rating"


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Happy Birthday Indiana (7/26/08)
Here is a quick recap of what's been going on since the last time we posted an article.
Dr. John Breeding and I have an article out this Summer in Pathways Magazine, "The Pill Merchants: The Relentless and Tragic Marketing of Psychiatric Drugs." It is the featured cover story. Dr. Breeding did a video interview titled, "Drugged: Before the Cradle to the Grave," which you can watch on their site and on their YouTube channel. Pathways To Family Wellness is widely read by families and health care practitioners who have a holistic approach to wellness. Our longer version of the article was originally published on this blog and the UNITE website.
While we're talking about anniversaries…
July 8, 2011 – my son turned 7! Hooray for Isaac, and thank you to everyone who spoke out about what antidepressants did to you or your loved ones. We owe you!
July 31, 2007 – Andrea Roberts and her entire family died because of Zoloft.
Today, CCHR Watchdog Radio has a podcast with an interview I did concerning The MOTHERS Act.
I recommend googling Maria Bradshaw and CASPER out of New Zealand. Maria's son Toran Henry was a victim of psychiatric drug-induced suicide. Maria has done a tremendous amount of activism and research to benefit others, teaming up with the likes of Sheila Matthews and Bobby Fiddaman. She has recently gotten heavily into the research on antidepressants and infant deaths as well.
Along that line I would like to commend Amery Schultz for his continued efforts to bring light to the dangers of antidepressants amongst doctors in Canada.
And Bobby Fiddaman has been absolutely tremendous on just about every front in this regard.
Last but not least, a quick shout-out to Dr. Doug Bremner who is making waves with his new book The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg.
And a quick note to let everyone know that although this blog has been quiet, much is going on behind the scenes. There are a couple of major things coming within the next several months. Last summer my time was mostly spent doing legal research on laws like the New Jersey Mothers Act. This summer has been spent trying to settle into a new house and get some trial experience while winding down in law school. I'm happy to report that I am learning a lot, although I am working way too many hours!
Stay tuned because we have some great things coming down the pipeline.
Please share this post in honor of Indiana Delahunty, and Andrea Roberts and her family.