Archive for February, 2009

Rogers Denied Access to Parentsplace.ca

This website (parentsplace.ca) is hosted on a server with many other websites. That’s normal internet structure. Only really big websites occupy a server alone. As a result, all of the sites on this server share the same IP address. An IP address is pretty much like a phone number to your house – it’s unique to the house. Well if a web server is a house and then the IP is the number to that house. All the people inside the house can be reached with that one number. To get to them individually the server calls up their accounts, like names.

Why is this useful information?
Well, you see, Rogers Cable (ISP) has in the past blocked  access to this website (parentsplace.ca) but it did NOT block access to the other sites.

How does that work?
It’s simple really. When you look at a website your computer first sends a request to your ISP asking for the IP to the server where the desired website is located. Your ISP checks a database that it maintains, looking for that IP address. If your ISP cannot find it in their database they ask another database. These are DNS: Domain Name Servers, because a .com or .ca is called a domain name.

When your ISP finds the right IP, that IP is sent to your computer and the connection is made. The next step is to request the exact name of the website you want to visit. If you are on the right server the process is complete and you see the desired site.

In order for Rogers to block one site it only needs to fail at one step. When the request for the IP address for parentsplace.ca is sent, Rogers checks it’s database (DNS) for a match. Rogers can edit their DNS to have no match, to say it doesn’t exist or to give the wrong match. When this happens there is nothing you can do if your ISP is Rogers. They have complete control over whether or not you get to your desired site.

Have you ever typed in an address and instead of getting a site, or an error page, you get a Rogers page telling you that it was not found, and on that page there was advertising? That’s Rogers taking advantage of your typos. Rogers can hi-jack anything you type in at any time they wish, and show you ads related to what you typed in. Great advertising potential for them, specially if they’re marketing their own products and services. When they blocked parentsplace.ca I saw that very same Rogers page, promoting their parenting magazines instead of sending the user to the intended site. This is why Net Neutrality in important.

Back to that IP address. Well, because I know the IP to my own server, and I also know the account name on that server for this site, I was able to type in the IP and username instead of parentsplace.ca. It worked perfectly, thus proving that there is nothing wrong with the server or the website. I also entered the domain name for the other accounts, and they worked too. Entering the IP address in software that can perform a PING also worked.

For those who already understand this you are waiting for me to say that I tested it from other ISPs in other geographic regions. Yes, I did that too. I had friends test from New York, Los Angeles, Western and Eastern Ontario. Anyone on Rogers, during this period, did not see the site, while others on other ISPs had no problem.

Rogers should check it’s database, get the IP and sends me to the site with no problem. The question to answer is “why” does this happen to only one domain name of several? Why do I have to reload the site that I working on so many times? If it is not intentional black-listing and internet censorship – what is it?

Is YOUR Internet Service Provider (ISP) censoring Your internet access? If you don’t think so, or if you want more information, read this and then read this.

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40,000,000 Doses of Gardasil

Source: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/02/24/Spain-Withdraws-Gardasil-After-Illnesses.aspx

Since its launch in 2006, 40 million doses of the Gardasil vaccine have been distributed worldwide, amidst a rash of side effects and complaints. At least Spanish health authorities were quick to act this time, when two girls became seriously ill just hours after receiving the shot.

In response, close to 76,000 doses of Gardasil were withdrawn from the market, all of them part of batch NH52670. Unfortunately, this is not a move to pull the vaccine from the market entirely; only use of shots from this particular batch has been suspended.

I don’t know what more health officials from all over the world could be waiting for to let them know how potentially dangerous this vaccine actually is.

Over 10,000 adverse reactions, including 29 deaths, have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) in relation to Gardasil — and that is just from the United States.

Although Merck, which manufactures Gardasil, has reported a 16 percent decline in quarterly sales of the vaccine, and said it expects sales this year to be lower than expected, a massive campaign is still underway urging young girls to get vaccinated and become “one less” victim to cervical cancer.

This is going on in many parts of the world, including in Sweden, which recently announced all primary school girls will be able to be vaccinated with Gardasil for free starting in 2010.

Merck has also been pushing for an expansion of uses for Gardasil. In the U.S., the vaccine can also be promoted to prevent two rare vaginal and vulvar cancers, and Merck just recently filed for FDA approval to use Gardasil for boys!

What Types of Risks Does Gardasil Pose?

Side effects including paralysis and death have been reported in relation to Gardasil, among many, many others. Yet, on October 21, 2008 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in association with the FDA released a report alleging that the vast majority, or even ALL, of the 10,000+ adverse reactions reported are not related to the vaccine. Therefore, they say, Gardasil is safe.

How did they come to this conclusion? Only the investigators know, and the information is not being made public so independent researchers can make their own decisions.

Well, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), which was co-founded by Barbara Loe Fisher, one of the top vaccine experts in the world, is now calling for the CDC and FDA to publicly release the study design, data, and names of principal investigators involved.

To not properly evaluate the risks of Gardasil, they say, is “a callous disregard for human life.” As Fisher said:

“Parents of young girls and women cut down in their prime — some of them paralyzed or dead within hours or days of getting Gardasil vaccine — deserve better answers than a whitewashing of this vaccine’s very serious side effects.”

On NVIC’s Web site, you can read several stories of women and girls who have been seriously injured, and in some cases died, shortly after receiving this vaccine, including:

  • Christina Tarsell, a 21-year-old college student majoring in studio arts at Bard College, who died suddenly and without explanation shortly after receiving the third Gardasil shot in June 2008.
  • Gabrielle, a 15-year-old former gymnast and cheerleader who can no longer attend school and is suffering from severe headaches, heart problems and seizures since getting the vaccine. She has been diagnosed with Inflammation of the Central Nervous System as a result of a Gardasil vaccine reaction, and her condition continues to deteriorate.
  • Megan, a 20-year-old college student who died suddenly, without explanation, about one month after receiving her third Gardasil shot. No cause of death was found.
  • Ashley, a 16-year-old who became chronically ill after receiving Gardasil, and now suffers regular life-threatening episodes of seizure-like activity, difficulty breathing, back spasms, paralysis, dehydration, memory loss and tremors.

Sadly, Merck only studied the Gardasil vaccine in fewer than 1,200 girls under 16 prior to it being released to the market, and most of the serious side effects that occurred during the pre-licensure clinical trials were merely called a “coincidence.”

It is beyond me how that explanation can hold water, considering all the bad press coming out about this vaccine. NVIC has been following the risks of Gardasil closely, and just released a new analysis comparing the vaccine to another for meningitis (Menactra). They found, compared to Menactra, Gardasil was associated with:

  • At least twice as many emergency room visit reports (5,021)
  • Four times as many death reports (29)
  • Seven times as many disabled reports (261)
  • Three to six times more fainting reports

Further, there have been a dizzying array of reactions reported among girls who received Gardasil alone, without any other vaccines, such as:

  • 34 reports of thrombosis
  • 27 reports of lupus
  • 23 reports of blood clots
  • 16 reports of stroke
  • 11 reports of vasculitis
  • 544 reports of seizures

On top of this, in the VAERS database there are 467 “rechallenge” reports, which involve cases where there was a worsening of symptoms after a repeated vaccination — and nearly 60 percent of them are for Gardasil!

What Makes The Gardasil Vaccine Even More of a Rip-Off?

It’s intended to prevent a virus (human papilloma virus, or HPV) your body can clear up on its own, and does so more than 90 percent of the time!

At least 50 percent of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives, according to the National Prevention Information Network (NPIN). Most often, the infection causes no symptoms at all, and is easily cleared up by your immune system. In some cases the infection can result in genital warts, and much less often, cervical and other genital cancers.

Even the National Cancer Institute says:

“It is important to note, however, that the great majority of high-risk HPV infections go away on their own and do not cause cancer.”

So while Merck would like you to hear that 6 million women contract HPV annually — they do not tell you most of those cases are harmless. Cervical cancer actually claims less than 3,900 women a year — most of which are due to not getting regular Pap smears.

You should also know that Gardasil does not protect against all types of HPV, and you can still get cervical cancer even if you’ve been vaccinated. As the CDC states:

“About 30% of cervical cancers will not be prevented by the vaccine.”

What this all boils down to is that Gardasil is largely ineffective, potentially very dangerous and a major waste of money.

If you are a parent considering the Gardasil vaccine for your daughter, you would likely be far better off teaching her how to keep her immune system strong and healthy — and discussing the realities of sexually transmitted diseases and how to avoid them — than having her injected with this worthless vaccine.

Related Links:

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7 Foods to NEVER Eat!

Source: Johnson Jaclyn, eDiets.com

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There will always be those fattening foods that are easy to make, easy to get, and easy to crave. You think “OK, I know this is bad but it can’t be that bad!” Think again. Here are the top seven foods you should never ever feed your family or yourself!

1. Doughnuts It’s hard to resist the smell of a Krispy Kreme doughnut, which is why I never step foot in the store. Doughnuts are fried chock-full of sugar and white flour and loads of trans fat.

According to the Krispy Kreme Web site, an average 3.5-ounce sugar doughnut weighs in with about 400 calories and contains few other nutrients besides fat. These sugary treats may satisfy your craving but it won’t satisfy your hunger as most of the calories come from fat.

“Eating a lot of refined sugar contributes to blood sugar ‘swings’ or extreme fluctuations,” Nutritionist Susan Burke said. Read the rest of this entry »

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