Category: Truth Theory

Blind belief in authority is never good. History is filled with examples of how people in power conspired and lied to maintain their position. It is often fascinating to watch how many people put trust in their governments or governmental agencies and naively believe whatever comes out of them. As a reminder to always question things, today we will review some documented cases from the history of how the US government and its agencies committed crimes against their own population.

 Often people think that these are isolated cases. However, the more one researches the more examples can be found in every field possible. It is also worth mentioning that what is accessible to the public is what was uncovered. It is obvious that people in power who conspire or lie don’t want the public to find out so we only can learn about what already has been revealed. It can be concluded then, that this will be only a tiny minuscule of what has been happening but never saw the daylight.

1.SPYING ON ITS OWN PEOPLE

Thanks to the revelations of Edward Snowden the world could learn how The National Security Agency was spying on people. Snowden revealed that the US government was collecting vast amounts of data. NSA could get access to people’s phone records through phone companies like Verizon.

2. THE GOVERNMENT POISONED ALCOHOL TO “COMBAT ILLEGAL DRINKING”

In the 1920s the US government deliberately poisoned alcohol to enforce prohibition.

The practice was called “denaturing” alcohol, and it involved adding toxic chemicals such as methanol, formaldehyde, and kerosene to industrial alcohol, making it undrinkable. This resulted in the deaths of thousands of people.

3. COINTELPRO (COUNTER INTELLIGENCE PROGRAM)

In the 1950s and 1960s, The FBI conducted a series of covert and illegal actions aiming at the disruption and dismantling of different civil rights movements and anti-war groups. They used wiretapping, blackmail, and planting of false evidence, even implanting false information in the media.

4. TUSKEGEE STUDY

From 1932 to 1972, the US Public Health Service conducted a study on the effects of untreated syphilis on African-American men in Tuskegee, Alabama. The study was done without the consent of the participants. Hundreds of low-income black men were incentivized with free offerings, meals, burial stipends, health care, etc.

In 1947 penicillin became available to the public, it was used to treat syphilis however none of the participants of the study were offered it over the next 25 years of the study.

What Nikola Tesla first explained a century back is now all set to be a reality. An energy startup from the land down under has figured how to make wireless electricity as reality.

Emrod, an energy startup from New Zealand, explained that all they would need is a clear line of sight to transfer the electricity wirelessly. Emrod’s founder Fred Kushnir said that New Zealand has an abundance of clean energy sources, be it solar, hydro, or wind energy. But they all come with a heavy price tag. The installation costs often skyrocket and at times it’s not even possible to bring certain infrastructures to remote physical locations. An example Kushnir gave was how the offshore wind farms near the Cook Strait require underwater cable, that are very costly to install and maintain.

Emrod plans to remove the need for copper wiring over long stretches of land. This would help them send wireless electricity to places, which have been previously too secluded and remote. Such remote places often rely on diesel generators for their electricity so Emrod’s technology will also help the environment by reducing such harmful technologies.

Kushnir told New Atlas that they are testing over a “tiny” long distance for now. They are sending only a few watts between 130 feet. The technology works with a straight and clear line of sight as the electricity travels as a beam from the source to the receiver.

HOW WILL WIRELESS ELECTRICITY BE TRANSMITTED?

Electromagnetic waves are sent via “Emrod’s beam shaping, metamaterials and rectenna technology”.

With the rectenna technology, the magnetic waves are converted onto electricity. A square-shaped element set on a pole is where the electricity passes through to continue the beam-formation. As the wireless electricity beams through, a broad surface “catches” the wave. If you’re worried about passing birds getting electrocuted, worry no more. Emrod has put in place a low-power laser fence in order to keep nearby birds safe.

Talking about power outages, Emrod says it has the option of truck-mounted rectennas that can be driven out to put in place in case a relay leg is missing. Usually, wireless electricity is thought to be difficult to achieve with such technology due to the loss of signal fidelity as it transmits via the air and again via mediating technologies. Yet, Emrod’s relay system allows the beams to be refocused, where there is barely any loss of power.

Kushnir explained how the efficiency of all their components is good, coming to nearly 100%. Most of the power loss occurs on the transmitting side. But Emrod will use solid state for the transmitting side. This is similar to the electronic elements usually found in radar systems. This brings down the efficiency to 70%, but new technologies are being developed daily. So chances are we can soon get wireless electricity directly to our homes, without any loss from the source!

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

The government of New Zealand as well as the electric utilities department as helping Emrod with this project. The prototype was built with some government aid. Callaghan Innovation, the “innovation agency” of the NZ government. Emrod’s site mentions:

“It has received a Royal Society Award nomination, and New Zealand’s second largest electricity distribution company, Powerco, will be the first to test Emrod technology.”

One group of capuchin monkeys have been found in Panama who are progressing into their very own Stone Age! Since homo sapiens, these white-faced monkeys are the fourth primates who are using tools made from stone to break nuts as well as shellfish.

In July 2018 New Scientist reported that the monkeys are from Jicarón island and belong to Coiba National Park. 3 islands off the coast of Panama make up this national park and the primates are found on all 3 islands. But only the ones on Jicarón island have been witnessed using tools. Even among them, only males from one specific region on that island are using these stone tools.

Brendan Barrett from the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology was the lead author who published a paper on this discovery.  2004 was the first time this behavior was noticed in the monkeys of this park. Co-author of the paper, Alicia Ibáñez noticed it back then and the team went there in March of 2017. They set cameras strategically throughout the 3 islands to record the monkeys using the stone tools.

Footage was found of the male capuchins breaking crabs, snails, and even coconuts. It is yet to be found why the rest of the monkeys of the islands do not exhibit the same behavior. But the males, who were recorded using tools, move in between the many groups so the scientists are hoping they spread their knowledge!

The scientists are of the opinion that these monkeys entering a Stone Age of their own might be because of an accident and not just a predetermined trajectory. Maybe, one super-smart monkey was using a tool to get food and some others followed. They will observe the monkeys for longer to understand better how the evolution is taking place.

These Panama capuchins are the 2nd American species who have entered the Stone Age. Another capuchin group from South America has been using stone tools for the last 700 years. The other two non-human species using stone tools are Chimpanzees from West Africa and Macaques from Thailand

No one really likes to be overweight, but the life one lead can contribute quite heavily to how they shape up physically. And once one starts gaining weight exponentially, it is quite difficult to lose it. This is why people sometimes take extreme steps to reduce weight- surgery, consuming innumerable pills, and generally putting themselves through hell. Interestingly, one individual who weighed around 400 pounds used a completely different method for losing weight, and according to him, it worked! This man used visualization techniques to lose weight, after consulting a lot of doctors with no results to show for it. The man shared that even after a meeting with famed Dr. Atkins, he wasn’t able to lose weight. 

This is when he started visualization techniques. His techniques involved imagining exactly what sort of a body he wanted- the tight stomach muscles, the tight skin, no loose folds, and he didn’t want to go through the medical industry again, only to fail. The individual further claimed that he used to go to sleep every night visualizing the body that he wanted, and he started noticing after just a few days. He stopped being hungry during the day and stopped his cravings for junk food. Not just that, he also looked out for people with a similar mindset, who would be able to help him in his journey, and things started looking up for him finally.

The man lost 220 pounds over two and a half years and got the look that he had always desired. What was particularly interesting was that the body that the individual wanted was down to the last muscle size. His visualization techniques were so successful, that he got the body that he always wanted, and lost weight in the process, without having to go through a medical ringer.

BUT WHAT IS THIS VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUE?

According to this individual, visualization techniques basically imply the presence and usage of symbols as a mode of communication. This is expressly important if one wants to know where one stands, and has no idea how to go about it. In the case of the human body, people often forget that it is not just a working machine- it is actually a living consciousness, and we simply don’t know how to communicate with it. As it stands, we won’t be able to speak to it in English, so the only reliable tool at our disposal is the visualization techniques.

This further means that the visualization techniques that we use need to be more than just material or superficial desires. If you are unwilling to work, and simply imagine yourself in a beach body in the next 6 months, that is not going to work. The body doesn’t have a relative concept of time as the brain does, and it doesn’t understand what a beach is. We reiterate the body doesn’t speak any human language, and our inability to communicate with our body can often be detrimental to our well-being.

This is when we start using symbols and signs because that is a suitable mode of communication. Our body understands what we want over a period of time if we are able to showcase which body we actually want. This has the same principle that we see in sports- the mind-muscle connection. Sometimes, our instincts and our bodies are so in sync through visualization that we are able to perform sporting activities at peak physical fitness. When we are able to communicate with our body better, we are able to utilize the hormonal, as well as the neuronal changes that help us deal with the requirements placed before us.

THE CREATIVE PRINCIPLE THAT GOVERNS VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUES

With the advancement of science and technology, humans have somewhat stopped using their creative juices and faculties. Humans have stopped imagining, something that is still prevalent in indigenous communities around the world. Even as kids, we used visualization to dream, to concoct stories, and it is this creative faculty of life that sets the dial for the body to move on its own accord. With visualization techniques, one imagines how their day is going to turn out, and how they want to perform activities. Visualization techniques, or the creative principle allow one to tap into the potential that we have no idea about. We might have lost it somewhere amidst the advancements made in technology, but it is still there inside all of us.

For those wondering how it works, visualization techniques work by addressing the root of our stress- which is a structure in the brain called the amygdala. When an individual is under chronic stress, the brain ends up producing catecholamines, which are chemical messengers, that head for the amygdala. And according to neuroscientists, this structure does play quite a crucial role in generating emotions. In a situation that is quite necessarily stressful, the chemical messengers direct the amygdala to emit worry and fear. When one calms down their stress response with these techniques, they also end up reducing the flow of pro-inflammatory cytokines and stress hormones.

Research has also noted that visualization techniques such as guided-imagery meditation could be developed to be of therapeutic benefit in multiple chronic inflammatory conditions. These conditions include some of the most troubling chronic inflammatory conditions of all: weight gain, hunger, and obesity. And as it turns out, not just everyday humans, but legends in the sporting industry are also known to practice visualization. One simply has to turn towards nine-time gold medal-winning sprinter Carl Lewis, and golfing legend Tiger Woods, who practice visualization and credit a major part of their success to this mind-body connection that they have.

Visualization techniques to lose weight can be quite simple if one understands the way to go through it. To put it clearly, if one is trying to lose weight, they owe it to themselves to try out the technique before resorting to medical jargon. People barely understand the power of visualization- for if they do, they will end up being the best possible versions of themselves that they could ever be.

Artificial Intelligence systems are slowly impacting more and more our lives and are being implemented in different industries and products. The systems in use currently are mostly based on narrow AI. Narrow AI is very different from general AI. Narrow AI is created to focus on specific tasks, an example is a chatbot. General AI would allow to potentially solve almost any problem and still hasn’t been developed (at least officially). However, most recent developments such as Chat GPT, are moving us closer and closer to the ultimate goal which could be the biggest disruption in the history of humanity – General Artificial Intelligence.

AI can be used to help solve some of the biggest problems that our culture faces and give us answers to some of the biggest questions. However, it poses also the biggest threat to our existence. There are many potential dangers. Automation is taking over and more and more everything becomes interconnected. Internet of things, smart devices, and more and more our lives are driven by technology and digital systems. This could now be hacked by AI or someone could use AI to disrupt the grid, this is one potential danger. But let’s not jump too far with potential threats of General AI as it is still not fully developed, and let us review the dangers that already are slowly unfolding with the current levels of AI:

1. JOB MARKET DISRUPTION

Automation is slowly changing the job market landscape. Many jobs are affected and countless might disappear in the near future. Customer service representatives are slowly being replaced by AI bots. The legal profession might get affected as well, some legal documents could be done with the help of Chat GPT-like technologies. Even programmers are at risk, Chat GPT already can write code for software. Many experts think that eventually, AI will be able to build software or websites on its own with minimal human input.

2. BIAS AND DISCRIMINATION

AI software is often optimized for efficiency however this sometimes causes discrimination. One example is Amazon’s AI tool which was designed to review job applications and turned out to have a preference for male candidates:
“In effect, Amazon’s system taught itself that male candidates were preferable. It penalized resumes that included the word “women’s,” as in “women’s chess club captain.” And it downgraded graduates of two all-women’s colleges, according to people familiar with the matter. They did not specify the names of the schools.” source
Coded Bias is a documentary available on Netflix that covers more similar examples

3. DEEPFAKES

Deepfake technology is basically an altered image, video, or voice that can mimic an event or a person. You might see a video of someone who looks like a known celebrity and they might talk about some particular topic but the video is completely fabricated and very convincing. This technology is used maliciously and already causing a lot of harm where videos of celebrities can be altered to create adult movies for example. One of the most recent victims of deepfake AI was Twitch streamer and YouTuber QTCinderella whose footage was altered to create adult-style content.
She was devastated when she learned about it.

4. PRIVACY CONCERNS

AI systems rely heavily on data, they often gather vast amounts of data that could be misused. Privacy violations are a potential threat. Understanding way too much about an individual is a threat to their privacy. If data would get into the “wrong hands” it could be used against an individual.

5. MANIPULATION OF PERCEPTION

AI algorithms can manipulate people’s perceptions, views, behaviors, and reactions through fake news, targeted advertising, propaganda, and deepfakes. As a result, democracy could be undermined or people’s decisions could be altered in a negative way.

6. SOCIOECONOMIC INEQUALITY

Regions or countries that embrace AI technology could disrupt other markets and create a shift in the power structure and economic advantage for those embracing it. AI startups in silicon valley, for example, are already getting a huge injection of funds from investors and venture capital firms.

7. TRANSHUMANISM

Perhaps the biggest threat is when AI has access to humans directly. People like Elon Musk are working on implantable brain-computer interface systems such as Neuralink. His idea is to connect humans to computers and this has many dangers as humans become fully hackable by AI or just by hackers. Below you can watch some of my videos explaining why this is so dangerous:

While this plan could help in the development of Indonesia as a major developer of EV batteries, the mining of electric car batteries will also destroy large areas of the interior of Halmahera. These forests, according to a survey, are inhabited by 300-500 uncontacted members of the Hongana Manyawa tribe. If the plan is implemented, this tribe will not be able to survive the destruction of their habitat. The Manyawa tribe is one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes in Indonesia that still roam free and uninvaded. But now, they could be facing extinction, as the government in the country will be looking to create sustainable options for people who don’t live in the country.

According to the UNHRC and international law, mining is absolutely illegal- since the uncontacted tribes are not capable of giving them informed, prior, and free consent to this exploitation of their land- something that is necessary, legally, for all forms of developments that could take place on indigenous territories. And yet, the Weda Bay Nickel- which is a joint venture owned partly by Eramet, a mining company from France- has had an enormous concession on this island where they would be mining for electric car batteries. The WBN started mining in 2019, even though they were completely aware that their area under mining overlapped with the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa territory. Since then, large areas of the rainforest- which is home to the tribe, have been destroyed. According to the latest plans of the company, they have intentions of operating here for 50 years.

After-effects of nickel mining in Halmahera, the home of the Hongana Manyawa tribe.

THE LAND GRAB IS ABSOLUTELY IMMORAL, ILLEGAL, AND UNETHICAL

A recently contacted woman from the Hongana Wanyama tribe stated, “They are poisoning our water and making us feel like we are being slowly killed.” Another woman went on to state, “I do not give consent for them to take it… tell them that we do not want to give away our forest.” Caroline Pearce, the Director of Survival, also explained, “It’s appalling that electric car companies would sell customers a promise of ‘ethical consumption’, while their supply chains destroy an uncontacted tribe. There is nothing ‘climate-friendly’ about laying waste to the Hongana Manyawa’s rainforest and nothing ‘sustainable’ about causing the deaths of Indigenous people who are living self-sufficiently. Tesla and other electric car companies have an opportunity to live up to their customer’s expectations and to avert a horrific – and illegal – assault on human rights by pledging that none of the minerals they buy ever comes from the lands of uncontacted Indigenous people in Halmahera. Failing to do so would be a statement that the lives of the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa are expendable.”

A man from the tribe that is undergoing chances of extinction due to mining for electric car batteries also stated, “If there is no more forest, then there will be no more Hongana Manyawa.” It is understandable that a growing lack of natural resources has led people to consider other avenues for development. And while electric vehicles are indeed a solution to the problem, it comes with their own environmental snafus. The biggest problem regarding electric car batteries is that they are usually made of metals that are hard to find, such as nickel, lithium, and cobalt. Also, considering how deep the minerals are deposited in the Earth’s surface, invasive mining usually results in indigenous land grabs and ecosystem destruction.

One of the companies that have invested in mining here is Tesla, which, ironically, has a policy that all forms of material extraction will also involve, “legitimate representatives of indigenous communities and include the right to free and informed consent.” However, Survival has argued that the company has not abided by this code- where they have also given examples of when Elon Musk’s company cut deals with Chinese companies like CNGR Advanced Material and Huayou Cobalt- that have links to such mining in Halmahera, where the Manyawa tribe resides.

Help stop an uncontacted tribe from being wiped out to produce electric car batteries

There are quite a few popular lies that some schools still peddle to their children. These lies have already been debunked but many people still believe in them. Let’s read some of the lies that some schools routinely tell students.

5 POPULAR LIES IN HISTORY THAT SCHOOLS STILL TELL US

1. COLUMBUS DID NOT DISCOVER AMERICA

There have been a lot of theories that would disprove the notion that it was Christopher Columbus who was responsible for discovering America. One such theory belongs to the Vikings. The early expeditions of the Vikings to North America have been documented quite well, and have also been accepted as a historical fact by most scholars. Around 1000 AD, Leif Erikson, the Viking explorer, and son of Erik the Red, sailed to a place that he referred to as Vinland- which is currently the province of Newfoundland in Canada. The Viking explorers didn’t stay for long before they returned to Greenland.

In 1960, Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his wife, Anne Stine Ingstad, went on to unearth an ancient Norse settlement. In the ensuing seven years, the couple and an international team of archaeologists managed to expose the foundations of around eight separate buildings. In 1969, Congress went on to designate 9th October as Leif Erikson Day. As it stands, there are also stories about a Muslim-Chinese eunuch mariner who visited the Americas 71 years before Columbus did. The mariner was Zheng He- and he was a real historical figure- as mentioned by Gavin Menzies in his book- 1421- The Year China Discovered America

2. MARCONI DID NOT INVENT THE RADIO BUT TESLA 

While the last century has catapulted Guglielmo Marconi as the founder of the radio, it was just a massive stroke of fortune that Marconi got the credit and not Nikola Tesla. When Tesla created his coils, the inventor went on to discover that he could easily transmit and receive majorly powerful radio signals which could then be tuned to resonate at the same frequency. When this coil was tuned to a signal of a particular frequency, it would magnify the incoming electrical energy through a largely resonant action. In 1895, Tesla was absolutely ready to transmit a signal that would go about 50 miles to West Point, New York- but a fire in his lab destroyed all of his work.

During this period, there was a young Italian experimenter called Guglielmo Marconi in England, who had been working hard to create a device for the wireless telegraph. The young Italian had already taken out the first patent for a wireless telegraph in 1896. Through a set up of long-distance demonstrations- which ironically used a Tesla oscillator- the Italian was able to transmit the signals across the Channel. Soon, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company began thriving heavily in the stock markets, with celebrities like Edison and Andrew Carnegie investing in it.

3. EDISON DIDN’T INVENT THE LIGHTBULB

While the phonograph was one of the most groundbreaking discoveries by Thomas Alva Edison, it was usually considered to be a novelty. In fact, Edison had already moved to his next concept- the incandescent light bulb. As it stands, electric bulbs had already been in play since the early part of the 19th century- but they were not resilient- quite short-lived due to the filaments. One of the earliest forms of electric light- which was the carbon arc light- also relied on battery-heated carbon rods in order to produce light. But they would have to be lit by hands- and the process was quite dangerous.

On the other hand, what Edison created was practical, cheap, and long-lasting. He demonstrated a bulb that could last for 14.5 hours in 1879. Speaking to a New York Times reporter, the inventor stated that his light was a perfect one. But- it was actually not completely perfect as it was a Black inventor by the name of Lewis Latimer, who went on to refine Edison’s creation, making filaments more durable and working to efficiently manufacture them.

4. GANDHI WASN’T THE “SAINT” HISTORY MADE HIM OUT TO BE

It should come as a shock to people who have grown up reading about the great stature of Mahatma Gandhi, to realize that his life had dark, twisted secrets as well- ones that history has often neglected to accentuate. It was Ashwin Desai, a professor of sociology at the University of Johannesburg, and Goolam Vahed- a history professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who spent years compiling a book on the story of Gandhi in South Africa. In 2015, they went on to publish a book called The South African Gandhi- Stretcher-Bearer of Empire- which went on to cast a light on the whitewashed past of Gandhi, as well as his highly derogatory comments against the indigenous tribes of Africa. It also has been revealed that he would “use his wife as a punching bag” as quoted in Gandhi: The True Man Behind Modern India: “I simply cannot bear to look at Ba’s face. The expression is often like that on the face of a meek cow and gives one the feeling as a cow occasionally does, that in her own dumb manner she is saying something.”

5. THE EVOLUTION THEORY DID NOT COME FROM DARWIN ALONE

When asked about the Theory of Evolution, most of us would turn towards Charles Darwin, and hardly anyone would pay heed to Alfred Russel Wallace, another British naturalist, who was a co-discoverer of the theory. It was Wallace who developed some of the most important ideas about natural selection during an eight-year expedition to what was considered to be the Dutch East Indies- modern-day Indonesia- where he then observed the wildlife and collected multiple specimens. By 1855, Wallace had come to the conclusion that all living things evolve. But he didn’t really understand how or why until three years later. He was on the island of Halmahera, quite delirious with fever when he realized that animals evolved when they adapted to their environment.

These are the 5 popular lies that any school would teach you as a part of one’s curriculum. It turns to us to debunk the lies and preach the truth.

When George Orwell wrote his seminal book ‘1984’ in 1949, it was meant to be a dystopian satire on the totalitarian government that had risen up after the Second World War. The plot contained a global despotic power that controlled the people of a fictional continent called Oceania through suppressive tools of propaganda and surveillance. Considered to be quite a visionary work of the future, there are several predictions from Orwell’s 1984 that have come true in the current century. Multiple technological innovations that were considered fanciful imagination in the 1950s have been already ingratiated as part of the mainstream- which governments are using to control the population.

HERE ARE 6 PREDICTIONS FROM ORWELL’S ‘1984’ THAT HAVE COME TRUE TODAY

1. THE TELESCREEN

Telescreens were basically large, flat TVs that were not only used to pass messages between party members but were also used to monitor civilians. The telescreen would closely keep track of an individual’s motion, monitoring if their heartbeat changed, or if they were looking at something they shouldn’t have. In recent times, the variant of the Telescreen is the CCTV camera, which has given rise to facial recognition software. In China, the Uighur Muslim community is already tracked by such cameras, after which they are subjected to persecution.

2. SPEAKWRITE

The protagonist of 1984, Winston Smith, is a copywriter for the Record section of the Ministry of Truth- which is a major part of the ruling party INGSOC. His task involves using Speakwrite- which is a recording device that converts speech into text on the telescreen. As of today, there are several apps and services which offer the same service. While this technology isn’t technically evil, Orwell did predict that this technology will blow up over the millennium- and it did.

3. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU

The main idea of 1984 was total and utter surveillance at all points during the day. Posters of ‘Big Brother’ adorned billboards in cities, and acted as a deterrent towards those who could potentially break rules. This tactic has been used by political leaders all over the world, with Kim Jong Un, the de facto leader of North Korea launching a new set of posters in 2018 that spurred his people to work and make him proud.

4. PERPETUAL WAR

In Orwell’s book, the main Party had switched to a policy of continual war that would eat up any and all surplus that the population had produced. This would not only ensure that the population remained poor and in control, but would also ensure their complete loyalty to the clause. The US does seem to be moving from finishing one war to a potential next one pretty swiftly- which isn’t necessarily doing any favors to its population.

5. NEWSPEAK

In 1984, Orwell talked about how language is often used to control and deceive the masses. This was linked from Confucious, who himself linked the misuse of vocabulary to social breakdown and warfare. In the world today, we are surrounded by a cocoon of euphemism and political correctness- which are both pervasive and derided pervasively. Several stand-up comics have mocked this variant of the language, where the government develops normal-sounding terms for events that are anything but. When the government takes less money from its population, it is termed as a tax expenditure, but wealthy people, on the other hand, are called job-creators.

6. MASS ENTERTAINMENT

One of the predictions from Orwell’s 1984 which has turned prophetic is that the proletariat doesn’t need to be under surveillance- as long as they are kept well-fed, well-intoxicated, and well-pleasured. This was Orwell’s way of explaining that as long as the superficialities of life were fulfilled for the extremely downtrodden, they wouldn’t focus on the truly important. If we search Google Trends today, we would probably come up with thousands of Page Six articles, a couple of Vogue recipes, and a few Cosmopolitan suggestions- but nothing really of note. Maybe it was Orwell talking about how we were losing touch with reality- as we were consumed by the facade of luxury.

Quite a few predictions from Orwell’s 1984 have been true for our generation. Although some of them are positive, like Speakwrite, every other technological innovation is simply a tool for surveillance, control, or propaganda.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the dogs living near Chornobyl can have a different genetic makeup than other dogs around the world. And this has been confirmed by recent research that was conducted on the hundreds of dogs that free-wheel the area around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. After the nuclear disaster took place on the 26th of April, 1986 at Chornobyl, the government had mandated that 120,000 people who lived in the area and the nearby city of Pripyat would have to evacuate and abandon their homes. This definitely also involved the pet dogs of the families- of whom many couldn’t be evacuated. So they have somehow managed to create a significant population of their own as they roam around in the irradiated land that accompanies the decaying power unit.

The new study focused on scientists looking for a deeper understanding of the genetic makeup of the dogs living near Chornobyl, and the effects of constant radiation on their bodies. This research was made possible with the help of blood samples that were taken from such dogs between 2017 and 2019. The scientists managed to analyze the DNA of 302 dogs from the populations that resided around the power plant- as well as 15 to 45 kilometers from the disaster site. Interestingly, even a cursory view of their DNA would be able to differentiate between these dogs, and the dogs living elsewhere. The researchers have the notion that the ionizing radiation they have been exposed to for generations on end may be the main factor behind the difference.

The new research also found out that the population had 15 different complex familial units- which were quite unique when compared with the other dog communities around the world. It was also made clear that the dogs roamed about in apparent freedom, and bred freely with one another. The lead study author and geneticist of this study conducted at the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute, Elaine Ostrander, went on to state that the most remarkable discovery from the entire study was that the identification between the dogs could be made quite cleanly with a simple look at their DNA profiles.
It also spoke volumes about the resilience that these dogs had, as they lived for decades around spent fuel rods, and their descendants are still alive and kicking to this day. One could also make a connection between the dogs of 2023 with the dogs of 1986, as most of them are likely the successors of the pets abandoned earlier. The DNA of the abandoned dogs lay quite clear on the new dogs that roam the area.

FURTHER RESEARCH COULD REVEAL INTRICACIES IN THE DNA OF THESE DOGS

According to the latest count, close to 800 semi-feral dogs live near Chornobyl, which also includes the extremely contaminated area- the Chornobyl New Safe Confinement Structure. The hounds are semi-feral, because they are routinely fed by the researchers and the workers, and they also have some run-ins with other individuals. The list includes plenty of vets who visit the area and vaccinate the dogs whilst also treating them for whatever ailments they might have. Since it has been made clear that scientists can reliably differentiate between the genetic makeup of the dogs living near Chornobyl, scientists are now trying to see if these genetic anomalies have a major impact on their appearance, health, and their behavior.

It could also highlight how the genetic mutations in these dogs allowed them to survive in the harsh nuclear winter at this location. Ostrander hopes that they would find enough variants of the DNA that they have acquired through 15 generations of dogs- which would answer a lot of questions as to the chances of survival at the highest of radiation exposures versus the lowest radiating environment.

Although the research on the dogs living near Chornobyl is still in a very fledgling state scientists are delighted because it shows how super-detailed analysis can now be carried out on even a rag-tag gang of stray dogs.