News Briefs 09-05-2011

After this musical interlude, let me just cut to the chase: this is nothing but an urban myth.

Here in Mexico chain mail dealing with this nefarious legend have been circulating for quite a while. So far there's been nothing to substantiate such claims.

It's kind of shocking to see this sort of news been printed in Wired. You would think such a prestigious magazine would require higher standards for their journalists.

This comment under The Guardian article heavily implicates Lyme disease:

Comment by MariaPReina:

I was lucky enough to be at that conference and unlucky enough to be a sufferer of this devastating condition - I spoke to Will at great length initially agreeing to have my identity on parade, but had second thoughts because of the ramifications for myself and my family.
I really thought Will had a handle on this, so much more was said, So many credible speakers, offering unquestionable evidence, If you are lucky enough to have a DVD of last years conference, a study of 122 people complaining of the same symptoms 97% of these patients turned out to be suffering from Lyme disease which is another controversial and poorly understood and very under-reported serious and life threatening condition. I myself had to go to extreme lengths to get a positive diagnosis. Tests in UK failed to pick up on markers following a test done in germany that indicated Lyme - so at a cost of over £1000 my blood was sent to the states where the test came back as positive. Lyme disease was pretty much the topic of the second day of the conference, yet the connection isn't mentioned in the article at all. A German Doctor who is treating people with both Lyme and Morgellons with a degree of success gave an amazing seminar, yet didn't get a mention in the article. The shame of it is that the poor Guys back in the states were all so excited that the British press were interested and really thought that the world would stand up and take notice if the Guardian took this on. I truly thought that Will's angle was going to help, but actually what he has written is as ambiguous as every other article. Dr whymore had so much more to say, why pick up on the odd duck feather. This is suffering to the extreme the terror is mind blowing and belittled by meaningless words. Major players were omitted, whilst I understand word counts etc. I feel that the connection to Lyme was a sure must. Sorry Will, but I have been left bewildered. Of course there are the chemtrails, theories the crop spraying, the gene splicing i could go on but you all have google.The DOP is the biggest heap of humiliating life ruining bunkum that the medical profession have ever come up with, but it allows them to diagnose you and get rid of you in the allotted 8 minutes or so that they are given to see you, diagnose you and treat you, but the truth is, you wouldn't go to a chiropodist to have a tooth pulled, you dont got to a dermatologist with a psychiatric problem and they are not qualified to give such a life shattering diagnosis, they fail to rule out every possible medical reason that could cause the skin condition purely because once you have taken your sample, you have actually given them the primary symptom of DOP by providing a specimen of your tormentor, what else would you do??

I suspect some cases of 'Morgellons' may be due to 'prickly heat' ('heat rash', miliaria), in which the sweat glands are affected by increased numbers of naturally-occurring bacteria on the skin, and become obstructed. The obstruction is located deep in the structure of the sweat gland, causing the gland’s secretions to leak between the superficial and deep layers of the skin, resulting in a 'pins and needles' sensation and intense itching. The bacteria produce toxins, which become hard when combined with certain cells & tissue. This hardened substance causes the sweat gland ducts to become blocked.

A more technical description:
Histological study shows a PAS-positive diastase resistant amorphous mass deep within the acrosyringium after 2 days of occlusion, accompanied by a periductal dermal infiltration of leukocytes. After another 2 days the ducts become clogged by an amalgam of degenerating leukocytes.

It is postulated that the bacteria secrete a toxin which injures luminal cells and precipitates a cast within the lumen. Infiltration by leukocytes creates an impaction which completely obstructs the passage of sweat for several weeks.

This impaction sloughs off after about 3 weeks as a result of epidermal renewal. Colonies of bacteria were never found within the ducts.

I've read some articles about prickly heat which blame the condition on poor hygiene (i.e. not bathing often enough). I suspect dermatologists frequently get an earful of irate denial about that notion. Perhaps it's the case that, due to genetics, some people just have much slower 'epidermal renewal' rates than others, which could be turning this into an unrecognized chronic condition.

And according to Nick Redfern, he might have also spawned one of the most famous close encounters of all time:

"Our men...were able to use illusions of an amusing nature in the Italian mountains, especially when operating in small groups as advance patrols scouting out the way for our general moves forward. In one area, in particular, they used a device which was little more than a gigantic scarecrow, about twelve feet high, and able to stagger forward under its own power and emit frightful flashes and bangs. This thing scared several Italian Sicilian villages appearing in the dawn thumping its deafening way down their streets with great electric blue sparks jumping from it; and the inhabitants, who were mostly illiterate peasants, simply took to their heels for the next village, swearing that the Devil was marching ahead of the invading English."

With this monumental discovery, we might finally learn how the Quantum world of Schrödinger's cat fits with Einstein's relativity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2W8XKK-3Rk