After 28 years in N. Korea camp, survivor speaks out

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Gut Reaction

#StorySaturday is a Guest Blog weekend experiment in which we invite people to write about science in a different, unusual format ? fiction, science fiction, lablit, personal story, fable, fairy tale, poetry, or comic strip. We hope you like it.

=========================

?I never meant for this to happen.?

Photo: Jenny Morber

Photo: Jenny Morber

As Mark clicked on the recorder he heard her throat tighten. President Rhee?s voice was steady, but hundreds of interviews had trained Mark?s ear. She was digging in, steeling herself. She was preparing for something painful.

He placed the recorder on the table between them and looked up. Upholstered chairs and rugs decorated the room like an old English library. The furniture must have been fifty years old, but the fabric was not worn or stained like the pieces he was used to. It looked pristine. The silk and velvet caressed his palms. Could this be the self-healing nano-tex he had heard his father talk about? He had thought the stories to be myth. Mark rubbed the cloth again. Where were they?

The President had gone to some lengths to conceal their location. Mark had to change vehicles three times to get there. Just speaking to her was risky, and at one point he had not been sure that he would arrive alive, but Mark was betting that the story was important enough to her to ensure his safety. So far, his gamble was paying off.

Mark inhaled deeply. The room must once have been a kitchen storage locker. The decorations could fool the eye, but they didn?t hide the smell. At one time the room had held cured meats and cheeses, honey, wine, crates of butter. His stomach growled. Mark couldn?t remember the last time he had eaten butter.

?I wanted a chance to make things better. I thought that I would help to turn the country around ? return us to former glory. We needed a radical change. Most of all, I had to defeat Beckman.?

Beckman. Mark remembered the Republican incumbent in the 2016 election ? ?The Final Election?? from his youth. He was everything Rhee was not. Old. Moneyed. An upstanding family man with conservative values. He had run his campaign on his stability. ?Stay the course? his campaign flyers cried. He told the people to be patient ? it took time for policies to make change. His smear campaign against Rhee had been particularly nasty.

Mark studied the President?s tattoos. He wondered why she was telling the story now.

?The race was close. Polls showed that I was leading Beckman by three percentage points, but I was sliding. The environment was going to hell. The water was poison and the animals were dying, but Beckman had managed to increase wages and decrease the price of gas. He did it through some shady dealings with suspected terrorists, but nobody cared. All anybody cared about was the money in their pocket.?

The President?s face contorted in disgust. Mark suppressed the urge to ask how much the furniture had set her back.

?I was getting desperate. We knew we had the youth vote, but it wasn?t enough. We needed to convince people that their lives would be better with me as President. I was unusual, rough. Some people were afraid.?

?So you sent every voter in the US a package of food.? Mark cut in.

The President?s bold political move had become famous. The plan had worked brilliantly. Recession had stretched incomes and environmental catastrophes had increased food prices. The once-rogue candidate had given voters? something tangible to show that she understood them, cared about them. Just one week after the food deliveries began, President Rhee rose in the polls to a lead of 65%. She won easily.

?We spent nearly every dollar we had on that food. But it worked.?

?I remember that box. It had some tasty stuff.?

The President?s face grew cloudy with an expression that Mark couldn?t read. She looked past him for a minute, then came back.

?Yes, we made sure of that.? She said quietly. Rhee hesitated. ?It wasn?t just the food, but what was IN the food.?

?Yes! The vitamins and minerals. My parents were so excited that I actually ate it.? Then, recognizing that the confession made him sound like a child, ?Must have really helped out those families having a hard time.?

The President turned toward Mark, looking straight at him for the first time.

?Are you familiar with the work of Professor James Leeds??

Where was this going? ?Uh, no, I don?t believe so.?

?I suppose you wouldn?t be. He wasn?t well-known even back then?Back when the election was close, when it looked like it might have been slipping away, one of my young campaign promoters suggested that I speak to him, said that he thought I might find his work interesting. ?

?And what work would that be??

The President rubbed an imaginary spot on her chair. ?Gut bacteria.?

?Gut bacteria??

?Did you know that your body harbors more bacteria cells and DNA than human cells and DNA? Ten times more??

?No. I don?t believe that.?

?It?s true.?

?What does all of this have to do with your campaign??

The President pretended not to hear his question.

?Even more creepy, Leeds? work showed that these bacteria affect the people they populate. They influence immunity, body weight, even?the mind.?

?The mind? What? Are you telling me that you think we are controlled by bacteria in our gut? Like robots?? Mark?s tone bordered on condescension. He was sure that the woman had gone batty.

?Not in a ?left turn, right turn, smile? sort of way. They INFLUENCE us, make us more likely to do one thing or another. Do you remember what else the food said it had??

Mark shook his head.

?Probiotics.?

?Probiotics. Like in yogurt? For, ah, regularity??

?Probiotics are live bacteria. And yes, they can improve regularity, but that?s not why we added them. We added them?? Rhee?s previously pained eyes gave away a glint of pleasure as she remembered her former power, ?for mind control.?

For a fraction of a second Mark looked at The President with his mouth half open. Did she just admit to engaging in mind control to win the election? He had eaten this stuff. Her mind had to be slipping. You can?t control someone?s mind with yogurt. Can you?

?Gut bacteria influence the mind. The mind influences decisions. Decisions influence votes.? We thought, ?What if a political candidate harnessed this power? It wouldn?t take much ? just a few percentage points. So Leeds and I cooked up some bacteria that increased what he called ?tolerance for risk.? Remember I was the unknown ? wild, young, dangerous. We wanted to make sure that people weren?t afraid to take a risk at the polls. Turns out that there were already bacteria that could increase risk tolerance, we just?enhanced them a little.?

She took a breath. ?When we won we had no way to be sure that the bacteria had worked. The food itself was pretty compelling, and Leeds had told me that it would be difficult to replace the bacteria that people already had even though he developed a particularly hardy strain. He estimated that it would only take in something like 2% of the people who ate our food. So, I mostly forgot about it and got to the job of running the country.?

Mark sat almost in a daze, aware and not aware of the silence between them. Then he remembered what had happened just three years into The President?s term. ?Until.?

?Yes, until. Turns out that risk tolerance doesn?t only translate at the polls. At first it just seemed like a run of bad luck ? exploding mortgages, wall street megalomania, social and environmental apathy, an uptick in accidents, murders and suicides ? all bad news, but they could be explained away. These things had happened before. After two years though, it started to seem like nothing we did made it better, so I called a few statistician friends to look into it. They confirmed that this was a trend unlike anything that we had seen in recorded history. I knew what had happened. The bacteria had destabilized the country.?

Mark waited. The President took a breath.

?And of course, the people always blame the leader. Only this time they were right.?

When the rioting started The President had tried to declare martial law, but she had waited too long. The military itself had grown beyond her control. Since then she had gone into hiding and the country had been ruled by a series of ineffective mafia lords. Most recently, each state had seceded to become an independent country. Some measure of stability had returned, but stability doesn?t instantly bring prosperity. After the revolt other countries afraid of similar uprisings cut ties to the US. Halted trade had plunged the country into depression that it didn?t seem to be able to claw its way out of.

?But I thought you said that the bacteria would only take hold in 2% of the population. That couldn?t have been enough to cause such a huge movement.?

?Initially yes, but it seems that life finds a way to survive. Infants and those who have recently received antibiotics are particularly susceptible. Like I told you, we engineered a tenacious strain. Leed?s research tells us that every time it had an opening, our strain moved in. Infants grow up. People get sick and need medicine. Natural selection is moving it forward. Now we believe that as much as 85% of the population harbors these bacteria.

?Why are you telling me this??

?I need you to tell this story to the country.?

?Why??

The way The President looked at Mark made him shiver.

?There?s something else.?

?Oh God.?? There was more?

?I felt responsible for this. I had wanted to IMPROVE the country, not plunge it into lawlessness and depression. So again I sought Dr. Leeds to find some kind of cure. I had to kill this thing that we had created. We came up with the idea of using a virus to attack the bacteria. To reduce the chance of it evolving some kind of defense we engineered the virus to only shut down the part of the bacteria we cared about ?its ability to increase risk tolerance. We wanted to bring people back to their normal state.?

?But you already screwed up. Why do this again??

?We thought we had it this time. We tested it in animals, then ourselves. Finally we released it out into the population.

?It didn?t work??

?It worked perfectly. The problem was the human brain.?

?The brain??

?We knew that the bacteria changed behavior, but we didn?t think about how. The brain of infected people ENJOY taking risk. They find it pleasurable. To them it?s like eating chocolate, having sex, enjoying dinner with friends. Taking risks flooded the brain with pleasure signals ?so many that the brain acclimated to it. When we took it away, people became unable to feel pleasure of any kind, then they lost the ability to feel any kind of emotion. They became shells.?

Mark realized that his fingernails had been digging into his palms.

?How do you know this??

?Leeds. He?s gone. He?s been sitting over there the whole time.?

Mark jumped three feet out of his chair. He hadn?t noticed the figure of a man sitting in the corner behind Rhee. The figure hadn?t moved.

Rhee ignored his reaction and kept talking: ?More robot than a man. I?m next.?

Mark finally identified the look that had been playing across the President?s face during the entire interview. It wasn?t remorse, or sadness. It was fear.

?You have to tell the story so that someone can find a cure. The virus is working its way through the population. Have you seen reports of children? Increases in social disorders ? it?s the virus.?

Mark looked at the President in disgust. She had caused this ? had caused everything ? and in a few weeks she wouldn?t care.

?You have to run the story before it takes hold of the entire US. Before the symptoms manifested in Leeds he was working on a vaccination. You will give his notes to the CDC. Maybe they can figure out what he was working on. People will need to have fecal DNA tests to see if they have the bacteria, and then a vaccination once the CDC creates one. You will have to convince people that this is one shot they cannot skip. Will you do this??

?I will certainly try.?

Mark looked down at his recorder. He was going to have some story to tell. As he checked the power a movement caught his eye.

?The President raised something heavy and metallic.

Mark jumped toward her, overturning the table with the recorder.

BAM!

Mark?s ears screamed in protest as his hand sunk into something fleshy and wet.

Leeds had tilted his head slightly in reaction to the sound.

The bright red blood that pooled on The President?s chair rolled off onto the floor. The upholstery remained unblemished.

Leeds finally spoke: ?Someone is going to need to clean that up.?

?

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Japan Field Trip ? Oishi!

Imho it is impossible to visit Japan and not rave about the food! In my youth the only Japanese food I knew of was sushi, and even with the accumulated experiences from my trips to Japan I still love sushi? But it was just the start of a life long exploration of a fantastic and highly evolved cuisine! Oh, this post is going to make me hungry?.

In reverse order, for lunch before I flew out of Narita we went to a kaiten sushi bar that I?ve been to before, on the top floor of the Yodobashi Camera store in Akihabara (there was some shopping that had to be done too!)

Slowly I am learning the Japanese names of my favourite sushi, and this is my current favourite: hotategai (scallop)

oishi!

oishi!

At a few places we stayed I was asked if I wanted a western breakfast, I always politely said no, thank you? but I thought to myself why would anyone want to miss out on a breakfast that looks & tastes like this!!! I was also reminded of a great quote about travel by James Michener: ?If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home.?

oishi!

oishi!

oishi!

I love visiting supermarkets in Japan ? I?m not quite sure what some of these things are but they look fascinating!!!

oishi!

oishi!

oishi!

Dinner in Onomichi

oishi!

oishi!

oishi!

mmmmm sake!

oishi!

A great restaurant we went to in Kyoto

oishi!

oishi!

oishi!

oishi!

basashi!
oishi!

oishi!

Lunch at Sanzen-in, Kyoto

oishi!

oishi!

oishi!

Had some great news recently, THE ORATOR (the Samoan film I did score & sound design for) is screening at the Nara Film Festival in Japan in September! Which is just after we finish the final mix for THE EMPEROR so I have booked my next trip to Japan ? I can?t wait!

oishi!

Kampai!

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Englarged Prostate recipience treatment. Whitmore Mansion ...

Also in 1996, the FDA approved minimally invasive the removal transurethral needle system for treatment of BPH. The system offers low level of radiofrequency energy through twin needles to burn a well-defined region of prostatic hypertrophy. The system improves urine flow and relieves the symptoms with less side effects compared with transurethral resection of the prostate natural bph treatment . The therapy uses water heated to destroy excess tissue in the prostate. The heat system is concentrated in a specific area of the prostate.

best treatment for bph

The researchers say that the use of alternative medicines, particularly herbal products, has increased dramatically over the past ten years, spending $ 4.2 billion on herbs and other botanical remedies in 2001 alone.

bph treatment

But the study shows that, after reaching a peak in 2001, the number of Americans take a dietary supplement is maintained separately, while a growing number of Americans now get the herbs daily multivitamin.

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Mexico got wrong man in high-profile drug arrest

A man accused of being a cocaine trafficker and the son of Mexico's most wanted drug lord Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman is an automobile dealer swept up in a case of mistaken identity, Mexico's attorney general's office confirmed late Friday.

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Mexican marines seized the suspect on Thursday outside Guadalajara and flew him to Mexico City, where they paraded him in front of the media and identified him as Jesus Alfredo Guzman, alias "El Gordo" or "The Fat One."

They said they found him with an arsenal of rifles, pistols and grenades and about $160,000 in cash.

But lawyer Veronica Guerrero told a news conference that her client's real name is Felix Beltran and that he is an innocent car dealer.

Mexico's attorney general's office confirmed later that several identity tests reveal the man was indeed Leon and not the drug trafficker, Telemundo reported.

"This is a case of total confusion over people," said Guerrero, who was accompanied by a woman who said she is the suspect's mother.

Mexico's attorney general's office confirmed late Friday that several identity tests reveal the man was indeed Leon and not the drug trafficker.

Thursday's arrest won praise from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which has sought Jesus Alfredo Guzman since he was indicted for cocaine trafficking in 2009.

His father, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, faces dozens of charges of racketeering and drug smuggling in U.S. courts. There is a $5 million reward for his capture.

The arrest came just over a week before Mexicans vote for a leader to replace President Felipe Calderon.

Brutal clashes between drug cartels and Mexican authorities have killed more than 55,000 people since Calderon launched a crackdown on the gangs in late 2006.

The candidate of Calderon's National Action Party, Josefina Vazquez Mota, is in third place, partly because of public dissatisfaction over the drug war.

On Thursday Vazquez Mota congratulated the marines on the arrest.

Enrique Pena Nieto, candidate for the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has a double-digit lead in most polls.

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Laura Jane Grace And Against Me! Answer Your Questions

Fans submitted questions about Laura's new transgender life and the future of the band ... here's how they answered.
By James Montgomery


Laura Jane Grace
Photo:

When Against Me! agreed to sit down with MTV News for their first on-camera interview since frontwoman Laura Jane Grace announced she was transgender, they made two things abundantly clear: No topic was off limits, and they wanted to hear from their fans.

And all week, we've been rolling out prime examples of the former — Laura's frank discussion of her life-long struggle with gender dysphoria, her bandmates' acceptance of her new life, and the painful process of coming out to family and friends. But today, we're going to focus on the latter.

Because we asked AM! fans to submit questions for Laura and the band, and they delivered. And, true to their words, Against Me! answered as many as they possibly could (they did have to soundcheck for the night's gig). And we can think of no better way to wrap up the week than by bringing those answers to you now.

From questions about how Laura's new life will affect Against Me!'s new album — "It's a huge part of it," bassist Andrew Seward said, though Laura was quick to add "I think it's up to us to make a record that speaks for itself" — to how her life would have changed if she'd been born a woman on the outside ("I think I probably wouldn't have gotten arrested so many times when I was younger," she laughed), the band's fans made it clear that, not only have they been following this story from the beginning, but they can't wait to see what happens next.

Tellingly, though, we received questions from young men and women who, like Laura, were struggling with their own gender — many of whom now look up to her as a role model. And as she did throughout our interview, Laura did her best to answer with the kind of humility and honesty that made our chat so compelling in the first place.

"I've been completely blown away; the most amazing part for me is the amount of trans men and women who have been coming out to the shows and meeting them after and talking with them. I'll have a lot of them come up to me and be like 'It's amazing, what you're doing, and I look up to you so much,' " she said. "And it blows me away, because I look at them, and they're so much further along in their transition, and it's like 'What you're doing for me, by being here right now, is beyond whatever you think I'm doing for you.' Just being able to make that connection ... because I had no friends in that world. And to make those connections, that is half of what I wanted to accomplish by coming out, to be part of that community."

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Washington?s constitution copy sold for $10m

Washington: A 223-year-old personal copy of the US Constitution belonging to America?s founding president George Washington has sold for around $10 million (Dh36.7 million), Christie?s auction house has said.

The leather-bound book, with the first president?s own annotations, was printed in 1789, his first year in office, BBC reported.

It had an estimated price of $2 million-$3 million, but bidding boosted the price of the book.

Experts said Washington?s notes were what make the book so valuable.

Article continues below

Click Here!

The book, stamped with the Washington family crest, also contains the first acts of Congress, which included legislation to establish state, judiciary, defence and treasury departments of the government.

The new owner is the Mount Vernon Ladies? Association, which paid a final price of $9.83 million.

The private non-profit group owns and maintains Mount Vernon, Washington?s historic Virginia estate.

The book will now become part of a new presidential library due to open in 2013.

The book was bound especially for the president by New York bookbinder Thomas Allen, who also created similar copies for first secretary of state Thomas Jefferson and attorney general John Jay.

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?

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Cerego Labs: A New Platform For Building Better Learning Apps

cerego_labs_logoWe've seen a lot of innovation in the education technology space lately, but we haven't seen many new learning platforms that give developers the tools to build their own apps yet. With Cerego Labs, though, developers can now access a platform that, as the company itself puts it, is somewhat akin to a "Heroku of learning." What's interesting here is that Cerego Labs offers both an API for developers who want to incorporate the service into their own apps, as well as an easy to use editor that non-technical users can implement to build their own learning apps without the need to touch any code. The platform is now in beta and developers can sign up here. Invites will come in waves and the company expects that the service will become generally available in the Fall.

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Guide to Choosing a Web and Business Improvement Firm

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