In 2019, an agency within the US Department of Defense released a call for research projects to help the military deal with all the plastic waste generated when troops are sent to work in remote locations or disaster zones. The system needed to be small enough to fit in a Humvee and capable of running on little energy. It also needed to harness the power of plastic-eating microbes.
The goal was not to feed people plastic. Rather, the hope was that the plastic-devouring microbes would themselves prove fit for human consumption. A research company was found and now the technology for this project is in place and is already being tested.
While most of the project will probably be ready in a year or two, the food step could take longer. A team is currently doing toxicity testing, and then they will submit their results to the Food and Drug Administration for review. Even if that goes smoothly, what they call the “ick factor” will also have to be overcome.
After the bacteria consume the processed plastic, the microbes are dried into a powder. It smells a bit like nutritional yeast and has a balance of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. However, few people will relish eating powdered microbes fed on plastic! The hope is that it might at least prove useful on remote military bases or during disaster relief, where it could be consumed for the short term to help people survive.
The military isn’t the only entity working to turn microbes into nutrition. Worldwide, there are researchers and companies exploring whether microorganisms might one day help feed the world’s growing population.
This development could also trigger some people to start growing their own food to avoid these strange experiments with our food supply! That would be a wise and healthy response.
“Can Plastic Waste Be Transformed into Food for Humans?” Undark.org, Aug. 21, 2024.
The use of nitazenes, a group of drugs which can be more potent than fentanyl, is spreading across Europe and North America, the UN drug agency has warned. There has also been an increase in the number of deadly overdoses connected with nitazenes.
First developed in the 1950s as a pain-killing medication, nitazenes are so potent and addictive they’ve never been approved for medical or therapeutic use.
Whether they’re injected, inhaled, or swallowed, mixing them with other drugs and alcohol is extremely dangerous and significantly increases the risk of overdose and death.
In the US, isotonitazene, aka nitazene or ISO, was first identified around 2019 in the Midwest. It has moved into the Southern States and, more recently, the Eastern Seaboard. ISO is much more potent than heroin and morphine. It’s similar to fentanyl and is being mixed into and marketed as other drugs to make them more potent and cheaper to produce. Like fentanyl, it has caused deadly overdoses in unsuspecting victims.
While these deaths of unsuspecting victims is a tragedy, a more widespread tragedy is that so many people use drugs for excitement or to escape the increasing misery, pain, and hopelessness of their lives. The Bible shows us something so much better—the love and power of Jesus and His soon coming. May the gospel message spread faster in these disturbing times.
“Super-strength opioids spreading across Europe and North America – UN,” BBC News, June 26, 2024.
“New, Dangerous Synthetic Opioid in D.C., Emerging in Tri-State Area,” US Drug Enforcement Administration, Washington, DC Division, June 1, 2022.
On August 7, 2024, Britain braced for another long night of violent rioting following a tense week of anti-migrantuprisings. Around 6,000 specialist police officers were deployed to control further attacks on Muslim and migrant targets.
The attacks across the nation had come after a fatal stabbing of three children was wrongly attributed to a migrant.
But the riots never materialized. Instead, thousands of peaceful anti-racist demonstrators blocked the streets in ten cities. Small gatherings of would-be rioters were observed in three places, but they were vastly outnumbered by Brits sending a message of acceptance to their local communities. In one of the larger counter-demonstrations in London, aerial footage showed as many as 8,000 people gathered in solidarity.
Chanaka Balasuriya’s grocery store, half a mile from the dance studio where the stabbing took place, was looted by anti-migrant rioters the day after the knife attack.
“I remember thinking, Well that’s it, my business is finished,” he said.
The following morning, Mr. Balasuriya found a crowd of neighbors, some of whom he’d never spoken to, making repairs and cleaning up broken glass.
Support flooded in. The owner of a nearby beauty salon set up a crowdfunding campaign raising more than £11,000 ($14,000) towards repairs. A local builder replaced his windows for free. And one of his suppliers arrived with a freezer-full of ice cream.
A few days later he reopened his store.
“You never imagine you’re going to get that much support,” said Mr. Balasuriya, who emigrated from Sri Lanka in the 1990s.
“What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Matthew 24:3
The public reaction was a heartwarming demonstration of a beautiful Bible principle: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Rom. 12:21, NKJV.
“How Anti-Racist Demonstrators Overwhelmed Far-Right Riots in Britain,” Time, Aug. 8, 2024.
“My Southport shop was looted by rioters, then saved by strangers,” BBC News, Aug. 11, 2024.
In a letter dated August 26, 2024, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee that the Biden administration had pressured the company to “censor” COVID-19 content during the pandemic. This refers to White House requests to take down “misinformation” about the coronavirus and vaccines.
Zuckerberg wrote, “In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree.”
Facebook said at the time that it was taking “aggressive steps” to fight such misinformation. The Biden administration ultimately eased up on its criticism.
In the letter, which was posted by the Judiciary Committee on its Facebook page, Zuckerberg states, “I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret we were not more outspoken about it. I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”
In its Facebook post, the Judiciary Committee called the letter a “big win for free speech” and said that Zuckerberg had admitted that “Facebook censored Americans.”
It’s important to notice where the pressure to censor Americans came from, however, because it has prophetic significance.
Bible prophecy describes a time when the United States will become a persecuting power and no longer support liberty of conscience. The steady erosion of the First Amendment right to free speech by a government that was formed to protect civil liberties indicates that we are on the verge of this prophetic fulfillment.
“Zuckerberg says Biden administration pressured Meta to censor COVID-19 content,” Reuters.com, Aug. 27, 2024.
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