Canadian #ButterGate is a #pseudoCrisis instigated by #MemeTerrorists

The #pseudoCrisis started innocently enough... A woman "Julie Van Rosendaal" (cookbook author?) on Twitter asked... why is the butter no longer soft at room temperature? 

Link to Tweet

She also coined an article at The Globe and Mail, but it's behind a paywall, where she opined that farmers are adding supplements to the feed to boost production (according to a BBC article), the implication that inferior milk produced inferior butter is pretty clear. 

Interesting question, but this is not a data point. It's is anecdotal, at best. However, what we *do* know is... unpasteurized butter is perfectly shelf-stable even when stored at room temperature for MONTHS. That means it doesn't melt UNLESS heated. 

However, Wikipedia also pointed out that butter softens to a spreadable consistency at about 15 C or 60 F. But was a stick of butter REALLY supposed to be melting at room temperature? 

Turns out, there are a LOT of different types of fats in butter, and by "tuning" the different percentages of fat types, you can make the butter more or less spreadable.  

But generally speaking, butter REMAINS a solid at room temperature of 70 F. It's merely spreadable. 

So BUTTER IS NOT SUPPOSED TO MELT (AT ROOM TEMPERATURE!)

Merely spreadable. 

Then entered a critic... who latched onto the question and managed to pivot it into a different direction.  

According to BBC "food experts" claimed "palm fat" in cow feed is a likely culprit... that butter made from milk from cows fed with palm oil has a higher melting point, and therefore harder to spread. 

Turns out, the critic was Dr. Sylvain Charlebois of Dalhousie University, and he has his own opinion piece on ctvnews of Canada, and may have been a long-time critic of Canadian agriculture. 

But does this even make sense? As it turns out, not really. 

FACT: You cannot feed a cow straight palm oil. It upsets the bacteria in cow's stomachs

What you do instead is make palmitic (fatty) acid out of palm oil (sometimes, it comes naturally as a by-product), which passes through the stomaches undisturbed, and entered the intestines to be extracted and turned into cow's milk. 

FACT: Feeding palm-oil derivative or not has a negligible effect on palmitic acid content in milk.

I don't read French, but Google Translate worked well enough... in 2018 Canadian statistics as quoted by La Presse from CEO of Lactanet, Daniel Lefebvre, showed that palm-oil derivatives supplemented cows made milk with 33.45% palmitic acid. And the cows that were NOT fed such derivatives? 33.06% palmitic acid. 

FACT: Palmitic (fatty) acid is in cow's milk whether OR NOT you feed it palm-oil-based derivative. 

See above. 

So it's pretty clear that what Julie observed was NOT a new phenomenon at all, and was NOT caused by "increased use" of palm-based derivative feed supplements. 

This sort of astroturf pseudo-outrage is pseudo-science, spread by meme terrorists out to spread their own agenda at the expense of truth and the dairy farmers. 

Similar tactical had been done by so-called food experts such as "The Food Babe" before who managed to link Subway bread to yoga mats, because the chemical, a bubbling agent, can be used in both baking and making yoga mat foam! 

British Columbia (Canada) Chiropractic Org Crack Down on Spurious Claims by Members, How About US?

You will often find that chiropractors claim to be able to treat everything from ADHD and Alzheimers to diabetes, infertility, all the way to Down's syndrome, and they are all over websites, blogs, and social media postings. There is absolutely ZERO evidence chiropractic can treat those afflictions. It seems one professional organization is finally doing something about these unsupported claims... and it's a chiropractic organization.

College of Chiropractors of British Columbia (Canada) has warned all members from making efficacy claims in its latest policy clarification, mandated any claims to be removed ASAP, and the deadline passed three days ago (on 01-NOV-2018).

What is also interesting is BC Chiropractors are NOT allowed to give public opinions about vaccination (for or against) as chiropractors are NOT trained in infectious diseases. Yet it didn't stop some chiropractors, including two BC College of Chiropractors board members, from taking an antivax stance on social media. Both promptly deleted their antivax post after being reminded of the college policy. And one vice-chair has resigned after posting a video claiming a smoothie is more effective than a flu shot at preventing flu.

So where are such regulations or policies in the US?

Ponzi Analysis: Suspected Australian and Canadian Ponzi Schemes show all the classic signs long before collapse

In 2017, there were lots of Ponzi schemes, and two of them caught my attention. One was the Pilbarra Ponzi scheme in Australia, and the other was Istuary Innovation Labs Ponzi in Canada. Both of them show classic Ponzi signs long before their collapse.

To recap, the alleged Pilbarra Ponzi was a real estate investment project on the island of Newman near Western Australia, and Port Hedland, also Western Australia. Over $120 million where raised from 1800 investors who were promised between 10 and 36% per year return, into what they thought where property-backed investment. Turns out, the largest property was a piece of undeveloped land on the island of population 7000. The group of companies went bankrupt in 2016, and the Australia agency ASIC charged the operator Veronica Macpherson of operating a Ponzi scheme, with the later joiner's money went toward paying the early participant's interests.

As for Istuary Innovation Labs Ponzi, it started in 2013 as "technology incubation platform" to link tech startups in Canada with customers in China. What was interesting was it promised to return FIVE TIMES what was put into the company in two years, alleged the victims suing the company. Several employees and contractors claimed they had not been paid for work or wages. One investor outright called Istuary a Ponzi scheme.

Let's ignore for now whether they are really Ponzi schemes or not. But what are the signs of danger both exhibited long before they started actually showing problems?

Scam Psychology: Victim Mindset is all about asset recovery, not justice

JusticeAlwaysLate, a FB blogger in Malaysia who primarily blogs in Chinese / Cantonese, recently relayed a little anecdote which I thought was rather... illustrative of the victim mindset. The scam name is not important, but it's a pretty big one in China that resulted in arrests earlier this year called Nanning (南寧) any way, it goes like this:

有个南宁受害者来找哦，丈夫倾家荡产相信兄弟，投资了下去。先是云数贸， 然后圆梦都亏大本，兄弟建议他用南宁回本，有事他包。
A certain victim of Nanning scam came to tell a sob story. Husband is about to go bankrupt, believing in a buddy, invested everything, against and again, first it was YSM (a scam fronted by a Chinese guy), then YC and lost big in both. Buddy told him he can make it back with Nanning, and the buddy claims he'll cover the losses if it happens.  

这个丈夫就把所有钱丢进去了南宁骗局，留下老婆和父母，家里一直缺钱用。他问我怎么办。
Thus, this husband threw everything that's left into the Nanning scam, leaving wife and parents with nothing. She asked me, what should she do? Family needs money now to live.  

我说：我叫她报警捉人。。
I said, go to the cops, have the perps arrested.  

她又说：不能，这样会拿不回钱，兄弟答应丈夫在等一段日子就会把钱还给丈夫。。请问现在该怎么办？
She said, no way, can't get the money back that way. Buddy promised that he'll make up the money later. What should she do now?  

我说：那么给我他们的资料与细节，我炸到他们出门都没得躲，
I said, give me their information and background. I'll reveal them so they can't hide anywhere.  

她又说：这样就更没有办法还钱给我们了。请问现在该怎么办？
She said again, no way they'll return the money if you do that. Now what?  

我就说：现在是他欠你们钱，为什么你要替老千着想？
I said, why are you thinking for these crooks? THEY owe YOU money!  

她又说：不是不要报警不给你资料，等我们拿到钱了我们会去做的。
She said, It's not that she's not going to the cops, she had to get the money first, THEN she'll go to the cops.  

我说：那你找我干嘛？闲聊吗？
I said, so why are you here? Chitchat?  

她的最后回复是：好，当我看错你了。
Her final answer was, alright, guess I was mistaken about you. 

The victims have primary emphasis on recovery of money. They realize they had been deceived, but they don't want justice done. They want to be made whole first. This greed (what got them scammed in the first place) lead them to believe that they will get the money back, either someone promised them so, or they decided to lock their morals in the basement and went all out recruiting (i.e. turned judas goat) so they can get their money back.

They don't realize that the money is GONE, and they've just seeing excuses after excuses.

BREAKING NEWS: SEC shuts down eAdGear (GoFunPlaces / GoFunRewards)

According to latest article on BehindMLM, eAdGear, the folks behind GoFunPlaces / GoFunRewwards are done... shut by SEC, with help of FBI, and authorities in Hong Kong, China, Canada, and United Kingdom.

This would mark the FOURTH Ponzi shut by SEC in this year alone (WCM, Zhunrize, and TelexFree)

See http://behindmlm.com/companies/sec-shuts-down-eadgear-gofunplaces-gofunrewards/

Is USANA in trouble? Probably. But It Started a LONG TIME ago.

You may or may not have heard USANA, but it's okay, it's not that important. They sell pills, lotions, and baby formulas. Yes, one of these items does not fit.

Any way, their high pressure tactics in China means they NEVER received a direct sales license in China, even though other companies like NuSkin and Amway have them.

So what do they do? They basically bought one... By buying out a company called BabyCare in China in 2010, and that company did get a direct sales license in China in 2011.

So by merging the product line a bit, USANA now sells baby formula... and gets a backdoor into China, mainly by making Chinese sellers pretending to be in Hong Kong.

Previously MLMSkeptic have pointed out that Hong Kong is often used by flaunt Mainland Chinese laws. Chinese citizens are encouraged to travel to Hong Kong to sign up for various pyramid selling schemes for outrageous promises of IPO riches. One such, Interush, was busted in Hong Kong last year.

Citron Research, which previously pointed out problems with NuSkin and China, has just dropped another bombshell... USANA may be next on the chopping block.

In the article referred to, USANA affiliates in China have been citing some very odd references... USANA founder Dr. Wentz's "Einstein Prize", and a "North American Nutritional Supplement Guide" by "MacWilliams.

Let us examine each one in a bit more detail.

TelexFree News Update 4/29/2014: Banned in Montana, Wanzeler, Merrill, and Craft forced out?

There are not that many updates for Monday... seems everything will be decided on May 2nd.

Montana Banned TelexFree, citing lies about no operating in that state

On April 23rd, 2014 Montana issued a "cease and desist" to TelexFree, after asking it for many months to provide a list of members in Montana, how much had they paid in, and how much had they been paid. Montana requires all MLM companies to register with the state, and TelexFree submitted an old form. When informed they need to submit the right form, the company kept on submitting incomplete information. In October 2013, TelexFree replied that they are gathering information, and have stopped operating in Montana, and in February 2014, claimed that they are no longer seeking to operate in Montana. However, when TelexFree got raided in Massachusetts, Montana has identified at least 34 participants in Montana, totalling over 70000 dollars.

See PatrickPretty.com for details, and thanks to them for spotting it first.

MLM and SCAM NEWS 24-MAR-2014: WCM777 evil spawn, NuSkin Fined in China, KaratBars Warning in Canada

Three bits of scam and MLM related news...

Is Phil Ming Xu Still Involved in Global Unity Despite Tweeting He Got Out?

Phil Ming Xu, who had previously claimed he's no longer involved in WCM 777, Kingdom 777, or Global Unity (or Qianxi, or whatever name they changed to) on Twitter, may have been play word games, according to BehindMLM. A blog in Germany stated outright that Global Unity's "product line" called "Vizinova", is founded by none other than Phil Ming Xu, and has a similar investment structure: put in money, get lots of money out later.

See BehindMLM for details.

BREAKING NEWS: New Brunswick, Canada joined the parade of authorities outlawing WCM777

Following parade of jurisdictions outlawing WCM777, New Brunswick, Canada has also issued its own investor alert regarding WCM777.

http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/news/news_release.2014.01.0104.html

Please see WCM777 tag for other related updates.

http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.com/search/label/WCM777

BREAKING NEWS: Canada launches formal probe into Herbalife

According to New York Post, Canada's Competition Bureau has launched a formal inquiry into whether Herbalife operates as a pyramid scheme there.

CCB has no comment.

It is unknown if this had anything to do with Shawn Dahl's side business, which was a clone of his mother-in-law's business that was closed in Canada as a pyramid scheme.

http://nypost.com/2014/01/28/canadian-regulator-probing-herbalife/