GODBOX CAFE

Climate Gate? You Bet!

2009-12-05T19:35:00.004-05:00

While everyone in North America is bombarded with speculation over who Tiger Woods had affairs with recently what we really need to be paying attention to is the treaty signing that is going to take place in Copenhagen.

If for a moment you have been persuaded into thinking that cows farting and you breathing out CO2 is causing global warming have a look at this:

SOURCE: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTBiMTRlMDQxNzEyMmRhZjU3ZmYzODI5MGY4ZWI5OWM#more

The Dog Ate Global Warming
Interpreting climate data can be hard enough. What if some key data have been fiddled?

By Patrick J. Michaels

Imagine if there were no reliable records of global surface temperature. Raucous policy debates such as cap-and-trade would have no scientific basis, Al Gore would at this point be little more than a historical footnote, and President Obama would not be spending this U.N. session talking up a (likely unattainable) international climate deal in Copenhagen in December.

Steel yourself for the new reality, because the data needed to verify the gloom-and-doom warming forecasts have disappeared.

Or so it seems. Apparently, they were either lost or purged from some discarded computer. Only a very few people know what really happened, and they aren’t talking much. And what little they are saying makes no sense.

In the early 1980s, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, scientists at the United Kingdom’s University of East Anglia established the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) to produce the world’s first comprehensive history of surface temperature. It’s known in the trade as the “Jones and Wigley” record for its authors, Phil Jones and Tom Wigley, and it served as the primary reference standard for the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) until 2007. It was this record that prompted the IPCC to claim a “discernible human influence on global climate.” . . .So the weather data that go into the historical climate records that are required to verify models of global warming aren’t the original records at all. Jones and Wigley, however, weren’t specific about what was done to which station in order to produce their record, which, according to the IPCC, showed a warming of 0.6° +/– 0.2°C in the 20th century.

Now begins the fun. Warwick Hughes, an Australian scientist, wondered where that “+/–” came from, so he politely wrote Phil Jones in early 2005, asking for the original data. Jones’s response to a fellow scientist attempting to replicate his work was, “We have 25 years or so invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?” . . .

and this excellent article by Lorrie Goldstein:

excerpt from http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2193480

While Al Gore was preaching to the faithful at $500 a pop in Toronto this week, the explosive news on climate change leading up to the huge United Nations meeting starting Dec. 7 in Copenhagen, Denmark, was happening elsewhere.

In what has been dubbed "Climategate," but more accurately resembles the surreptitious release of the Pentagon papers on the Vietnam war, computer hackers last week broke into the files of one of the world's leading climate monitoring agencies at the United Kingdom's University of East Anglia.

They then aired over the Internet the self-described "dirty laundry" of many of the world's leading mainstream climate scientists.

The thousands of e-mails and other documents going back more than a decade have prompted calls in the U. K. and U. S. for public inquiries into the controversial material and the security breach that led to its release.

The documents reveal climate scientists plotting to keep scientific papers they disagree with from being published and how to discredit scientists and scientific journals of which they disapprove.

Others, critics charge, show climate scientists committing the cardinal scientific sin of manipulating the data to fit their theories, instead of the reverse.

Some e-mails simply show that climate scientists can be jerks -- labelling opponents "idiots," pronouncing themselves happy over the death of an unpopular colleague and fantasizing about punching out a skeptic.

Supporters insist all this simply shows science is a messy business, doesn't prove any conspiracy to hide the truth and shows that too much other research has been done to discredit mainstream climate theory.

But that misses the point. Much of this research -- on which tens of billions of public dollars have been spent worldwide over decades -- is the foundation upon which governments are about to put a price on emitting carbon dioxide. The result will be a massive increase in the cost of living for virtually everyone in the developed world.

The Copenhagen conference will be a negotiation about transferring billions of dollars of wealth from the developed world to the developing one, with no guarantees it will help the planet.

That's what this controversy is really all about.

Lorrie Goldstein writes for Sun Media.

The Body is a Temple

2009-12-02T08:29:00.003-05:00

It took me a long time to deliberate over the way I would word this post, as my knee jerk reaction was pure revulsion, and it is precisely because I value ALL life, to me it is all sacred.

There is also the debate as to what the definition of art is, that I'd like to tie in to this topic and I am presenting it from a shamanic perspective. First some background:

I gave up a potential career as a graphic artist largely because at the tender age of nine, when I was drawing portraits of all the people in the neighborhood who would sit for me, my father saw my ability and advised me never to pursue this as a career ( he was a commercial artist and technical illustrator ). Why?

His answer was that I would hate the thing I loved most to do, as soon as money came into the picture. He was so adamant about his position, when he retired and was offered the opportunity to display his watercolor landscapes in a gallery, he flat out refused. To him creative expression could not be priced, and to do so would be Faustian.

The notion that "the customer is always right" no matter how crude, ignorant, and greed driven they were, led to my father's first heart attack, since he would have to smile while doing twelve different mock ups for one job, and get paid a pittance for his trouble, while the client made vast profits on sales to the public.

To make him happy I committed to medicine from an educational standpoint, and although cutting into cadavers was not exactly an event that had me jumping for joy, it was a journey that led to my deep appreciation for this vessel we reside in, and every body I was exposed to in this effort to understand anatomy, was treated with the utmost respect, reverence, and silent prayer of thanks for the sacrifice.

Now we get to the crux of the matter, and we do so through a touring exhibit that landed here in Toronto in October called "Body Worlds". I avoided this display like the plague, and it wasn't because I have a weak stomach or am a religious fundamentalist. This tour calling itself "art" consists of skinned, plasticized cadavers donated to science, that are put in specific postures - including a woman with a dead fetus still in her womb so the public can see what we look like on the inside.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that may be so, but from my perspective the souls who gave up their bodies didn't have this in mind. As a shaman I would hazard a guess and say that a few of the souls once connected to these bodies are still lingering, as a direct consequence of this indignity. This is not a celebration of the body, it is an effort to desensitize the masses and this I do NOT have a stomach for at all. Curiosity on the part of the public, will undoubtedly land the organizers a lot of money. All I can say is - what next?

Probably this:

SOURCE: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/731538--fiorito-donating-one-s-body-to-art-breaks-new-boundaries

excerpt by Joe Fiorito City Columnist for the Toronto Star

Donating one's body to art breaks new boundaries

You might donate your bones to science. Dina D Paige is donating hers to art; specifically, she is giving herself to Body Worlds.

When the time comes – and we hope it will not come soon – Dina will be stripped of her skin, her flesh and skeleton will be plasticized, and she will be preserved and displayed in the raw for eternity, however long that is.

At least 70 Canadians, including 18 of your neighbours in this city, have made similar pledges of their mortal remains.

Dina is, as far as anyone knows, the first transgender body donor. And so I went to see her recently at her apartment, near Royal York and Dundas West. She is a striking woman. She greeted me in black tights, a V-neck sweater and high-heeled boots.

Her living room is furnished with professional makeup tables and an abundance of camera equipment; here is where, and how, she makes her living. Hers is a specialized field.

The main difficulty, for men who become women, is in passing; Dina helps others pass, not just with makeup. "There aren't a lot of people with skills in all the areas: sexuality, relationships, jobs, money, surgery, hormones."

Her own transformation has been hard-won. "I've had about a dozen surgeries." Among these are, yes, breast implants; she has also had work done on her nose, lips, and eyes; also liposuction, laser surgery, and hairline transplants.

"And a facial reconstruction – they peel your face and smooth the bones to achieve female proportions. I was eight and a half hours in the operating room."

Forged or for Real?

2009-12-01T14:37:00.002-05:00

I am convinced that spectral technology is on the verge of exploding in every area of investigation in this millenium from medicine to arts and here is a perfect example from "The Times"

SOURCE: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6873414.ece?print=yes&randnum=1255478735007

How I know the new portrait is by Leonardo
We are told this is a new masterpiece, but how can the experts be sure? Start with instinct, then try a multispectral scanner . . .
Timothy Clifford

Early in November, a year ago, I first met the owner of the newly discovered drawing profile portrait of a Milanese lady. It appeared in The Times yesterday as an exciting “find” of a previously unknown work by Leonardo da Vinci.

The owner, Peter Silverman, already had something of a reputation for discovering masterpieces, and I was interested to see a photograph he had with him. He invited me to Paris to see the technological evidence which he was putting together to “prove” the attribution. I have always been sceptical about new technologies and wanted to use my own eyes to make the judgment.

It is on a large sheet of vellum, 33 by 24cm, stuck down to an old oak board. The drawing is made in black chalk, reed pen and brown ink. The skin is then most delicately modelled in white with a red chalk blush to the cheeks and lips. Her hair and costume are in contrasting shades of brown, grey and ochre.

A few years ago I was lucky enough to discover a major drawing by Michelangelo in the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York. I was then asked by the press how I had identified it and — perhaps outrageously — I said “cannot I recognise my own wife over the breakfast table?” For connoisseurship to a large extent really does depend on almost knee-jerk recognition, and as soon as I saw this portrait image, I was well on the way to being persuaded that here was not just a Leonardo drawing, but a masterpiece.

This comes from familiarity with a large number of autograph drawings by Leonardo and an understanding of his capabilities as a painter. I also think it comes from being aware of the rather different abilities of his closest followers and imitators.

When I was in Paris in November last year I visited the Mantegna exhibition at the Louvre. There on display was the superb marble bust by Gian Cristoforo Romano of Beatrice D’Este, the little princess from Modena, which belongs to the Louvre. She wears her hair tressed in precisely the same manner as in the Silverman drawing. That marble is dated 1490-91, clearly the same fashion as the drawing, so it must be of almost exactly the same date.

With Peter Silverman, I visited Pascal Cotte at Lumiere Technology who is doing pioneering work using his unique multispectral scanner. He has discovered that the tightly spaced follicles of the parchment would suggest it is made from the skin of a lamb and that the drawn surface has undergone a certain amount of abrasion and restoration that one would expect from a drawing of a considerable age. Using the scanner one could see more clearly than with the naked eye that the shading passed from the upper left to the lower right in Leonardo’s usual distinctive manner. A sliver of the parchment had been subjected to tests by the Institute of Particle Physics in Zurich, which dated it to the range 1440-1650. . .

Here is the website for the Paris based company working with this technology:

http://www.lumiere-technology.com/

There Is a God!

2009-11-29T08:13:00.005-05:00

I try to live my life in a state of tolerant non-judgment, particularly by avoiding religious dogma of ANY kind, as it is divisive and exclusive. Instead, I have found divinity in simple things and particularly in the appreciation of nature and this extraordinarily beautiful planet that has certainly known abuse at our hands.

Whether or not you buy into the legend of the continent of Atlantis which fell due to technological experimentation by it's scientific community, the fact that this is a current trend amongst the empirical elite is alarming. And if Atlantis did sink into the ocean because a handful of people were playing God, then we haven't learned anything in thousands of years.

However, there seems to be another force that is at play over which we have no control and a perfect example of this is the Hadron Collider fiasco that continues to cost money and get shut down. See for yourself how simple it is to stop fools:

Article by Staff Reporter Cathal Kelly

SOURCE: http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/science/largehadroncollider/article/722105--hadron-collider-shut-down-by-piece-of-bread

For the second time since its completion, the Large Hadron Collider has been taken offline. The cause: a "bit of baguette" dropped into its workings, most likely by a passing bird.

The LHC – a 27-kilometre-long particle accelerator buried nearly 200 metres below the ground near Geneva, Switzerland – was built to answer several fundamental questions in physics. Scientists hope that it can simulate the conditions immediately after the Big Bang. Constructing it involved thousands of researchers from dozens of worldwide institutions.

But the LHC has been plagued by technical difficulties. Upon starting up in November 2008, one of its magnets failed, causing a helium leak. Initially, officials said the fault would force the LHC's closure until this past spring. That timeline has since stretched to November.

On Thursday, the collider underwent a temperature spike, which was visible to the world on the LHC's online data feed (http://lcg.web.cern.ch/LCG/).

Dr. Mike Lamont, who works inside the Swiss control centre, later told the scientific periodical The Register that the problem started with "a bit of baguette on the busbars."

The collider was not operational at that point, but was shut down entirely to avoid the sort of cascading damage that affected it a year ago.

Ep 81: Tickle and Slap

2009-11-27T10:18:00.003-05:00

Swine Flew

With the big crack down on keeping you the masses in a state of fear and submission, by way of sensational media , we try to equalize the playing field with a blend of : make you laugh and make you think.

So, instead of H1N1, you are offered L1T1.

Excerpts read from:

" Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest - True News of the World's Least Competent People"

Compiled by John J. Kohut and Roland Sweet
Published by the Penguin Group 1996

Short story , " The Balek Scales" from "18 Stories" by Heinrich Boll
Published by McGraw-Hill Book Company 1966

MUSIC:

From podsafemusicnetwork.com

Introductory Instrumental piece: "Far Away" by All India Radio

"Recycling" by Bill Bates
"Comedy Stops Here" by Amplifico

"Creek Runs Dry" by Dead Language an enchanting group I encountered for the first time while visiting St. John's, Newfoundland this past August. Their myspace address is : http://www.myspace.com/musicofdeadlanguage I look forward to their new CD release.

"Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Fear " ? ! !

2009-11-27T10:10:00.002-05:00

Police making arrests 'just to gather DNA samples' [United Kingdom]

SOURCE: http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4990

Police officers in England and Wales have made arrests just to get people on to the DNA database, a retired police superintendent has claimed.

He told the Human Genetics Commission (HGC) this was the "norm". It wants new guidance for police to regulate when it is appropriate to take a sample of DNA.

Police chiefs have denied the claim, which they called "plainly wrong".

The database for England and Wales also holds some profiles of people arrested in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Last year, 17,614 offences were solved using a DNA match, including 83 killings and 184 rapes.

There are now about five million profiles on the national DNA database, a rise of 40% in two years.

The retired police superintendent, who is quoted but not named in a HGC report entitled Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Fear?, wrote to the advisory body expressing concerns that the way in which people were arrested appeared to have changed.

He wrote: "It is now the norm to arrest offenders for everything if there is a power to do so.

"It is apparently understood by serving police officers that one of the reasons, if not the reason, for the change in practice is so that the DNA of the offender can be obtained: samples can be obtained after arrest but not if there is a report for summons.

"It matters not, of course, whether the arrest leads to no action, a caution or a charge, because the DNA is kept on the database anyway."

But the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) dismissed the claim as "plainly wrong".

The HGC report also said some groups featured disproportionately on the database - with young black men "very highly over-represented".

HGC chairman Professor Jonathan Montgomery said it had been transformed over the years from a database of offenders to a database of suspects.

Prof Montgomery told the BBC: "DNA evidence is important in the investigation of crime but it's far from clear that a database plays an effective role in that.

"We're calling for more research, more evidence in the contribution the database makes."

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there had not been a "public debate" concerning the database to establish "the correct balance between our private interests to privacy and our public interest in investigating crime".

Prof Montgomery called for "a discussion in Parliament about the purpose and limits of the database".

He said: "We should get it on a proper statutory footing and have independent governance. Only then will we be able to test whether the sort of things that were set to us, about possible deliberate arrest in order to take DNA samples were well-founded or not.

"We are just not in a position at the moment to find that out."

Currently everyone arrested for an offence that could lead to a criminal record has their DNA taken for the database, which is the largest of its kind in the world with five million samples.

Mary Shelley Step Aside

2009-11-26T12:34:00.003-05:00

It's bad enough they're mucking around in Switzerland to the tune of billions of dollars, playing God with the Cern Black Hole Generator, but our current "priest caste", namely, scientists, have really crossed the line by way of a new form of eugenics which produces cy-brids.

Ever since UK lawmakers gave the green light to combine human and animal embryos last year ( under the honorable banner of research ), the notion of genetically re-engineering human beings is a temptation that would make Dr. Frankenstein rub his hands in anticipation.

My father exposed me to all the Greek myths at an early age, so the notion of chimeras is not a foreign one to me, however, our current technology is rapidly taking these archetypal images of minotaurs, mermaids, and satyrs to another level - one that bears close scrutiny.

I refer you to a recent article by Kate Kelland excerpted here:

SOURCE:

http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4983

Scientists Want Debate On Animals with Human Genes

Nov. 9, 2009

A mouse that can speak? A monkey with Down's Syndrome? Dogs with human hands or feet? British scientists want to know if such experiments are acceptable, or if they go too far in the name of medical research.

To find out, Britain's Academy of Medical Sciences launched a study Tuesday to look at the use of animals containing human material in scientific research.

The work is expected to take at least a year, but its leaders hope it will help establish guidelines for scientists in Britain and around the world on how far the public is prepared to see them go in mixing human genes into animals to discover ways to fight human diseases.

"Do these constructs challenge our idea of what it is to be human?" said Martin Bobrow, a professor of medical genetics at Cambridge University and chair of a 14-member group looking into the issue.

"It is important that we consider these questions now so that appropriate boundaries are recognized and research is able to fulfill its potential."

Using human material in animals is not new. Scientists have already created rhesus macaque monkeys that have a human form of the Huntingdon's gene so they can investigate how the disease develops; and mice with livers made from human cells are being used to study the effects of new drugs.

But scientists say the technology to put ever greater amounts of human genetic material into animals is spreading quickly around the world -- raising the possibility that some scientists in some places may want to push boundaries.

"There is a whole raft of new scientific techniques that will make it not only easier but also more important to be able to do these cross-species experiments," Bobrow said.

A row erupted in Britain last year over new laws allowing the creation of human-animal embryos for experimentation. . .

For an excellent presentation of the debate in bioethics as it applies to genetic manipulation I refer you to an essay in "Leonardo's Choice", written by Steven Best http://www.springerlink.com/content/v0j1h44735553628/

Something Rotten in the State of Denmark?

2009-11-20T19:18:00.002-05:00

Has Anyone Read the Copenhagen Agreement?
U.N. plans for a new 'government' are scary.

SOURCE: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703574604574500580285679074.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#printMode

By JANET ALBRECHTSEN

We can only hope that world leaders will do nothing more than enjoy a pleasant bicycle ride around the charming streets of Copenhagen come December. For if they actually manage to wring out an agreement based on the current draft text of the Copenhagen climate-change treaty, the world is in for some nasty surprises. Draft text, you say? If you haven't heard about it, that's because none of our otherwise talkative political leaders have bothered to tell us what the drafters have already cobbled together for leaders to consider. And neither have the media.

Enter Lord Christopher Monckton. The former adviser to Margaret Thatcher gave an address at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month that made quite a splash. For the first time, the public heard about the 181 pages, dated Sept. 15, that comprise the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—a rough draft of what could be signed come December.

So far there have been more than a million hits on the YouTube post of his address. It deserves millions more because Lord Monckton warns that the aim of the Copenhagen draft treaty is to set up a transnational "government" on a scale the world has never before seen.

The "scheme for the new institutional arrangement under the Convention" that starts on page 18 contains the provision for a "government." The aim is to give a new as yet unnamed U.N. body the power to directly intervene in the financial, economic, tax and environmental affairs of all the nations that sign the Copenhagen treaty.

The reason for the power grab is clear enough: Clause after complicated clause of the draft treaty requires developed countries to pay an "adaptation debt" to developing countries to supposedly support climate change mitigation. Clause 33 on page 39 says that "by 2020 the scale of financial flows to support adaptation in developing countries must be [at least $67 billion] or [in the range of $70 billion to $140 billion per year]."

And how will developed countries be slugged to provide for this financial flow to the developing world? The draft text sets out various alternatives, including option seven on page 135, which provides for "a [global] levy of 2 per cent on international financial market [monetary] transactions to Annex I Parties." Annex 1 countries are industrialized countries, which include among others the U.S., Australia, Britain and Canada.

To be sure, countries that sign international treaties always cede powers to a U.N. body responsible for implementing treaty obligations. But the difference is that this treaty appears to have been subject to unusual attempts to conceal its convoluted contents. And apart from the difficulty of trying to decipher the U.N. verbiage, there are plenty of draft clauses described as "alternatives" and "options" that should raise the ire of free and democratic countries concerned about preserving their sovereignty.

Lord Monckton himself only became aware of the extraordinary powers to be vested in this new world government when a friend found an obscure U.N. Web site and searched through several layers of hyperlinks before discovering a document that isn't even called the draft "treaty." Instead, it's labelled a "Note by the Secretariat."

Interviewed by broadcaster Alan Jones on Sydney radio Monday, Lord Monckton said "this is the first time I've ever seen any transnational treaty referring to a new body to be set up under that treaty as a 'government.' But it's the powers that are going to be given to this entirely unelected government that are so frightening." He added: "The sheer ambition of this new world government is enormous right from the start—that's even before it starts accrediting powers to itself in the way that these entities inevitably always do."

Benchmarks and Milestones

2009-11-14T19:20:00.004-05:00

image by Victoria Christian

Comes a time in every person's life when you take stock of what you've done, and where you're headed. Often this can happen as a direct result of a traumatic event or crisis point. Regardless of the motivating factor, you negotiate the memories like landmines, and replay them with full defense mechanisms in place, in order to justify the choices you've made along the way.

For me it was as simple as hitting the half century mark.

But instead of bemoaning the lost blush of youth and dashing to the nearest breast botox clinic, I chose instead to consciously reclaim the innocence of potentiality I knew as a prepubescent, with the wisdom earned through fifty years of life experience.

Before I could effectively achieve this aim I knew it would be necessary to do a soul retrieval and a purging of ancestral baggage, which fortunately for me was achievable through a combined form of healing known as psychogeneaology and etio-medicine thanks to the work of practitioners : Vilma Mazzolini and Yvette Peetermans.

As a shamanic practitioner I have done this type of clearing and restoration for others, but attempting this for myself would have been egocentrically ambitious at worst and far less effective at best, based on the fact that we all have filters of perception and personal blind spots.

Thanks to the razor sharp probing that blew wide open the closets of my forefathers, followed by a gentle energetic cleansing of my fields, I was able to finally permit myself to get reacquainted with the child that was, take inventory of all those things that brought me joy then, and prioritize the next half of my journey on this planet putting first the activities I denied myself as an adult.

Khalil Gibran may have said ". . . the most massive characters have a mass of scars" but I truly believe much suffering is self-imposed, and we should try a lot harder to lighten the load we carry, to focus on achieving and maintaining the buoyant happiness of exploring beauty in all her forms.

So for my birthday this week I asked for tickets to the Cirque du Soleil show called "Ovo" (a perfect symbol of rebirth), because I always wanted to run away and join the circus as a trapeze artist. I played tennis in the morning - a sport I had wanted to pursue since high school but never found the time or a regular partner. I began a series of red chalk portraits as I drew portraits from the time I was eight years old. I am creating glass beads after taking flame working classes, since I was mesmerized as a child by a glass artist who created menageries of delicate figures in his basement studio. Finally, I am putting pen to paper to write the novel I've been putting off since I was thirteen. It is a joy to be alive.

You can reach Yvette to find out more about Etio-Medicine via her email: yvette.peetermans@gmail.com and Vilma's website is: www.acoeuracorps.net

Ep: 80 The Big Picture

2009-11-06T00:49:00.004-05:00

On this Guy Fawkes day we celebrate the Celtic New Year in a conversation with author/ philosopher Brendan Myers, PhD.

We tackle the questions that we all confront at some point in our lives regarding codes of conduct, the immensities of living as a corporal being, how we relate to the planet and each other, coping with death and committing to a standard of honor that makes looking back a reflection of a hero's journey.

Brendan's sites are:

Web site: http://wildideas.net/cathbad
Blog: http://northwestpass.livejournal.com

You can reach him via email at: bmyers33@live.ca

Laudatio Ejus Manet In Seculum Seculi
"Praise remains for ever"

His books:

Does Foreign Aid do More Harm than Good?

2009-11-05T11:05:00.003-05:00

Photo: dlisbona

Source: http://www.facebook.com/matadornetwork?v=wall#/note.php?note_id=171640616757&ref=mf

Some say yes, calling foreign aid a form of neo-colonialism that does not alleviate poverty, but in fact perpetuates it.

I had a particularly privileged friend during high school—let’s call him Joe. On Joe’s sixteenth birthday, his father bought him a brand new Audi, a truly sweet piece of machinery. After several months of joyrides and speeding tickets, the engine block locked up, and the Audi was finished. Joe had never changed (or even checked) the oil.

His father was furious and refused to foot the steep bill of repair.

What did Joe do? He got motivated. He mowed lawns and cleaned gutters every weekend until he could afford a twelve-year-old jalopy. And he cared for that clunker with the proud dedication of a doting mechanic. Was Joe’s sudden maturity unusual, or was it a natural result of his newfound self-reliance?

The bigger questions for our purposes are:
1. Does the weight of liability change human behavior?

2. If so, how should this inform the first world’s approach to extreme poverty in the third world?

In the realm of sustainable development and foreign aid (that is, not emergency-relief aid), there are no easy answers. The ongoing debate comprises a plethora of polemics, but I discern three main viewpoints among them:

1. Big money, top-down “planners”
The proposition: Extreme poverty is a big, multi-level problem that requires big, multi-level solutions. We need large-scale plans—ambitious, multi-billion dollar initiatives by resource-rich outfits such as UNICEF and USAID.
Top-down planners advocate a comprehensive strategy due to the interdependency of factors inherent to poverty. That is, economic invulnerability depends on diversity of employment options, which depends on access to quality education, which depends on reliable infrastructure and students’ health, so we must build roads and hospitals and distribute mosquito nets. . . and on and on. Everything relies on everything else.

The opposition: Ineffective penetration, lack of accountability. Big aid money goes to governments rather than the people, as money gets siphoned off at all levels. This approach enables corruption and encourages irresponsible governance.
Grandiose schemes are poorly implemented due to insufficient understanding of ground conditions. In short, there is too much distance between planners and intended beneficiaries.

Also, such aid smacks of neo-colonialism. Gift money brands recipients as junior partners in the exchange, and thus paternalistically prohibits self-reliance by perpetuating need.
The tone here is negative: “We pity you, so here’s some help. But we won’t invest and trade with you on equal terms, because you’re beneath us.”

2. Small money, bottom-up “searchers”
The proposition: Lasting gains are intrinsically incremental. Establishing improvements that actually benefit the poor requires ground knowledge. Aid workers must go to the bottom rung, learn the environment, and search for ways to improve conditions within quantifiable parameters.
Unlike top-down aid, bottom-up aid focuses on building capacity within target communities to become active participants in the determination and execution of development projects. This approach aims to level the exchange, so beneficiaries are gradually empowered to take up their own cause. Weaning is essential, hence these NGOs have an exit strategy.
The opposition: The process is slow, but hunger and disease don’t wait. And as with top-down aid, the onus of responsibility is lifted from local government. Government officials can sequester resources while remaining nominally responsible for the progress made by NGOs within their jurisdictions.
Though subtler, bottom-up aid is still paternalistic. It feigns home-grown development, but foreign influence is undeniable, especially in cases where community “input” amounts to locals saying yes to whatever is proposed by those holding the checkbook.

3. The “bootstraps” faction
The proposition: Foreign development aid is a self-perpetuating, growing institution and has actually harmed the third world. Aid fosters dependency, encourages corruption, and in turn exacerbates poverty. Top-down aid fails to create jobs or other lasting improvements, and likewise most bottom-up aid functions on the condescending presumption that target communities cannot participate unassisted in the open market.
This position calls for a sea change in the mindset of aid recipients, who have been conditioned to believe that foreign aid is the solution to their plight. They have been systematically incentivized against their own initiative.
Big money, top-down aid is more culpable for increased disenfranchisement in the developing world than the bottom-up variety, because its magnitude of misguided funds has more solidly entrenched corrupt leaders.
“A largely libertarian approach may have worked for North America and western Europe, but these same countries arguably caused many of the developing world’s problems through imperialism.”
Bottom-up aid in which “searchers” prepare locals for full participation in the free market is non-ideal, but not necessarily harmful. The answer lies in pro-market measures: microfinance, foreign direct investment, trade, floating bonds—systems that encourage innovation and foster self-reliance.
The opposition: There is no definitive, causal link between foreign aid and extant poverty. The two are correlated, but there are too many excluded variables—access to water and other resources, quality of soil, geopolitical history, and so forth—to place the blame squarely on aid. Removal (even a phase-out) of aid in highly dependent areas could be disastrous.
A largely libertarian approach may have worked for North America and western Europe, but these same countries arguably caused many of the developing world’s problems through imperialism. And owing to this differing root of poverty, it may be beyond the capacity of today’s third world to elevate itself out of the poverty trap.
So, what’s the solution?
I don’t know. Like most development workers, I am ambivalent about what exactly the developed world should be doing. My views both align with and diverge from certain arguments proffered by each stance. Every approach seems to have some merit, yet they contradict one another.
My intent is to raise the right questions, not offer answers. That’s where you come in.

Honoring the Dead

2009-11-01T17:54:00.004-05:00

Photo: Eneas

It is New Year's Day for we Celts, and in Mexico there is an observance that traces back to the Aztecs which is a very similar celebration to our Samhain festival which acknowledges the souls of the departed.

The costumes and candies are vestiges of this tradition of offering soulcakes and painting oneself as a spirit to tap into the spirit world. Remembering this will bring back meaning to one night of partying and gorging on sweets.

Courtesy Matador Trips:http://www.facebook.com/matadornetwork?v=wall

“The Mexican…is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it…”
Octavio Paz

Marigolds, sugar skulls, and tequila-adorned altars — Paz was right. No holiday celebrates death like Día de los Muertos.

Its Aztec roots reach back millennia. Surviving colonial absorption into Catholicism’s All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days, the holiday retains the Aztec idea of death as a continuation of life in a parallel form; souls of the departed have an easier time visiting this world on Día de los Muertos, aided by the ofrendas (altars of offerings) the living set out.

Here’s a roundup of some of the best places to catch a celebration, both traditional and modern:

1. Pátzcuaro, Mexico

The sleepy streets of Pátzcuaro in central Mexico explode during Día de los Muertos week with truck-fulls of marigolds, street stalls selling pan de muerto (sweet bread), and one killer craft market. Look out for signature Catrinas, painstakingly ornate handmade calaca (skeleton) figures.

Photo: AlexPears

The local Purépecha people’s observance retains a more spiritual, traditional aspect than anywhere else — a soulfulness that counterbalances the slew of tourists.

Locally referred to as Noche de los Muertos, all-night graveside vigils are held in the villages surrounding Pátzcuaro on November 1.

In Tzintzuntzan, the next pueblo over, camping families cuddle up and tell stories about deceased loved ones at the foot of candlelit ofrendas. The local cemetery is open to the public, admission is free, and photographs are allowed (remember to be respectful).

Separate observances are held for angelitos — the souls of children. The most well-known occurs on the tiny island of Isla Janitzio in the middle of Lake Pátzcuaro. Mothers of angelitos hold a special procession to the children’s cemetery, while fishermen surround the island in candlelit boats.

As this is a popular observance, the island is uncomfortably full of tourists. Tip: Go after 3am.

2. Mexico City/Mixquic

Mexico D.F. sprouts marigolds and spontaneous streetside ofrendas during Día de los Muertos week. An altar contest is held in the Zócalo (main square) and big-time museums such as Casa Azul, Anahuacalli, and Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño get in the spirit with larger-than-life papier-mâché calaca scenes.

Major vigils are held at the city’s largest cemeteries, Panteón Civil de Dolores and Bosque de Chapultepec.

Within the urban areas of Mexico City, the holiday is celebrated as a folk tradition, rather than a spiritual or religious affair.

This is not the case in the once-small-town of Mixquic, which has been geographically — but not culturally — swallowed by the southeasterly sprawl of the D.F.

Here, a cardboard coffin leads a candlelit procession through the streets to the town’s graveyards, where families gather to celebrate. Candles remain lit to guide spirits home and midnight bells toll to call them back.

3. San Francisco Bay Area

Día de los Muertos observances in the Bay Area blend the familial focus of its large Latino population with the creativity of its arts community. San Francisco’s Mission District is ground zero for the November 2nd procession and altar exhibit, a 30-plus-year tradition.

The free event draws an impressive cross-section of the city’s population and some heavily politicized, artistic works.

Across the Bay, Oakland’s Fruitvale district holds a daytime street fair on the Sunday preceding the holiday. Even with throngs of people and scores of vendors, the vibe is local, with traditional altars and dance performances, radio stations’ speakers throbbing hip-hop, local merchant booths, and some bangin’ Cali-Mex food stands.

Museums around the Bay embrace Día de los Muertos. Altars, events, and exhibits are held at the de Young and Oakland Museums and community galleries like SomArts, Galería de la Raza, and The Crucible.

4. Los Angeles

Nothing may capture LA’s dichotomy of culture quite like the city’s most well-known Day of the Dead celebrations.

On the one side is the Self Help Graphics & Art’s festivities in the Evergreen Cemetery in East LA. This Chicano-centered art collective has been putting on the free November 2nd event since 1972, taking a community-based approach — local artists, residents, youth, and even nuns come together.

Of similar authenticity is the Olvera Street Merchants’ nine nightly processions down their historic street in the evenings preceding the holiday, where you can sip free champurrado (a thick Mexican hot chocolate) and munch pan de muerto.

On the other side of the spectrum, across town, is the popular Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s admission-based celebration.

Faint whiffs of tradition mix with hip altars honoring celebrities, overpriced craft vendors, and a heavy taste of commercialization.

The altar contest draws some wryly imaginative creations, though, and the event serves as a fascinating example of the Hollywood-ification of culture.

5. Santiago Sacatepéquez, Guatemala

While the exact connection between Mexico’s Aztec-based Day of the Dead and Guatemala’s Mayan-based version are not totally clear, the parallels are undeniable. Both pre-Columbian holidays were co-opted into the Catholic All Saints’ Day, and both retain a celebratory approach towards death.

Guatemalans take to the graveyards, decorating gravestones in similarly elaborate altars adorned with marigolds.

What sets celebrations in Guatemala apart are the barriletes gigantes — extravagant and enormous kites central to the festivities.

These hand-constructed kites guide the departed souls back to life on November 1. As a link between life and death, they’re covered with special messages and designs to the deceased, written by the living.

Also unique to Guatemala is fiambre, a cheesy cold-meat-salad smorgasbord placed in altars to lure the dead back.

Guatemala’s best Día de los Muertos celebrations are held in the town of Santiago Sacatepéquez, outside of Antigua. Plenty of tourists pile in but, as in Pátzcuaro, celebrations are steeped in tradition, not tourism.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Continue the celebration of death with Graveyard Travel: How to Celebrate Life by Visiting the Dead and How People Celebrate Halloween in Spain.

Also, learn How to Make Sugar Skulls for Dia de los Muertos.

Choices

2009-10-30T09:03:00.005-04:00

There are those among us who move in quiet, noble integrity. I have been privileged to meet and interview many such unsung heroes: Tata Vitor Lopez, Grandmother Josephine of Sioux Ste. Marie, Brendan Myers, PhD, and Marcia Dixon, MSc pictured above.

When I present information that indicates our current fundamental systems are corrupt, crumbling, and need a massive overhaul, I do so with the intent to increase awareness and inspire action.

The first step towards collective change, in my humble opinion, is for each one of us to take responsibility for our thoughts and actions. Criticism is of little use if you don't offer an alternative. My rants against the big pharmas are balanced by my commitment to get back to basics and learn how to reacquaint myself with nature's medicine.

This is where Marcia Dixon comes in, as a certified medical herbalist.

I took a four lecture series with Marcia this Fall regarding the creation of oil infusions and salves using plants one can grow in the garden - or a balcony if you live in an apartment.

This is the end result: a calendula salve which I happened to make use of already on a small rash that appeared by my left ear ( too much ipod listening with earphones rubbing against skin ). It worked like a charm in two days the irritation subsided.

Thanks Marcia!

Here is her website, if you'd like to get in touch with her yourself:

http://www.marcia-dixon.com/index.php

Just the Facts Please

2009-10-27T21:20:00.002-04:00

After seeing nothing but headlines indicating children dying of swine flu ( H1N1 ) I'd like to put things in perspective for you, dear readers. As you know, people who publish stories according to the maxim: "If it Bleeds - it leads", are not interested in objective journalism.

SYMPTOMS of influenza:

Fever
Headache
Cough
Sore Throat
Runny & Stuffy Nose
Extreme Fatigue
Muscle Aches
Nausea, Vomiting, Diarrhea ( most common in children )

DEATH STATS

816 over a total of 160 countries in one year.

In Europe: 16,556 cases with 34 deaths.

Odds are higher that you'll die from drowning in a bathtub ( 807,000/1 ) than dying of H1N1 ( 8,000,000/1 )

Regular strains of influenza kill more than 35,000 Americans a year.

BIRD FLU was supposed to wipe us out - WHO reports ( 1 June 09 ) 436 cases and 262 deaths.

SARS was supposed to kill millions and since 2003 there have been up to 167 deaths.

TUBERCULOSIS has killed 1.6 million in 2005 alone!! Where's the press?

Tamiflu ( treatment for H1N1 and bird flu ) licensed to Gilead Sciences Inc. Roche manufactures it under a license patent protection until 2016 and will not be held liable for any ill effects.

USA ordered 25 million doses at $80/course totaling $2 billion.

Chairman of Gilead between 1997 - 2001 and major stock holder : DONALD RUMSFELD former Secretary of Defense.

President Bush ordered $1.7 billion in bird flu vaccines. 14% went to Gilead. Share values rose 700% from 2005. Net income for 2nd quarter in '09 = $571.4 million.

10% on every vaccine went to Rumsfeld.

Monthly deaths due to AIDS in South Africa: 50,000
Annual deaths due to TB 80,000
Annual road fatalities 18,000
Annual murders in USA 25,000

Yet you are bombarded by nothing but H1N1 propaganda. Now you know who profits.

Fascinating!

2009-10-26T09:21:00.001-04:00

I see the European Union visited my blog site, and ever since I have been unable to upload the photos I wanted to include in the previous post. I saw deselectgracefully image in the blogger code for the image upload.

Well, well, this is quite an audience I've suddenly attracted, and further evidence of what I'm relaying to you.

If this blog gets eliminated that will speak volumes. Stay tuned. There are many ways to communicate the truth.

Beware Foundations and Green Revolutions!

2009-10-26T08:20:00.010-04:00

I grow weary watching so called billionaire philanthropists establishing self-serving tax haven foundations under the guise of "helping humanity".

Case in point: Bill Gates.

I'll bet you dollars to donuts this man is a eugenicist and his focus on Africa via vaccinations, and now introducing genetically modified food, is to accelerate the depopulation process on that continent and to line his pockets further, as well as cow towing to the other robber barons who are after the resources that are plentiful on this continent and more valuable by far than the people who have lived there for centuries.

Excerpt from article by David Biello in Scientific American online

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=can-the-worlds-richest-man-feed-the-2009-10-16&sc=WR_20091021

Echoing luminaries before him—from Norman Borlaug to Kofi Annan—the world's richest man, Bill Gates, called last night for a second Green Revolution focused on African farmers. That revolution won't just be in new crop varieties and higher yields but also in farmer training and infrastructure—and, perhaps most controversially, will be genetically modified.

"Three quarters of the world's poorest people get their food and income by farming small plots of land," Gates said. "So if we can make smallholder farming more productive and more profitable, we can have a massive impact on hunger and nutrition and poverty."

That's exactly what the first Green Revolution accomplished in the Latin America and Asia. "But it didn't go far enough," Gates said. "It didn't go to Africa."

"The charge is clear—we have to develop crops that can grow in a drought; that can survive in a flood; that can resist pests and disease," Gates added. "We need higher yields on the same land in harsher weather." The answer, at least in part? Sustainability paired with genetic modification.

CONTROL the world's food/water supply and you control the world. You want to know what happened to the plan that "worked" so well in Asia? Watch this award winning film: http://www.onemanonecow.com/

One of THE BEST documentaries I've seen in the last 15 years and it tells it like it is. You will discover the number of Indian farmers who committed suicide thanks to the intervention of Monsanto, and introduction of chemical pesticides that completely destroyed miles of farmland producing only debt-ridden farmers who couldn't feed their families let alone the community.

Enter an 80 year old farmer with a glass eye, who single-handedly, after 25 years of traveling back and forth from India and his native New Zealand, restored an entire region of India's farmland and empowered a population through revival of biodynamic techniques known to man for millenia. This is proof positive that a man with no agenda, no political clout, free of greed yet wealthy in wisdom and ancient understanding can quietly and without fanfare do real good.

By the way. Blogger seems to have prevented me from including any images of Bill Gates for this post. Interesting.

Disenfranchised

2009-10-22T19:23:00.002-04:00

The Fall Equinox marks the point in the Celtic calendar in which darkness takes the throne. Days grow shorter, and we begin to turn inward to examine how we navigated through the year.

We are rapidly approaching Samhain which is the new year among pagan practitioners: a time when the veils between worlds is most transparent and the honoring of our ancestors is observed. It is in this month of death and transition that I was born.

November 1st - "All Souls Day" will stand as a banner, for me personally, insofar as I have shifted my spiritual pursuits towards a serious exploration of my bloodlines, in an effort to know where I came from, and what memories run through my veins. The Elders of the First Nations who were so gracious to open their doors to me nine years ago, advised me that I was finally ready to take this step and it was a crucial part of my self-growth and healing.

To this day I have not come to terms with the fact that I am on foreign soil, even though I was brought here by my parents at the age of two, in order to provide me with opportunities to experience the freedom that comes with new beginnings. The fact remains, that my parents abandoned secure occupations and upper middle class status in Europe, to find themselves in a young country full of potential and bereft of much history ( as far as Caucasian invasions go ).

When we arrived in 1962 we spoke no English. My first sentence was "Sunny, with cloudy periods" courtesy of the weatherman we religiously gathered to watch on the black and white television set our landlord owned. I hardly ever saw my father, as he went to night school for English classes, worked two labor intensive jobs so he could prove he had "Canadian experience", and my mother served as a nanny/caregiver to a variety of households, as that would allow me to tag along before I was old enough to go to school.

We survived on a diet of boiled chicken and lived in a basement for five years. I nearly died of bronchial pneumonia five times before the age of seven, as the basement was damp and moldy in the winter. My parents were proud, self-reliant people who never dreamed of asking for assistance from any institution or government program. This independent, "grin and bear it" mentality, was drilled into me and has been completely internalized to this day. My mother who is nearly 80 still refuses to ask for help, even though her mobility is severely compromised.

I have been very fortunate to travel many places in my adolescent years and throughout adulthood, but the one thing that remains a gaping hole in my heart is the fact that I was denied the benefit of direct exposure to my clan. Many clinicians claim that tattoos and piercings are cries for help among those who have tribal callings that remain unanswered. I can relate to that, and yes, I have a tattoo and piercing.

Unlike my parents, the choice to migrate was not mine. I hear echoes of voices four generations back, that I can only access through Vision Quests and rituals like those performed during Samhain in which communication with loved ones who have crossed over is much easier to achieve.

The difficulty for me arises from the simple fact that the sacred oral traditions of my people, on both sides, were virtually annihilated by power hungry Roman Imperialists and Christian Zealots. The voices I hear, when I do manage to briefly connect, are traumatized and crippled by staggering loss and near extermination.

They too migrated, not by choice, away from their beloved birch forests on the Danube clear to the British Isles, until they could go no further, and either submitted to conversion or died as martyrs to their way of life. We proud Celts: fiercely independent, stubborn, freedom loving observers of the cosmic rhythms of life. These are my people, my tribe, and I hope to honor them by living according to natural law in harmony with the as above.

Ep 79: The Potlatch Edition

2009-10-14T20:20:00.004-04:00

Edward Curtis photo of a Kwakwaka'wakw potlatch with dancers and singers.

Celebration of Thanksgiving Day here in Canada on Monday inspired this gift for our readers to ponder:

The origin of the potlatch from which potluck dinners are derived; why turkeys are sacrificed; and a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges entitled "The Lottery in Babylon", from a compilation called "Labyrinths".

Story summary:

SOURCE: http://everything2.com/title/The+Lottery+in+Babylon

In the story, Borges describes a system which began as a simple lottery, grown to become almost infinite and so secret that no one can tell whether the Lottery still exists to alter people's fates, or whether the populace's actions are simply determined by chance. This dilemma is, of course, an excellent way of addressing our own existence. The phenomenon of a person who acts, then attempts to justify or explain their action, is common within all societies, not just the Babylon described by Borges. One wonders if Borges sees our own world as the true Babylon, with our actions making just as much sense as the actions of his fictional Babylonian.

Medicine cards by Jamie Sams can be purchased through the website:

http://www.jamiesams.com/medicinecards.html

To contact Anthony about the next session for acting instruction call: 647-388-4421
or email him : inforeelfacts@yahoo.ca

Interstitial Music by Guardian Mind courtesy podsafemusicnetwork.com

What Are You Missing?

2009-10-14T09:11:00.002-04:00

Washington, D.C.

Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007.
The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. two thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
After three minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:
A three-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time.
This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only six people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the highest profile musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin valued at $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theatre in Boston where the seats averaged $200.

Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made... How many other things are we missing?

How Do You Handle Adversity?

2009-10-09T08:04:00.000-04:00

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up, She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ' Tell me what you see.'

'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, 'What does it mean, mother?'

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

Think for Yourself

2009-10-07T11:07:00.002-04:00

I can't emphasize enough how critical it is to get informed about this vaccination campaign against flus this fall. Now is the time to exercise your right to choice as these rights are being aggressively challenged on a daily basis. Here is an article you should read in entirety.

SOURCE: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/10/06/Why-You-Should-NOT-Vaccinate-Your-Children-Against-the-Flu-This-Season.aspx

Confusion and Irrational Conclusions Reign

First of all, nearly all of the swine flu vaccines that will be made available in October will be a nasal spray type that contains live virus’, which is not recommended for pregnant women, people over 50, or those with asthma, heart disease or several other health problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The nasal spray causes a much greater immune reaction, and since it contains live virus’ they may multiply too quickly if your immune system is already compromised.

The injectable vaccine will supposedly contain only killed and fragmented virus components, but in order to “make it more effective” it also contains adjuvants; ingredients designed to cause a greater immune reaction by lowering your immune function.

Some of these adjuvants, such as squalene, have already been shown to carry considerable health risks. Thimerosal, a preservative, is also being added to the non attenuated vaccines.

While I’m glad the CDC offers some warning about the FluMist vaccine, what about the fact that none of the coming vaccines have undergone any form of safety testing? Some media reports have stated vaccines will be approved following a five-day safety review. What safety data could possibly be gleaned in a matter of five days?

And what about the possibility that people who have received seasonal flu vaccines may be twice as susceptible to contracting the swine flu?

Health officials everywhere are now recommending each man, woman and child get as many as four flu shots this season; two doses for the swine flu, and one or two doses for the seasonal flu, depending on whether you’ve ever had a flu shot before.

Is it really prudent to mass-administer an untested swine flu vaccine along with a seasonal flu vaccine that may increase your chances of contracting the swine flu?

And, last but certainly not least, while the number of swine flu cases is increasing, the severity of the flu is decreasing, with many doctors and health experts stating it’s actually turning out to be a much MILDER version than your average seasonal flu.

So where is the logic in this season’s vaccine campaign?

Finally one for the "good guys"

2009-10-07T08:41:00.003-04:00

A CULTURAL APPROACH Va Meng Lee, a Hmong shaman, performs a ceremony intended to summon the runaway soul of Chang Teng Thao at Mercy Medical Center in Merced, Calif.

Excerpted from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/us/20shaman.html?_r=1&em

A Doctor for Disease, a Shaman for the Soul

By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
Published: September 19, 2009

MERCED, Calif. — The patient in Room 328 had diabetes and hypertension. But when Va Meng Lee, a Hmong shaman, began the healing process by looping a coiled thread around the patient’s wrist, Mr. Lee’s chief concern was summoning the ailing man’s runaway soul.

“Doctors are good at disease,” Mr. Lee said as he encircled the patient, Chang Teng Thao, a widower from Laos, in an invisible “protective shield” traced in the air with his finger. “The soul is the shaman’s responsibility.”

The Hmong believe that souls, like errant children, are capable of wandering off or being captured by malevolent spirits, causing illness. Mr. Lee’s ceremony for the diabetic man was a spiritual inoculation, meant to protect his soul from being kidnapped by his late wife and thus extending his “life visa.”

Such ceremonies, which last 10 minutes to 15 minutes and must be cleared with a patient’s roommates, are tame versions of elaborate rituals that abound in Merced, especially on weekends, when suburban living rooms and garages are transformed into sacred spaces and crowded by over a hundred friends and family members.

At Mercy Medical Center in Merced, where roughly four patients a day are Hmong from northern Laos, healing includes more than IV drips, syringes and blood glucose monitors. Because many Hmong rely on their spiritual beliefs to get them through illnesses, the hospital’s new Hmong shaman policy, the country’s first, formally recognizes the cultural role of traditional healers like Mr. Lee, inviting them to perform nine approved ceremonies in the hospital, including “soul calling” and chanting in a soft voice.

The policy and a novel training program to introduce shamans to the principles of Western medicine are part of a national movement to consider patients’ cultural beliefs and values when deciding their medical treatment. The approach is being adopted by dozens of medical institutions and clinics across the country that cater to immigrant, refugee and ethnic-minority populations.

Certified shamans, with their embroidered jackets and official badges, have the same unrestricted access to patients given to clergy members. . .

A turning point in the skepticism of staff members occurred a decade ago, when a major Hmong clan leader was hospitalized here with a gangrenous bowel. Dr. Jim McDiarmid, a clinical psychologist and director of the residency program, said that in deference hundreds of well-wishers, a shaman was allowed to perform rituals, including placing a long sword at the door to ward off evil spirits. The man miraculously recovered. “That made a big impression, especially on the residents,” Dr. McDiarmid said.

Harvest Moon Edition

2009-10-04T02:49:00.004-04:00

A conversation with Gary P. Caton of www.dreamastrologer.com regarding the planned bombing of the moon by NASA scheduled for Oct. 9th.

The consequences of continuing to embrace the old paradigm "divide and conquer" mindset , and the choices we have to counter this action while in a state of transition, as evidenced by the celestial configuration of this harvest moon in Aries.

Gary can be contacted via his website at gary@dreamastrologer.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dreamastrologer

To read his latest entry on Facebook go to www.facebook.com/goddess.astrology

Lynda Hill's website for Sabian Symbols from which the quote was read is:

http://sabiansymbols.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/09/emerging-from-the-mine-flying-in-formation-octobers-aries-full-moon.html#more

Forewarned is Forearmed

2009-10-03T10:47:00.002-04:00

SOURCE: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=171640746412&ref=nf

I applaud Mark Cocking for taking the initiative, and having the courage to stand up for his right to choice while Big Brother tramples over Great Britain. We're next people!

This is his recent post on Facebook and here is a link to his interview regarding the monetary system.

http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=Mark+Cocking&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=A2XHSsfZIsrL8Qa1_8ThCA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4#

My response to the school HPV vaccine parental consent request (sent to the NHS HPV team)

Having conducted extensive research into both the manufacturers of this vaccine and the chemistry of the vaccine itself (including many discussions with GPs and doctors) since it first was proposed, we have decided that the balance of common sense suggests that we do not want our daughter to be part of what is (in effect, if not intent) an experimental drug trial.

It is a matter of fact that the data supplied on this drug has been provided by the manufacturer and interested parties. The trail of adverse reactions across the USA to its ‘sister’ drug and the outright denial practised by the manufacturers generally in the face of disturbing data, leads one to conclude that the interests of the child are not necessarily paramount.

Furthermore, it concerns me that schools and medical practitioners are being subjected to ‘peer pressure’ to proceed with this vaccination. It is a matter of record also that the manufacturers conducted a massive promotional campaign for this drug offering incentives and favourable propaganda to doctors, ministers and other parties. It is also a fact that cervical cancer rates were nearly halved by the education and monitoring programme prior to 1999, which begs the question, why are our children being subjected to yet another unproven chemical cocktail when education and screening is clearly the best way forward?

The risks associated with refusal to accept the vaccination, together with education and screening, seem miniscule in proportion to the risks of accepting it. Consent is therefore specifically denied. Our joint decision was arrived at independently and took into account our daughters thoughts and opinion on this matter too.

Yours sincerely,

Mark S Cocking

Plugged In? To Which Matrix?

2009-10-01T21:40:00.004-04:00

image by Dan Page

Excerpt from : "Lament for the iGeneration"

by Gregory Levey

I’m beginning to think that I’m witnessing the end of education. The suspicion first arose when, in early 2008, Ryerson accused a first-year computer engineering student named Chris Avenir of cheating. Avenir was the administrator of a Facebook group called Dungeons/Mastering Chemistry Solutions, through which he and 146 of his peers discussed homework assignments. When one of Avenir’s professors discovered the group, he reported it to Ryerson’s student conduct officer, alleging that students were sharing answers to assignments they’d been asked to complete individually. The students claimed they were merely discussing problem-solving techniques, as they often did in study groups. Avenir was given a failing grade in the course, charged with 147 counts of academic misconduct—one for running the group and one for each of its members—and threatened with expulsion. The incident received international media attention. Were the students cheating or were they just learning in a very 2008 fashion? The drama of the controversy was heightened by the fact that it took place at Ryerson, a school that prides itself on being technologically advanced; the school’s ambitious president, Sheldon Levy, envisions the campus as part of a future downtown “digital hub.”

To me, it seemed like a straightforward case of cheating. I agreed with James Norrie, Ryerson’s then-director of the Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, who said at the time, “Our academic misconduct code says that if work is to be done individually and students collaborate, that’s cheating, whether it’s by Facebook, fax or mimeograph.” And yet, the students were convinced they had done nothing wrong and argued that Ryerson was violating their civil rights by shutting them down. It appears they believed their virtual lives, like the Web itself, should be entirely free from regulation. (Coincidentally, at the time of the incident, Ryerson was in the midst of updating its student code of conduct to cover on-line actions.) After a hearing in March 2008, the engineering faculty appeals committee found that Avenir wasn’t party to cheating and restored his passing grade, although it did place a disciplinary notation on his transcript.

In the year or so since—which is eons in the digital age—I’ve been thinking a lot about the challenge of educating the iGeneration. When I started teaching communications at Ryerson three years ago, I was 28 years old—not that much older than my upper-year students. I’m addicted to my BlackBerry—which, I’m a little embarrassed to admit, I check regularly in the middle of the night while lying in bed—and even as I write this sentence, I am concurrently using Twitter and Facebook. In other words, I’m the furthest thing from a Luddite.

But the more time I spend with my students, the more I have begun to feel that in the decade separating us, technology has changed daily life so radically that our world views differ in irreconcilable ways.

So for the past few months, I’ve been trying to decide if what I see in my classroom is just your typical generational change—the kind that every generation complains about—or if something more seismic is going on. I now believe that today’s students are, for the most part, ill-suited to a university education, and that the fissure that currently exists between schools and students is unbridgeable.