Biz magazines spotlight the sustainability revolution | By John Elkington, Mark Lee | Grist | Full Disclosure | 27 Mar 2007

"If the business press is any indication, sustainability issues have risen up the corporate ladder and are now seen as a central challenge for companies in the coming decades.

Fortune

In its first-ever green issue, Fortune commends '10 Green Giants' -- corporations that are making impressive environmental gains. The editors decided to bypass GE and Wal-Mart, whose eco-endeavors have been heavily publicized, and instead highlight companies whose sustainability efforts have been less high-profile recently -- among them, Hewlett-Packard, Continental Airlines, S.C. Johnson, Suncor, and Alcan. While its list focused on big, mainline corporations, its cover went to an idealistic maverick who runs a 350-employee, uber-eco outdoor-gear company -- Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia.

Fortune's Marc Gunther writes in an intro to the green package that environmentalism in corporate America has gone beyond mere compliance and efficiency: 'Now we're at the threshold of a different era, one in which smart companies are trying to figure out how to profit by solving the world's big environmental problems.'

Fast Company would seem to agree. Its latest annual "Fast 50" edition -- which spotlights trendsetting companies and leaders -- features California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on the cover and lauds him for "focusing the power of the free market on major problems" like climate change and dependence on foreign oil. In fact, this year the "Fast 50" is wholly focused on companies aiming to be green or socially responsible, from NativeEnergy to EcoFish to Home Depot, which now boasts that 95 percent of its wood products come from sustainably managed forests. The issue's lead essay argues that we have to shift to Business 3.0 -- a new, socially and environmentally sustainable set of economic and business models that acknowledge "we can't continue indefinitely to cannibalize our life-support systems for spare parts.""

Paris Embraces Plan to Become City of Bikes - washingtonpost.com

Someone is getting smart out there... lol...

"On July 15, the day after Bastille Day, Parisians will wake up to discover thousands of low-cost rental bikes at hundreds of high-tech bicycle stations scattered throughout the city, an ambitious program to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance the city's image as a greener, quieter, more relaxed place.

By the end of the year, organizers and city officials say, there should be 20,600 bikes at 1,450 stations -- or about one station every 250 yards across the entire city. Based on experience elsewhere -- particularly in Lyon, France's third-largest city, which launched a similar system two years ago -- regular users of the bikes will ride them almost for free.

"It has completely transformed the landscape of Lyon -- everywhere you see people on the bikes," said Jean-Louis Touraine, the city's deputy mayor. The program was meant "not just to modify the equilibrium between the modes of transportation and reduce air pollution, but also to modify the image of the city and to have a city where humans occupy a larger space."

The Socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delano?, has the same aim, said his aide, Jean-Luc Dumesnil: "We think it could change Paris's image -- make it quieter, less polluted, with a nicer atmosphere, a better way of life."

"

Dr. Sigmund Freud, Dr. Wilhelm Reich

Freud is the founder of the modern study of Psychology. His main theory is that sexual frustration leads to mental and emotional illness, which manifests primarily as Frustration- Aggression Syndrome, Transferral of Guilt onto innocent others, and simple hateful jealousy against those better than ourselves.

This all carried over into Reich's works, such as: "The Murder of Christ...The Emotional Plague", which is about how we destroy those superior than ourselves, thus ending their vital ministries to mankind. Also: "The Mass Psychology of Fascism", in which the ass-kissing cowardly populace knowingly conforms to an erroneous norm, sacrificing the brave and courageous, in order to save their cowardly, dishonorable selves.

Like I always said: "They will sacrifice any Truth, no matter how sacred, on the altar of selfish and cowardly conformity. To put it into perspective: They have rejected their own Salvation, in order to protect themselves from the "puta", which is really their own irrational fear and the government to which it gave rise. I always said: Get rid of the bitch and the horse it rode in on." Because of what all of you are, I fear for the life of the world and its multitude of living creatures

Ending Corruption: Honesty Instituted | Changemakers

What It Is: A Changemakers competition awarded to the best idea for a socially entrepreneurial project could help battle corruption.

Why it Matters: Because corruption is a major global problem, making more difficult solutions to all the other problems we face, and while some great proposed solutions exist -- from spreading tools for transparency to paying leaders to eschew corrupt practices -- we need new and better solutions for rooting it out.

Particularly worth a look is this mosiac of innovative solutions, which describes some of the barriers to ending corruption (cynicism and apathy, lack of accountability, few vehicles for participation) and a few of the existing projects which aim to overcome those barriers in various ways (empower citizens, shame and prosecute corrupt leaders, etc.).

Operative Quote: "However you define or experience it, corruption is a disease that infects and impoverishes society. From the "lubricating" corruption of everyday bribe seekers among traffic police, hospital caregivers, permit administrators, customs agents, or prison guards—little by little grinding down those who need their services and approvals—to the 'venal' corruption of self-interested political 'kleptocrats' emptying entire national coffers, corruption is a poison that eats away at communities and institutions to devastating effect. 'Business as usual' is all too often replete with access for some, dead ends for many, and tortuous alleys of shady dealing that affect us all. ... The World Bank estimates that the cost of corruption represents about seven percent of the annual world economy, roughly $2.3 trillion. This is a staggering amount ... a figure that is larger than the entire federal budget of the United States government ($2.2 trillion)."

"Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms"

Submitted by Roberto Wohlgemuth on March 16, 2007 - 12:57.

The United Nations Global Compact was created as a multilateral initiative supporting corporate social responsibility. It was launched by the Secretary-General of the United Nations at the 1999 World Economic Forum in Davos. It comprises ten principles derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

On 24 June 2004, during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit it was announced that the UN Global Compact includes a tenth principle against corruption: "Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery."

How is this principle implemented? What is the level of response from the business sector? What social innovations are promoting corporate social responsibility, including the work of businesses against corruption?

Roberto Wohlgemuth
Changemakers: an Ashoka Initiative

LiveScience.com - Healthier Tomatoes Grown in Seawater

"Healthier Tomatoes Grown in Seawater
By Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience
posted: 22 March 2007
08:41 am ET


Tomatoes irrigated with diluted seawater grow with significantly higher levels of healthy antioxidant compounds, new research shows.



'It'd be interesting to see if this might be a more general phenomenon, where a little salt induces antioxidants in lots of crops,' said botanist Edward Glenn at the University of Arizona, who did not participate in the new study. 'There could be a consumer wave toward salt-tolerant crops based on their nutritional properties.'



The option to use salty water on crops might help farmers deal with growing irrigation woes. Irrigation water, as well as drinking water, is growing scarce and deteriorating in quality around the world.



Nearly 70 percent of all available freshwater is used for agriculture. Use of water for irrigation has increased globally by more than 60 percent since 1960, according to United Nation statistics. At the same time, poor irrigation and drainage practices have led to salt buildup in roughly one-eighth of all irrigated land.

The researchers investigated tomatoes, which are grown worldwide and are moderately salinity tolerant. They grew various types of tomatoes, including those commonly used for salads, under different levels of salinity and investigated the fruit for nutrients.

The researchers found that growing tomatoes in 10 percent seawater improved antioxidant levels significantly, findings they detailed in the April 4 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Glenn noted the water that percolates out from normally irrigated soil, technically known as irrigation return flow, is often as salty as 10 percent seawater. "About a third of irrigation water becomes irrigation return flow, so there's a huge amount of this brackish water, and this research now suggests this could get reused for crops," Glenn told LiveScience.

For decades, research has shown that seawater can irrigate crops, "but there's an impression (that) the crops seawater can irrigate are low value," Glenn said. "Farmers want a good return for their investment and time, and tomatoes are really high value. Also, crops like tomatoes are sold based on consumer appeal, and if you have an extra going for you like high antioxidant levels, this could be quite valuable."

Protect Your Health! Act Now!

THE RATH OF GOD ON THE DISEASE BUSINESS ORIGINAL TITLE: "NO AMNESTY FOR THE MAKERS OF DEADLY DRUGS" Protect Your Health! Act Now!
by Matthias Rath, M.D.

Largely unbeknownst to the American people, there is a war going on that has claimed victims in every family.This war is escalating and threatens every human life. It is a war being waged in the interests of the multibillion- dollar pharmaceutical industry, which is not a Health industry, but rather an investment business built upon the continuation and expansion of global diseases. Your health - and the health of every person in America - is threatened in several ways:

1. The "business with disease" as the basis of the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry is a multibillion-dollar investment business that has orchestrated the largest fraud in human history; it promises health, but in fact thrives on the continuation of diseases.This fraud scheme is easily unmasked: Most pharmaceutical drugs are designed to merely cover disease symptoms, but are not intended to cure or eradicate diseases. As a direct result of this multibillion-dollar fraud business, no cure has been found for cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or any other chronic disease. On the contrary, these diseases continue in epidemic proportions, killing about 5,000 - five thousand - Americans EACH DAY. This compares to the annihilation of a city the size of San Francisco - EACH YEAR!

2. The epidemic of dangerous side effects caused by pharmaceutical drugs. The dangerous side effects of Vioxx, Celebrex, Lipitor and Prozac are not the exception - they are the rule. Due to their synthetic nature, most pharmaceutical drugs are toxic to our bodies, causing organ damage and other serious side effects. According to the American Medical Association, one million Americans sufferdisabilities from taking pharmaceutical drugs and more than 100,000 of them die as a result of this - EACH YEAR!

3. Legislation that protects the expansion of the deadly "business with disease." For decades, drug companies have used their giant profits to manipulate the public and influence legislation, including that from the U.S. Congress and the White House. Now that the deadly consequences of the pharmaceutical fraud business have been unmasked, the survival of this industry depends on protectionist laws. The current push of the Bush administration for so-called "Medical Liability Reform" is not about protecting gynecologists and medical doctors from liability lawsuits. The centerpiece of the proposed medical liability legislation is to prohibit punitive damage awards in liability lawsuits brought by injured patients against drug companies!

This medical liability legislation is being used as a cover to grant amnesty to drug manufacturers, protecting them from having to compensate millions of patients for the harm their drugs have caused. It is payback for the pharmaceutical industry, which was the largest corporate sponsor of the Bush election campaign. The people of America and their political representatives have to realize that the proposed medical liability legislation is a "Trojan Horse"; passing it means granting immunity to the drug makers, allowing them the unrestricted expansion of their deadly "business with disease" at the expense of patients. As the direct consequence of this law, tens of millions of Americans will suffer disability and die from preventable diseases within the next decades.

4. Withholding lifesaving information about the health benefits of vitamins and natural therapies. A precondition for this "business with disease" based on patentable synthetic drugs is the suppression of effective and safe - but non-patentable and, therefore, less profitable - natural therapies. For decades, the pharmaceutical industry has strategically expanded its influence on medical education with devastating results; it has deliberately blocked any information about the essential role of vitamins and other micronutrients in maintaining health - contained in every textbook of biology, biochemistry and natural science - from entering medical school teaching and medical practice. Through their strategic influence, the pharmaceutical industry has established a globalmonopoly on medicine. As a direct result, generations of medical doctors have not received adequate training in nutritional and other natural therapies. Doctors and patients alike have become victims ofthe pharmaceutical industry's efforts to monopolize human health. As a result, tens of millions of Americans have died unnecessarily over the past decades because this lifesaving health information has not been available to them.

5. Suppressing effective natural health therapies by law. Effective, safe and non-patentable natural therapies threaten the very basis of the pharmaceutical investment business.They target and correct the underlying cellular deficiencies of today's most common diseases, thereby preventing and eventually eradicating them. The elimination of any disease inevitably destroys a multibillion-dollar drug market for the pharmaceutical industry. Thus, the pharmaceutical industry has launched a global campaign to protect its patent-based "business with disease" by outlawing natural, non-patentable therapies at the national and international level.This is the background for the Bush administration's attack on the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), the key legislation protecting the rights of the American people for free access to natural therapies and to freedom of health choice. If this fundamental human right to natural health is taken away, the health of billions of people will be compromised and tens of millions of them will pay the ultimate price for generations to come.

Marketing Education Review - The Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching in Marketing Education

Marketing Education Review - The Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching in Marketing Education: "The Capstone “Integrated Business Applications” Course: Addressing the Need for Cross-Functional MBA Education

Greg W. Marshall, Steven E. Bolten and Paul J. Solomon
V10, Fall 2000, 63-75.
The College of Business at the University of South Florida has implemented a new track-driven MBA program that culminates in an innovative two-semester capstone Integrated Business Applications (IBA) course. The goal is to address the call by industry for more cross-functional training of MBA students. This article describes the IBA course, including issues of pedagogy and evaluation of student performance, outlines key categories of knowledge and skill application imbedded within the course experience, and provides a summary of key operational challenges encountered as well as approaches to assessing program success."

American Environmental Health Studies Project

"Our Mission:

To facilitate projects that seek to empower citizens and educate decision makers on issues that:

*have the potential to harm human health or the environment; and
*offer alternative solutions which are environmentally just and sustainable.

Our Projects

For a complete listing of our current projects, click here"

Fluoride Deception Part 3

I knew it... Florida Phosphate Industry saving costs for waste disposal... Greed and control!

Fluoride Deception Part 2

Oh it only gets better!!!

Fluoride Deception Part 1

All about profit and control....

Oak Ridge K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant Fluoride Accident. The SV-40 synergism and HF. Invention of Chemtrails. Human experiments with cyanide. Cloud s

Eeek this only gets worse and worse...

"The key to AIDS is the rising bone concentration of fluorine and its making essential trace metals like manganese unavailable in cell enzyme processes. The Pineal Gland's retention of fluoride exceeds the levels in the bone mass and disrupts the glands day-night regulation of thyroid hormone and melatonin. Many of the immune cells are born in the bone marrow and they begin with depleted levels of trace metals needed for enzymes and it stays that way due to the loss of GSH in cells leading to loss of manganese by rendering it unavailable. This effect sets up the infections of HIV in the immune cells that have lost the essential metal that protects the cells from retroviral infections. Fluoride chemistry also renders some essential metals like magnesium, zinc, and selenium lower in concentration due to shedding more rapidly from the body. Rising bone fluoride concentration signal upsets of the beneficial trace metals concentration in the body and via that effect comes illness, rapid aging, and even death."

Sickness Control 101: Fluoride, the Lunatic Drug | 100777.com

"Controversial fluoride is one of the basic ingredients in both PROZAC (FLUoxetene Hydrochloride) and Sarin nerve gas (Isopropyl-Methyl-Phosphoryl FLUoride).

Sodium fluoride, a hazardous-waste by-product from the manufacture of aluminum, is a common ingredient in rat and cockroach poisons, anesthetics, hypnotics, psychiatric drugs, and military nerve gas. It's historically been quite expensive to properly dispose of, until some aluminum industries with an overabundance of the stuff sold the public on the terrifically insane but highly profitable idea of buying it at a 20,000% markup, injecting it into our water supplies, and then DRINKING it.

Yes, a 20,000% markup: Fluoride - intended only for human consumption by people under 14 years of age - is injected into our drinking water supply at approx. 1 part-per-million (ppm), but since we only drink half of one percent of the total water supply, the rest literally goes down the drain as a free hazardous-waste disposal for the chemical industry, where we PAY them so that we can flush their expensive hazardous waste down our toilets. How many salesmen dream of such a deal? (Follow the money.)

Independent scientific evidence repeatedly showing up over the past 50 years reveals that fluoride allegedly shortens our life span, promotes cancer and various mental disturbances, accelerates osteoporosis and broken hips in old folks, and makes us stupid, docile, and subservient, all in one package. There are reports of aluminum in the brain possibly being a causative factor in Alzheimer's Disease, and evidence points towards fluoride's strong affinity for aluminum and also its ability to "trick" the blood-brain barrier by looking like the hydrogen ion, and thus allowing chemical access to brain tissue.

Do you have diabetes or kidney disease? There are reportedly more than 11 million Americans with diabetes. Since many diabetics drink more liquids than other people, then according to the Physicians Desk Reference these 11 million Americans probably shouldn't drink fluoridated water, because in doing so, they'll receive an excessive dose of fluoride.

Kidney disease, by definition, lowers the efficiency of the kidneys, which is your main route of fluoride elimination. So those people with kidney disease also shouldn't drink fluoridated water. Cases are on record (Annapolis, Maryland, 1979) where kidney patients on dialysis machines died, due to a fluoride overdose in the city water supply.

Let's begin at the beginning:

The first occurrence of fluoridated drinking water on Earth was found in Germany's Nazi prison camps. The Gestapo had little concern about fluoride's supposed effect on children's teeth; their alleged reason for mass-medicating water with sodium fluoride was to sterilize humans and force the people in their concentration camps into calm submission. (Ref. book: "The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben" by Joseph Borkin. And for more on I.G. Farben you might also care to see "Can I pour you a cup?".)

The following letter was received by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, Milwaukee Wisconsin, on 2 October 1954, from Mr. Charles Perkins, a chemist:

"I have your letter of September 29 asking for further documentation regarding a statement made in my book, The Truth About Water Fluoridation, to the effect that the idea of water fluoridation was brought to England from Russia by the Russian Communist Kreminoff. "In the 1930's, Hitler and the German Nazi's envisioned a world to be dominated and controlled by a Nazi philosophy of pan-Germanism. The German chemists worked out a very ingenious and far-reaching plan of mass-control which was submitted to and adopted by the German General Staff. This plan was to control the population in any given area through mass medication of drinking water supplies. By this method they could control the population in whole areas, reduce population by water medication that would produce sterility in women, and so on. In this scheme of mass-control, sodium fluoride occupied a prominent place . . . .

"Repeated doses of infinitesimal amounts of fluoride will in time reduce an individual's power to resist domination, by slowly poisoning and narcotizing a certain area of the brain, thus making him submissive to the will of those who wish to govern him. [A convenient light lobotomy]

"The real reason behind water fluoridation is not to benefit children's teeth. If this were the real reason there are many ways in which it could be done that are much easier, cheaper, and far more effective. The real purpose behind water fluoridation is to reduce the resistance of the masses to domination and control and loss of liberty.

"When the Nazis under Hitler decided to go into Poland, both the German General Staff and the Russian General Staff exchanged scientific and military ideas, plans, and personnel, and the scheme of mass control through water medication was seized upon by the Russian Communists because it fitted ideally into their plan to communize the world . . . .

"I was told of this entire scheme by a German chemist who was an official of the great I.G. Farben chemical industries and was also prominent in the Nazi movement at the time. I say this with all the earnestness and sincerity of a scientist who has spent nearly 20 years' research into the chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and pathology of fluorine - any person who drinks artificially fluorinated water for a period of one year or more will never again be the same person mentally or physically." - CHARLES E. PERKINS, Chemist, 2 October 1954"

LiveScience.com - Controversial New Idea: Nerves Transmit Sound, Not Electricity

Controversial New Idea: Nerves Transmit Sound, Not Electricity
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 14 March, 2007
1:00 pm ET


Nerves transmit sound waves through your body, not electrical pulses, according to a controversial new study that tries to explain the longstanding mystery of how anesthetics work.

Textbooks say nerves use electrical impulses to transmit signals from the brain to the point of action, be it to wag a finger or blink an eye.

'But for us as physicists, this cannot be the explanation,' says Thomas Heimburg, a Copenhagen University researcher whose expertise is in the intersection of biology and physics. 'The physical laws of thermodynamics tell us that electrical impulses must produce heat as they travel along the nerve, but experiments find that no such heat is produced.'

The textbooks are not likely to be rewritten anytime soon, however.

Roderic Eckenhoff, a researcher in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, called the sound pulse idea interesting. 'But an enormous burden of proof exists and they have a very long way to go to beat electricity,' he said.


Nerves transmit sound waves through your body, not electrical pulses, according to a controversial new study that tries to explain the longstanding mystery of how anesthetics work.

Textbooks say nerves use electrical impulses to transmit signals from the brain to the point of action, be it to wag a finger or blink an eye.

"But for us as physicists, this cannot be the explanation," says Thomas Heimburg, a Copenhagen University researcher whose expertise is in the intersection of biology and physics. "The physical laws of thermodynamics tell us that electrical impulses must produce heat as they travel along the nerve, but experiments find that no such heat is produced."

The textbooks are not likely to be rewritten anytime soon, however.

Roderic Eckenhoff, a researcher in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, called the sound pulse idea interesting. "But an enormous burden of proof exists and they have a very long way to go to beat electricity," he said.

The olive oil clue

Nerves are wrapped in a membrane of lipids and proteins. Biology textbooks say a pulse is sent from one end of the nerve to the other with the help of electrically charged salts that pass through ion channels in the membrane. But the lack of heat generation contradicts the molecular biological theory of an electrical impulse produced by chemical processes, says Heimburg, who co-authored the new study with Copenhagen University theoretical physicist Andrew Jackson.

Instead, nerve pulses can be explained much more simply as a mechanical pulse of sound, Heimburg and Jackson argue. Their idea will be published in the Biophysical Journal.

Normally, sound propagates as a wave that spreads out and becomes weaker and weaker. But in certain conditions, sound can be made to travel without spreading and therefore it retains its intensity.

The lipids in a nerve membrane are similar to olive oil, the scientists explain. And the membrane has a freezing point that is precisely suited to the propagation of these concentrated sound pulses"

Urban farms take root

Good people doing it right again!!!!


"What's going on is quite a phenomenon,' said Kami Pothukuchi, a Wayne State University professor specializing in urban planning and food systems. 'You have a community that needs access to fresh food, and you have open land. The two are coming together.'

The number of community and family gardens and individuals raising crops for sale in the city has jumped from 80 in 2004 to 302 in 2006, according to The Greening of Detroit, a nonprofit group that creates public gardens and plants trees.

The total is projected to jump another 25 percent this year.

'The economy is ideal for this,' said Michael Score, who works for the Michigan State University Extension Service, which finds ways to bring crops to market.

The downturn in Michigan's job market -- the city of Detroit has an unemployment rate of about 15 percent -- means people are looking to eat affordably and to generate income, he said.

Detroit provides a perfect setting for urban gardening.

In a city of roughly 880,000 people, there are just two large-scale grocery stores. Because public transportation is not always convenient, and an estimated 37 percent of residents live below the federal poverty threshold, most people shop at small independent stores that charge more and are more likely to have a meager produce selection."

Fwd: Response to your recent comments

Mel_Martinez@martinez.senate.gov wrote:

Subject: Response to your recent comments
From: Mel_Martinez@martinez.senate.gov
To: stars2man@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 10:45:39 -0400

Below is a response to the recent comments I received from you:


Dear Mr. Weaver:

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns over the sale of cloned animal products. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to take this opportunity to respond.

On December 28, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a draft risk assessment which found that meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs, and goats and their offspring are as safe to eat as those of conventionally bred animals. It is my understanding that the assessment was peer reviewed by a group of independent scientific experts in cloning and animal health, and its primary conclusion regarding the safety of cloned food was in keeping with the findings of the National Academies of Sciences.

According to the FDA, they have yet to make a decision requiring the labeling of food products from cloned animals. In addition, the draft assessment specifically differentiated between genetic engineering, which involves altering, adding or deleting DNA, and cloning, which does not change the genetic sequence.

Under regulations established by the United States Department of Agriculture, the FDA is seeking comments from the public until April 2, 2007 (90 days). To submit electronic comments on the three documents, visit http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/oc/dockets/comments/commentdocket.cfm?AGENCY=FDA. Written comments may be sent to: Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD, 20852. Comments must be received by April 2, 2007, and should include the docket number 2003N-0573. For more information, visit http://www.fda.gov/cvm/CloneRiskAssessment.htm.

Again, thank you for contacting me. If you have any additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. In addition, for more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov.

Sincerely,

Mel Martinez
United States Senator


**Note: PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL. If you would like to reply to this message, please contact me through my website at http://martinez.senate.gov.

What's At Stake: Stop Meat and Milk From Clones!

Eeeek this is freaky... now I know I'm stuck being vegetarian!!!
No more Ice Cream either!!!

"What's At Stake?
Stop Meat and Milk From Clones!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is poised to lift a voluntary moratorium on the sale of meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring. In January, the agency issued a draft risk assessment and other documents to defend its assertion regarding the safety of these products.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has joined many others in opposing the sale of meat and milk from clones in our food supply, particularly when the FDA currently has no plans to require products from clones to be labeled. Dr. Margaret Mellon, director of UCS's Food and Environment Program, said in a statement: 'If consumers aren't going to be told if their meat is from a clone, the FDA has to be certain that meat is safe.'

This move by the FDA comes despite widespread opposition to the practice of cloning animals that are part of our food supply. A 2006 survey by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology found that 64 percent of consumers are uncomfortable with animal cloning."

Strong Suspicions of Toxicity in One GMO Corn

Yea, big surprise... pollution in our feed stock...

"Strong Suspicions of Toxicity in One GMO Corn
By Stèphane Foucart
Le Monde

Tuesday 13 March 2007

Allowed to go on the market in France and Europe, MON 863, a transgenic corn invented by Monsanto, has been at the center of a controversy over its innocuousness for over two years (April 23rd, 2004, Le Monde). These debates could resume after the March 13th publication in 'Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology' of a study suggesting this genetically modified organism (GMO) is toxic to the liver and kidneys.

According to this work, consumption of MON 863 corn disturbs numerous biological parameters in rats to a greater or lesser extent: weight of the kidneys, weight of the liver, the level of reticulocytes (new red blood cells), the level of triglycerides, etc. Urinary chemistry is also changed, with reductions in excreted sodium and phosphorus going as high as 35 percent. The effects vary with the sex of the animals. 'Female rats exhibit an increase in blood fat and sugar levels, and an increase in body weight - all associated with greater hepatic sensitivity,' says Mr. Sèralini, principal author of this study and, moreover, president of the Research Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (Criigen). 'Among males, the impact is"

The New Age

Have you ever wondered when the "New Age" started? Believe it or not, it dates back to the late 1800s, a period of intense spiritual activity in Western
Neptune, ruler of spirituality and psychic phenomena, had just been discovered. Coincidence? Of the many innovations that came out of this extraordinary period was the combination of astrology with Tarot. Today, the connection between the two is a given, and there's no doubt that their divination power is vastly increased when they are used together.

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Food is Power

Yes POWER is right... they American Machine takes over the water supplies, uses all their chemicals to destroy all the seeds and foods outside of their control and then pumps their "patented" seeds and GMO's into the counties so you can only eat and survive by buying from a multinational corporation that has taken over...


WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Food is Power: "“Forum on Food Sovereignty” near Bamako, Mali. For the first time, the world’s largest social movements working on behalf of food producers throughout the world have gathered to discuss the idea of food sovereignty. The organizers include international social movements of peasants, women, fisherfolk, environmentalists, and consumers.

Most of the focus of the forum has been conversation, discussing what the delegates represented here are fighting for, what they’re fighting against, and to set an agenda for the next five to ten years for collective, global campaigns. The gathered groups will also develop position papers on themes ranging from trade and local commerce, to resource rights and urban-consumer partnerships, from production models and appropriate technologies to bilateral and multinational trade policies.

Ultimately, this alliance plans to share these position papers with networks in their home countries as well as heads of state, the United Nations, the FAO, and development bodies.

I’ve been here for a few days now and have been continually amazed by the feat to pull this event off. In rural West Africa, the organizers were able to create a village for more than 600 delegates, from scratch, using mostly local materials and mostly local labor. As one of the org"

"MORE NATURAL CURES REVEALED"

"A government that once stood for the people is now being sold over and over again to some of the most powerful and influential money interests on the planet. Four of the top ten Fortune 500 companies are pharmaceutical companies. They have a lobbyist for every state representative and senator in Washington, with some extras assigned to the public committees of the House and Senate. Your health is being sold on a daily basis by every representative and senator who takes their money." - p. 74.

"The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) repeatedly puts out press releases which are flagrantly false and misleading. Corruption must stop. The government must stop taking advantage of the citizens. The large multinational corporations must stop putting profits above ethics, integrity, and honesty. We, as a society are being made sick purposely, so that large companies can make billions of dollars in profits. This must cease. The FTC is helping this to continue to occur. They must be stopped. The FTC is supposed to protect us; instead it is protecting the large multinational corporations." - p. 122.

"The FTC is not interested in protecting the consumers; it is interested in protecting the profits of the large companies. The FTC repeatedly sues people like myself who advertise truthfully and honestly, but whose products and opinions can have an adverse effect on the large companies. This is how the FTC protects the monopolies and protects the profits of the large corporations. This is wrong and must be stopped..." - p. 123.

Ivory Trade Threatens Future of African Elephants

But you know this will also happen to Oil, Old Growth Forests, Wild Tuna and Salmon and every other commodity. . . The Profit Machine is designed to increase the use until there is NO MORE. then they will have total control of the market with Stored supplies and pirated access. Just like the Diamond trade where all the African Tribes that could compete in the market are getting systematically exterminated... ALL of them!!!!

Ivory Trade Threatens Future of African Elephants: "Ivory Trade Threatens Future of African Elephants

SEATTLE, Washington, February 27, 2007 (ENS) - The illegal ivory trade is flourishing and threatens to undermine efforts to save the African elephant from extinction, according to a new study released Monday. Poaching of the species has risen to a level not seen in two decades, researchers report, and could doom the world's largest land animal unless western governments step up efforts to halt the illegal trade.

'The illegal ivory trade recently intensified to the highest levels ever reported,' according to the study, published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

China's burgeoning economy is a major force driving the growth of the illegal trade, escalating prices and attracting organized crime.

A kilogram of ivory that $200 by 2004 now fetches some $750, the researchers said, and from August 2005 through August 2006, authorities seized some 24 tons of illegal ivory destined for Asia.

But that figure represents only about 10 percent of the estimated illegal shipments, bringing the total closer to 240 tons - an amount that would require the slaughter of more than 23,000 elephants, about 5 percent of the estimated"

Fwd: RE: [discussionlist] dharma and mental illness

MLRN Discussion List

As I read the response below, I find myself thinking "the criteria for inclusion are very subjectively guided." We have to keep in mind that meditation in general is INCREDIBLY broad. Mindfulness is a bit more focused (no pun intended), but still, adherents of TM will vouch for empirically validating TM; adherents of mindfulness will go for mindfulness, etc., just as it happens with CBT being empirically validated first, even though theoretically, it's the new kid on the block. And the fact remains that exactly *what* mindfulness is is up for debate. Is it the posture? Is it the breathing? Is it the acceptance? Is it a synthesis of these and other things? I imagine as many of you read these components, you are thinking "oh, he left out ____." And that's my point exactly. Where we start is fairly subjective, and we must acknowledge that, whether we are in the empiricism-is-best camp or whether we are in the qualitative-is-more-clinically-relevant camp. As is often the case, how this lump of clay is sculpted into a meaningful body of research is as much a result of serendipity, political intrigue, and synchronicity more than intentional design.

As I frequently do on this list, I also feel compelled to draw attention to the false dichotomy between the sick, depraved nature of "western" society, versus the enlightened, spiritual "east". If anyone one of us wish to do serious academic or dharma work, we have to absolutely dispel such wrong views that perpetuate a eurocentric dichotomy that only insidiously perpetuates very colonial, imperialistic ideas. Where is the boundary between "west" and "east"? Is it in Jerusalem? Russia? Where is the center of this two-armed cosmology? (Europe). How do we explain the awful things that have gone on in the "east" that go against our romanticized notions of how perfect and evolved those cute little Asians are?

Clearly, I am being a gadfly, but my point is that any serious meditation practice or research cannot come from holding a group, a practice, or even a teacher up on an idealized pedestal. I can assure you the depravity and vice is just as rampant in Thailand, India, or China as it is in New York, and isn't there because these pristine societes were contaminated by the "west". I heard on NPR some months ago that Wahabbis in Baghdad were killing grocers whose produce might interpreted as pornographic-- eggplants and peaches assembled just so. So what depravity and vice are is clearly very, very subjective. I am also reminded of the bitter complaints Steven mentioned he recieved after his book was mentioned in a popular magazine. Obviously, some Buddhists somewhere were offended, and being "Buddhist" didn't mean they were civil.

Human beings are human beings everywhere. I can't vouch for what goes in every society, but thinking in terms of "east" and "west" only highilights differences, not our common flaws and potentials. My mind, being Indian, wanders as much as anyone elses, I imagine, who has been engaged in daily practice for over a decade. Is this more or less because I am Indian? Does it, or should it, matter? I don't think it does.

Sameet Kumar, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center
4306 Alton Road
Miami Beach, FL 33140
phone: (305) 535 3362
fax: (305) 535 3352

Readers' Q & A with Wikipedia founder - opinion - 20 February 2007 - New Scientist

Readers' Q & A with Wikipedia founder - opinion - 20 February 2007 - New Scientist: "Wikipedia has opened - as New Scientist asserts - knowledge to the people. This is one of the benefits that the internet brings to the world. There remains one area where its impartial and basically incorruptible powers should be brought to bear - this is the area of politics. Can you think of methods by which the stupidity, misdeeds, hidden links and crimes of those who plan (and often succeed) to govern us, could be brought to the attention of the voting public? Such a system would prevent the emergence of the Hitlers, the Dubyas and the Mugabes. A sort of Whistleblowers International...

Jimmy Wales replies:

I don't think we need any special new system, but rather to simply continue to expand the use of the internet as a whole. Blogs are a fantastic tool, which allow anyone to publish anything quickly and at virtually no cost, and the blogosphere quickly spreads the word so that interesting voices are quickly amplified. And then wikis provide a fabulous tool for groups to come together to summarise and catalogue.

My own political project, Campaigns Wikia, is specifically focused on helping to make political campaigns more transparent and responsive to internet technologies. It is my belief that no one system is needed, but rather an explosion of free speech."

How Gov't Decided Lunch Box Lead Levels

How does any Government decided how to enforce regulations???
easy!

SHOW ME THE MONEY$$$$

How Gov't Decided Lunch Box Lead Levels - washingtonpost.com: "How Gov't Decided Lunch Box Lead Levels

By MARTHA MENDOZA
The Associated Press
Sunday, February 18, 2007; 11:19 PM

-- In 2005, when government scientists tested 60 soft, vinyl lunch boxes, they found that one in five contained amounts of lead that medical experts consider unsafe _ and several had more than 10 times hazardous levels.

But that's not what they told the public.

Instead, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement that they found "no instances of hazardous levels." And they refused to release their actual test results, citing regulations that protect manufacturers from having their information released to the public.

That data was not made public until The Associated Press received a box of about 1,500 pages of lab reports, in-house e-mails and other records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed a year ago.

The documents describe two types of tests. One involves cutting a chunk of vinyl off the bag, dissolving it and then analyzing how much lead is in the solution; the second test involves swiping the surface of a bag and then determining how much lead has rubbed off.

The results of the first type of test, looking for the actual lead content of the vinyl, showed that 20 percent of the bags had more than 600 parts per million of lead _ the federal safe level for paint and other products. The highest level was 9,600 ppm, more than 16 times the federal standard.

But the CPSC did not use those results.

"When it comes to a lunch box, it's carried. The food that you put in the lunch box may have an outer wrapping, a baggie, so there isn't direct exposure. The direct exposure would be if kids were putting their lunch boxes in their mouth, which isn't a common way for children to interact with their lunch box," said CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese.

Thus the CPSC focused exclusively on how much lead came off the surface of a lunch box when lab workers swiped them.

Google Groups

wow. . . have I done some SERIOUS research!!!
I googled "stars2man" again . . . eeek this is so freaky . . . like I can't find anything that I didn't write yet . . . or start . .


Google Groups: "HELP Qigong/Reiki Standing forms???

alt.healing.reiki Jun 14 2001

HELP Qigong/Reiki Standing forms??? alt.meditation.transcendental Jun 14 2001
HELP Qigong/Reiki Standing forms??? alt.philosophy.zen Jun 14 2001
HELP Qigong/Reiki Standing forms??? alt.meditation.shabda Jun 14 2001
Outlook Express 5.5 reinstall?? microsoft.public.win...tlookexpress Jun 12 2001
Chi Gong??? alt.philosophy.taoism Jun 8 2001
Chi Gong??? alt.meditation.qigong Jun 5 2001
Chi Gong??? alt.philosophy.taoism Jun 5 2001
Chi Gong??? alt.yoga Jun 1 2001"

Inside Bay Area - Scientists expose body toxin risks

Truth about all the pollution in our foods and environment is finally getting out...
Inside Bay Area - Scientists expose body toxin risks: "You scramble those reactions at your peril, in other words, and last week hundreds of researchers gathered at the University of California, San Francisco, warned society may be doing exactly that with synthetic chemicals.

The chemicals, known as endocrine disruptors, are found everywhere in our environment: food, lotions, shampoos, baby bottles, toys, appliances, even casings for medicines. They mimic hormones at levels scientists only recently have been able to measure, and some are active at concentrations of a part-per-trillion or less — a speck of dirt sullying 55 tons of clean laundry.

Most worrisome to scientists: In many cases, the effect of such pollution on our bodies remains as unknown and mysterious as the processes they potentially disrupt.

'In the absence of concrete data for many of these chemicals, the precautionary principle should be exercised,' said Dr. Linda Guidice, chairwoman of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF and the organizer of the reproductive health conference that brought 500 scientists, clinicians and community activists together."

THE INTENTION EXPERIMENT

THE INTENTION EXPERIMENT by Lynne McTaggart: "THE INTENTION EXPERIMENT
Lynne McTaggart

For the last forty years renegade scientists, experimenting with the limits of quantum physics, have made seemingly impossible discoveries. In 1966, for instance, a lie-detector expert accidentally discovered that plants can read thoughts; in 1982 Buddhist monks in the Himalayas were found to be able to turn their bodies into furnaces; and a psychologist’s experiments in 1992 revealed a stream of light flowing from healers during healing. All pointed towards one thing - evidence that a thought is a tangible thing, with the power to affect the physical world. In The Intention Experiment, Lynne McTaggart explores scientific evidence supporting the idea that the power of human intentions can actually change the world around us. She also shows you exactly how to ‘power up’ your own thoughts and intentions to change your life. And, joining forces with an international team of scientists, she also invites her readers to participate in the biggest intention experiment in history. Exciting eh?

Visit the website: www.theintentionexperiment.com"

How to Always Win

How to Always Win

A stellar characteristic of Americans has always been their ability to compete, indeed to win. This zeal to achieve has accomplished many wonderful things for our country and its citizens, including major medical discoveries, unparalleled economic success, even liberty itself. But after the extremely negative campaigning of the recent elections, and the endless nightly debate about whether or not we are winning the war on terror and who's to blame for what's right or wrong in our country, I can't help but ask if our need to compete has gone awry. It doesn't seem to be enough any more to succeed. What worries me is people's need to take it a step further to prove they are right, and sometimes, to prove they're right no matter what. You can be sure that a win-at-all-costs attitude does not contribute to good relationships on a global scale or, as concerns me here, to personal relationships, which are, after all, the bedrock of a person's emotional and physical well being.

For insight on this painful problem, I talked with Lauren Zander and Meredith Haberfeld of Handel Group Private Coaching (www.handelgrouppc.com). Lauren points out that in every conversation, people have an agenda. It might be to inform, to amuse, to get to know each other better or just to pass the time -- there are lots of reasons for verbal exchanges. But when the agenda includes ensuring that you are right, by definition it means establishing that the other person is wrong. There isn't a conversation in the world that doesn't ultimately come to a screeching halt if one or both parties have the attitude that "I am right, you are wrong, now get used to it." This is incredibly destructive to any relationship -- in the Middle East, in the workplace, with your in-laws, or in the bedroom -- because it slams the door on any real possibility for a dialog. In fact, Lauren says the battle to be "right" is at the base of all dysfunction, be it wars between countries, conflicts at work or closer to home -- marital or parent-child conflicts.

WHAT IS FACT?

There is a simple truth at play here. It is possible to be right -- look out the window and if you see water falling from the clouds you can rightly announce it is raining... or that the sun is shining... or that it is night or day. While some philosophy students may debate this, obvious facts of this nature fall neatly into a right/wrong category. But just about everything else in the world is far more complex and dwells in the world not of black and white, but of gray. This is the realm of relativism, says Lauren, which means that what is right to me is shaped by my point of view and isn't necessarily right to the other person. Meredith explains that often our own point of view is shaped by misunderstandings or misinterpretations that we assume to be hard fact. If you want a relationship to work, she continues, the most important thing you can do is understand that virtually every thought and opinion you have is based on personal perception, not on fact.

Couples may argue that one spouse was being rude or unfair but the so-called offending spouse doesn't see it that way. In fact, that person no doubt thinks the other one was being unfair. Perspective is behind the difference and determines why you both think you are right.

It is crucial to understand and accept that your perspective is not fact and that both parties have a valid point of view. This is how contradictory opinions can exist in a relationship without causing disharmony. The problem is that most people are invested in their own interpretation and perspective and are disinterested in the other person's. Deep inside, people believe that by making themselves right and their "opponent" wrong they'll "win," but this form of winning is not necessarily the key to happiness or success. Once people are willing to accept the existence of contradictory "truths," it changes the dynamics of the discussion because no one is any longer trying to win. Lauren calls this insistence on being right a manipulation, which is a common human trick. People dress their opinion up in self-righteousness -- you have to accept what I am saying because I am right! I am reminded of a couple I know who have different religious beliefs. When he tries to open her thinking to even entertain the idea that others see things differently, she responds "but I know I am right." That ends the conversation -- and much to her frustration, ends her attempts to convert him and win.

SEEKING A NEW DEFINITION OF VICTORY

While the need to win creates continuous and deep-seated relationship dilemmas, it is possible for anyone to pull out of this emotional quagmire and, in so doing, immediately improve interactions with others -- including with those who are closest to you. It is no longer about having one person right and one wrong. Rather, Meredith explains, it is listening to each other's "truths" completely so you have all version(s) of the situation and accept that another person can have a different opinion. Here is what Lauren advises to make this important change...

• Accept that most discussions, including yours, are not based on fact but rather on a relative point of view.

• Always evaluate if you are discussing fact (weather, the time, the color of your new car, etc.).

• Ask yourself if you are treating your platform as fact when it is actually your opinion (and if your discussion has become a battle, you can be sure opinions are the subject).

• Frame your conversation in words that convey not "this is how it is," but rather, "when you said this, what I meant was... " or "this is how it seemed to me" -- in other words, that you accept that your "truth" may be based on important misunderstandings that you believed to be true, and that each view of the situation as it was or is, not as an absolute truth.

• After someone speaks and shares their point of view, before you give yours, first say theirs back to them so they feel heard and understood. And be open to correction, because if you say something that didn't accurately capture their perspective, they should make sure you get it correctly.

CHANGE ONLY TAKES ONE

You may now be thinking that this is great for you, but what about the other guy? If he won't change his position, what good will this do? Take heart -- Lauren observes that when one person assumes responsibility for accepting that his/her perspective is relative and understands that aiming to "win" leaves everyone as losers, it is sufficient to turn a discussion around. You have put one fact on the table and that is there are two different points of view going on. Who can argue with that? You allow the other his/her right to his view of the truth -- but you also claim the right to yours. This acceptance surpasses the need to win, allowing a peaceful negotiation of the situation -- if not immediately than in the near future... and that is truly winning in a far more constructive way.

---

Sources:

How to Always Win

• Meredith Haberfeld, co-founder and CEO, Handel Group Private Coaching (www.handelgrouppc.com) and Lauren Zander, principle, Handel
  

---

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medical cartel

"The United States Government and governments of the world have colluded together with international drug and pharmaceutical companies to create a 'medical cartel', a virtual monopoly on what is the 'truth' regarding health, and the treatment of illness and disease. Individuals around the world have been charged criminally for stating their opinions regarding the best ways to prevent and cure disease. This oocurs when these 'opinions' go against what the 'medical cartel' has already established as 'truth'. Therefore, I must write a disclaimer. There is no freedom of speech or freedom of expression in the world when it comes to health. Like it was in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, if a person says something that the government, in its supreme infinite wisdom, deems detrimental to society, that person will be severely ridiculed, debunked, discredited, attacked, and in many cases persecuted and prosecuted beyond the wildest imaginations of even the most ardent conspiracy theorists." - from page 15 of "More Natural Cures Revealed" by Kevin Trudeau, published by Alliance Publishing Group, P.O. Box 207, Elk Grove Village, IL 60009 U.S.A. www.naturalcures. com www.thewhistleblower.com www.kevinfightsback .com

Eckhart Teachings Newsletter - Issue 10 - December 2006

“What does it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose yourself?”

It has been said: There are two ways of being unhappy: not getting what you want, and getting what you want.

When people attain what the world tells us is desirable — wealth, recognition, property, achievement — they’re still not happy, at least not for long. They’re not at peace with themselves. They don’t have a true sense of security, a sense of finally having arrived.

Their achievements have not provided them with what they were really looking for — themselves. They have not given them the sense of being rooted in life, or as Jesus calls it, the fullness of life.

The form of this moment is the portal into the formless dimension. It is the narrow gate that Jesus talks about that leads to life. Yes, it’s very narrow: it’s only this moment.

To find it, you need to roll up the scroll of your life on which your story is written, past and future. Before there were books, there were scrolls, and you rolled them up when you were done with them.

So put your story away. It is not who you are. People usually live carrying a burden of past and future, a burden of their personal history, which they hope will fulfill itself in the future. It won’t, so roll up that old scroll. Be done with it.

You don’t solve problems by thinking; you create problems by thinking. The solution always appears when you step out of thinking and become still and absolutely present, even if only for a moment. Then, a little later when thought comes back, you suddenly have a creative insight that wasn’t there before.

Let go of excessive thinking and see how everything changes. Your relationships change because you don’t demand that the other person should do something for you to enhance your sense of self. You don’t compare yourself to others or try to be more than someone else to strengthen your sense of identity.

You allow everyone to be as they are. You don’t need to change them; you don’t need them to behave differently so that you can be happy.

There’s nothing wrong with doing new things, pursuing activities, exploring new countries, meeting new people, acquiring knowledge and expertise, developing your physical or mental abilities, and creating whatever you’re called upon to create in this world.

It is beautiful to create in this world, and there is always more that you can do.

Now the question is, Are you looking for yourself in what you do? Are you attempting to add more to who you think you are? Are you compulsively striving toward the next moment and the next and the next, hoping to find some sense of completion and fulfillment?

The preciousness of Being is your true specialness. What the egoic self had been looking for on the level of the story —I want to be special —

obscured the fact that you could not be more special than you already are now. Not special because you are better or more wretched than someone else, but because you can sense a beauty, a preciousness, an aliveness deep within.

When you are present in this moment,
you break the continuity of your story, of past and future.
Then true intelligence arises,
and also love.

The only way love can come into your life
is not through form, but through that inner spaciousness that is Presence.
Love has no form.

Physics, Mysticism, and the New Holographic Paradigm

The ripple did forget the Self, to be sure--but it was a ripple of the Self, and remained so throughout the play. Thus, this movement from the higher into the lower--which is involution--is at once an act of pure creation and effulgent radiance (on the part of Atman), and a tragic tale of suffering and epic unhappiness (on the part of the self-ripple attempting the Atman project). The ultimate aim of evolution--the movement from the lower to the higher--is to awaken as Atman, and thus retain the glory of the creation without being forced to act in the drama of self suffering.

During the course of our universe's history (and science helps us here), we have evolved from level-1 (which began approximately fifteen billion years ago with the Big Bang) to level-2 (which occurred several billions of years later when matter awakened into some realization of life) to level-3 (which so far has been reached fully by humans only). Evolution is, as it were, half completed. "Mankind," said Plotinus, "is poised midway between the gods and the beasts."
But in the past course of human history, some men and women, through the evolutionary discipline of higher religion, succeeded in pushing their own development and evolution into level-4: that of saintly religion and the first intuition of a transcendental reality, one in essence lying above and beyond the ordinary mind, self, body, and world. This "beyond" was poetically called heaven; this oneness was called the one God.

This intuition did not fully occur until around 3000 B.C., with the rise of the first great monotheistic religions. (Prior to that time, there were only polytheistic realizations--a god of fire, a god of water, etc. This was really sympathetic magic, stemming from a simple manipulation of level-2, emotionalsexual energies and rites.) By the time Of 500 B.C., however, certain evolutionary souls pushed their development into the causal--Christ, Buddha, Krishna, the great axial sages. Their insights were drawn out and extended to produce what the Tibetans called the Svabhavikakaya path--the path of level-6, or already realized Truth, the path of Zen, Vajrayana, Vedanta. What remains is for the world to follow suit, via evolutionary or process meditation, into the higher realms themselves.

According to the perennial philosophy, not only does this whole process of involution and evolution play itself out over centuries, it repeats itself moment to moment, ceaselessly and instantaneously. In this moment and this moment and this, an individual starts out at infinity. But in this moment and this moment and this, he contracts away from infinity and ends up reduced to the level of his present adaptation. He involves to the highest point he has yet evolved--and all the higher realms are simply forgotten, rendered unconscious. This is why all meditation is called remembrance or recollection (Sanskrit smriti, Pali sati, as in satipatthana, Plato's anamnesis, Sufi zikr--all are precisely translated as "memory" or "remembrance").

This whole panoply of higher levels generating the lower moment to moment, and of the dazzling interpenetrating of each level with the others, and of the extraordinary dynamics between the levels, all occurring in a field of effulgent radiance--all this is meant when the mystic-sage speaks of multidimensional interpenetration with nonequivalence

"whole in every part" nature of memory storage

In a series of landmark experiments in the 1920s, brain scientistKarl Lashley found that no matter what portion of a rat's brain heremoved he was unable to eradicate its memory of how to performcomplex tasks it had learned prior to surgery. The only problem wasthat no one was able to come up with a mechanism that might explainthis curious "whole in every part" nature of memory storage.

Then in the 1960s, Pribram encountered the concept of holography andrealized he had found the explanation brain scientists had beenlooking for. Pribram believes memories are encoded not in neurons,or small groupings of neurons, but in patterns of nerve impulsesthat crisscross the entire brain in the same way that patterns oflaser light interference crisscross the entire area of a piece offilm containing a holographic image. In other words, Pribrambelieves the brain is itself a hologram.Pribram's theory also explains how the human brain can store so manymemories in so little space. It has been estimated that the humanbrain has the capacity to memorize something on the order of 10billion bits of information during the average human lifetime (orroughly the same amount of information contained in five sets of theEncyclopedia Britannica).

[discussionlist] Physiology of relaxation/meditation

There appears to be a molecular process for relaxation. Given this, we attempt to demonstrate
this phenomenon based on established molecular and physiological processes in light of our current understanding of central and peripheral nervous system mechanisms. Central to our hypothesis is the signifi cance of norepinephrine, nitric oxide, dopamine and morphine signaling both in the central and peripheral nervous system. We fi nd that nitric oxide and morphine control catecholamine processes on many levels, including synthesis, release and actions. We conclude that enough scientifi c information exists to support these phenomena as actual physical processes that can be harnessed to provide better patient care.

African Dust Storms Stifle Hurricanes

African Dust Storms Stifle Hurricanes, Study Suggests
By Ker ThanLiveScience Staff Writerposted: 10 October 200612:07 pm ET

This story was updated at 12:49 p.m. EDT.
Westward swirling clouds of dust from the Sahara Desert might be putting a damper on Atlantic Ocean hurricanes, a new study suggests.
Researchers analyzing satellite data from the past 25 years found that during years when the dust storms rose up, fewer hurricanes swept across the Atlantic, while periods of low dust storm activity were followed by more intense hurricane activity. Hurricanes are fueled by heat and moisture, and it's thought the dust storms help muffle the storms before they fully develop.

By doing so, however, the dust storms could shift a hurricane's direction further to the west, the researchers say, increasing the likelihood that it would hit the United States and Caribbean Islands.

"These findings are important because they show that long-term changes in hurricanes may be related to many different factors," said study team member Jonathan Foley of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "While a great deal of work has focused on the links between [hurricanes] and warming ocean temperatures, this research adds another piece to the puzzle."

The correlation between dust storms and hurricane activity are especially strong for the past few years, said study leader Amato Evan, also of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"In 2004, we saw an increase in dust activity and a decrease in hurricanes. In 2005, it was the exact opposite," Evan said in a telephone interview.

2005 was the busiest hurricane season on record. It included 26 named storms and 13 hurricanes, including Katrina, hailed as the most destructive U.S. storm ever.

Preliminary analyses of this year's dust activity also support the theory, Evan said. The 2006 hurricane season has been weaker than originally forecasted, and Evan thinks the high dust storm activity observed earlier in the year is partly to thank.

"At the beginning of the year, we saw a lot of dust storms—just really continuous. Then, probably a few weeks ago, when we started seeing some of those hurricanes that were forming up in the Atlantic, we saw a real lack of dust activity," he told LiveScience.

The dust storms form when hot desert air from the Sahara collides with cooler, dryer air from the south to form winds that loft sand and dust into the atmosphere, where they are snared by strong trade winds and blown westward, across the Atlantic Ocean.

Some years, millions of tons of the fine tan-colored particles [image] form thick clouds that can traverse the oceans in as little as five days. But other years, for reasons still not understood, hardly any dust storms form at all.

Recently, Saharan dust storms have been implicated in everything from the spread of disease and epidemics to a harmless reddening of U.S. sunsets.

The study, performed in collaboration with the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is detailed in the Oct. 10 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

How & Where Hurricanes Form
African Dust Storm May Redden U.S. Sunsets
Sahara Desert Was Once Lush and Populated
Bacteria & Fungi Ride Dust Across Oceans
2006 Hurricane Guide

Well-funded criminals attack NewsTarget, health freedom groups with covert disruption campaigns

NewsTarget.com printable article

Originally published April 11 2007

Well-funded criminals attack NewsTarget, health freedom groups with covert disruption campaigns

by NewsTarget staff

Top health freedom consumer advocacy groups in the United States are being clandestinely targeted by organized disruption campaigns and "black PR" efforts. The apparent purpose of these campaigns is to discredit, disrupt and censor their natural health and health freedom political and educational efforts. Both the Natural Solutions Foundation (www.HealthFreedomUSA.org) and natural health news site NewsTarget (www.NewsTarget.com) revealed details today of distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) website attacks, database hacking attempts, personal and professional reputation internet smear campaigns and impersonation attempts, among other tactics. "All of these well-financed activities are clearly criminal in nature and violate free speech rights, libel and slander legislation and criminal statutes." according to health freedom advocacy attorney, Ralph Fucetola.

The barrage of attacks seem to coincide with the recent success of both NewsTarget.com and the Natural Solutions Foundation in expanding their influence in the US and abroad. NewsTarget now reaches more than half a million readers each month with its outspoken reports on natural health solutions and consumer warnings about the dangers of prescription drugs and corrupt government agencies. The Natural Solutions Foundation is an international consumer advocacy group that fights the suppression of natural health options and the global contamination of food by CODEX (Codex Alimentarius).

Codex, as it is known, is a UN-sponsored international effort to regulate or outlaw herbs, vitamins and nutritional supplements and permit high levels of contamination of the global food supply by dangerous chemicals. Natural Solutions Foundation is following a strategy to allow nations to preserve natural health and protect their people from preventable diseases while avoiding Codex-related World Trade Organization (WTO) trade sanctions.

The HealthFreedomUSA.org website was recently knocked offline for several days due to a well organized DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service). Emails have also been blocked in an attempt to disconnect Rima Laibow, M.D., the Medical Director of the Natural Solutions Foundation, from her readers. Simultaneously, online donations and product sales were inactivated, denying the Foundation the donations which are its only source of funding. Drug and pornography-related response robots have also forced Dr. Laibow to close commentary on her very popular blog (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=219).

During the same time period, Mike Adams, the editor of NewsTarget.com, has been subjected to numerous personal attacks, including email smear campaigns, bogus inappropriate emails and a bizarre attempt to impersonate Adams by a covert operative who attempted to gain entry into the offices of the company that owns NewsTarget website and content, Truth Publishing International. Automated robot scripts have hammered NewsTarget-related message boards, attempting to fill them with pornographic images and bombarding administrators with garbage posts from bogus users.

"These actions are clearly criminal in nature and are being undertaken by organized, well-funded groups who desire to censor NewsTarget articles and deny the public access to information that tells them the truth about food, nutrition, medicine and health," said Mike Adams, NewsTarget editor and consumer health advocate.

Like the attacks on the Natural Solutions Foundation site, these covert actions specifically target some of the most effective forces in health freedom today. Significantly, they are designed to silence those groups which are effectively educating people and countries about their rights to make their own health choices, regardless of whether or not those choices result in profits to the multinational corporations which attempt to govern our health and our freedoms.

About Dr. Rima Laibow

Dr. Rima Laibow is an MD who has practiced drug free psychiatry and medicine for 37 years since her graduation from Albert Einstein Medical College in 1970. She is a recognized pioneer and medical innovator, teacher and health freedom activist. Her concern over the impact of the illness care industry, including Big Pharma, led her to close her private practice of medicine in 2004 in order to devote herself full time to securing freedoms for natural health and personal health choices on a global basis.

Along with Major General Albert N. Stubblebine III she founded the Natural Solutions Foundation and, working with a group of pro-health lawyers, crafted a science-based international legal solution to the global threat of Codex. Briefing Heads of State, Ministers of Health and others around the world, the Natural Solutions Foundation has rapidly become a major force in the global struggle to retain the right to choose and use natural health options including clean, uncontaminated food, high potency dietary supplements and other non-drug health strategies. The Foundation is sponsoring a Citizens Petition legally challenging the 1995 decision of the US Government to "HARMONIZE" with Codex in preference to US Domestic regulations. Over 40,000 Americans have signed this document calling the FDA and USDA to heel over Codex.

National health policy around the world has been positively impacted by their efforts. For example, at the latest Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU, Chiang Mai, Thailand, November 2007) the document provided by the Natural Solutions Foundation allowed health friendly countries to override the vigorous objection of the US, Australia, New Zealand and the EU and prohibit the addition of the dangerous toxin fluoride as an additive to baby formula for healthy children. Fluoride causes bone cancer, leukemia and other cancers, increased tooth decay, bone breaks, endocrine damage, brain damage and poisons other major organ systems.

The Natural Solutions Foundation is welcomed by decision makers as a non-commercial health advocacy organization. Dr. Laibow and General Stubblebine briefed the President of India in an extended private session, was the featured speaker at an Indian government meeting for an organization representing 950,000 Indian farmers, addressed the assembled Health Ministers of eastern, southern and central African nations and has met with dozens of decision makers in their own countries in Asia and Africa.

The Natural Solutions Foundation attends numerous Codex meetings, lobbies for health and health freedom and reports on them extensively. Her articles, interviews, blogs and emails are widely read by natural health advocates and supporters around the world.

Neither Dr. Laibow nor General Stubblebine receives any salaries or royalties from their health advocacy work or the sales generated by their virtual store, Organics4U, at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org/store

About Mike Adams

Mike Adams is the creator of numerous free nutritional guides and health-related interviews that are enjoying widespread popularity. His Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org) has been downloaded more than 800,000 times. Adams is also the creator of the free Natural Health Library (www.NaturalHealthLibrary.com) and the hugely popular free online reference site www.HealingFoodReference.com . Adams is also the executive director of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (www.ConsumerWellness.org), an organization dedicated to enhancing pre-natal nutrition, ending censorship of nutritional supplements and other notable achievements. Mike Adams receives no salary and no royalties from his health advocacy work.

NewsTarget.com and the Natural Solutions Foundation work independently and do not pursue any projects jointly. However, together they are both proving to be highly successful in attracting grassroots activism and readership among people who wish to protect their freedoms and their access to accurate information about health.

The history of black ops against health freedom groups

Organized and virulent attacks by groups and government agencies targeting effective health freedom groups, authors and individuals have a long and disgraceful history. Covert disruption attempts have been used against many health freedom advocates. The Life Extension Foundation, for example, was targeted and raided by the FDA and its founders charged with 89 federal crimes. When the LEF fought back vigorously in court, all charges were dropped!

The history of conventional medicine is rife with blatant attempts to suppress, silence and discredit anyone daring to teach people the truth about health, nutrition and medicine. The American Medical Association, for example, was twice found guilty of conspiracy to destroy chiropractic medicine in U.S. federal courts. Rife machines were destroyed. Wilhelm Reich’s books were publicly burned by the FDA and his devices destroyed. Cancer remedy creator Harry Hoxsey was hounded (and almost assassinated) by thugs linked to conventional medicine.

The true history of armed FDA raids, kidnappings, and other dubious actions taken against health freedom pioneers is revealed in Mike Adams' new book, Natural Health Solutions (www.TruthPublishing.com). Attacks against Adams were stepped up following the release of this book which documents the real history of Big Pharma and its links to Nazi Germany: Companies like Bayer, BASF and Hoechst are the offspring of IG Farben, the Nazi corporation that conducted medical experiments on prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp and was dissolved by the Nurembuerg Tribunal. Attacks against the Natural Solutions Foundation likewise intensified with the publication of "The Killing Ground of Codex", a detailed examination of the links between Codex Alimentarius and the Nazi drug companies continuing until the present day.

"There is no question in my mind that drug companies are funding these covert attempts to target health freedom groups in an effort to destroy or discredit them," said Adams. "As the world's richest corporations that rely on the continued 'disease-ification' of the world population in order to exploit people for profits, drug companies have the motive and the means to launch such attacks against those who threaten their profits and control. The more we reach consumers with honest information about the dangers of pharmaceuticals and the safe, natural cures available from nature, the more we are attacked," Adams said. "And rather than facing us in public with an honest debate about health, they engage in covert operations to get what they want. It's the same way they control Congress and the Food and Drug Administration."

Dr. Laibow notes that since drug companies, which promote the use of dangerous and often deadly products which suppress symptoms by poisoning the body (like the deadly Cox-2 inhibitors Vioxx and Celebrex) could not win an honest debate, they use stealth, science-for-hire, poison press propaganda and covert attacks like the ones to which Mike Adams and the Natural Solutions Foundation are currently being subjected.

Despite the ongoing attacks, both the Natural Solutions Foundation and NewsTarget.com continue to publish daily articles on health freedom, consumer advocacy, revelations and condemnations of the actions of drug companies, the FDA, the USDA and other groups which fail to protect the public. Ironically, both organizations have surged in popularity and garnered new support because of these attacks.

For more information:

Natural Solutions Foundation: www.HealthFreedomUSA.org

NewsTarget: www.NewsTarget.com

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All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. Newstarget.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NewsTarget.com/terms.shtml

Watch "Nutricide - Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs"

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Nutricide - Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs

40 min 7 sec - Sep 2, 2006
Average rating: (545 ratings)
Description: The Codex Alimentarius is a threat to the freedom of people to choose natural healing and alternative medicine and nutrition. Ratified by the World Health Organization, and going into Law in the United States in 2009, the threat to health freedom has never been greater. This is the first part of a series of talks by Dr. Rima Laibow MD, available on DVD from the Natural Solutions Foundation, an non-profit organization dedicated to educating people about how to stop Codex Alimentarius from taking away our right to freely choose nutritional health.

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Scientists: American public being poisoned by radiation once thought harmless

Scientists: American public being poisoned by radiation once thought harmless: "'Science for the Vulnerable: Setting Radiation and Multiple Exposure Environmental Health Standards to Protect Those Most at Risk,' released Thursday, the protection standards for cancer-causing radiation in the United States are so low, only the strongest people are protected.

'A central principle of environmental health protection -- protecting those most at risk -- is missing from much of the U.S. regulatory framework for radiation,' said study co-author Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.

The federal standards that limit radiation -- such as what may be found in contaminated soil -- are based on protecting 'Reference Man,' a theoretical white male of Western European or North American habitat or custom, aged 20 to 30, weighing 154 pounds, and standing 5 feet 7 inches tall. Unfortunately, these standards do not apply to women and girls, who are at higher risks of cancer, especially thyroid cancer. A female infant drinking contaminated milk is 100 times more likely to contract thyroid cancer -- and a woman has a 52 percent greater chance -- than an adult male drinking the same milk. The study also found evidence that the offspring of fathers exposed to radiation around the time of conception are at an increased risk of leukemia.

'I've never known a woman to give birth to a full-grown, 154-pound 'Reference Man,'' said Mary Brune, co-founder of California-based group Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS).

The report found that cancer was not the only adverse affect resulting from radiation exposure. The tritium found in water supplies can cross the placenta of a pregnant woman and cause miscarriages and birth defects. "

Fish, seafood on track to disappear by 2048: study on Yahoo! News

Fish, seafood on track to disappear by 2048: study on Yahoo! News: "Fish, seafood on track to disappear by 2048: study

Thu Nov 2, 5:38 PM ET

The world's fish and seafood could disappear by 2048 as overfishing and pollution destroy ocean ecosystems at an accelerating pace, US and Canadian researchers reported.

If current global trends continue, the loss of fish and seafood will threaten humans' food supplies and the environment, according to the most exhaustive study to date on the subject, published in the November 3 issue of the US journal Science.

'Our analyzes suggest that business as usual would foreshadow serious threats to global food security, coastal water quality, and ecosystem stability, affecting current and future generations,' the international team of ecologists and economists wrote in 'Impact of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services.'

The four-year analysis was the first to study all existing data on ocean species and ecosystems and synthesize them to understand the importance of biodiversity at the global scale.

'Whether we looked at tide pools or studies over the entire world's ocean, we saw the same picture emerging,' lead author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University, in Canada, said in a statement.

Worm said the disappearance of species from ocean ecosystems had been accelerating.

"Now we begin to see some of the consequences. For example, if the long-term trend continues, all fish and seafood species are projected to collapse within my lifetime -- by 2048," Worm said.

"In losing species we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems. I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are -- beyond anything we expected."

At this point, 29 of currently fished species were considered "collapsed" in 2003, that is, their catches have declined by 90 percent or more, he said.

"It is a very clear trend, and it is accelerating," he said."