[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

---

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."

The Birth of Big Pharma (comic)

The Birth of Big Pharma (comic): "It's astounding: Nearly half the U.S. population is now taking a daily dose of one or more pharmaceuticals. The drug industry, which once merely hoped to medicate sick people, now has a more ambitious goal: medicate everyone, including people who aren't sick.

The way they do that, of course, is to engage in disease mongering (the invention and marketing of fictitious diseases that 'require' medication), false advertising, junk science, bribery of doctors, corruption of government regulators, control of the monopoly drug market, and the destruction of natural alternatives, to name a few of the tactics.

That modern medicine today is even called 'medicine' is astonishing. It has nothing to do with helping patients prevent disease or cure disease, and is almost entirely focused on 'managing' or 'controlling' disease symptoms through drugs that must be taken for a lifetime. The real scam, of course, is that patients actually pay for this sort of chemical abuse. Even worse, they're easily fooled into thinking it's 'medicine.'

Ask yourself a couple of simple questions: If pharmaceuticals make people well, then why is America the sickest nation in the world even though we take more drugs (per capita) than any other nation in the world? And if modern medicine is such a good deal, then why do Americans pay, by far, the highest rates for health care services of any nation in the world, when our mortality statistics are nearly identical to Cuba and China -- two countries that spend a tiny fraction of what we spend on health care? "

Decades after Silent Spring, pesticides remain a menace -- especially to farmworkers | By Tom Philpott | Grist | Victual Reality | 18 Oct 2006

Decades after Silent Spring, pesticides remain a menace -- especially to farmworkers By Tom Philpott Grist Victual Reality 18 Oct 2006: "Many products from this pesticide class -- which came upon the world stage as a nerve gas developed by German engineers during World War II -- remain legal in the United States. Two months ago, after contemplating the matter for 10 years, the U.S. EPA approved use of 32 organophosphates -- a decision so egregious that it prompted a public outcry from hundreds of agency scientists who claimed their leaders had been swayed by industry influence.

Like the oil industry, agribusiness survives on its ability to privatize profits and socialize costs. Heavy pesticide use helped bring about short-term gains in crop yields, which has meant billions in profits for grain traders, food processors, agrichemical giants, and other food-related multinational corporations. To these firms, pesticide-related deaths and maladies are what economists call an 'externality' -- a cost that lands in someone else's ledger. "

Is Monsanto playing fast and loose with Roundup Ready Soybeans in Argentina? | By Kelly Hearn | Grist | Main Dish | 22 Sep 2006

Is Monsanto playing fast and loose with Roundup Ready Soybeans in Argentina? By Kelly Hearn Grist Main Dish 22 Sep 2006: "Monsanto claims RR soybeans decrease the need for repeated herbicide applications. But some weeds build resistance to herbicides, and when they do, different herbicides are needed in the mix. Pengue and Altieri report that in the Argentinean pampas, eight species of weeds exhibit resistance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. The fear: the more plants become resistant, the more farmers turn to different pesticides, further complicating the soup of poisons being spread through the country's fields.

There are also concerns that all this genetic tinkering is causing GM soy to have lower protein levels than regular varieties. A study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in 2004 analyzed soybeans and soybean meal from the world's top producers: Argentina, Brazil, China, India, and the U.S. Those from Argentina, which Benbrook says at the time were 98 percent Roundup Ready, had the lowest crude protein content. Those from China, which grew no GM soy at the time, had the highest. 'This points directly to the possibility that RR has resulted in significant decline in protein level,' Benbrook said, adding that it mirrors concerns that protein levels in soy and corn in the United States are decreasing.

Meanwhile, experts say that GM crops may be playing a role in rising social dislocation. In 1998 there were 422,000 producers or local farmers in Argentina; by 2002, that number had dropped by 25 percent to 318,000.

And there are health worries stemming from the widespread use of Roundup, which has reportedly been sprayed aerially and drifted onto non-RR crops and into communities. Dario Gianfelici, a general physician from the small town of Cerrito in a soy farming region, says he has seen medical problems in farmhands that stem from herbicide exposure. "I don't have the money or the manpower to [raise awareness] like I would like to do," he said in a telephone interview, "but I continue to talk about this.""

Latest E. coli outbreak should prompt rethink of industrial agriculture | By Tom Philpott | Grist | Victual Reality | 21 Sep 2006

Latest E. coli outbreak should prompt rethink of industrial agriculture By Tom Philpott Grist Victual Reality 21 Sep 2006: "The organic question distracts from the real story behind the outbreak: consolidation of production. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that California produces three-quarters of the spinach consumed in the United States -- and of that, fully three-quarters comes from Monterey County, which encompasses Salinas Valley.

Natural Selection Foods buys, processes, and packs salad greens for such giants as Dole, Trader Joe's, and Sysco, among others. The company's Earthbound Farm brand boasts on its website that it produces '[m]ore than 7 out of 10 organic salads sold in grocery stores' in the U.S.

In 1999, Salinas-based Tanimura & Antle, the largest U.S. fresh-vegetable grower and shipper, with 40,000 acres under cultivation in the United States and Mexico, bought a 33 percent stake in Natural Selection/Earthbound.

Given Natural Selection's scale, it's no surprise that an outbreak in a small region of California's central coast could repeatedly wreak havoc nationwide.

One possible culprit is tainted water, either through irrigation or washing in the processing plant. In a letter last year, an FDA official sounded an alarm about this problem, writing that 'creeks and rivers in the Salinas watershed are contaminated periodically with E. coli.' The rolling hills alongside the Salinas River support 'extensive cattle ranches,' according to the Watershed Institute [PDF] at California State University. Might manure from these operations be leaching into the watershed?

Other sorts of agricultural runoff certainly have, including nitrogen-based fertilizer, which is used heavily on conventional farms. The Waters"

massage for cancer patients

Bottom Line Secrets."In a three-year study of the effect of massage on more than 1,000 cancer patients -- the largest study to date of massage used for cancer patients -- patients rated their symptoms immediately before and after a single treatment of massage therapy.
Result: Anxiety declined by 52%... pain by 40%... fatigue by 41%... depression by 31%... and nausea by 21%. Massage was as effective as standard drug therapy for these symptoms.
Helpful: Insurance companies are more likely to pay for massage therapy if a doctor writes a referral to a certified therapist or if treatment is part of a hospital in-patient therapy.

To locate a massage therapist in your area, contact the American Massage Therapy Association, 877-905-2700, or visit www.amtamassage.org

Our inside source: Barrie R. Cassileth, PhD, chief, Integrative Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City."

For sale: US academic integrity, by Ibrahim Warde

For sale: US academic integrity, by Ibrahim Warde: "CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ON THE CAMPUS
For sale: US academic integrity
Private enterprise is much taken with education, especially the universities. In the United States the race to get hold of academic disciplines that bring in the money has already increased conflicts of interest between research and business. Under cover of a "marketplace of ideas," the logic of the market could turn academics into entrepreneurs and endanger the unity of our universities.
By Ibrahim Warde

In November 1998 the University of California at Berkeley signed a controversial agreement with Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant and producer of genetically engineered crops. In exchange for $25m to its Department of Plant and Microbial Biology (DPMB), the university would grant the firm first right to negotiate licenses on about one-third of the department's discoveries (including the results of research funded by state and federal sources). Novartis would also be represented on two out of five seats in the department's research committee, which determines how the money is spent.

About half of the faculty members of the College of Natural Resources, of which the DPMB is a part, expressed concern that the deal would erode Berkeley's commitment to 'public good research', and 60% feared it would impede the free exchange of ideas among scientists (1). California state senator Tom Hayden declared that the deal 'raises significant questions of whether biotechnology research primarily serves the interests of corporations and marginalises potential academic critics at the expense of free inquiry and unfettered research'.

Yet, by and large, the deal represents the new model of cooperation between corporations and universities. Since California's Proposition 13, which froze property tax and started a widesand started a widespread "tax revolt" in 1978, state funding for education has started to decline. Changes were afoot at the federal level, too. In 1980 the US Congress, concerned about declining productivity and rising competition from Japan, passed the Bayh-Dole act, which for the first time allowed universities to patent the results of federally funded research. Subsequent legislation further encouraged corporations to fund academic research - through tax breaks among other things - and universities to licence their inventions to corporations.

With the end of the cold war, universities suffered more public cuts. Thus in 1987 Berkeley, which was once funded almost entirely by the state of California, saw the share of public funding fall to 50% of its overall budget, and to 34% in 1999. Buildings erected in the 1990s, such as the one housing the business school, were financed exclusively by private donations. The Haas family (heirs to jeans makers Levi Strauss) was its most generous benefactor, and saw to it that the school bore its name. A number of major corporations endowed faculty positions. Even the dean holds the position of "Bank of America dean". The state-of-the-art building of the Haas School of Business is plastered with corporate logos and all its rooms - and even the tables and chairs - are adorned with plaques commemorating their donor - a company, an alumnus or a graduating class."

Consumer Reports Warns About Benzene Risk In Beverages

Consumer Reports Warns About Benzene Risk In Beverages: "Consumer Reports Warns About Benzene Risk In Beverages
Reported by: 9News
Web produced by: Neil Relyea
First posted: 8/30/2006 11:56:20 PM

You may want to look more closely at the labels in the beverage aisle.

A new report says some ingredients can combine to form a potential cancer causer.
Consumer Reports magazine, tested drinks containing 'sodium benzoate' and 'ascorbic acid,' which is vitamin C.

The magazine says if left out in heat and light, those compounds can create benzene.
Researchers found higher than normal benzene levels in Crystal Light Sunrise; Classic orange; Fanta orange and pineapple sodas; and Sunkist orange soda, after they sat in a warm, bright room. "

Teflon causes cancer. Perfluorooctanoic acid

Q: There have been recent reports that Teflon causes cancer. Should I discard my Teflon pans?
A: Teflon has not been found to cause cancer. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a chemical used in the synthesis of Teflon, has been labeled a "likely carcinogen" by a panel advising the Environmental Protection Agency. But Teflon pans do not emit PFOA when used properly.
Teflon cookware might emit a small amount of PFOA when heated to extreme temperatures -- for example, when a frying pan has been left empty on a heated burner for an extended period. Even then, it has not been established that overheated Teflon produces a dangerous amount of PFOA. Still, it wouldn't be unreasonable to dispose of a Teflon pan that has been left empty on a heated burner.

Approximately 95% of the population has some amount of PFOA in their bloodstream -- but most of this PFOA likely comes from stain- and water-repelling treatments used on carpets and fabrics. Grease-resistant food packaging, such as microwave popcorn bags and cardboard fast-food boxes, also might contain small amounts of PFOA. The fact that PFOA is in our bodies does not mean that we're all going to die from PFOA-related cancers. Individuals who have worked in factories where PFOA is produced, and perhaps some people who live in neighboring areas, seem to have the highest levels of PFOA.

Our inside source: Ronald L. Melnick, PhD, senior toxicologist with National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a division of the National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. He is currently conducting experiments on chemicals related to PFOA.

FDA WARNING RE: RITALIN AND HEART ATTACK

At my children's school, it seems as if more and more kids are being put on methylphenidate (Ritalin) for so-called behavioral disorders. But in a dramatic reminder that Ritalin and related attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications are potent drugs with dangerous side effects, a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel has recommended that they carry a "black box warning" -- the FDA's highest level warning -- that they may increase the risk of death from heart attack and other cardiovascular problems. This advice came after 25 deaths and 54 serious cases of cardiovascular problems among children and adults taking these stimulants (methylphenidate or amphetamines) between 1999 and 2003. Pick your poison, eh?

TOO MANY DRUGS FOR TOO MANY CHILDREN

In recent years, there has been growing concern that too many children are being put on ADHD medications. Once reserved for kids with obvious and major symptoms (hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention), there seems to have been a kind of trickle-down effect. Now children who would formerly have been considered merely fidgety, impatient or inattentive are being pumped full of powerful drugs.

Is it just my perception or are parents using drugs to medicate behavioral and discipline issues? To learn more about this dilemma, I consulted advisory panel member Steven E. Nissen, MD, interim chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at The Cleveland Clinic and president of the American College of Cardiology. He told me that he hopes the new awareness of the risks will slow down the escalating number of prescriptions for ADHD.

All drugs have side effects, and should be prescribed only when absolutely necessary. This is especially true when it comes to powerful stimulants like Ritalin, which can cause adverse cardiovascular effects including high blood pressure, a racing heart, abnormal heartbeat or stroke.

TRY NONDRUG APPROACHES FIRST

In Dr. Nissen's opinion, while there are still some children who need and benefit from Ritalin, this drug should be prescribed only after other approaches have been exhausted. Be certain that it truly is profound ADHD and not just a child overwhelmed by his/her overscheduled world or in desperate need of parental attention. Psychotherapy, behavior modification, social skills training and nutritional guidance have all met with some degree of success in controlling ADHD symptoms.

Often a combination of strategies is best, along with a team approach ensuring that parents, physicians, therapists and teachers are all on the same page.

The bottom line: If you're the parent of a child with behavioral difficulties, rest assured that you're not alone, and there are many helpful treatment options. Don't let yourself be talked into giving your child powerful drugs with powerful side effects until you explore more healthful alternatives.

Integrity of science is in jeopardy

Asking researchers to declare conflicts of interest that might prejudice their work is not enough to safeguard the integrity of science, says Catherine DeAngelis, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Universities should do more to investigate staff who don't disclose relevant financial ties, she says.

JAMA and The New England Journal of Medicine both require authors to disclose links that could influence a study. Yet several researchers have failed to do so in work published in JAMA this year. In one case, when JAMA rejected a study because the authors refused to obtain an independent analysis of the data, the work was simply published in a different journal.

Even when researchers declare financial ties, readers still don't know how much the conflict has skewed the results, says Daylian Cain, a moral psychologist at Harvard University. Disclosure could even tempt researchers to exaggerate findings, in order to counter anticipated scepticism from readers, he says.

The awakening of the public and the coming overthrow of evil

The awakening of the public and the coming overthrow of evil: "Many people recognize what's really happening in the world of health and medicine today: Increasing disease, unabated disease mongering, corporate exploitation of the people, environmental destruction, a decline in honest health journalism, skyrocketing health care costs, tens of millions of uninsured people and continued assaults on health freedom by the FDA and conventional medicine. These are just a few of the many challenges that concern the lucid, thinking people who now populate Internet blogs, chat rooms and websites. But along with these shared concerns, there is also emerging a consensus that our shared future does not have to follow the pattern of our recent past.

Together, we can create positive change, and it all starts from the day-to-day grind of observing what's happening in the world, applying some critical thinking, and sharing our thoughts, ideas, concerns and solutions with others. Each day that I have an opportunity to engage in this work, I feel deeply honored. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to humbly serve in this important role of taking part in a global paradigm shift that may yet allow us to find true freedom, health and prosperity. I also invite you to join this effort in any way that you are able: To become a blogger, a writer or a video commentator so that your voice may be heard and your ideas may encourage others to find their own voice"

As Albert Einstein famously said, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

A time for real change is approachingThere is hope, however, to be found in a new mode of thinking that's now beginning to take shape across the "awakened" members of the Internet community. It's a recognition that exciting changes are now possible, and that the forces of evil that have been acting upon us for so long -- destroying our health, our environment and our freedom -- are poised to be overthrown.

We are all living it what may soon be viewed as a time of the most significant and rapid changes in recent human history. They will not be without difficulty, however, so be prepared for changes that may far exceed what you, or your parents, or even your grandparents ever witnessed.

Most importantly, stay engaged in the conversation. Stay informed. Independent news websites and blogs are now the only remaining sources of accurate information about what's really happening today. There are far too many to name, but I've listed a short selection of my favorites in the right column at www.NewsTarget.com

Be active in what's happening. Teach yourself to stay alert and be a critical thinker. Question what you are told, especially by those in positions of authority or apparent power. The bigger the organization from which any message emerges, the more likely it is to be corrupted by an ulterior motive (profit, public complacency, etc.) Trust the smaller, independent organizations like PR Watch, Commercial Alert, the Organic Consumers Association, the Government Accountability Project and others.

What you do is your own business, but if you want to be engaged in real solutions, turn off your television. Disconnect from cable and reconnect to books and informative Internet sites. Buy organic produce and avoid processed foods. Stop spending money on products made by unethical corporations. (Vote with your dollars.) Demand accountability from your elected officials and representatives (including Judges). Learn how to grow your own food, even if just a little. Get out of the city from time to time and reconnect with nature on a regular basis. Supplement with nutrients that enhance mental acuity, intelligence and presence of mind (I highly recommend supplements from the Life Extension Foundation at www.LEF.org). Practice a little yoga, Tai-Chi or Pilates. Train your body and your mind to be healthy and alert.

These are the things that make you a participant in life, rather than a spectator. These are a few of the things that ultimately help set you free. Stay alert, because you won't want to miss what's coming.

Monsanto's Secret Study Shows Health Hazards of New GE Corn

You don't even want to know how long this has been used and sold in the USA. Just try to find something WITHOUT corn Syrup... and don't even read the ladel on your dog food

Monsanto's Secret Study Shows Health Hazards of New GE Corn: "A Monsanto study on a new type of GM Bt maize shows significant harm caused to rats fed on the variety, called MON 863. The study shows kidney abnormalities and unusually high levels of white blood cells. It raises serious concerns about the impacts of GM foods on human health.

Of course, in spite of the irregularities in the health of the rats fed the GM maize, the Monsanto report concluded that these were irrelevant, and should not be attributed to the GM maize itself, even though the rats fed non-GM exhibited no such problems. Monsanto had tried to suppress their own study, although they had been obliged to hand it in to European regulatory bodies while they consider approval of the maize in Europe (to be decided by vote on this Friday the 24th June). Monsanto had claimed that their study could not be made public as it was "confidential business information."

The German government, alongside Greenpeace, contested Monsanto's claim. On Monday the 20th, a German court overruled Monsanto's appeal, and the data was finally made available to the public. Two scientists, Dr Arpad Pusztai and Prof Eric-Gilles Seralini, who had reviewed the study for the German and French governments, but who had been forbidden from speaking out about it, were finally able to break their silence and reveal their concerns about the safety of MON 863."

USDA National Organic Program

This is the whole scam in a nut shell. Everyone knows gov. people are paid peanuts; they are "public servants" so just have great benefits instead. Well that really means is that they serve the public that $erves them so the only regulations enforced are just to keep money$ moving.

Production and Handling: Regulatory Text:
Subpart C - Organic Production and Handling Requirements

205.200 General. The producer or handler of a production or handling operation intending to sell, label, or represent agricultural products as '100 percent organic,' 'organic,' or 'made with organic (specified ingredients or food group(s))' must comply with the applicable provisions of this subpart. Production practices implemented in accordance with this subpart must maintain or improve the natural resources of the operation, including soil and water quality.

205.201 Organic production and handling system plan.
(a) The producer or handler of a production or handling operation, except as exempt or excluded under

205.101, intending to sell, label, or represent agricultural products as '100 percent organic,' 'organic,' or 'made with organic (specified ingredients or food group(s))' must develop an organic production or handling system plan that is agreed to by the producer or handler and an accredited certifying agent. An organic system plan must meet the requirements set forth in this section for organic production or handling. An organic production or handling system plan must include:

(1) A description of practices and procedures to be performed and maintained, including the frequency with which they will be performed;

(2) A list of each substance to be used as a production or handling input, indicating its composition, source, location(s) where it will be used, and documentation of commercial availability, as applicable;

(3) A description of the monitoring practices and procedures to be performed and maintained, including the frequency with which they will be performed, to verify that the plan is effectively implemented;"
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/archive/OFPA.html

Chemical child abuse

Greed and corruption have nothing to do with ethics and moral social service. I wonder how much this has to happen before people will wake up?

Here's more from ClinicalTrials.gov:
This is an 8-week open-label study aimed at assessing the effectiveness and tolerability of Quetiapine, in the treatment of preschool children aged 4 to 6 years with bipolar and bipolar spectrum disorder. This is an exploratory, pilot study, seeking to determine whether Quetiapine is efficacious and well tolerated in the treatment of preschoolers with pediatric bipolar and bipolar spectrum disorder in this age group.
Ages Eligible for Study:4 Years - 6 Years, Genders Eligible for Study: Both
Subject must be able to participate in mandatory blood draws.
Massachusetts General Hospital, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States; Recruiting
Joseph Biederman, MD, Principal Investigator

Chemical child abuseIn my view, this exploitation of young children for drug testing amounts to nothing less than chemical child abuse. What possible medical justification could these doctors, hospital staff and drug pushers have for prescribing mind-altering drugs to four-year-olds? Even the "disease" being treated here is entirely fictional. So-called "bi-polar disorder" was wholly invented by psychiatrists with strong financial ties to drug companies. The purpose of this disease is not to help children, but to sell drugs to anyone and everyone, including toddlers.
I often wonder when the rest of the country will wake up and notice that the mass-drugging of our nation's children has gone too far. Why isn't the mainstream media giving this front-page coverage? Why aren't lawmakers demanding an end to the chemical abuse of our children? Why isn't the FDA halting these trials on toddlers out of plain decency?

You already know the answer: Because they're all making money from this chemical assault on our nation's children. The doctors, hospitals, drug companies, psychiatrists and mainstream media all profit handsomely from the sales of mind-altering drugs to children. Ethics will never get in the way of old-fashioned greed, even when we're talking about the health and lives of four-year-olds.

Modern psychiatry, with all its false authority, drugging of children and rampant disease mongering, is an affront to all people who believe in honest medical science and basic human decency. Armed with the DSM-IV, on-the-take psychiatrists invent diseases out of thin air (like "bi-polar disorder"), then vote official treatment protocols into the reference books. Yet a recent review of such decision panels reveals that one hundred percent of the psychiatrists and doctors involved in such decisions have financial ties to the drug companies that coincidentally happen to manufacture the recommended drugs

New Scientist Breaking News - Another fundamental constant accused of changing

New Scientist Breaking News - Another fundamental constant accused of changing: "Another fundamental constant accused of changing
13:55 21 April 2006

Cosmologists claim to have found evidence that yet another fundamental constant of nature, called mu, may have changed over the last 12 billion years. If confirmed, the result could force some physicists to radically rethink their theories. It would also provide support for string theory, which predicts extra spatial dimensions.
This is not the first time fundamental constants have been accused of changing over the lifetime of the universe. Most famously, there was controversy over the fine structure constant, alpha (α), which governs how light and electrons interact. Some physicists claimed it is changing while others said it was not (see "Speed of light may have changed recently").
The ratio of a proton’s mass to that of an electron, known as mu, is among the most mysterious of constants. There is no explanation for why the proton’s mass should be 1836 times that of the electron.
The constant governs the strong nuclear force, which holds protons and neutrons together in atomic nuclei, and is also responsible for binding the quarks – the building blocks which make up protons – neutrons and most other fundamental particles.

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Microbial Fuel Cells Update

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Microbial Fuel Cells Update: "Microbial Fuel Cells Update Jamais Cascio
A Newly Electric Green Sustainable Energy, Resources and Design see all posts in this category
Back in February, we reported on research at Penn State creating microbial fuel cells -- MFCs -- which produced power by cleaning domestic wastewater. As is typical for such posts, we made sure to mention that this was early stage stuff, not yet ready for deployment, but with updates sure to follow.
Well, follow they have. Last week, the Penn State engineers reported that they've managed to boost the electricity output by nearly six times while cutting the cost by two-thirds. They also demonstrated MFCs in action by connecting a unit to a three milliwatt fan (video here, 5.2mb mpeg). In principle, the MFC could power the fan using less than a teacup of wastewater.
Every now and then we hit upon a story which really feels like a glimpse into the desired future. The idea of using microbes to simultaneously clean the water supply and generate power is almost too good to be true. But it's in the labs now, and it's getting closer to the real world every day.
Posted by Jamais Cascio at June 23, 2004 04:29 PM TrackBack



comments
This is interesting. I have been working on waste water treatment combined with energy production in the form of bioenergy. With modesty I have to admit that, I had been extremely successful. The data was not published as the sponsosring agencies of the project had planned to take up a patent on it. Nevertheless, clean, green energy is here to come and stay. Hope we will leave behind cleaner, greener and renewable environment to our children.
Wish to interact for more information exchange in this regard."

Here we go....

"you a chance to tune into your deeper, more spiritual space. There is no need to work at such a frantic pace. You may even find that life slows down a little to enable you to get a rest at this time. Tuesday looks like "


All Is Fair in Love and...
On Saturday, April 8, the two warrior planets Mars and Pluto will face off. You may feel a build-up in intensity as the week progresses and these two hotheads form an exact opposition. Unresolved emotions, old anger, and pent-up passions are possible sources of explosion. If you know what the situation could be about, address it early in the week to avoid a huge eruption. Depending on your birth chart, this could affect relationships with family, a lover, or even a business partner. Consult the Tarot at this time to find out how to diffuse any possible conflicts in advance. It's worth it!
Need love and relationship advice? Consult the Love Tarot for answers!

Financial SurprisesThe Sun is in your mysterious twelfth house, eric, and is bringing you a chance to tune into your deeper, more spiritual space. There is no need to work at such a frantic pace. You may even find that life slows down a little to enable you to get a rest at this time. Tuesday looks like a good day to approach others and to enjoy a social gathering or a business meeting. Saturn turns direct on Wednesday in Leo which helps matters on the home front and gives you an opportunity to focus on a solution that may be beneficial to all. But you do need to take more care over your finances. Mars in your personal financial zone moves to oppose Pluto on Saturday, creating quite a powerful aspect that could indicate a challenge in this zone. If you know beforehand what this could be about, then try and diffuse any tension early on and get a head start at finding the right solution. It is possible that one area of your finances will need to be changed quite dramatically. Venus moves into Pisces on Wednesday and this is good news for your social life, which seems to be fairly active right now.

All Clinical Trials [NCCAM]

All Clinical Trials [NCCAM]: "M
Macrobiotic Diet
Magnesium
Magnetic Brain Stimulation
Massage
Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy
Meditation
Melatonin
Memory Disorders
Menopause
Micronutrient Therapy
Milk Thistle
Mind-Body
Mindfulness
Mistletoe
Moxibustion
Multiple Sclerosis
Music Therapy "

USF COM Department of Psychiatry

USF COM Department of Psychiatry: "'Discovering how brain development affects the behavior of children Scientists and clinicians collaborating to understand the biological and Environmental factors responsible for disorders of thought, learning, communication and behavior, and translating this knowledge Into newer, more effective treatments. "

Unity Method Patent

Abstract
This invention defines a Method for managing the psychological and physiological state of an individual person’s life. The Method is a conscious perception of the Unity of the universe that we live in; whereby all natural and physical laws are included to understand and solve problems. Utilizing this Method creates conscious control of all natural and physical laws ..... ooops, let the cat out lol er;-D))

peter senge and the theory and practice of the learning organization

when there is a will there is a way!!! lol...
peter senge and the theory and practice of the learning organization: "The dimension that distinguishes learning from more traditional organizations is the mastery of certain basic disciplines or component technologies. The five that Peter Senge identifies are said to be converging to innovate learning organizations. They are:
Systems thinking
Personal mastery
Mental models
Building shared vision
Team learning
He adds to this recognition that people are agents, able to act upon the structures and systems of which they are a part. All the disciplines are, in this way, concerned with a shift of mind from seeing parts to seeing wholes, from seeing people as helpless reactors to seeing them as active participants in shaping their reality, from reacting to the present to creating the future (Senge 1990: 69). It is to the disciplines that we will now turn."

Building shared vision. Peter Senge starts from the position that if any one idea about leadership has inspired organizations for thousands of years, ‘it’s the capacity to hold a share picture of the future we seek to create’ (1990: 9). Such a vision has the power to be uplifting – and to encourage experimentation and innovation. Crucially, it is argued, it can also foster a sense of the long-term, something that is fundamental to the ‘fifth discipline’.
When there is a genuine vision (as opposed to the all-to-familiar ‘vision statement’), people excel and learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to. But many leaders have personal visions that never get translated into shared visions that galvanize an organization… What has been lacking is a discipline for translating vision into shared vision - not a ‘cookbook’ but a set of principles and guiding practices.
The practice of shared vision involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitment and enrolment rather than compliance. In mastering this discipline, leaders learn the counter-productiveness of trying to dictate a vision, no matter how heartfelt. (Senge 1990: 9)
Visions spread because of a reinforcing process. Increased clarity, enthusiasm and commitment rub off on others in the organization. ‘As people talk, the vision grows clearer. As it gets clearer, enthusiasm for its benefits grow’ (ibid.: 227). There are ‘limits to growth’ in this respect, but developing the sorts of mental models outlined above can significantly improve matters. Where organizations can transcend linear and grasp system thinking, there is the possibility of bringing vision to fruition

Gary Null Online Health Support - Lesson 3 Homework | Gary Null's Natural Living Website

Gary Null Online Health Support - Lesson 3 Homework Gary Null's Natural Living Website:
"Gary Null Online Health Support - Lesson 3 Homework

Homework 3: Detoxification for Total Health:
Please write your answers in your notebook
How have you integrated meditation into your life based on your life energy?
What areas do you need to study in order to master the protocol?
Which of the following do you need to develop?

Passion gives you purpose.
Discipline gives you focus.
Meaning gives you a goal.

How have you integrated exercise into your routine?
Note in your daily log at least 2 new foods that you have tried each week.
Reminder: For a clear understanding of life energies, read Who Are You, Really? "

LiveScience.com - Hundreds of Human Genes Still Evolving

We're changing all the time of course... both by injesting so many GMO's like corn syrup which is a cheap sugar... or living with the increased radiation from TV and cell phones

LiveScience.com - Hundreds of Human Genes Still Evolving: "The new study links genetic changes to major events in the history of our species. There have been a lot of recent changes the advent of agriculture, shifts in diet, new habitats, climatic changes over the past 10,000 years,' said Jonathan Pritchard, a human geneticist at the University of Chicago who led the study.

Many genes were found to be evolving in all three of the human populations studied. The specific functions of many of the genes are not known, but the researchers were able to separate them into broad categories. These categories include:

• Olfaction: the researchers found many genes important for taste and smell
• Reproduction: involved in things like sperm mobility and egg fertilization
• Increasing brain size
• Bone development and skeletal changes
• Carbohydrate metabolism: positive selection was observed for genes involved in breaking down mannose in Yorubans, sucrose in East Asians, and lactose for Europeans. (Mannose is a sweet secretion found in some trees and shrubs, sucrose
  is common table sugar, and lactose is a sugar found in milk.)
• Disease resistance and pathogen protection
• Metabolism of foreign compounds, such as exotic plant proteins or animal toxins "

Plants Eavesdrop for Defense Purposes - Yahoo! News

So talking to plants is all about smell... lol.... science is getting closer and closer... lol...

Plants Eavesdrop for Defense Purposes - Yahoo! News:
LiveScience Staff
LiveScience.com
Mon Mar 6, 2:00 PM ET
When sagebrush is damaged by insects, it broadcasts the predator's presence by releasing odors into the air. Other sagebrush pick up on the smells from their wounded brethren and get their defenses going. Turns out wild tobacco plants eavesdrop on these signals.

The tobacco uses the knowledge to fortify its own defenses. Then it waits to deploy the arsenal if and only if the insect attacks. By holding off on deployment, the tobacco retains vital energy for other important tasks.
The proteins and chemicals used for defense contain nitrogen and carbon, which also are needed to produce seeds. It's a classic guns vs. butter tradeoff.

'By priming its defense response the plant is not investing resources before it is actually attacked,' said Andre Kessler, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University. 'This could be a crucial mechanism of plant-plant communication.'"

Spirituality eBooks Offer Answers.

Downloaded this free e-book and I felt like DEE talking. Wow have I said that a million times, course then I also LIVE like Dougie going along where everything I need to do just opens up to me... lol... or CLOSES when necessary! I'm sending this to Indoma, Laura and Joyce, they might be able to publish there too... lol...

Spirituality eBooks Offer Answers.: " 'Message of Spirit' eBook Free
A manual for your mind! In this ebook, ten authors and mind power experts share their secrets to experiencing real, true freedom, health and happiness using spiritual tools. You'll want to share this free ebook with others as you discover different methods of healing all aspects of your life!
Read more and download the ebook here. "

Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean

Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean: "UPCOMING EVENTS
February 15:
'A Death Foretold in the Times of Cholera' (Lecture)
February 16:
'4 Ahaw Dates and Maya Creation Mythology: A View from Postclassic and Colonial Yucatec Maya Literature' (Lecture)
February 20 :
'The Maya Living Dead: Emerging from the White-Bone Snake ' (Lecture)
February 21 :
'Maya Caves and Cosmological Conceptions of Health & Illness: Not 'What' but 'Who'' (Lecture)
February 22 :
'State Power against Social Power in Bahia, Brazil' (Lecture)
The Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean (ISLAC) forms part of International Affairs at USF. Our faculty and staff provide for an integrated and multi and interdisciplinary approach of current and historical environmental, economic, social, political and cultural traits and trends in the region, in the larger context of the Americas. The latter is seen as a complex geopolitical configuration, where its constituent populations (Indigenous, Euro-American, and African-American) interact in real and imaginary time and space.
Numerous units and programs on campus cover discrete parts of this selective interest pertaining to Latin American and Caribbean Studies: History, Anthropology, Government and International Affairs, Humanities, World Language Education, Economics, Arts, and many others. However, none of these study the area, or its populations, as an integrated ontological whole. Our mission is to provide for a common ground and intellectual/conceptual and epistemological meeting place to study the abovementioned phenomena."

Biomedical Research and the Environment - Presentation

USF Health Mission: Making Life Better
Biomedical Research and the Environment - Presentation: "Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a coalition of over 240 member organizations in more than 16 countries whose mission is to reduce the public health and environmental impacts of the health care industry without compromising patient safety or care. The campaign was developed in response to the observation that medical waste incinerators are among the leading sources of environmental dioxin and mercury emissions. Each of these environmental contaminants represents a threat to public health and wildlife at current exposure levels. Nearly all mercury containing materials in healthcare institutions can be substituted with non-mercury alternatives. Dioxin emissions may be substantially reduced by replacing polyvinylchloride (PVC) with non-PVC alternatives where available, removing PVC from the waste stream, eliminating non-essential incineration, and maximizing combustion conditions when incineration can not be avoided. Altered purchasing practices and materials reuse and recycling minimize the volume and toxicity of the waste stream. Waste segregation minimizes the volume of regulated medical waste and optimizes recycling opportunities, leading to substantial savings in disposal costs. HCWH has developed numerous educational and training materials designed to help community members and those working within the health care industry reduce the adverse impacts of the health care system on public health and the environment. "

Board of Directors - The Nightingale Institute for Health and the Environment

Another Note for Dr. Klasko... maybe he should hear about what my Sustainability class is doing with the Entreprenuer class...
Board of Directors - The Nightingale Institute for Health and the Environment: "An endless flow of materials through medical facilities ends up in a large, diverse, and toxic waste stream, much of which is carried away to distant landfills or burned in incinerators that release hazardous substances into the air and onto the surface of the earth. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), medical waste incinerators are the second leading quantified1 source of environmental dioxin emissions and are responsible for about 10% of anthropogenic mercury emissions to the environment. Both dioxin and mercury biomagnify as they pass up the food chain and return to us in fish, beef, pork, dairy products, cheese, and breast milk. Each is particularly dangerous for the fetus and infant in extraordinarily small amounts that are similar to current exposure levels in some of the general population. Mercury damages the developing brain. Dioxin fundamentally alters many aspects of development, including the immune and reproductive systems. Dioxin is also a carcinogen. Wildlife, like loons and other fish-eating birds and mammals, are severely contaminated with mercury and dioxin, and resultant health effects have been demonstrated in many cases.
Intact ecosystems provide services essential for human and wildlife health, including clean air, water, and food, and waste recycling. Resource consumption, contamination of air, water, and soil with chemical and biological agents, stratospheric ozone depletion, global warming, acid rain, and eutrophication of fresh and coastal waters degrade those ecosystems. The medical-industrial complex directly contributes to each of these.
Unfortunately, until recently, with their focus on therapeutic medicine, heath care providers and institutions were largely unaware of the public health and environmental impacts of their practic"

Learn and practice Qigong

An avalanche of medical research shows that the human body is capable of remarkable feats of self-healing, which can happen automatically when you cultivate your body's innate powers.

How do you do it? Chinese medicine makes use of four simple techniques...

• Deep breathing
  
• Gentle movement
  
• Self-massage
  
• Meditation.

Put these techniques to work for just 10 to 15 minutes a day, and you'll be more energetic and alert... and less vulnerable to illness and the negative effects of stress.

Although you can do these techniques as often as you like, it's better to combine all four briefly first thing each morning.

Deep Breathing

Americans have forgotten how to breathe. We typically take very shallow breaths. This pattern of breathing constricts blood vessels, contributing to high blood pressure. Shallow breathing also impairs immune function. It does so by slowing the circulation of antibodies and immune cells throughout the body.

By making a conscious effort to breathe slowly and deeply, you can counteract these physiological disturbances. Try the following exercise right now...

• Take a slow, deep breath through your nose. Allow the lower portions of your lungs to fill, then keep inhaling until your lungs are fully inflated.
  
• Exhale slowly for 10 seconds. You can exhale silently and very slowly... or with an audible sigh of relief. Allow yourself to drift off into deep relaxation.

While even a single deep breath is beneficial, the accumulated effect of many such breaths is dramatic. Resolve to do two or three deep breathing sessions each day.

Do one session before getting out of bed in the morning, another just before you go to sleep at night.

Some people prefer to do deep breathing periodically throughout the day.

You might decide to take a deep breath each time the telephone rings... each time you stop at a red light... or each time you open the refrigerator. The point is to develop a habit of breathing deeply all day long.

Gentle Movement

Recent research confirms that easy, low-intensity exercise provides virtually all the disease-fighting benefits of vigorous exercise -- with far less risk of injury to both your muscles and joints. The "flowing technique" is very popular in China...

What to do: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and shoulders relaxed. Let your arms dangle at your sides. Bend your knees slightly... move your tailbone beneath your spine so as to "lengthen" your back... and lower your chin as if nodding "yes."

Rest briefly, begin to inhale slowly and turn your palms forward. Swing your arms forward and upward, slowly rising onto the balls of your feet as you do. Raise your hands (palms up) to shoulder height, keeping your elbows slightly bent.

Turn your palms downward. Slowly lower your arms and exhale. Return your heels to the floor. As your hands pass your legs, allow them to swing back slightly while gently lifting your toes.

Repeat 10 to 15 times, developing a gentle rhythm.

Self-Massage

What modern medical practitioners now call "therapeutic touch" has been a powerful healing tool in China for thousands of years...

• Hand massage. Using your left thumb, apply gentle pressure to the palm of your right hand. Place your remaining fingers on the back of the right hand for support. Increase the pressure gradually until you're exerting about the same pressure needed to squeeze a new tennis ball.

Massage your hand all over, noting any areas of tenderness. Massage the fingers as well -- all the way out to the tips. Finally, grasp each finger of your right hand on either side of the nail. Pinch gently.

Switch hands, and repeat. To conclude, return to any tender spots on either hand and knead them gently for a few additional minutes.

• "Energizing" the internal organs. Place your palms over the lower edge of your rib cage, near the sides of your body but still on the front. Rub your palms against your body in a circular motion, breathing easily and deeply as you do. Feel the warmth generated by your hands penetrating toward your organs.

Next, place one hand on your breastbone (sternum), the other on your navel. Rub in a circular motion with each hand.

Move both hands to your lower back, and repeat the process. The Chinese believe that sending warmth into the organs improves health and heals disease.

Meditation

Meditation reduces blood pressure, dilates blood vessels and stimulates the body's production of essential neurotransmitters and hormones.

One of the easiest and most powerful meditation techniques is mindfulness. Using this technique, you can free yourself of psychological and physical stress by focusing closely on a ingle bodily sensation.

Breath-awareness exercise: As you stand, sit or lie comfortably, focus all your concentration on the sensation of your breath as it passes through your nostrils. Your nostrils should feel cool as fresh air enters...and warm as you exhale.

You can do this mindfulness exercise for as briefly as a moment or as long as 20 minutes.

Notice that as long as you hold the focus on your breath, it's impossible to worry or think about stressful situations.

Helping Hands, Healing Hands

Helping Hands, Healing Hands
Virtually every culture other than those in the Western world embraces the concept of chi (also known as prana, qi and others) as an internal energy that has an important role in mental and physical well-being. Western medicine, of course, has been far removed from acknowledging chi, given that it isn't visible... and evidence of its presence and effectiveness is anecdotal. But now in what may be the beginning of a breakthrough on this stance, researchers at Duke University Medical Center and at seven other prominent medical centers around the country conducted a clinical trial to determine if employing internal energy forces and several other cultural norms, including prayer, might have a measurable effect in enhancing healing. The paper was recently published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet.

STUDY STRUCTURE
The study participants, 748 patients undergoing possibly life-threatening cardiac procedures, were put into one of four groups -- one received off-site prayer by congregations of various religions... one received MIT therapy (stands for soothing music, guided imagery and touch therapy -- more on that in a minute)... one group received both prayer and MIT... and one group received nothing. While neither patients nor staff knew who was in the prayer group, obviously the MIT patients knew that they were receiving the therapy because it was a bedside activity. The nurses administering MIT worked with the patients before the procedure to teach them abdominal breathing rather than shallow chest breathing, and they had them select from among three types of music (easy listening, soft country or classical) to listen to. They then chose from three selections of imagery that represented the most beautiful place they had been or could imagine. Finally, the specially trained nurses conducted a 20-minute session on touch therapy, which is a hands-on method for moving energy through the body to help patients relax and perhaps enhance healing.

I spoke with Mitchell W. Krucoff, MD, the lead author of the study, who says the study, results showed that patients having off-site prayer, bedside MIT or both prayer and MIT had comparable primary outcomes with regard to death, new signs of heart attack, rehospitalization and several other cardiac disease indicators. There was no difference between the control group versus MIT and prayer. But now it gets really interesting. Both groups of MIT patients, he says, did experience relief of preprocedural distress and at the secondary endpoint -- the second six months after procedure -- MIT patients were 65% less likely to die than those who did not receive it.

Dr. Krucoff stresses that in the statistical setting of multiple comparisons, these numbers are, he says, very interesting but also warrant cautious interpretation. Even so, he tells me that there are more analyses of long-term results to come. This study is just the beginning of further research to find whether such practices have a place for "promoting patient health in the modern medical setting."