This is my weekly weekend podcast which I make a little longer than my other videos in order to summarize news and events as well as review all the new Q anon drops. All of this is to illustrate the BIG PICTURE. This week’s summary is one of the most comprehensive yet. Lot’s of new Q anon drops the past few days and the “April showers” is upon us.
I am afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of National Security. – Jim Garrison
Something inside told me that I should, after a decade or so of lookinginto the JFK assassination, finally go out to my favorite used book store and grab a copy of Jim Garrison’s book, On The Trail of the Assassins. In this remarkable firsthand account, the fabled District Attorney of New Orleans uncovers how he and his young, ambitious prosecution team went about investigating the JFK assassination when most of the country could care less about a conspiracy. Their weapons of choice: the Constitution of the United States and good old fashion detective work. Among some of the more groundbreaking truths detailed in his shocking chronology of their investigation include Garrison’s finding that “Lee Harvey Oswald was a C.I.A. recruit-an agent provocateur-who soon became their “patsy,” how Kennedy’s motorcade route was changed the morning of the assassination to pass the Texas School Book Depository where Oswald had been working for over a month, the fact that Jack Ruby had reputed ties to both the F.B.I. and the mob, and how before its release to the Warren Commission, the F.B.I. reversed two crucial frames of the Zapruder film to create the false impression that a fatal shot to Kennedy’s head had been fired from behind.” (Warner Books, 1988)
Not surprisingly, these same agencies persuaded President Trump-back in October 2017- to hold off from releasing every last JFK document in the archives until a further review could be conducted. Under pressure from Mike Pompeo and others, the president opted to go back on his word and feebly provide these intelligence agencies six more months (after 55 years) to stall, whitewash, and prep for fallout. So here we are. The wait is over. It’s been six months.
Back to Garrison for a moment. He was a national hero who was smeared, physically threatened, vilified in the press, and ultimately railroaded by the most powerful forces within the United States government. This book should be seen by every American schoolkid and adult as a patriotic, triumphant act of legal justice and fearless journalism. When I think about Garrison, I think about the countless researchers, writers, witnesses, and documentary filmmakers who have sacrificed time, money, and personal safety to reveal the facts of Nov 22, 1963. I think of what Garrison stands for today and what he fought for then. The time is now. The wait is over. Like so many others, he sacrificed too much for his memory to be disgraced by endless moral inaction. So here we are. The time is now. The country has been waiting since 1963. I recently learned that some FOIA requests have brought out spreadsheets with lists of over 23,000 undisclosed files. Let’s have them now. The wait is over.
There will always be reasons not to do it. Stormy Daniels, the Mueller investigation, North Korea peace talks, chemical weapons in Syria, and the midterms election are all trending. But there will always be international and domestic crises to handle. There will always be reasons not to bother with the JFK death event. In the last 55 years a man walked on the moon, Viet Nam and Watergate dominated the headlines, the Berlin Wall came down, Apartheid in South Africa stopped, Y2K, 9/11, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the rise of social media and the internet all transpired while these documents remained hidden from the eyes of the American people. There will never be a more or less hectic time to release the documents than now. President Trump will never be less or more vulnerable than he is right now. The time for excuses, dodges, and tricks is over. The time is now. The wait is over.
In the words of George Washington, “Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.”
God only knows the pains to bring the truth of JFK’s murder to light. Lives have been transformed and tarnished. People have been murdered. Entire organizations have compromised their most sacred values. The time is now. The wait is over.
George Cassidy Payne is a freelance writer, theologian, philosopher, and founder of Gandhi Earth Keepers International. He lives and works in Rochester, NY.
Every day, we make a million small decisions. What we’ll eat for lunch, who to ask a question at the office, which route to take home, whether we should pick up takeout or cook dinner, if we want to take a walk, who will drive the kids to practice, and when to go to bed.
None of these things seems overly important, but sometimes the small decisions can have big effects. Sometimes they don’t really matter, and sometimes they can be the difference whether you live or die.
When you’re in one of those life or death situations, you must have the ability to quickly come up with the options, figure out what could go wrong, and decide which holds less risk.
Here’s an example.
Recently, I had a business trip to New York City. My daughters wanted to come so we opted to take a couple of days to see the sights. (I know, I know, you would never take your kids to the city and you think I’m a terrible mom. But this isn’t the point of the article.)
We had a great time, and on our last evening there, we decided to stop for ice cream in a beautiful public square in front of Macy’s at 33rd Street. As we were hanging out, eating our ice cream, I noticed a few cops wearing shirts that identified them as part of the NYPD counterterrorism unit. Of course, I immediately began paying close attention.
At the same time, I got a notification on my phone from a business that monitors DHS and other anti-terrorism organizations. It stated that New York and other cities were checking out some public places “out of an abundance of caution” because the US had just bombed Syria and they were concerned about potential retaliation. (Several people have asked about the service I was using. It’s a paid subscription and worth every penny: http://www.alertsusa.com/)
I honestly seemed to be the only person in the entire area who noticed that these officers were checking planters and trash cans for I can only assume were possible explosive devices. Everybody else was too glued to their phones to notice. I actually saw a woman in her 20s be asked to move so they could check the planter she was sitting on and she did so without ever looking up, making eye contact, or assessing the situation.
So, on alert, as I was, I had to make a decision that normally would have been of little import. I had to decide how to quickly and safely get us back to New Jersey and our hotel room.
So I had a small decision to make.
Here were my options along with the details.
Option1: Take the subway, which had a stop a couple of blocks from our hotel.
The subway would take 15 minutes to get us back
But did we want to be stuck in train underground in the event of a terror attack?
Option 2: Take a cab, but the cab would have taken us through the Holland tunnel.
The cab ride would likely be 40 minutes.
This would take us not only underground, but also under the waters of the Hudson River.
I opted for speed. We walked briskly to the subway and were safely in our rooms within half an hour.
Obviously, nothing happened, so this was not an “important” decision. But it had the potential to be.
Other examples of small decisions
There are so many times in which your ability to rapidly assess a situation and make a small decision could be vitally important. These are some examples.
When the plane hit the Twin Towers on 9/11, people in the towers had to make several decisions:
Should they go immediately or wait until it is announced?
Stairs or elevator?
Did they need to find out what happened?
Which exit should they head toward?
When flames approached homes in the Napa Valley wildfires last year in California, these were the things to assess:
Should they go immediately?
Which route should they take?
Did they have time to save their livestock/pets?
What should they take with them?
Would they be safe waiting for the official evacuation notice while they gathered their possessions?
A mom is with her children in a convenience store when it gets robbed.
Should she hide with the kids?
Should she tell the kids to hide so she can use her concealed carry firearm to confront the robber?
Should she risk the noise of calling 911?
Should they make a break for the emergency exit?
Civil unrest erupts in your town while the kids are at school and you are at work.
Should you tell the kids to get home on their own?
Should you leave work to go pick them up?
Should you all shelter in place?
Should you all head for a meeting place other than your home?
You’re vacationing at a touristy spot in a city and there’s a terror attack.
Are you in a place where a vehicular attack could be possible?
Where could you go to be protected from such an attack? (Into a building, behind a concrete barrier, etc)
Where are all the exits?
Where could you go if you needed to take cover?
A hurricane is barreling toward your coastal city.
Should you plan on hunkering down despite evacuation warnings?
Should you go at the last possible minute?
Should you take highways or backroads?
Should you leave well before it hits?
As you can see, many of these small decisions must be made in a split second. You may not have time to map out all the pros and cons. You may become indecisive when you’re afraid.
You can train yourself to make decisions more quickly.
Begin to think about all of your decisions in a different way. No matter how small they are, there are always variables that you can weigh. The more you do this, the faster you will become at making well-thought-out yet speedy choices.
Whenever you’re making a choice, ask yourself these questions and answer them as rapidly as possible.
What are my options?
What is the upside of each?
What is the downside of each?
What could potentially go wrong with each?
It may seem silly to decide which route to take home from work this way or plan the evening schedule with a decision tree, but you’ll soon find that your choice-making is occurring faster and faster.
Then, when a real emergency strikes, you’ll be ready.
President Trump recently announced a ban on Venezuela’s new national cryptocurrency, the petro.
That’s right—Venezuela created its own national crypto, possibly to circumvent U.S. sanctions.
But could the petro do more than that, and actually catalyze government-controlled cryptos around the world?
This is a Reality Check you won’t get anywhere else.
President Trump signed an executive order March 21 banning all transactions involving digital currency issued by the Venezuelan government, after it began pre-selling its own cryptocurrency, the petro, in February.
The petro differs from other cryptos because, according to the Brookings Institute, “The price of one petro is pegged to the price of one barrel of Venezuelan oil…” and “the petro/bolivar exchange rate … includes a discount factor determined by the Venezuelan government.”
By making that distinction, the Venezuelan government is now responsible for managing multiple currency systems simultaneously, creating what Dash Force News Editor Joël Valenzuela described as “an accounting nightmare.”
But isn’t cryptocurrency supposed to make accounting for transactions easier?
Well, actually it’s not the cryptos but the tech they’re built on. A few episodes back, we discussed how cryptocurrency is backed by radical transparency due to the power of the blockchain.
Rather than being backed by radical transparency and being a “trustless system”, as Valenzuela called it, the petro is essentially “fiat crypto.”
“When you back it with something that doesn’t have transparency, you have to trust the party that is providing the assets that back the coin,” according to Valenzuela. “It ruins its original value proposition.”
So why would Venezuela create the petro in the first place?
Once a crypto is a national currency, it’s subject to many tariff barriers and, in some cases, sanctions. Which is why President Trump made the first major national decision by the U.S. to ban a cryptocurrency. But cryptos like Dash aren’t tied to a government and weren’t created to bypass sanctions.
Once the richest nation in Latin America, Venezuela had suffered wild inflation, plummeting the standard of living and causing uproar from poverty stricken citizens. Many Venezuelans facing economic hardship are putting pressure on the government to stop the bleeding.
Anything to ease their suffering in the short term will be a boon to the tyrants, according to Valenzuela. But because the petro is not truly backed by trustlessness, critics say the government crypto won’t last long. And that presents a challenge to other governments considering creating their own cryptos.
Russian President Vladimir Putin already announced his government will issue its own CryptoRuble, likely sometime in mid-2019, according to CoinTelegraph.
The CryptoRuble is supposed to be directly tied to the ruble, issued by the Russian government and could not be mined.
More governments are likely to investigate the benefits of state controlled blockchain technology.
But remember, the two major selling points of blockchain are radical transparency and decentralization, meaning no one can manipulate the supply or the transactions.
And it’s those two aspects of blockchain that governments aren’t fans of.
Recently Congressman Brad Sherman of California read a statement that called cryptocurrencies “harmful,” and appeared to accidentally admit that cryptocurrency reduces government control of our currency. He said, “It hurts the U.S. government in two ways. Our contr… …our ability to have the US dollar be the chief means of international finance is what has underpinned our ability to impose sanctions…”
So Sherman doesn’t like the lack of “contr…” that the government has over crypto.
But on the other hand, imagine if the U.S. decided to use blockchain to track how our tax dollars are spent. Remember when the Pentagon admitted earlier this year that it couldn’t account for hundreds of millions of dollars?
What could help prevent data loss like this? The blockchain.
Corporations are already testing out the tech to prevent major data breaches like what happened to Target, Home Depot, JP Morgan, Anthem and others.
John Oliver explained the power of the blockchain in a recent episode of his show “Last Week Tonight.” He said, “The blockchain… a database that is nearly impossible to hack or tamper with, and which could possibly improve security, efficiency and trust. That is why big companies like Wal-Mart, IBM and JP Morgan have all been experimenting with blockchain as a way to potentially share and secure data transactions in a reliable, easy to access way.”
So what you need to know is that the blockchain presents an opportunity for governments to create a more transparent financial system. But Venezuela isn’t really doing that with the petro.
The crypto market has and will continue to fluctuate. Some crypto will disappear, some will stick around.
The question is, who is going to control the crypto? If governments do… they will take away the freedom of crypto… but if crypto currencies remain decentralized, then we will be able to keep a radically transparent financial system for the people.
That’s Reality Check. Let’s talk about that, right now, on Twitter and Facebook.
While ubiquitous in nature, melanin, which provides the coloring found in hair, skin, eyes, feathers, scales, etc., is an especially important substance as far as the human condition is concerned. After all, melanin’s role in determining skin color makes it the primary physiological basis for racial differentiation among humans. Entire civilizations, no doubt, have risen and fallen due to their conceptions (and misconceptions) about this pigment’s effects on human behavior, to the point that the very notion of humanness itself has been called into question depending on how little or how much melanin a body possessed.
It is for this reason that melanin’s lesser known, functional properties should be considered more closely. In fact, being more pigmented, i.e. darker skinned, or put oppositely, being less de-pigmented, may confer a unique set of health benefits which over the course of human history have been repressed or intentionally misrepresented in order to fuel the sociopolitical construct of race.
In biological science melanin is known to possess a diverse set of roles and functions in a wide range of organisms. These include:
Protection against biochemical attack: e.g. the smokeshield-like ink of the octopus, and the melanin-based protective colorings of bacteria and fungi which are capable of encapsulating and oxidizing invading organisms in a process known as melanization.
Mitigating chemical stresses associated with exposure to heavy metals and oxidizing agents.
Acting as a natural sunscreen: shielding light-sensitive tissue from the potentially damaging effects of ultraviolet light.
Melanin is capable of transforming ultraviolet light energy into heat in a process known as “ultrafast internal conversion”; more than 99.9% of the absorbed UV radiation is transformed from potentially genotoxic (DNA-damaging) ultraviolet light into harmless heat.
If melanin can convert light into heat, could it not also transform UV radiation into other biologically/metabolically useful forms of energy? This may no seem so far fetched when one considers that even gamma radiation, which is highly toxic to most forms of life, is a source of sustenance for certain types of fungi and bacteria.
Single-celled fungi, for instance, have been observed thriving within the collapsed nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine, using gamma radiation as a source of energy. Albino fungi, without melanin, were studied to be incapable of using gamma radiation in this way, proving that gamma rays initiate a yet-unknown process of energy production within melanin. There is also the curious discovery of bacteria living within vats of radioactive waste.
Given these examples, it is no surprise that vertebrate animals may be capable of converting light directly into metabolic energy through the help of melanin. In a review on the topic published in 2008 in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, titled “Melanin directly converts light for vertebrate metabolic use: heuristic thoughts on birds, Icarus and dark human skin,” Geoffrey Goodman and Dani Bercovich offer a thought-provoking reflection on the topic. Their abstract is well worth reading:
Pigments serve many visually obvious animal functions (e.g. hair, skin, eyes, feathers, scales). One is ‘melanin’, unusual in an absorption across the UV-visual spectrum which is controversial. Any polymer or macro-structure of melanin monomers is ‘melanin’. Its roles derive from complex structural and physical-chemical properties e.g. semiconductor, stable radical, conductor, free radical scavenger, charge-transfer. Clinicians and researchers are well acquainted with melanin in skin and ocular pathologies and now increasingly are with internal, melanized, pathology-associated sites not obviously subject to light radiation (e.g. brain, cochlea). At both types of sites some findings puzzle: positive and negative neuromelanin effects in Parkinsons; unexpected melanocyte action in the cochlea, in deafness; melanin reduces DNA damage, but can promote melanoma; in melanotic cells, mitochondrial number was 83% less, respiration down 30%, but development similar to normal amelanotic cells. A little known, avian anatomical conundrum may help resolve melanin paradoxes. One of many unique adaptations to flight, the pecten, strange intra-ocular organ with unresolved function(s), is much enlarged and heavily melanized in birds fighting gravity, hypoxia, thirst and hunger during long-distance, frequently sub-zero, non-stop migration. The pecten may help cope with energy and nutrient needs under extreme conditions, by a marginal but critical, melanin-initiated conversion of light to metabolic energy, coupled to local metabolite recycling. Similarly in Central Africa, reduction in body hair and melanin increase may also have lead to ‘photomelanometabolism’ which, though small scale/ unit body area, in total may have enabled a sharply increased development of the energy-hungry cortex and enhanced human survival generally. Animal inability to utilize light energy directly has been traditionally assumed. Melanin and the pecten may have unexpected lessons also for human physiology and medicine.
If the authors are correct, a longstanding assumption that animals are incapable of utilizing light energy directly is thrown out the window. In other words, melanized tissue within our body may be capable of “ingesting” sunlight, and not unlike plants, using the “harvested” light in biologically useful ways.
Should it be any surprise, really, that our skin was designed to benefit from being bathed in sunlight? We already know that sunlight exposure can reduce the risk of over 30 diseases, and that its primary metabolite in our skin, vitamin D, may reduce the risk of over 150 additional conditions. Our biological connection to, and dependence on, the sun, is so profound that the very variation in human skin color from African, melanin-saturated dark skin, to the relatively melanin de-pigmented, Caucasian lighter-skin, is a byproduct of the offspring of our last common ancestor from Africa (as determined by mitochondrial DNA) migrating towards sunlight-impoverished higher latitudes, which began approximately 60,000 years ago.
In order to compensate for the lower availability of sunlight, the body rapidly adjusted, essentially requiring the removal of the natural “sunscreen” melanin from the skin, which interferes with vitamin D production; vitamin D, of course, is involved in the regulation of over 2,000 genes, and therefore is more like a hormone, without which our entire genetic infrastructure becomes destabilized.
While a life-saving adaptation, the loss of melanin likely has adverse health effects, which include losing the ability to convert sunlight into metabolic energy, increased prevalence of Parkinson’s disease (which involves de-melanization of the substantia nigra and disproportionately affects those of Caucasian descent), and others effects which have yet been investigated in any detail.
For now, it is important to point out that within the span of only 60,000 years (a nanosecond in biological time), many of the skin “color” differences among the world’s human inhabitants reflect how heavily genetically-conserved was the ability of the human body to produce vitamin D. Furthermore, the trade-off involved in maintaining the ability create enough vitamin D within a sunlight-deprived clime by sacrificing melanin may have had adverse health effects that are only now being investigated.
For those who are not naturally gifted with large quantities of melanin, tanning is an attractive prospect. However, it is important to differentiate between UVA light-induced tanning and UVB light-induced tanning. Although visually there is little, if any discernable difference, UVA light results from the photoxidation of existing melanin and its precursors, whereas UVB stimulates melanocytes to up-regulate melanin synthesis and increases pigmentation coverage.1
Because UVA light does not provide any additional photoprotection and is far more toxic to cellular DNA, it is important to maximize exposure to the UVB wavelengths which predominate around solar noon (approximately 12 o’ clock), tapering off in intensity several hours before and after. It is within this window of time that vitamin D production also happens to be at its greatest, as UVB radiation is responsible for stimulating its synthesis as well.
Bono hangs out with George W. Bush at his Texas ranch[image credit: David Caplan/Instagram/GeorgeWBush]
Op Ed Commentary
Channel surfing last night I came across something on C-Span that caught my attention. I saw the famous Irish singer, Bono, from U-2, sitting with none other than Junior Bush. What gives I asked myself? Then I did some research and came up with this, from last May of 2017:
Former President George W. Bush and U2 lead singer Bono at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, on May 26, 2017.
Lead U2 singer Bono made a pit stop Friday at former President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, a few hours before his band’s sold-out concert in nearby Richardson.
“Bono is the real deal,” Bush wrote on Instagram, along with a photo of himself with Bono at the Prairie Chapel Ranch. “He has a huge heart and a selfless soul, not to mention a decent voice. @laurawbush and I are grateful he came to the ranch to talk about the work of @thebushcenter, @onecampaign, @PEPFAR, and our shared commitment to saving lives in Africa.”
Both men have been active in efforts to end the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Bush created PEPFAR, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, while Bono co-founded ONE, a global campaign and advocacy organization that rallies around AIDS awareness and anti-poverty initiatives.
So, there you have it, an Irish singer who railed against the indignities and atrocities leveled upon his people by the Brits, cozying up with a war criminal more horrific than any British leader! Yes, nice of Junior Bush to finally show some decency for others in need. Yes, nice enough for Bono to put his time ( and hopefully his riches ) in the work he is doing for those same folks in need. I forget, did Junior Bush serve time ( if not being executed) for his war crimes? Did Bono have a memory lapse and forget what transpired and still resonates with the creation of ISIL and other crazy fanatical groups? This was all because of the Bush /Cheney gang’s illegal and immoral pre-emptive attack/invasion/occupation of the sovereign nation of Iraq? Does Bono really think that the millions of afflicted Iraqis and their mourning families should just say ‘ Well, the evil one is now doing some good. Se le vie.’
You see, this Bono/Bush Jr. collaboration is indicative of how mass apathy and mass amnesia operates. We have seas of so called journalists who for years have only criticized the 2003 attack on Iraq not for that action- rather how the subsequent occupation was handled or ‘ bungled’. So what they did, and what Bono has been doing, is in fact giving legitimacy to the ‘ War on Iraq’. This is similar to the recent Trump administration’s missile attack on Syria. Since no Russians were killed, and since it did not start WW3, well, it was OK. The illegal and immoral aspect of attacking another sovereign nation, without even the backing of the United Nations, becomes acceptable. Might makes right!
Reminds one of the old joke: A guy complains to his friend about his brother. ” I cannot take it anymore. My brother is behaving like a chicken. He flutters his arms like one, wants to be fed seeds, and even makes sounds like a chicken. What am I to do?” His friend offers ” Well, you have no choice. You have to have him placed in an institution.” The guy answers ” I cannot do that.” ” Why not” the friend asks. ” Well, I NEED THE EGGS! “
While ubiquitous in nature, melanin, which provides the coloring found in hair, skin, eyes, feathers, scales, etc., is an especially important substance as far as the human condition is concerned. After all, melanin’s role in determining skin color makes it the primary physiological basis for racial differentiation among humans. Entire civilizations, no doubt, have risen and fallen due to their conceptions (and misconceptions) about this pigment’s effects on human behavior, to the point that the very notion of humanness itself has been called into question depending on how little or how much melanin a body possessed.
It is for this reason that melanin’s lesser known, functional properties should be considered more closely. In fact, being more pigmented, i.e. darker skinned, or put oppositely, being less de-pigmented, may confer a unique set of health benefits which over the course of human history have been repressed or intentionally misrepresented in order to fuel the sociopolitical construct of race.
In biological science melanin is known to possess a diverse set of roles and functions in a wide range of organisms. These include:
Protection against biochemical attack: e.g. the smokeshield-like ink of the octopus, and the melanin-based protective colorings of bacteria and fungi which are capable of encapsulating and oxidizing invading organisms in a process known as melanization.
Mitigating chemical stresses associated with exposure to heavy metals and oxidizing agents.
Acting as a natural sunscreen: shielding light-sensitive tissue from the potentially damaging effects of ultraviolet light.
Melanin is capable of transforming ultraviolet light energy into heat in a process known as “ultrafast internal conversion”; more than 99.9% of the absorbed UV radiation is transformed from potentially genotoxic (DNA-damaging) ultraviolet light into harmless heat.
If melanin can convert light into heat, could it not also transform UV radiation into other biologically/metabolically useful forms of energy? This may no seem so far fetched when one considers that even gamma radiation, which is highly toxic to most forms of life, is a source of sustenance for certain types of fungi and bacteria.
Single-celled fungi, for instance, have been observed thriving within the collapsed nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine, using gamma radiation as a source of energy. Albino fungi, without melanin, were studied to be incapable of using gamma radiation in this way, proving that gamma rays initiate a yet-unknown process of energy production within melanin. There is also the curious discovery of bacteria living within vats of radioactive waste.
Given these examples, it is no surprise that vertebrate animals may be capable of converting light directly into metabolic energy through the help of melanin. In a review on the topic published in 2008 in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, titled “Melanin directly converts light for vertebrate metabolic use: heuristic thoughts on birds, Icarus and dark human skin,” Geoffrey Goodman and Dani Bercovich offer a thought-provoking reflection on the topic. Their abstract is well worth reading:
Pigments serve many visually obvious animal functions (e.g. hair, skin, eyes, feathers, scales). One is ‘melanin’, unusual in an absorption across the UV-visual spectrum which is controversial. Any polymer or macro-structure of melanin monomers is ‘melanin’. Its roles derive from complex structural and physical-chemical properties e.g. semiconductor, stable radical, conductor, free radical scavenger, charge-transfer. Clinicians and researchers are well acquainted with melanin in skin and ocular pathologies and now increasingly are with internal, melanized, pathology-associated sites not obviously subject to light radiation (e.g. brain, cochlea). At both types of sites some findings puzzle: positive and negative neuromelanin effects in Parkinsons; unexpected melanocyte action in the cochlea, in deafness; melanin reduces DNA damage, but can promote melanoma; in melanotic cells, mitochondrial number was 83% less, respiration down 30%, but development similar to normal amelanotic cells. A little known, avian anatomical conundrum may help resolve melanin paradoxes. One of many unique adaptations to flight, the pecten, strange intra-ocular organ with unresolved function(s), is much enlarged and heavily melanized in birds fighting gravity, hypoxia, thirst and hunger during long-distance, frequently sub-zero, non-stop migration. The pecten may help cope with energy and nutrient needs under extreme conditions, by a marginal but critical, melanin-initiated conversion of light to metabolic energy, coupled to local metabolite recycling. Similarly in Central Africa, reduction in body hair and melanin increase may also have lead to ‘photomelanometabolism’ which, though small scale/ unit body area, in total may have enabled a sharply increased development of the energy-hungry cortex and enhanced human survival generally. Animal inability to utilize light energy directly has been traditionally assumed. Melanin and the pecten may have unexpected lessons also for human physiology and medicine.
If the authors are correct, a longstanding assumption that animals are incapable of utilizing light energy directly is thrown out the window. In other words, melanized tissue within our body may be capable of “ingesting” sunlight, and not unlike plants, using the “harvested” light in biologically useful ways.
Should it be any surprise, really, that our skin was designed to benefit from being bathed in sunlight? We already know that sunlight exposure can reduce the risk of over 30 diseases, and that its primary metabolite in our skin, vitamin D, may reduce the risk of over 150 additional conditions. Our biological connection to, and dependence on, the sun, is so profound that the very variation in human skin color from African, melanin-saturated dark skin, to the relatively melanin de-pigmented, Caucasian lighter-skin, is a byproduct of the offspring of our last common ancestor from Africa (as determined by mitochondrial DNA) migrating towards sunlight-impoverished higher latitudes, which began approximately 60,000 years ago.
In order to compensate for the lower availability of sunlight, the body rapidly adjusted, essentially requiring the removal of the natural “sunscreen” melanin from the skin, which interferes with vitamin D production; vitamin D, of course, is involved in the regulation of over 2,000 genes, and therefore is more like a hormone, without which our entire genetic infrastructure becomes destabilized.
While a life-saving adaptation, the loss of melanin likely has adverse health effects, which include losing the ability to convert sunlight into metabolic energy, increased prevalence of Parkinson’s disease (which involves de-melanization of the substantia nigra and disproportionately affects those of Caucasian descent), and others effects which have yet been investigated in any detail.
For now, it is important to point out that within the span of only 60,000 years (a nanosecond in biological time), many of the skin “color” differences among the world’s human inhabitants reflect how heavily genetically-conserved was the ability of the human body to produce vitamin D. Furthermore, the trade-off involved in maintaining the ability create enough vitamin D within a sunlight-deprived clime by sacrificing melanin may have had adverse health effects that are only now being investigated.
For those who are not naturally gifted with large quantities of melanin, tanning is an attractive prospect. However, it is important to differentiate between UVA light-induced tanning and UVB light-induced tanning. Although visually there is little, if any discernable difference, UVA light results from the photoxidation of existing melanin and its precursors, whereas UVB stimulates melanocytes to up-regulate melanin synthesis and increases pigmentation coverage.1
Because UVA light does not provide any additional photoprotection and is far more toxic to cellular DNA, it is important to maximize exposure to the UVB wavelengths which predominate around solar noon (approximately 12 o’ clock), tapering off in intensity several hours before and after. It is within this window of time that vitamin D production also happens to be at its greatest, as UVB radiation is responsible for stimulating its synthesis as well.
The Facebook scandal involving personal data mishandled by Cambridge Analytica has raised concerns over the privacy of the information we share on our social media accounts.
Some countries have gone as far as to legislate Internet data privacy with laws granting the “right to be forgotten.”
Yet Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says we don’t need such regulations here in the states. Is he right?
This is a Reality Check you won’t get anywhere else.
It’s an unsettling thought: your personal data, being manipulated on a global scale. Where you live, what kind of car you drive, how many children you have, what food you eat, how much you money you earn, what clothes you wear, how you exercise, the list goes on and on.
While other countries are tightening laws on Internet privacy and how corporations can use your data, such as the UK’s data protection law with its “right to be forgotten,” the United States seems to be stuck in the 1980s on the issue.
In California, privacy is a right in the state constitution. “Privacy” was added to the state’s “inalienable rights” by the legislature in 1972.
And though California has been a leader in privacy, the last meaningful update to the state’s privacy laws was in the 1980s, long before today’s technology.
For context, Census data shows that in 1989, 15 percent of American households owned a computer.
Today, according to Pew Research, 77 percent of Americans have a smartphone—a computer in their pocket or purse.
And in 2015, those smartphone owners used about 27 smartphone apps per month, according to Statista.
Just think about all of the information you give to the apps on your smartphone. Do you read their terms of use?
You know you don’t. And yet, a California-based group called the Californians for Consumer Privacy has raised concern about how our information is collected and sold.
From that group came the California Consumer Privacy Act. The act is intended to not only hold major corporations making $50 million per year or more responsible for their consumers’ data, but also giving Californians the right to know where and to whom their data is being disclosed or sold, and if their data is being properly protected.
There’s nothing in California today that allows users see what data has been collected on them. And data is being collected everywhere you go.
From the checkout at Target, to your Facebook account, browsing the Internet or even just walking on a city street—credit cards are being swiped, messages are being shared, and cameras are recording.
So are the rules of how businesses use your data fair and respectful of your privacy?
One of the key aspects of the California Consumer Privacy Act is a right of action against companies that store data but have not taken reasonable steps to secure that data. That means consumers can sue companies that didn’t protect their data.
What exactly “reasonable steps” means needs to be fleshed out in the courts, but there are plenty of examples of companies that didn’t take “reasonable steps” until after data was compromised.
From December 19, 2013, “Target says hackers breached its system and stole 40 million credit card numbers.”
From September 18, 2014, “Almost immediately after word broke that Home Depot had been hacked, security experts were noting that the breach was likely even worse than the massive Target that had preceded it.”
From October 2, 2014, “JP Morgan just revealing that an August data breach could affect 76 million households.”
From February 5, 2015, “One of America’s largest health insurers, Anthem, this morning confirmed a massive data breach. Reports say hackers may have stolen up to 80 million records. No credit card or medical information is in danger, but Social Security numbers, birthdays and addresses may have been compromised.”
What you need to know is that when we provide information to a corporation, we establish a relationship.
We believe the corporation will use our information for the purpose of their service. Once your information is outside of the intended use, it’s nearly impossible to control it.
And third party sharing of your data allows it is be used, shared and disseminated without any control on your part. Big data is powerful force in the United States. But should big data be allowed to do whatever it wants with your information. If not, how do we, as the public, get some control back?
Let’s talk about that, right now, on social media, while someone collects our data.
While global media attention presently fixates on the increased risk for rupture within silicone-filled breast implants manufactured by the French company PIP, other less well known, but nonetheless serious health risks associated with implanting silicone-based capsules into the breast are not even being discussed.
According to conventional sources like Mayo Clinic, saline and silicone breast implants pose similar risks, including
Breast pain
Potentially permanent changes in nipple or breast sensation
Infection
Scar tissue that distorts the shape of the breast implant
Implant leakage or rupture
Need for additional breast surgery
Mayo Clinic, however, neglects to mention some of the more serious and common health risks associated with breast augmentation, which include autoimmune diseases, cancer, and psychological disorders.
Regardless of whether saline or silicone filled, all breast implants on the global market today are composed of a silicone elastomer “capsule,” which is the encasing membrane of the implant. The materials used to create the capsule are biologically alien to the body, are often coated in highly controversial nanoparticle silica, and result in rejection by the immune system in up to 11.4% of all cases.
This is known as “capsular contracture,” which is commonly defined as an “abnormal” immune response to foreign materials in the body, and is a reaction serious enough to require surgical intervention in the majority of cases. Capsular contracture may also indicate the commonality of low-grade bacterial infections that opportunistically emerge from the implant procedure or the implants themselves.
There are also less acute autoimmune conditions that have been linked to breast implants, which include fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and rheumatoid arthritis. These are harder to define, treat and link directly to breast implants, but the research supporting a causal connection is accumulating on the topic.
Another serious and commonly over-looked “side effect” of breast implantation is the increased risk of cancer, including brain cancer, bronchial cancer, skin cancer (non-melanoma), lung cancer, cervical cancer and vulvar cancer. There is also a distinctive implant-associated cancer called ‘primary anaplastic large cell lymphoma,’2 which can be deadly and is increasingly being reported in case studies. These cancer findings are not surprising considering that animal experiments dating back to the mid-twentieth century demonstrated that foreign body implantation of many materials, including silicone, can induce sarcomas.1
Unfortunately, these very real causal connections between breast implants and cancer have been obfuscated in favor of the industry wide promotion of the concept that breast implants ‘reduce the risk of breast cancer,’ which while finding support in several studies,* has also been disproven in others.
In fact, Susan G. Komen, the self-avowed expert on breast cancer risk, heavily reinforces the public perception that breast augmentations and/or reconstructions are categorically safe when it comes to cancer risk by focusing on the positive implant-breast cancer research, to the exclusion of breast implant associated cancers at all other sites, which are known to be significantly elevated.
Sadly, Susan G. Komen’s irresponsible focus on the lack of harm associated with breast implants may boil down to the fact that it is far harder to sell women on the decision to treat potentially benign x-ray mammography detected cancers such as DCIS/LCIS on the aggressive and invasive standard of care, which includes mastectomy, lumpectomy, radiation, chemotherapy and follow-up hormone suppressive therapies such as Arimidex and Tamoxifen — the two blockbuster drugs produced by the founding sponsor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, AstraZeneca.
There is another serious problem with breast augmentation, which is the psychological problems associated with their use. A study published in the journal Current Psychiatry Report in 2010, which looked at five large epidemiologic mortality studies found that women with cosmetic breast implants suicide mortality doubled. The study also looked at the preimplant psychiatric disorders which more commonly afflict women who choose cosmetic breast implants, which included: “eating disorders,” “body image dissatisfaction,” and “depression.”
Ultimately, it would behoove those who would undergo breast implantation surgery to consider the unintended, adverse health consequences — some of which are life-threatening — that are not being accurately communicated to them through both profit and non-profit health organizations.
*If in fact breast implant is associated with a lower incidence of breast cancer, it is probably due the traits of women who tend to choose breast implants, e.g. lower body mass index, lower fat content in breast, than the surgery or implant itself.
1Plast Reconstr Surg. 2007 Dec;120(7 Suppl 1):70S-80S. Breast implants and breast cancer: a review of incidence, detection, mortality, and survival. Deapen D.
2Hum Pathol. 2009 Nov;40(11):1564-70. Epub 2009 Jun 21. Do biomaterials cause implant-associated mesenchymal tumors of the breast? Analysis of 8 new cases and review of the literature. Balzer BL, Weiss SW.
A school shooting incident transpired on April 20 at Forest High School in Ocala Florida. The shooter was identified as Sky Bouche, 19 years old. Bouche reportedly smuggled a sawed off shotgun into the school nestled in a guitar case while passing himself off as a Forest High attendee. The shooting resulted in one injury to a 17 year old student’s ankle after Bouche fired a single round of shotgun pellets at the bottom of a classroom door. He was apprehended shortly thereafter by the school’s resource officer.
Marion County Sheriff’s Detectives John Lightle, left, and Dan Pinder, right, escort a handcuffed and shackled Sky Bouche, 19, center, to a waiting patrol car, Friday, April 20, 2018, in Ocala, Fla. Bouche is the suspect in a shooting that occurred at Forest High School Friday morning. (Doug Engle/Ocala Star-Banner via AP)
A gunman who carried a shotgun in a guitar case and opened fire at a Florida high school has been denied bond during his first court appearance. A handcuffed Sky Bouche appeared Saturday before Judge Willard Pope via video conference at the Marion County Jail. The Ocala Star-Banner reports a second court date was set for next month.
Bouche told the newspaper he felt an adrenaline rush before Friday’s shooting that quickly wore off, and he was unable to continue with his plan.
Bouche faces charges including terrorism, aggravated assault with a firearm and possession of a firearm on school property.
The shooting at Forest High School in Ocala happened on a day planned for a national classroom walkout to protest gun violence and left one person injured. The school went on lockdown after the 19-year-old suspect, who was not a student, shot and injured a 17-year-old male student. His injury is not life threatening.
Reporters who were given unusual access to the shooter after his arrest for an interview where Bouche told them he was often alone and experienced moods of “depression” and “rage.” He obtained a 1930 shotgun “‘so there’s no papers on it,’” the suspect said. The purchase was made “in a private sale arranged through an online service about a week after the Parkland shooting so he could get it before [the law moved the age to] 21,” the Ocala Star Bannerreports. The gunman says he got ideas on purchasing the gun by watching a segment of ViceNews.
Bouche stated that at age 14 he was examined because of mental health concerns under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows for a three day involuntary psychiatric observation in the event authorities deem an individual a threat to themselves or others. He further tells reporters he has “a lot of bipolar [and] schizophrenic people in my family,” and that he has “always been around mental illness my whole life.”
Police obtained a “Temporary Risk Protection Order” to confiscate Bouche’s firearm. The Risk Protection Orders have been provided to Florida law enforcement under the new Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. The order prevents the subject from possessing or purchasing firearms for the duration of the court order.
There’s something very strange taking place in the aftermath of this event. This specifically involves apparent violations of the suspect’s right to due process. According to reports Bouche faces numerous charges, including terrorism, aggravated assault, carrying a concealed firearm, firearm possession, armed trespassing on school property and possession of a short-barrelled shotgun.
Given this array of such serious potential offenses, how is it that reporters have been given such unlimited access to the suspect wherein he repeatedly incriminates himself before any arraignment or trial?Where is his defense counsel, and why are they not objecting to such questioning and testimony? We are reminded of the odd access given to reporters following the San Bernardino and Pulse Nightclub shootings.
Understanding the reasons why mainstream political accounts express such a disconnect from facts, evidence and believability is compounded by the techniques of programmed reporting often absent of human judgment and ethics. The foremost propaganda rag for deceit, disinformation and indoctrination, The Washington Post, is dedicated to mind control and does not even attempt to mask their publication as objective journalism. Utopia for Jeff Bezos, strives to perfect the synthetic technological revolution that inserts AI as the future of mankind. Joe Keohane in WIRED presents What News-Writing Bots Mean for the Future of Journalism.
“Strategists at the Post saw the potential for an AI system that could generate explanatory, insightful articles. What’s more, they wanted a system that could foster “a seamless interaction” between human and machine, says Jeremy Gilbert, who joined the Post as director of strategic initiatives in 2014. “What we were interested in doing is looking at whether we can evolve stories over time,” he says.
After a few months of development, Heliograf debuted last year. An early version autopublished stories on the Rio Olympics; a more advanced version, with a stronger editorial voice, was soon introduced to cover the election. It works like this: Editors create narrative templates for the stories, including key phrases that account for a variety of potential outcomes (from “Republicans retained control of the House” to “Democrats regained control of the House”), and then they hook Heliograf up to any source of structured data—in the case of the election, the data clearinghouse VoteSmart.org. The Heliograf software identifies the relevant data, matches it with the corresponding phrases in the template, merges them, and then publishes different versions across different platforms. The system can also alert reporters via Slack of any anomalies it finds in the data—for instance, wider margins than predicted—so they can investigate. “It’s just one more way to get a tip” on a potential scoop, Gilbert says.”
Using AI is a short leap from relying on the integrity and insightful wisdom of a seasoned professional and replace a restrictive filter to censor out any information that conflicts or departs from the official narrative. In this brave new journalism there is no place for a Seymour Hersh and certainly no account of a future My Lai Massacre could pass the algorithms.
“Leading UK news agency Press Association (PA) is betting that artificial intelligence can fill the gap left by redundant reporters and shuttered local newspaper offices. A new initiative sees them partnered with news automation specialists Urbs Media – and endorsed by a 706,000 Euro Google grant – to create 30,000 localized news reports every month.
The technology relies on natural language generation (NLG), a cornerstone of much of the progress which has been made in recent years thanks to artificial intelligence and automation. The principle is that humans and computers can work together much more effectively if we all speak the same language. And teaching ultra-fast, infallible machines to understand and communicate in our own human languages is more efficient than teaching slow, fallible humans to communicate with computers in their language (for example, by learning computer code).
It’s the technology behind iPhone’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa as well as “chatbots” which are increasingly taking on customer service roles. Only here instead of answering questions their job is to write news stories based on the data it is fed.”
Well, this method for specialization sounds nice at first glance; however, anyone who spends their lives talking to machines surely shows signs of lacking independent thought. Providing the details for contact info or a product review is simply not on a par level of reflection with the wealth of historic knowledge upon which an entire civilization is based .
PR News, a trade journal features a list of changes may influence how media relations professionals do their jobs. Ephraim Cohen discusses in What AI in the Newsroom Means for Media Relations Pros reliance on digital tech abstract reporting.
“Newsrooms’ appetite for data to feed AI software means a potential shift from thought leadership materials to thought leadership databases.
To develop stories, newsrooms feed databases into AI programs that uncover insights. As this use of AI increases, communicators may see journalists shift from looking for thought leadership materials they refer to in articles to databases they can connect to their AI programs. Media, research & analysis and innovations teams can collaborate to develop a tool or database that journalists can connect to via an API (application programming interface). The challenge will be to develop thought leadership databases and tools that will show AI-driven insights that are complementary to the attributed brand.”
Sure appears like pushing bland pavlov for feeding the Canis familiaris who still believe what they read or watch in the corporatist media and respond to their whistle blowing calls. Distorting what is real is now an entire planetary encounter. What better way than to turn over the storyline to the machines since so few people have the ability to comprehend the meaning behind the script?
The implications for any society who purports to be based upon democratic principles is a topic that is just being scratched. Visar Berisha from the Uppsala of Universitet presents his paper on Theory attempts to address this subject.
“The analysis has shown that my initial worry might be justified, at least to some degree. An increase in the sophistication of AI, primarily through machine learning, perfected what the Obama campaign had initiated. Through the use of rich data from social media, online personality tests, consumer datasets, traditional polling and surveys on the one side, and sophisticated machine learning analyzes on the other, companies have been able to target voters on an individual level. This does not, in itself, present a new threat to democracy, in fact manipulation can be seen as a fundamental aspect of democracy (Le Cheminant & Parrish, 2011). There is, however, reason to believe that AI has the potential to increases the power of elites in this regard. As we have seen, certain individuals seem to have played a key role in both the UK EU-referendum and the 2016 U.S presidential election, while there is well-grounded suspicion that agencies connected to the Russian state have tried to affect the outcome in both cases. The problem, as I see it, is not manipulation itself, but rather its evolvement in the light of AI, becoming increasingly more sophisticated and effective, while at the same concentrated to a handful of people who have the technology and the economic means to employ this technology. Two particular concerns arise from this, supported by my analysis. The first is that the novelty of the method allows actors to operate covertly, undetected by the traditional institutions, like mass-media, which are to hold power accountable. The second is that micro-targeting communication isolates the voter further, by sending out signals in congruence with already held beliefs, and often supported by confirmatory ecosystems of online (fake) news-sites, it polarizes the debate and hinders an adequate understanding of the issues at hand. This threatens core elements of democracy as described above, and considering the rate by which the technology develops, it might become increasingly harder to both identify and understand these methods as they progress.”
Acknowledging the manipulative power of recurrent political bias reinforcement is a task well suited for machines that masquerade as internet bots. The routine of watching noisome talking heads that spiel their nonsense on their lamestream fake news venues is a powerful motive to turn off the conventional media.
Yet, the censorship found on approved internet sites is just as offensive. Artificial Intelligence is no substitute for the Socratic method of discourse. Since the globe exists in an anti-intellectual delusion, the promise for this factitious utopia is that the burden of individual reason is just too difficult for humans to bear. The AI android will release the culture of self-indulgence to even greater levels. The by-product results of this zombie society is that elites who implement their dehumanizing system have a hatred of countervailing opposition.
What passes for journalism today is found on late night TV comedy programs. The Roman Empire bread and circus distractions never enjoyed this same degree of diversions. Their citizens were plagued with civil war. Now armed rebellion is not tolerated because maintaining the populace as virtual slaves is so much easier.
Artificial Intelligence is a polite idiom for tightening chains without the appearance of a lock and key. People live for using the latest apps and go the distance to avoid the responsibility of challenging their current brainwashing. The internet has allowed news reporting to be a democratic function as citizen journalists joined the ranks. AI is designed to censor the pursuit of the truth. Do not be fooled. Bots are meant to dumb down the public, even more.
Every moment your body is undergoing an active process of regeneration, based as it is on the ceaseless flux of cell life and death — not unlike the dissipative structure of a flame.
Consider the fact that every three days the enterocytes lining the villus of your intestines are completely replaced, and that within 7-10 years, almost every atom and molecule within your body has been excreted, breathed out, or sloughed off, only to be replaced by new ones from the food you ate, the water you drank and the air you breathed in, in the interim.
Truth be told, beneath even the appearance of our solid physio-chemical form, are waves of energy, patterns of vibration (not unlike sound), condensed forms of light, vast voids of inter-atomic space, and subtending that reality from ‘below,’ an infinite field of possibility, described with awe and elegance by quantum physicists and mystics, alike, albeit with different languages.
Underscoring this amazing interplay of being and non-being, without which life would not be possible, cancer cells are only deadly because they are no longer capable of dying in a well-timed and orderly fashion — a process of programmed cell death (self-disassembly) known as apoptosis, and shared only by cells healthy enough to die.
The intentional and relatively traceless self-disassembly of the cell, which is associated with apoptosis, exemplifies how the individual cell makes itself holy — which is the etymology of the word sacrifice (‘to make holy’) — by giving itself (one) up selflessly to the whole (many). The word holy, of course, shares etymological kinship with the words ‘health’ and ‘whole,’ forming a trinity of meanings which have long ago been forgotten or removed from popular consciousness.
In other words, in order to be whole, healthy and holy, the body and soul can not be treated as separate processes or substances. In cancer, the individual cell breaks its sacred bond with the whole community of cells, i.e. the rest of the body, and proliferates wildly, selfishly on its own; cloning itself tirelessly, in a sort of narcissism which runs against the cellular diversity and cooperative interdependence necessary for their to be ONE, whole functioning healthy being on the macroscopic level.
This “selfish” behavior is to be expected of a cell that has been starved of basic essential nutrients, exposed to a continuous onslaught of synthetic chemicals and manmade electromagnetic fields, given semi-synthetic ‘nutrients’ and ‘vitamins’ which no longer share resemblance with anything found in food, and enveloped in an electromagnetically-mediated cocoon of negative emotions, throughout the duration of its life cycle. These cells, like the example of children who suffer profound depravations and abuse earlier in life, learn to grow up with ‘body armor,’ express ‘acting out behavior,’ ‘selfishness,’ and otherwise unhealthy and antisocial characteristics that could be described in an oncologist’s histopathological report as the cellular phenotype of cancer.
The ability to survive the constant onslaught of life-denying chemicals and energies has resulted in the down-regulation of genes associated with apoptosis, and the up-regulation of those associated with the tireless metabolic activity and proliferation of cancer. This has lead to the cellular equivalent of the desire for immortality, which is highly unsustainable, and like a virus too deadly to escape the fate of its host, eventually brings down itself in the process, as well.
Even non-cancerous senescent cells, which accumulate with age and which no longer undergo the cell divisions associated with both healthy and cancerous tissue, may interfere with healthy life processes because they don’t die as rapidly, subsequently crowding out the living, continually regenerating cell lines that are healthy enough to die and be reborn again. Cell death, therefore, and the healthy cell turnover that dying makes possible, is a fundamental prerequisite for the continuance of healthy cell life — and the tissue, organ and bodily systems made of these cells. by not dying.
And both cancer and senescent cells, which stand in the way of cellular regeneration, can be induced to make way for new healthy cells through the induction of programmed cell death (apoptosis). GreenMedInfo.com has over 345 natural substances with apoptotic properties. The body’s ability to countermand cancerous processes, and even to regress tumors and active cancers, is only now beginning to come to mainstream light. For instance, a groundbreaking study published this month in The Lancet Oncology shows for the first time that many screen-detected “invasive” breast tumors spontaneously regress when undiagnosed and untreated. What this means is that, given a chance, the body will utilize internal immune resources to thwart cancer.
Regenerative processes, however, begin to decline with age, and are further interfered with by chemical exposures, nutrient deficiencies and incompatibilities, as well as acute and chronic stress. Ultimately, the degree and pace to which this happens depends largely on the physical and energetic properties of the food consumed, water ingested and air breathed in, and what lifestyle and spiritual choices we make in our daily lives.
Certain foods, spices and nutrients, as well as therapeutic actions (listening to music), have been studied to significantly enhance the regenerative process in the body. Here are a few more cases…
There are neuritogenic substances which are capable of stimulating neural growth factor, an important inducer of neurological repair. There are substances that stimulate the regeneration of beta cells, the insulin-producing cells that are damaged in type 1 diabetics. There are substances that can regenerate serious spinal chord damage, such as resveratrol. And you even have substances known as neocardiogenic that are capable of stimulating regeneration of the cardiac muscle.
There is also the commonly over-looked dimension of how much sunlight exposure is occurring on a daily basis, and whether or not it is occurring closer to the UVB-saturated solar noon (12 pm). Research clearly indicates that the skin has properties not unlike solar panels, capable of storing light energy in molecular bonds, specifically within the cholesterol sulfate and vitamin D sulfate molecules produced in the skin.
Melanin, also, is believed to convert sunlight into metabolic energy within vertebrate animals — a property that has been sacrificed in lighter skin humans in order to accommodate the lower levels of sunlight availability experienced by their ancestors living at higher latitudes. Sunlight may be a key and irreplaceable ingredient in the regenerative processes our body depends on, and may not be substitutable with supplemental vitamin D3.
I remember sitting in the car driving into downtown Toronto with this really odd feeling in my gut — a mix of excitement and curiosity. We were heading to an interview that I had been looking forward to for a long time. Of course, finding parking in Toronto is always an interesting challenge. Row after row, street after street, trying to find a spot that isn’t a one week walk away from your destination (and that also doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg) to leave your car for a few hours is, to put it mildly, pretty difficult.
After an exhaustive search, we found that elusive not-too-far and not-too-costly spot. We got out of the car and began walking under the grey, cool sky towards the hotel where we were going to be interviewing Dr. Masaru Emoto — the man who claims that water contains memory and that our consciousness can impact it. He was in town for a speaking event and we had the chance to privately interview him for a couple hours, offering us the amazing opportunity to hear about his work firsthand. At this time, his research was finally being recognized in a big way by the mainstream and he was going to be having some very interesting high level conversations about it to move it forward. He was right on the verge of taking his work to a whole new level.
Just a few short weeks later, he passed away, on the cusp of his success.
Having sat with him in what very well may have been his last interview, I later thought to myself how disheartening it was that he died just before seeing his work truly flower. I really wanted to see his work fully explored at an openminded level which would allow for wonder and intrigue to exist in a study that could transform the way we view our reality.
You see, the scientific world has a culture which, inherently, has a difficult time accepting work like this. Why? Because things like this are hard to measure, and when we can’t fully measure and understand something in our modern scientific world, we are often afraid to study it and put our names on it. The unfortunate reason for this is that materialistic science has simply become the new religion of today, in a number of ways. While that has provided a plethora of amazing insights and wisdom, it also limits our understanding of our world by disregarding things that may exist that we simply don’t understand yet or can’t access physically.
Emoto shared his thoughts on all of this as we interviewed him. Although he had received much ridicule from mainstream science for his work, the deeper spiritual understanding that came from his research helped him to stay humble and open to the transformation in the way people viewed his work as an inevitable part of the future. And he was right there… it was ready to take off for him.
Thankfully, people have been inspired by his work and have expanded upon it to find some amazing things about the data and information water carries.
New research from the Aerospace Institute of the University of Stuttgart in Germany supports the theory that water has a memory. This idea was first coined by French immunologist Dr. Jacques Benveniste in a controversial article published in 1988 in the journal Nature as a way of explaining how homeopathy works. Later, others, including Dr. Emoto, took their hands and theories to this idea, all of which also proved controversial.
But recently another breakthrough has been brought forth and it comes with very interesting, reproducible results. The video clip below, from the Oasis HD Channel, shows some fascinating recent experiments involving water and memory. It comes from the Aerospace Institute of the University of Stuttgart in Germany. Although all aspects of the research you are about to see are intriguing, one thing that really struck me is the bit about different types of flowers being immersed in water and how the water keeps memory of that. Would this perhaps lend credence to the homeopathy theory?
“The experiment I’m using in this article was conducted by Dean Radin, Ph.D., who is the Chief Scientist at IONS and Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Psychology at Sonoma State University.(1) The experiment was done to measure how intention alone affects water crystal formation. Co-Investigators were Masaru Emoto, a Japanese energy scholar and author, along with a few other researchers and scientists.
The experiment tested the hypothesis that water exposed to distant intentions affects the aesthetic rating of ice crystals formed from that water. Basically, it tested whether intentions could influence the physical structure of water (as mentioned earlier). Over a period of three days, approximately 2000 people in Austria and Germany focused their intentions towards water samples that were placed inside an electromagnetically shielded room in California. Other samples were located outside of the shielded room so that they could act as a distant control. Ice drops formed from multiple samples of water in different treatment conditions were photographed by a technician. Each image was assessed for aesthetic beauty by over 2,500 independent judges and the results of the data were analyzed by individuals who were blind with respect to the treatment conditions.
Results showed that the test was consistent with a number of previous studies suggesting that intention may be able to influence the structure of water.”
