New Light on the Pyramids

Scientists discover Great Pyramid of Gizacan can focus electromagnetic energy through its hidden chambers

  • New analysis shows pyramid concentrates electromagnetic energy in chambers
  • This includes two chambers inside, and a third unfinished one beneath the base
  • Scientists say breakthrough could lead to more efficient nanoparticle designs

The remarkable electromagnetic properties of the Great Pyramid of Giza could soon inspire nanoparticle designs for highly efficient sensors and solar cells.

Scientists have found that the famous pyramid can concentrate electric and magnetic energy in its chambers and below its base, giving rise to distinct pockets of higher energy.

While the 481-foot pyramid built thousands of years ago for Pharaoh Khufu has long drawn intrigue for its purported mythical qualities, the study is among a growing body of research attempting to finally get to the bottom of its physical properties.

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Scientists have found that the famous Great Pyramid of Giza can concentrate electric and magnetic energy in its chambers and below its base, giving rise to distinct pockets of higher energy

‘Egyptian pyramids have always attracted great attention,’ says Dr Andrey Evlyukhin, scientific supervisor and coordinator of the research

‘We as scientists were interested in them as well, so we decided to look at the Great Pyramid as a particle dissipating radio waves resonantly.’

The researchers from ITMO University modelled the distribution of electromagnetic fields inside the pyramid, investigating the interactions with waves of resonant length, ranging from 200 to 600 meters.

Given the lack of reliable information about the pyramid’s properties, however, the team says they had to fill in the blanks for some factors.

‘We had to use some assumptions,’ Evlyukhin says.

‘For example, we assumed that there are no unknown cavities inside, and the building material with the properties of an ordinary limestone is evenly distributed in and out of the pyramid.

‘With these assumptions made, we obtained interesting results that can find important practical applications.’

A multipole analysis shows the pyramid concentrates electromagnetic energy in its hidden chambers.

A multipole analysis shows the pyramid concentrates electromagnetic energy in its hidden chambers. The distributions of electric (a)–(e) and magnetic (f)–(j) field magnitude in the Pyramid and its supporting substrate is shown above

A multipole analysis shows the pyramid concentrates electromagnetic energy in its hidden chambers. The distributions of electric (a)–(e) and magnetic (f)–(j) field magnitude in the Pyramid and its supporting substrate is shown above

This includes the chamber thought to contain Pharaoh Khufu’s remains and that made for his wife, along with a third unfinished chamber beneath the base.

When considering the pyramid on a substrate – such as the limestone plateau – the researchers say it focuses the energy through the empty spaces to the substrate.

‘In the case of the Pyramid on the substrate, at the shorter wavelengths, the electromagnetic energy accumulates in the chambers providing local spectral maxima for electric and magnetic fields,’ the researchers explain in a paper on the study.

‘It is shown that basically the Pyramid scatters the electromagnetic waves and focuses them in to the substrate region.’

A multipole analysis shows the pyramid concentrates electromagnetic energy in its hidden chambers. Distributions of electric (top row) and magnetic (bottom row) field magnitudes  in the free space are shown

A multipole analysis shows the pyramid concentrates electromagnetic energy in its hidden chambers. Distributions of electric (top row) and magnetic (bottom row) field magnitudes in the free space are shown

While the 481-foot pyramid built thousands of years ago for Pharaoh Khufu has long drawn intrigue for its purported mythical qualities, the study is among a growing body of research attempting to finally get to the bottom of its physical properties

While the 481-foot pyramid built thousands of years ago for Pharaoh Khufu has long drawn intrigue for its purported mythical qualities, the study is among a growing body of research attempting to finally get to the bottom of its physical properties

THE PYRAMID OF GIZA

The Great Pyramid, also known as Khufu's Pyramid, is the sole survivor of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World

The Great Pyramid, also known as Khufu’s Pyramid, is the sole survivor of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World

For more than 4,500 years, Egypt’s pyramids have kept their secrets hidden deep within the labyrinth of passages and chambers that lie inside their towering stone structures.

But the long-running row over whether the Great Pyramid of Giza is hiding a network of previously undiscovered tunnels behind its stone walls has now been answered.

The researchers confirmed the find using cosmic particles known as muons to scan the Great Pyramid of Giza.

They used the scans to create maps to reveal the internal structure of the 479 feet (146m) high pyramid.

Last year thermal scanning identified a major anomaly in the Great Pyramid, the largest and oldest of the pyramids at Giza and one of the seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Those scans identified three adjacent stones at its base which registered higher temperatures than others.

Those scans identified three adjacent stones at its base which registered higher temperatures than others.

This led to theories that they may be hiding a secret chamber that had yet to be discovered.

A team of experts then set up the ScanPyramid’s project to use muons, tiny subatomic particle that are typically produced by cosmic rays smash into atoms on Earth, to peer through the pyramid’s huge stone blocks, some of which weight up to 15 tons.

Dr Hawass has in the past been sceptical of the usefulness of conducting such scans.

He recently clashed publicly with British Egyptologists over their theory that a secret burial chamber may be hidden behind the walls of Tutankhamun’s tomb in his pyramid in the Valley of the Kings.

The discovery isn’t just important for our understanding of the ancient, mysterious pyramid.

According to the researcher, the way electromagnetic energy distributes in the pyramid could make for efficient nanoparticle designs.

‘Choosing a material with suitable electromagnetic properties, we can obtain pyramidal nanoparticles with a promise for practical application in nanosensors and effective solar cells,’ Polina Kapitainova, Ph.D., a member of the Faculty of Physics and Technology of ITMO University.

Scan the Pyramid project uncovering secrets of Egypt’s wonders

How DOES amazon Do It?

Accidents at Amazon: workers left to suffer after warehouse injuries

Workers pack and ship customer orders at the Amazon fulfillment center Romeoville, Illinois on 1 August 2017. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Guardian investigation reveals numerous cases of Amazon workers being treated in ways that leave them homeless, unable to work or bereft of income after workplace accidents

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Vickie Shannon Allen, 49, started working at Amazon as a counter in a fulfillment warehouse at Haslet, Texas, in May 2017. At first, like many employees, Allen was excited by the idea of working for one of the fastest growing corporations in the world. That feeling dissipated quickly after a few months.

“I noticed managers would ask you questions all the time about any bathroom breaks, performance and productivity. What they do is code your time, and they are allowed to change it at will. To me, that’s how they get rid of people,” Allen said.

Amazon is now the world’s most valuable retailer. Its customers are served by over 140 fulfillment centers like the one where Allen worked across the US. The revenues from these centers have made founder Jeff Bezos the world’s richest man – Bezos’ net worth recently crossed the $150bn, making him the wealthiest person in history, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

In the meantime, Allen has become homeless after a workplace accident left her unable to do her job.

Nor is Allen alone. A Guardian investigation has revealed numerous cases of Amazon workers suffering from workplace accidents or injuries in its gigantic warehouse system and being treated in ways that leave them homeless, unable to work or bereft of income.

Allen’s story began on 24 October last year when she injured her back counting goods on a workstation that was missing a brush guard, a piece of safety equipment meant to prevent products from falling onto the floor. She used a tote bin to try to compensate for the missing brush guard, and hurt her back while counting in an awkward position. The injury was the beginning of an ongoing ordeal she is still working to amend at Amazon. Over the course of a few weeks, Amazon’s medical triage area gave her use of a heating pad to use on her back, while Amazon management sent her home each day without pay until Allen pushed for workers compensation.

“I tried to work again, but I couldn’t stretch my right arm out and I’m right-handed. So I was having a hard time keeping up. This went on for about three weeks,” Allen said. Despite not getting paid, Allen was spending her own money to drive 60 miles one way to the warehouse each day just to be sent home.

Once on workers compensation, Allen started going to physical therapy. In January 2018, she returned to work and injured herself again on the same workstation that still was not fixed.

Allen went back on medical leave and took an additional two weeks of unpaid leave because she didn’t have the money to drive to work. In April 2018, an MRI scan showed her back was still injured, but just five days after her diagnosis, she claims Amazon’s workers compensation insurer, Sedgwick, had the company doctor drop her as a patient.

“By June 2018, they finally had that station fixed. It took them eight months to put one little brush guard on this station,” Allen said. On 2 July, she met with management at the Amazon fulfillment center, who offered her a week of paid leave for the issues she had to deal with over the past nine months.

“They’re also going to pay me for 24 more hours for last week. They haven’t said anything else,” Allen explained. ”They offered me a buyout, only for $3,500, which meant I would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement to not say anything derogatory about Amazon or my experience.”

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Allen said she rejected the buyout offer to speak out against Amazon’s treatment of her. She currently lives out of her car in the parking lot of the Amazon fulfillment center. “They cost me my home, they screwed me over and over and I go days without eating.”

Allen’s case is one of numerous reports from Amazon workers of being improperly treated after an avoidable work injury. Amazon’s warehouses were listed on the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health’s “dirty dozen” list of most dangerous places to work in the United States in April 2018. The company made the list due to its pattern of unsafe working conditions and its focus on productivity and efficiency over the safety and livelihood of its employees. Amazon’s emphasis on fulfilling a high demand of orders has resulted in unsafe working conditions for its warehouse employees.

In April 2018, 43-year-old Bryan Hill of Seffner, Florida filed a lawsuit against Amazon, alleging managers fired him for hurting his back on the job and failed to file a workers compensation claim once his injury was reported. “It’s been scheduled for mediation in September, and we’re in a holding pattern until then,” said Miguel Bouzas, the attorney representing Hill in the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, Hill was told by a manager he was too young to have back problems, and he was fired before Amazon Human Resources would authorize a doctor visit.

At an Amazon Fulfillment Center in Pennsylvania, one former employee was fired five weeks after getting injured on the job. “I was on a ladder and someone came flying into the area I was in, hit the ladder causing me to fall, and I landed on my back and left leg,” said Christina Miano-Wilburn. Her back is permanently injured from the incident. “They refused to give me the paperwork for workmen’s comp. They cut my short term disability after five weeks. I was supposed to get it for 26 weeks.”

Miano-Wilburn was notified of her job termination through a letter in the mail in May 2017 after working at Amazon for two years. She lost her home shortly after being fired from Amazon.

Other Amazon employees succumb to the fatigue and exhaustion of the fulfillment center work environment and quit before getting injured. “I felt they thought I was faking. I was dehydrated and dizzy,” said Lindsai Florence Johnson, who was taken away in an ambulance in April during a hot day while working at an Amazon fulfillment center in San Bernardino, California. She quit in May 2018 over mistreatment after starting in June 2017. “Not all people report injuries because they are scared to get taken off their job or told they can’t work over there anymore. I have many times come home with bruises from work at Amazon and I experienced my first hernia there.”

In many cases, Amazon workers are left to deal with the temp agency that hired them, shifting the burden of responsibility to a third party and making it more difficult for workers to receive proper treatment and compensation. For nearly three years, Michael Yevtuck has been in and out of court over a workers compensation claim against Integrity Staffing, who hired him to work in a Robbinsville, New Jersey based Amazon fulfillment center.

“I was squatting full speed and going up the step ladder as many times as I could an hour to try to hit the rates. All that squatting hurt my left knee, so I favored the other one and hurt that one,” said Yevtuck, who hurt his knees in November 2015.

An Amazon company doctor recommended he return to work on light duty and gave him braces for each knee. Yevtuck provided documents corroborating his medical diagnoses from Amazon company doctors and private doctors. “As soon as I came back, the supervisor returned me back to a job that was full duty and I reinjured both knees.”

He added Amazon told him to return to work, or work a light duty job if he signed a form stating his injuries occurred prior to working at Amazon. An MRI he received in April 2016 from a private doctor noted he tore the meniscus in his left knee, but Amazon would not pay his medical fees or accept his workers compensation filing. His next court date in his legal efforts to obtain workers compensation and medical reimbursement from Amazon is in September 2018.

Amazon meanwhile insists that ensuring the safety of its workers is a priority and that it was “proud” of its record.

“Amazon has created over 130,000 jobs in the last year alone and now employs over 560,000 people around the world. Ensuring the safety of these associates is our number one priority,” said Amazon spokesperson Melanie Etches in an email, who also pointed to the firm’s Safety Leadership Program as an example of being proactive on the issue.

“Operational meetings, new hire orientation, process training and new process development begin with safety and have safety metrics and audits integrated within each program … While any serious incident is one too many, we learn and improve our programs working to prevent future incidents,” Etches said.

  • This article was amended on 30 July 2018 to correct the name of the city of Haslet, Texas.

from:    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/30/accidents-at-amazon-workers-left-to-suffer-after-warehouse-injuries

After All, It Comes Down to You

Gary Lachman on Dark Star Rising, Trump, and the Occult


We interviewed Gary Lachman to discuss his new book, Dark Star Rising: Magic and Power in the Age of Trump, and explored what Pepe the frog has to do with “hypersigils,” how magical traditions were co-opted, adapted, and electronically remixed for nefarious purposes in the recent US election, and what Steve Bannon was on about with the occult politics of Julius Evola. Most importantly, Lachman suggests ways to move forward through this new, occult battleground.

First of all, what is the “occult connection” with Trump, chaos magic, and the alt-right?

It seems that some figures on the far right claimed to have “willed” Trump into office. This is what Richard Spencer, founder of the alt-right, declared at the meeting of the National Policy Institute held soon after Trump’s election. He opened the meeting by declaring “Hail Trump. Hail our victory. We made this happen. We made this dream our reality. We willed Trump into office.” He called it their “victory of the will.” The audience responded with cheers and Nazi salutes.

This caught the media’s attention and was widely reported on. But one report pointed something out. Harvey Bishop, a New Thought blogger, remarked that “making dreams a reality” is the essence of New Thought. New Thought is a generic name for different philosophies of mind that share the belief that “thoughts are causative,” that through sheer mental intention, the mind can affect reality. The reality the alt-right wanted to affect was the 2016 US presidential election.

 How they went about doing this – if they did –  was by using the internet as a way to create or alter reality. This leads to your second question.

The weird recesses of the internet very much seem to have conjured memes into reality, like the warped iconography of Pepe (a relatively harmless meme turned alt-right icon), or the chilling story of the tulpa-like Slenderman attributed to a case of real life attempted murder. What’s the magical link here between the internet and culture, reality and virtuality?

What seems to have happened is that people noticed strange coincidences taking place between things posted on the internet and the “real” world. It was rather as if the sort of “meaningful coincidence” that Jung called “synchronicty” – a coincidence that is so meaningful that we can’t ignore it – was happening between internet memes and reality. The story is that some people posting on 4chan noticed some odd coincidences between memes they had posted about film The Dark Knight Rises and the 2015 German Wings Flight 9525 crash in the Alps. They had posted about the scene where Bain, the villain, takes over the plane flying him to prison, escapes and crashes it. There seemed to be some similarities between this scene and the German Wings crash. The crash happened in the Alps near a town called Bains. One of the crash site investigators was named Bruce Robin. The pilot crashed the plane, just as Bain does in the film. Did their posts somehow make the crash happen?  The idea that it may have appealed to their morbid sense of humor. Those who thought it was possible christened the phenomena “synchromysticism,” which means when something on the net bleeds into the “real” world and effects it in some way. It is a techno retread of Jung’s synchronicity, where instead of one’s consciousness or inner world, the “meaningful coincidence” happens between the internet and the world. If we think of the internet as a kind of exteriorized collective imagination, we can see how it could work.

 If it happened by chance, could it happen on purpose? Could one intentionally use internet memes to “make things happen”? The idea of using memes for magical purposes suggests that meme magic is an offshoot of chaos magic, a kind of Do It Yourself approach to magic that started in the 1970s. Briefly, instead of relying on the traditional magical implements – wands, circles, spells, etc. – the chaos magician relies on imagination, initiative, and will, and makes use of whatever is at hand. Chaos magic has a long history of adopting elements of pop culture in its practice – the famous eight pointed chaos star comes from Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series of novels, which charts a never-ending battle between the forces of Order and Chaos. Nowadays, what is at hand are internet memes.

The meme in question here is Pepe the Frog. Pepe started out as an amphibian slacker but he was abducted by the dark side – the alt-right and Trump supporters – and became their mascot. But he was something more than a mascot. The idea was that Pepe would become a sigil – a hyper-sigil, in fact, a magical symbol charged with imagination and intent – the intent being to put Trump in office. Pepe appeared alongside Trump, as Trump, as one of the Deplorables, even as Aleister Crowley, a magician with whom some feel Trump has much in common. Then the weirdness started.

Posts on 4chan are anonymous, but each one receives an eight digit number. Pepeists began to notice that they seemed to be getting double, triple, or even quadruple numbers in their eight digit tag. It seemed that their posts about Pepe or Trump were being acknowledged in some way and approved of. They began to bet whether a post would receive a “dub” or a “trip”. But who or what was acknowledging them?

The answer to that question came from two incongruous sources: the World of Warcraft video game and ancient Egypt.

4channers were fond of World of Warcraft and they were aware of a strange glitch in the program. Whenever they wanted to write LOL it invariably came out KEK. Oddly enough, this had something to do with the Korean language. In any case, they eventually just went with it, and so whenever anything tickled them – like one of Trump’s tweets – they burst out kekking.

The odd thing is that Kek happens to be the name of an ancient Egyptian frog headed deity of – chaos.

So it seemed that the Pepeists were getting approval from Kek, ancient god of Chaos, who had been incarnated among them – at least electronically – in the form of Pepe.

If that wasn’t enough, in the book I suggest that although he most likely never heard of it, Trump is a kind of natural born chaos magician. Certainly chaos is something many people associate with him. And one of the odd coincidences I came across is that positive thinking, New Thought, and chaos magic share one central element: they are all results driven. They each want to make things happen.

The occult, historically, has had forward-thinking traditions (progressive, radical and experimentally left) as well as conservative. Can you give a brief summary of the Traditionalist occult impulse that influenced Trump’s ascendancy? For instance, Steve Bannon name-dropping Julius Evola or Rene Guenon.

One of the odder things following Trump’s election was an article published in the New York Times in February 2017, about a speech Bannon had given to a select group of Vatican churchmen in 2014. Amidst the usual rhetoric about the Global Tea Party movement, the war on Islamic Fascism, and the immigration crisis, the Times reporter noted that Bannon had mentioned Julius Evola. Julius Evola was an Italian esoteric philosopher who had far right political leanings. In the 1920s and 30s, he tried to ingratiate himself first with Mussolini and then with Hitler, with modest success. Post WWII he was a kind of intellectual éminence grisefor different Italian neo-fascist groups. Today he  is one of the ideological heavy weights the alt-right point to, to differentiate themselves from white power skinheads and rednecks. He is an incisive thinker and is the most readable of the Traditionalist school.

Traditionalism was founded in the early twentieth century by the French scholar René Guénon. It’s central belief is that, in the dim past, mankind was given a fundamental revelation about the nature of reality and the relationship between God, man, and the cosmos. This revelation is at the heart of all the great religions, but over time it has been obscured until by now it is practically forgotten. History, Guénon believed, has been all downhill since that initial revelation. We have declined from the Golden Age to the Age of Iron. In Hindu terms, we are smack in the Kali Yuga, a very dark time. Guénon loathed the modern world and so did Evola. But where Guénon was a priest, Evola was a warrior – or at least he liked to think of himself as one. He wanted to actively help bring the west down – the liberal, democratic west – and build a Traditionalist society in its place. This would be based on an organic, caste-like vision of society, a true “body politic,” rather than the atomized self-seeking decadent democracies of the modern world.

Oddly enough, Evola practiced a kind of mental science or New Thought himself, and he also tried to have a magical influence on contemporary events. In the 1920s he contributed several articles under different pseudonyms to the UR journal, the publication of the UR group, an esoteric society to which he belonged. Evola contributed several articles about how the mind can alter and even create reality, through sheer will and imagination. And he and others in the group performed rituals with the intent of instilling the ancient Roman virtues into Mussolini’s fascists – Evola thought they were frankly rather poor material to work with. So just as Spencer, a reader of Evola, is supposed to have used magic to help Trump, Evola did the same in order to help Mussolini.

Alexander Dugin has been described as “Putin’s brain” (Foreign Affairs) or the “Russian Mystic”  behind the alt-right (HuffPost). He seems to be a believer in Atlantis and has a rather esoteric history of the world, including a future where “Eurasia” becomes the center of a new spiritual, planetary civilization. I was struck by how radically different this is from the “planetary culture” in our own left-leaning consciousness community here in the West (on Reality Sandwich, no less), or even the experimental futurist communities like Auroville in Pondicherry, India. What is Dugin all about here?

 It was in fact in the context of alluding to Dugin that Bannon name dropped Evola. While speaking of Putin and expressing admiration for his embrace of “traditional values,” Bannon remarked that he, Putin, had in his orbit a follower of Traditionalism, someone who read Julius Evola. This someone was Dugin. Dugin has had an interesting career. He started out as an anti-Soviet punk dissident; he was arrested in the early 1980s, before perestroika, for singing an anti-Soviet song at a party. He then drifted into a strange, far-right, occult, science-fiction bohemia in Moscow, where he blended an interest in National Socialism with occultism, Guénon and Evola, and assorted other oddities. An important book at this time was The Morning of the Magicians, a wonderful grab bag of esoteric misinformation. Then, with collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90s, he realized he was really a “Soviet man,” and combined his fascist aesthetic with a nostalgia for Stalin. He continued through several ideological quick-changes and by the 2000s, emerged as an eccentric but respected authority on geopolitics.

His central idea is that with the collapse of the USSR, the world has become “unipolar,” meaning there is really only one superpower, the US. Opposed to this he wants to create a multipolar world, meaning one in which another superpower is able to oppose the increasing global dominance of the West. For him there is really only one fundamental struggle at work throughout history, what he sees as the clash between the sea-faring Atlanticist cultures – the US, UK, EU – who want to turn the planet into a global market place, and the mother of all continents, Eurasia, the single largest land mass on the planet. (Evola readers will see the basic clash between “becoming” and “being” here.) Where the Atlanticists are liberal, democratic, market oriented, and ‘free’, the Eurasianists prefer a traditional, authoritarian, highly ordered, organic society, that is based on values other than those of individual liberty, so prized in the west. Eurasia is the name Dugin gives to the new planetary culture that will arise from Russia in this century. It rejects the idea that Russia is a backward cousin of Europe, failing to catch up with it. Instead it is a new, original, unique civilization, with its roots in the East – the Mongols and Tatars – which will come into its own in the years ahead. He adopts Spengler’s idea that there is no linear progression of history and civilizations. Civilizations are organic; they are born, grow, and die. Spengler’s masterpiece is called The Decline of the West. For Dugin, it’s about time. He even suggests that we – those who agree with him – should help it along.

What’s the lesson here for counter-culturalists, esotericists, occultists, and the consciousness culture communities that have previously championed a leftist, admittedly utopian, move towards building a more spiritual civilization? Have our traditions been irrevocably co-opted by the alt-right, and is there a positive or constructive way to move forward?

Personally I’ve never thought working toward utopia was a good idea. The road to hell, we know, is paved with good intentions, and pretty much every attempt to force or impose a “better world” on the one we have now has ended in creating more suffering than anything else. I place my bets on the individual. Any real change has to start with you or me becoming more conscious, more awake, more alert, and getting a tighter grasp on reality. It’s depending on us. Times of disruption also bring opportunities. We need to be prepared for them.

What are you working on next?

A book about the return of Holy Russia.

Thank you, Gary. We’re looking forward to that one.

from:    http://realitysandwich.com/323117/gary-lachman-dark-star-rising-trump-occult/

The Importance of Rainforests

Facts About Rainforests

This interior part of the Amazon rainforest is one of the most diverse corners of the Amazon basin. A hectare of forest typically contains 250 species of large trees.

Credit: Nigel Pitman | The Field Museum

Rainforests are found all over the world — in West and Central Africa, South and Central America, Indonesia, Southeast Asia and Australia — on every continent except Antarctica. They are vitally important, producing most of the oxygen we breathe and providing habitat for half of the planet’s flora and fauna.

The term “rainforest” has a wide classification. Typically, rainforests are lush, humid, hot stretches of land covered in tall, broadleaf evergreen trees, usually found around the equator. These areas usually get rain year-round, typically more than 70 inches (1,800 millimeters) a year, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Various types of forests, such as monsoon forests, mangrove forests and temperate forests, can be considered rainforests. Here’s what makes them different:

  • Temperate rainforests consist of coniferous or broadleaf trees and are found in the temperate zones. They are identified as rainforests by the large amount of rain they receive.
  • Mangrove rainforests are, like their name, made of mangrove trees. These trees grow only in brackish waters where rivers meet the ocean.
  • Monsoon rainforests are also called “dry rainforests” because they have a dry season. These get around 31 to 71 inches (800 mm to 1,800 mm) of rain. Up to 75 percent of the trees in dry rainforests can be deciduous.

Most rainforests are very warm, with an average temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) during the day and 68 degrees F (20 degrees C) at night.

A rainforest consists of two major areas. The very top part is called the canopy, which can be as tall as 98 feet to 164 feet (30 to 50 meters). This area is comprised of the tops of trees and vines. The rest, below the canopy, is called the understory. This can include ferns, flowers, vines, tree trunks and dead leaves.

Some animals stay in the canopy and rarely ever come down to the ground. Some of these animals include monkeys, flying squirrels and sharp-clawed woodpeckers, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Upper montane cloud forest during rainfall at Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysia.
Upper montane cloud forest during rainfall at Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysia.

Credit: L. A. Bruijnzeel and I. S. M. Sieverding

The rainforest is home to many plants and animals. According to The Nature Conservancy, a 4-square-mile (2,560 acres) area of rainforest contains as many as 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies. The Amazon rainforest alone contains around 10 percent of the world’s known species.

Just about every type of animal lives in rainforests. In fact, though rainforests cover less than 2 percent of Earth’s total surface area, they are home to 50 percent of Earth’s plants and animals, according to The Nature Conservancy. For example, rhinoceroses, deer, leopards, gorillas, chimpanzees, elephants, armadillos and even bears can be found living in rainforests across the world.

Many unusual animals and plants have been discovered in rainforests. For example, the fairy lantern parasite (Thismia neptunis) reappeared in the rainforest of Borneo, Malaysia, in 2018, 151 years after it was first documented. This plant sucks on underground fungi and doesn’t need sunlight to survive. “To our knowledge, it is only the second finding of the species in total,” the Czech team of researchers wrote in a paper, which was published Feb. 21, 2018, in the journal Phytotaxa.

Some of the animals are also unusual. For example, the tapir is a mammal that looks like a mix between an anteater and a pig and can be found in the rainforests of South America and Asia. The stunning silverback gorillalives in the rainforest of the Central African Republic. Forest giraffes, or okapi, a strange-looking cross between a horse and a zebra, also inhabit the African rainforest.

One particularly surprising rainforest find is a spider as big as a puppy. The massive South American Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi) is the world’s largest spider, according to Guinness World Records. Each leg can reach up to 1 foot (30 centimeters) long, and it can weigh up to 6 ounces (170 grams).

Seventy percent of the plants identified by the U.S. National Cancer Institute as useful in the treatment of cancer are found only in rainforests, according to The Nature Conservancy. Scientists have identified more than 2,000 tropical forest plants as having anti-cancer properties. However, less than 1 percent of tropical rainforest species have been analyzed for their medicinal value.

Rainforests are found on every continent except Antarctica. Map shows tropical rainforests in dark green and temperate rainforests in light green.
Rainforests are found on every continent except Antarctica. Map shows tropical rainforests in dark green and temperate rainforests in light green.

Credit: Ville Koistinen

Humans and animals rely on the rainforest to make the majority of Earth’s oxygen. One tree produces nearly 260 lbs. of oxygen each year, according to the Growing Air Foundation, and 1 hectare (2.47 acres) of rainforest may contain over 750 types of trees.

A tree uses carbon dioxide to grow. A living tree draws in and stores twice as much carbon dioxide than a fallen tree releases. But when the tree is cut down, it releases its stored carbon dioxide. For example, dead Amazonian trees emit an estimated 1.9 billion tons (1.7 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications in 2014. The same trees typically absorb about 2.2 billion tons (2 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide makes up around 82.2 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Out of the 6 million square miles (15 million square kilometers) of tropical rainforest that once existed worldwide, only 2.4 million square miles (6 million square km) remain, and only 50 percent, or 75 million square acres (30 million hectares), of temperate rainforests still exists, according to The Nature Conservancy. Ranching, mining, logging and agriculture are the main reasons for forest loss. Between 2000 and 2012, more than 720,000 square miles (2 million square km) of forests around the world were cut down — an area about the size of all the states east of the Mississippi River.

Deforestation around the world also decreases the global flow of water vapor from land by 4 percent, according to an article published by the journal National Academy of Sciences. Water constantly cycles through the atmosphere. It evaporates from the surface and rises, condensing into clouds. It is blown by the wind, and then falls back to Earth as rain or snow. In addition, water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, according to NASA. Even a slight change in the flow of water vapor can disrupt weather patterns and climates.

“Rainforests are under increasing threats for many reasons, including logging, clearing for crops or cattle, and conversion to commercial palm oil plantations,” Jonathan Losos, director of the Living Earth Collaborative and William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor for the Department of Biology, at Washington University in St. Louis, told Live Science. “On top of that, the changing climate is having adverse effects on rainforest health. Last year was an especially bad one for the Amazon, with a substantial uptick in the rate of deforestation.”

On the other hand, Losos said, there are some glimmers of hope:

  • The two countries with the largest amount of rainforest – Indonesia and Brazil – have both acknowledged the importance of these forests and have taken innovative and aggressive efforts to halt deforestation.
  • There is a growing understanding that halting deforestation and reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are closely linked; new, large-scale efforts are under way to address both concerns.
  • While there is a continued decline in primary rainforests, a bright spot is the fact that in many tropical countries, there is an extensive regeneration of secondary forests, which are critical to supporting much of these countries’ biodiversity.

 

  • from:    https://www.livescience.com/63196-rainforest-facts.html

Homo Sapiens, Creation, & Atlantis

AS always, do your research:

 

Edgar Cayce (Credit: Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment, Author provided)

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), founder of Steiner School system of education

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), founder of Steiner School system of education

( Public Domain )

On Creator Gods

As intriguing as all this was however, my investigative mind kept drawing me back to the mystery of androgynous creator gods – the first beings, who were considered the architects of humanity, who inhabited genderless androgynous forms back in deep antiquity. Let’s turn to Edgar Cayce scholar W. H. Church to help us understand what is meant by this.

“In what we may term it’s primitive or pre-Atlantean phase, before the emergence of its first mighty rulers, in the days of Poseidon and Atlas, or the enlightened reign of Amilius, at what was to become the all-time zenith of Atlantean civilization, the new continent was being busily colonized. Already it promised to become what Cayce would call the “Eden of the world”, and home to a most unusual race of androgynous soul beings…In Hindu mythology, the seed of our present human race were sons of God, who, during the root race associated with the Atlantean epoch, had devolved into semi-divine, androgynous beings, self-imprisoned in bodies, that had physiologically changed, becoming human in appearance. In this form, they began taking unto themselves wives who were indeed fully human in appearance and fair to gaze upon.” (3)

This description is very reminiscent of the Biblical story of the Nephilim who took on human wives. Indeed, the Bible clearly speaks of Giants, six fingers and toes, androgynous creator gods and a great flood.

Church continues,

 “In the early days of Amilius rule, the separation of the sexes had not yet begun to take place. Though male in their outward aspect, the androgynous sons of God embodied within themselves the nature of both male and female in one person. By turning to the creative forces, they could become channels to bring into being androgynous progeny after their own kind imbued with a double soul and a double sexed body. In this way, sexual intercourse was unnecessary as a means of propagation.”( 4)

While life without sex doesn’t seem like much fun, it points to a supernatural origin for humanity, an idea shared by many ancient cultures worldwide. The “miraculous birth theme” or humans being made from clay or on a potter’s wheel recurs throughout world religions and mythologies. Examples are to be found in Genesis, the Qur’an, and Egyptian, Greek, Sumerian, Inca, Chinese and some Native American mythologies.

Androgynous beings Khnum and Thoth create humans on a potter’s wheel

Androgynous beings Khnum and Thoth create humans on a potter’s wheel ( CC BY-SA 3.0

Many of these creators are described as androgynous like the Egyptian god Khnum. Khnum is depicted on a relief at Esna creating humans on a potter’s wheel while the androgynous Thoth writes the years the humans will live behind him. Interestingly the Temple of Esna was dedicated to an anonymous androgynous creator god and androgynous Khnum is depicted with six fingers.

Six Fingered androgynous Khnum, Temple of Esna, Egypt. (Author provided)

Several professionals have been exploring this strange case as well. In the Israel Exploration Journal, Volume 57, 2007, Irit Ziffer explores the idea of androgynous creator deities in his thought-provoking paper, “The first Adam, Androgyny and the Ain Ghazal two-headed busts.” Ain Ghazal is an ancient site in Jordan dated to roughly 8250 BC where some of the world’s most ancient statues were unearthed several decades ago.

Androgynous two-headed statues from Ain Ghazal.

Androgynous two-headed statues from Ain Ghazal. ( CC BY-SA 4.0 )

 Ziffer makes a strong case that the two-headed statues represent androgynous creator deities. Another curious twist is that some of the statues have six fingers and toes, famously associated with the Biblical giant of Gath.

Six toed foot from Ain Ghazal Statue. Source Richard D. Barnett, Polydactylism in the Ancient World, Biblical Archaeology Review May/June 1990.

Six toed foot from Ain Ghazal Statue. Source Richard D. Barnett, Polydactylism in the Ancient World, Biblical Archaeology Review May/June 1990.  (Author provided)

Ziffer explains, “Schmandt-Besserat  proposed that the Ain Ghazal statues represented deities, She accounted for the polydactilism (a rare genetic syndrome) of the statues as a divine attribute, and, based on cuneiform literature, identifies the two-headed busts as the likes of the gods Marduk (according to the Epic of Creation, ‘four were his eyes, four were his ears’; Dalley 1991: 236) and Ishtar (‘Ishtar of Nineveh is Tiamat… she has [4 eyes] and 4 ears’; Livingstone 1986: 223; Schmandt-Besserat 1998a: 10–15).

The four eyes and four ears may stand for a doubled face. Barnett WHO (1986: 116; 1986–87; 1990) explained the polydactilism of the ªAin Ghazal statues as a mark of supernatural entities, such as the biblical Rephaim, a race of giants: ‘There was a giant of a man, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all; he too was descended from the Rapha (single form of Rephaim). When he taunted Israel, Jonathan, the son of David’s brother Shimei, killed him’ (2 Sam. 21:20–21).”

Thus, the prototype androgynous human, containing both sexes, was defined through the two-headed person, claims Ziffer. What we have here is quite stunning, some of the oldest statues ever discovered represent a worship cult of deities who were androgynous and possessed six fingers and toes. Remember, the statues of Ain Ghazal are over 8000 years older than the Bible.

Top image: Edgar Cayce (Credit: Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment, Author provided)

By Jim Vieira

from:    https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/edgar-cayce-six-fingered-giants-and-supernatural-creation-gods-atlantis-part-1-008859

Prepping 101

100 Prepping Tasks You Can Do In 5 Minutes or Less

100 Prepping Tasks You Can Do In 5 Minutes or Less by Karen Morris – The Organic Prepper

We are all busy people.  Despite all of our time-saving gadgets, our days fill to overflowing so quickly.  We all want to keep up with our prepping tasks, but there are aspects to preparedness that just take time, and there’s no way around them.

If you are going to pressure can meat, you’re going to have to have at least a two-hour chunk of time that you can be in or near enough to your kitchen to keep an eye on the weight of your pressure canner. If you want to install a clothesline, it’s going to take several hours of hard work digging holes for the posts, mixing and pouring the concrete, setting up the lines once the concrete has hardened. If you want to start a garden, you either have to build raised beds or fill the ground.  Both of those take TIME.

I think that is where preppers sometimes get hung up.  They think that any and all preparedness activities take that much time, but they don’t.  Today, I’m giving you a list of 100 prepping tasks that you can do in 5 minutes or less (or maybe just SLIGHTLY more, but not much).

Print out the list.  Cross off the one time items that you’ve already done, like teaching your children their phone number – if you have done that.  Then use this list to do at least ONE thing toward your preparedness efforts every day.  Then on those days that you do have more time, head out and tackle some of those more time-consuming items off your list.

Prepping in the Kitchen

  • Print out CPR Directions and post them inside a cupboard.
  • Plan a meal from your pantry.
  • Find a new food storage recipe.
  • Declutter one shelf in your pantry.
  • Jot down an inventory of your pantry.
  • Create a menu using mostly items already in your pantry.
  • Write down as many breakfast ideas as you can come up with.  Involve your family.  If you need suggestions you could find somehere and here.
  • Write down as many lunch ideas as you can come up with.  Need some suggestions?  I have some here.
  • Write down as many dinner ideas as you can come up with.   You can find dinner suggestions here.
  • On each list, put a star by the meals that make good food storage meals.
  • Copy these onto another piece of paper.  This is the basis for your short-term food storage.
  • List out the ingredients for one meal at a time in five-minute segments.
  • Once you list out the ingredients for each meal, in five minutes at a time, compile the ingredients into one list.
  •  Add one flat of ONE of the compiled ingredients to your cart each time you go to the store.  For example, if one ingredient you need 36 cans of black beans for ALL of your menu items, make sure you pick up at least one flat or 12 cans one time you go to the grocery store.  The next time, either pick up 12 more cans of black beans or maybe pick up a flat of chunked pineapple for another meal you plan to make.
  • Organize your pantry.
  • Declutter your spices.
  • Declutter your kitchen gadget drawer.
  • Make your own shelf stable whipped cream.
  • Choose a second new food storage recipe.
  • Swap a planned meal for a food storage meal.

Prepping in the House

  • Declutter 1 shelf in your garage.
  • Declutter 1 movie from your stash.
  • Declutter 1 stained, soiled, or torn outfit to the trash.
  • List one item that you no longer wear for sale on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or Craigslist.
  • List one video game that you no longer wear for sale on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or Craigslist.
  • Distribute any preparedness items you’ve purchased, but haven’t put them in their place yet.
  • Organize your tools.
  • Declutter your bookshelves.

With the Family

  • Print out family phone numbers for kids.  Post them inside a cupboard.
  • Help your young child learn their phone number.
  • Help your young child learn their address.
  • Help your young child learn their mom’s name.
  • Help your young child learn their dad’s name.
  • Run a fire drill with your kids.
  • Run a tornado drill with your kids.
  • Plan for a bug-out drill.  Make a list of items that HAVE to come with you if you need to bug out.
  • As much as possible, put these items into easily grabbed totes.
  • Assign each item to a child(ren) as appropriate.
  • Assign buddies for the bug out drill.  Each buddy must make sure that their buddy is in the vehicle.
  • Run the bug-out drill.
  • Run it again.  Try to improve your time.
  • Take pictures of each of your children and print them out.  Keep them in your Preparedness binder.
  • On the back of the printed pictures of your children tape a strand of their hair and write any identifying marks they have.
  • Write out a series of questions to ask an older family member or friend who has lived through a time without today’s modern conveniences.

In the Garden

Physical Fitness Prepping

  • Take a short walk.
  • Do 20 jumping jacks.
  • Do 20 squats.
  • Do 10 push-ups, modified push-ups, or wall push-ups.

Preparedness Planning

  • Determine how much water your family would need for three days, a week, and Month.  Here’s a worksheet to help you figure your water plan out.
  • Decide how you’ll provide your family with three days of water.
  • …a week of water.
  • …a month of water (attach family water plan worksheet).

Educational Prepping

Prepping the Cell Phone

  • Download the pl@ntnet app to your phone.  It’s a plant identification app.
  • Download the Useful Knots app to your phone.
  • Download the Red Cross First Aid app to your phone.
  • Download the MyNature Tracks Lite app to your phone.
  • Download the US Army Survival Guide to your phone.
  • Take 5 minutes to peruse each app to know for what all they can be used.

Prepping Activities

  • Save broken crayons to make fire starters.
  • Peel the paper off broken crayons to make fire starters.
  • Save dryer lint to make fire starters
  • Make your own fire starters.
  • Find a route out of town which doesn’t involve using a highway or a road from which you can enter/exit a highway.
  • Pull up your home on Google Maps and look for the nearest river or body of water.  It might be closer than you think!
  • Search for a preparedness book in your local library’s online card catalog.
  • Do an online search for period homes/towns/plantations that you can visit and learn how people used to live hundreds of years ago.
  • Start a fire using steel wool and a 9-volt battery.
  • Start a fire using a magnifying glass.
  • Start a fire using a baggie and water.
  • Learn how to tie two basic knots and why you would use them.
  • Practice hand sewing a button.
  • Practice hand sewing a seam.
  • Walk through your house and find two ways out of each room.  If one of those ways is a second story window, make sure that you purchase a ladder for that specific purpose.
  • Check and/or change the batteries in a smoke detector.
  • Declutter your vehicle.
  • Inventory the preparedness items that you keep in your car.  Keep a list of their locations in your vehicle in an app on your phone.  I use the list feature on my Cozi app.
  • Create a wish list of items for preparedness.
  • Order your wish list in order of most important to least important.
  • Discuss the list with your significant other and get their input.
  • Create a plan for purchasing the items on your wish list.

What About You?

What other five-minute preparedness activities do you do?  Can you think of other items that should be added to this list?  What do you think should be removed?  I’d love to hear!  Leave a comment section below.

Source Link – The Organic Prepper

Karen Morris

Karen Morris has survived some life-changing events, like the Ferguson riots, an armed standoff with a knife-wielding man during my family’s time at a local homeschool chess club, and an F-4 tornado, Each of these events taught her a new level of self-sufficiency and preparedness. From there, her journey to self-sufficiency started with food storage and grew beyond her wildest imaginings. Find out more about Karen Morris: Her books:  A Year Without the Grocery Store and A Year Without the Grocery Store Companion WorkbookHer website: AYearWithouttheGroceryStore.com

from:    https://thedailycoin.org/2018/07/27/100-prepping-tasks-you-can-do-in-5-minutes-or-less/

Vaccines from China – Sure, They’re Safe

Bang: another China vaccine scandal

by Jon Rappoport

July 23, 2018

Reuters: “The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement on Sunday evening that its investigation had found that Changsheng fabricates [vaccine] production records and product inspection records, and arbitrarily changes process parameters and equipment, ‘serious violations’ of the law.”

Tainted products from China? Who ever heard of such a thing? Isn’t China the most quality-conscious nation on the planet? No?

Here’s a headline on this story from fiercepharma.com (7/17): “Top Chinese rabies vaccine maker ordered to stop production over forged data.” Oops.

Fiercepharma: “China’s drug regulator just pulled a manufacturing permit for the country’s second-largest maker of rabies vaccines over data falsification, marking the latest episode in China’s drug safety scandal.”

“During an inspection, China’s State Drug Administration found Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences forged production records for its Vero cell-based rabies vaccines. The agency immediately moved to revoke the company’s GMP license tied to the vaccine—just three months after its issuance—and dispatched a team to investigate the incident on site, according to a Sunday statement…”

“In its announcement filed to Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the Changchun, China-based company said it has started recalling all unexpired rabies vaccines, even though the batches under question weren’t released to the market, and it hasn’t received any adverse event report related to the quality of the vaccines through years of monitoring.”

“Changsheng’s recent scandal comes eight months after a batch, or 252,600 doses, of its diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis (DTP) combo shot was found below the potency requirement. It also comes shortly after the company became one of the first two companies to get Chinese approvals for quadrivalent flu vaccines.”

“Besides rabies, DTP and flu vaccines, Changsheng also sells vaccines against chickenpox, hepatitis A and group ACYW meningococcal. A small proportion of its business comes from abroad, including India, Cambodia, Egypt and Belarus, among others. It’s not yet clear whether it sells its rabies vaccines outside of China.”

CNBC drops this bomb: “It [the current China vaccine scandal] is very much a case of deja vu. China’s pharmaceutical industry has been exposed to a slew of scandals recently. Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical, a Shanghai-listed drug maker, found a toxic impurity called N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in ingredients it exports to medicines for treating hypertension in laboratory tests. The substance, a by-product of industrial processes, is toxic to the liver and classified as a carcinogen for its ability to cause cancer in humans.”

I issued an extensive warning about China pharma in 2017. Here it is:

I’ll put it to you this way. Your child is about to get vaccinated. You believe in the efficacy of vaccines. In the doctor’s office, there is a large wheel. It has two sections. One is marked: ‘this injection for your child comes from the US or Germany.’ The other section is marked: ‘this injection for your child might come from China, or if not, the raw ingredients in the shot might come from China, and, keep in mind that even if the injection and the raw ingredients don’t come from China, in a pinch, because the Chinese vaccines are cheap, the US might buy the injection or the ingredients from China—now spin the wheel…and let’s see where the arrow stops…for your child’.

In the spring of 2016, a vaccine scandal erupted in China.

Time Magazine reported:

“Furious parents and health care professionals in China are demanding to know how almost $90 million of improperly stored and potentially fatal vaccines were distributed across some two-thirds of the country over the past five years, in the latest public-health scandal to raise serious questions over the efficacy of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule.”

“According to state media, a mother and daughter from eastern China’s Shandong province have been caught peddling 25 kinds of unrefrigerated vaccines — including for polio, mumps, rabies, hepatitis B, encephalitis and meningococcal diseases — to medical facilities across 24 Chinese provinces since 2010.”

“Inflaming the public backlash, authorities had apparently known about the case since last April, though only publicized the news late Friday in a belated attempt to trace potential victims. Moreover, the elder suspect, a 47-year-old woman surnamed Pang, had apparently been convicted of the same offense in 2009 but only received a suspended sentence. State media admitted the compromised inoculations could have resulted in paralysis and even death.”

“’Twenty-four provinces, five years already, and how many children! It’s been nearly a year and then they reveal this! Isn’t this genocide? Words cannot express how angry I am!’ posted one user of China’s Twitter-like microblog Weibo, reports the BBC.”

“’This is a matter of life and death,’” one Beijing-based doctor told Radio Free Asia. ‘They should make an announcement about this as soon as possible … so we can locate these items and cut off the supply, so no more people are harmed.’”

Major media couldn’t even keep their stories straight.

The NY Times, reporting on the China scandal, and relying on the World Health Organization (a PR front for the vaccine industry) took an assuring tone:

“Despite such fears, the tainted vaccines are more likely to be ineffective than harmful…The World Health Organization has said that outdated or poorly stored vaccines rarely if ever trigger illness or toxic reactions. Chinese government investigators said last week that they had not found any cases of adverse reactions or spikes in infections linked to ineffective vaccines.”

Really?

Perhaps editors at the NY Times and the World Health Organization would like to prove their faith and confidence by taking shots in the arm of those spoiled vaccines.

Now, here are quotes from an excellent article by Marco Caceres at thevaccinereaction.org (4/13/16). The article points up the uncertainty about whether processed and/or raw vaccine ingredients are entering the US from China:

“The past few weeks, there have been a series of news reports coming out of China revealing that thousands of doses of improperly stored and expired vaccines for children and adults were illegally sold for millions of dollars on the black market by more than 100 people associated with Chinese companies and vaccination centers.”

“Most Americans do not understand that many pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, are not made in the United States and foreign pharmaceutical companies are not subject to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quality control regulations.”

“It is unclear what percentage of the vaccines currently used in the United States are made by Chinese pharmaceutical companies in China or by Western companies with manufacturing facilities in China. We do know that major U.S. and European vaccine makers such as Merck & Co., GlaxoSmithKline plc, and Sanofi Pasteur SA maintain vaccine manufacturing operations in China, that this activity is on the rise, and that Western vaccine makers are also establishing joint venture partnerships with Chinese vaccine companies.”

“Consequently, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish which vaccines are manufactured by American and European firms and which are produced by the Chinese. A 2012 article in USA Today, however, did report that the FDA estimates that 80% of the ingredients in pharmaceuticals [only drugs, or vaccines as well?] produced by U.S. companies and 40% of the ‘finished medications’ Americans take come from outside the U.S. and, increasingly they come from China and India.”

“The article cited a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found the FDA inspects drug manufacturing facilities in China and India only once every 14 years, and that FDA inspectors are not permitted to enter those facilities unannounced. USA Today noted that, according to the GAO report, ‘Up to two-thirds of foreign pharmaceutical sites have never undergone an FDA inspection’.”

So: even if you believe in the safety and efficacy of vaccines, do you want to spin the big wheel in the doctor’s office? Do you want to take a chance? Do you want to have your child injected?

Do you want to say, “Well, the news media and the government and the experts and the doctors all tell me vaccines are safe, so I’ll go along with that. I’ll believe. And I’ll risk the future and the life of my child on that belief.”

Do you?

from:    https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2018/07/23/bang-another-china-vaccine-scandal/

Supercharge Your Body with Superfoods

4 SUPPRESSED SUPERFOODS WITH AMAZING MEDICINAL POTENTIAL

July 25, 2018

Ethan Indigo Smith, Guest
Waking Times 

Today information on curatives and healthy foods are constantly suppressed, and substances are even prohibited, like cannabis (which remains turmeric’s fiercest competition for its balancing and curative effects.) In fact, the systematic suppression of information concerning the curative effects of foods and herbs like cannabis, turmeric, garlic, ginger and habanero (for a few simple but powerful examples), as well as systems of herbalism, traditional medicine, and anything natural and not pharmacological, has been so successful during the rise of allopathy and Big Pharma that rejecting natural remedies as “alternative” has become an automatic response among most in our society — so much so that to suggest their powerful medicinal potential in public is to be labeled as crazy, a fringe-dweller, or some such parallel.

The following superfoods are adaptogenic balancers and curatives I have come across on my journey as a ‘crazy’ writer, health nut, truth seeker, and the son of a farmer and a nurse.

1. Chaga

Chaga (pictured above) and other medicinal mushrooms are supremely powerful modes for increasing vitality and achieving healthy and balanced states. Chaga extract is one of the most powerful sources of antioxidants on the planet, and notably, has demonstrated anti-cancer properties. Chaga causes cell death of malformed cells without hurting the body otherwise, preventing the growth of cancer cells. It has also been shown to protect cellular DNA and stimulate the immune system.

In countries where the allopathic oligarchy has less of a stranglehold on the bounds of medicine and medical research, chaga is both well researched and medically prescribed, as is the reishi mushroom. In Russia in particular, chaga is widely utilized for its medicinal value, and is also being integrated with extracts of birch — the only tree chaga will grow on in nature — to potentially enhance the health effects of the chaga extract.

Personally, I very much enjoy consuming chaga with ginseng. If your needs are medicinal, I encourage you to do your own research to see if chaga, medicinal mushrooms, and/or ginseng might be appropriate for you.

Note: This is one of those times when tradition remains frustratingly ahead of science. The healing potential of mycotherapy (mushroom medicine) is vast, and while it is only just beginning to be understood by science, the scientific evidence is already inarguable, and yet psychoactive mushrooms remain widely prohibited by law regardless of their medicinal value. Even though chaga itself is not deemed illegal, the sense of ‘taboo’ surrounding mushroom medicine in our society has greatly diminished its therapeutic use.

2. Almonds and Apricots (in Combination)

I was in a Turkish Café in San Francisco, sometime after first learning about and experiencing internal alchemy of the almond and the apricot. They had a little apricot and almond pastry and I ordered one with my coffee. I said, “Oh, the almond and apricot, that’s the magic, I’ll have one of those.”

They looked at me like I just told them a secret in their native language. On picking up their jaws, they inquired how I knew about the magic of the almond and apricot.

The almond and apricot combination included in my pastry is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The simple combination has long been considered a cancer cure. It is associated with longevity, since one of the most well-aged peoples in the world, hun tzu in, eat almonds and apricots frequently. According to what I have experienced, it is also a powerful bowel cleanser! (Be advised, the combination does not cause diarrhea per se, but increases elimination.)

Western scientists have also utilized extracts to prove the effectiveness of the apricot and almond, however the curative properties could not be replicated by using only extracted compounds in isolation. Traditional Chinese Medicine noted that the alchemy of the digestion process potentiated their medicinal value, and extracts would thus not work.

3. Shilajit

Literally meaning “mountain tar”, Shilajit is a thick, sticky substance that seeps out of the rocks in the high mountains of Asia. Containing at least 85 minerals in their ionic form, it has been revered in Ayurveda for millennia as the best carrier of energy and nutrition into the human body.

A Vedic expression in regards to shilajit goes something like, “There is no disease which shilajit cannot defeat if consumed soon enough.” And from my own personal experience, I have started to think that shilajit is the actual philosopher’s stone for internal alchemy.

This stuff is straight-up illegal in Canada. Apparently there are a lot of poorly produced shilajit extracts on the global market, some containing lead. From what I understand it largely depends on how this extract is handled as to whether it contains toxins or not.

With an ancient history, legends of shilajit abound, and modern science still has many questions about shilajit — such as whether it is derived from a mineral or vegetable source, and how it behaves as an oil but is water soluble. What is undeniable is that shilajit is packed with minerals like no other substance on the planet, and generally has the effect of enhancing whatever herbal medicinal or food one consumes with it.

There are only a very few disorders I have come across which are not helped but hindered by the gentle inclusion of shilajit in one’s diet, however, again, I encourage you to do your own research about shilajit (also known as mumeo in Russia) and whether it is right for you.

4. Nothing But the Elements

The most powerful thing we can do for ourselves, often enough, is nothing! Being quiet in the four elements without trying to do anything is essentially one of the most powerful healing and strengthening practices you can undertake. Spend some time doing nothing and consuming nothing but the four elements in their purest form.

Fire: Go out and play in the Sun! Sunlight triggers healing potential in our bodies in hundreds of different ways. If you are sensitive to sunlight minimalize exposure and wear a hat. There is always the potential of using too much of any medicine, including heliotherapy.

Water: Drink pure water. Fast for a time and consume water only. Numerous immunological functions begin when we go without food for certain time periods; 16 hour, 1 day and 2 day water fasts can all be extremely beneficial.

Air: Breathe and play in the fresh air. Do nothing but breathe in nature — be it the mountaintop, beachhead, public park, or wherever is accommodating.

Earth: Take of your rubber shoes and connect with The Earth. The healing feel-good energy of the planet is as easy to connect with as removing your shoes! We are chemical electrical beings. Walking barefoot, or at least with shoes that do not disconnect us from literally being grounded into the electromagnetism of the earth, creates measurable chemical and electrical benefits. (Personally I recommend cotton soled tai chi/kung fu shoes for gentle walking.)

About the Author

Activist, author and Tai Chi teacher Ethan Indigo Smith was born on a farm in Maine and lived in Manhattan for a number of years before migrating west to Mendocino, California. Guided by a keen sense of integrity and humanity, Ethan’s work is both deeply connected and extremely insightful, blending philosophy, politics, activism, spirituality, meditation and a unique sense of humour.

from:    http://www.wakingtimes.com/2018/07/25/4-suppressed-superfoods-with-amazing-medicinal-potential/

Myths We Live By

American Society Would Collapse If It Weren’t for These 8 Myths

studiostoks / Shutterstock

Our society should’ve collapsed by now. You know that, right?

No society should function with this level of inequality (with the possible exception of one of those prison planets in a “Star Wars” movie). Sixty-three percent of Americans can’t afford a $500 emergency. Yet Amazon head Jeff Bezos is now worth a record $141 billion. He could literally end world hunger for multiple years and still have more money left over than he could ever spend on himself.

Worldwide, one in 10 people only make $2 a day. Do you know how long it would take one of those people to make the same amount as Jeff Bezos has? 193 million years. (If they only buy single-ply toilet paper.) Put simply, you cannot comprehend the level of inequality in our current world or even just our nation.

So … shouldn’t there be riots in the streets every day? Shouldn’t it all be collapsing? Look outside. The streets aren’t on fire. No one is running naked and screaming (usually). Does it look like everyone’s going to work at gunpoint? No. We’re all choosing to continue on like this.

Why?

Well, it comes down to the myths we’ve been sold. Myths that are ingrained in our social programming from birth, deeply entrenched, like an impacted wisdom tooth. These myths are accepted and basically never questioned.

I’m going to cover eight of them. There are more than eight. There are probably hundreds. But I’m going to cover eight because (A) no one reads a column titled “Hundreds of Myths of American Society,” (B) these are the most important ones and (C) we all have other shit to do.

Myth No. 8—We have a democracy.

If you think we still have a democracy or a democratic republic, ask yourself this: When was the last time Congress did something that the people of America supported that did not align with corporate interests? … You probably can’t do it. It’s like trying to think of something that rhymes with “orange.” You feel like an answer exists but then slowly realize it doesn’t. Even the Carter Center and former President Jimmy Carter believe that America has been transformed into an oligarchy: A small, corrupt elite control the country with almost no input from the people. The rulers need the myth that we’re a democracy to give us the illusion of control.

Myth No. 7—We have an accountable and legitimate voting system.

Gerrymandering, voter purging, data mining, broken exit polling, push polling, superdelegates, electoral votes, black-box machines, voter ID suppression, provisional ballots, super PACs, dark money, third parties banished from the debates and two corporate parties that stand for the same goddamn pile of fetid crap!

What part of this sounds like a legitimate election system?

No, we have what a large Harvard study called the worst election system in the Western world. Have you ever seen where a parent has a toddler in a car seat, and the toddler has a tiny, brightly colored toy steering wheel so he can feel like he’s driving the car? That’s what our election system is—a toy steering wheel. Not connected to anything. We all sit here like infants, excitedly shouting, “I’m steeeeering!”

And I know it’s counterintuitive, but that’s why you have to vote. We have to vote in such numbers that we beat out what’s stolen through our ridiculous rigged system.

Myth No. 6—We have an independent media that keeps the rulers accountable.

Our media outlets are funded by weapons contractors, big pharma, big banks, big oil and big, fat hard-on pills. (Sorry to go hard on hard-on pills, but we can’t get anything resembling hard news because it’s funded by dicks.) The corporate media’s jobs are to rally for war, cheer for Wall Street and froth at the mouth for consumerism. It’s their mission to actually fortify belief in the myths I’m telling you about right now. Anybody who steps outside that paradigm is treated like they’re standing on a playground wearing nothing but a trench coat.

Myth No. 5—We have an independent judiciary.

The criminal justice system has become a weapon wielded by the corporate state. This is how bankers can foreclose on millions of homes illegally and see no jail time, but activists often serve jail time for nonviolent civil disobedience. Chris Hedges recently noted, “The most basic constitutional rights … have been erased for many. … Our judicial system, as Ralph Nader has pointed out, has legalized secret law, secret courts, secret evidence, secret budgets and secret prisons in the name of national security.”

If you’re not part of the monied class, you’re pressured into releasing what few rights you have left. According to The New York Times, “97 percent of federal cases and 94 percent of state cases end in plea bargains, with defendants pleading guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence.”

That’s the name of the game. Pressure people of color and poor people to just take the plea deal because they don’t have a million dollars to spend on a lawyer. (At least not one who doesn’t advertise on beer coasters.)

Myth No. 4—The police are here to protect you. They’re your friends.

That’s funny. I don’t recall my friend pressuring me into sex to get out of a speeding ticket. (Which is essentially still legal in 32 states.)

The police in our country are primarily designed to do two things: protect the property of the rich and perpetrate the completely immoral war on drugs—which by definition is a war on our own people.

We lock up more people than any other country on earth. Meaning the land of the free is the largest prison state in the world. So all these droopy-faced politicians and rabid-talking heads telling you how awful China is on human rights or Iran or North Korea—none of them match the numbers of people locked up right here under Lady Liberty’s skirt.

Myth No. 3—Buying will make you happy.

This myth is put forward mainly by the floods of advertising we take in but also by our social engineering. Most of us feel a tenacious emptiness, an alienation deep down behind our surface emotions (for a while I thought it was gas). That uneasiness is because most of us are flushing away our lives at jobs we hate before going home to seclusion boxes called houses or apartments. We then flip on the TV to watch reality shows about people who have it worse than we do (which we all find hilarious).

If we’re lucky, we’ll make enough money during the week to afford enough beer on the weekend to help it all make sense. (I find it takes at least four beers for everything to add up.) But that doesn’t truly bring us fulfillment. So what now? Well, the ads say buying will do it. Try to smother the depression and desperation under a blanket of flat-screen TVs, purses and Jet Skis. Nowdoes your life have meaning? No? Well, maybe you have to drive that Jet Ski a little faster! Crank it up until your bathing suit flies off and you’ll feel alive!

The dark truth is that we have to believe the myth that consuming is the answer or else we won’t keep running around the wheel. And if we aren’t running around the wheel, then we start thinking, start asking questions. Those questions are not good for the ruling elite, who enjoy a society based on the daily exploitation of 99 percent of us.

Myth No. 2—If you work hard, things will get better.

According to Deloitte’s Shift Index survey: “80% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs” and “[t]he average person spends 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime.” That’s about one-seventh of your life—and most of it is during your most productive years.

Ask yourself what we’re working for. To make money? For what? Almost none of us are doing jobs for survival anymore. Once upon a time, jobs boiled down to:

I plant the food—>I eat the food—>If I don’t plant food = I die.

But nowadays, if you work at a café—will someone die if they don’t get their super-caf-mocha-frap-almond-piss-latte? I kinda doubt they’ll keel over from a blueberry scone deficiency.

If you work at Macy’s, will customers perish if they don’t get those boxer briefs with the sweat-absorbent-ass fabric? I doubt it. And if they do die from that, then their problems were far greater than you could’ve known. So that means we’re all working to make other people rich because we have a society in which we have to work. Technological advancements can do most everything that truly must get done.

So if we wanted to, we could get rid of most work and have tens of thousands of more hours to enjoy our lives. But we’re not doing that at all. And no one’s allowed to ask these questions—not on your mainstream airwaves at least. Even a half-step like universal basic income is barely discussed because it doesn’t compute with our cultural programming.

Scientists say it’s quite possible artificial intelligence will take away all human jobs in 120 years. I think they know that will happen because bots will take the jobs and then realize that 80 percent of them don’t need to be done! The bots will take over and then say, “Stop it. … Stop spending a seventh of your life folding shirts at Banana Republic.”

One day, we will build monuments to the bot that told us to enjoy our lives and … leave the shirts wrinkly.

And this leads me to the largest myth of our American society.

Myth No. 1—You are free.

And I’m not talking about the millions locked up in our prisons. I’m talking about you and me. If you think you’re free, try running around with your nipples out, ladies. Guys, take a dump on the street and see how free you are.

I understand there are certain restrictions on freedom we actually desire to have in our society—maybe you’re not crazy about everyone leaving a Stanley Steamer in the middle of your walk to work. But a lot of our lack of freedom is not something you would vote for if given the chance.

Try building a fire in a parking lot to keep warm in the winter.

Try sleeping in your car for more than a few hours without being harassed by police.

Try maintaining your privacy for a week without a single email, web search or location data set collected by the NSA and the telecoms.

Try signing up for the military because you need college money and then one day just walking off the base, going, “Yeah, I was bored. Thought I would just not do this anymore.”

Try explaining to Kentucky Fried Chicken that while you don’t have the green pieces of paper they want in exchange for the mashed potatoes, you do have some pictures you’ve drawn on a napkin to give them instead.

Try running for president as a third-party candidate. (Jill Stein was shackled and chained to a chair by police during one of the debates.)

Try using the restroom at Starbucks without buying something … while black.

We are less free than a dog on a leash. We live in one of the hardest-working, most unequal societies on the planet with more billionaires than ever.

Meanwhile, Americans supply 94 percent of the paid blood used worldwide. And it’s almost exclusively coming from very poor people. This abusive vampire system is literally sucking the blood from the poor. Does that sound like a free decision they made? Or does that sound like something people do after immense economic force crushes down around them? (One could argue that sperm donation takes a little less convincing.)

Point is, in order to enforce this illogical, immoral system, the corrupt rulers—most of the time—don’t need guns and tear gas to keep the exploitation mechanisms humming along. All they need are some good, solid bullshit myths for us all to buy into, hook, line and sinker. Some fairy tales for adults.

It’s time to wake up.

If you think this column is important, please share it. Also, check out Lee Camp’s weekly TV show “Redacted Tonight” and weekly podcast “Common Censored.”

Lee Camp
Lee Camp is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and activist. Camp is the host of the weekly comedy news TV show “Redacted Tonight With Lee Camp” on RT America. He is a former comedy writer for…
from:    https://www.truthdig.com/articles/american-society-would-collapse-if-it-werent-for-these-8-myths/

Resurrecting Worms

Worms Frozen for 42,000 Years in Siberian Permafrost Wriggle to Life

Worms Frozen for 42,000 Years in Siberian Permafrost Wriggle to Life

Tiny nematodes like this one were found to be unexpectedly hardy, reviving after thousands of years frozen in Arctic ice.

Credit: Shutterstock

Did you ever wake up from a long nap feeling a little disoriented, not quite knowing where you were? Now, imagine getting a wake-up call after being “asleep” for 42,000 years.

In Siberia, melting permafrost is releasing nematodes — microscopic worms that live in soil — that have been suspended in a deep freeze since the Pleistocene. Despite being frozen for tens of thousands of years, two species of these worms were successfully revived, scientists recently reported in a new study.

Their findings, published in the May 2018 issue of the journal Doklady Biological Sciences, represent the first evidence of multicellular organisms returning to life after a long-term slumber in Arctic permafrost, the researchers wrote.

Though nematodes are tiny — typically measuring about 1 millimeter in length — they are known to possess impressive abilities. Some are found living 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometers) below Earth’s surface, deeper than any other multicellular animal. Certain worms that live on an island in the Indian Ocean can develop one of five different mouths, depending on what type of food is available. Others are adapted to thrive inside slug intestines and travel on slimy highways of slug poop.

For the new study, researchers analyzed 300 samples of Arctic permafrost deposits and found two that held several well-preserved nematodes. One sample was collected from a fossil squirrel burrow near the Alazeya River in the northeastern part of Yakutia, Russia, from deposits estimated to be about 32,000 years old. The other permafrost sample came from the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia, and the age of nearby deposits was around 42,000 years old, the scientists reported.

They isolated the worms — all females — from the permafrost samples, finding they represented two known nematode species: Panagrolaimus detritophagus and Plectus parvus. After defrosting the worms, the researchers saw them moving and eating, making this the first evidence of “natural cryopreservation” of multicellular animals, according to the study.

However, the nematodes weren’t the first organism to awaken from millennia in icy suspension. Previously, another group of scientists had identified a giant virus that was resuscitated after spending 30,000 years frozen in Siberian permafrost. (Don’t panic; amoebas are the only animal affected by this ancient attacker.)

Further study will be needed to unravel the mechanisms in the ancient nematodes that enabled them to survive such lengthy freezing; pinpointing how those adaptations work could have implications in many scientific areas, “such as cryomedicine, cryobiology, and astrobiology,” the researchers concluded.

Original article on Live Science.

from:     https://www.livescience.com/63187-siberian-permafrost-worms-revive.html