Chlean Government says UFO’s No Threat to Planes

Chile Declares UFOs Pose No Threat to Aircraft

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A recent high level meeting at the headquarters of Chile’s Civil Aviation Department will likely be the envy of those Americans desiring open government participation in UFO investigations, rather than the familiar blanket dismissal.

The question of whether UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) pose any danger to civilian and military air operations was up for discussion. An official video about the event (the first 4 minutes), posted on Friday, is telling. You don’t need to understand a word of Spanish to take note of the serious expressions on the faces of the participants.

Chile’s agency investigating UFOs/UAP, known as the CEFAA (Committee for the Studies of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena) is located within the Ministerial Department of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC), the equivalent of our FAA, under the jurisdiction of the Chilean air force.

Gen. Ricardo Bermúdez, director of the CEFAA, invited nineteen highly qualified experts from a range of specialties to the July 31st meeting, to explore the safety question and attempt to achieve a conclusion. The resulting dialogue lasted three hours.

The new DGAC director, air force Gen. Rolando Mercado, former director of operations and strategic planning of the Joint Chiefs, welcomed the participants and attended the early part of the discussion. “I wish to thank all the members of this committee for their serious, scientific approach in the investigation of this phenomenon,” he said afterward, “which has rightly earned prestige for the CEFAA, not only in Chile, but also in foreign countries.”

Scientists in attendance included two well known astronomers (each with an asteroid named after him), a nuclear chemist from the Nuclear Energy Commission, a doctor of aerospace medicine who is also a UN representative, a physicist, an army psychologist and an air force psychologist.

Among the DGAC specialists were the director of the Meteorological Observatory, the chief of Radar Operations Metropolitan Center, the head of Accident Investigations, DGAC chief of operations, the director of Airport Security Operations, and an aerospace engineer.

Representatives from different branches of the armed forces and the police corps were also present. All of them, including a navy commander who is in charge of flight security for navy aviation, are also pilots, or have been in the past. Along with Mercado, Bermúdez was once a combat pilot.

The panel members were familiar with the subject matter due to their various affiliations with the CEFAA as advisors, committee members, and experts called upon to assist with case investigations.

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photos courtesy DGAC

Each participant had already accepted the fact that UFOs are a real phenomenon which needs to investigated, without question. This, alone, is unusual, as we Americans see it.

“For Chileans, this is completely normal and we don’t consider it news at all,” says Jose Lay, international affairs director for the CEFAA.

Here are excerpts from some of the more interesting comments which helped influence the final conclusion:

  • DGAC chief of operations: “If, as many witnesses have declared, the UAP demonstrates ‘intelligent behavior,’ and if we admit this fact, then we must look for ‘the intention behind’ that intelligence, whatever it may be — a form of energy, perhaps — it doesn’t matter. Intelligence is what matters. If this is so, we must ask: has it shown hostility or carried out openly threatening maneuvers? Has it actually attacked our aircraft? To date, this doesn’t seem to be the case. We cannot possibly call something a threat to something or someone if they have not shown any open intention to do harm. And even less, we do not even know their exact nature!”
  • Navy captain Roberto Borè, Naval Aviation: “Aside from any natural distractions to the flight crews, the risks so far have been null. We cannot call UAP a risk to our operations, not even a low risk. An interaction, either good or bad, between a human being and UAP so far is nonexistent in our skies [in Chile], as far as I know.”
  • Radar control chief Mauricio Blanco: “In aeronautics, we have to measure risk scientifically and we have all the tools for that. We have to establish a ‘risk matrix,’ considering possibility and probability. The risk level [for UAP] has not been analyzed. It can be measured, and given the probabilities, this level is very low.”

Blanco is one of the highest officials actually on the front lines when UFO sightings are reported to ground control radar or picked up by radar, anywhere in the country. In 2012, I interviewed him at the radar center in Santiago, and he showed me the log book where UFO sightings are initially recorded before being sent to the CEFAA. Reports are written by hand to assure they are not tampered with or affected by computer transfer, and to provide a clear record of who actually wrote the entry. As an American, I was astonished by Blanco’s matter-of-fact attitude about UFOs. It’s hard to get used to the fact that UFOs are fully accepted as part of life in Chile.

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Chief of Radar Operations Mauricio Blanco at work (photo © Leslie Kean)

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A handwritten notebook at the radar center with an entry to be turned over to the CEFFA. The notation is in red in the left margin. (photo © Leslie Kean)

More comments from the meeting:

  • “DGAC expert on accident investigations: “Until now, in practice, we have seen only the effects. And those we have captured through photographs, videos, official reports, testimonies, etc. And thus, we are able to say the phenomenon exists. But its origin, we have not defined. And without this definition, we cannot establish a strategy to counteract it. … I have spoken with pilots who have had sightings. So far, none has experienced undue concern, just plain curiosity.”
  • The nuclear chemist: “If our civilian and military pilots are well informed about UAP, the risk due to distraction will come down to a minimum because the surprise factor will not be there. Judging by global statistics, the number of aircraft that have allegedly been involved in an accident with UAP would represent a tiny fraction of the accidents caused by birds.”

The air force psychologist advised more education for pilots — in order to raise awareness rather than alert them to any latent danger. Others recommended that instructions on pilot reporting be included within aviation training courses. The scientists suggested further multi-disciplined studies “to bring us as close to the real nature [of UAP] as possible,” stated by astronomer Luis Barrera.

The conclusion was clear. “Based on the evaluation at the meeting, the committee concluded that UAP do not present a threat or a danger to air operations, either civilian or military,” Bermúdez said. “Although there have been a small number of accidents attributed to UAP around the world, none have withstood an objective examination that presented unmistakable proof that UAP were the cause.”

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Gen. Bermúdez in his office at CEFAA headquarters in Santiago (photo © Leslie Kean)

The CEFAA staff have their eyes opened for any effects on air operations that might arise. But this is not the reason they do the work. They want to learn the nature and origin of the phenomenon simply because it is a reality that science has not yet explained. “Around 85 percent of our public believe in the phenomenon, so we have an obligation to investigate and find out what it is,” says Lay. “This should be reason enough for governments to try and determine the origin. There is no need to fear panic from the public.”

The CEFAA works with its many counterparts in South America, and has relationships with about a dozen other countries around the world. Planning is underway for Bermúdez to meet with officials from the French UFO agency, at the Paris headquarters of the National Space Studies Center (CNES), the equivalent to our NASA. A formal meeting between representatives of the CEFAA and the French GEIPAN, the two leading UAP agencies in the world, has never occurred, and this marks an historic step toward unifying the effort internationally.

Momentum is building for more governments to address the UFO problem, and many eyes are on the United States. Through the smallest change in position, our government has the potential to play a crucial role in lifting the stigma against research, thereby paving the way to a possible resolution to the problem.

The Chilean meeting serves as an example of one country’s success in working with the UFO issue at high levels and its ability to integrate a serious approach throughout the country.

from:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-kean/chile-declares-ufos-pose-_b_5670136.html

Symbols: The All Seeing Eye

The All-Seeing Eye: Sacred Origins of a Hijacked Symbol

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Is the all-seeing eye a symbol of divine omniscience or sinister influence? Today it symbolises control and domination by a shadowy elite, but its original use was quite different. This article traces its use and meaning back to ancient times, when it was a symbol of divine providence, powerfully representing spiritual truth and awakening.

Humanity is Losing Its Precious Symbology

The all-seeing eye is a powerful esoteric symbol which is widely misunderstood and misused today; few know what it originally stood for. It was originally symbolic of a higher spiritual power or God, a watchful caretaker of humanity or an awakened spiritual part within. But these days it has quite different associations.

Today the all-seeing eye is more likely to be seen as an “Illuminati” symbol of control and surveillance by elites who to a large degree run the show on this planet at this time. This is because, over time, dark sinister forces have taken over esoteric symbols that for thousands of years were used to convey positive, helpful, uplifting spiritual messages and principles.  The all-seeing eye is a prime example of how spiritual symbols have been hijacked and inverted. There has not really been much push to understand the symbol’s original meaning or to reclaim it for the spiritual significance it first conveyed.

This is the first in a series of articles I am presenting that will take a closer look at individual symbols, and delve into their origins and history to uncover their deeper esoteric significance. I am writing these as part of an effort to reclaim these positive esoteric symbols and restore them to their previously esteemed state.

Universal Nature of Symbolism

Symbolism has long been used by humanity to communicate ideas which are best crystallised in a compact form. As the well-known saying goes, a picture tells a thousands words! Esoteric symbols are alive today as they were in the ancient past, but there is much confusion surrounding their usage, history, intent, and meaning.

In ordinary life we use symbols to show at a glance important information such as traffic and road signs amongst many other symbols which are widespread and common today. Some other examples are corporate logos and certification statuses.

Symbolism is also especially used in the communication of non-physical, spiritual ideas, phenomena, and processes.

The all-seeing eye is one of the most powerful and widely used  and misused  symbols of all. In this article I trace its use from the earliest of times through to the 18th century, and show what the symbol originally stood for. My next article will examine its use from 18th century freemasonry onwards, and show how it has since been hijacked and misused.

Use of the All-Seeing Eye in Ancient Cultures

India

Image: Shiva’s third eye

We perhaps find the precursor to what eventually became known as the all-seeing eye in the Rig Veda, a sanskrit text thought to have been written over 3,000 years ago and one of the oldest known texts. In it there are many references to the sun and to other deities as being an eye in heaven, as an eye which reveals creation, or an eye which never closes.

One can liken this to being symbolic of a high level of awakened consciousness that advanced spiritual beings have and which an ordinary person can potentially attain.

The Hindu god Shiva has three eyes. The third eye or brow chakra eye is known as the eye of Shiva, possessor of all knowledge, which when opened will destroy anything it sees. Thus it is a symbol of knowledge which destroys evil and ignorance.

This again can be likened to an awakened higher spiritual part of a person which sees the truth of things and can then eliminate within a person’s psyche that which is opposite to and blocks divine consciousness from manifesting more. In this way it is a “creative destruction” of evil to transform it into higher consciousness.

Even in modern times, the eye of Shiva is used in jewellery to give protection against evil to its wearer and to gain wisdom and understanding from the world, from life events and from the self, for positive transformation.

Nepal

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Image:Buddha’s all seeing eye

In Buddhism, Buddha is referred to as the Eye of the World. It is typical for temples in Nepal to display a graphic of the “Eyes of Buddha” as shown to the right – notice it includes a mark for the “third eye” as well. The eyes are also known as the eyes of wisdom and compassion.

Statues of Buddha typically show a dot in the mid-brow to represent the third eye.

Ancient Egypt

Eye of Osiris

It is interesting to find that the Egyptian hieroglyph for their god Osiris contains an eye as shown below. So as with  Hinduism and Buddhism we find a spiritual deity being represented in ancient times as an eye.

Osiris

Eye of Horus

Image:Hieroglyph for “Osiris” contains an eye

In ancient Egypt, the all-seeing eye was known as the Eye of Horus or the Eye of Ra and also formed part of the symbology of Wad-jet. Through various myths they were symbols of protection, healing and restoration. The left eye of Horus was said to be the moon and his right eye the sun.

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Horus was a falcon-headed sun god and it could be said the Eye of Horus was styled like an eye of a lanner falcon with its marking beneath the eye.

Image: Could the Eye of Horus represent parts of the brain used to manifest consciousness?

It is also very interesting to note that the drawing of the Eye of Horus very much matches the cross section of the mid brain where the thalamus, the pineal and pituitary glands are situated. The pineal gland is often said to be the “third eye” and a centre of spirituality and of spiritual insight, which can be developed in a person.

It’s as if the Eye of Horus could be a depiction of the thalamus as the eye ball with the corpus callosum the eye brow above and the medulla oblongata (brain stem) and the hypothalamus being the two markings below. If this is what they were drawing but calling it the Eye of Horus, does it suggest they considered the mid brain to be the seat of consciousness or even of divine consciousness or “Horus consciousness”? Horus being a sun god and symbolic of the universal Christ, a spiritual force which a suitably prepared person can merge with.

Middle East/Asia – Hamsa

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Image left :A Jewish Hamsa

In the Middle East the all-seeing eye has been known in the form of a hand-eye symbol called either Hamsa, Khamsa or Hamesh.

It’s the symbol of an eye in the palm of a hand, usually the right hand. Again it is a symbol of protection against the evil eye (bad luck caused by jealousy from others) and danger in general and can been seen as a good luck charm in that way.

Image, right: Detail from “The Divine World” by Kahil Gibran

It is also known as the hand of Fatima in Islam and the hand of Miriam in Judaism. In India it is known as Humsa Hand. The Jains also have a form of the Hamsa in their symbolism with the word ahimsa (meaning non-violence) inside a wheel instead of where the eye would be. The Hamsa has been used for thousands of years and is still in use today as amulets, charms or wall hangings. It would seem to have its origins from ancient Mesopotamia with the hand of Ishtar being a symbol of divine protection although it did not contain the eye in the palm.

A more Christian-themed representation of the Hamsa is an art work called “The Divine World” by Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese Maronite Catholic prominent in the early 20th century as a poet, painter, writer, philosopher, theologian.

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Image, left:A Nazar / Image credit: Alborz Fallah

In Greece and Turkey they have something similar to the Hamsa which they call a “Nazar”. It is just an eye without the hand but it is used in the same way and has the same meaning as the Hamsa, that is, to ward off the evil eye, in the form of amulets or hanging ornaments usually made from blue glass.

Similarly in Buddhism there is the “eye of Buddha” amulet to ward off the evil eye.

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The symbol of an eye in a hand also appears in Aztec and Mayan cultures and in Native American artworks although archaeologists are not sure what meaning it had for these cultures.

Image, right:The enigmatic rattlesnake disc

To the right is a Native American example referred to as “The Rattlesnake Disc” which was unearthed by a farmer in Moundville, Alabama in the 1800′s. Some archaeologists think its symbolism may have represented a portal to spiritual dimensions. It is the most elaborately decorated artwork found at Moundville giving rise to the belief it was of the most importance to its creators. Other artworks found there also contain the hand-eye symbol.

Ancient Ecuador

There is also the amazing discovery in 1984 in La Mana, central Ecuador, of an ancient artefact referred to as the Black Pyramid amongst 300 artefacts found there of unknown origin.

It is not known what culture they come from and the many objects found are baffling and seemingly out of place for this part of the world, such as an object designed as a hooded King Cobra of south east Asia. Cobras don’t exist in South America.

The so-called Black Pyramid is made from black stone with an eye at the apex. The stone has gold inlays forming 13 levels of “bricks” and an eye at the top. These inlays glow when under black light. Overall it looks like a representation of the great pyramid of Giza (7,470 miles away) and also amazingly just like the eye pyramid symbol used on the Great Seal of America and the US $1 bill.

It is also interesting to note the cobra artefact has another similarity with ancient Egypt where the raised cobra is associated with the Eye of Horus/Ra and Wad-jet in their protective aspects with it being worn on the foreheads of Pharaohs at the mid-brow right where the third eye is located.  This symbolises the raising of a person’s energies to a higher vibration which internally leads to the awakening of psychic faculties such as those latent in the third eye.

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Image: via YouTube user Wellington Marin – Illuminati Pyramid from Ecuador

It is not known how old these objects are as dating them has not been possible but they are thought to pre-date the known ancient cultures of the region. There is also a pre-Sanskrit type language (making it very old) engraved on some of the objects including on the underside of the black pyramid where there are also markings which appear to map out the stars of the Orion constellation, which the pyramids at Giza also map. The 4 pre-Sanskrit markings are thought to translate as saying “the son of the creator comes”.

Given the care taken to create this object it would seem to have been an important symbol for its creators although it is not clear how they interpreted it.

Ancient Greek

In the Hymns of Orpheus, the hymn To The Sun describes it variously as thus;

as an “eternal eye with broad survey” ;

and compares it to being the “Father of ages” ;

and as “Immortal Jove, all searching, bearing light” ;

then later as the “Great eye of Nature and the starry skies” ;

followed by “Faithful defender, and the eye of right”

So here we see in an ancient text of the western world similar representation of the sun like that presented in the ancient text of the east, the Rig Veda, as being an eye of the creator and an all-seeing never closing eye watching over and protecting the good.

Christianity

“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” (Jesus in Matthew 6:22)

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry;” (Psalms 34:15)

“The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3)

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Image: Does the Talpiot tomb display an all seeing eye?

A possible first known use of the all-seeing eye symbol in Judeo-Christianity is the so-called “Jesus tomb” from 1st century AD discovered in 1980, which uses a similar symbol over the entrance to the tomb. Regardless of whose tomb it is, could this be a first known or early use of the eye-pyramid symbol in the Judeo-Christian tradition?

In Christianity, the all-seeing eye or “Eye of Providence” or “Eye of God” has been used as a symbol from at least the 16th century as seen in the following painting below which depicts a scene from Luke 24: 13-32 where after his resurrection, Jesus has supper with two disciples.

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The eye is inside a triangle, and surrounded by rays of light, with the triangle representing the holy trinity and the whole symbol meaning God’s omnipresence and all-seeing eye watching over creation.

Some claim that the eye in triangle symbol was added to the painting soon after the Council of Trent 1545- 1563, to conform with its canons and decrees but even if that is so that would still place its use in the 16th century.

Image, right: 16th century Christian painting – dated 1525 by Italian artist Pontormo (student of Da Vinci), called Supper in Emmaus – depicts Luke 24: 13-32

In Alsace, France, the fresco painted above the altar of the Abbey Church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste (1763) shows a large example of the eye-in-pyramid symbol, with the rays of glory breaking through the clouds.

Another example is on the Aachen cathedral in Germany. It was originally built in the late 8th century under the Emperor Charlemagne and then enlarged in the middle ages with various other changes and updates along the way. It would seem the all-seeing eye symbol was placed on the cathedral in 1766 to mark the renovations done that year.

Note that these first two examples pre-date the founding of the Bavarian Illuminati (1776) although Freemasonry already existed in England and Europe by this time. Perhaps it was a masonic influence that saw these symbols used on these cathedrals yet it was not until about 1797 that masons are regarded as beginning to use the eye-in-pyramid symbol.

The eye-in-pyramid symbol also features prominently on the front facade of the Hartegbrugkerk Church in Leiden, the Netherlands, built in 1835-36. The Latin words “Hic Domus Dei est et Porta Coeli” translates to “This is the House of God and the Gateway to Heaven.”

St_Jean_Baptiste_All_Seeing_Eye Aachen_All_Seeing_Eye Hartebrugkerk_All_Seeing_Eye

These are just some Christian examples of many that appear in Europe.

Conclusion

As we have seen, throughout history there has been a strong tradition across time, continents and cultures of using eye symbolism to generally represent a benevolent creator force watching over, helping and protecting humanity and to represent a spiritual part within.

from:    http://themindunleashed.org/2014/08/seeing-eye-sacred-origins-hijacked-symbol.html

New Crop Circle – Wiltshire England

Newest Crop Circle In Wiltshire, England On Aug 6, 2014, Amazing Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: August 6, 2014
Location of sighting: Furse Hill, Wiltshire, England
 
News states: 

A crop circle at Cow Down. Very windy indeed so a little bit shaky on the video footage sorry. Shouldnt spoil your enjoyment though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQY39yd1t6Q
from:    http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2014/08/newest-crop-circle-in-wiltshire-england.html

Things Humans Do That Dogs Hate

11 things humans do that dogs hate

There are many ways you can drive a dog nuts — and you probably aren’t even aware of them. So if you want to be your dog’s best friend, find out how you can fix your annoying habits.

Sometimes, dogs get impatient with our mixed signals. Don’t you want to do better? (Photo: Hannamariah/Shutterstock)

Dogs try to be our best friends, but boy do we ever make it difficult sometimes. Here are some of the things we do that might make dogs question whether they want to remain best buds or cut ties completely
Using words more than body language
We’re a vocal species. We love to chatter away, even at our pets, who can’t understand the vast majority of what we’re saying. Dogs might be able to deduce what a few key words mean — walk, treat, toy, off — and maybe even learn hundreds of words as some border collies have done. But they can’t understand human language. What they rely on to figure out what we mean is our body language. Dogs have evolved to be expert readers of the human body and can figure out what you’re thinking and feeling before you even realize you’re thinking and feeling it. But we can easily send mixed signals if we are only paying attention to what our mouths are saying and not what our bodies are saying. If you go to any beginning dog training class, you’ll see plenty of people saying one thing, doing another, and a confused dog trying to figure out what in the world is wanted of them. For instance, telling a dog to “stay” while leaning forward toward the dog and holding out a hand like a traffic cop is, in body language, actually inviting the dog to come toward you. But when the dog does, she gets reprimanded for breaking her stay command. It’s all so confusing!
A great experiment (and something that will probably have your dog sighing with relief) is to try to spend a whole day not saying a word to your dog, but communicating only with your body. You’ll realize just how much you “talk” with your body without realizing it, how to use your movements and body position to get the response you need from your dog during training, and how involved a conversation can be without emitting a single sound.
Hugging your dog
While you might love wrapping your arms around a furry canine friend, most dogs hate hugs. We as primates think hugs are awesome and express support, love, joy and other emotions through hugs. It’s totally normal to us to wrap our arms around something and squeeze, and it only means good things. But dogs did not evolve this way. Canids don’t have arms and they don’t hug. Rather than camaraderie, if a dog places a foreleg or paw on the back of another dog, this is considered an act of dominance. No matter your intentions with hugging, a dog is hardwired to view the act of hugging as you exerting your dominance. Many dogs will tolerate it with grace — the smiling face of the family golden retriever with a child’s arms wrapped around it comes to mind. But some dogs will feel threatened, fearful, or just flat out loathe the feeling — and in fact, a child grabbing a dog for a hug is why many dog bites occur. Also, the same dog that enjoys one person’s hug might react entirely differently with another family member who tries the same thing. You’d be hard-pressed to find a dog that actually enjoys or seeks out hugs.
girl hugging dog
This dog is barely tolerating a hug from the little girl. Everything about the tense mouth, eyes and ears say that this is not something the dog is enjoying, and this is a potential safety issue for the little girl. (Photo:Dwight Smith/Shutterstock)
If you’re wondering if your dog hates your hugs, just pay attention to her body language when you go in for a cuddle. Does she tense up? Lean her head away from you? Avoid even a hint of eye contact? Lick her lips? Keep her mouth closed? Pull her ears back against her head? All of these are signs that a dog is uncomfortable. Yes, even the dog licking her lips while someone snuggles her is not showing that she is overcome with love, it is showing submissive, even nervous behavior. So next time you want to go in for a hug, pay very close attention to whether or not the dog is okay with it. After all, you’re putting your face right next to a set of sharp teeth.
Petting a dog’s face or patting her head
Do you like to be patted on the head? My guess is no. Having someone reach out and tap us on the head, no matter how lovingly, is not something most of us enjoy. It’s annoying at best and painful at worst. And we really don’t want the hands of strangers reaching toward our face. If someone were to reach their hand toward your face, I’m guessing your reaction would be to pull your head back and lean away, and get a little tense about the invasion of personal space. Yet most humans think that dogs like being patted on the head. The reality is that while many dogs will put up with this if it’s someone they know and trust, most dogs don’t enjoy it. You may notice that even the loving family dog might lean away slightly when you reach for her face to pet her. She’ll let you because you’re the boss, but she doesn’t like it. It’s a personal space issue for dogs just as much as it is for us. This is why responsible parents teach their children to gently pet a dog’s back or rear, but don’t pat, and definitely don’t go for the dog’s face. If you really want to reward your dog for being awesome, don’t bang on their head, but give them a rub on their rear end right by the tail. They’ll thank you for it!
Walking up to a strange dog while looking her in the eye
We all know how powerful eye contact is. While we view steady eye contact as important, as a sign of trustworthiness or focus, we have to also be aware that eye contact can feel unnerving, uncomfortable and domineering. It’s creepy when a stranger looks us in the eye without breaking contact, especially as they’re approaching. It’s clear their attention is zeroed in, but what is their intention? We have to read the rest of their face for the cues. Eye contact is part of establishing dominance for many species, and in humans, we can use the tiniest of details about the rest of the face — the softness or hardness of the muscles around the eyes and mouth — to determine if the stare is friendly or not. And even then, it’s still creepy to have a stranger stare at us! It feels the same way for dogs. When you look a strange dog right in the eye, unblinking, you might be smiling and trying to warm up to them but the dog is probably reading it as an act of dominance or even aggression. They might display a submissive response — looking away, doing a little wiggle for pets, rolling over onto their backs — or they might start backing up and barking. Either way, for most dogs, a stranger looking it right in the eye while approaching is not a comfortable situation.
If you want to say hello to a new dog in a way that is comfortable for both of you, approach with your body angled slightly (not with your shoulders squared toward the dog), your eyes slightly averted, and speak quietly with a gentle voice. All these body language cues of friendship will help a dog understand you mean no harm. The dog might still want nothing to do with you, but at least you didn’t approach in a scary way that could cause a defensive or aggressive reaction.
Not providing structure and rules
Dogs want, need, and love having rules. You might think having strict rules makes life boring or unhappy for your dog. But dogs really want to know what’s what according to their leader. And really, it’s not so hard to relate as humans. Children thrive when they have a consistent set of rules to follow, and they do less well in environments that provide them a free-for-all. Think about polite, well-balanced kids you know, and the spoiled kids who lack social skills or throw temper tantrums when they don’t get what they want. Which set of kids are the ones with consistently enforced rules and boundaries? And which set tends to be most consistently happy? With dogs, it’s pretty much the same thing. Rules make life a lot more predictable, a lot less confusing and a lot less stressful.
And speaking of confusing, dogs don’t understand exceptions to rules. They don’t understand that they’re allowed to jump on you when you have leisure clothes on but not when you have work clothes on. They don’t understand that they’re allowed on the couch after a bath but not after coming in from a romp in the mud. Additionally, saying “No” for breaking a rule but not actually doing something to help the dog stop the behavior and learn the rule doesn’t count as enforcement. Dogs thrive when they know where the boundaries are, and when you spend time enforcing consistent boundaries with positive rewards, you also are building up their trust in you as a leader. You’re setting up conditions for a very happy dog!
Forcing your dog to interact with dogs or people she clearly doesn’t like
Just like so many other social species, dogs have their favorite friends and their enemies. It is easy to see what other dogs — and people, for that matter — that a dog wants to hang out with and those with whom she’d rather not associate. Yet, there are a lot of dog owners who go into denial about this or simply fail to read the cues their dog is giving them. It is common for overly enthusiastic owners to push their dog (sometimes literally) into social situations at dog parks when their dog would rather just go home. Or they allow strangers to pet their dog even when she is showing clear signs of wanting to be left alone.
It is important to note that there is a difference between positive encouragement with shy, fearful, or reactive dogs. Taking small steps to encourage them out of their comfort zone and giving them rewards for any amount of calm, happy social behavior is important to helping them live a balanced life. But knowing the difference between gentle, rewards-based boundary pushing and forcing an interaction is vital to your dog’s safety and sanity. When dogs are pushed too far in social situations, they’re more likely to lash out with a bite or a fight. They’ve given cue after cue — ignoring, avoiding, maybe even growling — and finally they’ve had enough and give the clearest message of all with their teeth. What is possibly even worse, is that their trust in you as a protective leader is eroded, and they have an even more negative association with a park, a certain dog or person, or a general social setting. So do your dog a favor: read the body language she gives you when she doesn’t want to be around certain other individuals and don’t force it.
Going for walks without opportunity to explore and smell
There are walks, and there are walks. It’s definitely important to have a dog that knows how to walk obediently on a leash. However, it’s also important to allow a dog to have some time to explore her surroundings while walking obediently on a leash. Dogs see with their noses, and they place as much importance on their sense of smell as we humans place on our sense of vision for interpreting the world around us. It’s probably safe to say that dogs appreciate the smell of a tree trunk the way we appreciate a beautiful sunset. Dogs loathe not being able to take in their world for at least a few minutes a day, and too often we humans are focused on going on walks for the sole purpose of exercise or potty breaks. We trudge along the same old route, often without any variety or sense of leisure, and in too much of a hurry to get back home again.
dog smelling grass
The sense of smell is how a dog takes in the world, and sometimes they’re simply desperate for a chance to take a good sniff. (Photo:Csehak Szabolcs /Shutterstock)
Do your dog a favor and dedicate one of your daily walks to having a “smell walk” — going slow and letting your dog take in the world with her nose. Go somewhere entirely new, explore a different neighborhood or trail, let your dog sniff at a spot until she gets her fill, even if it’s for minutes at a time before moving forward. For helping your dog know the difference between a walk where she should be obedient and stay beside you, and a walk where she is free to explore, you can have a special backpack or harness that you use only for smell walks. Just make sure it is something very different from your usual collar and leash set-up so the different purpose for the walk is obvious to your dog. These walks are a wonderful opportunity for your dog to get some of the mental and sensory stimulation that keeps life interesting for her.
Keeping a tight leash, literally
Just as dogs are amazing at reading our body language, they’re amazing at reading our tension levels even through the leash. By keeping a tight leash on a dog, you’re raising the level of stress, frustration, and excitement for your dog, and conversely, for you. I know what you might be thinking: “I don’t want to hold a tight leash, but I have to. My dog is the one pulling, not me!” But this is why it is so important to teach a dog how to walk on a slack leash.
An amazing amount of energy is transferred between you and your dog through that little strip of canvas or leather. By keeping a loose leash, you’re letting your dog know that everything is fine and dandy, that there’s no reason to be worried or tense. With a slack leash you’re saying to your dog that you are calm and have everything under control so your dog is free to be calm as well. On the other hand, by keeping a tight leash you’re sending a message to your dog that you’re tense, nervous, on alert, ready to fight or fly, and your dog responds in kind. Just as you don’t like your dog pulling you around, it doesn’t feel good to your dog to constantly be pulled and thus cued to be on alert. They’re also well-aware that they can’t get away from you even if they think they need to. A dog that walks on a tight leash is more apt to bark or be reactive in even the most mild of social situations. But a dog that can walk on a slack leash is more likely to be calm. This is a difficult thing to master, and something the majority of dog owners can commiserate about, but it is so important to having pleasant walks with a relaxed dog.
Being tense
Tension on the leash isn’t the only way a dog can pick up how you’re feeling. You can tell when a person you’re around is feeling tense, even if you don’t realize it. Dogs have the same ability. The more stressed and wound-up you are, the more stressed and wound-up your dog is. And dogs, just like us, don’t like that feeling. You might roll your eyes, but the next time your dog is acting frustrated and tense, check in with yourself — have you been feeling that way for the last few minutes, for the last few hours, or the last few days? Your dog might just be acting as your mirror. If you need a reason to meditate, helping your dog calm down is a great one.
Being boring
You know that feeling of being stuck hanging around someone who is totally boring? Think back: remember having to be with your parents while they ran grown-up errands? None of which revolved around a toy store or park, of course. Remember that feeling of barely being able to contain yourself, of wanting to squirm and groan and complain. You couldn’t take part in the adult conversation, which was boring anyway, and you were told to sit still and hush. But oh boy did you ever want to just moooove! Just run around the block or something to break the monotony. That’s how your dog feels when you’re busy being that boring grown-up. Dogs abhor it when we’re boring. And it’s hard not to be! We get home from work and we want to unwind, to get a few chores done, to make dinner and sack out on the couch and relax. But that’s about the most annoying thing we could do to our dogs who have been waiting around all day for us to finally play with them.
If your dog is making trouble — getting into boxes or closets, eating shoes or chewing on table legs — she’s basically showing you just how incredibly bored she is. Luckily, there is a quick and easy solution to this: training games. Teaching your dog a new trick, working on old tricks, playing a game of “find it” with a favorite toy, or going out and using a walk as a chance to work on urban agility, are all ways to stimulate both your dog’s mind and body. An hour of training is worth a couple hours playing a repetitive game of fetch in terms of wearing a dog out. While of course exercise and walks are important, adding in some brain work will make your dog happy-tired. Even just 15-30 minutes of trick training a day will make a big difference.
Teasing
This should be obvious, and we won’t spend too much time on it. But it’s worth pointing out because too many people still think it’s funny. Don’t bark at a dog as you pass it on the street. Don’t wave or talk to a dog that is barking at you from behind a window or door. Don’t pull on a dog’s tail. The list can go on and on, but in short, don’t do something you know makes a dog mad just because you think it’s funny. It’s not funny to the dog and can lead to some serious behavioral problems — and, perhaps deservedly, you getting to sport some new dog-shaped teeth marks.
Further Reading
If you’d like to learn more about how to be a better friend to your dog, try these great book recommendations. For example, in “The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs” professional behaviorist and trainer Patricia B. McConnell goes into excellent detail about the species differences between primates and canids and why dogs don’t appreciate our hugs, as well as many other great ways of understanding a dog’s perspective about the world. Meanwhile, in “Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know” by Alexandra Horowitz, you’ll get a chance to see the world through a dog’s eyes and learn so much about body language, the importance of scent, and other things that will help you know more about what your dog wants out of life. And for understanding more about how clicker training and training games can help you and your dog get along better, try “Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals” by Karen Pryor. Follow the link for these and more great reads.

 

Colloidal Silver, MRSA, & Ebola

Read This Before You Feed The Ebola Hysteria Machine

Aug 4 •

ebla sqThe spread of Ebola is the big news now. And the news media “hysteria machine” (not to mention the end-of-the-world crowd on the internet grapevine) is running full force with scare stories about Ebola’s potential spread — particularly since it’s been announced that several American victims of Ebola in West Africa are going to be evacuated to the U.S. for treatment.

But do we really have a lot to fear from Ebola here in the U.S.?  I contend we have a lot less to fear from Ebola than we have to fear from the federal government using the Ebola hysteria to rob us of more of our freedoms and liberties under the guise of “protecting” us from a largely manufactured “national health crisis.”  

That’s the bad news.  The potentially good news is this:  Way back in 2008 the federal government itself demonstrated the fact that antimicrobial silver is, under certain conditions which I’ll explain below, extremely effective against Ebola and other hemorrhagic fever viruses. 

In fact, two years ago I was able to obtain from the U.S. Department of Defense formerly classified documents they probably now wish they’d never de-classified. These documents explain the positive results achieved by the DOD when testing antimicrobial silver against these deadly viruses. 

So with all of that said, here’s my somewhat contrarian view regarding the current Ebola “crisis,” as well as what I’ve discovered so far about the potential for colloidal silver’s effectiveness against this deadly virus…

How soon we forget how shrewdly the federal government used the overblown anthrax scare directly after 9-11 to rob us of many of our precious Constitutional rights

After the anthrax scare we witnessed the institution of illegal spying on America citizens, unconstitutional search and seizures, and severely diminished due process of law.

We also forget how the news media later whipped up the so-called “Bird flu” hysteria, followed by the “Swine flu” hysteria

Through these manufactured crises, various departments of the federal government were able to pass new “guidelines” and regulations on the detention and quarantine of U.S. citizens

These can now be used by the federal government to restrict travel at a moment’s notice, arrest and detain individuals, and even quarantine entire cities during a declared “national health emergency.”

That’s why I’m extremely skeptical of the current so-called “Ebola crisis.”

Yes, I understand how virulent and deadly Ebola and other hemorrhagic fever viruses are.

And yes, I also understand that the federal government is now said to be bringing Ebola victims to the U.S. for treatment.  And I understand what a threat that could pose should the virus ultimately get loose and go rogue in this country.

Psy-Ops Campaign

But I also understand how psychological operations (psy-ops) campaigns work, and what the federal government stands to gain from them

The federal government absolutely loves it whenever they can whip up enough public hysteria that the resulting public outcry to “protect us” allows them to step in as “saviors” and implement more laws that violate our fundamental rights and liberties under the guise of “keeping us safe.

And folks, this current “Ebola crisis” is indeed a massive psy-ops campaign.  In other words, the threat is largely being manufactured and planted into the minds of the American public, through the federal government/news media axis.

Real v/s Realistic\

That doesn’t mean the danger from Ebola isn’t real.  Quite the contrary.  It’s very real, if you’re exposed to it.

But what’s your actual likelihood of exposure?  It’s virtually nil.  Which means while the threat may be “real,” it’s not very realistic.

Let me explain with an example you can probably relate to:  The deadly, drug-resistant super-pathogen MRSA is also very real.  In fact, it’s just as “real” as Ebola.

But the difference between MRSA and Ebola is that MRSA is a far more realistic threat to the population of the U.S. than Ebola.

We know that, because the FDA’s own testing has demonstrated that 61% of all meat in supermarkets is already contaminated with the deadly MRSA pathogen (up from 50% only last year).  And independent testing backs those numbers up.

Largely because of this, some 39,000 Americans now get infected by the flesh-eating MRSA pathogen every single year, and a full 20% of those infected end up dying – constituting more deaths annually than those caused by AIDS.

Now that’s a news story, right?

After all, you have a proven, deadly, antibiotic-resistant super-pathogen like MRSA contaminating 61% of all meats in supermarkets.  And you buy that meat on a regular basis and bring it home to your family.  Wouldn’t you want to know about that?

Yet there’s not so much as a peep about it in the mainstream news media.  Listen carefully.  The only sound you’ll hear on this issue is crickets

On the other hand you have a virus like Ebola, which is largely endemic to West Africa, and which hasn’t caused a single death anywhere in the United States…ever.  Nor has there been a single infection in the U.S.

Yet the mainstream news media drumbeat about the so-called “Ebola threat” is absolutely relentless.  And as a result, people are quite literally going out of their minds with fear over it.

If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the mainstream news media and the end-of-the-world internet fear-mongers chanting, Ebo-laEbo-laEbo-laEbo-la…as if they’re actually cheering it on.

Why the dichotomy?

Why is there zero fear-mongering over the deadly MRSA super-pathogen, even though it represents an immediate, dire, realistic and already-proven threat to the American populace…

…while in direct contrast, there’s incessant fear-mongering over the Ebola virus, which has not so much as even been detected in this country?

And Now for the Other Side of the Story

Here’s the reality:

Dealing with the very real threat of MRSA would cost Big Agriculture billions of dollars a year in sales.

So if the USDA and the FDA publicly acknowledged the growing MRSA crisis, people would stop buying meat out of fear, and foreign markets for our beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, pork and other meat products would also dry up overnight.

The entire U.S. agriculture industry would crumble.  Billions of dollars would be lost.

So while community-acquired MRSA infections are now absolutely skyrocketing, we don’t hear so much as a squawk about it from the news media.

Nothing.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada.  Pitch black silence.

There are no talking heads from the FDA, CDC, WHO, or other alphabet soup health agencies making appearances on national TV news to warn the populace about the growing spread of MRSA.

This is spite of the fact that, for example, some 30,000-plus hospitalizations of children for this deadly disease have taken place over the past few years alone here in the U.S. (which is double the annual rate of child MRSA infections since the year 2000).

Why is there no outcry from the health authorities?

It’s because the health and regulatory authorities have weighed the astonishing number of annual deaths being caused each year in this nation by MRSA, against the economic havoc that would be caused to the agriculture industry if they went public with this information each night on the national news.

And the regulators say, “This is an acceptable loss of life.  Let’s keep quiet about it.  We’ll save as many MRSA victims as we can.  And those who die, die.  We can’t risk destroying one of our nation’s largest industries over this.”

But hyperventilating over Ebola, on the other hand, poses no serious direct economic risk to anyone.

The feds and their news media lackeys can rile the population up, scare the living bejabbers out of them, and convince everybody they’re our saviors if we’ll just let them “protect us” from the threat, which of course, is largely non-existent.

The Real Question:
What Will Obama Do?

So the real question is this:  How far is the federal government willing to go with this charade?

Would they, for example, allow a few controlled Ebola infections to take place in the U.S., as a means of convincing the population that the so-called “Ebola threat” is “real” so new restrictions to our freedoms and new laws for detaining people could be implemented?

With the anthrax scare of 2001, the Bird flu scare of 2005, and the Swine Flu scare of 2009, the powers-that-be accomplished much of their mission of convincing Americans of the supposed reality of a huge and deadly medical apocalypse directly on the horizon.

“It’s not a matter of if, but when,” goes the relentless drumbeat from the talking head “medical experts” (most of them being paid, government shills) who have appeared on the nightly news for the past decade and a half to assure us our future is bleak.

That’s now embedded in the collective psyche of the entire nation.

So with the vast majority of Americans now convinced of a coming medical apocalypse, what next?  What exactly do the powers-that-be have in mind with the latest threat-du-jour known as Ebola?

I find it quite telling that Obama has already used the so-called Ebola crisis to sign a new amendment to an executive order that would allow him to mandate the apprehension and detention of Americans who merely show signs of ‘respiratory illness.’

According to an article on InfoWars.com:

“Obama’s amendment allows for the detention of Americans who display, ‘Severe acute respiratory syndromes, which are diseases that are associated with fever and signs and symptoms of pneumonia or other respiratory illness, are capable of being transmitted from person to person, and that either are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic, or, upon infection, are highly likely to cause mortality or serious morbidity if not properly controlled’.”

The InfoWars.com article goes on to explain exactly how ominous this new executive order amendment is:

“Although Ebola was listed on the original executive order signed by Bush, Obama’s amendment ensures that Americans who merely show signs of respiratory illness, with the exception of influenza, can be forcibly detained by medical authorities.

Although the quarantining of people suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus seems like a perfectly logical move, the actual preconditions for this to happen aren’t restricted to just those suffering from the disease.

As we highlighted earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has measures in place for dealing with an outbreak of a communicable disease which allow for the quarantine of “well persons” who “do not show symptoms” of the disease.

In addition, under the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, public health authorities and governors would be given expanded police powers to seize control of communications devices, public and private property, as well as a host of other draconian measures in the event of a public health emergency.

When the legislation was introduced, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons warned that it ‘could turn governors into dictators’.”

The $64,000 Question
So why does the government/news media axis downplay a very realistic medical threat like MRSA, with very real deaths, and very real impacts on literally thousands of American families every single year, yet relentlessly hype an unrealistic “medical crisis” like Ebola that’s virtually non-existent in this country?

I don’t ask that question to start arguments or to inspire conspiracy theories.  I ask it only to bring some semblance of sanity to the table in regards to the supposed “Ebola crisis” and the panic and mass hysteria now evolving around it.

At this point, the so-called “Ebola crisis” is a fabricated one.  And the sooner we realize it, the lower the chances are that the federal government can take further advantage of it by reducing our freedoms under the guise of “saving” us.

Why So Fearful?
If you absolutely need to be fearful, you’d have far more reason to be fearful of a deadly MRSA superbug infection striking your household than you would an Ebola infection.

You can come into contact with the MRSA superbug just about any day of the week – right now — especially when you shop for meat at your local supermarket.

What’s more, with MRSA all you need is a small cut or scratch on your body for it to go internal, induce sepsis, cause organ failure and other calamities, giving you a one-in-five chance of living through the infection.

(But thankfully, colloidal silver cures MRSA with relative ease.  See the clinical and anecdotal evidence presented on the Colloidal Silver Cures MRSA website, and in my article “Does Colloidal Silver Really Cure MRSA?”)

So your likelihood of coming into contact with the deadly MRSA pathogen is quite high.  But your likelihood of being anywhere near the vicinity of an Ebola victim is just about zero.

So please think about it

My advice is this:  If you’ve got to panic over something, then panic over something that represents a realistic threat, rather than a sensationalistic threat.

Ebola may be a “real” threat, but it’s not a very realistic threat here in the U.S.  At least, not yet.

The true threat at this point is the federal government and the new regulations being implemented to give the federal government the power to detain anybody they want, at any time, under the guise of a “national health crisis.”

 

Colloidal Silver and Ebola:
What We Know So Far

Which, finally, brings us to the topic of colloidal silver and Ebola.  Here’s the good news:

Back in 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) in conjunction with several other federal agencies quietly conducted clinical research into the use of silver nanoparticles against Ebola and other hemorrhagic fever viruses.

What they found was astonishing.  They discovered that silver nanoparticles were highly effective against these deadly viruses, including the Ebola virus.

They later presented their findings to federal health regulators and other national health authorities.  But it was all kept top secret.  The presentation was called “Silver Nanoparticles Neutralize Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses.”

And the gist of the presentation was that silver nanoparticles displayed “powerful neutralizing effects against hemorrhagic fever viruses,” including Arenavirus and Filovirus (i.e., Ebola).

This clinical presentation was conducted under the auspices of the DOD’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction.

And the presentation was given by researchers from the Applied Biotechnology Branch, 711th Human Performance Wing of the Air Force Research Laboratory.

In other words, those are the big guns, folks!   Which is to say, those are the very people responsible for keeping this nation safe from outside threats like bioterrorism

That clinical presentation, made to federal regulators and national health authorities, was later summarized in a printed document, de-classified, and cleared for public release.

But there was no news media hoopla surrounding the release of this information.  Not a peep.

And to this very day, to my knowledge, there still hasn’t been a single report in the mainstream news media on the release of this important information, in spite of the fact that Department of Defense researchers found antimicrobial silver to be profoundly effective against Ebola and other hemorrhagic fever viruses, under certain circumstances which we’ll discuss below.

Before we get into the results of this research, as documented in the published version of the DOD presentation, it’s important to note that one of the main tasks of the DOD’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency is to “anticipate and mitigate future threats long before they have a chance to harm the United States and our allies.”

In other words, the researchers were specifically looking for ways to stop Ebola or other hemorrhagic fever viruses from damaging our national security.

And the results they found when using silver nanoparticles for that precise purpose were strikingly positive — enough so to warrant not just the presentation to health and regulatory authorities, but its later publication and public release.

 

What Researchers Discovered

The researchers tested silver nanoparticles of several different sizes and concentrations on infected cells in vitro (meaning, in the test tube).

And they concluded that silver nanoparticles were able to neutralize hemorrhagic fever viruses inside the cells by “decreasing S segment gene expression and concomitantly decreasing progeny virus production.”

Translation:  Silver stops the Ebola virus and related hemorrhagic fever viruses from replicating inside the cells.  And when there’s no viral replication inside the cells, there’s no spread of infection!

The researchers had discovered the holy grail Ebola treatments.  But they also discovered that neutralization of the virus by silver occurs during the early phases of viral replication.

Therefore, they pointed out that for antimicrobial silver to be effective against Ebola and other hemorrhagic fever viruses, the treatment would have to be administered PRIOR to viral infection or at least within the first few hours after initial exposure to the virus.

In other words, for antimicrobial silver to be effective, an exposed person would need to have already been taking it, or at the very least would have to start taking it within a few short hours of exposure to an infected individual. 

Another interesting thing the researchers discovered is that while an enzymatic protein called Cathepsin B has been shown to play an essential role in Ebola virus replication, silver nanoparticles work to decrease cathepsin activity, thus further limiting viral replication in the cell and subsequent spread of the virus to other cells.

And by far the most interesting thing the researchers discovered (at least, to me) is that only very low concentrations of silver nanoparticles were necessary to prevent replication of the virus.

Indeed, low concentrations of 10 ppm nanosilver appears to have worked better than higher concentrations of 25 ppm or 50 ppm nanosilver.  This means there’s no need for overly high silver concentrations.

What’s more, the smallest silver particles tested by the researchers worked far better than the larger silver particles tested.

This demonstrates once more that the use of very small silver particles is far more important than the “ppm” or concentration of the colloidal silver solution one is using.

Simply put, smaller silver particles penetrate cells and tissues easier, and are therefore better able to get to the point of infection before the virus spreads.

Here’s a link to the printed version of the DOD clinical presentation, so you can scroll through it and read it for yourself.  It’s technical.  But if you take your time it’s relatively understandable.

People have written to ask me, “Steve, how much colloidal silver would you have to take in order to protect yourself from an Ebola infection?

And of course, the answer is, no one knows for sure.  As I mentioned, the DOD research discussed above was in vitro (i.e., laboratory test tube) reseaRCH.  NowI know that’s probably not what you want to hear.  But just as I refuse to join in with all of the doom-and-gloom hype about the supposed coming worldwide Ebola apocalypse, in like manner I also refuse to join in with those making blanket statements that colloidal silver is the sure-fire “cure” for Ebola.

Hitchbot, THe Hitchhiking Robot

Need a Lift? Hitchhiking Robot Makes His Way Across Canada

The Threats of ‘Big Organic”

Walmarting Organics: Will the Growth of “Big Organic” Lower Food Quality, Weaken Standards, and Destroy Farmers’ Livelihoods?

July 22nd, 2014

Commentary by Mark Kastel

walmart low prices b&wAs Yogi Berra said, “It seems like déjà vu all over again.” In 2006 The Cornucopia Institute released a report accusing Walmart of cheapening the value of the organic label by sourcing products from industrial-scale factory farms and developing countries, including China.

At the time, Walmart announced that they would greatly increase the number of organic products they offered and price them at a target of 10% above the cost for conventional food. They failed miserably at that first attempt, eventually removing many of the organic items from their stores.

This past May, Walmart announced they will once again enter the organic arena, in earnest, with the goal of eliminating the premium price for organic food.

Since the announcement, Cornucopia has received numerous press inquiries asking if Walmart’s organic expansion is “good news or bad news” for the industry. My stock answer has been, as it was in 2006: If Walmart lends their logistical prowess to organic food, both farmers and consumers will be big winners by virtue of a more competitive marketplace. However, if the company applies their standard business model, and in essence Walmarts organics, then everyone will lose.

Organic family farmers in this country could see their livelihoods disintegrate the same way so many industrial workers saw their family-supporting wages evaporate as Walmart, Target and other big-box retailers put the screws to manufacturers—forcing a production shift to China and other low-wage countries.

Walmart became the nation’s largest organic milk retailer by partnering with the dairy giant Dean Foods/WhiteWave (Horizon Organic). They then introduced their own private-label organic milk packaged by Aurora Organic Dairy. Aurora, based in Boulder, Colorado, has faced a maelstrom of organic industry criticism and negative press for operating a number of industrial-scale dairies with thousands of cows confined in feedlot-like conditions. They were the subject of a USDA investigation that found the giant dairy had “willfully” violated 14 tenets of the federal organic standards.

This time around Walmart is keeping the sourcing of their organic products a secret by using a private-label supplier and marketing products under the Wild Oats brand, a former natural foods grocery chain briefly owned by Whole Foods before, in 2009, an antitrust rule forced it to divest its holdings (resulting in the eventual shutdown of the Wild Oats chain).

Walmart claims that each item in the line, to consist of about 100 packaged products including pasta, peanut butter, dried spices, and olive oil, will cost at least 25 percent less than other organic goods sold at their store, according to Consumer Reports.

I’ve always said that “private-label, store-brand organics” is an oxymoron. By its very nature the practice is secretive. Grocery chains want to pit supplier against supplier. They want the companies manufacturing their products to feel insecure knowing they could lose the business for a few pennies to a rival competitor. For that reason retailers don’t want their customers to become loyal to a specific brand-name supplier.

In contrast, most organic consumers are label readers. We want to know where our food is coming from, how it is produced and, if livestock are involved, how respectfully they are treated. None of that is possible with private-label products.

Target has taken a different approach. Although they have plenty of private-label brands (Archer Farms, Market Pantry, and Simply Balanced in their grocery aisles), they are also presenting a “curated” product line including many name brands owned by large agribusinesses that have invested in organics.

It should be noted that the product lines at Walmart and Target include both organic and conventional (“natural”) products under the same private-label brands.

Cornucopia’s 2006 report documenting the Walmart/factory-farm connection also highlighted the company’s decision to lower the per unit cost basis on organic products by collaborating with its long-time trading partner China.

Even if the organic certification process in China were not cause for serious concern—coupled with the fact that the USDA has provided little if any regulatory oversight there—food shipped around the world, burning fossil fuels and undercutting our domestic farmers, does not meet the consumer’s traditional definition of what is truly organic.

Meanwhile, Whole Foods Market announced that they are cutting many prices to meet increasing competition from mainstream retailers like Kroger, Safeway and now Walmart, and their stock plunged nearly 19% this past May.

“I don’t think consumers have any idea just how industrialized [mainstream organics] is becoming,” said best-selling food movement author Michael Pollan in an interview with the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “There are some real downsides to organic farming scaling up to this extent,” he added.

Both Pollan and I worry that the expansion of “Big Organic” will lower food quality, weaken standards and hurt small family farms.

There’s a reason that organic food costs more. It costs more to produce, and paying farmers a fair price has always been part of the deal. The claim that Walmart will be able to provide organic food that truly adheres to federal organic standards, without a premium price, seems questionable at best.

The last time Walmart rolled out organic foods on a large scale, The Cornucopia Institute caught them labeling “natural” food as organic. After an investigation by the USDA and making the commitment to take down fraudulent signage, the company was not prosecuted. Walmart obviously did not have the expertise, at the store level, to manage organics.

The gold standard in organic retailing remains the hundreds of member-owned food co-ops and independent natural foods grocery stores across the country. Many of them are like a farmers market seven days a week where you can also find reputable national brands. They also act as a portal for accessing the local food movement. Your community’s farmers market, or joining a CSA, can also provide your family with the highest quality organic food.

When Walmart and Target complete their product roll-out, you can be sure The Cornucopia Institute will publish a new report for our members, the public and the media. We will provide discussion and analysis as to whether these massive corporations have learned from their past failures relating to organics and are now offering a true competitive alternative in the marketplace.

This story originally appeared in The Cultivator, The Cornucopia Institute’s quarterly print publication available to members and online.

 

Walmarting Organics: Will the Growth of “Big Organic” Lower Food Quality, Weaken Standards, and Destroy Farmers’ Livelihoods?

The Genealogy of Native Americans

DNA Analysis Shows That Native American Genealogy Is One of the Most Unique in the World

http://themindunleashed.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/nativeee.jpg

The suppression of the Native Americans and the decimation of their culture is a black page in the history of the United States. The discrimination and injustices towards this ancient race, which had lived on the American continent long before the European conquerors came to this land, are still present to this day despite the efforts of different groups and organizations trying to restore the justice.

The destruction of their culture is one of the most shameful aspects of our history, the extent of the damage that was done is still being down-played and denied entry into textbooks and history-lessons to this day.

The origin and history of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas have been studied for years by researchers from different countries, and a recent DNA study showed that the genealogy of the western aboriginals is one of the most unique in the world.

The question of whether Native Americans derived from a single Asian population or from a number of different populations has been a subject of research for decades. Now, having compared the DNA samples from people of modern Native American and Eurasian groups, an international team of researchers concluded on the validity of the single ancestral population theory.

The study follows up on earlier research that found a unique variant of a genetic marker in the DNA of modern descendants of Native Americans. “While earlier studies have already supported this conclusion, what’s different about our work is that it provides the first solid data that simply cannot be reconciled with multiple ancestral populations,” said Kari Britt Schroeder of the University of California, one of the authors of the study.

As a result of the previous research, the so-called “9-repeat allele” (or variant) was found in all of the 41 Native American and Asian (from the western side of the Bering Strait) populations that were sampled. At the same time, the allele was absent in all 54 of the Eurasian, African and Oceanian groups that were also sampled in the study.

The researchers supposed that the distribution of the allele was due to the fact that all these ethnic groups (modern Native Americans, Greenlanders and western Beringians) derived from a common founder population, which had been isolated from the rest of the Asian continent thousands of years prior to their migration to the Americas.

This explanation was persuasive enough; however, there was no strong evidence to support it. There were two other plausible versions to explain the distribution of the 9-repeat allele among the modern descendants of Native Americans.

If the 9-repeat allele had originated as a multiple mutation, its presence in the Americas would not suggest common ancestry. Thus, if there had been more than one ancestral founder population and the 9-repeat allele had been present only in one of them, it could possibly have passed to the other ethnic groups and spread among them. If there also had been a second, beneficial allele located very close to the 9-repeat allele, it would certainly have been carried into new populations. At the same time, long stretches of DNA surrounding the 9-repeat allele would be carried along with the beneficial allele due to the mechanisms of natural selection.

In order to check the validity of this hypothesis, researchers led by Noah Rosenberg of the University of Michigan analyzed DNA samples from people from Asian, Native American, Greenlandic and two western Beringian populations, and found that all the samples with the 9-repeat allele had a distinct pattern of base pairs in short stretches of DNA.

As Schroeder noted, “If natural selection had promoted the spread of a neighboring advantageous allele, we would expect to see longer stretches of DNA than this with a similarly distinct pattern. And we would also have expected to see the pattern in a high frequency even among people who do not carry the 9-repeat allele. So we can now consider the positive selection possibility unlikely.”

These findings also excluded the multiple mutations theory, because in this case there would have been myriad DNA patterns surrounding the 9-repeat allele.

“Our work provides strong evidence that, in general, Native Americans are more closely related to each other than to any other existing Asian populations, except those that live at the very edge of the Bering Strait,” concluded Schroeder.

The results of the study were published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anna LeMind is the owner and lead editor of the website Learning-mind.com, and a staff writer for The Mind Unleashed.

Featured image credits: BBCNews

from:     http://themindunleashed.org/2014/08/dna-analysis-shows-native-american-genealogy-one-unique-world.html

Ebola Virus – Panic & Vaccine

CAVEAT:  As always, Do your Research, check things out, pay attention, and do not panic:

 

Doctor: ‘There’s Not Enough PANIC and Customers to Make an Ebola Vaccine’ — Oh Really?

Melissa Melton
Activist Post

A short two-minute video Bloomberg News uploaded to YouTube attempts to explain why the world doesn’t already have a widely available Ebola vaccine.

(Trusting the ingredients of such a thing and whether or not you would personally take it is another matter entirely, but hold on a second.)

What’s fascinating about this clip is what Dr. Ben Neuman, University of Reading, says towards the end.

Neuman explains that because viruses easily mutate, “It’s not just one drug we need for Ebola. We need a cocktail of drugs and perhaps a nice vaccine that could be used.”

Hm. Sounds like a Big Pharma hay day pay day, does it not?

But Dr. Ben also goes on to explain why the major pharmaceutical companies haven’t been all that eager to produce this cocktail of drugs and vaccines — which would surely translate to big bucks — just yet.

These all take a lot of money and right now in the history of what we know at least, there have been fewer than 5,000 people who have been infected with Ebola. It sounds scary, but I don’t know that there’s enough…uh…panic or enough people who are potential customers for these drugs to warrant a company — a private company anyway — putting the money it would take to develop this. [emphasis added]

Did you catch that? (Yeah, I know you did, that’s why I added the emphasis.)

Watch the video. The good doctor even struggles to find his words before he says he isn’t sure there is enough panic and customers to warrant developing a vaccine.

This is despite the fact that articles were coming out in scientific circles back in 2008 that Ebola vaccines had been successfully used in animal trials and even on one human patient, a lab worker who accidentally pricked her finger with an Ebola-laced syringe.

There’s not enough panic to go any further with it, though? Well, gee Ben, where can we get some panic from?

This video reveals two fundamental truths.

One: pharmaceuticals and vaccines really aren’t about saving lives…oh no, first and foremost, they’re about making money.

Two: there has to be enough panic to stir up potential customers to necessitate the creation of said pharmaceuticals and vaccines and there just simply was not enough Ebola panic to go around to make it worth it.

Well…there certainly is enough pricey panic now, isn’t there?

It’s a concerted effort. As I wrote earlier in an article questioning this sudden media zoo surrounding Ebola and why, in an unprecedented move, we’re suddenly shipping people infected with Ebola here for the first time ever, a lot of people in the military-medical-media industrial complex stand to make a lot of money off of this virus.

And, right on time, Reuters is reporting that they’re going to fast track a new Ebola vaccine and start testing on human patients as early as next month. Was that quick or what?

The Hegelian Dialectic is such a timeless strategy. Why? Because it works. So they just keep using it over and over and over.

Problem: not enough panic to make the big bucks off Ebola.

Reaction: create a panic to make the big bucks off Ebola.

Solution: problem solved.

It’s basically the same strategy they used to pawn off fast tracked, experimental H1N1 vaccines on people just a few years ago, only this time they’re playing with a much scarier virus to induce even more fear. In fact, next time you see a headline like, ‘Ebola fear going viral’ feel free to keep this in mind.

Melissa Melton is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared, and a co-creator of Truthstream Media with Aaron Dykes, a site that offers teleprompter-free, unscripted analysis of The Matrix we find ourselves living in. Melissa also co-founded Nutritional Anarchy with Daisy Luther of The Organic Prepper, a site focused on resistance through food self-sufficiency. Wake the flock up!

from:    http://www.activistpost.com/2014/08/doctor-theres-not-enough-panic-and.html#!bxnJoD

Growth of Bitcoin

Whistleblower: Federal Reserve “Highly Alarmed” After Modeling Shows Bitcoin Conquering Dollar by 2021

The Federal Reserve is apparently very worried about bitcoin disrupting the monetary system.

According to an alleged whistleblower’s post on Reddit, Fed governors were “highly alarmed” by internal economic modeling that showed Bitcoin has the potential to completely displace the dollar by as early as 2021 (which they called “worst case”).

The whistleblower, who currently remains anonymous, claims to work for the Federal Reserve as a researcher who was tasked with doing “econometrics and related modeling” for Bitcoin.

He writes:

The Dirty: We were directed to upgrade our modeling of bitcoin from developing currency to a major currency. In addition to all of the common modeling and forecasting that task entails, we were instructed to do full simulations of money flows, interest rates, multi currency derivative baskets, risk metrics, and their effects on global macro monetary policy and trade agreements. What we found was shocking. Even with a mediocre adoption rate and variable growth rate, bitcoin severely disrupts how we model, forecast, and ultimately understand currency interactions to make monetary policy decisions. This is a huge technological, monetary, and policy disruption which leaves the Fed, the US govt, and other entities with much less control.

Our best case scenarios are modeled upon current bitcoin adoption rates which have simulated a tipping point for the year 2026 (worst case 2021); this time frame projects the Fed (via the dollar) to lose its dominant global monetary policy maker status – instead everything will superseded by bitcoin.

I presented this updated report along with all of our modeling work and simulation outputs which were statistically and independently verified to the Board of Governors. The Board was highly alarmed and interrogated me and my fellow researchers in a 3 day session trying to understand every point of our research. It must be remembered that unlike politicians, the Board of Governors is a very well educated and empirical group with an ability to conceptually grasp complicated research.

The ramifications of this internal analysis could be huge. Pressed by the Reddit community to verify his claims, he is said to be working with journalists to release proof or his employment and of the report itself

from:    http://www.activistpost.com/2014/08/federal-reserve-highly-alarmed-after.html#!bxnvYn