Tidbits From The Web #77

The ongoing consequences of the BP oil spill...
Kitty pattycake...
If Picasso drew comic superheros...
Why I don't own a cat...
The evolution of human flight...
Is it real or is it Memorex?
Vader did you know?
Why some species need to exist...
TSA = Touch Some Ass...
Kitten for lunch...
Who knew the Church could be funny?
Are you ready for your crash course?
Some microscopic photos...
Classical metal... (props to Shmonty)
Why are we letting the rich win?
Add this to my bucket list!
Periodic table of hall of famers...
Name that bird in 2 notes...
What is wrong with this team picture...
8 common spelling mistakes even smart people make...
Why you should avoid root canals...
Top 100 tech products...
A chemical romance...
10 things that you didn't know about sound...
Paper thin solar power...
Graphic Nothing... (see below)



End of Liberty...




Is Total Financial Meltdown of the U.S. Economy Still Preventable?




Car runs on 100% water...

Knowledge The List Universe If you are a list maker/user, here is the ultimate list site. The site posts collections of Top 10, including topics from the bizarre to politics. As the developers state, We are focused on lists that intrigue and educate, specializing in the bizarre or lesser-known trivia. Every day we present a new unique list in any one of our twenty-two categories, from art to travel. The statistics for the readers claim that 62% are under 20 years old, 34% are between 20 and 39, meaning that if we oldies but goodies want to keep hip, we must check out the lists to see what the kids are listing!

Graphic Nothing Laying bygone aspirations out on canvas Just because you fail to realize your earliest ambitions doesn't mean you can't use the knowledge you gained in their pursuit -- after all, didn't Vinnie Jones' MMA career benefit immeasurably from his limited but still valuable experience with football? Pouring his youthful aspirations into his adult art career: the man behind Graphic Nothing. Graphic's a colourful collection of angular, geometric designs often inspired by science, put out by a Manchester illustrator who had early ambitions as "an entomologist (insects) paleontologist (fossils), or space-ship model maker" (Virgin?). Examples include: Boxy Music: Each of these four bold cubes has a different facet missing, creating an oddly hypnotic three-dimensional effect that's purely For Your Pleasure. Op-Art Elephant: A vaguely psychedelic pachyderm with its black & white outlines expanding to infinity, part of the "Eleph-Art" series wherein each animal's dimensions follow the "golden ratio" -- math that, unless you're an elephant, you've probably forgotten. Blast Off! This triptych homage to youthful adventure sees the rocketship from Tintin's Destination Moon on the pad, launching, and shooting into space (Snowy would really Laika to go home now). Because he's also apparently interested in law, the artist's Remix Series "explores when copyright ceases to mean anything" by recreating iconic paintings (The Mona Lisa, The Scream...) using 140 solid-colour circles, and, with the help of 144 dots, timeless album covers like Thriller and Pet Sounds -- like a dog's whimper, the sound one makes when Vinnie has a Jones for your balls. Check out his website

The Devil's Dictionary

Ambrose Bierce, an American satirist, critic, poet, short story writer, editor, and journalist from the 19th 20th century, is noted for his clear style and lack of sentimentality. His work, 'The Devil's Dictionary,' first collected as a book in 1906, is now online, thanks to the efforts of a 'misguided blackguard,' Mike Leung. "While the book represents diabolical appetites, and derides pretense, it should be noted that Bierce generally reserved his severest ridicule for those who benefit most from the status quo. It's easy to imagine him a century later relying less on casual political incorrectness, to pay better tribute to those who couldn't overindulge enough on the prosperity that took place." Here's your opportunity to benefit from this man's wisdom and wit that is still apparent today, such definitions as 'POLITICS, n., A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. Be sure to look up POLITICIAN, another word that demonstrates Bierce's command of words and human nature!

Fun

Light My Candle...

Mrs. Donovan was walking down O'Connell Street in Dublin when she met up with Father Flaherty.
The Father said, 'Top o' the mornin' to ye! Aren't ye Mrs. Donovan and didn't I marry ye and yer hoosband 2 years ago?'
She replied, 'Aye, that ye did, Father.'
The Father asked, 'And be there any wee little ones yet?'
She replied, 'No, not yet, Father.'

The Father said, 'Well now, I'm going to Rome next week and I'll light a candle for ye and yer hoosband.'
She replied, 'Oh, thank ye, Father.'
They then parted ways.
Some years later they met again.

The Father asked, 'Well now, Mrs. Donovan , how are ye these days?'
She replied, 'Oh, very well, Father!'
The Father asked, 'And tell me, have ye any wee ones yet?'

She replied, 'Oh yes, Father! Three sets of twins and 4 singles, 10 in all!'
The Father said, 'That's wonderful! How is yer loving hoosband doing?'
She replied, 'E's gone to Rome to blow out yer candle.'

Good News, Bad News, Sad News... The day after his wife disappeared in a kayaking accident, an Anchorage man answered his door to find two grim-faced Alaska State Troopers. "We're sorry Mr. Wilkens, but we have some information about your wife," said one trooper. "Tell me! Did you find her?!" Wilkens shouted. The troopers looked at each other. One said, "We have some bad news, some good news, and some really great news. Which do you want to hear first?" Fearing the worst, an ashen Mr. Wilkens said, "Give me the bad news first." The trooper said, "I'm sorry to tell you, sir, but this morning we found your wife's body in Kachemak Bay ." "Oh my God!" exclaimed Wilkens. Swallowing hard, he asked, "What's the good news?" The trooper continued, "When we pulled her up, she had 12 twenty-five pound king crabs and 6 good-size Dungeness crabs clinging to her." Stunned, Mr. Wilkens demanded, "If that's the good news, what's the great news?" The trooper said, "We're going to pull her up again tomorrow."

Nana's Nursing Home...

A wealthy family took their frail, elderly grandmother to a famous and expensive nursing home and left her, hoping she would be well cared for.

The next morning, the nurses luxuriously bathed her- fed her a tasty breakfast cooked by a famous chef, and set her in a chair at a window overlooking a lovely flower garden.

She seemed okay, but after a while she slowly started to tilt sideways in her chair.
Two attentive nurses immediately rushed up to catch her and straighten her up.
Again she seemed okay, but after a while she slowly started to tilt over to her other side.
The nurses rushed back and once more brought her back upright. This went on all morning.
Later, the family arrived to see how the old woman was adjusting to her new home.
"So Grandma, how is it here? Are they treating you all right?"
"It's pretty nice," she replied.
"Except they won't let me fart."

Did You Know that Splenda is in Your Drinking Water?

Posted By Dr. Mercola | November 23 2010

The human body can't break it down, or use it in any way. And as it turns out, modern wastewater treatment methods don't break down Splenda either.

Smitha Ramakrishna, a finalist in the 2009 Intel Science Talent Search, found that the sweetener can accumulate in the water supply after people excrete it. This could potentially cause harm to fish and other living creatures.

Scientific American reports:

"She tried to start doing research at Arizona State University, though since she was the first high schooler her lab had ever had ... [E]ventually she was allowed to subject sucralose to various treatments, like bacterial digestion, typically used in wastewater treatment plants.

She found that sucralose resisted most of these treatments ... that means almost all the sucralose people eat or drink winds up in the ecosystem."

Sources:

Scientific American March 9, 2009

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Splenda (aka sucralose) was approved by the FDA in 1998 as a tabletop sweetener and for use in products such as baked goods, nonalcoholic beverages, chewing gum, frozen dairy desserts, fruit juices, and gelatins. Sucralose is also permitted as a general-purpose sweetener for all processed foods.

It's become very popular over the last decade as it's claimed your body does not metabolize it and therefore provides no calories.

As I detailed in my book Sweet Deception, researchers have found evidence that Splenda is absorbed by your fat, contrary to claims. This is not good as it will tend to accumulate in your body over time. Since it is chemically related to DDT and no study in the world has looked at toxicity over a few months, it might lead a prudent person to be more cautious with its use.

However, a significant amount is still excreted in your stool and this is what winds up in the water supply.

Is Excreted Splenda Accumulating in the Water Supply?

According to Splenda's Web site for health care professionals:

"Approximately 2% of ingested sucralose is biotransformed into toxicologically insignificant components and excreted in the urine … Most ingested sucralose is eliminated unchanged in the stool … Of the small amount of sucralose that is absorbed, most is eliminated in the urine within 24 hours."

All of this excreted Splenda goes directly into the water supply where Smitha Ramakrishna, a bright 17-year-old and finalist in the 2009 Intel Science Talent Search, found that wastewater treatment methods do not break the compound down.

After testing bacterial digestion and other forms of common wastewater treatments, she found the molecule vastly unchanged. Only a mix of titanium dioxide, ultraviolet light and extensive time broke Splenda down into biodegradable molecules, and these methods are rarely used by treatment facilities.

So there's a good chance that Splenda is readily accumulating in water supplies, where preliminary studies suggest it could poison fish and potentially harm other creatures as well.

The fastest solution to keeping Splenda out of the water supply would be to drastically cut down on its use on a nationwide level … a step that would not only protect the environment but also your individual health as well.

Splenda Secrets You Should Know

Splenda was approved after the FDA supposedly reviewed more than 110 animal and human safety studies, but out of these 110 studies, only two were human studies, and the longest one was conducted for four days!

Those animal studies revealed plenty of problems, such as:

• Decreased red blood cells -- sign of anemia -- at levels above 1,500 mg/kg/day
• Increased male infertility by interfering with sperm production and vitality, as well as brain lesions at higher doses
• Enlarged and calcified kidneys (McNeil stated this is often seen with poorly absorbed substances and was of no toxicological significance. The FDA Final Rule agreed that these are findings that are common in aged female rats and are not significant.)
• Spontaneous abortions in nearly half the rabbit population given sucralose, compared to zero aborted pregnancies in the control group
• A 23 percent death rate in rabbits, compared to a 6 percent death rate in the control group

A recent study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health also found that Splenda:

• Reduces the amount of good bacteria in your intestines by 50 percent -- a disturbing finding since these bacteria help maintain your body's overall balance of friendly versus unfriendly microorganisms and support your general health.
• Increases the pH level in your intestines
• Affects a glycoprotein in your body that can have crucial health effects, particularly if you're on certain medications

I created a page many years ago that contains a long list of personal case studies from readers who have been injured and suffered side effects from Splenda.

In fact, we have more people on our site that have reported adverse reactions to Splenda than were formally studied in the research submitted for FDA approval! Please read these case reports when you can and certainly add your own experience if you have noticed a side effect from consuming Splenda.

The symptoms are so numerous I can't include them all here, but the following are common symptoms, usually noticed within a 24-hour period following consumption of Splenda products:

• Skin -- Redness, itching, swelling, blistering, weeping, crusting, rash, eruptions, or hives (itchy bumps or welts). These are the most common allergic symptoms that people have.
• Lungs -- Wheezing, tightness, cough, or shortness of breath
• Head -- Swelling of the face, eyelids, lips, tongue, or throat; headaches and migraines (severe headaches)
• Nose -- Stuffy nose, runny nose (clear, thin discharge), sneezing
• Eyes -- Red (bloodshot), itchy, swollen, or watery
• Stomach -- Bloating, gas, pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or bloody diarrhea
• Heart -- Palpitations or fluttering
• Joints -- Joint pains or aches
• Neurological -- Anxiety, dizziness, spaced-out sensation, depression

Tips for Ditching Splenda

You may become addicted to artificial sweeteners because you have cravings for sweets and think you are making a healthy choice by swapping out sugar for artificial sweeteners … but this is a myth.

For more information about why artificial sweeteners are not a smart health move (for instance did you know they can actually stimulate fat storage and weight gain?) read One More Reason to Ban Artificial Sweeteners from Your Diet.

If you're using Splenda because you're craving sweets, what your body is most likely really craving are healthy nutrients. Finding out your nutritional type will help you understand which foods you need to eat to feel full and satisfied. Once you start eating right for your nutritional type, your sweet cravings typically will significantly lessen and may even disappear.

Meanwhile, be sure you address the emotional component to your food cravings using a tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). More than any traditional or alternative method I have used or researched, EFT works to overcome food cravings.

And, if diet soda is the culprit for you, be sure to check out Turbo Tapping, which is an extremely effective and simple tool to get rid of your soda addiction in a short period of time.

For times when you are looking for a healthier sweet treat, the only alternative sweetener I recommend is Stevia. It's a natural plant and, unlike Splenda and other artificial sweeteners that have been cited for dangerous toxicities, it is a safe, natural alternative that's ideal if you're watching your weight or maintaining your health by avoiding sugar.

I must tell you that I am biased; I prefer Stevia as my sweetener of choice, and I frequently use it. However, like most choices, especially sweeteners, I recommend using Stevia in moderation, just like sugar.

Peace, love, and happiness...until next time...

Tidbits From The Web #76

The Black Hole...
It's scary what the actual US debt is...
Girl has catchy dance...
Earth from above...
A step closer to bootless computer...
Change your perception of reality...
How the dollar will die...
The most inspirational fisherman ever...
Big Brother will be watching your pills...
Google Earth tackles the universe...
Extreme walking...
13 of the ugliest animals...
Island made of plastic bottles...
Man-boy strikes again...
Space the final frontier...
Just Tweet It...or maybe not...
We have been pharmed out...
Homemade spacecraft... (props to Ernie)
10 facts about China you won't believe...
Baby deer wants Fido's toy...
19 facts about the US you won't believe...
Impossible shot...
Don't do drugs...or maybe do some after these PSAs...
The mainstream media is now obsolete...
Banks continue to steal our money...
Impossible predictions...
Hand feed the hummers...


Quantative easing 2 explained...



Is the video genius or gross? Remember no pressure...



Is Diet the Key to Living Long? Find out from World’s Oldest Living Man...

Knowledge

The Wonder of It All

"Do you ever wonder at the wonder of it all?" Today's feature is somewhat different form the usual Sites of the Day. The Wonder of It All, created by personal development specialist Ralph Marston, is a beautiful, positive audio and music presentation that provides food for thought. Leave the rat race for a few minutes of meditation, guaranteed to relieve the everyday stress placed by the demands of a hectic lifestyle. Take this opportunity to center yourself, to 'let go and let yourself feel the wonder of it all.'

Ancient China

The British Museum has developed an excellent interactive site on ancient China. There are five different areas to browse, Crafts and Artisans, Geography, Time, Tombs and Ancestors and Writing. Each area has basic historical information and a Story, a section that encourages you to Explore; last but not least is the interactive Challenge. Here's an interesting way to learn about ancient China and even test yourself to make sure you get the facts correct!

NOVA, scienceNOW

The PBS series, scienceNOW features the NOVA 'award-winning producers [who] have teamed up with Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, author, and host, to present multiple stories in a magazine format show. Each hour-long episode of NOVA scienceNOW features Tyson's "Cosmic Perspective" and four fast-paced, timely science and technology stories, including a profile piece on an intriguing personality in the field.' .Here's an original, unpredictable, and entertaining hour of science exploration. Now, you can revisit the programs at your leisure, having much more than a mere hour to digest the content, get educated as well as entertained, the supporting pages taking you far beyond the television series!

How to Kill a Cold, Starve a Fever -- and When You Absolutely MUST See a Doctor

Posted By Dr. Mercola

It could be just a little twitch or an irritating itch, but whatever it is, when it's happening to your body and you don't know what's causing it, it can be downright scary. The good news is that lots of scary symptoms are really no big deal.

As listed on CNN Health, here is a list of symptoms that might be a little freaky, but there's no reason to be scared of. It's OK to breathe easy when you have those skin tags, red spots, tremors, floaters, popping joints and palpitations.

And what if there is a reason to be concerned?

Certain clues, like unusual swelling or pain, can be reasons to see your physician.

Sources:

CNN Health September 28, 2010

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

The CNN article above mentions several symptoms that are not indicative of a serious health problem, from eye twitches and skin tags to bruising and occasional heart palpitations.

I agree that the symptoms addressed in their article are typically harmless and nothing to worry about, but I would add that any time you experience any kind of new or bothersome symptom, know that it's your body's way of communicating that something is not quite right, and that you may need to make some changes – especially if it's a recurring symptom, regardless of how harmless it may be.

To review the "scary but harmless" symptoms addressed by CNN, please see the source article.

Below I will address a few more that are commonly misunderstood and cause unnecessary worry.

Hemorrhaging Red Spots on Your Eyeball

This condition, known as subconjunctival hematoma, makes many people run to their doctor's office for an evaluation. But this is yet another case where it looks worse than it really is.

The red spot, or spots, on the white of your eye, is due to minor bleeding from the small capillaries beneath the surface. This can occur even without major trauma to your eye ball. All that is required is to increase the pressure in your eye, which can occur simply by rubbing your eye, coughing, or sneezing, for example.

About the only time you may want to call your doctor is if you're taking any kind of blood thinning medication, as any bleeding may then present a problem, depending on your condition.

Typically, however, these bright red spots will simply disappear in a few days, and do not require any kind of treatment.

Fever – Perhaps the Most Overtreated Symptom of All

A great number of people have completely misunderstood fever, and believe that fever can be dangerous in and of itself – especially when the fever occurs in a child.

It's important to realize that fever is your body's backup defense mechanism when your primary ones – mainly your immune system -- fail. Your first line of defense is your macrophages, which gobble up any invading microbes.

As long as your immune system is strong, you may not even realize you've been exposed to a troublesome bug.

If you are still under the impression that having a fever or 100 or 101 degrees Fahrenheit is an indication of a dangerous situation, relax! It's not!

Many infectious agents do not survive in elevated temperatures so your body increases the temperature in an effort to eradicate the infection. It is a healthy response.

Unfortunately, most parents end up giving their child potentially toxic doses of fever-reducing medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen when, in reality, their child's temperature is ideal for accomplishing healing. Worse yet, there are parents who administer aspirin at the first sign of fever, which actually poses a far greater health risk than any fever could, as aspirin may cause Reye's Disease, which can be lethal.

Mixing aspirin and ibuprofen can also be deadly under certain circumstances.

The Many Benefits of Letting Fever Run its Course

In order to put your worries to rest, it's important to understand the functions a fever serves, and why a rise in temperature is beneficial. Naturopathic physician Colleen Huber has done a marvelous job of explaining this in a previous article on my site, which I've summarized here.

First, the two functions of fever are:

1. To stimulate your immune system.
2. To create an inhospitable environment for invading organisms. That is, to turn up the heat high enough that the invading microbes cannot live.

If your macrophages – your first line of defense – are unable to manage the invasion of disease-causing microbes, they recruit other immune system cells and start making Interleukin One (IL-1). IL-1 is one of several endogenous pyrogens – they're part of a system that signal your body to raise your temperature.

Your hypothalamus acts as your internal thermostat, and once the IL-1 along with other endogenous pyrogens and proteins reach your hypothalamus, it starts to readjust your temperature.

Your body's heat-generating mechanisms include:

• Shivering
• The hormone TRH
• Vasoconstriction
• Piloerection (when your body hairs stand on end). This suppresses sweating (which is a cooling mechanism).

It would be far more helpful to think of a fever as a healing response rather than a symptom of disease. And, raising your body's temperature to between 102 to 103 degrees F is actually the ideal range of a fever because this is the temperature range in which microbes will be killed.

In addition to directly killing the microbes through heat, fever has a number of other benefits, including:

• Creating more antibodies -- cells trained to specifically attack the exact type of invader that your body is presently suffering from -- produced more specific to that bug than any pharmaceutical.
• Producing more white blood cells to fight off the invading microbes.
• Producing more interferon (which blocks spread of viruses to healthy cells).
• Walling off of iron, which bacteria feed on.

The Best Way to Treat a Fever

Contrary to popular belief, the best course of action is usually little or no action when it comes to fever.

Rather than working against it; trying to lower your temperature, you should work with it and allow it to run its course. The only time you need to worry or seek medical attention is if it rises very high, very fast. This could be a sign of an infection too serious for your body to handle.

To support your fever, naturopathic physicians recommend either fasting or eating foods such as broths and water because fever slows down peristalsis. Once your fever has broken, you can start eating solid foods again.

Fever is also best supported with plenty of good-old-fashioned rest.

When is Medical Attention Warranted for a Fever?

• Infants less than 1-month-old -- Seek care right away for fever greater than 100.4 degrees F in this age group. While waiting for care, breastfeed as often as the baby desires as your breast milk will also create antibodies against pathogens in your baby's mouth.
• Infants from 1-month to 3-months-old, with a temperature greater than 100.4 degrees F, if they appear ill. Again, breastfeed on demand while waiting for care.
• Children between 3 months and 36 months, with a temperature above 102.2 degrees F, if they appear ill.
• All age groups -- temperature over 104.5 degrees F.

Do You Need to See a Doctor for a Cold?

More than 300 different viruses can cause colds, so each time you have a cold it is caused by a distinct virus. It's important to realize that there are currently NO drugs available that can kill these cold-producing viruses.

There are, however, a number of ways to ensure you won't end up with a cold. One of the most important is to make sure you optimize your vitamin D levels year-round.

(In addition, there's compelling evidence that seasonal influenza is little more than a symptom of vitamin D deficiency!)

You need to be aware that antibiotics have no effect on viruses, and are therefore useless when you have a cold, even if it's severe. Not only that, but whenever you use an antibiotic, you're increasing your susceptibility to developing infections with resistance to that antibiotic -- and you can become the carrier of this resistant bug, and spread it to others.

The only types of infections that respond to antibiotics are bacterial infections, including sinus, ear and lung infections (bronchitis and pneumonia).

The following symptoms are signs you may be suffering from a bacterial infection rather than a cold virus, at which point you may want to contact your doctor:

• Fever over 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 degrees Celsius)
• Ear pain
• Pain around your eyes, especially with a green nasal discharge
• Shortness of breath or a persistent uncontrollable cough
• Persistently coughing up green and yellow sputum

Generally speaking, however, if you have a cold then medical care is not necessary.

Some Serious Diseases have No Symptoms Whatsoever…

Now that we've reviewed a few symptoms and conditions that are really no big deal, I want to direct your attention to a few common conditions that typically have no symptoms at all, until it's too late and disease progression sets in.

Examples include:

• Vitamin D deficiency -- As I mentioned earlier, one potential symptom of vitamin D deficiency is catching a cold, influenza, or other infection.
• High blood pressure
• High blood sugar
• High cholesterol

For more information about each of these conditions, please see the links provided.

Again, remember that any time your health suffers a set-back, whether it's temporary or chronic, it is your body's way of communicating to your conscious awareness that something has become unbalanced.

Correcting this unbalance, more often than not, involves making some form of lifestyle intervention or change, as opposed to taking drugs, which will only push your body into an even more unbalanced state.

Insight

EXPECTATIONS


Every one expects to go further than his father went; every one expects to be better than he was born, and every generation has one big impulse in its heart--to exceed all the other generations of the past in all things that make life worth living.

William Allen White


No one rises to low expectations.

Les Brown



TRUTH

One falsehood spoils a thousand truths.
--African Proverb

Some people handle the truth carelessly;
Others never touch it at all.
--Anonymous

Know Your State's Motto...

Alabama - Heck Yes, We Have Electricity.

Alaska - 11,623 Eskimos Can't Be Wrong!

Arizona - But Its A Dry Heat.

Arkansas - Literacy Aint Everything.

California - By 30, Our Women Have More Plastic Than Your Honda.

Colorado - If You Don't Ski, Don't Bother.

Connecticut - Like Massachusetts, Only The Kennedy's Don't Own It Yet.

Delaware - We Really Do Like The Chemicals In Our Water.

Florida - Ask Us About Our Grandkids, and Home Of The Early Bird Special

Georgia - We Put The Fun In Fundamentalist Extremism.

Hawaii - Haka Tiki Mou Sha'ami Leeki Toru (Death To Mainland Scum, Leave Your Money)

Idaho - More Than Just Potatoes... Well, Okay, We're Not, But The Potatoes Sure Are Real Good

Illinois - Please, Dont Pronounce the "S"

Indiana - 2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free

Iowa - We Do Amazing Things With Corn

Kansas - First Of The Rectangle States

Kentucky - Five Million People; Fifteen Last Names

Louisiana - Were Not ALL Drunk Cajun Wackos, But That's Our Tourism Campaign.

Maine - Were Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster

Maryland - If You Can Dream It, We Can Tax It

Massachusetts - Our Taxes Are Lower Than Sweden's

Michigan - First Line Of Defense From The Canadians

Minnesota - 10,000 Lakes...And 10,000,000,000,000 Mosquitoes

Mississippi - Come And Feel Better About Your Own State

Missouri - Your Federal Flood Relief Tax Dollars At Work

Montana - Land Of The Big Sky, The Unabomber, Right-wing Crazies, and Very Little Else.

Nebraska - Ask About Our State Motto Contest

Nevada - Prostitutes and Poker!

New Hampshire - Go Away And Leave Us Alone

New Jersey - You Want A ##$%##! Motto? I Got Yer ##$%##! Motto Right here!

New Mexico - Lizards Make Excellent Pets

New York - You Have The Right To Remain Silent; You Have The Right To An Attorney...

North Carolina - Tobacco Is A Vegetable

North Dakota - We Really Are One Of The 50 States!

Ohio - At Least We're Not Michigan

Oklahoma - Like The Play, But No Singing

Oregon - Spotted Owl...It's What's For Dinner

Pennsylvania - Cook With Coal

Rhode Island - Were Not REALLY An Island

South Carolina - Remember The Civil War? Well, We Didn't Actually Surrender Yet

South Dakota - Closer Than North Dakota

Tennessee - The Edyoocashun State

Texas - Se Hablo Ingles

Utah - Our Jesus Is Better Than Your Jesus

Vermont - Ay, Yep

Virginia - Who Says Government Stiffs And Slackjaw Yokels Don't Mix?

Washington - We Have More Rain Than You Do

West Virginia - One Big Happy Family...Really!

Wisconsin - Come Cut The Cheese!

Wyoming - Where Men Are Men... And The Sheep Are Scared

Whiskey & Gunpowder
By Henry Daniels
September 3, 2010
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Find Your Spiritual Center
Because You May Be Dead Soon

“Must Do” #4: Find Your Spiritual Center.

You must accept that you might be Plain Out Of Luck — that you might not make it. The Navy has a word for it: FUBAR.

Once upon a time I was working for Baird Atomic in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company did high tech (for the late 60s) electronics for NASA and the medical industry. As mentioned it was the late 60s, the summer of love and I ended up being the firm’s token hippie. One day me and another worker were taken aside and assigned a special task. We were walked over to a separate building and shown the schematics and parts for what eventually evolved into the MRI machine. We were told to build it and time each step so that Baird Atomic could figure out the costs involved in manufacturing it. Naturally, we wanted to help our company maximize their profits so we put the whole thing together in about four hours, then spent the next four hours disassembling most of it. The next day we finished it off around noon after taking a break for most of the morning. Total billable hours to assemble: 12. Total actual hours to assemble: 2. But that’s not the point of this anecdote. Rather it is to introduce you to my boss at the time, Lenny, an old navy salt with the most colorful language I’d ever heard. The only example of his use of the English language that is remotely repeatable in polite company is FUBAR. As in “you are FUBARed.” For those of you who don’t know what this acronym stands for, Wikipedia gives as good a definition as any, although they attribute it to the Army. All I know is I heard it from a Navy guy, so maybe it’s just a military thing.

And that relates to the topic of this article. If you accept that things are FUBAR, and therefore mostly out of your control, you allow yourself to find your spiritual center. I’m not talking religion, at least not necessarily. Spirituality can be personal as well. Again, we’ll cite Wikipedia for our definition of spirituality: “An inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being.”

By being centered, or spiritual, life becomes a lot easier. The journey to discover the essence of your being is not always easy, but it is always beneficial. You start relying on your own judgment, not the angry voices of the left and right. You tune out the media and start looking at life. You stop blaming external forces and accept responsibility for where you find yourself. As I listen to the vile rhetoric being spouted daily from all sides I wonder where all the hate and fear are coming from. It reminds me of the 60s when our country was far closer to revolution than it is today. Then as now, we had plenty of people screaming at those who chose to listen what was wrong with our country. Then as now, there was nobody offering viable solutions, just condemnations of things they opposed. Ever heard of constructive criticism? It seems a lost art. It’s easy to cast blame, it’s far harder to accept responsibility.

My advice is to go back to basics. One would be the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Far too few of us practice this concept today. If you do, you will find that life has an upside. If you don’t, you will wallow in the abyss of hypocrisy — “Do as I say, not as I do.” The other is that no matter how much you may believe your freedoms are being trampled, nobody can take away your right to freedom of choice. My parents really had only one rule for me growing up. It was admirable in its simplicity; it was astonishing in its deeper meaning. I was told that they would love and support me, no matter what I did “AS LONG AS I HAD THOUGHT THINGS THROUGH AND WAS WILLING TO ACCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES FOR MY ACTIONS.” In simplistic terms: look before you leap.

As we head into election season, the spin masters, propagandists and rabble rousers will be bombarding us with rhetoric, lies and clever disinformation. It’s easy to succumb and be afraid. It’s harder to seek the truth and make tough choices. To survive the politic-economic disasters facing us we need to be informed, act intelligently and most of all listen to our inner selves. I encourage everyone to fact check the statements you hear in the coming months. It’s astonishing to me how often lies become “the new facts” in today’s society. How a lie, told often enough, becomes the accepted truth. As a nation we should be better than this, though that probably asks too much. As an individual, we need to be better than this, and if you accept responsibility, look deep inside you, and make up your own mind, based on facts you have determined on your own to be true, then you have put yourself in a better place. Otherwise, in the words of another 60s icon, Janis Joplin, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

The Daily Reckoning Presents

Gold vs. The Fed: The Record Is Clear

Charles W. Kadlek There were no worldwide financial crises of major magnitude during the Bretton Woods era from 1947 to 1971. Lesson: Gold is a more efficient governor of monetary policy that the Federal Reserve. When it last met, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) signaled its desire to increase the rate of inflation by providing additional monetary stimulus. This policy is based on a false – and dangerous – premise: that manipulating the dollar’s buying power will lead to higher employment and economic growth. But the experience of the past 40 years points to the opposite conclusion: that guaranteeing a stable value for the dollar by restoring dollar-gold convertibility would be the surest way for the Federal Reserve to achieve its dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability. From 1947 through 1967, the year before the US began to weasel out of its commitment to dollar-gold convertibility, unemployment averaged only 4.7% and never rose above 7%. Real growth averaged 4% a year. Low unemployment and high growth coincided with low inflation. During the 21 years ending in 1967, consumer-price inflation averaged just 1.9% a year. Interest rates, too, were low and stable – the yield on triple-A corporate bonds averaged less than 4% and never rose above 6%. What’s happened since 1971, when President Nixon formally broke the link between the dollar and gold? Higher average unemployment, slower growth, greater instability and a decline in the economy’s resilience. For the period 1971 through 2009, unemployment averaged 6.2%, a full 1.5 percentage points above the 1947-67 average, and real growth rates averaged less than 3%. We have since experienced the three worst recessions since the end of World War II, with the unemployment rate averaging 8.5% in 1975, 9.7% in 1982, and above 9.5% for the past 14 months. During these 39 years in which the Fed was free to manipulate the value of the dollar, the consumer-price index rose, on average, 4.4% a year. That means that a dollar today buys only about one-sixth of the consumer goods it purchased in 1971. Interest rates, too, have been high and highly volatile, with the yield on triple-A corporate bonds averaging more than 8% and, until 2003, never falling below 6%. High and highly volatile interest rates are symptomatic of the monetary uncertainty that has reduced the economy’s ability to recover from external shocks and led directly to one financial crisis after another. During these four decades of discretionary monetary policies, the world suffered no fewer than 10 major financial crises, beginning with the oil crisis of 1973 and culminating in the financial crisis of 2008-09, and now the sovereign debt crisis and potential currency war of 2010. There were no world-wide financial crises of similar magnitude between 1947 and 1971. At the center of each of these crises were gyrating currency values – either on foreign-exchange markets or in terms of real goods and services. As the dollar’s value gyrates it produces windfall profits and losses, feeding speculation and poor judgment. The housing bubble was fed in part by 40 years of experience with a dollar that lost purchasing power every year. Today, individual investors are piling into gold and other commodities in hopes of finding a safe haven from the FOMC’s intention to decrease the buying power of the dollar and reduce the value of our savings. And what of the seductive promise that a floating dollar would make American labor more competitive and improve the nation’s trade balance? In 1967, one dollar could buy the equivalent of approximately 2.4 euros (based on the pre-euro German mark) and 362 yen. Over the succeeding 42 years, the dollar has been devalued by 72% against the euro and 75% against the yen. Yet net exports have fallen from a modest surplus in 1967 to a $390 billion deficit equivalent to 2.7% of GDP today. The members of the FOMC, like their predecessors, are trying to do the best they can, but they are not really sure what it is that needs to be done. They have kept the federal-funds rate near zero for almost two years, but small businesses find it difficult to get loans and savers suffer from the lost income brought by artificially low interest rates. Now they’re about to advocate higher inflation – i.e., less price stability – in hopes of spurring economic growth. Economists and pundits may disagree on why the gold standard delivered such superior results compared to the recurrent crises, instability and overall inferior economic performance delivered by the current system. But the data are clear: A gold-based system delivers higher employment and more price stability. The time has come to begin the serious work of building a 21st-century gold standard for the benefit of American workers, investors and businesses.

Peace, love, and happiness...until next time!

Tidbits From The Web #75

Iron Baby!
Lightning does strike twice...
20 parrot tricks in 2 minutes...
Burgers anyone?
What is your sign?
Let your color conscience be your guide...
Ghostbusters...the silent movie...
Wave photography... (props to Pops!)
Even more evidence that fluoride is BAD!
Putting a trillion dollars into perspective...
Skydiving rubik's cubing...
Strange sites on Google Earth...
AT-AT day afternoon...
4 year old cheeseburger...
Flying 2.0...
You can be a basketball master too...
The Taliban is funded by the CIA...
What are the odds...
Stop motion Mario...
Losing your arms doesn't mean you can't play the piano...
There goes the Internet...
How to make IT sound hip...
Be honest...you'd deck this guy if you saw him on the subway...
Mission Impossible...squirrel style...
Stop motion morning...
If the oil spill was at my home...
35 movies in 2 minutes...
Gotta love super easy mode!
Unused but useful words...
The life of a plastic bag...
How to be a yo-yo champ...




Sixth sense technology...




What if the people start waking up?




Even the troops are waking up...



The art of corporate mind control...

Knowledge

Answerbag.com

Question, 'What's in the bag?' Answer, 'Just about everything!' "Answerbag is a compilation of human knowledge and experience. It is a universal, user-generated set of frequently-asked questions (FAQs). It is built and policed by its users, a worldwide information community that is working together to make Answerbag an authoritative collection of questions and answers on any topic relevant today." A unique concept, Answerbag allows visitors to vote on the information contained in its pages, resulting in answers that are actually graded by the community, graded from A+ on down the scale. The answers have additional resources listed that pertain to the subject; although some may be commercial, the wealth of information makes a good resource for research on just about any subject. Should you choose to join the community, you can always present your own answers to the questions. Just remember, yours will be graded along with those of everyone else!

10 X 10 – This Is Now This fascinating site offers an ever-changing view of world events. Each hour, 10x10(tm) collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale and presents them in a single picture postcard. The pictures and corresponding news bytes are retrieved automatically from international news services – ABC, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, MSNBC and Reuters World News. Simply click on any of the 100 images to read the corresponding news stories.

Insight

THOUGHTS


We cannot control the parade of negative thoughts marching through our minds. But we can choose which ones we will give our attention to. Picture your thoughts as people passing by the front of your home. Just because they're walking by doesn't mean you have to invite them in.

Gladys Edmunds


What was once thought can never be unthought.

Friedrich Durrenmatt

A Parental Nightmare... A father passing by his son's bedroom was astonished to see the bed nicely made up and everything neat and tidy. Then he saw an envelope propped up prominently on the pillow. It was addressed, "Dad". With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands: Dear Dad, It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with you and Mom. I've been finding real passion with Joan and she is so nice. I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, her tight motorcycle clothes and because she is so much older than I am but it's not only the passion, Dad, she's pregnant. Joan says that we are going to be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood, enough for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children. Joan has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We'll be growing it and trading it with the other people in the commune for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for cancer so Joan can get better; she sure deserves it! Don't worry Dad, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday, I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to know your grandchildren. Your son, Chad P.S. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that's in my desk drawer.

Where Do We Come From?

A little girl asked her mother, 'How did the human race begin?' The mother answered, 'God made Adam and Eve and they had children and so all mankind began with His creation.'
Two days later the girl asked her father the same question. The father answered, 'Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved.'
The confused girl returned to her mother and said, 'Mom, how is it possible that you told me the humanrace was created by God, and Dad said they evolved from monkeys?'
The mother answered, 'Well, dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family and your father told you about his.'

Life B.C. (Before Computers)...

An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity
A keyboard was a piano!

Memory was something that you lost with age
A CD was a bank account
And if you had a 3 1/2 inch floppy You hoped nobody found out!
Compress was something you did to garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you unzipped anything in public
You'd be in jail for awhile!
Log on was adding wood to a fire
Hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a backup happened to your commode!

Cut - you did with a pocket knife
Paste you did with glue
A web was a spider's home
And a virus was the flu!

I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the memory in my head
I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash
But when it happens they wish they were dead!

Total government brings total poverty and misery. And that’s precisely where we’re headed. But more how do you get ready? How do you protect yourself? Read on to learn more and how to make sure you’re prepared.

Whiskey & Gunpowder
By Don Stott

Total Government

Am I speaking or writing about the War of Northern Aggression, incorrectly called the ‘Civil War’? Not on your life. I am talking about North and South Korea, and North and South Rhodesia. America is rapidly approaching the condition of North Korea and Zimbabwe, which used to be Southern Rhodesia.. Look at the absolute facts, and shudder.

North Korea is total government, as is Zimbabwe, or any other totalitarian state. Zimbabwe used to be Southern Rhodesia. Southern Rhodesia had thousands of individually owned, prosperous farms. Southern Rhodesia exported food, and was an extremely rich, white ruled, free nation. It became independent from Britain in 1965. It was bordered by Zambia, (Northern Rhodesia, which was never free), Mozambique, (formerly a Portuguese colony), and Botswana. In 1978, after years of incredible pressure from the United Nations, Rhodesian President Ian Smith, signed an agreement with three black African leaders, with the promise of white protection. Fat chance. That sealed the doom of Rhodesia. I can still hear Smith begging for help from the free world, as his nation was being overrun, smothered and ruined, but there was no help. Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, and with it, total government, poverty, deforestation, inflation, murder, and seizing of white farms. Total government, in short, took what used to be prosperous Rhodesia, and turned it into total poverty, no freedom, and actual slavery. Whites are gone, as are their farms, which have been divided up and given to blacks, ‘who needed them.’ Whites are also gone or leaving South Africa after being murdered and their farms and businesses seized.

North Korea, as opposed to South Korea, is the difference between night and day. North Koreans are starving, regimented, murdered, and live in abject poverty. North Korea does not lack natural resources, farm land, rain and sunshine, but it has total government. Total government has enslaved, and is literally starving the populace. South Korea makes things, sells things, and is happy and prosperous. South Korea’s government is miniscule, compared to America’s, and that’s why Korean cars are excellent, and lots of things are made and exported in and from South Korea.

In 1935, Amos Pinchot wrote that, “Today the nations in the world may be divided into two classes. The nations in which the government fears the people, and the nations in which the people fear the government.” And that sentence speaks volumes.

When America was founded, the government was at the will of the citizens and states. Today, central government in Washington D.C., with thousands of branches and bureaucrats everywhere, are ruling us, rather than us ruling them. We are afraid of government, whereas government should be afraid of us. It isn’t, and thus we have the addendum to the health care bill, which was passed without a single Republican vote, part of which says that any sale over $600 must be reported on a 1099 form to the IRS, beginning Jan. 1st, 2012.

This is fantasy, as far as I can see. Buy a new refrigerator and get a 1099? Buy a new sofa and get a 1099? Buy lots of groceries at one time and get a 1099? Buy a new or used car and get a 1099? Transmission job and get a 1099? How about a yard sale of a $600 something or other? Buy a row boat or canoe and get a 1099? Buy or sell a single Gold Eagle and get a 1099? Millions of forms flooding the IRS, and thousands of new employees to handle them? In addition to the 17,000 new IRS employees to search out everyone to be sure they have health insurance? That would make the IRS probably the largest bureaucracy in D.C. It’s simply too absurd to contemplate. There’s already a bill in Congress to delete this provision of the health care bill, and why not get rid of the whole thing? When idiotic Congress does a 2,000 page bill, and inserts a provision in it, without even a particle of thinking; obviously it must be deleted, or we will become a slave state almost overnig ht! This absurdity doesn’t take place till Jan. 1st, 2012, and by that time, this provision will no longer exist, I am certain.

Which brings us back to North Korea and Zimbabwe, which have total government. As my son David’s bumper strips say, “Government is not the answer.” This fact is becoming quite obvious to millions of Americans, and we have the Tea Party as proof. The socialistic Democrats are scared to death of November, and I don’t blame them. They’ll do everything in their power to change America’s disgust with them, but hopefully it won’t work, because they’d all be lies.

We’re on the march, via Obama and his henchmen in Congress, towards total government, total poverty and enslavement, a la North Korea and Zimbabwe. We cannot allow this to happen. Why isn’t it so obvious to Democrats, that the more government we have, the less responsibility we have, the less prosperity we have, the less jobs we have, and the less freedom and happiness we have? It is as plain as the nose on their faces. Why should it be necessary to clean out Congress? The Democratic platform of 1924 read in part: “We demand that the states of the Union shall be preserved in all their vigor and power. They constitute a bulwark against the centralizing and destructive tendencies of the Republican party.” Got that? The Democrats were worried about the Republicans, back in 1924, and now just the opposite is true. In 1930, as part of a speech, FDR said, “The individual sovereignty of our states must be destroyed.” A lot changed in six years, a nd the change has stuck with the Democrats.

As I finish this; last week, an additional 464,000, for the first time filled out applications for relief. An average of 450,000 new un-employed each week! Week after week, people are still getting laid off. Who would hire someone today, with compulsory health care on the immediate horizon, paid by the employer? Who would hire anyone now, with a bureaucrat snooping over your shoulder at every turn, to be sure you obeyed the myriad laws regarding hiring someone? Who would attempt to run a business, in the most hostile government attitude towards business in history? Who would start a business if you had the possibility of filling out hundreds of 1099 forms and having an IRS agent checking everything but your blood pressure? Lame brained Congress just passed billions more in benefits for the unemployed, so why should anyone even look for a job, when they can get $500 a week in some places, for sitting on their duffs and watching inane TV? Writing this drivel, makes me sick. What has happened to America?

Peace, love and happiness...until next time...

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties."
-Sir Francis Bacon

Tidbits From The Web #74

Chewing gum and helium...
Further your learning with free online courses from MIT!
Star Wars cantina scene reimagined...
10 news stories that the BP oil spill is overshadowing...
Part insect...part timepiece...
The Great Abyss...
Can wolves sing?
Not to beat a dead Kenya horse...
Exercise ball prank...
We too broke to be this stupid...
Stay away from these lawyers...
The vaccine shock of the year...
Some pretty pics for you to browse...
Portable parking spot...
Mmmmmm...baaaaaaconnnnn...
Goodbye Arabia?
99 surprising financial facts...
10 greatest MLB offensive performances...
31 enormous fish...
The U.S. economic collapse top 20 countdown...
What is your card of destiny?
The housing non-recovery...
Crazy cubes...
What is your lifepath and attitude numbers?
Did you ever wanna make your own McDonald's fries?
A vision on the coming apocalypse?


Obama wants a New World Order...

Knowledge

The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

"The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth hosts the best and most complete online collection of astronaut photographs of the Earth. Beginning with the Mercury missions in the early 1960s, astronauts have taken photographs of the Earth. Our database tracks the locations, supporting data, and digital images for these photographs. We process images coming down from the International Space Station on a daily basis and add them to the 1,014,729 views of the Earth already made accessible on our website." So states the introduction to this NASA site that houses close to 3 million images from outer space. If you can't find what you're looking for on this site, it's probably not available! Do not despair ove ther size; there is a Search facility available as well as the ability to search the vast database by collections to make your search a lot more manageable.

Watch: Zoofs "Orbitting around the Twitter sphere" to determine the most talked about YouTube vids over the previous 72 hours, Zoof organizes results in a slick thumbnail gallery (sporting embedded playback) from most to least popular, though you can search sub-categories like music, comedy, or even education, cause nothing's more entertaining than watching someone get hit with knowledge. Wave goodbye to productivity at Zoofs.com

Suds-Making: Grow Your Own Beer Garden Taking "home brew" to a whole new level, this sud-ssentials kit arrives stocked with a 10"x10" "growing dome", plant stakes, natural gravel, and seed packs for "the magic three": hops, wheat, and barley, which apparently can "regulate blood sugar levels for up to ten hours after consumption". Blood Sugar Levels: 1, Voice Volume: 0. Go from garden to bottle with the kit from ThinkGeek.com

Today's Quotes

INFLUENCE/ASSOCIATION

“Be careful the environment you choose, for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose, for you will become like them.” —W. Clement Stone

“Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who wants to live in gloom and doom otherwise. Give lifting that person your best show, but don’t hang around long enough for his or her bad attitude to pull you down. Instead, surround yourself with optimistic people.” —Zig Ziglar

“You don’t have to be a ‘person of influence’ to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they’ve taught me.” —Scott Adams

“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will continue to have a significant effect on your life long after they have departed.” —Jim Rohn

Fun

Too Many Cooks
A wife is scrambling eggs when her husband bursts into the kitchen.

"Careful," he cries. "Careful! You're cooking too many at once. Too many! Scramble them! Now! We need more butter. They're going to stick! Careful! Now scramble them again! Hurry up! Are you crazy? Don't forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. Use the salt! The salt!"

The wife turns and asks, "What is wrong with you?"

Her husband calmly replies, "I wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving."

Angels and Demons...

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and populated the Earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow and red vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

Then using God's great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and Krispy Creme Donuts. And Satan said, "You want chocolate with that?"

And Man said, "Yes!" and Woman said, "and as long as you're at it, add some sprinkles." And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.

And God created the healthful yogurt that Woman might keep the figure that Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the wheat, and sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6 to size 14.

So God said, "Try my fresh green salad." And Satan presented Ranch Dressing, buttery croutons and garlic toast on the side. And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.

God then said, "I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil in which to cook them." And Satan brought forth deep fried fish and chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.

God then created a light, fluffy white cake, named it "Angel Food Cake," and said, "It is good." Satan then created chocolate cake and named it "Devil's Food."

God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might lose those extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.

Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.

God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still satisfy his appetite. And Satan created McDonald's and its 99-cent double cheeseburger. Then said, "You want fries with that?" And Man replied, "Yes! And super size them!" And Satan said, "It is good." And Man went into cardiac arrest.

God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.

Then Satan created HMOs.

LOVE IS ...

... WELL ... IS ...

by David Icke

The antidote to the madness of Mind is the knowing of heart. It is what we call 'love', though no word exists, not even a vibration, which can capture the meaning of love in its Infinite, stillness and silence.

Mind thinks it knows love, but it is blind to its true immensity, numb to its music, its poetry, its All Knowing. Rumi wrote:

Those who don't feel this Love
pulling them like a river,
those who don't drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don't want to change,

Let them sleep.

This Love is beyond the study of theology,
that old trickery and hypocrisy.
If you want to improve your mind that way,

Sleep on.

I've given up on my brain.
I've torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away.

If you're not completely naked,
wrap your beautiful robe of words
around you,

And sleep.

We talk about the 'conscious' Mind when Mind without true Consciousness is unconscious. Most of this 'world' is unconscious as it - unconsciously - follows the programs of Mind believing them to be self-awareness and personal 'choice'. Yet it is only reaction to program, like a computer reading a disk.

Mind is the vehicle for Consciousness - but the 'car' has become also the driver.

Peace, love, and happiness until next time...