Just because he's angry
... doesn't mean he's right.
... or even well-informed.
Something to think about when dealing with a customer, a leader or even a neighbor.
It's easy to assume that vivid emotions spring from the truth. I'm not so sure. They often come from fear and confusion and well-told stories.
- Seth Godin
Sure, but what's the hard part?
Every project (product, play, event, company, venture, non profit) has a million tasks that need to be done, thousands of decisions, predictions, bits of effort, conversations and plans.
Got that.
But what's the hard part?
The CEO spends ten minutes discussing the layout of the office with the office manager. Why? Was that a difficult task that could only be done by her? Unlikely.
The founder of a restaurant spends hours at the cash register, taking orders and hurrying the line along... important, vital, emotional, but hard? Not if we think of hard as the chasm, the dividing line between success and failure. No, the hard part is raising two million dollars to build more stores. Hard is hiring someone better than you to do this part of the job.
Hard is not about sweat or time, hard is about finishing the rare, valuable, risky task that few complete.
Don't tell me you want to launch a line of spices but don't want to make sales calls to supermarket buyers. That's the hard part.
Don't tell me you are a great chef but can't deal with cranky customers. That's the hard part.
Don't tell me you have a good heart but don't want to raise money. That's the hard part.
Identifying which part of your project is hard is, paradoxically, not so easy, because we work to hide the hard parts. They frighten us.
CINNAMON AND HONEY
Honey is the only food on the planet that will not spoil or rot. It will do what some call turning to sugar. In reality honey is always honey. However, when left in a cool dark place for a long time it will do what I rather call "crystallizing". When this happens I loosen the lid, boil some water, and sit the honey container in the hot water, turn off the heat and let it liquefy. It is then as good as it ever was. Never boil honey or put it in a microwave. To do so will kill the enzymes in the honey.
HEART DISEASES:
Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, apply on bread, instead of jelly and jam, and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol in the arteries and saves the patient from heart attack. Also, those who have already had an attack, if they do this process daily, they are kept miles away from the next attack.. Regular use of the above process relieves loss of breath and strengthens the heart beat. In America and Canada , various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as you age, the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalize the arteries and veins.
ARTHRITIS:
Arthritis patients may take daily, morning and night, one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. If taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured. In a recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon Cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week, out of the 200 people so treated, practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain, and within a month, mostly all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis started walking without pain.
BLADDER INFECTIONS:
Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm waterand drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder.
CHOLESTEROL:
Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water, given to a cholesterol patient, was found to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10 percent within two hours. As mentioned for arthritic patients, if taken three times a day, any chronic cholesterol is cured. According to information received in the said Journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.
COLDS:
Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold, and clear the sinuses.
GAS:
According to the studies done in India and Japan, it is revealed that if Honey is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas.
IMMUNE SYSTEM:
Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacteria and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of Honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacterial andviral diseases.
INDIGESTION:
Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food relieves acidity and digests the heaviest of meals.
INFLUENZA:
A scientist in Spain has proved that honey contains a natural ' Ingredient' which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu.
LONGEVITY:
Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly, arrests the ravages of old age. Take four spoons of honey, one spoon of cinnamon powder, and three cups of water and boil to make like tea. Drink 1/4 cup, three to four times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life spans also increase and even a 100 year old, starts performing the chores of a 20-year-old..
SKIN INFECTIONS:
Applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts cures eczema, ringworm and all types of skin infections.
FATIGUE:
Recent studies have shown that the sugar content of honey is more helpful rather than being detrimental to the strength of the body. Senior citizens, who take honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts, are more alert and flexible. Dr. Milton, who has done research, says that a half tablespoon of honey taken in a glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, taken daily after brushing and in the afternoon at about 3:00 P.M. when the vitality of the body starts to decrease, increases the vitality of the body within a week.
The Times They Are A Changing - Bob Dylan
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin' or you’ll sink like a stone'
For the times they are a-changin'
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin'
And there’s no tellin' who that it's namin'
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside and it is ragin'
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changing
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'
A good quote
"A leader is not an administrator who loves to run others, but someone who carries water for his people so they can get on with their jobs."
~Robert Townsend
Neat!
A new IKEA store in the Denver area will employ 500-foot-deep
holes in its cooling and heating system. The 130 holes will be
just below the store's parking garage. Temperatures in the holes
hover around 55 degrees year round, so air inside them can be
pumped up into the cooling and heating system to reduce energy
costs by up to fifty percent. Nationwide, geothermal has the
potential for saving billions of dollars in energy costs.
Opening in 2011, the new Denver store has the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory as a partner in the design and construction of
the geothermal energy components. The system works basically as a
series of pipes placed in the holes containing a liquid like
water, which takes on the temperature of the soil walls of the
holes and then is transported back up to surface level. If the
temperature at the surface is hot during summer, the 55-degree
water is used for cooling, and if it is winter, it is used for
warming.
Erin Anderson, geothermal analyst said, "We're trying to
determine what the temperature is all the way down as a way to
achieve a comfortable temperature in the store. We have this
ground that is pretty steadily cooler in the summer when you want
cool air and warmer in the winter when you want warm air."
Digging the 500-foot holes requires four to five hours at a time,
if everything goes well. If there are difficulties, one hole can
take all day. The cost of drilling should be offset by energy
savings fairly early in the store's life and the geothermal
energy system is expected to function well for as long as the
building is in use. The hope for the Denver area store is that it
will be a model for other commercial geothermal projects.
A Chanukah Message
Every human being was created with the unique capacity of bringing light in some form to this world! Chanukah celebrates the triumph of that light over selfish, dark, senseless impulses in humanity. Ultimately, this holiday teaches each and every willing and able person that in the battle of light and dark, light will always prevail and that light is infinitely more powerful than darkness.
We begin lighting the menorah with one candle. And we end up with eight. Why? Because goodness is contagious and lies at the natural essence of each created being!
So, in brief, Chanukah teaches us that we can all light up the world one good deed at a time, one little flame at a time. When you have done one good deed today, never be satisfied. Do one more tomorrow. And soon you will see that your candle, together within mine, will rid the world, once and for all, of the darkness of hatred and pain
From Shirley MacLaine Newsletter
Although space fare has steadily improved over time, a team of
scientists says the best is yet to come. They look forward to
when residents of future lunar or even Martian outposts can dine
on luxuries such as fresh vegetables.
Paragon Space Development Corporation has unveiled what it called the first step toward growing flowers - and eventually food - on the Moon. Paragon, an Arizona company that has partnered with NASA in previous experiments on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, calls it a "Lunar Oasis". It's a sealed greenhouse that looks like a bell jar encased in a 1.5
foot tall triangular aluminums frame.
It's designed to safely land a laboratory plant on the lunar
surface, and protect it while it grows. The miniature greenhouse
is to be launched into space by Odyssey Moon Ltd, a participant
in the Google Lunar X Prize. Paragon officials say future testing
of the "Lunar Oasis" will be driven by Odyssey's flight schedule,
which will not happen until 2012 at the earliest.
When it does lift off the greenhouse will contain the seeds of
Brassica, a hardy plant related to Brussels sprouts and cabbage
that is used in the production of cooking oil and livestock feed.
Because Brassica goes from seed to flower in just 14 days, it can
complete its life cycle in a single lunar night.
"Colonizing the Moon or Mars seems so far away, but it is
important that we do this research now," Paragon president Jane
Poynter said. "It takes a long time to get a lot of research,
and to get integrated, reliable efficient systems" before
colonists move in, she said.
NASA, which will retire its Space Shuttle fleet this year, has
committed to two new goals: returning astronauts to the Moon by
2020, and a manned mission to Mars by 2030.
"I was pleased to see this (project) put together by Paragon,"
said Gene A. Giacomelli, a professor at the University of Arizona
Department of Plant Sciences. "NASA has pulled back on funding
for bio-regenerative life support systems, and most of the
centers in the US that had been doing that research had stopped."
Giacomelli and students at the university's Controlled
Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) are working on their own
as-yet-unfunded lunar greenhouse.
The agriculture center also makes remote operational improvements
to its existing, state-of-the-art hydroponic "growth chamber" at
the National Science Foundation's new Amundsen-Scott South Pole
Station in Antarctica.
Conditions at the South Pole, which include a high-altitude, low
air-pressure environment, and wind-chill factors of minus 100 C,
make the project a "good analog" to conditions at a lunar
outpost, Giacomelli said.
The South Pole greenhouse, now in its fifth year, allows workers
living in the coldest place on Earth to dine on tomatoes,
peppers, lettuce, strawberries and fragrant herbs. It produces
about 27 kilos (60 pounds) each week, enough to provide each of
the 75 scientists there with two salads per day.
"This isn't science fiction," Giacomelli said. "We have the
technology to sustain life on the other planets right now, if we
could get there."
There are many challenges to growing plants in space, but the
biggest is finding enough water on site to support a permanent
outpost. An expedition to Mars will take three years to
complete, so plants must multi-task: remove toxins from the space
facility air, recycle wastes, generate oxygen, provide nutrients
for future crops, and produce food.
I wouldn't mind having something like that in my backyard!
A few things to think about ...
1. Anyone who rushes through life always finishes last! This is a truth unseen by the masses, but evident to those weary of going nowhere fast. You race as you do to escape the unhappiness you feel being where we are, running towards what you imagine will free you from that dissatisfaction. But such races are always lost before they begin because you can't outrun yourself!
2. All forms of momentum are mindless, but never more so than when a mind--blinded by desire--runs after what it wants without any awareness of its action.
3. Patience is a great virtue whose cost is paid by becoming painfully conscious of what our impatience does to others.
4. The rush to judgment is a race that nobody wins!
5. Allowing the rushed state of another person to push you into an anxious state of mind is like letting the horse you're about to ride convince you to wear the saddle!
6. You are well on our way to reclaiming your original fearless Self when you find your source of peace and contentment in just being alive.
7. Rushing through life lends the one who habitually hurries the feeling of being "important," but loans such as these come at the high cost of always having to justify one's unkindness--like when we have to convince ourselves that our impatience with others is a necessary evil along the way to that "greater good" towards which we think we run.
8. The main reason it's wise to listen to one's own heart--whenever we can step out of the rush and remember to do so--is because there's much more to be learned from the parts of us that don't "speak" in words . . .than those that do.
9. The most important thing to remember whenever you find yourself in a mad rush is that what you are really trying to get to is a quiet mind . . . a peaceable state of self reached only by realizing there is no place more empowering for you to be than in the present moment.
(Excerpted from The Courage to Be Free, Weiser Books, 2010
Guy Finley is the best-selling author of more than 38 books and audio albums on self-realization. He is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit center for self-study located in southern Oregon where he gives talks four times each week. For more information visit www.guyfinley.org,
Good advice!
Just pursue your goal…inhabit it. Wear it, act it, live it, taste it! Get committed—take action!"
~Gary Ryan Blair
"A Parent's Note to a Teacher"
by Anonymous
I'm the voice of a grateful parent
whose child was in your class...
the one who needed help to find his way
You've been a special blessing
as you helped my child succeed
and I'm thankful for the part you had to play
You gave him so much more
than just the lessons in the books
you gave him wings...so he could learn to fly
You ignited a flame within his soul
a passion to learn and grow...
to never give up and always be willing to try
Your encouragement inspired him
and your kindness was so real
but the thing that thrills my heart the most is this...
By building his self-confidence
you changed his life this year
he believes in himself...and a brighter future is his!
Good News from Shirley MacLaine Blog
They leap from helicopters or speeding boats, bringing aid to swimmers who get into trouble off Italy's popular beaches.For these canine lifeguards, the doggie paddle does just fine.
Hundreds of specially trained dogs from Italy's corps of canine lifeguards are deployed each summer to help swimmers in need of rescue.
These "lifedogs" wear a harness or tow a buoy that victims can grab, or a raft they can sit on to be towed back to shore, and unlike their human counterparts, they can easily jump from helicopters and speeding boats to reach swimmers in trouble.
With millions flocking to Italy's crowded beaches each summer, the Italian Coast Guard says it rescues about 3,000 people every year — and their canine helpers are credited with saving several lives.
It takes three years for the canines to reach expert rescue status, and currently 300 dogs are fully trained for duty, said Roberto Gasbarri, who coordinates the Italian School of Canine Lifeguards program at a center outside of Rome in the seaside town of Civitavecchia.
"Dogs are useful in containing the physical fatigue of the lifeguard, to increase the speed at which casualties are retrieved, to increase the security of both the casualty and of the lifeguard," Gasbarri said.
"The dog becomes a sort of intelligent lifebuoy. It is a buoy that goes by itself to a person in need of help, and comes back to the shore also by himself, choosing the best landing point and swimming through the safest currents," he said.
The Civitavecchia center is one of a dozen around the country for the school founded more than 20 years ago in the northern province of Bergamo by Ferruccio Pilenga, whose first trainee was his own Newfoundland.
5 things that ruin strong marriages
By Dr. Marion Goertz, RMFT
As a child, I used to wonder what happened to the couple after they walked off into the sunset at the end of a Hollywood movie. As an adult, I know that sunset strolls and happy endings take lots of hard work and planning. Here are 10 life situations couples may face...post credit roll...and some ideas about how to keep the music playing!1. Fighting fatigue… careers, children, caring for aging parents and on it goes. Life's responsibilities take every ounce of creative energy that we have, often short-changing our couple time. Five fatigue busters:
Good nutrition, proper rest, adequate exercise, recharging social times as a couple and grounding spiritual practices.2.
The battle of the budget…Stretching finances, unforeseen expenses, different perspectives on money and power differentials can all cause feelings of hurt and insecurity. Be responsible and be fair. If necessary, involve an objective third party to help establish and monitor a mutually workable budget.3. Failure to honour…Our primary relationships are about as healthy as we are. Shaky self esteem, poor physical fitness, depression, untreated illness and unrealistic expectations can sometimes lead to poor coping mechanisms like addictions and even affairs. We have the right and the responsibility to take good care of ourselves, our partner and our relationship. As needed, seek the best medical and emotional care that is available.4. Friendly invasions… As an adult, your new, chosen family needs to be your first priority and demands your strongest loyalty. Does your spouse take second place to other people in your life? Who gets your time, your energy and therefore your respect? A healthy and undivided home, surrounded by appropriate boundaries, allows for the greatest enjoyment of friends and extended family members.5. Words that wound…While differing opinions are necessary in healthy relationships, criticism, hostile humor, avoidance and dismissal will surely poison even the most committed unions.
As you talk to or about your spouse are you building strong connections through your words, your facial expressions and your body language or demolishing your own happiness? Do yourself a favour, love your spouse!
Winners and Losers
You will only become a winner by doing what winners do. Losers do what losers do. They never seem to change. Nobody goes overnight from loser to winner. It’s not like suddenly winning the lottery. Winning in life is a growth experience.
Remember, by the inch it’s a cinch, by the yard it’s hard.
For you to be a consistent winner in life, the negatives must be removed. If any of the negative habits and attitudes of a loser persist in your life, isn’t now a good time to identify them and begin to work on improving? All you have to do is tackle the most difficult habit or task each day and work on it.
Do the difficult first and all else will be easy.
What is the most difficult task you have before you today? Do it now—don’t wait! If you truly want to be a winner in life, you must act today. Remember, “today is the tomorrow you hoped for yesterday.” Now is the only time any action can take place. If you don’t begin now, you will never begin. Success on any level of being occurs through the hourglass effect—little by little, grain by grain, the habits of winning accumulate.
Soon, your life will be filled with fulfillment and richness. I wish you the very best in developing a winning personality. So, act now on the realization of your fondest dreams and hopes. Act today the way you’d feel having them already within your grasp. They are already there once you begin to act on them. Act today—do not delay. You’ll be forever glad you did!
Bless you in the sweet richness of life,
-Peter Ragnar
A Heart Pump Ticks Down, and a Stranger Steps In to Help
By
DENISE GRADYASSIST PUMP Khristine Orlanes, a nurse practitioner, found the batteries for Mr. Volpe.
Mr. Volpe, 67, a slight, gray-haired man, looked in his car for the bag he always keeps nearby with spare batteries. But, no bag. In his mind’s eye he saw exactly where he had left it, to make sure he would not forget it, on a chair near the door back home — an hour and a half away. He thought of the clever little hand pump he had been given to keep his mechanical heart going in an emergency. It, too, was in the missing bag. Standing in the parking lot, he could hear one thing. Beep. Beep. Beep.
“I have to admit, I panic,” he said.
Mr. Volpe is one of thousands of Americans who have had these pumps, called left ventricular assist devices, surgically implanted to help their failing hearts. Former
Vice President Dick Cheney is another. Sometimes the pumps are used to keep people alive until a transplant becomes available, but in other cases they are meant to remain as long as the patient lives.
Mr. Volpe, a retired subway conductor who had had two heart attacks and two bypass operations, had an assist pump implanted in October 2009 by Dr. Yoshifumi Naka at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital.
The pump is placed near the patient’s own heart. A power line emerges about waist level and connects to a controller, a mini-computer which plugs into a pair of one-and-a-half-pound, 12-volt batteries. Patients wear a black mesh vest over their clothing that holds the controller and batteries. The pump Mr. Volpe had, a HeartMate XVE, made by Thoratec, could run for about four hours on two batteries. The pumps cost $70,000 to $80,000, usually covered by insurance.
That day in the parking lot in December, in Fishkill, in upstate New York, Mr. Volpe was too far from Columbia to get there in time. But his wife phoned its heart-pump clinic, and
nurse practitioners told her to call 911 for an ambulance to the nearest hospital.
Mr. Volpe knew that if the pump stopped, he was not likely to die immediately; his own heart, though weak, would probably keep him alive. But he was still in real danger, because clots would form in the mechanical heart if it quit, and cause a stroke if they escaped into his bloodstream.
Dr. Donna Mancini, Mr. Volpe’s cardiologist and director of the
heart failure and transplant program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, said the hospital had not encountered a situation like this before.
“But with these devices getting more use, it may arise,” Dr. Mancini said.
Right now, Dr. Mancini said, Columbia has 45 patients with pumps who are waiting for transplants. Just a few years ago, there were only 10.
She said she did not know why, but this year fewer donor hearts have become available than in the past, leaving more patients dependent on the pumps. Usually, the hospital performs 80 to 100 transplants a year.
“This year we’re on a course that will probably yield around 60 transplants,” Dr. Mancini said, adding that there were about 150 patients on Columbia’s waiting list.
Nationwide, 3,138 people are waiting for heart transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Last year, 2,211 received new hearts.
Thoratec said that in the past decade or so, a total of 6,000 XVE devices and 5,000 of a newer model, the HeartMate II (the one Mr. Cheney has) had been implanted.
An ambulance took Mr. Volpe to Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie. But that hospital does not implant assist pumps, and had no batteries or hand pump. Doctors there, advised by Columbia, began dripping in a blood-thinning drug, heparin, to prevent clots.
Meanwhile, Khristine Orlanes, a nurse practitioner at Columbia, began trying to find another patient with an assist pump who was close enough to bring Mr. Volpe a set of batteries in time.
She called Robert Bump, 61, a building contractor who worked near Poughkeepsie. He had six spare batteries in a knapsack.
“I’m on my way,” Mr. Bump said.
An electrician offered to drive, and they tore off in his pickup truck. The electrician called a state trooper friend, told him the story and said, “We’re not stopping.”
A police car met them partway to Poughkeepsie and escorted them. They made the half-hour trip in about 20 minutes.
Mr. Bump strode into the emergency room and spotted Mr. Volpe on a gurney, surrounded by doctors, nurses and his frantic wife. The alarm was still beeping. A doctor, noticing Mr. Bump’s black-mesh vest and the controller, said, “Oh, he’s got one, too.”
Mr. Volpe, who had no idea what plans had been hatched on his behalf, said: “I see this big fellow walk in. I recognized the outfit right away.”
Mr. Bump snapped the batteries in place and said, “O.K., you’re good.”
There was a small round of applause in the emergency room. Mr. Volpe could not stop saying thank you.
His pump, due to run out in 15 minutes, had somehow lasted nearly an hour, but apparently had just minutes left when Mr. Bump arrived.
The two men had different pump models that happened to use the same batteries. If Mr. Bump had been using a newer version of the batteries for his model, they would not have been compatible with Mr. Volpe’s.
“Mr. Volpe’s stars were aligned that day,” Mr. Bump said. “There is some reason that gentleman needs to be here.”
On July 24, after nearly a year on his assist pump, Mr. Bump made it to the top of the waiting list and received a transplant at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia. At the hospital, his wife overheard the spouse of another transplant patient say that she, too, was from upstate.
Mr. Bump’s wife mentioned that her husband had helped another patient from the same area who needed batteries for an assist pump.
“That was my husband,” the other woman said.
By coincidence, Mr. Volpe had also just received a transplant.
Last week, the two were up and about, in good spirits. Both said they owed their lives to the assist pumps — but were thrilled to be free of them. Both were desperate for showers, after nearly a year of sponge baths. They would not miss the vests, either. On more than one occasion, Mr. Bump had had to reassure strangers that he was not wearing a bomb.
Leaving a sitting room at the hospital last Thursday, Mr. Bump rose first and offered Mr. Volpe a hand getting up.
“No thanks,” Mr. Volpe said softly, smiling. “You gave me enough help, Robert.”
Why am I shy? New study offers insight on introverts
Shy or introverted people may actually process the world differently than those who are more extroverted, according to a new study.
Researchers have determined that about 20 percent of people are born with a personality trait called “sensory perception sensitivity,” or SPS, which facilitates an inhibited, even neurotic, demeanor.
Colloquially, we say those people are “slow to warm up” to social situations, or may cry easily, or offer deeper than expected thoughts, according to the study.
Researchers at Stony Brook University in New York and Southwest University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China gave 16 participants a questionnaire to separate participants into two groups: sensitive and non-sensitive.
The researchers asked the participants to compare a photograph of a visual scene with one of a preceding scene, asking whether or not the scene had changed. Some changes were subtle; some were obvious. While participants looked at the scenes, the researchers scanned each participant’s brain with functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, machine.
The scientists found that participants deemed “sensitive” analyzed the scenes with subtle differences for a longer time than “non-sensitive” participants did, demonstrating greater activation in brain areas involved in associating visual input with other input to the brain and with visual attention.
The results suggested that highly sensitive individuals:
- Prefer to take longer to make decisions.
- Are more conscientious.
- Need more time to themselves in order to reflect.
- Are more easily bored with small talk.
Those attributes complement previous research, which found that highly sensitive individuals are more bothered by noise and crowds, affected by caffeine, and easily startled compared to “non-sensitive” individuals.
All that may seem obvious, but the research suggests that sensory sensitivity is a result of an inherent nature to be more attentive to experiences — not the other way around.
A sensitivity trait is found in more than 100 other species, suggesting that it could offer an evolutionary advantage or disadvantage: the thinkers versus the doers.
Example: Thinkers could survive in a dangerous situation that requires thought, but doers may have better chances in situations that require aggressive action.
Their results were published in the March 4 edition of the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
U.S. News & World Report reveals five ways that exercise can enhance your brainpower and mood:
- It reverses the detrimental effects of stress. Exercise boosts levels of soothing brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Exercise may actually work on a cellular level to reverse stress's toll on your aging process.
- It lifts depression. Sustained, sweat-inducing activity can reduce symptoms of depression about as effectively as antidepressants.
- It improves learning. Exercise increases the level of brain chemicals called growth factors that help make new brain cells.
- It builds self-esteem and improves body image. Even simply seeing fitness improvements, like running a faster mile or lifting more weight, can improve your self-esteem and body image.
- It leaves you feeling euphoric. High-intensity exercise can leave you with a feeling of euphoria. Try running, biking, or swimming as fast as you can for 30 to 40 seconds and then reduce your speed to a gentle pace for five minutes before sprinting again.
Further, a new study by researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago have revealed impressive insights into why exercise is so good for your brain. In short, it appears that exercise lowers the activity of bone-morphogenetic protein or BMP, which slows the production of new brain cells.
At the same time, exercise increases Noggin, a brain protein that acts as a BMP antagonist.
According to NYTimes.com:
"The more Noggin in your brain, the less BMP activity exists and the more stem cell divisions and neurogenesis [production of new brain cells] you experience."
The Nature Conservancy:
On the very bright side, never in peace time history has there been such a gallant effort, by so many people, spending so many billions of dollars with no end in sight, to rapidly clean up your environment.
Never before have numerous heads of state and representatives of a corporation as large as many smaller nations, pledged to work together, sharing expertise and resources to get a job done.
Never before have so many prayer and meditation groups suddenly formed, amongst and in between every religion and those belonging to none, to foster healing of your precious planet.
Never before have finger pointers, conspiracy theorists, and blame mongers been so idle and unnecessary in the face of such a tragedy.
Never before have industry titans across every sea chosen to reexamine their own safety procedures, revisit their own environmental safeguards, and expend their own fortunes to voluntarily reflect upon and demand that they do an even better job from this day forward. And to top it all off, the planet has a loving, brilliant consciousness all her own, and of her countless balancing acts, healing herself is one in which she truly shines.
We're in this together...
Ubuntu - South Africa welcomes the world.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu explains the word Ubuntu in 2008:
One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu - the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality -- Ubuntu -- you are known for your generosity.
We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.
Gum goots designed with a blast to charge mobile phones
By Jim Drury
LONDON (Reuters) - Modern festival-goers who dread ending up with a dead mobile phone battery after days stuck in a muddy field with no electric plug power points may now have a solution -- power boots.
Mobile phone company European Telco Orange has introduced a phone charging prototype -- a set of thermoelectric gumboots or Wellington boots with a 'power generating sole' that converts heat from the wearer's feet into electrical power to charge battery-powered hand-helds.
The boot was designed by Dave Pain, managing director at GotWind, a renewable energy company.
Pain said the boot uses the Seebeck effect, named after physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck, in which a circuit made of two dissimilar metals conducts electricity if the two places where they connect are held at different temperatures. "In the sole of the Wellington boot there's a thermocouple and if you apply heat to one side of the thermocouple and cold to the other side it generates an electrical charge," Pain told Reuters Television.
"That electrical charge we then pass through to a battery which you'll find in the heel of the boot for storage of the electrical power for later use to charge your mobile phone."
These thermocouples are connected electrically, forming an array of multiple thermocouples (thermopile). They are then sandwiched between two thin ceramic wafers.
When the heat from the foot is applied on the top side of the ceramic wafer and cold is applied on the opposite side, from the cold of the ground, electricity is generated.
After a full day's festival frolics music lovers can plug their phone into the power output at the top of the welly and use the energy generated throughout the day to charge their phone.
But the prototype boot does have one drawback. You need to walk for 12 hours in the boots to generate one hour's worth of charge.
Pain said GotWind was working on improving the technology, which could then also be used in other forms of clothing.
"The technology's not just limited to footwear, or indeed boots, but you could for example make clothing out of it, you know, a headband, for example. So really anywhere where you're limited to using grid power, you could use this sort of technology,"he said.
(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)
Pantry, Counter, Fridge? Where To Store Produce For Maximum Shelf Life
No matter how
good a deal you got on those
in-season blueberries, tomatoes or basil, it’s money wasted if some of that produce goes bad before it makes it to the table.
It’s an all too common budget dent. Americans throw out roughly 14% of what they buy, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Worse, that figure is before factoring in the leftover food you scrape from your plate.
Knowing how long fresh fruits and vegetables last and where to store them for maximum shelf life leads to better deals. You can make smarter decisions about how much to buy of a particular food, and use more (if not all) of it before it goes bad. (That’s not to say you can’t keep peppers on the counter or oranges in the fridge, of course – just that if you opt to keep something in less than ideal storage conditions, you might need to eat it a few days sooner.)
The solution: Our handy storage guide below, compiled from chefs’ experience, as well as research by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, MealsMatter.org, Self magazine and the Food Marketing Institute. (Got your own tips to extend the shelf life of fruits and veggies? Post them in the comments.)
Apples
Store on the counter. Move any uneaten apples to the refrigerator after seven days. In the fridge or out, don’t store near most other uncovered fruits or vegetables — the ethylene gases produced by apples can ruin them (making carrots bitter, for example). The exception: if you want to ripen plums, pears and other fruits quickly, put an apple nearby for a day or so.
Artichoke
Refrigerate whole for up to two weeks.
Asparagus
Store upright in the refrigerator in a plastic bag with either an inch of water or with a damp towel wrapped around the base, just like you would have flowers in a vase. They’ll last three to four days that way.
Avocados
Ripen on the counter. Can be stored in the refrigerator for three to four days once ripe.
Bananas
Store on the counter. Refrigerate only when ripe — they’ll last for another two days or so.
Beets
Remove green tops an inch or two above the crown. Refrigerate beets in a plastic bag to prevent moisture loss, which leads to wilting. (They’ll last seven to 10 days.) Refrigerate greens separately, also in a plastic bag.
Berries
Grower Driscoll’s recommends refrigerating berries, unwashed and in their original container. Blueberries and strawberries should keep for five to seven days; more fragile raspberries and blackberries up to two days.
Broccoli
Refrigerate in a sealed plastic bag. It’ll keep for three to five days.
Carrots
Refrigerate in a sealed plastic bag for up to three weeks.
Cauliflower
Refrigerate, stem side down, in a sealed plastic bag. It’ll last three to five days.
Celery
Refrigerate one to two weeks in a sealed bag. Keep in the front of the refrigerator, where it’s less apt to freeze.
Citrus fruits
Store oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit on the counter. They can last up to two weeks.
Corn
Refrigerate ears still in the husk. They’ll last up to two days.
Cucumbers
Refrigerate, either in the crisper or in a plastic bag elsewhere in the fridge. They’ll last four to five days.
Garlic
Store in the pantry, or any similar location away from heat and light. It’ll last up to four months.
Green beans
Refrigerate in a plastic bag for three to four days.
Green onions
Refrigerate for up to two weeks.
Herbs
Fresh herbs can last seven to 10 days in the refrigerator. “When I use fresh herbs and store them in my refrigerator at home, I keep them in air-tight containers with a damp paper towel on the top and bottom,” says Raymond Southern, the executive chef at The Back Bay Hotel in Boston. “This keeps them fresh.”
Leafy greens
Refrigerate unwashed. Full heads will last five to seven days that way, instead of three to four days for a thoroughly drained one. Avoid storing in the same drawer as apples, pears or bananas, which release ethylene gases that act as a natural ripening agent.
Mushrooms
Take out of the package and store in a paper bag in the refrigerator, or place on a tray and cover with a wet paper towel. They’ll last two to three days.
Onions
Stored in the pantry, away from light and heat, they’ll last three to four weeks.
Peaches
Ripen on the counter in a paper bag punched with holes, away from sunlight. Keep peaches (as well as plums and nectarines) on the counter until ripe, and then refrigerate. They’ll last another three to four days.
Pears
Store on the counter, ideally, in a bowl with bananas and apples, and then refrigerate after ripening. They’ll last another three to four days.
Peas
Refrigerated in a plastic bag perforated with holes, they’ll last three to five days.
Peppers
Refrigerated, they’ll last four to five days.
Potatoes
Store them in the pantry away from sunlight and heat, and they’ll last two to three months.
Radishes
Refrigerate. They’ll last 10 to 14 days.
Summer squash
Refrigerate in a perforated plastic bag. They’ll last four to five days.
Tomatoes
Spread them out on the counter out of direct sunlight for even ripening. After ripening, store stem side down in the refrigerator and they’ll last two to three days.
Tropical fruit
Mangoes, papayas, pineapples and kiwifruit should be ripened on the counter. ., ripen mangos in a paper bag in a cool place, and then refrigerates them for another two to five days.
Watermelon
Kept at room temperature on the counter, it’ll last up to two weeks,
Winter squashes
Store on the counter for up to two weeks.
Frugal Foodie is a journalist based in New York City who spends her days writing about personal finance and obsessing about what she’ll have for dinner. Chat with her on Twitter through @MintFoodie
From the Universe
Please tell anyone who wants to know, that a dream not followed by consistent action, however humble or small the actions may be, points to either a huge contradiction or a gigantic misunderstanding.
From James Allen
Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sale, these are the makes of the afterworld, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, labouring humanity would perish.
Og Mandino says -
I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply ALL my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.
A simple way to energize!
It is helpful to take time each day to breathe deeply, to sit quietly and allow the Spirit's love and light to pour into us. This helps us to recharge, to replenish and remind us that we are not alone.
It is true that butterflies spread their wings every morning. They sit and soak up the sunlight because the scales on their wings are actually solar cells. Without that source of energy, they cannot fly.
Be the butterfly. Soak up the light and feel the presence of the Divine pour love, energy and healing into you.
Interesting ...
"Children seldom or never dare to live a happier or more fulfilling life than their parents. Unconsciously they remain loyal to unspoken family traditions that work invisibly. Family Constellations are a way of discovering underlying family bonds and forces that have been carried unconsciously over several generations."
- Bertold Ulsamer
Helping IBS with Hypnosis
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) also known as spastic colon or colitis affects 15 – 20% of the population – predominantly women.
The severity of IBS symptoms changes from person to person and from time to time. For some people it restricts their movements to such a degree that they have trouble making travel plans. For others, it’s a sporadic situation where the symptoms come and go, with no discernable reason, and for others, it’s a low lying, ongoing manageable but painful situation.
Whichever category you fall into, the basic result is the same. You live with pain and uncertainty, always being aware that at any time you may need to fine a toilet or washroom in a hurry.
Never mind what else is going on around you. The need to get to a washroom is urgent and immediate.
Interestingly enough, the causes of IBS are unknown, and the diagnosis is usually a diagnosis of exclusion, everything else is ruled out. While it’s not clear exactly what causes it, we do know that there are anatomical changes in the lining of the colon and to the nervous system of the colon.
You’ve probably tried diet management, which to some extent works for many people. You may have tried medication – but sometimes the side effects are worse than the IBS.
But there is another way to manage or in some cases, eliminate the IBS altogether, and that’s with hypnosis. The evidence is overwhelming that IBS symptoms respond dramatically to a series of hypnosis treatments.
Hypnosis has been approved by the American Medical Association as a valid medical treatment since 1958 and over 20 years of solid scientific research has demonstrated hypnosis to be an effective, safe and inexpensive choice for IBS alleviation for 80-95% of clients. Dr. Diane Fugh Berman chair of the National Women’s Health Network in Washington DC has said that hypnosis should be the treatment of choice for IBS.
“It totally makes sense” explains Georgina Cannon, Director of the Ontario Hypnosis Centre, “all body sensations are managed and recorded in the subconscious mind, so if you want to make change in the body, one of the best ways is through the subconscious mind with hypnosis.” Cannon went on to explain – “There are absolutely no side effects – except that you get better! The treatment is relaxing and enjoyable. And best of all, treatment often leads to improvement of other stress related problems – like teeth grinding or sleeplessness.”
The hypnosis treatment starts with the client bringing a physician’s letter to the Ontario Hypnosis Centre Clinic “We only work with a client on pain management with the approval of their doctor” Cannon explains. The number of sessions needed ranges from 7 to 10 “this enables our clients to develop their imagery skills, which will help them for the rest of their life. We start the process with a very thorough intake so that we understand how IBS affects that particular client. Then the mind-body training begins.”
Good advice ....
Listen well to inner voices.
Then, get a grip and make new choices.
Timelessness
Imagine that expanded awareness is normal. Time and space could just be convenient concepts that hold true in the material world but dissolve gradually as you approach the quantum level. This is what I believe reincarnation is about. Former lives fall into the unexplored territory of expanded awareness. It isn’t absolutely necessary to decide whether they are “real” or not.
All of the quantum and virtual levels are open to us all the time. To navigate them completely is impossible; they open up to us according to our own needs and abilities. But no part is intentionally closed off. Although we normally look no deeper than the personal domain, to look deeper is always possible.
It is more normal to learn from the past than not to, and people who shut out their former lives – if we want to use that terminology – are shutting out lessons that give this present lifetime its purpose and meaning. For someone who has absorbed these lessons fully, there is no need to go beyond this lifetime, and yet such visitations are still part of the natural order of things.
Finally, the fact that we are not confined to our physical body and mind gives us reason to believe in the existence of a cosmic intelligence that permeates life and brings us close to the mind of God.
In the quantum model there is no inside or outside. God is no more in us than he is anywhere else – he is simply not locatable. To say that we go within to meditate, to pray, or to find God is really just a convention. The timeless place where God exists can’t be reduced to an address. Our exploration into former lifetimes indicates that the same may be true of us as well.
Adapted from How To Know God by Deepak Chopra
A wish for you
Wishing you starlight in your soul, heaven in your heart, and miracles in your life during these miraculous times which manifest as though we are smack in the middle of the end times of a transition. Know we are on track even though it may not appear so at times.
A little strange, but interesting!!! from TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
Jobless Dutch forced into past-life therapyBy Bruno Waterfield
The long-term Dutch unemployed are being forced into “regression therapy” in the hope that coming to terms with past lives will help them find a job.
Use of the New Age technique has sparked controversy after an unemployed woman in Maastricht was sent on a 10-week course at a cost of £720.
Luc Winants, the councillor responsible for social affairs in Maastricht, has defended the technique as a spiritual method for helping the unemployed.
“It might very well be true that reincarnation therapy is a means to get people back to work,” he told De Limburger newspaper.
“Past life regression” is a psychological therapy linked to New Age movements and the belief in reincarnation.
Practitioners often use hypnosis to induce a trance during which a person is allegedly taken back to their past lives.
Klaas Boffcher, at the Dutch Ruach Boraka Centre for Complementary Therapy, uses the technique to help “people find experiences from past identities that could be negatively affecting them today”.
“It is very useful. When someone has a problem finding work it is often more about the need to find out about themselves. Reincarnation therapy can help,” he said.
“Reincarnation therapy is regression to a previous life. People’s complaints and problems have causes not just in the present but also in previous lives.”
Marcus Huibers, a senior lecturer in clinical psychology at Maastricht University, is unimpressed.
“We are speaking here of an entirely obscure therapy that does not even merit the term therapy,” he said.
Piet Hein Donner, the Dutch social affairs minister, is facing growing calls from MPs for an explanation as to why therapies including reincarnation, tarot card readings and astrology are getting government funding as part of efforts to get people back into work.
Dutch unemployed and people on incapacity benefit can get state hand-outs of up to £4000 to pay for courses to help them find work.
Last year up to 42,500 people signed up to spiritually-based “personal development programmes”.
10 Steps to Gentle Change - Part 2 by Georgina Cannon
Continued from 10 Steps to Gentle Change Part 1 ...
6. Time to dump the junk!
What are you going to get rid of to make room for the new you? Old thinking? Old attitudes? Old fights or arguments? Old clothes? Old habits? Old beliefs about who you are and how you are? (Shy? Accident prone? Not efficient? Not smart? Not musical?)
This is one way to do that. List all the stuff to let go – relax with your eyes closed and visualise a huge garbage bag and put everything you want to let go into that bag, including all of your thoughts and feelings about the stuff you’ve put in the bag, see it all there – tie a knot at the top of the bag, and kick it out to the far reaches of the universe. Watch it disappear beyond the stars. You’ll notice you feel much, much lighter!
7. Your new life!
Now it’s time to bring your new life, with the changes into fruition. Start by visualising what this new life will look like. Find a place to relax, close your eyes, and see yourself 3 months in the future, having achieved your goal. You are where you want to be, with the change complete. See yourself surrounded by people you know, love and admire, hear what they are saying to you, hear the laughter and conversation, feel the confidence that comes from being in charge of your life. Spend about 5 minutes there. Do this twice a day for 7 days. This is one way of putting the vision deeply into your subconscious mind so that you are pre-programmed for success.
8. Your Action Plan – or Blueprint
Write your goal, your action plan. Step by step. What you will do by when. Each step, how you will accomplish your goal. For instance, if your goal is to be more outgoing, maybe the first step is to talk to the cashier at the supermarket or gas station every time you go in. Ask them how they feel, talk about the weather – whatever. But make conversation with at least three people each day.
This action plan should have at least 7 steps to achieve your goal. Each step is an action – not a thought – and each step has a deadline.
9. Visualising working the plan.
Find somewhere comfortable to relax. Put on some soothing music, close your eyes and allow yourself to slowly visualise yourself working through the plan. Step by step. Notice how, at each step, you change. Notice what happens at each step. The support you receive. The different reactions you get with your new habit. The confidence you feel. See yourself reaching each deadline easily and comfortably and taking the action needed towards your goal. If you do this for at least 21 days you’ll find the whole process of change becomes easier and smoother as your subconscious mind aligns with your conscious mind to keep you intellectually and emotionally in balance for your change.
10. Take Action!
Take the first physical step towards your change. Follow the plan you set out. Use your support systems. Congratulate yourself each step of the way, and make sure you notice how much more confident you feel as you begin to recognise your power, the power of your mind.
Tools to help you make healthy changes in your life
Our
Move Forward with Confidence and
Starting Over recordings have been helping our clients make remarkable changes in their lives for over 10 years now.
These programs are a co-creation, meaning that they are able to help you in profound ways as long as you are willing to do your part.
If you have reached a point in your life where
- change is needed
- you are ready and wanting to start the process of making your life better
- you just don't know where to begin
these two recording are powerful tools to help you start your process of change.
10 Steps to Gentle Change - Part 1 by Georgina Cannon
Why ‘gentle’ change? Because change is disruptive – it takes planning, foresight and courage. But like anything else, if you follow a plan, it is easier, plus you start to recognize progress along the way as you accomplish each step in the plan.
Georgina , Director of the Ontario Hypnosis Centre School and Clinic, has worked with thousands of clients over the past 10 years to help them transform their lives into powerful, successful, joyful living. “The interesting part of change, or transformation is that you let go of the feeling of being a victim of uncontrollable circumstances. You choose to experience something that you CHOOSE for your life: A new emotion; a new pattern; a new skill”
Here is Georgina’s blue print for change:
1. Know what it is you want to change.
Do your belongings, attitudes, ideas, habits, emotions such as guilt or anger, commitments, career or relationship still fit you? Do they still suit who you are – and who you want to be in the future? Do they serve you well?
2. What exactly do you want to change?
When you have decided it is time to ‘lighten your load’ and get rid of some of the baggage you carry – the first step is to decide what it is you want to change. If there’s a whole raft of things begging for change, then choose just one to start with. And be very sure of what that one thing looks like.
3. How will your life change with this one change?
Write down what you want to change in a short sentence. Think about how it makes you feel when you think about the thing you want to change. Are you excited? Is there some fear? And can you imagine your life and how it will be with just this one change? Be realistic about the impact of this change, but most of all, be committed to making it happen.
4. Who and what will be affected by your change?
We don’t live in a vacuum. When we make change it affects other people and events around us. Many people don’t like change, so as you change you may find that some people start to resent your personal change work and try to undermine you. Ask someone who has made a lifestyle change around eating, and see what happened in their family! You need to make a very comprehensive list of who and what your change will affect
5. Have a support system.
Change takes courage – even the smallest changes are profound. You’ll need some support systems. Build a team around you that will support you emotionally and physically with your change. People who really have your well-being at heart and understand your courage and commitment. Make sure you let them know ahead of time what you will be doing differently, and how you need their support.
Continued in part 2
Developing and expanding your intuition - Georgina Cannon
As discussed on Talk Radio Europe
Everyone is intuitive! Everyone has the ability to be warned of danger or future experiences. It's just a matter of 'tuning in' and allowing.
Sometimes it's a gut feeling, that you should do...or not do...something. Sometimes you might hear the words, 'don't do that'.
Or you may see an article or see something on television which plugs right into your current dilemma and it speaks directly to you. At some other time you might not have even noticed this program or article.
Developing your intuition, is like developing a muscle...the more you use it, the stronger it gets.
Watch for synchronicities.. Carl Jung was a great believer in these. They are telling you something.
Generally speaking, if you allow your critical conscious mind to get out of the way, so you don't question or criticise these feelings or thoughts, you'll feel an expansion, a gentle body reaction to following your intuition, as if you are on the right path.
Intuition is primal...it is there initially to keep us safe...so when you follow it, you will feel safe.
Practice every day, watch the results... and learn to lean on your subconscious mind to live your fullest, most abundant, and joyest life. Remember, if you don't lose it you'll lose it.
A MUST Read Article!
ASP AR T AME: " DON'T EVEN CONSIDER IT" ARE YOU FEELING BETTER? - WORLD ENVIRONMEN T AL CONFERENCE: POWER OF ASP AR T AME INDU STRY.
GOOGLE REMOVES REPORT
By Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
Telephone: 770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
Web Site: http://www.mpwhi.com
Posted: 05 November 2007
NOTE: This report mysteriously disappeared out of Google news and Google in general. It makes one wonder if this report ruffled some feathers some place.
Atlanta, November 3, 2007
For a little while yesterday morning Google carried Andrea McCreery's report, ASP AR T AME, DON'T EVEN CONSIDER IT. Immediately my phone started ringing, Are you Nancy Markle? the caller asked. "No", I replied, "I'm Betty Martini who lectured for the World Environmental Conference. Nancy Markle is an unknown plagiarist who signed her name to my original report on my lecture at the WEC in1995. It became a shot heard round the world that has helped millions escape the deadly effects of AspartameDisease, an Ignored Epidemic, which happens to be the name of a 1,038 page medical text by Dr. H.J. Roberts. http://www.sunsentpress.com He was named The Best Doctor in the United States by a national medical journal in 1984. The text is dedicated to me and Mission Possible volunteers and documents the symptoms and diseases I discussed at the lecture."
Documentation including my invitation to speak is at: http://www.dorway.com/nomarkle.html Monsanto sold the NutraSweet Company in l999, as they could not put out the fire with people getting well off the toxin the world over. Then victims, physicians and activists expanded more operations of Mission Possible circling the globe. MS victims walked out of wheelchairs, many blind regained their sight, seizures ceased, joint pain/fibromyalgia and psychiatric problems disappeared, and women who thought they would never have children started families. Aspartame is an endocrine disrupting agent, stimulates prolactin and causes infertility. It's also an abortifacient and teratogen triggering birth defects and mental retardation should it be used in pregnancy. It interacts with drugs and vaccines as discussed in the medical text making no drug safe to an aspartame user.
I downloaded Andrea McCreery's article just in time, because Google immediately deleted it, though they left it on the menu. Somebody at aspartame [Diet Coke, Equal, NutraSweet, E951, Ajinomoto, Merisant, or the other suspects] had the clout to kill the release to continue blinding consumers about their addictive neurotoxic, carcinogenic junk. In this case what you don't know can kill you.
McCreerys article follows below my signature. For 16 years from the creation of aspartame our FD A denied approval of that chemical because it causes brain tumors. The agency even compiled a list of 92 symptoms of aspartame poisoning from over 10,000 volunteered consumer complaints. FD A now denies there ever was such a list but here it is on their stationery: http://www.mpwhi.com/92_aspartame_symptoms.pdf It took Don Rumsfeld to leave his job as head of the company that made aspartame to become Reagan's Secretary of Defense. The day after President Reagan taking office, Arthur Hayes, a pharmacologist became the new FD A Commissioner. He over-ruled the Board of Inquiry that had revoked the petition for approval and then hired on with NutraSweet's public relations firm. So aspartame was approved not by science but political chicanery. From the aspartame documentary, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, is a clip by Attorney James Turner explaining how Rumsfeld committed this deadly deed and poisoned the world: http://www.sweetremedy.tv/pages/rumsfeld3.html President Reagan even wrote an executive order making the FD A powerless to do anything about aspartame until Hayes could get to the FD A.
Aspartame's record is one of smarmy anti-science and political pressure plays. The FD A and CDC have become branch offices of the profiteers, and these agencies disregard the research and revelations of world famous doctors. A 3 year study on 1,800 rats by Dr. Morando Soffritti at an Italian cancer research institute concluded aspartame is a multipotential carcinogen. It was peer reviewed by seven world experts. For his work Dr. Soffritti was honored with an award at the Mount Sinai Institute in NYC earlier this year as he released a new study showing it only takes a small amount of aspartame to trigger cancer and babies who survive a pregnant women who used it can grow up to cancer.
Here are the summaries of these two important studies that confirmed the carcinogenicity of aspartame that FD A acknowledged in original studies.
The first ERF study (2005) was conducted on 1800 Sprague-Dawley rats (100-150/per sex/per group). In order to simulate daily human intake, aspartame was added to the standard rat diet in quantities of 5000, 2500, 100, 500, 20, 4, and 0 mg/Kg of body weight. Treatment of the animals began at 8 weeks of age and continued until spontaneous death. The results show that APM causes a statistically significant, dose-related increase of lymphomas/leukemias and malignant tumors of the renal pelvis in females and malignant tumors of peripheral nerves in males. These results demonstrate for the first time that APM is a carcinogenic agent, capable of inducing malignancies at various dose levels, including those lower than the current acceptable daily intake ( ADI) for humans (50 mg/kg of body weight in the US, 40 mg/kg of body weight in the EU).
The second ERF study (2007) was conducted on 400 Sprague-Dawley rats (70-95/per sex/per group). In order to simulate daily human intake, aspartame was added to the standard rat diet in quantities of 100, 20, and 0 mg/Kg of body weight. Treatment of the animals began on the 12th day of fetal life until natural death. The results of the second study show an increased incidence of lymphomas/leukemias in female rats with respect to the first study. Moreover, the study shows that when lifespan exposure to APM begins during fetal life, the age at which lymphomas/leukemias develop in females is anticipated. For the first time, a statistically significant increase in mammary cancers in females was also observed in the second study. The results of this transplacental carcinogenicity bioassay not only confirm, but also reinforce the first experimental demonstration of APMs multipotential carcinogenicity.
The National Soft Drink Association (now American Beverage) originally protested to Congress against aspartame approval. Their objections cover many pages in the Congressional Record of 5-7-85.
Cover up is customary for the criminals who concoct this poison and feed it to half the world. In August the New Zealand Soil & Health and Safe Food Campaign brought me to their beautiful land for a 3-weeklecture tour and to present official documents and medical reports to their NZ Food Safety Authority. Abby Cormack's case of poisoning on Wrigley's aspartame gum in NZ had been making world news. The NZFS A Authority is an agency responsible to protect New Zealanders from toxic substances, but they refused to see me or even to accept the federal and medical documents I traveled 10,000 miles to bring them. Chris Wheeler, Mission Possible New Zealand wrote the most indepth report on what was going on. http://www.rense.com/general78/dying.htm It was obvious who was writing the propaganda for the NZFS A since Ajinomoto was using this as an advertisement on the web.
Reminds me of when there were efforts against aspartame in New Mexico and I wrote this paper, " Aspartame Makers In A Tizzy" - http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_makers_in_tizzy.htm
It has been 12 years since I actually lectured for the World Environmental Conference when Dr. Clarice Gaylord of the EP A said: "We have an epidemic of MS and lupus and can't identify the toxin". I answered, "I'm here to lecture on MS and lupus and identify that toxin as NutraSweet (aspartame/E951/Equal/Canderel, etc.). Today it has been fully confirmed. Besides Dr. Roberts medical text, Dr. Russell Blaylock wrote "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills" on the subject. http://www.russellblaylockmd.com His lecture "The Truth About Aspartame" discusses the famed Ramazzini Study.
Dr. Gaylord knew MS and lupus was epidemic from field reports as she discussed with me. Today there is a New report showing MS is escalating at an incredible rate proving Dr. Gaylord and myself were right. http://www.mpwhi.com/new_report_at_neurology_conference.htm
MS victim Cori Brackett, co-owner of Sound and Fury Productions, was a heavy diet pop drinker. In a wheelchair hardly able to talk she had a hard time of it, but after abstaining from aspartame eventually walked out of her wheelchair as did many others who read this report. Eight months later her large lesion all but disappeared. She went on to make the documentary, "Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World", http://www.soundandfury.tv Other MS victims appear in this film.
The epidemic of lupus is obvious to explain. James Bowen, M.D. says "the ability of methyl alcohol/formaldehyde to create antigenicity, especially as combined in aspartame molecules is so great as to cause severe autoimmune reactions to the tissues deformed by formaldehyde polemerization, adduct formation. The immune system turns against the victim's tissues: Lupus."
It was l996 when 60 Minutes did the story on aspartame and brain tumors because of famed Dr. John Olney's journal article in Neurology. Neuroscientist Dr. John Olney founded the field of neuroscience called Excitotoxicity and tried to prevent approval of aspartame. Dr. Ralph Walton explained even at this time 92 per cent of independent scientific peer reviewed studies showed the problems. http://www.dorway.com/peerrev.html In the last 24 months 13 more studies have shown the toxicity.
I contacted Andrea McCreery and let her know her story had been deleted. She wrote and said, "Yes, I am aware of the feathers ruffled." Since I had printed out the article it appears below to prevent the sabotage. Let's forward it so it will get many times more publicity than it would have, and show the aspartame industry their attempts are foolish. Keep it going folks and save a life today. We simply won't allow industry's shenanigans to continue. The public deserves the facts. Enough is enough of the front groups as well: http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_no_hoax.htm Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
http://www.whno.net
http://www.dorway.com
Aspartame Toxiocity Center: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame
ASP AR T AME - "Don't Even Consider It" by Andrea McCreery (Roseville & Rocklin Today)
"In the keynote address by the EP A at the World Environmental Conference, it was announced that there was an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and system lupus and they did not understand what toxin was causing this to become rampant across the United States.
"When the temperature of aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in aspartame converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which, in turn, causes metabolic acidosis. Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants. The methanol toxicity mimics multiple sclerosis; thus, people are being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in error. Multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence; methanol toxicity is.
"Systemic lupus has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis, especially in Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. With methanol toxicity, the victims usually drink three to four 12 oz cans per day, some even more. In the cases of systemic lupus, which is triggered by aspartame, the victim usually does not know the aspartame is the culprit. The victim continues its use and aggravates the lupus to such a degree, that it sometimes becomes life threatening. When people quit using aspartame, those with systemic lupus usually become asymptomatic. Unfortunately, this disease cannot be reversed. On the other hand, in the case of those diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, (when in reality, the disease is methanol toxicity), most of the symptoms disappear. In some cases, vision and hearing have returned. This also applies to cases of Tinnitus. If you are using Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc.) and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision or memory loss, you probably have " Aspartame Disease".
"The Ambassador of Uganda noted that their sugar industry is adding aspartame. He continued by saying that one of the industry leader's sons could no longer walk due in part to product usage. This is a very serious problem. Additionally, during a visit to a hospice, a nurse said that six of her friends, who were heavy Diet Coke drinks, had all been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence!
"Here is the problem. There were Congressional Hearings when Aspartame was originally included as a sweetener in 100 different products. Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings. Nothing has been done. The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets. Now, there are over 5,000 products containing this chemical and the patent has expired. At the time of this first hearing, people were going blind. The methanol in the Aspartame converts to formaldehyde in the retina of the eye. Formaldehyde is grouped in the same class of drugs as cyanide and arsenic - deadly poisons. Unfortunately, it just takes longer to quietly kill, but is killing people and causing neurological problems. Aspartame changes the brain's chemistry. It is the reason for severe seizures. This drug changes the dopamine level of the brain. Imagine what this drug does to patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. This drug also causes birth defects.
"There is absolutely no reason to use this product. It is "not a diet product"/ The Congressional record said, "It makes you crave carbohydrates and will make you F AT." Dr. H. J. Roberts, a diabetic specialist and expert on Aspartame poisoning, states that when he took patients off of Aspartame, their average weight loss was 19 pounds per person. Aspartame is especially deadly for diabetics. All physicians know what wood alcohol will do to a diabetic. We find that physicians believe that they have patients with retinopathy when, in fact, it's caused by the Aspartame. The Aspartame keeps the blood sugar level out of control, causing many patients to go into a coma. Unfortunately, many have died. It was reported at the Conference of the American College of Physicians that those patients that switched from saccharin to an Aspartame product had eventually gone into a coma. Their physicians could not get their blood sugar levels under control. The patients suffered acute memory loss, and, eventually, coma and death. Memory loss is due to the fact that aspartic acid and phenylalanine are neurotoxins without the other amino acids found in protein. Thus is goes past the blood brain barrier and deteriorates the neurons of the brain. Dr. Russell Blaylock, a neurosurgeon, said "The ingredients stimulate the neurons of the brain to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees."
"Dr. Blaylock and Dr. Roberts will be writing a position paper with some case histories and it will be posted on the Internet. According to the Conference of the American College of Physicians, "We are talking about a plague of neurological diseases caused by this deadly poison." Dr. Roberts realized what was happening when aspartame was first marketed. He reported, "My diabetic patients are suffering memory loss, confusion and severe vision loss." At the Conference, doctors admitted not knowing why. They had wondered by seizures were rampant (the phenylalanine in aspartate breaks down the seizure threshold and depletes serotonin, which causes manic depression, panic attacks, rage and violence). Just before the Conference, Norway asked for a possible antidote for this poison because they are experiencing so many problems in their country. This poison' is now available in 90 plus countries worldwide. Fortunately, speakers and ambassadors at the conference from different nations have pledged their help.
Take anything that contains aspartame back to the store. Monsanto, the creator of aspartame knows how deadly it is. They fund the American Medical Association, American Dietetic Association, Congress and the Conference of the American College of Physicians.
On November 15, l996 the New York Times ran an article on how the American Dietetic Association takes money from the food industry to endorse their products. Therefore, they cannot criticize any additives or tell about their link to Monsanto. How bad is this? A mother who had a child on NutraSweet was told to get off the product. The child was having grand mal seizures daily. The mother called her physician, who called the AD A and was told not to take the child off of NutraSweet. The mother can not be convinced that the Aspartame is causing the seizures. Every time someone gets off Aspartame, seizures stop.
There are 92 documented symptoms of aspartame, from coma to death. The majority of them are neurological because Aspartame destroys the nervous system. Aspartame Disease is partially behind some of the mystery of the Desert Storm health problems. The burning tongue and other problems discussed many cases can be directly related to the consumption of aspartame. Several thousand pallets of diet drinks were shipped to the Desert Storm troops. (Remember: heat can liberate the methanol from the aspartame at 86 degrees F). These diet drinks sat in the 120 degree F Arabian sun for weeks at a time on pallets. The serviceman and women drank them all day long. All of their symptoms are identical to aspartame poisoning.
Additionally, Dr. Roberts says, "Consuming Aspartame at the time of conception can cause birth defects." According to Dr. Louis Elsas, Pediatrician and Professor of Genetics at Emory University, in his testimony before Congress, the phenylalanine concentrates in the placenta, causing mental retardation. In the original lab tests, animals developed brain tumors; phenylalanine breaks down in DKP, a brain tumor agent. When Dr. Esposito was lecturing on Aspartame, one physician in the audience, a neurosurgeon said, "When brain tumors are removed and studies, high levels of Aspartame were found in them."
"Stevia or Xylitol, a sweet food and "not an additive" helps in the metabolism of sugar. It would be ideal for diabetics and has now been approved as a dietary supplement by the FD A. For years, the FD A has outlawed this sweet food, because of their loyalty to Monsanto. If it says "sugar free" on the label - do not even consider it."
Andrea McCreery, Ph.D. is located in Fair Oaks, C A. She may be contacted at http://www.life-sources.com or 916-536-9930.
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(Since this time a safe sweetener has become available called "Just Like Sugar" which is sold in Whole Foods and Wild Oats)
With regard to Multiple Sclerosis here are two reports by Doctors H. J. Roberts and Russell Blaylock.
Multiple Sclerosis or Aspartame Disease, by H. J. Roberts, M.D.:
http://www.mpwhi.com/ms_or_aspartame_disease.htm
The MS and Aspartame Connection by Russell Blaylock, M.D.:
http://www.wnho.net/ms_and_aspartame.htm
13 new studies showing Aspartame Toxicity in 24 months:
http://www.mpwhi.com/13_aspartame_research_studies.htm
Read the proof and my invitation to speak at the World Environmental Conference:
http://www.dorway.com/nomarkle.html
Dr. Russell Blaylock's article: "What To Do If You Have Used Aspartame":
http://www.wnho.net/wtdaspartame.htm
Dr. Ralph Walton's new article on psychiatric disorders and aspartame:
http://www.mpwhi.com/aspartame_and_psychiatric_disorders.htm
The whole timeline on aspartame from the Ecologist:
http://www.mpwhi.com/ecologist_september_2005.pdf
