Another Earthquake in Italy

Moderate earthquakes in Italy

Last update: June 9, 2012 at 1:40 pm by By

Moderate earthquake in Northern Italy (new area!)
The earthquake occurred at 04:04 in the middle of the night. Surprisingly this earthquake was not an aftershock in the Ferrara, Mantua, Parma area but mote to the West direction Udinese.  82 km to the north of Venice and in the foothills of the Dolomites mountain range.
The people living in this area have also felt the stronger Ferrara earthquakes.

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/06/09/major-earthquakes-list-june-9-2012/

Quantum Physics & Biology

Weird World of Quantum Physics May Govern Life

Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 05 June 2012
The bizarre rules of quantum mechanics may in fact enable many of life's fundamental processes, scientists say.
The bizarre rules of quantum mechanics may in fact enable many of life’s fundamental processes, scientists say.
CREDIT: agsandrew | Shutterstock

NEW YORK — The bizarre rules of quantum physics are often thought to be restricted to the microworld, but scientists now suspect they may play an important role in the biology of life.

Evidence is growing for the involvement of quantum mechanics in a wide range of biological processes, including photosynthesis, bird migration, the sense of smell, and possibly even the origin of life.

These and other mysteries were the topic of a panel lecture June 1 held here at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, part of the fifth annual World Science Festival.

uantum mechanics refers to the strange set of rules that governs the behavior of subatomic particles, which can travel through walls, behave like waves and stay connected over vast distances. [Stunning Photos of the Very Small]

“Quantum mechanics is weird, that’s its defining characteristic. It’s funky and strange,” said MIT mechanical engineer Seth Lloyd.

These oddities generally don’t affect everyday macroscopic objects, which are thought to be too hot and wet for delicate quantum states to withstand. But it seems nature may have found ways to harness quantum mechanics to power some of its most complex and vital systems.

“Life is made out of atoms and atoms behave quantum mechanically,” said cosmologist Paul Davies of Arizona State University. “Life has been around for a long time — 3.5 billion years on this planet at least — and there’s plenty of time to learn some quantum trickery if it confers an advantage.”

Bird brains

One area where clues are implicating quantum mechanics is the internal compasses of birds and other migratory animals. Many bird species migrate thousands of miles every year to return not just to the same region, but to the exact same breeding spot.

For ages, scientists have puzzled how birds could achieve such a feat of navigation, assuming they possess some ability to sense direction based on Earth’s magnetic field.

“We see clearly they can detect the magnetic field,” said University of California, Irvine, biophysicist Thorsten Ritz. “What we cannot do is say, ‘This is the magnetic organ.'”

Mounting evidence now suggests birds may be relying on quantum entanglement — the strange ability of particles to share properties even when separated, so that if an action is performed on one, the other feels its consequences.

Scientists think the process is made possible by a protein inside birds’ eye cells called cryptochrome.

When green light passes into the bird’s eye, it hits cryptochrome, which gives an energy boost to one of the electrons of an entangled pair, separating it from its partner. In its new location, the electron experiences a slightly different magnitude of Earth’s magnetic field, and this alters the electron’s spin. Birds can use this information to build an internal map of Earth’s magnetic field to figure out their position and direction.

“It’s certainly very plausible,” Lloyd said. “It sounded kind of crazy when I first heard it. We don’t have direct experimental evidence, but it does make sense.”

The theory gained support from a recent experiment with fruit flies, which also contain cryptochrome. When this light-detecting protein was extracted from the fruit flies, they lost their magnetic sensitivity and became discombobulated.

Sniffing scents

Another case where quantum mechanics may come to the rescue is the sense of smell. At first, biologists thought they understood smell through a simple model: Odor molecules waft into the nose, and receptor molecules there bind to these molecules and identify them based on their particular shape.

But scientists realized that some odor molecules that have identical shapes have completely different smells, due to a minute chemical change, such as a single hydrogen atom in the molecule being replaced by a heavier version of hydrogen called deuterium. While this affects the weight of the molecule, it doesn’t change its shape, so it still fits into the receptor molecule in exactly the same way.

How, then, can olfactory systems sense the difference? The answer may lie in quantum particles’ ability to act like waves.

“The theory is that even if the shape of the molecule is the same, because it’s got this slight difference, it vibrates in a different fashion,” Lloyd said. “And this kind of wavelike nature, which is a purely quantum kind of effect, somehow this receptor is able to sense this vibrational difference.”

Missing pieces

Physicists are probing more and more unsolved mysteries of biology, hoping that quantum mechanics may provide the missing piece of the puzzle. They even have hope that it could shed light on one of the most intractable questions in all of biology: How did life get started?

“We want to know ‘How did non-life turn into life?'” Davies said. “Life is clearly a distinctive state of matter. What we would like to know is if that distinctiveness is fundamentally quantum mechanical.”

But in their excitement to try the quantum key in the locks of biology, some scientists are wary of overreaching.

“Quantum mechanics is strange and mysterious,” Lloyd said. “The origins of life are strange and mysterious. That doesn’t mean that they’re all the same thing. I think one should be careful saying that all strange and mysterious things have the same origin.”

from:    http://www.livescience.com/20753-quantum-physics-biology-life.html

 

Ray Bradbury Quotes on Death

5 Great Ray Bradbury Quotes About Death

Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 06 June 2012
Ray Bradbury in 2009
Author Ray Bradbury, seen here in 2009, died June 5, 2012 at the age of 91.
CREDIT: Caleb Sconosciuto, distributed by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons License.

Ray Bradbury, known for his imaginative and evocative tales of Martian lands and sinister carnival characters, died Tuesday (June 5) at the age of 91.

During his lengthy career as a sci-fi writer, Bradbury mused on death (and life) at length, even citing his inspiration for writing as a desire to live forever.

Here are some of Bradbury’s most provocative thoughts on dying.

Writing as the protagonist’s dying grandmother in his 1957 novel “Dandelion Wine”:

“Important thing is not the me that’s lying here, but the me that’s sitting on the edge of the bed looking back at me, and the me that’s downstairs cooking supper, or out in the garage under the car, or in the library reading. All the new parts, they count. I’m not really dying today. No person ever died that had a family.”

2. In “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” his 1962 novel about an evil traveling carnival:

“The father hesitated only a moment. He felt the vague pain in his chest. If I run, he thought, what will happen? Is Death important? No. Everything that happens before Death is what counts. And we’ve done fine tonight. Even Death can’t spoil it.”

And …

Death doesn’t exist. It never did, it never will. But we’ve drawn so many pictures of it, so many years, trying to pin it down, comprehend it, we’ve got to thinking of it as an entity, strangely alive and greedy. All it is, however, is a stopped watch, a loss, an end, a darkness. Nothing.”

3. In his 1953 dystopian novel “Fahrenheit 451”:

“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.

It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”

4. On his website, raybradbury.com, in December 2001, describing a childhood encounter with a carnival magician named Mr. Electrico. The experience inspired Bradbury to begin writing every day:

“Mr. Electrico was a fantastic creator of marvels. He sat in his electric chair every night and was electrocuted in front of all the people, young and old, of Waukegan, Illinois. When the electricity surged through his body he raised a sword and knighted all the kids sitting in the front row below his platform. I had been to see Mr. Electrico the night before. When he reached me, he pointed his sword at my head and touched my brow. The electricity rushed down the sword, inside my skull, made my hair stand up and sparks fly out of my ears. He then shouted at me, ‘Live forever!’

I thought that was a wonderful idea, but how did you do it?” [Top 10 Immortals]

5. During a 2009 interview with “365 Days of Astronomy,” a daily astronomy podcast:

“I want everybody listening to me to think of Mars, only Mars, again and again and again. And think of going back to the moon and make sure the government hears this from you. These are bad times today. If you read the Wall Street Journal, forget it! You know? If you buy stocks sell ’em! Get rid of ’em! But listen to me and say, ‘Back to the Moon!’ The moon is everything and Mars is beyond, waiting for us. I want to be buried on Mars. I don’t want to be the first live person to arrive there. It’ll be too late. But I want to be the first dead person that gets there. I want to arrive in a Campbell’s soup can. Bury me on Mars in [the] thing called the Bradbury Abyss. They gotta name a place on Mars for me, and I will welcome that.”

from:    http://www.livescience.com/20784-5-great-ray-bradbury-quotes-death.html

Statue of Siddhartha Found

Ancient Statue Reveals Prince Who Would Become Buddha

Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor
Date: 06 June 2012 Time:
A newly discovered stele from Mes Aynak, in Afghanistan, reveals a depiction of a prince and monk.
A newly discovered stele from Mes Aynak, in Afghanistan, reveals a depiction of a prince and monk. The prince is likely the founder of Buddhism.
CREDIT: Jaroslav Poncar

In the ruins of a Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan, archaeologists have uncovered a stone statue that seems to depict the prince Siddhartha before he founded Buddhism.

The stone statue, or stele, was discovered at the Mes Aynak site in a ruined monastery in 2010, but it wasn’t until now that it was analyzed and described. Gérard Fussman, a professor at the Collège de France in Paris, details his study in “The Early Iconography of Avalokitesvara” (Collège de France, 2012).

Standing 11 inches (28 centimeters) high and carved from schist — a stone not found in the area — the stele depicts a prince alongside a monk. Based on a bronze coin found nearby, Fussman estimates the statue dates back at least 1,600 years. Siddhartha lived 25 centuries ago

A newly discovered stele from Mes Aynak, in Afghanistan, reveals a depiction of a prince and monk.

A newly discovered stele from Mes Aynak, in Afghanistan, reveals a depiction of a prince and monk. The prince is likely the founder of Buddhism.
CREDIT: Jaroslav Poncar

In the ruins of a Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan, archaeologists have uncovered a stone statue that seems to depict the prince Siddhartha before he founded Buddhism.

The stone statue, or stele, was discovered at the Mes Aynak site in a ruined monastery in 2010, but it wasn’t until now that it was analyzed and described. Gérard Fussman, a professor at the Collège de France in Paris, details his study in “The Early Iconography of Avalokitesvara” (Collège de France, 2012).

Standing 11 inches (28 centimeters) high and carved from schist — a stone not found in the area — the stele depicts a prince alongside a monk. Based on a bronze coin found nearby, Fussman estimates the statue dates back at least 1,600 years. Siddhartha lived 25 centuries ago.

 

The prince is shown sitting on a round wicker stool, his eyes looking down and  with his right foot against his left knee. He is “clad in a dhoti (a garment), with a turban, wearing necklaces, earrings and bracelets, sitting under a pipal tree foliage. On the back of the turban, two large rubans [are] flowing from the head to the shoulders,” writes Fussman in his new book. “The turban is decorated by a rich front-ornament, without any human figure in it.” [Photos of the statue and ancient Buddhist monastery]

Mes Aynak is located about 25 miles (40 km) east of Kabul and contains an ancient Buddhist monastic complex.

Mes Aynak is located about 25 miles (40 km) east of Kabul and contains an ancient Buddhist monastic complex.
CREDIT: Jerome Starkey CC Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Generic

The monk stands at the prince’s right side, his right forearm shown upright. In his right hand the monk holds a lotus flower or palm (now broken), and in his left is a round object of some kind.

Based on the iconography of the stele, particularly the pipal leaves, Fussman believes the prince is Gautama Siddhartha Sakyamuni, who is said to have achieved enlightenment, become a Buddha — someone of divine wisdom and virtue — and founded the religion of Buddhism. This stele shows him at an early moment in his life, when he has yet to start his fateful journey of enlightenment.

Siddhartha’s story

According to the story, Siddhartha’s father wanted him to follow a worldly path and tried to keep his son cloistered in a palace.

“Lotus pools were made for me at my father’s house solely for my use; in one, blue lotuses flowered, in another white, and in another red,” says Siddharthain ancient writings attributed to him. “A white sunshade was held over me day and night so that I would not be troubled by cold or heat, dust or grit or dew.” (This translation is from Rupert Gethin’s “The Foundations of Buddhism,” Oxford University Press, 1998.)

The prince’s life would change when he ventured outside the palace and saw the real world. “As soon as he left the palace he became pessimistic,” Fussman told LiveScience, “because by meeting these people, he knew that everybody is to work, everybody may become ill, everybody is to die.”

He grew disenchanted with palace life and left, becoming a poor ascetic.

Tibetan clues

Fussman said that this stele supports the idea that there was a monastic cult, in antiquity, dedicated to  Siddhartha’s pre-enlightenment life. This idea was first proposed in a 2005 article inthe journalEast and West by UCLA professor Gregory Schopen. Schopen found evidence for the cult when studying the Tibetan version of the monastic code, Mulasarvastivada vinaya.

It’s a “cult focused on his image that involved taking it in procession through the region and into town,” Schopen wrote. “A cult tied to a cycle of festivals celebrating four moments, not in the biography of the Buddha but in the pre-enlightenment period of the life of Siddhartha.”

One section of the code authorizes carrying the image of Siddhartha (referred to as a Bodhisattva) on a wagon.

Whether or not the newly discovered stele went on a wagon ride, Fussman said the depiction of Gautama Siddhartha Sakyamuni before he became a Buddha provides further evidence of the existence of this cult. “Here also you have an instance of it,” he said in the interview, “the Buddha before he became a Buddha.”

Excavations continue at the Mes Aynak site as scientists explore the complex in an effort to save the artifacts before the area is disturbed by copper mining.

from:    http://www.livescience.com/20799-ancient-statue-reveals-prince-buddha.html

 

Volcano Update 6/4

Eruption Update for June 4, 2012: Popocatépetl, Nevado del Ruiz, Kilauea and more

A combination of a thermal and visible image of the Royal Gardens subdivision lava flow field, showing the active (bright) and inactive (dark) lava flows. You can also notice the prominent kipuku (forest surrounded by lava flows) on both sides of the active lava flow in the foreground. Image taken on May 31, 2012, courtesy of USGS/HVO.

There is a big anniversary this week (well, other than our first wedding anniversary) – but I’ll have more on that on Wednesday. Today, I thought I’d update a few bits of volcanic news from the past week or so. If you’re looking for even more details on the week’s volcanic events, check out the latest USGS/Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report (of which a few of the updates get linked to below).

Mexico

All eyes continue to be on Popocatépetl and the volcano clearly still deserves the attention. Over the weekend, Popo produced at least 91 explosions over a 24 hour period. However, none of the events were larger than what we’ve been seeing over the last week. In fact, UNAM scientist Giovanni Sosa Ceballos says that we shouldn’t be expecting a large Plinian eruption from Popo as its recent volcanic history doesn’t favor such behavior. This doesn’t mean that the volcano isn’t still dangerous and doesn’t entirely rule out a large event. However, looking at the past activity at a volcano is one of the best ways to know what to expect in the present. The Mexican government still has people and resources ready for evacuations if the activity gets worse.

Check out the webcams to watch Popocatépetl’s activity (conditions permitting).

 

Colombia

Much like Popocatépetl, Colombia’s Nevado del Ruiz has been rumbling much of the spring. After a brief respite, the activity at the volcano has kicked back up this week, with almost continuous ash emissions over the last few days. However, the activity hasn’t increased since the volcano was placed back on Orange alert status last Tuesday. INGEOMINAS scientists say that these ash emissions could last for days to weeks, continuing to dust the region around Ruiz with coating of volcanic ash. The Colombian and regional governments have prepared shelters for potential evacuees if the volcano’s activity increases or lahars are generated from these rewned explosions.

Be sure to watch the Ruiz webcams to see any changes at the volcano.

Hawai’i

The lava flows (see above) and ups/downs of the Halema’uma’u Crater lava lake have continued into the early summer at Kilauea on the Big Island. The level of the summit lava lake has oscillated over the last week, changing as much as 60 meters (relative to the floor of the summit crater) and parts of the crater wall falling into the lava lake. You can also check out a brief piece of the earthquake and volcanic threat to another Hawaiian island, Maui.

image http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/multimedia/uploads/multimediaFile-382.jpg

from:    http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/eruption-update-for-june-4-2012-popocatepetl-nevado-del-ruiz-kilauea-and-more/#more-113917

Ireland — 4. Earthquake

A very rare M4 earthquake hits Ireland!!!

Last update: June 6, 2012 at 10:58 am by By

This is the largest magnitude Irish earthquake ever recorded!

The Lleyn Peninsula Earthquake 19 July 1984 which was M5.4 caused intensity IV in Ireland.
It is expected that Mayo County will have intensity IV-V shaking from this 6th June 2012 earthquake. Mayo County has a population of 132,000 and very little earthquake resistant building measures!
The epicenter was located 50km off the west coast of Ireland.

Locals in a number of areas on the west coast reported feeling earth tremors this morning. Tremors were felt in counties Mayo, Sligo and Galway with some local radio stations receiving calls from listeners who described houses shaking.

There have been reports of some structural damage but this has not been confirmed.

Ishnakea South Island (closest point to the earthquake)

Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : M4.0 (BGS)
UTC Time : 07:58:13.9 UTC on 6th June, 2012
Local time at epicenter : 07:58:13.9 AM  on 6th June, 2012
Depth (Hypocenter) : 3km (BGS)
Geo-location(s) : 45km west of Old Village, Ishnakea South.
Location is approximately 60km west of Belmullet, County Mayo. Felt in the Counties of Mayo, Sligo and Galway.

Historical earthquakes near Ireland (courtesy:BGS)

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/06/06/a-very-rare-m4-earthquake-hits-ireland/

Ashley Judd on Women’s Bodies

The Conversation

Posted on April 10, 2012

The Conversation about women’s bodies exists largely outside of us, while it is also directed at (and marketed to) us, and used to define and control us. The Conversation about women happens everywhere, publicly and privately. We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification. Our voices, our personhood, our potential, and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted.

As an actor and woman who, at times, avails herself of the media, I am painfully aware of both the conversation about women’s bodies, and it frequently migrates to my own body. I know this, even though my personal practice is to ignore what is written about me. I do not, for example, read interviews I do with news outlets. I hold that it is none of my business what people think of me. I arrived at this belief after first, when I began working as an actor eighteen years ago, reading everything. I evolved into selecting only the “good” pieces to read. Over time, I matured into the understanding that good and bad are equally fanciful interpretations. I do not want to give my power, my self-esteem, or my autonomy, to any person, place, or thing outside myself. I thus abstain from all media about myself. The only thing that matters is how I feel about myself, my personal integrity, and my relationship with my Creator. Of course, it’s wonderful to be held in esteem and fond regard by family, friends, and community, but a central part of my spiritual practice is letting go of otheration. And casting one’s lot with the public is dangerous and self-destructive, and I value myself too much to do that.

However, the recent speculation and accusations about the unusual fullness of my face in March, 2012, feels different., and my colleagues and friends encouraged me to know what was being said. Consequently, I choose to address it because the conversation was pointedly nasty, gendered and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle. The assault on our body image, the hyper-sexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about.

A brief analysis demonstrates that the following “conclusions” were all made on the exact same day, March 20, 2012, about the exact same woman (me), looking the exact same way, based on the exact same television appearance. The following examples are real, and come from a variety of (so-called!) legitimate news outlets (such as HuffPo, MSNBC, etc), tabloid press, and social media:

One: When I am sick for a over a month and on medication (multiple rounds of steroids), the accusation is that because my face looks puffy, I have “clearly had work done,” with otherwise credible reporters with great bravo “identifying” precisely the procedures I allegedly have had done.

Two: When my skin is nearly flawless, and at age 43, I do not yet have visible wrinkles that can be seen on television, I have had “work done,” with media outlets bolstered by consulting with plastic surgeons I have never met who “conclude” what procedures I have “clearly” had. (Notice that this is a “back-handed compliment,” too – I look so good! It simply cannot possibly be real!)

Three: When my 2012 face looks different than it did when I filmed “Double Jeopardy” in 1998, I am accused of having “messed up” my face (polite language here, the “F” word is being used more often), with a passionate lament that “Ashley has lost her familiar beauty audiences loved her for.”

Four: When I have gained weight, going from my usual size two/four to a six/eight after a lazy six months of not exercising, and that weight gain shows in my face and arms, I am a “cow” and a “pig” and I “better watch out” because my husband “is looking for his second wife.” (Did you catch how this one engenders competition and fear between women? And suggests that my husband values me based only my physical appearance? Classic sexism. We won’t even address how extraordinary it is that a size eight would be heckled as “fat.”)

Five: In perhaps the coup de grace, when I am acting in a dramatic scene in “Missing, the plot stating I am emotionally distressed, have been awake and on the run for days, viewers remarks ranged from “What the f*&^ did she do to her face?” to cautionary gloating, “Ladies, look at the work!” Footage from “Missing” obviously dates prior to March 2012, and the remarks about how I look while playing a character powerfully illustrate the contagious and vicious nature of the conversation. The accusations and lies, introduced to the public, now apply to me as a woman across space and time; to me as any woman and to me as every woman.

That women are joining in the ongoing disassembling of my appearance is salient. Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it. This abnormal obsession with women’s faces and bodies has become so normal that we (I include myself at times – I absolutely fall for it still) have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly. We are unable at times to indentify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women.

A case on point is that this conversation was initially promulgated largely by women; a sad and disturbing fact. (That they are professional friends of mine, and know my character and values, is an additional betrayal.)

News outlets with whom I do serious work, such as publishing Op-Eds about preventing HIV, empowering poor youth worldwide, and conflict mineral mining in Democratic Republic of Congo, all ran this “story” without checking with my office first for verification, or offering me the dignity of the opportunity to comment. It’s an indictment of them, that they would even consider the content printable, and that they, too, without using time honored journalistic standards, would perpetuate with un-edifying delight such blatantly gendered, ageists, and mean-spirited content.

I hope the sharing of my thoughts can generate a new conversation: Why was a puffy face cause for such a conversation in the first place? How, and why, did people participate? If not in the conversation about me, in parallel ones about women in your sphere? What is the gloating about? What is the condemnation about? What is the self-righteous alleged “all knowing” stance of the media about? How does this symbolize constraints on girls and women, and encroach on our right to be simply as we are, at any given moment? How can we as individuals in our private lives make adjustments that support us in shedding unconscious actions, internalized beliefs, and fears about our worthiness, that perpetuate such meanness? What can we do as families, as groups of friends? Is what girls and women can do different from what boys and men can do? What does this have to do with how women are treated in the workplace?

I ask especially how we can leverage strong female to female alliances to confront and change that there is no winning here as women. It doesn’t actually matter if we are aging naturally, or resorting to surgical assistance. We experience brutal criticism. The dialogue is constructed so that our bodies are a source of speculation, ridicule, and invalidation, as if they belong to others – and in my case, to the actual public. (I am also aware that inevitably some will comment that because I am a creative person, I have abdicated my right to a distinction between my public and private selves, an additional, albeit related, track of highly distorted thinking that will have to be addressed at another time).

If this conversation about me is going to be had, I will do my part to insist that is a feminist one, because it has been misogynist from the start. Who makes the fantastic leap from being sick, or gaining some weight over the winter, to a conclusion of plastic surgery? Our culture, that’s who. The insanity has to stop, because as focused on me as it appears to have been, it is about all girls and women. In fact, it’s about boys and men, too, who are equally objectified and ridiculed, according to hetereonormative definitions of masculinity that deny the full and dynamic range of their personhood. It affects each and every one of us, in multiple and nefarious ways: our self image, how we show up our relationships and at work, our sense of our worth, value, and potential as human beings. Join in – and help change – The Conversation.

N.B.: I would like to thank the many family members and mentors who read my essay, provided their passionate and unqualified support, and in some instances, made valuable suggestions to the text. They include my spiritual sister, Nikki Myers, who sat with me in my “office” under a red bud tree where this writing came to me; Naomi Judd and Larry Strickland; Michael Ciminella and Mollie Whitelaw; Reverend Mark Judd; Marina Franchitti, Carla Franchitti McFarlane. I thank Carol Lee Flinders, PhD, who taught me to mediate and who continually reinforces my organic understanding that pursuit of equality is fundamentally spiritual. I thank my life coach; Ted Klontz, PhD, whose unfailing presence in my life helps me become increasingly empowered and clear. I thank my colleagues Trena Keating, Michelle Bohan, Cara Trippichio, and Annett Wolf, whom I met in Hollywood yet who not only never flinch when I take a stand, stand resolutely with me. I thank Gloria Steinem for a simple yet powerful nudge toward full ownership of my reality; Dr Carol Jordan of the University of Kentucky for a lovely bit of inspired language. I am grateful for Angela McCracken, Esq., who in the age of unrestricted media frenzies supports legal rights where one still has them and helps my husband and me stand up to slander, defamation and lies. I give thanks to my extraordinary professor of “Gender Violence: Law and Social Justice” at Harvard Law, who not only teaches brilliantly but attracts to her classroom the most incredible people. My classmates, Rebecca Leventhal, Brittany Rogers, and Brittanie Hall, contributed, respectively, the reminder of the need for a clean, lucid opening paragraph, an additional infusion of steely, principled, feminist social justice values, and the insight that my body was being dissected as if it belonged to the public. Lastly, I thank BR for the soulful validation that what I had to say was beautiful and necessary. It was she who said, “you have to publish this as an Op Ed.”

Most especially, I thank my husband, Dario Franchitti, as it was his outrage that began this dialogue in our home. Over a period of days, his indignation helped me grasp the “damned if I do, damned if I don’t” double bind that inheres in The Conversation about both men and women in the public space, for which my puffy face was merely an example. Because of him, this piece became inevitable and essentially wrote itself. Dario’s thoughtful reading and astute feedback elevated its quality and breadth.

from:   http://ashleyjudd.com/2012/04/10/the-conversation/

Earthquake Outside Tokyo

Strong earthquake close to Tokyo.

Last update: June 5, 2012 at 9:48 pm by By

Strong earthquake at a safe distance from Tokyo.
A 6.3Mw (Japan Meteorological Agency) earthquake struck 158km away from Tokyo, altough it was strong the distance and the depth (20km) only made a Max. felt intensity of 3 on a scale of 7, we at earthquake report consider a 5+ scale as dangerous. The earthquake was probably felt by many people on the region.

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/06/05/major-earthquakes-list-june-5-2012/

Kryon on Dark & Light

The Recalibration of Dark and Light

Lee Carroll
a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll

Greetings, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service. I speak to those who have an elegance of wisdom. You may not think of this as you, for there are those here who are literally only feeling this for the first time, but there’s an elegance in this room. The elegance of discernment is here, and this is placed upon you so that you would discern what is true and what is not – including this very message.

There is a dispensation of wisdom occurring on this planet. For all those who would question themselves or what has happened this day [The Kryon seminar] or wonder if they were manipulated with knowledge or energy, they should go inside and feel that raw, pure energy of the love of God. Raw, in that it is not clouded with a filter; you can see it for what it is. The appropriateness of all things reveals itself, including your place on the earth, living the way you’re living with those you live with, with everything you’ve learned. Your wisdom will tell you that it is all correct and proper, and you haven’t made any mistakes. You are wiser than you think.

The room is filled with old souls. Very, very few of you here are not. An old soul is one who has been on the planet more than 100 times or more. My partner has spent the last hour teaching about the past and giving you an option to see the planet as it develops in a way nobody expected. Humans become fearful when there seems to be no predictions about what takes place, for the predictions of doom did not happen. However, they’re just not looking in the right place, for what is taking place now is what many of the ancients told you could happen.

Old souls make a difference on this planet. They carry energetic weight with their wisdom. You are those old souls, dear Humans. But do not put a time on this change, for neither Spirit nor Gaia will react to your clock. Instead, put the compassion of God on the change. See that which is appropriate for your life for now, and then stand back and create it. Listen to it. See it happening. Take a trip to the future where it is happening. Feel it upon your lives.

Blessed is the Human Being who knows they are a part of the plan and the system, for these are the Humans who will plant the seeds for peace on Earth.

The Energy of Recalibration

We wish to continue the series that we are calling, “The Recalibration of All Things”. We have given you information in the past about the recalibration of the planet, of humanity and even of the Universe. Now we speak of the recalibration of dark and light and what it means to you.

So before I begin, I must define what I mean by dark and light and then I will also define what I mean by the new 2012 energy. When I speak about dark and light to you, what do you think about? I’ll tell you what many are trained to think about: They’re trained to think about evil and good and bad. They’re trying to put these things in the appropriate boxes where they were taught they belong using linear thinking. They will turn to the mythology that taught them about an entity with a tail trying to capture your soul and other mysterious entities around that work for that main evil entity.

So I will tell you again: The entity that is after your soul is mythology, dear ones. It doesn’t exist in your reality. But you might say, “Wait a minute, Kryon. Are you telling me evil doesn’t exist?” No, dear ones, I didn’t say that. What I’m telling you is that all the darkness on this planet has come from Human Beings. You don’t need to assign energy to a mythological creature to have evil on the earth. The darkest of the dark can be created by the Humans if they choose to do that. Dark power can be created because Humans are powerful and can manifest it. Darkness is not that hard to manifest.

However, we have told you before that the light/dark balance of the planet is what is at hand. Those who carry light in the dark room will not have darkness around them, for the definition of darkness is the absence of light. But if there are only a few who carry the match, there’s going to be a lot of darkness. So you are subject to that, for you will walk around in whatever light balance is created by humanity.

You might call it a system. All of life is affected – all of it – by the light and dark balance of where humanity decides to place this balance. The definition of dark and light has to do with the Human consciousness balance, since it is the Human Being who creates dark and light for the planet. It’s a concept. So this is the subject of this message: What is the new balance of the earth energy going to mean to you, personally, today?

Second definition: The 2012 energy is a marker, a seeming perception of a time frame that you have now passed and are well into, which gives a confluence of energy permission to change reality. The earth, being Gaia, begins to shift with you and for you, and the energy of the planet moves into areas that it never has before.

The Movement of the Kundalini on Earth

I gave a channel in the area you call Peru. We talked about the prophecy of the ancients, which was called the movement of the feathered serpent. This has also been called the centering of wisdom on the planet. Some have called it the movement of the Kundalini. The Kundalini is an energy that is always associated with movement. It is also often associated with procreation, and the metaphor is therefore dealing with the rebirth of humanity.

Civilization itself is at stake within this movement, and you’ve passed the marker – an alignment that many said would never happen. This is the fifth time you’ve been through this opportunity and now, dear ones, you’re headed for the potential of peace on Earth.

Twenty-three years ago, we told you this could happen and that the potentials were strong for it. Now, all that is around you is struggling with it, for the shift is here. I’ll say this over and over: The old energy of darkness dies hard, screaming and struggling to keep what it has had, and it struggles with its own demise. So that is the energy we speak of now, and the subject is the Human consciousness balance between dark and light. Many have called this duality.

How does this new balance affect you?

Let’s start with the personal, then we’ll go to something bigger and then something even bigger. We’ll end with a prediction we’ve never given before – a potential that has arisen only recently.

Dear ones, I am Kryon. I give you information of love about the planet and your own energy. I never give you information that has not already been generated by the potential of Human consciousness. Quite often the predictions are given and then they happen. When they do, you consider that fortune telling. It is not. It is energy in that random, chaotic place you called quantum, weighing the potentials of what could happen regarding your lives and the earth. So the future is driven by the potentials that you have created with your own consciousness as a civilization on the planet – not fortune telling, but a measurement of what you are creating.

Twenty-three years ago, we saw the potentials of today, for you were starting to develop these very things and the seeds were being planted for what you are seeing now. It’s beautiful and difficult at the same time. Change is always accompanied with difficulty. Even the most well-balanced Human will say, “I have found my balance and I’m pleased with this balance.” Then someone comes along and says, “Well, we’re going to change things.” That’s when that well-balanced Human yells, “No! I’m balanced. Don’t change anything!” For change means you’re going to put a weight on one side of that balance scale and you’re going to have to learn to shift so that you center again. That’s always unpleasant and a lot of work. But that’s not what you’re going to be doing this time. This time it’s even harder! We call it recalibration.

Let me tell you what it means by giving you a short review of a message [channelling] I gave recently. In an older energy, you went about protecting yourselves from darkness. If you were a healer, you protected yourselves from those who might have imbalance, psychological problems, even disease in their bodies. Then you often did a number of things to make sure you were protected. There was a process, a procedure for that. So I’m telling you right now that this is gone.

This is a review. If you’re constantly creating light, then darkness does not have a chance. We’ve said this over and over and now it comes full circle to you personally: Wherever you go, darkness can’t touch you. Are you listening to me? It can’t touch you. The essence of your light is the love of God and you are broadcasting it, Lightworker – broadcasting it! There’s no dark thing that can get in there as long as you’re broadcasting light!

Now let me tell you a guaranteed way where you can stop broadcasting light and open yourselves up to go backwards instead of forward. It’s by saying, “I can’t do it. Who am I? I’m not worthy.” There will be many spiritual leaders who will tell you you’re not worthy. They will tell you that you were born dirty and unworthy to even talk to God. They will tell you that you have to suffer to get the attention and approval of God. However, God is in you, and even the master of love told you that. Therefore, you are not born dirty, but born magnificent! If God is in you, then light is in you.

We move on to point two: Drama, anger, frustration. There’s a lot of it. So when you leave this room, how much of that are you going to participate in? It depends upon the duality, doesn’t it? If you are a Lightworker, a lighthouse on this planet that changes the balance of light everywhere you walk, then you’re going to be given immediate power over anger, frustration and drama. Power over it! Now, you can’t change the people around you. You just can’t. They will flail and do whatever they want to and they may go into anger and drama. They may even try to push your buttons. I think you know who I’m talking about. I know who’s here and who is reading. They’ll do it in order to get control over you, and if they can affect you, you’ve fallen for it, haven’t you?

If a person can get dramatic, if they can get angry enough, if they can push your buttons, then they just won the light/dark battle. For years, this has been a struggle because the balance of dark and light has always teetered in the middle of balance, but so often favored the dark. The dark was easy and blind. During these years, the Lightworkers had to work hard to gain the upper hand for themselves, so they would not be affected by the other. I hope you understand what I’m saying. It has been an upstream swim for the Lightworker!

Now, however, energy is being delivered to you as this earth shifts, which is going to make it far easier for you, the Lightworker, to be in control of emotions, no matter what is around you. Then you can stand there with all the angels on your side, while others try all they want to affect you, but you won’t need to react. I challenge you to do this, for there’ll be those of you who walk into the workplace in a couple of days and may have a challenge. It is the way of it. The old balance will still be there trying to assert itself in an old way, not being aware that you’ve changed. So what will your reaction be? Can you begin to take your power?

What happens when one person takes the high road? Eventually, that road is where the other person will want to be also! It’s well lighted and attractive. You don’t just change yourself by creating light. What you do on this planet is seen by all. Every single, small victory at home or at work will help you walk in a peaceful way where you didn’t before. That victory is seen by everybody, and you seem better balanced.

All of us on this side know what you have done! Listen to our applause when you walk from a place and know you did it: You didn’t fall for it this time, and you are not affected anymore. Some of you know of what I speak. Anger, frustration, drama – it doesn’t have to be in your life at all.

Perhaps you’ve decided, as you walk from place to place, that you may have to get out of town, get out of a relationship, get out of a job, for things to settle for you. Now I want you to rethink that idea for a moment. What happens if things start to change for you personally and the things that bothered you before now don’t? That changes the conditions, doesn’t it? Now you can be in the same situations you always were, and yet it’s completely different. You’re not frustrated anymore. You don’t get angry anymore, even as those around you continue to spin in drama and unrest. You actually have more wisdom due to it and can manifest better.

I’ll tell you what may eventually happen. Those spinners will see you, and eventually some are going to come to you in private and say, “How do you do it? I wish I didn’t have to spin as much. I see that you’ve changed. For some reason, you’re not bothered anymore. For some reason, you have a smile and I can see the peace of God in you and I want it. You don’t gossip. You don’t make other people wrong. You have an honoring for all people when you open your mouth and speak. I can hear it. Something changed in you and I’d love to know what it is.” Then, my dear Human Being, and only then, should you open up and say, “I’ve found something that I never thought existed. I found the peace of God inside me.” That’s powerful, and your actions prove it.

Number three: Are you aware of how your body is shifting? It’s allowing for you not only to heal yourself, but to feel better as you do it. This creates a cellular communication where you don’t age as much. Your body will stay younger when the chemistry doesn’t have to deal with anxiety.

The Planetary Balance

A summary: On this planet, the balance of what has happened, what Humans have done through the ages, stays here. It is recorded quantumly in what is called The Crystalline Grid. Everything that takes place on the planet, which Humans create, stays here as energy. Every situation where energy is created stays in The Crystalline Grid. If there’s a dark energy created by Humans, The Crystalline Grid emanates darkness. If there’s a light energy, it emanates light.

For 23 years and the last 18, in particular, you have changed the dark/light balance of Gaia. In the process, your DNA starts to shift. It is quantumly tuned to The Crystalline Grid. That is to say, it then starts to shift not only in you but also in every baby that’s born. You might say that the Human DNA field “looks around” at birth and picks up the energy that is given to it by The Crystalline Grid. That, then, is the starting energy it will have for life. Therefore, what you do now affects the energy of the earth and even the consciousness of humanity to come. Think about it. For eons, nothing has changed. Human nature was always the same and, therefore, you never saw anything but war and frustration. This is now starting to change, and the Lightworkers on the planet have created it.

The children are changing. They’re different. Some of them are taking on quantum attributes. Many adults laugh at this concept, as they sit and enjoy a better earth, not even acknowledging the considerable change before them, since they are in their own box of reality. But that’s what’s going on, and it’s because the dark and light balance of the earth is affecting newborn DNA. History is not repeating itself, and instead of the planet’s population continuing to separate and split itself apart, it is attempting slowly to put itself together. But it happens over generations, so it’s not as obvious as something that happens on a week-to-week basis, which Humans would rather look at in their impatience and intellectual pursuit of a fast-moving reality.

However, what this means is that you can stay here longer, no matter what you’ve been told. Longer life is in your grasp – a lot longer. I’m talking to somebody who needed to hear that. We’ve given instructions on creating pure intent. We’ve told you that if you start a process of belief, where you literally go inside and become one with that which is your innate [innate is the quantum intelligence of biology], then you are starting a process where you are beginning to move into a more multidimensional Human, the true reality of all the matter in the Universe. Being 3D is not a normal reality. It’s the reality of a closed system of thinking and begets only what it knows instead of moving into what it can imagine.

Innate intelligence? Why would you use kinesiology unless you wanted to know something you don’t know? Innate is the energy that you contact when you do muscle testing. Innate is the key. The dark and light balance of the planet is starting to move into a lighter balance, and then it becomes easier for you to contact your own cellular structure and start a process that will operate by itself, as long as you continue to desire light in your life.

Stop Assigning Power to an Outside Force

It’s time for you to stop giving credit to the almighty outside and give credit to the almighty inside, as the masters did. What if the true divinity and power on the planet is hidden in Human Beings instead of angels in the sky or big buildings with impressive facades? Humans love to give away their power to others, both Human and not, since most Humans don’t trust themselves. But what if balanced health could be yours and you could stop the aging process? Dear ones, you should live 200 years, at least! You rejuvenate! This is your design, but this design is not operating at full efficiency due to the dark/light balance that has been on the planet for eons. Now it is changing.

You’re going to start seeing something in the next generation and the one after that: extended life without science. It’s going to start happening automatically, and it will be a puzzle for the biologists. Why would Humans start living so much longer? They will say, “Maybe it’s nutrition. Maybe it’s this and maybe it’s that. Maybe it’s the lack of disease because we’re curing them.” They’ll have all number of reasons and none of them will be accurate, because they don’t know the energy of what you’ve done and how it’s affecting the DNA. Counter-intuitive to all the pollution you are pumping into the environment, Humans will start to have extended lifetimes.

Governments

Let me talk about governments, because you’re going to see some change. First, look at history: For years, even in your lifetime and those of your grandparents, the leadership of countries has decided to conquer one another simply because they could! There was an unspoken barbaric attitude that, “If we are more powerful, then we deserve to conquer the weak and take their land.” This is history and wasn’t all that long ago.

Let me remind you, 30,000 years of your past history is filled with this. It’s literally the history of humanity. Whoever had the most power invaded the one who did not, did you notice? The strong one didn’t have to have a reason, either. If a country had no army, then they eventually had no country! Today, that is no longer in your consciousness, or that of most current governments. But sometimes it still happens, and when you see it, even on a small scale, it disgusts you, does it not? That entire attitude doesn’t seem to be accurate anymore, and it’s shocking when you see it. There’s now more respect for sovereignty and the idea of conquering is something from the past.

Governments change. Attitudes change. So you might say, “Well, we licked that one. We’ve gone someplace.” And you’d be right, for the planet really has changed in that regard. So, what about the next one? What is next for government that is vastly different from the “norm” that you grew up in? You’re going to start seeing a change in the way government conducts itself. Believe it or not, you’re going to start seeing that which has more integrity! There will be those who demand it and those who will shrink from it and there is where the battles will be.

You may even see in your lifetime the end to name-calling during elections! Now, wouldn’t that be something, where one candidate stands up and says, “I don’t agree with my opponent, but he’s a patriot and I can see that he loves his country as I do.  I don’t agree with him, and here is why and what I stand for”? This is more than taking the high road. It’s a new paradigm of thinking.

Right now, you are more prone to say, “My opponent is a bad guy. Look at what he’s done and look at the mistakes he’s made and look at his personal ways of dishonesty and mischief.” That’s an old paradigm, dear ones. I want you to watch for this change. The first one who does it on a main political stage will create a breath of fresh air in your politics, and the system will never be the same. A new paradigm will be seen as “viable” by those who study these things. When you start seeing it in that arena, you’ll know it’s real. You’re headed for an election year [this channelling was in February 2012]. Don’t expect much change in the ways things work, because the old energy is strong. It may take four more years for you to see a difference, perhaps even four more after that. But along will come someone who sets a standard that will be so different that everyone will know it’s something that really works.

When the Indigos run for office, there will be a shift in the way they run and in the integrity that they have. They are conceptual and they can see the reaction of consciousness on those they talk to, and the older ones right now can’t. So we tell you that the dark and light balance is then going to change what? It eventually will change who you elect! And it’s about time. Don’t look for it immediately, but it’s going to be there. Watch for more conceptual common sense campaigning, leaving the old style behind that you have had for 200 years.

Financial

This is a summary on this subject: You have attacked your own financial systems in the last five years to try and make them fair and to clean out as much of the greed as possible. Historians alive today will tell you that this would have been seen as an impossible situation, since big money was seen as untouchable. Yet you have disturbed the nest and started planting the seeds of a better system. This recession you’re in is a recalibration of big money. You called them on it, and we told you it was coming almost a year before it happened. We even told you what would fall first [insurance] and that it would be one of the largest insurance companies on the planet [and it was].

So think about this for a moment. We could see it coming because energy is like that. It creates slow, strong potentials that can be predicted. It’s not over either, since the old system has to recreate itself. Your bankers are confused, if you’ve noticed. It doesn’t matter what the government says they are allowed to do, or how much money they are being given to do it. They’re not doing it! They are frozen in the headlights of a new paradigm and don’t know how to operate. That should tell you how new and uncertain this change is – like nothing you have seen.

Now that, my dear Human Being, is a shift of dark and light. Do you see this? Integrity won out over abundance and power, and the system gets altered. It may get altered again, but there’ll come a day when the ones who have the money to loan must create win-win situations, instead of greed-based systems. You haven’t even seen these systems yet, but you will. You won’t believe some of the ideas that the Indigos will think of for banking where everybody wins, and there won’t be those left behind, scratching their heads and asking, “What happened to my house?” New systems are coming, and they won’t be ones that are in your economic textbooks.

The Planet’s Economy

There’ll come a time on the planet when there’ll probably be no more than five currencies. Unity is the way of all things; it is the structure that creates succinctness in integrity, power of trade, and ease of working. Entire continents will band together as a trading group, and there will be far fewer rules and details to wade through and, therefore, it will be efficient and involve fewer money changers. This also helps to eliminate the very poor, since they will now be involved more in what happens in their own lands. That is what the earth is awakening to. It may take two generations before this has really been realized and seen accurately, but you’ll wake up one day and realize what you’ve done. You are putting things together instead of tearing them apart. That’s counter-intuitive to the old Human process!

In the next two decades, somebody will awaken and say, “Hey, we didn’t have a world war. Isn’t that something? And we’re not going to, either, because everybody is trading with everybody. We may have found a balance that works!” Perhaps someone will even rename the “doomsday clock” something else, since it seems to be running backwards.

It’s the Pollyanna approach, isn’t it? Many think so and feel it’s foolish. There will always be those who would argue and say, “Kryon, it’s not accurate and it’s naïve. It’s only a matter of time before we wipe ourselves out and have the Armageddon. After all, that’s what Humans do.” Well, dear ones, that’s what Humans used to do! It’s up to you whether you listen to those representing “the way it was” or not. They’ll say, “The earth is coming to an end.” There will be those who even will hang on to the last possible moment to say that December 21 [the year of this channel, 2012] is the end of the earth.

So I have something for you to do for them. On December 22, 2012, just call them and remind them that their drama is over and the earth is still here. Now perhaps they can join you in planting seeds for peace on Earth, instead of wallowing in that which creates attention, fear and anxiety. Some of them may just do it. Others will miss the drama and continue to look for something else to fear. There will always be conspiracists and doomsayers aplenty. They won’t like the Kryon message.

Prediction

And now for a prediction: I would not give you the following information if it were not in the works. I cannot give you a timeframe of this prediction because Spirit has no clock. We don’t know what time it is. Time is a three-dimensional construct of your own creation. It serves you for your survival, and it has to be there. In 3D, you can’t get from A to B unless you have a clock. In a quantum state, there is no A to B. In a quantum state, you’re always in both places, so clocks do not exist. God has no clock. That is why when you get information from Sprit about doing something in your life, you must wait for synchronicity instead of rushing out and trying to do it now. Spiritual revelations do not carry an implication to go do it now. Instead, these are messages of the revelation of potentials that you will then experience on your own time through those you meet and the synchronicity you create.

You have something inappropriate in your country. It’s big and it has to do with big money, and it’s going to fall. Perhaps in an unusual way, it will fall. I cannot tell you when, but I will tell you it’s ripe with potential failure. Years ago, I told you when everybody can talk to everybody, there can be no more conspiracies. You got to see this same attribute years ago in another industry you call tobacco, where they were very big business. But under the hood, as you might say, the integrity was not there, for they were addicting young people to the product they were selling and it was making an entire population unhealthy and even setting up early death.

The result was that your country stopped purchasing the product en mass, and today the industry survives by selling to those countries that are not yet aware of what you found out. What took place was the power of integrity over money. Yet again, we bring you this to show you what may very well happen again, for this is the prediction. Big pharma [the drug companies of America] are going to have to change very soon or collapse. When you have an industry that keeps people sick for money, it cannot survive in the new consciousness.

The big money that is involved in this closed circle is immense, and the lack of integrity is going to be revealed, slowly. The lives “lost for profit” will be counted, and there are going to be embarrassed faces, and even a suicide or two. To think of an industry that’s supposed to cure people, keeping them sick on purpose will be a wound in the very fabric of what is correct and for humanity.

So they will fall and you’ll know their names and they’re going to have to scramble to keep up with the rest of the world who may not have the proclivities for greed that made these fall. This may also change the perception of what countries have the best health inventions and solutions, and many in this country may turn to overseas answers for their health needs.

That’s the prediction. When it starts to happen, dear one, and perhaps the movie starts it [the one that’s in the works that is a secret], I want you to remember where you heard it first. Perhaps this information, given in advance, will solidify that this is real – that the channelling you hear today comes from the source that we say it does, the one inside you.

When you’re not here, you’re with me. I know your face and I know who you really are. I know your real name, not the one you’ve got right now. That is the truth of the day. Recalibration is upon you in so many ways. We’ll continue this information, this cycle of revelation, and many more things will be revealed. It’s time. That’s the energy of 2012.

And so it is.

Kryon

The information is free and available for you to print out, copy and distribute as you wish. Its Copyright, however, prohibits its sale in any form except by the publisher.

Lee Carroll

from:    http://spiritlibrary.com/kryon/channelings/the-recalibration-of-dark-and-light

Small and Varied Houses

6 Ideas for Sensible Homes

Small, supportive, affordable, recycled—and you can build your own.
Ella on the Porch photo by Dawn Jenkins

Photo by Dawn Jenkins.

Sensible Home #1: It’s Small

Ella Jenkins is building the home of her dreams. It has pine floors and a yellow front door. And it’s 130 square feet, mobile, and currently sitting in her parents’ yard.

Jenkins, 23, is building her little house with the help of her stepdad after years living in college dorm rooms and couch surfing while she studied music in Scotland. She knew her degree in Scottish harp music and Gaelic singing would not be especially marketable, and she found Southern California rent to be “staggeringly high.” “I could not support myself doing what I want to do when I need to pay rent,” she says.

Family and friends weren’t initially sure about her building her own house. Her parents were worried. Her sister thought she was nuts. “I’ve never built anything in my life,” Jenkins says.

But her stepdad, Rick Lanes, has been helping out since she began construction in September, lending his tools and helping her frame her house while she lives with Lanes and her mother in Frazier Park, outside Bakersfield.

Though she’s faced constant challenges in home construction, and “near-death” experiences with ladders, she hopes to be finished with her home this summer. And she hopes it will be an end to the constant moving that comes with young adulthood and earning money as a street musician. “Right now everything’s totally up in the air,” Jenkins said. “What I love about the tiny house is it doesn’t change, it’s your house.”

Ella's House photo by Dawn JenkinsPhoto Essay: 
Follow Ella as she builds.

Along the way, she has found ways to cut costs. In addition to borrowing her stepdad’s tools and experience as a carpenter, she has found fixtures inexpensively on the Internet, and her neighbor has helped with electricity and plumbing. Recently, she found a manzanita branch to use as her front porch post.

On top of gaining a home for herself, Jenkins developed a strengthened bond with her stepdad. “It’s been such a fun year. I’m going to be really sad when I have to leave.”

Though it may not be everyone’s dream house, it’s just what Jenkins wants.“I just feel this wonderful feeling of peace,” she says of her house. “I just walk in and feel it’s huge.”—Lynsi Burton

Sensible Home #2: It’s Not Owned By a Bank

 

Ajaz Khan photo by Paul Dunn

Ameen’s president Ajaz Khan at the co-op office. His own house is pictured second row, far left.

Photo by Paul Dunn for YES! Magazine.

Six years ago, Ajaz Khan, an engineer in Santa Clara, Calif., was trying to figure out how to buy a home without violating the Islamic law prohibiting usury, which effectively rules out conventional mortgages. How do you buy a home without a mortgage, especially in pricey Silicon Valley?

He turned to Ameen Housing Co-op, the nation’s first Islamic real estate investment trust. Ameen purchases primary residences with money from other homeowners and investors within the Muslim community. A typical homebuyer puts down 30 percent and then rents the home from the co-op based on local fair-market rents. Part of the rent goes to pay the investors and part goes to buy back shares of the house. All that mortgage interest that would have gone to a bank—one of the largest budget items for middle-class households—becomes, instead, modest quarterly dividends for investors, keeping the money within the community. After the final shares have been bought back from the co-op—this has taken as little as three years and as many as 11—the house is appraised, and the gain or loss in value is shared.

So far, 15 homes have become fully owned by members since Ameen began in 1996, and 25 more are in process. Ameen currently funds only four houses per year. Khan is now the volunteer president of Ameen and works with homeowners when they have financial difficulties. “The whole intent is to help provide homes. The goal is not about profit or loss,” he said.

The idea of communities stepping in where mortgage banks have failed seems to be catching on. Khan has had recent inquiries from Muslim and non-Muslim groups about how to set up similar cooperatives. “Any group of people can do this, especially if they can put helping each other above profit.”

Sensible Home #3: It’s Built With Reused Materials

roof.jpg
Video: Recycled Houses

Raid the dump, not the lumber aisle.

Dan Phillips is a rare hero of the built world. He combines artistry, eco-thinking, and social justice in his company Phoenix Commotion of Huntsville, Texas, which builds— crafts, actually—one-of-a-kind homes made 80 percent from construction site cast-offs and landfill-bound materials. He builds them specifically for low-income families and requires clients to help him build the house. His ultimate goal is to challenge the  building industry. Freed from the “tyranny of the two-by-four and four-by-eight,” he says, we can build a house out of anything. And he’s proved it.


Sensible Home #4: It’s Not Full of Stuff

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Theologist Dave Bruno wrote the book on minimalist living. The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul documents his family’s rejection of consumerism and its quest to get unstuck from all the stuff they had accumulated by paring down to 100 things. “For years I lived with stuff instead of contentment.” Through the book and his guynameddave.com blog, he is guiding thousands of people through “The 100 Thing Challenge,” directing earnest discussions such as “does each fork count as one thing, or is silverware one thing?” He gets a lot of questions about what stuff to get rid of, so YES! Magazine asked him what he decided to keep among his 100 Things. His answer: Books. “Our lives are such wonderful stories. There is nothing like a physical book at home.” Also, comfortable furniture, for family and friends to tuck into for a long conversation. He knows some minimalists who have only a couple of chairs and a bed. “If we’re going to invite people into our lives and tell them that they are more important than stuff, we should be able to offer them a place to comfortably hear about it.”

Sensible Home #5: It’s a Hub

window.jpgIn Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood, busy markets and concert halls are just minutes away by foot. Ferries, light rail, and buses are, too. It’s not surprising that housing in Belltown generally comes with a big price tag, but the Apex Belltown Co-op offers affordable, communal home ownership. Apex emerged from the efforts of a group of artists looking to create low-cost housing. With loans from the city of Seattle and the National Consumer Cooperative Bank, they purchased and converted the 1909 Apex Hotel into a cooperative home with 21 living units and shared bathrooms and kitchens. Current members range in age from 19 to 50, and they share all aspects of building ownership. After a refundable “buy-in” share price of $2,472, members pay a rent-like sum between $259 and $583 per month. The fee goes toward whatever members agree upon as a group, from utilities to a party and event budget to toilet paper. Members share lives, too. “Outside the day-to-day organizational things like meetings that bring people together, we have potlucks, play games and do crafts together, or go to a neighborhood bar,” says Aaron Long, a current member. “You see your neighbors all the time.” Shannan Stoll

Sensible Home #6: It’s Supportive

 

Carmel Sullivan

Carmel Sullivan and her son.

Confronted with post-divorce anxieties about living alone, Carmel Sullivan started connecting with other single moms. In addition to a shared sense of loneliness, Sullivan learned of the harsh living arrangements many single mothers were in. She felt there should be a reliable resource to help single mothers connect with one another for shared living. Enter CoAbode.org, whose mission is to provide support and services that connect women raising children alone. Through partnerships with organizations around the country, CoAbode connects single mothers with affordable housing, support groups, educational scholarships, and community outreach. The online membership application is free. Once a good housing match has been made, mothers either move into a new living space or into one of their existing homes. They pool finances and resources to improve living conditions for themselves and their children; they share meals, household chores, and parenting responsibilities. According to Sullivan, “The difference between what we are helping to facilitate and just ‘renting a room’ is that our clients really do end up sharing lives. They are not just roommates—they become blended families.” —Heidi Bruce

from:    http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/making-it-home/6-ideas-for-sensible-homes