Monthly Archives: July 2012

July 1-7

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This is a week for revelations, and you might just find yourself making some fireworks of your own.  A lot of the things that you have been dealing with, putting up with, accepting are no longer acceptable.  There are choices to be made in this.  You can keep on in this way or let it be known that you have moved beyond.  Either way, you will be changing yourself, how you look at yourself, and how others see you.  You will also be finding more and more the joy in little things.  This will delight you and at the same time, will assist in doing some of the clearing out you have been wanting to do.  It is one thing to know that you have to un-stuff.  It is quite another thing actually to go ahead and do it.  This can bring up issues of worth and value in terms of things, but they must be dealt with.  You are beginning to see what is important in a different light.  By the end of the week, you will have opened up areas of opportunity in your life.  It will be interesting to see how, in the next few months, people, opportunities, and things come in to fill it up!

On the larger scale, things will be up and down in all areas.  There is a good chance that there will be a number of unlikely tropical storms rolling in.  Some of these lows will be dismissed as nothing, only to show themselves as players to deal with as time goes by.  The Earth movements will accelerate, and there will be reverberations in unexpected areas.  Fear will become very palpable as things that have been planned fall apart even at the last moment. People are reaching breaking points in various places, and this will become obvious as lawsuits get filed, grass roots movements begin to make themselves heard, protests abound, and non-violent actions start to happen. Finances become more and more of an issue as other countries find themselves in precarious positions.  The Stock Market remains questionable.  There will be electronic disruption as communications become garbled in all areas.  More and more stuff will be coming out in the media which will uncover various conspiratorial acts.  History is bringing to light much that will change the view of Earth’s History.

Sunday, July 1:    Clearwater Blue

A lot of things will be coming to the surface today, and for the first time, you will be able to see them for what they are.  It is your choice as to what you are going to do about all that.  Emotions can be close to the surface as old ways, friendships, relationships, ideas, and opinions are shown for what they are and always have been.  Behind the façade there is always a truth that is waiting to be discovered.  The question is one of when are we willing to discover that truth and accept it for what it is. There can be a bit of shaking up going on today, but it will all end with a sense of accomplishment if you stay grounded, center in your Core, and trust the knowing of your true heart.  You are always as brave and as strong as you need to be.

Monday, July 2:     Grainy White

There is not much happening in the morning, and that is probably a good thing.  The day starts on a down note, perhaps a reflective note.  There are things that have been coming up in your life that have been a bit unsettling.  You have been able to ignore them for some time, however they are becoming a bit too obvious right now, and they are demanding your attention.  All of this can lead to some physical symptoms.  It is time to choose which way you wish to go in terms of taking things on.  It is a good idea to sit down and focus on your priorities.  List them, draw them, sing them, poeticize them, but most of all know what they are.  As time goes on, it is these things that will guide you, ground you, and fulfill you.

Tuesday, July 3:    Dark Violet

Full Moon — Thunder Moon/Full Buck Moon:    There are things stirring n the shadows today.  You will be aware of them in many different ways.  In conversation, you will recognize that there is much that is not being said.  Then there will be those things you catch out of the corner of your eye.  This is a good time for working inside, within your Core.  Much is changing now, and you are getting a sense of it.  The questions will remain because so much has not yet reached maturity.  This is not a time for judgment.  All the facts are not out there yet.  Take time to work with your inner knowing.  Your perspective is changing, and you will feel better if you are directing the process, rather than reacting to what has happened.

Wednesday, July 4:    Pea Green

Independence Day:    Traditionally a time to spend with family and friends, but it will be advisable to keep everything on a very light note.  There is unrest in the day’s energies and that will translate easily to those who are letting stuff take them where it will.  This is a time for remembering that you control what you do and you create your outcomes.  Do not give away your power.  Take time to know what true Independence means to you.  Then stand up for WHO you are.

Thursday, July 5:    Silky Red

This is a day when emotions can run high.  There is a quiet sense of desperation in the air which everyone is reacting to.  If you are grounded and work from your inner heart’s true knowing, then you will see through the façade to what is lying behind the scenes.  The energy is erratic.  It is not following one direct course today.  This throws things into turmoil.  You might be feeling that you can no longer rely on the old stuff.  There is some truth in that.  Work on your priorities.  Take time to focus on what it is you wish to get out of the day.  Just getting through on a positive note sometimes is enough.

Friday, July 6:    Silky Blue

Take a good look around you today at what is going on, who is saying what, who is doing what.  Actions speak louder than words, and today that will be very obviously true.  The hidden agendas, thoughts, words, acts are coming to the surface.  Stay centered in your Core because you just might find yourself challenged by what you are seeing and you will be needing that grounding to give you the necessary focus.  Much of what happens today will not be quickly resolved.  You can find that some of the events of the day have reverberations.  Approach everything from the point of the heart’s true knowing and you will be able to see tings for what they are at their very essential nature.  There is much to be learned.  Sometimes lesson involve tears, but you are all the better for it once you have gotten it.

Saturday, July 7:    Red Orange

This is a day for doing what you have to do and being okay with it.  If you take that attitude, there is much positive that will come out of it all.  There are surprises in the air, but they are tied to things you had thought were set in stone and completely defined.  No surprises.  Some things can lead you to look at things from a different perspective. You have been looking for a change while change has been staring you in the face.  Embrace the day’s energies and you might just get clear on what that is all about.

Genetic Engineers Report on GMO’s

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Genetic Engineers Publish Damning Evidence-based Report About GMO Food

2nd July 2012

By – anh-europe.org

A damning new evidence-based report about genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) has just been published – and it reveals that most of the claims made by the pro-GM camp are nothing more than hot air.

Genetic engineers on genetic modification of food

This comprehensive and fascinating report, published by non-governmental organisation Earth Open Source, is entitled GMO Myths and Truths: An evidence-based examination of the claims made for the safety and efficacy of genetically modified crops.

What makes it so powerful is that two of the authors are genetic engineers – Michael Antoniou PhD, of King’s College London School of Medicine in the UK, and John Fagan PhD, a leading sustainability expert in food system, biosafety, and GMO testing, and founder/chief scientific officer of the Global Id Group.

Dispelling the GM myths

 

The report effectively dismisses the “far reaching claims” used as the basis for extensive promotion of GMO crops by the biotech industry, governments and government agencies and proponents of GMO technology.  It reveals that the exact opposite of the pro-GM claims is true pretty much universally. Most notably, the reports shows that GMOs are associated with hazards to health and the environment – none of which comes as a surprise to those of us who have been following GMO developments closely.

Rather than representing the solution to world hunger, GMOs, according to these authors, not only fail to deal with the problem, but they also distract from its real causes: “Poverty, lack of access to food and, increasingly, lack of access to land to grow it on”.

Traditional plant breeding outperforms GM

The report provides evidence that conventional plant breeding outperforms GM crops in terms of yield, drought tolerance, disease and pest resistance – all of which confirms the findings of a 30-year study comparing organic with conventional farming methods, including GMOs. GMO-free farming is absolutely able to meet our present and future food needs, without all the risks and damage being wreaked by GMO technology!

The new report also echoes the findings of 400 scientists from 60 countries who concluded, back in 2008, that GMOs were no solution to food shortages in the developing world. This research was detailed in the UN’s International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) report.

The 2008 report concluded that GM raises numerous contentious issues for developing countries, such as gene transfer, contamination of organic crops, undermining of local practices, reduced food security and unpredictable or reduced yields.

The biotech industry and government agencies must now be answerable

Opposition to GMO technology can no longer be dismissed as emotional anti-science or pseudoscience.  With every uncomfortable truth and dirty trick now exposed by solid science from genetic engineers themselves, GMO food and agriculture now looks less like an impressive, modern technology, and more like a dangerous and foolhardy con trick designed to secure ownership of the world’s food supply for highly unscrupulous and unethical corporations.

Call to Action

  • Select organically certified foods or others guaranteed to be free of GM ingredients 
  • Support the Californian ballot initiative campaign, which, if it successfully forces mandatory labelling of GM foods in California, has the potential to cause a domino effect across other states in the USA.  This is critical because US citizens, without their informed consent, have become the biggest consumers of GM-containing foods anywhere in the world
  • Let your elected representatives know about this new, comprehensive, evidence-based report written by genetic engineers, and express your concern about the mounting evidence of harm to human health and the environment from GMOs
  • Stay informed on the GM issue, and share our stories widely.  See the summary of our concerns on our Say NO to GM campaign page

from:   http://wakeup-world.com/2012/07/02/genetic-engineers-publish-damning-evidence-based-report-about-gmo-food/

Four Foods That Benefit Your Health & Sunlight

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Five Food-Medicines That Could Quite Possibly Save Your Life

2nd June 2012

By Sayer Ji

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

Though Mother Nature’s formulas are proprietary, she does not grant patents.

Some of the most powerful medicines on the planet are masquerading around as foods and spices. While they do not lend themselves to being patented, nor will multi-billion dollar human clinical trials ever be funded to prove them efficacious, they have been used since time immemorial to both nourish our bodies, and to prevent and treat disease. So valued were these in ancient times that they were worth their weight in gold, and entire civilizations either rose to great power or collapsed as a result of their relationship to them.

What is even more amazing is that many of these “plant allies” are found growing in our backyards, and often sitting there in our refrigerators and spice racks, neglected and under appreciated.  In fact, many of us use these daily unaware that this is why we don’t get sick as often as those who do not incorporate them into their diet. Let’s look at a few examples….

1) Garlic – with the increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria and the failure of the conventional, drug-based model to develop effective solutions against them (nor accepting responsibility for creating them), spices have regained their once universal reign as broad spectrum infection-fighters with sometimes life-saving power. Garlic, in fact, has several hundred therapeutic properties, confirmed by a growing body of scientific research, which you can view directly on GreenMedInfo.com.[i]  One quick example of garlic’s power, is in killing multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), which the mainstream media has termed the “white plague,” roiling the masses with a fear of drug-resistant (but not plant-extract resistant) they are made to believe they are defenseless against.  Last year an article was published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal showing that garlic was capable of inhibiting a wide range of multiple drug resistant tuberculosis strains.[ii] The authors concluded “The use of garlic against MDR-TB may be of great importance regarding public health.”  Garlic’s anti-infective properties do not end with MDR-TB, as it has been demonstrated to inhibit the following pathogens as well

  • Amoeba Entamoeba histolytica (parasite)
  • Cholera
  • Clostridium
  • Cytomegalovirus
  • Dermatophytoses (a type of topical fungal infection)
  • Haemophilus Influenzae
  • Helicobacter Pylori
  • Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1
  • Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2
  • Klebsiella
  • Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus A. (MRSA)
  • Parainfluenza Virus
  • Peridontal Infection
  • Pneumococcal Infections
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa
  • Streptococcus Mutans
  • Streptococcus Infections: Group A
  • Streptococcus Infections: Group B
  • Streptococcus pyrogenes
  • Thrush (oral fungal infection)

This amazing list underscores how important it is to keep a supply of garlic close by!

2.)  Honey – bees produce a wide range of therapeutic substances beyond honey, e.g. propolis, bee venom, royal jelly, beeswax, bee pollen, etc., but this sweet, sticky stuff that we all love to dip our paw into occasionally, is the most well-known and most copiously consumed of them all – and for good reason, it tastes great!  But did you know that this sweet treat is one of nature’s most powerful healing agents, as well? Here is just a smattering of some of honey’s more scientifically researched health benefits and/or applications:

  • Aspirin-Induced Gastrointestinal Toxicity  (honey  coats the delicate linings of the stomach, preventing aspirin-induced lesions and bleeding)
  • Bacterial Infections
  • Burns
  • Candida infection (despite the fact that honey contains sugar, it demonstrates anti-fungal properties)
  • Conjunctivitis
  • Dental plaque (a recent study showed that Manuka honey was a viable alternative to chemical mouthwash in dissolving dental plaque)[iii]
  • Dermatitis
  • Diabetic Ulcer
  • Herpes-related ulcers
  • MRSA (especially for Manuka honey)

There are many more uses for honey than covered here. Needless to say, replacing synthetic sweeteners or highly processed sugars or high fructose corn syrup with a moderate amount of honey may be a great preventative health step to take.

3) Apples – an apple a day does in fact keep the doctor away, especially cancer specialists it would seem.  For instance, one of the most well-established health benefits of consuming apples is to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. The more apples you consume, the less likely you are to develop this potentially fatal disease. To view the 5 studies that reference this relationship, go to the GreenmedInfo.com apple research page where you will also find 50 other health benefits of apple or apple byproducts (e.g. apple vinegar) consumption which include:

  • Aging, Reduce Rate
  • Allergies
  • Allopecia (Hair Loss)
  • Diarrhea
  • Insulin Resistance
  • Liver Cancer
  • Radiation Induced Illness
  • Staphylococcol Infection

4) Sunlight – this one may throw some of you off, but sunlight possesses both energy and information with real, metabolic value and is therefore a source of usable energy for the body – and so, in a very real sense it can be considered a form of food that we consume through our skin by way of its built in, melanin-based “solar panels.”  Not only does adequate sunlight exposure result in the production of vitamin D, a hormone-like substance that regulates over 2,000 genes in the human body — and as a result prevents or ameliorates hundreds of vitamin D deficiency associated health conditions – but sunlight exposure itself has a unique set of health benefits not reducible to simply vitamin D production alone.  One of the more interesting studies performed on sunlight exposure, based on data gathered from over 100 countries and published earlier this year in the journal Anticancer Research, showed that there was “a strong inverse correlations with solar UVB for 15 types of cancer,” with weaker, though still significant evidence for the protective role of sunlight in 9 other cancers. Here are some additional benefits of sunlight exposure:

  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Depression
  • Dopamine Deficiency
  • Dermatitis
  • Influenza
  • Multiple Sclerosis
  • Psoriasis

5) Turmeric  – quite possibly the world’s most important herb. Named “Kanchani,” or literally “Golden Goddess,” in the ancient Indian healing tradition, its healing properties have been deeply appreciated, if not revered for countless centuries. Turmeric has been scientifically documented to have over 500 applications in disease prevention and treatment. It also has been shown to modulate over 150 distinct biological and genetic/epigenetic pathways of value in health, demonstrating a complexity as well as gentleness that no drug on the planet has ever been shown to possess.

As there are too many health conditions that turmeric may benefit to list, we are listing the top 10 as determined by the GreenMedInfo algorithm which calculates both the evidence quantity (number of articles) and evidence quality (human study valued higher than animal, and so on). Also, the number in parentheses denotes the number of studies on the database demonstrating the beneficial relationship.

  • Oxidative Stress (160)
  • Inflammation (51)
  • DNA Damage (48)
  • Lipid Peroxidation (34)
  • Colorectal Cancer (24)
  • Breast Cancer (60)
  • Colon Cancer (52)
  • Chemically-Induced Liver Damage (34)
  • Alzheimer’s Disease (34)
  • Tumors (23)

from:   http://wakeup-world.com/2012/07/02/five-food-medicines-that-could-quite-possibly-save-your-life/

 

Dr. Jeff Masters on Extreme Heat, Etc.

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Extreme storms and extreme heat hit the U.S.
Posted by: Dr. Jeff Masters, 5:50 PM GMT on June 30, 2012 +36

A violent line of organized severe thunderstorms called a derecho swept across the U.S. from Illinois to Virginia on Friday, damaging houses, toppling trees, bringing down power lines. The storms killed six people in Virginia, two in New Jersey, and one in Maryland, and left at least 3.4 million people without power. The thunderstorms in a derecho (from the Spanish phrase for “straight ahead”) create violent winds that blow in a straight line. The traditional definition of a derecho is a thunderstorm complex that produces a damaging wind swath of at least 240 miles (about 400 km), featuring a concentrated area of thunderstorm wind gusts exceeding 58 mph (93 km/hr.) A warm weather phenomenon, derechos occur mostly in summer, especially June and July in the Northern Hemisphere. They can occur at any time of the year and occur as frequently at night as in the daylight hours. As seen on our wundermap with the “go back in time” feature turned on, Friday’s derecho began near Chicago in the early afternoon, then marched east-southeast, peaking in intensity over Virginia and Washington D.C. on Friday evening. The derecho was unusually intense due to the extreme heat, which helped create an unstable atmosphere with plenty of energy to fuel severe thunderstorms.


Figure 1. Radar image from our wundermap with the “go back in time” feature turned on for 11 pm EDT Friday June 29, 2012, showing the derecho over Washington D.C. and Baltimore. Click on the “hour” button above the wundermap to advance the time by one hour to watch the progress of the derecho across the country.


Figure 2. NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) logged 871 reports of damaging winds on Friday. Twenty one of these reports were for winds over 80 mph. The highest wind gust was in Oswego, Illinois: 92 mph.


Figure 3. A dramatic change in the weather in Buckeye land: the temperature at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio dropped from 97°F to 68° after passage of Friday’s derecho. The storm brought a wind gust of 82 mph to campus, and 0.86″ of rain.

Historic heat wave topples Dust Bowl-era extreme heat records
A historic heat wave on a scale and intensity not seen in the U.S. since the great heat waves of the 1930s Dust Bowl era set new all-time heat records for at least ten major cities Friday. According to wunderground’s weather historian Christopher C. Burt, fifteen of the 303 major cities he maintains records for on the wunderground extremes page have set all-time heat records in the past four days. The only year with more all-time heat records is 1936, when 61 cities set all-time heat records. In 2011, which had the 2nd warmest summer in U.S. history, only ten of the 303 cities set all-time heat records during the entire summer. With the the hottest month of the year (July) still to come, 2012 threatens to rival the great Dust Bowl summer of 1936 for extreme heat.

All-time records for any date tied or broken on Friday:

109° Nashville, TN (old record 107° 7/28/1952
109° Columbia, SC (old record 107° on two previous occasions)
109° Cairo, IL (old record 106° on 8/9/1930)
108° Paducah, KY (ties same on 7/17/1942
106° Chattanooga, TN (ties same on 7/28/1952)
105° Raleigh, NC (ties same on 8/21/2007 and 8/18/1988)
105° Greenville, SC (old record 104° 8/10/2007 although 106° was recorded by the Signal Service in July 1887)
104° Charlotte, NC (ties same on 8/9 and 10/2007 and 9/6/1954)
102° Bristol, TN (ties same on 7/28/1952-this site now known as `Tri-State Airport’)
109° Athens, GA. This is just 1° shy of the Georgia state record for June of 110° set at Warrenton in 1959.

All-time state June heat records set Friday:

113° Smyrna, TN (old record 110° in Etowah in June 1936)
109° Cairo, IL (old record 108° in Palestine in June 1954)

Also of note: Atlanta, GA hit 104° (its all-time June record), and just 1° shy of its all-time record of 105° set on 7/17/1980. The forecast for Atlanta on Saturday calls for a high of 105°F, which would tie for the hottest day in the city’s history.

Wunderground’s weather historian Christopher C. Burt has a new post called The Amazing June Heat Wave of 2012 Part 1: The West and Plains June 23 – 27 summarizing the early portion of this week’s historic heat wave. He plans to make a follow-up post on Sunday summarizing the records set on Friday and Saturday.

Relatively quiet in the Atlantic
An area of heavy thunderstorms, associated with an upper level low pressure system, has developed in the Gulf of Mexico along the Texas coast. This disturbance will probably move ashore over Texas before development into a tropical depression can occur, and NHC is giving it a 0% chance of development. The tropical wave approaching the Lesser Antilles (Invest 97L) has dissipated due to dry air, and is no longer a threat. None of the reliable computer models are developing anything during the next seven days.

Jeff Masters

from:    http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2141