You may be wondering just what is wrong with you today as little aches and pains flare up here and there in the body. There can be a few large issues also, and it is well to see them for what they are and to respond accordingly. This is a day for knowing what to do and knowing that you can find within yourself the answers that you are needing. There is a lot of shifting going on today on many different levels as the full moon/eclipse energy settles into the Earth’s grid. This movement will be obvious in many unexpected blips on the radar. This is not going to be an easy day as things get shifted around, and some of them are left undone, but it can be an enlightening day as certain secrets come out of the shadows.
There are a lot of changes in the air today, so get out your planners. You can find that some of the things on the list you will have to be re-scheduled. This is all for the best as there is a large blast of energy that is preparing to intersect with Gaia. This is actually, a lot greater than what has been happening for quite some time. It can be unnerving because it is coming in one great influx. Today is a day for getting ready. Take time today to ground. Take time today to prioritize. Things are shifting right now, and if you have not set up a list of what is most important to you, there is a good possibility that you can find yourself totally bewildered. So, for today, work within your heart. Take time and allow yourself to feel before taking action or responding to things. Do not allow yourself to be victimized by those out there who are trying to put blame on someone/thing because they are having problems accepting their own responsibility. And know that you know. You are incredibly powerful and today gives you an opportunity to recognize your power and your ability to see through the illusion and know the reality.
On October 16, 2013, I took this video and pictures of the anomaly in the early evening western sky near the Gulf of Mexico in Florida.
In this video, I clearly show how this anomaly is not Venus, Arcturus, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn through my cellphone app, SkEye.
SkEye is a free cell phone app that is compatible with all cell phones, except for iPhones.
I also took the liberty of checking Stellarium and there were no stars or planets in this particular area of the sky.
Upon uploading the video to my computer, I played it back in slow motion through my VLC Media Player and grabbed some screenshots of the plethora of colors this anomaly emitted.
In one particular screen shot, I noticed what looks like a purple Metatron’s Cube.
Is the U.S. Government working on a program to… well… program the way you view religion?
A whistleblower who has worked on that program says “yes”, and he wants you to know exactly what has been going on.
The first step towards truth is to be informed.
If I told you that the Defense Department was using taxpayer dollars to learn how to influence people with religious beliefs in order to control those beliefs, would it really surprise you?
Would you think that I am a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist?
Would you care if I told you that the program was aimed at controlling fundamentalist Muslims?
How about fundamentalist Christians?
Here’s the back-story.
In 2012, Arizona State Universityʼs Center for Strategic Communication or CSC was awarded a $6.1 million dollar research grant by DARPA or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The goal of the project according to ASUʼs website is to “study the neurobiology of narrative comprehension, validate narrative theories and explore the connection between narrative and persuasion.”
A lot of technical talk there, so lets dig into the details.
The CSC program is actually about creating narratives. Using effective communication, largely video, to control the thought process of groups ofpeople. And ultimately to be able to trigger narratives through magnetic stimulation. At its core, the program is focused on how to win the narrative against Muslim extremism. It’s a fairly interesting concept.
According to documents leaked to benswann.com, this project integrates insights from three mutually-informing theoretical terrains. In short, the goal of the program is to combat and change religious narratives because of their role in “extremist behavior.”
The whistleblower who revealed this program to us, worked for several years on the program. They asked not to be identified.
Ben: What were you told about the proposal as you began working through it?
Whistleblower: Yeah, I thought that it was benign. They told me it was about trying to figure out what parts of the brain are affected by narrative persuasion. Just to figure it out just for academic reasons. So we looked at narrative transportation which is basically how an individual is transported into a narrative, how they understand it… kind of like when you read a good book you get really enthralled with it.
At its core, the program attempts to map the brain to determine which portions of the brain allow you to accept a narrative presented to you. It’s called narrative theory.
Mapping this network will lead to a fuller understanding of the influence narrative has on memory, emotion, theory of mind, identity and persuasion, which in turn influence the decision to engage in political violence or join violent groups or support groups ideologically or financially.
You see, the project is focused on the belief that the reason Muslims in the Middle East are swayed to religious violence is not because of the reality of what is going on around them per se, but because they are believing a local or a regional narrative.
Ben: The local and regional narrative then is that the brain automatically assumes things because of a narrative we’ve been taught since our childhood, is that it?
Whistleblower: Right yeah that’s true. We call those master narratives. So in America we have this “rags to riches” master narrative where if you work really hard you can become successful and make a ton of money. So in the Middle East, they always use the example of the Pharaoh. That’s the master narrative that’s in the Qur’an, where there’s this corrupt leader that, you know, is really bad for society. And they use the example of Sadat who was assassinated. When the assassin killed him, he said, “I have killed the Pharaoh, I have killed the Pharaoh.” So they assume that he was relying upon this Islamic master narrative to fuel his actions.
So how does the program change this? Again a lot of technical speak here so stay with me. But it’s broken into three phases.
Phase I is to map the Narrative Comprehension Network (NCN) using a set of stimuli designed from the point of view of two different religious cultures.
Phase II will test hypotheses generated in Phase I, adding two additional manipulations of narrative validity and narrative transportation.
Phase III investigates possibilities for literally disrupting the activity of the NCN through Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.
Ben: Phase III is fairly interesting. I noticed in the documentation it says let’s not talk too much about this because who knows if we’ll ever get there. But when you do read what Phase III is, it is a little surprising, it’s called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. This is not something that’s science fiction, it’s not something they’ve cooked up. This is a real technique that’s already been used in the past, correct?
Whistleblower: Yes, it started out in the psychiatry field when people were depressed and when you’re depressed certain parts of your brain are not functioning correctly. So they created this technology, which is basically a big magnet, and you put it on their brain and it turns off that part of the brain that’s bad or wrong and it would help them with their depression for several weeks to a month and they’d go back and do it again. So this technology has been around for ten or fifteen years.
Ben: So it’s very high tech propaganda, what we’re talking about.
Whistleblower: High tech and validated propaganda, yes. So if they’re able to turn off a part of the brain and get rid of that master narrative that will make you not believe in a particular statement, they would have validated this propaganda. So if they turn off portion X, they know that the propaganda is going to work and the individual is going to believe whatever is being told to them.
So why do all this? Because the project is based on the idea that despite the good work of the U.S. in the Middle East, the message of the work is not being received.
Whistleblower: The frequent rejection of US messaging by local populations in the Middle East, despite US insistence on the objective truth of the US message, illustrates the narrative paradigm at work. The well documented ‘say-do gap’ between US messages and US actions is seen by some as contributing to a lack of narrative validity in stories produced by the US. Similarly, stories of US aid do not ring true in a culture wherein Christian foreigners, since the 11th Century, have been invaders and sought to destroy and rule.
So how to fix this?
Ben: How do you move someone from simply watching a video or seeing a video all the way down that line to behavior? It’s a pretty powerful tool if you’re able to do that.
Whistleblower: Right, so they think that maybe an extremist statements or a video like Al Qaeda puts out will lead to some individuals doing a suicide bombing, for example. So they’re trying to look at this video or the statements and take away a part of your brain that will think that it fits in with your culture or master narrative and that will hopefully lead you to not do these extremist, violent acts.
So what you need to know is that this program boils down to one central idea: if people aren’t reaching the conclusions the U.S. government would like them to reach, there must be a way to force them to accept these narratives.
Remember that the claim is that the U.S. despite giving aid is viewed in the Middle East as invaders. That, according to the program research, is the product of embedded narrative, not a result of action.
So the view of the U.S. is as invaders; in countries where we have standing armies and dozens of military bases, where the U.S. pays off drug lords in Afghanistan or regional warlords in Iraq, or where we consistently bomb via drone strike in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia, or where we fund dictators until those dictators are overthrown and then attempt to fund the rebels, who end up becoming dictators.
Clearly they are missing the fact that the U.S. gives aid.
The next step: control the narrative and, if necessary, use magnetic stimulation to force people to accept the view of the U.S. that we desire them to have.
After all, aren’t extremist Muslims dangerous? How about extremist Christians? See, the problem with the question is – who gets to define ‘extremist’? Who decides if religious beliefs are inherently dangerous? And if we believe that government should have the power to control how the extremist thinks… wouldn’t they have the authority to decide how and what we all think?
Research on garlic indicates that it may provide an ideal low-cost and safe alternative to drugs and vaccines in reducing the three most common causes of death in the world.
In a world mesmerized by the false promises of pharmaceutical industry marketing copy, as well as inundated with aggressively marketed dietary supplements, many of which are manufactured by the same companies making a killing off patented chemicals (Bayer owns One A Day, Pfizer owns Centrum), it is reassuring to know that the kitchen pantry will never fail us…
Inexpensive, time-tested, safe and delicious, many spices are attaining recognition for being, quite literally, ‘life saving,’ which is likely one reason why, in ancient times, many were worth their weight in gold.
This time around, the health benefits of ancient ‘folk remedies’ like garlic are being confirmed by straight-laced men and women in lab coats. Which, when it comes to the conventional medical establishment, blighted as it is by the epistemological disease known as myopia, is considered the only valid way to ascertain the truth. Never mind the countless millions of people who, since the beginning of time, have used a different standard of proof: if it works and it is safe, then its true.
We all know that garlic is not shy to make its presence known. The smallest culinary dose is enough to suffuse the entire body with its aroma. Garlic also permeates the research literature: the biomedical database known as MEDLINE, provided by the National Library of Medicine, contains 4245 study abstracts on garlic, a number of which we have indexed and organized for your use on our site: Health Benefits of Garlic.
A cursory perusal of the literature there indicates that garlic has a significant role to play in preventing or treating well over 150 health conditions, ranging from cancer to diabetes, infection to plaque buildup in the arteries, DNA damage to mercury poisoning.
In fact, a strong argument can be made (pun intended) that expanding the availability of garlic around the world as both a food and a medicine could prevent millions of deaths annually. According to World Health Organization statistics, the populations of poorer countries die manly from causes directly connected to communicable infectious diseases, which incidentally are not caused by a lack of vaccines, rather, primarily through under-nutrition and malnourishment, lack of sanitation and hygiene, as well as the adverse physiological consequences of the depression and stress associated with poverty. The greater use and availability of garlic might provide a perfect alternative to global vaccine initiatives, the use of which are driven less by compelling scientific research, and more by political and economic forces. Garlic is easier to acquire and distribute, and can often be grown by the affected persons or communities affected, making it essentially free.
Garlic Versus #1 Cause of Death for the Poorest Countries
As far as the research goes, garlic has immensely powerful anti-infective properties, experimentally confirmed to kill the following:
Viral Infections: Herpes Simplex 1 and 2, Parainfluenza virus type 3, vaccinia virus, vesicular stomatitis virus and human rhinovirus type 2.
Group B Streptococcus Infection[25] [26]
This is an impressive smattering of research, but it is likely only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to garlic’s ability to fight infection. Remember, a lack of scientific proof does imply a lack of efficacy. Given that conventional antibiotics are not only failing, but driving bacteria and viruses into greater lethality, we can’t wait around for the multi-billion dollar clinical trial-based drug approval process to turn its attention to a non-patentable natural substance. Such a profit-oriented approach would be highly unethical.
Garlic Versus the Developed World’s #1 and #2 Killers
The research on Greenmedinfo.com shows garlic has value in 167 health conditions or disease symptoms, but the greatest density of research indicates garlic’s role in preventing and/or treating Cardiovascular Disease and Cancers, the two primary causes of death within high-income countries.[27]
This is an interesting finding. The drug industry has been fantasizing about a so-called ‘polypill’ for quite some time, an idea involving mixing various patented medicines together for a condition like heart disease (e.g. blood pressure, cholesterol, blood thinner), but to no avail. Patented chemicals have far too many side effects, so when you mix them together, you only compound their multitudinous chemical toxicities. Natural substances, on the other hand, and especially those which play a role in culinary traditions as “spices,” appear to have the opposite karma. Namely, they have far more ‘side benefits’ than ‘side effects.’
Garlic’s cardioprotective effects include:
Retards progression of arterial plaque[28] [29] [30]
Beneficially decreases white adipose tissue, increases white adipose tissue around heart muscle.[31]
Protects against clotting[32] [33]
Positively modulates blood lipids[34],[35],[36]
Vasodilator[37]
Reduces blood pressure[38]
Antioxidant[39]
Endothelial Dysfunction[40] [41]
Vascular Inflammation[42]
Here is a quick review of the cancers that garlic has been found to kill:
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia[43]
Acute Myeloid Leukemia[44]
Basal Cell Carcinoma[45]
Breast Cancer[46],[47]
Cervical Cancer[48]
Colon Cancer[49]
Endometrial Cancer[50] [51]
Gastric Cancer[52] [53]
Leukemia: Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)[54]
Liver Cancer[55] [56] [57] [58]
Lymphoma[59] [60]
Melanoma[61
Osteosarcoma[62]
Pancreatic Cancer[63]
Garlic, like so many other complex foods, contains a wide range of phytocompounds that articulate at least 150 distinct physiological responses in the mammalian body (see our 157 pharmacological actions list on the Garlic Research page).
How can this be so?
One explanation is that all foods contain not only physical building blocks, e.g. carbs, proteins, lipids, and are not only a source of energy (caloric content), but contain gene and epigene regulatory information. There are ‘packets’ of energy and information contained within the conformational state of the biomolecules found within these plant tissues. Our co-evolution with the plant kingdom for the past half a billion years has resulted in the very genetic/molecular fabric of our body depending on certain key compounds from plants in our diet, delivered in natural form, not irradiated, overly-cooked, petrochemically-farmed. Garlic’s ability to fit like a key, into many different types of locks (an impossible feat for monochemical ‘magic bullets’), reflects an likely infinitely complex intelligence in the relationship between plant and animal species. Which speaks to how important foods are not simply as ‘medicine,’ but that from which our bodily health grows organically, and without which disease is a natural consequence.
Amidst intensely turbulent times, so many of us today are feeling the urgent call to make changes that will create a brighter future for us all. Yet, however much we may want to save the world or fix what’s wrong, the truth remains that we can only change the world by changing ourselves. Inner transformation is the key to outer change.
Essentially, the ten lessons are about taking responsibility for our own evolutionary growth because only an awakened being can bring light to the world and be an effective agent of change. As we stand on the brink of a monumentally pregnant moment in the history of humanity, my invitation is that you join the inner revolution that can give birth to a radically new you and a radically new world.
A brief outline of the ten spiritual lessons:
Lesson 1 – Responsibility
To recognize that we are solely responsible for both our happiness and our unhappiness transforms our internal paradigm from victim-consciousness to becoming a master of our inner world. The power to make a conscious choice in how we respond to life is the foundation for the flowering of a new consciousness.
Lesson 2 – Clarity
To recognize that the world we experience is a reflection of our inner world gives birth to awareness. Awareness has the power to dissolve all story-lines of blame, shame and pain and allows us to rest in the truth of what is really here. This clarity erases inner and outer conflict and sows the seeds for true peace in the world.
Lesson 3 – Relaxation
The more deeply we relax and allow life to unfold in its depth and breadth, the more we are nourished. Taking action from a place of deep relaxation is far more powerful than acting from inner resistance. The former leads to aliveness, the joy of being and a world of creative possibilities, the latter leads to stress, disharmony and disease.
Lesson 4 – Presence
The capacity to penetrate this moment with the depth of our presence cuts through ghosts of past-fear and fantasies of future-hope. In the discovery of what remains, we are granted the power of knowing ourselves as the eternal, infinite space within which everything else comes and goes. This knowing-ness is the key to our true power.
Lesson 5 – Totality
By opening wide to welcome every experience, however painful or challenging, we say YES and become a lover of life. To meet everything with totality offers the potential for deep intimacy that lifts us out of survival-based fear into the arms of unbounded love. This is the birth of compassion, both for ourselves and for the world.
Lesson 6 – Gratitude
Digging deep to find gratitude for even those things we would rather cast out from our lives sends an arrow of love right into the heart of darkness. It’s far more powerful than denial or hate. Gratitude shines a light on the true riches of our inner nature. What we’ve been looking for outside of ourselves has been right here in our hearts all along.
Lesson 7 – Forgiveness
Forgiveness isn’t about turning the other cheek and allowing abuse to continue. It’s about choosing to see through unconscious actions to the purity of essence at the core of every human being. Inherently, there is no evil: the darkness we perceive is only a reflection of where we have failed to illuminate the world with our love. Our capacity to forgive heals the wound of separation and returns us and the world to wholeness and holiness.
Lesson 8 – Nakedness
The courage to be seen, warts and all, allows authentic relationship to happen. In the willingness to be hurt, to face the fear and to experience honestly what lies beneath, we see that love is always here, whatever form it takes. A world built on authenticity is a convergence of hearts in which we herald in a radically new way of life.
Lesson 9 – Service
The new evolutionary impulse coming through humanity today demands that we make the transition from taking to giving. It’s not about doing good but it is about serving God. It’s the call to step beyond our comfort zone into our greatness so that we play our rightful role within Divine Plan. It’s about awakening to our essential love-nature and then serving the world with the fragrance of this love.
Lesson 10 – Resoluteness
The unwavering resolve to take one step at a time, whether we walk over mountain peaks or through valley lows, guarantees that our inner radiance is never extinguished. Action fuelled by the motivation to be a beacon of light unto ourselves and unto the world is the mark of a true agent of change.
Source: “10 Spiritual Lessons for a New World,” by Amoda Maa Jeevan, from watkinsbooks.com
Unknown Glowing UFO In Evening Western Sky – Starship? Comet? Nibiru? Hercolubus?
Last updated on October 16, 2013 at 12:00 am EDT by in5d Alternative News
by Gregg Prescott, M.S.
For the past week or longer, there has been a strange, glowing UFO in the horizon of the western sky and according to SkEye and Stellarium, there are no stars or planets in that area.
If you are looking at the western sky in the early evening, you will see Arcturus glowing as well as Venus. You will also see a light to the left of Arcturus that is not defined by the skymap, SkEye.
You will see this bright light in the early evening in the western sky.
SkEye is a free app for your cell phone that maps out the sky for you. With this app, you can see every known star, planet and constellation.
Similar to Venus, this light is not seen very high above the ecliptic plane of earth’s orbit.
While zooming in on it with my Canon 35x Powershot, the light would change from red to green to white. Even with a tripod, I had difficulty zooming in and focusing in on it but I will continue trying to get empirical video and photos of this anomaly.
My particular sighting came from the Gulf Coast of Florida but this sighting has also been reported from coast to coast in the United States as well as all around the world.
From New York City, “I noticed a star of unusual brightness. It seemed to be flickering from red, to blue to green to white.”
From Virginia, “Incredible. I live in Virginia Beach and work in Norfolk. I’ve been noticing this object for about a month now, I just shrugged it off as Venus. I tried using Google Sky on my phone but no label came up for it – and I still convinced myself that its Venus and that my phone must just be buggy. I’m weirded out now and still can’t fathom this being a strange planetary object…”
From Massachusetts: “I’m in Massachusetts and I saw it Wednesday evening. The strange thing is, there were no other stars in the sky, none. My husband tried ti convince me that it was Venus, but I don’t think so. It was too big, too bright and like I said, there was not a single other star to be seen.”
From North Carolina: “I live on the foothills of the blue ridge Mts …. near Boone NC and I have been watching this “object” for a year. I remember last year on the way back from Charlotte my son noticed it after I had been watching it for a while. It has gotten allot brighter.”
From England: “Finaly I find soneone else who can see it. I see it also and when I looked in my telescope it made me feel ill. Its weird looks like a cell or germ it flickers red and blue. It changes shape and when I look at it I get this creepy feeling like it knows im watching. Im in northeast england and it becomes visible just after sunset.”
From Spain, “we were travelling north on the Alicante-Valencia highway, close to Denia. It was after sunset and we were surprised to see a very bright star (the brightest star one can see in the sky) that pulsated with different colours.”
From Brazil, “First, I thought that it could be Jupiter, and then I tried to see it better using a telescope. I didn’t see the moons of Jupiter that normally appear when you are using the telescope, and I realized that the strange object was emitting light of its own, and not reflecting the light of the sun as a planet does. I enlarged the image several times using the telescope, and I realized that the object, although very bright, was rather small. The next day, using the Stellarium computer program, I realized that there was no object showing in the location that I saw.”
In Japan, a witness saw a ‘mysterious luminary object’ from their window in the western sky above the trees. ‘It was emitting light, shining brightly, changing colours, green, yellow, red and so on. It was moving vertically, up and down, while spinning.’
From New Zealand, “I was walking down the stairs to my car when I saw this really bright star shining. It kept changing colours from red to green in the western sky.”
From Scotland, ” During a recent trip to Italy, at the Pedra e Cupa campsite in Budoni, Sardinia, at 5am on Saturday 4 July a bright star was clearly seen in the western region of the sky and was the only star visible in the sky at this time. Was it the ‘star’?”
From Canada, “I see it to from Ottawa, Canada, here it more active around 20:30 pm, it flickers like crazy and the top part grows white then reduces to red weird star….”
Speculation has inferred that this could possibly be a very large comet or possibly an extraterrestrial mothership. It may even possibly be Hercolubus or Nibiru.
Carlos Muñoz Ferrada is an world renown astronomer who recently stated that Hercolubus will be making a visit near our planet.
At this point in time, it is unsure of the angle and trajectory of Hercolubus but it is said to have wiped out Atlantis and had caused the “great flood” in many religious texts.
If this light is a starship or mothership, it is of massive proportions for it to be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.
If you know what this bright light may possibly be, then please comment below. Also, if you are able to take any pictures or videos, then please let me know and I’ll add them to this article.
If you have seen this anomaly, please comment below and tell us the state or country you live in. Thank you!
The Alarming Truth About “Swim with the Dolphins” Programs
October 14, 2013
By Dr. Becker
Story at-a-glance
From the outside looking in, swim-with-the-dolphin (SWTD) programs appear to be a fun, safe opportunity for people to interact with one of the most appealing animals on the planet, the dolphin.
Upon closer inspection, however, like so many wild animal attractions designed by humans for humans, SWTD programs are bad news for dolphins (and they’re not all that safe for people, either). Dolphins are uniquely unsuited to captivity for a variety of reasons including their social structure and natural drive to swim long distances, dive down hundreds of feet, and spend most of their time underwater.
SWTD attractions in countries outside the U.S. pose an even bigger problem due to lack of regulation and poor conditions. Abuses include dolphins kept in small pools surrounded by jagged, rusty fences or near sewage outfalls, diets of rotten fish, disease, and starvation.
Wild SWTD programs are also a bad idea. Studies show that the presence of tourist boats and swimmers among wild dolphin populations is incredibly stressful for the animals, preventing them from resting, feeding, and caring for their young.
If you’re interested in the welfare of dolphins and want to help, avoid SWTD programs, and also consider avoiding resorts, cruise lines and other businesses that promote the exploitation of dolphins for entertainment purposes.
By Dr. Becker
In recent years, “swim-with-the-dolphin” adventures have become increasingly popular with resort-goers and vacationers visiting tropical ports aboard cruise ships.
If you don’t think too deeply about it, a swim-with-the-dolphin (SWTD) experience may seem like a unique, harmless way to get an up-close look at some of the world’s most intelligent, fun-loving sea mammals.
But what many people don’t know or haven’t considered is that most attractions designed to expose humans to wild creatures don’t enhance the lives of the animals involved. Sadly, this includes the SWTD industry. And not only are these programs bad for dolphins, they aren’t entirely safe for people, either.
Dolphins Are Exceptionally Incompatible with Captive Environments
Dolphins have evolved to live and thrive as wild sea mammals — not within the confines of an exhibition tank or a sea pen built into an artificial lagoon.
Dolphins in the wild live in large groups called pods, often in close family units. Social bonds are meaningful and long lasting — sometimes for a lifetime. Captive dolphins, on the other hand, spend their lives interacting with a handful of unfamiliar dolphins that appear and disappear at the whim of the humans running the show.
Wild dolphins often travel long distances each day. They may swim in a straight line for a hundred miles, move along a coastline for several miles and then swim back to their starting point, or they may spend several hours or days in a certain spot. Dolphins living in captivity swim in a circle around a tank or within the small confines of some other artificial habitat. Caged dolphins are often seen swimming around and around in their tanks, peering through the glass or other barricade, or floating listlessly on the water’s surface. These behaviors indicate boredom and psychological stress.
In the ocean, dolphins can dive down several hundred feet and can remain underwater for 15 minutes or more. They spend only a small amount of time – 10 to 20 percent – on the surface. Captive dolphins, sadly, spend up to 80 percent of their time at the surface of the water waiting for food or attention.
According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS):
“The sea is to dolphins much as the air is to birds—it is a three-dimensional environment, where they can move up and down and side to side. But dolphins don’t stop to perch. They never come to shore. Dolphins are always swimming, even when they “sleep.” They are always aware, and always moving.
Understanding this, it is difficult to imagine the tragedy of life in captivity for these ocean creatures.”
Imprisoning Wildlife for the ‘Benefit’ of Humans
There are from 14 to 18 swim-with-the-dolphin attractions in the U.S. The marketing of these programs promotes the experience as “eco-friendly” and “educational.”
There are also so-called “dolphin-assisted therapy” programs for children and adults with disorders like Down’s syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, head and spinal injuries, or cancer. In fact, there is no scientific data to indicate that interacting with dolphins has any greater therapeutic benefit than programs involving dogs, horses, or other domesticated animals. As the HSUS accurately points out, “There is no need to imprison wildlife to benefit humans.”
Swim-with-the-dolphins operations in other countries pose an even bigger problem due to lack of regulation and poor conditions. Abuses cited by the HSUS include overworked pregnant female dolphins; dolphins kept in small pools surrounded by jagged, rusty fences or near sewage outfalls; diets of rotten fish; disease; and starvation.
Most SWTD programs outside the U.S. capture their dolphins from the wild. Not only is this practice extremely traumatic for wild dolphins, often resulting in a life-threatening condition known as capture stress or capture myopathy, it can also have a negative impact on the pods from which the dolphins are taken.
SWTD Programs Pose Health Risks to Both Humans and Dolphins
Some captive dolphins will attempt to assimilate to their environment by looking to humans to take on the roles normally filled by other dolphins in the pod. Some of the behaviors noted include submission or sexual aggression around humans, as well as agitation and aggressive behavior resulting from the stress of forced interaction.
These behaviors can result in serious danger to swimmers, and in fact, SWTD programs have reported injuries to humans including tooth rakes, lacerations, broken bones, internal injuries and shock.
For the dolphins, unnatural exposure to people can result in human bacterial and viral infections, and stress-related conditions like ulcers.
Swimming with Wild Dolphins Is Also a Bad Idea
A study conducted in 2010 of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Tanzania1 found that SWTD programs in the wild are also highly traumatic for the dolphins, preventing them from resting, feeding, and caring for their young. Tourists swimming very close and trying to touch the dolphins proved incredibly stressful for the animals.
to read more, go to: healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/10/14/swimming-with-dolphins.aspx?e_cid=20131014Z1_PetsNL_art_3&utm_source=petnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art3&utm_campaign=20131014Z1
Ronnie Cummins on Turning the Tide Against Monsanto
October 13, 2013
By Dr. Mercola
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUDeKapnhVs
Story at-a-glance
Between October 18 and November 5, Washington State voters will mail in their ballots for the people’s initiative 522, “The People’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act.” Your support is urgently needed
Mounting peer-reviewed research reveals a wide variety of health hazards associated with consuming genetically engineered foods and the chemicals that accompany these crops
Part of the original industry rationale for using GE crops was that they could be sprayed with less toxic herbicides, such as Roundup—which was touted as harmless and biodegradable
Now, mounting research reveals that Roundup may actually be one of the most toxic chemicals ever to enter our food supply
49 percent of American farmers are now battling Roundup resistant weeds in their corn- and soy fields. In an effort to get rid of them, they’re resorting to ever-increasing amounts of Roundup and more toxic herbicides such as 2,4-D and Dicamba
Between October 18 and November 5 the next big GMO-labeling vote will take place in the United States; this time in Washington State, where citizens will cast their votes for the people’s initiative 522, “The People’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act.”
Initiative 522 (I-522) will require seeds, raw agricultural commodities, and processed foods to be labeled if they’re produced using genetic engineering.1
The success of this ballot initiative is dependent on public donations, and we’re up against industry giants with very deep pockets, so please, help us win this key GMO labeling battle and continue to build momentum for GMO labeling in other states by making a donation to the Organic Consumers Fund (OCF) today.
The video above features Ronnie Cummins, the national director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and the Organic Consumers Fund—one of our allies in the movement to build a sustainable and healthy system of food and farming in the United States.
Part of this food movement is the Millions Against Monsanto campaign, and campaigns pushing for labeling of genetically engineered foods across the US.
The first March Against Monsanto, which took place in May, 2013 was really an extraordinary event that did not get the media attention it deserved. Some two million people in 450 cities and 50 countries took to the streets with the same message—that genetic engineering and Monsanto are out of control, and we need labeling and safety testing.
According to Cummins:
“We need to get these crops off the market or marginalized. That’s what worries Monsanto and the rest of the food industry. Last November, they came close to a disaster when the California ballot initiative Proposition 37 nearly passed. We got 48.5 percent of the vote. They beat us by one and a half percentage points. Well, Monsanto and their allies – Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, and the rest – they had to spend 50 million dollars to beat us in California.”
Why Are Chemical Companies in Charge of Our Food Supply?
For a long time, Monsanto appeared to be perched on top of the world, making enormous profits and wielding near unparalleled political clout. One of the most recent examples of their political power was the insertion of the “Monsanto Protection Act” rider into the appropriation bill, back in January, which basically eliminated the power of the federal judiciary to control genetically engineered crops. As explained by Cummins:
“Under this Monsanto rider to the appropriation bill, even if a federal court rules that a genetically engineered crop has been improperly approved—that it could harm the environment or public health, they can’t stop it. Monsanto’s chief cheerleader in the Senate, Roy Blunt from Missouri, was very proud of this rider, and it went through.
But in a sign of change, millions of people complained, emailed and called Congress, and caused the backers of the bill to back off and say that, ‘Well, it’ll expire on September 30 and then it won’t be part of the Farm Bill or continuing appropriations.’”
Thankfully, the rider, which was renewed by the House of Representatives, was finally voted down by the Senate, thanks to your overwhelming support and affirmative action. As of September 30, the “Monsanto Protection Act” expired. It just goes to show how critical it is that we unite and address these issues together. It’s the only way we will make positive change.
It’s worth remembering though that Monsanto is not alone in recklessly pushing genetically engineered (GE) crops and foods. The following five multi-national chemical companies are also major players:
DuPont
Dow
Bayer
Syngenta
BASF
All of these chemical companies have tried to reposition themselves as “life science” companies, but, as Cummins points out, “they’re still the same old companies whose bottom line depends on selling as many toxic herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides as possible.” Disturbingly, these chemical companies have also bought out most of the seed industry, worldwide, making it extremely difficult for farmers to buy non-GE seeds.
Monsanto’s Grip Slips as Americans Become Better Informed
to read more, go to: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/13/cummins-gmo-labeling.aspx?e_cid=20131013Z1_SNL_Art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131013Z1
SkEye is a free app for your cell phone that maps out the sky for you. With this app, you can see every known star, planet and constellation.
From Virginia, “Incredible. I live in Virginia Beach and work in Norfolk. I’ve been noticing this object for about a month now, I just shrugged it off as Venus. I tried using Google Sky on my phone but no label came up for it – and I still convinced myself that its Venus and that my phone must just be buggy. I’m weirded out now and still can’t fathom this being a strange planetary object…”
at it I get this creepy feeling like it knows im watching. Im in northeast england and it becomes visible just after sunset.”
