Monthly Archives: October 2013

On Pharmaceuticals, Honesty, & Safety

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Pulling Back the Curtain on the Organized Crime Ring That Is the Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel

October 16, 2013
By Dr. Mercola

Story at-a-glance

  • Nearly 20 percent of corporate crime is being committed by companies that make products for your health. Crimes committed by some of the top pharmaceutical companies include fabricated studies and hiding damaging research
  • A number of recent articles and books have delved into the practices of the drug industry, concluding it operates like an organized crime ring
  • Corruption of science is one of the most dangerous forms of corruption. Doctors rely on published studies to make treatment recommendations, and large numbers of patients can be harmed when false findings are published
  • A recent study concluded that a majority of American drug commercials—60 percent of prescription drug ads, and 80 percent of ads for over-the-counter (OTC) drugs—are either misleading or outright false
  • Warnings of adverse side effects in drug ads can backfire. While initially making viewers cautious, over the course of time people tend to ignore the warnings; some even see them as indications of honesty and trustworthiness

Even though the video above is a few years old now and bigger fines of $3 billion have been assessed to GlaxoSmithKline two years ago, it is a good summary of how the drug cartels operate.

Did you know that nearly 20 percent of corporate crime is being committed by companies that make products for your health?

Sad but true, no less than 19 pharmaceutical companies made AllBusiness.com’s Top 100 Corporate Criminals List for the 1990s, and the trend has continued if not increased into the 21st Century. Crimes committed by some of the most well-known drug companies include:

  • Fabricated studies
  • Covering up serious problems with their drugs
  • False claims
  • Bribery, illegal kick-backs, and defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, and even the FDA
  • Immoral threat and intimidation tactics (recall the international drug company Merck actually had a hit list of doctors to be “neutralized” or discredited for criticizing the lethally dangerous painkiller Vioxx. “We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live,” a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read in court.)

Pulling Back the Curtain on Organized Crime

Fortunately, organizations like the Bureau of Investigative Journalism,1 the False Claims Act Legal Center,2 and Politicol News3 have all started investigating and publicizing the criminal actions these companies have been getting away with for decades.

Most recently, the British Medical Journal’s blog featured an article4 by former BMJ editor and director of the United Health Group’s chronic disease initiative, Richard Smith, aptly titled: “Is the Pharmaceutical Industry Like the Mafia?”

The piece is also the foreword to the book, Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare, written by Peter Gøtzsche, head of the Nordic Cochrane Centre, which is considered the gold standard in terms of independent research reviews.

In related news, a recently published study concluded that most drug commercials are misleading or outright false.5 There’s a literal mountain of evidence proving that pharmaceutical companies are untrustworthy at best, and criminal at worst. And yet they’re the backbone of our modern “healthcare” system…

Even Forbes Magazine6 recently published an article with the provocative headline: “Is Big Pharma Addicted To Fraud?” and asked out loud “whether any aspect of the pharmaceutical business can be trusted.”

Is It Fair to Compare the Pharmaceutical Industry with the Mafia?

If you depend on conventional medical care to address your health problems, then you’re basically entrusting your health to organizations that clearly have far more interest in their bottom line than your health. In his article, Is the Pharmaceutical Industry Like the Mafia? Smith writes:7

“The characteristics of organized crime, racketeering, is defined in US law as the act of engaging repeatedly in certain types of offence, including extortion, fraud, federal drug offenses, bribery, embezzlement, obstruction of justice, obstruction of law enforcement, tampering with witnesses, and political corruption.

Peter [Gøtzsche] produces evidence, most of it detailed, to support his case that pharmaceutical companies are guilty of most of these offenses.

And he is not the first to compare the industry with the Mafia or mob. He quotes a former vice-president of Pfizer, who has said:

‘It is scary how many similarities there are between this industry and the mob. The mob makes obscene amounts of money, as does this industry. The side effects of organized crime are killings and deaths, and the side effects are the same in this industry. The mob bribes politicians and others, and so does the drug industry…’

Smith also notes that many more people are killed by the pharmaceutical industry than the mob. Prescription drugs also kill far more people than illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are declining, those from prescription drug use are on the incline.8, 9

For example, prescription drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, and more than tripled among people aged 50 to 69.

Legal prescription drug abuse is a silent epidemic, and is part of the reason why the modern American medical system has become one of the leading causes of death and injury in the United States.

An estimated 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the US every year. Merck’s painkiller Vioxx alone killed more than 60,000 people within a few years’ time before being withdrawn from the market.

“… [T]he benefits of drugs are exaggerated, often because of serious distortions of the evidence behind the drugs, a ‘crime’ that can be attributed confidently to the industry,” Smith writes.“The great doctor William Osler famously said that it would be good for humankind and bad for the fishes if all the drugs were thrown into the sea.

He was speaking before the therapeutic revolution in the middle of the 20th century that led to penicillin, other antibiotics, and many other effective drugs, but Peter comes close to agreeing with him and does speculate that we would be better off without most psychoactive drugs, where the benefits are small, the harms considerable, and the level of prescribing massive.”

‘Science-Based’ Medicine Has Fallen on Its Own Sword

There are many areas within which corruption can take root, and the drug industry has nurtured corruption in most if not all of them. It would require an entire book to begin to address them all, which is exactly what Peter Gøtzsche has done in his book, Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare.

One of the most dangerous forms of corruption is that which occurs within medical science. For example, according to data from Thomson Reuters,10 the number of retractions of scientific studies have increased more than 15-fold since 2001, and a review11 published just last year showed that nearly 75 percent of all retracted drug studies were attributed to “scientific misconduct,” which includes:

  • Data falsification or fabrication
  • Questionable veracity
  • Unethical author conduct
  • Plagiarism

Corruption of science is incredibly serious, as health care professionals rely on published studies to make treatment recommendations, and large numbers of patients can be harmed when false findings are published. The average lag time between publication of the study and the issuing of a retraction is 39 months. And that’s if the misconduct is ever caught at all. What’s worse, about 32 percent of retractions are never published,12 leaving the readers completely in the dark about the inaccuracies in those studies!

to read more, go to:     http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/16/drug-commercials-misleading.aspx?e_cid=20131016Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131016Z1

Your Color Vibe for Tuesday, 10/15

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Tuesday, October 15:  Banana Yellow

Things can be coming at you today fast and furiously.  Your best defense is to get out of the way.  This is a day for sitting back and just observing everything that is happening around you.  You will see things align in new ways.  There is no really settled energy about today, so it is not a good time for making large changes in your life.  There is a question that has been plaguing you for some time, and you will have hints as to the best way to resolves it in the current energy.  Emotions can run high; even the observer is affected by what is seen.  Let them move through you.  This is not a day for holding onto things, so take them as they come, react, let go, forgive, and be.

Your Color VIbe for Mondya, 10/14

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Monday, October  14:    Blue-Green

If you are one of those who is easily distracted, then this can be a tough day for you.  There are a lot of things swirling around in the energies today, and this is leading to many fits and starts.  You can find yourself with a strong purpose going somewhere to do something, get something, and just in that instant forget completely what it was that you were thinking of doing.  Conversations can be difficult as subject lines will blur and the gist will go off on incredible tangents.  Notice when these things are happening, when you see the movement in the periphery of your vision.  All of these things are indications of the direction in which things are going.  Knowing what that is can assist you in moving forward.

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Your Overall Weekly Chromoscope 10/13-19

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October 13-19:

The theme this week “Really! Who do you think you are”.  So be ready to be surprised by things said and happening and be equally prepared to stand up for WHO you are.  Oh, and this will be going on all over this week, personally, locally, statewide, countrywide, globally, and universally.  Hang on, keep your eyes open, and look for the AHA’s!

 

Overall Color for the Week:  Zephyr Blue

And yes, the winds will be blowing this week.  Be alert as things shift and move around and through you.  It is very, very important to start out each day grounded and centered this week, lest you find yourself blown away by what is presenting around you.  There is much that you will be seeing this week.  In terms of relationships, things can become clear and questions answered in regard to people with who you have been interacting yet always having that uncertainty about.  This week you will get them, and you will need to be willing and able to take action upon what you are hearing, sensing, and seeing.  Not everything is on the surface, so trust your intuition as you navigate your world.  Listen to its hints and urgings.  This can be critical in terms of potential situations that might not be the most positive for you.  This is a week also for cloaking.  This means that it is not well to say everything that you wish to.  The time is not right for giving opinions. You will find much that you can lean much by paying attention to slips of the tongue and things you seeing that are out of context.  This is a week that can challenge your sense of what is real and what is illusion.  There can be some feelings tied to these, and it is best always to allow the emotions to pour forth when they arise.  Stuffing them down can lead to a kind of emotional dyspepsia.  This is not a week for making any large and/or life changing decisions.  The energies are too erratic.  There is not enough information that has been unveiled.  Things can be rocky around you this week, but it is all to let you know that you have the power to get through what is happening, you have the vision to see things for what they are, and you have the choice as to what you will do about all of this.  Be wise.  Trust your inner knowing.  Act from your core, and see with the eyes of the heart.  Truth was never meant to be hidden.

On the larger scale, there will be a long of hot air blowing around.  Some will be bluff, while some will be deadly serious.  It will be interesting to see how the politicos and governmental types deal with all of this.  It seems, unfortunately, that they are wanting to blame the people, the masses, if you will, for the problems that they have created.  Because of this, there can be some really unsettling actions on the parts of various governments in relation to acts of the people, demonstrations.  There can be some issues with something with air travel that can cause a general uproar.  Meanwhile, the Earth, herself, will be shifting this week also.  There can be some rather large storms developing unexpectedly out of small beginnings.  There can be some unusual earth movements in places where they traditionally have not occurred.  Centers of countries will be prime locations for these things.  Also, it is good to take a look at the ley lines and the energetic portals on the Earth to get a sense of the patterning that is behind this.  Patterns are falling into place more and more, and it is important to be aware of this right now.  When one thing happens, and it is followed by another that seems somewhat oddly coincidental, this is the time to sit down and look at what and where things are happening.  Time is shifting also, so expect deadlines and schedules to be skewed.  There is a new kind of germ appearing right now which can affect many people.  It is important to stay within and strong in your sense of WHO you are and listen to what your physicality is telling you.  This is a time of choices, and many choices will be made this week.  The time spiral is intersecting with a new dimensional ray.  Things cannot be the same.  The galactic energy is here, and will be evinced in some interesting celestial events.  Look to the skies.  There is much happening there, and not just those scary Blackhawk copters buzzing metropolitan areas.  The skies hold a new kind of watcher, one that will become more obvious as the year winds down.

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UUNICEF Targeting Vaccine/GMO Critics?

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Attacks on Health Reporters and Their Readers Are Escalating

September 18, 2013
By Dr. Mercola

Story at-a-glance

  • A new UNICEF report reveals that the organization is tracking the rise of online anti-vaccination sentiments in Central and Eastern Europe, and has identified the most important “anti-vaccine influencers” on the web
  • Instead of addressing the evidence of potential harm of vaccines, UNICEF is entering into ever-deepening partnerships with vaccine company giants like Merck and GlaxoSmithKline
  • UNICEF devises public relations schemes to convince you to ignore any science that raise safety questions
  • In the report, UNICEF infers that I and other vaccine-safety advocates are lying about the situation and therefore should be ignored
  • In 2009, it was revealed that Merck had a hit list of doctors to be “neutralized” or discredited for voicing critical opinions about the pain killer Vioxx—a drug that ended up killing more than 60,000 people before it was pulled from the market
  • GSK spent more than 10 years covering up information that proved they knew about the serious health dangers of their blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia, as it would adversely affect sales.

Truth becomes treason in an empire of lies. Attacks against health web sites like yours truly and others, and our readers—yes, that would be you—are rapidly escalating.

Thinly veiled threats are issued not just by industry spokespersons (many of whom hide their industry ties from their readers), but also international organizations like UNICEF. It’s become very evident, very quickly, that now more than ever, we need your support to counter the increasingly dirty tactics of these industry players.

Simply by reporting the scientific evidence—which is published in peer-reviewed journals, mind you—I’ve been labeled as a top “anti-vaccine influencer” for my pro-safety stance on vaccines, and a “media supporter of domestic eco-terrorists” for my reporting on the hazards of Roundup and genetically engineered foods.

Why Is UNICEF Accusing Health Journalists of Lying?

A recently published report1 by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reveals that the organization is tracking “the rise of online pro-vaccine safety sentiments in Central and Eastern Europe,” and has identified the most influential pro-vaccine safety influencers” on the web.

UNICEF included me on the list, along with other independent health websites like GreenMedInfo.com, Mothering.com and NaturalNews.com, just to name a few. In their opening reference, they use a quote by Mark Twain that reads:

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

Clearly, UNICEF is inferring that I and other vaccine-safety advocates are lying about the situation and therefore should be ignored. This would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious.

Here we have an international organization supposedly dedicated to children’s health and wellbeing, and instead of addressing the ample scientific evidence showing the potential harm of vaccines, they’re entering into ever-deepening partnerships with vaccine company giants like Merck2 and GlaxoSmithKline3 (GSK).

They spend precious time and resources on public relations schemes to convince you to ignore any science that raises questions about the wisdom of “carpet-bombing” infants’ and young children’s immune systems with potentially harmful vaccines.

UNICEF’s Bedfellows

This is especially disturbing because Merck has been involved in numerous criminal scandals and class-action lawsuits in recent years, including fraudulently marketing its deadly drug Vioxx; lying about the true efficacy of its mumps vaccine.

Additionally, they engaged in scientific fraud (a charge brought by its own scientists); and hiding critical side effects associated with its osteoporosis drug Fosamax, just to name a few of the most publicized.

Even more shocking, in 2009, it was revealed that Merck actually had a hit list of doctors to be “neutralized” or discredited for voicing critical opinions about the pain killer Vioxx—a drug that indeed ended up killing more than 60,000 people before it was pulled from the market.

Two years later, in 2011, the company ended up pleading guilty to a criminal charge over the fraudulent marketing and sales of this deadly drug.4 But sure, let’s listen to UNICEF and trust the guys who go so far as to threaten the lives of those who question the safety of a very factually dangerous drug. Then there’s GSK, whose leadership among corporate criminals is illustrious indeed.

Not only was GSK found guilty in the largest health fraud settlement in US history just last year, for which they were fined $3 billion. A couple of months ago, Chinese authorities accused the company of bribery and illegal marketing schemes. Chinese police claim to possess evidence showing that bribery has been a “core part” of GSK China’s business model since 2007.

Doctors and government officials are said to have received perks such as travel, cash, and sexual favors that when combined, amounted to nearly $5 billion, according to some reports. The company allegedly used travel agencies as middlemen to carry out these illegal acts. Four Chinese GSK executives have so far been detained on charges of cash and sexual bribery.

GSK also spent more than 10 years covering up information that proved they knew about the serious health dangers of their blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia, as it would adversely affect sales. While carousing with the true liars and criminals, UNICEF deems it fitting to paint me and other health journalists as the liars; the ones leading you astray.

Little does UNICEF realize that by publicizing a list of monitored “vaccine influencers”—the health reporters who stick pegs in the wheels of their crafty PR schemes by publishing all those studies the vaccine industry would rather see buried—they’ve basically given you a Who’s Who of real vaccine information.

Maybe we should thank them rather than rail against their poor judgment? As stated by Sayer Ji5 of Greenmedinfo.com, who was also targeted in the report:

“[W]hile the document purports to be analytical and descriptive, it has proscriptive and defamatory undertones, and only thinly conceals an agenda to discredit opposing views and voices. UNICEF’s derogatory stance.

This is all the more surprising considering that websites such as GreenMedinfo.com aggregate, disseminate and provide open access to peer-reviewed research on vaccine adverse effects and safety concerns extracted directly from the US National Library of Medicine, much of which comes from high-impact journals.”

GMO-Labeling Supporters Now Accused of Supporting Eco-Terrorism. What’s Next?

Another recent article, published in Forbes Magazine,6 really ups the ante of the attack on health journalists and their readers with the headline: “ Domestic Eco-Terrorism Has Deep Pockets. And Many Enablers.” The article, written by Jay Byme and Henry I.Miller, reads in part:

“In recent years, [eco]terrorists have attempted to gain sympathy and “justification” for their actions by means of disinformation campaigns that relentlessly smear the safety and utility of genetic engineering applied to agriculture… “Frankenfood” headlines may sell newspapers and organic food, but this kind of “black marketing” — enhancing the perceived value of your products by disparaging those of your competitors – can also encourage serious criminal acts.

…There exists in this country a vast, well-established, highly professional, protest industry fueled by special interest groups seeking to line their own pockets… Anti-genetic engineering campaigns are openly funded and promoted by mainstream organic food marketers like Gary Hirshberg, the chairman of Stonyfield Organic, and alternative health and food-supplement hucksters Joe Mercola and Mike Adams — all cynical fear-profiteers who benefit from increased consumer mistrust in their competitors’ products… The ultimate objective, of course, is to sell more overpriced, overrated organic food…

One result of the widely disseminated disinformation effort is an environment that provides encouragement to extremists who commit criminal acts. It comes from the Facebook and Twitter followers of the genetic engineering conspiracy theorists, organic marketers and “right to know” labeling activists… Against the backdrop of this fear-mongering, hate-speech and support for acts of terror toward legal, highly regulated, safe and societally valuable R&D, we should condemn not only the perpetrators themselves but also their corporate and media enablers.”

to read more, go to:   http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/09/18/unicef-attacks-health-advocates.aspx?e_cid=20130918Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130918Z1

 

Sound/SHockwave Treatment for Pets

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Try Shockwave Therapy When Your Pet Is In Pain or Isn’t Healing

October 11, 2013
By Dr. Becker

Story at-a-glance

  • Shockwave therapy, or ESWT, uses acoustic energy directed to target treatment areas of an animal’s body. The shockwaves trigger the body’s repair mechanisms, enabling healing and long-term improvement of a variety of conditions.
  • In ESWT, high-intensity sound waves interact with the tissues of the body, leading to development of new blood vessels, reversal of chronic inflammation, stimulation of collagen and dissolution of calcium build-up.
  • Conditions in companion animals that can be effectively treated with shockwave therapy include hip and elbow dysplasia, degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis, tendon and ligament injuries, non- or delayed healing bone fractures, back pain, and chronic or non-healing wounds.
  • Studies of shockwave therapy for dogs have shown positive results in improving bone healing, soft tissue damage, joint inflammation, and both the progression and pain of osteoarthritis.
  • ESWT treatments are loud and can be painful, so animals are sedated during sessions. Treatment frequency and duration depends on the strength of the shockwaves and the number of locations being treated.

Shockwave therapy — officially called extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) – is generally understood by most of the veterinary community as useful in treating musculoskeletal injuries, osteoarthritis (OA), and wound healing in horses. According to Clinician’s Brief, the use of ESWT to aid healing in companion animals like dogs and cats is not as well recognized.

Many people hear the word “shockwave” and immediately think of an electrical shock. But the shockwaves used in ESWT are high-energy sound waves (acoustic energy) that are directed to a target treatment area on an animal’s body. The shockwaves trigger the body’s own repair mechanisms, which speeds healing and provides long-term improvement.

How ESWT Helps the Healing Process

ESWT has been used in human medicine for over 20 years to provide non-invasive treatment for urologic and orthopedic conditions.

ESWT employs electrohydraulic technology to generate shockwaves. The high-intensity sound waves interact with the tissues of the body, leading to a host of beneficial effects including development of new blood vessels, reversal of chronic inflammation, stimulation of collagen and dissolution of calcium build-up. This activity creates an optimal healing environment, and as the damaged area returns to normal, pain is alleviated and functionality is restored.

When shockwave therapy is applied to areas of non-healing tissue, it may trigger release of acute cytokines that stimulate healing. Accompanying pain relief may be the result of increased serotonin activity in the dorsal horn (located in the spinal cord).

Conditions Successfully Treated with Shockwave Therapy

Shockwave therapy is known to be beneficial in treating the following conditions in companion animals:

Hip and elbow dysplasia Painful scar tissue
Degenerative joint disease (hip, elbow) Chronic back pain
Osteoarthritis Lick granuloma
Spondylosis (degeneration of joints in the spine) Sesamoiditis (chronic inflammation of bones in the foot)
Tendon and ligament injuries Chronic wound care
Legg-Calve-Perthes disease (degeneration of the head of the femur bone in the hind leg) Trigger points
Non-healing (non-union) or delayed healing (delayed union) fractures Acupressure points

Actual Results of ESWT for Dogs

According to Clinician’s Brief:

  • Of 4 dogs treated for non-healing fractures, 3 had significant improvement in bone healing following ESWT treatment.
  • In a study of dogs with distal radial fracture non-unions (a break near the bottom of the front limb, just above the wrist joint), all dogs that received ESWT showed complete bone healing after 12 weeks, while no dogs in the control group achieved complete bony union.
  • In a study of dogs with lameness resulting from soft tissue shoulder conditions, 88 percent showed improvement after shockwave therapy, with no surgical intervention.
  • ESWT was also shown to significantly reduce distal ligament thickening in dogs with inflammation of knee joints following surgery for a CCL rupture.
  • Shockwave therapy has proved beneficial in promoting the development of new blood vessels at the bone-tendon interface of the Achilles tendon in dogs.
  • ESWT has been shown to modulate osteoarthritis in animals by decreasing production of nitric oxide in joints and inhibiting cell death in healthy cartilage. Shockwave therapy can also be beneficial in managing the pain of arthritis.
  • Studies have demonstrated positive results in joint range of motion and peak vertical force in dogs with knee, hip and elbow arthritis.

Currently, there are only unpublished case reports on shockwave therapy for treating chronic wounds in small animals. However, based on its mechanism of action, ESWT may prove valuable in managing skin flaps and difficult and chronic wounds.

to read more, go to:  http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/10/11/shockwave-therapy.aspx?e_cid=20131011Z1_PetsNL_art_1&utm_source=petnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131011Z1

UFO’s & the International Space Station

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UFO Fleet Near the International Space Station In ESA Photo, Oct 2013, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: October 2013
Date of photo: Unknown
Location of sighting: Earths Orbit, near ISS
Photo URL: http://www.esa.int/images/s119e010500,5.jpg
A great discovery by Streetcap1 of Youtube. In this photo taken by the ESA (European Space Agency) we can see three disk-like UFOs with humps in their middle. When you add light to the photo, you see there are actually six small disks and they are flying in pairs. A rare catch finding UFOs in an ESA photo. They usually edit each photo really well, often better than NASA does. Before you scream fake, go to the ESA link above and have a look. Then add light to it. Close the photo, then open again and add more light to it. SCW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuEfcWfidLI

 

from:   http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2013/10/ufo-fleet-near-international-space.html

Your Color Vibe for Sunday, 10/13

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Sunday, October 13:    Bright Green

This morning might lead you to think that you have everything all figured out, but as the day unfolds, you will find that things are not happening quite as you had planned.  This is a good day for being ready for anything and being open to most everything.  Good things come in small packages and big surprises can appear from small beginnings.  Let it be.  You are part of everything that is happening right now, so the evening is a good time to sit and center and ground and just be aware of how you participated in the creation of some of the events of the day and, if you have the curiosity, you can also catch a glimpse of how you have created many of the events in your past.  Honor the power that is yours.  It is time you were aware of it.

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Lake Natron’s Mummies

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Lake That Turns Animals to Stone? Not Quite

By Marc Lallanilla, Assistant Editor   |   October 02, 2013
rick-brandt
 The body of a flamingo on Lake Natron, as captured by photographer Rick Brandt.
Credit: © Nick Brandt 2013 Courtesy of Hasted Kraeutler Gallery, NY

Lake Natron in Tanzania is one of the most serene lakes in Africa, but it’s also the source of some of the most phantasmagorical photographs ever captured — images that look as though living animals had instantly turned to stone.

The alkaline water in Lake Natron has a pH as high as 10.5 and is so caustic it can burn the skin and eyes of animals that aren’t adapted to it. The water’s alkalinity comes from the sodium carbonate and other minerals that flow into the lake from the surrounding hills. And deposits of sodium carbonate — which was once used in Egyptian mummification — also acts as a fantastic type of preservative for those animals unlucky enough to die in the waters of Lake Natron.

Despite some media reports, the animal didn’t simply turn to stone and die after coming into contact with the lake’s water. In fact, Lake Natron’s alkaline waters support a thriving ecosystem of salt marshes, freshwater wetlands, flamingos and other wetland birds, tilapia and the algae on which large flocks of flamingos feed. Now, photographer Nick Brandt has captured haunting images of the lake and its dead in a book titled “Across the Ravaged Land” (Abrams Books, 2013). [Photos: Lake Natron Gives Up Its Dead]

Brandt discovered the remains of flamingos and other animals with chalky sodium carbonate deposits outlining their bodies in sharp relief. “I unexpectedly found the creatures — all manner of birds and bats — washed up along the shoreline of Lake Natron,” Brandt wrote in his book. “No one knows for certain exactly how they die, but … the water has an extremely high soda and salt content, so high that it would strip the ink off my Kodak film boxes within a few seconds.”

“I took these creatures as I found them on the shoreline, and then placed them in ‘living’ positions, bringing them back to ‘life,’ as it were,” Brandt wrote, referring to the way he repositioned the animals. “Reanimated, alive again in death.”

During breeding season, more than 2 million lesser flamingos (Phoenicopterus minor) use the shallow lake as their primary breeding ground in Africa. The flamingos’ nests are built on small islands that form in the lake during the dry season.

Lake Natron is one of two alkaline lakes in that area of East Africa; the other is Lake Bahi. Both are terminal lakes that do not drain out to any river or sea; they are fed by hot springs and small rivers. As shallow lakes in a hot climate, their water temperatures can reach as high as 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees Celsius).

The serenity of Lake Natron — and its flamingo population — are threatened by a proposed hydroelectric power plant on the Ewaso Ngiro River, the main river feeding the lake. As isolated as the lake is (it wasn’t even discovered by Europeans until 1954), there are no protections in place for the lake or its threatened flamingo population.

from:    http://www.livescience.com/40135-photographer-rick-brandt-lake-natron.html

Comet ISON Update

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Potentially Dazzling Comet ISON Should Survive Sun Encounter, Study Suggests

By Mike Wall, Senior Writer   |   October 09, 2013
Comet ISON Enhanced Hubble Image space wallpaper
This stunning space wallpaper is a NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) when the comet was slightly closer than Jupiter’s orbit at a distance of 386 million miles (621 million km) from the sun.
Credit: NASA/ESA,/J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute), and the Hubble Comet ISON Imaging Science Team

The odds are pretty good that Comet ISON will survive its much-anticipated close solar approach next month, a new study suggests.

As long as ISON is a fairly typical comet — one with “normal” size, density and rotational characteristics — it probably won’t disintegrate during its upcoming flyby, which will bring the icy wanderer within just 730,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) of the sun’s surface on Nov. 28, researchers report.

That’s good news for skywatchers, for Comet ISON could potentially put on a dazzling show if it manages to weather its solar encounter. And it’s also good news for scientists, who have been planning their most intense observations of the comet for after the flyby (since ISON will be easier to see from Earth after the approach than before). [Comet ISON: 8 Things to Know]

Comet ISON Sky Map
 From now through October, comet ISON tracks through the constellations Gemini, Cancer and Leo as it falls toward the sun. Image released March 29, 2013.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Axel Mellinger

In the new study, Matthew Knight of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., and Kevin Walsh of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio conducted simulations of Comet ISON’s upcoming solar approach, then put the results in context by looking at how other “sungrazing” comets have performed during their encounters with our star.

The possible outcomes for Comet ISON are total disintegration; initial survival with a breakup coming later, perhaps days or weeks after the Nov. 28 flyby; and full survival for another orbit around the sun. Which one of these will actually occur depends on ISON’s size and density, as well as the nature of its rotation (how fast it’s spinning, and in which direction), researchers said.

Comets less than about 0.12 miles wide (0.2 kilometers) face destruction by the sun’s heat, which can evaporate off all of their ices. But scientists think ISON is big enough to deal with this issue; most estimates place the comet’s core between 0.12 miles and 1.2 miles across (0.2 to 2 km).

Another threat comes from the immense gravitational pull of the sun, which can tear apart comets that are unusually light and fluffy. But as long as ISON is of roughly average density, it should be able to hold together, researchers said

None of this is set in stone, of course, since most of the key characteristics — including Comet ISON’s exact size, density and spin — remain unknown. And it’s notoriously difficult to predict the behavior of comets, especially “dynamically new” ones like ISON making their first trip to the inner solar system from the distant, frigid Oort Cloud.

“Whether or not disruption occurs, the largest remnant must be big enough to survive subsequent mass loss due to evaporation for Comet ISON to remain a viable comet well after perihelion,” Knight said in a statement.

Meanwhile, another new study suggests that Comet ISON might exhibit a burst of activity a week before its close solar encounter.

Researchers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to measure the rotational pole of ISON’s core and determined that only one side of the comet is being heated thus far as it streaks toward the sun.

But that should change on or around Nov. 21, when Comet ISON ducks inside the orbit of Mercury, the solar system’s innermost planet, team members said.

“Since the surface on the dark side of the comet should still retain a large fraction of very volatile materials, the sudden exposure to the strong sunlight when it gets closer to the sun than Mercury could trigger huge outbursts of material,” study leader Jian-Yang Li, of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., said in a statement.

Both studies were presented today (Oct. 9) at the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences 45th annual meeting in Denver.

from:    http://www.space.com/23124-comet-ison-sun-encounter-survival.html