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Thursday, August 25, 2011

1

Loituma is a Finnish quartet whose members combine the Finnish vocal tradition with the sounds of the kantele.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loituma

Things of Beauty / Notes on the Songs
Lyrics in Finnish and English:
http://www.noside.com/nsd6010note.html

Listen to individually:
Eriskummainen kantele / My kantele
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pR9Fi9j47o&playnext=1&list=PLAD378058A6A0D8A6

Kun mun kultani tulisi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Hilbd_jMg

Ieva's polka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ygdAiDxKfI&feature=artist&playnext=1&list=AVGxdCwVVULXdVUUhYSwQLDaj3oWfIDoPs

Viimesen Kerran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAj4mZ9ycjk


Listen to a mix for Loituma (automatic play):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ygdAiDxKfI&feature=artist&playnext=1&list=AVGxdCwVVULXdVUUhYSwQLDaj3oWfIDoPs
    2:37 Ieva's Polka
    5:14 Kun Mun Kultani Tulisi
    3:42 Eriskummainen Kantele
    3:11 Viimesen Kerran
    3:50 Beach Cooing
    4:26 Utu
    3:20 Dissertation Polka
    6:50 Suo
    3:31 Laulu laiskana pitävi
   
NOTE:
You can click on individual titles to listen to independently:
http://www.youtube.com/artist?a=GxdCwVVULXdVUUhYSwQLDaj3oWfIDoPs&feature=bottomfeedr

If you have an area that gets blistered by the summer sun, you have a great spot to raise Purslane (low-growing annual succulents). They take very little watering (less than Bermuda grass) and provides thick green ground cover with bountiful flowers that are constantly blooming. I have it in 5 different rich and vibrant colors growing on bare ground -- though I've topped it lately with a layer of pea gravel. My first Purslane plant I discovered in the yard growing wild (a seed from somewhere had been somehow deposited there). I added other colors from nurseries. Once established, they come back from seed each summer. Small butterflies love it. And it's very nutritious - munch on it as you will.

My favorite method for propogating new starts of Purslane is to use a stick to poke a hole a few inches into moistened ground and insert a length of Purslane broken off of the main plant -- then gently cave in the sides of the hole to seal the start into place. Keeping it slightly moist for a while gets it established.

Image:
http://www.beltramicountymastergardeners.org/files/F_Ornamental_Purslane_Toucan_Hot_Mix.jpg
Nutrition:
http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/purslane.html
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2604/2

General:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portulaca_oleracea
http://www.tclawnservices.com/images/purslane%20assorted.jpg
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/98promotions/april/april.html
http://landscaping.about.com/cs/weedsdiseases/a/purslane.htm


[Since the AAS Reader Blogs will cease at the end of the month, I'll post this now / I'd wanted to do more with it... however...]

Two hundred trillion microscopic organisms -- bacteria, viruses, and fungi -- are swarming inside of you right now. The largest collection, weighing as much as four pounds in total, clings to your gut. Collectively, it's called the 'human microbiome' -- and in a healthy individual, they are in symbiosis with their host (you) and usually manage to even protect you from the 'not good' microbes. There are 20 times as many of these microbes as there are cells in the body, and each of us hosts at least 1,000 different species. Seen through the prism of the microbiome, a person is not so much an
individual human body as a super-organism made up of diverse ecosystems.
In-depth analysis of the human body’s microflora has been possible only in the past few years—a by-product of the same new gene sequencing techniques that have allowed scientists to cheaply and accurately identify the DNA of the human genome. Gene sequencing has opened a huge door to how complex these communities are.

Like a lush rain forest, a healthy microbiome in the human gut is a diverse ecosystem that thrives only when all the interdependent species are healthy too. In an ecological sense, more diverse communities are healthy. No one species is dominant, and the ecosystem is more productive and resistant to major changes. Imbalances in the microbiome might very well be linked to diseases such as diabetes, allergies, and obesity.

http://discovermagazine.com/2011/mar/04-trillions-microbes-call-us-home-help-keep-healthy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_microbiome

Now in its second season, "Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman" is an American science documentary television series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_the_Wormhole


Through The Wormhole (with Morgan Freeman) Episodes:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/through-the-wormhole-is-there-an-edge-to-the-universe/

Latest episode:
Is there a sixth sense? This episode attempts to provide some possible insight into this question --
Part 1 of 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il0pzBsho5U
Global Consciousness Project using random number generators /
Morphic Fields -- part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EHrIsyWZMo&feature=related
9/11 Global Consciousness Event? Presentiment? part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FyxjKQDwYY&feature=related
Sexual precognition? part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_5bugsBtXM&feature=related





Radical 'fundamentalists' believe that because millions of children were not conceived because of "birth control pill" contraception then that makes it evil. Reasonable people see that because unwanted children were not produced, countless suffering has been abolished (including decreases in crime, child abuse, and ecological nightmares). Regardless, with women gaining more control over their reproductive fate, society has changed. Reliable birth control became as easy as taking a pill, which some call the single greatest factor in helping women achieve equality.

Although religious people may debate whether a fertilized egg (zygote) should be accorded the same rights as a child, no one debates that the pill has decreased the suffering of fully formed, multicellular humans.

    Note that "zygotic personhood" (the idea that a fertilized egg is a person) is a recent concept. Historically, many believed that the embryo was not a person until it was 40 days old. Thus, a human did not have a soul until day 40.
Note: This was the belief before the invention of Christian fundamentalism one hundred years ago / the movement reflected the cultural disorientation of poorer, more rural, less well-educated Americans in a rapidly urbanizing America, especially in conjunction with WWI.

But perhaps the real issue here is the question of when the soul is created (and by whom)? Some believe that the soul is created at conception (thus making the human coupling the creators). However, I believe that the soul exists much prior to this -- and that the soul does not even "begin" the long process of incarnating until about the time the embryo loses it's "vestigial tail".





[Since the AAS Reader Blogs will cease at the end of the month, I'll post this now / I'd wanted to do more with it... however...]

Krakatoa is a volcanic island in Indonesia (also called Rakata) that dramatically exploded in 1883.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa#535_AD_event
Video Clip (03:25)
http://www.history.com/shows/how-the-earth-was-made/videos/the-krakatoa-volcano#the-krakatoa-volcano

As huge as the 1883 explosion was, it was dwarfed by an earlier 535 A.D. eruption that was so huge that the emissions into the atmosphere caused such serious climatic disruptions that historians have known for centuries that a cataclysmic event somewhere had occurred. Worldwide records from cultures all over the world describe the same thing:
http://www.flixya.com/blog/98639/Days-of-Darkness-AD-535-AD-546
The sun dimmed for 18 months which caused famines and plagues that toppled governments and upset the status quo (including tipping Europe into the Dark Ages).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_weather_events_of_535%E2%80%93536





Intro: In 2001, federal government outlays were $1.86 trillion. Since 9/11, this annual figure has increased to $3 trillion (adjusted for inflation). In 2001, the federal outlay was 18.2% of GDP -- in 2011, 25.3%.

“The Coming American Spring” appeared in AAS’s 08-14-2011 Sunday issue under a different title in the business section:
http://www.uexpress.com/scottburns/#ContinueFeature





In 2020, $1 of every $5 in the economy will spent on health care (average of $13,710 for every man, woman and child). This year, it's a 1-to-6 ratio ($8,650 per)). Though the government health care tab is growing, Obama's health care overhaul will only be a modest contributor to the 2020 figure because many of the newly insured will be younger and healthier (though they'll balloon the increasing costs in their later years). The contemporary higher costs are being driven by innovations and an aging population / which will only further inflate health care costs for the decades to come.

Though cost controls are slated to bite down before 2020, the political reality is that medical health care groups will derail that process. [The same groups that are fattening now. It'll continue to be: "Whatever the market will bear" -- prices that hospitals charge different insurers and patients varies dramatically. Lately, I've seen one person have cataract surgery that Medicare paid for on one eye at one place cost twice as much as the other eye cost at another location for the same exact procedure (using the same doctor). I've seen a private insurance company be charged $100,000+ for tests alone on an individual whose prognosis is terminal within one year / no matter what is done or not done.]

http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/government-health-tab-to-hit-4-6-trillion-1667994.html





Perchlorate is an environmental pollutant primarily associated with  releases by defense contractors, military operations and aerospace  programs, as it  is a key ingredient in rocket fuel. It is now found in virtually all  humans tested, and it is continually making its way up  the food chain  through ground and drinking water into feed and edible  plants, animals products, milk and breast milk -- contaminating  conventional and organically grown food, alike. It is distributed widely throughout North America, as depicted by the image below:
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/perchlorate-and-post-organic-era

Health Risks of Perchlorate? Perchlorate is an endocrine-disrupting chemical known to disrupt thyroid function and hormone production by inhibiting your thyroid gland's iodine uptake. Iodine deficiency or conditions that prevent its use in making thyroid hormone lead to decreased amounts of thyroid
hormone circulating in your blood, which can manifest as symptoms of "hypothyroidism", along with other health problems. Because of this, perchlorate may affect the normal brain development and growth of fetuses, infants and children, so even a mother's toxic load can place an unborn child at risk. Further, while most people are exposed to perchlorate through their diet in the form of contaminated water and/or foods, infant exposure may be far greater than that of adults, especially if they are fed infant formula, as the toxin may be present in both the formula and the water used to prepare it.
http://tinyurl.com/3taotdd

An average two-year-old will exceed EPA's safe dose of perchlorate by drinking water with as little as 4 parts per billion perchlorate:
http://www.ewg.org/files/perchloratebig.gif

Take Action:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/perchlorate.htm#pesticide
http://www.ewg.org/kid-safe-chemicals-act-blog/sign-petition-b/



 
About 25% of heroin users, 32% of nicotine users, and 15% of alcohol users will become chemically dependent during their lifetimes / a higher percentage for cocaine users -- and even higher still for those who use alcohol and cocaine at the same time (produces 'cocaethylene' in the body)..

Breakthroughs in genetics, neurobiology and neuropharmacology show that some people who drink or use drugs harmfully can develop a full-blown "disease" -- significant numbers of drug users develop the disease of "chemical dependence" (commonly known as 'addiction'). It is a definitive, diagnosable brain pathology.

It is far more serious and different from the other diagnosable drug overuse condition — called 'drug abuse' (which is a self-controllable condition that often is reduced by education, punishment, maturity, increased will power, or sometimes simply learning from an embarrassing or costly experience)).

Drug abusers are the ones who are most likely to respond to the "war on drugs" — take away their drugs or punish their use, and they usually give up. People who are chemically dependent, on the other hand, cannot 'give up'. This would require powerful intervention and intensive treatment that can be expensive and prolonged.

During Prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, the national ban on alcohol manufacturing significantly reduced the amount of alcohol consumed in the United States. Yet the number of alcoholics — those chemically dependent on alcohol — remained the same. Most of these individuals had become 'dependent' before their brains finished fully physically developing at around age 20 (started drinking as teenagers). NOTE: This same higher addiction rate for teens applies to tobacco and all other addictive drugs.

Addiction Science Advances:
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/insight/texas-expert-addiction-science-has-taken-giant-steps-1642154.html?viewAsSinglePage=true

End to the "War on Drugs"
Related AAS article:
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/naacps-call-for-an-end-to-war-on-1677750.html