Stages of healing

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

Rebirth

Creating a new life

It might not seem like it however the above process is what we must experience as the sequence of really true profound healing

And all of us need healing

All of us can improve our lives once we understand what healing ourselves means
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A healthy way to look at this is from the standpoint that you just might not be perfect
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Acknowledge that there just might be areas where you can heal yourself
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We are talking here about emotional and mental healing which will automatically affect and improve our physical health
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If you can accept this idea then where are you in the above process?
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Take the position that a healthy life is a process of learning, creation even
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Life for many though is an experience of reaction
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Resistance to ideas of change or work to be done
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Hoping to slide through life unscathed
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Hoping trouble will leave us alone
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If your life is one based on such wishful thinking then consider that moving to one of proactive effort is more powerful and enjoyable
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Not only that it is essential if you want to find peace of mind and good health
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And who would not want to arrive at such a state?
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If you have good physical health you have the greatest gift in life because without good physical health life is immeasurably harder and less agreeable
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To move to a state of mental and emotional good health in support of your physical health decide to heal yourself through these seven stages
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Just accept that this is how it works
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Most of us would like to deny that we have work to do on our mental and emotional health
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Work to do on our fears and traumas
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This is wishful thinking as there are few humans who do not have work to do in this area
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We ourselves alone can do this work for there is only ever in truth self-healing
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No one can do this for you nor can pills or medication do the job except to alleviate symptoms
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No doctor, no shaman, no priest, no one but yourself can truly heal you
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Healing in this context means arriving at peace with yourself and the world mentally and emotionally
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Becoming the observer and then finally the master of yourself
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Arriving at the point where life is smoother
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Life is less up and down
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Moods are less extreme because the emotional healing has removed our fears
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Removed the cause of our mood swings
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And once the cause is located and addressed life is calmer more in harmony with everything
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This is not something done in five minutes
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It is a long journey for most over many many lives,
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Start your conscious journey today by honestly finding your place in this process
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Often we need help in this so if you do then ask
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Nature allows none of us to slide through life without confronting these issues

All jokes

All jokes fit into eight categories, says scientist

There are only eight ways to make people laugh, according to a researcher who claims to have found the key to why jokes are funny.

Alastair Clarke, a British evolutionary theorist, identified eight patterns which all jokes could fit into no matter where you come from in the world.

Mr Clarke came to his conclusions after studying more than 20,000 examples of humour through the ages, from a man breaking wind in the 14th century Miller's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer to modern television sketch shows such as Little Britain.

All the humour could fit into the eight categories regardless of civilisation, culture or personal taste.

"While it may seem bizarre to some, these few patterns are the real stimulus that makes us laugh, regardless of the content of the sitcom we're watching or the funny story we're being told," said Mr Clarke, who is publishing his findings in a book.

He said the brain subconsciously seeks out the patterns and when it discovers them is rewarded for its efforts.

"Sometimes a single pattern is the cause but just as often combinations of two or three are recognised simultaneously," he said.

"Theoretically there is no limit to the number of patterns that may combine to make a person laugh."

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The patterns include "positive repetition" such as Little Britain's "Only gay in the village" catchphrase and "scale" like the oversized features on caricatures in Spitting Image.

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There is also "qualification" where a familiar word is said in an unfamiliar way.

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An example of this is Inspector Clouseau's accent in the Pink Panther films.

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"Qualitative recontextualisation" is described as when something you know well is changed.

An example of this is when you laugh at someone's new haircut.

"Application" is words having a double meaning.

The other three patterns are "completion" where the audience has to guess at, imagine or complete a phrase or scenario, "division" where a joke is broken up and told by different people and "opposition" which covers irony and sarcasm.

While the researchers said that the patterns were not how to guides for potential comedians they could help script writers improve sitcoms and films.

"The subject a comedian is talking about still has to be novel or interesting to grab the listeners attention," said Mr Clarke, who also plans to publish The Humour Ten Thousand guide later this year with publishers Pyrrhic House.

Telegraph

And even some journalists begin to question

Could the Sun play a greater role in recent climate change than has been believed?

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Climatologists had dismissed the idea and some solar scientists have been reticent about it because of its connections with those who those who deny climate change.

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But now the speculation has grown louder because of what is happening to our Sun.

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No living scientist has seen it behave this way.

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There are no sunspots.
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The disappearance of sunspots happens every few years, but this time it’s gone on far longer than anyone expected – and there is no sign of the Sun waking up.

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This is the lowest we’ve ever seen. We thought we’d be out of it by now, but we’re not, says Marc Hairston of the University of Texas.

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And it’s not just the sunspots that are causing concern.

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There is also the so-called solar wind – streams of particles the Sun pours out – that is at its weakest since records began.

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In addition, the Sun’s magnetic axis is tilted to an unusual degree.

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This is the quietest Sun we’ve seen in almost a century, says NASA solar scientist David Hathaway.

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But this is not just a scientific curiosity.

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It could affect everyone on Earth and force what for many is the unthinkable: a reappraisal of the science behind recent global warming.
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Our Sun is the primary force of the Earth’s climate system, driving atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns.

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It lies behind every aspect of the Earth’s climate and is, of course, a key component of the greenhouse effect.

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But there is another factor to be considered.

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When the Sun has gone quiet like this before, it coincided with the earth cooling slightly and there is speculation that a similar thing could happen now.

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If so, it could alter all our predictions of climate change, and show that our understanding of climate change might not be anywhere near as good as we thought

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Independent

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The "we" mentioned above does not include the thousands of responsible scientists who did not buy into the global warming scare and who never claimed to understand what is happening to our global climate

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Responsible scientists everywhere have long stated that we understand too little about the forces acting upon our climate

Mmmmm - 64

Real culture is spiritual

It proceeds from within outwards

How can there be any true spiritual and intellectual culture when dogmatic creeds are the State religion

No dogmatic creed can be progressive

Unless a dogma is the expression of a universal and proven fact in nature, it is no better than mental and intellectual slavery

One who accepts dogmas easily ends by coming a dogmatist himself

A dogmatist spirit inclines a man to be censorous of his neighbors

He is tempted to distain others because they do not believe and think what he does.

Sharing a life

With a cat is one thing

With a dog is another

They are two of the most common companions that people share their lives with

Then there is sharing life with a goldfish or a pet of any kind

All of the above have certain limitations as sharing companions

And none of them can talk back

However we learn their needs and respect them

The cat comes and goes as it pleases

The dog needs exercise and is loyal where the cat is not

Then again there is the human relationship

Where we share with another human

The most common human form of relationship

Much, much more difficult

Not just a case of feeding and exercising the other party

Although I suppose you could try that at your peril

Human relationships introduce all those emotions which have to be considered

Books, films, media full of help on how to handle sharing with another

Not so easy though

Little things can set the other one off

Off on a tirade of abuse or sulking

Sharing is not easy

Taxes us to the limit sometimes

Often we cannot see the mirror effect in action

The mirror effect is often the trigger that brought us into the relationship in the first place

Often or maybe usually we are in partnership with those who have the same or similar profiles as ourselves

This in the early days of relationship might not be obvious

In fact it usually isn't

Even later we might still not see or believe that we are similar to each other

Or facing similar life lessons

Hard to believe

Yet often it is so

Next time you argue or find yourself unhappy with your partner ponder the idea that you have the same or similar traits

Not easy to accept when we feel so different when looking at each other

Which is why so many relationships break down as we cannot accept what we see as irreconcilable differences when they are often our own traits, our own faults

So ponder could it be true that you have similar traits to the one you cannot any longer get along with?

As a thought for the day nature will put you straight back into the same situation if you do not learn your lessons in the relationship you are in

We can observe this sometimes with our friends who having been hurt by a certain type of partner go and choose the same type that hurt them all over again

What can you see in yourself?

Something more to say

How many people finish their lives with this thought in their heads?

And never have the chance or occasion to say it, or so it seems

Several times during our life nature presents us with the chance to move through windows or put another way to move into different areas to reach our potential

Nature offers all of us the opportunity to seize an initiative and make our statements

To enunciate that something more to say, that feeling inside, that important belief

It might not be on a global basis

It might not shake the planet

However it is designed for us to make that move in our lives, to reach out

That move which will take us to another level, that will allow us to fulfill our potential

And the irony is that most people are so focused on their problems that they do not even notice

The window of opportunity shuts and we never even noticed that it was there

So for those of you with something more to say the opportunity will come

Probably has once or twice already

So live with the thought that it might well come again

And would you be ready?

Would you notice?

Do you have the courage?

If you do then open your life to more things around you because often that window is not in your face it is just there to the side

Besides living with the idea of another chance to really reach your potential is a more positive way to experience each day

We all learn more being open to life, being curious and interested in whatever comes our way

More fun too

More on sleep - pills and cure

The recession is taking a toll not only on our financial health, according to a recent survey.
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It suggests that worries about savings, pensions, redundancy and personal debt are giving us sleepless nights.
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Nearly half of the 1,000 men and women surveyed by one medical website reported that they are not sleeping as well as they were before the downturn.

Recent events may have exacerbated matters but insomnia is nothing new.

As many as 1 in 20 of the British population takes some form of prescribed sleeping tablet, despite widespread recognition that pills often do more harm than good.

Ten million prescriptions for sleeping tablets, such as temazepam and the “Z drugs” - zopiclone and zolpidem - are dispensed every year in the UK even though GPs are being encouraged to limit their use.

Much of this continued over prescribing results from direct pressure from patients, who feel that they simply can't manage without them.

A recent review of clinical trials into the effectiveness of sleeping tablets published in the British Medical Journal concluded that regular users average only 25 minutes' extra sleep a night and pay an unacceptably high price in terms of side-effects such as daytime fatigue, impaired thinking and clumsiness.

And it is not only the hangover effects that cause concern.

Users can become tolerant to the drugs within a couple of weeks, meaning that they don't work as well, or they have to take a higher dose to get the same effect.

This can lead to addiction with the older, Valium-based sleeping tablets such as temazepam and nitrazepam.

Users also experience problems when they try to stop taking the tablets, as they often find it difficult to get to sleep for a night or two, prompting them to turn to the pills again.

These problems were initially not thought to occur with the later generation of “Z drugs”, but time has proved that they are an issue with all prescription-only sleeping drugs.

The influential Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin has issued guidance suggesting that the current overuse of all sleeping tablets “represents a risk to individual and public health and cannot be justified”.

It advises that they be used only for a few days at a time, “to alleviate acute distressing insomnia caused by short-lasting events, illnesses or upsets”.

So what should we offer to the millions of people who regularly struggle with insomnia?

The answer may lie in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

According to researchers from the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, five hours of CBT can “cure” most people's insomnia.

The therapy is based on a series of psychological interventions that encourage a return to normal sleeping patterns, and are designed to break the vicious cycle of worry-induced insomnia.

The programme starts with basic instructions on what promotes sleep (such as avoiding daytime napping, and always retiring and waking at the same time every day) and what can prevent it (eg, too much caffeine, and eating or exercising close to bedtime).

It then moves on to teaching relaxation techniques, which focus the person's mind while they are lying in bed, and help them to forget problems that might intrude and keep them awake.

Next come instructions for dealing with sleep-related problems.

For instance, if you don't fall asleep within 30 minutes then get up, leave the bedroom, go somewhere quiet and restful and stay there until you feel tired.

Then, and only then, should you return to bed.

Patients with long-term insomnia often find it hard to accept that a talking therapy such as CBT will help them, but the results speak for themselves - 7 out of 10 people benefit significantly, whatever the underlying cause of their sleepless nights.

And it even works for people who have been taking sleeping tablets for 20 years.

The Times

There are of course other factors which cause different sleeping patterns

People often just need less sleep as they get older and even need minimal hours in warm weather.

The eight hour mantra is driving people to a merry-go-round of doctors and drugs

Many people need very little sleep check your sleep patterns as these change as we go through life

Fixating on what you used to need might not be very helpful so experiment once in a while

Go to bed later and get up at the required time, after a few weeks you will sleep without a problem

ARG

Technology and society: “Alternate reality” games mixing puzzles and plot lines, online and off, are becoming more popular

WHAT do you get when you combine technology, advertising and unconventional storytelling?

Scores of “Batman” fans roaming the streets of San Diego wearing Joker costumes and carrying smart-phones.

One of hundreds of alternate-reality games (ARGs) orchestrated for marketing purposes, this elaborate quest, staged at a comic-book convention in 2007, began with $1 bills that led players to a Joker-themed website.

The site, in turn, gave them a time and a set of satellite-positioning co-ordinates.

At the time and place specified, players found a plane writing a phone number in the sky.

Calling the number sent them on a scavenger hunt with online components.

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And this massive cross-media event represented only one part of a game called “The Dark Knight”, put together by 42 Entertainment, an advertising company, to promote the film of the same name.

It may sound like a convoluted way to get the word out about a film, but games like these are becoming more widespread, attracting new players and bigger clients.

It was back in 2001 that the first commercial ARG, “The Beast”, a promotional campaign for Steven Spielberg’s film “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence”, began blurring the line between reality and fiction.

Instead of formally announcing the start of a game, ARGs merely leave clues for potential players to follow: a subtle image on a poster, perhaps, or a cryptic message on a website.

Fans must piece together the narrative—that’s the “alternate reality”—on their own. ARGs are characterised by their reliance on technology and teamwork, and are often shrouded in mystery until they end, weeks or even months later.

Only then is the full story (and the product being promoted) revealed.

Having started off as marketing tools for films and video games—as with “The Beast”, or “I Love Bees”, an ARG created to promote “Halo 2”, a video-game, in 2004—ARGs are now entering the mainstream.

Consider “The Lost Ring”, commissioned by McDonald’s for the 2008 Olympics.

Designed by Jane McGonigal, an ARG pioneer who used to work at 42 Entertainment, the game brought together players across six continents to uncover a story of amnesiac athletes and to recreate a supposedly lost (but actually fictional) ancient Olympic sport.

“Most people’s experience of the Olympics is vicarious,” says Ms McGonigal. “I wanted to give people a more social and active way to experience them.”

This ARG, linked to a global sporting event, sponsored by a multinational company and run in seven languages, shows how far ARGs have come.

As well as getting bigger, ARGs are becoming more ambitious.

With the Institute for the Future, a non-profit research organisation based in California, Ms McGonigal is using the ARG approach to evaluate future scenarios with the help of thousands of players.

In 2007’s “World Without Oil”, for example, players worked together to determine what humanity would do in a severe oil crisis. (Many of its conclusions were validated when the oil price spiked in 2008.)

Ms McGonigal’s latest project, “Superstruct”, uses blogs, videos and wikis to encourage people to imagine the world in 2019.

Her aim, she says, is to use such games as large-scale brainstorming tools, “to build our ability to respond quickly, and in large-scale collaborative ways, to what might happen in the future.”

Ms McGonigal does not consider these projects to be ARGs, strictly speaking, but they fit into the growing trend of using playful cross-media technologies to get people thinking, says Jonathan Waite of ARGNet (argn.com), a website that covers the field. In the past three or four years, he says, the number of ARGs going on at any one time has gone from a handful to around 30.

In September 2008 the British Red Cross launched “Traces of Hope”, the first ARG to be commissioned by a big charity.

With over 7,000 active players—ARGs almost always have a tight inner ring of dedicated fans who do the footwork, and a much wider circle of “lurkers” who simply watch the action unfold—this interactive narrative about a Ugandan teenager searching for his mother during a civil war was created to shape “the public’s perception of vulnerable people whose lives are affected by armed conflict,” says Dorothea Arndt of the Red Cross.

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She says the campaign around the game reached over 30m people, allowing the Red Cross to contact new potential supporters.

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Will other charities follow?

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It is possible, Ms Arndt admits, that the campaign’s success was partly because of its novelty, so it may not be repeatable.

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And how, exactly, does an elaborate cross-media game help to sell more hamburgers, or encourage more donations? McDonald’s, the Red Cross and other sponsors of ARGs are doing what Ms McGonigal calls “gift marketing”.

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Instead of merely getting people to talk about a product, with a clever advertisement or a viral video, ARGs give sponsors the chance to “make something amazing, give it away, and then take credit for it,” she says.

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As awareness of ARGs spreads, more companies are embracing the idea of advertising that is fun, not intrusive. “The Lost Ring”, says Mr Waite, had “such a cool story” that it may well have changed players’ attitudes towards McDonald’s.

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What next?

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Mr Waite says he has been excited by an ARG called “The New Frontiersman”, tied to the release of the “Watchmen” film on March 6th.

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Ms McGonigal’s lips are sealed when it comes to her forthcoming games.

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But with new ARGs starting up every week, now is a good time to start playing.

Control freaks

Yes you know who you are

Well most of you do

For those who do not try the following

Are you always right?

Are other people always misunderstanding you?

Are you neat and tidy in your physical habits?

Careful and organised

But maybe not so squeaky clean in your private thoughts?

Do you often say "yes but" shutting down positive options

Where are we going with this?

A simple suggestion

If this state is not one you want to stay in then time to change

How?

Go in the woods or some quite place and scream

Shout as loudly as you can

Do this many times

Do this often

When at home or in the car sing

Do this several times

Do this often

If you really let go then you will start to change

Constipation is not nice and for sure if you are a control freak then part of you is constipated

Shouting and singing in various forms used to be a strong element many societies cultural heritage, which unfortunately today for the most part is lost

Karaoke is popular as are revival churches, both promoting singing as a powerful part of their experience

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However if this is not for you then try somewhere on your own where you can really let go

Human asexuality

No sex please

Celibacy is a choice

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Asexuality is an orientation.

It’s not something you choose to be

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It’s something you’re born as

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Many asexuals have a sex drive, and many of them masturbate.

But what makes them different is that their libido is dissociated from sexual attraction.

Having a sex drive doesn’t translate into wanting sex.

A survey carried out in 1994 found that 1.05 per cent of respondents had never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all

In fact, more than 50 years ago, pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey seemed to be aware of asexuality.

He devised a scale of sexual orientation, in which subjects ranged from a score of 0 (completely homosexual) to 6 (completely heterosexual).

But he labelled 1.5 per cent of adult males as “X” – neither homosexual nor heterosexual, nor anything in between.

They were simply uninterested in sex.

For a long time, Kinsey’s Xs have remained hidden, but with the sexual revolution continuing at pace, asexuals are beginning to speak out.

Asexuality is not just a situation that affects the young adult – it can extend into older age groups, although they may not be so obvious

The feeling of not being sexually attracted to anyone is part of a spectrum, and can affect men and women.

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It’s part of society’s rich tapestry of life

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Not in the mood: The facts

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According to Kinsey’s ‘Sexual Behavior in the Human Male’, 1.5 per cent of the adult male population exhibits “no socio-sexual contacts or reactions”

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In ‘Sexual Behavior in the Human Female’, Kinsey argued that up to 19 per cent of the unmarried female population exhibited asexual behaviour or reactions.

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A study in the US found that 33.57 per cent of asexuals have problems with self-esteem.

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In 1994, a British study found that 1 per cent of people had never felt any sexual attraction to another person. The same study found that a larger proportion of women than men are asexual.

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In 1982, a survey of ‘Playboy’ magazine readers found that 2 per cent of respondents were asexual

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Possible causes of asexuality include genetic predisposition, hormonal imbalance or childhood experiences.
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The largest asexuality group on Facebook has 585 members.

Independent

Up or down

Down means a lower heavier bass frequency

Up means towards a lighter higher frequency

Ever thought that the sun, and bright light are higher frequencies

Dark and dingy are lower ones?

And so?

In simple language this is evolution you move up or down

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And no you cannot sit in the middle although many try to do so

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Life causes us to choose whether we will move up or down

The spiral down will eventually bring you to annihilation, obliteration

The upward to enlightenment, and that's a long long way from here

The downward spiral is contraction, the upward expansion

And no you cannot opt out of any movement either although many will try

Everything in the Universe is in motion

We too whether or not we understand this or not

So moving upwards and outwards towards the light has to be favourite

Your job and mine is to move towards the light

Higher consciousness is moving towards the light, a higher frequency

This is why the Masters are often shown with light or halos around them

Which is why none of us can approach a real Master because his energy or light would burn us

Simply they live in the light

We?

In the dark literally and figuratively

We do not need to feel bad about this if we are doing our best each day

Every Master in the Universe started once from where we are, and we are merely trying to follow along in their footsteps

In these difficult times where greed and materiality are being exposed as never before let us hope that we have the wit to understand what these times are showing us

That a life devoted to things or material possessions is a pretty naff idea

There is only one thing that makes sense

And that is to grow towards the light

That's all

Over many millions of lives for sure, but then it's not the arriving

It's the journey

So enjoy and be productive every day

For what you do today is literally creating what you will experience tomorrow

For the rules of this journey are karma and reincarnation

For all of us, no exceptions we all have the same opportunities whatever our rank or position in society

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We can all evolve whatever life might bring our way

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Whatever darkness is ours to experience we always have whatever we need to grow at any given moment in our lives so do not waste this life

Take yours and move upwards and outwards

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Up or down we choose

Umami

Umami: the mystery of the fifth taste

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It's found in breast milk, Marmite and mushrooms, and the Japanese have known about it for years.

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It's not only Japanese chefs who work with umami, a word derived from the Japanese for “delicious”

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The simplest explanation?

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It makes your mouth water

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Isolated as a specific taste in 1908 by a Japanese scientist, Kikunae Ikeda, umami is the savoury taste imparted by glutamate and five ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, which occur naturally in many foods, including meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products.

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To your man in the (Japanese) street, it is the “yum factor”

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It stimulates part of the brain that indicates pleasure

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You want to eat more and more

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We have 380 different smell receptors in the brain, and 50 that detect bitterness alone on the palate.

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Our temperature and consistency receptors are innumerable

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It is possible to increase the umami level in a dish simply by adding bitterness, aroma and texture.

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Umami is not just about deliciousness.

By increasing umami in food you can reduce the amount of cream, butter and oil.

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But if you don't have much (or any) dried fish or kombu in your pantry, are there other ways in which to boost umami levels? Answer: yes, plenty.

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Parmesan cheese is second only to kombu for chalking up the glutamates and high umami levels can be found in dozens of ingredients, from tomatoes and cured ham to mushrooms.

At the very least, we should always choose a cheeseburger over a regular hamburger.

Ten umami-rich foods

Tomatoes (particularly sun-dried and ketchup)
Wild mushrooms (dried shiitake)
Rich bouillons
Cured and smoked meats
Cheese (particularly Parmesan and ripe blue cheeses)
Fish and shellfish (particularly anchovies and tuna)
Seaweed
Soy sauce
Oriental fish sauces
Saké

The Times

Old children

Inside we are all children in some ways

We do not feel ourselves old inside even though our bodies are aging

We think we are still young

We think that we are still in touch with things

Until some younger people show us clearly that our views are not theirs

That our thinking and views are out of step with theirs

Showing us that we are indeed of a different mindset and generation

Like generations before us we are just trying to make our way through life

Caught up in the minutiae of daily life

Life hurtling by

Children give us the reality on our own ageing

Their laughter, their spontaneous behaviour so often we know has been left behind in our own lives

And when the sportsmen and women look so young and we think I could not do that

In fact when everyone begins to look young

We could say we are old, getting older

And inside you is the child still there?

Is your sense of humour intact?

Do you still have curiosity?

What has changed for you in your life inside?

Are you still growing inside?

If you stopped then nothing to say really because your life can only be endless repetitions

Growing inside is what brings meaning to our lives

Repetitions become stale after a while

Only TV and videos to amuse and dull us

Dull us into stale routines

If on the other hand you keep the child inside alive life can sparkle every day at the wonder of learning and growing

Humble in the knowledge of how little we know

Happy to be here

The child inside alive and well

Living in the peace of mind that can come with such a life choice

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Keep your child alive!

A single quote from Albert Einstein

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour.

Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.

That's relativity

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And why this one quote?

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Because it makes the point that a master of anything can express what he wants in simple clear language

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Whatever the subject

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However complex

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He does not need volumes

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He doesn't need to pontificate

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He can explain simply and clearly

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In this case quite graphically!

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Now you can spot the bullshitter

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He cannot do this

Robert Mugabe

Evil man

No other word can describe this creature

People have asked why does karma not take care of him?

How can he continue to enjoy life with apparent impunity?

Many more such as Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin and others still in power today could also be put into the same category

The answer might not be the one you want but it is probably pretty accurate

In the context of our lives it seems outrageous that Mugabe can continue to abuse his fellow men

In the context of a thousand years or more he represents a sentence, a line, no more in the history of this planet

Without Mugabe it is quite possible that lessons might not be learnt

In that longer context mankind moves in ways that it would not have done otherwise

Mankind's consciousness evolves slowly

Actions to deal with and remove these men also evolve slowly

It has taken many many years even to create a world court, the ICC - International Criminal Court

A court less than perfect in it's powers and operation

The world's major superpower the United States is still not a member

One of the major points in our experience of life is for us to become conscious that it is we, us, you, me who must help effect change

We are here for many reasons one of which is to grow morally

Ethically

If we do nothing then how does change occur?

Leaving everything to others is no answer

Evolution demands that we all of us become involved and conscious in what is right and wrong

Self reflective consciousness is given to us that we can tell right from wrong

That we can formulate actions

That we can create organisations to deal with people like Mugabe

Importantly consciousness in the countries around Zimbabwe shows that this has some way to go

Only with hindsight will we be able to see and understand why he has been allowed to abuse so many

Consciousness evolution is the slowest thing to evolve in man

Getting people to change is tough

Getting people to think for themselves is difficult

Getting people to take action is tougher

So until we change the Mugabe's of this world will continue to bully and abuse

Until we the larger world are one in our morality these men will continue to exist and survive

Slow thing consciousness evolution

Oh and Mugabe will most certainly pay down to the smallest detail, and while it might not be here or now it will happen

We may and probably will never see this

Yes it will happen, must happen, karma will not allow otherwise

"Society prepares the crime

These words written by Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian statistician, in 1835

and went on with ........... and the guilty person is only the instrument"

Today these words arouse little or no surprise

Indeed most governments throw money at child poverty, improving education and health programs

All designed to alleviate the situation of the poorest in society

And most have been singularly unsuccessful in ending their particular problem

New research now shows that the reason they fail is that they view each problem in isolation

Instead of looking at the shared root cause

The interesting thing here is that it is not poverty per se but inequality that perpetuates the situation

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This well documented research shows that inequality is the real villain

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The research is meticulous and shows clearly that countries where incomes are more evenly distributed their citizens live longer and have lower rates of obesity

Delinquency, depression and teenage pregnancy are also lower

Than in richer countries where the wealth is more concentrated

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Sweden and Japan are examples of two countries where high taxes on the rich and smaller differentials in pay are well known

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There is more equality in their societies

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What is now also becoming clearly understood is that many of the rich around the world got that way by stealing or theft

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Current times are throwing greed and corruption into the spotlight as never before in country after country

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Where this is not being exposed by the media, because they may not, it is however well known to their citizens who have no way of removing the elite who abuse their positions of wealth and power

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This now leads us to understand that their accumulation of wealth has more subtle and serious effects on society, way beyond the cost of the millions and billions they have stolen

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Subtle and dangerous effects that need addressing

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This research is new and leads us again to say that the whole idea of societies geared to continual economic growth is passe

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It has to be a nonsense that people steal billions to buy usually useless assets and lifestyles thereby perpetuating the poverty of so many hundreds of millions of people

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Humanity cannot afford to have greed as its only enshrined model of admiration

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Perpetual economic growth as a model for any society also needs challenging given the ongoing harm it causes

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Over and over we are told of the benefits that economic growth brings

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Time that we reexamined these claims against the harm growth and greed create

Skydiving

Is something that came into my life at an early age

17 to be precise in the army as a British Paratrooper going through basic training

First jump was on a cold grey snowy January day and wow it blew me away

Went on to do many different kinds of jumps into trees, jungle, halo,desert at night and so on

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After leaving the Army I found myself in Canada and the States and took up skydiving again

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Then for many years jumping was an integral part of my life fitted around a busy job. living in many different countries and bringing up a family

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Why I am going here?

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Because if you have not jumped then go and do so

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Only do so though at an accredited drop zone where they belong to the National Association

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You can now learn in a tunnel if you do not want to go out of a plane straight away

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And for why?

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Because it shows you things about yourself

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There is a feeling of freedom unlike most you have ever known

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Our world is so beautiful it is time you saw it without the constraint of a little aeroplane window

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It is one of those things all should do at least once in their lives

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Live life do not get to forty or fifty saying oh I wish I had done this 'n that

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I wrote this because circumstances make it difficult for me to jump at the moment and I want to share how amazing the experience is and tell you to go and jump

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Life is to be lived go live please

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Put a little psychological risk into your life, confront your fears, find freedom

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Skydive

Insights - 2

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. - Schweitzer

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...that best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love. - William Wordsworth

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One should count each day a separate life. - Seneca

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. - Gandhi

It is not so much our friend's help that helps us, as the confidence of their help. - Epicurus

Intense love does not measure; it just gives. - Mother Teresa

If you want to know the past, look at your present life. If you want to know the future, look at your present." - Buddha

The words 'I am...' are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to. The thing you're claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you. - A.L. Kitselman.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. - Kahlil Gibran

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. - Eleanor Roosevelt

You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough - Frank Crane

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars - Charles Beard

If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide - Gandhi

Remember: happiness is a way of travel, not a destination - Roy Goodman

There are two ways of spreading light - to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it - Edith Wharton

The important thing is to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could be. - Charles DuBois

Give the world the best you have and the best will come back to you - Madeline Bridges

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion- Abraham Lincoln

An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind - Gandhi

Somewhere to go

Waking with no reason for waking is tough

Feeling no reason for being alive is tougher

There is no magic answer for that feeling

And at times most of us get overwhelmed by sadness or feeling down

Having somewhere to go helps

It does not have to be somewhere like the picture above

Although somewhere in nature is more helpful than staying in town

Waking with the idea that today I am going somewhere is a nicer way to experience the day

Even if it is to a business meeting, the meeting might not sound exciting

How we experience it though is entirely down to us

Meetings, office work or time alone it is up to us how we experience them

Let go depression and feelings of powerlessness

Determine that today is where you stop being a victim

Stop feeling powerless

Stop feeling frustrated

Today is a day where you choose to live for the day alone with no worrying about tomorrow

No worrying at all

Choosing to live in the moment enjoying everything that comes our way

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How are you with your day?

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Do you have somewhere to go?

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When you are actively doing something or going somewhere it reduces the worrying in your head

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Provided of course that you fully immerse yourself in the new experience

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Staying in the present moment and pushing away any thoughts that try to take you down

Bamboo going

Half the world's 1,200 woody bamboo species, one of the planet's most useful but least studied plants, face extinction because of forest destruction, according to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge.

In the first comprehensive study of the bamboo scientists say that trade in these plants is worth as much as bananas or US beef, yet their value has been largely ignored.

The extraordinary lifestyle of bamboos - individuals of each species flower once simultaneously every 20 to 100 years and then die - makes them difficult to study, and vulnerable to rapid deforestation.

Bamboos are an ancient form of giant grass and can grow at great speed, up to 1.2 metres a day.

They are a major food source both for animals and people.

The most famous animal which relies on bamboo for its survival is the giant panda, but many other specialist creatures, including a tiny bat that lives in bamboo beetle holes, the mountain gorilla, the lemurs of Madagascar and spectacled bears all need species of bamboo to survive.

The report, sponsored by the UN Environment Programme, maps for the first time the location of all the known species.

The most alarming finding was that 250 woody bamboo species have less than 2,000 square kilometres (about the size of London) remaining within their ranges.

Many bamboos are grown commercially, particularly in China and other parts of Asia, but species that might be useful are in danger of disappearing before they have been studied.

China is the richest country in Asia in terms of bamboo resources with an estimate of 44,000-70,000 square kilometres.

Annual production of bamboo poles in China is 7m tonnes - one third of total world production.

China is also the leading exporter of bamboo shoots as food, worth nearly £100m a year.

Among the internationally traded products from cultivated bamboo, which is valued at £1.7bn, are furniture and paper.

There are 1,500 documented uses of bamboo and an estimated 2.5 billion people trade or use bamboo and depend on it for food, construction materials, furniture, handicrafts, acupuncture needles and even musical instruments.

In Colombia, for example bamboo is used as a building material instead of concrete in earthquake zones because it bends with the tremor and does not collapse.

Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said: "Bamboos are some of the oldest and most fascinating life forms on earth with high economic and conservation value.

Many curious and unique species depend on bamboo.

The trade is very valuable but until now the status and condition have been largely ignored.

"This new report highlights how vital it now is for the international community to take a far greater interest in these extraordinary plant species."

The lead author of the report team, Nadia Bystriakova said: "The 'at risk' status of bamboo must be recognised and measures taken to slow the loss of forest in the areas where bamboo is vulnerable."

Ian Hunter, the director general of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, an organisation set up to try to prevent bamboo disappearing, said some species must be collected and conserved to avoid them going extinct.

The Guardian

Mmmmm - 62

The following is an abstract from teaching given to those wanting to make serious progress in their consciousness evolution

As mentioned before there are no exceptions to these rules and all wishing to grow must follow them

For the negative, strength is needed to fight against the forces of heredity and education,and prevent obedience to the instincts and acquired habits of this and other incarnations

But greater strength is needed to cross the zero-point and create new instincts and habits in the midst of conditions of life and habits of thought which are violently opposed to the new creation

The Western Creed

I believe in the material universe as the only and ultimate reality, a universe controlled by fixed physical laws and blind chance

I affirm that the universe has no creator, no objective purpose and no objective meaning or destiny

I maintain that all ideas of God or gods, enlightened beings, prophets and saviors or other non physical beings or forces are superstitions and delusions

Life and consciousness are totally identical to physical processes and arose from chance interactions of blind physical forces

And now for you to answer please

What parts of the above seem like obviously true descriptions of reality?

How do you personally know they are true?

Have you tested them yourself, or just accepted them on authority?

How many of these beliefs were consciously chosen by you?

Your beliefs - explicit and implicit - act as rules for the construction of your experienced reality

Better babies

Are possible

Better babies in the sense that they are more conscious

More consciously evolved

More advanced if you will

And how does a mother to be obtain a better baby?

By being cleaner

By her partner being cleaner

Cleaner in thought and life actions

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Cleaner and healthier in values and direction

The soul is attracted to appropriate parents

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Parents that can give it the best start in life

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A more conscious soul is not looking for money

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It is looking for the right start in life and is quite capable of finding it's own way later in life

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As indeed it must if it is to arrive at it's life purpose

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What the better baby does need though is that right start

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So women who chase money do so for their own perceived well being

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Better babies are not looking for this

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Young women who chase today's material values are literally and figuratively going down the wrong path

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Better babies are possible but only when you understand what the better baby is looking for

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Your choice young men and women

Pay

The pay gap between men and women in many countries is about lifestyle choice

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Or so says an influential study

It argued that the difference in salaries between male and female workers came down to 'individual lifestyle preferences'.

The choice of millions of mothers to put children before careers was the chief reason given for the disparity between men and women that emerged after thirty

Before thirty years old the difference in salary was generally just 1 per cent in men's favour.

The report arrives as the issue comes under growing scrutiny.

Politicians and equality campaigners say it is a major scandal, depriving women of earnings that are rightfully theirs.

The difference is usually measured by average hourly earnings, which show men are paid 17.2 per cent more than women.

Professor John Shackleton, of the University of East London, said that in reality the pay gap hardly existed for workers under 30.

He said men work longer hours in more dangerous jobs and face a greater risk of being sacked

While women who take career breaks outnumber their male equivalents by more than five to one.

In a paper for the Institute of Economic Affairs, he pointed out that single, widowed or divorced women earn more than their male counterparts, but the pay gap between men and women in families with three children was 19 per cent.

He also argued that female graduates tend to choose subjects such as psychology or education, which lead to lower-earning careers, while few opt for maths or engineering, which are more
likely to result in lucrative jobs.

The widespread belief that the gender pay gap is a reflection of deep-rooted discrimination by employers is ill-informed and an unhelpful contribution to the debate,' he said.

The gap is falling but is also a reflection of individuals' lifestyle preferences

Government cannot regulate these away, and should not try to.'

Professor Shackleton also dismissed fears over low pay for part-time women workers.

Most were in low-paid jobs, he said, a factor which accounted for most of the gap.

Large numbers of women prefer part-time work because of family responsibilities and so choose to accept lower wages, he added.

The report also said that men who have wives and children earn more than single men - yet no one is worried about that pay gap.

The report criticised efforts to narrow the difference through quotas for high-paid women or attempts to attract mothers into work through family-friendly legislation.

Professor Shackleton said such policies were intrusive, unnecessary and hugely overambitious, and that the state should not try to influence the choices of millions of people.

We should make far less of a song and dance about the gender pay gap,' he added.

Last night the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for women's equality, insisted that discrimination was a key cause of lower pay.

Spokesman Jessica Woodroffe said: 'There is a 17 per cent pay gap between men and women.

The causes are discrimination, women's unequal caring responsibilities and the way the work women do tends to be undervalued.

The first step is for companies to carry out audits to ensure men and women performing work of similar skill levels should be paid the same.

That is not too much to ask

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The Times

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Indeed

Stated differences

Between men and women when choosing partners are well known concepts

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But those sex differences didn't hold up in a new in-depth study of romantic attraction undertaken by two Northwestern University psychologists.

In short, the data suggest that whether you're a man or a woman, being attractive is just as good for your romantic prospects and, to a lesser extent, so is being a good earner.

For a month, the romantic lives of study participants were scrutinized, including their prospects within and outside of a speed-dating event.

What people said and did in choosing romantic partners were two different matters.

True to the stereotypes, the initial self-reports of male participants indicated that they cared more than women about a romantic partner's physical attractiveness, and the women in the study stated more than men that earning power was an aphrodisiac, said Paul Eastwick, lead author of the study and graduate student in psychology in the Weinberg School of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern.

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But in reality men and women were equally inspired by physical attraction and equally inspired by earning power or ambition.

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In other words good looks was the primary stimulus of attraction for both men and women, and a person with good earning prospects or ambition tended to be liked as well, said Eli Finkel, assistant professor of psychology at Northwestern.

Most noteworthy, the earning-power effect as well as the good-looks effect didn't differ for men and women.

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Participants' preferences based on their live romantic interactions contrasted with the ideal sex-differentiated preferences that they reported 10 days before the speed-dating event.

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We found that the romantic dynamics that occurred at the speed-dating event and during the following 30-day period had little to do with the sex-differentiated preferences stated on the questionnaires, said Finkel.

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The speed dating methodology gave the researchers an opportunity not available to earlier generations of researchers to compare stated romantic preferences with actual choices participants made about a series of potential partners.

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The discrepancy between what people did and said in this dating situation fits with other research that shows that people often do a poor job explaining why they do things, often referring to accepted cultural theories to explain their own behavior.

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The speed-dating methodology allowed the Northwestern researchers to move beyond the abstract world of romantic ideals to see how people actually rated a number of flesh-and-blood people regarding physical attractiveness, ambition and earning power.

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If you were to tell me that you prefer physically attractive romantic partners, I would expect to see that you indeed are more attracted to physically attractive partners, said Eastwick.

But our participants didn't pursue their ideal in this way.

This leads us to question whether people know what they initially value in a romantic partner.

What about the academic argument that men are primed much more than women to highly value beauty in romantic partners in an evolutionary quest for health, fertility and preservation of the gene pool?

The new Northwestern research poses at least as many questions as it answers about the differences between the sexes. Is it possible after all that, when it comes to romantic attraction, men aren't from Mars and women aren't from Venus?

The new study suggests that both sexes have similar romantic responses to each other right here on planet Earth.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.