Light and love

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Light and love are the same at a very high frequency

That's very high like the sun energy frequency for instance
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Light is love and love is light and both are what some might call very high frequency energies

Might not seem so to you, might not seem that there is any relationship

However if you would like to try to find out you can

Light and love are a mantra for some, which is followed by the idea of truth

What does this mean?

Let me try to explain

The energy of light coming through you, is, when consciously converted by a thought form, very powerful and very clean

A very honest clean energy would be another way to describe it

Imagine or look at the sun and then mentally pull the sun into and through you

Hold this inside you

Imagine further that the sun light now in you is converted to love

That light can with the right control over your thought forms indeed become love and also permeate every fiber of your being

No this is not easy as it requires discipline to bring a sharp image of the sun into you and then intense control of the thought form to convert it into love

Start by mediating on light and love and when you can control and produce this thought form at will then try to do so holding it in you and then converting it

If you do this every day and several times a day you can experience changes

And that this love thought form can then show you the truth is also something that can be experienced

That you can be present to the truth

Living in truth

Yes for some this mantra leads them to seek out truth

To see light in everything

To see love in everything

To be light, love and truth

And you know what?

Were this to be your journey it will lead you to other spaces and places

A human seeing light and love in everything sees the good in things

Sees life through new eyes

Downs are less down

Less severe, less iffy days

Love fills her day

The light is brighter, and lighter

Life is more luminous

Relationships mellow

Two caveats though one is you have to let go of your fears

You cannot see the love in everything if you are in fear or hold onto your fears

It is not possible to control thought forms while holding anger, fear, jealousy, greed, envy or other such negative emotions inside you

The other is that you have to be convinced of the truth of karma and reincarnation as otherwise you can have no peace with the state of the world today

No harmony with nature

No understanding of why things are as they are

Without this understanding finding light and love is tough

For this reason few are able to achieve the state described above

And yet it is all possible and there are those who are on their way to such an attainment

We have met some such beings

Some traders

Or maybe many of them

Use seemingly rigorous economic analyses to trade

Many though get married to their positions

Loyalty to ideas is not a good idea for traders or anybody else for that matter, we need to remain or try to be critical of our ideas

Bad traders tend to change their story

They become investors for the long haul when they are losing money

Switching stories to fit recent reversals of fortune

Nothing wrong with being an investor for the long haul

However when traders do this they are often postponing their decision to sell

They are in denial

These people do not have a game plan as to what they will do in the event of losses

They show an absence of critical thinking when things are going down

And these people do not like selling when it is even better value

Their failure is to measure what they consider value to be

They might on occasion be right however consideration that they might not be is also an intelligent approach

Denial is when they continuously ignore the message from reality

Traders come in all shapes and sizes however they all live under stress

Denial might work in other professions but not in the markets where mistakes are punished heavily and publicly

Some traders will survive some won't

Those that do survive are more open to reality and are able to make their own decisions

Those that follow the herd might survive for a while but sooner or later get caught out

Trading is not for the faint hearted

Some traders

Meeting others

Is not easy

The more so when we are getting over a relationship and are not in the habit of going out

Where to go?

What to do?

Often we have no interest in pubs or other places where being alone is so obvious

Makes you feel uncomfortable, but then maybe it has to be until you break those patterns being alone

It’s time to face your fears and to start living again 

It’s time for you to give yourself what you’ve been waiting for someone else to give to you.

You are much more likely to meet new people if you go out alone

People find this difficult so it’s best to start by going alone to safe places

Then become more adventurous once you get comfortable with your own company

A simple first step is to make a point of arriving early at a bar or restaurant when you are going to meet people

Try going to local coffee shops with a laptop so that you can do your emails while feeling OK with being alone

Once you feel better about going out alone and start to lose the lonely feeling

Time to enrol in some activities where you can meet others
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But this works only if you sign up for a series of actions rather than something that takes place over a single weekend.

Classes, courses or groups where there’s a lot of physical interaction

Making things, dancing classes, helping others or concert going somewhere in the group
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Try friend dating

Social websites are a good start and they help get you out and more used to meeting others

They organise pub quizzes, book groups and supper clubs 
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Consider volunteering for something which appeals to you  there are many NGO's today that need volunteers

Caution though do not volunteer for something you do not like or agree with that can be a real turn off

The advantage of only volunteering for something you really like or agree with is that if you do meet someone through this activity then you have two things in common straight off

The activity and each other

The more positive energy you expend the more will come back your way

Live for your own interests because then you are not wasting your time pretending

Do not go to places you do not like

Or do things you do not like

Be disciplined it takes a while to like our own company

When you do and find yourself quite happy with yourself that is the time when someone appears

Not when you are too eager

Too anxious

Learn to like yourself for what you are

Then and only then does partnership make sense

Why?

Because you have learnt more about yourself

You are more confident

You are less needy

Leaning less on others

Wikileaks

When the Ministry of Defence first came across Wikileaks, staffers were stunned.
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There are thousands of things on here, I literally mean thousands, one of them wrote in an internal email in November 2008.
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Everything I clicked on to do with MoD was restricted... it is huge.
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The website, an online clearing house for documents whose authors would generally prefer them to stay in the private domain, has since been banned from the MoD's internal computers, but it did no good: eventually, that email ended up on Wikileaks.
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And when a US Army counter-intelligence officer recommended that whistleblowers who leaked to the site be fired, that report ended up on Wikileaks too.
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The authorities were right to be worried.
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If any further proof were needed of the website's extraordinary record in holding the authorities to account, it came this week, in the release of shocking video footage of a gung-ho US helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 12 people, including two unarmed employees of the Reuters news agency.
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The US government had resisted Freedom of Information requests from Reuters for years.
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But when an anonymous whistleblower passed the video on to Wikileaks, all that quickly became futile.
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An edited version of the tape had received almost 4 million hits on YouTube by last night, and it led news bulletins around the world.
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This might be the story that makes Wikileaks blow up, said Sree Sreenivasan, a digital media professor at New York's Columbia Journalism School.
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It's not some huge document with lots of fine print – you can just watch it and you get what it's about immediately.
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It's a whole new world of how stories get out
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And yet despite Wikileaks' commitment to the freedom of information, there is something curiously shadowy about the organisation itself.
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Founded, as the group's spokesman Daniel Schmitt (whose surname is a pseudonym) put it, with the intention of becoming "the intelligence agency of the people", the site's operators and volunteers – five full-timers, and another 1,000 on call – are almost all anonymous.
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Ironically, the only way the group's donors are publicly known is through a leak on Wikileaks itself.
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The organisation's most prominent figure is Julian Assange, an Australian hacker and journalist who co-founded the site back in 2006.
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While Assange and his cohorts' intentions are plainly laudable – to "allow whistleblowers and journalists who have been censored to get material out to the public", as he told the BBC earlier this year – some ask who watches the watchmen.
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People have to be very careful dealing with this information, says Professor Sreenivasan.
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It's part of the culture now, it's out there, but you still need context, you still need analysis, you still need background.
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Against all of that criticism, Wikileaks can set a record that carries, as Abu Dhabi's The National put it, "more scoops in its short life than The Washington Post has in the past 30 years".
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By earning its place as the natural destination for anyone with sensitive information to leak who does not know and trust a particular journalist – so far, despite numerous court actions, not a single source has been outed – Wikileaks has built up a remarkable record.
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Yes, it has published an early draft of the script for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Wesley Snipes' tax returns; but it has also published the "Climategate" emails, an internal Trafigura report on toxic dumping in Ivory Coast, and the standard operating procedures for Guantanamo Bay.
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Whatever the gaps in its procedures, there is little doubt that the website is at the forefront of a new information era in which the powerful, corrupt and murderous will have to feel a little more nervous about their behaviour. "
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There are reasons I do it that have to do with wanting to reform civilisation," Assange said in an interview with salon.com.
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Of course, there's a personal psychology to it, that I enjoy crushing bastards. I like a good challenge.
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Assange

Detection

And just what do you need today to know if you or your apartment are being bugged?

The following products give an idea of what it takes to clean your place and how much these items of equipment cost

Today’s hidden-microphone cameras are wireless, so the latest machines scan the broadcast spectrum to see whether any are transmitting.

If there is a bug, it can often pluck the video or audio signal out of the airwaves.

The government originally used this technology on its Lockheed P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft.

Sometimes the analyzer makes an accidental find, like the nefarious voyeuristic videostream that was apparently originating from a cam concealed in the bedroom of a client’s neighbor. $109,000
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Next is the Inova Ultraviolet Flashlight - the one shown above
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Fresh paint absorbs UV light; old paint reflects it.
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A UV flashlight is a low tech (and low-cost) method of examining walls, woodwork, and molding for touch-ups that might hide newly embedded devices.
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If the paint doesn’t glow, you may have a bug infestation. $50
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Then there is the Merlin-MID Thermal Imaging Camera
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A sensitive infrared camera detects minute variations in temperature.
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Slightly warm areas can indicate heat emanating from a surveillance gadget.
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A device buried inside a table or behind a wall will be difficult to detect otherwise, but its heat will bleed out.
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Has the teleconferencing system in a meeting room been turned on surreptitiously to eavesdrop on conversations?
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If its components glow on the camera’s screen, then you’ve got your answer. $56,000
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A REI Multifunction Digital Telephone Analyzer
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This gizmo is like a Swiss Army knife for spy busters, with sensors that detect voltage, current, resistance, capacitance, nonlinear junctions, digital demodulations, frequency domain … the whole ball of wax.
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It can spot when a digital phone system is leaking audio
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Identify when someone has done a bit of rewiring
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Sniff out devices that are transmitting
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And even tell whether a phone has been altered to continue capturing sound after it’s hung up. $20,000
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Then we have the AirPatrol Digital Surveillance Location Analyzer
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This location analyzer defends against two new surveillance threats:
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One is a cellular eavesdropping device that silently begins picking up sound when it’s called.
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The other is the GPS tracker, which can be concealed inside a vehicle to monitor movement.
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To uncover either, set up a series of receivers around the area being inspected, all of them connected to the location analyzer.
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The system pinpoints hidden devices by calculating the time it takes for signals to reach each receiver. $21,000
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Finally we have a Nonlinear Junction Detector
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When bugs are turned off and not transmitting, devices like the Tektronix Radio Spectrum Analyzer are useless.
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That’s when this apparatus comes into play.
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Like bicycle reflectors shining red in your headlights, the components of surveillance devices—semiconductors, transistors, diodes—bounce back radio signals at a particular frequency, which the junction detector “hears."
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It works on the same basis as detectors of shoplifting tags. $20,000

And when you have used all of these you can have a nice warm feeling that nobody is spying on you............... until you go out that is because then you would need to check all over again

Unless of course you leave certain other devices around to inform you of any intrusions.

How pleasant not to care one way or the other!

Wired - Murray

Difficult people

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How should I deal with a difficult colleague I was asked recently

The party in question informed me that her work place is a creative and competitive environment, and everyone is, for the most part, encouraging and supportive.
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Then she went on to say
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"After some recent changes I am finding one of my new colleagues very difficult.

She is disruptive, controlling and creates an unpleasant atmosphere.

When our boss is not around she will be rude and agressive

She has problems when anyone else has a good idea or suggestion

She also likes to undermine me in front of my colleagues

When the boss is around though she is obsequious and oh so polite and stops her unpleasant behaviour

This makes me dread going into work where before I  used to enjoy my work

No one can be sure who she will turn on next or who will be put down

So what can I do"?

Firstly many companies have these sort of people and they are to be found particularly where the compnay is competitive or going through changes

And or in companies where times are difficult or stressed

The bully is often inadequate and during times of change can feel threatened by those she feels are more capable or popular than herself

Basically you have three choices leave, try to ignore it, or fight back

You said you don't want to leave, and as you have asked what you can do it is clear you do not want to ignore it

This leads to the steps you can take to address this issueFacing up to your colleague means making sure that you are prepared
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Keep a note of things that she has said or done, with the dates, times and places

Find support from your friends and family

Once you feel you have enough examples of her behaviour meet her alone and face to face.

Pick a time and place where you will not be interrupted

Remember bullies are usually cowards and do not like open discussion or face to face meetings 

They bluster, often lie very smoothly and distort the truth, so be prepared
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Have your meeting when you are feeling calm and have time to talk properly.

Tell her clearly what she has done and why you find her behaviour unacceptable.

Give her the chance to reply, which will often be a lengthy denial or even a refusal to respond

Then tell her how you want things to change and what you will do if they do not

Let her know that you would prefer to be colleagues rather than adversaries

Should things not improve, and be clear about this, then you will make a formal complaint to your boss
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Allow enough time for her to show her reaction to your conversation and also continue during this time with your notes of events and her behaviour

If her behaviour does improve for the better, then show a positive reaction.
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If there isn’t a change, do what you threatened to do and go to your boss.

Should your boss not do anything, then file a formal complaint.

It will not be easy or comfortable but this is what bulies play on that no one will confront them face to face

That said you will not feel good now that you have come this far if you do not confront her

Go for it

Good luck!

Enough already

All these competing religions claiming the one true god and bragging about the love and forgiveness inherent in their particular religion
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Then they take up arms in the name of their respective religions and murder each other………… this has been going on for many millennia now
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Add to this simmering mix the systematic abuse of children…………… also for many millennia
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Then there is the condoning of murder because someone challenged or poked fun at their religion
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Suddenly religious nonsense takes on a far more sinister tone
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When will people realise that religion as practiced by man is evil
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Evil is the right word for insisting that you are the only true religion
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Pretending that your holy book is accurately saying what your God or Prophet said
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Pretending that your pronouncements or interpretations are from God
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Really?
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Not one major teacher Buddha, Christ or Krishna wrote anything
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Their followers did though
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Usually years and years later
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Then over time different interpretations and translations appear
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Often politics and power struggles altered the teachings and interpretations to suit the new conditions
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The use of language changed
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The meanings no longer reflect what was said or meant
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And subsequently all of these books and teachings have been further altered
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Reinterpreted
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Distorted
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Once upon a time religion served a purpose in uniting
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Teaching us good values
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Helping us see in more objective ways
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Religion now gets in the way of our understanding each other
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Religion divides
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Religion creates unnecessary and often cruel divisions
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Religion creates friction between peoples
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Religion dictates certain sexist and draconian behaviors
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Certain points of view, very often arbitrary ones
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Yet upon examination we find that all of the world’s major religions in their original message are teaching the same thing
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And this message is simple
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Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
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Not rocket science but if we did as suggested then this planet would be very different
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Different because instead of sporting different religious labels we could begin to see that we all have the same desires and aspirations
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We all want similar things
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We all want a world that functions fairly and equitably
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Time to drop the labels of separation
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Time to drop religion
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Labels today used by fanatics to sow division and separation
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It is time that we concentrate on being human to each other
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Let us do this without the distortion of religion
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Enough already

Sunday Happy List

Some time ago ago The Independent Newspaper published it's " Sunday Happy List".

As they say
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It is our antidote to all the rich lists, celebrity lists, and wealth leagues which worship at the shrine of billionaires, mega bonus-takers and their conspicuous spending.
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The Happy List celebrates different values, and names 100 people who give back, volunteer, and who make Britain a better balanced, happier country.
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Our 100 include extraordinary individuals such as the antique clock repairer and his friend who set up an organisation that has raised many millions for charity
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The woman who brought the idea of ethical gifts to Britain

The country's happiest museum curator

Scientists who have brought the fascinations of their speciality to a wider audience

Charity founders

Outstanding laughter-makers

The world's oldest abseiler

Campaigning conservationists

Medical pioneers

Performers of impromptu acts of bravery

People who have given decades of volunteer service

Inspiring teachers and musicians

Remarkable doctors and athletes

And scores of otherwise ordinary citizens who have made a difference to the lives of those they help.
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There are some well-known names who have done much to make Britain a happier place who are not on the list.
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Some, like Sir David Attenborough, have appeared on previous lists and our policy is that, unless someone has made an exceptional new contribution in the previous 12 months, they will not be on subsequent lists".
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Independent

A nice idea and one that has gained some traction

So often the media cannot leave self seeking pseudo celebrities alone

Our papers and magazines filled with the trivia of their lives

Nice one to have something worthwhile for a change recognizing people who make a positive contribution to this country

Have a look at it   

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-iiosi-happy-list-2009--the-100-1671055.html

When illusions die

And reality stares you in the face

What then?

For many this is when the marriage begins to die

Or so called steady relationship

While the power of sex is strong in us we can avoid the deeper reality

We can avoid seeing our own projections onto the other person

Projections so many have about each other

When the initial lust calms as it must

We begin to notice that there are things about the other that we do not like

Things that were so well hidden in the first flush of romance

Around 40% of marriages fail in the first four years

We would bet a large number because the two parties were projecting like crazy

To avoid this happening again or for the first time

Try imagining the relationship without sex

No sex

Just you and the other sitting, eating, sleeping and doing all those normal things couples do

No sex

How is the character of the other is she generous or mean?

Controlling perhaps?

And how is her family?

How is her relationship with others?

Does she have friends and how are they?

Notice these things about each other before entering into that exciting sexual period

If you can that is

The pull of lust is a strong one

How strong are you?

Better to be cautious before entering into commitments of a more serious nature

Maybe some of those old ideas about courtship and romance were not so stupid after all

For those who

Invest or trade

Something I read and want to pass on

It has been estimated, yes I know, but just take it as an order of magnitude

That the negative effect on seeing a loss on your investments is 2.5 the magnitude of a positive one

This will lead to an emotional deficit

Emotional deficits are cumulative over time

This in turn explains why people who look too closely at their investment movements burn out

Why most traders burn out

And this is because over a short time increment the investor is observing the variability of the portfolio and not the returns

The trader more so although as they tend to be young the effect is not always obvious

Both the trader and investor sees the variance and little else, or at best a combination of variance and returns

Our emotions are not designed to understand this

In a nut shell your system is under pressure the more you follow the movements of your portfolio

Your emotional deficit grows

You might be one of those who feels he can control his emotions

Soreee this is beyond control, few can truly control their emotions

For the investor let your portfolio alone if you can look at it once a year great if not then less is better

For the trader better know that your time is limited and have a plan B for the rest of your life

So easy

Just one slip

And away your life goes

Suddenly your emotions are frazzled

You can think of nothing else

And what am I talking about?

You lost your wallet

Which is hardly the end of the world but changes your functioning from secure to stressed in the blink of an eye when you discover that it has gone

It is completely debilitating in rather a savage way.

Until something like this happens you are cushioned from the fact that there is only the tiniest line that separates you being a functioning person from being one who is totally incapacitated.

That tiny line basically consists of several pieces of plastic:

Without this plastic you can’t get cash out. 

You can’t pay for anything.

You can’t go anywhere unless it’s within walking distance or you have a car with petrol in it 

You can’t consume anything when you get there, except with whatever small change you had lying around 

For some banks like Barclay's you cannot even get onto online banking because their systems require that you have that card you lost 

It's at times like this where the fragility of everything that we take for granted is exposed

It is quite disconcerting to realise that the only thing that gave us that illusion of security is a credit or debit card

Without these our modern world and life falls apart

Our smoothly organised routine goes out the window

Enter the hassle of replacing them

The time it takes

The endless call centre routines to be negotiated

For sure you will have all your card details available sensibly backed up for just such an emergency

Won't you?

The emotional stuff is also something we can prepare for

Having what we want when we want it is a modern world convenience

For many this is not their experience of life

They have to wait and be patient just to get or obtain things we take for granted

So when you lose your cards deep breath and let go

No frustration please

A recognition that you will adjust to this new time with calmness and acceptance

So why the stress?

Why the awful feeling?

Wound too tight

Let go life will move on

Whatever your loss it was only 'things'

Physical things

Deep breath and smile it was not your health, not a car crash or some other nasty accident

Just a cold shower

A disruption to your perfectly organised life, that's all

Use it to grow beyond a panic about things

So easy

So easy to protect yourself in different ways from this upset and stress, fear even

A little mmm

A cigarette is a pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool at the other!
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Marriage is an agreement wherein a man loses his bachelor degree and a woman gains her master
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A lecture is the art of transmitting Information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of students without passing through the minds of either
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A conference is the confusion of one man multiplied by the number present
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Compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everybody believes he got the biggest piece
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Tears are the hydraulic force by which masculine will power is defeated by feminine water-power
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The conference room is a place where everybody talks, nobody listens and everybody disagrees later on
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Classic is a book which people praise, but never read
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Smile is a curve that can set a lot of things straight
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Office for many is a place where you can relax after your strenuous home life
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Experience is the name men give to their mistakes
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A diplomat is person who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip
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A miser is a person who lives poor so that he can die rich
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A father is a banker provided by nature
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The boss is someone who is early when you are late and late when you are early
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The two most common elements in the world are hydrogen and stupidity.
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Don't drown the man who taught you to swim
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A friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be somewhere else.
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Only your real friends tell you when your face is dirty.
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No guy is worth your tears and the one who is won’t make you cry
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The worst way to miss someone, is to have them sitting right next to you and you know you can never have them
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All kids are gifted; some just open their packages earlier than others.
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Men are like roses, watch out for all of the pricks.
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In order to be someone, you must first be yourself.
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We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
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Don’t waste your time on a guy that isn’t willing to waste his time on you.
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Never take life seriously - nobody gets out alive anyway.
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A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway.
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A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
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Have the courage to live - anyone can die

Lending

.............and borrowing are dangerous areas

Most people have learnt how painful lending can be

The party who borrowed did not repay the sum lent

Or had to be asked over and over for it

Broke the friendship and if not broken then certainly changed it

Give you a Thai story

If you lend money to a Thai you will probably not get it back again

Why not?

Simple

After having pleaded for the money and having promised to pay it back

Then a period of time passes and no money gets repaid

Finally you have enough and ask the Thai why he has not repaid you your money

He will then in all likelihood tell you that you obviously have more than enough money or you could not have lent any to him in the first place so he will not now pay you back your money

Over and over we heard this story when we lived in Thailand 

What makes it worse is all the original pleading and cajoling to be lent the money

Along with endless promises to repay

Then the betrayal and abuse of that gesture

Of course it does not have to be Thailand it can and is everywhere

So what to do?

Judgement

Your judgement

Sometimes we can sense that the money will not come back

We can still lend the money accepting in advance that it will not come back

Or we can say no we cannot give you that amount we can give you the fraction we can afford

Or no we will not lend you any money

Tough one to say

Circumstance should dictate your position and decision

Of more interest than the lending of money is the idea why you?

Why has someone asked you?

Why are you the chosen one?

Because of a close relationship maybe

You are a relative

You are an easy touch

Whatever it might be think in advance, like now perhaps, about on what basis you might lend money

Or how you would say no

Lending is a subject to think about in advance for your own peace of mind

So that when the situation occurs it does not upset you

It does not put you in an awkward situation

It does not prejudice a good relationship or friendship

GM - Here we go

Scientists are calling for the long-term risks of GM crops to be reassessed after field studies revealed an explosion in pest numbers around farms growing modified strains of cotton.
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The unexpected surge of infestations "highlights a critical need" for better ways of predicting the impact of GM crops and spotting potentially damaging knock-on effects arising from their cultivation, researchers said.
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Millions of hectares of farmland in northern China have been struck by infestations of bugs following the widespread adoption of Bt cotton, an engineered variety made by the US biotech giant, Monsanto.
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Outbreaks of mirid bugs, which can devastate around 200 varieties of fruit, vegetable and corn crops, have risen dramatically in the past decade, as cotton farmers have shifted from traditional cotton crops to GM varieties, scientists said.
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Traditional cotton famers have to spray their crops with insecticides to combat destructive bollworm pests, but Bt cotton produces its own insecticide, meaning farmers can save money by spraying it less.
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But a 10-year study across six major cotton-growing regions of China found that by spraying their crops less, farmers allowed mirid bugs to thrive and infest their own and neighbouring farms.
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The infestations are potentially catastrophic for more than 10m small-scale farmers who cultivate 26m hectares of vulnerable crops in the region studied.
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The findings mark the first confirmed report of mass infestations arising as an unintended consequence of farmers using less pesticide – a feature of Bt cotton that was supposed to save money and lessen the crops' environmental impact.
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The research, led by Kongming Wu at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing, is published in the US journal, Science.
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Our work highlights a critical need to do ecological assessments and monitoring at the landscape-level to better understand the impacts of GM crop adoption, Dr Wu told the Guardian.
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Environmental campaigners seized on the study as further evidence that GM crops are not the environmental saviour that manufacturers have led farmers to believe.
.
This is a massive issue in terms of the environment, but also in terms of costs for the farmer.
.
The plan with GM crops was to reduce costs and environmental impact, but neither of these things seem to be happening, because over time, nature takes its course, and that was bound to happen.
.
The supposed benefits in yield can be cancelled out by unintended consequences like this, said Kirtana Chandrasekaran, a food campaigner at Friends of the Earth.
.
In the past decade, farmers in India and elsewhere have noticed that herbicide-tolerant GM crops have developed resistance to pesticide sprays, again reducing the benefits of the crops, Chandrasekaran said. Reliance on GM is not sustainable.
.
We need to get back to using local varieties of crops that are adpted to the conditions, and develop an integrated system of pest management.
.
While many countries around the world have embraced GM crops, they have never taken root in Britain, where multinational companies have faced protests and vandalism to crop trials in recent years.
.
Britain's large-scale field trials of herbicide-tolerant GM crops in 2003 found changes in herbicide use had an impact on weeds and insects that might also affect country wildlife.
.
Dr Wu's team monitored insecticide use from 1992 to 2008 at 38 farms throughout the six northern Chinese provinces of Henan, Hebei, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong and Shanxi.
.
They also kept records of mirid bug populations at the farms between 1997 and 2008.
.
Before switching to GM cotton, farmers used more broad-spectrum insecticides to kill bollworms and other pests.
.
But as more farmers began growing Bt cotton, their use of sprays declined, leading to a steady rise in pests, including mirid bugs.
.
Over the decade-long study, cotton farms flipped from being a grave for mirid bugs to a source of the pests, where populations grew rapidly and then spilled out to feed on a variety of flowering crops in neighbouring farms.
.
Bt cotton is modified to produce a natural insecticide that is made by a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis.
.
The toxin specifically targets bollworms, which can devastate cotton yields.
.
BT cotton timeline
.
1990: Cotton plants genetically engineered to produce enough Bt toxin (derived from the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium) to be protective against insects
.
1996: First Bt cotton varieties, known as Bollgard Cotton in US, introduced commercially by Monsanto, and Delta and Pine Land Company
.
1997: China begins cultivating Bt cotton, increasing area of the crop planted to 1.8m hectares worldwide
.
2003: Britain's large scale field trials of herbicide tolerant GM crops.
.
Showed that changes in herbicide use had an impact on weeds and insects that might also affect country wildlifem hectares worldwide
.
2009: 49% of cotton production worldwide is Bt cotton, or 16m hectares
.
2010: No GM crops grown commercially in the UK.
.
Spain is the biggest grower in Europe, but there are also significant amounts of crops grown in France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Portugal.
.
Celia Cole - Guardian

Life ...... a small point

I am sometimes taken aback by how people can have a miserable day or get angry because they feel cheated by a bad meal, cold coffee, a social rebuff, or a rude reception
.
Look at the true odds of the events that run your own life
.
We are quick to forget just that being alive is an extraordinary piece of good luck, a rare event, a chance occurrence of monstrous proportions
.
Imagine a speck of dust next to a planet a billion times the size of the earth
.
The speck of dust represents the true odds in favour of your being born
.
The huge planet would be the odds against it
.
So stop sweating the small stuff
.
Don't be like the ingrate who gets a castle as a present and is worried about the mildew in the bathroom
.
Stop looking a gift horse in the mouth
.
Nassim Taleb

Tracking

Tracking is an ancient skill and one many of us have used in various lives
.
For myself tracking was a very central part of my life while I was in the British Army in Borneo and recently I came across this article by Ray Mears which is interesting for what it says
.
Here it is
.
The core skills are essentially the same regardless of beast, environment and terrain.
.
As time has gone on I feel something of a kinship with the animals that I follow,” he says
.
We are all hard-wired to track, it just needs to be brought out of us – and the benefits for the amateur naturalist if they develop these skills means they will quite simply increase their chances of seeing wildlife
.
When Mears teaches tracking he tells his students that when surveying the landscape for clues it is like watching an old television warming up – at first you don’t see anything, but in time you start to see that there is more there than you at first realised.
.
What is a track?
.
That is the question, he says.
.
You could say it’s a footprint, a disturbance, a hair left on a tree or snow on a branch that has been disturbed.
.
It could be the indication of other animals in the area fleeing, giving away the presence of predators.
.
It takes time, because you have to learn what is right before you can determine what is out of place.
.
Mears’s technique is to gather as much information as possible by talking to locals or those with specialist knowledge.
.
Then he will go to an area where he is most likely to find signs of the animal.
.
If he hasn’t found any indication of that animal after 10 minutes he will move on to another area.
.
When I go to look, I go with a passive mind, I want what’s there to reveal itself to me, Mears says
.
Most people see a mark in the ground; I’m actually trying to see the foot that left it.
.
When he does find something, he asks how old the track is; what was the animal doing when it left it; and what size and sex is the animal.
.
Once he has found a hot lead, such as a fresh paw print or a hair stuck to a tree, he’ll start to build up a picture of how that animal operates in the wild by looking for more clues, much like a detective investigating a crime.
.
Eventually he’ll know enough about his intended quarry to get a sighting.
.
It’s a holistic activity where you try to tune into what is going on as the animals do, he says,
.
That’s one of the reasons why it’s so exciting.
.
It becomes very intuitive after a while and anybody can have a go.
.
It’s simply a case of going out there and doing it.
.
Ray Mears
.
Indeed and when there are other predatory humans tracking you it becomes seriously important that you understand what the signs are saying!
.
And when with good trackers it is simply amazing what they can read and explain about what or who is around

Funny people

We buy petrol by the litre

And sugar by the kg

But houses by the square foot.
.
Not to mention travelling in miles
.
Curious or what?
.
History is carried by all cultures and we are all used to these inconsistencies
.
Some noticed, some not
.
And all are exerting a pull on us one way or another
.
In Britain the time is different from that of most of Europe
.
The alleged reason being to help farmers and so that school children can go to school in the light
.
British tractors have had lights on them for over fifty years now
.
Farmers are not doing much during snow covered winters in Scotland anyway 
.
School children have then to come home in the dark
.
Funny just across the water in Norway and Sweden the time is the same as in Europe and they care for their farmers and schoolchildren too
.
So why not change the time in Britain?
.
Ah!
.
Now you come to interest groups who will fight to the death to preserve their interests
.
What interests?
.
Well actually there are not so many of them but 58 million people are being held hostage by this small group of people
.
Changing the time would benefit business, airlines and positively affect the health of millions
.
Most importantly those who suffer from a lack of sun in winter known as SAD sufferers would benefit
.
And yet nothing changes even though the benefits are manifest
.
It is with situations like these that exist in every society where the tyranny of the minority can be felt
.
And yet and yet the majority is not always right
.
Real world problems with real world difficulties
.
Where would we be without them
.
And what is the fair and reasonable way to resolve these issues?
.
The tyranny of the majority perhaps?

I don't run for trains.........

Snub your destiny

I have taught myself to resist running to keep on schedule

This may seem like very small piece of advice, but it registered

In refusing to run to catch trains I have felt the true value of elegance and aesthetics in behaviour 

A sense of being in control of my time, my schedule, and my life

Missing a train is only painful if you run after it

Likewise not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that's what you are seeking

You stand above the rat race and the pecking order

Not outside of it, if you do so by choice

Quitting a high paid position, if it is your decision, will seem a better pay off than the utility of the money involved

This is the first step towards the stoic's throwing a four letter word at fate

You have far more control of your life if you decide on your criterion by yourself

Consider that the grapes we cannot or did not reach are sour

But an aggressive stoic prior disdain and rejection of the grapes is even more rewarding

Be aggressive be the one to resign if you have the guts

It is more difficult to be a loser in a game you set up yourself

This means that you are exposed to the improbable only if you let it control you

You always control what you do so make this your end

N Taleb

Antibiotics

.
.
Microbes: Can't live with them, can't live without them.
.
We focus more on the first of these truths, as shown by the huge sums spent every year on preventing, treating, and researching infectious diseases.
.
But the second is equally valid:
.
Each human body contains at least 10 times as many microbes as human cells.
.
The human gut alone contains about 1 kilogram of bacteria indispensable to digestion.
.
But sometimes microbes get out of hand, triggering everything from athlete's foot to influenza pandemics that kill tens of millions, and for millennia humans have sought ways to control them.
.
People have tried everything from prayer, to natural biocides (Ötzi, the 5,300-year-old hunter found frozen in an Alpine glacier in 1991, carried fungal oils to treat intestinal parasites), to cautery (scorching wounds with a hot iron).
.
The results were mixed at best. Then, in 1929, Alexander Fleming noticed a clear zone on an agar plate of staphylococci bacteria "contaminated" with Penicillium mold.
.
Ten years later, Ernst Chain and Howard Florey found a way to isolate the active ingredient.
.
Penicillin was used to treat infections in World War II and was commercialized immediately afterward. From this accidental beginning, the global anti-infective market has grown to nearly US$70 billion a year; antibiotics account for about half.
.
Producing mass quantities of antibiotics requires a bioindustrial fermentation technique.
.
The source microorganisms, usually genetically modified strains of naturally occurring microbes, are grown in enormous vats of liquid growth mediums under carefully controlled conditions.
.
The antibiotic compounds are actually metabolites of the microbes; these compounds are isolated, often using various organic solvents, then extracted, purified, and refined into one of several drug forms.
.
The chief downstream impacts of antibiotic use involve antibiotic resistance.
.
Resistance is natural; microbes that produce antibiotics do so to stave off competition from other microbes, which in turn evolve to escape harm.
.
This co-evolutionary dance is expanded and accelerated by the immense scale of human antibiotic use - and misuse.
.
Antibiotic resistance developed almost immediately after commercial production of antibiotics began in 1946.
.
It has since become a major threat to the control of pathogens, nearly all of which are resistant to one or more standard antibiotics.
.
Resistant pathogens have become common in institutional settings such as hospitals and nursing homes; according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, about 70 percent of common hospital infections are resistant to at least one antibiotic.
.
One of the most common institutional microbes, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, kills more people in the United States each year than AIDS.
.
Microbes' inherent tendency to develop antibiotic resistance is aggravated by human actions.
.
For example, microbe resistance genes are sometimes used as markers in genetically modified crops and wind up in the products made from them.
.
Antibiotics are often misused in medical settings, as when patients demand antibiotics for viral infections, against which they are useless.
.
Even when the prescribed antibiotics are appropriate, patients often fail to use them properly. Both practices increase antibiotic resistance.
.
Perhaps most important, nearly 70 percent of U.S.-produced antibiotics and related drugs are fed to livestock to promote growth and prevent sickness.
.
These uses help create resistant pathogens that can reach people directly via the meat and byproducts or indirectly via feedlot runoff that contaminates streams and groundwater.
.
Antibiotics are also sprayed on fruit and vegetable crops, and the plants can absorb antibiotics from manure used as fertilizer.
.
These problems and others-there is some evidence, for instance, that the misuse of antibiotics has contributed to the increase in childhood asthma and allergies-have led the European Union to ban the nontherapeutic use of antimicrobial drugs in livestock.
.
To date the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has declined to do so.
.
Tom Prugh is the editor of World Watch

Karma another description

Karma is the Ultimate Law of the Universe, the source, origin and fount of all other laws which exist throughout nature.

Karma is the unerring law which adjusts effect to cause, on the physical, mental and spiritual planes of being.

As no cause remains without its due effect from greatest to least

From a cosmic disturbance down to the movement of your hand

And as like produces like

Karma is that unseen and unknown law which adjusts wisely, intelligently and equitably each effect to its cause

Tracing the latter back to its producer. ...
.
Though we do not know what Karma is per se
.
And in its essence, we do know how it works
.
And we can define and describe its mode of action with accuracy.
.
We only do not know its ultimate Cause

Just as modern philosophy universally admits that the ultimate Cause of anything is “unknowable.” ...
.
We describe Karma as that Law of re-adjustment which ever tends to restore disturbed equilibrium in the physical, and broken harmony in the moral world. ...
.
Our present lives and circumstances are the direct results of our own deeds and thoughts in lives that are past.
.
But we, who are not Seers or Initiates, cannot know anything about the details of the working of the law of Karma. ...
.
Belief in Karma is the highest reason for reconcilement to one’s lot in this life
.
And the very strongest incentive towards effort to better the succeeding re-birth.’
.
A Master
.
Why keep coming back to this?
.
Simply because it is your life, it governs and controls your life
.
What you thought and did in the past is the reason you are experiencing what you are now
.
And what you are doing and thinking now is what will create what you experience in the future
.
Take that on board and you can begin to see what is going on in your life
.
I can only say with personal certainty that it is so for me because that is my personal experience
.
I can say however that is how it is so for you too simply because its the law
.
Nothing personal just an immutable law

And yes there are some

Running throughout the universe

Think what that means

Working to improve your thoughts and actions can save you a lot of grief

Just to help here is a list to start working on

anger

envy

jealousy

sorrow

regret

greed
.
arrogance

self-pity

guilt

resentment

inferiority

lies

false pride

superiority

and ego

And then coming out the other side this is what it all leads towards
.
joy

peace

love

hope

serenity

humility
.
kindness
.
benevolence

empathy

generosity

truth

compassion

and faith.

Quite a mouthful yet isn't this where you would like to go anyway?