That figure

Women with hourglass figures and perfect waists are most attractive, study finds
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A perfect waist is what men consider the most attractive feature in women, say scientists who calculated the ratio for the ideal figure in a female body.
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Researchers found a woman having an “hourglass” shaped figure was more important for a man than her breast size or facial features.
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They also discovered that men take a split second to decide if a member of the opposite sex is attractive.
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Men prefer average sized women over fashion models and Playboy centrefolds, claim scientists
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Children as young as 10 feel pressure to have a 'perfect' body
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Kate Craig-Wood: 'I'm lucky, many men would never pass for a woman'
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British women want curves like Nigella Lawson, survey finds
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Men who look good on the dance floor make the fittest mates, claim scientists
.
A new study found that a man was more attracted to a woman based on the size of her waist compared with her hips.
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They calculated that a “waist-to-hip ratio” of 0.7, or a waist measuring 70 per cent of the hip circumference, was the “perfect” size.
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Women with “hourglass” figures such as Marilyn Monroe, Jessica Alba, the Hollywood actress and Alessandra Ambrosio, the Victoria's Secret model, were found to posses the "perfect” body.
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Scientists concluded that such a small ratio was considered good for a woman’s health and resulted in high fertility.
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Dr Barnaby Dixson, a New Zealand anthropologist, studied what different sexes found attractive throughout history.
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In his study, a group of volunteers were shown various pictures of a woman, where her hips, bust, and waist were digitally altered.
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He then asked them to rate the image for attractiveness and while they studied the photos used infra-red cameras to track their eyes.
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Despite most men being drawn initially to the woman's cleavage, it was her hips and waist that were in fact what they found most attractive.
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Men rated images with an hourglass shape and a slim waist … as most attractive, irrespective of breast size, said Dr Dixson, from Victoria University of Wellington.
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Reporting in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour, he also concluded that the same formula for the “perfect body” on a woman was a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7.
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It is likely that perfect 0.7 ratio sends a biological signal to men that that woman is most fertile and most likely to produce a healthy offspring, no matter what size that woman is, he said.
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It is all about the distribution of fat which is directly linked to fertility.
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Dr Dixson also studied that women found most attractive and concluded that women preferred a leaner, less muscle-bound physique in males, perhaps giving hope to men that shun the gym.
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On a biological level, women are more likely to pick a leaner, even slightly more effeminate man as they equate those physical traits with being more caring and gentle and therefore a better prospect as a partner
.
Humans simply do not mate randomly.
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Andrew Hough - Telegraph

How hard can it get?

Is a thought that comes to most of us at some time or another

Everything seems to be hitting on us at once

No let up

Just endless problems

Feel tired too

Run down

Had enough

No choice though

Have to plod on

One day after another

Life can feel like this

Share a thought with you

Letting your mind control you does not help

So few of us ever think that our minds control us

First point though brain is not mind

Brain and mind are different

Brain is more mechanical

Mind does the thinking

Brain is more like a computer operating system

And before you argue about the exactness of the comment on brain and mind just look at them as components in your system

The one giving input to the other

Here it is mind I am talking about

When we allow the mind to control us our negative side keeps the brain full of scary "what ifs"

Endlessly worrying about the negative possibilities of our situation

Going round and round day in day out

Driving us into despair

Stop the mind though and you have peace and quiet

Literally

Still the mind and you can feel good whatever your situation

Animals live in the moment with quiet minds

Sure one part might be looking out for predators

The mechanical brain part most likely

Predators might be looking out for prey also using their brains

They are not worried about future possibilities

They have no thoughts in this direction just instinct and what they have been taught

Just visual impressions

Sitting in the now of life

Humans on the other hand having self reflective consciousness are busy worrying

About the future

The past

You name it our minds are busily working overtime

Imagining every permutation of disaster

So stop the mind and you stop the endless debilitating pressure of thoughts

Stopping the mind is hard so we prefer to divert it instead

Alcohol, drugs, TV, endless amusements

Diversions

Anything to divert mind from our worries without thinking to stop mind

Controlling mind is not easy

In fact as the Buddha Gautama once said it is the hardest thing a human can do

We believe him

However steps in this direction yield quick benefits as we come to realise how helpful controlling our minds can be

The only known approach that really works is meditation

Do not believe that meditation is easy it is not

This is why all the good books from bible to kabbalah talk about the inner struggle, the struggle with our inner selves that is

A simple meditation will do

Every day without fail

Otherwise your mind will know that you are not serious and will continue to interrupt you whenever it wants all day 24/7

A meditation of ten to fifteen minutes will suffice

Dress comfortably

Turn off all cell phones and other likely distractions

Face the East where energy comes from, where the new day comes from

Sit in a semi lotus back straight or on a chair legs and arms uncrossed, hands relaxed and palms facing up

Breath in and out naturally

Listen to the in and out of your breath

Push away all thoughts that come into your mind

Tell them to go away, not now

Keep doing this every day

Then one day in weeks or years, yes sorry sometimes it does take years, you will know you are not thinking

Once you have experienced this amazing feeling you will want more

And so you will continue and as you do your energy changes

Your life changes

More of this elsewhere

Nuf for today

15 signs that you'll get divorced

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1. - If you're a woman who got married before the age of eighteen, your marriage faces a 48 per cent likelihood of divorce within ten years.
.
2. - If you're a woman who wants a child much more strongly than your spouse does, your marriage is more than twice as likely to end in divorce as the marriages of couples who agree on how much they do or don't want a child.
.
3. - If you have two sons, you face a 36.9 per cent likelihood of divorce, but if you have two daughters, the likelihood rises to 43.1 per cent.
.
4. - If you're a man with high basal testosterone, you're 43 per cent more likely to get divorced than men with low testosterone levels.
.
5. - If your child has been diagnosed with ADHD, you are 22.7 per cent more likely to divorce before that child turns eight years old than parents of a child without ADHD.
.
6. - If you are currently married but have cohabited with a lover other than your current spouse, you are slightly more than twice as likely to divorce than someone who has never cohabited.
.
7. - If you didn't smile for photographs early in life, your marriage is more likely to end in divorce than if you smiled intensely in early photographs.
.
8. - If your child has died after the twentieth week of pregnancy, during labour, or soon after labour, you are 40 per cent more likely to divorce than if you had not lost a child.
.
9. - If you're a woman who has recently been diagnosed with cancer or multiple sclerosis, your marriage is six times more likely to end in divorce than if your husband had been diagnosed with those diseases instead.
.
10. - If you're a Caucasian woman and you're separated from your spouse, there's a 98 per cent chance that you'll be divorced within six years of that separation. If you're a Hispanic woman, the likelihood is 80 percent. If you're an African-American woman, the likelihood is 72 per cent.
.
11. - If you're a dancer or choreographer, you face a 43.05 per cent likelihood of divorce, compared with mathematicians, who face a 19.15 per cent likelihood, and animal trainers, who face a 22.5 per cent likelihood.
.
12. - If you're a farmer, you face only a 7.63 per cent likelihood of divorce, joined by other low-risk occupations such as nuclear engineers, who face a 7.29 per cent likelihood, and optometrists, who face a mere 4.01 per cent likelihood.
.
13. - If either you or your spouse have suffered a brain injury, your marriage faces a 17 per cent chance of ending in divorce.
.
14. - If you're an African-American woman, your first marriage has a 47 per cent likelihood of ending in divorce within ten years; for Hispanic women, the likelihood is 34 per cent; for Caucasian women, it's 32 per cent; for Asian women, it's 20 per cent.
.
15. - If you're a woman serving actively in the military, your marriage is 250 per cent more likely to end in divorce than that of a man serving actively in the military.

We are very very old

In the oldest museums of the world lie mysteries that have provoked little thought or questioning

What am I talking about?

Think about this

In many museums there are Babylonian tiles and especially on old Chinese and Japanese drawings

In the oldest pagodas and monuments and in the Imperial library in Beijing are perfect representations of Plesiosauri and Pterodactyls in the multiform Chinese dragons

How could these nations know anything of the extinct monsters of the Carboniferous and Mesozoic times?

And even represent and describe them orally and pictorially

Unless they had either

Seen those monsters themselves

Or possessed descriptions of them in their traditions

Which traditions necessitate living and intelligent eyewitnesses

With me so far?

Now take the next step

And if eyewitnesses are once admitted

How can humanity not have been around at the same time?

These monsters are known to have disappeared millions of years ago

So man is millions of years old too

This does not fit with modern ideas

However this does not mean it is not true

Give me another hypothesis and I will listen

If you cannot then believe me when I say that modern sexually reproducing man is 18 million years old

Not easy to believe but true

And just to finish you off

We have all had many many thousands of lives

And we have all lived through and been part of all of these different times

Have a nice day

Data Visulisation

Personally I love his ideas as my own observations support what he is saying

Does this ring true for you too?

Have a look


http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2010-08-24&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Space debris

Think of the Earth from space and your mind probably conjures up those serene pictures taken from the moon by Apollo astronauts of our blue planet hanging alone in the inky blackness of space.
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You probably wouldn't think of a junkyard.
.
Unfortunately, the latter is not so far from the truth.
.
There are millions of pieces of rubbish circling the Earth, everything from dead spacecraft to stray nuts and bolts to flecks of paint.
.
Estimates by Nasa and others suggest that there are at least 18,000 pieces of man-made debris at least 10cm wide hurtling around the Earth –
.
a figure rapidly escalating –
.
as well as an untold number smaller than that.
.
All of it orbits at more than 18,000mph, meaning even the tiniest chunk of junk can tear through a space suit or puncture the hull of the International Space Station or the space shuttle.
.
Not to mention the damage such an object might do to military or commercial satellites.
.
This is why the US military wants to get rid of these floating menaces.
.
With a big net.
.
Plans for something called the Electrodynamic Debris Eliminator (Edde) have just been revealed by a company called Star Inc, with funding from the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.
.
This is a 100kg spacecraft with 200 nets attached, which can scoop up dead satellites or other stray junk.
.
The craft can then guide the junk into a safe orbit around the Earth or else direct it to glide safely into the middle of the ocean.
.
According to its designers, a dozen of these craft will take only seven years to remove all 2,465 identified objects over 2kg floating in low-earth orbit.
.
The US military is interested, and Star Inc expects a test flight in 2013.
.
Scientists have also considered using ground-based lasers to zap junk so that it re-enters the atmosphere, and robot missions that could dock with dead satellites to kick them into "graveyard" orbits.
.
If such plans work, it might not be long before that Apollo-eye view of the fragile Earth becomes real once more.
.
Guardian

Winston Churchill on Islam

A quote from an 1899 book by Winston Churchill, "The River War", in which he describes Muslims he apparently observed during Kitchener's campaign in the Sudan
.
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!
.
Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.
.
The effects are apparent in many countries.
.
Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.
.
The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities.
.
Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die
.
But the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.
.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.
.
Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith".

Gut bacteria firmicutes

What is the truth about these things?

It's your body.

It's your life.

It's your health.

Gut bacteria and obesity?:

A little more info, if you please
.
So here goes
.
Gut bacteria Firmicutes
.
Do they cause obesity?
.
Gut bacteria and obesity?
.
A little more info, if you please.
.
The articles were everywhere, claiming that gut bacteria, that is bacteria in your digestive system were possibly responsible for weight gain and obesity.
.
A study published by the journal Science Translational Medicine linked gut bacteria to obesity.
.
The article points out that the human digestive system has trillions of bacteria that help break down food so that the body can digest it.
.
According to a story in Los Angeles Times, the vast majority or around 90% of gut bacteria, or flora, are either Firmicutes or Bacteroidetes.
.
The researchers found that the Firmicutes were more predominant in obese subjects.
.
Unfortunately for those with high concentrations of this kind of bacteria, Firmicutes are much more effective at breaking down hard to digest foods and turning them into usable calories.
.
This means that equal amounts of the same food do not provide the same number of usable calories if the people eating have different concentrations of the two bacteria.
.
This is important news, and could lead to breakthroughs on how to combat the growing obesity epidemic.
.
But it flies in direct opposition to long held "conventional wisdom" that the only thing that matters is calories in vs. calories out.
.
The fact of the matter is that many of those "hard to digest" foods are the healthy, high-fiber, foods that are supposed to help you lose weight.
.
This means salad and vegetables provide more usable calories to those with higher concentrations of Firmicutes.
.
To make things worse, researchers claim that eating high amounts of fat and sugar can alter gut bacteria in as little as one day, making it easier to gain weight with higher concentations of Firmicutes.
.
Unfortunately, they leave out all the middle ground and opposing information, such as what kind of eating can encourage the growth of Bacteroidetes.
.
Or are we supposed to believe that one day of bad eating changes your bacterial balance forever more?
.
That does not seem very likely.
.
Already, there are ads and stories on the Internet aiming to cash in on the data by claiming that various yogurts and other probiotic products can prevent obesity.
.
While there is no proof to support that claim. it does raise the idea of whether probiotic products and supplements can be altered to encourage the growth and predominance of Bacteroidetes.
.
For example, antibiotics are known to kill gut flora, which is why many doctors suggest yogurt and other probiotics to help afterwards.
.
Can probiotics that are designed to be high in Bacteroidetes help to reprogram the gut flora to help people lose weight more efficiently?
.
Evolution is perhaps the most powerful force on the planet, and fighting it may prove to be difficult.
.
Since Firmicutes have evolved to be more efficient than Bacteroidetes (meaning that they can use a wider variety of food), it might be tough to overcome.
.
But for those scientists out there doing research on this, remember that you have hundreds of millions of potential customers around the world waiting for a breakthrough.

Good and evil

Good and evil are twins

The progeny of space and time

Separate them, by cutting one off from the other, and they will both die

Neither exists per se

Since each has to be generated and created out of the other

In order to come into being

Both must be known and appreciated before becoming objects of perception

Hence in mortal mind they must be divided

A rare Eclipse

Lunar eclipse and winter solstice to coincide for first time in 372 years

Tomorrow's lunar eclipse over Britain will fall on the shortest day of the year – the winter solstice – for the first time since 1638Share

• • 14K

The rare lunar eclipse will fall on the winter solstice. Pictured above is the eclipse on 3 March 2007 as seen in Brighton. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

The skies over Britain will turn a dark shade of red tomorrow morning as the moon moves into the Earth's shadow in a rare lunar eclipse.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, Earth and moon are almost exactly in line, with the moon and sun on opposite sides of our home planet.

The alignment will cause the full moon to appear much dimmer than usual, but sunlight passing through the Earth's atmosphere will give the lunar surface a deep reddish hue at dawn.

The eclipse is due to begin at 5.28am, as the moon enters the lightest part of Earth's shadow, known as the penumbra. 

In this early phase of the eclipse, the moon will appear yellowish in the pre-dawn sky.

A more significant dimming begins as the moon enters into the darker part of Earth's shadow at 6.32am and becomes completely eclipsed at 7.40am.

Unlike an eclipse of the sun, star gazers do not need protective eye equipment to observe a lunar eclipse.

For the first time in nearly 400 years the lunar eclipse coincides with the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. 

In addition, both sun and eclipsed moon will briefly be visible above the horizon – cloud cover permitting – in an unusual event called a selenehelion.

In London, the moon will be only three degrees above the northwestern horizon and may be obscured by buildings. 

It will appear higher in the sky in Northern Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland.

During the eclipse, the moon will be in line with the constellation of Taurus, though these stars will be hard to see in the dawn sky and will be invisible after sunrise.

Ian Sample

Those accents

.

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Listeners are less willing believe someone with a non-native accent and their prejudice increases the thicker the accent becomes, communication experts said.
.
Researchers believe people associated truthfulness with the ease of understanding a person and accents make that more difficult.
.
The implications of the research, by the University of Chicago, could be wide-ranging as millions of people move around the world and communicate daily in a language other than their mother-tongue.
.
Dr Lesley Prince, a social psychologist from Birmingham, described it as "inevitable" that accent would be among the factors that people use to judge one another when communicating.
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People will be suspicious of what they don't know.
.
If you have difficulty understanding then that creates uncertainty in the mind.
.
Uncertainty leads to lack of trust.
.
Accent might reduce the credibility of non-native job seekers

Eyewitnesses

Reporters

Or people taking calls in foreign call centers.
.
As part of the research, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, American participants were asked to judge the truthfulness of trivia statements by native or non-native speakers of English, such as,
.
A giraffe can go without water longer than a camel can.
.
Even though they knew the speakers were reciting from a script, they were less likely to believe what was said by those speaking with a foreign accent.
.
Boaz Keysar, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago, said:
.
The accent makes it harder for people to understand what the non-native speaker is saying.
.
They misattribute the difficulty of understanding the speech to the truthfulness of the statements.
.
Telegraph - Laura Roberts

So many convenient things

Does anyone else find it odd that the raw materials for technology are so readily available?

That metals are so abundantly near the earth's surface.

That domesticable animals and plants suitable for agriculture were so accessible.

That the earth laid down enormous fossil fuel deposits capable of powering an industrial revolution?

What about the fact that many genes expressed only in higher animals were present in the genome hundreds of millions of years before they were ever needed.

As if waiting for the time to exercise their function?

If we didn't know better, we might think the collection of the earth's organic and inorganic processes that we know as Gaia were consciously executing a plan to bring a technological species into being.

C. Eisenstein
.
That certainly raises several questions.
.
Like can we continue to look at this and other coincidences as just other accidents of nature?
.
Or could it be that there is a pattern here.
.
Intelligence at work?
.
Given how narrow the band of possible human existence is in this huge Universe.
.
How nice that all these 'accidents' keep happening.
.
Time to open our eyes.
.
To open them without prejudice and fear of what might be the truth.

.
That there is indeed intelligence at work.
.
No not talking about a God.
. 
Just a hierarchy of intelligence.
.
All the way up to the absolute.

Humboldt Squid

Humboldt Squid are carnivorous marine invertebrates that move in shoals of up to 1,200 individuals.
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They swim at speeds of up to 24 kilometres per hour (15 mph/13 kn) propelled by water ejected through a hyponome (siphon) and by two diamond shaped fins.
.
Their tentacles bear suckers lined with sharp teeth with which they grasp prey and drag it towards a large, sharp beak.
.
The Humboldt Squid (Dosidicus gigas), also known as Jumbo Squid, Jumbo Flying Squid, or Diablo Rojo (Spanish for Red Devil), is a large, predatory squid found in the waters of the Humboldt Current in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
.
They are most commonly found at depths of 200–700 metres (660–2,300 ft), from Tierra del Fuego to California.
.
Recent findings suggest the range of this species is spreading north into the waters of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska.
.
Though they usually prefer deep water, between 1,000 and 1,500 squid washed up on the Long Beach Peninsula in southwest Washington in the fall of 2004
.
They have also ventured into Puget Sound.
.
Although Humboldt Squid are generally found in the warm Pacific waters off of the Mexican coast, recent years have shown an increase in northern migration.
.
The large 1997-98 El Niño event triggered the first sightings of Humboldt Squid in Monterey Bay.
.
Then, during the minor El Niño event of 2002, Humboldt Squid returned to Monterey Bay in higher numbers and have been seen there year-round since then.
.
Similar trends have been shown off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and even Alaska, although there are no year-round Humboldt Squid populations in these locations.
.
It has been suggested that this change in migration is due to warming waters during El Niño events.
.
But other factors, such as a decrease in upper trophic level predators that would compete with Humboldt Squid for food, could be impacting the migration shift as well.
.
The Humboldt squid lives at depths of 200 to 700 m (660 to 2,300 ft) in the eastern Pacific from Chile to Peru, ranging from Tierra del Fuego north to California.
 
It gets its name from the Humboldt Current in which it lives off the coast of South America.

Electronic tagging has shown that Humboldt squid undergo diel vertical migrations which bring them closer to the surface from dusk to dawn.

Humboldt Squid are thought to have a lifespan of only about one year, although larger individuals may survive up to two years.
They may grow to 1.75 metres (5.7 ft) in mantle length (ML) and weigh up to 50 kilograms (100 lb).
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They can rapidly change their skin color from deep purplish red to white using chromatophores (specialized skin cells) in what some researchers believe is a complex communication system.
.
Experts have also stated that the squid hunt for their prey of small fish and krill in a cooperative fashion, which would be the first observation of such behavior in invertebrates.
.
Humboldt Squid are known to hunt near the surface at night, taking advantage of the dark to use their keen vision to feed on more plentiful prey.
.
Recent research suggests that Humboldt squid are only aggressive while feeding.
.
At other times, they are quite passive.
.
Their behavior while feeding often extends to cannibalism and they have been seen to readily attack injured or vulnerable squid of their own shoal.

This behavior may account for a large proportion of their rapid growth.
.
Research has barely begun into their habits

Just a little lighter

I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
.
Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
.
There is great need for a sarcasm font.
.
How are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
.
Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5.
.
I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
.
Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
.
Bad decisions make good stories.
.
You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
.
Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray?
.
I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
.
I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
.
I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
.
I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
.
I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
.
I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
.
How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?
.
I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
.
Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey -
.
But I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!
.
The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974.
.
That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

Well I never

Sanskrit was the first language of our fifth race

We living today are all members of what is known as the fifth race in the ancient or perennial wisdom

This the true history of humanity

The semitic languages are the bastard descendants of the first phonetic corruptions of the eldest children of the early Sanskrit

Occult teaching admits no such divisions as the Aryan and the Semite

The Semites especially the Arabs are later Aryans

Degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality

To these belong all Jews and the Arabs

The former are a tribe descended from the Chandalas of India

The outcasts, many of them ex-Brahmans, who sought refuge in Sind and Aria (Iran) and were truly born from their A-bram some 8000 years BC

The latter the Arabs are the descendants of those Aryans who would not go into India at the time of the dispersion of nations

Some of whom remained on the borderlands thereof, in Afghanistan and Kabul

And along the Oxus while others penetrated into and invaded Arabia

Interesting how things really were in times long forgotten by us today

The truth for that is what the above is, how it was

Makes the present enmities look pretty foolish

But then they are clearly to the advantage of those who would manipulate and control

Ongoing nonsense when most just want peace and the chance to get on with their lives free from radical bullshit

Bullshit from both sides that is

In the US of A

There are those who have clear ideas on how to save the $100 billion that the Secretary of Defense says that he wants to save

Not only saving $100 billion or probably more, it would also increase capability
.
Unfortunately he failed to associate the corrosive effects of the retired generals, influence of lobbyists and ear marking congressmen on the productivity of the US war machine.
.
Here are some ideas that could usefully be adopted not only by the US but every other government with a war machine (Defense Department/ Industry)
.
1 - US defense contractors were once run by people who knew how to make things.

Now, they are run by former government officials or retired military officers.

These people are experts at extorting contracts not at delivering product.

Make public, quarterly, the list of all contractors with cost over-runs or who are late on delivery or fell short of specification
.
2 - Identify all contractor lobbyists post their payments and who they met with.

Ban the contractor employment of all former service members and government officials for a period no less than 5 years after retirement;
.
3 - Obtain an Executive Order of the President to ignore all congressional earmarks
.
4 - Pay a bounty of up to 15% of gross contract value to anyone reporting fraud and cinflicts of interest in procurement
.
5 - Government officials and military officers engaged in enriching themselves, friends or family members shall be cashiered, imprisoned and lose their pensions unless they turn in their superiors
.
6 - Flag officers shall be reduced in count by 1/3 to reflect the reduction in staff
.
7 - All technology programs shall be reviewed by leading authorities in the real world so we stop purchasing out of date solutions
.
8 - All software that can be purchased off the shelf shall be purchased off the shelf
.
9 - All software developed internally shall be through contractors with no DoD affiliation and located at least 100 miles outside the Washington beltway
.
10 - Medcom will be placed in receivership and fully audited as the amounts spent on medical care now exceed US$50B.
.
11 - Hold officers and officials fully accountable for poor decisions including pay reductions, reductions in rank and firings.

No more we will give General so and so a chair to make three years to get a full pension.
.
12 - All mentors (ex-Generals) should be fired immediately and compelled under oath to report the contracts they influenced and the conflicts they had.
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These suggestions were published in various minor US publications and unsurprisingly have not received much main media attention

Sad thing is these actions are possible theoretically anywhere, but politically possible no where!

Rich and poor

The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time

While being rich takes other peoples time

Not so profound but wait a minute

If being poor is your life experience

For good or bad you find you are poor

Stay thinking you are poor and everything in your life can revolve around being poor

Go beyond the material and you can be richer than the rich of the material type

Being rich on the other hand and your life revolves around being rich

And this is a very numbing experience for many reducing everything down to monetary values as so many do

Being materially rich often has you wanting more because that is all that you know or care about

It has you worried about losing what you have in a very paranoid sort of way

So being rich demands that you make sure it is all safe

Are they really so different?

Well yes they are
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The one worrying about how to survive

The other worrying about how to protect what he has

The two are very different psychologically

The poor are, research shows, more spontaneously generous

The rich not so

The poor know how to live in powerlessness

The rich know how to use their power

The poor live where they can

The rich live where they choose

The poor on the other hand have little to protect

The rich must surround themselves with protections, often making them prisoners of their possessions

Not seeing that they are prisoners of their very own wealth

Ultimately the poor are often rich while the rich are often poor

Ironic really that being rich can make you poor in spirit causing so many to drown in their possessions

Judging others solely by their physical assets

By how much it costs to buy them, use them, exploit them

The poor once they go beyond their material poverty can become free in a way so much more difficult for the rich

The materially poor can focus on going beyond material assets into the realm of the psyche

The rich are about me and mine, while often the poor are about us and we

The journey of freedom for both is the same

To go beyond what I have to what I am

What I can become

What I can do with my life

What would you choose?

What is your life about?

Have you chosen to serve or be served?

Finally

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Spending data for the government is being released on a much greater scale, with the release of COINS spending data to be supplemented by itemised spending above £500 from local government.
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The Combined Online Information System (Coins) includes what departments were authorised to spend
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What they actually spent and what they are forecast to spend in future.
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Experts are now poring over the complex files to decipher their contents.
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BBC Freedom of Information expert Martin Rosenbaum has asked BBC News website readers to help out with this task.
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Mr Rosenbaum, who had a Freedom of Information request to gain access to the database refused last year, said the publication represented a reversal of policy from the previous government.
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He said the database had become a symbolic target for open government campaigners - but Labour had argued the information would be impenetrable for most people.
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Several bodies have appeared that aim to provide a clear picture of how the Government spends money, including Where Does My Money Go?
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Although they're operating on a relatively small scale at the moment, they've achieved a lot in a short time.
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It's not a stretch of the imagination to see WDMMG? achieving its ultimate goal of tracing where every body's tax money, down to the nearest penny, has gone.
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The London Datastore and Data.gov.uk are campaigning for and highlighting open data releases from the Government, and the Government itself is planning a raft of data releases.
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With more data becoming available about how our Government operates, it'll inevitably be pressured to change.
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For too long the previous government acted as if the public had no right to know where their hard earned taxes were spent.
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The new government is lifting that veil of secrecy by releasing detailed spending figures dating back to 2008.
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People and groups can now take the opportunity to scrutinise carefully how their money is being spent.
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The move was welcomed by campaign group The Taxpayers Alliance.
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Chief executive Matthew Elliott said: "The next step is for this trend to continue, so that all information about government spending is available, allowing the public to call the government to account.
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There is an army of enthusiastic, skilled amateurs out there who will gladly explore and use this information to suggest ways in which the Government can save money and improve public services.

Not only in the UK

In every country on the planet government spending should be made available to its citizens

Only in this way can corruption be tackled

And corruption globally is one of the planets mega major issues

Another scientific breakthrough

Research has consistently found that people who don't drink actually tend to die sooner than those who do.
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A new paper suggests that abstainers' mortality rates are actually higher than those of heavy drinkers.
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Even after controlling for many possible variables, such as socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, and number of close friends, the researchers found that over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who had never been drinkers.
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One reason for this may be that low levels of ethanol in your bloodstream will prevent the formation of formaldehyde from dietary methanol.
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In fact, ethanol is used as the preferred antidote for accidental methanol poisoning in an emergency for this reason.
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The authors of the new paper are careful to note that even if drinking is associated with longer life, it can be dangerous
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It can impair your memory severely and it can lead to nonlethal falls and other mishaps
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The authors "are careful to note"
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Please give us a break it is not rocket science to note that drinking can impair your memory severely and lead to other mishaps 
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Can you imagine devoting so much time and energy not to mention research grants and their own personal salaries for such a project?
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No mention of liver damage
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No mention of the damage to the central nervous system
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No mention of the other well known effects of alcohol addiction or heavy usage
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No the research did not look at anything other than the death age of drinkers and non drinkers
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Nothing else interested them over the twenty year period that their study covered
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And sadly not much else can be said about this expenditure of research energy
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Never mind if we add this to all the other research on drinking we can safely say drinking heavily over time is not such a good idea, whether or not you live longer would seem pretty academic

A pun

London Earthquakes

Experts predict a 5.5 magnitude earthquake could hit London at any time
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Britain is overdue a potentially devastating earthquake that could topple London's grandest landmarks, cause billions of pounds worth of damage and endanger scores of lives, a leading seismologist warned yesterday.
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Dr Roger Musson of the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh said that a sub-sea fault under the Straits of Dover that has caused two large earthquakes in the past 700 years could strike again at any time, putting London in the firing line.
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The geological fault has already generated relatively large earthquakes in 1382 and 1580 and there is a substantial risk that a similar-sized earthquake could occur again with severe consequences for the capital given that it rests on clay soil that is easily shaken.
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Something that has happened twice can and probably will happen three times.
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But whether it happens tomorrow, or in two years' time or in 20 years or 50 years, that is something we would love to know but we don't, he said.
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While the next earthquake would not be a disaster on an international scale, it will come as an unpleasant shock for a country that tends to think itself immune from earthquakes
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Although the British Isles does not lie on a major boundary of a tectonic plate, where most large earthquakes tend to occur, the country experiences regular small earthquakes due to a network of minor fault lines, including the one under the Straits of Dover.
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The number of quakes varies according to their size, with smaller quakes more frequent.
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Back in 1931 a 6.1 magnitude quake occurred of the coast of Yorkshire, but was powerful enough to knock the head off of a wax figure in Madame Tussauds in London.
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In 1580 two people died and many buildings were damaged due to tremors originating on the Dover Strait.
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Typically there is one earthquake of magnitude 3.5 each year, 10 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 and one magnitude 4.5 every 10 years.
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There are a lot of little fault lines all over the place.
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It's like a dinner plate that has been broken, glued back together and squeezed, Dr Musson said
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The last large earthquake to affect London occurred on the 6 April 1580 and was estimated to have been a relatively large magnitude 5.5 based on an assessment of the area of land that was affected.
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Although the epicentre was some distance away, London was quite strongly affected, probably because the soft Thames clays are more susceptible to being shaken.
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It felled half a dozen chimney stacks and a pinnacle on Westminster Abbey.
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Two children were killed by falling stonework from Christ Church's hospital.
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The earthquake caused damage to the tower of St Peter's Church in Broadstairs, Kent, that can still be seen today, and was a virtual repeat of an earlier earthquake in 1382, caused by the same Dover Straits fault line.
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Earthquakes can and will most certainly happen again as they do every day in some part of the world 
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This is as true in Britain as anywhere else in the world.
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London has about 40 times the population that it had in the 16th Century and the older infrastructure may be as vulnerable as it was four centuries ago.
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The same earthquake tomorrow will impact far more people than in 1580.
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It would certainly be a nasty shock in terms of Britain's experience of earthquakes
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Most modern buildings would be unaffected by such an earthquake but many of the older buildings, especially those in a bad state of repair, could suffer substantial damage, especially to their chimney stacks.
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It may not sound very dramatic compared to buildings collapsing, but if people are walking in the street and a chimney falls on them, that's bad news for anyone.
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Dr Musson added that as he works for a government-funded agency, the authorities are well aware of his assessment of the risk.
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They know about it, but the public have not been told of any plans
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Nor have the public been told of the best action to take in such a situation
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Indeed the public are often the first to experience disasters and only later told of any plans that might have existed
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Steve Connor