tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-165415492024-03-07T08:41:48.562+01:00This14UGoing where the blogs take me and I should add a DISCLAIMER:
All the pictures featured on this page belong to their respective owners. If you see your picture featured and don't want it to be, email me with link and I will take it down right away.Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.comBlogger2887125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-7025028080595909682013-07-24T05:01:00.000+02:002013-11-06T10:04:43.108+01:00Time to finish<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Time to stop this blog</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For some time now I have been aware that I have reached the point where I should stop.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So without any regrets this will be the last blog</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No regrets because it has taken me to many places I would otherwise not have gone.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Places where I learnt more about things I did not know.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also shared with you what I have learnt about consciousness evolution.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tried to give you some clues as to what it is all about.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How we can grow.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How we can create the lives we want.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How we can find peace of mind.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And now it is time to move on to other projects.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So thank you for visiting.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May your own journey in life be helpful and supportive of those you meet.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blue skies</span>Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-30279245376619906102013-07-23T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-23T05:01:00.653+02:00Something to feel good about<div class="storyHead" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: #404040; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.38em;">A grassroots agricultural revolution is – almost unnoticed by the outside world – spreading across West Africa's Sahel desert</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.48em;">The b</span><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.48em;">ushes turned out to be clusters of shoots from the buried stumps of trees.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.48em;">The shoots could never grow much before being cut or eaten by livestock, but when Rinaudo pruned them down to a single stem and kept the animals away, they shot up into substantial trees within four years.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.48em;">As the trees grew, so did crops. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.48em;">And as local farmers began reaping good harvests, neighbours and visitors follo</span><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.48em;">wed suit. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.48em;">Now, two decades later, some 200 million trees have been regenerated in this way, covering five million hectares of Maradi and the neighbouring region of Zinder, enabling the growing of enough extra grain to feed two-and-a-half million people.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.48em;">Nor is this all. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Satellite images have shown that the same technique has been used successfully over 485,000 hectares of next-door Mali. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it is known to have spread to Senegal and the Niger regions of Tahoua and Dosso, though no one has had the resources to quantify it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was only one of the success stories that emerged at a conference in Switzerland this week on land restoration. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Counter-intuitive techniques developed by Allan Savory, a Zimbabwean farmer and biologist, are successfully revitalising 15 million hectares of degraded land on five continents, by grazing livestock very intensively on small areas for short periods: their dung and the grass they trample enrich the soil, mimicking the natural practices of the once-vast herds of gnu or American bison.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Farmers converting to organic agriculture in Mashonaland, Zimbabwe, have boosted their annual incomes from $50 to $900 in a single year. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some 400 sand dams, built across rivers in East Africa and India, have enabled 97 per cent of farmers to increase production. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the revival of traditional water-harvesting techniques in Marwar – “the land of death” – in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert, has enabled enough fodder to be grown to support a million cattle.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Besides increasing harvests and reducing poverty, all this helps combat climate change. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Sahel’s regenerated trees can take 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere per hectare, while Savory believes that such intensive grazing on just half the world’s available land could return concentrations to pre-industrial levels.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just as importantly, it addresses the main cause of the 80 per cent of the world’s conflicts that occur in the drylands, as the degradation forces nomadic herds on to land occupied by farmers’ crops –and at a time of rapid population growth. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Expanding productive land is the best way to ease this and, indeed, the number of conflicts in Niger has fallen by four-fifths in those areas where trees have been allowed to regenerate.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rinaudo – who now works internationally for World Vision – still finds that previously “hopeless” people “dance and sing” when they discover the underground forest, and how they can “change their lives, and the world, with a pruning knife”.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Geoffrey Lean</span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-83693623594228881452013-07-22T05:01:00.000+02:002013-11-06T10:05:46.860+01:00On God or Gods<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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To regard God as an intelligent spirit, and accept at the same time his absolute immateriality is to conceive of a nonentity, a blank void.</div>
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The idea ... either of a finite or infinite nothing is a contradiction in terms.</div>
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We deny God both as philosophers and as Buddhists,’ says KH. </div>
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He adds: ‘We know there are planetary and other spiritual lives’ – often called planetary spirits or dhyani-chohans (a term that usually refers to beings who have evolved beyond the human kingdom). </div>
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But they are certainly not ‘extra-cosmic’ or ‘supernatural’ spirits devoid of any substantial nature. </div>
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‘Intelligence as found in our dhyan chohans,’ he says, ‘is a faculty that can appertain but to organized or animated being – however imponderable or rather <em>invisible </em>the materials of their organizations.’ </div>
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The organisms of the highest planetary spirits or dhyani-chohans are composed of matter in its seventh state. </div>
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Even the lowest planetary spirits are made of matter ‘so impalpable ... that science calls it energy and force’.</div>
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Most of the mahatmas are said to be advanced fifth-rounders, meaning that they have developed their consciousness to a level that most humans will not attain until far into the fifth round of the earth’s evolution. </div>
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Gautama Buddha is described as a sixth-rounder.KH writes:</div>
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When our great Buddha – the patron of all the adepts, the reformer and the codifier of the occult system – reached first <em>nirvana </em>on earth, he became a planetary spirit; <em>i.e. </em>his spirit could at one and the same time rove the interstellar spaces <em>in full consciousness</em>, and continue at will on earth in his original and individual body. ... </div>
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That is the highest form of adeptship man can hope for on our planet. </div>
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But it is as rare as the buddhas themselves ...</div>
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The God of the theologians,’ says KH, ‘is an imaginary power ...’</div>
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Our chief aim is to deliver humanity of this nightmare, and to teach man virtue for its own sake, and to walk in life relying on himself instead of leaning on a theological crutch, that for countless ages was the direct cause of nearly all human misery. </div>
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Pantheistic we may be called – agnostic <span class="style3" style="font-size: smaller;">NEVER</span>.</div>
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The one life of which occultists speak is anything but an extra-cosmic deity. Infinite and all-pervading, it is ‘the essence of every atom of matter’ in infinite space and is in fact <em>‘matter itself’</em>.</div>
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KH continues:</div>
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Who but a theologian nursed on mystery and the most absurd supernaturalism can imagine a self-existent being of necessity infinite and omnipresent <em>outside </em>the manifested <em>boundless </em>universe? ... </div>
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We deny the absurd proposition that there can be, even in a boundless and eternal universe, two infinite eternal and omnipresent existences.</div>
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Commenting on the behaviour of Jehovah as portrayed in the Hebrew Bible, KH says:</div>
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He who reads our Buddhist scriptures written for the superstitious masses will fail to find in them a <em>demon </em>so vindictive, unjust, so cruel and so stupid as the celestial tyrant upon whom the [orthodox] Christians prodigally lavish their servile worship and on whom their theologians heap those perfections that are contradicted on every page of their Bible.</div>
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Ignorance created Gods and cunning took advantage of the opportunity. ... </div>
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The sum of human misery will never be diminished until that day when the better portion of humanity destroys in the name of truth, morality, and universal charity, the altars of their false gods.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David Pratt</span></div>
Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-18503538408351960862013-07-21T05:01:00.000+02:002013-11-06T10:06:25.833+01:00Anyone listening?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br />Despite deep hostility from the British public, the Government is stepping up its campaign in favour of genetic modification.</span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Posing as champions of progress and prosperity, ministers want European Union controls on</span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">GM produce to be drastically relaxed.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to their public relations spin, once these outdated restrictions are abolished and public skepticism is overcome, then we will enter a brave new world of abundance.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the propaganda pumped out by the Government remains hopelessly unconvincing. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fairy stories and hyperbolic claims won’t feed the world – or protect our health. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The hollowness of the ministerial case was illustrated recently by the abject interview given on the BBC Rado 4 Today programme by the Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, in advance of a major pro-GM speech he was to make in Hertfordshire.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite deep hostility from the British public, the Government is stepping up its campaign in favour of genetic modification. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ministers now want European Union controls on GM produce to be drastically relaxed</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Paterson came across as an ill-briefed, slightly hysterical mouthpiece for the genetic modification industry. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He tried to argue that science was on his side, yet he could only back up his arguments with ludicrous emotional blackmail.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At one stage, he melodramatically argued that, without the acceptance of GM crops, young people in Asia ‘will go to bed blind and some will die’. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It almost sounded as if he had joined a religious cult which regards genetic modification as some kind of miracle cure.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Paterson had to resort to such nonsense precisely because his case is so weak. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Contrary to his messianic rhetoric yesterday morning, GM technology is no panacea for the world’s ills. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even after more than 15 years of its intensive use in large parts of the world, particularly the United States, there is little evidence that it increases crop yields, assists global development or combats disease.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just the opposite is true.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is now a growing amount of research demonstrating that genetic modification has the potential to cause serious health problems and widespread environmental degradation.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The public is absolutely right to be sceptical. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While we cannot be sure that GM food is safe to eat, we can be sure that the overblown boasts of pro-GM lobby have not been fulfilled.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As an investigative journalist and author, I have always opposed the introduction of genetically modified food into Britain. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because despite the GM pioneers’ façade of scientific sophistication, genetic engineering is actually a rather crude, almost cut-and-paste technique of manipulating biology.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The process involves moving genetic material across species barriers, which carries the risk, in my view, of triggering unpredictable and irreversible changes in DNA, proteins and biochemical composition. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is radically different from all previous methods of improving plants and breeds.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Environment Secretary Owen Paterson argued that, without the acceptance of GM crops, young people in Asia 'will go to bed blind and some will die'</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The idea that such an approach can be completely safe is either dangerous wishful thinking, or a denial of reality motivated by vested commercial and political interests.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The pro-GM lobby are the ones asking us to make a leap of faith. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But with each passing year, the case against genetic engineering becomes more persuasive.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only this month, a report from Flinders University in Australia revealed that genetically modified feed given to pigs may lead to severe stomach inflammations and far heavier uteruses, which can be an indicator of serious disease.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to some farmers, the stomach inflammations and irritations can also lead to pigs becoming more aggressive. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Commenting on this report, the American livestock adviser Howard Vlieger said: ‘For as long as GM crops have been in the feed supply, we have seen increasing digestive and reproductive problems in animals.’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is especially worrying, in the context of these findings, is not only that most of us eat pork, but also that the digestive system of pigs is similar to that of humans.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Australian report backs up other evidence about the health risks of GM technology. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Studies on laboratory animals show that GM food can cause allergies and be toxic. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rats fed GM tomatoes, for instance, have developed stomach lesions, while new research from New Zealand has found that one GM wheat variety has the potential to cause liver disease. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Human health may also be threatened by the damage that genetic engineering inflicts on the balance of the environment’s delicate eco-systems. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the most insidious aspects of genetic modification is that, contrary to the claims for its environmental friendliness, it actually encourages the aggressive use of herbicides. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The top-selling weedkiller glyphosate is marketed as ‘Roundup’ by the giant biotechnology company Monsanto, a leading campaigner for the relaxation of EU controls on genetic modification.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The same company has also developed a range of crops that are genetically resistant to glyphosate. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This supposedly means that farmers can spray the herbicide over their land and kill all the weeds without damaging their crops.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet there is a real risk that the environment and the consumers could be the losers. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Studies have revealed that glyphosate leaves a dangerous residue on foods, as well as leaching into the groundwater. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Glyphosate exposure has been associated with birth defects, hormone imbalances, Parkinson’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moreover, the excessive use of the glyphosate appears to have promoted the evolution of a destructive breed of ‘superweeds’. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indeed, no fewer than 24 glyphosate-resistant weed species have been identified since Roundup-tolerant GM crops were introduced in 1996. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tampering with nature is leading to unforeseen consequences.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nor is any of this justified by increases in production. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The lobbyists’ promises about ever-higher yields have been unfounded. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What usually happens with genetic modification is an initial series of good harvests, followed by a dramatic decline. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In fact, a study published this week showed that for the production of maize, soy beans, oil seed rape and cotton, European non-GM crops have significantly outperformed American GM crops.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is now a growing amount of research demonstrating that genetic modification has the potential to cause serious health problems and widespread environmental degradation</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last year, leading US agricultural expert Dan Basse, himself a farmer from Wisconsin, spelt out the truth. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having said that the GM technology had increased the corn yield by just 0.1 per cent, he said: ‘47 per cent of the world’s corn crop is GM. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why have we not seen more of a yield [increase] if GM has done what it was supposed to do?’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The great irony is that, far from representing exciting modernity, genetic modification is unworkable, bankrupt technology. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are far better ways of driving progress in agriculture.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scientists at Britain’s National Institute of Agricultural Botany, for example, have used a non-GM, natural process involving pollen from wild grass to produce a stronger, more productive form of wheat. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Early studies show that the yield could go up by 30 per cent.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other organic, non-GM success stories include drought-resistant maize, blight-resistant potatoes, and a new variety of African rice which is four times as productive as traditional types.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is where the future should lie. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Non-GM technology has real promise, whereas genetic engineering has brought only failure and frustration. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It should be consigned to the dustbin of history.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Joanna Blythman</span></h1>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"><br /></span>Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-73621109102285262102013-07-20T05:01:00.000+02:002013-11-06T10:07:34.410+01:00Preparing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzsac4GuqokouSEucEAYMlgfd2eqqSSR4xGdnBxAbGuk77N7vFZnr3fn2DFKVnG7uEPGdhFooLVK4EBPgcqURYnWJfxJ2iW3HTaQ2s7ZrbfVSaIRys9KanAVRSlmP6lO7SOXj0/s1600/5c2b855a-f386-473c-8f17-59ef272ea16a_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzsac4GuqokouSEucEAYMlgfd2eqqSSR4xGdnBxAbGuk77N7vFZnr3fn2DFKVnG7uEPGdhFooLVK4EBPgcqURYnWJfxJ2iW3HTaQ2s7ZrbfVSaIRys9KanAVRSlmP6lO7SOXj0/s400/5c2b855a-f386-473c-8f17-59ef272ea16a_5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">How can we prepare? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">We cannot prepare. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">But we are being prepared</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Prepared for what?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Whatever comes our way</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Every day</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Many days no obvious change</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Some days the unexpected</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Then you find out how you were being prepared</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">When it happens</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">That unexpected event occurs</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Now you understand what all those hours were for</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">And that is how it is</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">All the lessons we have ever learnt over many lives have made us what we are today</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Not some of them</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">All of them</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Good and bad</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Tough and also pleasant ones</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">So that we get better at things as we go along</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Some try to duck or avoid those that they do not like</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Nature might indulge you for a while</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Maybe even for a lifetime</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">However at some point we have to face those difficult ones</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">So where am I going with this?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Simple build discipline into your life</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Face whatever comes your way</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Do not duck or dive, that is avoiding things you do not like</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Deal with whatever nature presents because once you have learnt that lesson you can move on.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"> lessons will come your way for sure</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">But that database of experience you are building will help you deal with new challenges more easily</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">So this is my way of saying the apparently hard way is really the easier way</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">Get it?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">We are being prepared each and every day, did we but have the wit to see it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-63208082570322098012013-07-19T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-19T05:01:00.406+02:00Seriously disturbing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Monkey business: 'Most people would be discomfited to learn how detailed a reconstruction of their lives their mobile phone operator could produce if required.' Photograph: Action Press/Rex Features</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">'To be remembered after we are dead," wrote Hazlitt, "is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living." </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Cue President "George W" Obama in the matter of telephone surveillance by his National Security Agency. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The fact that for the past seven years theagency has been collecting details of every telephone call placed in theUnited States without a warrant was, he intoned, no reason for Americans to be alarmed. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">"Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,"he cooed. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The torch was then passed to Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate intelligence committee, who was likewise on bromide-dispensing duty. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">"This is just metadata," she burbled, "there is no content involved."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">At which point the thought uppermost in one's mind is: <em style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">what kind of idiots do they take us for</em>? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Of course there's no content involved, for the simple reason that content is a pain in the butt from the point of view of modern surveillance. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">First, you have to <em style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">listen</em> to the damned recordings, and that requires people (because even today, computers are not great at understanding everyday conversation) and time. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">And although Senator Feinstein let slip that the FBI already employs 10,000 people "doing intelligence on counter-terrorism", even that Stasi-scale mob isn't a match for the torrent of voice recordings that Verizon and co could cough up daily for the spooks.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">So in this business at least, content isn't king. It's the metadata – the call logs showing who called whom, from which location and for how long – that you want. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Why? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Because that's the stuff that is machine-readable, and therefore searchable. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Imagine, for a moment, that you're an NSAoperative in Fort Meade, Maryland. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">You have a telephone number of someone you regard as potentially "interesting". </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Type the number into a search box and up comes a list of every handset that has ever called, or been called by, it. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">After that, it's a matter of seconds before you have a network graph of second-, third- or fourth-degree connections to that original number. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Map those on to electronic directories to get names and addresses, obtain a secret authorisation from the Fisa court (which has 11 federal judges so that it can sit round the clock, seven days a week), then dispatch a Prism subpoena to Facebook and co and make some coffee while waiting for the results. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Repeat the process with the resulting email contact lists and – bingo! – you have a mass surveillance programme as good as anything Vladimir Putin could put together. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">And you've never had to sully your hands – or your conscience – with that precious "content" that civil libertarians get so worked up about.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Do people fall for the "it's only metadata" guff? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">If they do, my hunch is that it's because their intuitions haven't kept pace with the extent that mobile technology has pervaded our lives, or with the scale of the data that outfits such as the NSA have been accumulating. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Most people would be discomfited to learn how detailed a reconstruction of their lives their mobile phone operator could produce if required – right down to a pretty good guess at when they have been speeding in their cars. </span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Four years ago a German Green party politician, Malte Spitz, sued to have Deutsche Telekom hand over six months of his phone data that he then made available to <em style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Zeit Online</em>. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The paper then did what any decent NSA operative would do, namely combine his phone's geolocation data with information relating to his life as a politician – Twitter feeds, blog entries and websites – to create an extraordinary animated reconstruction of a day in his life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">It's this revelatory power that enables metadata to expose far more than what a target is talking about. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">"Metadata," says Matt Blaze, a crypto researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, "is our context. </span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">And that can reveal far more about us – both individually and as groups – than the words we speak. </span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Context yields insights into who we are and the implicit, hidden relationships between us. </span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">A complete set of all the calling records for an entire country is therefore a record not just of how the phone is used, but, coupled with powerful software, of our importance to each other, our interests, values, and the various roles we play." </span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">So even if the NSA never listened to a single telephone conversation, it would still be able to build what Blaze calls "a national relationship database".</span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">In the old days, the medium was the message. </span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Now it's the metadata.</span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">John Naughton</span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-71853481077472922032013-07-18T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-18T05:01:00.591+02:00Life lessons<div class="story-body lead-media-small" style="border: 0px; float: left; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Denis Wright, who is battling brain cancer, and his wife Tracey married in 2010. " height="421" src="http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2013/06/28/1226671/303263-32dbfc30-dd71-11e2-83d7-0411b5c5213d.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="316" /></span></div>
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<span class="caption-text" style="background-color: #d9ead3; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Denis Wright, who is battling brain cancer, and his wife Tracey married in 2010.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Denis Wright wasn't meant to live this long. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">He's had birthdays - 66 of them - but he's also had plenty of 'death days' </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The dates he thought he would "cark it".</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every date we've estimated so far has been wrong ... </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've embarrassed myself by staying alive," the historian from Armidale in country NSW said..</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mr Wright doubted his two daughters and partner's son would see him marry Tracey, the woman who has loved and cared for him, after the "longest engagement in history".</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But they did, in 2010, and he said he is "so emotionally close" to his wife "you couldn't separate us with cigarette paper".</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mr Wright has a death sentence named GBM 4 (glioblastoma multiforme). </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's an extremely aggressive brain tumour that's been trying to kill him since December 2009.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr Charlie Teo, high-profile Australian neurosurgeon, has said the condition is "impossible" to cure.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mr Wright doesn't know how much longer he has to live. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His life is sustained by a drug called Avastin - but this time, he says, "there are no more arrows to fire".</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since his diagnosis, Mr Wright has written hundreds of posts on a blog, called <span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">My Unwelcome Stranger</span> ,about his experiences.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He writes about his troubled health, why he would rather call someone than send them a text (it's too slow to say anything other than "OK") and how he missed the true importance of a wedding (and that is "the receipt of as many and as expensive a range of gifts as possible," he joked).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mr Wright wanted to share his life lessons, learned over his 66 years,. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He provided 10 tips via email as his vocal cords have been significantly damaged by an increasing number of seizures.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Life lessons by Denis Wright:</b><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></b></span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.</b> Don't spend your life in a job you hate. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Life is too short to live it only in the evening and at weekends.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.</b> If there's something bad happening in your life you genuinely have no control over, learn all you can about it and how to live with it. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beating your head against a brick wall is unproductive.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3.</b> If you think you can change it, then go all out to do so. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Try to understand its nature and work with it where you can.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">4.</b> There are no 'good' and 'bad' decisions. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you made what you think might have been a poor choice in life, learn from it, and you might make a better one next time. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You don't know what's going to turn out good or bad in the long run, so regrets are a waste of time.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5. </b>Don't agonise about the past, in the sense that you can't change it. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Live in the slice of time that's the now. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can't live in the moment; it's too short. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The slice is richer. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It contains a little of past, present and future.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">6.</b> Apologise as soon as you can when you think you've hurt someone. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't try to pretend you're perfect. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Accept responsibility where it's due.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">7.</b> Keep your options open for as long as possible. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't close them unnecessarily.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">8.</b> Try to keep your sense of humour if you can, though it's not always possible.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">9.</b> <span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Carpe Diem</span> ... Or, for a change, seize the day!</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And there's one more.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">10. </b>Do not be afraid of death. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"If you're not more afraid of your own death than you need to be, then you need have little fear for anything life can hand out."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mr Wright's blog, which has been visited more than 250,000 times by people from around the world, will be archived by the National Library of Australia online.</span></div>
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</div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;">Daniel Piotrowski</span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-8525398355901664362013-07-17T05:01:00.000+02:002013-11-06T10:08:34.207+01:00Definitions<div class="gE iv gt" style="color: #222222; cursor: auto; padding: 12px 0px 3px;">
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><b style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">growing</span></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">at both ends<br />and is now growing </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA">in the middle.</span></b><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: #6aa84f;">BEAUTY PARLOR</span><span style="color: lime;">: </span></b></span></u><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A place where women curl </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA">up and dye.</span></b><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /><b><span style="color: blue;">CHICKENS: </span></b></span></u><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only animals you </span></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">eat before they are born and </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA">after they are dead.</span></b><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /><b><span style="color: #674ea7;">COMMITTEE: </span></b></span></u><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A body that keeps minutes </span></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and wastes</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA">hours.</span></b><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /><b><span style="color: #b45f06;">DUST: </span></b></span></u><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mud with the juice </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-ZA">squeezed out.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: blue;"><br /><b>EGOTIST: </b></span></u><b><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Someone who is usually </span></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">me-deep</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA">in conversation.</span></b><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /><b><span style="color: #38761d;">HANDKERCHIEF</span></b></span></u><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Cold Storage.</span></b><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA"><b><span style="color: red;">MOSQUITO: </span></b></span></u><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An insect that makes you </span></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">like flies </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-ZA">better.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: navy;"><br /><b>RAISIN: </b></span></u><b><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-ZA">A grape with a bad sunburn.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: maroon;"><br /><b>SECRET: </b></span></u><b><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Something you tell to one </span></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">person </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-ZA">at a time.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: blue;"><br /><b>SKELETON: </b></span></u><b><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A bunch of bones with the</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">person </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-ZA">scraped off.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /></span></u><b><u><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: teal;">TOOTHACHE:</span></u></b><b><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /><b></b></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA"><b><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The pain that drives you to </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #222222;"><b>extraction.</b></span><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="color: purple;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: purple;">TOMORROW: </span></b></span></u><b style="color: #222222;"><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the greatest labor </span></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">saving </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-ZA">devices of today.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: purple;"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: purple;"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: green;"><br /><b>YAWN: </b></span></u><b><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An honest opinion openly</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-ZA">expressed.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /></span><u><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: red;"><br /><b>WRINKLES: </b></span></u><b><span lang="EN-ZA"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-ZA">Something other people have,</span></b><b><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span></b><span lang="EN-ZA"><br /><b>similar to my character lines.</b></span></span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-10998194170910217132013-07-16T05:01:00.000+02:002013-11-06T10:09:57.633+01:00Gullible us<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 27px;">M</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;">arketers can take advantage of consumers’ innumeracy</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When retailers want to entice customers to buy a particular product, they typically offer it at a discount.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to a new study to be published in the <em class="Italic" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Journal of Marketing</em>, they are missing a trick.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A team of researchers, led by Akshay Rao of the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, looked at consumers’ attitudes to discounting. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shoppers, they found, much prefer getting something extra free to getting something cheaper. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The main reason is that most people are useless at fractions.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This numerical blind spot remains even when the deal clearly favours the discounted product. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In another experiment, this time on his undergraduates, Mr Rao offered two deals on loose coffee beans: 33% extra free or 33% off the price. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The discount is by far the better proposition, but the supposedly clever students viewed them as equivalent.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consumers often struggle to realise, for example, that a 50% increase in quantity is the same as a 33% discount in price. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They overwhelmingly assume the former is better value. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In an experiment, the researchers sold 73% more hand lotion when it was offered in a bonus pack than when it carried an equivalent discount (even after all other effects, such as a desire to stockpile, were controlled for).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Studies have shown other ways in which retailers can exploit consumers’ innumeracy. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One is to befuddle them with double discounting. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People are more likely to see a bargain in a product that has been reduced by 20%, and then by an additional 25%, than one which has been subject to an equivalent, one-off, 40% reduction.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Marketing types can draw lessons beyond just pricing, says Mr Rao. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When advertising a new car’s efficiency, for example, it is more convincing to talk about the number of extra miles per gallon it does, rather than the equivalent percentage fall in fuel consumption.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There may be lessons for regulators too. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even well-educated shoppers are easily foxed. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sending everyone back to school for maths refresher-courses seems out of the question. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But more prominently displayed unit prices in shops and advertisements would be a great help.</span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-42081362155391186692013-07-15T05:01:00.000+02:002013-11-06T10:10:54.103+01:00What they said<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0w6-T5DpL86hYse1KL8o6t5_hWzx9sL6vpIBkio0FBK_TdVesXY7rGr6khCuVqVabzjycSXWNEdhkkwlco4OyLlvkKlSBk6yMYRrumw4X9stcuAwcMEPWQJtaNUsPISNOqwBb/s1600/viewer+(22).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0w6-T5DpL86hYse1KL8o6t5_hWzx9sL6vpIBkio0FBK_TdVesXY7rGr6khCuVqVabzjycSXWNEdhkkwlco4OyLlvkKlSBk6yMYRrumw4X9stcuAwcMEPWQJtaNUsPISNOqwBb/s400/viewer+(22).png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="590"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometimes, when I look at my children, I say to myself,'Lillian, you should have remained a virgin.' </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy Carter)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalog:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- 'No good in a bed, but fine against a wall </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Eleanor Roosevelt</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last week, I stated this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have since been visited by her sister, and now wish to withdraw that statement.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Mark Twain </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- George Burns </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Victor Borge</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Mark Twain </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Socrates </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Groucho Marx </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every now and then she stops to breathe</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Jimmy Durante </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Zsa Zsa Gabor </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Alex Levine </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Rodney Dangerfield </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Money can't buy you happiness ..</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Spike Milligan</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Until I was thirteen, I thought my name was Shut up!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Joe Namath </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don't feel old. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don't feel anything until noon. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then it's time for my nap</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Bob Hope </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- W. C. Fields </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Will Rogers </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don't worry about avoiding temptation. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As you grow older, it will avoid you</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Winston Churchill </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe it's true that life begins at fifty .. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But everything else starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Phyllis Diller </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Billy Crystal</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the cardiologist's diet: - If it tastes good spit it out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-63877955375516773482013-07-14T05:01:00.000+02:002013-11-06T10:11:36.687+01:00Spirit and matter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The unity of spirit and matter is stressed many times in the writings of the theosophical mahatmas. </div>
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In the words of mahatma Kuthumi (KH):</div>
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It is one of the elementary and fundamental doctrines of occultism that the two [spirit and matter] are one, and are distinct but in their respective manifestations, and only in the limited perceptions of the world of senses ...<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></div>
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Matter <em>per se </em>is indestructible and ... coeval with spirit.<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></div>
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Spirit and matter are <em>one</em>, being but a differentiation of states not <em>essences </em>...</div>
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Force and matter, spirit and matter, and deity and nature, though they may be viewed as opposite poles in their respective manifestations, yet are in essence and in truth but one ...<span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></div>
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Purusha [spirit] and prakriti [matter] are in short the two poles of the one eternal element, and are synonymous and convertible terms.</div>
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Matter is ‘nature herself’, says KH. </div>
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However, the matter of which he is speaking is not the supposedly dead and inert physical matter of the materialists, but the consciousness-life-substance of the occultists, which manifests in endless degrees of materiality and ethereality. </div>
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Physical matter is a highly condensed and crystallized form of this one essence or one element – which could equally well be called the one life or one consciousness. </div>
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When KH speaks of the eternity and indestructibility of matter, he is therefore referring not to its ‘ever changing form, combinations and properties’ but to its <em>essence</em>, sometimes called svabhavat. </div>
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This eternal essence must be viewed ‘not as a compound element you call spirit-matter, but as the one element for which English has no name. </div>
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It is both passive and active, pure <em>spirit essence </em>in its absoluteness, and repose, pure matter in its finite and conditioned state.</div>
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In other words, occultism recognizes ‘<em>one </em>element in nature (whether spiritual or physical) outside which there can be no nature since it is <em>nature </em>itself’. </div>
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It ‘pulsates as in profound sleep’ during a planetary or solar rest period (pralaya), then rebecomes the ‘universal Proteus’ at the start of the next period of evolutionary activity (manvantara). </div>
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Metaphysically speaking, the one element is the ‘one substratum or permanent cause of all manifestations in the phenomenal universe’.‘</div>
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The one element not only fills space and <em>is </em>space, but interpenetrates every atom of cosmic matter.</div>
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David Pratt</div>
Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-50458229692065587492013-07-13T05:01:00.000+02:002013-11-06T10:12:34.575+01:00Internet dating<div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-1024 inpage-widget-6138699 articleContent" style="margin-bottom: 6px; outline: none;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWJjLq98P3EDs5dvjlvf3_4fL6iJUJJamFIVyDtE3UeHtzbD3HDxXp_ijTvLPB_s_EGrHcNXbCWVas_EBTKMSAKLBA6WYlWFMUVNho_RwFI5D5sGCeKyFDOJRNTnRTHyqpZWds/s1600/wallls.com-5041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWJjLq98P3EDs5dvjlvf3_4fL6iJUJJamFIVyDtE3UeHtzbD3HDxXp_ijTvLPB_s_EGrHcNXbCWVas_EBTKMSAKLBA6WYlWFMUVNho_RwFI5D5sGCeKyFDOJRNTnRTHyqpZWds/s400/wallls.com-5041.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">In 1995, local newspapers started reporting the first weddings of couples who, they revealed with breathless amazement, "ACTUALLY MET ON THE INTERNET!". </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It seemed freakish then. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No sly glance across a crowded room, no awkward conversation steered round to that coy invitation for a first date. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No setting eyes on someone before you asked them out. Instead, an online profile and maybe an email.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, partnerships made on the internet are not only commonplace, but fast becoming the standard way you meet your future spouse. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">New research shows that more and more couples are meeting online and marrying. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the US, a University of Chicago study shows that more than a third of those who married between 2005 and 2012 met online, up from 19 per cent just five years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So why are more and more of Britain's 16 million singles turning to the internet? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How – and why – does it work? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And why do encounters fostered on-screen have a record, as they do, of making happier marriages? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are basically two sorts of online romantic experiences. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First there are people who locate each other using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, MSN Messenger, chatrooms or virtual communities focusing on particular interests or concerns. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">And second there are what you might call computer-assisted relationships, where online dating sites match people after they've completed a questionnaire. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shared values and aspirations are given far more weight than liking the same kind of music or both being into, say, cycling.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">30s and 40s are the key internet daters. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They tend to look for similar interests. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People will say 'Oh, we clicked because we both liked cage fighting,' and that's fine, but to make a successful relationship you need more than common interests."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But whether a successful relationship came via self-started online encounters or dating sites, it was vital that they had a lengthy "getting to know you" period of emails and phone calls before they met face to face. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many couples felt that online dating took some of the "hit and miss" out of meeting a partner. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On dating websites you have to give details, and the matching might eliminate some potential future problems before you even get going with the person, whereas when you meet naturally a powerful initial attraction might mask problems in the future.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The problem with meeting someone online is that you don't have any context for them. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you meet someone through work, you can ask around and find out that he's already married, or find out if he's a ladies' man. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Online there's no context. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes a context makes it easier to relax and trust them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But there is another powerful pull towards online dating. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You are, for example, 30, 40, or 50-something, employed and single. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">You're never likely to be mistaken for a film star, but you're presentable, well groomed, and with no obvious anti-social habits. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So where do you go to find romance? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Offline, you might meet a dozen potential partners in a year. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Go online, and the pool you're fishing in is immense. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The latest figures show nearly six million Britons are using internet dating sites, an increase of 22 per cent over the year before.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not all of them are honest. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many internet daters report people who lie about their weight, height, drinking or smoking. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And a 2005 University of Chicago study of 23,000 users of dating sites found 75 per cent of men claimed "above-average looks" – not a percentage many women would corroborate. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then there are the serial philanderers </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The early adopters of online dating tended to be the technically very savvy, who shared what one might call a certain geeky mindset. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The new University of Chicago study found those who met their spouse online reported higher marital satisfaction than those who did not. (And, incidentally, those meeting offline at school, church, or social occasions had higher levels of satisfaction than those who met their partner through work, family, bar, club or blind date.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People who meet online tend to be a bit older and a lot of divorced or separated people tend to go online. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you're young or in a football team or something it happens more rapidly, so you don't need to look online. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The later you marry the more likely you are to stay together. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You're more mature, you have more experience and you know yourself better. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You are more able to have a mature, long-lasting relationship the better you know yourself.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We think if we find someone we click with on a deep, fundamental level all our problems will slip away, everything will be sorted and we don't need any relationship skills, like learning to compromise. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that isn't the case. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The problem on the net is, because there's no context, that fantasy is alive and well and breathing. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And because there are so many people online, we think we'll find our soul-mate. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whereas people who are 50-plus and have had an unfortunate marriage have learned a whole load of skills about having a good relationship. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They're not expecting a perfect soul-mate.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">It's likely that, soon, the majority of people will be meeting their future spouse online. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">And the major reason?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">Time</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">In our modern world few people have much time or energy to hang out looking for a partner</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">Our lives keep us running from morning to night in the week</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.4;">At weekends it is </span><span style="line-height: 22px;">catch</span><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> up time</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.4;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.4;">With maybe going out for a few hours on Saturday night</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">The internet has changed this</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">It enhances our chances of meeting someone.</span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-72469189795558163162013-07-12T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-12T10:58:19.521+02:00Probably yes<div id="main-content-picture" itemprop="image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">A report found traces of weedkiller in the urine of 182 volunteers living in urban areas across Europe.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Should we wait for conclusive scientific studies before becoming concerned about an issue? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">A report released recently by Friends of the Earth and GM Freeze poses this exact question.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The campaign groups were reporting the results of their small snapshot study that found traces of glyphosate, one of the most widely used weedkillers in the world, in the urine of 182 volunteers living in urban areas across Europe. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Glyphosate is known under the brand name Roundup and produced by biotech giant Monsanto.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The study was basic, the sample size was small, the report was unpublished. But could it point to an important issue for further investigation?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Academics denounced the findings as "not scientific", saying the results could not be taken seriously and that campaign groups should submit their work to peer-reviewed journals to provide a "genuine contribution to the debate".</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Other scientists refused to comment on the study, saying that without it having gone through the review process there was simply no way of commenting on the findings. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">There is much to be said for peer-reviewing – having been through it myself I know how rigorous it can be. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Though I found the process excruciating for its rigour, ultimately the end result was a far better paper based on more solid science.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">But charities and NGOs often don't have the resources or expertise to undertake full scientific studies and publish them in journals. Is it even their role to do so? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">By producing snapshot studies that simply point to an issue, as long they don't make any grand claims based on their findings, aren't they simply doing their job of raising awareness of issues that affect society and the environment?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Friends of the Earth think so. Vicki Hird, said: "This was never intended to be a scientific paper for peer review – it is a snapshot only and one intended to prompt those who do have the resources to do the necessary testing." She added: "</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">These tests highlight a need for government authorities across Europe to carry out rigorous testing with far bigger samples to discover how widespread this issue is and whether there are any health impacts from low-level exposure."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Some might argue that groups like FoE are our eyes and ears, giving a voice to people, species and issues that could otherwise go unnoticed. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">They hold powerful companies such as Monsanto to account and stand up for justice in a world where the priority is usually profit. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">With no profit to be gained from studies such as testing for weedkillers and pesticides in human urine, who else would conduct them?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The role of such organisations is to point out the failings of the regulatory process, not to act as the regulatory process. This is the role of government.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">It is also worth noting that anyone can publish studies of this nature to support their agenda, as is often seen with industry research. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Research carried out by industry and campaign groups is similar in that there is always the possibility of bias and data being used to support a political position. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Does it matter that the two groups are likely to differ in their motives, with one being focused on private profit, sometimes at the expense of the environment or society, and the other geared towards creating positive change for little or no private gain?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Many other reports, figures and statistics we are fed through the media and elsewhere are not peer-reviewed – government figures, industry reports, industry regulator information and even the Office of National Statistics data.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Campaign organisations are campaign organisations, not research organisations or thinktanks. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Their job is to raise awareness of issues that affect society, so that action can be taken. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">However those organisations need to be very careful about what they are claiming based on their findings. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">And journalists need to be very careful about how they interpret the claims of organisations. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">But I believe they should be given a voice, not dismissed out of hand for lacking the scientific rigour demanded by professional scientists. I'd be very interested in your views.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Kara Moses </span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-15085334757919059622013-07-11T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-11T05:01:00.637+02:00Did you know...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><br /></i></span>
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<span style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image035.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="95" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.1&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="103" /></i></span></span></div>
</td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image015.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="53" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.6&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="97" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image017.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="60" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.7&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="104" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The USA uses 29% of the world's petrol and 33% of the world's electricity.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image019.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="71" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.8&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="96" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image031.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="77" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.9&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="94" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The animal responsible for the most human deaths world-wide is the mosquito.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image032.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="100" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.10&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="98" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image033.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="104" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.11&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="89" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We exercise at least 30 muscles when we smile.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image034.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="84" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.12&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="91" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our nose is our personal air-conditioning system: it warms cold air, cools hot air and filters impurities.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image044.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="83" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.13&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="90" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our brain is more complex than the most powerful computer and has over 100 billion nerve cells.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image046.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="80" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.14&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="80" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When a person dies, hearing is usually the first sense to go.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image049.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="92" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.15&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="85" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a great mushroom in Oregon that is 2,400 years old. It covers 3.4 square miles of land and is still growing.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image055.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="85" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.21&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="79" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.</span></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="120"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><img alt="Description: cid:image056.jpg@01CBD99F.E6D86580" height="73" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13f366075dff4d4f&attid=0.1.22&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="80" /></i></span></td><td style="border-color: currentcolor; border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; margin: 0px;" valign="top" width="840"><i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air.</span></i></td></tr>
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<br />Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-78961965757965636872013-07-10T07:51:00.000+02:002013-07-10T07:51:51.792+02:00Nuclear myths<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uypmCar9o8k/Udz1rmkO-_I/AAAAAAAALOA/gtALhJb-17k/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="339" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uypmCar9o8k/Udz1rmkO-_I/AAAAAAAALOA/gtALhJb-17k/s400/images.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But man, proud man</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Drest in a little brief authority,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His glassy essence, like an angry ape,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As would make the angels weep.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em style="border: 0px; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">– William Shakespeare</em>, Measure for Measure</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The typical advocate of nuclear weapons, like Shakespeare’s angry ape “most ignorant of what he’s most assured,” declares with absolute certainty that nuclear weapons are necessary, citing oft-repeated “truths” commonly believed to be self-evident:</span></div>
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<img alt="" height="316" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13cdaadd212c6d12&attid=0.1.2&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; margin: 4px 24px 12px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="225+5myths_wilson" width="225" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">– that nuclear weapons shock and awe our enemies into submission as they did Japan in 1945;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">– that nuclear deterrence is effective in a crisis;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">– that nuclear bombs’ awesome destructive power wins wars;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">– that the existence of nuclear weapons has kept the peace for 65 years;</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">– and that anyway, it’s way too late to put the nuclear genie back into the bottle.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But what if our thinking about nuclear weapons is flat-out wrong?</em> asks Ward Wilson.</span></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if the assumptions that undergirded the Cold War arms race are wrong? </span></em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if our military planning and budgeting are based on faulty logic? </span></em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if, during the seven decades that have elapsed since atomic weapons were used in anger for the first and only time, we have made our choices based on beliefs that have little foundation in reality and that have been repeatedly contradicted? </span></em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What if our deep-seated fears are justified, but our decades-old belief that nuclear weapons are necessary is not?</span></em></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the precision of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s fussy little Belgian detective, Wilson examines each of these justifications for nuclear weapons in his book <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Five Myths about Nuclear Weapons</em> , laying out what seems an irrefutable argument for each.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then with method and order proceeds to expose the fallacies, errors, misinformation, gross exaggerations, and even outright lies upon which our nuclear policies rely.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because the first premise drives the logic of all the rest, Wilson examines in depth the historical, documentary evidence supporting it. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Piece by piece, document by document, Wilson undermines the evidence that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war, “the heart of everything most people think they know about nuclear weapons.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Horrible as the atom bombings were, their actual damage was in fact little more than our conventional weapons had already inflicted on 68 other Japanese cities. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the immediate aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Wilson finds no evidence that Japan’s leaders considered their destruction significant, much less strategically decisive.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What he does find are deliberate, concerted <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">post-surrender</em> lies and coverup by the Japanese government.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which had been on the verge of total collapse before the bomb and was forced to surrender not by the destruction of Hiroshima but by fatal Japanese strategic errors that allowed the Soviets’ successful invasion of Manchuria three days later. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Japanese leaders could save face — and their lives — by claiming to be defeated by the power of science rather than by their own errors or hubris.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Attributing the end of the war to the bomb served U.S. interests just as powerfully, increasing U.S. diplomatic influence world-wide, to say nothing of U.S. security:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If the Bomb won the war … the two billion dollars spent on the Bomb would not have been wasted. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But if the Soviet entry into the war was what had caused Japan to surrender, then the Soviets could claim that they had been able to do in four days what the United States was unable to do in four years.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px;">And the perception of Soviet military power and Soviet diplomatic influence would be enhanced. …</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And denying that the actions of the Soviet Union had influenced Japan’s decision to surrender would soon become a matter of patriotism for Americans.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From this point on, all justifications for nuclear weapons become a house of cards built on smoke and mirrors. </span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y0sT_MO5ouI/Udz2K0upioI/AAAAAAAALOI/m9mTpMZo1Cw/s1600/images+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y0sT_MO5ouI/Udz2K0upioI/AAAAAAAALOI/m9mTpMZo1Cw/s400/images+(1).jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The final myth — that once invented, nuclear weapons can’t be <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">un</em>-invented, the genie cannot be put back in the bottle or Pandora’s evil spirits stuffed back in their box.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is shown to be “no more than a clever debater’s trick,” using a true but irrelevant statement to evade the real issue:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The real question is whether nuclear weapons are useful — not whether they are like evil spirits in some age-old myth. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If nuclear weapons are useful, then we have to keep them. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s as simple as that. … </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But if they are not very useful, if they are simply large, dangerous, clumsy explosives that spread poison downwind and have very few real applications, then we need to undertake an entirely new discussion.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That new discussion, must first of all dispel the myths and look on nuclear weapons as a tool subject to human choice and whim. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tools are situational.. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The question you ask yourself when approaching a task is not <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Do I have the biggest tool possible?</em> but <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Do I have the right tool for the job?</em>” </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are the kind of questions that would be asked in a pragmatic investigation rather than one based on mythology.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wilson does not address the issue of nuclear waste, an inevitable hazard of nuclear weapons manufacture. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because similar mythologies support nuclear waste disposal, a perfect companion volume to Wilson’s book would be <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Useless Arithmetic: Why Environmental Scientists Can’t predict the Future</em>, by Orrin H. Pilkey and Linda Pilkey-Jarvis (Columbia University press, 2007; $25.00 paperback from Amazon).</span></div>
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<img alt="" height="331" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=43b7a2882a&view=att&th=13cdaadd212c6d12&attid=0.1.3&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: right; margin: 4px 0px 12px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="225+Useless_arithmetic" width="225" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A far more apt title for this little gem might be <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fraudulent Arithmetic</em>, as it exposes the shameless numerology that masquerades as science in mathematical models supporting hazardous, lethal and sometimes certifiably insane environmental projects. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With alarming frequency, errors and faulty assumptions are entered as key factors in such models, which are then used by decision-makers, resulting in fishery collapses, eroded coastlines and nuclear waste boondoggles.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Today’s scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments,” wrote Nicola Tesla in 1934, “and they wander off through equation after equation and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With this prescient quote from Tesla, the authors introduce the flawed models supporting construction of a vast nuclear waste repository inside of Yucca Mountain in Nevada. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Equally flawed, they point out, were the assumptions behind the development of nuclear power and weaponry in the first place: chiefly the assumption — blithely repeated to this day — that technology would solve the problem of how to dispose of thousands of tons of deadly radioactive wastes whose long-term health hazards “far exceed the known duration of civilization.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A 1987 environmental assessment of suitable dump sites for this waste, conducted in a highly charged political battle, settled upon Yucca Mountain as the only suitable location. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since then, more than $4 billion has been spent devising models that meet the EPA’s court-ordered requirement that the repository be leak-proof for up to a million years (a preposterous standard, considering that humanity has yet to design a septic tank that is leak-proof for even fifty years).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The $4 billion Yucca Mountain model, the authors note, is actually a cluster of models:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are 13 comprehensive mega models of model clusters based on 286 individual models. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clusters include models predicting future climate, infiltration, percolation, and water behavior in drifts. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are thousands of input parameters, hundreds of thousands of lines of equations in hundreds of computer codes, and hundreds of linked mathematical models in the system: complexity built upon complexity, assumption built upon assumption.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The whole elegant, artificial structure rested not on real data but on guesses, assumptions and made-up numbers.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most notably the absurd assumption that groundwater would percolate through the rock no faster than half a millimeter per year. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This model house of cards collapsed when construction of the tunnel began, allowing real-world, physical sampling of water percolation rates. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Instead of the 0.5 millimeter per year assumed in the models, it turned out that water actually moved through the rock at 3,000 millimeters per year, completely undermining the entire hydrologic model for Yucca Mountain.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not to worry, though! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the wonderful world of numbers, the Yucca Mountain modelers simply voted in a new percolation rate number to preserve the model — and added titanium drip-shields to protect the already-begun construction.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Applied models,” the authors conclude, “out there in the midst of politically sensitive societal issues, are easily moldable to favor a cause.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Be it a cost-benefit ratio.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An environmental impact statement</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cause of a disease.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The size of a fish population.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Or a prediction of future hazard potential. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Add a fudge factor here and tweak the model there.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And voila you have the ‘correct’ answer. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the alterations are invisible to the managers who use the models.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since publication of <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Useless Arithmetic</em>, for political rather than scientific or hazard reasons, Congress de-funded the Yucca Mountain repository in 2010, though the issue is not definitively decided. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The highly toxic radioactive wastes from both weapons manufacture and power generation continue to accumulate around the country and indeed globally.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With no solution in sight to the problem of safe disposal.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What neither book addresses is the real driver of both nuclear weapons manufacture and nuclear power generation.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The huge profits made by the primary producers as well as by an entire universe of hazardous waste companies, engineers, risk assessment consultants, construction and other supporting industries. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Neither science nor common sense have a chance against the power of money. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So long as these industries control nuclear policies, the myths that generate their profits will endure.</span></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can tell the DOE to continue to keep its radioactive metal out of the commercial metal supply, commerce, and our personal items. </span></em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Demand a full environmental impact statement, and consider signing the petition at MoveOn.org.</span></em></div>
Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-76704035420335864102013-07-09T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-09T05:01:00.352+02:00Uphill fight<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The outlawing of drugs such as cannabis, MDMA and LSD amounts to the “the worst case of scientific censorship since the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus and Galileo”, the former Government drugs advisor Professor David Nutt has claimed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">Professor Nutt, who was dismissed from the Home Office’s advisory council on drugs in 2009 after clashing with ministers, said that UN conventions on drugs in the 1960s and 1970s have delayed the development of “innovative treatments” for PTSD and depression by 30 years and also set back research into areas of neuroscience such as consciousness.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a paper published today with two other scientists in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience, he said that drugs policy is being driven by “politics, not science”.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Professor Nutt left the Home Officer in 2009 after suggesting that taking MDMA ecstasy was no more dangerous than horse-riding and that alcohol and tobacco were more dangerous than many illegal drugs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The possession of psychoactive drugs such cannabis, MDMA (ecstasy) and LSD for scientific purposes is stringently regulated in the UK and most other countries, in accordance with UN conventions that were agreed in response to the emergence of drug culture in the 1960s and 1970s.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Applying for a Government licence can be costly and time-consuming and many scientists are put off by a culture of “repression” surrounding drug science, Professor Nutt said.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The laws scare off funders and most scientists are scared because they think if they break the law, they might get arrested,” he told The Independent. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I’m sure at some point someone’s going to arrest me. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a sense of repression to the point that most people won’t do it.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The paper, which is published to coincide with a conference on scientific research with psychedelics at Imperial College London, points to evidence that cannabis, MDMA and psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin (the compound found in magic mushrooms) have unexplored medicinal benefits and argues that laws should be updated.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Small clinical studies of MDMA, which was originally used in the USA in the 1970s to improve communication in psychotherapy sessions, suggested that it could play a highly beneficial role in the treatment of PTSD patients. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The paper’s authors said the drug could also help with “end of life anxiety” and couples therapy”.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medical use of marijuana is already legal in 17 US states, and the drug has been shown to have benefits such as anxiety reduction and pain relief. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, Professor Nutt said that UK restrictions had blocked development of therapeutic applications for any of cannabis’ 16 active ingredients.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">LSD, meanwhile, was widely researched in the 1950s and 1960s, with more than 1,000 papers investigating outcomes for more than 40,000 patients, with evidence suggesting that the drug might be an effective treatment for alcoholism, before bans on the drug around the world ended further research.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so it goes on</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Politics trumping any other consideration</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">British politicians will not even discuss the subject let alone legislate</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Such a waste of lives</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 1.4;">So many people </span><span style="line-height: 22px;">condemned</span><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> to </span><span style="line-height: 22px;">unnecessary</span><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> suffering</span></span></span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-88550515234898832342013-07-08T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-08T05:01:00.388+02:00Another worry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">The use of some of the most potent antibiotics available has surged among British farmers in the last decade, stoking fears that the burgeoning number of factory farms could greatly increase the risk ofantibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria escaping and infecting people.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Medicines to treat meningitis, pneumonia and other serious diseases, called third and fourth generation cephalosporins, increased threefold from 2003-11, while drugs called fluoroquinolones – used for tuberculosis, <em style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">C difficile</em>, HIV-related infections and others – are up by 50% in the same period.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">These antibiotics have been flagged by the World Health Organisation as some of the most important in human medicine, because they are our last line of defence against serious diseases, and are under threat from bacterial strains that are growing more resistant to them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Their rapidly rising use on farms is a threat to people,. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Christopher Thomas, professor of molecular genetics at Birmingham University, said: "There a lot of worry about whether we should be using the same antibiotics on a farm as we do in [human] clinics, as the resistance developed on farms could spread to humans. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">However good your hygiene [on farms], it is inevitable that resistant bacteria bred on the farm will get to humans."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">The government does not track the use of veterinary antibiotics in detail – unlike their human counterparts – so it is impossible to tell how many animals are being treated, for what diseases, and whether the medicines are being used as a prophylactic or to treat diseases already present. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">The only data available is the total annual tonnage of antibiotics sold for agriculture, some of which could be left unused, and the dosage of which could vary widely.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Green campaigners are also unhappy that vets are allowed to profit by selling farmers the antibiotics they prescribe.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">A practice banned in many other countries because of conflicts of interest.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">In the UK where commercial interests take precedence over any other considerations this is not so. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">The government confirmed there were no plans to change this practice.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Thomas said that despite guidelines on avoiding routine use of antibiotics, it was difficult to distinguish in practice. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">There is a fine line where you have lots of animals together. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">For instance, in an intensive chicken rearing facility if you get one or two animals that get an infection, it's quite common for vets to decide they need to treat all the chickens in the facility just in case it has already spread to others that are not noticeably sick.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">He said there were many ways in which antibiotic-resistant bacteria on a farm could spread to humans: by people working there, who could spread it to their families; by run-off water from the farm, and by meat from slaughtered animals getting into the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/food" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Food">food</a> chain.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">But Peter Borriello, chief executive of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, the government agency that oversees antibiotic use on farms, said people should not be over-concerned as the UK farming industry was well-regulated and used fewer antibiotics than other EU countries, being about the 8th biggest user of farming antibiotics, but only the 14th biggest user of the potent fluoroquinolones.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">We are not aware of any major resistance problems and not aware of any major changes in veterinary pathogen populations with respect to their resistance potential..</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Another key issue is the import of meat and fish from countries where farming antibiotic use is higher than in the UK, such as the US, where 80% of antibiotic use is for animals.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">A Defra (UK <span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: nowrap;">Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) </span>spokesman said UK food importers were only allowed to buy from countries that met standards similar to those in operation in Europe. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">However, the use of antibiotics in other countries does not fall under these rules, so imported meat can come from much looser antibiotic regimes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">In other words Defra is spinning its way out of saying that there are no controls </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Defra said there were checks in place to ensure infected meat did not enter the UK food chain.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">There are also moves in the US to cut antibiotic use. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Citing a recent study, Louise Slaughter, the only microbiologist in Congress, said: This study ends any debate. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">The extreme overuse of antibiotics in livestock is endangering human health. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">For decades, the United States Food and Drug Administration has failed to act in the face of a growing threat. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">These findings make it clearer than ever that their failure is endangering human life. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Starting today, the FDA must take strong federal action to reduce antibiotic use in livestock and protect human health.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Antibiotics are routinely used in fish farms, particularly in Latin America. David Santillo, a Greenpeace fellow at Exeter University, said: "Eating raw fish as sushi can raise additional concerns regarding food safety. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Although properly prepared, stored and handled sushi should be free from harmful pathogens, the potential presence of antibiotic residues or even of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria remains a concern, especially for fish and shellfish farmed in parts of the world in which controls on the use of such chemically intensive disease treatments are lacking or harder to police and verify."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">The Food Standards Agency said that if meat and fish were cooked properly, any bacteria living on them should be killed, and advised people to follow best practice in handling uncooked food. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Avoiding sushi and steak tartare might be one way to cut risk, but Thomas said the government should be more active in testing for microbes in the food chain.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Should and could are words used by government agencies in both the UK and US</span></div>
Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-47266244868507785262013-07-07T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-07T09:08:49.313+02:00The "precautionary principle"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many countries operate their affairs on the "precautionary principle"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simply stated the "precautionary principle" says that while there is any doubt about a given product then we will not use it until we are sure that it is safe</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; line-height: 18px;">The UK uses the opposite principle</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until you can prove 100% that this product is killing bees or anything else then we will not ban it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why does the UK adopt this policy?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No answer</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; line-height: 18px;">Ministers have children so we wonder why they would support principles and procedures that put our environment and the future of their childrens lives at risk</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hard to answer because they do insist on continuing this approach</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only clear answer is that companies continue to make huge profits selling systemic products</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They lobby hard</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They have money</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They have access to Ministers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A step has been voted on in the European Parliament to introduce a temporary ban in the case of bees.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some countries have already unilaterally banned these products.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the UK we can clearly say. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the major problems with neonicotinoid pesticides is that they are "systemic", meaning they are taken up into every part of the plant which is treated with them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Including the pollen and nectar.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This means that bees and other pollinating insects can absorb them and carry the poison back to their hives or nests.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even if they are not the insecticide's target species.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Introduced by Bayer in the early 1990s, neonicotinoids have been an immense commercial success.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bayer's imidacloprid was its top-selling insecticide in 2009, earning £510m – and have been used on vast areas. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About 30 per cent of British cropland – 3.14 million acres – was being treated with the chemicals in 2010.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nothing more to say really</span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-1039276534885380492013-07-06T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-06T05:01:00.318+02:00Goce<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The great Tohoku earthquake in Japan two years ago was so big its effects were even felt at the edge of space.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Artist's impression of Goce in orbit (Esa)" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/49019000/jpg/_49019865_c2_goce.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="304" /></span><span style="display: block; width: 304px;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Goce flies lower than any other scientific satellite</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scientists say the Magnitude 9.0 tremor on 11 March 2011 sent a ripple of sound through the atmosphere that was picked up by the Goce satellite.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its super-sensitive instrumentation was able to detect the disturbance as it passed through the thin wisps of air still present 255km above the Earth.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The observation is reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has long been recognised that major quakes will generate very low-frequency acoustic waves, or infrasound - a type of deep rumble at frequencies below those discernible to the human ear. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But no spacecraft in orbit has had the capability to record them, until now.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We've looked for this signal before with other satellites and haven't seen it, and I think that's because you need an incredibly fine instrument," said Dr Rune Floberghagen from the European Space Agency (Esa).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Goce's accelerometers are about a hundred times more sensitive than any previous instrumentation and we detected the acoustic wave not once, but twice - passing through it over the Pacific and over Europe..</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Goce's prime purpose is to map very subtle differences in the pull of gravity across the surface of the Earth caused by the uneven distribution of mass within the planet.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These variations produce almost imperceptible changes in the velocity of the satellite as it flies overhead and which it records with those high-precision accelerometers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This gravity signal is very weak, however, and that means Goce must fly incredibly low to sense it - so low, in fact, that it actually drags through the top of the atmosphere.</span></div>
<div class="caption body-narrow-width" style="clear: both; display: inline; float: right; margin: 0px -160px 16px 16px; position: relative;">
<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Tsunami" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66303000/jpg/_66303417_66303416.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="304" /></span><span style="display: block; width: 304px;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monday marks the second anniversary of the quake and tsunami that claimed more than 15,000 lives</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is these special circumstances that put the satellite in a position to detect the infrasonic disturbance on 11 March 2011.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The acoustic waves perturbed the density of air molecules and changed their speed. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was the faintest of winds at an altitude of 255km, but strong enough to be registered by Goce.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Esa spacecraft encountered the signal as it passed over the Pacific some 30 minutes after the onset of the M9.0 event, and then again 25 minutes later as it moved across Europe.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because of the way the accelerometers are arranged in Goce, it was possible to reconstruct the detection in three dimensions and so confidently trace the infrasound back to its source - the earthquake.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Goce geoid (Esa)" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48818000/jpg/_48818055_48818056.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="304" /></span><span style="display: block; width: 304px;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Goce's principal objective is to make maps of the variation in the pull of gravity across the Earth</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you have a small ripple in density, it would be hard to conclude beyond any reasonable doubt that this was due to the earthquake," explained Dr Floberghagen. "</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the fact that we have a very significant density perturbation, with the shape predicted by all the acoustic models, and the fact that we picked it up again on the other side of the Earth where you would expect to find it - that's perfect.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scientists can already study earthquakes from space, in particular through the use of radar to map the deformation of the ground that results when faults rupture. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But it remains to be seen how useful an acoustic sensor placed in a low-Earth orbit might be.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tohoku was an exceptional event and this may explain why Goce, on this occasion, was able to pick it up.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Buoyed by their success, however, scientists on the mission are checking through the satellite's data to see if an infrasonic signal was also recorded when an asteroid entered the atmosphere over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk last month. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The entry's infrasound signature was certainly evident to listening stations on the ground.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Meteor " height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66303000/jpg/_66303413_66303412.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="304" /></span><span style="display: block; width: 304px;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Chelyabinsk meteor is known to have produced a big infrasound signal - but is it in Goce's data?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ever since we've flown this type of instrument - accelerometers - in space, people have been looking for the acoustic beat from earthquakes.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because that could be used to understand the way tremors propagate not only through the Earth but through the Earth environment.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We'll see; time will tell. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But just the idea of an acoustic sensor in space is pretty cool," Dr Floberghagen told BBC News.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Goce itself is running low on fuel and is nearing the end of its mission.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Esa will lower its orbit in June to below 230km to try to obtain even finer detail on Earth's gravity field. </span><br />
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The agency is then expected to command the satellite to come out of the sky and fall back to Earth in November.</span><br />
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Jonathan Amos</span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-11263173568698672252013-07-05T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-05T08:51:37.950+02:00Self improvement <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everything in nature is interconnected; nothing can live unto itself alone. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our every thought, feeling, and deed impact upon the world around us, for good or ill. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The idea that anything is totally separate from anything else is called in Buddhism the heresy of separateness. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are all part of one vast, incomprehensible Whole</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We all sprang from one divine source aeons ago, and to that source we shall all return. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is our duty to work with nature rather than against it, and to help one another along the path. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every effort at self-improvement and every effort to help others, make a contribution, however small, to the progress of all humanity.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The highest and most noble ideal that we can try to live up to is called in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition the <em>bodhisattva idea</em><i>l. </i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>A </i>bodhisattva is a human being who has advanced so far on the path of spiritual progress that he has attained enlightenment and reached the threshold of nirvana. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But rather than entering the peace and bliss of nirvana, which would rule out any further active involvement in human affairs, he renounces nirvana and returns to earth to help struggling humanity. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This spirit of self-sacrifice is beautifully captured in the vow of the Chinese bodhisattva Kwan Yin:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Never will I seek or receive private, individual salvation; never will I enter into final peace alone; but forever, and everywhere will I live and strive for the redemption of every creature throughout the world.</span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is the constant aspiration to realize this ideal, and above all the constant effort to <em>practice</em><i> </i>compassion and brotherhood in our daily lives, that is the surest path to enlightenment.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David Pratt</span>Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-17129195681837129182013-07-04T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-04T07:22:47.811+02:00Idiosyncrasies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THE PHILOSOPHY OF AMBIGUITY, AS WELL AS THE IDIOSYNCRASIES OF ENGLISH:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. ONE TEQUILA, TWO TEQUILA, THREE TEQUILA, FLOOR.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. ATHEISM IS A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. IF MAN EVOLVED FROM MONKEYS AND APES, WHY DO WE STILL HAVE MONKEYS AND APES?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. THE MAIN REASON THAT SANTA IS SO JOLLY IS BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHERE ALL THE BAD GIRLS LIVE.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. I WENT TO A BOOKSTORE AND ASKED THE SALESWOMAN, "WHERE'S THE SELF- HELP SECTION?" SHE SAID IF SHE TOLD ME, IT WOULD DEFEAT THE PURPOSE.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. WHAT IF THERE WERE NO HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. IF A DEAF CHILD SIGNS SWEAR WORDS, DOES HIS MOTHER WASH HIS HANDS WITH SOAP?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. IF SOMEONE WITH MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES THREATENS TO KILL HIMSELF, IS IT CONSIDERED A HOSTAGE SITUATION?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. IS THERE ANOTHER WORD FOR SYNONYM?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. WHERE DO FOREST RANGERS GO TO "GET AWAY FROM IT ALL?"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE AN ENDANGERED ANIMAL EATING AN ENDANGERED PLANT?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">12. IF A PARSLEY FARMER IS SUED, CAN THEY GARNISH HIS WAGES?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">13. WOULD A FLY WITHOUT WINGS BE CALLED A WALK?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">14. WHY DO THEY LOCK GAS STATION BATHROOMS? ARE THEY AFRAID SOMEONE WILL BREAK-IN AND CLEAN THEM?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">15. IF A TURTLE DOESN'T HAVE A SHELL, IS HE HOMELESS OR NAKED?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">16. CAN VEGETARIANS EAT ANIMAL CRACKERS?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">17. IF THE POLICE ARREST A MUTE, DO THEY TELL HIM HE HAS THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">18. WHY DO THEY PUT BRAILLE ON THE DRIVE-THROUGH BANK MACHINES?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">19. HOW DO THEY GET DEER TO CROSS THE ROAD ONLY AT THOSE </span><u style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></u><u style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></u><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">YELLOW ROAD</span><u style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></u><u style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></u><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SIGNS?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">20. WHAT WAS THE BEST THING BEFORE SLICED BREAD?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">21. ONE NICE THING ABOUT EGOTISTS: THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">22. DOES THE LITTLE MERMAID WEAR AN ALGEBRA? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">23. DO INFANTS ENJOY INFANCY AS MUCH AS ADULTS ENJOY ADULTERY?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">24. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A CIVIL WAR?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">25. IF ONE SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMER DROWNS, DO THE REST DROWN TOO?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">26. IF YOU ATE BOTH PASTA AND ANTIPASTO, WOULD YOU STILL BE HUNGRY?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">27. IF YOU TRY TO FAIL, AND SUCCEED, WHICH HAVE YOU DONE?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">28. WHOSE CRUEL IDEA WAS IT FOR THE WORD 'LISP' TO HAVE 'S' IN IT?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">29. WHY ARE HEMORRHOIDS CALLED "HEMORRHOIDS" INSTEAD OF "ASSTEROIDS"?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">30. WHY IS IT CALLED TOURIST SEASON IF WE CAN'T SHOOT AT THEM?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">31. WHY IS THERE AN EXPIRATION DATE ON SOUR CREAM?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">32. IF YOU SPIN AN </span><u style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></u><u style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></u><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ORIENTAL MAN IN A CIRCLE</span><u style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></u><u style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></u><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> THREE TIMES, DOES HE BECOME DISORIENTED</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">33. CAN AN ATHEIST GET INSURANCE AGAINST ACTS OF GOD?</span><br />
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-29327257468337616952013-07-03T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-03T10:10:10.589+02:00Kids and technology<div style="outline: none;">
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're often astounded by the ability of children to pick up, use and master the latest technological innovations. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You frequently hear stories from parents of how they left a tablet computer lying around and after a couple of hours they came back to find their toddler using it to play games, look at kittens on the internet or open an offshore bank account.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The idea that the younger generation is somehow inherently more adept at using technology is slowly taking hold. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a recent survey by John Lewis</span><span style="outline: none; position: absolute;"></span><span style="outline: none; position: absolute;"></span><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, 71 per cent of parents admitted that they consult their children for technological advice, whether that's help online (setting up social-media profiles) or around the home (operating the TiVo). </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other words, while adults are busy putting food on the table, children are becoming our technological overlords.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But how and why is this happening and why do some parents seem resigned to it? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After all, modern user interfaces are getting simpler and, at least in theory, are designed for us all to operate. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They're not geared specifically towards children and, while it's often stated that kids find technology easy because they "grew up with it", their 30-something parents probably grew up with it, too.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's certainly an illusion to assume that kids can do these things intuitively," says Nigel Houghton, managing director of Simplicity Computers. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's more the case that they're not fearful of looking around, and so they eventually work things out." </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr Mark Brosnan, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Bath and author of the book Technophobia, says that children's apparent expertise has little to do with youth. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If they swipe a tablet screen with three fingers, it looks like an intuitive gesture," he says, "but it's because they've seen someone do it before. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They just have a great immediate experience of potential solutions.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's a world of difference between the Windows 95 PCs that many adults cut their teeth on and sleek, 21st-century touch-screen devices; the latter are far more geared towards entertainment and communication, so it's unsurprising that children spend far more more time getting to grips with them than time-starved parents.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It becomes about inclination," says Matt Leeser, head of buying for telecoms and technology at John Lewis</span><span style="outline: none; position: absolute;"></span><span style="outline: none; position: absolute;"></span><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether you're talking about Windows 8 or a smart TV, it's a question of whether one can be bothered to learn how to use it. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But it's also to do with the learning process itself. "When kids get a device, they talk to their mates, they go through a process of swapping information," says Houghton, whose company specialises in producing simpler, more straightforward computing interfaces. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But when older people see younger people using devices so easily, it provides a sort of deterrent: </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'Oh god,' they think, 'I can't do that, I must be stupid.'"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a conveniently lazy mindset to develop, but it's one that's easily conquerable. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've looked at issues related to anxiety and technology," says Brosnan, "and some of the most confident, happy, least anxious users are silver surfers over the age of 65 – largely due to the fact that they're retired, they have some time to spare, and there's no pressure – no-one is watching them and evaluating how they're using it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other words, a solid relationship with technology seems to be a function of leisure time, something that parents can be woefully short of. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The resulting technological consultation of children by their parents could just be seen as an amusing reversal of authority within the family unit, but it does throw up a number of questions, both financial and moral. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're seeing kids leading a lot of technology purchase decisions for the family based upon the trends that they're following.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They're not really worrying about internet security, for example, or interoperability. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So our role is to offer impartial advice.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Someone said to me recently that it's like giving the prisoner the key if you let your kids make your technology purchases.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The same analogy could be used back at home, post-sale, where it's the parents duty to be clued up enough to supervise their children's use of technology, but kids end up knowing far more than they're given credit for. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I were a child and my parents asked me which websites I shouldn't be looking at," says Leeser, "I certainly wouldn't have told them.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And if they'd asked me how to block those websites, I wouldn't have told them that either.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ahad Surooprajally, 45, has a nine-year old son, Habeeb, who's already running rings around him. "He has to go to bed at a certain time," he says, "but then he'll log into my Apple TV remotely while I'm watching a film and shut it down… </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Similarly, I had a friend of mine set up controls on the computer so Habeeb has 30 minutes online time a day – but he made himself an administrator and gave himself two hours a day instead." </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Habeeb himself finds this screamingly funny, but is coy when asked how he came by the knowledge. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">Oh, the internet," he giggles. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">And do you ever get tips from friends? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4;">To be honest, I don't really need to.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You may think of Habeeb as a whizz kid who's streets ahead of his peers, but it's likely that his peers are just as clued up.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because they've got the time.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The inclination and the access to technology in order to get the edge on their parents.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If there's a message to come out of this, it's probably a nudge to technophobic parents to devote some time towards getting good advice and to familiarise themselves with new technology.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not just to maintain technological order at home, but also because society increasingly demands it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The government wants us to be able to do so much online," says Nigel Houghton. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are 650 services provided by various departments which are moving online – and there are all the incredibly useful things that internet connectivity can help with, such as getting cheaper utility bills.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, seeing as our offspring probably wouldn't have the patience to help us seek out a new electricity provider, maybe that's a good a place as any to begin striking out on our own.</span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-19569038322825704882013-07-02T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-02T05:01:00.888+02:00Monsanto rules<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The key phrases are a mouthful of legal mumbo jumbo but are widely thought to have been added to the bill by the Missouri republican senator </span><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Roy Blunt who is Monsanto's chief recipient of political funds</span><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">For the record, they read:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">"In the event that a determination of nonregulated status made pursuant to section 411 of Plant Protection Act is or has been invalidated or vacated, the secretary of agriculture shall, notwithstanding any other provision of law upon request by a farmer, grower, farm operator, or producer, immediately grant temporary permit(s) or temporary deregulation in part, subject to necessary and appropriate conditions consistent with section 411(a) or 412c of the Plant Protection Act, which interim conditions shall authorise the movement, introduction, continued cultivation, commercialisation and other specifically enumerated activities and requirements, including measures designed to mitigate or minimise potential adverse environmental effects, if any, relevant to the secretary's evaluation of the petition for nonregulated status, while ensuring that growers or other users are able to move, plant, cultivate, introduce into commerce and carry out other authorised activities in a time manner …"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">According to an array of food and consumer groups, organic farmers, civil liberty and trade unions and others, this hijacks the constitution, sets a legal precedent and puts Monsanto and other biotech companies above the federal courts. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">It means, they say, that not even the US government can now stop the sale, planting, harvest or distribution of any GM seed, even if it is linked to illness or environmental problems.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The backlash has been furious. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Senator Barbara Mikulski, chair of the powerful Senate appropriations committee which was ultimately responsible for the bill, has apologised. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">A Food Democracy Now petition has attracted 250,000 names and sections of the liberal press and blogosphere are outraged. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">This provision is simply an industry ploy to continue to sell genetically engineered seeds even when a court of law has found they were approved by US department of agriculture illegally,says one petition. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">It is unnecessary and an unprecedented attack on US judicial review. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Congress should not be meddling with the judicial review process based solely on the special interest of a handful of companies.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Remarkably, though, it has also offended the Conservative right and libertarians. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">FreedomWorks, the conservative thinktank that helped launch the Tea Party, says corporations should "play by the rules of the free market like everyone else, instead of hiring insider lobbyists to rewrite the rules for them in Washington". </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Dustin Siggins, a blogger for the Tea Party patriots has called it a "special interest loophole" for friends of Congress. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">We are used to subsidies, which give your tax dollars to companies to give them advantages over competitors. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">We are used to special interest tax loopholes and tax credits, which provide competitive and financial benefits to those with friends in Congress. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">And we are familiar with regulatory burden increases, which often prevent smaller companies from competing against larger ones because of the cost of compliance. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">This is a different kind of special interest giveaway altogether. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">This is a situation in which a company is given the ability to ignore court orders, in what boils down to a deregulation scheme for a particular set of industries..</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Even Monsanto appears a touch embarrassed. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The company whose seeds make up 93% of US soybeans, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">88% of cotton </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">And 86% of maize and which on Wednesday announced a 22% increase in earnings, has sought to align itself with others in the industry, even though it is far and away the main beneficiary. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">In a statement, it says: "As a member of the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO), we were pleased to join major grower groups in supporting the Farmer Assurance Provision, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Seed Trade Association, the American Soybean Association, the American Sugarbeet Growers Association, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Cotton Council, and several others."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The company's friends are now on the defensive, seeking to blame "activists". </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Here is John Entine, director of the Genetic Literacy Project, and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, the pro-business, anti-regulation think tank: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The legislation does not, as critics allege, allow farmers or Monsanto to sell seeds proven to be harmful. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">Rather, it provides legal consistency for farmers and businesses so that they will not be jerked around by temporary findings by competing court systems as activist challenges make their way up the legal food chain.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The only good news, say the opponents, is that because the "Monsanto Protection Act" was part of the much wider spending bill, it will formally expire in September. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The bad news however is that the precedent has been set and it is unlikely that the world's largest seed company and the main driver of the divisive GM technology will ever agree to give up its new legal protection. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;">The company, in effect, now rules.</span></div>
Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-38494057813545875532013-07-01T05:01:00.000+02:002013-07-01T05:01:00.419+02:00Epigenetics<div class="description" style="border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 20px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 21px;">Epigenetics Reveal Biological Information On Homosexuality</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A new study from the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) reveals that epigenetics, rather than genetics, could be the basis for homosexuality.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To begin, epigenetics looks at how gene expression is managed by temporary switches, known as epi-marks. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the report, recently published online in <em style="border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Quarterly Review of Biology</em>, the authors discussed how sex-specific epi-marks generally do not transmit between generations and are considered “erased.” </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Homosexuality can result when these marks are not “erased” and are passed on from father to daughter or mother to son.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Transmission of sexually antagonistic epi-marks between generations is the most plausible evolutionary mechanism of the phenomenon of human homosexuality,” explained the study’s co-author Sergey Gavrilets, who serves as the NIMBioS’ associate director for scientific activities and professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The researchers explain how homosexuality is common for men and women in various cultures despite knowledge of evolutionary methods. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Past studies have looked at how homosexuality is passed through family members, but no gene related to homosexuality has been found. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;">The current study by the researchers from the Working Group on Intragenomic Conflict at NIMBioS produced a biological and mathematical model based on evolutionary theory and new information on gene express and androgen-dependent sexual development.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;">In particular, epi-marks give an extra set of information on the expression of genes. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Genes have instruction, while epi-marks manage how the how gene instructions are carried out during gene development. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit;">For every generation, there is a new set of epi-marks; however, studies have also shown that epi-marks may be passed between generations and can cause similarity among relatives.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is compelling evidence that epi-marks contribute to both the similarity and dissimilarity of family members, and can therefore feasibly contribute to the observed familial inheritance of homosexuality and its low concordance between [identical] twins, the study’s co-author William Rice, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In addition, sex specific epi-marks found in early fetal development help protect each sex from having natural variation in testosterone that occurs later in fetal development. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For example, sex specific epi-marks will prevent girl fetuses from becoming too masculine while preventing male fetuses from becoming too feminine. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Though, when epi-marks are transmitted from one generation to the next, from father to daughter or mother to son they show reversed effects. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this regard, some traits in sons become feminized while other traits in daughters become more masculine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most mainstream biologists have shied away from studying it because of the social stigma.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s been swept under the rug, people are still stuck on this idea that it’s unnatural. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well there are many examples of homosexuality in nature, it’s very common.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Furthermore, the mathematical modeling of the genes shows that the epi-marks can be passed on the population as a way to boost the fitness of the parent but decreasing fitness in offspring.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These epi-marks protect fathers and mothers from excess or underexposure to testosterone</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When they carry over to opposite-sex offspring, it can cause the masculinization of females or the feminization of males.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Overall, the study helps explain the various underling factors related to homosexuality.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We’ve found a story that looks really good, concluded Rice</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There’s more verification needed, but we point out how we can easily do epigenetic profiles genome-wide. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We predict where the epi-marks occur, we just need other studies to look at it empirically. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This can be tested and proven within six months. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s easy to test. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If it’s a bad idea, we can throw it away in short order.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9d2e9;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Connie K Ho</span></span></div>
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Antonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01408638448930696557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16541549.post-85771504948248880192013-06-30T05:01:00.000+02:002013-06-30T05:01:00.715+02:00Guess who?<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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