Goodbye cooking

More and more meals are part of the food processing industry.
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Factories increasingly taking over what used to be done locally or even in the house.
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Often these form part of the global distribution system.
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 With foods being prepared thousands of miles from where they will be eaten.
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Even the final stage of food preparation and cooking is disappearing into the hands of company employees.
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Skills are going which used to be part of every community.
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From half to two-thirds of all meals in America are now prepared outside the home.
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Either in the form of restaurant meals or as ready-to-eat take out from supermarket delicatessen. 
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Europe is further behind this trend however the same pattern is evident.
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Even meals cooked at home are often prepared from ingredients that are already highly processed.
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When we do cook, we perform only the final stages of cookery.
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Taking advantage of pre-made mixes, sauces, canned soups, and so forth.
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How many people make their own pie crusts any more.
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Or fry their own chips.
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Or bake their own bread.
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Or can their own vegetables.
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Or make their own soup stock?
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These skills have gradually become industrialized.
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And therefore lost to the average household.
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We have essentially sold away the ability to cook food.
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Converting this form of social capital into financial capital.
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Money.
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Which of course is under the control of traders and other financial manipulators who have zero interest in the harm their buying and selling might have.
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We live in this world without thinking of the possible outcome should conditions change.
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Which is all just fine until there is any disruption to the supply chain.
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At which point an awful lot of people will wish that they knew how to create a meal from basic ingredients.
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And as they don't violence will not be far behind.
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Modern society is far too dependent on other people supplying our basic needs.
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This we will rue one day.

How it all began

At some unknown, but fateful, point in medieval history, a moneylender realised that the essence of a viable money system is confidence and that.
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Once this confidence was established, a magical and very remunerative trick could be played.
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Typically, the moneylenders were possessors of a stock of precious metals, which they would loan out into the community.
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They found that, once they gained a reputation for reliability, instead of transferring actual gold or silver they could issue a promise to pay backed by the real wealth known to be in their vaults.
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Their next discovery was that, as long as people believed in the convertibility of the promises to pay.
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Such promises could be issued to a value considerably beyond that of their holdings of precious metals.
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If experience taught the moneylender that only one tenth of his clients would at any particular time insist on payment in actual coin or bullion, he could safely make loans totalling about ten times the value of his reserves of bullion.
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Thus was born financial credit and the principle of what we now know as fractional reserve banking.
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Which has both allowed the community to expand the economy with unprecedented rapidity and delivered control over the expansion to the financiers.
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The important points to grasp are:
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(1) the promises to pay functioned perfectly well even though they were issued on a fraudulent representation of convertibility.
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(2) the moneylender retained discretion to vary the availability of the promises to pay and there was never an exact correspondence between the total value of the promises to pay and the overall monetary needs of the community.
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(3) the promises to pay purportedly derived their value from the bullion in the moneylender’s vault but, in fact, this value came from the actual and potential productivity of the community itself.
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While the pretence that financial credit is based on precious metals has been abandoned.
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All these features have survived in modem financial systems.
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Whose function is to create the financial credit of the community.
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It should be noted that the moneylender’s promises to pay circulated from hand to hand in trade as a commodity.
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Acceptance of the principle that money is a commodity has ever since made it impossible to establish a scientific relationship between the true monetary requirements of the economy and the availability of money.
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Since money is regarded as a commodity, its proprietors undertake constantly to enhance its value. 
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This is achieved by causing demand for it to be high, which in turn is achieved by keeping it in short supply.
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Indeed, throughout the entire evolution of the money system. 
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Which financiers have essentially been able to guide to suit their own ends. 
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Maintaining a chronic shortage of financial credit has been the key to ensuring the financiers’ dominant position in the economy.
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Author unknown.

Fruit and vegetables

Going, going........... gone
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American USDA statistics on fruits and vegetables, along with others produced in Europe.
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Show the unfolding horror story of our fruits and vegetables.
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These have as little as ten or twenty percent the mineral content of two generations ago.
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Put your head around that.
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And this is without making any comment about the genetically modified products and food you do not know that you are eating.
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Nothing short of disaster approaches.
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Note the rapid increase of so many "new'' diseases.
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Diseases that we do not have any satisfactory cures for.
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Yes this is the world  we live in today.
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This is reality.
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So why are we not being bombarded with helpful advice from our governments?
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Why I wonder are they not taking energetic action to redress this sorry situation?
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Surely not!

Do not care

We live in a world that literally does not care.
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The operator who wishes you a good day does not actually care about you.
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He is just following company procedures.
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And this goes for all the other call centres.
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This along with the asinine "your call is important to us we know you are waiting and one of our  operatives will be with as soon as possible" and like messages.
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Your telephone operator, energy company, bank, cable supplier none actually care about you, the customer.

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The cashier, check out person, sales clerk none of them care about you either
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The "have a nice day" line is not actually very sincere because not knowing you or caring about you two seconds after you part company. Why should he?
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Your waiter likewise is not so interested in your day or how you are doing.

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Nor the zillion programmers who created those automatic greetings you get when you go to the websites they created for clients..

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All of these are part of the dehumanisation of modern life.

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A life reduced to monetary transactions with strangers.

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All being Politically Correct with each other.

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Do any of us actually enjoy isolation of these transactions?

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Communications reduced to just enough to effect the transaction.

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The lie being that we pretend not to notice the disappearance of true relationships.

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That these ersatz exchanges suffice.

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Suffice for our needs is just not true.

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As our lives get ever faster often these fragmentary exchanges are all we have in a busy day.

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Yuk!

Simple precaution

Someone suggested today that people might be listening to my mobile phone messages.
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Apparently if you don't change the standard security code that every phone comes with, then 
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anyone can call your number. 
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And, if you don't answer, tap in the standard four digit code to hear all your messages.
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I'll change mine just in case, and I suggest you do too
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But it makes me wonder how many people are aware of this
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And how many are listening in to other people's messages.
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Sorry world but then there are a lot of sad people around.

Waking up oh so slowly

The collective realization of the unity of human and nature tells us that................ 
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What we do to the world, we do to ourselves.
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A concept that I'll refer to as "ecological karma." 
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This goes beyond interconnectedness or the pragmatic realization that we "depend upon nature." 
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The human-nature dualism implies that we can avoid the consequences of our depredations and manage their costs and benefits. 
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We can choose this forest to clear cut and that mountain to stripmine.
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Because according to our rational calculations they are less important than other ones. 
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They are not "critical ecosystems." 
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We don't really need them. 
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Their value is conditional. 
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We feel we can preserve some and destroy others, 
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As long as we calculate the effects carefully enough, the costs and benefits. 
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In contrast, the understanding of ecological karma tells us that we can never manage or avoid the effects of our actions
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That any marring of the health and beauty of the planet diminishes our own health and the beauty of our own lives as well, 
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Inescapably. 
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It tells us as well that the laws of nature make no exception for human beings.
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Charles Eisenstein - The Ascent of Humanity

It's mine

The current rush is to own melodies, words, images, and algorithms.
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And even the code of life itself is a new enclosure movement.
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Much akin to the privatization of the village commons by the English Enclosure Acts of the 17th and 18th centuries.
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Words that were once public and available for all to use are now the property of corporations and other institutions.
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Unavailable to others for certain uses.
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"I'm lovin' it" is the property of the McDonalds Corporation, it has the exclusive right to a certain use of that phrase.
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"Make every drop count" is the property of Coca-cola.
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"Ideas for life" is the property of Panasonic.
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"Always" is the property of Wal-Mart.
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"Making life better" is the property of Penn State.
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You can still use these words for most purposes, but not as a slogan for your organization. .
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Nike has taken "Just do it." 
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Donald Trump has taken "You're fired!"
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These are but a few of the tens of thousands of common phrases that have been expropriated from the public language.
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Even the words "Love thy neighbor," which appear in both the Torah and the New Testament and lie at the foundation of moral philosophy, are now subject to ownership.
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In 2001 a Michigan jewelry merchant using "Love your neighbor" sued a Florida charity named "Love thy neighbor" for trademark infringement, claiming that the similar name confused customers and resulted in lost profits.
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The defendant said he was flabbergasted that it is possible to register rights to an expression that "has been around for 5,700 years."
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Legalisms aside, does the plaintiff really have a right to this phrase?
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Did he create it and invent the concept?
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Or has he merely cordoned off a part of the cultural commonwealth and claimed it for his own use and profit, solely on the justification of having thought of this first?

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Charles Eisenstein
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Yes in American law that is exactly what is being done.
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And no, there is no defence against this.
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Essentially everything on this planet is being monetised.
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Everything
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Air will be next.

Pain and cherries

 Pain is a huge problem for individuals, families, businesses and our economy. 
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According to the American Pain Society, at any given time, as many as a third of us are in pain and every year pain drives half of us to a doctor`s office seeking relief. 
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Combined costs of medical care and lost productivity due to chronic pain amount to $150 billion annually. 
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While pain medications are expensive and have serious side effects, a number of natural and herbal remedies for pain relief are available which are good alternatives. 
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One of these is cherries, which are loaded with antioxidants called anthocyanins that give them their red color along with significant pain relief.
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General Pain Relief
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In research published in 2004 at Johns Hopkins University, rats were injected with either a solution containing tart cherries or a prescription non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) and exposed to either a heated surface or an inflammatory agent. 
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The tart cherries significantly reduced pain sensitivity and at the highest dosage were as effective as the drug. 
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The authors conclude that tart cherries may have a beneficial role in inflammatory pain. 
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In a 2001 study at Michigan State University, the anthocyanins in cherries were found to be equivalent to two common over-the-counter painkillers(also NSAIDs) for inhibiting the COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes associated with inflammation.
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Sore Muscles in Athletes
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Oregon`s Hood to Coast relay is a 197 mile race involving 1,000 relay teams. In 2009, scientists from Oregon`s Health and Science University studied the impact of tart cherry juice on pain in athletes participating in the race. 
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Participants drank 10.5 ounces of tart cherry juice twice daily for a week prior to the race and then every 8 hours during the race. 
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At the end of the race the cherry drinkers had less pain and faster muscle recovery. NSAIDs, though helpful for some kinds of pain, are associated with side effects including hospitalization and death. 
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Tart cherry juice, on the other hand, has few if any side effects and may be a healthier choice for athletes and others who suffer from pain.
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Gout
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Gout is a painful type of arthritis caused by build up of uric acid in joints, often favoring the toes.
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In a 2003 study designed to test the value of cherries for ameliorating gout pain 10 healthy female volunteers ate 45 Bing cherries for breakfast. 
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Researchers at the USDA`s Agricultural Research Service then evaluated levels of urate, a precursor of uric acid, in blood plasma levels and in urine. 
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Within 5 hours of eating cherries, urate decreased in blood plasma levels and increased in urine. 
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Scientists also evaluated levels of C-reactive protein and nitric oxide, two other markers of inflammation, which decreased after subjects ate cherries.
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Fibromyalgia
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In a recent study at the Oregon Health and Science Center, women with fibromyalgia were evaluated for muscle pain and weakness after exercise. 
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Of the 14 women, half drank cherry juice and half a placebo for ten days. 
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Results showed a subset of the cherry group enjoyed a significant reduction in overall pain.
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The research suggests that cherries can be effective for different kinds of pain conditions. 
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While both tart and sweet cherries have anthocyanins, tart cherries have more of them as well as a lower glycemic index making them a better choice. 
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Tart cherries are also one of the only known food sources of melatonin, helpful for those whose pain interrupts their sleep cycle.
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Tart cherries are available dried, frozen, and in juice form.
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NaturalNews

Political correctness

There is an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. 

This year's term was: "Political Correctness"

The winner wrote:

"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end. "

Beauty and sacredness

Where is beauty?

It is in a butterfly.

But when we chloroform it, lay it out on the dissecting table, and cut it apart, beauty is gone.

Beauty is in a poem.

But when we over-analyze the poem to find exactly what is beautiful about it, beauty disappears from that too.

Beauty is in a painting.

But can we reduce it to quantitative measures of color and proportion, and then apply these to the standardized production of beauty?

No.

Beauty is a relationship.

Not an objective property.
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And the mass-production of generic relationships produces, necessarily, an aesthetic that is equally phony, generic, and cheap.
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Where is sacredness?
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Following the same deep ideology as their scientific brethren.
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The religious authorities have sought to isolate sacredness as well.
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Limiting it to Bibles, crosses, and churches.
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The furthest extreme of this separation coincides in its genesis with its scientific counterpart, originating in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
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The Protestant movement progressively excluded the divine from more and more of the human world.
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Earlier, the Catholic church had removed divinity from ordinary people.
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Now the Protestant reformers began to remove it from Mother Mary and the saints as well. 
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So that all that was left of our original panentheistic world was a single, isolated mote of divinity embodied by Jesus Christ.
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Sorry state of affairs, not much left now.
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And yet and yet reductionism for that is what it is has reached it's end.
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Not too long now and humanity will understand this to be true.
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Reductionism has prevented us seeing the beauty of the whole, of relationships.
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It will not go without a fight.
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Never mind it is a fight worth engaging to bring back an understanding of the beauty and the sacred.