If We Release a Small Fraction of Arctic Carbon, 'We're Fucked'

Scientists made a disturbing discovery in the Arctic Ocean: They saw "vast methane plumes escaping from the seafloor," as the Stockholm University put it in a release disclosing the observations. The plume of methane—a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat more powerfully than carbon dioxide, the chief driver of climate change—was unsettling to the scientists.

Dr. Jason Box who is currently a professor of glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, has been studying the Arctic for decades. His accolade-packed Wikipedia page notes that he's made some 20 expeditions

to the Arctic since 1994, and served as the lead author on the Greenland section of NOAA's State of the Climate report from 2008-2012. He also runs the Dark Snow project and writes about the latest findings in the field at his blog, Meltfactor.

In other words, Box knows the Arctic, and he knows climate change—and the methane plumes had him blitzed enough to bring out the F bombs.

Now, the scientists in the Arctic didn't fully understand why the plumes were occurring.

Industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'

A new study sponsored by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.

Civilisation is almost inevitably doomed, a Nasa-funded study has found.

Human society is founded on a level of economic and environmental stability which almost certainly cannot be sustained, it said.

The study used simplified models of civilisation designed to experiment with the balance of resources and climate that creates stability - or not - in our world.

These theoretical models - designed to extrapolate from simple principles the future of our industrialised world - ran into almost intractable problems.

Almost any model "closely reflecting the reality of the world today... we find that collapse is difficult to avoid", the report said.

How Advertising and Entertainment Influence Your Subconscious

They say the subconscious is more powerful than the conscious. Usually, people are more influenced by their innate subconscious desires or intent than a rational and planned decision. This aspect of human nature is heavily influenced by your daily activity.

How Corporations Influence Your Subconscious 

In western society, the subconscious mind of the individual is often subject to a number of heavy influences, through entertainment mediums especially. Television, movies, and music create a profound subconscious effect on the human mind that influences and dictates the choices that they will make to at least some degree.

If you see a certain car advertisement, whether or not you rationally decide your stance on it, you are being pre-programmed to at least accept or acknowledge any claims made by the advertisement itself.

Likewise, the choice of television shows and dramatic elements appearing on TV have a psychological influence on those who watch them. According to statistics, by age 18 the average American youth will have seen over 200,000 simulated acts of violence. The glorification of drug and alcohol use predisposes an individual to rationally accept and sometimes consent to these actions.

Brain damaged society

There are over five thousand species of mammals on planet Earth, but only one of them is insane. It also turns out there is only one species of mammal that intentionally poisons itself (and its children) by injecting toxic, neuro-damaging chemicals into most members of the species. That species is, of course, homo sapiens.

If you look around the planet these days, you see tens of thousands of species of mammals, birds, reptiles and even insects. Five things all these have in common is:

1) None of them eat processed foods. They innately eat raw, unprocessed, uncooked foods from nature.

2) None of them take prescription medications.

3) None of them inject their offspring with toxic vaccines laced with hidden chemicals.

4) None of them practice mechanized chemical agriculture / monoculture.

5) None of them live in delusional, artificial worlds of TV or the internet.

Yet humans, the most insane species on the planet, routinely engage in all five of these things, poisoning their own bodies, minds and children with heavy metals, pesticides, mercury, vaccine adjuvants, mind-altering medications, chemical solvents, GMOs and delusional mind programming.

And so it's not really a surprise to see where this brings us.

Millions against Monsanto!

 The worldwide March Against Monsanto this past Saturday was no mere political demonstration. Rather, it was a worldwide mobilization against corporate greed, the assault on our health and environment, and the oppression of small farmers.

Two million people marched Saturday in 52 countries, totaling events in over 250 cities, all over the world.
"March Against Monsanto" protesters say they wanted to call attention to the dangers posed by genetically modified food and the food giants that produce it.

People marched through the streets of hundreds of cities around the world demanding an end to the

poisoning of our bodies, our children, and our environment.

GMO - The Moment of Truth

This is the longest, most thorough study to have been carried out on a GMO and we have also carried out a joint study on the most used pesticide in the world, the Round Up Ready. It lasted for 2 years.

During this period, rats have been fed with transgenic corn during their entire life. The tumours they suffer from are enormous. The study that revealed the effect of the GMO's on the health of these rats has just been completed.

Pay close attention to what you are about to see.

More at http://www.ogm-alerte-mondiale.net/?lang=en

US House of Representatives passes CISPA cybersecurity bill

The US House of Representatives has passed the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protect Act (CISPA).

Lawmakers in the House voted 288-to-127 Thursday afternoon to accept the bill. Next it will move to the Senate and could then end up on the desk of US President Barack Obama for him to potentially sign the bill into law. Earlier this week, though, senior White House advisers said they would recommend the president veto the bill.

Should CISPA earn the president’s autograph, private businesses will be encouraged to voluntarily share cyberthreat information with the US government. The authors of the bill say this is an effort to better combat the reportedly increasing attempts to harm America’s critical computer networks and pilfer the systems of private companies for intellectual property and other sensitive trade secrets.

One of the bill’s creators, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland), said during a round of debate on Wednesday that $400 billion worth of American trade secrets are being stolen by US companies every year. Passing CISPA, he said, would be a common sense solution to a threat that’s growing at an alarming rate.

“If your house is being robbed, you call 911 and the police department comes. That’s the same scenario we are looking at here,” he said.




That same day, CISPA co-author Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) stressed that his bill doesn't extend any

No Science to Show Fluoride Prevents Tooth Decay

When you were a kid, you probably went to the dentist and first tried that liquid that leaves that kinda burning feeling in your mouth. The yucky substance that you have to hold in your mouth for a couple minutes before you got your free toothbrush, floss and toy from the treasure chest (at least my dentist had toys!) this substance is known in the dentistry field as fluoride and we’re told it is to help strengthen our tooth enamel. On TV ads, we also here about fluoride as it is in our toothpaste as well. You likely have read or heard that fluoride is what helps to prevent cavities. If you continued to read the toothpaste tube or read the toothpaste box, you would also have found that there is a warning stating that if you swallowed the substance, you should call the poison control center. This article intends to look at why this warning is there, but also where fluoride comes from and how it effects our teeth.

Why would you need to call the poison control center if you swallowed toothpaste? Fluoride is the answer. Contrary to popular belief, fluoride is not a pharmaceutical grade sustenance used in the prevention of tooth decay. Fluoride is a toxic waste product from the aluminum, fertilizer, steel and nuclear industries. Sodium Fluoride, fluorosilic acid, and sodium silicofluroide are the substances we use in toothpaste, at the dentist and to fluoridate our water. All of these substances come from the industries listed above.

Never-Before-Seen Stage of Planet Birth - Revealed

Astronomers studying a newborn star have caught a detailed glimpse of planets forming around it, revealing a never-before seen stage of planetary evolution.

Large gas giant planets appear to be clearing a gap in the disk of material surrounding the star, and using gravity to channel material across the gap to the interior, helping the star to grow. Theoretical simulations have predicted such bridges between outer and inner portions of disks surrounding stars, but none have been directly observed until now.

An international team of astronomers have used the partially completed Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study a young star about 450 light-years from Earth. They identified two thin filaments of gas streaming from the outer disk to the inner, across a broad gap cut by young planets.

This artist’s impression shows the disk of gas and cosmic dust around the young star HD 142527. Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have seen vast streams of gas flowing across the gap in the disc. These are the first direct observations of these streams.

Source

New technique paves the way for instant 3D-printed biological tissues

3D printing technologies have come a long way since their earliest incarnations as rapid product prototype makers. It's now shaping up as the next disruptive technology and in medical science, 3D printing has huge potential. The latest advance comes from University of California, San Diego Nanoengineering Professor Shaochen Chen, whose group has demonstrated the ability to print three-dimensional blood vessels in seconds.

If the technique proves scalable, it could revolutionize regenerative medicine. Imagine being able to recover from a heart attack by replacing your faulty aortic valve with a brand new one, made of your own cells. No more pig valves, no more mechanical solutions, no more waiting for a donor. The donor is you.

Step towards Quantum computing

Scientists have taken a quantum leap forward towards future computing after discovering that ‘background interference’ in quantum-level measurements, may be the very thing they need to unlock the potential of quantum computing.

In a paper published in Nature Physics, researchers from The University of Queensland, The Australian National University and The National University of Singapore (NUS), suggest that this interference – quantum discord – may be what will make a future quantum computer tick.

“Up until a few years ago, researchers thought that realising quantum technologies would mean harnessing the most difficult-to-tame properties of the quantum world – the phenomenon known as ‘entanglement’.

“But in the past few years, scientists have discovered examples of technologies that seem to work without entanglement, which has left us with the puzzle of where the quantum power comes from,” said Professor Ping Koy Lam of the ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

Is a stick of chewing gum more of a “cancer stick” than a cigarette?

Recently, I asked about thirty women, whose ages were mostly under the age of forty, if they carried chewing gum with them. Twenty seven of the thirty were able to pull out a pack of gum, some even going as far as telling me why they loved a particular brand/flavor of gum.

While this demographic is not representative of all women, 90% of them chewed gum on a daily basis, some consuming more than one stick per day. As with many things that we expose our bodies to on a daily basis, let’s take a moment and analyze the ingredients of chewing gum and ask some important questions that pertain to whether it contributes to good health. How many of us have looked at the ingredients on a pack of gum?

If you have, do you know what each one of the substances is? Is a stick of chewing gum more of a “cancer stick” than a cigarette? As you will see below, commercial gum products are some of the most toxic substances that you can expose your body too and literally can lead to some of the worst diseases on the planet.

Scientists figure how to store 700TB of data in one gram of DNA

Traditional platter-based hard drives and solid state flash drives might dominate the storage landscape today, but in the future, you'll be storing more data than you could possibly sift through within your very own DNA.

George Church and Sri Kosuri, two Harvard Wyss Institute scientists, have successfully demonstrated a process by which it's possible to store 700TB of data in one gram of DNA.

At the moment, the stashing and unstashing process for DNA data isn't exactly simple. Once you've translated your binary data into the right sequence of DNA base pairs (A and C for zeros, T and G for ones), you have to turn all of those sequences into DNA itself. Doing so involves standard laboratory techniques, but it takes a while: several days to convert 675 KB of text, pictures, and Javascript into 55,000 DNA strands. Reading it out again with a gene sequencer (another now-standard laboratory technique) takes even longer, and neither the read process nor the write process are particularly cheap, which is why you'd only really want to use DNA storage for archival purposes.

Genetic data storage may easily become practical within a few decades, however, as speed increases and costs plummet. For example, in 2001 in cost $10,000 for a custom sequence of a million base pairs of DNA. Now, it costs about $0.10. This, for the record, vastly outpaces Moore's Law, and things are only getting faster.

‘Just Label It” campaign

While the Food and Drug Administration has seemingly reached the limit for  unbelievable behavior, the company’s decisions continue to astound and appall  consumers and health activists alike. In the agency’s latest decision,  undoubtedly amazing thousands of individuals yet again, the FDA virtually erased  1 million signatures and comments on the ‘Just Label It’ campaign  calling for the labeling of genetically  modified foods.

The ‘Just Label It” campaign has gotten  more signatures than any campaign in history for the labeling of genetically  modified foods. Since October of 2011, the campaign has received over 900,000  signatures, with 55 politicians joining in on the movement. So what’s the  problem here?

"Culture in Decline" Episode #1 - "What Democracy?"

From the creator of The Zeitgeist Film Series, comes a new comedically tragic Web Series that takes on the grand distortion we call "Normality" today.

In Episode #1 of CID, Peter Joseph takes on the coming US Election and, in effect, the global tradition of "Democracy" and asks the question... "Seriously?!"


Watch this 30 min (current) bi-monthly seriesfree online via the Culture in Decline's Official Website 
 or on official youtube CiD channel

European Parliament rejects ACTA

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), was rejected by the European Parliament on Wednesday, and hence cannot become law in the EU. This was the first time that Parliament exercised its Lisbon Treaty power to reject an international trade agreement. 478 MEPs voted against ACTA, 39 in favour, and 165 abstained.

"I am very pleased that Parliament has followed my recommendation to reject ACTA" said rapporteur David Martin (S&D, UK), after the vote, reiterating his concerns that the treaty is too vague, open to misinterpretation and could therefore jeopardise citizens' liberties. However, he also stressed the need to find alternative ways to protect intellectual property in the EU, as the "raw material of the EU economy".

The EPP's key ACTA advocate, Christofer Fjellner (EPP, SE), asked before the vote that Parliament should delay its final vote until the European Court of Justice has ruled on whether ACTA is compatible with the EU treaties. However, when a majority of MEPs rejected this request, a substantial minority responded by abstaining in the vote on Parliament's consent.

While debating whether to give its consent to ACTA, Parliament experienced unprecedented direct lobbying by thousands of EU citizens who called on it to reject ACTA, in street demonstrations, e-mails to MEPs and calls to their offices. Parliament also received a petition, signed by 2.8 million citizens worldwide, urging it to reject the agreement.

ACTA was negotiated by the EU and its member states, the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland to improve the enforcement of anti-counterfeiting law internationally. Wednesday's vote means that neither the EU nor its individual member states can join the agreement.

Source

No-waste circular economy

Don't throw out that broken toaster: it's key to our prosperity. Redesigning the economy so that all waste is reused or recycled would be good for business, according to two new reports.

For centuries the global economy has been linear. Companies extract resources from the environment, turn them into products and sell them to consumers – who eventually throw them out. As a result we are burning through Earth's natural resources and wasting useful materials.

But it doesn't have to be that way, says Felix Preston of think tank Chatham House in London. Instead, we could have a circular economy in which waste from one product is used in another.

In "A Global Redesign: Shaping the circular economy", Preston argues that reusing resources makes good business sense now that resource prices are high and volatile. He cites a January report by consultants McKinsey & Company which tries to put a value on the circular economy.

"Towards the Circular Economy: Economic and business rationale for an accelerated transition" estimates the circular economy could save the European Union $340 to $630 billion per year in materials costs, about 3 per cent of the EU's GDP.

"The opportunity is enormous," Preston says. "The challenge is how to unlock it."

However, a company wishing to go circular will face considerable upfront costs, and companies that have invested heavily in the existing system will be reluctant to change. Nevertheless some are pushing forward: for instance Renault's Eco2 cars are designed so that 95 per cent of their mass can be recovered and reused.

China is already pushing the circular economy. According to its 12th five-year plan – covering 2011-15 – China will "plan, construct and renovate various kinds of industrial parks according to the requirements of the circular economy".

by Michael Marshall

Source:

To learn more about circular economy, please watch "Re-thinking Progress: The Circular Economy"

Debunking the Milk Myth

Milk is much more than just a drink; it’s a cultural phenomenon that can be traced back thousands of years ago. And still today, the milk myth resonates loud and clear: in 2001, the average American child consumed 104 quarts of cow’s milk.


Milk depletes the calcium from your bones

The milk myth has spread around the world based on the flawed belief that this protein and calcium-rich drink is essential to support good overall health and bone health in particular at any age. It is easy to understand that the confusion about milk’s imaginary benefits stems from the fact that it contains calcium – around 300 mg per cup.
But many scientific studies have shown an assortment of detrimental health effects directly linked to milk consumption. And the most surprising link is that not only do we barely absorb the calcium in cow’s milk (especially if pasteurized), but to make matters worse, it actually increases calcium loss from the bones. What an irony this is!

The Imminent Collapse of the Petro-Dollars

The official line from the United States and the European Union is that Tehran must be punished for continuing its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. The punishment: sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, which are meant to isolate Iran and depress the value of its currency to such a point that the country crumbles.

But that line doesn’t make sense, and the sanctions will not achieve their goals. Iran is far from isolated and its friends – like India – will stand by the oil-producing nation until the US either backs down or acknowledges the real matter at hand. That matter is the American dollar and its role as the global reserve currency.

The short version of the story is that a 1970s deal cemented the US dollar as the only currency to buy and sell crude oil, and from that monopoly on the all-important oil trade the US dollar slowly but surely became the reserve currency for global trades in most commodities and goods. Massive demand for US dollars ensued, pushing the dollar’s value up, up, and away. In addition, countries stored their excess US dollars savings in US Treasuries, giving the US government a vast pool of credit from which to draw.

We know where that situation led – to a US government suffocating in debt while its citizens face stubbornly high unemployment (due in part to the high value of the dollar); a failed real estate market; record personal-debt burdens; a bloated banking

Money is Not Needed with Energy Abundance

In order to understand the very basis of money, it is best to contemplate how it developed in the first place.

Once society developed past the clan stage, when barter, trade and so forth arose, it became the practice to place value on the products of human energy expended. If one used one’s energy to build a bow, go out hunting, kill an animal, process the carcass, and transport the meat back to be traded or bartered for, this gave that meat value. The bow components were free, as was the animal. The same was true for the farmer, who expended meaningful energy in tilling, sowing, tending, harvesting, and, if need be, transporting what that farmer produced. The produce had value. Even the gatherer expended meaningful energy in seeking things to gather, then transporting the find back to be used as “money” for other things. The miner expended the meaningful energy to find the (free) ore, hew it out of the earth, and transport it.

From these beginnings, the practice of using coin and other objects arose to represent this meaningful energy expended when transporting large amounts of goods, as well using to acquire something another had but not having the specific thing the other wanted. And from this, humans went on to bills when coins and jewels and other objects became too cumbersome. And, lately, we have added electronic funds, as even bills are cumbersome in million unit, billion unit and trillion unit transactions. But the foundation of all these monetary units is the meaningful energy expended, whether human or resource-based (oil, coal, nuclear, etc.) energy.

There Must Be War Before The Dollar Crash

Global stability remains precarious and will continue to deteriorate steadily as the dollar continues to lose sway as the global financial monolith.

India is being pressured by the US State Department (with staggering hubris) to reduce their oil procurement from Iran. America, a country with a population of 310 million, and consumer of 25% of total world oil production is commanding India, a country of 1.2 billion, to abate their oil imports under US demand.

They're not even giving the courtesy of disguising their pretentiousness that goes along with international politics this time. This is being conducted unilaterally.  Another way of putting it: "Because I say so! That's why!" This could backfire drastically if India does the right thing and begins to make payment in bullion. The rest of the OPEC nations would likely follow suit and begin to exchange their black gold for shiny yellow gold. This would be the end of paper money around the world. Which in itself is not such a bad idea.

The Russians and the Chinese are getting irritated with this irrational American exuberance for WWIII. This is not actually what the American people want, but as former Vice President Dick Cheney once remarked in an interview with ABC's Good Morning America, when the White House correspondent said polls show that two-thirds of Americans believe the war is not worth fighting, Cheney responded with a 'so?'

On the other side of the globe,

The Venus Project addressed the Occupy Miami

The Venus Project addressed the Occupy Miami group on November 20, 2011. It was almost a 3-hour drive for TVP but they felt it very important to attempt to provide Occupy Miami with their proposed solutions. There was a good turnout, with over 100 in attendance and it was adjacent to Occupy Miami’s tent city. The weather was fantastic other than a short burst of showers that forced everyone to huddle close together under the shelter of a close building.

Roxanne introduced Jacque and he spoke for hours until we had to convince him it was time to go! Jacque’s unyielding dedication and perseverance is still amazing after all this time. Overall the talk went very well and was received with great enthusiasm. We are thankful to Occupy Miami for organizing the event.

This 15 minute video is clips from the full presentation which was approximately 1 1/2 hours.

Researchers develop plant-based technology that helps biofuels, may fight cancer

For the first time, University of Florida researchers have developed plant-based technology that could reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil and may also help treat cancer.

Known as lignin nanotubes, these cylindrical containers are smaller than viruses and tiny enough to travel through the body, carrying cancer patients’ medicine. They can be created in biorefineries from lignin, a plant substance that is a byproduct of bioethanol production.

Bioethanol is a renewable alternative to fossil fuel created by fermenting sugar — such as that from sugarcane and sweet sorghum juices, stalks and stems.


“We’re looking at biomedical applications whereby these nanotubes are injected in the body,” said Wilfred

Aspartame – Sweet'n'Slow Killer!

Aspartame (E951) is an artificial sweetener, used in over 6000 products. The food industry claims that aspartame helps in losing weight, but why is obesity then becoming such an ever increasing problem?
Aspartame is a very sweet chemical, responsible for a host of health problems such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, brain diseases, migraines, ADHD, etc.

Aspartame breaks down into three toxic components:
1. Methanol.
This is poisonous alcohol. In the body, methanol breaks down into formaldehyde, which is a poison.
2. Phenylalanine.
This decreases the amount serotonin in your brain, which leads to mood swings (depressions) and an increased appetite! That is why aspartame is one of the main causes for the current obesity epidemic.
3. Aspartic acid.
This is a neurological toxin comparable to MSG.

The US Department of Health has recorded 92 (!) symptoms following complaints about aspartame. In fact, over 80% of all complaints filed with FDA are related to aspartame consumption!

Jiddu Krishnamurti - An individual and society

What is society? Is it not the relationship of one individual with another? If individuals in themselves are ignorant, cruel, ambitious, and so on, their society will reflect all that they are in themselves. We all see the necessity, the importance of social change. Wars, starvation, ruthless pursuit of power, and so on, with these we are all familiar, and some earnestly desire to change these conditions. How are you going to change them? By destroying the many or the few who create the disharmony in the world? Who are the many or the few? You and I, aren't we? Each one is involved in it, because we are greedy, we are possessive, we crave for power. We want to bring order within society, but how are we to do it? Do you seriously think there are only a few who are responsible for this social disorganization, these wars and hatreds? How are you going to get rid of them? If you destroy them, you use the very means they have employed and so make of yourself also an instrument of hatred and brutality. Hate cannot be destroyed by hate, however much you may like to hide your hate under pleasant sounding words.

Guide for Self Healing and Healthy Life - Dr Sladjana Velkov

"There is only one disease, 
therefore, only one treatment. 
These diet and healthy life tips helps with all diseases."




Each advice is of essential importance for total healing.

1. One hour after sunrise or before sunset-practice sungazing, start with 10seconds, increasing for 10seconds every day. Stay barefoot on dry soil or concrete. 
2. Drink non fluoridated sun-charged water (in plain glass bottles, exposed to sunlight for 5 hours or more. Don’t leave it overnight) 
3. Walk or exercise daily.
4. Get as much sunlight (without wearing glasses or sunscreen) as you can and as feels comfortable (without burning your skin).
5. Avoid fluorescent lighting. 
6. Deeply breathe-in outdoor fresh air for at least 20 minutes in the morning and evening.
7. Walk barefoot for at least 15 minutes. Spend an hour a day alone in peace. 
8. Ensure you are sleeping between 10 pm-2 am, since our body produces healing hormones during those hours. Follow the sun cycle.
9. Avoid watching TV, movies (except selected), and reading newspapers. Find a fulfilling and peaceful hobby, read books, paint, and listen to relaxing music.
10. Avoid commercial cosmetic products (replace them with natural ones).
11. Avoid industrial and processed food. Do not use industrial soups or flavors containing Mono Sodium Glutamate (found in almost all salty industrial food); use sea salt and organic flavors. 
12. Do not use diet products containing artificial sweeteners. Use maltex or honey.
13. Do not consume alcohol, tobacco, coffee, black tea, chewing gums, canned food or drinks.
14. Gradually eliminate all medicines, under supervision of a health practitioner.
15. Do not use synthetic vitamins.
16. Replace air fresheners with natural herbs like lavender.
17. Avoid using mobile phone by using wire headset and keep it away from your body.
18. If you consume cooked vegetables, ensure you also consume raw vegetables twice as much.
19. Practice good vibrations and emotions, be positive, have a smile on your face at all times, as this will help to produce healing hormones.
20. Do not think or talk negative about yourself and others or disease, as your subconscious follows your thoughts; act as you are healthy.
21. Forgive and get rid of hatred and anger, which produce negative hormones and worsen

"Origins and Adaptations" - Peter Joseph's lecture, Zday 2012

Peter Joseph gives a talk entitled 'Origins and Adaptations' at Zeitgeist Day 2012 in Vancouver, Canada.

Part 1 - Origins of our economic system


Part 2 - Adaptations, hybrid economy


Section 1 covers structual psihology - evolution of current social order
Section 2 of Part 1, named Market vs. Tehnical efficency, explains contradictions of free market and natural order.

PART 1:

Consumerism: An Obsession

History

A long time ago, our society decided to make a shift. The shift that we made was to leave behind our farming roots and progress towards an industrial society. This shift is important to examine because this shift quite possibly could have influenced our behaviors as a society. We wanted to involve more machines and less man power in our production of goods. There were many reasons why our society chose to make this shift such as a large increase in population, but a major reason was to increase the amount of products we produced in a certain amount of time.
By converting to this type of system, it allowed our society to not only receive goods at a quicker rate, but also develop an obsession for consumption. In addition, the shift in production also shifted our thoughts to what we want as opposed to what we actually need. Our capitalist society relies on us to spend our earned dollars in order to stimulate the economy and keep it flowing at a good pace. The way capitalism contributes to consumerism is the fact that we must consume things in order for our economy not to fail.

The Consumer
Capitalism relies on us so much that we actually have a title that describes what our behaviors and actions are supposed to look like and that title is called the consumer. Outside of a person or thing that consumes, the term consumer can be defined as, a person who acquires goods and services for his or her own personal needs. The task of the consumer is to find a job, acquire some sort of currency, and then spend it in the economy. This process is often disguised by ideas like the American Dream that hide the true reason and meaning behind our spending.

What is Consumerism?

To this point I have discussed things like capitalism and consumption that contribute to consumerism, but I have not directly described what consumerism actually is. Consumerism can be defined as an economic or social order that is based upon the systematic creation and building a desire to acquire goods and services in increasing amounts. The economic order that the definition refers to is capitalism. The economy thrives when people are spending and acquiring goods. We still operate on the basis of capitalism even though a good amount of people are starting to realize that capitalism isn’t exactly our best bet with a society of our size. It appears that capitalism has shifted our behaviors and that we have been trained by a higher, economic power to have a desire to buy/acquire goods and services.

Our Situation
It appears that we have become the cash cow for the many businesses in our economy. The reason I say this is because we have placed an equal value in mate

Osho: "No society wants you to be wise"

No society wants you to become wise: it is against the investment of all societies. If people are wise they cannot be exploited. If they are intelligent they cannot be subjugated, they cannot be forced into a mechanical life, to live like robots. They will assert themselves - they will assert their individuality. They will have the fragrance of rebellion around them; they will want to live in freedom.

Freedom comes with wisdom, intrinsically. They are inseparable, and no society wants people to be free. The communist society, the fascist society, the capitalist society, the Hindu, the Mohammedan, the Christian -- no society likes people to use their own intelligence because the moment they start using their intelligence they become dangerous -- dangerous to the establishment, dangerous to the people who are in power, dangerous to the "haves"; dangerous to all kinds

MONEY - the perfect tool for Enslavement

They have achieved this through their centrally controlled banks which they manipulate the flow and availability of money available to the public via interest rates. As today’s medium of exchange for goods and services, “Money” is what everyone is striving for in order to obtain the goods and services they require and demand. In today’s materialistic and superficial world and because of our indoctrination that having materialistic possessions will provide us eternal love and happiness, we believe that money is the only way out of our misery and problems. Thus most of us make that our first priority in our lives because all of us want to achieve a better life for ourselves.



Our indoctrination starts from the day we were born from what we were taught by our parents on how to be “Successful”, the education system teaching us how and who to be in order to be successful, the media ranging from movies, television programmes, magazines, newspapers, advertisements showing us the

GMO Basics by Jeffrey Smith

The leading consumer advocate for non-GMO choices, Jeffrey M. Smith, is the author of the world's best selling books on the dangers of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Jeffrey exposes how biotech companies mislead consumers, legislators and safety officials to put everyone's health in peril. Jeffrey founded the Institute for Responsible Technology in 2003.

A GMO (genetically modified organism) is the result of a laboratory process where genes from the DNA of one species are extracted and artificially forced into the genes of an unrelated plant or animal. The foreign genes may come from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even humans. Because this involves the transfer of genes, GMOs are also known as "transgenic" organisms. This process may be called either Genetic Engineering (GE) or Genetic Modification (GM); they are one and the same.

Where are GMO's? In most of your food! First introduced into the food supply in the mid-1990s, GMOs are now present in the vast majority of processed foods in the U.S. While they are banned as food ingredients in Europe and elsewhere, the FDA

Are You living healthy?

Why eat Raw food?
The raw food diet is based on the belief that the most healthful food for the body is uncooked. Although most food is eaten raw, heating food is acceptable as long as the temperature stays below 104 to 118 degrees Fahrenheit - 45.6C (the cutoff temperature varies among those in the raw food community).

Cooking is thought to denature the enzymes naturally present in food. According to raw foodists, enyzymes are the life force of a food, helping us to digest food and absorb nutrients. If we overconsume cooked food, our bodies are forced to work harder by producing more enzymes. Over time, a lack of enzymes from food is thought to lead to digestive problems, nutrient deficiency, accelerated aging, and weight gain.
Cooking food can diminish its nutritional value. For example, the cancer-fighting compounds in broccoli, sulforaphanes, are greatly reduced when broccoli is cooked. Certain vitamins, such as vitamin C and folate, are destroyed by heat. Other foods, however, become more healthful after cooking, because the fibrous portion is broken down. For example, cooked tomatoes contain three to four times more lycopene than raw tomatoes.
Cooking also promotes the formation of potentially harmful compounds in food during high heat cooking, such as advanced glycation end products and heterocyclic amines.


What Do I Eat On a Raw Food Diet?
There are different ways that people follow a raw food diet. Most people who follow a raw food diet are vegan. Some consume raw animal products, such as raw milk, cheese made from raw milk, sashimi, ceviche (raw fish), or carpaccio (raw meat). Some people eat only raw foods, while others include cooked food for variety and convenience. The percentage of raw food is

How To Safely Detox Fluoride From Your Body

As many people already know the commonly used sodium fluoride is extremely toxic, and contrary to most “medical professionals” it is not good for the human body.
But if you have become health conscious and stopped drinking fluoridated water, your good right? Yes and No.
If you were raised in a community that fluoridates the water, it has built up in your system. Sodium fluoride is an accumulative poison. If you are like me, born and raised in a fluoridated city, it has built up in your body. Mainly in your bones, thyroid glad, and pineal gland. So how do you get that fluoride out of your system?
That is a very complicated question. There is no 100% verified method of totally detoxing fluorides from your body. But there is several methods that I have used (along with many others), that can make a huge difference. For example: Joint pain disappearing, Chronic headaches gone, an ability to think clearer, and weight loss.
Number one of course is to stop fluoride exposure as much as you can. Even though you may have stopped drinking it in your water, many preserved foods contain it.
Second is to start using a sauna regularly. Saunas expel many heavy metals and toxins (including fluoride) from your system. Third, getting enough sunlight daily plays a large role in detoxing the pineal gland. As well as getting enough time in the dark. Sounds strange I know. But the right balance of light and darkness helps to regulate the melatonin production (the main function of the pineal gland). Fourth is getting enough exercise (which also helps regulate melatonin production). And fifth is doing a raw liver detox. The raw detox is were most people cringe and get turned away. But it is very simple and effective. All that you need to do is drink two cups of tea a day, cut back on preserved foods, and increase your intake of raw foods. Here is the tea recipe that I use.
* 1 thick slice of lemon
* 1 piece of fresh ginger, 2/3″ long, peeled and bruised
* 1 cup boiling water
Place lemon and ginger in cup. Add boiling water and leave to infuse for two minutes. Remove lemon and ginger and drink immediately.
Using these five methods is very effective! But it is not a quick fix. It took all of that fluoride years to accumulate, and it will take years to get it all out. Everyone is different and can expect different results, but for myself I started to feel a large difference in 3 months. I have now been doing it for 3 years, and have felt great! I am at the point that if I drink a cup of coffee that contains fluoridated water, or eat a processed food that has fluoride, I become physically ill.

Sorce: http://canadianawareness.org/2011/03/how-to-safely-detox-fluoride-from-your-body/

STOP A.C.T.A.!

The Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a multilateral agreement that recommends international standards for the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

According to the participants the aim is to reduce more efficiently the alleged rise of product piracy. The negotiations are underway since June 2008 and are currently in their 7th round.


Every single negotiation round was held secretly without access for the public or even members of the European Parliament (EP), but industrial lobbyists, like members of the IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) had access to the agreement drafts. Such methods are not compatible with democratic standards and are

"Defining Peace" new lecture by Peter Joseph / "Definisanje mira" - novo predavanje Pitera Džozefa

Peter Joseph's 1.5 hour Lecture "Defining Peace"; the end segment of Mid-East TZM Event which occurred on Feb 6th 2012. in Tel Aviv, Israel. 


This lecture is divided into 4 sections.The first is entitled 'The History of Human Conflict and the Human Nature Debate' and which will stubborn concept that we humans are inherently and inalterably aggressive and territorial will be addressed.
Part 2: 'The State Character and Coercion' consider the origin of the modern state and its characteristics. Moreover and more profoundly, the influence of the state on the values of the culture will be addressed especially regarding loyalty, patriotism.
Part 3: 'The Culture of War Business, Ownership and Competition' gives a deeper look at the underlining condition motivation which appears to have created the state and its power and the war propensity itself will be considered. 
The final section, Part 4: 'Defining Peace a New Social Contract'  deduce what societal characteristics support peace, and what do not and how we as a world society can reset our societal condition to allow for this newfound human balance before it's too late. 

Predavanje Pitera Džozefa "Definisanje mira", završnica TZM događaja Srednjeg Istoka, održanog 6. februara 2012. u Tel Avivu u Izraelu. 
Ovo predavanje podeljeno je u četiri sekcije. Prva nosi naslov  "Istorija ljudskog konflikta i debata o ljudskoj prirodi", gde će tvrdoglavi koncepti da smo mi kao ljudi sami po sebi i nepromenljivo agresivni i teritorialni biti opovrgnuti.
Drugi deo: " Karakter države i prinuda " razmatra poreklo moderne države i njene karakteristike. Što više i što dublje gledamo, uticaj države na vrednosti kulture će se otkiti naročito u pogledu lojalnosti, patriotizma.
Treći deo " Kultura ratovanja biznisa, posedovanja i takmičenja " daje dublje u istaknute uslove motivacije za koje se čini da su stvorili državu i njenu moć a takođe ćemo razmatrati i samu sklonost prema ratovanju.
U poslednjoj sekciji, četvrti deo: "Definisanje mira novi društveni profil" zaključuje se koje društvene karakteristike podržavaju mir, a koje ne i kako mi kao svetsko društvo možemo resetovati naše socijalne uslove kako bi dozvolili novootkriveni ljudski balans pre nego što bude kasno.

Paradise or Obvilion, new documentary by The Venus Project, coming in March 2012!

This free online documentary  details the root causes of the systemic value disorders and detrimental symptoms caused by our current established system. This video presentation advocates a new socio-economic system, which is updated to present-day knowledge, featuring the life-long work of Social Engineer, Futurist, Inventor and Industrial Designer Jacque Fresco, which he calls a Resource-Based Economy.


The film details the need to outgrow the dated and inefficient methods of politics, law, business, or any other "establishment" notions of human affairs, and use the methods of science, combined with high technology, to provide for the needs of all the world's people. It is not based on the opinions of the political and financial elite or on illusionary so-called democracies, but on maintaining a dynamic equilibrium with the planet that could ultimately provide abundance for all people.


Paradise or Oblivion introduces the viewer to a more appropriate value system that would be required to enable this caring and holistic approach to benefit human civilization. This alternative surpasses the need for a monetary-based, controlled, and scarcity-oriented environment, which we find ourselves in today. 


NOTE: This is NOT the “major motion picture” that The Venus Project is working towards but rather is a 52 minute documentary to introduce the aims and proposals to new people.


More info about the Venus Project: http://www.thevenusproject.com/

The truth about food additives: how they threaten your health

In an extract from his new book, The Power of Self-Healing, Dr Fabrizio Mancini explains why sugar and food additives - from aspartame to trans fats - could have a severely detrimental effect on your health

More than ever, I believe that we’ve become increasingly concerned about what’s in the 1,500 pounds of food each of us eats every year. We’re enjoying more lean meat, vegetables and fruits - and trying to cut back on fattening stuff like desserts and fried foods. All of this is certainly a step in the right direction, but many of us still have a long way to go. Our misconceptions run rampant, too. Some people still think margarine is much better than butter (it’s not - margarine is high in nasty, artery-clogging trans fats), so they’ll use twice as much. Or they think granola bars are a healthy snack, when they’re actually processed foods, loaded with fat and sugar.
The Suppressors
Any dietary problem can turn into a health problem. What I’d like to do is look at what I call the suppressors, foods that negate self-healing. They can make an unexpected appearance in your lifestyle, and you might not even be aware of them. Fortunately, I don’t have a long list so a few little tweaks will obliterate suppressors from your diet.

Added Sugar 
Ever wondered why you get cold sores or canker sores after eating candy or sweets? The reason is this: sugar is an ‘immunosuppressant.’ It interferes with the activity of immune-boosting lymphocytes. Your natural defences go down - and you get infections. Imagine 150
bags of sugar piled up in your garage. That’s how much sugar the average person consumes in a year! This means many of us are suppressing our immune systems by eating too much sugar. I believe that if we stopped eating such large amounts, we’d see a major decrease in colds, flu, and other infections.

You may have heard that sugar feeds cancer cells. There is evidence for this, but here is actually what happens: A diet high in sugar and refined foods makes blood sugar, or glucose, spike really high. This spike increases insulin production in the body (insulin helps your cells store and use glucose). Blood chemistry marked by chronically elevated glucose and elevated insulin sets the stage for cancer and its spread. Cancer cells are studded with insulin receptors. Receptors operate like door locks. Once insulin gets to the receptor, it acts like a key and unlocks the receptors on the cell wall. The cell opens up and lets insulin in the cancer cell, where it stimulates the division of the cell. Can you circumvent this process? Yes - in the following ways: avoiding refined sugars and flours, exercising regularly, cutting back on alcohol, reducing stress, and taking certain nutritional supplements. Sugar in all its various forms, including corn syrup,
contributes to obesity and therefore to a whole range of related problems such as high blood

Global Activism is Taking Down the Toxic Corporate Food Industry

The foundation of the international food industry, monopolized by large corporations that hold zero regard for your health, is cracking. As more and more individuals begin to realize that they are eating their way to disease through the consumption of these products, they become outraged at the companies peddling their latest toxic food product. The result? Companies are now being forced to either answer to the consumer demands (removing the toxic substances from the food supply and adapting legitimate environmental manufacturing practices) , or lose their customer
Increasingly, we see this happening on a larger scale. Major companies like Campbell’s have begun abandoning bisphenol A (BPA), the cancer-linked chemical found in can linings and plastic containers. The change comes after even the FDA was forced to re-evaluate the safety of BPA, potentially issuing a ban by the end of this month. Linked to cancer, diabetes, and much more, consumers have become fully aware of the dangers that BPA presents — and they aren’t handing over their hard-earned dollars to companies that refuse to remove BPA from their products.
On a larger scale, corporations are also being forced to remove high-fructose corn syrup. Well known for its health effects even throughout the general public, not only does high-fructose corn syrup breed obesity and cancer, but it is even known to contain mercury. Consumers are now refusing to eat anything that contains this ingredient, and for good reason. Even Michelle Obama has gone public in stating that she refuses to feed her own children products that contain high-fructose corn syrup. It is due to this that food titans like Sara Lee and Kraft have begun removing the ingredient from their products to avoid losing a large number of sales.
Activism and education is making legitimate changes in the way that the world eats and thinks.
While it is a major victory that these companies are phasing out these ingredients, it is only the beginning of the mass rejuvination of the food supply that needs to take place in order for consumers to experience optimum health. BPA and high-fructose corn syrup alone are creating biological devastation, but what about aspartame, MSG, genetically modified ingredients, trans fat, and other harmful additives? These harmful substances can be removed as well; it simply requires the same activism and education that is resulting in the removal of BPA and high-fructose corn syrup.
Spread the word. It will not only change the health of your close friends and family, but the entire globe. Removing just a few toxic ingredients can prevent countless unnecessary deaths as a result of disease development
Source: http://www.realnews24.com/global-activism-is-taking-down-the-toxic-corporate-food-industry/

Fast 3D printing with nanoscale precision

Printing three dimensional objects with very fine details using two-photon lithography can now be achieved orders of magnitude faster than similar devices in a breakthrough by Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) researchers.
The 3D printing process uses a liquid resin, which is hardened at precisely the correct spots by a focused laser beam. The focal point of the laser beam is guided through the resin by movable mirrors and leaves behind a hardened line of solid polymer a few hundred nanometers wide.
This fine resolution enables the creation of intricately structured sculptures as tiny as a grain of sand. “Until now, this technique used to be quite slow”, says Professor Jürgen Stampfl from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at the TU Vienna. “The printing speed used to be measured in millimeters per second — our device can do five meters in one second.” In two-photon lithography, this is a world record.
This progress was made possible by combining several new ideas. “It was crucial to improve the steering mechanism of the mirrors,” says Jan Torgersen (TU Vienna). The mirrors are continuously in motion during the printing process. The acceleration and deceleration-periods have to be tuned very precisely to achieve high-resolution results at a record-breaking speed.

Faster printing for large objects too
“The resin contains molecules, activated by the laser light. They induce a chain reaction in other components of the resin, monomers, and turn them into a solid,” says Torgersen. These initiator molecules are only activated if they absorb two photons of the laser beam at once, and this only happens in the very center of the laser beam, where the intensity is highest.

In contrast to conventional 3D-printing techniques, solid material can be created anywhere within the liquid resin rather than on top of the previously created layer only. So the working surface does not have to be specially prepared before the next layer can be produced (see video), which saves a lot of time.

Because of the dramatically increased speed, much larger objects can now be created in a given period of time. This makes two-photon-lithography an interesting technique for industry.

At the TU Vienna, scientists are now developing biocompatible resins for medical applications. They can be used to create scaffolds to which living cells can attach themselves facilitating the systematic creation of biological tissues. The 3d printer could also be used to create tailor made construction parts for biomedical technology or nanotechnology.

Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence

Source: http://www.zeitnews.org/

Stumped by a Problem? This Technique Unsticks You

Stuck solving a problem? Seek the obscure, says Tony McCaffrey, a psychology PhD from the University of Massachusetts. “There’s a classic obstacle to innovation called ‘functional fixedness,’ which is the tendency to fixate on the common use of an object or its parts. It hinders people from solving problems.” McCaffrey has developed a systematic way of overcoming that obstacle: the “generic parts technique” (GPT), which he describes in the latest issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. The article also reports on McCaffrey’s test of GPT’s effectiveness. Its results: People trained in GPT solved eight problems 67 percent more often than those who weren’t trained, and the first group solved them more than 8 times out of 10.
Here’s how GPT works: “For each object in your problem, you break it into parts and ask two questions,” explains McCaffrey, who is now a post-doctoral fellow in UMass’s engineering department. “1. Can it be broken down further? and 2. — this is the one that’s been overlooked — Does my description of the part imply a use?” So you’re given two steel rings and told to make a figure-8 out of them. Your tools? A candle and a match. Melted wax is sticky, but the wax isn’t strong enough to hold the rings together. What about the other part of the candle? The wick. The word implies a use: Wicks are set afire to give light. “That tends to hinder people’s ability to think of alternative uses for this part,” says McCaffrey. Think of the wick more generically as a piece of string and the string as strands of cotton and you’re liberated. Now you can remove the wick and tie the two rings together. Or, if you like, shred the string and make a wig for your hamster.

McCaffrey has drawn his insights by analyzing 1,001 historically innovative inventions. In every one, he found, the innovator discovered an obscure feature or an obscure function. McCaffrey cites a recent invention to solve a modern problem. “In this very poor section of the Philippines, people living in shanties were using electric lights inside while it was sunny outside,” he says. How to save money on electricity? “Take a 2-liter Coke bottle, stick it through a hole in the roof, fill it with water. The water reflects the light around the inside the house.” A simple idea, using an overlooked feature of water: “It refracts light 360 degrees.”

GPT is one of a “palette” of techniques McCaffrey is developing into what he calls “innovation assistance software,” which itself can be put to novel uses. His undergraduate student, a comedy writer, is applying the technique to build obscure situations that can make people laugh.

Provided by Association for Psychological Science
Source: http://www.zeitnews.org/