Blondes drive men stupid

Blonde women really do make men lose their heads, according to scientists.

Tests showed that men performed worse after they were shown pictures of fair-haired women, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Researchers concluded that rather than simply being distracted, the men were subconsciously copying the stereotype of the "blonde bimbo".

Academics at the University of Paris X-Nanterre examined men's ability to complete general knowledge tests after exposure to women with different hair colours.

Throughout both trials, those participants exposed to blondes recorded the lowest scores.

"This proves that people confronted with stereotypes generally behave in line with them," said Thierry Meyer, joint author of the study and professor of social psychology at the university.

"In this case blondes have the potential to make people act in a dumber way, because they mimic the unconscious stereotype of the dumb blonde."

Source

Side effects of food you didn't know

Here is a list of 10 common side effects caused by the food we eat:

Weight gain aside, I would rarely think of any other complications or side effects the food may cause. Side effects are attributed to medications or medical procedures, but not food, right? Well, guess again. Turns out, the food we eat may also cause side effects. Some side effects are serious, some are disturbing, and some may put you into embarrassing situation.

1. Body Odor. Researchers found that red meat consumption negatively influences on body odor [1].
   


2. Acne. Foods that are high in saturated fat and trans fatty acids increase the sebum production in the body, which in turn increases acne. Researchers suggest that there is a positive association between milk consumption and acne.


3. Allergy. Allergy is a number one foods side effect. In theory, any food can cause an allergy. But in fact there are 8 foods to blame for 90% of allergic reactions to food: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (including Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts), fish, shellfish, soy and wheat.


4. Candidiasis (Yeast infection). Yeast infections are caused by an overgrowth of the normal yeast in the body, so foods that affect the yeast levels may contribute to a yeast infection. These foods are: sugars, vinegar, starches, refined carbohydrates, yeast and yeast containing products.


5. Heartburn and Acid Reflux. There is a relatively long list of foods that cause heartburn. Some foods cause the lower esophageal sphincter - a muscle that helps to keep stomach contents out of the esophagus - to become weaker, and some cause the stomach to produce more acid than usual. Both of these problems can increase acid reflux. Most common food triggers for heartburn are citrus fruits, fried and fatty foods, vinegar, tomatoes, chocolate.


6. High Cholesterol (Hyperlipidemia). Cholesterol is found mostly in animal foods. Consumption of cholesterol-rich foods can elevate blood cholesterol level, which may increase the risk of heart attack or stroke. High cholesterol foods are: brains (beef, pork, lamb), eggs, organ meat (liver, kidneys, spleen).
   


7. Kidney stones. People whose diets are high in animal protein and low in fiber and fluids may be at higher risk for stones. Several studies have shown that increasing dietary calcium and restricting salt, animal protein, and foods rich in oxalate, such as rhubarb, spinach, cocoa, nuts, pepper, and tea, can help prevent calcium oxalate stones from returning [2].


8. Memory and Cognition Impairment. Among older adults whose diets are high in saturated fats and trans fats, a high intake of foods containing copper may cause a fast decline in their ability to think, learn, and remember, according to the study from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago [3]. The research studies have linked fat intake, especially that of saturated and trans fats, to Alzheimer's disease and other forms of cognitive difficulties.


9. Edema and Water Retention. Foods high in salt, sodium or sugar may cause the body to retain considerable fluids and worsen edema. The body needs a constant concentration of salt in its tissues. When excess salt is taken in, the body dilutes it by retaining fluid.
   


10. Migraine and Headache. Foods may trigger not only migraine but also tension type headache, which feels like tightening of a band around the head, making the whole head ache. Foods cause headaches by affecting the brain chemistry or changing the size of blood vessels. Certain foods cause headache in most vulnerable people because of their high content of the amino acids tyramine and phenyethyamine. The tyramine increases blood flow to the brain, which can lead to a headache. Common headache food triggers are aged cheese, beer, red wine, chocolate, nitrite-containing foods.

Source

Top 12 Most Frequent Issues That Kill Men

Death comes a little bit differently if you’re a man or a woman. Besides hormonal and anatomical causes, it’s the careless behavior of men what makes them live 7 years less than women. In the West, 70 % of men aged 30-50 are overweight and 40 % are too stressed.

Race also counts: in the US, Blacks are more likely to die in an altercation or of HIV, Latinos in accidents, Native Americans of cirrhosis and other liver issues, while Whites are more prone to Alzheimer’s disease, while the Mongoloids to various forms of cancer.
These are the top factors causing men’s death:

1. Heart issues are the main cause of death both in men (28%) and women. But men are more predisposed to hearth failure than women are due to testosterone. They develop these diseases earlier, and 25 % of the victims are aged 35 to 65.

Hearth health is affected by high cholesterol, smoking, alcohol, overweight, hypertension, diabetes but also heredity.

Only minor consume of red wine is recommended. Saturated fats (sausages, pork, diary products) must be replaced by vegetables, greens, fish and some red meat. Light exercising like walking rapidly for one hour daily strengthens the hearth. If allowed, take your daily aspirin.

2. Cancer kills 24% of the men. The most frequent is lung cancer, in 90 % of the cases caused by smoking, but it also can be hereditary or determined by the contact with toxic compounds at work. Combined with alcohol, smoking causes larynx cancer. In one year after quitting smoking, the risk of cancer decreases significantly. The second most deadly cancer in men is colon cancer.

90 % of liver cancers are due to drinking and infection with hepatitis virus C. 10 % are determined by infection with hepatitis virus B or hereditary metabolic conditions. Intensive pills intake, risky sexual behavior and hereditary factors also count.

There is also the autoimmune chronic hepatitis and non ethylic steatohepatitis, which produce lesions similar to the alcohol-produced ones in abstinent persons, due to the mixture of obesity, diabetes and fat alterations in the plasm, linked to the hyper-caloric diets and sedentary life.

Moderate alcohol consume and the vaccine against hepatitis virus B always help.

Prostate cancer is not linked to diseases, lifestyles, or alimentation, but to age and heredity. 80% of the eighty-year-old men have prostate cancer, even if they die of other condition. A small percentage of this cancer is deadly, but it can severely impair one’s life. If there are cases in the family, prostate cancer checks must be made after 50, when the tumor can be detected in initial stages and cured completely.

Penis cancer, almost inexistent, is determined by lack of hygiene and sexual promiscuity. Bladder cancer is triggered by smoking or contact with anilines (colorants) and petroleum.

By avoiding overexposure to sunlight, skin cancer can be avoided.

3. Accidents kill 5,9% of the men. The most frequent are the car crashes that kill twice more men than women, as men tend not to use the safety belts, are more prone to speeding and many times drive drunk, or fall asleep at the wheel.

4. Strokes count for 5.1 % of the male deaths. They are linked to heredity, hypertension, diabetes, fat metabolism diseases and chronic headaches. Regular checks of the tension, controlled body weight, low stress, sport control and low alcohol consume keep them away.

5. Lung obstructive chronic diseases (counting with 5,1%), like emphysema or chronic bronquitis are mainly caused by smoking, which increases the risk 12 times.

6. 2,9% of men die of diabetes. 30% of the patients do not even know they have it. They find it out after severe complications install: impotence, neurological issues, kidney and vision impairment.

7. Flu and pneumonia finish 2,4% of the men, especially vulnerable being those with lung obstructive chronic diseases, asthma or smokers, but also suffering of diabetes, heart or AIDS.

8. Most suicidal people are men. Men are exposed to depression due to medical factors (depressive disorders, alcoholism, or chronic painful diseases) and social causes (old age, loneliness, lack of family support, stressing events). The highest factor that leads to suicide in men is linked to how men experience personal difficulties.

Being generally more rigid, inflexible, introverted and impulsive than a woman, when a man faces a severe difficulty, he can choose the evasive way of acting and commit suicide. Men can’t stand loneliness or matrimonial separation the way a women do and usually they don’t speak about their problems, so they don’t free themselves from the pain. That’s why about 7 % of the men may develop depression, an important risk factor for committing suicide.

Moreover, men live with more stress and anguish from their work, generating more health conditions and anxiety states. Women display depression through sadness and a feeling of uselessness, while men through tiresome, irritability and sleep impairment. Depression can be masked by alcohol and drug consume.

Men should communicate more and have a life project that can be adjusted to reality. If it is shared, it’s better. And they must assume more coherently the ‘response’ to other proposals which the others want to develop.

9. Kidney issues wipe out 1,7% of the men. They can be diabetes linked complications or due to high blood pressure, or drug abuse, like aspirin and ibuprofen, which are toxic for the kidney. People with kidney issues should drink more liquids.

10. Obesity. Women usually accumulate fat on the hips, while men on the abdomen, which is more dangerous, as this is associated with metabolic and respiratory complications: diabetes, apnea, hypertension, vascular conditions, elevated levels of the blood triglycerides (saturated fats) and low levels of the artery-protecting HDL cholesterol and others.

Obesity killed 154,884 US citizens between 2000-2005.

Men must adopt healthy diets, exercise and reject miraculous diets. Family should be supportive on this.

Men with over 108 cm (3.5 ft) around the waist should pay a visit to a doctor to determine the caloric expense and know the disposition of their body fat.

11. Sleep apnea. The high incidence of sleep apnea amongst men is due to the fat accumulation around their necks when they gain weight. As muscular tone decreases while sleeping, the respiratory ways get narrower due to the fat pressure and cannot let the air pass. There are also hormonal factors. Sleep apnea affects the quality of the sleep, turning the person sleepy and irritable during the day, with high risk for traffic accidents.

There are also cardiovascular problems. If during sleep, there are more respiratory pauses of over 10 seconds, at least 10 times per hour, apnea is present. Obesity must be fought against through diet and exercising. In severe cases, special masks that introduce the air to the respiratory paths must be used.

12. Alzheimer’s or senile dementia affects about 4,5 million Americans, men and women. Women experience it more often as they live longer.

Content By: Stefan Anitei

Sunbathing 'slows ageing process'

Sunbathing can slow the ageing process by up to five years, according to new research.

Scientists have found that people who avoid the sun, or have inadequate vitamin D in their diet, are subject to genetic damage associated with ageing and age-related illnesses.

The effect of the damage is so great that those who lack vitamin D - often called the "sunshine vitamin" because 90 per cent of the body's intake is created by exposure to the sun - were biologically five years older than those with the highest levels.

Lead researcher Dr Brent Richards, from King's College, London said: "These results are exciting because they demonstrate for the first time that people with high levels of vitamin D may age more slowly than people with lower levels.

"This helps to explain how vitamin D has a protective effect on age-related illnesses such as heart disease."

Co-author Prof Tim Spector, also of King's College, said the study showed people should spend more time in the sun and eat more foods rich in vitamin D such as fish, eggs, fortified milk and breakfast cereals, or take supplements.

About one-third of the population is thought to be vitamin D deficient. Prof Spector said: "There are scares about melanomas, which do affect several thousand people per year.

"But vitamin D deficiency is making hundreds of thousands of people ill with potentially fatal diseases."

Cancer campaigners pointed out that too much exposure to the sun can cause skin cancer, which kills about 1,800 people in the UK each year.

Henry Scowcroft, of Cancer Research UK, said: "It doesn't take much time in the sun to make vitamin D, and always less time than it takes to redden or burn."

Source

Pollutants Implicated in Births of More Girls Than Boys

A recent study found that residents of Canadian communities who were exposed to emissions from polluting industries such as oil refineries, metal smelters, and pulp mills gave birth to more females than males, a reversal of the normal sex ratio. This is likely due to high levels of common air pollutants called dioxins and is not a surprising finding, according to James Argo, a medical geographer with the IntrAmericas Centre for Environment and Health, who conducted the study. “There is a very strong association [in the scientific literature] between chronic exposure to dioxins and an inverted sex ratio,” he said.

The study is the second phase of a three-part project to examine the links between early exposure to industrial pollution and the development of cancer. In the early 1990s, Argo documented the lifetime residences of 20,000 people who had cancer and 5,000 “control” subjects who did not have the illness. The database was developed to inform research about people’s exposure to industrial pollutants throughout their lifetimes, including prenatal exposure, Argo said.

The inverted sex ratios became apparent when Argo looked at the genders of children born to parents who lived within 25 kilometers of a polluting industry. The percentage of girls was higher in all of the nearly 90 communities surveyed, and in some communities, residents gave birth to as few as 46 males for every 54 females, compared to a normal sex ratio of 51 males for every 49 females. Chronic exposure to dioxins “interferes with the process of conception,” so people who have been exposed for over 20 years or so “will have a higher probability of giving birth to females,” Argo said.

Studies conducted in Russia, Italy, and elsewhere have also linked inverted sex ratios to dioxin exposure, but these have tended to focus on exposure in the workplace, not in the wider community. Argo’s research suggests that the influence of the pollutants is more far reaching than was previously thought. “[This] may represent one of only a few studies explicitly designed to identify the impact of carcinogens from industrial sources on residents at home,” he explained. To conduct the analysis, Argo used data from the 1991 Canadian Census and combined it with his own data collected between 1993 and 1995.

The third phase of the project will use Argo’s latest findings on inverted sex ratios to examine the documented rise in female reproductive cancers. With more females than males in a population, there is likely to be a greater incidence of breast, uterine, ovarian, and cervical cancers in that group, he explained. But male reproductive health problems are also on the rise, he noted.

Source

20 Simple Ways to Help the Environment by Using Your Computer

These are just 20 ideas on what you can do reduce the wear and tear on the environment. Some may contradict each other a bit. How far you want to take them is up to you.

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Kalau aku sudah tua

Kasih Ayah & Bunda yang hangat......


Kalau aku sudah tua, bukan lagi aku yang semula.
Mengertilah, bersabarlah sedikit terhadap aku.

Kalau pakaianku terciprat sup,
kalau aku lupa bagaimana mengikat sepatu,
ingatlah bagaimana dahulu aku mengajarmu.

Kalau aku berulang-ulang berkata-kata tentang sesuatu
yang telah bosan kau dengar,
bersabarlah mendengarkan,
janganlah memutus pembicaraanku.

Ketika kau kecil,
aku selalu harus mengulang cerita
yang telah beribu-ribu kali kuceritakan agar kau tertidur.

Kalau aku memerlukanmu untuk memandikanku,
janganlah marah padaku.
Ingatlah sewaktu kecil aku harus memakai
segala cara untuk membujukmu mandi?

Kalau aku tak paham sedikitpun tentang tehnologi
dan hal-hal baru, jangan mengejekku.
Pikirkan bagaimana dahulu aku begitu sabar
menjawab setiap "mengapa" darimu.

Kalau aku tak dapat berjalan,
ulurkanlah tanganmu yang masih kuat untuk memapahku.
Seperti aku memapahmu saat kau
belajar berjalan waktu masih kecil.

Kalau aku seketika melupakan pembicaraan kita,
berilah aku waktu untuk mengingat.
Sebenarnya bagiku, apa yang dibicarakan tidaklah penting,
asalkan kau disamping mendengarkan, aku sudah sangat puas.

Kalau kau memandang aku yang mulai menua, janganlah berduka.
Mengertilah aku, dukung aku, seperti aku menghadapimu ketika
kamu mulai belajar menjalani kehidupan.
Waktu itu aku memberi petunjuk
bagaimana menjalani kehidupan ini,

Sekarang temani aku menjalankan sisa hidupku.
Beri aku cintamu dan kesabaran,
aku akan memberikan senyum penuh rasa syukur,
dalam senyum ini terdapat cintaku yang tak terhingga untukmu

Ajari aku memeluk landak

Sekedar berbagi cerita...

Cassie menunggu dengan antusias. Kaki kecilnya bolak-balik melangkah
dari ruang tamu ke pintu depan. Diliriknya jalan raya depan rumah.
Belum ada. Cassie masuk lagi. Keluar lagi. Belum ada. Masuk lagi.
Keluar lagi. Begitu terus selama hampir satu jam. Suara si Mbok yang
menyuruhnya berulang kali untuk makan duluan, tidak dia gubris.

Pukul 18.30. Tinnn... Tiiiinnnnn...!! Cassie kecil melompat girang!
Mama pulang! Papa pulang! Dilihatnya dua orang yang sangat dia cintai
itu masuk ke rumah.

Yang satu langsung menuju ke kamar mandi. Yang satu mengempaskan diri
di sofa sambil mengurut-urut kepala. Wajah-wajah yang letih sehabis
bekerja seharian, mencari nafkah bagi keluarga. Bagi si kecil Cassie
juga, yang tentunya belum mengerti banyak. Di otaknya yang kecil,
Cassie cuma tahu, ia kangen Mama dan Papa, dan ia girang Mama dan
Papa pulang.

"Mama, mama.... Mama, mama...." Cassie menggerak-gerakkan
tangan. "Mama...." Mama diam saja. Dengan cemas Cassie
bertanya, "Mama sakit ya? Mana yang sakit? Mam, mana yang sakit?"

Mama tidak menjawab. Hanya mengernyitkan alis sambil memejamkan mata.
Cassie makin gencar bertanya, "Mama, mama... mana yang sakit? Cassie
ambilin obat ya? Ya? Ya?"

Tiba-tiba... "Cassie!! Kepala mama lagi pusing! Kamu jangan berisik!"
Mama membentak dengan suara tinggi.

Kaget, Cassie mundur perlahan. Matanya menyipit. Kaki kecilnya
gemetar. Bingung. Cassie salah apa? Cassie sayang Mama... Cassie
salah apa? Takut-takut, Cassie menyingkir ke sudut ruangan. Mengamati
Mama dari jauh, yang kembali mengurut-ngurut kepalanya. Otak kecil
Cassie terus bertanya-tanya: Mama, Cassie salah apa? Mama tidak suka
dekat-dekat Cassie? Cassie mengganggu Mama? Cassie tidak boleh sayang
Mama, ya? Berbagai peristiwa sejenis terjadi. Dan otak kecil Cassie
merekam semuanya.

Maka tahun-tahun berlalu. Cassie tidak lagi kecil. Cassie bertambah
tinggi. Cassie remaja. Cassie mulai beranjak menuju dewasa.

Tin.. Tiiinnn... ! Mama pulang. Papa pulang. Cassie menurunkan kaki
dari meja. Mematikan TV. Buru-buru naik ke atas, ke kamarnya, dan
mengunci pintu. Menghilang dari pandangan.

"Cassie mana?"

"Sudah makan duluan, Tuan, Nyonya."

Malam itu mereka kembali hanya makan berdua. Dalam kesunyian berpikir
dengan hati terluka: Mengapa anakku sendiri, yang kubesarkan dengan
susah payah, dengan kerja keras, nampaknya tidak suka menghabiskan
waktu bersama-sama denganku? Apa salahku? Apa dosaku? Ah, anak jaman
sekarang memang tidak tahu hormat sama orangtua! Tidak seperti jaman dulu.

Di atas, Cassie mengamati dua orang yang paling dicintainya dalam
diam. Dari jauh. Dari tempat di mana ia tidak akan terluka. "Mama,
Papa, katakan padaku, bagaimana caranya memeluk seekor landak?"

Anak penyedia batu

Cerita yang dikirim ke emailku :)

Kisah ini bermula ketika saya menyempatkan diri berkunjung ke sebuah
daerah terpencil di Jawa Tengah.

Dalam perjalanan, saya menjumpai seorang anak berpakaian kumal yang
bekerja sebagai penyedia batu. Sehari-hari bocah itu harus bekerja
mengangkat bongkahan-bongkahan batu yang besar, dan berjalan kaki
mengantarkannya ke suatu tempat yang berjarak tiga kilometer dari
lokasi pengambilan batu.

Saya terkesan melihat cara bocah itu bekerja. Apalagi setelah
mengetahui, bahwa upaj yang diperolehnya sangat minim. Bayangkan,
untuk sekali bolak-balik (6 kilometer), bocah itu hanya mendapatkan
upah 50 rupiah!

Yang lebih menarik, semua kerja berat itu ia lakukan dengan senang
hati, tanpa keluh kesah tergambar di wajahnya. Dengan rajin, anak
lelaki itu mengangkat batu-batu besar, berjalan tiga kilo, balik lagi
sejauh tiga kilo… mengangkat batu selanjutnya, berjalan lagi… dan
seterusnya.

Sesekali terdengar siul riangnya, saat tangan kurusnya memasukkan
sekeping uang logam lima puluhan ke kantong (Tiba-tiba saya teringat
anak-anak lain di Jakarta, yang sering segan menggenggam keeping uang
yang sama).

Rasa iba saya menguak. Saya tawari dia tempat tinggal dan kesempatan
sekolah di Jakarta. Anak lelaki itu menyambut dengan gembira.

Begitulah… setelah berpamitan dengan ibunya, anak itu memulai
kehidupannya di Jakarta.

Tahun demi tahun berlalu… bocah lelaki itu menyelesaikan tahap-tahap
pendidikannya dengan sangat baik. Ia bahkan selalu mendapatkan
rangking tiga besar di kelas. Secara rutin, saya selalu meminta dia
untuk tidak lupa mengirim surat, dan memberi berita baik pada ibunya.

Anak lelaki itu pun mulai tumbuh remaja, namun ia tak pernah berubah.
Selalu saja ada yang dikerjakannya di rumah. Mulai pekerjaan dapur,
sampai menyapu. Meski di tempat tinggal kami, hal-hal seperti itu
sudah ada yang mengurus.

Sampai akhirnya bocah lelaki itu berhasil lulus dengan memuaskan dari
perguruan tinggi negeri tempat ia belajar. Saya menyambut keberhasilan
itu dengan rasa haru yang dalam, dan memintanya segera mengabarkan
ibunya berita baik ini.

Sekarang, bocah lelaki itu telah menjadi seorang pengusaha yang sukses
dan hidup mapan. Namun kerendahan hati, dan sifat suka bekerjanya tak
berubah. Ia masih ringan tangan dan selalu berusaha membantu.

Meski sudah menjadi 'orang', setiap kali ke rumah… dengan santai ia
menggulung lengan bajunya dan mulai mencuci piring, menyapu, atau
sekedar ikut membereskan pekerjaan rumah.

Hal lain yang sangat menghibur hati saya, adalah baktinya pada Ibu
yang melahirkannya. Ia tak pernah lupa menelepon saya, untuk
menceritakan tentang ibunya, dan memberi 'kabar baik' dengan nada
gembira.

"Alhamdulillah, Pak, saya sudah belikan Ibu rumah." Atau, "Pak
Houtman? Alhamdulillah Ibu baik. Saya sudah belikan Ibu sawah, Pak!"
Dan seterusnya.

Dan setiap kali dia menelepon, saya tahu… lelaki itu tak pernah
melupakan ibunya!

Roda

Another story :)

Suatu ketika, ada sebuah roda yang kehilangan salah satu jari-jarinya.
Ia tampak sedih. Tanpa jari-jari yang lengkap, tentu, ia tak bisa lagi
berjalan dengan lancar. Hal ini terjadi saat ia melaju terlalu kencang
ketika melintasi hutan. Karena terburu-buru, ia melupakan, ada satu
jari-jari yang jatuh dan terlepas. Kini sang roda pun bingung. Kemana
kah hendak di cari satu bagian tubuhnya itu?

Sang roda pun berbalik arah. Ia kembali menyusuri jejak-jejak yang
pernah di tinggalkannya. Perlahan, di tapakinya jalan-jalan itu. Satu
demi satu di perhatikannya dengan seksama. Setiap benda di amati, dan di
cermati, berharap, akan di temukannya jari-jari yang hilang itu.

Ditemuinya kembali rerumputan dan ilalang. Dihampirinya kembali
bunga-bunga di tengah padang. Dikunjunginya kembali semut dan serangga
kecil di jalanan. Dan dilewatinya lagi semua batu-batu dan
kerikil-kerikil pualam. Hei....semuanya tampak lain. Ya, sewaktu sang
roda melintasi jalan itu dengan laju yang kencang, semua hal tadi cuma
berbentuk titik-titik kecil. Semuanya, tampak biasa, dan tak istimewa.
Namun kini, semuanya tampak lebih indah.

Rerumputan dan ilalang, tampak menyapanya dengan ramah. Mereka kini tak
lagi hanya berupa batang-batang yang kaku. Mereka tampak tersenyum,
melambai tenang, bergoyang dan menyampaikan salam. Ujung-ujung rumput
itu, bergesek dengan lembut di sisi sang roda. Sang roda pun tersenyum
dan melanjutkan pencariannya.

Bunga-bunga pun tampak lebih indah. Harum dan semerbaknya, lebih terasa
menyegarkan. Kuntum-kuntum yang baru terbuka, menampilkan wajah yang
cerah. Kelopak-kelopak yang tumbuh, menari, seakan bersorak pada sang
roda. Sang roda tertegun dan berhenti sebentar. Sang bunga pun merunduk,
memberikan salam hormat.

Dengan perlahan, dilanjutkannya kembali perjalanannya. Kini, semut dan
serangga kecil itu, mulai berbaris, dan memberikan salam yang paling
semarak. Kaki-kaki mereka bertepuk, membunyikan keriangan yang meriah.
Sayap-sayap itu bergetar, seakan ada ribuan genderang yang di tabuh.
Mereka saling menyapa. Dan, serangga itu pun memberikan salam, dan doa
pada sang Roda.

Begitu pula batu dan kerikil pualam. Kilau yang hadir, tampak berbeda
jika di lihat dari mata yang tergesa-gesa. Mereka lebih indah, dan
setiap sisi batu itu memancarkan kemilau yang teduh. Tak ada lagi sisi
dan ujung yang tajam dari batu yang kerap mampir di tubuh sang Roda.
Semua batu dan pualam, membuka jalan, memberikan kesempatan untuk
melanjutkan perjalanan.

Setelah lama berjalan, akhirnya, ditemukannya jari-jari yang hilang.
Sang roda pun senang. Dan ia berjanji, tak akan tergesa-gesa dan
berjalan terlalu kencang dalam melakukan tugasnya.

Teman, begitulah hidup. Kita, seringkali berlaku seperti roda-roda yang
berjalan terlalu kencang. Kita sering melupakan, ada saat-saat indah,
yang terlewat di setiap kesempatan. Ada banyak hal-hal kecil, yang
sebetulnya menyenangkan, namun kita lewatkan karena terburu-buru dan
tergesa-gesa.

Hati kita, kadang terlalu penuh dengan target-target, yang membuat kita
hidup dalam kebimbangan dan ketergesaan. Langkah-langkah kita, kadang
selalu dalam keadaan panik, dan lupa, bahwa di sekitar kita banyak
sekali hikmah yang perlu di tekuni.

Seperti saat roda yang terlupa pada rumput, ilalang, semut dan pualam,
kita pun sebenarnya sedang terlupa pada hal-hal itu. Teman, coba, susuri
kembali jalan-jalan kita. Cermati, amati, dan perhatikan setiap hal yang
pernah kita lewati. Runut kembali perjalanan kita.

Adakah kebahagiaan yang terlupakan? Adakah keindahan yang tersembunyi
dan alpa kita nikmati? Kenanglah ingatan-ingatan lalu. Susuri dengan
perlahan. Temukan keindahan itu!!

Bantulah Mereka Yang Membutuhkan

Cerita laen yang saya dapatkan dari seorang teman..

Bryan hampir saja tidak melihat wanita tua yang berdiri dipinggir jalan itu,
tetapi dalam cahaya berkabut ia dapat melihat bahwa wanita tua itu
membutuhkan pertolongan. Lalu ia menghentikan mobil Pontiacnya di depan
mobil
Mecedes wanita tua itu, lalu ia keluar dan menghampirinya.

Walaupun dengan wajah tersenyum wanita itu tetap merasa khawatir, karena
setelah menunggu beberapa jam tidak ada seorang pun yang menolongnya.

Apakah lelaki itu bermaksud menyakitinya?

Lelaki tersebut penampilanya tidak terlalu baik, ia kelihatan begitu
memprihatinkan. Wanita itu dapat merasakan kalau dirinya begitu ketakutan,
berdiri sendirian dalam cuaca yang begitu dingin, sepertinya lelaki
tersebut tau apa yang ia pikirkan. Lelaki itu berkata " saya kemari untuk
membantu
anda bu, kenapa anda tidak menunggu didalam mobil bukankah disana lebih
hangat? oh ya
nama saya Bryan.

Bryan masuk kedalam kolong mobil wanita itu untuk memperbaiki yang rusak.

Akhirnya ia selesai, tetapi dia kelihatan begitu kotor dan lelah, wanita itu
membuka kaca jendela mobilnya dan berbicara kepadanya, ia berkata bahwa
ia dari st louis dan kebetulan lewat jalan ini. Dia merasa tidak cukup kalau
hanya
mengucapkan terima kasih atas bantuan yang telah diberikan.

Wanita itu berkata berapa yang harus ia bayar, berapapun jumlahnya yang ia
minta tidak menjadi masalah, karena ia membayangkan apa yang akan terjadi
jika lelaki tersebut tidak menolongnya. Bryan hanya tersenyum.

Bryan tidak mengatakan berapa jumlah yang harus dibayar, karena baginya
menolong orang bukanlah suatu pekerjaan. Ia yakin apabila menolong seseorang
yang
membutuhkan pertolongan tanpa suatu imbalan suatu hari nanti Tuhan pasti
akan membalas amal perbuatanya.

Ia berkata kepada wanita itu " Bila ia benar-benar ingin membalas jasanya,
maka apabila suatu saat nanti apabila ia melihat seseorang yang membutuhkan
pertolongan maka tolonglah orang tersebut "...dan ingatlah pada saya".

Bryan menunggu sampai wanita itu menstater mobilnya dan menghilang dari
pandangan.

Setelah berjalan beberapa mil wanita itu melihat kafe kecil, lalu ia mampir
kesana untuk makan dan beristirahat sebentar. Pelayan datang dan memberikan
handuk bersih untuk mengeringkan rambutnya yang basah. Wanita itu
memperhatikan sang pelayan yang sedang hamil, dan masih begitu muda. Lalu ia
teringat
kepada Bryan

Setelah wanita itu selesai makan dan, sang pelayan sedang mengambil
kembalian untuknya, wanita itu pergi keluar secara diam-diam.

Setelah kepergiannya sang pelayan kembali, pelayan itu bingung kemana
wanita itu pergi, lalu ia menemukan secarik kertas diatas meja dan uang
$1000. Ia
begitu terharu setelah membaca apa yang ditulis oleh wanita itu:

"Kamu tidak berhutang apapun pada saya karena seseorang telah menolong
saya, oleh karena itulah saya menolong kamu, maka inilah yang harus kamu
lakukan:

"Jangan pernah berhenti untuk memberikan cinta dan kasih sayang".

Malam ketika ia pulang dan pergi tidur, ia berfikir mengenai uang dan
apa yang di tulis oleh wanita itu.

Bagaimana wanita itu bisa tahu kalau ia dan suaminya sangat membutuhkan uang
untuk menanti kelahiran bayinya?

Ia tau bagaimana suaminya sangat risau mengenai hal ini, lalu ia memeluk
suaminya yang terbaring disebelahnya dan memberikan ciuman yang lembut
sambil berbisik :"semuanya akan baik-baik saja, I Love You Bryan"

Moral dari kisah di atas :
"Segala sesuatu yang berputar akan selalu berputar", therefore, don't
ever to stop to do good things in your life........

Boneka untuk adik

Ada sebuah cerita menarik yang saya baca dari email... berikut ini ringkasan ceritanya

Boneka untuk Adik

jangan pernah mencintai karena uang. Anda tak tahu kapan hari terakhir
anda atau kapan mereka meninggalkan anda.

Catatan: ini adalah kisah nyata

Hari terakhir sebelum Natal, aku terburu-buru ke supermarket untuk
membeli hadiah2 yang semula tidak direncanakan untuk dibeli. Ketika
melihat orang banyak, aku mulai mengeluh: "Ini akan makan waktu
selamanya, sedang masih banyak tempat yang harus kutuju" " Natal benar2
semakin menjengkelkan dari tahun ke tahun. Kuharap aku bisa berbaring,
tidur, dan hanya terjaga setelahnya" Walau demikian, aku tetap berjalan
menuju bagian mainan, dan di sana aku mulai mengutuki harga-harga, berpikir
apakah sesudahnya semua anak akan sungguh-sungguh bermain
dengan mainan yang mahal.

Saat sedang mencari-cari, aku melihat seorang anak laki2 berusia
sekitar 5 tahun, memeluk sebuah boneka. Ia terus membelai rambut boneka
itu dan terlihat sangat sedih. Aku bertanya-tanya untuk siapa boneka
itu. Anak itu mendekati seorang perempuan tua di
dekatnya: 'Nenek, apakah engkau yakin aku tidak punya cukup uang?'
Perempuan tua itu menjawab: 'Kau tahu bahwa kau tidak punya cukup uang
untuk membeli boneka ini, sayang.' Kemudian Perempuan itu meminta anak
itu menunggu di sana sekitar 5 menit sementara ia berkeliling ke tempat
lain. Perempuan itu pergi dengan cepat. Anak laki2 itu masih
menggenggam boneka itu di tangannya.

Akhirnya, aku mendekati anak itu dan bertanya kepada siapa dia ingin
memberikan boneka itu.'Ini adalah boneka yang paling disayangi adik
perempuanku dan dia sangat menginginkannya pada Natal ini. Ia yakin Santa
Claus akan membawa boneka ini untuknya' Aku menjawab mungkin
Santa Claus akan membawa boneka untuk adiknya, dan supaya ia jangan
khawatir. Tapi anak laki2 itu menjawab dengan sedih 'Tidak, Santa Claus
tidak dapat membawa boneka ini ke tempat dimana adikku berada saat ini.
Aku harus memberikan boneka ini kepada mama sehingga mama dapat
memberikan kepadanya ketika mama sampai di sana.' Mata anak laki2 itu
begitu sedih ketika mengatakan ini 'Adikku sudah pergi kepada Tuhan. Papa
berkata bahwa mama juga segera pergi menghadap Tuhan, maka kukira mama
dapat membawa boneka ini untuk diberikan kepada adikku.' Jantungku
seakan terhenti.

Anak laki2 itu memandangku dan berkata: 'Aku minta papa untuk
memberitahu mama agar tidak pergi dulu. Aku meminta papa untuk menunggu
hingga aku pulang dari supermarket.' Kemudian ia menunjukkan fotonya
yang sedang tertawa. Kamudian ia berkata: 'Aku juga ingin mama membawa
foto ini supaya tidak lupa padaku. Aku cinta mama dan kuharap ia tidak
meninggalkan aku tapi papa berkata mama harus pergi bersama adikku.'
Kemudian ia memandang dengan sedih ke boneka itu dengan diam.

Aku meraih dompetku dengan cepat dan mengambil beberapa catatan dan
berkata kepada anak itu. 'Bagaimana jika kita periksa lagi, kalau2
uangmu cukup?' 'Ok' katanya. 'Kuharap punyaku cukup.' Kutambahkan
uangku pada uangnya tanpa setahunya dan kami mulai menghitung. Ternyata
cukup untuk boneka itu, dan malah sisa. Anak itu berseru: 'Terima Kasih
Tuhan karena memberiku cukup uang' Kemudian ia memandangku dan
menambahkan: 'Kemarin sebelum tidur aku memohon kepada Tuhan untuk
memastikan bahwa aku memiliki cukup uang untuk membeli boneka ini sehingga
mama bisa memberikannya kepada adikku. DIA mendengarkan aku. Aku juga ingin
uangku cukup untuk membeli mawar putih buat mama, tapi aku tidak berani
memohon terlalu banyak kepada Tuhan. Tapi DIA
memberiku cukup untuk membeli boneka dan mawar putih.' 'Kau tahu, mamaku
suka mawar putih'

Beberapa menit kemudian, neneknya kembali dan aku berlalu dengan
keretaku. Kuselesaikan belanjaku dengan suasana hati yang sepenuhnya
berbeda dari saat memulainya. Aku tidak dapat menghapus anak itu dari
pikiranku. Kemudian aku ingat artikel di koran lokal 2 hari yang lalu,
yang menyatakan seorang pria mengendarai truk dalam kondisi mabuk dan
menghantam sebuah mobil yang berisi seorang wanita muda dan seorang
gadis kecil. Gadis kecil itu meninggal seketika, dan ibunya dalam
kondisi kritis. Keluarganya harus memutuskan apakah harus mencabut alat
penunjang kehidupan, karena wanita itu tidak akan mampu keluar dari kondisi
koma. Apakah mereka keluarga dari anak laki2 ini?

2 hari setelah pertemuan dengan anak kecil itu, kubaca di koran
bahwa wanita muda itu meninggal dunia. Aku tak dapat menghentikan diriku dan
pergi membeli seikat mawar putih dan kemudian pergi ke rumah
duka tempat jenasah dari wanita muda itu diperlihatkan kepada orang2
untuk memberikan penghormatan terakhir sebelum penguburan. Wanita itu
di sana, dalam peti matinya, menggenggam setangkai mawar putih yang
cantik dengan foto anak laki2 dan boneka itu ditempatkan di atas
dadanya. Kutinggalkan tempat itu dengan menangis, merasa hidupku telah
berubah selamanya. Cinta yang dimiliki anak laki2 itu kepada ibu dan
adiknya, sampai saat ini masih sulit untuk dibayangkan. Dalam sekejap
mata, seorang pria mabuk mengambil semuanya dari anak itu.

Kirimkan pesan ini kepada semua orang yang anda kenal.
Jika anda kirimkan pesan ini, mungkin anda membantu mencegah
seseorang yang mabuk untuk mengemudi.

1000 Burung kertas

Sewaktu Boy dan girl baru pacaran, Boy melipat 1000 burung kertas buat Girl, menggantungkannya di dalam kamar Girl. Boy mengatakan 1000
burung kertas itu menandakan 1000 ketulusan hatinya.

Waktu itu... Girl dan Boy setiap detik selalu meraskan betapa indahnya
cinta mereka berdua... Tetapi pada suatu saat, Girl mulai menjauhi Boy.
Girl memutuskan untuk menikah dan pergi ke Perancis.. ke Paris...
Tempat yang dia impikan di dalam mimpinya berkali2 itu...

Sewaktu Girl mau memutuskan Boy, Girl bilang sama boy, kita harus
melihat dunia ini dengan pandangan yang dewasa. Menikah bagi cewek adalah
kehidupan kedua kalinya. Aku harus bisa memegang kesempatan ini dengan
baik. Kamu terlalu miskin, sungguh aku tidak berani membayangkan
bagaimana kehidupan kita setelah menikah...!!

Setelah Girl pergi ke Perancis, Boy bekerja keras... dia pernah menjual koran...
menjadi karyawan sementara... bisnis kecil... setiap pekerjaan dikerjakan
dengan sangat baik dan tekun. Sudah lewat beberapa tahun...

Karena pertolongan teman dan kerja kerasnya, akhirnya dia
mempunyai sebuah perusahhan. Dia sudah kaya,
tetapi hatinya masih tertuju pada Girl, dia masih tidak dapat melupakannya.

Pada suatu hari...waktu hujan, Boy dari mobilnya melihat sepasang orang tua
berjalan sangat pelan di depan. Dia mengenali mereka, mereka adalah orang tua Girl.
Dia ingin mereka lihat kalau sekarang dia tidak hanya mempunyai mobil pribadi,
tetapi juga mempunyai villa dan perusahaan sendiri, ingin mereka
tahu kalau dia bukan seorang yang miskin lagi, dia sekarang adalah
seorang Boss. Boy mengendarai mobilnya sangat pelan sambil mengikuti sepasang
orang tua tersebut. Hujan terus turun tanpa henti, biarpun kedua orang tua itu
memakai payung, tetapi badan mereka tetap basah karena hujan.

Sewaktu mereka sampai tempat tujuan, Boy tercengang oleh apa yang ada di
depan matanya, itu adalah tempat pemakaman. Dia melihat di atas papan nisan
Girl tersenyum sangat manis terhadapnya. Di samping makamnya yang kecil,
tergantung burung2 kertas yang dibuatkan Boy.

Dalam hujan, burung2 kertas itu terlihat begitu hidup, orang tua Girl
memberitahu Boy, Girl tidak pergi ke Paris, Girl terserang kanker,
Girl pergi ke surga. Girl ingin Boy menjadi orang, mempunyai keluarga
yang harmonis, maka dengan terpaksa berbuat demikian terhadap Boy
dulu. Girl bilang dia sangat mengerti Boy, dia percaya kalau Boy pasti
akan berhasil.

Girl mengatakan... kalau pada suatu hari Boy akan datang ke makamnya
dan berharap dia membawakan beberapa burung kertas buatnya lagi.
Boy langsung berlutut, berlutut di depan Girl, menangis dengan begitu sedihnya.
Hujan pada hari itu terasa tidak akan berhenti, membasahi sekujur tubuh Boy.
Boy teringat senyum manis Girl yang begitu manis dan polos.

Mengingat semua itu, hatinya mulai meneteskan darah...
Sewaktu orang tua itu keluar dari pemakaman, mereka melihat
kalau Boy sudah membukakan pintu mobil untuk mereka.

"Hatiku tidak pernah menyesal, semuanya hanya untukmu 1000 burung kertas,
1000 ketulusan hatiku, beterbangan di dalam angin menginginkan bintang
yang lebat betebaran di langit... melewati sungai perak, apakah aku bisa
bertemu denganmu? Tidak takut berapapun jauhnya, hanya ingin sekarang
langsung berlari ke sampingmu.

Masa lalu seperti asap...
hilang dan tak kan kembali.
menambah kerinduan di hatiku...
Bagaimanapun dicari, jodoh kehidupan ini pasti tidak akan berubah.."
(lirik langsung ditranslate dari bahasa Mandarin)

Cancer-Killing Virus Modified to Deliver a One-Two Punch

Scientists hacking a smallpox-like virus into doing battle with cancer have given a new weapon to their microscopic warrior.

Researchers at Stanford University and Jennerex Biotherapeutics have tweaked the cancer-killing vaccinia virus JX-963 so that it also stimulates the body to generate cancer-fighting white blood cells. The company intends to take the virus into clinical trials based on a promising animal study.

"This is a very powerful and potent approach," said Dr. Antonio Chiocca, a professor at Ohio State University and a specialist in oncological neurosurgery, who was not involved in the study. "You can think of each of these viruses as a new drug."

Cancer-fighting viruses are the latest attempt to harness viruses' infectious powers for therapeutic treatments. Modified viruses have been used in experimental gene therapies to "fix" faulty inherited genetic code. Gene therapy has generated much hype but little clinical success. Scientists claim to have made recent progress targeting cancer cells with modded cold, herpes and smallpox viruses. These viruses infect and kill cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone. A different Jennerex virus, JX-594, is already entering Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of liver tumors.

In a study appearing Thursday in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the researchers report that the new JX-963 treatment resulted in the suppression of colon tumors in the rabbits on which it was tested.

"The results are very encouraging," said Dr. Stephen Thorne, a co-author of the study and professor of surgical oncology at the University of Pittsburgh. "I would envisage clinical trials starting next year."

Thorne is a Jennerex consultant.

Until now, virus therapies have had limited success targeting and killing all the cancer cells in the body, and not just some. With the new JX-963 therapy, the virus doesn't have to do the work alone -- it elicits the body's own defenses to mop up cancer cells.

The chemical that the virus secretes, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, or GM-CSF, is a protein that stimulates the production of white blood cells. The scientists must be careful, however, not to overstimulate the immune system so that it kills the virus before it has a chance to attack the cancer.

"You have to make sure you give the virus enough time to do its job," said Chiocca.

Paradoxically, the answer might lie in temporarily suppressing the immune system with drugs to allow the virus to spread rapidly. Then, after the virus has destroyed most of the tumor, GM-CSF stimulates an elevated immune system response.

The obvious risk of using viruses to attack cancer cells is that the virus might mutate into a deadly form. Since a death in a clinical trial in 1999, gene-therapy research has been on the back burner. Similar problems in the field of cancer-killing viruses could halt research.

Chiocca downplayed the risk from viruses that target humans, like the one used by the Stanford researchers. He said that most people already have been exposed to the smallpox, cold and herpes vaccines, so our immune systems are unlikely to be compromised by any of their forms.

However, there are more risks when researchers use viruses that attack other species. There are a small number of preclinical trials using viruses that don’t target humans, Chiocca said.

"You worry about injecting a bird virus into humans, which could potentially become adapted to the human population and create a supervirus," he said.

Source

How can I regain my appetite and gain some weight?

A reader asks: "I am a very thin person, and I don't have enough appetite to eat a whole meal. I just like to eat fruits, small things like chips and nuts. How can I regain my appetite and gain some weight?"

The good news on this question is that reversing loss of appetite is relatively straightforward and tends to be successful in most people. However, a nutritional approach is not typically the most effective way to solve this problem. Rather, an energetic approach tends to be far more effective.

For anyone suffering from loss of appetite who is unable to gain weight, I strongly recommend they first visit a naturopathic physician to get a complete checkup and make sure there is nothing imbalanced in the endocrine system or digestive system. Assuming all of that checks out okay, visiting an acupuncturist is the next step. Through acupuncture, a person's appetite can often be rebalanced with a high degree of success. An acupuncturist will typically concentrate on the stomach and spleen meridians in order to rebalance a person's energy and help them regain a natural appetite.

Once this has taken place, there are some nutritional strategies that can help support the rebalancing of appetite hormones and weight gain. This includes consuming high-quality protein and foods with high caloric density such as nuts and seeds. High-quality protein foods include spirulina, which has the highest quality protein of any food available. Remember that spirulina has twelve times the amount of digestible protein as beef on an ounce by ounce basis. It also has far more calcium than milk.

You can also consume isolated soy protein or soy products, but be sure to get plenty of healthy fats into your diet through nuts, seeds, flax oil, and even extra-virgin coconut oil if that's something your naturopathic physician also supports.

Finally, regaining appetite should be supported by a regular exercise program. I don't recommend someone jumping into exercise right away if you're too thin -- wait until your digestion and hormone systems have been balanced, but once you are making progress in terms of weight gain, it's critical to start a lifelong exercise program.

Exercise should include both cardiovascular exercise and strength training. Only through strength training can a person increase their bone mass density and lean body mass. The very act of engaging in these forms of exercise should also increase a person's appetite. So, once a person has made progress through acupuncture or other therapies recommended by a naturopathic physician, combining exercise and strength training will normally accelerate their weight gain.

As always, work with a physician. There could be reasons for your lack of weight gain that fall outside the "normal" reasons experienced by most people.

Plastic bags are killing us

On a foggy Tuesday morning, kids out of school for summer break are learning to sail on the waters of Lake Merritt. A great egret hunts for fish, while dozens of cormorants perch, drying their wings. But we're not here to bird-watch or go boating. Twice a week volunteers with the Lake Merritt Institute gather on these shores of the nation's oldest national wildlife refuge to fish trash out of the water, and one of their prime targets is plastic bags. Armed with gloves and nets with long handles, like the kind you'd use to fish leaves out of a backyard swimming pool, we take to the shores to seek our watery prey.

Dr. Richard Bailey, executive director of the institute, is most concerned about the bags that get waterlogged and sink to the bottom. "We have a lot of animals that live on the bottom: shrimp, shellfish, sponges," he says. "It's like you're eating at your dinner table and somebody comes along and throws a plastic tarp over your dinner table and you."

More

Mars' Abnormal Moons

In 1988 the Soviet Union launched two probes to study Mars and its two moons Phobos and Deimos. Unlike most other Russian missions around the solar system, the Phobos I and II missions were done with some cooperation with the United States, which contributed the use of the Deep Space radio telescope network, along with various contributions from Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and France. The missions were to provide the first close look at Phobos and Deimos, and hopefully answer the question as to why these two moons are unlike anything else in the solar system.

The names of the two moons comes from greek mythology, after the sons of the god Mars. Phobos (meaning fear) and Deimos (meaning panic) both appear, at least according to current science, to be ex-asteroids that were captured by Mars' gravity, rather than being moons in the traditional sense. They are both quite small, being only a few tens of kilometers in size, and are tootiny for their gravity to pull themselves into spheres as with most larger moons in the solar system, and as a result they resemble an oblong potato.

Deimos is the smaller of the two, and orbits mars more distantly than Phobos. We know it has a composition similar to a meteorite sometimes found on earth called a carbonaceous chondrite, a fascinating group of rocks that contain not only the most ancient material known to man, some of which predates the solar system entirely, but also amino acids which are organic molecules that form the basis for life. Oddly, Deimos is relatively uncratered. In contrast, Phobos is heavily cratered, and orbits Mars in a very bizarre way; it moves so fast that it rises and sets to an observer on Mars twice each day, and due to that speed appears to rise in the west and set in the east, the opposite of earth's own moon. Phobos seems to be composed of the same materials as Deimos, but for some reason, the moon has a seriously low density. So low that in the 1960's Russian planetary scientists suggested that the moon was hollow, and might be an artificial satellite. Science advisor to President Eisenhower Seigfried Singer supported this theory, as did several NASA scientists at the time. But by the late 1960's, this theory seems to have evaporated, at least openly, and hasn't been seriously discussed since.

Another mystery surrounding Phobos are its chain craters. These have not been seen anywhere else in the solar system, and appear as dark lines with craters in them that crisscross the surface of the moon. Science is still at a loss to explain this phenomenon.

The two Soviet probes, however, are chief among the mysteries of the moons of Mars. Both of the probes mysteriously went silent, Phobos I going silent not long after launch, apparently due to a computer glitch. Phobos II made it to Mars, and was designed to drop two small probes on the surface of the moon. It never accomplished that, going silent shortly before the manuever. Again, this was blamed on a computer glitch, however several enigmatic photographs were transmitted several days before the probe failed that have caused wild speculation ever since. In one of the photos, a large, oblong object is seen close to the moon, and appears to have either a length similar to the moon itself, or is in very close proximity to the spacecraft. The object has been rumored over the years to have been the real cause of the loss of Phobos I, possibly either hitting it, or intentionally destroying the probe to keep it from getting a close look at the moon. Skeptics claim that the object is an electronic artifact, and may not have really been there.

Another bizarre photograph, taken of Mars itself, seems to show an oblong shadow on the surface of the planet. This was apparently caught by two seperate cameras on the spacecraft, and seems to suggest an object other than either of the two moons is casting a shadow on Mars from orbit. An enormous object would be needed to do this, so just what was causing this shadow is remains unexplained. Russia isn't helping things either, in that they have yet to release all of the Phobos II images, leading to rumors that more highly detailed photos exist that show some type of cylindrical alien mothership.

Subsequent missions to Mars have photographed its moons without incident, the most recent being NASA's Mars rovers, one of which has actually photographed Deimos passing in front of the sun from the surface of Mars. Whether or not Phobos II was destroyed by a computer glitch, an unexplained piece of debris, or an alien spacecraft is likely to remain a mystery for the foreseeable future. Regardless of what happened, the red planet seems to get more mysterious and unusual at every turn, despite the fact that it is one of the most human-explored objects in the solar system.

Source

Gravity Anomalies

You can't ever completely escape it. It influences you every moment of your life from birth to death and without it you wouldn't have evolved. Gravity. After centuries of study, you'd think we would understand it by now. Not so, gravity remains the most mysterious force in the universe today, and this seemingly mundane fact of existance is a surprisingly fruitful breeding ground for the unexplained.

NASA spacecraft have mysteriously slowed down.

Pioneer 10 was launched in 1972 and would become the first human-made spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt and visit the planet Jupiter. A year later, its sister ship Pioneer 11 was launched, it would visit the Jovian system again, and then would become the first to explore Saturn. Both spacecraft proved to be wildly successful, returning amazing images of these gas giants and greatly increasing our knowledge of them. After their historic flybys, these spacecraft continued on toward interstellar space making periodic observations of the conditions present in the empty outer regions of the solar system.

Both spacecraft were designed for just a few years of operation, but happily and as a testament to their engineering, they continued to transmit their observations of deep space for decades. Pioneer 11 finally went silent at the end of 1995 when the motion of the earth made it impossible for the spacecraft's antenna to be oriented properly for a call home, and Pioneer 10 finally stopped transmitting in 2003 after its nuclear-based generators could no longer produce enough electrical power to create a signal strong enough to reach us. In a few million years Pioneer 10 will lifelessly pass near one of the brightest stars in the night sky; Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus, a giant star that has recently been discovered to possibly have either a large planet or brown dwarf thirteen times times the size of Jupiter orbiting around it. Pioneer 11 is headed toward Aquila the eagle, and will pass close to a star in that constellation in about four million years.

In addition to what these venerable NASA spacecraft have already accomplished, the've also presented us with a mystery. Defying all of the variables that we know about the gravity of the sun and its solar system, the spacecraft have slowed down. Both Pioneers ought be a bit further out than they are, instead they are about 248,000 miles closer to the sun than they should be. The same strange effect seems to have also been at work on the Ulysses and Galileo probes. None of the simple explanations add up, the most prominent being the suggestion that heat leaking from the radioactive generators that powered the craft created a slight brake in their velocity. This lack of a simple theory that explains their motion has lead to more exotic suggestions from scientists ranging from some interaction with dark matter, an aspect of gravity that we do not yet understand, or some mysterious unknown property of the universe that is somehow working against the probes.

These theories may end up having mind-numbing implications. The effect is not consistent with what we know about gravity. It could mean that gravity works differently than we thought. The effect is so apparent over such a short distance, our solar system is very small compared to the rest of the universe, that it could force a major revision of Einstien's theory of general relativity. If its dark matter, it would toss the seemingly obscure Pioneer anomaly into a cutting edge and mysterious area of science. It could even involve string theory. Whatever is causing the anomaly remains unexplained, and has even prompted calls by scientists for NASA to explore the phenomena with a probe dedicated specifically to the phenomenon.

The Earth's gravity is not uniform.

The Pioneer anomaly isn't the only mystery gravity has presented to us. Our own planet also shows counterintuitive variations in the strength of its gravity. You will weigh a little bit less, or more, depending on where you are standing on the globe. The effect is minute but measureable and a general trend is that gravity is weaker the nearer you get to the equator, this is explained as being an effect of centrifugal force and the fact that earth is not a perfect sphere, it is somewhat flattened and being at the equator puts you slightly further away from the center of the planet than you would be if you were at the south pole.

The presence of mountain ranges or particularly dense areas of geology can cause localized variations in gravity. Less easy to explain are areas, such as a large region off the coast of India, where a spot of particularly low gravity exists with no apparent corresponding geologic feature to explain it.

Branes and how gravity may allow us to observe alternate universes.

Strangest of all is an aspect of brane theory that may allow us to observe, in some small way, the layout and arrangement of parallel universes. Gravity has long been known to be the weakest of the four forces that govern our universe, however, it may be weak only because its influence is spread across multiple dimensions. This might be observable through evidence presented by microwave radiation left over from the formation of the universe, and its even possible that dark matter may not be matter at all, and might really be the effects of another universe's gravity influencing our on a universal scale as opposed to the solar system-sized differences seen with the Pioneer anomaly. Might we be able to map a parallel universe by observing the apparent distribution of dark matter in our own?

Humdrum gravity. It can be implicated in the breaking of every tea cup that has ever met its end. It is ultimately responsible for countless broken bones, plane crashes, and at some level it has played a part in every event in human history. Newton pondered it centuries ago, yet we still live with it every moment of our lives and we always will. It is the glue that holds our universe together. Yet it may also hold the key to the observation and understanding of a parallel universe so unlike our own that it will defy the normal, and that may make gravity the most interesting aspect of human existence, instead of the most mundane.

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Brain interactions with RF/microwave fields generated by mobile phones

Neither radiofrequency (30 kHz-300MHz) nor microwave fields (300-3000 MHz) exist as significant components of the natural terrestrial electromagnetic environment. In consequence, our human generation is the first to voluntarily expose itself to artificial RF/microwave fields that cover a wide spectrum of frequencies and intensities. In general suburban environments, these newly introduced fields now have average intensities around 1 µW/cm² (4V/m).

Typical mobile phones radiate an average power of 0.2-0.6 W. When hand-held and operated close to the head, background levels are sharply distorted, with 40 percent of radiated phone energy absorbed in the hand and the head ([Kuster et al., 1997]). In this mode of operation, a mobile phone may be regarded as a quite powerful radio transmitter. Its emission at the head surface is typically 10,000 times stronger than fields reaching the head of a user standing within 30 m of the base of a typical mobile phone relay transponder mounted on a tower 30m above ground.

1. Historical development of analog and digital mobile phone transmission systems

The rapid worldwide development of mobile phone communication systems over the past decade has involved an equally rapid technological progression. In consequence, the heads of many current phone users have been exposed to a sequence of microwave fields modulated in substantially different ways ([Adey, 1997])- Initially, voice information was universally signaled by frequency-modulation (FM) of the microwave carrier wave. In a biophysical perspective, the carrier wave remains constant in amplitude throughout the transmission epoch, all voice information being transmitted in the frequency domain. Although these FM (analog) systems are still in common use, radio engineering considerations, such as economy of power usage in phone operation, and optimal utilization of the limited available microwave spectrum, have led progressively to general adoption of digital transmission techniques ([Kuster et al., 1997]). Initial transmission systems utilized 400 MHz frequencies, but current systems generally transmit at 900 and 1800 MHz.

Two methods of digital modulation now widely used in mobile phone systems exemplify these techniques. The North American Digital Cellular (NADC) standard used in North America and Japan employs Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) modulation with speech encoding at 50 pulses/sec. The Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) system employed throughout Europe and in much of the rest of the world is encoded at 217 pulses/sec.

2. Influence of microwave phone fields on human cognitive performance

Changes in human cognitive performance have been reported during exposures to simulated or actual GSM phone fields, and to FM (analog) phone fields. With simulated GSM and FM fields, there was increased speed in choice reaction time, greater in FM exposures than GSM ([Preece et al., 1999]). Using six cognitive neuropsychological tests (digit-span and spatial-span forwards and backwards, serial subtraction and verbal fluency), performance was facilitated following 30 min exposure to a 900 MHz GSM mobile phone field in two tests of attentional capacity (digital span forwards and spatial span backwards), and processing speed (serial subtraction) ([Edelstyn and Oldershaw, 2002]).

3. Subjective symptoms reported from prolonged mobile phone use

A wide range of subjective symptoms has been reported with prolonged use of mobile phones. They include dizziness, discomfort, concentration and memory difficulties, fatigue, warmth on and behind the ear, and burning sensations in the face. Scandinavian studies of these symptoms have involved 6379 GSM phone users and 5613 NMT (analog) users in Sweden, and 2500 from each category in Norway ([Sandstrom et al., 2001]; [Wilen et al., 2003]). These studies took account of energy absorption (SAR) in head structures adjacent to the user's ear, and indicators of the amount of daily use, as determined from the calling time/day and the number of calls/day. They conclude that subjective symptoms, especially dizziness, discomfort and warmth behind the ear, correlate with high SAR values (> 0.5 W/kg) and longer call times/day.

4. Alterations in EEG records and cerebral blood flow during and following mobile phone field exposure

GSM mobile phone fields are reported to alter EEG patterns during and following exposure, with evidence for concomitant changes in cerebral blood flow. During cognitive processing of a visual sequential letter task, 902 MHz digital fields altered event-related EEG desynchronization/synchronization responses in the 6-8 and 8-10 Hz bands, but only when examined as a function of memory load, and depending also on whether the presented stimulus was a target or not ([Krause et al., 2000]). Positron emission tomography (PET) after unilateral 30 min head exposure increased relative cerebral blood flow in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on the exposed side. These pulsed GSM fields also enhanced EEG power in the alpha (8-13 Hz) range prior to sleep onset and in the spindle frequency range during Stage 2 sleep. Importantly, exposure to unmodulated (CW) fields at the same average power density as the GSM fields did not enhance power in the waking or sleeping EEGs, supporting concepts that pulse-modulation is necessary to induce waking and sleeping EEG changes ([Adey, 1997]; Huber et al., 2002]).

5. Modification of blood-brain-barrier permeability by mobile phone and other microwave fields

In an historical perspective, initial observations of possible disruption of the blood-brain-barrier (BBB) by microwave fields used 3 GHz radar fields at presumed nonthermal incident levels (3 mw/cm²) ([Oscar and Hawkins,1977]). They reported increased brain uptake of mannitol and inulin through the BBB in rats, but not of dextran. This pioneering observation was overshadowed by subsequent collaborative studies in which Oscar participated, with findings of no BBB permeability change to sucrose ([Oscar et al., 1982]; Gruenau et al., 1982]). The original study using mannitol and inulin was not repeated at that time.

More extensive studies since 1988 by Salford and colleagues have reported significant leakage of albumen through the BBB in rats exposed once to GSM phone fields for 2 h at whole body average energy absorption rates of 2 mW/kg, 20 mW/kg, and 200 mW/kg ([Salford et al., 2003]). All field levels would be consistent with nonthermal exposures. Exposed animals were allowed to survive for about 50 days. Albumen antibodies displayed positive foci around finer blood vessels in gray and white matter. Damaged neurons, as revealed by cresyl violet staining, were found amongst normal neurons in cerebral cortex, hippocampus and basal ganglia., with a maximum incidence around 2%, but in some restricted areas, dominated the picture. Scores differed significantly between the groups, with evidence for a dose-dependence (P<0.002).>"

At the cellular level, a model of the BBB can be achieved in vitro, in a co-culture of rat astrocytes and porcine brain capillary endothelial cells ([Schirmacher et al., 2000]). The existence of a BBB formed by these capillary endothelial cells was confirmed by the presence of the zona occludens protein as a marker of intercellular tight junctions, and also by the close contacts between these cells, together with an absence of intercellular clefts. Permeability measurements with radiolabeled sucrose also correlated with a physiological "tightness.^" Exposure to GSM phone fields at 1800 MHz for 4 days significantly increased permeability to radiolabeled sucrose in comparison to unexposed controls.

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Depleted Uranium, Diabetes, Cancer And You

Recently, I received an intriguing email claiming that the rapidly increasing worldwide epidemic of diabetes was caused by depleted uranium (DU). As a medical doctor I never heard of such an idea. Every physician knows that radiation can lead to cancer, but the DU and diabetes connection seemed ludicrous. Nevertheless, I thought it would be interesting to check it out on the Internet.

The best tool for medical research on the Net is the PubMed website sponsored by the US National Library of Medicine. I typed in the keywords: depleted uranium and diabetes. No citations to scientific papers in the medical journals appeared on my computer screen, which further assured me there was no scientific connection. Even when I used key words - depleted uranium and human disease - only a mere 16 papers were cited on the subject from 1994 to 2005; and only half these papers addressed the medical problems of soldiers exposed to DU in the Gulf War.

What was revealed is that DU accumulates in lymph nodes, brain, testicles, and other organs, and the short term and long term effects of DU were not known. There was a definite increase of birth defects in the offspring of persons exposed to DU; and Gulf War vets who inhaled DU were still excreting abnormal amounts of uranium in the urine 10 years later.

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A New Vaccine called "Gardasil" is out on the Market: For Whose Sake?

It took 28,000 deaths before Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co had to remove their arthritis drug VIOXX off the counters. They saw their market stocks plummet close to 27%, and they were fighting hard to keep themselves from falling further. Over 4,000 law suits were keeping them busy in the courts, while their scientists were manufacturing a new drug.

A new vaccine called "Gardasil" is out on the market. Manufactured by this same company, quickly fast tracked by the FDA in February 2006, and approved in September in the United States without many years of research or medical support behind it. Don't you find it interesting that two of Merck's own former biologists, Vaccine expert Dr. John Boslego and Alan Shaw, sat on this FDA panel that just happened to approve this Merck vaccine?

So far, they have documented 3 deaths and over 1,700 severe adverse reactions to it, and this vaccine was approved within the last year.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, at that time, passed an executive order mandating all girls to be vaccinated before they entered grade 6. The rush to make a new vaccine mandatory created a backlash from the people and forced Merck, on February 20th, to publicly drop its lobbying campaign for mandatory vaccination of school girls.

According to a 2002 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, "The safety of new agents cannot be known with certainty until a drug has been on the market for years. Serious adverse drug reactions commonly emerge after Food and Drug Administration approval."

In Canada they have started the Gardasil inoculation in PEI and Nova Scotia. The Harper government is spending $300 million to support our Canadian daughters to have this vaccine.

I decided to do some more research, before I allowed my daughter to be vaccinated three times to ensure this live vaccine is in her body. They claim it will protect against just two of over 100 of the human papilloma virus (HPV) strains that cause up to 70 percent of cervical cancers. Their own experts are now saying that girls and women may have to be inoculated once again in five years time as they are still unsure on how long this vaccine will stay effective.

They want our daughters - as young as 12 years of age - to be inoculated for a cancer they claim is spread through sexual intercourse.

Why now? Why are only the girls being inoculated?

There is a lot of money being poured into advertising on television with cute little songs that are attempting to convince the general public that they need to rush out and get their daughters and themselves inoculated.

Commonly known Pap tests are still the best way to catch signs of cancer when it is still treatable.

Please, my fellow Canadians, research this before you allow your children to be vaccinated with this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjO38Y0Q6nE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j861r4eAsc4&mode=related&search =

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCxCLP6ZGPs&mode=related&search =

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z2GTcEFoSY&mode=related&search =

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YKDy_pA_Do&mode=related&search =

CAP/PAC demands a halt to this medical experimentation on our little girls!!

Further CAP/PAC deplores this aspect of the implementation of a North American Union agenda that submits Canadians to the profit motivated exploitation of phamaceutical companies, at the expense of the safety and health of our citizens.

Parents must refuse to submit their daughters to a real health risk. No one has the right to abuse a human body without the owner's informed consent. Children need our protection, not exploitation. Parents need to know they can and must say no."

Bev Collins is President, Canadian Action Party/Parti action canadienne, bev_collins@hotmail.com

Global Research Articles by Bev Collins

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A new way of collecting solar energy

SOMETIMES, the simplest ideas are the best. To absorb heat from the sun efficiently—to use it, for example, to heat water—you need large, flat, black surfaces. One way to do that is to construct those surfaces specially, on the roofs of buildings. But why go to all that trouble when cities are full of black surfaces already, in the form of asphalted roads?

This was the thought that occurred ten years ago to Arian de Bondt, an engineer who works for a Dutch building company called Ooms. Eventually, Dr de Bondt persuaded his employers to follow it up. The result is that their headquarters in Scharwoude is now heated in winter—and also cooled in summer—by a system that relies on the surface of the road outside.

The heat-collector itself is a circuit of connected water pipes. Most of them run from one side of the street to the other, just under the asphalt layer. Some, however, dive deep into the ground.

In summer, when the surface of the street gets hot, water pumped through the pipes picks up this heat and takes it underground through one of the diving pipes. At a depth of about 100 metres lies a natural aquifer into which a series of heat exchangers have been built. The hot water from the street runs through these exchangers, warming the groundwater, before returning to the surface via another pipe. The aquifer is thus used as a heat store.

In winter, the circuit is changed slightly. Water is pumped through the heat exchangers to pick up the heat that was stored during summer. This water goes into the Ooms building and is used to warm the place up. After performing that task, it is pumped under the asphalt and the residual heat it carries helps to keep the road free of snow and ice.

That is not the end of the story. By now the water has been cooled to near freezing point, and it is once again sent underground—this time through a different pipe to a second aquifer. Here, another set of heat exchangers is used to cool the groundwater. This store of cold water is then used in summer to keep the Ooms building cool in exactly the same way that the store of heat is used in winter to keep it warm.

The result is cheap heating in winter and cheap cooling in summer. And there is a bonus. Summer heating softens asphalt. That makes it easier for heavy traffic to damage the road surface. Dr de Bondt’s system not only saves on electricity, but also saves the road. Expect to see more examples of it, in other countries, soon.

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The Radiation Poisoning Of America

Prior to 1996, the wireless age was not coming online fast enough, primarily because communities had the authority to block the siting of cell towers. But the Federal Communications Act of 1996 made it nearly impossible for communities to stop construction of cell towers "even if they pose threats to public health and the environment. Since the decision to enter the age of wireless convenience was politically determined for us, we have forgotten well-documented safety and environmental concerns and, with a devil-may-care zeal that is lethally short-sighted, we have incorporated into our lives every wireless toy that comes on the market. We behave as if we are addicted to radiation. Our addiction to cell phones has led to harder "drugs" like wireless Internet. And now we are bathing in the radiation that our wireless enthusiasm has unleashed. Those who are addicted, uninformed, corporately biased and politically-influenced may dismiss our scientifically-sound concerns about the apocalyptic hazards of wireless radiation. But we must not. Instead, we must sound the alarm.

Illa Garcia wore jewelry the first day she went back to work as a fire lookout for the state of California in the summer of 2002. The intense radiation from dozens of RF/microwave antennas surrounding the lookout heated the metals on her body enough to burn her skin. "I still have those scars," she says. "I never wore jewelry to work after that."

Likely Mountain Lookout, on U.S. Forest Service land with a spectacular view of Mount Shasta, is one of thousands of RF/microwave "hot spots" across the nation. A newly-erected cellular communications tower was only 30 feet from the lookout. "One antenna on that tower was even with our heads," recalls Garcia. "We could hear high-pitched buzzing. There were also three state communications antennas mounted on the lookout, only 6 feet from where we walked. We climbed past them every day."

Motorola company manuals for management of communications sites confirm that high frequency radiation from these antennas is nasty stuff. Safety regulations mandate warning signs, EMF awareness training, protective gear, even transmitter deactivation for personnel working that close to antennas. Garcia and co-worker Mary Jasso were never warned about the hazards. This, they say, demonstrates extreme malfeasance on the part of agencies and commercial companies responsible for their exposure.

By the end of fire season, Garcia and Jasso were so ill they were forced to retire and the lookout was closed to state personnel. Garcia, 52, is now severely disabled with fibromyalgia, auto-immune thyroiditis and acute nerve degeneration. Medical tests confirmed broken DNA strands in her blood and abnormal tissue death in her brain.

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