By Jovian, I got it!

Jupiter as seen through my trusty Canon S5. Shot this yesterday around midnight. You can even see a few of Jupiter's moons. Most likely Io and Europa.

Experimenting with Tilt Shift

So I've been experimenting with a photography technique called miniature faking. Found this great article on it the other day and thought "what the hey, lets try it!"

The technique is fairly simple, whereby you select a portion of your photo to remain sharp, and blur the rest. By amping up the colors a little you can get the feel of the objects in frame looking smaller than they really are. It helps to have an image with perspective that is high off the ground, which helps to give the illusion that you're looking down on a miniature modeled world.

Here are a few of mine:

96 Months to Save World says Prince Charles

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/just-96-months-to-save-world-says-charles-1738049.html

I thought that this article tied in nicely with the first link I posted today. So 96 months... I wonder how he came up with that figure. To quote a bit from the article:

The Prince, who has spoken passionately about the environment before, said that if the world failed to heed his warnings then we all faced the "nightmare that for so many of us now looms on the horizon".

Charles's speech was described as his first attempt to present a coherent philosophy in which he placed the threat to the environment in the context of a failing economic system.

The Prince, who is advised by the leading environmentalists Jonathon Porritt and Tony Juniper, said that even the economist Adam Smith, father of modern capitalism, had been aware of the short-comings of unfettered materialism.

Delivering the annual Richard Dimbleby lecture, Charles said that without "coherent financial incentives and disincentives" we have just 96 months to avert "irretrievable climate and ecosystem collapse, and all that goes with it."

Capitalism - Sarah Palin Style

http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2009/07/capitalism-sarah-palin-style

An outstanding article. Here is a snippet:

This is not about Sarah Palin. It's about the meaning of that myth of constant "discovery," and what it tells us about the economic system that they're spending trillions of dollars to save. What it tells us is that capitalism, left to its own devices, will push us past the point from which the climate can recover. And capitalism will avoid a serious accounting—whether of its financial debts or its ecological debts—at all costs. Because there’s always more. A new quick fix. A new frontier.

That message was selling, as it always does. It was only when the stock market crashed that people said, "Maybe Sarah Palin isn't a great idea this time around. Let's go with the smart guy to ride out the crisis."

....

It's appropriate that we call this a "bailout." Financial markets are being bailed out to keep the ship of finance capitalism from sinking, but what is being scooped out is not water. It's people. It's people who are being thrown overboard in the name of "stabilization." The result will be a vessel that is leaner and meaner. Much meaner. Because great inequality—the super rich living side by side with the economically desperate—requires a hardening of the hearts. We need to believe ourselves superior to those who are excluded in order to get through the day. So this is the system that is being saved: the same old one, only meaner.

APOD: Milky Way over Devils Tower

Sweet APOD today, I've seriously gotta look up tutorials on how to achieve photography like this.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090729.html

Through the Looking Glass

Live With Me

Having seen what Alcohol addiction can do to a person, and everyone they come in contact with, this video sure is powerful. The lyrics are thought provoking as well. If that weren't enough its done by Massive Attack. Nuff said.

Fight Bad Service, Bad Products & Bad Ideas

This guy just made my 'hero' list. Its a rather long read, but very funny. It has to do with setting off alarms after you pay for items in a store, as well as retailers treating every customer as if they were potential thieves. Excellent article, found the original here:

http://www.bwcitypaper.com/bw.digg.page.final.html


Customer Confidential

A new Black & White consumer column helps you fight bad service, bad products, and bad ideas.

By David Pelfrey

November 16, 2006

Here’s a scenario that is familiar to anyone who has ever set foot in Wal-Mart, CVS, Rite-Aid, or any of a dozen other major retailers. After you have made a purchase, collected your bags, or packed everything into a shopping cart, you head for the exit. Just as you approach freedom an alarm sounds (usually a sequence of ugly, electronic grunts) and a robotic voice (always female) announces: “Please return to the checkout.” Other customers immediately look in your direction, and an employee begins to approach you. What’s your next move?

If you possess an ounce of personal pride or perhaps two ounces of fortitude, then the 100 percent correct move is to proceed immediately out the door. Why? There are many reasons, chief among them being that rational adults should not instantly obey mechanical voices (unless that voice instructs us to exit a burning aircraft). Also, if you haven’t stolen anything and therefore do not require interrogation, there is absolutely nothing that should compel you to linger post-transaction. It’s depressing enough simply being there in the first place. Another good reason to make a quick exit is that you aren’t being paid to assist some giant retailer with its security measures. You aren’t part of the team, and you didn’t clock in. The clearest reason for leaving the store, however, is that there exists absolutely no legal obligation to remain there, and the store has no right to detain you.

Because all of the above constitute my position on the matter, I have established a mildly adversarial relationship with many retail establishments with whom I continue to do business. I don’t mind too much, because so far I have won all the battles in this long and silly war. What does trouble me is that retailers who, as a matter of policy, routinely treat customers like criminals have not changed their attitude about the issue. In fact, some vehemently defend their policies. I began closely paying attention to this phenomenon several years ago. My story begins at Wal-Mart during the Christmas shopping season of 2000.

It’s an unpleasant fact of life that sometimes we must shop at Wal-Mart, but the selection and savings in the pharmacy and auto department are worth braving the depressing atmosphere if you can get in and out fast enough. A speedy departure is exactly what I was thinking about that December evening as I sped my cart, after paying for all nine items, toward one of the exits. I was stopped by a 60-something gentleman who said he needed to see my receipt and check what was in my cart. I smiled and said, “I’m in a hurry to get out of this madness. Can’t help you.”

The truth is that I had no idea where that receipt was, and I wasn’t keen to search for it. The gentleman moved in front of the cart and firmly gripped the sides, saying “Sir, I must see your receipt before you leave.”

“Oh, I see what you mean,” I replied. “I guess we better get one of your security people over here.”

That puzzled him for a second. “Will you wait here while I get somebody? he asked.

“No.” I said. “I’m out the door as soon as you get out of the way.”

This was a spontaneous answer on my part, but in all honesty I was delighted to have stumbled onto a perfect dilemma for this zealous worker. If he stood his ground, he couldn’t see my receipt. But if he went for assistance, he might lose an opportunity to nail the Tylenol/Windex/Aussie Moist Conditioner thief. He then began to work his way up the side of the cart toward me, his strategy apparently being to keep one hand on the side of the cart and one foot on the floor at all times. Finally, he took hold of my forearm, which surprised me, but not in a good way.

“Never mind security,” I said. “Now you better go find a real police officer.” My captor gave that notion a moment’s thought and then began sprinting toward the rear of the building, making a dash for help in an incident that, for him, must have been escalating toward Def-Con 1. He wasn’t scared; he was determined. I stood there for some time, partly because the whole ridiculous scenario had stunned me, but also because I was even more impressed by how fast the old guy could move. Two other employees and a few customers who were observing the scene were impressed in a different way, I concluded, because they were all laughing at the poor fellow. I proceeded to my car, and that was the end of that. I kept the incident in mind for future reference.

In the spring, a man’s fancy lightly turns to lawn care, and I am therefore a frequent shopper in the gardening department at Wal-Mart, an area that in character and ambience stands in pleasant contrast to the rest of the store. I also have a habit of using the garden entrance and exit. But of course, that’s where the “greeter” invariably interrupts my reverie. “May I please see your receipt?” is the common request. The correct answer, which I also happened upon by accident, is “No, you may not.” What usually occurs next is that the greeter contacts security, because she or he never comprehends that they merely asked for permission that was subsequently not granted. There is nothing in that friendly exchange that hints of criminal activity, so what’s the point of hanging around?

If it sounds at this point as though I’m being an ornery crank about the whole matter, simply consider all those retail establishments at which customers spend vastly greater sums but are not interrogated before their departure. I’ve never been harassed at Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware, for example. I resent certain measures taken by retailers who don’t check bags or receipts, but who do, by implication, still manage to punish all shoppers for the deeds of a few criminals. A favorite means of combating that takes place at Banana Republic and Macy’s. Just for fun, I’ll browse through the leather jackets or expensive sport coats that are fastened together by a cable that holds an alarm sensor. When a clerk approaches and offers to unstrap the merchandise, I simply inform him that I don’t try on clothes in orange-alert, high-security areas. Yes, I’m being a jerk in a very technical sense, but I’m sending a message to management, I hope. Throughout my struggle, I have assumed that enough of these encounters will eventually work their way up through corporate levels to a decision maker who might implement change. That may be a flawed assumption.

The idea that small battles won might not lead to final victory first entered my mind at Costco. Costco is one of my favorite stores in the world, from a purely fiscal perspective. You do indeed save money there. Moreover, the employees at this well-organized, disturbingly efficient warehouse are consistently cheerful and helpful. The butcher shop is cleaner than those I see at the major grocers in town. You can get a case of Coke in glass bottles for just over $10. No way is anyone going to foul up that shopping experience. But Costco is apparently willing to make the effort.

When you check out at Costco, an employee takes your cart, places items on a conveyor, and then another employee rings up the items. There are no bags here (one of the many cost-saving measures) but you may gather empty boxes from a designated area and organize things yourself, once you have paid. It’s a warehouse, after all. In any event, at this point a customer is at least 20 feet from any merchandise, with no access to the store unless they return through the checkout line. There’s nothing between you and the exit, except another employee who must check your receipt and mark it with a highlighting marker. Never mind that all of the items in your cart, which have obviously been paid for, were also placed there by a Costco employee.

One problem with this receipt-checking system is that on busy days it forces customers to form long lines at the exit. On some of my visits, I decided to roll past this line with my items, now that I owned them, and head straight to my car. The first time I tried this, a woman shouted at me to return to the store. I believe she was still yelling “Sir! Sir!” as I departed Patton Creek and approached the interstate ramp. I wouldn’t know; I was listening to a CD I had just purchased at Costco. It was my CD, you understand. Why not enjoy it?

On another visit, I decided to get the lay of the land before attempting any more non-compliant exits. Perhaps there was a rule or policy about the Costco system that made sense. There on the wall at the exit, I discovered, is a huge sign that reads:

Why is my register receipt reviewed when I leave the warehouse?
To assure that you paid for and are not overcharged or undercharged for any item. Also, marking the receipt disallows its reuse.

The completely misleading nature of that message became obvious during my next encounter with Costco security enforcement. As I suspected, there were about a dozen customers in line for “receipt review” at the exit. That represented about six extra minutes that I wasn’t being paid for, and so I rolled toward freedom. The employee “reviewing” receipts left the line and cheerfully said, “I’m going to have to see your receipt first.”

Adopting her happy demeanor, I replied, “And you are going to have to chase me in order to do so.” Sometimes it’s worth being an ass just to see the response on people’s faces. Not only was the receipt lady registering total bewilderment, but several customers in line for the same hassle appeared equally baffled. One woman glanced at me with what looked like total contempt. Her response was invigorating, although I’m not sure why. I continued toward my vehicle, where I was greeted by a man who looked and sounded like “security.”

“Was there a problem at the checkout, sir?” he asked.
“No, actually, checkout was great,” I said. “Very efficient. But leaving the store was a little shaky. In fact, there’s definitely a problem there.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, for openers, I don’t like being treated like a shoplifter.”
“Sir,” he solemnly stated, “No one is treating you like a shoplifter.”
“Really? Then why, exactly, am I having a conversation with store security, who just happened to reach my vehicle at the same time I did?”

Minutes seemed to pass. I thought I noticed a funnel cloud moving toward Vestavia. A faint aroma of cotton candy was in the air. The forty-ish woman loading her purchase into a car two spaces down was wearing tight-fitting, corduroy jeans. She looked amazing. Finally the security guy responded. “Sir, our people checking receipts are doing their jobs. It’s a store policy that we inspect receipts. We’re trying to make sure you paid the right price.”

We get served a lob like that only so many times, and I wasn’t letting this one go. My research was finally paying off. I chose to be polite, because the security guy was actually quite calm and friendly about the whole incident. “This is a warehouse,” I replied. “There are no prices on those items in my cart, so how would they know if I were overcharged? Never mind, here’s another thing you should know. In my last five visits here, I allowed your staff to see my receipts, and they instantly marked them without so much as glancing at the totals. They were simply making certain that I had paid for something, and that I could not come back and use that receipt at a later date. In other words, to stop my attempts, present and future, at theft—you know, as though I were a potential shoplifter. Your sign with the message about ensuring that I wasn’t overcharged is what shoppers like me sometimes call bullshit. That’s Home Depot behind us. I spent a few hundred dollars there last year. Just to our right is Sears. I spent almost that much there last Christmas. No one reviewed my receipts at either store. Please tell me what I’m doing wrong.”

The security guy walked away, perhaps wondering if Costco had not fully explained to him all the details of “receipt review.” It’s also possible that he knew, without a doubt, that I was just one more jackass who “didn’t get it.” These are store policies, damn it.

I contacted management at Wal-Mart, Costco, and other retailers to get some comments for this article about their respective policies. Long story short, no one is budging, and some retailers are downright proud of those policies. Wal-Mart has the most detached view of the issue, it seems. Their explanation of the process has to do with “security detection determining that sensors have not been deactivated; retraining transaction staff, etc.,” but nothing to do with human volition. For Wal-Mart, theft and theft prevention are natural phenomena, much like the weather. No one is being treated like a criminal, you see, it’s strictly a case of “devices detecting active sensors.” There’s really nothing Wal-Mart can do. Except have a greeter rummage through bags of items that legally belong to you. While you wait.

There are some things that shoppers can do, however. First, the deer-in-the-headlights response to security alarms must end. Smile and walk with confidence through the exit. Bear in mind that being suspected of theft is actually a reason to leave the store, not a reason to stay, in much the same way that no one remains at a party after they have been insulted by the host. If a particular retailer wants to play games by insisting that they are merely ensuring that you were not overcharged, then by all means let’s check all 74 items in the cart, poring over the receipt line by line while other customers wait. Another fun approach, if you are detained, is to inform the store that they may indeed inspect your bags or your receipt, if and only if all items are immediately returned for a full refund. That gets their attention. Or just tell them to call a cop. If you’re the theatrical type, adopt a German accent and repeat loudly that your papers are in order (with the same accent you can do the old Berlin Wall bit and say that you have friends at the central committee). The odds of a customer in the store getting the joke are very slim, but anyone who does get the reference will remember you forever. It will feel good to be someone’s hero.

Last fall, while I was waiting for a prescription to be filled, I stood near the exit of my local pharmacy reading a product description on a bottle of shampoo. Two elderly customers set off the sensor alarm as they walked out, but I told them to go ahead, because “that crazy thing had been going off all day, and we had not figured out how to stop it yet.” I also thanked them for shopping with us. When an employee arrived a few seconds later, I waved the bottle and apologized for getting too close to the sensors. All was well. I’m seldom that fast on my feet, but I was having a good week, apart from the sinus infection. With that in mind, as Thanksgiving approaches and the shopping season gains momentum, I hope that my story will be the catalyst for a quantum shift in consumer habits.

Hell Explained by Chemistry Student

I typically hit delete whenever I see forwards in my inbox. However I was cleaning out my mailbox this morning and stumbled across this little gem that I had kept. Hilarious.

HELL EXPLAINED BY CHEMISTRY STUDENT

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid term.

The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.'

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/hell.asp

9/11 Manufactured Terrorism by Gerard Holmgren

I found this article today and after reading it, I thought I'd do some research on the author. I thought this first article was rather flimsy on fact, but did bring up some interesting information. The manner in which he wrote it however seems a bit childish, and at times rather funny.

He did however come off eloquent enough and brought up important questions. Which is why I did a search for more information on him. This second article I found was really impressive however. Here is the link (also linked below), a 10 page PDF, a summary he wrote. If you don't read the first, then at least give this 2nd link a glance.

I think it is an impressive paper that addresses many of the concerns I personally have about what happened that fateful day. Really- give it a read.

911_Manufactured_Terrorism.pdf

Stellarium

More software to help you stargaze! Free for the downloading and packed with really interesting tools! Check it out:

http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/

Google's Triforce Easter Egg!

Haha this is great! Check out the original link here:
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2009-07-16-n41.html

Nikola Tesla, July 9th 2009

Earth Day 2009

Christiaan Huygens, 2009

Thanksgiving 2008

Halloween 2008
Here, the triforce might have been added later on, or removed... in another version it was not to be seen.

France October 4th, 2008

Olympic Summer Games 2008

Earth Day 2008

The Truth About Plastic Bags

A great set of slides here...

http://www.poconorecord.com/_flash/soundslides/20080505plasticbags/soundslider.swf

Happy Birthday Melissa!

Couldn't imagine my life without my sister! Thanks for everything you do for my family!

Neave Planetarium

Ever wonder which star or planet you're looking at?

Check this out-- the sky in your browser!

http://www.neave.com/planetarium/

Artshow Pictures

We couldn't have asked for a better day! Sunday was beautiful, the sun was out and a there was a nice breeze most of the time. It wasn't too humid and frankly didn't quite feel like a typical day in July.

There were over 300 vendors this year and the place was PACKED! I owe a big thank you to Ashley and Melissa for everything they did- you guys are le bomb! Also a big thank you to my parents, and to Jesse for help with moving everything to and from the fair.

Here are some pictures-

Also, I'd like to thank everyone who purchased something from my little business venture- I appreciate the business! Cheers!

CancerQuest.org

http://www.cancerquest.org/

Found this link another great source of information for Cancer

Popping the Bubble

This is INCREDIBLE!!

Super slow-motion pictures show a soap bubble popping. Here is the original link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1199149/Super-slow-motion-pictures-soap-bubble-bursting-stunning-detail.html

TED Talk: 4 Environmental "Heresies"

I'm glad that we're seeing more and more people talk about our world and how fragile its systems are. He's got some interesting data on the developing world as well.

Daversity Code

http://www.daversitycode.com/

Spoof on the Davinci Code with a green twist.

Thorny Plant

Well today is the artshow. I figured the best way to start it was to blog! Here are a few photos I took last night. Its too bad that I was clumsy walking up to the plant, because I spooked a deer out of the field. Ah well, a lesson learned!

The Great American Bubble Machine

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine

A friend referred this article. Going to read it later when there's more time.

9/11 and the American Empire

This was filmed in Madison in 2005.

9/11 Timeline

http://www.wanttoknow.info/911information

This is also an interesting set of info on 9/11. They have 2 page, 10 page, 25 page and 60 page versions available:

Two-page 9/11 information summary: http://www.WantToKnow.info/9-11cover-up
Ten-page 9/11 information summary: http://www.WantToKnow.info/9-11cover-up10pg
25-page 9/11 information summary: http://www.WantToKnow.info/9-11timeline25pg
60-page 9/11 information summary: http://www.WantToKnow.info/9-11timeline60pg

Officials Question 9/11 Commission Report

These testimonies are nice to read, but I really wish something more could be done.

http://www.wanttoknow.info/officialsquestion911commissionreport

NOVA- The Elegant Universe

A while back I wrote a review on Brian Greene's book called "The Elegant Universe" I was a bit harsh on it because it failed to really capture my interest while reading it. But today I found a series of videos that really portray String Theory in an entertaining way. The video's are cropped down into 7-10 minute chapters and can be found here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

There are 3 hours worth, and each hour is broken into several chapters if you're interested in taking them in piecemeal. Wish I could embed directly into the blog, but the videos are protected, so the link above will have to suffice.

I do have to admit, Brian hasn't completely pushed aside his characteristic cheesiness, but the videos are entertaining nonetheless! Much faster than reading the book that's for sure. Read my review of the Elegant Universe here.

Cancer Prevention

Okay so I haven't read this completely, but there is a gold mine of info here.

http://www.cancer-prevention.net/

This excerpt posted below is from about half-way down into the article. I went to go print it because it's so damn wordy- its 90 pages worth and giving me a headache reading on screen. Definitely good information in here though- well worth the read.

What The Medical Industry Won't Tell You
About Treating Cancer

There was a woman whose daughter was in the advanced stages of brain cancer. She asked her oncologist if it was ok to give her daughter a superfood called blue green algae. Her doctor told her that it was no problem, that in fact a number of his patients had used that supplement with success in fighting cancer.

Naturally she wondered why he didn't tell her about this product a year before when they came to him.

Unfortunately, he couldn't tell her about this or any "natural or alternative health therapies" and stay employed. Insurance regulations would preclude such suggestions. And he could get into administrative trouble by recommending natural, non-drug treatments for cancer.

His advice is controlled by a large medical industry that makes mega money off expensive cancer fighting drugs and treatments. An industry that doesn't look favorably on natural supplements or other cancer treatments as they cannot patent them to make high profits.

Fifty years from now, the current conventional cancer treatments used by doctors will on the whole be viewed in the same light that we view the old medical practice of using leeches to cure illnesses.

Chemotherapy and other treatments damage cells and tear down and weaken the immune system. But the problem in the first place is that your immune system is already weak, and that your cells are already damaged.

Even if tumors do go into remission, these treatments will have damaged other cells, which are more likely to turn cancerous. The immune system, unless it is supported by supplements and diet to help it recover, will be in worse shape then ever.

While it may have taken decades for cancer to develop the first time around, the second time usually takes a year or two.

Another reason why doctors ignore sensible, safe and healthy treatments for cancer, and recommend costly and illogical treatments instead -- is human nature. They advise and prescribe what they know. Just what we all do.

You go to them and you get what they know. You assume they will do the best they can for you, while in fact they only do what the system teaches them, promotes and allows them to do.

A Doctor's Shocking Closed-Door Confession...

In a survey of 79 oncologists from McGill University Cancer Center in Canada, 64 said they would not consent to treatment with Cisplatin, a common chemotherapy drug, while 58 oncologists said they would reject all the current trials being carried out by their establishment.

Why? "The ineffectiveness of chemotherapy and its unacceptable degree of toxicity."
Philip Day, Cancer: Why We're Still Dying to Know the Truth

This information is shocking to say the least. But consider this ...

Doctors today are not very different than they were 150 or 200 years ago. Back then the common practice was for interns and doctors working on cadavers to walk down the hall to deliver a baby without washing their hands. Many women died from the subsequent infections.

Finally a doctor in charge of a clinic figured out what was happening, and had them wash their hands. The infections stopped. When he published his results, the medical profession was outraged. Good doctors could not be the cause of something like this. The doctor was ostracized and fired.

He went elsewhere and repeated the experiment. Again, deaths dropped. Again he announced the results, and again the medical profession rose up against him. The end of the story was, he lost everything, went insane from the tragedy of it all, and eventually, so the story goes, killed himself.

Bottom line: Don't expect a doctor working inside the system to buck the system. The risks are too great.

According to the National Cancer Institute, about 500,000 people will be diagnosed with some form of cancer this year. You may not know it, but cancer -- NOT heart disease -- is the number one risk of death for most everyone.

Chemotherapy works by killing all cells -- throughout your body -- that multiply and divide rapidly. This would include cancer cells, and other rapidly multiplying and dividing cells, that we need, such as:

• Bone marrow, which produces blood
• Digestive system
• Reproductive system
• Hair follicles

This overkill approach is one of the causes of an astounding overall failure rate of chemotherapy, as you'll see below.

In 2004, the Journal of Clinical Oncology published a study about chemotherapy’s success rates when looking at how many cancer patients were still alive after 5 years. It states:

RESULTS: The overall contribution of curative and adjuvant cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adults was estimated to be 2.3% in Australia and 2.1% in the USA.

CONCLUSION: As the 5-year relative survival rate for cancer in Australia is now over 60%, it is clear that cytotoxic chemotherapy only makes a minor contribution to cancer survival. To justify the continued funding and availability of drugs used in cytotoxic chemotherapy, a rigorous evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and impact on quality of life is urgently required.

You’d be hard pressed to find anything still being touted as your best shot at a cure with an average success rate of just over 2 percent, which chemotherapy has, if it wasn’t for the fact that big profits were driving the recommendation. For stage 4 cancers the rate is less than half of one percent.

Fundamentally, chemotherapy rarely works. Worse, some drug treatments also promote the spread of cancer. But somehow the rationale to avoid these agents because they might promote cancer does not apply when it comes to drugs.

– A Cancer Journal for the Clinician article concludes by stating:

“Pending the publication of suitable trials, clinicians must be guided by existing data in the context of a fundamental principle of medicine, "Primum non nocere." (First do no harm.)

And yet, conventional cancer treatments can in no way, shape or form ever be considered harmless.

"...as a chemist trained to interpret data, it is incomprehensible to me that physicians can ignore the clear evidence that chemotherapy does much, much more harm than good."
Alan C Nixon, PhD, former president of the American Chemical Society

It is not all gloom and doom with chemotherapy. For two decades Dr. Perez Garcia has been using a treatment he calls Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT). It consists of giving a patient a dose of insulin followed by a tiny dose of chemotherapy.

Cancer cells have 15 times more insulin receptors than normal cells. The insulin dose helps to target chemotherapy into cancer cells because they have so many more insulin receptors. So small doses of chemotherapy can be used that cause little harm to normal cells. With Stage 1 or 2 cancer, IPT is, I read, about 80% successful, mixed results for more serious cancers. So after two decades of use, how many doctors were using IPT in the USA? 29. Hard to believe isn't it.

Many oncologists make much of their income from the markup they make on chemotherapy drugs, and small doses don't make big money.

You don't have to avoid chemotherapy or radiation therapy to receive benefits from natural products and supplements. In fact, nutritional supplements are quite useful when used in conjunction with chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. The best ones work to support the body so that radiation and chemo will actually work better. In addition, the immune system will be stronger, and better able to keep cancer from developing again.

It makes sense, doesn't it, to supplement your chemotherapy or radiation treatments with other options that support your body and actually help it be much more effective in fighting cancer.

Many people only do chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and do not also support their body's fight against cancer in other ways. All too often, the cancer is not destroyed, or comes back a short while later. And no wonder...

If the immune system has been wiped out by chemotherapy or radiation, cancer is bound to overrun the body even faster than before.

Seeking other options after the doctors throw in the towel and say there is nothing else they can do, is necessary. It makes more sense to correct the underlying causes of cancer early on when the odds are much better. Especially with natural supplements that can do no harm.

Natural supplements won't hurt you. They can only help. They won't make chemotherapy or radiation therapy less effective. Instead they amplify the power of whatever cancer treatments you may be doing by attacking cancer in other ways, or supporting the health of the body and immune system. For example, research studies have shown that when you oxygenate cancer cells, radiation therapy is more effective at killing those cells. And beta glucan, when used in conjunction with some types of chemotherapy, produced marked improvement over chemotherapy alone.

Certainly some people beat cancer using chemotherapy or radiation therapy. But look at the number of deaths from cancer, and you see that too many people don't. Not using natural supplements to fight cancer is like being in a life and death struggle, and choosing to fight with one hand tied behind your back.

Hit cancer hard. This is one fight you don't want to lose.

The more support you give your body, the better you will be at handling any possible side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and the better your body will be at fighting cancer. A natural approach to cancer is based on making your body healthier. To strengthen a depleted, worn out, under energized immune system that is not capable of killing cancer cells as fast as they are multiplying.

There are so many supplements that have anti-cancer properties, the choice of deciding what are the best to use can be overwhelming. This report will help you filter out the good or bad from the great. Besides taking into account feedback from users, speaking with manufacturers and industry insiders, we use energetic testing to help determine what products are important to use, and which may be a waste of time and money. The testing is subjective so we check and re-check the results to make it as accurate as possible. What it does is give you a general ballpark idea of what may be no good and what may be really good. The scale goes up to 1000, the higher the number the more healing power the supplement or procedure has. The numbers don't mean anything in and of themselves. They just enable a comparison of various supplements.

We gear this to what works best for cancer. Currently the best products we have found are a few in the 500 to 600 range. There are a few more in the 400s and more still in the 300s. Poor quality products, which are the vast majority of vitamins and supplements sold, will be in the 30s or 40s. Something less than 100. Products that may sound like they should be great, but are just okay, will be in the 100s. In the 200s products are starting to get good, but they are not great. We will give you the numbers we come up with throughout this report to better enable you to decide what might be worth trying and what might not.

Map Game of the Middle East

How well do you know the middle east?

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

Imagining the 10th Dimension

Okay it took a few viewings to really understand the concepts at work here, but this is super intriguing.

I'm also not sure that this is the 'recognized' standard for what the 10 dimensions are like. Also, in string theory they mention 11 dimensions. Or that is 10 dimensions plus one dimension for time. In this representation he includes time for a total of 10 dimensions not 11. A few perplexities there.

So yeah, still interesting to watch.

http://www.tenthdimension.com/medialinks.php

Planet / Star size Comparisons

This is a great representation on planet/star size. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but at first glance the comparisons appear to be rather solid.

http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm

Breathing Earth

This is most interesting. I just signed up on StumbleUpon and this was the first site:

http://www.breathingearth.net/

A CO2 emissions, birth rate & death rate simulation.

It really makes you think. Especially when you roll over the countries and see the birth/death rates. The crackling fire noise seems a little out of place though. Time for mute.

Hot Dog!

Faire on the Green

http://www.thepaine.org/events/faire_on_green2009.htm

Well I'm pretty excited. This Sunday I'm participating in the Paine Art Center's "Faire on the Green" It's been a great deal of work preparing for it, and I owe many thanks to everyone in my family for being so helpful in setting things up. Only a few more days to finish things up, but thankfully most of it is done.

And it looks like the weather will cooperate as well! Happy day!

Fireworks!

Here is a link to the entire set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariuccij/sets/72157620974130514/