Steve Adler's Raw Blog

O Brother, Where Artificial Thou?

2007-08-26T22:03:00.001-07:00

Fight over synthetic ingredients splits organics community

By Amanda Griscom Little

29 Sep 2005

What do xanthan gum, an artificial thickener, ammonium bicarbonate, a synthetic leavening agent, and ethylene, a chemical that accelerates the ripening of fruit, have in common? These and other synthetic additives commonly lurk behind that "USDA Organic" stamp of approval you see on the organic products increasingly crowding the shelves of big-box stores and boutique food shops alike.

Controversy over the use of these artificial substances in certified-organic products has been simmering within the organics community for at least three years, since the feds put national organic standards into effect in 2002, and now it's finally coming to a boil.

Last week, the Organic Trade Association, which represents mainstream producers of organic products, including Dole, Kraft, and Horizon, as well as hundreds of smaller-scale farmers and producers, provoked protest among community activists when it lobbied the Senate to attach an amendment to the 2006 agriculture appropriations bill that would make it legal for certain synthetic substances to continue to be used in the preparation, processing, and packaging of organic products that get the USDA seal. The OTA's proposed amendment would effectively cancel out a recent federal court ruling that determined synthetics shouldn't be permitted in the processing of certified-organic products -- a ruling that industry reps argue could deal a huge blow to their bottom lines.

If adopted, the OTA amendment would officially green-light the use of 38 synthetic substances (including the above-mentioned) that are already being used in the production of organic products, and in some cases would enable the U.S. Department of Agriculture to continue adding others to the list without getting feedback from the public or the National Organic Standards Board, the independent advisory group that crafted the first federal organic standards.

The Organic Consumers Association, a network of 600,000 consumers of organic products, is up in arms over the proposed amendment. Ronnie Cummins, the group's national director, is particularly concerned that it would weaken the NOSB, which he calls "the primary thing that stands between us and the corporate agribusiness takeover of the organics industry." In the past two weeks, says the nonprofit group, its members and grassroots allies have deluged congressional offices with tens of thousands of emails and telephone calls opposing the amendment.

OTA's initial lobbying push fell short, resulting in a compromise amendment to the Senate version of the appropriations bill that calls for study of the issue. This week, as the Senate and House dicker over a final bill in conference committee, OTA is continuing its efforts, hoping to get its amendment added at the 11th hour.

Katherine DiMatteo, executive director of OTA, says that while study "is a good step," it would only prolong ambiguity in the marketplace and harm organic producers. "Companies have to make decisions soon about purchasing the organic ingredients they put in [next year's] products," she says. "They will refrain from doing so if it's unclear whether they can depend on the same standards that we worked so hard to establish years ago."

William Friedman -- an attorney with the D.C.-based law firm Covington & Burling who is representing OTA, and a former vice chair of the NOSB -- argues that OK'ing continued use of the synthetic substances that have been allowed up to this point is "the only way for industry to continue offering consumers the same certified-organic products that they are purchasing today, and have been purchasing for the past three years bearing the USDA seal."

Indeed, many organic producers have grown accustomed to using these artificial additives in their processed products. Under the USDA's current rules, the organic label can be applied to a product if at least 95 percent of its ingredients are organic, and the remaining five percent can contain certain synthetic substances.

But the court ruling on "Harvey v. Veneman" earlier this year determined that the USDA rule governing which synthetic substances are permissible contradicted the original intent of the 1990 law that called for creating national organic standards. Arthur Harvey, an organic blueberry farmer in Maine, stunned industry when he won on appeal against the USDA, challenging the agency for allowing synthetics into processed foods certified as organic.

Were the Harvey court decision to stand, products containing the synthetic substances that have been allowed for the past three years would no longer be eligible for the full-fledged "USDA Organic" label. Instead, they could bear the claim "Made With Organic Ingredients," which can be applied to products containing a minimum of 70 percent organic ingredients. Some organic producers worry that such a downgrade for their products would mean serious financial losses, because consumers are willing to pay a premium for products with a stamp that certifies them as organic, but would be less inclined to fork over so much dough for those that merely contain organic ingredients.

Says Friedman, "Up to 90 percent of the multi-ingredient products that today bear the USDA organic seal would have to be relabeled." Most crackers, breakfast cereals, bread, milk, cheese, yogurt, tofu, bananas, lettuce, and any products containing sugar would not be able to bear the organic label, he says, because ingredients now used to make them would be prohibited by the Harvey ruling. As a result, "entire product lines would have to be eliminated," Friedman claims.

Urvashi Rangan, director of the Eco-labels.org project of Consumers Union, the nonprofit research group that publishes Consumer Reports, doesn't believe the blow would be so severe. "There has been lots of pressure to weaken standards so companies can capitalize on the synthetics market," she says. But many of the synthetic ingredients at issue, such as leavening agents, ripening agents, and thickeners, could have natural -- albeit somewhat more expensive -- counterparts, as does the carbon dioxide that is used to preserve bananas and lettuce. "We should be pushing the market to develop, cultivate, and adopt these natural processing agents and ingredients, not their cheaper artificial counterparts," she argues.

Many organic consumers would seem to agree. Says Rangan, "According to our research, 46 percent of all consumers buy organic-labeled food products, and 85 percent of all respondents say they do not expect food labeled as organic to contain artificial ingredients. In other words, allowing synthetics leads to fraudulent labeling, plain and simple, and erodes the credibility of the term organic."

Organic farmer Cissy Bowman -- CEO of Indiana Certified Organic, a USDA-accredited certifying organization -- says she feels excluded from the lobbying efforts of OTA, of which she has been a longtime member: "I don't feel that they have been open and transparent with their members about their efforts to push this amendment through Congress, and I don't believe it represents my interests or the interests of my clients." Bowman says her clients are working on finding natural alternatives to synthetic substances. She suggests that the USDA could clear up consumer confusion and help resolve the situation by creating a separate official seal for products made with at least 70 percent organic ingredients.

Cummins characterizes the OTA's lobbying as an attack on the definition of organic, and likens it to the USDA's past efforts to dilute organic standards: "In 1997 and 1998, the department proposed that genetic engineering, food irradiation, and use of toxic sludge be permissible on organic farms," he says. And last year, the USDA made moves to allow hitherto prohibited pesticides, tainted feeds, and antibiotics in the production of organic goods.

In these cases, the organics community -- including both industry groups and consumer-advocacy groups -- rose up in a unified force against the USDA to beat back these rollbacks. What makes the current situation different is that organic adherents themselves are warring.

"We're seeing the community split in two," said Cummins. Jim Riddle, chair of the NOSB, echoed that sentiment: "I am very concerned about the fractured state of the organic community."

Rawfoodist Rabbits

2007-08-04T02:45:00.000-07:00

Zen Judaism

2007-08-04T02:42:00.000-07:00

If there is no self,
whose arthritis is this?

Be here now.
Be some place else later.
Is that so complicated?

Drink tea and nourish life.
With the first sip... joy.
With the second... satisfaction.
With the third, peace.
With the fourth, a danish.

Wherever you go, there you are.
Your luggage is another story.

Accept misfortune as a blessing.
Do not wish for perfect health
or a life without problems.
What would you talk about?

The journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single "oy."

There is no escaping karma.
In a previous life, you never called,
you never wrote, you never visited.
And whose fault was that?

Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.

The Tao does not speak.
The Tao does not blame.
The Tao does not take sides.
The Tao has no expectations.
The Tao demands nothing of others.
The Tao is not Jewish.

Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be the least of your problems.

Let your mind be as a floating cloud.
Let your stillness be as the wooded glen.
And sit up straight.
You'll never meet the Buddha with such rounded shoulders.

Be patient and achieve all things.
Be impatient and achieve all things faster.

To Find the Buddha, look within.
Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers.
Each flower blossoms ten thousand times.
Each blossom has ten thousand petals.
You might want to see a specialist.

To practice Zen and the art of Jewish motorcycle maintenance,
do thefollowing: get rid of the motorcycle.
What were you thinking?

Be aware of your body.
Be aware of your perceptions.
Keep in mind that not every physical
Sensation is a symptom of a terminal illness.

The Torah says, "Love thy neighbor as thyself.
"The Buddha says there is no "self."
So, maybe you are off the hook.

The Buddha taught that one should practice loving kindness to all sentient beings. Still, would it kill you to find a nice sentient being who happens to be Jewish?

Though only your skin, sinews, and bones remain, though your blood and flesh dry up and wither away, yet shall you meditate and not stir until you have attained full Enlightenment.
But, first, a little nosh

Team Dove Love Presents "Living in the Heart" at Eden Hot Springs, Arizona Feb 28th to Mar 4th 2007

2006-11-03T02:05:00.000-08:00

Register at www.DoveLove.com

PDF version of Flyer --> http://www.naturaw.com/Eden_Hot_Springs_March_2007.PDF

Join us for an amazing retreat that combines the undeniable magic of soothing hot spring waters, delectable vegetarian, vegan, and raw, organic cuisine, invigorating yoga, inspiring lectures drawn from the books "Love Without End Jesus Speaks" and "The Keys of Jeshua" by author and artist Glenda Green, living food preparation classes, and healing body treatments. Our experienced staff will guide you through one of the most profound transformational events of your life!

RELAX, LEARN, INTEGRATE, AND THRIVE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN!

--Bask in the sun or unwind under the stars in one of five geothermal hot springs pools!
--Experience Invigorating, Heart-Opening Yoga with Katie Day!
--Cozmic Cuisine and Science of Gratitude lecture by the Cozmic Pepperman!
--Sacred Heart Art with Don Kennell!
--Lectures and Workshops by Special Guests Steve Adler, Katie Day, Cozmic Pepperman, Don Kennell, and more!
--Contemporary Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremony!
--Create Original Music Together around a Sacred Fire under the Starlit Desert Sky!
--Hike Desert Trails and Enjoy Expansive Breathtaking Views!

"Steve Adler is one of the most devoted students and teachers of Love Without End in our circle of outreach. He has a brilliant grasp of the concepts and a sparkling and captivating way of making them real to anyone. I have invited him to speak at my own conferences and have plans of inviting him to hold conferences for us as a solo presenter. In addition to his ability to see ''The Love That Moves Life'', he has a remarkable mastery of natural health and raw food principles. This event promises to be an outstanding opportunity for major change and healing of personal and planetary life." -- GLENDA GREEN, Author of "Love Without End Jesus Speaks" and "The Keys of Jeshua"

Investment in Your Health Transformation is: $550 Per Person double occupancy in the rustic on-site hotel or pitch a tent under a blanket of stars for $500 per person.

Bring your kids! Half price for children under 12, children under 3 come for free!

All prices include meals.

To reserve your space contact Steve Adler at 1-415-342-0527 or Katie Day at 1-310-754-9453 or,
e-mail: steve@naturaw.com or athenaday@yahoo.com

TO REGISTER ONLINE NOW GO TO: http://www.dovelove.com/

POM Animal Testing

2006-09-15T22:09:00.002-07:00

POM Juice Testing Information Background People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) learned that POM Wonderful has funded several animal experiments in early 2006. Thousands of activists and POM drinkers have written to the company urging them to drop animal tests, and PETA has met with the company several times. They have continually refused to have anything resembling a productive dialogue with PETA, and as such have made no steps towards a policy that would not allow animal experiments.
The FDA's Statement on Animal Tests for Juice/Food Products "The FDA's review of proposed health claim(s) and product safety is based on an evaluation of a body of supporting evidence for the claim(s), and not on specific types of studies. As such, the Agency is not aware of any circumstances that would result in the FDA requiring a food or beverage company to conduct laboratory experiments on animals". (Emphasis added).
"Animal studies … cannot adequately support a relationship between the substance and the disease by themselves. A company can substantiate their proposed health claim(s) based on data generated from laboratory and/or clinical studies that were conducted solely on humans".
Examples of POM Funded Animal Tests Below are several examples of the unnecessary and cruel experiments POM has funded. Brain Injury Experiment Funded an experiment published in 2005 titled "Maternal Dietary Supplementation with Pomegranate Juice is Neuroprotective in an Animal Model of Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury". Pregnant mice were fed POM Wonderful juice and, after giving birth, their pups were sealed in a chamber for 45 minutes where breathable oxygen was almost entirely cut off in order to induce severe brain injury. Baby mice were killed, decapitated, and had their brains removed for study. Source: http://www.pedresearch.org/cgi/content/full/57/6/858 Atherosclerosis Experiment Funded a test published in 2005 in which vivisectors attempted to study atherosclerosis in mice—an experiment that is fundamentally flawed since mice lack the human enzyme related to this disease, so mice had to be artificially induced with atherosclerosis. Certainly more substantial results could have been yielded in a clinical study of humans who suffer from atherosclerosis, as the goal was to learn about the effect of pomegranate juice in humans, not mice (who don't even suffer from the disease at hand). The animals were killed for observation. Source: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/102/13/4896
Erectile Dysfunction Experiment A POM-affiliated researcher conducted a study, published in 2005, to see if pomegranate juice could treat erectile dysfunction in rabbits (pomegranate juice was supplied by POM). But since rabbits don't suffer from this condition, experimenters created it in the animals with sudden balloon injuries of their arteries. The rabbits were killed for observation. Source: http://www.pomwonderful.com/pdf/Journal_of_Urology.pdf Memory Experiment In a 2005 POM-funded study, experimenters fed elderly rats pomegranate juice and put them through the Morris water maze, a stressful test in which the animals must find, from memory, a hidden platform submerged in a tank of water. The results were inconclusive. Source: http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/projects/projects.htm?ACCN_NO=407875&showpars=true&fy=2005
Pomegranate Juice that is NOT Tested on Animals Naked Juice and Old Orchard both make a 100% refrigerated pomegranate juice, and have signed PETA's Statement of Assurance that they do not fund any animal experiments. Frutzzo also makes a 100% pomegranate juice and has told PETA that the company funds no animal testing (however PETA is waiting to receive a signed statement from the company to that effect).
Note: It is very likely that there are other juice companies who make a 100% or blend pomegranate juice that is not tested on animals, but the above are companies who have expressed this, in writing, to PETA.

Fat Count

2006-09-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

A good tip...

So, I've got some shopping tips for you the next time you go to the store. It will make it so you won't have to worry about counting fat in the foods you eat because there won't be anything over 20% fat in your house.
Here's what you do. Look at the label of the food you are buying. It will list the amount of calories per serving as well as how many grams of fat are in that serving. Just take the fat grams and add a 0 to it and then divide that number into the calories per serving.
If it's under 20% then you're good to go and can throw it in your shopping cart. If it's over 20% then put it back on the shelf and keep looking for something else. This is a simple formula that I've been using for years each time my wife or I go shopping. It's a great way to keep extra fat out of your house and therefore out of your mouth.
So here's an example: Let's say it has 200 calories per serving and 10 fat grams.
Add a 0 to the 10 to make it 100 calories of fat. 100 divided by 200 total calories = 50 % of the calories are coming from fat!
Here are some other shopping tips for a healthy lifestyle: Make sure to include plenty of healthy fats like avocados, extra virgin olive oil and raw nuts. Avoid trans fats by staying away from products that use hydrogenated oils.

9/11 and Gandhi

2006-09-08T14:51:00.000-07:00

Shifting our attention to peace...
September 11th, 2006 is a very important date because that's when Gandhi started his non-violence mission 100 years ago. "One hundred years ago Mohandas Gandhi began the movement that would transform him into a Great Soul-the Mahatma. He had been living in South Africa for 13 years when the government proposed a law that would effectively reduce Indians to criminal status. On September 11th, 1906 he convened a meeting at the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg to mobilize his community to oppose the racially degrading legislation. That September 11th, more than 3000 people solemnly pledged to disobey the proposed law, without the use of violence, despite the consequences. With that pledge, Gandhi and his fellow Indians began the nonviolent revolution that would defeat an empire and give birth to the world's largest democracy."
-The Nonviolent Peaceforce

Eden Hot Springs Liquid Fasting Retreat

2006-08-26T01:31:00.000-07:00

Food Labels - Humor

2006-08-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

The Man Who Planted Trees

2006-08-25T22:25:00.000-07:00

The Man Who Planted Trees
By Jean Giono

For a human character to reveal truly exceptional qualities, one must have the good fortune to be able to observe its performance over many years. If this performance is devoid of all egoism, if its guiding motive is unparalleled generosity, if it is absolutely certain that there is no thought of recompense and that, in addition, it has left its visible mark upon the earth, then there can be no mistake.
About forty years ago I was taking a long trip on foot over mountain heights quite unknown to tourists, in that ancient region where the Alps thrust down into Provence. All this, at the time I embarked upon my long walk through these deserted regions, was barren and colorless land. Nothing grew there but wild lavender.

I was crossing the area at its widest point, and after three days' walking, found myself in the midst of unparalleled desolation. I camped near the vestiges of an abandoned village. I had run out of water the day before, and had to find some. These clustered houses, although in ruins, like an old wasps' nest, suggested that there must once have been a spring or well here. There was indeed a spring, but it was dry. The five or six houses, roofless, gnawed by wind and rain, the tiny chapel with its crumbling steeple, stood about like the houses and chapels in living villages, but all life had vanished.

It was a fine June day, brilliant with sunlight, but over this unsheltered land, high in the sky, the wind blew with unendurable ferocity. It growled over carcasses of the houses like a lion disturbed at its meal. I had to move my camp.

After five hours' walking I had still not found water and there was nothing to give me any hope of finding any. All about me was the same dryness, the same coarse grasses. I thought I glimpsed in the distance a small black silhouette, upright, and took it for the trunk of a solitary tree. In any case I started toward it. It was a shepherd. Thirty sheep were lying about him on the baking earth.

He gave me a drink from his water-gourd and, a little later, took me to his cottage in a fold of the plain. He drew his water - excellent water - from a very deep natural well above which he had constructed a primitive winch.

The man spoke little. This is the way of those who live alone, but one felt that he has sure of himself, and confident in his assurance. That was unexpected in this barren country. He lived, not in a cabin, but in a real house built of stone that bore plain evidence of how his own efforts had reclaimed the ruin he had found there on his arrival. His roof was strong and sound. The wind on its tiles made the sound of the sea upon its shore.

The place was in order, the dishes washed, the floor swept, his rifle oiled; his soup was boiling over the fire. I noticed then that he was cleanly shaved, that all his buttons were firmly sewed on, that his clothing had been mended with the meticulous care that makes the mending invisible. He shared his soup with me and afterwards, when I offered my tobacco pouch, he told me that he did not smoke. His dog, as silent as himself, was friendly without being servile.

It was understood from the first that I should spend the night there; the nearest village was still more than a day and a half away. And besides I was perfectly familiar with the nature of the rare villages in that region. There were four or five of them scattered well apart from each other on these mountain slopes, among white oak thickets, at the extreme end of the wagon roads. They were inhabited by charcoal burners, and the living was bad. Families, crowded together in a climate that is excessively harsh both in winter and in summer, found no escape from the unceasing conflict of personalities. Irrational ambition reached inordinate proportions in the continual desire for escape. The men took their wagonloads of charcoal to the town, then returned. The soundest characters broke under the perpetual grind. The women nursed their grievances. There was rivalry in everything, over the price of charcoal as over a pew in the church, over warring vitues as over warring vices as well as over the ceaseless combat between virtue and vice. And over all there was the wind, also ceaseless, to rasp upon the nerves. There were epidemics of suicide and frequent cases of insanity, usually homicidal.

The shepherd went to fetch a small sack and poured out a heap of acorns on the table. He began to inspect them, one by one, with great concentration, separating the good from the bad. I smoked my pipe. I did offer to help him. He told me that it was his job. And in fact, seeing the care he devoted to the task, I did not insist. That was the whole of our conversation. When he had set aside a large enough pile of good acorns he counted them out by tens, meanwhile eliminating the small ones or those which were slightly cracked, for now he examined them more closely. When he had thus selected one hundred perfect acorns he stopped and we went to bed.

There was peace in being with this man. The next day I asked if I might rest here for a day. He found it quite natural - or, to be more exact, he gave me the impression that nothing could startle him. The rest was not absolutely necessary, but I was interested and wished to know more about him. He opened the pen and led his flock to pasture. Before leaving, he plunged his sack of carefully selected and counted acorns into a pail of water.

I noticed that he carried for a stick an iron rod as thick as my thumb and about a yard and a half long. Resting myself by walking, I followed a path parallel to his. His pasture was in a valley. He left the dog in charge of the little flock and climbed toward where I stood. I was afraid that he was about the rebuke me for my indiscretion, but it was not that at all: this was the way he was going, and he invited me to go along if I had nothing better to do. He climbed to the top of the ridge, about a hundred yards away.

There he began thrusting his iron rod into the earth, making a hole in which he planted an acorn; then he refilled the hole. He was planting oak trees. I asked him if the land belonged to him. He answered no. Did he know whose it was? He did not. He supposed it was community property, or perhaps belonged to people who cared nothing about it. He was not interested in finding out whose it was. He planted his hundred acorns with the greatest care.

After the midday meal the resumed his planting. I suppose I must have been fairly insistent in my questioning, for he answered me. For three years he had been planting trees in this wilderness. He had planted one hundred thousand. Of the hundred thousand, twenty thousand had expected to lose half, to rodents or to the unpredictable designs of Providence. There remained ten thousand oak trees to grow where nothing had grown before.

That was when I began to wonder about the age of this man. He was obviously over fifty. Fifty-five, he told me. His name was Elezeard Bouffier. He had once had a farm in the lowlands. There he had his life. He had lost his only son, then this wife. He had withdrawn into this solitude where his pleasure was to live leisurely with his lambs and his dog. It was his opinion that this land was dying for want of trees. He added that, having no very pressing business of his own, he had resolved to remedy this state of affairs.

Since I was at that time, in spite of my youth, leading a solitary life, I understood how to deal gently with solitary spirits. But my very youth forced me to consider the future in relation to myself and to a certain quest for happiness. I told him that in thirty years his ten thousand oaks would be magnificent. He answered quite simply that if God granted him life, in thirty years he would have planted so many more that these ten thousand would be like a drop of water in the ocean.

Besides, he was now studying the reproduction of beech trees and had a nursery of seedlings grown from beechnuts near his cottage. The seedlings, which he had protected from his sheep with a wire fence, were very beautiful. He was also considering birches for the valleys where, he told me, there was a certain amount of moisture a few yards below the surface of the soil.

The next day, we parted.

The following year came the War of 1914, in which I was involved for the next five years. An infantry man hardly had time for reflecting upon trees. To tell the truth, the thing itself had made no impression upon me; I had considered as a hobby, a stamp collection, and forgotten it.

The war was over, I found myself possessed of a tiny demobilization bonus and a huge desire to breathe fresh air for a while. It was with no other objective that I again took the road to the barren lands.

The countryside had not changed. However, beyond the deserted village I glimpsed in the distance a sort of grayish mist that covered the mountaintops like a carpet. Since the day before, I had begun to think again of the shepherd tree-planter. "Ten thousand oaks," I reflected, "really take up quite a bit of space."

I had seen too many men die during those five years not to imagine easily that Elzeard Bouffier was dead, especially since, at twenty, one regards men of fifty as old men with nothing left to do but die.

He was not dead. As a matter of fact, he was extremely spry. He had changed jobs. Now he had only four sheep but, instead, a hundred beehives. He had got rid of the sheep because they threatened his young trees. For, he told me (and I saw for myself), the war had disturbed him not at all. He had imperturbably continued to plant.

The oaks of 1910 were then ten years old and taller than either of us. It was an impressive spectacle. I was literally speechless and, as he did not talk, we spent, the whole day walking in silence through his forest. In three sections, it measured eleven kilometers in length and three kilometers at its greatest width. When you remembered that all this had sprung from the hands and the soul of this one man, without technical resources, you understand that men could be as effectual as God in other realms than that of destruction.

He had pursued his plan, and beech trees as high as my shoulder, spreading out as far as the eye could reach, confirmed it. He showed me handsome clumps of birch planted five years before - that is, in 1915, when I had been fighting at Verdun. He had set them out in all the valleys where he had guessed - and rightly - that there was moisture almost at the surface of the ground. They were as delicate as young girls, and very well established.

Creation seemed to come about in a sort of chain reaction. He did not worry about it; he was determinedly pursuing his task in all its simplicity; but as we went back toward the village I saw water flowing in brooks that had been dry since the memory of man. This was the most impressive result of chain reaction that I had seen. These dry streams had once, long ago, run with water. Some of the dreary villages I mentioned before had been built on the sites of ancient Roman settlements, traces of which still remained; and archaeologists, exploring there, had found fishhooks where, in the twentieth century, cisterns were needed to assure a small supply of water.

The wind, too, scattered seeds. As the water reappeared, so there reappeared willows, rushes meadows, gardens, flowers, and a certain purpose in being alive. But the transformation took place so gradually that it became part of the pattern without causing any astonishment. Hunters, climbing into the wilderness in pursuit of hares or wild boar, had of course noticed the sudden growth of little trees, but had attributed it to some natural caprice of the earth. That is why no one meddled with Elzeard Bouffier's work. If he had been detected he would have had opposition. He was indetectable. Who in the villages or in the administration could have dreamed of such perseverance in a magnificient generosity?

To have anything like a precise idea of this exceptional character one must not forget that he worked in total solitude: so total that, toward the end of his life, he lost the habit of speech. Or perhaps it was that he saw no need for it.

In 1993 he received a visit from a forest ranger who notified him of an order against lighting fires out of doors for fear of endangering the growth of this natural forest. It was the first time, that man told him naively, that he had ever heard of a forest growing out of its own accord. At that time Bouffier was about to plant beeches at a spot some twelve kilometers from his cottage. In order to avoid travelling back and forth - for he was then seventy-five - he planned to build a stone cabin right at the plantation. The next year he did so.

In 1935 a whole delegation came from the Government to examine the "natural forest". There was a high official from the Forest Service, a deputy, technicians. There was a great deal of ineffectual talk. It was decided that some thing must be done and, fortunately, nothing was done except the only helpful thing: the whole forest was placed under the protection of the State, and charcoal burning prohibited. For it was impossible not to be captivated by the beauty of those young trees in fullness of health, and they cast their spell over the deputy himself.

A friend of mine was among the forestry officers of the delegation. To him I explained the mystery. One day the following week we went together to see Elezeard Bouffier. We found him hard at work, some ten kilometers from the spot where the inspection had taken place.

This forester was not my friend for nothing. He was aware of values. He knew how to keep silent. I delivered the eggs I had brought as a present. We shared our lunch among the three of us and spent several hours in wordless contemplation of the countryside.

In the direction from which we had come the slopes were covered with trees twenty to twenty-five feet tall. I remembered how the land had looked in 1913: a desert ... Peaceful, regular toil, the vigorous mountain air, frugality and, above all, serenity of spirit had endowed this old man with awe-inspiring health. He was one of God's athletes. I wondered how many more acres he was going to cover with trees.

Before leaving, my friend simply made a brief suggestion about certain species of trees that the soil here seemed particularly suited for. He did not force the point. "For the very good reason," he told me later," that Bouffier knows more about it than I do." At the end of an hour's walking - having turned it over his mind - he added, "He knows a lot more about it than anybody. He's discovered a wonderful way to be happy!"

It was thanks to this officer that not only the forest but also the happiness of the man was protected. He delegated three rangers to the task, and so terrorized them that they remained proof against all the bottles of wine the charcoal burners could offer.

The only serious danger to the work occurred during the war of 1939. As cars were being run on gazogenes (wood-burning generators), there was never enough wood. Cutting was started among the oaks of 1910, but the area was so far from any rail roads that the enterprise turned out to be financially unsound. It was abandoned. The shepherd had seen nothing of it. He was thirty kilometers away, peacefully continuing his work, ignoring the war of '39 as he had ignored that of '14.

I saw Elzeard Bouffier for the last time in June of 1945. He was then eighty-seven. I had started back along the route through the wastelands; by now, in spite of the disorder in which the war had left the country, there was a bus running between the Durance Valley and the mountain. I attributed the fact that I no longer recognized the scenes of my earlier journeys to this relatively speedy transportation. It seemed to me, too, that the route took me through new territory. It took the name of a village to convince me that I was actually in that region that had been all ruins and desolation.

The bus put me down at Vergons. In 1913 this hamlet of ten or twelve houses had three inhabitants. They had been savage creatures, hating one another, living by trapping game, little removed, both physically and morally, from the conditions of prehistoric man. All about them nettles were feeding upon the remains of abandoned houses. Their condition had been beyond hope. For them, nothing but to await death - a situation which rarely predisposes to virtue.

Everything was changed. Even the air. Instead of the harsh dry winds that used to attack me, a gentle breeze was blowing, laden with scents. A sound like water came from the mountains: it was the wind in the forest. Most amazing of all, I heard the actual sound of water falling into a pool. I saw that a fountain had been built, that it flowed freely and - what touched me most - that some one had planted a linden beside it, a linden that must have been four years old, already in full leaf, the incontestable symbol of resurrection.

Besides, Vergons bore evidence of labor at the sort of undertaking for which hope is required. Hope, then, had returned. Ruins had been cleared away, dilapidated walls torn down and five houses restored. Now there were twenty-eight inhabitants, four of them young married couples. The new houses, freshly plastered, were surrounded by gardens where vegetables and flowers grew in orderly confusion, cabbages and roses, leeks and snapdragons, celery and anemones. It was now a village where one would like to live.

From that point on I went on foot. The war just finished had not yet allowed the full blooming of life, but Lazarus was out of the tomb. On the lower slopes of the mountain I saw little fields of barely and of rye; deep in the narrow valleys the meadows were turning green.

It has taken only the eight years since then for the whole countryside to glow with health and prosperity. On the site of ruins I had seen in 1913 now stand neat farms, cleanly plastered, testifying to a happy and comfortable life. The old streams, fed by the rains and snows that the forest conserves, are flowing again. Their waters have been channeled. On each farm, in groves of maples, fountain, pools overflow on to carpets of fresh mint. Little by little the villages have been rebuilt. People from the plains, where land is costly, have settled here, bringing youth, motion, the spirit of adventure. Along the roads you meet hearty men and women, boys and girls who understand laughter and have recovered a taste for picnics. Counting the former population, unrecognizable now that they live in comfort, more than ten thousand people owe their happiness to Elezeard Bouffier.

When I reflect that one man, armed only with his own physical and moral resources, was able to cause this land of Canaan to spring from the wasteland, I am convinced that in spite of everything, humanity is admirable. But when I compute the unfailing greatness of spirit and the tenacity of benevolence that it must have taken to achieve this result, I am taken with an immense respect for that old and unlearned peasant who was able to complete a work worthy of God.

Elezeard Bouffier died peacefully in 1947 at the hospice in Banon.

Peter Ragnar Quote

2006-08-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

Do the difficult first and all else will be easy.

What is the most difficult task you have before you today? Do it now-don't wait! If you truly want to be a winner in life, you must act today. Remember, "today is the tomorrow you hoped for yesterday." Now is the only time any action can take place. If you don't begin now, you will never begin. Success on any level of being occurs through the hourglass effect—little by little, grain by grain, the habits of winning accumulate. Soon, your life will be filled with fulfillment and richness.

Peter Ragnar

My Problem with the Circle

2006-08-19T00:06:00.000-07:00

Yus,

I am losing confidence in Euclidean Geometry just like you are losing confidence in Calculus.

This problem has come up for me before in the recent past, but it has once again come to the forefront of my thinking after designing the chocolate mold and hanging out with you talking about math and physics.

Basically the problem I am having is with the basic idea of our math's ability to describe completely and/or accurately something as simple as a circle. As you know, a circle can be created in 3-D either physically or conceptually, the circumference/perimeter of which is just Pi multiplied by the diameter of the circle. My question is this: If the circle can exist perfectly defined by lines and curves in 3-D, why can't its circumference be perfectly defined as a percentage of a line, that line being the diameter? Our math says it can't, since Pi is an irrational number with an infinite number of digits. Yet, the geometry is staring at us, almost laughing at us in the face as it just exists without any problems at all! This points to the fact that either I or we are missing something here. I have a feeling it lies in the very nature of curvature. What is curvature? Can it really be defined mathematically? As you know, calculus attempts to do just this. However, going back to the concept of our number line, how can something analogue in nature (curvature) be defined by something digital (our numbering system)? As you know, calculus is all based on the concept of the limit. And things are not "defined" until you take the limit to infinity. I believe we are forced to go to infinity with it because our very math is faulty or drastically limited. In other words, we are forced to go to infinity because our numbering system is digital in nature and only becomes analogue in the limit as we approach an infinite number of digits of precision.

Ok, so you might say that just the ratio of the diameter to circumference is irrational, but how can that be if it is staring me in the face and can be measured? I can see how the ratio can be irrational even upon finer and finer measurements, but that sort of points to the fact that division itself is flawed, don't you think? In other words, division is attempting to apply something digital in nature to something analogue in nature. It's like trying to describe apples in terms of oranges. Maybe I am going mental...Am I making any sense to you?

The problem of the circle, I think, is that we are trying to describe curvature using a line. And, I have a feeling that that can't be done using the math we currently have. We can only approximate the definition using our math since our math is based on lines. The inherent problem I think lies somewhere in the fact that our math is based on a digital LINEAR numbering system with a digital, discrete number line, which consists of both rational and irrational numbers, the irrational ones described at any point by an infinite number of digits. I think our "discovery" of irrational numbers came after we invented our fundamental math as it currently exists. The discovery of irrational numbers should point to the fact that PERHAPS our math is flawed.

Thoughts?

Steve

Food Additives - YUCK

2006-08-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine sent this article to me which is concerning...

MSG

For those of you who are worried about your own health or the health of your children, this is an article you might want to read, especially when you get to the list at the bottom and see everything that contains MSG. I've also copied the ingredient list including other dangerous food additives we are forced to eat daily in the US unless we seek alternatives. Many of you already know this but maybe you we not aware of the names to be cautious of...read the ingredients!.. packaged foods contain these additives!

Excitotoxins are additives that are highly addictive just as MSG is. If you care about you and your families health please read the link to the article above and forward on to your family and friends.

PLEASE also be aware of these additives.

There are articles stating that aspartame is a poison (used in gum and most all 'diet' drinks and sugar free foods) as well as Canola oil which is actually an industrial oil...

CANOLA OIL

Just do a few searches to find out more info on these so called safe food additives. Its no wonder cleansing and riding our bodies of toxins by fasting has become even more important in these 'modern' days.

Expect to find controversy on all of these additives as there is big money involved in the food industry and health industries... all of which are supported by the FDA and our US government.

________________________________

* LIST of Food Additives that ALWAYS contain MSG *

Monosodium Glutamate
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
Hydrolyzed Protein
Hydrolyzed Plant Protein
Plant Protein Extract
Sodium Caseinate
Calcium Caseinate
Yeast Extract
Textured Protein (Including TVP)
Autolyzed Yeast
Hydrolyzed Oat Flour
Corn Oil
Malt Extract
Malt Flavoring
Bouillon
Broth
Stock
Flavoring
Natural Flavors/Flavoring
Natural Beef Or Chicken Flavoring
Seasoning
Spices

* Food Additives That MAY Contain MSG Or Excitotoxins *

Carrageenan
Enzymes
Soy Protein Concentrate
Soy Protein Isolate
Whey Protein Concentrate

Also: Protease Enzymes of various sources can release excitotoxin amino acids from food proteins.

Aspartame - An Intense Source Of Excitotoxins

Power Steer

2006-08-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

March 31, 2002
MAGAZINE DESK
Power Steer
By Michael Pollan (NYT)

Garden City, Kan., missed out on the suburban building boom of the postwar years. What it got instead were sprawling subdivisions of cattle. These feedlots -- the nation's first -- began rising on the high plains of western Kansas in the 50's, and by now developments catering to cows are far more common here than developments catering to people.
You'll be speeding down one of Finney County's ramrod roads when the empty, dun-colored prairie suddenly turns black and geometric, an urban grid of steel-fenced rectangles as far as the eye can see -- which in Kansas is really far. I say ''suddenly,'' but in fact a swiftly intensifying odor (an aroma whose Proustian echoes are more bus-station-men's-room than cow-in-the-country) heralds the approach of a feedlot for more than a mile. Then it's upon you: Poky Feeders, population 37,000. Cattle pens stretch to the horizon, each one home to 150 animals standing dully or lying around in a grayish mud that it eventually dawns on you isn't mud at all. The pens line a network of unpaved roads that loop around vast waste lagoons on their way to the feedlot's beating heart: a chugging, silvery feed mill that soars like an industrial cathedral over this teeming metropolis of meat.
I traveled to Poky early in January with the slightly improbable notion of visiting one particular resident: a young black steer that I'd met in the fall on a ranch in Vale, S.D. The steer, in fact, belonged to me. I'd purchased him as an 8-month-old calf from the Blair brothers, Ed and Rich, for $598. I was paying Poky Feeders $1.60 a day for his room, board and meds and hoped to sell him at a profit after he was fattened.
My interest in the steer was not strictly financial, however, or even gustatory, though I plan to retrieve some steaks from the Kansas packing plant where No. 534, as he is known, has an appointment with the stunner in June. No, my primary interest in this animal was educational. I wanted to find out how a modern, industrial steak is produced in America these days, from insemination to slaughter.
Eating meat, something I have always enjoyed doing, has become problematic in recent years. Though beef consumption spiked upward during the flush 90's, the longer-term trend is down, and many people will tell you they no longer eat the stuff. Inevitably they'll bring up mad-cow disease (and the accompanying revelation that industrial agriculture has transformed these ruminants into carnivores -- indeed, into cannibals). They might mention their concerns about E. coli contamination or antibiotics in the feed. Then there are the many environmental problems, like groundwater pollution, associated with ''Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.'' (The word ''farm'' no longer applies.) And of course there are questions of animal welfare. How are we treating the animals we eat while they're alive, and then how humanely are we ''dispatching'' them, to borrow an industry euphemism?
Meat-eating has always been a messy business, shadowed by the shame of killing and, since Upton Sinclair's writing of ''The Jungle,'' by questions about what we're really eating when we eat meat. Forgetting, or willed ignorance, is the preferred strategy of many beef eaters, a strategy abetted by the industry. (What grocery-store item is more silent about its origins than a shrink-wrapped steak?) Yet I recently began to feel that ignorance was no longer tenable. If I was going to continue to eat red meat, then I owed it to myself, as well as to the animals, to take more responsibility for the invisible but crucial transaction between ourselves and the animals we eat. I'd try to own it, in other words.
So this is the biography of my cow.
The Blair brothers ranch occupies 11,500 acres of short-grass prairie a few miles outside Sturgis, S.D., directly in the shadow of Bear Butte. In November, when I visited, the turf forms a luxuriant pelt of grass oscillating yellow and gold in the constant wind and sprinkled with perambulating black dots: Angus cows and calves grazing.
Ed and Rich Blair run what's called a ''cow-calf'' operation, the first stage of beef production, and the stage least changed by the modern industrialization of meat. While the pork and chicken industries have consolidated the entire life cycles of those animals under a single roof, beef cattle are still born on thousands of independently owned ranches. Although four giant meatpacking companies (Tyson's subsidiary IBP, Monfort, Excel and National) now slaughter and market more than 80 percent of the beef cattle born in this country, that concentration represents the narrow end of a funnel that starts out as wide as the great plains.
The Blairs have been in the cattle business for four generations. Although there are new wrinkles to the process -- artificial insemination to improve genetics, for example -- producing beef calves goes pretty much as it always has, just faster. Calving season begins in late winter, a succession of subzero nights spent yanking breeched babies out of their bellowing mothers. In April comes the first spring roundup to work the newborn calves (branding, vaccination, castration); then more roundups in early summer to inseminate the cows ($15 mail-order straws of elite bull semen have pretty much put the resident stud out of work); and weaning in the fall. If all goes well, your herd of 850 cattle has increased to 1,600 by the end of the year.
My steer spent his first six months in these lush pastures alongside his mother, No. 9,534. His father was a registered Angus named GAR Precision 1,680, a bull distinguished by the size and marbling of his offspring's rib-eye steaks. Born last March 13 in a birthing shed across the road, No. 534 was turned out on pasture with his mother as soon as the 80-pound calf stood up and began nursing. After a few weeks, the calf began supplementing his mother's milk by nibbling on a salad bar of mostly native grasses: western wheatgrass, little bluestem, green needlegrass.
Apart from the trauma of the April day when he was branded and castrated, you could easily imagine No. 534 looking back on those six months grazing at his mother's side as the good old days -- if, that is, cows do look back. (''They do not know what is meant by yesterday or today,'' Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, with a note of envy, of grazing cattle, ''fettered to the moment and its pleasure or displeasure, and thus neither melancholy or bored.'' Nietzsche clearly had never seen a feedlot.) It may be foolish to presume to know what a cow experiences, yet we can say that a cow grazing on grass is at least doing what he has been splendidly molded by evolution to do. Which isn't a bad definition of animal happiness. Eating grass, however, is something that, after October, my steer would never do again.
Although the modern cattle industry all but ignores it, the reciprocal relationship between cows and grass is one of nature's underappreciated wonders. For the grasses, the cow maintains their habitat by preventing trees and shrubs from gaining a foothold; the animal also spreads grass seed, planting it with its hoofs and fertilizing it. In exchange for these services, the grasses offer the ruminants a plentiful, exclusive meal. For cows, sheep and other grazers have the unique ability to convert grass -- which single-stomached creatures like us can't digest -- into high-quality protein. They can do this because they possess a rumen, a 45-gallon fermentation tank in which a resident population of bacteria turns grass into metabolically useful organic acids and protein.
This is an excellent system for all concerned: for the grasses, for the animals and for us. What's more, growing meat on grass can make superb ecological sense: so long as the rancher practices rotational grazing, it is a sustainable, solar-powered system for producing food on land too arid or hilly to grow anything else.
So if this system is so ideal, why is it that my cow hasn't tasted a blade of grass since October? Speed, in a word. Cows raised on grass simply take longer to reach slaughter weight than cows raised on a richer diet, and the modern meat industry has devoted itself to shortening a beef calf's allotted time on earth. ''In my grandfather's day, steers were 4 or 5 years old at slaughter,'' explained Rich Blair, who, at 45, is the younger of the brothers by four years. ''In the 50's, when my father was ranching, it was 2 or 3. Now we get there at 14 to 16 months.'' Fast food indeed. What gets a beef calf from 80 to 1,200 pounds in 14 months are enormous quantities of corn, protein supplements -- and drugs, including growth hormones. These ''efficiencies,'' all of which come at a price, have transformed raising cattle into a high-volume, low-margin business. Not everybody is convinced that this is progress. ''Hell,'' Ed Blair told me, ''my dad made more money on 250 head than we do on 850.''
Weaning marks the fateful moment when the natural, evolutionary logic represented by a ruminant grazing on grass bumps up against the industrial logic that, with stunning speed, turns that animal into a box of beef. This industrial logic is rational and even irresistible -- after all, it has succeeded in transforming beef from a luxury item into everyday fare for millions of people. And yet the further you follow it, the more likely you are to wonder if that rational logic might not also be completely insane.
In early October, a few weeks before I met him, No. 534 was weaned from his mother. Weaning is perhaps the most traumatic time on a ranch for animals and ranchers alike; cows separated from their calves will mope and bellow for days, and the calves themselves, stressed by the change in circumstance and diet, are prone to get sick.
On many ranches, weaned calves go directly from the pasture to the sale barn, where they're sold at auction, by the pound, to feedlots. The Blairs prefer to own their steers straight through to slaughter and to keep them on the ranch for a couple of months of ''backgrounding'' before sending them on the 500-mile trip to Poky Feeders. Think of backgrounding as prep school for feedlot life: the animals are confined in a pen, ''bunk broken'' -- taught to eat from a trough -- and gradually accustomed to eating a new, unnatural diet of grain. (Grazing cows encounter only tiny amounts of grain, in the form of grass seeds.)
It was in the backgrounding pen that I first met No. 534 on an unseasonably warm afternoon in November. I'd told the Blairs I wanted to follow one of their steers through the life cycle; Ed, 49, suggested I might as well buy a steer, as a way to really understand the daunting economics of modern ranching. Ed and Rich told me what to look for: a broad, straight back and thick hindquarters. Basically, you want a strong frame on which to hang a lot of meat. I was also looking for a memorable face in this Black Angus sea, one that would stand out in the feedlot crowd. Almost as soon as I started surveying the 90 or so steers in the pen, No. 534 moseyed up to the railing and made eye contact. He had a wide, stout frame and was brockle- faced -- he had three distinctive white blazes. If not for those markings, Ed said, No. 534 might have been spared castration and sold as a bull; he was that good-looking. But the white blazes indicate the presence of Hereford blood, rendering him ineligible for life as an Angus stud. Tough break.
Rich said he would calculate the total amount I owed the next time No. 534 got weighed but that the price would be $98 a hundredweight for an animal of this quality. He would then bill me for all expenses (feed, shots, et cetera) and, beginning in January, start passing on the weekly ''hotel charges'' from Poky Feeders. In June we'd find out from the packing plant how well my investment had panned out: I would receive a payment for No. 534 based on his carcass weight, plus a premium if he earned a U.S.D.A. grade of choice or prime. ''And if you're worried about the cattle market,'' Rich said jokingly, referring to its post-Sept. 11 slide, ''I can sell you an option too.'' Option insurance has become increasingly popular among cattlemen in the wake of mad-cow and foot-and-mouth disease.
Rich handles the marketing end of the business out of an office in Sturgis, where he also trades commodities. In fact you'd never guess from Rich's unlined, indoorsy face and golfish attire that he was a rancher. Ed, by contrast, spends his days on the ranch and better looks the part, with his well-creased visage, crinkly cowboy eyes and ever-present plug of tobacco. His cap carries the same prairie-flat slogan I'd spotted on the ranch's roadside sign: ''Beef: It's What's for Dinner.''
My second morning on the ranch, I helped Troy Hadrick, Ed's son-in-law and a ranch hand, feed the steers in the backgrounding pen. A thickly muscled post of a man, Hadrick is 25 and wears a tall black cowboy hat perpetually crowned by a pair of mirrored Oakley sunglasses. He studied animal science at South Dakota State and is up on the latest university thinking on cattle nutrition, reproduction and medicine. Hadrick seems to relish everything to do with ranching, from calving to wielding the artificial-insemination syringe.
Hadrick and I squeezed into the heated cab of a huge swivel-hipped tractor hooked up to a feed mixer: basically, a dump truck with a giant screw through the middle to blend ingredients. First stop was a hopper filled with Rumensin, a powerful antibiotic that No. 534 will consume with his feed every day for the rest of his life. Calves have no need of regular medication while on grass, but as soon as they're placed in the backgrounding pen, they're apt to get sick. Why? The stress of weaning is a factor, but the main culprit is the feed. The shift to a ''hot ration'' of grain can so disturb the cow's digestive process -- its rumen, in particular -- that it can kill the animal if not managed carefully and accompanied by antibiotics.
After we'd scooped the ingredients into the hopper and turned on the mixer, Hadrick deftly sidled the tractor alongside the pen and flipped a switch to release a dusty tan stream of feed in a long, even line. No. 534 was one of the first animals to belly up to the rail for breakfast. He was heftier than his pen mates and, I decided, sparkier too. That morning, Hadrick and I gave each calf six pounds of corn mixed with seven pounds of ground alfalfa hay and a quarter-pound of Rumensin. Soon after my visit, this ration would be cranked up to 14 pounds of corn and 6 pounds of hay -- and added two and a half pounds every day to No. 534.
While I was on the ranch, I didn't talk to No. 534, pet him or otherwise try to form a connection. I also decided not to give him a name, even though my son proposed a pretty good one after seeing a snapshot. (''Night.'') My intention, after all, is to send this animal to slaughter and then eat some of him. No. 534 is not a pet, and I certainly don't want to end up with an ox in my backyard because I suddenly got sentimental.
As fall turned into winter, Hadrick sent me regular e-mail messages apprising me of my steer's progress. On Nov. 13 he weighed 650 pounds; by Christmas he was up to 798, making him the seventh-heaviest steer in his pen, an achievement in which I, idiotically, took a measure of pride. Between Nov. 13 and Jan. 4, the day he boarded the truck for Kansas, No. 534 put away 706 pounds of corn and 336 pounds of alfalfa hay, bringing his total living expenses for that period to $61.13. I was into this deal now for $659.
Hadrick's e-mail updates grew chattier as time went on, cracking a window on the rancher's life and outlook. I was especially struck by his relationship to the animals, how it manages to be at once intimate and unsentimental. One day Hadrick is tenderly nursing a newborn at 3 a.m., the next he's ''having a big prairie oyster feed'' after castrating a pen of bull calves.
Hadrick wrote empathetically about weaning (''It's like packing up and leaving the house when you are 18 and knowing you will never see your parents again'') and with restrained indignation about ''animal activists and city people'' who don't understand the first thing about a rancher's relationship to his cattle. Which, as Hadrick put it, is simply this: ''If we don't take care of these animals, they won't take care of us.''
''Everyone hears about the bad stuff,'' Hadrick wrote, ''but they don't ever see you give C.P.R. to a newborn calf that was born backward or bringing them into your house and trying to warm them up on your kitchen floor because they were born on a minus-20-degree night. Those are the kinds of things ranchers will do for their livestock. They take precedence over most everything in your life. Sorry for the sermon.''
To travel from the ranch to the feedlot, as No. 534 and I both did (in separate vehicles) the first week in January, feels a lot like going from the country to the big city. Indeed, a cattle feedlot is a kind of city, populated by as many as 100,000 animals. It is very much a premodern city, however -- crowded, filthy and stinking, with open sewers, unpaved roads and choking air.
The urbanization of the world's livestock is a fairly recent historical development, so it makes a certain sense that cow towns like Poky Feeders would recall human cities several centuries ago. As in 14th-century London, the metropolitan digestion remains vividly on display: the foodstuffs coming in, the waste streaming out. Similarly, there is the crowding together of recent arrivals from who knows where, combined with a lack of modern sanitation. This combination has always been a recipe for disease; the only reason contemporary animal cities aren't as plague-ridden as their medieval counterparts is a single historical anomaly: the modern antibiotic.
I spent the better part of a day walking around Poky Feeders, trying to understand how its various parts fit together. In any city, it's easy to lose track of nature -- of the connections between various species and the land on which everything ultimately depends. The feedlot's ecosystem, I could see, revolves around corn. But its food chain doesn't end there, because the corn itself grows somewhere else, where it is implicated in a whole other set of ecological relationships. Growing the vast quantities of corn used to feed livestock in this country takes vast quantities of chemical fertilizer, which in turn takes vast quantities of oil -- 1.2 gallons for every bushel. So the modern feedlot is really a city floating on a sea of oil.
I started my tour at the feed mill, the yard's thundering hub, where three meals a day for 37,000 animals are designed and mixed by computer. A million pounds of feed passes through the mill each day. Every hour of every day, a tractor-trailer pulls up to disgorge another 25 tons of corn. Around the other side of the mill, tanker trucks back up to silo-shaped tanks, into which they pump thousands of gallons of liquefied fat and protein supplement. In a shed attached to the mill sit vats of liquid vitamins and synthetic estrogen; next to these are pallets stacked with 50-pound sacks of Rumensin and tylosin, another antibiotic. Along with alfalfa hay and corn silage for roughage, all these ingredients are blended and then piped into the dump trucks that keep Poky's eight and a half miles of trough filled.
The feed mill's great din is made by two giant steel rollers turning against each other 12 hours a day, crushing steamed corn kernels into flakes. This was the only feed ingredient I tasted, and it wasn't half bad; not as crisp as Kellogg's, but with a cornier flavor. I passed, however, on the protein supplement, a sticky brown goop consisting of molasses and urea.
Corn is a mainstay of livestock diets because there is no other feed quite as cheap or plentiful: thanks to federal subsidies and ever-growing surpluses, the price of corn ($2.25 a bushel) is 50 cents less than the cost of growing it. The rise of the modern factory farm is a direct result of these surpluses, which soared in the years following World War II, when petrochemical fertilizers came into widespread use. Ever since, the U.S.D.A.'s policy has been to help farmers dispose of surplus corn by passing as much of it as possible through the digestive tracts of food animals, converting it into protein. Compared with grass or hay, corn is a compact and portable foodstuff, making it possible to feed tens of thousands of animals on small plots of land. Without cheap corn, the modern urbanization of livestock would probably never have occurred.
We have come to think of ''cornfed'' as some kind of old-fashioned virtue; we shouldn't. Granted, a cornfed cow develops well-marbled flesh, giving it a taste and texture American consumers have learned to like. Yet this meat is demonstrably less healthy to eat, since it contains more saturated fat. A recent study in The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that the meat of grass-fed livestock not only had substantially less fat than grain-fed meat but that the type of fats found in grass-fed meat were much healthier. (Grass-fed meat has more omega 3 fatty acids and fewer omega 6, which is believed to promote heart disease; it also contains betacarotine and CLA, another ''good'' fat.) A growing body of research suggests that many of the health problems associated with eating beef are really problems with cornfed beef. In the same way ruminants have not evolved to eat grain, humans may not be well adapted to eating grain-fed animals. Yet the U.S.D.A.'s grading system continues to reward marbling -- that is, intermuscular fat -- and thus the feeding of corn to cows.
The economic logic behind corn is unassailable, and on a factory farm, there is no other kind. Calories are calories, and corn is the cheapest, most convenient source of calories. Of course the identical industrial logic -- protein is protein -- led to the feeding of rendered cow parts back to cows, a practice the F.D.A. banned in 1997 after scientists realized it was spreading mad-cow disease.
Make that mostly banned. The F.D.A.'s rules against feeding ruminant protein to ruminants make exceptions for ''blood products'' (even though they contain protein) and fat. Indeed, my steer has probably dined on beef tallow recycled from the very slaughterhouse he's heading to in June. ''Fat is fat,'' the feedlot manager shrugged when I raised an eyebrow.
F.D.A. rules still permit feedlots to feed nonruminant animal protein to cows. (Feather meal is an accepted cattle feed, as are pig and fish protein and chicken manure.) Some public-health advocates worry that since the bovine meat and bone meal that cows used to eat is now being fed to chickens, pigs and fish, infectious prions could find their way back into cattle when they eat the protein of the animals that have been eating them. To close this biological loophole, the F.D.A. is now considering tightening its feed rules.
Until mad-cow disease, remarkably few people in the cattle business, let alone the general public, comprehended the strange semicircular food chain that industrial agriculture had devised for cattle (and, in turn, for us). When I mentioned to Rich Blair that I'd been surprised to learn that cows were eating cows, he said, ''To tell the truth, it was kind of a shock to me too.'' Yet even today, ranchers don't ask many questions about feedlot menus. Not that the answers are so easy to come by. When I asked Poky's feedlot manager what exactly was in the protein supplement, he couldn't say. ''When we buy supplement, the supplier says it's 40 percent protein, but they don't specify beyond that.'' When I called the supplier, it wouldn't divulge all its ''proprietary ingredients'' but promised that animal parts weren't among them. Protein is pretty much still protein.
Compared with ground-up cow bones, corn seems positively wholesome. Yet it wreaks considerable havoc on bovine digestion. During my day at Poky, I spent an hour or two driving around the yard with Dr. Mel Metzen, the staff veterinarian. Metzen, a 1997 graduate of Kansas State's vet school, oversees a team of eight cowboys who spend their days riding the yard, spotting sick cows and bringing them in for treatment. A great many of their health problems can be traced to their diet. ''They're made to eat forage,'' Metzen said, ''and we're making them eat grain.''
Perhaps the most serious thing that can go wrong with a ruminant on corn is feedlot bloat. The rumen is always producing copious amounts of gas, which is normally expelled by belching during rumination. But when the diet contains too much starch and too little roughage, rumination all but stops, and a layer of foamy slime that can trap gas forms in the rumen. The rumen inflates like a balloon, pressing against the animal's lungs. Unless action is promptly taken to relieve the pressure (usually by forcing a hose down the animal's esophagus), the cow suffocates.
A corn diet can also give a cow acidosis. Unlike that in our own highly acidic stomachs, the normal pH of a rumen is neutral. Corn makes it unnaturally acidic, however, causing a kind of bovine heartburn, which in some cases can kill the animal but usually just makes it sick. Acidotic animals go off their feed, pant and salivate excessively, paw at their bellies and eat dirt. The condition can lead to diarrhea, ulcers, bloat, liver disease and a general weakening of the immune system that leaves the animal vulnerable to everything from pneumonia to feedlot polio.
Cows rarely live on feedlot diets for more than six months, which might be about as much as their digestive systems can tolerate. ''I don't know how long you could feed this ration before you'd see problems,'' Metzen said; another vet said that a sustained feedlot diet would eventually ''blow out their livers'' and kill them. As the acids eat away at the rumen wall, bacteria enter the bloodstream and collect in the liver. More than 13 percent of feedlot cattle are found at slaughter to have abscessed livers.
What keeps a feedlot animal healthy -- or healthy enough -- are antibiotics. Rumensin inhibits gas production in the rumen, helping to prevent bloat; tylosin reduces the incidence of liver infection. Most of the antibiotics sold in America end up in animal feed -- a practice that, it is now generally acknowledged, leads directly to the evolution of new antibiotic-resistant ''superbugs.'' In the debate over the use of antibiotics in agriculture, a distinction is usually made between clinical and nonclinical uses. Public-health advocates don't object to treating sick animals with antibiotics; they just don't want to see the drugs lose their efficacy because factory farms are feeding them to healthy animals to promote growth. But the use of antibiotics in feedlot cattle confounds this distinction. Here the drugs are plainly being used to treat sick animals, yet the animals probably wouldn't be sick if not for what we feed them.
I asked Metzen what would happen if antibiotics were banned from cattle feed. ''We just couldn't feed them as hard,'' he said. ''Or we'd have a higher death loss.'' (Less than 3 percent of cattle die on the feedlot.) The price of beef would rise, he said, since the whole system would have to slow down.
''Hell, if you gave them lots of grass and space,'' he concluded dryly, ''I wouldn't have a job.''
Before heading over to Pen 43 for my reunion with No. 534, I stopped by the shed where recent arrivals receive their hormone implants. The calves are funneled into a chute, herded along by a ranch hand wielding an electric prod, then clutched in a restrainer just long enough for another hand to inject a slow-release pellet of Revlar, a synthetic estrogen, in the back of the ear. The Blairs' pen had not yet been implanted, and I was still struggling with the decision of whether to forgo what is virtually a universal practice in the cattle industry in the United States. (It has been banned in the European Union.)
American regulators permit hormone implants on the grounds that no risk to human health has been proved, even though measurable hormone residues do turn up in the meat we eat. These contribute to the buildup of estrogenic compounds in the environment, which some scientists believe may explain falling sperm counts and premature maturation in girls. Recent studies have also found elevated levels of synthetic growth hormones in feedlot wastes; these persistent chemicals eventually wind up in the waterways downstream of feedlots, where scientists have found fish exhibiting abnormal sex characteristics.
The F.D.A. is opening an inquiry into the problem, but for now, implanting hormones in beef cattle is legal and financially irresistible: an implant costs $1.50 and adds between 40 and 50 pounds to the weight of a steer at slaughter, for a return of at least $25. That could easily make the difference between profit and loss on my investment in No. 534. Thinking like a parent, I like the idea of feeding my son hamburgers free of synthetic hormones. But thinking like a cattleman, there was really no decision to make.
I asked Rich Blair what he thought. ''I'd love to give up hormones,'' he said. ''If the consumer said, We don't want hormones, we'd stop in a second. The cattle could get along better without them. But the market signal's not there, and as long as my competitor's doing it, I've got to do it, too.''
Around lunch time, Metzen and I finally arrived at No. 534's pen. My first impression was that my steer had landed himself a decent piece of real estate. The pen is far enough from the feed mill to be fairly quiet, and it has a water view -- of what I initially thought was a reservoir, until I noticed the brown scum. The pen itself is surprisingly spacious, slightly bigger than a basketball court, with a concrete feed bunk out front and a freshwater trough in the back. I climbed over the railing and joined the 90 steers, which, en masse, retreated a few steps, then paused.
I had on the same carrot-colored sweater I'd worn to the ranch in South Dakota, hoping to jog my steer's memory. Way off in the back, I spotted him -- those three white blazes. As I gingerly stepped toward him, the quietly shuffling mass of black cowhide between us parted, and there No. 534 and I stood, staring dumbly at each other. Glint of recognition? None whatsoever. I told myself not to take it personally. No. 534 had been bred for his marbling, after all, not his intellect.
I don't know enough about the emotional life of cows to say with any confidence if No. 534 was miserable, bored or melancholy, but I would not say he looked happy. I noticed that his eyes looked a little bloodshot. Some animals are irritated by the fecal dust that floats in the feedlot air; maybe that explained the sullen gaze with which he fixed me. Unhappy or not, though, No. 534 had clearly been eating well. My animal had put on a couple hundred pounds since we'd last met, and he looked it: thicker across the shoulders and round as a barrel through the middle. He carried himself more like a steer now than a calf, even though he was still less than a year old. Metzen complimented me on his size and conformation. ''That's a handsome looking beef you've got there.'' (Aw, shucks.)
Staring at No. 534, I could picture the white lines of the butcher's chart dissecting his black hide: rump roast, flank steak, standing rib, brisket. One way of looking at No. 534 -- the industrial way -- was as an efficient machine for turning feed corn into beef. Every day between now and his slaughter date in June, No. 534 will convert 32 pounds of feed (25 of them corn) into another three and a half pounds of flesh. Poky is indeed a factory, transforming cheap raw materials into a less-cheap finished product, as fast as bovinely possible.
Yet the factory metaphor obscures as much as it reveals about the creature that stood before me. For this steer was not a machine in a factory but an animal in a web of relationships that link him to certain other animals, plants and microbes, as well as to the earth. And one of those other animals is us. The unnaturally rich diet of corn that has compromised No. 534's health is fattening his flesh in a way that in turn may compromise the health of the humans who will eat him. The antibiotics he's consuming with his corn were at that very moment selecting, in his gut and wherever else in the environment they wind up, for bacteria that could someday infect us and resist the drugs we depend on. We inhabit the same microbial ecosystem as the animals we eat, and whatever happens to it also happens to us.
I thought about the deep pile of manure that No. 534 and I were standing in. We don't know much about the hormones in it -- where they will end up or what they might do once they get there -- but we do know something about the bacteria. One particularly lethal bug most probably resided in the manure beneath my feet. Escherichia coli 0157 is a relatively new strain of a common intestinal bacteria (it was first isolated in the 1980's) that is common in feedlot cattle, more than half of whom carry it in their guts. Ingesting as few as 10 of these microbes can cause a fatal infection.
Most of the microbes that reside in the gut of a cow and find their way into our food get killed off by the acids in our stomachs, since they originally adapted to live in a neutral-pH environment. But the digestive tract of the modern feedlot cow is closer in acidity to our own, and in this new, manmade environment acid-resistant strains of E. coli have developed that can survive our stomach acids -- and go on to kill us. By acidifying a cow's gut with corn, we have broken down one of our food chain's barriers to infection. Yet this process can be reversed: James Russell, a U.S.D.A. microbiologist, has discovered that switching a cow's diet from corn to hay in the final days before slaughter reduces the population of E. coli 0157 in its manure by as much as 70 percent. Such a change, however, is considered wildly impractical by the cattle industry.
So much comes back to corn, this cheap feed that turns out in so many ways to be not cheap at all. While I stood in No. 534's pen, a dump truck pulled up alongside the feed bunk and released a golden stream of feed. The animals stepped up to the bunk for their lunch. The $1.60 a day I'm paying for three giant meals is a bargain only by the narrowest of calculations. It doesn't take into account, for example, the cost to the public health of antibiotic resistance or food poisoning by E. coli or all the environmental costs associated with industrial corn.
For if you follow the corn from this bunk back to the fields where it grows, you will find an 80-million-acre monoculture that consumes more chemical herbicide and fertilizer than any other crop. Keep going and you can trace the nitrogen runoff from that crop all the way down the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, where it has created (if that is the right word) a 12,000-square-mile ''dead zone.''
But you can go farther still, and follow the fertilizer needed to grow that corn all the way to the oil fields of the Persian Gulf. No. 534 started life as part of a food chain that derived all its energy from the sun; now that corn constitutes such an important link in his food chain, he is the product of an industrial system powered by fossil fuel. (And in turn, defended by the military -- another uncounted cost of ''cheap'' food.) I asked David Pimentel, a Cornell ecologist who specializes in agriculture and energy, if it might be possible to calculate precisely how much oil it will take to grow my steer to slaughter weight. Assuming No. 534 continues to eat 25 pounds of corn a day and reaches a weight of 1,250 pounds, he will have consumed in his lifetime roughly 284 gallons of oil. We have succeeded in industrializing the beef calf, transforming what was once a solar-powered ruminant into the very last thing we need: another fossil-fuel machine.
Sometime in June, No. 534 will be ready for slaughter. Though only 14 months old, my steer will weigh more than 1,200 pounds and will move with the lumbering deliberateness of the obese. One morning, a cattle trailer from the National Beef plant in Liberal, Kan., will pull in to Poky Feeders, drop a ramp and load No. 534 along with 35 of his pen mates.
The 100-mile trip south to Liberal is a straight shot on Route 83, a two-lane highway on which most of the traffic consists of speeding tractor-trailers carrying either cattle or corn. The National Beef plant is a sprawling gray-and-white complex in a neighborhood of trailer homes and tiny houses a notch up from shanty. These are, presumably, the homes of the Mexican and Asian immigrants who make up a large portion of the plant's work force. The meat business has made southwestern Kansas an unexpectedly diverse corner of the country.
A few hours after their arrival in the holding pens outside the factory, a plant worker will open a gate and herd No. 534 and his pen mates into an alley that makes a couple of turns before narrowing down to a single-file chute. The chute becomes a ramp that leads the animals up to a second-story platform and then disappears through a blue door.
That door is as close to the kill floor as the plant managers were prepared to let me go. I could see whatever I wanted to farther on -- the cold room where carcasses are graded, the food-safety lab, the fabrication room where the carcasses are broken down into cuts -- on the condition that I didn't take pictures or talk to employees. But the stunning, bleeding and evisceration process was off limits to a journalist, even a cattleman-journalist like myself.
What I know about what happens on the far side of the blue door comes mostly from Temple Grandin, who has been on the other side and, in fact, helped to design it. Grandin, an assistant professor of animal science at Colorado State, is one of the most influential people in the United States cattle industry. She has devoted herself to making cattle slaughter less stressful and therefore more humane by designing an ingenious series of cattle restraints, chutes, ramps and stunning systems. Grandin is autistic, a condition she says has allowed her to see the world from the cow's point of view. The industry has embraced Grandin's work because animals under stress are not only more difficult to handle but also less valuable: panicked cows produce a surge of adrenaline that turns their meat dark and unappetizing. ''Dark cutters,'' as they're called, sell at a deep discount.
Grandin designed the double-rail conveyor system in use at the National Beef plant; she has also audited the plant's killing process for McDonald's. Stories about cattle ''waking up'' after stunning only to be skinned alive prompted McDonald's to audit its suppliers in a program that is credited with substantial improvements since its inception in 1999. Grandin says that in cattle slaughter ''there is the pre-McDonald's era and the post-McDonald's era -- it's night and day.''
Grandin recently described to me what will happen to No. 534 after he passes through the blue door. ''The animal goes into the chute single file,'' she began. ''The sides are high enough so all he sees is the butt of the animal in front of him. As he walks through the chute, he passes over a metal bar, with his feet on either side. While he's straddling the bar, the ramp begins to decline at a 25-degree angle, and before he knows it, his feet are off the ground and he's being carried along on a conveyor belt. We put in a false floor so he can't look down and see he's off the ground. That would panic him.''
Listening to Grandin's rather clinical account, I couldn't help wondering what No. 534 would be feeling as he approached his end. Would he have any inkling -- a scent of blood, a sound of terror from up the line -- that this was no ordinary day?
Grandin anticipated my question: ''Does the animal know it's going to get slaughtered? I used to wonder that. So I watched them, going into the squeeze chute on the feedlot, getting their shots and going up the ramp at a slaughter plant. No difference. If they knew they were going to die, you'd see much more agitated behavior.
''Anyway, the conveyor is moving along at roughly the speed of a moving sidewalk. On a catwalk above stands the stunner. The stunner has a pneumatic-powered 'gun' that fires a steel bolt about seven inches long and the diameter of a fat pencil. He leans over and puts it smack in the middle of the forehead. When it's done correctly, it will kill the animal on the first shot.''
For a plant to pass a McDonald's audit, the stunner needs to render animals ''insensible'' on the first shot 95 percent of the time. A second shot is allowed, but should that one fail, the plant flunks. At the line speeds at which meatpacking plants in the United States operate -- 390 animals are slaughtered every hour at National, which is not unusual -- mistakes would seem inevitable, but Grandin insists that only rarely does the process break down.
''After the animal is shot while he's riding along, a worker wraps a chain around his foot and hooks it to an overhead trolley. Hanging upside down by one leg, he's carried by the trolley into the bleeding area, where the bleeder cuts his throat. Animal rights people say they're cutting live animals, but that's because there's a lot of reflex kicking.'' This is one of the reasons a job at a slaughter plant is the most dangerous in America. ''What I look for is, Is the head dead? It should be flopping like a rag, with the tongue hanging out. He'd better not be trying to hold it up -- then you've got a live one on the rail.'' Just in case, Grandin said, ''they have another hand stunner in the bleed area.''
Much of what happens next -- the de-hiding of the animal, the tying off of its rectum before evisceration -- is designed to keep the animal's feces from coming into contact with its meat. This is by no means easy to do, not when the animals enter the kill floor smeared with manure and 390 of them are eviscerated every hour. (Partly for this reason, European plants operate at much slower line speeds.) But since that manure is apt to contain lethal pathogens like E. coli 0157, and since the process of grinding together hamburger from hundreds of different carcasses can easily spread those pathogens across millions of burgers, packing plants now spend millions on ''food safety'' -- which is to say, on the problem of manure in meat.
Most of these efforts are reactive: it's accepted that the animals will enter the kill floor caked with feedlot manure that has been rendered lethal by the feedlot diet. Rather than try to alter that diet or keep the animals from living in their waste or slow the line speed -- all changes regarded as impractical -- the industry focuses on disinfecting the manure that will inevitably find its way into the meat. This is the purpose of irradiation (which the industry prefers to call ''cold pasteurization''). It is also the reason that carcasses pass through a hot steam cabinet and get sprayed with an antimicrobial solution before being hung in the cooler at the National Beef plant.
It wasn't until after the carcasses emerged from the cooler, 36 hours later, that I was allowed to catch up with them, in the grading room. I entered a huge arctic space resembling a monstrous dry cleaner's, with a seemingly endless overhead track conveying thousands of red-and-white carcasses. I quickly learned that you had to move smartly through this room or else be tackled by a 350-pound side of beef. The carcasses felt cool to the touch, no longer animals but meat.
Two by two, the sides of beef traveled swiftly down the rails, six pairs every minute, to a station where two workers -- one wielding a small power saw, the other a long knife -- made a single six-inch cut between the 12th and 13th ribs, opening a window on the meat inside. The carcasses continued on to another station, where a U.S.D.A. inspector holding a round blue stamp glanced at the exposed rib eye and stamped the carcass's creamy white fat once, twice or -- very rarely -- three times: select, choice, prime.
For the Blair brothers, and for me, this is the moment of truth, for that stamp will determine exactly how much the packing plant will pay for each animal and whether the 14 months of effort and expense will yield a profit.
Unless the cattle market collapses between now and June (always a worry these days), I stand to make a modest profit on No. 534. In February, the feedlot took a sonogram of his rib eye and ran the data through a computer program. The projections are encouraging: a live slaughter weight of 1,250, a carcass weight of 787 pounds and a grade at the upper end of choice, making him eligible to be sold at a premium as Certified Angus Beef. Based on the June futures price, No. 534 should be worth $944. (Should he grade prime, that would add another $75.)
I paid $598 for No. 534 in November; his living expenses since then come to $61 on the ranch and $258 for 160 days at the feedlot (including implant), for a total investment of $917, leaving a profit of $27. It's a razor-thin margin, and it could easily vanish should the price of corn rise or No. 534 fail to make the predicted weight or grade -- say, if he gets sick and goes off his feed. Without the corn, without the antibiotics, without the hormone implant, my brief career as a cattleman would end in failure.
The Blairs and I are doing better than most. According to Cattle-Fax, a market-research firm, the return on an animal coming out of a feedlot has averaged just $3 per head over the last 20 years.
''Some pens you make money, some pens you lose,'' Rich Blair said when I called to commiserate. ''You try to average it out over time, limit the losses and hopefully make a little profit.'' He reminded me that a lot of ranchers are in the business ''for emotional reasons -- you can't be in it just for the money.''
Now you tell me.
The manager of the packing plant has offered to pull a box of steaks from No. 534 before his carcass disappears into the trackless stream of commodity beef fanning out to America's supermarkets and restaurants this June. From what I can see, the Blair brothers, with the help of Poky Feeders, are producing meat as good as any you can find in an American supermarket. And yet there's no reason to think this steak will taste any different from the other high-end industrial meat I've ever eaten.
While waiting for my box of meat to arrive from Kansas, I've explored some alternatives to the industrial product. Nowadays you can find hormone- and antibiotic-free beef as well as organic beef, fed only grain grown without chemicals. This meat, which is often quite good, is typically produced using more grass and less grain (and so makes for healthier animals). Yet it doesn't fundamentally challenge the corn-feedlot system, and I'm not sure that an ''organic feedlot'' isn't, ecologically speaking, an oxymoron. What I really wanted to taste is the sort of preindustrial beef my grandparents ate -- from animals that have lived most of their full-length lives on grass.
Eventually I found a farmer in the Hudson Valley who sold me a quarter of a grass-fed Angus steer that is now occupying most of my freezer. I also found ranchers selling grass-fed beef on the Web; Eatwild.com is a clearinghouse of information on grass-fed livestock, which is emerging as one of the livelier movements in sustainable agriculture.
I discovered that grass-fed meat is more expensive than supermarket beef. Whatever else you can say about industrial beef, it is remarkably cheap, and any argument for changing the system runs smack into the industry's populist arguments. Put the animals back on grass, it is said, and prices will soar; it takes too long to raise beef on grass, and there's not enough grass to raise them on, since the Western range lands aren't big enough to sustain America's 100 million head of cattle. And besides, Americans have learned to love cornfed beef. Feedlot meat is also more consistent in both taste and supply and can be harvested 12 months a year. (Grass-fed cattle tend to be harvested in the fall, since they stop gaining weight over the winter, when the grasses go dormant.)
All of this is true. The economic logic behind the feedlot system is hard to refute. And yet so is the ecological logic behind a ruminant grazing on grass. Think what would happen if we restored a portion of the Corn Belt to the tall grass prairie it once was and grazed cattle on it. No more petrochemical fertilizer, no more herbicide, no more nitrogen runoff. Yes, beef would probably be more expensive than it is now, but would that necessarily be a bad thing? Eating beef every day might not be such a smart idea anyway -- for our health, for the environment. And how cheap, really, is cheap feedlot beef? Not cheap at all, when you add in the invisible costs: of antibiotic resistance, environmental degradation, heart disease, E. coli poisoning, corn subsidies, imported oil and so on. All these are costs that grass-fed beef does not incur.
So how does grass-fed beef taste? Uneven, just as you might expect the meat of a nonindustrial animal to taste. One grass-fed tenderloin from Argentina that I sampled turned out to be the best steak I've ever eaten. But unless the meat is carefully aged, grass-fed beef can be tougher than feedlot beef -- not surprisingly, since a grazing animal, which moves around in search of its food, develops more muscle and less fat. Yet even when the meat was tougher, its flavor, to my mind, was much more interesting. And specific, for the taste of every grass-fed animal is inflected by the place where it lived. Maybe it's just my imagination, but nowadays when I eat a feedlot steak, I can taste the corn and the fat, and I can see the view from No. 534's pen. I can't taste the oil, obviously, or the drugs, yet now I know they're there.
A considerably different picture comes to mind while chewing (and, O.K., chewing) a grass-fed steak: a picture of a cow outside in a pasture eating the grass that has eaten the sunlight. Meat-eating may have become an act riddled with moral and ethical ambiguities, but eating a steak at the end of a short, primordial food chain comprising nothing more than ruminants and grass and light is something I'm happy to do and defend. We are what we eat, it is often said, but of course that's only part of the story. We are what what we eat eats too.

Omega-3 May Protect Against Neurological Disorders

2006-07-20T00:14:00.000-07:00

Omega-3 fatty acids may do more than protect the heart, say researchers from the National Institute of Alcoholism (NIAAA). Joseph R Hibbeln of the NIAA's Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics discovered that countries with the highest rates of fish consumption had the lowest rates of depression, while countries that eat little fish had the highest. Omega-3's benefits may go even further as Hibbeln also observed a similar relationship between fish consumption and homicide, suicide, and postpartum depression rates. The effect of fish consumption on the incidence postpartum depression appears to be dramatic - Hibbeln found that rates of postpartum depression are a staggering 50-times higher in countries where women don't eat fish. Hibbeln began studying the effect of omega-3 on neurological disorders in 1984 when he realized that nearly 60% of the brain is composed of fat. He believes that the change in the American diet over the last 100 years has had a dramatic impact upon brain health - since 1909 our consumption of omega-6 fatty acids has increased by 1,000-fold. Hibbeln suspects that the large amounts of omega-6 that we consume may be preventing omega-3 from entering brain cells and keeping the brain healthy. Hibbeln's observations have led scientists to begin studying the effect of omega-3 on a number of neurological disorders, including depression bipolar disease, ADHD, alcoholism, and Alzheimer's disease.

My Buddy Brent Hauver on Raw Milk

2006-07-12T02:13:00.000-07:00

I just realised that with all the raw raw raw of the last 11 years, all the hype and propoganda- As we look at all the leaders we have some descrepency regarding raw vegan food and longevity and health.. The longest lived was Tilden, Bragg, and Walker - all who did animal products (walker did raw goats milk and cheese)...

Of the three areas in the world noted for the longevity of the local population -the Caucasus Mountains in Russia (kefir), the village of Vilcabamba in Ecuador and the land of the Hunza in northern India- all three use whole milk products. The people of Hunza and Kashmir consume whole fermented goat milk products (kefir); inhabitants of Vilcabamba consume raw cows milk which they usually separate into cream cheese and whey; and the centenarians of the Caucasus Mountains eat whole milk yogurt (like kefir) and other dairy products. Milk products form the backbone of the Hindu diet, with clarified butter (ghee) and fermented curds eaten with every meal. "The cows are our friends, they give food, they give strength, they likewise give a good complexion and happiness,"
said Gautama Buddha.

While the Japanese have the longest life span of the "civilized" world on a diet containing few milk products, the Swiss are a close second in the longevity stakes with a diet just loaded with rich raw milk products like butter, cream and cheese. Tied for third and fourth are the Austrians and the Greeks. Both these populations consume raw whole milk products, especially cheese. Milk products are even found in some parts of the Orient, from water buffalo milk in Southeast Asia to cows milk in northern China. The longest living man in the West was Old Par, an English peasant who labored in the fields until his death at 152 years.
His diet consisted almost entirely of raw goat milk products-milk, cheese and whey.

This is powerful information... Why are we so down on Milk?

Sheldon, Fry, and Even Ehret all died fairly young...

FWIW.. Brent

Navy: Sonar vs. Whales

2006-07-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

Associated Press 07:45 AM Jul, 06, 2006

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii -- The Navy asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to block a court order that prevents it from using active sonar during its war-game exercises off Hawaii, an environmental group said.

The emergency motion, filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, seeks a stay on an order stopping the Navy from using the high-intensity sonar, said Daniel Hinerfeld, spokesman for the National Resources Defense Council.

The Navy was forced to abandon plans to use mid-frequency active sonar during the international maritime exercises after a federal judge issued the order. Environmentalists had sued, claiming the sound waves might kill or harm marine mammals.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet referred calls to Navy officials in Washington. Officials there did not immediately return calls.

A senior Navy admiral said earlier Wednesday he was hopeful the military would settle differences with environmentalists so his sailors could use active sonar during the exercises.

Sailors use active sonar by pumping sound waves through the ocean to hunt submarines.

The federal judge on Monday had ordered the two sides to discuss measures to minimize the impact sonar would have on marine mammals. The Navy and the plaintiffs, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, are due to appear again in Los Angeles federal court on July 18.

"We're hopeful through further discussions there will be some relief down the road," said Vice Adm. Barry Costello, commander of the U.S. Third Fleet and director of the drills.

Costello said the Navy's ability to defend U.S. interests depends on its sailors learning to use active sonar and regularly practicing their skills.

"It's a national security issue to prepare for the next fight. And you cannot win in the future if you don't train against the threat," Costello told reporters as about 20 ships prepared to sail from Pearl Harbor for the exercises, which involve close to 40 ships and 19,000 sailors from eight nations.

The Navy plans to have its sailors listen for submarines only with passive sonar and visually look for "enemy" submarines during the drills.

Active sonar locates objects by analyzing sound bounced off them, while passive sonar involves analyzing noises generated by the objects. Environmentalists say active sonar may kill or harm whales and other mammals, possibly by damaging their hearing.

Where did all the stars go?

2006-06-27T03:53:00.000-07:00

Where are all the stars? Did humanity really set foot on the moon?

The 23rd Psalm Explained

2006-06-27T01:27:00.000-07:00

The Lord is my Shepherd ----- that's Relationship!

I shall not want ----- that's Supply!

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ---- that's Rest!

He leadeth me beside the still waters ----- that's Refreshment!

He restoreth my soul ----- that's Healing!

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness ----- that's Guidance!

For His namesake ----- that's Purpose!

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death ----- that's Testing!

I will fear no evil ----- that's Protection!

For Thou art with me ----- that's Faithfulness!

Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me ----- that's Discipline!

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies -- --- that's Hope!

Thou annointest my head with oil ----- that's Consecration!

My cup runneth over ----- that's Abundance!

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life ---- that's Blessing!

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord ----- that's Security!

Forever ----- that's Eternity!

Face it; the Lord is crazy about you.

Send this to the people you are crazy about.

I thought this was pretty special, just like YOU!!!

What is most valuable is not what we have in our lives, but WHO we have in our lives.

Chocolate set to conquer the health-food market

2006-06-21T17:08:00.000-07:00

Jun 19, 2006 2:59 PM ET

By Josiane Kremer and Isabel Strassheim

ZURICH (Reuters) - The ancient Mayan and Aztec people believed that chocolate increased wisdom, energy, vitality, and sexual power, but in the intervening centuries it has been recategorized as an unhealthy indulgence.

Now the world's biggest industrial chocolate maker, Barry Callebaut, is rediscovering the medicinal properties of the cocoa bean and using them to produce "healthy chocolate".
For those who think the only health benefit of chocolate comes from remembering Valentine's Day, Hans Vriens, Barry Callebaut's chief innovation officer, has a few welcome surprises up his sleeve.

"The cocoa bean has more than 600 components; 230 of those have potential health benefits," he said in an interview with Reuters.

These health benefits stem from polyphenols, which are naturally found at a higher level in the cocoa bean than in broccoli or even green tea. These chemical compounds act as antioxidants, which protect cells from damage.

The snag is that traditional chocolate production has usually destroyed most of those compounds.

"If we can preserve some of those components, we actually have functional chocolate, and people can feel a lot less guilty about eating it. They are actually doing something good," Vriens said.

The group's new production process, known as "Acticoa", ensures that a high level of polyphenols are maintained during manufacturing, allowing the Swiss chocolate maker to produce "healthy chocolate" without altering the taste.

Clinical tests by several research institutes have shown that polyphenols improve cardio-vascular health and mental function. They also help prevent cancer and counteract the effects of aging.

Nine grams of Acticoa chocolate -- or one big bite -- covers the recommended daily intake of polyphenols, Vriens said.
The value is based on findings of the Tuffs University in the United States.

The company's challenge is to shift perceptions of chocolate away from an indulgence food and toward a nutritional food, thereby tapping the fast-growing health and wellness market.
"Given its image as an indulgence, chocolate has never been able to build a wellness segment, the fastest-growing part of the food market... (but) the mold has been broken by research linking health with cocoa polyphenols," said Kepler Equities analyst Jon Cox.

A HEALTHY TREAT
In an increasingly health-conscious society, the revenue potential for functional chocolate is "quite amazing", said Vriens, but he declined to give exact sales forecasts.

"Functional food takes up 2 percent of shelf space these days. In 10-20 years it will be 20 percent," he said.

Barry Callebaut used its German consumer brand Sarotti to test its "Acticoa" chocolate and was pleased with the results. It hopes to launch the product with industrial customers this year or next.

"There is an enormous space for functional chocolate, and there is no one out there (to fill it)," Vriens said.

Kepler analyst Cox said the revenue benefits were already within reach.

"Chocolate branded to highlight high levels of polyphenols or health benefits can capture 1 percent of the overall chocolate market, or reach almost 1 billion Swiss francs, in the next 24 months," he said.

Barry Callebaut, which is believed to supply brands like Danone and Kraft, is in talks with clients on how best to sell its new chocolate.

It wants to use its "Acticoa" trademark as a label on the packaging of chocolate in the same way that microprocessor maker Intel uses its "Intel-inside" label on computers. The label would guarantee a minimum level of antioxidants.
Other industry players have also recognized the potential of health and wellness foods, launching their own efforts to enter the lucrative health-food market.

Nestle has recently launched a major drive to focus on nutritional foods such as health-enhancing yoghurts and drinks and is expected to move into "healthy chocolates" soon, while Mars -- maker of Mars bars and M&Ms -- has launched a heart-healthy chocolate called "CocoaVia".

Barry Callebaut's Acticoa process can be used in a variety of foods, including chocolate drinks and yoghurts.

Cocoa polyphenols can even be used as a processing agent in beer, Vriens said. The process called "ActiBREW" was presented at a major European beer brewers' convention.

The cocoa bean also contains a dietary fiber that can be used as a natural sweetener, allowing Callebaut to reduce the amount of sugar in its chocolate.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

Ukrainian man eats only sunshine and lives by the law of flowers

2006-06-21T02:25:00.000-07:00

Nikolai Dolgoruky calls himself a "sun eater." He lives in the Dnepr region of Ukraine.

He feeds only on prana and solar energy. After arriving in a village where he lives, I saw a barefooted man standing on the porch. He was wearing a bright orange dress with the sun embroidered on the chest. The man's face looked otherworldly, his eyes glistened, and a smile crossed his face. He moved about easily and seemed to be barely touching the ground. He did not have no sunken cheeks nor bags under his eyes. His skin was glowing from inside as if he were a happy teenaged girl.

It is obvious that Nikolai has become a qualified interviewee. He fell into the habit of giving interviews on a regular basis. A Japanese TV crew left the village a few days ago. They shot a film about Nikolai.

"The reason why I've become a "sun eater" has nothing to do with cutting down on grocery bills," says Nikolai with a smile. "This is a spiritual way. Why do all the religions of the world have Lent? It is designed to cleanse the soul and encourage the human being to think more of things lofty and get rid of morally low desires. Saying goodbye to food means a farewell to many carnal dependencies. I consume space energy in place of natural foodstuffs. But I had continually fasting for 14 years before I stopped coarse food altogether. I ate only kasha, vegetables, fruits and nuts. Then I switched to liquid foods – vegetable broths, cocoa and hot chocolate. And one day it came as a stunning revelation that I can do without any food. Since then I've been living on a strict diet of tea with honey and some boiling water with fish soup spices. I use only charged water that is taken off the stovetop one moment before it boils. I drink about ten cups a day. I get the rest of my food from the Sun and Cosmos. I can even feel my blood getting rejuvenated.

"Do you mean you stop feeling hunger as you stare at the sun?"

"I stopped feeling hunger a long time ago. The sun charges me with energy as if I were a battery. Some day everybody will be capable of running on solar energy. The trees and flower exist because of photosynthesis. And man is part of nature. There is a huge release of energy in the human body once man gets rid of coarse food. It's the energy that was previously used for digestion. Man reaches a completely different level of mental and physical development."

It was dawn on August 25th, 2003. On that day Nikolai Dolgoruki began living by the law of flowers. He stepped into his porch and instructed his internal organs three times to feed on space energy only. His body ran riot for two weeks. Nikolai dreamed about eating butter rolls. Eventually, his hunger vanished in the ozone. He became indifferent to food and found complete peace of mind. Nikolai lost a mere 7 kilos after living for nearly a hundred days of solar diet. He used to suffer from pains in his heart and stomach. Nowadays Nikolai says his pains have been gone along with his excess weight.

"What is your superior goal? Do you intend to live longer or stay healthy? Don't you think the price is too high?"

"A sun eater is on a mission to bring light, goodness and spiritual cleansing to the people. I help the people stay strong and happy in this cruel world. I direct my thinking to other galaxies."

"Can you confirm that you're not pulling some kind of a trick? Maybe you enjoy a quick burger by stealth?

"I'm ready and willing to show my abilities to anybody, be it doctors or scientists. Let them come and examine me. It's okay with me. The Japanese TV crew that made a film about me had several researchers from the Institute of human body's hidden abilities studies. They asked me to take a full medical examination including tests in our municipal hospital No 5. Besides, they spent a few days in my house monitoring my activities – trivial thins like I getting up in the morning, riding my bicycle, digging in my vegetable garden, doing a few push-ups and chin-ups. They put on record my personal achievement: I stared at the sun for 13 hours."

"What did the results of the tests show?"

"The results say I'm a healthy person, no anomalies detected."

Doctors at a regional center of nontraditional medicine of the Dnepr region comment in a cautious way on Dolgoruky's experiment. According to them, the sun and space energy have nothing to do with the case. The man drinks a few liters of beverages to sustain his body's activities. Doctors say such foodstuffs as milk, tea, honey have everything our body needs to get on a regular basis. Those beverages contain calcium, protein, carbohydrates and microelements. His body got cleansed and overhauled thanks to a slag-free diet and a healthy life style. Not to mention his power of autosuggestion and his strong will – those qualities cemented the positive results.

Trud

Translated by Guerman Grachev
Pravda.Ru

Great site on EM

2006-06-21T02:18:00.000-07:00

Vinny Pinto's Site

Dr Stanley Bass was a pioneer in Natural Hygiene

2006-06-20T23:51:00.000-07:00

Dr Stanley Bass was a pioneer in the Natural higene
movement- After years of a high fruit, low fat diet- He crashed and
burned- But regained his health after eating some animal products...
Now I know why Gabriel Cousins is Adamant about Vegans taking b12... --- Brent Hauver

*/Mice and the High fruitarian diet/*
I put a group of mice on a fruitarian diet. But they didn't seem to be eating very much fruit, and they certainly weren't crazy about it. .....

..... When I returned them to the fruitarian diet, after the second day they started the cannibalistic behavior again. They grabbed another young mouse and this time they ate it. The poor thing. I saw it happen.
I was shocked. I'd never seen anything like this. "What happened here?"
I asked myself.
I had given them a fruitarian diet, a diet that some natural health practitioners fervently believe in. Then I added corn, then avocado, foods that fruitarians are not supposed to include, and still I ran into trouble. It really scared me to witness what had happened to my mice. *I worried then and still worry about people who attempt to be fruitarians*.

*/Deficiencies from High fruitarian diet/* ..... To relate the results to humans, this trial seemed to indicate that after being a fruitarian for the human equivalent of three months, humans would show deficiencies and imbalances and health problems. *My results suggested that if a fruitarian lived strictly without cheating he would be able to do so for three months before deficiencies began to show*. _*But since the average fruitarian cheats, he doesn't know the diet doesn't work. If he didn't cheat, after three months his body would start breaking down. He wouldn't necessarily die, but problems would start to develop.*_

I immediately added greens, lettuce leaves, and carrot tops. I was stunned by this experience. I determined that the cause of death was due to *protein deficiencies, mineral deficiencies, and possible sugar poisoning from the excess fruit*. This shocked me. I became so disillusioned that I stopped fruit in all the cages. I had about five cages at the time with about 150*/ /*mice. From there on no mice got fruit anymore. Only later, after many months, equivalent of several human years, did I gradually re-introduce a little fruit

*/Looking for a cancer diet
/*Then I began another diet. At the time I was looking for a nutritional approach to cancer. I was also looking for a diet that had everything the body needed but was close to a fast for those people who couldn't fast. For example, people who were emaciated, people who had a fear of fasting, or whatever. .....

*/How to survive during a famine/*
..... or you were poor, you were broke, and you had a large family it's interesting to realize that you could bring the whole family up in perfect health on dried milk or whole milk plus whole wheat alone and nothing else. .....

*/Toxicity versus deficiency/*
..... In other words, you could live longer if you ate a complete diet which had salt and pepper and contaminants and chemicals, even fluorides in the water, even sprayed chemicals on the food, than if you ate an incomplete diet. But if the foods were whole and natural, you would live longest and healthiest.

..... We are all more or less toxic to some extent, and we all increase toxins in the blood temporarily when we exercise, but we are not all sick. Most bodies can handle a large degree of toxemia for a long time.
*Deficiencies damage us much more quickly. * That's the difference between the two evils.
_*
....... In humans, the deficiencies develop more subtly. You could be a vegetarian on a very imbalanced diet and feel good for five, seven, even ten years, but **after ten years you'd start to fall apart when you have used up your reserves of B12 and D. When that happens, down you go. And once down, it is very hard to get back up.*_

*/The ideal vegetarian diet/*
To jump to the end for a moment. After two years of experiments I concluded that the ideal diet is approximately 75 to 85% raw food, with the rest cooked vegetables .......

*/Testing egg yolk and egg white/*
..... Interestingly, in the raw food vegetarian cage of mice, when I substituted egg yolk instead of cheese, the growth was even more rapid.

..... And all the books were saying, "Egg yolks, stay away from them.
You'll die of cholesterol. They'll give you heart attacks." For me, I considered one egg a good maximum. Two only for emergencies. Even though Dr. Cursio used daily as many as four egg yolks on some patients, their blood pressure dropped steadily. I found the same to be true. Lecithin in egg yolks appears to negate cholesterol deposition in arteries.
When I saw the results with the mice, I changed my opinion about eggs.

*/Greens were indispensable/*
..... *I found that greens were indispensable. I had tested all the vegetables, and I found that the mice preferred lettuce and carrot tops to all the vegetables. In fact, I raised them for over ten years in human time almost exclusively on lettuce. Mostly iceberg because I was able to get the outer leaves free. And they did well even though we know iceberg lettuce isn't the best lettuce. *

..... Every time I made a discovery with the mice I *introduced it with my patients*. I found with each discovery that when I introduced it into the diet of a patient, greater improvements resulted. I was excited. I was into new territory, and I saw no limit to the tremendous knowledge that could unfold. Dr. Cursio was also excited because my findings helped to verify his work as accurate.

*/Maximum amount of fruit to eat/*
..... You should eat no more than two to three varieties daily of medium fruit - like an apple, an orange, and a banana. Save bananas for the end of the day. Or half a cantaloupe and a mango. Or two medium grapefruits and a handful of cherries.

*/Gorillas, orangutangs and chimps/*
...... I'm going to tell you something interesting. The highest apes related to man are the gorillas, the orangutangs, and the chimps. A chimp will eat maybe up to 50% fruit, but they are nervous characters.
Now the orangutang will eat up to about 15% fruit. The orang's a beautiful animal and much more gentle and lovable than the chimp. *But a gorilla eats only 3% fruit. Did you know it will bypass fruit for vegetables and shoots? ...*..

*/In closing/*
..... the solution is simple. *Small adjustments in the raw food diet can help users avoid slowly developing but disastrous health problems*.
These small changes can lead to optimum longevity and magnificent health
- physically, mentally, and spiritually.
As a believer in raw food vegetarianism myself, I feel a moral imperative to share the disturbing, surprising results of my experiments with mice. *I hope to help health seekers avoid hidden dangers in their journey toward health, strength, and happiness*. I hope my discoveries have shed a little light on your journey.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also read:
*Animal experiment - vegan rats die early and have low energy*
Excerpt from a 1912 scientific experiment on albino rats. The purpose was to compare the effects of a vegan (strictly vegetable) diet and an omnivorous diet. E.g. /"The ratio of omnivorous to the vegetarians in regard to efficiency = about 5 : 1." /

Also read: *With Three Generations of Vegetarian Hygienists*
and *Dr. Cursio's Vegetarian Diet and Food Plan*

FDA shakes up debate over functional chocolate

2006-06-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

6/14/2006- The marketing of functional confectionery products has been called into question following an FDA warning letter sent to Masterfoods USA over health claims and folic acid in its CocoaVia chocolate bars.

The US Food and Drug Administration letter, dated May 31, 2006, gives MasterfoodsUSA 15 days from the time of receipt to inform the federal agency of its plans to comply.

CocoaVia products, launched at retail in October, have been heavily marketed as 'healthy'.

The firm's chief scientist Dr Harold Schmitz has previously said:"CocoaVia is the vanguard of our efforts to 'reinvent' cocoa as an ingredient in healthful foods."

Mars, the division under which CocoVia falls, has set up a new business unit to promote its healthy range called Mars Nutrition for Health & Well-Being. It's brief is to target consumers who are aware of the need to switch to healthier foods but reluctant to change eating habits and pass on chocolate bars.

The move into the health and nutrition area is also part of its continuing portfolio diversification, as Mars now offers savory snacks, pet food, and food and beverages other than chocolate.

But by the FDA's reckoning, the initiative pushes pushing the definition of what constitutes a food or drug under US law.

"Articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease in man are drugs under section 201(g)(1)(B)of the Act," wrote Joseph Baca, director of the office of compliance for the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, in the letter.

And according to federal regulation, drugs, unlike foods, require pre-market approval – which means Masterfoods may face changing their its entire marketing approach to CocoaViva.

Baca describes the product line as "misbranded" in the letter, condemning the functional chocolate bars' health claims, which include "Promotes a healthy heart" and "Now you can have real chocolate pleasure with real heart health benefits".

"These claims are false or misleading because of the high levels of saturated fat in the products," warns the letter, which was addressed to Masterfoods vice president of research and development John Helferich.

The healthy CocoaVia image is based around the bars' high content of cocoa flavonols, powerful antioxidants. But the The plant sterol/stanol esters the product line contained in sthem provide the basis on which it makes heart health claims.

However, the letter states these claims are only authorized when the food is also low in saturated fats. This is not the case with CocoaVia products which, according to the FDA, contain one-third the daily value for saturated fat (20grams) per recommended serving.

The FDA is also at odds with the ingredient folic acid, citing that food additive regulation (21 CFF 172.345) does not provide for adding folic acid to candy products, which the agency says is designed to keep total folic acid intake to under 1mg per day.

"The consumption of higher levels of folic acid can mask anemia in persons with vitamin B 12 deficiency," Baca explained.

The CocoaVia line includes the Chocolate Blueberry Crunch Bar, and Blueberry & Almond Chocolate Bars, both of which contain folic acid, which the FDA deemed"unsafe" on the grounds that it may cause consumers to inadvertently consume more than the recommended upper limit of 1mg. in the letter.

The US does have a policy of mandatory fortification of grain products with folic acid, which was introduced in 1998 in a bid to reduce the number of pregnancies affected by neural tube defects.

This measure has been hailed as a success – since its introduction birth defects in the UShave decreased by 26 percent. However some other countries have held off from mandatory folic acid fortification of grains on the grounds that it may mask detection of vitamin B12 deficiency in eldery people.

The level of folic acid fortification in grain products is set at 140 micrograms of folic acid per 100 grams of grain (across all grain products, including bread, pasta, cereal, rice and flour). But some campaigners have recently been calling for an increase in levels to 280 or even 350 micrograms per 100 grams.

The US Food and Drug Administration letter, dated May 31, 2006, gives MasterfoodsUSA 15 days from the time of receipt to inform the federal agency of its plans to comply.

The company had not responded to NutraIngredients-USA.com's request for a comment prior to publication.

Copyright - Unless otherwise stated all contents of this web site are © 2000/2006 – Decision News Media SAS – All Rights Reserved. For permission to reproduce any contents of this web site, please email our Syndication department: contact our Syndication department. Full details for the use of materials on this site can be found in the Terms & Conditions

How to Subscribe to This Blog!

2006-06-19T00:04:00.000-07:00

Subscribe to Steve Adler's Raw Blog

The Doctor is in...

2006-06-18T23:51:00.000-07:00

GLOBAL WARMING...IT'S NO JOKE!

2006-06-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

GLOBAL WARMING IS NO JOKE!

CHECK THIS OUT...
What is really going on!

Have your personal care products been assessed for safety?

2006-06-16T04:42:00.000-07:00

Personal Product Toxicity
Have your personal care products been assessed for safety? EWG has assessed 14,406 product for toxicity--listed on this website

A Poetic Cosmic Download from the Pepperman

2006-06-16T04:39:00.000-07:00

My very favorite thing to do
Is to play music, just for you

It's so much fun, it's just begun
The very thing that makes my heart run

For when a tree falls in the woods
And no one hears it
It doesn't make any sound
So no one fears it

For beautiful vibes in the heart do smolder
And music only lives in the ear of the beholder

Whether a note is sweet, sharp, thick, or round;
Without the action of the receiver, it may not be found.

And so it seems, all that really matters
Despite the dreams, and reality shatters

Emotional bandwidth, so rich and yummy
A psychic sandwitch for your musical tummy

What we really want, love, and value so MUCH
Are the feelings BEHIND the sounds we touch

Favorite things I love to do
Watch a funny movie with you
And make some great food
You can eat with us, two

Money, fame, "chicks", and stuff
Doesn't cut it; still ain't enough

Still my favorite thing in this world to do
Is to just sit down and play some music for you!!

LATES ON!!

John Muir's Farseeing Nature

2006-06-15T01:06:00.000-07:00

Investor's Business Daily

Friday September 23, 7:00 pm ET
Joanne Von Alroth

John Muir didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. Until he blinded himself.
As a youth, he loved wandering the hills and woods around his native Dunbar, Scotland. He had a passion for doing the same in the Wisconsin countryside where his family settled after emigrating to the U.S.

But exploring wasn't a job. And despite his intelligence and an inventive streak, he didn't have a clear career direction.

Then, while working for an Indianapolis carriage maker in 1867, Muir accidentally stabbed himself in the eye with a file. The remaining eye lost its sight too, plunging Muir into total darkness and depression.

Some months later, Muir's uninjured eye regained its vision. Feeling as if he'd been reborn, he vowed to spend the rest of his life gazing at the natural beauty he'd been denied while recuperating from his injury.

His aim established, Muir (1838-1914) devoted the rest of his life to preserving and conserving that natural beauty on a large scale. His efforts led to the formation of the U.S. National Park System and the U.S. Forestry Service. He also founded the Sierra Club, a grass-roots organization for protecting wilderness and the environment. He headed it until his death.

Stamina Building

Muir spent his childhood preparing to be the inventor, naturalist, explorer and writer he became as an adult, he wrote in his 1913 book, "The Story of My Boyhood and Youth." While sweating in the fields for his father, Muir built the stamina he'd later rely on during his travels. He watched the natural world and mentally filed his observations: The way mice scurried as they stole the grain that fell from his reaper, the tang of the autumn air.

Innately curious, Muir loved to learn. He had little formal schooling after age 11, but that didn't matter: He lobbied his father to let him get up at 1 a.m. -- hours before the rest of his family -- so he could read. He also tinkered with his inventions, such as the "early-rising machine" he built that tipped him out of bed.

"I had gained five hours, almost half a day! Five hours to myself!" Muir wrote in one of his notebooks. "I can hardly think of any other event of my life, any discovery I ever made that gave birth to joy so transportingly glorious as the possession of these five frosty hours."

Muir's first journey after recovering from his injury was a 1,000-mile walk from Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and he intended to keep walking down to the Amazon.

But after catching malaria while in Florida, he decided to explore by sea and eventually found his way to San Francisco. He asked directions to the most beautiful area: On the advice of a stranger, he walked through waist-high brush and wildflowers in the San Joaquin Valley to Yosemite.

Its magnificent vistas captured his heart immediately. "It seemed to me the Sierra should be called not the Nevada, or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light ... the most divinely beautiful of all the mountain chains I have ever seen," he wrote.

Muir took jobs in Yosemite as a sheepherder and a sawmill hand to learn as much as he could about the area, biographer Don Weiss noted in a 1997 Ecology Hall of Fame article. Muir spent his days working and studying; at night, he carefully wrote down his observations and thoughts in a series of notebooks.

The Industrial Revolution was chugging ahead full steam: Muir feared that the hunger for more resources would strip the natural world of its wonders like Yosemite. It wasn't just conservation: Muir believed that humans needed to connect with nature for mental, physical and spiritual health, noted biographer Harold W. Wood, Jr.

"Keep close to nature's heart ... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods," Muir wrote. "Wash your spirit clean ... Come to the woods, for here is rest."

He scaled numerous peaks, riding an avalanche down a mountain and hunting out the source of waterfalls.

When Muir wanted to draw more attention to the devastation wrought on the Sierra by sheep and cattle, he wrote a series of articles for the then-influential Century magazine called "Studies of the Sierra." He also wrote to public officials, urging them to help.

But the best way to sway others was Muir's full-immersion treatment. Mother Nature would do most of the talking.

"He told me that when (Ralph Waldo) Emerson came to California, (Muir) tried to get him to come out and camp with him, for that was the only way in which to see at their best the majesty and charm of the Sierras," President Theodore Roosevelt recalled in "Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography."

The Great Communicator

Muir didn't just encourage philosophers and world leaders to come camping. He held camping trips for Sierra Club members to show them what they were working to save.

Once he had someone by the campfire, Muir started talking. He underscored the importance of conservation, relying on solid scientific facts he'd researched but avoiding strident or harsh tones.

"Muir bore himself with dignity in every company. He readily adjusted himself to any environment," Century magazine publisher Robert Underwood Johnson wrote in a 1916 Sierra Club Bulletin.

The approach worked like a charm. After a three-day camping trip, Roosevelt and Muir devised a conservation plan. During his term, Roosevelt established 148 million acres of national forest, five national parks and 23 national monuments, including Yosemite, Sequoia, Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest.

"John Muir talked even better than he wrote. His greatest influence was always upon those who were brought into personal contact with him," the 26th president wrote in Outlook magazine in 1915.

While thousands lauded his efforts, Muir preferred to downplay his influence. "Muir saw himself as an ordinary citizen of the universe, and in fact wrote his address as 'John Muir, Earth-Planet, Universe,'" Wood wrote.

Muir felt the credit belonged elsewhere, said Wood. "To some, beauty seems but an accident of creation: to Muir it was the very smile of God."

Very Powerful Prayers

2006-06-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

I have been reading the prayers found at this website. They are very powerful. www.howardwills.com -- Steve Adler

Health & Harmony

2006-06-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

Incredible time at the Health & Harmony festival last weekend selling Sacred Heart Chocolates with David Wolfe. One incredible moment is when we looked up and saw a white owl hovering over us at the festival of all places! Later when we called a super healer, Howard Wills (www.howardwills.com), for a healing of my lower back over the phone (which worked!!!), we found out that he saw the "same" owl around the same time as us in Hawaii! Massive synchronicity! Steve

Zell Oxygen, My New Favorite Supplement

2006-06-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

I can't even believe how good I am feeling on Dr. Wolz Zell Oxygen Natural Food Supplement...it is ridiculous! Even though the taste is hard-core, I love the flavor and intensity! My body must be totally in need of it...wild. And the stuff has been around since the 1930's mainly used in German Cancer Clinics...

Off the charts! It literally feels like I have been doing intense deep breathing exercises after I take the stuff...I have never felt this good on any supplement except maybe Royal Jelly and a Rawkin Green Juice. Look for this soon on the NatuRAW website because I am definitely going to sell it! -- Steve Adler

New Research on Heart Benefits of Chocolate (Cacao or Cocoa)

2006-06-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

Secret to Chocolate's Heart Benefits Found
By LiveScience Staff

posted: 19 January 2006
11:51 am ET

A new study reveals the chemical in chocolate that produces known heart-healthy benefits.

The research found that epicatechin, one of a group of chemicals known as flavanols, is directly linked to improved circulation and other hallmarks of cardiovascular health.

The discovery was detailed in the Jan. 16 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Although previous studies strongly indicated that some flavanol-rich foods, such as wine, tea and cocoa can offer cardiovascular health benefits, we have been able to demonstrate a direct relationship between the intake of certain flavanols present in cocoa, their absorption into the circulation and their effects on cardiovascular function in humans," said biochemist Hagen Schroeter of the University of California, Davis.

The study relied on volunteers from the Kuna Indians, who live on the San Blas islands off the coast of Panama. High blood pressure and other signs of cardiovascular disease are rare among the Kuna. And they are known to consume large amounts of flavanol-rich cocoa—three to four cups a day.

Previous studies found that Kuna who migrated to the suburbs of Panama City on the mainland drink only about four cups of cocoa per week and do not enjoy the same level of cardiovascular health.

The islanders have twice the level of urinary nitric oxide, a chemical associated with healthy flow of blood through the arteries. And those who drank cocoa with more flavanols had higher levels of nitric oxide.

Also, higher levels of epicatechin in the bloodstream were accompanied by improved blood flow. Lab tests showed that flavanols allow vascular tissue to relax.

Finally, tests showed that pure epicatechin consumed by people had much the same effect as flavanol-rich cocoa.

"The results of this study provide direct proof that epicatechin is, at least in part, responsible for the beneficial vascular effects that are observed after the consumption of certain flavanol-rich cocoas," Schroeter said.

Sacred Chocolate

2006-06-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

I am so Jazzed to Announce the Arrival of Sacred Chocolate and the rising of the Cacao God! Check it out at either of these two links:

Downloaded from the Cosmic Ethers...

Sacred Chocolate! www.sacredchocolate.com

Or,

Sacred Cacao! www.sacredcacao.com

Combating HPV

2006-06-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

Three Links to help combat this virus.

http://www.fonoils.com

http://www.wartmolevanish.com

http://www.dermisil.com/dermisil_w.htm

Glutathione

2006-05-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

Dr. Earl Mindell is quoted as follows regarding Glutathione:

"Glutathione is a substance, the levels of which in our cells are predicative of how long we will live. There are very few other factors which are as predicative of our life expectancy as is our level of cellular Glutathione. Glutathione has been called the master antioxidant and regulates the actions of lesser antioxidants such as Vitamin C and Vitamin E within the body. We literally can not survive without this antioxidant"

The New Medicine of Dr Hamer

2006-05-23T15:41:00.002-07:00

by Walter Last

Dr Hamer had an exceptionally high success rate with his cancer therapy, by
far the highest I have seen of any therapy. During one of several trials of
the persecuted Dr Hamer the public prosecutor (Wiener-Neustadt in Austria) had
to admit that after 4 to 5 years 6,000 out of 6,500 patients with mostly advanced
cancer were still alive. That is over 90%, almost a reversal of the results
to be expected after conventional treatment of advanced conditions.

Dr Hamer started his cancer research when he developed testicle cancer after
his son was shot dead. He wondered if his son’s death was the cause of
his cancer. Subsequently he investigated and documented over 15,000 cases of
cancer and always found the following characteristics to be present, which he
termed the Iron Rules of Cancer.

*The Iron Rules of Cancer*

1. Every cancer and related disease starts as a DHS that is a

Dirk Hamer Syndrome, which is a serious, acute-dramatic and

isolating conflict-shock-experience. It manifests simultaneously

on three levels, psyche, brain and organ.

2. The theme of the psychic conflict determines the location of the focus or
HAMER Herd in the brain, and the location of the cancer in the organ.

3. The course of the psychic conflict correlates with the development of the
HAMER Herd in the brain, and the course of the cancer in the organ.

At the moment of the conflict-shock a short circuit occurs in a pre-determined
place of the brain. This can be photographed with computed-tomography (CT) and
looks like concentric rings on a shooting target or like the surface of water
after a stone has been dropped into it. Later on, if the conflict becomes resolved,
the CT image changes, an edema develop, and finally scar tissue.

How specific and precisely located these brain lesions are may be seen from
the following. After a professional lecture a doctor handed him the brain CT
of a patient and asked to explain it. From this Dr Hamer diagnosed the patient
to have a fresh bleeding bladder carcinoma in the healing phase, an old prostate
carcinoma, diabetes, an old lung carcinoma and sensory paralysis in a specific
area, in addition to the corresponding emotional conflicts.

Amazingly, Dr Hamer was able to show that at the same time as the concentric
brain lesion appears also the target organ CT may show such a concentric lesion.
According to Dr Hamer this happens instantly when the psychic shock hits the
subconscious level and this same second is the start of cancer. However, also
other diseases can be caused by the same mechanism. How severe a disease becomes
may depend on other psychological, energetic and nutritional factors but its
nature and location are determined by the content of the conflict shock.

Hamer believes that the correlation between key emotional shock events, the
target brain areas and the related organs has developed as an adaptation of
our human evolution from similar programs in the animal world. When we unexpectedly
experience emotional distress, an emergency repair program is set in motion,
a biological conflict program with the aim of returning the individual to normal.
Such programs can even apply to families or other groups.

Hamer gives the following example. A mother sees her child in a bad accident.
In evolutionary terms small children recover faster when they receive extra
milk. Therefore, the biological conflict program tries to stimulate milk production
by increasing the number of breast cells. If the mother is right-handed, that
will instantly cause the appearance of a Hamer Herd in a specific part of her
right brain, which in turn relates to the left breast. When the child is well
again, conflict resolution begins and extra milk is no longer needed. The mother
gets a benign form of tuberculosis in that breast which breaks up the excess
breast cells. However, if the mycobacteria required for this are lacking, then
the area may just calcify and remain as a dormant tumor.

The same process applies also to animals. A sheep that loses its lamb to a
wolf is prone to develop teat cancer; the side depends on whether it is right
or left footed. However, commonly the sheep resolves this conflict by bearing
another lamb.

The following example may illustrate the original survival value of this mechanism.
Lets assume a lion chases an antelope. The antelope must immediately mobilize
all its resources to survive. The sympathetic nervous system takes over and
in addition a specific brain center becomes active that stimulates lung activity.
After the successful escape the animal rests and the parasympathetic nervous
system becomes dominant for a while to normalize body functions.

If instead a human gets a cancer diagnosis, even if the diagnosis is wrong,
the same biological program is set in motion by the same fear of death that
helped the animal to escape. The stress level jumps and the brain-lung connection
is activated but now there is nowhere to run.

Until the conflict is resolved, which may take years, there will be constant
stress as well as brain-induced stimulation of lung activity, which now takes
the form of increasing lung capacity by the incessant division of cells.

This process can only be stopped by switching off the trigger in the brain
through defusing the original conflict shock. This happens when the patient
subsequently has surgery or natural therapy, which he or she fully believes
will lead to a cure. However, the same procedure in a patient who has doubts
about its effectiveness will leave the conflict unresolved and the disease to
progress. Thanks to Dr Hamer’s work, this is no longer just an unsubstantiated
assumption but rather scientific fact that can be verified anytime with a CT
brain scan.

The selection of the conflict focus occurs by subconscious association.

For instance biological conflicts involving water but also other fluids, such
as milk or oil, lead to kidney cancer, fear of death to lung cancer and psychologically
swallowing a bigger chunk then we can digest to stomach or intestinal cancer.

Originally, in the animal world, it really was a big chunk of food, but for
us it may be a financial over-commitment or any other obligation that we have
taken on and cannot fulfill. However, the target focus is not determined by
the event itself, but rather by the psychological significance that it has for
us at the time of the event.

Hamer illustrates this with another example, a woman who finds her husband
in bed with another female. As a sexual frustration conflict it causes uterus
cancer. If she instead experiences it as a partner conflict, then in a right-handed
woman it leads to cancer of the right breast. If the conflict feeling is fear
and revulsion then it causes hypoglycemia and with lack of self-worth cancer
may develop in the pubic bone.

If the lack of self-worth had been due to a failure in sportsmanship rather
than being sexually related, then the problem would have arisen in an arm or
leg instead or possibly in the fingers or shoulder.

Other typical situations that may lead to biological conflicts are loss situations,
loss of a loved one, of a job, a valued possession or a territory.

Dr Hamer believes that most metastases or secondary tumors are caused by the
cancer-fear or death-fear resulting from the patient given the cancer diagnosis
or a negative prognosis. However, also in this case the resulting conflict shock
may not be fear of death but rather anger, resentment or a separation conflict
from partner or children and then tumors would appear in different places. Also
a diagnosis of colon cancer commonly leads to liver cancer because of a subconscious
fear of starvation.

Generally hopelessness, despair and meaninglessness create chronic stress,
which prevent the healing from cancer and other diseases but they are not the
cause. According to Hamer the real cause of cancer and other diseases is an
unexpected traumatic shock for which we are emotionally unprepared. The following
list shows some of the relationships between conflict emotions and target organs.

Adrenal cortex - Wrong direction, gone astray

Bladder - Ugly conflict, dirty tricks

Bone - Lack of self-worth, inferiority feeling

Breast milk gland - Involving care or disharmony

Breast milk duct - Separation conflict

Breast, left (right-handed) - Conflict concerning child, home, mother

Breast, right (right-handed) - Conflict with partner or others

Bronchials - Territorial conflict

Cervix - Severe frustration

Colon - Ugly indigestible conflict

Esophagus - Cannot have it or swallow it

Gall Bladder - Rivalry conflict

Heart - Perpetual conflict

Intestines - Indigestible chunk of anger

Kidneys - Not wanting to live, water or fluid conflict

Larynx - Conflict of fear and fright

Liver - Fear of starvation

Lung - Fear of dying or suffocation, including fear for someone else

Lymph glands - Loss of self-worth associated with the location

Melanoma - feeling dirty, soiled, defiled

Middle ear - Not being able to get some vital information

Mouth - Cannot chew or hold it

Pancreas - Anxiety-anger conflict with family members, inheritance

Prostate - Ugly conflict with sexual connections or connotations

Rectum - Fear of being useless

Skin - Loss of integrity

Spleen - Shock of being physically or emotionally wounded

Stomach - Indigestible anger, swallowed too much

Testes and Ovaries - Loss conflict

Thyroid - Feeling powerless

Uterus - Sexual conflict

The conflicts for some other diseases are as follows:

Diabetes and hypoglycemia: A right-handed female develops hypoglycemia

from anxiety and revulsion, if left-handed she develops

insulin-dependent diabetes. A right-handed male develops

insulin-diabetes from a conflict of resisting or struggling against

something, if left-handed he develops hypoglycemia.

*Heart infarct: *fight for territory or its content.

*Hemorrhoids:* both, a right-handed woman with an identity conflict and also
a left-handed man with territorial anger in the healing phase will get hemorrhoids.

*Multiple sclerosis *and* Paralysis:* inability to escape or continue on or
to hold on to or not knowing what to do.

*Facial paralysis:* fear of losing face, having been made a laughing stock.

*Psoriasis* involves separation conflict concerning mother, father, family,
home, friends or pets.

*Psychoses *of all kinds have one or more active Hamer Herds in each of the
two parts of the brain.

Vitiligo, Leukoderma: ugly or brutal separation conflict.

In regard to *AIDS* Dr Hamer observes that no one ever died of AIDS

without having previously been told that they are HIV positive or

believe that they are. The implication is that just as with cancer, it

is the negative perception associated with AIDS that causes its

devastating effect.

Left-handed individuals develop problems on opposite sides to genuine

right-handed individuals. Handedness can be tested by observing which

hand is on top when clapping; this is the leading hand. With

right-handedness all muscles at the right side of the body are involved

with partners and possibly other individuals and all left-sided muscles

with children or the own mother. These conditions may change with

hormonal changes as with the birth control pill or menopause.

The Healing Phase

The start of a DHS or conflict-shock experience is different from other

conflicts that we experience in our daily lives. It causes a continuous

stress resulting in a tendency to develop cold hands and feet, lack of

appetite and weight loss, sleeplessness and dwelling all the time on the

conflict content. If the conflict does not become resolved soon, the

long-lasting stress will lead to specific symptoms and the development

of cancer or another disease.

When the conflict resolves, the patient is no longer occupied with the

conflict content, the appetite returns, hands are warm again and also

normal sleep returns, but there may also be weakness, fatigue and a need

to rest. These effects show that the parasympathetic nervous system is

now in control. This is the beginning of the healing phase, which can be

long and difficult.

During the first part of the healing phase we see water retention and

inflammations but the tumor stops growing. This eventually leads to a

healing crisis, which Hamer calls an epileptic or epileptoid crisis

because it is caused by an edema in the Hamer Herd brain lesion. It

shows unique symptoms for each illness.

After this the body starts to expel the accumulated water, the patient

gradually regains strength and body functions become normal. Now the

connective tissue in the brain, the glia, starts repairing the Hamer

Herd. This may be interpreted by conventional radiologists as a

fast-growing brain tumor and treated accordingly. Hamer writes that real

brain tumors do not exist, as nerve cells in the brain cannot divide.

Hamer estimates that 99% of brain events, such as strokes, bleeding into

the brain, cysts and tumors are due to healing events of Hamer Herds and

with this temporary and self-limiting unless there is inappropriate

medical intervention. The most important support in these situations is

the reduction of any brain edema.

During the healing crisis the patient may for a short time re-experience

the original psychological conflict with cold hands and cold sweat. This

serves to suppress and eliminate the edema in the brain lesion, which

then allows other body conditions to normalize. The main danger point is

just before the end of the healing crisis when it will become apparent

if the body is strong enough to eliminate the disease. In difficult

cases with long or strong conflict duration massive brain edema may

develop for which Hamer uses cortisone injections. In natural therapy we

use an assortment of urea and anti-inflammatory therapies instead.

Urea has strong diuretic properties and an excellent effect in cases of

dangerously high fluid pressure in the brain. Generally 20 g of urea are

used 2 to 5 times daily. One life-threatening case has been described of

a massive “brain tumor” re-growth that completely disappeared within
2

hours after receiving 256 ml of 30% urea (described in /Your Own Perfect

Medicine/ by Martha Christy, Future Med). This report clearly shows that

the presumed brain tumor in fact was a massive edema as postulated in

the New Medicine.

What Hamer calls the epilepsy crisis may be experienced by the patient

as a heart attack, lung embolism, hepatitis or a lung infection.

Generally, during the healing phase, the patient will have more

discomfort than when the tumor was actively growing. In the first part

of the healing phase most problems are due to water retention,

inflammations and swelling of tissues that can cause a lot of pain.

Hamer regards edema, whether found in the brain or in an organ, as

positive, a sign of healing.

Tissue Repair

After the healing crisis adeno-carcinomas are removed by fungi and

mycobacteria while hepatitis virus may in addition help to regenerate

the liver. At this stage, bacteria, viruses and fungi that help to break

down the tumors and repair damaged tissues also cause inflammation, pain

and fever.

If you find it odd that Hamer regards microbes as essential friends and

helpers in the healing of cancer, he has made an even more surprising

discovery. In his ontogenetic system of tumors and cancer equivalent

diseases he distinguishes between two opposite processes during the

active conflict phase. Depending on the location of the Hamer Herd in

the brain, there may be either cell proliferation or cell destruction.

The first group has cell proliferation and tumor growth during the

conflict phase and then removes excess cells with the help of microbes

during the healing phase. The other group causes cell destruction during

the conflict phase resulting in ulcers, necroses and tissue holes

affecting for instance bones (osteoporosis), kidneys, spleen or ovaries.

During the healing phase, this second group tries to fill in the created

holes through cell proliferation. Tissue necroses and osteolyses

(dissolved bone) are now repaired by bacteria that first form abscesses,

which are then filled in with scar tissue and later with granulating

tissue to form osteosarcoma, lymphoma, fibroma and healing cysts. Also

leukemia commonly occurs during the healing phase, as after bone marrow

damage from radiation, chemicals or bone cancer.

According to Hamer these conditions are generally self-limiting and only

get out of control when additional conflict shocks occur or the body is

too old or weak or through the methods of conventional medicine. In

contrast, natural healing methods aim to support body and mind during

this trying time. Most healings proceed without major problems, but

about 10% need the full support of an experienced therapist, especially

at the time of the healing crisis.

*Healing the Psychic Conflict*

* *

The main task in every case of cancer is to find the original emotional

shock experience and make sure that it has been healed or is being

healed. In many case it will have corrected itself and the patient

suffers from an effect of the healing phase.

For instance, someone may have lost a farm or business but has now

started another satisfying venture or hobby. As after-effect there may

now be a tumor that gradually becomes dormant or eventually

disintegrates. About 40% of tumors discovered during routine medical

investigations are said to be old and harmless, that is dormant and

calcified. However, complications may still arise if medical

intervention now instills a fear of death conflict shock that induces

the same or another tumor to grow.

Nevertheless, in other cases the original conflict may still be active

or there may be a second active conflict. As we do not know, we have to

probe in every case to find the original and any other conflicts. We

need to think back, especially one to two years before our problem

started and analyze our emotional history during this time as well as

before and after. Also meditation and regression therapy may be useful

to discover conflict shocks.

If we still have a strong emotional response when we discover the

content of the conflict, then we can be sure that it is still

unresolved. If at all possible it is best to solve it in a natural way.

For instance if it was caused by losing a partner, then find someone

new; if you lost a child, become pregnant again or adopt a child or buy

a pet. Cancer does not continue to grow after the third month as

pregnancy has priority.

If a natural solution is not possible, then use guided imagery either on

your own or with the help of a partner or a suitable therapist. In a

relaxed and meditative state re-create and re-experience the conflict as

intensely as you can but then substitute a desirable or acceptable

outcome. Create and experience this new outcome as vividly and detailed

as possible, see it, feel it and possibly even hear and smell it. The

original experience may also have imprinted you with the memories of

unrelated details of your ordeal (tracks) to which you may now react

with allergies. You may try to overcome these in the same way with

guided imagery.

If neither of these methods is possible because you feel that you have

to continue your present duties or ordeal for whatever reason, then only

increased spiritual understanding and acceptance may be able to help. In

either case, be aware of your vulnerabilities and avoid any further

conflict shocks but if one does happen, get it out of your system is

soon as possible.

In addition, I firmly believe that all active conflicts will be

terminated and the healing phase begin when we are able to strongly feel

love and forgiveness within ourselves and then radiate it to all others

but especially to anyone who we feel might have wronged us. We can

further ease the healing phase by expecting it to be short and mild and

lead to full recovery.

It is my perception that full recovery requires a two step program to

heal this conflict. The first step involves appropriately expressing the

emotional shock experience. When losing a loved one, this means feeling

and expressing the inner grief or sadness; when losing a job, asset, or

business, this means feeling and expressing the anger, frustration, or

disappointment felt at the time. The second step involves repairing the

external damage, such as finding another partner, pet, job, business or

hobby.

According to Hamer, animals in the wild get cancer from the same shock

programs as we do. However, 80 to 90% survive and do not notice much

because the healing phase can take its natural course. Those that die

are mainly old animals that cannot resolve a conflict, such as regaining

their territory from a rival or replacing a lost cub.

It is different in our society as the natural healing process is

routinely interfered with. It starts with getting tranquilizers or

antidepressants during the active conflict phase, which prevent us from

fighting back and regaining our territory. This may then lead to a

cancer diagnosis that causes an additional active conflict and ends with

morphine, which totally disables our healing responses.

While Hamer does not believe that health foods, remedies, cleansing or

healthy living in general can cure cancer, these certainly can be

important in order to survive the ordeals of the healing phase.

Actually, Hamer regards all diseases as consisting of two phases,

initially with active conflict followed (if possible) by a healing phase

that reverses the conflict program. He does not call them diseases

anymore but rather special biological programs. In all he is stated to

have worked with over 31,000 patients and found his theories confirmed

in every single case without exception. Hamer claims that overall the

New Medicine has a 95% success rate with cancer.

Persecution

Siemens, the manufacturers of the CT equipment have independently

verified the existence of the Hamer Herds in the brain. Furthermore,

their diagnostic significance was confirmed in 1998 at the University of

TRNAVA in Slovakia. Nevertheless, Dr Hamer faced exceptional persecution.

Under German law the right to practice medicine can be withdrawn if the

doctor has diminished mental abilities. This law was used in 1986 by a

German district court to withdraw his right to practice. As proof of

Hamer’s inadequate mental condition the court stated that he was not

wiling to retract his theories and swear allegiance to the principles of

orthodox medicine. Even worse, the court had discovered evidence that he

was incapable of converting back to the principles of orthodox medicine:

he tried to convince a group of prominent professors of the correctness

of his theories only one month before the court case! One year later the

same court requested a psychiatric assessment of his mental abilities,

which Hamer refused. A court-appointed psychiatrist, without ever seeing

him, diagnosed him anyway as being a psychopath.

In 1997 Dr Hamer was arrested and jailed for 18 months under an obscure

natural therapy law introduced under Adolf Hitler to suppress Gypsies.

His crime was that he had given free health advice to some individuals

who had asked him for his opinion. The public prosecutor had openly

stated that all means must be used to remove Hamer from society. Compare

this to a delay of the court case for 13 years and then a sentence of

only 6 months on probation for the killer of his son. This mild sentence

may have something to do with the accused being the Prince of Savoy, the

son of the last King of Italy.

Since 1999 Dr Hamer lives in Spain because courts in Germany, Austria,

France and Switzerland now want to try him for any cancer patient who

died following his advice. According to this reasoning he is a mass

murderer because he denied cancer patients the supposedly safe and

effective treatment offered by orthodox medicine. There is also a

private court case pending against him for a large sum of money because

he advised a patient against having chemotherapy. This means that every

medical practitioner is now on notice to offer chemotherapy or face

financial ruin. This witch-hunt has been compared to the fate of Dr

Semmelweis who at the age of 47 died in a mental asylum for suggesting

that surgeons wash their hands before operations.

Dr Hamer survived 8 assassination attempts, and the mass media in

Germany treat him as a deranged criminal. While many individual doctors,

including professors of medicine, have verified the principles of the

New Medicine, so far no German university has agreed to test them,

despite a court order that the University of Tubingen conduct such tests.

Also doctors and natural therapists in Europe who practice according to

the principles of the New Medicine face persecution. In Austria,

Belgium, France, Germany and Spain authorities had started proceedings

against such doctors to take away their right to practice. Court cases

have been going on for years. Only courts in Spain adopted the

enlightened position that it was not their role to decide between

conflicting medical theories and therapies. This vicious response of the

establishment is understandable because widespread knowledge and

application of the New Medicine would mean the end of the

medical-pharmaceutical complex.

However, in 2001 a prominent neurologist openly defended Dr Hamer by

publishing a book about the New Medicine and demanding that his theories

be officially tested. Because Dr Therese von Schwarzenberg also belongs

to the high nobility, the mass media are in a bind on what position to

take on this. Until now they have only reported about Dr Hamer in the

most derogative ways and here is now that high profile personality who

claims that Hamer is right and deserves a Nobel Price! Nevertheless, the

official response of prominent oncologists still remains that it is

totally absurd to assume emotions could be important in the cause and

cure of cancer and, therefore, Dr Hamer’s claims must not be tested.

Comment

* *

My own understanding and experience leave no doubt about the primary

importance of our emotions and beliefs in the cause and cure of our

diseases. Furthermore, the writings of Dr Hamer give the impression of a

serious and meticulous researcher whose findings have been confirmed by

various scientific institutions and medical practitioners, including

professors of medicine. Only those continue to denounce him who refuse

to look at his evidence.

Therefore I have no doubt about the validity of his basic premise,

namely that specific diseases and in particular cancers are associated

with visible lesions in specific locations of the brain as well as

specific psychological experiences. His postulated two-part disease

process in which the healing phase is a reversal of the original disease

conditions is a basic concept of natural therapies.

However, Dr Hamer appears reluctant to consider extending or modifying

his theory to take other possibilities into account. Basically Dr Hamer

postulates a one-way communication from psyche to organ via the brain. I

suggest instead a two-way communication from psyche to organ as well as

from organ back to brain and psyche.

I like to explain this on an example. I understand that the rate of

death from breast cancer in China is one in 10,000 compared to about one

in 10 in most Western countries. Professor Jane Plant realized that

unlike western and westernised women, the Chinese do not use animal milk

or related products. At this stage she had the fifth occurrence of her

breast cancer and had been given up to die. As soon as she avoided all

milk products her tumour disappeared and for 13 years she is now free of

cancer (/Your Life in Your Hands/ by Jane Planet, published Virgin, UK

2000).

As the Chinese have normal rates of some other cancers, there needs to

be a special factor that causes these low breast cancer rates. Assuming

that it really is milk, I would apply the following reasoning.

Milk is high in insulin growth factor, IGF-1, which stimulates breast

tissue to grow during puberty and pregnancy. IGF-1 is also present in

the meat of dairy cows and apparently also stimulates other

hormone-related cancers, including prostate cancer. Assuming that this

causes constant low-level stimulation of breast tissue and the related

brain area in milk-drinking or dairy-consuming women, there are now 2

possibilities.

1. The sensitized brain areas will cause the woman to have a much

stronger emotional response than normal to any child or partner

conflict, and this causes milk-drinking women to develop more

frequent breast cancers.

2. The second possibility is an existing sub-acute conflict situation

or past event that is still subconsciously active. The persistent

combined stimulation by a sub-acute conflict in addition to IGF-1

may cause the /gradual/ development of a Hamer Herd or

alternatively its sudden appearance when a certain threshold is

reached.

In this way any environmental factors can be taken into consideration

for creating Hamer Herds in combination with psychological conflicts.

Most people presently have a very unhealthy lifestyle in addition to a

poor quality of inherited genes. It may well be that really healthy

individuals will not develop a Hamer Herd in response to an unexpected

emotional shock or that it will be a mild and self-healing event.

In a similar way may appropriate natural therapy directed to a diseased

organ give a message to the associated brain area that helps healing the

Hamer Herd, and in time also leads to a resolution of the emotional

conflict.

A confirmation of the suggested interconnectedness between emotions,

nutrients, brain and organs can be found in kinesiology. Research in

muscle testing has revealed a relationship between different nutrients

and emotions with specific muscles and organs transmitted through the

system of acupuncture meridians. However, a surprising finding was the

direct involvement of the brain. When an isotopically labeled nutrient

was placed in the back of the mouth within seconds the isotope was also

detected in the brain.

I suggest that conflict resolution may also happen in unspecific ways.

Assuming a patient receives a conflict shock due to a diagnosis of

cancer, then this conflict but possibly also the original conflict shock

may possibly be resolved if the patient fully believes and expects that

the subsequent treatment will be curable. Other possibilities have been

suggested under the heading /Healing the Psychic Conflict/.

The official English-language website of Dr Hamer is at

www.newmedicine.ca <http://www.newmedicine.ca/>. However, much more

information is on the German website www.pilhar.com

<http://www.pilhar.com/>. Dr Hamer has written several books of which

one is available in English under the title /Summary of the New Medicine/.

* *

B12 (Parental Discretion Required)

2006-05-21T11:57:00.001-07:00

*(THIS POST WAS GIVEN TO ME AS AN EMAIL FROM A FRIEND)*

B12 deficiency can take years to develop, but it can cause permanent brain damage.

"Now, the anti-raw/anti-vegan nutritionists (and even some raw/vegan ones)
will tell us that the problem is that plants contain B12 analogs. But meat also
contain analogs, multivitamin tablets and B12-fortified food contains analogs.

B12 in a plant (or supplement) is destroyed by sunlight, but it seems that a plant
that is grown in soil that contains the correct bacteria/microorganisms/cobalt
will get new supplies of B12 as long as it is alive.

Since we are exposed to so many ways to reduce B12 levels, the only way to be
safe, in my opinion, is to test yourself (and not only for B12, MMA and homocsyteine
is also needed). To believe that eating enough B12 is all that's needed is an
illusion, because there are millions of meat eaters out there who eat way more
B12 than we need, and still develop B12 deficiency en masse. Why?

Because, most likely, they

...drink chlorinated water (chlorine is reducing B12 not only in water, but
might also continue to destroy microorganisms in out digestive system. B12 is
made by microorganisms).

...they might drink tea/coffee, alcohol or smoke.

...they might spend time driving a car. Nitrous oxide from cars may cause B12
deficiency

...maybe they use microwave ovens, which kill B12.

...they cook food, which reduce B12 levels.

...they probably use a lot of sugar.

...they have been exposed to mercury from eating fish, or have mercury fillings
in their teeth, or may even use a deodorant containing mercury. Mercury is far
from B12-friendly.

They might also have a history of using various medicines, like sleeping pills
or oral contraceptives (the list of chemicals that disturb B12 is long).

They might lack calcium which is needed for B12 absorption.

The plants they eat (and the plants that the animals they eat eat) are grown
in a soil that contains only half the nutrients it did half a century ago. B12
has a negative reaction to acid/alkali, and even if the plants they/we eat weren't
exposed to chlorinated water, acid rain is still a problem.

It might show up one day that consuming a lot of B12 from animals might cause
deficiencies later in life. Looking at the ideal levels of B12 absorption (when
it's best absorbed), these levels look like exactly the amount of B12 we could
get from plants that were not destroyed by pesticides and artificial fertilizers
and so on.

The problem with assuming that organic/raw food contains enough B12, is that
it is in many cases only an assumption. Even organic / raw food may be exposed
to chlorinated water and acid rain, and the people who consume organic/raw food
might have some similarities with the meat eaters that eat way too much B12
and still become B12 deficient. If they are not, they may have been exposed
to B12 troublemakers in the past, like mercury, tapeworm from fish or parasites,
which unfortunately doesn't disappear the day someone vegan/raw."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Any and everyone should have their B12 checked no matter what diet --
lifestyle they follow.

Urine MMA B12 is more accurate than a B12 blood serum check.

Testing B12 status

A blood B12 level measurement is a very unreliable test for vegans, particularly
for vegans using any form of algae. Algae and some other plant foods contain
B12-analogues false B12 that can imitate true B12 in blood tests while actually
interfering with B12 metabolism. Blood counts are also unreliable as high folate
intakes suppress the anaemia symptoms of B12 deficiency that can be detected
by blood counts. Blood homocysteine testing is more reliable, with levels less
than 10 mol/litre being desirable. The most specific test for B12 status is
methylmalonic acid (MMA) testing. If this is in the normal range in blood (less
than 370 nmol/L)or urine (less than 4 g /mg creatinine) then your body has enough
B12. Many doctors still rely on blood B12 levels and blood counts. These are
not adequate, especially in vegans. Is there a vegan alternative to B12-fortified
foods and supplements?

If for any reason you choose not to use fortified foods or supplements you
should recognise that you are carrying out a dangerous experiment - one that
many have tried before with consistently low levels of success. If you are an
adult who is neither breast-feeding an infant, pregnant nor seeking to become
pregnant, and wish to test a potential B12 source that has not already been
shown to be inadequate, then this can be a reasonable course of action with
appropriate precautions. For your own protection, you should arrange to have
your B12 status checked annually. If homocysteine or MMA is even modestly elevated
then you are endangering your health if you persist.

If you are breast feeding an infant, pregnant or seeking to become pregnant
or are an adult contemplating carrying out such an experiment on a child, then
don't take the risk. It is simply unjustifiable.

Claimed sources of B12 that have been shown through direct studies of vegans
to be inadequate include human gut bacteria, spirulina, dried nori, barley grass
and most other seaweeds. Several studies of raw food vegans have shown that
raw food offers no special protection.

Reports that B12 has been measured in a food are not enough to qualify that
food as a reliable B12 source. It is difficult to distinguish true B12 from
analogues that can disrupt B12 metabolism. Even if true B12 is present in a
food, it may be rendered ineffective if analogues are present in comparable
amounts to the true B12. There is only one reliable test for a B12 source -
does it consistently prevent and correct deficiency? Anyone proposing a particular
food as a B12 source should be challenged to present such evidence. "

By Vegfamily...

"My homocysteine and B12 blood/serum lab levels were fantastic but my
urine MMA test was high......

I've been eating living-foods for 6 years now and in the last 2 years I could
tell something wasn't right (fatigued, dry skin, twitching muscles, soreness,
poor digestion, etc...) and I found out my B12 was off...

For the first few years I was on top of the world and now I'm in a world of
hurt!!!!

Don't wait too long as I thought B12 would never have an affect on me."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

raw girls .. swallow :)

" Without embarrassment, this is a subject that needs

to be discussed. I am past the point of being disgusted

by know-it-all vegetarian and vegan nutritionists and

dieticians who believe that one must take artificial

supplements derived from cow intestines, containing

Vitamin B-12 in order to maintain good health. The fact

that vegans have B-12 in their bloodstreams is evidence

enough that we're somehow obtaining it. Low dose, high

dose, it really doesn't matter. Fact is that we need

just a few micrograms of B-12, and a five-year supply

is stored in the average human liver. That fact alone

negates the scare tactics of those who criticize the

pure vegan diet, or dispense supplements as a part of

their self-sustaining practices.

Vegan blood contains some B-12. In that, there is no

debate. Vegan semen and vaginal secretions contain many

times more Vitamin B-12 than does human blood.

The solution? Make love. Enjoy oral sex. The ingestion

of sexual body secretions from your lover will insure

good health for you.

In addition to the usual frogs, snails, and puppy

dogs tails, what are little boys made of? What exactly

is in semen?

Ten percent of semen consists of sperm cells, up to

500 million per ejaculate. It takes only one sperm

cell to fertilize an egg. I often wonder why the other

499,999 are necessary.

What constitutes the other 90% of semen? In addition

to enormous amounts of vitamins, enzymes, and amino

acids, semen contains up to 20 times the level of

Vitamin B-12 as does human blood serum. Vaginal fluids

contain a similar makeup, rich in B-12.

Scientists knew this nearly 20 years ago, but had no

socially-tactful way to transmit this information to

the lay person. (Yeah, I know, you love my use of the

English language).

As early as March of 1984, Carmel Bernstein and a team

of investigators published evidence in the Journal of

Clinical Investigations (73;3, Vitamin B-12 in human

seminal plasma) revealing that blood has one-tenth the

amount of B-12 as does male semen.

Eight years later, the Scandanavian Journal of Clinical

Laboratory Investigations (Hansen, 1992 Nov;52(7):647-52)

determined that B-12 levels in human semen run as high as

20 times that of blood. Similar amounts of B-12 have been

found in vaginal secretions.

Many people have an aversion to oral sex because of the

taste or smell. Can that often be justified? Absolutely.

Long ago, in the days before artificial modern-day perfumes

and deodorants were used to mask human odors, people

enjoyed body smells. Don Juan would keep handkerchiefs

under his armpits and wave them in front of ladies' noses.

That action was designed to bring them to arousal from his

own natural essences and bouquet which contained pheromones,

chemicals containing natural sexual messengers that

communicate instinctual feelings shared by all mammals.

Truth revealed: Why does a male dog mount and hump a human

female leg, thrusting his pelvis as if in the act of copulation?

It's not because he smells your puppy, ladies. It's because

he smells your very own pheromones which trigger a genetically

pre-determined fixed action pattern in Fido's brain.

On to the olfactory bouquet from your own essences.

Dairy farmers know that if their cows eat onions or

garlic less than 30 minutes before milking, those powerfully

offensive smells will be included in their body secretions

which are then transmitted to their milk. A similar event

occurs with human body fluids. You are what you eat. Deer

know when meat-eating humans walk into the woods. Vegans

have a way with denizens of the forest. Vegans do not eat

other living creatures. Deer can tell by human smells.

So can dogs and other mammals possessing keener olfactory

senses than humans.

For many years, non dairy-using Japanese people called

Americans "butter-people," for the rancid smell that

would seep out of our pores. I can smell butter people.

I am amazed at the number of people calling themselves

vegan who are actually dairy users. I can smell the

aftermath of pizza 24 hours after a vegan eats one by his

or her offensive odor. The mozzarella turns rancid from

within. Its smell lingers on a user's breath. Milk the

cow and get the garlic or onion milk. Milk the human and

get Kentucky-fried chicken essence.

Humans who eat meat ingest large amounts of sulfur-based

amino acids. That is one of the qualities of meat protein.

The sulfur becomes a part of their own smell and taste. Eat

large amounts of methionine and you'll taste quite rancid.

I have met many vegans who relate anecdotal evidence

of how other vegans make better lovers because they

"taste better." Where are Masters and Johnson when you

need them? The good that comes from this column will

result in two lovers enjoying a large meal of fresh

pineapple before their next bout of foreplay. Gourmets

and epicurians of the world, unite. Your next dose of

love will contain the best vitamin pill in the world.

Was it Mary Poppins who sang, "Just a spoonful of sugar

helps the medicine go down"?

Remember, for B-12, make love, and do so with good taste. "

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.veganhealth.org/b12/raw

http://www.remineralize.org/don.php

i would be interested to know davids' take on the B12 issue >>?!

also, maybe you should have a MMA B12 urine test - it may help to shed some
light on your pins and needles?!

John Muir's Farseeing Nature

2006-05-16T00:52:00.000-07:00

A Cosmic Download from the Pepperman Himself

2006-05-16T00:42:00.000-07:00

Cosmic Love in our
Heart of hearts

Sacred dove
Plays it's part

Flying through
Space and time

Out we spew
"yours and mine"

Inside we know
Below as above

Abide in Cosmic Snow
for WE ARE LOVE

My Turquoise Bracelet and Tobacco Seeds

2006-05-15T22:38:00.000-07:00

So....per the request of one of the www.thebestdayever.com members, I thought I would share this little story...

David Wolfe, Love, and I were sitting calmly having a nice conversation with Michael and Amyra, owners of Angel Valley Retreat (near Sedona, AZ), in their office shortly after the retreat was over. I was literally sitting motionless when all of a sudden I felt something drop into my lap. I looked down and noticed that the large turquoise piece had fallen off of my silver bracelet and into my lap. How strange an occurance I thought since I wasn't moving at all. My hands were resting motionless and comfortably on my stomach. What was really strange was that all this stuff was in my lap as well. The stuff appeared to be small little grains of sand, but upon closer inspection, it appeared that they were made of some sort of other material other than stone. It seemed like tiny wood pieces or actually seeds. They had a rather pleasant odor too! We finally concluded that they were seeds. I thought they looked like Syrian Rue seeds, but David felt pretty certain that they were tobacco seeds. In any case, we concluded that the One Spirit obviously wanted the seeds to remain at Angel Valley, so we left them with Michael and Amyra to plant.

A Native American Indian (probably Navajo) had made the Turquoise bracelet. I purchased the bracelet in a store that just sells Native American Items near Sebastopol, CA. What an ingenious idea--secretly putting seeds into your jewelry!

Arise & Shine Cleanse

2006-05-09T02:25:00.000-07:00

It sure feels great to bring on the heat of summer with some intestinal cleansing! I like the Arise and Shine Cleanse...The feeling of cleaning out your intestines on occasion can be addicting! What a nice peaceful high! It turns back the aging clock a little too...Nice!

I did a full on 30 day cleanse last summer using the same program...Watching the black twisted ropes of mucoid plaque come out of my body was astounding!

Sun Gazing

2006-05-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

Thank God the Sun is Back! I am getting into my sun gazing again...excited to see the results this season!

---------

Hi All,

Just a little update. I consistently practiced sun gazing from May through October of this year (2005). I noticed that during month five, my appetite greatly decreased and my affinity for organic freshly squeezed green vegetable/fruit juice went way up (I like juiceing Granny Smith Apple, Lemon, lime, garlic, ginger, tumeric, and an assortment of greens such as parsley, kale, chard, collards, spinach, cilantro, dill, fennel, celery, etc.) These results in myself seem to confirm what HRM is saying. I took a month off in November since I felt I was being too aggressive. I noticed a slight blind spot in the middle of my vision, which after a month of rest and intense rejuvenation has been 110% restored. What a blessing. I am starting back up this month at a much slower pace. Just hoping the clouds will clear up soon!

Aloha!

Steve

When Hell Freezes Over! -- Funny!

2006-05-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

The following is an actual question given on a University of Liverpool chemistry final exam.

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

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

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law that 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 constant, the volume of Hell must 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 Sandra 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 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is endothermic 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 extinct...leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being - which explains why, last night, Sandra kept shouting "Oh my God."

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A".

Political Joke...Funny

2006-04-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

Political Joke--> Political joke making fun of President Bush.

Owners of the Media

2006-04-17T03:23:00.000-07:00

Who owns CNN? or MSNBC? ABC?

So you think we have a "free press"? Check out who owns who, and who
owns what you think.......

GENERAL ELECTRIC --(donated 1.1 million to GW Bush for his 2000 election campaign)

Television Holdings:

* NBC: includes 13 stations, 28% of US households.

* NBC Network News: The Today Show, Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, Meet the Press,
Dateline NBC, NBC News at Sunrise.

* CNBC business television; MSNBC 24-hour cable and Internet news service (co-owned
by NBC and Microsoft); Court TV (co-owned with Time Warner), Bravo (50%), A&E
(25%), History Channel (25%).

The "MS" in MSNBC

means microsoft

The same Microsoft that donated 2.4 million to get GW bush elected.

Other Holdings:

* GE Consumer Electronics.

* GE Power Systems: produces turbines for nuclear reactors and power plants.

* GE Plastics: produces military hardware and nuclear power equipment.

* GE Transportation Systems: runs diesel and electric trains.

==================================================

WESTINGHOUSE / CBS INC.

Westinghouse Electric Company, part of the Nuclear Utilities Business Group
of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL)

whos #1 on the Board of Directors? None other than:

Frank Carlucci (of the Carlyle Group)

Television Holdings:

* CBS: includes 14 stations and over 200 affiliates in the US.

* CBS Network News: 60 minutes, 48 hours, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather,
CBS Morning News, Up to the Minute.

* Country Music Television, The Nashville Network, 2 regional sports networks.

* Group W Satellite Communications.

Other Holdings:

* Westinghouse Electric Company: provides services to the nuclear power industry.

* Westinghouse Government Environmental Services Company: disposes of nuclear
and hazardous wastes. Also operates 4 government-owned nuclear power plants
in the US.

* Energy Systems: provides nuclear power plant design and maintenance.

================================================================

VIACOM INTERNATIONAL INC.

Television Holdings:

* Paramount Television, Spelling Television, MTV, VH-1, Showtime, The Movie
Channel, UPN (joint owner), Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Sundance Channel (joint
owner), Flix.

* 20 major market US stations.

Media Holdings:

* Paramount Pictures, Paramount Home Video, Blockbuster Video, Famous Players
Theatres, Paramount Parks.

* Simon & Schuster Publishing.

=============================================

DISNEY / ABC / CAP (donated 640 thousand to GW's 2000 campaign)

Television Holdings:

* ABC: includes 10 stations, 24% of US households.

* ABC Network News: Prime Time Live, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America.

* ESPN, Lifetime Television (50%), as well as minority holdings in A&E,
History Channel and E!

* Disney Channel/Disney Television, Touchtone Television.

Media Holdings:

* Miramax, Touchtone Pictures.

* Magazines: Jane, Los Angeles Magazine, W, Discover.

* 3 music labels, 11 major local newspapers.

* Hyperion book publishers.

* Infoseek Internet search engine (43%).

Other Holdings:

* Sid R. Bass (major shares) crude oil and gas.

* All Disney Theme Parks, Walt Disney Cruise Lines.

======================================================

TIME-WARNER TBS - AOL (donated 1.6 million to GW's 2000 campaign)

America Online (AOL) acquired Time Warner–the largest merger in corporate
history.

Television Holdings:

* CNN, HBO, Cinemax, TBS Superstation, Turner Network Television, Turner Classic
Movies, Warner Brothers Television, Cartoon Network, Sega Channel, TNT, Comedy
Central (50%), E! (49%), Court TV (50%).

* Largest owner of cable systems in the US with an estimated 13 million subscribers.

Media Holdings:

* HBO Independent Productions, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock,
Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera.

* Music: Atlantic, Elektra, Rhino, Sire, Warner Bros. Records, EMI, WEA, Sub
Pop (distribution) = the world’s largest music company.

* 33 magazines including Time, Sports Illustrated, People, In Style, Fortune,
Book of the Month Club, Entertainment Weekly, Life, DC Comics (50%), and MAD
Magazine.

Other Holdings:

* Sports: The Atlanta Braves, The Atlanta Hawks, World Championship Wrestling.

=======================================================

NEWS CORPORATION LTD. / FOX NETWORKS (Rupert Murdoch) (donations see bottom
note)

Television Holdings:

* Fox Television: includes 22 stations, 50% of US households.

* Fox International: extensive worldwide cable and satellite networks include
British Sky Broadcasting (40%); VOX, Germany (49.9%); Canal Fox, Latin America;
FOXTEL, Australia (50%); STAR TV, Asia; IskyB, India; Bahasa Programming Ltd.,
Indonesia (50%); and News Broadcasting, Japan (80%).

* The Golf Channel (33%).

MEDIA HOLDINGS:

* Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Searchlight.

* 132 newspapers (113 in Australia alone) including the New York Post, the London
Times and The Australian.

* 25 magazines including TV Guide and The Weekly Standard.

* HarperCollins books.

OTHER HOLDINGS:

* Sports: LA Dodgers, LA Kings, LA Lakers, National Rugby League.

* Ansett Australia airlines, Ansett New Zealand airlines.

* Rupert Murdoch: Board of Directors, Philip Morris (USA).

*(Phillip Morris donated 2.9 million to George W Bush in 2000)*

Avoid these Workout Mistakes!

2006-04-15T06:32:00.000-07:00

Top MISTAKES:

Taking too many long breaks during workouts and following the same old routine.

Research shows that the correct amount of rest time between sets is 30-60 seconds. This gives the muscle enough time to recover so you can give maximum effort during the next exercise.

And what should you be doing during those 60 seconds that you're waiting? I suggest doing what I have my clients do and that is to stretch the muscles that were just worked. This will enhance recovery even more and make it so you're not just wasting time walking around.

Then there's the problem with following the same old routine. Which applies to strength training as well as to cardio workouts. A strength training routine should be changed every 4-6 weeks. And cardio workouts can change by varying the resistance, levels, distance, time or intervals. Here's something you can try on your
next workout. Warm up for a couple of minutes then do a high intensity for 1 minute, recover at a low intensity then go as hard as you can for 1 minute, recover for a minute etc. Just keep repeating this cycle for 10-15 minutes and you're done. Try mixing this into your routine.

The other 3 workout mistakes are cheating, socializing
instead of sweating and not hitting the weights hard enough.

Ashes & Snow

2006-04-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

Great Website--> Ashes & Snow.

Zeolite Powder VS Liquid

2006-04-13T04:41:00.000-07:00

Aloha Steve:

With regards to your recent email, I would like to share some information on the comparison of powdered zeolite and the patented liquid form of NCD. The above attachment is the rejected application that a company in England submitted for their powerdered zeolite (clinoptilolite) product to be be approved by the British equivalent of the FDA. The product was rejected because of the pollutants contained in the cage like structures of the zeolite, and their inability to prove that they were removed.

On a conference call, when questioned about the powdered zeolites, Rik gave this reference, and commented on the amounts of heavy metals contained in the powdered zeolites. This application specifies the amounts of those metals, and the company submitting the application considers them to be acceptable.

Rik's comment was that he didn't consider any amounts of heavy metals or other toxins to be acceptable in the zeolite. (I believe there were also dioxins.) The NCD patented process totally purifies the zeolite, so the cages are empty, prior to ingesting it into our bodies.

He has also explained that the aluminum in the liquid zeolite which is NCD is so strongly ionically bonded as part of the molecule, that it doesn't interact in any way whatsoever with the organism (human or animal) which ingests it. In fact it will pull aluminum out of the body.

I also have had the benefit of having Eddie Stone, co-owner and Executive Vice President of Waiora International, visiting us here on Maui for the past two days, and I asked of him the difference between NCD and powdered zeolite. He informed me that the patented process of NCD micronizes the zeolite so it can enter the blood stream and the cellular tissue, where powdered zeolite mainly works in the digestive track. Many of our toxins are found in the blood stream, making this product very effective. In addition, as the result of the patented process, the zeolite creates a cationic exchange, making it a very effective trap for the pollutants, as it exchanges with the beneficial minerals of Calcium, Magnesium and Potassium.

Hope this is helpful--> Clinoptilolite UK Application.

Aloha Nui Loa,
Jason D. Groode

Gasoline Consumer Price Pressure

2006-04-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola
executive It came from one of his engineer buddies
who retired from Halliburton. It's worth your
consideration.

Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit
close to $4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might
go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We
need to take some intelligent, united action.

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes
MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain
day" campaign that was going around last April or May!
The oil companies just laughed at that because they
knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by
refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience
to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever
thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can
really work. Please read on and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at
about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently
$2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the
oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us
to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at
$1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to
teach them that BUYERS control the ...
sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each
day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we
are going to see the price of gas come down is if we
hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their
gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
How?

Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop
buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if
we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T
purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies
(which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not
selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their
prices. If they reduce their prices, the other
companies will have to follow suit. But to have an
impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon
and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now,
don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and
I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of
people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us
send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and
those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =
3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches
the sixth group of people, we will have reached over
THREE MILLION consumers.

If those three million get excited and pass this on to
ten friends each, then 30 million people will have
been contacted! If it goes one level further, you
guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people.
That's all!
(If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million
and all you have to do is send this to 10 people....
Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician.
But I am. so trust me on this one.) :-)

How long would all that take? If each of us sends
this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of
receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be
contacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet you
didn't think you and I had that much potential, did
you! Acting together we can make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message
on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL
THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP
THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

Supplement Use Dicey Venture for Athletes

2006-04-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

By ALEX DOMINGUEZ, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 2, 7:15 PM ET

BALTIMORE - Depending on whom you ask, Rafael Palmeiro's claim that he unwittingly took something to cause a positive test for steroids is either plausible — or laughable.
The lack of regulation and testing of nutritional supplements lends credence to the claims of players who say they were caught unaware by positive tests, one researcher said Tuesday.
Steroid building blocks known as prohormones can cause a positive test — and may not be listed on supplement labels, said Anthony C. Tommasello, a professor and director of the Office of Substance Abuse Studies at the University of Maryland pharmacy school in Baltimore.
"Some are extracts of natural products that are also metabolized into anabolic hormones but the substances are not on the banned list," Tommasello said.
One such ingredient is DHEA, Tommasello said. Mostly manufactured in China from the dried roots of a wild yam, it is a popular muscle-building supplement in the United States. While not on Major League Baseball's list of banned substances, it is converted in the body into an anabolic steroid, Tommasello said.
If Palmeiro knew he was taking the so-called precursors, it's akin to steroid use, said Adrian Dobs, an endocrinologist and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "These people aren't dumb. They know what they are doing," she said.
Palmeiro — who testified before a congressional panel in March that he "never used steroids" — became baseball's highest-profile player to serve a 10-game suspension Monday after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. And while he didn't deny turning in a positive test, the slugger was adamant that it was an accident.
"When I testified in front of Congress, I know that I was testifying under oath and I told the truth," he said during a telephone conference call Monday. "Today I am telling the truth again that I did not do this intentionally or knowingly."
And at least one member of baseball's management-union medical panel initially found there was a "reasonable basis" for Palmeiro's claims, as evidenced by the delay in his penalty.
But the notion that a legal, nonprescription supplement could cause a positive test for steroids doesn't make sense to David R. Seckman, executive director of the National Nutritional Foods Association, which represents the supplement industry.
While looking over baseball's list of banned substances, Seckman was unequivocal in saying that the average nutritional supplement store "isn't selling those type of products."
"Those are steroids. They are controlled substances," Seckman said. "You can only get those with a prescription."
Nor does he believe the problem could lie in mislabeling: Over-the-counter dietary supplements are required by law to list each ingredient on the label, Seckman said, adding that the chances of them being contaminated are "infinitesimal."
However, Tommasello cited a German study found almost 15 percent of 634 supplements tested from 13 countries (including the United States) and 215 suppliers contained steroids not listed on the label.
Palmeiro was the seventh player to fall under baseball's new, tougher steroids policy;
Seattle Mariners' right-hander Ryan Franklin became the eighth when he was also suspended 10 days for a violation Tuesday. Baseball does not release what type of drug a player has tested positive for, and so far none of the eight have spoken openly about details of their violations.
Fellow players were mixed on the credibility of Palmeiro's claims.
"It's a shame," said
Atlanta Braves' outfielder Brian Jordan. "He's been in front of Congress. It's another shock to the game of baseball. ... He's accomplished some great things and now he's going to have to answer some serious questions."
Chicago White Sox' catcher A.J. Pierzynski expressed sympathy for Palmeiro, who last month joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray as the only players with 3,000 hits and 500 homers.
"He could have been taking a supplement over the counter. Sometimes things get mixed up," Pierzynski said. "That's one thing the union has really tried to address with us, is that you don't know what's in supplements. You have to be real careful."
Manufacturers are responsible for ensuring the safety of dietary supplements, but generally do not need FDA approval to produce or sell them. Tommasello said that lack of regulation should raise concerns — especially considering problems with regulated drugs such as
Vioxx, a painkiller later found to be linked to increased risk of heart attack, which are well studied.
"We know pretty much what drugs are going to do to people, what the side effects are and the risk and even at that, we have problems," Tommasello said. "I don't think we know clearly what these chemicals (supplements) are doing to people."
Baltimore Ravens' coach Brian Billick said called the issue his "biggest concern."
"The combination of this and that, what's actually in it, you're trying to do the right thing, you're trying to take legal supplements to take care of your body and it is so unregulated," Billick said. "That is a major concern of mine, but that's a societal concern, not just a football concern."
Because of the confusion, the National Football League and its players union announced a program two years ago to certify supplements as free of banned substances and Major League Baseball is also looking into a similar program.
Tommasello, however, said his experience in drug testing has shown him that it is not an easy task. "People say they got a false positive (for opiates) because they ate poppy seeds," he said, noting such claims were at first dismissed, then found to sometimes be true after further testing.
Washington Nationals outfielder Brad Wilkerson, who has said he used creatine and protien powders in the past, isn't taking any chances in baseball's current climate.
"A lot of guys have limited what they're taking," Wilkerson said Tuesday. "I really don't take anything anymore. I really don't know what's in what."

Another Download from the Cosmic Man!

2006-04-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

Today's a day of rest, I say
Not 'cause the boss has gone away

Or the job is on hold,
Career ready to fold...

It's for the reason of this season
That you choose which vibes be pleasin,

For even in the midst of work and sweat
We shift ou attention, hedge our bet

On the sure-fire win, the most definate result
Right when we begin, to step outside the CULT

The sick twisted club of "status quo"
That has us schlepping to and fro...

Every action, each word on guard
Satisfaction of others, tryin' too hard

To fit in with the croud, with what they care
Sometimes easy to forget, they're NOT REALLY THERE...

So, it's each moment, we choose to see
Clear, unobstructed; our REAL victory

Over the battle that never was, fell off just because
We saw it's transparancy, just because it NEVER WAS...

So we begin to see, we are the very BEST
When we let ourselves rest from "taking the test"

The answer we seek, the question of the equation
It's the REST, during the activity that is our SALVATION!

Change right now, don't make a peep
We must wake up, to get some SLEEP!!

COSMIC LOVE,
C.P.

TEAM PEPPER

Mineral Content of Organic vs Non-Organic Produce

2006-04-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

Jonathan S Moscatello Sanet Post 12/10/96

Sanet Post, Jonathan S Moscatello,

December 10, 1996

Steve Diver

Fayetteville, AR

Here is an extract of a recent report from Rutgers University entitled "Variation in Mineral Content in Vegetables" (Firman E.Bear report).

In this study, the inorganic vegetables were bought at a standard supermarket and compared with organic vegetables grown in naturally-fertilised soil.


 --------------------------------------------------------------------
              *(1)    P  | Ca    Mg   K     Na    B   Mn  Fe  Cu  Co
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
 SNAP BEANS
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
 Organic     10.45  0.36 | 40.5  60.0 99.7  8.6 | 73  60  227 69  .26
 Non-Org     4.04   0.22 | 15.5  14.8 29.1  0.0 | 10  2   10  3   .00
 --------------------------------------------------------------------

CONCLUSION: Commercially grown, inorganic vegetables are very low in mineral
and trace mineral content.

PLEASE NOTE:

The study listed above DID NOT investigate organic versus commercial
produce. Somebody mis-printed the tables and for years
it has circulated as fact. Too bad because it clouds an
otherwise good study done by Rutgers researchers.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the Soil
Science Society of America, examined the mineral composition
of vegetables grown on different soil types.

Dr. Firman Bear and his colleagues found that vegetables grown on heavy
soils in the Ohio Valley had a greater mineral content than
produce grown on sandy Coastal Plain soils near the East Coast.
These results are important because they show that soil type--and
probably soil organic matter content--affect the mineral
composition of foods grown on them.

There are many environmental and cultural factors that influence
the nutritional composition of produce, and these may ultimately
play a greater role in food quality than simple organic versus
conventional logic.

Environmental conditions likely to affect food quality include
geographical area, soil type, soil moisture, soil health (humus
content, fertility, microbial activity, etc.), weather and
climatic conditions (temperature, rainfall, flooding, drought),
and pollution.

Cultural practices likely to affect food quality include humus
management techniques such as green manuring and composting,
variety, seed source, length of growing season, irrigation,
fertilization, cultivation, and postharvest handling (especially
temperature and relative humidity).

The article by Sharon Hornick, "Factors Affecting the
Nutritional Quality of Crops," provides a comprehensive review of
these factors. This paper was published in a special issue of The
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture containing the
proceedings of a Conference on the Assessment and Monitoring of
Soil Quality.

On the other hand, there are actually quite a number of
studies that "have" shown significant differences between
the nutritional quality of organic and conventionally-
raised foods. It is not simply folklore as suggested
in an earlier thread. Many of the studies favor organic but of course
there are others which show no differences.

But, just because some farmer produces food according to
certified organic guidelines does not mean that this
food will be superior however, and the reasons are due
to all the factors in the above paragraphs.

That is why a refractometer and other qualitative methods
of measurement are good indicators. Paper chromatography
is perhaps a better indicator than atomic absorption
spectophotometry for food quality. Fractionation of proteins
and vitamins etc. to visually observe content and balance
rather than elemental concentration as sole indicator.

The recent research by Dr. Phil Callahan on paramagnetism
may prove to be a factor. From this it can be seen that organic
has advantages for the humus factor and biological activity.
On the other, natural rock powders derived from paramagnetic
origin may be critical to establish a weak charge. The
magnetism created thus influences mineral uptake and plant health.
The PCSM Meter is available for anybody to see for themselves
differences in depleted soils and healthy soils. Originally
developed for the mining industry at $6,000, it is now
available to farmers thru Pike Lab Supplies for $400.
To my knowledge it has not been taken up by any land-grants
as yet as a research topic; though Callan himself spent 30 years
as a USDA-ARS Entomologist before retiring to compile his monumental
book "Paramagetism" published by Acres, U.S.A.

Ultimately, how people "feel" after eating food is what counts.
Health conscious yoga practitioners who are in tune with their
bodies self-select natural and organic foods and this
fact has merit comparable to a dozen scientific studies.

Food quality is defined more broadly by the Soil Association in
England. They adopted standards developed at the University of
Kassel and the Elm Farm Research Centre, two European research
institutes actively conducting organic farming systems research.
Six criteria--Sensual, Authenticity, Functional, Nutritional,
Biological, and Ethical--make up this new holistic approach.

Food Quality: Concepts & Methodology is the proceedings of an
international colloquium organized by the Elm Farm Research Centre
and the University of Kassel. It is a 64-page book published in
1992. It is available for 10 pounds in English currency (about
$20.00). Contact:

Elm Farm Research Centre

Hamstead Marshall

Near Newbury

Berkshire RG15 OHR

Great Britain

The Ecological Agriculture Project at MacDonald College of McGill
University in Canada has published several informative reports and
bibliographies on this topic. Titles include "Soil Conditions and
Food Quality", "Soil Fertility and the Nutritional Quality of
Food," and "Comparison of Food Quality of Organically Versus
Conventionally Grown Plant Foods." Contact:

Ecological Agriculture Project

Box 191, MacDonald College

21,111 Lakeshore

Ste-Anne De Bellevue, Quebec

Canada H9X 1CO

Additional comments can be found below. I have
investigated this topic over several years; it is a central
issue in our modern food production system...the relationhsip
between farming system and health of people and livestock.

Steve Diver

Fayetteville, AR

References:

Bear, Firman E. 1948. Variations in mineral
composition of vegetables. Soil Sci. Soc. Proc. Vol.
13. p. 380-384.

Hornick, Sharon B. 1992. Factors affecting the nutritional
quality of crops. Am. J. Alt. Agric. Vol. 7, No. 1-2. p. 63-68.

The Chinese Herb Compound Artemisinin may prevent Breast Cancer

2006-04-05T01:17:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Daniells

12/20/2005 - The Chinese herb compound Artemisinin may prevent breast cancer,
say researchers from the University of Washington.

The compound, extracted from sweet wormwood Artemisia annua L, cut the development
of breast cancer by 40 per cent in rats that had been given a cancer-causing
agent. Artemisinin has previously been shown to selectively kill cancer cells,
and is already used as an effective anti-malaria treatment. “With the results
of this study, it's an attractive candidate for cancer prevention,” said
researcher Henry Lai.

The study, published in the January 2006 issue of Cancer Letters (vol 231,
issue 1, pp 43-48), used rats treated with a single dose of DMBA (50 mg per
kg), a compound known to induce multiple breast cancer. The rats were then randomly
divided into two groups, with one group's feed supplemented with 0.02 per cent
artemisinin.

The rats with the supplemented feed showed a 40 per cent lower incidence of
breast cancer formation than the control group. In addition, the tumours that
did develop in the case group were smaller and fewer.

“Since artemisinin is a relatively safe compound that causes no known
side effects even at high oral doses, the present data indicate that artemisinin
may be a potent cancer-chemoprevention agent,” said the researchers.

Artemisinin works by reacting with iron in the body and forming free radicals
that attack the cells from within. Cancer cells replicate at a higher rate than
normal cells and so have a higher concentration of iron. This makes artemisinin
highly toxic to the cancer cells.

The same mechanism is responsible for its anti-malarial properties. The parasite
that causes malaria cannot eliminate the iron from the blood cells it eats and
stores it. The artemisinin makes the stored iron poisonous to the parasite.

Artemisinin is now a major component in the treatment of malaria is China,
Vietnam and other areas of Asia and Africa.

But the results of the present study were greeted with guarded optimism by
Dr Emma Knight, science information officer for British charity Cancer Research
UK.

She told NutraIngredients.com: “These findings in rats are very interesting
but more work is needed to assess whether artemisinin could have a role in cancer
prevention in humans.”

Dr Knight stressed the importance of investigating naturally occurring compounds,
however, and exploiting the potential health benefits that may be on offer.

“Contrary to popular belief, a number of anti-cancer drugs are derived
from natural sources. The periwinkle, yew tree and African bush willow are just
some of the plants that have an important place in the treatment of cancer today,”
she said.

It just keeps flowing...

2006-04-05T01:15:00.000-07:00

Wherever you go, whether near or far

All you'll ever be is THE LOVE THAT YOU ARE...!!

Word to the Goddess!! Wassabbiie, my dear Gabrielle?

Thank you for staying in touch during these kooky, turbulent times.

Hey- how 'bout a sublime rhyme? Would that be right on time? Like intestinal
chyme? Oh dear...

"Magic Brick"

Deep in the neural-noodle-soup of my mind

That's the place you're endeavoring to find

And in the torroid of the heart, so round

Is where the most divine particles are found

These are components of creation and design

With which I build all that I ever will find

Building blocks of the smallest size

Contain all the love of your burning eyes

Make up the storehouse of secret parts

That's how every dream stops and starts

And much like the paintbrush of sound inside

The love that you are takes us all for a ride

Is it a scandal, scam, bribe, or trick?

Or just Cosmic Gabrielle, with her

MAGIC BRICK...!!!!

Get it?

LOVE & PEPPERS,

C.P.

Anne Lamott Story

2006-03-24T12:56:00.000-08:00

Marin County Raw Food Potluck

2006-03-24T02:43:00.000-08:00

Don't forget about the Marin Raw Food potluck this Saturday evening at 6pm. We have an excellent speaker, Don Weaver, back by popular demand, who will begin at 7pm.

The new location is at the La Plaza conference room. 4340 Redwood Hwy, San Rafael (Terra Linda) 94903. There is a $3 donation required for each potluck participant.

Directions: 101 to Smith Ranch Rd. Head East and turn right onto Redwood Hwy. at the first light. (Not counting the light for 101 if you are coming from North of San Rafael) Take the second left (immediately after the first left) driveway just south of Mitchell Rd. The conference room is all the way at the back of the complex.

THERE ARE NO KITCHEN FACILITIES AT OUR NEW LOCATION. YOU WILL NEED TO CLEAN YOUR DISHES AT HOME. THANKS FOR YOUR COOPERATION!

We hope to see you there! The following is the bio for our speaker....

Veganic Eco-Gardening for Personal-and-Planetary Health" by Don Weaver

Don Weaver returns to inform and encourage us to surrender to a healthy Spring Fever and the urge to plant our own mineralized-organic gardens and fruit trees. He thinks that generous local and global soil remineralization with rock dust to grow high-quality crops and trees is a primary key to regenerating the socio-ecosphere. Having 29 years as a healthy raw fooder and organic gardener, Don is glad to share his experience and thoughts, and to answer any questions. He also offers two free books online at www.remineralize.org, and will bring a few 50-bags of rock dust for those wanting to take some home; cost will be about $15/bag. If you want more than one bag it is a good idea to let Don know in advance: earthdon@yahoo.com.

Spring Feng Shui

2006-03-21T06:50:00.000-08:00

Spring is nudging and bursting forth in all her glory even in the midst of unusual weather patterns: snow along the west coast in March! In Feng Shui, spring is
associated with the Family and Wealth sectors of your life. Of the five elements of earth, fire, metal and water, this season relates to Wood. Spring and wood
energy is about new growth, expansion, renewal and vitality.

These themes are central in many cultural and religious celebrations. It begins with Spring Equinox on March 20. This date is also the Persian New Year –
Noruz meaning “new day”. In April, there is Passover and Easter honoring freedom and rebirth. It’s a great time for a fresh new beginning.

Feng Shui basic concepts and principles originate from observing the dynamic interplay of nature. That’s why I feel passionate about gardening because it teaches me about “chi” – energy. With a deeper understanding of “chi” I can better help clients. Let’s explore three important gardening concepts as a metaphor and how we can apply them to our life and work.

What to Grow?

Spring is a review time. What plants stay in the garden and which ones didn’t work in the past and need to be removed. What do you want to add? Apply this analogy
to take stock and make decisions about your life and business. What’s doing well, stays, needs more attention? What do you need to change, eliminate or enhance? Where are you seeking expansion and vitality? Which areas of your life and business do you want to grow and have thrive? Clarity of intention and discernment is a way to direct new growth, expansion and vitality.

Weeding:

Weeds are especially prolific in spring. They can take over and crowd out what you are growing. You need to be able to distinguish between unwanted weeds and desirable growth and eliminate the weeds. Weeds are a natural fact of the garden. They often arrive airborne into the garden. You need to continually weed throughout the year; just doing it once in spring is not enough!

Think of weeds as all of those interruptions that keep you off track. Clutter piles in your home or office that keep you disorganized and distracted. This includes unused items or old patterns of thoughts that keep you clogged. We just remodeled our kitchen. Amazing! Half of what came out of those old pantry cupboards are unused items that are unnecessary.

Every part of your home and business relates to a life area. I recall Kay, a widow who was feeling ready to be in relationship again. She had an immaculate, clutter
free home – except for a guest cottage located in the marriage sector of her property. It was jammed with unused, old items. Once she cleared and ‘weeded’ it out, she met a companion.

Weeds are the annoying little things that pop up in your life. It gets in the way of effective living. They need to be managed regularly. The concept of Spring
Cleaning comes in here where you take the time to “clean and clear” from the attic, down to the basement areas of your life.

Pruning:

Pruning, unlike weeding, is done to PROMOTE NEW GROWTH. Rosarians severely prune and cut back canes, in order to produce stronger, healthier roses. Knowing where,
when and how to cut is important, to activate vigorous growth and beauty.
Health and longevity is important to me. I want to grow a healthy body in the
garden of my life. In January, I (a dessert addict) resolved to cut out white sugar intake. Saying “no” to all those delectable desserts in order to promote optimum health is a way of pruning.

What do you need to cut back? Perhaps it’s excessive TV watching, or a conflict generating staff person you need to cut. It’s amazing that sometimes the more severe the pruning – like taking a 10’ branch, almost down to the
ground, actually helps the shrub to grow fuller. In the same way, perhaps you need to have the courage to make a dramatic lifestyle shift or change direction
in your business plan in order to promote healthier, stronger, robust growth.

Unseen Pollutants and Energies:

Empty all trays and containers in your garden and patio, that’s holding stagnant water. These are perfect breeding grounds for future mosquito larvae. Be mindful about indiscriminate use of sprays in the home and garden. Toxic pesticides used by homeowners are showing up in our water and can adversely affect our health. Here’s a fabulous website to help you learn more. www.ipm.ucdavis.edu

Other Unseen energies:

“We traveled 22 hours returning from Mexico. Once home, my husband got disoriented and fell eight feet off our bedroom loft. He suffered a brain injury
and was in rehab for a month. When he came home, he kept stumbling and falling. Terumi sensed that something was really “off” in our home and did an energy clearing. Wow, what a difference. We both felt it right way. He’s now making rapid recovery.” J. Clark, Sebastopol, CA

Call 877-210-3472 now to experience the magic of Feng Shui and Energy Clearing with Terumi.

I do Feng Shui and Energy Clearing to weed out old patterns of energy in your environment so that you can move forward in ways you never thought possible.

Upcoming Events with Terumi Leinow!

“Creating a Beautiful Garden with Feng Shui”

Saturday, May 20, 2006

H20 How.2 Water-Wise Fair

Marin Center Exhibit Hall

San Rafael

Admission Free

Presented by: Marin Municipal Water District

www.marinwater.org

Time to be determined.

Wishing you a glorious Spring Equinox and a season of joyful new growth.

Terumi Leinow

Eat the Rainbow, Drink the Moon...

2006-03-14T15:38:00.000-08:00

Super-healthy foods for kids...ages 2 to 102!

Forget cooking! This exciting class demonstrates how quick and easy it is to prepare fabulous tasting, gourmet, raw vegan foods that are amazingly nutritious and colorful. Participants will leave understanding why raw, living foods are important in our diets and be able to create snacks, meals and desserts for the entire family. Everyone will receive copies of all the recipes, and best of all, we get to eat everything demonstrated.

The following dishes will be prepared:

Raw Applesauce and Fruit Leathers
Green Smoothie
Purple Smoothie with Blueberries
Brazil Nut Milk
Chocolate Almond Milk
Almond Butter on Celery with Raisins
Almond Cheese
Sunflower Burgers
Zucchini Noodles with Marinara Sauce
Taco Boats
Veggie Confetti Slaw
Apple Wedges with Carmel Topping
Avocado Lime Mousse
Frozen Chocolate Banana Mousse

Monday April 3 from 10 to 12 am
at the home of Allison Fragakis
310 West Baltimore Ave in Larkspur, CA
Cost $120
Call Jenay at 415-380-8448 to register

Dianne Bess, BA, BS, MFA, has been studying nutrition since 1970. In the mid 1970s, while living in Paris, Dianne studied culinary arts at La Varenne, founded by Anne Willen and Julia Child. In recent years, Dianne spent a summer at the Optimum Health Institute in San Diego assisting in the teaching kitchen. Excited about the rejuvinative potential of raw food nutrition, she went on to study with Gabriel Cousens at the Tree of Life in Patagonia, AZ as well as with Cherie Soria at Living Light Culinary Arts Institute in Fort Bragg, CA. Dianne is a certified raw food chef and instructor.

Japanese Companies Develop Air-Purifying Paper

2006-03-09T02:57:00.000-08:00

02/24/2006
Source: LOHAS Weekly Newsletter

Author: Japan for Sustainability

Nippon Paper Industries Co. has partnered with Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun to developed newsprint coated with photocatalytic titanium oxide. When the paper is exposed to the sun's ultraviolet rays, it works to eliminate everyday odors such as tobacco smoke, sweat and pet odors. The companies say it is the world's first application of photocatalytic compounds to newspaper.

A problem existed with conventional technology because the photocatalytic reaction causes paper quality to deteriorate, but Nippon Paper Industries solved this problem and succeeded in achieving both an air purification effect and printability. The paper can endure high-speed printing by an offset rotary printing press, holds ink well, and can be used for flyers, posters and calendars.

Titanium oxide reacts as a photocatalyst under sunlight or fluorescent light, so it can decompose organic chemicals in the air such as formaldehyde, which can cause sick house syndrome. Titanium oxide is drawing attention as an effective photocatalyst due to its chemical stability and atmospheric neutrality.

Sacred Chocolate is Finally Here!

2006-02-04T04:51:00.000-08:00

Sacred Chocolate has finally been downloaded from the Cosmic Ethers!

Sacred Chocolate! www.sacredchocolate.com

Or,

Sacred Cacao! www.sacredcacao.com

Eden Hot Springs March 2006

2006-02-04T04:49:00.000-08:00

I am really fired up about the Upcoming Eden Hot Springs Raw Food retreat! I will be lecturing about Raw Foods and Much Much More! -- Steve Adler

Eden Hot Springs Raw Food Retreat March 2006!

If you are a Led Zeppelin Fan!

2006-01-17T22:57:00.000-08:00

Classical Stairway To Heaven!

The Amazing Woman

2006-01-14T12:21:00.000-08:00

By the time the Lord made woman, He was into his sixth day of working overtime. An angel appeared and said, "Why are you spending so much time on this one?"And the Lord answered, "Have you seen my spec sheet on her? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic,have over 200 movable parts, all replaceable and able to run on diet coke and leftovers,have a lap that can hold four children at one time,have a kiss that can cure anything from a scraped knee to a broken heart -- and she will do everything with only two hands."

The angel was astounded at the requirements. "Only two hands!? No way! And that's just on the standard model?That's too much work for one day. Wait until tomorrow to finish." "But I won't," the Lord protested. "I am so close to finishing this creation that is so close to my own heart. She already heals herself when she is sick AND can work 18 hour days." The angel moved closer and touched the woman. "But you have made her so soft, Lord." "She is soft," the Lord agreed, "but I have also made her tough.You have no idea what she can endure or accomplish." "Will she be able to think?", asked the angel. The Lord replied, "Not only will she be able to think, she will be able to reason and negotiate." The angel then noticed something, and reaching out, touched the woman's cheek. "Oops, it looks like you have a leak in this model.I told you that you were trying to put too much into this one." "That's not a leak,"the Lord corrected, "that's a tear!" "What's the tear for?" the angel asked. The Lord said, "The tear is her way of expressing her joy, her sorrow, her pain, her disappointment, her love, her loneliness, her grief and her pride." The angel was impressed. "You are a genius, Lord. You thought of everything! Woman is truly amazing." And she is! Women have strengths that amaze men. They bear hardships and they carry burdens, but they hold happiness, love and joy. They smile when they want to scream. They sing when they want to cry. They cry when they are happyand laugh when they are nervous. They fight for what they believe in. They stand up to injustice. They don't take "no" for an answer when they believe there is a better solution. They go without so their family can have. They go to the doctor with a frightened friend. They love unconditionally. They cry when their children exceland cheer when their friends get awards. They are happy when they hear abouta birth or a wedding. Their hearts break when a friend dies. They grieve at the loss of a family member, yet they are strong when they think there is no strength left. They know that a hug and a kiss can heal a broken heart. Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors. They'll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you to show how much they care about you. The heart of a woman is what makes the world keep turning. They bring joy, hope and love. They have compassion and ideals. They give moral support to their family and friends. Women have vital things to say and everything to give.

All Is One!

2006-01-03T22:47:00.000-08:00

The Wombat says it is time to wake up to the fact that we are all One!

Nice Feel Good Site!

2006-01-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

It's Always Good to Pause in Gratitude!

Good to Keep Perspective!

2006-01-02T02:45:00.000-08:00

For a little perspective--if we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people it would look like this:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans

52 would be women
48 would be men

70 would be non-white
30 would be white

70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian

89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual

80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer.
1 would be near death
1 would be near birth

Phil M. Harter, MD FACEP Stanford University, School of Medicine

Baby Hummingbirds from Birth to Flight!

2005-12-17T04:01:00.000-08:00

Truly an amazing photo-saga!

Eden Hot Springs October 2005

2005-11-29T02:10:00.000-08:00

Here are some great pictures taken by Trix & Stix who were married at Eden Hot Springs by the Chocolate Pope himself!

Eden October 2005 Pics

Toasted the Poor Little Guy

2005-08-23T00:18:00.000-07:00

Wow! I was devastated! I put my little friend, Herman, the blue tailed skink, out on my deck for a little sun and accidently toasted him! I feel so bad about this tragedy! And, in my mind this is truly a tragedy considering my history with these little fellows! I pray I can make ammends to the Blue Tailed Skink God in some appropriate way! Above is a little picture of a typical blue tailed skink I grabbed off of the internet.

The Blue Tailed Skink

2005-07-29T02:52:00.000-07:00

Amazing...Other than a month ago in my backyard, I haven't seen a blue tailed skink in over 25 years! My good friend, Paul Daughenbaugh, and I used to spend hours in the fields of southern California as kids catching them and other lizzards and snakes which we would keep as pets or sell to pet stores. About a month ago, I turned over a flagstone in my backyard and saw one slither away with such speed that I only saw a blue streak--typical of these little critters. I guess this was an omen of things to come, because today I was cleaning out my home office closet and sure enough I found a baby blue tailed skink lurking about! I caught him and am keeping him as a pet for a little while. The chances of finding a baby blue tailed skink in your home are probably less than getting struck by lightening! How this little guy got passed my cat with an insatiable appetite is anybody's guess! This is some heavy duty shamanistic medicine...what an omen! If any native American or native African can tell me the significance of the blue tailed skink medicine, I would greatly appreciate it!

GOLD STRIKE: Scientist Discovers That Bacteria and Fungi Build Nuggets

2005-07-21T03:09:00.000-07:00

GOLD STRIKE: Scientist discovers that bacteria and fungi build nuggets.

Story by Richard Macey.

The Sydney Morning Herald. Wed January 28. 2004.

Gold nuggets may really be the work of bacteria that can grow the precious metal in much the same way marine organisms build coral reefs.
That is the theory of a Canberra scientist who has detected DNA bonded to tiny gold flakes.
Frank Reith, a geo-ecologist and doctoral researcher at the Co-operative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration, also has evidence that tiny organisms can dissolve gold from soil.
Mr. Reith discovered that strange formations on the surface of gold flakes were covered in a thin film.
Tests revealed the film contained DNA, confirming that it was the result of bacterial action.
"We have seen biofilms growing on the gold flakes," he explained yesterday. "Cells were bound to the gold."
It had long been suspected that many organisms, including plants, could dissolve microscopic particles of gold from soil and rock.
To test this hypothesis, Mr. Reith placed samples of soil collected from a NSW gold mine in water and added miniscule amounts of the metal. Subsequent tests revealed the water contained up to three parts per million of dissolved gold.
But when the experiment was repeated using soil that had been sterilised against bacteria and fungi, there was "little or no dissolved gold".
In another study, Mr. Reith found that bacteria and fungi built up layers of gold, "like miniature coral reefs", from a solution that contained dissolved gold.
Mr. Reith said colonies of bacteria and fungi could go on for generations, building "layers and layers and layers" of gold that would gradually form nuggets. His discovery could explain why large nuggets were sometimes found far from where prospectors expected.
The biological process, however, was far from alchemy. "You still need a source of gold," Mr. Reith said.
The centre's chief executive, Mr. Dennis Gee, said Mr. Reith's research might lead to improved methods for finding and extracting gold and other minerals.

Pasted from <http://www.prophetau.com/gold%20strike.htm>

WHAT REALLY KILLED THE DINOSAURS

2005-07-21T02:59:00.000-07:00

CHAPTER ONE: Maybe The Theorists Got It Wrong

In 1980, Dr Luis Alvarez hypothesized that a massive meteorite hit the earth 65 million years ago, leaving a deposit of white powder around the world, known in geology as the K-T boundary.

Below the K-T boundary, fossils of large dinosaurs are found, but above the boundary - no dinosaurs.

Fig. 1) Dr. Luis Alvarez and son Walter discover the "Boundary"

This observation has been the reason for the main accepted theory for the last two decades, that a large meteorite killed the dinosaurs. But it that true?

THE DEBATE: Asteroid or Volcano

Some paleontologists are now proposing that possibly the geologic record shows that severe climate change from extreme volcanic activity during the time was responsible for the death of the dinosaurs. The debate is now forcing scientists to choose up sides - Was it meteorite or volcanoes? But what if both are wrong, and it was neither?

Some of the data seem to indicate it might have been a meteorite, but other observations seem to favor a volcanic cause. But there are also holes in both theories. Some of the geologic and scientific observations can't be explained by either or both of the theories.

Such as why did whatever happened at the K-T boundary, kill only all the large reptilians, the dinosaurs, but seemed not to have any affect on such smaller ancient reptiles as turtles, crocodiles and alligators? Those animals along with similar reptiles still remain alive today. Also not affected were reptilian-like birds and even insects, other than most of them became much smaller after the K-T event.

THE CHANGES: At the Cretaceous-Tertiary K-T Boundary

Some clear changes in the lifeforms on earth did occur at the K-T boundary. Prior to the boundary, the predominant form was reptilian, but afterward, the predominant form was small non-reptiles such as early marsupials and mammals. Most scientists, misconstrue this change as from "cold-blooded" animals to "warm-blooded" animals. Not So.

The difference between reptiles and mammals is not the temperature of the blood but the mechanism used to maintain that temperature. Reptiles have no internal organ or means for maintaining their temperature. If the temperature is too hot, then reptiles must hide under a rock or in the shade to keep cool. Or if the temperature is too cool then reptiles must "sun" themselves to gain heat, or burrow in the ground or stay in water to stay warm or regulate their temperature. But normally, reptilian blood temperature is just about the same as in mammals. Reptiles must use external means to regulate their temperature.

Most mammals have something like a thyroid gland that monitors the external air temperature breathed in and flowing through the throat, and also monitors the blood temperature flowing from heart to brain. This unique gland sits in the throat and has both hot carotid arteries coming directly from the heart and passing through both thyroid lobes. The thyroid gland then releases the proper amount of thyroxin to control evaporative cooling in the lungs and metabolic heating to maintain a constant blood-brain temperature - despite the outside air temperature and weather conditions.

CRITICAL TEMPERATURE: 100 Degrees

For both reptiles and mammals, in fact almost all animals with nerve and brain tissue, that brain tissue must be kept at a temperature of about 100F within a few degrees, to remain electrically and chemically active. If not, then the brain tissue ceases to function properly and coma and death soon result. Note that temperature for future reference.

While human body temperature is about 98.6 degrees, the brain temperature is about 99 to 100 degrees. If the brain temperature falls to about 95 degrees, then the individual goes to sleep. During sleep, the brain temperature begins to rise each morning and is back to 100 degrees about 15 minutes before waking up. If the temperature of a mammal's brain drops about 10 degrees the result is coma. In some animals this coma condition is recoverable and is called hibernation, which is a winter survival mechanism for some animals.

If a reptile falls asleep and the surrounding air temperature falls to 70 degrees, the reptile may not wake up.

Fig. 2) Heated Terrarium With Incandescent Hood for Constant Warmth Above Room Temperature, Which Is Not Necessary For Mammal Pet Cages

Reptiles have no means to regulate their brain temperature during sleep. That's why terrariums are usually kept heated above room temperature, or the reptile may not survive.

What that means is that most mammals. marsupials and birds can tolerate weather changes from arid desert heat to frigid blizzard snow storm and still survive. But most reptiles wouldn't have a chance over that wide range of climate. Today, the reptiles only live in a very narrow range of climates around the earth. Birds such as penguins, and mammals like the seals live in 32 degree freezing Antarctica and the Arctic, but reptiles do not.

THE GREAT SHIFT: Gymnosperms to Angiosperms -- The Record of the Seeds

Usually not discussed at all, in what may have happened during the K-T Boundary event, is that not just animals such as dinosaurs were affected, but also an extreme and vast change in the plant lifeforms of earth also occurred at that same time.

Prior to the K-T shift nearly all of the plants were gymnosperms. In general these are non-flowering non-seed-bearing plants like ferns. fern trees, and fern palms, or needled trees such as redwoods or pines trees. These plants are also called "evergreens" since these plants seem the same, or green, all year round. They are not seasonal plants. These primitive plants do have a simple form of seed or spore but without any protective covering. The name gymnosperm means naked-seed.

After the K-T boundary, most of the vast variety of new plant forms were angiosperms. These are the flowering plants, which either completely die each year and regrow each spring from seeds dropped the previous year. Or if it is a large tree, the leaves are completely dropped and new growth comes from new leaves and flowering portions of the tree each spring. The seeds of angiosperms have hard coverings or casings which can tolerate hot arid drying desert heat and even cold freezing, then still sprout the next year. The name angiosperm means covered-seed.

What this means is that after the K-T boundary, the new predominant lifeforms, both plants and animals, were the ones which could tolerate wide changes in the seasons from winter to summer. But before the K-T boundary, the plants and animals had no means to respond to seasonal changes. But what causes seasonal changes? They are caused by the tilt of the earth.

THE K-T EVENT: The Beginning of Earth Seasons

Is it possible that before the K-T boundary the earth was not tilted, then whatever happened at the K-T boundary event also caused the earth to tilt at 23.5 degrees? This would mean that before the K-T event there were no seasons, and this favored the older life forms of gymnosperms and reptiles. But after the K-T boundary, the earth became tilted, causing seasons and seasonal climate changes, and then favoring the new angiosperms and mammals.

As further evidence, most angiosperms need the changes of the seasons to trigger when to drop seeds or sprout. Most angiosperms also need the changes in the length of the daylight as the seasons change to determine when to bloom. Without the seasonal changes most angiosperms would fail. Does this then show that angiosperms could not and did not develop before the K-T boundary because the earth was not yet tilted and there were no seasons? Not yet.

I have not seen any other scientist look at this possibility to explain the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But if this possibility were correct then current theories about orogeny, paleo-magnetism and plate tectonics would also need to be revised. There is plenty of data in the geologic record to show that this might be a good idea to revise all three at the same time. And it might finally resolve the issue about what really killed the dinosaurs.

WHAT REALLY KILLED THE DINOSAURS

CHAPTER TWO: What Caused the Earth to Tilt 65 Million Years Ago?

In chapter one, you probably found that there is significant evidence in the geologic and scientific record indicating that the earth seems to have somehow been tilted over about 23.5 degrees at the time of the K-T boundary 65 million years ago. And the tilting of the earth started seasons, along with seasonal changes in climate, and that is what killed the dinosaurs. Could it have been some wandering asteroid passing near or impacting earth that caused the earth to tilt?

The laws of physics would say that nothing internal to the earth could have caused the earth to tilt over on its own axis so it must have been some event external to the earth such as a passing asteroid. Is that true? What if some huge volcanic explosion erupted in the earth's northern hemisphere. The violent eruption could then act like a large rocket jet blasting into space, causing the earth to recoil and tilt back from the blast and then tilting over at 23.5 degrees. Is that possible?

But again we get back to the current main scientific theories and dilemma, that what killed the dinosaurs was either a wandering asteroid passing by or impacting earth causing it to tilt over, and creating seasons and killing dinosaurs. Or maybe it was a large volcanic explosion tilting the earth and causing seasons and killing dinosaurs. Was it asteroid or volcanoes? Was it some as yet unknown and undiscovered "deus ex machina" which caused the tilt of the earth? Again, maybe it was neither. What does the actual geologic record show?

THE LAYERS: Peeling the Earth Like an Onion

One of the important items of evidence is that, surely when earth was formed it was layered, something like the layers of an onion. Each layer downward was more dense and heavier than the layers above.

Fig. 3) The Layered Onion Of Earth: The Rigid Layers of SIMA and SIAL lithosphere Float On The Fluid Asthenosphere (shown in red)

Above the heavy metallic mantle floats the molten fluid asthenosphere which is where most hot volcanic lava comes from. This material is mostly iron, silicon and magnesium metallic alloys and is called SIMA.

Floating on the astheno- sphere is the lighter rocky continental material. This material is almost all silicon and aluminum atoms which are bonded with oxygen. Since it is mostly silicon and aluminum oxide it is called SIAL. Metallic oxides are all called ceramics and are much lighter and less dense than molten pure metals. So the lighter rocky ceramic SIAL continents float on the heavier metallic SIMA asthenosphere.

Floating above the rocky SIAL is the layer of watery oceans or the hydrosphere. And floating above all of those is the even lighter less dense gaseous layer of air called the atmosphere. Thus the earth is something like a layered onion with each layer going outward lighter and less dense than the deeper layers below.

Information from NASA would seem to indicate that all of the other large bodies, planets and big moons of our solar system also seem to be layered like onions. Thus the earth is much like all other large bodies in orbit around the sun. Except for one thing. A huge portion, three fourths of one of the layers of the onion skin on planet earth is completely missing. Where did it go? And how did such a thing happen?

THE GEOLOGIC MYSTERY: Where Did the Missing Continents Go?

For almost a century, since the 1912 publication of German geologist Alfred Wegener's book, it has been recognized that three fourths of the rocky continental SIAL material of earth is simply missing. Where did it go and when did it disappear? One hundred years ago geologists did not have the information we have now, so it has always just remained a geologic mystery. But that mystery is now about to be solved.

One of the new clues is that during the 1980's ocean-going prospecting ships took a survey of the ocean beds of earth looking for minerals and oil. The ocean bottom samples they brought back all showed that the ages of almost all the lava-like SIMA material which makes up all the ocean beds are no older than about 65 million years old. This was a surprising result but seems to have been largely ignored by the scientific community.

What that means is that prior to 65 million years ago there probably was a thick rocky continental layer of SIAL which uniformly and completely covered the whole earth like an onion skin, just as on all the other planets and moons in our solar system. Then about 65 million years ago something tore away about three fourths of that rocky SIAL continental material and exposed the hot SIMA asthenosphere below. That newly exposed hot asthenosphere cooled and became the new ocean beds. The point in time at which the basaltic SIMA material was exposed and cooled is indicated by their present age of 65 million years or less.

THE REMNANT CALLED PANGEA: Was It a Result of the K-T Event or Pushed Together by Internal Forces

Another clue is that about that time, when three fourths of the rocky continental material was ripped away, the rocky material that was left was then all in one place and on one side of the planet earth. That remnant rocky material which now only covers about one fourth of the planet was called Pangea. And Pangea was originally all in one place.

Fig. 4) A Typical Guess of What Pangea May Have Looked Like 200 Million Years Ago. This Is Shown Incorrectly. The Upper Portion Called "Laurasia" Should Be Rotated Clockwise About 45 Degrees. This Would Close The Large Opening On the Right Called The Tethys Sea.

Since that time, that remnant has broken apart and has uni- formly spread around the earth to balance the spinning planet in its orbit. The broken remnants became the present day continents, which are now widely spread around the planet.

Modern day theory mistakenly dates the breakup of Pangea into the two major com- ponents of Laurasia and Gondwanaland about 250 million years ago. But, as we will soon see, this could be simply a problem of geography and paleo-magnetic measurements. If the whole remnant body of Pangea was originally rotated about 45 degrees clockwise, then the magnetic dating of Laurasia and Gondwanaland would show they were all in the same place at the same time 250 million years ago, and even up to 65 million years ago.

They had always been all in the same place as part of the non-moving uniform layer of rocky material completely covering the earth. They had been in the same place since the oldest measured dates going back well beyond 600 million years ago. But then they broke up and started to spread apart about 65 million years ago. This accounts for why all the present day ocean beds have an age of 65 million years or less.

Is it possible that whatever event ripped away three fourths of the earth's continental surface material 65 million years ago is also what caused the earth to tilt over at 23.5 degrees, causing the beginning of seasons and the demise of the dinosaurs?

The earth's geologic record still has much more information readily available which can tell us the answer to that question. The problem is putting all of the various pieces of scientific evidence together into one self-consistent hypothesis.

WHAT REALLY KILLED THE DINOSAURS

CHAPTER THREE: Where did the Missing Continents Go 65 Million Years Ago?

What we've seen so far is that sometime about 65 million years ago, the earth was seemingly tilted over at 23.5 degrees and the seasonal changes of winter and summer began. This was shown in the geologic record by the sudden shift in the earth's plants and animals at the K-T boundary from the earlier gymnosperms and reptilians, to the later angiosperms and mammals.

We've also seen that about 65 million years ago, about three fourths of the rocky SIAL continental layer which had completely covered planet earth seems to have suddenly all disappeared. This left behind one fourth of that layer as the proto-continent, Pangea, which was all in one place and on one side of the earth. This is shown in the geologic record as all the places where the rocky material was ripped off and disappeared, meaning today's ocean beds, all have an age of 65 million years or less.

If three fourths of the rocky continental layer mysteriously disappeared 65 million years ago, wouldn't it be reasonable that also three fourths of the layers above, meaning the oceans and atmosphere would also have disappeared at the same time? Does the geologic record show this. Yes, it surely does, but only if you know where to look.

MYSTERIOUS OCEANS: Why It Took So Long for Life to Appear on Land

If originally, there were four times as much land, ocean and atmosphere, then the depth of the proto-oceans would be four times as deep as it is now. Does the geologic record show that? With a current average depth of about two miles today, the original depth would have then been about eight miles deep. But that would have completely covered the whole planet with no land or continents visible. Did that happen? What does the geologic record show.

One of the great mysteries of geology and paleontology is why did it take so long for life to emerge on the land. Earliest life forms seem to appear in the oceans somewhere about a billion or 1,000 million years ago.

Fig. 5) THE PHANEROZOIC TIME SCALE

From about 700 million years ago during the Pre-Cambrian Period to about 400 million years ago during the Devonian Period, advanced lifeforms including both plants and animals abounded in the oceans in a vast variety of complex and some rather huge forms, but no life on the land. Why?

Could it be that before 400 million years ago, there simply was no land? The earth was completely covered by water. All the continental rocky land was covered by a vast eight mile deep ocean. Thus there was no land for the plants and animals to live on. Life only existed in the miles deep ocean. That solves one long-standing geologic mystery, but then what made the land mysteriously and suddenly appear during the Devonian Period 400 million years ago?

To solve the mystery of the sudden appearance of land during the Devonian Period, paleon- tologists, biologists and botanists would need to understand a basic, though esoteric, principle of physics called, Conservation of Angular Momentum (CAM). Most bio-scientists did not study physics or if they did, they probably didn't really understand the meaning of the principle of Conservation of Angular Momentum or CAM.

PRIMARY PRINCIPLE: The Conservation of Angular Mometum (CAM)

It turns out that without the principle of CAM there would be no planetary systems or solar systems, no planets and certainly no life on any planets. So how did CAM suddenly make the land appear on planet earth during the Devonian Period 400 million years ago? And how did it also suddenly make the dinosaurs disappear 65 million years ago, at the same time as it made three fourths of the continental rocky layer of earth disappear?

The usual explanation of Conservation of Angular Momentum given in physics classes uses an ice skater, like Tara Lipinski at the Winter Olympics. At the end of her skate routine she begins to spin around,

Fig. 6) Tara Lipinski Brings Her Arms Inward To Begin Her Astounding Medal-Winning Triple Axel Spin

then slowly brings her arms closer to her body, and Tara seems to spin faster and faster until she is only a swirling blur. And why are ice skaters used as examples in physics classes? Only an ice skater on the nearly frictionless ice, can rotate rapidly and duplicate the rotation of bodies like earth which rotate frictionlessly in space.

The CAM principle says, as any rotating body reduces its distance from the axis of rotation, it must rotate faster and faster to "conserve angular momentum." At the end of Tara's routine, on the last note of the music on the tinny rink-arena sound system, Tara flings her arms outward and comes to a sudden complete stop to a loud congratulatory applause.

Fig. 7) Tara Lipinski Extends Her Arms and Legs Away From the Center Line of Her Body To Stop Her Rapid Spin So That She Can End Her Routine and Accept Her Olympic Medal.

What a wonderful display. It turns out that planet earth is just as agile and adept as Tara and can do that very same trick. And has done it several times in the past, as is shown in the geologic record.

MYSTERY IN THE AIR: Why the Earth is Different

When the earth first formed it had a very thick atmosphere, more than four times thicker than at present. It was made mostly of carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia, just like all the other planets in our solar system. The thick dense atmosphere covered the massive thick layer of water about eight miles deep, and there was no land.

As the planet cooled it shrank as hot gases deep in the mantle were released into the ancient atmosphere. As the planet earth cooled and shrank, its diameter became slightly smaller. But this is the same as skater Tara, bringing in her arms and spinning faster. As the earth's diameter shrank with age it also rotated faster and faster.

The first life form on earth was not animals, but was only simple single-celled plants called blue-green algae or phytoplankton. These "plants" as do all plants, take carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia, and converts them into hydrocarbons, carbohydrates and ammonia (or amino) acids which make up proteins and which become the parts of the body of the plant. And then as a waste product the plants release oxygen and nitrogen.

To do all of this, all that the plants needed was sunlight. With no predators or other lifeforms to compete with, the plants completely filled the oceans with sun-loving phytoplankton. And the "plantification" of earth completely converted earth's entire atmosphere from carbon dioxide into oxygen and nitrogen.

BATTLE OF THE 'SEXES': Plants versus Animals

Billions of years later after the first plants had converted most of the primeval atmosphere into oxygen and nitrogen, the first single-celled animals appeared. Animals were a very different form of life. They can't survive on just air and sunlight, as do the plants. The animal were not "breath-airians." The animals needed something to eat to get their energy. They ate the plants.

Thus ended the great age of atmosphere conversion, and began the earth's present balance between two competing and complementary lifeforms, plants and animals. It leaves the earth now with its oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. That's why no other planets in the solar system have an oxygen atmosphere, since it's a by-product of single-celled plant life and requires a very deep watery ocean.

So what happened 400 million years ago, during the Devonian period to make land suddenly appear on earth? And then within a geologic blink of an eye, in only a few hundred or thousand years, all manner of lifeforms, plants and animals, suddenly spread in teeming abundance all across the newly exposed land surface.

Then later, the Conservation of Angular Momentum (CAM) also caused another vast change in earth about 225 million years ago which completely devastated all life on earth, in a process called the "Great Dying." At that time, during the P-T or Permian-Triassic boundary, nearly 95% of all life in both the oceans and on the land simply disappeared. Why? What was the CAM event that caused the "Great Dying?"

And by that same CAM process with planet earth doing its imitation of Tara Lipinski routines, the earth continued to change until 65 million years ago at the K-T boundary, the dinosaurs along with three fourths of the rocky continental layer on the earth's surface all suddenly disappeared. We are now ready to put all the pieces of the geologic record evidence together to find out what really killed the dinosaurs.

WHAT REALLY KILLED THE DINOSAURS

CHAPTER FOUR: How CAM Changed Orogeny, Paleomagnetism and Plate Tectonics -- Putting It All Together

Previously, we've learned that science is currently in a dilemma: What killed the dinosaurs - asteroid or volcanoes? But what if it were something else? The observation of the layer of white powder at the K-T boundary 65 million years ago with dinosaur fossils below and none above, has lead to the current dilemma. The real problem for science is usually not finding the right answers, but is actually just finding and asking the right questions.

Why is it at the K-T boundary 65 million years ago, that the life forms on earth suddenly shift from non-seasonal reptiles and gymnosperms, to the seasonal mammals and angiosperms? Why is it that the seasons caused by the tilting of the earth seem to begin at the K-T boundary? Why is it that the basaltic beds of all the oceans all seem to be of the same age of 65 million years or less? Why is it that all the rocky continental material seemed to be all in the same place about 65 million years ago? And what made the other three fourths of all the rocky continents suddenly disappear 65 million years ago, exposing the new sea beds, and where did the missing continents go? None of the current theories about the disappearing dinosaurs even ask or address those questions.

Actually there are whole groups of many other unasked questions about the K-T boundary, which have to do with observations about mountain building, or Orogeny; and with what causes the earth's magnetic field, or Paleomagnetism; and with what causes the continents to move around the planet, called Plate Tectonics. If I gave you those questions, you would intuitively know the answers. They are not hard to figure out. But that may be too much information all at once. Let's look at the problem chronologically.

THE EARTH IS BORN: The Smelting of Iron and Removing the Dross

Ignoring for the moment how it got here, the earth at its beginning was in orbit around the sun and was spinning on its axis. This seems to have occurred about 4.5 billion years ago. At that time the earth was almost perfectly layered like an onion, just like the other planets in the solar system. Each layer lighter and less dense going outward from the center. As the earth cooled for some billions of years, a firm surface crust was formed on the outside and the earth began to shrink.

This is like heating raw iron ore in a vessel until it melts. The impurities are usually lighter and float on the surface of the molten iron. As the vessel with the hot metal cools, the impure dross solidifies into a crust on the surface and can be scooped off the top. That is how most metallic ores are purified and smelted. As it cools the metallic ore also shrinks.

The shrinkage of earth was caused for two reasons. Almost any hot metal will shrink when cooled. The core of the earth is hot metal. Also over time, gases in the interior of the earth will leak out into the atmosphere. This is similar to letting air out of a balloon and the balloon shrinks. Just as with ice skater Tara Lipinski pulling in her arms, as the earth shrank, it spun around faster and faster. What happens when the earth spins faster?

As the earth spins faster, the centrifugal force along the equator increases. This is the same force that points away from the center, as when you swing a bucket of water around you and the water stays in the bucket. The centrifugal force holds the water in the bucket. So what happens to the earth?

It becomes oblate because of the outward centrifugal force around the equator. And oblate means it becomes fatter around the middle, compared to the distance around the poles.

Fig. 8) A geometric model of an Oblate Spheroid. This is created when a spherical body rotates very quickly and the equatorial region becomes fatter. In the Solar System, the planet Saturn is the most oblate with an equator 10 percent larger than the polar distance.

Another example is to look at the two pictures of skater Tara Lipinski as she begins her rapid spin. While she is spinning, her skirt is thrown outward by centrifugal so that it is almost standing straight out. Compare that to her skirt when she is stopped. So while Tara is spinning, a part of her, her tutu skirt, becomes "fatter" around the middle. Many a Lipinski fan paid good money just to watch Tara become "oblate" around the middle.

The sun, and the outer planets, Jupiter and Saturn, are measurably oblate, since they rotate fast enough for the centrifugal force to make them fat around the middle. But those bodies are mostly gas so becoming oblate is easy. But the earth is mostly a hard solid metallic ball. So how does earth become oblate?

THE EARTH BECOMES OBLATE: The Bowling Ball versus The Soccer Ball

If you spin a bowling ball faster and faster it will not get fat around the middle. It is just too hard and solid to change shape. If you spin a soccer ball faster and faster it will begin to flatten out and get fat around the middle. It's hard to make a model of a bowling ball inside a soccer ball to make a model of earth. So we can pretend using a bowling ball which is covered with a layer of soft clay around the ball, and then spin the ball and clay faster and faster.

What will happen is that the clay will begin to slowly migrate to the equator of the spinning bowling ball. This also happened to the earth about 2 billion years ago. The rocky lithosphere of earth slid toward the equator on the hot fluid layer of molten asthenosphere. This caused the rocky lithosphere, like the clay on the bowling ball, to be squeezed together and build up into a thick ring along the equator.

Like the soft soccer ball, the earth's rocky lithosphere floating on the fluid asthenosphere became thicker around the middle and the earth appeared to became oblate. But it was really only the material along the earth's surface around the equator that changed shape. The earth's highly compressed solid core and lower mantle, like the solid bowling ball, did not change shape.

LAND APPEARS ABOVE THE OCEANS: The Orogeny of the Geosynclines

This slow squeezing and building up of the earth's surface lithosphere toward the equator causes a unique form of mountain to be created. These mountains are called "geosynclines" and look something like the skin of wrinkly fruit or a dried prune. This will be one of the important "questions" later in the proof.

Fig. 9) A Landsat MSS synthetic color photo of the Geosyncline region of central Pennsylvania. The mountians are made of ancient seafloor sediment that has been pushed together and then raised up. The rippling sinuous mountians are typical of geosyncline formations around the world. In this photo the ancient earth equator ran from the lower central to the upper right. This shows that the American continent was originally on the equator and then rotated counter-clockwise about 60 degrees to its present position.

Where are the geosyncline mountains today? The location of the present day geosyncline mountains, for the first time in science, accurately mark the position of the original earth crust compared to the location of the earth's equator, prior to the time of the K-T boundary.

Scientists wanting to duplicate the experiment with the bowling ball covered with a layer of clay might find it easier to use another model. There is nothing equivalent to the force of gravity on the bowling ball to hold the clay to the surface. A better experiment would use a hollow clear Lucite plastic ball lined with clay on the inside. Then spin the plastic ball and watch how the clay layer is forced toward the equator, building up a thick ring around the equator with a rippled surface simulating the formation of geosyncline mountains.

It is important to note that the cause of the pushing up of the geosyncline mountains along the equator was due to the Conservation of Angular Momentum (CAM) and not due to anything called Plate Tectonics. During the Devonian period 400 million years ago, the centrifugal force squeezing the geosyncline mountains, had created a narrow strip of mountain ranges all the way around the equator raised up almost to a height of about eight miles. It was at that point in time, the rocky lithosphere material first peeked above the waves of the ancient eight mile deep ocean.

It was just after the Devonian, and in the Carboniferous age that the life in the oceans suddenly burst forth upon the land in wild abundance. That's why it took so long for life to move from the oceans to the land. The land suddenly appeared during the Devonian, caused by the conservation of angular momentum (CAM) and the earth spinning faster and faster as it cooled.

THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE: The Location of the Geosynclines Today

The massive growth of the rain forest-like ancient gymnosperm plants such as fern trees, redwoods and pines, so covered the newly exposed land that they died and left thick layers of dead trees and plants now called coal layers along the geosyncline mountains. It is no accident that the prototypical example of the geosyncline mountains is the present day Allegheny mountains and the Carboniferous age coal fields in the eastern United States.

It is also no accident that the typical subdivisions of the coal-making or Carboniferous age are called the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian ages.

Fig. 10) A typical Carboniferous Age gynmosperm equatorial forest filled with ferns, fern trees and evergreen pines and redwoods. The forest floor became a peat bog sometimes miles thick. When the peat bog was buried and compressed it became soft brown bituminous coal. When the trees were buried and compressed they became hard black anthracite coal. The vast coal beds of America, Europe and Asia follow the line of the Paleozoic equatorial geosyncline mountain formations around the world. This was the original equatorial rain forest before the K-T boundary event.

Those ages mark the position and gradual uplifting and expan- sion of the narrow strip of geosyncline mountains above the eight mile deep ocean which still covered the whole rest of the planet. Any place around the world where you now find the narrow strips of wrinkled sinuous geo- syncline mountains and large coal deposits mark the location around the world which was the original tropical rain forest along the equator of the earth during the late Paleo- zoic and Mesozoic periods.

From that observation, it is easy to show that modern scientific attempts to recreate the original position of Pangea are quite wrong, since they don't place the geosynclines mountains and their coal deposits along the equator. If maps of Pangea are rotated clockwise about 45 degrees, and what is now called the Tethys Sea is closed up, then the geosyncline mountains and coal deposits begin to line up with the equator. Thus showing that current ideas about when and where Pangea was located, based on paleomagnetism and other data are simply incorrect.

From the first appearance of land 400 million years ago, to the end of the Cretaceous age 65 million years ago, the lithospheric rocky continental material continued to slide toward the equator and rise higher and higher. The earth, like Tara the skater pulling in her arms, cooled and spun faster and faster. In our model of a bowling ball covered with clay, if spun fast enough, a big chunk of the thick clay layer around the equator of the bowling ball, about half or more, will simply and suddenly break free and fly off into space. Thus releasing a huge amount of angular momentum, and like Tara putting out her arms at the end of her routine, the earth will suddenly slow down and become stable again.

THE UNASKED QUESTIONS: The Result of NOT Asking Questions

The question for you is, what do you think happened to that huge chunk of three fourths of the earth's rocky lithosphere layer when it broke away and spun off into space 65 million years ago? And also what do you think happened to all those huge reptilian dinosaurs remaining on the side of the earth opposite to the point where the big chunk flew off into space, and the earth suddenly slowed down? You get extra points for also figuring out why that made the earth tilt over 65 million years ago and start earth's seasons. Hint: the orbit of the moon is tilted to the ecliptic plane of the planets and the equator of the earth.

If you think this analysis is too new and outlandish to be possible. Maybe not. I published this analysis along with an in-depth rigorous mathematical proof in 1993. I sent copies of the publication to scientists around the world, including all of the scientists at the USGS. It seems the analysis was then too far outside their accepted paradigm. It was completely ignored. But that was their problem, not mine.

In 1993 the Alvarez theory of asteroid impact causing the dinosaur demise was so deeply entrenched in mainstream science that any alternatives were quickly rejected without consideration. But today, the current divisions of theorists between asteroid or volcanic causes, means science is now looking around for new answers - since none of the currently accepted theories seem to work. And as I just pointed out they also don't seem to answer the many other important questions about what else happened at the time of the K-T boundary 65 million years ago.

WHAT REALLY KILLED THE DINOSAURS

CHAPTER FIVE: The K-T Event 65 Million Years Ago

In Chapter Four, we left the earth spinning so rapidly that the rocky continental lithosphere had formed a thick belt or ring around the equator of the solid core of the earth. As the earth spun faster and faster the net gravitational force along the equator, which is the downward non-spinning gravity force minus the upward centrifugal spinning force, soon approaches zero.

Then about 65 million years ago, a large portion of that thick belt of land around the equator had less than zero gravity. Then the only thing holding it to the earth was the mechanical adhesion of the thick fluid lava layer called the asthenosphere. Then it simply overcame that sticky adhesion, something like unzipping a huge strip of Velcro around the equator, and it floated off into space.

That three fourths of the thick rocky ring around the earth carried with it a large amount of the rapidly spinning earth's energy in the form of angular momentum. It spiraled outward and was so large that it formed into a sphere by its own gravity and became what is today called the moon.

A LITTLE MATH GOES A LONG WAY: Happy Birthday Moon

To prove that, let's do a little math. If the earth spins at 24 hours per day, as it does today, then the force of gravity at the equator is about the same as the force of gravity at the north and south poles. If the earth spins faster, in about a 12 hour revolution day, then the force of gravity at the equator is around half of what it would be at the poles. And if the earth spins around in about 7 hours, then the force of gravity becomes rather close to zero at the equator, while the force at the poles remains the same.

There are several planets and moons in the solar system which rotate about that fast. It merely indicates how long the body in space has been cooling and shrinking. Rapid spinning is a normal part of planet and moon evolution, and is caused by the body shrinking with age and the principle of Conservation of Angular Momentum (CAM).

With another quick calculation we can find the volume of the missing three quarters of the rocky continents of earth. Simply take three fourths of the surface area of the earth and multiply that by 37 miles, or the average depth to the hot molten fluid asthenosphere where the separation took place. That volume of the three fourths of the surface material missing from the earth's rocky layer is exactly equal to the volume of the moon. And that calculation also shows the two volumes are exactly the same with an accuracy of about one percent. Amazing.

That amazing fact, that the volume of the moon is exactly equal to the volume of the missing rocky continents of earth does not yet prove that the K-T event might not have been caused by some asteroid impact or some massive volcanic explosion. But another quick calculation will.

CALCULATING THE CAM: The Asteroid Mysteriously Disappears

If you calculate the spinning energy of the earth, actually it's total angular momentum, just prior to 65 million years ago, then the principle of the Conservation of Angular Momentum (CAM) says that even if a portion of the earth separates and flies off into space, all of the angular momentum will "always" be conserved.

If you calculate the total angular momentum of today's earth and the moon and add them together, you will find that the sum is exactly equal to the original angular momentum of a rapid spinning oblate earth rotating with a speed of about 7 hours per revolution. This is important, since it shows that no other body, such as a nearby roaming asteroid impact could have been involved in the process.

If there had been an impact with some asteroid, then the asteroid's angular momentum would have also been transferred to either the earth or moon or both. But since the total angular momentum of the present day earth and moon system is exactly equal to the angular momentum of an oblate earth rapidly spinning at near the "zero g speed" 65 million years ago, then no other body could have been possibly involved in the process. Otherwise, the calculations of angular momenta of before and after the K-T event would not be equal.

VISITING THE PLANETS: Many Moons Ago and the Inverse Bode's Law

A little further calculation can show that almost all of the moons in our solar system were ejected from their parent planet by this very same process. It is a natural part of the aging and evolution of planetary systems. As a rotating planet cools, it spins faster and faster, becoming oblate and unstable. It releases a moon from the oblate surface, just like Tara Lipinski putting out her arms to slow down her spin, decreasing the planet's rotation rate and it becomes stable again. This may be repeated with the larger planets. After a long time, the larger planets continue to cool and shrink and release another moon. The larger the planet the more moons it produces to become stable.

A mathematical proof involves the observation of the Inverse Bode's Law. The Inverse Law shows that the spacing of each of the planets from outward to inward is about 62 percent of the distance of the next outer planet. The Inverse Bode's Law also holds true for the major moons of the solar system, including the formation of a broken ring or asteroid system after the third or fourth planet or moon inward.

The moons also show the same pattern of three or four large regularly spaced moons, a ring system and then several smaller regularly space moons which follow the "law" inside the ring system. Many other smaller atypical moons give away the fact that they are randomly "captured" intruders, and don't follow the "law", since they are very tiny and usually rotate out of the plane of the ecliptic and may even rotate backwards.

That amount of regularity, symmetry and following the same "law" in both the planets of the solar system and the moon systems around the planets cannot be accounted for by the random formation of planets and moons out of a primordial nebula of dust around a star. But using the principle of Conservation of Angular Momentum (CAM), and the observation that the planets and moons are using Tara rotation routines to transfer angular momentum from one body to another can account for the regular spacing, spin rates and relative sizes of the planets and moons. If that is accurate for the other planets and moons, then surely it would also account for the formation of earth's moon.

TIMING THE K-T BOUNDARY EVENT: Dinosaurs With Wrist Watches

So what happened 65 million years ago? Some massive catastrophic earthquake event that shook the earth and killed the dinosaurs, as three fourths of the continents took off into space and became the moon? No. Most of the animals and plants living on the earth's surface would hardly notice much of a change. For most of the Cretaceous Age the animals and plants living on the strip of land around the equator were in an almost zero g environment. It was almost like floating in space or walking on the moon.

What happened after the K-T event was that the force of gravity near the equator, where the animals lived, went from near zero to suddenly increase to about its present force. Other than that, not much difference before and after the K-T event. At that event, dinosaurs wearing watches might notice that the length of the day had changed from 7 hours to 24 hours, but I don't think they noticed.

I should note that when three fourths of the rocky lithosphere, went off into space, so did three fourths of the plants and animals on that land, three fourths of the oceans with the fish in them, along with three fourths of the earth's atmosphere.

Fig. 11) A 6-foot dragonfly, Meganeura, from the Carboniferous era. If you build a model of this dragonfly today, it won't even glide let alone fly. So how did they fly 350 million years ago, unless the earth was far different from today?

But the moon is too small to have enough gravity to hold on to the oceans and atmosphere. Those simply evaporated into the vacuum of space. The moon then became dry and lifeless. But that does account for the existence of mysterious riverbeds, deltas and rills still seen on the dry moon. For a short time the moon was completely covered by water. Even today, the general appearance of the moon close-up is that of rock strewn ocean bottom.

Before the K-T event, with almost zero gravity force, the huge 60 ton dinosaurs could walk around as easily as a chicken crossing the road. With little gravity, the gigantic 6 foot dragon flies could "swim" through the very dense atmosphere as easily as a house fly buzzing past your nose. After the K-T separation event and the increase in gravity from near zero to the present day force, all of the huge mega-fauna, such as dinosaurs, which evolved during the previous several million years, simply were crushed by their own weight.

Fig. 12) A 60-ton Sauropod (lizard-foot) from the Mesozoic era just prior to the K-T event. This animal stood about as tall as a 4 or 5 story building. Decades ago museums displayed models and pictures showing these animals dragging their heavy tails. But evidence from fossil foot prints shows no evidence of tail dragging. Thus they walked with the tails high in the air to balance their long necks. That would only be necessary if they ran very swiftly. Pictures such as this, looking like slow moving giants, like elephants, probably are not accurate. The small running animals shown here are probably more correctly shown.

Only the small animals. both reptiles and mammals, survived. And that is what is seen in the geologic record.

For scientists wanting real numbers, you would need to use two dimensionless scientific numbers called the Reynold's Number and the Froud Number. The Reynold's Number relates viscosity force (air resistance) to gravity force. The Froud Number relates momentum or inertia to gravity force. These are often called the rules of scaling.

Prior to the K-T event huge 6 foot dragonflies were flying, but today even the largest are much smaller than a half foot in size. The Reynold's Number ratio is 10 to one. Prior to the K-T event, 60 ton dinosaurs walked around, while today the biggest walking animals are only about 6 ton elephants. The Froud Number ratio is 10 to one. A quick use of the Reynold's and Froud Numbers would show that prior to the K-T event the net force of gravity along the equator was only about 1/10th of what it is today on earth.

From that ratio of ten to one, you can easily calculate the earth's rotation rate of about 7 hours to produce a net gravity of only about 1/10g. That's almost half of the present day gravity on the moon. As a human being with that small gravity force on earth, you could easily lift cars with one hand, leap tall buildings and wear a big red S on your shirt. The earth was a very different place just prior to the K-T boundary event.

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE GEOLOGIC RECORD: What Do the Chinese Know?

Next we will take another look at the geologic record, but this time with new information. We will also include the evidence brought back from the moon by the Apollo astronauts as part of the "geologic" record. In fact, prior to 65 million years ago, the moon was part of the earth, so it is part of the missing geologic record. We will find that along with three fourths of the missing continents, the moon also has three fourths of the now missing supply of oil, gas, gold, diamonds and all the other valuable "mineral wealth" of the earth. The moon is a vast treasure trove just waiting to be mined. And with riches far greater than on earth.

All of those precious materials are all neatly compacted on the far side of the moon.

Fig. 13) The latest NASA topographical map of the moon. The colors indicate the altitude above average lunar terrain. The dark blue at the top of the near side and dark purple at the bottom of the far side are low spots with a depth of 3 to 5 miles below the average. These low spots are the remnants of the very thin crustal layers from the earth's original north and south polar regions. The large bright red area on the far side slanting from upper left to lower right is the now missing 3/4th of the geosyncline equatorial region of earth. The average height of the red region is about 5 to 7 miles above the average terrain height which is shown in yellow. Thus the moon is not really round at all. It is heavy on the near side and has a very thick layer of much lighter rocky material on the far side.

The near side of the moon, the part we always see, is simply the bottom part of the miss- ing conti- nents or the old heavy iron rich lava asthenosphere. That's why the thin front side is cover- ed with black lava parts called maria.

The lava heavy side of the moon aways points toward us. That's because the heavy side of the moon always points "downward" toward the center of the earth, just as does a pendulum weight always hangs downward toward the center of the earth. And a pendulum may swing back and forth while pointing to the center of the earth, just as does the moon rock back and forth with a motion called Libration. The moon behaves like a pendulum in space with its heavy side always facing downward toward us.

There are no black maria or seas of lava on the far side of the moon. The back side of the moon is appreciably higher and thicker and made of much lighter rocky continental material. It used to be the very thick belt of land around the oblate earth just before it separated. Are there dinosaur fossils on the far side of the moon? Nobody ever asked that question before, so I will let you answer.

It would seem that the backside of the moon would make an ideal space port. Working in one sixth gravity would make mining and manufacturing much easier. The abundance of metallic and ceramic materials in the soil along with vast resources of precious materials and fuel would mean making large spacecraft for long distance travel quite possible and much easier than on earth.

According to NASA, they plan to return to the moon by 2015 to begin a manned space program to other planets. According to the Chinese, they plan to arrive at the moon and stake claims to all the mineral rights just before 2015. Do the Chinese know something about the moon that NASA doesn't?

What we will find by looking again at the geologic record is the evidence showing exactly what really killed the dinosaurs. And why there is a white powdery layer surrounding earth called the K-T boundary which is rich in Indium. Be sure to tell your friends what you just read and where you read it - otherwise they won't believe you.

Scientists Discover 'Second Brain' in the Stomach

2005-07-21T02:17:00.000-07:00

Reposted from Ananova:

Scientists Discover 'Second Brain' in the Stomach

Scientists are claiming to have discovered a second brain - in the human stomach.
The breakthrough, involving experts in the US and Germany, is believed to play a major part in the way people behave.
This 'second brain' is made up of a knot of brain nerves in the digestive tract. It is thought to involve around 100 billion nerve cells - more than held in the spinal cord.
Researchers believe this belly brain may save information on physical reactions to mental processes and give out signals to influence later decisions. It may also be responsible in the creation of reactions such as joy or sadness.
The research is outlined in the latest issue of German science magazine, Geo, in which Professor Wolfgang Prinz, of the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Munich, says the discovery could give a new twist on the old phrase "gut reaction".
He said: "People often follow their gut reactions without even knowing why, its only later that they come up with the logical reason for acting the way they did. But we now believe that there is a lot more to gut feelings than was previously believed."
Professor Prinz thinks the stomach network may be the source for unconscious decisions which the main brain later claims as conscious decisions of its own.
The second brain was rediscovered by Michael Gershorn, of the University of Colombia in New York, after it was forgotten by science. He says it was first documented by a 19th century German neurologist, Leopold Auerbach.
He discovered two layers of nerve cells near a piece of intestine he was dissecting. After putting them under the microscope he found they were part of a complex network.
Recent research has already raised the idea that many reactions may be made in the stomach. Benjamin Libet, of the University of California found the brains of volunteers asked to raise their arms only registered activity about half a second after the movement had been made. He believes his work implies another part of the body may have been involved in making the decision.

White Powder of Gold Progress

2005-05-05T06:10:00.000-07:00

We have just accepted delivery of some critical equipment to produce the White Powder of Gold in larger quantities for marketing purposes! We are using the sodium burn method to produce Pure White Powder of Gold from pure Gold Metal. Are plans are to have this material 300 second burn tested by a reputable lab and have the results published. We have found that most products available on the internet have only a small percentage of actual mono-atomic elements in them. Please stay tuned!

Mel's Second Hole Found!?

2005-05-05T02:52:00.000-07:00

Come On! The most belief-system-shattering story ever aired on the Art Bell radio talk show (now Coast to Coast AM with George Noory; By the way, my good friend David Wolfe, Raw Food Super Guru, was just interviewed by George this last Monday) has GOT to be the story of the hole -- or bottomless pit! -- Mel Water's found on his property in Eastern Washington State. According to Mel, they have thrown refrigerators down the hole and have never heard anything!

To get up to speed quickly, listen to these posted shows. What are posted here are two Art Bell radio shows that Mel Waters was on. His appearances were on January 29 and December 20, 2002. (Please be considerate of others and download ONLY ONE file at a time, as I have limited bandwidth).

Mel Waters on Art Bell.

Now, using the latest techniques developed, I, along with my Super Hero friend (name must remain anonymous, so please don't ask!), am tracking Mel's Second Hole in Nevada! Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but Mel Water's actually found a second hole in Nevada!! Come On!!! The odds that Mel found a second hole are incomprehensible! I am determined to get to the bottom of this -- pun intended! Truth or Hoax? We will soon find out! We believe we have tracked Mel's Second Hole down to about a 50 square mile area in Nevada. Seal Creatures here we come!

Also, according to the folks at Coast to Coast AM, they suspect Mel has found a third hole! Ridiculous! Please stay tuned for the latest developments!