Out of one side of the establishment's mouth we hear excitement about "green shoots", and out of the other side comes breathless warnings of fiscal cliffs and the urgent need for unlimited bailouts by the Fed.
We hear the people begging for jobs and the politicians promising them, but politicians can't create jobs. We see people camped out to buy stuff on Black Friday indicating the consumer economy is seemingly thriving, only to find out everything was bought on credit.
The corporate media does their best to distract us from seeing anything real. We see the media glorify Kim Kardashian who got rich by being famous, and became famous merely by being rich. She got front page coverage on Huffington Post this week because her cat died. Enough said.
Meanwhile the financial media makes the economy seem complicated and they ban anyone who speaks truthfully about the economy from their airwaves.
Is it any wonder why people are angry and confused about the economy?
Well, hopefully these signs that we live in a false economy will help clear up some of that confusion.
1. Fake Jobs: It's not just that the "official" unemployment numbers are a fraud, the actual jobs are fake as well. Ask yourself how many professions actually produce something of value? 80% of jobs could disappear tomorrow and it wouldn't affect basic human survival or happiness in the least. Yes, in our society we need money to survive - and jobs equal money - but that doesn't mean a "job" has any actual benefit to society. More on this in the next point...
2. Problems Create Jobs, Not Solutions: We can't fix real problems, because it would destroy more fake jobs. We can't end the wars and bring all of the personnel home when the jobless rate is already suffering. We can't end the War on Drugs because where would the DEA agents, prison guards, the court system, parole officers, and the rest of their support staff work. We can't simplify the tax code because the bookkeepers, CPAs, accounting professors, and tax attorneys would be unemployed. We cannot reduce the bureaucracy of government or streamline healthcare because paper pushers have few other notable skills. We can't stop spying on Americans because it now employs millions of people. We can't restrict the Wall Street casino, or hardly anyone will be left with a job. Finally, what will happen to university jobs when people either realize their product is not worth the cost or they discover they can get the same education online for nearly free? In other words, we need these manufactured problems to create phony employment.
3. Money Has No Value: Money is the biggest illusion of all. Our money is loaned into existence with arbitrary interest rates by a private monopoly. It is an IOU. It only has value because a law says it has value, and that value fluctuates based on how much supply is in the economy which, again, is controlled by a for-profit monopoly. It's actual value is zero since it is just a piece of paper with fancy ink on it. The only things with real value to humans are skills (labor), tools and materials, food and water, and energy.
4. The Fed Now Buys 90% of the Nation's Debt: Speaking of money, the Federal Reserve loans money to the US government who issues bonds to cover their spending. Those bonds are sold on the open market through auctions to investors who believe in the ability of the United States to make good on those bonds. Apparently, the US has no more investors because the Fed is now buying 90% of new Treasury bonds. This is called monetizing debt, or, essentially, monetizing money. That's what a Ponzi scheme does. This acts to keep interest rates artificially low because they'd have to raise them to attract outside "investors". In layman terms, our whole monetary system is a paper tiger, a house of cards, or whatever metaphor you want to use for fake.
5. What is the Value of Anything? The price discovery mechanism, or the process to determine the value of an asset in the marketplace, has become so convoluted that determining the genuine value of anything has become nearly impossible. Between government subsidies for things like food, fuel, education, housing, insurance and even cars; taxes, regulations and laws; the manipulation of the value of money and interest rates; Wall Street gambling on commodities; what is the real value of something? For example, why does an ounce of marijuana (a weed that can grow anywhere) cost up to $500? Is that the real value based on labor and materials, and supply and demand? Of course not. Its value is inflated mainly due to laws and regulations.
6. Failure is Rewarded: You know we live in a false economy when failure is rewarded and success is penalized. Citizens everywhere are being told they need to tighten their belts, work harder so we can bailout the failed government, banks, insurance companies and even car companies. And when we work harder and achieve some success, they tax it heavily to indefinitely pay for these fraudulent institutions. Yet this infinite money creation and taxation is light years from solving the root cause of the problem. The reality is that the banks' solutions are the problem, enriching the investor class at the expense of the middle class. Global bankers are playing with taxpayer money - and the money of many future generations - in a global casino royale that is destined to fail so they can take the people's assets. They are all-in; but their money is fake, and our assets put at risk are real.
7. Corporate entities have the same rights as humans, but not the same punishments: When the Supreme Court ruled that corporations have free-speech rights of people, it was one of the final nails in the coffin of the republic. Monied interests can now openly finance elections and buy the legislation they need to operate with impunity. Corporations may be comprised of humans, but they are not subjected to the same standard of humanity. It was profoundly argued in the article What if BP Were a Human Being? that judged by common standards of morality, decency, and previously agreed-upon definitions of criminality, BP would be judged a psychopathic killer ... and immortal. Ditto for the rest leading the predatory corporate pack; the most obvious being defense contractors. And since these corporations are now joined at the hip with government itself, what does that make government? By changing definitions, they are attempting to change reality. But that still doesn't make it the truth.
8. People buy things they don't need with money they don't have: In a type of trickle-down debt whirlpool, the government's rampant spending without sufficient assets to back it up is mirrored in the behavior of the American consumer. Despite inflation, rising unemployment, and a continued collapse in real estate, it hasn't stopped credit spending. The Associated Press just reported that for the month of October:
Americans swiped their credit cards more often in October and borrowed more to attend school and buy cars. The increases drove U.S. consumer debt to an all-time high.
The Federal Reserve said Friday that consumers increased their borrowing by $14.2 billion in October from September. Total borrowing rose to a record $2.75 trillion.
Borrowing in the category that covers autos and student loans increased by $10.8 billion. Borrowing on credit cards rose by $3.4 billion, only the second monthly increase in the past five months. (Source)
Most troubling is the type of borrowing highlighted. The worst possible borrowing would be these negative-return investments such as student loans, credit cards, and cars. It is magical thinking taken to the highest degree.
9. Entrepreneurs are punished: It has become nearly impossible to make a simple living on your own. America has become a land filled with bureaucratic red tape that actively thwarts small business creation and criminalizes independence. There is perhaps no better example of this than the attacks waged against the ultimate entrepreneurial endeavor of self-reliance: the family farm. Through collectivist models such as Agenda 21, long-running family farms are being shut down and supplanted with "protected zones." In the most recent case, a family oyster farm was shut down based on provably false scientific data that aimed to demonstrate negative environmental and economic impacts. It was completely fake, ending an 80-year local business that generated 50,000 tourists per year and employed 30 full-time local residents. In many of these cases the federally stolen property winds up in the hands of developers who have no interest in a true local economy. It is an inherent part of any false economy to create dependence where none should exist at all. A five-minute video that can be seen here sums up the American economy of illusions and the death of the American Dream.
10. Engineered Slavery: Do you think slavery died in the 1800s? Think again. Economic hitmen (lenders) have successfully enslaved-by-debt everything from nations, entire industries, state and local governments and nearly every person on the planet. And they bought your servitude with money they never had, they simply created it out of thin air. Even if an individual doesn't have any bank financing or credit cards, they still pay the private Federal Reserve through inflation and income taxes. As author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins, would say: the time has come for the banks to collect their “pound of flesh” from average citizens by way of higher taxes, less social services, and taking your pensions -- "austerity." For an enlightening explanation of how economic hitmen work their dark magic please watch this video. If you're still confused, see these 10 signs you might be a slave. Another, more obvious, form of engineered slavery is prison labor. Laws and regulations are specifically created to add to the prison population which enriches the corporations that own them, while local communities actually become poorer and more dangerous (source).
As George Carlin said, "It's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it." It would be bad enough if it were contained to only one country, but we are now experiencing a global collective dreaming that fantasizes about a government figuring things out just in the nick of time. However, in the real world, the collapse has begun in earnest. Until we are committed to stop being slaves and counter the 10 points above, we will remain in the grip of an hallucination. However, there are encouraging signs through protests worldwide, alternative currency movements, and myriad creative solutions in the most affected countries like Iceland, Greece, and Spain that people are beginning to shake off their sleep, look in the mirror and realize that the dream economy they have been sold was designed to make them seek solutions in entirely the wrong direction.s designed to make them seek solutions in entirely the wrong direction.
In ultimul timp, becurile economice fluorescente s-au bucurat de aprecierea oamenilor. Cu toate acestea, un nou studiu avertizeaza ca aceste becuri emit un nivel alarmant de radiatii ultraviolete, crescând sansele indivizilor de a dezvolta cancer de piele.
Studiul a fost realizat de cercetatorii Stony Brook University, din New York, care au masurat cantitatea de emisii UV si au analizat învelisul de substanta luminiscenta (care ar trebui sa contina radiatii UV) al becurilor. De asemenea, ei au comparat efectele becurilor economice fluorescente asupra celulelor pielii umane cu efectele produse de becurile incandescente. Rezultatele au aratat ca în fiecare bec studiat, aceasta substanta luminiscenta era deteriorata, emitând radiatii.
Celulele umane din piele s-au dovedit a fi afectate atunci când au fost expuse la becuri economice. În schimb, expunerea pielii sanatoase la becuri incandescente nu a avut efecte negative.
"Rezultatele au aratat ca ele pot initia distrugerea celulelor", a declarat unul dintre autorii studiului, Marcia Simon. "De asemenea, pot determina aparitia cancerului de piele în forma sa mortala si anume melanoma", a adaugat Rebecca Tung.
Mai mult, cercetatorii sunt de parere ca aceste becuri pot determina îmbatrânirea prematura.
Becurile economice incandescente pot contine mercur, element chimic care este asociat cu probleme de sanatate, precum leziuni ale nervilor si defecte la nastere.
Pentru ca becurile incandescente au fost interzise în favoarea celor economice fluorescente, o solutie, pentru consumatori, ar fi utilizarea becurilor cu LED.
Few passing London tourists would ever guess that the premises of Bulgari, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street, had anything to do with the pope. Nor indeed the nearby headquarters of the wealthy investment bank Altium Capital, on the corner of St James's Square and Pall Mall.
But these office blocks in one of London's most expensive districts are part of a surprising secret commercial property empire owned by the Vatican.
Behind a disguised offshore company structure, the church's international portfolio has been built up over the years, using cash originally handed over by Mussolini in return for papal recognition of the Italian fascist regime in 1929.
Since then the international value of Mussolini's nest-egg has mounted until it now exceeds Ł500m. In 2006, at the height of the recent property bubble, the Vatican spent Ł15m of those funds to buy 30 St James's Square. Other UK properties are at 168 New Bond Street and in the city of Coventry. It also owns blocks of flats in Paris and Switzerland.
The surprising aspect for some will be the lengths to which the Vatican has gone to preserve secrecy about the Mussolini millions. The St James's Square office block was bought by a company called British Grolux Investments Ltd, which also holds the other UK properties. Published registers at Companies House do not disclose the company's true ownership, nor make any mention of the Vatican.
Instead, they list two nominee shareholders, both prominent Catholic bankers: John Varley, recently chief executive of Barclays Bank, and Robin Herbert, formerly of the Leopold Joseph merchant bank. Letters were sent from the Guardian to each of them asking whom they act for. They went unanswered. British company law allows the true beneficial ownership of companies to be concealed behind nominees in this way.
The company secretary, John Jenkins, a Reading accountant, was equally uninformative. He told us the firm was owned by a trust but refused to identify it on grounds of confidentiality. He told us after taking instructions: "I confirm that I am not authorised by my client to provide any information."
Research in old archives, however, reveals more of the truth. Companies House files disclose that British Grolux Investments inherited its entire property portfolio after a reorganisation in 1999 from two predecessor companies called British Grolux Ltd and Cheylesmore Estates. The shares of those firms were in turn held by a company based at the address of the JP Morgan bank in New York. Ultimate control is recorded as being exercised by a Swiss company, Profima SA.
British wartime records from the National Archives in Kew complete the picture. They confirm Profima SA as the Vatican's own holding company, accused at the time of "engaging in activities contrary to Allied interests". Files from officials at Britain's Ministry of Economic Warfare at the end of the war criticised the pope's financier, Bernardino Nogara, who controlled the investment of more than Ł50m cash from the Mussolini windfall.
Nogara's "shady activities" were detailed in intercepted 1945 cable traffic from the Vatican to a contact in Geneva, according to the British, who discussed whether to blacklist Profima as a result. "Nogara, a Roman lawyer, is the Vatican financial agent and Profima SA in Lausanne is the Swiss holding company for certain Vatican interests." They believed Nogara was trying to transfer shares of two Vatican-owned French property firms to the Swiss company, to prevent the French government blacklisting them as enemy assets.
Earlier in the war, in 1943, the British accused Nogara of similar "dirty work", by shifting Italian bank shares into Profima's hands in order to "whitewash" them and present the bank as being controlled by Swiss neutrals. This was described as "manipulation" of Vatican finances to serve "extraneous political ends".
The Mussolini money was dramatically important to the Vatican's finances. John Pollard, a Cambridge historian, says in Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: "The papacy was now financially secure. It would never be poor again."
From the outset, Nogara was innovative in investing the cash. In 1931 records show he founded an offshore company in Luxembourg to hold the continental European property assets he was buying. It was called Groupement Financier Luxembourgeois, hence Grolux. Luxembourg was one of the first countries to set up tax-haven company structures in 1929. The UK end, called British Grolux, was incorporated the following year.
When war broke out, with the prospect of a German invasion, the Luxembourg operation and ostensible control of the British Grolux operation were moved to the US and to neutral Switzerland.
The Mussolini investments in Britain are currently controlled, along with its other European holdings and a currency trading arm, by a papal official in Rome, Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the pope's merchant banker. Mennini heads a special unit inside the Vatican called the extraordinary division of APSA – Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica – which handles the so-called "patrimony of the Holy See".
According to a report last year from the Council of Europe, which surveyed the Vatican's financial controls, the assets of Mennini's special unit now exceed €680m (Ł570m).
While secrecy about the Fascist origins of the papacy's wealth might have been understandable in wartime, what is less clear is why the Vatican subsequently continued to maintain secrecy about its holdings in Britain, even after its financial structure was reorganised in 1999.
The Guardian asked the Vatican's representative in London, the papal nuncio, archbishop Antonio Mennini, why the papacy continued with such secrecy over the identity of its property investments in London. We also asked what the pope spent the income on. True to its tradition of silence on the subject, the Roman Catholic church's spokesman said that the nuncio had no comment.
Authors: David Leigh, Jean François Tanda and Jessica Benhamou - Source: guardian.co.uk
The world’s largest producer of genetically engineered seeds has been selling genetically modified (GM) in India for the last decade to benefit the Indian farmers – or so the company claims.
In a country of more than 550 million farmers who are largely poor and uneducated and the agriculture market rife with inefficient business practices, the Indian government sought to reform the market by eliminating subsidies and loans to the farmers.
The government reform did not help the farmers. With pressure from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Indian government has “forced market liberalization on India which means the elimination of government subsidies and government-backed loans to farmers.”
Enter Monsanto with its “magic” GM seeds to transform the lives of the poor Indian farmers.
The U.S. agri-business giant took full advantage of its entry into the Indian market. It entered into an agreement with state governments including Rajasthan and Andhara Pradesh to introduce a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that dictated the terms of disseminating the GM technology in Indian market.
For Monsanto, it is one thing to convince farmers to use artificial seeds for the purposes of enriching their lives, it is quite another to manipulate nature and technology to profit from them.
Killer Seeds
The irony is GM seeds have not been effective in India and the consequences are not as rosy as what Monsanto had promised to deliver. Scathing reports of mass suicides of Indian farmers broke out as recently as three years ago when scores of farmers took their own lives in order to escape the burden of high prices and failure of Monsanto’s GM seeds.
Monsanto offered its GM seeds to the farmers of India with hopes of reaping plentiful crops. Plain and mostly uneducated farmers thought Monsanto had come to provide a “magic” formula that would transform their lives. They had no idea what was coming.
Monsanto’s seeds in India did not produce what the company had promised and farmers hoped. The expensive seeds piled up debts and destroyed farming fields. In many instances, the crops simply failed to materialize. The farmers were not aware that the GM seeds required more water than the traditional seeds. And lack of rain in many parts of India exacerbated the crop failure.
With no harvest, the farmers could not pay back the lenders. Burdened with debts and humiliation, the farmers simply took their own lives, some by swallowing poisonous pesticides in front of their families. To date, an estimated 200,000 farmers have committed suicide all over India.
To add to the misery, wives inherited the debts along with the fear of losing their homes and lands. With no money coming in, they also had to pull their kids from the schools. The mass suicide among the Indian farmers is known as the “GM genocide.”
In its company website Monsanto declares that its pledge is “our commitment to how we do business.” And then there are the business philosophies with virtuous words like “integrity” and “transparency.”
Monsanto’s business practices in India quite remarkably live up to the company’s motto. It purposefully leverages its power and influence in government to penetrate farming markets with motive but without morale.
Market Power
Using its colossal market power, Monsanto craftily penetrated into the Indian markets.
Monsanto convinced the Indian government that its GM seeds would produce better crops. According to a report by Farm Wars, one former Managing Director of Monsanto claimed that Monsanto manipulated research data “to get commercial approvals for its products in India.”
Indian regulatory agencies, instead of verifying the data, simply remained compliant with the findings of what Monsanto presented. “They did not even have a test tube to validate the data and, at times, the data itself was faked,” the Farm Wars report says.
Government regulations worked in favor of Monsanto to monopolize the Indian seed market. For example, “Prime Minsiter’s Office” in India pressured various state governments to sign MOUs with Monsanto to privatize the seed market.
Through these “vested interests” with the Indian government, Monsanto eventually has monopolized the GM seed market for more than a decade.
Unable to purchase traditional seeds, the farmers had to pay a hefty price for the expensive GM seeds. Many farmers had to borrow money from the local lenders to buy Monsanto’s seeds. To cite an example of how expensive the GM seeds are, 100 grams of GM cost $15 to the farmers compared with $15 for 1000 grams of traditional seeds.
Vandana Shiva, a renowned scientist and activist in India, wrote that Monsanto had also planned to control water in India. Its aim was to control water supply through privatization. In other words, Monsanto sought to profit from water, a lifeline of Indian livelihood. By seeking control of water, Monsanto also seized the opportunity to benefit from the scarce water supply that plagues communities throughout India.
Manipulation and Misinformation
The failure of Monsanto’s GM seeds was palpable. The farmers held onto their hopes for better crops after they had planted the “magic” seeds. Their crops never came. Throughout the villages in India the harvest from the GM seeds failed. The parasites destroyed the so-called “pest-proof” GM seeds.
Monsanto uses methods of manipulation and misinformation to reap their own benefits and profits at the cost of the farmers who rely on organic methods to grow their crops and animals, a tradition that existed in India for centuries.
By a contractual clause, the farmers could not save Monsanto’s GM seeds for reuse after the first season.
Whether or not the farmers understood this legal binding would merit an examination to underscore the extent of Monsanto’s market power and conniving business practices. Misleading and forcing farmers to buy the GM seeds through government policy and market monopoly must be purged as part of reforming the Indian agricultural market.
Action Against GM seeds
Prince Charles does not like what Monsanto is doing or causing to the lives of farmers in India. He has expressed his contempt for the “bio-tech leaders” and “politicians” who have caused suicides among Indian farmers. His charity organization promotes “long-term benefits of sustainable agriculture” that would provide “decent returns” to the farmers.
Facing pressure from the anti-GM seed activists, NGOs, and local communities, the Indian government gave in. In 2010, Indian Environment Minister issued a temporary “moratorium” on Monsanto to introduce genetically engineered egg plant seeds in India. Only time will tell how long this policy effects will last.
In a country where money, politics, and business often go hand in hand, the farmers are at the mercy of their own fate.
Source: globalresearch.ca - Author: Iqbal Ahmed; he is a public policy graduate student at George Mason University, Arlington, VA. He completed a study abroad program at Oxford University, UK in summer 2011 on European Union (EU) policies. He has written for Foreign Policy Journal, Journal of Foreign Relations, Foreign Policy in Focus, Global Politician, Eurasia Review, and NPR’s “This I believe.”
In entrambi i casi, ci vuole anche una discreta carenza del comune senso del pudore.
"Uno può anche non sapere tutto. Però almeno di quello di cui si occupa dovrebbe essere informato. Aldo Cazzullo si occupa di politica, visto che fa editoriali sulla prima pagina del Corriere della Sera. Oggi scrive un pezzo, dal titolo "La scomparsa degli ecologisti", in cui lamenta il fatto che l'Italia è l'unico posto dove gli ambientalisti sono completamente scomparsi e dove, in tutti i programmi politici, "la tutela del territorio, l’inquinamento delle città, persino le energie alternative passano in secondo piano.". Cazzullo a casa a studiare! Magari con una bella connessione a internet, così da potersi leggere il Programma di un MoVimento politico cui i sondaggi attribuiscono un consenso a due cifre. Qui rasentiamo i limiti del paradosso.
Il MoVimento 5 Stelle, è il punto di riferimento per le politiche ambientali in Italia. Ha sempre dato battaglia all'inquinamento. Ha sempre cercato di ostacolare la costruzione di inceneritori. Ha sempre perseguito politiche di decrescita, di riutilizzo e differenziazione dei rifiuti. Ha sempre criticato il modello produttivo che vende a Milano l'acqua che sgorga in Sicilia e viceversa, in favore di un circuito locale, il cosiddetto Km 0, che permetta di risparmiare soldi e di risparmiare l'ambiente; ha sempre combattuto per uno stile di vita più sano, facendo pressione nelle amministrazioni locali per la dismissione dell'utilizzo delle automobili e per la costruzione di piste ciclabili; ha sempre incentivato l'utilizzo di fonti di energia rinnovabile; ha sempre contribuito a far crescere politiche energetiche davvero rivoluzionarie, come la costruzione di edifici intelligenti, in grado di ridurre i consumi e massimizzare l'efficienza energetica. E tanto, tanto altro che chiunque può verificare. Non è possibile scrivere una colossale falsificazione dello scenario politico italiano come quella scritta da Cazzullo sul principale quotidiano nazionale, senza essere alternativamente o in malafede o totalmente disinformati dell'argomento di cui si parla."
Originally this video was live feedback for rear screen projection behind Terence McKenna in the Seattle nightclub where McKenna gave this, his final talk. At the time no one knew that McKenna was soon to become seriously ill, and that this would be his last public appearence. He passed away a year later on April 3, 2000, at the age of 53, with his loved ones at his bedside.
There was no intention at the time to make this recording available to the public. This edit is made from several cameras and the live video mixing board for the rear screen. This is a new, cleaned-up copy that is clear video footage of Terence McKenna without the additional computer graphics from the 1999 DVD, Psychedelics in the Age of Intelligent Machines. This is availabe on DVD by contacting Dr. Jon via HPX.net.
Date: Recorded Live in Seattle, April 22nd 1999 Produced by: HPX Media, 2004 Cameras: Jason Dix, Rod Hatfield Digital Salvage: Kurt Elzner Starring: Terence McKenna External link: http://www.hpx.net/
"Siamo quello che mangiamo e che beviamo, e tutto ciò resta registrato nei nostri capelli" dice Thure Cerling, geochimico dell'Università dello Utah, che ha condotto una ricerca in proposito insieme a Jim Ehleringer, riferendone i risultati sull'ultimo numero dei Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
"Abbiamo trovato significative variazioni negli isotopi di idrogeno e ossigeno nei capelli e nell'acqua, tali da permettere di identificare una relazione con i posti dove uno ha vissuto negli Stati Uniti", spiega Ehleringer. "La polizia sta già usando queste metodologie per ricostruire le possibili origini delle vittime di omicidi non identificate."
Ehleringer in precedenza aveva già sviluppato un metodo per identificare i siti di produzione di partite di eroina e cocaina sulla base degli isotopi di carbonio, azoto, ossigeno e idrogeno assorbiti dalle piante dal terreno. La nuova tecnica analizza gli isotopi stabili dell'idrogeno (l'idrogeno-2, più raro, e l'idrogeno-1) e di ossigeno (il più raro ossigeno-18 e il più comune ossigeno-16) ricavati da ciò che si mangia, si beve e dall'aria che si respira.
Il rapporto fra ossigeno-18 e ossigeno-16 nell'aria è sostanzialmente identico in tutte le località degli Stati Uniti, e lo stesso vale in realtà sia per gli isotopi dell'ossigeno e dell'idrogeno assorbiti per via alimentare, e questo perché, osservano i ricercatori, la dieta degli americani appare standardizzata in misura notevolissima.Per contro, lo studio ha rivelato una notevole correlazione fra i diversi livelli dei quattro isotopi nei capelli e nell'acqua delle località in cui ha prevalentemente vissuto la persona. All'acqua sarebbe imputabile addirittura l'85 per cento delle variazioni nei livelli di quegli isotopi.
Un singolo capello può dunque rivelare dove ha soggiornato una persona in un periodo variabile fra alcune settimane e alcuni anni, a seconda della lunghezza del capello. Per arrivare a questa conclusione gli scienziati hanno approntato due mappe degli Stati Uniti collezionando un numero enorme di campioni di acqua e (con la collaborazione di associazioni di barbieri) di capelli provenienti delle diverse regioni del paese. Con queste mappa non è possibile definire la località esatta di soggiorno di una persona, ammettono i ricercatori, ma le differenze tra stati sono ben identificabili.
This is the vision of futurist Ray Kurzweil and nutritionist Terry Grossman, M.D., in their popular book, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. In the coming decades, the authors claim, “We will be able to reengineer the way we provide nutrients to our trillions of cells.”
Current method of extracting nutrients from food is not working very well. Nearly two thirds of Americans are overweight and it has become extremely difficult for most people to achieve proper nutrition as we trek through our 21st century maze of confusing health options.
However, by mid-2030s, nutritional needs tailored exclusively to meet each person’s requirements will be more clearly understood. The exact required nutrients could then be provided inexpensively by a nano-replicator and delivered directly into each cell by nanobots; thus eliminating the need to eat food.
Americans love to improve their bodies. We take drugs and vitamins to enhance performance; replace joints, teeth, skin, arteries, and veins as needed. We dream of new hearts, livers, pancreas, and brains, expected from new biotech advances. Now we can add a revolutionary new digestive system to the mix.
To implement this futuristic technology, we would wear a special “nutrient belt” loaded with billions of nutrient-bearing nanobots, which would enter and leave the body through our skin.
However, this concept may not be accepted easily. Many will want to hang on to their food-eating pleasures, so scientists propose an innovative solution; create a special digestive tract to receive real food, but bar those nutrients from entering the blood stream. Nanobots would convert this food into molecules and route it back to the “nutrient belt,” which would be replaced periodically with a fresh one.
Will humanity ever shed its dependency on food? Though this concept sounds extreme, it boasts many advantages. It would slash food budgets by producing inexpensive nutrients with nano-replicators; end concerns over starving populations; improve the ecosphere by reducing agricultural activities; and most important, every human being would live in a forever-healthy non-obese body. Comments welcome.
Source: ieet.org - Author: Dick Pelletier; he is a weekly columnist who writes about future science and technologies for numerous publications. He's also appeared on various TV shows, and he blogs at Positive Futurist.
Quando si tratta di prendere decisioni con rapidità, il cervello passa a una modalità di funzionamento diversa rispetto a quella all'opera nel caso di decisioni ponderate e accurate. Lo hanno dimostrato Richard Heitz e Jeffrey Schall della Vanderbilt University con una ricerca pubblicata su "Neuron", che smentisce il modello di riferimento attuale dell'attività del cervello in questo tipo di processo decisionale.
Il compromesso tra velocità e accuratezza è un problema essenziale per la capacità di prendere decisioni ed è stato studiato sia nel campo del comportamento sia in termini di funzionamento cerebrale, fino all'elaborazione di un semplice modello, secondo il quale il cervello usa essenzialmente la stessa modalità per decidere in modo ponderato oppure in modo rapido. Secondo questo modello, per ridurre il tempo dedicato a un processo decisionale semplicemente il cervello riduce l'attività neuronale richiesta prima di prendere una decisione. Questo implica che nel caso di scelte istantanee il cervello si basi su una quantità di informazione minore rispetto a quella che entra in gioco nelle scelte più ponderate e accurate. Come conseguenza, quindi, aumenta la probabilità di commettere un errore.
Tuttavia, prima dello studio di Heitz e Schall, l'analisi del processo decisionale non è era mai arrivati a livello di singoli neuroni. Infatti, sebbene siano disponibili test con cui indurre in soggetti il passaggio da una modalità di funzionamento all'altra, i metodi di misurazione dell'attività cerebrale umana non hanno la velocità o la risoluzione necessaria. Nel caso delle scimmie, invece, sono disponibili adeguate tecniche di misurazione, ma non era noto un metodo con cui far cambiare agli animali la velocità di una decisione.
La svolta è arrivata con lo sviluppo, da parte di Heitz e Schall, di un metodo con cui addestrare le scimmie a passare da una decisione lenta e accurata a una rapida, scegliendo uno degli oggetti di un gruppo visualizzati al computer. In una condizione sperimentale, le scimmie hanno imparato che solo una decisione ponderata sarebbe stata ricompensata. In un'altra, hanno imparato che la decisione andava presa in fretta, anche commettendo qualche errore. In entrambi i casi, i ricercatori hanno monitorato l'attività di singoli neuroni nella corteccia prefrontale, l'area cerebrale deputata ai processi cognitivi di ordine superiore.
Dai dati è emerso che in tutte e due le condizioni sperimentali inizialmente l'attività della corteccia prefrontale aumentava mentre la scimmia decideva come rispondere, ovvero subito dopo la visualizzazione degli oggetti su uno schermo. Le differenze emergevano successivamente: quando l'animale era sottoposto a uno “stress di rapidità", l'attività neurale era amplificata; quando invece le condizioni erano di “stress di accuratezza”, la stessa attività era soppressa. Tutto questo ha permesso di concludere che “una stessa informazione è stata analizzata dal cervello in modi differenti nelle due situazioni di stress”, ha sottolineato Schall.
Si tratta di un risultato inatteso, che smentisce l'attuale modello dei processi decisionali, usato anche nella descrizione di disturbi psichiatrici e neurologici. Si apre quindi un conflitto tra differenti modelli di funzionamento cerebrale che potrà essere risolto solo con successive ricerche.
Stressed, burdened with life's difficult problems and fear that your health is declining? Then sex is the answer to happiness, longevity and a healthy body. You don't agree? Well, here is a list of the health benefits of sex, so do it daily to experience complete pleasure. These are 16 reasons to have sex today!
1. De-stress Sex helps you reduce stress. When deep breathing exercises fail to de-stress you, sex will do the needful.
During sex your body produces dopamine, a substance that fights stress hormones, endorphins, aka "happiness hormones" and oxytocin, a desire-enhancing hormone secreted by the pituitary gland. In a study, published in the Public Library of Science journal, three neuroscience researchers conducted a test on male rats and found that the sexually active rats were less anxious than rats with no sexual activity.
2. Great Form of Exercise Making love is a form of physical activity. During intercourse, the physiological changes in your body are consistent with a workout. You must have noticed that the respiratory rate rises, which means you get tired. Hence, you burn calories. If you have sex three times a week for 15 minutes (but we know you can do better than that) you'll burn about 7.500 calories in a year. That's the equivalent of jogging 75 miles! Heavy breathing raises the amount of oxygen in your cells, and the testosterone produced during sex keeps your bones and muscles strong.
3. Lowers high blood pressure Hugs and sex can improve your blood pressure. Sex reduces diastolic blood pressure, that is, the bottom number while reading blood pressure.
Researchers with the University of Paisley conducted an experiment on the same. They concluded that sex improves blood pressure.
4. Builds your immunity Trying to fight the sniffles? Sex is the answer to fight cold and other health problems; sex can boost your immunity.
Immunoglobulin A, an antigen that fights the flu increases when the frequency of sex increases.
5. Makes You Look Younger Making love three times a week can make you look 10 years younger, claims a Scottish researcher. "It's good for you to have good sex," says David Weeks, a clinical neuropsychologist at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, whose study on the effects of sex on aging appears in his book, Secrets of the Superyoung.
6. Healthy heart Sex helps you burn calories but it can also improve your heart. Sex will take care of stroke and heart attacks, you just have to enjoy the moment.
Scientists with New England Research Institute examined the effect of sex on the heart. The study concluded that men are 45 percent less likely to experience cardiovascular diseases. But the study fails to study the effect of sex on a woman's heart.
7. Pain relief Pleasure is the measure to beat out the pain. Do you experience migraines and body pain? Well sex is the answer. But if you experience back pain, it is best to consult a doctor.
Dr. George E. Erlich, an arthritis specialist from Philadelphia conducted a study on the link between arthritis and sex. He narrows down that patients who engaged in sex experienced less pain.
8. Builds trust and intimacy The act of sex spikes the hormone oxytocin; this hormone is responsible for your happiness and love. If your feel your relationship is falling out, there is trust or you're worried that your partner will stray away, then sex will dispel these doubts. The hormone oxytocin builds trust and brings couples closer, and cupid too.
9. Less chances of cancer Regular ejaculation reduces your chances of developing prostate cancer. In an Australian study men who ejaculated 21 times a month were least likely to develop cancer. It is further supported by other researches that sexual intercourse reduces the risk of prostrate cancer.
10. Stronger pelvic muscles Sex involves the use of several muscles; hence regular sexual intercourse can help you develop stronger pelvic muscles. Further, since the act of sex involves a range of muscles, it also helps strengthen these muscles - for ex: quads, your core, and the upper back. Through regular sex, you can also maintain a strong bladder and bowel function.
Strong muscles, calorie burner, improves heart health - sex seems to take care of you.
11. Prostate Protection Most of the fluid you ejaculate is secreted by the prostate gland. If you stop ejaculating, the fluid stays in the gland, which tends to swell, causing lots of problems. Regular ejaculation will wash those fluids out and ensure the well being of your prostate until old age. Problems may also occur when you suddenly change the frequency of ejaculations.
12. Induces sleep After that great, lovely workout you are bound to get good sleep. But guess what? Sex works the same way as exercise. The increased heart rate leads to increased post-coital relaxation. Sex could be the next thing for insomniacs! So what really happens: - Sex can relax you, hence if you are already tired, the act of sex will induce sleep. - When men ejaculate they become lethargic, this can make them sleepy.
13. Regular periods Apparently sex can improve your menstrual cycle. Sex regulates hormones, which in turn regulate the menstrual cycle. Sex reduces stress, which is one of the reasons women miss their periods. Sex seems like a better option than pills.
14. Prevents Erectile Dysfunctions Fifty per cent of men older than 40 suffer from erectile dysfunctions and all young men fear the moment when they won't be able to get it up any more. The best medicine against impotence is...sex. An erection keeps the blood flowing through your penile arteries, so the tissue stays healthy. Plus, doctors compare an erection to an athletic reflex: the more you train the more capable you are to perform.
15. Live longer A healthy heart, stronger muscles, increased circulation of oxygen and happiness are some of the factors that add life to the years and as a result - years to your life.
A study published in the British Medical Journal reveals that men who engaged in sex often live twice as those who rarely had any action.
16. Healthier semen If you're trying to conceive, you increase the volume of semen if you have sex regularly. Regular sex replaces old sperms from the testicles. If there is a natural build of sperms it can lead to DNA damage.
(p)Link
Commenti
Storico
Stampa
Feed RSS 0.91
Feed Atom 0.3
