Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Most Beautiful Places to Visit in the World


Ice Canyon, Greenland
The Greenland ice sheet (Greenlandic: Sermersuaq) is a vast body of ice covering 1,710,000 square kilometres (660,235 sq mi), roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the world, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The ice sheet is almost 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) long in a north-south direction, and its greatest width is 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) at a latitude of 77°N, near its northern margin. The mean altitude of the ice is 2,135 metres (7,005 ft) -

Sunset Over Lavender Fields – Valensole Provence, France. Photo by Jarrod Castaing.

This beautiful train tunnel of trees called the Tunnel of Love is located in Kleven, Ukraine. Photo By Oleg Gordienko

This beautiful train tunnel of trees called the Tunnel of Love is located in Kleven, Ukraine. Nothing else is known about this place. Can anybody throw some light here.

Canal Cruiser – Amsterdam, Holland

The first pleasure cruise in the history of the Amsterdam canals took place in 1621 when Queen Elisabeth Stuart of Bohemia was welcomed into the city in a parade of festively decorated admiralty sloops, with thousands of Amsterdammers cheering on bridges and canal-sides.

What is Corn Spliced With? GMO Genes Revealed!

For exactly three decades genetically modified organisms(GMOs) for agricultural purposes have been in production. Under the premise of “trying to feed the world”, agricultural, chemical and chemical defense companies, their investors included, have given great praise to the transgenic creations their science teams have invented. If the products of genetically modified foods are so amazing that they will “end hunger” then why is the language praising them so uninformative, so incomplete, and why is the public uneducated as to what they even are?
If those who produce GMOs aren’t going to educate the public on what their products contain, and their results, then we might as well perform the research and bring the knowledge for you. As a means of education this article will specifically highlight the GMO technology ‘Bt’. We’ll talk a bit about the origination of Bt, it’s use within GMO technology, the byproducts that have resulted from it’s use and conclude with health and environmental effects.
What does the Bt stand for anyway?
“Bacillus thuringiensis, or simply Bt, is a naturally occurring soil bacterium that, when sprayed on plants, is toxic to certain pest insects. For years, farmers and home gardeners have used Bt as a microbial spray pesticide to control caterpillars, certain types of beetles, as well as mosquitoes and black flies.”
EPA on Bt Regulation
What is Corn Spliced With? GMO Genes Revealed! - Exposing The TruthIt’s unbelievable that even this small bit of information is completely unknown to the average person who eats produce containing Bt, Bt genes or it’s byproduct almost daily. Bacillus thuringiensis has been used as a natural insecticide for nearly a century and can still be bought by anyone in it’s natural form today. This natural insecticide was first discovered by the Japanese scientist, Shigetane Ishiwatari, in 1901 while investigating the sotto disease. The sotto disease was a large problem at that time as it was killing the silkworm population, and silk is a very important cultural and economic resource in the region. When Ishiwatari isolated the bacterium he named it Bacillus sotto but when it was rediscovered in 1911 killing moths in Thuringia, Germany. The German scientist Ernst Berliner had renamed it to what we know today, but Bt wasn’t actively used as an insecticide by humans until the year 1920 in France.
The History of Bt
Bt in it’s natural form is considered a safe, natural and non-toxic insectide that is deadly to specific insects. For Bt to kill these insects it first has to be eaten. Upon digestion crystalline protein chains are released which slowly punch holes through the insect’s cell walls, causing the insect to stop eating, and spores of Bt begin germinating throughout the insects entire body. Different Bt strains kill certain types of insects, each Bt strain can only attach to specific types of receptors in the gut.
How Does Bt Work?
Effects on the environment are largely considered mild. It is a soil bacterium and thrives at body temperature. When exposed to higher temperatures such as sunlight (UV light), however, its half-life greatly decreases to around 3.8 hours. As soon as it is exposed to a warmer-than-normal medium, B. thuringiensis’ spores start deteriorating and lose viability within four days. Normally, a short half-life is bad. But in Bt’s case, it is actually good in that the short half-life minimizes insect resistance. Additionally, when field tests were performed on a sample of transgenic corn, researchers discovered better protection from root damage by Western corn rootworm than by chemical pesticides.
Bacillus thuringiensis Wiki
Bacillus thuringiensis Goes Transgenic
Bt seems to have a bright future until the 1990s, when bugs around the world began to evolve, growing extremely resistant to pesticides. The European corn borer, the bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) and arthropods of all sorts were becoming worse pests than they ever had been before. Alike the story of any sci-fi novel, the solution to this devestating problem had come from a very interesting source, but this story is reality.
During the 1980s, research teams in laboratories from many different corners of the world had been developing a very interesting technology. This technology is what we know of today as genetic modification, the organisms referred to as GMOs or transgenic life forms.
Though working with plants was not the first time a transgenic being had come to life, scientists had been working with identifying key genes in Bt strains and applying them to plants such as tobacco, tomato and cotton. These new transgenic plants were trial tested in the mid to late 1980s, the plants were successful at producing the crystal protein chains that tear the guts of susceptible insects apart.
Transgenic Plants: Present Status and Social and Economic Impacts
Academic Press, Oct 14, 1992
What is Corn Spliced With? GMO Genes Revealed! - Exposing The Truth
“A timeline of information about the discoveries and advances made in genetics. Note the speed at which this area of science has evolved in the last thirty years.”
A brief history of genetic modification
The following link describes a long history of Bt and it’s many uses within the field of GMO technology.
Insect Resistant Plants and Genetic Engineering
Transgenic Bt Plants and Human Health
Now, the thing is that these Bt toxins are actually not even harmless to mammals (Portilho et al., 2013) and we need to ask ourselves about the ecological sense in creating something which cannot be eaten by the other organisms in the ecosystem.
Are GMOs All Bad? The Truth About GMOs
Just what was Michael Thomas, fellow write at Exposing The Truth, trying to tell us? According to the report he was referencing, the use of specific Bt genes in GMOs rendered the strains hematotoxic! Hematoxins destroy red blood cells, disrupt blood clotting and may cause damage to cell tissues and organs. While this may not be the case in the use of natural Bt, transgenic plants spliced with certain types of Bt may cause a massive amount of health problems when consumed over a long period of time. The more of this stuff we eat the more toxic our blood becomes.
Portilho et al., 2013
What is Corn Spliced With? GMO Genes Revealed! - Exposing The Truth
How could this have happened, why wouldn’t the researchers have known that this would be a problem? When it comes to Genetically Modified Organisms, specifically in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration’s approval policy is currently 21 years old. The approval system is very outdated, especially for these times in which scientific discovery and progress occurs nearly overnight! The story does become more fishy though, something just doesn’t seem right about sacrificing human health in the name of progress.
The FDA policy (unchanged since 1992) places responsibility on the producer or manufacturer to assure the safety of the food, explicitly relying on the producer/manufacturer to do so:
“Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the producer of a new food to evaluate the safety of the food and assure that the safety requirement of section 402(a)(1) of the act is met.”
So it is the company, not any independent scientific review, providing the research that is relied on to assert safety. FDA guidance to industry issued in 1997 covered voluntary “consultation procedures,” but still relied on the developer of the product to provide safety data. There is currently no regulatory scheme requiring GM food to be tested to see whether it is safe for humans to eat.
The FDA approach can be understood as the result of having a dual mission. In addition to its mission to protect food safety, the FDA was charged with promotion of the biotech industry.”
American Bar Association: FDA and Regulation of GMOs
Health Studies
The scientists already knew that Bt toxin was very toxic and potentially deadly at levels above 270 milligrams per kilogram (basically ppm), so they instead tested levels ranging from 27mg/kg, 136mg/kg, and 270mg/kg for one to seven days (each of the Cry toxins were separated out and tested individually to maximize accuracy and total info). It was quite clear right off the bat that these Cry toxins were quite hemotoxic even at the lowest level of 27mg/kg administered only one time and one day as they clearly had damaged the blood, particularly in reference to red blood cells. The quantity and size of the erythrocytes (RBCs) were both significantly reduced, as was the overall levels of hemoglobin for which oxygen to attach to.
New Study Proves Bt Toxins in GMOs Toxic to Mammalian Blood
Dangerous Toxins From Genetically Modified Corn Found in Blood of Women and Fetuses
Mercola Article
Bt Toxin Kills Human Kidney Cells
I-Sis Article
“A groundbreaking new study published in the current issue of the Journal of Hematology & Thromboembolic Diseases reveals the potential “leukemogenic” properties of the Bt toxin biopesticides engineered into the vast majority of GMO food crops already within the US food supply.”
Green Med Info
The manners in which we go about these methods has to change. Genetic engineering has the potential of being an amazingly wonderful technology, but when society allows things so complex to go on unchecked is when things run astray. Is it possible to engineer life that isn’t harmful to the natural environment? Can we learn, as a species, to grow in harmony with all around us or will we fall victim to our own necessity for progress?

How Long to Nap for the Biggest Brain Benefits

Taking a nap, we've seen time and again, is like rebooting your brain. But napping may be as much of an art as it is a science. Scientists offer recommendations for planning your perfect nap, including how long to nap and when.
 P
The sleep experts in the article say a 10-to-20-minute power nap gives you the best "bang for your buck," but depending on what you want the nap to do for you, other durations might be ideal:
For a quick boost of alertness, experts say a 10-to-20-minute power nap is adequate for getting back to work in a pinch.
For cognitive memory processing, however, a 60-minute nap may do more good, Dr. Mednick said. Including slow-wave sleep helps with remembering facts, places and faces. The downside: some grogginess upon waking.
Finally, the 90-minute nap will likely involve a full cycle of sleep, which aids creativity and emotional and procedural memory, such as learning how to ride a bike. Waking up after REM sleep usually means a minimal amount of sleep inertia, Dr. Mednick said.P
In addition to those recommendations, one surprising suggestion is to sit slightly upright during your nap, because it will help you avoid a deep sleep. And if you find yourself dreaming during your power naps, it may be a sign you're sleep deprived. While you're planning your nap, don't forget to time it during the right time of day as well.

His First 4 Sentences Are Interesting. The 5th Blew My Mind. And Made Me A Little Sick


Be the smartest person at your next cocktail party by repeating this whole sickeningly fact-checked speech. John Green is kind of amazing. He knows his facts way better than you or me. And they are mind-blowing and/or horrifying.
 


Sunday, September 29, 2013

Spain Study Confirms Cannabis Oil Cures Cancer Without Side Effects

The medical science is strongly in favor of THC laden hemp oil as a primary cancer therapy, not just in a supportive role to control the side effects of chemotherapy. The International Medical Verities Association is putting hemp oil on its cancer protocol. It is a prioritized protocol list whose top five items are magnesium chloride, iodine, selenium, Alpha Lipoic Acid and sodium bicarbonate. It makes perfect sense to drop hemp oil right into the middle of this nutritional crossfire of anti cancer medicines, which are all available without prescription.
Hemp oil has long been recognized as one of the most versatile and beneficial substances known to man. Derived from hemp seeds (a member of the achene family of fruits) it has been regarded as a superfood due to its high essential fatty acid content and the unique ratio of omega3 to omega6 and gamma linolenic acid (GLA) – 2:5:1. Hemp oil, is known to contain up to 5% of pure GLA, a much higher concentration than any other plant, even higher than spirulina. For thousands of years, the hemp plant has been used in elixirs and medicinal teas because of its healing properties and now medical science is zeroing in on the properties of its active substances.
Both the commercial legal type of hemp oil and the illegal THC laden hemp oil are one of the most power-packed protein sources available in the plant kingdom. Its oil can be used in many nutritional and trans-dermal applications. In other chapters in my Winning the War on Cancer book we will discuss in-depth about GLA and cancer and also the interesting work of Dr. Johanna Budwig. She uses flax seed oil instead of hemp oil to cure cancer – through effecting changes in cell walls – using these omega3 and omega6 laden medicinal oils.
Actually there is another way to use medical marijuana without smoking the leaf. According to Dr. Tod H. Mikuriya, “The usual irritating and toxic breakdown products of burning utilized with smoking are totally avoided with vaporization. Extraction and inhaling cannabinoid essential oils below ignition temperature of both crude and refined cannabis products affords significant mitigation of irritation to the oral cavity, and tracheobronchial tree from pyrollytic breakdown products.[iii]

Dr. Mikuriya continues saying “The usual irritating and toxic breakdown products of burning utilized with smoking are totally avoided with vaporization. Extraction and inhaling cannabinoid essential oils below ignition temperature of both crude and refined cannabis products affords significant mitigation of irritation to the oral cavity, and tracheobronchial tree from pyrollytic breakdown products.”
Rick Simpson, the man in the above mentioned videos, has been making hemp oil and sharing it with friends and neighbors without charging for it. In small doses, he says, it makes you well without getting you high. “Well you can’t deny your own eyes can you?” Simpson asks. “Here’s someone dying of cancer and they’re not dying anymore. I don’t care if the medicine comes from a tomato plant, potato plant or a hemp plant, if the medicine is safe and helps and works, why not use it?” he asks.
When a person has cancer and is dying this question reaches a critical point. The bravery of Rick Simpson from Canada in showing us how to make hemp oil for ourselves offers many people a hope that should be increasingly appreciated as money dries up for expensive cancer treatments. We are going to need inexpensive medicines in the future and there is nothing better than the ones we can make reasonably cheaply ourselves.
For most people in the world it is illegal so the choice could come down to breaking the law or dying. There is no research to indicate what advantages oral use of hemp oil vs. vaporization but we can assume that advantage would be nutritional with oral intake. Dr. Budwig Below work would sustain this point of view especially for cancer patients.
The Science
According to Dr. Robert Ramer and Dr. Burkhard Hinz of the University of Rostock in Germany medical marijuana can be an effective treatment for cancer.[v] Their research was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access on December 25th of 2007 in a paper entitled Inhibition of Cancer Cell Invasion by Cannabinoids via Increased Expression of Tissue Inhibitor of Matrix Metalloproteinases-1.
The biggest contribution of this breakthrough discovery, is that the expression of TIMP-1 was shown to be stimulated by cannabinoid receptor activation and to mediate the anti-invasive effect of cannabinoids. Prior to now the cellular mechanisms underlying this effect were unclear and the relevance of the findings to the behavior of tumor cells in vivo remains to be determined.
Marijuana cuts lung cancer tumor growth in half, a 2007 Harvard Medical School study shows. The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.
This is the first set of experiments to show that the compound, Delta-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), inhibits EGF-induced growth and migration in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expressing non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. Lung cancers that over-express EGFR are usually highly aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy. THC that targets cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors.
“The beauty of this study is that we are showing that a substance of abuse, if used prudently, may offer a new road to therapy against lung cancer,” said Anju Preet, Ph.D., a researcher in the Division of Experimental Medicine. Acting through cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, endocannabinoids (as well as THC) are thought to play a role in variety of biological functions, including pain and anxiety control, and inflammation.
Researchers reported in the August 15, 2004 issue of Cancer Research, the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, that marijuana’s constituents inhibited the spread of brain cancer in human tumor biopsies.[vii] In a related development, a research team from the University of South Florida further noted that THC can also selectively inhibit the activation and replication of gamma herpes viruses. The viruses, which can lie dormant for years within white blood cells before becoming active and spreading to other cells, are thought to increase one’s chances of developing cancers such as Kaposi’s Sarcoma, Burkitt’s lymphoma and Hodgkin’s disease.
In 1998, a research team at Madrid’s Complutense University discovered that THC can selectively induce programmed cell death in brain tumor cells without negatively impacting surrounding healthy cells. Then in 2000, they reported in the journal Nature Medicine that injections of synthetic THC eradicated malignant gliomas (brain tumors) in one-third of treated rats, and prolonged life in another third by six weeks.
Led by Dr. Manuel Guzman the Spanish team announced they had destroyed incurable brain cancer tumors in rats by injecting them with THC. They reported in the March 2002 issue of “Nature Medicine” that they injected the brains of 45 rats with cancer cells, producing tumors whose presence they confirmed through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). On the 12th day they injected 15 of the rats with THC and 15 with Win-55,212-2 a synthetic compound similar to THC.
Researchers at the University of Milan in Naples, Italy, reported in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics that non-psychoactive compounds in marijuana inhibited the growth of glioma cells in a dose-dependent manner, and selectively targeted and killed malignant cells through apoptosis. “Non-psychoactive CBD produce[s] a significant anti-tumor activity both in vitro and in vivo, thus suggesting a possible application of CBD as an antineoplastic agent.”
The first experiment documenting pot’s anti-tumor effects took place in 1974 at the Medical College of Virginia at the behest of the U.S. government. The results of that study, reported in an Aug. 18, 1974, Washington Post newspaper feature, were that marijuana’s psychoactive component, THC, “slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36 percent.”
Funded by the National Institute of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice — lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia. The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further cannabis/tumor research even though the researchers “found that THC slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36 percent.”
“Antineoplastic Activity of Cannabinoids,” an article in a 1975 Journal of the National Cancer Institute reports, “Lewis lung adenocarcinoma growth was retarded by the oral administration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabinol (CBN)” — two types of cannabinoids, a family of active components in marijuana. “Mice treated for 20 consecutive days with THC and CBN had reduced primary tumor size.”
Marijuana relieves pain that narcotics like morphine and OxyContin have hardly any effect on, and could help ease suffering from illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes and cancer.
According to Devra Davis in her book Secret History of the War on Cancer, 1.5 million lives have been lost because Americans failed to act on existing knowledge about the environmental causes of cancer. It is impossible to calculate the added deaths from suppressed ‘cancer cures’ but we do know of the terrible suffering of hundreds of thousands of people who have been jailed for marijuana use.
Hemp oil with THC included has the making of a primary cancer treatment, which even alone seems to have a great chance of turning the tide against cancer tumors. It has the added advantage of safety, ease of use, lack of side effects and low cost if one makes it oneself. Surrounded by other medicinal anti-cancer substances in a full protocol it’s hard to imagine anyone failing and falling in their war on cancer.
THC should be included in every cancer protocol.
Sodium bicarbonate is another excellent anti tumor substance that reduces tumors but is much more difficult to administer than THC hemp oil. Cannabinoids are able to pass through all barriers in the body like Alpha Lipoic Acid so simple oral intake is sufficient. With bicarbonate we need intravenous applications and often even this is not sufficient, often we have to use catheters and few doctors in the world are willing to administer this way.
In the end all cancer treatments that are not promoted by mainstream oncology are illegal. No licensed doctor is going to claim that are curing cancer with sodium bicarbonate though they will treat people with cancer explaining they are balancing pH or some other metabolic profile with this common emergency room medicine found also most kitchens of the world. More than several states have passed laws making medical marijuana legal but the federal government will not relax and let people be free to choose their treatments even if their lives depend on it.
Davis notes that the cowardice of research scientists, who publish thoroughly referenced reports but pull their punches at the end, by claiming that more research needs to be done before action can be taken. Statements like these are exploited by industry that buys time to make much more money. It is a deliberate attempt that creates wholesale public doubt from small data gaps and remaining scientific uncertainties.
They have done that with everything right up to and including sunlight. Everything is thought to be dangerous except the pharmaceutical drugs which are the most dangerous substances of all. Stomach wrenching chemotherapy and the death principle of radiation are legal yet safe THC laden hemp oil is not.

It is legal for doctors to attack people with their poisons but you can go to jail for trying to save yourself or a loved one from cancer with the oil of a simple garden weed. Our civilization has put up with this insanity but there is a great price being paid. In a mad medical world people die that need not and this is a terrible sadness that has destroyed the integrity and ethics of modern medicine.
The science for the use of hemp oil is credible, specific fact-based, and is documented in detail. There is absolutely no reason to not legalize medical marijuana and create an immediate production and distribution of THC hemp oil to cancer patients. Unfortunately we live in a world populated with governments and medical henchmen who would rather see people die cruel deaths then have access to a safe and effect cancer drug.
Meanwhile the Food and Drug Administration approved Genentech’s best-selling drug, Avastin, as a treatment for breast cancer, in a decision, according to the New York Times, “that appeared to lower the threshold somewhat for approval of certain cancer drugs. The big question was whether it was enough for a drug temporarily to stop cancer from worsening — as Avastin had done in a clinical trial — or was it necessary for a drug to enable patients to live longer, which Avastin had failed to do. Oncologists and patient advocates were divided, in part because of the drug’s sometimes severe side effects.”
The differences between Avastin and hemp oil are huge. First Avastin will earn Genentech hundreds of millions where THC hemp oil will earn no one anything. Second there are no severe or even mild side effects to taking hemp oil and lastly it is not a temporary answer but a real solution. Certainly hemp oil will ensure a longer life.

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