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Imaging Utopia: New Perspectives on Northern Renaissance …

Posted on March 10, 2018 by ev1

Imaging Utopia: New Perspectives on Northern Renaissance ArtXXth symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting

Illuminare Centre for the Study of Medieval Art (University of Leuven), Belgium, 11-13 January 2017

International conference

Illuminare Centre for the Study of Medieval Art is pleased to present the XXth symposium for the study of underdrawing and technology in painting. This symposium will take place in Mechelen and Leuven from 11 to 13 January 2017. The twentieth symposium of this distinguished conference series is entitled Imaging Utopia: New perspectives on Northern Renaissance Art. The conference aims to examine sixteenth-century Northern art from a variety of approaches, extending the original, more technical scope of the symposium to include art historical and iconological perspectives. After successful editions on Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck among others, this symposium will focus on the period in-between the Flemish Primitives and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The latter will be the topicof the XXIst edition hosted by KIK-IRPA (Brussels).

The partners of the XXth symposium are Illuminare Centre for the Study of Medieval Art (University of Leuven), Erfgoed Mechelen (Museums & Heritage Mechelen) Universit catholique de Louvain (UCL), KIK-IRPA (Brussels) and the Flemish Research Centre for the Arts in the Burgundian Netherlands (Musea Brugge).

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Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America …

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Danzig

The demon is a mob, and the mob is demonic. The Democratic Party activates mobs, depends on mobs, coddles mobs, publicizes and celebrates mobsit is the mob. Sweeping in its scope and relentless in its argument, Demonic explains the peculiarities of liberals as standard groupthink behavior. To understand mobs is to understand liberals. In her most provocative book to date, Ann Coulter argues that liberals exhibit all the psychological characteristics of a mob, for instance: Liberal Groupthink: The same mob mentality that leads otherwise law-abiding people to hurl rocks at cops also leads otherwise intelligent people to refuse to believe anything they havent heard on NPR.

Liberal Schemes: No matter how mad the plan isFraternit, the New Soviet Man, the Master Race, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, Building a New Society, ObamaCarea mob will believe it.

Liberal Enemies: Instead of counterrevolutionaries, liberals opponents are called haters, those who seek to divide us, tea baggers, and right-wing hate groups. Meanwhile, conservatives call liberals liberalsand that makes them testy.

Liberal Justice: In the world of the liberal, as in the world of Robespierre, there are no crimes, only criminals.

Liberal Violence: If Charles Mansons followers hadnt killed Roman Polanskis wife, Sharon Tate, Clinton would have pardoned him, too, and hed probably be teaching at Northwestern University.Citing the father of mob psychology, Gustave Le Bon, Coulter catalogs the Lefts mob behaviors: the creation of messiahs, the fear of scientific innovation, the mythmaking, the preference for images over words, the lack of morals, and the casual embrace of contradictory ideas.

Coulter traces the history of the liberal mob to the French Revolution and Robespierres revolutionaries (delineating a clear distinction from Americas founding fathers), who simply proclaimed that they were exercising the general will before slaughtering their fellow citizens for the good of mankind.

Similarly, as Coulter demonstrates, liberal mobs, from student radicals to white-trash racists to anti-war and pro-ObamaCare fanatics today, have consistently used violence to implement their idea of the general will.

This is not the American tradition; it is the tradition of Stalin, of Hitler, of the guillotineand the tradition of the American Left.

As the heirs of the French Revolution, Democrats have a history that consists of pandering to mobs, time and again, while Republicans, heirs to the American Revolution, have regularly stood for peaceable order.

Hoping to muddy this horrifying truth, liberals slanderously accuse conservatives of their own crimesassassination plots, conspiracy theorizing, political violence, embrace of the Ku Klux Klan. Coulter shows that the truth is the opposite: Political violencemob violenceis always a Democratic affair.

Surveying two centuries of mob movements, Coulter demonstrates that the mob is always destructive. And yet, she argues, beginning with the civil rights movement in the sixties, Americans have lost their natural, inherited aversion to mobs. Indeed, most Americans have no idea what they are even dealing with. Only by recognizing the mobs and their demonic nature can America begin to defend itself.

From the Hardcover edition.

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Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America ...

Asteroid Watch – jpl.nasa.gov

Posted on March 10, 2018 by ev1

Cloning Fact Sheet – National Human Genome Research Institute

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Danzig

CloningWhat is cloning?

The term cloning describes a number of different processes that can be used to produce genetically identical copies of a biological entity. The copied material, which has the same genetic makeup as the original, is referred to as a clone.

Researchers have cloned a wide range of biological materials, including genes, cells, tissues and even entire organisms, such as a sheep.

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Yes. In nature, some plants and single-celled organisms, such as bacteria, produce genetically identical offspring through a process called asexual reproduction. In asexual reproduction, a new individual is generated from a copy of a single cell from the parent organism.

Natural clones, also known as identical twins, occur in humans and other mammals. These twins are produced when a fertilized egg splits, creating two or more embryos that carry almost identical DNA. Identical twins have nearly the same genetic makeup as each other, but they are genetically different from either parent.

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There are three different types of artificial cloning: gene cloning, reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning.

Gene cloning produces copies of genes or segments of DNA. Reproductive cloning produces copies of whole animals. Therapeutic cloning produces embryonic stem cells for experiments aimed at creating tissues to replace injured or diseased tissues.

Gene cloning, also known as DNA cloning, is a very different process from reproductive and therapeutic cloning. Reproductive and therapeutic cloning share many of the same techniques, but are done for different purposes.

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Gene cloning is the most common type of cloning done by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). NHGRI researchers have not cloned any mammals and NHGRI does not clone humans.

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Researchers routinely use cloning techniques to make copies of genes that they wish to study. The procedure consists of inserting a gene from one organism, often referred to as "foreign DNA," into the genetic material of a carrier called a vector. Examples of vectors include bacteria, yeast cells, viruses or plasmids, which are small DNA circles carried by bacteria. After the gene is inserted, the vector is placed in laboratory conditions that prompt it to multiply, resulting in the gene being copied many times over.

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In reproductive cloning, researchers remove a mature somatic cell, such as a skin cell, from an animal that they wish to copy. They then transfer the DNA of the donor animal's somatic cell into an egg cell, or oocyte, that has had its own DNA-containing nucleus removed.

Researchers can add the DNA from the somatic cell to the empty egg in two different ways. In the first method, they remove the DNA-containing nucleus of the somatic cell with a needle and inject it into the empty egg. In the second approach, they use an electrical current to fuse the entire somatic cell with the empty egg.

In both processes, the egg is allowed to develop into an early-stage embryo in the test-tube and then is implanted into the womb of an adult female animal.

Ultimately, the adult female gives birth to an animal that has the same genetic make up as the animal that donated the somatic cell. This young animal is referred to as a clone. Reproductive cloning may require the use of a surrogate mother to allow development of the cloned embryo, as was the case for the most famous cloned organism, Dolly the sheep.

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Over the last 50 years, scientists have conducted cloning experiments in a wide range of animals using a variety of techniques. In 1979, researchers produced the first genetically identical mice by splitting mouse embryos in the test tube and then implanting the resulting embryos into the wombs of adult female mice. Shortly after that, researchers produced the first genetically identical cows, sheep and chickens by transferring the nucleus of a cell taken from an early embryo into an egg that had been emptied of its nucleus.

It was not until 1996, however, that researchers succeeded in cloning the first mammal from a mature (somatic) cell taken from an adult animal. After 276 attempts, Scottish researchers finally produced Dolly, the lamb from the udder cell of a 6-year-old sheep. Two years later, researchers in Japan cloned eight calves from a single cow, but only four survived.

Besides cattle and sheep, other mammals that have been cloned from somatic cells include: cat, deer, dog, horse, mule, ox, rabbit and rat. In addition, a rhesus monkey has been cloned by embryo splitting.

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Despite several highly publicized claims, human cloning still appears to be fiction. There currently is no solid scientific evidence that anyone has cloned human embryos.

In 1998, scientists in South Korea claimed to have successfully cloned a human embryo, but said the experiment was interrupted very early when the clone was just a group of four cells. In 2002, Clonaid, part of a religious group that believes humans were created by extraterrestrials, held a news conference to announce the birth of what it claimed to be the first cloned human, a girl named Eve. However, despite repeated requests by the research community and the news media, Clonaid never provided any evidence to confirm the existence of this clone or the other 12 human clones it purportedly created.

In 2004, a group led by Woo-Suk Hwang of Seoul National University in South Korea published a paper in the journal Science in which it claimed to have created a cloned human embryo in a test tube. However, an independent scientific committee later found no proof to support the claim and, in January 2006, Science announced that Hwang's paper had been retracted.

From a technical perspective, cloning humans and other primates is more difficult than in other mammals. One reason is that two proteins essential to cell division, known as spindle proteins, are located very close to the chromosomes in primate eggs. Consequently, removal of the egg's nucleus to make room for the donor nucleus also removes the spindle proteins, interfering with cell division. In other mammals, such as cats, rabbits and mice, the two spindle proteins are spread throughout the egg. So, removal of the egg's nucleus does not result in loss of spindle proteins. In addition, some dyes and the ultraviolet light used to remove the egg's nucleus can damage the primate cell and prevent it from growing.

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No. Clones do not always look identical. Although clones share the same genetic material, the environment also plays a big role in how an organism turns out.

For example, the first cat to be cloned, named Cc, is a female calico cat that looks very different from her mother. The explanation for the difference is that the color and pattern of the coats of cats cannot be attributed exclusively to genes. A biological phenomenon involving inactivation of the X chromosome (See sex chromosome) in every cell of the female cat (which has two X chromosomes) determines which coat color genes are switched off and which are switched on. The distribution of X inactivation, which seems to occur randomly, determines the appearance of the cat's coat.

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Reproductive cloning may enable researchers to make copies of animals with the potential benefits for the fields of medicine and agriculture.

For instance, the same Scottish researchers who cloned Dolly have cloned other sheep that have been genetically modified to produce milk that contains a human protein essential for blood clotting. The hope is that someday this protein can be purified from the milk and given to humans whose blood does not clot properly. Another possible use of cloned animals is for testing new drugs and treatment strategies. The great advantage of using cloned animals for drug testing is that they are all genetically identical, which means their responses to the drugs should be uniform rather than variable as seen in animals with different genetic make-ups.

After consulting with many independent scientists and experts in cloning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided in January 2008 that meat and milk from cloned animals, such as cattle, pigs and goats, are as safe as those from non-cloned animals. The FDA action means that researchers are now free to using cloning methods to make copies of animals with desirable agricultural traits, such as high milk production or lean meat. However, because cloning is still very expensive, it will likely take many years until food products from cloned animals actually appear in supermarkets.

Another application is to create clones to build populations of endangered, or possibly even extinct, species of animals. In 2001, researchers produced the first clone of an endangered species: a type of Asian ox known as a guar. Sadly, the baby guar, which had developed inside a surrogate cow mother, died just a few days after its birth. In 2003, another endangered type of ox, called the Banteg, was successfully cloned. Soon after, three African wildcats were cloned using frozen embryos as a source of DNA. Although some experts think cloning can save many species that would otherwise disappear, others argue that cloning produces a population of genetically identical individuals that lack the genetic variability necessary for species survival.

Some people also have expressed interest in having their deceased pets cloned in the hope of getting a similar animal to replace the dead one. But as shown by Cc the cloned cat, a clone may not turn out exactly like the original pet whose DNA was used to make the clone.

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Reproductive cloning is a very inefficient technique and most cloned animal embryos cannot develop into healthy individuals. For instance, Dolly was the only clone to be born live out of a total of 277 cloned embryos. This very low efficiency, combined with safety concerns, presents a serious obstacle to the application of reproductive cloning.

Researchers have observed some adverse health effects in sheep and other mammals that have been cloned. These include an increase in birth size and a variety of defects in vital organs, such as the liver, brain and heart. Other consequences include premature aging and problems with the immune system. Another potential problem centers on the relative age of the cloned cell's chromosomes. As cells go through their normal rounds of division, the tips of the chromosomes, called telomeres, shrink. Over time, the telomeres become so short that the cell can no longer divide and, consequently, the cell dies. This is part of the natural aging process that seems to happen in all cell types. As a consequence, clones created from a cell taken from an adult might have chromosomes that are already shorter than normal, which may condemn the clones' cells to a shorter life span. Indeed, Dolly, who was cloned from the cell of a 6-year-old sheep, had chromosomes that were shorter than those of other sheep her age. Dolly died when she was six years old, about half the average sheep's 12-year lifespan.

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Therapeutic cloning involves creating a cloned embryo for the sole purpose of producing embryonic stem cells with the same DNA as the donor cell. These stem cells can be used in experiments aimed at understanding disease and developing new treatments for disease. To date, there is no evidence that human embryos have been produced for therapeutic cloning.

The richest source of embryonic stem cells is tissue formed during the first five days after the egg has started to divide. At this stage of development, called the blastocyst, the embryo consists of a cluster of about 100 cells that can become any cell type. Stem cells are harvested from cloned embryos at this stage of development, resulting in destruction of the embryo while it is still in the test tube.

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Researchers hope to use embryonic stem cells, which have the unique ability to generate virtually all types of cells in an organism, to grow healthy tissues in the laboratory that can be used replace injured or diseased tissues. In addition, it may be possible to learn more about the molecular causes of disease by studying embryonic stem cell lines from cloned embryos derived from the cells of animals or humans with different diseases. Finally, differentiated tissues derived from ES cells are excellent tools to test new therapeutic drugs.

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Many researchers think it is worthwhile to explore the use of embryonic stem cells as a path for treating human diseases. However, some experts are concerned about the striking similarities between stem cells and cancer cells. Both cell types have the ability to proliferate indefinitely and some studies show that after 60 cycles of cell division, stem cells can accumulate mutations that could lead to cancer. Therefore, the relationship between stem cells and cancer cells needs to be more clearly understood if stem cells are to be used to treat human disease.

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Gene cloning is a carefully regulated technique that is largely accepted today and used routinely in many labs worldwide. However, both reproductive and therapeutic cloning raise important ethical issues, especially as related to the potential use of these techniques in humans.

Reproductive cloning would present the potential of creating a human that is genetically identical to another person who has previously existed or who still exists. This may conflict with long-standing religious and societal values about human dignity, possibly infringing upon principles of individual freedom, identity and autonomy. However, some argue that reproductive cloning could help sterile couples fulfill their dream of parenthood. Others see human cloning as a way to avoid passing on a deleterious gene that runs in the family without having to undergo embryo screening or embryo selection.

Therapeutic cloning, while offering the potential for treating humans suffering from disease or injury, would require the destruction of human embryos in the test tube. Consequently, opponents argue that using this technique to collect embryonic stem cells is wrong, regardless of whether such cells are used to benefit sick or injured people.

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Last Reviewed: March 21, 2017

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Cloning Fact Sheet - National Human Genome Research Institute

Freedom in the 50 States 2015-2016 | Fiscal Freedom | Cato …

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Danzig

William P. Ruger

William P. Ruger is Vice President of Policy and Research at the Charles Koch Institute and Charles Koch Foundation. Ruger is the author of the biography Milton Friedman and a coauthor of The State of Texas: Government, Politics, and Policy. His work has been published in International Studies Quarterly, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Armed Forces and Society, and other outlets. Ruger earned an AB from the College of William and Mary and a PhD in politics from Brandeis University. He is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.

Jason Sorens is Lecturer in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College. His primary research interests include fiscal federalism, public policy in federal systems, secessionism, and ethnic politics. His work has been published in International Studies Quarterly, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Peace Research, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, and other academic journals, and his book Secessionism: Identity, Interest, and Strategy was published by McGill-Queens University Press in 2012. Sorens received his BA in economics and philosophy, with honors, from Washington and Lee University and his PhD in political science from Yale University.

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Freedom in the 50 States 2015-2016 | Fiscal Freedom | Cato ...

Here’s What You Should Know About That Secret Seychelles …

Posted on March 10, 2018 by jessica

A mysteriousJanuary 2017 meeting in the Seychelles between a close associate of President Donald Trump and a Russian banker with alleged ties to Vladimir Putin has come under renewed scrutiny this week.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has been gathering evidence about the rendezvous, which took place less than two weeks before Trumps inauguration. Mueller is reportedly looking to see if the meeting was meant to set up a secret back channel between Trump and Putin, the Russian president. George Nader, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates who was at the meeting, has been cooperating with Muellers probe, and it appears his testimony could help unlock several major questions about the affair.

Heres what you should know about the Seychelles meeting.

Why was there a secret meeting in the Seychelles?

The UAE arranged the meeting in the Seychelles Islands in January 2017, just days before Trump assumed office, The Washington Post first reported last April. The location may have been chosen for its relative discretion.

The Seychelles is the kind of place where you can have a good time away from the eyes of the media, the countrys secretary of state for foreign affairs told the Post at the time.

Erik Prince, a longtime supporter of Trumps campaign and the founder of the Blackwater private security firm, met with a Russian official linked to Putin, although Prince has described the meeting as an unplanned chance encounter.

Its not clear what Prince and the official talked about. But according to The New York Times, Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, eventual national security adviser Michael Flynn and then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak discussed the possibility ofsetting up the communications channelin a December 2016 meeting.

The Washington Postalso received an anonymous letter claiming that Kushner, Kislyak and Flynn talked about arranging a meeting between a representative of Trump and a Russian contact in an unidentified third country. The Posts Adam Entous told MSNBC that the letter said Flynn was deemed too high-profile to do the trip.

Kushner has denied that the request took place.

Who else was there?

Prince met with Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker who manages a government-controlled wealth fund and is also thought to be close to Putin.

The meeting was set up by the UAE and the countrys de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Nader served as a representative for the Middle Eastern nation and had met Prince before, serving as a consultant for Blackwater.

Prince has said he went to the Seychelles as a private businessman, and has denied the original report by the Post. He told the House Intelligence Committee in November that he had no plans to meet with Dmitriev, but Emirati officials convinced him to go to the bar at the hotel he was staying in to have a drink.

One of the entourage says, Hey, by the way, theres this Russian guy that weve dealt with in the past, Prince told lawmakers. Hes here also to see someone from the Emirati delegation. And you should meet him, hed be an interesting guy for you to know, since youre doing a lot in the oil and gas and mineral space.

He claimed they only spoke about oil prices and how much the UAE wished for resumption of normal trade relations with the USA.

What is Mueller investigating?

Nader has been cooperating with Muellers probe since mid-January and recently gave testimony about his knowledge of the meeting in front of a grand jury, according to a report in the Times this week. He allegedly served as a representative of the crown prince, and the Times notes that Emirati officials believed Prince was serving as a representative of the Trump transition team and Dmitriev as an envoy from the Kremlin.

In an earlier story, the Times noted that Mueller has widened the scope of his probe and is also investigating whether the Emiratis were attempting to buy influence with Trump.

Naders recent testimony could contradict Princes statements over the past year and shed light on the true reasons for the meeting.

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Here's What You Should Know About That Secret Seychelles ...

Project Alive | The hope for a cure: Gene therapy

Posted on March 10, 2018 by jessica

Gene therapy is a revolutionary approach to treating genetic diseases. It involves a one-time delivery of a normal copy of the defective gene which ideally causes the body to naturally produce the missing enzyme. It is the most promising cure that these boys desperately need.

Gene therapy has shown promise as a cure for Hunter Syndrome.

A clinical trial is required to get FDA approval.

Funding is the final barrier to beginning the clinical trial.

In 2013, after it had been performed on other forms of MPS with positive results, a group of Hunter Syndrome families initiated a partnership with researchers at Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio to begin gene therapy research in Hunter Syndrome / MPS II. Now, the researchers are in the final stages of developing the first gene therapy clinical trial for boys with Hunter Syndrome. The only obstacle is the substantial funding required for such a trial. If the necessary funds are raised, the trial could begin as early as late 2017 or early 2018.

In the world of medicine, this treatment is considered an orphan drug because of the small patient population it seeks to treat. In the US, an orphan drug is a treatment for a disease that affects less than 200,000 people. Drug companies fund much of the research for more common diseases because in developing a potential blockbuster drug for a large patient population, they also are more likely to make a profit. Few companies are willing to invest in research for such a small population only an estimated 500 boys with Hunter Syndrome live in the United States. Without drug companies pursuing a cure for Hunter Syndrome, families tackled that lofty goal and have finally reached the point where a potential cure is ready and waiting with one obstacle: funding it.

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Project Alive | The hope for a cure: Gene therapy

Singularity | technology | Britannica.com

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Danzig

Singularity, theoretical condition that could arrive in the near future when a synthesis of several powerful new technologies will radically change the realities in which we find ourselves in an unpredictable manner. Most notably, the singularity would involve computer programs becoming so advanced that artificial intelligence transcends human intelligence, potentially erasing the boundary between humanity and computers. Often, nanotechnology is included as one of the key technologies that will make the singularity happen.

In 1993 the magazine Whole Earth Review published an article titled Technological Singularity by Vernor Vinge, a computer scientist and science fiction author. Vinge imagined that future information networks and human-machine interfaces would lead to novel conditions with new qualities: a new reality rules. But there was a trick to knowing the singularity. Even if one could know that it was imminent, one could not know what it would be like with any specificity. This condition will be, by definition, so thoroughly transcendent that we cannot imagine what it will be like. There was an opaque wall across the future, and the new era is simply too different to fit into the classical frame of good and evil. It could be amazing or apocalyptic, but we cannot know the details.

Since that time, the idea of the singularity has been expanded to accommodate numerous visions of apocalyptic changes and technological salvation, not limited to Vinges parameters of information systems. One version championed by the inventor and visionary Ray Kurzweil emphasizes biology, cryonics, and medicine (including nanomedicine): in the future we will have the medical tools to banish disease and disease-related death. Another is represented in the writings of the sociologist William Sims Bainbridge, who describes a promise of cyberimmortality, when we will be able to experience a spiritual eternity that persists long after our bodies have decayed, by uploading digital records of our thoughts and feelings into perpetual storage systems. This variation circles back to Vinges original vision of a singularity driven by information systems. Cyberimmortality will work perfectly if servers never crash, power systems never fail, and some people in later generations have plenty of time to examine the digital records of our own thoughts and feelings.

One can also find a less radical expression of the singularity in Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance. This 2003 collection tacitly accepts the inevitability of so-called NBIC convergence, that is, the near-future synthesis of nanotech, biotech, infotech, and cognitive science. Because this volume was sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation and edited by two of its officers, Mihail Roco and Bainbridge, some saw it as a semiofficial government endorsement of expectations of the singularity.

Unprecedented new technologies will continue to arise, and perhaps they will synthesize with each other, but it is not inevitable that the changes they create will be apocalyptic. The idea of the singularity is a powerful inspiration for people who want technology to deliver a new spiritual and material reality within our lifetimes. This vision is sufficiently flexible that each person who expects the singularity can customize it to his or her own preferences.

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Singularity | technology | Britannica.com

How Leaked NSA Spy Tool ‘EternalBlue’ Became a Hacker …

Posted on March 10, 2018 by ev1

An elite Russian hacking team, a historic ransomware attack, an espionage group in the Middle East, and countless small time cryptojackers all have one thing in common. Though their methods and objectives vary, they all lean on leaked NSA hacking tool EternalBlue to infiltrate target computers and spread malware across networks.

Leaked to the public not quite a year ago, EternalBlue has joined a long line of reliable hacker favorites. The Conficker Windows worm infected millions of computers in 2008, and the Welchia remote code execution worm wreaked havoc 2003. EternalBlue is certainly continuing that traditionand by all indications it's not going anywhere. If anything, security analysts only see use of the exploit diversifying as attackers develop new, clever applications, or simply discover how easy it is to deploy.

"When you take something thats weaponized and a fully developed concept and make it publicly available youre going to have that level of uptake," says Adam Meyers, vice president of intelligence at the security firm CrowdStrike. "A year later there are still organizations that are getting hit by EternalBluestill organizations that havent patched it."

EternalBlue is the name of both a software vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system and an exploit the National Security Agency developed to weaponize the bug. In April 2017, the exploit leaked to the public, part of the fifth release of alleged NSA tools by the still mysterious group known as the Shadow Brokers. Unsurprisingly, the agency has never confirmed that it created EternalBlue, or anything else in the Shadow Brokers releases, but numerous reports corroborate its originand even Microsoft has publicly attributed its existence to the NSA.

The tool exploits a vulnerability in the Windows Server Message Block, a transport protocol that allows Windows machines to communicate with each other and other devices for things like remote services and file and printer sharing. Attackers manipulate flaws in how SMB handles certain packets to remotely execute any code they want. Once they have that foothold into that initial target device, they can then fan out across a network.

'It's incredible that a tool which was used by intelligence services is now publicly available and so widely used amongst malicious actors.'

Vikram Thakur, Symantec

Microsoft released its EternalBlue patches on March 14 of last year. But security update adoption is spotty, especially on corporate and institutional networks. Within two months, EternalBlue was the centerpiece of the worldwide WannaCry ransomware attacks that were ultimately traced to North Korean government hackers. As WannaCry hit, Microsoft even took the "highly unusual step" of issuing patches for the still popular, but long-unsupported Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

In the aftermath of WannaCry, Microsoft and others criticized the NSA for keeping the EternalBlue vulnerability a secret for years instead of proactively disclosing it for patching. Some reports estimate that the NSA used and continued to refine the EternalBlue exploit for at least five years, and only warned Microsoft when the agency discovered that the exploit had been stolen. EternalBlue can also be used in concert with other NSA exploits released by the Shadow Brokers, like the kernel backdoor known as DarkPulsar, which burrows deep into the trusted core of a computer where it can often lurk undetected.

The versatility of the tool has made it an appealing workhorse for hackers. And though WannaCry raised EternalBlue's profile, many attackers had already realized the exploit's potential by then.

Within days of the Shadow Brokers release, security analysts say that they began to see bad actors using EternalBlue to extract passwords from browsers, and to install malicious cryptocurrency miners on target devices. "WannaCry was a big splash and made all the news because it was ransomware, but before that attackers had actually used the same EternalBlue exploit to infect machines and run miners on them," says Jrme Segura, lead malware intelligence analyst at the security firm Malwarebytes. "There are definitely a lot of machines that are exposed in some capacity."

Even a year after Microsoft issued a patch, attackers can still rely on the EternalBlue exploit to target victims, because so many machines remain defenseless to this day. "EternalBlue will be a go-to tool for attackers for years to come," says Jake Williams, founder of the security firm Rendition Infosec, who formerly worked at the NSA. "Particularly in air-gapped and industrial networks, patching takes a lot of time and machines get missed. There are many XP and Server 2003 machines that were taken off of patching programs before the patch for EternalBlue was backported to these now-unsupported platforms."

At this point, EternalBlue has fully transitioned into one of the ubiquitous, name-brand instruments in every hacker's toolboxmuch like the password extraction tool Mimikatz. But EternalBlue's widespread use is tinged with the added irony that a sophisticated, top-secret US cyber espionage tool is now the people's crowbar. It is also frequently used by an array of nation state hackers, including those in Russia's Fancy Bear group, who started deploying EternalBlue last year as part of targeted attacks to gather passwords and other sensitive data on hotel Wi-Fi networks.

'EternalBlue will be a go-to tool for attackers for years to come.'

Jake Williams, Rendition Infosec

New examples of EternalBlue's use in the wild still crop up frequently. In February, more attackers leveraged EternalBlue to install cryptocurrency-mining software on victim computers and servers, refining the techniques to make the attacks more reliable and effective. "EternalBlue is ideal for many attackers because it leaves very few event logs," or digital traces, Rendition Infosec's Williams notes. "Third-party software is required to see the exploitation attempts."

And just last week, security researchers at Symantec published findings on the Iran-based hacking group Chafer, which has used EternalBlue as part of its expanded operations. In the past year, Chafer has attacked targets around the Middle East, focusing on transportation groups like airlines, aircraft services, industry technology firms, and telecoms.

"It's incredible that a tool which was used by intelligence services is now publicly available and so widely used amongst malicious actors," says Vikram Thakur, technical director of Symantec's security response. "To [a hacker] its just a tool to make their lives easier in spreading across a network. Plus they use these tools in trying to evade attribution. It makes it harder for us to determine whether the attacker was sitting in country one or two or three."

It will be years before enough computers are patched against EternalBlue that hackers retire it from their arsenals. At least by now security experts know to watch for itand to appreciate the clever innovations hackers come up with to use the exploit in more and more types of attacks.

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How Leaked NSA Spy Tool 'EternalBlue' Became a Hacker ...

Panarchy – Wikipedia

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Danzig

Panarchy (from pan and archy), coined by Paul Emile de Puydt in 1860, is a form of governance that would encompass all others.[1] The Oxford English Dictionary lists the noun as "chiefly poetic" with the meaning "a universal realm," citing an 1848 attestation by Philip James Bailey, "the starry panarchy of space". The adjective panarchic "all-ruling" has earlier attestations.[2] In the twentieth century the term was re-coined separately by scholars in international relations to describe the notion of global governance and then by systems theorists to describe non-hierarchical organizing theories.

In his 1860 article "Panarchy" de Puydt, who also expressed support for laissez-faire economics, applied the concept to the individual's right to choose any form of government without being forced to move from their current locale. This is sometimes described as "extra-territorial" (or "exterritorial") since governments often would serve non-contiguous parcels of land. De Puydt wrote:

The truth is that there is not enough of the right kind of freedom, the fundamental freedom to choose to be free or not to be free, according to one's preference....Thus I demand, for each and every member of human society, freedom of association according to inclination and of activity according to aptitude. In other words, the absolute right to choose the political surroundings in which to live, and to ask for nothing else.

De Puydt described how such a system would be administered:

In each community a new office is opened, a "Bureau of Political Membership". This office would send every responsible citizen a declaration form to fill in, just as for the income tax or dog registration: Question: What form of government would you desire? Quite freely you would answer, monarchy, or democracy, or any other... and once registered, unless you withdrew your declaration, respecting the legal forms and delays, you would thereby become either a royal subject or citizen of the republic. Thereafter you are in no way involved with anyone else's governmentno more than a Prussian subject is with Belgian authorities.

De Puydts definition of panarchy was expanded into a political philosophy of panarchism. It has been espoused by anarchist or libertarian-leaning individuals, including especially Max Nettlau[3] and John Zube.[4][5]

Le Grand E. Day and others have used the phrase "multigovernment" to describe a similar system.[6] Another similar idea is Functional Overlapping Competing Jurisdictions (FOCJ) promoted by Swiss economists Bruno Frey and Reiner Eichenberger.

James P. Sewell and Mark B. Salter in their 1995 article "Panarchy and Other Norms for Global Governance define panarchy as an inclusive, universal system of governance in which all may participate meaningfully." They romanticize the term by mentioning the playful Greek god Pan of sylvan and pastoral tranquillity, overseer of forests, shepherd of shepherds and their flocks. It thus connotes an archetypal steward of biospheric well-being."[7]

David Ronfeldt and John Arquilla, in their work on Netwar, which they describe as an emergent form of low intensity conflict, crime, and activism, that: "The design is a heterarchy, but also what might be termed a 'panarchy.'"[8]

Paul B. Hartzog writes in "Panarchy: Governance in the Network Age": Panarchy is a transdisciplinary investigation into the political and cultural philosophy of network culture. The primary fields of relevance for panarchy are world politics (international relations), political philosophy/theory, and information technology. Panarchy also draws on insights from information/communications theory, economics, sociology, networks, and complex systems."[9]

In Paul B. Hartzog's work, the term "panarchy" emerges at the intersection of three core concepts: 1) ecology and complex systems, 2) technology, and 3) politics. The "pan" of ecological thinking draws on the Greek-god Pan as a symbol for wild and unpredictable nature. The "pan" of technology refers to the Personal Area Network (a personal area network is the interconnection of information technology devices within the range of an individual person) that merges human beings into an interconnected global social web. The "pan" of politics refers to the "inside/outside" distinction, and how, in an era of global challenges and global governance, the frame-of-reference for a global social has no outside.

Systems theory is an interdisciplinary field of science which studies the nature and processes of complex systems of the physical and social sciences, as well as in information technology. Lance Gunderson and C. S. Holling, in their book Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Systems of Humans and Nature coopted the term, saying:

The term [panarchy] was coined as an antithesis to the word hierarchy (literally, sacred rules). Our view is that panarchy is a framework of nature's rules, hinted at by the name of the Greek god of nature, Pan.

The publisher describes the book's theory thus:

Panarchy, a term devised to describe evolving hierarchical systems with multiple interrelated elements, offers an important new framework for understanding and resolving this dilemma. Panarchy is the structure in which systems, including those of nature (e.g., forests) and of humans (e.g., capitalism), as well as combined human-natural systems (e.g., institutions that govern natural resource use such as the Forest Service), are interlinked in continual adaptive cycles of growth, accumulation, restructuring, and renewal.

In Panarchy Gunderson and Holling write:

The cross-scale, interdisciplinary, and dynamic nature of the theory has led us to coin the term panarchy for it. Its essential focus is to rationalize the interplay between change and persistence, between the predictable and unpredictable.

See more here:

Panarchy - Wikipedia

Transcranial magnetic stimulation – About – Mayo Clinic

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Danzig

Overview

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to improve symptoms of depression. TMS is typically used when other depression treatments haven't been effective.

During a TMS session, an electromagnetic coil is placed against your scalp near your forehead. The electromagnet painlessly delivers a magnetic pulse that stimulates nerve cells in the region of your brain involved in mood control and depression. And it may activate regions of the brain that have decreased activity in people with depression.

Though the biology of why rTMS works isn't completely understood, the stimulation appears to affect how this part of the brain is working, which in turn seems to ease depression symptoms and improve mood.

Treatment for depression involves delivering repetitive magnetic pulses, so it's called repetitive TMS or rTMS.

Mayo Clinic's approach

Depression is a treatable condition, but for some people, standard treatments aren't effective. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is typically used when standard treatments such as medications and talk therapy (psychotherapy) don't work.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation used for depression. Unlike vagus nerve stimulation or deep brain stimulation, rTMS does not require surgery or implantation of electrodes. And, unlike electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), rTMS doesn't cause seizures or require sedation with anesthesia.

Generally, rTMS is considered safe and well-tolerated. However, it can cause some side effects.

Side effects are generally mild to moderate and improve shortly after an individual session and decrease over time with additional sessions. They may include:

Serious side effects are rare. They may include:

More study is needed to determine whether rTMS may have any long-term side effects.

Before having repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), you may need a:

Tell your doctor or mental health provider if:

Repetitive TMS isn't invasive, doesn't require anesthesia and can be performed in a doctor's office. You don't need to arrange for someone to drive you home after treatment unless, for the first treatment, you prefer a driver until you get a sense of how you'll feel afterward.

Before considering treatment, check with your health insurance company to see whether rTMS is covered. Your policy may not cover it.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is usually done on an outpatient basis in a doctor's office or clinic. It requires a series of treatment sessions to be effective. Generally, sessions are carried out daily, five times a week for four to six weeks.

Before treatment begins, your doctor will need to identify the best place to put the magnets on your head and the best dose of magnetic energy for you. Your first appointment typically lasts about 60 minutes.

Most likely, during your first appointment:

Once the coil placement and dose are identified, you're ready to begin. Here's what to expect during each treatment:

You can return to your normal daily activities after your treatment. Typically, between treatments, you can expect to work and drive.

There are different ways to perform the procedure. Techniques may change as experts learn more about the most effective ways to perform treatments.

If repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) works for you, your depression symptoms may improve or go away completely. Symptom relief may take a few weeks of treatment.

Repetitive TMS may be less likely to work if:

The effectiveness of rTMS may improve as researchers learn more about techniques, the number of stimulations required and the best sites on the brain to stimulate.

It's not yet known if maintenance rTMS sessions will benefit your depression. This involves continuing treatment when you are symptom-free with the hope that it will prevent the return of symptoms. Most insurance companies don't cover maintenance rTMS.

However, if your depression improves with rTMS, and then later you have another episode of symptoms, your rTMS treatment can be repeated. This is called re-induction. Some insurance companies will cover re-induction.

If your symptoms improve with rTMS, discuss ongoing or maintenance treatment options for your depression with your doctor.

Explore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this disease.

Dec. 29, 2017

Transcranial magnetic stimulation - About - Mayo Clinic

U.S. Germ Warfare Experiments used against the American …

Posted on March 10, 2018 by jessica

by Prof. Joseph Valvano

Our Country, today, sits at the very crossroads between freedom and totalitarian rule. If a majority of Americans do not soon understand this reality and help to turn the tide toward freedom, they ultimately will have no choice but to understand it at a time when it will be too late to do anything about it. former Secretary of Treasury, William E. Simon

In his Farewell Address President Eisenhower did something that no other President,no Congressman and no other political leader had or has ever done before or since. He warned the America people of the growing threat to their Liberties and Freedoms from what he called the Military / Industrial Complex. In part, this is what he said to the Nation:

Our Military Organization today bears little relation to that known of any of my predecessors We annually spend on our military security more than the net income of all United States Corporations.

In the councils of Government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influenceby the Military / Industrial Complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of MISPLACED POWER exists and will persist. We must NEVER let the weight of this combination endanger our Liberties and Freedoms. We should takeNOTHING for granted.

The prospect of domination of the Nations scholars by Federal employment, project allocations and the power of money is ever present and is to be gravely regarded. We must be alert to the equal and opposite DANGER that public policy could, itself, become the captive of a SCIENTIFIC / TECHNOLOGICAL ELITE.

Sadly, neither the American people, members of Congress, this Nations National News Media nor future political leaders listened to or took seriously, the courageous warnings given to the Nation by President Eisenhower who, himself, was a national military war hero; who, coming from the military, understood the power and the threat posed by what he labeled The Military / Industrial Complex and who was NOT a CONSPIRACY THEORIST.

[I] THE FAILURE OF GOVERNMENT AND THE NATIONAL NEWS MEDIA IN ITS RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT THE LIBERTIES, FREEDOMS AND SECURITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

(A) The great majority of the American people, along with members of Congress, the National News Media and its editors, writers and TV news commentators have attacked as un-American, un-patriotic, anyone who would suggest or claim that the attacks that took place on 9/11 were an inside job, planned and carried out at the highest levels of the U.S. Government and its Military / Intelligence Complex. It is their belief that there is absolutely NO WAY this Government and its Military / Intelligence Complex would ever consider KILLING American citizens.

(B) But millions of Americans do NOT know that there is MASSIVE documented evidence that the U.S. Government and its Military / Intelligence Complex have KILLED thousands of American citizens over the past 85 years by conducting secret radiation, biological agent and mind control experiments on unsuspecting America citizens at hospitals, universities, military bases and within various community medical centers throughout this country.

(1) Hundreds of thousands of American citizens and even their children were given dangerous toxic, poisonous medical treatments and therapies without their knowledge or permission, resulting in the death and injury of many thousands of American citizens over these many years.

(2) Such covert operations as MK-Ultra, MK-Delta, MK-Naomi, MK- Often, Project Third Chance, Project Often, Project Derby Hat, Program F, The Tuskegee Study, The Pellagra Incident and many other secret radiation, biological germ warfare bacteria/ virus experiments, as well as mind control experiments were carried out against the American people, all without their knowledge, all without their permission and all withoutmuch investigation or exposure by our privately owned National News Media.

[II] THE SECRET COVERT OPERATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS THAT WERE CONDUCTED BEHIND THE BACKS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

(1) In Dr. Lenard Horowitzs excellent, well researched, well documented book, Emerging Viruses a great amount of solid facts indicate the verypossibility that the Aids and Ebola viruses were bioengineered viruses created in a laboratory as part of the militarys Germ Warfare Program.

(2) In 1969, a secret Congressional meeting took place with 10 doctors in attendance, whereby these doctors were asked if an immuno-suppressant virus could be created? (Yes) How long would it take to create? (10 years) How much money would it take to create such a virus? ($10 million) The money was allotted under HR Bill 15090, and within 10 years, the AIDS virus appeared within the human community, killing thousands of people world wide.

(3) During this time, a secret agreement, code named OTRAG, was formed among NATO, NASA and a former Nazi linked West German company, whereby over 29,000 sq. miles of land was leased in Eastern Zaire for military purposes. This land location was very close to what became known as The Aids / Ebola Highway, which essentially was ground zero for what is believed to be the launch site for Aids and Ebola.

(4) There are well over 250 documented Radiation / Biological /Mind Control Experiments that have been carried out against the American people, as well as people in other countries by those at the highest level of this Government and its Military / Intelligence Complex, resulting in the death and injury of hundreds of thousands of innocent people world wide.

* Just a few examples of the secret, covert programs of the Military / Intelligence Complex , as compiled in the Whiteout Press Timeline Section, include the following:

(5) In 1931, with the support of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigation, human subjects were infected with cancer cell, with most of these people dying from cancer.

(6) In 1932, The Tuskegee Syphilis Study took place, whereby over 200 black male farm workers who all mysteriously developed Syphilis were being given Government free health care but were never told that they had Syphilis, were never given treatment for Syphilis, but instead were used as human Guinea pigs to be studied to follow the symptoms and the progression of the disease, resulting in the deaths of these men and many of their wives and children.

(7) In 1942, the Chemical Warfare Services began mustard gas experiments on American soldiers, resulting in death and injury to hundreds of them.

(8) In 1945, Program F was implemented by the Atomic Energy Commission, whereby FLUORIDE, a key chemical component in atomic bomb production and one of the most toxic chemicals on this planet, was placed within the drinking water systems in various parts of the country to study the effects of Fluoride upon the human central nervous system.

(9) In 1947, a secret document (# 07075001) of the Atomic Energy Commission indicated that the Agency would begin administering intravenous doses of RADIOACTIVE substances to human subjects.

(10) In 1950, the Department of Defense instituted plans to detonate nuclear weapons in Desert areas in order to monitor residents living downwind of the nuclear explosions for resulting medical problems and mortality/death rates.

(11) In 1950, in an experiment to determine how susceptible American cities would be to any Biological attacks, the U.S. Navy released clouds of BACTERIA, including the bacteria, Serratea Marescens from ships stationed in the San Francisco Bay, the bacteria travelling in the air over the city of San Francisco. Monitoring devices were placed through- out the city in order to track the extent of the infection Many residents became ill with pneumonia-like symptoms, resulting in the deaths of a number of people.

(12) From 1951 through 1969 and beyond, the Department of Defense began open air testing, using disease producing bacteria and viruses over various parts of the country including such states as Alaska, Alabama, Florida, Virginia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, California, New York City, and Washington, DC in mock germ warfare attacks exposing millions of American citizens to medical illnesses.

(13) In 1956, the U.S. military released MOSQUITOES infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, Georgia and Avon Park, Florida and Army agents posing as health officials tested people for health issues resulting from the secret tests.

(14) In June, 1966, U.S. military agents entered the New York City subway system and dropped light bulbs onto the subway train tracks filled with the bacteria Bacillus Subtilis to simulate a BIOLOGICAL ATTACK on the New York subway system. The breeze from the running trains carried the Bacteria through miles of the subway system, exposing thousands of citizens to the release of the bacteria.

(15) In 1966, at Washington International Airport bacteria was sprayed within the airport by military agents using atomizers built into their briefcases. There was no official record that American citizens died from this test.

(16) In 1969, the Department of Defense requested that Congress allot $10 million to develop a synthetic biological agent within 5 to 10 years to which there would be NO natural immunity. (AIDS)

(17) In 1970, Congressional funding under HR. Bill 15090 for the development of a synthetic biological agent was obtained and under the supervision of the CIA, carried out by the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, the armys top, secret Biological Weapons Facility. It was believed that molecular biology techniques were used to produce Aids- like retro-viruses.

(18) In 1975, the Virus section of Fort Detricks Center for Biological Warfare Research was renamed the Fredrick Cancer Research Facility and was placed under the supervision of the National Cancer Institute. It is here that a special Virus Cancer Program was initiated by the U.S. Navy, to develop what appeared to be Cancer causing Viruses. It was also here that retro -virologists isolated a virus to which no immunity exists. This virus was later named human T-cell Leukemia Virus. (HTLV)

(19) In 1977, Senate hearings on Health and Scientific Research confirmed that over 239 populated areas throughout the country had been secretly CONTAMINATED with Biological Agents between 1949 and 1969, listing areas that included San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Key West, Panama City, Minneapolis, St. Louis and New York City.

(20) In October, 1995, President Clinton publicly apologized to the America people for what was revealed within the Human Radiation Experimentation Report that from at least 1944 to 1974, thousands of Government sponsored radiation experiments were conducted on many hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting American citizens at hospital, universities, military bases and community medical centers, medically injuring and killing many thousands of these citizens at the very least.

(21) It is interesting to note that in less than 6 months of this Human Radiation Experimentation Report coming out to the American people, The Oklahoma City Bombing took place, which effectively ended any further investigations or any news worthy exposure into dealing with how this Government and its Military / Intelligence Complex was KILLING American citizens.

(22) Even though the Government has claimed that such secret experiments are no longer being conducted, there is very little confidence in such a claim, especially since all the previous experiments were secret, covert operations that were kept from the American people for so many years under the banner of National Security. So what should one think concerning the most recent new viruses and resistant bacteria that are now emerging within the human community that never existed upon this planet at any previous time before Governments began to develop chemical Germ Warfare weaponry. (Aids?) (Ebola?) (Zeka?) (lyme?)

(23) If this Government and its Military / Intelligence Complex had been, have been and are KILLING American citizens with secret, covert operations, what makes anyone think that this government and its Military / Intelligence Complex would not kill 3,000 American citizens in New York on 9/11 in order to create a New Pearl Harbor, which could act as a Call to War for taking this Nation to WAR in the Mideast for what would be 15+ years with no end in sight?

(24) What would it take for a Government that conducts secret experiments on its own people that kills hundreds of thousands of innocent American citizens and even their children, to decide to kill an American President, (JFK) an American Senator,(RFK) and an important American civil rights leader (MLK) in order to remove any American leader who stood in the way of taking this Nation into what would become a 12 year WAR in Vietnam?

(25) In March, 1962, a secret operational plan, OPERATION NORTHWOODS, was proposed to President Kennedy, jointly by both the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This proposal included a series of covert military actions to be launched against the Cuban Government, including terrorist attacks that would take place within U.S. cities, which would include bombings at U.S. airports, at military bases and at civilian facilities, resulting in death and injury to American citizens. These terrorist attacks would then be blamed on Cuba and the Castro regime, all for the purpose of gaining public support for U.S. military action against the Cuban Government .

(26) One of the proposals also called for the shooting down of a Commercial Airplane carrying a group of American college students off the coast of Florida and using that attack to increase public support for military action against Castros Government.President Kennedy was shocked and absolutely REFUSED to approve of this military plan to ATTACK U.S. cities resulting in the death and injury to innocent American citizens.

[III] WHAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MUST UNDERSTAND IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE LIBERTIES, FREEDOMS AND SECURITY OF THIS NATION AND OF THEIR CHILDREN.

(A) It is of extreme importance to the future of this Nation and of our children that the American people realize that:

(1)the U.S. Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were willing to carry out secret, covert military action against the United States resulting in the death and injure of American citizens, all for the purpose of taking this country to WAR.

(2) the U.S. Military / Intelligence Complex was willing to kill Americans citizens by BLOWING UP A COMMERCIAL AIRPLANE and killing American students in order to take this Nation to WAR. (SHADES OF 9/11??)

(3) WAR IS BIG BUSINESS, and NO one, NO President, NO political leader, NO member of Congress, NO political party is going to stand in the way of taking this Nation to WAR and keeping this Nation in Perpetual WAR. The events that took place in Dallas on November 22, 1963, where the President of the United States was murdered in what appeared to be a Public Execution before the American people, made sure of this.

[IV] THREE IMPORTANT QUESTION THAT EVERY AMERICAN MUST CONSIDER.

(A) This Nation has been taken to War by its Government and its Military / Intelligence Complex for 31 of the last 67 years. Therefore, it is important that the followingpoints of information must be considered:

(1) Were the events of 9/11 an INSIDE JOB in order to create a New Pearl Harbor, that would serve as a call to war within this country in order to take this Nation to WAR, yet again, this time in the Mideast?

(2) Would this Government and/or its Military / Intelligence Complex KILL its own citizens in order to justify taking this Nation to WAR in the Mideast for what would become 17+ years with no end in sight?

(3) Is there any evidence that this Government and its Military / Intelligence Complex have ever KILLED its own citizens for any political / military reasons or objectives?

[V] UNDERSTANDING THE TERRORIST CRISIS FACING THIS NATION TODAY AND WHY THE NATION WAS TAKEN TO WAR IN THE MIDEAST.

(A) To truly understand the true nature of the terrorist crisis facing this Nation today and why and how the Nation was taken to War in the Mideast one MUST consider the following:

(1) The factual, historical record indicates that this Government and its Military/ Intelligence Complex created al Qaeda in 1980 to fight against Russia in its war with Afghanistan.

(2) Osama Bin Laden was our man, supported by our CIA. In fact, in 1983, at a White House press conference, President Reagan, standing along side Osama Bin Laden, referred to Bin Laden as the Moral Equivalent of Our Founding Fathers in his role as leader in the war against Russia in Afghanistan.

(3) Osama Bin Ladens brother, Salem Bin Laden, was a business partner of President George W. Bush and the Bin Laden family had deep business connections to the Bush family.

(4) This Government and its Military / Intelligence Complex are the real Founding Fathers of ISIS, which is essentially an off shoot of al Qaeda, which this Government actually created.

(5) How good could it get for a Government and a Military / Intelligence Complex that seeks to take a Nation to WAR? Create terrorist groups ,then take the Nation to WAR against the very terrorist groups that you created. In this way the Nation does NOT go to War against another government, a War which will come to an end when the army of that Government is defeated.

(6) Instead, take the Nation to War against a religious philosophy, a religious belief, a religious movement. This will assure that the Nation one controls will remain in PERPETUAL WAR for years, with no end in sight.

[VI] REMEMBERING THE WARNING THAT PRESIDENT EISENHOWER GAVE TO THE NATION CONCERNING THE GROWING DANGERS AND THREATS OF THE NATIONS MILITARY / INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO THE LIBERTIES AND FREEDOMS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

(A) As a Nation, we did NOT listen to the warnings that President Eisenhower gave to the Nation concerning the growing dangers and threats of what he called, THE MILITARY / INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. We did NOT take his warnings seriously. We looked the other way and in doing so, we have let our Nation down, we have let our Children down and in doing so, we have put the Liberties, the Freedoms and the Security of this Nation and of our Children at great risk.

(B) As Americans, we claim to love our Country, love Liberty and Freedom and love our Children, but we do NOT seem to love them enough to ask the hard questions and demand the TRUTH from our Government.

(C) We, Americans, are following in the very same footsteps of the German people who fell under Hitlers rule. We are becoming who they were. We are doing the very same things that allowed Hitlers Nazi government to gain control and rule over the German people, which cost them their Liberties, their Freedoms, the future security of their Children, their place in history and their Humanity in the eyes of the world and which cost the lives of over 70,000,000 people worldwide.

[VII] WHAT EVERY AMERICAN MUST LEARN FROM ALL THAT HAS TAKEN PLACE FROM DALLAS TO 9/11 AND BEYOND.

(A) From the murders of JFK, RFK and MLK to the 12 year War in Vietnam, from the events of 9/11 to the 17+ year War in the War in the Mideast, there are three things that all of us on this planet must remember, which is that:

(1)for a people to protect their Freedoms, their Liberties and the future Security of their Children, they MUST ask the hard QUESTIONS and demand the TRUTH from their Government and their National News Media.

(2)governments will KILL their own citizens to achieve a political or military objective.

(3)above all else, one must remember that WAR IS BIG BUSINESS.

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U.S. Germ Warfare Experiments used against the American ...

Ripple Price Prediction: Better Standards Could Lead to Better Cryptos

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Danzig

Ripple News Analysis
Until now, or maybe even at this very moment, blockchain companies have been operating in the Wild West. There are no rules.

This may seem like the optimal situation to people who despise government, but I think having no rules is bad for business.

Consider the theft of $500.0 million NEM coins last month—the only reason it happened is because an exchange holding NEM did not employ its full suite of safety features.

Why were they allowed to be so careless?

If the exchange had been forced to comply with federal standards, or.

The post Ripple Price Prediction: Better Standards Could Lead to Better Cryptos appeared first on Profit Confidential.

Litecoin Price Forecast: China Sets Up New Roadblocks, Cryptos Crash

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Danzig

Daily Litecoin News Update
Litecoin investors brace for crypto crash 2.0 after China puts up new barriers for local investors. Investors in one of the largest crypto markets confront major obstacles after the government blocks access to exchanges. What we have upon us now is another September-like crash.

China, which completely banned initial coin offerings (ICOs) back in September and later banned all domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to operate in the country, is now going after the Asian exchanges working outside the mainland.

According to the Chinese media, major exchanges like Binance and Bittrex, which operate from Hong Kong, were.

The post Litecoin Price Forecast: China Sets Up New Roadblocks, Cryptos Crash appeared first on Profit Confidential.

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Litecoin Price Forecast: China Sets Up New Roadblocks, Cryptos Crash

NEM Price Forecast: Two Reasons Why NEM Prices Are Soaring

Posted on March 9, 2018 by jessica

Here’s Why NEM Has Further Upside Potential
NEM prices were a sight for sore eyes on Thursday. The wider crypto market was crashing while this penny cryptocurrency was shooting through the roof. Two prominent developments seemingly galvanized this price action. We have reasons to believe that the XEM coin performance may eventually deliver on our NEM price forecast for 2018.

Most media outlets on Thursday ran headlines about Coincheck making good on its promise to compensate investors in the aftermath of the notorious Coincheck.

The post NEM Price Forecast: Two Reasons Why NEM Prices Are Soaring appeared first on Profit Confidential.

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NEM Price Forecast: Two Reasons Why NEM Prices Are Soaring

European Entheogens: Folk Medicine and Magical Aids …

Posted on March 9, 2018 by ev1

If you have an apprehension towards the use of psychoactive plants and their effects on humans outside of the context of Modern pharmaceutical medicine, then you may not wish to read on about this particular subject. Even more so, this topic deals with some substances which are currently illegal or extremely dangerous to use without training, and thus are unsuitable for experimentation by most people. If this concept frightens or irks you, begone! It is better for those who do not know enough about the nature of such things to rely on the advice of professional practitioners, preferably ones who do not fall for the reductionist quackery of Modern medicine (though for most of us, this is unfortunately not the case). However, for those of you who feel compelled to explore such things in depth, or possibly those who feel the call to study the art of traditional medicine, I will present a summary of some of the main plants that can be used in a sacred or shamanic context within European culture.

It just so happens that we are among those various peoples across the world who do not have a significant tradition remaining that involves the use of such substances. The main culprit for this current state is the mania that seized our lands from the late 15th to the 17th Centuries AD, which encouraged religious and secular authorities to root out all traces of feminine folk wisdom and brand the practitioners of such arts as witches. This followed the social calamity of the Black Death and was an attempt by the Judeo-Christian authorities to assert themselves when the drastic population reduction in Europe and the loss of central authority had made folk more reliant on traditional methods in order to survive.

Much of this involved consulting wise women who were skilled in potion brewing and ointment making, as well as the creation of good luck charms and the practice of divination. These disciplines are all inter-related, and many of them can be achieved by working with plants which were once considered sacred. Sadly, the imposition of Judeo-Christianity merely followed earlier, statist attempts to outlaw such substances within the Roman Empire, and under such circumstances the use of these substances typically loses its sacramental context and devolves into a recreational or criminal activity.

Among tribal societies, however, the knowledge of how to work with sacred plants is at the heart of the spiritual, physical and psychological well-being of the tribe and the individuals that use them in this way are treated with a mixture of fear and respect. On one hand, they have an intuitive understanding of what particular plant should treat a specific ailment, and also what the dosage should be depending on the individual requiring treatment. However, their working of potentially poisonous plants and the ability to travel to other worlds and converse with deities and other spiritual beings makes them potentially dangerous. The accusations levelled at women (and sometimes men) who were supposedly engaging in black magic during the Burning Times were not completely unfounded all of the time, as the ability to heal also enables the potential to harm; and so it would be nave to assume that some of the cunning folk never employed poisoning or hexing, either as an abuse of power or as a way of teaching a lesson to a fool. However, the gift given to such individuals by the gods was one which could be taken away if misused, and so those involved in such practices had to abide by a deep adherence to natural law and know how to work above their own ego.

Below is a list of some of the more powerful substances that are known to have been used in native European tradition. I believe that it is important to focus on our own cultural perspective, as the adoption of practices from other cultures may not coincide with those of our forebears. It is unfortunate that we have experienced such a complete and utter devastation of the traditional use of entheogens in Modern Europe, and so most peoples understanding of these substances is tainted by harmful perspectives that are a result of prohibition.

Whether it be hysterical rejection of the use of such substances because of a belief in their inherently harmful nature and an ignorance of their positive uses, or a completely hedonistic worldview which sees such treasures as a way to get high and only seeks such substances for the sake of pleasure, I find it necessary to give a third perspective which focuses on their sacred rather than profane usage. As there are many fantastic blogs which deal with herbal lore, I will only focus on those that are more suitable for a ritual context rather than those which are of a more mild nature and can be utilized for everyday use. Be warned that the penalties for messing with these things may end with a prison sentence or harming ones body or mind because of side-effects, and I provide this list merely as a guide to entheogenic study.

Belladonna (Atropa Belladonna)

This infamous plant is commonly known as deadly nightshade, a name which has been attached to it mainly to ward of children from eating the berries, which are luscious and sweet, but usually result in a painful death for them. The main chemical constituents are scopolamine and hyoscyamine, though the latter metabolizes into atropine upon drying and is the main chemical associated with this plant. These chemicals are known as anticholinergics and are capable of inducing delirium, realistic or terrifying hallucinations, a rapid heart rate, difficulty urinating and stupor. However, they are also invaluable for their use in treating nausea, insomnia, toothache, low blood pressure and bradycardia (a dangerously slow heartbeat), and were historically used as sedatives before performing surgery.

Despite the lethal danger to children, Belladonna poisoning does not usually result in death for adults. However, its ability to trap a victim in a waking dream of hallucinations and delirium can have disastrous consequences for somebody who becomes poisoned by her, as they are reliant on others to make sure that they do not confuse their hallucinations for reality and injure or kill themselves in the process. It is for this reason that belladonna is feared for her dangerous power, and will only respond positively to those who employ her aid for reasonable purposes.

One particularly notable instance of its use for poisoning was at the Battle of Denmarkfield near Luncarty in Perthshire during the 11th Century. The Danes, led by Sweyn Knutson, had been pillaging Fife and besieged MacBeth near the River Almond. The Scottish king, Duncan, offered Sweyn and his army wine laced with Belladonna as a sign of truce. By nightfall, the soporific effects of the drug caused the Danes to pass out or become delirious, and were easily massacred by the Scots. Sweyn escaped, but the Danes were expelled from our land for good. There is a standing stone to mark the site of the battle near the village of Luncarty. Archaeological excavations have also unearthed remains of Belladonna seeds at the Medieval town of Elgin in Moray, and they are usually associated with monasteries. After the conversion to Christianity, much of the medicinal lore was kept in the hands of the monks, and healing herbs were a common feature of monastic gardens. Though Belladonna is fairly common in England, it is much rarer in Scotland, as it prefers chalky soil and much of our native soil is very acidic and dense in clay.

Denmarkfield Kings Stone, said to commemorate the Battle of Denmarkfield, Luncarty

Aside from the medicinal uses mentioned above, Belladonna is known to have been used to induce trance and was used in the practice of astral projection, where the user is able to send their hama (soul-skin or astral body) into other worlds to attain visions for the sake of divination or healing. It is for this particular quality that the cunning folk sought her aid in private rituals, although they would usually have needed an assistant to watch over them while they journeyed. Typically, Belladonna was used in the form of a flying ointment in conjunction with other, more poisonous herbs such as wolfsbane (aconitum napellus) or hemlock (conium maculatum). Atropine is unable to pass through the skin, and so this would reduce the negative effects on the body that would result from ingesting such a chemical. In this context, the entheogenic use would have been more secretive than that of some other substances, though it may have been used by a group of practitioners to achieve spirit flight.

The chemicals in Belladonna are also known to cause lycanthropy, a condition where the subject believes themselves to be a wolf, and may be connected to folklore about werewolves. An elite band of warriors in Norse society was known as the ulfheithnar, and they were supposedly able to invoke the spirit of the wolf to aid them in battle (much like the berserkers, whom I will mention shortly). It is possible that Belladonna was used in potions or ointments by these warriors for this purpose, and it could also have been used to contact ones own spirit animal. Belladonna is sacred to Nerthuz and it can be used as part of a Saturday incense (though this is not recommended).

Cannabis (Cannabis Sativa)

Ah, what a controversial herb this is! Found in every street in all corners of British society, this particular weed is widely utilized for its ability to treat nausea, calm the mind, relieve pain and increase appetite. Sadly, it is more often than not used as a recreational drug, and is associated with a black market that mass produces the plant without any regulation or oversight. As the result of prohibition, it is unable to be used for medicinal purposes unless in the extracted, chemical forms, though the non-psychoactive varieties of hemp are grown for their nutritious seeds which can be used to make oil, and also as a textile.

Nowadays, this herb is associated with Black gang culture and all of the thuggery and degeneracy that goes along with the criminal and recreational elements, but this is only a recent phenomenon. In the past, cannabis sativa was grown all over Europe for its value both as a medicine and as a textile, though it is probably not native. Its native range is probably Central Asia, and it was likely to have been introduced to Europe by the Aryans migrating from the Russian Steppe, where it grows wild in the form of cannabis ruderalis. Cannabis sativa is the cultivated form of the herb and has been widely utilized for its mind altering affects, particularly those relating to euphoria and creativity. The main chemical constituents of cannabis are THC and CBD, though the ratio of these may vary between different strains of the herb.

The connection between Cannabis and ecstasy (the state of being, not the drug MDMA) is well attested today and in ancient times. It is known by names such as reliever of grief and banisher of sorrow, and was used to treat anxiety because of its ability to engage the more logical side of the brain and calm over-active emotions. It has been used by Indian ascetics known as sadhus to assist in meditation and to achieve liberation from the five senses. Naturally, the use of the herb for this purpose requires tremendous will and discipline, and so most folk prefer to utilize its ritual or medicinal uses.

One example is given by the Greek historian, Herodotus, who wrote that the Scythians of the Russian Steppe used Cannabis as part of a funeral ritual, where the seeds (he probably meant the flowers, which are known as buds and do not look like flowers) were thrown on heated stones underneath a felt blanket and the resulting vapour was inhaled by the participants. The effects of the vapour were probably intended to soothe grief and accept the passing of a relative, by easing the attachment to that person temporarily. Cannabis was also used by the Ancient Celts, as excavations of an Iron Age chieftains grave in Hochdorf, Germany, have revealed traces of hashish (a refined form of Cannabis) on his cloak, suggesting that he was involved in using the sacrament. Hemp seeds have also been found among the clothing of women from Viking Age burials in Denmark, although it is not clear whether they were used for psychoactive purposes or simply for food. Even excavations of William Shakespeares home at Stratford-Upon-Avon have revealed traces of Cannabis in clay pipes found in what would have been the garden, supporting the idea that Cannabis has, and still is frequently used, by writers and poets for inspiration and creativity.

Cannabis is not known to be lethal in any capacity (though it may be adulterated with toxins as a result of illicit production) and while its medicinal effects are lauded by those with enough clarity to see them, it also has its downsides as a drug. Some people with a predisposition to addiction may find themselves indulging in the plant for psychological pain relief, something which is possible with Cannabis but must be accompanied by the appropriate therapy, otherwise it becomes a habit and a vice. Excessive use can cause a loss of motivation and apathy, and may even result in a worse mood when the effects of the drug have worn off.

An excessive dosage can also cause tachycardia (rapid heart rate), low blood pressure, hallucinations, anxiety and paranoia (although this last side-effect is probably due to the fact that it is illegal, as the stimulating nature of Cannabis would worsen the worry about this fact). However, within a medicinal context, such issues are rarely a cause for concern, and it is a dreadful shame that many who need pain relief are unable to access it and are forced to rely on the pharmaceutical extracts or on street dealers who have no interest in their well-being. In the UK, Cannabis is a Class B controlled substance, and being found in possession of it can result in up to 5 years in prison or an unlimited fine and it is illegal in most parts of the world. Cannabis is sacred to Freya and can be used for any magic involving love, as it is known to be an aphrodisiac.

Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria)

This visually attractive red and white mushroom is ever present in European artistic aesthetics, as it is commonly portrayed as being surrounded by fairies and is usually associated with Father Christmas and his reindeer. It grows under birch and spruce trees and is native to all temperate and sub-Arctic parts of the world. Though not the magic mushroom that will be covered later on in this article, it is still psychoactive, though it is difficult to assess its actual effects for unknown reasons. For some reason, it can either have negligible effects or produce an intense hallucinogenic experience and it is difficult to know how to achieve this.

It is known that the main chemicals of Fly Agaric are muscimol and ibotenic acid, as well as muscarine and muscazone. Muscimol is a hallucinogen, while the other chemicals are simply poisons, and the side effects that can be experienced by this drug include delirium, stupor, vomiting, sweating and low blood pressure, effects which are associated with cholinergic drugs. For this reason, there is a lot of superstition surrounding the mushroom, and factors involved in the potency of the drug include the time of year picked, the conditions of the location where it grows (presumably soil acidity is a factor) and how it is dried. The mushroom eaten fresh and picked late in the year is known to produce the most side effects, while those picked earlier and dried are said to yield more positive results.

Though Fly Agaric is commonly described as lethal in mycology guides, this is incorrect, as it is only seriously dangerous raw and in large amounts and would even be eaten after parboiling by natives of Siberia and Asiatic peoples in Northern Europe. It has been observed among the Sami people that reindeer eat the mushroom, and that the poisonous effects are mitigated by drinking the urine from the reindeer after its ingestion. Such practices have also been followed by priests in Western Siberia, where the tribal priests take the mushroom and dispense their urine to their congregation.

In Eastern Siberia, use of the mushroom is less restricted, and it is not considered as essential that only the shaman can ingest the mushroom. The desired effects of Fly Agaric are similar to those of Belladonna and other plants carrying tropane alkaloids, though they have the opposite chemical mechanism on the brain and actually act as potentates or antidotes to atropine poisoning. While Fly Agaric may also cause delirium and stupor, the effects are known to be less unpleasant and dangerous as those of the tropanes, and in its dried form it is relatively safe to be ingested. The ability to induce dreamlike states and visions means that Fly Agaric is very valuable to shamans, and would also have been important to our European equivalents. Fly Agaric is not exactly used medicinally, being more utilized for its mind altering effects than anything else.

Interestingly, it has also become associated with the berserkers of Norse lore, and it has been suggested that it was used to induce battle frenzy among these men. Berserker means bear shirt and refers to the use of animal hides used to invoke the protection of an animal spirit. Though the connection between Fly Agaric and the berserker has been dismissed in more recent times, there is sufficient evidence that it was used by them. The Icelandic word for Fly Agric is berserkjasveppur, which means berserker mushroom and it has also been connected to the Indo-Aryan sacrament known as Soma (analogous to the Iranian Haoma).

This substance was used by Aryan warriors to achieve mental clarity, though it is difficult to imagine how this was achieved with the stupefying effects of Fly Agaric. It is likely that a combination of and mixture with other substances as well as the intention and discipline in conjunction with ingestion were utilized to achieve this, though it is difficult to assert with certainty due to the lack of evidence regarding its effects. It has also been connected with esoteric Christianity and and teachings of Christ, as one anecdotal claim holds that the subject experienced visions of Heaven and Hell, reinforcing the idea of the connection to Christian imagery. Though not illegal to posses, it cannot be bought or sold under recently implemented drug laws in the UK, which prohibit the sale of non-approved psychoactive substances. Fly Agaric is sacred to Wotan and the dried skin can be used in smoking blends with other herbs.

Henbane (Hysoscyamus Niger)

Another one of the tropane herbs, this plant is very similar in its actions to Belladonna, though it possesses its own distinct character and attributes. Henbane grows on waste ground and near the sea across Europe, though it is very rare and considered endangered in the wild. It is not native to Northern Europe, most likely originating in the Mediterranean, though it was brought here millennia ago. Traces of Henbane have been found in a clay pot from Balfarg, Fife, dating to around 3,000 BC, which suggests that it was used as part of a ritual. Henbane seeds have also been found among the burials of women in Viking Age Scandinavia (much like the hemp seeds, making a stronger case for the use of Cannabis as an entheogen). The effects of the herb are more or less the same as that of Belladonna, though it may be slightly less poisonous due to the small size and different chemical composition of the plant (Belladonna is a perennial shrub, while Henbane may come as an annual or biennial). Therefore, Henbane may be more suitable for ingestion than her sister, though this is not recommended due to the toxic nature of the tropane alkaloids.

Henbane was another witches weed and was considered especially useful in treating toothache, though the potential side-effects mean that it is no longer used medicinally today. In a magical context, Henbane was plucked by naked virgin girls in Medieval Germany in a ritual attempting to attract rain. It was also part of a potion given by the Iranian prophet, Zoroaster, to King Vishtaspa, who went into a deathlike sleep for three days and travelled to Heaven in that time. Henbane was also used for more sinister purposes by the Ancient Gauls, who dipped their javelins in poison derived from the herb in order to inflict more damage upon their enemies. Henbane may also have been part of the potion given by Circe to Odysseus men in The Odyssey, since the connection between tropane alkaloids and believing oneself to be an animal, as well as the connection between Henbane and pigs (which is what they were turned into), may mean that the story is about a witch who stole the wits of men by giving them a potion that made them believe that they were pigs. Henbane is sacred to Nerthuz, though some prefer to attribute its power to Thor, on account of its use in rain-making rituals.

Liberty Cap Mushroom (Psilocybe Semilanceata)

Also known as a magic mushroom, this is another substance which is prohibited under Modern law and has become associated with the worst aspects of the hippie culture and recreational drug use. Though more well-known than many of the other entheogens on this list, it is unique in being possibly the only psychedelic drug native to Europe. Psychadelics are different from other hallucinogens in that they do not produce delirium or dissociation, but rather they evoke colourful and geometric visual distortions which are sought after by those looking for a step up from the curious effects of Cannabis.

Naturally, such substances are not suitable for social gatherings outside of a medicine ceremony and are frequently abused by party-goers, which can lead to unpleasant experiences. When used in an appropriate setting, magic mushrooms are useful in psychological therapy, and are known to treat depression and anxiety. Another difference between this fungus and the other entheogens on this list is that its medicinal values seem to be purely psychological and spiritual in nature, as is not known to relieve physical ailments. While they are not completely non-toxic, you would need to ingest and absurd amount of mushrooms to become poisoned, and as such they are safe to the human body for consumption in reasonable doses. The main chemical constituents are psylocin and psilocybin (which converts into psylocin during digestion).

Unfortunately, we know next to nothing about their use as an entheogen in Europe, the only clue being that in Ireland, they are known as fairy mushrooms. That and the fact that they can produce visual swirls and patterns that are reminiscent of Neolithic art suggests that they were known to our ancestors. Mesolithic cave paintings from Spain and Morocco depict strange beings holding mushrooms, and these are suggestive of shamanic use involving psychoactive mushrooms. Another small detail that may go unnoticed is the depiction of magic mushrooms in Medieval art, which feature occasionally and are curiously associated with the Apple of Eden, suggesting that Medieval Europeans knew more about these substances than we may have suspected.

If they were used in a similar way as by the natives of places like Mexico, then the Church would have taken a dim view of such practices and seen them as being used to communicate with devils. Such were the criticisms levelled at the use of magic mushrooms by the Catholic Church when it came to Mexico, and the suppression of these cults is a reasonable explanation as to why we have no indigenous tradition in Europe pertaining to the use of these mushrooms. If their use had been driven underground during the Middle Ages and only surfaced in art, we can be sure that the last vestiges were driven out of our lands during the Burning Times, and so we are left with a dearth of knowledge on how to use them.

Fortunately, we can speculate to some degree based on their usage in Mexico. They were used by the Aztecs and the Mazatecs in order to communicate with the gods, and the purpose was usually to discover a cure for an illness. They could have been used either by the healer alone, or by the healer and the patient if the illness was of a more metaphysical nature and required expelling negative entities from the patient. Typically, these healers are not looking for the fantastic visual effects, but for the intuitive voice that tells them what they need to know. Though magic mushrooms can have awful side effects, these can be mitigated by the guidance of an experienced healer and are not as commonly felt if the participant engages in preparation beforehand.

Usually, a participant would fast and abstain from meat, sex and alcohol for a few days before taking part in a medicine ceremony, as the mushroom cleans out the body on a spiritual level and any toxins remaining may lead to nausea and other discomfort when under its influence. Psilocybe semilanceata typically grows on pasture and grassland and is native to temperate zones, growing near, but not on, the dung of cows and sheep. Its association with cattle means that it is sacred to Frigg and its effects would also associate it with healers. Unfortunately, in the UK it is a Class A controlled substance, which may lead to up to 7 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine, and (like Cannabis) is illegal in most countries.

The use of these substances is something which is heavily looked down upon in our society, as it is deemed necessary for the state to have complete control over what medicines the people may have access to. Therefore, I neither promote nor encourage the use of such substances, as it is up to each individual to know if it is worth taking the risks that I have mentioned and if they can gain anything from their use. Some people are not meant to take certain substances due to risk factors, and so most of us will remain in the dark about their potential due to the restrictions on what can be done with them.

Though there is more and more evidence suggesting that our common perceptions of psychoactive plants are based on misinformation and lies, governments are slow to respond and prefer to maintain the unregulated black market rather than allow individuals to act responsibly and use what they can to treat illness. It must be kept in mind that if one does choose to use these drugs, then they must approach it with the utmost respect, as disregarding the spirit of the plant may anger it and may even be dangerous for the user. Therefore, it is important to remember what you are using them for and why you need to invoke their aid. Typically, other healing methods should be tried before attempting to deal with psychoactive drugs, and though some of these substances are not illegal, they are still capable of inflicting harm as much as they can heal. Tread carefully fellow travellers, as the world of entheogenic plant spirits is as dangerous as it is rewarding.

Wulf Willelmson

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European Entheogens: Folk Medicine and Magical Aids ...

Yoga and Entheogens (aka Drugs) Do They Mix …

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Danzig

Yoga and Entheogens Towards a Deeper Understanding

[Please Note: This is the first in a series of pieces dealing with entheogens (god-inspiring substances; aka plant medicines, psychoactive drugs, psychedelics, hallucinogens the latter two terms somewhat obsolete or fallen into disfavor) and yoga. I will be asking, and attempting to resolve, certain thorny issues such as, Can or should entheogens be used by one who seriously walks the yoga path? and What benefit might they have for the serious student of yoga? and How has the yoga/spiritual communitys changed towards entheogens since the 60s and now, and why? and What are the legal and moral issues and ramifications? And so on.

First you might want to check out the following Wiki article on Entheogens, just in case you need to get up to speed (

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entheogen

Next, watch the following video of a lecture by Ram Dass speaking on the subject of his experiences with and reflections on entheogens (and for more info. on Ram Dass, either go to his website: http://www.ramdass.org/ ; or read the following Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Dass ) :

Heres the second part, too:

Finally, for right now well conclude with Ram Dass famous story of what happened when he gave LSD to his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. Please be sure to read my comments afterward, too.3~**********************************************3~When I First Came to India (by Ram Dass)

In 1967 when I first came to India, I brought with me a supply of LSD, hoping to find someone who might understand more about these substances than we did in the West. When I had met Maharajji (Neem Karoli Baba), after some days the thought had crossed my mind that he would be a perfect person to ask. The next day after having that thought, I was called to him and he asked me immediately, Do you have a question? Of course, being before him was such a powerful experience that I had completely forgotten the question I had had in my mind the night before. So I looked stupid and said, No, Maharajji, I have no question.He appeared irritated and said, Where is the medicine?

I was confused but Bhagavan Dass suggested, Maybe he means the LSD. I asked and Maharajji nodded. The bottle of LSD was in the car and I was sent to fetch it.

When I returned I emptied the vial of pills into my hand. In addition to the LSD there were a number of other pills for this and thatdiarrhea, fever, a sleeping pill, and so forth. He asked about each of these.

He asked if they gave powers. I didnt understand at the time and thought that by powers perhaps he meant physical strength. I said, No. Later, of course, I came to understand that the word he had used, siddhis, means psychic powers. Then he held out his hand for the LSD. I put one pill on his palm. Each of these pills was about three hundred micrograms of very pure LSDa solid dose for an adult. He beckoned for more, so I put a second pill in his handsix hundred micrograms. Again he beckoned and I added yet another, making the total dosage nine hundred microgramscertainly not a dose for beginners. Then he threw all the pills into his mouth. My reaction was one of shock mixed with fascination of a social scientist eager to see what would happen.

He allowed me to stay for an hour and nothing happened. Nothing whatsoever.

He just laughed at me.

The whole thing had happened very fast and unexpectedly. When I returned to the United States in 1968 I told many people about this acid feat. But there had remained in me a gnawing doubt that perhaps he had been putting me on and had thrown the pills over his shoulder or palmed them, because I hadnt actually seen them go into his mouth.

Three years later, when I was back in India, he asked me one day, Did you give me medicine when you were in India last time?

Yes.

Did I take it? he asked. ( Ah, there was my doubt made manifest!)

I think you did.

What happened?

Nothing.

Go! Jao! and he sent me off for the evening.

The next morning I was called over to the porch in front of his room, where he sat in the mornings on a tucket. He asked, Have you got any more of that medicine?

It just so happened that I was carrying a small supply of LSD for just in case, and this was obviously it. Yes.

Get it, he said.

So I did. In the bottle were five pills of three hundred micrograms each. One of the pills was broken. I placed them on my palm and held them out to him. He took the four unbroken pills. Then, one by one, very obviously and very deliberately, he placed each one in his mouth and swallowed it another unspoken thought of mine now answered.

As soon as he had swallowed the last one, he asked, Can I take water?

Yes.

Hot or cold?

It doesnt matter.

He started yelling for water and drank a cup when it was brought.

Then he asked, How long will it take to act?

Anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour.

He called for an older man, a long -time devotee who had a watch, and Maharajji held the mans wrist, often pulling it up to him to peer at the watch.

Then he asked, Will it make me crazy?

That seemed so bizarre to me that I could only go along with what seemed to be a gag.

So I said, Probably.

And then we waited. After some time he pulled the blanket over his face, and when he came out after a moment his eyes were rolling and his mouth was ajar and he looked totally mad. I got upset. What was happening? Had I misjudged his powers? After all, he was an old man (though how old I had no idea), and I had let him take twelve hundred micrograms. Maybe last time he had thrown them away and then he read my mind and was trying to prove to me he could do it, not realizing how strong the medicine really was. Guilt and anxiety poured through me. But when I looked at him again he was perfectly normal and looking at the watch.

At the end of an hour it was obvious nothing had happened. His reactions had been a total put-on. And then he asked, Have you got anything stronger? I didnt. Then he said, These medicines were used in Kulu Valley long ago. But yogis have lost that knowledge. They were used with fasting. Nobody knows now. To take them with no effect, your mind must be firmly fixed on God. Others would be afraid to take. Many saints would not take this. And he left it at that.

When I asked him if I should take LSD again, he said, It should not be taken in a hot climate. If you are in a place that is cool and peaceful, and you are alone and your mind is turned toward God, then you may take the yogi medicine.by Ram Dass3~********************************************3~

Note: This story is actually a combination of two stories that Ram Dass told, the first (from his first trip to India in 68) is recounted in his book, Be Here Now. The second story is to be found in The Only Dance There Is, which is a collection of his lectures given at the Menninger Foundation in the early Seventies. I found the story here: http://neemkarolibaba.com/content/view/106/39/

I just want to conclude with a few comments and questions on what Ram Dass wrote: First, are these stories true, or only partly true? I ask this partly because one western yogi who went to India around the same time as Ram Dass recently wrote to me that he doesnt believe the whole Ram Dass mythology. Well, Ram Dass might have made the stories a little more elaborate and interesting, but my feeling is that the basic stories that he gave LSD to NKB and it didnt seem to have an effect on him are true. I believe that Bhagavan Das (who was present at the time) has confirmed as much, too.

The second question I want to bring up is: Was Neem Karoli Baba recommending that any serious yoga aspirant could take LSD, or only Ram Dass?It seems from this story, that he was just okaying it for Ram Dass, not for anyone else. The question then is: Did Ram Dass continue to recommend its use when he returned to the States? Not publicly, as far as Im aware, because by that time LSD was illegal. My understanding is that from that point on, Ram Dass began to publicly recommend and teach yoga practices like chanting, meditation, breathwork, etc., as alternatives to psychoactive drugs such as LSD. At the same time, as in the above videos, Ram Dass did continue to speak on the positive effects that psychedelics (entheogens was not a word in vogue at that point) had on his own life and consciousness, but also discussing their shortcomings, as well.

Please write me, though, if you have more information on this subject. I will return to it again in future blog entries. Thanks for listening! Namaste

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Entheogens today Ethnobotanical 101

Posted on March 9, 2018 by jessica

Today, the modern Entheogenic Movement seeks to reincorporate these highly effective sacraments into spiritual practice and religious tradition. In stark contrast with the counter-cultural movements social use of psychedelics for recreation, contemporary entheogenic practitioners are striving to make use of these plants and fungi in ways that honor and respect their sacred uses.

Though many entheogens are treated as drugs, and therefore subject to legal restrictions and prohibitions, there are currently three officially recognized religions in the United States in which one can legally practice entheogenic spirituality: the Native American Church (NAC), which uses the peyote cactus as a sacrament; Santo Daime (SD), which uses an ayahuasca drink; and Uniao do Vegetal (UDV), which also uses an ayahuasca drink. In addition to these official religions, many legal entheogens now also are available on the Internet, offering relatively easy access to a wide variety of plants and fungi.

The gift of entheogens is the difference between saying my religion teaches that God is love and we are all one and saying I know that God is love and we are all one because Ive experienced it myself and can confirm that it is true.

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Entheogens today Ethnobotanical 101

Why the Rich and Powerful Commit Crimes. | kdizaei

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Danzig

Many criminological theories often struggle with explaining why people of status commit crimes when, seemingly, they do not need to. There are several schools of thought on this. The Chicago School and The Bell Curve theories support the idea that crimes are committed by those who live in run down areas who are generally poor. These individuals tend to have a low IQ. These theories clearly do not support why high status individuals commit offences.

Classic criminological theories date back to the 1700s, specifically the work of Cesare Beccarias On Crimes and Punishments (1764). Firstly, he states that crime occurs when the benefits outweigh the costs and secondly, when people pursue self-interest in the absence of effective punishments. Although this is very early on in the development of criminological theories, there are clearly aspects of Beccarias theory that may help to explain why all people, including the powerful, commit crimes. Therefore, it can be cogently argued that a person of status and in a position of power is tempted to commit serious offences of dishonesty because the reward is great and often outweighs the cost, potential punishment and the diminished possibility of being caught.

However, in recent years, Law enforcement agencies and the courts have changed. There is more energy in prosecuting these offenders because of the true impact of their crimes on society. For example the Ponzi fraud scheme or the case of Michael Milken who paid $650 million in court-ordered restitution before he was even sentenced is a good illustration of the changing attitude towards these types of crimes. This in itself continues to beg the question, why do they do it when they have so much to lose? It appears that the two aforementioned points from Beccarias work do in fact fail to explain the causes or suggest the prevention of these offences, however, he does assert that crime is a free-willed choice of the party committing the offence, which is relevant to any person committing a crime, including powerful individuals.

Beccaria also supported the notion of rational punishment, whereby the punishment should be proportionate to the offence committed, whilst being served promptly and effectively. He believed this would be an appropriate deterrent to anyone who thinks about committing a crime or reoffending (known as recidivism). Although this seems fairly rudimentary and conservative, one must bear in mind that these powerful individuals are usually intellectual people who have spent years working to achieve such a status. Consequently, it can be argued that they would not need extreme punishment in order to deter these types of offences being committed and therefore as long as there is an expectation of punishment, (often a custodial sentence) that should be enough to prevent the majority from committing these offences. On the other hand, it could be submitted that rich and powerful people may sometimes have an attitude of being above the law and untouchable. Therefore, a harsher punishment with aims of exemplifying the criminals behaviour as unacceptable may be more effective as a deterrent to others. In summary, it may be said that a mixture of more robust law enforcement policies, harsher punishments by the court and the announcement of crime (irrespective of the status of the offender) does not pay, may reduce recidivism.

Edwin Sutherland has long been regarded as a criminological theorist determined to understand white-collar crime, why individuals commit this crime, and the impact these crimes have on the community as a whole. Simply, Sutherland knew that other criminological theories, namely that criminals come from broken homes in impoverished areas, would not stack up when attempting to understand the conundrum of white-collar crime. He noted that many of the law breakers in business were far from poor, but were from happy family backgrounds and all mentally sound. Sutherland makes interesting points in his work, one of which emphasises how moral and ethical codes can become lost in grey areas where the boundaries of right and wrong become hard to distinguish. For example, he explains that these crimes can be justified by others and be categorised as good business ethics, which appears to take the malice out of the act. Yet, regardless of how you try to dress-up or play-down these acts, they are in fact criminal offences and they are not victimless crimes. Furthermore, Sutherland stresses the impact that these crimes have on society as a whole, which according to his research, is large-scale anger and discontent with not only the offender, but at authorities in general who seemingly have failed to prevent these methodical crimes.

The fact surely must be that persons in positions of power have more opportunity (through social status, better education) to commit high value crime with little realistic prospect of being caught and genuinely (but foolishly) believe that there are no victims to their crimes. This mind-set creates a perfect incentive to commit offences by high status individuals.

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Originally posted here:

Why the Rich and Powerful Commit Crimes. | kdizaei

Ripple Price Prediction: SWIFT Tries to Combat Growing XRP Threat

Posted on March 8, 2018 by jessica

Ripple News Update
Although Ripple prices are enmeshed in the market-wide cryptocurrency slump, shrewd investors might have noticed a positive signal buried amid the noise.

What am I talking about? Well, there was a report that SWIFT, Ripple’s main rival, is talking up its efforts in distributed ledger technology (DLT). For the uninitiated, DLT is the core innovation underlying Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum...basically, all the cryptocurrencies in existence.

Ripple wants to disrupt SWIFT by using these distributed ledger innovations. That’s why it is comical to see SWIFT claiming proficiency in DLT. It’s not their strong suit! The mere fact they are.

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